Religion
Vive la Revolution!: ArtScroll and the Bourgeois Revolution of American Orthodoxy
Has traditionalist publisher ArtScroll, in trying to prevent assimiliation, instead provided Jews with a means to accomodate to American life? So says Jeremy Stolow, reviewed here by Shaul Magid
Earth Based Judaism – Reclaiming Our Roots, Reconnecting to Nature
The Jewish tradition provides us with a built-in operating system that connects us to the earth by connecting us to the cycles of nature.
The Spirituality of Parenting
How parenting is a spiritual practice; plus two poems from Barenblat’s mother cycle
Celebrating the Jewish Body: Exercises for Body and Soul
The very first thing the Torah tells us about ourselves is that we are created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. What would our lives be like if we built a Judaism around the physicality of the body?
Jewish Enlightenment : Neo-Hasidism and Vedanta Hinduism
Jewish mystics face a problem Hindus don’t have: if there are no distinctions in the absolute, then the religion of the relative, with its rules and prohibitions, suddenly becomes incoherent. If nothing else, Judaism is a religion of distinctions and lines, and if Ein Sof erases lines, it erases normative Judaism.
Micro-Shechitah; Local, Seasonal, Organic, & Kosher
I had not eaten meat in 12 years. But I became convinced that meat could be an ethical choice for me–if I the animals were raised locally and sustainably, and if I slaughtered the animals myself, according to the values embodied in the Jewish laws of shechitah, kosher slaughter.
The War Against Tolerance (with response from Phyllis Chesler)
Rifqa Bary is an Ohio teen who ran away from home after converting to Christianity. Jews and Evangelicals banded together to save her from her Muslim family. They saw their effort as being part of a global struggle against Islam. What they were really fighting was multiculturalism. Phyllis Chesler, quoted in the article, responds.
The Non-Duality Dialogues
Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schelling and Maimonides jostle with the Big Dipper and earthquakes, in an effort to decipher what it really means for us to say God is One.
Our Day, Their Prayers
The National Day of Prayer is supposed to celebrate America’s religious diversity. According to Rachel Tabachnick, the annual event has been hijacked by fundamentalists.
Diversity and Inclusion in the Jewish Community
The best communities are built around respect and acceptance. According to Karen Lee Ehrlichman, Jewish institutions have to forcefully embody these ideals if they are going to survive.
Why I Choose to be a Lesbian Rabbi
I am lesbian. I am a rabbi. I often fear, however, that if I embrace the identity of “Lesbian Rabbi” that people will make assumptions about my agenda that are untrue.
Ranking Righteous Gentiles
On Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Jews are not only encouraged to remember the victims of Nazism. We are also moved to recognize our shared humanity with others.
Why We Need Rabba, Not Maharat, Sara Hurwitz
The biggest fear of male rabbis who refuse to share their authority with women like Sara Hurwitz is that they’ll cause the breakdown of the status quo. I hope they are correct.
Dogmas in Contemporary Judaism
AuthorsSh’ma and Zeek co-present Shaul Magid’s controversial thesis that American Judaism is dominated by three dogmas: pro-Israelism, the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and the war against intermarriage.
Disenchanting Zionism
Zionism was once considered a Jewish demand for human rights. It was not, as it has been recast, an expression of Jewry’s divine rights.
The Jewish Picture Book: Storytelling as Midrash
Writing a children’s book is harder than writing one for adults, because adults often speak condescendingly to children. Discovering Jewish picture books in the public library showed me that there was another Talmud available.
Rabbi David Ingber of Romemu discusses the future of Jewish Renewal
Authors
Rabbi David Ingber of Romemu talks to Zeek about the future of Jewish Renewal and the legacy of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi.
A Serial Obstructionist
Benjamin Netanyahu has a history of obstructing US efforts to further the peace process. Unaware of construction plans for east Jerusalem? Rachel Tabachnick provides evidence to the contrary.
Where is the Spirit of Passover?
What were they thinking? Mya Guarnieri on the significance of the name “Clean and Tidy” for the Netanyahu government’s latest campaign to halt illegal immigration.
Control and Order, Wonder and Chaos
This Lord of orderliness troubles me, maybe because I am a messy person. Keeping my meat dishes apart from my milk ones challenges my disorganized soul. And makes me wonder: is it God who wants an orderly world, or is it we who attribute order to God?
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- 5000 Pages of Zeek
- Founded in 2001, Zeek was the first Jewish online magazine, and we have over 5000 pages online to prove it, all available free of charge. Read more in the Archive.
