tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32011636073791100482024-03-20T11:08:36.172-04:00Welcome to My WorldComments on Jewish and political topics from a perspective that is progressive, personal, humorous, and humane. My professional blog is Communicate! (www.dennisfischman.com).Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.comBlogger285125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-56752271321672381482024-01-07T10:31:00.001-05:002024-01-07T10:31:43.830-05:00Listening to Moses (and people with disability)<p>We read the beginning of the book of Exodus in shul yesterday, and I am grateful to <a href="https://www.studywithpenina.com/" target="_blank">Penina Weinberg,</a> my fellow member of Temple B'nai Brith, for bringing forward Professor Julia Watts Belser's discussion of Moses in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/75667112-loving-our-own-bones" target="_blank">Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole. </a></p><p>There's a longstanding tradition of commentary on Moses' saying he was "slow of speech and tongue" (4:10). Older midrash has Pharaoh trying to tell whether a prediction that Moses would take his throne away from him was true and placing before the baby Moses a gem and a burning coal. The theory was that if he were greedy and ambitious, Moses would reach for the gem. Instead, he grabbed the coal and, as babies do, put it in his mouth. Thus, the rabbis explained, he burned his speech organ, explaining his reluctance as a grown man to "speak to the Children of Israel." That is why his older brother Aaron has to interpret for him, to the Jews and to Pharaoh's court.<br /></p><p>Whether for that reason or for something congenital, Moses was a stutterer. Belser (Penina says) uses him as a model of how disabled Jews can not only achieve leadership despite their characteristics, but even because of them. So, when rabbinic interpretation jumps ahead to Deuteronomy (where Moses orates for chapters and chapters) and concludes that God must have healed him in the meantime, Belser rejects that interpretation. She, and Penina, and I all like to imagine that forty years later, Moses still spoke with his usual stuttering voice--and the Israelites patiently listened.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Now, here's the further question this raises for me: What happened in the meantime to make it possible for him to be willing to speak, and them to listen?</h3><p>Was it simply that Aaron (and Miriam) had died, and Moses had no other choice?</p><p>Or had he gained a lot of confidence by being a prophet and a leader for all those years?</p><p>On the audience side, was it simply that the generation who had met Moses in Egypt had all died out (except for Joshua and Caleb)?</p><p>Or had something changed for the Israelites over that time: the experience of living in the wilderness, or of being taken care of by God just as Moses said, or something else?</p><p>Most importantly: can we learn anything from the Torah about <i><b>how to change our own society</b></i> so that people's differing abilities and disabilities are valued, as part of what they brought with them to Sinai? What?<br /></p><p>P.S. I also want to think about big brother Aaron and how he was able to put himself at his brother's disposal after not seeing him for decades! <br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><h3 aria-label="By: Julia Watts Belser" class="Text Text__title3 Text__regular"><span tabindex="-1"><a class="ContributorLink" href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4208932.Julia_Watts_Belser"><span class="ContributorLink__name" data-testid="name"><br /></span></a></span></h3>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-44558705872127750232023-12-22T12:09:00.000-05:002023-12-22T12:09:09.214-05:00Falsifying History is No Way to Support Your Cause<p>Recently, I had to restate some very basic facts about Jesus. </p><p>Jesus was a Jew. He lived and died in a land that the Roman Empire called Judea. He did not oppose the empire, but other Jews did.</p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en">
Jesus of Nazareth was of course a Jew. He was the child of a Jewish
mother, and that made him a member of the Jewish people. His doctrines
were Jewish. He read the Torah in Hebrew and spoke Aramaic, just like
all the Jews (and just like I read the Torah in Hebrew and speak
English). Moreover, if he and all his original followers hadn’t been
Jewish, they would never have heard the word “Messiah,” much less
understood the concept. Jesus is the favorite Jewish man of millions of
people in the world.</span></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en">At the time Jesus of Nazareth lived (c. 4 BCE-33 CE), the land was called Judea, not Palestine. When</span><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en"> Jews
rose up against Roman tyranny, the Roman armies destroyed the Temple in
Jerusalem, prohibited Jews from entering the city (which they renamed
Aelia Capitolina), and started using the name “Syria Palestina ” to
emphasize the destruction of the Jewish state. It wasn’t “Palestina
Capta” that the Emperor Vespasian put on his coins minted to celebrate
his military victory: it was “Judea capta.”</span></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NwiipFH6_BtkUoSFRTAPWEkX9_3HEhxJy-qn0X_-w1LAiRZUETjj6RMzWovMVmD1Rdlfv4dq2JOgguzaJgB7aW1kclB3WAKMUN61Qy2suMsPs6HUXrT42ROHhXPi1MAbyvXTbgS0m0uaJiSG8fS4gZUqdUU3WXj3hF43BZ7OsxLFuou1kvwxaoHqfzyW/s640/Sestertius_-_Vespasiano_-_Iudaea_Capta-RIC_0424.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="640" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_NwiipFH6_BtkUoSFRTAPWEkX9_3HEhxJy-qn0X_-w1LAiRZUETjj6RMzWovMVmD1Rdlfv4dq2JOgguzaJgB7aW1kclB3WAKMUN61Qy2suMsPs6HUXrT42ROHhXPi1MAbyvXTbgS0m0uaJiSG8fS4gZUqdUU3WXj3hF43BZ7OsxLFuou1kvwxaoHqfzyW/s320/Sestertius_-_Vespasiano_-_Iudaea_Capta-RIC_0424.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Jesus is quoted in the Gospels as saying, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and render unto God the things that are God's." He is also quoted as saying, "My kingdom is not of this world." He was no Simon bar Koziba, nicknamed Bar Kochba, who led a military rebellion against Roman rule. He was not even Rabbi Akiba, who hoped Bar Kochba would be the Messiah to free the Jews. Roman rule was not an issue to him: the end of the world as he knew it, was.<br /><p></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en">These things are not in dispute among any one who has ever studied the history of that time and place. There is ample archeological and documentary evidence about Roman rule, Judea, the Jewish wars, and the origins of the concept of a Messiah. Jesus' teachings vary somewhat from one gospel to the other, but the basic message is clear.<br /></span></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en">Why do I have to go into these simple facts yet again? Because in the context of late 2023, a wrongheaded meme is circulating that says "Shoutout to all the Christians who've remained completely silent about the Palestinian genocide while they get ready to celebrate the birth of their favorite Palestinian man."<br /></span></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en"><b>This is nonsense.</b> I can recognize that I am not the audience for message, and I can attribute the meme to good intentions--but Jesus was not a Palestinian, he was a Jew, and that shouldn't make a difference in any way to our response to the horrific situation in Israel and Gaza as of today, December 22, 2023.<br /></span></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en">We
can oppose the brutal attack on Israel on October 7th which killed 1200
people (Muslims, Christians, Druzes, Buddhists, and Jews) AND the total
war that Israel has been waging in Gaza almost without interruption
since (which has killed 15 times as many lives), AND work for a
ceasefire and a lasting peace—all without falsifying history. And we must.</span></p><p><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u" dir="auto" lang="en"><br /></span></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-13924915985425237782023-07-23T09:00:00.004-04:002023-07-23T09:00:26.367-04:00How to use and not use the concept of "generations"<p>Last night, Rona and I happened to be recalling three songs from our youth, all of which in some way touched on the topic of long hair. That probably wouldn't have happened if we had married someone from a different generation instead of someone born the same month and year. If I die and Rona gets involved with someone ten years younger, they probably won't know the same songs, movies, and television shows, and they won't remember some of the same events in the news. For them, that might matter. But what difference does it make to history?</p><p>I've long been of the opinion that "talking 'bout my generation" is a useless way to describe social trends. Yes, long hair was an issue for The Cowsills, the Charlie Daniels Band, and the musical Hair, and it wasn't for Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, or the Ink Spots. But hair is just one element of how we present ourselves, and self-presentation is an issue in every era, for a wide variety of people. Jeans were working-class clothes until they became trendy, and then there were designer jeans. Underwear used to be considered obscene. Then, not wearing underwear was obscene. Not wearing a hat made JFK different from Presidents before him, but covering your head indoors or not marked whether you were Jewish or Christian for the longest period of time. Even with hair, the Roundheads during the English Civil War used their hairstyle to distinguish themselves against the flowing locks worn by the aristocratic Cavaliers.</p><p>Maybe self-presentation is a constant issue across generations, you say, but isn't it trivial? (No.) Aren't the events that a generation experiences formative of their outlook? Yes and no. In my lifetime, you could trace changes in (white people's) attitudes toward government to integration, the Vietnam War, and Watergate. But in previous generations, going back a hundred years, you could find similar attitudes among some more or less well-organized groups, from socialists to America Firsters. Speaking of socialism, there's a resurgent interest in it among people born in the last thirty years, but so was there in the 1960's, the 1930's, the 1890's.</p><p>It's a truism that every generation thinks they're the first to discover sex. The same applies to many "generational" phenomena: in specifics they are new, but if you back up only slightly and take a broader view, you can see how they continue from the past.</p><p>I am thinking about what the right questions are to ask about generational change. I am pretty sure "How is this generation different from that one?" is a useless question. Instead, I think we should ask:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>How is this generation framing the ongoing questions about how we should live?</li><li>Out of the perennial issues, what are the issues that are coming to the fore, and how?</li><li>Which questions seem less important to this cohort than that, at the present moment? (And will that change as they age?)</li><li>What are the different terms in which old questions are being posed anew?</li><li>When in history did we actually experience seismic shifts in what mattered and how we discussed it? <br /></li></ul><p>For instance, you could argue that the invention of the atomic bomb launched a whole new discussion about our ability to destroy the earth. Or you could trace it back to the Industrial Revolution and the "dark satanic mills" that Blake wrote about. Or you could say the big change happened when climate change began to occur at a rapid rate.</p><p>I would ultimately say that which of these arguments is "right" depends on what we are actually trying to find out, and to do. But they would all be more useful arguments than "OK, Boomer" or "Get off my lawn!"<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-88326634279908832212023-05-24T17:09:00.000-04:002023-05-24T17:09:13.305-04:00Thinking about God: Jewish Views, by Rabbi Kari H Tuling: a review<div class="separator"><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Book Cover" class="ResponsiveImage" height="640" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597084024i/54873462.jpg" width="426" /> </p><p style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">This is an invaluable book, and what you get out of it will depend on two things: who are you, and what are you seeking?</p></div><p>If you're a reader (Jewish or not) who's unfamiliar with this tradition, you may become bemused by the sheer variety of Jewish views about God, and how different they are, and how all of them are valid parts of the Jewish tradition. It may change your sense of what thinking about God can be like. Along the way, you will also quietly learn a lot about Jewish texts and traditional ways to read them and about ways that our understanding of God can shape our daily lives. In fact, Rabbi Tuling insists, "Theology defines what is possible in our lives." Read it, and see if you agree! <br /></p><p>If you're a Jewish reader who's well-versed in bible and midrash, like me, you will recognize some of the passages with which Rabbi Tuling begins each chapter and nod along with her line-by-line explication. Some of the medieval thinkers were unfamiliar to me, and some of the modern ones too. But as a person who usually approaches God as a partner in the project of <i>tikkun olam</i>, the repair and gradual perfection of creation, and not as a "God of the philosophers," I found it useful to read over the contrasting views and see how much I agreed with some, and less with others. It made me put into words some of what I believe about God rather than just relate to God as someone who's always already been there.</p><p>And if you're a person who's inclined toward theology but not familiar with Jewish approaches, you may be taken up short by how much Jewish views of God can contrast with the assumptions soaked into Christianity (to say nothing of Islam, Buddhism, or other traditions!) You may also learn the connection between daring exegesis and theology in Judaism--much more common than a purely deductive approach--and you will have to decide whether you agree with the author when she says, "Any theology that can confidently explain why children get cancer is a monstrosity."</p><p>All of us readers, I think, will get suggestions on what to read next!<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-20256790159103883642023-01-23T15:20:00.001-05:002023-01-23T15:20:21.602-05:00There Shall Be No Needy, Conclusion: Justice and the Justice System<p>I'm going to skip over the chapter of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346933-there-shall-be-no-needy" target="_blank">There Shall Be No Needy </a>that deals with the environment, because although Jacobs explicitly recognizes that it may be <i>the </i>issue of the 21st century for many Jews, she can only speak about it in general terms. Plus, there have been many books specifically on the topic since hers came out.</p><p>The part about the justice system struck me in a personal way.</p><p>When my brother, Cantor Ron Fischman, was killed during the Days of Awe in 2014, one of the things I learned was how many people have had a death by violence in the family. Not as many among white, Jewish, and middle-class people, but in some communities (especially impoverished and racialized communities), it can be impossible not to know someone whose father, mother, brother, or cousin, was killed. For many families, having a perpetrator in the family (and often, in prison) is also a fact of life. I was amazed how sheltered I had been from this reality.</p><p>Rabbi Jill Jacobs points out that the U.S. imprisons more people per capita than perhaps any other country in the world, and not only do we do it whether the crime rate is rising or falling, it has no effect on that rise and fall. From a Jewish perspective, that we continue to incarcerate people is inexplicable.</p><p>In Jewish history and halakhah, imprisonment is hardly heard of it. Some crimes, like murder and rape, officially require a death sentence, even if it has hardly ever been carried out. Most crimes against persons and property call for monetary fines only. And she points out that when a person truly carries out <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59883978-on-repentance-and-repair?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_8" target="_blank">teshuvah (repentance)</a>, it's considered a good idea to waive the fines, to prevent people from <i>avoiding</i> the process of self-scrutiny, confession, and making amends because it could cost them!)</p><p>Imprisonment is barely a part of the Jewish tradition, and mainly in the last few hundred years: a blink of the eye in our 4,000-year history. The emphasis is on a) making cities safe places to live; b) treating perpetrators as human and even "our brother," too; and c) promoting rehabilitation.</p><p>So what? Except for Israel (which is a secular state and does not operate according to Jewish law), there is not one place in the world where Jews have a majority voice on making policy. What difference does it make whether or not you and I know what the Jewish tradition has to say on all these issues of social justice?</p><p>If nothing else, it is important to let our fellow citizens know that conservative and even reactionary positions are not equivalent to being religious or moral. We are currently seeing that in the sphere of reproductive justice. I am proud of the Jewish organizations that have not only spoken up in public but in court, saying that denying pregnant people access to abortions is preventing some Jews from doing what they are<i> morally supposed to do in certain situations </i>under Jewish law. As the car magnet that the <a href="https://www.ncjw.org/" target="_blank">National Council of Jewish Women </a>sent me says to everyone who looks at the back of my car: "Abortion bans are against my religion!"</p><p>Thanks to Rabbi Jacobs and the organization she currently leads, <a href="https://truah.org/" target="_blank">T'ruah</a>, for making the point that religious traditions can inspire us to work for liberty and justice for all.<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-44400888119630693312023-01-22T09:02:00.002-05:002023-01-22T09:08:37.805-05:00There Shall Be No Needy, Part 7: Society, Heal Thyself!<p>The importance of providing health care is such an assumption in the Jewish culture I grew up in that I was surprised to learn it was ever debated--but that just goes to show you how in Judaism, everything is open to debate! In chapter 7 of There Shall Be No Needy, Rabbi Jill Jacobs gives respect to the minority view that it is up to God to heal sickness (not wounds), or that once upon a time in the age of prophecy that was the case. She rightly states that the overwhelming sentiment is that medicine is a <i>mitzvah, </i>for at least two reasons:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>We were made in the image of God. Whoever heals a human being is doing a good thing on a cosmic scale!</li><li>Our bodies are our most valuable possessions. If it's a mitzvah to return my book, my coat, or my donkey that I have lost, what a greater good deed it is to return my health!</li></ol><p>Ordinarily we don't pay someone for doing a mitzvah. As she has established in earlier chapters, however, rabbinic opinion is that Jewish communities can organize and regulate themselves for the sake of tikkun olam, which in this case means "to establish a health care system in which doctors and other potential lifesavers feel motivated to operate at their highest capacity, and in which patients can be expected to afford their treatments." But as she remarks:</p><blockquote><p>These texts are especially troubling to read in contemporary American, where an inefficient and profit-driven health care system simultaneously makes it difficult for doctors to treat uninsured patients without risking their own livelihoods and prevents many patients from being able to afford needed medical care and medicine. (170-171)<br /></p></blockquote><p>As usual, Jacobs <a href="https://dfischman.blogspot.com/2023/01/there-shall-be-no-needy-how-does-she.html" target="_blank">holds the U.S. to the standards she can find in the Jewish tradition and finds it wanting</a>. Just to be clear, the Affordable Care Act passed the year after this book was published, yet I suspect it would not fundamentally alter her assessment: she is arguing that as Jews, we must demand much more from our society. In fact, she implies that any system that involves paying health insurance companies and having them make profit-driven decisions about health care is not acceptable by Jewish standards.<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-24132741636218721012023-01-18T08:49:00.007-05:002023-01-18T08:50:18.487-05:00There Shall Be No Needy, Part 6: What makes a home? <p>As a former tenant and a longtime landlord, as someone who worked at an <a href="https://www.caasomerville.org/" target="_blank">agency </a>that prevented eviction and as a member of a <a href="https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/fair-housing-commission" target="_blank">city commission</a> against housing discrimination, I have been acutely aware of issues around housing and homelessness. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346933-there-shall-be-no-needy" target="_blank">There Shall Be No Needy</a>, Rabbi Jill Jacobs shows that you don't have to have had my life experience to see those issues as Jewish issues. They are deeply rooted in Jewish experience and Jewish text.</p><p>I don't altogether buy her argument that "the lack of a secure home" because of exile has created a Jewish sensitivity to homelessness. The two situations are not comparable. At most, when we reflect on how distraught our ancestors were on being expelled from the land and how much it disrupted their whole society, we can understand that losing one's apartment or house, today, is not just a personal tragedy. That is important to realize, I agree.</p><p>Here are some other, stronger points that Jacobs makes about the search for housing justice being rooted in Jewish values:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Rabbinic texts assume that even poor people who have no food have homes. (Again, how deeply this is a <a href="http://dfischman.blogspot.com/2023/01/there-shall-be-no-needy-how-does-she.html" target="_blank">criticism of contemporary American life</a>, where that assumption is invalid!)</li><li>Poor people cannot be required to give up their homes to receive assistance (<i>tzedakah</i>). Instead, the rest of us are under an obligation to make sure they can live in those homes in dignity.<br /></li><li>There is a model of what permanent housing is NOT: the sukkah. Houses that let the rain in, that have no heat, that are unsafe to live in for extended periods of time, are not homes, and providing such housing is not justice.</li><li>There is a model of what a permanent home IS: the kind of place where we must affix a <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/what-is-a-mezuzah/" target="_blank">mezuzah</a>. She summarizes Maimonides' definition; it must be of adequate size, and: <br /></li></ul><p></p><blockquote><p>A permanent home, in Rambam's description, must have doors and a roof so that the residents be protected from the elements and from other potential dangers, such as robbers. Finally, just as a <i>sukkah</i> should be constructed with the intention that it be temporary, a home must be constructed with the intention that it be a permanent dwelling place. According to these requirements, it may be that transitional housing, FEMA trailers, shelters, and other nonpermanent or unsafe residences would not qualify as homes... (144)<br /></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> The commandment to build a guardrail around a flat roof shows "a house should protect people, to the greatest degree possible, from all potential danger. Concern for human life must, literally, be built into the fabric of the house." (145)</li><li>Landlords have a deep and broad responsibility to ensure the place they rent out is safe and secure. We also have an obligation to prevent homelessness. This is not like renting out an animal (or a car). We have a commanded role to play in creating <a href="https://www.somervillema.gov/departments/office-strategic-planning-and-community-development-ospcd/office-housing-stability" target="_blank">housing stability</a>.</li><li>The federal government has had a long, evil history of creating racial segregation in housing and evicting poor communities en masse from their neighborhoods. (For a much more detailed discussion of this history, I recommend <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-color-of-law-a-forgotten-history-of-how-our-government-segregated-america/" target="_blank"><i>The Color of Law</i></a>, by Richard Rothstein.) Therefore, we as a country must do <i>teshuvah</i>, repentance, for the sin of creating a racially biased housing crisis, creating homelessness and not preventing it.<br /></li></ul><br /></div>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-22332545152587806122023-01-03T11:57:00.000-05:002023-01-03T11:57:09.285-05:00There Shall Be No Needy: How does she get that from the sources?<p>If you've been following my summaries of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346933-there-shall-be-no-needy" target="_blank">There Shall Be No Needy</a> by Rabbi Jill Jacobs <a href="http://dfischman.blogspot.com/2022/12/there-shall-be-no-needy-part-1-what.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://dfischman.blogspot.com/2022/12/there-shall-be-no-needy-part-2.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://dfischman.blogspot.com/2022/12/there-shall-be-no-needy-part-3-taking.html" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://dfischman.blogspot.com/2022/12/there-shall-be-no-needy-part-4-what-are.html" target="_blank">here</a>, and even <a href="http://dfischman.blogspot.com/2022/12/there-shall-be-no-needy-part-5-dignity.html" target="_blank">here</a>, you might be wondering: how does Rabbi Jacobs arrive at her conclusions? Are they predetermined, so that she goes looking for a prooftext to support them, or what is her method of reading Torah, Talmud, and other sources?</p><p>I admire the author's intellectual honesty. She is quite open about the fact that it's possible to derive different conclusions from the same texts. In chapter 5, for example, she points out that conservative commentators can look at rabbinic sayings about the need to follow <i>minhag hamakom</i>, the custom of the land, and argue that it means "let the market decide." (She offers a quite different reading of <i>minhag hamakom--</i>in her view, it authorizes local living wage laws, for example--but she gives the sources for the opposing view. See page 109 and footnotes thereon.)</p><p>Over and above the close reading of texts, however, Rabbi Jacobs offers us this overall approach: repeatedly, she points out <u>how the current situation in the U.S. denies the basic assumptions on which halakhah is based</u>. Therefore:</p><blockquote><p>Given the discrepancy between halakhic obligations on workers and the contemporary reality, we are confronted with two possibilities. We can either reconsider the halakhic [requirements], or we can accept the current reality as a challenge to traditional <i>halakhah </i>and in turn, <b>use <i>halakhah</i> to critique the present-day situation. </b>[my emphasis]<br /></p></blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;">If applying halakhah in the U.S. capitalist society of the 21st century produces unjust results, then it is the society that has to change.</h3><p style="text-align: left;">From this standpoint, she can make an argument using traditional Jewish sources that Jews should not only allow but actively encourage union membership, require employers to hire union workers, and use the power of government to set wages, hours, and benefits in favor of the more vulnerable party, the workers. </p><p style="text-align: left;">She can also use the text "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt" and say, remember that you were in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire--and in every major strike--and let that memory steer your moral intuition about how to act today.</p><p style="text-align: left;">If the book reaches conclusions that are conducive to liberal politics in the U.S., it is because liberality is deeply rooted in the Jewish tradition.<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-82749753308070305922022-12-29T09:46:00.003-05:002022-12-29T09:46:12.579-05:00There Shall Be No Needy, part 5: The dignity of labor<h4 style="text-align: left;"> One thing to remember about Torah and work: Don't be like Pharaoh. Be like Boaz.</h4><div style="text-align: left;">According to chapter 5 of Rabbi Jill Jacobs' <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346933-there-shall-be-no-needy" target="_blank">There Shall Be No Needy</a>, if we want a model of what NOT to do as an employer, Pharaoh is the perfect negative example. Why?</div><div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyone who has ever read the Passover Haggadah knows that in the biblical story of slavery in Egypt, Pharaoh made the Israelites work "with rigor" (<i>b'farech). </i>Jacobs cites a midrash that reads that word with different vowel points, as <i>b' peh rach</i>, "with a gentle mouth." In the midrash, Pharaoh goes out and inspires them to work hard as a team--then requires them to work that hard every single day! </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">Don't be like Pharaoh. Don't ask your workers to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-soviet-miner-from-the-1930s-helped-create-todays-intense-corporate-workplace-culture-155814" target="_blank">Stakhanovites</a>, and don't tell them "We are all one family here," because you are not going to treat them as family. You know that.</div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Another midrash says that Pharaoh put a heavy burden on a child and a light burden on an adult. What is cruel about this is not only that the child (or in other examples, the elderly person, or the woman) is being overworked. It is also that the stronger worker is forced to witness the degradation of the weaker and do nothing about it. It dehumanizes both, and it also dehumanizes the boss who "by extension, questioned the value of all humans, including themselves" (102). I see a striking parallel to Marx's theory of alienation here, as I've explained it in chapter 5 of <a href="https://www.umasspress.com/9780870237461/political-discourse-in-exile/" target="_blank">Political Discourse in Exile: Karl Marx and the Jewish Question.</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">Don't be like Pharaoh. Hardening your heart against your workers makes you less human yourself.</div><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[There are other lessons I could draw from the biblical text of Exodus itself: <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Don't work your employees so hard for so many hours that they cannot have satisfying sexual relationships with their spouses (a theme explored at length in Aviva Zornberg's <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201179.The_Particulars_of_Rapture" target="_blank">The Particulars of Rapture</a>, which I have blogged about <a href="https://dfischman.blogspot.com/2021/01/shmot-from-names-to-anomie-to-hearing.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</li><li>Don't retaliate against workers for making demands, as Pharaoh does when he hears Moses and Aaron say "Let My people go." Pharaoah responds with a worker speedup, forcing the Israelites to go out and gather the straw they need for their brickmaking while requiring the same number of bricks from them as before.</li><li> At the simplest level: don't enslave people. Or do anything that even resembles slavery, like debt peonage, indentures, or trafficking.]</li></ul><h4 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54ujoUCfayO-ZOb8Kc3RlomXj2-qBGnZr1-8Coz7bU5yjBi_fAPH7lRKpdldafncScKdYX9-MVHA0X3jdyULu_oy71A2e_Ywb3nEmrL4og_M4gie5N0mJOe88KIcafrfqYF5ikf2LdIyERyywIpWgiwVJlHVCVmNl4S5ps6VVcMMmjsnRgpDY13IiNg/s624/Boaz%20and%20Ruth.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="468" data-original-width="624" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54ujoUCfayO-ZOb8Kc3RlomXj2-qBGnZr1-8Coz7bU5yjBi_fAPH7lRKpdldafncScKdYX9-MVHA0X3jdyULu_oy71A2e_Ywb3nEmrL4og_M4gie5N0mJOe88KIcafrfqYF5ikf2LdIyERyywIpWgiwVJlHVCVmNl4S5ps6VVcMMmjsnRgpDY13IiNg/s320/Boaz%20and%20Ruth.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Boaz--not a Ruthless employer!</h4><div style="text-align: left;">Much later in the Tanakh, in the Book of Ruth, we get a story of a man that Rabbi Jacobs thinks can set us a positive example. Boaz (whose name means "in him there is strength") is Ruth's kinsman, and a wealthy landowner. He notices the widowed Ruth working in his fields, protects her, and eventually marries her.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It is not just the one employee that Boaz treats with dignity. As Jacobs points out:</div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">First, it is clear that Boaz visits the fields often. He is familiar with the workers, and he even notices the appearance of a new gleaner [Ruth]. Second, Boaz invokes God's name in greeting his workers...[in the workplace, in] a situation where we might not expect to sense God's presence....Third, Boaz's insistence on enforcing the biblical permission for the poor to glean shows his awareness that his wealth is not his own, but is a loan from God, meant to be shared with those who do not enjoy such wealth. (107)<br /></div></blockquote><h3 style="text-align: left;">Don't be like Pharaoh. Be like Boaz.</h3></div>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-35712529207731517642022-12-26T12:12:00.009-05:002022-12-26T12:13:40.904-05:00There Shall Be No Needy, part 4: What Are Needs? How Do We Meet Them?<p>Two things become clear as I go through Rabbi Jill Jacobs' book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346933-there-shall-be-no-needy" target="_blank">There Shall Be No Needy</a>: how much society has changed since the classic Jewish texts were written...and how much we can still learn from them.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">How much about poverty has changed <br /></h2><p>On the first point, it's clear that in Torah and rabbinic commentaries, there's a presumption that poverty is <b>temporary.</b> Everyone will normally have the means to make a living (most often, land that they can farm). Everyone will normally be able to survive, thrive, and participate in the community as a dignified member of a household. Yes, at any given time someone is likely to need help, because their land's fertility is exhausted, or their own bodies are. But for a Jewish society to allow families to live in need from one generation to another would be unthinkable. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Today, most Jews live as a tiny minority within a non-Jewish, non-agricultural society <i>and</i> the State of Israel runs on civil law, not Jewish law. So, we do not have systems that make poverty temporary. <u>Realizing this, we can ask: what would it take to set up systems like those? And we can advocate for them as policy.</u></p><p style="text-align: left;">There is also a presumption that <a href="http://dfischman.blogspot.com/2022/12/there-shall-be-no-needy-part-2.html" target="_blank">tzedakah</a> is a <b>communal </b>activity: neither just private, not just governmental. Primarily, one is responsible to give to the Jewish community tzedakah fund (and there are lots of rules to prevent favoritism in distributing money from that fund), and only then does one consider private charity. This made sense when Jews primarily lived in ghettos, or under the authority of a Jewish communal leader, and when the national government was foreign to us. As Jacobs writes:</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">If considered at all, the larger government is seen as an impediment or as an active threat. At best, the government leaves the Jewish community alone. At worst, the government demands excessive taxes or even sponsors persecution. (94)<br /> </p></blockquote><p>Today, thank God, in most countries we do not have to regard the government with such trepidation. In the U.S., there are liberal Jews active in high elected and appointed positions. There is also a limited, wavering, but still clear commitment to social welfare through government action. <u>Realizing this, we can ask: what can we learn from Jewish tradition that can inform our advocacy on issues of poverty and inequality? </u></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">What we can still learn from Jewish sources</h2><p>Once again, Jacobs' discussion is erudite and subtle, and I recommend reading it in full. A major point that I take away, however, is that there is no simple rule for whose needs to meet, which needs, and how. We are called on to exercise judgment and balance our concerns.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Whose needs?</h3><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Jews vs. non-Jews</li><li>The poorest vs. all the poor</li><li>Where I live vs. other places</li></ul><p>There are sources that stake out a clear preference for the first choice in each of these binaries. Other, perhaps wiser heads point out that that there are both moral and practical reasons not to give exclusively to Jews, the poorest, or the people nearby. </p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Giving only to Jews makes us odious to our neighbors, and we no longer live in a place where the broader society will ignore Jews' needs. </li><li>Giving to the poorest might mean funding food pantries to the exclusion of everything else, since a person who has nothing to eat cannot benefit from other help for long! </li><li>And given the level of housing segregation by race and class, the poorest people where I live might not be very poor on a global scale, and they might be mainly white people. </li></ul> <br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All of these would be problematic, so we must exercise good judgment and not automatically follow an algorithm.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">Which needs? </h3><div style="text-align: left;">Again, there's more here than I can summarize, but Jacobs makes it clear that bringing people up to their customary level (if they are in straits temporarily) or at least up to the community level is mandatory. Taking care of subsistence needs is laudable but not nearly enough. This has strong policy implications!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Also, not all needs are material. It is appropriate to spend some communal tzedakah money, and some personal, on books that can be lent to the poor. This is spiritual sustenance, and it is just as important as physical nourishment. The <a href="https://www.somervillepubliclibrary.org/how-do-i/become-friend-library" target="_blank">Friends of the Somerville Public Library </a>will be happy to hear about this!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Not every contribution is tzedakah, however. It may be a great idea to send your local high school kids on a field trip, and you might donate toward that, but unless you live in an impoverished area you should consider it a different kind of communal activity (and not take it out of your tzedakah budget).</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">How should we meet those needs?<br /></h3><p>Jacobs makes it clear that the Jewish tradition endorses helping people currently in need, collecting funds for people who may need help in the future--think the next pandemic!--AND changing society so that "There shall be no needy." All three. One does not absolve me, my community, or the United States from energetically pursuing the other.</p><p>I note that the same Torah portion that says "there shall be no needy," only a few verses later commands tzedakah because "the poor will always be with you." <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.15?lang=bi&aliyot=0" target="_blank">Deuteronomy 15:11</a> This is not a contradiction: it is a moral imperative.</p><p>As Jacobs puts it:</p><blockquote><p>In designing social systems, we should strive to prevent extreme poverty, to allow each member of society the opportunity to support himself or herself in a dignified and productive way, and to care for those who still fall through the cracks. Some of our <i>tzedakah</i> money should go toward creating this society. But even in this ideal society, some people will still need emergency assistance, especially in the face of health challenges, job loss, or other crises. A combination of governmental assistance and individual <i>tzedakah</i> would address these issues. And even if, against all expectations, we create a world in which there is no poverty at all, we should still maintain our practice of giving <i>tzedakah</i> both to reap the spiritual benefits of cultivating generosity and to ensure that a system of <i>tzedakah</i> will be available to respond to needs that might arise in the future.<br /></p></blockquote>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-61501180415025233002022-12-21T12:46:00.002-05:002022-12-21T12:46:43.132-05:00There Shall Be No Needy, part 3: Taking time, place, and person into account<p>What constitutes poverty? Is there such a thing as "the" poverty line? And is it always based on the amount a person owns, or do social conditions tell us what a person or household really needs?</p><p>Rabbi Jill Jacobs discusses these questions in detail in chapter 3 of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346933-there-shall-be-no-needy" target="_blank">There Shall Be No Needy</a>, and I cannot capture the richness of her discussion of traditional Jewish sources. She shows how there is debate on each of these points. Still, just as in the classic rabbinic debates between Hillel and Shammai we study both positions but follow those of Hillel, I think we can safely say these are normative positions in Jewish thinking:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Ideally, we should live in a society where poverty is a temporary condition, due to a bad harvest or some other transient turn of events. That we do not live in a society like that today is partly a reflection of industrialization, but it is also a reflection <i>on</i> our tolerating a system that produces chronic poverty.</li><li>Poor people are not worse than rich people. Poverty is not a punishment. Nor, for the most part, is it an uplifting experience. We don't distinguish between the "deserving" and the "undeserving" poor: there shall be no needy!<br /></li><li>Poverty is about not being able to live the dignified life that one is accustomed to (or that is customary in one's time). It is immoral to say to someone that they are not really poor because they have a car, a house, or even their grandmother's silver dishes.</li><li>What it takes to live varies from place to place, too. The standard of living that includes you in the community in one country, or even one region, would make you an outsider in another, and programs to address poverty must take that into account.</li><li>What I owe, I don't own. Even what I have invested in making my business a going concern is not mine. So, it should not count toward the determination of need.</li><li>On the other hand, communal resources are limited, too. So, people should voluntarily and ethically take only what and when they need. It is also legitimate to ask about the recipient's own resources when they are not in danger of going hungry or homeless, with great caution and limitations to the questions asked.</li><li>Err on the side of generosity.</li></ol><p>I want to add a teaching that is not mentioned in this chapter, which is that a poor person, too, has the obligation to give to the communal tzedakah fund, because there may be someone poorer and in more need than she is! <br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-32288084298840941122022-12-20T17:33:00.005-05:002022-12-20T17:33:57.454-05:00There Shall Be No Needy, part 2: Righteous Rulers and Prophetic Voices<p> Along with <a href="https://dfischman.blogspot.com/2022/12/there-shall-be-no-needy-part-1-what.html" target="_blank">tikkun olam</a>, another oft-repeated motto of Jewish progressives is "Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof." I remember it on a banner that fellow New Jewish Agenda members marched with in the 1980's. The slogan has often been translated as "Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue." But what does <i>tzedek </i>really mean?</p><p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346933-there-shall-be-no-needy" target="_blank">According to Rabbi Jill Jacobs</a>, tzedek is not an abstract notion of justice: it is a relational one. She cites Moshe Weinfeld of Hebrew University:</p><blockquote><p>...the concept refers primarily to the improvement of the conditions of the poor, which is undoubtedly accomplished through regulations issued by the king and his officials, and not by offering legal assistance to the poor man in his [sic] litigation with the oppressor. <br /></p></blockquote><p> Jacobs herself concludes, "The task of the just sovereign, whether human or divine, is to establish a system of government that protects the vulnerable." (42)</p><p>Now, we may remember that in biblical times, many Jewish sovereigns did <i>not</i> establish that kind of government. Prophetic voices called them to task. "The prophetic quality consists of an ability to imagine the world as God might see it and to measure the existing world against the divine ideal of a world without oppression or inequality." (47) </p><p>Sometimes, prophets call on God to do justice; more often, they call on human rulers to be righteous. Sometimes, they inveigh against empty rituals, but nearly always, they point to the potential of ritual to sharpen our sense of what it means to do tikkun olam.</p><p>How do these concepts help us shape modern-day institutions and make policy? That is what the rest of the book is all about.<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-35884390904947500692022-12-14T11:36:00.002-05:002022-12-14T11:37:40.446-05:00There Shall Be No Needy, part 1: What Tikkun Olam means in depth<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348079777i/6346933.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="400" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348079777i/6346933.jpg" width="267" /></a></div><br />I came to read Rabbi Jill Jacobs' book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6346933-there-shall-be-no-needy" target="_blank">There Shall Be No Needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Tradition</a> because Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg referred to it in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59883978-on-repentance-and-repair?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13" target="_blank">her book on teshuvah</a> and because I respect Jacobs' work at <a href="https://truah.org/" target="_blank">Truah</a>. <p></p><p>I expected an inspiring but somewhat dated book I somehow hadn't read when it came out, so I could fill a gap in my education with just a little attention. It is so much more than that! </p><p>Jacobs' book is written for the general public, but it is definitely a work of scholarship. Despite my Jewish social justice background over decades, I am learning so much by reading it--slowly--that I thought I would share some lessons with you, and help my memory by taking notes at the same time! </p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Four meanings of Tikkun Olam <br /></h2><p>Ever since I was in college, when I get to the passage at the end of the <i>Aleinu</i> prayer, I say the part <i>l'taken olam b'malchut shaddai, </i>"to perfect the world under the kingship of the Almighty," out loud. (I do this in memory of my teacher Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf.) <i>Tikkun olam </i>has become a byword of Jewish progressives. In some circles, as Jacobs laments, it has become divorced from anything specifically Jewish. But what does it mean?</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Establishing the Divine Kingdom</h3><div style="text-align: left;">In the prayer I just mentioned, tikkun olam is about everyone recognizing the sovereignty of God and putting away idol worship. That might sound like it means everyone becomes Jewish, but nothing could be farther from the truth! Modern-day idol worship, as so many of us recognize, is the idolatry of money, power, and social superiority, As Jacobs interprets it, tikkun olam in this sense could mean "an end to all the 'impurities' such as poverty and discrimination that hamper the manifestation of the divine presence." (27)</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Preservation of the World</h3><div style="text-align: left;">In some of the midrashic literature (for instance, B'reishit Rabbah 4:7), tikkun olam means the physical fixing and stabilization of the planet, and perhaps the larger universe, "such as global warming, deforestation, or the extinction of animal species," as Jacobs interprets it. (40)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Preservation of the Halakhic System and the Social Order</h3><div style="text-align: left;">In the Mishnah, the base text of the Talmud, tikkun ha'olam often refers to problems in divorce law. Specifically, it applies in cases where a man divorces his wife and attempts to change his mind, or where the <i>get</i> (divorce decree) might be technically invalid. If these cases were left unchecked, soon no one would know who was legally married and who was not, and the whole community would be disrupted. So, rabbis in the Talmud stated they could close the loopholes even where they didn't have explicit authority to do so. Why? For tikkun ha'olam, the greater good of having a legal system that worked for the community, and especially for the most vulnerable members of the community.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">Restoring Divine Perfection</h3><div style="text-align: left;">In the Lurianic Kabbalah, there is a notion that the process of creating the world went dramatically wrong, and that everything we see around us as reality is merely the shattered vessels that were supposed to make up one whole, unified Creation. In this conception, it is up to human beings, especially Jews, to lift up the shards and reunite them--and in some sense, reunite God, who is in exile with us in this imperfect world--through prayer and observing the commandments (including the ones to help the poor and to do justice, but also the ritual commandments about Shabbat, holidays, etc.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h2 style="text-align: left;">A Synthesis<br /></h2></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">I suggest a reimagining of <i>tikkun olam </i>that combines the four understandings of the term we have seen in tradtional text:<br /></div></blockquote><blockquote><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>the <i>Aleinu</i>'s concept of <i>tikkun</i> as the destruction of any impurities that impede the full manifestation of the divine presence; 2. the literalist midrashic understanding of <i>tikkun</i> as the establishment of a sustainable social order; 3. the rabbinic willingness to invoke<i> tikkun ha'olam </i>as a justification for changing laws likely to create chaos, and 4. the Lurianic belief that individual actions can affect the fate of the world as a whole. (38)<br /></li></ol></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p><br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-74289895483095072812022-09-20T09:07:00.001-04:002022-09-20T09:07:17.224-04:00A Christian Conundrum<p>Some Christians I've met appear to think the problem with Judaism is that we're stuck in "Old Testament" times. Some think the problem is that we're <i>not.</i></p><p>To some Christians, Jews are stuck in a world of commandments it's impossible to fulfill, and saddled with blood guilt for Adam and Eve's original sin. To their minds, both original and unoriginal sins put us in a state of impurity that we cannot expiate without the Temple and its animal sacrifices. (They have Jesus' sacrifice to do that for them; we do not.)</p><p>To some Christians, Jews have wilfully abandoned the "Mosaic Law" by adding on interpretations and practices we arrived at through rabbinic interpretation. To them, the Talmud and everything after it are illegitimate. They think we should be doing exactly what it says in the Torah, no more, no less.</p><p>Both of these perspectives are completely external to the Jewish tradition. Even terminology like "Mosaic Law," "Old Testament," "original sin," and even "sin" (the way they use the word) make no sense to my Jewish mind. But I understand how a Christian, from their own perspective, can hold one or the other of these mistaken and presumptuous views about Jews.</p><p>What I don't understand is how they can hold both at the same time! And some Christians do.<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-45149108170493775982022-06-23T12:17:00.001-04:002022-06-23T12:17:30.034-04:00Common Errors Made about Early Judaism<p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbhldmhU5IJSe5Rej8q4eH7-uXXO79Aa7sVwxW2HJUfKi3VoIp6FkC6unNboFbK7hzj10D0q7W6ScfuObMzl-8Ec3jSX6wauyqc6ZZmtrLiwAeK1TpschI0LT3LiNuFdpkY8mK8wbOXToTkLRAxSGdzHUzXcr0Th-of_n-LXj196yY9JNtjFLmu2-cA/s400/Jewish%20Annotated%20NT%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="265" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbhldmhU5IJSe5Rej8q4eH7-uXXO79Aa7sVwxW2HJUfKi3VoIp6FkC6unNboFbK7hzj10D0q7W6ScfuObMzl-8Ec3jSX6wauyqc6ZZmtrLiwAeK1TpschI0LT3LiNuFdpkY8mK8wbOXToTkLRAxSGdzHUzXcr0Th-of_n-LXj196yY9JNtjFLmu2-cA/s320/Jewish%20Annotated%20NT%20cover.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>If you are either Christian or Jewish (or have been influenced by people who are), then you should read <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13049091-the-jewish-annotated-new-testament" target="_blank">The Jewish Annotated New Testament</a>. If you can't spare the time to read the whole book, then read the essays at the end. <p></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">And if you can't read all the essays, for God's sake read "Bearing False Witness: Common Errors Made about Early Judaism," by co-editor Amy-Jill Levine.</p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">Levine is an Orthodox Jewish woman who has devoted her scholarly career to studying Jesus and Christianity. Her earlier book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216204.The_Misunderstood_Jew" target="_blank"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus</span></a><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743"> is a classic in the field. In other words, she knows whereof she speaks!</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">Here are ten misconceptions that Levine thinks both Jews and especially Christians have about Judaism circa the time of Jesus. They are not just trivial errors: they make it impossible to understand either Christianity or Judaism in context.</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743"><br /></span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">1. The contrast between Jewish "law" and Christian "grace" (and the belief that the "law" is impossible to fulfill). "In actuality," Levine points out, "Jews, then and now, did not find Torah observance any more burdensome than citizens in most countries find their country's law today."</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">2. The mistaken view of Judaism as religion of "works righteousness." Some Christians believe "Jews follow Torah in order to earn God's love or a place in heaven." But God's love is a given, a place in heaven is not a major Jewish concern, and that is <i>not </i>why Jews use Torah to guide their lives.</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">3. The erroneous idea that ritual purity laws were burdensome (see #1) and unjust. To Levine, this assumption makes a lot of Christian readings of the Good Samaritan and of Jesus healing a woman from hemorrhages go completely astray. By misunderstanding ritual purity and impurity, they miss the point of their own stories.<br /></span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">4. Related to #3, the idea that Jewish society at the time was uniquely misognynistic. Levine is a feminist, and she says that's nonsense. "Jewish women owned their own homes...served as patrons...appeared in the Temple... and in synagogues, had use of their own property...had freedom of travel...appear in public; and so on."</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">5. The counterfactual idea that Judaism permitted easy divorce, at the expense of women, when the marriage contract (<i>ketubah)</i> guarantees her right in the case of divorce, and guarantees them in advance.</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">6. Viewing sinners and tax collectors as "marginal" and "cast out" instead of as what they were: "people who violate the welfare of the community and who have deliberately removed themselves from the common good."</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">7. Ignoring Jesus' militant statements and Judaism's varied views of the messiah, from warrior-king to shepherd, in order to pretend Jesus was a pacifist and Jews rejected him for that reason.</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">8. The idea that Jews worshiped a distant, impersonal and completely transcendent God. Where, she implicitly asks, do you think Jesus got the idea that God is <i>abba</i>, Father?</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">9. The idea that the Temple hierarchy dominated and oppressed the population--when the Temple had more and more become the center of Jewish life in the Holy Land, and Jews loved going there.</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">10. The false dichotomy of exclusivism vs. universalism. Again, go back to the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, if you want to find the roots of universalism as a messianic ideal--and study what the texts actually say about interactions between Jews and Gentiles if you want to know what was going on at the time. When anyone states, as in Acts 10, that association between the two is against some law, they are blatantly misstating the historical truth.</span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743">Read Levine's essay for yourself and follow her references back to the sources to learn more.<br /></span></p><p class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;"><span id="freeTextContainerauthor126743"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="mainContentFloat"><div id="flashContainer"><div id="header_notice_container">
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<br /></div><h1 class="gr-h1 gr-h1--serif" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name"><br /></h1>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-65082252616231307592022-05-30T10:18:00.001-04:002024-01-07T09:39:32.734-05:00What Christians Ask Me about Leviticus<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWk_mLjBBjWSbcN6RyvYVkyrZ4eGHqT8MTJ--yuFaXhap23s3o27siSPCch5dktV_1Ide0opQlDHojDgkpEdBsWf5deDknWjea2hoUZOj4qv6EtHzecbD861T5JIOjSjVpC8S2wCheDARlvcyr63voYmPlyw9Lx2mM97DNkGEPipBHqcqi_voPdr-tQ/s351/Levitical_Family.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="351" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrWk_mLjBBjWSbcN6RyvYVkyrZ4eGHqT8MTJ--yuFaXhap23s3o27siSPCch5dktV_1Ide0opQlDHojDgkpEdBsWf5deDknWjea2hoUZOj4qv6EtHzecbD861T5JIOjSjVpC8S2wCheDARlvcyr63voYmPlyw9Lx2mM97DNkGEPipBHqcqi_voPdr-tQ/s320/Levitical_Family.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />In the yearly cycle of reading the Torah, Jews all over the world have just finished reading <i>Vayikra</i>, the middle book of the Five Books, known in the English-speaking world as Leviticus. Over the years, online, Christians and those raised in a Christian culture have posed a lot of questions about this book, often the same questions over and over. As a public service, let me post some answers.<p></p><p><b>What's a Levite?</b></p><p>Levi was one of the twelve sons of Jacob. Since Jacob was given the additional name Israel by God, the descendants of those twelve sons are called "the Children of Israel" or "Israelites." Each had many descendants, and they became the twelve tribes of Israel. (This is the same family that was earlier called Hebrews and that would later be called Jews. Levites are Jews.)</p><p><b>Why were the Levites special?</b></p><p>In the Torah, the tribe of Levi was put in charge of the portable sanctuary, the <i>Mishkan</i>. Specific families within the tribe had responsibility for different tasks involved in its upkeep (when it was in one place) and in its transportation (when the Israelites were on the move, a/k/a "wandering in the wilderness"). Later, when a stationary Temple was built in Jerusalem, they served there.<br /></p><p><b>What's the difference between a priest and a Levite?</b></p><p>All priests were Levites, but most Levites were temple attendants, not priests. <i>Kohanim</i>, the word we translate as "priest," means Aaron (the brother of Moses and Miriam), his sons, and their descendants. Obviously, they were all member of the tribe of Levi, and the rest of the Levites were their cousins. (Please note that a <i>kohen</i> was not like a Catholic priest: not celibate, not empowered to act on God's behalf, not involved in confession. The <i>kohanim</i> were specialists in sacrificial offerings and in keeping themselves in a state of ritual purity so they could properly make those offerings,)</p><p><b>Why is there a book called Leviticus?</b></p><p>Good question! In Jewish circles, it is called after the first word of the book, <i>Vayikra, "</i>and God called." That's the way all the books of the Torah are named. For instance, Exodus is called <i>Sh'mot</i>, "names," because it begins "These are the names...." (It would be silly to have a book called <i>These</i>!)</p><p>English-speakers usually call it Leviticus, from the Latin word that means "Levite stuff." A lot--but by no means all--of the book is instructions to the priest and Levites about how to do their jobs.</p><p><b>Are there still priests and Levites in Judaism today?</b></p><p>Yes, but they do not perform the same function as they used to.</p><p>Since the Second Temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in the year 70 CE, it has been impossible for priests and Levites to maintain a nonexistent building or to offer sacrifices there, and they are not allowed to do it anywhere else. Some Jews fervently hope for the day when the Temple will be rebuilt and the system of sacrifices will be restored. Others would rather not see it happen, because:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>One of the holiest sites in Islam now occupies part of the Temple Mount, and destroying it would be a terrible thing (and probably lead to war).</li><li>We don't see any reason for all those cattle, sheep, goats, and birds to get killed in order to praise God.</li><li>Both of the above.</li></ol><p>In many synagogues today, if a <i>kohen</i> is present he (or, in more liberal synagogues, she) will be the first one called up to the Torah during the service. A Levi will be the second one of the seven called up on Shabbat. This is a vestigial reminder of the roles they used to play.</p><p><b>If the Temple is destroyed and the priests and Levites can't offer sacrifices on our behalf, does that mean that all Jews are damned?</b></p><p>No! This is a complete misunderstanding and a self-serving fiction by Christians trying to claim that they have taken the place of Jews. Damnation is not a concept in Judaism. We do not have to be perfect to be loved by God. And animal sacrifices were never the only way to ask God for forgiveness. Already in biblical times, the prophet Hosea wrote:</p><p><b> </b><span class="verse"></span></p><blockquote>Take with you words, and come back to the Lord; say to
him, Let there be forgiveness for all wrongdoing, so that we may take
what is good, and give in payment the fruit of our lips. <a href="https://www.biblestudytools.com/hosea/14-2-compare.html">https://www.biblestudytools.com/hosea/14-2-compare.html</a><br /></blockquote><p>For the last 2000 years or so, we have had synagogue services that exactly correspond to the daily offerings in the Temple: evening, morning, afternoon, and additional offerings on Shabbat and holidays. That is to remind us (and perhaps, depending on your theology, God) that we continue our relationship with God under changed conditions.</p><p><b>So why should anyone study Leviticus today?</b></p><p>Well, I could hedge and say that there is a lot of content in the book that is not a technical manual for Levites. There are laws about social justice, like leaving the corners of your field for the poor and dispossessed to harvest by right, not charity. There is a holiday calendar. There are the basic laws of <i>kashrut</i>, the Jewish dietary laws. (The much-maligned Pharisees, who democratized the idea of holiness so that it didn't apply only to priests and Levites, elaborated on these laws so that the ordinary act of eating a meal could be like offering a daily sacrifice in the Temple.)</p><p><i><b>But let me say this straight out:</b></i> <b><i>it's worth studying Leviticus for its own sake.</i></b> </p><p>Simply reading it might not be worthwhile. Too many things are puzzling, meaningless, or abhorrent on first glance when we approach the text with a twenty-first century mindset and in the absence of deep, searching commentary. Fortunately, there's a two-thousand-year tradition of wrestling with the text, and when we become part of that tradition (and you don't have to be Jewish to do so!), we gain historical, political, ethical, and spiritual insights that might or might not be available elsewhere.</p><p>I am looking forward to reading Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's new commentary, <a href="The Hidden Order of Intimacy: Reflections on the Book of Leviticus" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58537835-the-hidden-order-of-intimacy. </a><br /></p><p></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-78096484328647398772021-10-24T15:39:00.002-04:002021-10-24T15:39:42.378-04:00From Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple & Rabbinic Judaism (Lawrence Schiffman)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387735775l/876137.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="314" height="475" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387735775l/876137.jpg" width="314" /></a></div>According to Jewish legend, the First Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BCE and the Second Temple in 70 CE, on the same day of the Jewish calendar. <p></p><p>We Jews mark that day, Tisha B'av, every year, in memory of the two destructions, as if nothing happened in between. </p><p>That elision is certainly consistent with how I learned Jewish history. In my education, there was a big blank between the return from the Babylonian Exile and the conquest of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus. </p><p>Only the Maccabean revolt was stuck in the middle (the way Chanukah is stuck in the middle between the fall holidays and Pesach in the spring).</p><p>For someone like me, then, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/876137.From_Text_to_Tradition_" target="_blank">From Text to Tradition : A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism</a> does a great service.</p><p>I picked up this book while I was taking part in a <a href="https://www.929.org.il/" target="_blank">929</a> daily discussion of the Tanach. We had reached the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and I was confused. Who were these people, and how did they relate to some of the figures I'd read about earlier in Zechariah (Zerubabel and Joshua ben Jehozadak)? Who were the Jews who never went into Babylonia? What were people from other countries doing in Judea now? And who were the Samaritans, and why was there (what seemed like) sibling rivalry between them and the Jewish leaders?</p><p>Schiffman clarifies many of these points and makes me want to learn even more about them. He goes on to talk about Jewish life during the age of Alexander the Great and his successors, especially the Ptolemies in Egypt and the Seleucids in Syria, not only in the holy land but all around the Middle East. In Judea itself, he briefly addresses the conflicts between high priests and Hasmonean monarchs (descendants of the Maccabees)--and among the members of the royal family themselves. </p><p>An aside: Why, I wonder, have there not been as many novels about the Hasmoneans as about the Tudors, or the Medici? The rivalry in the court of Salome Alexandra is certainly as dramatic as the politics under Elizabeth I. There is fertile ground here for fiction writers!</p><p>Schiffman purports to be writing a history of Judaism, not Jews, during this period. Repeatedly, however, he makes the point that you cannot understand how Jewish thought and practice evolved without paying attention to the social and political pressures that shaped it. </p><p>This seems especially true for the period just before the destruction of the Second Temple. Knowing what was going on between different "political parties" in Judea and their relations to Hellenism, to Roman rule, and to nations fighting against Rome (like the Parthians) is vital to understanding Jewish sects like the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, the people at Qumran, and the Jesus-followers who eventually became a separate religion. </p><p>There are some texts that were written by Jews that have played a more important part in Christianity and in historiography than in Judaism. These include the Septuagint, the apocrypha, the pseudepigrapha, the philosophy of Philo Judaeus, and the history written by Josephus. Schiffman explains that the Greek-speaking Jews of the diaspora might at one time have been familiar with these, but they increasingly were absorbed either into the Greek-speaking Christian world or into the Hebrew-speaking, Palestine-centered Jewish sphere. </p><p>Then he goes on to explain the texts that did become central to rabbinic Judaism (which with very few exceptions is Judaism as we know it today): the Mishnah, the baraita, the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds, the books of midrash.<br /></p><p>Whew! I see I cannot discuss this book without doing a lot of name-dropping. If you are not at all familiar with this history, perhaps Schiffman is not the best one to introduce you to it. </p><p>If you're in a similar place as I am however--very familiar with some of these people, places, and things and only vaguely familiar with others--then he may be a good teacher to put them together into a more complete picture.</p><p>I note, however, that this book was published thirty years ago, and the author was already hoping that recent discoveries and studies would fill out the picture more. If you know of a more up-to-date book that compares to this, would you please suggest it to me?<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-50283566831633311462021-07-05T11:40:00.000-04:002021-07-05T11:40:03.439-04:00Jewish Holy Day Calendar, 2021-22<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5nasxKZc8fuPVAyWl32ks6o4bJePles4MV9PNvQ0TyNso1yiu0fPPRwUw5P7UGVNe2ThBE1-sEnGBqaXBwV4xS_l5YN819BN8dbKg-M99nR1xr16CC9rQLCpTQV2ppGN95SZ3qfGIOBD/s640/shofar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5nasxKZc8fuPVAyWl32ks6o4bJePles4MV9PNvQ0TyNso1yiu0fPPRwUw5P7UGVNe2ThBE1-sEnGBqaXBwV4xS_l5YN819BN8dbKg-M99nR1xr16CC9rQLCpTQV2ppGN95SZ3qfGIOBD/s320/shofar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Here's a guide to scheduling around
the Jewish holy days that I thought you might find useful. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn't write it, only edited it slightly
and updated it each year, but I vouch for its accuracy.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Heading2Char"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Category
I. MOST JEWS PARTICIPATE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please do not schedule meetings around these
dates.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>ROSH HASHANAH</b> (Jewish New Year) begins at sunset Monday, September 6, 2021
and continues through Wednesday, September 8.<br />
<br />
<b>YOM KIPPUR</b> (Day of Repentance) begins at sunset on Wednesday, September 15,
2021 and continues through Thursday, September 16.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Yom Kippur is a fasting day, meals are
prepared in advance for the breaking of the fast at the end of 27 hours.<br />
<br />
Typically, even some of the least religiously observant members of the Jewish community do not work on Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah. Please keep in mind that even though the holy day may begin at sunset, these are home ritual centered holy days, so a great deal of advance preparation is required.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>In other words, please
don't schedule a meeting for the afternoon preceding the holiday because I will be cooking!</u><br />
<br />
<b>PASSOVER </b>(Celebration of Freedom from Slavery in Egypt) begins at sunset<br />
on Friday, April 15, 2022; continues through nightfall on Saturday, April 23. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>THE FIRST TWO DAYS (through Sunday evening, April
17, 2022) require refraining from work. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>LOTS of cooking and preparation <u>before</u>
this holy day.<br />
<br />
---------------<br />
</span><span class="Heading2Char"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Category
II. Many observant Jews refrain from work. I count myself as
observant.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>SUKKOT </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(Festival of Booths, or
Tabernacles)</span> begins at sunset Monday, September 20, 2021 and lasts through
Monday, September 27. THE FIRST TWO DAYS (through Wednesday, September
22, 2021) traditionally require abstaining from work.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
<b>SHMINI ATZERET</b> (Eighth Day Assembly, ending Sukkot) begins at sunset on Monday,
September 27, 2021 and lasts through Tuesday, September 28.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
<b>SIMCHAT TORAH </b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(Rejoicing with
the Torah)</span> begins at sunset on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 and lasts
through Wednesday, September 29.<br />
<br />
The <b>LAST TWO DAYS of PASSOVER</b> begin at sunset Thursday, April 21, 2022
and last through Saturday, April 23.<br />
<br />
<b>SHAVUOT</b> (Festival of Weeks, or Pentecost to our Christian friends) begins
at sunset on Saturday, June 4, 2022 and continues through Monday, June 6</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">TISHA B’AV </span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">(fast day
marking the destruction of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem) begins at sunset on
Saturday night, August 6, 2022 and continues through Sunday, August 7.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
-----------------<br />
</span><span class="Heading2Char"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Category III.
Observance doesn't require refraining from work.</span></span><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
HANUKKAH</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> (Festival of Lights) begins at sunset on Sunday, November 28,
2021 and<br />
continues through nightfall Monday, December 6. Every night, candles on
the<br />
Hanukkiah (eight-armed candelabra, sometimes called "menorah") are
lit.<br />
<br />
<b>PURIM</b> - Begins at sunset on Wednesday, March 16, 2022; continues through
Thursday, March 17.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
And a few other seasonal and historical holy days that I won't mention, because
enough already!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to know more
about the meaning of these holidays, you might consult </span><a href="http://www.jewfaq.org"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">www.jewfaq.org</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> or the book <i>Seasons of Our Joy</i>, by Arthur Waskow.<br />
<br />
[Dennis] A final note which I thought worth adding from my own experience: Even
if someone (who might be Jewish) tells you "It's no big deal" to
schedule meetings and<br />
conferences on these days, doesn't mean that that's true for all
Jews. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People maintain different
levels of observance, and a more secular Jew may work on a day when I would
not. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">When in doubt,
please ask!</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> I can't speak for other Jewish consultants, staff, board
members, and interns, but I know I always prefer to be asked.<br />
<br />
Thank you!</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></p>
Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-74407703188283930512021-03-11T13:50:00.003-05:002021-03-11T13:50:38.448-05:00Arguing with God is Sacred (Parshat VaYakhel-Pekudei)<p>In this week's parshah, the first one I ever chanted from the Torah scroll, there are two very different ideas about our dialogue with God. The first: that there are things we cannot figure out for ourselves and can only learn through being divinely inspired. The second: that we have some things to teach God, too.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">God Teaches Us </h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hreC7wtg7H4ziTZZ1_ZOhKQOWrc4y3X843LWOFU8c7cPALokU2q0tmFr6NFU0NaQbhfcG_JxK5SrWx4zD9wQ4dXqR2Euv_MkJ1npxwy0X8KV4UxvVofd33QBtHY0JsUwZ6MGmIlPq4CF/s860/bezalel+and+oholiav.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="860" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6hreC7wtg7H4ziTZZ1_ZOhKQOWrc4y3X843LWOFU8c7cPALokU2q0tmFr6NFU0NaQbhfcG_JxK5SrWx4zD9wQ4dXqR2Euv_MkJ1npxwy0X8KV4UxvVofd33QBtHY0JsUwZ6MGmIlPq4CF/w400-h200/bezalel+and+oholiav.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h3><p>"And Moses said to the Israelites: See, the Lord has singled out by name Bezalel, son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. He has endowed him with a divine spirit of skill, ability, and knowledge in every kind of designer's craft...." (Exodus 35: 30-31)</p><p>According to Avivah Zornberg, drawing on Rashi's commentary, the Hebrew words used here for "skill" (or "wisdom") and "ability" (or "understanding") are qualities a human being can possess innately or can learn. The word <i>da'at</i>, here translated as "knowledge," goes beyond that. It is an intimate kind of knowledge: in her words (p. 470), "the mystery of a gift that can be explained in no other way than as 'taught by God.'"</p><p>So, when Moses says that God has given <i>da'at </i>to Bezalel, it goes beyond conferring legitimacy on Bezalel's direction of the project of building the Mishkan (and let us not forget his assistant, Oholiav, because the #2 is often the person who makes everything work!). Moses allays the people's remaining fear that a building project--like the Golden Calf--that is not supervised moment to moment by Moses himself can lead them away from God, toward plague and death. </p><p>On this, first, reading, human initiatives can be dangerous, and only a "divine spirit" can lead us in the right direction. Our job is to listen.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">We (or at least, Moses) Have Something to Teach Too</h3><p style="text-align: left;">The link between the Golden Calf and the Mishkan has been implicit throughout the later chapters of Exodus. The midrashic commentary makes the link explicit. </p><p style="text-align: left;">One commentator marvels that the Israelites can be so generous both for a misguided effort and for a well-guided one. For the building of the Golden Calf, they tore off their gold earrings, and for the Mishkan, they brought so much gold and other gifts that Moses had to call the capital campaign to an end! (Exodus 36:4-7) "The Holy One, Blessed be God then said: 'Let the gold of the Mishkan atone for the gold they brought toward the making of the Golden Calf." (Shemot Rabbah 51: 6)</p><p style="text-align: left;">But did God reach this conclusion by God's self, or did God have a little help? In the midrashic literature, Moses makes a sly argument to drive God toward a position of forgiveness. I quote:</p><p style="text-align: left;">"R. Nehemiah said: When the Israelites committed that sin, Moses began to appease God. He said: 'Master of the universe, they have provided you with help, and You are angry with them! this calf that they have made will help you: You will make the sun rise and it will take care of the moon; You will bring forth the stars and it the planets...'</p><p style="text-align: left;">God answered: 'Moses! Are you, too misled like them! For there is nothing in the idol!' And Moses replied: 'If so, why are you angry with Your children?'"</p><p style="text-align: left;">Moses is saying to God, in effect--what do you have to complain about? We all know the Calf has no power. Given that, what is there to be jealous of?</p><p style="text-align: left;">It is with arguments like these--teasing, cajoling, intimate--that Moses time and again wins God's forgiveness for the people. And Moses is standing in the footsteps of the first father of the Jewish people, Abraham, who tries to save even the people of Sodom and Gomorrah by arguing with God on their behalf. His ultimate failure doesn't take away from the greatness of his example.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On this alternative reading, it would be folly, wickedness, a dereliction of duty for Jews to accept God's instructions passively. As <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/533868.God_in_Search_of_Man" target="_blank">Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel </a>wrote, God is "in search of Man." God seeks the active partnership of humanity in repairing and perfecting the world. If we make it worse through some of our actions, that is no excuse for not striving to make it better. <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">With our hands and our craft, or with our hearts and our words, we build the sacred in our lives.<br /></p><p><i></i></p><p>---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /></p><p>I've been reading through Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's amazing commentary on the biblical Book of Exodus, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201179.The_Particulars_of_Rapture" target="_blank"><i>The Particulars of Rapture.</i></a>
Each chapter expounds one of the portions we read in the synagogue
weekly. It's slow going because it is so rich with insights, and I cannot begin to do it justice. To keep on
track, I have been posting at least one insight weekly for the last ten weeks, and (thanks to God and my study partners) I have now finished the book. If these reflections have been interesting to you, my blog reader, so much the better!<br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-50369178046554094412021-03-07T09:19:00.159-05:002021-03-11T12:56:08.044-05:00Did Moses Do the Right Thing? (Parshat Ki Tisa)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibSdOkFW2zP_0DC0iXSMRv_R3IxY-rNxBNh78ani0icy0OI7PtoFII2Itb6da4PABeOzuPXikpYF8p9DDNAOBq5Q7oDv-SHNtE3wYzMMgdpbzH0xQ0Sq9-S7mAHb-V4ywGmwkuYFbMfyB5/s800/Moses+smashing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Moses Smashing The Tablets Of The Law by Rembrandt" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="534" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibSdOkFW2zP_0DC0iXSMRv_R3IxY-rNxBNh78ani0icy0OI7PtoFII2Itb6da4PABeOzuPXikpYF8p9DDNAOBq5Q7oDv-SHNtE3wYzMMgdpbzH0xQ0Sq9-S7mAHb-V4ywGmwkuYFbMfyB5/w268-h400/Moses+smashing.jpg" title="Moses Smashing The Tablets Of The Law by Rembrandt" width="268" /></a></div><br />This past week, I have been coming back over and over again to two images: Mookie throwing the trash can through the pizzeria window, in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097216/" target="_blank">Do the Right Thing</a>, and Moses smashing the tablets he brought down from Sinai, in the Torah portion Ki Tisa.<p></p><p>Mookie's action comes out of frustration with the continued wrongs being done to his Black community. It expresses his anger boiling over, and it leads to more destruction. Yet as I look at the scene, it seems to me that his violence against property prevents worse violence, against people. <br /></p><p>Moses' action also clearly comes out of frustration with the continued wrongs being done by his own people, the Jews. It expresses his anger, too: they have seen God plague the Egyptians for them, part the waters for them, and speak to them from the mountaintop in lightning and thunder, and they can't stand not hearing from God, through him, for forty days? </p><p>Not only are they worshiping God through a visible symbol (which was expressly forbidden), but they're dancing ecstatically while doing the wrong thing!<br /></p><p>Yet as I look at the scene, it seems to me that Moses is also identifying with the people. Perhaps even the apparent violence of smashing the tablet is a wake-up call, to snap them out of their trance. Certainly, whereas Moses used to speak for God to the people, now he starts speaking more to God on behalf of the people. He even tells God, in so many words, that he will stand with the people Israel and live or die with them.<br /></p><p>He also seems to be recognizing that the people's sins are partly his own fault. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">"That Man Moses..."</h3><p style="text-align: left;">What is the biggest lesson that Moses has been trying to teach the people, ever since Egypt? That God--the invisible One, with the unpronounceable name YHVH--is God.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Pharaoh is not God, even though he claims to be. The Nile is not God, even though it gives Egypt life by making the ground fertile and capable of growing food. The sea is not God, even though Yam, or Sea, is one of the gods worshiped in the Middle East at that time. YHVH, the real God, triumphs over them all.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">The most important lesson, however, is that Moses is not God. And they have failed to learn that lesson--which means he has failed to teach it.</h4><p style="text-align: left;">"And the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, and they gathered against Aaron and said to him, 'Come, make us a god who shall go before us, for that man Moses, who brought us up from the land of Egypt--we do not know what has happened to him." (Exodus 32:1)</p><p style="text-align: left;">Come again? Who was it that "brought us up from the land of Egypt"?</p><p style="text-align: left;">It may have been some comfort to Moses to know that this people, which did nothing but complain about him for most of the preceding chapters of the story, misses him so much they need to console themselves with a Golden Calf that stands in for him as their channel to God.</p><p style="text-align: left;">But oh, what a dismal realization of failure for Moses to know that they are "idolizing" him!</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">A New Pedagogical Approach</h3><p style="text-align: left;">From that point on, Moses approaches the Jewish people in a different way. No longer is he concerned to overawe them. Instead, he seeks to <i>instruct </i>them.</p><p style="text-align: left;"> * He grinds up the Golden Calf and, diluting it in water, makes them drink it. Thus, they literally internalize the memory of what they did wrong.</p><p style="text-align: left;">* He sets them to work on building the Mishkan, the physical location where they can turn for a sense of God's presence...at appropriate times. And he puts other people, skilled craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiav, in charge. That way, no one can say it only works because of Moses.</p><p style="text-align: left;">* He gives them <a href="https://dfischman.blogspot.com/2021/02/we-will-do-what-and-hear-what.html" target="_blank">more</a> instructions about Shabbat, holidays, sacrifices and offerings, what not to worship and what not to eat. This Torah--the <a href="https://dfischman.blogspot.com/2021/02/loving-words.html" target="_blank">word</a> literally means "instruction"--is what they are to study from now on.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Moses the prophet and lawgiver becomes <i>Moshe Rabbeinu</i>, "Moses our teacher." And that is a good thing. You might even say, the right thing. </p><p>---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /></p><p>I'm reading through Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's amazing commentary on the biblical Book of Exodus, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201179.The_Particulars_of_Rapture" target="_blank"><i>The Particulars of Rapture.</i></a>
Each chapter expounds one of the portions we read in the synagogue
weekly. It's slow going because it is so rich with insights. To keep on
track, I will post at least one insight weekly between now and
mid-March, when (God willing) I finish the book.
</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"> <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-44079438744100990522021-03-02T08:11:00.000-05:002021-03-02T08:11:21.699-05:00Quick thoughts on Moses, Aaron, Garments, and Parshat T'zavveh<p>Last week, my wife and I each worked hefty part-time jobs: figuring out how to place my mom, Faye Fischman, in a skilled nursing facility where she's likely to spend the rest of her life. So, I did not have the time or the brain cells to spare for writing an organized blog post. Here are some thoughts from reading last week's parshah with Zornberg's commentary:</p><p>1. I was talking about the parshah with my friend and study partner Lisa Andelman, and I said, "I am so much more like Aaron than Moses, and I'm glad. Moses has to stand up to the full weight of talking with God all the time, making it up as he goes along. It wears on him, and he gets angry with the people he's leading." <br /></p><p>"Aaron, as High Priest, has a defined role. He can innovate--there's a lovely midrash that says that every day for Aaron was like his first day on the job, and he approached it with that kind of freshness and enthusiasm! But he innovates within a structure. And Zornberg says the bells on his garments stand for the ecstasy he feels in the Holy of Holies, in direct contract with God, but the pomegranates stand for the fullness and fruitfulness of daily life in the material world. Aaron is the reconciler and the peacemaker."</p><p>But Lisa pointed out, "There's a way that I wouldn't want to be like Aaron. His children have to follow in his footsteps, whether or not they're capable of doing so, and regardless of whether it's the right thing for them. As a mother, I wouldn't want to put that on the shoulders of my children."</p><p>2. Literally on the shoulders of the priests are the precious stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes. They're carrying the weight of the nation on their shoulders--and they're carrying other representations of the Jewish people next to their hearts.</p><p>Garments are symbolic. When I was a teenager, my mother made a tallit for each of her children, by hand, embroidering on linen. (My father had the steadier hand with a pencil, so he sketched her design on the material and then she worked the needle and thread.) Recently, my beloved wife Rona Fischman repaired it for me, so all the lines look colorful and new.<br /></p><p>Because I am the oldest son, like Aaron, and because originally it was the first-born sons and not the tribe of Levi who were supposed to serve in the Mishkan, the design that my mother made for me includes those bells and pomegranates that Aaron wore. But it also includes the tablets that Moses brought, and the Tree of Life to which the Torah is compared. I cherish her wishes for me: leadership, service, life, and study.</p><p>3. I envy people who can praise God with the work of their hands, as my mother did.</p><p>---------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /></p><p>I'm reading through Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's amazing commentary on the biblical Book of Exodus, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201179.The_Particulars_of_Rapture" target="_blank"><i>The Particulars of Rapture.</i></a>
Each chapter expounds one of the portions we read in the synagogue
weekly. It's slow going because it is so rich with insights. To keep on
track, I will post at least one insight weekly between now and
mid-March, when (God willing) I finish the book.
</p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-39742119494227468262021-02-22T12:13:00.001-05:002021-03-02T07:47:49.451-05:00Letting God In: Parshat T'rumah<div class="separator"><p style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> <img alt="Terumah: I Love My Partner | Torah In Motion" class="detail__media__img-highres js-detail-img js-detail-img-high" height="417" src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.torahinmotion.org%2Fsites%2Ftorahinmotion.org%2Ffiles%2Fstyles%2Fblog_image_full%2Fpublic%2F59mishkan.jpg%3Fitok%3D2cgs-n77&f=1&nofb=1" style="display: block; height: 262px; width: 401.789px;" width="640" /></p></div><p> </p><p>When you long for God, what's the relationship between failing and succeeding? This past week's parshah, T'rumah, offers an answer.</p><p>"And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell [<i>shachanti]</i> among them. Exactly as I show you--the pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings--so shall you make it." (Exodus 25: 8-9)<br /></p><p>The Mishkan is what often gets called the Tabernacle, which (besides being a swear word in French!) is a wholly inadequate translation of an amazing concept. <i>Mishkan</i> is from the same root as <i>Shekhinah</i>, and that root means to be present, to dwell...even, to be a neighbor. </p><p>The Shekhinah is God's indwelling presence on Earth. The Mishkan is its mailing address.</p><p>But the people of Israel sent a letter to the wrong address before! <br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Golden Calves and Golden Earrings Cannot Mend This Love of Mine</h3><p style="text-align: left;">According to Rashi, the great medieval Biblical scholar, the story of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32) is out of chronological order in the text. It actually occurred <i>before</i> this week's instructions on how to build the Mishkan. In some ways, it's a failed attempt to do the same thing.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>Why did the Israelites build the Golden Calf?</b> </h4><p style="text-align: left;">Not because they had suddenly become idol worshippers! They didn't think God was the statue, or was captured in the statue. Rather, they build the Calf as a throne for God's presence to descend upon and live among them. </p><p style="text-align: left;">(Building, as my friends in #ParshaChat on Twitter have pointed out, is what Israelites do. In Egypt, they built entire store cities for Pharaoh. It's tribute, and it's putting their talents into action.)<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>And why did they need reassurance that God was in their midst? </b> </h4><p style="text-align: left;">Because after Sinai, they had been <a href="https://dfischman.blogspot.com/2021/02/loving-words.html" target="_blank">overawed by God's voice</a>, to the point where they implored Moses to listen to God for them and bring back the message. And at this point in the story, Moses had gone up Mount Sinai and hadn't been seen for forty days and forty nights (the biblical expresssion for "it seemed like forever").</p><p style="text-align: left;">So, on this reading, the Israelites built the Golden Calf out of the same longing for God that would later lead to their building the Mishkan. What's more they build it out of one of the key ingredients called for in this week's parshah: gold, taken out of Egypt. In their eagerness to feel God's presence among them, they rip off their gold earrings and tell Aaron to melt them down to make a place for God.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It doesn't work. It's a disaster. Moses, when he comes back down the mountain, ends up grinding the Golden Calf to powder and making them drink it--like a colonoscopy prep--to flush the impulse out of their system.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">No Calf, No Mishkan?</h3><p style="text-align: left;">Why does Rashi rearrange the order of the stories? It's not necessary: as Avivah Zornberg points out, other commentators like Nachmanides see the sequence in the text as just right. What's the point of saying that first the Israelites built the Calf and only later the Mishkan?</p><p style="text-align: left;">Sometimes, it seems, it's necessary to try what doesn't work in order to attempt what does.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Sometimes, we aim to slake our longings by having a Lover we can control, who will always be there for us even when we are not ecstatic about them. We build the image of our Lover out of our own imaginings and not what pleases them. But that is self-love, born of fear, and we grow up: we learn better.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A wonderful midrash says that when God commands "And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them," those words <i>among them</i> don't mean in the midst of the camp. The words mean in the midst of each person. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Building the Mishkan according to instructions means taking the same longing for God and fulfilling it in a way that doesn't try to keep God there, but rather, lets God in.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /></p><p>I'm reading through Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's amazing commentary on the biblical Book of Exodus, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201179.The_Particulars_of_Rapture" target="_blank"><i>The Particulars of Rapture.</i></a>
Each chapter expounds one of the portions we read in the synagogue
weekly. It's slow going because it is so rich with insights. To keep on
track, I will post at least one insight weekly between now and
mid-March, when (God willing) I finish the book.
</p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-24475287776617366772021-02-11T16:26:00.001-05:002022-01-25T08:09:40.126-05:00We will do what? And hear what?<p>One of the most famous quotations from the Torah comes up in this week's parshah, Mishpatim. Most of the parshah focuses on the follow-up to the Ten Commandments, the nitty-gritty of what God wants the Israelites to do in everyday life. Toward the end, though, we read in Exodus 24:7:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">Then he [Moses] took the record of the covenant and read it aloud to the people. And they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will faithfully do!" <br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The Hebrew here is <i>na'aseh v'nishma: </i>literally, "we will do and we will hear." You can see that the translation I quoted chose not to give us the word-for-word meaning, and I can't blame them. Because honestly, what does that mean, "We will do and we will hear"? And why in that order?</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Bring it on!</h3><div style="text-align: left;">One answer might be that the Israelites have heard the commandments and they're all fired up to do them. Hearing from God face to face at Mount Sinai just blew them away. If that was the end of the conversation...it might have been the end. </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">But hearing from Moses, in detail, how they could act from day to day in a way that pleased God--that excited them. It made them feel it was humanly possible.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">On this reading, "We will do" all of the commandments given us in parshat Mishpatim. But is that all? Does God want more from us? We're ready for more: "we will hear" whatever God still wants to require from us. Bring it on!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;">We've been doing what good people do. We want to do what good Jews do.</h3><p style="text-align: left;">Rashi, the great medieval commentator, interprets Exodus 24 in a surprisingly different way. He says it's out of chronological order and that it actually happened <b><i>before</i></b> the revelation at Sinai. </p><p style="text-align: left;">In that case, what covenant did Moses read to the people? His answer: the books of Genesis and Exodus, up to that present day. And what covenant? The Noachide Laws that (according to Jewish tradition) apply to all human beings, Jewish or not. (This is the Jewish idea of Natural Law, by the way: deduced not by logic but from the text!)</p><p style="text-align: left;">So, on Rashi's reading, <i>na'aseh </i>means that we will keep on doing those things that were a normal part of being a decent person before. <i>V'nishma </i>means that we, the Jewish people, will do those things that make us distinctive, too, which are just about to be revealed to us at Sinai, in last week's parshah and in this.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">First we commit, then we understand.</h3><div style="text-align: left;">There's yet one more reading, and this one appeals to me. Imagine that Rashi is right, and the conversation between Moses and the people takes place before they stand at Sinai, not after. Then "We will do" is a pledge for an uncertain future. Before we hear what God wants us to do, we commit to the relationship with God. Only then are we in the right state of mind to hear and appreciate it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What's more, "we will hear" is not a one-time event. As history goes on, we will continue to hear the word--by studying Torah in light of current circumstances and hearing what it has to command us today.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Whenever Jews gather in synagogue on a Saturday morning and chant the weekly portion from the Torah scroll, one by one, seven of us come up to say a blessing. That blessing thanks God "who gave us God's Torah and also "who gives the Torah." Right here, right now. Because a committed people cannot let the words lie on the page. Over and over, we must find new ways to understand.<br /></div></div><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br /></p><p>I'm reading through Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's amazing commentary on the biblical Book of Exodus, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201179.The_Particulars_of_Rapture" target="_blank"><i>The Particulars of Rapture.</i></a>
Each chapter expounds one of the portions we read in the synagogue
weekly. It's slow going because it is so rich with insights. To keep on
track, I will post at least one insight weekly between now and
mid-March, when (God willing) I finish the book.
</p></div>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-22701809847757336212021-02-07T09:13:00.000-05:002021-02-07T09:13:25.993-05:00Loving Words<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBFNCltK0dNRfzGwRA2f8tibS9ojWU1g2C-13jKHpcg1XmTyUdctSwWP5xqBcT9CyfVGyqQFUqAEIZ8vPAkYN6lO6mf8R_XL4aqNoJ3mg_AfQ8amjm_MlAexw4BgkktaUuqojQ7NlKYxBh/s500/torah+sinai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="500" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBFNCltK0dNRfzGwRA2f8tibS9ojWU1g2C-13jKHpcg1XmTyUdctSwWP5xqBcT9CyfVGyqQFUqAEIZ8vPAkYN6lO6mf8R_XL4aqNoJ3mg_AfQ8amjm_MlAexw4BgkktaUuqojQ7NlKYxBh/w400-h240/torah+sinai.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p>When the Israelites stand before Mount Sinai, in Parshat Yitro, they are attracted and repelled by God's word.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Attracted <br /></h2><p>"All the people answered as one, saying, 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do!' And Moses brought back the people's words to the Lord." (Exodus 19:8)</p><p>It is very strange that the people are so bold, so willing, so eager to be overcome by God's commandments that they send Moses back to accept God's proposal right away. Previously, they doubted Moses. Previously, even in the face of miraculous displays of power, they doubted God. And they will again. </p><p>But in this moment, the Jewish people as a whole commit themselves: not to the commandments, which they have not heard yet, but to the relationship. "Now then, if you will obey me faithfully [literally: listen, listen to my voice!] and keep my covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples." </p><p>God speaks words of love to us, we listen, and we fall in love with God.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Repelled</h2><p style="text-align: left;">But when the Israelites get to the foot of the mountain and they hear God's voice, they cannot stand it.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Literally "cannot stand," according to a couple of midrashic interpretations that Avivah Zornberg cites. </p><p style="text-align: left;">One midrash says that the sound of God's voice actually kills the Jews, and it is only the words of Torah that revive them. (I wryly note how this is the opposite of Christian teaching: it is the Spirit that kills, and the Letter that brings life.)</p><p style="text-align: left;">Another reading (Rashi on Exodus 20:15), says they cannot stand in place, and "they recoiled twelve miles to the rear--the whole length of their camp--and the ministering angels came and helped to restore them to their place." (Zornberg, p. 263)</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Longing and running away <br /></h2><p style="text-align: left;">And what is it that overpowers them? Another famous midrash answers: they could not stand to hear the entire Decalogue, because God's voice was too much for them. Hearing God say "I" threw them into an abnormal state. Some say they could not hear the whole word<i> anokhi, </i>"I"--only its first letter, <i>aleph</i>. But the aleph is silent!</p><p style="text-align: left;">God's attention to us is overwhelming. We long for it, and we cannot stand it. We say. "All that the Lord has spoken we will do," but God parts God's lips and we begin to quake.<br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">On this midrashic reading, God speaks to us and we must run away, like in the Song of Songs: "I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had turned away, and was gone. My soul failed me when he spoke."</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Loving God's Words</h2><div style="text-align: left;">What can we do? From Sinai to the present day, the Jewish people are madly, passionately in love with God, but (except for Moses) we cannot listen directly to God's voice. We cannot live without it. We cannot live with it. What can we do?<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>We listen to God's words, instead.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The very next week after we read the story of standing at Sinai, in Parshat Yitro, we read the many detailed instructions on how to live, in Parshat Mishpatim. </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;">We turn from what Zornberg would call "rapture" to what she would call "particulars."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We listen to Moses listening to God and telling us the story of what God said.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is how Judaism as we know it came to be: through a sacred obsession with the meaning of God's words, as written in the rest of the book of Exodus and in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, too, until Moses dies. Yes, Judaism has always included mystical experiences as well, but they are not necessary and not desirable for most people, most of the time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Language</i> is the Jewish love language.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div><div style="text-align: left;"><p>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br /></p><p>I'm reading through Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's amazing commentary on the biblical Book of Exodus, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201179.The_Particulars_of_Rapture" target="_blank"><i>The Particulars of Rapture.</i></a>
Each chapter expounds one of the portions we read in the synagogue
weekly. It's slow going because it is so rich with insights. To keep on
track, I will post at least one insight weekly between now and
mid-March, when (God willing) I finish the book.
</p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p><br /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3201163607379110048.post-9917854056827032322021-02-02T10:32:00.003-05:002021-02-02T10:33:16.367-05:00The Bigger Miracle (Postscript on Parshat Beshalach)<p>A couple of months ago, it was Chanukah, and we learned that the bigger miracle in the time of the Maccabees was not that the oil in the menorah lasted for eight days when it was physically only enough to last for one. </p><p>No: the bigger miracle was that someone had the courage and the faith to light it, that first day.</p><p>Now, we have just read Shirat ha-Yam, the Song at the Sea. The bigger miracle was not that the waters split open and the Israelites walked through dry-shod, nor (God forbid!) that the Egyptians drowned. The bigger miracle was that someone (Nachshon ben Aminadab, may he be remembered for good) had the courage and the faith to take that first step into the sea, before the waters parted.</p><p>I am not Nachshon. I am not a Maccabee. For better and for worse, I think about things before I do them, and if I cannot see a way that rationally leads to success, or even survival, then I choose another course of action.</p><p>But my prayer is that when someone takes that first step and the waters split, then I can be one who encourages the crowd to move together, as a group. Singing.</p><p><img alt="See the source image" aria-label="See the source image" class=" nofocus" data-bm="5" height="448" src="https://th.bing.com/th/id/R09b5e5680a117cec425d5ce241813c8e?rik=oFK0j2w7zWlllQ&riu=http%3a%2f%2fhowtoletgoandletgod.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2014%2f01%2fredsea.jpg&ehk=uVYHoLpRLdWc2eL03FqMSRkmH8kEuoJ%2bQ5mSD%2bvpRI0%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw" tabindex="0" width="640" /></p>Dennis Fischmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15268535837971147730noreply@blogger.com0