Opuscula Unwelcome Interference

 

Two headlines (heds) from the Jewish Press recently caught my attention:
Ethiopian-Israeli MK Slams Sterling in Letter to NBA’s Silver

and

To the Chagrin of Some Jews, Presbyterians Denounce Divestment – #BDSFail

To be honest, it was the photo and caption with the To the chagrin story that got me to read the article.

 

I HAVE A PROBLEM

I have a problem with out-of-towners putting in their two cents when no one has invited their opinions or interference.

When I lived in Israel I resented U.S. interference in Israeli politics. Although now - temporarily - back in the States, I still resent U.S. interference in Israeli politics. I suppose the U.S. feels it "owns" Israel since it sends a great deal of foreign aid to the country - in money and in goods for which Israel must pay in the dollars it just received from Washington. (In truth, Washington is using Israel to "launder" taxpayer money back to the U.S. defense establishment.)

I resent it when the U.S. government interferes in ANY country's affairs, especially countries outside what James Monroe termed the U.S.' sphere of influence - basically North and Central America and maybe parts of South America.

Cuba, to be sure, falls with Monroe's "sphere of influence," but Cuba is, and has been, controlled by Cubans, albeit often with a monetary allegiance to a distant land, yet we insist on once again (trying to) overthrow its government and pretend the island doesn't exist. The U.S. can make "peace" with Communist China with its military might and shoddy exports to the U.S., but it can't come to terms with a small, militarily weak island just miles off the Florida coast.

Back in the U.S. of A. I find myself resenting Yesh Atid MK Shimon Solomon pillorying LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling for the latter's alleged remarks.

I don't know if , MK Solomon, an olay from Ethiopia has any connection to the U.S. or to the National Basketball Association, a private organization, but he does have the chutzpah to write, from Israel using his membership in the Knesset, telling NBA Commissioner Adam Silver “The dismissal of Sterling from his position as owner of the NBA team will send a message loud and clear: ‘NBA will not tolerate racism, and racism will not be tolerated. There are more important things than the game itself.’ This message will go all over the world, and is an important step in the war against racism in our global village,” he wrote, also saying, “Now the responsibility to deliver the message, sir, is on you.”

Silver has issued an order preventing Sterling to have any contact with anyone or anything connected to the NBA - including the team franchise he owns - despite (a) no admission on Sterling's part of guilt and (b) no successful civil or criminal action against Sterling having taken place.

If Sterling did say what he is alleged to have said, and it he either admits he uttered the words or is found by a court to have uttered those words, then, perhaps Silver may have grounds for his actions.

But MK Solomon's pressure on U.S. citizens is out of line.

 

WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US

Pogo, an invention of the late Walt Kelley's mind, must have been thinking about Jews when those words appeared on the long-running comic strip.

Immediately beneath the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) article was a large photo with the caption Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb spearheaded the failed effort to boycott three U.S. companies doing business with Israel.

Later in the article, we read that " But the crown jewel of the BDS drive organizers, the Israel Palestine Mission Network, is their proud list of bone fida Jewish organizations and individuals who have made the economic strangling of Israel their highest goal.

Rebecca Vilkomerson, writing for Jewish Voice for Peace, celebrated the “biggest U.S. victory yet for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement,” as “over the objection of Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), pension giant TIAA-CREF’s Social Choice Funds have divested from Caterpillar.”

The reason TIAA-CREF, of which I am a member, divested Caterpillar has nothing to do with Cat's presence in Israel or elsewhere.

The article continues: Meanwhile, so-called Rabbis Margaret Holub, Brant Rosen, Alissa Wise, Julie Greenberg, Michael Feinberg, Michael Davis, Rachel Barenblatt, Lynn Gottleib, Laurie Zimmerman, Rebecca Alpert, Joseph Berman, David Mivasair, Borukh Goldberg, Meryl Crean, Howard A Cohen, Mordechai Liebling, Elizabeth Bolton, Everett Gendler, Michael Lerner, and Leonard Beerman, sent an “Open Letter to the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA)”:

"As Jewish leaders, we believe the Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA) stance against church divestment does not represent the broader consensus of the American Jewish community. There is in fact a growing desire within the North American Jewish community to end our silence over Israel’s oppressive occupation of Palestine…

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, the woman in the photo at the top of the Jewish Press page, wrote in June that the reason for supporting the boycott on companies doing business in Israel is because Most Jews and Christians are not willing to go to Palestine to personally resist Israeli policies of land confiscation, home demolition, destruction of trees and property, military invasion, denial of freedom of movement, administrative detention or the arrest of children through nonviolent protest. Most Jews and Christians do not travel to Israel to work for an end to the blockade of Gaza and are not shot when they try to harvest their wheat or fish in the sea.

I would suggest that the Israeli government destroys more Jewish homes and fields that it does non-Jewish homes and fields. I would farther suggest that any military invasion comes only on the heels of repeated attacks on Jews by Moslems. As for Moslem children's "nonviolent" protests, that assumes rocks cannot injure and kill; that assumes "non-violence" includes threats to Israeli soldiers (one of which responded non-violently and was dismissed from his unit for taking too strong an action).

I'm reasonably sure that some of the Jews promoting BDS against Israel have visited Israel - probably on their way to Aza or the so-called "West Bank" - but I seriously doubt any have actually lived in Israel and faced the conditions Israelis - Jews and non-Jews alike - face in a daily basis. Live in Israel - as an Israeli for a year and see if the story stays the same.

Perhaps I should delete the sub-hed "We have met the enemy" and just continue with the "I have a problem" theme since these American anti-Israel pro-BDS Jews are trying to interfere in Israeli politics and the life of all Israelis and - to some extent - the people they pretend to support, the Arabs in Occupied Israel.

Opuscula Israeli haredi Yom HaShoah acts Are beyond my ken

 

I don't understand Israel's "ultra-religious" mentality. According to several reports, 100 yeshiva boys celebrated Holocaust Remembrance Day with picnics in the park.

What causes me to wander is that the Shoah - the Holocaust - wiped out most of Europe's Jews (and nearly extinguished the Roma) while murdering the disabled and political dissidents.

Most of Israel's haredi are relatives of the people the Germans - with help from their Czech, French, Hungarian, and Polish friends - slaughtered. To be fair, the Germans, et al, didn't care if a Jew spoke Yiddish, wore payot and dressed as a Polish pan or spoke high German and dressed in the latest style - all were destined for the "Final Solution."

I understand why the haredim refuse to celebrate Israel Independence Day; like the Moslem states that surround Israel (save for Egypt and Jordan), the haredim don't acknowledge the Jewish state's existence. Only the messiah can restore political Israel and then only as a theocratic state, according to the denizens of Bene Brak, Mea Sharim and similar haredi neighborhoods.

But it's one thing to ignore an Israeli national holiday; it's something else altogether to make an effort to insult others as the yeshiva boys did in Jerusalem and - foolishly - in Bet Shean. Bet Shean is about 90 percent North African - Jews from Morocco, Algiers, Libya. These people take the memorial day seriously.

I admit that in the U.S., many - perhaps most - Americans tend to take advantage of Memorial Day and Veterans Day for picnics and frivolous activities. But while Americans died for the flag - and too many times for someone else's flag - we didn't lose millions to people whose sole raison d'etre was wiping out an entire population.

Roughly 12 million civilians died at the hands of the Germans and their friends; of that total, at least six million were Jews. Jews and Roma (Gypsies) were murdered simply because they were Jews or Roma.

So I am bewildered by the Ashkenazi haredim who take the occasion to thumb their noses at their fellow Jews who also lost people in the Shoah. I would be equally stunned to hear that Shas' haredim joined them at the picnics, for Mizrahi Jews also died at the German's hands or at the hands of the German's Muslim allies.

Bet Shean is an interesting place - most of my relatives are there - in that even though Israel treated new immigrants from North Africa poorly, the general population is proud to be Israeli.

According to the Times of Israel article, “Remembrance Day is your event, not ours,” one ultra-Orthodox man said. “If you keep the Sabbath then we will mark your events.” Another explained that nonreligious people often have barbecues on Saturdays which, for observant Jews, is a forbidden activity.

Opuscula Anti-SemitismIndividual vs. Group hatred

 

An article on the Arutz Seven web site titled Europe: Jewish Life 'Unsustainable' Due to Rising Anti-Semitism (http://tinyurl.com/k5yby8k) reports on the increase in attacks on Jews and things Jewish in Europe and includes mention of the recent anti-Semitic incident in Overland Park near Kansas City KS.

There is a difference that in Europe, the attacks often are made by groups of cowards, attacking lone Jews or Jewish property while in the U.S., attacks typically are made by individual crazies acting alone - as was the case of Frazier Glenn, a/k/a F. Glenn Miller, the Overland Park shooter.

There also is, I suggest, a difference in the mentality of the Jewish population.

In Europe, even after the creation of modern Israel and its military successes, the Jewish mentality still, for the most part, is "don't make waves." Keep a low profile, don't do anything obviously Jewish, don't wear uniquely Jewish apparel - no kippot, not "Jewish" jewelry.

Jews in the U.S., particularly those Jews born post-WW 2, have a "don't tread on me" mentality; push me and I'll push you back - harder.

In Europe, while the Jews are cowering, the neo-nazis and the Islamists are proving their "in you face" attitude is the way to power, if not true respect.

When the Islamists can take over entire neighborhoods in England and impose shiria law on all residents, Moslem or not, this should be a lesson to Jews that cowering only will generate more attacks.

European Jews need a revival of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), Jews who are as "in your face" as the anti-Semites.

Where Jews defend themselves - as in the U.S., even in European-mentality ghettos such as Williamsburg in New York - anti-Semites are "discouraged" from attacking Jews. Where the police cannot or will not do their job, Jews defend themselves.

Call them vigilantes if you will; call them fools who are endangering their lives, but know that their very presence helps protect their fellow Jews.

My Moroccan father-in-law, ע''ה, knew how to deal with anti-Jews (Arabs are Semites, too, so "anti-Semite" seems an inappropriate label for Moslems) and because of that he had their respect both in Morocco and in Israel.

Few people respect cowards or people who behave as cowards as the Jews of Europe behave.

European Jews need to organize into self-defense groups. They need to learn self-defense, be it krav magraw as its taught by Israelis, karate, savate, or other "self-survival" skills and then advertise the fact that they are willing to use these skills if attacked.

Today's laws never will protect a Jew for a pre-emptive strike, but the law should not prevent a Jew from defending his person and his property. If the Jews of Europe don't defend themselves now, they will be unable to legally defend themselves later.

It's difficult to prevent an individual from attacking as Frazier Glenn did in Overland Park KS, but it is easy enough to identify and defend against groups intent on doing damage to Jews and "things Jewish."

There is two options for European Jews:

Option 1: Learn to defend yourselves and then defend yourselves.

Option 2: Move to Israel and let Jews who do know how to defend Jews protect you.

Option 1 is by far the better option if Jews expect to have any future in Europe.

Opuscula Shabat candles In no-flame zone

 

The wife wants to go on a cruise. But Shabat for us presents several problems.

The easy problem to resolve is food.

According to many sources, it's possible to order kosher meals in advance of the cruise. (The mashgeach at one of the kosher-meals-for-cruises providers makes minyan with me. I need to check if the food is "Ashkenazi kosher" or "Sefardi kosher"; there is a difference. Aside from the meat - glat vs. Bet Yosef/Halak - there is the issue of how much Jewish participation is involved in the food prep - lighting the fire is sufficient for "Ashkenazi kosher" but falls short for "Sefardi kosher.")

It turns out there is a second problem that's easily resolved.

Candles on Shabat.

According to many authorities, when an open flame is prohibited - this would be the norm for cruise ships, hospitals, hotels/motels/B&Bs, trains, and some private homes electric lights are permissible.

The problem with electric lights is that once on (for Shabat and haggim) they must be left on. Asking, even hinting for, a non-Jew come turn the lights off is not an option for us.

The following opinions were culled from the Internet:

AISH HATORAH

1. Most hospitals will not let you light candles in your room. Some who have a large Jewish clientele will provide candlesticks that light up when you plug them in. This is perfectly acceptable, just say the blessing after you "light" them, as usual. http://www.aish.com/sh/l/48970256.html

DAILY HALACHA (R. Eli Monsour)

Summary: Different views exist as to the status of electric lights with regard to the obligation of Shabbat candles. Whereas Hakham Ovadia Yosef maintained that one may, in fact, fulfill his obligation with electric lights, Hakham Ben Sion Abba Shaul held that one may not fulfill the obligation with electric lights, unless they are battery-operated. http://www.dailyhalacha.com/m/halacha.aspx?id=1655

TORAH MUSINGS (R. Ari Enkin)

If one is forced to use the electric lights in one’s home as the Shabbat candles they should first be shut off momentarily and then turned back on in order for them to now be designated as the Shabbat “candles”. Indeed, some authorities rule that every week before the lady of the house lights her Shabbat candles, she should momentarily turn off the household lights and then turn on them back on. When she recites her blessing over the candles she should have in mind that her blessing include the electric lights as well which will also provide light over the course of Shabbat. Those who are forced to use the electric lights instead of candles should endeavor to turn on even those lights which are not normally used in order for there to be some distinction that the electric lights are in honor of Shabbat. http://www.torahmusings.com/2011/09/more-on-electricity-shabbathavdala-candles/

iMitzvah.net (Shabbat Candles FAQs)

What is the blessing when lighting electric-light Shabbat candles?

You may only use electric lamps for Shabbat candles when you absolutely cannot light real candles. (For example, a woman in the hospital after giving birth would not be allowed to light real candles in the hospital).

In such a circumstance you would recite the regular Shabbat candle-lighting blessing. http://imitzvah.net/shabbat-candles-faqs/

Hakham Ben Sion Abba Shaul's reasoning appeals to me.

Flameless candles are battery operated. Many available from the Big Box Stores include what the descriptions suggest (none never exactly states) that the batteries are common and easily acquired.

The flameless candles come in many different shapes and sizes; something to appeal to every woman who lights Shabat candles. (Every man, too, when there is no female above bat mitzvah age - traditionally 12 years old - to light the candles for the household.)

BUT, unless the travelers eat in their quarters, where do you put the candles? They are supposed to be viewable from the dinner table, but once lit (or turned on), they should not be moved.

Many other Shabat-specific problems remain, but two are obvious.

1. Getting into the cabin (state room). I'm told doors to most guest quarters on board ships and in hotels/motels are electronically controlled; swipe a card and the lock is released. I know, because a neighbor has one, that combination mechanical-and-electronic locks are made, but due to costs, they would be rare in a commercial environment.

Short of asking a non-Jew to open the door for us - which we won't do - how can we get back into our quarters after a meal or stroll around the deck?

2. Getting to our quarters. Ships have ladders (stairs) between decks. When I was much younger I climbed from a container ship's bowels to the bridge; trust me, I won’t do THAT again.

If the ship has escalators the problem goes away. Trouble is, I've never seen any photos of ships with escalators. According to the Star-K, escalators may be used on Shabat. The same Star-K page presents a multitude of problems plaguing the observant Shabat guest; the site is worth reading. A "Shabat elevator" also eliminates the inter-deck travel problem, but again, how many ships have "Shabat elevators."

I know there are cruise lines that cater to observant Jews, but these "kashered" ships have limited sailing dates and limited departure/arrival ports.

What did observant Jews do before airplanes made travel fast, if not necessarily comfortable?

Opuscula If you wonder why Mashiach is delayed

 

Consider the following headlines from the Times of Israel on Thursday, April 24, 2014:

Ex-head of NY aid agency for poor Jews pleads guilty to larceny

5 Hasidic men charged with assault on gay black man

The same day the Times had a story about a former driver for Netanyahu charged with sex crimes on minors.

Of the three articles, the last, the driver's sex crimes, is the least egregious; it was a crime of "passion."

The first article, about the Ex-head of NY aid agency for poor Jews pleads guilty to larceny is all about greed. The ex-head was found guilty of depriving his constituents more than $7 million; $7 million stolen from The Met Council that provides employment services, crisis intervention, emergency food and other programs for poor Jewish households in New York.

The state's penalty for his greed was a requirement to pay back (only) $3 million - making a nice profit of $4 million - and a 3 to 10 year stay in a state prison; where he will be clothed, fed, and all is medical needs covered.

The second article, "5 Hasidic men charged with assault on gay black man flies again and again in the face of Torah and HaShem's commandments.

Most minorities in the U.S. know that most Jews only pay lip service to their plight.

Minorities are "OK" as long as they are not in "my" neighborhood.

One reader's comment to the article states: "Diversity is such a wonderful thing…we brought it upon ourselves, thanks to secular Jews everywhere who have no moral code or honor; This disgraceful excuse for a human being flaunting his mischief and degeneracy got just what he expected by his "in your face" attitude in one of our communities. I can not wish him well, he is an affront to all that is Holy! These valiant defenders of Torah will not be sent to prison or jail…righteous acts and actions have their own reward."

Never mind that nothing in the article even hinted that the victim was "flaunting his mischief and degeneracy" - in fact, the article reports that the victim, a 22-year-old student at the New York City College of Technology, simply was walking through the heavily Orthodox neighborhood of Williamsburg on his way home to a nearby neighborhood when more than 12 Hasidic men attacked him.

"Hasid," lest you are unaware, means "pious." If attacking a person just because he is passing through your neighborhood is "pious" than I hope never to be pious, certainly not like the 12 men that caused the victim to suffer a broken eye socket, torn retina, blood clotting, and cuts and bruises to his knees and ankles.

Perhaps the pious men of Williamsburg were taking a leaf from the pious men of Mea Sharim and Bene Brak and other black hat communities in Israel where even young, modestly dressed girls are spat upon and where black hat rabbis from the U.S. have their hats knocked off because a "pious" Jew feels the foreign black hat isn't equally pious.

It's sad and bad enough that there is a "religious" war developing in the "holy land" between the extremists and both the religious and secular Jews in Israel (and I fear it will cause us to lose the state once again), but apparently the mentality is exported to the U.S. - but from where? Europe? Israel?

People who behave as the thief and the "hasidim" are NOT Torah Jews, certainly not Torah ba'al pei.

I'm ashamed.

I’m ashamed as a Jew.

I'm ashamed as an American.

I'm ashamed as an Israeli.

Maybe the mashiach is ashamed, too, and that's what's causing the delay in his arrival.

אם-יהיה נדחך בקצה השמים משם יקבצך '' אלקיה ומשם יקחך

 

אם-יהיה נדחך בקצה השמים, משם יקבצך '' אלק ה ומשם יקחך Roughly: Even if your dispersed ones are scattered to the ends of the heavens, from there HaShem will gather you and from there He will fetch you.*

In other words, no matter how unobservant a Jew may be, HaShem still will bring the person back - no qualifications, no restrictions.

"Observant" is not a synonym for "orthodox" or "haredi" and it's a variable value word. One is "more observant" and another is "less observant" than a third person, but all are Jews.

It upsets me to hear/read that a Jew feels "not good enough to be considered a Jew."

According to the rabbis, even the Jew farthest from the religion can "come back" on his dying day. That doesn't mean to wait until death is at the door, but it means that "once a Jew, always a Jew" even if some won't accept their fellow Jew because of past transgressions.

Even as we wandered in the wilderness, when someone was removed from the encampment - think about Moses' sister Miriam who was banished from the camp for her evil tongue (yes, I too wonder why Aaron was not cast out with her) - the banishment was only temporary.

Even a Jewish murderer condemned to death remained Jewish and the body was treated as a Jew's body.

A Jew who sits in a restaurant window eating roast pork and lobster on Yom Kippur still is a Jew; he might be denied honors in congregations that know him, but no one will deny he's a Jew (no matter how much we might wish to disassociate ourselves from the person).

Consider HaAhar (The Other **) who was an absolute apostate to science and philosophy. Despite his abandoning of faith and friends (among them Akiba ben Yosef) and students, including Bruriah's husband, Meir Ba'al HaNes. ***

Going from heloni - non-observant - to observant can be a steep path. Like mountain climbing, a novice should not attempt to scale Mt. Everest on the first outing. A person needs to "work up" - little by little - to greater levels of observance. Going "cold turkey" and trying to perform even half the mitzvoth usually ends up with the Jew giving up and returning to the heloni ways.

Even if the best intentions fail to reach fruition, the Jew still is a Jew.

Payot and gartel do not make a Jew. Neither does a פאה (wig) make a married woman Jewish (indeed, the late Ovadia Yosef said that a man should divorce a wife who wore a wig).

There are things that separate some Jews from others; e.g., the fellow eating pork and lobster in the window on Yom Kippur, but there is nothing that can separate the Jew from being Jewish in the eyes of Judaism.

A few words from פרקי אבות (Ethics of the Fathers) which we read starting with Shabat Hol HaMoed Pesach. At the very beginning, we read

שנאמר ... וכולם צדיקים לעולם יירשו ארץ

which, as translated by The Mesorah Heritage Foundation reads: As it is said … And your people all are righteous; they shall inherit the land forever.

The explanation, from Teferet Israel, explains:

The mishnah refers to the world to come since in this world not all Jews are "righteous." In the world to come, however, all Jews will be deemed righteous.

So even the "rasha" sitting in the restaurant window eating pig and lobster will be righteous - if not now, then in the world to come.

Bottom line: If any Jew says they are "not good enough" to be a Jew, tell them שטויות! - and let them look up the word.

* Translation from Hebrew/English Sedur Kol Yaakob according to the minhag of Aleppo (Syria). If anyone knows of a Hebrew/English sedur following Moroccan minhag (tradition), please let me know - yohanon dot glenn at gmail dot com .

** Elisha ben Avuyah, 1st/2nd century CE tanna; mentioned once in the Mishna Avot (4.25) a truism: He who learns when he is young, to what may he be compared? To ink used on new paper. He who learns when he is old, to what may he be compared? To ink on used on blotted (erased) paper. Ben Avuyah also is mentioned in Mo'ed Katan (20a) discussing mourning rules. (Source: Masters of the Talmud, Alfred J. Kolatch.)

*** Source: http://tinyurl.com/kh3u34l

Proof! Israel holds back Arabs, women

 

From THE Times of Israel:
An Arab-Israeli microbiologist from northern Israel won the fourth season of Israel’s reality show “Master Chef.”

Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, a 33-year-old mother of three from Baqa al-Garbiya, was crowned the winner of Israel’s most-watched television show on Sunday night. She appeared in the final with Ido Kronenberg of the central Israeli city of Savyon, and Meseret Woldimikhal, an immigrant to Israel from Ethiopia.

Having won the contest is she heading for Disneyland?

No. She said she would use her winnings to open a Arab-Jewish cooking school for students from throughout the country.

I hope she will continue as a microbiologist with the cooking school an avocation.

Should anyone be surprised?

Miss Israel, Titi Yitayish Ayanaw, is a politically naive (she admires Obama) 6'-tall olah from Ethiopia.

BDS target Soda Stream employs Muslims and Jews - and maybe Christians, too - and pays them equally for equal work, even though it is on the "wrong" side of the so-called Green Line.

Israel, unlike the PA (and many other Islamist-dominated countries) has Arabs - both Muslim and Christian - in its national political body, the Knesset. Even when these Members of Knesset preach and practice hatred of Israel they are allowed to remain in office, treason not withstanding.

Women are respected scientists in Israel. Aside from Men's Room Attendant, I can't think of any job "off limits" to an Israeli woman. One, Dr. Karnit Flug, heads the Bank of Israel. Two others head two of the 7 major political parties: Tzipi Livni (Hatnuah) and Zahava Gal-On (Meretz).

It's interesting to compare the freedoms non-Jews have in Israel with the freedoms Jews have in many Muslim countries. When the PA gets its way, it will be what Hitler wanted: Judenfrei - free of Jews.

Likewise it's interesting to compare women's rights in Israel with women's rights - or lack thereof - in Muslim-dominated countries. Consider Saudia; how about Iran, or even the Turkey of today.

It really is amazing the difference between the politically left and the reality on the ground.

Israel is NOT perfect. What nation is? At the same time, Israel is not an apartheid country nor does it threat its neighbors - despite their attacks on. and constant incitement against, the country - badly. True, there IS a fence that creates an inconvenience for Israel-bound terrorists. If someone wants the fence removed, let them assure Israel's freedom from terrorists. I don't see the Left lining up for the task.

Curious. Israel's fence to deter terrorists is condemned. The U.S.' WALL to keep out Mexicans looking for a better life north of the border is tolerated. Double standard , anyone?

Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel is proof positive that - contrary to the Left - Israel is a land offering opportunity to all of its citizens.

Opuscula Listener comprehension Story teller's obligation

 

R. Marc Angle, in Jewish Ideals for Friday, April 4 2014 notes, almost in passing, that Famously, the Hagadah includes instructions on dealing with children with different aptitudes and interests. The challenge is to feel and transmit the vast group Exodus experience of antiquity on an individual level.

As a former newspaper reporter and editor, and later as a technical writer, I know, possibly better than most, that it is the obligation of the person presenting information to make it understandable to the person receiving the information.

It is not the obligation of the reader/listener to "interrupt" what was written/said.

Not all of us are comfortable with the Hagadah's Hebrew with bits of Aramaic to add flavor (or a gnashing of the teeth), so we depend on translations into a language most of us understand. But maybe not.

For a brief look at the Hagadah's linguistic history read Why is the Hagadah written in Hebrew?

Certainly some of the translations are "over the heads" of some of the younger participants at the seder. (Unfortunately, given the level of English comprehension in the U.S., the words may be beyond the capabilities of some "educated" adults as well as the children.)

The Hagadah's raison d'etre is to retell the story of our exodus from Egypt. Note I wrote, most deliberately, our exodus. The Hagadah tells us early on that עבדים היינו במצרים Slaves we were in Egypt. Every good story teller knows if the audience fails to comprehend the story's meaning, the audience's time has been wasted and the story teller's effort was simply wasted energy.

Rather than racing through the Hagadah as most of us do, maybe it would be wise to set some rules for the reading before we ask ?מה משתנה. Maybe set some time for questions and comments at certain points in the evening. Alternatively, the host might prepare some age-appropriate questions.

Back to R. Angel's article.

It begins with R. Angel quoting from Nobel Prize winning Sephardic author, Elias Canetti's book "Crowds and Power." Canetti wrote of the tremendous diversity among Jews. He theorizes: “One is driven to ask in what respect these people remain Jews; what makes them into Jews; what is the ultimate nature of the bond they feel when they say "I am a Jew"....This bond...is the Exodus from Egypt.” Canetti suggests that the Israelites’ formative experience as a vast crowd leaving Egypt is the key to understanding the nature of Jewish peoplehood. As long as Jews—however different they are from each other—share historical memories of the Exodus from Egypt, they continue to identify as members of one people. We are bound together by the shared experience of redemption.

While agreeing with Canetti, R. Angel notes that Yet, the Hagadah does not focus only on the “vast crowd” experience, but conscientiously strives to personalize the story to the level of each individual. “In every generation one must see him/herself as though he/she personally had come forth from Egypt.” The Hagadah tells stories about particular lessons taught by individual rabbis. It teaches that we have not fulfilled our obligation unless each of us speaks of Pessah, Matsah and Maror.

At the seder table we may be a "large crowd" but we still are individually obliged - men and women alike - to recall why we were redeemed both individually and collectively.

 

By the way, why is the Hallel split up into two sections during the seder?

In his commentary Zevach Pesach on the Hagadah, the great Spanish scholar Don Isaac Abarbanel (1437–1508) answers this question. To read Hakham Abarbanel's answer visit Why do we divide the Hallel into two at the Passover Seder?