davka | דוקא | despite everything » food

the new year; traveling for chocolate… and much more

davka — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:08:42 +0000

Switzerland was actually “Plan B”

We had hoped to get to Fire Island (Long Island) at The Pines for Rosh haShannah to be with a colleague and at the beach. However, because “the season” at The Pines was still going strong, the two establishments where we tried to book rooms could not commit, barely even returning our calls or emails.

So, Plan B; Chocolate research and Jewish adventures in Switzerland.

Our American Airlines miles had accumulated enough for us to fly to Zurich and back from Geneva so we rented a small car and developed a plan to spend time in Zurich, Basel, Gruyères and Geneva. I booked simple hotel rooms. I also contacted the rabbi in Zurich who arranged for us to join his congregation Or Chadash.

Debbie thought through the chocolate stops. We had heard about the chocolate train from Montreaux to Broc and back. Tantalizing as it was, on closer research it was expensive and it limited our time at Cailler. Since we would have a car, we decided to forgo the train. This turned out to be a great decision.

On sharing these thoughts and what actually happened with Libbe, she responded that they seemed like a wonderful mixture of careful planing and serendipity.

Our Activities:

Sunday, September 5: Departure
Monday, September 6: Flying from New York; settling in to Zurich
Tuesday, September 7: To Courtelary and a visit at Chocolat Camille Bloch
Wednesday, September 8: A visit to the Maestrani and Halba chocolate factories; tea at the Dolder Grand Hotel
observing Rosh haShannah
Thursday, September 9: Rosh haShannah in Zurich (visits to two synagogues and the Dada café, and much more)
Friday, September 10: Walks along the Limmat, to the Kunsthaus and finding “YHWH” in a church
Saturday, September 11: From the “lost” Jewish town of Endingen to the beginnings of the Jewish State in Basel
Sunday, September 12: Seeking Einstein and the “Child Eater” in Bern, then cheese in Gruyères
Monday, September 13: “One More Chocolate Factory Tour” in Broc and an unexpected visit to “Mt. Zion”
Tuesday, September 14: The Shofar Synagogue of Geneva & Making New Friends over Chocolate
Wednesday, September 15: The “Bean Counters” of Lausanne & a Welcome Return to New York City

posted on October 4, a month (minus a day) from our departure

…on the Gregorian calendar which Pope Gregory XIII implemented on this date in 1582. So, while we went to celebrate Rosh haShannah in Switzerland, these pages appear on yet another new year of sorts.
…regarding traveling, this date is the anniversary of the death, in 1859, of Karl Baedeker. And while in no way authoritative, these pages are offered as our own modest guide to those who might follow us.
…and it is the anniversary of the death, in 1947, of Max Planck, one of the first who recognized the significance of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity which was written while living in an apartment in Bern… which we visited.

Mark wear’s his Einstein button while standing at Einstein’s Bern desk.

Albert Einstein

Date:	1960s
Size:	4.43
Pin Form:	straight
Print Method:	celluloid
Text	[photograph of Albert Einstein]

your lapel buttons

Many people have lapel buttons. They may be attached to a favorite hat or jacket you no longer wear, or poked into a cork-board on your wall. If you have any laying around that you do not feel emotionally attached to, please let me know. I preserve these for the Jewish people. At some point they will all go to an appropriate museum. You can see all the buttons shared to date.

The People of the…

davka — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:29:33 +0000

We have been called a People of the Book for nearly 1400 years. We did not invent the term. It was given to us (as well as to Christians) by our cousins the Muslims. Nonetheless, even as our technologies move us beyond the physical book, the text remains. We return to the text that has served as the humus from which we draw our nourishment (n.b. not hummus, though it is also very nourishing).

now is the time of turning

The next to last verse of the Book of Lamentations (5:21) reads:
השׁיבנו יהוה אליך ונשוב (וְנשׁובה), חדשׁ ימינו כקדם.
It is commonly translated:
Turn Thou us unto Thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
I have long had difficulty with this verse. I wonder why we would want to return to what had been and not move forward to something yet to be. As you can see in the left sidebar, i.e. some sayings of ר‘משבצונה“ל
השיבהו ח‘ אליך ונשובה חדש ימינו כעוד לא היו.
I have changed the text to align more closely to my understanding of how the future should be new, not old.
In her recent post on the subject, Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz shares R. Zalman Shachter-Shalomi’s translation of the verse: Take us back, O God, to Yourself, and let us come back; Renew our days as of old. I find this slightly better. However, it is in the explication by R. Gurewitz that I find greater meaning. (Full disclosure, though we have met and appreciate each others works, our names are merely similar and we are only related in the same way that all now descended from those who settled in Hořovice are related.) We need as R. Gurewitz writes:

what Zen practice calls Shoshin — ‘beginner’s mind.’ To do so requires an awareness that the way we responded to a situation before, based on our own histories, experiences, assumptions, etc. is not a given.

This is similar to what R. Morris Lichtenstein of the Society for Jewish Science expresses:

The old year is soon to pass. One more link shall have been added to the chain of our experience, another milestone in the road to our goal shall have been passed. We shall have risen one level higher, perhaps, in our aspiration to realize the values of life. Astronomers count the completion of a year as a great event in nature; the earth has made a complete circuit around the sun. But when the year ends the earth returns to its original place. It would be no less than a calamity, if we should find ourselves at the end of the year on the very same spot where we began. We must advance with the flow of time, we must grow; we must not falter, but leave a trail of progress upon the fleeting days. To the shrub a year means but an additional leaf, to the vine it means only a new cluster, to the tree a new ring of bark, to the stream it means a deeper flow. But to us a year may mean new knowledge mastered, new thoughts brought into action, new feelings set in motion, a clearer understanding of God, a closer communion with God. If this is what this New Year shall mean to us all, then shall we all have indeed a year of blessedness and fulfillment.

we return once again to The Garden

our San Diego home garden

The September 21, 2009 issue of The Nation has an article by Michael Pollan in which he refers to Wendell Berry’s comment that eating is an agricultural act.

For what would we give today to have back the “environmental crisis” that Berry wrote about so prophetically in the 1970s, a time still innocent of the problem of climate change? Or to have back the comparatively manageable public health problems of that period, before obesity and type 2 diabetes became “epidemic”? (Most experts date the obesity epidemic to the early 1980s.)

When Debbie and I were newlyweds and moved to Jerusalem for the first year of our rabbinic studies in 1973 we took very few things with us. Among the books we brought, one we used more than most was Recipes for a Small Planet. We continue to use recipes and methods we learned from it.

The cover of our edition was blue

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago:

Not only with our gardens, so also with us. The time has come to turn over, but more than a new leaf or a little soil. Or perhaps we should turn around, but not in the manner of our puppies that chase their tails running around in circles as they distract us in our garden. Nor in the manner of the snakes in our garden, the Ouroboros the snake with its tail in its mouth, forming a never ending circle. No, I cannot simply toss off a bit of old skin as the snake simply loses its, but remain essentially the same.

We need to reach farther than the beauty that is skin-deep. Sometimes the pipes that lay beneath our gardens develop cracks. Roots and detritus find their way in and clog the flow of irrigating waters. There are times when it becomes so serious that we need to call for help and the company comes that snakes through the piping, routing out the accumulated debris. So it is with us. We need to reach into our hearts and turn them, cleanse our thickening arteries, open them to freshness, enable them to flow freely with the fluids that bring fresh life.

turn it and turn it

Our literature encourages us to turn and look at life and our literature itself, as if it were living soil, from as many perspectives as possible. in Pirke Avot 5:19 [21]…
ה,יט [כא] בן בגבג אומר, הפוך בה והפך בה, והגי בה דכולא בה
Ben Bag Bag said, “Turn it and turn it, for everything is in it.”

turn, turn, turn

Turn it and turn it, also as in the wheels of a bicycle.

un-turning

A name some Jews have taken on as their own: The People of the Bike. This weekend is the annual New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride.

Avigail works for Hazon. Last year Debbie and I joined her and worked as “crew” (the people “off” the bike).

the people “off” the bike

The morning of the return to NYC we set the bikes out on the damp morning lawn for the riders to find them.

bikes at rest

This year Noam decided he wanted to do the ride. Debbie and I went up to Camp Kinder Ring to join Hazon for a restful and joyous Shabbat. Today, Sunday, September 6 he road 80 miles.

Noam returns to Camp Kinder Ring after riding 80 miles (taken and sent by Avigail using her iPhone)

I was reminded by our colleague R. Jeffrey Salkin that this week marks the 60th anniversary of the Peekskill Riots. Peekskill is about two thirds of the way from NYC to Camp Kinder Ring. I remember the previous year getting goosebumps as I saw the sign for Peekskill from the railroad train on the way to the bike ride. This year, as I drove up the Taconic State Parkway at 55 miles per hour I was more attentive to the nature of the roads and the terrain, imagining what it must have been like to drive a full day from the city (going about 40 MPH maximum). And then, at the end of the day….

Even though it happened on the other side of the continent, the Hurvitz Kids grew up knowing the song that Pete Seeger and Lee Hayes wrote “Hold the Line”. I remember Pete singing the song on one of the many “LPs” we owned. Now, after 60 years I am reassured to know that a new generation of socially aware Jews can move freely in the area and raise awareness of the issues that face us.

I went to our local bike shop at 69th and 2nd Ave. I asked the proprietor to take my photo in the shop. He thought I was a bit strange. The button is made by Hazon, many people wore them on Shabbat.

at our neighborhood bike shop

the people of the bike

Date:	2008
Size:	3.5
Pin Form:	clasp
Print Method:	celluloid
Text	the people of the bike

your lapel buttons

what do you put in your coffee?

davka — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:11:52 +0000

[cross posted at The Jew and the Carrot]

Pharisees of course

A Tiny Vial of Pharisäer

Ever-sensitive to appearances of Jewish references in popular culture, I was a bit surprised to read Maureen Dowd’s headline in The New York Times on Sunday, July 19, 2009: “Pharisees on the Potomac”

I did not see any mention of late antiquity in her column and it was not until a number of hours later that I realized she had used the Christian allusion to Pharisees as hypocrites! Shame on her and shame on her editors (I wonder if William Safire saw the column). As the Wikipedia makes quite clear:

Because of the New Testament’s frequent depictions of Pharisees as self-righteous rule-followers, the word “pharisee” (and its derivatives: “pharisaical”, etc.) has changed in meaning and has come into semi-common usage in English to describe a hypocritical and arrogant person who places the letter of the law above its spirit. Jews today (who subscribe to Pharisaic Judaism) typically find this insulting if not anti-Semitic.

but what does this have to do with coffee?

When Debbie and I traveled in Europe in the spring of 2006 our route took us from Mainz to Hameln. We climbed out of the Rhine valley and spent the night at a lovely campsite outside of Alsfeld.

camping near Alsfeld

The following day, we had the entire day to accomplish a two and a half-hour drive. So when we found ourselves in downtown Alsfeld we took advantage of the situation. We had a couple of errands to accomplish and needed to purchase some food for lunch so we stopped and explored the market square, the old wood-beamed buildings and a couple of the small shops along the main market street.

In one of the tiny shops we found a small bottle of Heimbs Kaffee labeled PHARISÄER. It turned out to be a bit of coffee-flavored rum (or perhaps rum-flavored coffee).

Needless to say, I bought a couple of bottles as souvenirs. I have added a drop or three to my own coffee periodically. I could not find any other references to it at the time, but Maureen had me thinking more about the Pharisees, so I began a search. The story is told by Christina Geyer, an American expatriate in Germany on her blog which I reproduce here:

The weather-beaten coastal residents of the North Sea have always had a passion for freshly-brewed, strong coffee — as opposed to their tea-drinking cousins from the beaches of the Baltic Sea. Especially appreciated was the black brew with a rich ingredient that was a hallmark of Flensburg: Rum! Nothing weighed on the brave people more though, than to bother their watchful preacher with this small vice. And so they camouflaged the feel-good cup — in the form of an airy dollop of cream. Naturally, it didn’t take long for the man of God to discover their tactic and in his outrage he cried: Oh, you pharisees!

I’m fascinated by the etymology of the name for this drink and would like to learn more about it. I’ve yet to find a more authoritative source.

no more “Pharisees”

My bottle is nearly empty. I have not found any source for importing more Heimbs Kaffee PHARISÄER to New York to stock on my shelf. However, even if I can replenish my supply, I hope that Maureen Dowd removes the word from her shelf of available pejoratives.

Hidden in plain sight

davka — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:25:30 +0000

At the far east end of 47th Street in Manhattan, between 2nd and 1st Avenues a broad lovely park leads up to the United Nations complex of buildings on the East River. A farmer’s market is set up every Wednesday throughout the year.

a market and plaza to rally against genocide

This broad space is known as Katharine Hepburn Garden in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza. As often as possible I walk Debbie most of the way to her office, buy produce at the farmers’ market, then, with my bags slung over my shoulders, I walk the mile back up to our apartment.

Stop Iran rally in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza (a large black backdrop for the speakers blocks the view of the UN)

On September 22, 2008 when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at the United Nations, the Jewish community organized a “Stop Iran” demonstration in the park. I made a point of being there. Young people were bussed in from day schools around the area and others flew or were flown in from Canada and as far away as Baltimore and Chicago.

Satmar at Stop Iran rally

God Gave Israel To The Jews

Never Again Is Now

In the 1960s and 1970s when you attended a rally you wore a lapel button that indicated how you felt. However, while a few buttons were distributed at the “Stop Iran” rally, very few of the couple-thousand people who may have been packed into the park and the surrounding streets that morning wore their buttons. They were there expressing their concern about a world leader who denies that the genocide against the Jews during World War II occurred and threatens to commit genocide in our own day against the people of the State of Israel.

A few days later on September 25, a different coalition organized a demonstration to call attention to the genocide in Darfur. I made a point of being there as well. No official Jewish presence, not even AJWS, was visible. In fact there were barely 50 people in attendance the entire time.

rally to stop genocide in Darfur

five sqaure columns, a blue sphere, paving stones and a bronze briefcase

I did not know this at the time. I only learned about it because I made a concerted search. The location at the east end of this park between the park and the United Nations is dedicated to someone who did all he could to stop genocide. And then he disappeared into the Soviet Gulag system. On a tiny island in the middle of 1st Ave. five tall columns of black diabase, mined from the Swedish bed-rock stand in a field of paving stones taken from the former Ghetto in (and as a gift from the City of) Budapest. The briefcase has the initials RW on it. There is no explanation for the blue sphere. The monument (a park in his honor exists in Queens), titled “Hope”, was commissioned by the Swedish consulate and created by Swedish sculptor Gustav Kraitz.

Raoul Wallenberg Memorial from the west

Raoul Wallenberg Memorial from 1st Ave. heading north (obscured if not completely hidden)

Raoul Wallenberg Memorial from the east

who was Raoul Wallenberg?

On each of the columns a small amount of text is carved:

Dedicated to Raoul Wallenberg a Swedish diplomat born in 1912, who was stationed in Budapest, Hungary 1944–45

Displaying great caring and ingenuity, Raoul Wallenberg saved the lives of countless Hungarian Jews by placing them under the protection of the Swedish Government “I could never return to Stockholm, knowing that I had failed to do everything within human power to save as many Jews as possible” –Raoul Wallenberg …Raoul Wallenberg, with extraordinary courage and with total disregard for the constant danger to himself, saved the lives of almost one hundred thousand men, women, and children…. — From the 1981 Joint Resolution of Congress, making Raoul Wallenberg an Honorary Citizen of the United States On January 17 1945 Raoul Wallenberg was detained and imprisoned by the Soviet government His fate remains unknown.

As a world-traveled 32 year-old businessman, one might almost call him an adventurer, from a wealthy and illustrious Swedish family with business connections in Hungary, Raoul Wallenberg was sent (in an effort of the American government’s War Refugee Board and perhaps as an under cover agent of a top secret intelligence agency) to join the Swedish legation in Budapest. It was hoped that he would do something to save the lives of Jews being deported to their deaths.

Raoul walked the walk

How do you decide what is appropriate for you as an individual to do in response to a crisis of horrific proportions? Raoul Wallenberg’s activities in Budapest are so outstanding (I find it a bit odd that there has not been a Hollywood movie about his exploits) that I repeat the story here rather than merely link to it [the text comes from the Wikipedia page about him]:

On July 9, 1944, Wallenberg travelled to Budapest as the First Secretary to the Swedish legation in Budapest. Together with fellow Swedish diplomat Per Anger, he issued “protective passports” (German:Schutz-Pass), which identified the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation and thus prevented their deportation. Although not legal, these documents looked official and were generally accepted by German and Hungarian authorities, who sometimes were also bribed. The Swedish legation in Budapest also succeeded in negotiating with the Germans so that the bearers of the protective passes would be treated as Swedish citizens and be exempt from having to wear the yellow Star of David on their chests. With the money raised by the [mh: war refugee?] board, Wallenberg rented 32 buildings in Budapest and declared them to be extraterritorial, protected by diplomatic immunity. He put up signs such as “The Swedish Library” and “The Swedish Research Institute” on their doors and hung oversize Swedish flags on the front of the buildings to bolster the deception. The buildings eventually housed almost 10,000 people. Sandor Ardai, one of the drivers working for Wallenberg, recounted what Wallenberg did when he intercepted a trainload of Jews about to leave for Auschwitz:

…he climbed up on the roof of the train and began handing in protective passes through the doors which were not yet sealed. He ignored orders from the Germans for him to get down, then the Arrow Cross men began shooting and shouting at him to go away. He ignored them and calmly continued handing out passports to the hands that were reaching out for them. I believe the Arrow Cross men deliberately aimed over his head, as not one shot hit him, which would have been impossible otherwise. I think this is what they did because they were so impressed by his courage. After Wallenberg had handed over the last of the passports he ordered all those who had one to leave the train and walk to the caravan of cars parked nearby, all marked in Swedish colours. I don’t remember exactly how many, but he saved dozens off that train, and the Germans and Arrow Cross were so dumbfounded they let him get away with it.

At the height of the program, over 350 people were involved in the rescue of Jews. Sister Sára Salkaházi was caught sheltering Jewish women and was killed by members of the Arrow Cross Party. Swiss diplomat Carl Lutz also issued protective passports from the Swiss embassy in the spring of 1944; and Italian businessman Giorgio Perlasca posed as a Spanish diplomat and issued forged visas.

On July 10, 2009 I made a point of visiting the Hope memorial on my way to a different errand. As I continued on my walk down 1st Ave, a few blocks south, beside the Isaiah Wall in Ralph Bunche Park, across the street from UN headquarters I came upon…

Raoul Wallenberg Walk at the foot of the steps along the Isaiah Wall

Isaiah 2:4:

ושפט בין הגוים, והוכיח לעמים רבים; וכתתו חרבותם לאתים, וחניתותיהם למזמרות–לא-ישא גוי אל-גוי חרב, ולא-ילמדו עוד מלחמה

And He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

This quote has been part of my personal story since my earliest years. I have sung it to many melodies and, I believe, worked to bring it about. Yet, when I think of the efforts of others, I wonder, what have I done to help? These were among my thoughts as I returned home, again via the “Hope” memorial.

how many people need to die for “killings” or “massacres” to rise to the level of genocide?

There, at the eastern edge of the Plaza facing Wallenberg’s pillars of hope a group of people held up beautiful blue and white flags calling attention to attacks against their diasporic people. A meager demonstration was held, calling attention to the plight of the Uygur minority in Western China.

demonstration against Han Chinese treatment of Uygurs

in a Tuesday, 14 July 2009 story at the BBC…

China demands Turkish retraction

There is still a heavy military presence on the streets of Urumqi
China has demanded that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan retract his accusation that Beijing practised genocide against ethnic Uighurs. Mr Erdogan made the claim after riots in the Uighur heartland of Xinjiang during which 184 people were killed.

The demonstration had been organized by the Uyghur American Association which distributed a few leaflets and background information on the situation (from their point of view). In the literature were links to disturbing videos on YouTube:

Perhaps hundreds of Uyghur people have been killed in the recent struggle. From the little I’ve read, it seems that the Han Chinese have instituted a formal policy of relocating the Uyghur people to distant parts of the Chinese empire. I appreciate the struggle of these people for their own national self determination. It is possible that a horrible atrocity is occurring now in Western China, and even with YouTube, this situation is hidden from us in plain sight. And yet I wonder if what is happening there can truly be called, as the placard of one of the demonstrators claimed, genocide.

an Uyghur demonstrator (on the left) with a homemade poster calling Chinese actions GENOCIDE

the continuation is hidden

I experienced a very strange phenomenon as I prepared this post. I would reach a certain length in the writing (or number of items in the code?) and that caused the entire post to “disappear” or be hidden. Eventually I found the point beyond which I could write no more… and I simply determined to cut the post in two portions.

To continue, click here

hidden in plain sight (continued)

davka — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:23:53 +0000

continued from hidden in plain sight

what are we hiding (from)?

As of this writing, the phrase “hidden in plain sight” appears in a Google search 142,000 times. It must refer to a wide variety of concepts and situations. How many things to we encounter and pass by that are as though they are hidden from us in plain sight? I asked my colleagues to consider some of this in relation to a commercial that appeared on Israeli television and has received some significant discussion.

Some interesting response to the commercial can be found at PromisedLandBlog where the author shares:

in reality, if a Palestinian comes close to the fence to return a football or to wave a flag he is likely to get shot; the whole reality of the occupation, is something Israelis are refusing to see…

My friend and guide Rabbi Walter Zanger tells me that the likelihood of getting shot is a serious overstatement. However, my point is metaphoric: The separation barrier (some 90% of it is a wire fence) and the people from whom it separates “us” has become so “normal” that its existence is “hidden” in plain sight. A more “realistic” presentation appears in this non-commercial video (which may be a metaphor for “waiting for the phone to ring” (towards the bottom))

The video is made by a satirical team Yossi Atia and Itamar Rose. According to an article on Ynet:

In their outrageously funny short satirical movies, Yossi Atia and Itamar Rose aim to expose Israel’s true face by breaking every taboo possible. From suicide bombings to the occupation, rape and homosexuality, no cow is sacred. Their mission, as they define it, is to make people look at their reality from a different angle

Someone else took the original Cellcom video did a bit of editing, adding a couple of brief scenes of what might be happening on the other side. (A minor industry of spin-offs seems to be developing on YouTube… each one a bit harsher than the previous.)

If Israelis and Palestinians want to come together, communicate and share a good game of soccer or volleyball they can do that. There are venues. And, yes, I know: they are all in Israel, organized by Jews, not Arabs (Muslims or Christians).

what does it take to reveal what is “hidden in plain sight”?

For the past three weeks I have been wearing a lapel button with the image of Raoul Wallenberg on it. (I have four different buttons that refer to him, two of them in the blue and yellow colors of Sweden produced for The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States.) The button says “Help Save Raoul Wallenberg” even though the commonly accepted version suggests that he was killed by the Soviets on this date, July 17, 1947. Raoul himself is still hidden. He does not have an official death certificate. Stories of him appeared throughout the Gulag at least into the 1960s. I can count on one hand the number of people I encounter daily (tellers, clerks, friends) who pay any attention to the button and ask about Raoul Wallenberg.

I paused at the bronze reproduction of his briefcase and wondered about him. “What would Raoul do?” As I finish writing this post on July 16, I am fasting, once again. Raoul was a man of action. He would probably laugh at my fasting. I do not believe there is a moral equivalence, however, in the words of my friend and colleague Rabbi Haim Beliak:

A fast is personal, if a minor sacrifice. The fast is a gesture that lays prostrate the very essence of a person. It reminds us that we are offering ourselves to be a signal of solidarity and contrition.

We know that the suffering of the people of Gaza is far greater than our one day gesture can express. Nevertheless, I am bolstered in this gesture because it presents us with a reminder of Palestinian humanity. We need that reminder because we are assaulted with attempts to deny Palestinian humanity. It is in the nature of wars and occupations to demonize and demean. The obliteration of the humanity of the Palestinians by blockades that deny food, medicines, and life — restoring material conditions is now forty — two years old.

How could we (rabbis) be silent? How could we not hear the cry of children and mothers in their desperation? In our gesture we signal our hope for peace and maybe some day, reconciliation. We don’t seek to deny the suffering of Israelis by our gesture. We affirm the human agency of all parties to stop fighting and turn to peace.

at the Wallenberg briefcase

If Raoul Wallenberg was alive today (were he not murdered on this date in 1947, or “allowed” to die in some ignominious manner in the Gulag) which is rather unlikely, he would now be 97 years old. I hope that I have done my small part to bring him out of where he has been hidden.

Savior of 100,000 Jews” width=”300” height=”286” />

Help Save Raoul Wallenberg
Savior of 100,000 Jews

Date:	?
Size:	3.81
Pin Form:	straight
Print Method:	celluloid
Text	Help Save Raoul Wallenberg Savior of 100,000 Jews

Neapolitan

davka — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:26:50 +0000

Over the years I have been asked:

What kind of a rabbi are you?

To which I answer without hesitation:

A good rabbi!

And then my interlocutor stammers a bit and says:

No, no, what… oh, ah…. Are you…?

At which point I gently interrupt and say:

Neapolitan

I mention this here, now, because over at the JPS Interactive blog Sara Simkin used the term “flavors” to describe various groups in contemporary Jewish life.

(at least as many as) 36 righteous flavors

I shared my thinking:

I’m so glad to see the use of the term “flavors” here. I have used the word and described myself as a “Neapolitan Jew” for many years.

I explain the expression in the following manner: There is no “progression” from one “movement” or “stream” of Judaism to any other (as in a rainbow or a color wheel). Each flavor elicits a different taste in the mouth of the participant. Some flavors stress the peoplehood aspect of what it means to be a Jew, other flavors stress the fulfillment of תרי”ג מצוות‎. And in the meantime, other flavors stress the ethical aspects of the מצוות‎… and on they go.

None of these are necessarily mutually exclusive. However, in the way that vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry each tickle different parts of our taste buds but turn to mush when melted, each flavor of Jewish living offers special qualities that get lost when it is not respected for what it has to bring.

progression?

Whenever I speak about the various flavors in Jewish life I do so in alphabetical order to make clear that that is the only meaningful “progression”. So we can speak of (and this is by no means complete):

conservative
gastronomic
haredi
just
orthodox
reconstructionist
reform
renewal
secular
zionist

And, as you can see, some of these overlap. Sara’s list is a bit different from mine here, and others have commented there adding more. Please feel free to

I am a member in good standing in one particular rabbis’ organization for professional and collegial purposes. I have at various times been a member of other groups of rabbis (both professionally and ideologically). You get the idea.

Rabbis for Human Rights — North America

Date:	2008
Size:	6.35
Pin Form:	clasp
Print Method:	celluloid
Text	Rabbis for Human Rights — North America [in Arabic and Hebrew as well as English]

Which is the fast…?

davka — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:12:09 +0000

[cross posted at the Jew and the Carrot and at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism].

The prophet Isaiah asks (58:6–7):

Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the fetters of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover them, and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh?

If we are to “loose the fetters of wickedness”, what might our fasting have to do with Darfur?

To date, of the 1,686 published posts, only a dozen articles on the jCarrot mention “fasting”. Indeed, perhaps not surprisingly most of the articles on the jCarrot deal with eating more than not eating. Nonetheless, not-eating is a very Jewish way of approaching food. There are a variety of explanations that anthropologists and others offer for fasting. Perhaps the most accepted in classic Jewish circles is from Talmud Bavli Berachot 17a where fasting is compared to sacrifice: an offering up of our own blood and fat. Few of us remember our parents telling us to finish all the food on our plates because “children in Europe are starving.” This is parental advice from another generation. However, children all over the world continue to starve. Our finishing every carrot and pea on our plates won’t cause them not to starve, but there are ways that we can use our food to call attention to their plight. So, it is a bit sad that no more than 4 articles on the jCarrot mention Darfur (one of which encourages supporting the Jewish World Watch Solar Project to protect and empower the women of Darfur).

Darfur is “durn far” away.

Its geographical distance and our many other concerns conspire to push the genocide happening there further back on the stove. Few of us still wear our green plastic bracelets reminding us to “Save Darfur” and “Not On My Watch”. So, Ruth Messinger of AJWS and Rabbi David Saperstein of the RAC decided to call attention to the ongoing starvation by continuing the “water only” fast initiated by Mia Farrow.

Darfur Fast for Life is asking the Obama administration to ensure the return of 13 humanitarian aid agencies that were expelled from Sudan on March 5, following the International Criminal Court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The group’s website also directs visitors to an April 30 letter to President Barack Obama from the Enough Project, the Save Darfur Coalition, and the Genocide Intervention Network containing detailed policy and strategic recommendations. The letter, President Obama and Sudan: A Blueprint for Peace, asks for commencement of a formal Darfur peace process; full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the governments of southern Sudan and Khartoum; and negotiations leading to agreements for peace in Chad and eastern Sudan.

To end his fast R. Saperstein invited rabbis and cantors from all the religious movements to join him by refraining from all food on 26 Sivan: from sundown Wednesday June 17 till sundown Thursday June 18.

Fasting Religious Leaders

I was among more than 80 rabbis and cantors from all over the world who participated. Those who know me understand that this is not a difficult task. I enjoy food and do what I can to make my eating meaningful. Even so, while I would hardly count as a hunger artist, I can easily go without food and often forget to eat a meal. So, many might ask, if I am not starving myself in public, what is gained by fasting for Darfur? Indeed. Therefore this posting. I often do wear the green bracelet and oddly enough, I am not aware of any lapel buttons produced by the Jewish community using Jewish imagery and calling for an end to the genocide in Darfur.

Is there anything more…?

Whenever you are on a call with a service representative from any company, and, at the end of the call he or she asks:

Is there anything else I can do for you?

Answer:

Yes, since you ask, please encourage President Obama to do even more than President Bush did to stop the genocide in Darfur. The phone number is: 202–456-1111. Please leave a message.

You will likely receive one or another of the following responses:

painful silence [the service rep does not even know what Darfur is]
uncomfortable laughter [the service rep knows about Darfur but is so surprised and embarrased by your request that the best s/he can do is laugh]
understanding consent [the service rep knows and understands what is involved and may actually follow through].

In any one of these cases you have done well. You have raised awareness of the situation in Darfur with someone for whom it has most likely not been on the front burner.

Meaningful Non–Eating

And I ask you to join others in spending some of your time focusing your attention on a problem far away, and over which you have little control. Make your eating and your not eating as meaningful as possible.

This may not be the fast, but it is certainly a worthy one.

Why Wine?

davka — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:12:07 +0000

[cross posted at the Jew and the Carrot].

At Pesach we drink a lot of wine. Why is it called the symbol of our joy?

In an arid environment, wine can be seen a method of preservation. If you do not live or work near a well or a spring or some other source of fresh water you need to have something else to drink during the day.

Milk does not last without refrigeration; actually we can think of cheese as a form of dried milk (that is a form of preserving milk).
Crushing olives obtains oil, which while highly useful, does not quench thirst.
Squashing pomegranates produces a very tart juice, but it doesn’t last long at room temperature.
Squeezing dates creates a very sweet paste our ancestors called “dvash”.
And figs don’t produce much in the manner of a drinkable juice either.

The Grape

But, that other fruit mentioned among the seven species, the grape, undergoes an amazing transformation when it is crushed, squashed and squeezed. With just the right amount of exposure to oxygen it becomes a drink that, like a good person, becomes more distinguished as it ages.

And so we Jews treat this juice with respect, initiating special moments of our lives and our experiences as a people by praising G!d for our ability to grow harvest and transform the grape into such a wondrous beverage.

One year I even made some of my own.

We express this awe in the words of the Kiddush. While the Kiddush differs slightly depending on the specific occasion, clearly the most frequently recited version is that sung on Shabbat. At that time we bring to mind the beginnings of creation and our role in it as well as our liberation from slavery in Egypt. Many of us know the melody composed by Lewis Lewandowski in the 19th century., but Jewish, liturgical, musical creativity has continued.

Mack the Knife sings Kiddush?

The 59th Yahrtzeit of Kurt Weill is soon upon us. Weill, the son of a Chazzan, died April 3, 1950 which corresponds to the second day of Pesach, or this year Friday April 10. Among the many wonderful works by Kurt Weill (who is best known for “Mack the Knife”) is a Kiddush.

[I paraphrase from the Jewish Heritage Online Magazine]:

Kiddush was commissioned in 1946 by the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York (at the time, Weill may have been living at 231 E. 62nd St.), where it was first performed by tenor solo, chorus, and organ, during a Friday night service by Cantor David Putterman. Weill dedicated the score to his father Albert, who survived the Second World War and became a citizen of the State of Israel.

I first heard this version of the Kiddush sung by my dear friend Cantor Richard Botton at Central Synagogue in Manhattan in the late 1970s and was deeply moved by its expressiveness. Cantor Botton later recorded the composition on Rockport Records [CD RR 5009] From Generation to Generation and I listen to it frequently.

When my wife, R. Deborah R. Prinz celebrated her retirement from the pulpit rabbinate at Temple Adat Shalom in Poway, CA (in 2007), I purchased the sheet music so that I could learn and sing the Kiddush (with a piano accompaniment) at the Erev Shabbat service honoring her. I continue to sing it often (a cappella with family accompaniment) at home on Erev Shabbat.

A recording is available on the Web, for those not familiar, sung by Cantor Garfein and choir (for some odd reason I can’t get it to play on my Mac now, and, if I remember correctly I did not find this a particularly moving rendition, though it ends with the sweetness it calls for).

Sheet music is available.

Recently R. David Posner (Temple Emanu-El, NYC) spoke about Weill’s Kiddush on the radio show “Mad About Music” WNYC, (February 1, 2009). Here’s an excerpt from their conversation:

POSNER:

I do remember when I was younger, ten, eleven years old, I must have stopped by the time I was eleven years old, listening to Elvis Presley recordings, the Everly Brothers, I remember. I thought they were very good country singers. So I chose the Kurt Weill “Kiddush” because this is a jazz version of the “Kiddush”, which is the sanctification of God with the instrument of wine, praising God for being the creator of the fruit of the vine, and also thanking God for the Sabbath, on which this particular “Kiddush” is always recited, 52 weeks a year. Temple Emanu-El started to use this version of the “Kiddush” among maybe eight or ten that our Cantor does. And at first the congregation was somewhat uneasy, but after a half a dozen listenings, they were totally convinced and totally sold on a jazz version of the Kiddush, normally that they’ve always heard in chordal harmonies, very straight, and now with a fluidity that is so appealing and so mystical in its own way.

Wine, like freedom can lead to a powerful headiness

At the beginning of the Kiddush we praise G!d who enables us in our wonderful capacity for growing, harvesting and processing the fruit of the vine.

As I write in my own Haggadah:

Tonight we recline. Our reclining is not a sign of laziness, but of freedom, a respite as we await instructions on how to proceed. No one forces us to eat on the run, at our desks, or out in the fields at our work. We can enjoy a meal that includes conversation and song, a meal that focuses our attention on the burgeoning year as it blossoms around us and encourages renewed growth within us. Our meal also intensifies our awareness of the efforts for freedom still pursued by ourselves and others.

After drinking three of our four cups of wine, we also know that we have come most of the way from the degradation of slavery to the dignity of freedom. But freedom, like wine, can lead to a powerful headiness. Liberation itself is not the goal.

We have the strength to act according to our own decisions. Yet we understand that not every decision we make is the correct one, merely because it is ours. Though we can act out of strength, we have also learned that not by might, nor by power, but by the awesome divine attributes of justice and mercy will we all achieve wholeness.

Wine [Creation/Liberation]… and Song

And so, this year at Seder as we drink our last cup of wine, and on Shabbat when we make Kiddush, I hope we pause to become more aware of our strengths and abilities, consider different melodies that can carry our words, and rejoice in the creation and our liberation.

davka | דוקא | despite everything » food

the new year; traveling for chocolate… and much more

Switzerland was actually “Plan B”

So, Plan B; Chocolate research and Jewish adventures in Switzerland.

Our Activities:

posted on October 4, a month (minus a day) from our departure

your lapel buttons

Related Posts:

The People of the…

now is the time of turning

we return once again to The Garden

turn it and turn it

turn, turn, turn

your lapel buttons

Related Posts:

what do you put in your coffee?

Pharisees of course

but what does this have to do with coffee?

no more “Pharisees”

Related Posts:

Hidden in plain sight

a market and plaza to rally against genocide

five sqaure columns, a blue sphere, paving stones and a bronze briefcase

who was Raoul Wallenberg?

Raoul walked the walk

how many people need to die for “killings” or “massacres” to rise to the level of genocide?

China demands Turkish retraction

the continuation is hidden

Related Posts:

hidden in plain sight (continued)

what are we hiding (from)?

what does it take to reveal what is “hidden in plain sight”?

Related Posts:

Neapolitan

(at least as many as) 36 righteous flavors

progression?

Related Posts:

Which is the fast…?

The prophet Isaiah asks (58:6–7):

Darfur is “durn far” away.

Fasting Religious Leaders

Is there anything more…?

Meaningful Non–Eating

Related Posts:

Why Wine?

The Grape

Mack the Knife sings Kiddush?

Wine, like freedom can lead to a powerful headiness

Wine [Creation/Liberation]… and Song

This site is currently undergoing a major overhaul. Thank you for your patience.

Related Posts: