Shabbat Shalom and mazal
tov to the Trell family, sponsors of this week’s Shabbat-O-Gram, and a special
mazal tov to Max Trell, who has deep TBE roots on both sides of his family (6th
generation on his dad Jeff’s side) and becomes Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat. And happy December 5, a date that has a very
unusual connection to Jewish liturgy.
It’s when we praying for rain in an agricultural blessing in the middle
of the daily Amida. Why Dec 5? All I’ll say is that it is complicated and
has to do with the date growing season in ancient Iraq. Curious?
Read the
whole story here.
Also, join us for Comedy
Night on Sat. night if you haven’t already made reservations. And we’re proud to note that Cantor Fishman
will be featured at some concerts in the tri-state region this weekend,
including this
one produced by the National Yiddish Theater.
Big Tents and Red Tents
Today’s Shabbat-O-Gram
revolves around the theme of Big Tents and Red Tents. That fits in nicely with tonight’s “This
American Jewish Life” presentation by Beth Styles at our 7:30 Kabbalat Shabbat
service. Beth will talk about her life
journey and the rediscovery of her birth parents (who will be here).
Earlier this week, I was
proud to have participated in Stamford’s 17th Annual World AIDS Day Interfaith
Service, always one of the most important events on this community's interfaith
calendar. The Advocate immortalized me
on the next day’s front page (see photo below), even though I was the least
colorfully adorned clergy there. It was
an honor to be sitting next to my friend, Imam Kareem Adeeb, the only Muslim leader to be president
of an interfaith council in this country.
Stamford’s interfaith community is indeed a big tent.
“The Red Tent” on
Lifetime
In 1997, Anita Diamant’s
biblically based novel, “The Red Tent,” became a word-of-mouth hit, sold three million copies and has been translated into
more than two dozen languages. This Sunday it will be featured on Lifetime as a
miniseries. See “The
Red Tent” home page on Lifetime, along with this Lifetime study
guide. It can’t be a coincidence (or
can it?) that this Shabbat we read the story of Dinah, the subject of the novel. Dinah’s was Jacob’s 13th child and
only daughter. Dinah never founded a tribe, unlike all of her siblings (and
Joseph got two), but hey, she got a best seller and Lifetime miniseries, which
is more than I can say for Naftali and Manasseh.
The “Rape of Dinah” as
it’s so often called, is one biblical tale that they did not teach us in Hebrew
School. The novel (and
the steamy miniseries) and some contemporary commentaries tend to see
Dinah’s controversial relationship as more consensual, which makes this a very
appropriate time to discuss a whole
variety of hot button issues not necessarily covered in the novel,
including date rape, campus party culture, the silence of the victim,
intermarriage and ethnic “purity,” and whether collective punishment is ever
justified. Dinah’s story deserves a
novel, and she deserves a voice. See some
contemporary feminist material on Dinah that I’ve collected from various
sources. Also see this ”Women
of Faith” conversation guide on “The Red Tent.”
I haven’t previewed the
series, but I’ll be DVR-ing it this Sunday (hey, it’s up against “Homeland,”
“The Newsroom” and last but not least, Patriots-Chargers; incidentally,
“Homeland” fans will notice that Brody’s wife has morphed into the matriarch
Rachel in “The Red Tent.”)
Israel’s Big Tent
…Big Tent as in Big Top,
because Israel’s political system has turned into a circus. The government is dissolving after less than
two years in office and new elections will be held in March. Apparently, the Jewish Nation/ State basic
law that was approved by the cabinet last week but will likely not be voted on
by the departing Knesset, was a device used by the Prime Minister to hasten his
government’s collapse so that he can go back to the polls, in his hopes of
cobbling together a more right wing coalition that could then pass the same
bill. One
of the largest organs of American Jewish journalism, the LA Jewish Journal,
has made it clear that the proposed bill could well be the “red line,” the
final straw that ruptures ties between American Jewry and Israel. If you read through some
of the articles I’ve collected on the topic, you’ll have a better idea as
to why.
In fact, the proposed law
is legally unnecessary and symbolically redundant. The Declaration
of Independence serves well in defining Israel’s character as both Jewish and
democratic, assuring the “complete equality of social and political
rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will
guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.” One response to the proposed bill has been to
make that Declaration of Independence, signed by Israel’s founders, the
preamble to an as yet nonexistent Constitution.
That’s a great idea, except that
some believe, not without justification, that were Israel’s Declaration of
Independence to be voted on by the current Knesset, it might not pass!
So, aside from creating a
tempest to blow up the government, there seems to be a more fundamental,
underlying goal of this Nation-State Bill, and that is to pave the way for a
“one state solution,” annexing a good deal of the West Bank (Naftali Bennett
wants to immediately annex
60 percent, “Area C” as it’s called) where a potential Jewish minority would
assured preferential legal status. There
is a word for that - the dreaded “A” word.
In other words, this bill would be the greatest gift Israel could ever
give to the B.D.S movement, an early Hanukkah present for Jimmy Carter and, as
the LA Jewish Journal correctly states, the red line that American Jews simply
will not cross. We Jews have gained too
much from living in a democracy to abandon democratic values now – especially
since such blatant discrimination flies against the very Jewish values a truly
Jewish state is supposed to promote.
I’ve said it before and
I’ll say it again: “It’s Iran, Stupid.” While the Israeli government should be
doing everything it can right now to keep the world’s eye on the single most
pressing existential danger to Israel and the region, they are fiddling with
something totally unnecessary.
Additionally, if the Prime Minister truly believed in a two state
solution, as he has claimed, or at least if he wants to strengthen Israel’s
diplomatic hand at a precarious time, he should not be the one shoveling dirt
on diplomacy’s grave. At a time when
hatred is spilling over in the country, including an alarming increase in
lone-wolf terror attacks and the despicable arson attack at the only Jewish – Arab
cooperative school in Jerusalem, a responsible government would be calming
the fires rather than fanning the flames.
When the brother of a Druze policeman killed in the line of duty during
the horrific terror attack at a Jerusalem synagogue last month heard about the
Jewish state bill, he said the Druze equivalent of “What
are we, chopped liver?” and suggested that these incredibly loyal Israeli
citizens would bristle at the prospect of second class status. To this, a Likud Knesset member proposed
an amendment to the bill granting special status to Druze who serve in the
military. That proposal only confirms
how ludicrous the bill was in the first place.
If you need to devise a plan for affirmative action even before the law
takes effect, there is something rotten about the whole idea.
If Israel is to fulfill
its vision of being the Big Tent that its founders promised, both for Jews and
for other groups, the Jewish State bill is a red line it dare not cross. On the
other hand, were Israelis and Jews throughout the world to come together and
affirm the basic values espoused in that visionary document, signed on a day in
1948 when the nascent state was being existentially threatened by armies
attacking from all sides, this red line could be transformed to glorious hues
of blue and white.
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