Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

I came across an interesting question that has sometimes been raised in Jewish history: Has the holiday of Tisha b’ Av, which recalls the destruction of the First and Second Temple outlived its usefulness? Historically, the Reform movement in the 19th century attempted to eliminate the observance of Tisha b’Av, but this was more because of nationalism than anything else. Jews throughout Europe began to view themselves as being “French” or “German” first before being “Jewish.” With the return of our people to Israel, could one logically argue that the biblical “exile” has officially come to an end? There is no nation–not even a country like Iran–who would prevent a Jew from moving to the Holy Land (of course, many refuse to do so–but this is because of financial reasons more than anything else).

More recently Anshel Pfeffer, a columnist of the Ha’aretz newspaper, argues that the fast of the 10th month would eventually come to an end, and with the other fast days[1], will become transformed into days of feasting and happiness (Zech 8:19).

Pfeffer writes:

“Changed attitudes by God and Israel prompted a question: What is the need for all these fasts? There was none. Instead of having fasts to remember all the bad moments in their history, God instructed them to have joyful feasts. In other words, the fasts were to be turned to feasts and occasions of joy. “The fast … shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore, love the truth and peace” (8:19). The horrors of the fall of Jerusalem, the burning of the Temple, and other calamities would drift into obscurity as joy flooded their hearts through the manifold mercies of the Lord . . . ”

One must ask: Have we in our own day realized this ancient biblical prophecy? Well, in a word: yes and no. The Jewish return to her ancestral homeland is indeed one of the most remarkable chapters of Jewish history–both ancient and modern–and logically one could make the case that Tisha’ B’Av has finally fulfilled its purpose. However, the fact remains that the Third Temple has not yet been built, and given the draconian attitude of the Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox and Hassidic leadership), one can safely conclude that the Third Temple will not be built any time in the near or distant future.

Exile is more than just a brute physical fact, it is a way of thinking; unfortunately, our spiritual healthiness today reflects a religious community that is at odds within itself. The recent attempt to delegitimize the Diaspora Jewish community only proves that there are many obstacles that prevent us from truly fulfilling the biblical passages cited above.  When Jews attack and destroy synagogues in Israel as the Haredi did earlier this year with the Intel building just because this gentile business remained open on Shabbat, we have a serious problem that all Jews must earnestly address.

Hurling stones on Shabbat in the holy city of Jerusalem reflects a spiritual disease of intolerance that is far deadlier to the Jewish people than all the missiles shot by the Palestinians in Gaza or from Lebanon. The Talmud (BT Gittin 55b-57a) describes how the zealots purposely burned the food silos rather than make a truce with the Romans, killing anyone who got in their way. When we watch how the Haredim are behaving in Israel today, joining forces with the Palestinians who wish to uproot the Jewish presence altogether, we must wonder whether we have sunk to a new historical low.  

How can we as a “chosen people” bear witness to our unique vocation when in reality, we are doing everything to rip our nation apart? The religious fanaticism that propelled our ancestors to fight against Rome ended in the destruction of our homeland. The real enemies of the Jewish people proved to be–not the Romans–but Jews who acted violently toward their own fellow Jewish citizens.

Rabbinic wisdom in the Talmud and subsequent texts explains how “sin’at hinnum” (gratuitous hatred) resulted in the exile of our people; the real question we must ask is: Have we learned any wisdom from the mistakes of our forbearers?

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Notes:

[1] Of course, one might ask: What other fast days was the prophet Zechariah referring to? Simply put, the fast of the fifth month marked the tragic destruction of the temple on the seventeenth day (2 Kgs 25:8). The other subsidiary events were included under the greater (cf. 8:19): the ninth day of the fourth month is recorded as the date when the city wall was breached (Jer. 39:2); the fast of the seventh month commemorated the murder of Gedaliah (2 Kgs 25:25; Jer. 41:1f.), and the tenth day of the tenth month marked the beginning of Nebuchadrezzar’s siege of the city (2 Kgs 25:1, 2; Jer. 39:1) These special days had become hallowed by observance for over sixty years

Hello everyone!

Here is a wonderful article I would encourage all of you to read and make your comments known to your representatives and congressmen. This year, it behooves every synagogue to make a grand celebration of Jerusalem. I would only add that after Israel liberated the holy city, King Hussein of Jordan sent the keys to Hadassah Hospital to its rightful owners–the Jews. In addition, Hadassah Hospital has always had a long tradition of serving both Israelis and Palestinians since the time of its inception.

What I find most disturbing is the fact that the Jewish members of the Obama cabinet have so little to say about our celebration of Jerusalem Day.

In case many of you have not noticed, the Obama Administration is making a clandestine effort to win the Jews over again since Obama has revealed his animus toward Israel. Prominent Jews like Elie Wiesel have been invited for dinner–but NOT Netanyahu! Now, another Jew is on the Supreme Court–Elana Kagan. In my opinion, this is yet another feeble attempt to win over more Jews to the next Obama run at the presidency. I pray we are not so foolish as to let ourselves get bribed by these calculated gestures of political expediency. Frankly, if I were an Asian American, I would be outraged that no Asian American has been chosen to serve on the Supreme Court.

CONTENTIONS

Barack Obama vs. Jerusalem Day
Jonathan Tobin – 05.12.2010

This was no ordinary Jerusalem Day celebrated in Israel today. This date on the Jewish calendar notes the anniversary of the unification of the city in 1967, when Israeli troops routed the Jordanian occupiers of the eastern, northern, and southern parts of the town, and of the Old City. In June 1967, the barriers that had divided Jerusalem since the 1949 armistice were torn down, and the Jewish people were reunited with their holiest places, from which they had been barred during that period. But while today’s ceremonies, displays, and parties were the usual mix of historic remembrance and recognition of contemporary achievements, there can be no denying the fact that a shadow hung over the festivities there as well as over the observances of the date elsewhere.

The problem is the knowledge that this is the first Jerusalem Day since President Barack Obama made it clear that a repartition of the city has become one of America’s priorities in the Middle East. Though no American government ever recognized Israel’s unification of Jerusalem or, indeed, even the fact that the city has been the country’s capital since 1949, Obama’s is the first administration to state explicitly that the Jewish presence in the parts of the city that the Jordanian occupiers vacated in 1967 is illegal and to actively oppose the building of Jewish housing even in existing Jewish neighborhoods in the city.

Though more than 200,000 Jews live in the eastern, northern, and southern sections of the city, which the media routinely incorrectly labels “East Jerusalem,” those Jewish neighborhoods there are, according to this administration, a violation of international law and an “insult” to America. U.S. diplomats have made it clear to the Israelis that any building that goes on in these neighborhoods of the capital is a “provocation” that is not only anathema to the United States but also a legitimate excuse for the Palestinian Authority to boycott the so-called proximity talks now going on (so named because Palestinian representatives will only allow themselves to communicate indirectly with Israeli negotiators rather than sit and speak directly with them). And though the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has  asserted that Israel will not be deterred from continuing to build the Jewish presence in the city, it is not exactly a secret that all such projects have been put on hold, in order to avoid escalating the tensions that are already apparent in the relationship with the White House. Continue Reading

Children have an unusual ability when it comes to confronting our spiritual hypocrisy as parents and as adults; very often they get to the essence of the problem as they perceive things. Frequently, as parents, we often fail to hear the questions our young people ask of us; often we overreact whenever we feel that our beliefs and values are being questioned or attacked. Rather than listening with an inner ear, as parents, we often react with harshness and anger.

Sometimes we wish our children were more respectful and compliant, or at least, “mind their place” at the Seder table and not misbehave or draw undue attention to themselves. As any Woody Allen fan certainly knows, passionate family discussions always have been a part of Jewish life since ancient times. Unanimity never has been the goal of any kind of discussion wherever you have two or more Jews together engaged in dialogue.

Passover is no exception to this rule.

During Passover, this thought finds expression in the question of the “Rasha” (better known to most of us as the “wicked child”). Without his presence and participation, the entire Seder would be a dull experience. Here is a literal translation of the controversial passage we read in the Passover Hagadah:

“The wicked child, what does that he say? ‘What is this service to you?’ Note the Torah says, to you, but not to him; because he has excluded himself from the community. He has denied a basic teaching of the faith. Therefore you shall smack his teeth and tell him, It is because of this that God wrought for me in my going out of Egypt (Exod. 13:8). . . . ‘For me--but not him. Had he been there, he would not have been redeemed.”

As a parent, I often have wondered how anyone could call their child “wicked.” The glaring meaning of “Rasha” is arguably offensive. If we are to choose a less offensive title, let us describe him or her as a “Wayward Child,” or perhaps more accurately a “Rebellious Child.”At any rate, our “Rasha” is a person who is a young person who stands perilously close to the edge of his/her Judaism. Without a proper pedagogical response, the “Rasha” may grow up  to disaffiliate as a Jew. So we wonder: Why does the “Rasha” strike such a visceral note? The anger of the father deserves special attention. Why does he get so upset? How could a simple question push a parent to act so violently at the family Seder? Clearly, the “Rasha” has touched a raw nerve in his father.

If my conjecture is correct, the “Rasha’s” question now begins to make more sense, for she/he may be a child who is dissatisfied with superficial answers. The father may love tradition, but he lacks the ability to articulate to his rebellious adolescent child what it means to be a Jew, especially in a modern age. Of all the children who are present at the Seder table, the “Rasha” is asking the best question of them all. Continue Reading

I came across another article about the high cost of Passover products. In Atlanta, a can of tuna costing $16.99, a $5 jar of jelly, and a $6 box of cereal . . . $24 for a box of matzah. The writer of the article quipped, “I felt like I was in a foreign country with rampant hyperinflation. Is this really in dollars? Maybe I’m supposed to convert the currency. . . . It seems we should add another question to the traditional four associated with Passover: Why is this food so darn expensive?” I guess the political photo-op has expended its shelf-life. That’s too bad.

Another friend writes from New York, “The concern I will share today is most definitely not a new one, but it is an issue that comes up every year, and we have yet to find an answer to this dilemma. Why in the world is Pesach food so expensive? The prices of Pesach food products are outrageous. These kosher-for-Passover items, from ketchup, to mayonnaise, to cakes, candies and dairy products are all so much more expensive than these foodstuffs are during the year. Is there any good reason that a box of a handful of chocolate leaves costs the kosher consumer over 7 dollars? Is there a good reason why a bottle of kosher l’Pesach ketchup cost over a dollar more than it does during the year? Why do I have to pay close to ten dollars for a box of sorry tasting kosher l’Pesach sponge cake? Why do we continue to allow food companies to fleece us – yes, fleece us – every year Pesach time?”

Oh, I could add to the stories from the Chicago area. A small package of cream cheese costs $6, a three pound kosher brisket 20% more, Houston, I think we have a problem here. Kosher slaughter houses are kosher for Passover all year round; they are not four star restaurants one could order a prime rib at. When the kosher companies like Streits, Manishegetz, and others charge such exorbitant sums, one must wonder for when kashrut businesses steal from the public, ask yourself an important but obvious question: Why should I rely upon their hechser (Kosher approval), if they are so darn unethical? Dear friends, the Kosher Emperor has no clothes. Another good friend of mine in New York told me that her family once spent $15,000 a week at a Passover certified hotel–where the food was rotten! I went to a once formerly 5 star restaurant where the food was fit for a Doggie Diner. Continue Reading

The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular…The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within—Mohandus Gandhi.

When Familiarity Breeds Contempt . . .

This past week or so, we heard a most remarkable statement from Vice President Biden that is a sobering reminder of the kind of animus the U.S. State Department has always maintained for the last several decades regarding Israel. Biden went on record sayng, “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace. . . .” Frankly, I don’t know why he didn’t blame George Bush.

When Biden was  asked by American and Israeli newspaper reporters to clarify his statement, guess what? Biden refused to elaborate on his earlier remarks. This was no surprise. The Obama administration did not want to polarize the Jewish community at the recent AIPAC convention. Obama fears the political repercussions. Obama has no love for the Jews, they are only a political means to a presidential end. The political opportunist extraordinaire Jesse Jackson warned that Obama would take care of Israel–and he was right.

Even some of my liberal Jewish friends are starting to wonder as they experience their first revelation of cognitive dissonance: Is this a way to treat a loyal ally?

Swing Your Partner Round and Round . . .

Permit me to draw a parallel to Biden’s behavior to a peculiar custom known in Jewish tradition as “Shlug Kaparas” (“swinging of the chickens”). Here is how the ritual goes. On the eve of Yom Kippur, Hasidic and other Orthodox men take a rooster, while women must take a hen. The person taking the rooster in the right hand then announces: “This is my exchange, this is my salvation, this is my atonement. This rooster shall go to its death, while I will enter and proceed to a good long life, and to peace.”

The tradition then prescribes that the “swinger” (this was the obvious meaning of the original term) revolves the chicken around his head. Some authorities say that this should be done three times others say once is sufficient. If you are an expecting mother, it is customary to use two chickens for atonement–one for the mother and one for the child. One last note:  The ritual demands that the chicken must be alive; a dead chicken will not atone for sins–only a live one will suffice.

If I did not know better, I would say that Biden seems to have been quite familiar with this ritual, but instead of using a live chicken, he decided to  use Israel instead. Abraham Foxman commented at a Jerusalem Post interview, [Biden's remark]  “smacks of blaming the Jews for everything . . .  This is probably one of the most serious charges that we have ever heard.” Of course Foxman is correct.

All this political fanfare begs the obvious question: Why now? It would appear that Obama is trying to show the Arab world that they now have a friend who thinks, speaks, behaves, and negotiates just like Yasar Arafat.

And What of Jerusalem?

Obama, Biden and especially Hillary Clinton are experts in double-speak. The neighborhood is in Jerusalem, and the 2009 Netanyahu-Obama agreement was for a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlements excluding Jerusalem. Like a mentsch, Netanyahu apologized to Biden for the embarrassment. When Biden left Israel on March 11, the apology was officially accepted and the issue was diplomatically laid to rest–or so we thought. . . Enter Hillary–a woman whose political aspirations knows no bounds–or political etiquette.

Looking for an evanescent opportunity to boost her public image, Hillary demonstrated once again why she has an almost magical penchant for making little problems exponentially greater. A good diplomat knows when to hold her tongue. Even the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon made it clear this past week that the Jerusalem issue is to be discussed in final status talks. Hillary Clinton’s reaction is inexcusable and irresponsible.

Caroline Glick’s comments sum up calculated Obama’s reaction best:

“First, Israel must cancel the approval of the housing units in Ramat Shlomo. Second, Israel must prohibit all construction for Jews in Jerusalem neighborhoods built since 1967. Third, Israel must make a gesture to the Palestinians to show them we want peace. The US suggests releasing hundreds of Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons. Fourth, Israel must agree to negotiate all substantive issues, including the partition of Jerusalem (including the Jewish neighborhoods constructed since 1967 that are now home to more than a half million Israelis) and the immigration of millions of hostile foreign Arabs to Continue Reading

As people get ready for Passover, everyone runs around trying to find suitable foods for the holiday. Over the last several years, I have returned to an old Sephardi custom of my family that goes back literally hundreds of years–I now eat rice and beans during the holiday!

For the greater part of early rabbinic history, rice and legumes used to be considered staple foods for Passover, but when did the change occur? More importantly, why did so many Ashkenazi communities give up on eating rice and legumes? Granted, this may not be the most interesting topic. True, many people could care less about the pedantic discussions regarding the Passover status of rice and legumes.

Nevertheless, the history of this old rabbinic controversy reveals something interesting about the psychology of the forbidding mind that continues to shape the attitudes of many observant Jews who are unaware of this custom’s history and controversy. From a psychoanalytical perspective, the human compulsion to forbid the permitted is what really fascinates me. Understanding the evolution of a community’s mindset can be as exciting as reading a good Sherlock Holmes mystery.

The Talmud mentions how Rav Pappi once gave permission to the Resh Galuta’s bakers to thicken a pot with flour made from hasissi (“oven-dried grain”—Rashi). Tosfot  considers Rashi’s insight to be a no-brainer and suggests that hasissi refers to lentil flour; ordinarily, this kind of flour does not become chametz—leavened. [1]. But even this interpretation is unclear. Why was lentil flour forbidden? Tosfot does not really offer a logical explanation. Could the appearance of anything that rises–even if it derives from vegetable flour be the reason for the custom to avoid  eating legumes during Passover?

One of the subsequent Tosfot scholars named Rabbi Yitschak of Corbeil (13th century) offers an explanation in his SeMaK (Sefer Mitzvot Katan). He claims that the prohibition was by no means a “new custom,” but had already existed for many generations. The rabbis of early medieval times feared that the grains of rice or legumes might get commingled with wheat, millet, barley, rye, and spelt. “Supposedly,” argued R. Yitzchak, “people used to place their grains in any sack container that was available for storage.” Perhaps the lentil flower became commingled with a bit of wheat flour. A person might easily think he was eating lentil bread, not realizing that some of the forbidden grains might also be a part of the bread. [2]

R. Yosef Caro (author of the Code of Jewish Law) writes in his Beit Yosef commentary to the Tur, that some scholars felt that the average person might not be able to distinguish between the unripened kernels of grain and legumes since they resemble one another.[3] In practice, R. Yosef Caro (in his Beit Yosef) disregards this fear, whereas the Ashkenazi Jews follow the more stringent view and abstain from eating rice and legumes during Passover. Once canonized as “tradition,” people tend to think this is the way it has always been, but it ain’t so! Early Ashkenazi rabbis objected to this stringency for many reasons.

Some rabbinic scholars considered the special Passover proscription as a “mistaken custom,” while R. Yerucham brusquely called  it a “foolish  custom.”  One might wonder, “Why perpetuate a custom that is logically absurd?” Evidently, the champions of common sense ran into a proverbial brick wall. We may derive solace knowing that not all the medieval Ashkenazi rabbis blindly followed this custom. The real reason why beans became forbidden was because beans were the standard food of mourners, and mourning is forbidden during the holidays! The medieval rabbis had forgotten this simple truth, hence the confusion.

There are other reasons why rice and legumes ought to be used for Passover:

• There are not a lot of Passover foods to choose from.

• Rabbinic certification traditionally charges exorbitant prices for their “kosher” supervision. Once again, the public gets taken advantage by the shepherds who are supposed to be concerned with their welfare (cf. Eze. 34ff).

• Halachic stringency sometimes creates a “Holier-than-Thou” type of mentality that trivializes the holiday’s spiritual importance.
• Food affects mood. Eating rice and legumes are healthier for a more balanced diet, and are also arguably preferable to the heavy animal proteins people imbibe during the holiday. A healthier diet makes one feel lighter and less weighed down–perfect metaphors for the spiritual lightness we ought to feel during this special time of the year. Complex carbohydrates are good for mind and energizing for the body!

Continue Reading

People often wonder whether the biblical Exodus actually took place. Unfortunately, there are no extra-biblical testimonies that  directly speak of the sojourn of Israel’s ancestors in the land of the Nile. However, Egyptian sources do confirm the general situation that we find in the end of Genesis and the beginning of the Book of Exodus. There are several reports in Egyptian writings about a certain group of nomadic people called Habiru, who came into Egypt from the east while fleeing from famine.

Assuming the Habiru are related to the Hebrews of the Bible, this term referred to a group of “nomadic invaders” who originated from the Fertile Crescent from Northeastern Mesopotamia  who made trouble for the Egyptians along their borders. Habiru are described in the Egyptian writings as rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, servants, slaves, and migrant workers.

Like many peoples of antiquity, there is some extra-biblical evidence that Egypt used slave labor in building projects (Exod. 1:11). At one time the land in Egypt was owned by many landholders; but after the reign of the Hyksos kings the Pharaoh owned most of the land, and the people were serfs of the king (Gen. 47:20). Many Bible scholars accept the essential historicity of the Exodus–with reservations.

The movement of Israel’s ancestors into Egypt and out again is hard to reconstruct. Some groups may have gone there as early as the late eighteenth century B.C.E., at the start of foreign (Hyksos) rule; others may have arrived in the late 14th or early 13th century, only a few years before the oppression reflected in Exodus 1. Similarly, groups of these ancestors may have left Egypt at different times, separated by many years, and under varied circumstances. The latter Israelites preserved  stories from the period of their ancestors’ earliest movements into Egypt until the oppression and exodus, but they knew it had been very long–perhaps 430 years, (Exod. 12:40) or 400 years  (as indicated in Gen. 15:13). According to Rashi, the great medieval commentator, he wrote that the 430 years actually had to be reckoned from the birth of Isaac! Clearly, the rabbis were justifiably confused by the figures.

Even the Tanakh itself fails to give an incontrovertible date for the Exodus. Indeed, there are too many inconsistencies to ignore. According to 1 Kings 6:1 says, “In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.” But this verse refers primarily to the beginning of the building of Solomon’s Temple and only in a general way to the time of the Exodus. We do not know the precise dates of Solomon’s reign. If we use 961 B.C.E. as the beginning of Solomon’s reign, his fourth year would have been 957 B.C.E. If we take the 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 literally, then it would appear that Exodus ought to be dated in 1437 B.C.E.

On the other hand, Exodus 1:11 says that the Israelites in Egypt built the store cities of Pithom and Ramses for Pharaoh. Evidently the name Ramses II was not used in Egypt before 1300 B.C.E. If one of the store cities was named for a king by that name, the Exodus could not have happened before 1300 B.C.E. Thus some scholars believe the Exodus must have taken place after 1300 B.C.E. Continue Reading

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) posits that the Sabbath is an “architecture of sacred time.”[1] He poignantly argues that while it is true that all peoples of antiquity venerated certain places as holy, the Torah places a far greater emphasis on the sanctification of time versus the sanctification of space. It is no coincidence that the word for sanctity is first associated with the Sabbath. When God blesses the Sabbath day (Gen. 2:3), it literally becomes, “a sanctuary of holy time.”

Sabbath rituals exemplify Judaism’s quest to sanctify time. To the pagan, the notion of holiness is inextricably related to sacred space; as a result, there is a tendency for the primal psyche to project its concept of the divine into an object that is found in the phenomenal world. But the Sabbath is radically different. With the Sabbath, as Heschel notes, human beings leave the realm of holy space and enter into the realm of holy time.[2]

Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year. The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn; a shrine that even apostasy cannot easily obliterate.[3]

The Sabbath also exerts a profound economic impact upon a society. As a symbol of sanctified time, the Sabbath releases men and women from the tyranny of a consumer-driven market economy. Keeping the Sabbath must be more than just a mere activity—it must foster a renewal of the soul. The Sabbath symbolizes the ideal state of creation where every creature great and small, stands in cosmic unity together in honor of the Creator. As a symbol of rest and renewal, the Sabbath signifies an inner serenity that permeates the spirit. Continue Reading

As we mentioned earlier, exegetic scholars–both Jewish and Christian–have long recognized the problems with the numbers mentioned in the Bible. Judging by the numbers listed in the beginning of Numbers, the Israelite nation must have consisted of about two and a half million people. This must have been a rigorous job for the two midwives in charge of their birth (Exod 1:15 )! There were precisely 22,273 firstborn males (Num. 3:43); given 600,000+ males, this would mean an average of at least 27.1 sons per mother.  Not even today’s Haredi or Hassidic communities (who do not practice birth-control) have numbers like that! One is almost reminded of the famous Groucho Marx cigar joke, which we will not mention at this time (Generation X-ers, Google the joke).

Some scholars, like the 19th century commentator G. B. Gray, and others to conclude that either the numbers are a fiction, or are outright exaggeration. Not all modern biblical scholars take such a dim view. For example, W. F. Albright has argued instead that the large numbers in the census lists of Numbers actually were derived from the population figures as they existed during the monarchy of King David.^[1]

With unusual insight, one early 20^th century scholar, Flinders Petrie was the first to point out that the term אֶלֶף  (‘e’lep) can have multiple meanings, such as “cattle,” “family,” “tribe,” “chieftain,” and “friend,”  in addition to the connotation of “thousand.”

The problem, Petrie argued, was due to the early translators of the Torah, who chose to use the word “thousand” instead of using a more practical nuance which would have made more contextual sense out of the passages. Over time, this mistaken translation, was replicated by other translators,  thus creating the problem in the text.^[2] With this theory, he reduced the size of the Exodus to about 20,000 people including women and children. Continue Reading

Purim picture of the day.

[Purim in Meah Sharim--Haredi style] compliments of Failedmessiah.com.

Now, who says the Haredim don’t have a good sense of humor?

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Posted by Yochanan Lavie on 28.02.10 at 4:18 pm

‘Twas the night before Purim, when all through the shul

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mule;

The stockings were hung by the aron with care,

In hopes that St. Mordecai soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their pews,

While visions of humantashen danced in their shoes;

And mammaleh in her ‘kerchief, and I in my kipah,

Had just settled down for a late winter’s sleepa,

When out in the shul there arose such a clatter,

I looked from the megillah to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of chatzot to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should show, Continue Reading