tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28323643298823592072024-02-08T12:02:21.527-07:00A Grain of SandExploring Judaism and Jewish Culture One Grain at a TimeRabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.comBlogger171125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-74462463770112708642012-01-12T16:06:00.001-07:002012-01-12T16:06:22.905-07:00Time Out for Fun: The Sway Machinery play the Jewish Culture Festival in KrakowNothing else like them...<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TErWytpEznQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-352058389010594582012-01-07T22:07:00.003-07:002012-01-07T22:07:37.201-07:00Put A Lid On ItPut a Lid on It<br />
Can an article of clothing say something profound about the universe? <br />
Jews think so. The yarmulke (yes, it’s spelled that way, and pronounced yahm-ikah) is the Yiddish word for the Hebrew kippah (kee-pah). It’s just a little piece of fabric (cloth, woven, satin, leather, among other things) that we put on our heads. Why? <br />
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A folk etymology demonstrates a primary purpose of the kippah. The Aramaic words yarei (awe or fear) and malka (king), when put together – and said very quickly! – sound like yarmulke, and so a tradition has emerged that this distinctive Jewish garb is a symbol of our awe in the presence of God. <br />
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It emerges from a period in which it was impolite to walk around bare-headed (in American culture it is the opposite now) in the presence of another. So to dawn a kippah was to acknowledge that you were in the presence – always – of Another<br />
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There is a big debate that we don’t have to get caught up in here about whether the wearing of a kippah is a halachic (Jewish legal) requirement, or just a venerable custom that should be maintained. The short version is that even though wearing a kippah is now universal in religious settings, historically speaking some very significant and influential rabbis ruled that wearing a kippah is not required by Jewish law. <br />
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But the real point is that it symbolizes a core Jewish spiritual posture: that we should constantly have a sense of awareness that there is more to life than what we can see, that there is a greater purpose to our lives. All our acts and even our thoughts should follow from this core fact of existence.<br />
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And we put the kippah on top of our dome, the container of our mind. It is a reminder that our thoughts, our sense of self, our ego, our drives and wishes, our very consciousness that orients us in the universe – that none of these things is the final take on reality. There is something else that we cannot name, or describe; something that invests our lives with meaning. We acknowledge this without demeaning ourselves, with the subtle act of politely topping off our consciousness with the kippah. <br />
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Hat Trick<br />
Got that? A piece of clothing that represents a spiritual consciousness? How…Jewish. Our tradition is a tapestry of symbols, metaphors, gestures and deeds that are all intended to elevate our souls by reminding us what matters. So, it’s a little hat…but really so much more. <br />
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From the perspective of secular culture, and from the perspective of non-Jews, these peculiarities of the Jewish people are simply strange. Not eating certain kinds of foods at the same meal? Not driving or using electronics one day of the week? Eating unleavened bread for eight days in the spring? <br />
It might seem odd that we rely on these things, and on a peculiar little piece of cloth to remind us of a fundamental truth of our lives. One could say, “Can’t you just remember to tend to your spiritual life without all that stuff?” The Jewish answer is, “Actually, no!” To be human is to be constantly caught in the cycle of remembering and forgetting. Beautiful moments of awareness punctuate our lives – as though we can see to the very core of the world, and there is the intimation of something transcendent. And the next moment we are sitting in front of the TV munching on a bag of chips. <br />
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So, the kippah – and the mitzvoth – perform a beautiful kind of trick. They are simple (sometimes not so simple) things we do in the material world to raise our awareness that life is not just about the material world. <br />
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Heads Up<br />
My kippah also serves as an inspiration to good behavior. When I’m in public and wearing it, there’s part of me that is aware that I’m representing our tradition, our God, and our people. It’s a powerful reminder to myself that there’s a person I want to be, a way I want to act, in each moment. Acting in the right way is a good in and of itself, and we should all merit to be motivated by goodness for its own sake. But, truth be told, all of us forget our higher selves, and we can be impatient, rude, disrespectful, and unkind – all in a day’s work! Listen, we’re human. The kippah, this public declaration of who I am and what I stand for, can help me remember to be the person I want to be and need to be. <br />
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All Together Now<br />
There is another reason that we wear the kippah, though. It is a way of saying, “I am a part of this People, I am part of this Story.” I wear my kippah with pride because it allows me to share my love for the Jewish people and to acknowledge that so much of who I am, and how I think, and what I care about is informed by the Jewish past and present. There was a time when to be a Jew was to be the subject of ridicule, and certainly to be a religious Jew was to endure cruel barbs, so wearing a kippah is also a way to honor the Jewish past and Jewish pride.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-64710515244651099112011-12-17T22:24:00.000-07:002011-12-17T22:24:17.644-07:00Got a Light?Little Myth Thing<br />
Chanukah begins Tuesday night. The magnificent Festival of Lights (Chag Ha-Urim) is a beautiful, inspiring puzzle.<br />
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Little Jewish kids grow up thinking that Chanukah is a celebration of the Jews, who wanted to preserve their culture, triumphing over the Romans, who wanted to get rid of it. This is myth. Bear with me for a brief - I promise, brief - bit of history.<br />
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It wasn't the Roman's, it was the Seleucids (SELL-you-sid). This empire spread Greek cultural influence throughout the ancient world. And these guys had the backing of certain Jews who wanted to see Hellenistic (Greek) culture spread. The plot thickens. <br />
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The Seleucids and their Jewish supporters fought other Jews who resisted Greek culture. They outlawed certain observances and to the horror and dismay of the Jews, they desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem. The Maccabees, also known as the Hasmoneans, led the Jewish fight against this, and purified and rededicated the Temple. <br />
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’Cause We Are Living In A Material World<br />
How do modern Jews make sense of this? We are profoundly touched and shaped by the broader culture. How can we make sense of this festival that is both a commemoration both of a battle for preservation of Jewish values, and also….Jewish civil war? <br />
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Chanukah is a mix of deep truth and confused myth. The core of the truth: it is about the effort to preserve a holy space from desecration and the belief in the power to rededicate a space to holiness in the wake of that desecration. <br />
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Do you believe in something kadosh, holy? Forget for a moment whether you can describe exactly what that is, or where it resides, or precisely how you can access it. Do you believe that there are values, ideas, perhaps places that could be, but must never be desecrated? That must never be trampled upon?<br />
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Wait before you answer - because to believe so is, in our culture, radical. Here where everything from music, to toothpaste to religion can be priced, marketed, sold, repackaged and disposed, claiming that some things are separate and distinct - (the literal meaning of kadosh/holy) - is indeed radical. <br />
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And beautiful. Ah, the possibilities and promise of a soul that holds some things holy! Chanukah reminds us that in a world in which our wants and desires, and so often our lowest impulses are either sold back to us or celebrated, we are called upon to stand for what is holy, to kindle lights against the encroaching dark. <br />
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Unwrapping the Presence<br />
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote that “Judaism does not always simplify itself in order to accommodate fashion or society….It demands nonconformity with what prevails in the marketplace, the courage to be different, depth of insight in a world where inane … values are acclaimed through the loudspeakers.” (Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p 28. <br />
Uncovering this courage within ourselves is a taxing spiritual pursuit. Do you believe in that part of ourselves that always sees the dignity in others, no matter their social standing, that draws from hidden wells of generosity, no matter our culture's approval of selfishness, that discovers awe in life, no matter the rush of daily business? Chanukah is about finding that Presence, that something that insists on life's holiness in spite of all evidence to the contrary. <br />
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Lighten Up<br />
The lights of Chanukah remind us to look for this.<br />
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Remember the desecration of the Temple? The oil required to keep the (seven branched) menorah always lit had to be "ok'd" as ritually pure by the Priests. When the Maccabees came to rededicate (in Hebrew, chanukah) the Temple, they found only enough of this kosher oil for one day. According to the Talmud, it miraculously lasted for eight days, enough time to press more olive oil. Voila. <br />
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So, now we light our chanukiah with a branch for each night. The Chanukah light is not supposed to be used for anything - not to light a room, not to read by. It is only to remind us of the holiness and the miracle. The candles can't even be used to light one another, which is why we have the shamash, the "servant" candle in the ninth branch, to light the others. <br />
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The central mitzvah of Chanukah? Making known the miracle by placing the chanukiah near a window. While for most passersby the Chanukah lights can't remind them of a miracle they don't know about, I think of this as a powerful statement of Jewish pride, and a public commitment to our own personal rededication. <br />
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In the Talmud Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai disagreed: do we begin with eight candles and work our way down, or start with one and work our way up. Hillel's answer prevailed: that each night should increase in holiness.<br />
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What does it mean to increase the holiness of Chanukah? One way is to make sure that each of the eight days we rededicate ourselves to our deepest values. What if, instead of asking for things that we don’t need, or giving things that our loved ones don’t need, we gave something significant to those who really do need? Make this Chanukah light on family gifts and heavy on tzedakah (support of the needy). <br />
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Burn and Learn<br />
Chanukah means 'dedication' but also can be connected to chinuch, education. <br />
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The legacy of Chanukah is complex. We are inheritors of the dream of our ancestors, charged with preserving holiness in a world that so often seeks to drown it out. Yet, we are modern Jews in a largely non-Jewish culture, with all of the complexities and dilemmas that this presents. More to the point, this culture is amenable to us and some of its values we hold dear. How do we sort out what this story means for us? In other words, which Jews are we? The assimilators? Or the Maccabees?<br />
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I see each of us as containing the spiritual energy of both parties of Jews. Those Jews who drew on their surrounding culture to understand themselves and to broaden themselves, but also those Jews who tended to the lights, preserved the place of holiness within and were dedicated to unfolding the spiritual message of our tradition. Our task is to learn enough about our past, our people, our tradition and ourselves to bring these two dimensions together in a whole way. <br />
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Chag Urim Sameach - Happy Festival of Lights!sRabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-17146719100696552032011-12-15T22:46:00.001-07:002011-12-15T22:47:39.424-07:00The Death of a Shtarker: Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011The great Christopher Hitchens has just died. I had such affection for this person I did not know. And why? As a rabbi I suppose I should have been put off or offended by the contemptuousness with which he regarded the religious. Instead I found myself always moved by his breadth of knowledge, appreciative of his deep moral convictions and commitments, and somewhat in awe of his brilliance. In reading Hitchens, there was always a beautiful sense, whether you agreed with him or not, of "so, this is what a human mind can do." <br />
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For the meaning of the yiddish <i>shtarker</i>, <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/01/hitchens-201201">click here</a> and see the last paragraph of what I think was Hitchens' last piece, a meditation on suffering and it's meaning/lessness.<br />
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Wikipedia entry on Hitchens <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens">here</a>, a good sense of Hitchen's brutal honesty along with his moral vision (and humor) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doKkOSMaTk4">here</a>, his takedown of Mother Theresa, which gives a good sense of his iconoclasm, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k1Jr0fp0dE">here</a>. <br />
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It says in the Talmud (Berachot 6a), "The merit of attending a house of mourning lies in the silence observed." It is perhaps the only fitting response to the amazing life of this nearly archetypal man of words.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-50833072989532570772011-12-12T23:08:00.003-07:002011-12-13T10:54:35.154-07:00Bowing and TebowingTonight I become the 3,065,449th blogger to address the Tim Tebow/prayer phenomenon. A Jewish perspective <a href="http://www.jewcy.com/arts-and-culture/why-im-glad-there-isnt-a-jewish-tim-tebow">here</a>, a Christian evangelical perspective <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/12/12/why-are-anti-christian-bigots-so-eager-to-prey-on-tim-tebow/">here</a>, a non-evangelical Conservative-cum-Democrat Christian perspective <a href="http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/12/tim-tebow-and-christianism.html">here</a>, a mocking (or maybe just-good-fun?) website <a href="http://tebowing.com/">here</a>. <br />
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What is it about the prayer pose of this Denver Broncos QB that is driving everyone so crazy? Why do we care? <br />
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I'm a praying person, so I shouldn't be bothered by these public prayers, should I? I should get it, I should sympathize in the spirit of ecumenism, etcetera, etcetera. But it just...bugs me. There's something so performative about his prayer. "Oh, don't mind me, while I quietly and humbly offer a prayer to the creator of the universe in a private moment in front of millions of television viewers and many thousands of cheering fans." <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogher.com/files/tebow_hero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="287" width="465" src="http://www.blogher.com/files/tebow_hero.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I think that, whether it reflects what is in Tebow's heart or not, a healthy suspicion of his authenticity is at work here. Yeah, yeah, maybe we shouldn't judge that, but, you know what? When you get down on one knee in front of millions of people who are watching you get down on one knee....you're inviting that. <br />
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Tim Tebow is no Jew, that's for sure. But a Talmudic discussion about prayer raises some of the issues at issue here. In discussion bowing in Jewish prayer, the Talmud offers a pretty tightly controlled prescription for when to do it. What's the big deal? Why not just bow when you want? Medieval commentators thought that it had to do with humility. A 13th century Spanish Rabbi wrote "Submissiveness...in an inappropriate place is arrogance because he imagines he is a righteous person." (Uri Ehrlich, The Non Verbal Language of Prayer, p 62). <br />
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In the Jewish tradition the gesture of bowing, a limited but important part of prayer's choreography, is , in part, a non-verbal expression of humility. As Rav Kook taught, true humility is not an act of groveling submission, but a step towards profound spiritual growth. A kind of ego-emptying that brings one toward a deeper reality beyond self. <br />
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An act of humility performed in front of millions of people - is that humility? I guess only Tim Tebow can know that. A bow, properly performed with the appropriate kavanah, or inward focus and understanding, expresses and even creates, an inner sense of the pray-ers reality in the face of the Divine. When the act is so publicly demonstrated by a person who has had millions cheering for him and watching him for hours, the result is a kind of humbled ostentatiousness. <br />
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Maybe if the act wasn't so resonant with the arrogant and empty piety of the political world in this moment of our nation's history, it wouldn't be so bothersome. But Tebow's lowering himself reminds us a bit too much of candidates genuflecting before the Christian electorate to win their sympathies. So, the spectacle of candidates with decidedly irreligious pasts <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/rick-perry/gop-candidates-discuss-beliefs-at-forum-about-religion-1982191.html">tripping over one another in heart-wrenching expressions of pained piety in order to win votes</a> - well, let's just say it doesn't inspire one to remember the highest virtues of human beings. For sure, these candidates may be real-live Christians on the inside and out. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RickPerryPraying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="585" src="http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/RickPerryPraying.jpg" /></a></div><br />
But the performative nature of it not only raises questions about its religious meaning, it also makes life uncomfortable for religious minorities, who might wonder whether a candidate leading an evangelical <a href="http://www.texastribune.org/texas-people/rick-perry/thousands-attend-prayer-rally-houston/">prayer rally for 30,000 Christians</a> might always protect their interests. <br />
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But wouldn't it be funny to see the Jewish Tebow, davvening on the 50 yard line, tzitzit flying? I'd forgive him.<br />
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Tebow praying: Louis Lopez/Cal Sport Media/ZUMAPRESS.com; Rick Perry praying from deathandtaxes.comRabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-68581798883104025082011-11-30T19:12:00.000-07:002011-11-30T19:12:57.415-07:00The Dark Side, Part IIA reader shares an insight: <br />
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<blockquote>Characters are rather one dimensional in Star Wars, particularly the prequel trilogy. The Emperor is more a source of pure evil than a person, but to the extent that a name can be put to the evil it is the pursuit of power. The beguilement of power is treated more comprehensively in the Lord of the Rings where again the greatest power is associated with complete corruption. The ultimate victory over evil in both is ultimately achieved by the hero within himself. Another way to see Jacob and Esau is an internal battle within each of us. But the story here is more complex and includes much more than just a quest for power.<br />
</blockquote>Regarding the inner struggle: there's a beautiful commentary by the [previous] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholom_Noach_Berezovsky">Slonimer </a>rebbe that discusses the idea that the twins represent the yetzer ha tov and the yetzer ha ra, our good and evil inclinations, respectively. When Rebecca cries out during her pregnancy, distraught that the twins are struggling within her womb, "Lamah Zeh Anochi," either "why is this happening to me?" or "Why do I exist?" she is articulating the agony of this ancient struggle. <br />
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The Slonimer says that the Torah tells us that the prophecy that The older [brother] will serve the younger actually refers to this struggle. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Jacob_offers_a_dish_of_lentels_to_Esau_for_the_birthright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="512" width="644" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Jacob_offers_a_dish_of_lentels_to_Esau_for_the_birthright.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Esau, representing our evil inclination, is 'older' because people have this inclination dominant within them first, as children. We have a moral instinct but not great moral strength as children. Around adolescence, he says, this 'older brother' serves the younger - that is, more recently powerful - good inclination by being subservient to it. <br />
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True, the one dimensional characters (Han Solo is maybe the only multi-dimensional character) don't allow for exploration of this development and wrestling. <br />
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Use the yetzer....Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-15063375782130176782011-11-28T13:08:00.000-07:002011-11-28T13:08:27.108-07:00The Dark SideChannah and I introduced our almost four year old to Star Wars. He was blown away, literally from the first frame (the enormous ship that flies across the screen). <br />
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It's a strange mix: a great film with really bad writing, some questionable acting ("Uncle Owen, this R2 unit has a bad motivator!") But the mythological foundations of the movie, constructed with the help of Joseph Campbell, are worth exploring. <br />
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How do you explain The Force to a little boy (maybe you don't). There is a force in the universe that is unbelievably powerful but can be used for good or evil. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vH4sTN0YhRg/TtPo5-UflhI/AAAAAAAAMnE/4C3a0CTIXA4/s1600/DARTH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="186" width="271" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vH4sTN0YhRg/TtPo5-UflhI/AAAAAAAAMnE/4C3a0CTIXA4/s320/DARTH.jpg" /></a></div><br />
You can't see it, but you can "use" it! <br />
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As Jacob and Esau come together again the Torah, two brothers separated by years of pain an animosity, I'm reminded of the key relationship in the Star Wars saga. Like Luke and Darth, Jacob and Esau are of the same flesh yet have taken completely different paths. Our Sages associated Esau with great wickedness (dark side) and Jacob with saintly goodness. What I'm interested in is how the different aspects of the Force are mediated by human relationships. The Dark Side is limited by the power of human goodness - Darth's "I am your father" moment has a deep tenderness as he "unmasks" himself of his wickedness. When Jacob and Esau embrace and weep, it is hard not be to moved by this same undoing. Rashi tells us that Esau is only embracing Jacob so he can get close enough to do him harm. But I'd rather see that essential human element, that part of us that is constantly bubbling up with possibility and goodness, at work here, overcoming the years of resentment.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-20919391395202933882011-11-25T10:17:00.001-07:002011-11-25T10:18:57.702-07:00Thank Jew Very MuchOK, ok, the obligatory Thanksgiving post. <br />
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Some curiosities: The word for Jew in Hebrew, Yehudi, can mean "grateful one." (Because Judah is one of the sons of Jacob and one of the tribes, it 'really' means 'A Descendent of the Tribe of Judah.') The other curiosity is that the word Hodu in Hebrew means both "Give thanks" (plural, imperative) and "turkey." Hmmmm.....<br />
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Thanksgiving is an American holiday - I guess <i>the</i> American holiday - but giving thanks is the Jewish activity. The Talmud tells us to say one hundred blessings per day. One hundred! There is a blessing that we say giving thanks for being able to wake up, to stand, to relieve ourselves, a blessing for having ground to stand upon. There is nothing too insignificant or banal to warrant giving thanks. <br />
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Try this out for a week. Pause for a moment to give thanks in this coming week, not just for the grand miracles - having healthy family, the blessings of loved ones, freedom - but the very smallest things in life, those things we take for granted.<br />
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Giving thanks can change our very thinking, taking self out of the center of everything, so we stop measuring the world by what we want it to do for us, and start noticing how much it already has. The next challenge is to start to be a blessing - to become something that others are thankful for.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-23207247585402145292011-11-06T13:33:00.000-07:002011-11-06T13:33:21.080-07:00Time Out for Fun - The Staple Sisters, I'll Take You ThereA song so hope filled it might have been a Psalm:<br />
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/772YR4_rOBU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-41451067724768610142011-11-04T14:48:00.003-06:002011-11-04T14:49:35.667-06:00Paragraph Break BrokeI have done everything I could think of and everything recommended to me to get paragraph breaks to show up on the blog, and no luck. <br />
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My apologies. If I can't find a solution soon I will move the blog to another site. <br />
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Thank you and Shabbat Shalom<br />
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Hmmm....now it seems to be working. Onward...Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-3856629553046987092011-11-04T14:30:00.001-06:002011-11-04T14:51:00.163-06:00Occupy JudaismThe Occupy Wall Street movement is forcing us to face some difficult questions about ourselves as a society. The underlying theme that unites the movements in different cities is the vast economic inequality in our country. What does Judaism have to say about this movement? To understand that, we have to understand two major modes of viewing spiritual life in the Jewish world. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QJZVX2AAB68/TrREFpBTjBI/AAAAAAAAMgw/hyFSTfYrfxo/s1600/wealthdistribitioninus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="274" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QJZVX2AAB68/TrREFpBTjBI/AAAAAAAAMgw/hyFSTfYrfxo/s320/wealthdistribitioninus.jpg" /></a></div><br />
One mode is what we might call the inner or mystical mode, in which we seek to understand an interior spiritual challenge that we face. My previous post on Parshat Lech Lecha is an example of this kind of spiritual meditation and truth-seeking. Chasidism has had a massive influence on modern Jewish culture because it speaks to a need we have for a depth understanding of our individual experience in the world and how to imbue our experience on the planet with meaning. <br />
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There is also the Prophetic mode (to be clear, these are not absolute, or imporous, categories - nor are they the only two ways of understanding Jewish life). The Prophets were concerned with the Jewish people as a whole and its collective failure to live out the responsibilities imposed upon it in its relationship with God. The Prophet examined his society and held up a mirror to it. Abr We can't view these two modes - the inner and Prophetic - as unrelated or totally separate. They are resonant with one another. <br />
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Isaiah's inspiration comes from the fact that he senses the world teeming with the Divine Presence, so much so that he is in pain when the People stray from the Divine Path. There is a deep and beautiful interiority to his words because he is so deeply connected to and touched by God. And, going in the other direction, an authentic mystical experience inevitably takes us beyond the interior realm to see the deepest unity of Creation, a unity that shows us that we are never alone, and never from from responsibility for others. The movements across the country are expressions of outrage. Certainly these are political. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bp5c6hYslo0/TrRKuYJ8-gI/AAAAAAAAMg8/AWHpdGa_7m8/s1600/blog_ows_oakland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="213" width="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bp5c6hYslo0/TrRKuYJ8-gI/AAAAAAAAMg8/AWHpdGa_7m8/s320/blog_ows_oakland.jpg" /></a></div><br />
But I think we should try to see them as having their roots in a prophetic intuition that we all have. Both the Tea Party Movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement, while using very distinct vocabularies and seeking very different solutions, have at their core a sense that the moral order of the universe has been violated. That there is a concept of "right" and "good" that human societies can attain that has been ignored or violated by the powerful and wealthy. <br />
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At moments like this that prophetic point within each of us, that part of us that has an intuition about the need for goodness and compassion and fairness to be more than just concepts, and to be made real in the world, begins to burn brightly. Our society views religion as a private, interior experience. In the world of Torah it certainly is that. But Jewish teaching has of course always seen it as imperative that values be brought in to the world. We do not "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" because there is no area of existence that is beyond Divine concern. <br />
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A test of our own connection to our tradition, to our success in living a Jewish life, is how we respond to this moment. Of course Torah does not call on us to find solutions in the Republican or Democratic party. But we must hear in the stirrings of our country the cry of the Prophet calling for justice. <i> Infographic of Wealth Distribution found on andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish Photo of Oakland protest taken from motherjones.com</i>Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-68497721022942658192011-11-01T23:43:00.001-06:002011-11-01T23:43:58.061-06:00Get Outta Here - Parshat Lech Lecha<i>I cannot make the blog accept "return" commands...so there are no paragraph breaks. This renders the text graphically unreadable (it may be textually so, but that's for you to decide). Good luck....</i>
This week's parshah [torah portion] is one of the most over-analyzed yet oversimplified parshiyot in the entire Torah. Seriously, can it really just be about God saying to Avram [soon to be Avraham], "Hey, get outta here. Make your own place in the world."? What is this, some cheap airport novel?
I don't know where that grumpiness came from, but I want to share some deep Torah from the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholom_Noach_Berezovsky"> slonimer rebbe </a>(thanks, <a href="http://bonaishalom.org/index.php?id=25">Rabbi Marc</a>, for turning me on to the rebbe's work Netivot Shalom, the work that inspired the thoughts here].
The Slonimer Rebbe begins with the question, 'Why is the command to Avram written in this particular order: Lech l'cha [Go out] mei'artzecha [from your land], umimoladatecha [and your place of birth] umibeit avicha [and from your fathers household] el ha-aretz asher arecha [to the land that I will show you] (Genesis 12:1).
If God were just giving geographical instructions, the order would be reversed - the father's house being the first thing Abvram would leave behind in departing, then the 'place of birth' (presumably the Slonimer thinks this means 'town' or the equivelant, and then 'the land.' But the instructions, the Slonimer Rebbe finds, unsurprisingly, are spiritual. God begins with the easiest challenge and ends with the immensely difficult.
As we fashion ourselves, and purify ourselves of the masks and falsehoods that we've inherited - as we come to a level of self-awareness that enables us to see that we are not, at some point in life, being who we are perhaps supposed to be, we begin a journey away from those forces that impinge upon us, those things that we feel falsely define us.
When we do this, we find that it is easiest to loosen the grip of the broadest, or most distant influence: that of our land, our country, or culture. It is in fact an enormous achievement to break free of the conditions of one's culture [and, in fact, some would say it cannot be done - that it runs the deepest].
We may then find that we cannot find ourselves for the pervasive influence of the values and assumptions that are slightly closer to home. The extended family and social circles of our local community, with all of its powerful relationships, its egos, social pressures and expectations. At this level, the influence is personal - we can feel the social pressures bearing down When we are young we may be too weak to know whether those feelings of dislocation and resentment at such pressure emerge because of the falsity, arbitrariness, and superficiality of such pressure, or our own incapacity to push back against it for lack of spiritual imagination and courage. Many of us never escape the powerful hold that these social expectations have on us and we live our lives attempting to live in a house that is not our own.
But the deepest and most profound hold is that exerted by our parents. This relationship does not have to be adversarial or troubled to create spiritual challenges. The challenge is existential - it cannot be avoided. To be sure, a painful relationship may aggravate the challenge of finding oneself within that relationship. But even when a child has been raised without a great deal of pain, the attempt to locate one's own vision of the world, to determine one's own gifts, and one's own purpose within the context of that cloud of parent-child relation can seem impossible. Can we know whether the self we find there is really our own? Everywhere we turn is a thought, a desire, a dream that belongs to those who brought us into the world.
But there is a singular purpose, a unique soul, to be found within all of that. Our life's task is to find that, and to be honest about it - because the influences of our land, our birthplace and our parents might lead us to deny or run from that purpose! Abraham is not a young man when he hears God's call to leave behind everything he has known. It is deep, hard, work with no guarantee of success.
The spiritual challenge lay not in escaping the particulars of our own experience to find some untouched core within. Any search for the soul within you that remains pure of all the complicated social and familial relations will come to nothing, because that soul doesn't exist. It is precisely those particular conditions of our own lives that give shape to our particular spiritual journey. Abraham will declare the unity of God and forego the idolatry of the middle east. And yet this was the person whose father, the mid rash tells us, was the chief idol maker for the King. The mid rash is not mentioning this fact of his father's occupation as an incidental fact. It is precisely because of this particular reality of Abraham's life that he discover's his unique role.
The challenges of our own lives that so often seem to be the roadblock are, in fact, the path. Those conditions of your past and your present experience that seem to be holding you back are in fact the very challenges that you have to face to fulfill your particular purpose, the reason for which you were created.
So, lech l'cha - often translated as "go" or "go forth" but literally "go to yourself" or "go into yourself" is precisely the point. We can't just walk away from the particular influences of our lives. We have to go through those conditions of our experience that shape - and even seem to limit - us if we are to walk the path of the deepest self discover and the fulfillment of the purpose with which the creator invested our lives.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-55762593160007618772011-11-01T11:42:00.000-06:002011-11-01T21:45:25.363-06:00A Jewish Apartheid State?Richard Goldstone, the author of the famous Goldstone Report who eventually conceded that it was written with insufficient information, has written a nice op-ed on Israel and the accusation by its severest critics that is an "apartheid state."
<blockquote>In Israel, there is no apartheid. Nothing there comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute: “Inhumane acts ... committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” Israeli Arabs — 20 percent of Israel’s population — vote, have political parties and representatives in the Knesset and occupy positions of acclaim, including on its Supreme Court. Arab patients lie alongside Jewish patients in Israeli hospitals, receiving identical treatment. </blockquote>
The whole NYTimes article (behind the paywall) is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/opinion/israel-and-the-apartheid-slander.html?_r=1">here</a>.
There is something of "damning with faint praise" in saying that Israel is no South Africa. But that's what false and hyperbolic accusations do: they force you to weaken your moral standing by having to defend yourself from charges of moral failure.
I've ranted about this before, but, oh, well: Israel is a vibrant (and teeming) democracy. Troubled, to be sure. The coalition style government has created all kinds of deep and real problems. But it is a democracy where the rule of law prevails and holds those in power accountable.
On the other hand, it's neighbors in the region are dictators openly contemptuous of democracy. We can certainly celebrate the fact that Western liberals (and I am one, by the way) have reacted to the "Arab Spring" by finally recognizing this fact. Confronted with Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, and video evidence of state brutality, it was hard not to. But what took them so long? Long before the recent social movements for democracy burst open, it was quite clear that these goons represented the antithesis of everything Western liberals are supposed to hold dear.
But for years, silence - and the only democracy in the region was criticized with hyperbole and vitriol.
What's up with that?Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-64378017447671735582011-10-30T22:04:00.002-06:002011-10-30T22:04:27.527-06:00Return, AgainAnother long delay since my last post. Apologies - I'm not even sure if anyone is reading at this point.
In the world of blogging, silence indeed equals death. If you are not writing, you don't exist.
Sometimes silence speaks volumes. In this case, the absence of blog posts tells of the madness of life with three beautiful children.
I love writing. I love reading. I discover myself through the study of Torah and self reflection. There has been no time for this. What is the balance between being a good father and husband and being a non-person?
If we become merely a good person in relation to others, if we exist solely for others, we can't really become and grow. So, how to take control of our spiritual lives when the moral and familial demands are overwhelming? In other words, im ein ani li mi li u'kshani b'atzmi mah ani v'im lo achshav ematai? If I am not for myself, who will be for me? When I am only for myself what am I? And if not now when?Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-54843695229375995302011-08-04T15:06:00.000-06:002011-08-04T15:06:34.121-06:00Pinko Past and Future? Israel, Socialism, and ZionismI use the term pinko with affection. <br />
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Interesting article <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/social-protesters-represent-real-zionism-1.376665">here by Shlomo Avineri in Ha'Aretz</a>, who sees the true spirit of Zionism in the social protests happening there now. <br />
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A really fascinating question - can one be a Zionist without adhering to the original values of Zionism?Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-7569202038097968632011-08-03T14:41:00.000-06:002011-08-03T14:41:35.459-06:00Netanyahu Hates Israel?What to make of this piece of news? After Obama spoke about Israel in late May, powerful parts of the American Jewish Community were outraged at the President's supposed recklessness in affirming the Green Line as one of the bases for future for peace negotiations (See my posts on "What's the Deal in Israel?) Netanyahu was outraged as well. <br />
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Well, what to make of Netanyahu's <a href="http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NachrichtenHeute/tabid/178/nid/22899/language/en-US/Default.aspx">endorsement of the same position</a>? A position that, as I mentioned in May/June posts, was essentially the recognized position of Israel and America for years. Those pundits who criticized Obama for being anti-Israel - I'm guessing that they are not going to accuse Netanyahu of being anti-Israel.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-76706472207657797032011-08-03T14:35:00.000-06:002011-08-03T14:35:28.210-06:00RosebudNo, not the Orson Welles thing.<br />
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This morning, Channah and I welcomed a beautiful little boy into the world. Healthy and heavy (9 lbs), he's doing beautifully and Channah is as well. <br />
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Baruch Ha-Ba (welcome) little one.<br />
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We are both exhausted - Channah much more so - but are feeling very blessed. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zBzHkmvIx_s/Tjmw3O1HKCI/AAAAAAAAMFc/EDqRDPQUyiA/s1600/The%2BNameless%2Bof%2Bthe%2BRoses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="97" width="130" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zBzHkmvIx_s/Tjmw3O1HKCI/AAAAAAAAMFc/EDqRDPQUyiA/s320/The%2BNameless%2Bof%2Bthe%2BRoses.jpg" /></a></div>Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-29061211303761646272011-06-19T21:25:00.000-06:002011-06-19T21:25:59.381-06:00My Father: Father's Day 2011/5771Throughout the Torah the people who we sometimes anachronistically refer to as "Jews" and with abbreviation refer to as "Israelites" are more precisely, b'nei yisra'eil - the children of Israel. So common is this phrase that we don't even notice it's significance. It is a name that brings past together with future, a name that defines the present as a way of honoring the past. The Israelites are those people who are the children of a particular person: Israel, that is, Jacob. <br />
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This collective, national recognition of the power of our antecedents to define us, is made more particular in our Jewish names. Every traditional Hebrew name - the name by which we are called to read Torah - follows the formula of "So and so, son of so and so." We take our stand at the Torah under the protection of our father's (and now also our mother's) name. <br />
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My name is Yehoshua ben Ha-Rav Imanuel. I am very much my father's son. My father is Rabbi Emanuel Rose. It is certainly no coincidence that he is a rabbi and I have followed that path - sometimes in pursuit of him, I think. He made his own significant mark upon the Jewish life of his community, drawing on the spiritual fire of the Prophets to guide and goad his congregation, involving himself as a voice of conscience in national and local issues of moral importance, teaching Jewish wisdom and inspiration to generations of Jews in Portland. <br />
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He built his congregation to a place of strength spiritually, ethically, and materially. Any rabbi will tell you that it is no small feat to accomplish all of these. He is now Rabbi Emeritus but was Rabbi for 46 years at Beth Israel in Portland. Before that he was at Temple Emanu-el in New York City. <br />
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My father passed on to me his deep love for Jewish teaching, for Jewish thinking, for the Jewish moral vision that emerges from the poetry of Jewish wisdom. His commitment to Torah as a way of seeing the world is inspiring and beautiful. <br />
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As a father he has supported me in finding my own path to Torah. My path has been quite different from his - it has wandered more, it has drawn on a style of observance that is not his own, it has challenged some dimensions of his own thinking. He provides counsel and support, empathy and patient, very gentle rebuke. In doing so he has allowed me to discover my own place at Sinai, a place where I stand in debt to him for his teaching, his infinite patience, his encouragement and his endless support. <br />
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My father's way of teaching has sometimes been from a distance. Proverbs 22:6 says "Train a child according to his way." My father knows my stubbornness, and more than once the space he has allowed me to grow has enabled me to find an answer that I suspect he wanted me to find. <br />
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Kiddushin 29a describes a father's obligations to his son. They are to circumcise his son, to perform [the mitzvah of] ‘Redemption of the firstborn,’ to teach him Torah, and to teach him a trade, and (some say) he must also teach him to swim.<br />
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Yasher Koach, Aba. Thank you.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-61949030033261968922011-06-12T00:13:00.000-06:002011-06-12T00:13:03.967-06:00The Intolerable Chutzpah, Ctd.The effort to ban circumcision in Santa Monica has been derailed. The woman backing the bill has decided to withdraw it. This comes following outrage in response to a comic book that apparently used horribly anti-semitic imagery to criticize circumcision (I say apparently because I have seen a few images from the book but haven't seen the book itself). Some more information on the withdrawal of the bill and the comic book <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304259304576375540364440776.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/us/08circumcise.html?_r=1">here</a>. <br />
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The author of the comic book is named Matthew Hess - definitely <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Hess">a famous Jewish last name</a>, for whatever that's worth. <br />
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While I'm happy that the bill has been withdrawn, it is unfortunate that it wasn't rejected on the merits. The woman who was pushing for the bill, as far as I know, had no connection to the author of the comic book. So, in a sense it was a fortunate accident that the bill was derailed - this comic book author accidentally destroyed a bill he supports. <br />
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/us/08circumcise.html?_r=1">The New York Times article</a> contains a confusing and misleading sentence: "...many leaders expect that similar efforts will crop up in other cities." Expect Shmexpect: there is a <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/cityinsider/detail?entry_id=89248">proposed ban in San Francisco</a> that will be voted on in November.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-38092150431097799372011-06-08T21:49:00.000-06:002011-06-08T21:49:26.976-06:00Black Fire on White FireLast night began Shavuot, the day on which we received and receive Torah. Midrash Tanchumah describes the Torah as being black fire on white fire. And the Shulchan Aruch, the principal code of Jewish law, begins its summary of how Jewish tradition instructs us to wake up in the morning with the beautiful and mysterious sentence, "One should rouse oneself like a lion to get up in the morning and serve the Creator so that he awakens the dawn." <br />
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This happened this morning, the morning of Shavuot. I wasn't able to figure out what time this happened - if someone has that info, I'd love to know. I would like to think it was right after shacharit prayers. <br />
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More detail:<br />
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<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hpQmS3adLgI?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hpQmS3adLgI?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></object>Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-84335189523305275102011-06-06T14:40:00.000-06:002011-06-06T14:40:27.613-06:00Gilad Shalit UpdateGilad Shalit is the IDF soldier who was captured by Hamas nearly five years ago (June 25th, 2006). His father, Noam Shalit, is now<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/noam-shalit-files-suit-in-paris-to-probe-his-son-s-kidnapping-1.366323"> filing suit in Paris</a> that he hopes will put pressure the French government to in turn put pressure on Hamas to release him. <br />
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What a horrible ordeal for this young man, for the family, and for the nation. May he be kept safe and healthy and be returned soon. <br />
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More information on Shalit <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilad_Shalit">here </a>and also in the column to the right, under "Kosher Sites."Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-59890698838644859052011-06-05T10:43:00.003-06:002011-06-05T13:56:33.238-06:00The Intolerable Chutzpah of the Anti-Circumcision MovementThe New York Times has an article <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/us/05circumcision.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general">here</a> about anti-circumcision activists gaining ground in California. <br />
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As you might imagine, I have very strong feelings about this. My feelings are grounded not only in my belief in the centrality of brit milah (the covenant of circumcision) in Judaism but also in my political makeup. So, even if legislators contemplating a ban include an exception for religion, I'm am still strongly opposed to this foolish and offensive movement.<br />
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This is a very long post, so I'll present brief summaries of my major points up front. <br />
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1) The state must not interfere with rights of parents unless there is a significant danger to a child.<br />
2) There are harmful things than circumcision that parents do to children that are widely accepted in our culture.<br />
3) Circumcision does not harm the baby.<br />
4) There is no analogy to female circumcision, which is something that is widely abhorred in the west. <br />
5) The idea that there is no moral justification for making a choice like circumcision for a child before the age of consent is refuted by our common experience in the world. <br />
6) The philosophical basis for the anti-circumcision movement is flawed.<br />
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Those involved with this movement are referred to as anti-circumcision activists, but they should be called <b>value-imposers</b>, and that's how they'll be referred to here until I think of a better phrase. The reason I'm changing the language is because what is really material in the debate is not circumcision and it's harm - they are welcome to try to persuade whomever wants to listen. What is significant about the movement is that these people seek to impose their own values on others. <br />
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Here's why the value-imposers are terribly wrong: <br />
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1) The state needs to be kept very, very far away from the relationship between parents and children. Are there limits? Obviously, there are. The state must intervene if a child is being abused, if parents are so neglectful that the child is in danger, etcetera. But there is no basis for making this argument about circumcision. The burden of proof must remain on those who want to dictate to other people what decisions they can make for their families - not on parents who are choosing a medically accepted practice that causes no harm.<br />
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2) There are far greater harms that a parent can do to a child - should the state prevent parents from piercing the ears of little boys and girls? Of course not, but ear piercing is a purely decorative practice, it does not have any health arguments on its side (as circumcision does), nor does it have thousands of years of cultural tradition behind it. Should the state make it illegal for parents to feed junk food to babies? I've seen babies that are clearly not eating healthfully and are way too fat at a very young age. Those parents are doing far more harm to their child than circumcision does. What would be the argument against state interference in the diet of the baby? What about the choice to expose children to the wildly materialistic values inculcated by television? While I don't judge it, nor would I ever have the chutzpah to seek to make the state prevent it, I believe that it is obviously and demonstrably true that parents who expose young children to television are doing far, far more damage to their children than I've done to my sons by circumcision. The logic of the value-imposers would dictate that children should be age 18 before they can watch. <br />
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3) Circumcision does not harm the baby. Those who are attempting to impose their personal beliefs on others like to call it male genital mutilation. It is not. It does not change the essential function of the sexual organ of the child. Yes, it does change the appearance, and what I find interesting about this is that if this is the basis of calling it mutilation - which it must be, since no harm to the function of the penis comes from circumcision - then it is quite tellingly a particularistic and biased movement. It is using the aesthetic standards of a particular culture, of North America, protestant/secular culture, in the 21st century, to make judgments about what is right. <br />
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Billions of healthy males have lived healthy lives - sexual and otherwise - for thousands of years with this practice. And yet the value-imposers would have us believe that suddenly this should be considered an intolerable harm imposed upon a child? <br />
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4) The value-imposers want to you associate circumcision with female genital mutilation, as though these two things are the same (When someone's argument depends on discrediting by association, you know they are on the losing side of the argument). Female genital mutilation falls in a different category - it is, in fact, mutilation. Here's why the two are essentially different. First, the female genital mutilation I have heard of (I believe there are other kinds) involves removal of the clitoris, permanently and drastically altering the future sexual function of the baby to whom it is done. The difference between the sexual life of a woman with a clitoris and without is fundamental and vast. There is no way to make the argument that anything similar happens with a male. Circumcised males lead full and complete sexual lives. Second, the practice of removing the clitoris takes place in patriarchal societies in which women have very little power and the most significant choices in life are determined for them by men. Male circumcision is practiced on males in cultures that are overwhelmingly patriarchal and come from patriarchal traditions in which men are the ones who have made the rules and norms. Patriarchy isn't something to be proud of, but the point is that we're talking about a (harmless) practice that affects the most powerful people within the society. Males in North America, whether secular, protestant, Muslim, or Christian, are at a power advantage in the society, and circumcision cannot be seen as an expression of oppression. <br />
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5) Finally, we hear all the time that we mustn't do something to a child until they are old enough to decide for themselves. If they want to circumcise themselves at age 18, they may. This argument is impossible for me to take seriously. It is revealingly blind and naive. Is there such a thing as an infant who makes choices for him or herself? Did they choose to grow up in families in North America? Might they not be better off somewhere else - a place with more balance between work and leisure? The United States is nowhere near the top of the happiness indices that have developed over the last few years, indices which compare the relative happiness of the populations. My sons did not choose to grow up in this culture in which happiness is a bit further out of reach than elsewhere. But their life here is just a fact. <br />
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Parents many all of the most significant choices in a child's life for the child, choices that will define the boundaries of the child's life, their intellectual environment, their values, etcetera. Raising a child in an environment in which it is normal to play video games, or only listen to Britney Spears without exposure to much more complex and beautiful art does more damage to a child than an essentially harmless snip. <br />
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There are of course, thousands of other examples of very significant aspects of life that are chosen for us, not by us. Circumcision is a slight ritual that simply affirms and recognizes this reality - a reality that, for me, has religious significance. That we are NOT essentially free to choose essential aspects of ourselves and our identity - whether our culture, our DNA, our religion, our secularism - is to me an essential feature of existence. Westerners are deeply uncomfortable with this existential fact. Our entire political philosophy, the entire idea of the social contract, is founded upon the notion that a person attains total freedom when they are left alone by all others, when no decision is made for them. This is a fantasy that exists only in theory. <br />
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I am not suggesting that there is an analogy here between choosing to circumcise your child and passing on your DNA, or raising your child in a given country. My point is to identify what I think is the philosophical foundation of the value-imposers. I believe that these people are beholden to a false notion about what constitutes freedom, and choice. They consider this falsity (that a person should choose everything that happens to them) to be a universal truth, and therefore they believe they have the right to impose it on others. My point is that the philosophical foundation for their outlooks is wrong. The world isn't like that. <br />
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Should we hand over to the state these acts that have a much greater impact (and greater harm) on the child? Why not? Is the answer 1) that there is some essential difference between circumcision and other forms of harm that we impose on children? Or is it 2) that banning these other commonly accepted practices just wouldn't be practical? That is, we'd like to create laws to ban all harm that a parent might do, but it isn't politically feasible. If the answer of the value-imposers is answer #1, they have an obligation to explain their reasoning - because it is hard to imagine what it would be. If it's #2, then we should all - regardless of our religious tradition, political affiliation, or cultural traditions - be very afraid of the value-imposers, because they would be speaking the language of dangerous fundamentalists.<br />
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More to come on this topic, for sure.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-16678173473539008082011-06-03T15:25:00.001-06:002011-06-03T15:33:24.872-06:00All Night Long - ShavuotPlease join us for what will be an amazing night, on June 7th at 8:30 pm at Rembrandt Yard, 1301 Spruce in Boulder. Traditional learning, yoga, music (Mark Megibow from FACE), rabbis leading discussions on finding Jewish meaning, Coffee by Ozo, ice cream, cheesecake, cereal and more. Hope to see you there. (Click on the image to see a bigger version) <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oCsePSL4Ffs/TelQ1WVSCDI/AAAAAAAALs8/x2gDCQC-PHk/s1600/shavuot%2B5771%2Bsched_0001-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="248" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oCsePSL4Ffs/TelQ1WVSCDI/AAAAAAAALs8/x2gDCQC-PHk/s320/shavuot%2B5771%2Bsched_0001-2.jpg" /></a></div>Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-80213601506281842482011-06-02T14:10:00.000-06:002011-06-02T14:10:48.507-06:00What's the Deal in Israel? Ctd.One of the things I'm becoming interested in is how we talk about Israel within the Jewish community. What parts of the discussion are "out of the question," or "beyond the pale" in the debate? I'm interested in this for two reasons. Philosophically I see deep and powerful and open debate as essential virtue in Jewish life; I see it as a religious principal, really. <br />
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Practically, I think that Israel's future depends on our being able to talk in an open way about what is best for Israel. It depends on our not branding anyone as an "Israel hater" if they make an argument about what is best for Israel's future. <br />
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Along these lines, as I indicated in a previous post ("<a href="http://onemoregrainofsand.blogspot.com/2011/05/whats-deal-in-israel.html">What's the Deal in Israel?</a>"), I was pretty confused by the response of many American Jews to President Obama's proposal of using the 1967 lines as the basis for negotiations ("with land swaps," as he put it). This was something that has been part of the discussion for years, it has been the basis of previous negotiations that Israel has participated in, it was the de facto position of the previous two American Administrations....and now everyone is outraged at Obama. <br />
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To add to my confusion, I just read an article in which Meir Dagan, the former head of Mossad (Israeli intelligence), <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/former-mossad-head-advocates-saudi-peace-plan-20110602-1fivf.html?from=smh_sb">urges a return to the 1967 borders </a>and pursuit of the Saudi Peace Plan from 2002.<br />
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The point here is not that Dagan is necessarily correct (I happen to think that he is) but that you have the former head of Mossad using the same language as Obama used - language that caused Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to say that Obama was throwing Israel "under the bus." <br />
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Does that mean that the former head of Mossad is throwing Israel under the bus? Does he hate Israel? I would hate to be the person to tell Dagan that he's an Israel-hater. This is a guy who headed an elite military unit in combating PLO violence, and who the right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had enough faith in to appoint to head Mossad. <br />
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I think the message from the history of actual negotiations, and from the criticism of the present leadership offered by Dagan and many others, is that there is not just one set of solutions that can be considered "pro-Israel." <br />
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I think we have to be careful about slinging arrows about people on the Israel issue. Because in Israel, many extremely committed, extremely thoughtful people, from intellectuals to soldiers, people who have put their lives on the line for Israel and whose lives are wrapped up with its future, often propose ideas that over here get you branded as naive at best, or even worse, an enemy of Israel.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2832364329882359207.post-51015609252278162892011-05-30T14:28:00.000-06:002011-05-30T14:28:15.601-06:00Don't Miss Shavuot on June 7Shavu-what? <br />
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A community wide Shavuot Celebration, called Up All Night, will be held this year at Rembrandt Yard, 1301 Spruce Street in Boulder, beginning at 8:30 pm on June 7th. I will be teaching as will other rabbis from the Boulder community. There will be Torah yoga, music, Jewish art, traditional learning, conversation, not to mention Ozo coffee, ice cream and other treats. Please come and stay as late as you like. “Up All Night: Shavuot in Boulder” is being sponsored by Rabbi Rose’s and Rabbi Goldfeder’s project, Soulfood, with a generous grant from 18 Pomegranates. <br />
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For those who want some basic information on Shavuot: <br />
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<b>A Little Bit About Shavuot<br />
</b>Shavuot falls on the 6th and 7th of the Hebrew Month of Sivan. This year that corresponds to the 7th and 8th of June. In the Torah Shavuot (“Weeks”) is an agricultural festival. Along with Sukkot and Passover it is one of the three pilgrimage festivals during which the ancient Israelites would come to Jerusalem to make special offerings at the Temple. Eventually the rabbis of the Talmudic era proclaimed that Shavuot marks the day on which the Torah was given to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. Even for those of us who do not understand the Sinaitic revelation literally, Shavuot has become a day recognized as holy because it represents our receiving of Torah as a way of life. <br />
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Important customs associated with Shavuot are: Tikkun Leil Shavuot (“Set Order of Learning on the Night of Shavuot”), during which the community gathers to stay up all night (see below for details of the community-wide celebration this year); eating of dairy foods such as blintzes and cheesecake; using floral decorations in the synagogue and home; and reading the Book of Ruth.<br />
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<b>A Bit More</b><br />
<i>Agricultural Origins</i><br />
Shavuot, or Chag Ha-Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, is one of three names for this holy day. It is called “Weeks” in Leviticus 23 because the Israelites are told to start counting off weeks from the Second Night of Passover until they have counted seven full weeks, at which point they make offerings of bread and animal offerings. <br />
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In Exodus 23 it is referred to as Chag Ha-Katzir, the Festival of the [wheat] Harvest. It would have fallen at the time that the wheat crop was beginning to ripen. <br />
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The third name is comes from Numbers 28, where the holy day is referred to as Yom Ha-Bikkurim, the Day of the First Fruits. On this day the Israelites were to bring the first fruits of the season and offer them at the Temple. They would continue to do this until Sukkot (in the fall). <br />
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Shavuot and Revelation</i><br />
Clearly Shavuot observance was rooted in agriculture, as at least the second two names – the Festival of the Harvest and the Day of the First Fruits – suggest. We should continue be blessed to view the creation of food as evidence of a divine presence active in the universe, creating and overseeing a mystifyingly complex web of life. And as the Torah tries to get us to see our food as a gift for which we must be thankful, and which we must offer back in some way to God, we should view the overwhelming material bounty of our own lives as a spiritual challenge to us to remain grateful, giving people – rather than people who act as if the whole world was created just for them. <br />
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But it is also true that each generation must breathe new life into Torah, to find new meaning that is concealed within ancient teaching. For our Sages – the spiritual leaders of the Talmud and early Judaism – Shavuot’s importance was not in its placement in the rhythms of the earth’s sustenance. It was that Shavuot was the day on which the Jewish people received the Torah at Mount Sinai. <br />
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How so? Step one is that the Torah tells us that the Exodus from Egypt happened in the month of Nisan. Step two is that Exodus 19:1 tells us that they entered the wilderness of Sinai on “the third new moon” after leaving Egypt. This would be the month of Sivan. Step three is that the rabbis agree that the Torah was given on Shabbat. The first Shabbat in Sivan would bring us to the current date of Shavuot (a rabbinic argument about a detail in the Torah results in the actual day of Shavuot being moved from the 7th to the 6th).<br />
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Finding Meaning in Shavuot Today</i><br />
For us this rabbinic notion that Shavuot was the day on which the Israelites received the Torah continues to have meaning. But the power of the Festival is not in looking back and seeing the 6th of Sivan as a commemoration. Rather, we should view it as the day on which we will again receive Torah.<br />
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Torah in the broadest sense is what we celebrate and seek out on Shavuot. Not just the Five books of Moses but the centuries of interpretation, insights, extensions, and inspiration that have flow from this regenerating source in every generation, in every moment.<br />
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What role does Torah have in our lives? Jewish teaching begins with the assumption that each of us must learn to become a certain kind of person, that we must learn to create a certain kind of society, and that we must learn to develop fill relationships with other people and with God if we are to understand what it means to be fully human and to live a righteous life. <br />
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This is a tall order, but on Shavuot we open ourselves and commit ourselves to this reality. We affirm that the daily striving of our lives, the material concerns, the stress, the anxiety, the financial worry, the ambition – that it all has a broader spiritual purpose. We affirm as well that through a life of commitment to Torah values – to learning wisdom, to inspiring ourselves to become better people – we can imbue our lives and the lives of others with real meaning and inspiration. <br />
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The Talmud teaches that even the words of a great teacher in the present day were actually revealed at Mount Sinai. That is, the teachings of Torah are not just a collection of laws that happened long ago. They can be present and very real in our own lives. <br />
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It is significant that Torah was revealed on a mountain. It is a high place, removed from ordinary experience, a place to look up to, a place of transcendent beauty. But most important, it is an earthly place. High up, yes, but not beyond reach. Moses, an actual person, went up to Mt. Sinai and came back down, his face radiating the light of revelation. He came back down to the people Israel to share this light with them. <br />
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As Shavuot approaches, we prepare ourselves for this encounter with Jewish teaching and instruction, so that we might reinvigorate our spiritual lives with the energy of Torah. <br />
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Please join me and many, many others on Tuesday, June 7th at 8:30 pm at Rembrandt Yard, 1301 Spruce in Boulder.Rabbi Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10291052395235575454noreply@blogger.com2