Shabbat and Purim - O - Gram for March 14

  

 

I'll be bringing this basket of Mishloach Manot (Purim gifts of food),

prepared by our TBE 7th graders, to the Jewish Home in Fairfield today. 

Giving the gift of food says at once: "I don't want you to be hungry" and "I want you to really enjoy life." In the face of the grim story of Purim, not only should we note that we're indeed still alive enough to eat - we should revel in it.

Shabbat Shalom, Happy Purim, Happy St Patty's Day and, yes, AT LONG LAST...

HAPPY SPRING! 

 

This evening I'll be joined by Cantor Mordecai and Beth Styles as we celebrate having survived both the endless winter and all the blows aimed in our direction throughout Jewish history - to this very day, when rockets still rain down on Israel's south.  And join us on Shabbat morning, when I'll be focusing on the Jewish concept of revenge, as exemplified by Shabbat Zachor and the prayer Alenu. 

But I digress... back to PURIM.  Join us for Purim for Adults on Sat. night at 8 (when the teens will be having a simultaneous sleepover) and for the Kids' Megilla and Carnival on Sunday morning.  Come in costume (gee, what will the rabbi be wearing?)

At the conclusion of the holiday, Mara and I will be heading to Israel for a week to see Dan, who is enjoying his semester at Hebrew U.  Maybe I'll rip myself from endless bowls of Abu Shukri's hummus to send a photo or observation or two via Facebook.  So if you haven't friended me yet, by all means, look me up!  

Polish Pubs & Purim

  

See this excerpt from a feature story about our Purim night speaker, Glenn Dynner in this weeks' Tablet magazine. 

There's nothing particularly boozy about Jewish economic history or culture, prior to or since this period in Poland. There are no Jewish cocktails and no spirits that are uniquely Jewish. There weren't any major Jewish innovations in the industry, and the Jewish legacy left to the world of booze is essentially nil. Why?

Polish nobles were eager to have Jews run their taverns, largely because of prevalent myths about Jews-chiefly, that they didn't drink. Dynner provides abundant evidence of what he calls the "myth of Jewish sobriety." The 19th-century Polish nobleman Antoni Ostrowski described Jews as "always sober," adding "drunks are rare among Jews." Indeed, Dynner writes, "Polish folk idioms mocked Jews for having so much  liquor at their disposal yet being so stupid as not to drink it themselves."

Well, Dynner's talk will be fascinating, especially as we then taste some Scotch and ask how and why that myth about Jews not drinking is no longer even close to valid.  We Jews have become quite adept at imbibing. 

But is that a good thing?

In my column in this week's N.Y. Jewish Week, I make the claim that the prevailing mythology regarding the obligatory nature of getting drunk on Purim is all wrong - and dangerous:

This year's trending Purim parody topic is the recent legalization of marijuana in Colorado. President Obama's recent public admission about getting high will no doubt fan these flames. And when there's fire, there's smoke. There will be, no doubt, lots of non-medicinal smoking going on, in and out of Colorado, this Purim.

One of my colleagues wrote a satiric piece for his synagogue bulletin about a new mile-high synagogue whose motto is, "Let's Get Chai," where Shabbat services begin at a mellow 1 p.m., the hamentaschen are cannabis-infused, where they say "ShaPOT Shalom," the rabbi's name is Moshe Stone and their website proclaims, "WEED love to see you."

OK, I get it. There's a lot of pot-ty humor going around these days, and Purim is a great time to indulge.

In humor, that is.

But something gnaws at me about this preoccupation with getting high and, more to the point - since it is legal everywhere - drinking. I don't want to get caught up in the incessant debate as to which mind-bending substance is the most harmful when consumed in excess. I also do not question the medical benefits of medicinal cannabis. My point is that I don't believe the ancient rabbis really intended for Purim to be a drunken orgy in the first place, and even if they did, that was before Jews drove these large metallic unguided missiles called cars.

Yes, it's true that in the Talmud, Rava (Megilla 7b) states that a person must get so inebriated on Purim as to be rendered unable to distinguish between "Cursed be Haman and "Blessed be Mordechai." But this flies against a strong Jewish aversion to excess, and later authorities tried to water down that quip to the point where it would be impossible to distinguish Rava from the Church Lady. 

Maimonides assumes that we should drink just enough to gently fall asleep. Others like Rabbi Menachem Hameiri who, being from Provence, undoubtedly knew his wine, stated, "We are not commanded to get drunk ... for we were not commanded to engage in debauchery and foolishness, but to have heartfelt joy which will lead to the love of God and to gratitude for the miracle that was performed for us."

Purim calls upon us to indulge in satire, but truthfully, getting drunk and stoned is no laughing matter.  I'm not trying to be a killjoy here.  I just want to make sure that no one actually kills Joy...or Bruce, or Joe, or Dawn, or any of the tens of thousands killed each year by drunk drivers.

 Read the rest of my Jewish Week column here.  

See also Vigor Juice Jews and Booze, a fascinating new history of Prohibition-era bootleggers, barmen, rabbis, and cops, which picks up where HBO's Boardwalk Empireleaves off, by Allan Nadler.  See a more lighthearded look at Jews and getting drunk on Purim here, a quick historical and halachic survey here, and a detailed, annotated responsum here. 

This History of Hamentaschen

According to Prof David Golinkin of the Schechter Institute, there are three customs that are connected to today's custom of eating hamentashen on Purim.  When you read this article, you'll come to realize that all this fuss about hamentaschen is just a bunch ofkreplach!  Read the complete essay here.  And click here for an article about Purim's origins

What is a Purim Spiel? 

We'll have a nice home grown Purispiel here on Sunday, produced by our teens.  If you want to learn more about the principles behind a Purimspiel, check out this online seminar from the Rabbinical Assembly, utilizing YouTube videos.  Also see Purim Articles from the Hartman Institute, The Book of Morman Purim Parody and my personal favorite on the eve of the "Big Dance," The Evil Doers Final Four, created a few years ago by my son Ethan.

And finally....

Hammerman Likes Ham

Some of my friends received this interesting announcement on Facebook this week:

  

Yes, my secret is out.  

Happy Purim! 

 - and check out the Forward's Purim parody with this photo of the latest Wicked Wicked Man learning how to read Torah... and the always funny Jewish "Weak" spoof

  

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

   

Shabbat-O-Gram for October 18

Mazal tov to Helene Leichter and her family, and we thank them for sponsoring this week's Shabbat announcements and Shabbat-O-Gram, honoring Helene's bat mitzvah, which will take place tomorrow afternoon.   Join us for services then as well as this evening at 7:30.  At services on Shabbat morning, I'll be taking a special look at the sacrifice of Isaac as depicted in the arts. As you can see in this sneak preview and study guide, the Akeda has captured the imagination of artists, poets and essayists of all faith traditions for thousands of years, up until this very week, when it was the subject of a humorous cartoon in the New Yorker.  Also, see my Jewish Week column this week, "One Year Later, Taking Ownership of Sandy," based loosely on my comments on Rosh Hashanah.

Last night I traveled to Newtown at the invitation of a congregant in her late 20s who was speaking to high school freshmen of her struggles with alcoholism and addiction. was eager to support Rachael (her first name is being used with permission); she has moved on so beautifully with her life and I am so proud of her for surmounting her personal hell and being willing to share her story with teens.  I also wanted to see Newtown, at long last, to begin to understand whether they too have begun to move on from their own hellish nightmare.  More on my reactions to visiting Newtown in next week's Shabbat-O-Gram.

The speakers who gave testimony, including Rachael, all received prolonged standing ovations.  But the question remains, will the teens listen?  Will these teens and parents, who have seen the consequences of irresponsibility, reckless behavior and mental illness so starkly, who live in a community that has suffered so immeasurably, will they act more responsibly because of it?  

Although some surveys indicate that programs like this are having a positive effect, the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that among high school students, during the past 30 days (see more statistics here):

• 39% drank some amount of alcohol.
• 22% binge drank.
• 8% drove after drinking alcohol.
• 24% rode with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.

Rachael spoke powerfully about her "allergy" to alcohol, saying "I put it in my body and I break out in stupid," and she was brutally honest about the consequences of the bad choices she made.  She focused on self esteem issues and the self-inflicted bullying that oftentimes is even crueler than the bullying inflicted by others.  She said that every time she drank she only fueled that self loathing, and how that addiction destroyed everything in her path.  Her recovery has been a blessing, and she can barely recognize the person she describes, the person she was, when she speaks with numerous groups of students.

I was very proud of her and felt blessed that in some way I've been able to help her get back up on her feet.  But as she spoke, it occurred to me that I also was part of the world that let her fall.  And not just a bit player.  I wondered how many signals I miss from the hundreds of teens I know now and the thousands who have come through my office over the years.  This is an enormous burden and a constant reminder to me that my own actions have enormous consequences.  But not just me.

All of us are role models, comforters, cajolers and boosters.  We need to think long and hard about all the decisions we make with regard to alcohol and other substances. Because we can be sure that somewhere, it will have an impact on a child.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Shots on Shabbat: Hammerman on Ethics

Q - My daughter, a freshman on a large college campus, was invited to the home of a local rabbi for Friday night dinner. The rabbi is not affiliated with Hillel or any synagogue, but has gotten deeply involved in college life and invites groups of students to his home nearly every week. The kids seem to really enjoy it. Last weekend I found out one reason. The liquid refreshment flows freely, and I'm not just talking about Kiddush wine. On the one hand I'm glad my kid is doing something Jewish, but serving liquor to minors scares me. My child tells me to "chill," but I am thinking of reporting this to the authorities.

Should I?


A – First, I would confront the rabbi directly. If the practice persists, then go to the police.

Serving alcohol to underage students is a criminal offense. More to the point, it’s dangerous, especially when those students then have to take an inebriated late night trek back to campus. Recently, attention has been drawn to alleged Chabad involvement in this practice, on Shabbat and especially on Purim. But it is not exclusive to Chabad. In an obsessive desire to attract young Jews to their programs by appearing “cool,” organizations resort to the allure of drinking. Even when the practice is legal and the targets are all over 21, it’s a cheap and self destructive path that subverts what might be an otherwise worthy goal.


True, Judaism and alcohol go way back together, especially when it comes to the production and consumption of wine. The Talmud exemplifies a sort of love-hate relationship, with dueling aphorisms like “Avoid wine, avoid sin” (Berakhot 29a) and “The Levites only sing when wine is poured” (Berahhot 35b). The same rabbis who state plainly that one cannot experience true joy on festivals without wine (Pesachim 109a) also state that nothing brings lamentation to the human race like wine (Brachot 40a). Add to this a widespread association of alcohol with spiritual highs, plus the connections to Jewish ritual, and one could see how rabbis might justify offering students a little sip from time to time. But there’s a big difference between a little syrupy Kiddush wine and offering shots. The commandment to sanctify the Sabbath can just as easily be fulfilled with grape juice.

Plus, Jewish law states clearly that Jewish law must comply with the law of the land. So tell your kid to let the rabbi know that he is disobeying Jewish law by serving alcohol to minors.

The facts tell us that binge drinking is up on college campuses. More than 25,000 lives have been saved in the U.S. thanks to the 21 Minimum Drinking Age.

There are better ways to attract Jewish youth to the beauties of our tradition than by lowering ourselves to the mentality of a Bud Light commercial. Given the dangers, it is time to blow the whistle on whetting the whistle of underage students.

Sources:

http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial_opinion/gary_rosenblatt/back_bacchanalia
http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/
http://www.madd.org/underage-drinking/why21/