Category Archives: Talmud

When it comes to Rosh Hashanah, families of Sephardic and Mizrahi origin like mine from Calcutta, India have a secret to share with the rest of the Jewish world: a distinctive New Years seder far beyond apples dipped in honey. On the first night of the holiday, we hold a special ceremony at home during which we recite blessings over a variety of foods that symbolize our wishes for the year ahead.

The blessings in this ritual all begin with the words yehi ratzon (may it be Gods will), and they all ask for divine gifts of bounty, strength, and peace. The ritual has come to be known as a seder (order) because the blessings are recited in a specific order. Ironically, that order varies according to custom and community.

The origins of the ritual date back to the Talmud (Horayot 12a), where Abaye discusses omens that carry significance, and suggests that at the beginning of each new year, people should make a habit of eating the following foods that grow in profusion and so symbolize prosperity: pumpkin, a bean-like vegetable called rubia, leeks, beets, and dates.

Click here for recipes and more detailsabout foods used in the seder.

It is difficult to trace how the ceremony evolved from that talmudic mention to its current form. According to cookbook author Gilda Angel (Sephardic Holiday Cooking), It is told that when the Babylonian scholar Hai Gaon (939-1039) left the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, his students would bring him a basket filled with different fruits over which he recited various blessings and biblical verses. The Baghdadi rabbi Hakham Yosef Hayyim (1832-1909) mentions the ceremony in his compilation of Jewish law and practice.

Like the Passover seder, where foods like bitter herbs and matzah symbolize suffering and freedom, at the Rosh Hashanah seder the foods we eat also become vessels for meaning. Each food symbolizes a good wish for the coming year, and before each food is consumed there is a special blessing to recite, many of which result from puns on the foods Hebrew or Aramaic name. With each blessing, the mundane aspect of food is garnished with a sense of holiness, poignancy, and even humor.

Like other Sephardic and Middle Eastern Jews, my shopping list for Rosh Hashanah resembles Abayes list in the Talmud, with a few added features: fat, juicy, red-skinned pomegranates; glossy, sticky-sweet dates; savory pumpkin; pungent leeks; scallions or chives; foot-long green beans (available in Indian shops); deep-green spinach; and crisp apples. Some families use beet leaves instead of spinach, quince instead of apples, and other varieties of beans and gourds.

To prepare these foods to be both beautiful and tasty, dates can be split, stuffed with walnut halves, and arranged in concentric ovals. Apples are traditionally quartered and cooked into spicy pink preserves while retaining their shape, with a drop of red food coloring and whole cloves. Though some families prepare more lavish dishes, I like to keep the foods as close to their fresh goodness as possible. I serve the beans and spinach steamed, the scallions or chives raw, the pomegranate separated into seeds for easy eating, and the pumpkin cooked and mashed with a touch of sugar, spice, and soy milk.

We begin the seder with a series of biblical verses invoking physical and spiritual blessings. They are repeated a prescribed number of times for mystical reasons.

The verses are followed by a piyyut, a religious poem, written by Abraham Hazzan Girondi in 13th-century Spain. Each verse of the poem has a chorus that declares, Tikhleh shanah ve-killeloteha! Let the year end with all its curses! The last line reflects a change in tone: Tahel shanah u-virkhoteha! Let the new year begin with all its blessings!

Then come the blessings.

Before eating dates (tamar): May it be your will, God, that enmity will end. (Tamar resembles the word for end, yitamu.)

Before eating pomegranate: May we be as full of mitzvot as the pomegranate is full of seeds.

Before eating apple: May it be Your will, God, to renew for us a good and sweet year.

Before eating string beans (rubia): May it be Your will, God, that our merits increase. (Rubia resembles the word for increase, yirbu.) Instead of string beans, Jews from Libya mix sugar and sesame seeds to symbolize plenty, because the grains are so tiny and numerous that they cant be counted.

Before eating pumpkin or gourd (kra): May it be Your will, God, to tear away all evil decrees against us, as our merits are proclaimed before you. (Kra resembles the words for tear and proclaimed.)

Before eating spinach or beet leaves (selek): May it be Your will, God, that all the enemies who might beat us will retreat, and we will beat a path to freedom (Selek resembles the word for retreat, yistalku).

Before eating leeks, chives, or scallions (karti): May it be Your will, God, that our enemies be cut off. (Karti resembles yikartu, the word for cut off.) Jews from Persia tear the scallions and throw them behind their backs and over their shoulders. Sometimes they then say the actual names of the enemies they want to destroy.

The seder originally called for a fish or sheeps head to symbolize our wish to be heads, not tails; leaders, not stragglers. The sheeps head (the brains were removed and cooked) also served as a reminder of the ram that saved Isaacs life; we recite the story of the binding of Isaac on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Baghdadi Jews discontinued using the fish because its Hebrew name, dag, sounds like the Hebrew word for worry, dagah.

In lieu of the sheeps head, families that wish to reintroduce a wish for strong leadership might consider a head of lettuce as a vegetarian option.

While the blessings promulgating harm to enemies might be troubling today, they were originally created in times of external threat to many Jewish communities, and they embodied faith in a protective God.

For families who do not wish to recite these blessings, they can be adapted to reflect positive wishes like friendship and harmony. For instance, the wish for karti (scallions, chives, or leeks) might be, she-yikaret me-aleinu kol ra ve-nitbarekh bshalom that all evil should be cut off from us and we should be blessed with peace. Participants can suggest concrete steps towards achieving these goals: thanking a teacher or co-worker, honoring parents, paying a shiva call, or respecting the environment.

The seder ends as the yehi ratzon blessings segue right into the Hamotzi, probably the most common blessing over food yet extraordinary in its acknowledgment of God as the source of all food.

The wish for Gods good will and favor, ratzon, extends into at least one Sephardic High Holiday piyyut by Judah Samuel Abbas (13th-century Spain) called Et Shaarei Ratzon (Gates of Favor).

Listen to Et Shaarei Ratzon here.

This long and heart-wrenching poem about the binding of Isaac visualizes the inner and outward journeys of father and son, complete with dialogue and piteous imaginings of Sarahs reaction. Chanted before the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah mornings, it ends with a hope for salvation for all. The word ratzon, shared by both the seder wishes and this piyyut, reflects our tender and vulnerable state during the High Holiday season, when we open our hearts to the expression of our deepest fears and desires.

Tahel shanah uvirkhoteha! Let the new year begin with all its blessings.

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A Sephardic Rosh Hashanah Seder - My Jewish Learning

(Sefaria/Wikimedia Commons via JTA.org)

By Philissa Cramer and Joe Baur

When Lazarus Goldschmidt completed his translation of the Talmud into German, the world he had hoped to serve when he started 40 years earlier was in the process of being destroyed.

It was 1935, two years after Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, and Goldschmidt himself had already fled to London. Over the next decade, virtually every Jew in Germany either escaped or was murdered. Goldschmidts feat he was the first to complete a full translation of the Talmud into any European language was recognized, but his work had little practical impact.

Now, nearly 90 years later, German-speaking Jews are getting another chance to engage with Goldschmidts work.Sefaria, the website that makes Jewish texts available and interactive online, has added Goldschmidts translation to its library.

The original publication of this document was a milestone event in German Jewish life, said Igor Itkin, a German rabbinical student who led the team that adapted Goldschmidts translation for online use, in a statement released by Sefaria. Making it available online not only preserves that legacy, but also introduces it to future generations.

Itkin said that he has already heard from Germans who have begun using the translation in their study of Daf Yomi, the daily page of Talmud thatJews around the world learn in unison. The response has been very positive, he said.

Scholars of Judaism in Germanyhave sought to make Jewish texts available in German for decades, but the Talmud translation project gained steam after Itkin and his colleagues, German and Austrian scholars, took on the project after he realized that Goldschmidts work would enter the public domain at the beginning of this year.

It took them five months for the team to make its way through the 9,434 pages of Goldschmidts translation, reviewing and correcting errors in the scanned version and formatting it so users can navigate among the German, English and Hebrew/Aramaic translations that Sefaria makes available. (Sefarias CEO, Daniel Septimus, is a board member of 70 Faces Media, the Jewish Telegraphic Agencys parent company.)

The translation will be the subject of an online event Oct. 24 featuring scholars who will speak to its significance. But it already took center stage once, premiering earlier this month in Berlin as part of this years Festival of Resilience,a series of events celebrating how German Jewish communities have persisted in the face of hate.

It was very important to us to do an event in German, because this is a tool for a German-speaking audience, said Rabbi Jeremy Borovitz, director of Jewish learning for Hillel Deutschland, who helped coordinate between Itkins team and Sefaria. Theres a lot of excitement from German rabbis because finally, its opened up a way that they can really bring Talmud learning to their audiences.

The translations accessibility comes amidsurging interest in Jewish studies at German universitiesas well as in less formal settings. Sefarias tools allow users to draw from its library to create source sheets, or Jewish study texts, meaning that individual classes and communities will be able to tailor the new materials for their needs.

The digital German Talmud represents a way of making important Jewish texts available and accessible for a new generation of German-speaking Jews who are eager to learn and explore what it means to be Jewish today, said Katharina Hadassah Wendl, an Austrian student at the London School of Jewish Studies who assisted with the project.

She added, For me personally, this project has opened my eyes anew to the depths of Torah and the vast sea of Talmudic discussions and wisdom.

Joshua Foer, an author and co-founder of Sefaria, said in a statement that the translations online release represents the triumph of Jewish tradition over the forces of hate that lapped against Goldschmidt as he worked.

Goldschmidt released the translation at a time of rising antisemitism to dispel dangerous myths and make the text accessible to all German speakers around the world, Foer said. He added, That this translation is being made more accessible today with the help of German and Austrian rabbinic students and scholars representing the future of German Judaism is a fitting celebration of Goldschmidts legacy.

Goldschmidt died in 1950, shortly afterthe Royal Library in Copenhagen acquired his collected works and papers. His other contributions included the first German translation of the Quran and a parody commentary on creation that he published under the moniker Arzelai bar Bargelai.

Sefaria is in the process of adding French and English translations ofthe Jerusalem Talmud, an alternate form of the foundational Jewish text, that also recently entered the public domain. And with their work on Goldschmidts Talmud complete, Itkin and his team will get to work on translating other texts, such as theMishnah, with commentary from prewar German rabbis including David Zvi Hoffmann and Eduard Baneth.

One day, they hope that text and others will appear on Sefaria in German as well, ready to engage German students and synagogue-goers in their native language.

Theres a source of pride that the first language other than English on Sefaria is German, said Borovitz. It speaks to some of the resilience of this text and also this community and that its growing, and that people are optimistic about the future.

More here:

Pioneering German Translation of the Talmud from 1935 Now Accessible Online - Jewish Exponent

(JTA) When Lazarus Goldschmidt completed his translation of the Talmud into German, the world he had hoped to serve when he started 40 years earlier was in the process of being destroyed.

It was 1935, two years after Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, and Goldschmidt himself had already fled to London. Over the next decade, virtually every Jew in Germany either escaped or was murdered. Goldschmidts feat he was the first to complete a full translation of the Talmud into any European language was recognized, but his work had little practical impact.

Now, nearly 90 years later, German-speaking Jews are getting another chance to engage with Goldschmidts work. Sefaria, the website that makes Jewish texts available and interactive online, has added Goldschmidts translation to its library.

The original publication of this document was a milestone event in German Jewish life, said Igor Itkin, a German rabbinical student who led the team that adapted Goldschmidts translation for online use, in a statement released by Sefaria. Making it available online not only preserves that legacy, but also introduces it to future generations.

Itkin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he has already heard from Germans who have begun using the translation in their study of Daf Yomi, the daily page of Talmud that Jews around the world learn in unison. The response has been very positive, he said.

Scholars of Judaism in Germany have sought to make Jewish texts available in German for decades, but the Talmud translation project gained steam after Itkin and his colleagues, German and Austrian scholars, took on the project after he realized that Goldschmidts work would enter the public domain at the beginning of this year.

It took them five months for the team to make its way through the 9,434 pages of Goldschmidts translation, reviewing and correcting errors in the scanned version and formatting it so users can navigate among the German, English and Hebrew/Aramaic translations that Sefaria makes available. (Sefarias CEO, Daniel Septimus, is a board member of 70 Faces Media, the Jewish Telegraphic Agencys parent company.)

The translation will be the subject of an online event Oct. 24 featuring scholars who will speak to its significance. But it already took center stage once, premiering earlier this month in Berlin as part of this years Festival of Resilience, a series of events celebrating how German Jewish communities have persisted in the face of hate.

It was very important to us to do an event in German, because this is a tool for a German-speaking audience, said Rabbi Jeremy Borovitz, director of Jewish learning for Hillel Deutschland, who helped coordinate between Itkins team and Sefaria. Theres a lot of excitement from German rabbis because finally, its opened up a way that they can really bring Talmud learning to their audiences.

The translations accessibility comes amid surging interest in Jewish studies at German universities as well as in less formal settings. Sefarias tools allow users to draw from its library to create source sheets, or Jewish study texts, meaning that individual classes and communities will be able to tailor the new materials for their needs.

The digital German Talmud represents a way of making important Jewish texts available and accessible for a new generation of German-speaking Jews who are eager to learn and explore what it means to be Jewish today, Katharina Hadassah Wendl, an Austrian student at the London School of Jewish Studies who assisted with the project, told JTA.

She added, For me personally, this project has opened my eyes anew to the depths of Torah and the vast sea of Talmudic discussions and wisdom.

Joshua Foer, an author and cofounder of Sefaria, said in a statement that the translations online release represents the triumph of Jewish tradition over the forces of hate that lapped against Goldschmidt as he worked.

Goldschmidt released the translation at a time of rising antisemitism to dispel dangerous myths and make the text accessible to all German speakers around the world, Foer said. He added, That this translation is being made more accessible today with the help of German and Austrian rabbinic students and scholars representing the future of German Judaism is a fitting celebration of Goldschmidts legacy.

Goldschmidt died in 1950, shortly after the Royal Library in Copenhagen acquired his collected works and papers. His other contributions included the first German translation of the Quran and a parody commentary on creation that he published under the moniker Arzelai bar Bargelai.

Sefaria is in the process of adding French and English translations of the Jerusalem Talmud, an alternate form of the foundational Jewish text, that also recently entered the public domain. And with their work on Goldschmidts Talmud complete, Itkin and his team will get to work on translating other texts, such as the Mishnah, with commentary from prewar German rabbis including David Zvi Hoffmann and Eduard Baneth.

One day, they hope that text and others will appear on Sefaria in German as well, ready to engage German students and synagogue-goers in their native language.

Theres a source of pride that the first language other than English on Sefaria is German, said Borovitz. It speaks to some of the resilience of this text and also this community and that its growing, and that people are optimistic about the future.

Read the original here:

A pioneering German translation of the Talmud, finished in 1935, is now accessible online - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

By Samuel GelmanCommunications & Program Officer

As part of the Straus Scholars Program of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, Straus Scholars participate in weekly reading groups outside the classroom that cover the great texts of the West and Judaism.

On the Beren Campus, Dr. Shaina Trapedo is teaching Essayists as Artists: Aesthetics and Ethics, which reads the best essaysincluding those by Mark Twain, George Orwell, Virginia Woolf, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Rabbi Norman Lamm and Rabbi Aharon Lichtensteinand studies how an awareness of craft and the fullness of thought can be used to make meaning of our world.

Rabbi Dr. Dov Lerner is focusing on Paradise Lost, John Miltons seventeenth-century seminal biblical epic, which depicts the emergence of humanity and its eviction from Eden, while engaging matters of theodicy and ethics. Ms. Sarah Wapner is reading the writings of Menachem Begin, tracking his development from soldier to statesman in his written work.

Our reading group traces the life of Menachem Begin through his evolution from Zionist activist in pre-war Europe to Israels sixth prime minister. Through an in-depth examination of the critical moments in his lifetime, our reading group considers the many roles Begin embodied in his lifetime, his enduring political ideologies and his unwavering commitment to Jewish political self-determination.

I really admire the nuances in thought that we uncover through our reading group discussions, said Straus Scholar Ru Benhamou 24S. The texts we are reading illuminate Menachem Begins Zionism and his profound influence on Israel, then and now.

On the Wilf Campus, Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik is teaching Aggadic Man: A New Approach to Talmudic Tales, pushing students to combine lomdus [Talmudic analytical study] and literary theory while studying some of the most famous Talmudic aggadot [parables]. Dr. Neil Rogachevsky is having his students study Aristotles texts on ethics and how some later readers understood or adapted them. Rabbi Itamar Rosensweig is reading the works of Ramban, both on halacha [Jewish law] and philosophy.

The Federalist Papers are a window into the minds of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay on the U.S. Constitution, said Natan Ehrenreich 23YC, who is studying with Dr. Rogachevsky. It is special to read the words of the framers, men who would occupy the halls of Congress, the presidency, and the chambers of the chief justice. Above all, my initial dive into the 85 papers has given me hope for the continued prosperity of American self-governance.

To learn more about the Straus Scholars Program, including our fall 2022 application, click here.

Original post:

Begin, Milton and Twain: Straus Center Reading Groups Go Beyond the Classroom Yeshiva University News - Yu News

Although it does often fall around the same time of year,Hanukkahis not just the Jewish equivalent of Christmas. This yearly celebration (Hanukkah will take place on November 28 to December 6 in 2021) is actually a commemoration of a religiously significant eventnamely, a successful revolt led by the Maccabees (i.e., the heroes of Hanukkah) against their Syrian-Greek oppressors, and the subsequent rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The story goes thatin the aftermath of the revolt, the desecrated temple had only enough oil for one ritual nightly lighting of the menorah. However, by a miracle from God, that small amount of oil was able to last for eight full days, giving the Jewish worshippers enough time to procure more. Today, Hanukkah (also known as the Festival of Lights) is a happy occasion when families and friends gather together to celebrate the triumph of light over darkness by lighting candles for eight nights and enjoying some of the festive Hanukkah traditions described below.

The most important of all the Hanukkah traditions is the lighting of the menorah, a nine-branched candelabra that represents the lamp (and the miracle) from the Hanukkah story told in the Talmud, a book of Jewish religious teachings. For the eight nights of Hanukkah, families come together and light a new candle of the menorah, from left to right, while saying a blessing. After a candle is lit, families often place the menorah in a window where it will fill the room with light, whilst being visible to passersby. Fun fact: Although there are only eight nights of Hanukkah, there are nine branches on a menorah because the one at the center is intended to hold the shamash, a candle used to light the others. Also, if youre wondering where oil factors into all this, we can explain that, too. While oil was once used in the wells of the menorah, the ritual changed with the times and eventually candles took the place of oil.

A dreidel is a tiny spinning top, inscribed with Hebrew letters on its four sides, and its used to play the popular Hanukkah game by the same name. Dreidel, originally a German gambling game that was adapted by the Jewish people, begins with each player contributing a portion of their stash of gelt, coins or other small objects into a central pot. The pot can then be won depending on how the dreidel falls on any given turn; the four Hebrew letters indicate whether a player must take nothing, take everything, take half or put one in. This lively game is often played over the holiday by children and adults alike.

Oil may no longer be the source of light at Hanukkah, but it still has a place at the table over the holiday. Foods fried in oillike potato latkes and jelly donuts (sufganiyot)are a main feature of the festivities and a nod to the Hanukkah miracle being celebrated.

Gelt, the yiddish word for money, refers to the foil-wrapped chocolate coins that are commonly exchanged over Hanukkah. This tasty currency is typically given as gifts and then used to play dreidel for winnings that are extra sweet.

Historically, gelt was the only gift given at Hanukkaheither in the form of real coins, or the chocolate ones described above. That said, this tradition has evolvedparticularly among American Jewsin response to the lavish consumerism of the competing Christian holiday. (Yep, were talking about Christmas.) As such, some families have chosen to include nightly gift exchanges in their Hanukkah celebrations, while others compromise and give cash to stay more in keeping with the authentic holiday tradition.

Hanukkah is a joyous holiday in the Jewish tradition with a focus on togetherness, and music plays a significant part here. Aside from Maoz Tzur, a song typically sung after the nightly lighting of the candles, the celebration also includes a festive playlist of Hanukkah hits, including more traditional Hebrew folk songs such as S'vivon sov sov sov, as well as modern hits like Debbie Friedmans ode to latkes.

RELATED: 16 Old-School Recipes Your Jewish Grandma Used to Make

Originally posted here:

6 Hanukkah Traditions to Celebrate the Festival of Lights - PureWow

An amateur diver found a 900-year-old sword believed to have belonged to a Crusader off the coast of Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Monday.

Shlomi Katzin, a diver from Atlit, Israel, was scuba diving off the Carmel Coast on Saturday when he spotted several artifacts on the seafloor that were uncovered by currents and ocean waves. The artifacts included pottery fragments, anchors made of stone and metal, and the sword with a meter-long blade.

Katzin brought the artifacts up to the surface worried that they would be covered up by sand again and contacted the IAA's Northern District Robbery Prevention Unit inspector Nir Distelfeld.

"The iron sword has been preserved in perfect condition and is a beautiful and rare find," Distelfeld said in a statement Monday. "It evidently belonged to a Crusader knight. It is exciting to encounter such a personal object, taking you 900 years back in time to a different era, with knights, armor, and swords."

According to the director at the IAA's Marine Archaeology Unit Kobi Sharvit, the site that Katzin discovered belonged to a natural anchorage for ships to seek shelter. Sharvit said that identification of the site showed that it was used as early as 4,000 years ago, during the Late Bronze Age.

"The recent discovery of the sword suggests that the natural cove was also used in the Crusader period, some 900 years ago," Sharvit said.

The Crusades were a series of religious wars between the 11th and 13th centuries between Christians and Muslims to gain control of the Holy Land.

The site located off of the Carmel Coast has been monitored by the IAA since June when it was first discovered. According to Sharvit, the site could be home to many unearthed treasures since ships used to seek refuge from storms in the area. Sharvit said storms can move the sand revealing new artifacts, and burying others.

This week, Katzin received a certificate of appreciation for "good citizenship" according to the IAA. The IAA's General Director Eli Escosido also praised Katzin for his discovery.

"Every ancient artifact that is found helps us piece together the historical puzzle of the Land of Israel," Escosido said. "Once the sword has been cleaned and researched in the Israel Antiquities Authority's laboratories, we will ensure it is displayed to the public."

Earlier this month, Newsweek reported on a rare toilet found in a Jerusalem palace that dated back over 2,700 years. According to the IAA, the limestone toilet sat above a septic tank that was carved into bedrock.

The ancient artifact was designed for "comfortable sitting" and featured a hole in the middle of the limestone.

According to the Director of Excavation with the IAA, Yaakov Billig, only the very wealthiest people had access to private toilets during that time.

"Only the rich could afford toilets," Billig said. "In fact, a thousand years later, the Mishnah and the Talmud discuss the various criteria that define a rich person, and Rabbi Yossi's option to be rich is by having a toilet near his table."

See the original post here:

Diver Unearths 900-Year-Old Medieval Sword Believed to Have Belonged to Crusader - Newsweek

(JTA) Jean Meltzer always knew how The Matzah Ball, her first novel, would end.

The rule of romance is that there has to be a happy ending; the characters have to get together, Meltzer told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. If they dont get together, thats not a romance; thats literary fiction.

So (not-really-a-spoiler alert) it was a foregone conclusion that protagonist Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt, a best-selling Christmas-themed romance writer who has kept her career from her observant Jewish parents, would wind up with Jacob Greenberg, her Camp Ahava crush who is now throwing the glitziest Hanukkah party New York City has ever seen.

But while Rachel and Jacobs love story conforms to the conventions of the romance novel, Meltzer sees it as subverting traditional Jewish stories that more often dwell on the difficulty or danger of being Jewish.

I wanted to write a book for Jews where the heroes were sexy, where the men were strong, where the women were beautiful, where they got their happy ending, said Meltzer, a self-proclaimed rabbinical school dropout and Christmas junkie.

Meltzer also wanted to spotlight a character who, like her, struggles with chronic illness. Rachels myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, is invisible to those who dont know her but shapes her life in every way, much as it has for Meltzer, who was diagnosed as a young adult and describes herself as basically homebound.

Meltzer spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from her silver-tinsel-draped home office in Northern Virginia about the impetus behind The Matzah Ball, why she believes the Hanukkah bush has a place in Jewish homes and the power of romance novels to shape Jewish identity.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

JTA: Why did you decide to write this book and what are you hoping to achieve with it?

Meltzer: Ive always been a nice Jewish girl who loves Christmas. And every year I go into, say, Target, and theres a holiday display with all of the Christmas books. Year after year, I went looking for a Hanukkah book, and there never was one. I just wanted to see myself represented on that table. I could envision it: a blue and white book in the sea of red and green.

I also had an experience where my 7-year-old niece was sitting on my lap and she looked at me and she goes Auntie Jean, you have a big nose, and big noses are ugly. She goes to Jewish day school, shes surrounded by strong Jewish women, and I thought, where did she get this message?

So when I sat down to write this book, I wanted to do something different from the stories I had grown up with, which were Holocaust stories, stories where Jews were being taken hostage by terrorists you never really saw us as the heroes of their own stories. I wanted to write a book for Jews where the heroes were sexy, where the men were strong, where the women were beautiful, where they got their happy ending. I wrote this book primarily for myself, but it was really out of a desire to sort of just create a different type of Jewish story.

I think we all know that antisemitism is a growing problem. I didnt want to add to that. I wanted to write the best of my community. I wanted to write the best of Shabbat dinners that Ive been to, the best of Jewish mothers, the best of Jewish friendships, and all the fun of living in the Jewish world. I wanted people to see Jews in a different light.

In the literary world, the #OwnVoices movement has argued that stories about communities and cultures should be written by people from those communities and cultures. Theres also backlash to this idea from those who say it deprives writers of the power to invent and may cause writers to be pigeonholed. How do you see your work fitting into this debate?

Having worked with non-Jewish editors and seeing how people have reacted to the book, I can see now that I think in a very Jewish worldview that is very different from how the rest of the world thinks. Things that I sort of take for granted and nuances that I thought everybody would sort of understand, I had to realize and learn that that was not the case.

Listen, Im a writer. I love writing. Any writer should be able to write any story. But I really think there is something to #OwnVoices. You would have to do years and years and years of research, I think, to write a book like The Matzah Ball, if you didnt have the experience. I think theres absolutely something to be said for #OwnVoices.

The book is very thoroughly Jewish not just the characters and setting but the text, which is peppered with references to the Talmud and other Jewish texts. Who do you see as the audience?

At the end of the day I dont know who the audience will be but I will tell you that absolutely non-Jews have picked up the book. Debbie Macomber is the queen of Christmas romance: She fell in love with the book, and not only gave me a blurb but she did my launch event recently.

The first international territory my book sold to was Sweden, which again is a place that you dont think has a huge Jewish population, and its going to be [the publishers] Christmas lead in 2022. So, obviously, the book is resonating with non-Jewish readers and I think its been resonating with Jewish readers as well, which is the ultimate hope that it reaches who it needs to reach.

Your story is about a celebration of holiday aesthetics, but theres also a moment where the characters realize that a bunch of dreidels and menorahs just dont have a glitzy effect. The Christmas aesthetic is so well developed, and there are so many variations on it. Why do you think the Jewish holiday aesthetic is so much less developed?

I did not grow up in a family that had any type of Christmas or Hanukkah decor, but I love it now. Every year I start sort of scouring for, like, a new Hanukkah inflatable for the lawn, and every year its impossible to find something thats good, that doesnt look just like a tchotchke on my lawn. Even so, Im very proud of my outdoor display we have gone insane. We have giant blow-ups and we put up lights and its gotten to a point where people literally drive to see it.

In Jewish law, there are prohibitions against mimicking your foreign neighbors and things like that. So growing up I think that was very strong: There was a fear of assimilation and that having a Christmas tree, we were all going to go off and marry non-Jews and not be Jewish anymore. For me, I feel like Ive done the work Jewishly, and I am very comfortable in my Judaism. So I dont feel like the Hanukkah bush is going to be my slippery slope thats going to push me over the edge and change my belief system.

But there is also a commandment of beautifying your holy objects, and then the commandment for Hanukkah lights is that youre supposed to publicize the miracle, right? Im not a rabbi, but you can maybe make an argument [in favor of Hanukkah lawn displays].

Ive always been a person who likes pretty things, and especially with chronic illness and in the middle of a pandemic, holding on to my joy is such a big part of my life. And when I walk and its nighttime and the lights are twinkling, I feel it in my kishkes. It just makes me feel good.

If you were to pick a favorite moment in the book or the writing process, one that felt like a peak moment for you, what would it be and why?

The hardest thing for me to write, or what I think was the most important thing, was the bedazzled wheelchair. [Jacob sends a sparkly wheelchair to Rachels apartment after a flareup of her chronic fatigue leaves her unable to leave home.]

The problem of chronic illness is that its invisible. Because were invisible, our struggles are not fully seen and because theyre not seen, theyre not understood. So this idea that like, again, its almost like intersectionality of identity we think of ourselves as Jewish, but were more than just Jewish. A lot of us have multiple identities. By making it visible, by showing that its so much more normal than we realize, thats how we get people to understand that its part of our experience.

And when youre chronically ill, that moment where you want to use a wheelchair is really the moment when youre like holy crap, Im really sick, and when your disability goes from invisible to visible. So I felt it was incredibly important and powerful that women who were chronically ill and sick could see that they could be loved, even in a wheelchair. And that its okay to accept your disability, and then also that a man or a woman or a partner will love you in spite of whatever your disability is, will love you through all the good and bad of your life.

It was the hardest thing to write because I had never seen anything like that in a romance, but I felt like at the end of the day it was the most important scene I wrote in the book.

What else would you want Jewish readers to know about your book?

It was written to create a joyous Jewish story. I know its different but I really think everyone should at least pick it up, give it a chance, give it a try. You might find that you actually like romance and romcom more than you realize. I know its new for the Jewish world.

I really think its important that young people and all of us see ourselves in stories beyond the lens of victimhood, and I really think that one of the ways we do that is by making ourselves heroes in our own stories. And this is a way to do that. Romance gives us the ability to become heroes and love interests, and champions of our own narrative.

I hope Im not the only Jewish romance writer going forward. [Meltzers second book, Mr. Perfect on Paper, will come out next year, and shes at work on a third.] I hope we have lots of Jewish rom coms because theres a huge gaping hole in the market there. And, you know, I think its really important that we start telling stories where we get a happy ending. I know its not what we do, but everyone deserves a happy ending, including Jews.

Read more:

The author of The Matzah Ball, a Hanukkah novel, wants Jews to read more romance - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

She tied you to a kitchen chair, she broke your throne and she cut your hair, and from your lips she drew the Hallelujah... No one hearing these lyrics from the song Hallelujah could doubt that Leonard Cohen knew how to write and sing about love, sex and desire. But fans of his music could be forgiven for not realising exactly what he was trying to convey about religion and the intricate references he was making to biblical stories, Talmudic legends and the Mishnah, a third-century Jewish text.

Now, an analysis of Cohens work sets out to reveal how extensively the revered songwriter used both Christian and Jewish stories and imagery to express ideas in his songs.

The book, Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius, explores the many different spiritual sources and the religious folklore the musician was drawing upon when he wrote masterpieces like Hallelujah, Suzanne and So Long, Marianne.

I think he sees himself a little bit as a prophet, says Harry Freedman, author of the forthcoming book, which will be published later this month, just before the fifth anniversary of Cohens death on 7 November. Hes trying to elevate peoples thinking. Most rock music is about the world we live in. And I think hes saying: there is stuff beyond that, think more deeply.

Cohen, who was brought up in the Jewish faith, was deeply learned about both Judaism and Christianity.

His lyrics are full of references to the Bible, the Talmud and Kabbalah [a Jewish mystical tradition with its roots in the late Middle Ages] but they are easily missed he wove them so skilfully into his songs before reinterpreting them in completely new erotic, spiritual or mystical ways.

In Hallelujah, for example, Cohen refers to the biblical story of King David who, according to Talmudic legend, delights angels and sages when he privately plays his harp at night. He is tested by God when on his roof he sees Bathsheba bathing. After committing adultery with her, David has her husband killed. That leads to a series of disasters in Davids kingdom. There are rebellions against him, his son gets killed, his kingdom is broken terrible things happen, because of the terrible things he did.

Importantly, it is David who, according to ancient Jewish folklore, composed the Book of Psalms and invented the word Hallelujah, meaning praise God. David is somebody who, like everybody, is sometimes good and sometimes bad. Hes trapped in the middle. And although he writes Hallelujah, which is a holy word, hes also very, very broken.

There is a reference in the song to Samson, who loses his strength when his hair is cut by his lover Delilah, because like Samson Davids troubles begin when he cant control himself around a woman. I think Cohen is opening himself up in his songs. I think hes trying to say: love can be wonderful. And love can be terrible. It can go horribly wrong and ruin your life.

Cohen suffered from depression and, Freedman believes, would have identified strongly with David, a fellow musician. David messed up. Davids kingdom was destroyed. And yet he sang Hallelujah. Because when you dont know how to make sense of anything, when youve failed, when things go wrong, all you can do is sing Hallelujah. All you are left with is praise God. Its a very religious idea.

For Cohen, there is no conflict between popular culture and profound thinking, and no difference between Judaism and Christianity, says Freedman. He sees them as all part of the same thing. Sex and religion are also often closely intertwined in his songs: In the Kabbalah, sex and procreation are holy acts. They symbolise the union of human and divine. In one version of Hallelujah Cohen wrote, the narrator recalls: I moved in you, and the holy dove she was moving too, and every single breath we drew was Hallelujah.

Cohen, Freedman says, saw the imagery of religion as something he could use in lyrics to express himself and his unique, mystical way of looking at the world. His vocabulary is one of religious myths and legends. This is what he knows and where he gets his metaphors from. In Suzanne, for example, Cohen casually refers to an ancient Christian legend about Jesus rowing the apostle Andrew to a city, performing miracles and converting everyone from cannibalism to Christianity. And thats just in that one line in Suzanne: Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water.

So Long, Marianne is one of the earliest songs Cohen wrote which has a mystical, spiritual element, Freedman says, and marks the beginning of the musicians quest for spiritual meaning. He sings Come over to the window, my little darling. Id like to try to read your palm. Thats probably the first time he mentions windows, which later on in his work are going to be a really important trope for him. In Cohens work, a window is a liminal space, a place between two worlds or two states of being, he says. Hes using the window to read her palm. Hes expressing something about destiny, about wanting to see what the future holds.

When he tells Marianne that he forgot to pray for the angels, Freedman thinks hes confessing that he has neglected his religious duties and spiritual side for her. His love for Marianne has pushed everything else out. And maybe thats one of the reasons he says so long, Marianne. Its time we moved on. Youve made me forget too much. And now Ive got to get back to my spiritual core.

Now Ive heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you dont really care for music, do you?

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth

The minor falls, the major lifts

The baffled king composing Hallelujah.

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew her

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, and she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Used with permission of the estate of Leonard Cohen

See the rest here:

How Leonard Cohen mined sacred texts for lyrics to his songs - The Guardian

Once upon a time a teacher could walk into a classroom, begin to speak, write on the board and hold the students in the palm of his hand.

Those days are past.

Instead, there is a downward spiral of students attention spans, paralleled by the upward spiral of teachers desperately seeking tools to keep young people engaged.

In 2010, Rabbi Dan Roth walked into a classroom of American students in Israel who had dropped out of their families Orthodox lifestyles. The students ignored him; some even left the classroom. He walked out knowing he had crashed and burned.

Rather than look for another profession, he returned to the classroom, with the same material, in the form of a multimedia slideshow, and the students reacted with enthusiasm.

His goal was not just to reach his students, but also to reach the world, and the seeds of Torah Live were sown.

Torah Lives graphics, animation and film level are highly professional and their team of men and women includes over thirty scriptwriters, animators, video editors, and sound and special effects artists.

Fast forward to the autumn of 2021. Torah Lives graphics, animation and film level are highly professional and their team of men and women includes over thirty scriptwriters, animators, video editors, and sound and special effects artists.

While the world was in lockdown, Torah Live kicked in big time. Since the beginning of COVID, over 1.5 million videos have been viewed, and the website has been accessed by 168,000 active users.It has hundreds of thousands of viewers from around North America and the world, including Moscow, Paris, London, Australia and South Africa.

Hadassah Levy, a Torah Live blogger, writes, An unexpected, and particularly meaningful new user base of Torah Live, has begun among the Bnei Menashe community in India, a group of Jews who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel (a claim confirmed in 2005 by the Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar).

Photo courtesy of Torah Live

A new gaming website was recently added to their rich reservoir. The gaming program is advised by Rabbi Yaakov Deyo. A graduate of Harvard Business School, he was the educational director for Aish L.A. for four years (1998-2002), director of Partners in Torah in New Jersey for seven years, and was involved in many other Jewish educational projects. Were basically looking to create something between Fortnite and Kahn Academy, a platform that will not only engage players, but draw them into a world of Torah by learning via film, performing mitzvot and submitting pics of their work, creating positive impacts in the world around them.

Students are given the tools to create their own written content and animated shorts, and can also upload their own photos and short videos. Parents or teachers can create their own program to incentivize their children. The kids choose their picture from an avatar and can send their photos to Torah Live, who will cartoonify them.Each player has his own dashboard that goes up to 36 levels, alluding to the thirty-six full-fledged righteous individuals in each generation (Talmud, Succa 45b, translation by Sefaria). Points in the gaming element are based on creativity, quality and effort. As they participate, they also earn badges.

Rabbi Roth says, The child earns virtual coins, called dinars. They can decide how to spend them, like sending food to a poor family for Shabbat or sending flowers to an elderly person in a retirement home. We hope through partnerships to help fulfill the childs wish Our hope is that when the child grows up, hell give real money to charity, not virtual money.

Among the more than 30 rabbis who offer video approbations on the site are Rabbi Asher Weiss, Rabbi Hershel Schachter and Rabbi Meir Goldwicht, and Rabbi Yisroel Reisman. The late Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski says, in a clip, Man was intended to be not just an intellectual animal, but a spiritual animal, and in Torah language, this means the acquisition and the development of midot. He calls the work of Torah Live unprecedented educationally and something that can help both young people and adults achieve tzelem Elokimbe in the image of God.

Torah Live materials are used by all ages, by all denominations of Judaism and even by some non-Jews who are learning for conversion or who are simply seeking knowledge.

Torah Live materials are used by all ages, by all denominations of Judaism and even by some non-Jews who are learning for conversion or who are simply seeking knowledge.

Jacob Scheer, who teaches in a Conservative school in N.Y., used Torah Live videos to teach about the issue of ribis (interest). Zita Weinstein, a home-schooling parent, said that her children, know its coming from the right source I often hear my kids laugh as theyre watching and they just want more and more. Rabbi Binyamin Plotzker of Monsey, director of teaching and learning at Yeshiva Ketana Ohr Reuben, said that, The Tefillah and Emunah series is saturated with hashkafa, Emunah and is dealt with so clearly and humorously. They have also been used by Aish, NCSY and Chabad. Some of their films have even appeared on El Al.

Photo courtesy of Torah Live

In addition to their programs on Jewish ritual and mitzvot are those that relate to ones behavior, such as judging one favorably, the quality of patience, the value of a smile, the importance of humility in leadership, and a magnificent 18-part unit on The Power of Speech. Everything is filmed among the magnificent vistas of Israel, including the ocean (to explore the snails from which the blue dye for tzitziot comes).

The Process

Elchanan Schnurr, the scriptwriter and showrunner, is originally from Los Angeles. He considers the direction that Rabbi Roth wants to take a project and researches the content. The process is a dialogue with Rabbi Roth, and Ben Katz (who writes, shoots and edits) and Ronen Zhurat (theirmain animator) are very influential on the creative side.

Ben Katz, originally from New York, told this writer, It is challenging to create productions that have many locations, or many different characters or a combination of graphics, live action and animation. The Lost Light, which had all of the above, was actually approached as two separate productions that were filmed almost a year apart. It also had many logistical nightmares, and many recurring characters that needed to be tracked down and scheduled a year later.

On the other hand, the stunning Weapon of War segment from The Power of Words was scripted, prepared and filmed in a day.

Validation from the Rambam and a Harvard Professor

The Rambam, in Sefer Hamada (the Book of Knowledge), Hilchot Talmud Torah 4:5, explains that the sages said that one who is shy cannot learn [because they are embarrassed], referring to a subject [the students] dont understand due to its depth, or mipnei daatan ktzara. This last phrase is usually translated because his comprehension is weak but one Torah scholar told me it can also be interpreted as referring to a students short concentration span. Today, a student using Torah Live will feel more confident, as he navigates at his own pace.

More than 800 years later, Professor Howard Gardners ground breaking 1983 book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, noted that in addition to language and logic/math, a person can have an intelligence that is spatial, or musical, or bodily-kinesthetic, or interpersonal or intrapersonal. He later added naturalistic intelligence, and new candidates are Existential IntelligenceThe Intelligence of Big Questions and Pedological IntelligenceThe Intelligence of Teaching.

Whether Rabbi Roth and his crew realize it or not, they are implementing Professor Gardners theory of multiple intelligences through their multifaceted Torah Live programs, enabling children, parents and their teachers to find their own pathway to Torah.

Toby Klein Greenwald is an award-winning journalist, director of Raise Your Spirits Theatre, an educator and the editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com. She was thrilled to discover many of her actresses in the Torah Live films.

Link:

Torah Live Breathes New Life into Education - Jewish Journal

Pseudoscientific theory in psychology and sociology

Socionics, in psychology and sociology, is a pseudoscientific[11] theory of information processing and personality types. It is distinguished by its information model of the psyche (called "Model A") and a model of interpersonal relations. It incorporates Carl Jung's work on Psychological Types with Antoni Kpiski's theory of information metabolism. Socionics is a modification of Jung's personality type theory that uses eight psychic functions, in contrast to Jung's model, which used only four. These functions are supposed to process information at varying levels of competency and interact with the corresponding function in other individuals, giving rise to predictable reactions and impressionsa theory of intertype relations.[12][13] In contrast to the generally accepted views in science on age-related variability of the human psyche,[14][15] socionics postulates the presence of 16 psychological types unchanged throughout life.[16] The issue of the existence of personality types is considered by modern science to be extremely controversial.[15]

Socionics was developed in the 1970s and 1980s, primarily by the Lithuanian researcher Aura Augustinaviit, an economist and dean of the Vilnius Pedagogical University's department of family science.[17] The name "socionics" is derived from the word "society", because Augustinaviit believed that each personality type has a distinct purpose in society, which can be described and explained by socionics.[18][19][20]

The central idea of socionics is that information is intuitively divisible into eight categories, called information aspects or information elements, which a person's psyche processes using eight psychological functions.[21] Each sociotype has a different correspondence between functions and information elements, which results in different ways of perceiving, processing, and producing information. This in turn results in distinct thinking patterns, values, and responses to arguments, all of which are encompassed within socionic type. Socionics' theory of intertype relations is based on the interaction of these functions between types.[19][21][22]

Independent authors point to the insufficient empirical validity of socionics both in its basis and in its further development, as well as the practical absence of studies on socionics outside the former USSR.[23] In the West, the term 'socionics' (German: Sozionik) is used in a different sense, to refer to an interdisciplinary area of research on distributed artificial intelligence systems and their applications to sociology.[24][25]

In 1995 socionics was recognized as a discovery by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (not to be confused with Russian Academy of Sciences), and its creator Aura Augustinaviit was granted a certificate of discovery (diploma) and a medal.[26][27]

The special commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Commission on Pseudoscience) has placed socionics among such well-known pseudosciences as astrology and homeopathy.[2]

Socionics provides a means of predicting the character of relations and degree of business compatibility, information sharing and psychological compatibility of people before their joining in one collective group, i.e. to solve the "inverse task" of sociometry.[28]

According to Aleksandr Bukalov and Betty Lou Leaver, socionics uses Jungian typology, informational model of psyche, and theory of information metabolism for political and sociological analysis.[29][30]

According to G. Fink and B. Mayrhofer, socionics is considered one of the four most popular models of personality (including cybernetic theory Maruyama, five-factor model, Big Five" and typology MyersBriggs Type Indicator), deserving special attention because of its importance in the study of personality.[31]

According to J. Horwood, and A. Maw socionics is a science developed by Ausra Augustinaviciute in the 1970s. Augustinaviciute and her colleagues worked with Carl Jung's personality typologies to develop personality-based relationship profiles. It was found that the nature and development of interpersonal relationships (both professional and personal) are far from random. Instead, they are based on how well suited each individual's psychological profiles are to one another, allowing Augustinaviciute to develop 16 'socionic types' predicting and describing the interpersonal relationships between any combination of Jung's personality types.[20]

According to R. Blutner and E. Hochnadel, "socionics is not so much a theory of personalities per se, but much more a theory of type relations providing an analysis of the relationships that arise as a consequence of the interaction of people with different personalities."[32]

Philosopher L. Monastyrsky treats socionics as pre-science. At the same time, L. Monastyrsky himself proposes to pay attention to "the concept of socionic type".[33]

Philosopher E. Pletuhina defines socionics as the study about the information interaction of the human psyche with the outside world, between people. She also defines it as the doctrine of psychological types of people and the relationships between them, as well as notes that the particular quality of socionics is that it considers the innate qualities of the human psyche, including the personality type, which cannot be arbitrarily changed without prejudice to the mental and physical health.[34]

The basic structure of socionics was established in the 1960s and 1970s by Aura Augustinaviit,[35][clarification needed] along with a group of enthusiasts who met in Vilnius, Lithuania. What resulted from their discussions and Augustinaviit's personal investigations was an information model of the psyche and of interpersonal interaction based on Jung's typology but with eight psychic functions rather than four.[36] Augustinaviit's first works on socionics[32] were published between 1978 and 1980.

According to Betty Lou Leaver, Madeline Ehrman, and Boris Shekhtman, like the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI), socionics is a sixteen-type derivative of Jung's work. Unlike MBTI, which is widely criticized[37] for the lack of validity and utility,[38] the socionics model, which is in some use in Eastern and Western Europe, as well as throughout Eurasia, Central Asia, and the Baltic nations,[39] strives to stay very close to the original descriptions and type labels suggested by Carl Jung.[40] According to Betty Lou Leaver, "today's concepts of personality emanate most frequently from the work of Carl Jung, whose theories and research have blossomed into a juncture of philosophical and sociological inquiry. This field of inquiry has been called socionics."[30]

According to Sergei Moshenkov and Tung Tang Wing, "MBTI and Socionics are contemporary sister sciences that categorize and describe human personality types in accordance to the predominance of certain mental faculties called psychic functions by Dr. Carl Jung."[41]

A. Shmelev in his review of the book "MBTI: type definition" by I. Myers-Briggs and P. Myers notes the highest popularity of socionic books in Russian and remarks that their authors are appealing to the literary and artistic associations of the mass reader, in contradistinction to books on MBTI, which contain the empirical and statistical data on the types distribution in professional groups.[42] S.A. Bogomaz considers the socionic typology as a version of post-Jung typology and believes that on a number of criteria it is more perspective than MBTI for the study of the differences between people, because it expands the volume of the typological features and offers an opportunity to form various typological groups with different motivations, attitudes, temperament, perception of information and thinking styles. It is also important the existence of preconditions to study intertype relations, that are substantially not developed within MBTI. S.A. Bogomaz thinks that the creation of the theory of intertype relationships is undoubtedly contribution of A.Augustinavichiute to the development of Jung typologies.[43]

Currently, socionic methods are widely used in academic and applied research. According to the catalog DisserCat[44] from 1996 to 2011 in Russia, Ukraine and other countries were defended more than 800 doctoral theses,[45][46] using methods and analytic tools of socionics in management, education, psychology, anthropology, medicine, philosophy, philology, sports, and law.[47]

The International Institute of Socionics publishes four scientific peer-reviewed journals on the practical application of the methods of socionics in management, consulting, psychology, pedagogy, education, psychotherapy, and humanities.[48] The Institute gives "popularization and proliferation of socionic knowledge" as one of its goals.[49]

There are several socionics organizations.The International Institute of Socionics[50][51] (IIS) was established in 1991 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and for years has held the most prominent annual international socionics conference. The institute pursues the continued development of socionics theory, renders commercial consulting services, and since 1994 has released a bimonthly journal Socionics, Mentology, and Personality Psychology (six issues a year). Topics in the journal usually range anywhere from studies and applications of the primary principles of socionics to speculative extensions of the theory.[52] The director and founder of the institute is Dr. Aleksandr Bukalov. In 2006 the institute established an International Academic Board to issue bachelors, masters, and PhD degrees in socionics.[53]

The Scientific Research Socionics Institute is located in Moscow, Russia, and is led by Tatyana Prokofieva.[54][55] The institute primarily studies socionics, personality and relationships within a socionics context, and develops methods of individual and business consulting.[56] Furthermore, the institute provides socionics instruction allowing participants to receive a bachelors or master's degree in socionics according to the criteria of the International Institute of Socionics.[57]

The Applied Socionics School[58] founded in 2003 is located in Moscow, Russia, with local branches in several cities (Murmansk,[59] Petrozavodsk,[60] Rostov-na-Donu,[61] and Krasnodar), and is led by Elena Udalova.[62] The School developed educational courses about basic knowledge of socionics, the intertype relations, and sociotype distortions, as well as local trainings devoted to the introverted ethics and introverted intuition. The local trainings are conducted for persons of sociotypes having their strengths in respective functions (Fi or Ni, respectively).

The School of System Socionics[63] was founded by Vladimir Davidovich Ermak in November 1991 in Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2005 official School of System Socionics web site was founded by I.M. Eglit. Since then it has become creative laboratory of practical socionics and platform for training socionistsexperts in TIM identification. The School has developed Methodology of remote TIM Identification, introduced a school-standard identification protocol and computer-aided type identification techniques.[citation needed]

Through the work of the International Institute of Socionics and other schools of socionics, there are four peer-reviewed journals and an annual International conference on socionics.[64] A.V. Bukalov and O.B. Karpenko note that socionics is taught in more than 150 universities[47][65][66] in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and other CIS countries, as well as in Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, either as a separate course, or, in view of the applicability of the various methods of socionics Humanities, as part of educational courses on Sociology, Pedagogy, Social Psychology, Management and Psychology of Management, human resource management, Conflictology, social services and Tourism, Computer Science and Programming, Philosophy, Neurology, Journalism, Library Science, Social Work, Didactics and others, including Engineering disciplines.[46][65][67]

Some universities in Russia (including Altai State Technical University,[68]Bashkir State University,[69][70]Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University,[71] andSaint Petersburg State University[72]) Ukraine,[73] Bulgaria,[74] Romania[75] have published or commissioned a number of textbooks and monographs on socionics, or on psychology, pedagogy and management, which socionics and its methods are devoted to specific topics.

There are new areas of research, such as educational socionics,[76][77] sociological socionics,[78] aviation socionics,[79][80] library socionics,[81][82] technical socionics, linguistic socionics, penitentiary socionics, and socionics in other subject areas.

Socionics is used in education process, not only as a tool for teachers to manage the learning process,[83] but also as a basis for the development and improvement of education and training.[74] Bogdanova claim that a teacher holding socionic knowledge and technologies can consciously collaborate with others and improve professional efficiency.[84] Targeted use of intertype relations helps intensify the didactic process, increase the motivation of students.[85] Socionics is also used to assess the individual psychological and personal qualities to forecast the success of employee career.[86]

Izmailova and Kiseleva found socionics interesting to be applied in advertising[87] and marketing, because it allows you to explain the reasons for the behavior of consumers.[88]

Socionics is a tool for the study of personality and creativity of the writer, the typology of the characters in his works.[89] The method of linguistic-socionic modeling proposed by L. M. Komissarova,[90] used for analysis of individual lexicon of language personality.[91] A translation of socionic characteristics in verbal ones is called the "method of linguistic-socionic modeling" and widely used.[92][93]

Socionic methods have been proposed for the modeling of information processes in the "human-machine" systems,[94] and practically used to model systems "aircraft operator" in pilots' training,[79] and other similar areas.

Due to the variety of applications of socionics, its concepts and information models, in the 1990s, Bukalov was proposed to distinguish socionics of personality, or differential socionics, and generalized, more abstract integral socionics.[95] Bukalov believes that the concept of information metabolism, cybernetic modeling and general systems theory extends beyond of psychology and sociology, and consider the relationship of technical information devices, and the types of information human interactions as operator with various technical and electronic management systems of major industries, including chemical, nuclear power stations, complex computer complexes with adaptive tunable to a specific operator interfaces.[95]

International Institute of Socionics lists a number of academic publications on socionics in English in peer-reviewed journals.[96] Since 2000 socionics as a scientific discipline and a field of research has been recognized in Russia and Ukraine.[96][97] The 2015 academic research and applied work in the field of socionics was held in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Estonia, Austria, Germany, and others, as well as in the United States.[96]

Socionists[who?] have devised humanitarian, political, and information technologies that have been applied to various fields of human activity.[98][99] Socionic techniques have been applied at more than 120 enterprises from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and the Baltics by members of the International Institute of Socionics.[99] Socionics is widely used in management, recruitment consultancy (professional orientation, team-compatibility, building company's strategy according to employees types), trainings of aviation and space crews, pedagogy (researches on interaction between teacher and students, problems of learning), family consultancy (marriage and divorce issues, age problems), fundamental science researches (mathematical modeling, genetics, psychophysics, morphology external parameters of socionics types), psychology games and trainings.[100][101][102][103]

Management is the area concerned with the application of both theoretical and practical socionics methods and S-technologies.[104][105] Socionics methods and techniques were successfully implemented by the fellow consultants of International Institute of Socionics and their colleagues in management, reorganization, and team building in more than 150 firms, banks and companies in Germany, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and other countries, included 30 enterprises of the Russian gas concern "Gazprom" in the North of Russia.[28] Management of Deutsche Bank is using socionics methods to evaluate potential of its future employees.[106]

Prof. J. Horwood and Prof. A. Maw socionics used to form the surgical ambulances[20] Socinics model has been implemented in enterprises of the world's largest aluminium company Rusal for evaluating its employees.[107] Different tools are used to define sociotypes, this involves observing and testing based on well-known test methods.[108]

Numerous researches[who?] dedicated to practical and theoretical socionics have proved its efficiency in forming collectives, particularly special and related to security systems. For example, experimental research of aircraft control services, which was conducted at St. Petersburg State University had shown that quality of interaction integral controller which was calculated on the basis of SMoIR (socionics model of intertype relationships) is correlated with sociometric data colour test relations.[109] Also there are a number of scientific monographs and textbooks about significant role of socionics practices and methods in forming effective teams.

Authors of these works point out that modeling of situations in groups can be done in two ways: by forming small groups based on socionics structure (quadras, clubs and temperament types) or by analysis of intertype relations between team members. Choice of approach depends on the goals set. If a goal is to analyse a situation in the team and the interaction between its members, then the best choice is the intertype analysis between members[110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][clarification needed][119][120]

Socionics methods are described in more than 110 PhD and doctoral dissertations in management, economics, organizational psychology.[121]

Socionics allocates 16 types of the relations from most attractive and comfortable up to disputed. The understanding of a nature of these relations helps to solve a number of problems of the interpersonal relations, including aspects of psychological and sexual compatibility. The researches of married couples by Aleksandr Bukalov, Olga Karpenko, and Galina Chykyrysova, have shown that the family relations submit to the laws, which are opened by socionics. The study of socionic type allocation in casually selected married couples confirmed the main rules of the theory of intertype relations in socionics.[122][123] So, the dual relations (full addition) make 45% and the intraquadral relations make 64% of investigated couples.

Security management of dangerous chemical or nuclear enterprises requires special methods of recruitment and work. To provide high security level on nuclear power plants by optimizing the human factor defined a number of ergonomic factors which have an influence on a person in a modern management system: the intensity of work, time factor, isolation of workplace that causes tight interpersonal contacts; monotony of work; lack of physical activity; negative external influences (noise, vibration, etc.).

Each of these factors and especially their combination leads to extreme modes and related stresses (not to mention other circumstances that faced operational staff of plants). However, those approaches are difficult to implement because of financial and timing loss. Except factors caused by external operational activity there are many social stressors as well.[citation needed]

Social stressors may cause mistakes, but more often its provoking mistakes in situations, where they are the most likely to happen.[citation needed] So, a person who doesn't have clear understanding of his duties, or somebody who takes his work as a dangerous activity, will commit more mistakes while working in short supply than a person who is not stressed by social factors. In order to reduce this kind of stressor, on some plants, for example on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant were implemented testing, which were conducting communication trainings and other socionics methods.[124] Also socionics approaches are taught in terms of courses training staff reserve on Leningrad nuclear power plant.[125]

Socionics principles implemented to security system of nuclear power plants are described in a textbook.[126] It includes analysis of the social structure of the staff, the concept of which coincides with the notion of psychoinformative space of collectives in integral socionics.[127][128] Socionics tools combined with psycho informational theory of relationships are using to describe various models of human interaction with complex technological processes that take place in enterprises and transport.[129]

The concepts and methods of socionics are widely used in pedagogy, this collaboration creates a new scientific branch pedagogical socionics.[130][131]

Pletuhina noted that the parent, trainer or teacher, who knows the theory of socionics, who also understands an idea of the "image of a socionics type" and who can determine the child's personality type with a sufficient degree of probability can use those opportunities of the individual approaches that socionics provides to raise and educate a child.[34]

The role that socionics takes in the educational process is not limited to being a teacher's tool for the managing process.[132] It is also a base for development and improving the educational system and for preparing staff. Teachers armed with socionics technology can consciously establish relationships with other people and increase efficiency of their pedagogical skills.[133] Rational implementation of intertype relationships can push educational process to become more intensive and increase students' motivation.[134][135]

Socionics is also researched practical methods and techniques dedicated to evaluation person's individual psychological values to prognoses professional success.[136] Keneva, Marchenko, and Minaev argue that socionics might become a theoretical base for personal-oriented educational technologies.[137][138]

In Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center which located in Star City, Russia socionics methods are successfully used since 1992 for training Russian astronauts and international astronauts' crews and preparing them to spaceflights.[citation needed] Interpersonal issues and effective collaboration are extremely important in extreme conditions while working in a close space and are vital for successful spaceflight.[139] In Star City conducted number of science seminars based on socionics methods and person typology to training space crews. Problem of forming space crews by socionics methods was a central topic at the International conference on space researches,[140] at the Space forum 2011 and at the conference "Piloted flights into Space", which were taken place in Star City and in The Russian Academy of Sciences, also these issues were taken a part in works of Doctor of medical science professor Bohdashevsky, Doctor of philosophy Bukalov A.V. and Doctor of philosophy Karpenko O.B.[141]

Socionics methods appeared helpful for aviation due to the safety of flights, passengers and crew members. This reasons leads to development of such branch as aviation socionics, which is a part of training process for crew members of aircraft.

According to order of the Ministry of transport of Russian Federation Flight Standards Department approved a default application "Training of pilots in the field of human factor", which expects basic socionics knowledge not only among pilots and other crew members, but also prognosing interaction in air crews by socionics methods, including such topics: "Topic 5. Aviation socionics and its place in solving human factor": sources of aviation socionics. The doctrine of Jung's personality type. A. Augustinavichiute and sources of socionics. Current status of socionics science. Sociotypes and its classification. Intertype interaction. Socionic components of professional characteristics. Topic 6. "The problem of forming flight crew and other aviation groups with high collaboration in it": The document, which regulate the formation flight crews. Socionics approaches in forming teams: quadras and typology of "non-quadral" teams. Forming teams in the concept of pursepoful systems. Topic 7. "Forming effective teams based on socionics model": Fuzzy sets: terms and definitions. Socionics model of human being. Socionics model of a crew member. Crew members as a collective operator. Socionics characteristic of crew members. Evaluation of effective collaboration. Conditions to reach synergism. Socionics prognosis in evaluation crew members. Socionics model of intertype interactions. Socionics model of crew members and its evaluation. Using socionics model of intertype interactions to form effective team. Topic 8. "Problems in evaluation relationships "human-machine" ": evaluation of interaction within system "pilot-aircraft". Criteria of interactions' evaluating. Socionics aspects of pilot-aircraft interaction. Preventing pilot's mistakes by constructive and technical tools"[142]

There are numerous studies, dissertations[143][144] and fundamental monographs in this field.[145]

To improve interaction among crew members, specialists of Saint Petersburg University examined 2330 people by socionics methods, including students of St. Petersburg State University of Civil Aviation, Russian State Pedagogical University of A.I. Herzen, St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts; aircrews of airlines: "Syberia", "Atlant-Soyuz Airlines", "Ural Airlines", "Lukoylavia", "Gazpromavia", "Tomsk Avia", "Enimex" (Estonia), "Air Kazakhstan", "AZAL", "Kazair West", "RusAir" and others; air traffic controllers from Moscow, Khabarovsk, Rostov-on-Don, Novokuznetsk, Magadan, Norilsk, Saratov, Omsk, Kemerovo, New Urengoy, Syktyvkar, Nalchik, Ust-UTA, Kolpasevo, Pechora, Evenkii, Yakutia and Sakhalin; professors from almost all flight academies of Russia; delegates from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Estonia.

This data base represents result of 10 years of scientific work. In their researches authors are relying on fundamental works of the Kyiv School of Socionics, International Institute of Socionics, publications in journals "Socionics, mentology and personal psychology", "Management and staff: management psychology, socionics and sociology".[146]

Experimental researches of National Aviation University and Kropyvnytskyi Flight Academy of National Aviation University of Ukraine showed that sociometric and socionics approaches are playing a great role in the working process of aviation specialists, especially in forming flight crews and dispatcher changes.[citation needed]

By system approach were defined socionic types of aviation professionals' personalities and level of their interaction of professional performing in small groups as an example of control changes.[citation needed]

According to the experimental results were obtained socionics and sociometric data of air traffic controllers and correlation analyses of its parameters, also was determined the connection's intensity between person's interaction levels. The practical values of this research is to develop automated module to determine individual characteristic of operators and to evaluate the effectiveness of socionics in the management of air traffic, particular in special cases of flight[147]

Carl Jung describes four psychological functions that are capable of becoming applicable psychically, but to differing degrees in individuals:[148]

In addition to these four types, Jung defines a polarity between introverted and extraverted personalities. This distinction is based on how people invest energy: either into the inner, subjective, psychical world (usually called Seele, soul, by Jung), or toward their outer, objective, physical world (including one's body).

By Jung's rules, 16 psychological types exist. But in his book "Psychological Types" he described in detail only 8, distinguished by the 8 possible dominant functions. Contrary to Socionics and MBTI, Jung did not conclude that the types had two introverted functions and two extroverted functions. He instead outlined that extroverted personality types had a Dominant extroverted function, with the remaining functions being of varying if lower levels of development that range from being Inferior introverted functions that are necessarily retarded to auxiliary functions that lie in the middle.[149]

In socionics, Jung's cognitive functions are always either introverted (focused on refining quality) or extroverted (focused on increasing quantity), and are referred to as information metabolism elements (IM Elements).[150] These are said to process information aspects. To understand what an information aspect is, it is necessary to understand information metabolism as Augustinaviit understood it.

Augustinaviit states that the human mind uses eight elements of information metabolism (mental functions) to perceive the world, and each of these eight elements reflect one particular aspect of objective reality.[151] In her works she describes aspects of the world based on physical quantities such as potential and kinetic energy, space, time, and their properties.

Often, other socionists[who?] have equated these information elements with their definition and according to fundamental physical concepts as well (Matter-Time-Energy-Space) (N. Medvedev,[152] V. Ermak[153]). Matter is compared to Thinking, Energy to Feeling, Space to Sensing, and Time to Intuition. Given the division of aspects of the absolute between Extroverted ("black") and Introverted ("white"), being four times two, their number is eight.[citation needed]

The 8 socionics symbols ( ) were introduced by Augustinaviit while working with Jung's typology[154][clarification needed] and remain the dominant method of denoting the functions and the corresponding information aspects that they process. Text-based notation systems also enjoy use online, such as Victor Gulenko's 8 Latin letters ('P' for Pragmatism, 'E' for Emotions, 'F' for Force, 'I' for Ideas, 'L' for Laws, 'R' for Relation, 'S' for Senses, and 'T' for Time, correspondingly).[155] Among western enthusiasts, Myers-Briggs notation (Te, Fe, Se, Ne, Ti, Fi, Si, and Ni, correspondingly) is also popular.[156]

Socionics divides people into 16 different types, called sociotypes. They are most commonly referred to by their two strongest functions, which in socionics are called the leading function (Jung's dominant) and the creative function (Jung's auxiliary). The creative function is opposite to the leading function in extraversion and rationality. For example, if the dominant function is introverted logic (a rational and introverted function), the secondary function must be irrational and extraverted, which means it must be either extraverted sensing or extraverted intuition.[citation needed]

Aura Augustinaviit usually used names like sensory-logical introvert (SLI) to refer to the types. In SLI the leading function is introverted sensation and the creative function is extraverted logic. She also introduced the practice of referring to types by the name of a famous person of the type (although types of these persons are not universally agreed upon, with the old name Napoleon for the SEE being replaced by Caesar after being deemed an inaccurate type assignment). For example, she called the SLI Gabin and the SEI Dumas. Also sometimes names such as Craftsman or Mediator are used to express the social role of the typea convention introduced by socionist Viktor Gulenko in 1995.[157] Given the formal similarities present between Socionics and the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI) abbreviations frequently used in English, some prefer to distinguish socionic type names from MyersBriggs' names by writing the last letter (J or P) in lower case (for example, ENTp, ESFj)a practice introduced by Sergei Ganin.[158] This is because the relationship between socionics and MyersBriggs and Keirseyan types is controversial.

Dmitri Lytov and Marianna Lytova state that "main spheres of application of socionics are almost the same as for the MyersBriggs Type Theory", and that observed differences in correlation "represent characteristic stereotypes of the socionics and the Keirsey typology.[159] Others state that MBTI and socionics "correlate in roughly 30% of cases," and that "there are many subtle differences".[160][clarification needed] J and P in Socionics and MyersBriggs are completely different:[161] in MyersBriggs, J and P stands for the first extraverted function (Jextraverted thinking or feeling, Pextraverted sensing or intuition); in Socionics, J and P stands for the first function (Jrational (thinking and feeling), Pirrational (sensing and intuition)). This formal conversion is carried out in accordance with the MyersBriggs Type Indicator.

In dividing the socion according to the four Jungian dichotomies, from this is formed 16 socionic types. The following tables provide a list of types with the names most commonly used in socionics:

Among socionists[who?], the prevailing view is that sociotypes are inborn and genetically determined,[163] although the content of different functions and dimensions may vary. Some socionists[who?] believe that sociotypes may temporarily change while in altered states of consciousness or under great stress.[citation needed]

Vladimir Ermak first introduced two important concepts of modern socionics further confirmed by Elena Udalova research.[citation needed] The first one is the growth dynamics which means that every horizontal block of two functions (see below) is filling in the certain age, from bottom to top, with the roughly 7-year interval, so that the lowest block is done before 7, the next is complete before 14, the weak part of the mental track is done before 21, and the top block finally leads after that. Due to this process, a child, or a teenager, may demonstrate faces of other sociotypes according to the active horizontal block. Besides, being introduced to the unknown people, or in stressful situations, people again may demonstrate adaptive or protective behaviour directed by the appropriate blocks (see below).[citation needed]

The second concept is so called functional dimensions. It was introduced by Aleksandr Bukalov.[164] He defined the first dimension as the personal experience (Ex), the second dimension as social norms (Nr), the third dimension as the current situation (St), and the fourth dimension as the globality, or time perspective (Tm). This concept is useful because it best illustrates the difference in cognitive power (imagine measuring capability of 2D v. 3D measuring tool) and roughly describes abilities of each function to process and generate information. Still, definitions of dimensions require further research and clarification. For example, the vulnerable function tends to lose knowledge which haven't been used.

Since socionics is mathematically Base-16 and also a psychology of personality in the same way as the typology of Carl Jung and MyersBriggs, it shares a similar degree of mathematical consistency, while enduring the same serious shortcomings in the experimental justification of these theories.[citation needed]

Taking this, socionics also differs from other typologies in that it also includes a complementary Base-16 relationship set, with the intent of penning to paper the key social dynamic traits between grouped combinations of socionic types. Therefore, socionics could be considered to be within the realm of the science of social dynamics, intended to describe social behavior according to mathematical applications of Base-16, group theory, set logic, and reduction of the Gulenko-Jungian notation for socionics types to hexadecimal and Base-2 bitwise operation. While this mathematical approach is strictly theoretical and has been criticized for lack of empirical testing,[165] systems theory has been the tool of socionics theorist, such as Gregory Reinin to derive theorical dichotomies within socionics theory. In 1985 Aura Augustinaviit acknowledged the mathematical theories of Reinin and wrote a book titled The Theory of Reinin's Traits to describe the mathematical processes of socionics theory. Mathematical methods have been a standard part of socionics theory since this time.

Studies of Elena Udalova show that at least three of Reinin's Traits are distinguishable and can be used for detection of a sociotype.[citation needed] Those include: statics/dynamics (having appropriate functions in their mental track), questims/declatims (tending to raise questions or declare opinions), and aristocrats/democrats (understanding inequality or equality of people). Not all names of Reinin's Traits reflect their actual meaning very well, but they were defined historically and now seem to be fixed.[citation needed]

In 2006, Viktor Talanov sought to identify cognitive correlates for functions.[166] Recent advances in cognitive psychology have facilitated understanding of information processing at the cognitive level.[citation needed] Introversion has been correlated to high brain-blood levels; extroversion to lower levels. Viktor Talanov has proposed[citation needed] to identify the processing centers of the four Jungian functionslogic, ethics, intuition, and sensingas a first step towards demonstrating the existence of the function types. (called simply "functions" in socionics).[167]

Socionics has been brought up at conferences on psychology, where its practical applications were discussed. For instance, in 2005, socionics was discussed at the British and East European Psychology Meeting in Krakw, Poland, which was attended by British, American and Eastern European psychologists.[168][169]

The opinion of scientific community about socionics is not uniform. Socionic analysts and theorists see it as "the fusion of science and technology that makes it possible to predict behavior and activity style of an individual, group of people, and society as a whole" and "the science that discovered the laws of human compatibility".[170] Psychophysiologist Sergey Bogomaz says there is no reason for considering socionics as a separate science. He considers socionic typology to be a Russian version of post-Jung typology, similar to the Myers-Briggs typology, but improved by a greater number of typological features and the formulation of prerequisites for the study of intertype relationships. Bogomaz considers the construction of the theory of intertype relationships to be an undoubted contribution of Augustinaviit to the development of Jung typology, but criticized it by stating that there is little experimental data in socionics, there is no empirical verification of many claims, and by having many unsystematic pseudoscientific publications.[171] In later publications Bogomaz used socionics and Jungian typology for psychological research.[172][173][174]

Philosopher L. M. Monastirsky[175] identified the use of speculative categories as the first shortcoming of socionics. Secondly, he stated that it lacks clearly defined typing method and each socionics school defines methods of their own. At the same time Monastirsky, recognizing the potential of socionics, proposed to turn to the concept of a socionic type for carrying out some research in the field of the methodology of science.[175]An important issue in the field of socionics is the problem of convergence between type diagnoses of different analysts. Vladimir Ermak showed that ignorance of model A of the type of information metabolism leads to numerous mistakes in the definition of a socionic type.[176] In the early 2000s, socionic analysts tried to develop more rigorous approaches to type diagnosis.[177]

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"Socionics was developed in the 1970s and 1980s mainly by the Lithuanian researcher Ausra Augustinaviciute. The name 'socionics' is derived from the word 'society, since Augustinaviciute believed that each personality type has a distinct purpose in society, which can be described and explained by socionics. The system of socionics is in several respects similar to the MBTI; however, whereas the latter is dominantly used in the USA and Western Europe, the former is mainly used in Russia and Eastern Europe. For more information, the reader is referred to the website of the International Institute of Socionics and to several scientific journals edited by this institution<http://socionic.info/en/esocjur.html#top>. Despite of several similarities there are also important differences. For instance, the MBTI is based on questionnaires with so-called forced-choice questions. Forced choice means that the individual has to choose only one of two possible answers to each question. Obviously, such tests are self-referential. That means they are based on judgments of persons about themselves. Socionics rejects the use of such questionnaires and is based on interviews and direct observation of certain aspects of human behavior instead. However, if personality tests are well constructed and their questions are answered properly, we expect results that often make sense. For that reason, we do not reject test questions principally, but we have to take into account their self-referential character. Another difference relates to the fact that socionics tries to understand Jung's intuitive system and to provide a deeper explanation for it, mainly in terms of informational metabolism (Kepinski & PZWL, 1972). Further, socionics is not so much a theory of personalities per se, but much more a theory of type relations providing an analysis of the relationships that arise as a consequence of the interaction of people with different personalities."

Let's notice that the relation of psychologists to socionics is ambiguous. As it is noted by A.V. Bukalov and O.B. Karpenko, wide circulation of socionics as scientific direction is confirmed by that for the last 15 years socionics ideas and methods are used approximately in 800 theses according to all sections of the humanities and in a number of technical sciences. Now socionics is taught in more than 150 universities of Russia, Ukraine, the CIS countries and countries of the European Union.

"In this case it is really important to recall for socionics and related fieldsit's accessible methodology that helps to determine a person's type through numerous binary features. For example, it helps to understand is he an extrovert or an introvert, is he better in working with details and facts or he has more intuitive mind, is he able to finish his work or he is easy involved in a new activity. By creating this profile we can evaluate does the specific person is able to handle the exact task and only after that we have a look on his certificates and working experience. That's how we are working in Deutsche Bank"

Recommendation: Recommended for students taking course of organizational behavior staff, teachers and specialists in field of staff management.Annotation, quote: Book dedicated to one of the most new and prospective areas in organizational psychology socionics. Book is designed to assess the base criterion for evaluation individual-psychological and personal qualities in order to prognosis professional success of the person, it reflects two-years experience of using socionics model in evaluating staff at enterprises of company "Russian Aluminum"

Socionics is devoted to the study of how people interact with each other, compatibility of their sustainable types of thinking and behavior (sociotype) and patterns of relationships (information metabolism) between different sociotypes. Socionics as a new science derives a great deal from psychology, sociology, philosophy within social management. Carl Gustav Jung considered to be a forerunner of socionics and Aura Augustinaviit developed it to a new science in the early 1970s Socionics helps to define person's type and to prognoses relationships with other sociotypes (16 sociotypes, that formed from different combinations of extroverts and introverts, rationalists and irrationalists, logical, ethical, sensory or intuitive types). Different tools are used to define sociotypes, this involves observing and testing based on well-known test methods as MBTI, Buns, semantic differential. In recent years socionics tools are widely applied by Russian companies to recruitment

About authors: Oleh Kondratiev specialist of refining NK "YUKOS", PhD. chem. Sciences. Author of more than 40 scientific papers and publications. He prepared for edition textbook "Socio-psychological management on the basis of socionics."

Quote: socionics is the science that treats people as bearers of certain types of information metabolism, that interacting with each other basing on social laws.

Quate: Socionics "art of communication and understanding"

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Socionics - Wikipedia