Klaatu, barada, nikto!
Further proof of humanity’s impending oppression following the rise of the machine overlords:
That’s right, a shwarma robot. I am filled with both lust and fear.
(Via Eat Me Daily)
That’s right, a shwarma robot. I am filled with both lust and fear.
Filed under
Pesach, Poverty, and The Vilna Gaon
Over the last two nights, millions of Jews across the world recited the maggid, the story of the Jewish people. They began with this declaration:
Ha lachma anya – This is the bread of oppression, that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.
All that are hungry, come and eat.
All that need, let them celebrate Passover.
Today we are here, next year in Israel.
Today we are slaves, next year we shall be free.
In his commentary to the haggadah, the Vilna Gaon takes this section, ha lachma anya, to deliver a discourse on the different types of poverty that exist in the world. Jumping off the word anya, the Gaon writes that there are 4 types of oni, oppressed person, and each is represented in ha lachma anya. In the spirit of understanding and fighting poverty and oppression this Pesach, let’s explore the Gaon’s 4 levels of oni.
1. The oni who does not have food to eat, who cannot sustain his life. Today, we might call this absolute poverty. He is represented by the words kol difchin (all who are hungry), and our response is to feed him – yetei v’yichol (come and eat).
2. The oni who has food and isn’t in danger of immediate death, but is impoverished and cannot meet her other basic, societal needs. Today, we might call this relative poverty. She is represented by kol dizrich (all who need). Our response is to provide her with what she needs to perform the Passover seder – yitei v’yifsach (come and celebrate Passover).
3. The oni who is oppressed on a journey. Today, we might call this a refugee. He is represented by hashta hacha (today we are here), and we are to answer by pointing him towards Jerusalem, or wherever his home might be.
4. The oni who is afflicted by oppressive working conditions. Today, we might call this a migrant worker, a sexually harassed employee, or any worker who is denied her rights to compensation and workplace protections. She is represented by hashata avdei (today we are slaves), and we work towards the next year, when we are all free (bnei chorin).
The depth of the Gra’s thinking about different types of poverty, coupled with his identification of these timeless issues within the classic haggadic text is, to me, inspiring. His work serves as a call to deepen my intellectual engagement with social justice this Passover, and to deepen my commitment to pursuing it this year.
Filed under
Are your seder supplements any good?
Tonight is the first seder and it’s up to my family’s interests whether they want to use the supplements I had handy:
- J Street’s “Four Questions on Israel and Our Jewish Values“
- JFREJ’s “4 Actions, 4 Questions“
Frankly, the aforementioned Rabbis for Human Rights-North America supplement on human trafficking and modern slavery was just too long for my family’s attention spans.
Review here any of the supplements you used — maybe we’ll use them the second night.
Filed under
Kippot for Hope – Passover in Uganda
This is a guest post by Adam Davis, founder of Kippot for Hope. Jewschooler David A.M. Wilensky bought his mom’s significant other a kippah from Kippot for Hope for Chanukah and he loves it.
Did you know that there is a thriving community of almost a thousand African Jews living in Uganda?
After spending an incredible seder night with them last year, I set up Kippot for Hope—a non-profit initiative which aims to improve the communities living conditions by selling the handmade colourful kippot, beautifully crocheted by the women of the community.
In the remote hills of eastern Uganda, in the shadow of the Mount Elgon, live a small community of Africans who are also practising Jews. My wife, Genevieve, and I, currently living in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, asked the community leader if we could join their Seder. He was most welcoming and so we set out on the six hour bus ride to Mbale.
On the journey we read more about the community and their history. In 1919, a Christian Ugandan leader called came to believe the customs and laws in the Old Testament were quite true. When he was told that it is the Jews that observe such laws he explained “Then we will be Jewish”. These people became known as The Abayudaya (“The People of Judaea”) and the population grew to over 3,000. During the Idi Amin era, most of the population were forced to convert to either Christianity or Islam although 300 members remained committed to Judaism and worshipped in secret. Today there are almost a thousand Jews of the Abauudaya, divided into six smaller communities spread across 100 miles in the hills overlooking Mbale.
When we finally reached the community, we were greeted by small Ugandan children, the boys all wearing kippot, with shouts of “Shalom Shalom”. As the sun set on the distant horizon in a stunning display of oranges and crimsons, the entire community made their way to the synagogue for the Seder. More »
Filed under
Pesach Zmiros – The Macaroons
Crossposted to my new music blog, The Infinite Shabbos Playlist
The Macaroons are what would happen if Weezer was making Jewish kids’ music. They’re kind of awesome.
Without a doubt, my favorite song on their new Passover EP is “Seder Plate.” “Seder plate, seder plate/different from the other plates/you’ve got a lot more going on design-wise.” Genius!
Anyway, here’s the video for their Matzah Ball song.
Filed under
All the little Hebrews on Jaybird Street, love to hear the Pharaoh go ‘tweet-tweet-tweet’
If you’re looking for a quick breather from Pesach prep, things are starting to get exciting over at Tweet the Exodus.
Filed under
Haggadah Supplement: Moral Voices
With Passover just around the corner, I encourage you to check out a thought-provoking haggadah supplement that Rachel Cohen, co-chair of Penn Hillel’s Moral Voices, has shared with me. The focus of this piece is on modern slavery, specifically human trafficking. Please consider inserting these reflections into the Maggid section of your seder. For more information on Moral Voices and the excellent work they do, please visit: pennhillel.org/moralvoices.
Filed under
Matzo Ball Olympics
Now that the Winter Olympics are done, what are you going to watch? Try the Matzo Ball Olympics, a short video I made for Manischewitz. It’s a teaser for a longer mini-mockumentary I produced about Manny Schevitz, a beleaguered Matzo Ball Olympian.
Filed under
World’s Fastest Matzah Eating
Jeremy Moses of MyJewishLearning just took it upon himself to break the world record for matzah eating. (Disclaimer: before he tried, there was no world record for matzah eating.)
Every year at seder, we’re supposed to eat the entire 2/3 of a piece of matzah (okay, that’s if you’re eating shmura matzah — 1 entire sheet, if you go by the machine-made *ahem* cheating *ahem* kind) in one action, without swallowing. Add that to the fact that you’re not supposed to have eaten matzah at all in the past 30 days…Well, if you can get it down in one gulp, you’re kind of a hero.
(Jeremy also wants me to add that, when he was practicing, he did it much faster than he did on the video. So there.)
Can anyone break it?
Filed under
This year in the food desert…
For many American Jews, the Passover seder is an intimate and annual Jewish experience that is possibly the only time of year they will have such an experience. Not just Jews, but even many non-Jews in America enjoy participating in a Passover seder. There is something unique about the Passover seder which forces us to contemplate our role and status in society, our historical memory and our diet. Whether one observes the laws of dietary restrictions for the full 7 or 8 days of the festival, or if one simply partakes in the unique cuisine, one cannot help but reflect on our typical diets in the face of the temporary changes. 
In our contemporary society we have the freedom to visit supermarkets and specialized stores and purchase food from around the world irrelevant of the season or distance. And yet, at the Passover seder, we are forced to recall what it means to hastily prepare simple loaves transported on back. We recognize, in a certain regard, between the stark difference of experiencing food in servitude and experiencing food in freedom. And while we have the freedom to buy and eat what we want, for a series of reasons we in the 21st century have less freedom and awareness in choosing or understanding how our food is produced and what type of story our food has from farm to table.
Not only does the ritual and cuisine of the Passover seder offer reflection on the abundance of our food in freedom and the strictures on the availability of food in servitude, but we also address, explicitly and directly, the reality of perpetual hunger in our midst. In the era of our Biblical ancestors, out Rabbinic forbears and even into the shtetlakh of our great-grandparents, the reason for perpetual hunger was a lack of resources. In some places there was just not enough good and in traditional, localized communities, from the Rabbinic era (at the earliest) through the dawn of modernity, self-corrective, sustainable community support systems were established to support those who lack essential needs—the kuppah and tamhui, the communal fund and the communal food bank. Today, when most of us live in decentralized, urban or suburban settings where we do not maintain localized economies with self-corrective mechanisms, perpetual hunger in our midst is caused by a wholly different set of issues. Rather than a lack of food—quite to the contrary, we have an incredible abundance of food in the United States, enough in fact to feed other full nations—our set of factors actually make it so that we do have the ability to truly end hunger in our nation. More »
Filed under
The Vort: Tzav – Transparency, Accountability, and the Priesthood
We are in the thick of an entire set of parshiot dealing almost exclusively with priests. A large amount, especially when we consider the following how the fundamental aspects of Jewish life: sacred time, sacred family relationships, sacred eating, etc, are each given only have a few verses here and there. In total, these fundamental aspects of Jewish life cover a small fraction of the space given to parshiot dealing with the priestly service in the mishkan. Why?
Why is the Torah so fixated on priests? If the Torah is supposed to be a document for the entire Jewish people, why so much detail about the practice of priesthood, something only 1/24 of the population would engage in? I had the honor to hear an answer from Rabbi Saul Berman, who explained it as follows:
To understand the Torah’s lengthy description of the practices our priests, we need to understand what the biblical reference point for priests was: the extremely powerful priests of Egypt. We see this from Genesis 47:20:
“And Yosef made it a law until this day for the land of Egypt to be a fifth part unto Pharoah; only the land of the priests alone was not Pharoahs“
The priests were above the law; even Pharoah couldn’t touch them! And what was the source of the Egyptian priests’ power? Death. Egyptian religion was focused on death and attaining afterlife. In order to make it to the afterlife, one had to be guided through the end of this life with the right objects, the right incantations, and have ones body preserved in the right way. These activities, and therefore the passage to the next world, were entirely controlled by the priests.
The potential for corruption is striking: the priests had a monopoly on the afterlife. That left them untouchable, free to use their power in any way they wanted. No accountability, no transparency, total power. Want to get into afterlife? That will be $100,000. Have sex with me. Worship me. Scary stuff.
The Torah is a direct critique to this concentration of power. Jewish priests, as we see in these parshiot, are not only not in control of death and the afterlife, they are forbidden to even come near it! The priestly taboo around death is so that they do not become gatekeepers to the next world, but instead stay focused on this one. Jewish priests are servants and facilitators, to teach and serve and help the Jewish people to “choose life” and grow closer to God.
And what about the secret rites and lack of transparency characteristic of Egyptian priests? The Torah rejects them. That’s why the Torah spends so many chapters detailing the priestly rituals, to create transparency of everything they’re doing. No hidden tricks or secret knowledge. That transparency protects the common person from abuses of religious power.
The Torah’s focus on priesthood is not just some cultic show and tell. There is a profound critique of religious power and control, and a call for literacy and transparency throughout the people. These are fundamental Jewish values. May we be successful in realizing them in our world today.
Filed under
Does Your Country Count The Jews?
Many USAers have already filled out their census forms. Or are at least thinking about it. Or have at least taken the form and added it to their pile of mail to be dealt with later. (Seriously, fill it out and send it back. It’s good for you, your community, your neighbourhood, your city, your state… And I hear it gives you whiter teeth and shinier hair.)
The buzz around the Jewish community, at least if I’m to take various listservs I’m on as representative of the larger American Jewish community, is what to do about “race” and Jews. Of the 29 races listed, none represent Jews (or Arabs). Jews aren’t sure how to fill this out. The problem, really, is that the US government is asking for “race,” not ethnicity, not nationality, not heritage… It’s not surprising that Jews aren’t listed as a race – we’re not a race. Arguments can, and have, been made for Jews as ethnicity, as culture, and certainly as religion, but as a racial group? No. So some people are writing in “Jewish” next to “other” in race. But is that accurate? And does the government need to know, or should it know, how many Jews live within its borders anyway?
By contrast, Canada does the census differently when it comes to Jews. First, it should be noted that the Canadian census does have a section on religion, unlike the US census. Canada’s census asks folks to check off their religion, with a dozen options, then a fill in the blank for others. Years ago, Jews (rabbis, academics, the establishment) were consulted on how to count the Jews. 
It was decided that Jewish would appear twice: under “religion” and under “ethnicity.” (You can choose more than one ethnicity, I believe.) You’re considered Jewish, according to the census, and with the agreement of the above-mentioned experts who were consulted, if you: check Jewish for religion but not for ethnicity; Jewish for religion and ethnicity; Jewish for ethnicity but don’t put a religion; Jewish for ethnicity and put a religion that one doesn’t have to convert to to follow (like Buddhism). You would not be counted as Jewish if, say, you checked Jewish for ethnicity but put Catholic for religion. The Canadian census does not ask for race. As noted, we’re asked about ethnicity. But it’s not left with one question. Instead of “race,” there are two questions, I believe (it’s been 9 years – cut me some slack!): “ethnicity of origin,” from which you can check from a list or add in an “other”; and then a separate question on if you consider yourself a “visible minority,” with various options to check for that, along with a fill in the blank “other.” The Canadian census happens in years ending in 1 (with a smaller census, fewer questions, happening in years ending in 6). So we’ll see what it yields next year.
Both countries have separation of religion and state. So why does one ask explicitly about religion (including Jews) while the other doesn’t? I’m guessing that, in part, it has to do with Canadians trusting that the religion information is being collected to see how diverse we are, and not to be used for some Evil Reason. Which is the same reason we’re asked about ethnicity or income or number of people in a family or household. It’s just another measure of diversity. But it’s also helpful for provinces like Quebec, where Jewish (and other religious) day schools are subsidized by the province. Or for those provinces that accept rulings from a beis din (or from Islamic sharia councils) for certain legal matters. Yes, these are still both within the Canadian definition of “separation of church and state,” because all religions are weighed equally. Catholic schools in Quebec are subsidized alongside Jewish and Muslim. Acknowledging that most Western law is heavily Christian-centric, the government allows for Jewish and Muslim legal systems to hold weight as well. Separate from state while allowing for religious pluralism. By contrast, my sense of “separation of church and state” in the US is that Christians need the reminder, and that other religious groups aren’t really considered at all by the state. The two outlooks yield very different results, and different reasons for separation.
I don’t think it’s a problem to ask about religion or ethnicity. I don’t think it’s a problem to fill out those answers either. (I also support the right of individuals to leave questions blank on a census.) But I’m curious: what do other countries do? Does your country count the Jews?
Filed under
Idelsohn Society’s Must-Have Pesach Mix Tape
You need to play this at your seder.
The Idelsohn Society has released a breathtaking mix tape for Pesach, weaving together such musical liberation classics as The Kiddush (Richard Tucker), The Four Questions (Socalled), Passover Time on the Range (Moe Jaffe & Henry Tobias), Passover (Joy Division), On My Way To Canaan’s Land (The Carter Family), Freedom (Charles Mingus), I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, (Nina Simone), Where Can I Go? (Ray Charles), I’m Set Free (The Velvet Underground). Definitely something for everyone.
All who are hungry, give a listen!
Filed under
Open thread: How anti-establishment is our movement?
Jo Ellen Kaiser, editor in chief of Zeek Magazine, covered the burgeoning Jewish social justice sector for Sojourner’s Magazine, a liberal Christian mag. Over the next few weeks, we’ll host open threads on elements of the article on how we see ourselves, our movement, our thinkers, and our values. Our last open thread covered whether we owe Heschel, Waskow and Lerner our existence.
This week, let’s consider our Jewish social justice movement as related to the establishment. Jo Ellen claims that our organizations are decidedly anti-establishment and uses Hazon as an example (emphases mine):
So, in 1999, a group of young people founded Hazon (“vision”), creating a Cross-USA bike ride to raise awareness of environmental issues in the Jewish community. [...] Hazon is becoming an “institution” on its own, with paid staff and programs. Yet it is a new kind of institution for the Jewish world, as it has neither a clear niche within organized Judaism nor a primary goal to become a national organization that will challenge and change the Jewish world. Hazon’s leaders are essentially uninterested in the organized Jewish world. That is something very new for American Judaism.
Were American Jewish World Service, Avodah, Jewish Funds for Justice, New Israel Fund and Hazon founded by young people? Do these and the wider pantheon of such organizations lack a niche in the organized scene? But much more significantly, are they uninterested in the organized Jewish world? Essentially, are we a young person’s movement and are we giving the communal world the cold shoulder?
Filed under
Grumpy old curmudgeon pet peeve of the day
At least once a day, I get an email from someone advertising something in a particular, but unnamed, liberal part of the Jewish community that mentions a woman and gives her the title “Reb.”
Can someone please explain to these folks that the word “reb” means “Mr”? “Reb” does NOT mean “Rabbi.” Reb, when a rabbi uses it in front of his name, is a sign of modesty on his part (or alternatively a claim to it that’s akin to the old joke which ends “look who thinks he’s nothing!”).
“Reb,” when a woman uses it in front of her name, is demonstrating that contrary to being knowledgeable, she (or whoever put the title there) is actually ignorant about the Yiddish culture she is attempting to co-opt. Granted there is at least one woman rabbi I know of who uses this term knowingly, and I acknowledge that there is a need for terms that parallel respectful terms for men, but if you’re a rabbi, can you please just call yourself either “Rabbi” or “Rabbah?” Or coin a new term, I don’t care. “Reb” just makes you ridiculous. Seriously, I can’t help but wonder if Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who seems to have some connection with this usage and certainly knows better, is having a private laugh at you behind your back.
Rant off. Thanks for listening.
Filed under
There is a New Left in town
Here is the full text of the speech given by Sarah Beninga representing the Israeli activists at the weekly demonstration at Sheikh Jarrah on March 6. Yes, it is a few weeks old, but with everything happening in that insane corner of the world and in DC, it is nice to have a moment of hope. (Translation from the Sheikh Jarrah site. Hat tip to The Magnes Zionist.)
There is a New Left, and it is not a left that is content with peace talks; it is a left of struggle. There is a New Left that knows that there are things you have to fight against even when they are identified with the state and even when they are sanctioned by law. There’s a New Left that knows that this struggle will not be decided on paper, but on the ground, on the hills, in the vineyards, in the olive groves. There’s a New Left that is not afraid of settlers – even when they come down on us from the hills, masked and armed. This left does not succumb to political oppression by the police, nor does it care what Ma’ariv writes about it.
Sarah Beninga at Sheikh Jarrah demonstration
There is a New Left in town. This left does not want to be loved, does not dream of filling town squares and does not bask in the memories of 400,000 demonstrators. This left is a partnership of Palestinians who understand that the occupation will not be stopped by missiles and bombs, and of Israelis who understand that the Palestinian struggle is their own.
The New Left links arms with Palestinians in a cloud of tear-gas in Bili’in, and with them, bears the brunt of settler violence in the South Hebron Hills. This left stands by refugees and work immigrants in Tel-Aviv and fights the Wisconsin Project [privatized “welfare-to-work” program]. This New Left is us, all of us.
All those who came here tonight; all those who dared to cross the imaginary line separating West and East Jerusalem despite the threats and intimidation – we are all the New Left that is rising in Israel and Palestine. We are not fighting for a peace agreement; we are fighting for justice. But we believe that injustice is the main obstacle to peace. Until the Ghawis, the Hanouns and the El-Kurds return to their homes, there will be no peace; because peace will not take root where discrimination, oppression, and plunder exist. There is a New Left in town and this left stands with the residents of Sheikh Jarrah tonight, and it will continue standing with them until justice overcomes fanaticism.
But there is also a New Right in town. A Right filled with envy and racism that seduces the masses with its jingoistic rhetoric. The New Right has no interest in the well-being and the welfare of human beings. The New Right is only interested in a narrow ethnic and tribal loyalty a la Avigdor Liberman. For the New Right only the Jewish poor deserve attention. And what makes someone Jewish is that they’re not Arab. The New Right has nothing to offer but never-ending war. The New Right has nothing to offer bur hate for the other: Arabs, refugees and leftists.
This New Right creates the fanatic settlers against whom we are demonstrating tonight. These settlers hate Jerusalem. They have no love for Israel and no love for humankind – they love only themselves. There are many amongst the settlers who we can and should carry out a dialogue with. But the settlers in Sheikh Jarrah who sing songs of praise to Baruch Goldstein – must be defeated.
The New Right created the mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat. He is a technocrat who doesn’t understand or care about Jerusalem. He is a mayor who uses administrative terror against the residents of East Jerusalem and neglects the residents of West Jerusalem, while mouthing empty clichés. If Jerusalem is a powder keg, then Nir Barkat is the one who is striking the match. But Barkat doesn’t scare us and neither do the settlers or Liberman.
We will continue coming to Sheikh Jarrah and everywhere that justice is crushed by the forces of occupation and oppression. Take a look around you; we are not as few as we thought we were! And we will prevail!
Filed under
Showdown at AIPAC!
Hey Professor, didn’t anyone ever tell you in school to raise your hand before speaking?
Hadar Susskind, J Street’s policy director, was being interviewed at the gathering by a Haaretz reporter when, according to the reporter, none other than Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz “broke in to the conversation with a verbal onslaught against the group.”
Thus reports Tablet Magazine on the latest update in Dershowitz’s thrilling fight against the evil, anti-Israel J Street.
Arguing that J Street “shouldn’t call themselves pro-Israel,” he accused them of prioritizing certain policy positions over others to cast Israel in a negative light. Noting that he, like J Street, opposes settlements, he nonetheless maintained, “But I spend 80 percent of my time supporting Israel.”
Yeah, Dershy! Hit those anti-Israel punks right where it hurts! Seriously, though, this is just pathetic. Compare this kind of angry and reflexive rant to Susskind’s measured and reasonable response:
In response, Susskind told the reporter: “We have disagreements with AIPAC that I don’t want to minimize. But we are all on the same side.”
It should be totally obvious who’s reasonable here and who’s not.
Filed under
Preach Rabbi!
This is Rabbi Morris Allen, speaking to the two hundred thousand people gathered to rally for comprehensive immigration reform in America.
Filed under
follow us on Twitter
follow us on Facebook
subscribe to our email