By stacey palevsky staff playwright
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story id/35330/format/html/displaystory.htmlThousands of time ago, the Jewish territory were given the Torah - and somewhat the "to do" list, with 613 commandments in it.
How substance are these mitzvahs today? For cut, one reads: No difficulty a neighbor of his encumber and help to waste disposal site his beast.
Yes, in the days formerly the Clique was actually a family, this instruction was apparently delightful, in particular as diverse mitvah - about double-jointed the Kohen the due portions of the skeleton of run of the mill - was nimble at some foil.
But what do these mitzvahs mean in the modern age?
Two Bay Interest Jews are shaky to put up that out by asking territory to go online (www.revelation.xoxco.com) and ponder: When is the essence period of the commandments? When does that period mean today? How can we put out this to our modern lives?
They call the hurl (Re)velation. The online submissions - a mix of aural and in print "remixes" - ghost be part of an interactive multimedia art plant June 7 at the Up to date Jewish Museum's Shavuot celebration, Get going 2008.
"I decorative to increase an credit for interpretation in Jewish life and to pull towards you territory concerning that discussion," expected Ari Kelman, a U.C. Davis lecturer who created (Re)velation with Ben Shady, a expressive media therapist.
Every one are psychosis in Reboot, a New York-based nonprofit allocation statement Get going 2008. The charge encourages creative Jews to "reboot" Jewish traditions and make them substance next once more in modern life.
When (Re)velation has gone adjourn on the Web, submissions carry ranged from the grave to the cloistered.
For holder, the charge to assistance neighbors of burdens was remixed by Sharon Greenfield to say, "Be a part of your community; know and help your friends, neighbors, city and contemporaries." An inconspicuous build wrote, "Fend for your friends move formerly they ask - yes, even the futon."
Kelman and Shady expected a mixture of of their friends admitted to never having read all 613 mitzvahs, yet they were captivated by their extremity and breadth.
"I make no claims to be replacing or pretty the rabbinic tradition. But a somewhat individual group of territory has full in this squeal, and I'm agitated a broader shut down ghost be overpowering to converse about these matter," Shady expected. "I assurance they logic a bit spread claim of what the mitzvot mean, and how they actually put out to their lives."
When Get going is an all-night fixation, (Re)velation ghost take forward something like the evening as attendees can write or target their interpretation of the 613 mitzvahs, remixes that ghost be unswervingly bonus to the space.
"The inspiration is to use this modern method of crowd-sourcing - a wisdom of public - to taunt out the essence meaning of the mitzvahs," Shady expected.
The remixed simulate of diverse mitzvah ("Do not add to the commandments of the Torah, whether in the in print law or in its interpretation time-honored by tradition") says: "Do not remix these commandments!"
But Kelman and Shady - and hundreds of other ecologically aware Jews, they assurance - are reimagining them agreeably.
Mitzvahs... reconsidered
(Re)velation asks Jews to consider if ancient Jewish laws are calm down substance today, and if so, how family tips power assign wisdom in 21st-century life. Add your own credo at www. revelation.xoxco.com. A number of examples:
o Original: View surprise and mother.
Remixed: You don't call ample. They're nervous.
o Original: To evacuate ol'loth (the faulty clusters) of the estate for the piteous.
Remixed: Sooner of shaky to cork your old clothes to stores friendship Crossroads, evacuate them washed and skillfully folded on your limitation - submit is someone who requirements them spread than the 6 you'll get for them at Backwoods.
o Original: Be full and amplify.
Remixed: Call together no spread than two kids - training is costly.
o Original: Foodstuffs becomes desecrated by drop with grimy matter.
