#is just midrash

[shelvesofsiddurim]

"[G-d] does not care about humanity at all"

If that were the case, then G-d wouldn't have rebuked the angels for trying to sing in celebration as the Egyptians drowned in the Sea of Reeds.

Also Torah makes it pretty clear that human sacrifice is unacceptable to G-d

help

[mightyostanes]

At Shul this Christian guy (I think he was a friend of one of the members or the Rabbi so he was fine) was there. It was Shabbat Shira and the Leviathan was mentioned in one of the things the Rabbi read to us. The Christian guy then asked what the Leviathan probably was. Dude looked incredibly unnerved when I used the Talmud to explain the Leviathan was one of the great old ones and the upper sea might be the depths of space (Ibn Ezra, Donnolo, Abulafia). Probably expecting whale, crocodile or plesiosaur.

[davonati]

I will not get mad at fanfic authors’ incorrect biblical interpretations!! I will not!!!!

[anextravagantliar]

im not saying there was nothing to forgive but there is some grinding on my gears about someone being set free when freedom objectively is not something to be given as a narrative device you have no choice but to deal with the sin given

[tsyvia48]

Aziraphale and Crawly/Crowley in the Bible:

a post-season 2 insight into I Samuel

After killing Goliath but before he became king, David was in love with King Saul’s son Jonathan. Well, to be more precise, the Bible tells us Jonathan loved David.

They could not be together because Jonathan’s father believed David wanted the throne. Saul had a divine jealousy and tried, repeatedly, to kill David. When the king’s son and the future king separated for David’s safety, the prophetic writer tells us “They kissed each other and wept together; David wept the longer.”

When I read this sentence with my post-GO-season-2 brain during the normal cycle of readings a few weeks ago, I knew Crowley (technically Crawly) was there commiserating with David post-breakup, even as Aziraphale comforted Jonathan that keeping his beloved safe was worth the personal sacrifice.

It broke my heart. And misery loves company, so I wrote what I was imagining. I offer it to you now so you can share the heartbreak (and the humor! I Samuel is bizarre and funny. This piece quotes from and builds on I Samuel, chapters 17 - 20). I intend to add an epilogue to share how their stories end (the text tells us they see one another once more before Jonathan’s death), but this is the core of the heartbreak and insight.

[angryjewishcockroach]

Reading the comments to an Instagram video and man, people really do not understand the difference between turning on a light (i.e. kindling a fire) and having a light (i.e. a fire).

[bijoumikhawal]

me writing a midrash: and this is why you are all dumb

[power-chords]

Who is the Prophet Ezekiel Sigmund Freud Jacques Derrida uhhh Michael Mann

[queer-talmid]

This is so fuckinh Jewish I can’t

the "canon isn't real we make our own rules" to "i am begging you people to revisit the source material" pipeline

[screamingfromuz]

FUCK YEAH! I might have found an earlier source for a Midrash I'm writing about in my paper. waiting for my professor's approval, but that was so satisfying. the wording was different, there was a name changed between the additions, and there are several collections with the same name that made it a nightmare to confirm (took like an hour reading through databases of Midrashim) but I found it!

WOOOOOOOOO

[anyroads]

I know I'm writing this right as shabbat is coming in and tbh I'm fine with that. I'm so tired of Jews saying that if they don't keep shabbat or practice Judaism in an orthodox way they're "bad jews" or "not observant." Um, no, that's not true. That's now how it works.

Reform Jews who use electricity on Shabbat are just as observant. Because Reform rabbis did the same work of Torah law interpretation, and came up with a different answer than orthodox Jews, but using the same process and approach to reading the text. They didn't go, "this is inconvenient so we're just not gonna do it." They said, "where orthodoxy sees electricity as something that may create a spark and therefore violates the melachot around making fire, we see it as a current, like water flowing, and just as it is permitted to use a faucet on Shabbat, so is flipping an electric switch."

If you choose to not be observant because it's not for you, that's fine. But orthodoxy is not the only way to be observant of Jewish practice. There's no line of what makes you observant and what doesn't, and that doesn't just go for Shabbat but it's the easiest example to illustrate my point. The Torah just says, "observe the Shabbat." That's it. If you look around on Friday night and go, "oh hey it's Shabbat, huh?" then tell me how that isn't observing the Shabbat? If you light candles and make kiddush and then go out to a movie, haven't you observed it? The Rabbis in the Babylonian era interpreted what Jewish practice looks like in a diaspora without the cultural/religious structure around a central temple, but that has been re-interpreted in every generation since and continues to be.

The real question is, are you making informed choices about your practice or are you just doing what works for you? Which is also fine, by the way. The thing that bothers me is when people think that only orthodox Jewish practices are "real" or legitimate. An orthodox friend of mine once started shit talking Reform Jews to me (why???) and how they aren't observant like she is. So I asked her if she tears her toilet paper on Shabbat and she said yes, of course. I pointed out that there are a lot of charedi Jews who would consider that a blatant violation of Shabbat and that, in their eyes, she wouldn't be considered shomer Shabbat. It's all a spectrum, there's no ONE right way.

My favorite Midrash is that the Temple had 13 entrances - one for each of the 12 tribes, and one for those who weren't sure which one they belonged to/didn't belong to any of them. Judaism is such an inherently pluralistic ethnoreligion, please stop buying into the brainrot bullshit that only charedim can do it correctly.

[vaspider]

Hi there! Hope you’re having a good day mama spider. Just dropping by to ask for some info on an addition to a post about Judaism you made. I chose to ask you and not op because i’ve sent you an ask before and know that you answer them. So real quick, why did you type out G-d rather than God or god? Does it have something to do with Judaism? Is it just for the faithful to follow and not goyim? As an atheist who was formerly Catholic i just wanna learn more and be respectful of others’ religions whenever i can. I know next to nothing about Judaism, even though they’re a good portion of my county’s population. Hope this ask isn’t insensitive in any way, and thanks for taking the time to read this <3

This isn't insensitive to ask. It's actually a great question, and I'm glad that you asked if you're curious.

Since those articles cover your asks pretty well, I'm gonna give you some free bits of info to help your quest for respectfulness, which is pretty rad, btw: we don't really use phrases like "the faithful" bc Judaism doesn't require faith in G-d. There is no conflict between Judaism and atheism & there are a lot of Jewish atheists and agnostics. Judaism is an ethnoreligion and a people in a way that a lot of religions aren't, and in fact, the symbolism for one of my favorite holidays emphasizes that we are not complete without all kinds of Jews:

The functions of the four species are defined by both their smell and taste, or lack thereof, along with some interesting imagery from the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 30:12): The etrog has both taste and smell, representing people who both perform good deeds and have Torah (knowledge). The lulav has taste but no smell, representing those who do not use their knowledge to perform good deeds. The hadass (myrtle) has smell but no taste, representing those who perform good deeds but lack the knowledge to excel at them. The aravah (willow) has no taste and no smell, representing those who lack both.

"Good deeds" here doesn't just mean "being nice to your neighbors" but refers directly to performing mitzvot/mitzvahs, the 613 commandments that observant Jews observe to varying levels of specificity and intensity.

It's not offensive to use a phrase like "the faithful," just isn't ... correct, you know? Instead, you'd just say Jews or Jewish people. If you're trying to refer specifically to Jews who are religious or believe in G-d... there isn't exactly a phrase for that, I guess you'd say "observant," because there are a lot of Jews who are observant but also atheists, since observant Jews may be observing mitzvaot for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with belief in the existence of G-d.

Anyway, there you go, with some bonus info. As always, I don't speak for everybody, 2 Jews 3 Opinions, etc.

[anextravagantliar]

sometimes i remember the tethras estate is a hall of ghosts and when ilsa died there was a door that just never reopened, he covered that mirror and ripped that sleeve. the cover never came off the mirror and the tunic was repaired in the slowest and most fumbling sense. it was possibly the most devout he ever was in his life - and it was mainly because she was devout, and you do funny things in mourning.

[jollmaster]

Probably a weird question but I was a bit curious regarding the lore with your au and all.

How would Adam and Eve in your au react to the Serpent's Seed idea? Not the doctrine of white supremacism on itself (that I can picture would get them both really angry) but just the idea on itself that Cain was Lucifer child? How would Lucifer react to that idea?

On the same note, how would they (including Lilith) react to Midrashic texts where Adam separates from Eve and is seduced or taken advantage secually6 by Lilith?

I can imagine is more like reading tales for them than anything that actually happened but I don't see Adam and Eve being particularly happy about those types of ideas and depictions

Adam and Eve were a little angry at first times, but now treat this more phylosophically (like, all humans will come to other world once and know how it really was)

Eve's laughs a lot

[mooniel]

Cherik hidden gems - part 1

Here you have some nice fics with with under 10k hits!

(part 2)

Repeat Offenses by popluxe; 35k: “Prickly bits aside—hell, for the two of them, prickly bits included—it almost felt like a date. Which is stupid on multiple fronts. Grudgingly buying your ex a meal after he grudgingly bails you out of jail is obviously not a date.”

Five times Charles bailed Erik out of jail—and one time he didn’t.

Wardrobe Malfunction by Sophia_Bee; 11k : Charles Xavier, Professor Hottie, the very first mutant Bachelor has a problem. It comes in the form of his wardrobe guy, one six foot sex on legs Erik Lehsherr. Oh, and the fact that he's gay. And on The Bachelor. To find his wife.

Three Days in April by Sophia_Bee; 11k: Charles Xavier is holding the envelope with the results of his HIV test from earlier that day, to afraid to look at them, when a handsome stranger named Erik plops a drink down in front of him. Charles finds he can tell a stranger about his woes easier than he can tell his friends and family, and he and Erik embark on a journey of friendship, starting with opening the test results together.

A Weeding Planner Walks Into a Bar by 1sttimefeeling; 19k: When Raven hires Erik to be the bartender at her wedding, he becomes quickly infatuated with the wedding planner, Charles Xavier, who he thinks is her fiancé.

A Toast to the Happy Couple by TurtleTotem; 4,7k: Charles needs to get married to get his inheritance; his best friend Erik is the obvious choice. Erik's straight, but it's all pretend anyway; of course he can keep seeing other people during their sham marriage. It would be just silly for Charles to be jealous.

Talk, Baby, Talk by lyonet; 20k: “Enough,” Erik said furiously. “It’s over. Let it die.” “Be fair, sugar,” Emma said. “We made good music. It was your choice to wear magenta armour and a cape.”

Best Ex Ever by 1sttimefeeling; 12k: Charles wakes up drunk on the pavement of a gas station, phone dead. He finds a payphone but can only remember one number. Erik Lehnsherr's. The problem? They broke up two years ago.

The Plus-One by Populuxe; 14k: When Erik grudgingly agrees to play Raven's boyfriend at her terrible family's holiday party, he'd thought the biggest challenge would be staying sober enough to make it convincing. But then he meets Raven's extremely hot—and extremely infuriating—stepbrother, and everything starts to get complicated.

Special Topics in Mutant Studies by Populuxe; 24k: The trouble with Charles Xavier isn’t just that he teaches genetics and holds terrible views about mutant rights—it’s also becoming increasingly clear that everyone but Erik seems to love him.

The Last Love Song & Testament of Charles F. Xavier by midrashic; 20k: When Erik is accused of domestic terrorism, Charles has no choice but to marry him to keep him out of jail.

Here it is! Now, i plan on making a part 2 of this if anyone is interested! I wanted to make the list under 5k hits but there were some nice ones that I wanted to recommend as well that had a bit more so here we go!

[bijoumikhawal]

Sketches for telli dresses I've made while looking at the examples in Costumes of Egypt

The first dress here is based on a tigerfish. To tie it back to late antique Coptic clothing, I gave it a v neckline, which seems to have been introduced from Persia. I've seen one surviving tunic with it, and a few depictions of it from the era. One of the dresses shown has a sadly low quality, but very striking photo of a silk embroidered dress with diagonal lines from the shoulder to center front. These lines, the lines along the sleeves, and the line in the center panel are diamonds with Vs at the horizontal points. These and the large diamond medallions reflect the sliver and black pattern of a tigerfish's scales, which often looks like diamonds to me. The line leading down from the center front slit is the "descending trefoil" motif, but modified to be simplified lotuses; one open flower flanked by two buds. The sleeves and hem are edged by a thick red cotton embroidered border- the big motif in the second photo. It continues the diamond patterns and has sea serpents peeking their heads out. This incorporates the red fins and tail of the tigerfish. The neck border is solid, with a subtle pattern of stitches put at opposite angles. Fittingly I think the telli here should be silver.

The second has a "honeycomb" pattern around the neckline and on the top middle of the sleeves. This is a reference to Joseph and Asenath's "honeycomb" scene, possibly representing an Oniad defense of Jewish presence in Egypt and the building of the temple at Leontopolis. The neckline is also from late antique Coptic clothing. The clavi from the neckline end in Torah scrolls, and typical "descending trefoils" in red and telli go from there to the hem. More trefoils border the honeycomb on the sleeves. The vertical lines on the dress are appliques of red moire, framed by small telli motifs. A small triangle of honeycomb seperates the neckline and sleeve motifs, with the lines done in red cotton instead of telli. For this to read as honeycombs, I'd do this in gold telli, which most dresses are mare with.