In this Moment: Herzog's Gambit; The Heavens are Aligned for Spring; The Shabbat 39

 

In This Moment Zodiac mosaic from the 6th century Bet Alfa Synagogue in the Jezreel Valley Shabbat Shalom! A late winter snow can jar our internal clocks, but spring is on the doorstep, commencing this coming week. It's not exactly the Age of Aquarius, but the sun, moon and earth will be perfectly aligned on Monday and Tuesday. Our ancestors were keenly attuned to the cycles of nature and the movement of heavenly bodies, as evidenced by the many astrological symbols found in ancient synagogues, like the one shown above in the Galilee. This year, the vernal equinox, that moment when the sun and earth align perfectly so that day and night are of equal length, is precisely aligned with the new moon that heralds the start of the Jewish month of spring. That month later called Nisan, in the Torah is dubbed “Hodesh ha’Aviv” literally, “the Month of Spring.” This Shabbat is Shabbat-ha’Hodesh, which always immediately precedes the beginning of Nisan, reminding us that, Passover,also called the Spring Festival, is just a couple of moon phases away.   This Shabbat we also read the double portion Va’yakhel / Pekuday, which concludes Exodus and also concludes the lengthy description of the construction of the tabernacle in the Wilderness.  It was from this sacred work that the rabbis later defined the 39 categories of labor prohibited on Shabbat (see below for more on that). So let's get springy for a moment... “A March morning is only as drab as he who walks in it without a glance skyward.” ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There As I was driving down Westover Rd this week, what appeared to be a very large cardinal came flying across the street. I didn't have the opportunity to pull over, but it was one of those "My God, spring is coming!" moments that emerge from deep within the soul as an uttered blessing. Birds are great conduits for that - even those flocks of geese that gather in our cemetery and leave thousands of souvenirs. Let's just say that a funeral procession this week followed a circuitous, giant slalom route to the grave. Aldo Leopold had good things to say about geese, too. Here's the full quote that was excerpted above: “One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring. A cardinal, whistling spring to a thaw but later finding himself mistaken, can retrieve his error by resuming his winter silence. A chipmunk, emerging for a sunbath but finding a blizzard, has only to go back to bed. But a migrating goose, staking two hundred miles of black night on the chance of finding a hole in the lake, has no easy chance for retreat. His arrival carries the conviction of a prophet who has burned his bridges. A March morning is only as drab as he who walks in it without a glance skyward, ear cocked for geese.” Click for today's (Thursday's) front pages: Ha'aretz (English) (Hebrew) Jerusalem Post Yediot Ahronot Today's Yediot headline: "Herzog's Compromise" Herzog's Gambit The protests continue to grow, the pressure increases and the tension builds. See (above) the headline from Ha'aretz last Sunday, following yet another mass demonstration. Note the "Handmaid's Tale" attire on the women in the middle. See a pdf of that photo and the whole front page here. On Wednesday night, President Herzog addressed the nation and laid out the elements of his proposed compromise. Here they are, according to Axios: Herzog's proposal appeared to seek to appeal to the ruling coalition by including reforms that would have limited the ability of the Supreme Court to strike down certain laws. The proposal also would have limited the court's ability to cancel administrative decisions by the government on the basis of "unreasonability," including the appointment of ministers and policy decisions. Herzog’s proposal would have changed the balance of power on the committee that appoints judges and cancel the veto power the judges on the committee have over the appointments. But appearing to appeal to critics of the government's plan, Herzog's proposal didn't give the coalition an automatic majority on the committee. It also didn't include an override clause that enables the Knesset to cancel Supreme Court rulings. The override clause is one of the main tenets of the government's current overhaul plan. Herzog’s compromise plan also proposed drafting a bill of rights for the first time since Israel was founded, which would have included passing a basic law to protect minority rights, not allow discrimination, and establish the principle of equality, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Behind the scenes: Herzog’s plan was a result of consultations he conducted in recent weeks with experts, think tanks and liberal and conservative politicians, his aides said. According to press reports, Netanyahu was briefed about the proposal earlier on Wednesday and wanted to accept it, but backed off after Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who is leading the judicial overhaul, threatened to resign. Levin hasn't denied the reports. If something can come of this that will lead Israel toward a constitution, at long last, one that protects human rights and enshrines the principles laid out in Israel's Declaration of Independence and the Jewish values embraced therein, this will have turned out to be a very positive exercise. Imagine, Israel with a Bill of Rights! It's been discussed for decades (and here are some of the complicated issues involved). But that can only happen if the government is forced into accepting that compromise, which, considering Bibi already dismissed it out of hand, is hard to imagine still. Some of the prime fence sitters among American Jewish leaders and Likud Knesset members will have to show some kishkes and stand up for Israel's future - one wonders if they will ever see the light. The alternative, as Herzog sees it, could well be civil war. See David Horowitz's coliumn today: A last, desperate, long-shot plea: Prime Minister Netanyahu, stop this madness (TOI) - Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this is a plea — a last, long-shot, desperate appeal to your patriotism, to your Zionism, to your concern for your place in history, to your conscience: Stop this madness. We are now two weeks away from the deadline your government has set itself for the enactment of revolutionary legislation that you put in motion, that you appointed a justice minister and a committee chair to advance, that you built a coalition to vote into law and that you defend almost daily and absurdly as strengthening our democracy — legislation that will, in fact, shatter Israel’s foundational principles, proudly asserted in the Declaration of Independence, as a tolerant Jewish and democratic state committed to equality and personal freedoms. If you don’t heed President Isaac Herzog’s call to scrap a package of laws that neuters the High Court, the only body capable of defending all and any basic rights from being trampled by your duly elected coalition, we will mark this year’s Passover festival of freedom as a nation with its fundamental freedoms no longer protected from the tyranny of your majority. -------- White Supremacist Hate in Stamford Meanwhile, we here in Stamford have been troubled by a sudden surge in hate-activity by white supremacy groups, including flyers distributed in the Pepper Ridge area last weekend. I'm encouraged at the proactive response of our elected officials and police. One question often asked at a time like this is whether giving more publicity to the act is playing into the hands of the hate group. Sometimes discretion might be prudent, but in a case like this, where entire neighborhoods are being terrorized, a strong, united community response is the most potent repellent. This is not a time for silence. The 39 Shabbat Prohibitions Based on this week's portion, which details the construction of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the rabbis determined 39 forms of labor prohibited on Shabbat. From those 39 come myriads of derivatives. See the key passage below. Then click on the passage to see a packet of information exploring each of the 39 "Avot Melacha," as they are called, the forms of prohibited Shabbat work. The forms of labor (melacha) for various projects in the building of the tabernacle (click and scroll to see pdf) Introduction to Judaism, Session 2 The Bible and Ancient Israel This second session discusses what is the Hebrew Bible, when was it written and who wrote it. Sources and charts for this and the prior session can be accessed here. Recommended Reading Responsum on the Israeli Constitutional Crisis by Rabbi David Golinkin What is a pogrom? Israeli mob attack has put a century-old word in the spotlight )R.N.S) See also: Videos From Hawara Rampage Indicate Depth of Israeli Authorities’ Failure (Ha'aretz - premium) Finally available: Everything you always wanted to know about Judicial Reform but were afraid to ask (Daniel Gordis, Substack) Professor Netta Barak-Corren — rumored to be closely advising President Herzog — wrote a very balanced, much-discussed analysis of Israel's crisis that is finally available in English. Yes, it’s long. It’s 42 pages in English, more than 30 in Hebrew. But this is complicated stuff. What is unique about Professor Barak-Corren’s approach is that she is clear about what is “broken” in the current system and needs to be fixed, and at the same time, no less clear about why she considers the currently proposed changes very problematic and dangerous. If you really want to understand the essentials of what’s going on here (legally and legislatively), this is the paper to read. It just takes time and focus. Why more American Jews aren’t protesting about Israel right now (Forward) - It’s not like American Jews don’t know how to demonstrate in large numbers. Hundreds of thousands marched and rallied for Soviet Jews during the 1970s and 1980s, and massive crowds have turned out in defense of Israel. In 2002, around 100,000 Jews descended on Washington for the National Rally in Solidarity with Israel. Though they have spoken out against the judicial reform and Smotrich’s incendiary comments about wiping out a Palestinian village, major establishment organizations like the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League and Jewish Federations of North America, aren’t lending their stamp of approval to any protests. At the same time, the people who normally protest Israel — largely Palestinian organizations and their allies — don’t care much about preserving Israel’s democratic institutions, which they tend to view as hopelessly corrupted by decades of Israeli occupation in the West Bank. Anti-Jewish incidents jumped nearly 20% in 2021, FBI finds (JTA) This Changes Everything (NYT Ezra Klein) - 2018, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google — and not one of the tech executives known for overstatement — said, “A.I. is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire.” Try to live, for a few minutes, in the possibility that he’s right. There is no more profound human bias than the expectation that tomorrow will be like today. It is a powerful heuristic tool because it is almost always correct. Tomorrow probably will be like today. Next year probably will be like this year. But cast your gaze 10 or 20 years out. Typically, that has been possible in human history. I don’t think it is now. How a little-known editor made God a bestseller by helping Americans let go of religion (RNS) One of the big questions of our time is: Why is religion in such trouble in contemporary America? And why is spirituality doing so well? Why are there so many spiritual but not religious people? I think Exman provides a genealogy of what I call the religion of experience, which is the most popular form of religion in the United States today. People see religion as a personal matter. They think it’s about feeling and experience more than it is about dogma or doctrine or ritual. They don’t think it takes place inside institutions. They think it takes place in the human heart. Wanted: More Rabbis (Tablet Magazine) - Non-Orthodox rabbinical schools across America are experiencing a significant decline in enrollment, affecting both these institutions and the American Jewish community at large as the demand for rabbis exceeds supply, particularly as baby boomers retire and others leave because of burnout. ...Across America, the religious landscape is changing. “People are engaging with religion in a much broader way than they used to, congregational attendance has declined, and affiliation is decreasing,” said Wendy Cadge, founder of the Chaplain Innovation Lab. “Rather than going to congregations, people are engaging in online groups, listening to podcasts, and spiritual entrepreneurs are making their resources available in different ways.” But rabbis are still in demand—a demand that outstrips supply, even as congregations shrink. This year, like last year, the Conservative movement—50% of whose rabbis in North America serve congregations—anticipates a shortage of rabbis to fill available positions, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, told Tablet: “There is greater demand, along with smaller numbers of rabbis being ordained. Also, congregations want more rabbis to do education and engagement work. So congregations that used to think about one rabbi for 500 households now understand that in a time when it’s about relationships, they need more rabbis to serve their communities.” What's more important? Being Jewish or doing Jewish? (TOI) - Conversion is a wonderful, personal, existential choice, not likely influenced by an intermarried rabbi’s spouse not converting. Moreover, while encouraging conversion can result in more people being Jewish, the message that conversion is preferred discourages interfaith couples and partners from different faith backgrounds from engaging in Jewish life in the first place. The net result of prioritizing conversion is fewer people doing Jewish.   Disrupting Technology: Creating a Local Sanctuary in Place – Parashat Vayekhel-Pekudei (Schechter) - Rabbi Avi Novis-Deutsch argues that we need to disrupt technology on the Sabbath to create a true and local sanctuary in place for ourselves and for our local community. Why Does the Torah Devote So Much Text to the Tabernacle? (The Torah.com) The Mishkan passages transform the Torah story into the intimate relationship between God, creation, and humanity. The light of the night sky and the beating of my own heart are the revelation of God—just like the fire, the cloud, and the many details in the Mishkan account. What It Means to Keep Kosher for Passover Sephardic Passover Guide from Jersey Shore (skip all the ads to get to the good stuff) For those who eat legumes and rice, this guide presents a very different perspective. More on the ancient roots of the word Aviv, from the BDB biblical dictionary and the medieval commentary of Ibn Ezra. Imagine those first stalks of barley growing, fully two months before the wheat, as a reminder to our ancestors that spring's revival was fast approaching. It is no coincidence that the reborn Jewish nation's first all-Jewish city, Tel Aviv, incorporated that word into its name. For more about the biblical and post biblical names for this month, see also Why Do We Eat Matzah in the Spring? Nissan: Nissanu – from the Akkadian word for “first-produce.” The Mediterranean spring starts with the birth of newborn kids in the flock and the cutting of the first crops. 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In This Moment: How the Bible is Everything, Everywhere and All At Once - What if Fox News covered the Golden Calf?

In This Moment 16th century map by Heinrich Bunting depicting Jerusalem and the Land of Israel as the center of the world. This map is featured in this (Thursday) evening's "Introduction to Judaism" class on the Bible and Ancient Israel. Click to watch the video of the introductory session, or to see any of the source materials. God's Signature: How the Bible is Everything, Everywhere and All At Once What if Fox News Covered the Golden Calf? This week's portion of Ki Tisa contains the climactic Golden Calf incident, or, as Tucker Carlson might describe it, "an afternoon tea party. No Big Deal. No debauchery. No idolatry. Just a sweet pastoral scene. A few baby cows, a few baby sheep. A few tourists in a lovely Yorkshire setting looking for landmarks from All Creatures, Great and Small. No fire and brimstone. No quaking mountain. No smashed tablets or windows. Nothing to see here."   Aaron? "Totally innocent! He didn't make the calf. Antifa did."   And where was Moses this whole time? "That's the crux of the problem. Mo is AWOL, nowhere to be found! That's what happens when you pick a leader who's 80 years old! And who chose him, anyway? The process was rigged!"   I could go on, but mercifully, I won't. However, this little parody raises a crucial question about the nature of transmitted truth. There is really only one documented way to understand what happened on January 6, 2021, and it's supported by a mountain of evidence and a cattle call of convictions. Yet some still choose to deliberately lie to further their own political and - in Fox's case, more to the point, commercial - agendas. How Fox News could still be doing this at the very time they're being exposed by the Dominion lawsuit revelations is the height of chutzpah. Fortunately, the attempt to whitewash what happened on the 6th will likely fail, especially in light of the growing desire of Republican leaders to finally let the lie go - to their credit.   But, if we turn our attention back to the Golden Calf, how can we be sure that the Torah's account of this sinful debauchery, and particularly Aaron's role in it, are to be accepted as the only possible version of events? The text and commentaries jostle over the relative guilt of Aaron in collecting the jewelry and constructing the idol. Some say was simply trying to stall for time. And the entire group present, all the people, are the true guilty party. After all, the punishment did not go to Aaron alone. Each individual Israelite was held responsible by God for this idolatry. Their donations of jewelry and participation in the idol worship rendered them all complicit.   Maybe not ALL.   On this day after International Women's Day, this juicy bit of Midrash is just perfect. While the Hebrew verb for “they took off (their jewelry),” is masculine plural, it is typically seen as applying to a mixed-gender group of Israelites. But Bamidbar Rabbah 21:10 chooses to read the phrase literally: “They (the men) took” asserts that it was only the Israelite men who opted to participate and give over their gold. The Israelite women, says the midrash, refused to donate their valuables or to participate in idolatry.   And because of that, the women were granted a special gift, their own holiday, Rosh Hodesh (the New Month).   Is all of this "true," in the historical sense? If you look at the chart below (click on it to enlarge), you'll see that Conservative and Reform Judaism don't necessarily take the Torah literally. That should come as no surprise to those who know me. I've been shouting that message from the rooftops for the past four decades. To quote the Broadway version of Book of Mormon, "It's a metaphor." But there is a difference between literal fact and a broader truth. Joseph Campbell, the great chronicler of myth, delineated that distinction: "...half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religious traditions… are facts. And the other half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies." It is clear that Jewish sources stand on the side of deeper truth, rather than historical literalism, or as some call it, fundamentalism. The Talmud states that God's very signature is truth. We can debate precisely what truth is, but we know clearly what it isn't - you need look no further than the Dominion case depositions to find that. So while the concept of "truth" is somewhat fluid, a lie is as plain as the Pinocchio nose on their face; and our sources detest liars. The Talmud states: "The Holy One, blessed be God, hates a person which says one thing with his mouth and another in his heart." That's how you define a liar. Clean and simple. The sages understood the fragility of the trust that people place in those who recount the stories, and who make the laws based on those stories. As we read and retell our sacred stories again and again, year after year, there is a certain trust that accompanies that reading, a faith that these events were initially communicated, and later interpreted, in good faith, however subjectively, Not by an agenda-driven cynical egomaniac out to hold onto power and make a few billion bucks for his media empire. We've got to believe that the editors and story tellers who passed the Torah stories down to us believed, on some level, that what they were telling was "true." The same is true for all faith traditions. I may have serious questions as to the historicity of the Red Sea parting, just as a Christian might question the events on Golgotha. But with these stories, like the Golden Calf, there is an internal integrity that makes them timeless and able to yield priceless truths. The Golden Calf midrash about the courageous women lays bare so many lies and stereotypes. There are myths to explode and moral lessons to explore, so many in just one brief story.   But it all depends on the integrity of the teller. For me to accept the Bible as "true" and divine, I need to place my faith in the authors, scribes, bards and redactors who developed and transmitted the stories for all these centuries. Because these stories passed through so many hands - and mouths - they have survived a vetting process unlike any other in history. The Hebrew Bible was possibly the world's first - and still best - crowdsourced document, written in the original Multiverse, a mishmash of "everything, everywhere and all at once." John Riches wrote in The Bible: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press): "The biblical texts were produced over a period in which the living conditions of the writers – political, cultural, economic, and ecological – varied enormously. There are texts which reflect a nomadic existence, texts from people with an established monarchy and Temple cult, texts from exile, texts born out of fierce oppression by foreign rulers, courtly texts, texts from wandering charismatic preachers, texts from those who give themselves the airs of sophisticated Hellenistic writers." Over those centuries, the process of editing, re-editing, translating, and interpreting, left us with a document richly layered in the (often contradictory) truths of the human experience. If any of it was written with Tucker Carlsonesque malevolence, millions of proofreaders could question, cajole and tug at the text and bring forth new fruit. But they can tug and comment and remaster all they want; still, the Golden Calf will never become a jolly holiday in the Yorkshire countryside. You can put lipstick on this golden calf and it will still be an idol. You can put lipstick on January 6, 2021 and the purveyor of falsehood will still be a liar. And now, a deposed one, sworn to tell the truth, whatever that means to an entrenched liar. In this week of great parody, from Purim masks to Fox News unmasked to Mel Brooks' long awaited sequel to his "History of the World, Part One," we need to believe that our sacred stories come to us relatively untarnished - but rather, varnished to a deep shine by the eyes of a billion readers spanning hundreds of generations. There can be truth in numbers.   What Fox News continues to do in spreading such devastating lies about the 2020 Election is a sin that is downright biblical in nature, with consequences bordering on apocalyptic. We've only seen a glimpse of what the world can be like when it is run by power hungry manipulators who have no respect for the people they supposedly serve. At some point, the greatest casualty will become truth itself. But before that happens, Dominion will go to trial, more truths will emerge - and the verdict will await God's signature. This Week's Hebrew Headlines ...see today's Israeli front pages on the bottom of this email The front page headline from Yediot says, "Protest Spreading Among Reserves." That is below the smaller headline that states that a quarter of a million hit the streets in protest last Saturday night. The Purim photo on the bottom right, captioned "A grand holiday for children, echoing the lyrics of the song "Hag Purim," is strangely comforting. When an Israeli reserve fighter announced why he is not reporting for training, that was greeted by accusations by the Information Minister Galit Distel that he and his comrades are "pathetic deserters." He responded with this unbelievable letter.  Ms. Distel, You, who were appointed as a minister thanks to your proclivity for lying and gossip, ought to read the following carefully: “A pathetic bunch of deserters,” you called them. They are the people thanks to whom you can get into bed at night. While you continue to search for more sick ways of spreading your lies, “they” fly at night on stealth missions around the Middle East. You don’t have the tools, intelligence, or ability to understand what it’s like to climb into the cockpit in the dead of night, take off with a plane loaded with fuel and bombs and fly to an enemy country. Try to get this into your head—one engine, hundreds of kilometers of flight in enemy territory to reach the target, missiles are fired at you, and you can find yourself, in seconds, dangling from your parachute on your way to captivity. You, Distel, will never understand what it is to love the country for which you are willing to sacrifice your life, and you do not have the tools to understand the devoted friendship on the part of that helicopter pilot who is willing to risk his life at an absurd altitude, in order to rescue a group from Sayeret Matkal [an elite commando unit], wounded Golani soldiers or a fallen pilot. Those very same “treasonous leftists” and the “pathetic group of deserters” are the ones who destroyed the air forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan in 1967, saved (yes, saved) the State of Israel from destruction, defended its borders in 1973, brought the troops to Entebbe, brought Ethiopian Jews to Israel, destroyed the nuclear reactors in Baghdad in 1981 and in Syria in 2007, and continue steadily and unceasingly in their secret work every day. Thirteen young men from my [pilots’] course have fallen in their roles as pilot— and you will not tarnish their memory. Go, Distel, speak with the sickening government of which you are a part, a government that relies on draft dodgers, crooks, liars and thieves, and explain to them that here in this country there will be democracy, and that we will fight for it—at any cost. This article below from Ha'aretz (in Hebrew and then in the English edition), which seems like good news, gives us just one example of an individual freedom that will undoubtedly be ripped away if the judiciary coup succeeds and the radical right wing government is allowed to run roughshod over human rights. It is easy to imagine Conservative and Reform synagogues being forced to close. Pluralism at the Kotel will become a pipe dream and LGBTQ persecution will go far beyond being denied wedding cakes. With nothing to restrain them, they've already telegraphed what they will do. As Thomas Friedman wrote this week in the NYT, now is the time for American Jews to choose sides. Who's side are you on? The government's? Or the "pathetic deserters?" See also: A New Prayer for Israel (Washington Jewish Week) Passover is Coming! Click here to read more of the R.A Pesach Guide..... ...and here to see the R.A's Exploring Judaism info on Pesach. Parsha Packs for Ki Tisa and Shabbat Parah Take Two Tablets: Why the Second Set? The two sets of commandments correspond to two different ways to serve God. According to Rav Huna, the broken and the new sets lay side by side in the ark. The Jewish Gender Gap The Israelite women refused to surrender their earrings for the Golden Calf. A tribute to International Women's Day. Who is the Ideal Jewish Leader? Mr Cool vs Mr. Hot-Under-the-Collar? Mr. Patience or Mr. Action? Moses v. Aaron in a leadership contest. The Other Ten Commandments Compare the "ritual" Ten Commandments, found in this portion, with the "ethical" sets found elsewhere in the Torah, How do they complement one another? Judaism and Cannibis The biblical roots of Marijuana are found in this portion. Were Europe's great rabbis a bunch of stoners? Read about the Baal Shem Tov's pipe. Monster Snowstorms? Golden Calves? Where is God??? Is God in the storm? In the sin? In the tragedy? In the Death Camp? Also, a comparison of the Red Cow anf the Golden Calf (for Shabbat Parah - the Shabbat of the Cow) Recommended Reading Mazal tov to Sarah Darer, who became an adult Bat Mitzvah last Shabbat. Read her inspiring d'var Torah. Chaim Topol, the Israeli actor known for Tevye of Fiddler on the Roof, has died (NPR) Fiddler, yes, and Raiders of the Lost Ark too, but for many, he will always be best known for his breakthrough role in the classic, Sallah Shabati (1964), which you can watch here. The famous scene where he dedicates a grove of trees to multiple donors (changing the dedication signs each time) is still one of the funniest in Israeli cinema. 'A History of the World, Part II’ Is a Triumph of Jewish Comedy (Kveller) - What does it mean to have something so laugh-out-loud funny, and so comfortably Jewish, in a year like this?...If we had only gotten a sketch about a character from the Torah? Dayenu! If we had only gotten that and a funny “Fiddler” parody that extends over several episodes? Dayenu! If we had only had those and the much-anticipated “Hitler on Ice” that was promised in the ending credits of Part I? Dayenu! But we have so, so much more. There are jokes about kashrut, antisemitism, an onslaught of Yiddishisms, and mentions of every Jewish food staple from lox to celery soda.  See also The real Jewish history in Mel Brooks’ and Hulu’s ‘History of the World, Part II’ Jews playing in Major League Baseball? We just set the record (TOI) - We are living in the Golden Age of Jewish baseball, and the evidence – as with almost every proof in sports – is in the numbers: 16 Jews appeared in a Major League game last year. And that is the record for one season. See also: Team Israel is playing in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Here’s what to watch for (JTA) ‘Purimfest 1946!’ (Jeff Jacoby) - Streicher imagined that Hitler and Germany would succeed where Haman had failed; in the end, approaching the gallows, he knew it was a “Purimfest” all over again. But the defeat of anti-Semitism is never permanent. The hatred of Jews is again on the march, even in America, where for so long it was banished from respectable society. Purim is a joyous holiday, but more and more Jews are watching their backs. Investigation into Conservative movement’s youth programs identifies ‘hypersexualized culture’ (JTA) - An investigation into sexual abuse and misconduct in the Conservative movement’s youth group programs over the past seven decades identified an “overly sexualized culture” and collected accounts of alleged abuse from 40 victims.  A Jewish producer of ‘All Quiet On The Western Front’ sees his family history in the Oscar-nominated Netflix film (JTA) Considering the Nazis had once led a campaign of book burning against the source material and terrorized German movie theaters that showed the original movie adaptation, accusing it of being a “Judenfilm,” Dreifuss sees the new film’s success as a historical victory, too. “I love that my name will be associated with a story that was deemed degenerate by that regime,” he said. A Jewish Guide to Dream Interpretation (Hey Alma) - The Talmud has a surprising amount to say about what your dreams mean – from olives (good) to owls (bad). Introduction to Judaism, Session 1: What is Judaism? - Rabbi Joshua Hammerman of Temple Beth El in Stamford, CT teaches the basics of Judaism in ten sessions, in early 2023. This first session discusses how Judaism can be best understood by way of three Hebrew names for the Jewish people: Yisrael, Yehudi and Ivri. See lecture links Today's (Thursday's) Israeli headlines click on each photo to see pdf of the full front page Share This Email   Share This Email   Share This Email Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community