Hump Day

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A guest post by Y. Bloch
This Saturday is hump day. No, the calendar has not been re-jiggered to redefine a week; the last people who did that ended up being sent to the guillotine.
I'm referring instead to the seven-week period of counting between Passover and Shavuot, Sefirat haOmer. For the first 24 days, we are closer to the Exodus; for the last 24 days, we are closer to the Giving of the Torah. But Day 25, the fourth day of the fourth week, is smack in the middle. This year, it's the Sabbath when we read Parashat Behar, the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus (OK, 25:1-26:2), which famously starts with the unique verse, "Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying."
The Kabbalists associated certain attributes with each day of the Omer, and the twenty-fifth is netzah of netzah. Netzah is the Kabbalistic trait associated with Moses, and the root has many meanings in Scripture, from victory to eternity to conductorship (orchestra, not train).
The connection of Behar to Sefirat haOmer is quite strong, as the former also revolves around a count of seven cycles of seven, in its case leading to the jubilee year. 49 is clearly an important number in the Torah and of the Torah.
It is thus not surprising that the Talmuds relate this verse to Moses' experience on Sinai (Psalms 12):

Lord's sayings are pure sayings, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over.

However, there is a difference between the approach of the Babylonian Talmud and the approach of the Jerusalem Talmud. The former states (Rosh Hashana 21b), citing Rab and Samuel:

Fifty gates of understanding were created in the world, and all were given to Moses save one, as it says, "Yet you have made him but little lower than God."

The latter (Sanhedrin 4:2) records:

Rabbi Yanai said: “If the Torah were given cut and dried, no one could withstand it! What is the reason? ‘LORD spoke to Moses.’ He said before Him: ‘Master of the World, tell me: what is the Halakha?’ He said to him: ‘Follow the majority' (Ex. 23:2)—if most vote for acquittal, he is innocent; if most vote for conviction, he is guilty. Indeed, the Torah may be expounded forty-nine ways to defile, and forty-nine ways to purify."

According to the BT, the number forty-nine represents a linear progression through successive gates, ultimately reflecting the limits of humanity. According to the JT, there are 49 sets of parallel approaches, allowing Halakha to respond (democratically) to the changing demands of society around it.
On this day, it behooves us to embrace the netzah of Torah--the battle, the timelessness, the symphony.

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How many suits do you own?

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How many suits do you own? If you wear them on shabbos only, the right answer is probably three or four.

You want to be able to get through a three day yom tov without going into reruns, and you want to be able to wear two per weekend, without wearing the same suits two weeks in a row. Also, depending on your climate, you may need a flannel or a summer suit - though I can't recall ever seeing a Jewish guy in seersucker or linen in shul.



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Leon Wiesletier wins the day, clobbers Cross Currents (inadvertently)

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What Leon Wiesletier says in his new Diarist is brilliant. It carries messages that every Likudnik, every Haredi, every Cross Current contributor, and every GOP Jews needs to hear and understand.

Please help me share it with them.

Money quote:

And the political and religious variety of the Jews of America is the most obvious fact about them—but it pains the nostalgists and the dogmatists, who see no glory in a plenitude of Jewish dispensations and regard diversity as a historical and ideological disappointment.They prefer to delude themselves with legends of a lost uniformity of opinion that never existed. Quarrel has always been a Jewish norm, and controversy a primary instrument for the development of Jewish culture and Jewish religion. But there are those, the heresy hunters and the truancy hunters, the real Jews, the true Jews, the last Jews, who refuse to accept the community as it empirically is, to engage with the cacophony and its causes, and instead they haughtily promulgate definitions of inclusion and exclusion, certifications of authenticity and inauthenticity. Most of their fellow Jews are, for them, for one reason or another, traif. What sort of expression of peoplehood is that? We are a people, not a sect. Like the pseudo-Sanhedrin in Jerusalem that calls itself the Chief Rabbinate, they know nothing about the wisdom of flexibility in an era of change. They seem to believe that certitude makes fairness superfluous. It was not surprising that J Street’s most energetic opponents at the President’s Conference came from the Orthodox, many (but not all) of whom are so busy congratulating themselves on their righteousness and their fertility rate that they are blind to their irrelevance to the fate of Jews who are not like themselves, which is to say, to the fate of the overwhelming majority of American Jewry.

Wow. And there is much more like this

J Street's Rejection Is a Disgrace for American Judaism

www.newrepublic.com

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Ask Mrs. DovBear: How do you prepare for Shabbas?

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Yesterday's lifestyle item provoked a strong response on the social networks from people who seemed to take it for granted that pre-Shabbos Happy Hour rests on the back of dissatisfied wives who are left to cook and clean while the men party.  Of course this isn't so, and I'm a bit peeved that this was the default assumption. Why leap to "bad husband" before considering other possibilities?

Look: Pre-shabbos Happy Hour* can be hard to pull off if you have small kids, a disorganized, last-minute personality (or a wife like that) or an inflexible work schedule. But that's not everyone's situation. There are other models. 

*Happy Hour is a misnomer, which also caused some confusion. Typically, these are small gatherings - never more than five guys, and usually two or three - and they never last an hour. Its a quick drink, a snack and come chat. 45 minutes tops.

To get this done, you need time, a chilled wife and an organized household and not everyone has all three. Over the years, most of the men I know who attended this event either (1) worked from home (2) worked nearby; or (3) were retired or unemployed. For years, our host was a young man who inherited a building from his grandfather and spent most of his life developing the perfect barbecued rib. In another neighborhood, a regular host was self-employed.  And none of our wives, if I recall correctly, were women anyone might call disheveled, disorganized or dramatic. 

Let me use my own situation as an example. In what follows, my wife describes her own Shabbos preparations. 

Sunday: Challahs. The breadmaker does most of the work, and challahs freeze nicely
Monday: I bake some kind of counter cake for deserts/breakfast. This also goes into the freezer.
Tuesday: Nothing.
Wednesday: I set up the soup. This means the ingredients go in a pot of water, and the pot of water goes in the back of the refrigerator.
Thursday morning. Soup goes on the stove. After its cooked, it goes back in the fridge
Thursday evening: If we're having chicken or capons, they get stuffed and put in the fridge. If we're having meat, it gets marinated and refrigerated. Any vegetables, like potatoes, that need marinating are also prepared. The cholent gets set up. Occasionally, I'll make a noodle kugel or some other kind of pudding.
Friday afternoon: Birds or meat, that have already been set up, go in the oven (or on the grill.) Vegetables, that have already been set up, get roasted or grilled. (Root vegetables in the winter; cauliflower, eggplant and the like in the summer. Potatoes year round.) Soup gets heated up. On a summer Friday the only thing happening in the last hour or so before candles is the re-heating of the soup. Everything else is done.
Friday evening: While the men are in shul, the daughters set the table and make a salad.

Shabbos Day: I usually go to shul. We set the table and make a salad when I get home. Lunch is usually cholent, a meat salad of some kind, and maybe some deli. If we're having shnitzle (rare) it goes up on Friday.

As you can see, there's no big pre-Shabbos rush and everything is under control by the time I duck out for a quick visit with friends. 

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Yom haNaxmaut

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 A guest post by Y. Bloch
Another Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) has come and gone. The flags have been folded, the barbecues have been extinguished, the fireworks have been fired. We, as a nation, are now done commemorating the events of 1948, and we can go get our miniature lambs ready for Lil’ Passover. (I could explain that, but I don’t think it would help.)
Except, of course, that a week from now one out of five Israelis will be celebrating Nakba Day. This is the day that many Arabs and Muslims mark as the anniversary of the catastrophe of Israel’s founding. So Nakba Day and Yom HaAtzmaut both commemorate the events of 14-15 May, 1948, but from two very different points of view.
After all, there can be no overlap between the two. Even if there are Jews who fast and mourn on Yom HaAtzmaut, seeing the day as an expression of defiance of God’s will (or unbridled jingoism), and even if there are non-Jewish Israelis, Christian, Druze, Bedouin and even some Muslims, who celebrate Israel’s independence, there’s still nothing shared between the two experiences. The establishment of the State of Israel is either triumph or tragedy, mandate or massacre, redemptive rapture or racist ruin, joy or genocide. The Middle East, after all, is where Venn diagrams go to die.
Well, the funny thing about Yom HaAtzmaut is that it falls exactly two weeks after the final day of Passover in Israel. The Midrash (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, ed. Mandelbaum, Appendix 2) notes something interesting about the holiday: the Torah never tells us to rejoice during this holiday. The phrase “And you shall rejoice on your holiday” is applied to both Shavuot and Sukkot in Deut. 15, but never to Passover. It even explains that this is the reason we abbreviate our celebratory Hallel prayer during most of the festival.

Why is joy not mentioned there? Because the Egyptians died during it. Thus, you find that all through the seven days of Sukkot, we recite Hallel, but on Passover we recite Hallel only on the first day and night because, as Samuel explained (Proverbs 24:17), “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls.”

So on Passover, celebrating the Exodus from Egypt, we limit our joy because the Egyptians, AKA the bad guys, died.
In fact, if we look at the other holidays that celebrate our victories over bad guys, we find a similar reluctance to rejoice in the fall of the wicked. As bloody as the Scroll of Esther is, it clearly contrasts the dispensation of Ahasuerus (Esther 8:11), “to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the soldiers of every people and country who distress them, children and women, and their booty to plunder,” with the fulfillment: “the Jews gathered to send forth their hands upon those who sought evil against them” (9:2). It is “men” whom they kill, “and they did not send forth their hands upon the plunder.” Why is there no Hallel on Purim? “Its reading is its Hallel” (Talmud, Arakhin 10b) Of course, nowadays we fast on the day that the battle took place, 13 Adar.
Hanukka has eight full days of Hallel, but what is interesting here is that our rabbinic sources ignore the military victories in the Book of Maccabees, instead speaking of the miracle of oil. Hanukka is followed by a major fast day as well. It is reinterpreted in Megillat Taanit as a three-day fast reflecting our complex relationship with Greek culture.
So in our victories over Persia, Greece and Egypt, we recognize the complexity of our battles for survival and for independence. We realize the humanity of the other side. Can we not do that today?
Now, I’m not calling for fueling our Independence Day barbecues with burning Israeli flags. But does it really need to be a zero-sum game? Are we incapable of recognizing the real suffering of the other side? Is the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem a worse opponent than Pharaoh? Was Arafat worse than Haman? Is Abu Mazen worse than Antiochus?
I know what you’re saying: keep dreaming. There’ll be thunderstorms in Jerusalem on Independence Day before that happens.
Well, at the moment, it’s raining, with thunder and lightning, in the Holy Land. At least that’s something we can all get behind.


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Guys got to eat: Pre- Shabbos Happy Hour

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Is DovBear transitioning into lifestyle blog? Not likely. I'm just sharing my thoughts and experiences as per usual

Now that we're in early-shabbos season, many of the men in the audience are escaping to their decks and patios for a pre-shabbos happy hour. In most neighborhoods, you start around 6 p.m. and wrap things up as close to mincha as possible. Usually, no more than five guys attend, and twosomes and threesomes are not uncommon, with most staying for 25 minutes or less. These are quick things.

** Pre-shabbos Happy Hour might not work for everyone. It can be hard to pull off if you have small kids, a disorganized, last-minute personality (or a  wife like that) or an inflexible work schedule. However, I don't think its fair to assume that it only happens if the wife gets screwed. There are other models.

As a veteran of dozens of these small, informal gatherings I can tell you there are generally three ways to pull it off.

A BAD JOB

The Drink: Want to strike out? Put out a low end beer, like Bud or Coors. There is literally never a good excuse to serve these horrible beverages. And you lose points for using a Red Solo Cup.

The Snack: Chips and salsa. You think you're playing it safe. Really, you're being cheap and boring.

PERFECTLY  FINE

The Drink: You owe it to your guests to pour something decent, plus you don't want to look chintzy. At around $50, Oban fits the bill. Its sweet with a pleasant hint of smoke without being peaty. Larceny is a good up-to-the minute option for your bourbon lovers, and Blue Moon is your can't miss beer.

The Snack: Toss your favorite variety of Jack's Sausages on the grill, and serve them in thirds with a good mustard. No one wants to overeat or get full right before shabbos, so cut them up.  Put out some olives and pickles to go with the chips.

NOW YOU'RE TRYING

The Drink: You'll still need a whiskey/bourbon option for the unadventurous, but you can show you're trying by offering to start things off with a cocktail.

Don't bother with something complicated, and stay away from anything that requires weird ingredients or fruity garnishes.The Lime Rickey (air conditioning in a glass) is nothing but ice, lime, bourbon and seltzer. Thanks to Mad Men, the Old Fashioned is enjoying a reawakening. You can make one in your sleep: Just splash some bitters* on a sugar cube. Soften it up with some water or seltzer and add a slug or two of Rittenhouse Rye.

The Lime Rickey goes in a Collins glass like this nice looking number from Stolzle, Set of six - $37.99 (three left!).

Use a low ball glass for the Old Fashioned. This Borgovo Gotico- $56 costs way too much ($56!)  but feels great in your hand.

* Angostura Aromatic Cocktail Bitters are certified kosher, and can be used to mix up a great OF. $12 bucks from Amazon (and about $8 in your local grocery)

Draper makes an Old Fashioned, but because he's gay he added a cherry and an orange. Don't make this mistake. All you need is a sugar cube, bitters, ice, a splash of water and Rittenhouse Rye

The Snack: While the sausages are on the grill, serve up some dips like matbucha or chumas. Bonus points if you, or better yet your wife, can make them from scratch. [Recipes here] If you are going to use a store-bough chumas, freshen it up with some oil and lemon juice before serving. If you have skills, make some wings, too. Be aware that at a minimum you'll need to section your wings, and render out the fat before applying your sauce.

Make it heimsih: Add kugel of course.

What should you wear? Don't be the dork who shows up in the suit and tie he wore to work. Take a minute to put on a polo (like this black one from Nautica) and a pair of chinos. (I like Bonobos but this flat front pair from Dockers is just fine.)

If you have some better ideas, please share them in the thread.

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"Condescending and imbecile"

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On the comment thread of his latest post, our friend Yaakov Menken lashes out at someone called "Jonathan" as follows:

"This is why I don't like comments from behind a moniker: in this case, it enabled you to make a remark both condescending and imbecile."

Lets document the atrocities:

(1) Jonathan is a moniker?? Couldn't that be the fellow's real name? Does Menken want the man's social security number, too?

(2) Yaak is using his real name, not a moniker, but isn't his own answer to "Jonathan" more than a wee bit condescending? ("...you have demonstrated an inadequate grasp of the English language,")

(3) And it doesn't stop there. On the same comment thread, he manages to be both condescending and imbecile toward Harry Maryles ("Anyone who finds silent recitation of Tehillim at that time to be offensive needs his head examined, since he has buried the Emes beneath his own haughty attitude. --YM)

Wasn't using your real name supposed to make such outbursts impossible?

And PS: There was nothing condescending or imbecile about Jonathan's original remark.

Outmaneuvered by Dossim

There's an organization called

CROSS-CURRENTS.COM

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Today's Republican Moron

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"Democrats bragging about the number of mandatory sign ups for Obamacare is like Germans bragging about the number of manditory [sic] sign ups for “train rides” for Jews in the 40s."

-- Tennessee State Sen. Stacey Campfield (R-7th District) on his blog Monday morning.

Really? Could Jews pay a fee to get off the train? Moron.

http://static01.mediaite.com/med/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Screen-Shot-2014-05-05-at-2.05.42-PM-650x298.png

static01.mediaite.com

static01.mediaite.com

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Yom Haatzmaut 2014

I'm a grateful American citizen, who has always been lukewarm about public celebrations. I don't always do something special on the fourth. I dislike parades. As a result I can relate to Haredi Israelis who prefer to sit out Yom Haatzmaut. Why are they required to show their gratitude or patriotism according to someone else's formula? There is more than one way to show gratitude. Moreover, it can be argued that its inappropriate and unnecessary to purposely and publicly demonstrate or show gratitude to an entity like a state (Personally, I think its somewhat creepy, and vaguely North Korean.)

I also don't see how its hypocritical to take services from a state without also participating in the state's rituals and celebrations. One can take services from a secular state without also being required to accept some set of beliefs about the state, its origins or its purpose. I don't need to believe in Manifest Destiny before I can take a welfare check, so why should any Israeli be asked to co-sign the Zionist founding stories? Am I hypocrite if I take services from the USA without also believing the various American founding myths? Uber patriotic American Christians probably think so, but I don't.

Someone could, for example, say that the state isn't from God because its the result of an unsanctioned ingathering of the exiles that violated one of the Three Oaths. As a result, this state of Israel is just like any other secular state -- not more or less significant. Just as I can take welfare money without beleiving in Manifest Destiny or subscribing to founding myths about how America is a shining city on a hill, or whatever, I can be an Israeli citizen with all the rights thereof without also subscribing to any of the Zionist narratives. That's a perfectly valid, logical and consistent position.

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Oh Goodie: More Jesus

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I can't work up the energy to care about the Supreme Court's latest terrible decision. Though I think they got the law wrong, and opened a door dangerous people might use, I find it unlikely that anything too terrible is going to happen. A bland upstate NY prayer for a good meeting isnt going to inspire any pogroms. Still, I wish the rule was iron clad: No state-sponsored Jesus-mongering 

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a town in upstate New York did not violate the Constitution by starting its public meetings with a prayer from a “chaplain of the month” who was almost always Christian. 

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in a 5-to-4 decision that divided the court’s more conservative members from its liberal ones, said the prayers were merely ceremonial. They were neither unduly sectarian nor likely to make members of other faiths feel unwelcome. 

Sorry, but one gets the feeling that Justice Kennedy doesn't understand the first thing about prayer. While he may come from a religious tradition that is inclusive and polite, most traditions are the very opposite. Their prayers are not ceremonial. They do not make members of others faiths feel welcome or included. By design, they do the very opposite.

More importantly if you believe in the power of prayer and you think your religion is the one true faith you can't simultaneously believe your prayers are ceremonial, innocuous, and inclusive.

In upstate NY, Jews hold the majority in a few villages. Suppose those upstate Jews were to initiate their village proceedings with a few words about God. Would their prayers make Christians in the audience feel welcome? Probably not. As Justice Kagan asked in her blistering dissent, would those Christians be able to reconcile the Jewish prayers "with the First Amendment’s promise that every citizen, irrespective of her religion, owns an equal share of her government.” Again: probably not. And that is what the Court''s majority failed to grasp.

Fun fact to know and tell: None of the SCJs are Protestants.


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Pruz on Sterling

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Did you read the new Pruzansky? It's not entirely awful, in that his main point about Sterling is exactly the same thing that I said earlier in the week. Both Pruz and I agree that Sterling's social crime deserves a social punishment.

Unfortunately, Pruz can't stop there. He needs to top things off with a repugnant tirade about how racism no longer exists but, damn it, we have to keep hearing about it thanks to huckesters who get rich from it like Barry Obama and his BFF Al Sharpton.

There will be more to say as I continue to digest his piece, but let's begin by reminding everyone that only lunatics like Pruz who get their info from Fox News think the Reverend Al is a credible figure. The liberal establishment has entirely disowned him. When Al he last ran for president he LOST the BLACK VOTE in the NY primary by 30 percent. Overall he took less than 1 percent of the total votes, scoring less than 30 votes [thirty: not a misprint] in Maine and North Dakota, and 0 [ZERO: not a misprint] in Hawaii and Idaho.

http://rabbipruzansky.com/2014/04/30/race-to-the-top/


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J Street gets jobbed

Boo on the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and their vote yesterday to exclude J Street. I have particular disdain for Farley I. Weiss, the president of the National Council of Young Israel, who allowed himself to be quoted by the New York Times, as follows:

"We’re very pleased and relieved, because J Street’s positions were not within the mainstream of the Jewish community,” said Farley I. Weiss, the president of the National Council of Young Israel, which is an association of Orthodox synagogues. “On virtually every single issue, their position is contrary to that of anything that would be considered pro-Israel, and they don’t represent the rank and file of the Jewish community in America.”

Farley is wrong about everything here. More importantly, he sets an absurd criteria for membership in the Conference. The National Council of Young Israel, his own dying little society of middle-aged modern orthodox Zionists, hardly "represent the rank and file of the Jewish community in America." and their positions on women in leadership roles, among countless others, are "not within the mainstream of the Jewish community." (After all the "mainstream Jewish community" includes heterodox groups and NCYI, infamously ,tossed out a member synagogue for the heresy of electing a female president.)

Wouldn't Farley agree this state of affairs disqualifies his organization from membership in the Conference? Or is Farley in the grips of the old, stupid Modern Orthodox / Conservadox fantasy that having a jingoistic, hard right view on Israel is mechaper kol avonos?

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Should J-Street be permitted to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations?

Should J-Street be permitted to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations? Yes, yes, of course.

Today the Times describes what's at stake and includes a quote from some fellow named Farley that sums up what I think is wrong with Orthodox Jewish thinking about Israel.

"Their positions are out of the mainstream of what could be considered acceptable within the Jewish community,” said Farley I. Weiss, an Arizona lawyer who serves as the president of the National Council of Young Israel, an alliance of Orthodox congregations. Mr. Weiss said his organization would vote against admitting J Street to the conference. “I think they are trying to change what pro-Israel means — their positions aren’t pro-Israel positions,” he said."

Farley says three things of which two are laughably wrong. A breakdown:

1. "Their positions are out of the mainstream of what could be considered acceptable within the Jewish community" HAHA no. The "Jewish" community includes the Israelis who vote for liberal parties and all of the American, French, Canadian and British Jews - of all denominations - who agree with those policies. The mainstream includes them, and is not limited to the hard-core Zionists at Farley's kiddush club
2. "their positions aren’t pro-Israel positions," because everyone who disagree with RW Israeli policies hates Israel? This is what small-thinkers think, but it isn't so.
3. "I think they are trying to change what pro-Israel means" Most of the Jewish world, thankfully, already knows you can be pro-Israel without also being pro-settler and pro-Likud. Its Farley Weiss who is outside of the mainstream, here. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/30/us/jewish-groups-consider-including-j-street.html

Jewish Groups Consider Including J Street

www.nytimes.com

The major coalition of Jewish groups plans to vote on whether to...

Sterling gets the wrong punishment

I DISAGREE with the NBA's decision to ban Donald Sterling for life.

Donald Sterling did not deprive anyone of his civil rights, and he did not break any laws. He committed a serious social error, or call it a social crime if you prefer, and he should be punished socially.

Instead of a ban, I'd like to see Sterling booed every time he appears at a game. I'd like to see free agent players decline his money. I'd like to see him denounced by the media. I'd like to see him banished from his social circles. I'd like to see his business partners, including his team's corporate sponsors, jump ship. All of these are appropriate social consequences for a serious social crime such as the one he committed. Forcing Sterling to divest himself of an asset or banning him from participating in the management of that asset is the wrong kind of penalty.

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Keep your shlisel challah, but...

I've been told that its "silly and pretentious" to discuss the true origins of shlisell challah. They say this is "mockery" and that revealing the true origins serves to "tear down" the custom.

Let's take a counter example: Thanksgiving Turkey. All of us know the real reason behind the custom. No one thinks the custom of eating Thanksgiving turkey was invented by prophetic Sages, or that eating a drumstick carries any mystical, spiritual or magical significance.  Yet, to the dismay of the turkeys, this knowledge has done nothing to blunt the American eagerness to consume the bird on the last Thursday in November. The custom prevails, and shows no sign of weakening, despite the fact that all of us know, or at least intuit,  that this is a custom invented by ordinary people for mundane reasons.

The success of the turkey custom is why I feel rather certain that the shlissel challah custom is in no danger. The practice of sticking keys into our challahs will not be abandoned if it becomes widely known that we do this only because our Jewish forefathers, in imitation of their non-Jewish neighbors, thought it festive or fortuitous to bake their breads in symbolic shapes. (The custom has evolved from baking key-shaped loaves to inserting actual keys into the bread)

But - second argument -  let's say that I'm wrong and all this truth-telling about the origins of shlissel challah causes it to be forgotten. So. Freaking. What.  Exactly how are we, as a people, harmed if a relatively new custom, copied from Catholics, is left on the dust pile of history? Sure, the first Saturday after Passover would be a mite less interesting, but otherwise? You can't sue before you've incurred damages, and I fail to see how losing shlissel challah hurts anything.

My advice on this subject is, therefore, the same as my advice on all matters of custom and tradition: If you like shlissel challah please enjoy it with my blessing. I ask only this: Tell the truth about it, and permit others to do the same. 

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Not so fast

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A guest post by Y. Bloch
When I was in junior high lo these many years ago, our principal propounded an interesting theory. This yeshiva had many issues with the modern State of Israel, and the rabbi claimed that the Zionists had devised a plot with their holiday schedule to undermine traditional vernal Judaism. They set Yom HaShoa (Holocaust Remembrance Day) in the last week of Nisan, the month of Passover, one in which we eschew public morning, while they put Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) in the first week of Iyar, a month defined by its mourning practices.

This is the most extreme expression of a common canard: fasting in Nisan is inconsistent with the Jewish tradition, so how can you put a day of mourning in the last week of Nisan?

Except, of course, that long before 1953, when the State of Israel established Yom HaShoa, there was a day of fasting in the middle of the final week of Nisan. That dates back to the 40's--not the 1940s, the 740s.

These are the days on which we fast according to the Torah; whoever fasts on them must not eat or drink until evening: on the first of Nisan, Aaron's sons died; on the tenth of Nisan, Miriam died and the Well vanished; on the twenty-sixth, Joshua son of Nun died. (Halakhot Gedolot, ch. 18, p. 232)

This 8th-century Gaonic source is echoed by the early prayer books of Amram Gaon (Order of Fasts) and Mahzor Vitri (ch. 271). The Kol Bo (ch. 63) concurs, but records the date of Joshua's death as the 28th. So, somewhere between the 26th and the 28th of Nisan, there was a strong custom to fast; somewhere between the 26th and the 28th of Nisan, we have Yom HaShoa. Yet we can't mark this day--because of the added mourning customs we've tacked on during this period after the Crusades 350 years later?!

Well, maybe these days were once observed, but surely the decisive compendium of Jewish law, the Shulhan Arukh, wouldn't mention--oh, never mind, it's quoted verbatim in OH 580:2.

OK, let's put aside the technical halakhic question (I'm not aware of anyone who actually fasts on this day anyway). Can the yahrtzeit of Joshua shed any light on Yom HaShoa? I believe it can. Quite simply, Joshua (along with Caleb) is the survivor of the worst generational holocaust in Jewish history. Out of about 600,000 able-bodied men who leave Egypt, only two enter the land. This catastrophe is caused by the propaganda and demagoguery of ten men, the Spies, who break the will of the people in the name of preserving the Chosen Race. For forty years, the Israelites must pay the heavy price of this historic mistake. Finally, once they enter the land, as we read on the first day of Passover (Joshua 5:4), "This is the reason Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt, who were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt." Normally, it is the father who circumcises, but the generation that entered Israel was an orphan generation; Joshua had to foster a fatherless people.

Upon entering the Land of Israel, I wonder if there were any great thinkers who opined that this tragedy was necessary, that only a catastrophe as vast as the death of 603,548 men would allow God to give us such a great gift. If so, they would have been immediately recognized as fools. God promised the Land to Israel on their way out of Egypt, and the holocaust in the desert only served to delay it.

So why do people insist on putting Yom HaShoa and Yom HaAtzmaut on two opposite sides of the scales of theodicy? As my rebbe, Rabbi Yehuda Amital was wont to say, if God offered us such a deal, it would be morally repugnant to consider it. The Holocaust must be evaluated on its own terms, not least of which because so many others aside from Jews were slaughtered in it as well. It must be discussed, knowing that it can never be fully explained or understood. Adding it to the list of Jewish tragedies on Tisha beAv, when neither schools nor yeshivot are in session, hardly fits the bill.

I think that the yartzheit of Joshua, who buried more than half a million of his kinsmen, friends and countrymen, is a particularly opportune time. Maybe some other day would be more appropriate. But the vagaries of the Jewish calendar should not be an excuse for ignoring the Holocaust and the profound questions it raises.

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Offered without comment: The Katy Perry Bar Mitzvah video

I really don't know what to make of Katy Perry's appearance as Yosef Shulem, the challah-fressing bar mitzvah entertainer, in her latest music video, "Birthday."




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