Thursday, September 24, 2015
The Biblical Museum of Natural History
Check out this new promotional video for The Biblical Museum of Natural History - best played full-screen with the volume cranked up! Please help us out by sharing it with all your friends! (Note that if you are reading this post via email subscription, you will not be able to see the video - go to this link instead: https://youtu.be/yx0zJnE-xu)
25 comments:
Comments for this blog are moderated. Please see this post about the comments policy for details. ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WILL NOT BE POSTED - please use either your real name or a pseudonym.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
In the last few days there have been an increasing number of criticisms of my posts which criticize (or, as they call it, "bash"... -
Who would engage in actions that could lead to the deaths of their own children, and the deaths of many other people in their very own commu... -
Rabbi Herschel Grossman first came to my attention during the Great Torah/Science Controversy. It created a crisis for charedi rabbinic au...
2 Boys and a girl together, in the same video, within daled amos of each other? And the girl is wearing earrings! WHAT is going on here???????.
ReplyDeleteBetter the boys should wear earrings?
DeleteThat's always an option.
DeleteMany Tsnius-fixated Rabbis have stated openly that women should not wear earrings, especially those that hang or dangle from the lobe; they believe that level of adornment can wreak havoc on a man's libido.
Well, it would be more traditional, for a value of 'tradition'. of course, then the girl should be wearing a nose-ring....
DeleteYehuda, internet troll extraordinaire.
You'll need to add a Charedi version with all the female faces blurred out. I would pay money to see that version.
ReplyDeleteTo get the Eidah Charedis crowd, you'll need to blur out your own face as well :).
I was also struck by the predominance of quite frum co-ed groups. Does this mean that you are now pitching your Museum more to an exclusively Dati-Leumi crowd as opposed to a Haredi crowd?
DeleteLawrence Kaplan
No, it means that those are the groups which were there on the day that the videographers came!
DeleteAnd when you reviewed the film you didn't notice that all the groups featured were co-ed, and didn't consider its possible implications?
DeleteBTW, great video and great background music.
Hag Sameach.
Lawrence Kaplan
The Pashkevil version will use different pictures.
DeleteExcellent job on the background music, I must say.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious, given the significant differences between Christian translations and Jewish translations as it is, and compounding this with the rationalist approach to figuring out what the animals are that differs from the traditional translations: Do you get Christian tour groups to your museum, and if so, how much does what you have to say blow their minds and/or make them really really uncomfortable?
Nice video.
ReplyDeleteDo you give tours at the museum on a regular basis, or is it usually just "show yourself around"?
It's guided tours only. Sometimes me, sometimes other guides.
ReplyDeleteIncredible! Some lovely shots of people and animals. Really gets across the wonder.
ReplyDeleteWhats the music in the soundtrack I really like it
ReplyDeleteIt's "Earth", by Levan Iordanishvili.
DeleteOff topic, but I don't know how else to reach you:
ReplyDeleteCould you please do a piece on the upcoming (Sukkos!) supermoon eclipse visible to us Americans, Sukkah 29a on the bad omen, and rationalist Judaism?
Shmooli
You show gazelles, but why does the video translate Tzvi as Deer?
ReplyDeleteWe didn't and it doesn't!
DeleteThe Pasuk referenced is Breishis 49:21
Deleteכא נַפְתָּלִי, אַיָּלָה שְׁלֻחָה--הַנֹּתֵן, אִמְרֵי-שָׁפֶר. {ס} 21
Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. {S}
(Hind is a female deer).
IIUC, the pairing of the names Naftali and Zvi came after the word Zvi became associated with deer in Europe.
Wondering: "Naftali Ayalah shluhah." Not Tzvi.
ReplyDeleteLawrence Kaplan
If not already their add a Jawbone of an Ass, the kind Shimshone used to smite 1000 men. Also replicas or pictures of important early hominad finds in Eretz Yisroel - they are over 6000 years old which may cause a problem for some Orthodox Jews. I think it is good that Orthodox Jews get some exposure to the real natural world (and not solely from holy texts) - your Museum is a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteThe majesty of nature always makes the majesty of the Bible seem so much less majestic. It's like, "look at this amazing creature that will shock and amaze you in 1000 different ways... oh, and also, it's mentioned in the Bible." Who cares about that last part? Seems to me this video would work just fine for any natural history museum. If you need the "mentioned in the Bible" part to get people to be interested in nature, well, that's just pathetic.
ReplyDeleteMost of what you write is opinion, so I won't try to answer. But in terms of the appeal of the Museum: You are learning simple peshat in many parts of Tanach and Talmud. Basic things that you should have known, but didn't because you lacked basic knowledge. Similar to trying to understand aspects of kiddush hachodesh or the calendar without understanding the very basics of astronomy or kashrus without basic biology. We're remediating our ignorance of the ancient worldview caused by our urbanization.
DeleteAnd yes, there is an extra enjoyment when you can not only learn some aspect of zoology, but also use that to understand a pasuk that was previously opaque.
Also, many of the customers are interested in just the "nature" part of it, but he "mentioned in the Bible" helps because:
Delete1) They won't see what they consider to be "kefirah" like they would at the "secular" museum.
2) They need a Matir to involve themselves in a "secular" subject.
"Fiery Cholent", you clearly have absolutely no idea what the museum is about.
Delete