The Hazzn's Tish

Spontaneous revival?

2007-04-16T21:21:00.000-04:00

Blogger appears to have gone crazy. It just re-posted all of my entries, flooding all my LJ friends' pages via RSS feed.

For the record, this blog is currently dormant. This is not to say that it's gone forever, just that I don't currently have the time to maintain an issues-related blog in addition to the one I use to keep in touch with friends.

Thanks for reading! Again!

Da Vinci 'Splode!

2006-05-12T11:12:00.000-04:00

An article in yesterday's New York Times notes that the Catholic Church's objection to the upcoming theatrical release of The Da Vinci Code

has been colored by the Muslim riots over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Most American media outlets refrained from showing the cartoons, and now some Christian leaders are asking why Christians should be expected to sit by while the media promotes a movie that insults their savior.

In Rome recently, Archbishop Angelo Amato, the No. 2 official in the Vatican's doctrinal office, told Catholic communications officials: "If such slanders, offenses and errors had been directed at the Koran or the Holocaust, they would have justly provoked a world uprising. Instead, directed at the Church and Christians, they remain unpunished. I hope you will all boycott the movie."

American media companies avoided showing the Muhammed images because they feared that the resulting furor would threaten the safety and even the lives of their employees. Clearly, they view angry Christians as far less menacing than angry Muslims. This hardly seems like a reason for the Church to take offense.

A sidenote: Were I in charge of these things, I would simply point out that The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction and should be viewed as such. I would then call upon some respectable academic types to point out a few of the more interpretive historical references in Brown's books. (I don't know precisely how Robert Langdon managed to secure his tenure at Harvard, and I believe I'm happier for that.)

Just call me Cassandra

2006-04-07T12:48:00.000-04:00

I've been predicting for years that this would happen. I don't buy it for a second.

Hag sameah!

Oh, and don't actually call me "Cassandra." Really.

Well, how about that

2006-03-31T10:30:00.000-05:00

Only a few hours after the previous post went up, HonestReporting cited the same sentence from the Times, though with a different slant that I took.

Gordian Map

2006-03-30T18:37:00.000-05:00

Today's New York Times contains an editorial on the possibility of an Israeli pullout from the West Bank. An excerpt:

Whatever borders Israel fixes are not likely to get international recognition, particularly if those borders leave Palestinians cut in half — in the West Bank and Gaza — and unable to get from one part of their country to another without going through Israel.

The other option? Require Israelis to go through the Palestinian state to get from Haifa to Be'er Sheva. Maybe we ought to take a look at Pakistan and Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) for advice.

David Irving . . .

2006-02-28T09:36:00.000-05:00

. . . just keeps getting more and more confusing. In 1989 he gave an interview on Austrian television claiming that the Holocaust never happened. At his recent trial, he pled guilty but insisted "I have changed," and acknowledged that Hitler murdered millions of Jews.

Then this comes along. Along with his odd suggestion that Auschwitz-Birkenau has been inappropriately (and, I suppose, inexplicably) identified as the core of the Nazi extermination program, he seems to continue to contend that Hitler knew nothing about the "final solution." I can't tell if he thinks that the Dolf was a colossal moron, or not as powerful as anyone thought, or what. All I can say for sure is that the man has a genius for deducing impossible conclusions from relatively clear evidence.*

This one is a hoot.

* The man in this case being Irving, not Hitler. The two do seem to share that quality to some extent, but at least some of the blame in Hitler's case may be directed toward his native culture.**

** A professor of mine has suggested that only the Austrians could have convinced the world to believe in a Viennese Beethoven and a German Hitler.

Toontown

2006-02-23T14:19:00.000-05:00

I haven't yet said anything about the Muhammad cartoon controversy because everything that's occurred to me has been stated clearly and effectively by someone else. Something has been festering in the back of my mind (eew) for a few weeks now, but I've only recently figured out what it is.

When much of the Muslim world began to protest the Danish cartoons, newspapers all over Europe republished them, usually claiming that their actions were taken in defense of freedom of expression.* This is nonsense. If they had published the cartoons despite their own governments' protests, that would be a move for freedom of expression. When a newspaper prints something in defiance of someone else's government, it's just an attempt to be inflamatory. And really, how hard is it to enrage a radical fundamentalist?

Shooting fish in a barrel unsportsmanlike, unchallenging and, when you think about it, kind of stupid.

* This is ironic by itself, as many European countries do not have such a legally protected right. David Irving's status as a criminal is contingent entirely on the fact that publicly stating an opinion can get you sent to jail in Austria, and made somewhat more shocking by the fact that he was tried and sentenced after publicly retracting and renouncing his own denial of the Holocaust.

And here I thought I'd lost my readership . . .

2006-02-08T01:05:00.000-05:00

A little while ago I enabled comment moderation to keep the spammers at bay. Due to an error in the setup (my fault), I never received any e-mail notifications of comments awaiting approval. Now, all is healed. All is health. All is whole.

(Seven brownie points [and possibly a brownie] to whoever gets the reference.)

And relatedly . . .

2006-02-03T12:45:00.000-05:00

There is no such thing as metzitzah bepeh. There is, however, a controversial circumcision practice called metzitzah befeh. Remember, use these powers only for good.

Another linguistic PSA

2006-02-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

As we approach ט"ו בשבט, the New Year for Trees, one thing must be made clear: It is properly vocalized as Tu Bishvat. Not Tu B'shvat, not Tu B'shevat, and certainly not Cheshvan (rim shot). Tu Bishvat. Three syllables. Love it, live it, say it.

What a strange article

2006-01-24T09:30:00.000-05:00

This article by Jacob Neusner appeared in today's Jerusalem post.

Part of me can't help but be disappointed. The author take several liberties, such as presenting what he knows to be grossly oversimplified Conservative halakhic stances in the absence of any context. Neusner, a respected scholar in his own field, cannot even seem to keep his denominational catchphrases straight. ("The past has a vote, not a veto" is a Reconstructionist anthem. The Conservative Movement uses contradictory phrases like "tradition through change," then sits around and wonders why nobody seems inspired.)

The article is entitled "Do denominational labels matter?" That's not really the topic of the article, is it? It's an article by someone who is arguing that Conservative Judaism, for all its weaknesses, is just loads better than Reform Judaism. His four proofs: (1) Reform Jews pray in English and want to know what they're saying, while Conservative Jews pray in Hebrew and don't care what they're saying; (2) Conservative Jews are more Sabbath observant because they drive to shul on Saturday mornings even when there's no bar mitzvah; (3) Conservative Jews are really Reconstructionist Jews (see above); (4) JTS and UJ appear to have stronger text study programs than HUC. Q.E.D., I suppose.

Perhaps it's a matter of my own cultural biases, but I expect any half-decent article called "Do denominational labels matter?" to address the fact that they don't.

A very Baraita post

2005-12-10T19:21:00.000-05:00

Here's a nice essay that you ought to read.

Here's one that asks a lot of questions to which I'm composing a response, to appear shortly.

Shavua` tov!

Speaking of observance

2005-11-27T16:18:00.000-05:00

Click here for Elfsdh's take on the (in)famous "driving teshuvah."

A Modest Followup

2005-11-21T22:32:00.000-05:00

The Sunday Styles section in yesterday's New York Times featured a bat mitzvah (girl, that is) wearing a $27,000 Dolce & Gabbana dress and flanked by Ashanti and Ja Rule.* This is exactly what I'm talking about. One of my professors called it a form of child abuse, and I'm not entirely sure if I disagree.

* These are both pop singers, albeit ones that haven't seen the Billboard Top 40 list for a while.

An afterthought

2005-11-15T00:14:00.000-05:00

I'd like to extend my deepest thanks to all the spambots whose kind thoughts on creative writing, erectile dysfunction and francophonic footwear* kept me aware during the lull that I did, in fact, have another weblog.

* I kid you not.

A Modest Proposal

2005-11-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

If your fava beans have not been skinned, soak them in cold water to cover for at least 12 hours. Drain and rub the skins off with your fingers. Favas cook quickly, so you might want to open the Chianti at this point, giving it ample time to breathe . . .

No, not really.

Early in 2004 the Wall Street Journal published an article about the growing demand for "bar mitzvah" parties by non-Jewish tweens in America. The Jewish community, never at a loss for words, let out a great cry: "How dare they steal and cheapen our traditions? Can't they think of their own coming of age ceremony? They're going to reduce the bar mitzvah to nothing but an expensive ego-fest for newly minted teenagers, devoid of all meaning and, and, um."

And then the Jewish community suddenly remembered that it had forgotten something in its car and had to leave the conversation early. Because really, where do you think our Gentile neighbors got this crazy idea about the meaning of a bar mitzvah? Yep. Another triumph for Operation Or Lagoyim.*

First, if I'm going to write about the meaning of a bar mitzvah, I should talk about the meaning of "bar mitzvah." (Everyone follow that?) It's a term that combines Aramaic and Hebrew, and can be translated literally as "son of a commandment"** and contextually as "one who is obligated to the Commandments." The reason I want to clarify this is that a lot of people think that (1) there is a "bar mitzvah ceremony," and that (2) undergoing this ceremony has some intrinsic effect on a person as a functioning Jew. Please take my word as a trainee Leader of the Jewish People: neither of these statements is true. A bar mitzvah isn't an event, it's a person who is Jewish, male and at least 13 years old.

(I am fully aware that there is such a thing as a "bat mitzvah," and I am just as adamant about getting people to use that phrase correctly. Please don't think I'm ignoring women or women's roles in contemporary Judaism. I prefer to work with traditional language not because of any political or personal bias, but because Semitic languages are even less suited to dealing with gender neutrality than the Germanic language that I speak.*** Okay, move along. That's all the apologetic I've got for now.)

The time when a boy becomes a bar mitzvah is traditionally (in the fairly ancient sense) marked by his leading services and being called to the Torah on the first appropriate day following his coming of age.**** It is also traditionally (in a far more recent and culturally specific sense) marked by a huge and embarrassingly expensive affair involving lots of food, professional dancers (optional, but strongly advised), the Electric Slide, and way too many 12 and 13 year old boys believing that they do not, in fact, come across as a bunch of preternaturally short and hairless Neanderthals in blue blazers. This usually happens right after the religious bit is over, and in more traditional communities sometimes involves taking the festivities elsewhere so as not to break various bylaws of the hosting synagogue.

A friend of mine put it very nicely: Your average bar mitzvah is a way to announce that one is a man while sending the very clear message that one is still a kid.† I know that there will be no abolishing this mess. For many people, the party is the coming of age, and no amount of ranting or reasoning will change that. Even if it could, the kids would still want it. No, the party will stay until sociology sends it somewhere else.

Instead of declaring war on the bar mitzvah party, I propose that we push it up a month. This would work on the same logic as a bachelor party, but without the strippers††: A bash before finally settling down. With the social pressures and financial struggles of the conspicuous 12.92nd birthday celebration out of the way, the synagogue service could stand on its own without having to compete for attention. That month could be spent on a sort of light contemplation. (I won't ask too much; I may be a stodgy, overzealous critic, but I know what it means to be 12.) Maybe we could start a tradition of taking that time to write a list of things one will do differently upon reaching adulthood, in consultation with clergy and/or one's parents. Wouldn't that be nice?

I look forward to any obsequiety (or criticism) you may wish to offer.

* Hebrew: "a light unto the nations." See chapter 60 of Isaiah for context.
** Useful if you ever need a lame and/or weird insult devoid of profanity.
*** I also had many more male than female friends at the age when one attends a lot of these things, and I did not have many male friends who had many female friends, so I happen to know more about the boy-heavy parties than the other kind. On those recent occasions when I've encountered the other sort of party, my first reaction has been to think that I, as a grown man, ought to be arrested for seeing 12 year old girls dressed that way.
**** That is, the next Monday, Thursday, Saturday or holiday, on which days there is a public Torah reading.
† Said friend shall remain anonymous unless she chooses not to do so.
†† I have to wonder if the difference would be observable. See ***.

Fall Comeback Special

2005-08-30T10:20:00.000-04:00

After a long summer hiatus, The Hazzn's Tish will resume irregular postings once my home Internet access is set up.

That is all.

A letter

2005-05-19T02:43:00.000-04:00

Just sent to the Los Angeles Times. It's a bit long to be published, but hopefully it will encourage them to check their facts more carefully.

To the editors,

Having read and reread his article "Why the Gaza Pullout Matters," [11 May 2005] I cannot help but be concerned by some of David Miller's contentions regarding the legal status of Israel's Arab citizens.

Mr. Miller describes Israeli Arabs as having no access to "military or national service." I assume he meant to write that they are not actively recruited into national service, which would have been mostly true. (At the request of their own community, young Druze men are conscripted into the Israeli Defense Forces.) Many Arab citizens — especially within the Bedu population — volunteer to serve. I vividly remember hearing of a Hamas attack in Gaza some years ago in which four Israeli soldiers died defending their base. All four were Arabs, and all four were Muslims.

Rather more curious is Miller's invocation of the state of African Americans in the 1950s in order to describe Israeli Arabs' plight. It is indeed a sad fact that this community receives inadequate funding from the government. Its constituents face pervasive social discrimination, even as they are granted the same theoretical rights as all other citizens. Many of them — especially young men — are easily profiled as threats, and are often treated accordingly. Be advised, Mr. Miller, that there is no need to look back half a century. This is the state of African Americans today.

Yours,
Lawrence ________
West Jerusalem, Israel

Papa Ioannes Paulus Secundus, Episcopus Romanus

2005-04-03T11:22:00.000-04:00

Every year, Beloit College assembles a "Mindset List" to get its faculty in touch with the incoming freshman class. In describing the world as seen by the class of 2008, the list notes that:

2. Desi Arnaz, Orson Welles, Roy Orbison, Ted Bundy, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Cary Grant have always been dead.

17. There has always been a Comedy Channel.

32. Network television has always struggled to keep up with cable.

47. Castro has always been an aging politician in a suit.

I feel that, from the time the enterprise began, they might as well have included "The Pope has always been Polish." I doubt I have anything original to say about the life or death of Karol Wojtyła, called John Paul II in his final 26 years. Still, I'll say something, if only for myself.

He may be remembered by young Americans as an ill man who, unable to carry out the full duties of his office, was forced to delegate to unqualified subordinates the task of dealing with a sexual abuse scandal. As age and frailty set in — leading one priest to describe him as "a soul pulling a body" — it became easy for most of us to forget the vibrancy and genius that characterized his youth and middle age. He was a skilled and enthusiastic athlete, a talented actor, and a shrewdly subversive political agitator who had the chutzpah to co-found an underground Polish theatre under Nazi occupation.

He possessed two doctoral degrees, and was the first Pope to discuss modern philosophy in its own terms. He was also the first Pope to send or receive an e-mail*, to visit the Synagogue of Rome, or to visit any country with an Orthodox Christian majority since the Great Schism. He was not the first to visit New York — my home — but he was the first to address the Spanish-speaking majority of New York's Catholics in their own language.

He held little actual power over men or nations, but he knew the limits of power, and the potential strength of authority. When he met with General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the totalitarian dictator and military commander of communist Poland — and, presumably, a staunch atheist —it was the soldier's hands that shook, not the priest's.

He was the victim of an attempted assassination in 1981 who, in 1983, visited the assassin in prison and forgave him face to face. He had a great fondness for the Virgin Mary, and is criticized for not taking initiative to expand the roles of women in the Church. He encouraged Christians to examine their role in the Holocaust, but stopped short of criticizing his predecessor's conduct during the Second World War. His frequent travel and media savvy led the Church into modernity while he tightened formalized the Church hierarchy in ways that many found restrictive. He established full diplomatic relations with Israel and recognized Judaism as a legitimate religion in its own right, and still maintained that all salvation stems directly from Christ.

For all the visitors and well-wishers, I can only imagine that his death was a lonely one. As for many men in power, his life was dominated by his position. As a priest, he had no family, and his burial will be not in a private plot but beneath the place he worked, under the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. Instead of a grandfather, he will lie with Pope Pious XII; instead of a father, John XXIII.

* His address: john_paul_ii@vatican.va.

On cranial attire

2005-03-31T08:11:00.000-05:00

Two nights ago I found myself talking with a classmate about the issue of women and kippot. More particularly, we were discussing her personal discomfort with wearing said Israelite beanies,* which she has lately worn while serving as sha"z due to what she perceives as the community's insistence.**

We were joined after a short while by a yeshiva student who felt that head coverings ought to be required of all women in egalitarian synagogues. He was answered with the idea that it might not be a halakhah that applies to women, but countered that a non-Jewish man who walks into a traditional shul is offered a kippah and is expected to wear it. As such, he reasoned, the issue is clearly not one of ritual halakhah, which non-Jews are not bound to follow.

I was only able to raise a question for discussion before I had to leave: Is it beyond the pale for self-described Egalitarian Jews to consider that there may yet be halakhic differences between men and women?

To clarify: To the extent that the Shulhan Arukh represents a model for unchanging observance — a matter not to be discussed just now — men's head coverings are indeed mandated by halakhah. The difference between that and tefillin, to pick an example, is that there is no scriptural or ritual basis for the practice. So far as I can tell, the halakhah serves roughly the same function as the prohibition against spitting at the dinner table.*** It has, for quite a few centuries and in quite a few places, been the way in which Jewish men conducted themselves respectfully.

Back to women: Should the halakhic field be utterly leveled, with women and men given identical responsibilities?

Women are exempt, we learn, from a few negative commandments of the Torah. One is the prohibition against "rounding" the corners of one's beard.† Women are not bound by this mitzvah for the simple reason that women do not have beards (Women who do have significant amounts of facial hair are nonetheless categorically exempted.) Logically, if we are to render identical women's and men's obligations, this ought to be overturned.

I raise that particular halakhah for three reasons: (1) It doesn't strike me as likely to catch on as a major point of feminist rhetoric; (2) it resembles the kippah issue in that it is a prohibition††; (3) its origin is biblical. If rabbinic injunctions prohibiting certain behaviors by men must be taken up by women, then kal vahomer biblical statutes must be followed.

If you feel that this is a perfectly reasonable course of legislation, best of luck to you. If not — if, perhaps, you find that it's getting a little silly — then you might agree that requiring a woman to cover her head with a kippah or anything else has more to do with sociology than with religious law. That's why I prefer to view the whole thing as a matter of kavod hazzibbur, and therefore to let individual congregations decide.

* She also has concerns with other sorts of hats, but for unrelated reasons.

** This community insists upon many things, some of which contradict others, but there is definitely a contingent that wants all shelihei zibbur to have covered heads, regardless of gender.

*** I don't have a Mishnah Berurah just here with me, but this one can be found in the Makor Hayyim 74:3.

† Lev. 19:27. This is understood to mean cutting certain parts of one's beard down to the skin with a blade.

†† Head coverings are mandated for men in a negative form: one should not say a berakhah bareheaded, etc.

Technical note

2005-02-03T11:34:00.000-05:00

If you happen to be reading this weblog via a syndicated feed (such as the Live Journal account "hazznstish"), please be sure to respond to posts at the original site. I do not receive e-mail notifications of comments to syndicated mirrors, and I am disinclined to check manually.

Egalitarianism (Postscript)

2005-02-03T11:30:00.000-05:00

The public has spoken: it is offensive to distinguish between kohanim and b'not kohen. As of this coming Monday, a person of priestly lineage honored with the first `aliyyah will be called simply by "ya`amod / ta`amod [name]." "Kohen q'rav" and "bat kohen qirvi" are to be disused.

Sigh.

A topical confession

2005-01-26T12:42:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone. My name is Lawrence, and for the life of me, I can't understand gender politics.

This has been fermenting in my brain (yuck) for a few weeks already, and Elf's recent response to the controversy surrounding Lawrence Summers's alleged comments at a Harvard conference has given me what should be sufficient motivation to finish another little essay.

A rather significant portion of my energy as a gabbai goes toward assigning `aliyyot* on Mondays and Thursdays. The process is simple enough: hand the prospective `oleh** a little wooden card with a Hebrew word written on it, check to make sure that this is cool for all parties involved, and move on. The only truly complicated bit is making sure that people get their fair share of `aliyyot. I mustn't automatically gravitate toward close friends, and I need to walk the length of the room***.

Except that there's another complication, of course. I study at one of the world's few egalitarian† yeshivot, and some of my fellow students are, for reasons unknown to me, rather insecure with regard to the stability of egalitarian philosophy. There seems to be a pervasive notion that if an equal number of men and women do not participate in the service today then the disparity will grow tomorrow and the day after, until finally we divide the building in two and call the smaller portion a seminary††.

The crazy thing is that people insist on this standard in an environment that is roughly 70% male. In the pursuit of this particular definition of equality, it is not unheard of for every woman in the room to be given some part in the service, only to be followed by grumbling that more men participated than women. I cannot remember the last Torah reading day in which women were not overrepresented — at least with reference to the number of them in the room — among the potential ten participants. (There is also an insistence upon appointing both a female and a male gabbai, which may get complicated in the next few months as candidates are exhausted.)

When I mentioned the issue of intrayeshival demography to one of my fellow students, the response was a bitter "Yeah, and we're supposedly egalitarian." I can only assume that this was meant to be a comment on the yeshiva's admission policies — a criticism suggesting that there is a guiding force behind the 70:30 ratio. This is true, of course, and here it is: fewer women apply to come here. What's more, four of our female students are here primarily because their husbands are JTS or UJ students in the midst of their year in Israel†††. (Why such a discrepancy exists is a subject worthy of examination, but it has to be recognized first.)

I've heard a great deal of discussion about how important this matter is, and how we have to show that we are egalitarian. Apparently, the sign on the door reading "Welcome to the Conservative Yeshiva" is not a sufficient reminder.

*More properly, birkot `aliyyah, or blessings of the `aliyyah. An `aliyyah is the reading of a passage from the Torah, of which there are three on ordinary Mondays and Thursdays. Being asked to recite the berakhot before and after one of the readings is considered to be an honor.

**Person who recites the berakhah. `Oleh is the masculine and general form, `olah being female-specific.

***I tend to stand in the back during services, and there's a tendency to give out `aliyyot to people in the neighborhood.

†In this case, "egalitarian" means that men and women have, with one exception about which I may post at some later point, equal opportunities in prayer, Torah reading and study.

††"Seminary" has come to be used by the English-speaking orthodox Jewish community to refer to a school of religious studies for women, as opposed to the term "yeshiva," which tends to be reserved for men's schools. It goes without saying in most circles that seminaries do not offer the same educational opportunities as yeshivot.

†††We do have one male student who is here because his wife is a UJ rabbinical candidate.

New K'nesset proposal . . .

2005-01-20T08:51:00.000-05:00

It's an interesting idea. I'll have to follow this one. Thanks to Yanata, from whom I lifted the text.

One of Israel's top fashion photographers has seen enough skinny bodies, and he's determined to do something about it.

In an age when young women are starving themselves in the name of beauty, Adi Barkan, well-known Israeli fashion photographer and owner of the Barkan Modeling Agency in Tel Aviv, together with Knesset member Inbal Gavrieli, have decided to fight the trend.

They've introduced a bill to the Knesset requiring that models undergo health examinations, and have their BMI (body mass index) checked before entering the modeling profession. It's apparently the first bill of its kind in the world.

Beyond the glamour and glitz of the modeling industry lies a darker side. All around the world, scores of young women longing to be the next top model starve themselves, believing that they need to be unnaturally skinny in order to succeed in this world.

While the American modeling industry is grappling with this problem, Barkan hopes, through his campaign, to stem the rise of profession-related illnesses and deal a blow to the 'skinny' culture that permeates the Israeli fashion world.

"Up until now, anorexia and bulimia have been the modeling world's dirty little secret," Barkan told ISRAEL21c. "We in this industry have perpetuated and even glorified eating disorders by celebrating thinness and packaging malnutrition in such an attractive way, that young women everywhere aspire to have 'the look.' It is time that this industry comes clean about this dangerous problem and shows the world that beauty and high fashion do not equal starvation."

The paradox is that Barkan himself used to strictly follow the 'skinnier the better' school of modeling photography.

"Obviously I'm part of it," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently. "But those were the days when Calvin Klein extended the contract of super-skinny model Kate Moss and everyone was following the so-called heroin-chic style."

The proposed law would require all potential models to submit to a nutritional test with a licensed nutritionist or dietician. Agencies would be forbidden to represent a model without a copy of the test results. Subsequently, the agency would not be allowed to continue representing the model unless she submits to the test every six months. Any agency that does not comply will be fined accordingly and all forms will be monitored by the Health Ministry.

Barkan has been working on this initiative for over two years and has managed to garner the support of many of Israel's top CEOs, persuading them to sign a contract agreeing not to hire models with a BMI of less than 19. Barkan has received commitments from Strauss-Elite, one of Israel's largest food industries; Castro fashion house; Bank Hapoalim; Partner cell phones and others.

He's also contacted dozens of fashion houses in Israel asking them to join him in the anti-anorexia campaign and sign affidavits pledging that they won't use models below a certain weight. The Israeli Health Ministry has given its blessing to the campaign, as have school principals who have asked Barkan to speak to their students to pass on the message that the days of 'thin is beautiful' are over.

According to statistics provided by the Health Ministry, seven percent of all adolescent girls in Israel display signs of an eating disorder. Based on interviews that Barkan has conducted with thousands of young aspiring models and the assistance of a certified nutritionist, he believes that 13.7 percent of these young girls are suffering from an eating disorder.

In advance of the first reading of the bill in the Knesset, a large scale television campaign, produced pro bono by the Tel Aviv-based advertising agency Reuveni Pridan, will be launched. It features a public service commercial focusing on body image and eating disorders.

The commercial will portray four adolescent models in succession - each one thinner than the last. A voice-over introduces each model, stating that none of them is happy with her weight, and that each one wants to be as thin as the next girl. The fourth young woman shown, also thinking she's 'too fat,' is visibly wasting away from anorexia.

Israel's major television channels have each donated over a million dollars in air time to broadcast the commercial beginning in mid-February. The public service slogan is called 'Nothing is Worth This.'

Its goal is to increase awareness among parents and adolescents, demonstrate how to recognize the symptoms and how to help those who have eating disorders. Barkan said that an additional purpose is to raise awareness among young girls that there is a distinction between looking good and being obsessive about one's weight.

Participating in the commercial is Shiran Shaul, an 18-year-old model from Haifa, discovered on the street by Barkan. She supports the bill wholeheartedly.

"I don't mind that I'll have to go to a dietician every six months. If I am eating the way I should be eating, then there shouldn't be any problems," she told ISRAEL21c.

Shaul doesn't suffer from an eating disorder but is participating in the campaign because she believes in showing other girls that they don't have to be anorexic if they want to be a model. Shaul hopes that the campaign will reach beyond the border of Israel.

"I think it will be difficult, but there is potential. With hard work, I think that there is a chance. We need to bring people to the point of realizing that this is the right thing to do."

Unfortunately, the production of the commercial, which was to be filmed last week, had to be postponed due to the hospitalization of one of the participants who is currently being treated for anorexia.

"We need to hold a mirror up to these teenage girls so that they can see the damage they are doing to themselves," said Knesset member Gavrieli. "That mirror starts with this television campaign, but continues with positive body images reflected in magazines, on billboards and on runways.

"The welcome initiative relates to the world of modeling, but we hope it will assist us in reaching all society. The law's aim is to create a new image of beauty - an image that includes beauty and health in one word."

Harry Rubenstein is Associate Director, Youth Media, of ISRAEL21c.

Solved

2004-12-15T15:36:00.000-05:00

Seems that they borrowed from R' Amram Gaon's siddur. I suppose I should have read the introductory sections of the book before complaining about it.

Ah well.

Siddur variations

2004-12-13T09:52:00.000-05:00

During Hanukkah, a paragraph is added to the `amidah and to birkat hamazon, beginning with the words `al hanissim, by which it is generally known. (A similar paragraph, with an identical introduction, is added on Purim.)

The opening line I've always known translates to something like this:

[We gratefully acknowledge you] for the miracles, the deliverance, the mighty acts, the salvations, and the victories in battle that you granted to our ancestors in those days at this season.

The boldfaced section, in Hebrew, reads בימים ההם בזמן הזה. Now, זמן is a tricky word, and closely matches the German Zeit in its dual meaning of "time" and "season." Just keep that in mind for a moment.

Siddur Sim Shalom, the standard siddur of the American Conservative movement, contains a slight variation in the text: בימים ההם ובזמן הזה. The siddur translates the segment — not totally inaccurately — as ". . . in other days, and in our time."

Which changes the meaning completely.

Has anyone else seen the additional ו in a siddur not published by the USCJ? If it's one of their innovations, why might they have changed it?

It's funny . . .

2004-12-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

I have a way of coming up with ideas that would greatly benefit causes I don't support. The most extreme example of late has been the realization that, if I were a member of al-Qa`ida, I know exactly what I would do to New York City. (No, I'm not putting it in print. I'm pretty sure they got the idea for the 9/11 attacks from previously published material.)

Anyway, if I were in the Rebuild the Temple Right Now camp, I think I could put together a killer ad campaign centered around the last line of the first stanza of Ma`oz Tzur, a song for which Israelis, and Jews in general, hold near-universal affection. The line reads אז אגמור בשיר מזמור חנוכת המזבח — "then shall I complete, with a musical psalm [probably Psalm 30], the dedication of the [sacrificial] alter."

Now I just have to hope that they don't read this.

Ain't it grand?

2004-12-08T06:01:00.000-05:00

Monounsaturated fats, such as canola and olive oil, have been shown to increase HDL (good cholesterol) levels while decreasing those of LDL (bad cholesterol).

Just thought I'd make it a happier Hanukkah.

(The bad news is that all fats have lots of calories. Oh well.)

Brought up by the goings-on of my other blog

2004-12-01T02:41:00.000-05:00

A few questions:

In communities in which people prefer to be called to Torah honors as [name] ben/bat [father's name] v'[mother's name], how is the (still prevalent) custom of using only the mother's name in a mi sheberakh l'holim* explained?

In such communities, why are women consistently sought after to light shabbat candles in the synagogue, especially in light of the fact that men and women are equally obligated under orthodox halakhah?

Why, in these communities, is the shekhinah** generally described as a feminine aspect of God, while in all other cases God is described as gender-neutral?

Discuss.

*Traditional prayer for healing, usually associated with Torah reading.
**Literally, the presence of God. In qabbalist philosophy, the shekhinah takes on certain qualities of an independent entity.

Better late than never

2004-11-18T11:05:00.000-05:00

The news is old, yes, but I'm glad to see Mahmoud Abbas as the new PLO chairman. I'm less glad that someone's already tried to kill him.

Ah well.

This is just to say . . .

2004-11-11T11:27:00.000-05:00

. . . grow up, people.

Look, I know Arafat was evil. I know how many innocent people died because of him. I know that he was a slimeball when it came to political dealings — and I have very high standards when it comes to slime in politics. I know he embezzled millions of dollars — billions, according to some reports — from aid that was meant to build schools and feed starving people in Yesh"a. I feel no pain whatsoever at his passing, and part of me honestly wanted to smile when I read the New York Times' banner headline.

But it's still problematic for people to have public parties in honor of his death, particularly in light of our contention that he had ceased to be relevant anyway. I was still embarrassed this morning when people brought cookies to ulpan to celebrate. And the situation here is still dangerous and volatile — possibly more so than before.

The Palestinian power structure is very unstable right now, as is often the case when a dictator falls. Are we really being responsible by gloating at them? Do try to remember that this intifadeh began not as a response to an Israeli targeted killing, but as a (massive) overreaction to an Israeli insult to Palestinian sovereignty.

Though reports are denied . . .

2004-11-04T14:32:00.000-05:00

. . . I have to wonder what will happen when Arafat comes to be verifiably dead.

He hasn't transferred any of his powers, and I don't think there's a system by which they would fall automatically on someone else. Ahmed Qurei and Mahmud Abbas (a.k.a. Abu Mazen) both want in. Will a Palestinian succession dispute add more problems to this mess?

Or are his powers null and void in the first place?

Public Service Announcement

2004-10-31T14:19:00.000-05:00

The Hebrew word for "practice" or "custom" is minhag. The H is just an H. If you say "minhag, you are speaking gibberish.

This has been an announcement d'hazzanan. Feel free to shout it from the rooftops.

Technical update

2004-10-12T03:02:00.000-04:00

Anonymous comments are now enabled. You can go ahead and delete the accounts I forced you to create, if you like.

M'rahsh'wan matok!

2004-10-11T14:43:00.000-04:00

In honor of the coming Rosh Hodesh (Friday and Saturday), here's some light reading by Rabbi Ari Z. Zivotofsky, Ph.D.

(Rav Zivotofsky's column, Legal-Ease, is devoted to "researching commonly-held beliefs," which seems to be a polite way of saying "Jewish stuff that just about everyone gets wrong.")

In which a blog accounts for itself, Part I

2004-09-21T14:49:00.000-04:00

I figure it's as good a time as any to address the name I chose for this weblog. There's a good chance my readers already know, but I look forward to the day when people will discover this site who aren't actually friends of mine. Then maybe they'll check the archives.

The Hebrew words for bridegroom and cantor are, respectively, hatan and hazzan. (Terminal emphasis in both cases.) The Yiddish pronunciations of these two are chassn and chazzn. (Both sometimes spelled without the C; both with primary emphasis.)

At Ashkenazi Jewish weddings, it's a custom to have a chassns tish, or bridegroom's table, at which various marital contracts are signed and much merriment is imposed upon the husband to be.

So it's a pun, you see.

Q: What's a cantor?
A: In a Jewish context, a cantor is the public prayer leader in a synagogue service. Cantors also tend to be charged with whatever musical education a synagogue wishes to impart upon its congregants. I'm currently training for the job.

Q: Why do you spell it tish? Yiddish is a German dialect, so wouldn't tisch be more appropriate?
A: If we were working with true German, yes. But one does not typically write Yiddish using the Latin alphabet, and there are no widely accepted conventions for doing so. In any case, the solid and efficient German orthographic system would rather closely resemble a load of overcooked spaghetti squash after just one encounter with a voiced sibilant spelled out as a double-Z, and I see no need to be the agent of metamorphosis.

Twice and Thrice a Year

2004-09-20T12:40:00.000-04:00

The Yamim Nora'im* present a lot of difficulties. The obvious ones include planning and preparing lots of meals (for one holiday, anyway), going 25 hours without eating or drinking (for the other), and navigating a liturgy notable for its daunting length. I may deal with those in a future post, but probably post-facto, as there's much to do between now and September 25th.

Even more than they find the services to be too long, many people find them outright boring. If you've never had that experience, here's a demonstrative exercise:

Pick an alphabetically recorded language about which you know absolutely nothing. (Given our likely audience, Tamil should suffice. If not, old script Mongolian.)
Learn its orthographic system in full, but not so well that you can read at a natural pace.
Learn between five and twenty vocabulary words.
Get up early one morning and put on a suit (if male) or semiformal attire of your choice (if of another gender).
Locate an extremely patient speaker of the aforementioned language and ask him to chant words out of a complicated philosophical text while you follow along in your copy. He should occasionally switch to equally complicated poetry, of which he should sing the odd-numbered lines while leaving the even lines to you. He should instruct you to stand or be seated from time to time, but must never explain why you must do so. At least one standing period should be uncomfortably long, and the total duration should not be under four hours. (If you want to do it right, go for at least six.)

Done? Great. If all went well, what you've just endured is analogous to what most American Jews experience two to three times every fall, depending upon whether they attend a left-wing Reform synagogue (two days) or a Conservative or right-wing Reform synagogue (three days).

I could be smug about this, given that I personally find a great deal of meaning in the High Holiday mahzor†. In fact, I'm just nervous. Once I get a student pulpit, I'll be the one chanting gibberish for a well dressed audience. They will want me to make the ritual meaningful for them, and it's highly unlikely that many will accept their share of the burden by learning what the book says regarding kingship, sin, repentance and atonement.

I think I can manage as a shaliah tzibbur‡. My concern is that someone may ask me to be a magician.

*lit. "Days of Awe"; Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur**. Also called the "High Holidays."

**The name "Yom Kippur" makes very little sense. Literally, it means "a day of an atonement." More accurate would be "Yom Hakippurim" ("The Day of Atonements," the holiday's official but unpopular name) or "Yom Hakapparah***."

***Which could, in turn, be translated as "the day when distressed chickens get twirled around people's heads in a semi-magical rite." Which would be inaccurate, since that actually happens the day before.

†Prayer book composed for a specific Jewish festival.

‡lit. "congregational emissary." The public prayer leader.

A note to my faithful readers

2004-09-02T15:55:00.000-04:00

Like, both of them.

I've been slow to post of late. Yeshiva orientation has taken up most of my time, and I'll be away — up north, but not serious north — until Sunday.

As always, there are things going on here, most notably a pigua* in which 16 people, at last count, were murdered in Be'er Sheva. I have plenty to say, but I lack the time in which to say it.

Posts will hopefully become more regular once real classes start.

*lit. "hit" or "blow." Colloquially, a terrorist attack.

Ah, Politics!

2004-08-27T05:02:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd never broach the subject, didja?

Islamoyankee has noted some interesting phrases and promises in an article in the Forward by John Kerry. Part of me wants to see complexity and subtlety here, but I can't seem to find any.

I'm not sure what bothers me more: Kerry's unapologetic pandering — really, a governmental body devoted entirely to protecting the Jews? — or his promise to continue Bush's foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel.

I realize that Kerry's people are worried about the Jewish vote, which Democrats have historically carried without much effort. Their concern is not without reason. Bush is viewed by supporters and detractors alike as a friend of Israel, and as a detractor I must admit that he is. The President is an avowed Zionist, and I can't imagine him wishing any ill upon the Jewish State . . .

. . . which means what? I would trust him to visit, shake hands with the locals and maybe spend a few hundred sheqels* at Mahane Yehuda**. I'm not so sure about his ability to help bring stability to the region, let alone peace. The Palestinians aren't any better off for his efforts, and the Israelis are more comfortable only due to their own internationally condemned actions.

I will vote for John Kerry in the coming election. I believe that his domestic policy will be better than the current administration's, and his foreign policy no worse. I just wish I could get excited about him.

*Current exchange ~ 4.5 sheqels to the dollar.
**Jerusalem's shuk, or outdoor marketplace.

Just a little different

2004-08-22T09:39:00.000-04:00

I haven't really been hit by culture shock, but there are some things I can't help but notice:

Palestine used to have a terrible rat problem, which the British addressed by importing cats. Now Israel has a cat problem. We two, being newcomers, think that they're cute, especially the kittens. The natives aren't so fond of them. I guess it's a matter of perspective; pigeons aren't really a problem in New York, but people seem to have an automatic disdain for them. In any case, it's important to remember that the cats here are wild animals and that one should not attempt to pet them.
Toppings at the local Domino's analog include green olives, black olives, egg, sweet potato and shallots, and one can order wine with a pizza delivery.
Speaking of which, I've never seen so much kosher wine in one place as I do in any wine shop here. Every variety for which I could hope, along with some unusual quirks like 375 ml bottles of emerald Riesling, sold in four-packs. (Said Riesling comes complete with a very cheesy mini-booklet about romantic evenings for two. I can easily hear a friend of mine reciting it to the accompaniment of a popular film soundtrack. Needless to say, we bought one.)

On propaganda and education

2004-08-22T04:29:00.001-04:00

Over lunch last week, a friend told me about a disturbing incident that took place shortly before she made `aliyah*.

Her university was sponsoring a series of Israeli-Palestinian student dialogues in which she had decided to take part. The theme for one of the sessions was connection to the Land, and each participant was asked to bring in some sort of literature — a word used loosely in this case to mean text, art, or anything else — expressive of his or her connection. The panel saw photos of kibbutzim, Arabic poetry about al-Quds**, and such.

The problem arose when my friend presented her selections: Libi Bamizrach by Rabbi Yehudah Halevi (1085?-1140 C.E.) and Psalms 137:5-6 ("If I forget thee, O Jerusalem . . .") and provided dates to go with them. The Palestinian participants, as she tells it, just about bit her head off, saying that these texts were Zionist forgeries from the early 20th Century, and that Jews had no ancient history in Palestine.

I can understand not having heard of R. Yehudah, but the book of Psalms? There are plenty of arguments that the Hebrew Bible is not as old as it claims to be, but the latest date of redaction that I've heard proposed (until now) was some time in the 2nd Century C.E.. (Perhaps Elf can lend me a hand there.)

I'm not really sure how anyone can be kept this ignorant at an American university, particularly when the subject of ignorance is fairly important to one's own religion. (As I understand it, Islam considers the Bible to be a flawed but important secondary scripture.) What's really scary is that, as my friend pointed out, these are the people who decided to come to the dialogue. Imagine what's going on in the heads of the people who didn't.

* lit. "ascent." Colloquially, to make `aliyah is to emmigrate to Israel.
** Arabic name for Jerusalem. Roughly "the Holy Place."

From the inside

2004-08-18T18:13:00.000-04:00

Since we're nearly settled into our new home (we're only now kashering the dishes), I thought this might be a good time to address some things that have been going through my mind since arriving in Israel.

It is thoroughly disconcerting to find myself passing by — and occasionally eating in — institutions that have been hit by terrorist attacks. To someone like me who has followed news about the matzav* closely, these restaurants and cafés have an almost mythically disastrous air about them, like Kishinev, or the sky above Nagodoches county. Imagined visages of destruction didn't prepare me for the feel of this city during peacetime, nor for something as simple as the leek and mushroom quiche at Café Hillel.
News reports in the States somehow manage never to give the impression that Israel is a multi-ethnic society, nor that most of the time people get along fairly well. That is to say that for all the different clothing styles, behaviors, customs, languages and skin colors ("Yes, Virginia, there are black Israelis"), the worst most people seem to do is ignore whomever they don't like. Anyone who thinks America is a safer place than Israel should compare hate crime stats sometime.
It takes surprisingly little time to get used to seeing young people with machine guns everywhere.
I haven't had a single bite of truly disappointing food since I got here. Really. I know it's there to be had, what with the kosher McDonald's and Burger King franchises, but the fact that I haven't accidentally come across something unappetizing without seeking it out gives me real hope for this country.
Israel does need a little extra hope, because the smoking problem here is almost unbearable. The most exciting thing about having set up a home Internet connection (this morning!) is that I no longer have to come home smelling like smoke, which is what happens when one sits in an Israeli Internet café for thirty minutes.

*lit. "situation"; colloqually, the current Arab-Israeli violence

Here goes nothing

2004-08-06T13:39:00.000-04:00

In honor of my upcoming departure for Israel — and in recognition of the mishmash of personal and public thought that is my LJ blog — I've decided to take the leap and go dual. LJ will see only personal issues (such as my really liking my wife and wanting to talk about it), whilst this site will deal with more public-spirited thoughts.