We Wonder Why Public Education is Failing?

I was listening to the Kojo Nnamdi show today on WAMU. At one point, the current head of the Prince George's County (Maryland) school system  used the non-existent and illogical word "irregardless." We wonder why public education is failing? When superintendents, chancellors and others can't use proper English, we must really start to question our standards.

To his credit, John Deasy, the Superintendent of Prince George's County Public Schools did properly use the word "remuneration," which Kojo then repeated with the frequent misspeaking "renumeration." (Which, given Kojo's usually erudite prose, was quite surprising.)

Abuse of the English language is everywhere,and becoming far too common, even among people holding the most important of positions. (Need I say more about one George W. Bush?)

Random Musing Before Shabbat - Tol'dot 5768 - Alternate Histories, Alternate Shmistories

Random Musing Before Shabbat - Tol'dot 5768

Alternate Histories, Alternate Shmistories

Alternate histories have become a popular form of fiction these days. As I've already taken the liberty of  creating modern midrashim to enhance my understanding of the Torah, why not go that one step further? I was sort of on the cusp of doing this with my recent musing based on the "Diary of Terakh." Imagine, perhaps, a world in which Terakh was the one first called by G"d to go forth, and had completed the journey all the way to the promised land, becoming the progenitor of the Jewish people.

If you can imagine that, why not imagine other scenarios?

Rebekkah, already unhappy with Esav for marrying outside the clan, and clearly favoring Yaakov, overhears her feeble old husband Yitzkhak say to Esav that he wanted to give Esav his blessing, and asked him go out, hunt some game, and prepare his favorite dish, after which time he would give Esav the "blessing of his soul."

She  hurries to Yaakov, and instructs him to essentially deceive his father so that he might receive the blessing instead of Esav.

Yaakov may be studious and a mama's boy, but upon hearing this suggestion refuses to do as his mother asks, and even chastises her for being so duplicitous. 

Rebekkah's response:

Alternate 1)  She tells Yaakov to not be such a hypocrite - after all, he had already tricked his brother out of the birthright! Yaakov is chagrined and decides to go along with his Mother's plan after all.

 Alternate 2) Rebekkah recognizes the enormity of what she has asked Yaakov to do, and asks forgiveness from Yaakov and G"d. Esav returns home, prepares a meal for his father, and receives his father's blessing.

OK, now we have a weird situation. Yaakov has the birthright, but Esav has the blessing. So what happens? Maybe G"d invents lawyers?

Let's try another.

Rebekkah holds her tongue and says nothing to Yaakov. Esav returns and receives his father's blessing. OK, we're back to that same weird situation. Call in the lawyers.

And another.

Yaakov agrees to go along with Rebekkah's plan. However, Yitzkhak discovers Yaakov's deception and angrily denounces him. Yaakov says "it was all my mother's idea." Yaakov sends Yitzkhak and Rebekkah away (and they go off to live with Hagar and Yishmael - there's a whole story in itself. Does Hagar at first refuse to take them in and is later persuaded by Yishmael to do so?) Yitzkhak gives his blessing to Esav, and the Jewish people are stillborn. G"d looks for another lineage to carry on (perhaps Yishmael?)

The possibilities are endless. entire books could be written of alternate biblical histories. (Note to self - see if there's a market for this.)

In the end, however, all this is just mental self-gratification (I'll use that euphemistic substitute for decorum's sake.) Whatever happened then, whatever happened at Sinai, whatever happened at a thousands other instants in history - none of that changes the fact that we are here, now. The Jewish people survive - mir zenen do, as the Partisaner Leid says. As I've said a thousand times to students, teachers, and others - unless your a literalistic fundamentalist, it doesn't really matter if things happened exactly as related in the Torah. If the rabbis could view the Torah's stories of creation as metaphoric, the rest of the text is no less suspect. Speaking for myself, the historical accuracy of the text makes little difference. Whatever really happened, I am here now. I accept that I, as a Jew, have been charged with certain obligations and responsibilities. Our heritage provides me with ethical guidance, suggestions on how to live in this world, how to interact with others, how to build a better world. It also provides me with plenty of examples of how not to do that. Whatever choices my ancestors made, the choices are now mine to make. And if Coca-Cola can use it in a commercial, why can't I. As the knight guarding the grail said to Indiana Jones, "choose wisely."

Hmmm - didn't I read something like that somewhere in the Torah?

This Shabbat, and every Shabbat, the choice is mine, the choice is yours, and the choice is ours. Let us pray that we all choose wisely.

Shabbat Shalom,

Adrian

©2007 by Adrian A. Durlester
--

Are Parents Really to Blame for Why Hebrew schools Fail?

While, as a religious school administrator, my first reflex upon seeing the title of this article was "yay, finally somebody who will say it out loud!", upon further reflection, it's a rather simplistic, perhaps even naive and dangerous view.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/virtualtalmud/2007/11/the-parents.html

We do need the parents to be more active and enthusiastic, no doubt. and yes, I do believe that Jewish education in supplemental schools has gotten better. "We're not your parents' (or grandparents') religious school" Yet to simply lay the blame solely at the feet of parents is to abrogate responsibility. We must involve all stakeholders in solving this problem. And we all do share some of the blame.

Parents must be involved, must be insistent, and willing if supplemental Jewish education is to work. If they are not, is it entirely their fault? Of that I am not sure.

Yes, I wish more parents would place greater emphasis on spiritual nourishment for their children than on soccer. If they are not, is that their failing, or ours?

Personal Web Pages Mess. A (Formerly? Loyal) Comcast Subscriber Asks: Is It Time to Pursue a Class Action?

Back in 1998, I first signed up for cable modem service with home.com, which was quickly acquired by Comcast. I've been a relatively loyal customer since, and haven't really had a lot of service problems over the years. All in all, I've been a pretty satisfied customer of Comcast Internet. So much so that I now use their bundled Internet/digital phone/digital cable package. Comcast has generally been quick to repair or correct problems, and there have been few serious service outages.

 Like others, I was thrilled to learn that Comcast was finally upgrading the personal web pages service, giving each user more space, more features, etc. All their messages said the transition would be seamless.

It has been anything but seamless. To begin with, I lost access to my personal web page service almost a week before ever receiving official notice from Comcast that my service was going to be upgraded. I had received a generic announcement from them announcing the upgrades, and letting subscribers know that they would receive a message when their transition was scheduled. So my upgrading has supposedly commenced before I was even told it was going to commence. Expecting it all to be seamless, I figured I might have back in a few hours, maybe a day, but it had already been a week, and I had already called, used web-chat and e-mail to inquire about the timetable. Each time I simply received an assurance that Comcast was aware of the problem and was working to resolve it. Each time they refused to give an estimated time of completion. It has now almost three weeks, and despite repeated queries, all I get is the same stock answer. Three times now, a service agent has promised to "escalate" my request up a tier so that my transition would be quickly completed. Basically, three times these agents lied to me, as each future inquiry the agent told me there was no such escalation request put on my account.

For almost three weeks now, my personal home page has appeared to all who visit it with  "last updated on Oct. 12, 2007."  Does not Comcast understand how it is making its subscribers look bad? Do they not care? Do they train their employees to lie to placate customers? Did they know before they started this "upgrade" that it would be such a major mess, and take so long? If not, why not? Who dropped the ball?

Comcast owes it subscribers a refund for all the time the service was unavailable to them. Not one peep from them about that. Anyone interested in pursuing a class action against them?

Personal Web Pages Mess. A (Formerly? Loyal) Comcast Subscriber Asks: Is It Time to Pursue a Class Action?

Back in 1998, I first signed up for cable modem service with home.com, which was quickly acquired by Comcast. I;ve been a relatively loyal customer since, and haven't really had a lot of service problems over the years. All in all, I've been a pretty satisfied customer of Comcast Internet. So much so that I now use there bundled Internet/digital phone/digital cable package. Comcast has generally been quick to repair or correct problems, and there have been few serious service outages.

 

Like others, I was thrilled to learn that Comcast was finally upgrading the personal web pages service, giving each user more space, more features, etc. All their messages said the transition would be seamless.

It has been anything but seamless. To begin with, I lost access to my personal web page service almost a week before ever receiving official notice from Comcast that my service was going to be upgraded. I had received a generic announcement from them announcing the upgrades, and letting subscribers know that they would receive a message when their transition was scheduled. So my upgrading has supposedly commenced before I was even told it was going to commence. Expecting it all to be seamless, I figured I might have back in a few hours, maybe a day, but it had already been a week, and I had already called, used web-chat and e-mail to inquire about the timetable. Each time I simply received an assurance that Comcast was aware of the problem and was working to resolve it. Each time they refused to give an estimated time of completion. It has now almost three weeks, and despite repeated queries, all I get is the same stock answer. Three times now, a service agent has promised to "escalate" my request up a tier so that my transition would be quickly completed. Basically, three times these agents lied to me, as each future inquiry the agent told me there was no such escalation request put on my account.

For almost three weeks now, my personal home page has appeared to all who visit it with  "last updated on Oct. 12, 2007."  Does not Comcast understand how it is making its subscribers look bad? Do they not care? Do they train their employees to lie to placate customers? Did they know before they started this "upgrade" that it would be such a major mess, and take so long? If not, why not? Who dropped the ball?

Comcast owes it subscribers a refund for all the time the service was unavailable to them. Not one peep from them about that. Anyone interested in pursuing a class action against them?

Random Musing Before Shabbat - Hayyei Sarah 5768 - A High Price

Comcast's "upgrade" to their personal web page hosts have still left me without the ability to upload to my personal website at www.durlester.com. It has been over 2-1/2 weeks! I am posting my Random Musings on my blog so they will be available.

Random Musing Before Shabbat - Hayyei Sarah 5768

A High Price

Was it anguish? Bereavement? Lack of faith in G"d's promises? Mere practicality?

What was it that drove Avraham to practically beg his Hittite hosts for permission to acquire a small piece of property so he could bury his (first) wife there?

In time honored tradition (yes, even back then, they had such things)  the Hittites offer to give Abraham any of their own burial places as a gift. Dancing the well-known dance, Avraham refuses their generosity (slyly desiring to not be beholden to the Hittites) and asks to be allowed to purchase a choice burial spot from the Hittite Ephron.

Ephron does his pre-choreographed step and offers to make a gift of the plot to Avraham. Avraham counters again, insisting he be permitted to purchase the desired plot from Ephron for the "full" price.

Now here's where we need to go back a bit. when Avraham  first refuses the generosity of the Hittites, he asks them to assist him in dealing with Ephron. (The Hebrew word is fig'u, from the root fey, gimel, ayin, meaning  to plead for someone, to urge.) Avraham knew, before he even started the dance, that Ephron was going to extract a high, perhaps even outrageous price for the burial plot. What Avraham was really seeking from the Hittites was to keep Ephron in line, so the negotiation dance would end in a fair exchange of cash for land.

Alas, despite the obligatory rehearsed "generosity" of the Hittite hosts, they did not intercede on Avraham's behalf with Ephron. Ephron responds to Avraham's now publicly professed insistence on paying whatever price Ephron asks (hoping that Ephron will, under duress from his fellow Hittites, actually be fair) with a ritually phrased response - asking Avraham "why should we let an insignificant and petty amount like 400 shekels of silver come between us. Pay me this, and the land is yours." Not exactly the answer Avraham was hoping for.

400 shekels of silver is an absolutely outrageous price for the time. Even allowing for variations in the definition of a "shekel" as a measure of weight that may have occurred over the centuries, 400 shekels is easily ten or twenty times the fair value for such a small parcel of land.

It seems, as well, that a precedent was set. For the people Israel, holding on to this land has always come at a high price. The question then arises, when is that price too high?

G"d is silent on what could be considered a lack of faith on Avraham's part. G"d perhaps is coming to understand that human beings often require just a little something tangible to keep them hopeful of intangible goals and futures promised.

And we, after 1900 years of exile and persecution, and fresh on the heels of the most vicious and heinous attempt in history to wipe us out, surely cannot be blamed for our desire to hold on to that same piece of land, now restored to us. Yet once again, the question must be asked, at what price?

Avraham danced the ritual dance of negotiation with the Hittites. He paid an extremely high price for acquiring the burial plot that included the cave of Machpelah. Centuries later, his descendants had to fight to acquire this land, promised to them by G"d? (Had Avraham's faith been greater, might his descendants have simply walked into the land and possessed it, by G"d's grace? We'll never know.)

Today, modern negotiators are engaged in yet another ritual dance. We presume that they, like Avraham and the Hittites, know the steps. (We must ask, first of all, if the negotiating parties are each following a common set of rules and procedures. It's hard to be sure. Only time will tell.)

In this dance, will we once again have to pay too high a price to get exactly what we want? Perhaps we can learn to recognize when the price is too high, and settle for something less than everything we want?

Perhaps we may come to realize that a price paid almost 3 millennia ago no longer gives us the title to which we think we are entitled. Avraham knew that, as a resident alien among the Hittites, he was not actually entitled to own land. He needed their permission, and he needed to pay a fair price. Perhaps we, too, must be willing to pay a fair price to those we dwell among for the right to own some of their land.

It is not my intent with any of these words to be pro-Zionist, or anti-Zionist, or anything similar. I ask only that all sides learn to negotiate in good faith. Abraham may not have wound up with the fairest deal, but he negotiated honestly, and when, in the end, he had to pay what must have seemed an outrageously high price, he kept his word. We must do no less. And by "we" I mean all sides in this dispute.

In the end, none of the land belongs to us - we are but stewards upon G"d's land. All our negotiations and dealings can seem petty when placed in that framework. I pray that someday all the world will come to know this, and we can all live together in peace.

Shabbat Shalom,

Random Musing Before Shabbat - Lekh Lekha 5768 - The Covenant That (almost) Wasn't

Random Musing Before Shabbat - Lekh Lekha 5768

The Covenant That (almost) Wasn't

(Excerpts from the Diary of Terakh)

Dear Diary:

Last night, the strangest thing happened. I had gone out for my evening constitutional. I walked along the river. On the other side I could see the glow of fires and could faintly hear the sounds of people in the city.  Why, you might ask, would I want to walk by the river and see all that we left behind? Did we not choose, as did the others here in our little country community, to take the risk and move away from there, across the river to this side. Or perhaps, to those we left behind, the other side. Do you know, they actually have a name for us - they call us Ivri, those who have crossed over the Tigris.

I walk there not because I miss the city, its urgent lifestyle and sinful ways. It is to remind me of my choice to forsake those things in search of a better life, a place where I, where all my tribe, can be better people. I have no regrets anymore. If anything, I'd like to move even further away.

These thoughts crowding my mind, I walked unaware, and soon found myself well away from both our new home, and the city. It was an empty place, quiet and peaceful, yet not very familiar. I sat down for a moment upon a rock to gather my wits. It was then that a voice spoke to me. "Terakh," the voice said. Cautious about revealing my location to a bandit, I remained silent. The voice called again, insistently, "Terakh." It didn't seem to be coming from any particular place, it was all around me, yet at the same time, nowhere. It called a third time, even more insistently. "Terakh." This time I threw caution to the wind and answered "I am here."

The voice said: "Go forth from your native land to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing."

I was dumbstruck. I didn't know what to say, what to ask. I wasn't sure who was talking to me. Could it have been the god El, or perhaps El Elyon, the highest god? Perhaps it was just some friends playing a trick on me? I just couldn't be certain.

I ran home as quickly as I could. Thoughts raced through my mind. Was this a god talking to me? Was I being tested? Perhaps the gods had knowledge of some of my innermost secrets. I've mentioned them to you before, diary. How I am beginning to wonder if all these gods are really just one and the same - they are all just "the" god. El Elyon.

If the gods are testing me, perhaps I should be worried. Maybe it is a warning. On the other hand, maybe I've been chosen exactly because of what I have been thinking.

Only one way to be sure. Tonight, I'm going back to that same place. Wish me luck.

Dear Diary:

Well, I wish I could tell you that everything worked out last night, but in some ways I am more confused than ever. I went back to the place where I heard the voice last night. I sat on the same rock. I waited.  And waited. And waited. As I waited, I thought. I imagined scenarios in which one lesser god or another was planning to enlist me in a campaign to increase his status. I wondered again if the various lesser gods were testing me or playing with me. I tried to calm my mind and clear my head by thinking about my idea that there is really only one god. A crystal clarity entered my mind, and just at the moment, the voice spoke again. "Terakh." I decided there was no point in waiting to reply, so I immediately responded "I am here." Again, the voice said: "Go forth from your native land to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing." Summoning up my nerve, I asked "who are you? Are you god?" Again, the voice said: "Go forth from your native land to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing." No matter what I responded, what question I asked - Are you god? Are you a god? "Where should I go? How shall I know when I am there? - I received the same answer: "Go forth from your native land to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing." I finally summoned up the true nerve to ask "and what will i receive if I do as you say?" The voice answered again, "Go forth from your native land to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing." Only this time, it added "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you." Finally, a response, of sorts. Now I just have to figure out what the answer means.

Dear Diary:

I think I figured it out! I've told my old lady, and my son Avram, and all the rest of the clan to start packing - we're moving. I'm sure now that I was right. It was the voice of "the" god that spoke to me, El Elyon. He wants me to go. He won;t tell me where, but he'll let me know when I get there. So how do I know where to go? It's obvious. I almost smacked myself in the head when I realized what the answer was. I simply had to continue the journey I had already started-away from Ur. South and east, perhaps all the way across the Euphrates, perhaps even to the mighty Eastern sea itself. I've heard tell that the land of the Canaanites is quite nice. Maybe we should go there? Well, whatever. When we get to the place where El Elyon wishes us to go, he will surely send us a sign.

Oh, the wife thinks I'm crazy, as does my son  Haran, and his wife.  Now as to Avram - well, his wife Sarai thinks I'm a total nutcase, but Avram, he just listened patiently to me while I explained what was going on. He said not a word the whole time - just listened and nodded, and, at the end, simply said "sounds good to me." Every son should be thus. Ah, if only Nahor, my beloved son now lost to me, had such an attitude and such respect for his elders, he might still be alive.

You'll forgive me if I don't write in you for a while, dear diary. It;'s going to be a busy time packing up and moving out. Wish me luck. Even with a god, no with "the" god, on my side, I can use all the luck I can get. It's going to be a hard journey.

Dear Diary:

It's been a while since I've had a chance to collect my thoughts and write. We finally left our little village and set out on our journey to wherever. It hasn't been easy, let me tell you. Very slow going. During the days, it is stiflingly hot, and in t he night, one could almost freeze in one's tent. Finding water for all the animals, let alone ourselves, has not been that easy. We've gone through far more of our stores of food than I expected.

Still, I know that "the" god won't abandon me, as long as I show faith. And so we will press onward.

Dear Diary:

The journey is taking it's toll, We've lost a number of sheep, some goats, and even a few of the cows. The women are complaining and nagging, the children are all whining, and even my sons are beginning to grouse a bit. I guess I don't blame them. The food is almost gone, water is scarce, and our flocks continue to die off in droves. I sure hope we come to a town soon. I can't believe "the" god would send us out here only to allow us to die. I must keep up my faith, and shepherd not only my flocks, but my clan, onward.

Dear Diary:

This "god" better deliver, and soon. We're out of food except for what little we mange to find or catch, and the last few wells we encountered were either dry or poison. This is what "the" god wants? Each night when we stop, I pray to El Elyon to show us a sign, to deliver us from hunger and thirst. I get no response, though in my head, I can still hear the echoes of those long ago words: "Go forth from your native land to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing." I won't be much of a blessing if I'm dead, will I?

Dear Diary:

Thank "the" god. We have found food, water, shelter, and more. We have come to this marvelous city named Haran. The people are friendly and welcoming, even to strangers like us. They offer us food and water, and allow us to camp near the town. Surely, this is the place that "the" god intends for us to be. I'm just waiting for a sign. Tonight, I went out and built a little altar of stones, and sacrificed a lamb and a dove on it to El Elyon - perhaps his power extends even to this faraway place. I wonder. Here, they seem to have many gods, some with names very much like those back home in Ur. Then there are many strange, new gods. The people here like to worship these gods constantly. They all have many little stone idols to which they pray. Pretty crudely made, I must say. Not a decent stone carver in the whole city, I would wager. Maybe I can pick up a little work on the side...

Dear Diary:

Still no sign from "the" god that this is the place where he wanted us to go. Every night I offer a sacrifice and ask "the" god if this is the place of which he spoke. I get no answer. Surely he will speak to me again so that I will know.

The kinfolk seem to really like this place. They've made lots of friends, and we've managed to begin to replace all the flocks and stores that we lost along the way. Soon we'll be no worse off than when we set out. It would be too bad if we're not meant to stay here.

Dear Diary:

We've been here in Haran almost six months now. My how the time flies. The family is thriving, and things are good. Once every week or so, I still offer a sacrifice to El Elyon, and still I receive no response. I have to admit that, a few times, I've gone into the local temple and offered some sacrifices to a few of the local gods - though I must admit it felt a bit uncomfortable.

I think I mentioned before how the folks here just love to have little stone idols of their gods to which they can pray. One day, I stopped by the shop of one of the local stone carvers and we began talking. I showed him a trick or two I knew about stone carving, and he was very impressed. (To be honest, his work is schlock, and I had to work a little at not making my examples look too good, for fear he would just throw me out!) Anyway, to make a long story short, he hired me on the spot to work in his shop, making little stone idols.  Goodness, these people have a lot of gods. And everyone seems to want a little stone idol of each of them.  Seems kind of silly to me - they pray to these idols as if they were the gods themselves. Well, whatever floats their boat. I've got to get some sleep. I've got a full day of stone-carving ahead of me.

Dear Diary:

Do you know what I actually did last night? I went to that old altar I had built, and offered up a sacrifice to El Elyon. I don;t know what made me decide to do that - perhaps I was nostalgic. Of course, "the", and I mean that sarcastically, of course, "the" god did not respond. No surprise there. Guess it just w wasn't meant to be. well, some of what the god told me is somewhat true. Lots of people here in Haran bless me, and all know my name. They just love the idols I make for them. People come from far away to get my idols. Ever since the old man retired and sold me the business, it's been going like gangbusters. I've had to hire a number of apprentices and helpers.  I even ask Avram and Nahor and  my grandson Lot to help out in t he shop once in a while. They don't seem to mind helping out in the business, and it's more fun than tending to the flocks - and besides, we have plenty of servants to do that sort of stuff. None of them seem to have quite the knack (or interest) in stone carving that I do. That's a shame. I'm hoping I can pass the business on to my sons and their sons - it's a good living.

Oh, I just have to tell you this great story.The other day, I was in the shop and Avram was helping. I had to go make a delivery, and decided it was safe to leave Avram alone in the shop. When I came back, the place was a mess. There were shattered idols everywhere. When I asked Avram what had happened, he told me that one of the bigger stone idols had attacked the others and smashed them. Well, I grabbed him by his tunic and slapped him across the face. "Don't lie to me!" I shouted at him. "You know that these are nothing but stone - they are not gods." You know the smart-aleck son of mine answered? He gets this cocky look in his eye and says to me "Then why, Father, do you and all the other people pray to them?" I was about to let him have it good, just like I did when he was a child - but then I stopped. I realized he was right. I had taught him well - perhaps too well for his own good. Tonight, I think I may talk to him about my idea that all the gods are really just one god in many representations. I wonder what he'll think of that. I just may leave a legacy after all.

Dear Diary:

This isn't Terakh writing, it's Avram. I just found this diary among dad's stuff. I've some sad news to share. Dad died last week. You should have seen the funeral. Almost everyone in town came. They really liked Dad. well, I think perhaps it was his work that they liked. I wonder how they'd feel if they knew he thought their silly little idols were just that - silly little idols - meaningless hunks of rock.

I don;t know if I;m cut out to take over the family business. I'm not much good at stone-carving. But now that I've read this diary of Dad's, I think I have an idea. I'm going to out tonight for a long walk, and stop and sit on a  rock and wait and see if the voice of a god comes to me. wish me luck.

End of diary excerpts.

Like Terakh, how many opportunities have we missed out on, because we weren't patient enough to wait for the guidance we had been promised? Yet, like Terakh, we still have the chance to allow the task that we had been chosen for to be completed - by our future generations. That is why we must teach them well all that we have learned - so they might carry on for us to see the promise fulfilled. G"d is waiting. We need only patience...and faith.

Shabbat shalom,

Adrian

©2007 by Adrian A. Durlester

My thanks to Hazzan Sunny Schnitzer and members of the Kemach and Torah study group at Bethesda Jewish Congregation for suggesting and getting me started on this thread of Torah.

Thank You Comcast-NOT

Dear old Comcast is doing all their subscribers a favor by giving them more space for their websites. How nice of them. However, something seems to have gone wrong during the transition. A good number of sites (my personal site www.durlester.com included) are stuck in a state in which they cannot be updated - even though users can connect to the host, and update web pages as normal. They just don't appear online. Guess they took a snapshot of every site and posted it to a mirror server somewhere and are redirecting URL lookups to that site. Makes me, and thousands of others, look as if we haven't updated our sites lately.

I'm posting my Random Musing for this past Shabbat here since it isn't showing up at my personal site even though the file was posted to it! See the next post here.

Random Musing Before Yom Kippur (cross-posted from my website)

Random Musing Before Shabbat

Yom Kippur 5768

Run Away!

Run away! There are times I truly feel like I want to run away. Yet in this helter-skelter world of ours, where can one run? And do we all really have the freedom to just "run away?"

Running away can be a form of cowardice. It can also be a wise and strategic retreat. It can be a bold escape, or a spineless evasion.

When we are running away, do we know to where we are running? Does the destination matter? Perhaps, sometimes, it does. At other times, it's only a matter of getting away from wherever we are, or whatever situation in which we have found ourselves.

Jonah ran away. Jonah ran away from G"d. Jonah knew perfectly well that, if he went to Nineveh, he would have no choice other than to proclaim G"d's call for Nineveh to repent or be destroyed. Like all prophets, he can only say that which G"d tells him to say. Bilaam knew that. Joseph knew that. Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos and all the rest knew that as well. They can only preach and prophesy that which G"d desires them to preach or prophesy.

Who can blame Jonah. Who wants to be the bearer of such a message? It surely tends to make one unpopular, or a pariah. And so Jonah attempts to run away as far in the opposite direction as he possibly can from Nineveh. Did Jonah truly believe he could escape G"d's reach? Like many others of his time (whenever that really was) did he still accept that gods could be localized?

Jonah did not escape from G"d. That's no surprise. We have to at least give Jonah credit for being a man with some character, as he did indeed instruct the ships crew to throw him overboard when the sea was about to impose G"d's displeasure on them. (Would G"d really have destroyed the ship and its crew just to make a point? And would G"d still have forced Jonah to carry out his assignment by providing a miraculous saving?) When Jonah went overboard, did he truly believe he was plunging to his death, or that he could swim his way to safety? Was he truly surprised when he was snapped up into the belly of a large fish which later spewed him on to dry land so that he might resume his journey to Nineveh?

Today, I feel like Jonah. Those of you who work as religious professionals (or religious semi-pros) can probably understand. This is one of those crazy years. My job is complicated by the fact that I not only serve the congregation as head of the religious school, but I am the accompanist and director for the choir, the go to person for setting up the sound system in the church's Sanctuary, creating the Yizkor book, getting all the signs made and posted, keeping the website updated, leading tot HH Days services, and numerous "other responsibilities as assigned." This year, with the confluence of the Yamim Noraim and the High Holy Days, and their occurring so early in the year, things have been a little zoo-ey, and, needless to say, somewhat stressful.

(*-as a reminder, my congregation has shared space in a Presbyterian church for 44 years. Our regular worship space is not large enough for the High Holy Days crowd. We have religious school on Saturdays.)

There have been times recently when I have truly wanted to "run away." Those visions that some of you are getting in your head of me running away to frantic music, accompanied by the sound of cows being catapulted at me as I retreat, are not far from the reality. It is a very Pythonesque feeling. At least in the Broadway show, they get an intermission at this point. My intermission won't come until after Simchat Torah. Those cows will keep being thrown at me - whether or not I run away.

Yet, like Jonah, I find I can't run away. Unlike Jonah, I haven't made a serious effort to do so, physically. Yet I have certainly tried to do so mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. In my case, I don't want or need to run AWAY from G"d. I need to run TO G"d. I have to find that space where I can do the internal work that will lead me to true t'shuvah.

And so I do try to run away. I tell myself that the labor necessary to insure that our congregants have a meaningful Yom Kippur experience must come first. Yet G"d is calling on me to look inward, to prepare myself for Yom Kippur. Like the workaholic I am, I bury my head in my work and try to avoid G"d's call.

It's odd. Somehow, I feel that I should want to run away from the physical efforts and tasks. Instead, I'm trying to run away from G"d. What gives?

I don't know what gives, but I do know what gives up. Me. I surrender, G"d. I can;t run away from you any longer. I can't keep burying myself in the quotidian details of congregational life and my role as a servant of the congregation, working to insure that others experience the majesty and awe of these days.

I have work to do, but it's not setting up microphones, or putting up signs, or cutting up materials I need for the Tot service tomorrow. Yes, that is all G"d's work too, but now it is time for me to do G"d's work inside myself.

So, for starters, I ask of you, my readers, to forgive me any wrong or hurt I may have caused you, whether inadvertently or deliberately.

I'm not running away any more. Now I am running home.

Shabbat Shalom, Tzom Qal and G'mar Tov,

Adrian

©2007 by Adrian A. Durlester

Prayers For A CAJE Friend

Many of you may know Chava Gal-Or (pka Toni Grossman) a long time CAJE participant and friend to many. Chava's son Aryeh, is having surgey to a remove the cyst in his brain. The surgery would have already started this morning if things were on schedule.
Please keep Aryeh in your thoughts and prayers.

Aryeh Yaacov ben Chava V'Tzvi

A Thank You Shout Out (Almost)

Cross-posted from cajenet.ning.com. Originally posted Aug 6 at 12:07pm)

 I wanted to give a shout out (hey!) to the staff at Edison Theatre, who found the Zoom H-4 digital recorder I accidentally left there last night during the "Four Children" program (Doug, Beth, Joe, Julie. Want to know which one is which-wise, wicked, simple, and doesn't know how to ask? I know, but I'm not telling. Though, as I said to the audience last night, we each have a little bit of all four in us!)

Guess they gave my recorder to Doug, and hopefully I'll get it back from him today! Yay!

CAJE 32 Gets Underway

(cross-posted from cajenet.ning.com. Originally posted Aug 6 at 11:53am)

Well, yesterday (Sunday evening) was the first official day of CAJE 32 here in St. Louis. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get to see much of it, but I am told it was great. My afternoon was taken up by rehearsals with the CAJE Chorale being directed by Charki Dunn, and then the CAJE Cantor's Choir directed by Neil Schwartz. Both promise to be lots of fun for the participants, and have great performances on Wednesday evening.

Then it was dinner time, but I'm afraid I never got any as the lines were too long and I had to be at the May Auditorium in Simon Hall for a sound check for the "CAJE Id*l" competition (now thankfully renamed "Jewish Star", as if we should have ever been having an "idol" competition at a Jewish conference!) So I missed the opening program, which I am told was good, but ran quite long. My "Make a Modern Midrash" group presented our music video, and I'm told I was suitably embarrassed by the shots of me included in the final product. I hope to get to see it soon. I'm given to understand that editor/director David Frederick and a few helpers were at it all Saturday night with no sleep, and there was even some last minute editing right before the opening program started.

My next task opening night was to Emcee a program featuring my friends and Jewish music powerhouses Doug Cotler, Beth Schafer, Joe Black and Julie Silver. Somehow, this venue never got the word that opening program was delayed, so they started performing before the opening program ended. As I result, I got to do something almost unheard of in CAJE annals. I handed Doug a note letting them know they could go on performing almost and extra half hour or more, because people would be coming soon from the opening program. Like the troupers they are, the four musketeers handled the situation with bravado (not to mention a lot of improv, including a set of "blues" style numbers and a some of Doug's infamous parodies. ) Doug did his "Jew's Blues" and Julie roused the house with a blues version of IHALD (that's I had a Little Dreidl" for you non-music types.) Forgive me, Beth, as I forget what you did for that segment, but I remember it was hot!) Joe Black got to perform "Valentines Day is not a Jewish Holiday, So That's Why I Didn't Send You Flowers" directly to his wife, who was in the audience. Each artist closed with a signature song: Doug did "Listen," Beth did "Children of Freedom" (having to Lev B'Lev earlier,) Joe did [insert name here when my brain wakes up-forgive me Joe] and Julie left us with "Shir Chadash." The audience had a great time, even if we did run a little long. And my apologies for the grainy picture taken with my Motorola Q phone!

There was another series of 45-minute programs after that which I missed, as I headed back to May Auditorium to prepare for "Jewish Star." Around 11 or so, the 12 contestants finally got to have their day on stage before a lively audience and judges (who did great imitations of the real thing.) Sam Glaser ably hosted the event, and I lent my talents to accompanying 9 of the performers. The program finally finished around 12:30am-what bunch of troupers in the audience and onstage. A special shout out to Josh Cohen's really wild fans (of which I am one.) Many of us have gotten to watch Josh "grow up" each year at CAJE. (Of course, even when he was little, I "looked up to him." If you don't get it, don't worry, it's an in-joke.)

From there, it was off to another marathon unofficial kumsitz session in the 3rd floor Ligget-Koenig lounge hosted by the "kumsitz mafia" who proudly state "We will not be shushed at CAJE!"

Being on the over 50 side of alte-kake-ness, I decided to sleep in after that, so I haven't yet been to a workshop or the Expo today (Monday morning) so you'll forgive me if I head off to lunch and another exciting day here at CAJE 32 in St. Louis.

AHHHH (cross-posted from cajenet.ning.com)

Well, the plane was delayed two hours, but other than that, it was an uneventful trip to St. Louis. The minute I stepped out of my rental car on the campus of Wash U, the old feelings returned, as I kept bumping into friends and acquaintances. It's a little hot for schlepping luggage, and a PITA to have to shell out cash for the parking permit (guess I'll need top find an ATM soon) but all in all, a smooth check-in. Of course, what's the first thing I do when I get to my room? Set up the laptop and blog. Oy. Sigh.

Now to unpack and settle in for another fulfilling CAJE experience. If I can keep my eyes open tonight...

Originally posted Aug 2. 325pm

Share

How Typical

 

Cross-posted from cajenet.ning.com

(originally posted August 2nd, 2007 at 5:14am)

Here it is, the night before I head out for CAJE, and it's 5:13am and I haven't slept at all. I thought "no sleep" applied only when actually at CAJE. Sigh. And of course, to save $, I am taking a very early flight which departs at 8am and gets me to STL at 9am. Hope I won't drive my rental car off the road as I kill time perusing the town. Ah, the things we do for CAJE.

At least I once again get to enjoy the leisurely life of past conference chair. Have fun, all you suckers.

What A Difference A Vowel Makes

 

Random Musing Before Shabbat-Chukat 5767

What A Difference A Vowel Makes

Our parasha, Chukat, is replete with interesting things on which to comment. We have (not in the order of the text) our sympathetic magic with the copper servant. We have the strange incident of the Israelites being refused passage through Edom, and simply turning away to follow another route (what makes it strange is the fact that the rest of the parasha and much that preceded and follows it show Israel not avoiding conflict, assured of victory by G"d's presence and assurance. Is it because the Edomites were descendants of Esau?) We have the bizarre ritual of the red heifer. The striking of the rock at Meribah. Miriam's death. Aharon's death. Fodder for lots of debate and discourse.

Yet what caught my attention this year was a small orthographic notation by the Masoretes. Interestingly enough, it occurs in verse 32 - the lamed-vav verse of chapter 21. That coincidence enough gives me pause to consider it's often overlooked importance. We have here one of those "written vs. said" words, vowelized one way but read another. The words is vav-yod-yod-resh-shin. It is vowelized as the verbal form "vayirash" which would mean inherited, but it is read as "vayoresh," meaning "dispossessed." Both are variations built on the same verbal root - yod-resh-shin. Like so many Hebrew roots, it has a multiplicity of related yet different meanings. From this simple root we get words meaning "take possession of," "inherit," and/or "dispossess." That simple fact in and of itself is worthy of discussion and inquiry. Is it a reflection of the biblical notion that we are but tenants on G"d's land? That which we possess or inherit is also that from which we can easily be dispossessed, because it is not truly ours, but belongs to G"d.

The entire verse reads: (Numbers 21:32) "Then Moses sent to spy out Jazer, and they captured its dependencies and dispossessed the Amorites who were there."

Think of the difference, momentarily, if it were translated as "...and inherited the Amorites who were there."

It is perhaps easier, as an invading force, to simply kill off the people whose land you are taking, rather than dealing with all the logistics of providing for the native peoples of the land you just occupied. In ancient times, and often enough in the Torah, the Israelites often simply wiped out the native occupants. (Of course, is this really what happened, or simply a fanciful re-imagining? And if it is a re-imagining, why, exactly, would we want to re-imagine it in such an awful, horrible, murderous way? Oh, that's right, we can put the blame on G"d. Perhaps the reality was that the Israelites didn't do such a good job dealing with the needs of the native peoples of the lands they conquered and possessed, and it was simpler and easier for the redactors of the text to simply rewrite history so that the natives were wiped out, rather than relate the whole sorry story of the Israelite failures to deal with the native occupants of the lands they occupied.)

Is all this starting to sound a little too familiar. If we shift ahead three thousand years, might wee not find the Israelites in a similar quandary? In its almost 60 year history, medinat (the state of) Israel has been both dispossessor and inheritor. Being a dispossessor certainly hasn't won Israel and points in the popularity arena. Sadly, being an inheritor, and having to deal with Palestinians and others now living with them in they land they have conquered, they don't exactly have a stellar track record either. Oh, no doubt, Arabs, Palestinians and others living in Israel and under Israeli rule probably have rights, services, and possibilities that might not be available to them elsewhere. Still, there's little denying that it's no picnic for Israel's Arabs, Muslims, and other minorities. Israel's neighboring Arab and Muslim states haven't exactly stepped up to help their Palestinians brothers and sisters either. There's plenty of blame to go around.

I'm not here to be political, to Israel bash, or Arab bash, or anything of the sort. I'm simply suggesting that, as "Israelites," we ought to consider what we might learn from this particular orthographical oddity in the Torah, this fine line dividing taking possession, inheriting, and dispossessing. There's something here, and it niggles at me. It could be as simple as understanding that we are all but tenants on G"d's land, yet somehow I think there is more to it. When we go out and conquer a land (and perhaps even when land is given to us by an agreement of other nations) we ought to be mindful of whether or not we want to dispossess all those who live there, and mindful that, if allowed to remain, that we become inheritors of the responsibility of caring for the people whose land we have conquered. And I would remind our Muslim brothers and sisters of the same. When we seek to remake in our own image lands and people we have conquered or subjugated, we only sow the seeds of failure and perhaps our own overthrow or destruction.

This orthographic oddity appears in verse 32 of chapter 21. The lamed-vav verse. The verse of the lamed-vav-the leiv, the heart. If we but look in our hearts, then perhaps we can know what to do - what is right, what is wrong. Then perhaps we can learn how to truly love our neighbors as ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom

Adrian

©2007 by Adrian A. Durlester

For other musings on this parasha, visit: www.durlester.com/musings.htm

Irony and Joan Baez

Joan Baez Unwelcome At Concert For Troops

Before I saw the article linked below, I was reading through the Letters to the Editor in the Washington Post this morning when I came across

this letter.

I  thought to myself "a letter from Joan Baez? Can't be." But it was. In the letter, Baez, while clearly stating her lifelong anti-war stance, poignantly regrets her failure to  show her support and compassion for the soldiers who returned from 'Nam, underlying her desire to perform for wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan at Walter Reed at the invitation of John Cougar Mellencamp.

She had the grace and forthrightness to admit her failure-and how did the Army reward her for this? By refusing to allow her to perform, even though the arrangements had already been made.

As in Vietnam, our leaders have once again recklessly put American citizens, soldiers and non-military personnel alike,  in harm's way. One can certainly express utter contempt for this callous disregard for human life and at the same time be concerned and supportive for those individuals who have served and are serving our country. why are we so incapable of seeing this difference?

Congress has finally developed the guts to tell Dubya it is time to end this fiasco in Iraq and bring our soldiers home. And in return, the administration accuses them of being unpatriotic. Are we really back to the days of "love it or leave it?"

As Charlie Brown would say "I can't stand it! I just can't stand it!"

Link to Joan Baez Unwelcome At Concert For Troops - washingtonpost.com

Gun bill gets shot down by panel (VA Tech - On Drudge)

Warning-don't read this link (below) unless you are prepared to be sickened and revolted  at the self-righteous  proclamation of gun-loving nuts claiming that if students at VTU had been allowed to carry guns, that today's incident would have been limited  in scope. What part of "how did the shooter get his guns?" don't they get?  Are these idiots serious? They really think more guns are the answer? Sickening. With any luck, the tragedy at VTU will finally spur the VA legislature to enact some serious gun control laws. Presently, VA has some of the most lenient laws on the books. VA owes it to the memory of all those slaughtered today in Blacksburg to finally enact some gun control laws.

Quote

Gun bill gets shot down by panel (VA Tech - On Drudge)

Link to Gun bill gets shot down by panel (VA Tech - On Drudge)

French Jews Petition U.S. for Asylum

I don't know what to make of this story from the JTA. It seems 7,000 French Jews are petitioning the U.S. for political asylum, stating they cannot continue to bear the increasing anti-Semitism in France . Of course, French Jewish authorities are poo-pooing the petition. All I can think about is: "boy who cried wolf" or  "captain of the Titanic" and wonder which one it really is.

Migdalor Guy.

American Jews, Israel, AIPAC, Iran and Iraq

In this week's C.Ha, an email newsletter for Jewish tweens and teens published by Torah Aura Productions, which I edit, I've included several articles related to the increasing differences arising in the American Jewish community on the relationship and role of American Jews with Israel, the limits (if any) of responsible criticism, and how all this plays out in relation to the war in Iraq, what might happen with Iran, and all the brou-ha-ha surrounding AIPAC.

George Soros' piece in the NY Review of Books "On Israel, America, and AIPAC" has stirred as much controversy as the paper "Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism" published last December by the AJC.

I also included a Ron Kampeas article from JTA regarding the timidity of organizational American Jewry to speak out against the war in Iraq.

Then for just the hint of perfect irony, a reference to Shimon Peres' recent pronouncement to the settlers in Hebron that peace may ultimately be more important than holding on to Hebron. (He said he'd rather see them living in Kiryat Arba anyway.)

About the Peres piece, I asked readers: "What would our ancestors, our prophets, our rulers do? What do Torah and Judaism teach us about this situation? Should we give up a Jewish presence in Hebron for the cause of peace?"

About the Soros piece, I asked readers: "Criticism of AIPAC is part of the wider debate in the American Jewish community regarding the relationship between Israel and America’s Jews. Is criticism of AIPAC by Jews appropriate? Does AIPAC’s influence with the Bush administration play into the hands of anti-Semites who see Jewish conspiracies everywhere? What are an American Jew’s obligations when it comes to support and criticism of Israel? Is there a tipping point where American Jewish criticism of AIPAC simply plays into the hands of Israel’s enemies and anti-Semites?"

About the Kampeas piece, I asked readers: "It’s another complicated piece of the American Jewry and Israel discussion. Should support for Israel and tough stances against Iran and other threats to Israel by the Bush administration overweigh Isaiah’s prophetic call to beat swords in plowshares?"

I ask you, dear readers, the same questions. I ask myself, as well. Not sure I have all the answers.

Migdalor Guy

Back the Bunny!!

Rabbi Rami Shapiro has written a delightful response to a campaign by a California woman to get people to start using the more PC "Spring Bunny" instead of "Easter Bunny."

It's a great read. Back the Bunny!! 

Link to Toto: Back the Bunny

Hat tip to shamir*power over at Jewschool.

Is the Death of the TV Commercial Really a Good Thing?

 

   Source: The days are numbered for the 30-second TV spot - Mar. 14, 2007

While this isn't the source where I originally heard this story, it reports essentially the same news--that Apple's new TV Device, due to be released this week, which will allow people to send downloaded shows from iTunes to their TVs, is perhaps the true beginning of the end for the TV commercial.

This may or may not be true. And while I am certainly not bothered by the prospect of (and looking forward to) TV free of commercials (without having to fast-forward the DVR), as I was musing about this news, I wondered if the death of TV commercials is really a good thing. And I'm troubled by my own thoughts on this.

Modern media advertising is no friend of the people. It is a tool of business used to manipulate and coerce consumers into purchasing things - even if they don't really need or want them.

Yet despite my own aversion to the excesses of capitalism run amuck, I found myself thinking that I might actually miss the commercials. Consider the positive aspects of TV commercials, and the things we might lose:

1. There are any number of truly creative geniuses out there, and some commercials are truly entertaining.

2. On occasion, a commercial will truly alert me to a new product I might not otherwise discover that may be of interest (or simply a curiosity.)

3. Network spots during commercial breaks often alert me to information like when a certain show may go off hiatus and begin airing new episodes.

4. When I know I'm under the deadline of a commercial break and I get up off my lazy tuchis to do some chore, the knowledge that I have a limited time before the show resumes helps keep me focused, on task, and efficient. (Truth be told. sometimes, even when using the DVR, I will let the recorded program run during the commercials breaks precisely for this reason.)

5. I might learn of a special sale, or a limited time offer.

6. I love playing the "spot the actor" game with commercials. To think how miserable I might have been not to know that the guy in the Verizon commercial down at the docks also plays the jilted boyfriend on Ugly Betty. and of course, the other show to commercial connection in all those lovely Apple vs PC advertisements.

7. I'd miss the razor wars. Just think, 6 and 7-bladed shavers!! Imagine the dodeca-bladed razor!

8. I wouldn't see all those commercials for shows and movies that absolutely reinforce my desire to never actually watch them.

9. All those factoids I might never learn for lack of all those wonderful public service announcements.

10. Could this also be the end of Public TV pledge drive breaks?

Anyway, I am sure you can think of more pros and cons. Let's hear 'em. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go soak in some more commercials before they're gone.

  Migdalor Guy

Random Musings Before Shabbat - Yitro 5767 - Kinat Ad"nai

Cross-posted from my "Random Musings before Shabbat"

Random Musings Before Shabbat - Yitro 5767

Kinat Ad"nai

Though it first appeared in December with little fanfare, a recent article in the NY Times and many related blog postings have stirred up quite a controversy surrounding Prof. Alvin H. Rosenfeld's paper for the American Jewish Committee, entitled "Progressive Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism."

This article has been on my mind for some time now, and I seem to keep intersecting with it or with the controversy surrounding it. I even included a story about the controversy in this week's C.Ha, a weekly Jewish teen e-magazine that I edit for Torah Aura Productions.

I won't go into great detail-you can find out all you want about the paper, and the paper itself, on the web. Basically, the paper accuses several prominent leftist Jews who have been critical of Israel of effectively aiding and abetting anti-Semitism. Though Rosenfeld responds to his critics that his intent is not to stifle debate, and is careful in his paper to include the words: “Criticizing [Israeli] policies and actions is, in itself, not anti-Semitic” he appears to believe that some criticism is over the top, and is illegitimate.

Well, this was the last thing I expected to be writing about in my Random Musing this week. And then I was reading through the haftarah for Yitro. It's from Isaiah chapters 6 and 7, with a little endcap from chapter 9.

The haftarah tells of Isaiah's encounter with the Divine and the message he [Isaiah] is to deliver to the people. [Scholars both medieval and modern believe that chapter 6 really belongs at the beginning of the Book of Isaiah, as it is truly part of the Divine "call" to prophecy which begins so many other prophetic books (whereas Isaiah starts with the prophet's visions.) The haftarah contains the "kadosh, kadosh, kadosh" uttered by the angels in Isaiah's vision and incorporated into Jewish worship. After the appearance and utterance of these angels, and subsequent earthquake-like activity, the prophet Isaiah is awestruck. He says

Woe is me, Said I.
I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips,
and I live among a people of unclean lips,
yet these eyes of mine have seen the Sovereign,
the G"d of heaven's hosts. (Isaiah 6:5, JPS)

An angel then proceeds to touch the prophets lip's with a coal, thus burning away his iniquities. Then G"d calls out wondering who shall be sent to the people. And Isaiah answers, in an echo of his ancestors: "Here I am; send me."

It's a powerful piece of text.

Then, as I began to explore various commentaries about these words, I came upon a story from the midrash that the angel brought a coal to Isaiah's lips not to cleanse him, but rather to punish him for defaming the people of Israel. The midrash contends that while G"d permits Isaiah to defame himself, it is not appropriate for Isaiah to also defame all of Israel at the same time. The midrash goes on to say that Isaiah then strongly repented of his error and sought to make redress by being a strong supporter of Israel, and for this G"d rewarded him by allowing no physical harm to have come to him from the coal to his lips.

Commentary after commentary I encountered referred to this midrash. It simply cannot be coincidence that this ties in so directly with the furor over the Rosenfeld paper.

We have to ask why G"d would have been upset with Isaiah's condemnation of the people Israel. Was it once again vanity rearing it's ugly head? Yet surely G"d knew the stubbornness and obstinacy of this covenanted people. G"d must have known that the people of Israel were fraught with unclean lips.

Is G"d saying "don't say anything bad about Israel" ? I don't believe so. I believe G"d is saying to Isaiah (and thus to all of us) "don't presume to know the minds of others, and most certainly not that of a whole people." And I also believe G"d is saying to Isaiah "you do not lead a people to righteousness only through harsh criticism. You must remind them of their strengths, their goodness, and their capability to do what is right in the eyes of their G"d."

G"d knows that the free will G"d has given us can be used for good or for evil. G"d knows that we are not perfect, and that we often sin, sometimes unintentionally, and sometimes intentionally. Nevertheless, G"d has made a covenant with the Jewish people, and perhaps it is wise on our parts to show respect for G"d's choice and recognize that within us is the ability to serve G"d with gladness, and help G"d to with the work of ongoing creation that is our universe.

Well, all this being said, I still don't find myself fully in agreement with what Professor Rosenfeld has stated. Nor do I find myself fully in agreement with his critics. There is a point where constructive criticism becomes destructive criticism. How to determine where the line falls is the difficulty. And, since I assume the good intentions of even Israel's harshest critics among the Jewish people, I can only conclude that if some utterance of theirs did cross this elusive line, that it was an inadvertent sin at best, an act committed in the midst of deep passion regarding an issue of great import.

Surely we learn from this haftarah and the related midrash that while we are free to be derogatory toward ourselves, we are not equally free to speak derogatorily of an entire class. Both Professor Rosenfeld and his critics ought to keep that in mind. If we turn this into a "leftist Jews vs.. rightist Jews debate" we will surely live to regret it.

At the end of the haftarah, the rabbis tacked on a piece of text from chapter 9. Messianic in nature, it has be co-opted by the Christian Community. Reading the text will clearly illustrate why:

For a child has been born to us, a son has been given us. (Isaiah 9:5, JPS)

Jewish sages have interpreted this prophecy as referring to Hezekiah. Clearly Christians have a different "son" and "father" in mind. The verse go on to state that G"d will call this child the ruler of peace, and that he shall preside over an eternal peace for the descendants of King David.

It is to the final words of the haftarah that I now call attention.

Lovers and critics of Israel alike are driven by their passions. That is the nature of human beings. Yet we often fail to make room for the passion of the One whose passion will triumph over all:

The passionate determination of the G"d of heaven's hosts
will bring this about. (Isaiah 9:6, JPS)

I'm in no position to lecture or warn G"d, but I will warn all of us - the root quf-nun-alef - which is the base of the word "kinat" that the JPS committee translates as "passionate determination" - can mean passion, yet can also mean zealousness, or even jealousy. Both the future of the people Israel and the nation Israel are at stake. We would do well to pay heed to how our passions play out.

(In Memory of Florence Melton z"l)

Shabbat Shalom
Adrian ©2007 by Adrian A. Durlester

We're Sorry-the Composer You Were Calling Is No Longer In Service

When I got my new cell phone this summer (A Motorola Q, if you must know,) I finally had a phone that could play real sound files as ringtones. I thought it would be fin to have ringtones made from songs that were about, or mentioned, telephones, or telephone rings, etc. There's no shortage of those, and I found a few that I thought could make real nice ringtones. I'll get around to using some of them eventually. I haven't yet, because I got sidetracked in my search with a memory. It was a memory of one of the first operas I was ever involved with in my career. It was called, appropriately, "The Telephone." It tells the story of Ben and Lucy. Ben wants to propose to Lucy, but he's leaving town. However, Ben's attempts are constantly being thwarted by Lucy's addiction to -- her telephone. It's always ringing and interrupting, and she always answers it. Finally, in frustration, Ben leaves, hatching a plan. He stops at a phone booth on his way to the station, and calls Lucy. She answers, he proposes, she accepts. Now Ben must catch his train. "Don't forget," Lucy reminds him. Ben wonders what he shouldn't forget. Her eyes, her face....no. Lucy then tells him what Ben shouldn't forget.....

"My number!"

And there it was...my ringtone. I took the first 30 seconds or so of this rousing finale to the opera, and now whenever my phone rings, I am greeted by the delightful strains of this composition.

All of which brings me to why I am writing this. The opera, "The Telephone" was written by Gian Carlo Menotti, who died yesterday in Monaco. The 91-year old Menotti was one of the finest composers of the 20th century.

You may know him as the composer of the perennial Xmas favorite "Amahl and the Night Visitors." He was so much more, and he will be missed. His music, at least, will live on. Go and listen.

There's little need for me to list all his accomplishments-you can read all about them simply by Googling his name.

From the Wikipedia entry on Gian Carlo Menotti, you can discover his rich legacy.

Addio, Gian Carlo.

Technorati tags: Menotti

ATHF-What the Frak Were They Thinking?

There probably aren't many fans of Cartoon Network's "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" in my age group (but ya never know...)

It's a truly bizarre cartoon, yet I happen to have become a fan. Now, I may have to hang my head in shame as the show was at the center of the guerrilla marketing campaign that brought the city of Boston to a halt today, as electronic light gizmos depicting the series' "Moonites" character "giving the finger" were suspected as IEDs, and part of a terrorist plot. (Hmmm, LEDs that people thought were IEDs. There must be a Tom Lehrer-esque song in there somewhere.)

ATHF is part of Cartoon Network's late night lineup called "Adult Swim." As of this moment, if you go to their site, you get an apology before getting onto the site's main page.

While the actions of the marketing company involved, and eventually Cartoon Network's owner, Turner Broadcasting are unconscionable, and should be fully investigated and those responsible brought to account, I am going to stick my neck out and ask the question - how could anyone have mistaken these obviously innocuous devices for explosive devices? Have we become so paranoid in our post 9-11 world that we suspect everything? I don't fault the police and authorities-they must investigate any potential danger. And whatever conscientious citizen first reported the "devices" was only acting in a way he/she felt was appropriate. But an entire city ground to a halt because no one could figure out that these devices were a marketing ploy? These devices were not designed nor made to look like explosive devices. There was no intent to make them look like bombs. Any idiot could have seen that.

Millions of dollars for new devices that can check our shoes so we won't have to remove them at the airport security check-in anymore, but no one had the tools to determine quickly just what these things were? And if, as Cartoon Network says, similar devices were planted in major cities all over the country in the past few weeks, how come none of them were ever suspected of being terrorist bombs?

Someone is playing up this incident to serve their own agenda. Perhaps DHS. Or perhaps that bozo at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue sees this as another way to justify his rape of the Bill of Rights by peeking into our phone calls, our mail, etc.

According to CNN, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and others said the statement offering an apology was not enough, and did not rule out criminal charges or a civil suit to recover the estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars it cost the city to respond to the bomb scares. Menino told reporters he received a call from a Turner spokesperson about 9 p.m. but had not yet returned it. "I think the city deserves a call, not from a press person, but from somebody in the corporate structure of Turner," he said.

I think some folks on the Boston Police force and other government agencies (and perhaps local media) owe an explanation for turning an innocuous, if misguided, viral ad campaign into a panic situation. How come no one is asking those questions of the authorities, and all the blame is falling on Adult Swim and Turner?

Mark my words-there's more to this story than meets the eye. Someone is pulling the strings from outside. And all us poor ATHF fans will suffer as a result. It's frakin' cartoon, people. Get a life. Protect us from nukes and terrorists. Not Moonites flipping us off!!

Give DC Full Representation in Congress Now

Over on his blog, my friend David in DC opines about the disenfranchisement of the residents of the District of Columbia, in his post Taxation Without Representation . There's no point in my repeating his remarks, made so eloquently. It's a shanda, and an embarrassment to our nation. Simply put, partisan politics and racial bigotry are at the heart of this shameful situation. Write your congressional representatives and senators now, and tell them that the time to give full DC representation in congress is long overdue. For more information, check out www.dcvote.org.

MG

Remembering Art Buchwald

What can one say about the death of Art Buchwald? Thankfully, he has left us a legacy of writings.

Starting early in my childhood, there was several writers whose articles I always made it a point to read: Drew Pearson, Jack Anderson, and Art Buchwald. Art was a satirist and not as much the muck-raker as Pearson and Anderson - Art had a way of sticking-it-to-them that was gentler and far more humorous.

In fact, making sure that a local newspaper carried Art's column was always a factor whenever I moved somewhere!

Others can express so much more eloquently than I what Art Buchwald meant to this world he has now left, so I leave it to them:

The Washington Post's obit

Here's the International Herald Tribune's tribute

And be sure to catch "Art's Last Laugh" from the NY Times.

So long, Art, and thanks for all the laughs, and the insights.

Migdalor Guy

Americans Are Not Evolving

In today's Washington Post, the Trend Lines column on page two is entitled "Acceptance of Evolution." (This item isn't featured on the Post's website so I can't provide a link to it.)

The data comes from an article published a few months ago in Science Magazine by Jon D. Miller of Michigan State University. U.S. Adults were asked if the following statement was true or false:

"Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals."

In the U.S., 40% said it was true, 21% were not sure, and 39% said it was false.

Then the data was compared to similar surveys in 33 other countries. Guess what? The U.S. ranked 33 out of the 34 for the percentage who accepted the statement as true. Only Turkey had a lower percentage (27%.) Iceland is at the top was 85%, followed by Denmark (83%), Sweden (82%), and France (80%.) Ahead of us at the 32nd rank is Cyprus. In the 60-70% range you'll find Ireland, Italy, Hungary and Estonia, to name a few.

Human beings evolved from earlier species, but it seems the brains of many Americans are not as evolved as the rest of our species.

Migdalor Guy (Adrian)

You've Got To Be Carefully Taught

Growing up in my predominantly secular post-Holocaust era Jewish family in the 60s, the Jewish values always shone through. My parents truly shaped my values, and only now, as an adult and engaged Jew do I realize how centered in Judaism those values were.

Many parents sing pretty lullabies to their children. My mother, a self-proclaimed "listener's listener," whose tone-deaf and always out of tune singing (and nevertheless yielded to musically talented children) didn't matter to me - she was my mother, and she was singing songs to me - would sing us songs like "We Shall Overcome" and "Dona, Dona." But there's one song whose message she always stressed. It's from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific." Lieutenant Cable has fallen in love with Liat, a half-breed Tonkinese beauty. His response to the concern of others about "what will the neighbors think" is this song, with some of Oscar Hammerstein's best lyrics:

You've got to be taught to hate and fear
You've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught!
You've got to be carefully taught!

Well, these words came strongly to mind when I read this article come across the JTA Feed:

Jewish, Arab students share negative views
An Israeli survey found that large numbers of Jewish high school students
view Arabs as uneducated,uncivilized or unclean and vice versa. The Haifa University poll from October 2004, which was presented at a conference at the university this week, interviewed 1,600 students across the country, with 75 percent of the Jewish students harboring negative impressions of Arabs. It also found that one-third of them were afraid of Arabs. "We have found a serious expression of stereotypical thinking on the Jewish students' part regarding the Arab youth,"said Haggai Kupermintz, one of the researchers who conducted the survey. "These students come in with firm stereotypical baggage regarding the other, and in this case, this is the Arabs." Arab high school students also had negative impressions of their Jewish peers: The survey found 27 percent believed Jews were uneducated, 40 percent said they were uncivilized and 47 percent found them unintelligent. But while 75 percent of Arab students showed willingness to meet with Jewish students, less than 50 percent of Jewish students were willing to reciprocate.

That's really sad. What are we teaching our children?

A few years ago, I overheard one my my religious school teachers (I'm a religious school principal) suggest to a class of teens that perhaps the incessantly negative portrayal of Egyptians in the Passover Hagaddah might influence the views of young Israeli and Jewish children. At the time, I thought it was a somewhat inaccurate and gross exaggeration of reality - surely today's children could distinguish between the Egyptians of old and today's Arabs and Muslims. Yet, over the years, I have heard young children, teens, and even adults, make ignorant comments that clearly betray making such distant connections. We connect Amalek, Haman and Hitler. It's not inconceivable that a child could connect the Persian people (and thus modern Iraqis and Iranians) with Haman and the German people with Hitler, and make gross assumptions and generalizations about all of them.

I'm not suggesting we change the Hagaddah. Nor am I suggesting that we Jews don't have both the right and the obligation to bring to mind all the wrongs done to us over the millenia. We do and should. "Never again" is more than a slogan. It is our inheritance. (Thank G"d we're standing up against the genocide in Darfur, although it even took a while the for Jewish community to mobilize on that.) It is not wrong to teach our children that terrorists and oppressors are people who have transgressed permitted moral boundaries of human behavior. It is wrong of us to allow them to generalize about an entire group of people on the basis of the actions of some. And we must not forget how easy it is for anyone to get caught up in mob mentality. It does give one pause when even Arab Israeli MKs speak out in support of the terrorist struggle, and we read of the thousands of Palestinians at rallies insisting that they will not stop until Israel no longer exists. Yet if G"d would spare S'dom and Gomorrah for just 10 righteous persons, should not we? Can we be certain there are no righteous, peace-loving Palestinians or Muslims or IRA members or Iraqis or Republicans or Democrats or Christians or Jews, or Janjaweed, etc.? Our children must be carefully taught to hate and fear. Let us resolve to teach all of them otherwise.

Migdalor Guy (aka Adrian)

Why I Am A Confused Dove on Israel

In their editorial reviewing the secular year 2006, the Jewish Daily Forward included this disappointing fact:

"It was a year when Israelis rallied themselves to elect, for the first time, a
coalition of parties committed to ending the occupation of the West Bank and
seeking good neighborly relations with an independent Palestine — and when
Palestinians elected a government committed to rejecting coexistence and
destroying the State of Israel."

These are the kinds of facts that prevent me from being the kind of dove with relation to the Israeli/Palestinian situation as I was regarding, for example, 'Nam. When it comes to Israel, I am a hawkish dove, at best. Things so often seem so unilateral, and so rarely reciprocated. From both sides.

I cannot side fully with either the right-wing or left-wing of American Jewish Israel advocacy. Surely I am not alone in this dilemma?

Migdalor Guy (aka Adrian)

More Dinosaur Slaying-Jew It Yourself

This post was also posted as a comment to this article on JewSchool by Mobius. It describes the "Next Big Jewish Idea: Jew It Yourself" (JIY.) It sounds like a concept I could really get behind.

Here's what I wrote:

It's taken me a while to post a response so I hope these thoughts remain timely.
Though raised in NYC, and now living in the DC area, I spent ten years in Fargo, North Dakota, 8 years in Elkhart, Indiana, and a few years in other places like New Orleans, Clearwater, Florida, and Nashville, Tennessee.

Though I am now enjoying and utilizing the more expansive Jewish resources of the DC area, my experience has taught me that Judaism can and does flourish in places like Fargo. In many ways, it takes more committment to be part of a small-town Jewish community. It takes a little more effort to live Jewishly in places like Fargo as opposed to places like NYC.
It is, however, also true, that in a small community, you either afffiliate with whatever Jewish community there is, or you simply have no Jewish life. So the myth of Judaism requiring large communuties to thrive is largely myth--yet at the same time, there does need to be some kind of community - not necessarily synagogue-based, although this is the model used is most small communities.

While living in the Dakotas, I worked with others to use the then finally being discovered Internet (which I had been using since the time it was ARPANet, but that's a story for another time) as a tool to connect even smaller and more far-flung Jewish communities like Missoula, Montana, and Rapid City, South Dakota. We had ourselves a little Jewish network of the Plains and were able to share information and resources this way.

Having come so much further than it was in the 80s and 90s, I imagine that were I still in Fargo, the Internet would be providing rich content and support to help keep the Jewish community thrive. I am sure it is doing so for those I left behind in the Northern Plains.

As a Jewish educator, though now in the over 50 crowd, and employed in the synagogue world, I nevertheless remain convinced that this model is a dinosaur, and I am continually exploring alternative settings for supplemental Jewish education that can serve the type of Jewish community that I have observed developing over the past decades.

I've been an active CAJE member, and have even chaired a CAJE conference. I do think that the organization was doing the best it could to be true to its origin as grassroots and outside the establishment. However, it has become the establishment, and, as a result, I believe it is veering in directions that, while they may satisfy the vision of an aging membership that is seeking more in depth learning and higher standards, is not at all the direction that it needs to go to serve the next few generations of Jews. It is too invested in the status-quo. There are a few others in the CAJE community who are willing to say such things openly (and by that I include both what is happening to CAJE, and my belief that we are entering a post-synagogue age) and I believe a goodly number who believe so but are scared of telling the Emperor he is naked.

Not just the leadership, but the rank and file in the Jewish world is a bit out of touch. They don't realize how married they are to the status-quo of synagogue-centered Judaism, and the current institutional system.

And for those that are in touch, they often make the mistakes cited in your post, of trying to make Judaism like pop culture. Now, I am a firm believer in the co-option of popular culture in service to Judaism. I used SpongeBob as a prop and a hook for years-but I used it as a way in to young minds - not as the end product - and sought to use it to teach my understanding of Jewish "core values." Sure, there's a little shtick involved, but the product wasn't entertainment-it was Jewish learning. Crabby Patties weren't just a funny kosher joke-they were a path to serious learning about kashrut. And it worked. (I'm moving on to a new mascot, but have yet to find a cultural icon that crossed as many age barriers as SpongeBob. I am open to suggestions!)

I remember the session at CAJE last August when the "Throw the Jews Down the Well" clip from Da Ali G show was shown and all but two small segments of the audience of Jewish educators were in total shock. (The small segment not shocked were the groups of college-age kids that were there, plus the two or three in the over 50 crowd like myself who, as students of popular culture, keep up with such things. Sadly, even after it was revealed to them that it was an outrageous piece of cultural satire by a cutting edge comedian and social critic, most still considered it unusable in their school-ever. Now I, too, have a few mixed feelings about the Borat phenomenon, but I remain generally approving--I'll have to save this for a future post.)

Yes, we need some bricks and mortar - places to assemble, to socialize, etc. but there are other ways of making this happen. The "anarchistic" web can and will likely prove to be a component of this, despite reservations that even I have about it. Yes, being at a real Pesah Seder with real people is different (and better) than participating in a virtual one, even when the technology has advanced far beyond where it is now. But I participated in a virtual online Seder in the years when the entire process was text-based and run in a DOS window. And it wasn't entirely empty and meaningless. You could feel the others as if some aspect of their souls was being transmitted through the ether along with the text. (As I once said to a critic of email communication "if e-mail is so impersonal, how come it is so capable of upsetting another person based just on words that I type?")

JIY is indeed part of the future-and I, too, hope to see it make a big splash, and thrive. It will take lots of nurturing, and have to fight lots of entrenched interests - and it will still requires some form of "common core Judaism" for the post-synagogue age to truly happen. G"d-willing, it will come to pass. Keep up the good fight.

Migdalor Guy

Virginia Needs a New State Song-And This Is It

For a number of years now, the Commonwealth of Virginia has been seeking an official state song. A competition was held, but none of the entries seemed to really stand out. Frustrated, state legislators were about to make "Shenandoah" the official. Now, it's a wonderful song, but here's the problem- it's not necessarily about the Shenandoah river valley in Virgina. This entry on Wikipedia tells the story of the song and the abortive attempt to make it the official song of the Commonwealth.

My friend and professional colleague, Carol Boyd Leon, a log-time Virgina resident, and talented songwriter (primarily in Jewish music) who happened to compose the song that George Mason University selected as its new Alma mater, Patriot's Dreams, decided to take a crack at a state song for Virgina. The result was " Virgina, Ever Enshrined." With the sponsorship of two local state delegates, the song will be submitted for consideration by a committee and the legislature in this term. Carol was fortunate to have a talented daughter, Sarah Boyd, now embarked on a career as a professional theatrical music director, arranged the song for choir, and recruited a few friends from the College of William & Mary from which she graduated last year to record it. That recording was distributed to all state legislators near the end of last year's term. You can listen to that recording here.

Wanting to demonstrate the versatility of the song for use in different settings and different styles, Carol wanted to record another version. Carol and I have been professional musical partners for some years now, and we sought the right voice and style for the song.

Last fall, we discovered the right voice. We were attending an interfaith concert for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter in northern Virginia at Vienna Baptist Church in Vienna, VA. Carol was there with her adult choir from Olam Tikvah, a Conservative congregation in Fairfax, VA, and I was there to accompany them. (As an aside, it was a wonderful evening with Jewish, Christian and Muslim music. Hearing and seeing Native Deen, an incredible Muslim hip-hop trio based in D.C., with international reputation, perform, was an absolute pelasure. ) There was a singer in the Christian praise band, Works in Progress, from nearby Vienna Presbyterian Church which performed that had the right voice. His name was Doug Traxler.

Recently, the three of us were able to get together at our favorite local studio, Cue Recording in Falls Church, VA, and record a demo of a more pop style version of the song which you can listen to here. (You can also hear recordings of a number of Carol's songs there. )

Delegates Marsden and Englin plan to introduce a bill in the 2007 Virginia legislative session to make "Virginia, Ever Enshrined" the official state song of Virginia. If you are a Virginia resident and would like this song approved as the official state song, please contact your legislators! Go to http://legis.state.va.us/Under QUICK LINKS, click on "Who's My Legislator" and type in your address.

By the way, the District of Columbia has no official song either, and Carol is attempting to fill that gap as well with this song, "By George, It's Washington!" Thought it's only recorded in a very rough demo form, I'm trying to persuade Carol to post it so you can give that a listen as well. I'll keep you posted.

By the way, one doesn't usually earn royalties or other payments for writing these kinds of official songs for states, cities, or universities, so even though I've worked with Carol on these, my reasons for blogging this are not commercially motivated!!

If you happen to be Jewish, and have kids or know someone who has kids, you ought to buy a copy of Carol's 2-CD set, "Gan Shirim" with 70 new Jewish songs for children, published by KTAV, the only Jewish album to win a 2004 Parent's Choice Award, and 4th place finalist in the 2006 Just Plain Folks Music Awards best Jewish album category. If you're a teacher in a Jewish school, you should have a copy of the CD and the songbook as well--it's chock full of ideas for using the songs. And you will find songs to fill needs that just aren't found anywhere else. (That's why she wrote many of them-to fill needs for songs when she was teaching.) By the way, this isn't one of those Disney-ized children's CDs, with a perfect choir of kids singing. That's Carol's voice of most of the songs, and real kids, and their un-studio-magicked voices. Your kids will know that they can sing these songs, and won't be intimidated by them. Oh, and I'm the nut that came up with and played the accompaniment for all 70 tunes. In essentially one week. There's a nutsy week of my life I might blog about someday...

Happy listening,

Midgalor Guy (aka Adrian)

All Hail the Dinosaur Slayers

Over at Jewschool, Kung Fu Jew highlights the turn of many Jews, and not just younger ones, away from the traditional agencies and institutions, the "dinosaurs," who are

"focused myopically on the numbers of Jews rather than the quality of their existence, their impact, on this here earth."

to new grassroots organizations like the Jewish Funds for Justice, the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, and the National Council of Jewish Women.

The thrust of Kung Fu Jew's post is to also point out the rapid growth of the progressive Israel advocacy group, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom. While I may not entirely agree with some of the positions of Brit Tzedek, and so cannot endorse them whole-heartedly, they are a good example of the potential of Israel advocacy that is not right-wing and hawkish.

And despite reservations I may have with a few of Brit Tzedek's positions (just as I do with some positions of Rabbis for Human Rights) I hope that not just the 20-somethings out there, but also us 50-somethings, and other generations, will continue to support this new trend in Jewish organizations that put tikkun olam ahead of "the continuity question." We will continue-but what's the point in growing our numbers if we don't stand for making a better world?

Migdalor Guy