בעה''י
[First Published July 3, 2002]
I received my first Neo-Nazi hate mail this week. As a writer, one strives to communicate ideas, hopefully true and worthy ideas, though you never really know who you reach with your pen. Well, now I know.
Where does blind, irrational Jew-hatred come from? why is it so tenacious? and should we even care?
Of course, we thought we had it cured. The Enlightenment promised a quick death to anti-semitism, but when we embraced emancipation, they hated us for our liberalism. Assimilation pledged to slay anti-semitism, but when we converted, they reviled us for contaminating the Christian race. Socialism declared the blind brotherhood of all workers, but when we joined the great class struggle, Stalin murdered the Jews first. Zionists tried to solve “the Jewish problem,” but were accused of treason and treachery by their host nations. Even the Holocaust, that apocalyptic paroxysm of Jew-hatred, and the eventual establishment of a sovereign Jewish State did not eradicate the scourge of anti-semitism from the face of the earth, only forced it back into dark corners for a while. And in our own day, little girls are gunned down in pizza parlors and synagogues are razed by those who demand “justice for occupied Palestine.”
Who are we Jews, the objects of perpetual vilification? Who is the Jew you see in the mirror?
Open a siddur (prayerbook) and see who is reflected in it’s pages. The Jew, first and foremost, lavishes endless praise on the Creator: “Ilu pinu maleh shira kayam...”
“Even if our mouths were full of song as the sea, and our tongues as full of joyous song as it’s multitude of waves; were our lips as full of praise as the breadth of the heavens, and our eyes as brilliant as the sun and the moon; were our hands as outspread as eagles’ wings, and our feet as swift as hinds - we still could not thank you sufficiently, our Gcd and Gcd of our forefathers”
We are the people who wish only to cling to Gcd and His precious Torah:
“...instill understanding in our hearts to understand and elucidate; to listen, learn, teach, safeguard perform and fulfill all the words of Your Torah’s teaching with love”
We are the people that pray three times a day for insight, repentance, forgiveness, redemption, life and healing, justice, and, above all, peace. Pretty venal stuff so far.
We are the people who, “because of our sins, were exiled from our land.” We are sustained by that one little promise Gcd made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and we are acutely aware that, were we to be adjudged upon our own merits, we would have been long ago consigned to the dustbin of history.
But here we are, against all odds. Players on the world stage. Israel consistently receives more column-inches of news coverage than just about any other single country, issue or conflict. For two millennia we have wanted, above all else, to be left alone by the greater world, unharrassed to study Torah, to deepen our connection to Gcd, and for 2,000 years, the world hasn’t given us a moment’s peace.
There is a screaming dissonance between the way we understand ourselves - devotional, introspective, long-suffering, faithful keepers of Gcd’s light - and the way in which we are perceived by others.
Sample some of the comments posted recently on the website:
“We don't want to pay for your dirty war with our tax dollars. We don't want another hit from terrorists on account of YOUR DIRTY WAR AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS! A Jewish state based on ethnic cleansing and discrimination is immoral!” - Wendy Campbell
“How about Zyklon-B on the Jewish terrorist state?” - Hoeft
“you lot should be fu....ing shot.you have been like this for 3 thousand years killing anybody that is not a fu...ing jew, and you will be persecuted for another 3 thousand years. that's for sure. hitler was right,hitler was right,hitler was right you are not from human race! you have not evolved to human race yet.”
- John Sankho
“Forcing a defenseless (they have no army) people to live in what amounts to a concentration camp, and firing upon them with great frequency, stripping them of any human rights and dignity is what has created their willingness to do whatever it is they are able to do to fight back. Anyone in their position might resort to the same actions.” - anonymous
“In the name of Peace, sacrifice is sometimes necessary! Wouldn't it be easiest to simply eradicate the 14 million jews on this planet, instead of facing unending war and terrorism, caused by rightfully angry Pals and Muslims? After all, you jews started the terrorism when you erected your contemptible little dirt-State: stealing land and homes from the rightful owners; murdering many; then abusing the remnant for decades... Don't be fooled, when enough American Whites learn all the facts, you jews are going to get what you have coming to you. Death to Israel. Death to the jews.” - Mr. Tsun
“There is one simple solution to the end of Martydom [sic] operations - leave the land that Prophet Mohammed NEVER promised you, yet indeed you stole. There will never be any peace in the region where you and your father, the dirty American and British governments interfere.” - Abdullah
“No wonder Hitler did what he did to you. And I think you deserve even more.” - A Moslem
“Yeah, and Sharon, what, he killed only maybe 20,000 people in Lebanon.... nah, that's not a big deal! You people are so AMORAL.” - anonymous
“Let's execute every family member of every American who has ever supported the terrorist state of Israel. It is not only those responsible for the continuing invasion, occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine who ought to be murdered, but also all of their innocent relations.” - Kevin Barrett
“The present actions of the Israelis and American jews are already turning blind U.S. support into skepticism and sheer revulsion. When the American public finally decides that unquestioning, blind support of Israel is immoral and suicidal, the situation will come to a head. I'm starting to wonder if Adolph Hitler perhaps knew something that we're only now starting to realize...” - Joe Sixpack
Clearly, we have a public relations problem on our hands. Recent studies prove that such virulent ideas are widely held. We are misunderstood at best, and reviled at worst. Anti-semitism is nothing if not consistent, and every artifice to address it in the past has failed. We must confront it though, because it is our Divine mission to influence the world for good.
We live in a world that confuses technological progress with human advancement. We live in a world that rejects absolutes, and gaily bobs amid a vast shifting sea of relativisms. We are the still, small voice of conscience in a world that has no use for morals. We are the light keepers. No matter how much we are beaten, maimed and scorched, we always get back up to bear witness to the Great Truth. Our very existence puts the lie to every dogma that purports to have supplanted us.
So we are marginalized; we are impugned with the crimes of our accusers; we are repressed; and we are murdered. There is no substantive difference between an innocent 15 year-old girl murdered in a café in Herzliyah, and an innocent 15 year-old girl murdered in a gas chamber.
How do we explain that the good and loving Gcd sees all, reckons all, and has a place in heaven for ALL good people of the earth, regardless of race or creed? How do we explain that Gcd does not stand aloof from His creations, but is invested - every moment of every day - in our lives, urging us on to holiness? How do we explain that, despite our imperfections, the Jews are still Gcd’s “kingdom of priests,” consecrated with the responsibility to bring the Gcdly light into a very dark world? How do we explain that our bechirah (selection) imposes additional restrictions and responsibilities, not additional privilege? How do we explain that there is Divine guidance to human history, meaning that all will be good in the end? How do we explain that the continued existence of the Jewish People, the ingathering of exiles and the renaissance of the Jewish State bear eloquent witness that Gcd keeps his promises for all humanity? How do we urge all mankind to invest the mundane with sanctity, and act upon this imperfect world in goodness?
For two centuries, we have attempted to mitigate Jew-hatred by purging ourselves of our objectionable “Jewishness,” and in this we have utterly failed. It is time to stop fighting our true nature and once and for all embrace our Divine calling. The Jew-haters are wrong: there has never been an international Jewish conspiracy to rule the world. But maybe there should be an international Jewish summons to holiness; then, perhaps, the Jew in the mirror will more closely resemble the Jew in the siddur.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Truth or Dare
בעה''י
[First published June 27, 2002]
For 35 years, the Arab world has whined that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is at the root of the Mideast conflict. Force Israel back to the 1949 Armistice lines, they insinuated from behind their kaffiyehs, and the Israeli/Arab conflict might end. Israeli leftists and Jewish liberals cheered from the sidelines, all too willing to convict themselves in a frenzy of self-flagellating guilt; and the world at large, unable still to square an ascendant Jewish State with their own waning fortunes, gleefully picked up the cudgel of Palestinian victimhood to beat the renascent Jewish State.
So in this week’s Mideast policy address, President Bush dared the Arabs to prove it. In exchange for the promise of an imminent sovereign Palestinian State, he called upon the Arabs to embrace Truth: to eschew terrorism absolutely, to reject their current corrupt leadership, the embezzlers of billions and architects of this campaign of terror, to establish a genuine democracy with meaningful separation of powers, and to establish a culture which cultivates peaceful co-existence with their Jewish neighbor.
There are those who have been stridently critical of the President’s address, claiming that any promise of Palestinian statehood rewards the current campaign of terror. Let us remember, though, that Mr. Bush has come a long way in two years. He inherited a foreign policy that bullied Israel into Oslo II, Hevron and Wye, disregarding Arafat’s consistent violations of earlier agreements. During the 2000 Presidential campaign, George Bush was conspicuously reticent about the Middle East, and upon assuming office, adopted a policy of no policy at all. When, after the Dolphinarium massacre, he was forced to become engaged in the Middle East, he consulted with the likes of James Baker and Dad, people not known for their effusive pro-Israel sympathies.
But to his enduring credit, Bush recognized certain hard truths about the Middle East conflict. President Bush saw that it was Yassir Arafat and not Ariel Sharon’s Temple Mount stroll that let slip the dogs of war. He acknowledged Israel’s superhuman restraint in the early days of the current pogroms. He stood up to recognize Israel’s sovereign right to defend herself in a community of nations that was pounding its collective fist for more Jewish blood to feed the altar of Arab nationalism. He accepted Israel’s documentation that Arafat and his thugs were the organizers of the violence. He internalized the reality that Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah were working hand in glove with the Palestinian Authority, understood the Al-Qaeda and Iran connections to the PA, and froze their funds in the US. He understood the implications of the Karin-A, and the PA pay stubs to known terrorists. He recognized the irredentist Arab claim to the ‘right of return’ for what it is - a death sentence for Israel. And, as a man of faith and conscience, he was distressed by the appalling living conditions of the Arabs under PA occupation, and has watched their lives deteriorate even further over the last few years. These truths are embodied in his policy address this week, and that is both unprecedented and portentous.
No Arab state has openly differed with Bush’s new policy, but the Arab response has been tentative at best. A century ago, when German Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow disagreed with Kaiser Wilhelm II on foreign policy (which was most of the time), he never disagreed with him openly. A grand master of the diplomatic arts, he would enthusiastically embrace petulant Wilhelm’s latest ‘inspiration,’ and then begin to systematically undermine it with an endless litany of “yes, your Highness, except...” Invariably, Wilhelm’s callow interests drifted elsewhere, his passion would abate, and von Bulow was thus able to manage the ship of state into deeper waters.
We are already beginning to see ‘von Bulow diplomacy' from the Arab world and their allies. Yassir Arafat has already declared that the Palestinian people are proud of their democracy just the way it is. Collin Powell already envisions a figurehead role for Yassir Arafat, the Johnny Appleseed of modern terror, and if the Palestinian Arabs elect him President again, Powell says the US will have to deal with that too. So much for new leadership. Powell also acknowledged that the violence will probably never completely stop, implicitly granting the terrorists carte blanche to continue.
Let us also ponder for a moment the realistic prospects of a genuine democracy in the Arab world. Rather an ambitious task for a culture in which byzantine intrigue, equivocation and self-denial are integral components of interpersonal, and by extension, international relations. A vibrant Arab democracy with an educated electorate is a far more serious threat to the billionaire bedouin petro-pashas than any Islamist insurgency. Does anyone seriously believe that in three years the Palestinians are going to be magically transformed into...Canadians?
It’s truth or dare for President Bush as well. If President Bush resolutely sticks to the truth and holds Arab feet to the fire, then the terrorist war is likely begin in earnest, both in Israel and in the United States. And if he capitulates to Foggy Bottom and dumbs down the requirements for Palestinian statehood, then Israel’s strategic situation will grow unsustainably worse, and regional war will be the certain result.
In his policy address, he got it mostly right; there are only two more things he must grasp. First, the fast of the 17th is upon us, and it teaches us that not all problems are given to diplomatic resolution. There is an Unseen Hand controlling the pieces on the chessboard, and it is masochistic to suggest that we are the unbridled masters of our destiny. Second, the two states he envisions must be divided by a particular muddy brook and a certain salty lake.
I am counting on George Bush. He has come a long way in two years, and I believe he has the courage to stand by his convictions. Educating George takes time. At this point, perhaps he believes that the issue is land; inevitably, though, he will come to learn the Arabs are far less interested in creating a state than in destroying one.
Given time, he will come to realize that the crux of the Middle East conflict is not the destiny of a few barren hills. The outcome of this conflict will send shock waves around the world. For my dear, honest George, what is at stake here is nothing less than who will grasp the pen that writes the final chapters of the history of Western civilization.
[First published June 27, 2002]
For 35 years, the Arab world has whined that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is at the root of the Mideast conflict. Force Israel back to the 1949 Armistice lines, they insinuated from behind their kaffiyehs, and the Israeli/Arab conflict might end. Israeli leftists and Jewish liberals cheered from the sidelines, all too willing to convict themselves in a frenzy of self-flagellating guilt; and the world at large, unable still to square an ascendant Jewish State with their own waning fortunes, gleefully picked up the cudgel of Palestinian victimhood to beat the renascent Jewish State.
So in this week’s Mideast policy address, President Bush dared the Arabs to prove it. In exchange for the promise of an imminent sovereign Palestinian State, he called upon the Arabs to embrace Truth: to eschew terrorism absolutely, to reject their current corrupt leadership, the embezzlers of billions and architects of this campaign of terror, to establish a genuine democracy with meaningful separation of powers, and to establish a culture which cultivates peaceful co-existence with their Jewish neighbor.
There are those who have been stridently critical of the President’s address, claiming that any promise of Palestinian statehood rewards the current campaign of terror. Let us remember, though, that Mr. Bush has come a long way in two years. He inherited a foreign policy that bullied Israel into Oslo II, Hevron and Wye, disregarding Arafat’s consistent violations of earlier agreements. During the 2000 Presidential campaign, George Bush was conspicuously reticent about the Middle East, and upon assuming office, adopted a policy of no policy at all. When, after the Dolphinarium massacre, he was forced to become engaged in the Middle East, he consulted with the likes of James Baker and Dad, people not known for their effusive pro-Israel sympathies.
But to his enduring credit, Bush recognized certain hard truths about the Middle East conflict. President Bush saw that it was Yassir Arafat and not Ariel Sharon’s Temple Mount stroll that let slip the dogs of war. He acknowledged Israel’s superhuman restraint in the early days of the current pogroms. He stood up to recognize Israel’s sovereign right to defend herself in a community of nations that was pounding its collective fist for more Jewish blood to feed the altar of Arab nationalism. He accepted Israel’s documentation that Arafat and his thugs were the organizers of the violence. He internalized the reality that Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Hezbollah were working hand in glove with the Palestinian Authority, understood the Al-Qaeda and Iran connections to the PA, and froze their funds in the US. He understood the implications of the Karin-A, and the PA pay stubs to known terrorists. He recognized the irredentist Arab claim to the ‘right of return’ for what it is - a death sentence for Israel. And, as a man of faith and conscience, he was distressed by the appalling living conditions of the Arabs under PA occupation, and has watched their lives deteriorate even further over the last few years. These truths are embodied in his policy address this week, and that is both unprecedented and portentous.
No Arab state has openly differed with Bush’s new policy, but the Arab response has been tentative at best. A century ago, when German Chancellor Bernhard von Bulow disagreed with Kaiser Wilhelm II on foreign policy (which was most of the time), he never disagreed with him openly. A grand master of the diplomatic arts, he would enthusiastically embrace petulant Wilhelm’s latest ‘inspiration,’ and then begin to systematically undermine it with an endless litany of “yes, your Highness, except...” Invariably, Wilhelm’s callow interests drifted elsewhere, his passion would abate, and von Bulow was thus able to manage the ship of state into deeper waters.
We are already beginning to see ‘von Bulow diplomacy' from the Arab world and their allies. Yassir Arafat has already declared that the Palestinian people are proud of their democracy just the way it is. Collin Powell already envisions a figurehead role for Yassir Arafat, the Johnny Appleseed of modern terror, and if the Palestinian Arabs elect him President again, Powell says the US will have to deal with that too. So much for new leadership. Powell also acknowledged that the violence will probably never completely stop, implicitly granting the terrorists carte blanche to continue.
Let us also ponder for a moment the realistic prospects of a genuine democracy in the Arab world. Rather an ambitious task for a culture in which byzantine intrigue, equivocation and self-denial are integral components of interpersonal, and by extension, international relations. A vibrant Arab democracy with an educated electorate is a far more serious threat to the billionaire bedouin petro-pashas than any Islamist insurgency. Does anyone seriously believe that in three years the Palestinians are going to be magically transformed into...Canadians?
It’s truth or dare for President Bush as well. If President Bush resolutely sticks to the truth and holds Arab feet to the fire, then the terrorist war is likely begin in earnest, both in Israel and in the United States. And if he capitulates to Foggy Bottom and dumbs down the requirements for Palestinian statehood, then Israel’s strategic situation will grow unsustainably worse, and regional war will be the certain result.
In his policy address, he got it mostly right; there are only two more things he must grasp. First, the fast of the 17th is upon us, and it teaches us that not all problems are given to diplomatic resolution. There is an Unseen Hand controlling the pieces on the chessboard, and it is masochistic to suggest that we are the unbridled masters of our destiny. Second, the two states he envisions must be divided by a particular muddy brook and a certain salty lake.
I am counting on George Bush. He has come a long way in two years, and I believe he has the courage to stand by his convictions. Educating George takes time. At this point, perhaps he believes that the issue is land; inevitably, though, he will come to learn the Arabs are far less interested in creating a state than in destroying one.
Given time, he will come to realize that the crux of the Middle East conflict is not the destiny of a few barren hills. The outcome of this conflict will send shock waves around the world. For my dear, honest George, what is at stake here is nothing less than who will grasp the pen that writes the final chapters of the history of Western civilization.
I Met Jabotinsky This Week
בעה''י
[First published June 20, 2002]
I met Zev Jabotinsky this week at the Likud Party Meeting, held at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv. You know who I mean: THE Zev Jabotinsky, founder of Zionist Revisionism and the Independent Zionist Organization, Rosh Betar, founder of the Jewish Legion, the Haganah and patron saint of the Irgun. It was kind of like an Elvis sighting. He died in 1940, but a 20 foot portrait of him stood on the bimah of the Likud Central Committee meeting last Sunday night. He cast his rather stern, imposing gaze upon the assemblage, dwarfing the small men sitting at the rostrum.
“Jabo,” I asked, “as the person who contributed so much to the advancement of modern spoken Hebrew; you, who spoke so poetically about the inherent lyricism of the Hebrew language; tell me, Jabo, what thinketh you of the crude discourse and raucous shouting we have witnessed in the hall tonight? Does this meeting reflect your concept of hadar?” Jabotinsky did not respond.
“Jabo,” I asked again, “as the person who called for large scale capital investment and industrialization of the Jewish economy in Palestine; you, who constantly fought the socialist, agrarian central planners who had a stranglehold on economic development; what is your view of a Likud-led government, purporting to speak in your name, which has just approved another round of punitive tax hikes on an economy already in deep recession?” Jabotinsky did not respond.
“Jabo,” I persisted, “as the person who first spoke out so forcefully for Jewish Self-Defense against Arab violence in 1920 and 1929 and again in 1936; you, who sat in Akko prison and was later banished from Palestine for the crime of defending innocent Jews; you, who endorsed Irgun action in the face of Haganah ‘restraint;’ tell me, Jabo, how do you respond to a Likud Prime Minister who purports to speak in your name when he declares that ‘restraint is strength?’ What say you to a government that is comfortable with a daily quota of several murders or attempted murders of Jews at the hands of Arab terrorists? ” Again, Jabotinsky did not respond.
“Jabo,” I asked a little louder, “as a secular Jew who insisted on preserving what you described as ‘the sacred treasures of Judaism;’ how can you countenance a government led by your party that forbids Jews access to the Temple Mount and the Cave of Machpelah?” Jabo was silent as stone.
“Jabo,” (I was shouting this time,) “as the person who stated unequivocally that the goal of Zionism is a Jewish majority straddling both sides of the Jordan river; you, who challenged the world superpower of your day by organizing large scale illegal immigration of diaspora Jews; you, who split from a World Zionist Organization that was content to abide by the British White Papers; what say you to a Likud Prime Minister, purporting to speak in your name, who is capitulating to a modern-day world superpower and is prepared to recognize an Arab sovereign state west of the Jordan?”
As I stared into his serious, determined eyes, waiting for an answer, I realized that Jabotinsky had already left the building.
[First published June 20, 2002]
I met Zev Jabotinsky this week at the Likud Party Meeting, held at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv. You know who I mean: THE Zev Jabotinsky, founder of Zionist Revisionism and the Independent Zionist Organization, Rosh Betar, founder of the Jewish Legion, the Haganah and patron saint of the Irgun. It was kind of like an Elvis sighting. He died in 1940, but a 20 foot portrait of him stood on the bimah of the Likud Central Committee meeting last Sunday night. He cast his rather stern, imposing gaze upon the assemblage, dwarfing the small men sitting at the rostrum.
“Jabo,” I asked, “as the person who contributed so much to the advancement of modern spoken Hebrew; you, who spoke so poetically about the inherent lyricism of the Hebrew language; tell me, Jabo, what thinketh you of the crude discourse and raucous shouting we have witnessed in the hall tonight? Does this meeting reflect your concept of hadar?” Jabotinsky did not respond.
“Jabo,” I asked again, “as the person who called for large scale capital investment and industrialization of the Jewish economy in Palestine; you, who constantly fought the socialist, agrarian central planners who had a stranglehold on economic development; what is your view of a Likud-led government, purporting to speak in your name, which has just approved another round of punitive tax hikes on an economy already in deep recession?” Jabotinsky did not respond.
“Jabo,” I persisted, “as the person who first spoke out so forcefully for Jewish Self-Defense against Arab violence in 1920 and 1929 and again in 1936; you, who sat in Akko prison and was later banished from Palestine for the crime of defending innocent Jews; you, who endorsed Irgun action in the face of Haganah ‘restraint;’ tell me, Jabo, how do you respond to a Likud Prime Minister who purports to speak in your name when he declares that ‘restraint is strength?’ What say you to a government that is comfortable with a daily quota of several murders or attempted murders of Jews at the hands of Arab terrorists? ” Again, Jabotinsky did not respond.
“Jabo,” I asked a little louder, “as a secular Jew who insisted on preserving what you described as ‘the sacred treasures of Judaism;’ how can you countenance a government led by your party that forbids Jews access to the Temple Mount and the Cave of Machpelah?” Jabo was silent as stone.
“Jabo,” (I was shouting this time,) “as the person who stated unequivocally that the goal of Zionism is a Jewish majority straddling both sides of the Jordan river; you, who challenged the world superpower of your day by organizing large scale illegal immigration of diaspora Jews; you, who split from a World Zionist Organization that was content to abide by the British White Papers; what say you to a Likud Prime Minister, purporting to speak in your name, who is capitulating to a modern-day world superpower and is prepared to recognize an Arab sovereign state west of the Jordan?”
As I stared into his serious, determined eyes, waiting for an answer, I realized that Jabotinsky had already left the building.
The Sound & The Fury
בעה''י
[First published June 20, 2002]
Dear friends,
This week’s essay is dedicated to the memory of the 25 Jews murdered this week in Jerusalem. Please join me in adding this to your “Refaena” prayer in the Shmoneh Esrei:
Yehi ratzon milfanecha Hashem Elokeinu v’Eilokei avoteinu shtishlach meheira refuah shaleimah min hashamayim, refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf lakol hanifgaim, u’lamishpachot hanirtzachim, she’nifge’u v’nirtzechu b’piguei terror, she’masru nafsham al kiddushat Hashem b’milchemet mitzvah b’artzeinu b’toch sha’ar cholei Yisrael
May it be Your will Hashem our Gcd and Gcd of our forefathers that you dispatch a speedy and complete recovery, a physical and mental healing, to all the injured and to all the families of the murdered, who were injured and murdered in terror attacks; who sacrificed themselves to sanctify Your Name in this Milchemet Mitzvah for the holy Land of Israel, among the other sick of your people Israel.
************************************
Tuesday morning sounds of the daily birchat hacohanim still ringing in my ears cause His face to shine upon you and grant you peace the smell of a newly minted day wafting on the wind walking noises the swish of my tallis bag against my shirt the controlled fall of my shoes as I jaunt down the steep hill Gcd I love this walk the perfect endless azure sky the seismic BOOM heard walking home from shul echoing from Gilo through the canyons of the Judean Hills my silent prayer of hope that maybe it’s just a sonic boom from an overhead jet the rhythmic squeaksqueaksqueak of the park swings full of kids waiting for the bus screaming ambulances and shrieking car horns the whispering pines sharing secrets with one another maybe the whispers are messages for us the pounding pounding POUNDING of my heart rushing me home the perky morning kiddie shows tooting and tinkling on the TV the screechy modem as I scramble to get the latest news giggling children at play in the living room behind me grim politicians’ voices, clucking their tongues and shaking their heads - but careful not to mess up the hair quotesquotesquotes the horrific pictures from this murderous act carried out by Palestinians, the horrific images that we see here, are more powerful than any words this is a terrible calamity, a tragic day for Jerusalem and a tragic day for Israel blahblahblah Hazaa el-Rol, the proud papa of the suicide bomber responsible for this morning's bus bombing attack, gloating over the mass murder perpetrated by his boy flags flown at half-mast snapping fluttering in the breeze, totally oblivious so that at least they can still be proud the words of David from the deepest depths I cry out to you OH GCD the thunderous drum beat of our enemies on every continent singing paeans to and constructing a world which will once and for all finally be Judenrein the pusillanimous Jewish capos of our day who assist them who willingly load boxcars with others to buy another day for themselves and the incomprehensible redemptive slow inexorable crawling sound that can’t be shouted down of Ezekiel’s bones dragging themselves through the sand knitting themselves back together cladding themselves anew in flesh and skin what does this sound like sounds like the daily birchat hacohanim cause His face to shine upon you and grant you peace
[First published June 20, 2002]
Dear friends,
This week’s essay is dedicated to the memory of the 25 Jews murdered this week in Jerusalem. Please join me in adding this to your “Refaena” prayer in the Shmoneh Esrei:
Yehi ratzon milfanecha Hashem Elokeinu v’Eilokei avoteinu shtishlach meheira refuah shaleimah min hashamayim, refuat hanefesh u’refuat haguf lakol hanifgaim, u’lamishpachot hanirtzachim, she’nifge’u v’nirtzechu b’piguei terror, she’masru nafsham al kiddushat Hashem b’milchemet mitzvah b’artzeinu b’toch sha’ar cholei Yisrael
May it be Your will Hashem our Gcd and Gcd of our forefathers that you dispatch a speedy and complete recovery, a physical and mental healing, to all the injured and to all the families of the murdered, who were injured and murdered in terror attacks; who sacrificed themselves to sanctify Your Name in this Milchemet Mitzvah for the holy Land of Israel, among the other sick of your people Israel.
************************************
Tuesday morning sounds of the daily birchat hacohanim still ringing in my ears cause His face to shine upon you and grant you peace the smell of a newly minted day wafting on the wind walking noises the swish of my tallis bag against my shirt the controlled fall of my shoes as I jaunt down the steep hill Gcd I love this walk the perfect endless azure sky the seismic BOOM heard walking home from shul echoing from Gilo through the canyons of the Judean Hills my silent prayer of hope that maybe it’s just a sonic boom from an overhead jet the rhythmic squeaksqueaksqueak of the park swings full of kids waiting for the bus screaming ambulances and shrieking car horns the whispering pines sharing secrets with one another maybe the whispers are messages for us the pounding pounding POUNDING of my heart rushing me home the perky morning kiddie shows tooting and tinkling on the TV the screechy modem as I scramble to get the latest news giggling children at play in the living room behind me grim politicians’ voices, clucking their tongues and shaking their heads - but careful not to mess up the hair quotesquotesquotes the horrific pictures from this murderous act carried out by Palestinians, the horrific images that we see here, are more powerful than any words this is a terrible calamity, a tragic day for Jerusalem and a tragic day for Israel blahblahblah Hazaa el-Rol, the proud papa of the suicide bomber responsible for this morning's bus bombing attack, gloating over the mass murder perpetrated by his boy flags flown at half-mast snapping fluttering in the breeze, totally oblivious so that at least they can still be proud the words of David from the deepest depths I cry out to you OH GCD the thunderous drum beat of our enemies on every continent singing paeans to and constructing a world which will once and for all finally be Judenrein the pusillanimous Jewish capos of our day who assist them who willingly load boxcars with others to buy another day for themselves and the incomprehensible redemptive slow inexorable crawling sound that can’t be shouted down of Ezekiel’s bones dragging themselves through the sand knitting themselves back together cladding themselves anew in flesh and skin what does this sound like sounds like the daily birchat hacohanim cause His face to shine upon you and grant you peace
The Vanishing American Jew
בעה''י
[First Published on June 17, 2002]
30 years - that’s all I ask to prove to you that the American Jewish community is dying.
I am not referring to the recent NY Post article which reveals a string of Islamic fundamentalist attacks against the Jewish community over the last 12 years; nor I am referring to the near pogrom at San Fransisco State University, or even the admission by Ahmed Rahman Yassin that the original target of the 1993 WTC bombing was Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. No, American Jews are not being murdered to extinction, we are committing suicide.
There, I’ve said it. I have broken the taboo that community leaders know and dread to utter. For 100 years or more, five full generations, American Jews have experienced a vacation from Jewish history: unfettered freedom, complete civil liberties, economic opportunity, the virtual absence of anti-semitism, and social mobility. But what have we done with our advantages? Let’s take a dispassionate look at the condition of the American Jewish community.
In 1970, there were 6.7 million Jews in the US, according to the Brittanica Book of the Year. By 1990, according to the National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) of that year, there were 5.2 million Jews. And although the results of the 2000 NJPS have been delayed (tremulous fear, perhaps?) Some estimates put the current figure at 4.3 million. If current demographic trends hold (and there is nothing on the horizon to suggest that they won’t), within 50 years there will be perhaps 1.5 million Jews, mainly Chareidim, and mainly in New York.
Concomitantly, the power and size of the Arab-American community is growing. They currently number approximately 6 million, and are taking careful notes on how the American Jewish community organizes and exerts it’s electoral clout. What are the implications of this counter-phenomenon?
Many American Jews point proudly to their pro-Israel lobbying efforts, and argue that large-scale aliyah of American Jews would jeopardize US support of Israel. However, when there are 10 million Arab-Americans and only a million Jews, which lobby will carry the day in the corridors of power? David Bonior is not a singular pro-Arab Congressman from Michigan; he is the harbinger of the future. There is another democratic country, once strongly pro-Israel, which now hosts a population of 6 million Arabs and only 600,000 Jews. Ever heard of France? Study it well, my American friends - the synagogue bombings, the attacks upon Jews, the public policy, all of it - for that is the road you are treading.
Let’s look a little deeper. By virtue of it’s size, Conservative Judaism has been popularly regarded as mainstream, normative Judaism; and by virtue of its position, it claimed to moderate between the Reform on the left and a small but indomitable Orthodox community on the right. Since the direction of American Jewish communal life has largely been steered through the influence of the Conservative Movement, it is instructive to see how the Movement is doing.
At the recent Conservative Movement Convention, which claims a membership of 2.1 million Jews, Dr. Neil Gillman, a Professor of Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, noted the absence of “Gcd talk” within the Movement. Rabbi Jerome Epstein, Executive Vice President of United Synagogue, admitted publicly that “...large numbers of Conservative Jews do not live the life or values we teach.” Conservative Jews tend to either drift left, towards the Reform, or, if they do live Jewish values, tend to develop into Orthodox Jews. There is also a push within the Movement to invigorate the liturgy, which is widely regarded as stultified and devoid of meaning.
Finally, Rabbi Silverstein, by urging the Movement to be more “demographically pro-active,” hinted at the great, unspoken spectre that haunts the Conservative Movement: the average age of the Conservative congregant is skewed into the 60s or 70s, and there are few young people entering the Movement to replace them. So 50 years hence, their 800 congregations will be churches, mosques or bingo halls. The Conservative Movement has no direction, no mission, and - very soon - no congregants; in short, the Movement is not self-sustaining.
The Reform Movement, on the other hand, is thriving for now; and why shouldn’t it? As the Judaism of “individual autonomy,” it demands nothing of it’s adherents, except of course expensive dues and building fund pledges. According to recent estimates, only 50% - 60% of Reform Jews are halachically Jewish. Reform Judaism will continue the drift to the left, resembling Christian Unitarianism, only with Jewish iconology. It will aggressively advocate political action in the realms of diversity, radical feminism, militant gay rights and socialism.
So the Reform will continue to thrive in American life for a while, as the only address in the Jewish community that destigmatizes intermarriage and positively celebrates and accelerates assimilation. Eventually, though, the Reform will so successfully divest themselves of the vestiges of Jewish identity, that they will find their pews empty, too. More church buildings available at bargain prices.
American Orthodoxy is also not without it’s problems. Increasingly, secular values and images, the seductive culture of youth, and the appeal of instant self-gratification have made insidious inroads into even the most august observant homes. We seem unable to convey to many of our children the Jewish notion of ritual fused with meaning; unable to answer convincingly, against a backdrop of unlimited choices, why a teenager should choose to be a committed Jew in this day and age.
To avert this disaster, we must return to our Divine calling.
“V’Ata Kadosh, Yoshev Tehilot Yisrael” “And You are Holy, enthroned upon the praises of Israel.” Yoshev - suggests Yishuv Eretz Yisrael
Tehilot - suggest Torah
Yisrael - Klal Yisrael
The living interconnection between the Land, the Torah and the People is the great secret of Jewish survival. They are the tripod of Gcd’s throne, as it were, and a stool with only two legs is no stool at all. American Jewry is self-destructing because we have attempted to base our Jewish identity on any two, or sometimes only one of them. Our liberal Jewish brethren who have discarded both Torah and the Land find it difficult to understand why their adherents can’t find much use for the People, either. Our Orthodox communities emphasize Torah and Klal, but attach almost no significance to Yishuv Eretz Yisrael. And our secular Zionist brethren have demonstrated the abject failure of the People and the Land without Torah.
We point to our impressive institutions, Federations and synagogues, built out of necessity, with such painstaking effort and at such staggering cost. But we are like the proverbial castaway who, when offered the chance of rescue, is reluctant to return to civilization; reluctant to leave the crude instruments of survival he engineered and so lovingly built with almost superhuman effort. We are reluctant to abandon our desert island for a life in Israel where being Jewish is normative, where Jewish continuity is taken for granted, where the ground, the air, the water is suffused with the spirit of Gcd.
We can no longer afford to ignore the historical imperatives that drive us towards our destiny: the People, loyal to Gcd and Torah, living on the Land forsworn to our ancestors, fulfilling the mission of bringing Gcd’s holiness into a weary world desperately in need of it.
Those few diaspora Jews who happen to find themselves in a shul this Shabbat will hear the story of the meraglim, the 12 spies, who made a pilot trip to Israel but preferred their life in chutz l’aretz. In closing, consider the words of Gcd directed at those who rejected the Land of Israel:
“And your young children of whom you said they will be taken captive [in Israel], I shall bring them; they shall know the Land that you have despised. But your carcasses will drop in this wilderness.” Bamidbar 14:31, 32
Think about that before you sign up for that fat 30 year mortgage.
[First Published on June 17, 2002]
30 years - that’s all I ask to prove to you that the American Jewish community is dying.
I am not referring to the recent NY Post article which reveals a string of Islamic fundamentalist attacks against the Jewish community over the last 12 years; nor I am referring to the near pogrom at San Fransisco State University, or even the admission by Ahmed Rahman Yassin that the original target of the 1993 WTC bombing was Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn. No, American Jews are not being murdered to extinction, we are committing suicide.
There, I’ve said it. I have broken the taboo that community leaders know and dread to utter. For 100 years or more, five full generations, American Jews have experienced a vacation from Jewish history: unfettered freedom, complete civil liberties, economic opportunity, the virtual absence of anti-semitism, and social mobility. But what have we done with our advantages? Let’s take a dispassionate look at the condition of the American Jewish community.
In 1970, there were 6.7 million Jews in the US, according to the Brittanica Book of the Year. By 1990, according to the National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) of that year, there were 5.2 million Jews. And although the results of the 2000 NJPS have been delayed (tremulous fear, perhaps?) Some estimates put the current figure at 4.3 million. If current demographic trends hold (and there is nothing on the horizon to suggest that they won’t), within 50 years there will be perhaps 1.5 million Jews, mainly Chareidim, and mainly in New York.
Concomitantly, the power and size of the Arab-American community is growing. They currently number approximately 6 million, and are taking careful notes on how the American Jewish community organizes and exerts it’s electoral clout. What are the implications of this counter-phenomenon?
Many American Jews point proudly to their pro-Israel lobbying efforts, and argue that large-scale aliyah of American Jews would jeopardize US support of Israel. However, when there are 10 million Arab-Americans and only a million Jews, which lobby will carry the day in the corridors of power? David Bonior is not a singular pro-Arab Congressman from Michigan; he is the harbinger of the future. There is another democratic country, once strongly pro-Israel, which now hosts a population of 6 million Arabs and only 600,000 Jews. Ever heard of France? Study it well, my American friends - the synagogue bombings, the attacks upon Jews, the public policy, all of it - for that is the road you are treading.
Let’s look a little deeper. By virtue of it’s size, Conservative Judaism has been popularly regarded as mainstream, normative Judaism; and by virtue of its position, it claimed to moderate between the Reform on the left and a small but indomitable Orthodox community on the right. Since the direction of American Jewish communal life has largely been steered through the influence of the Conservative Movement, it is instructive to see how the Movement is doing.
At the recent Conservative Movement Convention, which claims a membership of 2.1 million Jews, Dr. Neil Gillman, a Professor of Philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary, noted the absence of “Gcd talk” within the Movement. Rabbi Jerome Epstein, Executive Vice President of United Synagogue, admitted publicly that “...large numbers of Conservative Jews do not live the life or values we teach.” Conservative Jews tend to either drift left, towards the Reform, or, if they do live Jewish values, tend to develop into Orthodox Jews. There is also a push within the Movement to invigorate the liturgy, which is widely regarded as stultified and devoid of meaning.
Finally, Rabbi Silverstein, by urging the Movement to be more “demographically pro-active,” hinted at the great, unspoken spectre that haunts the Conservative Movement: the average age of the Conservative congregant is skewed into the 60s or 70s, and there are few young people entering the Movement to replace them. So 50 years hence, their 800 congregations will be churches, mosques or bingo halls. The Conservative Movement has no direction, no mission, and - very soon - no congregants; in short, the Movement is not self-sustaining.
The Reform Movement, on the other hand, is thriving for now; and why shouldn’t it? As the Judaism of “individual autonomy,” it demands nothing of it’s adherents, except of course expensive dues and building fund pledges. According to recent estimates, only 50% - 60% of Reform Jews are halachically Jewish. Reform Judaism will continue the drift to the left, resembling Christian Unitarianism, only with Jewish iconology. It will aggressively advocate political action in the realms of diversity, radical feminism, militant gay rights and socialism.
So the Reform will continue to thrive in American life for a while, as the only address in the Jewish community that destigmatizes intermarriage and positively celebrates and accelerates assimilation. Eventually, though, the Reform will so successfully divest themselves of the vestiges of Jewish identity, that they will find their pews empty, too. More church buildings available at bargain prices.
American Orthodoxy is also not without it’s problems. Increasingly, secular values and images, the seductive culture of youth, and the appeal of instant self-gratification have made insidious inroads into even the most august observant homes. We seem unable to convey to many of our children the Jewish notion of ritual fused with meaning; unable to answer convincingly, against a backdrop of unlimited choices, why a teenager should choose to be a committed Jew in this day and age.
To avert this disaster, we must return to our Divine calling.
“V’Ata Kadosh, Yoshev Tehilot Yisrael” “And You are Holy, enthroned upon the praises of Israel.” Yoshev - suggests Yishuv Eretz Yisrael
Tehilot - suggest Torah
Yisrael - Klal Yisrael
The living interconnection between the Land, the Torah and the People is the great secret of Jewish survival. They are the tripod of Gcd’s throne, as it were, and a stool with only two legs is no stool at all. American Jewry is self-destructing because we have attempted to base our Jewish identity on any two, or sometimes only one of them. Our liberal Jewish brethren who have discarded both Torah and the Land find it difficult to understand why their adherents can’t find much use for the People, either. Our Orthodox communities emphasize Torah and Klal, but attach almost no significance to Yishuv Eretz Yisrael. And our secular Zionist brethren have demonstrated the abject failure of the People and the Land without Torah.
We point to our impressive institutions, Federations and synagogues, built out of necessity, with such painstaking effort and at such staggering cost. But we are like the proverbial castaway who, when offered the chance of rescue, is reluctant to return to civilization; reluctant to leave the crude instruments of survival he engineered and so lovingly built with almost superhuman effort. We are reluctant to abandon our desert island for a life in Israel where being Jewish is normative, where Jewish continuity is taken for granted, where the ground, the air, the water is suffused with the spirit of Gcd.
We can no longer afford to ignore the historical imperatives that drive us towards our destiny: the People, loyal to Gcd and Torah, living on the Land forsworn to our ancestors, fulfilling the mission of bringing Gcd’s holiness into a weary world desperately in need of it.
Those few diaspora Jews who happen to find themselves in a shul this Shabbat will hear the story of the meraglim, the 12 spies, who made a pilot trip to Israel but preferred their life in chutz l’aretz. In closing, consider the words of Gcd directed at those who rejected the Land of Israel:
“And your young children of whom you said they will be taken captive [in Israel], I shall bring them; they shall know the Land that you have despised. But your carcasses will drop in this wilderness.” Bamidbar 14:31, 32
Think about that before you sign up for that fat 30 year mortgage.
Loshon Koidesh
בעה''י
[First Published June 17, 2002]
Dear friends,
I wrote the following before news of the latest piguah in Itamar. 3 teenaged boys were shot dead for being basketball-playing ‘obstacles to peace’ on Tuesday evening.
I have decided to send this essay anyway, because if I were to stop writing - if we, as a people, were to stop functioning, growing, fulfilling our historical mission every time there is a piguah, then on some level, the terrorists have won. In my essays, I share the perspectives of an American family replanting our lives in Eretz Yisrael. In the final analysis, that is the ultimate, enduring response to this frank evil: YISHUV ERETZ YISRAEL.
So this week’s essay is dedicated to the memory of those three boys:
Avi Citon, age 17
Gilad Stiglitz, age 14
Netanel Riachi, age 17
as well as to the memories of a Bubbe and her granddaughter murdered in Petach Tikvah:
Ruthie Peled, aged 56
Sinai Keinan, aged 1-1/2
Hashem Yinkom Damam (May Gcd Avenge their Murders).
*******************************
I could not believe my ears. Straining from behind my closed office door, I listened to what seemed to be the voices of my three older daughters speaking amongst themselves in Hebrew. In life’s grand scheme, perhaps this is a small milestone, but their halting, pigeon Hebrew was the most beautiful sound I had heard since our arrival. In only four months, the girls were making themselves understood in Hebrew. As the wave of pride crested within me, I was taken back to thoughts of...my Bubbe.
Bubbe? Yes, my Bubbe. Let me tell you why.
Born to Russian immigrants in Brooklyn in 1911, she grew up in a house where Yiddish was the spoken language, and the high priest of their faith was Leon Trotsky. One might say they were more Yiddish than Jewish; the Yiddish theatre, the Yiddish press, Yiddish literature and Yiddish music were the stars in their constellation.
Bubbe was a luminary in her own right - Beatrice (Bessie to her friends) was ebullient, bright and beautiful. Despite her elegant, mellifluous Yiddish, her future father-in-law was convinced she was a ‘shikse’ - she didn’t have the demure ta’am (style) of a Yiddishe maidel. For her part, she was more than a little afraid to marry such a religious boy, but they married anyway; she eventually grew to be profoundly religious in her own right. In the end, my great-grandfather described her as the most precious of all his daughters-in-law.
She had a sanguine determination that she brought to everything she did, whether it was her 40-year-long nursing career or her work for the synagogue Sisterhood. She once nursed a gravely ill infant boy through the night when the doctors had given up all hope and had gone home, expecting the child to be dead by morning. But thanks to her round-the-clock care, the baby cheated death, and went on to eventually recover. Thirteen years later, out of the blue, Bubbe & Zayde received an invitation to his Bar Mitzvah.
One day, in her mid-sixties, this remarkable woman decided to begin learning Hebrew.
She signed up for the weekly “ulpan” offered by the synagogue, girded with notebooks, pencils, books and notes. She must have attended that beginner’s ulpan class 6 years running, but she never quite managed to matriculate to the next book. This never dismayed her, and with her signature resolve, she kept plodding along towards her goal. For example, she insisted that we sing the Birkat HaMazon aloud on Shabbos, and at a slow enough pace that she could sound out every syllable - a 45 minute ordeal. This went on for the rest of her life. But Bubbe was a force of nature, and there was no denying her this accommodation.
She never quite acquired the language, but she ardently believed in it. She saw the majesty of speaking the language in which Gcd created the heavens and earth, in which the prophets spoke, and which, with only slight modifications, has been the living language of the Jewish people for 4,000 years. She intuitively understood the organic connection between the Land of Israel and the Language of Israel, how Hebrew was the glue that binds the Jew to the Land.
How is your spoken Hebrew? About one hundred years ago, Ze’ev Jabotinsky led a spirited campaign to make Hebrew the language of instruction in all Zionist schools in Europe. I will probably meet with the same howls of derision from the Jewish Establishment that he did when I suggest that the same should be true in every Jewish day school, yeshivah, and Talmud Torah in America today. Hebrew should be the language of instruction in every course of study - math, science, literature, and of course limudei kodesh (religious studies).
The sad truth is that many, perhaps most, Jews today can read Hebrew but have no earthly clue what the words mean. Fluency in Hebrew is the portal into the collective consciousness of the Jewish people, the intuitive stream of experience that connects us to all Jewish generations before and after. Perush Hamilim brings focus and direction to the passion of our prayer. Unfortunately, for most Jews, Hebrew is acknowledged as our common language more in the breach than in the speech.
When Bubbe died of a heart attack at the age of 76, we lost the moral beacon of our family. Rabbi Levovitz wept openly for this endearing, insouciant woman who for 40 years dared speak up to him when she was convinced he was wrong. So dear was she to him that he permitted no other hesped but his own.
Despite the passage of 15 years, our family has still not recovered from her loss. My daughters never met my Bubbe, were never smothered in one of her legendary hugs. But they know her though the stories and teachings that keep her memory alive. And if, as the gemara in Brachos says, the dead observe the events in our world, then Bubbe is surely kvelling that her great-granddaughters are ascending the path that she paved for them with the bulky bricks of her Aleph-Bet.
[First Published June 17, 2002]
Dear friends,
I wrote the following before news of the latest piguah in Itamar. 3 teenaged boys were shot dead for being basketball-playing ‘obstacles to peace’ on Tuesday evening.
I have decided to send this essay anyway, because if I were to stop writing - if we, as a people, were to stop functioning, growing, fulfilling our historical mission every time there is a piguah, then on some level, the terrorists have won. In my essays, I share the perspectives of an American family replanting our lives in Eretz Yisrael. In the final analysis, that is the ultimate, enduring response to this frank evil: YISHUV ERETZ YISRAEL.
So this week’s essay is dedicated to the memory of those three boys:
Avi Citon, age 17
Gilad Stiglitz, age 14
Netanel Riachi, age 17
as well as to the memories of a Bubbe and her granddaughter murdered in Petach Tikvah:
Ruthie Peled, aged 56
Sinai Keinan, aged 1-1/2
Hashem Yinkom Damam (May Gcd Avenge their Murders).
*******************************
I could not believe my ears. Straining from behind my closed office door, I listened to what seemed to be the voices of my three older daughters speaking amongst themselves in Hebrew. In life’s grand scheme, perhaps this is a small milestone, but their halting, pigeon Hebrew was the most beautiful sound I had heard since our arrival. In only four months, the girls were making themselves understood in Hebrew. As the wave of pride crested within me, I was taken back to thoughts of...my Bubbe.
Bubbe? Yes, my Bubbe. Let me tell you why.
Born to Russian immigrants in Brooklyn in 1911, she grew up in a house where Yiddish was the spoken language, and the high priest of their faith was Leon Trotsky. One might say they were more Yiddish than Jewish; the Yiddish theatre, the Yiddish press, Yiddish literature and Yiddish music were the stars in their constellation.
Bubbe was a luminary in her own right - Beatrice (Bessie to her friends) was ebullient, bright and beautiful. Despite her elegant, mellifluous Yiddish, her future father-in-law was convinced she was a ‘shikse’ - she didn’t have the demure ta’am (style) of a Yiddishe maidel. For her part, she was more than a little afraid to marry such a religious boy, but they married anyway; she eventually grew to be profoundly religious in her own right. In the end, my great-grandfather described her as the most precious of all his daughters-in-law.
She had a sanguine determination that she brought to everything she did, whether it was her 40-year-long nursing career or her work for the synagogue Sisterhood. She once nursed a gravely ill infant boy through the night when the doctors had given up all hope and had gone home, expecting the child to be dead by morning. But thanks to her round-the-clock care, the baby cheated death, and went on to eventually recover. Thirteen years later, out of the blue, Bubbe & Zayde received an invitation to his Bar Mitzvah.
One day, in her mid-sixties, this remarkable woman decided to begin learning Hebrew.
She signed up for the weekly “ulpan” offered by the synagogue, girded with notebooks, pencils, books and notes. She must have attended that beginner’s ulpan class 6 years running, but she never quite managed to matriculate to the next book. This never dismayed her, and with her signature resolve, she kept plodding along towards her goal. For example, she insisted that we sing the Birkat HaMazon aloud on Shabbos, and at a slow enough pace that she could sound out every syllable - a 45 minute ordeal. This went on for the rest of her life. But Bubbe was a force of nature, and there was no denying her this accommodation.
She never quite acquired the language, but she ardently believed in it. She saw the majesty of speaking the language in which Gcd created the heavens and earth, in which the prophets spoke, and which, with only slight modifications, has been the living language of the Jewish people for 4,000 years. She intuitively understood the organic connection between the Land of Israel and the Language of Israel, how Hebrew was the glue that binds the Jew to the Land.
How is your spoken Hebrew? About one hundred years ago, Ze’ev Jabotinsky led a spirited campaign to make Hebrew the language of instruction in all Zionist schools in Europe. I will probably meet with the same howls of derision from the Jewish Establishment that he did when I suggest that the same should be true in every Jewish day school, yeshivah, and Talmud Torah in America today. Hebrew should be the language of instruction in every course of study - math, science, literature, and of course limudei kodesh (religious studies).
The sad truth is that many, perhaps most, Jews today can read Hebrew but have no earthly clue what the words mean. Fluency in Hebrew is the portal into the collective consciousness of the Jewish people, the intuitive stream of experience that connects us to all Jewish generations before and after. Perush Hamilim brings focus and direction to the passion of our prayer. Unfortunately, for most Jews, Hebrew is acknowledged as our common language more in the breach than in the speech.
When Bubbe died of a heart attack at the age of 76, we lost the moral beacon of our family. Rabbi Levovitz wept openly for this endearing, insouciant woman who for 40 years dared speak up to him when she was convinced he was wrong. So dear was she to him that he permitted no other hesped but his own.
Despite the passage of 15 years, our family has still not recovered from her loss. My daughters never met my Bubbe, were never smothered in one of her legendary hugs. But they know her though the stories and teachings that keep her memory alive. And if, as the gemara in Brachos says, the dead observe the events in our world, then Bubbe is surely kvelling that her great-granddaughters are ascending the path that she paved for them with the bulky bricks of her Aleph-Bet.
The Farmer & The Wolf - A Parable
בעה''י
[First Published June 10, 2002]
Once upon a time, a man and his family moved back to their long-abandoned ancestral farm. After much backbreaking work, the man reclaimed the fields from the overgrown weeds, and re-introduced the bleating of sheep and the mooing of cows to the lonely prairie. He patched up the roof of the stately old farmhouse, and settled in to the bucolic life of the farmer.
One morning, he awoke to find his fields trampled and his lambs dead. “Who could have done this?” he asked aloud.
“I did,” said a wolf standing not far away.
“Why?” the farmer asked the wolf.
“Because I destroy, that is how I survive. Before you returned, we wolves had the entire untamed prairie to ourselves. ”
“But my farm is only a small corner of the prairie. Surely we can find a way to live together in peace.”
“We cannot live in peace. You have brought order and beauty to the land. You are not welcome here. Only when the prairie is chaotic and untamed can we rule.”
As the farmer reached for his shotgun, Brother Shimon, who was standing in the safety of the stately old farmhouse, said to his father, “the poor wolf is not our natural enemy. He is hungry and does not understand our ways. Let us bring him into the house, feed him, and warm him by the fire. Then he will understand, and we will share the prairie in peace.”
The farmer thought about this idea for a moment. He certainly didn’t want his crops ruined and his livestock murdered; after all, he had returned to the family farm to live the bucolic, peaceful life of a farmer.
The farmer said, “ein breirah,” ("What choice do we have?") so they invited the wolf into the stately old farmhouse. They fed him their table scraps and more besides. At the end of the evening, they tucked him into a cozy dog bed by the warm stove, and bid their new friend a good night.
The farmer awoke in the morning to find the furniture demolished, his table smashed, and his porcelain shattered. “Who could have done this?” he asked aloud.
“I did,” said the wolf, standing not far away.
“Why?” the farmer asked the wolf.
“Because I destroy, that is how I survive. Before you returned, we wolves had the entire untamed prairie to ourselves. ”
“But my farm is only a small corner of the prairie. I thought we were trying to find a way to live together in peace.”
“YOU were trying, not me. We cannot live in peace. You have brought order and beauty to the land. Only when the prairie is chaotic and untamed can we rule.”
“Then leave my house!” demanded the farmer.
“You have invited me in, so I am not leaving,” said the wolf. “It is you who are not welcome here.”
Brother Shimon said to his father, “this destruction is really our fault, not his. We have failed to explain the clear advantages of our ways. Anyway, he will not leave, and we cannot throw him out, or he will go back to killing our sheep. Our only choice is to domesticate him. Then he will understand, and we will share the prairie in peace.”
“Ein breirah,” the farmer sighed. That night, they tried harder. They gave him a place at the table, served him their best food and warmed him by the big fireplace in the den. At the end of the evening, they tucked him into a beautiful four-poster bed with fine satin sheets, and bid their new friend a good night.
The farmer awoke in the morning to find the wolf leaning over the baby’s crib. His snout was red with fresh blood. “How could you have done this?” he shrieked at the wolf.
“Don’t you listen? I told you before: I destroy, that is how I survive. Before you returned, we wolves had the entire untamed prairie to ourselves. ”
“But my farm is only a small corner of the prairie. I thought we were trying to find a way to live together in peace.”
“Don’t you listen? We cannot live in peace. You have brought order and beauty to the land. Only when the prairie is chaotic and untamed can we rule.”
“Then leave my house!” demanded the farmer.
“I am now a domesticated wolf,” he said, “and this is now my house. It is you who are not welcome here.”
So the farmer called the local game warden, who also happened to be his ol’ Uncle George, to come remove the wolf. When Uncle George arrived, the farmer explained, “we returned to the family farm to live the bucolic, peaceful life of farmers.”
“I know,” said ol’ Uncle George.
“Then this wolf arrived, trampled our fields and killed our lambs,” continued the farmer.
“You’re right,” said ol’ Uncle George.
“Then he destroyed my peaceful home and killed my child,” said the farmer.
“Terrible,” ol’ Uncle George said, slowly shaking his head.
“This is unreal! It must come to an end!” screamed the anguished farmer.
“You’re right again,” nodded ol’ Uncle George.
"So you agree to get rid of the wolf, Uncle George?”
“Oh, no - can’t do that. State law against it, besides we’d have those PETA people down our backs. Nope, “ein breirah.” What you need is a better class of wolf. The only way the resolve this is...to teach that wolf some manners, so that the two of you can share the house in peace. I can arrange for lessons at Monsieur Jacques’ finishing school for wayward wolves...
Dear friends, who will write the end of this story - the farmers or the wolves?
[First Published June 10, 2002]
Once upon a time, a man and his family moved back to their long-abandoned ancestral farm. After much backbreaking work, the man reclaimed the fields from the overgrown weeds, and re-introduced the bleating of sheep and the mooing of cows to the lonely prairie. He patched up the roof of the stately old farmhouse, and settled in to the bucolic life of the farmer.
One morning, he awoke to find his fields trampled and his lambs dead. “Who could have done this?” he asked aloud.
“I did,” said a wolf standing not far away.
“Why?” the farmer asked the wolf.
“Because I destroy, that is how I survive. Before you returned, we wolves had the entire untamed prairie to ourselves. ”
“But my farm is only a small corner of the prairie. Surely we can find a way to live together in peace.”
“We cannot live in peace. You have brought order and beauty to the land. You are not welcome here. Only when the prairie is chaotic and untamed can we rule.”
As the farmer reached for his shotgun, Brother Shimon, who was standing in the safety of the stately old farmhouse, said to his father, “the poor wolf is not our natural enemy. He is hungry and does not understand our ways. Let us bring him into the house, feed him, and warm him by the fire. Then he will understand, and we will share the prairie in peace.”
The farmer thought about this idea for a moment. He certainly didn’t want his crops ruined and his livestock murdered; after all, he had returned to the family farm to live the bucolic, peaceful life of a farmer.
The farmer said, “ein breirah,” ("What choice do we have?") so they invited the wolf into the stately old farmhouse. They fed him their table scraps and more besides. At the end of the evening, they tucked him into a cozy dog bed by the warm stove, and bid their new friend a good night.
The farmer awoke in the morning to find the furniture demolished, his table smashed, and his porcelain shattered. “Who could have done this?” he asked aloud.
“I did,” said the wolf, standing not far away.
“Why?” the farmer asked the wolf.
“Because I destroy, that is how I survive. Before you returned, we wolves had the entire untamed prairie to ourselves. ”
“But my farm is only a small corner of the prairie. I thought we were trying to find a way to live together in peace.”
“YOU were trying, not me. We cannot live in peace. You have brought order and beauty to the land. Only when the prairie is chaotic and untamed can we rule.”
“Then leave my house!” demanded the farmer.
“You have invited me in, so I am not leaving,” said the wolf. “It is you who are not welcome here.”
Brother Shimon said to his father, “this destruction is really our fault, not his. We have failed to explain the clear advantages of our ways. Anyway, he will not leave, and we cannot throw him out, or he will go back to killing our sheep. Our only choice is to domesticate him. Then he will understand, and we will share the prairie in peace.”
“Ein breirah,” the farmer sighed. That night, they tried harder. They gave him a place at the table, served him their best food and warmed him by the big fireplace in the den. At the end of the evening, they tucked him into a beautiful four-poster bed with fine satin sheets, and bid their new friend a good night.
The farmer awoke in the morning to find the wolf leaning over the baby’s crib. His snout was red with fresh blood. “How could you have done this?” he shrieked at the wolf.
“Don’t you listen? I told you before: I destroy, that is how I survive. Before you returned, we wolves had the entire untamed prairie to ourselves. ”
“But my farm is only a small corner of the prairie. I thought we were trying to find a way to live together in peace.”
“Don’t you listen? We cannot live in peace. You have brought order and beauty to the land. Only when the prairie is chaotic and untamed can we rule.”
“Then leave my house!” demanded the farmer.
“I am now a domesticated wolf,” he said, “and this is now my house. It is you who are not welcome here.”
So the farmer called the local game warden, who also happened to be his ol’ Uncle George, to come remove the wolf. When Uncle George arrived, the farmer explained, “we returned to the family farm to live the bucolic, peaceful life of farmers.”
“I know,” said ol’ Uncle George.
“Then this wolf arrived, trampled our fields and killed our lambs,” continued the farmer.
“You’re right,” said ol’ Uncle George.
“Then he destroyed my peaceful home and killed my child,” said the farmer.
“Terrible,” ol’ Uncle George said, slowly shaking his head.
“This is unreal! It must come to an end!” screamed the anguished farmer.
“You’re right again,” nodded ol’ Uncle George.
"So you agree to get rid of the wolf, Uncle George?”
“Oh, no - can’t do that. State law against it, besides we’d have those PETA people down our backs. Nope, “ein breirah.” What you need is a better class of wolf. The only way the resolve this is...to teach that wolf some manners, so that the two of you can share the house in peace. I can arrange for lessons at Monsieur Jacques’ finishing school for wayward wolves...
Dear friends, who will write the end of this story - the farmers or the wolves?
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