Starting Over At New Year's

Turning Jan. 1 into a Jewish-themed celebration

By Rabbi Brad Hirschfield for MyJewishLearning
For some Jews, the idea of celebrating New Year's on December 31 makes them feel uncomfortable.

They see the holiday as part of secular tradition and therefore not "Jewish." Some choose not to participate because they see it as a betrayal of Jewish tradition.
Why is commemorating an American custom viewed so suspiciously? Are we afraid that it will somehow make Jewish traditions seem less compelling, or are we so obsessed with our own uniqueness that we fail to see our connection to the wider world?

If our purpose is just to be different, then it's not worth it.

How to Celebrate

The question is not whether we should or shouldn't celebrate. But how should we do it? Is there a way to mark the holiday Jewishly? There are Jewish insights that we can bring to the occasion that would make it more meaningful.

New Year's marks a time when people everywhere celebrate the possibility of building a better tomorrow. It symbolizes the human desire to demarcate the past from the future, the old from the new. But what if we really understood that our words-our resolutions and commitments-could create a new beginning? What if we really believed that our vows had the power to help us get past the past?

There is a deep human desire to be able to start again, not to be imprisoned by the past. We need to feel hope for new possibilities and see that our future is not governed entirely by our history. It's no surprise that the images of the Grim Reaper and Father Time look alike and that the symbol for the New Year is a baby. We cut down some of the old and make space for something new.

Jewish Ideals

These are very much "Jewish" ideas as well. Jewish tradition celebrates the ability to start over throughout the year. In Jewish life every day, every week, and at many other times, we are given the chance to begin again. To integrate another celebration is very much in keeping with our tradition.

In daily morning prayers, Jews thank God for renewing the world. Every Shabbat we recall the first moment of creation, and by doing so, give ourselves the chance to start over. At Rosh Hashanah, Jews everywhere celebrate the birthday of the world, and even in the Mishna, the code of law, we recognize multiple Rosh Hashanahs (New Year's), so to commemorate an additional one is not foreign to Jewish practice.

Tips

Here are some suggestions for making New Year's more Jewish:

 Continue reading.

Santa Comes To Jaffa

Steve Lipman for The Jewish Week

Yes, those are children dressed as Santa Claus—Israeli Arab children.

In Jaffa, a mixed Jewish-Arab part of the Greater Tel Aviv municipality, which plays a prominent role in the New Testament and is home of the famed St. Peter’s Church and to some 6,500 Christian residents, Christmas becomes visible each year – unlike in most of Israel, where it is barely noticed.

This week a 45-foot-high Christmas tree went up in Jaffa’s Andromeda area. The kids were part of the holiday celebration, which annually joins Christmas festivities in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter, Bethlehem’s Manger Square and Nazareth’s Christmas Market.

Jaffa’s Christian population includes Catholics, Protestants, Copts, Maronites and Greek Orthodox. For them, and for other Christians in the Holy Land, Christmas — in the land where Jesus walked — is usually less commercialized than in most Western countries. Christmas celebrations in Israel feature liturgical concerts and holiday parades and Midnight Mass; don’t bother looking for Christmas sales at department stores.

Every year the Jewish National Fund raises some Arizona cypress trees for use as Christmas trees, and some grocery stores have started to stock Christmas candy — marshmallows in the shape of snowmen and Christmas trees, and foil-wrapped Santa chocolates.

For Christian pilgrims, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism recently launched a “Gospel Trail,” a 39-mile track of New Testament sites in the Galilee.

Be Proud of Your Jewish Identity (Even in a Christmas Pageant)

We need to stay true to and proud of our Jewish identity, even while negotiating a multitude of roles.

by Judy Bolton-Fasman for 614HBIeZine
This is not a story about God’s fifth commandment to honor one’s parents, although there is a lesson to be learned from that here. This is a story about forging a 614th commandment – Be Proud of Your Jewish Identity – and it goes back to the time I graduated ninth grade at the Hebrew Academy of Greater Hartford. I was a three-times-a-day praying, kosher-eating, Shabbat-observant, modestly clothed young woman who aimed to fulfill all of God’s 613 commandments. I wanted nothing more than to go to Bais Yaakov High School in Borough Park. This time, my father put his foot down. Under no circumstances would his daughter be associated with Hasidim.

But I was desperate. I wanted to be the best Jew in the world. That meant I would not go to school with boys. This was 1975, and I wrote to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for advice. To my great surprise, he answered me through his emissary Rabbi X. The Rebbe told me that, above all else, I must honor my mother and my father. He also sent along a dollar bill, which I saved for years because it had touched the Rebbe’s hands.

Despite the Rebbe’s sage recommendation and his tacit blessing, my choices remained limited for single-sex education if I were to stay home with my parents. My father had pushed for Miss Porter’s School. He pointed out that Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a graduate. Miss Porter’s would turn me into a refined young woman – the kind of Episcopal-Jew that Dad dreamed I would become. But I could not imagine showing up at such a bastion of preppiness with sleeves below my elbow, skirts below my knee, and collars up to my neck. Miss Porter’s was about sleeveless Lily Pulitzer dresses and immodest field hockey skirts.

 Continue reading.

The Jewish Mother’s Guide to Surviving Santa

By Alina Adams for Kveller

As someone who learned English from watching TV, wrote a Master’s Thesis about TV, then worked in TV, I feel I can say with certainty that Christmas specials, be they rip-offs (sorry, homages) of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “A Christmas Carol,” or “Miracle on 34th Street,” all share a common message: Nonbelievers Snooze, Nonbelievers Lose.

Now, would that be non-believers in Christ? Nah. What does he have to do with anything? TV is talking about non-believers in Santa (or his designated representative, The Christmas Spirit). TV kids (and adults) who believe in Santa get all their wishes answered. Like that episode of “Silver Spoons” where Ricky Shroder’s friend was homeless and living in a cave with his family and then woke up Christmas morning to find a bright, shining tree all decked out with presents. (Finding a place to plug a string of lights inside a cave seems like the true Christmas miracle to me, but what do I know?) Or, for the youngsters among you, remember that episode of “Glee” where Brittany believed in Santa Claus and wished for Artie to walk again and Christmas morning brought him robotic legs (which, fun fact, are made in Israel)?

And those who don’t believe, well, you deserve whatever you’ve got coming. (Or not coming, as the case may be.) It’s got to be true. I saw it on TV.

Do the nice people who make television, and its near-mandatory Christmas episodes, realize that’s the message they’re sending? Are they doing it deliberately?

I don’t think so, and no, they aren’t.

I sincerely think the show’s creators are under the impression that they’re presenting a universal message about the value of faith, hope, and believing in miracles (hey, that last one is almost Hanukkah-ish, isn’t it? If you squint a little?).

Some of the best stuff on TV might very well be an ecumenical Christmas show. But, as the saying goes: Would you want your kid to watch one?

Continue reading.

Hanukkah’s Over, Now What?

A message to carry you through the dark days of winter

If you cannot view this video, try here.

Celebrate Holidays’ Uniqueness

Dasee Berkowitz in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix


Some folks are taking the rare confluence this year of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah to heart, renaming it Thanksgivukkah, redesigning menus and refashioning ritual objects for the occasion.

Others are taking it one step deeper, celebrating how the combined holidays enable us to fully appreciate being both Jewish and American. It’s a perfect symbiosis: As we freely celebrate Hanukkah this year, we recognize that we directly benefit from the freedoms that were at the core of what brought the Puritans and Pilgrims to settle a new land.

But Jewish tradition doesn’t love conflating holidays. In fact, there’s a concept – “ein mearvin simcha b’simcha” – that we shouldn’t mix one happy occasion with another. No weddings during Sukkot or Passover – or any Jewish holiday, for that matter. At first glance it seems like a downer. Shouldn’t doubling up on our celebration just enhance our enjoyment?

For those of us with birthdays on Rosh Hashanah or New Year’s Day, we know that conflating celebrations doesn’t really work – one celebration usually gets lost into the other. Keeping celebrations separate enables us to be fully present for each.

So instead of conflating Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, let’s look at it another way: How can the unique aspects of each holiday help us more fully celebrate the other?

Thanksgiving teaches us to give thanks for the harvest and for all we have without the need to acquire more. How can that concept inform our celebration of Hanukkah, a holiday that has become overrun with gift giving that verges on the excessive?

Instead of being thankful for the plenty that so many of us experience – we mostly take the most basic things for granted, like waking up in a dry, warm bed each morning – we want more, and on Hanukkah we watch children tear through gifts wondering what else awaits them each night of the Festival of Lights.
Parents can help children appreciate that mom and dad’s presence in their lives can be present enough by giving the gift of time to their kids at Hanukkah.
Pick a night of Hanukkah and give your child a period of your undivided attention. Friends and significant others can also give each other the gift of an evening unplugged.

Continue reading.

Jewish Boston Celebrates Thanksgivukkah

On Thursday, Nov. 28, 2013, at the same time that Americans gorge themselves on turkey and weirdly textured cranberry desserts, American Jews will have another holiday to tend to also.

JewishBoston.com took its video camera to the streets to find out what the people of Boston think about Thanksgivukkah. They even went to Boston City Hall for a special interview with Mayor Menino!

If you cannot see the video here, click on this link.

Eight Giving Rituals for Your Family: Making the Most of Thanksgivukkah

by Stefanie Zelkind for eJewishPhilanthropy

From menurkeys to sweet potato latke recipes, there are many creative ways to celebrate this year’s unique overlap of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving. In an effort to move beyond the kitsch, I would like to offer some additional ideas for blending the Hanukkah tradition of giving with the Thanksgiving ideal of gratitude. Here are eight suggestions (sorry, I couldn’t resist) of how to use Thanksgivukkah as a launch pad for learning, giving, and values-based family activities.

During Thanksgiving dinner, take a “gratitude break.” Ask everyone to take a moment to think about the best gift they have ever received (Was it a tangible gift? Was it an experience? What is a key lesson learned? Who gave it to you? What made it so special?) as well as the best gift they’ve ever given (To whom? Why did you give it?) Go around the table and share. You may just learn that your daughter’s favorite gift was that quiet morning you spent snuggling together on the couch, and not the iPod Touch you got her last Hanukkah.

Make the tzedakah box the centerpiece on the table, and invite guests to give – a quarter, a dollar, or more – to a collective tzedakah pool. Over dessert, ask each guest to suggest an organization or cause to support and give a 60-second pitch explaining why it’s important. Then, talk about the different issues raised, hold a straw vote, and come to a shared decision about which organization(s) you’ll support. Don’t focus on the amount of money (although you may be surprised at how generous people are); it’s about the discussion and the feeling of giving together as a family. Thanks to my own family for creating and modeling this Thanksgiving tradition.

Dedicate each night of Hanukkah to an organization that inspires you. After you light candles, share a bit about the organization’s work with your family. Visit the website together, read a brochure, describe an experience you had, then make a donation to support their efforts.

Continue reading.

The December Dilemma

Hanukkah's proximity to Christmas has greatly affected the way the holiday is viewed.

By Dr. Ron Wolfson for MyJewishLearning


Early childhood educators tell us that one of the most crucial stages in socialization occurs when a child is between 18 and 30 months old and attends another child's birthday party.

When the birthday cake is brought in, most of the little guests try to blow out the candles right along with the birthday child. As the child opens presents, little hands start to grab for the toys. Why do you think "party favors" were invented? To help children begin to distinguish between what's mine and what's his/hers. Toddlers must learn the difference between celebrating one's own birthday and celebrating someone else's.

Thus many Jewish educators will advise parents to give their children who want to celebrate Christmas a very important message: Christmas is someone else's party, not ours. Just as we can appreciate someone else's birthday celebration and be happy for them, we can wonder at how beautiful Christmas is, but it is not our party.

And then many parents make a perfectly understandable, but incomplete, leap. "Christmas is for Christians. They have Christmas. We are Jewish. We have Hanukkah." In an attempt to substitute something for Christmas, the parent offers Hanukkah. In fact, Hanukkah is even better than Christmas. "Christmas is only one day. Hanukkah is for eight!" So now, incredible as it seems, the parental anxiety leads to the teaching that our party lasts longer, offers more presents, and is just as beautiful.

Continue reading.

This article is reprinted with permission from Hanukkah: The Family Guide to Spiritual Celebration (Jewish Lights Publishing).

Quentin Tarantino shows love for Israeli film

During the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, or MarCheshvan, [Bitter Cheshvan] there are no Jewish holidays. Jvillage Network, therefore, will be printing articles relating to Jewish Arts.

 by Jana Banin, JTA

Director Quentin Tarantino has a new addition to his recently posted list of 2013′s top films, and this one’s an Israeli import.

After a recent screening of Aharon Keshales’ and Navot Papushado’s “Big Bad Wolves” at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, the man behind “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglourious Basterds” called it “not only the best film of Busan” but the “best film of the year,” The Jersusalem Post reports.

In the thriller, a series of child murders brings together three men: a victim’s father, a vigilante cop and the suspect, a religious studies teacher.

Check out the seriously dark, seriously engaging trailer here:

Three films with Israeli ties angling for Oscar

During the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, or MarCheshvan, [Bitter Cheshvan] there are no Jewish holidays. Jvillage Network, therefore, will be printing articles relating to Jewish Arts.

Submissions for nomination in the Best Foreign Language category include an Israeli film, a Palestinian film and a Filipino film about Israeli migrants

By Debra Kamin for The Times of Israel
Three of the films in the running for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film this year have ties to Israel. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced the full list of nations that had submitted a movie for consideration in the category. Seventy-six applicants, including 73 countries, plus Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Palestinian Territories, are angling for the honor. A shortlist of five official nominees will be announced in January.

Three of the films in the running for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film this year have ties to Israel.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday announced the full list of nations that had submitted a movie for consideration in the category. Seventy-six applicants, including 73 countries, plus Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Palestinian Territories, are angling for the honor. A shortlist of five official nominees will be announced in January.

Israel, which has secured 10 nominations for Best Foreign Language film in its history but has never had a win, is trying its luck again this year with Yuval Adler’s “Bethlehem,” which explores a difficult relationship between a Shin Bet agent and a Palestinian teenager. The gritty political drama has done well at film festivals around the world, and nabbed trophies for Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Director and Best Screenplay at Israel’s own version of the Oscars, the Ophir Awards.

Hany Abu-Assad, a Nazareth-born director who holds an Israeli passport but identifies himself as a Palestinian, has also earned honors for his sweeping love story “Omar,” which is competing as the Palestinian entry for nomination. The Palestinian Ministry of Culture has submitted films for consideration in the category under the Palestinian flag since 2003, with Abu-Assad’s first film, “Paradise Now,” making it onto the shortlist of official nominees in 2005. Like Israel, no film from “Palestine” has ever won the coveted gold statue.

Continue reading.

'Jewtopia' - shtick, stereotypes and all

The film rehashes familiar territory: Jews are loud, overbearing and uninhibited, and the goyim can’t get enough of it.

During the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, or MarCheshvan, [Bitter Cheshvan] there are no Jewish holidays. Jvillage Network, therefore, will be printing articles relating to Jewish Arts.

By Malina Saval for Haaretz

What do Chinese waitresses, vaginoplasty and hunting rifles have in common? They all figure into plot points in "Jewtopia," a romantic comedy in which a Jew helps his gentile friend pretend to be a member of the tribe so he can land the local rabbi's hot daughter.

The film is loosely based on writer-director-producer Bryan Fogel's hit off-Broadway play of the same name (both were cowritten by Sam Wolfson). The cinematic version draws on the play's general premise — Jewish guy who likes to chase Asian skirts pimps out gentile best friend on JDate — but with some twists. Here the gentile blue-collar laborer wants the sassy, confident Jewish girl while the neurotic nebbish with a toehold in the family embroidery business feels suffocated by his pushy Jewish fiancée, a top-rated gynecologist.

“In the movie, we realized the JDate thing is done, that dressing up as a Hasidic Jew and all this absurdist comedy that worked so well on the stage, as a movie would be a farce,” explains Fogel, who starred in the original stage version but preferred to stay behind the camera for the film. “About 20 percent of the play is the movie, and the rest was a reimagining of how to take that concept and the cultural aspect and turn it into something that would work for the big screen.”

Continue reading.

These Mean Streets Are In Beirut

During the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, or MarCheshvan, [Bitter Cheshvan] there are no Jewish holidays.  Jvillage Network, therefore, will be printing articles relating to Jewish Arts.

Eran Riklis’ ‘Zaytoun’ is an homage to Martin Scorsese.

by George Robinson, Special to the Jewish Week

It would not surprise me if the daily reviews for “Zaytoun,” Eran Riklis’ new film which opens on Sept. 20, chide the Israeli filmmaker for sentimentalizing the film’s central relationship. The movie traces the slowly growing friendship between Yoni (Stephen Dorff), a downed Israeli flyer, and his erstwhile captor Fahed (Abdallah El Akal), a 12-year-old Palestinian refugee who helps him escape captivity during the first Lebanon War. As the pair move from open enmity to tough love and eventually to mutual respect, it would be easy to overlook the intelligent emotional distance with which Riklis treats them, to mistake the film for an easy celebration of the Rodney King-can’t-we-all-get-along school of ineffectual good will.

In reality, Riklis treats the material with enough detachment and wry humor to keep it from becoming a runny treacle bun of a movie. He starts in the very first moment, a vertiginous and lengthy tracking shot that immediately establishes the universe in which Fahed lives: the shattered streets of Beirut, the kaleidoscope of street vendors, scruffy kids and men with guns that is his environment. Riklis keeps both the camera and his cast moving, never letting us settle into a single viewpoint for more than a few seconds.

“I wanted to do two things with that shot,” Riklis said in an interview last month. “I wanted to grab you and take you into this world. And I wanted to open with a big, energetic statement of style, to say, ‘Hey, you’re entering the cinema!’”

The result is a more expansive visual style than is seen in much of his other work; that shot is an homage, he says, to early Martin Scorsese films like “Mean Streets.”

The bravura entrance also reflects Riklis’ image of Beirut in the early ’80s.

“That kind of energy has a lot to do with Beirut in those days,” he said. “It’s also important that in the first 12 minutes of so of the film there would be all this activity, because after that the film is basically a two-man show.”

Or one-man-and-a-boy show.

 Continue reading.

Waiting for G-dot

During the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, or MarCheshvan, [Bitter Cheshvan] there are no Jewish holidays.  Jvillage Network, therefore, will be printing articles relating to Jewish Arts.

Posted by Kelsey Osgood for Mosaic

A few months ago, I had the opportunity to ask a nineteen-year-old Satmar girl, equally conversant in English and Yiddish, how she decides which language to use at any given moment.

“Yiddish just sounds better for some things,” she responded. “Like when you are yelling at your brothers to get out of bed, you could say ‘Get up!’ But in Yiddish, ‘Shtay-OOF!’ It just sounds more …”

She didn’t finish the sentence, but I knew precisely what she meant. Full of lamenting diphthongs and expressive opportunities to spit on the listener, Yiddish is to dissatisfaction what Italian is to romance. For many people, the word “Yiddish” immediately evokes comedic cliches: Woody Allen as the lone Hasid at a dinner table full of Wasps, or Henny Youngman begging someone to please take his wife. But the language also has strains of tragedy—it is, after all, the true language of goles, or exile. Whereas Hebrew has a home to return to, Yiddish—a stew of German phrases, Slavic vocabulary, and Biblical parallelisms—was born out of exile itself. Its very essence is wandering and alienation. In his entertaining linguistic history “Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods,” Michael Wex writes, “Rooted as it is in the long wait for a Messiah who’s in no hurry to get here, Yiddish sometimes approaches fulfillment but never quite achieves it; until the Messiah comes and the Temple is rebuilt, there isn’t much apart from pining and dissatisafaction.”

It’s fitting, then, that Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece of alienation, “Waiting for Godot,” will be performed for the first time in Yiddish in a production of zeal and intelligence by the New Yiddish Rep and staged at the Castillo Theatre on West Forty-second Street. It opens on Friday and runs through October 13th. Vladimir—the more alert of the two tramps—is played by Shane Baker, a tall vaudevillian who also wrote the translation. Baker is an oddity even in the oddball-ridden world of Yiddish theatre: a goy from the Midwest who was raised Episcopalian. As a child, he first heard Yiddish from Groucho Marx, and when he moved to New York he befriended the accomplished Yiddish theatre actors Mina Bern and Luba Kadison, with whom he spent most of his time, speaking exclusively Yiddish and absorbing the language and the culture. Now, he’s such a luminary in the world of Yiddish that he is the executive director of the Congress for Jewish Culture and reads yearly at the yahrzeit (death anniversary) of Sholem Aleichem. Onstage, he manages to be both burlesque and deadpan at once, the latter especially in comparison to his counterpart, David Mandelbaum, who plays Gogo.

Continue reading.

Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah 101

An overview of the traditions and customs of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah

The holiday of Sukkot is followed by an independent holiday called Shemini Atzeret. In Israel, this is a one-day holiday; in the Diaspora it is a two-day holiday, and the second day is known as Simchat Torah. This holiday is characterized by utterly unbridled joy, which surpasses even the joy of Sukkot. The joy reaches its climax on Simchat Torah, when we celebrate the conclusion—and restart—of the annual Torah-reading cycle.

These two days constitute a major holiday, when most forms of work are prohibited. On the preceding nights, women and girls light candles, reciting the appropriate blessings, and we enjoy nightly and daily festive meals, accompanied by kiddush. We don’t go to work, drive, write, or switch on or off electric devices. We are permitted to cook and to carry outdoors (unless it is also Shabbat).

The first day, Shemini Atzeret, features the prayer for rain, officially commemorating the start of the Mediterranean (i.e., Israeli) rainy season, and the Yizkor (prayer supplicating G‑d to remember the souls of the departed).

We no longer take the Four Kinds, and we no longer mention Sukkot in the day’s prayers; in the Diaspora, however, we do still eat in the sukkah (but without reciting the blessing on it).

The highlight of the second day, Simchat Torah (“The Joy of the Torah”), is the hakafot, held on both the eve and the morning of Simchat Torah, in which we march and dance with the Torah scrolls around the reading table in the synagogue. (In many synagogues, hakafot are conducted also on the eve of Shemini Atzeret.)

On this joyous day when we conclude the Torah, it is customary for every man to take part in the celebration by receiving an aliyah. The children, too, receive an aliyah!

After the final aliyah of the Torah, we immediately begin a new cycle from the beginning of Genesis (from a second Torah scroll); this is because as soon as we conclude studying the Torah, G‑d’s infinite wisdom, on one level, we immediately start again, this time to discover new and loftier interpretations.

(In the Land of Israel and Reform Judaism, the celebration and customs of these two days are compressed into one day.)

Sukkot What it's all about

The holiday of Sukkot is named after the booths or huts in which Jews are supposed to live during this week-long festival. The huts are supposed to remind us of the flimsy houses our ancestors lived in as they traveled through the desert heading towards Israel.

Eating and living in a temporary structure--called a sukkah--forces you to think about the important things in life, separating you from material possessions. But because Sukkot is also a harvest festival, it is considered an especially happy and festive time.

In ancient times, when the Temple in Jerusalem still stood, Sukkot was one of the three major pilgrimage festivals (along with Passover and Shavuot). Sukkot begins five days after Yom Kippur.

At Home
Now the fun part: building a sukkah! According to Jewish law a sukkah is a temporary structure with at least three sides and a roof made out of thatch or branches. The roof should provide some shade or protection from the sun, but still allow you to see the stars at night. You can build a sukkah out of wood, fabric, tarps, metal, or anything else you happen to have lying around the house. Traditionally the sukkah is decorated with everything from posters to gourds to paper chains. Meals are eaten in the sukkah (weather permitting) and many people choose to sleep there, too.

Continue reading.

Yom Kippur FAQs

What is Yom Kippur?
Yom Kippur is a Jewish fast day that is associated as the most solemn day of the year. According to tradition, God seals the Book of Life and Death for the upcoming year, so the day is devoted to repent over sins committed from the previous year.

How do we observe it?
Yom Kippur is a time to separate from human functionalities such as eating, drinking, showering, wearing leather shoes, and having sexual relations. There is also a tradition to dress in all white. The day is centered around going to synagogue, where longer services are said throughout the day, followed by the closing prayer of Neilah, where the liturgy imagines the heavenly gates closing at the end of the High Holidays.

What does it mean?
The overall theme of Yom Kippur revolves around repentenece, where the community asks to be forgiven of all previous sings and to be written in the Book of Life.

What is the history behind Yom Kippur?
Rituals for Yom Kippur go back to biblical times but during the period of the Second Temple, Yom Kippur was seen as an important day of mourning and repentance. It was an important day on the Jewish calendar during the Rabbinic time period and maintained an important status through modern time.

Read more.

Special Observances during the Aseret Yemei Teshuva

Special Observances during the Aseret Yemei Teshuva

The ten days from Rosh HaShanah to Yom Kippur are known as the Aseret Yemei Teshuva, the ten days of repentance. The Gemara, Rosh HaShanah 18a, states that the verse (Yeshayahu 55:6) that states to call out to G-d when he is close refers to the Aseret Yemei Teshuva. There are a number of practices that are observed during these days. In this issue, we will present a discussion about these practices and the common theme that is apparent in all of these practices.

The Recitation of HaMelech HaKadosh and HaMelech HaMishpat

The Gemara, Berachot 12b, notes that during the Aseret Yemei Teshuva, the beracha of "HaKel HaKadosh" should be changed to "HaMelech HaKadosh" and the beracha of "Melech Oheiv Tzedakah UMishpat" should be changed to "HaMelech HaMishpat." The Gemara has a further discussion regarding whether one must return to that beracha if he did not recite the special formulation.

Most Rishonim rule in accordance with the opinion that one must return to the beracha if it was not recited properly. R. Eliezer ben R. Yoel HaLevi, (Ra'aviah c. 1140-1220), Avi HaEzri no. 40, rules that one is not required to return to the beracha. R. Yosef Karo (1488-1575) Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 582:1, rules in accordance with the majority opinion. He adds that there is a difference between a mistake in HaMelech HaKadosh and a mistake in HaMelech HaMishpat. The beracha of HaMelech HaKadosh is part of the first three berachot which is considered a single unit. Therefore, if one did not recite HaMelech HaKadosh, he must return to the beginning of the Amidah. If one did not recite HaMelech HaMishpat, he returns to the beginning of that beracha.

Rabbeinu Yonah (d. 1263), in Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah, Berachot 7a, s.v. UMihu, notes another difference between the two berachot. He contends that the critical factor is mentioning G-d as King (melech). Therefore, one who recited "Melech Oheiv Tzedakah UMishpat" is not required to return to the beracha because his recitation of the word "melech" is sufficient. This is significant from a practical perspective since the ordinary recitation is "Melech Oheiv Tzedakah UMishpat," and it is unlikely that someone would omit the word "melech." As such, according to Rabbeinu Yonah, the discussion about returning to the beracha is only practically relevant to one who recited "HaKel HaKadosh" instead of "HaMelech HaKadosh." R. Karo, Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim no. 582, notes that most Rishonim do not present this distinction which indicates that they disagree with Rabbeinu Yonah. R. Karo himself in Shulchan Aruch, op. cit., does not present this distinction. Nevertheless, Rama, Orach Chaim 118:1, accepts Rabbeinu Yonah's distinction as a matter of Halacha.

Continue reading.

Rosh Hashanah FAQ

Everything you ever wanted to know about the holiday

By The Editors of Tablet Magazine

WHAT IS ROSH HASHANAH?

It’s the holiday that marks the Jewish new year. To celebrate, we eat apples and honey.

WHEN IS ROSH HASHANAH?

Rosh Hashanah 2014 begins at sundown Wednesday, September 6, ending at sundown on Friday, September 6.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

Since the holiday is commonly called the “Jewish New Year,” one would think Rosh Hashanah would mark the first day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar. It doesn’t: Tishrei, on the first day of which we celebrate this major holiday, is the calendar’s seventh month. Why, then, is it given the distinction of marking the new year?

This question is especially vexing considering that—like the old adage about two Jews and twice as many opinions—the Hebrew calendar marks several different occasions as New Year’s Day: For example, the first day of Nissan, the first month, is the yardstick according to which we measure the years of the reign of kings, while if we were concerned with the tithing of animals, the date to keep in mind would have been the first of Elul, the sixth month.

Seven, however, had always had special meaning in Judaism; although Rosh Hashanah itself isn’t mentioned by name in the Bible, God, speaking to Moses in Leviticus 23:24, imagines the holiday as a sort of Sabbath for the soul: “On the first day of the seventh month,” says the Almighty, “you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.”

Continue reading. 
 

Elul - Why Blow the Shofar Every Day?

By Ehud Ben Ami for jewishmag.com

We are all basically familiar with the custom that starting on the first of Elul, the shofar is blown in all the synagogues after the morning service. We know that our customs have been around for many years and have deep reasons, but this one custom is perhaps more interesting than most.

Most people if asked, will tell you that the custom of blowing the shofar during the month of Elul is to awaken that spark inside our hearts to remind us to return once again to G-d, since Rosh Hashanah, the day of judgement, is coming up.

This is true, of course, but why should a shofar be blown? Could not something else be used, maybe banging on a pot or someone announcing in the synagogue that Rosh Hashanah is coming?. True, we blow a shofar on Rosh Hashanah, and so the shofar blowing in Elul does remind us of the shofar that is blown on Rosh Hashanah, but still, what is the reason that a shofar is blown? Why not blow also, or in its place, a trumpet or saxophone?

Actually, I was surprised to find that the origin of this custom dates back to over two thousand years ago. It is brought down in a book call the "Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer". This book is a collection of teachings that were compiled by none other than Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol, the teacher of Rabbi Akiva! Now that's pretty heavy!

In this book, Rabbi Eliezer quotes Rabbi Yehosua ben Korcha who explains that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (the first time) with the first tablets of the laws (the Ten Commandments) and he saw the Jews dancing around an idol, he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them. This was on the seventeenth of Tamuz.

During the next forty-day period he was occupied with executing all of those who engaged in idolatry and grinding the golden calf (which was the idol) into dust.

At the end of this forty-day period, which begins on the eighteenth of Tamuz and finishes on the last day of Av, the next day is the first of Elul. On this day, G-d said to Moses, ascend to the top of the mountain and blow a shofar throughout the camp. This was so that when Moses would ascend the mountain, the Jews would not make the horrible mistake and involve themselves in idolatry.

The teaching continues, that as the shofar was blown, G-d himself ascended to the mountain as it is written in Psalms (47:6) "G-d ascends with the shofar sound, the L-rd is with the shofar."

Therefore, concludes, the teaching of Rabbi Yehosua ben Korcha, each year on the first day of Elul we blow the shofar. We however, seeing a good thing, have extended it for the entire month, with the exclusion of the last day.

Now that we have gotten to the truth of the matter it certainly is nice and comfy to know that our customs and traditions have a few (?) good centuries of practice behind them. What we should know is that there is more than a deep intellectual concept behind this, but really an action, that brings us benefits, both in the physical world and in the spiritual world.

The teaching shows us how the shofar reminded the Jews that although Moses had ascended onto the mountain, that he would re-appear bringing us an ability to achieve even greater spiritual heights than we had reached before. It also warned us, that we would pay for our mis-deeds.

The shofar at that time in history was the chief instrument for alarming a population that a danger is impending. Like a siren today that is sounded to warn people to seek shelter or prepare for battle with the enemy, the shofar was used to awaken the population to an impending danger, such as an attack.

Prior to this time period, the shofar was used only to assemble the people for extremely important matters. All who would hear the shofar would immediately drop all of their mundane affairs and run to the center of the camp to see what was so important that the shofar was sounded.

When Moses ascended Mount Sinai, the shofar was sounded, this time instead of as a calling to assemble, to remind the people of the impending danger of inappropriate behavior. It worked, and Moses descended from Mount Sinai forty days later, which was the tenth of Tishre, the day that has become famous for forgiveness, Yom Kippur. In his hands he had the second tablets (of the Ten Commandments). The Jews, of course, rejoiced at seeing Moses this time.

We also today sound that very shofar, for time exists for us today, as it did then in history. On each day, the light of history shines into our lives. We are able to utilize the historic occasions to raise our level of service to G-d to a loftier level, and in doing so, we are elevating ourselves.

Elul is now the period of introspection. Examining ourselves for spots of idolatry. It is where we can begin again to serve G-d as we were created to do so.

Rosh HaShanah 5774

ROSH HASHANAH 5774 is celebrated September 04 - 06 2013

Rosh HaShanah (literally, "Head of the Year") is the Jewish New Year, which marks the beginning of a 10-day period of prayer, self-examination and repentance. This period, known as the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe or High Holy Days), is widely observed by Jews throughout the world, many with prayer and reflection in a synagogue. There also are several holiday rituals observed at home.

Rosh HaShanah is celebrated on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which—because of differences in the solar and lunar calendar—corresponds to September or October on the secular calendar. Customs associated with the holiday include sounding the shofar, eating a round challah, and tasting apples and honey to represent a sweet New Year.

The origins of Rosh HaShanah are found in the Bible.The Book of Leviticus (23:24-25) declares: “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of rest, a memorial proclaimed with the blowing of the shofar, a holy convocation.” Although this day eventually became Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, it was not originally known as such.

In ancient times, there were four “new years” in the Jewish calendar. Each had a distinct significance:

Continue reading.
 

Prepent: 40 Days To Find Your Focus

On the first day of the last month of the Hebrew year, get ready to repent in style. Prepent offers 40 days of interactive online learning lead by Amichai Lau-Lavie. Subscribe to the daily blog and join Amichai and Lab/Shul on a journey into the Holy of Holies within Yom Kippur. Now in its third year, Prepent gets you into shape for a more meaningful and inspired High Holy days.
Stay tuned for subscription details coming soon.

WHAT IS LAB/SHUL?

Lab/Shul is a Jewish congregational model in the making based in NYC. The Lab/Shul community is dedicated to exploring, creating and celebrating innovative opportunities for contemplation, life cycle rituals, the arts, life-long learning and social justice.
Building on Storahtelling’s vision and practice, Lab/Shul seeks to redefine the role of sacred gatherings that nourish our thirst for meaning, connection, spirituality and community.

WHO IS LAB/SHUL?

Lab/Shul is a project of Storahtelling, led by Amichai Lau-Lavie, Storahtelling senior educators, artists and lay leaders.

Israeli archaeologists dig up artifact from time of Kings David and Solomon

Because there are no Jewish holidays, we're publishing an article we hope you'll enjoy.

Fragment of ceramic jar found near the Temple Mount bears earliest sample of written alphabetical text found in Jerusalem

By Nir Hasson (Haaretz)

Israeli archaeologists last week discovered a fragment of a ceramic jar they say dates back to the time of Kings David and Solomon and bears the earliest sample of written text ever found in Jerusalem.

The inscription is engraved on a large pithos, a neckless ceramic jar found during excavations at the Ophel site, near the southern wall of the Old City.
Researchers say the text is in the Canaanite language and dates to roughly 250 years before the earliest known Hebrew inscription from Jerusalem (the Siloam inscription) from the eighth century BCE.

The meaning of the inscription is unknown, but it contains eight letters, which could be part of the name of the jar’s owner or a description of its contents. Reading from left to right, the text contains a combination of letters, approximately 2.5 cm tall, which translate to m, q, p, h, n, (possibly) l, and n.

The inscription was engraved near the edge of the jar before it was fired, and only a fragment of it has been found, along with fragments of six large jars of the same type.

An analysis of the jars’ clay composition indicates that they are all of a similar make, and probably originate from the hills near Jerusalem.

Continue reading.
 

“Sing, O Barren One” – From Mourning to Consolation in the Haftarot

by Rachel Adelman, Ph.D

This period of the Jewish calendar, from the Shabbat following the Ninth of Av to Rosh Hashanah, is characterized as a time of consolation. Seven Haftarot from Isaiah trace a movement from mourning to comfort, from desolation to joy, over the course of these seven weeks. The midrash, cited in the Mahzor Vitri, gestures at the shape of that transformation. These Haftarot…

“… all speak of comfort…in the way that one comforts (a mourner) slowly by stages, for someone who offers comfort too close to the time of tragedy is like one who predicts the future: “Tomorrow you will be king,” which the bereaved cannot believe… Therefore: “Comfort, O comfort” (Isa. 54:1), “But Zion said, ["The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me]” (Isa. 49:14) – although Zion is destroyed, do not say that she is abandoned [as it says, “O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted]” (54:11). Since the Lord has “comforted” her already in His mercy, He does not call for mercy again. Up until this point the prophets comfort her; from here onwards He comforts her. And once she has received consolation, we follow with: “Sing, O barren one,” (Isa. 54:1, the fifth); “Arise and shine,” (Isa. 60:1); “I shall rejoice” (Isa. 61:10).

Zion, the personification of Jerusalem, of the Promised Land, of Israel’s hope of return, does not at first accept the words of comfort from the prophets, in particular from Isaiah to whom G-d beckons: “Comfort, O comfort my people” (Isa. 54:1, the first of the Seven Haftarot of consolation). But Zion, like a tragic figure who refuses to accept that he will one day be king, does not respond to the prophets’ words (Isa. 49:14, the second Haftarah); she is storm-tossed, afflicted, not comforted (Isa. 54:11, the third of the Haftarah), until G-d finally reassures her directly in the fourth Haftarah: “I, I am He who comforts you” (51:12). From that moment onward, Isaiah’s words are full of jubilation.

Continue reading.

 

How Tisha B’Av Helped Me Heal

Cancer, and a year of chemotherapy, gave me a new perspective on Jewish holidays—starting with Tisha B’Av 

By Raffi Leicht for Tablet Magazine

The day before Tisha B’Av three years ago, I ate the egg and ashes prescribed as the meal before the fast begins, taking my last bite of the sliced white bread. On the eve of the darkest date in Jewish history, as I sat on a milk crate and gazed into a field and its tree-lined background, I began to cry.

I wasn’t only crying because of Tisha B’Av, but also for myself: I knew something was wrong. For weeks, while I’d been teaching at an Orthodox Jewish summer camp in upstate New York, I had been waking up in bed sheets dampened by sweat, despite sleeping in air-conditioning. My exhaustion and the lumps in my chest and throat had grown so rapidly that even in my bed, I could find no rest. Before settling upstate for the summer, I had gone to see a dermatologist to deal with an insatiable itch throughout my body; like a fire spreading, it gave no warning, no sign of rash. A prescription for an ointment to soothe my skin was filled but never used. And now, weeks later, I was getting worse.

The next morning, on Tisha B’Av, I read Eicha, Lamentations, at camp—it was the first time I’d read it publicly. Assigned the fifth chapter, I came across verses that left me trembling, just as I did when I tried to sleep, shuddering from a cold that wasn’t there.

The fifth and final chapter of Lamentations is different from the previous four. It is the only one not arranged alphabetically, symbolizing the chaotic order and misalignment I felt going on within me. “Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers; our houses to foreigners,” it reads (5:2), much like my own body. “Upon our necks we are pursued; we toil, and we find no rest,” (5:5), much like the protrusion in my own throat.

Continue reading.
 

Overview: Book of Lamentations

Jeremiah describes the tragedy of the Temple's destruction. The lessons are true still today.

 

by Rabbi Avi Geller for aish.com

The traveler's sobbing was so intense that it awoke Berel the innkeeper. His wife was very nervous. "Why is our guest crying so bitterly in the middle of the night?" she asked. "Something must have happened!"

Berel entered the guestroom to find a simple Jew, dressed like a peasant, shoeless, sitting on the floor, crying bitter tears over the Jewish exile from Israel. [This man was really a pious chassidic master, traveling "incognito" to learn of the situation of the world. Every midnight (besides Shabbat and festivals) he would arise to bemoan the destruction of our Holy Temples.]

"Why are you crying?" asked Berel. "What disaster has befallen you?"
The rabbi replied simply, "I cry over our Temple's destruction, and I beseech the Almighty to bring the Messiah who will return us to the Holy Land."

Berel was relieved, "Is that it?! Then please keep your wailing down so that you don't disturb the other guests!" With that Berel returned to his bedroom and informed his wife of the cause of the disturbance.

Five minutes later there was a knock on the rabbi's door. It was Berel again. "My wife would like to know if the Messiah comes and brings us back to the Land of Israel, will we be allowed to take our chickens with us?"
The rabbi was taken aback by the question. "Chickens? As far as I am aware, it doesn't say anything about chickens. You might have to leave your chickens here when the Messiah comes."

Berel duly informed his wife.

Five minutes later, another knock. Berel: "My wife asks you to please not pray anymore for the Messiah to come. We are doing fine here and would prefer to stay with our chickens."

 Continue reading. 

Tisha B'Av History

This year Tisha B'Av falls on July 16th
Tisha B'Av, the ninth of Av, is a full day of fasting and mourning. The month of Av usually falls in the height of the summer. Even with regard to climate, it was the driest time of the year, and thus a time of sadness and uncertainty until the rains came again.

Although the festival commemorates the destruction of both Temples, the main historical sources are in dispute about exactly when the Temples were destroyed. Some say the first Temple was destroyed either on the seventh or the 10th of Av in 586 B.C.E. by Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylonia), and the second Temple was destroyed on the 10th (70 C.E. by Titus).

The rabbinic authorities decided to mark the ninth as the official date of remembering their destruction.

Tisha B'Av is the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, and over the centuries many tragic events happened--or were traditionally said to have happened--on this date. These include the capture of Bethar, which marked the final defeat of Bar Kokhba's rebellion against the Romans, and the razing of Jerusalem by the Romans. The edict of King Edward I compelling the Jews of England to leave the country was signed on the ninth of Av in 1290, the Jews were expelled from Spain on that day in 1492, and World War I broke out in 1914. The sadness and mourning that Jews feel on this day are reflected in the various practices of Tisha B'Av, including abstaining from joyous activities like study of Torah, from eating and drinking, from sexual activity, and from wearing leather.

The Three Weeks

The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem is commemorated with a period of mourning.

By Matthue Roth 

The three-week period in summer that begins with the fast of the 17th of Tammuz and climaxes with Tisha b'Av is known simply as "The Three Weeks." It is a time of grieving for the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. This year the Three Weeks begins on June 25th and culminates on July 19th.

This mourning period was first mentioned in the biblical Book of Zechariah in the Prophets--and, since then, it has been observed as a period of sadness.

The Multiple Tragedies 

The 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz is a date in which many tragedies and pitfalls happened, according to the Mishnah (Taanit 4:6). It is traditionally believed to be the date that Moses broke the original Ten Commandments after coming upon the Israelites as they worshiped the Golden Calf. The Roman rulers forbade sacrifices to be made in the Second Temple on this date in 69 C.E., and, in the following year, the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem were breached. This attack led to the destruction of the Temple three weeks later.

In Hebrew, the period of the Three Weeks is known as "bein hametzarim," or, literally, "within the straits" or "within the borders." This name comes from a verse in the Book of Lamentations, or Eicha, which is read on Tisha B'Av: "Judah has gone into exile because of affliction, and because of great servitude. She dwelt among the nations, she found no rest; all her pursuers overtook her within the borders." (1:3) This idea of borders--or "restrictions"--alludes to the additional restrictions of mourning which are traditionally taken on during this period.

Continue reading. 

The 17th of Tammuz

The 17th day in the Jewish month of Tammuz, this year July 25th, Jews the world over fast and lament to commemorate the many calamities that have befallen our people on this ominous day.

The purpose of such fasts in the Jewish calendar is, according to Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov's Book of Our Heritage, "to awaken hearts towards repentance through recalling our forefathers' misdeeds; misdeeds which led to calamities..."

A Historic Day of Calamity
Going all the way back to Biblical times, Moses descended Mount Sinai on this day and, upon seeing the Golden Calf broke the first set of Tablets carrying the Ten Commandments (Shemot 32:19, Mishna Taanit 28b).

In the First Temple Era: The priests in the First Temple stopped offering the daily sacrifice on this day (Taanit 28b) due to the shortage of sheep during the siege and the next year 3184 (5186 BCE), the walls of Jerusalem were breached after many months of siege by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian forces.

During the period of Roman persecution an idol was placed in the holy sanctuary of the Temple (Melachim II 21:7,Taanit 28b), and the heathen Apostomos, captain of the occupation forces, publicly burned the Torah (Taanit 28b) - both acts considered open blasphemy and desecration. These were followed by Titus and Rome breaching the walls of Jerusalem in 3760 (70 CE) and Pope Gregory IX ordering the confiscation of all manuscripts of the Talmud in 4999 (1239).

In later years this day continued to be a dark one for Jews. In 1391, more than 4,000 Jews were killed in Toledo and Jaen, Spain and in 4319 (1559) the Jewish Quarter of Prague was burned and looted.

The Kovno ghetto was liquidated on this day in 5704 (1944) and in 5730 (1970) Libya ordered the confiscation of Jewish property.

Continue reading. 

The Etymology of the Knaidel

Because there are no celebratory Jewish holidays this month, we're publishing an article we hope you'll enjoy.

Spelling out Scripp’s winning spelling bee word

By Adam Chandler for Tablet Magazine

Millions tuned in to watch the 11 finalists duke it out for the 86th annual Scripps Spelling Bee title. The winner, two-time third-place finisher Arvind Mahankali, walked away with $30,000–not an insignificant amount of lunch money to get beaten up for–after correctly spelling the word knaidel, from the Yiddish for a dumpling.

Perhaps, it was fitting that the word Mahankali needed to spell prior to knaidel was tokonoma–a Japanese word for a niche–because today Yiddishists and etymologists are kvelling over the public discovery of the winning word. We sought out Allan Metcalf, who brilliantly profiled master etymologist Gerald Cohen for Tablet earlier this month, for his thoughts on the knaidel.

The most interesting points Metcalf raised–after consulting the Jewish English Lexicon–was that there are six acceptable spellings for the word and the spelling of knaidel that Mahankali gave was not the lead one. He explained:

“Knaidel” is not the headword, “knaidle” is. The winning spelling is an alternate.

The intrigue doesn’t end there.

So that raises the question, would there be six possible correct answers at the spelling bee?

The answer is probably “no” because (I think) the bee uses Merriam-Webster dictionaries as its authority, and “knaidel” is the spelling in the M-W Unabridged. But that doesn’t mean the others are wrong, except possibly at a spelling bee.

No matter what, there may be nothing more cliché than a kid from Queens winning the national spelling bee with a Yiddish word for dumpling.

Nevertheless, congrats Arvind!

 

Who said that?

Because there are no holidays this week, we're publishing an article we hope you'll enjoy.

 By John Rosengren © 2013

an excerpt from HANK GREENBERG: The Hero of Heroes

The Chicago White Sox, led by manager Jimmy Dykes, were notorious for their bench jockeying. Dykes was an early edition Archie Bunker, in appearance and attitude. "Hey, Hank," Dykes used to shout at Greenberg. "How are you playing with three Catholics and one Hebe?" During a doubleheader at Briggs Stadium on July 1, Dykes lit into Greenberg with criticism about him skipping last year's All-Star Game. Someone-maybe Dykes-shouted at Hank when he was running down the first base line, "You big, yellow Jew bastard!"

The Chicago bench continued to harass Greenberg throughout the afternoon while he was in the field. When Joe Kuhel, a skinny guy with big ears, reached first base in the sixth inning of the second game, Hank heard the White Sox bench yell for Kuhel to spike Greenberg. Kuhel took a large lead, certain to draw a throw. When it came, he slid hard into Hank and spiked him in the foot. Hank punched Kuhel in the face. The players spilled out of both dugouts, but umpire Ed Rommel squeezed between Greenberg and Kuhel before either could throw any more punches. He ejected Hank and shepherded the players back to their positions and dugouts.

The Detroit crowd took up the attack. "Spectators started throwing anything throwable at the Chicago players," the Detroit News reported. The players shouted at them. One fan tried to jump the White Sox, but an usher wrestled him back on top of the dugout. Uniformed policemen scurried to the area to restore order. They ejected several spectators. Just when things had calmed down and play resumed, Kuhel scored and the fans renewed their attack. One chucked a bottle at Kuhel. "The policemen again invaded the warring section and once more restored order," according to the Detroit News, which deemed the incident a "minor riot."

Still upset afterward, Hank stripped off his jersey, stuffed it in his locker, swapped his spikes for his shower slippers and left without a word. He crossed the hallway to the White Sox clubhouse, walked in and announced, "I want the guy who called me a 'yellow Jew bastard' to get to his feet and say it to my face."

No one moved. Hank walked slowly around the room and looked at each of them. Kuhel. Dykes. The others. Not one of them dared stand up. Hank walked out, paused at the door to look back, then left.

"The guy with the big mouth was the luckiest guy in the world, because Greenberg would have killed him," Elden Auker said later.

Before the next day's game, Hank received a telegram from American League president William Harridge fining him fifty dollars for striking Kuhel. Dykes said he thought Greenberg should have been suspended. Harridge also upbraided the White Sox for "unsportsmanlike conduct and use of insulting and abusive language to members of the opposing team." He warned Dykes that he would have any of his players who repeated such insults ejected and suspended. In a sarcastic gesture, Dykes sent all of his reserves out to the bullpen and said, "I guess that Greenberg won't be able to hear what they say out there, and no one will get run out for saying something uncomplimentary about him taking all those called strikes."

Hank hadn't said anything to his teammates about crossing the hall, but word of him challenging the White Sox in their clubhouse spread around the league. Other players took note. They respected Hank for standing up for himself. Years later, players like the Yankees' Tommy Henrich and the Red Sox's Ted Williams repeated the story in admiration of Greenberg. "You know who stood up?" Williams liked to say as the punch line. "Nobody."

Could The Holy Ghost Be Jewish?

 Christian Belief Can Be Traced Back to the Hebrew Bible

Robert J. Foley of Wilmington, N.C., sends me a copy of an open letter written by author and rabbi Rami Shapiro to Pope Francis. In it, Rabbi Shapiro hopes that “ruach ha-kodesh, the Holy Spirit, has called a new pope from the new world to lead the Catholic Church,” and Mr. Foley writes:
“Rabbi Shapiro… is alluding to an expression often used by the conclave of cardinals [which chose the new pope], to the effect that the Holy Spirit will guide them in their deliberations. In my cursory look at the meanings and interpretations of the Hebrew words ruach ha-kodesh, I was indeed struck by some of the similarities between them and the concept of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity. In forming this concept, to what extent do you think the early Christian writers and Church Fathers might have been influenced by Judaism?”

They were influenced by it a great deal. Although neither biblical nor rabbinic Judaism has anything like the Christian Trinity in its thinking about God, there can be no doubt that the ru’aḥ ha-kodesh (literally, “spirit of holiness”) of the Bible and rabbinic literature was the direct antecedent of the Christian concept of the Holy Spirit — or, as it was more commonly known in the English-speaking Catholic Church until recent times, the Holy Ghost. (“Ghost” is an Old English word for “spirit,” just as “a spirit” is a now archaic way of denoting a ghost. A ghost is nothing but a disembodied spirit, and the expression “to give up the ghost,” which has survived from medieval times, refers to the body’s sundering from the spirit at the time of death.)

In Hebrew, starting with the Bible and continuing to this day, ru’aḥ has the two meanings of “spirit” and “wind.” Historically, wind is clearly the older of the two, spirit being derived from it by analogy: As the wind, that is, is invisible but has the power to move visible things, so the spirit is conceived of as that unseen force in human beings or the world — the breath of life, as it were — that activates all that can be seen.

Continue reading. 

The Calendar as Solace

After our daughter’s car accident, her recovery paralleled the holidays, from Purim to Passover to Shavuot

We were in downtown Chicago on Feb. 17 when my wife Galit got the first call. Our niece Maya, 24, had been in a bad car accident near our house, some 28 miles outside the city. Her parents were away, so we needed to come to the hospital. We were told that in the person driving the car was also injured, but that person was unconscious and the paramedics and police officers on the scene hadn’t been able to ascertain her identity.

It wasn’t a mystery for long. Minutes later, Galit’s phone rang again: The driver of the car was our daughter Becky, 23. Forty minutes later—an eternity—we were led to Becky and Maya’s bedsides.

Later that day, sequestered in Becky’s hospital room, shades drawn against the winter gloom, we were alone in a frigid, fluorescent ecosystem of monitors, IVs, and white lab coats. We were overwhelmed and lost track of time. Before long, we had to consult our phones just to remember what day it was. Becky—asleep or semiconscious most of the time, the entire left side of her body battered and lacerated—appeared pallid and unchanging, like her environment. Maya, whose jaw had been shattered, was conscious, but her face was swollen both from that impact and the reconstructive surgery that followed. For the next three days, the girls’ families settled into neighboring bunkers of anxiety, exhaustion, and vigilance, meeting with teams of doctors, responding to calls from worried friends and relatives, taking turns dashing home to keep our households from being swallowed by the chaos.

It was on one of those trips home, on Feb. 19, that I saw the Jewish calendar hung by our back door and realized that it would soon be Purim. How ironic, I thought: We’re supposed to be happy, to down some drinks, and give tzedakah—and here we were, miserable, sober, self-absorbed. In that moment, the holiday seemed more of a cruel joke than an object lesson in mindfulness and gratitude.

Little did I know at the time how important that calendar would become.

Continue reading. 

Shavuot 2013

Everything you need to know to celebrate the holiday.

 

Shavuot begins at sunset on May 14, 2013 and will end on the evening of May 15th for Reform Jews and the evening of May 16th for Conservative and Orthodox Jews. Check your synagogue's practices. 

What is Shavuot? Shavuot, the feast of weeks, is celebrated seven weeks after the second Passover seder.

Although Shavuot began as an ancient grain harvest festival, the holiday has been identified since biblical times with the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

For more about the history of Shavuot click here.

What are some customs and practices for Shavuot?

- To commemorate the giving of the Torah at Sinai there is a tradition of staying up all night studying Jewish texts in what is called a tikun.
- On Shavuot the Book of Ruth is read.
- Traditionally dairy foods are eaten on Shavuot.
- In order to mark the agricultural history of Shavuot, some decorate their house and synagogues with a floral theme.