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Izgad: Isaac Asimov and the Submission to Law
In an earlier post I spoke about the necessity of submission to Law as a form of salvation from "every man doing what is right in their eyes." I was recently reading an Isaac Asimov novel, The Stars, Like Dust, that, in its own way made a similar point. B...
Dateline: 2010-09-01 12:34pm -07:00T (75 words)
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Izgad: Staying in the Fold: Does Belief Actually Matter?
Rabbi Yakov Horowitz is in the process of writing about keeping Jewish children "on the Derech" (in the fold). So far he has written a top ten list of things parents can do to have a decent chance of being able to pass on their values to their children.1....
Dateline: 2010-08-31 8:18am -07:00T (73 words)
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Izgad: From Rabbi Marc Angel: Kupat Ha’ir is Religious Charlatanism
Several months ago I posted about Rabbi Marc Angel (one of our last best hopes for sanity in Orthodox Judaism) and his denunciation of the Haredi charity organization Kupat Ha'ir. This week, in his newsletter on the Torah portion, (hat tip to Ms. S.) he i...
Dateline: 2010-08-26 8:03am -07:00T (68 words)
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Izgad: Dishware Baptizing and Tree Hugging: My Vermont Vacation
Last week I took a vacation from my summer dissertation writing vacation to go with my girlfriend and some friends to Vermont. We did lots of healthy nature things like hiking and visiting Ben & Jerry's. Jews have a practice called "toveling," dipping new...
Dateline: 2010-08-25 1:33pm -07:00T (70 words)
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Izgad: The Libertarian Yamukah
(Start at 7:58)Neuroscientist James Fallon suggests that libertarians might have highly developed dorsolateral prefrontal cortexes. This part of the brain is connected to rationality and it may possibly help compensate for the poor development in parts of...
Dateline: 2010-08-23 10:48pm -07:00T (52 words)
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Izgad: Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky and the Wisdom of Asking For Sources
Quite a number of bloggers have already discussed the audio clip of Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky of the Haredi outreach yeshiva Ohr Somayach attacking Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb of the Orthodox Union. I would like to add my thoughts to the matter, particularly on t...
Dateline: 2010-08-23 10:18am -07:00T (66 words)
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Izgad: Da’as Torah and the Settler Movement
Da’as Torah is the notion that Jewish religious authorities have special even supernatural knowledge, giving them insight not only into the practice of Judaism, but also everyday life as well. For example, what job to pursue or what policies the gov...
Dateline: 2010-08-17 9:48pm -07:00T (60 words)
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Izgad: Education as Sociability Versus Education as Regurgitating Information: An Asperger Dilemma
James Pate ran with my post on Asperger sociability, contrasting it with a valedictorian speech by Erica Goldson. Goldson expresses her own frustrations about being declared valedictorian by her school: … in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more i...
Dateline: 2010-08-15 7:48am -07:00T (71 words)
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Izgad: Does Support for Gay Rights Entail Discrimination against Aspergers?
 Ultimately, I can accept the neurotypical status quo, despite its inconveniences, because even when it "discriminates" against me, in its "discrimination" there is a larger equality. Those in the majority are not truly discriminating against me as thei...
Dateline: 2010-08-12 2:18pm -07:00T (66 words)
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Izgad: Social Relationships and Anti-Asperger Bigotry
Growing up as an Asperger was not easy; long before the concept of Asperger syndrome crossed my path I knew that I was different and that I lived in a society clearly not designed with me in mind. The fact that I stood out made me a target for bullying. M...
Dateline: 2010-08-11 8:33am -07:00T (73 words)
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Izgad: St. Augustine Teaches Rabbi Aharon Feldman Authentic Jewish History
I recently decided to spend part of the morning reading through Rabbi Aharon Feldman's The Eye of the Storm: A Calm View of Raging Issues, so brilliantly skewered by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein. Part of the book deals with messianism so I had a good excuse....
Dateline: 2010-08-09 12:18pm -07:00T (71 words)
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Izgad: Doing What is Right in One’s Own Eyes: Yigal Amir and Judge Walker
As I am sure most of you know by now, last week Judge Vaughn Walker has overturned California's Proposition 8 ban on legalizing gay marriage. In terms of gay marriage itself I have no objection. I am no more opposed to gay marriage than I am to changing t...
Dateline: 2010-08-08 7:03am -07:00T (75 words)
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Izgad: “They Can Say It, We Cannot:†The Haredi Assault on Jewish Law and Jewish Thought
Rabbi Natan Slifkin has an essay "They Can Say It, We Cannot," which responds to an argument of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv that certain beliefs, such as the Sages of the Talmud could be wrong about matter of science, could be heretical despite the fact t...
Dateline: 2010-08-04 9:18am -07:00T (68 words)
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Izgad: Send Sholom Rubashkin to South Park: A Modest Proposal
The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are known for their often crude but spot on parodies of public figures and the news of the day. Yesterday, with the input of a friend, I started to hash out an idea for what I think could make for an...
Dateline: 2010-08-03 8:18am -07:00T (75 words)
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Izgad: Raymond Lull as a Model Turn of the Twentieth Century Protestant Missionary
Raymond Lull was a thirteenth century mystic and missionary, who ended his life attempting to preach Christianity to Muslims in Muslim controlled North Africa. Not surprisingly, he served as inspiration for Christian missionaries going into the Muslim wor...
Dateline: 2010-08-02 7:33am -07:00T (57 words)
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