In which faith correspondent Lucy Sun finds tradition, and updates it.

The Shabbat service at B'nai Jeshurun has already begun. "Shabbat is the place where we dare to dream," the rabbi says of the Jewish day of rest. "We meet the angels halfway."

The music begins with a motley mix of instruments--cello, bongos, acoustic guitar and flute. The sound is a blend of the earthy and the ethereal--grounded, yet striving towards heaven, going to meet the angels halfway.

During the very first song, members of the congregation are leaving their seats, running to hold hands with one another and dance in a circle. The rabbi keeps the rhythm with his palm beating the lectern. The song ends and the congregation sits down, the room still full of joy.

It's a conservative service, composed almost entirely of music in Hebrew. A regular at B'nai Jeshurun tells me that �the services are conservative, but the politics are reform.� As the service comes to an end, the smells of Shabbat dinner drift into the room. The rabbi asks, "How many of you are smelling the food from downstairs?" The congregation grins. "As I am smelling the food, I think, this must be how homeless people feel all the time," says the rabbi.

After the service, I wander the streets with a group of Columbia Jews, looking for supplies for the traditional Shabbat blessings over food and wine. We walk eight blocks, expecting to find challah bread at Zabar�s, but the place is closed. There's an H&H next door. "I feel like bagels are made with Jews in mind," someone suggests, but the group isn't having it. (For the record, we finally got our challah at Westside).
Eventually, everyone's chipped in for the bread and a bottle of pinot grigio, and we're settling into a room in Carman, feeling sketchy and pious at the same time. The blessing is performed, and we eat and drink. "I feel kind of alcoholic, drinking wine out of a plastic cup," someone says. Yet tradition lives on.

Is your place of worship worth a hop? Tell us! bwog@columbia.edu.

It's about time the philosophical salon made a comeback: on Tuesday night, a couple dozen List College students gathered in the Mathilde Shechter music room for some laid back Judaically-focused philosophical disputation. The night's topic was the so-called "New Atheism"--the aggressive attack on religion led by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and others.

JTS philosophy professor Leonard Levin began by arguing that the "new atheists" do not realize how little science and religion actually disprove one another. While science explains the particulars of the physical universe in ways that religion can't, religion provides the underlying meaning and guidance that science lacks. "Until recently," Levin said, "religious experience is all of human experience." Religion is personally and communally centering, and strives to, and occasionally succeeds in, addressing important, fundamental truths.

Dr. Austin Darcy from the atheist Center for Inquiry spoke partly in defense of the "new atheists"--while he disagreed with their assertion that "religion poisons everything," he said that Hitchens and his ilk are removing religion from its pedestal and giving it the unsparing intellectual analysis it deserves. He deployed a Kantian proof that the logical basis for theism runs similar to justifications for atheism: Kant argued that man believes in a God that will order an unordered world, but since the world is assumed to be unordered, Kant's postulate of practical reason proves that theism is little more than elaborate rationalizing.

The night's arguments were pretty standard, but never trite: Levin, for instance, rebutted the claim that Theists irrationally uphold a solipsistic view of the universe by quoting a 3^rd century Talmudic rabbi's shockingly accurate estimation of the number of stars. Of course we've heard this all before: that theism is scientifically and morally untenable, and that religion is more than just blind belief in something we can't hope to see or interact with. And the arguments had their usual weaknesses: Levin's concession that secular philosophy could provide the same kind of objective morals as religion means that religion is preferable for utilitarian, rather than qualitative reasons--if religion is superior simply because more people can understand Exodus than Locke's First Treatise on Government, how superior is it, really?

Armin Rosen reports on the big semi-annual, semi-mandatory sophomore class lecture.

The title of this post is actually a wee bit inaccurate. This wasn't just the biggest walkout of the year--it was also the biggest walkout of last year, and was probably bigger than any walkouts that were held the year before that one, too. About seven hundred students were at Roone for Friday's Contemporary Civilization course-wide lecture. By the time Berkley Talmud professor Daniel Boyarin had finished dissecting the seventh chapter of Daniel, a mere handful were left in the audience, proving that while Iraq might convince 400 or so people not to go to class, intellectual passivity is one cause around which practically everyone can rally. Even at Columbia.

If only John Erskine could have lived to have seen so spectacular a "fuck you"� to the Core Curriculum and everything it represents. Granted, it was a Friday afternoon. And granted, I've heard some people complain that Boyarin's central thesis--that the all-time mindblower that is Daniel 7 represents an attempt at suppressing certain polytheistic ideas within ancient Judaism, and that its formulation of an "older"� and "younger"� God provided a theological basis for the emergence of Christianity as a protestant movement within Judaism itself--has nothing to do with what we've been reading and studying in CC. I've heard others say that his brilliant synthesis of linguistics, history, literature and religion was off-topic and irrelevant; that his meticulous application of comp-lit methods both on a practical and theoretical level were limited to ideas and concepts uninteresting to people without a strong background in Judaism.

In which Bwog correspondent Josh Mathew reports on last night's lecture about a book and all the hubbub it's caused.

The Underground Lecture Series: What Archaeology Tells Us About Ancient Israel

Alan Segal, PhD, Professor of Religion and Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies, Barnard College

What does Biblical archaeology tell us about the First Temple Period?

Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj is wrong. At least, that's what I learned pretty quickly from Professor Alan Segal. The flyer for the event hadn't mentured El-Haj, but Segal made it clear that, though not a "harangue or tirade," his remarks served to question El-Haj's scholarship.

The event was sponsored by LionPac and the cheerfully-named Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, who, according to their website, are "trying to counterbalance the well-documented and increasing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic forces that have made their way to the college campuses today." A survey of their position papers reveals a dearth of articles actually about peace or conflict resolution, but the name sounds nice.

Segal's lecture focused primarily on the debate between Biblical maximalists and minimalists�those who consider the Bible to be a reliable historical source regarding non-miraculous things, vs. those who don't�and finally moved on to El-Haj's supposed reliance on the latter in her book Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society. He accuses her of inaccurately portraying maximalists as Biblical fundamentalists and evangelicals, and minimalists as rational thinkers. In a short history, Segal discussed the historical dominance of the maximalists and the challenges posed by the minimalists, whom he described as an academic minority with little supporting archaeological evidence.

Yesterday, PrezBo dusted off the ol' blue and white robes and headed north for the inauguration of JTS's new chancellor. Bwogger Armin Rosen dressed less ridiculously for the occasion.

During his inaugural address as the newly-minted seventh chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, former Stanford professor Arnold Eisen recalled how, as a staffer for the Daily Pennsylvanian in the early 70s, he asked socially conscious Seminary professor Abraham Joshua Heschel why felt he could use Jewish tradition in order to deal with contemporary crises, and how he had the chutzpah to believe that it mattered to do so. "Because words count," the venerable Heschel responded--implying, in Eisen view, that Judaism had given him a responsibility to participate in the political and cultural conflicts of his time, and had, inevitably, enabled his words and ideas to matter.

...kind of.

In what could be a cynically necessary (or unprecedentedly desperate) attempt to motivate Columbia's legions of indifferent secular Jews, Aish is offering to shell out $250 to anyone willing to take their online course in general Judaism. While Bwog can't help but question Aish's methodology (even more in-your-face than a year and a half ago) its Columbia chapter head, freshly-ordained Rabbi Yehuda Zachter, is enthusiastic and quite approachable--the rookie organization has an office at Earl Hall, and Bwog is interested in seeing whether it is successful in carving out (buying itself?) a place in Columbia's Jewish scene.

Bwog salutes Israelites and Yankees today as opening days for tribe and team alike kick off. For the Jews, it's the first night of Passover, the celebration of the Israelites' escape from Pharaonic tyranny. For the Yankees and their fans, it was opening day, with a 9-5 victory over Tampa Bay; a good first step on the Yankees' road to redemption after years of high hopes and higher salaries have yielded nothing but towering pyramids of championship disappointment.

Bernie Williams, sadly, has looked upon the promised land but cannot enter; he rejected a non-roster invitation back to the Yankees when his contract expired last year. But batting mainstays Jorge Posada and Jason Giambi each contributed with the first home run of the season and three runs batted in respectively, while shlimazel-of-late Alex Rodriguez - recently in the media for his alleged tsuris with Derek Jeter - managed a home run as well. With the Devil Rays ahead by two runs in the sixth, Jeter hit a bases-loaded single to tie the game; Bobby Abreu weighed in with an RBI single in the eighth, and Rodriguez's long-awaited homer brought in two more runs to put the Yankees well in the lead.

Bwog correspondent Armin Rosen decided to spend part of his spring break hobnobbing with the stars at the America Israel Public Affairs Committee's conference in Washington DC. His second dispatch follows.

After hearing Dick Cheney drone through a half-hour long exposition on the danger that a premature American pullout from Iraq poses to Israel, I realized that my disgust from the previous night was probably misdirected. A conference with 6,000 attendees and Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Dick Cheney on its schedule obviously isn't that concerned with pleasing everyone, so a bombastic John Hagee can be understood as a means to a greater end: if he can share the stage with the top Democrats in Congress then there's no reason for anybody in Congress not to show up.

And show up they did. After another day's discussion on the immediacy of Israel's existential threats and the two countries' mutual values and interests, over half of the House and most of the Senate made their way to the Washington Convention Center, whereupon they endeavored to score easy points with thousands of more or less like-minded people. Completely anonymous lawmakers like the one in this picture probably didn't, as they are part of the amorphous mass of the House of Representatives.

But these guys sure did, because they're running for president:

DC on a Sunday is about as exciting as Butler on a Thursday. So with press pass in hand, Bwog contributor Armin Rosen attempted to stave off the ennui the only way Washingtonians know how: with a couple strong shots of special interest politics.

My first thought upon arriving at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference's first plenary session: should I feel inspired at being in a football-field sized room with more Jews than I've ever seen in one place in my entire life, or disgusted that we were watching a panel moderated by a former higher-up in the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq? Failing to reconcile the two, I condemn them to a queasy coexistence, made worse when the panel, which included former CIA director James Woolsey expounded upon the existential threats posed to the Jewish state by various Islamist entities. Six humungous jumbotrons behind him shuffle through images of a maniacal-looking Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and an impotent-looking Syrian president Bashir al-Assad. Israel advocacy is a high-stakes business, they beam at me.

How sinister is this scaremongering? I'm willing to write off Woolsey's claim that preventing Iran from getting nukes is a "job for American diplomacy and the American military" as a convenient (albeit wildly irresponsible) turn of phrase, since packaging trumps substance at any "policy" conference like this one. The AIPAC conference seeks to prove that the American-Israeli alliance is worth defending. Saber-rattling aside, beginning the conference on a bleak, pessimistic, existential note sells that idea brilliantly. Manipulative? Sure. Alarmist? Probably. On point? In this blogger's opinion, you better believe it.

The great thing about Hanukkah's fourth night, said J-school professor Ari Goldman as he lit the lanterns of Chabad's traveling menorah this evening, is that the people who believe the candles should be lit in descending order and those who believe one should be added every night can at least agree that, on that night, four are correct.

On Low Plaza, the fifth night was pretty chill as well, as a happy group gathered to drink oversweet cider and sing Hanukkah blessings (some sounding like they have yet to celebrate bar mitzvahs). They've been there every evening at 6:00 PM since last Friday, and Goldman is but one of the illustrious figures who has graced the ceremony--last week Zvi Galil lit candles in front of a goodly crowd, J-school professor Sam Freedman's on the docket for tomorrow, and welterweight champion boxer Dmitriy Salita (fresh off an appearance at the first-annual White House menorah lighting) is scheduled for the final night.

And if you haven't gotten your menorah yet, there's still time! Just ask Rabbi Yonah Blum, who aims to promote "holiday awareness." As if we weren't already painfully aware.

- LBD

Bwog doesn't have the cash to "pimp your room," and we certainly don't want to raid it and then date you. So we bring you our semi-weekly feature, the "Cribs-esque" Room Hopping, continuing with...

You can graduate without walking into some places on campus even once. For most CU students, the Bayit is one of those places. Not for Bwog. Ben G'07 took Bwog on a tour of the six-story house on 112th street the other day, making sure to stop at its huge walk-in freezer (right).

What is the Bayit? "A welcoming home for Jewish students from every walk of life," Ben says. "We keep a Kosher kitchen and observe the Sabbath, but only in common areas."

Jewish students living in all of the Columbia schools (including grad schools) take turns cooking in Ben's words, "balanced meals" several days a week, hang out watching movies off the Bayit Netflix account in their big-screen-TV-room, hold open-mic events, and host BBQs on the roof during the summers. Residents get all this for $900 a month -- and free laundry.

Guest Bwog reporter Bari Weiss analyzes what the Jews are talking about now.

Operating on Jewish time, the community-wide meeting was called for 3:30, but was postponed for an hour until key members of the CJLS made it back from their East Side press conference. Sara Horowitz, Dean of Student Life, used the dead airtime to make this announcement: "As long as we're here, let me make an announcement about community: Shabbat dinner! Friday night!"

Once Rabbi Joel Meyers (Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Assembly) and Rabbi Kass Abelson (the Chair of the CJLS) arrived, things got down to business. Here's the breakdown, crypto-Jewish style, of the big news:

After the reform Kol Nidre service at Hillel, everyone wishing each other a good year:

(Jewish) Law Student 1: Rosenblum? Yale '02? Seligman? We graduated in the same class!

(Jewish) Law Student 2: Yeah, yeah, you're in my litigation class now right?

(Jewish) Bystander (muttering): Bunch of Jews.

Happy atoning!

Heard outside Butler, Saturday night

"It's amazing what religion will do to a person."

CC Instructor Ivan Savic, to his 9:00 AM class:

"Not holding the door for people is just one step away from chaos and cannabalism, which is just inconvenient."

After a Blue and White meeting, Monday night:

A bearded man standing in front of St. Paul's chapel, with arms held out � la Jesus-on-the-crucifix. A few minutes later, he lowered his arms, and left soon after.

Thanks to CML, Nick Frisch, and Grace Duffy for their observance.