Devorah by Devorah: A retelling based on midrash and modernity– By Deborah L.R. Kornfeld

January 28, 2015Articles, Parsha Insights

You know, Chamoodim*, Safta** didn’t always stay home and bake cookies and play Uno with you. Long ago I was a super woman with a cape and a torch and work to be done and wars to win. Eshet Lapidot-(Torch Woman) was my hashtag. God provided the spark. Baby on my hip and one on my lap. I Listened and judged while the babes (your moms) nursed and napped. Under the palm tree day after day, this one told me his tzores and that one complained of his neighbors. The Rabbis thought I sat under that palm tree outside because it was proper and more appropriate, but the truth was it was hard enough keeping the house tidy with my crazy working hours and an active family and I didn’t want everybody traipsing in with their dirty, dusty feet. I got good at the judging gig and the people listened to me and trusted me and my reputation grew. read more

Self-Ownership—by Ayala Emmett

January 27, 2015Articles

Republican leaders came to Washington last week to do the people’s business. They were rightly energized by the elections and animated by the fact that they now have a comfortable majority in both houses of congress.

The House of Representatives chose as its first piece of legislation a bill to criminalize most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. They hoped to have the vote to restrict self-ownership on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22, 2015. The Republican bill failed because women within its own ranks said, “No.” read more

Self-Ownership—by Ayala Emmett

March 25, 2015Uncategorized

http://www.politico.com/wuerker/2014/06/june-2014/001868-027314.html

For the Moses Cartoon
http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/r/reproductive_rights.asp
Self-Ownership—by Ayala Emmett
Republican leaders came to Washington last week to do the people’s business. They were rightly energized by the elections and animated by the fact that they now have a comfortable majority in both houses of congress. There are numerous issues facing the nation in 2015, such as endemic racism, immigration, growing economic disparities, soaring students loans, crumbling infrastructure, failing schools, and global warming. read more

Leah and Rachel: Two Midrashic Poems–by Ahavya Deutsch & Ayala Emmett

January 23, 2015Poetry

I. Leah Knows the Secret of Joy—by Ahavya Deutsch

Leah knows the secret of joy.
She names her children, instead of nursing her loneliness.
Even after all these years, she trades her bitterness for one more night with Jacob.
She turns her tender eyes inward. She turns her tender eyes upward.
If Rachel is the flame, Leah is the wood that’s burning.
And she is not consumed.

II. Rachel Loved Leah*—by Ayala Emmett

At sunrise the mother died.
In the tent the women wept,
Leah, soft eyes and seven years
lifted the flailing, helpless baby
“Rachel” she whispered.
She wrapped her in their mothers’ still warm multicolor shawl
letting the slave woman nurse her
when she cried and Laban hated her.
Leah held her tight,
“I will never leave you.” read more

Narrative of a Trip to Israel and the West Bank: Part IV, Hebron—by Peter Eisenstadt

January 21, 2015Articles

Narrative of a Trip to Israel and the West Bank: IV Hebron
Peter Eisenstadt

The highlight and lowlight of our time in Israel was definitely the scalding day we spent in Hebron, the most populous city in the West Bank, and the only one with settlers in the middle of the city. If you’re not a settler, the only way to get into downtown Hebron is on a roundabout, twisting and turning road. Our taxi got lost, though Kathy found the way. She has spent much time in Hebron as a member of an NGO that seeks, non-violently, to interpose itself between the IDF and the city’s residents, and document the daily violence exacted on Palestinians in Hebron, and we were staying at the NGO’s apartment. We arrived at their apartment, at the end of a street that has been barricaded and surrounded by barbed wire by settlers, blocking access to Hebron’s main thoroughfare, Shuhada Street. It is near the central poultry market of Hebron. Most of the dealers, save one, have left, but at least one brave rooster remained to wake me up (and I hoped, a few of the settlers on the other side of the wall) around 3 AM. read more

ARBEIT MACHT FREI*—by Gertrud J. Lind

January 21, 2015Poetry

Arbeit Macht Frie — Arbeit Macht Frei at Auschwitz

ARBEIT MACHT* FREI
Gertrud J. Lind

Reviled German words: “Work Sets You Free” or “Work”, “Power”, “Free”.
Bringing visions of multitudes who slaved behind that gate,
Each one surely praying for the last, to be “frei”.
In the middle of “Macht”, the mighty Nazi power,
They were caught, “frei” only their “Arbeit”, their labor.

Madness reigned behind these words,
And madness and very
Clever calculation drove that “Macht”.
Hate unleashed, unchecked, unchallenged.
Think what it did. read more

January 21, 2015Uncategorized

Gertrud J. Lind

https://defending

ARBEIT MACHT* FREI—by Gertrud J. Lind
Reviled German words: “Work Sets You Free” or “Work”, “Power”, “Free”.
Bringing visions of multitudes who slaved behind that gate,
Each one surely praying for the last, to be “frei”.
In the middle of “Macht”, the mighty Nazi power,
They were caught, “frei” only their “Arbeit”, their labor.

Madness reigned behind these words,
And madness and very
Clever calculation drove that “Macht”.
Hate unleashed, unchecked, unchallenged.
Think what it did. read more

Signs of Hope for Peace and Social Justice in Israel on MLK Day—by Ayala Emmett

January 19, 2015Articles

Signs of Hope for Peace and Social Justice in Israel on MLK Day

A Million Hands for Peace signs in a garden in Israel Photo by Matia Kam — A Million Hands for Peace signs in a garden in Israel
Photo by Matia Kam

A Million Hands for Peace, an unaffiliated citizens’ organization in Israel for peace and social justice has come up recently with two major campaign goals: to encourage citizens’ participation in the coming elections in Israel and to put pressure on political parties to commit to achieving an agreement with Palestinians for two states for two people and to take immediate measures to reduce the highest ever social disparity in Israel and an out of control soaring cost of living. read more

Presence and Absence of Naming & Names in Torah—by Matia Kam

January 16, 2015Parsha Insights

Presence and Absence of Naming & Names in Torah
Matia Kam

dura-ark3--Moses-ascension-(1) — Moses Fresco National Museum of Syria, Damascus Date: 244

On Being a Levite
“These are the names of Lev’s sons according to their lineage” (6:16)
“Amram took for a wife his father’s sister Jochebed and she bore him Aaron and Moses”(6:20)
Torah begins chapter six with a list of names and lineages to place Aaron and Moses in the genealogy as the descendants of Kohath, one of Levi’s sons. The list of names starts with Reuben, the eldest, followed by Simeon, who was followed by Levi. This outlines the lineage and takes up the names Amram and Jochebed who were nameless in the previous Parsha (mentioned there only as a Levite man and a Levite woman, and as “the child’s mother”). In this Parsha, in chapter six we have a detailed four-generation family that includes names of Aaron’s wife, his children’s names and his grandson Phinehas. So who is absent from the list? Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron and most significantly Moses’ wife and children are absent. This is curious since the text states twice that the purpose of the list is to describe “Aaron and Moses” (6:26-27) yet it surely strikes us that Moses family is not mentioned. read more

March 25, 2015Uncategorized

Presence and Absence of Naming & Names in Torah—by Matia Kam

Presence and Absence of Naming & Names in Torah
Matia Kam

On Being a Levite

“These are the names of Lev’s sons according to their lineage” (6:16)
“Amram took for a wife his father’s sister Jochebed and she bore him Aaron and Moses”(6:20)

Torah begins chapter six with a list of names and lineages to place Aaron and Moses in the genealogy as the descendants of Kohath, one of Levi’s sons. The list of names starts with Reuben, the eldest, followed by Simeon, who was followed by Levi. This outlines the lineage and takes up the names Amram and Jochebed who were nameless in the previous Parsha (mentioned there only as a Levite man and a Levite woman, and as “the child’s mother”). In this Parsha, in chapter six we have a detailed four-generation family that includes names of Aaron’s wife, his children’s names and his grandson Phinehas. So who is absent from the list? Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron and most significantly Moses’ wife and children are absent. This is curious since the text states twice that the purpose of the list is to describe “Aaron and Moses” (6:26-27) yet it surely strikes us that Moses family is not mentioned. read more