(because
in English it sounds as "Hi"and for its meaning)Traveling is a shot of energy for me. I had time to shop, to go to theaters and concerts, to watch the Israel Day parade in New York, and see the movie "Keeping Faith" which I found light and sweet. I visited with David, Rosario, Rachel, and Rebecca Losk who were in Boston for Rachel's graduation. I also visited Madeleine Dale in New York. I spent countless hours in bookstores and found some great books.
In one of these books Favorite Sermons by Leading American Rabbis I read a sermon by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, which made me reflect a bit on life in general and about our Congregation. Rabbi Silver asks: "How shall we measure life?" His answer is not by time because it's not the size of the canvas that determines the value of the painting It's not the one who lives longest who lives best. Nor shall we measure life by possessions because although they give us security, independence and power, how much we have is a relative and perhaps transient fact. Is happiness a measure of life? Happiness is conditioned to a particular set of circumstances and as they say, there is no happiness only happy moments.
Some will consider success as a good measure. We are reminded here of the fable of the Indian chieftain who asked his three sons to climb a mountain and bring back some object from the highest point which they reached in their climb. One of them climbed half way and brought back a cluster of rare flowers which he discovered there. The second one climbed even higher and found rare stones. The third one, dared to reach the top but in the crest of the mountain nothing grew and only solid rock was found. He came back to tell his father, "I have brought nothing back. I have nothing to show for my labors. But from the heights which I reached I caught sight of the sea." Success might be more an index of character than a measure of life.
Rabbi Silver measures life by the growth of mind and soul. How much have we grown since yesterday, since yester month, since yesteryear? He wants us to ask ourselves if we are able to see, to find beauty today where a while ago we could see none. Are we more respectful of truth today than yesterday? Do we love more truly now because we learned to understand more profoundly? Do human sorrow and human joy and all the sweet, sad music of humanity stir us more deeply now because we have attuned our souls more accurately? Were there any fears, which darkened our days in the past, any hates or bitterness, any selfishness or self-deceptions, which we can handle now? If we can answer yes to some of these questions, we have grown and we have lived. It might be a revealing exercise to indeed ask those questions to ourselves and see what we have done in our lives.
Then we could consider the life of our Congregation, and ask how we can measure the life of our B'nei Israel. Can we measure it by the almost fourteen years that we have survived, by having started with nothing and having acquired even a new Synagogue, by keeping a membership list, by carrying on Shabbat services and all life cycle events? We have accomplished all that. I am very proud of what will be our new building, of every new member we add to our list, of every new event we schedule. But growth in depth and content are the measures that show how we are doing as a group. When I can call on a former student of mine, Tamara Baum, to replace me in teaching, when Jody can recruit Eric Zango to substitute her in classes, when Bonnie can count on Alicia, Katya, Sarita, and others to support her in organizing a wonderful party, when Sam Nieman, Roberta Haynes, and Laurie Bonilla among others donate items for our silent auction, when the Ritual Committee works with concerned service leaders to offer us more satisfying Shabbat services, when Eduardo and Roberto give countless hours to plan and supervise our new building, that's growth.
Our life as a Congregation has been marked by an ever-growing desire to become better friends among us, to improve our services, to pursue the best Jewish education we can offer to our children, and to live our Jewish lives by learning more and more from Torah. By committing our time and efforts to B'nei Israel, we have allowed the Congregation to grow on us and in turn we have given it the push to become a better center for our Judaism. To the degree that we continue in this way and be able to involve more and more of our members, we will give the Congregation a life that can certainly be measured with gains for generations to come.
Hilda ten Brink
I just finished a book called "Climbing the Mountain, My Search for Meaning," by Kirk Douglas. I'm sure all of you know of Kirk Douglas as a famous actor who starred in many classic motion pictures ; "Spartacus", "Champion", and many more. Few are aware he has written 6 books, beginning with "Ragman's Son", which was autobiographical and traced his life from his beginnings as Issur Danielovitch, of Russian-Jewish descent, to his rise to fame. My friend, Alexander Spero, sent it to me and I thank him for it.
The book deals with an incident in his life in 1991, in which he was in a helicopter crash. Two young men died, and he suffered serious and painful back injuries, which plague him to this day.
The accident drove him to search for meaning in his life. Why did he, already an older man, survive, and two brilliant and vibrant young men in the prime of their lives perish. In his journey of self discovery he returns to his Jewish roots, begins to study Torah, and finds new spirituality, a faith in God, and a strong identity as a Jewish man, father, and supporter of Israel and Jewish causes. He finds new meaning to his life.
I found it to be an inspiring experience to read of a man who left his faith as a young boy of 14, lives the wild life among the elite of Hollywood, and returns to the faith when he realizes he has been running a fruitless race without direction all his adult life. Sound familiar ?
Crisis and tragedy are the motors that generate a return to religion and faith. When something happens in our lives beyond our ability to fathom or reason, we search for answers. When a loved one dies, or we are diagnosed with a life-threatening infirmity, we often rail at the injustice of it all.
"Why me ?", we cry.
Israel was born in crisis and withstood crisis for its first fifty years. Only very recently, has it emerged as one of the most powerful and economically stable countries of the world. Many of us gave of our hearts and our money to help build our spiritual homeland.
But what about our response to an absence of crisis. Our bodies are healthy. Our families are well. Our assets are rising. No warning clouds on the horizon. How do we respond to the good times ?
By all standards, we Jews are experiencing the best of times. Economic levels are good and rising. America is virtually the superpower of the world ; a bastion of democracy and laws to protect minorities of all creeds. We stand at the threshold of a new century with incredible promise of advances in health and quality of life.
We still rally around the words, "Never Again", whenever the Holocaust is remembered. But we really don't feel the possibility is real in our lifetime. We tend to forget the lessons of history. Spain and Holland and Babylon and Rome, the Crusades, the Inquisition are pushed deep into the past as ancient history.
To-day, it's "let the good times roll" and God bless the NASDAQ. Technology reigns. Microsoft was a dream just a decade ago. In the last few months Bill Gates has lost over 40 billion dollars personally but he still has 50 billion left ! A generation ago we were worried about our hippie teenagers smoking grass and turning their backs on society. It was "In" to "Drop Out". To-day, teenagers are focused on making millions in new Internet related enterprises and the Stock Market.
I am not making a judgment call on trends in society. I welcome change and growth. I embrace that which gives hope to the impoverished of the world and raises the level of possibility for those untold millions of souls who suffer, and die too young.
But we Jews have a special responsibility. We were given the Commandments. We were taught the ways of Torah. We were handed the lamp that would light the ways for civilized people in a civilized world.
Paul Johnson, the famous historian, said in his renowned book History of the Jews, "I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. Fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations."
We have always found our center in the synagogue. There, we are all family. When we rise to the Shemah, we not only give praise to one God, we celebrate that we are one, One family ; one people. And when we chant the Kaddish, we remember not only our loved ones; rather we are connected immediately to all our antecedents over thousands of years.
It is in the synagogue that we learn our values, our traditions, and where we experience our lives as a community.
What is the value of having the whole world in your hands, if your soul is lost in the wilderness and you roam as the wandering Jew seeking a spiritual home ?
There are no computers in the Sanctuary. Being
there, is Keeping the Faith. You have within you all you need to click
on to Shechinah, the Spirit of God.
Convey our best wishes to the Congregation.
Wishing all goes well with the new building.
Elly and Don Sherwood
<donelly@sierranv.net>
Some weeks ago, the Board of Directors of B'nei Israel Congregation sponsored a reception in honor of the Ambassador of Israel in Costa Rica, Mr. Daniel Gaal and his wife Jacqueline.
Hilda ten Brink, our President, delivered a beautiful and expressive speech to our guests of honor and, at the same time, gave us all a lesson in religious pluralism.
In behalf of B'nei Israel Congregation, Hilda presented the Ambassador with a brick from our original Bimah, prepared especially for this occasion. With this gesture, we wanted to share a bit of our community's history, though as yet very short, with the representatives of our spiritual homeland, Israel, which has its own short history as an independent State. However, the history of the Jewish people goes back thousands of years, having seen their very existence menaced multiple times by external forces. Therefore, we must not let intestine struggles affect, in any way, the unity of the Jewish people.
That evening, Mr. Gaal and his wife captivated us with their spontaneity and friendliness. We look forward to having them with us often, to keep fastening the ties which bind us with the Israel Embassy in Costa Rica.
A special thanks to Hilda for opening her home
to us and for being, as always, an excellent hostess.
Help us in the construction of our new temple and win $3,000 at the
same time ! ! !.
The raffle will be held on Sunday, August
13, in combination with the drawing of the
National Lottery for Mother's Day.
Ticket value : $100
Whether you want to pay in one payment, or arrange a monthly quota,
please contact :
NEW YORK, May 23 (JTA) --Advocates of religious pluralism in Israel are hailing what they are calling two major breakthroughs in efforts to enable all Jews to pray as they see fit at Judaism's holiest site.
In a landmark ruling Monday that caps an 11-year legal battle, Israel's High Court of Justice recognized the right of Women of the Wall to hold women's prayer services -- using the Torah and with women wearing prayer shawls -- at Jerusalem's Western Wall.
The court gave the government six months to make the necessary arrangements for the services and awarded the women -- who are Orthodox, Conservative and Reform, but use Orthodox liturgy -- $4,800 in damages.
In a separate development, the Conservative movement reached an understanding with the Israeli government allowing it to hold mixed-gender prayer services at Robinson's Arch, at the southern end of the wall.
While officially part of the Kotel, as the Western Wall is known, the arch has not traditionally been a site of prayer and is separated from the main part of the wall by a ramp leading to the Dome of the Rock.
For over a decade, Reform and Conservative Jews and women from a variety of Jewish streams have fought for the right to hold services at the wall.
The Kotel has separate sections for men and women, and efforts to hold non-Orthodox services or ones led by women, have often led to ejection by Israeli police and harassment -- sometimes violent -- by fervently Orthodox worshipers.
"This is a great day for the advancement of the struggle for religious pluralism in Israel," the president of Israel's Conservative movement, Rabbi Ehud Bandel, said in a statement Monday.
It's a day, he said, when both the Israeli government and the High Court "accept the principle that all Jews have the right to pray at the holiest place of the Jewish people, according to their traditions."
Activists for the Women of the Wall in Israel and the United States welcomed today's ruling, which noted that nothing in the group's prayer services -- in which women pray separately from men, use Orthodox liturgy and do not say any prayers that would require the presence of a minyan of 10 men -- violates Orthodox interpretation of Jewish law.
Some Orthodox Jews object to the fact that the women raise their voices in prayer, contravening the prohibition against men hearing a woman's voice, lest he be distracted from his worship.
"Eleven years of struggle have reached a conclusion," one of the Women of the Wall petitioners, Anat Hoffman of Jerusalem, said in response to the court ruling.
"We've come out of the Middle Ages, and we will soon hold the first Bat Mitzvah ceremony at the Kotel," she said.
But fervently Orthodox legislators denounced the decision and vowed to initiate legislation that would circumvent the ruling.
Indeed, Shas legislators Tuesday said they would introduce a bill to the Knesset next week that would prohibit any action at the Western Wall that could disturb worshipers or any kind of prayer that does not adhere to the current manner of worship.
Commentators observed that Prime Minister Ehud Barak, already struggling to keep his coalition intact amid deep political and secular-religious disputes, would find it next to impossible to implement the High Court ruling and keep his government together.
And in the United States, Rabbi Avi Shafran, spokesman for Agudath Israel of America, said, "It is particularly sad that at a time like this, when our Jewish brothers and sisters in the Holy Land are suffering violence and threats from sworn enemies of our people and are in such special need of divine protection, that the Jewish state's High Court would arrogate to itself the mission of undermining the Jewish religious tradition."
In Jerusalem, Cabinet Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior, who is spearheading government efforts to resolve religious pluralism conflicts, said he disagreed with it.
Calling the decision a "mistake of the court," Melchior said, "We cannot resolve the central problems of our society through forcing one side on another.
"I think we can resolve the problems only through joint dialogue to reach understanding," Melchior told Israel Radio. "It will lead to a terrible and violent disagreement instead of trying to find a compromise on the matter."
While most celebrated the ruling, some Women of the Wall activists questioned whether the ruling would be enforced and suggested that it did not make any significant advances over a 1994 ruling in their favor, which was not enforced.
"This does not mean we can go tomorrow with Torah and tallit [prayer shawls] and have service in the women's section," said Miriam Benson, a board member of the International Committee for Women of the Wall, who lives in New Haven, Conn., and has been with the group since its founding in 1989.
Benson said the ruling throws implementation into the hands of the Israeli government. "There's a strict deadline of six months, but there have been strict deadlines in the past that were ignored," she said.
While her group felt "an initial euphoria" when the ruling was first announced, on closer examination she decided it's "just in line" with the 1994 ruling and "doesn't impose a remedy," said Benson.
But another member of the group, Rivka Haut of Riverdale, N.Y., said the ruling is a step forward in that it requires the government to protect the group when they pray at the wall.
"We have a major lobbying job. Already there is a movement in the political arena to throw monkey wrenches in, and we're beginning to strategize about how to deal with that," she said. "We made it to the top of Everest. We may slip. But we're going to try to get back up there or stay there, depending on what they do to us."
Under the Conservative agreement reached Monday, meanwhile, the Israeli government will protect the right of Conservative Jews to hold services at Robinson's Arch and will provide the movement with space to store prayerbooks and prayer shawls.
The two sides agreed to a 12-month trial period during which time the Conservative movement will be able to hold morning services at the site once a week, during Tisha B'Av, and other special times with prior coordination.
Services will start on Shavuot, at the beginning of next month, a holiday where mixed gender services in recent years have resulted in violence.
Conservative leaders described the agreement, under which they will pray in an area they were already officially permitted to pray in, as a "first step" and a "compromise," rather than a victory.
Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary, also in New York, said, "We got less than we wanted but more than they were prepared to give a few years ago. It's a short step forward in the struggle for a pluralistic Israel."
But Reform leaders in America, while supportive of Women of the Wall's victory, were less impressed with the Conservative arrangement, saying they are still determined to gain access to the main part of the Wall.
"We don't see this as a victory," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Reform movement's Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
"Our principles on this are clearly stated and remain the same. This is a sacred site, the most sacred site to the Jewish people and it belongs to all Jewish people."
"If the southern part of the wall is really the wall, let the Orthodox groups pray there," said Yoffie. "In terms of our struggle, this really doesn't change anything."
Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, executive director of the Reform movement's ARZA World Union, agreed, but sounded a more optimistic note.
"Slowly, slowly progress is sure and noticeable," he said. "There is a general breaking down of the ultra-Orthodox notion that the wall belongs to them as an ultra-Orthodox synagogue."
(JTA correspondent Naomi Segal in Jerusalem contributed
to this report.)
(© Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc. The above
information is available on a read-only basis and cannot be reproduced
without permission from JTA.)
NEW YORK, May 31 (JTA) -- A week after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that women are entitled to read from the Torah and wear prayer shawls at the Western Wall, fervently Orthodox lawmakers have initiated legislation that would send to prison for seven years any women who do just that.
Last week's ruling is also under attack from the Israeli government, with the state attorney preparing a request that the decision be reconsidered on grounds that alternative sites are available and a change could lead to friction.
The case concerns Women of the Wall, a group of women that has been fighting for over a decade for the right to gather for prayer services at Judaism's holiest site.
Although the group includes Conservative and Reform women, its services follow Orthodox liturgy and do not recite prayers requiring a minyan, defined by Orthodoxy as 10 men.
Under the May 22 ruling, the government was given six months to arrange for police protection for the women to pray at the wall, also known as the Kotel.
Currently, the group is not protected and -- according to a 1989 law -- women worshipers who read from the Torah there are subjected to a six-month prison sentence.
The opposition to the decision, especially from the government of Ehud Barak who needs his Orthodox coalition partners to push his peace efforts through, is raising questions about whether the rules for the women will actually change.
The group plans to hold services on Sunday at the wall to celebrate Rosh Chodesh, although it will not use a Torah. In recent years, they have moved their monthly services to a nearby site.
While the ruling applies specifically to Women of the Wall, it also could have implications for the Reform and Conservative movements, both of which have petitioned unsuccessfully in the past for the right to hold egalitarian services at the Kotel.
The Conservative movement recently agreed to a compromise, whereby it will hold services at Robinson's Arch, a site at the southern end of the Western Wall.
In the Knesset on Wednesday, two bills responding to the May 22 ruling passed preliminary hearings.
One, introduced by the United Torah Judaism Party and passed by a 29-17 vote, imposes a seven-year prison sentence and monetary fine for women who wear prayer shawls, read from the Torah, blow a shofar or lay tefillin at the Western Wall.
The other, introduced by Shas and passed by 29-25, declares that one must behave at the Kotel and surrounding plaza as if in a synagogue. It prohibits various activities, such as holding public gatherings without prior permission, wearing immodest clothing, eating, drinking, smoking, sleeping, violating Shabbat or festivals, photographing for a fee and slaughtering animals.
Legislation in the Knesset must pass three readings before it becomes law.
Knesset member Avraham Ravitz of United Torah Judaism said that in introducing the bill, the fervently Orthodox legislators were trying to convey the deep injury they felt the high court ruling had inflicted.
He said the jail term was secondary.
"We wanted to point out that this issue is very important to us, and we feel that if the order of the Supreme Court goes, the situation there will be that every day, instead of praying there, there will be arguments," Ravitz told Israel Radio, adding that the wall "is not the place for demonstrations."
In response, Knesset member Naomi Hazan of the left-wing Meretz, introduced a counterbill to legislate free worship at the Western Wall.
Hazan accused the United Torah Jewish bill of equating Israel to fundamentalist Iran.
"The Western Wall belongs to all Jews, to men and women, to ultra- Orthodox, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and even secular Jews who come to the wall to pray there every once in a while when they feel the need," Hazan told Israel Radio.
Reform and Conservative leaders and Women of the Wall activists in the United States joined Hazan in condemning the fervently Orthodox parties' proposed legislation, although they were skeptical that it would actually become law.
Passage of such a law would "make the conversion crisis look like child's play," Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, executive director of the Reform movement's ARZA World Union, said, referring to the controversy over whether non-Orthodox conversions should be legally recognized in Israel.
"To codify through the highest sovereign body of the Jewish people-- the parliament of Israel -- that this is an ultra-Orthodox synagogue and all others need not come is to violate the fundamental unity of the Jewish people," Hirsch said.
Rabbi Jerome Epstein, executive director of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, said he finds the proposed legislation "outrageous and abhorrent," but is not surprised by it.
"They're going to do everything they possibly can to block the decision of the court," he said of the fervently Orthodox parties.
Phyllis Chesler, a New York-based scholar and psychotherapist who was one of the plaintiffs in the Women of the Wall suit, agreed that the proposed legislation is not surprising, but said it imposes far more extreme penalties than have ever been suggested in the past.
Rabbi Avi Shafran, a spokesman for the fervently Orthodox Agudath Israel of America, said it is important to legislate against the Supreme Court decision, which he said could spur groups such as humanistic Jews and Hebrew Christians to demand prayer space and thus "lead to the balkanization of the Kotel."
It is unclear whether the government's request for a review will be accepted by the court, and whether this might jeopardize the Reform and Conservative movement's fairly warm relations with Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
So far, Reform and Conservative leaders are willing to give Barak the benefit of the doubt.
ARZA's Hirsch said the government's action is "disappointing," but it is better than under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which supported the so-called conversion bill, which would have overturned Supreme Court decisions recognizing non-Orthodox conversions.
Of the Barak government's request for a review, United Synagogue's Epstein said, "I don't regard it as a positive sign."
"But he's got to do what he's got to do because the truth of the matter is that his agenda is not this," he added, noting that the peace process and economy are higher priorities right now for Barak, and that he cannot risk upsetting the fervently Orthodox parties.
(© Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc. The above
information is available on a read-only basis and cannot be reproduced
without permission from JTA.)
There are beautiful moments that come with no need to search for them, and which leave wonderful feelings. Something like that happened to the Mitzvah Group of our Jewish school when we received the visit of Mrs. Frances Feigen. Mrs. Feigen is Mariel's grandmother, one of our Mitzvah students. Not only did she join us in class one afternoon, but she basically gave the class.
She is a survivor of the Holocaust. We hardly can find the words to express our gratitude for sharing with us the story of her life. To listen to her tell her memories in such an expressive way was an unique experience that left its mark on all of us. We gladly await her return to Costa Rica, so that we can again enjoy her company.
Also, a special thank you to Débora Baum, who served as translator for the occasion.
On Saturday night, June 3, the sisterhood sponsored an absolutely delightful dinner dance and auction at the Cariari Country Club for the benefit of our synagogue and religious school. We had a full house! It's hard to believe that raising money for a cause dear to all our hearts could be so much fun!
First of all, thanks must go to our most competent and enthusiastic Bonnie Fischer, Sisterhood President, and her committee. Their dedication in planning and publicizing the event, securing the great array of prizes, decorating the rancho all came together perfectly as we entered a fairy land festooned by confetti and colorful balloons and were faced with the auction table heavily laden with grand prizes. The young people who kept the bids in order were efficient, polite, and set a wonderful example for today's youth.
A few of the prizes included two round trip plane tickets in Costa Rica, a plane ticket to New York, quite a variety of jewelry, art work, and religious objects. There were bricks from our original bimah, several dental appointments and a chiropractic appointment, a day of beauty, a weekend at Los Sueños, a brunch at the San Jose Marriott, an overnight at La Posada bed and breakfast, an Indian dinner for six served in your home, and much more.
Music filled the air with something for everyone - Latin rhythms, Jewish tunes, disco specialties, and Ken's and my favorite "Rock Around the Clock" which we first heard at the first movie we ever attended together "Blackboard Jungle" in the early 50's! I can't remember when we've had such fun dancing.
A lovely buffet dinner was served. There were two excellent salads, seasoned rice, vegetables, both a chicken breast and meat dishes, rolls and butter with a light pudding for dessert.
The auction winners were announced and more dancing followed.
A significant amount was earned which provides quite a needed boost for our building project. We can all be very proud of Bonnie Fischer and our Sisterhood. Do yourself a favor and help with ideas and money when you are asked. Feel free to initiate fund raising ideas and ideas for attracting new members to our congregation. We are a wonderful group, we have so much to be proud of. We and our children deserve the very best of our efforts in order to provide a place in which our Judaism can grow and flourish.
When we can have an event such as this and share so much fun and fellowship, there is no reason for not having full participation at all of our events. I can't wait for the next one!
It happens every spring - a remarkable convergence of Jewish and Christian calendars. We are much more mindful of the coinciding of Hanukkah and Christmas in winter. Yet these two festivals have little in common and hardly share the same patrimony. But this is not the case with Pesach and Shavuot on the Jewish side and Easter and Pentecost on the Christian. The resemblance they manifest in both timing and meaning attest to the deep structural affinity between Judaism and Christianity.
Easter is the one Christian festival that has no fixed date on the calendar. It falls each year on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Since Pesach is also a spring festival that falls on 15 Nissan, which is always a full moon, Pesach and Easter often overlap. Remember that the Jewish calendar is a lunar one adjusted to the solar year by the addition of an extra month every two or three years just prior to the month of Nissan to keep the festivals in their seasons. This year (1999), for example, Easter occurred on April 4, which coincided with the fourth day of Pesach.
The convergence in time amplifies the similarity in meaning. Both holy days deliver a message of redemption and salvation. For Judaism, Pesach commemorates a historical event that endowed the Jewish people with a universal mission of ethical monotheism. For Christianity, Easter commemorates another historical event redolent with the promise of eternal life to the individual believer. The bedrock of each faith community, both events interface the liturgy of each at this season and throughout the year.
Exactly fifty days after the celebration of Easter, Christians assemble again to observe the festival of Pentecost (Greek for fiftieth), which recalls the moment when the Holy Spirit graced Jesus' apostles, enabling them to speak in tongues they knew not (Acts 2:1-4). The festival constitutes an astounding parallel to Shavuot, which we celebrate this week, precisely fifty days after the second day of Pesach, when we began to count the Omer for a period of seven complete weeks. The Hebrew name simply means "weeks" and preserves the close link of the festival to Pesach. Indeed in the Torah, Shavuot terminates the wheat harvest begun at Pesach and thus gives closure to Pesach much as Shemini Atzeret does to Sukkot, with the number seven being the principle governing both sets of relationships. It is the Rabbis, in the early centuries of the first millennium who affixed the revelation at Mount Sinai to Shavuot, even as they determined its final date to be the sixth of Sivan. Hence, both Judaism and Christianity transposed the rebirth of spring from a natural to a historical key.
However, the interaction between the calendars is not restricted to antiquity. Nor does influence appear to flow only one way. In the 19th century, Jewish religious reformers borrowed from their Christian neighbors the rite of confirmation long associated with the festival of Pentecost. In the Catholic Church, confirmation was one of the seven sacraments, sometimes called the "sacrament of Christian maturity." Performed at the age of reason, it signifies the voluntary internalization of a faith imposed at birth by baptism. The Spirit bestowed at that first Pentecost is transmitted through instruction to all Christians.
In their reworking of tradition, Reform leaders strove to replace bar mitzvah with confirmation. The age of thirteen struck them as embarrassingly short of adulthood. And no rite existed within Judaism to mark the passage of young women to maturity. Accordingly, early on they adapted a form of confirmation for adolescents to be celebrated on Shavuot that would herald the completion of their Jewish education and acceptance of adult responsibility, akin to the experience of Israel at Sinai.
Yet one final instance of intersection. Shavuot, unlike Pesach and Sukkot, is not particularly rich in ritual. In the 16th century, the Kabbalists of Safed introduced the practice of spending the first night of the festival awake in group study (Tikkun Leil Shavuot). The innovation rested on the Zohar's belief that what actually takes place at Sinai is not just renewal of the covenant but the reenactment of the marriage between God and Israel. The night before, all those in the entourage of the bride adorn her with ornaments through the ritualized study of Torah (Gershom Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, pp 138-39).
Much older is the custom mentioned in the Shulchan Arukh to strew the interior of the synagogue for Shavuot with grass and leaves. While the reason given is to serve as an allusion to Mount Sinai which stood astride grazing fields (Exodus 34:3), I prefer to relate the practice to the idea of the Mishna that at Shavuot, God determines the fecundity of fruit trees, an extension of the biblical command to bring one's first fruits to the central sanctuary on Shavuot (Mishna, Rosh Hashana1:2; Numbers 28:26). The connection even led to adorning the synagogue with actual trees. The decorations underscored the original agricultural roots of the festival. But the profusion of plants in the synagogue came to resemble too closely church practice on Whitsunday (white being the color of the confirmants) and the Gaon of Vilna at the end of the 18th century forbade the custom (Mishna Berura 494:3).
Like the study of a foreign language which helps us understand our own, the study of comparative religion brings us to appreciate what is shared and distinctive about the religion we avow.
Hag Sameach ve-Shabbat Shalom,
Ismar Schorsch
Talk about how it feels to get a wonderful present. How do they take care of the present? Do they just stash it away in a closet never to use it ? Do they share it ? Do they use it everyday or just once in a while ? Do they keep it in a special place and wrap it in a special cover ?
Relate their responses to the Torah. Be sure they understand that the Torah belongs to them, to everyone, not to a Rabbi or a synagogue.
From Jewish Holiday Songs for Children, with dances
and games for all seasons, by Rachel Buchman
Many Jews believe that Jewish law prohibits organ donation; this is despite the fact that most rabbis and other Jewish scholars support the practice of organ donation. In a study done in the Toronto Jewish Community, the most often cited reason for not signing an organ donation card was that the Jewish religion forbids such an act. Many respondents to this study believed that they had been taught that Jewish law prohibits organ donation. In Toronto, it appeared that the more Jewish education that the respondent had; the more likely he was to believe that Jewish law prohibits organ donation. One could conclude that the Jewish educational system is not advocating organ donation.
This may also be true in Lexington, Kentucky. Upon finding that my husband, Lou, and I chose to donate Joseph's viable organs, we were asked, "What did the Rabbi say?" "I thought Jews couldn't do that?" One person even said, "I'm glad you did, I always thought if Jews could receive organs, then they should donate them" Once they told us Joseph had suffered "brain stem death", organ donation was the obvious next step for Joseph. For us, like the Flatows, it was the right thing to do.
The principle of Pekuach Nefesh, the obligation to save people's lives, comes from Leviticus 18:5, "You'll observe My decrees and My laws, which man shall carry out and which by he shall live." The sages interpreted from the "... and by which he shall live," the commandments were given for the sake of life not death. Therefore, if a performance of a commandment endangers life, the need to preserve life supersedes. The only exceptions are the three cardinal sins of idolatry, forbidden sexual activities, and murder. That is to say, that if you must violate the Shabbat in order to save your life, not only are you permitted to violate the Shabbat, you are commanded to do so. Further, Jews are commanded not only to do virtually anything necessary to save their own lives; they are bound by the positive obligation found in Leviticus 19:16 "... you shall not stand idle while your fellow's blood is shed -- I am Hashem." This verse, according to Rashi and Sifra is interpreted to mean if someone's life is in danger, you must try and save him. Later, the Chosen Mishpat adds, "Although one is not required to endanger his own life to save another, he should not be overly protective of his own safety." It's clear that Jews are required to help others in need.
So, what issues keep Jews feeling that Jewish law forbids organ donation? According to Rabbi Robert Dobrusin, Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor, Michigan, "The first and most obvious objection regards laws relating to the treatment of a body after death." Indeed, Jewish law does prohibit desecration of the body and gaining benefit from the body and delaying the burial of the body. A second objection could stem from the question of "How could a dead person be obligated to follow the commandment 'to save a life'?" Again, in Jewish law, the dead are not obligated to obey the mitzvot. The most serious objection to organ donation may be the question as to "when is a person dead?" according to Jewish law. Organs for transplant must be taken while respiration and circulation is ongoing through artificial support. The classic Jewish definition of death "i the absence of spontaneous respiration in patients with no other signs of life."
Rabbi Moses Tendler states, "Saving any human life is halachically mandated so that we transgress the laws of Shabbat to do so." If the mitzvah of "saving a life" s so paramount, that it supersedes other mitzvot, then here too, it must supersede the prohibitions concerning desecrating the body, gaining benefit from the body, and delaying the burial of the body. According to KODA (Kentucky Organ Donation Associates) donated organs are moved surgically in a routine operation similar to gall bladder or appendix removal. Normal funeral arrangements are possible. In fact, to keep a person who has been declared "brain dead" on life support without the intention of organ donation, might be considered halanat hamet, "the delay of burying a dead person," according to Rabbi David Novak.
The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the Rabbinical Assembly, "Chesed or Chiyuv," the obligation to preserve life and the question of post-mortem organ donation, December 1995, states "The consent required for organ donation is given prior to one's death, or by surviving, responsible relatives.... The act of consent while alive (or the consent of survivors) constitutes the fulfillment of the mitzvah itself." The article further states that it is curious, as to why organ donation has not been a long standing tradition in Judaism, since historically according to Maimonides, "All Israel are commanded to take life saving action" (Maimonides, Hilchot RotZeach u'Shmirat Nefesh, 1:14). Early Responsa written in the 1950, may have been influenced by rejection rate of early transplants leaving to question as to whether or not a transplant was really "saving a life." Today's immuno-suppressive therapy already accounts for a near doubling of the numbers of heart, kidney, and liver transplants performed. These advances have increased the survival rates. Kidney transplants currently enjoy an 80-90% success rate; heart transplant 80-90%; liver transplant 70-80%; lung 70-73%; and combined heart-lung transplant 70%. The Hartford Transplant Center's Fact Sheet, Organ/Tissue Donation and Transplantation states that "Success implies restoration of the recipient's quality of life and normal life expectancy."
Further early in transplant history, there was no sophisticated, coordinated, and computerized national and international organ registries, therefore the rabbis may have felt that mandating donation would have been premature, as questions about "Who's life is being saved?" Rabbis understood the Pekuach Nefesh required to a "specific recipient" and early in transplant history recipients were more difficult to locate and identify. This is no longer the case as United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), a government sanctioned organ registry, maintains lists of 50,400 people currently awaiting transplant in the United Stated, alone. We know there is a need and who the individuals in need are. While about 18,000 transplants are performed each year, an estimated 8-10 people die every day waiting for a life-giving organ. We as Jews can certainly help.
When is a person considered dead? Rabbi Jakobovits, in 1975, summed up the basic issues stating "The question of defining the moment of death with precision has... been rendered both more difficult and more critically acute by... the demand for viable organs for transplant purposes. The lapse of only a few minutes may spell the difference between success and failure in such operations; on the other hand, premature removal of organs from the dying may hasten death and constitute murder." All rabbinic authorities agree that the classic definition of death in Judaism is the absence of spontaneous respiration in a patient with no other signs of life. The question remains, is a person alive if the heart is beating, but his brain is dead, and so he can not breathe on his own? "Brain death" has only been used to determine death since 22nd World Medical Assembly, in 1968. They defined "brain death" as "permanent functional death of the centers of the brain that control breathing, pupillary, and other vital reflexes." Rabbis Seymour Siegel, Elliot Dorff, Avram Reisner, and David Golinkin, all of the Rabbinical Assembly, as well as Rabbi Moshe Tendler, an Orthodox authority on Jewish medical issues, and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, are all proponents of this definition of death. Rabbi Tendler states that "We look for the cessation of all brain function, including the brain stem, the top, the cerebrum, the middle, and the base. If it's all gone, the individual is dead." He further explained that newly developed MRI test can clearly differentiate between a patient in a coma and a patient who has expired.
The rabbis of the Mishnah, 0-200 C.E., wrote that if a person os buried underneath a heap of stones on Shabbat, one is allowed to remove the stones to rescue him. However, once he is found to be dead, one must wait until Shabbat ends and then finish clearing of the rocks to bury him. The rabbis of the Gemara, 200-500 C.E., questioned when does the rescue effort stop. Opinion A, when you reach the nose and discover the victim is not breathing. Opinion B, when you reach the heart and discover it is not beating. Opinion A seems to support that a "brain dead" person is dead, while Opinion B would seem to support that the "brain dead" person is alive, because the heart is still beating. The Gemara concludes that both opinions must hold that the breathing is essence of life as it is written in the Creation Story... "All that is alive which is breathing." The conclusion of the rabbis was that if you dig and discover the heart first, and it is not beating, you should stop your digging; if the heart is ot beating the person is not breathing and therefore dead. And if you discover the nose first, and find that there is no breathing, the person is dead. The rabbis support that a person is in fact dead as he can no longer breath on his own. The Talmud also discusses that a decapitation is the same as death even if movement continues. Today's rabbis view "brain death" as a physiologic decapitation, even when machine support the viable organs.
In his talk, "The Ethics of Organ Donation," Rabbi Moses Tendler stated "... death ALWAYS meant brain death -- it was simply defined in cardiopulmonary activity before more sophisticated means of determination were available. The brain cannot be dead and body alive: 'brain death' is an unfortunate misnomer." Medical studies have shown that if a person is truly "brain dead," even on life support, that person's viable organs will cease to function in average of five days. The rabbis are very clear that if the patient has suffered brain damage to the point that they are no longer able to function, but are able to breath on their own, without the aid of machine, they are NOT brain dead. This was the case for Karen Quinlan, who after being removed from life support lived for multiple years. It was not the case for Alisa Flatow, in Israel. Nor was it the case for Joseph Kroot in Lexington, whose body began to deteriorate in the seven hours he was on "life support." While Joseph's kidneys remained viable, his heart had deteriorated so that only his heart valves were used for two children who otherwise would have mechanical valves; and his liver had small areas of ischemia, lack of oxygen, which allowed only 70% of the liver's hepatocytes to be transplanted into an individual who continued to wait for matching donor.
There are opposing opinions, mostly from right-wing orthodox groups, that consider "brain death" to be ambiguous according to a ruling by the late revered Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach.
These same groups opposed to donation, do not prohibit Jews from benefiting from organ transplants. Leaving other rabbis shaking their heads from the ruling. Rabbi Tendler stating that "If a person is NOT dead by our halachic definition when he is 'brain dead' then to go and take an organ from a non Jew means you are killing a non Jew to save a Jew." Rabbi Marc Angel states that this all-take and no-give policy is "morally repugnant."
Alisa Flatow's case may have changed some minds in Israel on this issue. Weeks after her death, Rabbi Yehoshua Scheinberger, Health Minister of Eidah Haharedit, a body for Israel's ultra-Orthodox, made a ruling allowing the accepting of "brain death" and donating of organs with several conditions. These conditions include forbidding the donated organs to be transplanted into bodies of "nonbelievers, gentiles, or Arabs who hate Israel." "Most secular Israeli fall in the category of non-believers.) A further condition is that an Orthodox rabbi sit on the committee that approves the transplant. These conditions were rejected by the Israel Transplant Association, and criticized by others who felt that there is no basis in Halakha or in Jewish morality to support limiting a donation to a Jewish or an observant Jewish recipient. Still, others like Rabbi Tendler feel that while the decision has an "halachical, emotional, and sociological" error, it is a positive ruling for "brain death."
Still, many believe that the biggest problem for donation is lack of communication. "If you ask the person in the street," says Dr. Mordechai Kramer, an Orthodox Jew who coordinated the Lung Transplant Program at Hadassah Hospital, "the majority are willing to donate. It is their families who do not understand "brain death," they want to continue to believe that the patient will get better." The public has to be reassured that donating an organ doesn't mean that death will be hastened in any way. Further, families need to talk with one another to understand each other's wishes and beliefs. Rabbi Tendler states that "Torah does not require one to do something that is painful (e.g. emotionally painful to the family of the donor)," but wonders "how can saving a life be painful?" It can be painful, when there are questions that can't be answered. Will my loved one feel that his body has been desecrated by organ donation or that his "gift of life" has brought honor to him? We knew Joseph's wishes. We had talked as a family about this issue.
I have spoken with Rabbi Adland and Rabbi Slaton, and both support organ donation. The Reform and Conservative Movements support organ donation. Further both movements have made donor cards available to members. Consult your Rabbi for any concerns. Sign and carry your religious affiliation card or the back of driver's license. MOST IMPORTANT: Talk with your family and let them know your wishes, they are the ones who will make the decisions in the event you are unable.
We know that Joseph did not live a long life, but his life was full. He was kind, generous, a little impish, and Jewish. He could not read well, but his corneas are now reading. He didn't find the cure to cancer, but he did follow the Jewish mitzvah of Pekuach Nefesh and "saved lives." We are reminded of the ring given to Schindler in Schindler's List, stating the Talmudic saying, "He, who saves a life, saves the world." What an honor for our Joseph.
5760 Year according to Jewish calendar
4697 Year according to Chinese calendar
1063 Total # of years that Jews went without Chinese food
Short summary of every Jewish Holiday:
They tried to kill us, we won, let's eat.
Jewish view on when life begins: There's a big controversy on when life begins. In Jewish tradition the fetus is not considered viable until after it graduates from medical school.
Jewish telegram: "Begin worrying. Details to follow."
Q: - What do you call steaks ordered by 10 Jews?
A: - Filet minyan.Q: - If a doctor carries a black bag and a plumber carries a tool box, what does a mohel carry?
A:- A Bris-kit!Q - What did the waiter ask the group of dining Jewish mothers?
A - "Is ANYTHING all right?"Q - Where does a Jewish husband hide money from his wife?
A - Under the vacuum cleaner.Q: - How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: - (Sigh) Don't bother, I'll sit in the dark, I don't want to be a nuisance to anybody.
Q: - What's the difference between a Rottweiler and a Jewish Mother?
A: - Eventually, the Rottweiler lets go.
(because
in English it sounds as "Hi"and for its meaning)