Fort Hood and the November Nexus

What caused last week's tragic murders at Fort Hood may never be fully known, whether the madness of a single gunman was inspired by his own psychological insanity or the madness of a virulent form of radical Islam; whether it was predetermined or spontaneous and whether he acted on his own or as part of some vast jihadic conspiracy. The answer to all these questions lies most likely in some grey area, although ideologues and apologists are already staking out their ground on both poles of this muddled spectrum.

While it is best for the rest of us not to get bogged down in these speculations, we can find common ground in commemorating two events that always come one day apart, yet rarely are so intertwined as they are post Fort Hood. Kristallnacht recalls the events of November 9 and 10, 1938 that, in the words of the Nazis themselves, set in motion the chain of decisions that ultimately led to the destruction of European Jewry. Madness went unchecked that night and the result was cataclysmic. It was the shot heard round the world, to which the world refused to respond with anything but a few words.

Kristallnacht was commemorated on Monday in Berlin.

As German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov and ex-Polish president Lech Walesa celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, more subdued tributes were held to mark the 71st anniversary of the nazis' Kristallnacht pogrom.

On Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass - at least 99 German Jews were killed, 267 synagogues destroyed and thousands of Jewish businesses vandalised and looted.

Up to 30,000 German Jews were arrested and placed in concentration camps.

The pogrom marked an intensification of the nazis' fascist policies that would eventually lead to the murder of some six million Jews.

In Berlin a special service was held at a memorial outside the Jewish Community of Berlin's building.

The event also paid tribute to Anne Frank, who would have turned 80 this year had she not died of typhus in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp.

Separately a candlelit service was held in the evening at Berlin's Grunewald train station, from which many of the city's Jews were deported.

The anniversary was also noted at services celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was known as the "anti-fascist protective rampart" in the former German Democratic Republic.

At an ecumenical service in Berlin Archbishop Robert Zollitsch said: "The memory of the horrible events of November 9 1938 no less than the memory of the November 9 1989 teach us unequivocally that walls, whether real or in the minds and hearts of the people, solve no problems."

On the 11th, we commemorate Veterans Day, once-upon-a-time called Armistice Day, in the good old days when a single military triumph war was to mark the end of all wars.

These days no one is so naive as to think that any military victory is really "mission accomplished." Now we just consider those small wins to signal, "disaster averted." The Gaza and Iraq wars are two of the most recent examples. No one is foolish enough to think the war is over.

But the battles must still be won, each one. In the face of extremism, not even one skirmish can be lost without sacrificing more ground to the madness. The act of a single insane person in Texas was also one of those battles, even if he had no orders from above. He felt he had orders from On High.

There will be no quick victory. Our soldiers and leaders will constantly be put to the test. Kristallnacht reminds us that a tepid response to madness will only yield more - and worse -madness.

It is in that light that the Iranian nuclear threat must be taken. A nuclear Iran would only embolden those forces in the middle east and elsewhere and weaken considerably the possibilities for reasoned diplomacy to prevail anywhere. Inaction now will be measured ultimately by more American soldiers and civilians everywhere succumbing to extremists' bullets, and it won't matter a hoot whether those personifications of madness are inspired by their own psychosis or orders from some mountain hideaway in Pakistan.

This year, Veterans Day and Kristallnacht are one and the same.

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Hilary Fryd on Hayye Sarah

In the Torah portion I just read, Sarah dies - but the name of the portion is “Sarah’s lives” (Chayay Sarah). This Torah portion gives us clues as to how it is possible to keep someone’s memory alive long after they have gone.

In what ways is Sarah still alive even though she has died?

For one thing, when Isaac meets and marries Rebecca, at the end of the portion, he brings her into Sarah’s tent. That’s where he married her and loves her. The message is that Sarah is remembered and kept alive through Isaac’s love for Rebecca, who reminds him of his mother.

In the midrash, Sarah’s tent is seen as a place where God’s blessings can be experienced. When Sarah dies, those miracles stop, but when Rebecca moves in, the holiness of the tent returns.

The midrash states that all the days in which Sarah lived, the doors of the entrance [to her tent] were open to the wind …. And all the days in which Sarah lived, there was a blessing sent through the dough [with which she baked]…. And all the days in which Sarah lived, there was a light burning from one Shabbat evening to the next Shabbat evening…."

All of those wonderful things returned to the tent with Rebecca.

Now I may not be able to accomplish all that, but in becoming a bat mitzvah, I know that I will be continuing in the traditions of my parents and grandparents, and that too is a blessing.

Two days from now, we will be remembering Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which occurred on November 9, 1938. Jewish communities in Germany were attacked; many were killed and wounded and many shops and synagogues were destroyed. Many people say that this event marked the beginning of the Holocaust.

Remembering the Holocaust is always important, but especially this week, because of Kristallnacht – and especially for me. My grandparents were survivors of the Lodz ghetto and the camps. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to meet my grandfather before he passed away . But I did get to spend many years with my grandma Fay - and now it’s important for me to remember them and to tell their story. In that way , I can help keep them alive for us, by keeping their memory alive.

For my mitzvah project, I’ll be keeping alive the name of another person, a Holocaust victim named Hannah Ossiaz, who died in Treblinka when she was 11. I’m doing this through an organization called “Remember Us, The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project.”

I looked for information about Hannah on the huge data base of victims housed at Yad Vashem, which now can be found online. There really isn’t much information about her. I know that she was born in Warsaw in 1932 and that her parents’ names were Leon and Jaika. Also, her Hebrew name was Chana. Mine is Chaya, which is very close. Chaya also means “life” and is part of the title of my parsha. We also know that she went to school and did have relatives who survived the war. One of them, named Aaron, submitted her name to Yad Vashem.

We tried to find out more, but very little is known. I can only imagine what she was like. Well, she lived in a large city like me. Maybe she liked to dance and play piano, like I do. Perhaps she liked to ice skate like I do and like my Grandma used to enjoy doing in Lodz. Maybe, like me, she also liked to shop!

In fact, she probably was a lot like me. The only difference is that she will never get beyond age 11, and here I am, 13, and becoming a bat mitzvah. Hanna never had the chance to do this. Maybe she dreamed of becoming bat mitzvah or ,at least, of growing up. Now I will, in some way, be growing up for her – and for myself. I’ve pledged to say kaddish for her on Yom Kippur every year. The first time I am saying it for her is today.

It may not bring her back the way Rebecca was able to bring back the spirit of Sarah to her tent – but, in its own way, maybe saying kaddish for Hanna will bring a blessing.

Now that I am becoming a Bat Mitzvah, I understand more fully how important it is to keep people in our memories so that they may continue to bring blessings to our lives.

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Isabella Esposito on Vayera

Those of you who know me, know that I love music. When I started playing guitar a couple of years ago, it gave me the chance to learn and listen to many different kinds of music. Music from rap to country, from old rock and roll to pop hits from today. Being introduced to all of these types of music has made me understand how music can reflect how we feel. It also can help us to overcome sadness and make us happy.

It so happens that my Torah portion, Vayera, is one of the most musical parshas of the torah. Even thought it isn’t even mentioned once. As you might remember, during Rosh Hashanna, we read about Akaydat Yitzchak, the binding of Isaac. Abraham almost sacrifices Yitzchak, but instead, Hashem tells him that it was only a test of his loyalty and gives him a ram to sacrifice instead. This is where we get the idea of blowing the shofar and this is why we read it on Rash Hashanna. Music is the way we fill our lives with happiness and purpose. The Hebrew word for hollow, ‘halal’, also means wounded or hurt. In our lives, when we feel hurt, music heals us. One of the purposes of the shofar is that we all have to fill the hollow part of people’s lives and make them more whole.

My portion gives us several ways to do that. At the beginning. Hashem visits Abraham when he is in pain. This is the model for us of Bikur Holim, visiting the sick. Then Abraham welcomes three guests with open arms, and this is the first example of Hachanast Orchim, hospitality, or welcoming guests, another important mitzvah. The Torah shows us how important it is when Abraham even turns away from a conversation with Hashem to welcome the guests. Later in the portion, Abraham stands up for the people of Sedom even though he doesn’t know them, to save them all from being destroyed. Finally, we read about Akaydat Yitzchak, and the shofar.

In a way we are all shofars. Each of us has the ability to be the music to people’s lives. I’ve been doing this by going to Sunrise Assisted Living to lead Shabbat services on Friday afternoons and play wii. When I go there I don’t know how many people will join me. It could be two or twenty but it doesn’t matter because the people who are there really enjoy it. Doing this taught me that volunteering benefits the person who you are helping and yourself.

Now a Bat Mitzvah, I’ve learned many ancient melodies and seen how important music has been for the Jewish people for thousands of years. And now, I get my chance to add a few notes of my own.

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Rachel Steinmetz on Lech Lecha

At the beginning of my Bat Mitzvah parsha, Lech Lecha, Avraham is commanded to leave his native land and go to the land that Gd will show him. He is promised a special land, set aside for him and his descendants, but he has no idea where he is going.

When I was little, I had an experience of leaving home and not knowing where I was going. One winter day, my mom and aunt packed us in the car and told us to prepare for a long trip to a mysterious destination. We took our blankets and got comfortable for the big trip ahead. As we were just dozing off, about ten minutes into the trip from my grandparents’ house in Greenwich, my mom woke us. “We’re here”, she said, as we pulled up to the Rye Town Hilton, our mystery destination! We were pretty surprised! I may not have been promised a special land set-aside for my descendants like Avraham, but I did have a great weekend with my family!

In Lech Lecha, we read in this portion that Avraham was known as an “Ivri”, which means a Hebrew. He was the first to be called that. The root word for Ivri is: Ayin, Vet, Resh, which also means “the other.” Avraham was an outsider; bold enough to stand up for what he believed in. In a time of idol worshipers, Avraham worshipped only one Gd. No one had ever believed in one Gd before, and he was not so popular for his beliefs.

I can relate to Avraham standing up for his beliefs. Most kids my age are on Facebook after school, and it can be fun to talk to my friends. However, sometimes people say mean things about each other or gossip. It’s easy to get involved in nasty conversations, and it takes courage to stand up for the person who people are putting down. I try to stand up for my belief in kindness and take the side of the victim as often as I can.

Avraham’s courage shines though as he leads a group of kings in a war and rescues his nephew Loat, who had been taken captive.

Then, Avraham has to overcome a different kind of fear – the fear of abandonment and a life without children. God reassures him and makes a covenant with him.

At the end of the portion, Avraham had that child but needed to overcome a different kind of stress. He circumcised himself at the age of 99. Now THAT took courage.

A lot of things in life take courage. For Jews, it’s taken a lot of courage simply to survive, after centuries of persecution. When President Roosevelt said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” he could easily have been talking about the Jewish people.

But there are times when we are in fact supposed to fear. The word “fear” YIR’AH, also means to respect. So we can and should fear God.

We should also respect our elders. I respect the people I was named for: my first name Rachel was for my great grandmother, Rose. She was an independent, generous, warm woman who loved to cook and spend time with her family and friends. She was ahead of her time. She graduated high school and got her driver’s license at a time when few woman did. She loved to travel so much that she and a friend drove to Kansas at a time when that was considered a bold thing to do. I also have a strong sense of adventure and dream of traveling out of the country sometime soon.

My middle name, Shoshana, was for my great grandfather, Sam Resnick. He had a store in Greenwich, and he worked so hard, never taking time off or spending even one night away from home. He took good care of his family. Like Sam, I work hard at the things that I love.

Respect for my elders is what has inspired my mitzvah project. For the past seven months, I’ve been going to Sunrise Assisted Living to lead games of bingo for the residents. I’ve come to know some of them very well and really enjoy their company. They love Bingo and really hate it when I have to leave.

I learned that your Hebrew name, or shem, is connected to your soul, or Neshama. In fact, the word neshama has the word shem right in the middle! I will try to be even more like the great grandparents for whom I was named, working even harder at the things I love.
And like Avraham and Sarah, I hope to be even more kind and courageous and make my family proud!

Living Waters for Dry Times - Interfaith Event

An important interfaith event will take place in Stamford this Sunday from 2-5 at the First United Methodist Church, 42 Cross Road, in Stamford.

It is entitled: "LIVING WATER FOR DRY TIMES; Faith Communities Meeting the Needs of Stamford."

Religious communities from all over Stamford will come together to be inspired by one of America’s greatest preachers, and address how they might work together to meet the increased needs of this city during hard times. LIVING WATER FOR DRY TIMES is the brainchild of the Rev. Doug McArthur, senior pastor the First United Methodist Church, and is sponsored by the InterFaith Council of Southwestern Connecticut. The keynote speaker will be the Rev. James Forbes, Senior Pastor Emeritus of Riverside Church in New York City, and founder of the Healing of the Nations Foundation.

Participants will gather to hear Rev. Forbes speak, and then break into sessions dealing with health, education, housing and employment. The design team has invited Stamford experts in each of these fields to serve on panels and help guide the discussion toward practical actions that faith communities can help undertake. Participants will choose one break-out session to attend, and will be invited to be part of “solution roundtables” after hearing from the panelists.

The Housing panel will include Congressman Jim Himes (4th CD), Joan Carty (Housing Development Fund) and Ross Burkhardt (New Neighborhoods). The Employment panel comprises Kip Bergstrom (Urban Development League), Jack Condlin (Stamford Chamber of Commerce) and Tom Failla (Norwalk Community College). Education will be addressed by Eileen Swerdlick (Stamford Public Schools, ret), Michael Duggan (Domus) and Peggy Sarkela (Reach Prep), and Mary Judge.

Rregister online at http://livingwaterforstamford.eventbrite.com/

The planning team includes: Rabbi Joshua Hammerman; the Revs. Kate Heichler, Tommie Jackson, Cari Jackson, Mark Lingle, Doug McArthur, Juan Paniagua, Leroy Parker and Mary Thies; Michael Hyman (Domus); Deborah Katz (Stamford Public Health); Phil McKain (CTE); and Eileen Swerdlick (Stamford Public Schools, retired).

Regrettably, a funeral will now prevent me from attending this important event - it is my deep hope that the Jewish community will be well-represented. And also join me at our monthly "Learning and Latte" interfaith discussion at Borders, this coming Tuesday at 7:30 PM.

The Dance of Bibi and Barack

Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama will be speaking to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America next week in Washington. You'll be able to see the speeches on the GA website.

Meanwhile, it is not known whether the two leaders will meet next week or even if the US Adminsitration was informed in advance of the visit. Stay tuned. But with things heating up over Iran, including Israel's seizure of an arms-laden ship headed for Lebanon, Abbas stewing and bowing out of upcoming elections in Ramallah and the Goldstone fiasco making its way through the U.N., it seems like a good idea for Bibi and Barack to break bread.

For more background, see:
ANALYSIS / Netanyahu, Obama don't need love to advance peace
Abbas withdraws from presidential race
Ayalon: Threat of striking Iranian nuclear facilities not a bluff
Iran's Nuclear Diversion
Iran's Nuclear Program and Israel
UNGA endorses the Goldstone Report
The Goldstone Illusion: What the UN Report Gets Wrong about Gaza and War
How Israeli Naval Commandos Seized the Francop -
The Haul: 320 Tons of Katyushas, Other Rockets, Shells and Bullets

Can I Congratulate the Yankees?

This one is hard. But not as difficult as it used to be. Back in the dark days B.C.E. (Before the Curse was Extinguished), in otherwords, pre 2004, it was much harder to smile in the face of Only Yankee Victories Every Year (acronym O.Y. V.E.Y.).

Now I can look on the bright side. For this century, at least, the Sox still have one more championship (counting 2001 as the first year of the new century), even though the Yankees still far outspend even the Bosox every year. My son Ethan has succinctly explained in a recent column why baseball's lack of a salary cap has become a joke. As he wrote,

"Let’s be frank for a moment. Baseball is dying a slow death as America’s pastime. The Super Bowl has already passed the World Series as the year’s premier sporting event. Regular season and playoff ratings were lower than ever this year. TBS is broadcasting playoff games, for heaven’s sake. TBS!"

In this regard, the Red Sox are every bit as culpable as the Yankees, even though they don't spend as much. The TV ratings speak for themselves, despite a healthy jump for the World Series (but even then, the best rating resulted from an NFL doubleheader lead-in that scored even higher).

So I have less pain watching the Yankees triumph now than I did following other pinstriped victories. There is no spectre of Wade Boggs on horseback or Roger Clemens being, well, Roger Clemens. There is no Bucky ("Mazal Tov") Dent hitting homers over the Wall or Aaron Boone ruining my one and only playoff visit to the old Yankee Stadium.

I no longer have to entertain vast theological questions about why God causes bad things to happen to good Bostonians. The Curse was eclipsed so long ago that kids now don't even know it existed. It's somewhat analogous to how today's younger generation never knew of a Jewish people without a state of Israel. We take our good fortune for granted.

So there is nothing holding me back from issuing at least a 3/4 - hearted Mazal Tov. And there are several good reasons to do it.

1) Because a number of people whom I love and admire are Yankee fanatics. If I'm going to work and live in Yankeeland, that's just something I have to accept. I actually feel good for at least some of them today.

2) Because I've gotten lots of mileage out of this rivalry. I do many bar mitzvahs and 13 is when baseball interest peaks, just after firetrucks and Barbie and just before attention turns to, well, other things. So my inner child is cryogenically forzen at 13, and as long as the Rivalry thrives, I've got instant material. If the Yankees had gone many more years without winning, things would have begun to get boring.

3) Because of Mel Allen, z'l, whose grave I visit in our cemetery all the time. He was the ultimate mensch.

4) Because Yankee fans have been so sensitive to their opponents over the years. Look at the paternal love given to Pedro Martinez!

5) Because it's the right thing to do. When your opponent wins, you rise above it and congratulate him. It's what we call "derech eretz." As Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has written in his magnum opus on Jewish ethics:

"An ancient rabbinic text teaches, kadmah derech eretz et ha-Torah, 'the commandment of good manners [i.e, considerate behavior] preceded the Torah' (Leviticus Rabbah 9:3). The Rabbis explain that while the Torah's commandments were revealed and became binding only at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai, the obligation to act with courtesy and civility toward others originated with Adam and the creation of humanity. God could imagine humankind existing for thousands of years without the Torah, but He could not imagine human beings existing without the need for civility."

6) Because defeat is a prerequisite for victory, and acceptance of defeat a necessary stage of maturity. A win is meaningless without prior defeat.

Rabbi Soleveitchik, a.k.a. The Rav, put it this way:

"Man, in Judaism, was created for both victory and defeat - he is both king and saint. He must know how to fight for victory and also how to suffer defeat."

"Modern man is frustrated and perplexed because he cannot take defeat. He is simply incapable of retreating humbly. Modern man boasts quite often that he has never lost a war. He forgets that defeat is built into the very structure of victory, that there is, in fact, no total victory; man is finite, so is his victory. Whatever is finite is imperfect; so is man's triumph."

Losing is good for the soul.

"...the readiness to accept defeat purges the uncontrollable lust for victory."

So not only do I congratulate the Yankees, I THANK them. And I thank the Angels too, for making my October good and miserable. Great and miserable, in fact.

NEXT year's Red Sox championship will be all the sweeter for having had to follow this year's Yankee win.

So as a charter member of the O.Y. V.E.Y. club, I say "mazal tov" to the Bombers!

Hoffman Lecture on Shalom TV

The recent Hoffman Lecture delivered by Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal will be available on free pay per view on Shalom TV, from November 8-14. If you have Cablevision, simply go to Channel 502, then select "News and World" and then Shalom TV. It will be in the category, "News and Israel." A brief excerpt can be found at the Shalom TV web site by clicking
here.

The lecture is still most timely, a month and a half after it was given.

Audio files are also available on our website.

'New Jews' stake claim to faith, culture

(CNN) -- When Moses came down from Mount Sinai about 3,300 years ago, he couldn't have seen these Jews coming.

A blogger writes about how one of Judaism's holiest days ended, for her, in a strip club, while elsewhere a guy strolls into a tattoo parlor requesting a Star of David. Two women exchange wedding vows in a Jewish ceremony, and hipsters toss back bottles of HE'BREW, The Chosen Beer. A full-time software developer prepares to lead a group in Jewish prayer, as a PhD candidate in Jewish thought pens a letter criticizing Israel's policies.

Meet the "New Jews," as some call them: pockets of post-baby boomers -- or more accurately Generation X and Millennial (Gen Y) Jews -- who are making one of the world's oldest known monotheistic faiths and its culture work for them and others in a time when, more than ever, affiliation is a choice.

more

House Condemns Goldstone Report on Gaza

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to condemn the Goldstone report.

The vote Tuesday urging the Obama administration to keep the report accusing Israel and Hamas of war crimes in last winter's Gaza war from advancing through the United Nations system, passed 344 to 36 with 22 voting "present."

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which lobbied hard for the non-binding resolution, said it "strongy applauds" its passing.

"Congress is sending a strong message that the United States will not agree to turn the victim into the perpetrator," AIPAC said.

The vote comes on the eve of debate on the report in the U.N. General Assembly; the report has already been endorsed by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The resolution "calls on the President and the Secretary of State to continue to strongly and unequivocally oppose any endorsement of the `Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict' in multilateral fora, including through leading opposition to any United Nations General Assembly resolution and through vetoing, if necessary, any United Nations Security Council resolution that endorses the contents of this report."

The resolution was introduced by U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the senior Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), its chairman.