The Wandering Hebrew

This blog has moved!

2010-01-25T12:21:00.002-05:00

Hi friends:

This blog has moved! You can now follow me at www.wanderinghebrew.com. You can subscribe for email notifications there, or put the link into your RSS feed.

Thx for reading!
JW

Talmud and midrash and homework, oh my!

2009-09-17T00:47:00.006-04:00

I intended to begin this blog post with a "dear friends, fam and readers" but that would, alas, require that I actually have any readers left!

After nearly a year of virtually complete blogging negligence, I see that my total weekly readership is an average of "11" these days.

I know, try not to feel too crowded here.

I am, however, happy to report that the school year has resumed, I am enrolled, and I plan to resume jotting down the random theological thoughts that happen to come across my pages in the coming months.

This year on tap: Talmud and Midrash. In other words, lots of Aramaic, Hebrew and head-scratching. If you had told me three years ago when I started this process that I would actually enjoy going neck-deep into the obscure minutae of ancient Jewish law, I never would have believed you. So far, it's been fascinating. Having a delightfully quirky teacher who gets the year started by putting us into symbolic yoga positions doesn't hurt either. :)

First though, High Holidays. Services to write. Sermons to deliver. Shoes to buy (long story). Yesterday I bought a wig from a Halloween shop so I can dress up like a prophet when I deliver my d'var on Isaiah 58. Sounds like one of those "It will really be great!" . . . . "Orrrrr, it will really be awkward" situations.

Let's hope for the best.

Shana tova l'kulam!

Spring Giddiness by Rumi

2009-08-15T12:49:00.006-04:00

Spring Giddiness

by Rumi

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don't go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don't go back to sleep.

I would love to kiss you.
The price of kissing is your life.
Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,
What a bargain, let's buy it.

Daylight, full of small dancing particles
and the one great turning, our souls
are dancing with you, without feet, they dance.
Can you see them when I whisper in your ear?

All day and night, music,
a quiet, bright
reedsong. If it
fades, we fade.

'The Faces of Deer' by Mary Oliver

2009-06-23T20:39:00.003-04:00

The Faces of Deer
Mary Oliver

When for too long I don't go deep enough
into the woods to see them, they begin to
enter my dreams. Yes, there they are, in the
pinewoods of my inner life. I want to live a life
full of modesty and praise. Each hoof of each
animal makes the sign of a heart as it touches
then lifts away from the ground. Unless you
believe that heaven is very near, how will you
find it? Their eyes are pools in which one
would be content, on any summer afternoon,
toswim away through the door of the world.
Then, love and its blessing. Then: Heaven.

More Birkat Hachama resources

2009-03-12T10:09:00.009-04:00

See http://www.blessthesun.org/ and the Birkhat HaHammah blog http://coejlblog.blog.com/4360537/ for a compilation of resources.

For a copy of the Cleveland communitywide celebration flyer see http://jrf.org/birkat-hahammah.

For traditional sources and the complete ritual service see www.berachot.org/halacha/24_birkathachammah.html#4.

For a Song for the Sun performed by Rabbi Shawn Zevit see &feature=channel_page">www.youtube.com/watch?v=629JxUYTlFk&feature=channel_page>&feature=channel_page. It's beautiful!

Calculate the timing for your local gathering for the ritual and education about solar energy at www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html.

Birkat Hachama: Blessing the Sun

2009-03-01T12:27:00.012-05:00

This is the my April newsletter column, written for the Temple where I am a rabbinic intern:

How do you feel about the sun? Do you like it? Are you glad it’s here?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, take note: On the 8th of April this year, you will have a special once (or twice) in a lifetime opportunity to bless the sun in an official Jewishly sanctioned way! The holiday of Birkat Hachama will be here, and it’s a holiday that only happens once every 28 years!

Birkat Hachama is a special blessing made on the “anniversary” of the sun’s return to the position that it was in when the universe was first created. (The rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud, circa 500 C.E., determined when that was.) The Talmud says: “Our Rabbis taught: One who sees the Sun at its turning point should say ‘Blessed be the One Who effects creation’. And when does this occur? Abaye said every 28 years when the cycle begins again, and the Nissan equinox falls in Saturn, on the evening of the third day going into the fourth day.”

The full blessing they are referring to is as follows: Baruch atah adonai, elohanu melech haolam, oseh ma’aseh b’reisheit. Blessed are you, HASHEM our God, King of the universe, who effects the work of creation. This blessing is also recited on other occasions of natural phenomena, such as witnessing lighting, comets, meteor showers and even wondrous natural topography, such as great mountains, rivers and vast wildernesses.

For the day of Birkat Hachama, however, other passages and prayers are recited in addition to this blessing, largely from psalms and the prophets. The structure of the prayer service was set down in the Shulchan Aruch, a codification of Jewish law written by Yosef Karo in the 16th century. The service generally includes the following:

• Quotations about the sun from the Tanakh
• Four verses from the Tanakh, which spell out the Tetragrammaton
• Some of Talmud Berachot 59b
• Parts of Psalms 148 and 90
• The blessing recited on natural phenomena (Baruch Atah...ma’aseh b’reisheit)
• Psalms 121, 8 and 19
• The hymn El Adon al kol hama'asim (normally part of Shabbat services).
• Aleinu
• The Mourner's Kaddish

The Internet is teeming with creative Birkat Hachama services, which are roughly structured on this outline, but vary in the addition of other texts or songs. Jewish ecological groups in particular are seizing on this unique opportunity to teach about the ecological values of our tradition.

How can you observe Birkat Hachama? Here are some ideas:

* Download a service off the Internet and get together with some friends for your own potluck and service

* Join the Birkat Hachama group on Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20544854723

* Chabad has put together a handy website of information, which includes a “global event finder” where you can find a Birkat Hachama event near you.

www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/817861/jewish/Birkat-Hachamah.htm.

Given it’s from Chabad, my guess is they will only include Orthodox-sponsored events.

* Check your local Jewish newspaper for other events that might be happening in your area.

Shomer Israel song for Tachanun

2009-02-03T12:56:00.018-05:00

In preparing to lead mincha service at Elat Chayyim in a few weeks, I've had the great joy of discovering this beautiful song written by Shlomo Carlebach from the first line of the Tachanun prayer. Known as "Shomer Israel," it can be used at any service in which Tachanun is recited.

Thank you, V, for sharing this jewel with me! I can't stop playing it!

http://www.imeem.com/elinka/music/pHK-dnnH/shlomo_carlebach_shomer_israel/

You might also enjoy this beautiful version sung by his daughter, Neshama Carlebach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxxf66nWqE

Is the sky falling?

2009-01-30T20:57:00.013-05:00

Today, amid the grim economic news President Obama reported of the highest unemployment claims to be filed in history, and a 3+ percent contraction of the economy during the last quarter of 2008, I heard word that really made my heart heavy: my beloved Denver dive shop might be closing its doors soon.

This is the dive shop where I learned to dive, where I got my friend Marcus hooked on diving (he went on to become a Dive Master there), and the shop through which we took that great dive trip to St. Lucia. One of my good buddies from massage school works there; what is he going to do if it closes? Lord knows there isn't any massage work these days.

Technically, this "news" is just a rumor. Also in the rumor category is that the graduating class at my college is finding a sharply reduced number of job offers coming through the placement office. Some soon-to-be-graduates are thinking about doing a yearlong CPE (clinical pastoral education) rotation at a hospital just to have something to do. In other words, they are finishing the equivalent of a doctoral education and going out and working for $30,000/year in a chaplaincy internship.

Still more rumor, but the word too is that our incoming class is looking very lean on numbers. The class that entered the year after my class was half the size of my class. The class that entered this year was even smaller than the one before it. Apparently next year's might be still smaller.

Grim, grim news all around.

My friends at the Rocky are still waiting to see if they have their jobs. The Dallas daily paper has apparently announced layoffs of their own. What can any of us do but shake our heads?

Tonight I watched our beautiful little daughter fall asleep -- like I do every night -- and watched her little fingers as she rubbed her eyes and sucked on her bottle. It's so precious watching this little person, so blissfully ignorant of all the hardships going on around her. She makes a little grunt here and there, tosses a little from one side to the next as she drops off, all the while snuggled warmly in her mint green blanket.

Do you remember very well, that element of childhood where you were peripherally aware of the problems of the world -- but not really? How you'd catch glimpses of them, but then you'd safely retreat into a world of make-believe and imagination, where everything felt safe? I have the dimmest recollections of those feelings; like probably most grownups, I wish I could remember them better.

God and the Obama inauguration in 2009

2009-01-25T19:45:00.017-05:00

For those of you who Facebook with me, you already know that I was impressed by BOTH ministers who gave addresses at the inauguration on Jan. 20. Yes, I was even impressed by Rick Warren. His anti-gay rhetoric still leaves much to be desired, but fortunately, this kind of intolerance was missing from his speech. He did a commendable job of being inspiring without being offensive -- and his talk went the extra mile to put in certain touches that a Jewish audience in particular would recognize. I noticed too, that his one reference to Jesus was clearly done in a personal, rather than a universal, context.

I did not realize until I received the following email from the Shalom Center, however, that Warren's speech also was inclusive of Muslim faith communities. Yasher Koach, Warren, well done. You've proven yourself to be far savvier and more sensitive (when you want to be) than I, at least, would have ever given you credit for.

Here, Rabbi Wasgow explains in further detail why Warren's speech was so excellent -- at least as measured by the interfaith barometer -- as well as some of the reasons Lowery's speech was equally masterful:

I thought God - the real God, the One Who cares passionately about justice, peace, and diversity - came out rather well in the Inaugural ceremonies.

God's official spokespersons did better than I had expected. Rev. Rick Warren - whose choice I had strongly criticized because of his views about gay and lesbian sexuality - did far than I had feared. I was especially moved by his speaking, in English, the Jewish "Sh'ma" about God's Unity and the Muslim "Bismillah Er Rachman Er Rahim" -- "In the name of God Who is Compassionate and Merciful." I doubt that most Christians knew what he was doing in either case, but Jews and Muslims did.

And I respected his going out of his way to affirm that he spoke in Jesus' name not as if Jesus were the self-evidently, universally accepted God Incarnate but rather, explicitly that Jesus is the aspect of God that Warren himself feels called by. I also appreciated his effort to contextualize Jesus as both actually a Jew and in Muslim eyes a prophet by saying his name in both Aramaic and Arabic as well as in the Greek by which most of the Christian world knows him.

And though Warren did not confess and repair the sin of his attacks on gay sexuality, his words were in general pacific.

As for Rev. Lowery: He moved me to tears and to delighted laughter too. Tears when he began with a passage from a poem/song by James Weldon Johnson, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," long known as the "Negro National Anthem." Not only the words of the song but its melody move back and forth from grief to hope, as they reflect on the past and future of black life in America.

I know the song and so do my adult children, who learned it in mostly black schools in the District of Columbia when they were growing up. Indeed, I sang it last Sunday morning when I preached on Martin Luther King and the American future at Old South Church in Boston, and the church leadership chose it from the hymnal of the United Church of Christ to end the service. I thought then, "Every Black church in America is also singing that song this very morning!" But it had not occurred to me that Rev. Lowery might use it.

I am sure that few American whites know it, or understood what Lowery was doing.- But practically every Black American did.I laughed out loud when Lowery then turned upside down the despairing and cynical old Black patter about "black, brown, yellow, red, white." Who could have imagined these in-group cultural artifacts, these nearly secret rituals of Black life, coming out of the closet in such a public way on this most broadly American occasion? As for President Obama himself, any God worth the salt that was spread upon the Temple offerings would have smiled benignly as he mentioned "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers." Monotheists, polytheists, and atheists all included in our community. (Maybe Obama, like many Buddhists, sees Buddhism as a philosophy, not a religion.)

As for much of the content of Obama's speech - for example -- ''A nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous": it seemed secular on the surface but at least to my ears bespoke an implicitly religious sensibility. Some of the immediate post-ceremony TV commentary heard the speech as prose rather than poetry; but as I read it later, that line and others seemed to me to glow and chime as poetry. God shining through.

Shalom, salaam, shantih, namaste, peace.

- Rabbi Arthur Waskow

How to hug a baby

2009-01-22T08:08:00.014-05:00

(Pulled from an email)

1. First, find a baby.

2. Second, be sure that the object you found was indeed a baby by employing classic sniffing techniques.

3. Next you will need to flatten the baby before actually beginning the hugging process.

4. The 'paw slide': Simply slide paw s around baby and prepare for possible close-up.

5. Finally, if a camera is present, you will need to execute the difficult and patented 'hug, smile, and lean' so as to achieve the best photo quality.

What 'voluntary simplicity' means to me

2009-01-21T11:54:00.013-05:00

What do these things have in common?

The movies: Surfwise

and Into the Wild

The song: “Society” by Eddie Vedder (in video above)

The blog: Cage Free Family

This recent article in O magazine: “Back to Basics”

When you line them up, it’s obvious, but it’s actually taken me several years to realize how deeply and spontaneously drawn I feel to a philosophy or a movement that I only recently learned the name for: Voluntary Simplicity.

In recent months, there’s been a notable upsurge of articles on this topic in the mainstream media, no doubt spurred by our ailing economy and people’s tightening finances. But maybe, too, I hope, this might also be a reflection of a culture shift in our society -- a growing awareness of the damages caused by our society’s love affair with consumerism.

It isn’t just about wastefulness and its ecological impacts (which are very real and important). I think it goes deeper than that; it gets into what happens to our spirits when we spend so much energy worrying about things. It’s about the mental feedback loop we create for ourselves when, as the lyrics to “Society” say: “You think you have to want more than you need; until you have it all you won’t be free.”

The more we have, the more we want; we never have it all, so we never have enough.

Even for people like Aaron and me, who have never been particularly materialistic and have always hated shopping (if only because of the crowds) – even we find ourselves sucked into this mindset sometimes. Even people who by their natures aren’t particularly materially oriented have to struggle against the huge, moving, oppressive message of our larger culture. Trying to raise children with this awareness, is, I think, even harder. I guess I’m about to find out!

Finally having a phrase for this concept – Voluntary Simplicity – really helps. At least it has helped give me a framework, a vocabulary, for these feelings I’ve been wrestling with for a long time.

What is the voluntary simplicity movement? Well, it has many definitions, but I like this one here, which is offered by a website www.simpleliving.net/main that collects resources on this topic:

“Simple living — aka voluntary simplicity — has just about as many definitions as there are individuals who practice it. Simple living is not about living in poverty or self-inflicted deprivation. Rather, it is about living an examined life — one in which you have determined what is important, or ‘enough,’ for you, and discarding the rest.”

"Living in a way that is outwardly simple and inwardly rich."
— Duane Elgin

I’d like to share a portrait of what this philosophy has meant to my family:

Before the baby came, Aaron and I went through several weeks of mental gyrations, distressed about how we were going to make room for her. Our house is 1,200 square feet, and we only have three bedrooms: one for us, one for his oldest daughter, and the third that was my office. Having an office isn’t just a luxury for me. When in school, I need a quiet place to study for 20+ hours a week. The bulk of my editing and writing work is also done from my office, and I need a phone to conduct interviews, and a quiet space without the sound of a television or household conversations to distract me.

Aaron also has an office, which he runs his camping stove business out of. It is stacked floor to ceiling with supplies, and a large shipping table, and a jeweler’s bench to do his sautering. All of that used to be done in the dining room in the middle of the house (and there was no real dining room). A year ago, he spent 6 months enclosing the back porch, to make room for his business, so we could have an actual dining room with a table.

The dilemma raised other issues for us beyond the immediate issue of a baby room. For me, it challenged what has been a concept of personal boundary that simply could not be sustained in this living environment. You see, even without the baby coming, moving into this house has been a challenge. I’m a Westerner, and I’m used to my space. I lived alone in a three-bedroom house in Denver, and grew up in a rambling ranch style home where you could cordon yourself off in a nook and spent an entire contented day in complete solitude. That most definitely isn’t possible here.

For Aaron, it challenged his notions of what it means to “be a provider.” Amid all of our talks of what we would do to solve our immediate space problem, he spent several weeks plotting different ways that we might be able to move into a bigger house in a few years – especially if we have a second child. What if he moved this money here, or refinanced that, or did this with his retirement money, or borrowed money from there? We had long talks trying to figure out how we would move into a bigger house because clearly (we told ourselves), it will never work with what we have now.

I won’t bother getting into the dozens of ideas we plowed through to arrive at a solution to our immediate space problem; suffice it to say we reached one. What is more important though, and the reason I’m writing all this, is to say that in that process, along the way, we both came to not only accept but joyfully embrace the fact that we actually can make this house work, even if we add a second child down the road, and even if we add a third (which is not likely).

I can’t tell you what a relief it is – to free ourselves from that feedback loop of “we don’t have enough.” How liberating it is to not be spending anymore mental energy trying to “figure it out” and “plot our advancement”! Every time the gas bill comes and we gasp – we also sigh with relief knowing that we have the smallest house on the block and everybody else has it even worse. Every time we feel burdened by the yard or the unending repair projects, we think about how much worse it would be if we upgraded. Every time the mortgage bill comes, we think about how the money we are saving by not having a larger house will be used to create memories instead of things: summer camp, road trips, time spent with our daughter (in the form of not having to work even more than we already do).

Instead of spending our energy toward more, we are spending our energy toward less: “How much stuff can we get rid of in order to maximize the space we do have?” Legions of people go on shopping sprees and revel in how much fun it is; we’ve discovered it is just as much fun (and immensely more rewarding) to go on divestment sprees, to see just how minimalist we can get.

I’ve sold off nearly half of my book collection; the only books that stay, after I’ve read them, are things I need for my resource library, or books I desperately love. Aaron bought a 5 gigabyte MP3 player where he has downloaded his entire CD collection, and we’ve starting selling off those. He is making digital recordings of all of his record collection, and those are going to go too.

The 10 shelves we spent storing CDs, books and records will now have cloth baskets on them to store Adi’s toys. And unlike Aaron’s teenage daughter (and myself growing up!), when Adi outgrows her toys, she will have to get rid of them. They can’t stay in her room, unused, for a decade, collecting dust. Because she might very well have a sibling sharing the space with her. We will, we hope, instill in her the same joy for living in uncluttered spaces, and the same philosophical belief in only having what you really need.

Is it really this simple? No, of course it isn’t. I wish I could say we’ve reached some higher, enlightened state of being in which we never fear or want for more, but that wouldn’t be true. It has meant compromises, and I’m sure it will present more of them. But we feel like we have made a start – an important start – in the right direction.

I continue to be drawn to stories of others, who are making even more radical steps than we are. The documentary movie Surfwise, which came out last year, told the story of this eccentric doctor with nine sons, who raised them all on a beach surfing. It’s quite a story and really worth renting, if you can find a copy. There were huge detriments to what he did (not the least of which was his children’s complete inability to ever enter high-skilled professions, because they never graduated from high school). But he also created many gifts for his children that most people in our society never experience.

I will continue to be a loyal reader of Cage Free Family, a blog kept by a family who is traveling around the country in a mobile home and living a natural lifestyle. Their model is not very replicable for most of us: The father obviously makes a solid living doing computer work, which he is able to do from anywhere. They live on a very slim budget, but few of us would even have the option of working on the road. I do, though, admire their sense of adventure and freedom, and their commitment to simplicity, and I envy the rich experiences they are able to give their children. Travel is one of the best things any of us can do.

And, finally, every time I run across news stories like this one

www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/garden/11tiny.html -- about people who make my 1200-square-foot house seem like a palatial estate – I will always drop what I am doing and sit down and read. I’m truly fascinated by these folks, and genuinely admire them. Me, I like my flat-screen TV and my TIVO; I like having a proper kitchen with a stove, and a kitchen table where I can invite folks over for dinner. But my hats off to anyone who can live in an 80-square-foot house and be happy! If we could all learn even just a little bit from their example, it would be a very different country indeed.

“Society” Lyrics
Oh it's a mystery to me.

We have a greed, with which we have agreed,

and you think you have to want more than you need;

until you have it all, you won't be free.

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

When you want more than you have, you think you need...

and when you think more than you want, your thoughts begin to bleed.

I think I need to find a bigger place...

cause when you have more than you think, you need more space.

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

Society, crazy indeed...

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

There's those thinkin' more or less, less is more,

but if less is more, how you keepin' score?

It means for every point you make, your level drops.

Kinda like you're startin' from the top

...and you can't do that.

Society, you're a crazy breed.

I hope you're not lonely, without me.

Society, crazy indeed...

I hope you're not lonely, without me

Society, have mercy on me.

I hope you're not angry, if I disagree.

Society, crazy indeed.

I hope you're not lonely...without me.

Life update

2009-01-18T18:54:00.007-05:00

I have my last class for the semester tomorrow. And, in the way that things in life don’t always work out the way you plan, it turns out it will also be my last class for the year, as I am officially “on leave” for the remainder of the term.

“Things not working out like you planned” is probably the one resounding lesson I’ve learned from parenthood so far, six months into it, and it’s probably a good lesson to learn early. I’ve heard many parents utter this adage over the years, and this probably won’t be the last time I say it myself!

Many things have shaped up differently than either I or Aaron imagined them when we traipsed off to the fertility clinic 15 months ago, not really believing it would work anyway. I fully expected at the time (and even throughout the pregnancy), that I would continue on at school just as I always had; I would bring the baby to classes when she was very young, and then she would go to child care once she got too old to do that. This is the course of action my classmates follow, so I figured it would be the same for me.

Of course I didn’t plan on having a baby who I couldn’t put down, even for one minute, the first three months of her life, making a 45-minute car ride to school impossible to do. I didn’t realize child care facilities charged $1,000 a month. I didn’t know I couldn’t use child care anyway because a baby who demands to be held all the time would never work in a center where there is one adult to every four babies.

I thought the college would give me more financial aid than they did. I didn’t know the pregnancy would leave me so out of shape, or that the C-section would still be hurting five months later (or even that I would have one). I didn’t know I would gain 50 pounds during the pregnancy, or just how many trips to the gym it would take to lose those pounds (40 down, 10 to go.) I never dreamed I’d have so many problems breastfeeding. Who knew it took so much time to breastfeed, or that I’d have “issues” that would stump even the state’s leading lactation specialist? No one knew Adi was all cockamamie in utero, and that her leg would break during labor, or that her hip joints would fail to form and I’d be driving her to Delaware for doctor’s appointments until she was 11 years old.

I didn’t realize babies took so much time to take care of; that probably sounds silly but it’s true! I thought they slept more than my particular baby does and that she’d sort of “hang out” quietly and let me study, which she rarely does. I knew babies woke up a lot as newborns, but I didn’t know she’d still be waking up every three hours to eat when she was five months old. I didn’t anticipate how hard this would be on Aaron, even though he’s not the one getting up; it disrupts his REM too, and then he has to go to work all day. And deal with a teenage daughter.

I could never have anticipated how much I love just staring at my daughter, watching her discover the world, and catching every tiny, incremental step of her development. Once her temperment made it possible to send her to child care, even if I could have afforded it, I wouldn’t have really wanted to. I didn’t know that my “plan” to work on schoolwork 50 hours a week and work at a job for 20 hours a week would become completely unthinkable after having a baby, because it would leave me mentally and emotionally too tapped out to enjoy her. I didn’t understand, until I became a parent, what I have heard other parents say for years: that becoming a parent changes you, it changes your priorities. You are no longer the center of your own world.

I don’t know what my classmates with children do – if they are studying and working 70 hours a week. But if they are, I think they must be crazy. Maybe they earn more for their work than I do, so they can work less. Or maybe their spouses earn more than mine does. Or maybe they can get by with less studying. Or maybe they have grandparents in town. I really don’t know! I recall one of my classmates, who graduated two years ago, actually had THREE children while she was in rabbinical school, and she still graduated in six years. All I can do is scratch my head. Maybe she was Wonder Woman in disguise? Or Wonder Rav?

I don’t know how any of them are doing it exactly; I just know that with my particular circumstances, I’m not able to do it at this particular moment in time.

My new plan is to stop planning. I don’t know what is coming in the next six months, or 12, or 16. Now that Aaron has earned is licensure, maybe he’ll get a great job, so I can return to school without needing to work. Maybe the recession will cause cutbacks at his agency, and he’ll lose his job. Maybe one of the job applications I have out there will land me a well-paying part-time job that enables me to return to school part time. Maybe I’ll get a great full-time job that enables me to start repaying my student loans aggressively and save up to return to school in a few years. Maybe Little Adi will get a brother or sister.

As of two weeks ago, Adi began sleeping through the night. I think I’m going to withhold mentioning that last “maybe” to Aaron until he’s had a few months to catch up on his sleep :).

While I don’t know have any Plan with a big “P”, I have lots of little plans that I’m looking forward to – things like doing more reading just for fun, dusting off some of my writing projects that have been shelved for 2.5 years, and most importantly, watching this little wonder of a person get bigger and discover her world. I will also continue to enjoy my work at the Reform temple, where I am an intern through May. My adult b'nai mitzvah class is going really well, and the work I'm doing with teens on their b'nai mitzvah dvars is immensely rewarding. I've also begun substitute teaching at another shul near my house.

Whenever I catch myself feeling sad about this situation, Adi makes it pretty easy to recover. All I have to do is think about how I have what is surely the most loving, brilliant and beautiful baby who was ever born, and I can't help but to smile!

Eulogy for Rabbi Lew

2009-01-16T14:58:00.003-05:00

The messages and blog posts keep coming -- in my email account, on my friends' Facebook profiles, on my college Listserv. Rabbi Lew touched so many people's hearts, and influenced the religious journeys of so many more.

I never met Rabbi Lew. Many of my friends and colleagues did. But I read one of his books and was touched deeply by it. Mostly, I'm saddened by the principle of his death: that in this world griped by bombing, war, financial collapse and ecological ruin, one of the "good guys" had to leave. I'm sad for the redemptive acts he didn't get to finish.

I wanted to share this beautiful eulogy, delivered at his funeral:

http://www.everydayzen.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=258&Itemid=38

Obama and the Ms. magazine brou-haha

2009-01-15T10:34:00.010-05:00

What silliness, this "controversy" over the new Ms. cover photo, which actually earned a spot on CNN's primetime coverage this morning! Men CAN be feminists, which is exactly what this cover is saying. The only tragedy is that so many men (not to mention women!) are still reluctant to use the dangerous "F" word!

I was a Hillary supporter in the primaries but I had no reservations at all about jumping onboard behind Obama when he became the Democratic representative. He didn't beat Hillary because he's a man, despite what the critics interviewed on CNN would have us believe; there were other factors at play.

The only argument proferred by these criticis was really nothing more than a whiny complaint: "Why do we need a man to be the face of feminism? Why couldn't a woman have been on the cover, like Hillary or Sarah Palin?"

Excuse me?!? Did they just say "Sarah Palin" and "feminism" in the same sentence? I guess what they are really saying is that the only thing that qualifies someone as a feminist is the presence of an X or a Y chromosome -- not what they actually believe!

It's ridiculous, and it's an insult to the growing numbers of men in the world who are women's greatest allies.

Baruch Dayan HaEmet

2009-01-13T11:00:00.003-05:00

Baruch Dayan HaEmet

The Jewish world has lost a remarkable teacher and writer, Rabbi Alan Lew, z"l. May his words and wisdom continue to inspire and enlighten the Jewish people.

Click on the link above to learn more about his work.

D'var Hanukkah: A teaching on Chag HaBanot

2008-12-28T07:43:00.004-05:00

I’d like to share some new things I learned about the holiday of Hanukkah this year. As you know, if you were counting your candles, tonight is the 6th night of Hanukkah, which means tomorrow is, of course, the 7th night.

Does anyone here know about anything specifically special the 7th night … ?

Well, until a few days ago, I didn’t either. But it turns out that in some parts of the world, the 7th night of Hanukkah is its own special and distinct holiday. Let me explain …

It is true that Hanukkah is mostly a holiday about warriors and priests, Maccabees and Temple rituals. But in some parts of the world, the holiday has also become associated with special traditions concerning women and girls, via the story of Judith.

As an apocryphal book of the Bible, the Book of Judith has the same status as the Books of the Maccabbees, which tell the story of Hanukkah. But unlike the Maccabbees, which contain a full cast of male characters, the Book of Judith focuses on the heroic acts of one single woman.

This woman does one small but very important thing, and that is she tricks a military general by plying him with a bunch of salty cheeses, which prompts him to drink way too much alcohol and fall asleep. What the general had been planning to do was have an amorous role in the sheep tent with Judith before slaughtering all the Jews. Instead, the poor general wound up literally losing his head to Judith’s sword, and in that way, she was able to save the Jewish people.

In the middle ages, perhaps because of the arisal of anti-Semitism, Judith became a foremost Hanukkah heroine. Her figure was frequently depicted on menorahs, and the tradition developed of eating cheese dishes, to commemorate her clever strategy.

How did Judith’s story become entwined with the Hanukkah celebration? No one really knows. It might be because of the thematic connection between Judith and the Maccabees, both stories are about overthrowing a malevolent enemy army. Or it might also be because Hanukkah is the only Jewish holiday that includes a Rosh Chodesh – the monthly festival of the New Moon, and Rosh Chodesh is the quintessential women’s holiday.

In observant communities today, Rosh Chodesh is very much a living and breathing holiday. On that one day each month, women essentially get a Get Out of Work free card – they don’t have to do any work (at least in theory). It is said that this “holiday” is a reward for the fact that women did not give up their gold to make the golden calf.

Rosh Chodesh always falls on the 7th night of Hanukkah, which is tomorrow, and for women in North Africa, it became a kind of holiday within a holiday called Chag HaBanot, the festival for daughters. On this day, girls and brides received special gifts, and families retold the story of the book of Judith.

In countries such as Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, and Morocco, a variety of customs surrounded Chag HaBanot evolved, which I recently learned about from some writings by Rabbi Jill Hammer. Unfortunately, because the Jewish populations in these countries have essentially died out, the traditions seem to have died out along with them.

One tradition was for women to come to the synagogue, touch the Torah, and pray for the health of their daughters. Mothers would give their daughters gifts, and bridegrooms would give gifts to their brides.

Another tradition was for old and young women would come together to dance, and for girls who were fighting to make extra efforts at reconciliation.

Often there was a feast in honor of Judith, where participants would eat cheese to remember Judith's subterfuge; and women might also take food from a ritual meal of Talmud scholars and give it to their daughters, to protect them from harm.

There was also a custom of passing down inheritances on Chag HaBanot.

While these traditions have largely gone by the wayside, I think we can use them as an inspiration or a genesis for new practices on the 7th night of Hanukkah. For example, we can use candle-lighting tomorrow as a chance to talk with our children or grandchildren about the contributions Jewish women have made to history – whether that heroine is Judith or Golda Meir, or even Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

At a minimum, since tomorrow is Shabbat and Hanukkah and Rosh Chodesh, I think it is three really great reasons not to do any work AT ALL. Drink some cocoa, take a walk, and make someone else do the cooking for a change!

Misadventures in Medicaid Land

2008-12-23T05:40:00.004-05:00

Have you ever had a really bad sore throat, which you figured was probably viral so there was nothing that could be done anyway, but you better go to the doctor just to be sure?

So you go to the doctor and the doctor tells you: "Yeah, your throat is really red and there's pus in there, and I'm worried it could be strep," and she then proceeds to tell you that she doesn't have one of those long cotton ball things on a stick to do a throat culture, so you'll have to go over to the hospital to be tested!?

Well, I hadn't either. Until yesterday. But that is exactly the crazy scenario that took place. From the time I took the baby to the sitter's (to keep her out of a waiting room full of sick people) until I got home from the pharmacy, the entire experience took four hours. For a strep test.

It's a crying shame I don't have a voice at the moment because shouting my incredulity would be much more satisfying than pounding it out on this keyboard...

The genesis of this story probably began five months ago, when I submitted a bunch of paperwork to get Adi onto the state's health insurance plan for children. Called CHIP, it is designed to make sure all children in the state have health insurance, and the premiums range from $0 to $50 a month depending on a family's income. Imagine my surprise, then, when Adi was denied enrollment in CHIP because we didn't make enough money (you know ... for the free state health insurance plan). Instead, both she and I were summarily placed on Medicaid.

In the case of her care, this hasn't really mattered one way or the other. The list of doctors who take children on Medicaid was long and lush, and both my first- and second-choice pediatriacians were on the list. Her care, including a delayed vaccination schedule and the prosthetics for her dislocated lips, has been nothing short of wonderful.

In my case, the list of doctors who take adults with Medicaid was noticably shorter. Neither of the two doctors I have used in Philly under my regular insurance plans, nor any of the doctors Aaron has ever used, accept Medicaid. I wound up picking the only doctor who was listed in my ZIP code. Yesterday was the first time I had reason to pay her a visit.

I must say, the whole experience leaves me scratching my head. It looked like a normal doctor's office. She also accepted regular insurance patients, so it wasn't some inner city clinic for indigents or anything. But she couldn't even do a simple strep test!

Sending me over to the hospital, however, was like sending me to an inner city clinic because it was the unit of the hospital for the uninsured. I had to wait over an hour to be "registered" and then I had to wait 45 minutes for the lab to do the throat swab. Then, because Medicaid only covers labwork at one particular chain of labs, they had to send the swab out of the hospital to have it tested elsewhere, even though they had the capacity to test it right then and there.

The results will come back today.

I'm 99% sure I don't have strep. I haven't actually had it since I was a kid. Mostly I was just being a worried mom, worried about giving something so contagious to my baby. But this whole thing felt like a fiasco worthy of a Michael Moore movie; a case of the cure killing you faster than the disease.

Quote of the Day

2008-12-09T08:19:00.005-05:00

A: "Maybe we should turn the blanket so the butt nugget spot is down by our feet."

J: "Yeah, but the other side has the gack stain on it."

-- In a household with four cats, a discussion on which way to put the blanket

back on the bed after changing the sheets.

The real story of Hanukkah

2008-12-09T08:03:00.008-05:00

This is the third in a series of newsletter columns, written for the Temple where I am a rabbinic intern:

As the Bible’s favorite melancholist, Ecclesiastes, put it עת לפרוץ ועת לבנות -- there is a time to tear down and a time to build up (3:3). It’s a phrase that has crossed my mind many times in rabbinical school, where an inescapable part of the process seems to be learning that the “truths” we grew up with aren’t quite what they were cracked up to be.

In the first year of school, I learned the distinction between “law” and “tradition” (or minhag). Before that year, so many things that seemed sacrosanct, were, I found out, merely social customs that had evolved in certain parts of the Jewish world. This isn’t to say that traditions don’t carry weight, but the revelation opened up an entire range of choices that had never existed before – which is both freeing and frightening.

For years I had heard it was forbidden to name a child after a living relative. It turns out, that’s minhag, and minhag only among Ashkenazi communities. Sephardic communities consider it an honor to name a child after a living relative. What prayers we say during Friday and Saturday services are hugely dependent on minhag – so much so it can be challenging to lead services in liberal communities where people are open to experimentation. Figuring out which prayers you have to keep in and which are optional takes far more skill than the “traditional” mode of prayer where everything is done by rote.

The second year of school, during the second week of biblical history class, we were told that the Exodus may have never happened and that we didn’t emigrate from Egypt – the early Israelites were actually no different from Canaanites. Well, if that doesn’t constitute “tearing down,” I don’t know what does! Suffice it to say, we spent nearly an hour “processing” those tidbits of biblical scholarship and sharing how we felt about them.

Now, this year, in my rabbinic history class, we spent several weeks exploring the Hanukkah story, and learning all sorts of sordid details about the Maccabean heros that are conveniently left out of children’s stories.

The basics of the story are simple enough: The Maccabees were a Jewish liberation movement that won independence from the Hellenistic leader Antiochus. They founded a royal dynasty, called the Hasmoneans, and established independence in the land of Israel for about 100 years (164 – 63 BCE).

The details get a little more complicated. While it is true that Antiochus was issuing ever-stricter edicts against the Jewish people, his actions were actually a reaction against growing nationalism and insurgency by small bands of what might be called Jewish “traditionalists” – Jews opposed to the Hellenistic (Greek-influenced) behaviors of the majority Jews around them. Antiochus' crackdown was basically an attempt to quell disorder and inter-Jewish conflict. As one of my classmate’s put it: It would be like a group of orthodox Jews today starting an insurgency against liberal Jews, believing they are behaving “too American.” And the orthodox winning!

With the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty, a series of strict (and, we would believe) repressive laws were put into place against “progressive” (or Hellenistic) life. Worst of all, the Hasmoneans established illegitimate rule at the Jerusalem Temple, which caused conflict for generations.

“The Hasmonean experience was to have a profound impact upon Judaism in Judea and its environs,” explains Martin S. Jaffee in his book Early Judaism. “The bitterness spawned in the battle against Hellenism did not dissipate with the Hasmonean victory. To the contrary, as the Hasmonean dynasty wore on, it was routinely accused by outsiders to power of betraying the original ideals of the anti-Hellenistic revolution, of outdistancing even the ancient Hellenizers in diluting the pure essence of Judaism. Opponents could easily question the legitimacy of Hasmonean political leadership from two perspectives: as Kings, the leaders were not Davidic; as High Priests, they were not descended from Aaron through Zadok. From the mid-second century BCE and after … the Temple and its priesthood became a source of conflict… ."

So there you have it: the “real” story of Hanukkah! I think it illustrates beautifully why adult Jewish learning is so important. I love the children’s version, and would never want to change it – but look at how much richer and more textured the story becomes when we explore it as grownups!

Jewish-Muslim healing

2008-12-04T10:05:00.007-05:00

I felt very proud to read about the work the rabbi of my former congregation in Denver is doing toward improving Muslim-Jewish relations. To read more about it, visit:
www.ijn.com/features/563-colorado-muslim-society-bnai-chavurah-

This article reminded me of an email I received recently from the Shalom Center, a Philadelphia nonprofit run by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, which is dedicated to promoting peace throughout the world. The email, sent soon after the tragic terrorist attacks in Mumbai, included a reproduction of official condemndations sent out by Muslim organizations in the wake of the attacks.

The organization assembled this list because we Americans have a tendency of assuming that the Muslim world is staying silent in the midst of these autrocities. "Over the years, I have noticed a pattern like this," Waskow states. "When some terrorist group claiming roots in Islam commits a mass murder, Muslim organizations denounce those actions. The mainstream US media ignore such denunciations. Then some people denounce the Muslim world for the absence of condemnations against terrorism, and grow new fury against Islam. In the hope of forestalling this sequence, I am sending (below) some quotations and citations of Muslim responses to the Mumbai murders."

The content of these statements is less important than the fact they are being issued.

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
CAIR Condemns Mumbai Attacks
Muslim Civil Rights Group Demands that Hostages Be 'Released Immediately and Unconditionally'
Press Release: Council on American-Islamic Relations
November 27, 2008

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today condemned attacks on a number of sites in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai that left at least 100 people dead and many more injured.The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages taken during the attacks. Witnesses say the attackers sought out American and British citizens.[ ...]
In a statement, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said: "We condemn these cowardly attacks and demand that all hostages taken by the attackers be released immediately and unconditionally. We offer sincere condolences to the loved ones of those killed or injured in these senseless and inexcusable acts of violence against innocent civilians. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens of all faiths in repudiating acts of terror wherever they take place and whomever they target."
The Washington-based group also asked the Indian government to protect all its citizens from the type of retaliatory attacks that have taken place following similar incidents in the recent past.CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
MPAC Condemns Mumbai Terror Attacks
November 26, 2008
The Muslim Public Affairs Council today condemned a series of seven terror attacks in Mumbai, India, which have left at least 80 dead, and more than 900 injured. According to media reports, about 40 British nationals and other foreigners are currently being held hostage at a Mumbai hotel.[ ... ] Those responsible for these brutal and immoral attacks should be swiftly brought to justice. Islam considers the use of terrorism to be unacceptable for any purpose.
"We at MPAC extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the Indian people. As Americans, we are familiar with the imminent and the long-term repercussions of terrorism," said Executive Director Salam Al-Marayati. "Here at home, we remain committed to combating, rejecting and effectively countering the scourge of terrorism in all forms."
Founded in 1988, the Muslim Public Affairs Council is an American institution which informs and shapes public opinion and policy by serving as a trusted resource to decision makers in government, media and policy institutions. MPAC is also committed to developing leaders with the purpose of enhancing the political and civic participation of Muslim of Muslim American. MPAC offices are located in Washington, DC, New York City and Los Angeles.

Indian Muslim Council-USA
US Based Indian American Group Denounces Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai
November 27, 2008
Indian Muslim Council-USA
IMC-USA (http://www.imc-usa.org), an advocacy group dedicated towards safeguarding India's pluralist and tolerant ethos, denounces in strongest possible terms the terror attacks in Mumbai, the financial capital of India. IMC-USA empathizes with the families of victims, hostages and police officers killed in the attacks and hopes for the safe release of the hostages.
Rasheed Ahmed, President of IMC-USA said: "The perpetrators of these crimes against humanity should be captured and punished to the maximum extent of the law."
IMC-USA calls on the Indian government to find ways to increase the safety and security of ordinary citizens as well as provide immediate and adequate compensation to all the victims of this carnage. Recent years have witnessed an alarming growth in the number of groups committing mindless acts of violence against innocent civilians. In the past few months alone there has been a string of bomb blasts in many cities, ethnic cleansing and targeting of minorities, police harassment and scapegoating of innocent civilians and fake encounter killings.
"The Home Minister is responsible for this widespread deterioration of law order and security situation and should be held accountable," stated Rasheed Ahmed.
IMC-USA also calls on the Indian government to setup a high level commission to investigate the increasing scourge of violence and terrorism in the country and ways to engage the civil society in effectively curbing this menace.

Kashmiri American Council (KAC)
Mumbai Terrorist Attacks Reprehensible Crimes Against Humanity: Dr. Fai
November 27, 2008
The Kashmiri American Council (KAC) expressed its utter disgust at the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Mumbai, India. Condemning the bestiality in the strongest terms, the KAC pledged to contribute, in whatever form possible, to the rehabilitation effort of the affected families.
Dismayed at the photos displaying the carnage, fleeing victims and burning buildings, Executive Director of KAC, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, prayed that the authorities would pursue all reasonable efforts to investigate, apprehend, and punish those who are guilty of committing these reprehensible crimes against humanity.
The KAC Board, in an extraordinary meeting, pledged to oppose those who would resort to violence in order to pursue whatever ends they claimed. Reports indicating that terrorists specifically targeted Western tourists further aggravate enlightened sensibilities. Targeted victimization of innocents has no justification and encourages retribution from any and all quarters. To that end, the KAC hopes that all India's citizenry allows for a cooling period and hopes that communal harmony prevails during this troubling time in India s history.

Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN)
CAIR-CAN Condemns Mumbai Attacks Islamic Group Hopes for Safe and Speedy Return of Hostages
November 28, 2008
The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) today condemned the attacks in Mumbai, India in which Montreal actor Michael Rudder and Toronto yoga instructor Helen Connolly were wounded. Currently, six Canadians are also unaccounted for and are believed to be held hostage.
Foreigners from diverse countries, including Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Yemen, Israel, New Zealand and Singapore, are among those being held captive according to Indian officials. "We categorically condemn the Mumbai attacks and demand that all hostages be immediately released. We also pray for the safe and speedy return of those held captive," said Sameer Zuberi, CAIR-CAN Communications Coordinator.
"Our condolences go out to the families of those victimized in these tragic events. As people of faith we must strongly speak out against the terrorizing and kidnapping of innocent civilians," Zuberi added. CAIR-CAN also called on the Canadian government to direct all resources necessary to assist those Canadians affected by the Mumbai attacks.

MuslimMatters.org
From Muslims Condemn Mumbai Terror Attack
By Brad A. Greenberg
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
November 26, 2008
www.jewishjournal.com/thegodblog/item/muslims_condemn_mubai_terror_attack_20081126/
Muslims worldwide have been denouncing the attacks, and not parsing their words. This condemnation is from MuslimMatters.org:
Regardless of who was involved, the people who carried these attacks out are animals, with little sense of humanity or morality. As Muslims, we condemn such senseless carnage against innocent civilians, wherever it may occur. This goes against the fundamental spirit of Islam, which promotes a culture of life and humanity, not bloodshed and violence. And another example of why extremist ideology, whatever that ideology may be, needs to be refuted and condemned. "Whoever kills a person [unjustly]… it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind." (Qur'an, 5:32)
Today, we join all Indians in expressing our outrage and our condemnation of this senseless spilling of innocent blood.
May Allah grant patience to the victims of terrorism, and may He extract full justice against the perpetrators.

Leaders of Muslim Majority Nations, Arab League Slam Mumbai Terrorism
Agence Frances Presse and Africasia (UK)
November 27, 2008
http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast=081127131945.2rm0mkv6.php

The Shalom Center 6711 Lincoln Drive Philadelphia, PA 19119
www.shalomctr.org office@shalomctr.org 215.844.8494

Update from the field

2008-12-01T18:02:00.005-05:00

Saturday evening I officiated at my first wedding. ~whew~ ! All in all, I think things went pretty well, and what I am most happy about is that no one apparently noticed just how nervous I was!

They were a lovely young couple in their late 20s who had dated since college. She teaches music and he is a wedding DJ. About 150 people were in attendance (so much for starting with a small wedding!) and I was chagrined to discover, once I was on stage and ready to start, that there was no microphone. I projected as loudly as I could, but have no idea if anyone in the back could hear me.

Although I had done a mock wedding in my lifecycles class last year, doing one for real is naturally a very different experience. It was amazing how much time and work went into the preparation for what was only a 20-minute ceremony!

The couple (and one mother) met with me in person back in April, and between then and now, the bride and I probably exchanged at least 30 phone calls or emails with each other: proofreading the Hebrew of their ketubah and sending changes to the printer; proofing the ceremony flier and sending corrections to that; figuring out how to affix the tallit for the chuppah; sending the 7 blessings in English to their friends who were reading them during the ceremony, etc. etc. etc.

Eight months and an hour drive later, I showed up, waited around for an hour, oversaw the ketubah signing, which only took a few minutes, and then went downstairs for the ceremony. Twenty minutes later, the glass was breaking and people were shouting mazal tov!

I must say, being a part of a ceremony in which two people pledge to love and care for each other for the remainder of their lives is a genuinely humbling and moving experience. In between my jitters and moments of self-consciousness up on the bimah, I had an equal number of moments where I felt so lucky to be doing what I was doing.

Later, as I was driving home, I thought back to those times during recess at Glennon Heights Elementary School when I conducted funeral services for the dead birds I found on the playground, and day dreamed about how cool it would be to grow up to be a minister like Father Mulcahey on MASH. Getting to be a part of the lifechanging moments in people's lives feels likes such a privilege and such a blessing.

I learned a lot on Saturday, including many things to tweak and do slightly differently the next time. And I'm looking forward to when the next time will present itself!

Quote of the Day

2008-11-26T19:25:00.003-05:00

"I wish it were three hours later so I would have an excuse to go to bed."

-- Aaron, 6:15 p.m.

Yes, they are exciting times here on Delmont Avenue...

It's a rough road out there

2008-11-22T21:32:00.004-05:00

Sometimes, I have rather jolting reminders of just how insular and sheltered being in rabbinical school can be, and yesterday was another one of those reminders.

After dropping the baby off with her grandparents, I headed off to the train depot and took my first solo ride to Center City (downtown) for an interview for a massage job. I quit working at a spa near my house in April because of the pregnancy, and about a month ago, I called them and said I was ready to start picking up shifts again. They said: "Okay!" and never called back since.

I'll admit that a small part of my brain thought it was a little weird. Up until I quit working, I covered at least one shift every other week, and frequently more than that. Maybe they had forgotten? Maybe they thought I wasn't serious? Maybe I had teed someone off? So, I called back a second time and this time spoke to the owner, who congratulated me warmly about the baby, and assurred me he would call if they needed me.

The phone hasn't rung once. That's was sent me to Craigslist and browsing for other options.

When I showed up for the downtown interview yesterday, I was surprised to see that I was not the only one there. It turned out, they had decided to schedule two group interviews because "so many people" had responded to their ad. For the next three hours, I sat in a cramped foyer with all of the other "hopefuls" either waiting for my 3-minute solo interview or hearing a sales spiel from a rippley-muscled personal trainer.

What had been posted as a $35 an hour job was actually only $35 an hour if you could convince their personal training clients that they absolutely NEEDED to be getting regular massage as part of their fitness routine. If you didn't make the pitch successfully, you didn't get paid. And since their clients tended to come in at the usual times: 8 am, noon, after work beginning at 4, you would basically be hanging out at the gym for long LONG hours every day, with no people to even make the pitch to, waiting for their clients to come in so you MAYBE could get them interested.

I have no problem explaining to people the value of massage -- I really don't. I believe in it myself, or I wouldn't have spent two years going through the training. But I still shake my head when I think about the fact I basically spent half of my entire day responding to a massage job for a fitness business that doesn't have any clients. Who has ever heard of such a thing!? And who in the world would ever take such a job!?

Those three hours weren't a total waste. I had an enjoyable time getting to know the other CMTs, and a sobering time hearing their various states of woe. One guy got certified in June and has still never found any work. He's "on call" at two spas, but if his being "on call" is anything like my being "on call" -- I know what that means!

Another woman, probably in her late 40s, is working one day a week at a very high-end spa where I have also applied for jobs in the past. They only pay 25% commission (compared to the 40% I got at the last two places I worked), and they will not give her anymore shifts. Her husband just lost his job after 35 years with the same company. She could barely hold back the tears.

+++

None of this should really have been a surprise. I turn on the news and basically all I ever hear about is how decimated our economy is, and how bleak it will probably continue to be. It's always a different experience, though, when you confront it head-on, and hear people's stories.

Being in rabbi school feels insular because the reality is, none of us are in want for more work. The list of part-time job offers that comes through our school that are at least willing to pay us $20 an hour is long and flush, and some of them end up going unfilled. Our problem isn't a lack of work, it's a lack of time. If we are, on average, physically in lectures for 12 hours a week, and we are expected to study 4 hours for each hour of class -- that is 48 hours right there. Add in commuting time, eating, shopping, sleeping-- and there are only so many hours left in the week to actually do any work.

Most of us do work, of course, and most of us are simply very, very tired. But we aren't worrying about whether we are going to eat, and we aren't running around frantically applying to jobs.

Ironically, it's the whole time issue that prompted me to go interview for the massage job to begin with. There are any number of work options before me, but like most parents I suppose, my whole equation has shifted: Every hour I work is an hour I'm not spending with my daughter, so I want to work the least number of hours possible. And massage is my quickest way of doing that. Clearly, that way will not be an option in the forseeable future, but in this economic climate, how could I complain?

I left the interview and came outside to rainy skies. Jogging four blocks to the train depot, hoping to catch the last train before rush-hour rates kicked in, I felt very grateful that for the first time, my belly wasn't hurting. And I couldn't wait to get home to kiss two pink and plump little cheeks on what is, without a doubt, the sweetest little baby in the whole wide world.

Parshat Chayai Sarai

2008-11-22T20:20:00.002-05:00

This semester, I’m taking a course on poverty and social justice, and one of our units focused on land acquisition in the Bible. I’d like to share with you some of what I learned, since one of the more famous stories related to land acquisition is actually found in this week’s Torah portion, Chaye Sarai, the Life of Sarah.

Although called “The Life of Sarah,” our portion actually begins with Sarah’s death. Interestingly, she is not with Abraham when she dies, and once word reaches her husband, he begins negotiations to purchase a cave and its surrounding land not only for her burial place, but for the burial of his future progeny.

The story takes up the entire chapter, and I’d like to take a moment to go over the story together.

Genesis Chapter 23

And Sarah was a 127 years old; these were the years of the life of Sarah.
And Sarah died in Kiriath-Arba; which is Hebron in the land of Canaan; and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying,
“I am a stranger and a sojourner with you; give me possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
And the Hittites answered Abraham, saying to him,
“Hear us, my lord; you are a mighty prince among us; in the choice of our tombs bury your dead; none of us shall withhold from you his tomb, that you may bury your dead.”
And Abraham stood up, and bowed to the people of the land, to the Hittites.
And he talked with them, saying, “If your mind is that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar.
That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me as a possession of a burying place amongst you.”
And Ephron lived among the Hittites; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,
“No, my lord, hear me; the field I give to you, and the cave that is in it, I give it to you; in the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.”
And Abraham bowed down before the people of the land.
And he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will give it, I beg you, hear me; I will give you money for the field; take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.”
And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,
“My lord, listen to me; the land is worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? Bury therefore your dead.”
And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, 400 shekels of silver, current money among the merchants.
And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders around, were made over
To Abraham for a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.
And the field, and the cave that is in it, were made over to Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the Hittites.

There are many striking elements of this story, and one mystery.

· First, the description of the negotiation is quite detailed, making this story actually longer than the Akeidah – the binding and near sacrifice of Isaac.

· Two, this is the only example of land purchase in the Bible that involves money. There is one other case of land purchase in the Bible, but there, the currency is in the form of sheep.

· The mystery involves the presence of the Hittites, who are associated with a region of modern day Turkey. The trouble is, there is no evidence that the Hittites ever lived this far south – so their presence in the story is puzzling. If this story was written in the late 8th century BCE, as many scholars surmise, it was the Assyrians who controlled the region. But even if it were written at another time, there was no time when the Hittites were in power here.

· Finally, regardless of that quixotic detail, it is clear that the author of this chapter is trying very hard to stress the legitimacy of the trade agreement. The Hittites offer to give the land to Abraham for free, and three times, the text tells us, Abraham pays 400 shekels for it and seven times, the text says, Abraham stated the contract in earshot of a group of Hittite witnesses. It is clear that there is a real emphasis on the sale’s validity.

What makes Abraham’s insistence on purchasing the land so interesting from a literary perspective is that up until this point, God has done nothing but tell Abraham that he is going to receive the land of Canaan as his inheritance.

In Genesis 12, Abraham is first told he will be given the land. In the next chapter, 13, God says to him: “As far as you can see, North, East, South and West, the land is for you and your offspring forever.” Then in Genesis 15, God tells Abraham that all of his offspring will get the land. Now, in Genesis 23, we learn that Abraham goes out and pays for a piece of it!

From a historical perspective, Abraham’s purchase raises some tantalizing questions. Was the emphasis on purchase and validity so strident because the author was trying to assert the right of the Israelites to live on land now being occupied by Assyria? And by naming the fictional Hittites, he avoided potentially enraging the ruling power?

Or is the land purchase story simply a later insertion by someone who just didn’t notice the incongruity of having Abraham purchase land that only a few chapters earlier had been promised to him by God.

Or, is the promise-purchase contradiction not a contradiction at all? God promised the land to the Israelites, but maybe that never was meant to mean we wouldn’t have to pay for it. Maybe it simply meant whomever we would buy it from would be amenable to selling – as the Hittites apparently were.

It’s a question we may never answer, but is fun to wrestle with.

This story of the purchase of the cave at Machpelah is the first story of land acquisition in the Bible, but it is far from the last. Our tradition gives us other, equally vexing stories that describe entirely different ways in which we acquired the land.

The books of Numbers and Judges describe a peaceful allotting of the lands by a Goral, or lottery, system. The Book of Joshua describes a bloody blitzkrieg series of battles in which the Israelites conquered the land in pockets, and decimated the local inhabitants.

There is, in other words, more than one version of the story. But those are other stories for another time.

Stand Up for Progressive Judaism in Israel

2008-11-10T21:44:00.004-05:00

Rabbi Miri Gold has served as the rabbi of Birkat Shalom congregation in Kibbutz Gezer since her ordination as a Reform rabbi by the Hebrew Union College in 1999. Sixteen other local rabbis serve the area of the Gezer regional council and receive a state salary. Rabbi Miri Gold, who serves the entire region, is not recognized by the state because she is a Reform rabbi.

Out of the thousands of rabbis recognized by the State of Israel there is not a single Reform, Conservative or Reconstructionist rabbi!

Please consider signing this petition to President Simon Peres:

http://www.irac.org/

An open letter from Alice Walker to Barack Obama

2008-11-07T11:58:00.009-05:00

http://www.theroot.com/id/48726

Nov. 5, 2008

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear.

And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on.

One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate.

One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely.

However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies.

And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy,

Alice Walker

The Obama victory: impact around the world

2008-11-05T09:25:00.005-05:00

Like most folks I know, I was absolutely glued to the TV last night, watching the returns role in with baited breath. And I couldn't possibly go to bed without hearing Obama's and McCain's speeches. Hats off to John; I was immensely impressed by how gracious he was.

Of course the baby still got up three times last night, so color me Two Sheets to the Wind today.

I woke up this morning to read two touching emails from two friends who live abroad. I think their words illustrate just how much this Obama victory means not only to Americans, but to our friends all around the world. As the commentators were saying last night on CNN, this election has given us a real chance to redeem ourselves and our reputations on the world stage, and indeed it appears that is already happening.

From Liora, a Jewish woman from Holland:

CONGRATULATIONS !!!!

I heard this morning at the 6 O'clock News that Obama was elected. Barukh HaShem!!

The national Radio 2 broadcast Obama's speech and played "Coming to America" by Neil Diamond, then broadcast a little bit of Bush congratulating Obama, but that was faded out, followed by a (early seventies) Dutch protest song called "Mr. President" about all the killings which somehow don't bother the president in his sleep, and that was followed by: "Hit the road Jack (Bush) and don't you come back no more no more no more no more, hit the road Jack (Bush) and don't you come back no more!" (I thought that was quite funny!)

From Vera, a Muslim Israeli who will be coming to the U.S. to study next year:

Dear beloved friends and family,

Don't even wonder how Obama got me and Aead, people who live on the other side of the world, all excited about him becoming the US president. He is a miracle. As non-Americans, non-white, that are coming to the US soon, Me and Aead couldn't feel safe and so happy about coming to the states in the middle of a harsh situation and an economic crisis.

When we got to know Obama through his AMAZING speeches, he got us enthusiastic about him winning, he gave us hope although we live across the ocean he touched our hearts, and gave us the hope for a change. Last night we couldn't go to sleep (day time at the US is night time here), no one in our families understood why me and Aead are watching news from the states, they thought that we can go to sleep and then see the results in the morning. When he was announced winner, I couldn't stop myself from crying loud, Aead kept greeting me: Mabrook, Mabrook....

Now we feel much more safer about coming the the US, we feel hope in the air, we feel the positive energy that change has already brought. I want to thank you all, specially those who worked very hard to help Obama win, scarifies their time, put a lot of energy and efforts to help.

Thank you, Mabrook, God bless you. See you soon

Vera and Aead

Amen

2008-11-04T10:54:00.000-05:00

A day that will go down in history

2008-11-04T08:16:00.004-05:00

Aaron, Adi and I got up early and trekked to our local precinct, where the line was about 45 minutes long. I was thrilled to wait because it meant what forecasters have been predicting: People are coming out to the polls in record numbers. Given I live in a dense Democratic area, it was a pleasing sight.

Fortunately, my paranoia paid off. The voter registration rolls indicated that I had to show an ID to vote because I was a first-time voter in this precinct. Of course I am not a first-time voter here; I voted here nearly one year ago! But my paranoia had prompted me to tuck my driver's license and a paycheck stub as proof of my address in my pocket right before I left the house -- and it turned out I needed them.

Words escape me when I try to think about the momentousness of this day: Of what it will say about this country if we actually elect a black man as our president; what it will mean to our economy if we can stop pouring $341 million dollars a DAY on the war in Iraq and actually start reinvesting this money in our ailing nation; what it will mean to our civil liberties to have an ultra-right-wing Christian fundamentalist finally stripped of his power.

It's been eight v-e-r-y l-o-n-g years.

In closing, I'd like to share this email from my brother's girlfriend, who, along with Brad, left her job three months ago to volunteer for the Obama campaign. In recent weeks, they both have been overseeing the campaign in rural Red areas of Pennsylvania, and giving us fascinating updates from the field.

Talk about naches! I'm so proud of both of them and everything they have done! I have removed identifying details but the spirit of her message remains:

I just got "home" from the office, after a weekend with very little sleep. Looks like I won't get much tonight either, as I have to be working at 6. I figured, I'm getting so little sleep, why don't I send a message.

As exhausted as I am, I am so happy that I followed my heart and worked on this campaign. I will be very sorry to see it end - it has been such a great experience.

Our office in XXXX, our PA state co-workers who support us so well (you've NEVER seen an IT "help desk" like this one, I promise you), the entire campaign, and everyone who has invested something in this campaign share a common purpose of taking back our country. I am so honored to contribute just a little bit to the effort, which I believe will change the direction of our country and the world. The feeling being on this campaign is hard to put into words, but however it is described, it is overwhelming.

I think I'll take a little nap now and try to recharge my batteries to at least 1/4 full, which hopefully will power me through 8:00. Well, after that -- when our polls close, we'll be making Get out the Vote calls to support the campaign in Colorado and Nevada. I'm not sure I'll be able to watch the returns, but for some reason, that doesn't seem as crazy as it sounds.

Happy Election Day,
"M"

Source of the statistic on the cost of the war: www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

Life update

2008-10-20T12:48:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone: With the many haggim this month, school has largely been on hiatus, and I'm just been in babyville. So ... there hasn't been much blog-worthy material of late! A few updates I can share:

Adi is 3 1/2 months old now, and is doing swell. She can now hold onto things in her little fists and she loves to laugh and giggle when her daddy makes silly noises -- which he has quite the aptitute for!

I've been busy running the religious school outside Philly, although I recently put in notice that I will be resigning at the end of the semester. With this job plus freelance writing work, plus the rabbinic internship, it's all basically just making me crazy. They're a great group of folks, but I feel relieved by the decision.

One of my roommates from my summer in Haifa was here visiting last week for eight days. She is from Holland and came here to visit possible places to relocate. After spending time in Philly, she went on to NY and then Toronto. It was nice to see her!

I'm taking two classes this semester:

* Rabbinic Civilization, learning about the life and texts of the rabbinic era (from the return of exile in Persia through the fall of the Second Temple). This period essentially covers the Greek and Roman reigns.

* Advanced Biblical Text course on poverty and social justice issues.

Although enrollment for next semester is still quite a few weeks away, I'm wrestling alot with what to do next term -- which classes, how much to work, how to cover the costs of day care, which day care to use. A popular feminist adage comes to mind that I've heard over the years, the one about "You really CAN have it all."

These days I've been thinking that maybe that needs to amended to: "You really CAN have it all -- just not necessarily at the same time."

Speaking of which, a certain baby has just woken up!

Shavua tov! (Have a good week!)

Some wise words from the Unitarians

2008-10-02T13:23:00.006-04:00

Out West where I come from, there are many Jewish communities that are small, and can’t afford their own building. When that’s the case, the community’s first choice is usually to find a Unitarian Universalist church to sublet space from.

Why the Unitarians? Recently, I feel like I’ve come to understand. The Rev. A. Powell Davies (1902-1957) gave the following sermon in 1944. Substitute the word "church" for "synagogue," and I think he captured a sentiment of liberal Judaism completely!

In his eloquent speech, the Rev. Davies gives several reasons for coming together to pray.

Do we pray because God needs us to? No. We pray because WE need to.

Let me tell you why I come to church.

I come to church—and would whether I was a preacher or not—because I fall below my own standards and need to be constantly brought back to them. It is not enough that I should think about the world and its problems at the level of a newspaper report or a magazine discussion. It could too soon become too low a level. I must have my conscience sharpened—sharpened until it goads me to the most thorough and responsible thinking of which I am capable. I must feel again the love I owe my fellow men (and women). I must not only hear about it but feel it. In church, I do.

I need to be reminded that there are things I must do in the world—unselfish things, things undertaken at the level of idealism. Workaday enthusiasms are not enough. They wear out too soon. I want to experience human nature at its best—and be reminded of its highest possibilities, and this happens to me in church. It may seem as though the same things could be found in solitude, but it does not easily happen so.

In a congregation we share each other’s spiritual needs and reinforce each other. In some ways, the soul is never lonelier than in a church service. That is certainly true of a pulpit, for a pulpit is the most intimately lonely place in the world—yet it is a loneliness that has strength in it. Perhaps this is because the innermost solitude of the human heart is in some paradoxical way a thing that can be shared—that must be shared—if the spirit of God is to find a full entrance into it.

We meet each other as friends and neighbors anywhere and everywhere, but we seldom do so in the consciousness of our souls’ deepest yearnings. But in church we do—in a way that protects us from all that is intrusive, yet leaves us knowing that we all have the same yearning, the same spiritual loneliness, the same need of assurance and faith and hope. We are brought together at the highest level possible. We are not merely an audience, we are a congregation.

I doubt whether I could stand the thought of the cruelty and misery of the present world unless I could know, through an experience that renewed itself over and over again, that at the heart of life there is assurance, that I can hold an ultimate belief that all is well. And this happens in church.

Life must have its sacred moments and its holy places. The soul will always seek its nurture. For religious experience—which is life at its most intense, life at its best—is something we cannot do without.

Source: from “On Going to Church” by Rev. A. Powell Davies, as reprinted in Without Apology: Collected Meditations on Liberal Religion by A. Powell Davies edited by Rev. Dr. Forrest Church.

Thanks to my buddy Alan B. for passing this along to me.

The Binding of Isaac: a seven-minute d'var Torah

2008-09-29T20:39:00.006-04:00

D'var Torah * The Binding of Isaac

Rosh Hashanah 2008

The Torah portion we study today is one of the most famous in the Bible. It is known as the Binding of Isaac. Our tale begins at Genesis 22, when Avraham is told by God to bring his son Isaac to a mountaintop to sacrifice him. Obediently, Avraham travels for three days, and once at the mountain’s peak, binds him down. Only after his knife is raised does an angel of God intervene and provide a ram in Isaac’s place. The angel says: “Now I know that you are God-fearing, and you did not withhold your son, your only one, from me.” (Bereishit, 22:12).

In virtually any contemporary discussion about the Akeidah, the feeling that often becomes central is our feelings of horror. What father would even consider sacrificing his child? And what kind of God would even ask such a thing?

These are troubling questions to us as modern Jews, and as American Jews the story upsets us on yet another level. How is it that our religion can glorify such an act of blind obedience? Blind faith is a repugnant notion to an audience like ours, steeped in Democratic values.

Acknowledging these feelings is important to do, but to dwell on them is, I believe, to miss the point. Of course notions like human sacrifice and blind obedience are troublesome to contemporary ears, but this story did not evolve in our contemporary world.

I would like to challenge you to image this story as if you were in the audience for whom it was originally intended. Imagine it is 2,500 years ago, and you are living in exile in Babylonia. The Temple, which now lies in ruins, was the focal point of your entire religious life – and you are now struggling to preserve your Jewish identity in a foreign land.

Animal sacrifice, of course, is no longer possible. Prayer services and Passover seders have not yet been created. But what you can do is listen to the stories of your people.

Biblical scholars believe that it was during our 50 years in Babylonian exile that many of the oral traditions that make up the five books of the Torah were finally committed to parchment. Writing them down was a way of ensuring our survival and preventing assimilation. To these people in exile, the story of the Akeidah gave three very important messages:

First, the depiction of Abraham as a man of unfailing obedience made him the perfect mythical ancestor. The patriarch of the Jewish people – the story proudly says – has so much strength and faith that he would actually kill his own son at God’s request. In a society where values like free thought had not evolved, and where men of military might and faith were ideolized, Abraham must have been a comforting hero to have.

Second, the use of a ram as a sacrifice would have been familiar to an audience who could no longer sacrifice rams at the Temple. It would have given them hope to think that just as they had sacrificed animals to God for ages – going way back to the days of Abraham – they will one day sacrifice them again. The exile will end, the Temple will be rebuilt, and life will return as it was.

Finally, even the notion of God’s request for human sacrifice would not have been so strange to the Jews in Babylonia. Up until this time, Jews had lived for hundreds of years surrounded by various pagan peoples, some of whom reputedly sacrificed children. Judaism, of course, rejected this, and what the Akeidah did was bring this difference to the forefront. In this way, the story became a statement of Jewish moral superiority and a strong incentive for Jews to stick to their own.

The challenge today, of course, is realizing that such a stark moral paradigm no longer exists between our religion and the religion of our neighbors. The Akeidah no longer survives as a rallying cry to embrace our faith and our people. The challenge then, becomes not What do we do with the Akeidah? But rather, What stories, what words do we need to tell our communities to inspire this kind of devotion?

It’s a challenge that faces each of us in this room – regardless of whether we are raising children or working in leadership in Jewish communities. By committing ourselves in the coming year to reaching out to each other, and creating spaces and moments that make our time together special, we are engaging in this holy work of strengthening our community.

Shana tova, u’metukah. May you have a healthy new year of prosperity, joy and friendship.

Artwork: http://www.nuchi.com/

Who needs Halloween when we’ve got Jewish magic?

2008-09-27T22:14:00.007-04:00

One of my duties with my rabbinic internship at a Reform temple is to write a monthly column for the congregational newsletter. This is the second column, for the month of October.

After having taught at a good half-dozen religious school now – schools spanning the entire Reform/Conservative/Reconstructionist spectrum – I always find it interesting to see how congregations navigate the “Halloween dilemma.”

While on one hand few families I know seriously question whether they should allow their kids to dress up and go trick-or-treating, the religious schools that educate these kids often have very intense discussions about the holiday, especially when it lands on a school day. Should the kids be invited to come to school in a costume? How should teachers react if the kids aren’t invited to dress up, but show up in costumes anyway?

Most thorny of all: Should school be cancelled? On the one hand, if you cancel it, you’re basically sanctioning the observance of a pagan/Christian holiday. But if you don’t cancel it, half the kids will be absent! The most ingenious solution I once heard about was the congregation that scheduled a teacher’s meeting on Halloween. That way, the kids who wouldn’t have shown up anyway wouldn’t technically be absent, but the school wouldn’t technically be cancelled. Clever!

For my part, I love teaching religious school on Halloween because it gives me a chance to teach about one of my favorite topics: Judaism and magic. At first blush, people are often shocked to see these two words in the same subject line, but the truth is, our tradition has a long and rich magical tradition that began in the days of the Torah, became particularly rich in the middle ages, and in some communities, continues on even to this day! (Check out some practices found in certain Israeli Sephardic communities if you don’t believe me).

Jewish magic is mentioned as early as Deuteronomy 18, where various groups of diviners, astrologers and exorcists are named, and their ceremonies are prohibited as idolatrous. The fact these practices are derided so repeatedly in the biblical canon (Kings 21:6, II Chronicles 33:6, Micah 11, Jeremiah 26:9, and so on and so on) is evidence of just how widespread these practices actually were!

For all these instances of divination or magic being criticized, there are other instances in which similar-sounding acts are described as legitimate forms of worship, some even taking place in the Temple itself! The purifying ritual of the red heifer (Numbers 19) and the scapegoat ritual of Yom Kippur (Leviticus 16) depict what are essentially magical acts: the mysterious ability of ritual to effect change on a spiritual or cosmic plane. The Sotah ritual of a suspected adulteress in Numbers 5:11 is a particularly peculiar ritual in which a potion has the mysterious ability to reveal the truth – a soothsaying of sorts.

And let us not forget the very presence of the prophets themselves! While scripture goes to great lengths to admonish anyone who claims to predict or affect the future (“There shall not be found among you any one who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a magician, or a charmer, or a medium or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination to the Eternal!” Deut 18:10) – the entire second section of Tanakh is dedicated to the sermons of men doing precisely these things!

What is the difference between a prophet and a magician?

About the same difference as there is between an “environmentalist” and a “tree-hugger.” The truth is in the eye of the beholder. The person with the pen gets to decide which is a legitimate sign from God, and which is a divinatory act of “abomination.”

Not surprisingly, these lines are drawn in all the places you’d expect them to be. When the person doing the supernatural act is affiliated with the Temple cult or supports their agenda – they are receiving a sign from God. When the person engaging in divination is an outsider or even an opponent to the Temple-sanctioned polemic – it becomes magic.

I hope you enjoyed this short mini-lesson on magic and the Bible. The truth is, this only touches the tip of the textual iceberg! The Talmud, Apocryphal literature and medieval writings all reveal their own rich and fascinating versions of magic – and what better time of year to study some of these treasures than at Halloween!?

Nothing But Nets

2008-09-19T00:46:00.005-04:00

Second only to the "team" that launched the Nothing But Nets campaign, the Union of Reform Judaism team is the top fundraiser in this campaign so for. Rock on achot v'achim (sisters and brothers)!

3,000 children die every day from malaria. Wouldn't it be great if all of our religious schools could take up this fundraiser for the year?

Which Star Trek character are you?

2008-09-11T13:22:00.002-04:00

The premise of this is really cool, but unfortunately, most of the nifty ST characters aren't even on here. Before taking the text, Aaron said I'm most like Belana Torres -- and I like that much better than Will Riker!

Your results:
You are Will Riker

Will Riker		70%
James T. Kirk (Captain)		60%
Jean-Luc Picard		60%
Chekov		55%
Beverly Crusher		50%
Deanna Troi		50%
Geordi LaForge		40%
Worf		40%
Spock		35%
Uhura		35%
Leonard McCoy (Bones)		25%
Mr. Scott		25%
Data		25%
An Expendable Character (Redshirt)		25%
Mr. Sulu		10%

At times you are self-centered
but you have many friends.
You love many women, but the right
woman could get you to settle down.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Is it possible to be a religious atheist?

2008-09-07T21:56:00.008-04:00

Martin S. Jaffee offers the following definition of 'religion' in his book Early Judaism.

"Religion is an intense and sustained cultivation of a style of life that heightens awareness of morally binding connections between the self, the human community and the most essential structures of reality. Religions posit various orders of reality and help individuals and groups to negotiate their relations with those orders."

You may have noticed that this definition does not focus on beliefs or rituals. This may surprise you. Jaffee argues that the idea of religion as a collection of beliefs about divine beings expressed in moral behavior, prayers and various forms of communal worship is actually an idea that emerged out of Europe in the 16th century. It was advanced by philosophers, politicians and theologians struggling to define the role of the Church in the emerging national states of Europe.

For that time and place, that definition served a useful purpose: to create societies in which Church and State had separate and distinct spheres of life, enabling citizens of different religious beliefs to coexist as relative equals in society.

This particular definition of religion however, has not been reflective of the many ways in which non-European and non-Christian peoples have constructed their own conceptions of the role of holy communities and their institutions in the larger social and political order. Thus, he offered that alternate definition of religion, broad enough to explain human religious behavior across civilizations and millenia.

According to Jaffee, religious patterns of behavior encourage human beings to interpret themselves as moral beings whose destiny is bound with others in a project that brings them into relationship with the fundamental reality of things. In religious systems, the self identified through personal, autobiographical memory tends to be enlarged or enriched as it is interpreted in contexts well beyond personal experience. Personal identity includes a conception of how all these relationships are connected to generations of the distant past and the far-off future, as well as to the forces and powers that are held to account for the world as it is. (page 7)

Finally, while most religions have gods, not all of them do. (Certain types of Buddhism, and even, Judaism come to mind). What all religions share though is the desire to participate in the essential structures of the world -- to those spaces beyond our immediate world where "God" or "enlightenment" or "consciousness" reside. The means of transport and the conceptualizations of these alternate worlds differs from religion to religion, but constant is the tendency of religions to puncture the apparent solidity of mundane experience and to privilege intimations of other worlds at profounder levels of being.

I don't know about you, but I love this way of describing religion. Perhaps this is because these days, I can personally relate to it so much. So many times when I'm praying, the concept of "God," no matter how nonauthoritarian and nonpersonal I make it, simply doesn't work for me. I feel my consciousness strive and lift toward another dimension, to reach out toward some ineffable connection beyond my material world, but what is traditionally called theism doesn't enter the experience.

I wrote the title on this entry in jest, but it is not entirely a joke. It's answer all depends on your definitions.

Is it possible to be a religious atheist? Well, if you take Jaffe's definition of religion (above), and a fundamentalist definition of God (an omnipotent, authoritarian entity concerned with the daily affairs of humanity) -- then yes, I think you can be.

Creative Explorations of Elul

2008-09-06T00:13:00.005-04:00

One of my duties with my rabbinic internship at a Reform temple is to write a monthly column for the congregational newsletter. I plan to post them here, around the beginning of each month. If anyone enjoys them -- great!

Creative Explorations of Elul

I don’t know about you, but I’m busy. Between work, classes, family, children, cleaning, kvetching – it sometimes feels as if life is passing me by in a whirlwind, and I’m barely hanging on.

It’s like that for almost everyone these days – and then Elul arrives, and our tradition hands us yet one more thing to add to our “to-do” list.
“Contemplate!” we are told.
“Prepare to make amends!”
“Think about your life and where you’ve fallen short, and how you’d like to do differently in the coming year!”

It’s a valuable and deeply meaningful exercise. And it’s a mandate that sometimes makes me groan.

The 12th month of the Hebrew calendar, Elul, begins on Sept. 1 this year. Considered a time of repentance, Elul means search in Aramaic. It was given this name because it is a time to search our hearts in preparation for the coming High Holy Days.

Elul doesn’t receive much attention these days in most Jewish communities, and I think I know why: Time. Who has the time?

For many of us, we forget about the Holy Days until they are suddenly upon us, and then we are scrambling trying to find that flier that came in the mail giving the time and location for the Erev Rosh Hashanah service. The night already upon us, we hastily don some white clothes and race out the door. When we arrive (probably at least a few minutes late, truth be told), we pick up the Machzor, look up to the rabbi and chazzan and only then, for the first time, try to center ourselves and say: “Okay, here I am. Here is what I am here to do … .”

It’s a tough task to take on all at once. It’s kind of like jumping into a really cold lake – rather than easing yourself gently in, giving your body time to acclimate to the climate change, you give yourself a physical and psychic shock. It’s the same with the High Holidays. Jumping into long, all-day services centered on heavy, sobering themes isn’t for the light of heart, and doing so without any preparation at all makes it even more challenging.

There is good news, however. This year, you can do it differently! Elul lasts an entire 30 days (from the 1st to the 30th), so you have 30 days to carve out a small niche of time to ready yourself.

Toward that end, I wanted to offer a few online resources to help you on your journey. Whether you are a reader, a listener or a hands-on doer, hopefully you can find something here to help you prepare:

* The Jewish Heritage Online Magazine offers two beautiful poems by the famous Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, appropriate for the season: www.jhom.com/calendar/tishrei/rh_amichai.html

* Join Rabbis Richard Hirsh and Shawn Zevit in a 25 minute audio recording on Elul and Rosh Hashanah. Why is preparation during Elul important, and how can it change our High Holidays experience? What are some creative and alternative ways of preparing? Includes music and storytelling.
www.jrf.org/pub/hmsarchives.html, and click under the header “Rosh Hashanah”

* Nothing works better to bring families together than getting your hands dirty! Elul is a great time to plan an Erev Rosh Hashanah dinner with friends or loved ones. For recipes and ideas, visit:
Mimi’s Cyber Kitchen: www.cyber-kitchen.com/holidays/highholidays/recipes.htm
High Holidays on the Net: www.holidays.net/highholydays/sweets.htm
Recipe for round challah: http://judaism.about.com/library/food/blrhroundchallah.htm

* New clothes are often a special part of preparing for Rosh HaShanah, and taking your kids shopping for a special High Holidays outfit can help them appreciate the importance of the season. Then, by saying a berakha on wearing a new garment for the first time, we express our gratitude for the abundance in our lives:
Barukh Atah Ado-nai, Elo-heinu Meleh HaOlam, Malbish Arumim
Praised are You, Adonai, Our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who clothes the naked.

* Zichronot (remembrance) is an important theme of the season – both God’s remembrance of Israel, and our remembrance of those who are no longer with us. Elul can be a wonderful time to:
+ assemble those shoeboxes full of photos into albums
+ scan old photographs into your computer and write captions
+ trace your family heritage and make a family tree
+ make a remembrance box

May you have a rich and meaningful start to the season!

Tuvok Obama

2008-08-27T20:15:00.006-04:00

My big brother and his spunky girlfriend (who is clearly having a very positive influence on him) recently quit their jobs to go volunteer for the Obama campaign! How cool is that!?!!? First they went to Chicago and now they are in my hometown of Denver, working at the DNC.

If I weren't:

a) carrying for an infant

b) mired in a 6-year academic program

and

c) perpetually broke

I'd join them too!

Alas, that is not to be. So instead, here (at right) is my contribution to the cause. My kippah off to my buddy Josh for passing this along to me.

Go outside and play

2008-08-17T23:36:00.003-04:00

Aaron, baby and I are just back from DLTI -- the Davenning Leadership Training Institute -- held in a picturesque Jewish retreat center in Connecticut. The weeklong program is the first of four sessions held over a two-year period, focusing on how to become a better religious service leader. I attended the program and Aaron played Papa Extraordinaire.

The program was wonderful, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their art of service leading. The logistics were difficult, being away from home, away from all the paraphernalia, with a 6-week-old infant. Breast-feeding in the downright FREEZING cabin at 2 a.m., with no heat -- well, that was a memorable experience to say the least.

Sadly, this one week away constitutes our collective family "vacation" for the year, if you can call it that. I came home to find an email from a work colleague heading out for his own vacation for the year. As he pointed out (in the graph above), we Americans really don't do very well when it comes to giving our brains and our bodies a timeout.

Stephen Colbert and Breast Pumping

2008-08-10T12:17:00.004-04:00

Having a newborn in the house creates a dangerously ripe opportunity for watching really bad television. About 90 percent of the time, I'm feeding her or holding her, both of which happen on the couch, and I'm too tired and too manually challenged to do anything other than watch lame TV programs that under normal circumstances, I would be too embarrassed to admit.

Maybe that's why that quote from The New Yorker posted in my last blog entry struck me as so gosh darn funny.

I've become a rabid devotee of Stacy London's and Clinton Kelly's antics on TLC's What Not To Wear. Who knew that watching other people's fashion foibles could be so much fun!?!

Catching up on Hugh Hefner's girl posse on The Girls Next Door provides endless amusement. I admit it, I'm hooked. Several times a week.

Thank god for Tevo, which is catching me up on all of the Chelsea Handler shows of the past year. Why would anyone spend time studying Hebrew verb patterns when you could be making fun of Jessica Simpson and Tom Cruise? Don't ask me!

Lastly, I've discovered the Colbert Report, which is actually slightly *less* embarrassing than my other TV fare these days. You can imagine just how funny this skit was then, as I was sitting at the dining room table milking myself to make a bottle for the baby and this came on the tube:

Random funny writing of the week

2008-08-07T23:49:00.007-04:00

From the "USA Today: The Network's Newest Misfits" TV review in the Aug. 11, 2008, issue of The New Yorker, by Nancy Franklink:

"Even if you're not usually interested in distinctions between different kinds of stupid, I submit that in this not entirely pleasant year (see index under 'political primaries') there's a little room for some good stupid. While watching the ABC competition show Wipeout when it premiered six weeks ago, I became at moments a truly happy idiot, and I could hear my brain cells, one after another, packing their suitcases and walking out of my head, saying regretfully but firmly, 'I'm sorry, I just can't live here anymore.' Well, fine. Go, then. Still ,it's not as though I'm addicted to stupidity, so after a couple of episodes I forgot about Wipeout and moved on to Bill Moyers. Then, scanning last week's onscreen TV schedule, I was stopped by the description of Wipeout and was pulled back in: 'Obstacles include Foamy Launch Pads and Killer Surf.' That's all I needed to hear... ."

Okay, so I couldn't care less about this TV show, which I've never even heard of before now, but that's just one damn fine piece of writing!

Adi update

2008-08-06T18:38:00.005-04:00

Good news! On the one-month anniversary of her birth, Adi had a glowing check-up from the orthopedic doctor, who reports that her hip joints are forming beautifully. We can begin weaning her off of the body harness, and she might be completely done with it by the end of the month.

Papa was so happy he cried for 10 minutes straight. The first thing we did is give her the first full-fledged bath since she was born!

Update in Babyville

2008-07-25T15:14:00.004-04:00

Mom headed back to Oregon a few days ago and everyone sure misses her! Aaron is back at work (he could only take one week off for Adi's birth), so my days are spent feeding the baby, sleeping with the baby and schelpping the baby around in a chest harness. She is quite the cuddle bunny. She wants to be chest-to-chest all the time, and I can only put her down when she is in a deep slumber, deep enough to not wake up when I move her.

If you are missing reading any posts from me of actual intellectual substance of late, all I can say is: Welcome to my world! Lots of love -- not much noggin' crunchin' these days!

To everyone who has sent cards, emails and gifts in the past weeks, if you have not yet received a formal thank you from me -- you will! I'm getting to them! Meanwhile, thank you via Blogspace for so much generosity. As Aaron remarked the other day, in the midst of letters and home-cooked meals from my classmates: "Wow, I am really blown away by your friends. I feel very loved."

I couldn't agree more!

Our little capuchin monkey

2008-07-23T16:13:00.004-04:00

The cost(s) of a C-section

2008-07-17T18:12:00.004-04:00

So the damage is in. I have received a copy of the bill the hospital sent to my insurance company for my C-section, and the 5 days of in-hospital care for me and the baby, and bidding is now open for just how much $$ the bill has come to.

Take a guess! I'm curious how much you think this would be!

Got your number? Have it in mind? Okay ... so here it is. The total was $37,000. And all I can say is: "Yowzers." Just as a point of comparison, the cost of the delivery, had I been able to do so vaginally, was going to be $7,000 and that includes the cost of 9 months of prenatal care, and no fewer than 15 visits to the birth center for monthly, biweekly or weekly appointments. The fact no one caught the baby's upside down position cost my insurer $30,000.

So here is my question: Why are late-term ultrasounds not a standard, uniform practice of prenatal care? If I had been given an ultrasound, we would have known the baby was breech and they might have been able to do a manual manipulation, before I was in labor, and turn the baby around. I don't know how much ultrasounds cost, but even it it was $1,000, that is way less money than a C-section is.

This was one of the first questions we asked after the whole drama of Adi's birth. Was I not given a late-term ultrasound just because I was in a midwifery clinic, rather than a standard hospital/ob-gyn clinic for my prenatal care? And midwives tend to have a less-interventionist approach?

It turns out the answer was no. Medical doctors don't request them either, unless there is some question about the baby's position, and that is the same policy the midwives have. Of course FIVE midwives examined me in the weeks leading up to Adi's birth and none of them remotely suspected that she was breech.

It just goes to show what an imperfect science the whole thing is.

Health insurance companies care first and foremost about costs, and since about 3 out of 100 births are breech, I can only assume that the costs of paying for 3 emergency C-sections is less than the cost of giving all 100 women late-term ultrasounds. I assume. But who knows.

As for the personal costs, I will say this to the Christina Aguilera's and J.Lo's of the world: Anyone who electively plans a C-section over a vaginal delivery really is out of their frickin' mind.

It's been 12 days since my surgery and it still hurts to bend over, to walk, and even to wear underpants. (The waist bands all seem to hit right where the scar runs.) I still can't drive, and I won't be allowed to begin exercising for another 4.5 weeks, which, when you gained 50 pounds over the course of your pregnancy really really sucks! The worst part has been the fact that for the first five days or so, I could hardly even hold her. It hurt to lift her, it hurt to rest her on my belly (which is the only position I can use because of her leg braces), and it hurt to stand up and fetch her when she was crying.

I will echo what every other woman I know who has had an unplanned C-section has said: "The most important thing is we have a healthy baby, and she is okay." That is true. And I also wish a simple ultrasound had been conducted, that I might have avoided major abdominal surgery and the ramifications it inevitably brings.

Our new daughter!

2008-07-09T21:37:00.001-04:00

Aaron and I are thrilled to welcome our daughter, Joysa Adiel Rosenbloom, into our family. She was born at 10:37 a.m. on July 5 at 7 pounds even and is absolutely beautiful! She has her mother's pug nose and her father's beautiful long eyelashes.

Adi is the sixth "Joysa" in the family, a tradition that has been carried by the first-born daughter of every generation in the maternal family since the mid-1800s. Her middle name is an anagram of the name "Ida" (Ida spelled backwards), which was the first name of both of her paternal great-grandmothers, plus the word "El", a Hebrew name for God. "Adi" also means "decoration" or "ornament" in Hebrew.

Adiel came into the world in a somewhat dramatic fashion. I went into pre-labor and had reached full dialation in under 3 hours (versus the 24 hours we had been told to expect), and it wasn't until that moment that the midwives realized that Adi was folded up like a clam, and was trying to come out tush-first. They immediately called for an ambulance from Bryn Mawr Hospital for an emergency C-section, and I have a vague recollection of yelling things like: "Oh my God, I just want to die!" when she was delivered 1.5 hours later.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Adi was apparently in what they call "full breech" position for the entire pregnancy (meaning her ankles were fully back over her head), so unfortunately both of her hips are dislocated. We are awaiting further visits from an osteopathic surgeon to find out what kind of braces and/or surgery might be required in the future. Apart from this complication, however, she appears to be doing really well. She is sweet and gentle and has the great sucking strength of a future scuba diving champion!

We will be in touch soon with further updates and pictures. My mom is here from Oregon and has been a tremendous help, and Adi also enjoyed a weekend visit from her Uncle Brad and Tante Debbie.Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes!

A good reason to keep boycotting Exxon/Mobile

2008-06-25T15:12:00.012-04:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the nation's worst tanker spill.

By a 5-3 vote, the high court ruled that the punitive damages award should be slashed -- limited by the circumstances of the case to an amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million.

The justices overturned a ruling by a U.S. Court of Appeals that had awarded the record punitive damages to about 32,000 commercial fishermen, Alaska natives, property owners and others harmed by the nation's worst tanker spill.

In the majority opinion, Justice David Souter concluded the $2.5 billion in punitive damages was excessive under federal maritime law, and should be cut to the amount of actual harm. "We ... hold that the federal statutory law does not bar a punitive award on top of damages for economic loss, but that the award here should be limited to an amount equal to compensatory damages," Souter said.

Soaring oil prices have propelled Exxon Mobil to previously unforeseen levels of profitability in recent years; the company posted earnings of $40.6 billion in 2007.

It took Exxon Mobil just under two days to bring in $2.5 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2007.

The Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound in March 1989, spilling about 11 million gallons of crude oil. The spill spread oil to more than 1,200 miles of coastline, closed fisheries and killed thousands of marine mammals and hundreds of thousands of sea birds.

....

No punitive damages!?!?! When the company knowingly allowed a relapsed alcoholic to repeatedly pilot a vessel filled with millions of gallons of oil through a wildlife reserve!?!?!

Jewish names for God

2008-06-08T09:43:00.003-04:00

For a current project I'm working on, writing new berachot, I recently began looking for a list of alternate names for God derived from Jewish scripture. The Reconstructionist prayerbook series sometimes employes such alternatives for the words Adonai (my Lord) or Melech (king) used in the traditional introductory beracha formula of Baruch atah Adonai, eloheinu melech ha-olam, in order to avoid their patriarchial and hierarchical imagery.

I know for myself, I've always found those two words troublesome, and very far removed from my own personal theology.

It took awhile to assemble this list of alternatives, doing electronic word searches through the Tanach, so I thought I'd post them here, in the event they might save someone else some time!

Alternative names for God

Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, I will be what I will be — Exodus 3:14 *
E’in Sof, God the Infinite — a Kabbalistic name
El De’ot, God of Knowledge — 1 Samuel 2:3
El Echad, the One God — Malachi 2:10
El Elyon, God Most High — Psalm 57:3
El HaShamayim, God of the Heavens — Psalm 136:26
El Olam, God of Eternity — Genesis 21:33
El Rachum, God of Compassion — Psalm 86:15
El Roi, God Who Sees Me — Genesis 16:13
Elohim Chaiyim, Living God — Jer. 10:10
Elohay Kedem, God of the Beginning — Deut 33:27
Elohay Marom, God of Heights — Micah 6:6
Elohay Mauzi, God of my Strength — Psalm 43:2
Elohay Mikarov, God Who is Near — Jer. 23:23
Elohay Tehilati, God of my Praise — Psalm 109:1
HaMakom, the Place — a Kabbalistic name **
Immanu El, God Is With Us — Isaiah 7:14
YHVH Rapha, God Who Heals — Exodus 15:26
YHVH Yihre, God Will See — Genesis 22:14

* Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, “I will be what I will be” — One of the most famous verses in the Bible, this is the sole response Moses receives when he asks for God’s name in Exodus 3:14. It is generally interpreted to mean “I shall be what I shall be” or “I am that I am.” The Tetragrammaton may derive from the same verbal root.

** HaMakom, “the place” — A name of God used in rabbinic literature. In Jewish mysticism, tzimtzum refers to the kabbalistic theory of creation that God “contracted” its infinite light to allow for a “conceptual space” in which a finite, seemingly independent world could exist. This contraction is known as the tzimtzum. Because the tzimtzum results in the conceptual “space” in which the physical universe and free will can exist, God is referred to as HaMakom.

R.I.P. Caribbean monk seal

2008-06-07T09:12:00.005-04:00

There's nothing like starting a Shabbes morning with a good cry ...

Caribbean Monk Seal Becomes Extinct
By JAYMES SONG, AP

HONOLULU (June 7) - Federal officials have confirmed what biologists have long thought: The Caribbean monk seal has gone the way of the dodo. Humans hunting the docile creatures for research, food and blubber left the population unsustainable, say biologists who warn that Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals could be the next to go.

Hunters have wiped out the Caribbean monk seal, which was last spotted in 1952. The sea creatures' close cousin, the Hawaiian Monk seal, above, in Oahu in 2002, is facing a similar fate, with only 1,200 remaining. The Mediterranean monk seal is in even worse shape, with only 500 left.

The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service confirmed Friday that the species is extinct.

The federal agency says there are fewer than 1,200 Hawaiian and 500 Mediterranean monk seals remaining, and their populations are declining.

The Hawaiian monk seal population, protected by NOAA, is declining at a rate of about 4 percent annually, according to NOAA. The agency predicts the population could fall below 1,000 in the next three to four years, placing the mammal among the world's most endangered marine species.

Monk seals are particularly sensitive to human disturbance. And the sea creatures have been losing their food supply and beaches, officials say.

"Once Hawaii, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean were teeming with fish, but these are areas under severe fishing pressure," the NOAA said. "They'll eat almost anything - shellfish or finned fish - but their food supply is waning and they're in competition with man."

The Caribbean monk seal, first discovered during Christopher Columbus' second voyage in 1494, once had a population of more than 250,000.

Article on deaf rabbi

2008-06-06T20:42:00.007-04:00

The Jewish Week has published a wonderful article on one of my classmates, just ordained last weekend. Hope you enjoy:

www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c37_a12132/News/National.html

All Lovers Have Secret Names

2008-06-05T23:48:00.001-04:00

I've discovered a beautiful poetry collection by Marge Piercy called The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme. I thought I would share a few favorites.

This one would be particularly lovely during a wedding ceremony:

All Lovers Have Secret Names

The day I forget to write
the day I forget to feed the cats
the day I forget to love you
the day I forget your name
and then my own.

Until then I will not cease
this spinning pattern: part weave
of skeins of soft wool to keep
us warm, to clothe our too open
flesh, to decorate us --

and part dance, through woods
where roots trip me, a dance
through meadows of rabbit holes
and old ribs of plowing hidden
under thick grass.

Until then I will whirl
through my ragged days.
Like a spindle, like a dreydl
I will turn in the center
of my intricate weave

spelling your name in my dance
in my weaving, in my work,
your hidden name which
is simply, finally,
love.

Blessing and cursing

2008-06-05T23:41:00.007-04:00

From "The Art of Blessing the Day":

The blessing for the return of a favorite cat,
the blessing for love returned, for friends'
return, for money received unexpected,
the blessing for the rising of the bread,
the sun, the oppressed. I am not sentimental
about old men mumbling the Hebrew by rote
with no more feeling than one says gesundheit.

But the discipline of blessings is to taste
each moment, the bitter, the sour, the sweet
and the salty, and be glad for what does not
hurt. The art is in compressing attention
to each little and big blossom of the tree
of life, to let the tongue sing each fruit,
its savor, its aroma and its use.

Attention is love, what we must give
children, mothers, fathers, pets,
our friends, the news, the woes of others.
What we want to change we curse and then
pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can
with eyes and hands and tongue. If you
can't bless it, get ready to make it new.

-- Marge Piercy

Fast Times in the Cattery

2008-06-01T22:33:00.010-04:00

My brother Brad is very glad he went to the trouble of schlepping this beautiful hand-carved wood serving bowl for me, all the way back from South Africa. As you can see, it is very popular with the fur children.

Sweet Pea in a Bowl

Little Bear in a Bowl

Summer ahead

2008-05-31T00:04:00.009-04:00

With the Aramaic final handed in and the modern Hebrew test behind me, it is officially official: I have graduated from 1/6th to 2/6th of a rabbi! And best of all, a long luxurious summer awaits me!

Okay, with a newborn on the way, I don't know how "luxurious" it will actually be, but I'm looking forward to just spending time at home, getting to know this new little life that is about to enter our lives, and in between working on some writing projects and liturgy skills. My hope is to pass the Torah leining portion of our liturgy test by the end of the summer, as well as learn the wedding blessings I'll need to officiate at my first ceremony this fall.

Jobwise for next year, I will be returning to my ed director post for a third year; I'm also waiting to hear about a possible local rabbinic internship at a large Reform Temple near my house. I've had three interviews and hope to hear next week.

It's a rather modest, 5-hour per week job (or thereabouts), but it will include a wide variety of roles, which would be really great: a few shiva minyans here and there, leading Friday night services once a month, some adult education, and helping b'nai mitzvah kids write their divrei Torah. The fact the job would be under the auspices of a well-seasoned rabbi (as opposed to flying out and being somewhere solo, as many of our student rabbi jobs tend to be), makes the job particularly attractive.

The backyard Aaron has planted is coming up beautifully. By next summer, Little J6 will have honest-to-goodness grass to roll around on! He is also mostly done repainting the siding and an asundry of other house projects as well.

Split: A Memoir of Divorce

2008-05-18T08:50:00.005-04:00

I've just finished an interesting new book by Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce. I haven't been divorced, but it spoke to me deeply, simply as a person who has endured the heartache of failed relationships. For anyone who was actually left to mother a young child alone by her narcissitic husband, the book would probably be even more transformative.

An excerpt:

Sometime during the seasons and the years and the arguments about money and sexual positions and diapers, it became punitive, the silence. It became a void; a place I could add to and see no difference, and I had seen that and I had blinked. I had blinked and that, I see now, was the beginning of my own undoing. Because I decided that what a good wife and a new mother would do would be to correct her own faults, and simply expand to fill the space.

At this point in time it shocks me, literally sends a raw jangling nerve through my body, how wrong a person can be, to call it “Fighting for love.” Call it “Keeping the Family Together.” I mentally issues myself a dunce cap, tall and pointy.

-- Split: A Memoir of Divorce
By Suzanne Finnamore

Numa Numa Nachman

2008-05-14T21:52:00.003-04:00

You MUST check out this blog page, where my buddy, the Proto Reb Bolton, has assembled a collection of You Tube videos that trace the spread of an infectious Romanian dance tune around the globe.

PRB first heard it in Israel, to a spirited mantra sung about the great Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav, which he likes to burst into, with very little warning, during our chevruta study sessions in the library. What a delight.

He has recently learned that while the lyrics of the mantra are unique, the tune itself is actually part of something much bigger.

http://numanumanumanumanuma.blogspot.com/

What a small planet we live in!

A lesson on Perek Shira

2008-05-03T10:31:00.004-04:00

The following worksheet can be copy/pasted into a Word file, and used to facilitate any kind of environmental- or animal-related Jewish lesson plan. I used it as a great introduction to my congregation's volunteer day at an animal sanctuary.

***

Perek Shirah, literally A Chapter of Song, is an ancient text of unknown authorship, probably dating to the medieval period. It contains verses that are “sung” by 85 components of creation, including the heavenly bodies, and the earth with its mountains, oceans, plants, insects, fish, birds and animals.

The concept behind Perek Shirah is that everything in the natural world teaches us a lesson in philosophy or ethics, and the verse gives a clue as to what that lesson is. The result is the “song” of the natural world, the tapestry of spiritual lessons for life that the natural world is telling us.

Interestingly, Perek Shirah does not mention the song of the human being.

While its origins are mysterious, many commentaries have been written about this text in the past 500 years, attempting to explain the connection between the verse and the creature it is attributed to.

What connections do you see from these excerpts?
What message do they carry for us today?

From the introduction of Perek Shirah:
Our sages of blessed memory said of David, King of Israel, peace be upon him: When he completed the Book of Psalms, he felt proud and he said before the Holy One, “Have you created any creature in Your world that recites songs and praises more than me?” At that moment, a single frog encountered him and said: “David, do not feel pride, for I recite songs and praises more than you. Furthermore, 3,000 parables can be derived from every song I recite.”

From the text:
The Gazelle is saying, “I shall sing of Your strength. I shall rejoice in Your kindness in the morning, for You were a refuge to me, a hiding place on the day of my oppression.”
(Psalm 59:17)

The Bear is saying: “Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the village that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of the rocks sing. Let them shout from the peaks of the mountains. Let them give glory to God, and tell of God’s praise in the islands.” (Isaiah 42:11-12)

The Beast of Burden is saying: “When you eat the fruit of your labors, happy are you and good is your lot.” (Psalms 128:2)

The Fox is saying: “Woe to him who builds his house without justice, and his chambers without lawfulness, that uses his friend’s service without wages, and does not give him for his hire.” (Jeremiah 22:13)

The Cat is saying: “If you rise up like a vulture, and place your nest among the stars, from there I shall bring you down, says God.” (Obadiah 1:4)

The Mouse is saying, “I shall exalt You, God, for You have impoverished me, and You have not let my enemies rejoice over me.” (Psalms 30:2)

The Fig Tree says, “The protector of a fig tree will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 28:18)

The Rooster says ... at the fifth call ... “How long will you recline, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?” (Proverbs 6:9) At the sixth call, he says, “Do not love slumber lest you become impoverished. Open your eyes; you will be sated with food.” (Proverbs 20:13)

The Large Unkosher Animal says, “When you eat the labor of your hands, you are praiseworthy.” (Psalms 128:2)

Life updates

2008-04-25T13:19:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone: Sorry my blog has been such a boring place to visit of late! Things have just been busy over here, and not in any particularly interesting way.

I'm nearing the end of the semester and am busy with school work; looking for freelance jobs, since my regular jobs all end at the end of May; and running around to prenatal visits and birthing classes and yoga sessions. I've managed to gain 35 pounds and still have two more months to go, so I'm kinda feeling like I've morphed into a tractor-trailer or something!

Unfortunately, Aaron lost his job a few weeks ago, so he is also combing the job marketplace right now. On the upside, we're having fun getting the house ready for the baby!

Meat and climate change

2008-03-25T16:59:00.002-04:00

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a panel of thousands of the world’s top climate scientists, has described the existence of human-caused global warming in its final assessment report as both “unequivocal,” and as having “abrupt and irreversible” effects on global climate.

A U.N. report from November found that a full 18 percent of global warming emissions come from raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other animals for food. That’s about 40 percent more than all the cars, trucks, airplanes, and all other forms of transport combined (13 percent). It’s also more than all the homes and offices in the world put together (8 percent).

Late Fragment by Raymond Carver

2008-03-15T17:52:00.002-04:00

And did you get what
you wanted from this life even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

Listen by W.S. Merwin

2008-03-15T17:42:00.000-04:00

with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank youwe are standing by the water looking out
in different directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you
in a culture up to its chin in shame
living in the stench it has chosen we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks that use us we are saying thank you
with the crooks in office with the rich and fashionable
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster and faster then the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

Outsmarting Expedia - How to Get Cheap Plane Tickets

2008-03-12T08:06:00.008-04:00

On my recent trip to Vegas and Denver, I unwittingly stumbled on a trick to get a really cheap flight. I'd like to spread the word! Here's how it worked:

I priced direct flights from Philadelphia to Vegas (stay two days); from Vegas to Denver (stay two days); then from Denver to Philadelphia. I tried it on several Internet search engines and found Expedia the easiest to work with when dealing with multiple destinations, because they have an option you click on where they find the "cheapest combination" of legs.

Yes, "cheapest" should be in parenthesis.

After about a week of combing around, I found a decent flight for $600. Not great, but not bad, especially considering all the stops. It was one of their cheapest combo options; the downside was, several of the flights were not my preferred travel times.

When I got to the last screen (after selecting one of the combos), a screen popped up that said: "Would you like change one of the legs of your flight?" And I thought, What the hell!? I'll check it out. Maybe picking a different flight time won't make a huge increase in the overall cost. ... So, I selected one of the legs to change, and was given every flight option on that particular route, and I then methodically went through and selected every single possible flight on that route, and saw how it changed the price of my flight.

Imagine my surprise when, buried among those 20-30 flight options, I found one particular flight time that lowered the cost of my overall ticket by over $100! Not what I was expecting!

Then I did this for all three legs of my trip, and ended up getting the exact same 3-way ticket, on the exact same days, for only $360! The flight times were the only difference -- and they were actually at better times for me!

It seems that Expedia's "lowest-possible option" is not the lowest possible option after all!

Then, just for kicks, I wrote down the three flight numbers in question and plugged in the identical itinterary on CheapTickets.com for the exact same travel days. The same flights purchased through their website were a full $100 more expensive than they were on Expedia.

I hope this helps someone out there! Fly On You Crazy Diamonds! And may you keep your money for yourself rather than forking it over to the major airline corporations!

Cool video on RRC

2008-03-10T17:22:00.003-04:00

Interested in learning more about the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College? This two-minute video will give you at least a brief introduction!

Vegas baby!

2008-03-04T20:51:00.004-05:00

Yippee! I'm on to Vegas to soak up some sun and celebrate the wonderful simcha of my buddy Rebecca's wedding. Rebecca and I have shared many tequila-soaked nights, commisserating about our dating woes over the years (not to mention trips to Mexico), so it's such a joy to see her happily paired away!

Here's to you Rebecca!

A peak at Ziggy

2008-02-23T10:27:00.017-05:00

At the risk of becoming one of those annoying people who can never seem to talk about anything other than their own children ... I wanted to share with you our lastest fruits from the doctor's office.

On Feb. 21 we had one of those new 4-D ultrasounds, which was quite an amazing sight to witness! Ziggy is 12 oz big, or, as Aaron remarked: "Congratulations, you're now the mother to a can of Coke!"

To see a few others, visit: http://www.brasslite.com/BabyPhotos.html

To download them, right-click on the image link and select: "Save Target As"

It looks like hair on the top of her head, but actually that is just a shadow. She's too young to have any hair yet.

The purpose of the ultrasound was to check each of her organs and body dimensions, since she is now large enough to do so. Everything checked out fine, and her growth is exactly in the middle of the normal range, which I was happy to hear, especially since Aaron was such a tiny baby and neither one of us are particularly on the "big" side. The technician laughed because in most of the photos, one or even both of her legs were bent back clear over her head. "You've got one flexible baby in there!" she laughed. I guess she's taking after her mother!

The day after the ultrasound, I felt the first "bubblies" in my lower abdomen, which I thought might be her. As they've continued off and on the past two days, I'm pretty sure they are her moving around (as opposed to say, intestinal gas, which was the other possibility!) It's a pretty darn trippy sensation, that's all I can say ...

The moniker Ziggy, by the way, grew out of "zygote". Technically she's a fetus now, not a zygote, so we probably should be using Figgy, but Ziggy seems to have stuck! :)

The 'real' origins of kashrut

2008-02-17T09:25:00.014-05:00

For my Bib Text class this week, we have been studying the biblical origins and theological ideas behind the Jewish system of kashrut, aka, what makes some foods kosher, and others treif? The origins of the biblical dietary laws are found in Levitus 11 and repeated in Deuteronomy 14. For class, we translated them, make comparison lists, trying to notice patterns in the categories and differences between the two texts. Then, we've been reading some of the top theological/sociological/historical theories on these laws.

What the rules of kashrut 'really mean' is one of those topics I have heard people openly opine and banter about for years now -- Jews and non-Jews alike. Everyone has a theory of what they really are about, and the most popular explanation is that they were primarily about hygiene. The ancient Israelites somehow figured out that meats like pork and shellfish are prone to food poisoning and illnesses in humans, this theorgy goes, and unlike our less-savvy neighbors, we Israelites wisely decided to ban them.

It's a nice idea, I'll admit. It makes us sound smarter and savvier than the rest of the world at the time -- which is an idea and stereotype about Jews that has proven as dangerous as it has flattering over the years ...

After spending several weeks studying the topic, I've walked away with really one firm conviction, and that is that it is extremely difficult to really grasp what these laws were about without really understanding the intricacies of Jewish theology at the time the laws were written -- and that is no small feat. It's not that it's rocket science; rather it's that it involves a whole societal system and way of looking at the world that is so alien and foreign to how any of us think in the modern world, it's simply hard to wrap your mind around it.

That said ... I will not cop out! Here is the extremely abbreviated version of the origins of the dietary laws. My sources are three fine pieces of scholarship by three leading thinkers in the field:

Levine, Baruch A. Leviticus. Philadelphia: JPS, 1989, pp. 243-248.
Milgrom, Jacob "Ethics and Ritual: The Foundations of the Biblical Dietary Laws." Religion and Law: Biblical-Judaic and Islamic Perspectives. 1990. pp. 159-191.
Wright, David. "Observations on the Ethical Foundations of the Biblical Dietary Laws: A Response to Jacob Milgrom." 1990. pp. 193-198

While they disagree with each other on some subtle areas, in the bigger picture they seem to be in agreement with the bigger picture.

* In a word, the Jewish dietary laws come down to holiness, the belief they made the Jewish people holy. In biblical Judaism, and unlike the widespread animism that existed in surrounding pagan communities, holiness is not an innate quality. It is something assigned by God alone.

"The emulation of God's holiness demands following the ethics associated with his nature. Since the demand for holiness occurs with greater frequency and emphasis in the food prohibitions than in any other commandment, I conclude they are the Torah's personal recommendation as the best way of achieving this higher ethical life." (Milgrom)

* The laws set the Israelites apart from non-Jews, as they believed they had been specifically selected for a special and unique relationship.

"Israel's attainment of holiness is dependent on setting itself apart from the nations and the prohibited animal foods. The dietary system is thus a reflection and reinforcement of Israel's election." (Milgrom)

"The main reason for their formulation is to provide a means of making and maintaining Israel as a holy people, setting them apart from other nations." (Wright)

"Pure creatures are to impure creatures as the Israelites are to the other nations. A pure people eats pure creatures in a pure state." (Levine)

"The Israelites must adhere to this ideal way of life although other nations do not. Required along with avoidance of improper sexual unions, which would corrupt the family of Israel, the avoidance of pagan worship, which would alienate Israel from God, is the avoidance of unfit food. By such avoidance, Israelites are kept from bestiality, their humaneness is enhanced. Such a pure people deserves to live in its own land, unmolested." (Levine)

* It is no accident that one of the first acts of Christianity was to abolish the dietary laws.

"Historians have claimed that the purpose was to ease the process of converting to Gentiles. This explanation is, at best, a partial truth. Abolishing the dietary laws, according to Scripture, also abolishes the distinction between Gentile and Jew, and that is exactly what the founders of Christianity intended to accomplish -- to end once and for all the notion that God had covenanted himself with a certain people who would keep itself apart from all the other nations. Further, it is these distinguishing criteria, the dietary laws (and circumcision) that were done away with. Christianity's intuition was correct: Israel's restrictive diet is a daily reminder to be apart from the nations." (Milgrom)

* The Jewish value of reverence for life was something fairly unique in that time and place in the world, and that value was reinforced by a myriad of laws, of which the dietary laws are just one of them.

"The list of prohibited animals forms a unified and coherent dietary system with the blood prohibition and the prescribed slaughtering technique whose clear, unambiguous purpose is to inculcate reverence for life." (Milgrom)

* As for the exact nature of the categories of what is or is not forbidden, they actually follow a subtle but clear pattern.

"In Genesis I, there are three elements of creation; water, air and earth. Each sphere has a peculiar mode of motion associated with it. However, creatures that cross boundaries are anomalies. Insects that fly but have four or more legs are an abomination, but if they have two legs to hop with they are edible. Birds that are carnivores are tabboo because carrion contains blood and creepers engage in an indeterminate form of locomotion." (Milgrom) Creepers are neither fish, flesh nor fowel, and those that walked on the sea floor were viewed similarly as scavengers who ate the 'life blood' of other animals.

* Most interestingly, the theory most often recited in lay circles -- that the dietary laws are mostly about hygiene -- is the theory that holds the least water, although it's not hard to see why it's so popular. Famous Jewish theologians of the Middle Ages, including Rambam and Maimonides, both wrote in support of that position.

"The hygiene hypothesis says that the forbidden animals are carriers of disease. The ancients discovered the harmful animals empiricially and modern science has verified their findings: the pig is a bearer of trichinosis, the hare of tularemia, carrion eating birds harbor disease and fish without fins and scales attract disease because they are mud burrowers. ... But there are weighty objections to this theory. For example, a camel, a prohibited animal, is a succulent delicacy for the Arabs to this day and there is no evidence that they suffer gastronomically. Also, if hygeniene were the sole reason for the diet laws, why were they restricted to the animal kingdom? Why were poisonous plants not probited?" (Milgrom)

"There is no evidence of a broad nutritional or health-related basis for the specific dietary classifications of the Torah. It is more reasonable to assume a socioreligious basis for them." (Levine)

3 down, 21 to go!

2008-02-17T09:17:00.005-05:00

Three semesters successfully behind me, semester No. 4 is now under way! My classes are much like last semester:
Leshon Hazal (Aramaic)
Biblical Text (translating and studying portions of Leviticus and Numbers)
Haftarot (translating and studying selections from the Haftarot, which are all gleaned from the poetic parts of the tanakh, which make up 1/3 of the bible)
Biblical Civilizations (history and theological development through the fall of the Second Temple)
Modern Hebrew

I'm also very excited to be participating in a nonfiction writer's critique group every other week. I haven't lost hope of eventually finding an agent and getting my dating book published. After having it rejected by half-a-dozen agents (which I hear is actually not that many in the big scheme of things), I decided it would be helpful to get some objective critiques from other writers to improve what I already have written before sending it out to more folks.

Another year

2008-02-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

Tonight we had a lovely potluck party with friends and family for my birthday. Aaron made his signature green tea ice cream cake. It was so tasty, I won't get to have any leftovers!

For those of you who haven't yet heard the news: We are anxiously awaiting "J6" on or around July 6th. Here is the latest pict. It made dressing for the party pretty easy as this is literally the only dress left in my closet that still fits! :)

New Bush Coins (Change For the Better)

2008-01-20T09:52:00.000-05:00

"When you think you have to want more than you need"

2008-01-18T00:03:00.001-05:00

Hi friends: Sorry I've been MIA! I returned from Cuba to the crazy panic of finals week. Blessfully, it is all over with now, but for the class I had to take an "incomplete" in, to finish the final paper over break.

Meanwhile, my day of glorious breathing space gave me the time to do something I've been wanting to do ... figure out how to imbed music videos into the blog. As a first offering, I hope you enjoy this beautiful song covered by Eddie Veder in the Into the Wild soundtrack. This recording shows the original singer-songwriter, who sounds eerily similar!

I promise to be back soon with more updates, as well as details on the Cuba trip.

Back from Cuba

2007-12-28T21:19:00.000-05:00

Greetings comrades.

After a 17-hour grueler, I am back from the land of no vegetables, no toilet paper and no Coca-Cola. The beaches, architecture and people, though, were delightful.

I will eventually be writing some articles for various publications about the trip, and will let you know where to find them when that happens. Meanwhile ... it's off to bed.

Update on the Hanukkah Hams

2007-12-15T10:14:00.000-05:00

From the New York Daily News; thanks for passing it along Judith!

Balducci's offers ham for Chanukah
BY Bill Hutchinson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, December 6th 2007

Balducci's in Greenwich Village advertises tasty boneless spiral ham as 'Delicious for Chanukah.' Store blamed a clerk for the gaffe.

Oy vey! Pork for Chanukah?

The Greenwich Village gourmet grocery store, Balducci's, has become the butt of the Jewish holiday by advertising its boneless hams as "Delicious for Chanukah."
Manhattan novelist Nancy Kay Shapiro, 46, spotted the kosher faux pas while browsing the meat section Saturday at the chain's outpost at Eighth Ave. and W. 14th St.

When Shapiro went back Sunday, she took photos of the unorthodox display promoting boneless spiral-cut hams for $8.99 a pound, petite smoked hams for $6.99 a pound and boneless smoked hams for $6.29 a pound.
Instead of pointing out the mistake to management, she posted the snapshots on her blog to "amuse others."

"I just thought it was funny," Shapiro, a self-described "unobservant Jew," said. "I wasn't offended in any way. I just thought, here's somebody who knows nothing about what Jews eat."

Shapiro said that when she went back to the store Tuesday, the first night of Chanukah, the signs had vanished.

A Balducci's official was so verklempt about the error he didn't want to speak on the record. He fessed up that "it was a mistake," blaming it on a stock clerk who normally doesn't work the meat department.

He referred all other questions to the company's marketing department in Connecticut.

Returning women to the Hanukkah story

2007-12-08T14:51:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Maccabeus
(sung to the tune of "O Hanukkah")
by Ben Aronin

Each Chanukah we glorify brave Judah Maccabeus
Who had the courage to defy Antiochus, and free us,
Yet it is not fair that we should forget
Mrs. Maccabeus, whom we owe a debt.
She mixed it, and fixed it
She poured it into a bowl
You may not guess, but it was the latkes
That gave brave Judah a soul.
You may not guess but it was the latkes
That gave brave Judah a soul.

The Syrians said: "It cannot be that old Mattathias
Whose years are more than 83 will dare to defy us!"
But they didn't know his secret, you see
Mattathias dined on latkes and tea.
One latke, two latkesAnd so on into the night
You may not guess but it was the latkesthat gave him the courage to fight.
You may not guess but it was the latkesthat gave him the courage to fight.

Now this is how it came about this gastonomic wonder
That broke the ranks of Syria like flaming bolts of thunder
Mrs. Maccabeus wrote in the doughPortions of the Torah then fried them so.
They shimmered, they simmered,
Absorbing the olive oil
You may not guess but it was the latkes
that made the Syrians recoil.
You may not guess but it was the latkes
that made the Syrians recoil.

Now these little latkes brown and delicious
must have hit the spot 'cause with appetites vicious
All the heroes downed them after their toil
Causing in our Temple a shortage of oil
One latke, two latkes,
And so on into the night.
You may not guess but it was the latkes
that gave us the Chanukah light.
You may not guess but it was the latkes
that gave us the Chanukah light.

Happy chamucka!

2007-12-07T15:00:00.000-05:00

Purportedly, this photo was taken at a Greenwich Village grocery: Balducci's on 8th Ave at 14th Street. What a hoot.

Reminds me of the time I found challah for sale on the Osage Indian Reservation in Oklahoma with the two braids colored bright yellow and bright orange. The sign said: "circus bread."

Random life updates

2007-12-03T10:43:00.000-05:00

Registration for next semester is already under way. There's a great course being offered on Islam, featuring five or six Muslim guest lecturers, and held once a week in the evenings at a professor's house. It sounds really great, and I hope to get in ... and it would also push my classload to seven, which frankly sounds like hell. I'm very conflicted about what to do ...

Unfortunately, Sweet Pea, the very fat yellow cat, has expanded his recently acquired habit of NOT using the litterbox to actually peeing on Aaron's computer moniter. I'm not kidding. It's happened twice now. And this a few days after urinating all over the vegetable steamer on the kitchen counter.

I don't know what to do about this either. He's a wonderful little love bug, and he's never done anything like this in the 8 years since I found him as a 5-day-old and bottlefed him into adulthood. I need a cat mind-reading device and fast.

My former Denver neighbor and master latke-maker Ky has gotten in touch from the U.K., where she moved a few years ago. It was great hearing from her. I miss that chica!

Three weeks and counting until my exciting trip to Cuba, on a humanitarian mission to visit the Jewish community there through a Philadelphia synagogue trip. My Hebrew school kids are donating their tzedakah money to their religious school, and I've been buying up school supplies to bring to them. Much more on this topic to come!

The forgotten dialect of the heart

2007-11-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

With our midterms over, and the laborious hours of biblical translation behind us, one of our teachers brought in this beautiful poem, which was a perfect breath of air. I hope you enjoy...

The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart
by Jack Gilbert

How astonishing it is that language can almost mean,
and frightening that it does not quite. Love, we say,
God, we say, Rome and Michiko, we write, and the words
get it wrong. We say bread and it means according
to which nation. French has no word for home,
and we have no word for strict pleasure. A people
in northern India is dying out because their ancient
tongue has no words for endearment. I dream of lost
vocabularies that might express some of what
we no longer can. Maybe the Etruscan texts would
finally explain why the couples on their tombs
are smiling. And maybe not. When the thousands
of mysterious Sumerian tablets were translated,
they seemed to be business records. But what if they
are poems or psalms? My joy is the same as twelve
Ethiopian goats standing silent in the morning light.
O Lord, thou art slabs of salt and ingots of copper,
as grand as ripe barley lithe under the wind's labor.
Her breasts are six white oxen loaded with bolts
of long-fibered Egyptian cotton. My love is a hundred
pitchers of honey. Shiploads of thuya are what
my body wants to say to your body. Giraffes are this
desire in the dark. Perhaps the spiral Minoan script
is not a language but a map. What we feel most has
no name but amber, archers, cinnamon, horses and birds.

From: The Great Fires, Poems 1982-1992, Knopf, 2005

Before you do your online shopping ...

2007-11-20T08:54:00.000-05:00

... log onto this website at www.goodsearch.com/goodshop.aspx and use the links on that website to visit the websites where you would normally do your online shopping. This includes Amazon, Target, Overstock.com etc etc. There are hundreds of retailers participating.

You select a charity before you follow this link, and anywhere from 2-4% of your purchase price is donated to that charity!

The cost of using this site is ZIPPO, and the prices listed through the Good Search link is identical to the prices you would find if you went to the sites directly. COOL DEAL!

To view the lists of charities there are to choose from, click on "Participating Nonprofits" in light gray at the very bottom of the page. You can search by cause (ie, Animals, Disabilities, Environment, Education), as well as alphabetically.

Colorado friends, the Wild Animal Sanctuary - Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center is among them, as well as the Lakewood kitty shelters Cat Care Society and Angels with Paws!

If you're looking for a good general recommendation, you know I'm always a big fan of the Jane Goodall Institute and all of her great conservation work for primates in Africa, as well as the D.C.-based group, the World Wildlife Fund.

Meow.

Military chaplaincy

2007-11-18T12:29:00.000-05:00

Last week, I had an interesting experience at the Fort Dix military processing center in New Jersey. I am reluctant to draw any sweeping generalizations about the makeup of our military based on such a limited experience, but I thought it might be interesting to pass along what I saw there, and let you, the reader, infer as much or as little as you find appropriate.

First, some background:

Before beginning rabbinical school, I had heard about military chaplaincy and had read several interesting books on the topic. Among them were An American Rabbi in Korea: A Chaplain's Journey in the Forgotten War, a fascinating inside account of a war I never studied much growing up, and the experiences of a Jewish chaplain.

A second is the highly troubling memoir called For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire. Written by a Muslim chaplain with the rank of captain, it tells how the Army wrongly accused him of treason after he began serving inmates held at Guantanamo Bay. Both are really worth reading.

I also began reading about the first female rabbi to serve as a chaplain in the U.S. military, Bonnie Koppel. It turns out, she is a Reconstructionist, and I called her a few years ago at her home in Arizona, and we had a fascinating conversation about her experiences as a liberal, a woman and a Jew serving 28 years in the Army Reserves.

My interest is also partly personal: My paternal grandfather served in World War II, and was, to my knowledge, one of the people in charge of overseeing the oil and gas supply lines to the troops in Europe. He narrowly survived numerous bombing raids from his position in London, where I believe he was mostly based.

My family never spoke about his military service as something to be proud of – though this might have partly been a reaction to who he was as a person: A bit on the grumpy side and emotionally remote. It might also be because of his own attitude about military service. It was a real source of pride to my father that he resisted his own father’s intense pressure to enlist. Apparently, this pressure took the form of blackmail against both my father and his brother: If you don’t join the service, I won’t pay for your college. My uncle acquiesced, and my father did not.

I can understand why my dad never thought much of military service, but I have to say that I never really understood why no one ever thought that what grandpa had done was admirable in any way. The more I’ve moved into observant Jewish life and community, the more I can’t relate to this kind of thinking. Plainly put: I think it’s pretty cool my grandfather helped kick it to the Nazis. And, as a liberal Jew, I feel tremendously grateful to be living in the one place where it has been easier and better to be a Jew than in any other place in the world (and that includes Israel!)

Chaplain candidate program
The military offers a unique training opportunity for all seminary students enrolled in accredited programs of study. The Army, Air Force and Navy/Marines (which is combined) each offer “chaplain candidate” enlistments whereby you basically receive paid chaplaincy training throughout your time in school. When you graduate, you have the option (but not the obligation) to enlist, either in Reserves or Active Duty. The program has protected status; you are guaranteed not to be forced into Active Duty or to do anything that would compromise your academic study.

Once you complete chaplain school (which for the Army is one month in January and one month in June), you can work as much or as little as you want with your local reserve unit doing chaplaincy-type stuff. You’re paid an hourly wage at whatever your rank is, which to start out is as an officer, second lieutenant.

I called all three branches before I started school 1.5 years ago. I was 34 at the time, but I wouldn’t actually begin school until I was 35, which is the official cutoff for all military enlistments. It turned out to be a Catch 22. You can’t enlist after age 35, but you can’t be approved to be a chaplain candidate until AFTER you’ve begun school. After many months of phone calls, the Army was the only branch willing to work with me and try to secure an exemption. I’ll spare you the long convoluted story, but basically, it’s taken 1.5 years for that to happen.

Last week, all of the exemptions finally in line for my (old!) age and various physical ailments (shoulder injury, LASIK surgery, etc etc), I drove over the bridge into New Jersey to the Wyndham hotel where the Army was putting me up for the night. It turned out, the “MEPS” has a permanent office there on the second floor. Six days a week, everyone going to Fort Dix for enlistment physicals or tests for any of the branches are sent to this hotel the night before. The reason is simple: 4 a.m. wakeup call.

Okay, try not to laugh. Try not to bust up any new sutures. Yes, yours truly really did wake up at 4 a.m.

I arrived at about 10 pm the night before, and my roommate was arriving at the same time. 17 years old, Stacy was a senior in high school and after taking one look at me, blurted out: “How old ARE you?” followed by “Which service are you enlisting in?” When I told her the Army, she made a face and fell silent.

“What are you enlisting in?” I asked her, to which she quickly answered “Oh the Marines, I’m Marines. They’re the best. I know because I researched it, and so they’re the only ones I wanted to join.”

We had an interesting conversation as we got into bed, in which I learned that she works part time at a grocery store, and that her mother is very opposed to her enlisting, “but it’s not up to her.” Stacy doesn’t know what job or training she wants to receive – she had been interested in medical, but the Marines doesn’t have any medical training. Since she cared more about being in the Marines than doing anything medical, that meant she stuck to the Marines.

Stacy asked me if I was excited to go to boot camp, and I tried explaining that I wouldn't go to boot camp – I would go to chaplain-training school. But I don’t think she knew what a chaplain was. For her part, she was VERY excited about boot camp, which begins in July and which lasts 13 weeks -- the “longest of any of the branches.” This was clearly another source of pride for her.

I should add here that Stacy is black, my height (5’3”), and can’t way an ounce more than 105 pounds. When I told her the hotel would be giving us a wakeup call at 4 a.m., she said: “What’s that? How are they going to do that?” and when I suggested she look at the thermostat and turn up the heat in the room, she said: “What’s a thermostat?”

I must tell you friends, my heart really broke for this poor girl. She really had no bloomin’ idea WHAT she is getting herself into; all she knew is that she is getting out and away from a life she can no longer tolerate.

At Fort Dix
The next day, a bus took everyone to the military base about ½ an hour away. My recruiter had told me to follow behind the bus in my own car, which I really didn’t understand. When I asked the guy in the MEPS station why I should do this, he said: “Because you’re an officer candidate and your recruiter assumed you wouldn’t want to ride with all the enlistees in the bus.”

I took slight offense at this idea – that I would think I’m somehow too good to ride on a bus with everyone else – but it turned out to be for the better. It only took four hours to process me because as an officer candidate they push you through first. Also, there were so few women, things like the urine tests (which only accommodate two people at a time) went much more quickly. If I had taken the bus, I would have had to hang out there another six hours waiting for a bus ride back to the hotel and my car.

The physical wasn’t nearly as bad or embarrassing as it’s cracked up to be. Yes, a woman watches you pee in a cup to take your urine sample, but she was sweet and kind about it, and apologized to all of us for having to do so. And yes, you do have to stand around in a room in your underwear and crouch down and do the duck walk in front of two doctors. And yes, a doctor does briefly check where the sun don’t shine as part of the overall exterior exam. But all in all, it wasn’t so bad.

Out of the 50 or so people being processed that day, there were only four women. The other three were all 17 or 18, and either black or Hispanic. Only one of the 50 was an officer candidate (as opposed to an enlistee), and that one was me. The code on the sticker I wore on my shirt made this distinction to anyone who worked there, and so I was always given “important” duties like helping pass out pens and making sure every new person who came in the room was given a breathalyzer tube.

It’s just a guess, but I’d say overall, about 10 or 15 percent of us were white. Blacks were the most common, followed by Hispanics, and Asians or general darker-skinned people of color.

So am I an official chaplain candidate?

No, not yet. Stay tuned.

Ten shares of righteous indignation please

2007-11-16T09:06:00.000-05:00

By this weekend, I had really had it. I had been waiting three months, and that was 2.5 months too long.

Back in August, I applied for a family gym membership at the JCC near my house. Having heard that they offer “scholarships” – membership discounts based on income – I also filled out an application for that, which required a copy of our taxes and W-2s, and a written statement about our financial situation. I really had no idea what qualified someone for this money, or just how broke applicants usually are, but I thought it was worth a shot.

I handed in the paperwork in mid-August, and was told I would hear back within “a week or two”. I then proceeded to go back to the JCC every one or two weeks for the next three months, inquiring about my application. Every time I went in, it was some new person at the front desk, who I had to tell my story to, and every time all I ever heard was “Oh I’m sure you’ll be hearing very very soon!”

Finally, five weeks ago, I marched back to the office of the woman who actually reviews the applications, and she assured me I would be hearing within a week.

“You know, if we don’t qualify or something – that’s okay,” I told her. “We would just really like to know one way or the other so we can proceed with joining. We really want to start working out.”

“Oh no, no,” she assured me, “it isn’t about that. We just haven’t had a chance to work through them all yet!” She took down my name and number and promised to personally call me within a week and let me know.

Four weeks later … nothing.

Last week, I called and got her on the phone. She hurriedly said: “Yes yes yes, you will hear by Friday! You will get a letter in the mail!”

“Okay!” I told her, still trying really really hard to sound chipper. “But do you realize I’ve been waiting for three months now?”

“Friday!!!!!!” she hollered.

Friday came and went … no letter.

That’s when I decided *I* would write a letter. I know mom, try not to roll your eyes… But really, this was too much. It’s bad enough having people lie to you week after week, month after month, for three months – in any situation. But it’s way over the top worse when what is at issue is how a major Jewish organization treats people who are basically expressing a need for charity. Forcing people to publicly reveal their need time after time, and to basically beg for a handout, and then responding to their appeals like they are second-class citizens, not worth the basic courtesy of an honest and timely response – it goes against every basic Jewish teaching of what constitutes ethical behavior toward “the poor.”

We have been studying precisely this issue in my mishnah class at school. Mishnah Peah I is all about how farmers are required to leave “peah” on the corner of their fields for the poor to collect – and the rabbis who wrote the mishnah wrote entire chapters on what kinds of food qualify as peah, and how the quantity is established, and how it must be done in a way that people can collect it anonymously, and how it must be left at certain times of the day so the poor don’t “waste their time waiting around all day waiting for the farmer to leave the peah.”

What it describes, in other words, is a scenario 100% opposite of how the JCC is giving out their peah.

In my letter, addressed to the president of the JCCs of Greater Philadelphia, I laid out what exactly had been going on, and what I thought about it. It was three pages long. After Aaron finished slogging through it, he handed it back to me with a shrug and said: “Well, I don’t know, J, if you pack any more righteous indignation into that thing, it might spontaneously combust.”

He had a point. I waited several more days, gave myself an imaginary Qualud, and took another crack at it. It lost a page, and the high-handed moralizing was replaced with more thoughtful and calm reflection. Maimonides (pictured) even made an appearance. Just to be safe, I decided to wait a few more days before mailing it. And so you can imagine my surprise when yesterday, I came home and found a letter addressed to me from none other than the local JCC.

By way of introduction, let me just say this: If any of you have ever seen me in one of my fits of righteous indignation, you can just imagine what my reaction was when I opened up the envelope and read this:

“Dear J and A:
Thank you for your recent application for scholarship assistance from the Kaiserman JCC. According to the financial documents you submitted, you qualify for a 10% scholarship. But because AARON is a full time rabbinic student and part-time Jewish professional, we would like to extend a 25% Jewish communal worker discount to you in lieu of a scholarship.”

Part 7: The Babylonian exile

2007-11-13T08:06:00.001-05:00

For the 150 years that the Israelites were reduced to the Southern Kingdom, their neighboring superpowers of the Babylonians and Assyrians skirmished with each other. With the rise of Nebuchadnezzar II in 626 BCE, the balance of power began shifting to the Babylonians’ favor. In 605, he conquered Egypt, and in 598, the first Judeans began being deported to Babylonia. The governor at the time, Zedekiah, rebelled in 587, and the kingdom fell in 576. Zedekiah’s sons were killed, and he was blinded and also shipped away.

(Above right: The Middle East, c. 600 BC, showing the extent of the Neo-Babylonian empire).

Judea’s priests, scribes and land-holding elite was sent to Babylonia, and the 50 years they spent in exile there have been the subject of much academic debate. It used to be thought that the five books of the Torah were finalized during this time – an activity of intense scribal activity by an exile community desperate to cling onto their identity. But this is no longer believed to be the case.

While it appears the exiles were allowed to live in the same areas and maintain their worship practices in Babylonia, they would not have had access to the foundational texts these books based upon – they would be back in Judea. Further, the absence of any Babylonian descriptions of any kind of flourishing Judean community in their midst suggests that there wasn’t one – that they were small, subsistence and basically living under the radar.

The 43 years of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign were apparently quite spectacular. From Kuhrt Amelie:
Some of the splendour and wealth of Babylon and its court is echoed by the legendary anecdotes and romantic stories … the late second century book of Daniel being the best-known. But there are many more: the fabled hanging gardens were counted among the seven wonders of the world, and Babylon became a byword for luxury and cosmopolitan life. Nebuchadnezzar himself later counted as a world conqueror, reaching the frontiers of the known world. The immense wealth commanded by the Babylonian kings is reflected in their large-scale building projects, with their magnificent temples and towering ziggurats, now lying in sad ruins. The royal inscriptions describe in loving detail many more impressive royal constructions is which nothing has survived. The colourful embellishments and decorations in precious metals, too, have vanished. Some evidence for the manufacture of perform, oil and purple dye for textiles and fine wines on royal estates in Judah has been teased out.

The extensive cuneiform records reveal a great deal about Babylonian life and social structure, and significant among them is the evidence that the citizen body was an exclusive group. Gaining membership into the body of privileged inhabitants was neither automatic nor easy – and the Judean exiles were most certainly not a part of this group.

It was at this juncture in Israelite history that the term “Jew” entered the lexicon. The term derives from the Aramaic yehuday, or Judean, which was meant to distinguish the expatriate Judean from those still residing in Judah. In one Babylonian ration list, a man named Ur-milki is designated a “Jew,” as are several others in vicinity on the list.

What percentage of the population was actually shipped to Babylonia is not known, nor are the exact regions of their settlement there. However, some evidence suggests that the bulk of the expatriates were north of Babylon, with smaller numbers in the south. The names of some Jewish settlements -- mound of ears (of grain), mound of deluge and mound of potsherd – suggest they were sent to inferior agricultural areas that had been abandoned by the Babylonians due to salty soil or other destructions.

One possible new religious development in this period was the synagogue, Amelie says. The synagogue became in the beginning simply a gathering place of people, either in private resident or open air. Later, actual buildings were constructed for this purpose.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Judea
We don’t know a ton about the Judean exiles’ life in Babylon but we know even less about the Judeans who remained in Judea after the conquest. The archaeological record shows that the population shifted from the urban to the rural areas and living standards fell precipitously, but the written record is sparse.

Nabonidus, the last king of the Neo-Babylonian dynasty, was overthrown by Persian king Cyrus in 539 BCE (at right), who instituted more liberal measures toward the peoples who formed part of the Babylonian empire. From Assyria to western Iran, he returned local divine images to their temples and organized the return of people to their homelands.

To say that theJudean exiles “returned” to Judea, however, is a bit of a misnomer. The exile lasted 50 years, and back then, 50 years was a lifespan. So it was really the next generation who “went back” to a land that most of them had even known.

Part 6: The Southern Kingdom (722-587)

2007-11-13T07:58:00.000-05:00

Judea is rarely mentioned outside the Bible prior to the fall of the North to the Assyrians in 722 BCE. This suggests its sparse populace and development didn’t attract the attention of the neighboring powers.

But with the fall of the North, the South explodes onto the biblical scene. For one thing, there was a huge influx of refugees who started streaming into the south and settling the lands. For another, several books of the Bible give a careful outline of the actions of the Southern kings during these 150 years.

According to these biblical accounts, almost all of these kings got it wrong – they were bad leaders and bad worshipers who led the people astray. The lengths of their reigns, however, actually suggest the opposite – that they were not only effective, but popular, and they oversaw periods of stability and affluence in the region. So what’s the deal with this discrepancy?!?

The answer to this question can be seen if you look at the only two kings the biblical writers actually liked during those 150 years – and those were Hezekiah and Josiah. These two kids had one very important thing in common, and that is that they were centralizers: they tore down rural and regional temples and altars of Ba’al, who is depicted as a bull on many ancient Israelite artifacts; they centralized worship to the YHVH god at the Temple in Jerusalem; and they purged the Temple of the many sculptures and altars to Ba’al and the feminine goddess Asherah that were inside the Temple.

As my teacher explained it, Hezekiah and Josiah were the “Stalinesque” kings of the day, who centralized their power contrary to what were clearly the normative religious practices of the people. We know YHVH, Ba’al and Asherah worship (as opposed to YHVH worship exclusively) normative because the moment these two kings left power, the temples and altars and figurines to these other gods reappeared. “The brevity and scarcity of the periods of ‘reform’ under Hezekiah and Josiah show us that heterodoxy was much more common than orthodoxy,” our teacher explained.

The attitudes of these Southern kings toward the limited polytheism of the people is detailed quite clearly in the Bible, and they are reinforced by the archaeological record. There is evidence of destruction at the major cultic sites outside Jerusalem during the periods of Hezekiah and Josiah, and there is evidence that these sites were rebuilt in the periods after their reigns.

It’s fascinating isn’t it? The one thing Judaism is most famous for is that it was the foundation of monotheism in the Western world. We are now up to the year 587 BCE, and what we see is that the “Judaism” of the day was still not actually monotheistic! It will become monotheistic to be sure – but these roots don’t originate anywhere close to the period of Abraham and Sarah, the mythic progenitors of Judaism and monotheism. That duo ostensibly lived back in Part 1 of this series, at the settling of the central highlands in Canaan in the 13th century.

So, to summarize early Israelite religion up until this point:

From 10th-6th century BCE, the majority of Israelite worship took place outside Jerusalem at temples and altars around the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Asherah, a female goddess; Ba’al, a young storm God depicted as a bull; and YHVH, depicted as a “box” (aka the desert tabernacle) were worshipped by the people. There was a cult of the dead, and practice of divination was widespread. The profusion of small household cultic objects suggests worship was largely a home-based practice fully integrated into people’s daily lives. (At right: Ba'al with raised arm, 14th-12th century BCE, found at Ras Shamra.)

The “orthodox” religion of the era was limited polytheism. When kings like Hezekiah and Josiah came along and tried to institute monotheistic “reforms,” they were the minority opinion, and their reforms did not last. In effect, they were the elite trying to impose their beliefs on their subjects, and patterns in other cultures suggest their efforts probably involved some amount of violence (though the biblical texts don’t tell us that).

Monotheism would become a learned and taught ideology after the Babylonian exile. It did not come about as a “given truth,” as the biblical writers would have us believe. The biblical writers came from the South, and represented the minority pro-monotheism, pro-YHVH, pro-Temple elite. At the end of the day, their views would become the majority views, and the ideological propaganda they waged on the pages of the Bible would completely transform the course of Jewish theology and history.

Hatikvah at Bergen-Belsen

2007-11-12T18:37:00.002-05:00

This recording of Hatikvah (The Hope), the song that would become the state of Israel's national anthem, was made at the first Erev Shabbat service held in Germany after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. It was recorded by a British reporter on April 20, 1945, in Bergen-Belsen when the British army liberated the few thousand survivors in the concentration camp, half of whom were Jewish. It was a British priest who organized the service at the camp.

The recording was recently discovered and loaned to NPR by the Smithsonian Institute. As you can hear, they sang the original version as it was written by Naftali Imber.

http://genealogy.org.il/BergenBelsenHatikva.mp3

Part 5: The Northern Kingdom (928-722)

2007-11-12T17:59:00.000-05:00

The monarchic period was a crucial one in the development of Israelite society. At the time, the land was divided between Israel in the north and Judea in the south, but the Northern Kingdom was clearly the dominant one. The bulk of the people we call “the Ancient Israelites” lived in the north, and it contained the largest settlements and evidence of material advancements. Key religious sites include the shrines at Beth El and Beth Dan.

The north oriented north, and the south oriented toward Jerusalem. Once the north falls to the Assyrians in 722, the whole focus will shift to the south – and careful reading of the Bible reveals that most of the authors of the books related to this time period actually came from the south, and they were writing after the north's collapse. Their writings will reveal all kinds of “reasons” why the north fell – usually having to do with “wrong" worship practices and “bad kings”. These are the biases that must be carefully sifted out when trying to discern a more accurate historical view of what was really going on in the monarchic period.

But … I’m getting ahead of myself. To go back …

According to the Bible, the Kingdom of Israel came into being in 928, and was conquered by the Assyrians in 722. Extra biblically, the kingdom is first mentioned about 75 years later as a force to be reckoned with. This is good confirmation that at least in this particular detail, the Bible is basically accurate.

The North’s history can be seen in two periods: Its first half as an independent state, and its second half as a vassal of the Assyrians. Of the North’s many kings (which are listed in a great timeline on page 2111 of the Jewish Study Bible), eight of them are mentioned in extra-biblical sources. The first one mentioned is the dynasty of Omri; and the others include Ahab, Jehoram, Jehu, Jeheash, Menoken, Pelcah and Hosea. The extra-biblical sources come from victory steles and annals written by the neighboring Assyrian superpower, and scholars are able to match up the chronology of the kings in Tanakh with these other sources.

Ahab was a particularly successful Israelite king – despite the fact he is totally vilified by later southern writers for marrying a Phoenician princess and engaging in all sorts of “improper” worship practices. In Assyrian annals, it is clear he was an imposing figure on the international stage, and his marriage to a Phoenician is proof of a strong political allegiance with that neighboring power. The annals also indicate that Ahab was part of a coalition of Assyrian kings that worked together in diplomatic endeavors.

It was under the Israelite kingship of Menoken that the North became an Assyrian vassal state, thus losing its status as an independent kingdom. The Annals of Tigleth-Pileser III (747-727 BCE) talk about this Assyrian king’s creation of the Neo-Assyrian empire, which included his incursion south into Israel in 732. Tigleth-Pileser (in a relief at right) is considered one of the most successful military commanders in world history, conquering most of the world known to the ancient Assyrians before his death in 727.

Becoming a vassal was not necessarily a bad thing. “Vassaldom” gave the Israelite people access to the riches and stability of a major superpower. However, after Tigleth's incursion, he began shipping Israelite inhabitants to other parts of the Assyrian empire -- a practice that was commonly enacted by his predecessors.

Why the North went from being a mere vassal to actually being conquered and pretty thoroughly decimated by the Assyrians in 722 is not 100 percent clear. Assyrian rulers after Tigleth (Shalmanaser V and Sargan II) continue moving further south, until all of the northern kingdom is decimated. With the north fully fallen, the empire would then set its sights on the Southern Kingdom. But conquering it would prove harder than it might have seemed.

Part 4: The judges and united monarchy

2007-11-06T22:21:00.000-05:00

The Israelites of the central highlands were governed by chieftains – tribal leaders who delivered their people from oppression. In Hebrew they are called shoftim, which in English is usually translated as judges.

During the 11th and 10th centuries BCE, the Israelites often needed protection from violence, perhaps because their olive fields and vineyards garnered envy; or maybe just because human beings have a glorious history of being jerkwods and ransacking their neighbors. Whatever the reason, these people would band together during times of shared threat, often under the banner of a shofet.

Some shoftim were military leaders (Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon, Jephthah); some were lone warriors (Shamgar and Samson); and some were prophets (Deborah and Samuel). Thus, a shofet is a term that covers a wide range of leaders who flourished in the period prior to the united monarchy.

At some point, the chaos and instability of living under these imperfect rulers became too much, and the Bible tells us that the people began clamoring for a king. More likely what happened is that a handful of these chieftans began winning greater military victories until finally, thanks to the success of what was basically his junta, King Saul was anointed king. This was effectively the birth of the monarchy.

The United Monarchy
The Book of I Samuel describes the transition of rule from the judges to the monarchic system. It is a monarchic system unique in the ancient Near East, for it is not absolute. Kings are not free to do however they wish, and they are bound to a higher power and morality, which is upheld by the prophets.

Saul was a sketchy king of dubious character, and it wasn’t until King David that the full potential of the monarchy was reached. What were once juntas becomes a full-blown standing army. The king resides in a “house of cedar,” which would be a substantial dwelling in those days. We see divisions of labor with the roles of priests and scribes. And a corvee’ and taxation system is established to support the growing bureaucracy.

What we know about this period from outside the Bible is very little, because the neighboring powers of Assyrians, Arameans, Egyptians and Libyans were preoccupied with their own wars. This might explain why the Israelites had the peace and independence to even develop a monarchy.

That said, there is reason to believe that there is some genuine historical accuracy to these books of the bible (Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel) – at least if you filter through the biases and assumptions made by the authors.

The books were written about 400 years after the events took place, but some of the content has been corroborated through archaeology and extra-biblical sources. This is clear indication that these books were based on earlier scrolls or records, which were lost after the Bible’s redaction.

The only extra-biblical mention of King David is in the famous Tel Dan Inscription dated to the 9th century. Found in the upper Galilee near the Golan, it refers to a “House of David” being situated in the southern part of the kingdom.

Another important extra-biblical source is a stele from the Egyptian Pharoah Shishak (945-924 BCE). The Shishak Relief in the Karnak Temple records his conquests in the land of Canaan, and mentions an astronomical phenomenon that enables us to date his expedition precisely to the year 925 BCE.

Amazingly, a parallel expedition by a king of almost the same name is described in I Kings 14:25, and archaeologists have uncovered destruction in several cities both the relief and the Bible record. What this gives us is what might be called “The Magic Trifecta”: three-pronged proof of a series of specific events.

Meanwhile…
Under the united monarchy, settlements in the highlands grew. Gezer, Megiddo and Hazor were the largest, touting double casement walls, fortified gates, large buildings and little domestic architecture. They also belie architectural influence from Syrians, Hittites and Phoenicians.

We see continued widespread worship of limited polytheism among the Israelites. Baal, the storm god, enjoys an upsurge in the north, and the Yahwists, who dominate the south, start to see this worship as problematic. A growing division between the two camps emerges.

Elijah and other radical prophets start ranting against Baal worship – although that story was written in the south, after the north falls to the Assyrians, so it’s hard to know how much of it is retroactive fault-finding. In both regions, archaeology shows that cults of all four gods are the common folk practice of the Israelite people.

Part 3: What about the Exodus?

2007-11-06T20:17:00.000-05:00

If you were even half awake during my last posting, you might have noticed the omission of a small little thing called the “Exodus story.” If early Israelites and Canaanites were one and the same, what about the bulk of the content of the Torah – which describes the Hebrews’ flight from Egypt and return to Canaan?

All I can say is: the Exodus from Egypt very definitely didn’t happen the way the Torah says it did, it very possibly didn’t happen it all – and I hope I’m not the first person you’re hearing this from.

This is the consensus of modern biblical scholarship. How so? Because of the absence of evidence of an exodus, and the profusion of evidence of an indigenous Isreo-Canaanite culture (and I think I made that last word up).

-- There is no record in any Egyptian annals outside of the previously mentioned Merneptah stele, of a people called Israel, of an exodus, or of a series of plagues.
-- It would be impossible for an encampment of one million people (which is beyond enormous given the population numbers of the ancient world) to leave no archaeological trace, and yet there are none in any of the areas where the route could have occurred.
-- Even an exodus of much smaller numbers than the Torah reports – say 20,000 – would have left traces, and yet there are none.

+ The homes that suddenly proliferated in the highlands are the same architectural style found in the coastal Canaanite cities.
+ The pottery styles are also Canaanite (though of lesser quality, as previously mentioned)
+ The widespread use of cult objects, such as Asherah goddesses, and symbols for the gods of Baal, El and Yhvh, all of which are Canaanite in origin, are also found in the central highlands where ‘Israel’ is unanimously identified by the Bible, the Egyptians and the archaeological record.

What modern biblical scholarship cannot say with consensus is whether an even smaller group of slaves left Egypt, traveled to the central highlands of Canaan, and melded with the growing population of Canaanites fleeing the coastal cities. Their story could have merged and become part of the burgeoning self-identity of these people, and in time become part of the collective history.

Given the centrality of the Exodus narrative to Jewish tradition, theology and psyche, it seems a pretty reasonable assumption to make.

Part 2: The real origins of Israel

2007-11-03T11:09:00.000-04:00

According to the Bible, the tribe of Israel originated with Abraham in Mesopotamia; he travelled from Ur, north through Canaan, and then south into Egypt. Joseph's descendants in Egypt eventually become enslaved to Pharoah, who, compelled by a series of horrible plagues, "lets the people go" back to Canaan. And so a nation is born.

From the perspective of literary analysis, this version if Israel's origins is probably a melding of two stories: one the tribal history of Abraham and his generation, and the second a national history telling the birth of a nation.

The Bible offers two versions of how the people ‘Israel’ resettled the land of Canaan. In Joshua, it describes a blitzkrieg resettlement across the Canaanite lands; in Judges, it describes a more gradual resettlement alongside the Canaanites.

What archaeology shows us fairly clearly is that in the period of the 13th century (aka the early 1200s BCE), Canaan was settled by Canaanites. Most of the population was on the coast, where trade with other Meditteranian peoples took place (such as the Phoenicians).

Major escavations have taken place at several sites the Bible lists as areas of Israelite conquest in the 1200 BCE era. Two of the five show major destruction in that time period, which means the other three are contradicted by the archaeological record:

Jericho (Joshua) No settlement or conquest in the 13th century
(A town there was burned to the ground in the 14th century, but it
was abandoned after that)
Ai (Joshua) Unoccupied in the 13th century
Gibeon (Joshua) Unoccupied in the 13th century
Lachsish Big destruction in the 13th century
Hazor Big destruction in the 13th century

At these escavation sites, there is no evidence that the conquering peoples came from a foreign culture or language.

The first extrabiblical reference to a people called ‘Israel’ is found in a funerary monument in Egypt in 1208 BCE called the Merneptah Stele. In it, King Meneptah documents his military victories in Canaan in a poetic fashion, and boasts that "Israel is laid waste; its seed is not."

Based on the location of other victories in the stele, it is possible to plot the route he took, and based on that, 'Israel' is located in the central highlands of Canaan, where the book of Judges also places the early Israelites. Archaeological evidence also places ‘Israel’ in the same geographic region.

Where are the central highlands, exactly? Basically in what would be called the lower Galilee today, north of Jerusalem.
The 13th century BCE – the time that this stele was written – was a crucial period of development in the land of Canaan. The archaeological record clearly shows
· a major population decrease in the coastal Canaanite cities and a major population increase in the central highlands
· the widespread use of six-pillared houses in the highlands
· a decline in the quality of pottery in the highlands
· a decrease in imports, or luxury goods, from outside Canaan
· the emergence of widespread adoption of agricultural terracing around small settlements of pillared houses, indicating groupings of extended families.

We also know from the Egyptian record, the Amarna Letters, that Canaan was under Egyptian control in the 14th century, and that by the 13th century, this city-state system had began to fall down. Local Canaanite rulers were getting very powerful and bands of marauders were wreaking havoc on the coastal settlements.

This, coupled with strong archaeological evidence, suggests that Canaanites began fleeing these towns, settling in the highlands, and adopting terracing systems for the growth of olive trees and vineyards.

The history of the land of Canaan is one marked by many periods of shifting populations from the coast to the highlands and back to the coast again. Life on the coast was usually easier due to rich trade routes and soil. The rocky highlands had less predictable weather, too much rain, and difficult soil. But in times of political instability, the highlands are safer and easier to protect, so populations often shifted there during times of coastal instability.

The population shift of the 13th century was different, however, because this time, the population stayed. They didn’t go back to the coast. And for reasons that remain a mystery, at some point these people began to distinguish themselves from their Canaanite neighbors and self-identify as ‘Israel’.

Terracing takes a tremendous amount of man-power. This might be one reason why they stayed. Once they had invested so much labor into their settlements, and began the profitable production of two highly prized commodities of the day – wine and olive oil – there was no reason to leave. The labor needed to make these terraces might also explain why pottery quality took a nosedive in these settlements. They had too many other things to do.

So, to summarize, Mark Smith explains:
"Despite the long regnant model that the 'Canaanites' and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and 'Canaanites' in the Iron I period (ca. 1200-1000). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from 'Canaanite' culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period." (pp6-7).

Part 1: An introduction to Biblical scholarship

2007-11-01T20:12:00.000-04:00

This is the first of a series of posts I would like to write about the content of my Biblical Civilizations class. The course is essentially an academic overview of Israelite history, based on the latest scholarly thinking, and bringing into mind not just the biblical texts (some of which are deemed reliable and some are not) – but also extrabiblical texts, archaeological evidence, and what might be called socio-scientific analysis.

By extrabiblical texts, it means such things as Egyptian engravings, and Assyrian and Persian annals and scrolls; and by socio-scientific analysis we mean those generalities that can be inferred by patterns in human settlement and organization that are seen across all cultures. An example might be: If you have housing settlements done in small groupings, this generally means extended families lived there, and that is true worldwide, regardless of language, religion or culture.

Our teacher is a PhD in the field of biblical literature. I credit her namelessly for all of the information I’m offering, with the caveat that any mistakes I inadvertently make in relaying this information are entirely my own. This information is also extremely abbreviated, for readability sake. I hope you find this stuff as fascinating as I do!

About the Field of Biblical Scholarship
The study of Israelite history has changed radically in recent years. It used to be that the Bible was considered the starting point of what we knew about biblical civilization, until it was disproved otherwise – but that is no longer the case. There have been enough challenges to the biblical text (archaeologically, extrabiblically and otherwise), that the Bible can no longer be considered the starting point.

**The Bible tells us more about the thinking of 10th century Judeans than it does about the topics they were writing on.**

What is the Bible Exactly?
The Bible is a collection of texts circulated as scrolls that were eventually considered sacred by Jews and Christians. Different communities had different compilations and different versions. The version of the Bible known to most people is the Masoretic Text dating to the 10th century CE, though there is clear indication that parts of it are based on writings that are much older. The famous King James and JPS translation are based on this version.

An even older version has been found since those translations were made, however. The Leningrad Codex dates to 1008 CE, and it is this text that is today published under the name Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.

The differences between the Masoretic and Leningrad Codex are not huge, but they can be significant. It is for this reason the BHS is the text we use in our Biblical Text class, and why BHS is used by biblical scholars in general. The Etz Chaim Torah also uses the Leningrad Codex.

A still older version of Tanakh, called the Aleppo Codex, was found in Tiberias and made its way to Egypt, Syria and then Israel. It is dated to 800 CE, but parts have been missing since 1947. Therefore the Leningrad Codex is the oldest complete manuscript in existence.

Second-career rabbis

2007-10-25T20:40:00.000-04:00

Israel's largest newspaper, Haaretz, has published a report on the growing trend toward second-career rabbis. They cite the statistic that 15% of the incoming class in the Reform movement is 'second-career'.

I would bet the percent in the Reconstructionist movement is more like 40% or 50%. In other words, I wasn't the only one to come up with this idea! The above picture illustrates how old we all are going to be before we actually graduate ...

http://www.blogger.com/www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/904579.html

Protest poetry

2007-10-23T19:55:00.000-04:00

From the translation of With An Iron Pen, an Israeli collection of 99 poems by 45 Israeli writers protesting the occupation of Arab lands in West Bank and Gaza. The English translation of the book has yet to find a publisher.

Retinal Tear
by Dvora Amir

"All people are the same in their nakedness, as are houses when they become heaps of rubble."*

One could feel there the atmosphere of just before something terrifying.
A heavy engine inserted a blast into the earth.
Into my widened pupils a house collapsed,
crumbled, landing in the eye's depths.
A puzzle of frozen dryness, as on the bottom of a dying lake,
was etched into my eyes. "Retinal tear," you said,
and I know, there are some sights for which there is no repair;
an armless old man flapping his empty sleeves toward his face,
a girl looking for her notebook in the ruins.
And later, the curses of women who were torn from the walls of their home
drilled into my eye-socket, and you told me,
whoever scars a person's home--in the end his eyes will be scarred,
whoever demolishes a person's home--in the end his soul will be demolished.

Translated by Rachel Tzvia Back

*Written by Olga Friedberg in the ruins of Leningrad under siege.

Rachel Tzvia Back

2007-10-13T15:42:00.000-04:00

We had a wonderful opportunity to attend a reading and discussion with American-Israeli poet Rachel Tzvia Back this week. She read selections from her new collection, On Ruins & Return, which tracks the cycle of violence that continue to mark the lives of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well charmed us with poignant and painful observations about our modern world. If you appreciate great poetry, definitely check her stuff out. http://www.amazon.com/Ruins-Return-Rachel-Tzvia-Back/dp/1905700377/ref=sr_1_1/105-2045045-8076407?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192305846&sr=8-1

One highlight from the evening I'd like to share:

In 2005, the first collection of Israeli protest poems was published. Called With An Iron Pen (a quote from Jeremiah), it featured 99 poems by 45 Israeli writers protesting the occupation of Arab lands in West Bank and Gaza. The collection had a huge impact in Israel, where it shot up the best-seller list, and was talked about widely in both print and broadcast media.

One look at the book and Rachel knew it simply had to make its way into English. Although she has lived in Israel for 29 years, she writes her own poetry in English, and she teaches English literature at a college near Haifa. She set about doing the translation herself.

One-and-a-half years later, the book is ready. It is, as she explained, finalized in every way: "Every T is crossed. Every I is dotted."

So why haven't you seen it yet? Because they can't find an American publisher. No one wants to touch it with a 10-foot poll, she said, not even the small presses, or printing houses openly sympathetic to its political stance. Most especially the Jewish presses are not interested. "What this goes to show is that expressing dissent or criticism against Israel is far more accepted in Israel than it is in the U.S. Here, people just can't deal with it at all."

their sons my sons

Lost limbs again
this time in a strawberry field

Early morning January sun rises
gently talks softly to yesterday's
rain lingering still at field's edge

where perfect strawberries are ready for eating
first day of the feast festival of the sacrifice
Ishmael taken to the hilltop Isaac carried away

This time it is mother Maryam who does not know
the boys her boys woke early to a school-less day
they are racing now through the strawberry field

The red fruit is full sweet with dew and dawn
is collecting night's blankets day is waiting to spread
her arms around us all in the fields and the boys cannot

say how from where there was no sign a bomb would fall
in the early morning family field the boys do not know their legs
are bleeding their bodies lie still their limbs scattered half-boys

and dead boys none of them know how
later before the funerals after the hospital Maryam
will return to the charred and beautiful

bleeding strawberry field
to gather in her scarf scattered flowers
and flesh

[Gaza 11-1-05: bomb falls on 12 boys in a field. 7 boys killed; the 5 wounded all lost limbs]

Rachel Tzvia Back

Mordecai Kaplan's diaries

2007-10-02T21:39:00.000-04:00

Jan. 15, 1931

I know very well what I mean by God. God to me is the process that makes for creativity, integration, love and justice. The function of prayer is to render us conscious to that process. I can react with a sense of holiness and momentousness to existence because it is continually being worked upon by this divine process.

I am not troubled in the least by the fact that God is not an identifiable being; for that matter neither is my ego an identifiable being. Nor am I troubled by the fact that God is not perfect. He [sic] would have to be static to be perfect. Nothing dynamic can be perfect since to be dynamic implies to be in the state of becoming.

-- Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan

New Jewish music

2007-09-30T23:37:00.002-04:00

My friend and masterful musician Eyal Rivlin has just released his first CD of Jewish chants on a major record label. Take a moment to listen to some of his beautiful work, and consider supporting a wonderful up-and-coming Israeli-American artist!

www.HebrewChanting.com

and on the web at www.Amazon.com and iTunes

(search: "Temple Coming Home")

Hag sameach!

2007-09-27T13:35:00.001-04:00

Free download ... enjoy!

http://download.yousendit.com/D829767911E74A65

Ushpizin @ Geela Rayzel Raphael 1993

Welcome to our sukkah, come and be our guest
You'll eat, drink, and study, sit- enjoy your rest.

Chorus:
Ti-vu Ti-vu Ushpizin ee-lah-een
Ti-vu Ti-vu Ushpizin Ka-di-shin.

Welcome Father Avraham, G-d put you to the test
Bring your faith and hesed, join us as we bless.

Welcome, Mother Sara, Let your laughter ring
Bring your wisdom and your light, join us as we sing.

Welcome Father Yitzhak, in the afternoon you prayed
Bring a meditation, join us here today.

Welcome, Mother Rivka, we've heard your voice so clear
Come and bring your oracles, come and join our cheer.

Welcome, Father Yaakov, you wrestled through the night
Come and bring your vision, help us get this right.

Welcome Mother Rachel, you weap on our behalf
Come and bring us mandrakes, come and join our laugh.

Welcome Mother Leah, seven kids born to you,
Come and bring fertility, help us to renew.

Welcome Brother, Yosef, a colored coat you wore
Come and bring us happy dreams, sit with us some more.

Welcome Sister Tamar, a widows clothes you wore
But come and bring your cleverness, we'll greet you at the door.

Welcome holy Moses, you met G-d face to face
Come and bring your leadership, we've saved you a place.

Welcome Sister Miriam, you danced across the sea
Come bring your tof and timbrel, dance to set us free.

Welcome Brother Aaron, our glorious High Priest
Come and bring us holiness, come and join our feast.

Welcome brave Devorah, you battled brave and strong
Come and bring your torches, join us in our song.

Welcome Queen Batsheva, found your beloved true
Mother of King Shlomo, his wisdom came through you.

Welcome Melech David, you danced a mighty dance;
Its time for the Mashiach, its time we had the chance.

Welcome Grandmother Ruth, you chose to be a Jew,
Come and bring your loyalty, bring Naomi too.

Welcome Melech David, you wrote many psalms
Come and bring your etrog, myrtle, willow and palms.

Fair trade Judaica

2007-09-20T21:59:00.000-04:00

In the spirit of the season, I want to draw your attention to a wonderful new resource for planetary t'shuvah -- a new Web site at www.fairtradejudaica.org/. The site features fair trade Judaica products.

The Fair Trade Judaica site contains thorough and accessible information on fair trade and Jewish values, rooted in the exhortation to pursue justice: Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof. It explains how to identify fair trade products, stressing principles such as fair pay, worker independence, safe and healthy workplaces and environmental sustainability. And it links us to producers and distributors of everything from kippot to challah covers to kosher coffee!

G'mar chatimah tova

Run, don't walk

2007-09-15T16:23:00.000-04:00

I'm in love.

And, since school is now officially under way, and those glorious summer days spent hand-in-hand with a great book are wistfully over, I'd like to share the two keepers of the season. Really folks, you gotta read them. You can't possibly live one more day of your life without them...

Beware of God: A collection of stories
by Shalom Auslander
He's a recovered Orthodox Jew, 30something, and hands-down the best American Jewish writer living today.

A chimpanzee suddenly achieves "total conscious self-awareness.... God. Death. Shame. Guilt" — a burden he cannot bear.

A yeshiva student wakes one morning with a brawny, goyishe body and is reviled by his community.

A man enrages all major world religions with his discovery of original Old Testament tablets preceded by the disclaimer, "The following is a work of fiction."

God suffers from migraines, stalks a modern-day prophet and appears as a large chicken, among other incarnations. "Beautiful day," an adman says, making small talk at a pitch meeting with God. " 'I made it myself,' God answered loudly."

A Girl Named Zippy: Growing up Small in Mooreland, Indiana (memoir)
by Haven Kimmel
It's hard to believe that someone in their early 30s could write such a poignant, touching and compelling memoir about her childhood -- but she did. And it's a childhood blissfully sans drugs and abuse and psychotic meltdowns.

Less a formal autobiography than a collection of vignettes comprising the things a small child would remember, the book is set in a small town of only 300 people. Her prose is lush yet simple, and it is infused with pearls of third-grade wisdom: "Julie in a dress was like the rest of us in quicksand";

and "There are a finite number of times one can safely climb the same tree in a single day";

or, regarding Jesus, "Everyone around me was flat-out in love with him, and who wouldn't be? He was good with animals, he loved his mother, and he wasn't afraid of blind people."

Redemption in 5768

2007-09-14T15:57:00.000-04:00

Well, I have redeemed myself. What better way to start out the new year than self-redemption?!? To explain, I'll need to tell a background story ...

Two weeks ago we had our orientation Shabbaton at the college -- for all mekhinah and first-year rabbinical students. This was my second (and last) Shabbaton, and relative to most of the other people on the trip (the bulk of whom are mekhinah year), I'm considered an "old hand." I've been around for a year. I should know something by now.

This fact made it all the worse when, without any warning, the dean of the college came up to me right before dinner and asked me if I would do motzi -- the blessing over bread. The person originally slated to do so wasn't there, and they needed someone to fill in. Motzi, motzi, motzi, could I do motzi? The words raced through my head like I was on some sort of steroids. My eyes bugged out of my head in what must have been an abject look of horror and I said: "Yeah, sure, okay."

Well, you don't become the dean of a rabbinical college if you have no abilities in social subtexts, and I didn't fool her for a minute. "Are you sure about this?" she asked very sweetly, and perfectly sincerely. "You can say No you know."

I beamed right back at her, bobbed my head up and down eagerly, and heard my mouth actually saying the words: "Uhhh, okay no then. I think I'll say no!" Then, realizing what I was saying was just so totally and completely lame, I added on the equally lame explication of: "I just need to mentally prepare myself for these types of things. I just need a little more warning."

If any of you reading this aren't able to grasp just how totally and completely pathetic it is to be in rabbinical school and tell your dean you can't lead motzi, let me put it this way: This would be like telling someone you don't know the tune to Happy Birthday. It would be like telling someone you need to "mentally prepare yourself" -- for several days no less -- to start a group singing it. It's just ... pathetic.

As the final candle on the cake as it were, guess who lead motzi instead of me. Guess! guess! Her 4-year-old daughter.

Oye. That really hurt. I literally spent the rest of the afternoon pulling aside my closest friends and telling them in a sharp, horrified whisper: "Oh my god, you're not going to believe what I just did! I just told the dean I wouldn't lead the motzi! What the hell is wrong with me!?!"

It's been two weeks, but I have redeemed myself. The dean might not know it -- but I know it. I was up at the congregation where I work in Allentown for Rosh Hashana, and attended a nice dinner with a group of 18 people from the congregation. Without any warning at all, they asked me if I would lead kiddush (the long blessing over wine), whose melody I learned 6 months ago and have never done in front of anyone. I said SURE! -- having exactly zero confidence I would really remember it -- and proceeded to belt out the first line before coming to an abrupt stop when I discovered that the Rosh Hoshana version was different than the Shabbat version. Whoops. Sorry everyone, I told them, I guess I don't know this version.

They shrugged and didn't appear to care. Then, when the woman tapped to do motzi couldn't do it, I grabbed the bread right out of her cold, clammy hands and belted it out in all of my a-tonal off-kilter glory.

And THEN, just to really drive the point home, after the meal I launched into an impromptu rendition of Brich Rachamana (a song sung after meals). And despite being one of only two people in the group of 18 who really knew it, I kept plowing ahead. I sang and sang and sang, and if I sounded like hell, I didn't care. There was pretty much nothing that was going to stop me from doing what I was there to do this time around!

Amen.

Back at school

2007-09-06T22:49:00.000-04:00

I must admit, my buddy Erica and I have been a bit bummed lately. Ugghhh, school is starting. Not that it isn't great ... it is. But, truthfully, we still feel tired from last year... Eighteen hours of classes per week. The expectation we will study "two hours" for every hour we are in class. Twenty hours of work work on top of that.

Just thinking about it made us want to role over in our respective beds and pull the blankets over our heads. I, for one, wanted more sun time eating funnel cake on the Jersey shore.

Like all things in life though, no matter how much you dread something, the fateful day will arrive. And it did. The alarm woke me up way earlier than I wanted to get up. I played bumper cars for 45 minutes of rush hour City Line Avenue traffic to arrive in time for Shacharit. I wearily walked into the building, made my way to the assembly area, and was stopped dead in my tracks when I discovered I could barely get in the door.

It was Opening Circle, the one day a year when virtually all of the 70+ students and 20+ faculty and staff converge, and there was nary an empty seat in the house. Crammed into our humble daveening space, the room positively hummed with energy. There were so many people in there, we ran out of the Kol HaNeshamah siddurim, and then, we even ran out of the Orthodox and Conservative siddurs kept for backup.

Ahhhh, it was great to be back. And, as another classmate who was in Mekinah year with me last year commented: It's a great feeling to be out of Year Zero and officially in Year One. Now, just five more years to go ...

My classes for the semester:
Biblical text (Torah text study)
Biblical Civilization (Learning the history and social contexts of the Bible and its authors)
Leshon Hazal (aka rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic)
Lifecycles (aka how to officiate at lifecycle events)
Modern Hebrew (It's Greek to me; only in Hebrew)
Ed supervision (aka teachers and education directors get together and swap stories)

Leaving the Saints

2007-08-24T13:53:00.001-04:00

I'm reading a fascinating book by Martha Beck, a therapist/life couch and columnist in O Magazine. It's about her upbringing and official abandoning of the Mormon religion, with some amazing fascinating details about the inner-workings of the church.

Did you know that Bringham Young University, in its library of over 1 million volumes, actually goes through and censors out any published article that criticizes or contradicts official church doctrine?

Did you know sexual abuse and incest rates are probably far higher in Mormonism than any other religion in the U.S.? (And you'll have to read the book to understand Beck's theories why).

Did you know it is still the official church position that women are lesser forms of men who cannot get to heaven without marriage to a Mormon man (who, conveniently, upon his death, will turn into a God himself, with his own planets and wives to rule over)?

Uhhhh ... yeah ... I didn't know that. Fascinating stuff. Here is an excerpt I found particularly shocking:

Latter-day Saints are taught to test religious claims against their own sense of truth. This approach of learning, encouraged by (Mormon founder) Joseph Smith and his successors, made Mormonism very appealing to the religious seekers of the 19th century – but of course it has its exceptions.

One day, when I mentioned Mormon truth seeking to a non-Mormon friend, she said “Wait – I’m utterly confused. Wouldn’t that mean they’d encourage discrediting Church claims that aren’t true?”

“Utterly confused” is exactly how I felt most of the time I was Mormon because the “seek your own truth but believe in the Gospel” tradition is one huge double bind. It goes something like this: Before you accept any religious claim, you must scrutinize it to see if you really believe it’s true. However, if it’s an official church doctrine and you feel that it isn’t true, this is the work of a sloppy soul, or, worse, the devil. On the other hand, if you accept the advice of a Church leader, which then turns out to be wrong, it’s your own fault for not “discerning” that in this particular case, the leader was mistaken.

To deal with these contradictory instructions, Mormons are advised to use something called “the shelf.” “Put it on shelf” is the phrase used to describe the tidy act of deliberate denial that allows the Saints to keep occasional surges of disbelief from troubling them.

If it bothers you to know that Joseph Smith said the moon was populated by small humanoids who dressed like Quakers, “put it on the shelf.” Likewise if you find it improbable that God gives his favorite Latter-day Saints their own special magic rocks, called “seer stones,” which allow them, among other things, to find buried treasure. Or if you don’t wholeheartedly believe that there is a trio of immortal pre-Columbian American Jews, known as the Three Nephites, who were spared by Jesus from the curse of death and have spent centuries wandering the American continent, assisting Latter-day Saints with anything from missionary work to flat tires.

The improbability of these ideas needn’t inconvenience any Saint who has a sturdy, commodious and well-maintained shelf.

“Leaving the Saints: How I Lost Mormons and Found my Faith” by Martha Beck (p 230)

The other side of Israel

2007-08-17T11:16:00.000-04:00

A fellow classmate is fulfilling our school's Israel residency requirement by living in the West Bank and working on Palestinian justice issues. She's keeping a fascinating blog, which is worth visiting if you have the time:

http://palestiniantalmud.blogspot.com/