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December 2021
1A. Fifty years ago, bagels were nowhere near as popular as they are today. The bagel did not start moving out of its niche as an Ashkenazi Jewish ethnic food until the latter decades of the 20th century. New York City, and Montreal and a handful other cities developed bagel making with the influx of Eastern European Jews in late nineteenth century. New York even had its own union, Bagel Bakers Local #338. Two inventions in the 1960s – the frozen bagel and the Thompson bagel-making machine – paved the way for bagels to enter the mainstream of breakfast foods in America. And then came the franchises. Just two years after the addition of bagels to their menu in 1996, Dunkin’ Donuts had become the largest retailer of bagels in America. (Incidentally, this chain was started by a Boston area Jewish man, Bill Rosenberg, who was a good friend of my wife’s uncle.). The Wikipedia entry asserts that the first bagel was developed - possibly as early as 1610 - in the city of Krakow in southern Poland. There is also a legend that bagels were created by Viennese Jewish bakers to commemorate the 1683 victory over the Turks in the siege of Vienna. Bagels even have a symbolic aspect, having been used as a symbol of the continuous cycle of life—without beginning and without end.
2A. The attempt to explain and unravel the meaning of Biblical passages is called Midrash. Midrash also refers to a specific exposition or rabbinic commentary on a Biblical story, usually emphasizing a lesson or point of law. Finally, the word Midrash is applied to the entire collection of literature to which this interpretive activity gave rise. The rabbis of old, assuming that no word of the Biblical text was superfluous, generated a vast midrashic literature, including most of the Talmud. However, the work is never done and Midrash continues to be created, as we interpret the Scriptures in the light of modern experiences. The word itself derives from a Hebrew root meaning "to inquire, study, investigate”. A synagogue is to serve as a “Beit Midrash”, a house of study, as well as a house of prayer (Beit Tefilah) and a house of assembly (Beit Knesset).
November 2021
1A. “Anyone who destroys a single soul destroys a whole world… and anyone who preserves a single soul has saved a whole world”. This familiar but elegant statement expresses a complete worldview. It comes to us from the storehouse of so much wisdom, the Talmud. In Sanhedrin 37a, the rabbis teach that Adam was created alone to communicate the idea that each person represents an entire world. There is uplifting rabbinic corollary that human dignity is founded on three basic principles – every person has infinite value, all are equal, and each of us is unique.
2A. In our country, Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is among the most widely observed Jewish holidays. Naturally a lot of glorious traditions have grown up around it. Yes, it’s true that the first eight-day period was specified by the priests and elders, the Sanhedrin, for the rededication purification of the Temple after its desecration by the Greeks back in 165 BCE. This account is found in both the Mishna and the Books of the Maccabees. These books are not, however, included in the Hebrew Scriptures, though they are in the Catholic Bible. These works, written shortly after the events they describe, make no mention of the miraculous oil, though the Talmud, written centuries later, does. Some thinkers speculate that there is a connection to Sukkot. Sukkot is a holiday that lasts a week, with an eighth day (Shemini Atzeret, “the eighth day of assembly”) at its conclusion. Since the Temple was in Greek/Syrian hands at Sukkot, all of the many sacrifices of Sukkot could not be offered. But later that year when the Temple was retaken from the Greeks, the Maccabees used Chanukah to “make up” for the Sukkot holiday they missed to rededicate the Temple to God. As Sukkot lasts eight days - so does Chanukah. But unlike Sukkot, this festival is not mentioned in the Torah – or anywhere in the Tanakh for that matter. Chanukah recalls events that occurred after the periods described in the Jewish Bible. So options 1) and 3) given in this question are true, but option 2) is not.
October 2021
1A. Fred Kogos’s charming little book, “1001 Yiddish Proverbs”, contains Yiddish sayings that deal with all aspects of life, from homely happenings and wry humorous observations to the deepest human insights and aspirations. With some knowledge of Hebrew and German and some reasoned guesses, it just might be possible to match the Yiddish and English in each of columns. Here are the proverbs translated:
Fil meloches, vainik broches. Jack of all trades, master of none.
Oib der shuch past, kenst im trogen. If the shoe fits, wear it.
Ehrez iz fil tei’erer far gelt. Honor is much dearer than money.
Itlecher mentshhot zich zein shigoyen. Every person has a madness of his own.
Az me zogt meshugeh, zol men gloiben. When people say someone is crazy, believe it.
2A. The Jewish year – like the civil year – has twelve months, but the Jewish months are lunar months, always beginning on a new moon. But twelve lunar months are shorter by several days than a solar year, so a “duplicate” month – second Adar – is inserted periodically (in seven out of every nineteen years) to keep the seasons from wandering. With this adjustment, the Jewish and civil calendars progress through the years quite harmoniously. And we can look at the moon to fix the most important holidays. Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first of Tishri when the moon is new, as small as it can get. Ten days later, when Yom Kippur falls on the tenth of Tishri, the moon is still getting larger each night; it’s swelling or waxing. And the fifteenth of Tishri, Sukkot, will always occur when the moon is at its fulfillment – the full moon - the best time to sleep outside with the abundant moonlight. And as the moon of Tishri wanes, there is the holiday Simchat Torah, marking the beginning of the rainy season in Israel and the new Torah reading cycle everywhere, on the twenty-third day of Tishri. So for holiday time, don’t look at your watch but at the moon on a clear night!
September 2021
1A. “Jewish Wisdom”, another of Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s wonderful works on Judaism, opens with an explanation of the four probing questions from the Talmud’s tractate Shabbat. These are the four that are to be asked each of us when we go before the heavenly court for judgment. The first and most important question is “Did you conduct your affairs honestly?”. The Talmud clearly asserts the primacy of ethics and fairness here. In another passage, it is written “If one is honest in business dealings and people esteem him, it is accounted to him as though he had fulfilled the whole Torah”. Given the importance of learning, the second question to be asked should be no surprise - “Did you set aside regular time for Torah study?”. Next is “Did you work at having children?”. And finally “Did you look forward to the world’s redemption?”.
2A. The prophets are a limitless source of memorable quotations, like these four:
And what does Adonai require of you,
But to do justice, love mercy,
And walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
Let justice well up as waters,
And righteousness as a mighty stream. Amos 5:24
Watch, I shall bring them back
From the land of the north;
And gather them in from the ends of the earth Jeremiah 31:8
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts.
The whole earth is full of God’s glory. Isaiah 6:3
August 2021
1A. Many scholars feel the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is the greatest event in the entire history of archeology. At least from the point of view of understanding Judaic and Christian history, nothing else comes close. The first discovery in 1946 came in a cave in Judean desert containing seven ancient scrolls. Over the next decade another ten local caves were found to also contain treasures. In total, the remains of about 870 separate scrolls have been found, consisting of thousands of fragments. All are devoted to religious subjects and date from the first or second century B.C.E., before the books of the Bible had been fixed or “canonized”. This cache includes the oldest known versions of every book of the Bible (except Esther), many with “editions” of books never before seen. There are previously unknown psalms and prophecies, stories of Abraham and Noah, and writings claiming Moses as the author. There was a very torturous path in making the immense amount of Dead Sea Scroll material publicly available but this finally happened in 1991, so translations are now available to all of us.
2A. Leaving the gleanings of the field has aspects of all three categories of good deeds. Tikkun olam, repair of the world, today often connotes working for peace, freedom, and social justice for all, but this principle also includes providing basic human needs as the Gleaners seek to do. This also is an absolutely clear example of tzedakah, an ethical obligation. The passage directing leaving gleaning occurs in the Torah and is thus a mitzvah – an imperative and not optional. You must do it whether or not you feel like it. Gemilut hassadim, acts of loving kindness, are typically voluntary efforts, like donating time or money to a charity of your choice. But in this case there is also an aspect of gemilut hassadim because each property owner can decide how to define 'edges' of the field and can thus choose to be more or less generous.
The purchase of the Stonefield Field seems a win not just for the Gleaners, but for our region as well. As Susan Mitchell-Hardt, president of Acton Conservation Trust and major advocate for the sale, stated in an interviewer with the local newspaper "We've been hanging in there for years and praying for a miracle, which happened this year…the Gleaners were looking for a great place to relocate where they could expand and do more agriculture and train emerging farmers”. She adds that "Among many benefits would be the ability to substantially enlarge a swath of contiguous conservation lands in Acton, Stow, and Maynard, creating a larger wildlife corridor. We would also save wetlands that are so crucial to flood mitigation. And we would preserve a piece of our history”. Thanks to all who helped make this possible.
June 2021
1A. There is not complete scholarly agreement on the origins of the synagogue, the most central religious institution of Judaism today. However, of the answers given, the best approximation is that the first proto-synagogues began develop either during or shortly after the Babylonian Exile in the sixth century BCE. The Jews there clearly maintained their religious practices and scriptures. On his migration to Israel, the great teacher Ezra brought the sacred books and introduced their public reading. Some see a reference to Babylonian synagogues in this passage from Ezekiel 11:16 when God says “…I have become to them a small sanctuary in the countries to which they have gone”. The Talmud also speaks of hundreds of synagogues in Jerusalem BEFORE the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70CE. By that time, synagogues were commonplace in adjacent locales like Alexandria, Cyprus, and Turkey. And there is solid evidence of a synagogue in Egypt in the third century BCE. Though it has always been the focus of religious activity, during the Middle Ages the synagogue developed its central role in all aspects of Jewish life – as school, study, social center, assembly hall. Clearly by the time of the Roman repression and expulsion from Israel, there was in place an alternative to the Temple in Jerusalem, and thus Judaism was able to survive and even prosper during the enforced exile from its birthplace.
2A. Henrietta Szold founded Hadassah, the first and still the largest Women's Zionist organization, in 1912. She insisted on saying Kaddish at her mother’s death in 1916, politely asserting a women’s place in this ritual. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1993, as then President Bill Clinton’s first appointment. Golda Meir was elected the first woman prime minister of the State of Israel in 1969. She was the second woman prime minister in the world at that time. She led Israel during the difficult Yom Kippur War of 1973. Fannia Cohn was a labor organizer and early leader of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, which improved the lives of thousands of exploited women & men. She became the first woman elected to a vice presidency of the ILGWU in 1915, the first female vice president of a major international union. And to this distinguished list, we can add our own Judy Kramer, the first woman President of Beth Elohim and founder of our fabulous choir more than 40 years ago.
May 2021
1A. The holiday of Shavuot occurs exactly forty-nine days after the second day of Passover. In between, time was kept by counting the omer, which is a sheaf of barley. This was done for a “week of weeks” or forty-nine days, then the fiftieth day was Shavuot. The barley began ripening around Pesach, and by Shavuot the wheat was usually ready. This would therefore naturally be not only a time to bring the fruits of the barley harvest to market in Jerusalem but also a cause for celebration.
Shavuot is also celebrated as the date on which Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai, perhaps the most significant event in the history of the Jews. A wonderful Jewish tradition to has evolved on this evening called Tikkun Leil Shavuot, an all-night study session marking the holiday. At Beth Elohim, a few dozen intrepid souls will typically gather with Rabbi Mike on Shavout evening for a delightful time of study – and eating. Our sessions typically only last to just past midnight and not the “all-nighters” of college years. Details on the upcoming Tikkun Leil Shavuot on Sunday, May 16 will be found in upcoming Star-Lite issues. Try it, you will like it!
2A. It is indeed impressive how much of everyday English speech can be traced to Shakespeare and to the Bible. The playwright's insights into human nature come through crystal clear to us more than four hundred years after he wrote. It is even more amazing that the Bible's wisdom also resonates so deeply, across our much different cultures and a temporal distance of more than two thousand years. Of the examples given, A. matches to 4. - "There is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9); B matches to 3 - "Man does not live by bread alone." (Deuteronomy 8:3); C matches to 1 - "A voice crying in the wilderness..." (Isaiah 40:3); and D matches to 2 - "Pride goes before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18).
April 2021
1A. Jews have lived in Ethiopia since Biblical times. Today about 25,000 still live there, and many more Jews of Ethiopian descent – over 125,000 – now call Israel home. The Ethiopian Jews have faithfully conserved their traditions from early times, apparently much more so than the larger collections of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, or Mizrahi Jews from further north. They only celebrate the holidays specifically mentioned in the Torah – like Passover and Sukkot. No doubt their early contemporaries in Israel shared just this basic set of holidays. The other colorful but later additions – like Chanukah and Purim - are simply not part of their traditions. The celebration of these holidays developed later, during Talmudic times in the first millennia CE, by which time the regular commercial ties between Israel and Ethiopia had ceased to operate. Ethiopia’s Christian communities similarly preserve very well the practices of earlier times.
2A. All but one of the events cited in this question happened on that one momentous day back on May 14, 1948. Only the UN General Assembly vote for a partition plan for Palestine preceded the other events mentioned. That vote was taken on November 29, 1947 and, thanks in a large part to U.S. President Harry Truman’s urging, it passed 33-13. Nonetheless the tension and guerilla warfare continued in the region until May 14, when a series of events unfolded quickly though not unexpectedly. And the sequence was the same as in the question. Though the British colonial mandate over Palestine was due to end by the 15th, the Union Jack was lowered in Jerusalem early on the morning of Friday the 14th. Hours later, open warfare broke out when Arab armies began an attack, with soldiers from Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and highly trained crack Jordanian troops. The actual establishment of the new state of Israel was marked by David Ben Gurion’s reading of the Scroll of Independence in the Tel Aviv Museum at 4PM that afternoon. Very soon after, President Truman recognized the new country. So as we remember the birth pangs of our own country during Patriot’s Day this April, we can also be reminded of Israel’s struggle as well.
March 2021
1A. Moe Berg was a backup catcher for most of his fifteen-year major league career. From the mid-1920s through 1939, he played with the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators, and - in the final four years - Tom Yawkey's Boston Red Sox. Though his baseball achievements were quite modest, his intellectual and professional achievements were not. He was a 1923 Princeton graduate, received a second degree from Columbia Law School, and also studied at the Sorbonne in France. Though he was a first-rate linguist and attorney, Moe is most renowned for his role as a spy. Berg went to Japan in the early 1930s with the likes of Ruth and Gehrig on an all-star traveling team. In fact, Berg was assigned to take espionage photos. During WWII, he became one of America's most important atomic spies, gathering vital information on top German scientists. He had a great talent for languages and it was claimed that he learned Japanese in two weeks. However, the baseball pundits countered that "He can speak 12 languages but can't hit in any of them". True, his lifetime average was a paltry .243, but he excelled in other aspects of the game. Senator's Manager Clark Griffith called him "the best handler of pitchers in the league" and he was a fine defensive catcher, breaking an American League record with 117 consecutive full games without an error in the 1932-33 seasons.
2A. The Jewish social groups of Medieval times answered the then current religious requirement that certain objects must be "owned" by those participating in a ceremony. A bride had to be married in "her own" dress and had to be given a ring the groom had "purchased". Likewise for a proper circumcision rite, rabbinic interpretation required that the mohel have his own instruments. In the poor Azhkenazic communities, most families did not have the resources to comply, so they "bought" - albeit on temporary basis - the items to fulfill these requirements. Later on the group conveniently bought them back. This system obviously worked well when items were needed neither continuously (e.g. a burial shawl) nor simultaneously by all members of the community (e.g. Passover dishes). More recently, it is worth noting that the design of Boston's largest private umbrella social service agency, the United Way, was strongly influenced by the formation of the first independent federation of Jewish agencies, established in Boston in 1895.
Another local organization, Household Goods, does a wonderful job helping people in need obtain furniture and household items. Located in North Acton, Household Goods has become the largest such operation in Massachusetts, serving people from all over eastern and central parts of our state. Many, many Beth Elohim congregants serve as volunteers – picking up donations, greeting clients, repairing furniture, etc. Even more CBE members contribute needed items. Household Goods anticipates even larger demands as COVID abates, so please continue a great Beth Elohim tradition of supporting this very effective organization.
February 2021
1A. In the great tradition of the prophets, Dr. Martin Luther King had a way of engaging in the everyday battles while at the same time connecting people’s efforts to much larger, universal moral themes. Dr. King was in Memphis that April of 1968 to lead a march in support of the striking the sanitation workers of the City of Memphis. Over 1,300 garbagemen walked off their jobs in support of better working conditions and union recognition. They were paid abysmal wages, suffered intolerable working conditions, had no benefits of any kind, and could be fired for any injury incurred on the job. King’s goals included not just racial justice but economic justice. The sanitation workers included many black Americans as well as many other ethnic backgrounds. All were poor. The strike assumed national significance, galvanizing support on both sides. A few weeks after Dr. King’s death, the city did grant union recognition, and this led to further gains for public workers all over the South and in other parts of our country. In his last major speech given the night before his death, Dr. King recalled Moses when he said that he “had been to the mountaintop”. He had seen the promised land and knew that people who followed will get there. We can all help realize that dream.
2A. Real history is indeed complex, fluid, and interwoven, but there are signposts that often help define a particular era. We will see if the election of 2020 is one of the for American history. For Jewish history, the six key milestones given in the question can be arranged chronologically as follows:
1. C. The building of the First Temple at Jerusalem in Solomon’s reign - about 920 BCE
2. E. The dispersal of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians – 722 BCE
3. B. The destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians - 586 BCE
4. D. The origin of the practice of public Torah reading by Ezra – about 430 BCE
5. F. The destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans – 70CE
6. A. The codification of the Mishnah - the Oral Law – about 200 CE.
January 2021
1A. Reverend Martin Luther King had a very special affection for Jewish people, and the feeling was mutual. In fact, during the heyday of the civil rights movement in the 50’s and 60’s, it is estimated that Jews contributed about half of the support funds – far out of proportion to their numbers in the general population or even the progressive community. It is worth noting that Dr. King also had a special connection with the Boston area. He received his doctorate at Boston University. His use of nonviolent civil disobedience to achieve social goals earned him a Nobel Prize as he further developed this great tradition, rooted in the writings of Concord’s Henry David Thoreau, that India’s great Mahatma Gandhi brought to the world’s attention.
2A. Jewish people should be honored that the stirring words of the prophet Isaiah were chosen for the engraving on the cornerstone of the United Nations building in New York City. The passage is from early in the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 2, Verse 4. The prophet's vision of the ultimate reign of God, when the lion shall lie down with the lamb and the sword will be beaten into a plowshare, has inspired many in the western world and beyond. His messages of comfort are read as the prophetical portions in the synagogue in the weeks following Tisha B'Av, the fast day that commemorates many calamities in our history, including the destruction of both the Temples in Jerusalem. |