Happy Purim?! 2023

 Happy Purim?!

Here comes Purim.

It’s Thursday night in Tel Aviv (the holiday begins Monday night).  The moon is getting full.  Purim and Pesach are full moon holidays – occurring in the middle of the Hebrew month – as opposed to new moon holidays (Rosh Chodesh, Rosh Hashanah).  Jupiter and Venus are lined up like a couple of drones closely observing us – a particularly Israeli feeling, since we gather at least weekly by the tens and/or hundreds of thousands to protest the maybe insane or just unhinged for other reasons government, and are accustomed to looking up to see drones taking those fabulous pictures of us gathered together AND spreading around Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and many other cities here.

Purim has never really been a favorite holiday of mine, although it has been very much part of my life.  The mitzvah is to hear the megillah.  It was my professional obligation for almost 40 years to bring merriment to my congregation and community – and I did it with a full heart (including dozens of Purimspiels written and performed with many others, including a blessed contingent of Tifereth Israel loyalists still at it!) , but there are ways that I always had to force myself.

I needed to arrange for Megillah readers – reading some myself and parceling out parts to others.  The chanting of Megillah is truthfully one of our ugliest musical behaviors.  A huge irony in our Ashkenazic musical heritage is that the cantillation of Megillat Esther and Eichah – the lamentations of Tisha B’Av – are both related and entirely opposed to each other.  There are aspects of the ta’amim (tropes) that are shared.  Yet at the same time, we manage totally opposite feelings:  The destruction of the Temple recounted in Eichah has the melody that is the most affecting and beautiful of our tropal cantillations, providing salve on the wounds of our defeat and devastation.  By contrast, the jokey story of Esther is the ugliest of our musics, to be told/sung quickly.  Why?  Choose or mix together:  1) We need to get through this quickly because there are lots of children around and nobody has patience for this story carefully told.  2) It’s a raucous night with lots of alcohol flowing.  3) We’re uncomfortable with the feeling of a story where we’re the victors; not sure what to make of it:  so much of our history has been about suffering and challenge.   4) We’re hoping that you won’t pay attention to the late chapters of the story where we take vengeance on our enemies and kill tens of thousands of them.  (Please don’t mention this to the children.)

This year more than ever before, I think we need to be honest about the ugliness of that vengeance.

We are less than a week from an almost unimaginable pogrom visited on the residents of a Palestinian town – Hawara – by nearby “settlers.”  What’s worse is that it is in NO way surprising.  It is the logical outcome of our current constellation of hateful, self-righteous, violent arsonists who have been brought deeply within the obscene cloak that is Benjamin Netanyahu.  He is a remarkable phenomenon.  Every time you see him, he descends to a lower rung of depravity and dishonesty.  Just when you think he (or anyone) couldn’t get any worse, he amazes you.

This is in part because although HE brought THEM into his governing circle (and it didn’t seem to be necessary), they are really his masters now.  The Smotriches and the Ben G’virs who shouldn’t even have been allowed into the Knesset – even to run for office – are the masters of our destiny – unless we are able to shake free of them.

Back to Hawara. . . What happened there?  On Sunday, 2 Israeli brothers were murdered on the road that passes through there.  Although many roads have been built and many provisions have been made to “keep the settlers safe” as they pass from their (often stolen) lands from one place to another and in and out of the West Bank (what they call Judea and Samaria), there are places where they need to travel on public roads. 

Given the number of incursions into Palestinian areas during the current administration as well as during the previous government to attempt to root out accused terrorists, it was completely predictable that violence would befall Israeli Jews at the hands of Palestinians.  I’m not justifying it – but I AM placing blame on Netanyahu and especially Smotrich and Ben G’vir who do everything possible to stir up confrontations so that they can justify taking further dramatic and violent actions against Palestinians anywhere and everywhere.  (Unfortunately for them, the Palestinians are so week now that there has been little response from Gaza – a few rockets “well responded to” by the IDF.  Ben G’vir would be much happier to start a full-scale war that would justify wiping out the Palestinians.  Never mind the human cost to us.  Nothing beats humiliating and killing Palestinians for the likes of him.)

So the murder of these 2 young Israelis (Hillel and Yaakov Yaniv, may their memories be for blessing) was followed by a large group of settlers – over a hundred --  invading the town, burning homes, cars, injuring almost 100 Palestinians.  How did they get past the members of the IDF who are supposed to protect both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs?  They pretty much ALWAYS get past the IDF.  This tends to work one way:  settlers break through.  The Army reacts slowly or not at all.  The number of times that this has happened is beyond the capacity to count or report – especially because the “system” makes it virtually impossible for Palestinians to be heard and protected.

But THAT wasn’t enough.  “Finance Minister” Smotrich said Wednesday that “the village of Hawara needs to be wiped out.  I think that the State of Israel needs to do that – not, God forbid, private individuals.”  Of course, the second part of that statement is just a pathetic smokescreen for the fact that he has already set so many violent acts into motion (notwithstanding the fact that the idea of wiping out the village by the Government is a ridiculous and despicable notion).

But THAT wasn’t enough.  As the demonstrations against the judicial coup being attempted by Netanyahu and Yariv Levin and Simcha Rothman continue – now in their 8^th or 9^th week and having risen from an original 20,000 in Tel Aviv to hundreds of thousands throughout the country – the “how low can you go” Prime Minister managed yesterday to equate the demonstrators in the center of Tel Aviv seeking to stop traffic in and through the city with the violent settlers, the Jewish terrorists who carried out the pogrom in Hawara.  In fact, he has been outrageously critical of those demonstrating against his coup, calling us anarchists and traitors funded by foreign entities and, with the constant fire-setting actions and words of Ben G’vir, has created violent confrontations by the police against protesters.  Yesterday’s encounters included violent police responses to claimed violence by protesters that really didn’t occur, but some police leaders may have been seeking to decrease the pressure they feel from Ben G’vir.  Generally, the police get very high marks – so far – in understanding that they are here to protect all of us – including demonstrators exercising their right – a difficult and complicated task that really irritates Ben G’vir and Netanyahu – who has said quite publicly that he wants to give lawmakers “a fist to strike” the protesters.”

The good news – maybe – is that the country itself is so far holding together despite the attempts of the Prime Minister and his henchmen/handlers to burn it all down.

Tens and hundreds of thousands of Israelis are coming out weekly – sometimes more often – and we are (so far) peaceful and hopeful to save what is most important to the nation that is but 74 years old.  It is far from a perfect place – and there are many trying issues – especially relating to the Palestinians and their place here – that need to go even behind the “back burner” while we try to deal with the attempted dismantling of the judicial system by people who are all too happy to burn EVERYTHING down from inside the Knesset.

All this because Benjamin Netanyahu will do ANYTHING to try to save himself from the trials that will probably never finish.  He was once an admired and seemingly respectable leader – but that was so long ago, and his litany of self-serving and state-destroying behaviors is so comprehensive that it is at best a distant memory.

Any hope that I had that he would moderate himself or the forces around him because he had an eye to what history would say has been swept far from reality or imagination.

Ah well. . . . remember. . . . Purim?!  Remember what I said about us being uncomfortable with the later chapters of Megillat Esther?  Here’s the thing (or A thing): Since the destruction of the Temple, we’ve had about 2000 years of practice being subject to the whims of others.  And we have 1) 74 years of practice at being in charge in our own place – and  2) 50+ years of practice being in charge of others (after the Six Day War of 1967).  And those challenges have been exacerbated by the cancer of the Occupation, wherein we hoped “the Palestinians would come to their senses” and we offered them everything they needed to move forward to create the Palestinian State we weren’t sure we could manage to live with, and they walked away from it.  In the meantime, while we twiddled our thumbs, the settlers hatched a plan that has now come to such fruition that it might just destroy the whole State:  Remember how we said “we just can’t deal with these Palestinians (some of) who(m) say that “the river to the sea all belong to me?”  Well, GUESS WHO BELIEVES THAT NOW?!

Something that eats away deeply at my soul:  Who ALWAYS believed we would take it all?  Or when did that come to be something they began to believe in?  Why didn’t we stop them?  Why did we allow the zealots to take over?  How many years did we go along saying, regarding violence by settlers against Palestinians, “it’s just a few bad apples?”  Was it the plan all along? 

Beginning of the miracle – Beginning of the debacle. 

In the Megillah, it is understood (although God’s name doesn’t APPEAR in the Megillah – so we write Megillot with “Hamelech” as the first word in every page so that “Hamelech – The King – God” is looking over the story, though Hamelech in the Megillah is of course Ahasuerus) that the miracle (of God’s intervention?) begins “balailah hahu” – in the night when Ahasuerus can’t sleep.  And the Chronicles of Paras are brought to him and he hears about the good act of Mordecai. . . chooses to honor him and make Haman do it, and then things get much worse for Haman.

The beginning of the debacle we’re experiencing here was in some ways on Purim in 1994 when Baruch Goldstein SOUGHT TO BRING ABOUT THE “TRUTH” OF THE LATE CHAPTERS OF MEGILLAT ESTHER when he killed 29 and injured 125 Palestinians in a mosque in Hebron.  He was killed by those who apprehended him – but some – INCLUDING SMOTRICH AND BEN G’VIR and too many others – considered him a HERO.  And his grave was a PILGRIMAGE place until saner minds intervened.  But there are many  places where he is loved for his murderous acts to this day.  THAT is perhaps the “original sin” – and our failure to keep these people out of civic life and the Knesset and the Ministries of our Government – that has brought us to this pretty horrible day in this pretty great place – if we can save it.

So what will happen “balailah hahu” – in those nights between now and Purim?  Between this Purim and next Purim?  Next Purim will be 30 years from the hillul hashem – desecration of God’s name – that was Baruch Goldstein – and is Smotrich and Ben G’vir and too many others – and that is, to a great extent Benjamin Netanyahu, who has blood on his hands for the 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and has the temerity to complain about how he and his family are endangered by people in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and Modiin and Haifa and Ra’anana and even Gush Etzion – peaceful people seeking to save their country from him and his shrinking minority of misguided ministers.

Balailah hahu – I can’t sleep so well at night either these days – although some of it is jetlag because we just returned from a week plus visit to California Sunday night.  I sort of hope that Benjamin Netanyahu can’t sleep – but he already seems sleep-deprived. 

The governing cabal gives me despair.  But the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and many other places give me hope.  David Ben-Gurion said that “A Jew who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.”  But miracles come when we assist them.  So I am hopeful that my brothers and sisters here in Israel will make these miracles happen – and that my long-time friends in the US will do their part – contacting their House and Senate representatives and the White House and leaders of Jewish organizations entreating them to help to save Israel from itself.  WITH itself.

Chag Purim Sameiach.

 

Shabbat B'reishit -- Not the New Beginning I Envisioned

 

Shabbat B’reishit – Not the New Beginning I Envisioned

We have come to the end of the fall cycle of Jewish holidays.  Those of us “in the biz” always look at Cheshvan as a little extra SWEET – not a little extra bitter – because we have run the gauntlet of celebrations – and for those who sing service after service after service as the weather might be changing (and we might even have bonus allergies to the flora of sukkot), it may be more likely that one encountered physical and nasal and vocal challenges somewhere along the way than that one didn’t.  (Cheshvan is known better as Marcheshvan – which could be understood to be “bitter Cheshvan” because poor little Cheshvan has NO holidays in it – unlike pretty much every other month of the year.  Most understand the term Marcheshvan though as an ancient word that doesn’t have to do with bitterness.)

This year, I just ran the same gauntlet as all the other Jews in the pews.  Almost a full year past my retirement, I attended services at Havurat Tel Aviv, at Kehillat Sinai and at K’hillat Yachad Tel Aviv over the course of the high holidays and festivals – and I led small segments of services at the Havurah.

There are many things I discovered along the way – and I’d like to write about them, but I must instead write about responding to the pogrom that settler Jews unleashed on West Bank Palestinians on a Jewish holy day.  Dozens of young Jews, most of them masked, armed with batons and daggers, threw stones and wounded nine Palestinians, including a three-year-old boy, stabbed four sheep to death, overturned parked cars and smashed their windshields, overturned and smashed solar panels and broke windows, including those of a mosque.  They entered homes in the villages of Khirbat al-Mufkara, al-Rakiz and al-Tuwani. 

The mistreatment by Jews in this area has been going on for years.  I actually visited on a trip several summers ago when visiting Israel for the Hartman Institute.  Until the formation of the current government, there wasn’t a chance that anything decent would happen for the Palestinians – who have lived there for many years, and been frustrated in any and every attempt to better their situation.  They are denied opportunities to build or have access to water – or anything else.  If you can’t build and have water and electricity and roads into and out of where you are trying to live, it’s pretty impossible.

In the meantime, Jewish settlements expand and expand, and illegal outposts go up and instead of being demolished (even if ordered so by Israeli courts), eventually become permanent and receive all the services a human could want and need.  (Palestinians need not apply.)

Edicts are issued by the Israeli court system to dismantle the illegal outposts, but they are ignored – and IDF members have even been seen (and filmed) helping the settlers build.

And among the settler youth, there are frequent attacks on the nearby Palestinians, and the army and IDF do little to fight it – and sometimes join in.

Yes, there is violence on the part of Palestinians – and plenty of attempted acts of terrorism that have, thankfully, been thwarted by Israeli security forces.  But guess what?  We Jews are so good at so many things (Start-up Nation!  The World’s Most Moral Military (sometimes)!  Leading Diaster Relief All Over the World!  Jews in Sports!  Jews in Entertainment!  Jews in Medicine! Jews in . . . Pretty Much Everything!) that it seems like we’re outdoing the neighbors in being terrorists (with the considerable exception of Iran, which is a whole different conversation).

A lot to be proud of – but in this area it is a national disgrace to Israel and a disgrace to the Jewish people everywhere.

These young (religious Zionist?) hoodlums attacked the nearby Palestinians on the last day of the holidays – on Yom Tov.  Unimaginable – but it turns out that, like our great writers, we need bigger imaginations.

If they did that on Yom Tov, I’m just going to have to give up much of this Shabbat – to get on a bus – to ride to their communities – to stand with hundreds of others in solidarity.  There’s a lot of Kristallnacht afoot here – and what are the righteous going to do about it?  What did “good Germans” do on November 10?  Something to think about – but not a lot of time at the moment.  At the moment, it’s time for me to go where a Jew ought to go and stand for and with others.

The Perek Yomi group of Tifereth Israel finished the Tanach some months ago – and decided, before starting again at the beginning of the Torah, to spend some time in Pirkei Avot.  I feel like I’ve studied Pirkei Avot kind of over and over and over. . . so I haven’t “Zoomed in” with them for a while – but I’m wondering a bit about the passage in Perek 5. . .

אַרְבַּע מִדּוֹת בָּאָדָם: הָאוֹמֵר שֶׁלִּי שֶׁלָּךְ וְשֶׁלָּךְ שֶׁלִּי, עַם הָאָֽרֶץ.

שֶׁלִּי שֶׁלִּי וְשֶׁלָּךְ שֶׁלָּךְ, זוֹ מִדָּה בֵינוֹנִית, וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים זוֹ מִדַּת סְדוֹם.

.שֶׁלִּי שֶׁלָּךְ וְשֶׁלָּךְ שֶׁלָּךְ, חָסִיד. שֶׁלָּךְ שֶׁלִּי וְשֶׁלִּי שֶׁלִּי, רָשָׁע

 

There are four types of people:

One who says, “Mine is yours, and yours is mine" is an am haaretz.

One who says "Mine is mine, and yours is yours" — this is an average character; there are those who say that this is the way of S’dom.

One who says, "Mine is yours, and yours is yours" is a chassid (pious person).

And one who says "Mine is mine, and what is yours is mine" is wicked.

 

It seems that this is where we have arrived.  In fact, I think it’s a pretty good way of describing much of the “settler enterprise.”  One can reflect on whether this tells us anything about the terrible rifts in American society, culture and government – but that’s ANOTHER different conversation.

My hope – I mentioned the formation of the current government.  This diverse collection includes important leaders who at least pay lip service to what is going on.  I don’t expect the Prime Minister to take the lead in this matter – for political reasons.  But I was heartened to see the statement of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid -- #2 and the NEXT Prime Minister – “This violent incident is horrific, and it is terror. This isn’t the Israeli way, and it isn’t the Jewish way. This is a violent and dangerous fringe, and we have a responsibility to bring them to justice."

I’m certain there will be MKs there tomorrow.  I would be heartened to see the Foreign Minister – and other centrist leaders.  I hope to see some of those who have risen into the Knesset or into Ministry positions from the Reform and Masorti world.  This is a serious line that has been crossed.

Two more things to think about Torah-wise.  Tomorrow we will read the story of Cain and Abel – two brothers who couldn’t live together successfully in a bountiful land.  At the moment, I fear that we are much more like Cain than we would have ever imagined.

In coming weeks, we will read about Hagar and Ishmael being cast out by Avraham and Sarah – which we read recently on the First Day of Rosh Hashanah. 

May I suggest that, as we go through the Torah again this year (hooray for that), we try to focus on the perspectives of the OTHERS in the narrative.  Should we rationalize to ourselves that the story of Hagar just “had to be” in order for Isaac to come into his deserved inheritance?  Or can we see – maybe even for a first time – HER pain, and recognize that all our inheritance comes with complexity and contradiction.

We must see each other every day.  We don’t have to always take the part of the other – and we don’t have to function in a way that says What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is yours – for although we CALL that the way of the pious one, it’s really not practical.  But we must guard ourselves from being its opposite and finding that we are the wicked ones.

Shabbat Shalom

A Deeply Disturbing End to an Often Great Series of Jewish Holidays -- in the South Hebron Hills

 

A Deeply Disturbing End to an Often Great Series of Holidays

Yesterday was Shemini Atzeret here in Israel – and also outside of Israel.

But in Israel Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah coincide – and it is a day filled with both the solemnity of Geshem and Yizkor and the jubilation of finishing and beginning the cycle of Torah – dancing around with our Torahs, singing songs. . .

Outside of Israel these are 2 separate days because of ancient uncertainty as to when the new moon would be seen and therefore what is the right day for the observance – so it became customary to observe extra days of Festivals outside the Land of Israel.  (Other factors were involved, too.)

This was my first time experiencing “the package deal” – and it was beautiful and special.

But I was disturbed and angry to read this morning about terrible things that happened in the West Bank – on the holiday.

 

The Jerusalem Post reported

“At least five were injured as 60 Israeli settlers and 30 Palestinians threw rocks in the South Hebron Hills.

Three Israelis and at least two Palestinians, including a three-year-old suffering moderate head trauma, were injured on Tuesday as approximately 60 West Bank settlers threw rocks towards Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills, Israeli media reported.

According to reports, around 30 Palestinians fought back when the settlers caused harm to cars and home windows.

A young Palestinian child suffered trauma after being hit by a stone to his head.  He was transferred into Israel and is being hospitalized in Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva with moderate injuries, Ynet reported on Wednesday.

Footage also surfaced of IDF commander Maj. Maor Moshe violently pushing a Palestinian during the clashes on Tuesday.  Moshe is the same commander who was reprimanded by the IDF for the violent response to a left-wing protest in the South Hebron Hills region last week.

Meretz MK Gaby Lasky heavily condemned the violence in the West Bank, calling it the “worst incident of settler violence against Palestinians in years.”

Lasky also contacted Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev and deputy minister Yoav Segalovitz to investigate why Israel Police officers and IDF soldiers at the scene did not attempt to prevent the violent altercation from occurring.

Lasky stated that those who do not “immediately arrest the settlers involved, lend a hand to hate crimes and violation of the rule of law.”

 

The first comment that I saw to the Jerusalem Post article said “I find it hard to believe that Jewish residents of the South Hebron Hills, who are predominately Orthodox Jews, would initiate a rock-throwing clash on Tuesday, which was a Jewish holiday on which such activities are prohibited regardless of who is being targeted by the rock-throwing.”

That, my friends, is the nub of what is deeply disturbing that has happened and is happening in the State of Israel.

After patting ourselves on the back or asking for the world to be understanding of us because of the many ways that we have suffered throughout history – including but not limited to the Holoaust  -- and after crying “anti-Semitism” when there is and when there isn’t Anti-Semitism – and after bragging that we have the world’s most moral army for a generation or two – we need to face facts.

This IS a great country – and a lot of great things happen here for a lot of people – but there is a great deal of immorality and injustice done in our name – whether by the IDF or the Police or the settlers or other murderous vigilantes.

On a holiday on which the Jewish people in Israel are supposed to be celebrating Torah Torah Torah and its values, dozens of “us” participated in a pogrom – yes that’s what it was.  Going from house to house – INTO some of the houses, torching cars, tossing cars – under the watchful eyes of IDF and police making sure things didn’t get too out of hand.

Remember Kristallnacht.

But remember also Simchat Torah of Sticks and Stones and Burning.

This is not an isolated event.  This has been going on in this area and other areas for months – for years.

 

From Haaretz’s account of the “festivities” –

 

Palestinian witnesses said the Israeli military fired tear gas and sound grenades at them, but not the settlers. The army declined to respond to the allegations.

 

The injured boy, Mohammad Bakr Hussein, was allegedly struck in the head by a rock hurled by an Israeli settler as he slept in his house in al-Mufaqara. Hussein was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba in moderate condition, a hospital spokesperson said.

Some 16 Palestinian cars were also damaged by settler stone-throwing, including one flipped entirely on its side. Houses were damaged, and a water tank punctured, said Oriel Eisner, 30, a left-wing Israeli-American activist.

“This was the worst attack we’ve seen for years. There isn’t a house they didn’t smash up,” said Palestinian resident Mahmoud Hussein, the boy’s grandfather.

According to local resident Basil al-Adra, the clashes erupted after settlers attacked a Palestinian shepherd. Palestinians arrived on the scene to push back the settlers, prompting many more to arrive from other outposts in the area.

“It must have been around 100 settlers, from all the outposts near al-Mufaqara. They smashed windows, punctured car tires, entered homes. And they injured a child as they hurled stones into his home,” said al-Adra, who was present at the scene.

“We don’t even feel safe in our own homes anymore,” al-Adra added.

Assault and vandalism by settlers against Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the West Bank are commonly referred to as “price tag” attacks. Perpetrators say thar they are retaliation for Palestinian violence or government policies seen as hostile to the settler movement.

Israeli authorities rarely arrest Jewish perpetrators. Rights groups lament that convictions are even more unusual, with the vast majority of charges in such cases being dropped.

Hebron Hills council head Yochai Damari said in a statement that the Israelis who had engaged in the clashes were “guests, not [local] residents, who say stones were thrown at them.”

“Our way is not violence. Not against soldiers and not against Arabs,” Damari said. He added that Palestinians had been known to provoke clashes through “rioting and collaborating with anarchists.”

According to Damari, Palestinians also threw stones at the car of local Israeli private security guard who works in the nearby outpost of Havat Maon.

Smashed windows and a flipped over car, in what Palestinians say was an assault by dozens of masked settlers from a nearby Israeli outpost, on Tuesday, September 28, 2021. (Courtesy)

Once Eisner got word of the incident on Tuesday afternoon, he immediately called the police, who arrived about 45 minutes to an hour later, he said. Eisner, al-Adra and Hussein attested that they had seen a masked settler wield a gun and fire live ammunition into the air.

The incident sparked condemnation by left-wing Israeli parliamentarians.

“The lords of the land, backed by the occupation army and with the support of the occupation government, carry out daily terrorism on Palestinian residents,” wrote Joint List MK Aida Touma-Suleiman on Twitter.

 

Susan and I have become involved with an organization called Standing Together – Omdim B’Yachad.

We have marched with them at various times for various purposes.

This Saturday they will be bringing people to South Hebron Hills to stand with the Arab Palestinians there who are victims of violence over and over and over.

Saturday isn’t a day when I would ordinarily get on a bus and go to a protest.

And I don’t think I’m going THIS Saturday.

But my heart will be there.

And my body might need to go some other time.

 

You know that Abraham Joshua Heschel was famously quoted as saying that when he marched with Dr. King, it felt as if “his legs were praying.”  And I’m pretty sure that my religious and cultural hero wouldn’t have ridden a bus on Shabbes and said that it felt like praying.  Yet that was the 1960s – and this is over 50 years later – and there is deep injustice here in Israel (or in the West Bank – an area I prefer NOT to call Israel – and the perpetrators prefer to call Judea and Samaria).

You can get made at “the Squad” for pointing their fingers at you and me unfairly.

But if you haven’t examined what the hell is going on in your name here, you’d better start paying attention.

TROPES!

Recently, I did a zoom class about the power of taamim -- the accents that we use to read Torah and prophets and other texts according to our traditions. 

Facebook brought across my bow this posting from 4 years ago.

Also this weekend, I came across a YouTube video that I hadn't been aware of where I was interviewed by BREAD about its history and my history with the organization.

That one was about 5 years old. In both these cases, I find myself making the same points with passion and joy, which means either that I am a tiresome and unchanging person, or that I am deeply connected to values that inspire me.

As I approach my retirement at the end of October, it makes me feel good and settled and satisfied, but still inspired to move forward with the things I hold dear.

Here's what I said 4 years ago today:

So today provided one of those great validations in the work I do:

Like most cantors, an important part of my work is training young people for bar/bat mitzvah. This afternoon, I had 3 delightful lessons. I want to talk about one in particular. . . 

This girl's bat mitzvah is next spring. We're just getting rolling. . . First, she told me that I made a mistake in my recording of her haftarah.  (This was a confirmation of something she THOUGHT might be the case at the preceding lesson.  Once upon a time, I recorded those on cassette tapes. Over the years, I converted those to CDs and now some form of MP3 files that I can edit pretty freely.  So I made the correction in the file, and then copied it into a couple of other places where I make the haftarah available to myself or the world.  She was impressed by this small feat of legerdemain—and how often can grown-ups like me impress teenagers or adolescents in the tech realm?!)  She learned 4+ sentences of her haftarah -- PERFECTLY -- so well (and this is a funny thing I experience from time to time) that it seemed incongruous when she got past what she knew and just looked up at me. That's all there was. What makes that fun or funny is that she SOUNDED like she could have sung ANY haftarah perfectly from start to finish perfectly – but so far she has just learned what she’s learned.

We did some work on the tropes – the building blocks that make it possible for her to learn independently of my recording of her portion.  

What was so satisfying in this meeting?  Delightful that she chose to carefully correct me at the outset.  Very pleasing to hear her chant the haftarah so on target – and to know that she will add to it and add to it.  Particularly nice that she did this before she has connected with the teenager who will be tutoring her in addition to the work that I’ll be doing with her.  In other words, she did it herself.  

But more than that – just what IS it we’re doing when we teach a child a haftarah – and what are they doing when they learn it?  We are transmitting MUSICAL information that might be 400 years old – more or less.  By Jewish standards, that’s pretty new.  By any other standards, pretty preciously old.  I say 400 years because I’m considering the western musical style in which we interpret Torah and Haftarah cantillation.  It might be younger than that – but very likely not OLDER than that.  

But the written notation – the tropes themselves – upon which we base the music we later derived?  That’s about 1000 or 1100 years old.  Which is pretty fabulous.  Yet in order for some cheeky Masorete to write those tropes onto scrolls, it had to be an oral/visual custom dating back considerably farther.  My guess is an additional thousand years.  And the texts themselves are older than that – with great variation in just how long.

No matter how “recent” all that turns out to be, though, it’s pretty thrilling to be able to transmit what has come down to me piece by piece – a few hundred years and/or a couple of thousand years – and to be able to do it exactly.  In a way that I know that this student and others like her can continue to transmit it in the future.  

I don’t explain how cool this is to my students often enough.  Or do I explain it TOO often?! Well, TOO often when a kid just stares blankly at me.  But today, I felt that Audrey really understood that she had done something significant.  Which made her happy, too.  

So, Thank You, Audrey, for “making my day.”  And thanks to all my students – including the two Ethans I really enjoyed earlier today – for listening to me and trying to connect to the ways that I explain the value and importance of these traditions you’re learning.

Thank you to the congregation and community that give me the privilege of doing this for my profession.  Obviously I could take the thanks higher – but I don’t really like to go there in Facebook.  Maybe I’ll need to transfer this conversation to my blog. . . and take it to a higher level.

But for now. . . thanks for listening!

A Tisha B'Av Message from Me to Seth Rogen, Prime Minister Netanyahu -- and You

A Tisha B'Av Message from Me to Seth Rogen, Prime Minister Netanyahu -- and You

It's Tisha B'Av -- and though we wonder each year whether we are going to destroy ourselves yet again through sinat chinam -- senseless hatred -- I'd like to ask an even more basic question: Can we consider being responsible for the things we say?

In many synagogues throughout the world, the words Da Lifnei Mi Atah Omed appear over the ark -- KNOW BEFORE WHOM YOU STAND.

Some of you are aware of my ongoing PRAY AND MEAN IT activities -- unpacking the words of our prayers paragraph by paragraph. I've been at it one way or another for over 10 years -- and it's likely to occupy some of my time and energy after my retirement. In an expansion of a corner of that activity, I have started recording myself praying the daily service -- not all the time -- just making some basic recordings. I am always conscious of whether or not I'm really thinking about the words I'm praying as they "go by" -- but "when the little light is on" -- kal vachomer -- all the more so.

I take pride in being mindful of these composed words -- and I believe it helps me to be more mindful of the words I actually SAY to people.

I'm nowhere near perfect. I still have to apologize and re-word things too much of the time.

But when I see and hear some of the voices in the public square today, I am growing increasingly aware that many people have no sense that they have responsibility for their words at all. This isn't so surprising when words appear on screens and news feeds and might not even get printed out and here comes the next news cycle.

But as your mother used to tell you -- words and actions have consequences.

A couple of people I'd like to call attention to -- in very different contexts and with pretty different implications -- this Tisha B'Av -- Seth Rogen and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Rogen is the Hollywood mogul who used to be just a joker A master of writing and portraying silliness that was really inappropriate and off-color and very irritating but somehow made you sympathetic more than not, he's had enough successes that he's now a full-on big shot -- so that what he says or does matters to thousands of people. His .interview with Marc Maron, another free-speaking I-can-say-any-shit-I-want-to-middle-aged Jewish amuser, has sparked lots of reaction.

On one level -- HEY GREAT! That's just what Rogen would want. He's got a new movie coming out. Way easier for you to hear about it if people are arguing about stuff he says.

But on another level, those words that he can flippantly offer up along with Maron and hide behind the shield of "I'm just expressing myself -- I'm a comedian, writer, producer, actor -- I don't need to defend myself" are heavier than he's willing to admit.

In the interview, he says that "as a Jewish person, I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life.” “You know, they never tell you that, 'Oh, by the way, there were people there. They make it seem like it was just sitting there – oh the f***ing door’s open!”

This relates to one of the brilliant slogans coined about the magnetism of Jews and the Land of Israel for each other -- A Land With a People for A People Without A Land.

The phrase pre-dates much Zionist thought but was promoted by early Zionist Israel Zangwill -- and you'll still hear it in use today occasionally -- most often in right-wing descriptions of why "Judea and Samaria" should be part of the "eternal homeland of the Jewish people."

For my part (getting back to daily prayers), I say every day that God has promised to us the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizites, Jebusites and Girgashites. I'm quite certain that many others who recite this prayer (just before we recount the liberation from Egypt, something we do multiple times each day) read it as telling us that the land belongs to us -- God said it -- that settles it -- etc. For me, it's way more complicated. I know that the Torah and Prophets spare no words in telling us that we need to wipe out all evidence of those folks -- and that when we fail to do so, we will ensnare ourselves and suffer grievously. So it's a daily reminder that, although I DO believe that there's an amazing tie between my people and this land (and it's WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW!!!) I recognize that my people have never had an exclusive claim to that land.  Nor has anyone else.  So we’re GOING TO NEED TO WORK ON THAT.  So when I recite this passage every day, it’s a reminder that I need to support negotiations with other people who think the land belongs to them.

Which brings us back to Seth Rogen.  Seth – you had a pretty intense Zionist education.  Your parents were radical social Zionists.  You went to Young Judaea programs – which are among the best.  Are you saying that at no time in your adolescence someone brought into discussion the complicating facts of other people who are here?  This is the claim of groups like If Not Now, the young adults who have decamped to the left of the circles in which I run – who claim that they were lied to about the truth of Israel and Palestine.

As someone who was an occasional part-time staffer at Ramah Wisconsin, I understand pretty deeply the challenge of how and when to present messages to campers and staff about Israel.  You probably don’t have a complicated political history discussion with an 11-year-old – although I have always told the story of how many then-6 year-old daughter, when she beheld the Palestinian neighborhood outside the Old City when we first visited there, DID understand things in ways that too few adults do – “They think it belongs to them.  They’re not going anywhere.  We think it belongs to us.  We’re not going anywhere.” BOOM! 

So how do you shape that message to a 14-year-old? A 16-year-old?  Your 18-21 year old staffers?  These are challenging questions that I saw the Camp wrestling with. 

And, though I appreciate that these young people are no longer accepting tired old answers to questions, I mostly see and hear them stomping their feet and blaming the State of Israel and Jews around the world and preparing to destroy what has been built without a clear picture or path to what needs to be built instead. 

“Tear it all down” isn’t helpful.  “Tear some things down” and “BUILD SOME OTHER THINGS UP” is what is desperately needed.

And back to Rogen:  You gotta figure that as a kid he never took anything that anyone said to him seriously.  And he’s made quite a good living at that.  But some things are important – and you can’t just make jokes about them.  Seth, you’re old enough to say “I feel like I was told that it belonged to us – and I don’t think they did enough to help me see a larger picture – and I hope that we can do better in the next generation.”  I don’t want to play the Holocaust card here – but the shit he says (you have to read it to come to your own conclusion, and here's a PDF of Allison Kaplan Sommer’s trenchant analysis in Haaretz) -- Sommer on Rogen is just irresponsible.

There are certain truisms that become repeatable and repeated:  “Young people are just fed up with Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians.”  I’ve been working for years to try and have deeper conversations that enable young people to ask and explore hard questions – against a background in which some more right-wing Jewish groups categorize such people as self-hating or ignorant – when what they are really showing is a real interest in deep questions.  When they are denied the opportunity for a grown-up and respectful conversation, they will turn their back on “the whole Israel thing” – which becomes everyone’s loss.  And dangerous.

Speaking of irresponsible – we have the Prime Minister of Israel and his Designated Screamer Public Security Minister Amir Ohana – and their minions – yes, minions – not minyans.  As dozens of demonstrating middle-aged leftist Israelis have grown into thousands of younger (and older) diverse citizens, Ohana has wondered aloud why the people aren’t treating the demonstrators as badly as they would if they were Chasidim or Ethiopians.  And he has said today that the fomenting of violence by the demonstrators is worse than that which preceded the assassination of Itzhak Rabin in 1994 – despite the fact that the only violence occurring (and there is way too much of it) has come from right-wing soccer hooligans who are beating up the demonstrators.  And the Prime Minister for his part declares himself and his family under threat of murder – thus stirring the right-wing thuggery into higher gear.

It's really heartbreaking.  But part of heartbreak, we understand, is opening our hearts to feel the pain – so I’m going to challenge you – and myself – to be more careful with the things we say.  If we are, we’ll be in a better position to hold others accountable.

One of these years on Tisha B’Av, maybe we’ll be able to look back from better times on worse times.  L’shanah Haba-ah Birushalayim V’Tel Aviv – v’Hollywood – v’Washington DC – u-wherever-you-are.  A time of INCREASING health and DECREASING fear.

 

Some Baseball Thoughts Just Before the 2017 World Series

It's pretty well known that my wife and I (and our kids) are prettttttty serious Boston Red Sox fans.

As we await the 2017 World Series between the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers, some thoughts. . . which I share in my blog so as not to antagonize (or antagonize less) fans of other baseball teams. . . .

1) I'm pleased and excited for the Astros, a fine and impressive up-and-coming team. They beat up on "my" Red Sox quite effectively a week or two ago. . . and the story of Houston (which has never won a World Series) is a pretty compelling one, especially in light of the hurricane of last month. The Astros are wearing H STRONG patches quite reminiscent of the B STRONG patches the Red Sox wore in 2013, when they dramatically lifted the spirits of Boston in the aftermath of the tragic Marathon Bombing earlier that year.

2) It goes almost without saying that I have a great deal of antipathy for the New York American League team -- whose name we prefer not to say in our home. . . The possibility that they were going to go to the World Series and possibly win it was really upsetting me more than it should have. It's only a game, right? Yet after the Astros came from behind (series-wise) winning the last two games at home after the New York team had passed them by with 3 wins at home following the initial 2 Astro victories, I felt like. . . I really WILL be able to sleep this winter after all. Part of the strong feeling about that had to do with. . .

3) The New York Team disposing of the Cleveland Indians, who haven't won the World Series since 1948. Having been such loyal Red Sox fans, we know how tremendous was the lift of overcoming the 86-year drought. . . and then winning twice more within the next 9 years. This was a very promising Indians team, and they were on the cusp of beating the New York team. . . but then that Stadium Magic kicked in -- magic that almost did in the Astros as well.

4) So after watching the New York team beat up the Indians and Astros at home, it was really really satisfying to see them score a total of THREE runs in the FOUR games in Houston. The truth is, though, this New York team shows a great deal of promise, and my son, Ben, who is a minor league broadcaster and has met quite a few of these players over his several years in the business, tells me that Aaron Judge, who I'm sworn to "hate," is one of the nicest young men he's met in the game and has a compelling personal biograrphy, etc.

5) Back to the Red Sox. . . they chose to fire John Farrell, their manager, seemingly within minutes of being disposed of by the Astros. In part, I fear that they'll bring on another curse -- after having disposed of Terry Francona pretty unjustly some years earlier. A happy development, though -- today they named Alex Cora their new manager. Alex played for the Red Sox for a number of years in the mid 2000s and is currently the bench coach of the Astros. The nicest thing about his selection is that he's a Spanish-speaking (from Puerto Rico) man of color. As the Red Sox were the last major league team to integrate, it's a final step in the right direction. Will they win the World Series next year? Truth is, I don't care. Unlike many New York fans, I really enjoy seeing the World Series trophy be enjoyed in many locations, ESPECIALLY those who haven't EVER seen it in their city before -- or haven't experienced it in my lifetime.

6) Finally, back to the World Series which starts Tuesday. Two terrific teams that are fun to watch. As a Red Sox fan, I've seen a LOT more American League ball than National League in recent years -- and I often find a lot of inexplicable bad fielding or failure to master basic baseball behavior in National League games I've seen. . . but who knows? The Astros made some GREAT defensive plays in their recent series -- and wouldn't have prevailed without it. Ask Greg Bird, who was twice thrown out at home plate in almost impossible plays

The Red Sox flag flies in front of our home from Truck Day (which precedes PitchersAndCatchersReport) to the end of the World Series -- no matter who plays or wins. Almost time to take that baby down and bring it in for the winter. . . but in the meantime. . . PLAY BALL!

One Year Since...

One year ago today, Susan and I embarked on a wonderful adventure--a 4-month sabbatical spent in Asia: 2 months in Vietnam, a month in India and a couple of weeks in Japan.

Aside from the inspiring experiences we had, and there were many, we took some pleasure in being far from the US during the odious Presidential primaries, particularly the seemingly inexplicable rise and dominance of Donald Trump in the Republican contest.

We were at some loss to explain the phenomenon to the people we got to know in Asia, and assumed it would be an ugliness that would recede somewhat after his eventual defeat.

Last week's events overturned most of those hopes. Still, he was elected President fair and square, albeit through a campaign in which he broke every rule of civility beyond even the greatest violators of civility in past elections while impugning the very core of the electoral process which, HAD it been fixed, would have barred him.

Now we see in his first steps toward actually assuming the office that he may not be quite the demagogue we feared -- based on some moderate statements and moves or non-moves, but he is choosing to bring into his government some of the worst people we could imagine.

He paid lip service on Election Night to being President For All Americans, but his choice of Steve Bannon to be a member of his inner circle is going to be a test of whether people are going to go along with anything and everything Trump, or whether those supporters who claim (reasonably in many cases) not to be racists and hateful of the most important American values will stand up for anything.

Poor choices to lead departments or have cabinet positions are in most cases a matter of opinion and wait-and-see. Giuliani as Secretary of State? A terrible choice (if that turns out to be his choice), but if that's who PE (President Elect) Trump wants to appoint, we'll probably need to allow him to prove himself worthy or unworthy.

But when an individual has engaged in systematic support for racist and anti-Semitic ideas, having used his website and news organization to happily gather KKK and NeoNazi individuals and leaders, we must say no.

One can understand Trump's willingness to bring him into the inner circle: his brand of Truth Makes No Difference I'm Just Interested In Stirring Up Hatred and Anger and Calling It Fun and Funny WAS a powerful tool in the recent election. And it is the bringing of Breitbart into the Oval Office that is the most dangerous element of how and where we go.

The Trumpists and their allies have falsely accused the mainstream media of a multitude of sins for a generation. Understand this: the serious mainstream media is constrained by ethics of facts and verifiability. Trump railed that the media was arrayed against him. And how could responsible media not appear to be against him? They reported what he said (and he denied it), they dutifully played along for months and years regarding the sins and shortcomings of the Clintons as if it were an equal concern on the other side. Perhaps the most insidious aspect of the campaign and election was Trump's marriage to Bannon in the first place, leading to a sense that Breitbart is something to be considered in the same sentence as CBS, NBC, PBS and CNN. The rise of Fox and MSNBC in recent years paved the way--news media with a clear point of view before, during and after events. But even these viewpoint news organizations (with the exception of some of the individual voices at Fox) had some sense of journalistic standards, and not a reckless disregard for truth itself. This is where the emergence of Breitbart in the same breath is, basically, terrifying.

If Bannon DOES get through the current firestorm, he is not likely (hopefully) to last long. The longer he has the ear of PE Trump officially, and the longer we are subject to the fantasy news world he nurtures, the greater the danger to our Republic, and to the values that have made it great.

The FBI (which had an extremely awkward role in the election that raises a whole other set of concerns) reports a very significant increase in numerous kinds of hate crimes during the last year. Understandable given the rhetoric of the Trump Campaign. What happens next? Whether Bannon is IN or OUT will be a canary in the coal mine on this subject.

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

Back to that amazing experience that started a year ago....My worry about the state and direction of our country is all the more poignant to me because of the amazing journey of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people.  (Since we started with 2 months there, I'll leave India and Japan out of the discussion for now.)

Americans, what kind of problems do we REALLY have? And what are the prospects and barriers to succeeding?

The Vietnamese people were "host" to a number of wars in the mid to late 20th century (before that, too, but I'll restrict attention to more modern times).

After the Americans left in the early 1970s, the country faced challenges of constituting a unified state. It was ugly, violent and involved casting out many citizens for a while. To this day, the scars of war and its aftermath can be seen and felt. The American military decimated the cities and countryside. And the use of Agent Orange created issues that still are part of the challenge to the Vietnamese today. The Vietnamese socialists who came to power punished many other Vietnamese cruelly. Many are long gone. Many have returned, reentering Vietnamese society while wrestling with their own particular form of PTSD. My experience meeting some of them (those who have returned from the punishing re-education camps, etc.) suggests to me that their renewed presence in Vietnamese society is one of its greatest strengths.

Is it a free country? No. Speaking out against the nominally socialist government is unpredictably dangerous. You could be imprisoned. You could face the death penalty. But if the government is repressive, the PEOPLE (in my opinion) aren't repressed.

There is a strong sense that being Vietnamese MEANS something, and that there is a shared interest-- and a possibility of rising in a rising economy. That education leads to opportunity.

This sense of hope and opportunity is very strongly felt (although not by all). Susan and I were volunteer teachers in a Hanoi secondary school. We weren't their English teachers: they had those classes before, after and during our 2-month visit. We expanded what they were learning. We gave them context for the use of English in (American) English-speaking culture. We taught them about some Jewish stuff too. (Chanukah came about 2 weeks into our visit). We taught them that when someone says O-H, you say I-O! And they LOVED that, which was also a way to refocus their attention in class.

I cannot overemphasize the sense of welcome, excitement and hope of these children--6th graders to 11th graders. It was so inspiring.  We worked with almost 1000 kids.

Walking the streets of Hanoi --and we walked MANY of the streets of Hanoi --it is clear that the situation is very complicated. Not everyone is advancing. But in the cacophony and chaos of the Vietnamese street is a relentless and often joyful pressing onward and upward.

The journey to prosperity for all is a very long one. Yet they have come a long way and are oriented forward.

If the government were less repressive, would the journey be swifter and smoother? Perhaps. But from what I can tell, most of the Vietnamese people aren't thinking primarily about politics or political freedom. They are VERY good at focusing on the economically possible. And that's a large part of the reason that the Vietnamese have been more and more successful in partnership with American and other international business. They deliver. Their work is reliable.

Contrast this, sadly, with what's  going on in the USA at this time (and I mean generationally, not in terms of an outcome of last week's election): Our one-time belief that hard work leads to prosperity, our expectation that things will get better, has steadily deteriorated. Yet instead of joining together to address our problems, we have balkanized into 2 or more groups, each blaming the other, and we refuse to work together toward even the simplest common goal.

The enemy of America's greatness? Not Islam. It's Americans. It's anger. It's a growing hopelessness. Susan and I have been fortunate to travel to many places at the world over our 34 years of marriage. The scariest thing that I have seen anywhere on the globe is hopelessness--whether in the streets and subways of Moscow in 1989, some of the streets of America in the last 10 to 20 years.  Young men who have no aspirations for their future are a threat to life and limb.  Such young men with guns? Multiply the threat exponentially.

Clearly, the lack of hope spreading around our nation, especially in the places we liberals don't see--in the towns and villages across our states, has a corrosive effect on their lives and on our country.  It was this hopelessness that both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders tapped into "big league." I have few illusions that PE Trump will deliver solutions to those populations.  But it is something we must somehow come together as a country to do.

We need to build and rebuild America--put people to work, give them hope and reward hard work. It won't be easy and it cannot be accomplished by one party refusing to work with the other. 

At one point does it become too late? At one point is it no longer possible? I hope that we haven't passed that point. I have never had less confidence in the future.  

I hope to find the energy necessary to continue the struggle--not regarding elections (except when it's time for that)--but in the context of protecting the rights of those who are threatened, likely to especially include immigrants, Muslims, women, people of color, and perhaps Jews.  For a change, it's not the Jews who are at risk, except from the greatest extremists of both right and left.  

Next week is Thanksgiving. I can't recall ever feeling less Thankful.  I'm hoping to feel more thankful by this time next year--but it may be very, very difficult.  

I hope you'll join me in that journey.