Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

[lethargic_man]

I'm back from Limmud, which was a fun week. Lots of interesting talks, a concert by Israeli/Moroccan band Sfatayim, a bit of chevrusa, the astonishing (Jewish) Gospel music of Joshua Nelson, jive dancing (stop laughing), a play^*, and lots of cool people. Speaking of cool people, I discovered early on that the Sam I met last year (who turned out not to be the Sam livredor wanted me to meet) was actually lavendersparkle.

* "My Brother's Keeper": "During the long, hard years of the Taleban, one thing kept the Jewish community of Afghanistan together. They both hated each other."

I took lots of notes, and made good use of the program I wrote for this purpose a couple of weeks ago. I've still got lots of work to make most of my notes blog-ready, but it'll be less work than last year. I've already been asked by several people to forward them copies of my notes—including, amusingly, the wife of one of the speakers! I said "Don't you have notes already?" She said, "No, he just gets up and speaks. We'd like to know what he said." :o)

I have the following in a range of states varying from almost blog-ready to requiring a lot of preparation. Anyone interested in reading any of them?

• All for nought? Abraham Ibn Ezra's numerical innovation
• Conditional Marriage (Why aren't we using it to solve the problem of אגונות)
• How to Convert the Pope: Successful and Failed Attempts to Bring the Messiah. (Don't try this at home, kids.)
• The Epistle of Panic: Fear of Jewish Law in Early Christianity
• Lost: What Happened to the Israeli Left?
• Does a Judaeo-Christian Heritage Actually Exist? (livredor will have guessed the answer.)
• On Language and Identity—Sugiyot from Massechet Sotah. (Should prayer be translated? The Talmudic rabbis take this on, then wander into a range of topics including the quite unexpected, such as exactly how far Potiphar's wife did succeed in seducing Joseph, and why the prophet Elisha had such a big chip on his shoulder.)
• He Said Jehovah! (Do names really have such power?)
• A Sanctuary Transformed: The Revitalisation of American Synagogues
• Can Sex Before Marriage Ever Be Kosher?
• The History of the Siddur.
• Has the Teacher of Righteousness at Qumran Been Found?
• The Rediscovery of the City of Yavne
• Creativity in Torah: Spinoza and Other Heretics
• The Secret Life of Berachot
• Before I Pray, God, I Want To Say A Few Words. And Afterwards, Too. The meditations before and after the Amida

(Note: This is not my main Limmud notes index; that can be found here.