Sustainable Judaism

Shabbat Shuva Drasha, 5772

2011-10-11T14:10:00.004-04:00

Spoken at Seaside Jewish Community, Rehoboth Beach, DE

Beth has asked me tospeak about Israelover this holiday weekend. There’s a lot I can talk about. I’ve lived in Israel for 22 years, at Kibbutz Lotan in the Arava Desertfor 21 of them. This year has been an interesting one in Israel, this summer has beenamazing. Thousands of Israelis moved out of their homes and camped in thestreets, for five weeks, in a wave of protest that started against the highcost of housing and ended as a broad cry for Social Justice across the board.There was an exhilarating feeling in the air. Even a terror attack on theEgyptian border near Eilat didn’t stop the protests, even the Palestinianrockets that fell on Be’er Sheva and Ashkelononly brought a brief lull in the weekly Saturday night protest marches.

What were those protestsabout? It seems that people want more than just economic wellbeing. Rabbi Abraham JoshuaHeschel, in his great book The Prophets, explores the relationship betweenspiritual truth and political power, and the clarion call for justice inBiblical Israel. Israel’sgovernment, it seems to the protestors, is more preoccupied with profits (withan F) than prophets (with a PH). On Israel's streets this summer, in the many'Tents of Meeting' this call has been ringing out again, demanding that socialjustice be put at the center of its public agenda. (1)

The tent cities have comedown and it’s still too soon to see if anyone will be able to create anyelectoral leverage out of the summer’s excitement. The polls are pessimistic,and the next election is scheduled for 2013. Many pundits think the success ofthe tent protests was rooted in the fact that these protestors didn’t speakabout the elephant in the room, the Elephant that sits in the middle of Israel and hasparalyzed its politics for forty three years – the occupation of the Palestinians.

And the American Jewishcommunity is also struggling with how to engage about Israel becauseof this same elephant. Rabbi Melissa Weintraub has spoken about the three mostcommon avenues for Israelengagement in the Jewish community:

Avoidance. In a speech last winter, Melissasaid that every one of the organizations that make up the Jewish social justicemovement in this country has an organizational policy to avoid discussionof Israel.We can’t possibly, they say, build a broad coalition on issues like Darfur,the environment, or poverty, if we touch Israel– that troublesome powderkeg, perennial elephant in the room. Rabbis of every denomination havevoiced fear of saying anything in relation Israel. Rabbis are afraid to getfired for anything they might say about Israel.

The second avenue is Mutualantagonism. Attacks and counter-attacks on OpEd pages and in theblogosphere, egged on by media groups from both right and left primed tospring into action in response to perceived criticism on the one hand ordefense on the other of Israeli policy. Character assassinations, mutualvilification, reckless caricatures of each other’s positions,counter-accusations of misrepresentation. Unraveled relationships in families,synagogues, local and national institutional Jewish communities.

The third option, she callscollective solipsism (though it really could be called“avoidance 2.0”). And that is Israel-related advocacy and activism thatinvolves congregating, conferencing, and talking exclusively to those withwhom we agree. That is, the Jewish people splinters into self-affirming nucleiof our respective organizations, each of them morally superior andself-certain, talking past one another, or now and then colliding in frustrationand hostility. We each rally, mobilize and take pride in the numbers of thosewho are with us, while dismissing those who aren’t as dangerous, ignorant,malicious or loony.

These are the threepredominant modes of Israelengagement in American Jewish life. To counter this trend, to introduce theradical concepts of LISTENING and CIVILITY, Melissa and a few other youngleaders created a new organization just a couple of years ago. Encounter isdedicated to bringing together Jews to discuss Israel,to encounter Palestinians face to face, and to overcome stereotypes, bothwithin the Jewish Community and between the American Jewish community, Israel, and Palestine. (2)

Many of us want to engagethe next generation in Jewish life. Recent studies document what many of usknow anecdotally: a sharp decline among Israel engagement and attachmentof those under the age of 35. They tested the marketing of Israel advocacy organizations seeking toassist young Jews on college campuses to defend Israel against its critics. Andwhat they found is pervasive aversion, AVERSION. Israel Advocacy messaginginadvertently turns off the vast majority of Jews under the age of 35.

Why?

They found that youngJews want welcoming, inclusive settings in which to listen,explore, ask hard questions, and decide for them selves what they think in an openexchange of ideas. Relatedly: They found that young Jews want to beexposed to nuance and diversity of perspective, notblack-and-white thinking.

My guess is that thesefindings are true for many of us in the boomer generation and older. Only ourexperience of anti-semitism is stronger, our memories of the Shoah and the wars of the 1960s and 70s are not just historylessons. We may have a deep existential fear that our children lack. Thank God,they have not had their lives threatened for being Jewish.

Thus their Jewishidentity may not be threatened from without. But it may be threatened fromwithin – if we do not heed what Melissa Weintraub and her associates say. Imade Aliyah 22 years ago because I felt that Israel was in danger of becoming acountry with which Jewish youth like me might not be able to identify. Lessthan a month later, a wave of Russian immigration increased Israel’spopulation by nearly 20%. The freedom of Soviet Jews, for which I had protestedin the 1980s, brought to Israela million new voters, unaccustomed to democratic life, easily convinced bydemagoguery. My one vote has been drowned out, and young Jews in the US today are increasingly alienated by Israel.

This isn’t to say theydon’t care about their Jewish Identity. They care passionately. They engagecore Jewish values of feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick.They gather on the holidays, celebrating and studying.

Encounter is committed tocreating a safe container for right– and left-wing Jews to encounter each otherwith real mutual listening and respect, to sit down in front of the separationbarrier together and grapple with what it means. Often participants claimthat our trips are the first time they’ve been able to hear other Jews whothink differently than them, let alone Palestinians.

An orthodox rabbi whoparticipated in an Encounter tour of Bethlehem wrote the following: “I realizedthat while I’ve been sitting at home worrying about how my experiences inBethlehem and Hebron could create negative PR forIsrael, my students have been out in the world hearing those messages from ahundred other sources. They hear about it in the news. They hear about it intheir public schools. And they hear about it from each other. These issues areon the consciousnesses of young North American Jews. If they don’t hear aboutwhat’s happening from me, they’ll hear about it from someone else. Someone whois likely to have a strong anti-Israel bias, and who will present the informationwithout balance and nuance.

“So last week I shared myEncounter experiences with my Grade 12 class…. Many students in the class haddecided, based on what they had heard from other sources, to turn against Israelentirely. They were embarrassed about what goes on in the West Bank, and wereusing that as reason to give up on the whole Israel experiment. They didn’tsee constructive criticism as an option. They had never heard someone criticizeIsraelout of love. I was able to model an approach for them that balances a love for Israel and a recognition of Israel’s mistakes. It was a perspectivethat they needed to hear. And it was thanks to Encounter that I was able topresent it to them.” (3)

Our children need to hearus challenging our own thinking, thinking out our most complex problems aloud,and bringing our venerable tradition to bear on them.

We must be willing tolive with complexity. I don’t know if you heard the speeches at the UN lastweek. I listened to President Abbas’ speech and found myself agreeing withalmost everything he said. And then I listened to Prime Minister Netanyahu’sspeech, and I was surprised to find myself agreeing with everything he said,too. Israelis a country. A country with a lot of challenges, indeed, but none of them areas existential as the alienation of Jews around the world. Prime MinisterNetanyahu demands recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Thissummer’s protesters demanded that a Jewish state must act Jewishly, caring forthe weak and the poor. Israel’s existence will not be threatened by honest,meaningful discussion within the American Jewish Community. It can only bestrengthened, and so can you.

Shuva Yisrael – return, Israel – the haftara of thisShabbat Shuva calls upon us to return, return to our Prophetic values, returnto the path of justice and right action. Hillel reads the commandment “loveyour neighbor as yourself” as “what is hateful to you, do not do to yourneighbor”. Listening to one another can be a great start. Shuva Yisrael– return, Israel,return to civil conversation, return to grappling with a difficult topic, toagreeing to disagree, to accepting one another regardless of our politicalpositions.

Notes:

(1) Dr. Jeremy Benstein, Heschel Center

(2) Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, "The Need for Civil Discourse", in fact, most of the rest of this sermon paraphrases this and other essays on the Encounter website. I participated in an Encounter tour in early March, 2011.

(3) As related by Weintraub in another essay, "Do Young Jews Care About Israel".

Rosh HaShanah Drasha, 5772

2011-10-11T13:54:00.001-04:00

Spoken at Seaside Jewish Community, Rehoboth Beach, DE
Shana Tova, Boker tov! I want to take this opportunity to teach a little Torah, to teach about some texts on Rosh HaShanah.

Rosh HaShanah, we understand, means the head of the year, but shanah can also mean change, so we can read it as the beginning of change. Or perhaps, a change of head, a change to our way of thinking. I hope this Rosh HaShanah will bring a change.

In the Zohar, there is a drasha, a sermon, by Rabbi Elazar, the son of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Parshat Bo 32b). He begins with the first line of the book of Job: “One day, the children of God came to attend Him...”

‘One day’ – Rabbi Elazar says, this is Rosh Hashanah, when God arises to judge all the world. The day the angels gathered, that day was the first day of Rosh HaShanah. ‘And the children of God’ – these are the ministering angels, who are sent to examine the acts of humans in this world… For angels are messengers, they are sent to examine the deeds of humans, they travel the world and add all the actions together, and on the day of judgment they go up to the heavenly court to become the prosecutors, to accuse humanity. When the deeds of Israel are found to be wanting, these ministering angels wish to point out the iniquities of Israel, to bring them to God’s attention. When Israel do deeds that are not good deeds, then God’s Power is weakened, but when Israel do GOOD deeds, God’s power and strength return. And of this is written in the Psalms, “Give strength to God, for upon Israel is His pride and His strength is in the highest heavens” (Ps 68:35).

Remember that, we’ll get back to it in a moment.

In the Talmud Yerushalmi, there is a fascinating discussion about Rosh HaShanah that I learned last week. You know, there are two talmudim, the Bavli, the Babylonian Talmud, which is bigger and more authoritative, and there is the Yerushalmi, The Palestinian Talmud, which was earlier and has less halachic authority, but still contains many interesting discussions.

In Biblical times, Rosh HaShanah had almost no content. In the book of Leviticus, it is called the day of the memorial of the horn call. In the book of Numbers it is called the day of the horn call, Yom Teruah. It has only one extra sacrifice. Other than that, Rosh HaShanah is only mentioned in the Psalm we quoted in our service, psalm 81, and only indirectly: תקעו בחודש שופר, בכסה ליום חגינו Tiku vachodesh shofar bakeseh leyom Chageinu, – Tiku vachodesh shofar – Blow the Shofar on the New Moon, bakeseh leyom Chageinu – on the covering day of our Chag – the day the moon of our Holiday, Sukkot, is covered, on the new moon of Tishrei.

But the rabbis of the Talmud, or perhaps the leaders of the Jewish people during the Second Temple period, they wanted to add some content to Rosh HaShanah, some moral content. They declared that Rosh HaShanah commemorates the creation, not the creation of the world, but the sixth day, the creation of Adam, of the human being. There is no way to know this from the Tanakh, from the Holy Scripture. Today, we have a two day liturgy based upon the idea that this day, the commemoration of our own creation by God, is the Day of Judgement. For what are we to be judged?

In the Talmud Yerushalmi, this is discussed at length: Rabbi Simon says, it is written in Deuteronomy ch. 4 מי גוי גדול אשר לו חוקים ומשפטים צדיקים mi goy gadol asher lo chokim umishpatim tzadikim “What a great nation which has such righteous laws and judgments” etc. In other words, the Torah self-identifies here as a system of laws that other peoples, looking at the Jews, should be envious of. Rabbi Simon quotes: According to R. Chama son of R. Hanina and R. Hoshaiah, one might say: What Nation is like this nation – we have our own special practice. While among the nations of the world there are people who, knowing they must face a court in judgement, they wear black and wrap themselves in black and grow their beards, for they know not their verdict. Not so Israel, he says, who wear white clothes and wrap ourselves in white and shave our beards (shave our beards!) and feast and drink and are happy knowing that God grants us miracles. In other words, THEY wear black because they are afraid, WE wear white because we are sure God will grant us a miracle.

And Chorana, another scholar, said, What Nation is like this nation means this: when the court calls the case for today and the bandits say no, let’s do it tomorrow. Don’t we listen to the court? But the Holy One of Blessing is not like this. If the Bet Din says today is Rosh HaShanah, God tells the ministering angels put up a stage, bring forth prosecutors and defense attorneys, for my children have declared today to be the new year. But if the Bet Din decides to move it to tomorrow, God says to the Angels move the stage and all the rest to tomorrow, as my children have so decided. As it is written, in Psalm 81 again – the next line from the same psalm we mentioned before, כי חוק לישראל הוא Ki Chok LeYisrael Hu – It is a law for Israel, משפט לאלקי יעקב mishpat le’elohei Ya’akov, a sentence for the God of Jacob – [ and now this Rabbi Chorana says something really Radical] if it is not law for Israel, then it is not a sentence for the God of Jacob. In other words, if the law doesn’t work for the people of Israel, it isn’t the Holy Law. That’s a radical statement! Like the statement of the Zohar we read, but 5 or 6 hundred years earlier, this text of the Yerushalmi is recording a statement that removes the authority from God, and puts it in the hands of humanity. Now the Rabbis have given themselves permission to add their content to Rosh Hashana.

The rabbis of the Talmud love to ask למה הדבר דומה lemah hadavar domeh, to what can this be compared? So in the case of human responsibility, they now try to come up with the perfect parable for God granting us responsibility and authority:

Rabbi Levi said, it is like a King who had a fine watch. When his son came of age, he gave it to him.

Rabbi Jose bar Hanina said, it is like a king who had a watchtower. When his son came of age, he gave it to him.

Rabbi Aha said, it is like a king who had a signet ring. When his son came of age, he gave it to him.

Rabbi Hiyya bar Ba said, it is like a carpenter who had some woodworking tools. When his son came of age, he gave them to him.

Said Rabbi Isaac, like a King who had treasures. When his son came of age, he gave them to him.

The Sages said, like a doctor who has a bag of cures. When his son came of age, he gave it to him.

For on Rosh HaShana all the people of the world stand before Him in judgement.

Which is to say, on Rosh HaShanah, we are being judged on how well we dealt with the world, How well we applied the tools that God has given us to the problems that face us? Did we squander the treasure? Did we break the tools? Did we sign off on a few too many blank checks?

Climate change, global warming… you have heard that rising seas and higher ocean temperatures are causing hurricanes to become more severe. Maybe Irene wasn’t too bad here in Delaware, but Vermonters haven’t seen that kind of flooding in generations. Scientists are unanimous that human activity is impinging on natural processes and making them worse.

In the course of my own lifetime, Cod have almost disappeared from the North Atlantic. In the last twenty years alone, enough plastic trash has accumulated in the oceans to form huge gyres, the largest twice the size of Texas, one in the Atlantic and seven in the Pacific. The human population of the world has more than doubled. All those seven billion people want to live comfortably. According to some economists, we are already exceeding the carrying capacity of the earth by 50%, and that’s with two billion of us still living in abject poverty.

So how are we to be judged?

The Rosh HaShanah liturgy provides us with a model to look at our environmental responsibilities. מלכויות Malkhuyot, זכרונות Zichronot, שופרות Shofarot – the three sections of this morning’s shofar service.

Let’s see how we can apply them here: Malkhuyot – the verses refering to God’s sovereignty. Our tradition is clear that THIS world should be seen as Malkhut, as God’s kingdom. It’s not ours, whether we see it as a treasure to be guarded, or as a watchtower to look out from, or a set of tools or medications to be used, God has given it to us on condition that we use it well. Are we using it well?

Zichronot – the verses in which God remembers the covenant with His people. We’ve been found wanting, and now we want God to remember how much He loves us. We want the blasts of the shofar to jog God’s memory, as it were, so that God will move from the Throne of Judgement to the Throne of Mercy. We remember the good old days, in a way. I can’t guess how God’s memory works, but I know that in my 47 year old memory, there are a lot of things that I miss from simpler, earlier times, things that I could reintroduce into my life – growing my own vegetable garden, cooking from scratch, spending time outdoors … So much has changed in the world, but we are still human, and the world is still the world. We must ask ourselves, Will our children remember this time in the way we remember “the good old days”? What do we want them to remember? What skills do we need to pass on to them?

And finally, Shofarot – the verses in which the shofar is mentioned, in which God is enthroned with pomp and fanfare. The Shofar is not the Trumpet, חצוצרה hatzotzra. Hatzotzra comes from the root ח' צ' ה Chet tzadik heh, to cut in half. Trumpet fanfares in the Hebrew understanding cut the enemy in two. The Shofar, however, does something else. The root ש' פ' ר Shin, peh, resh means “to improve”. The Shofar asks: What can we improve? What can we change this year? This is where we can begin to think – how will we improve this world for our children and grandchildren? What can WE, as individuals do?

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, that great teacher of optimism, says – if you believe that you can break it, believe that you can repair it. Take small steps, baby steps, because the task is immense. Rabbi Tarfon famously said, לא עליך המלאכה לגמור Lo Aleicha HaMelacha Ligmor, you don’t need to complete the task yourself, ולא אתה בן חורין להיבטל ממנה veLo ata ben chorin lehibatel mimena, but neither are you allowed to desist from it. Baby steps. Three steps: reduce, reuse, recycle.

Reduce: buy less packaging, less pre-prepared food, less meat. Author Michael Pollan says “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Reduction of consumption is the best way we can make a difference. Rabbi Chanina famously lived from one shabbat to the next on a single bucket of carob beans. We don’t have to be ascetics, but we can all make do with less.

ReUse: the second step is Reusage. What can we reuse? Almost everything. At Kibbutz Lotan, our slogan is: Give your garbage a second chance. We teach composting, natural design and organic gardening. Compost your food waste. Are you too lazy to compost? Dig a hole and bury it in your garden (but not the meat). Do you live in a building? Get a worm bin, the worms will do the work for you.

I want to bring your attention to Hazon, a Jewish Organization that is connecting Synagogue communities with local farms to shorten the commercial food chain and reinvolve Jewish communities in food production: but you don’t need my friend Nigel from New York to take you across the street from your shul to Rustic Acres farm here. It’s right there. Cross the street, ask the farmers, maybe they’ll be glad to take your food scraps for their animals, or for their compost piles.

And, of course, recycle. But recycling is the last on the list for a good reason. Recycling uses a great deal of energy. Reduction saves energy throughout the whole cycle, ReUse saves energy, too.

There are a few more Rs here, though. Our hope lies in Renewable sources of energy. Our job lies in Reshaping our values, Realigning our priorities, if we don’t we might not be able to Recover.

The 2nd paragraph of the Shema used to disturb me:

“Take care lest you be tempted to stray, and to worship false gods, For then God’s wrath will be directed against you. God will close the heavens and hold back the rain; the earth will not yield it’s produce. You will soon disappear from the good land which has been given to you.” I don’t like to believe that ill fortune or bad weather is a punishment from God. But reading this passage through the lens of the three R’s … we have strayed, we have abused the good earth which was entrusted to us, and now we are Reaping the Results in unnatural natural disasters. This is the year to rededicate ourselves to this cause, not just with words and lip service, but with real action.

Three Small steps, Baby steps. Steps that don’t stop, but can lead on the journey of a lifetime.

The Talmud text I spoke about says God grants us miracles, but the Zohar with which I began says we give strength to God – we charge God’s battery as it were, through our actions and our words. In other words, ALEYNU, it is up to us. We can’t rely on an external God – we can’t expect the change to come from the outside. Gandhi said, we must be the change we want to see in the world. In our Torah reading this morning, Hagar felt powerless, seeing only through her fear. But Hagar changed. How did she change? Through prayer – after her prayer, she was able to see the well, to drink and give her son water, to take control of her own destiny.

Let the sound of the Shofar be the catalyst for change – let this Rosh HaShana be the beginning of change – to believe that you can make a difference, to repair some of the damage, to improve the world.

Notes:

Rabbi Ethan Tucker - introduction to Berg lectures, 2010 "Core Issues in Jewish Law"

Rabbi Suri Levow Krieger - Ma'yan Tikvah

Binny Talmi, sources taught at the annual meeting of the Cooperative stream of the Kibbutz Movement, Kibbutz Lavi, September, 2011

Dan Sieradski on the unsustainability of "Social Enterpreneurship

2009-12-10T15:35:00.001-05:00

Innovators wanted, non-rich need not apply | JTA - Jewish & Israel News

I couldn't but help come away from the Monday-night session with the impression that social entrepreneurship is a privilege of the wealthy. Only people who already have significant resources at their disposal are truly eligible for the additional resources these organizations are offering. Our current innovation ecosphere, as it were, is reinforcing that impression, with unrealistic requirements and compensation for residencies and fellowships.

It's worth a read...

Translation

2009-09-09T06:51:00.001-04:00

Velveteen Rabbi: Translation

I translated a poem by my friend Rachel, and posted it in the comments section of the page where she published the poem (link above). It didn't occur to me that my translation might get a reaction, even from Rachel, who often responds to comments on her blog...

I've never had my poetry translated into Hebrew before. I'm really delighted with the end result, which feels at once like my own poem and like a transformative work which has transmuted my original poem into something wondrous and new.

It's easy to forget that not everybody reads and writes in English and Hebrew, let alone translates between them for fun...

Forward op-ed: Youth to Mainstream Jewish Organizations: We voted for Obama, not for you!

2009-07-15T21:02:00.001-04:00

In Machers vs. Obama, the Youth Have Voted – Forward.com

The latest United Jewish Communities report on National Jewish Population Survey data shows we are less likely to give to traditional Jewish organizations than were previous generations. This doesn’t mean we are tuning out from Judaism — we are simply finding different ways to express it. We are finding meaning in an emerging new Judaism of independent minyanim, social justice and alternative Jewish culture. As social media expert Allison Fine wrote in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, if young people are “unhappy with their reception by nonprofit organizations, they will simply start their own efforts — overnight, online, at almost no cost.”

So it's about time that the pre-boomers and older-end boomers running the "Mainstream" Jewish Communal Organizations come to terms with the fact that unlike their younger "siblings" - the younger-end boomers like myself, who have felt alienated but disempowered - the new generation are more willing to cut their own cloth. Just as many synagogues are finding that young people would rather davven soulfully at home (with a minyan gathered on Facebook or Twitter) than go to a synagogue where the prayer is rote, the youth of today are no longer willing to suck up their values in favor of a lunch with Bibi and Yvette!!

The name of the game is generational change, and the ideological distance between the Jewish youth of America and their parallel cohort in Israel is huge. That Israeli cohort is huge, and should someone succeed in bringing them together, they could be a powerful electoral force. Unfortunately, the most recent someone was Lieberman.

Gershom Gorenberg parses Netanyahu's "historic" speech

2009-06-15T14:24:00.001-04:00

In every way, Benjamin Netanyahu is NOT Israel's Obama. While it is certainly true that Israel's history is more complicated than Obama laid it out in Cairo, what Bibi fails to understand is that in order to make peace with your enemies, you have to humanize them, recognize them, and respect them for their successes. You can't just say how great you are and expect them to raise their glass in agreement, especially when you don't look so great to them.

Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life

Netanyahu’s presentation of the past points to the difference between his speech and Obama’s. Obama, seeking to reshape relations with the Muslim world, traveled to a Muslim city, and voiced respect for Muslim accomplishments. In addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he asked each side to see the other’s suffering—and then to put history in the past and to move forward. Netanyahu chose as his venue the most right-wing university campus in Israel. He called attention only to Israeli accomplishments, and recited a version of history that contained only Jewish suffering and Arab responsibility for the conflict. In the simplest terms, Obama showed that he understands the dynamics of reconciliation; Netanyahu did not.

Jewschool hosts "Love, Hate and the Jewish State" with Makom, NIF, and others

2009-06-11T21:59:00.001-04:00

The social justice worldview vs. the Israel worldview | Jewschool

This conflict cuts many other directions: Some who do both social justice activism and Israel activism must compartmentalize their value systems, keeping them separated, balanced. A rare few manage to integrate them fully. And plenty — tragically a great many — do neither.

For the event website, see Love, Hate, and the Jewish State: A Conversation on Israel and Social Justice

This is an event on Thursday, June 18th at 7 pm - 10 pm, at the JCC in Manhattan. But the discussion is much deeper and wider than one event. Too many of us in the 40+ generation are entrenched in stances regarding Israel that we are not noticing that our children and students are just NOT ON BOARD!

Throwing money at them in the form of Birthright tours and MASA grants isn't going to bring them around if the Jewish organizational establishment continues to act as a rubber stamp to Israel's new Right-of-Attila-the-Hun government - EITHER THE KIDS WILL ADOPT OUR VALUES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND REJECT ISRAEL, OR THEY WILL ADOPT A HIDEBOUND PRO-ISRAEL JEWISH NATIVISM THAT REJECTS THOSE VALUES.

It ought to be pointed out, and probably will be at the event, that that is indeed what our generation (late baby boomers, gen x, etc) has done - and this is not a good thing, if you look at the results - rather than moving the Jewish world in the direction of, say, Obama, we have become MORE polarized, MORE divided, and LESS tolerant - not only of our non-Jewish neighbors, but of each other.

I pray that the spirit of listening will overcome us, and we will be able to move from the place of polarization and divisiveness to a place of willingness to share our Jewish identities of pro-Israel and pro-socialjustice. I pray that Israel will once again become a beacon of justice in the world, not a focus of injustice as it is today.

JTA's AIPAC slam and the future of Journalism

2009-05-08T10:01:00.001-04:00

Ron Kampeas has a very serious, insightful piece on JTA, analyzing the recent AIPAC convention, and the much covered speech by VP Biden.

Yet, Kampeas and the JTA squad also published this video:

While I very much appreciate the upshot - a deep, abiding, and, IMHO, stinging critique of the negative trope of Jewish Identity - eg. that trope that translates for way to many Jews as "the entire meaning of every Jewish Holiday can be summed up in three sentences: 'They wanted to kill us. We won. Let's eat.'" - I found myself angry that the authors of the piece presented it as journalism.

This montage of "threat" "threat" "fear" "fear" is NOT journalism. It might be good television, and it is reporting on a REALLY annoying phenomenon in an entertaining way, making its point very strongly. But the same day it was posted, The Huffington Post posted a supposed slam on FoxNews that just showed that they (Fox) do like everybody else in journalism: cut and paste dialog to suit their story.

A few years back, in the late 1980s, well before there was digital, there was a trend in photography to print the edge of the frame - to show that the picture had not been cropped, to show that in fact what you were seeing was the WHOLE picture, as if that would somehow present the story with more veracity.

Since then, we've all swallowed the spectacle, and many of us, certainly the editors at JTA, understand that there is only angle, there is no more "news," only "views." But the expectation of journalism in the later 20th Century in this country has always been that it will be frameless.

This montage of the AIPAC event, like the critique of 24hr newsTV by Stewart, Colbert, Olbermann, et. al., has a tongue in cheek quality that undermines its attempt at being "serious" journalism.

I imagine that its authors will say that Stewart IS the future of journalism - and there's something to that... but as Stewart said way back in 2004 to Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala on CNN's Crossfire - THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEATRE AND JOURNALISM.

A Final Post on Birkat HaChamah

2009-04-05T16:49:00.000-04:00

Astronomical Absurdity Or Spiritual Encounter?

Harvard Astronomer Howard Smith writes in the Jewish Week about Birkat HaChamah, Pessach, and Jewish ritual in the New York Jewish Week.

Cutting to the chase:

But historicity is irrelevant. I do not celebrate Passover because I read in a book or learned from a teacher about a story some 2,500 years old. I celebrate Passover to internalize and propagate its covenantal meaning: that I am free by Divine redemption, part of an existential community of religious relationships, and commanded to respond to the human suffering in the world with empathy, compassion and charity.
Birkat HaChamah is an astronomical absurdity. But like the Passover holiday it inaugurates this year, its significance derives not from its physical character but rather from the meaning it conveys by focusing our attention on our own moral attitudes and ethical responsibilities.

Another short piece about the astronomical details of this coming Wednesday morning can be found on Howard's website

Chag Sameach and don't forget to bless God for giving us the Sun!

(IY"H, I'll be doing it all in Madison, WI)

New Jersey Environmental Policy Leader visits Kibbutz Lotan

2009-03-31T20:06:00.000-04:00

NJ environment expert hails Israel’s green side | New Jersey Jewish News

Gov. Jon Corzine’s former policy counsel is back from his first trip to Israel with fresh perspectives on sustainability policies in the Jewish state.
“It was incredibly enlightening,” said Adam Zellner, president and CEO of the New Brunswick-based Greener By Design, of his late-February trip.

One highlight of the trip was a visit to Kibbutz Lotan in Israel’s Arava Valley — a kibbutz dedicated to creative ecology, renewable water supplies, and sustainable living, according to Zellner.

“It was phenomenal — the incredible amount of sustainable techniques they’re using,” said Zellner, a specialist in managing environmental assets and energy use. “If we could take that and expand on it, there are incredible applications in the United States. I can’t tell you how impressed I was.”

Lotan's Green Apprenticeship - the promo video

2009-03-29T15:37:00.003-04:00

Is anyone you know looking for something special to do in Israel? If they're thinking of coming in the spring or fall, or winter, please send them a link to this video. The Green Apprenticeship doesn't run in the height of the summer, because of the heat, but any other time of year, this is a life changing experience!

Birkat HaChammah is coming soon - in less than two weeks!

2009-03-27T15:31:00.000-04:00

For Liberal Jews, Sunup On A Rare Ritual

At sunrise on April 8, the eve of Passover, a group of Jews from the Upper West Side will gather on the roof of the JCC in Manhattan. Organized by Hazon, the New York-based group that works for a “more sustainable Jewish community,” the early-morning risers will say some prayers, do some yoga and burn some chametz.
When the sun appears over the Atlantic that morning, a similar scene will take place on Miami Beach.

Al Gore on what's next - start watching at 26:00

2009-03-25T22:45:00.002-04:00

Around 29 minutes, Gore uses a great metaphor to describe the reason that the global warming thing is missing the urgency it needs to have to create change.

Shai Agassi talking up Better Place at Web2.0

2009-03-25T20:19:00.001-04:00

Hat tip to MetroGreen

Video of the original Freedom Seder, April 4, 1969

2009-03-24T21:06:00.000-04:00

Bradley Burston again - on Lieberman and Anne Roiphe

2009-03-16T19:35:00.000-04:00

The racist Israeli fascist in me - Haaretz - Israel News
If you STILL don't understand why the Israeli electorate voted for a right-wing majority, read what Bradley Burston has to say. It's a slap in the face to the liberal Jewish handwringers (myself among them) who are still trying to understand Israel's heavy handed war on Gaza in January, and why it was that there is absolutely no one (or so it seems) in Israel who opposed it.

What, then, explains the incomprehensible behavior of these people, my friends? What common denominator, other than evil intention, can explain the continued occupation of the West Bank, the risk of demographic disaster, the ill-understood rage of a people cast as the sole perpetrator of and, if at times the victim, then certainly the deserving victim of, wrongdoing?

You won't like the answer. But in all the blindingly complex bazaar of the Middle East equation, it really comes down to one word: rockets.

...

Nothing that Israel has tried, neither diplomacy nor brutality, has been able to stop the rockets. Only Hamas can do that. The world and Washington could have made the rockets a priority years ago, and perhaps brought this to resolution. But the world has other things to think about, and Washington as well.

I will be glad to see Burston proved right, and the Netanyahu/Lieberman government make a serious peace deal with the Palestinians. But I can't help thinking about Avrum Burg's dire warnings that Israel is headed down the same road that Weimar Germany was heading in 1933.

It would be too cruel an irony to come true, right?

Needed: a new paradigm

2009-02-20T14:35:00.003-05:00

I don't really have time for a blog post, but Paul Krugman quoted the minutes of a Federal Reserve open markets committee meeting in his column today.

“All participants anticipated that unemployment would remain substantially above its longer-run sustainable rate at the end of 2011, even absent further economic shocks; a few indicated that more than five to six years would be needed for the economy to converge to a longer-run path characterized by sustainable rates of output growth and unemployment and by an appropriate rate of inflation.”

Which reminds me of a piece I heard on NPR this morning:

"These folks who would otherwise be on a roof or in a kitchen or making a bed are back in the ag field," Muthart says.

And that reminded me of Michael Pollan's call for a new "Back to the Farm" movement. In his five page memo to the new President, Pollan lays out a whole, holistic food policy agenda that reads very well. Among his points, he shows the employment/food connection very clearly, and calls for its reversal:

The average American farmer today is 55 years old; we shouldn't expect these farmers to embrace the sort of complex ecological approach to agriculture that is called for. Our focus should be on teaching ecological farming systems to students entering land-grant colleges today. For decades now, it has been federal policy to shrink the number of farmers in America by promoting capital-intensive monoculture and consolidation. As a society, we devalued farming as an occupation and encouraged the best students to leave the farm for "better" jobs in the city. We emptied America's rural counties in order to supply workers to urban factories. To put it bluntly, we now need to reverse course. We need more highly skilled small farmers in more places all across America -- not as a matter of nostalgia for the agrarian past but as a matter of national security.

Seems like Pollan's prayer should get some answers from Washington before it is answered catastrophically in California's lettuce fields...

Which brings me to the title of this post, which is a quote from my dear wife, Eliza, who said this morning that really what is needed is a post-market economic paradigm. In the same way that Newtonian mechanism lost out to a more flexible scientific paradigm, so must Friedmanian freemarket economics give way to a more flexible economic paradigm.

The sooner, the better, or as we say in the Holy tongue, ויפה שעה אחת קודם.

Dr. Eli Lasch interviews Dr Eyad El Sarraj

2009-02-20T14:35:00.001-05:00

Dr. Eli Lasch was the director of Health Services in Gaza before the Oslo accords, and now resides in Germany. Dr. Eyad El-Sarraj is the director of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program.

Read the interview here.

Kibbutz Lotan Infomercial - Watch this!

2009-02-08T08:10:00.001-05:00

Maybe a little more of this would be a good antidote

2008-12-27T22:13:00.002-05:00

Maybe, just maybe, more things like this can counteract some of the bad news coming out of Israel right now...

Rabbi Debra Orenstein's Hannukah meditation

2008-12-22T12:03:00.001-05:00

My teacher, Rabbi Debra Orenstein, like many, has posted a Hannukah message and meditation, for her Congregation, Makom Ohr Shalom, in Los Angeles. I was particularly taken by this quote:
Hanukah Essay and Meditations

We talk about the Hanukah miracle, but Hanukah miracles abound. My father, Rabbi Jehiel Orenstein, is only partly joking when he says, “The real miracle of Hanukah is that five sons listened to one father!”

Astrologers predict serious changes - Pluto moves into Capricorn

2008-12-19T10:41:00.001-05:00

Pluto in Capricorn - January, 2008 - March, 2023.
After 12 years, Pluto is changing signs. It moves into Capricorn on January 25, 2008 at 6:37 pm PST; its ever challenging energy forcing us to grow; challenging us to stand up to it....reaping rewards of empowerment when we do and succeed. Pluto takes 15 years to go thru Capricorn. It's starting to slow down again. It took 18+ years for it to go thru Leo in the 40s and 50s, and then it sped up and went 12 years thru Virgo, Libra, Scorpio and Sag...now it's going to slow down again in it's orbit. Actually, the planets have orbits that are not completely circular, so that they appear to be slowing down and speeding up; it's just the phase of the orbit they are in which creates the effect.
Pluto and Saturn are the taskmasters of the zodiac. They don't let us get away with anything.

Saturn manifests the emotional blocks which keep us from moving forward, which Pluto triggered the in the past, which we sent underground, challenging us to grow, throwing us into the fires of transformation. When Pluto exits a sign, we are never the person who entered it....thru tempering and testing and transformation, we've grown, we're stronger, and we look at life from a far different perspective. The naive person who entered, emerges as a more empowered being....at least that's the potential. This period will be best for the earth signs.

Pluto conjuncts Capricorn, which will test but eventually bring empowerment for Caps....trine Taurus and Virgo, so all that they have endured so far will reap some rewards. Air signs find Pluto in their money houses, which can see a drop initially, but then a straight building up afterwards. Water signs are involved in communication and relationships, while Fire signs deal with family and mate.

It's the cardinal grand cross, of Aries, Cancer and Libra - with Capricorn - who are going to have transformative changes in their lives.

For you Capricorn, you had a relatively quiet period as Pluto traversed the 12th, the hidden, behind the scenes. Your mates may have had power struggles on the job. However, you may have had someone plotting behind the scenes against your best interests. Did you discover who that was?
Now, as Pluto moves into Capricorn, you are moving into a time of empowerment. There may be a challenge here and there, but ultimately, it's like Pluto in the 10th - Capricorn's house - time to ascend the throne and accept your power. You can move in to a position of authority and control, now. You can be challenged by someone already there who fears the competition, but you've been thru enough Saturn/Pluto aspects to know what you're getting in to. Pluto brings a power figure, maybe a narcissist, into whatever sign it goes in to....just make sure that isn't you. You want Pluto to empower you, not turn you into power freak. Hold your own, don't be intimidated, and you'll be fine. Just watch your back.

also !

Mercury retrogrades 4 times this year:
January 11th - February 2nd: Aquarius
May 7th - May 31st: Gemini/Taurus
September 7th - September 29th:Libra/Virgo
December 24th - January 15th/2009: Libra/Virgo
We have one of those rare years when Mercury retrogrades 4 times. We're moving out of Air signs and into Earth signs....that will be a relief for all computer devotees who see their precious computers run amuk when Mercury retros in an air sign. Doesn't mean we won't have computer glitches, but not to the extent when they are in air. In 2008, the Gemini retrograde in May/June was particularly troubling, with Mercury (communication) retrograding in its own sign.
Mercury retrograde (any retrograde) can be likened to two trains on parallel tracks going at the same speed. When one starts to move faster, the other one 'seems' to be going backwards.

Whew! I'm sure many of my friends will be surprised that I give any credence to astrology, but I always have, so there. The Rambam did too, I think, and Ralbag was one of the leading astrologers of his time, so I don't think I'm alone among the Jews to do so.

This event seems quite strong, both generally (who would disagree that the last 12 years saw momentous changes in the world?), and for my family - I'm Libra, my son is Capricorn, and my wife is Taurus (in that trine mentioned above).

So thanks to Rabbi Rayzel Raphael for the heads-up!

My[ADVICE TO]BarackObama.com

2008-11-19T13:47:00.001-05:00

I got an email from David Plouffe this morning. So what's new.

It wasn't, obviously, personal, I don't know him personally. It was a request to fill in a survey for MyBarackObama.com, the Obama Campaign's successful social networking site. The survey asked some open ended questions, in addition to making sure that they have all the demographic details right. What follows is more or less what I wrote to them. I thought it was pretty lucid, so here it is:

OPTIONAL: How would you like to see this organization move forward in the months and years ahead? And how would you like to be engaged as a volunteer and organizer?:

I'm honestly disturbed by the continuation of the campaign as an organizing structure - it's no longer for the issues, but now for the president of the country. The president, by virute of his position, has an organizing structure - the executive branch of government. The notions of "permanent campaign" are too chillingly similar to Lenin's "permanent revolution" or even, God forbid, to Orwell's dystopias of "Animal Farm" and "1984".

I would, on the other hand, be thrilled to see this movement morph into a "Great Society" kind of campaign to even the socio-political playing field in this country, and also to bring this style of community organizing to other countries.

Barack Obama campaigned against the cult of personality that McCain accused him of, and I think for the movement to really move forward, it must remove his name from its title. Once the candidate is elected, he becomes identified with the position, the government, and the power structure. Popular movements must never become connected with either persons or power structures, if they are to remain either popular or movements.

I would suggest gradually disconnecting the movement from the president, maybe at first calling it "Barack Obama's Movement for Hope and Change" to "Movement for Hope and Change" - though the moniker "change" is obviously problematic. Perhaps "United for Hope and Justice". What's important is that I stop feeling like I'm getting emails from "Big Brother", and the subjectivity of that is obviously hard to measure.

The challenge of aspiring to create a society of decency and mutual aid, in which citizens trust one another to seek each others' best interest, has been the challenge of human society from the moment we stood erect. All major religions preach it, as do most schools of philosophy.

I have no doubt that Barack Obama will be a great American President, and following his leadership, this country may be able to lead the world forward to a new phase of civilization. But there are an unknown number of unknown quantities facing us - what Nasim Nicholas Taleb calls Black Swans. So the chances are not phenomenal. God's will will surely play a role, as will the wills of individual people, not all of whom will have good intentions.

OPTIONAL: What first inspired you to join the campaign?

I had been an Edwards supporter. When I returned to the US in 2007 (after 20 years abroad), I researched the candidates' positions on Environment, which is the overwhelming issue of our time, and decided Edwards was the best. But then he fell out of the race, and I saw that it would be either Clinton or Obama. I had the opportunity to attend Obama's rally at Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial in Pittsburgh on March 14. I was really moved to hear a political candidate use the language of faith to declare the liberal social and economic positions that I draw directly from the teachings of Hillel, from the Biblical injunction to love the other.

I was also impressed with Mr. Obama's steadfast refusal to simplify tremendously complex issues, even in his stump speeches, and finally, his ability to tell his audience a story of America that embodies hope - that follows a spiral towards a better future, rather than the sermon of apocalypse that Bush has been preaching since 1999.

In the Jewish tradition, we have an expression: "Yehi Ratzon milFanekha" to preface petitions to God. It is usually translated "May it be Your Will", but it really means "May Will move outward from You" - so my prayer for this moment is that the Will to goodness and trust move outward from God, through each person, until all people in this country and in the world see themselves and each other as trustworthy agents for the greater good.

Candidate Barack Obama renewed my faith that America can be a force for this good, faith that had been shattered by Reagan in 1980. I pray that as president Obama can really deliver on his promises.

But it is we, the people, who need to change, and Obama can only do so much to lead us where the darker sides of our nature don't want to go.

מי זה אנחנו? ולמה באמת נוכל?

2008-11-17T13:36:00.001-05:00

מי זה אנחנו? ולמה באמת נוכל?

ביום שלישי, 4 בנובמבר, כמו רוב האמריקנים, הלכתי להצביע. לא היו תורים, לא היו בעיות. נתתי את הרשיון שלי לפקידה, שמצאה את שמי בפנקס הבוחרים. היא ביקשה שאוודא את הפרטים, דיברה עם הפקידה השניה, שתיהן רשמו מספר סידורי בפנקסים, ופקיד שלישי הביא אותי אל הקלפי. "השתמשת בטאץ' סקרין?" הוא שאל, כשהוא משלשל את הספח של הפתק שלי למעטפה שעל גבי המכשיר, והושיט לי את הקבלה. "כן", עניתי. "גם בפריימריס, גם בשנה שעברה הצבעתי כך." "אז אתה יודע מה עליך לעשות?" הוא וידא. הוא הכניס את המפתח המגנטי למכשיר, הוציא אותו, ובירך אותי "בהצלחה".

בחרתי להצביע על המועמדים אחד אחד. היו רמזים בתקשורת שבחירת הקו המפלגתי המלא לא נרשם בחלק מהמכשירים שמשתמשים באוהיו, אז ליתר בטחון, למרות שלא נודע על בעיה כזאת כאן. אין לי כל כך הרבה דאגה הפעם. בשנה שעברה, בבחירות מוניציפליות, שאלתי אם אפשר לקבל פלט על גבי נייר, כדי לוודא שקולי נספר, ואמרו לי שלא, לא בפנסילבניה. ניחה. הפעם, כבר הבנתי שזאת לא אפשרות. אותם הדאגות והאיומים שהאיבו על הבחירות ב-2004, בעקבות מה שקרה בפלורידה ב-2000, נעלמו כלא היו.

נגעתי בכפתורים כפי שהופיעו על הצג - בעד האלקטורים עבור ברק אובמה וג'ו ביידן, דמוקרטים. בעד הציר המכהן בבית הנבחרים, דמוקרט. בעד גזבר מדינה, דמוקרט. ועוד כמה, כולם בטור הדמוקרטי. ואז במסך הבא, בעד שהמדינה תציע למכירה איגרות חוב על סך 400,000,000$ עבור תיקוני ביוב ומים. מצב התשתיות פה הוא על הפנים. הכל קורס. אפשר לחשוב שפה זה עולם שלישי. כשהיגעתי בקיץ 07, היה פיצוץ בקו מים ראשי בעיר ולא היו מים כמעט יומיים, כי הבית שלנו על ראש גבעה. כעבור כמה שבועות, כשנסעתי לכנס לשבוע, אשתי התקשרה - היתה סופת גשמים קשה ונותק החשמל. בסדר, אבל מדובר בהפסקת חשמל שנמשך שלושה ימים. בצד השני של הרחוב החשמל חזר כעבור יום וחצי, ובבניין דירות לידנו חזר מיד, אצל חמותי חזר באותו היום, אבל אצלנו, שישה בתים קטנים צפופים ברחוב צדדי, לקח עוד. לא ידענו מה להרגיש כשגילינו שבמדינת הזהב הכל כבר התקלקל.

בחדר שבו התקיימו הבחירות, לחצתי על הכפתור האדום שבו רשום VOTE וקולי נספר, נודע לי בצג. או אולי הוא נעלם, חששתי. הלכתי הביתה. החלפתי חולצה וחבשתי את הכובע עם הכתובית OBAMA, והלכתי למשרד של מערכת הבחירות להתנדב. היה זה בחנות פנויה בשכונה, בין אחת הפיצריות לבין קיוסק עיתונים. המקום המה אדם. המה ממש. יום קודם הלכתי להתנדב והיו אולי עשרה. היום לפחות 50. תיכוניסטים, מבוגרים, זקנים. גברים ונשים בערך במספרים זהים, רובם לבנים, אם כי לא כולם. חמותי היתה שם, ובירכה אותי בשלום חייכני. כפנסיונרית, היא התנדבה שם כל יום למשך השבועיים האחרונים. יום אחד, היא סיפרה, נכנס בחור ישיבה חרדי, עם חליפה שחורה ופיאות ארוכות. הוא ביקש מדבקות ושלטים. היא אמרה לו "נחמד לראות שיש אנשים מהקהילה שלך שתומכים", בדרך נימוס. הוא הסביר לה שזה הצעירים בעיקר. היהודים ברובם תומכי אובמה, אבל בקהילה החרדית מחולקים. בית כנסת אורטודוקסי אחד מוכר כיותר ימיני, כמו כן בית חב"ד, אך בבית הכנסת האורטודוקסי הגדול בעיר, הרוב תומכי אובמה. בחנות היודאיקה מוכרים כיפות התומכות בשני המועמדים, אם כי אני בטוח שלא תורמים את הכסף לאף אחד. קיבלתי כיפת אובמה ליום הולדת, וחבשתי אותו כל השבועיים האחרונים. תפילתי לעת הרצון הזה.

במשרד הקמפיין ההומה הייתי בקבוצה האחרונה של "תולי הדלתות". גם יום קודם תליתי תליונים, ואלה חדשים. הקמפיין הזה הציב שיאים חדשים בדברים האלה, היות והכסף לא היווה שום מכשול. כל תליון מודפס עם הכתובת של מקום הקלפי. ביום הקודם התבלבלו בשכונה אחת, והמדריך היה עצבני. "מדברים כאלה אנחנו מנסים להימנע", הוא אמר, מרמז כי בצד השני יש ארגונים שלמים המיועדים לטעטע ולבלבל בוחרים בשכונות מיעוטים. פה הארגון היה מדהים והמשמעת מופתי. לקחתי את החבילה האחרונה של התליונים, ויצאתי לדרך לבדי. בדרך כלל מעדיפים שילכו שניים. על רשימת הכתובות היה פתק "רק 7 בתים, וחלק עם מדרגות תלולות." הלכתי חזרה הביתה לקחת את האוטו, כי השכונה היה רחוק מהמשרד. ארבעה בתים בודדים, הכל בסדר. בבית דירות קטן, היו ארבע שמות. השארתי תליון אחד ועברתי לבית הבא. בחזרה, עצר אותי איש מאותו בית דירות. "קח את זה, אנחנו פה כולם משפחה אחת, כולם רפובליקנים. לך ותלה את זה בבית אחר." הסתכלתי על הרשימה שלי. ראיתי שכל מי שהיה רשום לי אצלו בבית הדירות היו הנשים. בירכתי אותו ב"אל תשכח להצביע", והלכתי חזרה לאוטו. התחושה לא נעימה. חזרתי הביתה לחנות, וחזרתי למשרד. הלכתי שלושה קילומטרים, כדי לתלות תליונים ב-7 בתים. הרגשתי שאני מבזבז את הזמן.

חמותי עדיין היתה במשרד הקמפיין, לקבל את החבילות החוזרות. "סיכמת את הבתים?" היא שאלה. אמרתי כן, והוספתי שבית דירות גדול אחד של דיור מוגן היה בחבילה שלי ולא ניגשתי כי אין כניסה לדברים כאלה. "אמרתי להם להוציא את זה מהחבילה", היא אמרה, וחזרה על זה למתנדבת שישבה וסיכמה את הסיכומים. תוכננו עוד שלושה סיבובים של דפיקה על דלת ביום הבחירות, והמתנדבים נכנסו למשרד ללא פסק. נשארתי עוד כמה דקות, אך הרגשתי לגמרי מיותר. השעה היתה קרובה לצהריים, והייתי רעב, אז הלכתי הביתה.

בדרכי הביתה, ראיתי כמה תיכוניסטים מתנדבים. תהיתי אם יש להם בית ספר. אין חופשה ביום הבחירות כאן, כמו בארץ. אבל בתי ספר אחדים, שבהם מוצבים קלפיות רבים, משחררים את התלמידים. וגם יש כאלה שההורים משחררים אותם כדי שהם יכולים להתנדב. חשבתי על עוד הבדלים בין הבחירות פה ובארץ. פה זה חג שחוזר על עצמו בקביעות - הבחירות תמיד ביום שלישי הראשון, אחרי יום שני הראשון בנובמבר. למה? כי עד נובמבר, בימי ראשית הדמוקרטיה האמריקאנית, רוב התבואה נאסף, והשדות נחרשו, אך החורף טרם הגיע. היום בשבוע הוא ברור - יום ראשון הרי הוא השבת של הרוב הנוצרי, יום שני יום שוק, אז ביום שלישי החקלאים יכולים לעלות על סוס ולהגיע לעיירה. אין כל כך סיבה לכך היום. ברוב המדינות יש כבר הצבעה מוקדמת - קלפיות אחדים נפתחים כל יום. במדינת ואשינגטון, 53% הצביעו מוקדם, ובפלורידה כמעט 50%, ובאורגון בכלל לא מציבים קלפיות - כולם מצביעים בדואר כבר עשר שנים. אך פה בפנסילבניה, השיטה הישנה ממשיכה. רק שהיום מצביעים על מכשיר ממוחשב.

אני זוכר בחירות במאה הקודם (לפני 20 שנה) שהיינו מצביעים במכונות מכניות, כמו ארונות. הבנתי שבניו יורק עדיין משתמשים בהן. אתה נכנס ומעביר ידית גדולה שסוגרת את הוילון. אז אתה מזיז מתגים ליד השמות שאתה בוחר, ובסוף, את הידית הגדולה, שפותחת את הוילון וסופרת את הקולות ומאפסת את המכונה בבת אחת, בליווי צליל רעשני "קא-צ'אנג". יש משהו מאד מרשים ומשביע בצליל הזה.

כשהלכתי להצביע פעם ראשונה בארץ, התגעגתי לצליל של מכונת ההצבעה. די צחקתי על פרגוד הקרטון, על ניירות הקלפי הדקות, כמו ניירות טבק. שלשול המעטפה לתוך הקלפי, אם פתק אחד בלבד בתוכו, נראה לי משחק ילדים, לעומת המכונות המפלצתיות. אם השנים התגלתה לי, אבל, כי המכונה שהרשימה אותי כל כך בתור ילד, ניתנת לזיוף בקלות, ונחשבת על ידי צופים בינלאומיים כשיטה בעייתית.

עם השנים, התרגלתי לקלפי הישראלי, אבל, וכשהיגעתי לארה"ב, הופתעתי מהשיטה הממוחשבת החדשה שמשתמשים פה. זאת ועוד - כשהלכתי להצביע לנשיאות, הרגשתי עצבות מסוימת. הלכתי הביתה. בדרך, קראתי ספר על התפתחות התודעה האנושית על פי הפילוסופיה האינטגרלית. מעבר לפוסט-מודרניזם. יחד עם ההתקדמות לקראת הבית, התחלתי להבין את מצב הרוח הקודר שלי.

כשעליתי לארץ, בסוף שנות השמונים של המאה הקודמת, היתה לי מוטיבציה כפולה. מצד אחד, משכה אותי התלהבות ציונית אמיתית. באמת האמנתי במדינת יהודים בארץ הקודש, ורציתי בכנות להיות חלק ממנה. אך מידת הדחייה שלי מארצות הברית היתה גדולה גם היא. אחרי שמונה שנים של רייגן, ועוד מערכת הבחירות המרירה של בוש נגד דוקאקיס, הרגשתי שאני כבר לא יכול לחיות בארה"ב. חומת ברלין טרם נפלה, ועידן הפרוספריטי של בועת ההי טק טרם נראה באופק.

החוויה שלי בזמן ההוא היתה של ניכור כמעט אכזרי - הממשלה הפדרלית הפסיקה סובסידיות למדינות וערים, והצימצומים באו בכל הרמות - החולים שפונו מבתי החולים הפסיכיאטרים להסתובב ברחובות היו רק הסימנים הבוטים ביותר. האווירה היתה רעילה - כולם האשימו את כולם - ארגוני סעד האשימו את הממשלה, הנשיא האשים את אמהות מקבלות הסעד בגניבה מהכיס הציבורי. המפלגה הרפובליקנית ניצלה את הפחדים של הבוחרים נגד דוקאקיס בבחירות - היתה זאת השנה של הפרסומת המפורסמת בכיכובו של וילי הורטון, אנס ורוצח שביצע עוד אונס ורצח בחופשה מהכלא במסאצ'וסטס בתקופת כהונתו של דוקאקיס כמושל. רציתי לברוח.

במרוצת השנים, לא הצבעתי בבחירות אמריקניות. בשנות ה-90, לא היה לי עניין. היה יותר מדי התרגשות בארץ. היו סקאדים - יכולתי להאשים את בוש. אז נבחר קלינטון, והתחילו שיחות השלום. הרגשתי לגמרי מנוכר מארה"ב ולגמרי מזוהה עם מדינת ישראל שעושה שלום. פיתוח האינטרנט קירב אותי לחברים, ועד שנת 2000, כבר היה לי יותר עניין בבחירות אמריקניות. כמו כולם, עקבתי אחרי תוצאות הבחירות באותה מערכת בחירות ערורה, עם הצ'ד התלוי בפלורידה והטית התוצאה על ידי בית המשפט העליון.

ואז בא עידן בוש. ואז בא 9/11. באותו יום, הייתי במילואים. ישנתי לפני משמרת, ושמעתי את החבר'ה אומרים "תאירו את דניאל, הוא אמריקאי, לא?". הייתי מרותק לטלוויזיה שלושה ימים. היתה זאת התקופה שחברת יס חילקה מכשירים לכל מוצב צה"לי - כל פעם שנכנסתי לחדר, העברתי את הערוץ ל-CNN. אחרי שבוע, אחד החבר'ה ביקש להעביר ערוץ לראות משחק, והבנתי שאני פתאום מזדהה יותר כאמריקאי מאשר כישראלי.

העניין הזה מוזר. זהות. מהי? בילדות, בארה"ב, הרגשתי אאוטסיידר, לא שייך. חיפשתי לאן לשייך את עצמי, ביררתי את מעגלי הזהות, ומה שנדבקה טוב היתה הזהות היהודית. זה לא מובן מאליו. יכולתי למרוד בדרכים אחרות, אבל בין האפשרויות, זה הכי התאים. אך בארץ, היתה לי תחושה שאנשים לא כולם מבינים את משחק הזהות שכל כך ברורה לי. הרבה שאלו "למה היית עוזב שם?" כאילו באמריקה אפשר הכל.

והנה, עברו שנים. בכל זאת באתי חזרה, אם כי לתקופה קצרה. וברור כבר כי אי אפשר שלא להצביע - כאילו הנשיא של ארה"ב לא קשור לישראל. כאילו יש כבר ממשלה כלל עולמי ששמה לב אם אתה מצביע בשתי מדינות, כמו בארה"ב. מה גם, פגשתי מועמד חדש, איש שמדבר על העניין הזה של זהות, ושל שייכות.

במרץ, כבר היה ברור שג'ון אדוורדס לא יגיע לשום הישג בפריימריס. לפני החלו ההצבעות, המצע שלו היה הכי חזק בשני הנושאים שעניינו אותי - הסביבה והאיגודים המקצועיים. אבל הוא נפל חזק באייווה, ולא הצליח לקבל קולות גם בניו המפשיר. באמצע מרץ, בא ברק אובמה לנאום בפיטסבורג. הגיס שלי היה כבר תומך נלהב, והוא אמר שכדאי ללכת. חמותי, שלכל הדעות היתה צריכה לתמוך בהילרי, אף היא היתה בעדו. שמעתי כמה דברים ברדיו, והסתכרנתי. ביום רביעי, הלכתי למשרד של מערכת הבחירות לקבל כרטיסים. פגשתי את חמותי בתור. היה זה יום שטוף שמש אחרי חודשים של עננים וקור, והיתה הרגשה של קרנבל. התור הסתרך מסביב שני רחובות. אנשים מכל סוג וצורה חיכו שם, והכי מפתיע, דיברו אחד עם השני. לבנים, שחורים, צעירים, מבוגרים. היתה אווירה מחשמלת שם, באיסט ליברטי, באותה שכונה ממש שאני זוכר את אמא שלי מסיעה את המנקה הביתה כשהיו מהומות בעקבות רצח מרטין לותר קינג, ג'ר לפני 40 שנה. היא לקחה אותי באוטו, כי האמינה שלא יתקפו אוטו עם ילד קטן בפנים. אבל אני זוכר את המתח ברחוב אז - ואילו היום ההפך הגמור. אמנם שכונה עדיין לא משהו, אבל באותו היום במרץ 2008, יכולת לטעום את התקווה.

ביום שישי, 14 במרץ, הבת שלי, בכיתה ז', נשארה מבית הספר ובאה איתנו לאסיפת הבחירות. היה מעונן ורוח קרה נשבה כל העת שחיכינו בתור. חמותי פגשה ידידה שכבר מתנבת במערכת הבחירות של אובמה, והעברנו את הזמן בדיבורים. מעבר לרחוב היתה הפגנה של תומכי הילרי, ושני הקבוצות החליפו האשמות מפעם לפעם, בידיעה שלפריימריס של פנסילבניה יש עוד יותר מחודש. כשהתקרבנו לדלתות, בחורה שאלה אם אנחנו מסכימים לשבת על הבמה. בטח, ענינו, ומיד חושבים מה גרם לה לבחור אותנו, האם שתי הנשים המבוגרות, או שמא הילדה הצעירה. עלינו לבמה, ושם הברר עד מהרה כי אין חמישה מקומות ביחד, מלבד השורה הראשונה. לכן התיישבנו בשורה הראשונה. מעלינו, על קיר האולם, התנוססו באותיות קידוש לבנה מילות הנאום המפורסם של אברהם לינקולן באזכרה בשדה הקרב של גטיסבורג ב-1863. אף לינקולן היה סנטור צעיר מאילינוי.

היות וישבנו על הבמה, הצטלמנו יחד אם הסנטור הצעיר של פנסילבניה, בוב קייסי, והמועמד אובמה. לא יכולנו להירגע, וגם לא לראות כל כך את הנאומים, כי הזרקורים סינוורו אותנו. אבל לשמוע, שמענו, ועוד איך. מה שבלט לי מנאומו היו הסיפורים. אובמה יודע להקשיב לאנשים ולשמוע מהם סיפור אישי באוזן שמתרגמת אותו לסיפור אוניברסלי. הוא מספר את הסיפור של כורה פחם מקומי כאילו היה זה סיפורו של הדוד האהוב עליו. אבל בלט עוד משהו, לאורך כל הקמפיין - דבר שציין אותו לא מזמן ניקולס קריסטוף, בעל טור בניו יורק טיימס - וזאת היכולת להשאיר את המצבים המורכבים של ניהול העולם כמורכבים, ואף להנות מהמורכבות הזאת. שלא כמו רוב הפוליטיקאים, ציין קריסטוף, אובמה מכוון אל החלק החכם של הקהל - בעימות האחרון בין המועמדים לנשיאות, מקקיין דיבר ברמה של כיתה ז', ואילו אובמה דיבר ברמה של כיתה ט'. אף זה נמוך מהדיבור של קנדי וניקסון בעימות ב-1960, אבל יותר גבוה מבוש וגור ב-2000, שדיברו שניהם ברמה של כיתה ו'. (ניקולס קריסטוף NYT נובמבר 10, 08) ובכן, בסוף אסיפת הבחירות, יכולנו ללחוץ את ידו של אובמה, והבת שלי ביקשה את חתימתו, ואחריה עשרות אחרים. המועמד היה עדיין צעיר מספיק שהוא הסכים לחתום על הפנקס של הבת שלי, אך למבוגרים אמר שיחתום רק על עותקים של הספרים שלו. הללו הוחזרו אחרי שעה קלה, ויצאנו הביתה בקור הפיטסבורגי, מחוממים מתקווה חדשה.

נ.ב. אתמול, קראתי בעיתון כי מערכת הבחירות של ביבי נתניהו אימץ את הסממנים של הקמפיין של אובמה, כולל הצבעים, כולל הסיסמה, "כן אנו יכולים", אם כי ללא התקווה הכרוכה בבחירתו של אובמה. כי ביבי הוא לא אובמה, והליכוד היא לא המפלגה הדמוקרטית. זאת למרות שהליכוד כבר מזמן לא מפלגת השלטון. כי סיפורו האישי של אובמה הוא הסיפור האמריקני האולטימטיבי, בן של אישה לבנה ואב שחור, מתמודד עם הפליה בבית הספר, איש שמהווה את השילוב והמיזוג של שחוויה העירוני האמריקני. נתניהו בנה את כל הקריירה שלו על רטוריקה של הפחדה ופנה תמיד לרגשות הכי אפלים של בוחריו. אובמה הוא ההיפך הגמור – כל מערכת הבחירות שלו, כמו זה של ג'ון קנדי ב-1960, התבסס על הקריאה לבוחרים לעלות מעל לפחדים, מעבר לסטיגמות ולאמץ את החזון הכי אופטימי שרק אפשר לדמיין מבלי לאבד את השפיות. “כן אנו יכולים" היא סיסמה שטומנת בלב השומע והמשנן גם יחד את זרעי התקווה לחברה אנושית יותר. אימוצו הציני של נתניהו את הסיסמאות והגרפיקה לא יצליח להלביש רטוריקה של הפחדה בבד הזה.

ארצות הברית היא המדינה הליברלית בה"ה הידיעה. ואילו ישראל בעצם היותה מדינה, הינה מדינה לאומית. לו היתה באירופה, כמו סלובניה, אולי, היא היתה המדינה הלאומית בה"ה הידיעה. אפשר לומר שלימדנו את תורת הלאומיות לעולם, או ליתר הדיוק, בנינו מדינת לאום לתפארת, באיחור של מחצית המאה ובמקום שלא כל כך מאפשר הקמה של קונפדרציות מהסוג האירופית. למיודעינו האירופים לקח היסטוריה של כמה מאות שנים רצופת מלחמות ורווית דמים. מי יתן ילנו במזרח התיכון יקח מעט פחות. לאובמה יש סיסמה בשבילנו - כן, אנו יכולים. אבל ביחד, ולא לחוד.

Michael Pollan takes on American Farm Policy in an Open Letter to the next President of the USA

2008-10-20T15:41:00.001-04:00

The Food Issue - An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief - Michael Pollan - NYTimes.com

Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda.

Since Israeli policy is so closely modeled on US policy, how could Pollan's proposals be implemented in the Holy Land?

Frank Rich nails the Republican racists

2008-10-11T23:34:00.002-04:00

Op-Ed Columnist - The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama - NYTimes.com

From the start, there have always been two separate but equal questions about race in this election. Is there still enough racism in America to prevent a black man from being elected president no matter what? And, will Republicans play the race card? The jury is out on the first question until Nov. 4. But we now have the unambiguous answer to the second: Yes.

Enough! This is reminiscent of Netanyahu's Spring 1995 rallies at which Rabin was pilloried as a Nazi...

UPDATE Oct. 12: Following the appearance of the comment below, I want to make it clear that I do not approve of the comment, nor the attacks on Obama that have been shouted at various rallies. McCain and Palin need to stop their speeches if and when they hear or hear of these attacks, and call their followers to order. This is 180 degrees away from the kind of candidate McCain was in the primaries, in 2000, or in his 26 years in the Senate.

Yossi Klein HaLevi on IsraelSeen

2008-10-05T08:18:00.001-04:00

Listen to this podcast of Yossi Klein HaLevi talking about "What does it mean to get back to ourselves to God?" - a teshuva talk. Vital listening for the run up to Yom Kippur.

Take a few thoughts and return to God...

Israelis for Obama - the video

2008-09-24T13:01:00.002-04:00

This one doesn't carry the "I'm Barack Obama, and I approve this message" tag, but if there are any Jews out there who are still wavering because of some perception about Israel - this is the video for them.

Too bad the first debate is on Shabbat!

Obama campaign takes off the gloves

2008-09-15T12:33:00.002-04:00

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1185304443/bctid1786848892

I don't think this kind of negative ad is particularly problematic - it focuses on McCain's actions, not the kind of Atwater/Rove style attack on the candidate's self.

But I wish the Obama campaign, or the Democratic party would just say "The last eight years of Republican Party rule have wrecked our country and gutted our constitution, let's kick them the #@$% out of Washington!"

Now that would be an ad I'd support.

Shabbat rest

2008-09-08T10:07:00.002-04:00

The Daily Maggid from Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum

Today, R' Yitzchak Buxbaum sent this out on his email list:

Sleeping

A certain hasid complained to Rebbe Hayim of Tzanz, "Every week I come to the Friday night Shabbos meal, tired and worn out after work, and I fall asleep at the table! Perhaps I should go home first, sleep for a little while, and then come to the meal?" The Rebbe answered him gently, saying, "When a person is riding on a train, he looks out of the window because he wants to enjoy the sights and vistas that pass by. If he falls asleep and loses out on seeing this, it’s sad. Yet if he dozes off because he’s tired, he still continues to travel and together with everyone else arrives at the destination. But if a person never gets on the train and doesn't travel, he can’t arrive at the destination!"

Or Hayeinu, p. 266.

This teaching is not obvious. If you have a flash of insight, send me your thought.

My response is this:

The Shabbat Table experience, with its singing, its special food, its sweets and wine, (or any particular Shabbat ritual, for that matter) is not the point of Shabbat. It's only the "train" that brings us there.

Rest and rejuvenation are the point, that feeling of sleeping in, with no need to wake up in the morning. So if the Hasid sleeps at the Shabbat table, that's the gift of Shabbat.

Today we might say that re-Jew-venation is also an object of Shabbat, so arriving at the ritual moment at home, and maybe in the Synagogue, too, well rested and "ready to rock", that's another rebbe's Shabbat goal.

Hashem "Shavat VaYinafash" - Shavat is physical rest and stopping of weekday activity. VaYinafash is the ensoulment that we acheive at table, at shul, at our special Shabbat-only activities.

The Best Lines in Obama's Denver speech

2008-08-29T09:31:00.001-04:00

I think what really sold me on Barack Obama back in the spring was his emphasis on dignity and his insistence on a politics of respect, of listening to the other side, of seeking coalitions rather than conflict.

Transcript: Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech : NPR

The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose — our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.

Before last night, I found myself wanting him to really call the Republicans on the crimes of the last 8 years, as crimes and not as failed policy, but clearly, that would not serve anybody's purpose.

Burston again

2008-08-27T11:24:00.000-04:00

What really scares us about Barack Obama - Haaretz - Israel News

...is that he's right. But what we'll miss about Bush is that he was so much fun to make fun of!

Once again, Bradley Burston nails it!

Fox News Channel, as part of its continuing effort to marshal evidence that the media outlets are blasting away at McCain, while giving Obama a pass, recently cited a study showing that in the first seven months of the year, late-night talk show hosts told 549 jokes about John McCain versus only 382 about Obama. Only in passing did they mention that Hillary Clinton had been the subject of 562. They made no mention of the fact that George Bush headed the list at 605.

Remember how the recent New Yorker cover was received?

But that famous Bush humor, Burston rightly notes, was an excellent smoke screen for the dismantling of American Democracy. It worked like a charm in the 2004 election campaign:

And no one was as good as Bush at promulgating - perhaps, also, at himself believing - the big lie. Here, after all, was the man, the moneyed, Yale Skull and Bones legacy son of a moneyed president, grandson of a U.S. Senator trading on his identity as the caricature of the common man, this self-styled rancher, this apparent dirt farmer. A lie as big as the great Texas sky. And Americans lined up to buy it.

It was too scary not to.

Are American Jews really playing around with the idea of voting for John McCain? Let's cut the crap. The only American Presidential Candidate who will be good for the Jews will be the Democratic Party's candidate, Barack Obama.

As Burston said, Israelis are convinced that Obama will be good for Israel, so why is the punditry of American Judaism promulgating fearmongering right-wing Republican party propaganda so blatantly?

The time has come to make it clear - the marriage between the American Jewish Community and the liberal wing of the Democratic party has spawned a sizable group of rebellious offspring who have come of age. Their spokespeople take their cues from Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman.

There is nothing inherently Jewish about their positions. The neo-con version of the Jewish religion is simply self-interested jingoistic nationalism, a far cry from the Deuteronomic command to "love the stranger for you were a stranger in the land of Egypt."

In their view, Tisha B'av is the commemoration of 3000 years of anti-(Jewish) semitism, not, as the Rabbinic Midrash has always taught, of the repetitive failures of the Jewish people ourselves. The Temple was destroyed by Roman oppressors, not because of Baseless Hatred among Jews. So now that we Jews have the upper hand, in our Biblical Homeland as much as in Teaneck and Fairfax, our primary responsibility is only to hang on to what we've got, not ensure equality and fairness.

The neo-cons are leading the Jewish community down the road to our own demise, to a return to the pariah status we held before World War II. It's time to wake up and move on, to return to the politics of empowerment for all, the politics of hope.

Vote Obama!

R' David Seidenberg on Eicha

2008-08-08T09:31:00.001-04:00

Rabbi David Seidenberg has published a very moving and deeply intriguing piece on Eikhah, the book of Lamentations that we read every year on the Ninth of Av, which falls this year on Saturday night.

The Jew and the Carrot » Blog Archive » To Prey or to Pray? The Lessons of Famine on Tisha B’Av

This gets to a deeply emotional point about Eikhah: even though it sounds like it’s about God punishing us, it’s really about us hoping that God still cares enough to punish us. It’s not a theology of evil, but a prayer, a belief that awful occurrences prove that God still does care, instead of proving God’s indifference.

Theodicy is probably the hardest theological juggle - how can God be beneficent and omnipotent at the same time, and take constant interest in every individual? I sometimes think that Ma'aseh Merkavah is really the act of maintaining all three of those "balls" of faith in the air at once.

Orthodox Rabbi calls a spade a spade - finally

2008-08-07T22:30:00.001-04:00

Op-Ed Contributor - Dark Meat - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Hebrew National used to run a commercial that said: “We answer to a Higher Authority.” Well, we do. We need to express shame and embarrassment about the reports coming out of Iowa, and we need to actively work to change these matters.

Finally, an orthodox Rabbi has put his name on the line, calling the Postville case a "desecration" of the Holy Name:

Unfortunately, the responses of the leading Orthodox organizations, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Union, have, in my opinion, fallen far short of what is needed to be done and have done little to diminish the extent of the desecration of God’s name. I am a member of both groups, but I am dissatisfied with their stance, which asks us to sit back patiently and wait for the results of a federal investigation. On some level, this might be prudent, but on another it is unacceptable.

Now it's time for others to come out and join Rabbi Herzfeld's brave stand! There's only so much we as liberal Jews can do here...

ויפה שעה אחת קודם

Yair Caspi's Psychology in Judaism

2008-08-04T10:19:00.001-04:00

פסיכולוגיה ביהדות - ימי עיון וסדנה מתקדמת של פסיכולוגיה ביהדות

יום עיון: היהדות כפסיכולוגיה התפתחותית
מפגש הכרות בן שני חלקים עם הפסיכולוגיה של מקורות ישראל.
חלק א': מקומו של אלוהים בגידול ילדים, בתהליכי התבגרות וביצירת הקשר הזוגי.
חלק ב': כלי העבודה הפסיכולוגיים של מקורות ישראל: הכרת החסד כיסוד לפסיכולוגיה חיובית; מרצון לא מודע לתפילה חופשית; "עבודת אלילים": יסוד הפסיכופתולוגיה האנושית ; פוסט טראומה כניסיון שלא נפתר; פסיכולוגיה ערכית: גילוי ייעוד ותפקיד.
מועד ומקום: יום ג' 16 בספטמבר בין השעות 09:00 – 12:30 במרכז ברודט לתרבות יהודית, צייטלין 22 תל אביב.

If you're in Israel and speak Hebrew, I can't recommend this highly enough!

Rachel's tears set me crying some more

2008-07-27T19:56:00.001-04:00

Velveteen Rabbi: A day in Bethlehem and Hebron

There is so much cause for common ground, but we keep throwing it away, too caught up in our anger and our hurt and the constantly-reverberating drumbeat of our loss and our sorrow.

Please read about Rachel's experiences in Hebron and Bethlehem, and consider the three weeks. How can we sing HaShem's song in any land?

Crying for the exile of the Shekhina

2008-07-21T15:22:00.001-04:00

My God, I cannot hold this all together.

My friend Rachel is in Jerusalem, the city I feel most at home in, the capital of my country, my people. In a recent post, she wrote about this piece, The Palestinian Bar-Mitzvah by Bassam Aramin, one of the founders of Combatants for Peace. It is a heart-wrenching piece about how Bassam's 14 year old son, Arab, reacted to being cruelly detained, along with a whole busload of East Jerusalem residents by Israeli Border Police two weeks ago. May God bless this boy Arab that he retain his adult reaction to the experience, and continue in his father's footsteps in seeking peace.

Then he said something even more surprising. “I want you to take me with you when you go to one of your lectures in Israel so I can tell the Israelis about the practices of their soldiers on that night.” I asked him if he was serious—Arab has always questioned my willingness to talk with the other side and sit down with Israelis in forums like those Combatants for Peace provides. But he insisted, saying, “They have to know what happened so the parents of those soldiers can forbid their children to act that way towards women and children again.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have been here in Pittsburgh, the city of my childhood, where I feel at once at home and at sea, for a year now. A year without seeing my mountains, without feeling my dry desert wind, a year without daily contact with my chaverim. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes it's harder. Reading reports from Israel/Palestine, like the piece by Bassam Aramin, I find myself glad to be away - I can feel much less defensive of the soldiers at 7000 miles. And at the same time, I wish I was home. I probably know some of the soldiers, maybe even since they were infants. I want to talk to them, to ask them how they could lose their humanity, how they could treat people so badly. Living in the Arava, I was always frustrated by the distance. I felt unable to be involved in the Peace movement, and as a result, I watched myself harden and grow to ignore the bad news of the sort this piece carries.

Israel needs to negotiate peace. The Palestinians need to negotiate peace. We all need to renounce force and focus on cooperation. Renounce dualism renounce the us/them dichotomy. Like the Shotei HaNevu'a song, "No one is going to leave here, so start loving."

It all sounds so easy. But if I were hearing my own child telling me the story Bassam Aramin relates, I wouldn't only be crying...

Cantorial woes?

2008-07-17T12:25:00.001-04:00

Sing to the Lord a new song | New Jersey Jewish News

“Each congregation is part of a larger, evolving American-Jewish population that either knows or doesn’t know their rich musical heritage,” said Cantor Erica Lippitz of Oheb Shalom Congregation in South Orange.

Musical outreach poses a dilemma, she said. If contemporary music does indeed get “more people in the door,” is that worth “raising a generation of people ignorant of the depth of the traditional service?” asked Lippitz.

Her biggest concern, she said, is the “profound illiteracy of the American-Jewish community.”

On the other hand: BZ at Jewschool posted this response.

Hazzan Jack Kessler has been at both ends of this spectrum, and presents an interesting solution. Jack is the director of the Aleph Cantorial program as well as leader of the Philadelphia based bands Klingon Klezmer and Atzilut.

Jack's main message about davvening is this: Nusach is the carrier wave. It speaks to us on a different level than prepared or composed music, it is the ethnic heartbeat of our communities.

Ashkenazic Nusach dates back at least to the 14th century, and parts of it are truly ancient. Sefardic Nusach is probably older. Yemenite and Iraqi Nusach may date back to the Temple of Solomon. This is very ancient stuff, and ancient spiritual traditions are really cool.

On the other hand, Nusach and Hazzanut should not be confused. So called Classical Cantorial solo singing is a relatively recent development, dating back to the late 18th or early 19th Century. When Salomon Sulzer (1804-1890) became the Cantor in Vienna, he was hated by the more traditionalist elements in Jewish society. Franz Schubert, on the other hand, was known to sit in the back of the synagogue on a regular basis. He would bring his friends, too, just to hear Sulzer sing. Sulzer was a musical prodigy, and among the first to notate Ashkenazic Nusach. His student Louis Lewandowski brought this style to Berlin. Between them, and , they left us most of what we know today as Hazzanut.

Classical music was the pop music of the 19th Century. It was adopted into the synagogue for the same reason that the sing-along folk a la Peter, Paul and Mary (Pete Seeger wrote most of what people think of as PP&M) and Simon & Garfunkel is the staple of today. The Deans of Cantorial study of 150 years ago were apoplectic at the adoption of Opera tunes and styles. Hazzan Henry Rosenblum et al. are simply concerned about cultural illiteracy. And rightly so.

Image and change at JTA

2008-06-20T15:43:00.001-04:00

Jewish celebs, Zohan's diddy and JDub's latest - JTA, Jewish & Israel News

It was only a matter of time. The venerable JTA hired Dan Sieradski as director of digital media at the end of last summer, and its stodgy image is coming around. Today, the JTA home page was graced with a photo of Israeli rapper Sagol 59, and the link (above) to this week's arts and culture focus on the latest Jewish Music album mashup "The Jewish Songbook" - reviewed by Sieradski's buddy from the old days of Jewschool , Matthue Roth.

I don't know about you, but this old-timer is ABSOLUTELY THRILLED to see this changing of the guard. I'm looking forward to the changes JTA is making in their web presence and their news coverage, and the tips I will find in Matthue's column, appropriately named "Shtetl Blaster".

Is Dan going to give it a cool graphic like he did with Jacob Berkman's blogthe Fundermentalist?

Post - Shavuot

2008-06-18T10:38:00.001-04:00

Shavuot is past, and I'm racing to finish a paper and preparing to teach two workshops at Ruach Ha'aretz the week after next. But Gershom Gorenberg's reading of the book of Ruth really bears mentioning. Gorenberg compares the Biblical author to my mother's favorite 19th Century novelist, Jane Austen.

Jane Austen Explains Conversion to Judaism « South Jerusalem: Gershom Gorenberg and Haim Watzman

In Ruth, the wars and dynastic struggles, the wrestling brothers and earthshaking revelations are somewhere over the horizon. Women are talking to women about their relationships, with each other and with men. But Jane Austen never managed to write anything this concise, this essential .

I once asked my mother what she liked so much about Jane Austen's novels, I mean, their atmosphere seems just the thing that her feminism was fighting against. But she pointed out that they all circle around decisions - women making that one decision that early 19th Century society allowed them to take - whom they would marry.

In that respect, Ruth really fits right in with Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and all the rest. Not that Austen wrote, or would have written, about widows fallen on hard times. But Ruth, having already chosen Naomi, is choosing to follow her mother-in-law's advice and courting Boaz, and justifying her choice, just like the characters in an Austen novel justify their own choices, convincing themselves in long speeches why this lover is preferable over another who might seem a bit more dashing, daring or darling.

It seems to me that one of the hallmarks of spirituality is to be found in the way people justify their actions. If a retrospective of my life looks like a series of blunders, then the yetzer hara (my Christian friends would say the devil) has a hand in my thoughts. But if I look back and see that G!d (my higher power, however I prefer to define It) has guided my steps, then I am on the right track. In her famous speech to Naomi in the beginning of the book, Ruth essentially rejects the yetzer. "I will only make choices according to G!d's plan" might be another way of reading her words.

One of the books I've been reading recently is Amish Grace by Amish scholars Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt and David Weaver-Zercher. The book examines the Nickel Mines shooting, back in 2006, which made a big splash in the American news media for a while. One of the striking things about this terrible incident is the way it raised the issue of forgiveness in the media, and in the book, the authors examine the nature of Amish forgiveness and compare it with other attitudes about forgiveness. One of the terms the authors examine, one of the central qualities admired by the Amish, is gelassenheit, which we might translate as submission.

Submission is pretty low on the list of admirable qualities in Western society these days. For the Amish, though, gelassenheit is more than simple submission to the will of another, it is the moment by moment expression of the supremacy of God's will in one's life. Obviously, the Jewish tradition shares this valorization of submission, if with a slightly different emphasis. (Islam, perhaps ironically, is literally the religion of submission.) One of the challenges of modern Judaism, since the establishment of Israel especially, is finding a new way to express submission to God's will without seeming to give in to the will of the human other.

Ruth is a wonderful example for this, since that whole scene on the threshing floor could be a rape, could be a seduction, could be a set up by Naomi. There are willful actions throughout the book, and G!d's will seems only to be expressed in the everyday pieties of conversation.

One more

2008-04-27T00:30:00.001-04:00

Israeli heart, Jewish soul - JTA, Jewish & Israel News

Michael Oren, better known as the Shalem Center's slightly right of center commentator on Mideast peace and war, lays in with a moving piece about the intersection between Israeli-ness and Jewish-ness. Worth reading.

Yossi Sarid Said it, not me

2008-04-26T23:38:00.001-04:00

Yes, it is apartheid
By Yossi Sarid
Haaretz.com, April 25, 2007

"It is entirely clear why the word apartheid terrifies us so. What should frighten us, however, is not the description of reality, but reality itself."

Sarid, as usual, speaks eloquently, without undue emotion, without sounding crazed, just putting all the ducks in a row. If it smells like apartheid, tastes like apartheid, and looks like apartheid, why are we so mad at Jimmy Carter for calling it apartheid?

Maybe because nobody likes to hear ugly truths about themselves.

The Palestinians are unfortunate because they have not produced a Nelson Mandela; the Israelis are unfortunate because they have not produced an F.W. de Klerk.

Jimmy Carter speaking truth to power

2008-04-17T22:42:00.001-04:00

Jimmy Carter's statement on Gaza is an inconvenient truth for Israel. There are no two ways about it, he's right.

Carter calls Gaza blockade a 'crime and atrocity' - Haaretz - Israel News

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter called the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip a "crime and an atrocity" on Thursday, and said U.S. attempts to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas had been counterproductive.

Speaking at the American University in Cairo after talks with Hamas leaders from Gaza, Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being "starved to death", receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa.

"It's an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza.It's a crime... I think it is an abomination that this continues to go on," Carter said.

That said, it's really too bad that Carter spoke in Egypt, and not in some democratic country - Israel perhaps.

Personally, I think Carter is right - the blockade is abominable, and the situation in Gaza is proof that the Israeli policy is morally bankrupt. But making such statements about Israeli policy on the eve of Pessach, on the eve of the 6th anniversary of the massacre at Netanya's Park Hotel, is just not a great idea. Yes, Israel has been doing wrong in Gaza. Yes, there must be an end to the blockade. But at the same time there must be an end to Palestinian violence. Brutality is never the answer - whether you are the top dog or the underdog. And Carter's words will not be read as a call for a non-violent solution, but as simple antagonism to everybody involved.

Prophets are never comfortable to have around, especially when they have diplomatic immunity. May God bless him.

I'm not related to Bradley Burston, but I'd gladly adopt him...

2008-04-14T21:37:00.001-04:00

He seems to regularly blog my own thoughts:

I want the Palestinians to win - Haaretz - Israel News

It is in the direct interest of hardliners to do everything in their power to convince their side that this is a zero-sum game, that only one side can emerge triumphant.

In fact, though, there are two additional options, the first, of course, being that both sides can lose. The second, the one of which we've largely lost sight, is that with an element of compassion, both sides can win.

There are well over three million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and they are not about to go anywhere. We lack the will, the capability and, in fact, the failure of conscience that it would take to persuade or force them to leave.

There are more than seven million Israelis, and they are not going anywhere either. A poll conducted last month by Tel Aviv University's Tami Steinmetz Center showed that 82 percent of Israeli respondents said rocket attacks either had no bearing on their decision to stay in Israel, or even strengthened their resolve to do so.

Amalia won the bet!

2008-03-28T15:36:00.001-04:00

All the way home, Amalia said, "Abba, it was so exciting! And so, so, well, nyahh! In your face!" (shoving the autograph in my face again).

See, it wasn't that I didn't think she'd have had the guts to get up close to get his autograph, but that I didn't want her to be disappointed because she had been pushed back by the crowds, or whatever. Well, Abba'le got his, didn't he! As we were walking in to the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, a woman stopped us and asked if we would sit on the stage. Sure, we thought, why not? So she gave us pink stickers, and in we went. And by the time we got through the security, and up to the stage, there were seats in the front row, so that's what we took. So if you search for and watch a YouTube video of Obama's Pittsburgh Speech, you'll see me to the right of Bob Casey, and Amalia to his right. Eliza was right behind him, so you can't see her at all. 15 minutes of fame...

Jewish Meditation

2008-03-07T10:46:00.001-05:00

This is the text of a talk I gave at a Jewish - Hindu dialogue event here in Pittsburgh, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee:

To
some, meditation may seem inconsistent with Jewish practice. “That's
not really something we do” we tell ourselves. “We don't
meditate, we pray” we tell others. In our integration into European
and American culture, we've been uncomfortable with the embodied
practices of Judaism, embarrassed. And in the past, Jewish meditation was
esoteric, belonging only to those who could first master the vast
rule books of Jewish law and life. Speaking of Jewish meditation
without these underpinning layers was impossible.

But,
Eastern spiritual practices have gained tremendous popularity in the
Jewish community. Perhaps this is because the basics of Yoga and
meditation focus on awareness, on our attention, and thus are
entirely harmonious with Judaism.

But
we have our own awareness practices. The core text of Jewish
practice, the one that almost all Jews know, no matter how religious
they are, is a simple six word line, a mantra. “Shema Yisrael
Adonai Elohainu Adonai Echad” Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God,
the Lord is One.

We
are told to recite this single line from the Bible at each liminal
moment in our lives, when we wake in the morning, when we lie down to
sleep, at the moment before death. We write it on our doorways, using
specially decorated boxes to hold the tiny, holy scroll. This is the
basic Jewish meditation practice, but because it doesn't seem to
detach us from our everyday lives, it might not seem like much.

Shema.
Hear, attend, listen, stop everything else, notice this next moment,
BE AWARE. BE HERE NOW.

Yisrael.
This name means “God wrestler” or “God striver”, it is the
name given our ancestor Jacob by the angel following an all night
wrestling match. The very quality that Jacob hated in himself, that
quality of tricking his brother and his uncle, and of striving with
God, that
became his holy name. Each of us, his descendants is Yisrael, and all
of us together are Yisrael.

Adonai.
Well, it doesn't really say that. Adonai is not God's name. God's
true name is unpronounceable. But we know how to write it: Yud, Heh,
Vav, Heh. If we came across this word, knowing Hebrew without its
context, we might think this means “is/was/will be”, all three
tenses of the verb “to be” rolled into one. Being, perhaps, or
beingness.

Elohainu.
Our God. In other words, Beingness, the state of Being is our God.

Adonai,
again the placeholder.

Echad.
One. It is all one. In other words, all being, beingness,
everything that is, is God, and it is all one. This is RADICAL
UNITARIANISM. There is no me, no you, no microphone, no loudspeaker,
no Sunday afternoon, it is all God. In a similar way as the Hindu
tradition tells us that everything we sense is MAYA, is only a veil,
so too, the Jewish tradition teaches us – in the words of the
Eighteenth Century Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl, “What
is the world? The world is God, wrapped in robes of God, so as to
appear to be
material. And who are we? We too are God, wrapped in robes of God,
and our task
is to unwrap the robes and discover that we and all the world are
God.”

So
when I step over the threshold, when I lay down to sleep, I recite
these six words. And this is, in fact a very, very powerful
meditation practice.

We have another six word
mantra, Barukh Ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh HaOlam. This is the
formulaic introduction to every Jewish blessing.

While
Shema Yisrael the Jewish declaration of faith, our blessing practice
applies to each and every action. Brachot, blessings are so
important, our Sages placed them at the beginning of the Mishna, our
code of law, even before the rules of agriculture. Each time we are
about to do something, or just after, we must say the correct
blessing. Each kind of food has a different blessing. Every ritual
act has its own special blessing. We even have a blessing to say
after we go to the bathroom, blessing God for creating our miraculous
bodies. The goal is to say one hundred blessings each day.

Each
blessing begins with this same six word formula. It seems so simple,
but it encodes a great deal of information about the Jewish world
view.

Barukh,
blessed, comes from the root Bet Resh Kaf – the knee, kneeling.
This root leads also to breicha – a pool. A Pool of water.

Ata
– you, the intimate second person pronoun. We have an intimate
connection with God – you could say we're on a first name basis.

Adonai
– again, not God's name, but a placeholder, an honorific, a title.
But we should see the connection with the first word of our blessing
– because the root Alef Dalet Nun also means edge, sill.

Eloheinu
– our God, our guide.

Melekh
– ruler, king. God is the owner-operator, the president-for-life,
the governing principle.

HaOlam
– the world. The whole world.

So
we kneel to God, who is at once the intimate other, the edge of the
pool of blessing, and the guiding principle of the entire world.

The
formula is followed by words that relate to the object of the
blessing. In the case of fruit, we bless God the creator of the fruit
of trees, boreh pri ha etz.

Both
of these mantras, these formulas, have six words. Six, six, I
wondered, as I was writing this, what does the number six mean to us?
Well, the number six does play a role, in fact a central one, one
that leads us to a final Jewish meditation practice.

Our
creation story gives words vast importance; God created the
entire world in six days, using only words. On the seventh day, God
rested. As God rested, so we, too, are commanded to have one day each
week for rest and rejuvenation, recreation, re-ensoulment. God, we
read, Shavat Vayinafash, God stopped and became Nefesh, became Soul,
and thus we must do the same.

So
we have a day-long meditation. We call it Shabbat, which very
literally means “quitting time”. Shabbat is a day on which we are
instructed to avoid all creative work. There are intricate details to
the proper practice of Shabbat, but the essence is rest and
re-ensoulment. Shabbat is a day of peace, and we bless each other
with “Shabbat Shalom” - sabbath peace. On Friday evening, we
greet each other with Shabbat Shalom, but on Saturday night, we part
from the Shabbat, and go back to the six days of the week.

Six
is the numerical value of the letter vav. Without the letter vav, the
unpronounceable four letter Name of God becomes Hayah, the past tense
of being, Was.

Jewish
meditation practices always bring us back to this world, to
connection. And vav is the letter of connection, the conjunction and
or but. In ancient rock carvings from the Judean Desert and in
medieval guidebooks for Jewish meditation, the four letter name of
God is sometimes seen in the form of a human – the letter yod, like
a dot, makes the head, the heh makes the arms and shoulders, the
second heh makes the legs and hips. The vav is the backbone, the
connector. So the number six connects us one to another, connects
human to the divine, connects, as it were, all of heaven and earth.

Jewish
tradition teaches that we cannot live in this world only in the place
of Shabbat, in pure meditation, in total oneness with God. Because of
this painful knowledge, we pray for the time when that will be
possible, when all will be one, and we end all our prayers with that
hope, that knowledge that finally, all is One, there is no other.

Avir Harim Tzalul kaYayin?

2008-02-21T22:54:00.001-05:00

Chillul Who? blogged this on JEWSCHOOL

In what may be the most effective awareness-raising campaign and the best embodiment of the Jewish value of “kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh”* to ever come across my G-mail ticker, Appalachian Voices and Michael Gross have set up http://www.ilovemountains.org/ , the End Mountaintop Removal Action and Resource Center.

It’s a good site to check out in order to see for yourself the devastating human and environmental impacts of strip mining for coal in Appalachia. You can view Google Earth imagery in the National Memorial for the Mountains and read up on current news from the mountain towns of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and from the regulatory agencies in Washington, DC.

Its most impressive feature, however, which reminded me of the Hebrew proverb I quoted above, is the “My Connection” page. You enter your zipcode. You pick your energy supplier. They tell you if your power company uses Appalachian coal from mountaintop removal mines. Then, with another click, you can send an email to your power company telling them to stop supporting mountaintop removal.

That’s what we call using our power of interconnectedness for good.

And, yes, if you plug in my zip code, 15217, you discover that I am guilty by association. My supplier, Duquesne Light, is a customer of Consol Energy, also based in Pittsburgh, one of the biggest coal companies in the US.

Obama

2008-02-10T08:12:00.001-05:00

Obama won three more states: Nebraska, Washington, Louisiana. Now he has a delegate count only 15 less than Clinton. Frank Rich dug into the Clinton campaign's desperate tactics in his Sunday column.

Vote for hope:

I think this is a good thing...

2008-02-05T22:29:00.001-05:00

...but I'm not quite sure. Not that I think the products are bad, the opposite is true, but I'm not sure that COEJL isn't putting it's good name over a funnel that leads directly to someone else's bank account. But lets assume that the money being made isn't so terribly much that it should trouble us, there are still two reasons to doubt this:

1. Automation never leads to savings - once the system is in place, we forget about all the habits we developed for ourselves, and the human practices that keep them fresh. More about this can be heard here, in a lecture by Jimmy Wales, in which he explains why Wikipedia doesn't automate its welcome practices.

2. Consumption (in this case, buying the kit) is, in and of itself, something that drains our resources, both personal and communal. This week's Canfei Nesharim drash asks the question "Is G-d Present in Our Consumption?" Read it to see the conclusion Ariel Shalem makes.

Welcome to Home of the COEJL Earth Aid Kit Campaign!

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life and Earth Aid Enterprises are proud to partner in offering Earth Aid Kits to the COEJL community. The Earth Aid Kit is a collection of premium energy efficiency products carefully selected to improve your quality of life while reducing your energy bill and your carbon footprint. Whether you or your friends are taking first steps to help protect the Earth or looking for new energy-savings items to compliment your previous actions, Earth Aid kits provide all the tools you need. All greenhouse gas reductions achieved by these purchases are credited to COEJL and the Jewish community!

For all you Super Tuesday voters, say your prayer!

2008-02-05T20:46:00.001-05:00

My friend Rabbi David Seidenberg wrote a voting prayer several years ago. Here's the text:

NeoHasid.org | A Prayer For Voting: resources

With my vote today I am ready and intending
to seek peace for this country, as it is written:

“Seek the peace of the city where I cause you to roam
and pray for her sake to Yah Hashem, for in her peace you all will have peace.”

May it be Your will that votes will be counted faithfully
and may You count my vote as if I had fulfilled this verse with all my power.

May it be good in Your eyes to give a wise heart
to whomever we elect [for primaries: whomever we support] today
and may You erect for us a government whose rule is for good and blessing
to bring justice and peace to all the inhabitants of the world and to Jerusalem,
for rulership is Yours!

Just as I participated in elections today
so may you help me to do good deeds and repair the world
with all my work, and with the deed which I pledge today [fill in your pledge]
on behalf of all creatures and in remembrance of the covenant of Noah’s waters
to protect and not destroy the earth and her plenitude.

May you give to us, to all the peoples of this country the strength and will
to pursue righteousness and to seek peace as one unity
to cause to flourish, throughout the world good life and peace
and fulfill for us the verse:

“May the pleasure of Adonai our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands for us, make the work of our hands endure.”

I found this very moving when my friend Rachel mentioned it on the phone this morning. David asks people to commit to do one act (besides voting) that can protect the world. I would go farther, and suggest that in addition to voting, one should give money to Tzedakah.

My thinking is like this: Voting is a karmic act. It channels energy in one direction only, closing off options. Tzedakah, on the other hand, opens the flow, allowing God to move through the world. So karmically, it can help counteract the karma induced by voting. Sort of, and, of course, it can really save a life.

Obama's Arts Policy

2008-01-28T21:51:00.001-05:00

My friend Arlene Goldbard writes about the excitement in the Arts community over the possibility of Barack Obama winning the Democratic nomination. "If you could have seen us jumping up and down as the prospect of an Obama presidency came into ever-sharper focus, you wouldn’t have believed your eyes." In her post she provides a link to Obama's arts policy, which is itself a reason for celebration, and will be even more so if it can remain a plank in the Democratic platform come July.

The link Arlene provides leads here:

CAN Blog

BARACK OBAMA: A CHAMPION FOR THE ARTS

Our nation’s creativity has filled the world’s libraries, museums, recital halls, movie houses, and marketplaces with works of genius. The arts embody the American spirit of self-definition. As the author of two best-selling books – Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama uniquely appreciates the role and value of creative expression.

A PLATFORM IN SUPPORT OF THE ARTS

Reinvest in Arts Education: To remain competitive in the global economy, America needs to reinvigorate the kind of creativity and innovation that has made this country great. To do so, we must nourish our children’s creative skills. In addition to giving our children the science and math skills they need to compete in the new global context, we should also encourage the ability to think creatively that comes from a meaningful arts education. Unfortunately, many school districts are cutting instructional time for art and music education. Barack Obama believes that the arts should be a central part of effective teaching and learning. The Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts recently said “The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.”

Sounds a bit more optimistic than the current State of the Union, eh?

Leah Koenig reviews Michael Pollan's new book

2008-01-26T21:35:00.001-05:00

The Jew and the Carrot » Blog Archive » Read it and Eat: A Review of In Defense of Food

Pollan does not tell readers food-specific dos and don’ts - like to eat more beta carotene, or avoid all fat. Instead, his guidelines preach the values of good intuition and common sense. “Don’t eat foods that contain ingredients you can’t identify.” “Remember that you are what you eat eats too” (think hormones pumped into cattle). “Eat meals at a table, with family and friends, instead of relying on a constant stream of mindless snacking.” “Cook, plant a garden, and get involved with your food.”

This is a beautifully written Jewish take on Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. I guess I know what I'm reading next vacation...

Living Routes

2008-01-23T16:51:00.001-05:00

Please send your students on this course at Kibbutz Lotan!

Living Routes - Israel: Peace, Justice and the Environment at Kibbutz Lotan

Through engagement with a holistic approach to world issues that encompasses inner, cultural, and outer processes, you will broaden and deepen your understanding of sustainability and ecology. Hands-on experience with habitat restoration, local organic food production, teaching in village schools, working with village action groups and more, help build a growing theoretical understanding of issues relating to global sustainability.

Van Leer Institute's first International Conference on Contemporary Reform Judaism

2008-01-18T14:38:00.001-05:00

Moti Zeira's talk at the Van Leer institute (in Hebrew)
At 5 hours and 35 minutes into the second day's video, Dr. Moti Zeira critiques the IMPJ and Reform Judaism through the eyes of the "fourth stream" of Judaism in Israel (a title he takes umbrage with in his talk). Worth a listen, as is Rabbi Michael Marmur's response to the session, immediately following Zeira's lecture.

It's a little bit sad that Van Leer's video publishing presents the conference in two huge chunks of streaming video, rather than each session separately. It makes viewing specific lectures difficult.

International Conference on Contemporary Reform Judaism: Sociology, Education and Theology

Brit Tzedek V'Shalom

2008-01-18T12:51:00.001-05:00

This moving first person account of a Jewish visit to the West Bank asks the question: HAS OUR MORALITY BECOME SEPARATED FROM OUR JUDAISM? For me, this speech is all the more moving because the author is a 60 year old lawyer, not an idealistic young activist with no experience in the world.

**************************************************************************************************

Presented by Kalman D. Resnick during Shabbat Services, at Beth Emet
Synagogue on November 30, 2007 in Evanston, Illinois. For more
information, you can communicate with Kalman at:

Kalman D. Resnick
Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd.
70 W. Madison St.
Suite 4000
Chicago, IL 60602
Tel: (312) 604-2608
Fax: (312) 604-2609
Email: kresnick_AT_hsplegal.com

Shabbat Shalom. I want to extend a special welcome to my Arab and Muslim
friends who are sharing this Shabbat with us. We are truly honored by
your presence.

My grandmother Mollie never attended school. Yet, she was one of my
wisest teachers. Grandmother was born in 1894 in Romania. In 1897, my
great grandparents and their children fled the anti-Semitism of rural
Romania. With several hundred other Ashkenazi families, they settled in a
rural area near the City of Eskisehir (“Es-ki-she-hir”) in what is now
Turkey. There they were to learn how to farm in preparation for the time
they would make aliyah to what was then the Ottoman Empire Province of
Palestine. According to grandmother, life on the settlement was very
hard. At first they lived in earth homes dug into the ground and covered
by thatch. As winter approached, the Muslim men from a nearby village
came by the Jewish settlement and told the Jews that their families were
going to die from the cold if they didn’t build sturdier homes. When the
Jewish men explained that they had no money to build better homes, the
Muslims made an offer: “Listen, we have a business proposition. There are
lots of wild boars in this area. Unlike you Jews, we Muslims are
permitted to hunt. We can shoot the boars but the Koran does not allow us
to touch them. You Jews can touch them; you just can’t eat them. We will
shoot the boars and take you to them. You will skin them and take the
bristles to Istanbul where you can sell them to the Christians who use
them to make hair brushes. When you return, we will split the money.”
For the rest of their stay in Turkey, Grandmother’s family was in the boar
bristle business with their Muslim neighbors. Grandmother concluded the
story by telling me, “Peace will come between Israelis and Arabs when they
learn how to prosper together.”

My family joined this congregation in 1956. I was 8 years old. The
Evanston of my youth was a racially segregated community. Restaurants,
housing, most elementary schools, even the YMCAs were segregated. It was
here in this synagogue that I learned to have the moral courage to work
with my African American classmates at Evanston Township High School to
fight racial segregation. At Oberlin College I continued my involvement
in the civil rights movement and became an activist against the war in
Vietnam. In June, 1967, I was completing my freshman year at Oberlin when
the Six Day War broke out. As a strong supporter of Israel, I was
surprised when over the next several years some of my classmates began to
speak out against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
Caught between my love for the Jewish people and my belief in justice, I
spent the next 40 years avoiding this issue.

I have spent my years practicing law representing immigrants and working
people. In 1998, a young Palestinian came to my office for legal
assistance. His legal problem was quickly and favorably resolved. Soon
Ashraf and I were sharing dinner every couple of months. In his kind and
gentle way, Ashraf forced me to consider the morality of the Israeli
occupation which had impacted every aspect of his and his family’s life on
the West Bank. Having grown up on the Green Line before the first
Intifada, he had a great affection for both Israelis and Palestinians. He
convinced me that it was possible to be a supporter of Israel and an
advocate for the human rights of Palestinians.

On September 12, 2001 a distraught Ashraf telephoned to tell me how afraid
he was that the violence he had fled in the Middle East had followed him
here. He asked me to assure him that one day there would be peace.
Ashraf, I told him, I can offer no such assurance, only an invitation for
dinner the next day at which we can commence the process of modeling to
our peoples the possibility of reconciliation. Ashraf came for dinner and
we have been modeling ever since. We share our families, our circles of
friends, even our religious holidays. When Ashraf’s father came to visit
several years ago, I discovered that we both were born in 1948: Ashraf’s
father in January in Haifa and myself in October in Chicago. Between our
births came Israel’s independence on May 14th, an event celebrated by Jews
as HaAtzma’ut but known by Palestinians as Al-Naqba, the catastrophe.
During the chaos that surrounded Israel’s independence, Ashraf’s father
and his family along with 750,000 other Palestinians who resided in what
became Israel lost their homes and livelihoods. Ashraf’s father invited
me to his home in Qalqilia on the West Bank. He asked me to see the
conflict through his eyes. Somewhat apprehensively, I accepted his offer.

On August 8, 2007, I flew from Chicago to Amman, Jordan, where I changed
planes for the short flight to Ben Gurion Airport. Neither Ashraf, who
traveled to his parents’ home a week before, nor any member of his family
could pick me up at Ben Gurion. No one had a permit to enter Israel for
that purpose.

Instead, Palestinian friends of the family with Israeli citizenship pick
me up at Ben Gurion. It is around 11:30 at night. A half hour later we
arrive at the only entrance to Qalqilia, a checkpoint, in Hebrew
“Machsom”, guarded by young, very well-armed, Israeli soldiers. The
soldiers tell my traveling companions that as citizens of Israel, they
cannot enter Qalqilia. Later, I learn that all of the major cities of the
West Bank are off limits to Israeli citizens, whether they are Jews or
Arabs. Ashraf and his oldest brother are in a car waiting on the other
side of the checkpoint. The soldiers are confused why I would be arriving
in Qalqilia at that hour. Since everyone is speaking Hebrew, a language
everyone assumes I speak, I don’t have a clue what is transpiring. After
a tense few minutes, I am permitted to walk through the checkpoint to the
car where Ashraf and his brother are waiting. Five minutes later, I am
being greeted by Ashraf’s father, and about a dozen male relatives, family
friends, and neighbors in the beautiful garden of Ashraf’s home. Over the
next few weeks, I will spend many hours in this garden talking with these
men and other townspeople.

To enable me to stay in the family’s home, Ashraf’s father has declared me
to be his brother. I am the only man who isn’t a close relative to ever
sleep in their home. This becomes an extraordinary experience in itself.
Embraced as a member of the family, I experience with great intimacy a
different rhythm of life. Time is defined by the call for prayer which is
broadcast five times a day from mosques throughout the city. Most adults
in the family pray throughout the day, either at home or at the mosque.
The family’s needs clearly take precedence over individual preferences.
Gender assigns particular roles to men and women. Women do not enter the
garden when male visitors are present. There is a formal living room
where male visitors are entertained by the men of the home. Male family
members do not enter the family’s living quarters without permission when
women are visiting. Yet, Ashraf’s mother owns and operates her own beauty
shop and within the home she is an equal partner to her husband. His
parents have exceptional respect for each other. Everyone shares the
responsibility of raising with great love the many, many children of this
large extended family.

Qalqilia, a city of 65,000 Palestinians, is entirely surrounded by a wall
constructed four years ago which is part of the “security barrier” being
built on the West Bank by the Israeli government. The wall is five
stories high and interspersed with sniper towers. The barrier has
separated the city’s inhabitants from their agricultural lands and
businesses on the other side of the wall. Qalqilia’s economy has
collapsed because the barrier has isolated it from the rest of the West
Bank as well as Israel. Although it is just 17 miles from modern,
prosperous Tel Aviv, Qalqilia has the appearance of a third world city.
It is Tijuana and Tel Aviv is San Diego.

Ashraf’s father and oldest brother have very different approaches to
teaching me about life under Israeli occupation. His father, a building
contractor, before the first intifada owned a construction business with
Israeli partners. Now he prefers to stay in Qalqilia rather than
experience the humiliation of Israeli checkpoints. His friends and
neighbors offer me an intensely personal view of life under occupation.
He takes me everywhere he goes, to a high school graduation party, a
wedding celebration, even the home of a family in mourning. Many of his
friends are businessmen struggling to survive the effects of the
separation barrier which has cut them off from Palestinian and Israeli
customers. I am told by others that when the separation barrier was
built, Ashraf’s father lost the olive groves he owns on the other side of
the barrier and a warehouse he used to store his construction equipment.
The warehouse was bulldozed by the Israelis because it was too close to
the wall.

First hand, I learn about the collapse of the health system on the West
Bank. I meet Ashraf’s hearing impaired 9 year old cousin. He is
exceptionally bright. The first time I meet him he entertains me with a
mime performance of all the major characters in the Israeli Palestinian
conflict. His parents tell me that they have no access to medical
specialists who could evaluate whether a cochlear implant or hearing aids
might help their son. I meet Ashraf’s nephew who is autistic. The family
informs me that there are no programs on the West Bank to treat autistic
children. I also learn about all the uncles and aunts who left the West
Bank to work in other Arab countries before the Oslo Accords were reached
in 1993 and have lost their right to return to the West Bank.
Almost every night the men in the garden ask Ashraf to translate their
stories to me. “Culyoh”, Arabic for “tell him”, is their constant
refrain. I hear stories about their or their family’s former homes in
what is now Israel, their years spent in refugee camps, their struggles to
survive 40 years of occupation, and the relatives, friends and neighbors,
including many children, who have been killed or injured by Israeli
Defense Forces. Each man’s life is defined by the occupation. When I
learn that there are families who still have the keys to their former
homes in Israel, I think of a Sephardic song, “La llave de mi casa”, the
key to my house. The song, sung in Ladino, recalls the Sephardic
tradition of displaying in their homes the keys to their former residences
in Spain and Portugal.

Ashraf’s oldest brother shows me life on the West Bank outside Qalqilia’s
walls. We travel to Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin. There are
fixed checkpoints approximately every 10 kilometers and flying checkpoints
which appear out of no where. Five to eight story sniper towers are
roadside fixtures. Modern Israeli settlements surround most Palestinian
villages I visit. The settlements remind me of suburban town house
communities near where my parents retired in Southern California. I learn
that most of the settlers work in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem and that the cost
of their housing and their expenses are heavily subsidized by the Israeli
government. Ashraf’s brother points to trailers and water tanks on top of
hills in the distance and tells me that the settlements keep expanding and
that new settlements are still being built.

On our first trip outside Qalqilia, we stop to fill the car with gas at a
station on the main road to Ramallah just outside Ariel, one of the
largest settlements. A young settler with a Kipah approaches Ashraf’s
brother and me and tells us that he is under orders not to sell gasoline
to Palestinians. I realize that our green Palestinian license plates now
define me to be a Palestinian.

Yellow plated Israeli cars don’t stop at the checkpoints while we with
green plates must stop, show our documents, and answer questions about
where we are going. Frequently, we have to wait, up to an hour at times,
while the soldiers chit chat on their cell phones with their friends.
Outside the Israeli settlement of Qarne Shomeron, Ashraf’s brother points
to olive groves belonging to Palestinian villagers which were recently
burned by settlers.

Between Ramallah and Jerusalem, the separation barrier places large
portions of the West Bank on the Israeli side of the barrier. My Lonely
Planet guide book reports that 80% of the security barrier is being
constructed within the West Bank, 9.5% of the West Bank is being cut off
by the barrier from the rest of the West Bank, 242,000 Palestinians reside
in the part of the West Bank being cut off, and 280,000 Palestinians are
being separated from their land by the barrier. With the exception of
Ramallah, every Palestinian city I visit is being economically strangled
by the occupation.

Symbols of our faith-Stars of David, menorahs, the Hebrew language-adorn
the checkpoints, the sniper towers, and the gates of the settlements.
Orthodox Jews, many of them American born, populate a substantial number
of the settlements. As we travel, Ashraf notices that my mood has changed
and asks me what is going on. I tell him my moral compass has lost its
direction. For the first time in my life, I sense an estrangement between
my morality and my identity as a Jew.

One day, Ashraf’s family announces that it is their family obligation to
make sure I visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I thank them but tell
them since all of my efforts to get Ashraf a permit to travel with me in
Israel had failed, I had committed myself not to travel anywhere Ashraf
could not go. This way I could experience his world as a Palestinian.
Clearly asserting his role as my older brother, Ashraf’s father insists
that I be taken to Jerusalem. Ashraf, his brother, and I travel by car to
the Calandia checkpoint outside East Jerusalem. It is obvious that there
is no way of convincing the Israeli soldiers to permit us to enter
Jerusalem together. We meet Wael, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship
with a yellow plated car, who drives us past a different checkpoint and
into East Jerusalem where we enter the old city at the Damascus Gate.
When we near the Dome of Rock, Israeli soldiers stop me from entering. I
am asked if I am a Muslim. I am told that because a demonstration of
right wing Jews is expected in the Old City that afternoon, special
precautions are being taken to protect the Dome and non-Muslims are not
being permitted to enter.

We travel on to the Western Wall. We pass through a security point and
find ourselves in the plaza in front of the Wall. Ashraf and his brother
are shocked to find themselves in the plaza. They had planned on staying
behind while I visited the Wall. Fearful that they will be arrested by
the Israeli soldiers providing security, they tell me to go pray. I reply
that I will but only if they pray with me. They are resistant but when
they realize that the fastest way for them to get out of there was to come
with me, they join me in putting on their heads the cardboard kipot
provided tourists. As we approach the Wall, I take out a copy of the
speech I gave as Beth Emet’s representative at a symposium held on the
fifth anniversary of September 11th at the Bridgeview Mosque, the largest
Mosque serving the Palestinian community in metropolitan Chicago. My
speech pleads for peace and reconciliation between our peoples. I tear
off the beginning and end of the speech and insert it in the wall. I
cannot find a prayer to recite. Several months later I realize that the
prayer was our action in being present together at the Wall. Later that
afternoon, Wael returns to take us on a tour of Jerusalem. He shows us
the differences in the quality of public services and facilities provided
Jewish and Arab areas of Jerusalem. He explains how difficult it is for
Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to get building permits and the
constant pressure they face to abandon their homes.

We enter Israel one other time, to visit Tel Aviv and Jaffa. In Tel Aviv,
Ashraf’s brother takes us past the remains of a seaside nightclub where in
February, 2005 4 Israelis died and many were injured when an Islamic Jihad
suicide bomber blew himself up. He expressed his shame that a Palestinian
had done this.

Near the beach in Jaffa I see a group of American teenagers disembarking a
bus displaying a sign identifying the group as participants in one of the
Birthright programs that pays for Jewish youth in the Diaspora to visit
Israel. Walking with the sons of a man exiled from his birthplace in
Israel, I find it painful to explain the Birthright program to my friends.
On the way back to Qalqilia, our cabdriver, Muhamed, an Israeli citizen,
takes us on a tour of Jaffa, explaining all the actions the Israeli
government is taking to reduce the Arab population in this once
overwhelmingly Arab city.

Later that night, Ashraf’s brother thanks me for coming to Qalqilia. He
explains how several years ago Israeli soldiers had invaded his house and
detained him in front of his family. After that experience, his 11 year
old son started talking about how much he hated Jews. He tells me that my
visit had made his son understand that there are good Jews.

One night in Qalqilia, the men in the garden ask what made me make my
journey to the West Bank. I think for a minute and tell them it was my
Judaism. Perplexed, the men ask how I could ask them to believe that,
when the settlers occupying the West Bank and the soldiers protecting them
believe it is their Judaism which gives them the right to occupy
Palestine. In response I ask: “Didn’t the men who flew the passenger jets
into the World Trade Center believe they were good Muslims?” The men
acknowledge my point. In finding the answer to their question, I discover
my moral compass is functioning again. I no longer feel estranged from my
Judaism.

On one of my last nights in Qalqilia the men ask me how I could be
optimistic about the possibilities for a just and peaceful settlement of
the conflict. They tell me that they believe that on account of the power
of American Jews, the United States will never force Israel to end the
occupation. I tell them that in my 58 years I have seen victories which I
doubted would ever occur. I mention the end of racial segregation in the
United States, the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, and the end of
armed conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. I
try to explain the diversity of the American Jewish community and the
large number of Jews in America who favor a just and peaceful settlement.
The men appear unconvinced.

What conclusions have I reached as a result of my visit? First, I believe
that no peace settlement will succeed unless it comprehensively addresses
the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people resulting from their
exile from their former homes and 40 years of occupation. The vast
majority of Palestinians must consider the agreement to be a fair and just
resolution of their grievances for a settlement to succeed.

We cannot hide from the reality that the 750,000 Palestinians became
refugees during the struggle over Israel’s establishment. We must
recognize that for 40 years the occupation of the Palestinian Territories
has been maintained through violence and threats of violence by the
Israeli Defense Forces and the settlers. We must acknowledge that the
primary function of the Israeli Defense Forces on the West Bank has been
to protect the settlements and the settlers and not Israel.

Many Jews have expressed outrage that in his recent book President Carter
used the word “apartheid” to describe the occupation. I am sad to report
that my visit has convinced me that apartheid is an apt description of
life on the West Bank. Access to medical care, legal protection, roads,
buses, schools, water and electricity are all determined on the basis of
whether one is a Jew or a Palestinian. Travel restrictions within the
West Bank and the permits which Palestinians must obtain to travel within
Israel or to leave or enter the Palestinian Territories remind me of
aspects of South Africa’s dreaded pass laws. The confiscation of
Palestinian land and the forced relocation of thousands of Palestinians to
make way for Israeli settlements and to construct the security barrier
recall similar actions taken by the white South African government during
the apartheid era.

Polls show that the vast majority of Palestinians want peace. However, I
believe that no Palestinian leader will be able to reach a viable
agreement with Israel unless it addresses the refugee issue, provides for
the removal of the settlements, and affords Palestine the opportunity to
become a truly independent, sovereign nation. Peace is possible but only
if Israel and the United States face these realities. Israel must stop
trying to force a settlement through military power and conquest and
instead begin addressing the just concerns of the Palestinian people.
Palestinians must renounce the use of terrorism. The vast majority of
Israelis and Palestinians must be willing to embrace the agreement.
Meaningful ways must be found to gain the trust and confidence of both
peoples in any settlement. The South African Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, which investigated and documented the actions of all parties
during the conflict over apartheid and established forums for promoting
reconciliation is one possible model.

I have several suggestions to offer American Jews who want to contribute
to a peaceful settlement.

1. Individually and in our synagogues we must be willing to study the
history of the conflict. We should read books by the many Israeli and
Palestinian authors which examine the injustices done against the
Palestinian people so we understand how essential it is for any settlement
to address these injustices.

2. We should recognize that the moral and ethical teachings of our
religion require that we acknowledge the injustices done against
Palestinians and take actions to atone for them. We must debate what
steps should be taken to seek forgiveness. We must also be willing to
forgive Palestinians for wrongs committed against Israeli Jews, including
the use of terrorism to attack civilian populations.

3. We must learn to respect Arab religious and cultural traditions and
acknowledge that with some exceptions Jews lived in peace in the Arab and
Muslim world prior to the current conflict. Although there was
significant discrimination against Jews in the Arab and Muslim world,
Arabs and Muslims never committed the repeated atrocities to which we were
subject over many centuries in the Christian countries of Europe. We
should recall that the Crusaders slaughtered tens of thousands of Jews in
the Rhineland and elsewhere in Europe as they marched to attack Muslims in
the Holy land. We should not forget that Moors and Jews were expelled at
the same time from Spain and Portugal in 1492 and 1493. We should
remember that expelled Sephardic Jews were welcomed by Muslims in
Sarajevo, Salonika, Istanbul, and in many other Mediterranean cities. If
Israelis are to live in peace in the Middle East, we must build upon our
historic relationship and recognize the basis in our religious and
cultural traditions for peaceful coexistence. In his book Once Upon A
Country, Sari Nusseibeh, the President of Al Quds University in Jerusalem
and a Palestinian leader, discusses Sulha, the traditional Palestinian
tribal system of justice. Nusseibeh emphasizes the importance in Sulha of
seeking forgiveness and respecting honor in resolving disputes. He argues
that it is essential that Israelis be willing to apologize for the wrongs
committed against Palestinians for peace and reconciliation to be
achieved.

4. We must challenge AIPAC and other Jewish organizations which attack
Jews and non-Jews for being anti-Semitic simply because they criticize the
actions of the Israeli or American governments toward Palestinians. There
is more freedom in Israel to speak out on these issues than in the United
States. Jews and non-Jews can be committed supporters of Israel and
opponents of the occupation.

5. We should support American Jewish organizations, such as Brit Tzedek v’
Shalom and Americans for Peace Now, which are working for a just
resolution of the conflict. We should help organizations in Israel, like
B’Tselem which are seeking to end human rights abuses in the Palestinian
Territories and other organizations in Israel working to end
discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Discrimination
against Arab citizens of Israel offends the values of Israel and our
faith.

6. We in Chicago have a unique to opportunity to help achieve peace. The
Chicago area is home to the largest Palestinian community in the United
States. Over 100,000 Palestinians live in our metropolitan area. We are
the third largest Jewish community in the United States. Both the
Palestinian and Jewish Diasporas are deeply connected to the conflict
between our peoples. Both Diasporas provide financial, political and
moral support for their respective sides in the conflict. I urge us to
consider how Jews and Palestinians in the Chicago area can model the
behavior we want our communities in the Middle East to follow by working
together toward a just and peaceful settlement. In particular and in
recognition of my Grandmother Mollie’s teaching, I want to suggest that
one of the most important tasks would be for us to work together to help
lay an economic foundation for prosperity in both Israel and Palestine.
To succeed, a two state solution must recognize that both states must be
prosperous and the well-being of both people secure. These goals can best
be achieved by sharing a common economy of capital and labor. The
entrepreneurial and professional success which Jews and Palestinians have
achieved in our Diasporas provides opportunities for creating that
prosperity and for ensuring the well-being of both our peoples. I call
upon our community to meet with our Palestinian neighbors and commence the
process of modeling the reconciliation which must be the basis of any
lasting peace settlement.

Regarding rights

2008-01-03T07:50:00.001-05:00

I just wrote these words to a friend and thought I should put them out in the world at large:

Regarding rights - a rights based legal system must, in the end, fail, if (or, rather, since) the economic system around it is (by nature) limited. Rights based arguments go hand in hand with unlimited growth. As soon as there is lack, rights based argument runs into a brick wall - because when we focus on our needs, there will never be enough to go around. Seventeen years of living on kibbutz has led me to believe that the failure of the modern capitalist system is in its valorization of needs and desires to the extent that it has lost all hold on responsibilities.

The Enlightenment scholars and jurists who wrote the US constitution, etc., were very much aware of the balance that had to be maintained between rights and responsibilities, but today we've pretty much lost hold of that second one. Why is fundamentalism so popular today? One reason is that it restores a sense of obligation. People inherently respect a system that clearly demands from them a reasonable level of responsibility.

The whole system of advertising valorizes our desires and tries to convince us to ignore our obligations - that's the Yetzer Hara personified, IMHO.

No small part of the ecological problems of the world arise from a rights based legal system in which corporations argue only from their rights and try to shirk their responsibilities - to the community and to the environment - just like bullies in the schoolyard.

Argument from rights alone leads to narcissism in the individual and the community and eventually to the breakdown of society.

There, do I sound like a Neo-con?

My next step will be to use Madison Avenue to convince the masses that this is so.

I'm getting fascinated by the "how to"s of rhetoric. I recently saw this easy to remember alliterative scheme: Reason; Research: Resonance; Redescription;
Rewards and Resources; Real World Events; and Resistances Overcome.

That's from Howard Gardner's theories of Multiple Intelligences. He calls these seven Rs "levers" to pull in order to change minds.

Authenticity v. change

2008-01-01T12:03:00.001-05:00

I think that the adult-ed. thread that I started meets worship at the nexus of authenticity.

Authenticity is a longstanding point of argument regarding worship - already in Mishnah Berakhot we have Rabbi Eliezer claiming that anyone whose prayer is "qev'a" isn't really praying, the prayers are not really "tachanunim" (supplication). Qev'a is not explained. Does it mean "fixed" as in a fixed text? Does it mean fixed as in a fixed time? Both? Neither? 60-40, 20-80? This has been the crux of many Jewish discussions. And, possibly, one of the points that Paul and Luther found so disturbing in Judaism, in response to which criticisms (among other factors) liberal Judaism, and particularly Reform Judaism, was born.

Many of the reforms are or were rooted in the search for an "authentic" or "essential" core to each unit of the liturgy. For example, in studying the liturgy this fall, I was pleased to discover that the removal of the angelology from the Yotzer (first blessing before the Shema in the morning liturgy) by the Reform movement was a return to the liturgy of R' Sa'adia Gaon, whose angel free version eventually lost out to the mystical text that we find in the traditional nusach (see Siddur Sim Shalom, Artscroll, or any non-Reform siddur to see the differences).

What surprised me was my own reaction - that this discovery gave me a "hechsher" for the shorter Yotzer. I personally like the angels, but my discomfort at the shorter nusach was relieved by discovering its venerable provenance. Why?

In trying to examine my discomfort, I have to consider my own attitudes to previous generations' reforms and renewals. And I have to admit that much of my discomfort lies in a feeling that they were motivated by something other than "authentic" motivations. Modernism, with its worship of rationalism, technics, and progress, is a source of such "inauthenticity" in my mind. I might add to that short list "certainty," which one could read as a translation of Rabbi Eliezer's "qev'a." As soon as we print a siddur, or build a synagogue, or make a decision in our worship committees, or adopt a particular melody, we are risking that our prayers lose their quality of supplication.

Yet, at the same time, we can't help doing just that. We are creatures of habit, and most of us work best when we know what to expect. I guess the trick is to know, and to regularly remind ourselves, that every time we do set ourselves such a "qev'a" it is not in order to put the issue on the shelf and never deal with it again, but to solve the problem for this cycle, to face it again (and again) in the future.

One of the hallmarks of post-modernism, and one of its most problematic qualities, in the eyes of modernism, is this uncertainty.

I'm still in the midst of this process, and just wanted to share my thoughts about it.

Happy 2008.

A Prayer for 2008

2008-01-01T10:57:00.001-05:00

But is it Jewish? Jumbotrons are fine for the Biennial, but not for Jew-it-yourselfers

2007-12-23T15:22:00.001-05:00

I wrote the following on the URJ Iworship list regarding a discussion of the Jumbotrons at the recent Biennial:

Jumbotrons are all well and good for large gatherings of non-Halakhic Jews, like the Biennial and Craig Taubman's Friday night live kind of things. They might be ok for other environments, like camp. Maybe when the Temple is rebuilt, there will be Jumbotrons.

But they really go against the grain of the "do it yourself" aspect of Judaism, as it has developed since the publication of the Jewish Catalog in the early 1970s. So much so that I would suggest that they aren't really very meaningful in my experience of worship - I mean, I won't be installing one in my living room to replace the siddur that I hold in my hand. Nor will my 25 family congregation ever need one on a regular basis.

All that razzle dazzle has really razzled and dazzled you Biennial-goers, hasn't it. And if you come from Congregations that are Biennial sized, you might be considering using them. But it's so far from the experience of small congregations, you apparently have forgotten to remember that you have no idea how disempowering this all is. I was at a service yesterday that tanked as soon as the Rabbi left. When there will be jumbotrons and only a bevy of Levi-techies will be able to run them, and the Rabbi-Kohanim are the only ones who know how to turn on the "uplink" - then the Jews in the Pews will be far far farklempt!!

If Joe or Jane Jew can't walk onto the bima and run a worship service as well as s/he can run a committee meeting or an awards dinner, then something is broken. There should be no "little man behind the curtain," nor flashy light show on the bima in Judaism.

What're you doing next Tuesday?

2007-12-20T09:40:00.001-05:00

It's too bad that most American Jews are doing things like this on Xmas day:

The UJF here in Pittsburgh, unlike many other Jewish communities across the country, is sponsoring Mitzvah Day.

There will be free breakfast, volunteer opportunities, and probably a Tshirt for all participants. The Mitzvah Day idea was started in the Reform Movement as a synagogue project, but it hasn't taken off as a community-wide thing.

What's sad is that no one on the Mitzvah Day planning roped Brandon Walker (or Craig Taubman, for that matter) to the cause. Because using a youtube video like this one to promote social action instead of mindless hedonism might bring out a few more Jews, and wouldn't be bad for the world, either.

And me? I'm unable to attend. It's the only time I'll be able to drag the family away to see the Folks before the next "real" Jewish holiday - Pessach.

More seriously, the contradictions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

2007-12-18T10:50:00.001-05:00

If that video isn't enough to make you strap on a dynamite belt and... well, Thanks be to HaShem, who makes each of us different! Now if S/He would only teach us all to be a little more tolerant!

Bradley Burston (no relation, AFIK), nails the contradiction on the head in his recent post on Ha'aretz:

Killing the Palestinian who wishes you dead - Haaretz - Israel News

Truth be told, there was always a certain overall contradiction in their activities. Year after year, Hamas showed selfless generosity in providing health care, education, and sustenance to children, young families and the elderly of Gaza, while providing self-congratulatory suicide bombers to kill children, young familes and the elderly of Israel.

The longer the lies of martyrdom and What Our Lord the Terrorist Wants go on, the longer the world will be content to live without an independent Palestine in its midst.

Hava Nagila REDUX

2007-12-18T10:36:00.001-05:00

It's tacky, and the English text is horribly tacky, but it's not a bad disco beat!

Breslov Rabbi David Sears on similarities and differences between Judaism and Buddhism

2007-12-17T12:23:00.001-05:00

This very erudite, and readable, discussion on the blog "A Simple Jew" - this is a must read!

Part I - The "Oy Vey" School of Buddhism

Part II - Comparing Jewish Mysticism and Buddhism

Part III: Rabbi Nachman’s “HaNei’or BaLaylah / Awakening In The Night”

Rabbi Eric Yoffie's Biennial Sermon

2007-12-15T22:14:00.001-05:00

URJ - Sermon by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie at the San Diego Biennial , December 15, 2007

Topic 1:
I was glad to see that Rabbi Eric Yoffie addressed the issue of Shabbat morning worship in his biennial sermon. As a participant in the URJ's IWorship email list, I have been actively participating in this discussion, and I look forward to the results. I know that the URJ has always been successful in taking movement wide action, so I imagine that this issue will trickle down in a few years, too.

When we undertook to revive Erev Shabbat worship, our intention was not to focus solely on a single hour of Friday night prayer. Erev Shabbat was to be the key, opening the door to a discussion of the Shabbat day in all its dimensions.

Such a discussion is long overdue. The late Erev Shabbat service was introduced by Isaac Mayer Wise in 1869. Because Jews worked on Saturday, it literally saved Shabbat for the Jewish community. No other Reform innovation has had such long-lasting success; and this service will remain at the very heart of our Shabbat celebration.

But in the last half century, working patterns have changed. Not everyone works on Saturday now, and Jews, more than ever before, crave spiritual sustenance and meaningful ritual. With members returning to the synagogue on Friday nights, we had hoped that some of them would also be drawn to our Shabbat morning prayer and to a serious conversation about the meaning of Shabbat.

But this has not happened, and we all know one reason why that is so: the character of the Shabbat morning service. With the morning worship appropriated by the Bar and Bat Mitzvah families, our members who come to pray with the community often sit in the back of the sanctuary and feel like interlopers in their own congregation. On Erev Shabbat, we invite our members in, but on Shabbat morning, we drive them away. On Friday night, we entice them with exuberant prayer and a community of celebration and song. But on Shabbat morning, we leave them turned off and disappointed.

Topic 2:
Jewish Islamic dialogue. As we say in the holy tongue, יפה שעה אחת קודם, or better late than never. Hopefully, Reform leadership in this area will open the way for the other movements. Let's just hope it doesn't take as long as ordination of Women Rabbis...

As a once-persecuted minority in countries where anti-Semitism is still a force, we understand the plight of Muslims in North America today. Yes, thank God, most American and Canadian Muslims are treated with dignity. But since 9/11, we do not lack for purveyors of hate who see Muslims as a fifth column and who engage in the ugliest form of stereotyping, casually ascribing to all the guilt of a tiny minority.

Topic 3:
Yoffie's strongest words were saved for what should be the #1 issue in the US Presidential campaign, Health Care. Should be, but isn't, because of Bush's war, and because of the massive amounts of lobbying money of the pharmaceutical industry. Does anyone even remember Michael Moore's movie last summer?

Rabbi Yoffie connected this topic to this week's parsha, recalling Joseph's central planning of the Egyptian economy as a stepping stone to the topic.

It is not my intention to discuss with you the mechanics of providing health insurance. Some, including our Movement, prefer a single-payer system in which the government provides health insurance, and some want insurance delivered by private entities under government regulation.

But what we do need to discuss is the fundamental question of values that is as yet unresolved by our society: What do we owe each other as Americans?

The Jewish answer is: Communities are obligated to provide healing to all of their citizens. The Shulchan Aruch makes the point very simply: “If the physician withholds his services, it is considered as shedding blood” (S.A., Yoreh Dei-ah 336:1).

The Jewish answer is: Something is profoundly wrong when somebody else’s medical crisis is no longer our problem, and when we are so unwilling to come to each other’s aid.

The Jewish answer is: Providing health insurance for all is about helping a family member, a neighbor, or a fellow citizen because, next time, any one of us could be facing catastrophe. It is not just about them, it is about us.

It's refreshing to hear a national Religious leader touting a single payer program, since so few of the Democratic candidates are willing to do so.

Topic 4:

Israel

Oh, yeah, that, um, country over there in the middle east. I'm surprised at the change in the tone of the Jewish community about Israel, just in the six months since I returned to the US. And in the year since the outpouring of support following the debacle of the Second Lebanon war. Or was it an out-trickle? Anyway, Yoffie put Israel last, eg. in the strongest place, but neglected to mention any specific organizations or actions URJ members or congregations might take to celebrate Israel's 60th Independence Day next spring.

Shavua Tov.

More on Reform v. Minyan

2007-12-14T11:21:00.001-05:00

BZ, aka Mah Rabu, continues his thoughts on the Spiritual communities study survey. About 1/3 of the way down the page he writes about coming from the Reform movement:

Jewschool » Blog Archive » The results are in: Take III

Next, another word on the Reform stuff. I’m particularly interested in this, as someone who definitely marked “Reform” for the first question (in which denomination were you raised?) and probably was among the 3% who marked “Reform” for the second question (what do you consider yourself now?) but I’m not certain. I’m not connected to any Reform-affiliated institutions, but I still think of myself as a Reform expat; the synagogue I don’t go to is Reform.

That last sentence is telling. I share the sentiment. And further on, he talks about Jerusalem's Kehillat Kol HaNeshama, the spiritual center of Israel's Reform movement (even if its a thorn in the side of some of that movement's leadership).

Well worth reading.

Shabbat Shalom!

URJ Biennial blogs community

2007-12-14T11:14:00.001-05:00

URJ Biennial Blog

Reverend Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, California took part in a dialogue this evening with Rabbi Laura Geller of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills and Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple, Los Angeles moderator by Ron Wolfson, co-founder of Synagogue 3000. This discussion is a must hear for anyone looking to learn how to create and sustain a meaningful community of faith in today’s world.

An interesting discussion. Rick Warren points out that community always "starts with a story." The story is what draws people in.

Greeters - not only senior greeters, but young adult greeters, child greeters...

Rick Warren: "Someone says 'I didn't get something out of worship today' I say 'Tough. It wasn't for you.' I mean, we have to get away from that consumerism in this culture."

And there's some fine drashing on this week's Torah Portion VaYiggash.

Well, I also commented on the post, but the URJ didn't like my sentiments, so I'll just write here what I wrote there:
In his introduction of Rick Warren, Rabbi Wolfson excitedly explained that Warren and his wife practice "reverse Tithing" eg. giving away 90% of their income. While this is a fine thing to hear, especially after the Congressional inquiry into Warren's church and other Mega-churches, I don't think it deserves the wild applause it garnered. The Mishnah teaches that we must not allow people to give more than 20% of their money away. Obviously, the times have changed, and it's probably possible to get by on that kind of sum (assuming Warren makes upward of $1Million/year). This is a little more eloquent than the initial comment

But I imagine the line that got to the URJ people was this: We need the rich to stay rich enough to keep giving.

The idea that this is somehow ungracious or disrespectful is, I think, the root of the money problem today. Money has become the pornography of this era. One's bank balance is more private than one's body in this world.

Or else it was my name.

Culture Shock, Shmulture Schock...

2007-12-03T20:41:00.001-05:00

I went to Target a couple of days ago. It was as if the great American ideal of multiculturalism disappeared the moment I entered - suddenly we were all celebrating Christmas. Ugh. I mean, I should have known, expected it, whatever, but after 17 years in Israel, I forgot. I forgot why I left this country. Anyway, there I was in Target, looking for Hanukah things. And I'm here in Pittsburgh, where not a small part of a not so small Jewish community does shop there on a regular basis. But box store is box store, however much better its employees are treated than at the competition. Which is to say that some planner in Podunk (MOT, no doubt) is choosing how many shelf-feet of display is given to Chanukah. I asked a worker. I was told to look in the FARTHEST BACK CORNER of the store. Well, I know that Target sets all its seasonal stuff in the back left corner, and there were ten aisles or so in each direction full of red and green and electric lights and what have you Xmas galore. And Hanukah, well, it was all the way back on the last row of shelves, with about 6 feet of shelf space. I almost walked out. Honestly, 20 years ago, or in Philadelphia 20 years ago, I would have staged a protest, brought the house down. But I just bought my stuff, and left.

Like Streams in the Desert

2007-11-28T22:25:00.001-05:00

Streams in the Desert: Albany Records

Music for chorus and orchestra inspired by the Torah.

A student of Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman and William Thomas McKinley, Meira Warshauer has devoted much of her creative output to Jewish themes and their universal message. As she writes, “The Torah, Jewish teaching and tradition, is likened to water. It is the source of blessing and goodness, filling all who drink from its well with the knowledge of God. I hope this recording will help to satisfy our thirst and encourage us to continue opening our hearts to the Eternal Spirit in each of us.”

My friend and long time Jewish Renewalist Meira Warschauer's "Like Streams in the Desert" is finally available on CD. I don't know if one can call this an oratorio, but it is an inspirational piece of music for Mezzo Soprano, Chorus and Orchestra, and it's beautiful music.

Reb Zalman offers a prayer of optimism for the Annapolis meetings

2007-11-28T14:40:00.001-05:00

Ok, I know it was yesterday, but my dear teacher
Reb Zalman calls for optimism and prayers for success of the Annapolis process:

“Please join with me and exert your hope and faith for the success of the negotiations in Annapolis this week. We should hold the image of a Middle East that has healed from its deep wounds. It is not likely that the shift will happen without a spiritual transparency to the will of God and the healing of the planet.”

"There must be a deep change of orientation on both sides, one which will lead to the ability of success, of mutual benefit, of neighborliness in which both sides would see at the end of the negotiations a viable and sustainable win-win situation," he says.

Imagine, a world in which we are not hated, but loved and admired. Imagine yourself negotiating with success, making the sale, passing the test, whatever it is. Instead of imagining failure and warfare. Instead of saying, "Boy, it would be great if the talks break down, I could say 'I told you so!'" - could we? Is that what we really want? Sure, it would have been nice if that had been 1996 and not 2007, it would have been nice if that had been Yitzhak Rabin, at the end of a long career, but it's Ehud Olmert, who's under indictment and barely 60. But so what? Really, is my moment of personal (or corporate) political success worth it? Couldn't I just imagine success for once? Can I imagine real peace?

Parashat VaYeshev - shepherd consciousness

2007-11-27T10:16:00.001-05:00

R' Fivel Yedidya Glasser wrote this week's Canfei Nesharim Torah Commentary. I especially liked this paragraph:

For Your Community - Parshas HaShavua | Canfei Nesharim

Much of today’s environmental crisis stems from laziness, detachment and simply cutting corners, not malicious destruction. If everyone, from the average consumer to the corporate CEO, dedicated time each day to rekindle their own inner-potential as vehicles for G-d in the world, their use of the natural world would be informed by their relationship with the Creator of the natural world. It does not really matter if one is controlling a multi-national corporation or running a household, the reality is that mindfulness of the bigger picture is an essential tool for any individual who cares about the world in which we live.

But it's hard for me to read Torah teachings by people who live in places like Bat Ayin, a West Bank Settlement associated with extremist Jewish nationalism. Rumor has it that non-Jews are not allowed to enter the gates of the community. How can the teaching in the link above be kosher if it comes out of a Yeshiva that produces "treyf" teachings of hate?

TO: Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu - בית המקדש חרב בגלל שנאת חינם - didn't you know?

2007-11-20T22:13:00.001-05:00

Israel's Conservative movement threatens to sue ex-chief rabbi - Haaretz - Israel News

Israel's Masorti (Conservative) Movement is threatening legal action against former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu for saying that "the reek of hell wafts" from Reform and Conservative synagogues, and it is therefore forbidden to walk by them.

Eliyahu, a leading religious Zionist rabbi, made the remark last week during his weekly Torah lecture. It was later reprinted in the bulletin Kol Tzofayich, which was distributed in synagogues throughout Israel over the weekend.

When will the Orthodox learn from the Talmud instead of from the Geonim?

No Words

2007-11-10T22:56:00.001-05:00

Respect your Elders

2007-11-07T14:59:00.001-05:00

How Elders Can Rebalance The World — A Jewish Magazine, an Interfaith Movement

When we started out virtually all of my friends said to me, “Barry, what are you doing? We have the critical issues of the day, and you are going to a nursing home every day? How do you justify using your talent, your capabilities, your time and energy, in a way that’s not related to the crucial issues of the day?” The reality, though, of nursing homes is that they are a microcosm of everything that needs repair in society. The major workforce is primarily the working poor. Typically, they are African Americans, Hispanics, Laotian, East Indians, Pakistanis, and poor white people. The homes reflect America’s priorities about healthcare. They reflect the inability of government to work effectively. The reimbursement system is driven by special interests, and regulation has been as much a part of the problem as of the solution. If you go up and down every single issue, from ageism to creating an environment that gets people well instead of making them sicker, you find them all in a nursing home.

Alter Barry Barkan has been helping elders in the Bay Area find their voice for over 30 years. In this article, he traces the activist angle of that work and points out where Elders might lead us.

Two birds with one stone - Solar Richmond

2007-10-12T08:40:00.001-04:00

Kelpie Wilson | Waiting for the Energy

Van Jones, an environmental and social activist and cofounder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, California, was interviewed on the radio program Living on Earth last week about the impact of solar jobs on the American workforce:

"There's a wonderful program, which I just can't stop bragging on, called 'Solar Richment,' [(sic) Kelpie means "Solar Richmond"] where they got a modest amount of money, got 20 guys - you know low-income African-American, Latino, Filipino, one African-American woman. For nine weeks these guys got up, this young woman got up, every morning. They had to be there at nine o'clock. They had to learn these skills. Nine weeks later they did their first installation. There were local TV cameras there, solar employers were there saying, 'hey, we need workers.' And you know, the look on these young people's faces. Often these are the young men who are always seen as the villains and yet here they are, nine weeks later, African-American, Latino, with the baggy pants, the hair or whatever, but they've got their work boots on, they've got their orange jerseys on, and they're doing this work. And they are the ecological heroes."

Solar Richmond is solving two problems at once - urban unemployment and the low self esteem that goes with it, and rising power costs. Thank God someone's doing it.

Global Warming Warning - Faster than ever

2007-10-10T22:55:00.001-04:00

AlterNet: Environment: Ice Caps Melting Fast: Say Goodbye to the Big Apple?

Scientists know this already, but just to give you some idea of the problem, the Greenland ice cap is melting at such a fast rate it is triggering earthquakes as pieces of ice several cubic kilometres in size break up.

Scientists say the acceleration of melting and subsequent speeding up of giant glaciers could be catastrophic in terms of sea level rise and make previous predictions published this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) far too low. The glacier at Ilulissat, which it is believed spawned the iceberg which sank the Titantic, is now flowing three times faster into the sea than it was 10 years ago.

Conservative leader takes on Rubashkin

2007-10-10T15:58:00.001-04:00

Rabbi Shammai Engelmayer, editor of Judaism and rabbi of a large Conservative Synagogue in Bergen County, New Jersey, takes on the ethics of American Kashrut supervision in this article in the Jewish Standard. Maybe someone in the Orthodox camp will take notice?

Jewish Standard The meat of the matter

There is something not quite kosher about kashrut supervision these days. Treat animals with cruelty, treat workers with disrespect, and otherwise engage in poor labor practices, and exhibit one of the worst records in the United States for health violations, and you can still receive certification from the major organizations and be acceptable to the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County.

Let your waitress wear a miniskirt, play music that might cause someone to want to dance, or serve Shabbat lunch in a synagogue social hall equipped with a live microphone and you can kiss your certification good-bye.

Who can tell us why our etrog must return to Israel?

2007-10-10T15:02:00.001-04:00

My classmate Rachel Barenblat posted a nice recipe for Etrog Marmalade on her blog. I hope she used Italian or Greek etrogim - we were informed when we purchased our etrog that it must be returned, as it was from Eretz Yisrael, because it is a shmitta year (even though ours was surely picked before Rosh HaShanah).

Now, we searched (in English) and searched (in Hebrew) the internet, and found all kinds of halakhic rulings about shmitta and about etrogim, but could not find an explanation of the rule we heard when we purchased our etrog. So we'd be really glad to hear a learned explanation of why the etrog must be returned to Eretz Yisrael, and what will be done with it there. It seems an absurd expense, davka on a year when the etrogim were so cheap!

What is sure, no matter what the year, making marmelade is preferable than most other solutions - one is forbidden to dispose of an etrog in a dirty or smelly place (eg. trash can or compost pile). That is why there are traditions for marmalade, and for pushing cloves into the etrog all around, to be used for besamim at havdalah.

I learned from Reb Zalman to connect the holidays by things like this - your marmalade will best be eaten at channukah with your levivot, the drippings from the candles of channukah to make a small candle for seeking chametz on erev pesach, which is burned in a fire lit with kindling from your hadasim and your lulav. Some say aravot, too, but I put mine in water, and they have sprouted - now I'll plant them in the ground!

Rachel suggests saving the jam for Tu BiShvat, when her Berkshires home will no doubt be snowbound. For me, I couldn't wait quite that long...

Ellen Bernstein lays down the Torah on Jewish Environmentalism

2007-10-02T13:32:00.001-04:00

Zeek | Creating a Sustainable Jewish Ecology | Ellen Bernstein

Read it. Now.

Judaism, I found, like many other indigenous traditions, is necessarily an ecological, sustainable tradition. All traditions that rise up out of the land, all indigenous traditions like Judaism, are interested in sustaining a people into the future.

And

And like ecology, whose concern first and foremost is the ecos, the house, Judaism is interested in preserving the home--our earthly home. And so in Judaism we have laws that forbid the cutting down of fruit trees and the polluting of waterways, and edicts that describe where to locate tanneries and how to plan towns and where to plant gardens and where to browse the sheep. Our whole system of social justice and tzedakah grew out of a landed consciousness. Without this kind of ecological appreciation, our culture would have dried up thousands of years ago.

I wish I had time to blog on this at length.

Chag Sameach

Sukkah competition - teach design to Mishnah and Mishnah to design

2007-09-30T07:09:00.001-04:00

Turning the tables on tabernacles - Haaretz - Israel News

In the age of ready-made sukkah and easy-to-assemble kits, traditional, temporary strcutures seem to have lost some of their traditional uniqueness. People build their sukkah without thinking about design, Beiser said, partially because the holiday is so short, but also because it never occurs to them. The competition, therefore, encourages people to build sukkot that are "out of the box," in a way that attempts to teach religiously observant people about design, while also teaching designers about the laws, traditions and religious observances of Sukkot.

Sounds cool? read on:

In the age of ready-made sukkah and easy-to-assemble kits, traditional, temporary strcutures seem to have lost some of their traditional uniqueness. People build their sukkah without thinking about design, Beiser said, partially because the holiday is so short, but also because it never occurs to them.

The competition, therefore, encourages people to build sukkot that are "out of the box," in a way that attempts to teach religiously observant people about design, while also teaching designers about the laws, traditions and religious observances of Sukkot.

Rules here.

Article about my teacher Reb Ruth Kagan's minyan

2007-09-22T23:30:00.001-04:00

Keeping the faiths | Jerusalem Post

A rabbi, a monk, and a Sufi walk into a minyan. It sounds like the set-up to a bad joke circulating by email. But it's a reality every month at Nava Tehilla, Jerusalem's first - and only - "multi-faith" Jewish renewal gathering.

Started a year-and-a-half ago in the living room of Rabbi Ruth and Michael Kagan in Baka, a neighborhood popular with immigrants from North America, Nava Tehilla now attracts upward of 100 attendees for its mix of spirited prayer, a potluck meal and a chance to meet up with Jews and non-Jews alike of all religious persuasions. The minyan will be celebrating the High Holy Days together this year as well.

Yossi and Simcha Daniel

2007-09-18T15:31:00.001-04:00

Yossi and Simcha Daniel
Originally uploaded by rbarenblat

And another picture of me. Thanks Rachel!

Balaam and Balaak

2007-09-18T15:28:00.001-04:00

More Balaam and Balaak
Originally uploaded by rbarenblat

This was a few weeks ago, but I just wanted to admit - That's me with the sunglasses on in the picture - by my classmate Rachel Barenblat.

Gmar Chatima Tova to all who read this.

Shana Tova!

2007-09-12T17:41:00.001-04:00

For a different kind of Shana Tova, here's a clip of Nina Simone singing "Eretz Zavat Chalav U'Dvash" - Wishing everyone who sees this a year as sweet as honey, from start to finish.

Avrum Burg tells it like it is...

2007-09-10T10:20:00.001-04:00

... Now if he would only repent his last few years as CEO of one of Israel's top ten munitions manufacturers...

The Jewish people's new task - Haaretz - Israel News

The Jewish people's new task
By Avraham Burg

Rosh Hashanah is very different from other Jewish holidays. A thread of universalism runs through it, and its prayers differ from those of the rest of the year. Nationalism and the nation's collective memories are marginal at this time; its main essence is directed outward: "a prayer ... for all the nations." This is the only day when we pray for the world's well-being. We sing "today the world was conceived," and we know that "everyone in the world will pass before Him," without distinction and without discrimination, because everyone is equal before the world's creator. Like Adam and Eve, who were born free of religion and zealotry.

Rosh HaShanah Torah from my Rebbe

2007-09-06T08:42:00.001-04:00

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi teaches that Rosh HaShanah is the time to update our installation of the "God Field" - Literally "Binyan HaMalkhut" - creatively interpreted in the idiom of computers. He also has some interesting thoughts about Shekhina - Rosh HaShanah is the renewal of the placenta of the world.

Shanah Tova!

Green Apprenticeship Ad on YouTube

2007-08-24T14:43:00.001-04:00

Mark and Julia made this great video for Kibbutz Lotan!

Thanks, kids!

A Jewish Tree Hugger's Plea

2007-08-13T09:56:00.001-04:00

Zeek | A Jewish Tree Hugger's Plea | Moshe Kornfeld

And you shall reduce, reuse, and recycle with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all of your resources. And concern for the planet that I command you today shall be upon your hearts. And you shall teach sustainability to your children and speak of it frequently: when you sit in your energy star rated home, or when you ride your bike to work, when you go to sleep and when you wake up. And you shall have a non-disposable mug as a sign on your hand and an organic cotton hat to shade your eyes.

YES! This is what the Torah says!

Choosing Column A

2007-06-18T16:32:00.001-04:00

http://view.break.com/311805 - Watch more free videos

5/5

2007-06-17T21:32:00.001-04:00

Arlene Goldbard nailed me on this one - she tagged me in Laura Axelrod's 5/5 meme.

So here goes:

Name your area of expertise/interest:

Jewish Renewal and intentional community

How did you become interested in it?

Well, let's see. I always sort of had this idea that everybody should live in community. Maybe this was because my parents were both professors, and I loved the atmosphere on campus. Since we were Jewish, that meant kibbutz. While in college, I took part in an LGAT. While there, I was told by Sabrina Dearborn to visit the Findhorn foundation, as I was headed to England. That was wonderful, but I didn't know enough to be the token Jew there. So I went back to college, where I had this weird and amazing spiritual experience involving Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov and a bathtub. My roommates asked if they should call me Archimedes.

The next day, I was browsing the shelves in the Waverly Bookstore in New Brunswick, NJ, which was going out of business, and the only book on Judaism to be found on the shelves was The First Step by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. That weekend, when I went home, my mother handed me a gift, a copy of the first number of New Traditions, a now-defunct journal published by the National Havurah Committee in the mid-1980s (that's when this all was happening) - featuring an interview with Reb Zalman. I was being sent a clear message that he was to be my teacher.

How did you learn how to do it?

Well, well. After a year in Israel, where I got fluent in Hebrew, I went to live in Philadelphia, in the neighborhood where Reb Zalman was living then, Mount Airy. I had the honor and privilege of studying with him, first at P'nai Or, the synagogue that was in Reb Zalman's house, and then in the P'nai Or "Mystery School". This was 1989, more or less. I was active in a Zionist thing, too, a "garin" called "Gal Hadash" - which was part of Habonim Dror. I made aliyah with the Garin at the end of 1989, and moved to Kibbutz Lotan after a year. Since then, I've been perfecting "it."

Who has been your biggest influence?

Clearly the answer here has to be Reb Zalman, although Rabbi Arthur Waskow should be counted here, too, as well as Rabbi Goldie Milgrom and Rabbi Shefa Gold get some credit, too. Most of all, my parents and sisters, and my chaverim at Kibbutz Lotan.

What would you teach people about it?

Spirituality is not about getting high. It's fun to feel that, but true spirituality is the feeling of being the nexus of heaven and earth, past and future. Being fully, being here and now, at the center of the universe.

Community is about doing it together, over and over, around and around again. And again. And again. Each time it comes out differently, someone new brings a new melody, a new story. Someone familiar is missing, maybe gone forever, maybe only for a while. And what is "it"? IT's living and celebrating, making a living, losing a loved one, health, sickness (God forbid), waking and sleeping, and working hard. Compassion and cooperation, argument and reconciliation.

Who can I tag?

Mark, Alex, Rachel, Mobius (happy birthday!),Yoram

JRF Omer teaching: four categories of consumption

2007-05-03T00:28:00.001-04:00

Cantor Eric Miller posted a beautiful teaching connecting Rosh Hashanah's Tashlikh with Pre-Pessach chametzspickling. He says the four objects used - pockets emptied at Rosh Hashanah, and candle, feather, and spoon at Pessach cover four different categories of consumption: food (spoon), money (pockets), energy (candle), and communitcation (feather - as in writing with a quill... or sending a message with a pigeon?).

I'm getting a little tired of A. D. Gordon already

2007-04-19T08:30:00.001-04:00

The research is moving along, and the writing is, too. Today was not great, but yesterday and Tuesday were both ok. I'm up to 50 pages, so length is not a problem, already. But I'm still stuck on chapter 3, and need to dig into it, before concluding things.

My hevruta, Cathrine, suggested to me that the problem is that I am actually worried about finishing - it means I'll have to move on, but really, I think most grad students seem pretty fed up with their topics by the time they are finished with the Thesis.

I know, I promised some of the content, and I haven't delivered yet.

Reviving the Blog

2007-03-20T10:56:00.001-04:00

Well, here it is, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, Chodesh Ha-Aviv. What better time than this to revive the blog!

Birds galore around here - Hoopoe, Redstarts, Buntings (Ortolan and Cretzchmar's, at least), Shrikes, Warblers by the hundreds, particularly the Lesser Whitethroats, whose throats are yellow with pollen from the Bottlebrush trees, but also Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps, and the elusive Sardinians. My sister-in-law saw a Namaqua dove, and there are at least four varieties of Wheatears here at the moment.

Worth checking out: Truth Windows - a recent piece on the Kibbutz Lotan Center for Creative Ecology Blog.

Coming soon: Daniel's master's thesis - "Aaron David Gordon's Human and Nature Through the Eyes of the Present-Day Field of Ecopsychology"

I already saw a wagtail

2006-09-03T01:58:00.000-04:00

The heron in my friend Arlene's blog is a beautiful image!

The change from summer to fall was startling here in Southern Israel - the first of September dawned with thick cloud cover over the whole length of the Arava - except Eilat! The clouds burned off by noon, but the change was felt... the next day, the lawns were covered with wagtails, and the north wind started blowing at 5 pm. I even saw a hoopoe!

The wagtails (Heb. Nachlieli) are one of the iconic birds of the fall in Israel - a song (by Rachel Shapira, sung by Chava Alberstein) about the fall has the line - "kvar rayiti nachlieli..." (I already saw a wagtail/ and maybe it just seems to me/ another heat wave broke yesterday/ and the summer vacation, too).

Happy Elul!

Ecological fallout from war

2006-08-17T06:06:00.001-04:00

Tzafrir Rinat reports on the ecological fallout from both sides of the border:

Israel and Lebanon will long bear the environmental scars left behind by the fighting in the North, with the Galilee region in Israel and the Lebanese coastline, both major tourism locations, now requiring urgent rehabilitation: The Galilee has been blackened by fires caused by rockets hitting the region; and the Lebanese coastline is under threat from a large oil spill caused by Israeli air strikes on a fuel installation south of Beirut.

UGH!

What's wrong with the home front

2006-08-13T02:46:00.000-04:00

Ari Shavit put it succinctly in Friday's Haaretz:

A spirit of absolute folly - Haaretz - Israel News

Instead of being constructive elites, in the past generation the Israeli elites have become dismantling elites. Each in its own area, each by its own method, dealt with the deconstruction of the Zionism enterprise. Step by step, the top 1000th percentiles abandoned the existential national effort. They stopped doing reserve duty, they stopped sending their sons to the fighting units. They mocked those officers who warned about unilateral withdrawals. They mocked those officers who warned that the emergency warehouses were emptying out and the enemies were becoming stronger. And they deceived themselves and those around them that Tel Aviv is in fact Manhattan. Money is in fact everything. And thus they bequeathed to young Israelis a legacy of values that makes it very difficult for them to attack even when the attack is fully justified. Because a country that lacks equality, that lacks justice and that lacks faith in the rightness of its path, is a country for which it is very difficult to go on the attack. It is a country for which not many are willing to kill and be killed.

Well, not so succinctly, perhaps, but spot on.

And in the meantime, we are here burying our sons. I know I've grown up now that I'm reading the names of the dead soldiers for sons of my friends, and not my friends...

Yesterday, speaking with S., a reservist home on furlough to visit his father, and my son (7 and 1/2) sitting there, speaks up "Abba, what if someone from Israel goes into Lebanon to save the innocent, and gets them out, but then dies in their place. Could that happen? Do people die doing things like that?" S. and I raised our eyebrows. "It's confusing, this war business, to a child," said S.

"It's confusing to all of us." I said.

This morning's news was mixed: 24 soldiers dead. IDF forces on the banks of the Litani.

What does my friend Alex like to say? "A Jewish state is, by definition an unsustainable proposition - you need an A-bomb to keep it together."

So war causes tremendous environmental damage, but what should we do, just lie down and let the extremists slaughter us?

Technorati Tags: lebanon, israel, war

This should get wide press! "Wartime" generation of Wind Turbines!

2006-07-07T00:24:00.000-04:00

Lester Brown | Rescuing a Planet Under Stress

Energy consultant Harry Braun points out that, since wind turbines are similar to automobiles in the sense that each has an electrical generator, a gearbox, an electronic control system, and a brake, they can be mass-produced on assembly lines. Indeed, the slack in the US automobile industry is sufficient to produce a million wind turbines per year. The lower cost associated with mass production could drop the cost of wind-generated electricity below 2¢ per kilowatt-hour. Assembly-line production of wind turbines at "wartime" speed would quickly lower urban air pollution, carbon emissions, and the prospect of oil wars.

Amazing New Biblical Scholarship website

2006-07-03T07:17:00.000-04:00

TanakhML

OK, so not everyone wants to find the latest biblical scholarship technology. I know. It certainly has little to do with sustainability or technology.

But it's very cool!

So what does charisma have to do with being a Rabbi?

2006-06-29T01:48:00.000-04:00

Since my rejection from HUC (number 3 - I'm a sucker for punishment!) I have been struggling with myself: I know that my performance in the interview was not charismatic, and that is the main reason the Reform Movement doesn't want me as a rabbi. A recent post on IWORSHIP, a Reform email list, contained this lay explanation: "We search for rabbis according to their ability to lead, teach and inspire. We search for cantors according to their ability to sing and teach bnai mitzvah. Inspiration is a bonus." - which kind of explains why a certain Rabbi on the HUC Israeli Program committee suggested that I become a cantor, not a rabbi.

On another list, there has been an ongoing discussion about charisma and leadership, following last month's debacle, the unmasking of Bayit Chadash's Rabbi Mordechai Gafni (with whom I at one time had hoped to study, until I heard about his shadow side).

Rabbi David Bockman wrote this very moving letter. I imagine that if I had set out to study for the Rabbinate when I first heard the call, I might be in the same place. His words speak very deeply of my own feelings:

Hevraya

This will not be a well thought out and crafted note. I'm not asking for a specific answer to a query, but I wanted to open up a discussion of the sort that seems to be rising in importance these days. Or maybe it's just my personal hang-up...

It seems to me (LAD) that *personality* is becoming more important in the job/profession of a rabbi these days, or - at least - it's gaining in prominence. Here are some of the factors that make me think this:

- when I graduated from JTS ('86), the expectation was that being a congregational rabbi was about halacha, about pastoral care and leadership (whatever that means), about programming, about education (I had learned these things pretty well)
- somewhere between then and now, there was a lot of focus on 'systems' (congregational cultures) and how to manage them (CEO model? - Elliot Schoenberg is very big into these ideas)
- some current trends: Mordecai Gafni, Shlomo Carlebach, etc. Personality or charisma seems to be a decisive factor in success these days, whether or not one's music is very good music or one's torah is very intelligent or true torah

After all, look at George W. Bush. He seems to 'chariz' many people (I don't seem to be one of them), but it's not because of his knowledge or his success in organizing the country into a system that seems stable and successful, at least from the way I see it.

Sure, he pushes his agenda through, but it's like a baby that cries and gets its parents to give up their own aspirations for a number of years. Because it is insistant and single-minded, the baby 'wins'. That should not be looked to as a desideratum, though. Saying that someone gets results is not - to me - anything to recommend them. Only if you say that the results are good or wise or just or legally sound do results really mean much to me.

I've been in the rabbinate for 20 years now. I know that I'm not much of a charismatic person, and I never will be. I also know that I'm very intelligent, creative, sweet and a deep and considerate thinker. I've never been extremely popular, but I've always stood up for people on the fringes whom celebrity types seem to disenfranchise or crush somehow. That's who I am, and as the years go on, I become more like myself.

Should I just hang it up and pursue a different career than the pulpit rabbinate? My wife would love that, certainly. Maybe the placement commission would be happy to never have to try to send my resume to any more congregations that want mainstream rabbis.

L'idach gissa, I feel drawn to this work, because I feel I have *different* things to do and teach. My new shul president tells me about how my sermons don't speak to the people because they don't make them happy and aren't topical enough or simply structured enough ("they don't end when you think they will"). But almost every shabbat I have someone come to me and say "that sermon really spoke to me, and I needed to hear it. Thank you," or "you really hit the nail on the head," or "Man, I
hope that Bar Mitzvah kid listens to what you said because it was beautiful and it was just what he needed to hear."

I've been compared (unfavorably) over the last number of years to other clergy people who I am told have charisma and people are drawn to them. Yet, when I see the abuses these people perpetrate and the way they destroy communities either for their personal gain or for extremist causes they support, it makes me want to cry.

I don't believe that charismatic people are *by their very nature* narcissistic and corrupt. I just know that I'm not one of 'em. And I am foolish enough to think that by doing the work I do I can benefit Jews and Jewish communities and bring more of God's Torah to light.

Am I deluding myself? Should I try to be surfacy and 'pretty' and 'happy' to keep a job, even though I feel I am really doing a disservice to the community? Should I focus on getting sippuk nefesh from writing, in this era when nobody reads anymore?

Has the wheel of fate rolled in such a direction that someone like me ought to get out? Might it someday soon roll another way? I know that there are few prophets these days, and of those hardly any are anywhere near accurate, but still...

Is this truly a big culture trend, or has it really always been this way?
Any ideas, eitzot, discussion?

R' David Bockman
Bergenfield, NJ
(UJ &) JTS '86

I pray to have the opportunity to serve.

-----------------------------------------------------

I want to make something clear - I continued to knock down the door at HUC for 5 years, not because I have some masochistic wish to make a fool of myself, nor for any great love of the program, one to one identity with the movement, or other ideological center, but for one very meaningful reason - HUC is the only liberal movement with a Rabbinical School in Israel. (Masorti is not liberal in my book - I cook on shabbat, for one thing...)

I desperately don't want to uproot my family forever, just to get rabbinical ordination. If I didn't care about that, I'd be in Philadelphia or Boston already for a year.

Commenting on someone else is a beginning

2006-06-22T06:21:00.000-04:00

i wrote this comment on Shalom Auslander's nextbook page:
Nextbook: House of the Holy

Now go write in the holy tongue. After twenty years in the Promised Land, I can't write either English or Hebrew. Can't, that is, but at the moment am, or should be both, but as the form and the site are probably Hebrew-unabled, I'm doing it in English to work out my block on the Hebrew side of my brain.

I hadn't thought of the holiness fear thing. I guess that's because I didn't grow up catholic, er, orthodox. Interesting set of fears.

I want to add that there are some more issues involved in writers' block, whatever it is and whether it exists at all. Some psychologists or psychiatrists or neuroscientists talk about actual physical blocks in the brain, whatever it may have been that put them there. I think Peter Whybrow, maybe, writes about it in one of his books.

Like why was it that I couldn't remember the name of Caleb Carr as I was writing an email this morning, and only when I typed out "early 20th Century New York mystery novel with Teddy Roosevelt" and pushed the enter key on the google.com window did his name come out. Until then I could only think of a name that -now- eludes me!

I have to say that writers writing about writing is probably pretty boring to anyone except another writer, Though.

Bad news for us Desert dwellers

2006-06-06T07:46:00.000-04:00

Desert Cities Are Living on Borrowed Time, UN Warns

Desert Cities Are Living on Borrowed Time, UN Warns
By John Vidal
The Guardian UK

Monday 05 June 2006

Climate change threatens conditions for 500 million. But report points to huge solar energy potential.

The 500 million people who live in the world's desert regions can expect to find life increasingly unbearable as already high temperatures soar and the available water is used up or turns salty, according to the United Nations.

Desert cities in the US and Middle East, such as Phoenix and Riyadh, may be living on borrowed time as water tables drop and supplies become undrinkable, says a report coinciding with today's world environment day.

Twentieth-century modernist dreams of greening deserts by diverting rivers and mining underground water are wholly unrealistic, it warns.

But the report also proposes that deserts become the powerhouses of the next century, capturing the world's solar energy and potentially exporting electricity across continents. For instance, a 310-square mile area of the Sahara could, with today's technology, generate enough electricity for the whole world.

The problem now facing many communities on the fringes of deserts, says the UN environment programme report, is not the physical growth of deserts but that rising water tables beneath irrigated soils are leading to more salinisation - a phenomenon already taking place across large tracts of China, India, Pakistan and Australia. The Tarm river basin in China, it says, has lost more than 5,000 square miles of farmland to salinisation in a period of 30 years.

The report suggests that Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia have used water from the desert very unwisely. Rather than growing staple crops such as wheat or tomatoes, it suggests that precious water should be used only for high value crops such as dates and fish farming.

The mining "fossil" water, laid down many millions of years ago, was once believed to have the potential to green deserts, but is now not thought to be a solution - except in Libya, where opinion is divided as to whether supplies may last 100 or 500 years.

But the greatest threat to people and wildlife living anywhere near deserts is climate change, which is already having a greater impact on desert regions than elsewhere. The Dashti Kbir desert in Iran has seen a 16% drop in rainfall in the past 25 years, the Kalahari a 12% decline and Chile's Atacama desert an 8% drop.

Most deserts, says the report, will see temperatures rise by 5-7C by the end of the century and rainfall drop 10-20%. This will greatly increase evaporation and dust storms, and will move deserts closer to communities living on their edges.

The problems of more heat and lower rainfall are being compounded by the melting of glaciers in mountainous regions. These waters sustain life in deserts but would be perilously close to drying up if global warming continued as expected.

The glaciers in the mountains of south Asia are expected to decline by 40% to 80% in the next century with profound effects on large populations in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and China.

Much of the water used for farming the south-west US, central Asia and around the Andes is drawn from rivers that originate in snow-covered mountains, says the report.

Development in the next 100 years is largely contingent on what happens to the climate. However, the report envisages that deserts will become more popular tourist destinations and that some of the plants that grow there could be "crops of the future".

"Deserts are threatened as never before by climate change, overexploitation of water and salinisation," said Professor Andrew Warren of University College London, one of the report's authors.

"We risk losing not only astounding landscapes and ancient cultures but also wild species that may hold keys to our survival."
powered by performancing firefox