thinking jewish

What a Few Days...

As many of you already know, we've had quite an adventure over here lately in HUC land.

Moral of the story, summed up by Hanah Shafir (my Hebrew teacher): We will all be getting check-ups before our next field trip.

On Sunday we went to the Italian Synagogue. So seriously angered by a harmless comment I had made complementing Rena's hat, Sara and Sadie tried to figure out a way to get back at me. In the middle of the lecture, they decided to hold a contest to see who could faint more violently and thereby scare more of us, and make us think we were all about to die from Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Sarah won and also took quite a stab at the stone floor while she was at it.

In the end, thank God, everyone is OK. For a more detailed account of what exactly happened, check out Josh. For a more detailed account on what it's like to not remember what happened, check out Sara.

Apparently, it's a bad idea to complement girls' beanies...

The Failed Messiah

I went to an interesting lecture last night at PARDES with Josh and Sara. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, president of the Steinhardt Foundation, is in the country to talk about a book he has just written, For the Sake of Heaven and Earth. The book explores issues of pluralism and dialogue between Christians and Jews.

All in all, the lecture was very interesting. Both Rabbi Greenberg and a Catholic nun in Jerusalem spoke about what the book means for Christians and Jews, and how we can work to further dialogue and understanding while remaining honest to our differences.

One of the more interesting suggestions of the night was that, rather than referring to Jesus as a "False Messiah," we should think of him as a "Failed Messiah." That the term false is simply too insulting and misses the point. Instead we can see Jesus in light of the good his teachings brought to Christians and the world, but also understand that the Messianic Age is not upon us, therefore he failed.

Certainly there are problems with this, first and foremost the fact that we then entertain the thought of Jesus actually being relevant to our lives and being an important man, something Judaism has purposefully shied away from for the last two millenia.

So, maybe, in the end, maybe the new terminology doesn't work, though it is certainly worth entertaining. What we can be sure of though, as Rabbi Greenberg pointed out, is that Jesus was most definitely Jewish - he lived at home until he was in his thirties, he mom thought he was God, and he couldn't for the life of himself think of his parents having sex.

Back in J'lem

After a great four days up north, I'm now back in a freezing Jerusalem. Apparently, someone turned off the sun while we were gone. Now if only I can get my heater to work...

The north was wonderful. We spent the first two days hopping from place to place. In Tsipori we studied Talmud; in Tsfat Kabbalah. We went to Tel Chai, and the Lebanese border - I waved to the Hizbollah flags a few meters away.

Thursday night we arrived in Haifa. What an adventure there was to be had! There was the Carmelit to be taken (almost-vertical subway), and a mall to go to. In Hebrew, the word for mall is "Canyon." The name of the mall we went to, being the biggest mall in the Middle East, is named the "Grand Canyon". Get it?

Barkin, Seth, Zoe, Sara M, Rena and I all saw the movie "I Love Hukabees" while there. It was very good and I highly recommend it to all my American readers. It was the first movie I watched since getting to Israel. Appropriately, I fell asleep during the most important scenes.

For Shabbat we explored the Progressive community in Haifa. At one shul I got to sing "When Jesus Walked" in Hebrew. In the other, we went to one of the four different assembly-line bar mitzvah Shabbat services being held in a matter of six hours.

I preferred the gospel.

Movin' on Up...

I'm leaving in about an hour to go north for a few days with my class. We'll be spending our time studying in Tsfat, Tsipori and Haifa. Should be fun and interesting.

I haven't been very good at updating lately. I'll try to add a bunch when I return.

Meanwhile, two important things to know:

1. Shabbat last week was incredible. More stories to come.
2. On Sunday I took an extracurricular field-trip with Josh. We went to a museum and the Malcha Mall. It was very fun. Well worth missing a few classes for. Check out his take on the day here.

That's about it...

Quote of the Day

"If you don't know text you're inauthentic."

Rabbi David Ellenson
President, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

Goin' Back to Highschool

Today, Israel Seminar Day consisted of studying religious education in secular Israel. Oximoron? Apparently not. The question is, how does the secular education system take to teaching issues of religion, Tanakh, etc.

I went with about twenty of my classmates to the Boyer School, southwest of downtown, to investigate.

Six of us spent an hour in a tenth grade English class. Short description: fascinating.

First and foremost, the English levels of these kids was incredible. I even learned a new word today! Classes in Israel are very informal, and teachers are called by their first name. There are no bells, only a musical interlude played throughout school in between classes. The students are all, relatively, well behaved. They raise their hands, participate in class, act interested and don't knit.

After a 45 minute discussion about art in English, we got to talk with the students for a few minutes in small groups. I had an interesting bunch. Coincidentally, a few of the girls are involved with the Progressive Movement here and were heading to Kol Haneshama for a program this afternoon. Another kid, a little twerp talked about how he looks forward to being a "jobnik" in the army in a few years.

Turning to issues of religion, it was interesting to hear the way they spoke about Judaism. Tanakh is important to them, they admit. They are interested in learning Jewish values and ethics from our texts especially.

When we asked if any of them keep kosher, most of them answered, "!בתח" ("Of course")

Take that treif!

Why My Sis Rocks

Apparently I'm a little behind in reading Shanna's blog. Are you?

Had I been more up to date, I would have realized that a little over a week ago, she wrote a nice paragraph about life being grand. Something especially poignant she wrote as follows:

"...I realized how many people wear head phones and listen to music while walking from class to class. I don't understand why anyone would need to keep themselves preoccupied for the maximum of ten minutes that it takes to walk when they could spend those moments just thinking. With all of the hustle and bustle in this world just looking at the surroundings and breathing the cool air is very refreshing...

I start[ed] thinking about a sign I once saw. It said:

'Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.'"

Nicely put!

D'var's Galore

Another Monday past, another great drash by a fellow student. Props to Sarah for her hard work.

Some notable quotes:

"...Although God has told Rebecca that “the older shall serve the younger,” Jacob is born after Esau- and is given the name “Ya’akov,” which comes from the word “heel.” Also, when the root is put in a verb form, it means literally “to follow.”

At the end of the story, the switch is made. Isaac, whose eyes have grown dim, is nearing death. He calls out to Esau, his favored son and his firstborn. Isaac instructs Esau to bring some fresh game to eat, so that Isaac may then bless him. Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, aware of God’s message to her, instructs the younger son- her favored child, and second born, Jacob, to pose as his brother Esau...

Jacob approaches his father. When Isaac asks, “Mi atah beini?” “Which of my sons are you?” Jacob answers him, with these three words:

Anochi eisav b’chorecha
I am Esau your first born

It is fairly obvious to the reader that this is not true. Jacob is not Esau, nor is he Isaac’s firstborn. In fact, most people would probably call this a lie. And, generally speaking, lying is not really something that we aspire to do, nor is it a quality that we would generally seek out in a Patriarch..."

Regarding Yesterday's Elections

Arie Hasit: "We really blew it."

Art Verity: "This is a sad day for anyone concerned about the future of civil rights and personal liberties."

David Singer: "G-d help us."

Harrison Krat: "Hell is better than this."

Jessica Sedley: "Come on, Ohio... (Holding out that last little bit of hope)"

Josh Barkin: "I want to tickle Wolf Blitzer. And then I want to cry salty tears - the kind that build up a crust on your cheeks as they dry - over the fact that the Dems lost in Mississippi. I mean, I really thought we had a chance there, seeing as Kerry hates gay people and black people and science. Wait. Nevermind."

Josh Baron: "Goddamit"

Liz Wood: "It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it, and I DON'T feel fine!"

Marc Harris: "Drained"

Melissa Loeffler: "Moving to Canada is looking rather fetch right now."

Rena Polansky: "Someone please call with election results!"

Sarah Verity: "Thank G-d for Jon Stewart."

Sari Laufer: "Praying that when I 'wake up' tomorrow... either I live in another country or we did not elect an idiot and his cadre of satan..."

Sivanne Mass: "Here's to another crazy election."

Tammy Lew: "Who wants to move to Canada with me?"

Wendy Levine: "It's scary that whomever wins... only 1/2 the country wants them to be president. That's not really winning."

Happy Voting Day

There's an interesting phenomenon within the Reform Movement to sing a "closing song" after a service. Sometimes it's Adon Olam or Yigdal, other times Oseh Shalom. Sometimes it's a camp favorite. The tradition can be nice, especially on Shabbat, when we have more time to sing anyways. But I've always questioned its utility on a weekday shacharit. Do we really need to sing some happy song before we finish?

Today I finally got it. Today I understood.

In honor of Election Day, we sang the Star Spangled Banner, lead by Emma. Oh, the good old U.S. of A. - how I miss thee!

It's fairly widely accepted that a non-Jew cannot be asked to give an aliyah. But can a non-American lead a congregation in the American national anthem?

So, have you voted yet? If not, don't tell me. If you did, but you checked the "Bush/Cheney" box, really don't tell me.

But most important is that you voted in the first place, that you stood and were counted. Rena summed up this necessity this morning in her d'var Torah, some of which I will quote for you:

"... Similar to Abraham’s goal of acquiring the land, each of us has a goal for the future of our land, the United States. For a land that is more peaceful and more unified than the one we know now. Yet here we stand at an intriguing moment in history… The outcome of this election will have a huge impact on the entire world and certainly on our own individual lives, in terms of security, issues regarding the war on terror, our relationship with the entire world and even specific rights that we have now.

The next leaders of our country may or may not share these ideas, these goals, these visions about the future with us. They may in fact believe that the country, and the world, should move in the opposite direction… And while it would be easy, amidst this frustration and anger, to wash our hands of it all and walk away, that will benefit no one.

At a point when we, like Abraham, are drained and tired, how do we continue to struggle within the system and to work toward our goal? Why not disregard the rules of the land and withdraw ourselves from the community in which we live?

Why? Because we see the example of our forefather, Abraham, and we understand that we can make this work… We cannot merely sit as idle observers. We must use our voices to act whether it is about the war in Iraq, healthcare, or a women’s right to choose. Otherwise we cannot complain that we do not like what we see.

And if we can struggle within the system that does not always agree with our ideology, like Abraham, then we too can achieve a greater goal. We can create a land, maybe even a world, like Abraham did, for our children that is one step closer to the world that G-d wants for us; a place of peace, understanding and respect, and a world where we are unafraid of losing the rights and the freedoms that we have.

We must be like Abraham. We must check our emotional exhaustion at the door and move forward. We must set our sights on what it is we want, on what is most important to us, and figure out how to use the law of the land to our advantage…"

In the words of a very wise classmate, "Amen, Selah!"