Midrash Dictionary

Over Rosh Hashana I was reading Chagiga Perek Bet, Bava Basra amud 79, and Brachot perek 9...

I was discussing the aggadatahs with my friends, explainting to them things I have picked up over the years. One of my friends asked me simply... Why don't they make a dictionary for these things? And I replied... good question!

So A. Does anyone know of a such a book that gives a dictionary for these things?

2. Would anyone like to help me make one?

Here off the top of my head, is my incomplete dictionary. (in no particular order- you may notice quite a few repeats)

1. Wave = Yetzer Harah, the evil inclination.
2. White = Chesed (good things)
3. Red = Din, strict justice, (often associate with chet- sins)
4. Water = Torah (the type of torah that flows from high to low)
5. Fish = Torah Scholar, or a person emersed in Torah more so than the average chacham
6. Fire = Halacha, Torah, the words of Torah Sh'bictav
7. Cedar tree = Leader of the generation, like A Rosh Yeshiva, or the Prince of a tribe
8. Mountain = Spiritual giant like Avraham, Yitzcahk, Moshe, Rabbi Akiva
9. String = A weak connection, counter intuitive, Truth but hard to proove.
10. Pillars = Key ideas, Like the world stands on three pillars: Chesed, Avodah, Justice
11. Heavens = the unkown
12. Earth = What we can sense
13. A ship = Something of importance in this world, but is transient and not so impotant ultimately
14. A Staff = The rulings of Torah
15. Crown = A stature, a good name, Malchut, Kingship.
16. Blue = Binah, wisdom
17. Mother = Binah, wisdom
18. Father = strictness, source
19. Yoke, around the neck = Acceptace of Torah
20. Locusts/ants = Prayers of the Jewish people.
21. Green = Tipheret, could also be yellow...
22. Silver = desire, teivah
23. River = Torah as understood by the current generation.
24. Chariot = Gd's control over the mundane in this world
25. Chaot(angels) = messengers
26. Cherbuim = guardians connected with relationships
27. Orphanim = More subtle messengers related to less concrete things
28. Chashmal = quickly moving idea, a brief insight, like lightning.
29. Leviathon = The righteous of all generations
30. Behamah = The animalistic side of man
31. Giant bird eggs = 10 commandments??

Help add to the list!

"Terrorists"

I heard on a brief snippet on NPR today, that Somalia (remember black hawk down?) is under attack by the "Islamists" Now, all reports say that these guys "have no connection to Al Qaeda" and are therefore, "not terrorists"... This by the way, is very similar to this report about Iraq increasing terrorism-- (right.. because no terrorists existed before 9/11)

Anyway.. I would not be surprised, and I would even wager that these "Islamists" in Somalia, have ZERO ties to Al Qaeda, they don't even have the same barber. But for anyone to say that these guys are not the same ball of wax, are not also our new definition of the term "terrorists" is just so backwards and ostrich like that it scares the hell out of me. I don't know if the Arab league is working on world domination, or if Gd is planting seeds in people's heads that now is a good time for another attempt to take over the world by force of religion, but for people to not see the connections between Hostile take overs in Africa, and the intra muslim fighting of the middle east, and the Coup of Thailand...

I hope every prays, and takes upon themselves more mitzvot to warrant Jews around the world the merit of saving us from another world war.

Rabbi's Sermon in Irvine

The rabbi gave an interesting sermon this rosh hashana that I was not expecting.

He informed the congregation that as a child his religion was not Judaism.

It turns out, that his religion was baseball.

He then continued to tell us baseball stats and figures for about 5 minutes, all the while mentioning the brachas he made, and the holidays he celebrated.

He said the famous line, Judaism is my "way of life", Baseball was his religion, but Judaism was his way of life, was his constant refrain.

Interesting things to think about. Other religions he gave examples of were Arts, theater, Electronics, Television, he should have mentioned blogging but didn't.

Can't prove a negetive

Michael medvend had the man who wrote "A letter to a christian Nation" on his program today. First time I heard his program in who knows how long... its been a while since I drove up to L.A. at this time of day. (Yay crazy shopping trips!) anyways, Medved was getting up set at the comparison between 16% of Americans beleiving that government executed 9/11 and 22% of Americans beleiving that Jesus will come back in the next 50 years.

Jesus comming back, and Torah M'sinai, can't be proved false.

However, the idea that 9/11 was commited by Arab extermeists can be proved false.

There is a difference between not being able to prove a negetive in general, and not being able to prove specific negetives. Something to think about.



Lastly, somehow, the debate on the radio reminded of a speach I once heard by a visiting rabbi. When people say that G'd creating a false age of the earth is deceptive, he argued that it is not.

When you imagine a person saying "Abra cadabra, I will make a Giant Elm Tree out of nothing... and *POOF* there is a tree. If you cut down that tree, how many rings do you expect to find? 0? 1? 30? 2,000? 15.3 billion?

Granted nobody expects to find 15.3 billion, but what about the sudden creation of a rock? What does your mind's (I)eye show you? Granted again, that this thought experiment does not answer all the many thousands of questions that is asked about the age of the universe, however it was a reminder to me, that if we think about our "fancifull delusions" of a magician creating a tree out of nothing, our mind normally envisions a Full Tree that is atleast 30 years old, and not a seed with the age of 0.

UN Speaches

So I heard the speaches at the UN yesterday.

I have a strong suspicion that all the questionable things the Iranian president said are going to be completely ignored. Like talking about how he was peace and justice for all, and that Israel should be destroyed. And how he is going to bring about the mesiah. And how the U.S. has to be removed from the security council, and how he wants to take over the U.N. because he says its a failed institution and he will make it better.

Lets see if anyone talks about those things. I doubt it. Its too scary and people don't like scary things apparently.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

R. Kaplan's books have by no short order been the most influential on me I have ever read.

In this day and age of mocking and deriding people I respect, I would like to ask people to help me find someone who finds R. Aryeh Kaplan's writings to be bunk, not "real Judaism" or anything else that might discredit his influence.

Midnight Party: Slichot!

Apparently they put out a pre-slichot video this year to inspire people. Not sure if it was all that inspiring, but R. Frand made some interesting points. I am going to take his points out of context and apply them to the blog world which I've witnessed shortly.


1. Vilna goan apparently said that the generation before Moshiach will not only be doing evil for superficial reasons, but will be doing good for superficial reasons also. Since we know that every generation has the potential of being the generation before the Moshiach this is a timeless "fault". I think this is also the "source" of the internet skeptic blogger. Too much "superficiality" as a sign of fakeness, instead of it being a sign of "taking things for granted" and "nature"

2. This one will go over most people's heads, but thats fine. Nature does everything by rote. As the speaker was prone to say often "Day in, day out, day in , day out" (sounds a lot like Dayan die out .. but anyway) We think the world is on automatic, but we learn from our sources that NO!, Rabono shel Olam rebuilds the world every second. Everything is new, even though everything is old.

3. There is no point three. Does that mean there is no point?


4. For the first time I decided to daven Slichot 90% in English and 10% in Hebrew... Best Slichot ever. ironically, my fiance did the same thing, and she also had her best slichot ever. Both of us thought we didn't have enough pages or something. Very bizzare.

Cafferty agrees with Daganev.... sorta

On T.V. a few minutes ago I heard a question asked on CNN. Normally I don't watch CNN but in the morning they are better than any other news station. (apparently they are the only ones who do news in the morning period these days.)

Anyway here is the question.

Cafferty File

Jack Cafferty sounds off on the stories crossing his radar. Write in to answer Jack's hourly questions, and watch to see if he reads your response.

4 p.m.: Would you support a third national political party headed by Colin Powell and Barack Obama?

Now, I dont know why he chose those two people, does anyone have a record of what they hold by? However, he is trying to start a third party bandwagon. Looks like my 2010 prediction isn't all that far off.