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Kamtza and Bar Kamtza Revisited

JL;DR SUMMARY The story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, traditionally studied during the month of Av, is examined for its deeper lessons on human behavior and societal failure. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

TalmudJewish HistoryDestruction Of JerusalemInterpersonal ConflictKamtza And Bar KamtzaRabbinic LiteratureTemple DestructionMoral LessonsSinas ChinamSelf Alienation

Places mentioned

Jerusalem, Israel
"The leading rabbis of Jerusalem were present during this confrontation, but did not intervene."
Miami Beach, Florida, United States
"...Rabbi Yochanan Zweig was the Rosh Hayeshiva of the Talmudic University of Miami Beach, Florida, and Joseph Rackman was an attorney in Miami and adapted this shiur of Rabbi Zweig."
Miami, Florida, United States
"...Rabbi Yochanan Zweig was the Rosh Hayeshiva of the Talmudic University of Miami Beach, Florida, and Joseph Rackman was an attorney in Miami and adapted this shiur of Rabbi Zweig."
Stalingrad, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
"One example occurred when Hitler had invaded Russia and was trying to conquer Stalingrad."
This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 57735
Cairo Source ID 6
Retrieved 2025-07-25 05:31:03 UTC
Curated 2025-07-25 08:32:08 UTC