Over 300,000 Israelis from Russia are not Jews, so some think that Jewish law should negate itself to make them "happy"...
"We need a Zionist halakha"

By Yair Sheleg
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440001.html

The non-Jewish wave of immigration has brought the issue of relations between religion and state - chiefly regarding marriage and conversion - to a moment of truth. Even those who favor continued Orthodox monopoly on marriage will not be able to accept a situation in which hundreds of thousands of immigrants are unable to marry in Israel. This is what led former chief rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron to propose a sweeping annulment of the monopoly.

Bakshi-Doron's proposal, seemingly coming from liberal provinces, actually stems from the isolationist Haredi answer to the challenge set by the immigrants. This says let them and the rest of the secular Israelis marry any way they please, and leave the Haredim alone to safeguard the halakhic (religious) laws of marriage and keep them pure and pristine. Of course what is caught in the divide between the challenge of the immigrants and distaste for the isolationist view is religious Zionism and its spiritual leaders.

Religious Zionism would not have found itself in this state of tension had not its rabbis failed the paramount challenge they faced - translating into practical form the fundamental ideological decision they took on themselves when they identified with and integrated into the Zionist movement. In the halakhic realm, the reference group on which the spiritual leaders of religious Zionism base their decisions is not the public to which they belong, but the Torah-based establishment of halakha authorities - mainly Haredi.

This generates absurd situations in which even a superb Zionist rabbi such as Yaakov Arieli from Ramat Gan refers to the Israeli judicial system as a legal tribunal of the non-Jews.

This is in blatant contrast to the instinctive way his own public relates to the Israeli judiciary, seeing it as one of the quintessential expressions of Jewish sovereignty and national interests, even if the courts don't issue rulings based on Torah laws. But one must admit that the High Court of Justice ruling on the sale of pork is liable to dull this sense of solidarity.

Ever since the Enlightenment period, even before Zionism, Jews have not belonged to a mitzvah-observant people. Halakhic rulings, including those of the Haredim, recognized this fact, and did not strip the secular public of its Jewish belonging, unlike the halakhic views that prevailed in the pre-secular era.

Zionism added another stratum by creating a national renewal enterprise shared by religious and secular and whose basic essence requires mutual responsibility and assurance. Therefore, the definition of Jewish identity adopted by the state cannot be conditioned on mitzvah observance, but is a national definition.

In any case conversion, unlike halakha, must be accepted by the state and cannot be conditioned on observance of the 613 Torah mitzvahs. Anyone who has accepted Zionism should be able to accept this conclusion, too.

The moment of truth faced by the rabbis of religious Zionism in the wake of the non-Jewish immigration compels them to implement that which deterred them from the outset - adoption of a "Zionist halakhic code" that would inevitably differ from the Haredi halakhic perspective.

To tell the truth, the isolationist-Haredi option does not really exist for them. Even if they tried to choose it, they would find that the overwhelming majority of their public would not follow them. For this public the notion of integration in the Israeli corpus is an indivisible part of their identity and existence, and not just as "ideology."

Just as the mass of Israelis who subscribe to the tenets of religious Zionism did not accept the halakhic rulings that called for refusing orders to evacuate settlement outposts, it is reasonable to assume that they will not readily obey halakhic rulings that do not affirm the Jewishness of people who are not prepared to commit to all 613 mitzvahs. And just as they do not need rabbis to decide which cultural interests they will pursue, it is reasonable to assume that most would prefer to define for themselves whom they would "kosher" as a spouse.

The combination of evacuating settlements, the majority of which are religious, and the eradication of symbols that strongly express the Jewish character of the state - bustling commerce on the Sabbath, or permission to sell pork - could push many upstanding religious Zionists toward the isolationist view.

The political and judicial establishments should be aware of this danger. One may assume, however, that adopting this approach will not come from any rulings by the religious establishment, which is not revered by religious Zionists, either."

Anyhow, that's just one of the dumbest and most dangerous things that the above journalist could say...as if he cares...
- posted by Izak @ 2:00 PM (0) comments

 
Religious Zionist Israeli girls aim to study Torah and be soldiers at the same time...
A hesder yeshiva idea for girls, too

(Thu., June 10, 2004 Sivan 21, 5764)
By Yair Sheleg
yairs@haaretz.co.il

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/437363.html

Yasmin Magen, a graduate of the Amit Renanim religious high school in Ra'anana, wanted to continue her advanced Torah studies, but at the same time it was very important to her to serve in the army, "in a position in which I would not have dilemmas of conscience as a religious girl." For this reason Magen chose the Hadas program, which combines learning with military service.

Tehila Weinstein of Efrat, a graduate of the Kfar Etzion girls ulpana (high school), decided to continue her Torah studies at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem, and was also seeking a track that would enable her to do service in the army. She, too, found her way to the Hadas program.

On the other hand, Orit Kadari of Beit El was not at all sure she wanted to serve in the army. "In my community, military service for girls is not commonly accepted, and not at the ulpana in Ofra, where I studied," says Kadari. "But when Rabbi Ohad came to visit the ulpana and presented the program, it sparked my interest," she said, referring to Rabbi Ohad Tahar-Lev, head of the program for Israeli girls at Midreshet Lindenbaum.

For the last few years the feminist revolution has been affecting religious Zionism. One expression of this is the adherence of many girls to advanced Torah studies, and another is a tendency by many of them - now about one third of the graduates of national-religious education - to favor military service over national service in the civilian sector. What is less well-known is that for the past six years some of these religious girls have been combining these two tracks, in a kind of "hesder for girls" framework.

The Hadas program at Midreshet Lindenbaum was the first of its kind, and when it was being organized the army offered the idea to other midrashot. Thus the midrasha on Kibbutz Ein Hanatziv opened a similar track.

Community opposition; family support

The reactions to the track chosen by the three girls was in keeping with the Jewish identity perceptions of their environments, their families and the educational institutions. Thus Kadari, who lives in a community with a national-Orthodox character, faced the most opposition from her community.

"Many people approached me, telling me that what I was doing was forbidden by Jewish law, that there was no significant role for girls in the army," relates Kadari. "My family is actually quite open [to new ideas], and did not make problems for me. My teachers also trusted my decision. Most of the pressure came from my former classmates and contemporaries. Until the moment I announced that I was going to the army, I was very active with the teenage groups of the Bnei Akiva youth group in Beit El. After my announcement, I suddenly felt that I was not being asked so much to lead activities."

Weinstein says that among her friends, many of whom do regular army service, her choice neither raised eyebrows nor caused her problems.

"At the ulpana, they actually liked the idea that if I was going to the army, it was better that I was going via the midrasha."

Magen says it was not the army part of the program that was a problem for her family, but rather the Torah studies.

"To my family it was clear that I would go to the army," she says, "and they felt that the midrasha would interfere with my military service. In retrospect, once they noticed the positive changes in me, they have become big fans of the place."

The program lasts 32 months, 24 of which are spent in the army in two sessions, and the remaining eight or nine months are a study period. Still, many of the girls, including the three interviewed for this article, continued to study at the midrasha even after their official discharge from the army.

In the first four years of the program, all the girls were assigned to the education corps as non-commissioned education officers, while for the past two years a track has been opened for these girls in the intelligence corps.

All told some 160 girls have completed the program over the last six years, from eight girls the first year to 30 in the present cycle, and about 40 applicants have been accepted to the program for next year. The girls that follow the officers track - about 30 percent of the program's participants - sign up for an additional nine months in the career army.

Tahar-Lev stresses that the program has no intentions of allowing the girls to serve in combat units.

"The army would actually really like this, but it is of course not realistic," says Tahar-Lev. "If we were to agree, we would be destroying the quiet legitimization that exists today in the religious public regarding the program."

Tahar-Lev adds that an air force track is being considered, but for auxiliary positions and not for pilots or navigators. This track would be dependent on the integration of several girls at the same base, to make it easier for them to maintain the religious atmosphere, similar to the conditions provided for male soldiers in the hesder programs.

Ulpanot hesitant

Since many religious girls already serve in the army, the establishing of a hesder-type yeshiva is hardly an innovative idea, but the main progress is in the establishment's legitimization of the girls' service.

Tahar-Lev explains that the recognition of the program puts an end to the stigma of serving in the army versus civilian national service. Many ulpanot are still hesitant about inviting representatives of the program to market it to the students, but even so, the response is much greater than it was six years ago.

As with the hesder programs, the combined army/study program is designed to make it easier for the midrasha to maintain contact with the girls. Teachers from the midrasha come to the army bases where the girls are serving every two weeks to give Torah classes, to hear from the girls and to help them with any difficulties. This contact gives the girls the advantage of institutional backing that other female soldiers do not have. This can leave an opening for jealousy from the other girls, but Tahar-Lev says he avoids interfering in professional military matters such as assignments except in cases where the girl is in severe emotional distress.

"There was one girl from a bereaved family whose commanding officer was not sufficiently sensitive in assigning her to a particular position, so we intervened," relates Tahar-Lev. "I do not see any problem with this type of intervention."

The girls themselves realize that they could be seen as receiving special treatment, and were therefore happy when their military service was extended from 20 months to 24 months, like all other female soldiers.

Graduates of the program are happy with their choice, and do not feel their religious lifestyle was harmed, although the girls interviewed for this article are not a representative sample as they belong to the group that continued their Torah studies after completing army service, meaning that they have high standards of religious observance.

"There are some girls whose level of observance declined during their services," admits Magen, "but not the majority. When I compare myself to the girls who did national service, I see that praying and attending classes are less important to them. Their religious observance is practiced on the whole through inertia. We are doing things much more through choice."

Tahar-Lev adds that the greatest thing the girls get from their army service is the ability to look at reality as it is.

"In my view," he says, "that in itself puts them on a higher religious level than how they lived before. They have more awareness, appreciation and respect for the real Torah world - not the Torah establishment. Of course there are ups and downs during their service. That happens to all of us. But I also know that they get up from their falls and rise to a higher level.

"Our girls have served in Intelligence alongside hesder boys, and more than once have demanded that they get up in time for [morning] prayers, so that the girls can pray with a quorum, too."

Rabbi Riskin's contribution to the feminist revolution

Midreshet Lindenbaum for post-high school girls is part of the network of Modern Orthodox institutions known as Or Torah Stone, a network founded by the chief rabbi of Efrat, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, when he immigrated from New York 20 years ago.

The network includes yeshiva high schools and ulpanot in Gush Etzion and Jerusalem, a training program for female rabbinical pleaders, the Yad Laisha association which grants legal aid to agunot (women denied divorce because their husbands have not been found or whose husbands refuse to give them a divorce), and a program for training community rabbis.

Riskin himself is among the most liberal Orthodox rabbis in this area, although his positions do not always satisfy the new feminists. A few years ago he approved the convening of prayer quorums of women in Efrat, and integrated women into the local religious council as kashrut supervisors. The line he will not cross is the ordination of women rabbis, "at least in everything concerning prayer quorums including both men and women, due to the halakhic (Jewish legal) restrictions against women reading from the Torah or being cantors at a service attended by men also."

Still, he sees no problem with women giving halakhic rulings or even serving as religious court judges.
- posted by Izak @ 5:02 AM (0) comments

 
Who did the White House invite for Hanukkah?
The Bush administration is rubbing shoulders with Jewish representatives from the Orthodox movement, who are seen as much closer to the president's positions. And the big Jewish organizations are feeling insulted.
By Natan Guttman
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/436876.html

Invitations to events at the White House are a precious commodity in the American capital, as are meetings with senior administration officials, and appearances by U.S. President George W. Bush at organizational conventions. The shares of anyone who is lucky enough to participate in an event with the president rise on the local political stock exchange, and naturally the shares of anyone who is left out, lose ground.

It is therefore not surprising to find that in the Jewish political world in Washington, there are some who check just who was invited to the Hanukkah party at the White House, who was chosen to serve on a delegation meeting the president, and who can pick up the telephone and speak with administration officials.

During the years of Bush's term, this list has changed diametrically - veteran bigwigs and established organizations have been left out, while representatives close to the administration's positions, as well as field activists who were anonymous in the national arena, are being granted much "presidential time" and open doors at the White House. This new order has left more than a few activists embittered.

One example is the Hanukkah candlelighting ceremony at the White House in December. The president's office invited a few dozen Jewish representatives to participate in the event, but some who were there noticed that many of the others, perhaps even half, were not familiar faces in the Jewish organizational landscape. These were local rabbis, field activists and Jewish Republicans, who until then had not been active in the Washington political scene.

Afraid of the changes

The most recent incident to raise eyebrows among Jewish activists in Washington was the selection of the American delegation to the Conference on Anti-Semitism held in Berlin at the end of April. Chosen to head the delegation was Ed Koch, a former mayor of New York and a Democrat who has already declared his support for Bush in the upcoming elections. Alongside him were five representatives of Jewish organizations, three of which are considered to be in line with the president or his views: Betty Ehrenberg, director of International and Communal Affairs for the Orthodox Union, Fred Zeidman, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum who is also a personal friend of Bush's, and Jay Lefkowitz, a lawyer and staunch Republican who is active in the Bush reelection campaign, and who served in the White House under President Bush's father.

Sometimes the struggle over a ticket to a function graced by the president also affects events that seem far removed from any controversy. Such was the case with the opening of the Anne Frank Exhibition at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The White House held a fancy reception in honor of the event, and the guests were chauffeured to the museum where they viewed the exhibition with First Lady Laura Bush before returning to the White House for a kosher meal with the president. Here too, however, some people were insulted.

Among the 150 guests again were many who had not been seen before - Republican Jews, Jewish donors to the Bush campaign and Orthodox rabbis. The organized Jewish establishment was compelled to make do with just two invitations, which were given to members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

"It's the museum, not the White House, that put out the invitations," explained Zeidman, a Texas Jew who was appointed museum chairman by Bush. "Almost everyone invited was involved in the exhibition. Everyone complains all the time because everyone thinks he is entitled to everything," he said, adding that he receives no fewer complaints from Republicans, who think it is they who are being ignored by the White House.

None of the activists in Washington wants to admit that he is no longer on the White House's list of most favored. In a political city, such an admission is an expression of weakness. Still, more than a few Jewish officials have expressed their dissatisfaction with the White House's new list of priorities on everything concerning the Jewish community.

"In the more formal kinds of set ups," says Jess Hordes, Washington director of the (Anti-Defamation League), "this administration chose to reach out to other groups." He notes, however, that his organization continues to enjoy a good relationship with the administration.

Lewis Roth, of Americans for Peace Now, one of the organizations that benefited from an open door when Bill Clintion was president, says that the Bush administration "tends to talk more often with those parts of the community that it thinks are most likely to agree with its policies. Not surprisingly, we've seen several photo-ops with Orthodox groups and meetings with American Jewish organizations on the center-right of the political spectrum." Roth, too, hastens to add that his organization still has access to all departments of the administration.

"This administration tends to be a bit more political," adds Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement. "We are not shut out, but there is less of an attempt to reach out."

One Jewish official, who asked to remain anonymous, mentioned a conversation he had with Adam Goldman, former White House liaison to the Jewish community, in the early days of the Bush administration. "If you continue to criticize the president," Goldman had said, "you will get nothing from this administration."

That official, as well as others who were interviewed for this article, noted that the White House's attitude to Jewish organizations that are not necessarily identified with Bush himproved when Goldman was replaced with Tevi Troy (who was himself recently replaced).

"To a great extent," explains Hordes, "it has to do with the individuals that set the tone. There are those who try to be more political and there are those who understand the complexity of the community."

Ignoring the Reform

The question is not only who is received at the White House, but also whom the administration sends to appear before the Jews. During his term Bush has appeared at conventions of just two Jewish organizations - AIPAC (America-Israel Public Affairs Committee) in April, and the American Jewish Committee during his first year in office. These two organizations are not seen as posing a political problem from the president's perspective.

The Reform Movement, the largest Jewish religious organization in the United States, was not graced by even one senior official at its biennial convention, held six months ago. It is no accident that this is an organization that disagrees with the president's positions on most domestic issues.

The ones who are undoubtedly enjoying a fresh breeze from the White House are representatives of the Orthodox Union, who have become regular guests at the president's events. Nathan Diament, director of the OU's Institute for Public Affairs, confirms that the ideological proximity between his organization and Bush is certainly making life easier.

"We were able to get something pretty easily because the administration and Congress share our views," says Diament.

This is what happened after the earthquake in the Seattle area in 2000. Among the buildings damaged was the Orthodox synagogue, but the law prevents a religious institute from receiving federal aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"We brought it to the attention of the White House after Bush came into office," relates Diament, "and we did not need a lot of convincing to explain that this contradicts the views of the president."

A few months later Bush signed a presidential order enabling the synagogue to receive about $1 million in aid for renovations.

According to the last National Jewish Population Study, 22 percent of American Jews are members of Orthodox synagogues, far fewer than Reform (38 percent) or Conservative (33 percent) membership, but the Orthodox have been enjoying Washington's favor. This is partly because they are relatively new players in the political arena; even more important, however, is the fact that they represent views that are similar to Bush's on most issues: like him, they are against abortions, against same-sex marriages, in favor of granting federal funding to faith-based institutions that are involved in social affairs, and in favor of distributing vouchers to public school students so that they can study at private religious schools at the government's expense. The Orthodox even support drilling for oil in the Arctic nature reserve in Alaska. These positions are unusual in the Jewish community, the majority of which still adheres to liberal views.

Bush has also declared his preference for making contacts with grassroots representatives of all the organizations, and not with the senior officials who head them. This is what he is doing with the Hispanic community, the African-American community and the Jewish organizations. One leading Jewish activist relates that at one of the events he was explicitly asked by the White House to submit a list of participants that would include not only the organization's Washington-based bureaucrats but also some real grassroots representatives. When these representatives take the places of the organization's officials alongside the president, it is clear why there are more than a few frustrated Jewish activists in the American capital.

Zeidman, who is a personal friend of the president, does not feel there is any reason to complain.

"This is the most bipartisan president the Jewish community has ever seen," says Zeidman stridently. "In the past, the White House was open only to big Democratic donors, and now the president is opening it to a wide spectrum of Jews."

- posted by Izak @ 9:29 PM (1) comments

 
To be a Jew is SWEDEN...(they don't allow slaughtering of cows, they don't like circumcision, but they like to criticise and boycott Israel...)
From the Jerusalem Post
By STEFAN MEISELS
(The writer is a former chairman of the Jewish community of Stockholm.)

The good news is that Sweden's Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds has come to Israel to speak at a Yad Vashem ceremony and meet Israeli leaders.

The bad news is that back in Sweden the situation of the Jewish community is becoming increasingly difficult.

Obviously, regular contact between Sweden and Israel – in spite of political differences – are a good thing.

And it is noteworthy that Freivalds chose to make a formal speech at Yad Vashem – the memorial site for the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis. Many of my coreligionists in Sweden came there in the wake of the Holocaust with the white buses of the Bernadotte mission and through other Swedish efforts to help the survivors.

Back in 1942-43 Sweden offered refuge to Norwegian and Danish Jews who escaped from their occupied home countries. As a Jew, I will never forget the Swedish efforts in this respect.

For many survivors Sweden was a heaven after the unbearable suffering inflicted by the Nazis.

Sweden gave them an opportunity to rebuild their lives and start new families. The Jewish community developed a wide range of religious, educational and cultural programs. An assimilated community "of the Mosaic faith" became a proud minority striving to maintain and develop their traditions while integrating into a new environment.

One can surely say that the Jews were the first minority group in Sweden in modern times to do this.

Since Israeli independence in 1948 there have been ups and downs in the relations between the two countries.

Incidents of Swedish anti-Semitism, though, have been few and far between.

Thus it is with utmost concern that I as a former resident of Sweden have witnessed a flood of anti-Semitic incidents during the past several years.

But I don't speak only for myself. What I am writing here are also the views of Salomo Berlinger, Willy Salomon and Torsten Press – all of us former chairmen of the Jewish community of Stockholm now residing in Israel.

Granted, Prime Minister Goran Persson has initiated a "Living History project" and Sweden has taken a leading role in Holocaust education.

But that is unfortunately not enough. Today we see new forms of anti-Semitism in Sweden that require attention and action from the authorities.

The number of verbal and physical attacks against Jews has increased in Sweden. Youngsters in schools are compelled to hide their Jewishness because so many have been attacked, both verbally and physically.

Teachers say that non-Jewish students refuse to participate in classes where Judaism is studied. Holocaust survivors report experiencing fear on hearing that Jews are again being cursed and blamed for the ills of Swedish society and the world.

Participants in several events supporting Israel and opposing racism have been physically attacked, with the police standing by.

It is totally unacceptable that Jews should have to fear for their physical well-being and safety if they wear a Jewish symbol in public. This is Europe in 2004!

Moreover, during the past several decades Sweden has become a center for racist and anti-Semitic white power music. Swedish anti-Semitic groups have established web sites spreading their propaganda worldwide.

Even the Swedish Church has now initiated a boycott campaign officially aimed at products from the areas Israel has controlled since the 1967 Six Day War. This boycott is reminiscent of other commercial boycotts of Jews in the past.

Criticism of Israel is legitimate, but it can never be allowed to justify anti-Semitism. This is an unequivocal point made in the Berlin Declaration of the OSCE – a commitment Sweden formally supported.

The fact is life is not easy for the 8,000 registered members of the Swedish Jewish community (there are an estimated 10–15,000 additional unaffiliated Jewish citizens).

The country is one of the few in Europe that forbids shehita – Jewish ritual meat slaughter. Ironically, a similar law was enacted in the late 1930s by Nazi Germany.

I know that the Swedish government is working on solutions to allow shehita (and hallal), and I hope that Sweden will soon eliminate this shameful law.

Sweden is also probably the only country in the democratic world that has instituted a law governing circumcision which in various ways makes it difficult to keep this more than 3000-year-old tradition.

I have no doubt that the government as well as the entire Swedish parliament stand united against anti-Semitism. What Swedish Jews lack, however, is concrete and determined actions.

Swedish government and society can't solve these problems by with educational projects or institutes. The government must clearly, repeatedly and with determination fight every form of anti-Semitism, old and new. It is not enough to keep referring to the Living History project, as the prime minister and other ministers and officials tend to do, most recently at the OSCE conference in Berlin.

Swedish Jews expect the government to take concrete and determined measures to stop the flood of anti-Semitism in Sweden and to make sure that every Jewish resident in Sweden who wishes to can practice his religion and tradition without fear of verbal or physical violence.

Freivalds's visit is welcome. Positive actions would be even more welcome.
- posted by Izak @ 11:24 PM (0) comments

 
The miracle of birth : A New Book for Expectant Jewish Women
The miracle of birth:A new book explores the spirituality women find in pregnancy

By Sarah Bronson
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/435247.html

While pregnant with her first child, American immigrant Chana Weisberg searched for books about Jewish women's experiences with pregnancy. Assuming that Orthodoxy's emphasis on childbearing and rearing would have led to literature on religious women's emotional and spiritual relationships with their babies and with God during pregnancy, Weisberg was surprised when she emerged empty-handed.

So, when she became pregnant with her second child, now four, Weisberg set out to write the book she had sought but had not been able to find.

The result is "Expecting Miracles: Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Pregnancy Through Judaism," which was released this week in Israel by Urim Publications. The book is a collection of interviews with 23 Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox mothers in Jerusalem about their physical challenges and spiritual growth during their pregnancies. Of the interviewees, 15 are immigrants from the United States, England, or South Africa. Almost half only became religiously observant as adults. Weisberg also includes interviews with female Jewish educators and two Jerusalem-area midwives. The book will be available outside of Israel at the end of August, the publisher says.

According to Weisberg, like many women, "I used to see birth as something just to get through with as little pain as possible."

But her book, she says, expresses "the school of thought that it's not something just to get through, but something to learn from and grow from, that it can be the highest spiritual experience of your life."

Most previous books about Judaism and pregnancy focused on Jewish legal aspects of childbearing or on health and fitness, sometimes weaving in Jewish folklore or special prayers for pregnant women. One, "A Time to Be Born," written by Anglo-Israeli Michele Klein, describes pregnancy-related traditions and folklore from different Jewish communities and time periods. Sarah Goldstein's "Special Delivery" is a collection of Jewish women's birth stories. "Expecting Miracles," however, is the first publication to use interviews with contemporary Orthodox women to examine how they use their pregnancies as vehicles to feel closer to the Divine.

Weisberg, who says she was "blown away" when she discovered the lack of rabbinic literature about pregnant women's relationships with God, said that the absence of such discussion in traditional Jewish texts allows women to "have their own ways of seeing their connections between Judaism and pregnancy. We make up our own perushim [interpretations of religious texts or ideas] - perushim on our lives."

"Men wrote Jewish law," Weisberg notes, "but [finding spiritual meaning in life events] is something [women] are excellent at. It's so clear to us that childbearing is a way for us to serve God, that we don't need someone to tell us how to connect it to Hashem."

Rebetzen Chana Henkin, founder and dean of Jerusalem's Nishmat Center for Advanced Jewish Study for Women, who is featured in "Expecting Miracles," told Anglo File that "there cannot be a body of rabbinic literature speaking about the spirituality of pregnancy, because it's an experience that is totally feminine. The issues of feminine spirituality have to be developed by women." Weisberg's book, Henkin said, exposes the secret thoughts that praying women had always "inserted between the lines to make the prayer relevant to their own self." Indeed, Weisberg says that since the interviewees knew their identities would not be revealed in the book, many shared thoughts or experiences that no one had ever known except their husbands.

According to Weisberg, almost none of the featured women are prominent members of their communities, simply friends of friends who were willing to open a window into their emotional lives. "I think people who are not religious just see these women at the Western Wall with their kids and don't really know who they are," Weisberg said. "As much as I hope the book will reach the hands of mothers and those who want to be inspired, I [also] hope it will reach the hands of those who have seen religious women and wondered what it is like for them."

The book does not, however, whitewash the experience of pregnancy. The stories include infertility, miscarriages, pain, exhaustion, high-risk births, C-sections, unsupportive grandparents, nausea and the ambivalence of first-time mothers about having a baby to begin with. The interviewees are frank about their physical and spiritual challenges, how they overcome them, and how they feel when they are unable to overcome them.

In anticipation of the book's publication, Weisberg created JewishPregnancy.org a couple of years ago, an online resource center and interactive community for Jewish women seeking spiritual meaning in pregnancy despite the morning sickness and aching backs. The site receives 300,000 visitors a year; Weisberg has received 1,000 grateful letters, particularly from residents of diaspora communities where a pregnant Jewish woman might feel isolated.
- posted by Izak @ 12:53 AM (0) comments

 
"Kosher Sex" Rabbi Attacks Sex Symbol: The Madonna-Kabbala Controversy "update"...A Series of articles...
"Perverted priorities: Madonna and Idolatrous Hair"
By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
http://www.shmuley.com/index.php?section=article&id=86

(The first part of this article deals with other related Jewish current affairs issues)

Every day it seems that the world devolves into further disorder and chaos. International leaders seem clueless about basic right and wrong.

On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi humiliated himself and his country by traveling to Pyongyang to see the tyrant Kim Jong Il and pay him millions of dollars in tribute for the freeing of Japanese hostages who were kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s. Kim did everything he could to disgrace the Japanese premier, including canceling meetings and not even offering him food. Koizumi was forced to eat a boxed lunch of rice balls that one of his aides had brought from Tokyo. Here was the head of the world's second largest economy allowing himself to be bullied by a bully.

The only hope for the world to crawl out of its directionless mess in an age of upheaval and terror is to follow the moral path. It is always wrong to appease tyrants. It is always right to stand up for human freedom and punish, rather than reward, those who make a mockery of human rights by taking hostages.

It is troubling that the world today lacks simple moral direction. The Jews, who gave humanity the Ten Commandments, the cornerstone of world morality, should be at the forefront of providing moral illumination. But we seem too morally confused to help ourselves, let alone others. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a man of once unshakable principles, is now adrift and is about to evict thousands of Jewish settlers in Gaza who committed no crime other than to cultivate a barren land and absorb the full brunt of Palestinian terror. They are being punished for watching their comrades die, and Sharon is committing the double sin of making a mockery of the party referendum that he himself called for, as well as reward terrorism.

Then there is the American Jewish community. This past week the glorious Salute to Israel Parade took place in New York. It was a magical spectacle that drew upwards of 100,000 spectators and tens of thousands of marchers to honor the Jewish state. But why was Donald Trump chosen as the Grand Marshal? To be sure, we should be very grateful to Trump for agreeing to be publicly associated with Israel. But did he have to lead the parade? Is that the best American Jewry can come up with? Israel needs moral giants to front its defense, not some famous rich guy.

THEN THERE is Judaism, which seems equally directionless.

Throughout the world this week, two Jewish stories dominated even the secular press. The first was that rabbis in Israel and England had forbade the use of Indian hair for women's wigs because the hair might have been used in an idolatrous ceremony.

Jews are dying every day in Israel, we are about to hand over another huge chunk of our land back to people who want to destroy our state, courageous American soldiers are battling to establish the first Arab democracy, and the brains of Israeli soldiers are being kicked around like footballs by terrorists in Gaza. But what are Judaism's representatives thundering about? Idolatrous hair.

Let me be clear. I too am an Orthodox Jew, and my wife covers her hair with a sheitel. But having been in Israel last week and walked through the city of Hebron with its mass of memorials to dead Israeli civilians, the last thing on my mind was the origin of my wife's wig.

While Jewish legal prohibitions against idolatry must be taken seriously, I would prefer seeing rabbis providing direction as to the advisability of further territorial concessions that will only bring Israel's enemies closer to its major population centers.

AND THEN there was the second "Jewish" story. Madonna was about to launch her American concert tour, and the New York Post revealed how she would sing Kabbala-inspired songs while "simulating sex with a female tango dancer."

You know your religion is up a creek when your people are facing mortal danger but your religious leaders are obsessed with Indian hair, and the most famous representative of your mystical tradition is simulating lesbian sex with scantily clad pregnant dancers.

Earth to Phillip Berg: Do us all a favor and dump Madonna as your principal spokesperson. Sorry to be so crass, but Madonna is a slut. Yes, she may sing, and she may dance. But she is famous for being a slut. And no religion dare have a slut as its principal representative.

To be sure, I am not advocating that the Kabbalah Center throw Madonna out. Every human being should be encouraged to approach God, regardless of other choices they have made.

I realize that Madonna has brought the Kabbalah Center great notoriety and is, according to reports, a contributor to the tune of millions of dollars. But is the Kabbalah Center really so desperate that it is prepared to promote itself through a vulgarian whose main contribution to the culture is porn rock?

Can the center's leaders not see the contradiction between having Madonna as a front-woman amid their claims that Kabbala is a life-altering experience?
The principal text of Kabbala is the Zohar, which means "book of illumination," and indeed Judaism's biblical mandate is to be a light unto the nations. Islam suffers today because of an inability on the part of its clerics to condemn the darkness being spread by many of its practitioners. Judaism dare not make the same error by having rabbis be consumed by inanities and failing to provide moral leadership on the critical questions of our time.

----------

Then this response as reported by MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5112674/

Rabbi no fan of Material Girl

By Jeannette Walls
MSNBC
Updated: 4:11 p.m. ET June 02, 2004

Not everyone is impressed that Madonna has re-invented herself.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the former friend and advisor to Michael Jackson, has attacked Madonna, calling her a “slut” and a “vulgarian.” In a startling essay for SomethingJewish.Co.UK, the Rabbi blasts Phillip Berg, the head of the Kabbalah Centre for letting the Material Girl be the religion’s highest-profile spokesperson.

“Earth to Phillip Berg: Do us all a favor and dump Madonna as your principal spokesperson,” Boteach writes. “Sorry to be so crass, but Madonna is a slut. Yes, she may sing, and she may dance. But she is famous for being a slut. And no religion dare have a slut as its principal representative.” He goes on to say:“[I]s the Kabbalah Center really so desperate that it is prepared to promote itself through a vulgarian whose main contribution to the culture is porn rock?”

“I find Rabbi Boteach’s comments regarding Madonna frightening,” Madonna’s spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, told the Scoop. “His vile attacks on her character and as an artist are staggering for someone who professes to be a religious person. . . . I suggest this man take a look at his own character and what problems he may have that would make him feel that he should make statements about a truly beautiful human being that he does not know in the slightest. . . . Madonna’s relationship with the Kabbalah and her commitment to (their) teachings has been a beautiful experience for her and the fact that Madonna wants to share her lessons . . . is yet another example of her truly generous and loving spirit.”

----------

To which Rabbi Boteach responds:

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Responds to Madonna’s Attack on Him Today

http://www.shmuley.com/index.php?section=news&id=38

This morning, the singer Madonna, through her spokesperson, the PR agent Liz Rosenberg, said of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s recent Jerusalem Post article arguing that Madonna should be removed from her role as the spokesperson for the Kabbalah movement:

“I find Rabbi Boteach’s comments regarding Madonna frightening. His vile attacks on her character and as an artist are staggering for someone who professes to be a religious person. . . .”

Ms. Rosenberg’s full comments about Rabbi Boteach’s article can be found on the MSNBC website:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5112674/

In response to this attack, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach released the following statement:

“For two decades Madonna has been allowed to destroy the female recording industry by erasing the line that separates music from pornography. Before Madonna it was possible for women more famous for their voices than their cleavage, like the beautiful Ella Fitzgerald, to emerge as music superstars. But in the post-Madonna universe, even highly original performers like Janet Jackson now feel the pressure to expose their bodies on national TV in order sell albums. This in turn has spawned the lascivious careers of Madonna copycats like Brittney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

“How tragic that sixty years after feminism rightly demanded that women cease being treated as the lecherous man’s plaything and instead be accorded the dignity of an equally intelligent and dignified member of society, Madonna has been allowed to undo so much of that progress with barely a whimper of protest.

“But while it is unbecoming of responsible feminist leaders not to speak out at Madonna’s wholesale vulgarization of the female image, it would be downright scandalous for Jewish religious leaders not to object to Madonna being promoted as the foremost practitioner of Judaism in the world. Judaism and Kabbalah are, above all else, moral disciplines that demand a striving for moral excellence. Stripping on stage and calling oneself a Kabbalist are mutually exclusive.

“For Madonna to put herself forward as a spiritual spokesperson while continuing to degrade women by simulating sex acts at music concerts, portray full nudity in her movies, and to ridicule lesbians by performing same-sex kisses merely for TV ratings, is a mockery of her claims to a life of spiritual renewal based on the teachings of the Kabbalah.

“Women like Liz Rosenberg especially, who heave greatly distinguished themselves professionally through their brains rather than their busts, should be at the forefront of criticizing Madonna’s assault on feminine dignity.

----------

Stay tuned..........





- posted by Izak @ 2:41 AM (0) comments

 
From the Kabbalah website: 4 "Stories". Question: Is THIS is the true "Kabbalah" of Judaism or is it something else ??? YOU be the judge.
(Due to the controversial nature of this subject, the views expressed here are those of the writers themselves.)
----------

"The Flirt
http://www.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=community/livingkabb/122

"George Begley, an accountant for a law office, discussed his life in Kabbalah after he had to tell his wife about a number of serious flirtations he maintained over the years with her friends. His confession, though agonizing for both, brought new life into the commitment they had to Kabbalah and to each other. George had to understand the meaning of true repentance. As he says in his story, "True repentance is taking away someone's pain." He had to learn to take away his wife's pain.

I was a tremendous flirt when I was married. Any chance I could get, I was hitting on women. I wasn't exactly adulterous, but the flirtations went way too far. There came a point, however, when I needed it all to be over. I was ashamed of myself for what I was becoming through these typically meaningless liaisons with women. So I did repentance. I knew I wanted to give it up, so I confessed to my teacher. I broke down bawling my eyes out, I was so ashamed of myself. I told him everything just to clear my conscience.

By confessing, I thought it was over. But just to make sure, I asked my teacher if I had to tell my wife, and he said, "No, you've changed. You've switched universes. There is no reason to hurt her right now." I was so relieved because our life was so wonderful and happy. I was at peace with myself for no longer being a flirt — and I didn't have to tell my wife and make her go through the agony of hearing about my years of poor judgment.

Then, four years later, my teacher came to me and said, "Now you have to tell her." "Why? Why now?" I panicked, thinking of my wife's reaction. "You have to tell her because you're on a spiritual path together and she's your soulmate. Nothing can be separating you. You have to have total trust in one another or you can never be true soulmates. There can be no lies in your past." My heart was pounding and I said, "I just can't tell her. I can't do that." I kept thinking, "What if she leaves me? What if she two-times me back?" My teacher said, "You've got to let it go. Let go of the lies, let go of all the things that separate you. You have to do this in order to stay on the true spiritual path together."

So I finally agreed to do it. We all went out to dinner together: me, my wife and my teacher. And I told her. I told her about every incident that had ever happened, every incident with her friends. How I flirted, how I fooled around. The only thing I had never done was complete the actual deed. There were five or six incidents over the years, and I had to go into each one in detail. And right there in the restaurant, she literally collapsed. Crying, crushed, destroyed. My teacher told me to feel her pain. I was getting a serious Kabbalah lesson right then as he asked me to go deep inside her to help her to take her pain away. True repentance is taking someone's pain away. I needed to do that for my wife. I was trying, really trying. I was holding her, listening to her, trying to understand what she was suffering.

Then all of the sudden it hit me. The dam broke, and I fell apart in the restaurant. My wife was weeping, I was sobbing, my teacher was crying. I got her pain, I went into her pain, and it was staggering. I couldn’t breathe. I felt faint. My teacher kept saying for me to get out of myself and pay attention to her. Her pain was so intense, I could feel it in every pore and blood vessel in my body. Then she started confessing to me. There was nothing terrible there, thank God. There were a couple of things, but I mean, I was the bad guy in the relationship. But Kabbalistically speaking, she was responsible too, because she wasn't giving me what I required in the marriage in the first place. She was selfish, she was cold. Now, that didn't let me off the hook, but at least we were in it together. That's the beauty of Kabbalah. We were both responsible for our karma.

I should have talked with her about my loneliness and what was driving me to other women. But who thinks of these things? Who thinks spiritually like this? I didn't know how at the time. I was just living my life and having fun when I could.

The people in the restaurant didn't even look at us as we were sobbing and holding each other. It was as if we were in our own little cocoon. It was mystical. After this night, I had haunting dreams where I glimpsed at what hell is like. I went to hell for my wife's cleansing and then came back up again. It was a dream no one can ever imagine — one in which I experienced what she went through as I confessed to her. She told me she felt like dying, she wanted to die, so I died in my dreams, night after night. I know today that if we'd gone to a marriage counselor, we'd be divorced right now. We'd be miserable. There'd be court cases, fights. Only through Kabbalah, when you let go and let the Light in to do Its work, can you pay it back. However, you pay it back with the Light all around you and you come out on top. But we came to fix these sins and correct them. By our confessing and coming together as one, our relationship has become something we never even knew existed. We rejoice in each other —sexually, emotionally, and spiritually. We rejoice in our children by allowing the Light into our lives to do the work.

For years, I have wondered why sex is often so bad for married couples after a while. Why does the thrill wear off? Why do we want to flirt? Now I realize it was because we didn't communicate. We didn't confess; we couldn't let go of our own egos. I learned that when we gave up all the lies and withholding, it was like being together for the very first time. It was beautiful."

----------

Letting go of the pain
http://www.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=community/livingkabb/123

"We know that as the grown children of our parents, we carry the baggage of the pain and dissappointments we experienced in our youth. Often it blocks us from going forward. The Kabbalists teach that it can also prevent the souls of our departed parents from moving on. Tom Jaffe was assisted by Rav Berg to let his pain go and set his father soul free.

Tom Jaffe wore his anger and grief at the loss of his father like badge for thirty-five years -- until, at a cemetery during a torrential rainstorm, Rav Berg helped Tom to see that is was time to release his rage and thereby set his father's soul free to journey to Heaven.

According to kabbalistic teachings, the thoughts and feelings we experience in this world are not ends in themselves. They directly affect the souls of those who have left the world, and their ability to ascend to a higher level of being. Once Tom let go of the anger and resentment that had burdened him, his life was transformed. And this transformation extended to the Upper Worlds, where his fatherís spirit was also freed from the effects of Tomís negativity and suffering.

My father passed away when I was sixteen years old. Thirty days before he passed away, he called me to his room one night. He told me he was going to die that night.

I said, "Yeah, Dad, sure you are. Go to sleep." What sixteen-year-old wants to have a death bed chat with his father, who at the time seemed perfectly healthy.

Then he grabbed me to him and said, "Listen, I'm going to die tonight, and I want you to promise you'll take care of your mother, your brother, and that you'll support the family and take care of everything."

"Okay, okay," I told him, hoping to placate him, just wanting to escape a very disturbing conversation.

My father did not die that night. But thirty days later, while I was in the hospital from a football knee injury which occurred during one of my high school games, my father's premonition of death came true. He had come to visit me in the hospital around lunch time. He told me that he was going to a trap shooting contest. Before he left, he reminded me to take care of my knee, and then he went to the contest, where he shot twenty-four in a row. While waiting for the 25th shot, he dropped dead of a heart attack.

Relatives came that very afternoon and got me from the hospital to take me home. I was in a wheelchair. I had to go to my father's funeral in a wheelchair. At the chapel, I got up from the wheelchair and I gave my father a kiss on the forehead in the coffin, which was probably the worst mistake I had ever made in my entire life. That stone cold feeling that I got from the kiss stayed with me for such a long period of time that I had very difficult time adjusting to life without my father. I was supposed to be taking care of my mother and brother, who were very needy themselves, and I could barely take care of myself. I couldn't believe my father had left me with such a tremendous burden of responsibility.

Growing up, I could never do right in my father's eyes. I always had to do something better. A perfect example was when I was playing semi-pro baseball. My father was watching the game where I hit a triple. Afterwards, instead of congratulating me, he said, "Why didn't you hit a home run? You should have hit a home run."

I had to endure that kind of critical attitude as long as he was alive, and it didn't diminish with his death either. I grew to hate the memory of him and the fact that he left me as a sixteen-year-old kid with all these responsibilities. He left me with no tools to shoulder it all. These feelings of resentment and anger, lasted, oh my God, for years, because I didn't begin studying Kabbalah until about 35 years after he passed away. The Rav knew that I was suffering terribly from this tremendous guilt, from this staggering inability to accept the fact that my father had left me the way he did.

One night I was sitting with the Rav and my brother at my brother's house in Toronto. The Rav said to me, "Are you ready, Tom?"

"Am I ready for what?" I replied.

He paused before he said quietly, "Are you ready to release your father?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's about time that you got rid of this anger and frustration and this thing that you've been carrying around for 35 years. We have to release your father, so his soul can go up to Heaven, and you can become a new person."

I thought about it for moment before I said, "All right, then, yes, I am ready."

It was at two o'clock in the morning when this conversation took place, during the worst torrential rainstorm that Toronto had experienced in five or six years. The rain gushed down so heavily that when we started driving to the cemetery, we could barely see three feet in front of car. My brother was driving. The Rav was in the front seat. No one spoke as we drove for an hour and a half to the gravesite which was located in this bereft little town outside of Hamilton, Ontario. We got out of the car and found the grave. We stood there by our father's gravesite with the Rav lighting 72 candles, saying meditations and prayers. My brother and I were holding the umbrella over the Rav to keep him dry from the tremendous downpour, and so the candles would stay lit.

But at a certain point during this whole experience, a tremendous spiritual weight lifted off of my shoulders. In all that darkness and rain, there came a feeling of lightness and inexplicable joy. All at once, I lost that chip on my shoulder that I had carried for so many years. I felt at peace and comfort with myself. For a brief moment there, I was just completely and absolutely at peace. My brother experienced the same thing.

Then the Rav turned to us and said, "It's time to go. Everything is fine now." We left the cemetery at about 4:45 a.m. It was pitch dark with rain still streaming down, and yet I felt like I was floating on the air. It was as if the sun was shining, and life was suddenly so beautiful, because I had gotten rid of 35 years of anger and frustration and guilt. I released it because the Rav was able to open the cosmos for me to expel my anger. I was a new person.

I must tell you that it has now been nine years later, and I thank God that I am still at peace with the memory of my father. I am at peace with the fact that his death wasn't my fault. It had nothing to do with me. I was finally able to go on to become a better person because of the Rav and the Kabbalah Centre. I hope I will be able to continue to become a better person for many years to come.

Lesson: Immortality, according to Kabbalah, is more than just an idea or an aspiration. It is a literal reality. When physical death occurs, the deceased continues to live in our hearts, perhaps with even greater intensity and presence than ever before. Conversely, the emotional and spiritual conditions of our lives continue to affect the souls of our loved ones. By transforming our inner nature during our lives, we benefit ourselves as well as the metaphysical realms constitute the Upper Worlds."

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We are all one
http://www.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=community/livingkabb/129
"Several years ago, when I first started to study Kabbalah, I had a very intense experience. I had been wrestling with the idea that we are all one and not separate from anyone or anything on this planet. I had been meditating on this in my living room, when I had this sudden sensation that the roof of my home had been removed and I could see the sky. Not only could I see the sky, but the physical sensation of BEING the sky was extremely intense and joyous. I finally understood: I WAS ONE WITH EVERYTHING and because of it, THERE WAS NO ONE HERE BUT ME.
I became very excited. I came out of my meditation and immediately decided to phone some close friends and share my experience. NO ONE WAS HOME. I realized at that moment that of course no one was home, they were all here with me since we were all one. This happened over 10 years ago, and I have never forgotten it, or the sensation. It has carried me through some very difficult times and I have never felt alone through them.

Shulamit Joffre"

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Kabbalah from the Heart
http://www.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=community/livingkabb/203

I am about to finish the second basic course in Kabbalah at the Kabbalah Learning Center in Miami Beach, Florida. Each course is ten weeks long, meeting once a week for one and a half hour. What have I learned? What I have gained? In what dimensions have I gained? In what ways have I changed, if at all?

Kabbalah makes clear that its mission is "To remove chaos from our lives." This is made possible by realizing that we created our own chaos and we also have the power to remove, mitigate, repackage the negative consequences of our own thoughts, desires and actions.

When we stick a wire inside an electrical outlet, we get electric shock. When we jump from a tall building, most likely, we die. When we throw a ball against the wall, it bounces back to us. This is simply an application of the third law of motion, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." "We reap what we sow."

We see the consequences of our actions with the above examples because the effects follow immediately the cause in the above examples. With some actions, the effects slowly accumulate over time and we only suffer the consequence after a long time. We do not gain weight after a bite of one cookie but a diet of high sugar coupled with lack of exercise will result in a build up of fat deposits after some time. The negative consequences of smoking on our health such as lung cancer, heart disease and stroke have now been documented. No one gets those dreaded consequences with the first puff of smoke. We tend to hold on to an illusion that since we did not suffer what the research said, we have beaten the odds. Not forever. The consequence will ultimately catch up with us.

The First Law of Thermodynamics say that "Matter and energy cannot be created nor destroyed. They can only be transformed." The positive energy that we expend through kindness and helpfulness results in building a reservoir of positive energy for us from which we can draw to work out negative factors facing us in our lives. Similarly, every negative energy we expend motivated by our desire to hurt, to get even, to use force to control another against one's will, etc. will result in a negative energy or a draw from the positive reservoir we had created. This is the Law of Karma as known to the Hindus or the Buddhists.

Without the above perspective, we feel that life's challenges simply happen to us out of random probability that such an event will happen to anyone. This time it was our turn. With this framework, we lament on our situation, we claim that life is unfair. We work on mitigating damages in the same manner that we keep mopping the floor from the water that overflowed from the plugged sink (the consequence) instead of turning off the faucet (the cause).

With a knowledge of the Law of Cause and Effect, we are grateful for the good fortunes that come to us that bring us love, wealth, happiness. We are also joyful when we experience events that ordinarily cause suffering such as being misunderstood, being a victim, etc. We know that when we address those challenges as opportunities to make our corrections for wrongdoings of the past, we are cleaning our plate or emptying the dirt from the glass vessel so it can be washed clean and allow the Light to shine through.

To be continued after more work with Accreditation. This was my break.

Ijya Tulloss
2/18/2001"
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- posted by Izak @ 1:47 AM (0) comments

 
The Kabalah of Madonna
by Barbara Kligman

(See the YIDDISH GLOSSARY below for words you don't understand)

The Kabalah of Madonna
It's farchadat, this whole fascination with Kabalah. So much so that I almost went to one of those Kabalah classes ("free with this coupon", as advertised zealously every week in The Village Voice) in preparation for my fine work here at Charged. Then I thought, wait. Those classes are on Wednesday nights. Can't do it. Not with this being the last season of 90210 and all.

What would I learn anyway? Oooh, numerology. Oooh, scary chanting. Maybe I would meet a nice mensch and we could kvetch afterwards over a knish and coffee. But nah, I don't need none of that. I know that I'm Jewish. I was force-fed the ultimate Jew food there is--guilt--for over thirty years. Moms and Pops let me know over the years that my un-Jewish actions would eventually kill them. I was told that I would have to marry a Jew ("If you don't marry someone Jewish, I will die. Right now. Right here."). G-d forbid I ate bacon or had a little cheese with my meat ("Are you trying to murder your father?"). And just when I thought I was filled up on the blue plate o'guilt at home, the neighborhood kids told me that I killed Jesus. (Yep. I did it. It was me.)

So this whole Kabalah mishegoss is really news to me. I did the Hebrew school circuit for five grueling years; my Jewish education started with gluing bits of macaroni onto felt to spell out happening sayings like "Mazel Tov," "Kosher is Kool" or "Yentas Only" (Bubbe loved that for her kitchen). I graduated to learning about Jewish holidays (ask me about the one where you run around the synagogue carrying an apple on a stick, waving a flag) and conjugating Hebrew verbs (complete with that sexy "cccchhhhh?" sound). And not once did the Kabalah ever come up.

I don't own the Jewish religion; I never said that. All I'm sayin' is that studying the Kabalah does not make you gen-u-ine in '99. There is no Judaica autopilot set into motion after attending a class on Jewish mysticism. The Kabalah, in fact, was never intended for women to study at all--not that I'm down with that sexist rule. It was an oral tradition taught to old Jewish men who had mastered many other facets of Judaism first. Then and only then were they taught the many scriptures that are part of the Kabalistic practice. Studying the Kabalah meant a lot more than wearing amulets with code in them (for warding off evil spirits), doing yoga (I still haven't figured out that connection), henna tattoos (anything started by Gwen Stefani is all wrong anyway), and putting thirteen songs on your album because you heard somewhere that thirteen is an important age in the Jewish religion. Well, yeah.

And while we're exploring mysticism, can we please explore something Why is Madonna fronting like she's Jewish? I get fachadded just thinking about this. Jews usually keep their religion quiet because this society isn't exactly cool with us being in the forefront. Don't shake your head at me. When Yom Kippur becomes a national holiday, then we'll talk. I live right here in Jew York and have encountered more anti-Semitism than you can shake a menorah at. I do a Jew 'zine and I am really upfront about my heritage, but I will tell you now that most of my brethren don't exactly go running around the streets singing the score from "Fiddler on the Roof" or "Chad Gad Ya" (the famous Passover song about a little goat--ask your Jew friends about it, and watch the horrified look that follows). If Madonna really wanted to help us, she'd re-record that ditty.

It just ticks me off that Kabalah, an ultra-serious sect of Judaism, is now reduced to a fashion statement. (And the shmattes that Madonna has been wearing do not help this at all.) Although I'd really love to see The Donna sporting some payehs in her next Vogue shoot. Changing your 'do is one thing, and frankly, that is somewhat of an appeal for me concerning Miss Ciccione. Who doesn't want to see what that meshuggeneh is up to with her locks? Although frankly, the black ironed hair isn't doing it for me. If she really wanted to be down with the tribe, she'd cut it all off and buy a wig like Orthodox women do. How about doing that for your peeps, Madonna?

While it's fine to explore other religions and adapt certain aspects of them to fit into your life to make you a better person (I'm trying not to laugh--it's hard), I feel like Madonna is using us Jew-folk until the next cool "religion thing" comes into view. And how far will she go? If she had a boy baby, would she have done the bris? Is she going to make Lourdes have a Bat Mitzvah? Does she have mezuzahs in her home? Is she farklempt on a regular basis?

I've done the research on my own and I still can't figure out the whole shmegegge. Mysticism, magic and numerology are but a small part of these ancient teachings. It's like studying Catholicism by eating communion wafers, going on Easter egg hunts, and attending Mass on Christmas Eve. You can't segment one tiny part of an entire religion and pretend it's an inherent part of you. Duh.

YIDDISH GLOSSARY

farchadat (adj.): totally insane; screwy in the head
mensch (n.): all-around nice guy (e.g., Ben Stiller)
kvetch (v.): complain, nag, bitch, moan (all at the same time)
mishegoss (n.): pandemonium, chaotic situation
bubbe (n.): grandma
fachadded (adj.): mixed up in the head, as if someone picked you up and spun you around
shmattes (pl. n.): rags; especially ugly dresses
payehs (pl. n.): curly sideburn thingies
meshuggeneh (n.): crazy one (Jocelyn Wildenstein)
schmegegge (n.): the whole ball of wax
farklempt (adj.): choked up, teary

- posted by Izak @ 12:22 AM (1) comments