Rosh Chodesh Elul, Day 2. I forgot you only start blowing the shofar and reciting Psalm 27 on the 2nd day of Rosh Chodesh, which is today. We did, this morning. I'm psyched.
Last year I mentioned (a bit late)
a wonderful commentary on Psalm 27 which can be used as a guide to
self-examination during the month of Ellul. You don't have to be Jewish, or even religious, to find this moving and useful. Read the whole thing and bookmark it.
The Psalms are the earliest prayerbook of the People Israel. Its offerings, which combine the best of poetry, petition, and song, have survived the ages because of their depth of meaning and spiritual artistry. They continue to speak to us but it grows more difficult to hear their message, the more separated we are by time, culture, and language. When we come to understand them, however, they take on a magical power because they allow us to articulate thoughts which we often find difficult to say ourselves.
I find the psalms exquisitely powerful and valuable. I want to share that transforming power with you. What I have written here is a commentary/guide to the Twenty-seventh Psalm, which is added to the evening and morning liturgy from Rosh Chodesh Elul through Hoshanah Rabbah. I have divided Psalm 27 into four sections with the thought in mind that you might like to concentrate on one section during each of the four weeks of Elul, as you prepare for your own teshuvah. I have correlated these four sections to four steps of repentance. The Rambam [Moses Maimonides, 12th century] wrote in his Hilkhot Teshuvah (Laws of Repentance) of three steps: Regret, Rejection, and Resolution. I have added one more, which I place first: Responsibility.
We are now in Week One of Elul -
the theme is Responsibility.UPDATE:
Wednesday night there was a 2-hr. wait to get to the three telescopes on the roof of Pupin Hall, but the lines were much shorter last night and the sky was clearer too. Unfortunately various tall buildings in the vicinity were sending up heat waves from their rooftop A/C units, so Mars was only intermittantly clear. But I did get to see the polar ice cap and even a few criss-crossy lines on the surface.
Jews in odd places: Kurdistan: Not exactly. These are Kurdish Jews, but in Israel. About 150,000 of them.
And they have the
Israeli Kurdish Friendship League and its Kurdish cultural center.
Moti Zaken has written on their website about Israeli Jewish Kurds (there are so many ways to describe them, I love it!) who are
visiting their homelands.
I'm not certain exactly what to make of this group, but it certainly gets diaspora Israeli Kurds involved in affairs in primeval Kurdistan...
Jews in odd places: Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of sub-Saharan Africa, has rapidly become a basket case in recent years under the murderous regime of President Robert Mugabe. The Jewish community, once a thriving presence in Zimbabwe, is under threat as the country's political crisis hits closer to home. The republic had a Jewish population estimated at 8,000 in the 1960s; thanks to mass emigration during Mugabe's reign, only about 650 remain. While still relatively better off than the majority of the population,
the Jewish community is likewise struggling to maintain itself and faces a bleak and uncertain future.
". . . asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu lishmoah kol shofar." My
one-year blogiversary was August 9 in the Gregorian calendar, but
the first of Ellul in the Jewish calendar, which begins tonight this year (The Jewish calendar
added a leap-month this year, which pushed everything back about three weeks relative to the Gregorian calendar). I've got some links and comments about this special day in
that first post. Tonight I hope to be
looking at Mars through a telescope, and early tomorrow morning I plan to usher in my
yearly Ellul cheshbon hanefesh with
hearing the shofar for the first time this year, and
singing Hallel (just about my favorite liturgical activity, since there are
so many great melodies for these psalms, and it's an amazing group high).
August. How are French Jews handling the heat? Their community goes on vacation in August, too.
". . . the rabbis are all away on holiday, and they haven't left replacements," he said. "Outside of Paris it's even worse. There's nobody around in Orleans and Tours, and people are dying." As for the ritual cleansing of the bodies after death, known as taharah, B'Chiri said the Consistoire was coping, "but there's nobody around to say Sh'ma Yisrael, or light candles."
The Consistoire may have to call rabbis back from vacation, B'Chiri said. "What can you do when the Consistoire itself has practically shut down for the summer?" . . . An operator at the United Jewish Social Funds, the umbrella welfare and educational organization of French Jews, said, "There's virtually no one here." At L'Ose Medical, one of the oldest Jewish medical institutions in Paris, a recorded message said the building was closed until today.
The Passion, cont. A few more developments in
the controversy I have been
following about Mel Gibson's cinematic
passion play.First of all,
this is not a good idea. As I have
said before, restrictions on speech will always rear back and bite you on the ass. And make you look small and desperate too.
One of the scholars on the interfaith panel which criticized the script claims that media coverage of the controversy was itself antisemitic; for example, she cites examples of news stories which ignored the voiced concerns of Catholic clergy and scholars, implying that only Jews objected to the script. But the panel
was convened by officers of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization. The majority of its members were Roman Catholic (including two priests and a nun). Our 18-page report to Mr. Gibson included a section on Vatican teachings regarding Jews and Judaism.
The President of the National Association of Evangelicals -
who said Jewish criticism of the movie might endanger evangelical support for Israel -
didn't deny that the Jews are portrayed unflatteringly. "But I am hyper-sensitive to anti-Semitism and things like that, and when I realized there was a controversy, I was surprised. I didn't see anything in the movie that was different, content-wise, than the passion plays I've watched all my life, or the Jesus movies I've watched all my life."
Right. Well, that's the point we are trying to make, Mr. Haggard. (Haggard later re-affirmed his organization's support of Israel:
After initially standing by his remarks in a phone interview Tuesday, Haggard called back Interfaith Affairs later in the day with a clarification: “I clearly want to say our love for Israel and Jewish people and their concerns is unconditional.”)
The good news is that Gibson
is starting to get the message.There has been some
skepticism about the violence that could result from the vivid rejuvenation of antisemitic stereotypes. We're all more civilized than that here, right?
A survey. . . asked respondents if they thought that "the Jews were primarily responsible for the killing of Jesus Christ." The result: 37 percent agreed, 47 percent disagreed, and 16 percent said they did not know. I doubt these same people would agree that "the Christians" killed Martin Luther King, Jr., or that "the Black Muslims" killed Malcolm X.
New Testament scholar Paula Fredricksen was more concerned about what happens when the movie is released globally:
I shudder to think how The Passion will play once its subtitles shift from English to Polish, or Spanish, or French, or Russian. When violence breaks out, Mel Gibson will have a much higher authority than professors and bishops to answer to.
In the face of
fertile ground for pogroms such as this, is Fredricksen's concern so unreasonable?
The existential Jewish dilemma is: At what point do you say: "Hey, better keep an eye on this stuff"? At what point are you crying wolf? Let's remember that most people thought the idea of Nazi death camps was fantastical right up until 1945 when the photos starting coming out. The slow erosion of rights and the dehumanization of German Jews through the 1930s
was like slowly boiling a frog. When you are in the middle of a social phenomenon - especially with the recent memory of a horrible cataclysm which perhaps could have been ameliorated if enough attention had been paid at the time -
you can't tell. 20-20 hindsight is a wonderful luxury for those outside this existential dilemma. If we are wrong to raise the alarm, their lives and the perpetuation of their culture will not be affected. At least,
they think it won't.UPDATE: The ADL
points out that Mel is a bit selective in his concerns about confidentiality agreements: he doesn't seem to have a problem with some groups spreading details about the film to the media, as long as they are praising it.
Bookmark this. Incredible pages of URLs on
Judaism and
Biblical studies. (via the excellent archeology blog,
Paleojudaica)
Jews in odd places: Argentina: At last, the exodus to Israel may be slowing. A record 6,325 Argentine Jews made aliyah last year. More than 2,600 did so during the first half of the year.
But
this year, only 485 made aliyah during the same period.
The reason, experts say, is the expectation that financial conditions may improve in Argentina, a country that may be emerging from nearly two years of economic free fall.
Jews in sports: Al Levine, Kansas City Royals:
When the Kansas City Royals picked up relief pitcher Al Levine from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays ... manager Tony Pena probably didn't realize he was bringing aboard the third Jewish player in Royals history.
Pena caught Levine when both were players with the Chicago White Sox in 1996. At that time, Pena was at the end of a long and distinguished career and Levine was a rookie. This year, as Royals manager, Pena coveted the 35-year-old right-hander's slider and made him the third recent addition to the Royals bullpen, following Curtis Leskanic and Graeme Lloyd.
Levine (pronounced with a long "I") said in an interview Sunday he was happy to get the news, going from a last-place team to one in first place and a pennant race.
("Jewish Royalty," by Rick Hellman, Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, Aug. 8, 2003)
This week's Pintele Yid recommendation - For our gentile friends and Jews who want to rediscover their heritage - recommending quintessentially Jewish cultural works (books, TV specials, CDs, Torah teachers, poets, websites, and more) which transport you inside a Jewish skin and show you the world through Jewish eyes.
Last week's recommendation.Week 7 recommendation.Week 6 recommendation.Week 5 recommendation.Week 4 recommendation.Week 3 recommendation.Week 2 recommendation.Introduction to the series and first recommendation.Tuning the Soul, Richard Kaplan and Michael Zeigler.
Life of the Worlds, Richard Kaplan.
Let's take another break from text. A professional cantor with a mellow tenor voice,
Richard Kaplan collects little-known Jewish liturgical works from both Mizrachi and Ashkenazi sources and continues the venerable tradition of fitting liturgy to folk melodies from the Carpathians to Afganistan.
Tuning the Soul provides a superb antidote to the mediocrity of syrupy or campy American Jewish music and a great way to get back into the sheer power of our traditional music. We are both a European and Middle Eastern people and we can truly feel it here!
I took a song workshop with Richard two years ago - very fun. He's got a 4-octave range, plays funky jazz-blues piano, and gives over a lot of insight into the spiritual purposes of the music as well as teaching with lots of enthusiasm and musicality.
You can sample and buy Richard's music
at his website, and if you happen to be in the Bay Area, stop by the monthly
Shir ha Shirim minyan, conducted by Kaplan and Rabbi Michael Ziegler (who shares the vocals on
Tuning the Soul). Although I haven't visited Shir haShirim, I have participated in a weekday maariv and a Shabbat morning service led by Richard, so I feel confident in saying that it's not your father's minyan, but it's not flaky either. Check it out.
Stupid blog war, Part II. A few months ago I got
my first piece of hate email. Today I got my first experience of
character assassination by blog. It's a doozy - unfortunately it confirms
my worst apprehensions. What a shame. (Lynn
thinks so too.)
Since Dean finally links to the posts I wrote in response to him, you can follow everything from his blog. Except for one item: He says that I have
the audacity to claim that Christianity is "profoundly anti-semitic" simply because it views Jewish scripture as incomplete. Which is just about the most hateful thing I've ever heard a Jew say about Christians.
Then he links to an obscure comment I wrote in the midst of a related discussion on Winds of Change.
First of all, that's not quite what I said, as anyone can determine for themselves by following the link. Second of all, I didn't say anything particularly audacious or hateful, or unheard-of.
Replacement theology is notoriously problematic, and Jews and Christians
have been dialoguing for years about
that and other anti-Jewish aspects of the Gospels. Finally, I have
written plenty about Judaism and Christianity
on this blog, and - although Dean probably doesn't agree with my point of view - my views are a bit more nuanced than his latest straw man.
I think it's wonderful that Dean and Rosemary made a large donation to MDA - I am grateful for anyone's support of Israel! But I'm not sure how the this is relevant to our disagreements. I assume their support of Israel comes from heartfelt and carefully thought out reasons of their own, which are not dependent on my agreement with their views on feminism, Christianity, or anything else. They shouldn't be, anyway. I am not obligated to keep quiet about other topics where we disagree just because the Esmays and I support the same cause, just as I am
not obligated to do so for these folks. But it's time to move on.
