Friday, November 28, 2003
Sparks From Israel
Tourist of the Underground
I remember in one of my favorite old movies ‘Les Enfant du Paradise’ a bar scene of the Paris underworld of 1800. A place where street beggars would meet and the blind man would take off his patch to appraise some hot jewels. In south Tel Aviv among the ‘amcha’ the ‘salt of the earth’ you can find some interesting meeting places that are not found on the UJA luncheon itinerary. Broken down synagogues that used to be filled 50 years ago with overflowing minyans have now been reduced to the eternal flame; that flicker of light consisting of ten souls. And what souls!
To look at the rag tag group one would think he was looking at a group of sailors and thugs, but among them are also men of refinement and a rabbi who hosts a Shabbat dinner. After discussing the weekly parsha, accompanied by the main course, the rabbi picks up his sleepy child and returns to his family leaving this family of stray cats to finish their dinner.
The evening is punctuated by the arrival of an assortment of those who appear to be beggars but after hearing the words they have to say about the Parsha, I think maybe they are hidden kabbalists. The best words were said by one that I recognized as the custodian of a more affluent synagogue. After closing the gates of the shule he joined our motley crew and spoke words of Torah that revealed who was really the rabbi, and who was the custodian.
As the night unfolded and each mans stories and words of Torah were followed by shots of vodka to the point where one man fell off his chair and had to be revived I thought to myself how lucky I am to be seated among kings. Im not sure which one of them was Eliyahu Hanavi, maybe all of them. The man in the long black coat was lifted back to his chair and started to sing leading the group in a Shabbat song. Then from his fiery breath came secrets of Torah that could only be unlocked with strong vodka.
I left as a fight was breaking out. What kind of fight was it? Were they throwing chairs and punching each other? Hardly. One was telling about the great miracles of one rabbi, and another talked about the miracles of a different rabbi. Like grandparents who like to show pictures of their grandchildren, they each tried to surpass the other one over which brachas they received by which rabbis. Of course the rabbis they spoke of are no longer among the living, but I am sure I saw them all seated among the ‘amcha’ of our people smiling and whispering to each other. Who is like your people Israel?
Tourist of the Underground
I remember in one of my favorite old movies ‘Les Enfant du Paradise’ a bar scene of the Paris underworld of 1800. A place where street beggars would meet and the blind man would take off his patch to appraise some hot jewels. In south Tel Aviv among the ‘amcha’ the ‘salt of the earth’ you can find some interesting meeting places that are not found on the UJA luncheon itinerary. Broken down synagogues that used to be filled 50 years ago with overflowing minyans have now been reduced to the eternal flame; that flicker of light consisting of ten souls. And what souls!
To look at the rag tag group one would think he was looking at a group of sailors and thugs, but among them are also men of refinement and a rabbi who hosts a Shabbat dinner. After discussing the weekly parsha, accompanied by the main course, the rabbi picks up his sleepy child and returns to his family leaving this family of stray cats to finish their dinner.
The evening is punctuated by the arrival of an assortment of those who appear to be beggars but after hearing the words they have to say about the Parsha, I think maybe they are hidden kabbalists. The best words were said by one that I recognized as the custodian of a more affluent synagogue. After closing the gates of the shule he joined our motley crew and spoke words of Torah that revealed who was really the rabbi, and who was the custodian.
As the night unfolded and each mans stories and words of Torah were followed by shots of vodka to the point where one man fell off his chair and had to be revived I thought to myself how lucky I am to be seated among kings. Im not sure which one of them was Eliyahu Hanavi, maybe all of them. The man in the long black coat was lifted back to his chair and started to sing leading the group in a Shabbat song. Then from his fiery breath came secrets of Torah that could only be unlocked with strong vodka.
I left as a fight was breaking out. What kind of fight was it? Were they throwing chairs and punching each other? Hardly. One was telling about the great miracles of one rabbi, and another talked about the miracles of a different rabbi. Like grandparents who like to show pictures of their grandchildren, they each tried to surpass the other one over which brachas they received by which rabbis. Of course the rabbis they spoke of are no longer among the living, but I am sure I saw them all seated among the ‘amcha’ of our people smiling and whispering to each other. Who is like your people Israel?
Friday, November 21, 2003
Sparks From Israel
Dvar Torah - Vayera
In the Parsha Vaerya Avraham is visited by three men, who looked like idol worshipers, but were really angels. They tell him Sarah will give birth a year later (at age 90), and Sarah laughs, even though she sees with her eyes an open miracle. Rashi explains that at the moment they arrived her body became young again like a 20-year old woman. Still after witnessing this open miracle she says to herself how can an old man like Avraham give birth to a son, and who are these men, that I should believe them? Later Sarah is reprimanded by Hashem and by her husband for laughing out of disbelief. Ramban comments that Sarah should have disregarded the looks of these men and said ‘may it be so’.
I have heard many rabbis discuss this episode and conclude with the moral lesson that we should never scoff at the bearer of blessings but rather we should say ‘amen’. This may be a nice drasha for children, but do these events really mean?
As I sat on a bus on the way to Yerushalayim, I thought about these mysterious verses and tried to unravel the mystery hidden inside. Then it came to me, as I looked at the countryside unfolding before my eyes. As I gazed upon the skyline, and the cities, and the farms and the orchards that are once again fertile and full of life I was looking at an open miracle; like a 90 year old woman becoming 20 again. Now I understood the reprimand to Sarah. And I saw within it a reprimand to the secular Jews as well as the religious Jews.
How could a Jew witness the rebirth of Israel and see with his own eyes the ingathering of the exiles, the building up of the land, the protection of the clouds of glory, and yet not believe that there is a G-d and prophecy and Moshiach. How is it possible to see such open miracles and at the same time see the religion as old, outdated and disconnected from this?
On the other hand, how could religious Jews scoff at angels? The Zionists were considered idol worshippers just like our story and Sarah laughed. She scoffed at these idol worshippers and didn’t really believe in her heart what she saw with her own eyes. She believed in the promise that G-d had made to Avraham, but could not see what was happening in front of her.
If Hashem decided to bring the return to Zion from secular Zionists who demonstrated a love of the land, the religious world should have said ‘may it be so’ and gave them a blessing instead of scoffing. They could have had much more influence in the forming of the nation and could have saved many lives had they also encouraged Aliyah long before the war. To this day there are those who scoff at the Zionists while living in glatt kosher America waiting for a prophecy that is unfolding without them. It is this lack of faith within the heart of the faithful, and the lack of wonder from those who see open miracles that is laughable.
And so the birth of Isaac, whose name means ‘laughter’, is the product of this scoffing. Itzchak who is the ‘sacrifice’ and we who scoff at one side of a two sided story and wonder why we always suffer?
Dvar Torah - Vayera
In the Parsha Vaerya Avraham is visited by three men, who looked like idol worshipers, but were really angels. They tell him Sarah will give birth a year later (at age 90), and Sarah laughs, even though she sees with her eyes an open miracle. Rashi explains that at the moment they arrived her body became young again like a 20-year old woman. Still after witnessing this open miracle she says to herself how can an old man like Avraham give birth to a son, and who are these men, that I should believe them? Later Sarah is reprimanded by Hashem and by her husband for laughing out of disbelief. Ramban comments that Sarah should have disregarded the looks of these men and said ‘may it be so’.
I have heard many rabbis discuss this episode and conclude with the moral lesson that we should never scoff at the bearer of blessings but rather we should say ‘amen’. This may be a nice drasha for children, but do these events really mean?
As I sat on a bus on the way to Yerushalayim, I thought about these mysterious verses and tried to unravel the mystery hidden inside. Then it came to me, as I looked at the countryside unfolding before my eyes. As I gazed upon the skyline, and the cities, and the farms and the orchards that are once again fertile and full of life I was looking at an open miracle; like a 90 year old woman becoming 20 again. Now I understood the reprimand to Sarah. And I saw within it a reprimand to the secular Jews as well as the religious Jews.
How could a Jew witness the rebirth of Israel and see with his own eyes the ingathering of the exiles, the building up of the land, the protection of the clouds of glory, and yet not believe that there is a G-d and prophecy and Moshiach. How is it possible to see such open miracles and at the same time see the religion as old, outdated and disconnected from this?
On the other hand, how could religious Jews scoff at angels? The Zionists were considered idol worshippers just like our story and Sarah laughed. She scoffed at these idol worshippers and didn’t really believe in her heart what she saw with her own eyes. She believed in the promise that G-d had made to Avraham, but could not see what was happening in front of her.
If Hashem decided to bring the return to Zion from secular Zionists who demonstrated a love of the land, the religious world should have said ‘may it be so’ and gave them a blessing instead of scoffing. They could have had much more influence in the forming of the nation and could have saved many lives had they also encouraged Aliyah long before the war. To this day there are those who scoff at the Zionists while living in glatt kosher America waiting for a prophecy that is unfolding without them. It is this lack of faith within the heart of the faithful, and the lack of wonder from those who see open miracles that is laughable.
And so the birth of Isaac, whose name means ‘laughter’, is the product of this scoffing. Itzchak who is the ‘sacrifice’ and we who scoff at one side of a two sided story and wonder why we always suffer?
Monday, November 10, 2003
Sparks from Israel
Chaverim Kol Israel
There is a passage in the siddur that reads ‘Chaverim Kol Israel’ (All of Israel are friends). I thought I understood this passage as meaning that Jews often look out for one another but living in a Jewish country I have come to understand a different meaning to this passage. Not only do you see good friends walking hand in hand and arm in arm (something rarely seen in Canada), but there are other unexpected ways that ‘chaverim’ is expressed. Last night I overslept and missed Havdala, so I went to the corner store. I asked a kippa wearing clerk who I never saw before if I could make ‘kiddush’ on a grape drink. After looking at the ingredients the prognosis was negative. I asked if there was something small he could recommend as I didn’t want to spend money on a bottle of wine, just for one glass.
He told me to wait five minutes and he would take me to his home a block away, where he had wine and candles and all I need. And so, there I sat in a strangers room full of Torah books making kiddish and eating the cookies I bought for him as a small token of appreciation. I could see by his clothes and his accomodations that he didn’t have much money, but nevertheless he was rich enough to give.
In the land of wealth and prosperity that I came from where people live in isolated vaults of opulence, people die of loneliness. Here where there is hunger and need there are true friendships and people are humble. The rabbis here don’t have plush pulpits, they are often paupers during the week and kings on Shabbat. But the Torah that flows from their mouths is prophecy. Although it is a land of hardships, there is a feeling of kindness and blessing from the hand of G-d through His people to one and other. I know many torah scholars who live on a few sheckles a week, but none are beggars. Each one is a gentleman and all find something to give. This is what characterizes the nation ‘Chaverim Kol Israel’.
Chaverim Kol Israel
There is a passage in the siddur that reads ‘Chaverim Kol Israel’ (All of Israel are friends). I thought I understood this passage as meaning that Jews often look out for one another but living in a Jewish country I have come to understand a different meaning to this passage. Not only do you see good friends walking hand in hand and arm in arm (something rarely seen in Canada), but there are other unexpected ways that ‘chaverim’ is expressed. Last night I overslept and missed Havdala, so I went to the corner store. I asked a kippa wearing clerk who I never saw before if I could make ‘kiddush’ on a grape drink. After looking at the ingredients the prognosis was negative. I asked if there was something small he could recommend as I didn’t want to spend money on a bottle of wine, just for one glass.
He told me to wait five minutes and he would take me to his home a block away, where he had wine and candles and all I need. And so, there I sat in a strangers room full of Torah books making kiddish and eating the cookies I bought for him as a small token of appreciation. I could see by his clothes and his accomodations that he didn’t have much money, but nevertheless he was rich enough to give.
In the land of wealth and prosperity that I came from where people live in isolated vaults of opulence, people die of loneliness. Here where there is hunger and need there are true friendships and people are humble. The rabbis here don’t have plush pulpits, they are often paupers during the week and kings on Shabbat. But the Torah that flows from their mouths is prophecy. Although it is a land of hardships, there is a feeling of kindness and blessing from the hand of G-d through His people to one and other. I know many torah scholars who live on a few sheckles a week, but none are beggars. Each one is a gentleman and all find something to give. This is what characterizes the nation ‘Chaverim Kol Israel’.
Friday, November 07, 2003
Sparks from Israel
Free Choice
The world was designed with free choice in mind. Never has it been easier to come to Israel. A free plane ride, money to get started and a nation with all the modern conveniences one might desire. Yet it appears that this choice is a difficult one to make, because there are also strong forces of gravity that can pull one in a different direction and make Israel feel like the ‘last’ place to be.
Every generation has their own level of free choice and the forces of destruction never come in the same guise. In the 1930’s there was sympathy for the brown shirted Germans who had been the victims of economic sanctions from the west. Today we know these brown shirts as Nazis and have no sympathy for them. There is no longer ‘free choice’.
Today, however, there is sympathy for a new underdog - the unfortunate Arabs who because of economic sanctions and nationalistic aspirations are compelled to terrorism, poor things. We understand when they cheer for a Malaysian Muslim leader who exposes the ‘Jew’ who runs the world and gets others to die for them that their ‘Jew hatred’ is only in connection to Israel and so the reality of their hatred and their preparation for Holy War in the cities we think are safe, is clouded from our eyes, just as the protection that Israel affords is also hidden.
All of this confusion is created simply for our benefit, so that we can make ‘free choices’ and earn a reward for them. Noah spent 120 years building an ark, simply for this reason, so that those who didn’t see the obvious would be startled by the work of this man and his family and question the future of a world where lawlessness is given the freedom to destroy. I suppose they felt that if this man was right, they too would jump on the ship in the last minute, but in the end they were not able to.
I imagine Canadian Jews must have felt a little nervous when in response to the threat of terrorism; they discussed canceling all El Al flights from Canada. I suppose in a world where it’s so easy to come to Israel, to balance this ‘free choice’ it can also be just as easy to remove this option. But who knows, maybe we too have another 120 years before that option is removed. Personally, I believe if one wanted to feel safe, secure, and cautious in these tumultuous times, I would make a reservation on Noah’s ark. Its really quite affordable and you can even get glatt kosher meals.
Free Choice
The world was designed with free choice in mind. Never has it been easier to come to Israel. A free plane ride, money to get started and a nation with all the modern conveniences one might desire. Yet it appears that this choice is a difficult one to make, because there are also strong forces of gravity that can pull one in a different direction and make Israel feel like the ‘last’ place to be.
Every generation has their own level of free choice and the forces of destruction never come in the same guise. In the 1930’s there was sympathy for the brown shirted Germans who had been the victims of economic sanctions from the west. Today we know these brown shirts as Nazis and have no sympathy for them. There is no longer ‘free choice’.
Today, however, there is sympathy for a new underdog - the unfortunate Arabs who because of economic sanctions and nationalistic aspirations are compelled to terrorism, poor things. We understand when they cheer for a Malaysian Muslim leader who exposes the ‘Jew’ who runs the world and gets others to die for them that their ‘Jew hatred’ is only in connection to Israel and so the reality of their hatred and their preparation for Holy War in the cities we think are safe, is clouded from our eyes, just as the protection that Israel affords is also hidden.
All of this confusion is created simply for our benefit, so that we can make ‘free choices’ and earn a reward for them. Noah spent 120 years building an ark, simply for this reason, so that those who didn’t see the obvious would be startled by the work of this man and his family and question the future of a world where lawlessness is given the freedom to destroy. I suppose they felt that if this man was right, they too would jump on the ship in the last minute, but in the end they were not able to.
I imagine Canadian Jews must have felt a little nervous when in response to the threat of terrorism; they discussed canceling all El Al flights from Canada. I suppose in a world where it’s so easy to come to Israel, to balance this ‘free choice’ it can also be just as easy to remove this option. But who knows, maybe we too have another 120 years before that option is removed. Personally, I believe if one wanted to feel safe, secure, and cautious in these tumultuous times, I would make a reservation on Noah’s ark. Its really quite affordable and you can even get glatt kosher meals.
Sparks from Israel
The Laundromat
I woke up early and went to do some laundry on the way to the synagogue. As I unloaded my laundry I discovered a pair of Tzizit I thought I had lost. It was a going away present from my rabbi when I made Aliyah. I thought of him for a moment sleepily, then started the washing cycle, put my bags in a corner and ran off to pray. When I returned I saw the custodian cleaning the Laundromat. He looked like a middle-aged surfer, with a tattoo around his arm, and a small knitted kippa pinned inside his bushy hair.
I went to check my bags and detergent I hid behind the machines and pulled them out. The man saw me and began to scold me. I thought he was telling me that I should not leave my things there because he was going to throw them out and I was lucky he didn’t. But that’s something someone might say in Canada, not here in Israel.
When he said the word Tzizit, I understood the reason he was so angry with me. He noticed among my bags was the Tzizit and he reprimanded me for putting something holy in a dirty place. ‘This is not the way a Jew behaves.’ he went on. ‘ What is the world coming to when people throw Tzizit on the ground’, etc. I apologized profusely and explained to him that I was half asleep and forgot I had a pair of Tzizit between my bags. What a unique people that is never shy to give moral instruction to one another.
The Laundromat
I woke up early and went to do some laundry on the way to the synagogue. As I unloaded my laundry I discovered a pair of Tzizit I thought I had lost. It was a going away present from my rabbi when I made Aliyah. I thought of him for a moment sleepily, then started the washing cycle, put my bags in a corner and ran off to pray. When I returned I saw the custodian cleaning the Laundromat. He looked like a middle-aged surfer, with a tattoo around his arm, and a small knitted kippa pinned inside his bushy hair.
I went to check my bags and detergent I hid behind the machines and pulled them out. The man saw me and began to scold me. I thought he was telling me that I should not leave my things there because he was going to throw them out and I was lucky he didn’t. But that’s something someone might say in Canada, not here in Israel.
When he said the word Tzizit, I understood the reason he was so angry with me. He noticed among my bags was the Tzizit and he reprimanded me for putting something holy in a dirty place. ‘This is not the way a Jew behaves.’ he went on. ‘ What is the world coming to when people throw Tzizit on the ground’, etc. I apologized profusely and explained to him that I was half asleep and forgot I had a pair of Tzizit between my bags. What a unique people that is never shy to give moral instruction to one another.
Sunday, November 02, 2003
Sparks from Israel
The Alta Lena
This week was the yortzeit of Yitzchak Rabin. There are many memorials and gatherings. The yortziet of Rachel, mother of Yoseph also fell on the same date this year. I wondered if there was a connection. In Ulpan we discussed the Rabin memorial and translated the placards that read ‘we will always remember and we will not forgive.’
After class I went to swim in the waters of the Alta Lena. In the early days preceding the State of Israel, there was a ship called the Alta Lena that after passing through many obstacles finally arrived at the shores of Tel Aviv full of ammunition to help the Jewish army who desperately needed it. There was a conflict however, because it was an Irgun ship (a rival political party). And so David Ben Gurion gave orders to the ‘Holy Cannons’ as he called them to sink the ship and shoot to kill. And kill they did.
Many people think that Itzchak Rabin was the first Jew assassinated by another Jew. The truth is he was the officer who held the trigger of those ‘Holy Cannons’ many years ago and he himself assassinated the ‘first’ Jewish rivals.
It’s hard to believe that Jews would kill their fellow Jews as they tried to scramble to shore but this is history and in extreme situations and times, extreme things happen. And so as I swim through the waters of the Alta Lena I ask myself if there is a place in Israel where Jewish blood has not been shed? And I hear the tears of Rachel, the mother of the betrayed Yoseph praying that our suffering should not be self-inflicted.
The Alta Lena
This week was the yortzeit of Yitzchak Rabin. There are many memorials and gatherings. The yortziet of Rachel, mother of Yoseph also fell on the same date this year. I wondered if there was a connection. In Ulpan we discussed the Rabin memorial and translated the placards that read ‘we will always remember and we will not forgive.’
After class I went to swim in the waters of the Alta Lena. In the early days preceding the State of Israel, there was a ship called the Alta Lena that after passing through many obstacles finally arrived at the shores of Tel Aviv full of ammunition to help the Jewish army who desperately needed it. There was a conflict however, because it was an Irgun ship (a rival political party). And so David Ben Gurion gave orders to the ‘Holy Cannons’ as he called them to sink the ship and shoot to kill. And kill they did.
Many people think that Itzchak Rabin was the first Jew assassinated by another Jew. The truth is he was the officer who held the trigger of those ‘Holy Cannons’ many years ago and he himself assassinated the ‘first’ Jewish rivals.
It’s hard to believe that Jews would kill their fellow Jews as they tried to scramble to shore but this is history and in extreme situations and times, extreme things happen. And so as I swim through the waters of the Alta Lena I ask myself if there is a place in Israel where Jewish blood has not been shed? And I hear the tears of Rachel, the mother of the betrayed Yoseph praying that our suffering should not be self-inflicted.
