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Wed Mar 19, 2008 at 18:44:30 PM EDT
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Ta'anit Esther--the Fast of Esther--is a dawn-to-dusk fast that is usually explained as a commemoration of Esther's fasts before she went to plead with King Achashverosh on behalf of the Jews. The fast often gets overshadowed by the upcoming Purim festivities, and it can seem strange to ask people to fast when they are likely to be in the middle of baking hamentashen, assembling costumes, and preparing for revelry. Viewed in a different light, though, Ta'anit Esther can actually provide a powerful, ritualized way of thinking about the dynamics of power and powerlessness in our lives.
Contrary to the popular explanation for the fast, Ta'anit Esther actually falls on the day of the calendar (the 13th of Adar) when the Jews of the Purim story rose up to defend themselves and slaughtered thousands of their enemies. The Jews were given permission to take such actions through a decree that was issued in the King's name but dictated by Mordechai. The decree proclaimed that "[t]he king has permitted the Jews of every city to assemble and fight for their lives; if any people or province attacks them, they may destroy, massacre, and exterminate all their army together with women and children, and plunder their possessions..." (Esther 8:11).
The extent of the violence that Mordechai's decree allows the Jews to commit can feel shocking. If the Jews are acting in self-defense, why does Mordechai give them permission to murder (presumably innocent) Persian women and children and plunder their possessions, rather than requiring the Jews to limit their actions to those who actually plan to harm them? One answer may lie in the language of the decree itself. Mordechai's words in the decree are almost identical to the words that Haman uses in his original decree against the Jews ("destroy, massacre, and exterminate all the Jews, from young to old, children and women...and plunder their possessions" Esther 3:13).
As the balance of power in the story is suddenly reversed
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 at 15:30:10 PM EST
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Last week I returned from my fifth trip to the Gulf Coast since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated much of the region. The visit provided me with another opportunity to meet with community leaders and local organizers, as well as our college student service volunteers, all of whom continue to struggle to rebuild their city against overwhelming odds.
I am proud that Jewish Funds for Justice has extended our commitment to the people of New Orleans and the surrounding area. We have already moved almost $4 million dollars into the region, supporting local organizing and community investment.
It didn't take long for my hosts to put in perspective the generosity of JFSJ and the donors to our Katrina Fund. Our friends at the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity (a project of the New Orleans Workers' Center), which represents hundreds of guest workers in the Gulf Coast, told us about one of their campaigns:
Thirty Mexican "guest workers" are fighting slave-like conditions in the strawberry fields of Louisiana. Their boss, Mr. Relan, seized their passports, paid them as little as $2 an hour and threatened them with deportation if they attempted to stretch or use the bathroom.
On Valentine's Day, workers walked off the fields to reclaim their dignity.
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Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 19:21:50 PM EST
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Funny how two people can read the same article and walk away with such different thoughts spinning through their minds. While Mik's reaction to the Pew Forum's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey focused on the economic and racial profiles of American Jews, I found that the New York Times' coverage of the survey triggered a broader question for me on the purpose of religion in our lives.
One passage in particular caught my eye:
To Prof. Stephen Prothero, large numbers of Americans leaving organized religion and large numbers still embracing the fervor of evangelical Christianity point to the same desires.
"The trend is toward more personal religion, and evangelicals offer that," said Mr. Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, who explained that evangelical churches tailor many of their activities for youth. "Those losing out are offering impersonal religion and those winning are offering a smaller scale: mega-churches succeed not because they are mega but because they have smaller ministries inside."
If I understand Professor Prothero's analysis correctly, he is suggesting that Americans are seeking religious outlets that serve, as their primary function, to fulfill individual needs. If one religion or denomination isn't meaningful, then I'll go find another, or create something for myself.
Which raises an interesting question, to my mind: what exactly is religion for?
At the risk of sounding uber-conservative, I don't fully subscribe to the individualist approach. For me, religion is as much about creating personal meaning in my life as it is about connecting myself to community; being part of a historical and textual tradition that may actually present real conflict and tension for me--and wrestling with that tension; and having a particular framework through which to understand the world.
If something in Judaism isn't doing it for me, I want to engage it, not discard it. I feel a certain responsibility to do so. This perspective is what keeps me (relatively) observant, even though it's sometimes inconvenient or boring or not all that meaningful.
I'm interested in hearing what other folks think. Is religion about the individual? About community? About meaning? Obligation? What God wants? All or none of the above?
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Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 11:53:16 AM EST
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The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has released a wide ranging U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. The website is well done - simple to use, particularly if you are interested in comparing the profiles of religious groups. Lots of pie charts.
JTA's summed the survey up thusly: "Jews earn more money, are better educated and have fewer children at home than the members of most other faiths, according to a new study."
Not too surprising, I think. What was more interesting - IMHO - were the overall income numbers. The national average has 31% making less than $30K per year; among Jews, only 14% make less than $30K. At the high end, 18% nationwide make more than $100K; among Jews, 46% make more than $100K. The groups that mostly closely mirror the national averages across all income levels are Catholics and Unaffiliated. Jews are closest to Hindus (who are slightly more middle income than us, with slightly fewer poor and rich).
The "why" behind the poverty numbers is answered - at least in part - by the next available comparison: educational distribution. Jews and Hindus are way ahead here: 59% and 74%, respectively, have a college and/or graduate degree. Orthodox Christians come in next at 46%. The national average is 27%. Once again, Catholics and Unaffiliated mirror the national average across all educational levels. The least educated groups - members of Black churches, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses - are also the poorest.
The big NYTimes story on the survey focuses on the high rates inter and intra-faith mobility; will this be seen as good news or bad news among those who worry about Jews opting out of the Jewish community? Perhaps reassuring that we are not unique, but frightening to know that Jews - like other Americans - are moved by trends beyond our (Jewish communal) control.
One last item of note: according to this survey, Jews are THE WHITEST GROUP IN THE UNITED STATES! At 95% white, Jews are more racially homogeneous than historically Black churches, which are only 92% black. (For the record, a little bird tells me surveys of Jews show that around 10% of Jews are people of color; I'd love a cite for this!). Either this is proof - once again - of a significant undercount of Jews of color, or we are just very very white.
To recap: the Jewish community is characterized by disproportionate amounts of money, education and white skin privilege. To quote Uncle Ben (from Spiderman): "With great power comes great responsibility..."
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Fri Feb 22, 2008 at 02:31:21 AM EST
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Many times in my rabbinic life, Jews and non-Jews have confessed to me their concern that they're not "good Jews" or "good Christians" because their faith isn't rock solid. Somehow, there's a perception floating in the ether that there is somewhere a class of religious people who feel close to God always, who never experience doubt, and who accept without question the ups and downs of the world. Personally, I've never met one of these people, and I feel better believing that they don't exist at all.
In this context, it is striking that this week's parashah, Ki Tissa contains both the moment of supreme closeness to God and the moment in which the bond between God and the Jewish people almost breaks altogether. On the one hand, Moses encounters God "panim el panim"--face to face, in the most personal encounter that a biblical character (or perhaps anyone) ever has with God. On the other hand, while Moses is on top of Sinai receiving the Torah, the people down below are crafting an idol to worship. At the very moment of the enactment of the covenant between God and the people, the people distance themselves from God through the creation of a golden calf. How can this intense closeness and this relationship-threatening distance live in such close proximity?
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Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 13:33:49 PM EST
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Former Labor Sec. Robert Reich has a useful editorial in today's NYTimes that explains why this recession is not like the others. In a nutshell, Americans have run out of ways to live beyond our paychecks. First, women entered the work force in large numbers to add income. Then we all worked more hours. And finally we went in to debt, spending again our homes and on our credit cards.
His solution? Permanent, long-term new streams of income for families. That means higher wages (see: unions) and an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit. And better schools.
Reich says all that, in under 1000 words. I am not an economist, but from what I understand about our economy and recent history, this feels about right. If our next administration followed through on these three suggestions, we'd be in considerably better shape than we are now. Add in real, sensible health care reform, and we'd all be much better off.
While Reich decries protectionist measures (they increase prices on goods that Americans need), he doesn't acknowledge that higher wages to union members can have a similar effect on the price of services. But I'm with Reich on this one too. Workers who make more can spend more, and if we're going to raise prices it feels more sensible for it to be a bi-product of collective bargaining (which, at its best, empowers workers and builds a progressive movement) rather than protectionist trade policies (which often feed jingoistic, isolationist, and/or nativist movements which are regressive).
My hunch is that the views expressed by Reich, who is Jewish, are shared by many Jews. Yet this focus on the changing economy and the long-term needs of workers is not often reflected in the work of Jewish organizations. A few obvious reasons come to mind. 1. Jewish groups believe these are not Jewish issues. 2. Jewish groups get nervous talking about taxation. 3. Jewish groups get really nervous talking about unions.
We'll see if this timidity holds in 2009, particularly if a Democratic administration is in the White House...
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Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 19:54:52 PM EST
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Hi everybody, today I ran across two pieces of extraordinarily terrible advice that I wanted to share. You ready?
#1. Get married to someone you don't particularly like because you will be lonely forever if you don't. (This message brought to you by the Atlantic Monthly).
#2. Have more children than you were planning on because it would be a good deed, because, the Holocaust. (This message brought to you by the Rabbinical Assembly).
What strikes me about these two attempts to affect the way we make the most intimate, important decisions of our lives is that they are both based in fear and sorrow. The Conservative rabbis urge us to have more children because:
Everywhere except in Israel, the Jewish population is diminishing, with the result that we are not even reproducing ourselves. Committed Jews should be concerned about the depletion of the Jewish population, especially in light of the fact that a third of the world Jewish population was exterminated in the Holocaust. Rather than making up for that loss we seem to be adding to it, especially when we take into account those Jews lost to us through assimilation and intermarriage.
Since I began working in the Jewish community, I've heard this advice again and again, and it never fails to get my ovaries in a twist, not least because of the implied (or explicit) criticism of professional women (never of professional men) who postpone childrearing to accommodate their career goals. I say: if the rabbis are so committed to making this a communal issue, the rabbis should raise the children. In fact, given their comfortable salaries and high communal status, they have no excuse: they should be adopting and converting children by the dozen. Given the impressive recent developments in medicine that prolong human life, I wouldn't excuse any rabbi under sixty from performing this mitzvah. Wouldn't that make a fine statement of commitment to the Jewish future?
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Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 00:45:09 AM EST
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- Hearing your family members, whom you love, say racist, judgmental, and otherwise not-okay things is normal.
- Repeating racist things as a teenager without really thinking about it is normal.
- Having another teenager unthinkingly say something racist to you is incredibly hurtful, but pretty normal.
- Drawing pretty grim conclusions about that teenager and his or her entire ethnic group as a result is, unfortunately, also pretty normal.
- Getting teased for your family, your behavior, and your appearance is normal.
- Concluding that the safest thing to do is to stick with the people like you is normal.
- Figuring out that nobody is exactly like you is normal.
- Feeling like you don't quite belong anywhere is normal.
- Wishing things could be different is normal.
- Helping make things different is exceptional and brave. I wish it were normal.
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Fri Feb 01, 2008 at 12:16:12 PM EST
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Parashat Mishpatim -- Exodus 21:1-24:18
"And you shall not afflict the Ger the stranger, nor shall you oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." (Exodus 22:20)
This verse, which comes in the middle of our Torah portion, marks the first time in the Torah that we are commanded to not mistreat the Ger, the sojourner or the stranger. Some twenty verses later the Torah repeats this commandment and central Biblical value saying, "And you shall not oppress a stranger, for you have known the soul of the stranger in that you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
The Babylonian Talmud, in Baba Metzia 60a, counts as many as 46 places in the Torah in which Israel is commanded not to afflict, wrong, oppress, or pressure the Stranger. Four of those times we are told explicitly, as in these two verses in our parashah, not to mistreat the Stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt. In Leviticus we learn, "And you shall love him as yourself for you were strangers, Gerim, in the land of Egypt."
One could argue that because we were dehumanized, afflicted, and had our lives embittered at the hands of others, we therefore owe no compassionate treatment to others. But that is not the argument of the Torah. The Torah, by making this its most repeated mitzvah, is teaching us that one of the most essential characteristics of the covenantal society we are charged to build is the protection of the stranger who is called Ger as well as the openness, if not the imperative enthusiasm, to accept him or her into the covenant if he or she so chooses. And we do that because of our experience in Egypt.
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Thu Jan 31, 2008 at 20:47:40 PM EST
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I recently attended a lunch and learn program sponsored by the Samuel Bronfman Foundation that featured Rabbi Avi Weiss, Dean of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and Ruth Messinger, President of American Jewish World Service, on the subject of Jewish activism. Ostensibly titled "Do Rallies Still Matter?" the larger conversation explored many aspects of Jewish social and political activism.
I suspect that when planning the panel, someone assumed that this combo would lead to fireworks. After all, R. Weiss has a long and heated track record in NY and Jewish life coming from the "right" and Messinger has a track record in the same fields from the "left." I guess what folks may not realize is that each of these leaders has been on a Jewish spiritual journey that in the last decade and especially in the last few years has brought them into a close relationship. YCT, AJWS, and Jewish Funds for Justice are today amongst a group of organizations that closely partner on some fronts and have a pretty shared vision around the role of the rabbinate as leaders and activists in Jewish life. That said there are some important nuances, differences and commonalities that I found myself reflecting on as I listened to them.
Context: I have a long history with both Weiss and Messinger. My 1st job in politics was working for David Dinkins when he ran for mayor of New York in 1989, and then, after college, I came to work full time in his administration. Though I wasn't on staff for the Crown Height Riot, I did end up in a heated oppositional relationship with Weiss on a regular basis. More recently R. Weiss has been a major figure in the forging of a new feminist minded "open" orthodoxy and many of his YCT students are active in the kehilla I help lead, Darkhei Noam. So he has a huge influence over the values and philosophy of my personal Jewish community.
For several years I worked for Messinger when she was Boro President and then on her Mayoral campaign as well. Much of my own perspective on Jewish communal life was forged in this period, often in our conversations in her car between meetings. In 1998, we made the transition to Jewish social change philanthropy together (though to different organizations) and have stayed close ever since.
Which is to say
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