jewish identity 
Fri Jan 16, 2009 at 15:55:34 PM EST
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(great post - promoted by Mik Moore)
Shemot. Names. That’s the Hebrew title of this parsha and of the entire book of Exodus. Why? Because it starts: “Ve’ele shemot beney yisrael…” “And these are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household: Reuven, Shimon, Levi, and Yehuda. Yisaschar, Zevulun, and Binyamin. Dan and Naftali, Gad and Asher.” Why doesn’t the text just say “These are the sons of Israel…?” Other lists of people in the Torah (e.g., “X begat Y”) just give the names without stating that they are names. So why does this parsha introduce the sons of Jacob with the word Shemot?
To answer this I turn to a midrash: “Rav Huna said in the name of Bar Kapara: Because of 4 things Israel was redeemed from Egypt: They did not change their names or their language, they did not speak lashon hara (evil gossip), and not one of them was promiscuous” (Vayikra Raba 32:5). Clearly, some of the rabbis considered language and names important enough that they spoke of them in the same breath as two central prohibitions: lashon hara and promiscuity. What do language and names have to do with divine redemption?
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Wed Apr 23, 2008 at 15:07:58 PM EDT
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On Slate this week, they're recycling a 2007 piece by Mark Oppenheimer protesting the 21st century's profusion of Haggadot. I recognize that to some degree, the sentiment behind this argument is cousin to Jill's surprise at discovering how cluttered the progressive Seder plate has become. But I couldn't disagree more with the argument itself, which hinges on the theory that Jews keep reinventing Passover because they're uncomfortable with Judaism. The diversity of Haggadot is a symptom of the unease that many Jews feel about Judaism. For some, the unease is political: Passover is a holiday about liberation, so the Haggadah has special meaning to those who feel that Judaism today is insufficiently attentive to left-wing political causes. For others, the unease is just a species of what all secular Americans feel around religious tradition, and Jews like this are always looking for a Haggadah that is "contemporary" or "relevant" enough to produce religious sentiment with a minimum of embarrassment.
I actually can't think of a better sign of spiritual health than that so many people (ranging from the glitziest nouveau-Kabbalists to the crunchiest secular activists) are rewriting and reinventing and relearning Jewish ritual texts. Think of all the steps that have to go into this: - Someone has to CARE about Passover.
- Someone has to care about what the traditional Jewish texts say about Passover.
- Someone has to construct a thesis of some kind of how these texts ought to be modified to better suit present circumstances.
- Someone has to go back to the old texts, splice them in with some new sources, and compile and edit a new Haggadah.
- Someone has to pay for the publishing of these new Haggadot.
Inevitably, this leads to where we are today, step 6:
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