What did you read over Shabbat? Or just generally what are you reading?

Revered today as one of Judaism’s greatest thinkers, Maimonides once faced fierce opposition over his legal rulings and philosophy, with critics accusing him of heresy and his books burned. How did the medieval scholar become a central authority across the Jewish world?

Heya everyone! I'm new here, and am hoping I can meet some coolio peeps on this platform, especially once it's fully launched.

I guess as a first question, does anybody have a favorite work of fiction they especially like the depictions of Judaism and/or Jewish culture in?

Shabbat shalom, everyone.

Welcome to the second Shabbat together! This is a weekly thread where we can come together at the end of the week.

Tell others about yourself. Say something that's alive in you, your thoughts, feelings, something on your mind.

Whatever this Shabbat looks like for you, you’re welcome at this table.

One sentence is plenty, and the thread will still be here afterwards.

The second Rugela bake!

There have been a large number of behind the scenes changes this week, so less visible changes to you all, but still a lot of wonderful updates

• The home feed has a sort menu - This is something several of you asked for. You wanted to sort by most Active posts (default) and Newest. Now you can!
• No more jittery home page - We had a feature that inserted random stories on the home page. That's gone and the home page feels more stable now.
• You can now star a post from the home page - Several of you asked for this. Now it's there!
• Links in posts and comments render better. - There was a bug in the renderer. That's fixed.
• Link previews work for more sites. - Some sites weren't giving link previews. We now support more sites!

Some smaller but still important changes:

• Phasing away from toasts - This is a bit more insider, but when you change a setting, it won't show the temporary notification thing on the side anymore. Those things are unpleasant, and less accessible, so they're going away. Most of them are gone already.
• Profile tabs work better now - There was a bug around tabbing that's fixed.
  The settings menu link is labelled "Settings". - The old phrasing of "Personal Profile" was confusing.

Hope you all enjoy the changes! Be sure to send your suggestions to suggestions@rugela.com and stay tuned for next week's update!

This week has gone by so fast, I'm ready for a break.

In anticipation of tomorrow (Shabbat) he's a video of Frum It Up's Shabbat dinner prep.

I find her videos chill and somewhat inspiring. I hope you do too!

A teenage science prodigy from Belgium who got his doctorate in quantum physics at the age of 15, is heading to Israel to be a researcher at Bar-Ilan University.

Rugela offers ways to filter out content based on Content Warnings.

What are your thoughts on them?

Useful? Not useful?

Too broad? Too narrow?

Do you wish we covered topics we don't?

gut shabbos!

Merger versus acquisition.

This is one of the big discussions at the synagogue, and has been for years leading up to what's going on now. My predecessor and I were always adamant that we'd not go down this road - that any other congregation that would want to join with us (given local history) would see it as an acquisition and we'd be swallowed up.

So it's very fair game when my congregants ask me why I keep asserting that this is a merger, not an acquisition. It's a very fair question.

In a merger, you don't lose your identity. Our name is part of not just the legal name of the new congregation, but the everyday business one.

In a merger, it's about coming together. Like a marriage, we might be moving into their 'house', but we're bringing our things with us, and what we'll use on a daily basis is a combination of both congregation's 'things'.

In a merger, it's about finding ways to work together, to use the best from each side. The new bylaws are based on theirs, but with copious input and language from ours, and has the recent revisions we made to be more inclusive.

In a merger, you talk about 'joining with', not about 'them and us'.

And I'm very blessed that our partners in this, the congregation we are joining with to form this new congregation, are all about finding the wins, having the discussions, and building together.

It turns out Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and the president who told terrorists to get off his plane is a Jew.

Harrison Ford's mother, Dorothy Nidelman, was a Russian Jew Minsk. His father was Irish Catholic. In an interview with Kveller, he said that as a man he felt Irish, but as an actor he felt Jewish ( kveller.com/harrison-ford-makes-an-excellent-joke-about-his-jewish-mom/ )

Sandys Row Synagogue, one of only two shuls still functioning in London’s East End, has received nearly £200,000 in grants to support a project which aims to ensure its future as a place of worship, heritage, and learning.

“Sandys Row Synagogue has a very special history, and we have many members who trace their ancestry back to the founders,” said synagogue chair Harvey Rifkind.

Study in human ovaries found they have increased inflammation, structural changes in tissue decades after menopause

This article talks ostensibly about LLMs being used to make your smart TV dumb, but the larger point is getting rid of the things in your television that you don't want to be there and having it do what you bought it to do.