More on BJ

Sometimes I get frustrated, say things, and don’t take them to their actual sensical conclusion. Which is what I’m sure happened with my recent post on B’nai Jeshurun. Then a friend e-mailed to explain what I meant to say.
Essentially, this person agreed that they had a similar experience at BJ. What they said, and, as [...]

Chanukah VII – A holiday for every Jew, a holiday for today’s Gaza

Chanukah is my favorite holiday. I know that involved, intellectual Jews like myself are supposed to declar that Pesach is their favorite or something, but I think that we do Chanukah a disservice these days. Undoubtedly, Chanukah’s proximity to Christmas has made it a more major holiday in recent decades as American Jews have sought [...]

Chanukah VI (again) – B’nai Jeshurun is nic(er than I said last night)

So I took big blog dump on BJ last night. I went back this morning and have absolutely no complaints about the service. Everyone go back to ignoring me.
Chazan Ari Priven, the music director at BJ was in fine, fine form this morning. In addition to Mi Chamocha to the tune of Ma’oz Tzur (as [...]

Chanukah VI – B’nai Jeshurun is nice, I guess

13 months ago, last time I visited B’nai Jeshurun, I was so obsessed with ideological and liturgical minutiae, albeit less knowledgable about both than I am now, that I was totally unable to enjoy the services. This was a recurring theme in my prayer experiences last year.
A few years ago, BJ was dying congregation with [...]

Shabbos Zmiros – A special Chappy Chanukah edition

This week’s Shabbos Zmiros comes to us from Erran Baron Cohen’s new CD, Songs in the Key of Hanukkah. This particular song includes a guest appearance by Y-Love, the Yiddish-Hebrew-Aramaic rapper.
YouTube – Songs In The Key of Hanukkah – Dreidel.

Chanukatastic quote of the day

From excellent jblog On the Contrary: Judaism with Commentary Enabled, comes this gem: 
In the American cultural milieu, Christmas became a dominant cultural practice that excluded non-Christians (such as Jews and Chinese, who inevitably began celebrating Christmas together, with the former eating food prepared by the latter).
The entire post is great. Check it out.

Chanukah II and III and this isn’t working out so well

How is it that I managed to blog every day of the Omer last year, but, here we are, less than halfway through Chanukah, and I have already faltered on my promise to Chanukah bloge every day of my favorite holiday.
So here’s some miscellany for you.
Yesterday we had an office Chanukah lunch estravaganza. The menu? [...]

Chanukah – Day 1 – Stealing a miracle

It’s no secret that Chanukah is my favorite Jewish holiday and that I am a big apologist for what many have called America’s over-attention to a minor holiday. To celebrate Chanukah here at The Shuckle, I’ll be trying to post about Chanukah every day for the next eight days.
By way of this first day’s post, [...]

Clay Shirky and Judaism

Clay Shirky is a futurist thinker and a technologist and general genius. He’s got nothing to do with Judaism. And yet.
First thing to do with this post (which is a bit of a time commitment, frankly) is watch this video. I first saw this video of Shirky talking about gin, cognitive surpluses, sitcoms, wikipedia, and [...]

Reality chases me down, pt. II (Coke, friends, is not enough)

I feel now, more than ever, that reality (read: my ability to adhere to the srtictures I want to adhere to) is coming into conflict with my ideology and hopes for my ritual life. In Spain, I came a across a familiar problem, but gave it more thought than I had before.
On a normal Shabat, here [...]