SDO is GO: Is the Sun Getting Brighter?

SDO is GO: Is the Sun Getting Brighter?

Jubilation - July 2013

THE JUBILATION OF INFORMED AND PASSIONATE DAVENING

 

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Lord be Praised!

 

Envision a tent filled with throngs of the faithful. Seats and benches full of holy rollers. People ecstatic with, overcome by, pure joy in communion with their Creator. In American lore, it's called a revival meeting.  That's what one attendee at the 2013 FJMC convention said to me. He likened it to the experience of evangelical communities with leaders like Billy Graham.

 

I've got news. Jews were there first. Echoes of the past remain. The children of Israel danced at the Red Sea.  Our psalms refer to the joy of timbrels, harps, and to the power of thousands whogathered for sacrifices at the Temple for the shelosh regalim, the three pilgrimage festivals.

 

Then came the Baal Shem Tov and another revival of joyous reunion and celebration.  Scroll forward another 200 years. Where is this kind of spirituality and God-embrace found? In Jerusalem, thousands gather at the Kotel for Simchat Torah. Here in the Diaspora, there are places like Congregation B'nai Jeshurun on the Upper West Side of New York City.

 

And then there is FJMC. Every two years, the faithful brothers get together in one place for a week of living our mission, involving US in Jewish life. One of the hallmarks of these meetings is inspired ritual experience. There's one word for it. Ruach. Divine inspiration, the divine wind which fills the sails.

 

But if that does not resonate, think of it as the jubilation of informed and passionate davening.

 

The first experience is FJMC-style bensching, giving thanks after meals with a rousing BirkatHaMazon. On Wednesday July 24, Burt Fischman (aka Captain Ruach) led 500 of us singing at the top of our lungs, waving "ruach rags" and standing on chairs in celebration.  The fun was repeated, at every meal, for the next four days.  We gave thanks and we kept on giving.

 

Then comes davening. Every service with a Shaliach Tzibbur drawn from lay leadership. Hundreds of men singing in unison, filling the room with their voices, hearing and feeling each other in tefillah. Every service concluding with Aleinu.  The last two words, Shemo Echad, sung in natural harmony without any musical instruction or direction. Everyone just knows. The notes are drawn out. No one wants it to end.

 

Shabbat arrives on Friday. The music and dancing of Kabbalat Shabbat are overpowering. Many dance in the aisles. My feet are sore, my voice is hoarse afterwards. The next morning, we all share in davening, aliyot and leyning.  At one point, I experienced the physical presence of God.  At several times, I was moved to tears.  Such is the power of informed and passionate davening.

 

It is virtually impossible to encapsulate this experience with written words. But thanks to the magic of smart phone cameras, much has been captured for YouTube.  Take a look at the videos, being put up through Facebook and other social media.

 

To those who live in the normal synagogue world, FJMC joy may appear to be incomprehensible. How can people lose their rationality and become engulfed in spirituality?  And that is EXACTLY the point. It can and does happen, inside the FJMC kehilla known as convention.

 

This experience marks the divide between the chol and the kadosh, between the normal and the holy. Experience a Havdallah with FJMC men at our convention, or at one of our retreats - and anyone will come to appreciate how hard it is to let go and depart from the holy.

 

Every seven days, we get our chance. So the next time you have the chance to join in, to share, an FJMC Shabbat - grab it and hang on. It is a ride inspired by men who have come before you, all the way back to the patriarchs of blessed memory.  Hinei MaTov u'Manayim, SHEVAT ACHIM GAM YACHAD. Brothers being together.  That’s what it’s all about.  The joy of brotherhood.

Thunder and Lightning - July 2013

THUNDER AND LIGHTNING ON THE NORTH SHORE

 

 

It is early Monday morning, July 29.  The sun is trying to penetrate the foggy dawn.

 

Only 18 hours ago, an exodus of Jewish men left Danvers Massachusetts.  It was the end of FJMC’s 2013 International Convention.  After 15 years and seven of these conventions, I find myself again engulfed in the swirling mists of Jewish afterglow.

 

Three days ago, I had an unforgettable Shabbat experience.  There, amidst hundreds ofmen singing and dancing, the physical presence of God became manifest.  I felt the warmth, the touch, as close as my skin.  It enveloped me.  The connection was palpable.  Tears came.  God was right here.

 

Prayers and Pray-ers created a heart-felt chorus of davenners, singing in unison. The combination was irresistible.  As we raised our voices in prayer, words and music filledthe air until there was no room left for anything else.  And that’s when it happened.

 

That’s when I realized that we were acting out Kedushah, the angelic chorus.  That’s when I knew that the thunder and lightning at Sinai had come to the North Shore of the New England coast.  This was revelation.

 

This was every Jew in the room being present at Sinai.  This was the North Shore, transformed from the chol to the kadosh, from the mundane to the holy.  This was Klal Yisrael, all of us, all either living or dead, experiencing the gift of covenantal relationship.  This was knowing, seeing, feeling “Am Yisrael Chai”.

 

In the psalms of praise, Psukei d’Zimra, we recite Ashrei.  “Adonai is near to all who call, to all who call with integrity” (Ps. 145).  “I will praise Adonai all my life and sing to my God with all my being” (Ps. 146).  “Where the faithful gather, let God be praised…Let God’s faithful sing exultantly and rejoice both night and day” (Ps. 149).

 

This was FJMC International Convention.

 

742 days ago, the feelings were identical.  It was 15 Tammuz 5771.  Another, earlier convention had concluded in Costa Mesa California.  Jewish men’s hearts were full as they departed.  A Diaspora was beginning that would last another two years, until July2013.  It is always this way.

 

Two years ago, I likened the experience to a Jewish Brigadoon, that fabled Scottish village which re-awakens for only one day, once every 100 years.  Popularized in 1947 by two Jewish men (Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe), Brigadoon tells the story of a mystical experience which draws men out of their ordinary life.  It is a tale of separation and re-union.

 

Danvers was also a tale of two places.  Men came from communities all over the world.  They convened in a setting of magic, beauty and holiness.  Brothers dwelled together in unity for four days and nights of ruach, inspiration and spirituality.  The words of Hinei Ma Tov u’Manayim became real.

 

Bensching, saying grace, is a hallmark of these gatherings.  Over five hundred men and women sang Birkat HaMazon with abandon, waving their ruach rags, standing on chairs and giving joyous thanks.  Burt Fishman, aka Captain Ruach, inspired the crowd on Wednesday night.  And with the magic of modern technology, the joyous pandemonium was captured for YouTube.

 

As we approached Shabbat, the anticipation and expectation built.  Groups chanted “Shabbos, Shabbos, Shabbos is Near” in the hallways.  Kabbalat Shabbat exceeded all expectations, with hordes of us dancing in the aisles. Shabbat morning came, with three minyans from which to choose.  I attended the traditional service.

 

I had been honored with the Hamishi aliyah.  As I walked up on the bimah, Aren Horowitz came up to leyn Torah.  We’ve known each other for years, since I have family in Albuquerque NM.  We finished and then Al Davis took over as the next leyner.  I stood for a mishberach, and watched my NNJR friend read flawlessly.

 

Besides all the davening, there was just plain fun.  Buckets of it.  Karaoke on Wednesday night was capped off by the Mandell-Neustein chorus singing Hava Nagila.  Our Executive Director was caught on film, belting out “Under the Boardwalk”.  The International Kiddush Club reached new heights (?) with its Kiddu-shClub baseball jerseys and a giveaway that will make ripples at Saturday morning services across North America.

 

Jewish Men at the Crossroads was the theme at Convention.  A crossroads implies choice.  Go forward, turn right, turn left.  From the North Shore, from the place where thunder and lightning happened in the end of July, FJMC men will travel from a wilderness revelation back to their home communities.  Each one of us is part of the Or l’Goyim, transmitting the light of convention to our friends back home.

 

Shevat Achim Gam Yachad, Brothers Dwelling Together in Unity.  That’s the spirit of connection which makes FJMC so very special.   Ron Wolfson delivered a speech about relationship-based synagogue life.  FJMC men are the Halutzim, the pioneers, the shock troops, who are already leading the renaissance.

 

It is good to be a member of FJMC.  There are only about 720 days left before the mists clear and the next convention opens its gates.  I can’t wait.

Eric Weis

eweis@fjmc.org

7/30/2013

Anti-Semitism in Medinat HaGan

In the past three weeks, attacks have been made on three synagogues in Bergen County. This past weekend, the issue mushroomed into something different.  It is relevant to our Conservative community, to the Jewish Federation of Northern NJ (JFNNJ, a UJC community) and to the broader Jewish community in the northern half of our state.

On Friday January 6, the Jewish Standard published an editorial about community meetings over the three attacks.  The editorial concerned the involvement (or lack thereof) of the Orthodox community in response to these attacks, which have been aimed at three different streams of Judaism, whether by intent or just happenstance (Reconstructionist, Conservative and Orthodox).

The Standard has now been severely criticized by the Orthodox community.  A letter writing campaign against the Standard has been organized.  Apologies have been demanded.  One has already appeared on the Standard's website at:

http://www.jstandard.com/content/opinion/C8

While we do not have all the facts, here is what is known.

(1) After it was attacked, the synagogue in Hackensack (Temple Beth El) got advance publicity out about its community interfaith gathering.  According to the Rabbinic Council of Bergen County (RCBC), they did not know about the gathering - and therefore, no representative of RCBC or their community attended the event.

(2) The rabbinic community in the JFNNJ area is divided. Rabbi Randall Mark (Shomrei Torah - Wayne) is President of the North Jersey Board of Rabbis, NJBOR - which is an organization of "pluralistic" clergy leaders in this area.  The NJBOR and RCBC are mutually exclusive.

(3) Congregation Beth El was the place where Eric Weis' aunt, Alice Kunstler (z"l) celebrated her 100th birthday, at the same time that Beth El celebrated its 100th anniversary. That was four years ago.  It is a nice place. It is Conservative. It is part of our mishpucha. It needs our support.

(4) Rabbis from our pluralistic stream know about the attack on the Orthodox shul (K'hal Adath Jeshurun - Paramus) and have agreed to participate in a meeting on Thursday.  They have no hesitancy in objecting to - and acting on - what is obviously another anti-Semitic incident.

If you are a member of a Conservative congregation here in NJ, we ask you to do three things:

(A) Research the matter directly. Draw your own conclusions.

(B) If you agree that the Standard editorial is on target, spread the word about what has happened.

(C) Write to JFNNJ and the Standard in support of pluralism and unity.  Address information is presented below.

At a time when three synagogues in New Jersey have been recently attacked, all of us should find great discomfort in seeing Jews argue among themselves. Two of the three attacks were made on non-Orthodox synagogues.

The Jewish Standard is under fire for its stance against dis-unity. The truth may be painful, but it in the end, it will set us free.  The Standard and its editorial board deserve our support.

Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey

50 Eisenhower Drive
Paramus, New Jersey 07652
201-820-3900
Jason Shames x.210
Direct: 201-820-3910
Chief Executive Officer
Executive Vice President
JasonS@jfnnj.org

The Jewish Standard
New Jersey / Rockland Jewish Media Group
1086 Teaneck Road
Teaneck, NJ 07666
Phone (201) 837-8818
Fax (201) 833-4959

jstandardletters@gmail.com

Glatt Kosher and "La Vache Qui Rit"

Recently, an advertisement for glatt kosher meat products appeared in The Jewish Standard, a newspaper which serves the Jewish communities in parts of Bergen, Passaic and Union Counties here in the northern tip of New Jersey.  It's a prime market, if you want to reach a large Jewish readership.

The Standard caters to a diverse Jewish audience. Some of its readers observe the laws of kashrut, many don't and still others adhere to the laws of glatt kashrut that are enumerated in the books of the Sanhedrin.  NOT!  Without going into the gantze megillah, the word glatt has been extended from its original narrow meaning to include dairy products, food preparation and delivery - generally implying a higher standard of religious observance.

Our religion also demands compassion, chesed and gemilut hasadim (acts of loving kindness).  And that's why the ad caught my attention. I had a beef with a cartoon which features an upside down cow with a smile on its face. The cow's position is reminiscent of the way in which these animals are slaughtered - hanging from their legs, so as to allow blood to drain quickly.  This is supposed to be the most humane way to slaughter cows. Perhaps. Agriprocessors may now be old news, but the idea of Hecksher Tzedek, a moral kind of kashrut, should not be.

An image of a laughing cow, "La Vache Qui Rit", may be appropriate for the dairy industry.  Milking cows probably does not cause pain. But in the context of fleischig dining, I cannot stomach the idea of a cow smiling as it loses its life so that humans may eat.

If that's how glatt kosher is portrayed these days, this omnivore may be driven closer to adopting the practice of herbivores.  I can get my protein in other ways. 

Let's hope that this roast delivers a message to the advertiser and their customers. A cartoon can make a powerful statement.  If they wanted a ribbing, they got it. I won't be buying their products. Perhaps someone will make a change in their advertising, so that it becomes consonant with the Hecksher Tzedek.

B'tayavon!

The Folly of the Righteous Hochems

An article recently appeared in Tablet Magazine, a nationally published Jewish e-zine.  It was about tzedukah in Passaic New Jersey, of all places. It seems that beggars know a good place when they see one. The pickings are good in Passaic.

The author, Simon Feuerman, described the phenomenon of regular and frequent beggars who show up to receive tzedukah at his Passaic synagogue.  One of them, a seventh-generation Yerushalmi with the "visage of a holy man", said that he would be horrified to take money from someone who was not observant.  When asked about his children's future, he answered, "Ze lo bishvilanu la'avod" - "It is not for us to work".

My grandfather, Amram Yishai ben Reb Asher (z"l) spent most of his adult life in Passaic. So did his machatenum. So did his children. They were part of the wave of Jewish immigrants from Hungary who invaded the banks of the Passaic River in the late nineteenth century.

For over a century, they worked and built families and lives. They established a thriving community with many shuls. They supported their Rebbes, a few wonderful souls who ministered to the community and lived on only God knows what. Reb Asher Kollner and his descendants continued to tend to their flock, even into the 1970s.

These people, the original Jews of Passaic, would laugh and cry at today's world of beis midrash, the Yerushalmi and all those who depend on charity - the beggars.  The Jews who fled to these shores from the shtetls of Europe were both observant and hard working. They built the Jewish world we know today here in the American Diaspora.  They worked, they prayed and they gave tzedukah.  Their shuls were Orthodox. I can still remember sitting in the gallery upstairs as a very small child, with my grandmother. 

Today's Passaic Jewish world, one characterized as "frum" with Talmud Torah beis midrash and a hochem on every corner, is also now apparently filled with beggars who believe that religion and study exclude work and that tzedukah should come only from the observant.  This is a Jewish world turned upside down.  The sages worked.  So should these modern Jews.  And to refuse tzedukah because the giver is not observant (enough) - to obstruct the mitzvot of tzedukah - is this not antithetical Jewish thought? What has all this learning gained?  

If this is Orthodoxy, and if work is "not for us", then in 100 years will Passaic have a Jewish community at all?  Or will the flame die because the Orthodox have lost sight of our true tradition? Someone, please, remind these Orthodox that the world stands on three pillars. Those who rely only on one pillar are bound to topple. 

We are supposed to emulate God's attributes. Last time I checked, He labored for six days to create the world.  And, I can well remember, so too did my grandfather in his world.

LBJ All The Way - A Righteous Gentile

President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

The year was 1964. I can remember proudly supporting the LBJ/HHH ticket (I still have an old button hanging around somewhere with those initials on it). Seven years later, I was meeting with Edmund Muskie, a man who fit the same mold and unsuccessfully ran for President in 1972. He was derailed by Nixon's Dirty Tricks campaign, which was designed to eliminate the Democrat Party front runners. George McGovern became the Democrat Presidential candidate that year, and of course Nixon won the election by a landslide.  Despite all of these differences, it seems to me that all of these people would be aghast at what has become of Washington political theater these days.  Politics ain't what it used to be. And here is some more info about Lyndon Johnson.  He was honored in 2009 by the Jerusalem Conference. Here's an article published in the Jerusalem Post in September 2008. It's not fresh news, but it is good history to remember.

- Eric Weis, NNJR Honorary President

A few months ago, the Associated Press reported that newly released tapes from US president Lyndon Johnson's White House office showed LBJ's "personal and often emotional connection to Israel.” The news agency pointed out that during the Johnson presidency (1963-1969), "the United States became Israel’s chief diplomatic ally and primary arms supplier."

But the news report does little to reveal the full historical extent of Johnson's actions on behalf of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Most students of the Arab-Israeli conflict can identify Johnson as the president during the 1967 war. But few know about LBJ's actions to rescue hundreds of endangered Jews during the Holocaust - actions that could have thrown him out of Congress and into jail. Indeed, the title of "Righteous Gentile" is certainly appropriate in the case of the Texan, whose centennial year is being commemorated this year. Appropriately enough, the annual Jerusalem Conference announced this week that it will honor Johnson. Historians have revealed that Johnson, while serving as a young congressman in 1938 and 1939, arranged for visas to be supplied to Jews in Warsaw, and oversaw the apparently illegal immigration of hundreds of Jews through the port of Galveston, Texas.... A key resource for uncovering LBJ's pro-Jewish activity is the unpublished 1989 doctoral thesis by University of Texas student Louis Gomolak, "Prologue: LBJ's Foreign Affairs Background, 1908-1948.” Johnson's activities were confirmed by other historians in interviews with his wife, family members and political associates. Research into Johnson's personal history indicates that he inherited his concern for the Jewish people from his family. His aunt Jessie Johnson Hatcher, a major influence on LBJ, was a member of the Zionist Organization of America. According to Gomolak, Aunt Jessie had nurtured LBJ's commitment to befriending Jews for 50 years. As young boy, Lyndon watched his politically active grandfather "Big Sam" and father "Little Sam" seek clemency for Leo Frank, the Jewish victim of a blood libel in Atlanta Frank was lynched by a mob in 1915, and the Ku Klux Klan inTexas threatened to kill the Johnsons. The Johnsons later told friends that Lyndon's family hid in their cellar while his father and uncles stood guard with shotguns on their porch in case of KKK attacks. Johnson's speech writer later stated, "Johnson often cited Leo Frank's lynching as the source of his opposition to both anti-Semitism and isolationism." Already in 1934 - four years before Chamberlain's Munich sellout to Hitler - Johnson was keenly alert to the dangers of Nazism and presented a book of essays, 'Nazism: An Assault on Civilization', to the 21-year-old woman he was courting, Claudia Taylor - later known as "Lady Bird" Johnson. It was an incredible engagement present. Five days after taking office in 1937, LBJ broke with the "Dixiecrats" and supported an immigration bill that would naturalize illegal aliens, mostly Jews from Lithuania andPoland. In 1938, Johnson was told of a young Austrian Jewish musician who was about to be deported from the United States. With an element of subterfuge, LBJ sent him to the US Consulate in Havana to obtain a residency permit. Erich Leinsdorf, the world famous musician and conductor, credited LBJ for saving his live. That same year, LBJ warned Jewish friend, Jim Novy, that European Jews faced annihilation. "Get as many Jewish people as possible out of Germany and Poland," were Johnson's instructions. Somehow, Johnson provided him with a pile of signed immigration papers that were used to get 42 Jews out of Warsaw. But that wasn't enough. According to historian James M. Smallwood, Congressman Johnson used legal and sometimes illegal methods to smuggle "hundreds of Jews into Texas, using Galveston as the entry port.  Enough money could buy false passports and fake visas in Cuba, Mexico and other Latin American countries. Johnson smuggled boatloads and planeloads of Jews into Texas. He hid them in the Texas National Youth Administration. Johnson saved at least four or five hundred Jews, possibly more." During World War II Johnson joined Novy at a small Austin gathering to sell $65,000 in war bonds. According to Gomolak, Novy and Johnson then raised a very "substantial sum for arms for Jewish underground fighters in Palestine." One source cited by the historian reports that "Novy and Johnson had been secretly shipping heavy crates labeled 'Texas Grapefruit' - but containing arms - to Jewish underground 'freedom fighters' in Palestine." On June 4, 1945, Johnson visited Dachau. According to Smallwood, Lady Bird later recalled that when her husband returned home, "he was still shaken, stunned, terrorized, and bursting with an overpowering revulsion and incredulous horror at what he had seen." A decade later while serving in the Senate, Johnson blocked the Eisenhower administration's attempts to apply sanctions against Israel following the 1956 Sinai Campaign. "The indefatigable Johnson had never ceased pressure on the administration," wrote I.L. "Si" Kenen, the head of AIPAC at the time. As Senate majority leader, Johnson consistently blocked the anti-Israel initiatives of his fellow Democrat, William Fulbright, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Among Johnson's closest advisers during this period were several strong pro-Israel advocates, including Benjamin Cohen (who 30 years earlier was the liaison between Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis and Chaim Weizmann) and Abe Fortas, the legendary Washington "insider." Johnson's concern for the Jewish people continued through his presidency. Soon after taking office in the aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, Johnson told an Israeli diplomat, "You have lost a very great friend, but you have found a better one." Just one month after succeeding Kennedy, LBJ attended the December 1963 dedication of the Agudas Achim Synagogue in Austin. Novy opened the ceremony by saying to Johnson, "We can't thank him enough for all those Jews he got out of Germany during the days of Hitler." Lady Bird would later describe the day, according to Gomolak: "Person after person plucked at my sleeve and said, 'I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for him. He helped me get out.'" Lady Bird elaborated, "Jews had been woven into the warp and woof of all [Lyndon's] years." The prelude to the 1967 war was a terrifying period for Israel, with the US State Department led by the historically unfriendly Dean Rusk urging an evenhanded policy despite Arab threats and acts of aggression. Johnson held no such illusions. After the war he placed the blame firmly on Egypt: "If a single act of folly was more responsible for this explosion than any other, it was the arbitrary and dangerous announced decision [by Egypt that the Strait of Tiran would be closed to Israeli ships and Israeli-bound cargo]." Kennedy was the first president to approve the sale of defensive US weapons to Israel, specifically Hawk anti-aircraft missiles. But Johnson approved tanks and fighter jets, all vital after the 1967 war when France imposed a freeze on sales to Israel. Yehuda Avner recently described on these pages prime minister Levi Eshkol's successful appeal for these weapons on a visit to the LBJ ranch. Israel won the 1967 war, and Johnson worked to make sure it also won the peace. "I sure as hell want to be careful and not run out on little Israel," Johnson said in a March 1968 conversation with his ambassador to the United Nations, Arthur Goldberg, according to White House tapes recently released. Soon after the 1967 war, Soviet premier Aleksei Kosygin asked Johnson at the Glassboro Summit why the US supported Israel when there were 80 million Arabs and only three million Israelis. "Because it is a right thing to do," responded the straight-shooting Texan. The crafting of UN Resolution 242 in November 1967 was done under Johnson's scrutiny. The call for "secure and recognized boundaries" was critical. The American and British drafters of the resolution opposed Israel returning all the territories captured in the war. In September 1968, Johnson explained, "We are not the ones to say where other nations should draw lines between them that will assure each the greatest security. It is clear, however, that a return to the situation of 4 June 1967 will not bring peace. There must be secure and there must be recognized borders. Some such lines must be agreed to by the neighbors involved." Goldberg later noted, "Resolution 242 in no way refers to Jerusalem, and this omission was deliberate." This historic diplomacy was conducted under Johnson's stewardship, as Goldberg related in oral history to the Johnson Library. "I must say for Johnson," Goldberg stated. "He gave me great personal support." Robert David Johnson, a professor of history at Brooklyn College, recently wrote in The New York Sun, Johnson's policies stemmed more from personal concerns - his friendship with leading Zionists, his belief that America had a moral obligation to bolster Israeli security and his conception of Israel as a frontier land much like his home state of Texas. His personal concerns led him to intervene when he felt that the State or Defense departments had insufficiently appreciated Israel’s diplomatic or military needs." President Johnson firmly pointed American policy in a pro-Israel direction. In a historical context, the American emergency airlift to Israel in 1973, the constant diplomatic support, the economic and military assistance and the strategic bonds between the two countries can all be credited to the seeds planted by LBJ.