From the Rabbi's Bunker, April 30-May1: The Cruelest Month (ever); When Do We Open Up the Economy? Kosher Pork; The People Who Dwells Apart...Together; The Darkness of Egypt

From the Rabbi's Bunker

Shabbat-O-Gram

    Koby Hayon leading our Zoom celebration for Israel's Independence Day.

 

K students showing their colors!

Our 7th graders were asked for their favorite Israeli innovation:

Sydney: Waze

Camryn: Gaga

Sophie: gas masks and helicopters

Brandon: USB flash drive

What's yours?

_______________

April is the cruellest month, breeding 

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Shabbat Shalom

When TS Eliot called April "the cruellest month," he had no idea what this April would be like.  Now May begins, and with it, the hope that brighter days may lie ahead. Another poet, Lucille Clifton, in her poem "Blessing the Boats," expressed the wish that we all share as the cruelest month gives way to May:

may the tide

that is entering even now

the lip of our understanding

carry you out

beyond the face of fear

Join us at 6 on Friday as out K,1 and 2 students will be sure to brighten our day as they, along with Cantor Katie Kaplan, will co-lead the service with me.  This will be our main Kabbalat Shabbat service. Rabbi G will lead the Torah study at 11 on Shabbat morning.

We've gotten used to this new normal as we see the curve beginning to flatten. With all the sadness we're experiencing, with our adaptation to a life of masks and fear and endless grieving, this April has indeed been the cruelest of months.

Those legendary April showers have been transformed, in 2020, into windswept deluges; but if we simply add some kindness, those May flowers can - and will - still grow.

When Can the Economy Reopen?

This is the question of the hour, and Jewish sources have much to teach us.

You can read the full statement put out by the Rabbinical Assembly this week.  Below are some highlights:

 

Kosher Pork

Much of the conversation this week has revolved around infection being widespread in meat production factories. Several years ago, Conservative rabbis created the Magen Tzedek seal.  It imposed a higher level of Kashrut supervision that evaluated not only regarding standards of ritual slaughter and meat preparation (with involves painless slaughter, draining the blood, salting, etc.), but also three other areas of ethical importance: humane treatment of animals, concern for the welfare of the workers and environmental impact.  The Magen Tzedek project has waned, but there is no question that the knowing and forced exposure of workers to unsafe conditions flies against all the principles behind Kashrut as we know it.  Kosher laws might seem irrelevant to consumers of pork and non-kosher meat products produced by companies like Tyson, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't speak up about it.

In fact, we should be outraged whenever workers anywhere are forced to expose themselves and their families - and by extension, the rest of us - to unsafe working conditions.   And on top of it, if the goal of the current executive order is to prevent workers from being able to sue companies that force them to take such risk, that is shameful.

So look at these study materials.

And as you do, remember that we create a holy society by caring for the most vulnerable among us.  The disease, like some kind of microbial Amalek, had made a beeline right for them: the elderly, particularly in nursing homes, workers (and the unemployed), those with underlying medical conditions, minorities, immigrants (who are being targeted more by the government than the disease itself) and the incarcerated.  As Martin Luther King wrote:

  

Photo: Reuters

A People Who Dwells Apart...Together

It's not often that I'll recommend that people open up an ultra-Orthodox newspaper, but these are not normal times, so please click here and flip through the pages of this week's Flatbush Jewish Journal. You will find there a small hint of the grief that that community has been enduring because of Covid-19.  You'll see it in the ads, in the articles, and most of all, in the many pages of tributes.  Jews have long believed that no one dies alone - or marries alone, or, in fact does just about anything alone.  So the mess regarding recent funerals and weddings among Haredi Jews, from Brooklyn to Bnai Brak, has been a source of both concern and consternation.

Jews just can't seem to stay away from other Jews.  Just ask Mayor de Blasio, who chewed out the Jewish community for the inordinately large gathering at a recent funeral in Brooklyn.  Now while the mayor should not get a pass for painting the Jewish community with such a broad brush, neither should other Jews ignore what happened. We are our brother's keeper, and this week's portion implores us not to stand idly by.  So we should be calling out all those who endanger us by not keeping social distance rules.  I know that I feel horribly when I have to inform families that no more than ten can attend a funeral, and there have been so many funerals. Those rules of social distancing need to apply to everyone.

Israelis were in total lockdown yesterday, unable to celebrate Independence Day in the normal ways. Isolation does not come naturally for the "people that dwells apart." That's why the government couldn't relax the lockdown even a little yesterday.  They knew that, given an inch, Israelis would soon be all over the beaches and parks and bopping total strangers on the street with those squeaky hammers and spraying that silly snow, as they do every other Yom Ha'atzmaut.  And the day before, on Memorial Day, they all would have flocked to the cemeteries.  The cemeteries were closed on Memorial Day.

So this week, Israel helped to teach us how to do both grief and celebration safely, on a national level.  It may have been more subdued than normal, but it did not lack for togetherness, even as everyone was apart.

See the three video examples below:

1) The annual military awards ceremony at the president's house was handled quite differently.  The musical numbers were wonderfully inclusive, bringing in a wide spectrum of voices was in the musical montages about 24 and 51 minutes in.  

2) And then below that, see the opening ceremony from Mount Herzl, which also demonstrated that it is possible to celebrate separately and to remain united in the Corona Era. 

3) And the final video of the three is the annual International Bible Quiz, which this year was held online, but was still as thrilling and as unifying as ever.  Playing along in my armchair, I even got a few of the answers right this year (it is NOT easy).

-------------------

And while we are at it, see this fascinating award-winning video about Israel, made available for general viewing this week

Sustainable Nation - Full Length Documentary [OFFICIAL]

And click here to stream a classic Israeli film for free between now and tomorrow at midnight

or go to https://israelfilmcenterstream.org/ and use the promo code ISRAEL2020

The Darkness of Egypt

I always love how our ancient sources live and breathe in Israeli culture.  You don't have to go to rabbinical school to know that this week's portion contains the central verse, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  And there it was, on the screen, introducing the Mount Herzl ceremony, whose theme emphasized the unity and mutual responsibility of all Israelis.

 

It reminded me of an episode of Fauda Season 3 that I was watching this past week, where Israelis were about to cut the power to Gaza.  The term for "blackout" used was "Hoshech Mitzrayim," evoking the biblical plague of darkness inflicted upon Egypt. The text of Exodus 10 and accompanying commentary talk of this being darker than the ordinary night, a supernaturally thick and tangible darkness.

The subtitles just said "total blackout" or some such, failing to convey the 3,500 year cultural flavor of the Hebrew.  The Bible truly comes alive in the Jewish state, where even Doron from Fauda is a midrash scholar, without even knowing it.

More on this week's Torah portions, Ahare-Mot and Kedoshim 

Achare Mot - Kedoshim in Humash Etz Chayyim

Love Your Neighbor: How It Became the Golden Rule

The Scapegoat Ritual and Its Ancient Near Eastern Parallels

Bestiality in Biblical and Hittite Law (it's been a long quarantine...)

The Exodus, the Alien, and the Neighbor

If You are Really Missing Sports and You Love the Omer...check out

OMERTIME 

Over the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot, count the Omer with us as we meditate on how the (divine qualities) sefirot show up in the games we love most. Whether you're a fan of basketball, baseball, or hockey , we hope that our playful reflections on the spiritual side of sports bring meaning and joy to your practice of counting the Omer this year.

And finally, we hear from last week's cancelled guest:

Lisa Grove-Raider  passes along the youtube link to the video of her Great-Uncle Kurt Kleinman as he receiving the Medal of Valor from the Simon Wiesenthal Center.  He had planned to show this video as part of his presentation at TBE on April 19th. His story has been told in the bestselling book, The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy May!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Where in the World is Rabbi Sandiego?

When my kids were younger, they were big fans of the public television show and computer game, “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” The goal was to track down the elusive thief and learn some geography at the same time.  At a time when everyone is cooped up in quarantine, where the New York Times has announced that its travel section is giving way to a new section called “At Home,” and where religious services are all occurring online, I decided to spice things up by adding a little Carmen Sandiego to the liturgy.

So each day when I open up my Zoom service, I appear with a different holy space as my virtual background.  It’s added a bit of intrigue to the service.  People are wondering, where will the rabbi be leading services from today?  It takes some of the humdrum out and replaces it with a a touch of wonder, which, after all, is precisely what prayer is supposed to accomplish in the first place.  One might say that prayer is all about releasing us from our state of spiritual cabin fever and send our souls soaring.

Here are some of the places I’ve “been” while leading services over the past few weeks.  They are all places where I’ve really gone.

 Mount of Olives, spectacular, mid-morning view

My empty synagogue, Stamford CT

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Gwozdziec synagogue restoration, Warsaw, Poland

Terezin secret Synagogue, Czech Republic 

Himalayan sunrise, near Kathmandu, Nepal

Macau Pichu, Peru

Auschwitz-Birkenau

From the Rabbi's Bunker: April 27: A Very Different Yom Ha'atzmaut

From the Rabbi's Bunker

    

 Last Friday evening, Brandon Nadel became our first-ever Zoom "Not Mitzvah."  His Bar Mitzvah has been rescheduled for the fall, but it would have been this weekend, and his speech was tailor-made for this portion. You can see the whole service by clicking here.  (Pre) Mazal tov, Brandon!

A Very Different Yom Ha'atzmaut

TBE 7th graders getting into the Blue & White spirit on Sunday

Don't forget our Yom Ha'atzmaut mini concert with Koby Hayon and Cantor Katie Kaplan on Tuesday evening at 7 PM.  As Israel approaches this auspicious moment, the reins of the lockdown have been loosened slightly and a new unity government appears ready to be convened.  But, like everything in Israel, it's complicated.

As Daniel Sokatch of the NIF writes, it's too early to know exactly what the government will look like, or how the courts will deal with the still unresolved issues of an indicted prime minister and his delayed trial, but we do know that the agreement hands critically important ministries - including Defense, Foreign Affairs and the Justice Ministry - to Blue and White MKs who are likely to be far more moderate than the current right-wing hardliners in those positions.  On the other hand, an agreement seems to be in place that would allow the Knesset to move forward toward annexation of disputed territories this summer. Sokatch continues:

In the face of efforts to shutter parliament, citizens took to the streets to register their dissent, flying black flags - in Israel, the symbol that democracy is in danger, that the public trust has been broken - from their cars.... Just this week, on the eve of the announcement of the new government, thousands of activists and citizens took to Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, and while taking pains to maintain appropriate social distancing, stood together for democracy and civil liberties in a time of emergency. These brave Israelis showed the world, as Time Magazine put it, what democratic protest looks like during a pandemic.

 

So we don't know what the future brings - and truthfully, Israel's future diplomatic course will be determined more by what happens here in the US over the coming months than anything happening over there. In today's Washington Post, Jackson Diehl points out that "Netanyahu was about to proceed with the settlements' annexation in early February when he was blocked by Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner, a prime author of the peace plan. The White House said annexation must await U.S.-Israeli agreement on a map of the exact boundaries of the seizure." So it's not a given that the Gantz-Bibi government will be allowed to annex, especially when the Saudis, Jordanians and Egyptians chime in.

I'm disappointed that progress on the pluralism and human rights fronts will be less likely, and as Anat Hoffman writes in Ha'aretz today, dissenting voices are stifled and ignored.  As she puts it, "Israel only engages with Diaspora Jews who marvel at its utter perfection."

Still, she adds: 

The Israel I know as a native Jerusalemite is complicated and messy. I find the "messy Israel" to be a flawed, but nonetheless wonderful, place for hashing out issues and having a real impact. The State of Israel is where Jewish and democratic values play out, and where a multiplicity of (sometimes conflicting) voices are engaged in figuring out what, precisely, those values are or should be. Israel affects us and reflects on us, holding up a mirror through which we can see both the beauty and the flaws.

 

Pretending that everything is perfect might be momentarily gratifying, but I personally can think of nothing more important, meaningful, and ultimately beautiful than to be engaged in a dialogue about Jewish values and the Jewish State, and doing real work to help achieve those values. 

Whatever happens, we do know that despite all odds, the Jewish state continues to persist, to grow and even to amaze and inspire us at times - even if Israel, like the US, now faces enormous challenges, both external and from within.

Daniel Gordis, in his new Times of Israel column, "Only Here," describes a phenomenon that has become more common over recent weeks, the balcony minyan - total strangers joining voices across courtyards and streets to assemble a quorum for prayer.  

Within minutes, there were all sorts of voices, a chorus seemingly flowing from the stones. Men's voices, women's voices. Some children. A few people, secular by their looks, walked by on the street below, also looked for the source of the voice, and smiled. They might not have been participating, but they of course understood every word and were stirred by what they were witness to - this was theirs, too. So instead of praying downstairs in my study, alone, as I've done for weeks now, we found ourselves together on the porch, singing with people whom we'll never be able to identify, our collective voices rebounding off the buildings. As we were singing, mesmerized by the strangeness but also the wonder of the moment, it struck me: those very words - those exact same words - have been rebounding off of buildings around here for thousands of years. Many of the words we were singing were debated by the rabbis of old - the Talmudic Tractate Berakhot is a record of many of their conversations about what precisely the wording should be. And for millennia, now, we've been doing more or less what they prescribed. These neighborhoods, these hills, these stones, have been hearing those echoing words for thousands of years...

Even in the face of the fear, the hunger, the anguish and the unknown, many people in these neighborhoods will spend this very strange week heartbroken, to be sure, but also grateful beyond words to be in it with people whose lives are statements about where they want to be, no matter what:  Only here.

Only in Israel.

Film at 11...and 12...and 1

A first grade class meets near Bet Sha'an - early years of the state

If you are looking to combine a desire to celebrate Israel's birthday with the pandemic pastime of movie binging, have I got news for you! The Jerusalem Post reports that after years of intensive work on digitizing its collection of Israeli film clips, the Israeli Film Archive is posting many of its gems online and plans to make more available, with the goal of eventually digitizing everything in its vast collection, more than 5,000 hours of film. The IFA features a copy of virtually every film ever shot in Israel, including feature films, documentaries, newsreels and home movies, with clips that go back to the 19th century, among them an 1896 film produced by the Lumière brothers shot in Palestine which is believed to be the earliest film made here still in existence. These films and clips provide a fascinating and unique glimpse into Israeli history; but in the past, only scholars doing research at the IFA had access to them.

Here are some vintage films to get you started:

A 1935 ride from Tel Aviv to the Galilee

Celebration of Shavuot in 1937

The Spielberg Jewish Film Archive - Miracle of Survival: Against All Odds

Here's the playlist for the Spielberg Archives pre-state newsreels , as well as vintage photos.

The Yellow Bird Sings

If you are looking for a great read for yourself or a book group, take a look at this current best seller, written by the sister of TBE's Elisa Rosner.

Inspired by the true stories of Jewish children hidden during World War II, Jennifer Rosner's debut is a breathtaking novel about the unbreakable bond between a mother and a daughter. Beautiful and riveting, "The Yellow Bird Sings" is a testament to the triumph of hope-a whispered story, a bird's song-in even the darkest of times.

The novel has received starred reviews from Library Journal and BookPage, and has a wonderful Reading Group Guide (it is one of Macmillan's top book club picks).  Much more at http://jennifer-rosner.com/the-yellow-bird-sings-novel.html.

In Poland, as World War II rages, a mother hides with her young daughter, a musical prodigy whose slightest sound may cost them their lives.

As Nazi soldiers round up the Jews in their town, Roza and her 5-year-old daughter, Shira, flee, seeking shelter in a neighbor's barn. Hidden in the hayloft day and night, Shira struggles to stay still and quiet, as music pulses through her and the farmyard outside beckons. To soothe her daughter and pass the time, Roza tells her a story about a girl in an enchanted garden:

"The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings. He sings whatever the girl composes in her head: high-pitched trills of piccolo; low-throated growls of contrabassoon. Music helps the flowers bloom...."

In this make-believe world, Roza can shield Shira from the horrors that surround them. But the day comes when their haven is no longer safe, and Roza must make an impossible choice: whether to keep Shira by her side or give her the chance to survive apart.

Stay safe!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman