In This Moment: Dec 17: The Power of Words; Remembering the Homeless

 

In This Moment Never to be forgotten: Victims of Sandy Hook On Tuesday we will be hosting for the first time the community's annual service for National Homeless Person's Memorial Day. A number of clergy (including myself and Cantor Kaplan), public officials and agency heads will participate, as well as clients who will speak of their personal experiences. Mayor Caroline Simmons will deliver the keynote address. Join us, in person or via Livestream at 6 PM. While TBE will still be involved in serving the needs of our homeless on Christmas Eve (and my personal thanks to all who are participating), the situation with Covid as well as the fact that Christmas Eve coincides with Shabbat will make it harder for us to be as "hands on" as usual. All of which makes this memorial an excellent opportunity to raise our consciousness to this ongoing - and increasing - social and moral concern. Shabbat Shalom! Join us for Kabbalat Shabbat services on Friday at 7, where we will hear from Abdallah Salha. Abdallah is a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip. He has joined multiple peace building programs including the Jerusalem PeaceBuilders and Creating Friendships for Peace. He's now studying in the US after finishing high school in Norway and spending two gap years first in Senegal and then in Gaza.  He will be appearing in person, and the service will also be available on Livestream. Check our weekly announcements for the link. Given the alarming spike in Covid transmission these past few weeks, my recommendation is to lean to the side of caution if you are wondering whether to attend services (or any large group activity) in person. Services for the following two Friday nights (Dec 24 and 31) will be Zoom-only. Shabbat morning and daily minyans continue to be Zoom only. Let's pray for a quick turnaround to this wave - and let this be another reminder to schedule a booster shot if you haven't gotten one. Here's some news and notes.... 'No more excuses': Conservative Movement slams shelving of Western Wall compromise Related: Why is Israel Once Again Abandoning the Solomonic Wisdom of the Western Wall Compromise? (Times of Israel - David Horowitz) ADL Joins in January 6 Lawsuit Against Hate Groups. The Flying Nones The "nones" are on the rise. The latest Pew Research Center survey of the U.S. religious composition finds the religiously unaffiliated share of the public is 6 percentage points higher than it was five years ago and 10 points higher than a decade ago. About three-in-ten U.S. adults (29%) now are religious “nones” – people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religious identity. Self-identified Christians of all varieties (including Protestants, Catholics, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Orthodox Christians) make up 63% of the adult population, down from 75% a decade ago. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray daily has been trending downward, as has the share who say religion is “very important” in their lives. Few Americans Blame God or Say Faith Has Been Shaken Amid Pandemic, Other Tragedies. Video of my Jewish Canon class on the impact of Harold Kushner's "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." Next class will be on Jan. 4. Alana Haim is true to life in coming-of-age flick 'Licorice Pizza,' set in 1970s LA Watch this ’70s ad for Bernstein on Essex to feel nostalgic for a lost New York (JTA) The Fast of Tevet, commemorated this week, commemorates an obscure event in Jewish history that doesn't seem to tragic at all - the translation of the Torah into Greek, known as the Septuagint, in Alexandria, in the 3rd century BCE. Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin explains why it is considered a tragedy: "The sages made that act of translation another reason for the fast of the Tenth of Tevet. In their eyes, “the day when the Torah was written in Greek was as unfortunate for Israel as the day of the Golden Calf” (Soferim 1:7). Why? According to William Kolbrener, the fast was not because of the translation itself, but rather, because of what Ptolemy did with the translation. He put that translation into the library in Alexandria. To quote Kolbrener: “Ptolemy gave the Torah the Hellenist version of a Library of Congress call number, and in so doing gave it the same status as other books in the Greek library. ‘Study the Bible in the university library,’ Ptolemy says, ‘but do not learn Torah in the House of Study.” Two things here. First, Ptolemy basically said that there is nothing terribly special, or sacred, about the biblical text. It goes into the same library as every other book. As such, it is a matter of choice what books you will read as sources of wisdom. Pretty modern of him, come to think of it. Second, when Ptolemy removed the biblical text from the House of Study, the sacred precincts of Jewish learning, he was basically saying: This is about your head, not your heart; your intellect, not your soul." "Devash" Family Magazine for the Portion of Vayechi (Mechion Hadar) At last Friday night's service, Dr. Fran Ginsburg spoke about the importance of the Chevra Kadisha (traditional name of the Jewish community's burial society) and her work for the local Chevra. A focus on that work is especially appropriate for this week's portion of Vayechi, which contrasts Jewish burial practices (for Jacob and Joseph) with Egyptian ones. We had some audio issues with Fran's presentation on our livestream last week, so it is with pleasure that I include the full transcript of Fran's words in this Shabbat-O-Gram: This week’s Torah portion is Va-Yiggash, full of the usual Genesis drama: betrayal, forgiveness, famine, reunion, the beginning of the Golden Era in Egypt—and none of that is what I am going to talk about today. I am actually skipping to next week’s parsha, Va-Yehi, which deals with the events leading up to Jacobs’s death and his burial. Why, you might ask, am I skipping? Well, Va-Yehi is traditionally when members of the Chevrah Kedisha, or burial society, speak about their customs and mission. As an active Chevrah participant from TBE, I was asked to speak next week, when I will be away. This topic is too important to skip, so here I am—a week early. If people have any image of the Chevrah, it seems to be that of a secret society whose members scurry around during the night performing mysterious deeds. I am here to clarify who we are and what we do—and hope to interest some of you into considering joining in our mission. The Chevrah Kadisha, loosely translated as “sacred society”, has the task of preparing bodies of deceased Jews for burial according to Jewish tradition and to protect the bodies from desecration until burial. To find out more about why we generally talk about the Chevrah on Shabbat Va-Yehi, I went back to the Tanakh to see if I could find inspiration in Jacob’s story. Instead, I found something I had not realized—he was embalmed in the Egyptian way. In general, Jews are not embalmed but are prepared to again become one with the land—dust to dust. The explanation I found is that embalming is very rare but is permissible if the body will have to travel long distances, as was done in the case of Jacob. While most aspects of the details of how the body is prepared are long-standing traditions, some small modifications may be local customs. In any event, two requirements are never compromised—showing proper respect for the body and the ritual cleansing and subsequent dressing for burial, known as Tahara. In our community, all the members are volunteers. Women’s bodies are prepared by women and men’s by men. When the point person in our Chevra is informed of the need for a tahara, we are very modern—an email is sent to request three or four volunteers. Since Jewish burial is very soon, it might mean that volunteers are needed for that day—usually in the evening. In Stamford, both Gallaghers and Sholom Chapel at Cognettas are equipped for Tahara. The Chevrah team will gather, with one taking on the role of lead. All don full PPE. One member recites the appropriate prayers. There is no small talk during the procedure. The body is first thoroughly cleansed and then is ritually purified by immersion in a mikveh, or with a continuous flow of water from the head over the entire body.  The body is dressed in tachrichim, or shrouds, of white pure muslin or linen garments made up of ten pieces for a male and twelve for a female, which are identical for each Jew and which symbolically recalls the garments worn by the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). Once the body is shrouded, the casket is closed. The casket, as many of you know, is supposed to be a simple pine box. All Jews, regardless of wealth, are equal at death and are dressed and buried in the same manner. After closure, the Chevra team places their hands on the casket and prays individually that each of us showed the respect that the person deserves as she starts her final journey. In some areas, the society may also provide shomrim, or watchers, to guard the body and recite psalms until the funeral. In Stamford, most shomrim are paid. While most of the Chevra volunteers are from the more orthodox parts of our community, all are welcome. The Tahara fell out of favor in the past century as Jews became more modern, but in our area, probably most Conservative and many Reform families are requesting this service. For the last tahara I was involved in, the call was sent out on erev Thanksgiving Sue Plutzer and I went as did one other person—probably the only time the women have been represented by a Conservative majority. I know that when I was starting medical school, I went into my human anatomy lab with great trepidation, but the professors emphasized the importance of our mission, and my fears—and squeamishness melted away. The task of the chevra kadisha is considered a laudable one, as tending to the dead is a favor that the recipient cannot return, making it devoid of ulterior motives. Our Chevra always needs new members, and I invite any who are interested to come with me to observe a Tahara. The Power (and Coarsening) of Words In this week's portion of Vayechi, Jacob, on his deathbed, curses two of his sons, Shimon and Levi (and is pretty rough with some of the others as well). These curses raise some interesting questions about how we choose our words. See this excerpt from this week's edition of Devash, by Mechon Hadar: This is terrific material for your Shabbat table - and I'll also bring some of this to our service on Shabbat morning. But the need to choose our words carefully at times of anger has taken on an added significance of late. Our families always depend on it - and now, so does our civilization as a whole. The last several years have seen an all-out frontal attack on truth. It has been well documented that over 30,000 falsities were invoked in the prior administration. The attack on truth continues, of course. But there is a related consequence that has been less noticed, but may be of equal importance: the coarsening of language. When lies are weaponized, words become tools of aggression. And linguistic nihilism can take different forms. Timothy Snyder writes about this in his best selling book, "On Tyranny." A key to reserving democracy is to maintain control of our use of words. One of his chapters has this heading: Take a look at last week's headline in Israel's leading newspaper, Yediot Achronot: Israelis woke up to this front page, describing the former US president's disappointment in the former Israeli prime minister because Bibi woke up to the truth, well after most other world leaders, and he congratulated the actual, proven winner of the 2020 US elections. You may have noticed that I blacked out one of the letters from that front page. That "u" was not blacked out on the thousands of papers that hit the streets; but I was trying to preserve a modicum of decency when so few filters seem to shield us and our news media from profanity anymore. The article quoted from journalist Barak Ravid's book (you can read the pertinent quotes in English by clicking here). Even when one takes into account that profanity in a foreign language seems somehow less profane, undoubtedly Israelis were shocked simply to see these supposed BFFs at odds. In fact, it can be argued that this use of profanity is a mortal blow for any Netanyahu hopes of a comeback, but that's another subject. As amusing as it has been to watch this catfight, profanity has found its way into our own America media with great frequency this week. As the text messages from January 6 were flung across the halls of Congress, one found its way to front page of the NY Daily News. At least the editors of the Daily News did us the courtesy of not one, but two asterisks. It used to be that cursing our leaders was reserved for special occasions. Now it's become a game - and a profitable one at that - to use thinly disguised euphemisms like the inane "Let's Go, Brandon" thing that someone evidently thought was funny. But most would rather just go out and hurl F-bombs in a direct frontal attack. Now all the Brandons of our world can take their place alongside all the perfectly innocent Karens as collateral damage in the War on Language. Baby namers will have to lie low on those two names for a while. So what is "linguistic nihilism"? Nihilism is defined as, "the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless." The rejection of objective truth, morality, values and meaning is precisely what autocrats seek. Timothy Snyder speaks of how, today, "enemies of liberal democracy tend not to have ideas, visions, or goals. They just want to “burn it down.” They are nihilists and destroyers. Below is a brief excerpt from "On Tyranny" about the dummying down of language: I know it's profoundly uncool to speak of excrement as "number two," and F-bombs seem to have no problem crossing the aisle - they are used with alacrity by both progressives and conservatives. Heck, even David Ortiz found a great time to unleash the power of his tongue, channeling the emotions of a city after the Boston Marathon bombings. Simon Critchley wrote in the New York Times, "We know swear words are literally meaningless... Yet they carry a force that compels us." Most of all, they are easy and cheap. You don't need to think up a creative way to express anger when a miraculous bodily function can be cheapened. When your whole philosophy is to minimize thinking and glorify impulse, the power of the curse is irresistible. Thousands of years ago, the author of Leviticus said essentially the same thing. In chapter 24, two Israelites are having a fight. One had an Egyptian father, which may have been the cause of some resentment or friction between the two. Who knows? But the end result was that one of them blasphemed, and the punishment was determined to be stoning.  ​On the face of it, the whole thing seems absurd, like the scene right out of Monty Python. Come to think of it, it WAS a scene from a Monty Python film.  But the deeper message of this passage, and of the entire book of Leviticus, is that words matter, and angry words matter even more. Jewish tradition compares the one who gossips to a murderer. The very next verse, in fact, deals with the laws of murder, making this comparison most explicit, not just for the idle gossiper, but specifically for the one who curses God. ​For what does it mean to curse God's name? If, as we read in Genesis, every human being is created in God's image, that divine part of us that is the essence of our humanity. To insult God is to debase our own innate godliness, our human capacity for goodness and kindness.  Everything that we hold sacred came into the world through divine speech. And now we are losing the sanctity of speech.  We should not at all be surprised that Trump threw Bibi some F-bombs, or that Democratic presidents have sworn too. Even our founders were not immune. John Adams once called John Dickinson "a piddling genius" for refusing to go along with the Declaration of Independence, and I hear "piddling" was quite outrageous for its day. But no one would have been able to call Adams an autocratic nihilist for his use of language. It was, in fact, the opposite of a mind-numbing curse. It was more like Jacob's from our portion, in fact. It was a curse designed to teach and prod, not to burn everything down. The illiberal autocrat wannabees of our day want to burn everything down: our words, our thoughts, our truths, and finally our rights to self expression and the vote. Sometimes it's not just how many lies you utter, but how you say 'em that matters as well. Let's put a filter on the cussing. Whenever you are tempted to make like the cover of the Daily News with uncontrolled use of language, think of those who will be most thrilled with each piece of s**t hitting the fan. Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

David Ortiz's (Bleeping) Expletive: A Lesson from Leviticus

Click here for parsha packet "Is Swearing Kosher?

Last weekend, with Bostonians celebrating the end of their excruciating, week-long siege, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz wrapped things up in one brief exclamation.  "This is our (bleeping) city!" he cried, and the crowd went wild, while in bars across America, millions of people turned to total strangers and asked, "Did he just SAY that?"

Well, I taped the event and, although his accent is not always easy to decipher, yes, he did.

ESPN was on tape delay, so they managed to catch it and bleep it out.  But NESN and the MLB Network were not so fortunate.  Neither were the radio broadcasts and all the five year old children at Fenway that day; but that probably doesn't matter, because their parents weren't exactly covering their kids' ears.  Everyone was just happy to be happy and Ortiz' expletive apparently was the most emphatic way to express that.

I admit.  I was too busy laughing through my tears to worry about the ballplayer's proclamation, moved as I was by the pregame tribute and the indefatigable nature of my hometown, and relieved that the (bleeping) bombers had been caught.

But now, a week later, it's time to question whether we have (bleeping) gone too far, to the point where every (bleeping) conversation is beginning to sound like a Nixon tape.

Why do we (bleeping) need to swear so (bleeping) much?  Have we lost the ability to converse, to articulate emphasis without resorting to insulting people's sexual behavior, especially in regard to their mothers?

Simon Critchley wrote recently in the New York Times, "We know swear words are literally meaningless.... Yet they carry a force that compels us. This is why many of us like to swear a lot. It feels really good to swear and really bad to be sworn at. Swearing always aims at something intimate, something usually hidden, which is why the words are often so explicitly and violently sexual." 

Thousands of years ago, the book of Leviticus said (in this week's Torah portion) essentially the same thing.  In chapter 24, two Israelites are having a fight.  One had an Egyptian father, which may have been the cause of some resentment or friction between the two.  Who knows?  But the end result was that one of them cursed, meaning that he blasphemed God's name, and the punishment was determined to be stoning. 

On the face of it, the whole thing seems absurd, like the scene right out of Monty Python.  Come to think of it, this WAS a scene from a Monty Python flick.  But the deeper message of this passage, and of the entire book of Leviticus, is that words matter.  Jewish tradition compares the one who gossips to a murderer.  The very next verse, in fact, deals with the laws of murder, making this comparison most explicit, not just for the idle gossiper, but specifically for the one who curses God.

For what does it mean to curse God's name? If, as we read in Genesis, every human being is created in God's image, that divine part of us that is the essence of our humanity.  To insult God is to debase our own innate godliness, our human capacity for goodness and kindness. 

Sometimes curses can be a creative way of dealing with powerlessness.  We see that inthe colorful Yiddish curses that have sprung up over the centuries.  And sometimes Jews have had good reason to shake their fist at the heavens.  When Job's wife implores him, "Curse God and die," Job has every reason to do just that - but he refuses to, recognizing that God's blessings and curses are intertwined.  In fact, the very word translated as "curse" in Job 2:9 is "barekh", which also means to bless.  Job refuses to render God one dimensional, the source only of evil and not of life's blessings too.

That's what cursing does. It turns God into a stereotype. In rendering God one dimensional, it renders all language one dimensional.  Once "bleeping" becomes your only way of express emphasis and passion, you are unable to communicate creatively, to probe the complexity of deeper feelings.  It all comes back to the bleeping expletive.

Swearing takes the bedroom and turns it into the bathroom.  Rather than elevating the mundane experiences of everyday life, as the holiness code of Leviticus implores us to do - in what we eat, who we love, how we treat our neighbors and how we talk - swearing does just the opposite.  It takes all that is sacred and holy and tosses it onto Job's ash heap: our food, our physical expressions of love, our body parts, our holy anger - even God's divine self.  All swearing is ultimately a form of blasphemy. it is a choice not of life but of decay and stagnation.  To swear is to succumb to impulse rather than rising above it.

  

I confess.  I swear - but only rarely.  So when I swear, you KNOW I'm mad.  You can just ask my kids.  Sometimes we all lose control.  But when I encounter supposedly pious Jews with foul mouths, it makes me wonder how far their piety really extends.  If they are so abusive with language, so unable to control themselves from inflicting verbal blows on God, are they really able to control their gossip, their tempers, and even their physical abuse of others?  Can someone who has garbage constantly coming out of his mouth really be vigilant about the kashrut of the things that go into it?  Are people that needy of appearing cool?  Is (bleeping) swearing the only password into society these days?

The universe, the commandments, everything that we hold sacred came into the world through divine speech.  And now we are losing the sanctity of speech. 

I don't blame David Ortiz for this.  He didn't cause the problem. (In fact, to be blunt, it was Yankee fans who started it, with all those indignant chants about Boston, which I bet they regret now!)  Even the FCC gave Ortiz a pass on that one.  His passionate outburst did indeed reflect how Bostonians felt after finally being released from the grip of the psychological - and real - pressure cooker.  But it is sad that there wasn't another way to say "This is OUR CITY!"

Studies show that our society hasn't gotten worse, at least since the Swearin' '70s, just that foul language has become less regulated since the days of George Carlin's pre-HBO "Seven Words you Can't Say on Television."   Nothing wrong with more freedom. What's wrong is, once the thrill of breaking one taboo is gone, it's all too easy to go on to the next one.

As our society rightly focuses its attention on our addiction to violence and in particular to guns, and on the danger of super-empowered angry young men armed with violent language and Ak-47s, maybe we should spend a moment reflecting on that instant when that anger first gets out of control.  Long before the pressure cookers and semi automatic guns, long before the bloody video games, there is filthy, unchecked language. Long before bullets, it is the words that wound. Creation began with words and social disintegration does too.

In the beginning, there was the Word.  And it didn't begin with an F.

May 21: The End of the World and This Week’s Torah portion

So I hear the world will be coming to an end tomorrow, according to all those rapturologists (see the website) who can’t even spell “Judgment Day.” If that is indeed the case, I hope the fire and brimstone holds off until we conclude tomorrow’s Torah reading, at the very least. Because tomorrow’s portion of B’hukotai contains one of the most apocalyptic sections of the entire Bible, a doomsday scenario of what will happen to the Israelites if they fail to live the holiness code laid out for them in the prior sections of Leviticus. These 33 vicious verses are known as the Tochacha (see more details here).

A little sampler:

26:15. If you reject My laws and spurn My rules, so that you do not observe all My commandments and you break My covenant,

16. I in turn will do this to you: I will wreak misery upon you - consumption and fever, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for you enemies shall eat it.

17. I will set My face against you: you shall be routed by your enemies, and your foes shall dominate you. You shall flee though none pursues.

18. And if you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you sevenfold for your sins. (Translation: JPS Torah Commentary, Etz Hayim)

But these verses take the cake:

30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-pillars, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you.

31 And I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors.

32 And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

33 And you will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

Pretty bad, so bad that it sounds almost like what some pundits are predicting will happen to Israel if it accepts the Obama parameters. But it still isn’t the end of the earth.

To make it clear, Judaism rejects these prophecies of doom, partly because they are directed in part against Jews (recalcitrant non believers that we are), but mostly because we’ve been there, and every time Jews and others have tried to predict when apocalyptic visions will be fulfilled, the result has been disastrous. Even from a Christian perspective, as this posting from Beliefnet shows, “there have been thousands and thousands of Christian predictions of the end of the world since Jesus’ time. None of them have been correct. NONE. Zero-for-thousands is a horrible batting average, and to think YOU are the only one who’ll be correct, in all the history of mankind, is the Mt. Everest of arrogance” (see other Beliefnet commentary on this here).

Judaism is a profoundly optimistic faith. It likes life, and this world, flawed though it may be, ain’t so bad after all. Look at how the commentators dealt with those foreboding verses. Like Monty Python, they were always looking on the bright side of life. So yes, we’ll be scattered among the nations, BUT…we’ll accumulate lots of frequent flyer miles! And, as the Talmud states, that way no one will be able to destroy us all at once. Yes, the land will be in total ruins, but then at least our enemies won’t enjoy the spoils – Rashi saw merit in that one.

The Maharal adds that Rashi was troubled by God’s saying “I” will bring the land to devastation. How could a God so full of lovingkindess do that? So for Rashi, this action must be guided by kindness.

Ramban gives historical elaboration: It’s true, God has indeed made the land a wasteland – the place has been a mess since we left it! He had seen it first-hand, having made that treacherous journey to the Holy Land. His feelings shared much later by Hovevey Zion and the early Zionists. The land would wait patiently in ruins for 2,000 for the redemptive hand of the Jewish people.

That theory of course presupposes that no one was actually living in the land at the time of the Jews’ miraculous return, which was a fallacy. Which brings us to current events.

So, to repeat, the world will not come to an end tomorrow. You can take it to the bank. But if you are not sure, why not come here to pray with us this Shabbat? The experience will be comforting as we read about…. all the disasters that await us.

Yiddish Curses in Honor of Bechukotai

This week's portion contains a torrid section of prospective curses to Israel should they fail to live by the convenant. We have a long history of coming up with great curses, dating back to the bible. Here are some more modern ones, from Yiddish sources (and curses were a great way to deal with powerlessness in the face of constant persecution.)

A Selection of Curses from Nahum Stutchkoff's Thesaurus of the Yiddish Language

1. "May your head be full of lice but your arms too short for you to scratch."


2. May you grow so wealthy you can afford only the finest specialists.

3. "You should own a thousand houses,with a thousand rooms in each house,and a thousand beds in every room. And you should sleep each night in a different bed, in a different room, in a different house, and get up every morning, and go down a different staircase, and get into a different car, driven by a different chauffeur, who should drive you to a different doctor--and he shouldn't know what's wrong with you, either."

4. May they find thousands of new cures for you each year. .

5. Gut zol oyf im onshikn fin di tsen makes di beste.
God should visit upon you the best of the Ten Plagues.

6. A groys gesheft zol er hobn mit shroyre: vus er hot, zol men bay im nit fregn, un vos men fregt zol er nisht hobn.
He should have a large store, and whatever people ask for he shouldn’t have, and what he does have shouldn’t be requested.

7. May you lose all your teeth, except for one -- and *that* one should hurt!

8. Migulgl zol er vern in a henglayhter, by tog zol er hengen, un bay nakht zol er brenen May you be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night.

9. Es zol dir dunern in boykh, vestu meyen az s’iz a homon klaper.
Your stomach will rumble so badly, you'll think it was Purim noisemaker.