From the New York Times: "Neale Donald Walsch, author of the best-selling series “Conversations with God,” recently posted a personal Christmas essay on the spiritual Web site Beliefnet.com that was nearly identical to a 10-year-old article originally published by a little-known writer in a spiritual magazine. He now says he made a mistake in believing the story was something that had actually happened to him."
I’m glad to see the downfall of somebody who wrote such trash.
Nearly two decades after his murder, Meir Kahane’s wife has written a biography of the controversial rabbi and rabble-rouser - or rather its first volume. Her love and admiration still burning strong, Libby Kahane is convinced her husband got a bum rap.
Rabbi Meir Kahane
His Life and Thought − Volume One: 1932-1975, by Libby Kahane, Lambda Publishers, 762 pages, $45
In Friedman’s thoroughly sourced telling, Kahane comes off as something of a rake: a serial adulterer who used his frequent absences from home to carry on affairs with a series of women. Friedman describes how, when he was still a young man, Kahane went so far as to set a wedding date with one mistress, who jumped off the Queensboro Bridge when she finally learned that he was already married.
It is perhaps a wonder, then, that Libby Kahane has spent the past decade researching and writing a back-breaking panegyric to the first 43 years of her husband’s life, a 762-page doorstop entitled "Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, Volume One: 1932-1975." Based on Meir Kahane’s own writings and speeches, along with recently conducted interviews and other sources, the book focuses on his political activities, from his early years as a leader in right-wing youth movements through his first unsuccessful bid for a Knesset seat.
Let’s get the formalities out of the way. You should not read this book. It’s altogether too long, lacks serious analysis, is excessively footnoted, and ignores important unflattering details. Most unforgivably, it somehow succeeds in making the story of one of the most fascinating Jewish figures of the past century a terribly boring one.
It’s worth asking what Libby Kahane thought she was doing. In the book’s introduction, she says the study is intended as a resource for future historians. "While no author can be completely objective about his subject," she writes, "I believe that my twenty-seven years as a reference librarian … gave me expertise and experience in the methods of careful research and proper documentation that make this book an accurate, authoritative study." The attempt to claim the status of the dispassionate investigator, is, of course, ridiculous, given that she was married to her subject for 44 years. It’s rather unlikely that future historians will take the work as "authoritative." As a research librarian, the author must surely know this. So why did she really write the book?
I called Libby Kahane at her home in Jerusalem (she includes the number, oddly, on the biography’s last page) to press her on the point. She told me the project came out of a desire to correct what she saw as a flawed perception of her husband as a "crazy fanatic."
We started our conversation at Jeff’s Gourmet Sunday evening. It was cold and windy.
Marcus: "Bibliyoga is a body-soul workout….[connecting] spirituality to the body. "
Luke: "Can straight people do this too?"
Marcus: "It’s for everyone who wants that sense of eternal peace, healing and oneness."
Luke: "When did you get into yoga?"
Marcus: "It was about six years ago."
Loud speaker: "Marcus, your order is ready."
Marcus runs a lot of classes for men-only, "making men feel comfortable with their own bodies. …Not having to do difficult hip openers, at least at the beginning. …One problem with many exercise classes is that they make people feel less comfortable with their bodies, but this is about peace at every level."
Luke: "Men-only classes? I thought the whole point of yoga was to meet women?"
Marcus: "The whole point of yoga is to feel some enlightenment, to feel at one."
Luke: "So you don’t have to meet women to feel whole?"
Marcus: "There is an ancient yoga principle of modesty. It’s not about meeting people. It’s about meeting yourself…and through that conversation, that’s how we meet God. Through the breath, through the silence, through the calm…"
Luke: "I associate Brits with cynicism, but you’re not cynical. I don’t understand."
Marcus: "Why do you think I’m here in Los Angeles?"
Luke: "You don’t associate Brits with this more heartfelt form of communication."
Marcus: "There is a time and a place for cynicism and irony. The place isn’t America. There are good vibes here and positive energy and openness. Britain is opening up slowly."
"Here there’s much more freedom to be out and accepted."
"Spirituality is moving outside the traditional church/synagogue structure. People are looking for spirituality within physical-related things."
ChaimAmalek: I demand you get some women in here.
ChaimAmalek: Hello all
ChaimAmalek: We are patiently awaiting the arrival of some females to egg things on.
LukesDookie: I’m waiting for luke and his buddy to start playing twister
ChaimAmalek: Twister?
LukesDookie: Twister
LukesDookie: yes
ChaimAmalek: I came here for bible lessons
LukesDookie: you’ve come to the wrong place
ChaimAmalek: Is it not curious that those of us who have gathered here have so few children? (ZERO)
ChaimAmalek: Why is this?
YourMoralLeader: whoa
YourMoralLeader: we’re social misfits
ChaimAmalek: Yeah. That’s what the internet is all about
These chicks poked me on Facebook and I’m not sure what to do. Do I poke back? Do I message back? Do I ask ‘em out? Do I make wedding plans? Is this serious or is this just play?
I’m not a piece of meat.
Frankly, I am shomer negiyah. I’m shomer by default.
SUO- Shomer Until Opportunity:
These are the folks who are 100% shomer until they wind up at some after-work party with some hottie hitting on them. The second the women show interest their once fervent stance on keeping negiah is lost to the prospect of some steamy NSA action.
SBD- Shomer By Default:
If they could get some they probably would not be shomer, but since they’re too stupid to figure out how to use chat rooms, the casual encounter ads on Craigslist and the poking mechanism on Facebook, they have resigned themselves to a life of free porn and peeking at women over the mechitza. This category is filled up by nerdy or socially inept folks who think they don’t have a chance in the world to get some action.
Shomer N’fooling Around:
These folks are shomer when it comes to getting intimate, but when it comes to having folks sit next to them, putting their arms around them, or giving them hugs, they see no problem with this. Also in this crowd are those folks that think sleeping in the same bed with their "good friend" of the opposite sex- is no problem at all and they are just friends. I have spoken to people in relationships with girls who refuse to do anything besides hand holding and cuddling. In modern vernacular we call these people cock-teases. SUH- Shomer Until Horny:
These are my favorites, the folks who are hardcore shomer until they can’t take the pressure anymore. I am sure many of you may feel the same way. In fact I was at a hotel with my father a few years ago and I met two single girls in their 20s. We got into a conversation about being shomer negiah or not and they revealed that they, like good bais yaakov girls, had never touched a guy. They also revealed that they had made a pact, not unlike the one in the first American Pie, in which they had both agreed to go out and have sex if they weren’t married by 30, I tried desperately to convince them to join me for a ménage a trois, but there wasn’t enough alcohol available.