tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75132826110582471162024-03-13T06:51:17.319-04:00The OK MorehReflections on Torah, teaching, and more by Maggid Paul SolynPaulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-54564360197519923872022-11-01T20:46:00.002-04:002022-11-11T21:00:40.869-05:00Ye and We<p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I was probably in high school before I learned that “Go Down, Moses” wasn’t originally a Jewish song. I had learned it in model seders in religious school, so it seemed Jewish.<br />It was actually a Black American spiritual, drawing a parallel between our slavery in Egypt and the slavery of Blacks in the United States, expressing their hope for liberation. In the Passover seder, we say that we ourselves were slaves in Egypt, and this was a factor in Jewish support for the civil-rights movement.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />This came to mind recently because of the startling, and frightening, tweet by “Ye,” formerly know as Kanye West, that he was “going death con 3 / On JEWISH PEOPLE.”<br />Most news reports didn’t quote the rest of the tweet. It continued, “The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also / You guys have toyed with and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” The rapper Kendrick Lamar has made similar statements.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />Black anti-Semitism isn't a new thing, but this was a take on it that most of us hadn’t encountered before. It echoes both the beliefs of some Black Hebrews that they are ancestrally Jewish even though there is no evidence. There are others who believe that they are actually Jewish because of their baptism in various obscure Christian denominations. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />In addition, the Reform response committee once received a question about a man from the LDS church who wanted to join a Reform congregation without conversion on the grounds that, as a Mormon, he was already Jewish. The committee replied that, if he was sincere about wanting to be Jewish, he would have to complete conversion in the ordinary way.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />And some people believe that Native Americans are ancestrally Jewish, although I have never heard this claim from Native Americans, not even when I lived in Oklahoma. Our Hebrew school there did have a few students with tribal membership, but all had Jewish mothers.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />My first thoughts about the second part of the tweet had less to do with Black Americans than with the belief that Jews are “God’s chosen people.” I’ve come to feel that this belief is both mistaken and harmful. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />Thus, I agree with Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan that we should drop it. The Reconstructionist movement formally disavows it, and has changed prayer texts accordingly. In the blessing before the reading of Torah, instead of <i>asher bachar banu mi kol ha’amim,</i> “who chose us from among all peoples,” it reads <i>asher kervanu la’avodato</i>, “who called us to [His] service. This formulation is acceptable at Congregation Kol Ami and is included, as an option, in our new Torah-blessing cheat sheet.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> <br />Reconstructionists also avoid <i>ki vanu vacharta</i>,”who chose us,” in the Kiddush, making it “<i>ki eilenu karata</i>, “who called us.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">What’s wrong with proclaiming our own chosen status is, first, that it’s presumptuous, and second, that it fosters “chosenness envy” that is dangerous for us. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">For most its history, Christianity held that God had revoked our chosen status and transferred it to Christians, which contributed to Christian anti-Semitism. Today, many liberal Christians espouse a “dual covenant” that includes both Jews and Christians. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I would go farther and acknowledge the possibility of multiple covenants. We have no information about whether God has made covenants with anyone else. Another option in the first Torah blessing is to say <i>im kol ha’amim</i>, “with all peoples.” </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">It’s mostly evangelical Christians who talk now about Jews as God’s chosen people, and the envy is palpable. These Christians absolutely love Jews, unfortunately in a way that is not healthful for us.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The Black writer Da’Shawn Mosley, based in the Washington, D.C. area, brings a different reading to the claim that Blacks (and possibly Hispanic and Native Americans) are Jews. <br />He writes, “As figures of the Bible have mostly been portrayed in our society as white, Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar’s rhetoric — drawn from radical Black Hebrew nationalism — attempts to seize from whiteness this esteem. By doing so, though, they completely negate the past and continued oppression of Jewish people.”</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />Yet another possible reading is that, since Jews are largely accepted as White in American society—although not by everyone—claiming to be Jewish is a way of claiming to deserve White privilege. We could counter that there are many Jews of color, but they aren’t always accepted as Jews, even when they have unquestioned Jewish ancestry or have undergone formal, even Orthodox, conversion.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />I don’t know how to respond to West or Lamar. I’m certain, however, that claiming superiority based on ancestry is both mistaken theology and a harmful tactic.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br />There is, however, a Jewish concept called <i>z’chut avot</i>, “merit of ancestors.” It expresses the idea that God is kind to us even when we don’t deserve it. Theologically, that may mean that God has a soft spot for our ancestors and therefore also for us. It doesn’t, however, make us better than anyone else. Lots of other people had virtuous ancestors, and some of us are descended from scoundrels. If we receive better treatment than we deserve, we can be grateful. That’s all.<br /><br /></span></p>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-22163402411706415232022-08-08T14:35:00.001-04:002022-08-08T14:35:24.699-04:00Don't judge a Jew by their skin color – or name<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">About twenty years ago, a man with the surname Murphy stood on the </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bima</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> of the synagogue that I attended in Connecticut and said, “As of today, Murphy is a Jewish name.”</span></span>
</p><p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">The occasion was his son’s </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bar mitzvah</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> service. He himself was a lapsed Catholic; his wife was Jewish.</span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">I thought of that in connection with Mookey Van Orden’s talks to us at the Shabbat Juneteenth services. We are as quick to judge a person’s Jewishness on the basis of a surname as we are on skin color—yet even a person named Murphy could have a Jewish mother and be halachichly Jewish.</span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Mookey was speaking about the frequent demand that a Jew of color prove their Jewish </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bona fides</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> every time they enter a Jewish setting. This persists even though one in five Jews in America is a person of color. In the Murphys’ congregation, the shofar-blower was a member of the Apache nation.</span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">The fact is that we very rarely have any need to verify that a person is genuinely Jewish. For attending services, it doesn’t matter at all. For certain ritual roles, it does matter, but there’s no need to be hyper-vigilant. It matters for weddings, because an officiant who performs interfaith ceremonies may structure the ceremony differently when both partners are Jewish, and it matters for burials in some but not all Jewish cemeteries.</span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">In the morning service that Shabbat, I mentioned Rabbi Sandra Lawson’s distress when Jews who meet her immediately demand her full life story. She’s the first Black Lesbian rabbi, but unless you’re hiring her as a rabbi you don’t need proof that she’s a rabbi. If it matters, only one question is needed: where was she ordained?</span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">There is another, more subtle aspect to this. Many of us have a habit of asserting what we think is privileged Jewish status in settings where it doesn’t matter and for reasons that don’t matter. We’re unreasonably proud of having grown up in New York City rather than out here in the </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">midbar </span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">(wilderness), having attended Hebrew school three days a week, having grandparents who spoke Yiddish, coming from an Orthodox family… you name it, some of us are proud of it.</span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Yet none of that makes you more Jewish, or a better Jew, than someone who grew up in Idaho, never went to Hebrew school at all, or is the first-ever Jewish member of their family. </span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">It might mean that you can rattle off traditional prayers with your eyes closed, have fond memories of a certain New York deli, or drop Yiddish words randomly into conversation. So what?</span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Traditional synagogues try to call a </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">Kohen</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> for the first Torah </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">aliyah</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> and a </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">Levi</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> for the second. Sometimes we do that at Congregation Kol Ami and sometimes we don’t. </span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">I suggest that being “more Jewish” or “a better Jew” comes from how you live. In that congregation in Connecticut, I think of the Navy officer who had no Jewish education as a child but had become quite learned through reading he did during long deployments at sea. I think of his wife, a Jew by choice, who had<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>assumed responsibility for the Jewish upbringing of their daughter and held office in the Sisterhood.</span></span></p>
<p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">I think of Jews, including many who don’t like to attend worship services, who devote themselves to </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">tzedakah</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> (justice or charity) and </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">g’milut chasadim</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> (acts of kindness). How they look, where they’re from, or what their surnames are just don’t matter.</span></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> </span></span></p>
<p></p>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-21443657974568103432022-03-11T10:05:00.008-05:002022-03-11T10:10:10.094-05:00One Jewish thing to save the earth<p><span style="font-family: verdana;">If it would slow climate change and help the environment in general, would you be willing to accept minimal packaging of everything you purchase? For an entire year?</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Vegan_friendly_icon.svg/300px-Vegan_friendly_icon.svg.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Vegan_friendly_icon.svg/300px-Vegan_friendly_icon.svg.png" width="200" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;">It would, and I think that most people would agree to it. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Would you agree to doing it for eleven years? What if there's something that would accomplish as much in <i>one</i> year as minimal packaging would in eleven?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Well, there is. Following a vegan diet for <i>one</i> year reduces greenhouse gases by as much as it takes eleven years to accomplish through minimal packaging.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">To be honest, there is nothing in <i>halacha</i>—Jewish religious law—that specifically requires or even encourages veganism. There is a general ethical principal called <i>bal tashchit—</i>בל תשחית, "do not destroy"—and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to understand that it prohibits destroying the earth.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The principal stems from an injunction in Deuteronomy not to cut down fruit trees during a war. Early rabbinic law extends it all unnecessary destruction.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">But Judaism still does not require veganism, and I'm not endorsing it across the board. What I'm recommending is that we return to the lifestyle of many of our ancestors, who reserved meat for Shabbat and Yom Tov, not because they wanted to, but because they had to. If you could only afford meat about once a week, why not reserve it to honor Shabbat?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">That changed with prosperity. It especially changed in North America, where meat, since at least the nineteenth century, has been extraordinarily plentiful. But just because we <i>can</i> eat meat every day, if we want to, doesn't mean that we should.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Think about it: eleven times as much benefit as something you probably wouldn't mind doing. Or, if you have meat about one day a week, 9.4 times as much benefit.<br /></span></p>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-1341929282192156262021-07-26T10:53:00.002-04:002022-02-12T17:41:19.315-05:0040 Days of Teshuvah<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.insideoutwisdomandaction.org/40days" rel="nofollow" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yGKQ-5U2WMU/YP7M42AqUgI/AAAAAAAADuo/lCV_yGkDHKE65vb6AuyjdP7EqlfbNGlXwCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/40DaysFilm%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> Our community presented and discussed the short film<i> <a href="https://www.insideoutwisdomandaction.org/40days" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">40 Days of Teshuvah</a></i> on the afternoon of Tisha b'Av. The film chronicles 40 days of protests that Black Jewish activist Yehudah Webster led on Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, concluding on Tisha b'Av.</span></span><p></p><p>
</p><p class="MainTextFirst" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">During and after our screening and discussion</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">, several questions came up:</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Are there Black Jews in any significant number</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">?</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Yes. The subtext may have been “Are they really Jewish?” Yes to that as well. While there are some “Black Hebrews” whose Jewishness is questioned, Black Jews like Yehudah Webster and many of his generation are the children or grandchildren of Black Americans who undertook legitimate conversion to Judaism, often under Orthodox auspices. It’s estimated than 1 in 5 American Jews is a person of color.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Is there really any connection between Tisha b’Av and Black Lives Matter? </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">There are two themes of Tisha b’Av. The first is grief: our grief over the destruction of the Temples, the destruction of Jerusalem, the exile of our people, and the sufferings of Jews throughout the ages. From the liberal end of the Jewish spectrum, I don’t mourn for the Temple, because I believe that we are better off with a Judaism that doesn’t revolve around animal sacrifice. I identify more with the people’s suffering that we read about in </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Eicha</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> (Lamentations).</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">The second theme is the cause of the destruction. Although Jewish tradition naturally holds that Jerusalem was destroyed because of our sins, the sages didn’t emphasize the so-called ritual infractions to which our minds naturally leap. They identified the cause as </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">sinat </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none; text-decoration: underline; text-underline: single;">h</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">inam</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">, baseless hatred. In our time, in our country, the non-judicial execution of Black Americans for offenses that are not even capital crimes is the paramount example of baseless <br />
hatred—and our taxes pay for it.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Is “crying out to God” as we saw in the demonstrations on Grand Army Plaza enough?” </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">No. But is it worthwhile? The Torah tells us that when we were enslaved in Egypt, “God heard the cries of the people” and then God acted to liberate them, so I have to believe that public outcry is legitimate.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">But crying out to God is not sufficient. Unlike our ancestors in Egypt, we have means to effect change. I’ve been thinking about some additions to </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Al </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none; text-decoration: underline; text-underline: single;">H</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">et </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">for Yom Kippur:</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">For the sin of treasuring our quiet, safe neighborhoods so highly that we pay others to oppress everyone we perceive as dangerous.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">For the sin of talking a good line but doing nothing more.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">For the sin of posting on social media but taking no action.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">For the sin of hearing racist speech and remaining silent.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">For the sin of believing that we deserve the privileges that society accords us.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">For the sin of valuing law and order more than the lives of other human beings.</span></span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><p class="MainText" style="mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">One aspect of the film that was probably<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hard to accept was the emphasis that Yehudah Webster and his family, and Rabbi David Jaffe, placed on prayer, especially public prayer. We are less certain about prayer and, in general, about relationship with God, but that’s a major strand in Jewish thought. In Rabbi Oren Steinitz’s Talmud class, we’ve been studying tractate </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Ta’anit</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-size: small; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">, which is about fast days—specifically, fasting during drought. Taking the Torah to the public square, praying and blowing the shofar there, were among the steps they took. Are Black lives less important than rain?</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">
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Although tradition holds that King Solomon wrote it, modern scholars attribute it to one or more of his civil servants. It gives, in general, the same advice that Harold Nicolson gave to a young acquaintance who felt trapped and buffeted in a civil-service position: do your job and be meticulous in everything that you can control. The edition of <i>Kohelet</i> that I recommend is <a href="https://amzn.to/2IoWgIP" target="_blank"><i>The Tao of Solomon</i></a> by Rabbi Rami Shapiro.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I was thinking of this because of a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/twintiersjewish/videos/375410333699459/" target="_blank">presentation</a> that the <a href="http://michaeldowd.org/" target="_blank">Rev. Michael Dowd</a> gave recently in our community. He spoke forcefully about the inevitability of drastic climate change: that, regardless of anything we do, the amount of carbon already in the atmosphere makes a much hotter world inevitable. Worse, some of the effects of a hotter climate, such as forest fires and melting of polar ice, themselves release even more carbon into the atmosphere.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">He also argues that technology won't save us and that faith in progress is actually harmful: the damage has already been done. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean that we should take no action. Things we do now (carbon fee, renewable energy, conservation) won't stop climate change, but that is not reason to continue making it worse.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yet Michael doesn't consider himself a prophet of doom. He calls himself a post-doom, pro-future evangelist. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As my friend and colleague <a href="https://frumish.blogspot.com/2020/11/yachad-rev-michael-dowd-and-rabbi-tarfon.html" target="_blank">Malachi Doane points out</a>, we Jews have some experience with rebuilding life after disaster. The classic example is the refashioning of Judaism after the destruction of the second Temple in 70 CE, led by Rabbi Johanan ben-Zakkai and others at Yavneh, outside Jerusalem. They changed Judaism from a religion centered on animal sacrifices in the Temple to one with a God who did not need sacrifices but demanded righteous living. We could also cite the rebuilding of Jewish life after the Holocaust, including the so-called <a href="https://www.sinaitemple.org/learning_with_the_rabbis/writings/2006/042806The614thCommanment.pdf" target="_blank">614th commandment</a>: not to give Hitler a posthumous victory (through despair).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The question, therefore, is what we should do, what I (as a spiritual educator) should do.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My first thought is: help us equip ourselves against nihilism and despair. This especially applies if you teach or lead young people. While adults head straight to denial, it's common for teens and pre-teens to pitch headlong into despair, which can lead to a personally disastrous life course. In young people it could well be drugs or suicide; in adults it might be wanton abandon, heedless consumption.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Activism, even though it will not solve the problem, is the best alternative to despair. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My next thought is to teach religious limits more in accord with the "carrying capacity" of the planet (inherent limits). As Michael says, future religion should emphasize limits on consumption and degradation of the biosphere. I've suggested, in a <a href="https://thejewisheducator.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/lo-alecha-ha-melacha-ligmor-theology-and-climate-change.pdf" target="_blank">conference presentation and article</a>, that Judaism--very much a religion of limits--should redefine <i>kashrut</i> to limit the consumption of meat to Shabbat and Yom Tov, a practice that economic circumstances and agricultural reality imposed on most of our ancestors. A practice also suggested by existing eco-kashrut is to limit our meat consumption to grass-fed animals.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A third thought is to introduce both young and adult learners to Jewish spirituality that is God-centered in a radical sense: one that is congruent with, and embraces, reality. In the same way that we believe that is is valuable to pray for, or recite <i>Tehillim </i>(Psalms) for a person who is gravely ill even if we don't believe that prayers or psalms will effect a cure, we should understand everything and anything we do to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions as <i>holy acts</i>.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Fourth (and finally), Judaism is already a religion that passes wisdom forward, but we need to incorporate contemporary, scientific wisdom into the culture that we give the future. We do not know what human life a century or two from now will look like. We don't know for sure that there will be Jews then. It's incumbent on us <i>now</i>, however, to figure out what wisdom we want Jews (and all people) of the future to value and to figure out ways to preserve and transmit it. This is a Yavneh moment. What would Rabbi ben-Zakkai do?<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-68994904506123436842020-05-22T16:38:00.003-04:002021-02-14T17:57:59.133-05:00Who wants to die to save J.P. Morgan Chase?<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span>Maybe I should avoid reading financial columns and websites.</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />Recently many have been concerned about the economic harm secondary to attempts, such as stay-at-home orders, to mitigate COVID-19. That economic harm is real and we shouldn’t ignore it.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />On the other hand, some of the writers seem to be concerned mostly about harm to big corporations, not so much about people who are either kept from working or continuing to work in conditions that endanger their own lives. The latter category includes not only first responders and medical workers, but also supermarket and drugstore employees and many others.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />Concern for the profits of big businesses cannot, in Jewish thought, take precedence over the needs of human beings. Corporations may be people (too) in American law, but they’re not people in a Jewish frame of reference. </span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />I don’t know anyone who would volunteer to die in order to save J.P. Morgan Chase.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />Still more un-Jewish is the suggestion that the virus should be allowed to rampage through the population in order to “cull” the ranks of those who aren’t economically productive: those who are old, disabled, poor, or unemployed. The most extreme advocates of this like the idea because it would reduce future spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />There is a name for that ideology, and it’s not one that I willingly write. You won’t have trouble thinking of it.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />Judaism, in contrast, requires us to relieve suffering, respect the old (I admit that I’m officially old), and care for the poor.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />Jewish law does have provisions for the protection of businesses, but they predate “big business.” For example, if a community has one kosher bakery (a sole proprietorship) and not enough Jews to support another, a rabbi could prohibit the opening of a second one.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />Above all, Judaism requires us to preserve human life. Even those who observe Shabbat most strictly know that saving a life overrides the rules. If someone may be seriously ill, calling an ambulance is a requirement even if your Shabbat observance otherwise bars using the telephone.</span></span><br />
<span face="Verdana, sans-serif"><span><br />This is why many synagogues and other Jewish organization will not resume in-person programming right away even when state government allows it. New York is now allowing religious gatherings of up to 10 people--an exact minyan, which is no coincidence--but the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America advised congregations to wait 14 days to see what happens, and then consider limited reopening only if there has not been an upsurge of COVID-19 in their areas. The unaffiliated shul that I'm affiliated with is not planning to resume in-person services until there is an effective treatment or a vaccine.</span></span></span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-70817681588821336262019-10-03T14:23:00.002-04:002021-02-14T17:58:47.361-05:00Ordinary spirituality<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><!--[if !mso]>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">When we talk about spirituality, we often seem to mean what psychologists call “peak experiences.”</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OSLz-uB9euE/XZY8hHB3_XI/AAAAAAAACrI/NynLCWH28DotoHGo7zXDFxATnbhssZOmwCNcBGAsYHQ/s1600/peak.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1201" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OSLz-uB9euE/XZY8hHB3_XI/AAAAAAAACrI/NynLCWH28DotoHGo7zXDFxATnbhssZOmwCNcBGAsYHQ/s320/peak.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">You know: the kind of experience that leaves you overcome with awe and wonder.“Peak” in this sense doesn’t really refer to mountaintops, but common descriptions of peak experiences often seem to involve mountains. For example, reciting the morning prayer </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">Modeh ani</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> at the top of a mountain precisely at dawn.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">That could be deeply moving. Or it might not be—that’s unpredictable. In any case, it requires getting oneself up to the top of the mountain in time for sunrise.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Such experiences are necessarily rare, and we can’t count on producing one on demand. So I’d like to talk here about ordinary spirituality, the experiences that available without extreme effort. </span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Let’s start with one that’s available every Friday evening. When we sing “L’cha Dodi” early in the service, we turn toward the entrance<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for the last verse in order to welcome Shabbat, which is seen metaphorically as a bride arriving to wed the entire Jewish people.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Instead of turning back toward the front immediately at the end of the verse, try visualizing a bride proceeding slowly down the aisle while the chorus is sung. Turn slowly as she walks along and see if it enhances your experience of Shabbat.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Or try to abstain from gossip whenever the opportunity arises. (This is harder than it sounds.) Remember as you do so that gossip is worse than just “not very nice”: it’s </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">lashon hara</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">, evil speech, which is prohibited by the Torah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">You might try choosing food consciously. Maybe you’re not interested in keeping kosher, but would “Biblical kashrut” make sense for you? That means avoiding just pork,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shellfish, and intentional combinations of meat and milk.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Or perhaps “eco-kashrut” has some appeal: choosing locally grown food when you can, looking for natural products, or increasing the plant-based portion of your diet.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">What about visiting a sick person? This is an important </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">mitzvah</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;"> for all Jews, not just rabbis. In particular, find out whether someone recently home from the hospital needs help with shopping or getting to follow-up medical appointments. (If you could consider doing this on request, even for someone you might not yet know, please tell us.)</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Most important: when you do any of these things, remember that it’s not just nice, or good for your health. It’s a Jewish action, a </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">mitzvah</span><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">A former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, is quoted as saying, “It is a mistake to suppose that God is only, or even chiefly, concerned with religion.” Temple is of historical interest for another reason: in 1942, he and Rabbi J.H. Hertz founded the British Council of Christians and Jews, and throughout World War II he exhorted the Allies to intervene against the slaughter of Jews in Europe. </span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">It must have been a radical step for the chief cleric of the Church of England to say that God might not be very concerned with religion. After all, he was in the religion business, so to speak.</span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">It is, however, a very Jewish idea. Our tradition holds that how well, or how much, you pray is of much less importance than how you live. </span></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">
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</span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-70784728146452987482019-09-01T12:20:00.000-04:002019-09-17T12:20:48.602-04:00Choosing not to choose<!--[if !mso]>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">In July, I presented three sessions at NewCAJE, the New Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">I also attended many sessions, including one asking “Can the Center Hold?” with Dr. David Starr, who was one of my teachers at Hebrew College. He’s also a JTS-ordained rabbi, and by “center” he meant “Conservative Judaism.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Conservative Judaism has portrayed itself not only as the philosophic center of Judaism, positioned between Orthodox and Reform, but also as the “big tent” that had room for everyone. For decades it was the largest movement in American Judaism, but the desire to include all Jews was a constant strain. On one hand, a large share of members became more liberal in practices and views. On the other, a minority wanted the Conservative movement to be more like Orthodox Judaism.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">Today the Reform movement is the largest in America. It is also probably the philosophical center, not only because of moving toward the center itself, but also because so many American Jews have moved to the left of Reform.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US" style="language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-ligatures: none;">As I see it, the fastest-growing segment of American Judaism is “Just Jews”: those who do not define themselves by affiliation to a movement, even if they happen to be members of a movement-affiliated congregation. I expect to see growth in the number of communities like ours, attempting to include all Jews by “choosing not to choose.”</span></span></div>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-10512765289115104312019-05-01T00:00:00.000-04:002019-10-04T12:46:37.450-04:00Pharisees<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When I speak in churches, I often say that Christianity has it
mostly wrong about the Pharisees. In the Jewish orbit, it’s something that we rarely
think about—but we should. The early rabbis who re-created Judaism in the form that we
know were the direct successors of the Pharisees. In other words, we are the
heirs of the Pharisees. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yet in common speech, “pharisaic” denotes hypocrisy, self-righteousness,
or obsession with rules. The term Pharisee derives from the Hebrew root <i>l’faresh</i>,
to interpret. Originally, it described Jews of approximately the first century CE
who believed that the Torah should be studied for its underlying principles rather
than solely as a rule book for ritual practices. Although they were highly concerned
with ritual purity, they emphasized ethical teachings over ritual for its own
sake. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their opponents, the Sadducees, focused on careful adherence
to the rules, mostly in Leviticus, for con-ducting sacrifices in the Temple. When
Rome destroyed the Temple in 70 CE, those sacrifices became impossible and the point
of view of the Sadducees became irrelevant to Jewish life. It was the Pharisees
and the early rabbis who refashioned Judaism as a religion that did not depend on
specific sacrificial practices in a specific place—a Judaism built around prayer,
study, and mitzvot. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Paradoxically, Christianity also has its roots in the rabbinic
tradition, not in the rituals of the Sadducees. Over the centuries, however, the
term “Pharisee” became a club used by Christians to beat Jews—often
figuratively and sometimes literally. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Rabbi Jeff Salkin wrote about this recently in a column for
the Religion News Service. He raised this issue after Mayor Pete Buttigieg used
the term “Pharisee” to criticize Vice-President Mike Pence. Rabbi Salkin does not
think that Buttigieg is anti-Jewish. </span></span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He writes that the term embodies “subtle and unexamined
religious perceptions—Judaism as a religion of law vs. Christianity as a religion
of love; Judaism as a “separatist” faith” and that it is “so ingrained in the way
that so many people think, that it has become unconscious.” </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I don’t think that we
can eliminate this from almost two thousand years of Christian thought, but I think
that we should speak up when the occasion demands it.</span></span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sadly, however, the kind of hypocritical obsession with rules
that it denotes still exists in Jewish life. There are so-called religious Jews
who may keep strict kashrut and pray together three times a day, but who have no
qualms about sheltering child molesters and domestic abusers, mis-educating their
children, or cheating the government. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Or those who vituperatively criticize other Jews. As (Orthodox)
Rabbi Bob Carroll says, we should all be at least as careful about what comes
out of our mouths as about what goes in. We may choose to ignore it when other Jews
merely call us bad Jews, and usually that is best. But should we keep quiet about
immoral or criminal behavior carried out in the name of Judaism? Sometimes we fear
that speaking out would give fodder to anti-Semites. Yet if we are silent, are
we complicit?</span></span></div>
Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-88706299160360128362018-09-12T13:23:00.000-04:002018-09-12T13:23:06.778-04:00The Jew's Oath<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Oathmorejudaico.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="327" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Oathmorejudaico.jpg" width="274" /></a>A visitor at our Yom Kippur services last year asked why we take all the Torah scrolls out of the Ark and have members hold them during the chanting of <i>Kol Nidre</i>. Some of the scrolls are large and heavy - to the point that we avoid using them for the weekly reading - and Kol Nidre is chanted three times.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">One reason, and I think that this is probably what occurs to the most people, may be to emphasize the seriousness of the occasion. Our congregation also has a Torah scroll (just one or two, depending on the Torah readings) held - usually - by a member during the prayers for the country, the State of Israel, and so forth.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I think that the custom originated centuries ago as a result of an iniquitous practice in Europe called <i>the Jew's Oath</i>.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the Middle Ages, church and state were one throughout Europe, and oaths taken in court typically required swearing on a (Christian) Bible--something that persisted almost to the present day and may still occur in some jurisdictions. A Jew would not swear on a New Testament, or repeat an oath invoking the Trinity. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So an alternate oath was demanded. This was established in the Byzantine empire by the tenth century, although it did not immediately become universal in western Europe. There are numerous formulations for it from the Middle Ages and later, commonly involving holding a <i>sefer Torah</i>, wearing a crown or girdle of thorns, standing on the skin of a pig, and other indignities, some verging on torture. This version from Frankfurt in the fourteenth century is an example: "<i>The Jew shall stand on a sow's skin and the five books of Master
Moses shall lie before him, and his right hand up to the wrist shall lie
on the book and he shall repeat after him who administers the oath of
the Jews."</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Jew would then call down on himself some or all of the curses in the Torah<i>. </i>In some places, such as Arles in France, a thorn branch would be pulled "between his loins" while he did so.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Another reason for the <i>more Judaico</i> was that authorities distrusted the word of Jews because of the Kol Nidre recitation, which (read literally) annuls all vows that might be made during the coming year. From a Jewish point of view, the reason for this was to prepare for vows that might be made under duress, probably including false conversions; we also understand it as applying to vows that a person should never make, such as when an exasperated parent says to a child, "If you do that again, I swear I'll kill you." We might also interpret as covering vows that we made in good faith but just could not keep.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The correct reading of the Kol Nidre text should have been a reason for taking the word of Jews seriously: it shows that our ancestors considered every oath valid, even if made under duress or extreme mental strain, unless it was relieved by Kol Nidre. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Jew's oath started to fade in the nineteenth century. In France, a rabbi was prosecuted when he refused to open the synagogue for it--and he was acquitted. Some German states (before Germany was unified) dropped it in the 1820s and 1830s; Zecharias Frankel published a commentary when Saxony discontinued it in 1839. Prussia did not completely abolish it until 1869, and it persisted longer in eastern Europe, having been demanded in Romania as late as 1902.</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-491717371586523832018-09-08T21:01:00.000-04:002019-10-04T12:39:41.310-04:00The other side of the blanket<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At this time of year--Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur--you're likely to see some blanket apologies on social media. In the olden days people sent them through email, often to the entire roster of a listserv.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">They're usually formalistic blanket apologies: to everyone and no one, for everything and nothing. I won't be posting one, because I read them as "to no one in particular" and "for nothing in particular."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As I see it, a valid apology is specific: to the person wronged, stating the nature of the offense and agreeing that it was wrong, pledging to try not to do it again. How can you genuinely apologize if you don't know what you did or whom you did it to? The vague "If I offended you in any way" is on a par with the non-apologies that politicians and celebrities offer: "I'm sorry if you were offended." That is no apology at all, because it places the guilt on the victim, for taking offense.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So why are we doing this? In truth, we have all committed offenses that we forgot or didn't even notice at the time. Probably even some that we are still incapable of recognizing. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">That's a big part of what Yom Kippur is about: accepting responsibility for everything we did, even what we did without knowing. A major role--to my way of thinking, <i>the</i> major role--of the Yom Kippur liturgy is to bring our souls back into alignment even after sins that are still unknown to us. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And that's why the liturgy does so much to induce feelings of guilt, not that we don't enter Yom Kippur already feeling guilty. But another role of the Yom Kippur liturgy is to relieve free-floating guilt (the guilt that we take on for no specific reason at all) in order that we can focus on <b>making amends for what we know we did</b>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://okmoreh.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-guilt-trap-surving-yom-kippur.html" target="_blank">I've written about some of this before. </a>I believe that an apology, in addition to being specific, needs to be made in the right form and in the right place. For example, a private offense does not demand a public apology, but a private apology does not atone for a public offense. In other words, don't apologize in email or on social media for an offense committed in another venue, and don't make a private, secret apology for an offense that you committed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or whatever.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So I'm not posting a blanket apology. If I owe an apology, and if I haven't offered it by, say, Shabbat Shuvah, please tell me about it and keeping telling me until I get the point.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-85129059827999411252016-10-27T19:36:00.002-04:002016-10-27T19:36:50.397-04:00Biblical law?<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">You remember the cases:</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Bacon_in_a_pan_(cooked).jpg/418px-Bacon_in_a_pan_(cooked).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Bacon_in_a_pan_(cooked).jpg/418px-Bacon_in_a_pan_(cooked).jpg" width="319" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The county clerk who refused to issue licenses for same-sex marriages.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The bakers who refused to decorate a cake for a same-sex wedding.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">They refused on the grounds that their religions were opposed to same-sex marriage.<br />Both lost in court. The county clerk in Kentucky defied a decision of the United States Supreme Court, claiming a religious exemption from the fulfillment of her public duty. The Oregon bakers claimed religious exemption from civil-rights law.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />In contrast, Jehovah’s Witnesses won the right, during World War II, not to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school, and Quakers are permitted to “affirm” rather than “swear” when testifying in court.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The difference was that the Jehovah’s Witnesses objected only to the Pledge, not to school in general, and the Quakers only to swearing oaths, not to courts in general. The religious exemption is a narrow one.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />In contrast, the Kentucky clerk had no religious objection to the issuance of marriage licenses—if she had, problems would have arisen on her first day in office. And the Oregon bakers claimed no religious objection to decorating any and all wedding cakes.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />This fall, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recently released a report criticizing religious exemptions that infringe on civil rights. The report concluded that religious exemptions have the potential to “significantly infringe” on a person’s civil rights.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The chair of the commission, Martin Castro, said that phrases like “religious liberty” and “religious freedom” have become “code words” for discrimination. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />“Religious liberty was never intended to give one religion dominion over other religions, or a veto power over the civil rights and civil liberties of others,” Castro wrote in his statement. “However, today, as in the past, religion is being used as both a weapon and a shield by those seeking to deny others equality.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><i>A weapon and a shield.</i> Many of us thought that the Kentucky clerk’s motivation was not to avoid participation in even the paperwork for a same-sex marriage, but the hope of preventing the marriage altogether. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The report recommended that “federal and state courts, lawmakers, and policy-makers at every level must tailor religious exceptions to civil liberties and civil rights protections as narrowly as applicable law requires.” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />In other words, the report opposed religious exemptions that would protect one person’s religious views by curtailing the rights of another .</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Some of those who oppose limits on religious exemptions use the (frivolous, in my opinion) example of a kosher or halal butcher who refuses an order for pork. But the very definition of a kosher or halal butcher includes not selling pork. The parallel example would have to be a kosher or halal butcher who sells kosher meat to the public, except to certain customers with rights protected by court decisions or civil-rights law. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />For those in America who want to impose a specific, usually conservative Christian, religious view on the entire country, the parallel would be this: imagine that Jews came to hold a majority of seats in a state or, more likely, local government (there are places in New York where this is true) and used their majority to prohibit the sale of pork or shellfish, or to ban driving on Saturday.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Thus, when people tell me that they want the United States to follow “Biblical law,” I’m always tempted to ask them, “Have you stopped eating bacon yet?”<br /><br /></span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-75376875975964812182016-09-13T15:55:00.002-04:002016-09-13T16:01:28.272-04:00Whose lives matter?<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In June I was part of a group of Jewish teachers visiting the Center for Humanity and Holocaust Education in Cincinnati.<br /><br />The Center houses a small museum, focusing on the experiences of Holocaust survivors and liberators who later lived in Cincinnati. Its main function, however, is outreach to secular educators, especially teachers in public and Catholic schools. It is somewhat unusual for a group of Jewish educators to attend one of its seminars.<br /><br />Some of us were distressed by a forced-choice exercise in which each participant had to choose one of six listed reasons for teaching about the Holocaust. Although all six reasons were valid, not one of them mentioned the six million Jews who had been killed. We felt that, in its zeal to apply learning from the Holocaust to contemporary situations, the Center had gone too far in universalizing the history.<br /><br />Our reactions there helped me to understand the mixed responses to the “Black Lives Matter” slogan. When people try to replace the slogan with “All Lives Matter”—which is true—they deny the experiences of Black Americans. <br /><br />Perhaps this is because when a white person hears “Black Lives Matter” he or she may interpret it as “white lives <i>don’t</i> matter” and “<i>my </i>life doesn’t matter.” But when a black person hears “All Lives Matter,” it may come across as “black lives don’t matter <i>as much</i>.”<br /><br />Here’s a helpful illustration. If you go to the emergency room with a broken arm, you don’t want the doctor to say, “All bones matter.” You want the doctor to treat the bone that is broken, not the ones that aren’t.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the Black Lives Matter movement had adopted a platform with an anti-Israel plank. Why the movement needed to adopt any platform, and why it needed to involve itself in the Middle East, is impossible to explain. Nevertheless, regardless of any issues we have with the movement, we must say that black lives matter.<br /><br />Although my group objected to the omission of the Jewish victims from the six choices, all teachers attending a seminar would already know that six million Jews, constituting the largest group of Nazi victims, were killed. <br /><br />They would also know that there were other victims, including ethnic minorities such as the Roma and Sinti, opponents of the Nazi regime including German communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Polish civilians, and the physically or mentally infirm. A display in the Cincinnati museum lists the total of non-Jewish victims as six million, including Red Army prisoners of war who were executed.<br /><br />It could be argued that we sometimes efface history by portraying ourselves as the principal—or even the only—victims of Nazi murder. However, I believe that, were it not for Hitler’s extreme hatred of Jews, the mass killing system might never have been created.<br /><br />Some Jewish organizations, especially the Anti-Defamation League, have sought to keep other campaigns of genocide from being recognized. In particular, the ADL refused for many years to acknowledge the murder of 1.5 million Armenians by Turkish forces in 1915 as genocide. Worse, these organizations lobbied Congress to keep the U.S. government from recognizing it.<br /><br />The reasons for this were murky. Pressure from the government of Israel may have been a factor, because Israel had a secret military alliance with Turkey. Risk of offending Turkey would also concern the United States, which has military bases in Turkey. It’s also possible that Jewish groups felt that acknowledging the Armenian genocide would detract from the memory of the Shoah.<br /><br />In May of this year, however, the executive director of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, wrote, “What happened to the Armenian people was unequivocally genocide.” <br /><br />Greenblatt went on to say, “We believe that remembering and educating about any genocide—Armenian, the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda, and others—is a necessary tool to prevent future tragedies. . . . That is why I am speaking out today and why we would support US recognition of the Armenian Genocide.” <br /><br />That sounds slightly, but only slightly, like “all genocides matter”—which is true. But it specifically acknowledged the genocide in Armenia. When some of us proclaim, “All lives matter,” do we mean “including black lives”?<br /><br /></span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-38019606658547317622016-04-20T16:00:00.000-04:002016-04-20T16:00:28.639-04:00First night, second night<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GCIzmP87-OQ/VxfSfQaijRI/AAAAAAAAAwY/b5AUinHuBVAzkAHvZlVDefEEWNlaRXN_gCLcB/s1600/Seder%2BPlate4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GCIzmP87-OQ/VxfSfQaijRI/AAAAAAAAAwY/b5AUinHuBVAzkAHvZlVDefEEWNlaRXN_gCLcB/s200/Seder%2BPlate4.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the Diaspora, it's typical that traditional Jews celebrate an additional day of each holy day (except Yom Kippur). The custom of Reform Jews is not to celebrate these additional days. Many Reconstructionist Jews also don't celebrate additional days, nor are they celebrated by most Israelis (except Rosh Hashanah).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">At Passover, this means that liberal Jews feel obligated to participate in a <i>seder</i> only on one night. The Conservative movement in the United States holds that a <i>seder</i> is obligatory for both the first night and the second night. As a result, many Conservative congregations hold a community <i>seder</i> at the synagogue on the second night--originally, at least, to encourage second-night observance.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some Reform congregations also hold a community <i>seder</i> on the second night, not because they believe that second-night observance is required, but as a community event. My unaffiliated congregation holds one on the second night, a custom inherited from its Reform predecessor, not its Conservative predecessor.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This year, one family that I invited to my home for the first night of Passover declined the invitation, saying that they had made a commitment to participate in a secular event that night. The family identifies as Reform, and feels obligated to attend only one <i>seder</i>. It's OK with them if that's on the second night.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">So I wonder: is this another case in which a communal observance undermines home observance? There has been a general tendency in Reform to shift religious life from the home to the temple, to the point that for some of us, what used to be home observances can <i>only</i> be celebrated in the temple. Are some Conservative Jews, maybe not feeling a strong need to have a <i>seder</i> two nights in a row, skipping the first night in favor of the second?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-83866711883092691522016-04-03T12:14:00.001-04:002016-04-04T12:08:26.616-04:00Cut off<a href="http://theendlessfurther.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/fork-road4b-300x201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://theendlessfurther.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/fork-road4b-300x201.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Johnny Carson, in his Art Fern persona, used to joke about the Slauson Cutoff. (“Take the Slauson Cutoff. Cut off your slauson.”) Now, the Slauson Cutoff actually exists. It’s a freeway stub in Los Angeles that would have been part of a freeway parallel to Slauson Avenue, except that most of it was never built.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Jewish thought, “cut off” has a different resonance. Several places in the Torah speak of being “cut off” (<i>karet</i>) as the consequence of certain sins. In general, these are sins between a person and God, including matters of ritual observance, not those that directly affect other people. But what does it mean to be “cut off”?</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In Exodus 31:14, it’s equated with death: if you desecrate the Sabbath, “you will surely die for any who do work in it, that soul is to be cut off from its people.” Traditional commentators have interpreted <i>karet</i> as premature death, or as being cut off from the people of Israel.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">A class of which I’m a member has recently been studying this, and many of us were troubled by it. To begin, the idea that any and all of the listed sins results in premature death does not accord with our own experiences—unless, perhaps, you believe that the natural human life span really is as long as some of the figures given in the Torah. Nor do we observe that those of us who commit those sins are cut off from the Jewish people, at least not in the sense of ostracism or shunning. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Although my father died young, I don’t think that, say, smoking on Shabbat was the cause. On the other hand, I do suspect that smoking contributed to his early death. (What really bothers me is that he had stopped once, on medical instructions, but later resumed.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Coming from a liberal Jewish background, I tend to see all ritual observances as matters of choice. I am not <i>shomer Shabbat</i>, and I am only <i>shomer kashrut</i> at home--away from home I'm merely <i>zocher</i> (mindful of) <i>kashrut</i>. I’m relatively thorough about Passover observance (eating <i>chametz</i> during Passover is one of the sins that leads to <i>karet</i>), but I see that as my choice, not a “God’ll get you” matter.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What troubled me most in our class sessions was the mechanistic and legalistic way our tradition approaches <i>karet</i>. The texts, both Biblical and rabbinic, see it as the inevitable consequence of any of the sins that the Torah says lead to it. But this isn't science: it's not demonstrably true, and<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> any mechanism is unknown.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">As a teacher, I wouldn’t use that approach with students, and not only because we see so many examples in which the specified sin doesn't appear to lead to the specified punishment. I don't think it’s my role to make my students feel like bad Jews.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Instead, I see the rabbinic discussions of <i>karet</i> as a theoretical construct. The Gemara contains many detailed discussions of practices that, in the time of the Talmudic rabbis, were no longer possible, and the rabbis seem to take those just as seriously as those that could still be carried out. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">While this may have derived from the hope that the Temple would be rebuilt and the practices could be resumed, and it also fits with the contemporary <i>yeshiva</i> practice of studying such rules as a substitute for performing the rituals, I understand the rabbinic discussions as <i>Torah lishmah</i>, study for its own sake, and as expressions of intellectual curiosity. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In class, many of us seemed to understand <i>karet</i> as being “cut off from God,” a reversible state. In the modern world, it’s possible to see it as a metaphor for depression. Who has not, at some time in life, felt distant from God, from family, from society? </span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-16309720814006323862016-03-17T15:36:00.002-04:002016-03-17T15:36:56.477-04:00Good for Jews?<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Is it good for Jews? </i>That was the question my grandparents asked about any development in politics or world affairs.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Two generations later, we felt more secure and were more likely to ask, <i>Is it good for Israel?</i> This came to the forefront after the Yom Kippur war in 1972, and even more when Israel was criticized for continuing to hold land won in 1967.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Today we encounter situations in which what might be good for the State of Israel might be bad for Jews in the diaspora. Perhaps we are uncomfortable with actions by the Israeli government and feel that they reflect badly on us. (My grandparents would have asked, <i>What will the goyim think?</i>) Or perhaps we think that policies that might be necessary in the short term will be harmful in the long term.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The situation in United States politics is, to say the least, confusing. On one hand, we have a Jewish candidate for president who expresses support for Israel, but whose religious identity is weak. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />On the other hand, we have a Christian candidate who defends Israel at every turn, but whose reason for loving Israel strikes us as unsavory. Some conservative Christians support Israel because they believe that the existence of the State of Israel is necessary for a future Armageddon in which most Jews will be tortured and killed.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The most extreme form of that belief also holds that Hitler was doing God’s work: that the Holocaust was to punish us for not accepting Jesus. And at least one clergyman who proclaims exactly that has endorsed the candidate who appears to be the strongest supporter of Israel.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />So we have a problem: should we vote for the candidate who may be the strongest support of Israel, but whose support stems from a belief that we must consider anti-Jewish? Is that good for Jews?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Speaking only for myself, I hope that the government of Israel doesn’t try to influence the U.S. elections. In 1960, John F. Kennedy was able to persuade voters that he didn’t take orders from the Pope. Everyone knows that most of us don’t take orders from rabbis. But would we be able to persuade other Americans that we don’t take orders from, say, Benjamin Netanyahu?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Again speaking only for myself, I would not be able to support a candidate who I thought was hostile to Israel, nor could I support a candidate whose personal religious views I considered anti-Jewish.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />And once again speaking only for myself, I’m glad that Election Day isn’t this month.<br /></span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-25825749752103330752015-09-18T18:04:00.000-04:002015-09-18T18:06:45.752-04:00The guilt trap: surving Yom Kippur without (too much) guilt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LSlk5BhHb3E/VfyK4xFaTuI/AAAAAAAAAtg/vsag5YkZv-A/s1600/Guilt-Versability-Lifehack-1024x576.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LSlk5BhHb3E/VfyK4xFaTuI/AAAAAAAAAtg/vsag5YkZv-A/s320/Guilt-Versability-Lifehack-1024x576.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, has to be the quintessential Jewish holiday: it’s all about guilt. If we attend services and everything works just right, we may leave with less guilt and more hope. If it doesn’t, we may leave with more guilt than before.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />It doesn’t have to be that way. Feeling guilty is part of the process, but not the purpose of Yom Kippur! Here are seven steps toward making Yom Kippur what it’s really supposed to be:<br /><br /><b>1. Don’t take on guilt that isn’t rightfully yours. </b><br />Use the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to review the past year, so that you know what to focus on. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Traditional prayer texts for Yom Kippur list sins that you probably didn’t commit and some attempt to induce free-floating guilt over sins that most of us not only didn’t commit, but couldn’t have committed.<br />So you need to approach Yom Kippur with clarity about what you’re repenting for.<br /><br /><b>2. Sort out which sins are which.</b><br />Many prayer books quote Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, who taught almost two thousand years ago: “For sins against God, the Day of Atonement atones, but for sins against another person, the Day of Atonement does not atone.” </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />He meant that repentance and prayer are effective for sins between a person and God, but where any other person has been harmed, repentance begins with righting the wrong. For example, if you had stolen something, you’d need to return it, or pay for it. <br /><br /><b>3. Begin righting the wrongs.</b><br />Theft is an easy example. It’s harder to undo actions that do harm in other ways.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it’s customary for Jews to apologize for intangible harm to others, such as words spoken in anger. Although we may not have stolen, murdered, or committed adultery, we have almost certainly hurt others through our words. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Jewish tradition holds that if a person sincerely requests forgiveness three times—that is, on three separate occasions—we’re obligated to give it. And in the days leading up to Yom Kippur, because we may want forgiveness for ourselves, we’re especially likely to give it to others.<br /><br /><b>4. When you ask forgiveness, do it the right way.</b><br />That means in person, if at all possible, not by email. Some people send out broadcast emails that say, “If I have wronged you in any way in the past year, I apologize and ask forgiveness.” That doesn’t count. You need to apologize to a specific person, for a specific act.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />If apologizing in person is impossible, a phone call or letter may be appropriate. Don’t use a text message or, heaven forfend, Twitter (with one possible exception).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Make it a genuine apology. A genuine apology is, “It was wrong of me to… and I’m sorry. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? A fake apology is the celebrity kind that puts the burden on the supposed recipient: “I’m sorry if you took offense at what I said/did.”<br /><br /><b>5. Apologize in the right setting.</b><br />If the last two steps seemed hard, this one may be even harder. When an offense took place in public, the apology may need to be given in public as well. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This is where the Twitter exception comes in: if you slammed someone on Twitter, apologize directly and privately first, and then post it on Twitter.<br /><br /><b>6. Resolve to do better.</b><br />Instead of ending Yom Kippur with guilt about what you did (or didn’t do), plan to do better in the new year. If you were thoughtless or uncharitable, resolve to be more thoughtful and charitable. If you were dishonest, resolve to be more honest. Tradition says that full repentance takes place when you have the opportunity commit the sin again, but don’t.<br /><br /><b>7. Know that you’re not alone. </b><br />The Yom Kippur ritual described in the Torah was an almost totally collective atonement. Although we no longer sacrifice animals to atone, the confessions in the Yom Kippur liturgy are all framed in the first-person plural: “We have sinned. We have transgressed.” As you resolve to do better, feel that you’re part of a community of people who are all trying to do better.<br /></span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-26510412996768747392015-09-16T20:41:00.001-04:002015-09-16T20:53:01.263-04:00Enforced ignorance<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theoldtrouts.org/images/ignorancewordmark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.theoldtrouts.org/images/ignorancewordmark.jpg" height="132" width="400" /></a>I’ve written before about the <i>shanda</i>—scandal—of Jewish day schools that deliberately fail to teach secular studies adequately. This happens both in the United States and in Israel, in some ultra-Orthodox schools.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In those schools, secular studies (what you and I would call “school”) are typically referred to as “english” (not capitalized) and rarely exceed 90 minutes per day. There may be less than that, possibly none at all, in the higher grades.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This comes about because the communities that support those schools believe that only Jewish learning is important. Secular education is unnecessary and possibly harmful, because it takes time away from studying Torah and, especially, Talmud.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">These schools graduate students who read and write English poorly—the schools and their communities operate chiefly in Yiddish—and know little of science and modern history. The young men who leave these schools have little in the way of job qualifications or academic skills for university-level education; they’re only qualified to continue studying in a <i>yeshiva</i> or <i>kollel</i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">The situation is different for ultra-Orthodox women. It’s not considered important, or even desirable, for them to study Talmud at an advanced level, and since they will likely marry men incapable of doing most secular jobs, they need to be able to support a family—a large family.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Schools, both here and in Israel, are supposed to teach a state-mandated curriculum if attending them is to satisfy compulsory-attendance laws. Modern Orthodox day schools, as well as Conservative, Reform, and other community day schools, do so. Students in these day schools study the same subjects as students in public schools, in the same amounts, plus Hebrew, Tanakh, and Jewish history.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Enforcement of the requirements is up to local school districts. The ultra-Orthodox schools have been able to evade state requirements because of political influence. This is especially true in New York City, where certain rabbis have disproportionate influence in politics, and in Rockland County, where ultra-Orthodox Jews are the largest constituency in some school districts.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">This may be about to change. The New York City Department of Education plans to investigate whether about three dozen yeshivot are providing adequate education in secular subjects. (This affects only schools in New York City, not in Rockland County or elsewhere.) It comes about in response to a request from parents, former students, and former teachers.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">It should concern us if any Jewish students are not receiving adequate secular education. Partly because of lack of education, and partly because of having large families, ultra-Orthodox Jews tend to subsist on public assistance. Although no U.S. politicians dare to criticize Jews for this, it cannot be “good for the Jews” if large numbers of us are ill-educated and dependent on welfare.</span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-18275293440512588252015-07-01T20:47:00.000-04:002015-09-16T20:50:23.487-04:00Ordaining Orthodox women<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 2013 I wrote about the founding of Yeshivat Maharat in New York City as an Orthodox women’s rabbinical school, and its ordination of three women. What was most striking at the time was the acceptance of two of the women ordinees by very prominent Orthodox congregations. (The third, married to the senior rabbi of one of those congregations, did not seek a position.)</span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2015/06/1-24-965x543.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2015/06/1-24-965x543.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Four fresh rabbis ordained by Har'el Beit Midrash. From left: Rabbis
Rahel Berkovits, Meesh Hammer-Kossoy, Lev Eliezer Israel, and Ariel Evan
Mayse. (Sigal Krimolovski/Times of Israel) </span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yeshivat Maharat took its name from the title that it conferred: <i>maharat </i>is a Hebrew acronym for “[female] leader of Jewish law, spirituality, and Torah.” Although its founder had previously ordained Sara Hurwitz as a rabbi, they chose to create a new title for subsequent ordinees, probably to sidestep one possible controversy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />This year, the Har ’El Beit Midrash in Israel ordained two women and two men, all as Orthodox rabbis. Although what to call a woman rabbi seems still to be problematic (<i>rabba</i>, which some ordained women use, is the exact feminine equivalent of <i>rav</i>, the ordinary Hebrew word for rabbi), it was not an issue at Har ’El. In one sense, it was even more remarkable that the women and men studied together, which is all but unknown in Orthodox institutions.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />In the early 1990s, both women had studied at Midreshet Lindenbaum, an institution for advanced study by women. When they wanted to study in the classes that an eminent rabbi, considered liberal in the Orthodox community, gave for men, they could only do so by sitting in total silence behind a curtain.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Neither Rabba Hurwitz nor the first three maharot can be counted as the first women to receive Orthodox ordination. Rabbi Mimi Feigelson received private—then secret—ordination in 1994; she is open about it now, but teaches at a Conservative institution, the American Jewish University. A few women have also received private, but not secret, Orthodox ordination since 2000.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />While some Orthodox communities are expanding the roles of women, others are resisting. In June, the Belz Hasidim in London, on the advice of their leader in Israel, prohibited driving by women. “Modesty” was the basis for the prohibition, but usually this (tzniut in Hebrew) means covering parts of a woman’s body that might be too appealing to men, including the elbow.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The Belz movement operates two primary schools in London, and they announced that children driven to school by their mothers would not be allowed to attend. This brought swift reactions from the mothers themselves, the children’s teachers, the United Synagogue of Great Britain (Orthodox but not Hasidic), and the British government. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The Belz leaders in England have since announced that children driven to school from their mothers will not be expelled, although it still opposes driving by women. To most of us, this probably sounds like Saudi Arabia, which prohibits women from driving.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />The contrast between the Har ’El <i>beit midrash</i> and the Belz Hasidim illustrates the range of opinions in Jewish society today. Some feel that certain changes are long overdue; others resist; and a few attempt to move in the opposite direction. </span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-34065264283920149972015-06-01T00:30:00.000-04:002015-06-01T00:30:00.709-04:00Excommunication?<!--[if !mso]>
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<div class="MainTextFirst">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">In the Jewish world, we don’t really go in for excommunicating people.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US"><a href="http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2015/05/05/draw-muhammad-1.jpg?itok=mKcsqWjW" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/v2_article_large/public/2015/05/05/draw-muhammad-1.jpg?itok=mKcsqWjW" height="200" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">That isn’t to say that we’ve never tried. Perhaps the most famous excommunication in Jewish history was that of Baruch Spinoza by the Amsterdam rabbis in 1656. Technically it was a writ of </span><span dir="rtl" lang="he" style="direction: rtl; unicode-bidi: embed;">חרם</span><span lang="en-US"> (</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline;">h</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">erem</span><span lang="en-US">), which could also mean ostracism or shunning. It was brought on by his rationalist philosophy, which they feared would endanger the standing of the entire Jewish community. </span></span></span></div>
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<div class="MainText">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">One reason that this has become almost extinct is the diversity of the modern Jewish community: no group has the power to enforce a writ of </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline;">h</span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">erem</span><span lang="en-US">, </span><span lang="en-US">except among its own adherents. This did not, however, stop a group of Orthodox rabbis from excommunicating Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan in 1945, when his radical prayer book was published.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">In the rest of Jewish society, the excommunication made those particular Orthodox rabbis look ridiculous. Paradoxically, it strengthened Kaplan’s position as a faculty member of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Even if most of the faculty objected almost equally strongly to the prayer book and Kaplan’s theology, the chancellor of the seminar was forced to defend him.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Nevertheless, I wish that we could excommunicate Pamela Geller, the anti-Islam activist at whose so-called art exhibition in Texas in May two (probably rogue) terrorists were killed and a security guard was injured.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">To be clear, the exhibition consisted of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. In January, Geller organized a protest against a Muslim event at the same location. Bloggers had encouraged protestors to bring guns to the event, and the protest did turn violent when protestors assaulted members of an interfaith group. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">I can only think that the May 4 event was intended as a provocation or publicity stunt. Professor John Esposito of Georgetown University writes</span></span></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MainText" style="margin-left: 10.8pt; text-indent: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Was the “Muhammad Art Exhibit” intended as an art exhibit or a contest in which her anti-Islam and anti-Muslim followers competed for $10K, producing art that deliberately, as with many of Geller's other public ventures, would provoke, outrage, and invite a confrontation. And of course, despite the fact that the vast majority of Muslims like other Texans had ignored Geller, the actions of two rogue murderers would be used to brushstroke the religion of Islam and faith of a majority of mainstream Muslims. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
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<div class="MainTextFirst">
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<div class="MainTextFirst">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Geller probably accomplished even more to provoke hatred than she had hoped to.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Geller is Jewish, and seems to think that she acts on behalf of the Jewish people. Judaism, however, has no fundamental objection to Islam as a religion, and Muslims in Israel have full civil rights. There is no need to turn a political disagreement into a religious one.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Some in our community may want to respond, “But they [Muslims] are the ones who make it into a religious issue!” </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">That raises a different question: who speaks for Islam? </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">As far as I’m concerned, Pamela Geller doesn’t speak for Judaism, and it would be impossible to name anyone who does. It’s nearly the same in Islam: there’s no central authority, and anyone who claims to speak for all Muslims assuredly doesn’t.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Geller promoted her “art exhibition” as a free-speech event. It is legal in the United States to criticize a religion, as long as you don’t encourage criminal activity. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">But Geller and her ilk should remember that freedom of speech and freedom of religion are guaranteed by the </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">same </span><span lang="en-US">Amendment to the Constitution: the First. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">I don’t see what is gained by using freedom of speech to infringe freedom of religion or, for that matter, freedom of religion to infringe freedom of speech.</span></span></span></div>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-32324644852639513822015-02-02T12:28:00.003-05:002015-02-02T12:28:40.266-05:00Teaching character<!--[if !mso]>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">In December and January I took an online course in character education. The course was designed for teachers in secular, public and private, schools, and offered by the Relay Graduate School of Education. Relay has provided training for teachers in charter schools in New York City, where much of the emphasis on character education in secular schools seems to be taking place.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">A religious school like ours is arguably in the business of character education. That may be why I found the course somewhat unsatisfactory. Specifically, it emphasized just a few character strengths—such as persistence and optimism—that have been shown to contribute to success in school.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">At its best, Jewish complementary education (that’s the formal name for Hebrew school) contributes to students’ general education and to overall success in school. But success in secular school is not really a goal of Hebrew school, and it shouldn’t be.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">First, we place </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">becoming a good person</span><span lang="en-US"> above earning good grades. This is one of the reasons that we don’t use the standard grading scale. Some of the charter schools in which classes were filmed for the online course give “character growth” report cards with numerical grades. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">In fact, that reminded me of the time that a Hebrew-school committee in another city asked me if there was an organization like the Iowa Tests that we could invite in to test all our students every year. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">There isn’t, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">baruch Hashem</span><span lang="en-US">. To a student who received a low score, it might have seemed like failing at being Jewish. Our tradition teaches us, “Do not think of yourself as a bad person,” a reason not to grade character.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Second, the qualities that have been shown to contribute to secular school success do not entirely match those that we most want to develop. While persistence is undeniably helpful in, for example, </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bar/bat mitzvah </span><span lang="en-US">preparation, another of our goals is to encourage love of [Jewish] learning. Too much persistence in academic drudgery might have the opposite effect. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Finally, although most Hebrew schools are modeled more on secular schooling than on, say, Christian Sunday school, the direction in which secular education is moving is wrong for Jewish religious education. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">For example, more and more schools expect students to be reading in English by the end of kindergarten, even though it does not lead to their being better readers in upper grades. It is conceivable that we could push students hard enough in Hebrew to have them ready for a </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bar/bat mitzvah</span><span lang="en-US"> ceremony at the age of 11 instead of 13, but that doesn’t mean that they would be ready to assume responsibility for their own religious lives at the ripe old age of 11.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">It was never completely clear why Relay chose some of the specific character strengths that it did. Some of them contribute to academic success; others probably don’t. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">The only one that would have had equal standing in Jewish education was gratitude. Gratitude contributes to psychological well-being but not directly to academic success. It may have been chosen only because it’s possible to promote in the classroom.</span></span></span></div>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-11499451102014302122015-01-05T12:24:00.000-05:002015-01-05T12:25:50.514-05:00Mr. Gradgrind and Jewish education<!--[if !mso]>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Education researchers in secular settings give a lot of attention to how (or whether) K-12 schools prepare students for college. In particular, they look at the extent to which high school prepares students for college, middle school prepares students for high school, and elementary school prepares students for middle school.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">While the best students are invariably well-prepared for college, other students who may have the potential to succeed in a community or four-year college don’t always have the background.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Their recent work found that the goals of K-12 schools don’t completely align with those of colleges. For example, high-school English classes often spend more time on literature than on expository writing, but colleges all require expository writing and many don’t require any literature courses. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">From a strictly utilitarian point of view, the literature part of high-school English might appear to be a waste. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">English teachers—and I used to be one, albeit at the college level—would argue that the ability to understand works of literature contributes to a satisfying life. They might even argue that, if students aren’t going to study literature at all in college, they should certainly study some in high school.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">We see a similar dynamic in Jewish education, where the utilitarian, reductionist question is, “What is necessary for </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bar/bat mitzvah</span><span lang="en-US">?” </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">To a Jewish educator, this is a confusing question. On one hand, the technical requirements for the service that commemorates becoming </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bar/bat mitzvah</span><span lang="en-US"> are simple enough to state. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">On the other, a young person becomes </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bar </span><span lang="en-US">or </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bat mitzvah</span><span lang="en-US"> upon attaining the requisite age, whether there is a special service for it or not. At that point, the young person is responsible for managing his or her own Jewish life. This includes choosing the role that Judaism will have in adult life.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">So the more important question is not what’s required for the ceremony, but what learning will contribute to a satisfying Jewish life. That learning isn’t limited to a certain set of synagogue skills: while the ability to participate actively in worship services is certainly desirable, synagogue services aren’t the entirety of Jewish life. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Furthermore, Hebrew school isn’t the entirety of Jewish learning. Research that Prof. Sherry Israel of Brandeis University conducted in the 1990s found a strong correlation between taking Hebrew and Judaic studies courses in college and Jewish identification after graduation. The correlation was as strong as for Jewish day school, Jewish summer camp, and time spent in Israel. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">So what prepares a student for Judaic studies classes in college? Having a </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bar</span><span lang="en-US"> or </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">bat mitzvah</span><span lang="en-US"> ceremony is hardly relevant at all (except to the extent that it contributes to total Jewish education). Because most students who take Judaic studies classes in college will do so in non-Jewish institutions, good secular education is essential. But secular education is largely outside the purview of Hebrew school.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">What seems to matter most is </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">learning that there is something to learn</span><span lang="en-US">. In that respect, encountering challenging ideas is more important than mastering specific skills. This is why we want our students to have more Jewish education than the minimum for the mitzvah ceremony.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">There is one skill that I think does matter. We are often asked why we persist in teaching Hebrew script writing: “If a student isn’t going to study or live in Israel, what use is it?”</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Now, I don’t think we can predict in the third or fourth grade whether a student might eventually study or live in Israel. I hope that all of our students might have at least the opportunity to study in Israel for a semester of high school or college.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">But script writing is also essential for taking Hebrew classes in college. When I worked in higher education, I met many Jewish students who shied away from a Hebrew course because script writing would be required.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">That’s not a realistic fear, because there are almost always students in the class who aren’t Jewish, never studied Hebrew at any level before, and have no experience with script writing. Somehow, they manage to learn it within the first few days of classes. But it’s still a significant deterrent for Jewish students, who feel that they </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">should</span><span lang="en-US"> know script writing, but don’t.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Students who learned script writing in Hebrew school may not be comfortable either writing or reading script Hebrew by the time they enter college. The difference, however, is that having learned it once leaves them with confidence that they can learn it again.</span></span></span></div>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-27574872995800619312014-12-09T10:45:00.001-05:002015-09-17T20:58:21.523-04:00The good, the bad, the weird<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">A few recent good news–bad news items:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">In Jerusalem, the Women of the Wall successfully conducted a bat mitzvah ceremony at the Kotel, including having the young women chant from a Torah scroll.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that it was a very small Torah scroll, smuggled into the women’s section under a coat, because the authorities would allow the women neither to use one of the sifrei Torah kept at the Western Wall, nor to bring in a full-sized scroll.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The Women of the Wall have also begun advertising the opportunity for bat mitzvah services at the Wall on buses in Jerusalem. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the buses are being vandalized. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Bad news: the rabbi of a prominent Orthodox congregation in Washington, D.C., was accused of placing a camera in the synagogue’s mikveh and photographing women as they undressed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Relatively good news: the congregation placed him on leave and made no attempt at a cover-up. Some Orthodox authorities called for women to serve on boards that supervise mikvaot. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote, “Few stories over the past years have been as serious with regards to male religious violation of women and action is required. A comprehensive review of male access to the female mikveh must be undertaken so that all women feel and know that the mikveh is an inviolable place of religious privacy and spiritual security.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">He also wrote, “This sorrowful story also highlights the need to accelerate the establishment of female Halakhic (Jewish legal) authorities so that women can increasingly regulate private feminine Jewish matters.”</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Reb Shmuley, whose new book has the title <i>Kosher Lust</i>, also made a startling defense of voyeurism—but only within marriage and only with consent.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Good news: also in Washington, D.C., the National Cathedral (Episcopal) hosted a Friday jummah (Muslim prayer service) on November 14. This was widely reported, even by <i>Ha’aretz</i> in Israel.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Bad news: the service was interrupted by a protester. Slightly better news: there was only one protester, but that’s because admission to the cathedral was tightly controlled.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The service came about through a suggestion that Ebrahim Rasool, the ambassador of South Africa to the United States, made at a memorial service in the cathedral for Nelson Mandela. Ambassador Rasool gave the sermon at the jummah.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Some reports mentioned that the Islamic group that organized the service routinely holds services in one church and two synagogues.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Mixed news: Temple Emanu-El in New York City plans to hold a mock trial of Abraham for child endangerment. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan will preside; Eliot Spitzer will prosecute; and Alan Dershowitz will lead the defense.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The not-so-good part of this is that the idea itself isn’t news at all. Sixth-grade classes in Hebrew schools everywhere have been doing this for years, albeit without the celebrities. This may turn out to be a great event for the congregation, but it seems a bit opportunistic.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Weird news: Rabbi Ted Riter, in Jackson, Mississippi, reported that he was ordered to leave a Greek restaurant after the owner learned that he was Jewish. As the rabbi tells it, the he ordered a salad and the owner asked him, “The regular size or the Jewish size?” and then denounced Jews as parsimonious.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The owner says that he asked whether the rabbi wanted a Greek salad or a Jewish salad. The latter is supposedly a regular item at the restaurant but it doesn’t appear on the menu. He says it was all a misunderstanding and offered to name a salad after the rabbi. No indication of what the ingredients of a Riter Salad would be.</span></span>Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-52270778147965469162014-11-15T20:00:00.000-05:002014-11-15T20:00:00.132-05:00The five percent non-solution<!--[if !mso]>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Perhaps you’ve heard of Pareto’s Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. In its most general form, it postulates that 20 percent of any effort produces 80% of the results.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">For example, diversified companies usually find that 80 percent of total sales come from just 20 percent of their products. In software development, fixing the top 20 percent of reported bugs prevents 80 percent of system errors—not because the other bugs are inconsequential, but because they are encountered less frequently.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Peter Greene, a teacher in Pennsylvania, adds a Five Percent Rule: the idea that only five percent of anything really matters. Greene writes,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">Ninety-five percent of everything is unimportant baloney, crap that we humans use to torture ourselves and each other. Neckties. Eye shadow. Funny hats. Hair length. Only five percent of what we deal with is true and important and lasting. Only five percent of what we deal with is really important. Only five percent of what we deal with really, truly matters. It's what Thoreau was saying—simplify your life by getting rid of the 95 percent junk</span><span lang="en-US">. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Greene continues,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">We can agree that a huge slice of life is wasted on inconsequential stupid stuff, and that only that small sliver, that five percent, really deserves our heart and soul and attention.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">But we can’t agree on what falls within the five percent.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Greene uses this line of reasoning to argue against contemporary efforts in curriculum reform, saying that the reforms elevate the five percent of learning that one person or group might value at the expense of the five percents that others might value.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">I have to dispute Greene’s implication that only five percent of curriculum matters. I concede, however, that there is a lot of room for disagreement about what elements matter, and how much each matters.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">In Jewish education, there is a degree of consensus about what is important, but there is nothing close to unanimity. For centuries, Hebrew was the mainstay of the </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">cheder</span><span lang="en-US">, but in the twentieth century, some congregations considered it unimportant. I worked in one congregation where the teaching of Hebrew had been prohibited for the first 40 years of the congregation’s existence, and limited for the next 30.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Israel wasn’t prominent in Hebrew-school curricula until the 1960s; the first Hebrew-school textbook on Israel was published in 1957. Today, every Jewish curriculum includes Israel, but we still disagree about what to teach and when to teach it. Israeli teachers, for example, take umbrage if Israel isn’t central in every grade. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">This kind of disagreement exists in every field in the humanities and social sciences (less so in the natural sciences, where learning is more incremental). English teachers—Greene is an English teacher—can usually agree that everyone should study Shakespeare. But should everyone also read </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">Middlemarch</span><span lang="en-US">? Or </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">For Whom the Bell Tolls</span><span lang="en-US">?</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">I will say that the Torah is so central to Jewish life and learning that every student in a Jewish school should study it. Hebrew, whether prayer-based or modern, is helpful for participation in communal Jewish life and, at higher levels, for understanding the Torah. Similarly, ritual skills are useful in Jewish life. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">I will also say that learning to live in accord with Jewish values is more important than mastering any specific prayer or ritual. According to a survey that our school took in 2011, the parents of our students agree. We’re not trying to make our children into learned scoundrels.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">What is striking, however, is that all of these subjects—Torah, Hebrew, prayer and ritual, ethics—make sense only to a student who already feels Jewish. Although study can strengthen Jewish identity, it cannot create it. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">But how does a student come to feel Jewish? Jewish life at home is the starting point; school is no substitute. The family’s participation in Jewish communal life is the next element.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US">Both of these are obvious. Less often cited is the family’s application of Jewish values to everyday life. Let children know that you give </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">tzedakah</span><span lang="en-US"> (that it’s not something only for religious school) and why you give it. Explain why it is un-Jewish to participate in gossip. Make your home a model of </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">shlom bayit</span><span lang="en-US"> (peace in the home). </span></span></span></div>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7513282611058247116.post-19295444570082519902014-11-12T13:51:00.000-05:002014-11-12T13:51:19.301-05:00Israel and us<!--[if !mso]>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">The Rev. Bruce M. Shipman was the Episcopal chaplain at Yale University until the board of the Episcopal Church at Yale asked him to resign. The board requested his resignation after a letter he wrote about to the Gaza situation was published in </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">The New York Times</span><span lang="en-US">. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">His letter was a response to an op-ed column by Prof. Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University that expressed concern about the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe. Lipstadt is famous for winning a British libel trial, against Holocaust denier David Irving, that hinged on whether the Holocaust actually occurred.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Shipman’s letter was brief and, in some ways, unexceptional. It doesn’t take a mountain of research to see a connection between Israel’s actions against Gaza and increasing anti-Semitism, and he criticizes Lipstadt for discounting the role of the situation in the West Bank and Gaza in it.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">I disagreed with Shipman’s implication that the anti-Semitic response is justified. I disagreed even more than with last paragraph of his letter: </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">As hope for a two-state solution fades and Palestinian casualties continue to mount, the best antidote to anti-Semitism would be for Israel’s patrons abroad to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for final-status resolution to the Palestinian question.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">This is also something one of us might write, but it’s objectionable when it comes from a Christian leader.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">To a Jewish ear, it sounds as if Shipman is saying, “If you [Jews] don’t get Israel under control, we [Christians] will take it out on you.”</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">That brings to mind the comments that flew around when African Americans first ran for mayor in large cities. I remember people in Ohio saying that they supported Carl Stokes because “he’ll keep his people in line.” We still hear this comment when an African American is appointed chief of police in almost any city.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">It’s just not the job of American Jews to keep Israel in line. To suggest that we should is itself anti-Semitic.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">Shipman arguably holds a special brief for the Palestinians. He grew up in Cairo</span><span lang="en-US" style="letter-spacing: -0.8pt;">,</span><span lang="en-US"> wher</span><span lang="en-US" style="letter-spacing: -0.8pt;">e</span><span lang="en-US"> his fathe</span><span lang="en-US" style="letter-spacing: -1pt;">r</span><span lang="en-US"> was</span><span lang="en-US" style="letter-spacing: -0.4pt;"> </span><span lang="en-US">a public-health engineer for the World Health Organization, and he has spent time in Israel and the West Bank. Thus, his sensibility is probably very much like that of Protestant missionaries who have worked among the Palestinians.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">It seems difficult for liberal Christians in America to understand Zionism. Mark Oppenheimer, a contributing editor of the online magazine </span><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">Tablet</span><span lang="en-US">, conducted a long interview with Shipman. Oppenheimer suggests that Christians who hold generally favorable attitudes about Jews also expect us to be just like them:<span> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US" style="font-style: italic;">[and] what I sometimes think is, about the philo-Semitic liberal Protestant experience, is that they don’t understand the why the contemporary liberal Jew might be a Zionist. That in their mind the last good Zionist went out sometime around the late 1960s, was a socialist on a kibbutz somewhere, was totally secular, and that they don’t actually get the lived experience of being, say, a religious Jew in Brussels today.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">About two years ago, a local church asked me to speak about Zionism. I began by reading the traditional prayer from the weekday services for rebuilding Jerusalem. For Jews who recited this prayer three times a day, six days a week, for almost two thousand years, Zionism is a religious imperative. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="en-US">There are few, if any, other religions that pray for return to a specific place. Catholics do not, in general, feel about Rome the way that we feel about Jerusalem. Irish Americans may hold a special feeling for Ireland, but it’s not primarily a religious one. The idea that sane people could feel a religious tie to another country is largely incomprehensible.</span></span></span></div>
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Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309020310937286387noreply@blogger.com0