The Bible as Literature Series: Is the Bible a Literary Masterpiece?
Genesis 1 – The Orderly Creation of the Universe
Genesis 2 – A Second Creation Story?
Genesis 3 – The Price of Knowledge
Genesis 4:1 – 4:16 – Am I My Brother’s Keeper?
Genesis 4:16 – 4:26 – A Genealogy of Civilization
Genesis 5 – Seth’s Genealogy and Longevity Narratives
Genesis 6 – 9:17 – The Flood Story
Genesis 9:18 – 9:28 – The Curse of Ham
Genesis 10 – 11: The Table of Nations and the Origin of Languages
Genesis 12: Abram’s Emigration and a Comedy of Errors
Genesis 13: Abram and Lot Go Their Separate Ways
The Consolation of Reading 
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Hello again CR.
I’m commenting here because I’m unsure where on your blog would be the most reasonable place/page to comment, or rather ask for your view (from your apparent knowledge & background on the subject) and insight on a foreign political/religious issue I just watched on PBS. Here’s the link to the interview and subject transpiring or transpired over in Israel. It is only the first portion of Christiane Amanpour’s show, the part with Tamar Zandberg. If I may…
https://www.pbs.org/video/amanpour-tamar-zandberg-and-bo-burnham-nwywj8/
My intrigue or confusion after listening to Ms/Mrs Zandberg discuss this new law passed in Israel is that I’ve never seen the harmonious union — throughout most of human history — of theocracy and democracy in truly equitable applications. What are your thoughts please, if you have the time of course.
Thank you sir.
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.
I read about the passage of this law the other day prior to watching the video. I felt absolutely disgusted by the Israeli Rights’ actions here. I am concerned for the rights of Israel’s minority Arab and Druze citizens much like Ms. Zandberg. I also agree with her position that having a state to serve as a Jewish home land and a liberal democracy are not automatically at odds with each other so long as you make a real effort to protect the rights of minorities in your country. There is no real point in creating such a law in the first place since for all practical purposes and other laws already establish it as a Jewish state so why add another law reaffirming this more stringently, but worded in such a way as to diminish the position of Israel’s minorities and annoy the more secular and liberal versions of Judaism
I completely agree CR. No matter what your individual, organization, institution, or national majority might be, there will always ALWAYS be divergence and diversity — sometimes in large numbers, sometimes in the minority. But there will always be those who have different belief-systems and varying cogs, nuts-n-bolts if you will, within the whole machine. In fact, this entire planet is so endlessly diverse (practically nothing identical) in all living species and organisms on it that one decade you might be the majority, the next your not! Hahaha.
This new law over there saddens me very much because I am WELL AWARE of the plight and suffering of the Palestinians over the last century, let alone the LGBTQ, secular, and Druze communities. I hope this trend is eventually reversed.
Well, I believe the secular communities in Israel still represent the highest proportion of the population. The last polls I saw show that most Israelis support gay rights. So that’s a good sign at least.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-79-of-israelis-back-gay-marriage-or-civil-unions/
And I have already shown you data before that shows American Jews display extremely strong support for gay rights as well.
There are large differences in how Israelis view Jewish identity versus American Jews, as well as various Israeli issues.
http://www.pewforum.org/essay/american-and-israeli-jews-twin-portraits-from-pew-research-center-surveys/
Most American Jews view Judaism more as a matter of culture or heritage or ethnic identity than religion and for them it represents a certain set of values, many of which focus heavily on issues of social justice, plus a strong emphasis on education and questioning.
Many thanks for your excellent, informative viewpoints and links! These have been a great help. Thank you!
I’m curious myself. How much of the information I just provided to you was new information for you?
Hmmm, I’ll try to briefly summarize. HAH! 😛
I was not familiar with the news agency The Times of Israel. I assume you consider it a pretty “fair” journalistic agency since you linked to it? I tried briefly to review/browse their background, Editor-in-Chief, or get some quick general idea of their “objectives,” if you will. But I didn’t have much success or as I would like to have. I’ll have to try again from a different angle I suppose.
I do place a degree of genuine interest in your POV CR and your well-rounded, grounded knowledge of religious topics, particularly in the areas of Judaism. Granted, my current interest and degree of trust(?) is not exhaustively founded 😉 , but I have been impressed by most all of your content in comments (on my blog & others) and on your blog, again in Judaism especially. It may be premature, but online, on the world-wide web, how thorough can one be with individuals versus institutions or the content of what is published given many time restraints? Nonetheless, I appreciate your individual approach to subjects and you always demonstrate a common decency and level of respect to others. I have always admired that.
I also know you like the Pew Research Center, as do I, as one source of (fairly?) objective data analysis and polls. I like your approach utilizing them or incorporating their findings as well.
Those were the things or information I was familiar with. What I was NOT familiar with was the 79% of modern Israelis support same-sex marriages or civil unions and that it seems most Jews are socially and politically UNLIKE Zionist Jews inside Israel, which I”m gathering control many of the nation’s key influential power or fulcrum positions. Am I somewhat correct in that conclusion? Furthermore, most of my knowledge of Judaism centers in the Second Temple period and post-70 CE developments and history, with a novice-to-just-above-average level pre-Second Temple and then 19th century Judaic developments in Europe prior to, during and after WW1 thru WW2 and the creation of the Israeli nation in Palestine.
Does that appease or satisfy your curiosity? Maybe? LOL
Thanks for the response and the compliments. Now for a totally different and completely unrelated question, do you speak any other languages?
Grrrr, no. I no longer speak (and hear, not read) good, basic Portugese — I’ve lost most all of it since returning home from Rio de Janeiro, my brief soccer/futebol stint down there. I wish I did speak at least one foreign language fluently, but I do not, unfortunately.
Why do you ask?
You posted something on Ark’s blog awhile back about learning other languages and I had meant to ask then, but never got the opportunity.
Yes, I really really do for several beneficial reasons for myself and those around me — the cultural experience (behind the language) is a HUGE plus! I would love to be able to speak/read Hebrew, Greek, Arabic for my fanaticism of ancient history and Antiquity.
How about you CR? I’m guessing you may speak one or two foreign languages, yes? 🙂
I wish!
Estoy aprendiendo espanol. I am now almost one year into the process of learning (re-learning?) Spanish. I took it in high school, but like most high school students I didn’t leave being able to speak it. My guess is my level now would be A2 using the European Framework.
I have a dream of one day being a polyglot, but who knows if I will ever accomplish that! At this point I’d just be happy with getting to a decent level in Spanish!