Bay Ridge Jewish Center

The Pope and the Lamp Shade

2008-05-27T09:16:00.002-05:00

Last year, there was a bit of a storm in the Catholic world when the pope seemed to have appeared in a fire in Poland commemorating the second anniversary of his death. The picture is the one you see above. It was suggested that the pope, who had made many pilgrimages during his life, was still making them after his death. Around that time, I had noticed a tear in my lampshade in my office at the shul, one that I really liked, and was disappointed to see ripped.

Now, I am not saying that the pope appeared in my lampshade. Nor am I qualified to say whether the pope did or did not appear in the fire since my theology generally doesn't account for such things. Furthermore, I would hope that the pope would try and land somewhere he would hear more than bar mitzvah lessons. But there is something to be learned, I think, about when something in life conditions you to look for things, you are more likely to find them (see the gorilla video below). In last weeks parasha, we were reminded of the blessings and punishments that we would receive if we did the mitzvot and whereas I think it is important to be reminded of consequences from time to time, a much better way to get people to do mitzvot is to simply remind them to look for opportunities to do them.

As we enter the book of Bamidbar (the desert), perhaps we can use this notion that the desert was so important us because it showed the Israelites that even in wide open, seemingly barren places, there were and are opportunities to do good things and the mitzvot. One just needs to look for them.

An alternative answer to the wicked son

2008-04-13T08:33:00.006-05:00

I feel like when you say what does this service mean to you, you are purposefully excluding yourself from us, here. Our tradition has this funny answer that I am supposed to say to you that I know that you are trying to distance yourself from us and that "had you been in Egypt you would not have been redeemed." The implication of course is that because you are somehow wanting in faith or feelings of inclusion, that God would have left you in Egypt. It may be, at least in part, because you wouldn't have wanted to be part of us, anyway.

But that always makes me think-- where would that leave me? Would I leave without my son, a son that I love even though at times you are contentious and you drive me crazy. My answer is unequivocally that I would not leave you. How could I? I would wave to my departing neighbors, watch them get smaller in the distant sand, and stick around and help clean up the mess of the plagues-- sweeping up the dead frogs, helping to fix broken things bumped into in the darkness, burying other people's children. I would stay in Egypt as long as I had to, as hard as it would be for me to be there in servitude, because in addition to doing all these rituals with matzah, cleaning and all the things that probably make you think that I am a crazy old man-- Judaism teaches me that I need to love my family and raise my children.

I know that sometimes Judaism doesn’t make sense. Sometimes it seems to ask us to do things that are problematic, not the least of which is suggesting that I embarrass my son in public at my seder. And sometimes it is an inconvenience, when you want to be playing baseball or off with a novel instead of sitting here with us, I know. Or if you want to be eating bacon because it smells so good or shell fish because its the best thing to mix with that delicious cocktail sauce. I want you to know that it is not these ritual inconveniences that keep us together, as some would suggest. I don’t think so. And ultimately, if you decide that you want to play baseball on Shabbas or eat pork, I will still love you and I will still count you as part of my community. I have to, because ultimately you are my son-- without a preceding adjective of wicked, wise, simple, or unable to ask. And, of course, whenever you want to come back and do these kinds of things, we can still do things together like make charoset, or build the sukkah, or I’ll tell you the stories of the gemarrah.

Truth be told, we should also talk more about the novels we are reading and go to more baseball games (as long as they're not on Shabbas).

So all of this-- what does it mean to me? It means that I have a place in a tradition that values freedom and kindness. Even freedom to distance oneself a bit from the community or parts of the community that are maddening. And it's a tradition that values kindness, even to the so called wicked son.

Most important to me today is that I want you to know that this is not an answer that is pushing away Judaism-- an answer that is outside of Judaism because it pushes away the script that the haggadah suggests. It is a Jewish answer because it's one I learned from doing all these rituals and all these seders, all these years.

image from Kolel.org (Istvan Zador, Budabest, 1924)

Sondlinger SOS

2008-04-04T20:41:00.005-05:00

To the person who emailed this (see below)-- could you please send a contact email so we can try and connect you to R. Sonderling's relatives. (You said Sondlinger, but did you mean Sonderling?) A number of months, a granddaughter of R. Sonderling, Diane, also came across our post and also DID NOT LEAVE A WAY FOR US TO CONTACT HER.

"I just came upon this article and photo about my grandfather, Rabbi Jacob Sonderling. Do you have any other photos or information? By the way, he also commissioned a musical piece by Eric Korngold. The Toch music,The Cantata of Bitter Herbs is now on CD. Thanks, Diane"

Wouldn't it be great to connect you two? We hope we can help!

"My name is Daniel, I live in Los Angeles. I have a photo like the one shown above including additional relics, letters and materials that Rabbi Sondlinger left with my grandmother just prior to his death. They were placed in a time capsule with instructions not to be opened until 50 years after his death. It was discovered while renovations were being done at my grandmothers house. I figured that he had no living decendants."

Sincerely,

Daniel

Book Club Rescheduled...

2008-03-19T14:48:00.000-05:00

Our book club has re-scheduled for Thursday, March 27, at 7:00 pm. We are discussing BEHOLD THE MANY by Lois-Ann Yamanaka.

video worth watching

2008-03-18T22:35:00.001-05:00

http://view.break.com/470052 - Watch more free videos

Last year, I did a sermon about this count the basketball pass exercise and people wanted to know where they could see the video. This was not the original I referred to, but one just like it. Take a look.

The sermon had to do with Boaz's ability to see Ruth even though he was not accustomed to seeing her. Josh Millstein had pointed out how Ruth was also shocked that he paid attention to her, not surprised by his kindness but that he had even taken notice-- in the verse where she experiences his kindness, the verb "to see" is repeated as if to emphasize that this was the miracle that had befallen her. Boaz was in a position himself, having taken care of everything in his world, to be able to reach out to others. But he first had to have trained himself to see the opportunities to do so. There are some who try not to look at things that they don't want to exist in their world, and there are others who look for places to extend their kindness.

Moses

2008-03-02T20:50:00.002-05:00

Of course, this casting of Moshe at the burning bush is impossible. The Torah relates that Moshe had already mortally struck the Egyptian and confronted the two warring Israelites and met Tzipporah at the well. But it certainly is fun to imagine the innocence of this Moses transposed to the one in the Chumash. And it is fun to imagine Moshe in the Chumash getting excited and giggling when he is told to take off his shoes, so as to not tread on holy ground.

Jeff Tweedy's lyrics are like a challenge: "Theologians don't know nothin' about my soul" and I admit that at times it feels like the poets, musicians, and artists seem more in touch with whatever that soul is than the theologians who try and describe it. Especially to we modern Jews who seem to have lost our metaphysics. But that block we find when we want to talk about doesn't mean we should stop trying to touch the soul-- or touch deep emotions that one might describe as "ensouled." Perhaps "soul" is not a thing, but a destination. As theologians we can create art too, if that is the language that helps to us get there.

Hebrew School Play

2008-01-27T23:12:00.001-05:00

The following, in three segments, is a play the Hebrew School students performed last Wednesday, January 23, 2008. The subject: how did Moses get his stutter?

Part 1

Part 2:

Part 3:

Orthodox Stance -- Go See It!

2008-01-24T14:03:00.001-05:00

ORTHODOX STANCE will begin its exclusive NYC theatrical engagement at Cinema Village on January 25th and tickets are now on sale!

The film will screen daily at 1:30 PM, 3:20 PM, 5:10 PM, 7 PM, 9 PM, and tickets can be purchased at www.cinemavillage.com and at the box office:

Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street (University Place & 5th Avenue)
212-924-3363. N, R, 4, 5, 6 or L train to 14th Street/Union Square

This film has been getting a lot of attention largely because the subject, Dimitry Salita, struggles in a respectful way with living in both the secular world of boxing and the religious world of Judaism. He is a solid young man with a lot of talent and he tries his best to live a life according to the mitzvot. As I am sure you have heard, he won't fight on Shabbas (listen up kids!)

I am always taken by these kinds of stories, stories where people try and bring holiness into a place where holiness is not often found, because it takes a lot of a person to be a pioneer in this way, or to stick to their convictions when not sticking to their convictions would be easier. I will have more to say about the film after I have seen it. I have seen earlier versions of it and have met Dimitry (and seen him fight).

What I would like to emphasize here is the dedication and the tenacity that the film maker, Jason Hutt, has brought to this, his work for the last couple of years. Jason likes to avoid attention and so I will not say too much about him here-- about his own ability to navigate the different worlds of Judaism and secularism, his own gentlemanly and pugilistic spirit, his own powers of observation and how they help to create a better world, but I will say that Jason deserves a lot of appreciation for sticking with this project and making sure that it was something that would be compelling, honest and engaging. He has believed in Dimitry, the film, the struggles of living in this dual world, the capacity of film to enter people into new worlds and important struggles, for a long time. If the fly on the wall had as much talent and passion as Jason for its art, we would surely put down the swatter and invite it to lunch (or fund its next projects).

Many of you have seen Jason Hutt at the shul over the past couple of years. He has been one of the supporters coming from Park Slope, dancing Tango at the Purim Bang, davenning Tisha b'Av on the floor with candles, and davenning with us on occasion on a Shabbas. He speaks kindly of our shul and we should make sure to return the support by spreading the word about his film and going to see it.

If you can, please try and see it this weekend so that interest will continue to be generated and it will get a longer run at Cinema Village. This way more people will get to see it.

"Take off your shoes, for the ground on which you stand is holy."

2008-01-16T11:34:00.000-05:00

Last month at the ICP, there was an exhibit by the photographer Gerda Taro. She was a photographer from the early part of the 1900s and her work primarily centered almost exclusively around the Spanish Civil war. As a leftist, she sided with the Republicans against the rebels who tried in a coup to take power. She was killed when a Republican tank struck the vehicle she was in as it retreated from the Battle of Brunete. The photograph above is a picture of a woman at a firing range, practicing before battle.

What I like about the photograph, particularly, is the way that she framed her subject in the shot. She worked with a camera that took square photographs (as opposed to rectangular) and, as you can see, the chosen placement of the woman in the frame cuts off her shoe and allows for more space on the right and more focus on the pistol. Taro could have moved back some distance and got both of them in the shot, but did not.

I take this to be an intentional move by Taro, meant to de-emphasize fashion (represented by the shoe) and to emphasize the drama of the woman's conviction. Taro, herself, also chose to become involved-- less interested in Parisian life and more interested in devoting herself to a cause that she believed in.

This question recently came up in a class at the shul when we were talking about the life that Moshe found in Midian. It seemed that he was finally comfortable there, finding a wife and a life away from the oppression of his fellow Israelites. He must have appreciated being away from all of the violence and the culture of oppression that he was around in Egypt. It would be interesting to see how he would have been affected psychologically from killing a man (I am not sure anyone has done a comparison between Moshe and others who have taken lives), and interesting to consider that he would have appreciated being away from the place of that incident. In Midian, he could have found peace.

When Moshe names his son Gershom "I was a stranger there" most people (see the Hertz Chumash) read this as "I was a stranger in Egypt. I was not royalty, but one of the Others" which most take to mean a move towards solidarity with the Israelites. But it seems just as plausible to mean "I was a stranger in that environment. I wasn't comfortable despite my luxurious surroundings. That was not my place." He could only know his discomfort and a sense of dislocation when he found a place where he did fit, namely Midian.

This heightens the personal drama and highlights the sense of self sacrifice of Moshe. Moshe left Midian after seeing the burning bush and re-entered Egypt where he would be uncomfortable and in danger. He, in effect, chose dislocation for a sense of conviction. He cast aside fashion and comfort for a cause he believed in.

A question: Most commentators read God's command to Moshe to remove his shoes near the burning bush as a desire to keep refuse which could have accumulated on Moshe's shoes away from the ground which was holy. But could it be that when God appeared to Moshe and said, "Take off your shoes, for the ground on which you stand is holy" that God meant to teach that Holiness has nothing to do with comfort, fashion, or intermediaries (as represented by the shoes), but it has to do with engagement and real feeling (whether good or uncomfortable)?

Halacha like Love?

2008-01-02T18:12:00.000-05:00

This is a playful and interesting poem by W.H. Auden about the Law-- What is it? From where does it derive its authority? How should one think about it?

I think its helpful when thinking about Halacha.

W. H. Auden
Law Like Love

Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.

Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.

Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.

Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I've told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.

Yet law-abiding scholars write:
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good morning and Good night.

Others say, Law is our Fate;
Others say, Law is our State;
Others say, others say
Law is no more,
Law has gone away.

And always the loud angry crowd,
Very angry and very loud,
Law is We,
And always the soft idiot softly Me.

If we, dear, know we know no more
Than they about the Law,
If I no more than you
Know what we should and should not do
Except that all agree
Gladly or miserably
That the Law is
And that all know this
If therefore thinking it absurd
To identify Law with some other word,
Unlike so many men
I cannot say Law is again,

No more than they can we suppress
The universal wish to guess
Or slip out of our own position
Into an unconcerned condition.
Although I can at least confine
Your vanity and mine
To stating timidly
A timid similarity,
We shall boast anyvay:
Like love I say.

Like love we don't know where or why,
Like love we can't compel or fly,
Like love we often weep,
Like love we seldom keep.

Problematic Texts I

2007-12-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

The stories of the Torah do not always end up so pleasant. And as much as I like to emphasize the fact that Yaakov and Esav seem to reconcile at the end of their lives in burying their father, there exists within Judaism (thank you Max Sparber for that language) the idea that they remained bitter until the end of their lives. After implying that he would follow his brother and live near him, he manages to have Esav go one way first, enabling him to go another.

According to Midrash Rabbah, at the end of his life, when Yaakov was carried up to the cave of Machpelah, his right to be buried there was disputed. Naphtali had to run back to Egypt for the deed to show that he (ahem) indeed was entitled to be buried there.

When Hushim, son of Dan, saw Esau restraining them from burying Jacob, he killed him. The violence that takes place while legal remedies are being sought..... The sad addendum to this needless violence is that the Midrash suggests that Jacob was pleased to see his brother killed. And that this fulfilled a prophecy of Rifka, that they would both die on the same day.

Here is the text:

בראשית רבה (תיאודור-אלבק) פרשה צז ד"ה (כא) נפתלי אילה

(כא) נפתלי אילה שלוחה מלמד שקפץ למצרים כאייל והביא שטר המערה לקבור את אביו, עד שהוא הולך בא חושים בן דן והיה חרש, וכשראה עשו מונען מלקבור את אבינו יעקב, דקרו בידו על צוארו, והתיז את ראשו, ונפלו שתי עיניו על מיטתו שליעקב אבינו, ופתח עיניו וראה נקמה ושמח שנ' ישמח צדיק כי חזה נקם (תהלים נח יא), ונתקיימה נבואת רבקה שאמ' למה אשכל גם שניכם יום אחד (בראשית 45:27

Bereshit Rabbah 98:17-

NAPHTALI IS A HIND (a female stag) LET LOOSE (XLIX, 21). This teaches that he sped to Egypt like a hind and brought the title-deeds of the cave [of Machpelah], so that his father could be buried. While he was gone there came Hushim the son of Dan, who was deaf. When he saw Esau restraining them from burying our father Jacob, he stabbed him with his hand through the neck and struck off his head. His [Esau's] two eyes fell upon the bier of our father Jacob, whereupon he [Jacob] opened his eyes, saw vengeance, and rejoiced, as it says, The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance (Ps. LVIII, 11). Thus was fulfilled Rebekah's prophecy when she said, Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day (Gen. XXVII, 45)?

Would anyone like to offer ideas about how to approach these problematic texts?

Rabbi, is there a blessing for a cheeseburger?

2007-12-16T08:36:00.000-05:00

The first source in the gemara deals with making blessings on things that are not acquired properly. The second source deals more directly with the question of cheeseburgers.

תלמוד בבלי מסכת סנהדרין דף ו עמוד ב

רבי אליעזר אומר: הרי שגזל סאה של חטים וטחנה ואפאה והפריש ממנה חלה, כיצד מברך? אין זה מברך אלא מנאץ, ועל זה נאמר: ובוצע ברך נאץ ה'

R. Eliezer says: If one stole a se'ah [a measure] of wheat, ground and baked it and set apart the Hallah, what benediction can he pronounce? This man would not be blessing, but contemning, and of him it is written, The robber [bozea’] who blesseth, contemns the Lord. (Psalms 10:3)

הלכות ברכות לריטב"א פרק ה אות יב

יב. מי שאכל או שתה דברים האסורים מן התורה או מדבריהם אינו מברך לפניהם ולא לאחריהם כלל שאין זה הנאה, ועל המברך נאמר (תהלים י') ובוצע ברך נאץ ה', ואין צריך לומר כשאכלם באיסור אלא אפילו אכלם בהיתר מפני חליו שהיה מסוכן אינו חשוב נהנה ואינו מברך עליו כלל, שכל הנאה שתחילתה באונס וסופה ברצון אינה הנאה'

One who ate or drank something that is forbidden either in the Torah or by the rabbis should not make a blessing after or before it at all, for one does not derive benefit from it. And about the person who does bless it is said, “The robber who blesses expresses contempt for God (Psalm 10:3),” It is not necessary to say that one does not bless only when one eats in that is forbidden (and does so willlingly), rather even when one eats (something that is forbidden) with permission because he is sick or in danger, since it is not considered “benefit,” you don’t need to bless on it at all. For any “benefit” that at the beginning is because of force at the end is out of will is still not considered benefit. (See also Ketubot 51b.)

(What I take this to mean is that if someone has to eat something that is forbidden in order to derive a later benefit from it -- that is, it will have curative affects, even though that cure would be seen as a benefit, it is not considered as such because initially, upon ingestion, one was performing the act because of dire need.)

So, the answer is no.

Is posting a picture of a cheeseburger on a blog deriving benefit from it even if it's purpose is to teach one about the impermissibility of making a bracha on one? Hmmm.....

Channukah Irony

2007-12-06T22:49:00.001-05:00

One of the nice things you can do on Channukah is put more candles burning in the Channukia after the first set burns down, so you can be near the Channukah candles for longer. (Just don't say the bracha again.)

The problem with this is that because most boxes come with only slightly more candles for the holiday, using part of another box may have you end up the next year with a box of candles left over with only a couple candles in it. Then when you look at your Channukah supplies you may think that you don't need to go out and get candles because you will see the box and assume it's full.

This happened to us this year and we didn't know it until tonight when (lo and behold!) there had only been candles for the first two nights.

How odd it was to realize that indeed the box was empty.....

More Jewish Birds (?)

2007-11-27T14:25:00.000-05:00

This is a strange gemara about temptation, vanity and the evil eye.

תלמוד בבלי מסכת ברכות דף כ עמוד א

רב גידל הוה רגיל דהוה קא אזיל ויתיב אשערי דטבילה אמר להו הכי טבילו והכי טבילו אמרי ליה רבנן לא קא מסתפי מר מיצר הרע אמר להו דמיין באפאי כי קאקי חיורי רבי יוחנן הוה רגיל דהוה קא אזיל ויתיב אשערי דטבילה אמר כי סלקן בנות ישראל ואתיין מטבילה מסתכלן בי ונהוי להו זרעא דשפירי כוותי אמרי ליה רבנן לא קא מסתפי מר מעינא בישא אמר להו אנא מזרעא דיוסף קא אתינא דלא שלטא ביה עינא בישא דכתיב +בראשית מ"ט+ בן פורת יוסף בן פורת עלי עין ואמר רבי אבהו אל תקרי עלי עין אלא עולי עין רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא אמר מהכא +בראשית מ"ח+ וידגו לרב בקרב הארץ מה דגים שבים מים מכסין עליהם ואין עין הרע שולטת בהם אף זרעו של יוסף אין עין הרע שולטת בהם ואי בעית אימא עין שלא רצתה לזון ממה שאינו שלו אין עין הרע שולטת בו

Brachot 20a

Rav. Gidel would go and sit at the entrance of the (women's) mikveh. He would say to them, "Immerse this way. Immerse this way." The rabbis said to them, "Don't you worry about your yetzer hara?" He said to them, "They seem to me like white geese."

R. Yochanan would go and sit at the entrance to the Mikveh. He said, "When the daughters of Israel would come out of the mikveh, they would look at me and they will have children as beautiful as I am. They said to him, "Aren't you worried about incurring the evil eye?" He said to them, "I come from the line of Joseph over whom the evil eye has no power as it is written, 'A charming son is Jospeh, a charming son to the eye (alei ayin).'" R. Abahu said, "Don't read it alei ayin (to the eye) rather olei ayin (over the eye)."

R. Yossi bar Chaninah said that you can derive that Yosef was immune to the evil eye from a different verse: "And may they grow in the land as abundantly as the fish in the sea." Just as the fish in the sea has water that covers them, so too regarding the progeny of Yosef, that the evil eye has no power over them.

Or if you want you can say that an eye that does not want to enjoy that which is not its own (like Yosef resisted the temptation of Potifar), the evil eye has no power over it.

comic name tbd page five

2007-11-26T09:27:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving Address for the Interfaith Service

2007-11-23T14:59:00.000-05:00

This is Psalm 65, and in the spirit of the evening I would suggest imagining this being written by a farmer, finished with the days work, sitting under the stars, in the quiet with the crickets, wanting somehow to express gratitude and awe, but feeling dwarfed nonetheless by his own shortcomings.

Psalm 65, translated by Robert Alter (a fantastic new translation, completely worth acquiring for one's library and studying):

For the lead player, a psalm; for David, a song.
To you, silence is praise, God in Zion,
And to You a vow will be paid.

O listener to prayer, unto You all flesh shall come.
My deeds of mischief are too much for me.
Our crimes but you atone.

Happy whom you choose to draw close,
He will dwell in Your courts.
May we be sated with Your house’s bounty,
The holiness of Your temple.

With awesome acts justly You answer us,
Our rescuing God,
Refuge of all the earth’s ends and the far flung sea,
Who sets mountains firm in His power,
-- He is girded in might—
Who quiets the roar of the seas,
The roar of their waves and the tumult of nations.
And those who dwell at earth’s ends will fear Your signs.

The portals of morning and evening You gladden.
You pay mind to the earth and soak it.
You greatly enrich it.
God’s stream is filled with water.
You ready their grain, for so You ready it.
Quench the thirst of its furrows, smooth out its hillhocks,
Melt it with showers, it’s growth you will bless.
You crown Your bountiful year,
And Your pathways drip ripeness.
The wilderness meadows do drip,
And with joy the hills are girded.

The pastures are clothed with flocks
And the valleys are mantled with grain.
They shout for joy, they even sing.

Growing up in the city, I have never really connected to the Harvest ideas in Judaism. My understanding of religion has always had more to do with individual responsibility for the collective and the way that study can become enlightening and a creative act akin to God’s creating the world. These are ideas consistent with close urban living. Finding the magesty in texts rather than in nature. Like the psalmist here, my way into the universal, only gets edged forward bit by bit, after a recognition of my own smallness. In the way that he looks up and beyond, eventually, he probably does it quite a bit better than I.

Sukkot, Shavuot and Pesach were Harvest festivals where we connect with the agriculture of the land and bring offerings to the Temple in Jerusalem. On sukkot, the ritual was totalizing and the Israelites would live out in booths in the fields and thank God for the fruits, vegetables and grains that we were fortunate to be able to cultivate. In the city, our sukkot are on cement and wedged between buildings. We try. On Shavuot, the city of Jerusalem was decorated with all of the colors of the produce. We eat cheesecake and study.

For along with these ancient agricultural festivals in Judaism, the rabbis attached literary and historical-theological events, so that we could connect to the stories of the Torah as we appreciated the bounty of the land. They would become entwined, the God of History and the God who stands outside of time, renewing the land again and again, independent of the year and the events that are going on to determine the course of history.

As a city dweller, someone who has become less and less attached to the land as the years go on, the idea of sitting back and being thankful for agricultural sustenance seems a bit inaccessible. I try to imagine what a months worth of days with my hands in the soil would do to my skin. And the feeling I would have to know that all my meals for the next eight months and the meals of my family were taken care of—at least in part to the time that I spend engaging in God’s natural world. I know that I still owe my life to the fact that food grows from the earth, especially as a vegetarian, and I still know that there are many whose livelihood depends on the fact that the earth will continue to yield its produce. But it is hard for me to approach a concept such as the Harvest. When I imagine Avraham, it is easier for me to imagine him scurrying to get home before shabbas, checking his suit for loose strings, than it is for me to imagine him taking a walk on shabbas afternoon among the corn rows. The rabbis have not helped counter this feeling of urbanized Judaism. When speaking of Yaakov being a yoshev ohalim (someone who sits in tents), they turned this from what it could have meant-- that he appreciated the outdoors in a serene way (as opposed to his brother Esav, who hunted) to meaning that he liked to stay indoors and study in the yeshivas.

Since living in Israel on Kibbutz, harvesting dates from the tops of trees overlooking the mountains in Jordan , or picking scallions for 8 hours a day, I have dwelt more indoors than out. New York, I think can do that to you.

In order to continually recognize the source of our blessings. And consequently it continue to recognize the daily connection that we have to the land, Jews say brachot every time we put something into our mouths. The blessings vary based on what one is eating.

For the apples we put in pies—one says:
Blessed are you God, ruler of the universe, creator of the fruit of the trees.

For barley, one says: Blessed are you God, ruler of the universe, who creates different kinds of grains.

For bread one says: Blessed are you God, ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.

For sweet potatoes and cranberries (which grow in swamps) one says: Blessed are you God, ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the ground.

For turkey one says: Blessed are you God, ruler of the universe, by whose word the whole world was created.

Perhaps another reason, besides for the fact that I exist in an urban setting, that the ability to connect to the Harvest is hard to come by is that the notion of a harvest feels so satisfied and for better or worse, satisfaction is hard to come by as a Jew. Planting is easier to stomach. It feels like a mission. It is about making the world better.

In the area of Harvest, we still have rules that remind us that the local harvest may be complete, but the grand harvest, or the project of making plenty in the world is far from it. In the Harvest, a jew does not have free reign over the experience. He or she may not harvest, for example, on the 7^th year of a cycle. He can not harvest the crops that fall to the ground. He may not take certain small clusters of grapes, or go back for forgotten clusters, and he cannot plow to the edge of the field – all of these must be left for the poor.

So even in the harvest there is a notion of planting. Planting for a better world.

All the same, we need to sit back to remember the necessity of appreciating the land and appreciating that which has been given us. God has created a system that allows food to spring from the ground and has make us partners in bringing that food to our tables and to the mouths of our children. It is a system that allows us to recognize the dependence that we have on God, but it also continually empowers us, rewarding us for the efforts that we expend.

If we do not sit back and appreciate what we have, then we may likely lose sight of the ultimate project of making sure that everyone is provided for and that a continual harvest happens on earth. To feel thankful is at the same time to motivate. To continue to remember the goal of all our work.

A story, Peninah Shram's version of Honi Ha-Ma'agal:

Honi the Wise One was also known as Honi the Circle Maker. By drawing a circle and stepping inside of it, he would recite special prayers for rain, sometimes even argue with God during a drought, and the rains would come. He was, indeed, a miracle maker. As wise as he was, Honi sometimes saw something that puzzled him. Then he would ask questions so he could unravel the mystery.

One day, Honi the Circle Maker was walking on the road and saw a man planting a carob tree. Honi asked the man, "How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?"

The man replied, "Seventy years."

Honi then asked the man, "And do you think you will live another seventy years and eat the fruit of this tree?"

The man answered, "Perhaps not. However, when I was born into this world, I found many carob trees planted by my father and grandfather. Just as they planted trees for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren so they will be able to eat the fruit of these trees."

On Thanksgiving, as those who are enjoying the carob of those who came before us, we should be thankful for their foresight. After the shouts for joy, the songs of praise uttered, we will continue to do what we can to make sure the valleys are mantled with grain.

And break silences both in praise of God and in service of planting because we know we must.

(The picture is from www.salvationarmysouth.com)

comic name tbd page four

2007-11-18T12:35:00.000-05:00

click on the left side for pages 1-3 of the comic.

Mazal Tov!

2007-11-15T22:21:00.000-05:00

So as most of you know, I was gone this week celebrating my sister's wedding. It was at the art museum in Milwaukee, designed by Santiago Calatrava. In addition to how moving it was to seeing my sister get married, I loved the blend of modern and ancient which you can see here. (Picture by Richard A. Chapman). Tam and Brian seem very happy.

Weddings are so complicated and interesting because, as my friend David Koffman says, there are so many emotions in the room besides for joy. And they never get acknowledged. Sometimes there is also sadness and regret and longing over past marriages and marriages that never happened, or happened yet. Perhaps that is why it is a commandment to mesameiach hechatan v'hakallah-- rejoice with the bride and the groom-- because without it being a mitzvah, people may not be able to get past their own situations and emotions. Fortunately most people rose to the occasion.

I was also proud that during my talk, I did not utter anything about that oppressive concept called beshert (that statement may get me in trouble, were anyone reading this besides for my mother. Speaking of which, I am thinking about renaming this blog: "Blog for my mother" because she visits it more than anyone else!).

My sister looked beautiful and the transformation from fiance to husband Brian wore well. I think he was truly moved by everything that happened. It was nice to see so many people dancing and laughing at the wedding. They did a fantastic job planning everything, making it all look so regal-- the red against the white. And my grandmother who is nearing ninety seemed elated.

Tomorrow, back to work....

Kisui Rosh (covering one's head)

2007-11-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

hebrew class cancelled today

2007-11-08T08:59:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that the adult introduction to hebrew class (Thursday evenings) has been cancelled again today because the teacher is tending to a family emergency out of state.

If you email us your contact information, we will be able to inform you of the status of the class directly.

Please email: Brjc11209@aol.com

kol tuv (all the best).

“I told them: put away your phones, put away your phones, put away your phones,” he said. They ignored him.

2007-11-05T09:17:00.000-05:00

Below is an article from the Times about using electronic jamming devices to silence cellphones. On Shabbas, this would be particularly handy, if it could be left on (and if it were legal). I am not sure how many times I have asked people not to bring their cell phones to shul on Shabbas. There are also signs all over the walls on the way up to the sanctuary. It has been amazing to me that when they go off (which let's admit, has happened to everyone in some context where they shouldn't have had them on), people actually answer them in the sanctuary. Unbelievable. I wonder if people answer them in church or in a reform synagogue where propriety is stressed.

Part of the problem is that the only enforcer in our shul is the rabbi. If the community at large would help in putting a stop to this instead of looking the other way and waiting for the rabbi to notice, the problem may begin to be solved. But when the rabbi is the only enforcer, it seems to create a dynamic similar to that of a two year old, which is that if the rabbi can't see it, then it is okay.

The boulder pushed up the hill won't stay there unless there are people at the top to keep it there.

Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally

By MATT RICHTEL
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2 — One afternoon in early September, an architect boarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante. He sat down next to a 20-something woman who he said was “blabbing away” into her phone.

“She was using the word ‘like’ all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl,” said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his last name because what he did next was illegal.

Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black device the size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio signal that cut off the chatterer’s cellphone transmission — and any others in a 30-foot radius.

“She kept talking into her phone for about 30 seconds before she realized there was no one listening on the other end,” he said. His reaction when he first discovered he could wield such power? “Oh, holy moly! Deliverance.”

As cellphone use has skyrocketed, making it hard to avoid hearing half a conversation in many public places, a small but growing band of rebels is turning to a blunt countermeasure: the cellphone jammer, a gadget that renders nearby mobile devices impotent.

The technology is not new, but overseas exporters of jammers say demand is rising and they are sending hundreds of them a month into the United States — prompting scrutiny from federal regulators and new concern last week from the cellphone industry. The buyers include owners of cafes and hair salons, hoteliers, public speakers, theater operators, bus drivers and, increasingly, commuters on public transportation.

The development is creating a battle for control of the airspace within earshot. And the damage is collateral. Insensitive talkers impose their racket on the defenseless, while jammers punish not just the offender, but also more discreet chatterers.

“If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “The cellphone talker thinks his rights go above that of people around him, and the jammer thinks his are the more important rights.”

The jamming technology works by sending out a radio signal so powerful that phones are overwhelmed and cannot communicate with cell towers. The range varies from several feet to several yards, and the devices cost from $50 to several hundred dollars. Larger models can be left on to create a no-call zone.

Using the jammers is illegal in the United States. The radio frequencies used by cellphone carriers are protected, just like those used by television and radio broadcasters.

The Federal Communication Commission says people who use cellphone jammers could be fined up to $11,000 for a first offense. Its enforcement bureau has prosecuted a handful of American companies for distributing the gadgets — and it also pursues their users.

Investigators from the F.C.C. and Verizon Wireless visited an upscale restaurant in Maryland over the last year, the restaurant owner said. The owner, who declined to be named, said he bought a powerful jammer for $1,000 because he was tired of his employees focusing on their phones rather than customers.

“I told them: put away your phones, put away your phones, put away your phones,” he said. They ignored him.

The owner said the F.C.C. investigator hung around for a week, using special equipment designed to detect jammers. But the owner had turned his off.

The Verizon investigator was similarly unsuccessful. “He went to everyone in town and gave them his number and said if they were having trouble, they should call him right away,” the owner said. He said he has since stopped using the jammer.

Of course, it would be harder to detect the use of smaller battery-operated jammers like those used by disgruntled commuters.

An F.C.C. spokesman, Clyde Ensslin, declined to comment on the issue or the case in Maryland.

Cellphone carriers pay tens of billions of dollars to lease frequencies from the government with an understanding that others will not interfere with their signals. And there are other costs on top of that. Verizon Wireless, for example, spends $6.5 billion a year to build and maintain its network.

“It’s counterintuitive that when the demand is clear and strong from wireless consumers for improved cell coverage, that these kinds of devices are finding a market,” said Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon spokesman. The carriers also raise a public safety issue: jammers could be used by criminals to stop people from communicating in an emergency.

In evidence of the intensifying debate over the devices, CTIA, the main cellular phone industry association, asked the F.C.C. on Friday to maintain the illegality of jamming and to continue to pursue violators. It said the move was a response to requests by two companies for permission to use jammers in specific situations, like in jails.

Individuals using jammers express some guilt about their sabotage, but some clearly have a prankster side, along with some mean-spirited cellphone schadenfreude. “Just watching those dumb teens at the mall get their calls dropped is worth it. Can you hear me now? NO! Good,” the purchaser of a jammer wrote last month in a review on a Web site called DealExtreme.

Gary, a therapist in Ohio who also declined to give his last name, citing the illegality of the devices, says jamming is necessary to do his job effectively. He runs group therapy sessions for sufferers of eating disorders. In one session, a woman’s confession was rudely interrupted.

“She was talking about sexual abuse,” Gary said. “Someone’s cellphone went off and they carried on a conversation.”

“There’s no etiquette,” he said. “It’s a pandemic.”

Gary said phone calls interrupted therapy all the time, despite a no-phones policy. Four months ago, he paid $200 for a jammer, which he placed surreptitiously on one side of the room. He tells patients that if they are expecting an emergency call, they should give out the front desk’s number. He has not told them about the jammer.

Gary bought his jammer from a Web site based in London called PhoneJammer.com. Victor McCormack, the site’s operator, says he ships roughly 400 jammers a month into the United States, up from 300 a year ago. Orders for holiday gifts, he said, have exceeded 2,000.

Kumaar Thakkar, who lives in Mumbai, India, and sells jammers online, said he exported 20 a month to the United States, twice as many as a year ago. Clients, he said, include owners of cafes and hair salons, and a New York school bus driver named Dan.

“The kids think they are sneaky by hiding low in the seats and using their phones,” Dan wrote in an e-mail message to Mr. Thakkar thanking him for selling the jammer. “Now the kids can’t figure out why their phones don’t work, but can’t ask because they will get in trouble! It’s fun to watch them try to get a signal.”

Andrew, the San Francisco-area architect, said using his jammer was initially fun, and then became a practical way to get some quiet on the train. Now he uses it more judiciously.

“At this point, just knowing I have the power to cut somebody off is satisfaction enough,” he said.

The Blessing of Not Having a Daughter?!

2007-11-02T15:02:00.000-05:00

In the Gemara in Bava Batra, the rabbis take up the question of whether God blessing Avraham "bakol" in everything, meant that he also had a daughter. R. Meir says that quite the opposite, he was blessed in the fact that he did not have a daughter and R. Yehudah disagrees and says that he must have had a daughter. The opinion of R. Meir, jarring and troubling as it is, is flushed out in the comment of the Ramban -- why not having a daughter for Avraham could have been considered a blessing.

רמב"ן בראשית פרק כד פסוק א

ולרבותינו בזה ענין נפלא. אמרו (ב"ב טז ב) וה' ברך את אברהם בכל, רבי מאיר אומר שלא היתה לו בת, רבי יהודה אומר בת היתה לו, אחרים אומרים בת היתה לו ובכל שמה. דרש רבי מאיר שלא היתה לו בת לאברהם, וזו לו לברכה כי לא היה יכול להשיאה רק לבני כנען הארורים, ואם ישלחנה לארצו גם כן תעבוד שם עבודה זרה כמותם, כי האשה ברשות בעלה, ואברהם לא יחפוץ שיצא זרעו הכשר משרה אשתו חוצה לארץ, ואף כי יעבוד עבודה זרה. ורבי יהודה דרש כי בת היתה לו, דאפילו ברתא לא חסריה רחמנא (שם קמא א), והיא הברכה בכל, כי היה לו כל אשר יחמדו האנשים לא חסר דבר. ובאו אחרים והזכירו שם הבת

Ramban

And for the rabbis this was an wonderful/interesting idea.-- They said, (BT Bava Batra 16b), And God blessed Avraham in everything. Rabbi Meir said that he would not have a daughter. Rabbi Yehudah said that he did have a daughter. Others say that he had a daughter and her name was “bakol.” Rabbi Meir explained that he did not have a daughter and this was a blessing, for he would only have been able to mary her off to a cursed Canannite and if he would have sent her to his land, she also would have committed idolatry like them, for a woman did according to the wishes of the husband. And Avraham did not want that his proper seed from Sarah, his wife, be outside of the land and commit idolatry. And Rabbi Yehudah, on the other hand, explained that he did have a daughter. That God even granted him a daughter (BT 141a), and she was “the blessing of everything” for Avraham had everything that people found dear, he did not lack anything. And the others mentioned the name of the daughter.

If you read this before sundown you will have a head start on our study session this shabbas--

comic name tbd page three

2007-10-31T13:32:00.000-05:00

If you haven't read pages 1-2, scroll down to them and then read up.

comic name tbd page 2

2007-10-30T16:19:00.000-05:00

comic name tbd page 1

2007-10-25T19:46:00.000-05:00

(click on page for larger view)

Effective pedagogy

2007-10-23T14:49:00.000-05:00

The Raven

2007-10-15T08:59:00.000-05:00

"At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made-- And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth." (Gen. 8:6-7)

Given that the choices a person makes are often reflections of his or herself, even more-so when resources are unlimited (and within the context of the story Noah had animals of every kind in his ark), Noah's choice of sending the raven can be considered an an entry into Noah's immediate post-flood psyche.

The Midrash (Gen. Rabbah 33:5) confirms the semiotic significance of the raven quoting psalms, "He sent darkness, and it was dark." (Ps. 105:28) As an extension of himself, Noah chose a bird that would be at home in the scenes of horrific catastrophe. It is not hard to imagine the depression that being in a coffin of a boat with the world collapsing around him would create or the nightmares that he would have been continually facing. In fact, Yalkut Shemoni reports that upon being sent out, the raven found a carcass on one of the mountains and never returned to the boat (diverging from the text of the Torah). This symbolically presents a possible route for Noah, or one that he indeed psychologically followed. Coming out of the ark, his mind resting on all of the death around him made him unable to go on in the world. In fact, given his ignominious ending in the story, we wonder if the psychological state represented by the raven completely won out.

This psychological state can be further understood through the conversation that Noah had with the raven in the Midrash (Gen. Rabbah 33:5)-- the raven playing the darker part of Noah's psychology. We can imagine Noah having both sides of this conversation, a madman blurring the lines of his own consciousness and the world around him.

R. Yudan said in the name of R. Yehudah bar. R. Simon, "It (the raven) began to argue with him: ' Of all the birds that you have here You send none but me!’
And Noah replies, "What need then has the world of you? ' he retorted; 'For food? For a sacrifice?’ (Gen. Rabbah 33:5) implying of course, that he is fit for neither.

True, God saved him, but why did God send him into the unknown? What good was he? Did a God who valued his righteousness and pureness of heart expect him to fashion a world of righteousness and pureness of heart but a world also willing to accept all of this death as his God just did? Would he get any guidance how to balance all this?

Noah eventually moves away from the darkness and moves to the more pleasant symbol of the tranquil dove, sending it out not once, but twice-- persistence sometimes being necessary when trying to make lightness and goodness dominate your motivations. In the Midrash, the dove also reminds Noah of another side of his psyche (again, from the Yalkut Sheomi Noach) that his will and preferences are worth less than the will and preferences of God. The dove or the other part of his psyche says, "I would rather have this olive branch, that which is bitter, from the hand of God than something sweet from your hand."

The raven is not forever doomed to the negative images that are associated with it-- and in the Talmud there are Cassandra-ish associations (Gittin 45a), predicting doom, being ignored (but being right). The Midrash also talks about the awful way that the raven feeds it's children (from its own refuse) (Vayikra Rabba 19:1). But the ravens eventually textually emerge in I Kings 17:6 to become the feeders of Elijah, as he hides from Ahav, after Elijah pronounces a drought on the land. This future forces Noah in the midrash to have to rescind his "What good are you?" condemnation of ravens as reported in Gen. Rabbah 33:5. From this we can learn the Midrashic perspective that our purpose on earth is not always immediately apparent and furthermore that darkness can help to nourish.

My cousin Danielle suggested an entirely different possibility, one that I had not imagined: That Noah sent out a raven because the raven had a shrill call, as opposed to other birds. The raven would be best to alert survivors of the flood that other life still existed, like a fog horn or a shout in a mine.

Picture of Raven from: http://www.jrcompton.com/photos/The_Birds/J/West/_JR30131-raven-close.jpg

What one can get on Ebay: Jacob Sonderling and the German Jews in WWI

2007-10-10T11:22:00.001-05:00

This picture was brought in by Joel Silberstein, a collector, historian, congregational secretary and Cohen at the BRJC. Joel, who was born in Germany and got out before World War II, often speaks of how the Jews were courteously treated in Germany and the corresponding positive Jewish attitude towards Germany during WWI and after the war. Joel's private collection of curiousities contains post cards and other print material that show Jews proud of their German heritage and demonstrate how the Germans, at that time, treated the Jews fairly as equals. Of course, Joel would insist, some of that was just surface pleasantry and that deep down there was resentment and antipathy; but at times, such as that which is depicted here, certain German institutions seemed to accommodate Jews.

This is a picture of a Jewish prayer service out in the field. One of the amazing things about, of course, is that this occurred during World War 1, in Germany. This service took place, as stated here, by order of the Army of His Magesty the German Emperor on 29/30 September 1914 which corresponds to the 10 of Tishre, 5675-- Yom Kippur. The field Rabbi was Dr. Sonderling, in Hamburg.

I am not sure what the formal arrangement was here. I am not sure if the man standing in front of Dr. Sonderling (who I assume is the man in front) was reading Torah or davenning or giving a dvar Torah. Perhaps this formation is some kind of military ritual? If anyone knows, it would be interesting to hear. If he was reading Torah, its curious that there is no one else next to him (gabbaim) and if he is davenning, perhaps he is doing so in the German Reform style instead of as many do today, facing the same way as the congregation.

Looking for more information about Dr. Sonderling, I began to learn what a remarkable life he led and what kind of impact he had in the Jewish world. I was particularly interested in how broadly he approached his Jewish life, becoming involved in scholarship, communal affairs, and even in cultural patronage.

While still in Germany, he had a synagogue in Hamburg, serving in the New Dammtor Synagogue with Dr. David Leimdorfer. He had originally worked in the Neustadt district of Hamburg starting in 1908.

According to one site (see citations below): "He was army rabbi during the First World War and after the war described the horror. He emigrated to the USA in 1921. A synagogue attender later related that the sermons of both preachers were well structured and were masterpieces of oratory. Many members of the Synagogue Society also attended the New Dammtor Synagogue to experience these sermons."

He eventually made his way to America and served as the Rabbi at Temple Beth Israel, in Rhode Island, installed around Oct. 3rd, 1929. He seemed to have been loved and revered in the Reform movement. Sometime after Rhode Island, he made his way to Los Angeles where he served at the Temple of Fairfax. There, he commissioned music to be written by Ernst Toch (the rabbi wrote the libretto), which resulted in the Cantata of the Bitter Herb. He also wrote the text for Schoenberg's Kol Nidre. (see links below if you would like to hear some of this)

Sonderling was mentioned in a commencement speech in 2004 by Alfred Gottschalk at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles:

Sondering had "a small congregation of German refugees in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles.... He died on Simchas Torah and was born on Simchas Torah some 93 years apart, hardly a coincidence..... One day, (towards the end of his career as Rabbi of Fairfax Temple, which eventually was sold with the proceeds coming to support the fledgling new campus of the Hebrew Union College going up at the University of Southern Calimfornia) Sonderling arrived at the Appian way campus, huffing and puffing his way up our sole staircase. He had in his arms a thin tall scroll wrapped in an antique frayed Torah cover. I met him as he reached the top of the stairs and he said, "This scroll it was in my ark for over forty years. Take it! Now it is yours! I give it to the college to preserve."

It was a parchment scroll of the prophets. A rarity. In the first world war Rabbi Sonderling served in Kaiser Wilhelm's army on the eastern front. He was a Jewish Chaplain and moved with the troops, one night as the army was pushing eastward, Sonderling realized he was in a shtetl. There was a light on in the small synagogue he was passing in his vehicle. He ordered hsi driver to stop. Sonderling entered the synagogue. In a corner in the dim light he saw a man cowering. Sonderling approached him and said, "Ich bin oycha yid was tust du hier is a sakanah nfashot."

The man replied, "Ich bin der shames von der shiel und wir hoben a sefer im open hakodsh."
Sonderling said, "Ich bin a rav und ich will sein shomer for seder" I am a rabbi and will become guardian of the scroll in your stead.

The Shames handed it to him carefully. Sonderling took the scroll and said to the shammes, "Yetzt loif." Run, it's dangerous here.

He once remarked, "The seminary made me a rabbi. The university made me a doctor. But my experience in Eastern Europe made me a Jew."

On Sonderling and music:
(www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=8215)
(www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=897)

If you want to hear the Schoenberg Kol Nidre, the Schoenberg Center has made some original recordings, with Schoenberg's voice available here: http://www.schoenberg.at/6_archiv/voice/voice2_e.htm

Gottschalk's commencement speech:
http://www.huc.edu/newspubs/GradSpeeches/2004/Gottschalk%20Ordination%20LA%202004.pdf
On Sonderling in Hamburg:
(http://www1.uni-hamburg.de/rz3a035//1vonmellepark.html)that documents old German synagogues

Who we are: Simon Gleyzerman

2007-09-18T16:20:00.000-05:00

These are notes from a conversation that I had with one of our gabbaiim, Simon Gleyzerman. Simon is known for his dependability and his wonderful smile. He comes Shabbas mornings to open the doors and set up the Torahs. Even when it is raining and his knee is sore, Simon makes his way to shul and then leads the congregation in Psuke d'zimra. Sometimes you can see him coming, walking decidedly from blocks away because of his distinct gray suit and hat. Simon didn't know Hebrew when he came to America in 1990, but now he davens with incredible spirit.

He said, "It was a hard life, we didn't know about the religion. They (the Russians) said that it is not right to believe in Him (he points to the sky). Everything there was athiestic. And they wanted to bring us to communism. But their philosophy was only talk. In theory, it might have been okay, but in practice it was difficult. It seemed that they only wanted us to work for nothing. Doing for nothing, that's what it was like. True, education was free. Anything that I would do, it had to be done for the collective. If I was a communist, I have to be first a communist-- not a Jew. The head of the community kept everything away so you couldn't be rich-- they tried to make everyone equal.

But if you were a Jew they would remind you that you were a Jew. Back then, they meant this as a bad thing, but now I thank them for reminding me.

I was the same people as the other people around. If they hear that I am a Jew they would say, 'You are a Jew, but you're a good man.'

I always though that Jews were smart. They have education. They are patient, polite and intelligent. Jews try and do the right thing.

I was born in Yampol Vinetzia, near the river Dnester on the border of the Ukraine and Moldova. I came to America when I was 53, in 1990. Without language, without any English. No Hebrew. For my grandson, we did a bris. He was 9 or 10 years old. It was one of the best days of my life.

Why did I come to America? My wife has a sister here who came in 1979.

Why I leave Russia? Because at this time everything was perestroika. There used to be incredible planted grapes everywhere and during perestroika, they cut the grapes. All the good things, they broke. Perestroika was breaking my heart.

I learned Hebrew when I came to Boro Park. They educated me at the center to learn English and there was also lessons on Jewish culture. The teacher started to teach us the aleph beis and the brachot of Shabbas. He did Shema Yisrael. He translated into Russian, but it would go in one ear and out the other.

So finally, my wife had a teacher from Russian who knew Hebrew from Leningrad and she had a teacher that would explain Alef Beis to the end. Then I would do birkat hamazon, the whole thing, and that really helped.

I was born in 1937. It was very bad time in Ukraine. A lot of people died. Stalin killed a lot of people. 10,000,000 died. The Ukraine had been the best place to grow up. There was everything good about it. Everything was going good. But Stalin made it so that there was nothing to eat.

I was 4 years old when my parents were killed and my sister was 13. My father and my brother went away when the war started, because they were in the military. My mom and my sister and me tried to go away from the war. The Germans came, they picked up all the Jews that were around-- this was 40 kilometers of my town. We couldn't go away. They put all the people together. 300 or more people, I don't know. They caught us in the middle of the town. They took all the Jews from all the houses. They took us out and my mom pushed us and told us to run away. They started to go to the cemetery. She pushed us and nobody caught us. We were in Tomashpol. She said go away, I go to work. But they killed her. There is a memory stone where my mom was killed. My sister took me to the town I was born, to Yampol, to my aunt. They had 5 children.

My aunt had a smaller one years boy, then me, he was three, and her daughter was-- she was a kamsamol, they said-- and they killed her. She had been married and she had child, but they didn't kill the child. She stayed with my aunt. She had one foot longer than the other. She was eventually married, she had two sons. The sons and her husband are here in Brooklyn, but I don't have contact with them. Riya Brenner, maybe, I don't know. They were Golger family. The father's name was Malamud.

My cousin used to take water from the mountains and he would bring the water. That was how he would make a living. People would pay him for the water. But the anti-semites used to take it.

When I was four, I was with my sister and she would go and work for people for food. She needed more money. I cried for 6 months. And after that I set to work. I would look in the garbage on the sidewalk and I would go and look for food with other kids. They would make potatoes and they would take off the potatoes and I bring the covers (peels) of the potatoes and my aunt she would make soup. Mostly people would throw away everything that is bitter and I would find it, but it was no good.

There were Italian soliders and Romanian soliders in this town where we stayed. The Germans went away. When the Italian soliders would eat, after what was left they would give for the chidlren. We have cans, we make handles and we go and they give us the soup or macaroni.

The soliders would throw cigartte butts and they would teach me to smoke when I was 5 years old. When my daughter was married, I stopped.

Two years, in 1944 the war was away from our town and the schools started working again. I started going to the school from September until when it got cold, when there was the frost from the cold. I didn't go to school, because I didn't have any shoes.

I remember that every once in a while, I would go out without my shoes and skate.

Simon's message for Yom Kippur--

Be patient to each other, forgiving each other and we have to keep in life our Temple. We have to raise the children the right way. And it is hard to bring them to that. I want to see our Temple in life. This is the way. You have to be full with laughing, with happiness and bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah with children. We have to raise a good community.

An early High Holiday message

2007-09-04T10:38:00.000-05:00

Shalom l’chulam,

How tempting it is to feel comfortable at this time, with the year drawing to a close and familiar rituals inching forward—the buying of new notebooks for school, the rushing to get one more day in at a windy beach, the negotiations of where to spend the holidays this year. Even the echo of the shofar from last year reminds us of what is familiar, what brings comfort and order.

But it ought not be entirely that way. Of course, if you do find coming back to shul and hearing Avinu Malkeinu enriching, you have cultivated a religious sensibility that awakens your spiritual self and you should dwell in what you have achieved at this time; but the holidays and these rituals are supposed to also jar you into a kind of self reflection that should be a little uncomfortable—a cheshbon nefesh, a taking account of who you are.

The melody of Avinu Malkeinu is lulling and uplifting, but the words are difficult—Our father our king, have mercy on us and answer us, for we have little merit. In order to be honest about all this and to deserve that tzedakah v’chesed (justice and mercy) you have to take account of what you did this year and realize that as much as you may have improved this year, there is still room for more. Doing so will make singing the words in shul that much more meaningful—like singing God bless America after undergoing a national crisis, or a love song to a new spouse, or a lullaby to a newborn child.

The context and work that needs to be done to understand and feel the tefillot in the holidays is: Were you kind? Were you consistent, or at least coherently inconsistent? Did you keep your word? Did you go out of your way? Were you part of the community? Were you honest? Did you risk?

So this High Holiday season, I wish you a warm, pleasant and productive time with your discomfort and jarring. I hope that it proves invigorating not as a day at a windy beach, but as climbing a mountain and seeing the place from which you came.

Shanah Tova,
Micah
Image of mountain taken from: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://muertoderisa.typepad.com/muerto_de_risa/images/mountain_top_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://muertoderisa.typepad.com/muerto_de_risa/travel/index.html&h=384&w=512&sz=112&hl=en&start=202&um=1&tbnid=NOssPFN003yb3M:&tbnh=98&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmountain%2Btop%26start%3D200%26ndsp%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

More Jewish Birds

2007-08-24T17:02:00.001-05:00

Look at this fascinating gemara from Brachot 7a (below). Fascinating because of the power given (or admitted to) regarding Bilaam, the non-Israelite priest. In Midrash Rabbah, it is suggested that he has skills that even Moshe does not have.

The other reason I like this gemara is because it hints at something oddly mystical about the rabbis life with regard to their observable environment-- roosters. And Yehoshua b. Levi trying to use what he knows about the world, as learned from the rabbis, to his advantage proves not to work at all because God protects all creatures (even the heretic that RYBL is trying to curse).

Incidentally, I once had an disagreement with a rabbi at Or Samayach about whether God gets angry. I wish I would have known this gemara and wonder why he did not bring it up preemtively.

Brachot 7a:

R. Yohanan further said in the name of R. Yosi: How do you know that we must not try to placate a man in the time of his anger? For it is written: My face will go and I will give thee rest. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Wait till My countenance of wrath shall have passed away and then I shall give thee rest.

But is anger then a mood of the Holy One, blessed be He? — Yes. For it has been taught: A God that hath indignation every day.

And how long does this indignation last? One moment. And how long is one moment? One fifty-eight thousand eight hundred and eighty-eighth part of an hour.

And no creature has ever been able to fix precisely this moment except the wicked Balaam, of whom it is written: He knows the knowledge of the Most High.

Now, he did not even know the mind of his animal; how then could he know the mind of the Most High? The meaning is, therefore, only that he knew how to fix precisely this moment in which the Holy One, blessed be He, is angry.

And this is just what the prophet said to Israel: O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him . . . that ye may know the righteous acts of the Lord. What means ‘That ye may know the righteous acts of the Lord’? — R. Eleazar says: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: See now, how many righteous acts I performed for you in not being angry in the days of the wicked Balaam. For had I been angry, not one remnant would have been left of the enemies of Israel. And this too is the meaning of what Balaam said to Balak: How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I execrate, whom the Lord hath not execrated? This teaches us that He was not angry all these days.

And how long does His anger last? One moment. And how long is one moment? R. Abin (some say R. Abina) says: As long as it takes to say Rega’ (which means "moment"). And how do you know that He is angry one moment? For it is said: For His anger is but for a moment [rega’], His favor is for a lifetime. Or if you prefer you may infer it from the following verse: Hide thyself for a little moment until the indignation be overpast.

And when is He angry? — Abaye says: In [one moment of] those first three hours of the day, when the comb of the rooster is white and it stands on one foot. Why, in each hour it stands thus [on one foot]? — In each other hour it has red streaks, but in this moment it has no red streaks at all.

In the neighbourhood of R. Joshua b. Levi there was a Sadducee who used to annoy him very much with [his interpretations of] texts. One day the Rabbi took a rooster, placed it between the legs of his bed and watched it. He thought: When this moment arrives I shall curse him. When the moment arrived he was dozing [On waking up] he said: We learn from this that it is not proper to act in such a way. It is written: And His tender mercies are over all His works. And it is further written: Neither is it good for the righteous to punish.

Something Light- the Dukifat

2007-08-07T18:13:00.000-05:00

Deut. 14:18 And the stork, and the heron after its kind and the dukifat and the bat. (You shal not eat from verse 12: These are they of which you shall not eat....)

Yaron Seri, a professor at Bar Ilan, identifies the Dukifat as the Upapa epos. Instead of just laughing at the name of it this year, above is a picture. I always think that searching these things out and seeing what they look like brings the Torah more to life.

Professor Seri says that the bird has a bad odor and that Moslems also are forbidden to eat it. He writes that the Karaites misidentified this bird, according to the tradition and that Saadia seemed to have taken them to task for it. If you would like to read more about the Dukifat (and let's be honest, who doesn't?) you can go to: http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/reeh/ser.html

The Shema and Acting

2007-08-02T17:18:00.000-05:00

A common frustration in prayer is a feeling that one is not really being oneself, that one is expressing things that one does not believe-- or that the prayers that one is saying do not really come from the heart. They are being recited by rote. One often feels like when one prays that one is only acting.

So with regards to the feeling that one is acting when one prays take a look at this:

Midrash Rabbah in Devarim 2:31 begins its discussion of the Shema by asking when it was that Israel merited first to say the Shema. R. Pinchas b. Hama says that the Shema was actually a conversation. It was God that said, "Shema Yisrael...Ani Hashem" and it was the people who answered "Adoshem elokeinu Adoshem echad." And then it was Moshe that said, "Baruch Shem Kavod Malchuto L?olam va-ed."

In short, R. Pinchas b. Hama reads the Shema as a script, spoken between three different actors. What a novel way to say the Shema, not as yourself through one voice, but by speaking through three different voices, or better-- with three different intentions in mind.

God: Shema Yisrael
B'nai Yisrael: Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem echad
Moshe: Baruch shem kavod malchuto l'olam va-ed.

Now here, might be a place that I would suggest what some of those intentions might be, but in reading something about the technique of acting I am beginning to understand the necessity of leaving intention to those who deliver the lines, instead of setting them through direction.

To say that praying you are only acting when you pray is to denigrate this amazing craft. For, what if we took the idea that instead of it being merely acting, embrace the notion of acting and consider how you could truly act-- in a professional way-- when we say the shema. Acting is a craft, a skill and those who study it say that in addition to learning much about drama, you really have to learn to master who you are. For how can you become someone else-- or how can you bring yourself to a character-- without knowing who that YOU is?

The getting to know oneself in order to create a better performance tack is not the one I want to take here, but it is an obvious parallel between acting and praying that should be explored later, what I am most interested in here is the techniques that one can use to bring a truer performance to one's prayer, or if "technique" at all would be helpful.

(Please note: I am not a beki (expert) on acting whatsoever. In fact, my only performance of the Man in Shaw's Arms in the Man was just this side of painful for everyone. But what I have read and learned from friends who are actors is that acting takes an amazing amount of practice and control in order to fully be on the stage and bring something fresh to each performance.)

Acting is less about the words on the page and more about what happens on the stage. When one is doing a scene one often needs to react and think about given what the other said, what is the feeling or objective to line that is to be delivered. If one were to bring this technique to the Shema-- have it not be about the words only-- the Shema would immediately become elevated beyond the words of the script. Why is it that you are saying your line in the way that you do? What is your objective? What are you feeling right at the moment when you are about to say it? What sorts of things have you been experiencing that might change how you say it, how you mean it?

In addition to this thinking about acting depending on motivation and objective is this notion that Sanford Meisner developed that suggests that people must be responsive to their scene partner-- that they have to be careful to notice the things that their partner is doing at that performance and then react to how that person is performing. One must have the lines down cold, but one must NOT have a reading of that line down cold. In the Meisner technique, one memorizes the lines without inflection so that when it comes time to perform those lines, one can be in the moment and say them as they are presenting themselves to the actor during that performance.

If this is the case, then one can imagine that when davenning their scene partner is God and that one must be attuned to the kinds of things that God is presenting in order to deliver one's lines in the most authentic and immediate way. There is much to learning this technique of acting, but what one must remember is that it above all a technique that one must practice over and over.

The reason that we teach our children the Shema is not because it is so basic or simple. It is because it is the most fundamental and by allowing them the time to learn the line correctly, we give them the chance to one day deliver it with the spontaneity and improvisational honesty that true prayer requires.

There is some difficulty in the way that we are required to say all of the lines of the Shema instead of just one of them and the way that one would have to switch from character to character if one was thinking in this way. But what if one-- in the moment-- chose which character they most identified with at that moment. Said everything, but brought something extra to the line that they were feeling.

I am tempted to show how this method helped my recitation of the Shema last week, but am going to refrain for fear that this will even in some minor way influence a reading of or set a reading of a particular line (not like so many people (any?) read this, but just in case.)

The connection between the Kohen Gadol and the Manslayer

2007-07-19T15:36:00.000-05:00

(you can order your kohen gadol cake at: http://www.gemsbysarelle.com/special_oc.htm)

What is the connection between the manslayer and the death of the Kohen Gadol?

(This study session is based on "The reason for refuge cities" by Menachem Ben Yashar 1998.)

Here are the sources for our discussion last week-- For some reason, the blog isn't taking the hebrew font from Davka writer. If you want the Hebrew sources, and don't feel like looking into them yourself, just come into the office and I will give them to you.

The most compelling connection between the manslayer and the kohen gadol is that which is understood by Ibn Ezra. See if you can figure out why according to Ibn Ezra the manslayer goes free when he dies. It has nothing to do with protection, because presumably the family would still be upset with him even after the Kohen Gadol died.

Also take note of how amazing the connection is, according to the Mishnah in Makkot, between the manslayer and the mother of the Kohen Gadol.

Matot/Ma’asey
July 14, 2007

Numbers 35: 9-34

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying; 10. Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them; When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 11. Then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you; that the man slayer who kills any person unawares may flee there. 12. And they shall be to you cities for refuge from the avenger; that the man slayer should not die, until he stands before the congregation in judgement. 13. And the cities which you shall give shall be six cities for refuge. 14. You shall give three cities in this side of the Jordan, and three cities you shall give in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge. 15. These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the people of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them, that everyone who kills any person without intent may flee there. 16. But if he hits him with an instrument of iron, so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. 17. And if he hits him by hand with a stone, whereby he may die, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.18. Or if he hits him with a weapon of wood in his hand, whereby he may die, and he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death.19. The avenger of blood shall himself slay the murderer; when he meets him, he shall slay him. 20. And if he stabbed him out of hatred, or hurled something at him while lying in wait, that he died; 21. Or if in enmity he hits him with his hand, so that he dies; he who hit him shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meets him. 22. But if he stabbed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled upon him anything without lying in wait; 23. Or with any stone, whereby a man may die, without seeing him, and cast upon him, that he died, and he was not his enemy, nor sought his harm;

Then the congregation shall judge between the man slayer and the avenger of blood, according to these judgments. 25. And the congregation shall deliver the slayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he had fled; and he shall live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. 26. But if the man slayer shall at any time go outside the border of the city of his refuge, where he had fled. 27. And the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of the city of his refuge, and the avenger of blood kills the slayer, he shall not be guilty of blood. 28. Because he must remain in his city of refuge, until the death of the high priest; but after the death of the high priest the man slayer may return to the land of his possession. 29. And these things shall be for a statute of judgement to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 30. Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the evidence of witnesses, but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. 31. Moreover, you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. 32. And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he should come back to live in the land, until the death of the priest. 33. So you shall not pollute the land in which you are, for blood pollutes the land; and the land can not be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, but by the blood of him who shed it. 34. And you shall not defile the land which you shall inhabit, in which I dwell; for I the Lord dwell among the people of Israel.

Rashi (a) Bamidbar 35:25-
Until the death of the Kohen - for he comes to cause the divine presence to abide in Israel and to prolong their days, while the manslayer comes to remove the divine presence from Israel and shortens the days of the living.

Mishnah 2:6(b)
Therefore the mothers of the Kohanim would provide for them (the manslayers) food and clothing, so that they would not pray that their sons would die....

Makkot 11a
THEREFORE MOTHERS OF HIGH PRIESTS [WERE WONT TO PROVIDE FOOD AND RAIMENT FOR THEM THAT THEY MIGHT NOT PRAY FOR THEIR SON'S DEATH]. The reason [given] is that the banished might not pray [for the high priest's death]; but what if they should pray, [think you] he would die? [Surely the saying is,] As the flitting bird as the flying swallow, so the curse that is causeless shall [not] follow! Said a venerable old scholar: I heard an explanation at one of the sessional lectures of Raba, that [the high priests were not without blame, as] they should have implored Divine grace for [averting the sorrows of] their generation, which they failed to do. Others read in the Mishnah thus: THAT THEY MIGHT PRAY FOR THEIR SONS THAT THEY DIE NOT. The reason [given then] is that the banished should pray [for the high priest]; but, what if they did not pray [for him; think you] he would die?

Rashi (b) Bamidbar 35:25-

Another reason: Because the High Priest should have prayed that there should not occur such a calamity in Israel -- (This comes from the gemarah above. ed.)

Seforno 35:25-
Until the death of the Kohen Gadol. It has laready been explained that Galut (exile to a refuge city) is the punishment for one who kills in error. Now being that there are different kinds of unintentional sins shogeg, which are disparate because some a closer to being considered accidental while others are closer to being considered intentional, therefore there are varying periods of exile for one who kills unintentionally. For some, the unintentional act (of killing) is (punished by exile) for a brief period before the Kohen dies, while some murderers die in exile before the death of the Kohen. This occurs according to the judgment of God, blessed be he, the one who knows and is a witness, who punishes the unintentional sinner according to the degree of error, as it says, but God caused it to come to his hand (Ex. 21.13).

This is the source that is needed to understand the connection that Ibn Ezra sees between the KG and the manslayer:

Genesis 4:10-12

"Hark, your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground... If you till the soil, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall become a ceaseless wanderer on earth" (Gen. 4:10,12).

Ibn Ezra Num.35:25

There are some who say, “until death, witness his freedom” and with you dies wisdom (Job. 12:2) But this is not right because “with you dies wisdom” is as it says (in its context). But similarly, “Until the death of the Kohen Gadol”-- because he makes atonement for Israel and this is what occurs in his days.

Lev. 21. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of an appointed man into the wilderness; 22. And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities to a land not inhabited; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

N.B. that the Refugee cities were places that were not farmed and not blessed-- therefore it did not matter that the manslayer who was in this quasi status of having shed blood but having not been a murderer would not affect the land. The blood was still on the land, but it could not be purified by the blood of the manslayer. Therefore, he had to be in a place where he would not affect the crops.

Menachem Ben Yashar's claim was that the Kohen Gadol would make atonement for all the sins of the community, intentional and unintentional and this would happen every Yom Kippur. However, we would not know when the land would return to its normal state having had blood in it. The manslayer could have been forgiven, but we do not have an "index" of when the land would return. His claim is that by the time that the Kohen Gadol died we would know that the land would have returned to its producing state. Therefore, the manslayer could come out of the city because the affect of his presence would no longer impede the land.

This was all alluded to by the ibn Ezra who pointed out the connection between the manslayer and the kohen gadol and the last verses of that chapter which highlight the agricultural warnings of having the refuge cities.

I think the weakest part of the argument is that the land would not return to its producing state after Yom Kippur when the sins were forgiven. What do you think?

State of the Shul Address

2007-07-12T15:37:00.000-05:00

Shalom congregants. I thought that since we are all together, I might give a sketch of the state of the shul from my perspective and having worked here for two years. I am sure that I will forget much, but it is not for a lack of being appreciative—its because of how much has gone on here.

The Hebrew school is a good place to start. This year we had a wonderful year with two great teachers: Deganit Shemy and Joshua Millstein. The students, 12 kids divided into two groups, spent Shabbas mornings and Wednesday afternoons studying Hebrew and culture. Although they were hampered by the different skill levels of the kids, the teachers were able to get them to think in deep and serious ways; the younger kids learning not just the stories of Moshe and Yosef, but also of Ruth and of the creation of the state of Israel. The older kids were able to engage with Josh over complicated stories and poems. Their behavior needs to improve, but so does the structure of the school that insists upon it. I am particularly proud of the fact that they are learning about Judaism in a modern world. They do not see Judaism as something that some other people do, but understand or are beginning to understand that Judaism is a heritage that they get to experience and that is theirs. The education committee has been run this year by Felicia Geiger and it has been a pleasure working with her. She wants the best for our students and does whatever she can to try and make their educational experiences here compelling and safe and enlightening.

In the past two years we had three Bar Mitzvahs: Charles Newman, Matthew Talia, and Adam Krushkow. Each did a wonderful job and brought their own skills and personalities to the ceremonies. Our B’nai Mitzvah standards have been growing up with the children—created by the education committee, we now try to teach our children that the centerpiece of the b’nai mitzvah is not the party, or the family celebration. The centerpiece is also not the service that they perform for everyone on that day. But the centerpiece of a b’nai mitzvah is learning how to live and then living a Jewish life. This includes study, being part of a community and trying to figure out how to be part of the world in a Jewish way. By having standards for our children, we do not make Judaism something that we engage in tangentially and we give them the gift that they deserve—a training worthy of the inheritance of the torah.

We also had one adult bat mitzvah, Diane Felsen-Sokol, who modeled for us all that Judaism does not stop when one turns 13. One has to continue to live it and to study. Diane also continues to read the Torah, which if you would like to see, you can come this week on Shabbas. I would like to expand the Torah readers in the shul, there is very little that is as amazing as reading Torah to our community, so if anyone would like to learn, or re-learn, I would be happy to teach you.

The state of the shul is also enhanced by the groups of people who congegrate in the shul. Our semiweekly minyan, led by Solomon Greenberg allows for a full expression of what it means to live a daily Jewish life. Sometimes, being Jewish seems to be something that happens on Shabbat; but when we build things into our lives, like the group who regularly attends daily minyan, we live those days as Jews as well.

As long as we are talking about davenning, I think that our shabbas davenning is going strong as well. There may be a little too much talking to each other and not enough talking to God, but for the most part we draw between 60-40 people on a regular basis, and of those at least half seem to know what is going on. The system of me giving a sermon every three weeks, teaching every three weeks and having a congregant give a sermon every three weeks has not really worked due to the lack of congregational participation, but I imagine that as the years progress you may see the merit of this approach and something you may want to go back to.

Our monthly potlucks and our weekly Torah studies are well attended and they help to make our community a community that does Judaism together. Our Torah study group has been going strong for almost the whole two years, only missing on occasion when I am out of town. But even in the summer and during vacations we have met to continue to engage and ask our questions. I am proud to say that even on two occasions when I was not in town, the group met and had spirited discussions.

Our congregation has added 15 family member units in the last two years, which if I have the numbers correct, represents a growth of at least 10 percent. Adding more families to our community is crucial for the health of the shul. Financially, we are not able to do everything that we would like to do and adding members will certainly help with that. To that end, we have a pretty good rate of people paying their dues, but many still do not take seriously the need the shul has for money—to hire more teachers, to fix lights and plumbing. For anyone here who has outstanding balances, please make sure you make good on what you owe. Treat us as you would a health club, or your cable bill but know that what you give here goes beyond being able to walk on your treadmill or watch Entourage—it helps to give a little bit more holiness to our community.

I don’t know how we can get those to join the shul who don’t belong but continue to use the shul when they want. It is hard not to use guilt and let people know the real fear that exists of us not being able to sustain Jewish life here in Bay Ridge. I think, at the very least, we need to all continue to be here happily with smiles and enthusiasm and hope that people will see that belonging to the Bay Ridge Jewish Center is something valuable and good. We should not be resentful or angry but try and be positive about the good that we do by supporting the community by joining. We enable there to be baby namings and bar mitzvahs, holidays and funerals. You should know that every year we put the sukkah up and every year we blow the shofar, we are able to do so because you have contributed. It would be easy to join one of these split-off minyanim and daven with people who are more knowledgeable or more spirited, but that would close off an outpost, where those people go when they are coming through town, or where those people stop into when they are walking by and see our sign and remember that the question that they asked their rabbi when they were 11 was still unanswered.

The physical state of the shul is not very good. People who come into the school building or chapel are surprised by its Kafka-esque bleakness. It is hard to attract new members with this liability. Whereas we know that what matters is the people and not the place, in today’s marketplace, place matters and people want to know what they are going to get for their membership. Will it be a place that they will feel good about being? It is hard to ask them to judge the shul based on the friendliness of the people and not on whether the rubber mats in the hallway smell like a psychiatric institution. This is one of the very serious things that the new building, if there will be one, will address for you.

There is no one doing preventative maintenance in the shul which enables us to see what is going to break down and what needs repairing. That was not part of my training at JTS, so I would urge you to figure out a system to put that in place. We shouldn’t wait for the next emergency or disaster to make sure that all the checks have been made.

To that end, it has been hard to get some things off the ground. We have had our failures: Shabbat Sing did not exactly sing, and the Teen Club met a couple times, but fizzled like submerged pop rocks. Our family programming and singles programming could each use a volunteer to spearhead those groups—Someone energetic and who would be willing to work with me to give those groups something that they will latch onto. We need to make sure that those populations are taken care of, just as every population’s needs should be considered and attended to as best we can. Singles often feel alienated in Judaism because we are so family centered. In the world to come, a dedicated family ed programmer would be a wonderful thing to have.

Back to the happy stuff—our occasional programs are usually fondly attended. We have upcoming events the halacha of hefeweizen and a community mishna study. And both are advertised in the bulletin which will be going out with tremendous thanks to Julie Greenberg, Ruth Masyr, and Susan Altman. They worked on it for a long time and I hope that it will help people see how much goes on here at the shul. For that information, you can also go to our website calendar or the blog, both of which were created in the last two years. Other technologies that we have added to our community here are two state of the art boilers and a fantastic outgoing message machine donated in memory of one of our members Leo Kramer.

Other wonderful events that happened this year were the congregational trip to the botanical gardens, the Purim Bang! where many of us learned how to Tango while drinking a flute of champagne. The Lag b’Omer Bonfires, the wonderful plays that Herb and Ruth have produced. The Hannukah parties, complete both years with the “I’ll never eat another donut Olympics”, The study series on Angels. Lectures on each one of the Holidays. Karl Hron’s classical music series. The shul exchange with the group that we lend our Torah to. Our wonderful book club, specializing in Redemptive books and drinking beer. Our once and future challah baking club. The Russian/English exchange.

There are some halachic things that need to be addressed and changed, if possible—and we have seen that our community can undergo halachic change as we have by including women fully in our community—reading Torah and davenning as well as the previously established counting them in the minyan. We have also stopped counting the Torah in the minyan when need be, as its practice was explicitly forbidden by Halacha because these is not an emergency situation (defined by Halacha as permanent and dire). We need to figure out a way to stop using electricity on Shabbas with the security codes. I am not sure how this can be addressed. We have made inroads into not turning off the lights on shabbas and turning them on the day before.

Our Torahs have been assessed and some are in good condition and others not so good, but sellable for a very small price—Rabbi Shmuel Shchori came in and gave us an estimate that he would give us close to 2 grand for the Torahs that we don’t use, but that only figures to be about 300 per torah including the silver, and we may be able to get a better price for them. He suggested though that the rooms where we keep them are not environmentally sound and that they really should be kept somewhere where the weather does not fluctuate so much. To that end, Julie and Audrey have been working on the Torah project and I believe that the promotional materials are about to be complete. When they are we will need all of your help to spread the word that we are giving people an opportunity to perform one of the loveliest mitzvahs and that is repairing a Torah scroll. For a small donation, you will be able to sponsor a letter, a word, a sentence or a parasha, and the result of the project will be a beautiful usable sefer Torah, one that you can come and hear be read from every week knowing that without you, it would have been buried in the ground for decomposition.

I wish that we would have done better at this year that is Kabbalat Shabbat and Shabbas dinners. I still do not believe that very many people in the shul eat together on Friday night and we struggle for a minyan Friday night. The tunes that we use are quite spirited but so much more so if there are many voices participating in them. I would urge you all, if you can, to try and come to a Friday (or better 2) to celebrate the end of the week with us. It is a great way to wind down and a great way to get your mind into the spirit of resting for the rest of Shabbas. The rabbis say that if every Jew celebrates two shabbases in a row, then the Mashiach would come. A great way to get inspired to do so is to light your shabbas candles at home, throw on your white shirt or at least your shabbas clothes and come to the shul to welcome the Sabbath bride.

My hope is that one day, here at the shul, there will not have to be a public yizkor appeal at Yom Kippur. I know that as it is we need it to keep going, and people like to be able and should in fact give money in honor or memory of a loved one. But there is something about dealing in money in such a public way on Yom Kippur that to me seems very wrong. So please, in order to shorten it, at the very least, send in your pledges ahead of time.

I have benefited greatly from working here these past two years. I have learned a lot of Torah and a lot about people. One of the things that I look forward to every week is to see how the Torah sustains people, the strength and smiles that Henry brings to his Haftarah. I enjoy seeing Joel greet people as they come up the stairs filling in for people who miss their turn at ushering—something else we need to work on. But he doesn’t seem to mind because it is the mix of people and holiness that he, along with Herb, has taken to be their mission in their presidencies. They have endured late night and early morning calls from me and from many others and have done the little things in the shul that have made it float. It is an honor to be the president of a shul, something that you will never forget and that others should take as an example of the level of which one can get involved in making this place special.

There are many things that go one here and in my rabbinate that are not seen. Just as there are many things that you all do for the shul that go unseen. One example is that we have a member who goes every week to play scrabble with another member that she had never met, because he needed someone to keep his mind active as it does its battle with Alzheimers. Another member quietly contributes to the cost of religious services for those he knows need a little help with their bills. Another sneaks in here late at night to try and sort out our books, another never passes a bit of garbage without bending down to get it, even though righting himself again seems like such a task; another calls the rabbi to make sure that he is okay after long meetings, another cleans the tallisim before the chagim without being asked. One member does so much, donates large sums of money, and never in his own name, often in the name of Elijah; one member drives back and forth to Jetro in order to make sure that our candy supplies are stocked. Another member picks up people to come and study Torah, another member donates books for the children, another member stitches up little girls heads when they fall on the stairs. I tell you all this because you should know that the people who sit around you today and in shul are people that care about you and this place.

These are those who ask not what this shul can do for them….

If you feel like a remnant of Judaism, being here on this outpost, this frontier, remember that it is the remnant for which you are named, Sh’erit Yisrael, and it is the remnant, a shoot, that grows into that which sustains Judaism.

So thank you, to all of you who have made these two years very special and interesting. It has not always been easy by any means, but it has been an enduring project on how to make God dwell amongst us. When we come into this place, we should try and check our egos at the door and remember that a synagogue is a place where we try and bring our holiest selves. It is not a place for grudges or resentments. It is a place of honor and respect. It is a place of kindness and compassion. It is a place of opportunity, but not for ME, but for US. The lot of the Jewish people is in our hands which can seem like too great a burden, but behold God has given us a good map—God’s Torah. Do not forsake it. Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.

Burghers of Israel?

2007-07-10T09:47:00.000-05:00

This week in shul we discussed whom God wanted to be killed because of the incident at Ba'al Peor. See Bamidbar Ch.25 below. What do you think is the pshat of the text? Who did God intend to be killed in verse 4?

Tanach - Bamidbar (Numbers) Chapter 25:

1. And Israel stayed in Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moab. 2. And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods. 3. And Israel attached himself to Baal-Peor; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. 4. And the Lord said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up before the Lord in the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. 5. And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Slay you every one his men who were attached to Baal-Peor.

Moshe in verse 5 requests that all the people who were attached to Baal-Peor be killed by the judges of Israel. This perhaps is what influences Rashi to suggest that the "them" in verse 4, was not the chiefs of the people themselves, but those who transgressed (See Rashi Below).

Rashi Bamidbar 25:4

Take all the heads of Israel-- to Judge the worshippers of Peor
And hang them-- the worshippers

It's a clever read because Rashi explains that God does not want Moshe to take the leaders of Israel to be killed, but to take the leaders of Israel and have them be judges of the wrongdoing of others. If it is the leaders who are to be killed, this suggests a direct and intense responsibility of the leaders for the conduct of the people. If it is the people themselves who are to be killed, then it broadens the system to make the people responsible for their own actions.

Do you think that Moshe cleverly interpreted God, participating in the rabbinic method of exegesis, or do you think that Moshe understood even from God's unclear grammatical referents what was to be done?

If you think it is outrageous to suggest that God would want the leaders to be killed because of the sins of the people, you are in disagreement with R. Yudan in the Midrash below (You are in good company because R. Nehemiah does this). Given that at least one rabbi from the Midrash reads it this way suggests that it is not so far fetched:

Bamidbar Rabbah (Vilna Editition) 20:23:

AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES: TAKE ALL THE CHIEFS OF THE PEOPLE, AND HANG THEM UP (XXV, 4). R. Yudan says: He hanged the chiefs of the people because they had not checked the people. R. Nehemiah says: He did not hang the chiefs of the people. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Appoint for them heads of Sanhedrin who shall judge all those who had gone to Peor. Said Moses to Him: ' Who will make the culprits known? ' ' I shall expose them, said He. If any one has erred the cloud will depart from him and the sun will shine upon him in the midst of the assembly, so that all will know who it is that has gone astray and will hang him. There is proof that this was so, from the text, AND MOSES SAID UNTO THE JUDGES OF ISRAEL: SLAY YE EVERY
ONE HIS MEN, etc. (ib. 5).

There are two competing ideologies playing out here, perhaps one being represented by the will of God and the other by the interpretation of the will of God by Moshe. Moshe was practical; God sometimes impulsive. But it goes to show that the expectations of God are great. In his exegesis, Moshe helped to further establish the system we have today where each person is responsible for his or her own Judaism. At the same time, it is clear that God expects the leaders of the community to take very seriously their task of guidance.

Bible Fight

2007-05-08T14:58:00.000-05:00

This is pretty irreverent and rather funny. I know some might find it tasteless, but you have to be able to laugh at yourself, now.

www.adultswim.com/games/biblefight/

What do you think?

Shabbat Across America and Lag B'Omer

2007-05-04T11:52:00.000-05:00

May 4th- The Bay Ridge Jewish Center will be hosting Shabbat Across America this shabbas. Services begin at 6:30 and they will be followed by a chicken dinner. The reason that we do this is to try and make people aware of what shabbat is and how it is celebrated. It also helps bring our community together. The cost of the dinner is $20 for adults if you pay in advance, $10 for kids, and $25 at the door-- which we will only take if you make it here before candle lighting. Otherwise, please pay next week.

May 5th- We will also be having a "learners service" the following day, which means that we will slow things down a bit and explain some of what is going on in the service. That will be Shabbat Morning, services begin at 9:00am.

May 6th- Lag B'Omer! Come and celebrate with us-- a bonfire out back, with smores and corn, celebrating the day the plague lifted from Rabbi Akiva's students. The fire will be lit around 6:30pm.

Uh oh.....

2007-04-24T12:38:00.000-05:00

We have been excitedly advertising that on Shavuot when it is customary to eat dairy things, we would be ordering cheesecakes from Junior's, the famous cheesecake maker here in Brooklyn. Granted, no one ate cheesecake while wandering between Egypt and the promised land in the dessert...er...desert, but is has become a custom that while one studies Torah the night before Shavuot (as we will be doing), one eats diary cuisine. And any Jew who at the same time wants to appreciate the splendor of God's world would surely gravitate towards cheesecake. And good cheesecake, if one can. P'shita.

Eating dairy emphasizes that Torah is like the milk that keeps infants alive. It also has been suggested that the reason we do this is that before the Torah was given there was no way of knowing the laws of eating meat. Therefore, we eat dairy to commemorate the ancient Israelite's punctiliousness to Jewish law.

Junior's is well known to have some of the greatest cheesecake around, and while their restaurant is not kosher, their mail order cheesecakes have fallen under the hashkacha of the Orthodox Union-- OU. However, see below, and wait to see how this plays out.... (the drama):

Oy Vey! Junior's loses it's kosher status.

By Gersh Kuntzman

The Brooklyn Paper
April 21, 2007

Something not so kosher going on at Junior’s.

The legendary cheesecake purveyor has lost the coveted Orthodox Union seal of approval after a Junior’s foreman baked up a batch of delicious, creamy cheesecakes during the Passover holiday.

Jews are not supposed to work — or have their workers work — on religious holidays as well as the Jewish sabbath, which runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

“The whole thing was a mistake,” Junior’s co-owner Alan Rosen told The Brooklyn Paper. “One of our customers ran out of cheesecake, so our shop foreman made some. I didn’t know about it at the time, and it’s a violation. We know we’re not supposed to bake during Passover, but what can I say?”

A spokesman for the Orthodox Union, one of the nation’s leading kosher-certifying organizations, declined to explain why its rabbis pulled the Junior’s certification, which was announced though an e-mail that gets sent to thousands of kosher followers nationwide.

“Effective April 1st, 2007,” the understated e-mail said, Junior’s cheesecakes “are no longer certified by the Orthodox Union and will no longer bear the OU symbol.”

Rosen promised that Junior’s would regain its kosher certification within days, albeit from “another group” that issues such declarations. The kosher controversy affects only Junior’s mail-order business — the restaurant itself, of course, is not kosher — and Rosen said he had enough cakes on hand to last a few days.

While Rosen downplayed the loss of kosher certification, the Talmudic minds of other experts weren’t so sure.

“I think this is a big deal,” said Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Congregation Bnai Avraham in Brooklyn Heights. “If you’re a kosher customer of his, you’ll think twice.”

Raskin, of course, is kosher — but he never went near a Junior’s cheesecake, even when it had the OU seal.

He answers, as they say, to a higher authority.

“Even though they were kosher, they didn’t use what we call ‘Jewish milk,’” Raskin said. “To be the highest level of kosher, the milk has to be followed all the way from the cow’s udder to the cake. That’s ‘cholov y’israel.’”

In other words, oy vey.

Guess who this is?

2007-04-20T12:59:00.000-05:00

Our executive committee is made up of talented, dedicated, passionate people? But who knew they've always had such good taste in clothes?

For Those Rainy Days

2007-04-17T09:54:00.000-05:00

It looks like rain all day today according to weather.com after 1pm. And so a text, appropriate enough for April. But first credit where credit is due: The Image above comes from www.redmum.blogspot.com. Her pictures are really wonderful, look for the picture of the car with the child and the picture taken in a mirror of a duck ride. She has a great eye.

And now the text:

תלמוד בבלי מסכת תענית דף ז עמוד א

אמר רבי אבהו: גדול יום הגשמים מתחיית המתים, דאילו תחיית המתים לצדיקים, ואילו גשמים - בין לצדיקים בין לרשעים. ופליגא דרב יוסף, דאמר רב יוסף: מתוך שהיא שקולה כתחיית המתים - קבעוה בתחיית המתים. אמר רב יהודה: גדול יום הגשמים כיום שניתנה בו תורה, שנאמר +דברים ל"ב+ יערף כמטר לקחי, ואין לקח אלא תורה, שנאמר +משלי ד'+ כי לקח טוב נתתי לכם תורתי אל תעזבו. רבא אמר: יותר מיום שניתנה בו תורה, שנאמר יערף כמטר לקחי מי נתלה במי - הוי אומר: קטן נתלה בגדול.

Rabbi Abahu said, "Rainy days are greater than the day of the resurrection of the dead because the resurrection of the dead is only for the righteous, whereas rainy days are for everyone." Rav Yosef disagrees and says, "Rainy days are equal to the resurrection of the dead and that is why we pray for rain in the Amidah where we pray for the resurrection of the dead."

Rav Yehudah says, "Greater are rainy days than the day that the Torah was given, as it says (Deut. 30:2) 'My doctrine (lekach)shall drop like the rain' and the word lekach always means Torah as it says in Proverbs, "Behold a good doctrine has been givem to you-- my Torah..." Rava says, "(Rainy days) are greater than the day in which Torah was given as it says, 'My doctrine shall fall like rain.' One says that the lesser (Torah) is compared with the greater (rain)."

Explanation: Rava's explanation in the end is a little confusing. What he means is that because the Torah is being compared with rain, it must be that rain is greater. Think something along the lines of: Milwaukee's Art Museum will be like The Art Institute of Chicago means that the Art Institute is the greater thing. Or: Dwayne Wade is like Michael Jordan-- choosing Michael Jordan as the point of comparison suggests that he is better. Or: Nicole Kraus writes like Saul Bellow. Or: This Kosher Pizza tastes like non-Kosher Pizza.

Things to do on a rainy day--

Imagine: Nicole Kraus spending Shavuot with Dwayne Wade at the Art Museum in Milwaukee eating Kosher Pizza on Shavuot.
Imagine: Saul Bellow passing a rainy day with Michael Jordan at the Art Institute in Chicago eating non-Kosher Pizza.

Passover Preparation

2007-03-26T17:54:00.000-05:00

(The original context for this picture is: www.travelblog.com)

Below is the passover guide provided by the rabbinical assembly. At the session on Shabbas, some were interested in which foods one could buy before Pesach for use on Pesach that did not need a special Kosher for Passover hechshure. This will explain. We also copied this and made it available for people in the congregation to pick up in the office.

Passover has its own special rules of kashrut:

The Rabbinical Assembly Pesah Guide was prepared for the Rabbinical Assembly Committee on Jewish Law and Standards by Rabbi Mayer Rabinowitz. It was accepted by the Committee on December 12, 1984. The last paragraph of the introduction as well as Parts A and C under "Permitted Foods," have been amended to reflect more recent decisions of the Committee affecting the status of peanuts, peanut oil, certain cheeses and canned tuna.

The Torah prohibits the ownership of hametz (leaven) during Pesah. Therefore, we arrange for the sale of the hametz to a non-Jew. The transfer, mekhirat hametz, is accomplished by appointing an agent, usually the rabbi, to handle the sale. It is valid and legal transfer of ownership. At the end of the holiday, the agent arranges for the reversion of ownership of the now-permitted hametz. If ownership of the hametz was not transferred before the holiday, the use of this hametz is prohibited after the holiday as well (hametz she-avar alav ha-Pesah).

Since the Torah prohibits the eating of hametz during Pesah, and since many common foods contain some admixture of hametz, guidance is necessary when shopping and preparing for Pesah.

During the eight days of Pesah, hametz cannot lose its identity in an admixture. Therefore, the minutest amount of hametz renders the whole admixture hametz and its use on Pesah is prohibited. However, during the rest of the year, hametz follows the normal rules of admixture, i.e. it loses its identity in an admixture of one part hametz and sixty parts of non-hametz (batel be-shishim). This affords us the opportunity to differentiate between foods purchased before and during Pesah.

What follows is a general guideline. However, your rabbi should be consulted when any doubt arises. Kosher le-Pesah labels that do not bear the name of a rabbi or one of the recognized symbols of rabbinic supervision, or which are not integral to the package, should not be used without consulting your rabbi.

Prohibited foods include the following: leavened bread, cakes, biscuits, crackers, cereal, coffees containing cereal derivatives, wheat, barley, oats, spelt, rye, and all liquids containing ingredients or flavors made from grain alcohol.

Most Ashkenazik authorities have added the following foods (kitniyot) to the above list: rice, corn, millet, legumes (beans and peas; however, string beans are permitted). The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has ruled unanimously that peanuts and peanut oil are permissible. Some Ashkenazik authorities permit, while others forbid, the use of legumes in a form other than their natural state, for example, corn sweeteners, corn oil, soy oil. Sephardic authorities permit the use of all of the above. Consult your rabbi for guidance in the use of these products.

Permitted Foods:

The following foods require no kosher le-Pesah label if purchased prior to Pesah: unopened packages or containers of natural coffee without cereal additives (However, be aware that coffees produced by General Foods are not kosher for Passover unless marked KP); sugar, pure tea (not herbal tea); salt (not iodized); pepper; natural spices; frozen fruit juices with no additives; frozen (uncooked) vegetables (for legumes see above); milk; butter; cottage cheese; cream cheese; ripened cheeses such as cheddar (hard), muenster (semi-soft) and Camembert (soft); frozen (uncooked) fruit (with no additives); baking soda.

The following foods require no kosher le-Pesah label if purchased before or during Pesah: Fresh fruits and vegetables (for legumes see above), eggs, fresh fish and fresh meat.

The following foods require a kosher le-Pesah label if purchased before or during Pesah: All baked products (matzah, cakes, matzah flour, farfel, matzah meal, and any products containing matzah); canned or bottled fruit juices (These juices are often clarified with kitniyot which are not listed among the ingredients. However, if one knows there are no such agents, the juice may be purchased prior to Pesah without a kosher le-Pesah label); canned tuna (since tuna, even when packed in water, has often been processed in vegetable broth and/or hydrolyzed protein--however, if it is known that the tuna is packed exclusively in water, without any additional ingredients or additives, it may be purchased without a kosher le-Pesah label); wine; vinegar; liquor; oils; dried fruits; candy; chocolate flavored milk; ice cream; yogurt and soda.

The following processed foods (canned, bottled or frozen), require a kosher le-Pesah label if purchased during Pesah: milk, butter, juices, vegetables, fruit, milk products, spices, coffee, tea, and fish, as well as all foods listed in Category C.

DETERGENTS: If permitted during the year, powdered and liquid detergents do not require a kosher le-Pesah label.

MEDICINE: Since hametz binders are used in many pills, the following guidelines should be followed: If the medicine is required for life sustaining therapy, it may be used on Pesah. If it is not for life sustaining therapy, some authorities permit, while others prohibit. Consult your rabbi. In all cases, capsules are preferable to pills.

KASHERING OF UTENSILS: The process of kashering utensils depends on how the utensils are used. According to Halakhah, leaven can be purged from a utensil by the same process in which it was absorbed in the utensil (ke-voleo kakh poleto). Therefore, utensils used in cooking are kashered by boiling, those used in broiling are kashered by fire and heat, and those used only for cold food are kashered by rinsing.
EARTHENWARE (china, pottery, etc.) may not be kashered. However, fine translucent chinaware which has not been used for over a year may be used if scoured and cleaned in hot water.

METAL (wholly made of metal) UTENSILS USED IN FIRE (spit, broiler) must first be thoroughly scrubbed and cleansed and then made as hot as possible. Those used for cooking or eating (silverware, pots) must be thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned and completely immersed in boiling water. Pots should not be used for a period of at least 24 hours between the cleaning and the immersion in boiling water. Metal baking utensils cannot be kashered.

OVENS AND RANGES: Every part that comes in contact with food must be thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned. Then, oven and range should be heated as hot as possible for a half hour. If there is a broil setting, use it. Self-cleaning ovens should be scrubbed and cleaned and then put through the self-cleaning cycle. Continuous cleaning ovens must be kashered in the same manner as regular ovens.

MICROWAVE OVENS, which do not cook the food by means of heat, should be cleaned, and then a cup of water should be placed inside. Then the oven should be turned on until the water disappears. A microwave oven that has a browning element cannot be kashered for Pesah.

GLASSWARE: Authorities disagree as to the method for kashering drinking utensils. One opinion requires soaking in water for three days, changing the water every 24 hours. The other opinion requires only a thorough scrubbing before Pesah, or putting them through a dishwasher.

Glass Cookware: There is a difference of opinion as to whether it is to be kashered. One opinion is that it must be kashered. After a thorough cleansing, there should be water boiled in them which will overflow the rim. The other opinion is that only a thorough cleansing is required.

Glass Bakeware, like metal bakeware, may not be kashered.

DISHWASHER: After not using the machine for a period of 24 hours, a full cycle with detergent should be run.

ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES: If the parts that come into contact with hametz are removable, they can be kashered in the appropriate way (if metal, follow the rules for metal utensils). If the parts are not removable, the appliance cannot be kashered. (All exposed parts should be thoroughly cleaned.)

TABLES, CLOSETS AND COUNTERS: If used with hametz, they should be thoroughly cleaned and covered, and then they may be used.

KITCHEN SINK: A metal sink can be kashered by thoroughly cleaning and then pouring boiling water over it. A porcelain sink should be cleaned and a sink rack used. If, however, dishes are to be soaked in a porcelain sink, a dish basin must be used.

HAMETZ AND NON-PASSOVER UTENSILS: Non-Passover dishes, pots and hametz whose ownership has been transferred, should be separated, locked up or covered, and marked in order to prevent accidental use.

Excerpted from "The Jewish Dietary Laws," published by the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue Commission on Jewish Education.

Jewish Ethics-- New and Old Voices

2007-03-23T13:55:00.000-05:00

Our older class, taught by the brilliant and excellent pedagogue Josh Millstein, has been learning about Jewish Ethics through looking at traditional sources. Not passively reading them of course, but engaging in the discussion. See here one of their projects compiled and assimilated by Josh:

There was a recent discovery of the first page of the Talmud written by some learned rabbis from Sheiris Israel. The rest of the book could not be located, and even the page itself was so frail and in such danger of just evaporating into thin air that Chief Rabbi Micah Kelber immediately copied down, word for word, the page that he found. This is what he wrote:

Mishna:
Rabbi Hillel saw a skull floating on the face of the water. He said to it: “For drowning others you were drowned; and in the end they that drown others will themselves be drowned.”

Gemara:
The esteemed Rabbi Kruchkow said, “I agree with Hillel to a degree. I agree that evil will be returned to those who commit it, but the criminal may not receive their punishment in the same way. I think that the punishment will depend on the people affected, the people around them, and perhaps G-d’s will. The punishment may not serve justice if it is the same as the criminal has done in all occasions.”

Honorable Rabbi Cohen said, “Rabbi Hillel is wrong and right: He was right because of Karma – ‘ what comes around, goes around ’ – and he was wrong because sometimes ‘ what comes around, goes around ’ doesn’t necessarily happen.”

And the accomplished Rabbi Starikov said, “I agree with Rabbi Hillel because it is a case of ethics. You should treat people the way you wish to be treated, therefore the favor will be returned. Perchance I made a nasty remark to a fellow pupil I might have destroyed all further chances to carry on a friendship with that person.”

Stop eating Matzah! (Only until pesach, of course...)

2007-03-16T11:18:00.000-05:00

As everyone in the shul is maddeningly eating the all the frozen chametz that they have in there freezers and the half eaten boxes of pasta before pesach, one of our members asked a wonderful question, which was:

Everyone knows you have to eat matzah on Pesach, but when do you have to stop eating matzah before passover?

The answer to this question also pertains to those things baked with matzah meal-- like cookies or cakes (I guess some people do this even when it is not pesach. Why? I am not sure). But it excludes dishes that are cooked like matzah brei (is that the right spelling?) or matzah ball soup. Those you can continue eating all the way up until Pesach.

The prohibition against eating Matzah before Erev Pesach is found Hilchot Pesach 471:2. Yosef Karo does not mention it, but it is stated by the Rema (Yoseph Isserles), who writes the Askenazi gloss on the Shulchan Aruch. It is a note on the permission that Karo gives to eating Matzah Ashirah (what we call egg matzah) before Erev Pesach. The Remah comments, "However matzah that fulfills your obligation to eat it in the evening, that is forbidden to eat it (at all) on the 14th day." He cites the Ran in the name of the Rambam for this ruling. The prohibition, according to the Mishneh Brurah (the Chofetz Chayim) is said to have been enacted by the rabbis (again, he cites the Rambam) so that you will remember to eat it in that evening-- which is the specific mitzvah.

Then the Chofetz Chayim continues: "There are some who do not eat Matzah from Rosh Chodesh onwards."

He does not mention anything about Purim. But I did find something online from Prof. Aryeh A. Frimer from Bar Ilan where he mentions "from Purim" but he does not give a citation for it and I have not found one yet.

See here:

1) It is Rabbinically forbidden to eat matzah on erev pesach (OH
471:2). The majority of Poskim maintain that this prohibition starts
only from the morning [alot ha-shahar] (ibid., MB no. 13). The minority
view maintains that one should be stringent from the night before. (IM,
OH, I, 154). Some have the custom of not eating matzah from Purim or
Rosh Hodesh.

In sum, it is rabbinically forbidden to eat Matzah on the 14th starting from amud hashachar (and those who are machmir say even the night before), but it is a custom to not eat matzah from Rosh Chodesh and (according to Prof. Frimer) for others Purim.

If anyone knows the source of some people not eating matzah from Purim onwards, I would love to see it. In the mean time, I think it is safe to stop eating it on Rosh Chodesh which this year falls on the 20th of March.

Shabbat b'yachad March 16th

2007-03-14T15:42:00.000-05:00

This Shabbas, March 16th, please join us at the Bay Ridge Jewish Center for one of our lovely hamish potluck Shabbas dinners. Everyone is asked to bring a dairy dish to share (see chart below for some guidance). Services begin at 6:30 and after that we all go down into the ball room to eat together.

In order that we don't have too much cake (although some cake is good) we ask you to consider using this chart.

If your last name begins with

A-E, please bring a desert.
F-K, please bring a salad.
L-R, please bring a main dish.
S-Z, please bring an appetizer.

See you soon! Shabbat Shalom.

2007-03-08T16:15:00.000-05:00

The Bay Ridge Players have been working hard to make this show a special and elegant performance. Please come and join us for a wonderful evening.

Here's a picture of the cast:

Purim Events!

2007-02-22T11:18:00.000-05:00

The Megillah Readings wil be on March 3rd at 7pm and the next morning March 4th at 9am.

It is followed by the Purim Bang! details above-- Get your tickets early! Black Tie Optional or Fabulous costumes. Kids are welcome-- champagne, cheese, dancing, music (for what would dancing be without music? And what would champagne be without:) Chocolate.... Again, see above for details.

The Purim carnival very kidcentric will be the next day from 1-3. Come in costume! Come joyful.

admission: free for BRJC members.
non-members: adults $5, kids $2

Celebrate with us!

The Crying of Yishmael

2007-02-14T13:31:00.000-05:00

Hagar in the Wilderness by Jean Baptiste Camille-Corot from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

In every text, the author makes certain stylistic choices in order to get the reader to identify with the characters. Through this identification, the author can expand the reader, opening them up to whatever message they are trying to send through the characters involved in the story. The Torah utilizes stylistic moves as well, shifting perspectives, creating intriguing omissions, as well as a whole host of others, making the Torah’s message more interesting and more effectively conveyed. These literary devices are often noticed when one encounters a textual oddity such as the one that appears during the narrative of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert.[1]

When the problems between Sarah and Hagar culminate in Yishmael and Yitzchak behaving problematically, Sarah makes Avraham throw Hagar and her son out of the house. They are banished to the desert and when the water they had with them was almost gone, Hagar feared Ishmael would soon die. The Torah states (Gen. 21:15-17a):

"When the water was gone from the skin, she left the child under one of the bushes, and went and sat down at a distance, a bowshot away; for she thought, “Let me not look on as the child dies.” And sitting thus afar, she burst into tears. And God heard the cry of the boy….”

The textual oddity is that it was Hagar who had been crying and yet the text reports that God responded to Yishmael's voice.

One of the things that this illustrates is that the Torah simply does not report everything that happened to the characters, even in the midst of an involved and closely observed narrative. This is obviously the case, as has to be, in any story that is told. The narrator makes certain editorial selections in order to tell a compelling story, sometimes leaving out details and letting us fill in the blanks. The Torah rarely tells us that the characters in the Bible are eating or sleeping, but of course they do. We know nothing of how the woman Cain marries was created. We know next to nothing of the early years of Moshe. Sometimes we don't bother to fill in the blanks in the stories because they are irrelevant to the larger narrative. Sometimes, we fill in the blanks with the most obvious conclusions because to do so otherwise would be ludicrous. For example, we know that Rebekah was buried because the text reports this (Gen. 49:31), but the Torah never says that she died (the rabbi's finding allusion to it in the weepings of the oak, aside); we fill in the blank in the obvious way (that she died) because it would be absurd to think that Yizchak buried her alive.

The point is that even though the text does not say that Yishmael was crying, this does not mean necessarily that he wasn't. It is a fair assumption that a boy who was dying in the desert heat would have been crying, and indeed, this follows the Radak who states, “ki gam hu nasah et kolo u'vacha.” He also lifted up his voice and cried." The Radak's comment confirms the fact that a textual oddity exists here, one that needs his clarification. We could also use as proof that Yishmael was crying the fact that God responded-- to his cry.

At least two questions still remain:

1) Why does the Torah decide to report Hagar's crying? Just as it is safe to assume that a dehydrating child would have been crying, isn't it also safe to assume that a mother who is watching her son's death would be crying? Since so, why does the Torah report it explicitly?

2) Why indeed does God answer specifically Yishmael's cry?

The answer to question #2 we get from Rashi. Rashi, citing Bereshit Rabbah 53:17, says that we learn here that the prayers of those who are sick are better than the prayers of others on behalf of a sick person. This would explain why God is said to have answered his prayers and not hers-- he was the praying sick one. And her prayers became redundant after he was saved. Additionally, the same siman in Bereshit Rabbah talks of Yishmael's merit-- that God answered him because at that moment he was praying and that made him righteous. Even though in the future he would act badly according to the Midrashand even though in the past he did wrong by Yitzchak, according to the Torah, at that time he merited assistance because he was acting righteously. God answering his prayer serves a didactic purpose: we learn that we are judged for what we are doing at the moment and not on our history or future transgressions. Of course, given that he was also a son of Avraham, he deserved some assistance, says the Midrash, so family connections do matter.

We are left with the question of why does the text report that she is crying when this too would have been obvious. I believe the answer lies in considering the disparity in reporting Hagar and Yishmael's weeping not as an omission, but as an ingenious literary device employed by the author of the Torah for a particular affect.

By reporting the weeping of Hagar and not the weeping of Yishmael, it makes you hear her cries and not his. Because of the stylistic omission of his crying, you follow her story for just a little while longer, which means that the author wants to emphasize something about her plight during this scene. She has already removed herself a bowshot from where he is; she could do nothing for her son and in her despondency, she runs away. The Midrash (B.R. 53:13) notes that the phrase kimtachavei keshet is written in the plural and so R. Isaac reads her distance as two bowshots away. He further states that two bowshots equals 2000 cubits (approx. 3000 feet, over half a mile). From where she is, she can no longer hear the cries of her son.

The reason the text does not report his cry and therefore the reason that we do not hear his cry is because we are with her where she is. We see that she is crying to an enormous silence, made worse by the fact that she cannot even hear the one thing that may still be crying with her. To her, this silence would have signified the death of her son. Following her in the scene, and hearing her cries along with the obvious exclusion of his creates such a powerful realization in the mind of the reader of what that silence means that you cannot help but be exhausted by the space between verse 16 and 17. The caesura makes us re-enter the mind of Hagar in her fright. She is caught between not knowing whether her son is just too far for her to hear his cry or if he had indeed, just then, died. At that moment the reader is meant to be in this terror with Hagar hearing the silence and feeling the collapse of the universe. It is not just the hopeless loneliness of her situation, she also encounters the moment where she cannot discern between alive and dead. As she stumbles away from her son, a walk on which the reader accompanies her, she moves from incredible powerlessness, to extraordinary loneliness and ending in a pain made more massive by its ambiguousness.

How long elapsed between verses 16 and 17? How long did she hear the quiet before God indicates that he heard the cry of the boy and that he would live? This is something we don't know and perhaps would have a better sense of if the text were still understood as an oral text. Perhaps a day went by. Perhaps the teller of this story was supposed to wait a full minute and be with Hagar in the silence for an extended period of time. It is something that I am not sure the answer to, but think the question still furthers the point that the absence of mention of his cry means to underscore her dramatic despair.

The verse following her cry reports that God will remove her from the black hole that she faces and that her son will live. It is perhaps the oldest but still most significant religious message, that even in the moments when it seems our sorrow is permanent, we shouldn’t give up. It suggests also that even if God does not seem to be giving us relief directly, God could be dealing with the causes of our despair, as is the case here. By not reporting Yishmael’s cry, the Torah creates the conditions for our identification with Hagar and, if we read it correctly, opens us up to receive this theological comfort. It is not only the words of this story that must be read, but, as in life, one must also consider the silences.

[1] This was brought to my attention by Joel Silberstein through his close reading of Genesis 21.

Shabbat B'Yachad-- Shabbat Together Friday night dinner

2007-02-12T10:36:00.000-05:00

This week is the third Shabbas of the month. So, as usual, we will be davenning (praying) together at 6:30pm Friday night and then eating together in the Ballroom after services. It is a pleasant non-stressful way to begin Shabbas and a nice way to meet and help build the community in Bay Ridge.

We ask that everyone please bring a dairy dish to share with others.

In order not to have everyone bring the same thing, like too much Chumus, we ask that you follow this chart:

If your last name begins with an:

A-F please bring an appetizer
G-M please bring a main dish
N-S please bring a dessert
T-Z please bring a salad

Behold the tortoise who makes progress only when he sticks his neck out!
Hope to see you then!

Over/Under for Kabbalat Shabbat Feb. 9th, 2007

2007-02-09T16:01:00.000-05:00

Last week, Feb. 2, 2007 the over/under number was 9, and the over hit.

Why the experts picked 9: It's a little cold today. By the time of services, the air should dip down to around 27 degrees. And on the other hand, a bar-mitzvah is coming up and perhaps he will show up like he did last week with his lovely grandparents in tow. The number may be a little low given that last week the over hit despite the rain, but we'll see.

On the halacha of counting people: In general, one is not supposed to count people. If you must, you do so indirectly. This reminds you that the people are not there for your purpose-- usually when you are counting something, you do so because you want to use it, or claim ownership of it. In the case of counting for a minyan, the idea is that we are all there for the purpose of serving God. Therefore, we do not count directly. Some employ the method of "not"-- i.e. "not one, not two, not three." I assume this reminds people that those that they are counting are more than numbers. Others employ the method of using Psalm 28:9, which has ten words. If you can recite the whole pasuk assigning each person a different word, then you know you have a minyan-- hoshia et amecha uvarech et nachaltecha urayem v'na'asem ad haolam. There is definitely a machloket, a disagreement, about the permissibility of counting people for good purposes. Rashi thinks its best to refrain from doing so, while Abravanel believes it is acceptible. In general we try and refrain from doing so to remind ourselves it's the people that count and not the numbers.

Where We're From

2007-02-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

This is a photograph of the grandfather Eliezer Bloshteyn, one of the members at the Bay Ridge Jewish Center. His name is Ze’ev Shleyfer. He was called Wolfe in Yiddish, and Vladimir in Russian. He was born around the year 1870 in the shtetl Ovruch, which is in the center of the Ukraine, close to the shtetl where Rabbi Nachman was born. In 1941, their family had left Odessa and moved to Tashkent where he died. In Odessa, he was a shoemaker and a serious man. In the community, he was considered to be a very dignified person. Eliezer and his family lived on the third floor of the building and his grandparents lived in the basement. His grandparents' apartment was always clean and light. Inside of their apartment there was a big storage cabinet with Kosher plates and forks. They always ate kosher food.

He was religious, but in private, as you were forced to be in the Soviet Union at the time. In 1937, Stalin had taken a lot of people and put them in jail, not because they were Jewish, but because they believed in God. So few people prayed in the synagogues out of fear and eventually they were closed. The Jewish newspapers and other institutions were closed down as well. So, Ze’ev would put his siddur on the window ledge, put on his tefillin and davin facing the light. Eliezer remembers him putting his talis on his shoulders and making Eliezer say prayers. He remembers distinctly the words “Modeh Ani Lifanecha.” (“I acknowledge that you are before me.”)

Eliezer loved sleeping at his grandfathers house, in part because he liked that his grandfather would let him get up early and go and play with his friends. His mother would say, “No Zorik, don’t go outside” and she would make him wash and do the things he needed to do in the morning—practice the piano, eat breakfast, study. But at his grandfathers house, he could indulge his childhood wishes and go out to play at 630 in the morning. It was summer time and he didn’t have to school.

Ze’ev died in Uzbekistan near Tashkent in Karasu, which is a village in the Yangul region. He was approximately 71 years old. They had moved from Odessa, all together. Sadly, Eliezer’s grandmother, Shifra Shleyfer, had died of cancer in 1936. There were five of them: Eliezer, his parents, his sister and his grandfather. In Nov. 1941, when his grandfather died, he was 9 years old and Eliezer remembers a little about his grandfather and a little from those days. They all lived in one medium sized room and he was able to sleep on a bed, but his blanket was a tablecloth. At that time, Eliezer was sick and he contracted arthritis (but you wouldn’t know it given how strong his handshake is.)

He remembers watching the ceiling where there was a drip from the rain. In their family tradition, the children would not go to the cemetery if their parents were still alive, and he remembers vividly seeing his parents leave the room where they all lived to go and bury Ze’ev.

Tashkent, where they moved after Odessa, was known as a breadbasket and so many people came from all over the Soviet Union to live there. But that was not the case, especially with the 10,000 or more refugees who flooded the area. There was not enough food for everyone. It is likely that his grandfather died of mal-nutritition, of hunger. The main source of their food at that time came from food stamps (katigke) that they got for bread. Each person could get 200 grams of bread a day, which is hardly enough.

The other source of food came from a field across from the apartment. There was a big water channel, the Arik, the depth of which was 5 and a half feet and 7 feet wide. He and his sister, Amelia (Malka in Yiddish) who was ten years older than he, would cross the channel to a big field on the other side. There they would collect scallions and they would eat them on the thin bread that their food stamps bought them (laypushka). It was like round Matza, only thicker. And they would cut it into five pieces, for their breakfast, lunch and dinner. This was their meals all day for a long time.

When they left Odessa, they were a happy family. Before the war there were 600,000 people in Odessa. Half of them were Jewish: Lawyers, doctors, shoemakers,etc. but a refugee problem was created, when an influx of people came from Moldova fleeing the war. Life became hard in the city.

Before Oct. 16, 1941, people who wanted to leave Odessa, would have to get a permit—a propisk and for that you would have to pay lots of money. Eliezer’s family left because the Germans and the Romaninans were coming. They knew that they were coming because Eliezer’s father had read Mein Kampf and listed to the radio. According to Eliezer, there were some Jewish people who wanted to invite the German and Romanian troops. But his father knew that if they stayed in Odessa, they would be killed. He knew about fascism and racism.

When they wanted to leave Odessa from Mariupul, they couldn’t get a permit. But their neighbors, who lived on the second floor, were their friends and their son had a high rank in the navy of the Soviet Union. He was the head of the Navy in the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II. His name was Leibl Granovsky. He supported his parents and he sent from Moscow permission for his parents and his sister to leave. They, in turn, added the names of all of Eliezer’s family in the same permit. Because of this, they were able to board the ship, the Georgia, and leave from Mariupul and go to Tashkent.

Eliezer’s grandfather kept Tsarist coins and saved them, thinking that maybe they would be used again. It seems that he did not have so much faith in the Communist Revolution. He also kept an album with pictures. Eliezer used to like look at them and he remembers his grandfather standing over him and watching him to see what he would do. The picture above is his passport picture.

Pictures of Judaism from our students' eyes

2007-01-31T16:49:00.000-05:00

The older class (ages 9-12) just finished an photography project. The project was divided into two parts. First, they took color photos of different scenes from their religious life, any object of their choice. Then, they picked one of these color photos and took eleven more photos with a black and white camera of just this one object. The goal was to view these religious objects through different angles, to take them out of their normal context in a way. Is a menorah just a menorah when its candles are lit? Do we recognize it as a menorah even if it is hidden within a tree? These and other kinds of questions provided the jump-off point for a really incredible range of pictures by the students.

Take a look at some of their photos below!

On the CJLS tshuvot about Gays and Lesbians

2007-01-23T14:09:00.000-05:00

As many of you know, the organization responsible for advising rabbis on Halacha and for issuing "official positions" of the Conservative movement passed a number of tshuvot dealing with Gay and Lesbian issues. There were three, all told that passed-- two by a majority of the committee. The first was authored by Rabbi Joel Roth which re-affirmed the committees position on excluding Gay and Lesbian rabbis from leadership positions and forbidding all homosexual activity.

The second paper that was passed was by Rabbis Dorff, Nevins and Reisner which called for the sanctioning of Homosexual relationships as long as the person identified as a Homosexual unable to change (which, citing vast pyschological research, they believe is the case with the majority of gay men and lesbians). They did not sanction all activities within gay relationships, upholding the biblical prohibitions and read by the Ramban (see the tshuvah for specifics).

Because the Dorff/Nevins/Reisner tshuvah is the more controversial of the two, I decided that we should start with it. In our discussion, we considered different models of halachic decision making. Then we looked at the concept of Kavod Habriyot (human dignity) and looked at the distinction made between laws that are D'rabbanan (from the rabbis) and D'oraita (from the Torah) from Rabbi Roth's book *The Halachic Process: A Systemic Analysis*. Then, we went through the distinction between the Rambam and the Ramban's reading of "drawing near"-- from Lo tikravu ligalot ervah Lev. 18:6. Also how that verse is understood in the Gemara.

Our time ran out before we began to consider whether laws that were d'rabbanan could be overturned and how exactly that is done. We plan to pick up our discussion with: B. The Realm of Humiliation which can be found on p. 10 of their tshuvah. Please stay posted for the date of the next discussion.

The Tshuvah can be found here:
http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Dorff_Nevins_Reisner_Final.pdf

These discussions are for members only, but if anyone has any questions about these tshuvot, of course, please feel free to contact us at BRJC11209@aol.com and we would be happy to assist you in whatever way we can.

Jan 19th Pot luck -- Shabbat B'Yachad (Shabbat Together)

2007-01-17T22:33:00.000-05:00

So, if you don't know already-- every third shabbat at the BRJC we have a pot luck/family shabbat. That's this Friday night.

It's nice. Nothing to formal or fancy, just the community eating together. Davenning starts at 6:30pm and dinner usually around 7:30. I try and tell a shabbat story. Eventually, we would like to get more people participating in the service. So if you would like to; as a family, just let me know and I can find you a part.

The way that the pot luck part works is that everyone brings a dairy dish to share. If you happen to see this go by this chart:

If your last name starts with the letters:

A-D please bring a main dish
E-K a salad/appetizer
L-S a dessert
T-Z a beverage.

That way everyone won't be bringing egg salad (nothing against egg salad, just if we have too much it won't be such a great dinner.)

Shabbat Shalom. See you soon.

The B. Rabbit Gambit

2007-01-10T12:42:00.000-05:00

The method of preempting surprise by confessing it yourself could be called the B. Rabbit Gambit. In 2002, Eminem starred in 8 mile, a film in which he played a hard case rapper named Jimmy 'B. Rabbit' Smith, Jr. B. Rabbit was trying to escape poverty and the hardships of his grim Detroit life by becoming a star rapper, which in the movie, was achieved by competing in free-style rap battles with the neighborhood thug-artists. The preferred method of takedown was to insult the other’s mother, girlfriend, clothes, race, lyrics, breath, etc. etc. This would elicit the sought after debilitating oohs and ahs from the crowd and would eventually make the best insulter the winner.

(Incidentally, when I told this story in shul and asked, “How many of you have heard of Eminem? A significant number of hands went up. But when I added, “not the candy” most of them slowly lowered.)

So when B. Rabbit reaches the finals, he realizes that if he insults himself, if he comes clean on everything, tells the harsh truth about his mother, his girlfriend, his grade-point, his association with gangsters, etc. etc. then there would be nothing left for his opponents to use to embarrass him. Indeed, at the end of the finals his rival is left holding the microphone unable to say anything

Perhaps that is what occurred last week with Mayor Giuliani, although in a less honest way. We saw it more honestly done in Obama’s book about his experimentation with drugs when he was younger:

Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though—--Micky, my potential initiator, had been just a little too eager for me to go through with that. Said he could do it blindfolded, but he was shaking like a faulty engine when he said it…. Junkie Pothead. That’s where I’d been headed: The final, fatal role of the young would-be black man. Except the high hadn’t been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was. Not by then, anyway. I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.....-Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama, p. 93

According to the Giuliani camp, he lost a dossier that contained his political strategy and in it were all of the difficult things that he would have to contend with. America rushed to peek into his closet to see Amadou Diallo, Donna Hanover and Bernard Kerik all having tea with their backs to Ground Zero. Giuliani claims that it falling into the wrong hands was a result of foul play, but perhaps his leaving it in the hotel, or depositing it somewhere it could be captured, was just a way to see if these indeed were “insurmountable political difficulties.” Perhaps intentionally ('tis politics, after all) or through his subconscious, it came to light that the best way to see if America would elect the real Giuliani was if they knew everything about him, all of his liabilities. Moreover, if the American public knew everything now, even before he entered the race, perhaps they would do all the recovery work in advance of him needing to do it.

There is something nice about hearing all of the "dirt" on candidates before you have to make an evaluation of them as the campaign goes on. It enables us not to have to worry about revelations during the campaign, distractions from the substance of the issues at hand. With everything out in the open we could expect a positive campaign, one that allows us to focus on the real substance of a person. Hopefully hear most about how the candidate wants to make the country better in the next four years.

Perhaps what is going on in Vayehi at the end of Yaakov’s life is that he, too, is employing the B. Rabbit strategy. He has just asked Yosef to bury him in the cave of Machpelah along with Avraham, Sarah, Yitzchak, Rifka and Leah. But he knows that Yosef might think that this request is audacious because he did not bury Rachel (Yosef’s mother) there. Now he expects Yosef to do for him what he did not do for Rachel. So instead of waiting for Yosef to be reminded of this and instead of allowing Yosef think that Yaakov was trying to hide this fact, slip it by him, he confesses it to him as he is blessing Menasseh and Ephraim.

Bereshit 48:7: “As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died to me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still a stretch of land to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem."

The Rashi makes it very clear that Yaakov is aware of the hypocracy that he could be charged with:

Although I trouble you to take me to be buried in the land of Canaan, and I did not do so to your mother, for she died close to Bethlehem.

In fact, she was only two thousand cubits from Beit Lechem, and Yaakov did not even carry her there, inside the inhabitable holy land. Furthermore, he wants to make sure that you know that he did it even though it was not raining (for you could have thought that was the reason he hurriedly buried her)—another drash on kivrat eretz.

The reason, according to Rashi, was that Yaakov knew that a thousand years later Nebuchadnezzar, would exile them and they would pass by her grave and she would come out and pray for mercy for them.

It makes sense that the tradition would want to justify his behavior by suggesting that he did this only because the Kadosh Baruch Hu told him of the special role that Rachel was to play by comforting those who were expelled; that her tears in particular were effective.

Yet, to have to reach into the future a thousand years for a reason makes me wonder about this explanation. It shows how much the tradition has a problem with what he did and it is a testament to the traditional understanding that it does not take her burying her on the side of the road lightly. But by insisting that the KBH had him do it, that it was not a manifestation of his problematic conduct towards Rachel (in addition to burying her on the side of the road, he also undoes her dying wish to name Benyamin, Ben-Oni), Rashi undoes the amazing-ness of his confession and the brilliance of his understanding that it is better to speak of that which you did wrong than to have it discovered. Yaakov understands that the process of discovery elevates the import of that which is discovered. Confession allows for it to be situated, dealt with honestly and ultimately helps to elevate him.

The text itself does not hint at anything of a nevua (a prophecy) here, it only mentions his regret. The way his thoughts of her interrupt his blessing of Mennaseh and Ephraim signifies anxiety and perhaps a reminder of his love for her. (The Rashi, incidentally, would agree with his feeling anxiety, but not over whether he did this wrong or not, but over how it would be perceived by his son.) Yaakov was confessing all this so that he would be thought of as who he was. He was showing that he had lived a reflective life, even reflecting on those things that were painful.

Perhaps by doing this, he ends up leaving those who might criticize him less effective, because he pre-empts their criticism. He knows that Yosef would remember Yaakov’s burying his mother on the road when he got there. But this way, he would have time to talk to his father about it and decide whether he could live with doing the right thing by his father, given his faults. Yaakov also makes the reader of the Torah’s criticism of him less effective by showing us that he is aware of his faults. It is easier to vote for him because we know he understands the difference between right and wrong. And hopefully by confessing all this, he situates it in a way that he is at least trying to be different than it.

It allows us to move beyond the criticism of him as a person and focus on the lessons of the Torah that he teaches through his life.

Who would have thought that B. Rabbit could trace his behavioral lineage back to Yaakov Avinu?

Learning opportunities at the BRJC

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Basic Judaism course given by Rabbi Micah Kelber. Thursdays 7pm-8pm. Starting Thursday January 4th, 2007 for 10 weeks. This class is designed for people who want a basic introduction to Judaism, its theology and its rituals. It is for people who are looking to discover or rediscover the beauty and wisdom of Judaism. $200 non-members, $50 for members of the BRJC.

Conversational Hebrew course given by Veronique Semah. Wednesdays 730pm-830pm. Starting Wednesday January 3rd for 10 weeks. This class is for people who have a basic reading level of Hebrew and who are familiar with some basic words. Taught by a native Israeli, students will be able to improve their Hebrew language skills and practice them in a friendly setting. $250 for non-members, $175 for members of the BRJC.

On going:

Rabbi's Torah Study Class: "We'll read the Torah in English, often referencing the Hebrew, word by word, patiently trying to discover the beauty in its composition, its theological underpinnings and most of all the value in coming together and studying it." Excellent beginner or refresher course.

There is no charge for this class, but donations make these classes possible.

Intermediate Hebrew Reading, taught by Ruth Masyr. Thursdays 6:30-7:30 A wonderful intimate setting to help you maintain your Hebrew Reading Skills taught by a passionate and well experienced teacher.

There is no charge for this class, but donations make these classes possible.

Chanukah Party Photos!

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Chanukah Party

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Chanukah Party this Wednesday at 5:30 PM!

Members Free.
Non-Members $5.

Come spin the dreidl and join in fun holiday games!

"If So, Why Do I Exist?"

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One of the most profound sections of the Torah occurs when Rifke (Rebecca) is experiencing pain before she gives birth to Yaakov and Esav. She does not know that she has twins, and she had heard that pregnancy would not be as difficult as it was for her. So she goes off to inquire from God a relatively cryptic question, "im ken lamah zeh anochi?" -- "If so, why do I exist?" It is a question that can be understood in a number of different ways, one of which is "If I am experiencing so much pain, why should I keep on living? What good is my existence?"

It is a central question for many people, especially those who may have felt like their bodies have caused them a lot of pain-- from physical ailments, psychological ailments, even pain caused from being born into bodies that have attached to them a notion of "difference", which as Jews many of us have experienced or will experience. In addition to tending to the pain that our corporeal selves force on us, we like Rifke have to continue to affirm that we were born into our bodies for a reason, despite that pain. Like her, Jews (and all people, for that matter) are challenged with the question, "What special gifts do I possess that would allow me to make the world a better place?"

This week, one of the loveliest stories in the news helped us see the benefits of continuing to ask this question. In case you didn't see it (or if you were not at the Pot Luck on Shabbas, when we discussed it--) Two dolphins in an aquarium in Bejing had become sick because of eating plastic and medical procedures failed to extract the plastic because of the contraction of the dolphins' stomachs. In a move that you would think that only a child would be able to conjure, the aquarium decided to call-- no joke-- the tallest man in the world-- Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia with 41.7-inch arms. He then reached into the dolphins stomachs and saved their lives.

All his life, he must have been thinking that he was created as he was so that he could reach very high things or keep track of sheep that wandered a little to far over the next hill. He may have felt ostracized for being so tall, made to feel different because of his height. And this could have tormented him, the pain of being different causing him to ask, "If so, why do I exist?" At least the other day it turned out, that it was his arms rather than his height that provided an answer to this question.

Testing 1 2 3

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