Friday, 31 December 2010
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
New Year's Resolutions
I intend to add new posts tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, but as I started to think about what I would like to do in the next 12 months, I decided to drop some lines here too.
And my wish list is relatively simple:
- To diversify and update permanently my blog, with interesting and opinionated pieces of information
- To find interesting resources - including human - on Judaism and Jewish life
Not too many words, but the need for a lot of actions.
Keep in touch!
Monday, 27 December 2010
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Sallah Shabati
Sallah Shabati is one of the 46,000 Yemeni Jews arriving to Eretz Israel through the Operation Magic Carpet. He brought with him his family, but also his customs, the taste of arak, shesh besh and its music. They camped in one of the ma'abarot and tried to find a way of living. And the others needed to get accustomed with him too, and it was not an easy task. It was difficult to say know who was the first who said "sorry for coming"/סליחה שבאתי.
All over the world, Sephardim continue to be proud of their difference, as the Askenazim. There are often different interpretations, customs, delicious meals and prayers. But this is the old good story of our Great House.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Sign it!
Image via Wikipedia/Gilad Shalit needs usSign the petition and pass forward!
JPost: Herzliya innovation to run the Kindle
Another element of branding for Israel. I wonder why the Palestinians don't try to identify themselves through positive and creative stories. Promise to be back with more comments. For the moment, I am thinking about this strategy of using the pressure of the domino effect for pushing to a recognition of the "Palestinian" state. And love this line, issued yesterday by the Israel MFA: "Establishing a Palestinian state is not like asking people to mark a favorite page on Facebook". Smart line, isn't it?
Monday, 20 December 2010
Sunday, 19 December 2010
A cup of Wissotzky tea
Image by wesleyt via FlickrNovember 1st, at the first Israeli Tea Party gathering, participants were carrying the W tea bags, as part of the country's brand. But, what it is in a cup of tea ?
Currently, the leading producer and exporter of tea in Israel, Wissotzky Tea was founded in 1849 in Russia.
The history
The company was created by Klonimos Wolf Wissotzky, a young Jew living in Moscow, who studied Torah and sent money to Palestine for the cause of Zionism. He expanded the plantations in Ceylon and India. After he died, in 1904, his heritors opened a branch in America, for attracting the Russian immigration there and further expanded to London, Poland and Italy. The Russian Revolution closed the offices of the company. Its first tea plant production in Israel was created in 1936, by Shimon Zidler.
Currently, the company's tea production plant is located in the industrial area in the Galilee and it is the largest tea manufactory in Israel.
In 2005, after 80 years of absence, the company reopened its offices in Moscow.
It continue to be considered a serious and very much appreciated brand, with an important share of the market. Here is an old ad, witnessing the spirit of the time.
My favorites? The jasmine and caramel sorts…Five o'clock tea time!
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Monday, 13 December 2010
Advertising in the haredi community
And this is not only a matter of advertising, but also about the study of mentalities.
Learning tolerance
This is about time: Yad Vashem is getting involved in education program for Arab children regarding Shoah.
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Lourdes/Movies to do not watch if something else to do
I spent 90 minutes of my unique life this afternoon watching Lourdes. For the sake of the words, I would like once in my life to visit this place to describe and study on the spot various (surely) unique phenomenon. But I will prefer a journalistic approach to a hymn to irrationality. Otherwise, the industry of holy stones and abuse of innocence and lack of culture are, beside a source of income, an example projected as worthy to be followed. Irrationality is like a pandemia and you don't need movies pretending to be neutral. You need to know the meaning of the words and to take seriously your role as an intellectual. Otherwise, there will be people to believe that multiple sclerosis might be cured (miraculously) by prayers and only prayers.
Tefillin?
Image via WikipediaAfter reading in the news this story I decided that it is about time to write something about the teffilin.
Tefillin (תפילין), from Ancient Greek phylacterion, form of phylássein, φυλάσσειν meaning "to guard, protect"), are a set of small cubic leather boxes painted black, containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, with leather straps dyed black on one side, and worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers.
The hand-tefillin, or shel yad (for the hand), is placed on the upper arm, and the strap wrapped around the arm, hand and fingers; while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh (for the head), is placed above the forehead, with the strap going around the head and over the shoulders. The Torah commands that they should be worn to serve as a "sign" and "remembrance" that G-d brought the children of Israel out of Egypt.
The term to lay tefillin is derived from the Yiddish leigen, which is the translation for the Hebrew word lehaniach, the verb used in the Talmud to describe putting the tefillin on the head and arm. The term “wear” is also in common use when referring to tefillin.
The mentions:
Twice when recalling the Exodus from Egypt:
And it shall be for a sign for you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand did the Lord bring you out of Egypt.
—Exodus 13:9
And it shall be for a sign upon your hand, and as totafot between your eyes; for with a mighty hand did the Lord bring us forth out of Egypt.
—Exodus 13:16
and twice in the Shema passages:
And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes.
—Deuteronomy 6:8
You shall put these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall tie them for a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes.
—Deuteronomy 11:18
The manufacture
Before beginning any stage of the process of the manufacture of tefillin, it is essential that the act has specific kavanah or intent to fulfill the mitzvah of tefillin. It is common for the pronouncement Leshem mitzvat tefillin—for the sake of the commandment of tefillin—to be made.
There are ten essential requirements tefillin must have in order for them to be valid:
-The scroll must be written with kosher ink.
- The scrolls must be made of parchment.
- The boxes and their stitches must be perfectly square.
- On the right and left sides of the head-tefillin the letter shin must be embossed.
- The scrolls must be wrapped in a strip of cloth.
- The scrolls should be bound with kosher animal hair.
- The stitching must be done with sinew of a kosher animal.
- A “passageway” must be made for the strap to pass through.
- The straps must be black and made from the skin of a kosher animal.
- The straps should be knotted in the form of the letter dalet.
- The arm-tefillin has one large compartment, which contains four biblical passages written upon a single strip of parchment in four parallel columns. The head-tefillin has four smaller and separate compartments, formed from one piece of leather, in each of which one scroll of parchment is placed.
-When writing the passages, the scribe should be meticulous to have in mind that he is doing so "for the sake of the sanctity of tefillin". Before writing any of the names of G-d he should say: "I am writing this for the sake of the sanctity of the Name". The writing of the passages which contain 3,188 letters usually takes between 10–15 hours. It is imperative that the scribe remains constantly focused. Unlike a Sefer Torah but similar to a mezuzah, tefillin passages must be written in order of how they appear in the Torah and should the words be written out of sequence, the parchment is invalid.
How to?
The arm-tefillin is placed on the biceps of the left arm, two finger breadths away from the elbow joint, with the box facing inward towards the heart. Left-handed people place the arm-tefillin on their right arm. After the blessing is said, the arm-tefillin is tightened, then wrapped around the arm seven times. The strap that is passed through the arm-tefillin should therefore be long enough to allow for the knot, also to wrap around the forearm 7 times, and also to tie around the hand according to family or local tradition. The knot formation and arm binding differ considerably between different family or community traditions. There is a custom to cover the arm-tefillin with the sleeve, in accordance with the verse "And they will be a sign to you...", i.e. to you and not to others.
Next, the head-tefillin is placed on top of the head, "between the eyes" but not lower than the hairline (or where one's hairline was in one's youth). The knot of the head-tefillin sits at the back of the head, upon the part of the occipital bone that protrudes just above the nape, directly opposite the optic chiasm. The placement of the head tefillin is universally accepted to be against the literal directive of the verse in Deuteronomy 11:18 which speaks of placing it 'between the eyes'. The two straps of the head-tefillin are brought in front of the shoulders, with their blackened side facing outwards. The two ends, falling in front over either shoulder, should reach the navel on the left side and reach the genital area on the right side.
On removing the tefillin the three twistings on the middle finger are loosened first; then the head-tefillin is removed; and finally the arm-tefillin.
Originally tefillin were laid all day, but not during the night. Nowadays the prevailing custom is to lay them only during the weekday morning service. The problem with wearing them all day is the necessity to remove them when encountering an unclean place, e.g. a bathroom, and the requirement to constantly have in mind the knowledge that they are being worn.
A small minority still follow the practice of laying tefillin all day long. This custom is mainly found among followers of the Vilna Gaon and the Rambam, and among some Yemenite Jews. Students in some yeshivot, mostly national religious, have been seen with tefillin during the Minha afternoon service or even all day long. They argue that this practice is still required, and not an issue of custom. Other rabbis also lay tefillin out of services.
As tefillin are allowed to be laid at any time during the day, Lubavitch hasidim will often be found at all types of religious and secular gatherings and venues hoping to give another Jew the opportunity to lay tefillin. This phenomenon was the wish of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson who launched the "Tefillin Campaign" just before the outbreak of the Six Day War in 1967.
Tefillin are not laid on Shabbat and the major festivals including Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkoth. The reason given that these holy days are themselves "signs" which render the use of tefillin, which are to serve as "signs" themselves, superfluous. On Tisha B'Av, tefillin are worn at the afternoon service instead, because tefillin are considered an ornament, or else symbolic of a connection to G-d, both of which are inappropriate for a day of mourning the distance between G-d and the Jewish people. Wearing tefillin is thus delayed until the afternoon, when the mourning is considered to have passed its peak. However, many Jews, especially among Ashkenazi and Sepharadi Jerusalemites, do lay tefillin for the morning service as well. There were some medieval authorities who ruled that tefillin must not be laid at all on Tisha B'Av, but it seems that no Jews today follow this opinion.
In Orthodox Judaism tefillin are laid by males over the age of thirteen. Tefillin are regarded as rite-of-passage for a Jewish boy, as youngsters below the age of thirteen are not considered mature enough to know how to use tefillin or understand their significance. About a month before his Bar Mitzvah a boy will receive his own pair of tefillin and be taught and trained about the laying of tefillin. The commandment of tefillin is given the utmost importance and disregard of this mitzvah is viewed as severe.
The Conservative movement encourages performance of the mitzvah of tefillin by both men and women, while Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism do not.
So, the next time, Kiwis, when do you see somebody wearing a tefillin don’t worry, everything is in the book!
Friday, 10 December 2010
30 years of Limmud
Image via Wikipedia/The logoLimmud (learning, in Hebrew) is a British-Jewish educational charity, without affiliation to any strand of Judaism, which produces a large annual winter conference and several other events around the year on the theme of Jewish learning.
The movement was created in 1980, by a group of British Jews and expanded exponentially since then. During the 1990s, Limmud reinvented itself as a community gathering, giving rise to a significant increase in the number of attendees and leading it to be described as "a youth camp for all ages", "a JCC without walls", "British Jewry's greatest export", open to "anyone interested in Jewish learning" . One thing that sets Limmud apart from other similar organisations is that the events are organised by volunteers who participate as equals in the conference.
Despite is open character, the event has been seen as controversial by parts of the right wing of Centrist Orthodoxy, with some rabbis being advised to not attend, while others chose to be a permanent present even considered this manifestation as a great success for the Jewish education and identity.
Since 1998, the Limmud model has spread to many other countries and there are now locally-run Limmud events: in the United States and Canada, Israel, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Belarus, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa.
Core values
According to the organization, its core values are:
Learning: we believe that every Jew should be a student and any Jew can be a teacher
Expanding Jewish horizons: we strive to create experiences which will allow all to strengthen their Jewish identity
Community and mutual responsibility: we strive to create community - together we can achieve more than as individuals
Commitment to respect: we expect our participants to act respectfully to each other, including to all volunteers. We believe it is important to make presenters’ biographies clear enough to aid informed choice. We are committed to treating all of our participants, and all sessions presented, with equal respect. No-one is more important than anyone else.
‘For the Sake of Heaven’: we do not seek to place greater or lesser value on one way of Jewish life, thinking or belief over any other
Religious observance: we recognise that in private areas people will behave as they choose, but we believe in the importance of enabling Shabbat and kashrut to be kept in all public areas as far as possible, so that Jews do not have to separate themselves one from another
Empowerment: we believe in the importance of supporting individuals to enable them to maximise their contribution to the community
Participation and voluntarism: we believe that all have an important contribution to make, and that this is best done through voluntarism. Limmud is not for profit but for the benefit of the community. As far as possible, any excess resources should always be ploughed back into improving Jewish education
Valuing diversity: we value choice, diversity and accessibility in all our learning. We seek to have the greatest possible diversity of Jews participate in our activities.
Enabling connections to be made: we strive to create opportunities for connections across communities and individuals, by providing the space for these to happen.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Benjamin Netanyahu condemns rabbis over property advice
Image via Wikipedia//Benjamin NetanyahuIsraeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised rabbis who issued a statement saying it is a "sin" for Jews to rent or sell property to non-Jews. About 40 rabbis, many employed by the state, signed the statement, citing concerns about potential mixed marriages and falling property values. Mr Netanyahu denounced the advice as "undemocratic" and discriminatory. The move has fuelled charges of racism at a time of mounting friction between Israeli Arabs and Jews.
Arab Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi said the rabbis should be fired and have criminal charges brought against them "because we are talking about incitement or racism according even to Israeli law".
“Great harm”
According to a copy of the statement obtained by AFP news agency, it warns that "he who sells or rents [non-Jews] a flat in an area where Jews live causes great harm to his neighbours".
It continues: "After someone sells or rents just one flat, the value of all the neighbouring flats drops... and his sin is great."
The religious opinion first raised controversy last year when Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed, in northern Israel, urged that it be applied specifically to Arabs. Recently, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews asked other chief rabbis in Israel to publicly express their support for the guidance.
Speaking at an annual Bible quiz on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu denounced the comments.
"Such things should not be said, neither about Jews nor Arabs," he said. "They must not be said in any democratic land, and especially not in a Jewish democratic state that respects the morality of the heritage of Israel and the Bible."
About a fifth of Israel's population of 7.5 million are Arabs, some of whom complain of systematic discrimination. Israeli law guarantees full rights to non-Jewish citizens. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has called on Mr Netanyahu to take disciplinary action against the chief municipal rabbis on the list, whose salaries are publicly funded.
Religious edicts are often ignored in predominantly secular Israel.
On the Jewish Calendar
Image via WikipediaHow do you calculate the Jewish calendar
The Jewish calendar is based on the old correlations between the moon cycles and the month and on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the Earth about its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon about the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). These three phenomena are independent of each other, but the Jewish calendar coordinates all three of these astronomical phenomena. Months are either 29 or 30 days, corresponding to the 29½-day lunar cycle. Years are either 12 or 13 months, corresponding to the 12.4 month solar cycle.
Rosh Chodesh
The lunar month on the Jewish calendar begins when the first sliver of moon becomes visible after the dark of the moon, which in ancient times, used to be determined by direct observation. According to the Book of Exodus: "And G-d spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: 'This month shall mark for you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first of the months of the year for you.'" (12:1-2) When people observed the new moon, they would notify the Sanhedrin. When the Sanhedrin heard testimony from two independent, reliable eyewitnesses that the new moon occurred on a certain date, they would declare the Rosh Chodesh (ראש חודש, the head or the beginning of the month) and send out messengers to tell people when the month began. According to the Book of Numbers, G-d speaks of the celebration of the new moon to Moses: "And on your joyous occasions - your fixed festivals and new moon days - you shall sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of well-being." (10:10)
Despite the existence of a fixed calendar, Rosh Chodesh is still announced in synagogues on the preceding Shabbat (called Shabbat Mevarchim--The Shabbat of Blessing). The announcement is made during the morning service, after the reading of the Sefer Torah (ספר תורה), before returning it to the Aron Kodesh (the Torah ark), in the prayer of Birkat HaChodesh, mentioned by the medieval sages, beginning "May it be Your will... that You renew this month for us for good and for blessing." The name of the new month, and the day of the week on which it falls, is given during the prayer. Some communities customarily precede the prayer by an announcement of the exact date and time of the new moon, referred to as the molad, or "birth." The incoming month is blessed and G-d is beseech for granting the blessing and protection during the following month. Rosh Chodesh Tishrei (which is also Rosh Hashana) is never announced. On the Shabbat directly preceding the month of Tishrei we do not bless the incoming month during the Shabbat prayers as is traditionally done on the Shabbat before a new month. This is unnecessary for the month of Tishrei, when every Jew is well aware of the impending holiday of Rosh Hashanah which signals the entry of the new year as well as the new month. In addition, we cannot bless the incoming Rosh Chodesh as we do each month, because the first day of Tishrei is not called Rosh Chodesh, but Rosh Hashanah.
During the evening service of Rosh Chodesh, a prayer Ya'a'le Ve-Yavo is added to the Avodah, the prayer for the restoration of the Temple and a segment of the Amidah (תפילת העמידה, Tefilat HaAmidah "The Standing Prayer", or Shmoneh Esreh(18)/שמנה עשרה, in reference to the original number of constituent blessings, the central prayer). During the morning service, Ya'a' le Ve-Yavo is again recited and either a whole or half Hallel (Psalms 113-118) is recited, and is read The Book of Numbers 28:1-15, which includes the offerings of Rosh Chodesh. An additional prayer service, called Mussaf, is added to commemorate the original sacrifices in the Temple. After the service, many recite Psalm 104. The Ya'a'le Ve-Yavo prayer is also inserted in the Grace after Meals ( ברכת המז,Birkat Ha-Mazon). Many have a custom to make sure to eat a special meal in honor of Rosh Chodesh, as the Code of Jewish Law suggests. Some Hasidic Jews sing Psalm 104 during this meal.
If Rosh Chodesh falls on Shabbat, the regular Torah reading is supplemented with a reading of Numbers 28:9-16. The Mussaf prayer is also modified when Rosh Chodesh falls on Shabbat. The central benediction is replaced with an alternate version (Ata Yatzarta) that mentions both the Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh. If Rosh Chodesh falls on a Sunday, a different Haftarah, Mahar Hodesh (I Samuel 20:18-42) is read. The Kiddush Levanah (sanctification of the moon) is recited soon after Rosh Chodesh, typically on the first Saturday night after Rosh Chodesh.
According to the Talmud (tractate Megillah 22b), women are exempt from work on Rosh Chodesh, and Rashi, in commenting on this passage, delineates the activities from which they may refrain: spinning, weaving, and sewing — the skills that women contributed to the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). The midrash Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer explores this exemption in chapter 45:"Aaron argued with himself, saying: If I say to Israel, Give ye to me gold and silver, they will bring it immediately; but behold I will say to them, Give ye to me the earrings of your wives and of your sons, and forthwith the matter will fail, as it is said, "And Aaron said to them, Break off the golden rings." The women heard (this), but they were unwilling to give their earrings to their husbands; but they said to them: Ye desire to make a graven image of a molten image without any power in it to deliver. The Holy One, blessed be He, gave the women their reward in this world and the world to come. What reward did He give them in this world? That they should observe the New Moons more stringently than the men, and what reward will He give them in the world to come? They are destined to be renewed like the New Moons, as it is said: Who satisfieth thy years with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle."
Female-centered Rosh Chodesh observances vary from group to group, but many are centered on small gatherings of women, called Rosh Chodesh groups. These groups engage in a wide variety of activities that center around issues important to Jewish women, depending on the preference of the group's members, exploring spirituality, religious education, ritual, health issues, music, chanting, art, and/or cooking. Some groups also choose to educate young Jewish women in their community about sexuality, self-image, and other women's mental and physical health issues.
Drifting around the seasons
The problem with strictly lunar calendars is that there are approximately 12.4 lunar months in every solar year, so a 12-month lunar calendar is about 11 days shorter than a solar year and a 13-month lunar is about 19 longer than a solar year. The months drift around the seasons on such a calendar: on a 12-month lunar calendar, the month of Nissan, which is supposed to occur in the Spring, would occur 11 days earlier in the season each year, eventually occurring in the Winter, the Fall, the Summer, and then the Spring again. On a 13-month lunar calendar, the same thing would happen in the other direction, and faster.
To compensate for this drift, the Jewish calendar uses a 12-month lunar calendar with an extra month occasionally added. The month of Nissan occurs 11 days earlier each year for two or three years, and then jumps forward 30 days, balancing out the drift. In ancient times, this month was added by observation: the Sanhedrin observed the conditions of the weather, the crops and the livestock, and if these were not sufficiently advanced to be considered "spring," then the Sanhedrin inserted an additional month into the calendar to make sure that Pesach would occur in the spring (as being referred to in the Torah as Chag he-Aviv, the Festival of Spring). At a later date, a custom was developed in which an additional day could be added to the month to ensure that certain holidays (such as Yom Kippur) did not fall on the days before or after Shabbat.
A year with 13 months is referred to in Hebrew as Shanah Me'uberet (literally: a pregnant year). The additional month is known as Adar I, Adar Rishon (first Adar) or Adar Alef (as, according the letter Alef is the numeral "1" in Hebrew). The extra month is inserted before the regular month of Adar (known in such years as Adar II, Adar Sheini or Adar Beit). Adar II is the "real" Adar, the one in which Purim is celebrated, the one in which yahrzeits for Adar are observed, the one in which a 13-year-old born in Adar becomes a Bar Mitzvah, while Adar I is the "extra" Adar. The current year, 5771, began on 9 September 2010 and ends on 28 September 2011.
In the fourth century, Hillel II established a fixed calendar based on mathematical and astronomical calculations. This calendar, still in use, standardized the length of months and the addition of months over the course of a 19 year cycle, so that the lunar calendar realigns with the solar years. Adar I is added in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th and 19th years of the cycle. The current cycle began in Jewish year 5758 (the year that began October 2, 1997).
Yom Kippur should not fall adjacent to Shabbat, because this would cause difficulties in coordinating the fast with Shabbat, and Hoshanah Rabbah (the last day of Sukkot. According to the Zohar, while the judgment for the new year is sealed on Yom Kippur, it is not delivered until the end of Sukkot, during which time one can still alter their verdict and decree for the new year. The common blessing exchange during this is פסקא טבא /piska tava), or, in Yiddish, "A guten kvitel"/"A good note") should not fall on Saturday because it would interfere with the holiday's observances. A day is added to the month of Cheshvan or subtracted from the month of Kislev of the previous year to prevent these things from happening. This process is sometimes referred to as "fixing" Rosh Hashanah.
The year number on the Jewish calendar are considered the number of years since creation, calculated by adding up the ages of people in the Tanach back to the time of creation. Many Orthodox Jews will readily acknowledge that the first six "days" of creation are not necessarily 24-hour days (indeed, a 24-hour day would be meaningless until the creation of the sun on the fourth "day").
The "first month" of the Jewish calendar is the month of Nissan, in the spring, when Pessach occurs. However, the New Year is in Tishri, the seventh month, and that is when the year number is increased.
The names of the months of the Jewish calendar were adopted during the time of Ezra, after the return from the Babylonian exile. The names are actually Babylonian month names, brought back to Israel by the returning exiles: Nissan, Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, Av, Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, Adar I (Adar II).
The length of Cheshvan and Kislev are determined by complex calculations involving the time of day of the full moon of the following year's Tishri and the day of the week that Tishri would occur in the following year. The number of days between Nissan and Tishri is always the same. Because of this, the time from the first major festival (Pessah in Nissan) to the last major festival (Sukkot in Tishri) is always the same.
Tishrei is the month of the beginning and coincides with the September-October in the civil calendar. It is the month when you have Rosh Hashanah, Tzom Gedalia, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. Cheshvan is without any special holiday and occurs in October-November in the usual calendar. Kislev which falls in November-December is the month when we celebrate Hanukkah. Hanukkah continues with Tevet (who starts today) who falls in December-January. Shevat is covering January-February. Its most important event is Tu B’Shvat. Adar is the month of Purim. Nisan is the month of spring, when we celebrate Pessach, Yom Hashoah and start the counting of the Omer. Iyar falls in April-May in the civil calendar and it is dedicated to Yom Hazikaron, Yom Haazmaut, Lag B’Omer and Yom Yerushalaym. Sivan falls in May-June and this month we celebrate Shavuot. Tammuz falls in June-July and is the month of the Tzom Tammuz. Av is the only month mentioned in the Torah and covers July and August, with the day of Tisha B’Av. On Elul, occurring in August-September, we don’t have holiday, because preparing for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. All month we sound the shofar to wake us up and remind us that the high holidays are coming up.
Tuesday, 7 December 2010
Women of the Wall (WoW)
Image via Wikipedia/The Kotel, men's sideI am following, not without amusement, many of the stages of the Reform movement. I refrain for making judgements of valor. Sometimes it is about two worlds who are face to face and don't know what to say to each other. And they start yelling incoherently. That's all. For today, we prepared: Women of the Wall (WOW).
According to its website, the organisation's mission is to win the social and legal right for women to wear tallit, pray and read out loud from the Torah collectively at the Kotel. In their own words, “as Women of the Wall, our central mission is to achieve the social and legal recognition of our right, as women, to wear prayer shawls, pray and read from the Torah collectively and out loud at the Western Wall. We work to further our mission through social advocacy, education and empowerment”.
Since December 1988 – the movement was created during the International Jewish Feminist Conference in Jerusalem - the members are meeting monthly, the first day of every month of the Jewish calendar, being joined by some men or by groups belonging to the Reform, all over the world. They come together to form a Minyan at the Kotel, and they continue the Shacharit service and Hallel in the front of the Wall and end up by reading the Torah at Robinson’s Arch, a prayer place for groups that do not meet the approval of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. WoW, with members all over the world, is considered the only place in Israel in which Orthodox, Conservative and Israel’s Reform Movement members can pray together.
Most part of the time, the Orthodox men are gathering to curse them and more or less violent arguments are frequently taking place. Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, forbid women from wearing tallit, carrying or reading Torah, and singing their prayers as a Minyan. There are complains (based on the the Talmudic principle of “Kol b’isha erva/The voice of a woman is nakedness”, which is greatly discussed up to various contexts) that the women singing could provoke feelings of lust among the men praying on the other side of the partition. The Sephardic spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said that women who pray in a tallit at the Kotel are “stupid”, and “deviant” and “should be slapped”.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that women are allowed to read from the Torah and wear a tallit as an outer garment at the Kotel. But four days after that ruling, ultra-Orthodox Knesset members submitted successfully a bill to make these acts illegal — and punishable by up to seven years in prison. As a result, the Supreme Court reversed itself and ruled it illegal for women to read Torah or wear an outer tallit at the Kotel plaza. In 2003, Israel's Supreme Court ruled that WoW could not hold vocal prayers at the wall as this presented a threat to law and order.
One year ago, the Medicine student Nofrat Frankel was arrested infringing these provisions. This July, on Shavuot, police arrested the Executive Director of the Israeli Religious Action Center which is part of the Reform Movement and current chair of WoW, Anat Hoffman, for holding a Torah scroll. She was fined 1,300$ and placed under a retraining order that bared her from the Kotel for 30 days. If convicted, Hoffman, former Jerusalem municipal council member, faces a sentence of up to three years in prison. She insists the Jewish holy books do not support the kind of discrimination she says women are subjected to. According to the Israeli media, she was quoted saying that "there is nothing in Judaism about this. This is fundamentalism; it is a desecration of this place".
David Grossman, on his latest book
To the end of land or, according to a very plain translation from Hebrew, A woman flees the news. The book I am about to read during this week-end.
A war criminal among us
He lived for 60 years in Germany, no need to change his name or to run in Latin America or in the Middle East. How was it possible? I would be curious to find out more.
How to deal with idiots
Image by Stewf via FlickrOr some insights about the idea of peace and love in the Middle East.
News and declarations in Egypt assume that the Mossad agents brought the sharks in Egypt. Two years ago, in the media from Iran the frontlines were that the same agents were using pigeons and squirrels (immediately arrested) against the nuclear program of the Republic.
If they are people who believe this, I have no idea how to deal with them - see the title...The repertoire of insanities is infinite...
Monday, 6 December 2010
The Milstein Family Jewish Communal Archive Project
A project led by YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Anti-semitism on the streets of Paris
I spent a couple of hours today reading some "old same news" about anti-semitism in Central and Eastern Europe, but the "old same news" is that the trolls from this part of the world are not alone. Here is the newest proof.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Hush!
I discovered Hush while e-reading Tablet. In the next ten minutes I ordered the book on Amazon and one week ago this time I was about to finish it. It took me another week for finding the time and the wording to write about it and almost one day for writing these paragraphs.
The issue of sexuality and abuse in the orthodox communities was rarely - if ever - approached in the English speaking literature. The author, assumed to be a woman using the pen name Eishes Chayil (Woman of Valor, the song that every Shabbat is honoring the woman as a mother, sister and holding a big responsibility in the perpetuation of Yiddishkeit), is belonging to this community and writes with a sensibility that I found surprising. Is educated, but know and respect in a very delicate way the traditional tabus and sensibilities. You will not have direct references to sex, even the book is talking about the victim of a sexual abuse. Or other explicit physical descriptions. The author is using the words in a very delicate way to describe terrible and controversial feelings and the influences of the creative writing classes are producing a very pleasant lecture. You don't even realize that something was missing and the words are powerful enough for suggesting explicit situations. And although the subject is very sad, there are enough episodes making you laugh.
And you need a lot of suggestions and paraphrases for the subject of this book: the education of the refuse to speak about the sexual abuses in the orthodox community. The knowledge is sealed beyond the closed doors but not for condemning the perpetrators, but to cover their facts. And this don't have nothing to do with Judaism or religion or "the tradition". It is the direct consequence of misunderstanding the role of the justice - equal for all commiting crimes. If nobody is taking measures and exposing the abuses, the potential perpetrators will be encouraged to do so. From my point of view, the attitude of the parents were relevant for this pattern: the mothers - Eishes Chayil - refused to acknowledge that the abuse were true and when they had all the evidences, they continued to recommend the hush-wise attitude for reasons of preservation of the community. But such an attitude is against the role that an Eishes Chayil should play in the community, as avertisor and guardian of the tradition. Such abuses don't have nothing to do with it and revealing the truth it is not even an act of justice, but the wake-up call for the return to the real values and tradition. You cannot build a community based on people with rotten behaviors, praying during the day and abusing their sisters during the night.
Another interesting aspect revealed in the book is the relation with the outside community. The perception based on an eternal conflict between "we" and "them" is creating the idea of a certain conflictual difference. Hence, the conception that making public all these scandalous situation the world will be turned around us. If so, create the proper mechanisms for preventing and punishing. And let the victims speak out - their suffering might be offering enough incentives for putting and end to this culture tolerating the evil.
And if it any question about the need to open a discussion on these issues, here it is the newest example pledging for the end of the "hush" way of thinking.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Elie Wiesel's Thanksgiving Talk
An intervention from 1968 about what we have to be thanksful or not.
First of all, we have to be thankfull for our chances to change something around us. And we do this by small facts or big acts. This is the spirit of תיקון עולם.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Anti-semitism as a mental disease
A couple of month ago, a obviously mentally disturbed woman, in a park almost empty, is approaching me and secretly is whispering that the Jews are everywhere and are destroying the world. Yesterday evening, an old man, dirty and carrying away a plastic bag full of empty plastic bottles was wandering at the metro station yelling a discourse about dangerous Mossad agents travelling across the world. Some of the people standing-by were laughing or looked amused.
In any serious sickness, the preventive treatment might stop the widespread of the malady.
Thursday, 11 November 2010
It Gets Better?
PS: There is no other MidEastern country in which an Arab Muslim would be allowed to march in a gay pride but in Israel.
Let's punk
Israeli's punk stage is a reflection of the daily confrontations and differences of the society itself. Religious or secular, keen to enter the Army or oposing it, worring about the future or unsatisfied with the mentalities of their societies. The movie it is well documented and interesting, but I would regret the lack of connection between the current musical punk stage and the Israeli musical trends from the 60s-70s.
Friday, 5 November 2010
Jews and Baseball
A movie freshly released in America, but not yet available on the other side of the pond. I deeply hate this restrictive policies!
The fight for symbols
Image via WikipediaA couple of personal observations regarding this controversy:Whose keffiyeh is this? This is another example of extreme ignorance, manipulation and despise for finding a common understanding and tolerance. Big words, isn't it?
- Even after the state of Israel was created, people who made Aliyah or Jewish people who didn't make aliyah were referring to the territory of the current state of Israel as: Palestine. And nobody ever was doubting that this is the state were Jews are living. This is an anecdotal aspect but good to have it in mind, mostly for those who didn't have the occasion to meet people from the generation surviving the war.
- Is Keffiyeh a national "Arab/Palestinian" symbol? Before being waved to various street meetings, when the flags of countries hosting those people are burned, this clothing element was having a strict practical use: covering the head - of human beings - against the hot sun. It was used by people living in this areas and nobody was disputing if it is Arab, Jewish or Korean or Laurence of Arabia. Abu Amar aka. Yassir Arafat relaunched this scarf as a national symbol. Nowadays, one of the main producer of this national symbols is China.
I deeply hope that the people from the Middle East can find real intellectual references for building their national and cultural identity than an outfit.
- I cannot but smile reading this idea of Pan-Arabic unity. I suppose nobody really takes it seriously, isn't it?.
Zemanta" style="border:none;float:right">WWII mass grave of Jews found in Romania
The mass graves are probably from 1941. Reading the article and other media reports from the last two days I saw many "witnesses" quoted, giving abundant details about what happened then. Now, we are in 2010 and Romania recognized officially its share in the Shoah only in 2003. Where were all these people during this period? Where?
Elie Wiesel: "Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies".
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Alice Dancing under the Gallows
A wonderful inspiring movie about the oldest Holocaust survivor in the world, Alice Herz-Somm, 106 year old pianist originary from Prague. Theresienstadt survivor, she is offering a wonderful lesson of hope and love for life. A wonderfully inspiring testimony.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Open way for civil marriages in Israel
Image via WikipediaAn interesting news via Ynet:
"The Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee has approved the fee for civil marriages in Israel, effectively paving the way for the instatement of these marriages within the coming days. Once official guidelines are published, non-Jewish Israelis, or citizens defined by the State as lacking religious denomination, will be able to marry without the Chief Rabbinate".
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Howard Jacobson wins Man Booker Prize
Writer and broadcaster Howard Jacobson Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY
The writer and broadcaster won the £50,000 award for The Finkler Question despite being the 10/1 rank outsider. He won
with his 11th novel and said he was “truly flabbergasted”. “I was beginning to look like I was the novelist that never, ever won
the Booker Prize,” said Jacobson, 68, who refers to himself as “the Jewish Jane Austen”. “I’m so sick of being described as
'the underrated Howard Jacobson’. So the thought that this judging panel has got rid of that forever is wonderful.
“I’ve waited a long time for this. There has been a little bit of bitterness, I would be a fool to pretend otherwise. But the
bitterness has gone now. I’ve been discovered. I’ve been around for nearly 30 years, but at least they’re discovering me. “My
new novel is about a writer enjoying no success whatsoever. So I’m in a bit of schtuck with that one.
Jacobson has promised to spend the money on a handbag for his wife, Jenny. The whole £50,000? He rolled his eyes.
“Have you seen the price of handbags? It was all very different from a 2001 interview in which Jacobson was quoted as
saying the Booker Prize was “an absolute abomination – the same dreary books year after year”.
Jacobson is the oldest winner since William Golding in 1980 and he beat favourites Tom McCarthy and Emma Donoghue. It
has been a long road to literary glory – a teacher at his Manchester primary school identified him as a future novelist aged
just seven, but Jacobson became a lecturer at Wolverhampton Polytechnic and was 40 before he published his first book.
Although longlisted twice before – for Kalooki Nights in 2006 and Who’s Sorry Now? in 2002 – he has never been
shortlisted before.
Sir Andrew Motion, chairman of the judges, said: “There is a particular pleasure in seeing somebody who is this good finally
getting his just desserts.” The book follows the misadventures of Julian Treslove, a failed BBC producer who is
fiercely jealous of his successful old schoolfriend, Sam Finkler, and yearns to be Jewish like him. It is the first comic novel in
the 42-year history of the prize, but also a meditation on identity, friendship and loss.
“It’s either a very funny book with very sad bits in it, or a very sad book with very funny bits in it,” Sir Andrew said. “It is a
book about Jewishness but it is so much more than that. It is a profound, wise book and a very entertaining one. It would be
a bit over-the-top to say it’s Shakespearean, but he certainly knows something that Shakespeare knew – that the tragic and
the funny are intimately linked.”
It was a narrow win – the judging process came down to a 3-2 decision in favour of Jacobson – but Sir Andrew said The
Finkler Question was “a completely worthy winner”. The prize was presented in a ceremony at London’s Guildhall.
Jacobson can now look forward to a hefty increase in book sales on the back of his win. Janine Cook, fiction buyer for
Waterstone’s, said: “Jacobson may have been low in the odds but there was always a sense that this might be his year. He
is a consistently entertaining writer and this is one of his best.”
There was intrigue last week when Ladbrokes suspended the betting on Tom McCarthy’s C following a flurry of wagers from
within the literary world – £15,000 in the space of one morning. However, Sir Andrew dismissed the conspiracy theories as
“utterly ”.
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