What Craig Learned Today

The text of the Shma addressed below:

HEAR, O ISRAEL: THE HaShem (aka God) OUR GOD, THE HaShem IS ONE. And thou shalt love HaShem thy G-d with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thy house, and upon thy gates.

So today in our Talmud class we discussed whether it is better to say the Sh'ma (the most important Jewish prayer recited twice a day. It is prescribed in the Torah itself; Talmud is commentary on Torah. Torah is the Five Books of Moses) in the original Hebrew or in the vernacular when people do not understand Hebrew. There are two schools of thought on this issue. The first, by Rabbi Yehuda HaNassi (lived around year 2000 CE) was that when text says "these words," it means the original Hebrew. The alternative view proposed by the "other rabbis" (not quite a Greek chorus, but similar) is that "hear" means you have to understand therefore it should be in the vernacular. The larger question from this debate is whether prayer and text are meant to be faithful to the original language (in Judaism, Hebrew is often called the "holy tongue" and considered holy even when not understood. It has only recently been considered the Jewish vernacular (last hundred years)) or be understand by the people.

All this is a long way to say, and this did not come up in class, that for a certain population of people, this is entirely kosher (ok).

Sh'ma or generally the whole http://www.lolcatbible.com:

4 Heer I, Izrail. Ceiling Cat is teh Ceiling Cat, Ceiling Cat alone!5 Thuhs, u can lovez Ceiling Cat, wit ur hole bodies. An sool, an hart. An tale. An mussles! Srsly.6 Put dis stuffz in ur harts, k?7 Also can haz drillz, use them on yur littr. Allwayz be takion bout it, wethr visit or not, wethr nap or eatin.8 Nayl em into ur rist, as sine. Can also haz pendants on hed.9 Useing paynt, draw it on ur littr box, an sofas an stuffz. Srsly.

Love, Craig

(and you thought this would be serious)