Zenjewish

2008-03-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

09/03/08 Jerusalem yeshiva shooting tragedy

"Wrapped in white cloth"

An article in the UK Guardian newspaper noted that the bodies were "wrapped in white cloth". I found this apparently simple error telling. Had the journalist realised that they were in fact wrapped in the prayer shawls - as in all Jewish male burials - that had been a daily part of their lives they might have had a different perspective.

In a similar way they also were not buried with "books", but the blood-stained books and scrolls that they had dedicated part of their lives to studying. The books Jews believe contain God's blueprint for a just and compassionate society.

These young people would no doubt have gone on to teach others the ways of decency and compassion throughout their lives. Now not to be. May they rest in peace.

I received by email a photo from Zaka - the saintly people who go in after these events to clean up the mess. Zaka arrived at the yeshiva even while the shooting was going on. They had to duck the bullets until it was safe to go in. It was a photo you could not forget. It was taken in the library. The walls were lined with holy books, the floor was covered in blood. It could even be the blood of the misguided gunman as well as his victims. The Zaka volunteer was in this mess, on his hands and knees.

We all learn, we all suffer, it is truly noble to stand by one's people.

A Lubavitcher chassid I know who I consider to be an angel spoke at a public channukah lighting which happened to be after a similar tragedy. I only remember his opening words, but I always will:

"The Jewish response to dark events is to do more mitzvahs, to bring more light into the world" he said.

2007-12-30T10:51:00.000-08:00

Tzedaka - healing the world - for the world (30/12/07)

A simple way to describe tzedaka is 'giving to charity'. That's not a very accurate way to describe it. but it gives people a general idea.

Tzedaka is a concept in Jewish teaching. It's also a vital part of a Jewish life, in that anyone who wants to keep a truly Jewish life must include the giving of tzedaka in it. It's nearest neighbour is certainly 'charity', but tzedaka is so much more, and in some ways less too. There is one important difference between the concepts of tzedaka and charity, and that is obligation. A Jew is obligated to give tzedaka whether he (or she) likes it or not. We are obligated to help our fellow Jew and our fellow human being in their difficulties.

The idea of obligation is important, because it implies that we are not doing someone a favour when we hand over a part of our income. We are doing it because we are all responsible for one another. We are also, in biblical teaching, all created in the image of God, meaning the spiritual image rather than the physical image. Clearly we don't look anything like God at all!, and in Jewish teaching God has no physical form. Only we humans have a physical form 'borrowed' so we can live out our incarnation on Earth.

Tzedaka is justice.

Because we are all humans created in the image of God we are all embued with a certain amount of holiness (kedusha). Clearly some of us have more kedusha than others, implying that we have a soul which develops from lifetime to lifetime. Often those with a lot of kedusha give a lot of tzedaka!

One should try to give up to ten per cent of one's net income as tzedakah, but in any case tzedakah should be given regularly, preferably daily. The philosopher and great teacher Maimonedes of the thirteenth century developed a teaching of eight levels of tzedakah, which is widely respected to this day.

At the lowest level one gives but does so begrudgingly. Better than this is to give willingly, but not as much as one should. On the next 'rung' one gives, but only when asked by a poor person. Level four is described as giving directly to the poor without having been asked. However, the donor and recipient know each other's identity. Better than this is that the donor does not know who the recipient is, but the person who receives still knows who the donor is, and better still is that the giver knows who the recipient is, but the recipient does not know who give the tzedaka.
The seventh level is to give anonymously to a fund, which then distributes the money.

The highest level is to create a situation which helps the poor or needy person out of their situation. It is interesting that in recent years major charities such as Oxfam have begun to work towards this ideal.

Let us all work towards healing the world by giving tzedaka. There is no shortage of people who need it, and one should have no trouble finding a organisation to give it through.

2006-11-12T12:42:00.000-08:00

Borat, Jerusalem, gay pride

Sat. night, went to see Borat
Saturday night decided to go and see what all the 'Borat' fuss was about. Some of our friends warned us not to go, others went themselves and had a great time.

Verdict: Definitely funny, but I wasn't falling off my seat. The scene at the rodeo, where he led his supposedly redneck audience into cheering his increasingly proposterous announcements, was one of the really funny bits. That, and the naked wrestling throughout the hotel. Actually, most of it was pretty funny and definitely silly.

Somehow Mr Baron-Cohen managed to portray the worse side of the USA in his film. Deliberate? Or just humour?

Jerusalem, Gay Pride, Tolerance
This caused quite a lively debate in our household. Should 'gay' people have to hide the way they are? Of course not! But why do they have to parade it like that, in the face of others who deeply believe homosexuality, or at least practising homosexuality, is wrong?

Why shouldn't they? After all, statistics tell us many Orthodox Jews must themselves be gay, and their problems are compounded by the strict prohibitions against homosexual acts in the Torah. Why should they be bound by other people's morality?

But why shouldn't the Charedim show their outrage too? After all, they and their ancestors didn't come to Israel to have their beliefs parodied in front of their faces, in the holiest city of all. And so on.

While meditating on these passionate yet opposing points of view I began to see something else still. I began to realise, it's not even about gays, straights and the ultra-Orthodox. It's about secular Jews and religious Jews.

But more than that, it's about secular and religious Jews trying to drown each other out, each one fighting for a bit more ground, each denying the legitimacy of the other. It's about intolerance rather than accomodation, and that causes hurt and conflict.

The issue here is not sexuality, or whether we should all be frum, it's tolerance. It's about living together, indeed as brother and sister. The moment we use force to try and suppress 'the other', we call into being an equal and opposite force. Neither side wins. It is as if the other is another side of ourselves, the other side of the same coin. Mothers die, children become orphans, more senseless suffering, no one wins.

2006-09-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

Melanie Phillips: This cowardly Jewish leadership
Jewish Chronicle, 8 September 2006

... and she's right.

Anyone going to say anything? Probably not.

Either Melanie Phillips is right and a lot of other people are wrong, or Melanie is wrong and the others right.

I happen to be firmly in the former camp. If anyone has the right to call Britain's Jewish leadership a bunch of cowards, it is Melanie Phillips, because - standing alone on many occasions - she herself is anything but cowardly.

Melanie is always among the first to defend our people against baseless verbal and physical attack, on this occasion she is criticising the palpable silence among Jewish leaders during the recent Lebanon crisis, while the public debate seemed so often to centre around Israel's "disproportionate" reaction to the unprovoked attacks on both military and civilians by Hisbollah guerrillas.

But who are our leaders? Are we talking about the charity bosses, UJIA and so on, the religious leaders (who waste no time putting wrongs to right when it come to attacking other Jews), the Chief Rabbi, or who? That strange Victorian body, the Board of Deputies?

Certainly one hears quite regularly from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs in defence of Jews and Israel. And I have certainly heard the Board of Deputies pop their head above the pulpit from time to time. But on this occasion, and in general, I have to say she is right. Prominent British Jews do very much tend to keep their heads down, presumably hoping things will "blow over".

Is this right? No. Is this a desertion of their moral duty to make proper use of their privileged position to defend us? Yes it is.

Melanie highlights parallels between the behaviour of communal leaders now and in the 1930's, when we were faced with the rise of Nazism in Germany. She is right, not much difference.

With a growing torrent of lies and distortions we, the very People of the Book, had better stand up and be counted. If we don't start to defend ourselves, to correct these distortions, we can hardly be surprised if they take root and vicious lies, distortions, negative images and cruel stereotypes about Jews and Israel become the norm.

2006-09-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

Guardian Watch 9 September 2006

Article: A Policy of Punishment
Author: Ismail Haniyeh
Extracts: "Israeli war crimes ..."; "at the heart of our region's problems is the Israeli occupation"

The mere fact that the Guardian published this says a lot. There is no question Haniyeh is the democratically elected leader of the Palestinians. But is he not also the figurehead of an organisation that has sent countless impressionable young men (and the odd woman) to blow themselves up while killing and maiming as many innocent bystanders as possible?

I can't help feeling the Guardian has generously given a platform to this enemy of peace who the rest of the democratic world has refused to support, to put it mildly.

2006-08-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

Guardian Watch 31/08/06
George Galloway: "Resistance" my ***! When are you going to grow up?

Article: "Hizbullah's victory has transformed the Middle East" by George Galloway

Extracts: ..."resistance movement", "a settler garrison of the imperial west"

The Guardian has managed to find 2/3 page - including a colour picture - to devote to the rantings of George Galloway, that defender of democracy and friend to freedom fighters world-wide.

George, as readers will remember, won the Bethnal Green seat at the last general election, by using the classic populist tactic of installing himself in a deprived area of London and exploiting "the people's" anger and (to use a politically-correct term) alienation. Yup, wherever anger lurks, George is not far behind to sympathize with the Proletariat and picking up a few votes along the way.

Friend of non-governmental armed groups everywhere, George willingly embraced Hizbollah's description of itself as a "resistence movement". What is it resisting? Israel's occupation of Lebanon? No, Israel left years ago, until the recent provocation by Hizbollah. Resisting what, then? Israel's existence full-stop? I couldn't possibly comment, you decide.

He then goes on to mention the "Iraqi resistance" (presumably some very angry men "resisting" the idea of peace in Iraq), and glories in the puncturing of the "myth of invincibility" of the Israeli armed forces. Then on to Israel's war crimes.

I suppose the daily firing of rockets straight into Israeli cities is another form of "resistence" against Israeli citizens existing, as opposed to what Israel does, which is "war crimes".

After a quick return to the devastation Israel has rained upon Lebanon, George gets straight into a none-too-subtle comparison of Israel with Apartheid South Africa. How many black South African MPs were there during Apartheid, George?

Peacemaker George then sums up the outcome of a likely peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, paying lip service to the notion of Arab acceptance of Israel, ignoring the lack of it that has kept this conflict alive for so long, then another dig at Israel as "a settler garrison of the imperial west".

Then we have the "Palestinian resistance" - which I always thought was just a grinding, ceaseless violence preventing any chance of a negotiated settlement. "The Israeli leaders' intransigence" will bring down the State of Israel "on their heads". (Because the Palestinians have been urging them to stop this pointless violence?)

"There is still time to choose peace" says peacenik George. Yes, George, I pray you are right. And finally we are mercifully released from this one-sided diatribe with a dire warning of terrible things to come.

Freedom fighters, the Resistance, Israel's single-handed devotion to an ongoing state of war? When are you going to grow up George? Isn't all this just a modern version of the Proletariat versus the Aristrocracy? So naive.

Armed guerilla groups don't need your sympathy. They have no power to resolve anything, only to cause more discord and stir up more hatred. The "resistance" you so love isn't going anywhere. Only a genuine desire for peace among two parties will get there. We haven't found the other party yet, we're still waiting.

2006-08-31T13:20:00.000-07:00

Guardian Watch 28/08/06
Article: "Meet The Anti-Germans" by Luke Harding
Extract: ..."as well as politicians in suits, another group had turned up to express their enthusiasm for Israel's attack on Lebanon"
Comments: A good article to start with. This comment demonstrates the Guardian's insidious way of publishing opinion masquerading as fact. The implication is clear: Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Lebanon. The reality: Israel acted to try and remove the threat from Hisbollah, an organisation outlawed by the UN Security Council, which had been provoking Israel with rocket attacks on its civilians for years.

2006-05-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

NATFHE Israel boycott - nat fhery fair?

Zenjewish say:

Why the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) conference pick on Israel when they boycott academics? This fair? I mean, Israel just one little country among many. Surely these highly intelligent people not picking one country at random for boycott?

I mean, Israel full of Jews, this just coincidence?

Oh, I know, next week they boycott Chinese academics because China very repressive place, almost the most repressive in world. I mean, the Tibetans would agree. They lose their whole country and culture to China. Temples destroyed, people in slave labour camps, you name. China government kill many people they no like their opinions. Or Tianneman square protesters - mental hospital for them. So, if I Chinese I have to tell the McCarthy committee I don't like what my government does or they boycott me too, no?

Then there also Burma academics - they imprison elected leader, Iran academics - sponsor terrorists, Japan academics - they fish the whales. All sorts academics we must ask what their views are.

I silly fool. I thought they just pick on Israel. That would be double standard. That be anti-semitic. These academics very clever people, surely not blind.

2006-04-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

Bin Laden's Back!
It's great to see Bin back again after such a long break. I think the picture shows him looking a little spiritual, almost as though having a personal conversation with the Prophet himself.

The latest photo shows Bin with a curious expression - almost Mona Lisa-like. Is he smiling, or is it compassion we can see in his eyes? On the one hand he seems to be telling God that, yes, he still believes, yet on the other he could almost be losing his patience with God. The wannabee suicide bombers keep coming, yet the evil Western world somehow still exists, and is rather similar to how it's always been.

The hands - unusually - are not clutching an AK47 rifle, this is a departure for Bin, if indeed it is Bin Laden himself, and not a stand-in. I mean, is Bin Laden really alive? To be honest this could just as easily be my cousin from Muswell Hill, North London, or perhaps a Reform rabbi. But not an Orthodox rabbi, that would be going too far.

The background depicts solitude, peace and quiet even, and again marks a departure from the solemn-looking would-be martyrs with loaded rifles, uniforms and green headbands we are used to seeing. Maybe Bin is on holiday. Do revolutionaries have holidays? Do revolutionaries die? I'll have to work that one out another time.

2006-04-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

London – Pesach (Passover) 2006 / 5766

I notice my calendar, in all other ways blameless, does not have Pesach marked. Serious omission!

Tis’ the season of neuroseth
Here we are almost, at the season of Neuroseth (or charoseth, whichever way you wish to pronounce it). Oh, come on Moshe, we need a season for it? Anyway, somehow the Pesach preparations have got themselves mixed up with a lot of other activity, not for the first time.

The Israel trip
For example, my beloved daughter being packed off to Israel for a few days to arrive home some time after 10pm the day before Pesach, at some two-bit airport a million miles from NW London (first night’s going to be a yawn, I think to myself).

Is this good or bad, the teenage daughter disappearing for a few days prior to Pesach?

Plus of course the ongoing maintenance to the home. Builders always leave the last bit undone, they can’t all be awaiting the building of the third Temple, surely?

It’s always a bit of a shock to see the extent our host nation has to go to in order to protect our mortal souls. Two policemen/women with some very serious-looking rifles, I mean. What is it about us that attracts such – um – antagonism, I think to myself. I live in a town full of Jews, and they’re all lovely, peaceful intelligent people. Wonderful people, people who’d really go out of their way to help. OK, I haven’t asked yet, but it’s nice to know that when I do …

Golders Green gears up for Pesach
Saturday night before Pesach, Shabbat is out, it’s a quarter to ten on an on-off rainy night, and we’re standing outside a kosher shop in Golders Green waiting for it to open. As the night wears on the crowds get bigger, cheerful people, a witty comment always at the ready. Yes, it’s us.

The choice gets better every year. Now you can get about 15 types of cheese, Wizzotsky was selling green tea for goodness’ sake (ok, it was over £14 for the box so I gave it a miss).

A little secret – I have my own minchag (custom) for Pesach. Whenever we do the pre-Pesach shopping I make a point of never complaining. I mean, I can moan with the best of the them, I’ll moan for England if you like, even. But, hey, we all know it costs a fortune, maybe even God Forbid some evil shomer is fitting up non-Pesach goods with Pesach labels somewhere, we all know we’re crazy when Pesach comes around, but why complain about it? It’s our choice, and even if it isn’t, it’s definitely our problem.

We love it really.

But this year I had my own moment of smugness. The dearly beloved did her best to discourage me checking every item on the Torah scroll known as the checkout bill, but I thought I’d have a little look, when – blow me down if I didn’t see a box of matzo costing – wait for it – twenty-three pounds – had found its way into one of our two shopping trolleys. Needless to say we swapped it for one costing only £9 but my moment of smugness was complete. Many points to me.

The Rav did his usual brilliance at shul this week. “People prepare for Pesach in different ways”, he said. “Some clean their houses, some buy a lottery ticket … “

After the shopping, of course comes the eating and drinking, conveniently provided by a small kosher fast food restaurant in GG Road. It was wonderful to see someone else dealing with the teenagers for once in the restaurant. The raised excitable voices and rapid movements of the Skinny Ones I found endearing now I had more understanding of it – well about 3% more than I started with, anyway.

Overhead in GG Road:

''I've got the Hagoddas – it’s very painful ". Boom boom!

Dearly Beloved gets down from the ladder eight times as I call on my mobile about some small shopping detail I’m worried about.

I now realize the quantity of Kiddush wine I’ve bought for the Seders is in fact enough to sozzle a small army.

Will the spirits get opened this year, for the first time? I think so, everyone loves Sabra.

Still time to sell the chametz by fax, if you’re quick.

And yet again Golders Green Road performs the miracle of parking where there are absolutely no spaces, well not many, anyway.
People standing talking on their phones, people walking down the street talking on their phones , people in shops talking on their phones , people driving down Golders Green Road talking on their phones. We’re not that different, after all.

2006-04-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

Guardian writer Zoe Williams rewrites Jewish customs

Anyone else notice the gaffe in the Guardian magazine yesterday? According to Zoe Williams the Jewish commandment that you should separate milk and meat is these days “one of those commandments to which religious people allude to but take no notice of”. I wonder where she got that idea from? Are there no longer any religious Jews, are they secretly mixing milk and meat (and only Zoe knows about it), or have religious Jews become hypocrites?

So where did Zoe get the idea from that Jews no longer keep the commandments? Her friends and associates, no doubt, gave her the idea that Jewish law is not important ‘any more’. And since she lives in an increasingly secular society (only 7% of Christians attend church according to a BBC news report, and I don’t suppose Jews are much different) she’d have every reason to believe ignoring Jewish law was common among the observant too – surely a contradiction in terms – and certainly every reason to want to believe this silly religion nonsense was a thing of the past, even though I don’t see much evidence of that in NW London where I live.
And since Zoe writes for the Guardian she’ll be used to the idea that if the Guardian believes something – well, everyone else believes it too.
Personally I don't eat meat at all Zoe, but if I did, you can be sure I'd wait at least one hour before milky tea touched my lips. Aparently that minchag derives from a small village in Surrey somewhere.

2006-03-22T13:08:00.000-08:00

Is Ken Livingstone Antisemitic?
London Assembly Deputy Chairman Brian Coleman - representing the London Borough of Barnet - thinks he is.

Or to put it another way, what's wrong with Ken?

There he goes again. For those Londoners who don't know, our mayor has spoken again, this time suggesting the Reuben brothers, two property developers who happen to be Jewish, could 'go back to Iran' if they don't like it here. The fact that they came from India via Iraq, not Iran, adds an interesting twist.

But why would the major of a major world-ranking city, the greatest in many people's eyes, want to say such a thing? Shouldn't the major be uniting people rather than dividing? And surely there must be better ways to get powerful property developers on your side than openly insulting them with racist taunts?

Stranger still, Ken's built his popularity by backing various minority causes throughout his career, famously blacks, gays and lesbians. He is not above sharing a platform with hateful Islamic preachers, the sort who preach that homosexuals should get the death sentence and of course blame Jews for all the world's wrongs, from the failure of the Arab world to modernise to plotting 9/11. In short, any old populist cause that might convince the voters what a great guy he is.

Could it be that Ken's 'blind spot' as Coleman puts it, is the ethnic minority that doesn't really count, the Jews?

Ken Livingstone and Democracy
As we know, Ken was recently barred from his position for a month for describing an Evening Standard journalist (Jewish) as a 'nazi'. Ignoring his childish inability to apologise having made such a gaff, many people at the time excused his behaviour as nothing exceptional, and I must admit, for a fully indocrinated lefty there is nothing wrong with going around calling people who annoy you nazis. But the mayor of London? And given Ken's position, why shouldn't a journalist from a major London paper ask questions? Why shouldn't they probe the actions of those in public office?

Ken has described his ban as undemocratic, on the grounds that only the electorate should be able to remove him from his post. Yet the same Ken Livingstone was an MP when the legislation that allowed the ban to happen was made law. A similar law exists in Parliament in that MPs can be removed if their behaviour brings the House into disrepute. Is that undemocratic too?

By challenging the legislation that he was elected under, Ken is actually challenging the democratic process itself, and that starts to get a little worrying. Let's just remind ourselves, he is the mayor of London.

But this isn't the first time Ken has found the elective process a tad inconvenient. Those of us with good memories remember the night he got elected as leader of the GLC - the precursor to the mayoralty, which was abolished by Margaret Thatcher apparently to get rid of Ken.

How did Ken get 'elected' as leader of the GLC, a move which kick-started his political career? According to www.reference.com "The Labour Party narrowly won control with the moderate Andrew McIntosh as leader (...). The day after the election, Livingstone challenged McIntosh for the leadership, and defeated him by 30 votes to 20." So Andrew McIntosh won the election, yet somehow the people of London awoke the next day to find Ken Livingstone representing them. Curious.

Ken and the Jewish Conspiracy
While Ken Livingstone might not believe in a 'Jewish conspiracy' there are plenty of people around the world who do, thanks largely to a relentless diet of hate-propaganda. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that some of these people are on the left of the political spectrum, the same people who blame Israel for most of the world's ills.

Some of these people would look to Ken for a lead, and if his position is seen to be somewhat ambivalent at best, what message does that send to other left-leaning people who aren't that happy with Israel in any case? What might the eventual effect of these views be on innocent people around the globe?

Having a public go at Jewish business people - on more than one occasion - sends the message that there's something different about Jewish business people. What would that something be? Maybe they are not 'one of us'. Maybe their interests are not the same. When I look into my book of Jewish stereotypes I see entries marked "all Jews are wealthy businesspeople" and "all Jewish businesspeople are ruthless". Would he be the same about black or Muslim business people. Would he tell Indian business people to 'go back to India'? Afro-Carribeans to go back to Trinidad?

Surely Ken must be aware of the rampant antisemitism that exists throughout the Middle East, and in comfortable leftwing homes throughout Europe. Surely his responsibility should be not to encourage it by careless - or not so careless - talk.

So is Ken antisemitic? Personally, I don't think so. I think he has a well-established double-standard in all matters relating to Israel, and I don't think he's even aware of it. In this respect he is no different to thousands of other European lefties. A nice Yiddish word for him would be 'clutz'. I don't think anyone's feelings got hurt too badly being called a clutz.

2006-03-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my Blog. Blog's a much nicer word than 'rant', although it's not a great word when you come to think of it.

My name's Moshe. I didn't really want to show my picture, but Hashem suggested it. After all, there's nothing wrong with being a little different.

I was trying to remember that word for when you identify with your oppressors and start agreeing with their point of view even if it's not really yours, but it's gone from my mind. It's not 'assimilate', I know that. Anyway, is that what we're all about? I was thinking. Enough people say it or think it, and before you know it you're saying to yourself: "you know, they're right, maybe I don't deserve a homeland"... I don't deserve a homeland, I don't deserve a homeland, I'm a naughty boy, and I never write to my mother either... Come to think of it, who is my mother?

So busy these days. There's the weekly meeting of the Elders of Zion group for a start. If we're going to take over the world we'd better find out what 'protocol' really means. I thought it was something to do with computers, but how would they know about that in pre-communist Russia? Most Russians hardly knew what a computer was in 1989, let alone 1889.

Then I promised to do a write-up of my barmitzvah for an article called 'My barmitzvah from hell'. Strange title ...

There's even more, but why should I give everything away in the first few minutes, like some very naughty girl? The sort I like.

And don't think it's going to be all 'ha ha' either. Seriousness has it's place in a well-organised rant, it's an important part of it.

And one more thing. Did you ever wonder why there are so many words in Yiddish for - well - a shmendrick? I suddenly realised the other day that most of my Yiddish vocabulary was derogatory - shmeril, clutz, shmoo (is there really such a word, or did my dad just make it up?) shmuck (think that's rude) and so on. I mean, is it just me? Can someone out there help me out?

Anyway, maspic (that's Ivrit for 'enough', and Ivrit is Hebrew for Hebrew and ...). It's getting late, and I haven't really said anything ...