by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Sunday, April 17th, 2011
Those who are familiar with the oddities of the Jewish calendar may be aware that a largish holiday begins tomorrow night (called Passover). Fewer people may be aware that on the second night of Passover begins… well, it’s not a holiday exactly, but it is a holy period, called the Omer.
Beginning the second night of Passover, every adult Jew is supposed to count off the 49 days (seven times seven weeks) that make up the period between Passover and the holiday of Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah. I have to say, it’s a bit of a pain. Not he counting, which is fine, but remembering to count properly, keeping track of which day it is, and so on. It’s enough of a difficulty that the Jewish legal code has instructions about what to do if you forget to count at the right time, or for a full day. You’ve got to count every day, or you lose your obligation to say the full blessing as you count.
The counting itself is a lovely tradition: each of the weeks represents one of seven traits of God, as does each day, so one develops a spiral of thoughts throughout the counting period (for example the trait of strength during the week of mercy… consider what that might mean as we approach the giving of the Torah… etc.)
Well, I decided that the best way to do this would be a sort of advent calendar, with little treats each day as you opened up the proper box to say the blessing for that day (hey, why should Christians get all the calendar fun?). At one time, I thoght the best way to do this would be through carpentry, but it’s been some time since I had any access to the proper tools,a dn I just didn’t want to wait anymore this year, so for pretty cheap I made one out of things that one could glue together – namely cardboard, cardboard, and , uh, some glue and glitter paper.
Almost everything came from the container store, and it took me about three days to make (including some glue drying time. Not labor intensive, but pretty sturdy anyway).
I’m happy to share instructions with anyone who wants to build one. I used a hard cardboard ornament storage box and three by three folded gift boxes (seven of which fit perfectly across, although you need two ornament boxes cut to size and glued together to get the height as only five rows tall fit, if you pop open the top edge of the ornament box).
The numbers for the days (written out in blue in Hebrew letters) as well as the blessing on the inside (which has the blessing, the day and date – in other words, everything you need for each day… no looking anything up!) are printed on clear sticky labels cut to size.
For your delectation:
(Not sure why the blessing box is shown on its side, just ignore that, it opens upwards (although you can make yours open any direction you want, of course)
I don’t think I”m quite done decorating it – obviously this is pretty simple, but the plus is that the boxes make it so that magic marker will write on them perfectly nicely, so if I go for color, that’s probably the way I’ll go. Stickers work fine too, but I’ll probably eventually go for a large picture that covers the entire front face of the Omer Counter. Happy counting!
XP Kol Ra’ash Gadol
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
Crossposted to The Reform Shuckle
Today is the fifteenth day of the Omer.
As we move from the freedom of Pesach to the responsibilities delivered to us on Shavuot, we count out the 49 days of the Omer period. If the practice is unfamiliar to you, I recommend My Jewish Learning’s intro to it.
If you consult the sidur, you’ll be told how to count it out loud at the end of your evening prayers as each new day of the Omer begins.
But today, there are many ways to count using the internet. Last year, I blogged every single day of the Omer. This year, Rabbi Andy Bachman is doing the same thing at his blog, Water Over Rocks.
Myself and several fellow Jewschoolers are using our Facebook statuses this year:
You can also count along with @TweetingTheOmer.
How are you counting this year?
BTW, the awesome art above can be found here.
And if you’re looking for a tasty, hands-on way to do it, check out the candy Omer counter.
by David A.M. Wilensky [➚] · Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Crossposted to The Infinite Shabbos Playlist
It’s day 7 of the Omer and I’m trying to figure out if I like Y-Love and Yuri Lane’s new album, Sefira.
Some refrain from listening to music altogether during this 49-day march from redemption to law, but I definitely don’t. And neither do Y-Love now Yuri Lane follow this stricture either, judging by their release of an Omer album.
Sefira features rapping by Y-Love (Ortho-rapper Yitz Jordan) and amazing beat boxing by “the human beat box” Yuri Lane.
The album is all over the place topically with driving beats and great rhymes from always dependable Y-Love.
I can’t tell if I actually like it. It’s very sparse, but layered at the same time. I think I’m more impressed by it than I actually like it. The words are great and the beats are just mind-blowing. I almost don’t believe that this is all a cappella.
Sefira on MySpace.
Buy the album from Shemspeed.
Y-Love describes the album:
During the 7-week period following Passover, the Jewish Nation spends its time counting the days and weeks of the Omer period, culminating in the receiving of the Torah. During these weeks we are forbidden to use our normal musical instruments as a sign of decreased joy, forcing us to improvise. This is a paradox — being commanded to serve the Creator with joy always, but having His service be to decrease joy. Our music is that paradox. As we improvise with our music, so too, we sometimes must improvise with our simcha. Count it.
Sorry I don’t have a player or video from the album to embed, but I couldn’t find any.
by HatamSoferet [➚] · Friday, March 19th, 2010
Back by popular demand, the Edible Omer Counter. Notable for being the only omer counter that gives you motivation to see the Omer right the way through, this one’s got chocolate.
You will need: kosher-for-Pesach choccies, tissue paper, yarn, scissors, pen.*
Cut squares of tissue paper. I used purple over white here (these pictures are from a couple years ago, I haven’t taken pictures since then). Of course you could also use wrapping paper, fabric, foil, whatever takes your fancy.
Scrunch the paper up around the choccy and tie it with yarn. You can’t really see the colours so well in the photo – sorry; I’ve got a nice layered purple-and-white look going, by having the inside square, the purple one, be slightly bigger than the white outside one.
Write the numbers 1-49 on the bottoms of the choccy packages, and use the yarn ties to attach them to one long piece of yarn. You could make it more fun (for kids, naturally – right?) by doing them out of order, and/or by having different sorts of choccies in the packages. Or little toys.
Then hang it on the wall. It ends up being pretty long, so you might have to loop it festively over something.
Starting at the second seder, after dark each night, count the Omer (helpful chart) and eat your choccy.
2010 expansion…now with kabbalah!
In Kabbalah, each of the Omer weeks is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot: Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. The days of the week are also associated with the sefirot, in the same order, and then you get each day of the Omer having a different combination – so day 1 is chesed in chesed, day 2 is gevurah in chesed, and so on. See wikipedia for more, if you care to.
The interesting bit here is that the sefirot also have associated colours. Swiping from a random internet source, we have Chesed – silver with a bluish tinge; Gevurah – red; Tiferes – light green, like a ripening etrog (citron); Netzach – light pink; Hod – dark pink; Yesod – rainbow of hues including blue, red, yellow; Malchut – dark blue with purple tinge. Almost black.
Now.
The book Kabbalah: an introduction to Jewish mysticism (another random internet source; kabbalah isn’t my thing, particularly) talks about how one form of kabbalistic practice is to meditate on the colours of two different sefirot and then combine the two into a coalescent colour.
So here’s your challenge this year – go and design your own Omer counter which responds to this idea. Share your pictures. There may even be a small prize (a real one, not internet cookies) for the one that makes me go “squee” loudest.
* Strictly speaking, I suppose only the first seven choccies need to be kosher for Pesach, as long as the rest don’t contain actual chametz. But if you’ve bought a whole package of Pesach candies, what are you going to do with the rest of them?
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Sunday, June 8th, 2008
Tuesday night was week seven day three: tiferet of malchut
wednesday night was week seven day four: netzach of malchut
Thursday night was week seven day five: hod of malchut
Friday night was week seven day six: yesod of malchut
Saturday night is week seven day seven malchut of malchut
OK, Well, let’s get that last week squoze in there; it’s a shame to just give up in the homestretch, so here’s my round-up for the final countdown until Shavuot:
Study shows both Jews and Arabs support coexistence; I fart in your general direction towards all those fear-mongering Jewish organizations who exist for the sake of their own existence. No names. You know who you are. “77 percent of Arab citizens would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world, and that Arab citizens and Jewish citizens both underestimate their communities’ liking of the ‘other.’”
Completely wacko judicial candidate who advocates only non-Hispanic whites as citizens of the US loses. A**h***e.
Rabbis For Human Rights wants you to go hang… a banner.
Banners Across America, a project of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, has launched an effort to get houses of worship to hang banners reading “Torture is a moral issue” and “Torture is wrong.”
Kinky Friedman says that American and British Jews are wimps. “The problem, as Friedman sees it, is that people, not just Jews, have become softened up by our consumer society and its infatuation with celebrity.” You represent, Texas Jewboy.
Giraffe cheesecake….hmmm (Don’t know about “mmm” yet). By the way, it’s a myth that it’s difficult to schecht a giraffe because no one knows where on the neck to cut. I have it on very good record from a reliable shochet that giraffes are easier to schecht because the correct area is quite large.
Israel to stop being bossy. Elijah sighted in Jerusalem.
“We have to move away from a dynamic based on money and aliyah,” Yehezkel told the Post. “We have to add more values, to establish cooperation. Israel has to take responsibility for Diaspora issues as well, such as Jewish identity, education and continuity.”
And now, let’s go forward stand under the chuppah with God, and receive the Torah. May the awe of the moment when God and Israel are joined together by the Torah spur us to get off our tushies and make change in the world.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Week Six, day Six
Yesod of Yesod
Week Six, day Seven
Malchut of Yesod
Reported all over the place, but the WaPo doesn’t have that annoying registration thingy. As pretty much everyone knows, Obama has had a lot of political problems with his church. First there was the out of context Wright quote, which was taken to mean that Wright hated every white person, but especially Jews. Apparently the latest hitch has been (Roman Catholic) Rev. Michael Pfleger slamming Clinton in a sermon and implying that she’s a white supremacist.
I have to admit, I have some mixed feelings about this. Now, y’all know that I’m pretty annoyed about the misogyny behind a significant amount of the anti-Clinton activity, from speechifying, to musing about her personal life and sartorial choices, and don’t even get me into the various objects intended to deride (nutcrackers and the like). Let me just say, I don’t think that Obama himself is a misogynist.
But let’s get away fro this most recent thing, which I think Obama shouldn’t have to answer for, either, and get back to Wright. I think that Wright may well be saying something that we ought to be listening to. If you’re an African American, your experience of racism is quite different than any other group of color’s in this country. Unlike (Ashkenazi) Jews and Italians whose move up the economic ladder has allowed us to assimilate and blend in, and the Japanese and Chinese whose model minority status is moving them in that direction as well (along with extremely high exogamy rates), if you’re African American, your class has to get pretty outstandingly high before you – as an individual- are exempted from some of the worst of the bigotry. Even then, go someplace where your name isn’t recognized, and you can wear silk and rubies and it’s not going to help you much.
SO, while I don’t necessarily love Wright, I think we need to listen to him a little more carefully, because he can tell us a lot about what we don’t normally hear. and so, I respected Obama for sticking to his church and not resigning. Especially since it is often true that when you cut yourself off from someone who is angry, you’ve lost your chance to talk to them and help them see a different way out. Obama was a trusted friend, insofar as a clergyperson can unbend among congregants, and Obama might have led him to a more nuanced way of speaking. Who will do that now?
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Week Six, Day Five
Hod of Yesod
I’ve always thought that the Indian Jewish community was very interesting. I have heard that they and the Chinese are the only two countries who never persecuted their Jews (I have no idea if this is true). So, I have thought it a shame that there were so few Jews remaining there (Actually, I tend to have that feeling about any shrinking Jewish community -IMO a wide variety of community minhagim are to been encouraged, the more the merrier). But it seems that in India, this trend may reverse itself.
Seeing a bright future in their native land, young Indian Jews increasingly are remaining in India, which has the world’s fastest growing major economy after China. India’s 9 percent growth rate in 2007 was four times that of the United States and nearly twice that of Israel.
…Most young Jews are educated in Indian schools where English is the language of instruction and are highly proficient in English and technology. They see their country as a place of opportunity, especially in high-tech jobs and “call centers which pay extremely well,” according to Antony Korenstein, country director of the JDC in India.
…Jews live in the cities where incomes are rising fast to catch up with international standards and reflect a higher standard of living.
With the call centers providing jobs for young adult Jews at night — it’s daytime in the United States — synagogue leaders say it is difficult to attract them to activities. They sleep during the day and are working at night.
…Jews have been a part of the Indian mosaic for more than two millennia. This “land of the Ganges” was known to the Jews of antiquity as well as to those of the Middle Ages. The Talmud contains several references to India.
… India boasts the largest number of indigenous Jews of any country east of Iran.
Not only are young Jews staying in India, a few Jewish families have returned from Israel.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
Week Six, Day Four
Netzach of Yesod
Yay, us!
Congratulations to our very own Sarah Chandler, Ben Dreyfus, and Daniel Sieradski, who were listed in the New York Jewish Week’s 36 Under 36*. We’re very proud of them for their contributions to us and to the Jewish world.
*It’s really “36 Under 36 New Yorkers,” but we won’t hold it against them, you know how New Yorkers are about anything outside of city limits.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Saturday, May 24th, 2008
Week Five, Day Six
Yesod of Hod
Week Five, Day Seven
Malchut of Hod
First I want to repost this comment by Rabbi Morris Allen (one of the spearheads of the Hekhsher Tzedek, you can read his blog about it here)from the comments section of my last post on the Rubashkin travesty, so that those who aren’t necessarily following the comments can see it:
… Th[e] statement [of the Conservative Movement on asking people to evaluate whether they should continue to purchase Rubashkin's meat] came out from the leadership of the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue. Hekhsher Tzedek remains very committed to affixing a hekhsher on products certifying that both ritual and ethical standards have been met in the production of kosher food. On Tuesday we will be reviewing our objective and verifiable standards which have been produced for us by KLD analytics. When these are in place, we will then have the opportunity to clearly begin identifying producers and products that meet our standards. While it is easy to condemn the “mild†nature of this statement, the Conservative movement is alone in the Jewish community publicly calling for the avoidance of products that might be produced in Jewishly unethical ways. I hope that informed Jews begin to demand that a Hekhsher Tzedek appear on the products we are to consume, and that Jews regardless of organizational or theological orientation wholeheartedly support the one effort that has been working tirelessly to address these issues in a thorough and thoughtful fashion. For additional information please go to rabbimorrisallen2.blogspot.com Shabbat shalom
I want to offer kudos to those working on the problem, both in general (hekhsher tzedek) and in specific (the leaders of the Conservative Movement in offering this statement). As one commenter has pointed out, this is the only movement from which we are hearing anything, however substantial: the Reconstructionists have been silent, presumably for the same reason offered by the Reform (They don’t encourage their followers to keep kashrut). The Orthodox have also been -except for notable individuals- silent as well, or worse (it is, after all, Orthodox institutions offering hasgachah to Rubashkin to start with).
And I want to say that I continue to have hopes that the Conservative Movement will move itself forward and do great things. It is, nonetheless, difficult for me to see how slowly things are proceeding. In some ways, this parallels the brouhaha of not very long ago, in which the Conservative movement dragged itself through a painful process of dealing with homosexuality, More »
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Week Five, Day Three
Tiferet of Hod
Week Five, Day Four
Netzach of Hod
So much for Hekhsher Tzedek. Apparently politics wins out over justice.
In a not very surprising move, the Conservative Movement has decided not to boycott Rubashkin.
Calls this week by activist rabbis for a limited boycott have been muted out of concern that a boycott could be actionable and might discourage Jews from keeping kosher because kosher meat would be harder to access.
Actionable? Are you kidding? Seriously, what would be pure enough to get something started? Let’s see, we have major violations of Dina d’malchuta dina, loads of other, amazingly varied halachic violations that have now gone on for years – and in theory have actually spurred the Conservative movement to the unusual action of attempting to actually do something (follow-through apparently being a little slow, ahem). The moral and halachic violations range from abuse of workers’ labor to sexual abuse; apparently there are allegations of the drug methamphetamine being produced at the site, and that rabbinic supervisors, specifically have abused plant workers. Not to mention child labor violations, identity theft, illegal weapons sales, and I’m sure I’ve missed a few.
So, what would be enough to get the Jewish world to move? Can anyone possibly believe that they are totally innocent? That poor old Rubashkin’s is being railroaded? I mean, reality check: When is the Jewish community going to get off its collective Butt?
If for no other reason, we should be boycotting because this will make people look at us and say, if that’s what Jews do, I want no part of it. Note to the Conservative movement: This includes your followers whom you are trying so valiantly to get to keep kosher. IMO, more people will quit keeping kosher over your spinelessness than over the lack of available kosher meat. The folks who keep kosher now aren’t going to stop for this reason. Not to mention that all those young folks you’re trying to attract: they’re leaving because they look and see that something is seriously wrong here. As a Jew, I am embarrassed and ashamed about the lack of response from all the movements, but CJ, your Hekhsher Tzedek plans give you a special responsibility. Live up to it. Stand up for something, already.
And, Hey, Orthodoxy, you have a chance here to outmoral the left: get up and do something, will you? Somebody? Anybody? Before all the holiness drains out of the world?
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Monday, May 19th, 2008
Week Five, Day two
Gevurah of Hod
According to the latest news, yes, there’s more, if you can stand it. The Des Moines Register reports that there was sexual abuse and an expectation of sexual favors, according to the workers,
If a worker wanted, say, a promotion or a shift change, “they’d be brought into a room with three or four men and it was like, ‘Which one do you want? Which one are you going to serve?’†said McCauley in an interview today with Des Moines Register editors and reporters.
To be fair, it should have been obvious that somethignlike this would be revealed – with all the other garbage going on behindthe scenes, this particular form of abusing the powerless should have been an obvious add-on feature.
RadioIowa mentions that America’s Voice, a group pushing for immigration reform, is asking Congress to investigate the owners of the Postville plant.
Mark Lauritsen, international vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) says reading the information on the Postville raid shows “shameful” action by the plant’s owners. Lauritsen says what’s ultimately shameful is that nearly 400 “hardworking men and women” are in detention, while the people who exploited them are free to roam the streets and start the cycle over again.
Lauriston says Agriproccessors has gotten away with the labor violations for too long. Lauritsen says: “There is not one other meatpacker operator in this country that has the same sustained long record of law violations as Agriprocessors, not one. They’re acting like a renegade in an already tough industry. It’s not good for the industry, it’s not good for the workers who work in it.” Sharry and Lauritson say the national strategy of ‘attrition through enforcement’ remains an ineffective solution to the immigration issue.
I hope they’re successful, but after all this time, who knows – it’s not like there haven’t already been tons of investigation worthy crimes over the past several years, with a pattern of disregard for the law. Again, our only quesiotn should be, where the hell is the Jewish community, and why didn’t we insist on OU’s hashgachah (supervision) being pulled with much greater force. Our lack of courage and refusal to go without meat is a chillul hashem – an embarrassment to God’s name.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Sunday, May 18th, 2008
Week Five, Day One
Chesed of Hod
Since the most recent debacle at Rubashkin’s, documented widely, with a focus on the huge immigration raid detaining nearly 400 of the slaughterhouse’s 968 employees and sending many of the remaining into hiding (and not to mention so many other violations of so many varieties of American law and halachah that the mind boggles), the Postville Plant has reopened on essentially a skeleton crew.
SInce, according to the Forward, it is producing less than half its usual output, and Agriprocessors produces more than half of glatt kosher beef in the USA and the greatest share of glatt kosher poultry, and Postville produces 85% of that beef, instead of American Jews wondering how we’ve come to such a pass; that after several years of people reporting violation after violation of Jewish law, human rights, and American law, how is it that the Orthodox Union hasn’t revoked its supervision; how is it that there isn’t an outcry against such practices, against the kosher meat industry from within the Jewish community – and for that matter – why haven’t we been more carefully examining the actual kashrut of let us say, the organization behind the meat (cf. Rabbi David Berger, author of The Rebbe the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference)?
How is it that we are actually even thinking about whether or not we’ll get enough meat?
At the Hazon food conference late last year, Rabbi Yehuda ben Chemhoun, a prominent shochet of 27 years, and Rabbi Seth Mandel, the senior mashgiach at the Orthodox Union, both spoke of how they limited their own intake of meat, and Rabbi Mandel said plainly that he felt that the kosher meat industry in this country was broken, at least in part because people were expecting to eat too much meat. Instead of meat being something to have occasionally, for shabbat and holidays, people -because of its easy availability- are eating meat every day, sometimes at every meal. And this is sick: it is sick beause it leads us to an industry of waste and cruelty, and to health problems from over indulgence and also to health problems from eating the flesh of animals being treated badly throughout their lives – and through their deaths.
Although I rarely eat meat, I am not a veg. But how can we continue to support an industry that causes this much pain not only to animals, but to human beings. Our sages argue about what the purpose of our kashrut restrictions of meat and shechita are: some say it is because animals feel emotionally as we do, and it is wrong to be cruel to them; some say that it is because we are to learn from the example of our care with animals that all the more so we need to take care of other human beings, to teach compassion.
What Rubashkin’s has revealed is that it cares about neither. So, the only question left is: how long will we allow it to continue, and what will we decide to do now?
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Saturday, May 17th, 2008
Week Four, Day Six
Yesod of netzach
Week Four, Day Seven
Malchut of Netzach
Last week a group of rabbis – including two from Israel met in Qatar when that country opened its first scholarly center for interfaith interfaith dialogue as part of a broader push for interfaith relations throughout that region.
Ynet reports
Efforts at interfaith dialogue got one of their biggest boosts when Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah met with Pope Benedict XVI last November at the Vatican.
In March, the Saudi king then made an impassioned plea for dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews  the first such proposal from a nation with no diplomatic ties to Israel and a ban on non-Muslim religious services and symbols.
But someone tell the right not to let it affect their opinion of Islam as inherently a religion of all bad things.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Week Four, Day Five
Hod Of Netzach
ICED, or I Can End Deportation is a game by Breakthrough a group saying of itself that it is an International Human Rights organization that uses education and popular culture to promote values of dignity, equality and justice.
From the Breakthrough website:
Breakthrough’s video game, ICED, puts you in the shoes of an immigrant to illustrate how unfair immigration laws deny due process and violate human rights. These laws affect all immigrants: legal residents, those fleeing persecution, students and undocumented people.
ICED has been featured in overwhelming amounts of press including: MTV News, Game Daily and has been covered on popular blogs including, Gothamist and The Huffington Post…
How do you play?
THE OBJECT OF THE GAME IS TO BECOME A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES
Game Play:
As an immigrant teen you are avoiding ICE officers, choosing right from wrong and answering questions on immigration. But if you answer questions incorrectly, or make poor decisions, you will be detained with no respect for your human rights.
There is also a downloadable curriculum and a discussion guide. There are also flash animations – on additional topics, like AIDS and gay marriage.
hattip to SepiaMutiny
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Week Four, day Four
Netzach of Netzach
Over a year ago, Akiba Hebrew Academy, the country’s oldest day school, changed a long standing policy, and decided that it would accept a $5million gift on condition that it change its name to the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in honor of the older brother of the donor, who died in a plane crash at age 27. But here’s the turn of the screw: the donor was Leonard Barrack, the newly elected board chair of the Philadelphia federation.
When alumni attempted to object to this change in policy, they were ignored, when they turned to the local Jewish paper, the Jewish Exponent, it turned them down and even contacted school representatives.
More »
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Week Four, day Three
Tiferet of Netzach
Another New York Event. Sponsored by the UJA, and sounds like it could be quite the conversation – any panel that includes both Judith Plaskow and Blu Greenberg has got to be worth hearing:
In anticipation of Shavuot, UJA-Federation of New York’s Task Force on the Jewish Woman presents the third part of a series on women and politics
Gender and Justice:
How Activists Integrate Judaism and Politics
Thursday, May 15, 2008
5:30 – 9:30 p.m.
During the holiday of Shavuot, we celebrate receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai by engaging in all-night study.
In preparation, we will come together for an evening of study and performance, exploring ideas of Judaism, activism, feminism, and politics.
Featuring:
* Texts That Inspire Lives of Activism, a panel discussion with scholars Blu Greenberg, Miriam Margles, and Judith Plaskow, moderated by Dianne Cohler-Esses
* Text-study sessions presented by scholars Elana Stein Hain, Joy Levitt, and Stephanie Ruskay
* Becoming Israel, a Storahtelling performance by Shira Epstein and Naomi Less
Storahtelling brings us an abridged, staged reading from their newly debuted play Becoming Israel. Biblical and modern characters are intertwined in this piece to discover their shared story and their common name, Israel, “The One Who Struggles with God.” After the performance, Naomi and Shira will engage us in a discussion regarding the performance and theatre itself as a medium for text and activism.
Light supper will be served at 5:30 p.m.
Program will start at 6:00 p.m.
Cost: $25* or $15* for students and young professionals
UJA-Federation of New York
130 East 59th Street
New York City
R.SV.P. to Emily Loubaton at 1.212.836.1710 or loubatone@ujafedny.org.
*The cover charge represents the cost of the event and is not tax-deductible
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Monday, May 12th, 2008
Week Four, Day two,
Gevurah of Netzach
Since yesterday was mother’s day, and today’s sefirotic interpretation of the Omer quirkily translates itself in the book I’m using as “Discipline in Endurance” …
Jewish mothers are a dying breed. Is this good? Is it bad? I don’t know, but I don’t know anyone who qualifies under the stereotypical description. But it’s more than that. As I’ve mentioned before, the Jewish community, for all its frothing at the mouth about continuity, makes it nearly impossible for young Jews to make the parenthood choice in any rational way.
While the Conservative movement recently told us all., yet again, to have more babies sooner, no one is willing to take the step of saying that the Jewish community needs to make a commitment to things like: paid parental leave for every Jew employed by a a Jewish institution or agency. Quality day care subsidized by our communities. Day school for everyone who wants to send their kids to it -and heavily subsidized so not only the well off can afford it- and a much better system of religious education for those who don’t. More truth telling about the flaws of Israel within a context of love for the country and its inhabitants.
But the truth is, that’s not really what the Jewish community wants. It’s far easier to wail and moan about how Jews growing up don’t value Judaism, how we’re all so individualistic that we don’t care about community, and how all the young people don’t care about Israel, and women aren’t having enough babies because they’re busy having careers instead. None of it’s true, but it’s much easier than looking ourselves in the face and doing something hard: changing the way we live.
Oh and while we’re at it, why don’t we throw out nonsensical solutions to problems, like saying that since boys aren’t flocking to liberal Judaism, the best thing we need to do is start having men only clubs and meetings. yes, that certainly will solve the problem, because as we all know the reason boys are leaving Judaism (YAWN) isn’t because boys have much greater pressure to excel at sports, or because their parents let them quit after bar mitzvah, or because Judaism is treated as hobby. Nope, it must be the girls, because as we all know, teenage boys aren’t interested in being anywhere around girls.
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A new graphic novel, “The Rabbi’s Cat,” taking place in Algiers in the 30′s, starring a rabbi and a nameless talking cat.
I haven’t read it yet, but I surely will soon.
The other, longer story in the new volume is “Africa’s Jerusalem,” a zigzagging tale that starts out as a “Tintin”-like adventure and eventually evolves into a love story, graced at its conclusion with bracing flashes of eroticism. (Tintin, in fact, comes in for a drubbing: He turns up for a page as an arrogant, racist reporter, Sfar’s upraised middle finger to French comics master Hergé’s infamous “Tintin in the Congo.”) In an introductory note, Sfar claims that “Africa’s Jerusalem” is “a graphic novel against racism,” which it is, but it’s also another opportunity for him to avoid the risk of the series falling into a formula.
The story begins when the rabbi receives a mysterious crate; instead of the books he expects, it contains a Russian Jewish painter who has tried to ship himself to Addis Ababa to find a rumored Jewish homeland in Ethiopia. (He only speaks Russian, and the Algerians don’t understand it at all; fortunately, the cat understands all languages.) Joined by a rich, arrogant local Russian man and the rabbi’s cousin, a sheik who’s also part of the Sfar family, they drive off to find Jerusalem in Africa.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol [➚] · Sunday, May 11th, 2008
I’m afraid I’m not up for much tonight, but it is Week four, day one,
Chesed of Netzach.
IN the meantime, here is a review on Salon of what looks to be an interesting book: “A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World,” by journalist Tony Horwitz
Start with this. Ponce de Léon went to Florida to find not a fountain of youth but the same things that drew every Spanish invader: gold and slaves. (He found neither.) The first Protestant refuge in North America wasn’t Plymouth but La Caroline, a fort built on the Florida coast in 1564 by the above-mentioned Huguenots. A year later, their slaughterer Menéndez held what was possibly America’s first Thanksgiving dinner, well attended by local Indians.
On and on it goes: a hemorrhaging of certainty. The first European child born in North America? Not Virginia Dare but, more likely, a Viking boy named Snorri, born circa 1000 A.D. in what the Norse liked to call Vinland. The true founding father of New England? Not Bradford, not Standish, but John Smith, who gave the region its name and actively promoted its colonization.
And what about those flat-earthers who thought Columbus would tumble off the world’s edge? You can blame that little fiction on Washington Irving. The Greeks had long ago figured out the world was round, and for more than 700 years, even the Catholic Church had accepted it. The only thing Spaniards were still debating in 1492 was the distance to Asia. In this, as in so many other matters, Columbus was mistaken.
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