As the northern hemisphere moves deeper into winter with less light for each day, our mornings begin near dawn. This is a beautiful time of beginnings and promise. While the sounds we hear each morning are not those of birds chirping and children learning, but the clanking of men at work, even these call out for blessings. I recall a favorite melody Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels, a classmate, composed for the beginning of ברוך שאמר (baruch she’amar) the first of the פסוקי דזמרא (pesukei dezimra) recited at the beginning of the “morning cheers”. I rarely hear anyone sing it, though I believe it expresses the text beautifully.

mark sings neil’s ברוך שאמר

written or spoken

This came to mind when I learned from Avigail that she is involved with a project called “Shaharit: A Think-tank for new Israeli Politics” and its English language podcast “The Promised Podcast” …being a podcast for anyone who wants to understand Israel beyond the headlines. Or, as they write:

Finally, after thousands of years and so many desert sojourns, it’s here! Gripping discussion and perspectives on Israeli politics and culture. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

the promised podcast

Podcasts are not my medium of choice. My BA was in music and I’m rather attuned to sound, but I did not have an iPod until I needed a new phone in February of 2011. I had my hearing checked in late October, learning that my hearing is quite fine (for my age). While I’m beginning to lose those upper registers, I’m nowhere near needing an “aid”. I relish the “Silence” (which I owned for many years).

I appreciate Oscar Wilde’s comment in “The Critic as Artist”:

Since the introduction of printing, there has been a tendency in literature to appeal more and more to the eye, and less and less to the ear which is really the sense which, from the standpoint of pure art, it should seek to please, and by whose canons of pleasure it should abide always.

Nonetheless, I’m a text guy. I don’t listen for my information, I read. Even though I prefer to read, one of the rare pluses of needing to drive while living in Southern California was the time I would spend in the car listening to various news and information programs. Otherwise, when I sit at my desk with my computer in front of me (which is the vast majority of my time), I read and write. If I’m doing chores in the apartment, or cooking, and I’m alone, I will sometimes turn on my iTunes, set the music library to randomly select anything from the (currently) 14,771 “songs” amounting to 76.7 days, or 75.17 GB of files. I like to start out the selection with something from the 1,347 “songs” amounting to 36.4 days that I’ve not yet heard since adding them to the library. [Yes, that’s an odd ratio. And a lot of listening yet to do.]

walking and talking

However, there are times when I will go for a walk alone. Most of these walks are within a 7-block radius from the apartment: to the library, the cobbler, the vintner, the cleaner, one or another market, the post office, (not the butcher, the baker, nor the candlestick-maker); the usual neighborhood errands. These jaunts are too short to merit plugging the earbuds into the phone and listening to anything other than the city’s sounds. Other times I will walk for a mile or more. These longer walks might be for exercise/pleasure or for an errand beyond the immediate ‘hood. In such a case, I will plug in, and, if the city streets are quiet enough I can hear someone talking on a podcast.

It was on such a walk one morning in late October when I was finally able to sample the “Promised” podcast. The session I happened upon was the one recorded immediately following the release of Gilad Shalit. The initial segment had Gershon Baskin as it’s guest. Aside from his discussion of the role he played in the release of Shalit, I learned that he and the three regular discussants on the podcast are all “graduates” of Young Judaea. I suddenly felt a special kinship, as I was also deeply touched by my experience in Young Judaea.

some movements end in a whimper, others due to success

Both the internationalist Jewish left that consisted of first-generation Americans (and their children) and the Zionist youth movements that helped create the State of Israel had thousands of adherents in the early and middle 20th century. They are nearly non-existent today at the beginning of the 21st century. Both of these movements (though antagonistic towards each other) added a vibrancy to American Jewish life. What happened? I am not a historian, but I know from personal experience that most of the children of the immigrant members of YKUF rose out of the working class, became professionals and, while they maintained a fondness for Yiddish, were not able to create Yiddish speakers and readers of their children (the third-generation Americans). Among the Zionists on the other hand, they were often so successful in imparting their ideology (as was the case wtih the Habonim ken (“nest” as in group of youngsters) in Los Angeles) that the entire leadership made Aliyah leaving those behind to struggle, often unable to maintain the continuity of the group.

While I had grown up in a Yiddishist/Internationalist home, my parents introduced me to Zionism in my early teens (I think for the sake of using the local Habonim summer camp). I continued my involvement during the year, accepting the nationalist argument. It was in the Habonim Makelah (chorus) that I met Bonia Shur. But, when the reigning hadracha (leadership) made aliyah and the social fabric of our ken dissolved, I looked for another group. Our family friends in the Bay Area had long been involved in Young Judaea, but its non-political nature had not been attractive. Nonetheless, I contacted the local group and attended some gatherings. The Young Judaea group in Los Angeles in the early ‘60s was much more intellectually involved than was Habonim. I don’t remember ever participating in a discussion of Jewish thought in Habonim. But at regular meetings at the home of our Young Judaea madrich (he must have been in his early 30s, with a young family; he lived in a duplex on 6th St. between Fairfax and La Cienega) we enjoyed discussions of the work of Martin Buber and A. J. Heschel.

In the process of becoming more active in Young Judaea, I learned of it’s Israel Year Course program. Our family friends’ daughter would be participating in it the year she graduated high school, 1964–65, the same year that I would graduate. This seemed like an amazing opportunity not to pass up. While now Year Course is marketed as a gap year program, in the mid ‘60s (and probably for many years later), only someone who had been active in the movement could participate. Because I was a newcomer (I’d never been to any Young Judaea summer camp, and had been involved in the local group only a year), I needed to “prove” my acceptability by attending the “advanced” program of the national camp Tel Yehudah in Barryville, NY along the Delaware River.

Though I was born in Springfield, MA, and spent a couple of years in Akron, OH, I don’t think I had been east of San Bernardino, CA since the age of four. I flew east on my own. I don’t remember if I was met at JFK by someone from Young Judaea or by my uncle who lived on Long Island. Be that as it may, I spent a great time at camp “Machaneh Avodah” (work camp), where aside from studying Zionist thought and international workers’ songs such as Bandiera Rossa I learned how to milk a goat.

mark (on the right) with other campers, sheep… and goat at machaneh avodah

The Year Course itself was a wonderful experience. Though while many of the other participants were thrilled by the Southern-California-like appearance of Israel, I (having grown up in Southern California) wondered why anyone would (should) feel any special connection to the land if it were not for the Zionist idea (which was one of our textbooks). Throughout the autumn and winter we lived in what was then the quiet and small city of “divided” Jerusalem. After breakfast at our “dorm” the San Remo hotel on the corner of Strauss and HaNevi’im, we walked every morning, up King George Street to what was then the Hillel building on Balfour Street for four hours of Hebrew study. The afternoons were filled with courses in Jewish history, philosophy, and Zionist thought, the physical geography of Israel and more. The remainder of the year included a month living with a family and working on a moshav (Kfar Yehoshua), three months on various kibbutzim (Hulda), and other adventures.

On our return, I remember a woman from Hadassah, at the time, one of the adult sponsoring organizations of Young Judaea, remarking that they often see graduates of the Year Course returning to the States and becoming involved in Jewish communal life on a professional level… sometimes as rabbis. The Jerusalem campus of HUC-JIR had opened the year before my Year Course. I had walked past it many times. Little did I know then that in eight years I would be back, studying at that campus. I know of other colleagues who also “came through” Young Judaea.

listen to the promise

Since that October walk I have had other opportunities to listen to this “Promised” podcast. While I am not sure what it is that is promised, nor who it is that does the promising, I know that each time I have listened I have gained through the interaction of the three primary participants:

• Dr. Eilon Schwartz, founding Director of Shaharit as well as the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership and Hebrew University professor
• Don Futterman, frequent contributor to Haaretz, blogger for +972, and Israel Program Director of the Moriah Fund
• Dr. Noah Efron, Sr. Fellow at Shaharit, HUffPo blogger and lecturer at Bar Ilan Univesity.

The whole first third of the October 28th podcast is all about the state of higher ed in Israel.

I encourage you to give it a listen.

listen to the dawn

Many organizations, especially youth movements have produced lapel buttons. I have a number of these made by Young Judaea. For some reason, Young Judaea has also been known as “Hashachar” (the dawn). This button dates from the mid 1970s the period when the podcast producers were active in the movement. I wonder if they ever wore it.

HashachaR

Date:	1977
Size:	5.2
Pin Form:	straight
Print Method:	celluloid
Text	HashachaR

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.

Most people who know me understand that I am not averse to technological change. I have been interested in how communications technologies have been used and changed for many years. In June of 2010, I wrote about my involvement in the development of what I called “the electronic leaflet”. When I was in college I studied music and was involved in performing “renaissance music” on my recorder at the same time, as I have written here before, I produced and was the disk jockey for “avant garde” music on the radio program “Catching Up” on KPFK I had with my brother. My interest in changing communications technologies led me to write my rabbinic thesis on ”The Rabbinic Perception of Printing as Depicted in Haskamot and Responsa (contemporary with the invention of printing). I wanted to learn what the rabbis contemporary with the invention of the new technology felt and thought about it (there was precious little information).

The Google books QR Code for my thesis:

letters and cards

One item that printing enabled was the development of postal systems. Once you could print on paper that had a dried glue on the back that you could use affix to an envelope or card, written communications between people who lived far from each other increased greatly. It meant that the sender of an item paid for its delivery in advance. Among the many items sent were cards with photographs or illustrations on them: the postacard.

Jews around the world participated in this development. As the Jewish population spread across Europe to America and beyond, the ability to hold something written and tangible gained deep import. People spoke of having papirene kinder “paper children” because the only evidence they had of them was the letters they hopefully received. The concept has made it into a 2003 novel by Martha Blum called Paper Children, and a Yiddish song that seems to date from the earliest part of the 20th century. Deeply poignant is the movie A Brivele Der Mamen, the title song from which, written at least 30 years earlier, rends the heart and brings tears to the eyes. The song was first recorded by it’s composer Solomon Smulewitz in 1908. It became popular on its own with covers by The Barry Sisters. It begins in three-quarter time, but the famous lyrics, as sung by the popular singer Al Bowlly are a fox trot.

The version on YouTube by Dudu Fisher includes (what I think is) a still from the 1938 movie (note the envelope on the table):

still from “a brivele der mame”

rosh hashannah correspondence

Postcards at the time of Rosh haShannah played an important role. As explained in an online exhibit Past Perfect at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America:

The earliest and largest number of Jewish picture postcards were created for Rosh Ha-Shanah greetings. The custom of sending a New Year’s message is documented as early as the fourteenth century when the Maharil, Rabbi Jacob of Moellin (1360?-1427) [in Mainz of all places; he died just under 25 years before Gutenberg developed movable type there, centuries before postcards], recommended that during the month of Elul one should include wishes for a good year in all written correspondence. This custom spread widely throughout the Ashkenazic world.

Some lovely cards are available at the JTSA site. You can see many more at the Magnes Museum site. You can almost always find some old Rosh haShannah postcards to purchase on eBay. and you can buy new cards that you can write on at zazzle. One of the reasons I have enjoyed receiving hard, analog, physical, printed-on-paper Rosh haShannah cards is that I can decorate my Succah with the cards I’ve received from friends and family that year. It is a physical form of ushpizin.

I find it cute and intriguing that one of the older cards depicts a newer mode of communication:

a little meta

I rarely write about the process of maintaining this site. Some may notice that I change the color scheme on an annual basis. The colors for links, blockquotes, tables, and other features are based on the colors of the image you see at the top of the (at this writing) right sidebar. That image is a miniature of a linoleum block print that I prepare and send out as my own Rosh haShannah greeting card. Since 1996 I have used a portion of my summer (at one time at camp (Swig or Newman)) to produce a linoleum block (or other visual). Each block represents a verse from classic Jewish texts. Initially, (usually) these texts were from the book of Psalms, but now they range much more widely. Each text becomes a mini visual midrash. I collect them here for your viewing pleasure.

Psalm 16:8	1996	For a new year of peace
Psalm 113:3	1997	May the year 5758 bring blessings of peace from east to west…
Isaiah 45:7	1998	May the year 5759 bring blessings of peace in both light and darkness.
Psalm 119:1	1999	May the new year 5760 bring blessings of peace as we continue on our way.
Psalm 92:13	2000	May justice… and with it peace flourish in the new year 5761.
Psalm 90:12	2001	May we gain hearts of wisdom, so that the year 5762 will be one of peace.
Psalm 118:19	2002	May acts of righteousness in the year 5763 open the Golden gates of Mercy and lead to a world of peace.
Proverbs 3:17b	2003	May all our paths in the coming year 5764 lead us toward peace.
Sifra to Psalm 18:11–12 and Siddur: Ma’ariv: Hashkiveinu	2004	May our efforts in the year 5765 spread clouds of glory as we build true tabernacles of peace.
Lamentations 3:52	2005	May our endeavors in the year 5766 release all that threatens to ensnare us, giving wing to a world of peace, blessing and joy. [In memory of Faye (Faigie, Fannie (Avrunin)) Hurvitz Tzipporah bat Meir v’Jannah 21st of Tevet 5674 — 8th of Tammuz 5765; December 20, 1913 (the winter solstice) — July 14, 2005]
Leviticus 25:10	2006	May our endeavors in the year 5767 proclaim liberty throughout the land, creating a world at peace.
Psalm 118:5	2007	May our voices spread from the narrow places to the broad spaces calling for justice and peace in the year 5768.
Psalm 118:22	2008	In our efforts to build a world at peace may we see the potential in every stone.
Leviticus 19:10b	2009	As we gather our share in the new year may we live in a world of plenty and of peace.
Pirei Avot 1:2	2010	May we secure our world on a foundation of learning, service and deeds of loving-kindness.
Genesis 1:1–2	2011	May our efforts in the new year bring new creation out of chaos.

I often spend the months immediately following Pesach thinking of a verse that would be appropriate and could be expressed visually. This year’s card is made of two blocks. I did not know it would work this way, but the shop where I usually purchase the linoleum had a block approximately twice the size of what I wanted. I was able to find someone who could cut it in half, and then I had two pieces to work with. In recent years, more of the cards have reflected something in my life at the time; this year is one of them.

• I took the two verses:

בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים, אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ. וְהָאָרֶץ, הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ, וְחֹשֶׁךְ, עַל-פְּנֵי תְהוֹם; וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים, מְרַחֶפֶת עַל-פְּנֵי הַמָּיִם

• I removed all the vowels and duplicate (as well as final form) letters. This left me with [set one]:

  א ח י כ ל מ נ ע פ צ ר ש

• I removed/separated those that form the phrase [set two]:

  תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ

• I randomized the remaining letters.
• These two sets formed the two linoleum cuts:
  randomized (the letters, and the cuts that make up the design, enclose a rounded area):
  

  randomized letters

  remaining (the letters/words, read right to left, then flipped… and right to left again, form a shape in the fetal position while the cuts that extend from the letters shoot off in all directions):

  

  tohu va vohu

• I printed the silver-gray block and then, on top of that the red block:
  

  genesis 1:1–2

whatever happened?

In the days when I taught my Introduction to Judaism class, part of the lesson for Rosh haShannah was to explain the value of making contact with family and friends, as Christians do at Christmas. In a sense, it is a way to ping someone. I send out a card to every member of my extended family for whom I have a geographical address as well as numerous friends and associates. Often I receive a card in response. Sometimes a card comes back with “address unknown” or “past forwarding time”. Others respond by sending an electronic greeting, or, there are families who send out a “this is what our family has been up to this past year” letter. Generally, if I do not receive any kind of response after three to five years, I drop that recipient from the list (those of you who happen to read this and are on the list… be forewarned). Because I have included a number of people with whom our parents corresponded I sometimes receive notes back letting me know that a particular person has died in the past year and I notify my sibs as we take note of the passing of time and generations.

I usually print enough cards so that our children can use them to send to their extended family and friends. However, other than that, it seems fewer people each year send cards out on their own. This saddens me, but, it seems that, other than modeling the behavior I like, I am powerless to change the situation.

keep them coming

I don’t know if these phrases are used any longer, but there was a time when they played a significant role in American popular culture.

Thank you for all those cards and letters:

Keep those cards and letters coming in
(which I understand was a special part of The Dean Martin Comedy Hour”) though this is from a different source:

not averse to change

Yes, I do miss receiving those physical cards. But, that does not mean that I will not express my Rosh haShannah greetings in a less “traditional” manner. I will wish my Twitter followers a Shannah Tovah (with a link to this page). I will also add a note to my Facebook page that I’ve updated this site in honor of the new year, and I will even share the first paragraph of this, with a link on Google+. Beyond those virtual wishes, I often wear this button during the period leading up to and immediately following Rosh haShannah.

l’shanah tova

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.

I understand that during the first half of the 20th century not even the majority of world Jewry supported a nationalist solution to Jewish existence. Jewish working class movements were generally non-Zionist and many of the “leaders” of world Jewry were internationalists, looking for international solutions. Why, then, should I be surprised that the Palestinian people did not recognize nationalism as potent force in their own approach to modernity? As I wrote in a leaflet I published in 2002:

Who Are the Palestinians?

• We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds.

  Resolution adopted by the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations; Jerusalem, February, 1919 at a meeting to choose representatives for the Paris Peace Conference

• There is no such country [as Palestine]! “Palestine” is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.

  The words of Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, local Arab Leader to the Peel Commission (which came up with the suggestion to partition the Land of Israel) in 1937

• There is no such thing as “Palestine” in history, absolutely not.

  Testimony of distinguished Arab-American historian, Princeton University Prof. Philip Hitti, before the Anglo-American Committee 1946

• Palestine was part of the Province of Syria… politically, the Arabs of Palestine were not independent in the sense of forming a separate political entity.

  Arab Higher Committee representative to the United Nations at the General Assembly, May, 1947

• It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria
  Ahmed Shuqeiri (later chairman of the PLO) to the Security Council (a few years later)

The Palestinian people did not care about or build a national movement until Israel acquired control of the West Bank and Gaza following the Six-Day War in 1967.

Now that Palestinian nationalism is a force, the Palestinians must recognize the right of the Jewish people to its national movement: Zionism.

Together, the two peoples can share the land.

“coulda shoulda”

So… (as I published in another leaflet at that time):

why not this?

According to United Nations Partition Plan of 1948 a Palestinian state was created at the same time as the State of Israel

It offered a lot more territory than the Camp David proposals of 2000!

which came first…

the nation or the state?

That’s a hard one to answer, as the Wikipedia article on “nation state” makes clear. I thought I could learn something about the predecessor of the modern nation state by looking at the concept of “the people” or “peoplehood”. But even here the ideas are scattered. The Wikipedia has articles on “Jewish Peoplehood” which has its origins in the Biblical concept of עם ישראל, expressed in early Rabbinic times as “Kol yisrael arevim zeh bazeh – All Israel are responsible for one another.” [Talmud Shevuot 39a] and is similar (probably a cognate word) to the Muslim concept of أمة‎ “Ummah” and that idea is not all that far from the English word “folk”.

So, when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stood before the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 2011, I wondered where he and his predecessors had been back in 1948! I imagine that others said “Nyah nyah, lost your chance.” But I am in favor of there being a State of Palestine alongside a State of Israel.

President Abbas’ address to UN; 1,585 viewings as of midnight 20110923 [part 1]

President Abbas’ address to UN; 302 viewings as of midnight 20110923 [part 2]

President Abbas’ address to UN; 304 viewings as of midnight 20110923 [part 3]

text of President Abbas’ address

I do, however, want to comment on this small part:

It is a moment of truth and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world. Will it allow Israel to continue its occupation, the only occupation in the world?

Uh, Turkey, the current great defender of the Palestinians, occupies Cyprus, China occupies Tibet; do those not count? The Wikipedia article on occupied territories enumerates many others.

Will it allow Israel to remain a State above the law and accountability? Will it allow Israel to continue rejecting the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice and the positions of the overwhelming majority of countries in the world?

Why doesn’t anybody repeatedly complain about the Turkish or Chinese occupations, so there could be resolutions they would reject? Or why was there no outcry at the UN when using carpet bombing, Russia destroyed much of Grozny or when Turkey kills scores of Kurds?]

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the birthplace of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him)

Um, at the time, it was known as the Kingdom of Israel or the Roman province of Judaea. What about Ahab king of Israel (peace be upon him) does he not count? Or, would mentioning him (and his title, I could mention so many more, but Ahab is attested to by the world powers of his day) falsify Abbas’ claim to “the Holy Land, the land of Palestine”?

to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people in the homeland and in the the Diaspora, to say, after 63 years of suffering of the ongoing Nakba

Ah hah! So it’s not “the occupation of the ‘West Bank’”, but the very creation of Israel that is the issue to Abbas. He’s let the cat out of the bag!:

Enough. It is time for the Palestinian people to gain their freedom and independence.

Well, yes, so why did not the Palestinian people accept the offer in 1948 and United Nations General Assembly (yes, the same group before which he delivers these remarks) Resolution 181?!

kurkh monolith of shalmaneser iii mentioning ahab king of israel

i am no fan of bibi either

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to UN; 304 viewings as of midnight 20110923

text of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address

pandering

I wondered to whom Netanyahu was speaking when his opening remarks to the General Assembly dealt with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and he then went on to use the phrase “militant islam” five times in the first eighteen paragraphs. Was he directing his concerned remarks to the many Islamic states that are members of the UN, or was his audience the American public?

Yossi Verter writes in his column in Haaretz Nobel no, Oscar yes

In 1978, when it was learned that Prime Minister​ Menachem Begin had won the Nobel Peace Prize, former prime minister Golda Meir​ remarked: “He deserves a Nobel?” adding that what he really deserved was an Oscar.

If Golda were still with us, she could have resurrected her comment, this time with justification, with regard to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday.

Netanyahu began and ended his speech with calls for negotiations. Towards the end of his talk he seemed to address Mahmoud Abbas directly:

In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I’ll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We’ve both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we’re in the same city. We’re in the same building. So let’s meet here today in the United Nations. (Applause.) Who’s there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?

Did Netanyahu call Abbas on his cell phone after the session? If not, why? If he did, what was Abbas’ response? Why have we not heard anything more about this? Or, was this no more than a form of grandstanding on Netanyahu’s part?

show business

I’m not the only one who has been critical of the pretensions of these leaders. Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder of J Street, “the political home of the pro-Israel pro-Peace movement” appeared on the Colbert Report:

Jon Stewart satirized what it might take for Palestine to be admitted to the UN:

Yes, that’s a “trademark” symbol there. Why not? I continue to tell people that I came to the rabbinate out of “polity” not “piety”. My involvement was as a community organizer. A quick check on Google indicates that I’m nearly the only person to have used it… and, at that, significantly more frequently.

nathan hurvitz

Our father died 25 years ago today (29 Iyyar 5746). He was only 71. He had a weak heart from rheumatic fever. And he lead a stressed life as a “Type A” Personality (though while he could be hostile, at times, he did not express “free-floating hostility”). And then at 41 he had a massive heart attack… followed by a couple more in the next few years. Were it not for the fact that this happened in the late ‘50s and that he had a weakened heart to begin with, he would likely have been a candidate for coronary artery bypass surgery. But life did not work that way. Instead, he lived the next 30 years, a full, but careful life.

Nate Hurvitz grew up in Cleveland, OH, in the “first area of settlement” (oddly enough, I thought this was a commonly used sociological phrase, but I can find nothing that explains the phrase on the Web). His parents had come to the States from Chernigov, Ukraine, Pale/Settlement via Hamburg, Germany on the Printz Adalbert which arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 14, 1914. (How Hillel Gurewitz and Fayge Brinn traveled from Cernigov to Hamburg, I never learned.) In Cleveland, his parents were blue-collar workers who identified as Jews and extreme leftists, and internationalists. Hillel, now Harry, sang in the choral group of his Jewish workers’ association. Fayge was a seamstress and took in piecework. Nate’s first language was Yiddish. In fact, he did not speak much English until he began public school, and, even when he was in his early thirties, he thought the German word for “old woman” was “alte yiddeneh”. Nate was 14 years old when the Great Depression began. During the 1930s, as the family lore has it, Nate, a good speaker, was able to draw a crowd while orating from a soapbox. He would do this in front of a house in foreclosure where the owner’s goods were being removed. As the crowd gathered listening, others would be busy moving the objects back into the house. But, Nate wanted to be a writer, not an agitator.

nate hurvitz the writer

on creativity

Dad would have agreed with Einstein:

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

Dad wrote poems, plays, songs, short stories.

the word (words & music by nathan hurvitz)

I have many slips of paper on which he wrote; slowly I have begun digitizing them so that our broader family can have access. He also wrote numerous articles, both in his professional field and in areas of inquiry that engaged him.

Though he died 5 years before it launched in 1991, he would have loved the Web. He often used web imagery when talking with us about learning, a simile I now use with our children:

Learning is like creating a fishing net or a spider’s web. The more you weave into it the more it is capable of catching.

He would also say:

Don’t let college interfere with your education.

His creativity led him to work in various media.

faye hurvitz with one of nate hurvitz’s creations at barnsdall art exhibit, los angeles 1973; photo by nate

nate the sculptor/astronomer

I’m ahead of my story

Even though he continued to write all his life, and had projects on which he was working when he died, Dad was never able to make a living from his writing. On his return from his “all expenses paid tour of Europe dressed in green” he developed an intense interest in Jewish history and life… especially the life of the destroyed communities of Eastern Europe from which his parents had come. He worked, not as a writer, but as a social worker in the Jewish community and then in private practice as a marriage and family counselor. He and our mother collected artifacts that depicted the life of the working-class Jews of Eastern Europe. (He used to joke that this was our yerushe ירושׁה (inheritance).)

part of our (physical) inheritance

After Dad died, Mom arranged to give their collection of graphics (woodcuts, lithographs, and etchings)to the Magnes Museum in Berkeley, California which exhibited the collection

shtetl life brochure

and produced a catalog of it.

shtetl life catalog (front)

nothing alien

Dad was a life-long atheist, and though he never read Rosenzweig (preferring historians to philosophers), he would likely have agreed with the paraphrase of Terence attributed to him (Franz): “nothing Jewish may be excluded as alien”. Dad was committed to the survival of the Jewish people. Even during his years as an Internationalist (as contrasted with being a Zionist), he and Mom sent me to Habonim summer camp and encouraged my participation in Zionist youth activities. As an atheist Jewish family, we observed Shabbat in our home with candle lighting and its blessings, kiddush, and motzie. When Dad’s colleagues would join us for Shabbat dinner they would wonder why “Natie Hurvitz the atheist” was saying the blessings. He responded by saying that:

These are the folkways of our people. As the world turns toward darkness, it has been the role of the Jewish people to light candles in the dark. By doing so we identify ourselves with Jews everywhere and throughout history who have lit their candles.

His intense commitment to the Jewish people’s survival, possibly blinded him in ways that caused him pain, and likely shortened his life even more than the physical problems that he refused to allow to limit him.

but tweeting #torah?

How did the son of Nathan Hurvitz, the Yiddishist Secularist Internationalist Atheist, become a rabbi encouraging people to do this:

”Twitter Torah to the top” in the “cloud” as it appears above #Sinai for #Shavuot.

first: polity

With the world’s awareness of the “Facebook Revolution” & “Twitter Revolution” in Moldova as well as in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and other parts of the Arab World, I wonder: can the Jewish Community use Twitter as a community organizing tool. Can we “Tweet #Torah to the Top”? Can we use this it as an “organizing project”, a test to see if something more consequential than Justin Bieber, can draw people’s attention.

As MyJewishLearning.com expressed it recently in its daily e-newsletter called “Jewniverse”:

The project’s immediate goal is to make “Torah” one of Twitter’s most-talked-about topics.

I would call that a worthwhile goal in and of itself.

This effort “democratizes” Torah. Everyone can share a thought about Torah:

• Bar and Bat Mitzvah students could be encouraged to tweet a thought or two about their Torah Portion.
• Confirmation students could be encouraged to tweet a thought or two about the Ten Commandments (as well as the Torah portion from their Bar or Bat Mitzvah).
• Any adult education class could tweet their favorite Psalm, Prophetic thought, Rabbinic maxim.
• Anyone can tweet a thought about: what it means to be commanded; what “revelation” means in a world of information overload.
• In 5770 Rabbi David Levy of Succasunna prepared a tweet for each of the Parshiot. I know that some people write haiku, others write limericks. These short forms often fit quite well as tweets.
• If you have sermons that are online, shorten the URL using a service such as is.gd and add that short URL to a phrase that describes the sermon’s theme.

I’m interested in this as a once-a-year activity, a sort of “pilgrimage” or “gathering of the tribes”. After all, Shavuot is one of the three pilgrimage festivals. When you’re at the “be-in” unusual mixes occur. I want to see what happens. On previous occasions (this is the third year) I’ve “met” people who have been interesting to follow (which means “learn from/with”).

As part of this project, I wondered: “How does an idea go viral?” Social scientists have studied the phenomenon. Some Twitter users have been able to fool the world about certain actual events such as
Thinking bin Laden Watched The IT Crowd and Big Bang Theory. And so, I’ve mentioned:

In fact, on @TheDailyShow @billycrystal told Jon Stewart “Jews should tweet.” Do you think he means “#Torah to the Top”? http://is.gd/nuryZj

Please join us if you have a Twitter account. If you have a Facebook account, you can “join” the event.

then: piety:

However, MyJewishLearning.com takes the idea further, and in a very positive manner. (Beyond: “I mean, like, who cares if you can make #Torah “trendy” for a day… doesn’t that seem to cheapen Torah?”)

But the larger goal is to remind us how inspirational the Torah can be—even if you’re reading it 140 characters at a time.

From all of these perspectives, I’m sure that Dad would have thought this a valuable activity.

and beside that…

both in relation to Dad and Torah:

All his life, Dad worked for a nicer and better world. He shared those values with his children who carry on his (and Mom’s) efforts. Though Dad rarely wore a lapel button (Mom did, she had a few favorites), he would definitely agree with the sentiment expressed in this one. (The English is: “a nicer/prettier and better world”.) He would also concur that this thought is at the core of Torah.

א שענערע און בעשׂערע וועלט

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.

Early in our studies at rabbinic school, one of our classes intended to make us better public speakers. Our instructor was Hollywood actor Stanley Waxman. He would often assign us the task of speaking extemporaneously for three minutes on any subject he would present (usually offering one word). This particular morning in the autumn of 1973 he called on a classmate and suggested the word Torah. Our classmate, who had a sense of humor the size of his stature, of over six feet, stepped to the front of the class and said (I paraphrase all but the first three words):

Tora! Tora! Tora! is the name of a movie I saw recently.

We all thought he was incredibly funny, but Stanley (עליו השלום) was not impressed.

التوراة 虎 torah

This story came to mind recently as I continued to follow the Twitter feed for #Torah.
I saw numerous messages in Arabic script mentioning #Torah and #Mubarak. I did not think they had much to do with תורה.

some find torah liberating… others find it confining

I checked the location of the Tweeters. They were from Egypt, so I searched for Torah and Mubarak and found…

Mubarak’s Sons in Torah Prison

And Google Maps shows (though the English spelling shifts a bit now and then):

Torah Mahkoum Prison

Torah Mahkoum Prison
the Nile is on the left
the entrance appears to be at the intersection of
Police Man Institute & Masr Helwan Agricultural Street

Torah Mahkoum prison is one of the places used by Ministry of Interior to uphold detainees “awaiting” sentence. They keep getting re-referred to prosecutor every 15 days who either extends their detention or release them. Such waiting period and extensions could be legally extended to a maximum of six month. For this reason it is usually used to punish and deterr [sic] political prisoners who can spend up to six months in this place with criminal prisoners and/or under inhumane conditions without solid charges or court sentence.

This is the confining limiting space of التوراة on the narrow constricted green strip that is Egypt.

tyger tyger

What of our classmates “tora”?

To paraphrase William Blake:

Through what distant deeps or skies,
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dared they aspire?

As they came upon Pearl Harbor during the night of December 6–7, 1941, the Japanese pilots reputedly called out 虎 虎 虎 (which is phonetically “tora tora tora”) and means “Tiger, tiger, tiger” indicating that complete surprise had been achieved. You could say that the Japanese came upon the US naval fleet as flying tigers, ironically the name of an American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force at the time.

One of my contacts in Japan checked with some Japanese linguistic pros about the phonology of “tora 虎 トラ”, because it did not sound particularly Japanese in origin. They did not know the word’s origin. My friend suggested that:

It is an Indonesian loan word that came in with the original southern strain of Japanese DNA many years ago which the Japanese don’t like to talk too much about because of the supposed purity of their blood line. Tora, me thinks is Indonesian, originally. Proof below, maybe:

how bright is torah?

The sunlight reflecting off mountains of snow can often be blindingly bright. And the smile of the young woman who carries the name because her parents understand it to mean “bearer of great message” matches that brilliance. She was brought to my attention by Efraim Feinstein on Twitter @efraimdf, a biophysics postdoc, coder, and self-professed liturgy geek who, when he learned about our interest in “Tweeting #Torah to the Top” tweeted:

Answer: #Torah trended on twitter in Feb 2010 when @torahbright won the gold for womens halfpipe at the Winter Olympics @JewishPub

Torah Bright of Australia flashes her trademark smile at the U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix Ladies Qualifier in the Main Vein Halfpipe back in December at Copper Mountain, Colorado. Photograph by: Doug Pensinger, Getty Images, Canwest Olympic Team; Canwest News Service

will the real torah please stand up?

When we raise the light of Torah up and cause #Torah to trend beginning at 7:42 in the evening of the 6th of June, 2011 (5th of Sivan, 5771), how will we know which of these various “torahs” is “the real thing”?

In these words by Rabbi Rami Shapiro

In each age
we receive and transmit
Torah.

At each moment we are addressed by the World.

In each age we are challenged by our ancient teaching.

At each moment we stand face to face with Truth.

In each age we add our wisdom to that which has gone before.

At each moment the knowing heart
is filled with wonder.

In each age
the children of Torah
become its builders
and seek to set the world firm
on a foundation of Truth.

Each moment “we are addressed by the World” is a moment of revelation. Please join us as, around the world, people of all faiths tweet their thoughts on Torah, sharing the wisdom and knowledge that has been revealed to each of us.

this project has been mentioned in various places on the Web

• Tweeting Torah to the Top on Shavuot — Ancient Hebrew Poetry
• Tweet #Torah to the Top — The Shmooze — Forward.com
• Jewish History, Torah, and Rabbis in the Twitter Age
• Haveil Havalim 314 — The Post-Pesach Edition
• Tweeting Torah to the Top « Walking Humbly. Seeking Justice. Living with Hope.
• Tweet #Torah to the Top! — Rabbi Eleanor Steinman’s Blog Musings, questions, and reminders to take action

And a special tool developed by the Jewish Publication Society enables anyone to break a Torah text into Tweetable sized chunks:

• Help us get #Torah trending in the top ten of Twitter for Shavuot!

…the real thing

Torah …the real thing

I have begun wearing this button. I received it many years ago when living in Los Angeles. I do not know the who made it, or for what purpose. I have a similar button with an old (no longer active) Los Angeles phone number. I thought I knew who had produced it, but it has no identifying text.

Date:	late 1960s or early 1970s
Size:	5.6
Pin Form:	clasp
Print Method:	celluloid
Text	Learn Torah Trade Mark Reg “It’s the real thing”

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.