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December 2022
We all love Hanukkah
and the winter Holiday Season, especially the younger ones among us. And this
year, the eight days of Hanukkah even include Christmas day. Quite beyond the gift giving custom that has
evolved, the Hanukkah festival celebrates the recapture and rededication of
the Jerusalem Temple by the Maccabees over two thousand years ago. There is
also the inspiring tradition of the candles lit in the recaptured Temple miraculously
burning for eight days. Why then is Hanukkah a “minor” holiday? Is it because
1) the Maccabee kings were not descendants of King David, 2) this triumph
over the tyrant King Antiochus is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, 3) the
Jewish rebel victory was short-lived, or 4) the Talmud never discusses this
celebration?
Answer
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November 2022
In the past
few weeks, the Nobel Prizes were once again announced in each of the Prize’s six
categories. One of our congregants, Sue Abrams, shared some delightful
statistics about these most prestigious of all science-oriented awards. As recently as 2017, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to
902 individuals, of whom 203 or 22.5% were Jewish. This is quite a feat since
Jews comprise less than one-half of one percent of the world’s population.
Thus, the percentage of Jewish Nobel laureates is about 112.5 times or
11,250% above average. Sadly, we have no Nobel Laureates among our Beth Elohim
congregation. However, our co-President Jaymi Formaggio’s
husband Joe worked for Art McDonald, who received a Nobel Prize in Physics in
2015 for discovering that neutrinos - those tiny little subatomic particles - actually have mass.
The
rest of us non-Laureates can try some educated guesses to match the Jewish
laureates listed in the first column below with the category of their Nobel
Prize listed in the second column.
Answer
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October
2022
Early
this October we celebrate Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. Yom Kippur
brings more Jews to the synagogue than any other day of year. But unlike a Bat/Bar Mitzvah
ceremony or a Friday evening Shabbat celebration, there are several services
that are performed on this most special of days. The services in the lefthand
column are all performed in Yom Kippur. Can you match each service with its
definition in the righthand column? Also, which of these services are
associated ONLY with Yom Kippur?
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A. Yizkor
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1. Morning
prayer service
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B. Ma’ariv
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2. Opening
prayer service
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C. Mincha
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3. Memorial
service
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D. Ne’ilah
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4. Closing
prayer service
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E.
Shacharit
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5. Evening
prayer service
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F. Kol
Nidre
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6. Afternoon
prayer service
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Answer
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September 2022
At the
end of this month, the High Holidays will be here once again, presenting us
with a special time for reassessment, reflection, and judging our behavior
and the direction of our lives. The scholars who assembled the Babylonian
Talmud gave these issues much thought. They can help us think about what is important
in our lives, not only for annual new year introspections but also for just
about any occasion where we want to reflect on how we are conducting our
lives. In one tractate, they even provided (yet another!) four questions that
each of us is to be asked when we go before the heavenly court for judgment.
Please arrange these questions below in their original order in the Talmud,
an order which provides some idea of the relative importance the sages
assigned to each. The four questions are:
1) Did you set aside regular time for Torah study?
2) Did you look forward to the world’s redemption?
3) Did you conduct your affairs honestly?
4) Did you work at having children?
Answer
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July 2022
As Rabbinic Judaism
was taking shape in the first century of the Common Era, there was a constant
debate between the school of Rabbi Hillel and that of Rabbi Shammai. Our
traditions are derived more from the thinking of Hillel, who is famed for his
response to the challenge of reciting the code of Jewish laws while standing
on one foot. How did he manage this challenge?
Answer
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