This week in Torah Studies: Is it a Tower of Babel or of Babbling:
The meaning (along with the ramifications of their) ‘words’ seem to have gotten in the way:
Far from Babylonia, and its ‘towers,’ let us have yet another look at American Ivory Towers: Columbia University, once an academic institution where, at the very least, the professors had integrity — now it has become a holding bin for the language of the antizionist, antisemitic, and Jewhaters: becoming just the newest iteration of an American academic cesspit.
Building an Ivory Tower, and getting a Tower of pure ‘Scat’
(look it up): on language and its usage(s).
_________________________
Top Law Firms Shrink from the Heat of the Mideast Conflict
Unlocked: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/25/nyregion/columbia-university-kathleen-franke.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VU4.1iiU.8tsssCV7zVMX&smid=url-share (NYT: Oct 27) When a Columbia professor needed a lawyer because of her comments about the actions of former Israeli soldiers on campus, tensions over the Israel-Hamas war got in the way. Excerpt: “Discussing the episode on the left-leaning radio and television platform Democracy Now!, Ms. Franke said that she and others had long been concerned about older Israeli exchange students “coming right out of their military service” because they had been known to “harass” Palestinian students and others on campus. From this observation followed a cascade of accusations and legal entanglements that have spread beyond the fractious world of the academy to illuminate some of the extreme steps that elite law firms have taken since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas to distance themselves from Palestinian sympathies.
Just how do *we* understand the meaning of words?
* Her Job Was Talking on the Radio. Then Suddenly, Words Wouldn’t Come. (perhaps psychologically)
* Daughter of L.A. Times Owner Says Endorsement Decision Stemmed From Harris Stance on Gaza War (just lies and not believable)
* Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, sent a letter to the United Nations on Saturday calling Israel’s attack “unlawful and aggressive,” and “against the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Iran. Mr. Araghchi asked the U.N. to take a “firm stance and condemn” Israel. (a case of noxious irony)
_____________
Genesis 11 — a Tower of Babbling
וַיֵּ֣רֶד יְהֹוָ֔ה לִרְאֹ֥ת אֶת־הָעִ֖יר וְאֶת־הַמִּגְדָּ֑ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּנ֖וּ בְּנֵ֥י הָאָדָֽם׃
יהוה (Gd) came down to look at the city and tower that humanity had built,
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֗ה הֵ֣ן עַ֤ם אֶחָד֙ וְשָׂפָ֤ה אַחַת֙ לְכֻלָּ֔ם וְזֶ֖ה הַחִלָּ֣ם לַעֲשׂ֑וֹת וְעַתָּה֙ לֹֽא־יִבָּצֵ֣ר מֵהֶ֔ם כֹּ֛ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָזְמ֖וּ לַֽעֲשֽׂוֹת׃
and יהוה said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach.
הָ֚בָה נֵֽרְדָ֔ה וְנָבְלָ֥ה שָׁ֖ם שְׂפָתָ֑ם אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁמְע֔וּ אִ֖ישׁ שְׂפַ֥ת רֵעֵֽהוּ׃
Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.”
_____________
As I have said a couple of times, I appreciate the fact that Jews, especially young Jews are beginning to appreciate their Jewish identities these days and I yet I am equally intrigued by other Jews, who squirm at this trend and attempt to deny this return to identity in some way as counterproductive.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me . . . we all know this to be no longer true, and for the record, it never was.
Words, like actions, have meaning and I dare say, ramifications.
