Everybody wants spirituality. To be a good person means to walk in G-d's ways. How does that translate to reality? The only guidebook to spirituality that has stood the test of time is the Hebrew Bible. The Bible says that the Jews will be a light onto the nations. But if you are not a born Jew, you have to convert, which is not so easy!! If you do convert, it is a lot of work to be a Jew (three times a day prayer, keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath).
This blog will show you how to be Jewish without the work!!
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
Texas School Administrator Says New Law Compels Teaching Holocaust 'Alternative' Views By David Israel
Frankly, I can only hope that Gina Peddy, executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, was just using a poor example or was confused by the law when she advised teachers a week ago Friday that when they assign their students a book about the Holocaust, they should also offer them a book representing an "opposing" perspective, as reported by NBC News based on a recording of the meeting (Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with 'opposing' views).
From the background reaction in the audience to her comment, it's clear the teachers understood her to be absolutely serious.
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Peddy made her bizarre comment last Friday afternoon in a training session on the books teachers are allowed to keep in their classroom, after the Carroll school board had reprimanded a fourth-grade teacher when a parent complained that she kept a Critical Race Theory book in her classroom.
Publishers Weekly said about Jewell's rather progressive Critical Race Theory (CRT) book:
"Using clear, compelling language, Jewell employs four sections to deftly explain progressive understandings of identity, history, action, and solidarity as tools to encourage antiracist reflection, thought, and action. From the author's note introducing the idea that 'racism is a problem, a very serious problem,' to the volume's explorations of 'spending that privilege' and 'calling out and calling in,' Jewell offers readers at various points in their activist journeys a necessary primer on antiracist thinking (a glossary helpfully defines underlined terms used throughout, including cisgender, neurodiverse, and femme). Thoughtful, energizing calls to action and journal prompts encourage readers to check in with themselves and to 'grow from our discomfort.'"
Peddy instructed her teachers: "Just try to remember the concepts of 3979 (Texas House Bill 3979 – DI), and make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives."
"How do you oppose the Holocaust?" one teacher is heard saying on the recording.
"Believe me," Peddy answers, "That's come up."
Carroll spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said after the Peddy brouhaha had blown up:
"Our district recognizes that all Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements. Our purpose is to support our teachers in ensuring they have all of the professional development, resources, and materials needed. Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed nor will we mandate that classroom libraries be unavailable."
The Texas House Bill 3979 says:
(1) no teacher shall be compelled by a policy of any state agency, school district, campus, open-enrollment charter school, or school administration to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs;
(2) teachers who choose to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs shall, to the best of their ability, strive to explore such issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective.
Presumably the last thing the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas wants to see is the Holocaust-denying parent of some fourth-grader complaining that their teachers never mention the works of Ernst Zündel, David Irving, or any KKK brochure on the subject, because the law demands it.
Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, told NBC News: "We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history. That's absurd. It's worse than absurd. And this law does not require it."
Ah, but it does, as an elementary school teacher put it, on condition of remaining anonymous, "Teachers are literally afraid that we're going to be punished for having books in our classes. There are no children's books that show the 'opposing perspective' of the Holocaust or the 'opposing perspective' of slavery. Are we supposed to get rid of all of the books on those subjects?"
US Details New International COVID-19 Travel Requirements
AP) — Two weeks before a new vaccination requirement kicks in for most foreign travelers to the U.S., the Biden administration detailed the new international COVID-19 air travel polices, including exemptions for kids, and new federal contact tracing requirements.
Beginning on Nov. 8, foreign, non-immigrant adults traveling to the United States will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with limited exceptions, and all travelers will need to be tested for the virus before boarding an aircraft to the U.S., with tightened restrictions for those who are not fully vaccinated.
The new policy comes as the Biden administration moves away from broader country-based travel restrictions and bans toward what it terms a "vaccinations-based" system focused on the individual risk of the traveler. It almost reflects the White House's embrace of vaccination requirements in an effort to drive more Americans to get vaccinated by piling on inconveniences to those remaining without a shot.
Under the policy, those who are unvaccinated will need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within a day of travel, while those who are vaccinated will be allowed to present a test taken within three days of travel.
Children under 18 will not be required to be fully vaccinated, given the inconsistency in the global roll-out of shots for their age cohort, but those aged 2 and over will be subjected to the same COVID-19 testing policy as their parent or guardian.
The Biden administration has been working with airlines, who will be required to enforce the new procedures, to explain the new policies so they can prepare for implementation. Airlines will be mandated to verify vaccine records and match them against identify information. They will also need to make certain that the shots given are on the Food and Drug Administration or World Health Organization's approved list. Mixing-and-matching of approved shots will be permitted.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's quarantine officers will spot-check passengers after arrival in the U.S. for compliance, according to an administration official. Airlines that don't enforce the requirements could be subject to penalties of up to nearly $35,000 per violation.
The administration announced limited exceptions to the vaccination requirement, including children, those who participated in COVID-19 clinical trials, who have medical reasons for not getting vaccinated, or are from a country where shots are not widely available. Unvaccinated residents of countries with vaccination rates below 10% of adults may be admitted to the U.S. with a government letter authorizing travel for pressing, non-tourism purposes, the administration said.
CDC is also requiring airlines to collect contact information for international air travelers regardless of vaccination status to facilitate contact tracing.
Israel to ban unvaccinated US tourists, even if they had COVID-19
Travelers vaccinated with Sputnik allowed entry beginning Nov. 15 * Foreigners who come to Israel on forged documents will be denied entry for five years.
Individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 in the last six months and wish to enter Israel under the government's new tourism outline will not be allowed to unless they have a digital recovery certificate, the Health Ministry said Thursday.This means travelers who do not have access to such documentation will not be able to enter Israel. Only recovered patients from about 45 countries that are participating in the European Union's Digital Passport Program will be recognized as recovered and meet the criteria for entry.Individuals who recovered more than six months prior will still need to receive at least one shot of a verified vaccine.
A US tourist who had COVID but was also vaccinated with two shots, either before or after being sick, will be allowed into Israel, assuming that the second vaccine was given in the last six months; if longer, the tourist will need to receive a booster shot.The move comes out of concern that travelers could forge positive PCR test results to claim they had previously been sick with and then recovered from the virus.
NEW IMMIGRANTS from North America receive a shofar's welcome upon arriving at Ben-Gurion Airport on a special 'aliyah flight' on behalf of Nefesh B'Nefesh. (credit: FLASH90)Thousands of incoming Israeli travelers have forged negative PCR test results to board planes back to the country. The boldest example of this were hundreds of travelers returning from Uman, Ukraine, after Rosh Hashanah. They presented negative test results so they could board planes but then tested positive after landing in Israel.The outline will still accept paper vaccination certificates, such as the vaccination cards provided by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although the US is working toward digitizing vaccine certificates, digitized recovery certificates do not seem to be on the agenda.The new policy holds recovered travelers to a higher standard than even Israelis, whose Green Passes last in perpetuity if they take one shot after recovering – at least for now. Someone with two shots who has not recovered only receives a Green Pass for up to six months.
Having more than one shot after having had COVID is not recommended or generally available in any country. Last week, the Prime Minister's Office shared a first draft of the travel plan in which recovered individuals who could prove they tested positive at least 11 and no more than 180 days prior to entering Israel would be eligible to enter.These criteria would apply to recovered patients without digital certificates now; as noted, people would have to show that they received two vaccines in the last six months to enter Israel, or two older vaccines and a booster shot if the recovery certificate is not valid.YAD L'OLIM, an organization that has been working to help bring relatives of new immigrants into Israel for the past several months, posted about the change in policy on Facebook. Since then, hundreds of messages from concerned travelers have arrived, Yad L'Olim founder Dov Lipman said."Oh no! This is not good! Does that mean a positive PCR within six months is not sufficient?" asked one traveler. "My husband had coronavirus at the end of August and is not allowed to get the vaccine. He received the monoclonal infusion and had antibodies with a very high number of over 800 – more than a vaccinated person."The traveler said her daughter had coronavirus, too. The family has already bought tickets and arranged a visit to see their family members who are studying in Israel."We will continue to work hard to change this unreasonable decision," Lipman said. "This is not opening the country to tourism. It's closing the door to tens of thousands of families of olim and Jews, in general, who desperately want to come to Israel."On Thursday, the Health Ministry re-shared the plan for entering Israel beginning November 1. This time, however, there were some changes, and the ministry provided additional details about how the rest of the process will work.The plan states that all vaccinated foreign nationals can enter Israel beginning next Monday if they are jabbed with a vaccine recognized by the World Health organization: Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Covishield, Sinopharm and Sinovac.However, in addition, it is now approved that individuals who were jabbed with Sputnik V vaccines, which the WHO has not yet approved, can enter Israel beginning November 15.Travelers must have received their second shot no less than 14 days ago but not more than 180 days prior, or they must have received a booster shot, also no less than 14 days prior. For Johnson & Johnson, the same rules apply, although it is only a single vaccine, and then the booster.People who took the Pfizer vaccine used to have to wait only seven days, but it seems the rule has changed.All travelers must take a PCR test within 72 hours of travel and on arrival. People inoculated with Sputnik V must also take a serological test.Travelers must enter the country through Ben-Gurion Airport."All foreigners who do not meet the above conditions will not be allowed to enter Israel through this outline even with full isolation," the ministry said in a statement.But it also confirmed that an exceptions committee under the auspices of the Interior Ministry will continue to operate.Foreigners who arrive and are found not to meet the criteria will be stopped at the airport and sent back.Those tourists who received permission to enter Israel before November 1 but do not meet the criteria after November 1 would likely not make it through the Healthy Ministry declaration form and therefore would not be able to enter.To gain entry, travelers will have to fill out a Health Ministry declaration form 48 hours before their flight. Part of the form will include entering one's flight information, the location where the individual will isolate for up to 24 hours and their vaccination or recovery certificate.Passengers who have a verifiable digital vaccine or recovery certificate must scan and upload the certificate to the form and receive a Green Pass even before boarding their flight. Those who do not have one will need to upload a scan of their paper certificates and fill out an application form for shortening isolation; only then can they receive a Green Pass.The Health Ministry said foreigners who are caught with forged documents will be refused entry to Israel for five years. A foreigner who tests positive for COVID on arrival or during his or her stay and refuses to be relocated to a coronavirus hotel or who breaks isolation also will be refused entry for five years.A foreigner who does not test positive for coronavirus but is meant to be in isolation and breaks it will be denied entry into the country for three years.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a leading Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. His novel psychological concepts include the collective unconscious (the part of the mind that derives from ancestral memory and experience), the psychological complex (the repressed organization of experiences that govern perception and behavior), the shadow (the suppressed negative aspects of the personality), synchronicity (causation as the basis for seemingly random coinciding occurrence of events), extraversion and introversion (a focus on one's inner thoughts and feelings vs. a focus on external things), and archetypal phenomena (common collective and frequent mental images or themes).
February 14, 1955, issue of Time magazine featuring Jung on the cover.
Jung, who originally came to Freud's attention because he shared his certainty regarding the existence of the unconscious, began as Freud's leading disciple and the man Freud expected would ultimately assume leadership of his psychoanalytic movement and validate his work. Freud characterized his relationship with Jung in grand biblical terms; for example, in a January 19, 1909, letter to Jung, he wrote: "We are certainly getting ahead; if I am Moses, then you are Joshua and we will take possession of the promised land of psychiatry, which I shall only be able to glimpse from afar."
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An important and sometimes overlooked factor in Freud's selection of Jung as his heir apparent was the fact that Jung was not Jewish. Much of the opposition to Freud was predicated upon a perception that his theories were inherently "Jewish ideas" – and, indeed, most of his early followers were Viennese Jews – but Jung's prominent position within Freud's inner circle curbed the ability of anti-Semites and others to dismiss psychoanalysis as a "decadent Jewish discipline."
However, irreconcilable fundamental views regarding the unconscious triggered an acrimonious alienation between these two great founders of psychology: Freud emphasized its physical and biological nature, while Jung analyzed the psyche from the perspective of polarity (extremes of perception, emotional state, and way of thinking). In particular, Jung publicly rejected Freud's theories regarding the role of sexuality as the source of neurosis and, as we shall see, Freud's outrage arguably played a role underscoring allegations that Jung was anti-Semitic. Indeed, in his History of the Psychoanalytic Movement, Freud specifically notes that Jung's prejudices seem to have developed after their breakup.
In 1933, shortly after the Nazi rise to power, Jung accepted the presidency of the German General Medical Society for Psychotherapy. In the December 1933 issue the Zentralblatt, the Society's journal, an editorial was published praising Nazi ideology, mandating that every practicing psychotherapist adopt Hitler's Mein Kampf as a basic reference, and presenting Jung's theories of archetypal cultural patterns to justify the superiority of the Aryan race. Though Jung claimed that this editorial had been run without his permission by Matthias Göring, the leader of organized psychotherapy in Nazi Germany (and a cousin of Hermann Göring), he never published a subsequent editorial repudiating the first; nor did he ever disassociate the Society – or himself – from this rank anti-Semitism or he resign his position in protest.
Some critics justify Jung's inaction to his belief that, under his leadership, the Society would be better able to protect some Jewish psychotherapists from Nazi persecution. As the argument goes, had he taken a purely principled stand and refused all involvement, all opportunity to help psychoanalysis survive in Nazi Germany would have been lost. However, this fallacious argument is no different than the Judenrat in the Nazi ghettos who, while collaborating with the Nazis and facilitating their liquidation of the ghettos, claimed that they were actually acting in the interest of the Jewish community.
Moreover, the Psychological Club of Zurich, organized and dominated by Jung, imposed a 10 percent quota on Jewish membership and a 25 percent limit on Jews permitted to attend the lectures as guests – and this policy was actually committed to writing in 1944, at the height of the Holocaust. But perhaps the greatest evidence that Jung was an anti-Semite was his discussion of the differences between "Jewish psychology" and "German psychology" in The State of Psychotherapy Today (1934):
The differences which actually do exist between Germanic and Jewish psychology and which have long been apparent to intelligent people shall no longer be glossed over . . . The Jewish race as a whole possesses an unconscious which can be compared with the Aryan only with reserve. Creative individuals apart, the average Jew is far too conscious and differentiated to go about pregnant with the tensions of unborn futures. The Aryan unconscious has a higher potential than the Jewish; that is both the advantage and the disadvantage of a youthfulness not yet fully weaned of barbarism . . . The Jew, who is something of a nomad, has never yet created a cultural form of his own and as far as we can see never will.
Many Jewish Jungians, deeply offended by the article, publicly and vociferously denounced it, but Jung never rescinded it and, in fact, he continued to transmit his anti-Semitic views of "racial infection" in journal articles, seminars, lectures and radio broadcasts. In one memorable 1934 correspondence to one of his students, he wrote that "specifically Jewish points of view have an essentially corrosive character" and that "if this Jewish gospel is agreeable to the government, then so be it." On the eve of the Holocaust, he observed that "perhaps it would be nearer the truth to regard them [the Germans] also as victims."
Although he apparently rued the 1934 article late in his life – he admitted that "I have written in my long life many books, and I have also written nonsense. Unfortunately, that article was nonsense," and he admitted to Rabbi Leo Baeck, the leader of Reform Judaism in Germany, that he had "slipped up" – he still never issued a public acknowledgment of error or a public apology.
Some critics attribute the allegations regarding Jung's anti-Semitism to Freud's followers who, they say, were seeking vengeance against Jung for his breakup with their leader and mentor. Jung himself claimed that "I am absolutely not an opponent of the Jews, even though I am an opponent of Freud's. I criticize him because of his materialistic and intellectualistic – last but not least – irreligious attitude and not because he is Jewish."
The problem with this argument is that Jung portrayed negative Jewish stereotypes even before he ever met Freud. Moreover, his opposition to Freudian psychology was far from merely academic and scholarly; rather, he characterized it as subversive and obscene with a decadent emphasis on sexuality, not at all dissimilar to the language used by the Nazis. Whether Jung's opposition to Freud was, at least in part, related to Freud's being a Jew remains a hotly debated topic to this day, but there can be little argument that Jung's obsession with religious and cultural distinctions of the psyche, at the very least, fed Nazi propaganda and created legitimate grounds for describing him as an anti-Semite.
It is perhaps inevitable that, as the founder of the psychology of archetypes and the collective unconscious, and as the architect of "the psychology of nations," Jung would consider the Jews, a people with no country or land, a people with no national culture disbursed throughout all the nations of the world, a threat to his psychological theories. He viewed the National-Socialist movement enthusiastically as the massive explosion of the "collective unconscious" that he had accurately predicted in the wake of Germany's defeat in WWI.
In a 1938 interview later published by Omnibook Magazine, he unambiguously expressed his belief that the emergence of National-Socialism marked the return of the suppressed German psyche and that the German people turning to Hitler as their savior was indistinguishable from the Jews awaiting their Messiah. Even after Hitler's true agenda became evident, he continued to urge that the Nazis "be given a chance."
However, although he romanticized the concept of national glory and initially hailed Hitler as a great and unifying leader, Jung became outspoken in his opposition to Naziism, earned a place on the Nazi Blacklist, and had his works burned by the Gestapo. Moreover, he not only assisted in plots to assassinate Hitler by providing psychological analyses of Nazi leaders to American operatives, but recent evidence shows that he actually operated as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services. His handler, Allen W. Dulles – the first civil director of Central Intelligence and later head of the CIA – later commented, "Nobody will probably ever know how much Professor Jung contributed to the Allied cause during the war."
Nonetheless, rather than recant his previously expressed views, Jung disingenuously reinvented what he said and mischaracterized what he meant. Even after the defeat of Hitler's "Thousand-year Reich," he wrote a letter to a former patient in 1945 suggesting that the Jews were complicit in their own destruction: "Jews are not so damned innocent after all – the role played by the intellectual Jews in pre-war Germany would be an interesting object of investigation."
Many critics argue that Jung was never an anti-Semite on a personal level, noting that many of his top students were Jewish; that he maintained his friendships with Jewish colleagues and other Jews, notwithstanding the rise of the Third Reich; that he treated some Jewish patients pro bono; that he provided support to Jews, including providing financial support to arrange for some German Jews to flee to Switzerland; and that he employed an attorney – ironically, a Jewish lawyer named Rosenbaum – to introduce various loopholes into the anti-Semitic regulations introduced by Matthias Göring. Others spew the usual claptrap that the culture of anti-Semitism was persistent in Europe at the time – i.e., "everybody's doin' it, doin it" – which, to my way of thinking, can never excuse anti-Semitism and racial hate.
However, at the end of the day and notwithstanding arguments by Jung's apologists, his unambiguous writings and statements speak eloquently to his anti-Semitism and it is not necessary to take Jung out of context to identify him as an anti-Semite. Given his attraction to National Socialism and his view of Hitler as a charismatic leader, it does not require a great leap to conclude that he was also attracted to anti-Semitic ideas; there were even some suggestions after the war that he should have been put on trial at Nuremberg.
In this November 17, 1952, correspondence on his letterhead written to Dr. Camille R. Honig, Jung conspicuously ducks discussing his "alleged anti-Semitism" and suggests that Honig contact his "Jewish pupils" on that subject:
Jung's remarkable letter to Dr. Honig.
There is no point in my giving you any explanations or assurances concerning my alleged antisemitism, you had better ask one of my many Jewish pupils who have known me for many years, they can tell you a more plausible story. I prefer to keep all my views and ideas about any aspect of Jewish psychology to myself. If you are really interested in this respect, then any of my Jewish pupils can give you enlightenment.
Honig was an interesting character. Born in Poland the son of Orthodox shopkeepers, he was considered an ilui (young Torah prodigy and genius) in the yeshiva of the Tomasnow Rav before entering the secular world. A student of Freud's who helped him escape the Nazis, he was an instructor at Cambridge and Bristol Universities and lectured on Middle East affairs to General Eisenhower and the American army. One of the organizers of the World Zionist Congress, he was close with Gandhi and Nehru and convinced the latter to support the establishment of the State of Israel. He later served as the rabbi of Redondo Beach, California.
Inspired by Jewish Mysticism
In contrast with the broad scrutiny brought to bear by the critics on Jung's apparent anti-Semitism, little attention has been given to his preoccupation with Kabbalah in general and with his Jewish mystical visions in particular.
Later in his life, Jung began to cite kabbalistic concepts and sources in his work, particularly with respect to his psychology of dreams. His final work, Mysterium Coniunctionis (1954), is replete with his thoughts on G-d and his Shechinah (metaphorical bride), the Sefirot (the Kabbalah's archetypes of creation), and Adam Kadmon (Primordial Man), and his final analyses of his central ideas, including archetypes and the collective unconscious, were predicated on these specifically Jewish ideas. He was particularly enamored with the Sefirot and the concept of Shevirat ha-Kelim (the "breaking of the vessels") and the now-familiar idea of Tikkun ha-Olam (the duty of Jews to work to restore the world), for which man was created to complete G-d's creation of the universe.
In a remarkable 1977 interview, he acknowledged with great admiration "the Hasidic Rabbi Baer from Mesiritz, whom they called the Great Maggid . . .[who] anticipated my entire psychology in the eighteenth century." He describes a joyous dream of "indescribable eternal bliss" that helped to advance his devotion to Jewish mysticism:
Everything around me seemed enchanted. At this hour of the night the nurse brought me some food she had warmed . . . For a time it seemed to me that she was an old Jewish woman, much older than she actually was, and that she was preparing ritual kosher dishes for me. When I looked at her, she seemed to have a blue halo around her head. I myself was, so it seemed, in the Pardes Rimmonim, the garden of pomegranates [most likely a reference to a renowned kabbalistic work of that name by Moshe Cordovero] and the wedding of Tiferet with Malchut [the divine Sefirot, which represent the "masculine" and "feminine" aspects of G-d] was taking place. Or else I was Rabbi Simon ben Yochai, whose wedding in the afterlife was being celebrated. It was the mystic marriage as it appears in the Kabbalistic tradition. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was . . . I do not know exactly what part I played in it. At bottom it was I myself: I was the marriage. And my beatitude was that of a blissful wedding.
In his historic correspondence to Dr. Honig exhibited and discussed above, Jung discusses the importance and influence of Jewish mysticism of his work:
As you obviously do not know my more recent publications, you are unaware of the fact that I have taken Jewish mysticism very much into consideration. One could not possibly deal with alchemistic symbolism without coming across the Cabbalistic influence. It is true that I have not written an original disquisition about the Cabbala, for the simple reason that most of its tests are in Hebrew and I do not understand that language. One of my pupils, Dr. Sigmund Hurwitz . . . in his article 'Archetypische Motive in der Chassidischen Mystik,' which appeared in 'Zeitlose Dokumente der Selle,' has done some work in that field.
Hurwitz, who received his analytical training from Jung and became a member of his innermost circle, was also a kabbalistic scholar who often advised him regarding Jewish mysticism. He published many notable articles and books, including the above-referenced Archetypal Motifs in Chassidic Mysticism.
