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!!