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Thursday, October 8, 2009

So Many Studies, So Little Time

Are you wondering what I'm thinking about? Everyday it seems I'm researching something new. Yesterday was about Heavenly manna, today is Copernicus. The other day it was the legend of the Minotaur. I've been meaning to write about that one for a while, but there is not enough time.

Also, for those of you who have never noticed, my twitter feed is on the right hand side of this blog. It only shows the most recent tweet there, but you can follow me on twitter. The reason I mention this is if you really want to know what's going on with me between posts, I have my twitter connected to my twine. I post interesting articles I'm reading almost daily to my twine account which automatically posts to my twitter. I usually post a few things every day. Sometimes they are funny comics, sometimes they are news articles or just things I think might interest YOU.

Also, I try to update pictures every so often. The most recent pictures are from a concert of Gogol Bordello with Deleon. I keep adding to these pictures as Google lets me retrieve my photos. (I think I mentioned this in a recent blog) And on the right hand side are other picture feeds.

If you are subscribed to this blog, you will not receive emails on updates to picture feeds or twitter feeds. It just doesn't work that way :( So while I may be updated several times a day, you do not realize it.

Friday, October 2, 2009

It Has Become Necessary

I find it necessary to continue the topic of my last two posts. It is only through honest communication with others do we learn more about ourselves and through several conversations recently, I realized I have been making assumptions about other people's knowledge of Judaism. To "be Jewish" certainly does imply a religion, as most people are aware, but it also implies a race. This is not a theory, but is a fact. Here is what Wikipedia says about this, and it sums up everything pretty nicely:

"The Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים‎, Yehudim), also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation.[3][4][5] Converts to Judaism, whose status as Jews within the Jewish ethnos is equal to those born into it, have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia.

In Jewish tradition, Jewish ancestry is traced to the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the second millennium BCE. The Jews have enjoyed three periods of political autonomy in their national homeland, the Land of Israel, twice during ancient history, and currently once again, since 1948, with the establishment of the modern State of Israel. The first of the two ancient eras spanned from 1350 to 586 BCE, and encompassed the periods of the Judges, the United Monarchy, and the Divided Monarchy of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ending with the destruction of the First Temple. The second era was the period of the Hasmonean Kingdom spanning from 140 to 37 BCE. Since the destruction of the First Temple, the diaspora has been the home of most of the world's Jews.[6] Except in the modern State of Israel, Jews are a minority in every country in which they live, and they have frequently experienced persecution throughout history, resulting in a population that fluctuated both in numbers and distribution over the centuries."