The Jewish National Edition Post &Opinion Presenting a broad spectrum of Jewish News and Opinions since 1935. Volume 85, Number 2 • April 1, 2019 • 25 Adar II 5779 www.jewishpostopinion.com • https://go.usa.gov/xn7ay

Cover Art by Karin Foreman (see About the Cover on p. 2) 2 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 place – his new hotel. About the Cover Seen on the “The ‘Walled Off Hotel,’a nine-bedroom Passover boutique establishment, is fashioned to By Karin Foreman Israel Scene host tourists and to give the community in the city – famous as the purported BY SYBIL KAPLAN birthplace of Jesus – an economic boost. PHOTOS BY BARRY A. KAPLAN “The artist from the English city of Bristol is touting the hotel as offering Going to Bethlehem the ‘worst view in the world,’ with the Submitted 2-11-19 windows opening to reveal the grey concrete of the 8-meter high wall. Since December 1995, Bethlehem has “Palestinian and Israeli rights groups been under the complete administration have criticized the barrier for imposing and the military control of the Palestinian restrictions on the movement of Palestinians. “Passover/Pesach” is a mixed media National Authority. As such Israelis The Israeli government claims it con- piece using paint with add-ins like fiber cannot go freely into any Palestinian structed the barrier to prevent Palestinian and molding pastes, coarse pumice gel Authority controlled area, however, suicide bombings, and points to figures and a mixture of other gels, various gesso, journalists with an American passport and that show a significant decrease in such and blue and gold Interference paint that permission from the Israel Defense Forces attacks since its construction began. has the unique ability to “flip”colors when can. Friends of ours, the Baptist minister “Inside the hotel are exhibitions for viewed from different angles. It changes and his wife, invited us to go with them Palestinian artists, Banksy works and between a bright opalescent color to its and do a story. colonial decoration with a depiction of complement. The road out of Jerusalem goes past the signing of the Balfour Declaration, the This piece features many elements from the Mar Elias monastery, a 6th century British letter signed in 1917 that signaled the Passover story found in Exodus. The monastery guarding the Jerusalem- the creation of the state of Israel. It pyramids represent the enslavement of the Bethlehem road; opposite is Tantur includes artwork typical of Banksy, Israelites, the funnel-like cloud signifies Ecumenical Institute where scholars, provocative and political.” death sweeping through the land of Egypt priests, ministers, members of religious According to The Guardian, “Banksy from Exodus 12:29 “2And it came to pass, communities and lay persons may take a planned to start accepting guests at the that at midnight the Lord smote all the sabbatical and participate in continuing hotel at the end of March 2017, taking firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the education programs designed for research, bookings online. He reportedly wants firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne study and touring the Holy Land. guests from both sides of the conflict to stay unto the firstborn of the captive that was Nearby is the modern Tantur Hills Hotel. at the hotel and experience Bethlehem.” in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of In the five miles you have driven in 10 We drove around Manger Square where cattle.” The moon stands for midnight. minutes, you are at the Bethlehem check- the church of the Nativity was built over The swirls and waves symbolize the point. It was already dark, but it was very the cave where Christians believe Jesus turbulent time between the awful plagues interesting to drive throughout the city, was born. We drove though the suburb of and the parting of the Red Sea to freedom seeing all of the open shops. Beit Sahour and saw the shepherds’fields, from slavery. The three matzot are where Christians believe the shepherds traditional elements used at today’s Seders received word of the birth and where linking the past to the present. They are Ruth gleaned under Boaz. We stopped for symbolic of the three castes of Jews – pizza at a new, modern delicatessen and Priests, Levites and Israelites. Some link then toured the largest grocery store in the three matzot to the three measures of Bethlehem just for fun. fine flour that Sarah used to bake some “bread”for the visitors, which supposedly Background happened during Passover. They can After Jordan became part of the Six-Day also represent Abraham, Isaac and War in 1967, Bethlehem was liberated Jacob. Regardless, matzah reminds us of by Israel, along with the rest of liberation from bondage and redemption. Judea/Samaria and Israel took control of Karin Foreman creates artwork, graphic the city. In 1995, Israel turned it over to the designs, and award-winning inspirational Palestinian National Authority in accor- nature photography. She has won The dance with the Oslo peace accord. On Exposure Award and is featured in The Dec. 21, 1995, Israeli troops withdrew from Nature Collection. Her photography was Bethlehem, and three days later the city honored at a private reception at the Louvre came under the complete administration Museum in 2015. Her work was also and military control of the Palestinian featured at 4Times Square in New York, National Authority. Those with an the Amsterdam International Art Fair at the American passport can enter Bethlehem Beurs van Berlage, the Architectural Digest One sight we wanted to see is described with no problems. Design Show in New York, The Monaco in an article by Jack Moore, in Newsweek,in Yacht Show, Spectrum Miami during Art March 2017 – Banksy Opens ‘Walled Off’ The God of Isaac Basel Miami, Artexpo New York and just Hotel on Separation Barrier in Bethlehem. Submitted 2-17-19 recently the LA Contemporary Artshow. “The infamous but anonymous graffiti See more of her work on her website at artist Banksy is looking for wise men and Why have I written this article? If you www.karinforeman.com. She can be reached women to trek to the West Bank city of happened to be in Jerusalem (as we are) by email at karin_foreman@ yahoo.com. Bethlehem but to a very different resting (see Kaplan/Israel, page 17) April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 3 Editorial Inside this Issue About the Cover ...... 2 When I was thinking of what to write Sybil Kaplan: for this Passover edition, I thought of the (Seen on the Israel Scene)...... 2 story below because the holiday takes Jennie Cohen: (Editorial)...... 3 place in the spring. It is a time of rebirth Rabbi Benzion Cohen: (Chassidic Rabbi) and renewal, and many Seder tables are Special Times – 2...... 4 adorned with flower bouquets. Rabbi Amy Lederman: (Jewish Educator) David Zeller, z”l, taught that Pesach is Searching for Family an opportunity. He said, “it’s not just a on Mount of Olives...... 4 Rabbi Sills (R) at “Joys of Jewishing” in 1992. historical celebration, not just a great time Rabbi Micah D. Greenstein, D.D.: to have family and friends get together for rested for the next day. All the while she is Acts of Kindness ...... 5 a good meal. Pesach is a breakthrough in looking for signs, keeping an open mind Magidah Khulda bat Sarah: time from the realm of eternity. It is the for some message she can bring back and (Gather the People) Gravity ...... 6 breakthrough in the world of hiddenness to share with her tribe. Jill Weiss Simins: (Posting the Past) that which can be revealed. What happened This continues for a couple more days, Walking with Dr. King ...... 8 3,000 years ago can be repeated, not just but nothing comes to her. She decides that Rabbi Jon Adland: (Shabbat Shalom) commemorated on Pesach night. Pesach – she must go back soon even if there is Pekudei, Exodus 38:21–40:38...... 9 and this is true of all of the holidays – nothing to share. The next day she is Miriam Zimmerman: (Holocaust Educator) offers that opportunity. Pesach is a time to awakened early by a magnificent sunrise. Vital Addition to sit at your Seder table, go through the The sky is filled with the most vibrant Holocaust Filmography ...... 10 Haggadah and experience a breakthrough.” colors she has ever seen. As the sun rises Jim Shipley: (Shipley Speaks) I had heard this story in 1992 at “Joys in the sky and dries up the dew on the We Are Different...... 12 of Jewishing”, a week-long summer camp grass, she notices next to her a field of Rabbi Irwin Wiener: (Wiener’s Wisdom) of learning and recreation, ending with beautiful white flowers. Complicity in Silence...... 12 a spirited Sabbath celebration. It was She decides to pick a few to take back Melinda Ribner: (Kabbalah of the Month) sponsored by the Aquarian Minyan, a with her. She reaches down to pick one Meditation for Passover Jewish Renewal group in Berkeley, but that has a lot of petals, but she notices one and Its Preparation...... 13 was held at a campground about three of them is torn so decides not to take that Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel: (Media Watch) hours northeast of there. flower. She looks at a second one with all I Feel Bad...... 14 The story was told by a co-founder of of its petals intact, but it has a weak stem, Rabbi Israel Zoberman: (Book Review) the camp, Rabbi Hanan Sills, (see photo, so she leaves it in the ground. The third Shalom Lakanaim: Shalosh Machshavut top) a charismatic teacher who at the time one she sees has a strong stem and nice Searing Pessimism & was the Hillel rabbi at the University of petals, but a leaf is missing. Consoling Optimism...... 15 Oregon in Eugene. He explained that he She becomes frustrated because every Rabbi Israel Zoberman: had heard it from a middle-aged woman flower she reaches for has some small Obituary & Tribute to Amos Oz...... 15 who had come to him wanting to learn imperfection. She finally decides to Rabbi Susan Nanus: about Judaism. She had just found out she overlook the tiny flaws of each flower and “Why Me?”...... 16 was Jewish. Her parents were Jewish, but randomly picks a bunch of them. Together Sybil Kaplan: (My Kosher Kitchen) during the Holocaust she was left with they make a beautiful bouquet! Passover Recipes ...... 18 non-Jews who had raised her and did not When she arrives home from her Ted Roberts: (Spoonful of Humor) tell her about her biological parents. travels, she must face the tribe with her The 11th Commandment – message. She tells them about her trip and Spice up Your Passover ...... 20 Vision Quest how she was afraid there would be no The story is about a Native American message. Then she uncovers the bouquet girl who at age 13 is preparing for a Vision of white flowers. She explains how The Jewish Quest.This is something all tribe members fragrant they are and pleasing to the eye, Post &Opinion do at that age to show they are ready for but that individually each one has a flaw. Jewish News and Opinion since 1935. adulthood. She will take a journey by She says the flowers are like the members 1389 W 86th St. #160 herself and use all the skills that she has of the tribe. Each one has some strong Indianapolis, IN 46260 been taught to see what helpful vision she points and some weak points, but when email: [email protected] can bring back for the benefit of her tribe. they all work together, the total is more phone and fax: (317) 405-8084 She saddles up her horse with her bow than the sum of the parts. Her message to website: www.jewishpostopinion.com and arrow and all of the supplies that she the tribe is not to look at the flaws in each publisher & editor: Jennie Cohen will need, including food and water to last member, but rejoice in the strength of the graphic designer: Charlie Bunes a few days. She mounts her horse and tribe as a whole. waves goodbye to her tribe. She rides all day until just before dusk in time to set up I was thinking about this story because and cut off from society. camp for the night. a supportive community can provide This story will be included in a soon to She falls asleep comforted by the needed strength when one is facing be published book about classes I attended sounds of all the little creatures that share difficult challenges such as illness or loss and interviews I did with some prominent the countryside with her. She rises at of a loved one.The idea that people have to teachers who lived or visited the San sunrise and continues on riding during be independent, not needing each other, is Francisco Bay Area when I resided there the day, setting up camp before dusk in not a Jewish one. This is especially true in from 1986–1993. Chag Pesach Sameach! order to have a good night’s sleep to be today’s world where it is easy to feel alone Jennie Cohen, April 1, 2019 4 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 Yussef “Kodja”Franco, a great scholar and Chassidic Rabbi Jewish sage who peddled goods on the side to support his wife and five children. BY RABBI BENZION COHEN B.H. At the age of 40, my great-great-grand- Educator father was appointed chief rabbi, or hakham bashi, of Rhodes, where he served Special Times – 2 BY AMY HIRSHBERG LEDERMAN for more than 30 years in this highly esteemed position. In 1911, at the behest In my last column (IN-8/22/18), I wrote Searching for Family of the Sephardi community of Palestine, about the special times we are living in. which was experiencing great internal That almost all of the nations of the world on Mount of Olives conflict, he was brought out of retirement are trying hard to live in peace with each at the age of 72 to serve as the rishon other and end war. How atomic bombs are On a cold and windy day in February, I le-Tzion or hakham bashi (head rabbi of being dismantled, and the uranium is drove an hour and a half from Haifa to the Sephardic rabbinate in Jerusalem), the being used to produce electricity. Here Jerusalem in search of my great-great- highest religious position a rabbi could hold. we are beginning to see the fulfillment of grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Yehudah From 1911 to 1915, he attempted to prophecies of the true and complete Franco. I had learned about him from arbitrate between the Sephardic factions redemption: that in the end of days a time stories my mother told me and a family as he continued to serve as the authorized will come when there will be no more war. tree carefully constructed by relatives representative of the Sephardim in This period, the end of days, is also referred who were deeply committed to preserving Jerusalem. He retired as the last hakham to as the days of the Moshiach (Messiah). our family history. But I actually saw him bashi before the advent of World War I and Another prophecy is that in this period numerous times, staring out from a gilded the establishment of the British Mandate. the world will be full of the knowledge of frame on my mother’s bedroom wall, with I drove as close to the entrance to the G-d. We can see now that this prophecy is his long white beard, dark caftan and Mount of Olives as I could, skirting tour also beginning to be fulfilled. When I was silk turban. The photo below shows a buses and construction workers from the growing up 60 years ago communism was serious looking man, his grim-faced wife neighboring Arab village of Silwan, before very strong. One of the super powers of and a towering servant; sitting together, they finding a place to park. The Mount of the world was communist, and they were created a triad both somber and mysterious. Olives is considered by many to be the trying very hard to conquer the entire Rabbi Moshe Franco’s life began in 1837 holiest Jewish burial ground, dating back world. Even here in America communism on the island of Rhodes. But centuries over 3,000 years to the First Temple period. had some popularity, and many colleges before, the Franco family had its origins in In the Second Book of Samuel 15:30, it is and universities had communist youth Northern Spain, most likely in the region written that “David ascended the Mount groups. Communism opposed belief of Galicia or Navarra. Then, on March 31, of Olives, crying as he ascended, with his in G-d and religion, calling it the opium of 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella head covered, going barefoot.” the masses. Teaching belief in G-d was a issued the Alhambra Decree requiring all I almost did the same as I stared into major crime.Those who lived in the Soviet Jews to leave Spain within three months the awesomeness of Zechariah’s Tomb Union had the choice: forget about or face death. My family, along with between and looked up at the more than 150,000 religion and belief in G-d, or live in 100,000–165,000 other Jews, fled to neigh- gravesites (estimates range between constant fear of the secret police. boring countries such as Portugal, Italy, France, 70,000 and 300,000) that cover this sacred In Israel there was a similar situation.The Morocco, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. site. Directly opposite the Temple Mount, government at that time was leftist and three millennia of revered figures have anti-religious.They fought against belief in been buried here. From Biblical Prophets G-d and religion. In America the situation Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi to rabbinic was not much better. Instead of worship- sages like Nachmanides (the Ramban), ping G-d, many people worshipped the from modern day leaders Prime Minister dollar, and all of the physical pleasures Menachim Begin and Henrietta Szold that the dollar could buy. People advised (the founder of Hadassah) to the father me that since I have a good head I should of modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, learn a good profession. Then I would be and Nobel Prize laureate Shai Agnon, this able to earn a lot of dollars. Then I could cemetery holds some of the greatest buy myself a beautiful house and a fancy Jewish personages in history. car. This was my “religion”. From the founding of the State of Israel Even science was weakening belief in G-d. in 1948 until the 1967 War, the Mount of For thousands of years we understood Olives was under Jordanian control, during that there is a Higher Power that created which time thousands of Jewish graves us and is giving us life. But two hundred were desecrated, vandalized and destroyed. years ago science came up with different Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967 ideas. According to the theory of evolution, now affords it control over these sacred life just came about by accident. If so, then grounds and a continuing opportunity to there is no need to believe. repair and protect the gravesites. The results? My siblings and I like many What I encountered when I arrived was a millions grew up with little or no belief in far cry from what I had imagined.The small G-d. However, when I turned 17, things Rabbi Moshe Franco (L) and his wife, metal kiosk that housed the attendant to began to change. In June, 1967, the world Perla, along with a Turkish servant – 1909. whom I had spoken on the phone the held its breath. Israel was at war, and was previous day, was locked and shuttered. vastly outnumbered. Then G-d showed us My great-great-grandfather learned Torah Sadly, the man who had assured me he (see Benzion, page 5) from his father, known in our family as (see Lederman, page 5) April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 5 BENZION very soon, the whole world will be full of Acts of (continued from page 4) the knowledge of G-d. How do we do this? Go to your local Kindness amazing miracles. In only 6 days Israel Chabad House and learn the secrets of life. overcame all of her enemies! Since then Learn how to recognize all of the small we have seen many, many miracles, large miracles that G-d does for each of us every BY RABBI MICAH D. GREENSTEIN, D.D. and small. During the gulf war in 1991 day. Learn about the true and complete Iraq fired around 70 scud missiles at Israel. redemption, the days of Moshiach, that we The bumper sticker, “Practice Random Some of these missiles were shot down, are already beginning to see. If you live Acts of Kindness,” as with so many other but many struck cities here in Israel, near a Chabad House, offer the Rabbi great ideas, is rooted in Judaism.The values destroying and damaging hundreds of your assistance. If you don’t have a local of doing for others (gemilut chasadim), houses and apartments. Miraculously, not Chabad House, go to one of the Chabad improving the world (tikun olam), tzedakah even one person was killed! websites and learn. You can become the (charity), and kindness (chesed) are central In 1976 Israel held elections, and the emissary of the Rebbe in your community, to Jewish life and practice. Passover, like parties who opposed belief in G-d lost. Now and strengthen belief in G-d and Jewish these values, is active. We don’t simply the government of Israel is not fighting observance. It is up to each of us to recall the symbols of our experience in belief in G-d. In 1990 communism almost strengthen belief in G-d and knowledge Egypt, we eat them! Pesach is dynamic completely died a sudden peaceful death, of G-d. Thus we will all help to bring and full of life; it’s the story of how our and now hundreds of millions can safely Moshiach now! people moved from darkness to light, from believe in G-d. In fact, now the govern- Rabbi Benzion Cohen lives in K’far sorrow to joy, and from slavery to freedom. ments of the former Soviet Union actually Chabad, Isarel. He can be reached by email at What acts of kindness are you planning support religion, and religious schools [email protected]. to do as springtime emerges? The following and institutions. Belief in G-d is growing are ten suggestions among the 365 on the stronger every day. j i A Kindness A Day Calendar, published by Today even science can be used to LEDERMAN www.areyvut.org. This press uses Jewish strengthen our belief in G-d. Take for (continued from page 4) lessons to make the world a better place. example DNA, the genetic code. Each suggested act of kindness is accom- According to recent research, DNA is an would help me locate my great-great- panied by a Jewish text for you to reflect amazing combination of at least grandfather’s grave was nowhere to be upon and a goal for you to accomplish. 3,500,000,000 components, all exactly found. I scanned a tattered map posted on As Passover approaches, I hope these acts arranged in a special order! Compare this the kiosk but it was clear that finding his of kindness, in no order of importance, with the 32 volumes of the Hebrew grave would be more difficult than locating infuse your life with core Jewish values. Encyclopedia, which altogether have less the proverbial needle in the haystack, May this year’s holiday be for you, and than 100,000,000 letters. If someone because my haystack was complicated by those you love, a deeply meaningful one. would tell you that even one page of the 3,000 years of history, conflict and rubble. Here are the some ideas for your encyclopedia just happened by accident, The sky darkened and rain clouds consideration: you would think that he was crazy. And threatened as I found the huge section l. Passover celebrates freedom. Consider where is all of the amazing mind boggling dedicated to Sephardic Jews. Like a people in other parts of the world whose information of the genetic code? Inside of mountain goat, I climbed over rocks and freedom is in jeopardy, and actively do tiny, tiny, cells that you can only see with a shattered pieces of headstones in search something to help them. “If the Holy One, microscope! Today, any person who reads of Moshe Yehuda Franco. It took less than Blessed be God, had not taken us out of this and is honest with himself cannot say an hour to realize the futility of my search. Egypt, we would still be slaves to Pharaoh in that life is just an accident. But then I came upon a plaque that helped Egypt.” (Passover Haggadah) Yes, we are living in very special times. me understand that I was not alone. A 2. Call or visit someone who is sick. We look around and see that belief in G-d family headstone simply said: “In honor of “Just as God visited the sick, so you must is getting stronger and stronger. On one our mother who is buried somewhere visit the sick.” (Talmud Sotah 14a) hand, this is a result of all of the miracles within this area.”While I couldn’t actually 3. Call or visit a relative that you haven’t that G-d is showing us. On the other find my great-great-grandfather’s grave, I seen in a while and ask if there is anything hand, we also have a hand in this. The still had the opportunity to honor him. you can do to help them. “Joseph provided Lubavitcher Rebbe has helped me and I stood overlooking the valley of Kidron, all the needs of his father, his brothers, and many millions to believe in G-d and to one of the most hotly contested pieces of all his family, down to the very youngest.” work hard to help all of mankind to real estate in the world, and silently said (Genesis 47:12) strengthen their belief in G-d! It is indeed the Mourner’s Kaddish. There was nothing 4. Work on minimizing one of your up to each of us to strengthen our own more I could do. negative traits like anger, jealousy, laziness, belief in G-d, and to help others to As the rain began to wash over the or lack of focus. “Create in me a pure heart. strengthen their belief in G-d. Until soon, headstones at my feet, I felt both comfort Purify me so that I may serve God and life and connection, knowing that somewhere better.” (Jewish Liturgy) j i in this great morass of graves, my great- 5. If you are upset with someone, talk great-grandfather had been laid to rest. to that person about it instead of talking Read recent digital issue online at: Amy Hirshberg Lederman is an author, to others. “Righteousness and peace have www.jewishpostopinion.com Jewish educator, public speaker and attorney touched each other.” (Psalm 85:11) Follow us on Facebook at: who lives in Tucson. Her columns in the AJP 6. Expose your children and yourself to Jewish Post & Opinion, newspaper have won awards from the American Jewish people who are different than you. “The Press Association, the Arizona Newspapers personalities of God’s children differ just as Follow us on Twitter at: Association and the Arizona Press Club for their faces differ.” (Talmud Berachot 58a) #JewishPostOpin excellence in commentary. Visit her website at (see Greenstein, page 6) amyhirshberglederman.com. 6 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 where even gravity is in short supply? GREENSTEIN Gather the People Maybe it’s because of what’s not there. (continued from page 5) Maybe it’s because, as Robert Frost put it, we’d “like to get away from earth awhile 7. Go out of your way to cheerfully greet and then come back to it and begin over.” people you interact with today, whether in Maybe we crave space. If you’ve ever been person or on the phone. “A merry heart to the desert, you know the feeling. makes a cheerful face, the spirit is broken by In such a place, we’re thrown back on a sorrowful heart.” (Proverbs 15:13) BY MAGIDAH ourselves. We’re forced to focus. These are 8. Call someone who has lost a loved KHULDA BAT SARAH also the conditions of space, of course. one within the past few months to see Unlike the desert, though, there’s nothing how he or she is doing. “When my cares Gravity to stand on. are many...Your comfort delights my soul.” In such a place of nothingness, what is (Psalms 94:19) What makes the world go round? it that keeps us from falling? Gravity is 9. When your parent, spouse, or loved Our rabbis say: “Al shlosha devarim often described, as per Albert Einstein, as one asks you to do something, respond haolam omeid.”The world “stands”on three the “bending” of space and time in the immediately. “A love that is not dependent things: the Torah, the service of God and presence of a mass. Or as the University on anything will never cease.” (Pirkei Avot loving kindness. Al hatorah, v’al haavodah, of California at Riverside website puts it: 5:16). v’al gemilut chasadim, we sing. The “When we pass through time, the distortion 10. Pray for someone who is having a Hebrew word here for “stand”is “omeid.” of space-time by the presence of the earth difficult time. “And God heard the cries The image is one of the world balancing accelerates our bodies towards the center of the Israelites, and God remembered the on our shoulders, or rather, on our service of the earth. When our feet touch the eternal covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and lovingkindness. ground, it exerts a force on our feet in an and with Jacob.” (Exodus 2:24–25) But a lot of us might argue: “The world upwards direction which pushes us up in Rabbi Micah Greenstein has served doesn’t stand on me! I stand on it!”And of all the opposite direction.” It keeps us from Temple Israel of Memphis for 26 years, 16 as the possible human qualities of character, falling. I understand just enough of all that its Senior Rabbi. Named among the city’s we might ask, why pick kindness? Why to feel confident in putting my feet on the most significant leaders, he was recognized not justice or any of a hundred other floor when I get out of bed in the morning. as the first “Memphian of the Year” by things? And some of us might also be My question is: Is there a moral equiva- Memphis Magazine in 2013. In 2012 and thinking (to ourselves): What’s the big lent? Is there something which draws us again in 2013, he was named as one of deal about kindness, anyway? Everyone toward our own moral center and keeps “America’s Top 50 Rabbis” by Newsweek/ knows that nice guys, and gals, finish last. us from falling? Is there such a thing as The Daily Beast. This is from their April 7, We give it lip service, of course. We tell moral gravity? For example, if there is no 2006 bulletin. our children: Blah, blah, blah, be nice! Blah, stability without kindness, could we then blah, blah, don’t fight! But, if we had to pick compare kindness to gravity? Can kindness j i one particular thing on which our children’s “bend” human internal time and space? with them. They have in mind to rape futures depended, it probably would not And if so, what would it look like? them. When he does not cooperate, they be kindness. Getting a good education The short answer is: It looks like Avram. threaten to harm Lot himself. and a stable job, gaining a foothold in the It doesn’t look like Sodom. But we have to ask: Why are they so world are more likely to be at the top of As Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch tells angry? What did Lot or his guests ever do the list. So, maybe kindness is overrated? us, the downfall of Sodom, and Avram to them? Our rabbis answer us: Where there is sitting before his tent, are placed in one Rabbi Hirsch answers our question.This no kindness, there can be no stability. As picture in our minds.The bad example and “was not just a rabble of curious people, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains, the good example are placed next to each these were ‘anshei ha’ir’, the townspeople, the word “omeid” literally means “stands.” other. What we know to be humane may and moreover ‘anshei s’dom’, citizens, And, “that on which something ‘stands’ be reinforced by looking at its opposite. representatives of the state, who came to constitutes its foundation; if it loses that, it But perhaps we think we already know oppose this unheard-of attack on the old will fall.” about the bad example, the crime of established laws, customs and privileges It reminds me of that movie Gravity, Sodom. Do we? It may not be what we of their town.” But what old established you know the one, where two astronauts think. What exactly happened in Sodom? laws are we talking about? (played by Sandra Bullock and George The scripture tells us that Lot, the The evil of Sodom, our rabbis say, lay in Clooney) are “stranded in space after the nephew of Avram, was sitting in the gates its failure to show kindness to strangers. destruction of their space shuttle by a of the city when a couple of strangers And the measure of that evil lay in the fact Russian missile strike on a defunct satellite, arrived. Now, if you knew your way that the city had actually made it a crime which has inadvertently caused a chain around Sodom, as Lot did, you would to provide hospitality to strangers. Why reaction forming a cloud of debris in space,” know that they would find no hospitality would they do that, you might wonder? according to Wiki. The two astronauts try there. Aware that they would have to Presumably, the inhabitants didn’t like the to make their way “on foot,”so to speak, to spend the night in the street, Lot talks idea of having to share the goods of their a space station. They’re constantly falling them into coming home with him. luxuriant city with others. In violating head over heels through space. Reluctantly, they agree. their law, Lot had revealed himself to be at The movie got panned.The reviewers said: But then, just as they’re settling in for odds with their interests. great special effects, lousy plot. At first I the night, an angry mob of Lot’s neighbors It’s interesting to note here that the agreed with them. But I had to wonder. suddenly shows up. In a blind rage, they word humane is derived from the word What’s so “special” about these effects? surround the house, banging on the walls human. Their sin at its core lay in their not And why do we like them so much? Why and demanding that Lot send out his recognizing their visitors as human beings go to a place (even in our heads) where guests. If we know the story, we know and treating them accordingly. In their there’s nothing human, nothing to breathe, what the neighbors have in mind to do failure to do that, the residents of Sodom April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 7 revealed their inhumanity. wouldn’t do so for long. With Avram’s between us and other humans. Even time The failure to treat strangers with passing, this “holding up”would come to shrinks in this equation. After all, we kindness is a source of great evil, say an end. remember the act of Avram, who, thousands our rabbis. As Rabbi Hirsch explains, our It has to be something bigger than of years ago, performed an act of kindness. enslavement and oppression at the hands Avram, something that could potentially This is our gravity. To be a “pillar of of the Egyptians had its root in their first affect the whole world, something that, like kindness,”to show loving-kindness and to treating us as strangers. In no less than 36 gravity, could “bend”space and time. But remind others of their own capacity for (some say 46) places does the Torah warn do we really even think that’s possible? loving-kindness. us about this sin. We are reminded time Most of us act as if it’s not.The effect, we And, it is possible to perform such and time again of the risk inherent in would say, is way out of proportion to kindness even in a place of little or no failing to treat strangers as human beings. the deed. So, he invited some people to gravity. Remember the last scene in the The danger is that we may then feel that dinner. That’s nice, but it’s not exactly movie? We find Stone (played by Bullock) we can do as we like with them. They earthshaking. We see only the smallness having returned to earth, struggling to become objects to us, or worse yet, obstacles. of the deed. Perhaps that’s because we adjust to earth’s gravity once again. But Lot had dared to flaunt these laws and don’t see the consequences. Or maybe it’s what is it that got her there? Was there that is what infuriated his neighbors. because if we ourselves are going to do a something in particular to which we could For this, he and his guests were to be kindness, we want it to be something point that made that possible? punished. An example had to be made of big. Unfortunately, doing something big To answer this question, we must him and his visitors to make sure it never often has us waiting for a big opportunity. rewind to that moment in which the happened again. And in the meantime, we ignore all the two astronauts, running out of air and And just in case you’re thinking this smaller opportunities that land right on maneuvering power, try to grab onto the bad example has nothing to do with us our doorstep. International Space Station, as they fly by in our own time, think again. Sodom is It’s ironic, because most of us know the it. In the attempt, Stone’s leg becomes not unlike those modern communities value for ourselves of being treated kindly, caught in the parachute cords of a who give bus tickets or plane fare to the in big or small ways, and we certainly deployed Soyuz (Soviet spacecraft). She homeless to get them out of town (and as expect others to treat us that way. And yet then grabs onto a strap on Kowalski’s suit. far away as possible) in order to avoid we often underestimate its value in the But it quickly becomes clear that the cords spending precious local resources on them lives of others. We don’t believe what our are not strong enough to support them – see the New York Times (June 3, 2016) rabbis say: One good or bad deed draws both. If they remain together, they will article entitled: “Aloha and Welcome to another in its train. both die. In order to save her, Kowalski, Paradise. Unless You’re Homeless.” For example, we ourselves don’t like being over her protestations, detaches himself That’s the bad example. And the good? cut off in traffic, but we don’t calculate the from the tether. She is pulled back toward That we find in Avram. The scripture says: effect of cutting someone else off. We the International Space Station while he “Then God appeared to him in the groves don’t see the anger of the person who’s floats away. of Mamre and he was sitting at the door of been cut off (who’s already driven away) Ironically, he fills a gap by creating one, his tent in the heat of the day.”It was three and the effect of their anger (road rage) which, at that moment, cannot be filled days from the time of Avram’s circumcision on others. We don’t see that to prove that by anything or anyone else. Our rabbis (the time when, our rabbis say, the wound he or she is not a person to be cut off, he say, in a place where there is no true would be the most painful) and it was hot. or she cuts someone else off. And then, human, be that human. Be humane. Be a And yet, he sat in the door of his tent on perhaps, an accident ensues, resulting in pillar of kindness. It’s such a small gesture, the lookout for weary wanderers. And sure injury or death. But we don’t see it. And undoing a tether. But it’s always like that. enough, just as Avram was communing so, for us at least, it doesn’t count. Some little, unannounced, seemingly with God, three strangers appeared. One small act of kindness can interrupt inconsequential deed is the one that saves It’s interesting that Avram does not wait this chain of events. Someone who us. I leave you with this poem. for them to find him. And he does not recognizes the image of God at our core, delay in prayer. He is really looking for who treats us humanely, can remind us All Things Are Made of Smaller Things an “opportunity”to practice kindness. He that we are human beings, not objects. What does it take sees kindness to strangers as an opportu- And, conversely, when we recognize the To bring about nity, not a burden. And when three guys image of God in another person and treat The kingdom of God on earth? (who turn out to be three angels) show up, them humanely, we begin to believe the We search he invites them to dinner. He literally same of ourselves. And never know runs, leaving his prayer, his communion This is Avram’s gift to the three guys The kingdom’s end. with God, to show hospitality to them. who visited him. It is also his gift to us. If We strain Now, this may not seem like much to us. we recognize our humanity, we may act like To find an order in the skies, And yet, for this seemingly small act of Avram and we may have the privilege of To find our place kindness, Avram is characterized by our causing others to recognize it in themselves. And count our part. sages as amud hachesed, a “pillar of At our core we have a spark of the The moon, the stars— kindness,” meaning that he is one of the divine – our moral free will. We have the Which are we? ones, referred to by Simon The Just, on capacity to live large in the image of God. Dust. whom the world stands, as noted above. But not unlike the inhabitants of Sodom, Small stones A pillar, of course, is something or, in we sometimes lose sight of that. We fail to Skipped into a summer sea. this case, someone, who holds up some- recognize that we and they contain the And yet, thing else. But what exactly is he holding image of God. To be humane is to recog- The largest things up? Perhaps the answer seems obvious: nize the human in ourselves and in the Are made of smaller things. the physical survival of those whom he fed person standing before us. Drops divide the waters of the sea, and sheltered. And yet how could that When we do this, the space between us And drops divide those drops. alone hold up the world? Even if it did, it and God shrinks. And so does the space (see bat Sarah page 9) 8 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 The demonstrators organized into rows Posting with the first three rows chosen by Dr. King. Davis stated, “Before the march the began a list of 20 names were read to Past accompany Rev. King in the first three BY JILL WEISS SIMINS, rows, and my name was one of them. I INDIANA HISTORICAL BUREAU marched proudly at the front . . . Behind us the thousands began to follow.” The marchers passed people who “waved, Walking with Dr. King wept, prayed, and shouted out words of The Civil Rights Legacy of encouragement” and others with signs Rabbi Maurice Davis reading”dirty communist clergy go home” “Last Sunday I went for a walk . . . I did and “integrationist scum stay away.” not walk alone.” Photo Courtesy of the Jewish Post Rabbi Davis walked for twelve hours With these simple words Archive. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads without resting or eating. Unfortunately, he Rabbi Maurice Davis marchers from Selma to Montgomery, did not get to finish the march. Instead, he described his 1965 trip to Ala. Rabbi Davis can be seen just behind was called to fly to Cincinnati that night to Selma to the readers of the King and to his left. be with his father-in-law who had been Jewish Post. Rabbi Davis’s hospitalized with a serious illness. When “walk” was a protest, led branch of the NAACP twice named Davis returned to Indianapolis, he was by Dr. Martin Luther King, Reb. Davis Davis its “honorary chairman” and the welcomed with a threatening phone call. Jr. against institutional racism, voter sup- Indianapolis Recorder reported regularly pression, and violence against African on his efforts to fight segregation and Americans. When King asked civil rights racist home loan and mortgage policies. leaders from around the country to join While his actions speak for themselves, him, Davis had no question that it was his we are lucky to have his words as well, duty to march. The Indianapolis rabbi had recorded in his often fiery column for the long worked for civil rights through both Jewish Post. For example, in September secular and faith-based channels. He 1963, he responded to the bombing of advocated for community action in his the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in sermons, led several civic action councils Alabama where four African American combating segregation and poverty, and children were killed. Davis blamed not just extended his appeal for civil rights to the the bomber, but “every American citizen entire city through his column in the who participates in prejudice or fails to Jewish Post. Mostly, however, Rabbi Davis oppose it.” marched at Selma “because it was right.” By 1965, the civil rights movement Maurice Davis was born in Rhode Island peaked nationally with three marches in 1921 and served the congregation of from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. On Adath Israel in Lexington (1951–56) March 7, the protesters, led by John Lewis, before coming to Indiana. In March 1956, began a peaceful march, but were stopped Rabbi Davis became the spiritual leader of at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma by the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation state troopers and county police. In an (IHC). He immediately attracted 80 new incident remembered as “Bloody Sunday,” congregants and was praised for advancing police violently attacked the unarmed the reform ideas of his predecessors. The demonstrators with clubs and tear gas. Caption reads: “Over the Bridge on Rights temple president called Davis “a spark for On March 9, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther March – Civil rights marchers cross over us which turned into a flame.” King, Jr. flew to Selma and called for the Edmund Pettus Bridge at Selma, While IHC welcomed Rabbi Davis and others to join him. The night of the Ala., as they start on the march to his family, other Hoosiers made them feel second march to the bridge, a group of Montgomery Sunday.” – AP wire photo. “something less than welcome.” In 1959, white men killed Unitarian minister James (Richmond Palladium-Item, March 22, the Jewish Post reported that Davis’s son Reeb who had traveled to Selma to join 1965, p.14, accessed Newspapers.com.) was denied entry to the Riviera Club’s King. Related protests erupted across the A man asked if he was “the rabbi who swimming pool.The rabbi told his congre- country and King called for a third march. went to Selma.” When Davis answered gation that unfortunately the boy learned When civil rights leaders and supporters affirmatively, the voice continued: “Let me first about the club’s “wonderful slide”and from around the country arrived in Selma check this list again... You are No. 2 in then its anti-Semitic policies. Davis went on on Sunday, March 21, Rabbi Davis was Indianapolis.” The implication was that to investigate other offending institutions among them. He was driven down a road Davis was the second on a hit list of and to advocate for an end to such segregation. “lined with National Guardsmen”to Brown activists. The man ended the call by Rabbi Davis not only responded to Chapel A.M.E. Church where Dr. King saying, “It won’t do any good to call the discrimination when it was personal. He also arrived at 10:45 a.m. Davis was asked to police... it’ll be too late when it goes off.” believed that it was the responsibility of represent the Union of American Hebrew From his statements to the press, it seems religious leaders to work for moral justice Congregations and was placed next to the rabbi was less afraid than hurt that the for all people facing oppression.He stated, King on the platform.The two spoke briefly threats were possibly coming from fellow “A decent and sensitive America is good before King began his sermon. Davis Hoosiers. He told the Jewish Post: for all Americans and we must help her wrote,“When King speaks, you are not an “Monday night my life was threatened. be so.” Indianapolis’s African American audience. You are participants. And when Not in Selma. Not in Montgomery. Not in community noticed. The Indianapolis he finished we were ready to march.” (see Simins, page 9) April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 9 BAT SARAH SIMINS Shabbat (continued from page 7) (continued from page 8) And sands of moons Atlanta. In Indianapolis.” Shalom And distant stars Like King, Davis used the incident to draw Are also small. attention to the civil rights cause. Just days BY RABBI JON ADLAND And none is lost. after the threats on his family, the Jewish Pirke Avot 4:21 – Rabbi Yaakov said, this And so Post published Davis’s sermon explaining world is like an entrance chamber before the Are all small acts why he felt called to join King in Selma. World to Come. Prepare yourself in the Of kindness Davis wrote,“I know now what I was doing entrance chamber so that you may enter the Like drops of water in Selma, Alabama. I was worshiping God. banquet hall. That can wear away a stone I was doing it on U.S. 80, along with 6,000 To its very heart, others who were doing precisely the same March 8, 2019, Pekudei Or make a well thing, in 6,000 different ways.” Exodus 38:21–40:38, 1 Adar II 5779 Spring up, Rabbi Davis continued to work for civil Or wash away rights in Indianapolis and never forgot his These words come near the end of this A shadow on a soul march with King. In 1986, he reflected in parashah, “When Moses had finished the And help to bring it the pages of the Jewish Post about a first work, 34the cloud covered the Tent of In the light. for the country: Meeting, and the Presence of Adonai filled Which are we? “You hear a song, or sniff an aroma, and the Tabernacle. 35Moses could not enter And where? all of a sudden you are miles and years the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud A little lower away... It happens, too, with birthdays. had settled upon it and the Presence of Than the angels. January 20 was a very special day. The first Adonai filled the Tabernacle.” national observance of the birthday of This holiest of places was so filled with © 2017-2018 Khulda bat Sarah & Moshe Martin Luther King, Jr. I hear them say God’s presence that Moses couldn’t enter ben Asher the words, pronounce the name, and in it. We know that this isn’t the continuing Rabbi Moshe ben Asher and Magidah the twinkling of an eye I am suddenly in model of God in holy places. We know Khulda bat Sarah are the Co-Directors of Selma, Alabama with some 80,000 other that God’s presence was always at the Gather the People, a nonprofit organization people; Jews, and Protestants, and Mishkan, but the Israelites were able to that provides Internet-based resources for Catholics, and atheists, and agnostics... bring their offerings. The same goes for congregational community organizing and We were there because of a man whom the Temples in Jerusalem and the same in development (www.gatherthepeople.org). we admired as much as we loved, and our sanctuaries today. The holiness of whom he loved as much as we admired. God’s presence at these sacred spaces j i We were there because he was there. And helps many pray and connect to God and important force in keeping us alive during he was there because it was right.” their spiritual inner Shechina. our centuries of exile. Read an extended version of this story on This presence of God at our holy places Here Jews are fighting Jews, Jews are the Indiana History Blog: https://blog.history. was defamed today in the worst way beating other Jews because they are in.gov/walking-with-dr-king-the-civil-rights- possible. Nashot haKotel – Women of the offended by their manner of prayer, and legacy-of-rabbi-maurice-davis/ Wall went to pray at the Kotel for Rosh observant Jews are desecrating religious Jill Weiss Simins is a historian and a Chodesh Adar II. It was the 30th anniversary ritual objects because they are offended musician with a love for uncovering the of this group who struggles to gain that women are wearing them. lesser-known stories from Indiana history. egalitarian access at the Kotel, a holy space With the continuing rise of anti- She has worked for the Indiana Historical which belongs to all Jews. Read this Semitism in the world and in the United Bureau since 2008. Her ongoing project, account in italics of what happened: States, with a Democrat US representative created in concert with the United States The unfolding drama this week takes us to using classic anti-Semitic language, with Holocaust Museum’s History Unfolded the center focus point for all Jews from time the rise of white nationalist anti-Jewish initiative examines what Hoosiers knew immemorial. Reports of angry mobs showing groups being viewed as good people, with about the events leading up to the Holocaust up to kick, fight, spit at, and rip off the leaders in this country talking to Jews through their newspapers. You can follow tallitot and kippot of those coming to pray and using the words,“your country”when her posts at: http://blog.newspapers.library. and celebrate with the Women of the Wall referring to Israel, with cemeteries being in.gov/. She lives in Irvington neighborhood on the occasion of their 30th anniversary, defaced and swastikas brazenly painted of Indianapolis with her husband Russell. filled the air of the Western Wall plaza this anywhere, Jews shouldn’t be fighting with morning. Rabbi Noa Sattath left bloodied each other ever, nevertheless over whose j i but unbowed, and Yizhar Hess, head of the prayer rituals are correct and not, in one of in a tallit, God knows that you are there. Israeli Conservative (Masorti) Movement the places deemed holy to the Jewish people. The trappings are for us and what makes wrote that in “ten years of praying at the The peacefulness of the image presented us comfortable in our prayer. It shouldn’t Kotel each Rosh Hodesh, (Rabbi Josh to us at the end of Exodus with God as a matter to the person sitting next to Weinberg) had never seen such hatred, such cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night me whether I wear a kippah or not. violence, and such rage in their eyes.” that leads us on our journey and whose Unfortunately, there are Jews who become This was the place that was meant to be for presence fills the Mishkan (though not so offended and angry and even mean when worship, for pilgrimage and as the single much that we can’t enter) is an image women pray with ritual items that they symbol meant to unify our people. The and feeling I hope to have when I enter a believe shouldn’t be worn by women. Temple Mount is the single most important synagogue’s sanctuary, any sanctuary, How absurd! This is just wrong to judge symbol that we have as a people. It served as throughout the world. another by your own standards of rituals the focal point for all of Jewish society while Regardless of whether you wear a in prayer. it stood, and its memory served as the most kippah, put on tefillin, or drape yourself (see Adland, page 11) 10 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 Members did not know one another. Dr. Holocaust Ringelblum kept in touch with them via Hersh Wasser and his other executive secretary, Israel Lichtenstein. Only those Educator three knew where the archives lay hidden. They had to act clandestinely, BY DR.MIRIAM L. ZIMMERMAN because documenting German crimes was punishable by death. Vital Addition In addition to the writings, Dr. Ringelblum instructed some of the members of the to Holocaust group to collect items from the Ghetto to add to the archive. Such artifacts included Filmography pronouncements from the German government, tickets to cultural events, Multitalented filmmaker Roberta ration coupons, letters and postcards, Grossman just completed a feature docu- photos, theatre posters, labels on Ghetto mentary, Who Will Write Our History goods, the obligatory white ribbons (WWWOH)? Having seen other with the Jewish star worn on the arm, Holocaust and Jewish-themed films by newspapers, and even candy wrappers; in Ms. Grossman, including 2008’s Blessed Is short, the detritus of any recycling bin the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah from today’s world. Surprisingly, the Senesh and 2013’s Hava Nagila, The Movie, Ghetto published six Yiddish dailies and I can think of no other filmmaker better two Polish dailies. These artifacts served suited for this film than she. Grossman as further evidence of the living conditions wrote, produced, and directed this impor- Warsaw Ghetto to create propaganda for in the Warsaw Ghetto. tant film. For my earlier article about the benefit of the Polish people, whom A better term would be“dying conditions” WWWOH while still in they wanted to “protect” from the Jews. in the Warsaw Ghetto. According to the production, browse to Their propaganda depicted Jews as U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum https://jewishpostopinion. vermin, as not interested in personal (USHMM), 80,000 Jews perished in the com/wp-content/uploads/ hygiene, as scum. Ringelblum did not Warsaw Ghetto from the appalling condi- 2016/07/NAT_7-15-16FFF want this perspective to characterize how tions; overcrowding, starvation, disease, .pdf (pgs 15-16). Jews would be thought of in the future. and shootings by the Nazis. “By August The World Premier of “Will the Germans write our history, or 1941, more than 5,000 people a month WWWOH occurred in the R. Grossman will we write our history?”The historian’s succumbed to starvation and disease.” summer of 2018 in the Palo Alto, Calif., vision was to ensure that Jews documented Most of the original 50-60 members of the venue of the Jewish Film Institute’s San their experience in the Ghetto so that Jews Oyneg Shabes group did not survive. Francisco Jewish Film Festival. defined their legacy, not the Nazis. Dr. Rachel Auerbach was one of only three Unfortunately, I missed it. But, I was able Ringelblum’s greatness, according to the survivors. Dr. Ringelblum was not one of to view it online before its national release film, was that he brought together an them. Thrice-nominated Academy Award on Jan. 27, 2019, International Holocaust extraordinarily talented group of people actress Joan Allen narrated the film in Remembrance Day. and let them do their thing. Rachel Auerbach’s voice, using Auerbach’s Based on the book by Samuel Ringelblum placed value on the lives of words written after the war. Academy D.Kassow, Ph.D., Who Will Write Our ordinary people. He felt that the history of Award winner Adrien Brody supplied the History? Rediscovering a Hidden Archive the Jewish people was not the history of voice of Dr. Ringelblum. from the Warsaw Ghetto, the film faithfully rabbis and philosophers, but of the whole As an educator, my top criterion for a reenacts the story of how historian Dr. people. He loved the masses and the Holocaust documentary is whether or Emanuel Ringelblum’s group, Oyneg language of the masses, Yiddish. Thus, he not I plan to show the film to my students. Shabes, or “Joy of Sabbath,” documented wanted his group to record everyday expe- The film dramatically portrayed issues so the Warsaw Ghetto experience. The film rience. The actors reflect Dr. Ringelblum’s difficult for students to understand, such “mixes the writings of the Oyneg Shabes approach, toggling between Yiddish and as the early persecutions and humiliations, archive with new interviews, rarely seen Polish, depending on context. The film is the gradual creation of a ghetto, the footage and stunning dramatizations to subtitled and available in English, Polish, rationale for smuggling, the effects of transport us inside the Ghetto and the lives Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Spanish, starvation rations on a population, and of these courageous resistance fighters.” Russian, and closed captioned. overcrowding. This clandestine group included jour- The members were given notebooks In 1939, about 30 percent of prewar nalists, artists and art critics, statisticians, and stipends so that they could record Warsaw was Jewish, about 350,000 people. historians, rabbis, scholars and intellectuals, eyewitness testimony. They wrote reports It was the largest Jewish community in teachers and authors, social workers and from the streets as well as literary pieces, Europe. The Nazis divided the city into economists; secular as well as religious poetry, jokes, diaries, commissioned works three ethnicities: German, Polish, and Jews; and children as well as adults. They about refugees from surrounding areas, Jewish. To create the Ghetto, the Nazis fought the Nazis with words and spirit, illnesses, smuggling, the situation of the transferred Poles out and Jews into the not with weapons. Dr. Ringelblum wanted Jewish child, the role of women, and the designated area, only 1.3 square miles. On to ensure that the world would remember songs of beggars. Everything submitted “had Nov. 15, 1940, the Nazis sealed the Ghetto. Jews not through the distorted lens of to pass the critical eye of Dr. Ringelblum,” Subsequently, the Warsaw Ghetto also Nazi films, but in terms of the Jews’ own according to Hersh Wasser, one of Dr. served as a transit camp, as the Nazis lived experience. Ringelblum’s two executive secretaries. dumped Jews from the surrounding The Germans sent film crews into the Everything had to be kept secret. area into the Ghetto before deporting April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 11 them to an extermination camp (usually devices are inserted into the work. ADLAND Treblinka). At its height, about 450,000 Questions for me arise: is this film a work (continued from page 9) Jews were crammed into that same area of of art or is it a documentary? If the former, 1.3 square miles, resulting in 7.2 people is Wiesel’s warning relevant? Is the film I celebrate this 30th anniversary with per room. sufficiently nonfiction such that an educator Women of the Wall. I send them my I predict that the vividness of the like me will not have to worry that students strength and hope that those who were footage and the high production values will become confused, not able to distin- hurt will recover soon. Instead of fighting throughout the film will quickly engage guish archival sequences from dramatic with each other we need to be Jewish- and sustain today’s student; no mean feat enactments? Will the use of this technology strong together. When you light your given competing technologies that I render future audiences skeptical about the Shabbat candles this week, light one for believe have changed the ways in which veracity of the archival footage because the Women of the Wall and all who pray people’s brains process images. so much of the images are created and with them and support them. Light the Ms. Grossman seamlessly wove together thus fictional? other candle and may its light be unifying archival footage, dramatic reenactments, Undeniably, the film is historically correct. to all Jews. and scholarly interviews. The scholarly Grossman added another layer of rigor by Rabbi Jon Adland has been a Reform talking heads did not dominate the film employing scholars to help her and her rabbi for more than 30 years with pulpits in nor interfere with the dramatic tension crew achieve historical authenticity. “In Lexington, Ky., Indianapolis, Ind., and established by the actors. Technology order to ground the film’s cinematically currently at Temple Israel in Canton, Ohio. allowed her to superimpose her actors dramatized scenes in historical accuracy, He may be reached at [email protected]. onto archival footage.The result is that the the production design team worked with viewer feels as if the actors are, in fact, scholars for six months before we started j i living in the horrific conditions of the filming. This process ensured that every the World Register: the masterpieces of Warsaw Ghetto. pen, shoelace, and wall color was spot-on Chopin, the scientific works of Copernicus Seeing this technology at work in the for the period.” In addition, “The words and the Oyneg Shabes Archive.” film reminded me of the admonition of spoken by actors in the film come directly By accomplishing its goal of collecting Holocaust survivor and activist Elie from the writing of the Oyneg Shabes and recording thousands of eyewitness Wiesel, of blessed memory. Wiesel was Archive and/or in the case of the film’s accounts of Jewish life in the Warsaw against representing the Holocaust in narrator, Rachel Auerbach, from her post- Ghetto and the surrounding areas, Dr. artistic form. He warned that since art, by war writing.” Ringleblum’s Oyneg Shabes Archive its very nature, transforms and beautifies, Just before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, defeated Nazi propaganda with truth. there is a danger it will transform the Dr. Ringelblum realized the time had UNESCO elevated the accomplishments Holocaust into something it is not, come to hide the precious archive. In milk of Oyneg Shabes with the artistic something beautiful. He was adamantly cans and boxes, he buried the archive in accomplishments of Chopin and the against fictionalizing the Holocaust. three different caches in the Warsaw scientific truths of Copernicus. I believe Ms. Grossman is cognizant of Ghetto. After the war, just two of the Grossman concluded her Director’s Wiesel’s admonition. She wrote in her caches were found. The third is thought Statement with the following: “Historians Director’s Statement that, “While striving to be located under the Chinese Embassy concur that the Oyneg Shabes Archive to avoid ‘tricks’ that would ‘fool’ an in Warsaw. “….the archive comprises is the richest cache of eyewitness, audience, the film does employ transpar- some 35,000 pages, including documents, contemporaneous accounts to survive ent visual effects such as compositing materials from the underground press, the Holocaust. Despite its importance, the actors shot against green screen with archival photographs, memoirs, belles lettres, and archive remains largely unknown outside footage. The goal here is to bring the past much more.”—USHMM website, “The academic circles. It is my hope that Who to life while balancing against the high Warsaw Ghetto Oyneg Shabes — Will Write Our History will change that in standards for veracity in a documentary Ringelblum Archive Catalog and Guide.” the way that only a film can do, by making (emphasis added). To achieve this goal, we Today, the Jewish Historical Institute the story accessible to millions of people blended archival and dramatic footage, in Warsaw (JHIW) houses the archive’s around the world.” pulling from the tools of dramatic feature writings and artifacts. According to After watching the film twice and storytelling (emphasis added). While fully JHIW, on January 27, 2019, during writing this analysis, I have decided to do aware of the complexity of these techniques, International Holocaust Remembrance what I can to help Roberta Grossman I reached for these visual tools because Day, the film was screened worldwide – in accomplish her goal, by showing it to Who Will Write Our History tells the story cinemas, theatres, churches, synagogues, my Holocaust class. It is a superb film, of a place that no longer exists (the mosques, universities, museums, culture meeting the highest standards of Warsaw Ghetto), about people who are centers. See more at http://whowill- historical accuracy. At the same time, it long dead, and about a period of history writeourhistory.com. includes enough elements of dramatic captured primarily in black-and-white JHIW continued, that at the UNESCO storytelling to ensure that today’s film and mostly by Nazi propaganda headquarters in Paris, an audience of technologically saturated student will photographers and cameramen. I want about 1500 diplomats from all around stay engaged and interested throughout. people not simply to learn from the film, the world took part in a discussion with I highly recommend this film. but to be engaged and deeply moved.” Nancy Spielberg [executive producer], Dr. Miriam Zimmerman is professor Grossman justifies her use of dramatic Roberta Grossman, Samuel D. Kassow emerita at Notre Dame de Namur University storytelling as a means of achieving her and Stephen Smith, head of the USC (NDNU) in Belmont, Calif., where she goal, to create an engaging film that will Shoah Foundation. The discussion was continues to teach the Holocaust course. She be seen. My dilemma is to decide if the transmitted live in social media, on the can be reached at [email protected]. advantages of using dramatic storytelling film’s profile page. outweigh any disadvantages. One could Grossman pointed out that “In 1999, argue that a documentary is no longer a three document collections from Poland documentary to the extent that fictional were included in UNESCO’s Memory of 12 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 Niemoller in which he wrote, “First they Shipley Wiener’s came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they Wisdom came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up Speaks because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because BY JIM SHIPLEY BY RABBI IRWIN WIENER, D.D. I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to We Are Different Complicity in Silence speak for me.” Here we are witnessing the same complicit behavior. We watched a Netflix program the “O God, keep not your silence; hold not If there were to be declarations by other night titled Mossad. It consisted of your peace, and be not still O God. For lo members of Congress against African interviews with mostly former Mossad your enemies are in an uproar; and they that Americans, the Black Caucus would raise Agents and Executives. At one point the hate you have lifted up their head. They hold their voices in unified condemnation. If interviewer asked “Why is the Mossad crafty converse against your people, and take there were expressions of anger against pictured in so many nations as a bunch of counsel against your treasured ones. They people of the Muslim faith, there would be assassins and terrorists? have said” ‘Come, and let us cut them off shouting of discrimination. Where are the With a slight smile, the ex-agent said from being a nation; that the name of Israel indignations regarding the vitriol and hate “look – we are a different country. We are may be no more in remembrance.” (Psalm 83) emanating from the people elected to surrounded by nations who for the most If there ever was a time when this ensure the tranquility of all our citizens? part would like to destroy us and wipe scriptural reading had more significance Even members who are of the Jewish every Jew off the face of the earth”. Can since World War ll, it is certainly now. It faith refuse to stand and condemn these you name another country faced with this has reached the heights of the greatest atrocious diatribes. problem? No. And the problem of course, deliberative body in the world and reeks At this season of the year, in Jewish extends far beyond that little country in with the age-old bigotries of Jewish scape- Houses of Worship, the holiday of Purim is the Middle East. goating. The halls of Congress are filled celebrated and the Book of Esther is read. Deadly Anti-Semitic attacks in France, with hate, hate for one another, hate for It describes, in vivid detail, the tragic in Germany – in the United States, for the duties that are their responsibilities, events that had occurred more than 2500 God sake! When there is uncertainty in hate for the decency of commonality, hate years ago. It is as though we are traveling the world, blame the Jews. There were for the democratic expressions that gave back in time. Again and again we witness times in both the distant and not-so- this country life. the attempt at eradicating a certain people distant past, when attacks on the Jews There was an essay written during the because of their beliefs and traditions, these were more public and more accepted than 1940s by a Protestant Pastor, Martin same understandings of faith that are part today. But, the basic canards remain: “The of all religious expression to this very day, Jews control the banks and the money.” j i whether it be Christianity or Islam. “The Jews control the media.” meant no harm or even reference to “Us”– Soon, Judaism and Christianity will The rise of “Populism” has fanned the that’s where it usually ends up. commemorate two holidays designed to flames. As nations turn inward, they look So yes, we are different – always have remind us of the value of freedom. More for enemies within. They look for scape- been, always will be. When the first wave than that however, Passover and Easter goats and those to blame because “times of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe should awaken our understanding of are not like they used to be”or No Jew will came to the United States – (America!) tolerance because intolerance results in take my place.”And when the leadership (“The Golden Medina! – The Golden the complete destruction of society. allows this attitude to fester and flourish, it Place). Well, so, the streets were not paved History is replete with these lapses in becomes dangerous times. with gold. Still, there were no Cossacks judgments and civility, and the total Why more so for Jews than any other and there were opportunities! annihilation of cultures and countries. ethnic group? Well, we have to go way BUT: Those who came here before this Are there none who will stand up to back for that. The Catholic Church took influx were not a welcoming committee. these bigots? Are there none to under- out after us shortly after they became an They did not for the most part want to stand that hate, in any form, will eventually accepted religion. The Popes for centuries share their piece of “The American find its way into everyday living and expe- fomented their populations to blame the Dream.” So, they discriminated against riences? Are there none who will realize Jews for famine, fire, rain and any other “The Other”. Irish, Italian. Jewish – each the destruction resulting from such venom? mishap that their own religion could not took their turn at being “The Other”. All that is being accomplished is the control – but the Jews differed in their So, what did we do? We tried to resurgence of perceptions that were faith and their peoplehood and therefore “assimilate”. We changed our names: thought to have been eradicated by time. made a perfect target. Rabinowitz became Roberts. Cohen Today, more than ever, efforts are being You would think that by this time, well became King, Slutsky became Sloan. introduced, under the guise of free speech, past the “Age of Enlightenment” that the We even tried to hide our ethnicity with to rekindle the flames of distrust reminis- human race would have achieved a point cosmetic changes. Shirley graduated? cent of the past. The world seems to be in where they would accept the fact that our Mazel tov! Now she can get that nose job! flames of xenophobia and enmity. problems are within ourselves and not You know what? It didn’t work (Thank As a nation, we have weathered the with a given race, religion or peoplehood. God). In the long run, in realty, a Jew is a storms of animosity, bigotry, sexism, and But here are the Jews. Because we have Jew. So, slowly we began to reclaim our racism. There have been pauses and even found a way to survive and even thrive in heritage. During WWII we once again back sliding, but we persevered because a world that really did not want us, we are went silent – even further hiding our we understood, and should now under- an ideal target. Even if a national leader “identity”. It didn’t help. As the stories stand, that only a nation united will stand decided that “they” are the problem began to trickle in from Europe of an as a beacon of what the Prophet Isaiah and does not mention the Jews – perhaps (see Shipley, page 13) (see Wiener, page 13) April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 13 SHIPLEY WIENER Kabbalah (continued from page 12) (continued from page 12) of the actual “Holocaust” most Jews refused to taught: “For as the Heavens are higher than Month believe it. Matter of fact, just about the Earth, so are my ways and My thoughts everybody refused to believe such a thing higher than your thoughts.” Perhaps there BY MELINDA RIBNER could be happening in the 20th century. are no greater heights to reach for than Could it? Yes – it could and it did. the Heavens above. Meditation for While indeed there were some Gypsies And then, perhaps as Psalm 83 ends, we and other ethnic groups sent to die, the too will understand: “That they may know Passover and gas chambers for the most part echoed that it is You alone whose name is the Lord, with the prayers and cries of Jews – over- The Most High over all the Earth.” And, as Its Preparation whelmingly. It is the job of every Jew to tell Shakespeare asked: What’s in a name?” this story as we tell of the escape from This should teach us that by whatever As Passover is quickly approaching, it Egypt. We must recognize that the present name we call God, it is the same God who is such a busy and intense time. Whether political atmosphere is not benign – it is breathed life into us at the beginning, and we are rushing around either preparing dangerous and yes: We Are Different. sustains us to this very day. for the holiday or simply living our lives, Jim Shipley has had careers in broadcasting, Rabbi Irwin Wiener is spiritual leader of doing what we need to do, it is important distribution, advertising, and telecommuni- the Sun Lakes Jewish Congregation near to remember to give ourselves some cations. He began his working life in radio Phoenix, Ariz. He welcomes comments time to simply be each day and focus in Philadelphia. He has written his JP&O at ravyitz @cox.net. He is the author of our intention. Just like we eat to nourish column for more than 20 years and is director two books: Living With Faith, and a the physical body each day, every day our of Trading Wise, an international trade and modern and contemporary interpretation of souls require a time for prayer, centering, marketing company in Orlando, Fla. This the Passover Haggadah titled, Why is This meditation, and attunement. column was submitted on Feb 13, 2019. Night Different? Even as you read this note, take a long conscious and deep breath, relax, attune j i j i yourself to the present moment, and open ways we feel constrained internally or To best receive from Me, go on a your heart. Breathe into the heart. Allow externally in our lives. Some of us think Passover diet, eat simply, pray, sing, be the mind to quiet, let go of thoughts and too much of ourselves, others think too happy and have faith and trust in Me all the things you must do. Give yourself little of themselves. It does not matter especially during this time. If you attach the gift of the awareness of your breath what category you are in, for each yourself to Me and my Will, I will liberate and life force energy. Open to the experi- Passover there is the invitation to go you. I will bring you close to Me. I will ence of being breathed. We do not breathe beyond yourself, to leave the box of your attach Myself to you. You will then know by our own will but rather we are breathed personal Egypt and be in the not knowing. a true love and a joy that is beyond this by Divine will. Everything begins with your desire, world. You cannot live this life without Be open to receive the divine support, the with your yearning. God can give you Me. You cannot free yourself without My love and nurturing in this very moment. only what you are open to receive. Take a help. I have entrusted you with a very How loving and faithful is God who moment to accept the invitation that is important mission of perfecting My world. sustains our lives. Every day, and even generously given to you by God during I will empower you to do what you need every moment we receive so much. Passover. Be grateful that you do not do to do. I am here for you. I love you, more Experience the stillness in the spaces this life journey alone. You are not here than you can imagine.” between the breaths as you slow down the on your own accord. God loves you and At the seder, take some time to share breathing. It is here that you touch the will help you. with others the blessings and the miracles higher levels of your soul. Allow yourself Hear these words spoken directly to you. that you have already experienced in this to soar beyond this world. It is good to repeat them to yourself and last year as well as what blessings you Come to the awareness that the holiday to share them with others. When Hashem would like to receive in the coming year. of Passover will soon be upon us. Passover says to open your mouth, I suggest that We each have so much to be grateful for. brings in a new order in your life and the you literally do this. Open you mouth like Miracles are taking place all the time. world.Your intention, your kavannah is most a baby ready to receive nourishment. Hashem tells us to eat matzah on important. It will shape your experience. “I am the Lord who has taken you out of Passover in the Torah. Matzah is called the This time can be a springboard for you Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will bread of affliction, the bread of humility, to really go forward in your life to greater fill it. Tell me what you truly want. Your the bread of healing, the bread of faith. freedom. That is if you want it to be. needs and your desires are important to Matzah is all of these things. How special Are you open to newness? Are you open to Me. Pour your heart out to Me. to share this bread with others. We need to living more authentically and with greater Make a space for Me in your life. To give become like matzah, simple and humble. meaning, joy and purpose? What do you you what I want and what you really When you go to the seder and it want to open up to in your life? Will you want, you need to let go of your old habits, becomes time to eat matzah, eat it without let go and leave what no longer serves change your vessels, open your heart, talking. Hashem is feeding you all that you? Will you stand in the question,“What so you can receive something new from you need at this time. Do not waste this does God want of me right now?” Take a Me. I am your healer and your redeemer. precious time with idle talk. During the few moments to breathe and align yourself. I love you. I took you out of Egypt in the seder, I heard that some people even kiss As we approach Passover, we need to past and I will take you out in the future. the maror (bitter herbs). Wow! That takes remember that we each have our own I want you to be free and joyful. Passover faith, love and humility to be grateful for personal Egypt, that place of narrow is a special time for Me to pour my light all the hardship because it brought us to constraints that comprise all the energetic and love upon you if you are open to where we are in this moment. Try kissing blocks, the imagined fears, the unhappy receive it. (see Ribner, page 14) 14 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 episode about vanity and aging (October RIBNER Media 18, 2018), written by Matthew Harawitz, (continued from page 13) Emet puts heavy barbells in the garbage bags and bribes her daughter so that her the maror this Pesach. It feels liberating Watch husband will lose weight before a company and expansive just to think about doing it. photo. There is no concern for possible May this holiday be beautiful, healing, and BY RABBI ELLIOT B. GERTEL injury in this and in similar scenarios. In transformational for you and all of Israel. another episode Emet and David play Melinda Ribner, L.C.S.W. is also the I Feel Bad chicken with each other, daring one author of Everyday Kabbalah, Kabbalah another and putting each other in real Month by Month and New Age Judaism, The new NBC series, I Feel Bad,is physical danger. (Dec. 13, 2018) Is there a and The Secret Legacy of Biblical clever, but with a biting, dour, sometimes suggestion here, denied in an episode about Women: Revealing the Divine Feminine. nasty edge. In part diary form and mostly sentimentality, that this is a toxic marriage? Internationally known for her pioneering sitcom format, we learn the story of Emet As regards Chanukah, Emet and David work in kabbalistic meditation and healing, (Sarayu Rao Blue), who is a witty working engage the kids in putting up a mezuzah and she is also a spiritual psychotherapist and Indian-American mother of two. Emet is a procure a shiny oversized silver menorah. for more than 30 years has used kabbalistic major artist/designer at a company that Catching Emet with a menorah, her mother wisdom as part of treatment. She offers a free produces video games. Her three closest castigates her for ignoring Indian customs newsletter on meditation, healing, kabbalistic co-workers are self-styled “nerds” of but suddenly finding time for Chanukah. energies of the months, holidays, and various social and moral levels whom she Emet determines then and there to whisk more. www.kabbalahoftheheart.com. Email: regards as, and treats, as misfits. off her folks to a gambling casino, a place [email protected]. Emet is married to David (portrayed by that for some gratuitous reason the writers Paul Adelstein of Private Practice fame, a depict them (in other episodes, too) as j i Jewish actor). But not until the December unable to resist, especially after being with her parents via face time, she even 6, 2018 episode was it stated (loud and given David’s credit card. declares that she regrets not having had clear) that David is Jewish, with very Jewish a Jewish wedding. David and her father parents who want to visit for Chanukah. lift her up in a chair and dance, until her Emet is of Indian-Hindu background, parents return abruptly from the trip that with culturally Hindu parents and a highly Emet had contrived. critical and confrontational mother. And Indeed, Emet literally falls out of the so the stage was set for what was probably chair upon seeing her folks, a rather the first Hindu-Jewish interfaith marriage violent stunt on the part of the writers, spoof in American popular media. Writers foreshadowing physical (even violent) Anthony Gioe and Nick Mandernach humor and an abrupt reckoning. “Our offered this fare with relish. daughter is starring in a…version of Yentl,” David and Emet hustle to find ways to Emet is so determined to impress her her mom, Maya, observes. When Emet “convince the grandparents that our kids in-laws with a Jewish home that she does tells her mother that Irene compliments are growing up in a culturally rich Jewish- a “pork sweep,” gifting the bacon to her her and builds her self-esteem, the latter ‘ish’ home.” They try to give the kids a office colleagues and declaring,“My in-laws chimes in that Irene “may have a tumor.” crash course in Hebrew, but the only word are coming so I’m Jewish this week.”It Emet’s dad points out to his wife that the youngsters master is shmuck. (That would seem that her parents never protested they haven’t been diligent about imparting word is a Yiddish vulgarism that refined the pork in the house, which is also not in their own Hindu customs. But his Maya, Yiddish speakers never used, but virtually accord with the ideals of Hindu culture. declares,“This is a cultural war and I must all use of Yiddish words in TV comedies But why does Emet go through all the win.” She then engages the children in a and dramas is vulgar. David had used it in trouble of turning her home inside out to paintball-like Hindu custom for spring an earlier episode before he was even please her Jewish in-laws? (a bit premature) which causes them to identified as Jewish.) It would seem that David’s parents are lose interest to the Chanukah party. She When David bemoans the fact that nice and loving people. Sure, the mom, then announces that she won “the war for “We’ve been asleep at the cultural wheel,” Irene (Caroline Aaron), adores her son: cultural dominance.” The writers are Emet reminds him that they are both so “I made a handsomer David than determined to depict Maya as a cold, nasty busy with work and child-rearing that Michelangelo.” But she also encourages lady. (I’ll leave it to Indian-American there is hardly time for the basics. At and compliments Emet, and in a sincere, reviewers to comment.) that point I was hopeful that the episode not patronizingly flattering, way. Irene Suffice it to say that the writers suggest would offer some insights into the compliments Emet on looking good in a that Emet has inherited a certain coldness difficulties of imparting a religious red dress – and just after we see Emet’s and edginess from her mom, rendering heritage with two working parents even of mother, Maya (Madhur Jaffrey), criticize Emet at times unsympathetic to David’s the same faith, but given what followed, the same dress as “too young” for her. sentimentality. (Nov. 1, 2018, Rupinder Gill) the writers and producers were already When Emet tells Irene about this, Irene The implication is that Emet lies often and committed to slapstick and burlesque. posits that Emet’s mother may be critical naturally because of that “inheritance.”As After all, they had begun with the oldest “because of a tumor.” for David, his sentimentality is highlighted cheap trick in the arsenal of TV “Jewish” All this, especially Irene’s giving her the before he is identified as Jewish, but it does humor: reaching right away for standard family brisket recipe, does wonders for not seem to apply, at least consistently, to vulgar Yiddish expressions. Emet’s self-esteem. And Emet is so Chanukah or to Judaism. I should add that slapstick and burlesque anxious for that fix that she blackmails her The writers have the Hindu grandfather (in the sense of sexual innuendo) creep husband to keep up the ruse that they are insert nervous lines more conducive to into this series in more than one episode, living some kind of Jewish life the rest of Jewish self-mockery: “Their God commands and even involve the children. In one the year.To discourage him from connecting (see Gertel, page 15) April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 15 ERTEL The passing of Amos Oz (1939–2018) G (continued from page 14) Book Review is being widely lamented as he was considered Israel’s world-renowned them to eat jelly donuts. How can we fight premier author and a peace activist. such a glorious God?”The real self-mockery REVIEW BY Born in Jerusalem to his Eastern is reserved for David, who persists in RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN European parents, the famous Hebrew throwing in some “Baruch atta’s” and in University professor referring to his bar mitzvah speech. Searing Pessimism & Joseph Klausner was Do the writers believe that they are his great-uncle. Oz lost mitigating the offensiveness of all this by Consoling Optimism his mother Fania to having the Hindu grandmother insist that suicide when he was “this is not about religion; it’s about culture.”? Shalom Lakanaim: Shalosh only 12-years-old. At The grandmothers argue about whose Machshavut (Dear Zealots). By Amos age 14, he left by him- ancestors are more insulted and disap- self for Kibbutz Hulda Amoz Oz Oz. Keter-books: Moshav Ben-Shemen, © Dan Porges pointed. David’s parents suggest that Israel. 2017. pp. 131. In Hebrew. where he changed his they’re glad his grandmothers are both Amos Oz’s latest literary gem, relies surname Klausner to Oz, meaning dead because at holiday time they were on his previously courage. With his center-left political like bats “gnawing each others’ ears off.” English published orientation, he supported a two-state Is one Jewish grandmother depicted book, How to Cure solution to the Israeli-Palestinian pleasantly so that two others can be a Fanatic. Given conflict. Oz felt isolated in an Israel deprecated in absentia? that this top Israeli that has turned to the political right. Does it matter that the writers often depict author has enjoyed He participated as a combat soldier in Emet in an unfavorable way as – well, a global attention, it the 1967 and 1973 wars. This prolific liar? She blurts out that she had promised is translated into author who was translated into many to raise the children as Jews because there approximately 20 languages, received significant literary was no rabbi at their wedding. David languages. This is awards, though the Nobel Prize for seems surprised by this, but he instinctively the book’s first which he was a perennial candidate rationalizes in behalf of his wife, “In all Hebrew edition somehow eluded him. fairness most of the Jews we know are since published in 2002, and its present Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman only Jewish two weeks a year.” format is both updated and enlarged. The But which two weeks? Is it plausible slim volume fits the idiomatic expression, nation with Labor Zionism in spiritual crisis. that hands-on Jewish grandparents focus “Bivchinat mooat hamachzik et hamerubeh.” Though unofficially a nuclear state and only on Chanukah and are unaware of (As a small vessel containing much value). given its limited geography and the double- what children do on the High Holy Days Oz allows us spectacular entry into his standard applied to her, Israel faces tough or Passover, and never discuss Judaism heroic wrestling and wounded soul. After choices of response to aggression.There are with their grandchildren? all, this distinguish member of Israel’s increased dangers as well as opportunities In the end, the writers dredge up the old Reform movement no longer represents a linked to the Iranian Shiite potentially theme of combining faiths, like the prevailing Israeli ideology that the liberal nuclear threat confronting Israel along with “Christmukkah”of The O.C. series (2003), Labor wing once was, and which has the Arab Sunni world. But Oz insists, that or the use of the menorah to illumine a given way in recent decades to Orthodox the Palestinian challenge urgently calls for Christmas tree on The Five Mrs. Buchanans and nationalistic settlers in the West Bank an overdue two state solution which is (1993), which I discussed in my book, (Judea and Samaria) as the new authentic vital to Israel’s best interests politically as Over The Top Judaism (2003). Chalutzim (pioneers). Oz, who was a well as ethically, no less than “…a matter of The menorah is lit with Hindu candles, generally admired iconic figure, was life and death for the State of Israel”(p. 109). and the tensions created by “immersion in painfully exposed to ugly and dangerous The Arab demographic superiority may the Jewish tradition”are relieved by Hindu charges of being no less than a “Boged” likely turn the entire region from the exercises. This is all so unoriginal and (Traitor) by some in Israel’s political Right Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River compromising and offensive that it was with someone even looking forward to into a de-facto Arab state with a Jewish anticipated 2000 years ago by the Hebrew Oz’s Treblinka-like death. Oz recalls being minority that Oz emphatically declares he Sages who fixed a prayer after the lighting called a traitor as well in his Jerusalem would not want to live in. He is worried of the menorah which makes a point of childhood toward the end of the British that attempting to prevent such a scenario, discouraging the use of the candles for Mandate because of befriending an English a dictatorship might arise in Israel.“If two syncretistic purposes. policeman who was a Christian Zionist. states would not soon be here, it is very Rabbi Elliot Gertel has been spiritual All that radical change placed undeterred possible that in order to forestall the leader of congregations in New Haven and Oz in an even more pivotal prophetic posi- establishment of an Arab country from Chicago. He is the author of two books, tion, representing those values and ideals the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan What Jews Know About Salvation and that had once endeared Israel to the world. River, a temporary dictatorship of fanatic Over the Top Judaism: Precedents and However, he and we cannot ignore the Jews will rule here, a racist dictatorship Trends in the Depiction of Jewish Beliefs emerging new realities which vulnerable that would quell down both the Arabs and and Observances in Film and Television. Israel and its tumultuous region contend the opposing Jews”(p. 110). He has been media critic for The National with.The focus has significantly shifted from Admitting that Israel’s fanatic wing Jewish Post & Opinion since 1979. a young, altruistic and agriculturally based finds a counterpart in the Palestinian socialist state perceived as David vs. Arab camp, Oz seemingly dwells on what he Goliath to one erroneously regarded as regards as the injustice, humiliation and Goliath vs. Arab David, in spite of being a pain the Israeli occupation causes the technologically advanced capitalistic start-up (see Zoberman, page 16) 16 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 ZOBERMAN those choosing to preserve democracy. (continued from page 15) He lauds the multiple accomplishments “Why of a secular Israel reflecting a great and Palestinians far more than he does on the relevant Jewish spirit as opposed to the Me?” rockets raining from Gaza and brutal “Shulchan Aruch”that no longer serves its Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians. original purpose. He blames Prime BY RABBI SUSAN NANUS He does admonish though his Left partners Minister David Ben-Gurion who gave in to take seriously the general fear of Arabs to the Orthodox “Perhaps in a moment of “But the children struggled in her by the Israeli public that whether justified light mindedness” (p. 93), accepting the womb, and she said: ‘If this is so, why is or not is an impediment and an important argument of Rabbi Yeshayahu Karlitz that this me?’” factor to reckon with. Oz’s sharp arrows Zionism was an “empty wagon” by com- Parashat Toldot, Genesis 25:22 are tellingly aimed not only at the Right’s parison to Orthodox Judaism’s “full wagon.” fanaticism but also at Israel’s socialist Throughout, Oz hammers in his over- These are the words Rebecca utters founders who failed to acknowledge the riding message that Judaism’s genius is when she finds herself pregnant at the full tapestry of the Jewish heritage, a characterized by its humanistic ideals and beginning of Parashat Toldot. After waiting reference to the patronizing treatment of moral sensitivity sanctified by Israel’s for almost twenty years to conceive, the Mizrachi and Sephardic Jews who prophets, towards society’s weak and Rebecca discovers that she is going to had a moderate approach toward religion disenfranchised, and consequently the have twins, but it is not the blessing that and diversity. He bemoans the global obligation to curb and limit the establish- she expected. The text reveals that “the resurgence of fanaticism. ment’s raw power “to hurt.” It is thus children struggled in her womb,” and While Donald Trump’s presidential perplexing that though Oz questionably commentator Rashi explains, “the pain victory has buoyed the settlers’movement, includes Syria in the Arab block being was great.” Something is terribly wrong, Oz argues that President Trump won challenged by Iran’s common threat to and Rebecca is not filled with the joy and without the popular vote, and that he, the make peace with Israel, he glaringly omits celebration she anticipated, but rather great majority of the American people and any reference to the vast Syrian tragedy of with suffering, anxiety, and apprehension. the world at large oppose Israel annexing genocide so close to Israel’s borders. Heartsick and in agony, Rebecca asks a the “conquered territories” (p. 116). Oz The book’s title, Shalom Lakanaim is the universal question of the human condition: may be underestimating the impact of the author’s friendly invitation for dialogue “Why me?” This existential query is one large block of evangelical Christians and with fanatics as he states in the Preface, that we all recognize, and one that most of its influence on Trump’s White House, “…to ask for the attention of those whose us have experienced when in pain – along with that of Orthodox Jews and views are different from mine” (p. 5), whether physical, emotional, or spiritual: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. which is reinforced by the given English “What did I do to deserve this? Why is this The author could not foresee the title,“Dear Zealot”(three pleas). However, happening to me? Where is God?” historic recognition of Jerusalem by the Hebrew word “Shalom” also implies Rebecca was able to turn to God and President Trump as Israel’s capital, the farewell in the sense of parting ways. receive an answer; this rarely is the case relocation of the U.S. embassy from Perhaps Oz is suggesting both approaches. today. Trying to understand the reason Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem and the American Amos Oz, the prophet of pain and promise, for suffering is an extremely difficult walking away from the Iran nuclear deal. doom and deliverance, concludes on a challenge. What can ever justify the injury He warns that the American alliance with stirring note of both searing pessimism or death of a loved one, the onset of illness, Israel is not forever guaranteed, just as and consoling optimism.”I am profoundly the loss of one’s home or livelihood? Israel enjoyed passing support from other worried about the future. I fear the Throughout the centuries, Jewish sages, great powers. He is equally alarmed about government policy as well as ashamed of scholars, and philosophers have wrestled the negative impact on world Jewry and it. And I fear the fanaticism and violence with these questions. Some of their particularly its youth, of a Jewish State increasing in our midst, which I am responses – either blaming the victims or perceived to contradict their most ashamed of. But I enjoy being an Israeli. I advising us not to challenge God’s wisdom cherished Jewish and Democratic values. enjoy being in a country with 8.5 million – have often been unsatisfying to modern Of grave concern to him is also the prime ministers, 8.5 million prophets, 8.5 Jews. And though the Kabbalah teaches growing conflict between those pressing million messiahs. Every one of us has a that everything happens for a reason and for an Israel ruled by strict Halacha and personal formula for redemption or at has a deeper meaning, this is not a con- least solution. All are yelling and only a cept that is easy for most people to accept. j i few are listening. It’s not boring here.Yes, Hasidic master and great-grandson of often reevaluate and refocus our lives it’s upsetting, revolting, disappointing, the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of toward those values. sometimes also causing frustration and Breslov viewed suffering as a natural part Is this comforting to someone who has anger, but more than once it’s compelling of life and necessary for the growth and lost a child or been struck with cancer? I’m and arousing. What I’ve seen here during elevation of the soul: “When the time not sure. However, as noted neurologist and my life is a lot less but also a lot more of comes for a person to rise from one level psychiatrist Viktor Frankl discovered as a what my parents and my parents’ parents to the next, he must first experience a fall. Holocaust survivor, suffering is bearable if dreamed of”(p. 131). The whole purpose of the fall is to prepare it has meaning. If we cannot receive a Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman is the found- for the ascent.” Furthermore, the great direct answer from God like Rebecca did, ing rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim, kabbalist and philosopher Rabbi Moshe perhaps we can ponder these encouraging Virginia Beach. He is Honorary Senior Chaim Luzzatto suggested that “Suffering words from Rabbi Nachman: “Try to Rabbi Scholar at Eastern Shore Chapel is meant to motivate a person and awaken understand this.... No matter how far you Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach. his heart to repent.” They have a point. fall, never allow yourself to be discouraged. When we are suffering, our concern with Remain firm and resolute and pay no trivialities disappears, as we suddenly attention to the fall at all, because in the end comprehend what is truly important and (see Nanus, page 17) April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 17 KAPLAN/ISRAEL scenes from Huck Finn, On the Waterfront, NANUS (continued from page 2) Wizard of Oz, My Fair Lady, and Grapes (continued from page 16) of Wrath. For example, instead of Marlin and read an interview in the Jerusalem Brando’s “I coulda been a contender’’ in it will be transformed into a great ascent.” Post (as we did) of the up-and-coming On the Waterfront, the character says, ‘’I Rabbi Susan Nanus is the Director of production of a play set in Chicago (where coulda been a mensch.’’ Henry Fonda tells Adult Programs and one of seven rabbis at I lived for eight years); or if you had Ma Joad,“Wherever there’s a delicatessen, Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. received a nice email from the owner of an I’ll be there.’’ In that capacity, she teaches, preaches, and English-language theatre company telling Along the way, Isaac also has visits with oversees most of the adult cultural and you one of the actors had recommended two Hassidim promoting laying tefillin,a educational programs at the Temple. Barry and I come to see this play and do a Holocaust survivor tailor, the Tin man, a A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, story, you would know why I am writing rabbi, and his father (all played by a rabbi Rabbi Nanus did not decide to become a rabbi this article. from our Jerusalem congregation). until her mid-50s. Before that, she was a playwright and film and television writer Background in New York and Los Angeles. Her play, The The world premiere of The God of Isaac, Survivor, about the Warsaw Ghetto, was which took place at Chicago’s Victory produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, as Gardens Theatre in 1985, was written by well as Los Angeles. As a television movie James Sherman. James attended Niles writer, she had 15 movies on air and won West High School, was a theatre student numerous awards. at Illinois State University in the early 1970s and began his professional career as j i a writer and performer with “The Second neo-Nazi group to stage a demonstration City” in Chicago; he received an M.F.A. in Skokie, Illinois, he wonders, what, if degree from Brandeis University. Since anything, his involvement should be. 1986, he has been a Playwright-in-Residence Isaac visits with two Hassidim in The God Determined to find the truth, Isaac at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago of Isaac. ultimately comes to terms with his where he is a founding member of the Isaac had rejected his Jewish girlfriend, heritage, his mother, and himself.” Victory Gardens Playwrights Ensemble. who comes on stage to read her correspon- Using profits from his first production James currently teaches Playwriting and dence with him about herself and their and other sources, it suited Barak’s idea Improvisation at Columbia College of relationship from high school; and later of doing a serious comedy with Jewish Chicago and The Theatre School at DePaul married a shiksa, who is a fashion model. content. The play has five performances University. He is the author of Magic Time, He gradually comes to terms with his in Jerusalem plus the opening night in Mr. 80%, The Escape Artist, Beau Jest, This personal religious identity and grows, the Khan Theatre. Old Man Came Rolling Home, Jest A learning to confront his problems, The Khan was built on the ruins of an Second!, Romance in D, From Door to Door, relatives and values. All of the members of ancient inn from the Crusader period. It The Old Man’s Friend, Affluenza!, Half and the cast are very professional actors and served caravan travelers who arrived in Half, Relatively Close, and Jacob and Jack. actresses who have had roles in a number Jerusalem after nightfall when the gates of In an interview before the play opened of productions in Israel. the Old City were locked. Until the Six- in Evanston in the 1980s, Sherman said, In an opening night interview with the Day War in 1967, it was used as a beer- “I wrote the play in New York in the early head of the Ben Bard Players Barak Bard, cellar and a carpentry workshop. In the 1980s, when the proposed march was still he told me how he happened to form an spring of 1968 the building was renovated fresh in people’s memories. The idea of a English-language theatre company and and turned into a center for theater and Neo-Nazi group marching in Skokie was present The God of Isaac as his second play. cultural activities. The small theatre seats deeply disturbing, particularly since the Barak Bard is the son of Ben Bard, about 70; the stone walls are visible and community was heavily populated with a stage and Hollywood film actor and add a special ambiance to events held there. Holocaust survivors at the time.” acting teacher whose drama school was Having lived in Chicago, I knew the JDL The God of Isaac features Isaac Adams, a prominent and respected in Hollywood. man who countered the march, I loved the Jewish man who has lived his whole life Barak made aliyah 19 years ago from mentions of Marshall Fields and Old in Skokie, Illinois. In 1977, he learns that France where he had been living.“I hadn’t Orchard; and Barry and I found the play Frank Collin has petitioned the Skokie done theatre in 50 years; I was in TV an utterly enjoyable experience. municipality to hold a Nazi rally and production, media, technician, editor, Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, lecturer, book march in Skokie, home to many Jews. although I grew up in show business.” reviewer, food writer and author of Witness Isaac begins a search for his Jewish Three years ago, an author asked Barak to History: Ten Years as a Woman Journalist identity when he asks, how is this going to to translate a play from French to English. in Israel and nine cookbooks, including affect me? Should I be concerned? How Then the author asked him to direct the What’s Cooking at Hadassah College. should I be involved? He has written a play.“I realized I had to create a company, She lived in Israel from 1970-1980; she play about himself and plays himself. He and I named it for my father’s company, and her husband, Barry, came to live in stands on a bare stage and relates the the Ben Bard Players.” Jerusalem in 2008, where she works as a whole story like a stand-up comedian’s Last year, the Ben Bard Players presented foreign correspondent for North American routine, with interruptions and dialogue The Statement, which was a success. Barak Jewish publications, lectures to senior from his mother, a stereotypical Jewish says, later on, he was looking through the citizen residences, leads walks in English mother who is overly concerned and Samuel French catalogue and found The in Machaneh Yehudah (the Jewish produce judgmental. She sits in the audience, God of Isaac and wrote to ask about rights. market), and writes stories about kosher shooting one-liners to him, and offers a The French Catalogue describes the play: restaurants on Janglo.net for which Barry huge part of the comedy. “When Isaac Adams, a second generation photographs. She has been reviewing books There are also intermittent entries with American Jew, learns of plans for a for 40 years. 18 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 warm water ROBERTS My Kosher 2 beaten eggs (continued from page 20) 3 matzot My reference? What else? The Book of Kitchen Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a rectan- Exodus. There’s a stack of Haggadahs, too, gular roasting pan. In a large frying for prayers and blessings. But the real BY SYBIL KAPLAN pan, heat oil. Brown meat and onion. Add story comes from Exodus. salt, pepper and parsley, cook 1 minute. Tell the story to your children, we are Passover Recipes Remove from heat and let stand 10 commanded. Hmmm, tell the story – not minutes. Place 4 eggs in a bowl and beat the Haggadah parable of the four sons – Several years ago, my Hadassah group then add to meat mixture and blend. Soak which I challenge you to explain without held a really fun evening where the hostess 3 matzot in warm water until just softened a Rabbi standing at your right hand and did a program from one of the National then soak in beaten eggs until eggs are a Midrashic library on your left. Hadassah materials on Passover and then absorbed. Place in bottom of roasting The divine author, say the faithful, we all brought a recipe and told its back- pan. Spoon meat mixture on top of matzot transmitted this tale to his obedient scribe, ground. Each of us brought enough copies evenly. Soak remaining 3 matzot in warm Moses. But often, at our Passover table, so everyone went home with a Pesach water until soft. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl there’s a cynic or two who even though recipe booklet. then soak matzot in bowl until eggs are stuffing themselves on MY roast chicken, Here are four of those recipes: absorbed. Add to meat filling. Bake in picks skeptically at the story like he does 350°F. oven 45 minutes. Serve hot at my wife’s candied carrots on his plate. Evie’s Stuffed Cabbage Rolls “So Ted, how many Israelites did you say 1 large or 2 small heads of cabbage Elinor’s Apple-apricot Kugel marched out of Egypt?” 1 can tomato mushroom sauce 6 eggs or 4 eggs plus 2 whites “600,000.” And I know what’s coming 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup sugar next. He’s gonna hit me with the logistical 1/4 cup lemon juice 6 peeled, grated or sliced apples argument. How could 600,000 people find 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup matzah meal sustenance in the Sinai wastes. I hate a 1/2 minced onion juice of 1 lemon roast chicken eating nonbeliever. 1 pound ground beef 1 cup cut up dry apricots And here it comes. He twirls a drumstick, 1 beaten egg 2 Tbsp. sugar masterfully surveys his audience around 1/2 minced onion 1 tsp. cinnamon the table, and BAM. “You don’t really 1–2 matzot believe that, do you? Pass the tomatoes in 1/4 cup water Preheat oven to 350°F.Vegetable spray a vinaigrette sauce.” 1/2 tsp. salt rectangular baking dish. In a large bowl, “Well, yes I do. How’s the chicken?” 1/4 tsp. garlic powder combine eggs with sugar and mix well. “Uh, fine.” raisins (optional) Add apples, matzah meal and lemon juice “Like some more?”said with a menacing prunes (optional) and mix. Soak apricots in hot water for 5 look that my friend understands only too well. mushrooms (optional) minutes. Drain. Spread half the apple “Sure, and maybe some potatoes, too.” mixture in baking dish, arrange apricots “So,” says I, (the owner of the chickens Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a roasting on top, top with rest of apple mixture. and potatoes) “who says 600,000 diners pan. Boil water in a large pot. Add cabbage Combine 2 Tbsp. sugar and cinnamon couldn’t live for 40 years in the desert? and cook until leaves separate easily. and sprinkle on top. Bake in 350°F oven There’s manna. And besides, I’ll bet back Drain. In a roaster atop the stove, combine 1 hour until golden. then flocks of chickens as fat as this one tomato sauce, water, lemon juice, sugar were running all over those sand dunes. and 1/2 onion. Bring to a boil, then reduce Natalie’s Very Chocolate Torte Or maybe three millennia ago the Sinai heat and simmer. Break up matzot and (8–12 servings per cake) Peninsula was as green as Southern Jersey.” soak in 1/4 cup water until soft then drain. 8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate My debating partner tries to say In a bowl, combine ground beef, egg, 1/2 1 cup sugar “absolutely correct” with a mouth full of minced onion, matzot, salt and garlic 2 sticks unsalted butter or margarine chicken breast, but instead makes a mess, powder. Place cabbage leaves on a towel 1/2 cup strong coffee so he passionately nods six or seven times or flat surface. Place a heaping tablespoon 4 eggs and reaches for a drumstick. Good. I hate in the center of each leaf. Roll up leaves to lose a home game. envelope style. Place in sauce in roaster. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two round The humor of Ted Roberts, The Scribbler Add raisins, prunes or mushrooms if cake pans with aluminum foil and spray on the Roof, appears in newspapers around desired. Bake in 400°F. oven until brown. with vegetable spray. In a pan with another the US, on National Public Radio, and Reduce heat to 325°F., cover and bake one pan of water below, melt chocolate, sugar numerous web sites. Check out his Web hour longer. and butter or margarine over low heat. site: www.wonderwordworks.com. Blogsite: You can also do this in a microwave. Stir www.scribbleron theroof.typepad.com. His Solly’s Megina via Gayla frequently. Add coffee, remove from heat collected works The Scribbler on The Matzah-Meat Pie from Rhodes and cool a few minutes. Beat in eggs with Roof can be bought at Amazon.com or 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil wire whisk, one at a time. Pour into cake lulu.com/content/127641. 2 pounds ground beef pans and bake in 350°F. oven 30 minutes 1 large diced onion until cakes crack around sides of top. 1 tsp. salt Cakes will be soft and jello-like in center j i 1/4 tsp. pepper but it is okay if the top is cracked. It will spring form pan, prepare 1-1/2 times the 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley firm up as it cools. Cool completely, cover recipe and increase baking time to 40 4 eggs with foil and refrigerate overnight or up to minutes but check at 30 minutes. 3 matzot 1 week. Remove to plate to serve. To use a See Sybil Kaplan’s bio pg. 16. April 1, 2019 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT 19 20 The Jewish Post & Opinion – NAT April 1, 2019 The Jewish PRESORTED Spoonful Post &Opinion STANDARD US POSTAGE of Humor 1389 W 86th St. #160 PAID Indianapolis, IN 46260 INDIANAPOLIS, IN PERMIT NO. 1321 BY TED ROBERTS The 11th Commandment – Spice up Your Passover What is the culinary magic of Pesach? Why is it that boiled eggs and salt water, on Pesach, taste better than your grand- mother’s tzimmus? Why is it that this same primitive dish of eggs and saltwater that makes your mouth sing on Pesach tastes like grocery store cough syrup. was only a baked chicken.” looks and tastes like No. 7 yellow paint The magic explanation, perhaps, lies in “Ah, my friend,”said the Rabbi,“you left on June the 13th? Or any other of 357 an old story about the Rebbe and his out the key ingredient – the Shabbos.” days that are NOT Pesach. Why does matza Shabbos guest. The visitor – a non Jewish The same applies to Passover.The power brei rule the breakfast menu for Pesach’s neighbor – is charmed by his evening in of the occasion transforms eggs and water eight mornings, but tastes worse than roof the Rabbi’s home; the spirit of Shabbos, the to ambrosia, your aunt Sophie to Princess shingles for the rest of the year’s breakfasts? singing. And the food. Ah, that baked Di, and your dining room with the stained The same riddle applies to sacramental chicken – is the tastiest he has ever eaten. rug into the Empire Room at the Ritz. wine. On Pesach, it’s a soothing elixir that He must have the recipe. Even the kids are angelic. banishes the thought of the kid’s ortho- A month later the chicken-loving guest And that’s the way it should be if the dontist bill, and the vivid image of your meets the Rabbi in the town square. Master of the House successfully transports boss tearing up your trembling pay check. “Such a night I had at your home,”he tells the imaginations of the kids 3,000 years On all other nights, to paraphrase the the Rebbe.“And may I add, such a chicken. and 8,000 miles away to the sand dunes Haggadah, we lean toward Coca Cola But sadly, even though I explicitly followed and sparse oases of the Nile Delta. because that Mogen David or Manischewitz your directions and ingredients, my chicken (see Roberts, page 18)