Mitzvah Initiative: Schedule and Projects

A class schedule and registration information for the Mitzvah Initiative is now up on our website and can be found here. We've now also begun posting the mitzvah projects of our b'nai mitzvah students on our website. Check them out at here. These are only some of the more recent ones. Prior ones can be found in our bulletins (also on the website) and prior Shabbat-O-Grams and Weekly Announcements. We are very proud of the projects done by our students, which stand as an example for the rest of us.

Also, read congregants mitzvah stories here, board members' signature mitzvot here, two statements on volunteering here and Maimonides' list of the 613 mitzvot here. Finally, read more about the Mitzvah initiative here. Classes begin on December 6, for the Sunday morning sessions, and Jan. 7, for Thursday nights.

Goldstone

From Ha'aretz:
The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday endorsed a report that accused both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of committing war crimes during their December-January conflict in Gaza. In a special session, 25 of the body's members voted in favor of the resolution that chastised Israel for failing to cooperate with the UN mission led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone. Another 6 voted against and 11 abstained. The resolution agreed in Geneva simply calls for the U.N. General Assembly to consider the Goldstone report and for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report back to the Human Rights Council on Israel's adherence to it.

The report calls for the UN Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court if the Israelis or Palestinians fail to investigate the alleged abuses themselves.

The countries that voted against the report included the U.S., Italy, Holland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Ukraine. China, Russia, Egypt, India, Jordan, Pakistan, South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Djibouti, Liberia, Qatar, Senegal, Brazil, Mauritius, Nicaragua and Nigeria voted in favor of the report. The abstaining countries included: Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Slovenia and Uruguay.

I received an e-mail from a congregant this week wondering whether in fact the damage done by Richard Goldstone in his now infamous report about Israel makes him more a candidate for excommunication than Bernard Madoff. I don't agree, but a good case can be made that Goldstone has done tremendous damage to Israel's reputation in his unfair and unbalanced presentation.

Still, there is another side to the Goldstone situation - the distrubing decision on Israel's part not to cooperate in the investigation. An interesting and balanced Israeli perspective is found in Ha'aretz: http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1121054.html.

The South African Jewish community is clearly up in arms. The following letter, ostensibly from a friend of Goldstone's, has been making the rounds of the blogosphere. It seems authentic, though I can't vouch for it 100%. But it is worth sharing.

Also see What South African Jews Think of Richard Goldstone

To: Judge Richard Goldstone
From: Barbara Press Subject:

Hello Richard... It's been a while...

Dear Richard

Our paths have crossed many times compelling me to correspond directly with you. I pray your indulgence that you hear me out by reading to the end of my missive. In fact I ask you to share my letter with Noleen from beginning to end and to respond with your thoughts. It has been a while since (inspired by you as head of ORT South Africa) I, together with Rabbi Bernard at Oxford Shule, established a school to teach the Killarney-Houghton Black domestic workers how to write, read, sew, cook and drive. It has been a while since you praised my father, Hubert Press, as one of the finest business brains you had ever encountered. It has been a while since I dined with you, Noleen, David and Marilyn Rivkin, discussing opera.

Jewish life has been crying out for a man of the stature of Adolph Cremieux, of Justice Louis Brandeis, of Sir Moses Montefiore, people of the highest integrity and purpose. For those who champion their own people are remembered forever in the annals of history. But those who are self-serving are lost in a trail of ignominy.

South African Jewry stands tall and your efforts in championing Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa were applauded and earned you a reputation as a man of stature.

I am bewildered by the direction you have taken as part of the United Nations Human Rights Council. This rogue Council has been tainted by a membership that does not condemn Iranian tyranny, Chinese oppression, African despotism, but spends their time condemning one country unjustly, Israel.

The Goldstone Commission bears your name. One would expect the mandate of any report to be objective, so that your name could be respected and a legacy ensured. Instead your committee ignored the facts, embraced bias and rendered the report bearing your name, illegitimate.

You tried to defend yourself in the New York Times but it was transparent and not effective. You could have resigned from the commission and retained your integrity. You knew that Israel faced 12,000 Grads and Kassams from its Iran-backed terror base of Gaza, 8,000 irreversibly traumatizing the families and children of Sderot. You knew that the U.N. never passed one resolution condemning these deadly missiles. You knew that before and during Operation Cast Lead, Israel made thousands of cell phone calls to warn civilians. You knew that Israel sent thousands of texts to warn civilians. You knew that Israel dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets in Arabic (I managed to obtain one of these as evidence) to warn civilians.

You knew that Israel aborted operations to avoid civilian deaths. You knew that Israel set up medical facilities on the edge of Gaza to treat civilians. You knew that Israel dropped supplies of food into Gaza to feed civilians. You also knew that Hamas operatives are not "civilians". You knew that not only were they not civilians, but that they hid behind their own civilians to fire on Israeli civilians. You knew that they misused ambulances for military purposes. You knew that mosques and schools were used for Hamas depots and launching pads. You knew that Hamas operatives kill or shoot at the legs of any Gazans refusing to target Israel.

The video footage and U-tube sequences are still available for any and all of us to witness. You clearly knew that one of your team members had condemned Israel in a published letter, even before the conclusion of the incursion or the beginning of your investigation. But you did not resign or distance yourself from the hypocrisy of this illegitimate report. Instead, a tedious 500-page report of the 3 week battle was padded with pages from the tainted U.N. mockery of Israel's security barrier (misnamed the "wall"). What a sad indictment of the charter of the United Nations. Richard, you were indeed a respected legal giant in Johannesburg. This report did not arise from ignorance or naivete. I am trying so hard to resist the conclusion that your role and report might represent a self-serving desire to ingratiate yourself for a more senior position in the kangaroo court called the United Nations. But if true - and one hopes that this is not the case - at what price? Association with the infamous U.N., garners no respect in the USA so why would anyone seek to be head inmate at the U.N. Asylum?

I have been very direct as South Africans are want to be. But many of us South Africans have been tainted by the perfidy of the Goldstone report. This is the Jewish time of Judgment when the scales of fate are entered in the book of life and we all need to look into our souls. I am not sure how you could comfortably extricate yourself. Perhaps we could discuss this face to face.

Good Yomtov to you, Noleen and your family.

Regards, Barbara Press Fix

TBE To-Go: Online Class "From Israelite to Jew"

Using the power of the Internet to bring world-class scholarship to our doorstep, we'll be embarking on a new adult ed venture called "TBE To-Go." Much like a book group, I'll be recommending seminars that can be heard at your own convenience, and then we'll be coming together to discuss them.

I'm particularly excited about our first offering: "From Israelite to Jew," by Michael Satlow, an 18 part series tracing the history of Judaism and the Jewish people from the time of the Babylonian Exile through the Second Temple period. Satlow is Professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies at Brown University, where he began teaching in 2002. He received his doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1993. Professor Satlow specializes in Early Judaism and has written extensively on issues of gender, sexuality, and marriage among Jews in antiquity, as well as on the Dead Sea scrolls, Jewish theology, methodology in Religious Studies, and the social history of Jews during the rabbinic period.

This series was designed for popular consumption (i.e. it is not overly technical or jargon-filled), but it goes into great depth in discussing topics essential to the formation of what we now know as Judaism, including the composition of the Torah, the stories of Esther and the Maccabees, key figures like Ezra and Herod and the origins of Christianity. I can't recommend it enough.

When you hear these lectures, there will undoubtedly be questions. So I’ll be scheduling periodic discussion “sections,” where we can all come together and chew over this rich material. The first such section will take place on SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, FROM 11 AM TO NOON. I’ve scheduled an additional section (covering the same chapters), on Synaplex Shabbat, OCTOBER 31, AT 8:45 AM. When the group gathers on those days, we’ll decide when to schedule the next one

I'm asking that people come to these sessions having listened to the first four lectures of the series: the introductory episode, "Between Faith and Reason," (an excellent treatment of the subject of why study religion at all), along with "Religion of Israel," "Exile" and "Return," covering the period of the Babylonian Exile. Each episode is about a half hour long. It is fine if you haven't heard all four by the 25th.

The episodes can be downloaded in several ways, all free of charge, including by going onto iTunes Music Store and entering "Satlow." You can also find them below.

Please RSVP is you are planning to come to the class so I can prepare enough supplementary materials. The lectures and class are free - as we take advantage of one of the great educational opportunities of the Internet Age.

From Israelite to Jew: 1: Between Faith and Reason
Prof. Satlow explores the relationship between religion and its academic study, suggesting that the two ways of understanding religion are not diametrically opposed. Click below to play or
here for other options.



From Israelite to Jew: 2: Religion of Israel
This second episode focuses on the religion of ancient Israel, as reflected in the Hebrew Bible and archaeological finds. Click below to play or here for other options.



From Israelite to Jew: 3: Exile
The third episode of the podcast, "From Israelite to Jew," discusses the events leading up to the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE, and the resulting exile. Click below to play or here for other options.



From Israelite to Jew: 4: Return
The fourth episode traces the first two returns from Babylonia to Jerusalem, first under Sheshbazzar and then under the dual leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the building of the Second Temple (539 BCE - 516). Click below to play or here for other options.

Ask the Rabbi: "Does My Hand Have a Disease?"

On Tuesday night our interfaith discussion group at Borders (got a real great crowd representing several different faiths) discussed the treatment of women in various religious traditions, with a focus on the Muslim burka. We compared it to the wigs worn by Jewish women in very traditional settings.

It so happens that I had just had this e-mail exchange with Alexa Petersen, a TBE freshman at Tufts. I often hear from our college students and their questions typically are ones that are of general interest. She gave me permission to reprint the exchange here (which I've slightly expanded). Incidentally, she shared my response with feminist philosophy teacher, leading to a great class discussion about the feminist movement in different religions.

-----

Hey Rabbi-- I have a quick question. I met the Rabbi at the Chabad at our school. He said his wife started the Yeshiva in Stamford across from Stamford High. Anyways, I had a long conversation with him about Stamford, etc. and when I went to leave I put out my hand to shake his hand and he politely declined. Does my hand have a disease? What's going on here?
Thanks and hope everything is well! Alexa

----------

Hi Alexa.

Interesting question. No you don't have a disease! Very observant Jewish men might decline to have contact with women (including their wives) at "that time of the month," because blood is a source of ritual impurity. With their wives, they know when "that time" is - with others they don't, so they tend to refrain from all contact (some will even avoid eye contact). It's also for them a sign of modesty to avoid unnecessary contact between the sexes, and also a desire to restrain sexual urges. That's called "Shomer Negiah." In this Wikipedia article on the topic, you'll find that shaking hands with a member of the opposite sex has become a matter of dispute among Jewish legal scholars.

Negiah applies to women as well as men, by the way. But it usually refers more to kissing and hugging and other visible signs of affection, rather than mere touching.

It seems offensive to many but you shouldn't take it personally. Ritual impurity has nothing to do with hygiene, and much more to do with how people in ancient societies saw blood as a symbol of life and the source of ultimate mystery and awe. That's in part why blood is drained from meat in order for it to be kosher.

I think some of this stems from an anti-female sentiment that existed in ancient and medieval times, not merely for Jews, but many cultures. Fortunately that is changing today. The laws of purity still exist and are practiced widely in traditional communities (and in fact there is a wonderful ritual bath (called a Mikva) that was created by feminists, in Newton, right near you - read about it here) and even less observant women have found new spiritual meaning in these laws.

Meanwhile, if you feel comfortable with this guy, you might want to hear his explanation. I'm sure he's used to getting these questions from students. If he has anything interesting to say, let me know.

You can cite for him this guideline from the career development center of none other than Yeshiva University:

Shaking hands is a customary part of the interview process. Halacha permits non-affectionate contact between men and women when necessary. A quick handshake can be assumed to be business protocol. Since failure to shake hands will most likely have a strong negative effect on the outcome, it is necessary non-affectionate contact, which is permissible.

Most of all, you shouldn't feel that you did anything wrong at all, simply by being friendly!

A very good article on the subject can be found here.

Regards to everyone up there! Keep in touch.

Rabbi H

The Torah and the Cross: Supreme Symbols and the Supreme Court

I delivered the following sermon this past Shabbat / Shmini Atzeret:

Tonight and tomorrow, we’ll be dancing circles around and with our most sacred object – the torah.

Isn’t it fascinating, when you think about it, that our most sacred object is not really an object at all, but a book – an open book, one that is in so many ways a living document. It occurred to me this week that we are most careful never to turn the torah into an object – even an object of veneration. Yes people have been known to risk life and limb to save a torah from a burning building. and yes, we never discard it when it is no longer usable – we bury it, as we would a human being. But that’s the point – the torah is more of a person than an object – and we treat it that way.

So what about the kissing, then? Isn’t that almost idolatrous – to kiss an object? A kiss is a way of expressing love, not worship. In our tradition, no one kisses the ring of the rabbi. When we kiss, we kiss our spouse or our parent or our child. Most parents don’t worship their children. Well. Maybe not. But the kiss is not indicative of worship, at least. Kissing the torah is a way not of expressing love for an object, but for all that it symbolizes, and for God. So I don’t see it as idolatrous.

Torahs are not used in tradtional Jewish art very much, just as we rarely see human figures; instead you'll find lots of Jewish stars and menorahs. Ancient Jewish art, especially synagogue mosaics and coins – are filled with zodiac signs, menorahs and lulavs and etrogs. Almost never do we find a torah.

And at the cemetery, we’ll see menorahs on gravestones, and other symbols, like the pitcher of water for the Levite or the hands of a Cohen – but again, rarely if ever a torah. When a Jew dies in the military, his grave will most often be marked with a simple Jewish star. These are found most movingly among the rows and rows of crosses at the cemetery at Omaha Beach.

We’re very careful not to make too much of our symbols – they should never become more important than they are – and even the torah, our most sacred symbol, gains its power not as an object, but as a summons - calling upon us to choose life.

So what are we to make of the current case now before the Supreme Court, which was argued this week?

Salazar vs. Buono deals with the constitutionality of a 6 1/2-foot cross sitting on what originally was public land in California's Mojave National Preserve. The memorial was constructed 75 years ago to honor World War I victims, but 10 years ago it was challenged by a National Park Service employee who thought it violated the Constitution's ban on government establishment of religion (see the arguments in detail here).

Congress passed legislation in 2004 declaring the site a national memorial. The legislation transferred the ownership of the land on which the memorial sits to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in exchange for five privately owned acres in the preserve.

This week an ACLU lawyer and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia tangling over the meaning of a cross to honor war dead.

Scalia, according to media reports, responded that the cross was the "common symbol of the resting place of the dead" and asked whether the lawyer would instead want erected "some conglomerate of a cross, a Star of David and, you know, a Muslim half-moon and star?"

Eliasberg responded, "I have been in Jewish cemeteries. There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew."

The justice retorted, "I don't think you can leap from that to the conclusion that the only war dead that that cross honors are the Christian war dead. I think that's an outrageous conclusion."

I think that is an outrageous statement!

Legal observers said the court may end up deciding the case on the narrower issue of whether Congress acted legally in transferring ownership of the land to a private entity rather than the constitutionality of the cross sitting on public land. I hope that is the case.

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank argues that the case doesn't have nearly the import that interest groups suggest it does -- but there are benefits for talking about it in such stark terms:

For the interest groups on both sides, a good fight can bring in money and members -- even if that means making the "fight" appear to be something larger than it actually should be. The "injury" claimed by the ACLU was rather a stretch: that Buono, a former National Park Service official, would "tend to avoid" the area when he returns to visit Mojave. So, too, was it necessary to inflate the menace posed by the pipe cross, which stands 100 yards off of a dusty road at an elevation of about 20 feet. Congress, in one of its legislative actions to defend the cross, even gave the place the status of a national war memorial, as if it were another Gettysburg.

The other side, too, had to pretend that taking down the cross would jeopardize veterans and God-fearing folk everywhere. "We pray that those who laid down their lives will be properly memorialized with a cross so tenderly placed in the lonely desert," the Rev. Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council preached outside the Supreme Court.

A JTA summary of the case details some of the statements made by the two sides in its report on the case. Some of those statements are almost apocalyptic in nature: "What's next?" demanded Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "Will we sell a few steps of the Supreme Court to some group that wants to put up a Jesus-in-the-manger scene year-round?"

On the contrary, declared Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of the Liberty Legal Institute. "If you have to tear down a cross in the middle of 1.6 million acres of desert, then what do you do with the 24-foot-tall Cross of Sacrifice in Arlington Memorial Cemetery?" he asked. "Anything that has religious imagery now has to come down?"

Both scenarios are, of course, equally absurd. But fear and loathing fill interest-group treasuries. But as a JTA blogger quipped this week, “It is a cross they must bear.”

Why the Supreme Court took on this case I can’t quite figure out, but I also hope they won’t use it to make a broad statement about church state separation. As Wendy Kaminer wrote in The Atlantic, “If the Court seizes the opportunity and denies taxpayer standing to challenge federally sponsored religious displays, then constitutional prohibitions of such displays will be effectively unenforceable.”

No one would question the right to having crosses at individual people’s graves in military cemeteries. That’s free expression of religion. And no one should question that the cross is a powerful religious symbol – as important to Christianity as the torah is to Judaism. And the Torah is the only symbol that is analogous – it evokes the same passion (though not in a Mel Gibson kind of way), which the menorah doesn’t and certainly not the lulav or Jewish star, at least not today. There really is no parallel to the cross other than the Torah.

And that’s when it occurred to me that there is a major difference. The torah never is used in connection with death. It is etz hayyim – the tree of life. The cross is not only a symbol connected to death it’s origin as a symbol was related to a death. A death followed, in Christian tradition, by a rebirth. We have a similar Jewish story from that era, of Rabbi Chananya, who was burned at the stake wrapped in a torah scroll. We’ve got plenty of martyrs who died holding torah scrolls – still it forever has remained a tree of life – etz hayyim.

Actually, Judge, Scalia, I do believe that a cross would only honor Christian war dead! Even one erected out in the middle of the Mojave desert! I do not mean to denigrate a proud and great religion, but Christianity is simply different from Judaism. Our greatest religious symbol would never have been considered for such a memorial. We just think differently, that’s all. Judaism is all about the affirmation of a life that is. Christianity focuses much more on life hereafter.

We are about redemption, they are about resurrection.

Neither faith is better, we are simply different. And that difference is demonstrated clearly in our supreme religious symbols, even if those differences are not recognized by some on the Supreme Court.

There is much that we share, but that is something that we do not. And that is why this case is so important. But only if the Supreme Court chooses to make it so.

We’ll all be watching.

Why I Volunteer: Rosalea Fisher and Jared Finkelstein

Rosalea Fisher and Jared Finkelstein were honored at our Simhat Torah services with the special aliyot marking the end and beginning of the Torah reading cycle. Here are the remarks each of them made to the congregation in honor of the occasion:

Rosalea Fisher:

As a child, I watched my mother as she modeled for us the art of volunteering. She was the treasurer of our school’s PTA; she volunteered for ORT which provides skills-training and self-help projects word-wide. She was a life member of Hadassah, and in her later years, she volunteered at a nursing home to turn pages for a pianist. Volunteering was a part of her everyday life. My sister also worked tirelessly for Philadelphia’s renowned Children’s Hospital and still does to this day.

Click here for the rest of the posting

Jared Finkelstein:

In being honored today, I have also been given the great opportunity to talk about volunteering. If you had told me when I joined TBE over 12 years ago that I would be standing here today being honored for my volunteer efforts at TBE I would have thought you were dreaming. But I am here and I have volunteered. How and why did I go from where I was when I joined TBE to today?

First, I think is the power of role models. My parents were both very involved in their synagogue and Jewish organizations when I was growing up – my dad was the president of his synagogue, was very involved in Israel bonds and B’nai Brith and my mom was very active in the sisterhood and Hadassah. My mom’s father was the secretary for his temple in upstate New York for years and years. Even though I didn’t appreciate it at the time and they didn’t hit me over the head with it, they were being role models. I believe the power of role models is a good reason to volunteer. If you believe in what we are doing here at TBE or there are things you want TBE to be doing, by spending your time to achieve those goals you are sending a very powerful message to your children and others in the community. You may not see the impact of that message immediately but I am proof that the impact can be felt decades later. The concept of l’dor va dor, from generation to generation, is very powerful and passing on a belief in volunteerism and helping others from one generation to the next is vitally important.

Click here for the rest of the posting

Was Columbus Jewish? Does it Matter?

Here are three sources for the key arguments that have been made for Columbus' Jewish ancestry:

http://www.fortunecity.com/millenium/southwater/113/was_christopher_columbus_jewish.htm

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/911014_Columbus.html

http://allsands.com/History/People/christophercolu_awi_gn.htm

In the end, does it matter? Well, not long ago I referred to the study claiming that 20 percent of the Iberian peninsula has Jewish ancestry, so it's hardly surprising that he could have been. But what matters more is that Chris's big journey to the Indes be understood in the context of the huge event swirling around it, specifically the expulsion of Spanish Jewry, which took effect one day before Columbus set sail. His crew contained refugees of that calamity. Undoubtedly, his voyage was financed at least in part from the stolen property of Jews. And ironically, just as, on that fateful summer day in 1492 the Jews were shooed away from a place that had been their center and refuge for half a millennium, Columbus' ships set sail for a place that would become a saving refuge for many - Jews and others - and a prime center of Jewish life half a millennium later.

So the Italians, Spanish and others can haggle over who gets to lay claim the guy. He was, after all, not too nice to the natives once he arrived, to the point where my alma mater, Brown University, recently changed the name of this weekend's school holiday to "Fall Weekend" (Remember, Political Correctness was invented there.)

I don't want Columbus. But I want his day to be a reminder to all of the cost of cruelty and the impact of expulsion.

TBE Collegian Takes on Goldstone

Beth El college student Dara Gold recently (and courageously) wrote this article in her school newspaper, following the visit of Judge Goldstone to her campus - the very Goldstone who authored the infamous UN Report on Israel's actions in Gaza. Even before this incident, she already was taking on leadership roles in Hillel and the campus Jewish community. We are all proud of Dara for taking a stand. Click on the article below to enlarge.

The Coen Brothers' Very Serious Movie

Read this review from Jewcy of The Coens' most Jewish movie to date, "A Serious Man," and see the trailer. This Joban themed film fits right in with Elie Wiesel's lecture on Job that 70 of us from TBE will be seeing next week in our visit to the 92nd St Y. We'll also have the opportunity to meet privately with Wiesel, one of the great prophets of this or any age.

Perspectacles: Making a Difference

What if you could really be in other peoples' shoes? What if you understood the successes and failures going on behind the scenes of our everyday lives?

Everyone needs someone to care. Perspectacles or not, remember to live a life of love and acceptance. You may never know the impact you'll have.

Ethan's First Radio Report

Allow me to kvell (which I reserve the right to do anyway, so you might as well allow it). Ethan produced his first freshman-year radio spot for WBRU, the Brown-owned FM station, which aired last night in Providence and online. It covered reaction to the snubbing of Chicago as an Olympic city. The link is http://news.wbru.com/2009/10/13556/

Mazal tov to Ethan, and also Happy Birthday to our dog Chloe, who turned the big 0-5 yesterday.

He's NOT Jewish!

The "Ahamdinijad is Jewish" rumors have turned out to be a hoax. See
The Guardian's response to the original claim found in The Daily Telegraph. His father was in fact a devout Shia. The details:

The outcry about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad having Jewish origins has turned out to be a hoax. An article in The Guardian has taken apart the original paper in the Daily Telegraph point by point. Written by an Iranian Jew, the article notes the Ahmadinejad family is of solid, very religious Shia background, and the mother is a Seyyede, the equivalent of a Cohen in Judaism. It states that Professor David Yeroshalmi, author of The Jews of Iran in the 19th century and an expert
on Iranian Jewish communities, discusses the original name Sabourjian. ''There
is no such meaning for the word 'sabour' in any of the Persian Jewish dialects,
nor does it mean Jewish prayer shawl in Persian. ''Also, the name Sabourjian is
not a well-known Jewish name,'' he stated in a recent interview. In fact,
Iranian Jews use the Hebrew word ''tzitzit'' to describe the Jewish prayer
shawl. Yeroshalmi, a scholar at Tel Aviv University's Center for Iranian
Studies, also went on to dispute the article's findings that the ''-jian''
ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews.
''This ending is in no way sufficient to judge whether someone has a Jewish
background. Many Muslim surnames have the same ending,'' he stated.
(Guysen.International.News)

The Gaurdian continues that upon closer inspection, a completely different interpretation of "Sabourjian" emerges. According to Robert Tait, a Guardian correspondent who travelled to
Ahmadinejad's native village in 2005, the name "derives from thread painter -
sabor in Farsi - a once common and humble occupation in the carpet industry in
Semnan province, where Aradan is situated". This is confirmed by Kasra Naji, who
also wrote a biography of Ahmadinejad and met his family in his native village.
Carpet weaving or colouring carpet threads are not professions associated with
Jews in Iran.

Israeli Scientists Save Bees

No wonder it's called the land of Milk and Honey. See this report from Israel 21c, rebroadcast on CNN. So can we retitle this "The Nerds and the Bees?"

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Stacey Hazen on Sukkot

Those of you who know me know that I’m a dancer. I’ve been dancing for 9 years (which is a long time when you are 12). I’ve always loved it. I dance everything from hip-hop to ballet. I’ve been on pointe for about two years, during which time I had the opportunity to dance as Tinkerbelle.

The more I learned about Sukkot, the more I’ve come to realize that is the perfect holiday for me. It’s a holiday that celebrates the body, a holiday of happiness, a holiday of nature, a holiday of thanksgiving and most of all, a holiday with a lot of dancing.

After we’ve spent lots of time indoors praying and fasting on Yom Kippur, Sukkot is the exact opposite. We go outdoors, build a sukkah, celebrate, and enjoy a great deal of food. Even when we are inside the synagogue, we are constantly in motion, shaking the lulav, parading around the sanctuary almost every day, and at the end of the festival, dancing frantically with the Torahs on Simhat Torah. No wonder this festival is called “Z’man Simhataynu” “the time of our rejoicing.”

When we are in the sukkah, we feel connected to nature. In fact, when you look up at night, you are able to see the stars through the roof. My dancing has also connected me to nature in many ways. I’ve performed as everything from a lion to the Ugly Duckling and as both Winter and Fall in “The Four Seasons.”

Sukkot is also a holiday not just for the Jewish people, but for all the nations of the world. My Torah portion speaks of 70 oxen that were brought as sacrifices, a very high number. The commentators suggest that those 70 animals represented each of the 70 nations that were known to exist at the time. While Passover tells a story of how the Jewish people began, Sukkot is about being thankful for the harvest and that is a lesson for all people everywhere. Everyone feels thankful at harvest time. It is not surprising that when the American pilgrims in Plymouth were looking to base their new Thanksgiving holiday on a festival from the Bible, they used Sukkot as a model.

Being thankful for our food is something people should never take for granted. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way. Ten years ago I was diagnosed with Celiac and since then I’ve had to avoid all gluten products. In fact, at today’s Kiddush there will be many gluten free items; we even had a special gluten free challah made for the occasion.

For my mitzvah project, I raised money to donate to local food banks so that they could make sure to have food available for people with allergies. We’ve bought special cereals, pasta, crackers and cookies, as you can see displayed in the bima baskets.

So you can see why I’m so glad that my bat mitzvah fell on this festival, the kind of holiday that reminds us to celebrate life all the time, and the best way to do so is to dance!

Full Circle

The lulav might get all the action (we "wave the lulav") on Sukkot, but the etrog is undeniably the star of the show. There are very strict standards for evaluating an etrog, and often you'll see buyers inspecting these citrons with magnifying glasses.

But the reason the etrog captures the attention is that it fits in so nicely with the festival, with its sweet, citrony smell, its irresistibly bumpy surface and its round shape.

We Jews are big on round things. Round foods, like the holiday challah, are omnipresent at this time of year. And on Sukkot, we circle the sanctuary daily (except for Shabbat), recalling the grand processions of ancient temple days. We wave the lulav-etrog combo in all directions as well, a circle extending from east to south to west to north and back again, with up and down thrown in for good measure. On Simhat Torah next week, we'll join in huge Hora circles dancing around the sacred scrolls.

At this time of year, we are constantly attuned to the circles of life, the cycles of the ever-changing seasons. This weekend, we'll be going from heat to AC to heat and back again. The baseball season ends and the trees change colors dramatically. The wild weather shifts bring us from the summer muggies to cold fall deluges in no time.

One of the legendary figures of the Talmud was Honi the Circle Drawer. As Micha Oppenheimer describes, "Honi’s relationship with God is so direct and encompassing it is as if nothing else matters: when he draws a circle around himself, it is as if he had captured God in that circle, grasped by His heartstrings."

As we huddle together in our sukkahs this week, those circles will warm us. An embrace is a circle made by our arms. And as we rejoice in fall's dynamism and beauty, we realize that life is like the surface of the etrog, alternately bumpy and smooth, but invariably leading us back to where we began.