"Am Ha'aretz ... Joseph, do you know what that means?" Yes, I know exactly what that means, and no, this is not going to be one of those blogs in which the authors trumpets the ignorance of others. If anything, it is going to be one in which he confesses his own, frequently.
I am dissatisfied with my level of knowledge of Judaism and Jewish culture, and intend to do something about that. Talking about my efforts in this area will be a large part of what this blog will be about, as I have intended for some time. I'll also be rediscovering the other side of my heritage. "Irish?" No, French, actually, for the most part. The title, which I posted in an edit last night, is one that I chose some time ago, and it is one that I hope the reader will take due notice of, lest I unintentionally add to the wealth of misinformation on the Net.
This is a clean break with the past for this blog. You might have noticed that I have left names unnamed in most posts dealing with past drama; this was a deliberate choice motivated by my long term plans for this place. I want the silliness to be over, and I certainly don't want it to infect what is largely going to be a religiously motivated blog. The people with whom I tangled on this site (Multiply, not the Place of Refuge) are relatively obscure and easily forgotten, if one does not give them more publicity than they are ready to put to responsible use and Yahoo becomes less of an issue with each passing day. I've settled into this new location, the tedious details of doing so have largely been resolved, and now the time has come to move on to the more pleasant and interesting business that I came here for in the first place.
I have much reading to do, and much to do elsewhere before I can begin here in earnest, so I might not be posting here for some time, but when I do, I hope you'll find the new blog to be of interest, and more pleasant for its focus on that which brought me here. You will not find posts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israeli politics, and none about antisemitism, though these are all subjects of concern to me - others write about them quite well and in great numbers, and would scarcely seem to need my small contribution to that effort. Rather, you'll hear about the books I've read and the like. My father is waiting, so I can't go into greater detail on that now, having to run.
More later. (Posted Jun 24, '08 at 12:29 PM)
