Second Torah Portion Of Deuteronomy VI

Luke Ford writes: I talk about this week's Torah portion of Va'etchanan with Tikkun magazine Torah columnist.

Second Torah Portion Of Deuteronomy III

Luke Ford writes: I talk about this week's Torah portion of Va'etchanan with Tikkun magazine Torah columnist.

Second Torah Portion Of Deuteronomy

Luke Ford writes: I talk about this week's Torah portion of Va'etchanan with Tikkun magazine Torah columnist:

Va'etchanan (ואתחנן — Hebrew for “and I pleaded,” the first word in the parshah) is the 45th weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the second in the book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 3:23–7:11. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in late July or August. It is always read on the special Sabbath Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath immediately after Tisha B'Av.

As the parshah describes how the Israelites would sin and be banished from the Land of Israel, Jews also read part of the parshah, Deuteronomy 4:25–40, as the Torah reading for the morning (Shacharit) prayer service on Tisha B'Av, which commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem.

The Tone Of My Blogging Has Changed

Luke Ford writes: Josh: wow luke, the beard has gotten really long. i haven’t been on your webcam in maybe 6 months. you look like you lost weight too
Josh: so i hear you’re officially a member of the tribe
Josh: now that you’re officially in, i’ll send you your own copy of the “protocols of the elders of zion”
Josh: but you gotta keep it on the down low, we don’t want any goyim knowing about it
YourMoralLeader: Reticence is my middle name
Josh: now that you’re a yid, have you become any less bitter
YourMoralLeader: hmm maybe, you’ll have to judge
Josh: i’ve noticed a change
YourMoralLeader: interesting
Josh: in your postings
Josh: you’re less angry
Josh: more optimistic
Josh: it’s a good thing
Josh: how’re the b**ches treating you
YourMoralLeader: with respect

Behind The Music Of Payola

Luke Ford writes:

During two years of high school, I did weekly news reports on my school for the local radio station KAHI AM 950.

After spending a year in Australia after graduation in 1984, I returned to Auburn in June 1985 and went to work at KAHI and its sister station KHYL.

In 1987, the radio stations were sold. The new owners issued us with a manual. It had a special section on payola. It said it was a dirty word and that we should never accepts gifts for doing anything on the air.

I read the hit book “Hit Men” about the payola scandal.

 

Dennis Prager's First Book

Luke Ford writes:

I feared there would be no original content in Prager’s column. He’d just rehash things he’d said thousands of times before. I was wrong. There’s an original story about his first book:

We sent the manuscript to the Jewish Publication Society of America (JPS), hoping they would publish it. I received a call from an editor at JPS who told me that they would not publish the book. I asked her why, and her answer taught me a great deal about Jewish life: �Because it is too advocative,� she said.

I was stunned. The Jewish Publication Society of America refused to publish a Jewish book on the grounds that it was �too advocative� of Judaism?

As it turned out, that rejection was a blessing. Joseph and I published the book on our own and sold so many copies that we lived off the sales of the book at lectures for years. Later Simon and Schuster published the book.

 

God Loves You, Baby

Luke Ford writes:

Have you ever heard a Jew talk that way?

I have not. If we heard a Jew talk that way, we’d send him for psychological help, notes Dennis Prager.

So why don’t Jews talk that way?

The Torah has a lot about love in it. God loves Israel. We’re commanded to love God, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

I think I know why Jews don’t talk this way. Because Christians do.

I heard so much about “God loves you!” growing up as a Christian, that I never want to hear it again.

Jews living in Christian lands hear so much Christian love talk, faith talk, charity talk, that they never want to talk this way. The pragmatic concrete practical Jewish mind is repelled by this Hellenic airy fairy talk.