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Category Archives: Jewish People
Why I Don't Let My Kids Trick-or-Treat
Below, Rabbi Alana Suskin explains why her family doesn't trick-or-treat. To hear from another Jewish mom with a different perspective, check out: "Why I Let My Jewish Kids Trick or Treat"
I feel fairly ambivalent about Halloween. On the positive side: although winter in the DC metro area is an exercise in perfect misery of cold and drippy wet, the end of October is still decidedly fall and can still often be quite nice: not yet rainy, not terribly cold, sometimes there are still bright leaves on the trees. So there's the mid-autumn thing.
There's also the neighborhoodliness of all the folks putting on a show for the kids, an opportunity for people to meet and interact with their neighbors, which these days can be a rare exercise.
There's also a few pagan friends I have who look forward to their religious observance of Samhain (the pre-Christian, Celtic name for the holiday upon which the roman church based All Hallows' Eve when it couldn't rid the local populations of their age old observances). I'm pleased for them.
But most of all, with the more recent innovation of making a big deal out of what was a relatively small deal when I was little, I am Thrilled. To. Happiness. about the post Halloween sales of orange fairy lights and other useful sukkah items for the year to follow. (Yay!)
All that said, I don't trick or treat, and neither does my child. And because we've talked about it, and he understands "we don't observe that holiday," at least at this point (he's nine) he doesn't seem to mind, even though he does have friends—even Jewish friends—who do.
Right now, what we do is help other kids celebrate their holiday by giving out candy (and if he eats a few Snickers bars, that's fine, although he was sad when I explained to him that even though there are actually no authenticated cases of non-family members harming children with Halloween snacks, we can't make candy apples or other treats to give out because people are afraid that someone might hurt their kids by giving them something harmful) and if he wants to dress up for them in a costume, he can do that even though our dress up holiday is Purim.
We have also talked about whether the values of Halloween are Jewish values: whether demanding gifts from others is a Jewish value (we didn't get into the under threat of "trick" part), and we talked about how Judaism views death and dead bodies, and whether displaying "funny" skeletons and ghosts is in line with Jewish tradition, which views the human body, even after death, as holy, which is why Judaism forbids displaying corpses, even those of criminals after execution, and why it is considered a very holy mitzvah (obligation, and good deed) to be part of a chevreh kadishah l'metim (holy society for the care of the dead) in which one takes care, gently and with reverence for the soul which inhabited it, of the recently deceased corpse.
Which is why, when one is sitting with the body after death, making sure it is never left alone, one does not say certain prayers in the same room as the deceased's body, lest the soul feel mocked because it cannot engage in that mitzvah anymore.
And it is also why, when it was in town, we did not go see the museum exhibit in which the corpses of people who had been preserved were posed in all sorts of positions for display of their inner workings. We talked about how, although Jewish tradition believes that the soul separates from the body after death, the body is a gift to us from God, and is an important part of us, to be treated with respect during life as well as after death, which is why we do not tattoo it, or mutilate it for any reason other than medical necessity, or throw it away until we have fulfilled the missions that God assigned us and then we are taken from it.
For us, the whistling In the dark of Halloween in making light of skeletons and ghosts and displaying them is not in line with the love we should have for those who passed from this earth before us, and whose love sustains us—and are not a threat to us—even after they are gone.
Finally, I find myself enormously disturbed by the sexualization both of little girls in their purchased costumes, but also in the adult celebrations in urban gathering areas (etc). While I firmly hold that the value of tzniut (modesty) is far more about respectful speech, humility, non-conspicuous consumption both in dress and in possessions, and deportment in general, the overemphasis on sexuality for women, let alone little girls, is not a value I share or wish to.
Which is why, since so few people know or observe the pagan, or even Christian origins of the day, it could be reasonably considered an "American" holiday, (Thanksgiving's origins, on the other hand, are decidedly American, but its themes are religious in a way that is perfectly in line with Jewish values), we nevertheless do not celebrate Halloween.
One of my beliefs about Judaism is that as Jews we live and can model countercultural values, and it seems to me that, at least in my own home, Halloween is a time when we can model our difference—in a very quiet way.
I don't, of course, go around harshing everyone's mellow—I don't criticize those who find a bit of harmless fun in it, I don't even suggest that those Jews who enjoy it ought to refrain and I certainly don't have anything against cupcakes, chocolate, or little kids spending an evening outside int he dark. But it is an terrific opportunity to have a discussion with your family about Jewish values, about how we view death and life, sexuality (for older kids), and the difference between Purim's dress up where we are obligated to give food to others, and Halloween's where we demand it from others.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Death and Rebirth: A Holocaust Complex
If I lived alone on Planet Laura, I would stop writing about the Pew survey, in protest against unproductive, polarized debate.
But here I am, on Planet Earth inhabiting the body of a Jewish communal professional. So I'll write something in protest, instead. And I'll argue that, deep down, we are not as polarized as we think.
We've seen the first set of Jewish responses to the survey. Some writers prophesied the death of Judaism, and the fulfillment of Hitler's project of extermination. Others denounced this view as evidence of a "holocaust complex," and instead celebrated the multicultural reincarnation of Jewry in America.
Personally, I think we've all got a bit of a holocaust complex.
Keep in mind that the Pew survey offers a snapshot of the Jewish people. If you look closely, you see it is not a new image. Actually, it dates back to Torah times.
In Torah, quantitative census data only appears in stories about taxes and armies. But qualitative data, in the form of narrative, pops up everywhere. Jews do not believe in God. They marry non-Jews in great numbers. They practice religious syncretism – blending Jewish rituals with those from other religions. Moses brings them back into national religious particularism, and then they fall away again.
This WAS the Jewish people. This still IS the Jewish people. Here we are, 3,000 years later, still living out our pattern.
For Israeli Depth Psychologist Erel Shalit, the lives of all human beings express archetypal patterns. Human psychological growth revolves around a number of key motifs. One, he says, is the "birth-death-rebirth theme of transformation."
Anyone acquainted at all with Jewish practice knows how important this archetypal theme is to Jewish self-understanding. Over and over again, we move from slavery to freedom; we move from exile to return. We often describe our history as a repetition of this pattern.
Clearly, this is a Jewish national version of the "birth-death-rebirth theme of transformation."
Does the holocaust fit this theme?
Some postwar Jewish theologians argued that it does not: the holocaust is an absolutely unique event, too terrible to be held by any existing categories or concepts. But the writing of some holocaust era activists argues otherwise.
Zivia Lubetkin, a secular Zionist leader in the Warsaw Ghetto underground, sometimes felt herself shaped by the Exodus from slavery to freedom. On the first night of the ghetto uprising, she wrote, she visited a Passover Seder, and received a blessing from a rabbi.
Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, a Hasidic spiritual teacher in the Warsaw ghetto, framed his experience in similar terms. During the war, he told his followers: We finally understand the Israelites' despair under Egyptian slavery. We literally see Isaiah's vision of Babylonia's cruelty, and we can share his hope for restoration. Perhaps our oppression will turn out to be birth-contractions of the Messiah.
The "birth-death-rebirth" theme of transformation.
So many of us are caught up in it. As we should be: our last national near-death experience was less than 60 years ago. That's not even a whole lifetime ago.
For some of us, life events have directed our psychic energy towards the slavery/exile side of the process. When significant events trigger our emotions, we describe what we see.
Some of us were shaped differently; we focuse on freedom/return. When we are triggered, we, too, describe what we see.
We are all engaged in the business of transformation.
We have no choice. In our former European population centres, we were one thing; in our contemporary Israeli and North American centres, we will be different.
Yes, our old identity is dying. Yes, our new identity is being born. Yes.
Slavery and redemption. Exile and return. Death and Rebirth.
It's an archetypal Jewish framework for understanding our history; let's use it well.
Image: http://maditsmadfunny.wikia.co. Cross-Posted at OnSophiaStreet.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
A New Spiritual Comfort Zone: Reflecting on the Pew Study
As Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz says, statistics in the Pew Research Center's survey of American Jewish attitudes and beliefs are wide open to interpretation. And different interpretations will lead to different responses.
94% of U.S. Jews say they are proud to be Jewish. Some interpreters will say that programs building Jewish identity have been successful; it is time to improve other facets of Jewish life. Others will insist we keep doing what works.
44% of married U.S. Jews have non-Jewish spouses. Some interpreters will suggest we try to reverse the trend, and focus on teaching a more exclusive sense of Jewish identity. Others will celebrate America's multiculturalism and urge us to work in creative ways with diverse and unique families.
Really, the statistics are a kind of Rorshach test. Our responses to the statistics may tell us as much as the statistics themselves do.
Personally, I am fascinated by statistics about theism and religion. I came to these numbers with the belief that Jewish leaders need to develop more sophisticated approaches to spirituality. And I come away from them thinking that now is the time to act.
According to the Pew study, 72% of Jews say they believe in God.
What do the remaining 28% not believe in?
In a thoughtful, upbeat reflection on the study, Rabbi Joshua Hammerman writes:
Countless people tell me that they are "spiritual, but not religious." Does that mean that they can't relate to the old-man-in-the-sky image of God, especially after the Holocaust? No big surprise there. Most Jews can't, myself included.
People tell me this, too; so many times it has become a platitude. Is this image really a deal-breaker in Jewish theism? I don't think so. I do think that the phrase "I don't believe in an old man in the sky" is a short, ready-to-hand, socially appropriate way to skirt a conversation about God, spirituality, or faith.
Unfortunately, we rabbis and teachers often accept these words at face value. We easily assume that many adult Jews have not moved beyond the first adolescent questions they asked about religion. So we tell them that mature Jews don't believe in the "old man." With kindness and warmth, we invite them to try adult Judaism as we know it.
Sometimes I think this is a self-protective move, because we are unprepared or afraid to step outside the Jewish discourse we know. Sometimes I think it is a patronizing approach, as well. Surely the life experience of these thoughtful adults has pushed them to existential reflection. Surely their challenges and yearnings have pointed them in many directions, not just towards questions about Divine authority.
Perhaps they do not feel held by a great heart of compassion, as Catholics might say.
Perhaps they do not believe that synchronicities in their life are glimpses into a prepared destiny, as depth psychologists might say.
Perhaps they have lost hope that humanity may be evolving towards greater justice and peace, as Quakers might say.
These are all components of faith, all aspects of what people imagine an effective God might provide, and all ideas that have (and have had) a place in Jewish discourse. If we see ourselves as spiritual teachers, it is our job to meet seekers where they are, not just to invite them to join us where we are. But to do so, we need a broader understanding of what faith means, and a web of threads connecting kinds of spirituality with concepts of God.
To gain this understanding, we may have to step temporarily out of our own comfort zone in Jewish religious vocabulary. Different religious and philosophical traditions emphasize different aspects of a soul's life journey. Exploring those aspects may help us understand the hearts of the seekers who turn to us. Learning new concepts may broaden our ability to welcome diverse Jews into spiritual life.
We may find, in fact, that the question "Do you believe in God or not?" is an inadequate tool to gauge spirituality or even religious belief. Perhaps a broad spectrum of existential reaching, questioning and growing connects all 100% of Jews. And we, the so-called spiritual teachers, need to catch up with this reality.
We should not be afraid that this exploration will lead us –- or those we teach and counsel — away from Judaism. In fact, the Pew study suggests, now is a perfect moment to risk learning something new. For Jewish Americans, both multicultural comfort and Jewish pride are at an all-time high. Flexible spiritual guidance from open-minded, broadly-educated rabbis can only increase that pride.
Image: www.reflectingrunes.com. Cross-posted at www.OnSophiaStreet.com
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Seekers and Unaffiliated: An Opportunity
I recently met a woman who I really liked. We have a lot in common, being professionally accomplished Jewish women of roughly the same age, with grown kids in their twenties, and an intense interest in progressive politics and making our contributions to repairing the world. She's raised a Jewish family infused with traditions and conversations about Jewish values. She has a strong Jewish educational background, and speaks Hebrew, as does her husband.
And we are both marginally affiliated Jews. I hold memberships in two communities in Israel; one in Jerusalem and one in Tel Aviv, but not one near my home in New Jersey. She belongs to a Conservative synagogue in her neighborhood that she doesn't attend, but continues to support out of a sense of history and loyalty. We talked about where we would attend High Holiday services and she said, "anywhere but in the sanctuary of my shul," (shuttering, as if that would be an ordeal.) I told her that my husband and I would be attending an experimental holiday "prayer event" with "Lab/Shul," in New York City. We were looking forward to a spiritually rich, musical and interactive experience. She told me about a California rabbi who she finds very inspiring, whose services are live-streamed on the internet. After Rosh Hashanah we shared our thrill for having had wonderful holiday experiences.
That week I met another very interesting women, also close to my age, professionally accomplished, with young adult kids. She, like me, is studying at a graduate school of Jewish studies, to see where it leads. We talked about our holidays, and she told me that she was still seeking, having left the Reconstructionist synagogue in her New Jersey neighborhood (where she had once been very involved), not because she didn't like it, but because the expense of dues didn't make sense to her family after the kids left the nest. Like us, she and her husband planned to spend the holidays in New York City (away from home in New Jersey), to access "hip" alternatives. We talked about where to find the best Israeli food in Manhattan, because she, like me, spends a lot of time visiting Israel.
Then I met another woman in my age cohort at a business meeting in Manhattan, another professionally accomplished woman from the NY Metropolitan area, and her story was much the same. She was anxious to tell me that she had been very involved at her neighborhood synagogue for a long time, serving on the board and actively contributing. But she left there after a political shake up between the board and the clergy, which she found very distasteful. So she and her family found a really "cool" rabbi who was doing High Holiday services in a rented storefront. She talked about how it was informal, engaging, and deeply spiritual. She is also seeking a meaningful Jewish path, feeling alienated from her Reform community, which she feels is too much about politics and not about spirituality. She went on to tell me about the non-profit organization that she and some friends founded in Israel and the amazing work that it is doing.
We are living in challenging times for synagogues in America. Most of my rabbinic colleagues are worried about declining membership, declining volunteer commitment, declining fundraising income. Some worry that the model of the American synagogue, created in the 20th century in a different reality, may be itself endangered. Others complain about losing members to "pop-up" congregations, storefront arrangements for holidays and Shabbat that offer cheap Jewish engagement, or Chabad. Pay as you go, or perhaps no commitment at all, rather than membership dues with a commitment.
I was there until recently too, scrambling to innovate in big and small ways in a small congregation. Now, from the outside looking in, I am driven to imagine in different ways. Synagogues need to ask challenging questions of themselves, reimagining their strategies for serving a more complex set of needs and demands. People will vote with their feet and their wallets for the kind of Jewish spiritual experiences they want – and are willing to pay for. My commitment for this year is to support and encourage new models, while seeking ways to add my own creative ideas and efforts. Perhaps, rather than fearing this change, we can all embrace the new world of possibilities that come with it.
The three women I profile here are just the tip of the iceberg, but they are noteworthy. A rabbi or a program or a community that can catch their attention and nourish their needs will earn their support. It is up to us to seize this time of change to build a better future for the Jewish people.
(Photo from Lab/Shul, Yom Kippur 2013, 5774)
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Taking It To The Streets
Sukkot was never a big deal for me when growing up. Coming so soon after the pomp and circumstance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it seemed trite. After all, who needs a harvest festival in (then) 20th century America? Especially growing up in Southern California, where crops grow all year long? Worse yet, since I actually enjoyed my Day School, it meant taking numerous unwanted vacations when there was nothing to do (since the rest of the world, including my parents, were not on a Sukkot break). All this for some allergy-inducing palm fronds and an ugly lemon look-alike?
Recently, though, I have developed a completely different take on Sukkot. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are extremely synagogue-focused holidays.They are, famously, the two holidays each year when most Jews show up to shul. Despite the profusion of new Jewish ritual practices and alternative paradigms for religious expression, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur unabashedly call on us to sit in the pews, for hours on end, just as our parents and grandparents did.
Then, a mere four days after Yom Kippur ends, comes this weird agricultural festival called Sukkot. Sukkot gets its name from the sukkah, a temporary structure we are commanded to build immediately after Yom Kippur ends. (Shulkhan Arukh, Orah Hayim 624:5). We are supposed to eat and perhaps even sleep for the duration of Sukkot in this flimsy dwelling. At home. Outdoors. Relaxing while dining under the stars. Sukkot thereby becomes the antithesis of the High Holidays. It is the Slow Food Movement Jewish holiday, meant to be enjoyed with leisure, in the company of family and friends, while simultaneously re-connecting us to nature, ecology, and God's beneficence. The sukkah is built with simple materials and decorated with children's creativity and relative artistic talent. There are no stained glass windows, no fancy chairs or memorial plaques. When we eat in the sukkah, which are we supposed to do for each day of Sukkot, there is no specific order to what or how we eat. Sukkot at home is decentralized, democratic, inviting us to take initiative. We can even invite ghosts (deceased great Jewish leaders) to hang out with us!
I think there is an important message to this symbolism, one we need to reinforce especially after the High Holidays: Judaism primarily is a religion to be lived organically, inextricably interwoven into our daily lives, not just performed in special places at special times. We limit the potency and potential of Judaism when we treat it as a part-time religion. Sukkot gets us to bring Jewish experience into our own backyards, into the normal rhythms of our day and night. That is why, to me, it is the ultimate Jewish holiday, truly worthy of the name "hag" (festival).
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
In praise of the boring
I admit that I've never been particularly hip.
Even as a teenager, at best I was probably pretty geeky, and what's more, not appreciably bothered by it. I liked the Beatles, had hair down to my tush, wore nothing but jeans and t-shirts other than when I was hanging around at the Renaissance festival, and spent most of my free time reading. Even my mother, decidedly not a fashionista, would wonder aloud about which era I had been born into—apparently the one before hers.
When my son was a toddler, I read to him all the time. I often read classics—but a lot of the gender and race descriptions in some of those could be a bit squicky, so I would change them on the fly. This proved to be more difficult than one might think: toddlers—at least mine—have excellent memories, and like to be read the same stories over and over, which meant I also had to remember exactly *how* I read the story the last time. Because it had to be exactly the same.
These days, being unhip in the Jewish professional world is a terrible disadvantage. Grants go to the young and groovy -which I never was, even as a teenager—programs have to be innovative, and tefilah prayer services have to leave one panting with joy and overflowing with meaning.
I admit, I like a good indie minyan myself. And I have nothing against meaning, or innovation. But I do begin to wonder whether we really need those things—at least as much as we seem to think we do. Or even if we are sure about what they are and where they come from.
Our community has gone from one where elders are revered to one where they are ignored; where meaning seems to be derived from "finding something new to do," and where innovation replaces commitment. It's not that I don't like new tunes, and I always find something new when I study a text (which I admit I prefer to davenning), but it seems to me that we have become hampered by our search for something to stimulate us. We want happiness, but what we seem to reach for instead is distraction.
I wonder what would happen if, instead of looking for new things, the Jewish community started cherishing some of our old things – starting with our elderly. I'd love to see a liberal shul teach their community to rise before their rav (or rabbah) and their aged (just FYI, I don't work in a synagogue, so this isn't some personal grandiosity).
What if, instead of "programs," the shul simply instituted regular study at different intervals (for people who had different schedule-juggling needs) – no more movie-night slichot, but instead an evening of study followed by simple tefilah, maybe with explanations for those who are beginners? What if we asked our communities to make a commitment to some kind of regular out-of-shul meet-ups with other congregants, and to commit to attending weekday services a certain number of times a year? It would probably be different for different communities, but what I'm aiming at is less innovation, less programming, and stripping things down not to basics, but to core.
I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the warmest, most active shuls I've been involved
with are ones that aren't so interested in inviting the hippest groovy innovator—they're the ones that keep on rolling in their homely little buildings with active lay people who simply do human things week after week – phone calls and davenning, and bikkur cholim,and dinner together on Shabbat. Ones where there is a commitment to consistency.
It isn't only toddlers who need repetition to learn and to feel comfortable, and it isn't only geeky teens who are uninterested in doing something new, just because. I wonder how much of the "search for innovation" is counterproductive, and I wonder if we spent less time on flashy gewgaws, would we actually attract more people—people looking for an alternative to, or at least a supplement to, the highly innovative, always stimulating, constant change of the secular world.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Hillel and Shammai
Two weeks ago I posted a piece responding to some articles on patrilineality which provoked several excellent other blog posts and a lot of conversations. I deeply appreciate both the supportive and the critical responses, as a result of which I continue to examine and reexamine my approach to the matter.
Although after having done so, I remain convinced that the Conservative approach remains correct, halachicly speaking, I thought it might be interesting to present a sugiyah from the talmud in which the schools of Hillel and Shammai discuss a breach between them which could have led to their division from one another in a profound way, yet did not.
In the talmud Yevamot 14a (I'm using the Soncino translation) we read the response to a dispute involving who is permitted to marry whom. I've added comments in brackets to try to make it more understandable.
The talmud says,
Come and hear: THOUGH THESE FORBADE WHAT THE OTHERS PERMITTED … BEIT [The school of] SHAMMAI, NEVERTHELESS, DID NOT REFRAIN FROM MARRYING WOMEN FROM THE FAMILIES OF BEIT HILLEL, NOR DID BEIT HILLEL [REFRAIN FROM MARRYING WOMEN] FROM THE FAMILIES OF BEIT SHAMMAI. Now, if it be said that [Beit Hillel] did not act [in accordance with their own view] one can well understand why THEY DID NOT REFRAIN [from intermarrying with one another] [Because this would mean that they both acted according to the same principles, but one school did so while acting contrary to the principles that they held]. If, however, it be said that [Beit Shamai] did act [in accordance with their own view], why did they not refrain? That Beit Shammai did not refrain from marrying women from the families of Beth Hillel may well be justified because [the individuals in question] are the children of persons guilty only of the infringement of a [relatively minor prohibition, for which the punishment is also minor] but why did not Beit Hillel refrain from [marrying women from the families of] Beth Shammai [Because descendants from these marriages between rivals, which are permitted by Beit Shammai, are regarded by Beit Hillel as forbidden and involve a major penalty]? Such people, surely, being children of persons who are guilty of an offense involving karet, are illegitimate [this causes a major problem - how can one marry into the family of someone if their status might be someone you are prohibited to marry, and which carries a major penalty for doing so if it turns out to be the case]! And if it be suggested that Beit Hillel are of the opinion that the descendant of those who are guilty of an offence involving karet is not a [illegitimate], surely, [it may be retorted], Rabbi Eleazar said: Although Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel are in disagreement on the questions of rivals, they concede that an illegitimate is only he who is descended from a marriage which is forbidden as incest and punishable with karet! Does not this then conclusively prove that [Beit Shammai] did not act [in accordance with their own view]? — No; they acted, indeed, [in accordance with their own view], but they informed [Beit Hillel] [of the existence of any such cases] and [Beit Hillel] kept away.
So, we see that situations like these are not novel – we have always had a diversity of halachic opinions on matters that in their time were no doubt just as painful to those involved. Yet, in the end, the two schools continued to marry one another – their solution, according to the talmud, being that they made clear, out of respect for one another, who fell into or outside of their boundaries – but they remained one community, despite their differences.
On Yevamot 14b, the talmud concludes:
Come and hear: Although Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel are in disagreement on the
questions of rivals, sisters, an old bill of divorce, a doubtfully married woman, a woman whom her husband had divorced and who stayed with him over the night in an inn, money, valuables, a perutah and the value of a perutah, Beit Shammai did not, nevertheless, abstain from marrying women of the families of Beit Hillel, nor did Beit Hillel refrain from marrying those of Beit Shammai.
This is to teach you that they showed love and friendship towards one another, thus putting into practice the Scriptural text, "Love ye truth and peace."
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
Patrilineal Jewish Descent: An Open Orthodox Approach
This week there has been much conversation online and offline on the Jewish status of people of patrilineal Jewish descent. My fellow Rabbis Without Borders alumna, Rabbi Alana Suskin, brought up the issue in an honest and compassionate article Wednesday that has garnered quite a lot of attention. I, too, have found this issue of status to be a vexing and complicated one.
Jewish denominations do not live in a vacuum. The actions of one movement can have profound impact on the collective Jewish community. Actions must be carefully weighed and considered. This is something that the broader Orthodox community refused to acknowledge for much of the early 20th-century American Jewish experience and is a mistake that I pray all movements from now on would seek to not repeat. Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, the immediate past President of the Rabbinical Council of America, in an eloquent, impassioned and moving speech to his Conservative colleagues at The Jewish Theological Seminary, stated it succinctly:
"The question before us is not simply whether we can learn to talk to each other—There is much more at stake. The real question is. "What role will we play, or not play, in shaping the story of the Jewish people at this critical juncture?" If we can't get along, then we cannot make the kind of difference that we should.
I suppose that we could all react to this challenge in usual fashion, by blaming each other and saying, "Well, it's really the fault of the Orthodox or the Conservative or the Reform." After all, it's always the 'other's' fault. But the Torah teaches us otherwise, that, like the brothers, we are all at fault. If we allow this to go on, if we continue to move apart and do not find ways to act together, we will all be held culpable for the unfolding, potentially tragic fate of the American Jewish community."
Rabbi Goldin urges us to see each other within the framework of brothers, as part of a global Jewish family that needs to work together. We can either all rise to the heights of incompetence together and bring severe havoc to our broad Jewish family or we can rise to the greatest of our potential, together, and usher in a new renaissance and flowering of Jewish life and vitality. That is our charge and our responsibility. The folks in the pews, and even more potently the folks who have long ago left the pews, are waiting for us to act maturely and cooperatively. If not now, when? If we wait too long, it may be very well too late.
It is within that backdrop that I approach the question of patrilineal descent. There are two strata of response to the question: 1. The responsibility of leadership and 2. The pastoral dimension. Both are important but it is important not to conflate them in a discussion of the issue.
Let me preface by saying that I have the utmost respect for my Reform colleagues. I grew up in the Reform movement and it is because of those formative years and the rabbis and educators that so profoundly impacted me that I became traditionally observant in my early teenage years and eventually an Orthodox rabbi. This is less to do with the individuals in the movement than the decisions movements as a whole make, in this case Reform, but in other cases other denominations.
The decision by the American Reform movement to adopt patrilineal status some thirty years ago was, in my opinion, a mistake. It was not primarily a mistake because of the outcome, that is actually the secondary issue, it was a mistake in process. Organizational experts and the best thinkers in community development have long taught that making decisions from a silo is not how to act strategically, it is how one acts tactically. It is a refusal to acknowledge the interconnectedness of movements, peoples and families; the weaving together that is the American Jewish story, and to act alone and unilaterally. It is to declare an austritt when the time has come for collaboration.
Marty Linsky, professor at the Kennedy School of Government and author of Leadership on the Line argues that leaders need to possess a "balcony perspective." What is the big picture? Where do we want to head? How do we get there most successfully?
A balcony perspective would have shown that Reform Judaism does not exist on its own island and indeed no denomination is its own island. Reform Jews are married to Conservative Jews who are siblings with Orthodox Jews who are cousins with unaffiliated Jews. Reform Jews do not only mingle, socialize, date or marry other Reform Jews. The decision some thirty years ago was either predicated on the idea that all other movements will be coerced into going along or on the notion that Reform congregants will never need to run up against differing standards practiced by almost every other Jewish denomination and by Reform equivalent types of Judaism throughout the world. Both ideas were misguided and represented a failure of strategy.
In regards to the pastoral dimension, the situation must be handled with the greatest sensitivity and compassion. The standards of halakha as outlined by the Gemara, Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch must not be compromised in the pursuit of an expeditious conversion. Yet, nonetheless, a child of Jewish patrilineal lineage, must be respected greatly for their identification with the Jewish people, their love of Judaism and of Israel. I was inspired by a lecture by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership several years ago where he insisted that people of patrilineal descent be referred to as Jews who need to rectify their status vies-a-vie Jewish law. In other words, to understand the modern dichotomy between Jewish affiliation and halakhic Jewish status, while upholding with full integrity the halakha and the legal process.
It is my hope that Jewish professional and lay leaders learn from the experience of patrilineal descent and come to do things better: to be more cooperative, more collaborative, to work strategically, to think from a balcony perspective. Unfortunately, examples like this exist in every movement and represent moments to grow from not just for the movement highlighted but for all of us. The time has come to envision ourselves, in the words of Rabbi Goldin, as brothers and to act as a family that seeks to live together in harmony and co-existence. Rabbis Without Borders represents a powerful model in that direction and, G-d willing, we will soon see it become the dominant paradigm of doing business in the Jewish community. We will all be better for it.
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The Non-Jewish Rabbi? The Problem of Patrilineal Descent
Two articles posted earlier this week made reference to an individual who had been born to a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, but had had an upbringing that compelled her to choose a Jewish path, ending in her ordination as a Reform rabbi but – the articles implied (or stated outright in one case)—she did not convert to Judaism. As it turns out, both articles* were incorrect on this point, but what was interesting to me was the question that the articles raised with regard to the possibility of such a thing happening, and the responses to that.
Most people have reacted to this article in one of two ways: a sort of galloping schadenfreude — "haha! told you those Reformim were up to no good, they're not really Jews at all!" (not to mention the general inability to distinguish between Reform Judaism and other kinds of non-Orthodox Judaism. I'm not sure they even know what Reconstructionists are) and on the other end of the spectrum an open rage that traditionalists don't accept the children of a non-Jewish mother as Jewish, often coupled with the idea that this means those traditionalists are racist.
As a Conservative Jew, the movement to which I belong explicitly does not accept the Reform position of patrilineality. As a Conservative rabbi, I have bumped up against the enormously painful problems generated by the American Reform movement's promotion of patrilineal descent, over and over again (American because outside the USA, patrilineality is not generally accepted, even in the Reform movements).
I understand how enormously painful this is to many people: I understand that for many people, what I'm going to write will make them angry, and I accept that and offer my apologies in advance.
First of all, those who denounce the Orthodox and Yori Yanover (the author of the article in TheJewishPress.com) as racist, because they are opposed to patrilineal descent are wrong. I presume that some Orthodox, like some of every group, are racist, but it is not racist to maintain that before a person can be called a Jew, they should convert to Judaism, unless their mother is Jewish (which of course includes women who have converted to Judaism). Yanover, himself, says— and I believe him—
"In the shuls I attended on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, spotting an African or a Hispanic face was always such a source of pleasure. As a tiny nation and an even tinier religious group, we prize every gentile who embraces our faith and goes through the sometimes grueling process of becoming one of us."
Putting aside the extremely problematic assumption that if they're Hispanic or African, they're obviously a convert, this isn't rejection of someone from Judaism because of race.
As it happens, converting isn't all that difficult, halakhicly (according to Jewish law) speaking. We can debate whether it's a problem that different Orthodox sects won't accept perfectly valid conversions from other sects or from Conservative rabbis, but the fact of the matter is that it's basically a simple thing to do. But it is necessary.
If one wishes to become a doctor, it's not enough to be the most fabulously gifted natural talent as a healer on earth. It's not even enough to have done lots of home study. And it's certainly not enough to be a doctor in your heart, or have a wonderful bedside manner, or to really love medicine, or to have someone call you "doctor." In this country, you have to go to medical school, pass exams, do a residency and join a professional guild. Until then, you may be many things, you may even be a tremendous healer, but you are not a doctor. In other countries, the rules may be different. They may just be hoops, but you still have to jump through them.
Anyone who works as a non-Reform rabbi in the Jewish community runs up against the patrilineal descent problem all the time. And it is staggeringly painful for someone to hear that despite being dedicated to their faith and practice, it's not enough. But it's also something which is easy to fix – unlike, say, sexual orientation, which is a comparison I often hear (if "the Conservatives" can reinterpret how we deal with gay men, why can't we change them for the children of Jewish fathers).
The answer is partly that Jewish law is fiercely stringent with regard to what we sometimes call "status issues:" Marriage, divorce, conversion. These are flashpoints for halakha, and they are flashpoints for successful continued existence as a people and a religion. They are also, unfortunately, matters which are deeply in the heart and desperately important.
But additionally, the Reform movement—however well meaning when it decided that either parent transmitted Judaism equally-—was not working from a halakhic framework.
I deeply admire and respect many Reform colleagues. I, myself, grew up Reform, and my parents belong to a Reform shul. Which is why I find this rift so enormously difficult. In my own family, I have had to reconvert family members who underwent Reform conversions because there was no mikvah (immersion in the ritual pool) involved in the conversion in order to be involved as a rabbi in their weddings. I have had to turn down the request of old family friends to be involved in their weddings because the future husband had been married before and refused to get a get – a Jewish writ of divorce. And I have had to tell people, people I love and care about, that if they cannot stomach the idea of completing the minimal requirements of a conversion, I cannot be involved in their wedding.
I find it extremely difficult to ask people whenever I am involved in a lifecycle event where status matters, "did you convert; did your mother convert; who did the conversion; what was the process…" and all the other questions that I have to ask. I hate having to tell some of those people that there is still a hoop they have to jump through if they want me to be involved. I try to make it as painless as possible, but I understand exactly how painful it is when someone tells me their mother isn't Jewish, but they have always thought that they were Jewish, and I understand that it feels insulting to them to ask them to convert. I am horrified that I now also have to track down who is the rabbi of a convert to find out if their rabbi was Jewish.
I never went by the theory that since some Reform rabbis don't fulfill the requirements for conversion, one should consider Reform converts all to be invalid. I do not accept Yanover's conclusion that "we should remain steadfast in not calling any of these people and the nice things they do 'Jewish' in any way at all." I always asked about the process and just went around filling in the missing pieces—if necessary. And if nothing was missing, then it was fine. I consider Reform Judaism to be Judaism, and Reform rabbi to be rabbis. But I am at a loss as to what to do when presented with the identity issues that are now extremely prevalent.
I have no idea what the answer to this problem is. But I will say, that when I do a conversion, as a Conservative, female rabbi, I always tell my students that if I do the conversion there will be problems with their status in other movements, and in Israel. And I always offer to make other arrangements for them—and explain what all the various problems that could arise are, and different ways that they could deal with some or all of them.
To me, it would be utterly dishonest and completely unethical for a person whom I taught to go out into the world not knowing that some people would not consider them Jewish, and that for various different reasons, circumstances could require them to convert again, and that it is not a judgement on them, and that they shouldn't consider it an insult to me or to them if it should be necessary.
It is as essential a part of the conversion process, for me, to teach that, as it is to teach them the differences between the movements, to explain why I consider the movement to which I belong -in its theory, and its expectations, at least, even if not everyone fulfills those expectations- to be halakhic, to explain why even though lots of Jews who are born Jewish don't observe halakha, I won't finish the conversion process unless I see the student has a commitment to kashrut, shabbat, and other ritual observances as well as to joining a Jewish community and synagogue,a sense of peoplehood, and a Jewish idea of God.
And ultimately, I have to at least partially echo Yanover, in that I find it problematic to discount the halakha and the halakhic process as divine (I'm willing to debate in what ways). I find all of this terribly difficult, personally—I truly have no idea how to bridge the gap between a commitment to the view of Judaism as a divine mission with obligations, and not insulting people whom I care about very much. In fact, I'd love to hear from people who have found ways to do that very thing.
*Author's correction: An earlier version of this article was posted by beginning with a link to articles about a Reform rabbi about whom incorrect information was cited. After two people whom I respect pointed out that even having her name linked with this discussion was a form of lashon hara, I decided to remove that part of the article – and truthfully, she isn't really relevant to the discussion, but was only a jumping off point.
I'm going to remove her name altogether, as well as the links to the articles with the incorrect information. I apologize to her for the original linkage.
Note: The opinions expressed here are the personal views of the author. All comments on MyJewishLearning are moderated. Any comment that is offensive or inappropriate will be removed. Privacy Policy
When Goodness Transcends Boundaries
The 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising has created renewed interest in the actions of Polish gentiles who assisted Poland's Jews during the Nazi occupation.
Some rescuers hid individual Jews who managed to flee the Germans' murderous "aktions" and ghettos while others joined in the Warsaw ghetto revolt, forged identity papers for Jews and participated in other activities that saved Jewish lives. One rescuer, Irena Sendler, managed to save over 3000 Jewish lives but her activities were almost forgotten until a group of rural Kansas students heard rumors about her wartime endeavors and embarked on a wide-ranging research project to publicize her incredible story.
Irena Sendler was working for the Warsaw Department of Social Work when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. The department's social workers attempted to help the Jews who were displaced and impoverished under the Nazi rule and Irena participated in these activities, expanding on these pursuits as a member of the underground Zagota anti-Nazi organization.
When the Warsaw ghetto was established Sendler obtained forged documents that identified her as a nurse who specialized in infectious diseases. With these documents she was able to enter the ghetto and she brought in whatever food and medicines that she could. Sendler quickly realized that she could increase her effectiveness by helping Jews escape and she decided to concentrate on removing children from the ghetto.
Sendler started smuggling street children out of the ghetto but soon expanded as she tried to bring out children whose parents were still alive. She walked through the ghetto and knocked on the doors of families whose children were still alive to convince the parents that their children's only chance of survival lay with escape.
More than 50 years after the war Sendler described the agony of those days. "I talked the mothers out of their children. Those scenes over whether to give a child away were heart-rending. Sometimes, they wouldn't give me the child. Their first question was, 'What guarantee is there that the child will live?' I said, 'None. I don't even know if I will get out of the ghetto alive today."
Sendler and her Zagota comrades had several modes that they used to smuggle children out of the ghetto. Some children were sedated and hidden under Sendler's tram seat, in a toolbox or piece of luggage or in a cart under a pile of garbage or barking dogs. Older children were often walked out through the sewer system that ran underneath Warsaw or through a break in the Old Courthouse that sat on the ghetto's border.
Once a child was smuggled out of the ghetto, finding a secure hiding place for the child was as perilous an activity as the actual act of smuggling the child out of the ghetto. Sendler and her Zagota compatriots forged documents, identified sympathetic Polish families and transported the children to safe hiding places including at the Rodzina Marii Orphanage in Warsaw and at convents in Lublin, Chomotow and Turkowice. Sendler compulsively recorded the children's names together with their hiding places, hoping that after the war they could be reunited with their families or, at the very least, with their Jewish community. There "records" were stuffed into glass jars and buried in a neighbor's garden.
The Warsaw Ghetto revolt occurred in April 1943 and within months no Jews remained in the area. Sendler, whose code name for her underground activities was "Jolenta," was given total responsibility for the welfare of Jewish children by the Zagota underground. She continued to try to find children who had, somehow, been saved from the transports and mass shootings and move them into hiding.
In October 1943 Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo and was brought to the infamous Pawiak prison where she was tortured, but she did not reveal any information about her Zagota comrades or the children's whereabouts. The Germans sentenced Sendler to death but Zagota members were able to bribe a German guard and she was released just hours before her scheduled execution.
In 1999 a group of schoolgirls from Uniontown Kansas heard about Sendler and embarked on an extensive research project about her life. They created a play about her which they performed in a number of locations. This performance happened to catch the attention of the LA based, Jewish run Lowell Milken Family Foundation who allotted them a grant allowing them to create the Life in a Jar project. This project dedicated to spreading the tale of Irena Sendler, now containing a website, book, film and continuous presentations that have currently been performed in hundreds of locations worldwide.
This is one remarkable example of the goodness that can transpire when we are able to see beyond the boundaries that we think define us and reach across those lines with an open hand. May Irena's story and the actions of those Kansas schoolgirls come to inspire us to see beyond our boundaries for the welfare and benefit of all people.
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Tikona Digital secures $45 million led by IFCInternet service provider Tikona Digital has raised $45 million investmentfrom the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and existing investors. Of this, IFC has invested $25 million into Tikona while the remaining $20 million is from existing ... Media Nama, 1 week ago
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1-10 of 16 properties to rent found
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What's the motivation behind Gunz N Rozes rapper Feroz' musical grind? I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count. While the Jersey native may not be the first emcee to claim he's in the game to Bring Home the Money, the skills he showcases on his forthcoming street album's final official leak (making its world premiere here in the Booth) leaves no doubt that he deserves those big bucks he's been chasing after. With Booth-approved beatsmith J. Cardim's street-ready synths simmering in the background, Feroz drops bars packed with cash-crazy braggadocio, even shifting into high gear to bombard the track with some scorching double-time rhymes. While I was just the slightest bit disappointed not to hear Yelawolf bust out some of his own lightspeed flows – the Arkansas native sticks to singing the hook – that's just a minor blemish on a certifiably fresh record. If this top-dollar cut's piqued your interest, be sure to check back with us this Friday, when Feroz' Booth-sponsored Invisible Man mixtape will be available to stream and download for the low, low price of free.
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1-10 of 60 properties for sale found
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Open Thursdays until 9 p.m., sponsored by Constellation Energy.
Planning to visit the Walters Art Museum? Check the holiday hours and events.
In celebration of a recent gift to the museum by a Maryland family, the Walters Art Museum presents the focus show, Rembrandt Peale's Portrait of John Meer: A New Addition to the American Art Collection, on the work of painter Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860). The donated, undated painting, Portrait of John Meer, depicts a robust middle-aged man who points enigmatically at a human skull cradled to his body. Painted by Peale when he was probably just 17 years of age, Portrait of John Meer serves as a point of comparison with other exhibited works to trace the artist's development from a technical wunderkind to a mature painter of remarkable fluency. Highlights within the focus show include Peale's sensitive fraternal portrait, Rubens Peale with a Geranium, on loan to the Walters from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., as well as portraits from the Maryland Historical Society and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection at Atwater Kent Museum, Philadelphia.
"This show will also explore the symbolism of the human skull in Western art and its possible significance as a clue to the profession of the sitter, who the family had always thought of as a 'Dr.' Meer," said Eik Kahng, the Walters' curator and head of the department of 18th and 19th century art
A craftsman and friend of the Peale family, Meer emigrated from England to Philadelphia with his family in 1793. He soon lost his wife to yellow fever and nearly died of the illness himself. He survived, however, to nurse others through outbreaks of the disease that plagued the city throughout the 1790's. Peale's use of the skull poignantly recognizes the subject's personal loss, his brush with death and his heroic service to others.
In response to the prominence of the human skull in the Meer portrait, the focus show highlights the use of skull imagery in the Renaissance, Baroque and Modern periods. Giacomo Galli's Saint Mary Magdalene, for example, pairs a smooth-skinned young woman with a rough skull as a momento mori, a stark reminder of one's own mortality. Lucas van Leyden's 17th-century print of a handsome courtier in fancy dress brandishing a skull was intended as a warning against pride in earthly things such as wealth or knowledge. Peale may have been thinking of compositions like van Leyden's when he conceived of the Meer portrait. Alfred Stieglitz's photographed "portrait" of Southwestern artist Georgia O'Keefe shows the painter's roughhewn hands stretched alongside a horse's skull, one of her favorite and enduring subjects.
As if to guide their destinies, the American portrait painter Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) named his children after famous artists: Raphaelle, Angelica Kauffman, Titian, Rubens, Sofonisba Angusciola, Rosalba Carriera and Rembrandt. Charles Willson Peale himself was the leading portraitist of his day, weaving conventions from British portraiture into his works that appealed to elite clients in the Baltimore and Philadelphia areas. Rembrandt was the most naturally gifted of the siblings and was singled out by his father as the favorite. Through his father's introduction, the young Rembrandt was given an opportunity to paint a study of the then-legendary George Washington. His direct portrayal offers viewers a startling contrast to Gilbert Stuart's highly idealized portraits of the president, an example of which is on view in the Walters' Neoclassicism and Romanticism gallery adjacent to the Peale exhibition.
The Walters Art Museum is located in Baltimore's historic Mount Vernon Cultural District at North Charles and Centre streets. Its permanent collection includes ancient art, medieval art and manuscripts, decorative objects, Asian art and Old Master and 19th-century paintings. Peabody Court is the official hotel of the Walters Art Museum. For hotel reservations, call 1-800-292-5500.
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Rembrandt Peale's Portrait of John Meer
Rembrandt Peale's Portrait of John Meer: A New Addition to the American Art Collection
March 4?August 23, 2009
600 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21201 (The Walters Art Museum)
The Walters Art Museum
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Jessye Norman: In Conversation with Tom Hall
Date: 12/05/14
Time: 07:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Come hear Jessye Norman, one of America's most accomplished and beloved opera singers, discuss her new book, "Stand Up Straight and Sing!" Tickets $25 (includes one book).
Learning by Watching: Andean Textiles and the Fabric of Culture
Date: 12/11/14
Time: 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Andean textile specialist Dr. Anne Tiballi, the Andrew W. Mellon Curricular Facilitator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, will present an engaging talk, exploring the production of ancient American textiles, their significance, and their impact on the broader material culture of the ancient Americas.
Folger Consort Performs A Renaissance Christmas: Music of Flanders and Italy circa 1500
Date: 12/14/14
Time: 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM
The Folger Consort, the early music ensemble-in-residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, will present a 90-minute concert featuring vocalists, winds, and strings. This premiere performance is inspired by the Walters' Madonna and Child with Angels, currently on view in our Italian Galleries.
The Walters Art Museum brings art and people together for enjoyment,
discovery, and learning. We strive to create a place where people of
every background can be touched by art.
The Walters Art Museum | 600 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201 | 410-547-9000 | Rights, Reproductions & Terms | Privacy Policy | Site Map


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In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, many Virginia Beach government offices and facilities will be closed or operating on an adjusted schedule. Solid waste and recycling collection will not be provided on Thanksgiving Day, however, residents who normally have collection on Thursdays will receive service on Sat., Nov. 29. More Information...
Clay firstname.lastname@example.com(757) 385-4899
Jolilda firstname.lastname@example.com(757)385-4621
Thursday, February 07, 2013 · 03:00 pm
The City of Virginia Beach invites all residents, business owners, community leaders and other stakeholders who have an interest in how the city plans, manages, protects and promotes its current and future sustainability initiatives to participate in the City Council's review and adoption of "A Community Plan for a Sustainable Future" over the next several weeks.
The City Council will be holding a public comment session on Tuesday, Feb. 12 beginning at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chamber, Building 1, 2401 Courthouse Drive, 2nd Floor.
The City Council will also be holding a public hearing and vote on adoption of the plan on Tuesday, Feb. 26 beginning at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chamber, Building 1, 2401 Courthouse Drive, 2nd Floor.
The draft plan is available for the public to review prior to these meetings at http://www.vbgov.com/government/offices/eso/sustainability-plan/Documents/vb-sustainability-plan-web.pdf. These public input meetings are the final steps in a yearlong public outreach process to seek ideas and direction from citizens to help guide the City in the development of its first comprehensive Community Sustainability Plan.
For additional information, please contact Clay Bernick in the Planning Department/Environment and Sustainability Office at 385-4899 or visit www.VBgov.com/sustainplan.
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Senior Member
my bans are usually jax singed darius if any others open up we go with kayle amumu cho everything else we seem to counter fairly well
Junior Member
singed isnt that bad, he stacks health, a frozen mallet and blade of the ruined king shut him down quite well.. the blade of the ruined kings active also help close the gap if u havent go a gap closing mech with character...
I believe ahri is a map dodger as in her ult can counter any incoming straight forward attacks and can deal lots of damage with her Q with burning torch she has alot of map control and can move around alot casing her foes to panic as in she can sneak around and lure her opponents to their death with her E which is the heart move
updated OP is:
J4, rumble, zyra, wukong, trynd
Best late game combo on 3v3s.
Sion- Farm whole game don't care about his botlane.
The reason sion don't care is his botlaners are- Jax Tryndamere.
This combo allows for sion to free farm into infin pd and hydra Also allows botlane to quickly roam top to kill a lot.
Zurgos Warrior
I have seen though oponents with Zac lately, and given that his jump is like 1/3 of the map (he can even jump from jungle to enemy nexus). However you need obviously a good AD since you build him tanky and he alone does not do very much damage, but the cc and kiting is just very good.
Well I feel that elise is the absolute worst in this map. You already have to deal with a huge spider and this one is just too much. In spider form with her e theres no place to run from the circle and the spiders.
Its just my opinion but i just hate her.
Shyvana is so OP on 3v3. I played a few games with her, and either I am better then I think I am or, Shyvana is simply godlike on Twisted.
Her W is like a hot knife through butter with minions, and pushing lanes is easy enough. Her Q and W both do damage to towers. Shes a good ganker with her ult, I dunno. I just find her very fun to play on this map. Maybe its the close proximity of the neutral creeps, I dunno. Its fun.
The most annoying champ on TT is Lee Sin
I see this guy more then anyone else and he can basically build one big AD item and then he can go straight Tank and kill anyone and everyone.
When I see games where a Lee Sin can literally 3v1 the entire team then there is something wrong with Lee Sin in general, but especially on TT.
© 2014 Riot Games, Inc. All rights reserved. Riot Games, League of Legends and PvP.net are trademarks, services marks, or registered trademarks of Riot Games, Inc.


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We are going to introduce an app which tracks your friends and family. This cool app will track the location of another Android user on this app and within a single touch you will get the location of a friend, your spouse, your child, or a co-worker with you. Even you can check in your tracker who tracks you in your buddies or family. Family & Friends Tracker is an ultimate tracker to follow your friends and family.
Keep track of all your journeys on the move with My Mileage Tracker! Use the intuitive interface to manage journeys for different clients & projects, assign costs for each journey, view journeys using a range of different criteria, backup or export your data for use with other applications and much more!
Keep track of all your daily expenses on the move with My Expense Tracker! Use the intuitive interface to manage expenses for different clients & projects, assign expenses with custom expense types, view expenses using a range of different criteria, backup or export your data for use with other applications and much more!
Children Tracker is the best solution to track your children activities including calls, texts, locations, browsing histories, connected hotspots, etc. Features ☆ Location: automatically track the location and movement of your children 24/7 ☆ Call logs & SMS: record all call logs and text messages ☆ Web surfing: all visited web pages are transferred to cloud and report to you. ☆ Other apps: Whatsapp, Viber, Lines, Facebook, Hangout, etc
BP Tracker is the most recent and powerful blood pressure tracking tool on app store.You can use this to easily log your BP, HR, medication and other useful information on your iPhone.The application is easy to use and offers a powerful graphing that shows your weekly/monthly/quarterly BP trend.The chart also supports scrolling and making a snapshot to be sent via email.Install our BP Tracker today to make you healthier!!Features:Easy-to-use and streamlined interface to input your data.
Yast is a time tracking application. It lets you track your time using 1-click timers. If you need to keep track of the time you use on different projects, Yast is your best choice. Your data is stored in the cloud and can be accessed any time at Yast.com, the worlds easiest time tracker. Yast.com provides many more features like sharing of projects and generating reports.
Enjoy Cell Phone Tracker with the following features, The best app to play your friends up.- Integration with phoneâs address book. Map mode and satellites mode. Uses real GPS satellites to locate a phone. Tell your friends that you can track location of their phone. then go ahead, enter their number and tap LOCATE they'll be amazed and shocked.
VQ Mileage Tracker is the only Mileage Tracking application for BlackBerry that AUTOMATICALLY tracks your mileage every time you drive your car. You don't have to do anything until you want to submit an Expense Report. No other apps like this... Other Mileage Tracking apps require you to manually key in dates, times, distances & locations EVERY time you drive your car for business. And keeping track of your mileage on paper is a pain at the best of times. Why do all that when VQ Mileage Tracke


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The Defense Department is gearing up to release an unclassified version of its first overarching strategy for cyberspace operations.
The official announcement of the Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace will come the afternoon of July 14 from outgoing Deputy Secretary William Lynn, who will speak at the campus of the National Defense University in Washington. Lynn is expected to outline the strategy and answer press questions.
However, published reports indicate the public likely won't be getting a meaty description of DOD operations in cyberspace. In the past, Lynn and other DOD officials have warned of the dangers of cyberattacks, but little has been said publicly about how the department defends against such attacks or how it runs offense against adversaries.
In the past, Lynn has spoken about the nascent cyber strategy. On the circuit at various conferences, he has acknowledged the lack of cohesive governance as a critical issue.
"Until recently, the military's cyber effort was run by a loose confederation of joint task forces spread too far and too wide, both geographically and institutionally, to be fully effective," he said in May 2010 at a U.S. Strategic Command Cyber Symposium in Omaha, Neb.
According to Stars and Stripes, at the RSA conference in San Francisco in February, Lynn said the DOD strategy will hinge on active defense systems, planning and coordination with the Homeland Security Department and a strong public-private partnership – comments that echo what Lynn has said at other speaking engagements.
Still, expect the bulk of the juicy details of DOD's cyber arsenal to be absent from the unclassified release.
"The unclassified version, you will find, follows much of what was in the administration's [international cyber strategy released in May]," Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan told reporters at the Pentagon July 11, per Stars and Stripes. "This isn't about acts of war – this is about an overall cyber strategy, and how we defend ourselves against cyber threats."
Even if it is a watered-down version that is released to the public, it sets the stage for discussions set to take place in coming days in Washington. The July 15 AFCEA Cybersecurity Summit will have several DOD officials on tap, discussing network security, the U.S. Cyber Command and related issues.
At 1105 Media's upcoming FOSE conference July 19-21, several different aspects of cybersecurity will be discussed by an array of high-level government officials and industry insiders. 1105 Media is the parent company of Federal Computer Week and Defense Systems, which publish the Inside DOD blog.
Posted by Amber Corrin on Jul 13, 2011 at 12:14 PM
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Steve Kelman considers the costs of corruption in Mexico, China, and most developing countries -- and argues that Americans should keep their own government troubles in perspective.
Agency leaders must proactively invest time, energy and resources to shape the future rather than reactively wait for change to happen.
Meet 24 men and women who are driving key changes in federal IT -- and shaping up as the community's likely leaders of tomorrow.
GSA's administrator talks with FCW about short-term hiring, long-term planning and Robert Frost.
Without a future vision and an appetite for risk, reforms lead down a rabbit hole. There is a better way.
VA's top tech official says he is balancing risks while trying to keep the department's online services open for business.
After five years on the job, the founding director of the Office of Government Information Services believes that a deeper understanding and acceptance of FOIA is seeping into the federal government.
The September attack, made public Nov. 10, potentially puts customer and employee personal information at risk, including addresses, Social Security numbers and emails.
The General Services Administration's Matthew Goodrich predicts more agency-driven authorizations and previews a new two-year road map.
Very useful article, but I think the problem between the defense systems and the hacker will never end.Someone to spend time and money to create a super system, but one man can find a vulnerability in the short time... (
This article is very interesting because cyber security and control is something we need to get a handle on if we don't want to be susceptible to cyber attacks, which would be truly detrimental to our society. I understand that this is an unclassified article but it seems to lack consistency in informational needs for a reader. I think the the meaty details on this topic are probably a solid strategy. This brief explanation leaves this reader wanting to know more about what to actually expect in the future of our cyber world. The 'wave of the future' has been riding around for years, the possibilities of the internet now seem endless. As the young generation has seemed to master the concepts behind this type communication tool, it is of dire importance that we have a way to protect and defend this freedom of speech and the many other variables that go along with it.
Our computers and networks will become slower than now!!
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Microsoft's $199 Work & Play Bundle combines many subscriptions into one
Microsoft retail stores now carry an exclusive bundle of Microsoft services that span entertainment, gaming and productivity in new Work & Play Bundle
Nokia N1 hero
Microsoft Lumia
Microsoft retail stores now carry an exclusive bundle of Microsoft services that span entertainment, gaming and productivity in new Work & Play Bundle
The offline campaign of "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare" is not working for users who bought the digital version of the game in wake of Xbox Live's service outage.
Find out why the Atari game fared so poorly decades ago, watch interviews and live events from the excavation of the site where the 30 year old games were found in this documentary, premiering soon.
The free games and deals available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers via the Games with Gold program on both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 have been made known for the month of November.
Turtle Rock Studios is following up its Left for Dead hit franchise with a new cooperative shooter. Confirmed for an October 30 launch, the Big Alpha test event will be only on Xbox One.
Lionhead Studios' continuation of the Xbox-exclusive Fable franchise has a multiplayer beta going live in October, and you can signup for the chance to play before the game is launched!
Microsoft adds the NFL Sunday Ticket service to their Windows Phone 8 and Xbox One platforms. The new service offers live and on-demand services for all 32 NFL teams in addition to other features.
Earlier today, Sony's PS4 online service was disrupted, and now it looks like Microsoft's Xbox Live service is now being kicked offline, hinting that the two outages may be linked.
Xbox Live users are getting free games every month and the new ones have just become available for download. Xbox One users are getting Strike Suit Zero while Xbox 360 users get Motocross Madness.
According to sources, Microsoft may soon lift a long-loathed paywall and allow users to access video streaming services like Netflix and Hulu without an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Zynga has announced some changes in its leadership today, including word that it has hired Alex Garden, the current leader of Microsoft's Xbox Music division, to lead its game studios.
The season four premiere of HBO's "Game of Thrones" will be free to stream on Xbox Video from today until Monday. Some cable and satellite providers will offer the episode on-demand for free as well.
Target currently offers what may be the best deal yet for a new Xbox One console, with the console, the free game Titanfall and a free 12 month Xbox Live subscription for $449.99.
The director of Microsoft's documentary about millions of unsold "E.T." Atari 2600 game cartridges says an excavation of a landfill they're believed to be buried in will take place late this month.
Microsoft has rewarded a 5-year-old boy, Kristoffer Von Hassel from Ocean Beach, California, for finding a vulnerability in Xbox Live that allowed him to sign into his father's account.
Microsoft has announced that starting later this month, it will begin to send notifications to some Xbox One players if their online gaming reputations are getting lower and need some work.
Microsoft has announced the first 25 games that will be released for the Xbox One as part of the self-published ID@Xbox program, with the first titles to be released "in the coming weeks."
Ray Cox IV, who goes by the gamertag "Stallion83" and is already the person with the highest ever Xbox Live Gamerscore, finally reached his points goal of 1 million tonight after over eight years.
Ray Cox IV, who goes by the gamertag "Stallion83" and is already the person with the highest ever Xbox Live Gamerscore, could reach his score goal of 1 million later today.
Microsoft has issued an alert stating that some Xbox One users cannot sign into Xbox Live at the moment, but apparently the release of the multiplayer game "Titanfall' is not the reason.
Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer stated this weekend that the company is still 'extremely committed' to the Xbox division and also hinted at some improvements for its Games For Gold program
Microsoft is reportedly trying to get more politicians to pay for campaign ads that would be shown on the Xbox One and Xbox 360 dashboard via Xbox Live, along with Skype and MSN.
Microsoft has announced that "Civilization Revolution" and "Dungeon Defenders" will be released for free in March for Xbox 360 members of the Xbox Live Gold service.
Microsoft will allow "select Xbox Live members" to beta test the next update for its Xbox One console, with users receiving invitations to the program beginning today. The beta starts next week.
Microsoft accidentally leaked the mid-season premiere of "The Walking Dead" for free on Xbox Live a day before it was scheduled to make its debut on AMC.
Microsoft has posted profiles of three members of their Xbox team, including Carl Ledbetter, the designer of the Xbox One who also worked on the IntelliMouse and the Zune.
Temple Run 2, sequel to the popular infinite running game Temple Run, has been launched for Windows Phone 8 devices; The new game features Xbox Live achievements and is available in the store for free
Microsoft has added new security features for Microsoft Account users, including a way to view any recent activity to make sure that the account has not been used by others.
Newly leaked NSA documents claim that the spy agency and its UK sister agency GCHQ have entered into online gaming communities, including Xbox Live, to look for terrorist activities.
Some Xbox One multiplayer and online store services are currently experiencing issues in the U.S. and other parts of the world, in the first reported case of online problems with the console.
Ray Cox IV, who currently holds the world's record for the highest Gamerscore on Xbox Live, was presented with the first ever lifetime Xbox Live Gold membership from Microsoft at the Xbox One launch.
Microsoft has now launched its web-based games store for the Xbox One ahead of its U.S. launch, letting people purchase their digital games via a PC for download to the console later.
A Microsoft executive has promised the company is focusing on "core" PC games after Windows 8's launch had several casual titles. The studio allegedly has a large amount of PC titles in development.
Microsoft has announced it will update its Xbox Live Terms of Use with new rules later this week that will give permission from users to let Microsoft share personal data across Xbox Live apps.
Microsoft Xbox team members are taking to their Twitter accounts to refute Internet rumors that the Xbox One is still suffering from software issues just a few weeks before launch.
Amazon is currently offering people who purchase a full 12 month subscription to Microsoft's Xbox Live a free $20 Xbox Live gift card from now until November 7th.
Microsoft has announced it will make the Games with Gold program, which offers two free games to Xbox Live Gold subscribers on the Xbox 360, permanent following positive feedback.
Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox One will not support owners using their real names as an option to using online Gamertags for the launch of the console but that it may be put in an update.
A new report claims that the Xbox One's game video sharing feature will only work on Xbox Live at launch, but sharing on Facebook and YouTube is planned for sometime in 2014.
Microsoft has announced that the streaming video service Crackle is premiering its original action movie Extraction first on Microsoft's platforms like Xbox Live, Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
Bethesda wants Microsoft to eliminate the Xbox Live Gold requirement for users of its upcoming game "The Elder Scrolls Online" since they'll already have to pay $14.99 a month.
Microsoft has announce that it has made a change to its Microsoft Account policies that will let any one of a person's aliases become their primary alias for that account.
We offer some suggestions for even more great sci-fi TV shows that Microsoft should consider reviving for its Xbox Live service, including The X-Files, Firefly and, yes, Star Trek.
"Dead Rising 2" and "Dead Rising 2: Case Zero" are now available to download for free as part of Microsoft's Games with Gold promotion. Both games are available for free until Sept. 1.
A new rumor claims that Microsoft is helping to fund a revival of the classic BBC sci-fi TV series "Blake's 7," which would run as an exclusive on Microsoft's Xbox Live service.
Microsoft has confirmed that people who log into an Games For Windows Live account can also log into an Xbox One console at the same time, unlike GFWL users who also try to log into an Xbox 360.
Microsoft's annual "Summer of Arcade" sale for the Xbox 360 began today with the release of "Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons" and will continue with a new title each Wednesday until Aug. 28.
Microsoft has announced it has launched a beta test of its new Xbox Enforcement United program, designed to give Xbox community members more of a say in the policing of Xbox Live player activity.
Pre-orders are now open for the 'Day One' Xbox Live Gold 12-month pack, including a copy of Killer Instinct with an exclusive character and, uh, a "commemorative membership card", for $59.99.
In a conversation with The Official XBOX Magazine, Chad Gibson, Xbox Live's project manager, revealed new information about the Xbox One and its achievement system.