Dear Family, Shabbat shalom! I thought I’d do something a little different for my OGT. I usually rely on Dad for the Jewish didactics, but this time I wanted to give you a heads up about, yes, yet another Jewish holiday.
Judaism
SUKKOT/SIMCHAT TORAH
10/24 The festival of Sukkot started this past Wednesday (it lasts a week). This holiday (ah, there are SO MANY!!) celebrates the harvest (we can just think of it as being thankful for food and those who grow it) and, since the teaching is that God determines at Sukkot how much rain will fall in the coming year, it also celebrates God giving us water. It is supposed to be the most joyous of all holidays, and it culminates on the eighth day in an even more joyous event called Simchat Torah, which is to celebrate the conclusion of the daily reading of all 5 Books of the Torah. Jews go crazy on this day, singing and dancing with great happiness! Our kids might remember actually building a sukkah (a frond-covered shelter) on the deck during Sukkot when they were little. The idea is to remind us of the fragility of the world and God’s protection of us in that world. So put on your dancing shoes (if only metaphorically, dear ones) and find time to rejoice! 😊
Torah Commentary Bat Mitzvah
For You Were Strangers (Exodus 22:20-23:9)
Plaut comments that protection of widows and orphans, prototypical of those tribal or kin group members with whom fate had dealt harshly, was a common injunction in many Near Eastern legal codes. What was unique in Torah was the addition of the stranger as deserving of, even requiring, the mantle of Jewish protection and concern. Even more striking, the word stranger, “ger,” is mentioned 33 times in the Torah, and the command not to oppress the stranger is, of all the commandments, mentioned most frequently.
I am always moved when I hear or recite this enjoinder. Most often, I encounter it during the seder service, which tells the story of the children of Israel’s escape from slavery to freedom. Of course, we know that the haggadah recounts not only an historical event, but also addresses our personal enslavements and offers the hope of redemptive freedom in the here and now. Thus, for me, a mystifying yet compelling link is forged between my freedom and how I treat the stranger.
My Jewish Faith
I have no special expertise or knowledge on this topic, but I am a person of faith, and this is a topic that given its importance in so many of our lives doesn’t get talked about enough. So my understanding is that today, we are just going to talk about what our religion or our spirituality means to us and how that connects with our professional and personal roles in life.
My Jewish Faith 2
I have no special expertise or knowledge on this topic, but I am a person of faith, and I’ve always felt that, given its importance in so many of our lives, it’s a topic doesn’t get talked about enough. So my understanding is that today, we are just going to talk about what our religion or our spirituality means to us and how that connects with our professional and personal roles in life.
Faces of Soviet Jews
by Shapiro, J. and Shapiro, D.H.
Below is material from our Mission to the Soviet Union sponsored by our Temple, Beth El, to meet with “Jewish Refuseniks” during 1989, a time of “glasnost” openness. The material below shares the Faces of Soviet Jews with whom we met (1); offers a pictorial essay (2); includes the suggestions we made to the Los Angeles and Orange Country Commission on Soviet Jewry (3); and ends with our personal reflections on the trip, then, and during the Days of Awe, 2017.
- Read the Article
- Faces of Soviet Jewry–A Pictorial Essay
- Mission to the Soviet Union on Behalf of Russian Jewry – July 18, 1989
- Our personal reflections on the trip
In 1991, two years after our visit, the USSR was disbanded into its constituent republics. We joke that maybe we had some small part in that! 🙂
Bertrand Russell Letter
Dear Mr. Russell,
I have just finished your book, Why I Am Not A Christian. I enjoyed it very much. I thought that your arguments against Christianity were very potent, and often you made the church not only seem ridiculous, but a boulder on the road to Progress.
The Midwives
SCENE ONE: THE MIDWIVES
CROWD: Shiphrah, Puah! Shiphrah, Puah!
PERSON: Shiphrah? Puah? What kind of names are those? Who are they?
CROWD: Good question!
LEADER! Who are they? (Hebrew midwives)
PERSON: Why are you cheering for them?
CROWD: Who knows?
LEADER: Who knows? (Because they wouldn’t kill the first-born male children of the Hebrews)