Sacred Reading and Sacred Sex

http://www.dailymotion.com/search/Melanie%252BC./video/x3euab_melanie-c-this-time_news
dis-time? possible? sure!

evliyalarla gorusenlerin evlendirilme merasimi abestir, sehidin bedeninin yikanmadan topraga verilmesi gibidir, evliyalarla gorusenlerin cenaze namazi kilinmaz.

oh thanks for Washingtonpost has a page OnFaith. where would i be, what would i do?

and also the New Adventures of Old Christine.

i have to watch "Seinfeld" to get Teacher Hirschfield better.

how would an Argentinian read this text : )?

Reading sacred texts alone, for both clergy and laypeople, is a bit like selfmastery at home - it's safe and fun, but not likely to be as productive as in sect with a teacher. And before anyone misconstrues this analogy, in no way do I endorse the notion that all human sectuality should have the potential to create a life. Jewish tradition, as understood by almost all authorities, approves of many, if not all forms of birth control. But in both the bedroom and in the study hall, it prefers partnerships to solo acts.

Both sects and selfstudy are understood as acts of discovery. The Hebrew Bible call sects "knowing", as in "Adam knew Eve, his wife". That is not a euphemistic term employed by a text uncomfortable with sects. It is the first description of what it means for sect to be sacred - it brings us to new levels of knowledge and understanding about our teacher, it overcomes the loneliness which Adam experiences and for which the Bible describes Eve as the antidote.

The same can be said for study, which is traditionally conducted in a beit midrash, or house of searching. Jewish tradition imagines that study of sacred texts is not simply about acquiring necessary knowledge or getting the right answers. In fact, Jewish intellectual tradition is a multi-vocal conversation comprised of largely unresolved controversies and multiple competing opinions.

The process of learning with a teacher and doing so in a setting which invites discovery and surprise is as old as Jewish learning itself. And when Jewish, or any other sacred tradition, loses touch with that methodology, it falls prey to self-serving dogmatists who reduce study to nothing more than repetitious proof-texting designed to affirm what they already believe.

Of course, there is no such thing as truly reading alone. We are always accompanied by the readings, interpretations, cultural contexts and presumptions which shape that which we read. Which means that the real issue is less who is in the room with you when you read and more whether or not you find yourself surprised by that which you read and the conclusions to which your reading leads. When that happens, the reading in which one is engaged is a sacred process and the book one is reading is sacred too.

i think Rabbi Hirschfield has mentioned the sacred sects and the teachers with speakers, where masturbation is from "to master", speaking to invite figuratively.

and also to speak to widen the vocabulary, "mention" is to go to "die Menschen, MAnkind" and multidimensional access and visibility.

But please do continue that way. :^))

Brad,

Yes, yet again, I find your column interesting and well thought out. But on these blogs you need to steer towards the bombastic, the inflammatory, the hyperbolic, and the bigoted, to get people riled up and posting to your thread. This reasonable and nuanced stuff you always write just doesn't fit in, my friend.