Quicksilver כספית

“Don’t kill yourself blogging” -- Hilchot Blogging

We read the other day that Resh Lakish finds a verse to justify self-sacrifice for the Torah:

The words of Torah come to fruition only with one who kills himself for it. As it is said, “This is the Torah of a person who would die in a tent.” (Shab 83b sof  on Num. 19.14)

Maimonides declares (Hilchot Talmud Torah 3:12):

Words of Torah are sustained… only with one who kills himself for them, and always endures pain, and gives no sleep to his eyes, nor rest to his eyelids.

Of course, martyrdom and self-sacrifice for Torah go without saying. Why does Reish Lakish state the obvious? (פשיטא) We can infer that he and Maimonides come to exclude killing oneself over another activity, namely blogging. 

Implications (halakhah le-ma’aseh):

• Like Yogi daBear, busy bloggers need picnics. (Withdrawal pains notwithstanding.)
• Jeff at Sustainablog acted properly in not pushing his Blogging Round the Clock fundraiser ad absurdum. (50 posts is enough for one day)
• You know you’re in trouble when… you fit AbbaGav’s list.

Pace yourself,

Kaspit  כספית

P.S. Is there an exception for professional bloggers? Sure, Jewish law allows workers to assume reasonable risks to make a living (e.g., contact sports). More people die working than you may realize. However, if you are reading this obscure blog, you surely aren’t one of the chosen few who earn a living by blogging.

Another Presence on Harry Potter... and Jewish thought

A brief comment here led me to a blogger who writes about (among many topics) both Harry Potter and Jewish law & ethics. His main blog (Presence… The place to be.), for instance, recently mentions the dynamic between Jewish law and Christian ethics. (A “Judeo-Christian” question addressed here.) He reported:

On the topic of abortion, R. [Bezalel] Rudinsky mentioned that, when it comes to US law, he thought we should not necessarily advocate a pro-life platform that was determined by non-Jewish authorities, since this will likely conflict with halacha in some fashion. Rather, it would be better to support a platform that allowed the Jewish community to set it's own standard regarding abortion. A very libertarian position, motivated not so much by a concern for the individual rights of the masses, but more for the sake of the sovereignty of Halacha in exile for those who choose to submit to it. I find it interesting because his position is both progressive and isolationist at the same time, i.e. - pro-choice political position, but a Jewish community further removed and isolated from the host culture.  [emphasis added]

Plus, a Red Sox fan.

Though his Harry Potter site doesn’t deal much with Judaism, Greg did once “prognosticate”:

Harry finds that the truth will not set him free. He learns that there are some mysteries that are better off left unknown, and that by uncovering them, they become cheapened in our eyes. Harry learns that having all the answers will not complete you. This theme, by the way, is pretty popular. I would like to think that it is one of the main themes of the Old Testament (it is rampant through out the Five Books of Moses, and prevalent in Prophets and Writings, Ecclesiastes particularly), as well as a fair explanation of the motivations behind Christianity (I am Jewish, so I have a somewhat limited understanding of Christianity, but I think this is a compelling explanation; email me for details). Philosophy has struggled with these topics since the beginning. Major contributors (this is by no means an exhaustive list) include Maimonides (in The Guide of the Perplexed), … Rabbis Joseph D. Soloveitchik, and Abraham Joshua Heschel both discuss these themes, in The Lonely Man of Faith and God in Search of Man. Others that touch on these themes include … The Big Lebowski. …

Anyway, Greg, thanks for the comment. How about an update on Harry Potter and Jewish themes?

Kaspit  כספית