Saturday, January 29, 2005

Hello to the Blogging World

Hello to anyone who stumbles across this blog!

I've been an active member of the Jewish Internet world for a long time. Of course in the internet world, there are different definitions of long. Let's just say I was posting to Usenet when the jewish group there was net.religion.jewish. If you can remember the Great Usenet ReNaming, then you've been around for a while.

From my limited perusal of some Jewish Blogs, it seems that it is fasionable to not identify oneself directly on the blog. However, there are a number where the concealment is fairly thin. I was particularly amused by Gil, where he talks about how he is not identifying himself, but then signs all the posts with his real name.

So I will follow that new tradition. I don't think my cousin, the current Sambor Rebbi is online, so I figured I'll take that title here, sort of. I'll be the Internet Sambor Rebbi. At the same time, I'm not from the Chassidish side of the family, so I don't quite feel comfortable calling myself the Rebbe. So I'll try the un_Rebbi.

By the way, if there actually are any Sambor chassidim who read this, please feel free to contact me. I'm not aware if there really are any left.

So what are my interests?

As I say in my profile, while I dislike labels, I do identify as an Orthodox Jew. However, I strongly believe that one should question and explore all aspects of ones religion and practices. Too often people do things because others do it, they have been told that is the way to do things, etc. They do not take the effort to really understand what is the source and what level of authority something has. One of the things I enjoy doing is challanging the accepted. As I go along, I'll probably publish here some of my favorites.

OK, enough for now.

The Sambor Un-Rebbi

3 Comments:

At 6:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let me guess, your initials are A.F. your father z.l. was a professor of Talmud and your mother z.l.'s father z.ts.l. was the av bet din of Philly. (I daven at the shul he founded.) Am I right? (If you feel this blows your cover, feel free to delete this post.)

 
At 3:42 AM, Blogger sambor_un-rebbi said...

On the mark. The first person to visit (or at least to leave a comment) and busted! That's OK, I left enough info to make a guess, but without davening in his shul, it would have been somewhat tougher. I was unsure whether to do this as anon or public. At least is more anon than Gil. I have to admit I enjoyed his first post with his signature.

OK, so do I know you?

 
At 6:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't believe we know each other. I am close with your uncle Rav Yosef Geldzahler (I received semikhah from him). He is one of the sweetest people I have ever met.
I have always been interested in Rabbi Yolles. I remember as a little boy lining up with the other children on Friday night after davening to get a berakhah from him. It was the highlight of my week.
I don't want to sound too flattering, but I also found your father's work on the academic study of the Talmud very influential. It showed me the possibility of a frum person using that methodology to grow in Torah.
Good luck with your blog.

- Yisrael Meyerowitz

 

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