Our Baby has Arrived

Last night at 8:55 pm we were blessed with our baby boy. He weighs 8 lbs. 5 oz. and is 21 inches tall. Everyone is doing great. No name yet. Bris to follow next Friday.

Maccabees: Liberators or Zealots?

I have been thinking a lot about the history of Hanukkah lately and how different Jews during different time periods have interpreted the story differently for their own situation. The Rabbis, weary of earthly kings, chose to focus attention on God's miracles rather than the Hasmonean's battles and susequent rule. American Jews found self validation in the theme of religious freedom. The Zionists saw the Maccabees fighting for Jewish self determination in their homeland. I will now join in this great chain of Torah (and I hope you all do too) and add my take.

We usually see Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees, and his sons as the great freedom fighters who fought against the Greek oppression of Judaism, but as the historian Elias Bickerman writes about them, "They made a stealthy and roundabout entrance into the villages and summoned together those eager to fight. The force moved from place to place destroying the idolatrous altars where they found them, compelling the observance of Torah by force. For example, they circumcised newborn infants, and killed apostate violators of the law. Thus, as their historian relates, they liberated the Torah form the hand of the heathen." It was the Jews who Mattathias and his sons fought against. Sure, as a rabbi I feel Jews should be practicing Judaism and not Greek paganism (or some sort of hybrid), but why did Mattathias get to define Judaism? Is Torah by the sword true Torah? Was Mattathias fighting assimilation or was he a religious fanatic, a zealot, an ancient Jewish Taliban? (I hate to make these historical comparisons, but it makes my rhetorical point, so please forgive me.)

This week, as we celebrate our people's war against oppression that happened over 2000 years ago, I can't help to think about religious coercion and fanaticism in Israel today. A woman was getting arrested for wearing a tallit at the Kotel. (Here is great commentary from the "criminal" and one here by one of my teachers.) Buses are becoming segregated between men and women. Conversions are being revoked. This is all because the state of Israel recognizes one way to be a religious Jew and gives religious authority to an increasingly fanatical group of rabbis. But, there is light (it is Hanukkah after all), the Israel Religious Action Center (an arm of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism) is fighting for religious freedom in Israel. We need to suport them and other groups like them as they show Israelis that there is more than one way to be a Jew. For Israel to be a light to the nations, we need to help make it a society were people are free from religious zealots.

Name that Blog

I have been thinking for days about what I am going to be naming this blog--trying to come up with clever puns (if puns are ever clever) or inspiring statements (without sounding too full of myself). I have finally decided on "Darchei Noam." It is a phrase that comes from Sefer Mishlei (the Book of Proverbs) chapter 3 verse 17: "Its ways are ways of pleasantness (Darchei Noam in Hebrew), and all its paths are peace." The following verse reads, "It is a tree of life to those who grasp it, and all who cling to it find happiness." Our liturgy uses these two verses in reverse order as we return the Torah to the ark. In this context, we are to understand the Tree of Life to be Torah. Commentator Joel Rosenberg in the Reconstructionist prayer book Kol Haneshamah writes about this, "At the end of the Garden story, Adam and Eve are forbidden access to the mysterious Tree of Life, whose fruit confers immortality. Yet over the generations to follow, humankind itself becomes a Tree of Life. The Torah is handed on from one generation to another, binding the generations in a commonwealth of time and conferring the norms on which the survival of civilization depends. Thus the Torah is compared to the Tree of Life." Chief Rabbi of the UK Jonathan Sacks adds in his excellent commentary on the siddur, ". . . the Torah is our intimation of eternity in the midst of time. Immortality is a matter not of how long we live, but of how we live."

I hope this blog will add to our notions of Torah, and therefore will lead you to darchei noam, ways of pleasantness.

Yossele or My Favorite Piece of Jewish Music

I've been thinking a lot lately about what the term "Jewish Music" means. Is it only liturgical pieces, or in a Jewish languague like Hebrew? Does Jewish music convey a certain mood? Does it simply have to be written or performed by Jews? Is Bob Dylan singing "Here Comes Santa Claus" Jewish? I think Jewish music has elements of all of these questions. To paraphrase Potter Stewart, I know it when I hear it. And this brings me to my favorite piece of Jewish music, Shir Hamaalos" sung by one of the most famous cantors of all time, Yosef (Yossele) Rosenblatt. Most people assume the tune was written by him beacuse it is so associated with him, but it was actually written by a cantor named Pinchas Minkowsky. The text is Psalm 126, one of the "Songs of Ascent" that was sung as the pilgrims to the Temple in Jerusalem climbed the steps onto the Mount. It is a song of longing and hope, and you can feel this is Rosenblatt's redition. You want to stand tall and cry at the same time. Maybe that is why it was considered in the short list to be Israel's national anthem. "Hatikvah," of course, won out, but I think this tune would have been a great choice. It is a great piece of Jewish music because I think it encapsulates much of Jewish thought and history. It has a biblical text that is used liturgically. It is about exile and yearning for the Promised Land. The music is a great mix of Western and Eastern, and the tune was written by a Jew (which one cannot definately claim with "Hatikvah"). You would probably like to hear it by now. I don't know what is up with the video. Just listen to the music.

If this doesn't move you . . . I guess you can disagree with me, but this does it to me everytime. For all those "Hatikvah" fans, here is my favorite version. Some complain that "Hatikvah" is too Ashkenazi, but here is a great Mizrahi version. Enjoy.

Shalom l'kulam

Welcome to my new blog. I hope to fill it with enlightening ideas about Judaism that will transform your life . . . or, more realistically, it will be filled with whatever is going on in my head that I think is interesting. Hopefully, other people out in the blogosphere will also find it interesting. If you do, then this blog can start a great conversation about Jewish life and ideas, so please add your comments. Great Jewish learning is a conversation, not a monologue.