tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35790034830385931352024-02-08T06:46:09.322-05:00frost and cloudscomments on occasionally jewish topics from an occasionally jewish frameworkJoshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-55512573049904169132018-09-13T17:10:00.001-04:002018-09-13T17:10:05.977-04:00a prayer for the wounded; a prayer from the wounded<br />
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A Prayer For the Wounded; A Prayer From the Wounded<o:p></o:p></div>
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Rosh Hashanah 5779<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Shana tovah,<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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My sisters and brothers, I want to thank you for inviting me
to join you for these days, especially for these days when, if you’re like me,
you know it is important to be here but perhaps you’re not sure why; you know
you want something out of it, but perhaps you’re not sure what.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even my father, am avowed secularist who
never belonged to a synagogue, would make it his business to be in synagogue
for the High Holy Days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why? It was
important.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We come for a variety of reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe for comfort, maybe for
inspiration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it’s to remind
ourselves of who we are; or to discover who we might be; and maybe it has
something to do with that awesome Out There or that intimate In Here we don’t
understand but sometimes name “God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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And let’s be honest – these are, to say the least, crazy
times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter what your politics, and
no matter where you look, what we see suggests that things are more weighted
this year, and that the work of Rosh Hashana -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>to hide? To regroup? To change? To change the world? – is even more
urgent.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So we come with all of that on our minds, not sure exactly
what we want but hoping for some guidance, and what do we find?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A great big book.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A book written in a foreign language, and with a translation
no less alien.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while there are differences
from page to page it can be hard to tell them apart, or to find an arc, or
narrative, or sense of direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
not surprise, then, that Jews are constantly coming out with new editions of
the Machzor, the High Holiday Prayer book: Maybe if we get the book right,
we’ll get the we’ll get the praying right.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Or maybe not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
late Abraham Joshua Heschel said that we were getting it backwards, “We don’t
need a revision of the text, we need a revision of the soul.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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That sounds like an overwhelming challenge, that we must
revise our soul before we can begin to make sense out of the prayerbook, but
what he meant, or part of what he meant, was simply that the work of
encountering this book begins with an act of attunement, of being willing to
open ourselves up to the magnificent strangeness of the liturgy.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Shall we try?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Let’s take one of the most common Jewish prayers, the
Sh’ma.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s said in almost every
service, so perhaps you are familiar with it, but if not that’s ok.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is named for the opening line – “Sh’ma
Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad” – “Listen up, Israel: Adonai is our God;
Adonai is One.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as some of you know,
there is more to it than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
made up of three different passages from the Torah: To love God, to follow
God’s teaching, and to remember that God is the liberator of slaves.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In that passage on
the Teaching, it says, “V’samtem et divrai eileh all l’vavchem v’al nafshechem”
– “Place them, these my words on your heart and on your soul.” (p. 77)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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That sounds very nice as it rushes by, but what does it
mean?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We are not the first to wonder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost 2,000 years ago rabbis asked the same
question, and one of them answered by way of a play on words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t read it as <i>samtem</i> – place them – but
<i>sam tam</i> – a perfect medicine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These my
words are a perfect medicine for your heart wounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Does that make you roll your eyes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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I must be honest with you: if all this meant was “Torah is
good for what ails you,” I don’t know what I’d do with it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m suspicious of what sounds to me like
simplistic piety, and I certainly don’t have any access to a vision of a world
in which everything is made nice by Bible verses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If someone tells me that all I need to do is
have faith in “God’s word” they’ve lost me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But our teacher here is much tougher-minded than that, and he offers a
parable to explain his vision of the world:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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“Imagine a father who wounds his child.” Why? As a
punishment? Out of anger? The author of this teaching, this midrash, doesn’t
say. He goes on, “The father then gives his child a poultice to put on the
wound, and says, ‘My child, keep this on you, and you’ll be fine – you can eat,
and drink, and go swimming, whatever you like. But it won’t heal the wound, and
if you take it off you’ll be in danger.’”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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That’s us, the midrash suggests. Each one of us has been
dealt a blow that threatens not our flesh but something deeper, and in need of
some sort of medicine to keep the corruption at bay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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But what is that blow?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What do you think?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it
lust?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Greed? Desire?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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By way of an answer, this anonymous rabbi turned to a story
way back at the beginning, and since we’re celebrating the Creation of the
World – even if we don’t believe in it – it’s appropriate for us to turn back
to that story, too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Genesis 4:1-8<o:p></o:p></div>
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Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore
Cain, saying, “I have gained a male child with the help of the LORD.” She then
bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller
of the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the LORD from
the fruit of the soil; and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the
firstlings of his flock. The LORD paid heed to Abel and his offering, but to
Cain and his offering He paid no heed. Cain was much distressed and his face
fell. And the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you distressed, and why is your face
fallen? Surely, if you do right, There is uplift. But if you do not do right
Sin couches at the door; Its urge is toward you, Yet you can be its master.”
Cain said to his brother Abel … and when they were in the field, Cain set upon
his brother Abel and killed him.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I have to tell you that this is the midrash (Kiddushin 30b)
that led me to fall in love with reading Rabbinic texts, because look at what
it is saying: “Why did Cain kill Abel?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because he was angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why was he
angry? Because his sacrifice was rejected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Why was his sacrifice rejected?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We. Don’t. Know.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Just as we don’t know why the father in the parable wounded
his son, we don’t know why God rejected Cain’s sacrifice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’re all taught as children that there
must have been something wrong with it, or with Cain, but there’s nothing in
the Biblical text to that extent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Now, the proposition that Cain might offer a sacrifice, and
that it would be perfectly good, and nevertheless God doesn’t accept it is
grossly unfair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s even
scandalous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am here to tell you
that that doesn’t matter, not to the rabbis and not to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our only question is, is it true?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Is it true that sometimes you can offer something of
yourself to the world and it gets rejected?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That you can try and do everything you think you’re supposed to and
still things don’t work?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That the
recognition that you most want is withheld?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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This is what it means to be human, the rabbis said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what it’s like to live in the world:
sometimes what we most want doesn’t happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And while the pain that causes is bad enough, the problem is what that
pain and the subsequent ego-wound did to Cain, and what it might do to us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So I ask again: Is that true? Is it true about us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does our experience of a painful world
sometimes make us smaller than we’d like to be, angrier than we’d like to be,
more defensive or more offensive than we’d really like to be?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Is it true about others?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do we see that in the world around us: lashing out or closing off
against others when the real threat is the one that’s inside the self?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would the world be a better place if we all
had that sam tam, that perfect medicine, on our hearts and on our souls?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Maybe this is what Heschel meant, about changing ourselves
so that we can encounter the prayers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That we can look at that page, at that piece of the Sh’ma, and think –
yes, I have a wound right here, and I could sure use a bandage.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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What would happen if we had a way of reminding ourselves of
this, that we’re struggling with an ego wound, and maybe it would be a good
idea not to allow ourselves to be led astray, not to lash out?<o:p></o:p></div>
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If we were able to remind ourselves that others, too, are
struggling with their wounds – would it change the way we encountered them?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Even if we don’t know what to do with words like “God” or
“Torah”, even if we don’t believe anything about them, would that make a
difference, do you think, if every now and then – once a week, once a month,
even a couple of times a year – when we came to the Sh’ma and saw those words,
we took just that moment to bring to mind our struggle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Would we be better able to be in the world, to be the kind
of people we need to be?<o:p></o:p></div>
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And now see where we’ve come – we thought we had to change
ourselves to meet the prayer, but we find that in meeting the prayer, it
changes us in return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps, even if
that’s the only thing we payed attention to in this whole big book, that would
be enough?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Is that enough?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given
the challenges facing us, however you define them, can it make a difference?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think the answer – I think the answer offered by Rosh
Hashanah, in particular – is yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because if the Torah taught offers us Cain as a warning, it also offers
us Abraham as a possibility.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In our Torah reading we encounter Abraham, today and
tomorrow; in some ways he’s the “hero” of Rosh Hashana. We’ll spend some time
tomorrow talking about those stories - and you should know right now that
they’re not easy and they’re not pretty, though perhaps that’s alright for Rosh
Hashana, to focus on the difficult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
just as we look to the first humans to find out about our humanity, we look to
the first Jews to find out about that part of our identity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Abraham, we say, is our Father, and even if he was not
perfect, God used him to bring this whole enterprise into being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why did God pick him?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At first we don’t see him do much on his own
– he goes where God sends him, he takes care of his clan – until just before
our reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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The LORD appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre; he was
sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot. Looking up, he saw
three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from the entrance
of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the ground, he said, “My lords, if it
please you, do not go on past your servant. Let a little water be brought;
bathe your feet and recline under the tree. And let me fetch a morsel of bread
that you may refresh yourselves; then go on—seeing that you have come your
servant’s way.” They replied, “Do as you have said.” Abraham hastened into the
tent to Sarah, and said, “Quick, three seahs of choice flour! Knead and make
cakes!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I want to point out three things about this passage,
particularly as it was read by the rabbis:<o:p></o:p></div>
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1)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Our sages
understood from the fact that we read of the strangers right after reading that
God appeared to Abraham that Abraham went to greet the strangers while God was
talking to him; that he had actually put God on hold, as it were, to attend to
the human beings before him.</div>
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2)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>They
imagined that he didn’t just happen to see strangers, but that it was his
practice to sit in a tent open on all four sides, actively looking to see who
might need hospitality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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3)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And,
based on the text preceding this, they imagined this particular event happening
just as Abraham was recovering from his own circumcision, his own most intimate
wound.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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What were the rabbis telling us about Abraham?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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While the ego-hurts that come to us as our birthright can
make us want to lash out or close ourselves tight, to protect ourselves in our
vulnerability, Abraham found a way to open himself up to the stranger even at
his most vulnerable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather than
protect himself he extended himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wounded by life – as we all are – the Abraham of the Rabbis’ mind found
that poultice, that perfect medicine, that allowed him to turn to those
potentially scary strangers, at least at this moment, and that welcome made all
the difference in the world. All the difference to the world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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My sisters and brothers:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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We have come here from all kinds of backgrounds and for all
kinds of reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But all of us would
like to see the world better in the coming year, and ourselves better in the
coming year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what the Tradition has
to offer us is this: Cain was wounded, Abraham was wounded, and we are wounded,
too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the difference between Cain and
Abraham was in their ability to deal with that blow, turning to fear and anger
and violence, or opening the heart even more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We know which way we want to go, and which way the world needs us to go.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Let’s close by returning to Heschel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By following his advice, we have already
begun the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By opening ourselves up
a little to the prayers and the texts and the teachings, we have allowed them
to work a little bit upon us, to change us just a touch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In spite of our hurts, we have become just a
little more open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have begun to sense
that sam tam, that perfect poltice, and having done that we can begin to share
it and ourselves with others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sweeter
than honey, it is; may it be yours throughout the year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-78993097140730122402018-07-05T14:37:00.000-04:002018-07-05T14:37:02.222-04:00when wisdom fails<i>A site run by two of the generally wiser rabbis I know ran one of those "Isn't it a shame that liberals couldn't be civil to Sarah Huckabee Sanders? Can't we all sit down together and compromise?" essays. Here's my response (tl;dr - "No").</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is not someone whose politics I disagree with. She is a willing agent of a corrupt regime that threatens the liberal (in the old sense) order not just in America but globally, and in that capacity she lies on behalf of that regime to the American public. "I'm sure there are fine people on both sides" may be appropriate for a disagreement among people of good will, but as we have seen it represents moral vacuity when applied to wickedness.<br />
<br />
I'd add also that for those of us who are straight, white, cis-male, and fairly well-off, thinking of Trump and his enablers as Beit Shammai to our Beit Hillel is an affordable luxury. I don't have to worry about my rights to marry, or adopt, or have autonomy over my body. I don't have to worry about the police demanding my papers, or killing my daughter, or sending my relatives from abroad to an internment camp.<br />
<br />
Like Trump's chief of staff John ("the lack of the ability to compromise led to the Civil War") Kelley I can make an idol of "compromise", but compromise about the personhood of some is not wisdom; it's failure. Better to take a page from Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail:<br />
<br />
"I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-55595411401740250342017-02-16T12:20:00.000-05:002017-02-16T12:20:43.724-05:00sorry not sorry<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jews have a
substantial traditional literature on how to deal with making a mistake, on how
to repent for hurting others. Though we may not always act on our knowledge, we
know what we're supposed to do when we've said something cruel to or about
someone else. More recently, we've also developed a body of wisdom on how to
respond to hate speech.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Let's be clear:
When David Friedman referred to supporters of J Street as "not
Jewish" and "worse than kapos", he was engaging in hate speech,
no less than if a non-Jewish politician had referred to members of AIPAC as
Nazis. Now, with a plum political job in reach, Friedman is making a public
show of what is supposed to be seen as “contrition.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"I regret use of such
language," Friedman said during his first hearing before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. "The inflammatory rhetoric during the
presidential campaign is entirely over. If confirmed my language would be
measured," he added. Friedman went a step further by saying that there was
"no excuse" for his choice of words. (source: <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/LIVE-1.772078/Friedman-fact-check-kapos#701501874" target="_blank">Haaretz</a>)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Has he reached
out to those he’s hurt?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has he tried to
undo the damage by saying not just, “I shouldn’t have used that language” but, “I
was wrong – these people are Jews, are not enemies of the Jewish people or the
Jewish state, and while I disagree with them profoundly I see them as caring,
decent people”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has he, in fact, done
any of the things that the tradition demands of the penitent? Well, I know I’m still
waiting for my call.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Or has he done
any of the things that we’d demand of even a juvenile who’d painted a swastika on
a JCC?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Has he spent time with those he’s
attacked, learning about who they are, what their experience was, so that he
might come to empathize with them and understand the pain he has caused and
explore his own bigotry?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To those who
believe that Friedman should be the American Ambassador to Israel because they
approve of his language, or at most think it’s no big deal, well, it’s a free
country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But to those who might suggest
that he has in any way apologized? <i>That’s</i> insulting.</span></span></div>
Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-87987940721068019832016-11-14T15:13:00.001-05:002016-11-14T15:16:30.450-05:00the jewish task in an age of trumpFor a long time, my favorite line from the liturgy has been a reference to God as every day renewing the work of Creation. There was a hopeful to it, a promise that nothing had to be simply because it had always been but that each day we had a chance to start again.<br />
<br />
What is only now becoming clear to me is what that actually meant, that nothing exists on momentum alone. Even the most basic civic commitment, even the most rudimentary ethical standard, even the most elementary consensus as to standards of rational discourse, all of these have been shown to be if not illusory at least astonishingly fragile. Rather than taken for granted, they must be rebuilt every day, tended and protected.<br />
<br />
This rebuilding, this regular maintenance of the fundamental pillars of a just, kind, and healthy world is both an urgent need, and the responsibility of everyone who wants to live in such a world. And that suggests that a Judaism worth engaging in must be actively participating in this work.<br />
<br />
I’ll put it this way: Everything we have seen about the president-elect, from his early career to the beginning of his candidacy to his first acts following the election suggest that a his election and the forces his election have unleashed pose an existential threat to the American experiment and to global society. Any institution that pretends moral authority, that claims to present eternal truths, that presents itself as important, must be engaged in fighting this threat. The only question for Jewish institutions is to determine what our role in this struggle will be.<br />
<br />
At the very least, those of us involved in Jewish education can resolve that our greatest role is to nurture wise, kind, and caring students, students who will use what tools we can give them to help build, every day, those pillars of society we took for granted for too long. Students who will be call us to be their partners, every day, in renewing the work of Creation.
Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-78968914575885994312016-11-09T08:08:00.002-05:002016-11-09T08:19:11.890-05:00this is what we are here forThis is the email I sent to the students in our MA program. If you're a teacher, it's for you, too.<br />
<br />
Hi, my friends...
If you are like me, you are probably dealing with some strong emotions, perhaps apprehensive about what lies ahead. I don't want to project my own feelings onto you; I know I'm feeling somewhat at a loss.<br />
<br />
I want to remind you, though, of some of the great blessings you have - not in general, not in the abstract, but right here, right now:<br />
<br />
First, you are able to give your students an enormous gift by providing them with a calm, loving, non-reactive presence. Be there for them.<br />
<br />
Second, as Jewish educators, part of our work is to help our students grow into wise, loving people. Is there more important work than this?<br />
<br />
Finally, you have as your colleagues some of the biggest-hearted people I know - in the field in general, and in this program specifically. We are all here for each other. Please feel free to reach out to me or to your classmates if you feel a need, and let your classmates and your coworkers know that they can reach out to you.<br />
<br />
This is what we're here for. I'm proud to be with you.<br />
<br />
B'vracha<br />
<br />
JoshJoshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-63510880454593867172016-10-18T22:23:00.001-04:002016-10-18T22:23:16.247-04:00a day like purim - yom kippur 5777<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(A d'var torah given at Minyan Masorti, Germantown Jewish Center, Philadelphia)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For a people as
entranced as we are by word play, it is surprising that it took until the late
middle ages for someone to notice the similarity between “Yom Kippur” and
Purim,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">תיקוני</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">זוהר</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">תקונא</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">עשרין</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">וחד</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ועשרין</span></b></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">פורים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">אתקריאת</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">על</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">שם</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">יום</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">הכפורים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">דעתידין</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">לאתענגא</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ביה</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ולשנויי</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ליה</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">מענוי</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">לענ</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and it wasn’t until the late 19<sup>th</sup> century that
someone would get around to making the pun<span dir="RTL" lang="HE"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="uficommentbody"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ר</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">' </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">צדוק</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">הכהן</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">מלובלין</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> - </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">פרי</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">צדיק</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">שמות</span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">פורים</span></b></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ואיתא</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">בתיקוני</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">זוהר</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">תיקון</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">כ</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">א</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">) </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">פורים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">אתקריאת</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">על</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">שם</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">יום</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">הכפורים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">דעתידין</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">לאתענגא</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ביה</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">וכו</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">' </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">וכן</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">אומרים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">בשם</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">הרבנים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">הקדושים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">זללה</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ה</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">דפורים</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">בחינת</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">יום</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">הכפורים</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ונקרא</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">יום</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">כפורים</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">היינו</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">כמו</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><b><i><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">פורים</span></i></b></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ובאמת</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">נרמז</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">בתיקוני</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">זוהר</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">כנ</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ל</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">וכמו</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ביום</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">הכפורים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">עיצומו</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">של</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">יום</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">מכפר</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">כן</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ימי</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">הפורים</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">עיצומו</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">של</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">יום</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">עושה</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">מחיית</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">עמלק</span></span><span class="uficommentbody"><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That “Yom Kippurim” is “Yom k’Purim” –
a day like Purim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Though maybe it’s not that surprising
after all; It’s hard to imagine two less similar holidays. We are – or so the liturgy tells us, engaged
in a matter of life and death, facing the many, many, many things we’ve done
wrong and the urgent need to fix what we’ve broken. It is the day when we are told that <i>things matter very much.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Purim, on the other hand, is a time of play, a
day when practically <i>nothing matters</i>:
we party, we dress up, we give free rein to our most impious urges in what can
be viciously funny purim shpiels. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The imaginative play isn’t just the
icing, it’s integral to the idea of Purim, because it is the subversive power
of the imagination, as satire, as mockery which allows is truly revolutionary. For
whatever real power tyrants and oppressive systems may have, it is built on the
myth that they matter: that they are indeed powerful, and that power is, if not
deserved, real and entrenched. That’s
why bullies and dictators hate satire and mockery, because it reminds them that
they are not in control over the imagination, and so i<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>t threatens tyrants; it
threatens established systems: Purim is the festival of <i>nothing has to be.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If Purim cleans the slate, Yom Kippur
is a time in which we prepare rebuild, to make things better, to mend what
we’ve broken. And here’s the thing: the
imagination is central to this as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">First of all, if we want to be agents
for good in the world, to act effectively, or to judge actions wisely, we have
to be able to look at the consequences of actions – who’s involved, who’s
implicated, where the ripples might be. This is what I think is meant by Rabbi
Shimon’s answer when asked for the most important virtue: “ha-roeh et hanolad”,
which is usually translated as “foresight” but which really means “to see that
which is aborning” : not prophecy, but to have the imagination to see the world
as pregnant with possibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Second, in order to understand the import
of those possibilities, one must understand what they means to <i>people, </i>and that requires empathy.
But as anyone who’s tried to anticipate what another will like or not
like knows, you can’t ever really get into the head of an other, precisely
because people are so radically other.
Empathy, too, is an act of the imagination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But, as we’ve been reminding ourselves
all day, we haven’t been doing that work, not the fixing and not the
empathizing. We know that, and yet we
don’t change. What stops us? For me, and perhaps for you, it’s largely the
belief that I can’t. We feel ourselves stuck, bound with the bonds of habit and
guilt and – especially as we get older – a kind of moral despair. In order to do teshuvah, we must be able to –
yes – imagine ourselves as different, as better. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yom Kippur is a “day like Purim”
because so much of its work depends on the imagination. And, as with Purim, the imagination becomes a
central part of the observance. Today,
we too have a “shpiel” – the Avodah service, where we imagine ourselves in a
different place, a different time, as different people. And, over and over and over again, the
liturgy invites to imagine ourselves as forgivable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But that’s not just Yom Kippur, and
not just Purim where the imagination is such a central part of the practice:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On
Pesach, we are famously told that we each have to imagine ourselves as having
made the passage from slavery to freedom<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On
Shabbat, the idea of “prohibited activities” provides an opportunity in which to
imagine the world as good, as
good enough that we don’t need to change it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
blessings we might say on food, or actions, or experiences suggest that imagine
the event as an extension of the Infinite into the world<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
when we pray, those words we didn’t write and don’t feel and don’t believe, are
a framework in which we can imagine ourselves as spiritually mature.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Here’s the punch line: Judaism not a
practice of faith, but a practice of the imagination, in which we’re invited to
be imaginative and even playful, because it’s in that playful mind and heart
that we can explore possibilities; it’s the imagination, I’m here to tell you,
that is the central religious faculty.
On Yom Kippur, the day like Purim, we begin to focus that faculty. To
bring it to our view of the world, of others, of ourselves – so that we can
move away from these “playing fields of the Lord” and out of the shul: caring
for others, caring for ourselves, seeing the fruit of our imagination blossom,
and finding the joy of play in the joy of a rebuilt world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-47591595341666357202014-07-25T13:28:00.001-04:002014-07-25T13:28:43.329-04:00can we talk?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have been
absent from much of the conversation going on about recent events in Israel and
Gaza. Partly that’s been because much of
what I was feeling just did not want to be captured in words. Partly because there were issues that I felt
demanded more knowledge than I could pretend to. And partly because, given the state of the
discourse – at least as it appears on my FB feed – I didn’t feel that anything
I might actually say would do anything beyond proclaim, “I’m the kind of person
who thinks X!” And while this seems to
be The Conversation the Jewish community is having, it doesn’t feel much like a
conversation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
What
follows, then, are some notes about what a real conversation might look like,
based on what I think I know about ethics, about the current situation, and
about how to speak to people who don’t agree with you (I used to teach high
school, so I’ve had some experience with that). If you think I’m wrong on some of these, let
me know – although if you disagree with me on any of the “Categorical
Statements” under “Thoughts on the Situation” we probably don’t share the same
universe. Because it seems to me that if
we’re straight on these, then we might be able to talk. To each other.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Some
thoughts on moral reasoning<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To have a
right to something does not mean having a right to do anything claimed to be in
support of that right.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Conversely,
to say that something done in support of a cause was wrong does not in itself
invalidate the cause. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
To have a
right to do something does not mean that thing is either moral or wise.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Suffering
does not necessarily endow one with either virtue or wisdom. Sometimes people do become wiser as a result of their
suffering; sometimes they become broken and bitter; and sometimes it doesn’t
change them at all.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
potential total amount of suffering, folly, and injustice is infinite; neither
victimhood nor wisdom nor righteousness is a “zero-sum game”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
At the same
time, when things like suffering, folly, and injustice, as well as wisdom,
righteousness, and compassion, do occur they do not do so in infinite
amounts. The fact that a particular
action is unjust does not make the party committing it entirely unjust.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It follows
that:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Critiques of the wisdom or
ethics of an action or strategy cannot be met by arguing for the legality of
that action or strategy.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Critiques of an action or
strategy are not, in themselves, critiques of the cause they are claimed to
support. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Similarly, critiques of an
action or strategy cannot be met by arguing for the justice of the cause
(although the justice of the cause is a <b>precondition </b>for the justice of
the action). </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Nor can critiques of the
wisdom or ethics of an action or strategy be met by arguing that those on whose
behalf the actions are purportedly taken are themselves victims.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>To point out injustices
committed by both sides is not to create a moral equivalence. One could, for example, argue that the
fire-bombing of Dresden was a war crime without claiming that the Allies were
no worse than the Nazis.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Some
thoughts on discourse<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The purpose
of cheerleading is to bolster the feelings of those already convinced; the purpose
of arguing is to convince someone. It is
important to be mindful of the distinction, and to choose one’s rhetoric
accordingly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Insisting on
a point is not the same as arguing for a point.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Saying that
everyone in a particular community believes something to be true is more a
statement about the community than about the truth value of the proposition.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A figure
known to be a partisan of one side is unlikely to be seen as a compelling
authority to those not already sympathetic to that side.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A figure
held to be untrustworthy on a range of issues may not have much credibility on
others.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Questioning
the integrity or moral status of one’s interlocutor is similarly unlikely to
prove an effective strategy for convincing him or her.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
If a large
number of your target audience is unconvinced by your arguments, it is a more
useful exercise to re-examine your own presentation than to blame the audience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Thoughts
on the situation.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
1)
Categorical Statements:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The death of
children is a bad thing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Targeting
civilians is a bad thing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
While
particular institutions may be broken and particular polices unjust, the
principle of international law is a good, not only when it is helpful or
convenient. This is especially true for
treaties one has signed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Oppression
is a bad thing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
2)
Particulars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The State of
Israel has no less legitimacy, and no less a right to exist, than any other
state. Jews have no less a right to
define themselves as a people than any other people.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Palestinians
have no less a right to define themselves as a people than any other
people. Palestinians have no less a
right to self-determination and freedom from oppression than any other people.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Josh%20Gutoff/Desktop/Some%20thoughts%20before%20a%20conversation.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
Occupation is not, and has never been, benign.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hamas is not
a force for good or liberation, and its policies have increased the misery of
the residents of Gaza.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hamas has
shown no interest in a long-term settlement with Israel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is past
time for the American Jewish community to address what it means that no country outside of Israel has ever seen the
settlement of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Golan Heights as
anything other than a violation of international law. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
A stable
Palestinian state is crucial for Israel’s long term security.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Josh%20Gutoff/Desktop/Some%20thoughts%20before%20a%20conversation.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Yes, I’m aware that I didn’t say that Palestinians have the same right to a
state as any other people. That’s
because I’m not convinced that peoples have a categorical right to a state
prior to that state’s existence, in the way that people have a right to be free
from oppression. Do the Basques have a
right to a state? The Kurds? The Roma?
And yes, I’m prepared to apply this reasoning to Israel. I don’t think, prior to 1948, that the Jews
had an absolute “right” to a state. That
doesn’t delegitimize Israel; I don’t think there was an absolute right to a
Czech nation-state, but that doesn’t delegitimize the Czech Republic. That also doesn’t mean I don’t think there
should be sovereign Palestinian state; I do.
That’s because I think it, like the State of Israel in 1948, is the best
political solution in the current situation.</div>
</div>
</div>
Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-18626718998361973182013-12-06T11:30:00.001-05:002013-12-06T11:30:39.938-05:00psalms 116:15Nelson Mandela, of blessed memory.<br />
<br />
The example of Nelson Mandela can lead us to llok at other oppressed peoples, espeially those whose struggles are violent and messy and corrupt, and ask, "Why don't they have a Mandela? Why don't they have a Gandhi, or a King?" But the real question should be for those of us who, by virtue of nationality or income or what-have-you have any kind of privilege or power: "Why," it asks us, "do you need to see another Mandela? You know what must be done. What more do you need to learn about justice?"Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-3633766104976988752013-08-16T11:33:00.000-04:002013-08-16T11:33:03.260-04:00in support of bad tasteI know that everybody (including some of <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/08/15/have-we-forgotten-what-bar-mitzvahs-are-all-about/">America's Most Influential Rabbis</a>) disagrees, but personally, I think that kid's <a href="http://www.kveller.com/blog/parenting/sam-horowitz-bar-mitzvah-boy-live-at-the-omni-hotel/">Bar Mitzvah party</a> is nobody's business. Did it cost more than I will ever make in a year? Yes. Did it have anything to do with what I think of as important Jewish values? No. Would I have enjoyed being there? God, no. And my conclusion? So. And also, What?<br />
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Let's face it: Lots of Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties have nothing to do with Jewish, religious, or ethical values. Lots of them are vulgar. In lots of them, people - particularly women - are dressed well beyond the bounds of traditional Jewish definitions of modesty (though many of those are family and guests). And my guess is that many of those took a greater proportional chunk out of the families' discretionary income than this one did. We don't hear about those, though - probably because those don't have quite the volume (read: they didn't cost as much) as this one had.<br />
<br />
Also, there are probably lots of Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebrations that cost a whole lot more than this one did, but we don't here of them, either, because they were in Better - or at least quieter - taste. A celebrity performer? A luxury trip abroad? Why not? As long as it's not tacky.<br />
<br />
Be honest: the values at stake here are not moral or religious but aesthetic. And if you've been elected <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_censor#Regimen_morum">Censor </a>by the Centuriate Assembly, judging the aesthetics of a private family function is precisely at your pay grade. But otherwise, unless someone is trying to force you to adopt that kind of taste as your own, why is it a subject for your public judgment?<br />
<br />
Look, you want to use your pulpit to inveigh against the kind of <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/03/wealth-inequality">wealth inequality</a> that allows one family to spend on one event what most other families will never make in a year? I'm right behind you. You want to establish sumptuary rules so that all simchas are affordable. Rock on (but good luck with your congregants). You want to insist that all Bar/Bat Mitzvah kids and their families demonstrate a commitment to a life of piety and good deeds? Yes, please.<br />
<br />
But if you don't object to private fortunes, if you don't insist on a common standard of taste, or an overarching expression of piety in family celebrations, then maybe a better, more pastoral response would be to stand in front of the prurient crowd, and protect a family from a <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/ttt-vayigash.shtml">public shaming</a>. Isn't that a Jewish value, too? Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-82957260318007534552013-04-05T12:17:00.001-04:002013-04-05T12:17:21.964-04:00bad stuff<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In writing about the culture of violence that is both the necessary
foundation and natural concomitant of, the military occupation of the West Bank,
Amira Hass writes something <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-inner-syntax-of-palestinian-stone-throwing.premium-1.513131#" target="_blank">bad and stupid</a>:</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Throwing stones is the birthright and duty of anyone
subject to foreign rule.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s odd, too, because elsewhere in her essay she writes
compellingly about civil disobedience, suggesting that training in the theory
and practice of thoughtful, peaceful resistance should be part of the
curriculum of Palestinian schools.
Violence, though, is not civil disobedience, and her words are not only
morally corrupt, but strategically dangerous, threatening to further damage
what there is of political discourse and to accelerate a looming spiral into
chaos and bloodshed.</div>
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<br /></div>
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So: her statement is bad and stupid. </div>
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<br /></div>
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It is important,
though, to note what her statement is not.
It is not, contrary to the claims of some, an incitement to murder. Throwing rocks at people is violent, is
dangerous, and may be lethal, but it is generally not an attempt at homicide,
and everyone knows this – including those making the most extreme claims
against Hass. Should the settlers who threw stones at <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Report-Settlers-throw-stones-as-Palestinian-school-buses-308282" target="_blank">Palestinian school buse</a>s, or at <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Settlers-protest-demolition-at-Yitzhar-throw-stones-at-IDF" target="_blank">police and soldiers</a> who have come to dismantle illegal structures, have been treated as would-be murderers? </div>
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<br /></div>
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Yes, a stone can kill.
So can a <a href="http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/violence/rubberplasticbullet.htm" target="_blank">rubber-jacketed bulle</a>t; so can a <a href="http://www.aele.org/alert-tactics.html" target="_blank">baton</a>. But when police use them in riot control they
are hailed – or criticized – for using non-lethal force, in spite of the
potential danger. And that is because we recognize the distinction between an act of violence with the intent to kill, and an act of violence with a different intent; between throwing a stone and throwing a <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/murderer-of-israeli-peace-activist-emil-grunzweig-to-be-released-from-jail-1.339306" target="_blank">grenade</a>.</div>
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</div>
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Moral judgment means precisely that – judgment. It means evaluation, it means judgment. To say that something is bad does not mean
that it is the worst; to say that something is not the worst is not to say that
it is ok. What do incitements to, or
justification of, murder look like? “<a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/death-to-arabs-scrawled-on-neve-shalom-cars/" target="_blank">Deathto Arabs</a>” spray-painted on a wall – that looks like one. <a href="http://www.bhol.co.il/article_en.aspx?id=51080" target="_blank">Suggesting that “din rodef” applies to an individual</a>
or group, that could look like one, too. “Throwing
stones is the birthright and duty of anyone subject to foreign rule?” Not so much.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Should we condemn Amira Hass’s justification of violence as
morally corrupt? Yes. But we should condemn it for what it is – not
for what it isn’t.</div>
Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-88254798501079139362012-04-03T09:10:00.000-04:002012-04-03T09:11:22.035-04:00slave eyesIt strikes me that one of the things we imaginatively "remember" at the Seder is how we, as slaves, experienced *all* the Egyptians, whether or not they were rich or powerful. As Egyptians they had acess to a certain amount of power, or protection, or privilege, that the slaves did not, and so all of them were seen through the eyes of the slave as enemies. I offer: now that we are in a condition of relative power, security, privilege, this act of imaginative remembering might make us aware that there are those today who are profoundly oppressed, and make us wonder how they are looking at us.Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-10633720183181503672012-03-06T11:58:00.002-05:002012-03-06T12:02:17.197-05:00judaism teaches us to put on masks every day<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:targetscreensize>800x600</o:TargetScreenSize> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif][if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> 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</xml><![endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">What those of us who teach prayer tend to forget is that the prayer book is not a “book”, not in the normal sense.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">When I read almost any passage in almost any text, I am being addressed by an external voice.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Yes,” you will say, “but, well, duh.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In fact, though, it is worth saying, because the knowledge that I’m being addressed, and my understanding of who is addressing me, govern the way I will try to understand the text.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>True, the interpretive strategies I will use will differ if I’m listening for the unified commanding voice of God, or the multiple voices of codifiers and redactors, or even for something as amorphous as the “text itself”.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>At least I am comfortable with the goal of interpreting what someone is trying to say to me.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">For all, though, that liturgy may look like any number of other kinds of classical Jewish texts it is fundamentally different in this, that <span style="font-style: italic;">a liturgical text does not address the reader</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Quite the opposite – the very definition of a prayer is that it is something the reader uses to address someone else, specifically God.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This small and obvious point has far-reaching consequences especially for the educator, because it insists that the “reader” is really the “speaker”.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But of course the student is not really the speaker; not yet. And so in addition to all of the questions normally invoked in learning to read a document (what do the words mean, what are the references, what are the ideas being expressed, etc.), the student is faced with a new and unfamiliar task.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Understanding liturgy means finding that speaker, finding that voice, and discovering what it feels like to adopt it as one’s own.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I wanted my students to start thinking of prayers as expressions of an interior world, rather than as descriptions of the exterior one.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I suggested to them that they think of a prayer as a kind of mask, much like the ones worn in religious rituals by many peoples.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The job of the mask-wearer is to discover the reality on the “inside” of the mask and bring it to life.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In our class work, we had seen that classical blessings always begin with a phenomenon in the world – eating a piece of bread, say, or lighting a candle.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>While the blessing itself would not make reference to <span style="font-style: italic;">this </span>piece of bread, or <span style="font-style: italic;">this </span>candle, it did re-cast the phenomenon as a synecdoche of an attribute of God: this piece of challah is an example of God’s nature as bread-giver.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In other words, a blessing expresses a different way of seeing.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">With this in mind, I could ask my students to take a passage that caught their fancy and ask, “How is the author of this prayer seeing the world?”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was then a short step for them to try to imagine what kind of person it might be that would see the world (or a small part of it” in that kind of way.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Thus far, the work was very similar to what might be done in a poetry class, or even a class in script analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But because in a Jewish religious school liturgy is a practice, not just a text, I took it a step further.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Now that you’ve imagined what the ‘inside’ of the person saying this prayer is like,” I said, “envision that person’s face.”<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I passed out blank white masks, which I’d picked up at a party supply store, markers, glue sticks, colored paper, various odds and ends.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“You’ve picked the <span style="font-style: italic;">Sh’ma</span>?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Make a mask of ‘Sh’ma Man’.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The <span style="font-style: italic;">Keddusha</span>?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Show me the face of the one who sees angels.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Did it work?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I think so.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They made masks: some quite striking, some even moving., and they discovered that they were thinking about the texts in ways they never had before, hearing as though for the first time phrases they’d known since childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Did it transform the way they felt about prayer or the prayer book?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Probably not.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Maybe if we I had given them more time to work with those masks, maybe even to davven with them in a closed, safe environment.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But perhaps that is asking too much of students in a high school class – too much trust, too much vulnerability.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Maybe that wants to be tried with a self-selecting group, or on a retreat.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Maybe mask-work should be introduced first to younger children, or maybe saved for adults.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What the project did, though, was to give the students another set of tools, another set of questions, to bring to the prayer book.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It helped them see, I hope, that whatever prayer is, it isn’t a book.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-55538303599961561192012-02-13T13:32:00.002-05:002012-02-13T13:36:25.279-05:00a seder of the liberated<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Roger Cohen's </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/opinion/cohen-the-dilemmas-of-jewish-power.html">piece </a><span style="font-style: italic;">in today's New York Times on the inability of Jews to imagine themselves as powerful reminded me of something - so a hunt through my dusty digital attic turned this up:</span><br /></span><br /><!--[if gte mso 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semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif][if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">Usually, we think of religion in terms of faith, and to be sure there are many places in the tradition where we are commanded to believe--or even to know--something: about God, or the world, or ourselves. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">At Passover, however, we are enjoined to imagine. No matter what haggadah you use, it is almost certain that you will find the passage that says that it is incumbent upon each of us to see ourselves as though we individually had been redeemed from Egypt. I remember that I used to be suspicious of that section; I assumed that it had been inserted by some twentieth-century editor in an attempt to make this ancient text relevant. But it has been part of the Haggadah for as long as there has been a Haggadah, going at least back to the Mishnah (ca. 200 CE). </p> <p class="MsoNormal">With the Hadrianic persecutions still in living memory, with the yoke of Roman imperial rule still heavy on their necks, the Jews were told that one day out of the year they were to experience themselves as liberated. Now that, if not revolutionary, was certainly subversive. For most of the following two millennia, the Seder continued to serve as an exercise in this subversive imagination. Perhaps now our bodies are in bondage, but our minds have taken us to a place where we find ourselves freed and our oppressors overthrown. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">But there has been an odd development since then: Jews are not an oppressed people. It is true, of course, that anti-Semitism hasn't disappeared. And it is also certainly true that there are Jews who are victims of a variety of oppressive structures, such as racism, homophobia, and contemporary capitalism. And there is no doubt that the world as a whole is in desperate need of redemption. Still, by any useful measure, Jews as a whole (and American Jews in particular) are doing just fine, thank you. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And thank God for that development, I say. But in the process, what has happened to our Seder? What happens to a ceremony designed to comfort the afflicted when the afflicted become comfortable themselves? First, the imaginative task changes. No longer needing to conjure up a vision of freedom, we may find ourselves in an odd search for the experience of oppression. Frequently this is done through history, and many modern haggadahs refer to the Holocaust (there is even, I believe, an edition entirely devoted to it). Sometimes this is done by making connections to truly oppressed Jews; I remember the "Matzah of Hope" on our table for our brothers and sisters in the Soviet Union. And there are some especially progressive haggadahs which try to establish solidarity with other struggles for liberation, whether particular or global. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">This is not necessarily a bad thing. It is important for us to remember our history, to stay connected with our brethren, to be mindful of the oppressed of all nations. But when we start imagining ourselves as in bondage we face the danger of "misusing" the Seder. For it is the task of the enslaved to seek freedom for themselves, and to do this they must see that their enslavement is not the primary determinant of who they are. But it is the task of the free to seek freedom for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">others,</i> and to do this they must take full ownership of such power and position as they have. Rather, such power and position as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">we</i> have. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Not once, and not twice, but over and over the Torah has God warn the freed slaves that when they come into the Land, when they are in power, they are to remember their experience in Egypt and take special care of those on the margins: the widow, the orphan, the stranger. For Jews, the price of liberty may be eternal vigilance, but it is vigilance about the condition of others. But it is mighty hard to take responsibility for others when you are imagining yourself as powerless. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">How should a reasonably free, reasonably prosperous people celebrate the Exodus? By embracing that freedom, accepting that prosperity, and accepting with it God's demands that we look to the condition of those around us. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Much is at stake. The most painful part of the Exodus story for me has always been the death of the Egyptian first-born. It struck me as grotesquely unfair that the innocent, who themselves were perhaps none too free, would suffer. But perhaps it is true that in the great struggle one is either on the side of the slaves, or one is on the side of the slave-owners; there is no neutral ground. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">If that is so, perhaps when we spill the wine during the recitation of the ten plagues it is more than a memory. Perhaps it is a warning. For there are those in the world who are truly oppressed, who are waiting for their own Exodus. Whether they know it or not, they look to us. Will we be innocent Egyptians? Or will we be the kind of free men and women God wants us to be? </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Maybe that is the first of four new questions, questions for a Seder of the liberated. </p>Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-84409324089052504412012-02-09T14:34:00.005-05:002012-02-10T14:37:13.231-05:00i ain't signing any more (or: it's not enough not to abuse your wife to be a good husband)<span style="font-weight: bold;">Update 2/10/2012.</span> Rabbis Jack Moline and Daniel Zemet, the writers of the letter, have released a YouTube video of themselves reciting the letter (which means it's now public), and it's being posted on Facebook, asking people to "like" it. I'm not, for obvious reasons. If it comes around to you, then, well, you'll get to make your own choice.<br /><br /><br />To the J Street Rabbinic Cabinet:<br /><br />Over the past year, those of us who have been paying attention have seen an increasing amount of bad, if not shocking, news from Israel. We have read of assaults – against women and girls, against non-Jewish clergy, against the sacred structures and books of Muslims – and other acts of bigotry by Jews who call themselves religious, as well as physical attacks against the IDF by Israelis who call themselves Zionist. Those of us in particular who claim or aspire to a leadership role, however modest, need to respond, and two rabbis – one of whom I know and respect and honor – have written a letter condemning in no uncertain terms these actions, J Street, an organization I affiliate with, has circulated it. It should be, as they say, a slam dunk, a no-brainer, an easy win.<br /><br />I am writing to tell you why I am not going to sign.<br /><br />The letter presents itself as a call for “Religious Ethical Zionism,” which certainly sounds wonderful. I would love to think of myself as part of a vanguard promoting it – it would give me that warm, righteous feeling I so rarely have. To be quite honest, I’m not always sure what people actually mean by Zionism these days, but I do have some ideas about what an ethical-religious vision might involve:<br /><br /><ul><li>It could be the claim that Jewish religious practice needs to make the practitioner more open to the needs and experiences of the other;</li><li>It could be an insistence that any teaching that contributed to an atmosphere of dehumanization or delegitimization of one’s opponents, whether Jewish or not, could not be called Torah;</li><li>It could be a serious campaign to learn and respond to the experience of those who are strangers in the community and State;</li><li>It could be a move towards a Mussar-like approach, demanding a rigorous honesty about one’s own flaws.<br /></li></ul>It could be any number of things, things I haven’t even imagined. One thing I do know, though:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Being ethical is more than not being a creep.</span><br /><br />Here is the core of the letter:<br /><br />“We stand in solidarity with the victims of these crimes, believing that those who perpetrate them cross the line that separates righteousness from immorality. We condemn these acts as desecrations of human beings and of our sacred tradition. We call upon [the] Israeli government and legal authorities to bring these criminals to justice.<br /><br />“We call upon the leaders of all branches and forms of Judaism to denounce these crimes for what they are: a denigration of the essential Jewish teaching tht honors the divine imate in which every human being is created.”<br /><br />That’s it? The religious ethical vision is <span style="font-style: italic;">don’t do crime</span>?<br /><br />We can’t let ourselves off the hook that easily. To be able to call ourselves or our approach “ethical” – to wear that badge, to tell ourselves that story about ourselves as we drift off to sleep – shouldn’t we be actively trying to make the lives of others better? Or at least addressing the roots of criminal behavior in non-criminal (but still abhorrent) culture?<br /><br />I have no doubt that the writers of the letter had the best of intentions – a desire to craft a statement that as broad a range of Jews as possible could sign on. That’s a noble desire. But I’m afraid that by using the language of “this constitutes an ethical response,” we send a signal to others that we think that it’s sufficient, when in fact it’s barely the beginning. Worse, I’m afraid that we will fool ourselves.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-44418885803321082882012-01-20T09:21:00.003-05:002012-01-20T11:42:05.535-05:00tznius and its discontentsImagine this story in the Talmud: A woman of great physical beauty waits outside the house of study on Friday evenings, so that she would be what men would see before they went home to spend Shabbat evening with their wives. How would she be treated by the text? Possibly as a demon, undoubtedly as a temptress.<br /><br />I thought of this as I saw how excited so many friends of mine were about Rabbi Dov Linzer's recent writings on tznius, both his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/opinion/ultra-orthodox-jews-and-the-modesty-fight.html?_r=2">op-ed</a> and his <a href="http://rabbidovlinzer.blogspot.com/2012/01/torah-from-our-beit-midrash-tzniut.html">longer, more technical piece</a>. I wish I, too, could be that excited, but I can’t avoid seeing them as apologetics that ignore a number of important issues:<br /><br />* Rabbinic discourse about tznius is still about the problematic of how women’s bodies are seen by men. The Talmud tells of R. Yochanan displaying his physical beauty to women on their way home from mikvah (Berakhot 20a); what would be "provocative" (at best) for a woman is left unchallenged when it is done by a man.<br /><br />* The rabbinic tradition is scandalized by women having public roles. That women on occasion did have public roles (increasingly so throughout history) is not because of the Talmud, but in spite of it.<br /><br />* There is no distinction made between attractive and provocative.<br /><br />* There is no way provided to appreciate someone’s beauty (even sexual beauty) without objectifying that person.<br /><br />* Tznius is restricted to sex. Rather than come up with an approach to modesty in general (including, perhaps displays of wealth or status or learning) which might have been an original contribution to contemporary ethical thought and a useful critique of modern culture – including Jewish culture – we’re still left with an anxiety about sexual desire.<br /><br />* Finally: at best it tells people who are committed to Talmudic culture, “Don’t worry, the Talmud is not as bad as those guys make it seem.” But at the end of the day, he doesn’t tell us anything about ethics we didn’t already know, and neither (in his reading) does the Talmud. But if he hadn’t found the texts he had, or if he hadn’t read them in the way he did, would it then be ok to blame male desire on women, to lock them up or cover them in veils? Of course not. But if the best we can get from the Talmud is a confirmation of the values we already have, why bother?<br /><br />This pains me enormously. I write this as someone who is committed to Talmud study both personally and professionally; in fact, I’m writing this instead of working on a dissertation on Talmud education and the moral imagination. And I’m aware that Rabbi Linzer is more learned, wise, pious and courageous than I will ever be. Still, I can’t help feeling that something important is missing here. Perhaps it’s something missing in me. Perhaps not.Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-69712026715133744902011-10-09T15:41:00.001-04:002011-10-09T15:43:46.272-04:00ask not (kol nidre 5772)The Talmud teaches that for all but the most grievous sins against God, if a person repents come Yom Kippur he or she will be forgiven. In fact, for some sins (the “thou shalts,” where you didn’t do something you were supposed to do), forgiveness comes immediately, before you’ve even had time to move. Whether or not you believe that, or whether or not you believe in a God who can forgive sin, or a God who can be sinned against, or a God at all, the possibility of that kind of forgiveness – that grace, really – is pretty damn compelling. That simply by feeling bad about the stuff I feel bad about, and saying so, I can be relived of having to feel bad about myself…well, who wouldn’t want that? <br /><br />And so as Yom Kippur approaches, we seek it out, if not from a God we might not believe in, we ask one another for that grace. “I’m sorry that I hurt you,” we might say to a friend, neighbor, or colleague, “I hope you’ll forgive me.” Or, “If I hurt you, I hope you’ll forgive me.” We might even broadcast it, posting on our Facebook pages, or on our listserves, or tweeting it out: “If I’ve hurt any of you, I hope you’ll forgive me.”<br /><br />But in doing that, we forget. We forget what the Talmud teaches, that if I hurt another person I’m responsible for all kind of reparations: for physical harm and emotional harm, for long-term effects as well as short-term ones. And we forget what we learn from the ketubah, that when someone becomes vulnerable to me, I become responsible for guarding that vulnerability. In short we forget that the business of atonement is not so that we won’t feel bad about what we’ve done, but so that we can make better what we’ve done.<br /><br />When we do that, not only do we miss the point of atonement, and lose an opportunity to bring some healing, some repair to our screw-ups, we forget that we can bring some repair to our screw-ups. What we do is more deeply inscribe a story in which all we are, are helpless screw-ups in need of forgiveness.<br /><br />So I wonder what if we focused less on the grace we want, and more on the healing that those we’ve hurt need; if we started saying “If I’ve done anything to hurt you, I hope you’ll tell me what you need from me to begin to be whole.” It might help us be a little less selfish. And it might actually help out some people who need it. And we might discover that while we may indeed be screw-ups, we are screw-ups who can do some good, who can still – in spite of our brokenness, in spite of our screw-ups – bring some healing, some repair to the world. Which realization is itself a kind of grace.Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-71052596328861093062011-08-05T08:53:00.005-04:002013-07-09T14:28:02.583-04:00the costs<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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"Look, have fun - but please," I asked her before she left for one of her teenage adventures, "don't do anything stupid.” She looked at me in awe. "Abba, you're right. If I find myself thinking, ‘Should I do something stupid?’ I promise to answer ‘No.’"<br />
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She was right of course. We don't generally do things once we know them to be stupid; it's precisely because we don't recognize just how stupid our ideas might be that the advice not to do something is stupid is virtually impossible to follow. The outsider can easily forget what the rabbis of the Talmud knew (Arakhin 16b): that it is not enough for a directive, or teaching, or reproof, or piece of advice to be true, it must be accessible: advice isn't any good if the person can't follow it, and if you know the person won’t be able to follow it it’s better to be silent. No small thing when the Torah itself commands that you reprove your fellow who has done wrong, lest you come to “hate him in your heart.” (Lev. 19:17)<br />
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And the sages of the Talmud took hatred very seriously. They taught that while the first Temple was destroyed as a result of the Israelites' idolatry, the second Temple fell because of <i>sinat hinam</i>, generally translated as “gratuitous hatred”, among the Jews of that time (Yoma 9b). This was surely a radical teaching: that God would not live among people who could not live with each other. And it is a teaching that has enormous currency these days. Not a year goes by without some anguished reference to sinat hinam within Israel or the broader Jewish community. These anguished references are not usually confessions; the baseless hatred that causes so much concern is usually what someone else is up to. This is not really surprising. Hatred is such a powerful emotion that we rarely experience it as being anything but well-founded. Don't get caught up in gratuitous hatred? Ok, I won't. <i>My</i> hatred is only directed against those who really deserve it.<br />
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More: Even if one were able to recognize when his or her own passions were gratuitous, what about those those that aren't? If you believe that I pose a threat to the State of Israel, or that I am willfully leading others to sin, or that I am destroying the foundations of a just society - well, that hatred is certainly not gratuitous. I find this "earned" hatred even scarier than the baseless kind. Because hatred tends to be so powerful, so pure an emotion, the "justification" tends to become absolute and any kind of compromise, is itself a failing, and to look at the costs of maintaining or acting on that hatred is a kind of accommodation with evil.<br />
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But if this is so, where does that leave the ancient rabbis and their warning against <i>sinat hinam</i>? Perhaps more pertinent than ever. There is another meaning of the word <i>hinam</i>, found as early as the Bible. After nearly forty years in the desert the Israelites romanticize their old slavery and complain about the diet of manna. "We remember," they say, "the fish we ate in Egypt hinam." (Numbers 11:5) <i>Hinam</i>, you see, can also mean free. Without cost.<br />
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not to be “hatred without cause” but “without cost,” a hatred that is thought to be without risks or losses or consequences. That is indeed dangerous, because hatred – even when it is justified – is never without cost, and certainly never without risks. The expression of hatred, whether in word or in action, releases a destructive force into the world, and one can never be certain of keeping it fully under control. And whether expressed or not, hatred takes a psychic toll on the individual, again: even when it is justified, even when it is the wisest and healthiest reaction it still has a cost.<br />
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Those costs are easiest to forget precisely when we are most sure of the righteousness of our feelings, and thus the danger: at the very moment when our feelings are at their most powerful and most likely to be destructive we are least likely to put a check on them. <i>Sinat hinam</i>, the belief that our hatred has no cost is like the belief that surgery has no risks; and a doctor with that attitude quickly becomes a killer. It is not hard to imagine how that kind of hatred could have brought down the Temple.<br />
<br />
Don’t tell us not to hate, because that much self-control we don’t have. And don’t tell us not to hate gratuitously, because none of our rage feels anything but righteous. But if you remind us that even the most righteous hatred has a cost, well, we may stop and think And if we think hard enough and clearly enough, perhaps we’ll decided more and more frequently that those are costs we don’t need to pay. </div>
Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-53352560232388900112011-07-04T17:48:00.002-04:002011-07-04T19:45:20.027-04:00outsiders<span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_article_control_lblArticleBody">This one is for David Cobin, of blessed memory.<br /><br />A recent <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=227176">essay </a>by Robbie Gringras of Makom, a project of the Jewish Agency, has attracted admiring attention from friends of mine, both real and virtual. I confess I found it troubling. There's a facile comparison between the protestors of Tahrir Square and and the early (and contemporary!) Zionists, and a bizarre slip-slidey move that equates having a historical connection to a place and having a categorical right to sovereignty over that place*. But I don't know how much those issues really matter - Israel has the same rights to be free of attack as every other state, and its citizens have the same right to define its nature as the citizens of every other state, subject to the same legal and moral constraints governing the conduct of other civilized democracies. It is the simple fact of Israel's existence that provides it with all the legitimacy it needs - which is precisely the same legitimacy as any other state; such legitimacy is not threatened by the philosophical incoherence of its supporters.<br /><br />What did bother me was this: <span style="font-style: italic;">It may be that we in the Jewish community have moved a little too far from the source. It may be that some of our arguments are more about Western values refracted through Israel, rather than about Israel itself</span>. It's the old rhetorical move to delegitimize certain claims as coming from an outside source. Sometimes, as here, it's the Israel/West boundary that's being asserted; other times it's the distinction between Jewish and non-Jewish thought. In either case, it's wrong, and worse, it's dangerous.<br /><br />First things first. A secular state is a Western idea. A constitutional democracy is a Western idea. National liberation is a Western idea. You can't exclude "Western ideas" from Israel without replacing the Zionism of Herzl and Ben Gurion with the weird ethno-fascist clericalism expressed most recently and most explicitly in the work <a href="http://www.forward.com/articles/123925/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Torat HaMelech</span>.</a>**<br /><br />By all accounts, <span style="font-style: italic;">Torat HaMelech </span>is vicious, terrible work, and emerges from the ideological stew as gave rise to the terrorist butcher of Hebron as well as Rabin's assassin. Now, I do not believe that everyone in the religious settler community supports terrorism. I don't even believe that all of those protesting the questioning of Rabbi Dov Lior are actually in favor of murdering non-Jewish babies. Of course, they're not protesting on behalf of a general "Freedom of Speech" either. Rather, they're insisting that "Torah" is not subject to critique from the secular state - from "non-Jewish values."<br /><br />But here's the thing. If <span style="font-style: italic;">Torat HaMelech </span>is indeed a terrible work, it's not because the authors got their sources wrong, misunderstanding a gemara here or ignoring the <span style="font-style: italic;">Beit Yosef</span> there. If you have to wait to find the appropriate Jewish text before passing moral judgment on a passage that says </span>that Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us” there is something profoundly wrong with you.<br /><br />The late David Cobin was a legal scholar, and one of his interests was the history of slavery, and specifically Jewish attitudes towards that peculiar institution. One of the things he taught me was that Abolitionism arose first in the Quaker community. It was not until later that Jews joined the struggle against slavery, and there remained rabbis who supported slavery (just as leaders of other religions did) until after the Civil War.<br /><br />Now, I trust all of us would agree that slavery is evil. Absolutely and categorically. And that any one, even a rabbi, who spoke otherwise would not just be wrong, but would in an entirely different moral universe. But as David Cobin pointed out, abolitionism was at first a non-Jewish value. Nevertheless, we have made it into a Jewish value not because traditional rabbinic sources say so, but because it is so powerfully true.<br /><br />And so we are left with a choice. We can have a Judaism from which we try - like those defending Rabbi Lior and his friends - to exclude all "foreign thought;" all "Western values." Or we can have a Judaism that teaches that slavery is evil. We can't have both. I know which one I want.<br /><div style="overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;"><br /></div><br /><span id="ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_article_control_lblArticleBody"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /><br /><br /><br />*See under: Basques, Welsh, Hutus, Lapps, Samaritans, Kurds, Ainu...<br />** I am not ruling out the possibility that the current aggressive rejection of secular authority by both the so-called "Religious Zionists" and the Hareidi community is itself informed, if indirectly, by the triumph of militant Islam in Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.<br /></span>Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-33910285921067257482011-06-20T22:51:00.006-04:002011-06-21T16:24:39.460-04:00those crazy jewsI guess I should write a few words about how Israel, as a topic, is making the American Jewish community completely nuts. I mean, completely nuts. The Simon Weisenthal Center, whose primary mission is to hunt Nazis and fight anti-Semitism, in the person of its Associate Dean, read an op-ed on Fox News, in which he attacked<a href="http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=6478433&ct=10786171"> "President Obama's outrageous demand that [Israelis] retreat to pre-1967 Six Day War lines, which were dubbed by the late Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, 'Auschwitz' borders."</a> Now, put aside for a moment that Obama made no such demand - here's a group that has no particular geopolitical mandate or expertise, using Holocaust imagery to attack Obama, whose position on Israel's borders is essentially the same as Israel's own center-left, including much of <a href="http://forward.com/articles/138492/">its recent defense and diplomatic corps</a>. That doesn't mean the position is <span style="font-style: italic;">right</span>, of course, only that it's the kind of mainstream position that an ostensibly non-partisan organization has no business attacking (and especially not in <span style="font-style: italic;">shoah</span> terms*) unless the <a href="http://www.forward.com/articles/128641/">machers </a>have gone off their meds. But of course, if they were trying to make a reasoned argument, they wouldn't be quoting a "strategic assessment" made in <span style="font-style: italic;">1969.</span><br /><br />Or take the fuss about JStreet. Take a look at <a href="http://jstreet.org/supporters/advisory_council">who their supporters are</a>: they include leaders and former leaders of the Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative movements. Again, they may be right and they may be wrong, but it just does not get any more mainstream. But suggest that they be treated as such, and folks go bonkers, whether in the measured tones of a <a href="http://southjerusalem.com/2011/06/arrogance-101-lecturer-daniel-gordis/">Daniel Gordis</a> or in the <a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/opinion/exclude_me_your_own_peril">full-batshit-crazy</a> mode that Jews normally only display in synagogue when the cantor introduces a new tune. Mainstream, loyal, affiliated Jews who advocate fairly moderate positions - positions that many Israelis believe are in Israel's best strategic interests - are treated as though they were a threat to the country's very existence.<br /><br />Which I suppose we are. Talking about withdrawing from the Occupied Territories - hell, just calling them the Occupied Territories - suggests that the borders of the State have more to do with negotiations and politics and international law than the Bible. A willingness to accept the fact that Jerusalem <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> a divided city puts paid to the notion that one is living in the seat of the re-established Davidic monarchy. Concern that Israel may use force unjustly, and that the occupation may be more brutal than security needs mandate or that international law allows implies that Israel might be subject to moral scrutiny by the outside world.<br /><br />Is any of that really so bad? It all seems kind of normal for a normal country. It's not a good thing to be accused of a war crime, let alone commit one, but to hold Britain accountable, or France, or the US, for unjust use of force is not to attack their legitimacy or demand their dismantling. To call for a state to accept international law is not to deny its sovereignty. None of the above are incompatible with concern, even love, for a country.<br /><br />Not for a real country, anyway. And that's the point. The JStreet constituency treats Israel as a real, normal, country situated in the real, normal world. In doing so, it challenges - no, it rejects - the idea of Israel as a mythic place. <span style="font-style: italic;">That</span>'s the Israel that's threatened.<br /><br />A lot of Jews, though, need to believe in that Israel just as children need to believe in their parents' perfection. [It's not just Jews, by the way, who have this kind of need. Look at the way Palin et al furiously demand that Obama swear allegiance to the idea of American exceptionalism]. Some, particularly the religious right, are explicit about this: As the reborn Zion, Israel has a claim on all of Cis-Jordan by virtue of the Divine Promise, period. <br /><br />But most American Jews don't really believe that, not at least in their grown-up brains. They can't say, even to themselves, that they need to imagine Israel as messianic, or recognize their fury at those who would deny them their illusions. And so they insist that they're speaking about Israel's physical security, and that the very positions held by the former head of the Mossad are treasonous when coming from American Jews. But when you try to make a security case for a mythic belief, you end up sounding, well, crazy.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />*Oh, by the way - waving around the word <span style="font-style: italic;">shoah</span> is only the mirror image of waving around the word <span style="font-style: italic;">apartheid. </span>The fight against bad historical analogies begins at home.<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-85355819570014801482011-06-12T21:37:00.003-04:002011-06-12T23:45:31.536-04:00who cares?What should a good synagogue - or any Jewish institution - do?<br /><br />Thought experiment:<br /><br />Let's imagine that Judaism mattered. That is, it made a difference whether or not it were being done - and by extension, done well. What would it be about Judaism that was important?<br /><br />Maybe it's the moral imperative. I hear that a lot; in fact, I heard it a number of times just today. A friend was telling me about a conversation a friend of his had had with her Orthodox parents about her mover away from observance. "Isn't the most important thing whether I'm a good person?" And then later today, I saw that a wise and influential rabbi had written "Jewishness is believing one person can transform the world."<br /><br />Now, it is really, truly, desperately important that one try to be a good person. And there's no question that believing that one can transform the world - or should at least try - is crucial if there is to be any kind of justice done, any repair of the world. But. But. But. If being Jewish <span style="font-style: italic;">meant</span> being a good person, then either all good people would be Jewish by definition, or only Jews would have the capacity for goodness (either through some inherent quality, or through a monopoly on moral teachings). And both alternatives are patently nonsense. But think of Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Dr. King. Of Florence Nightingale; of Harriet Tubman. Not a good Jew in the bunch. <br /><br />So the <span style="font-style: italic;">Jewish</span> part of being Jewish, the stuff that would matter if Judaism matters, has got to be different than just the moral imperative*.<br /><br />To be sure, maybe it doesn't matter - not beyond a kind of ethnic pride, a desire for the kind of immortality that comes from being connected to something that lasts. In which case, who really cares what we do, or how? As long as you get people in the door, and get them to pin the "Hi, I'm <span style="font-style: italic;">Jewish</span>" name tag on their psyche, you've succeeded.<br /><br />But if it there was something, or a couple of somethings, that were really important on their own; if there was something there that the God or the world or your neighbor or you would be poorer without, then it seems that the institution would have two tasks:<br />1) Identify what it was that needed to be done - and what that thing looked like when done well;<br />2) Make sure it gets done well.<br /><br />Actually, if we thought there was a core that really mattered - in the way that other stuff that matters matters - we'd be changing our relationship with our shuls and JCCs and the like. We wouldn't be so concerned about whether they entertained us or bored us - we'd want to know whether they helped us do the stuff we needed to do, well. We'd demand it.<br /><br />Sounds simple, don't it? But I don't see that happening, by and large. Do you? I wonder what that means.<br /><br /><br /><br />*That doesn't, doesn't, doesn't mean that one can be fully Jewish and be a schmuck; just that there's <span style="font-style: italic;">more</span> to being Jewish than not being a schmuck. Did I really need to say that?Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-48205199898123093862011-04-07T14:51:00.001-04:002011-04-07T15:02:35.150-04:00arts and craftsAnyone who has heard the expression, "Teaching is less a science than an art" raise your hands. All of you? Wonderful! And can any of you tell me what it means? Wow! So many hands. So many hands.<br /><br />No wonder. It is one of the most common clichés about the work. And that, in turn, is probably because there is something about it that feels intuitively right. Which is not to say that a good teacher will not be informed by scientific research, especially in the fields of cognition and human development. That research, though, is only a tool to be made use of, the way a painter makes use of the rules of perspective or the properties of pigment on drying plaster. The act of planning a unit, or conducting a class, or designing a project is a highly personal one, engaging the teacher's intuitive, emotional, and aesthetic sides. Surely we have a right to consider ourselves artists.<br /><br />I want to suggest, however, that there is a fundamental difference between teaching and making art, between what we might call (in a way that will be narrowly defined in a moment) the artistic temperament and the pedagogic temperament, a difference that expresses itself in every facet of life, not only the studio and the classroom. "Temperament" of course is a dangerous term, because it can suggest a kind of essentialism; one "is" an artist or one "is" an educator, as though that expressed a certain fundamental truth about the person. Perhaps instead of temperament we should say "stance," and at any given moment one chooses – consciously or not – to "stand" more or less as artist or as teacher.<br /><br />But just what is an artist? Sometimes we use that term as an exclamation of skill: "She's no ordinary plumber. She's an artist." And often that sense of art-as-heightened-craft implies that the work has an aesthetic value beyond the needs of the task: "Did you see his suturing? That's not surgery, that's art."<br /><br />The understanding that an artist is a master craftsman has an old and distinguished lineage. Aristotle taught that the ability of a work to appeal to our aesthetic or emotional sides was subject to certain principles, and an artist was "simply" someone who had mastered those principles and could put them to work. And John Ruskin, the 19th century critic, wrote movingly of anonymous masons and carpenters and glaziers whose craft made for the art of the Gothic cathedral.<br /><br />At the same time, we know – we know – that that is not the whole story. Though there are advantages and disadvantages to both, no one would confuse being called an artist with being called a craftsman. The craftsman, after all, is subservient to the discipline while the true artist is subject to nothing save his or her own vision.<br /><br />This approach has a respected pedigree as well. Plato insisted that whether one was or was not an artist had nothing to do with skill; an artist was simply a vehicle for a muse, much in the way that a biblical prophet was a vehicle for the spirit of God. And while the cult of real supernatural muses has been dormant for quite a while, the romantic image of the artist as someone who is in a kind of thrall to that inner voice is with us still. The understanding of that "voice" as something almost supernatural is so powerful that the trope of the artist not needing to follow ordinary manners or morals has been a cliché for well over a hundred years.<br /><br />Although he was not writing about artists, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Y6541udNkj0C&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=ahad+ha%27am+prophet+and+priest&source=bl&ots=pY7EQbd5dn&sig=VS1P2xj6lRu-QD5ofNup-kxZ2PI&hl=en&ei=MAieTfilHcyJ0QGZ8uTVBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false">Ahad HaAm</a> understood the attraction of this model, and generations of young Jews have felt themselves inspired by his presentation of the prophet, committed to the pure and absolute Truth, in opposition to the Aaron the priest, the man of compromise and conciliation.<br /><br />"My Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?" (Amos 3:8) This experience, this urge, (or a non-religious version of it) is at the heart of what I call the artistic temperament or stance: I have a fire within me, and I must let it out; I am possessed of a singular vision, and I must express it. Not subject to the "thou shalts" and "thou shalt nots" of ed school courses and "teacher-proof" curricula, the real educator as artist-as-prophet.<br /><br />The problem is that the prophets were lousy teachers. Holy men? Undoubtedly. Vehicles for God's message? To be sure. But if we judge a teacher by the impact she or he makes on the students, well, I don't know how they would fare. Indeed, the only prophet who can be said to be truly successful is Jonah, and he is the one who is least taken with his role as prophet. (Nathan is an interesting exception, but as prophet to a king, and not the people, he is in a different category.) It seems as though there is something about being a good prophet (or in secular terms, a capital ‘A' artist) which is inimical to being a good educator.<br /><br />Why should that be? What is it about the artistic stance that gets in the way of teaching? I want to play for a minute with Ahad HaAm's paradigm of Prophet v. Priest. Judaism doesn't have priests any more, but Catholics do, and the Catholic "High Priest" so to speak is known by a number of terms. One of them, pontiff, comes from the title of the cultic head of ancient pagan Rome, pontifex maximus. The Great <a href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Roman_bridge">Bridgebuilder</a>.<br /><br />"Bridgebuilder" is a fine metaphor for a priest, but I think it's an even better one for a teacher, not least because it can be understood in many ways. Do you span the gulf between student and information? Do you make it possible for the student to cross over the bridge from her current condition to a future one? Are you the bridge? The builder? The ledge? But however the image is understood, the point is that the bridge is about getting from here to there. The builder's attention has to be focused on that other side. It is only then that she can begin to think about the look of the bridge.<br /><br />If you were to ask people to visit a classroom in their mind's eye and then asked who was speaking, most of them (even teachers) would say, "the teacher." And teachers do need to speak, and to write, and to dance about the room, because teachers need to teach. So it is tempting for us to claim that artistic stance, to find what it is we most want, most need, to say. But if we want to be teachers, not artists, our concern must be with that other side. Not what we most want to say, but what the student most needs to learn. It is a stance of listening, not speaking; of getting one's vision from the other, not from within.<br /><br />Taking the stance of the educator is a humbling discipline, because what we might most want to say doesn't really matter that much. What matters is finding a way of saying what those others most need to hear, and finding a way of saying it that can be heard. It's surely not prophecy, and it's not even Art. But doing it well is the work of a master craftsman. It's the work of a teacher.Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-14776384069418039292011-03-18T16:57:00.001-04:002011-03-18T16:59:14.686-04:00your amalek and mineBear-in-mind what Amalek did to you on the way, at your going-out from Egypt, how he encountered you on the way and attacked-your-tail - all the beaten-down-ones at your rear - while you were weary and faint, and thus he did not stand-in-awe of God. So it shall be: when YHVH your God gives-you-rest from all your enemies round about in the land that YHVH your God is giving you as an inheritance, to possess it, you are to blot out the name of Amalek from under the heavens; you are not to forget! (Deut. 25:17-19, trans. Fox)<br /><br />Who is Amalek? We know that Amalek must be totally destroyed; that is, that Amalek is completely unredeemable. Our history knows of many villains, individuals and nations. What makes an enemy so dangerous that against it, and only it, the Torah demands eternal warfare, eternal vigilance? What makes the crime of Amalek worse than that of Egypt, the enslaver, or Moab, the seducer? The Philestine kingdom of Lebanon helped to build the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, but Amalek, and Amalek alone is to have no place on God's green earth. <br /><br />What did Amalek do? The Torah tells us that he attacked the stragglers, those who had fallen outside the camp. But the very notion of stragglers should give us pause. As the Torah describes it, the Israelite community on the march was much like an army, with every tribe in its place, every clan intact. Who was there to be left behind? Surely even the old and weak had families to look after them. Amalek's victims, then, must have been those who were not only weary, but who were allowed to fall behind. <br /><br />Is it hard to imagine that God's own chosen would let some fall by the wayside? It shouldn't be. For while in our stories we tend to romanticize the poor and the sick (whether it's the begger as Elijah of folklore or the saintly-homeless-man of so many movies) many of the weakest in our society are downright unattractive. They are the people we hope will not sit next to us on the subway, the people whose neighborhoods (if they are lucky enough to have neighborhoods) we avoid. They are hicks and yokels; racists, misogynists, and homophobes with primitive ideas. Filthy and dangerous, or just weird and unpleasant, we don’t actively persecute them (we’re way to progressive for that) but neither are they foremost in our hearts and minds.<br /><br />This does not make us wicked; it is part of being human. We are limited beings and our capacity for compassion is likewise limited. Our areas of concern are a series of concentric circles - sometimes ill-defined, sometimes porous, but they are there. The Tradition acknowledges this, even mandates it. We are obligated to see to the needs of those closest to us (by kinship or geography) first. True, there are cases in which a need may be so pressing that it compels attention and jumps to the head of the line, so to speak, but generally the Torah is content to assume that everyone falls within someone’s inner circle. It is those who do not, the widow, orphan, and stranger that the text commends to our particular and communal care. <br /><br /> <br />As well it should. Because we see in our own world what happens to those on the outskirts of our concern: they die. Their nutrition is worse, their shelter is worse, their medical care is worse and comes later. Having the least to spare they are more subject to violence, robbery, fraud. Whether it’s defined by “lifestyle” or skin color or status or general attractiveness, those at the margins are at the greatest risk. And though surely death comes to us all, it is equally sure that death comes most aggressively to those who have none to look after them. For Amalek waits to strike at those who fall behind.<br /><br />The Torah tells us all we need to know. Amalek is the enemy that preys on those who are left behind. And Amalek must always be remembered because Amalek cannot be killed - not by the sword, at any rate, for Amalek is called into existence by his prey. For Amalek to be defeated, he must be starved. It is this aspect of the enemy which drives the almost desperate anxiety of our passage. Because Amalek will spring up wherever there are holes in the safety net, whenever our guard is down. If we forget to watch out, if we forget to take care, if we forget that everyone in the society must - must - be cared for, there will be an enemy waiting for them in the wilderness. Amalek will only be fully vanquished and his name blotted out when he becomes unimaginable; that is, when the very idea of stragglers will be as foreign to us as the idea of child sacrifice.<br /><br />And one more thing. Our reading is not just a reminder, not just a warning. It is a command. The war against Amalek, victory over Amalek, is now our responsibility. If Amalek survives, it is because we allow it. If he takes victims, it is because we have failed. And when people die who didn’t have to because they were behind us, because they were beneath us, well, that blood is on our hands. Out here in the desert there is no other way.Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-30100673521259957752010-07-29T18:53:00.002-04:002010-07-29T18:57:03.089-04:00the groom's tuxedoWhat I want to know is, will the groom wear shatnez?<br /><br />I was not planning on writing about The Wedding. I wish them all the best, of course, but having said that, what’s left? To my surprise, though, it’s become a kind of McGuffin among some of the more interesting Jewish voices I read; by which I mean a narrative device that doesn’t matter that much in itself, but it provides an excuse for the real work.<br /><br />The pieces I’ve read point to, indeed celebrate, the wedding as representative of a new era in which traditional boundaries are breaking down – boundaries between tribe and tribe, culture and culture, even religion and religion. Take a look at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-irwin-kula/from-the-cathedral-to-the_b_659871.html">this</a>, by Rabbi Irwin Kula, for one of the best presentations of the point. Irwin, and others like him, suggests that we are entering a new era, in which people will pick and choose the best pieces of wisdom from their traditions and bring them together in a new, compelling syncretism.<br /><br />And so I wonder, would the traditional prohibition of shatnez, a mixture of wool and linen, be one of those pieces of wisdom that Chelsea and Marc bring into their new life, or might such a blend be absolutely perfect for summer formal wear?<br /><br />Shatnez as one of the great examples of Jewish wisdom? It’s hard to imagine. In fact, it seems like a perfect example of that kind of picky, detail-obsessed, rule-bound Judaism that we’d like to escape. How could fretting about a fabric add any kind of holiness to your life?<br /><br />Though if you know just a little bit of history it is kind of interesting to note that wool, which comes from sheep, and linen, w.c.f. flax, represent the two main forms of human society in antiquity – herdsmen and farmers, nomads and settlers – and that the two have always been in tension (thus the plot of Oklahoma). And you might even remember that the very first fight was between a shepherd and a farmer over whether flesh or grain was the better sacrifice.<br /><br />If you know a little more you might be aware that both those cultures are brought together in early Judaism; Passover, for example, is tied to both the newborn lambs and the ripening of the first grain. You might be struck by how the prohibition on mixing wool and linen acknowledges the legitimacy of the two modes of life and their distinctiveness – and the fact that they are brought together in the garments of the priests, and even in the Tallit (when techeilet is used) points to the Sacred as the one space in which they come together; a union that is only meaningful because of the normal separation.<br /><br />And you might go on to make a connection between the boundary-marking work of shatnez and the way a mezuzah marks the boundaries between inside and outside, and the way kiddush and havdalah function in time, etc., etc. You could, if you were of the mind, feel in these different practices the pulse of the very first story, in which God creates not by shaping or forming or hatching, but by establishing borders – making is out of chaos by establishing order, differentiating between light and dark, water and water, sea and land. And that pulse could call to you, if you paid attention to it, reminding you though each of these practices, that you are a partner in the work of creation.<br /><br />What I’m suggesting is that Judaism is, or at least can be looked at as, a system, and the pieces and practices and teachings may gain their meaning in the context of that system. In doing so, I’m trying to avoid the dualistic way of thinking that offers a choice between a reactionary traditionalism and a progressive syncretism. The “whole” (and I don’t mean particularly an Orthodox whole) can be seen as having value because that’s where the parts have meaning; wrenched out of context they become incoherent, like Kachina dolls on the bookshelf or dreamcatchers above the bed.<br /> <br />I don’t think syncretism is evil; but I think it does threaten to turn expressions of wisdom into dreamcatchers, and they don’t really work for Anglos.Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-63047450397964983022010-07-18T22:31:00.002-04:002010-07-18T22:35:09.739-04:00ancient modern poetryI will be honest: I do not look forward to the restoration of sacrifices, and neither does anyone I know. But I will fast tomorrow without a second thought. I understand that there are many for whom Tisha B’Av makes no sense any more, that it belongs to a long-departed mindset. I think, though, that the primary gulf between us and the ancient rabbis has to do less with what they believed than with how they spoke.<br /><br />First: the Rabbis were not Greeks. We are heirs of the Western philosophical system, and as such we use a language of principles, generalities, categories. The Rabbis, on the other hand, used a language of the concrete and structured their discourse around cases, specifications, archetypes. We do the same thing in our day-to-day language: when we pine for the days in our fifth-floor walk-up it is not because the lack of space and the lousy plumbing made us a happier couple, or even that we always were a happier couple then; but that apartment has come to represent a way that we like to think we once were. So too with the Rabbis: “The Temple” is their way of speaking about a world in which God was experienced as directly and even intimately present, and “Destruction” is the language for the loss of that experience.<br /><br />We are distanced from them, too, by our understanding of time. We moderns think and speak about historical time, understanding the difference between “then” and “now”; modernity itself is a product of the development of what we call history. And so the questions that we ask about an event are, “What were its causes?” “What were its effects?” and most important, “Did it really happen then?” The Rabbis, though, trafficked in sacred time, mythic time, for which the essential question was not whether something happened once, but whether it was eternally true. The Seder does not memorialize the Exodus, it reenacts it, because the Liberation is something we all experience. So too with Tisha B’Av. Although we recall a series of tragic events we do not mourn things that happened then but for the brokenness we live with every day.<br /><br />One does not need to be wish for the sacrifices to know this brokenness, one does not even need to be Jewish to recognize that, “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned.”<br /> <br />Yeats understood what the Rabbis called the "Exile of the Divine Presence," even if he would not have used that language any more than they would have spoken of the Spiritus Mundi or of “A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun…” The Rabbinic poetry was of altar and offering, and they acted it out through prayer and fasting. They invite us to recognize the Destruction that exists now, to mourn it, and to be poets with them.Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579003483038593135.post-20578827911892175542010-07-13T22:01:00.004-04:002010-07-14T15:22:43.100-04:00it's the chickens; they're backI’ve been thinking about a bunch of news stories from Israel: the arrest of a woman for carrying a torah scroll by the Western Wall; the bill being pushed in the Knesset that would delegitimize non-Orthodox conversions; recent efforts to demonize the New Israel Fund and various Israeli NGOs; racist pamphlets by settlers at illegal outposts aimed at the Druze soldiers who had come to evict them. But this isn’t a screed against the right. Not too long ago, the then-dean of the Israeli Conservative Rabbinical School, a brilliant feminist scholar and pioneering rabbi herself, not only ruled against the ordination of gay and lesbian Jews, but claimed that homosexuality was a choice, and that heterosexual marriage was endangered by the movement for gay and lesbian rights, and there was not a lot of public outcry (at least, not that got much press here).<br /><br />And I’m wondering if all of those stories might be really one story. Maybe what we should be worried about is not who gets access to the Wall, or who is the gatekeeper for conversions (even though both of those are serious issues), but whether Israel has developed a culture in which the way you respond to those you disagree with is by totally delegitimizing them, and by using what power you can to deny them even the right to their own story.<br /><br />And that makes me wonder to what extent the long, and in some circles still extant, tradition of insisting that there is no such thing as a “Palestinian people,” that they have no legitimate national aspiration and no legitimate complaint against Israel – in short, the continued delegitimization of the Palestinians – has played into this dynamic. It seems to me that if you spend enough time insisting that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people, and the very claim that there is, is a threat” it’s hard to keep from moving to “there is no such thing as non-Haredi Judaism…” or “no such thing as healthy gay and lesbians…”.<br /><br />To be sure, in part I'm upset because I just find it unseemly that there is so much concern within the American Jewish community about who has access to the Wall and so little about the gross inequality in the Israeli government’s treatment of Arab and Jewish citizens. But more, I’m convinced that the only society in which my group will be treated with dignity is a society in which every group is treated with dignity. And I’m worried that what I’m hearing on the news is the squawking of Pastor Neimuller’s chickens coming home to roost.Joshua Gutoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17731207066330434709noreply@blogger.com2