Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on July 14, 2017

Norman,

directed by Joseph Cedar

(R, 1 hour, 58 minutes)

Norman Oppenheimer is a guy who claims to have more inside information than you figure he can, who only wants a minute of your time to pitch you on a deal that could work out for everyone. He's a name dropper who tends to exaggerate his importance. Maybe you've listened politely to Norman, maybe you've brushed him off.

He's not a bad guy. It's just that he pushes a little too hard.

We meet Norman doing what he does. He tries to trade on the slightest connection, he ambushes captains of industry in the streets, and he is, sometimes kindly but always firmly, rebuffed.

But then he catches low-level Israeli politician Micha Eshel (Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi) -- the deputy of a deputy minister -- at a vulnerable time.

Three years later, that politician is elected prime minister of Israel. Norman is in the crowd, clapping and smiling beatifically. Maybe that vulnerability will pay off for him.

Norman is remarkable for the gentle and precisely calibrated performances of Richard Gere, who plays (once again) against his dashing type as the deferential yet dignified would-be deal maker, and Ashkenazi, who as Eshel displays genuine affection and gratitude for Norman.

Director Cedar has crafted a bright and modest movie about ordinary people running up against their limitations. That might sound like a weak response to the superheroes on the loose this summer, but if you're looking for something a little more grown up, a little less sweet, have I got a deal for you.

With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Steve Buscemi, Michael Sheen.

Their Finest (R, 1 hour, 57 minutes) This witty, meandering, intelligent comedic drama, set in London in 1940, concerns the hiring of Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) to write female dialogue for morale-boosting propaganda films produced by the British government, which leads her to work on an epic feature based on the Dunkirk rescue starring former matinee idol Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy). With Sam Claflin. Richard E. Grant, Jake Lacy; directed by Lone Scherfig.

The Fate of the Furious (PG-13, 2 hours, 16 minutes) The kinetic horsepower-fueled franchise returns for the eighth time, predictable as ever, with the classy addition of Charlize Theron as a coolly competent villain named Cipher and a cameo by Helen Mirren. With Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Kurt Russell, Jason Statham and Scott Eastwood; directed by F. Gary Gray.

Violet (not rated, 1 hour, 25 minutes) An ambitious, quiet, and tautly focused psychological drama, set in a rural area of Belgium. A vicious attack on a teenager at a mall forces the kid's 15-year-old friend, Jesse (Cesar De Sutter), to try to come to grips with senseless trauma. Could he have prevented the violence? With Mira Helmer; directed by Bas Devos.

The Lost City of Z (PG-13, 2 hours, 21 minutes) A long-winded yet spirited and elegant portrayal of ambitious British 20th-century explorer Percy Fawcett (a fine performance by Charlie Hunnam) who, while exploring remote reaches of the lush Amazon jungle in Bolivia, encounters signs of a previously undiscovered civilization and hears rumors of a city no white man has ever seen. Based on the nonfiction book by David Grann. With Tom Holland, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson; directed by James Gray.

MovieStyle on 07/14/2017

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Home Movies - Arkansas Online

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Posted By richards on July 14, 2017

Lexington Herald Leader

Counseling can help you decide whether to get genetic testing Lexington Herald Leader ... type of cancer, the age at diagnosis, multiple cancers in the same patient, clustering of breast, gastrointestinal and gynecologic malignancy in close relatives, or certain cancers arising in patient of Ashkenazi (central or eastern European ...

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Counseling can help you decide whether to get genetic testing - Lexington Herald Leader

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Posted By admin on July 14, 2017

Couples thinking about kids can be screened for genes that may cause disease in their offspring.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently recommended obstetricians, gynaecologists and other related health care providers offer pre-pregnancy carrier screening for genetic diseases to all patients.

Pre-pregnancy carrier screening involves testing healthy adults for the presence of gene mutations that cause diseases that are not present in them, but if both parents have the same recessive gene, could eventuate in their children. This includes diseases such as cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophies.

If both partners in a couple carry the same recessive disease, then the couple have a one in four chance of a child with that disease. Carrier couples may therefore have multiple affected children. Some recessive diseases are relatively mild but others are severe, including many that cause death at or shortly after birth.

Newton Morton, one of the founders of genetic epidemiology, estimated from population data as long ago as 1956 that each of us is a carrier of three to five lethal recessive mutations and this has been confirmed by more recent research. This means we are all carriers of something, but most of us are generally unaware of our carrier status unless we have an affected child.

Historically, pre-pregnancy carrier screening programs have been tailored for specific population groups who are more likely to have a recessive disease. For example, the recessive brain condition Tay-Sachs disease, which is usually fatal in early childhood, has a high incidence in the Ashkenazi-Jewish community.

In 1969 it was discovered the loss of an enzyme (called hexosaminidase A) causes the disease. This led to the development of tests allowing carriers for Tay-Sachs disease to be identified. The first pre-pregnancy carrier screening programs in the Ashkenazi population followed in the 1970s. Since then the incidence of Tay-Sachs disease has reduced by more than 90%.

Other such targeted pre-pregnancy carrier screening programs exist in other parts of the world. For example in Mediterranean countries where there is a high rate of the recessive blood disease thalassaemia, pre-pregnancy carrier screening was offered and this also resulted in a reduction in the incidence of the disease.

Today, the country with the most comprehensive pre-pregnancy carrier screening program is Israel. It introduced a national program in 2003 and by 2015, the program was screening approximately 60,000 people annually for nearly 100 recessive conditions. The Israeli program is tailored to the different ethnic groups in the country, but also includes diseases common in all ethnic groups such as spinal muscular atrophy.

Diagnostic laboratories around the world are now using technology that can sequence multiple individuals for hundreds of disorders at once. This technology is used to diagnose many different types of genetic diseases and is more effective than standard diagnostic testing. It has also been investigated for carrier screening and can detect carriers of multiple recessive disorders.

When pre-pregnancy carrier screening programs are introduced, they reduce death and disease associated with the screened diseases. They can save families from experiencing the tragedy of a child affected by a significant genetic disease. They also reduce the burden of recessive disease within the population as a whole.

Each recessive disease is rare but there are hundreds of recessive diseases and so collectively they have wide-ranging social and economic impacts. A study of 50 severe recessive diseases found their collective incidence to be greater than that of Down syndrome (one in 600 compared to one in 1,100).

So pre-pregnancy carrier screening programs that include many genetic diseases, as now recommended by the American College, would maximise knowledge of genetic risk for couples.

When testing genes, some identified variations are definitely harmful while most are definitely harmless. But for some variations we cant be sure if they are harmful, and whether or not they will cause disease in any children.

And some mutations, called de novo mutations, arise spontaneously during the development of a child. These mutations cannot be detected by pre-pregnancy screening.

So while the risk of having an affected child is reduced by pre-pregnancy carrier screening, it is not eliminated.

There are no guarantees that pre-pregnancy screening will result in a healthy baby, but it will allow couples options to reduce the burden of disease associated with known disease-causing mutations.

Counselling is required before and after the test to explain the risks to couples.

There is little health risk from the test, no more than the risk associated with taking a blood sample. The cost may be prohibitive for many couples, though. While it depends on the number of genes screened, costs may be several hundred dollars per person.

A small number of targeted pre-pregnancy carrier screening programs have been in place in Australia for a number of years including for Ashkenazi populations, for individuals with a family history of various diseases, and in IVF clinics. In Victoria the Victorian Clinical Genetics Service offers private pre-pregnancy carrier screening.

Several Australian groups, such as the Australian Genomics Health Alliance, are researching ways to screen larger numbers of genes. It remains to be seen if Australian bodies will make similar recommendations to those in the US.

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Explainer: what is pre-pregnancy carrier screening and should potential parents consider it? - The Conversation AU

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Posted By simmons on July 14, 2017

Before we were disturbed by a dust-up among Jews about the Western Wall and conversion, we were befuddled by another delegation of ranking Americans prodding Israelis and Palestinians to sit around a table and make peace. What these worthies do not grasp is that there already is peace. It aint perfect, but its close to the best thats possible. Alongside the well-known constraints in both Palestinian and Israeli politics in the way of agreement on all the issues that would allow a celebration of formal peace, there are ample signs that both populations get along reasonably well.

In recent days, with Ramadan coming to a close and reaching a peak celebration of Eid al Fitr, there were several indications of the integration in what is described by the superficial as the divided city of Jerusalem. Our neighborhood supermarket and grocery store werent working up to snuff, because a substantial number of workers were on halftime or less, due to fasting and family gatherings. Jerusalem buses werent running on schedule, on account of a large number of Arab drivers not working full time. Should we view those inconveniences as problems we should not tolerate, or as positive signs that Arabs and Jews work alongside one another and depend on one another?

Fridays during Ramadan, and especially the last Friday of the month, were occasions for Jews to avoid the Old City. More than a hundred thousand Muslims came each Friday from throughout East Jerusalem, and on buses from the West Bank, and Gaza to pray on what Jews call the Temple Mount. In order to accommodate those prostrating themselves, much of its extent becomes part of al-Aqsa Mosque. Is this another inconvenience for Jews that should be viewed as intolerable, or as the price of sharing a city with more than two millennia of being sensitive to many?

To be sure, there remains a lack of harmony and a surplus of bitterness, memories of insults and offense, as well as daily attacks by Arabs against Jews and a few attacks of Jews against ArabsWe can compare the feelings, the violence, and fears with those of other contentious locales, including European cities with growing Muslim populations as well as multi-racial American cities.

The first objection well hear is that it isnt the same. Of course not. There are always differences in detail between settings with unique histories. The comparison of Israeli-Arab relations today (both locally and region-wide) with those that prevailed in years past will show improvements along with assertions that the improvements are superficial, and expectations that there is another uptick in violence waiting to occur.With all the cynicism that it is appropriate to direct against a peace process comes a sentiment that its a good idea. As Winston said, Jaw Jaw is better than War War.

And there are a lot of diplomats who have to be kept busy, and away from more serious problems they may make worse. Ideally, theyll focus on adjusting the pragmatic arrangements, well below anything approaching a formal peace accord, but useful in keeping tensions at a manageable level.

Its appropriate to list some of the prominent minuses and pluses of where we are in these detailed accommodations. Perhaps most prominent are the fears and tensions faced by Israelis concerned about the possibilities of violence, and the tensions felt by Palestinians and Arabs at the checkpoints, the documents required for Palestinians to enter Israel for work, medical treatment, family visits, or religious observances, the wall that meanders through the West Bank, the presence of numerous police and security personnel at points of contact between Arabs and Jews, the occasional closures of Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem in response to violence, and the ethnic profiling that subjects Arabs to greater scrutiny than Jews.

As in other countries, not all Israeli security personnel handle their tasks with the delicacy and courtesy that would be ideal. Arabs feel constrained, and occasionally murder those among themselves who are said to be informants of Israeli security services, while Israelis endanger themselves by working with the Arabs of Israel, Palestinians, and in other Muslim societies formally closed to Israelis. Pressures brought on potential informants might not be pleasant, but are among the details of national security we do not have to discuss.

Both Jews and Arabs suffer from memories of historical injustices associated with wars that caused losses in both communities. Jews complain about budget and tax distortions, compared to other western countries, justified by expenditures on security. Arabs complain about limitations on their localities budgets and services within Israel, and occasional destruction of buildings said to be illegal in Arab towns and neighborhoods, which they say are brought about by the governments failure to provide organized planning and building permits for Arab areas.

Israeli Arabs admit to higher levels of violence among themselves than among Jews, but blame Israel for not providing police protection to their communities, while the Israeli police complain about a lack of cooperation from Arabs in identifying perpetrators. Jews complain about the lack of cooperation from Arabs with respect to the payment of taxes and compliance with a host of laws and regulations, ranging from those against polygamy to building standards and highway safety.

Jews question the wisdom of Arabs selecting uncompromising nationalists as their representatives in Knesset, and the refusal of Jerusalem Arabs to vote, and thereby use their political potential to select a third of the municipal council and to choose a mayor in the chronic competition between secular and ultra-Orthodox Jews.

High on the Jews list of complaints is the incitement coming from Arab and Palestinian politicians, distortions of history in Palestinian school books, and routine assertions of innocence and reverence paid to those who attack Jews.

The symbols of accommodation are less prominent than the tangible indications. Israeli and Palestinian flags seldom appear alongside one another. Gazans and West Bankers have their complaints against Israel, but the living standards and political opportunities in both sectors do not fall below those available in other Muslim or Third World countries. Social indicators show that Israeli Arabs live as well, and according to some indicators better than minorities in the U.S. and Europe.

Sure, the glass is only half-full, but half-full aint all that bad. We can hope that Trump et al will focus on detailed adjustments that improve things for both Israelis and Palestinians. In all probability, well have to do without the full glasses of champagne to mark the culmination of a peace process along with a ceremony of public signing and celebration.

Jews will continue quarreling among ourselves, as weve done from the get go. Yet unlike extremist Muslims or Christians obsessed with abortion or some other abomination, we havent killed one another in significant numbers on account of religious or political disputes since those wars that Josephus wrote about. Yitzhak Rabin was a significant exception. Thats something to remember, while were quarreling about whatever is in the headlines.

Comments welcome. irashark@gmail.com.

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Posted By simmons on July 14, 2017

If the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) had invested as much time, energy and other peoples money in building a flourishing society as they do in the pursuit of death and destruction, there would be no need for outside efforts to broker peace between them and their Israeli counterparts. It takes only about 30 minutes to drive from the Muqataa compound in Ramallah to the Prime Ministers Office in Jerusalem. Yet it is still easier for dignitaries from the United States and Europe to spend hours on flights to Tel Aviv for the purpose of talking about a two-state solution than it is for PA President Mahmoud Abbas to budge in any direction other than backwards.

Take this week, for instance, which began with the Palestinians refusal to host US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman whom USPresident Donald Trump has included in his Mideast peacemaking team, along with advisers Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner in Ramallah. Friedman is too pro-Israel, as far as Abbas is concerned. As a result, the meeting between American and Palestinian officials on Tuesday took place at the King David Hotel in west Jerusalem.

On Thursday, Greenblatt joined fellow envoys of the Middle East Quartet the US (which he represents), the European Union, the United Nations and Russia in Jerusalem to discuss current efforts to advance Middle East peace, as well as the deteriorating situation in Gaza.

July 14, 2017 11:10 am

Also on Thursday, Greenblatt announced that Israel had agreed to sell the PA 1.2 billion cubic feet of water. This, he said, in addition to an electricity deal reached between Israel and the PA on Monday, will improve the Palestinians standard of living.

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC on Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducted a hearing on the proposed Taylor Force Act, named after the former US Army officer who, while on a trip to Israel in March 2016, was stabbed to death by a knife-wielding Palestinian on a rampage in Tel Aviv. The bill, cosponsored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dan Coats (R-Ind.) and Roy Blunt (R-Miss.), aims to halt American aid to the PA until it stops paying salaries and stipends to imprisoned terrorists and the families of those martyred while murdering Israelis.

Testifying before the committee on behalf of the bill, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations Elliott Abrams who served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration railed against the Palestinian practice of making payments to individuals convicted of acts of terror, and their families or survivors, in accordance with the severity of their acts and the length of their sentences. The predictable effect of this practice, he said, is to reward and incentivize acts of terror.

Pointing to the billions of dollars that the US has poured into the PA since its establishment in the 1990s, Abrams said, As long as the Palestinian government is in effect rewarding terror, we need to be sure we make our objections our condemnation known, and that cannot be merely in words. Our assistance program must reflect our feeling of repugnance. He then proposed a revision to the bill that would enable the US to continue funding hospitals and other projects that benefit the Palestinian people, while preventing the money from lining the pockets of corrupt bureaucrats.

Whether this carrot-and-stick approach to the PA was purposeful or inadvertent is unclear. What is certain, however, is that the PA president is not turning over a new leaf. Earlier this month, as Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported, Abbas was quoted on Fatahs official Facebook page as proclaiming: Even if I have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary of a martyr or a prisoner, as I am the president of the entire Palestinian people, including the prisoners, the martyrs, the injured, the expelled and the uprooted.

This sentiment was echoed recently by PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Hamdallah who launched the first-ever Palestinian-owned power substation in Jenin with Israeli National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz on Monday, and signed the electricity deal touted by Greenblatt vowed last month to continue rewarding terrorists.

On June 16, according to PMW, the official PA newspaper quoted Hamdallah announcing: On behalf ofAbbas and our Palestinian people, I salute all of the martyrs families[and] emphasize to them that their rights are protectedWe remember the sacrifices and struggle of the pure martyrs, guardians of the land and identity, who have turned our peoples cause into a historical epic of struggle and resolve.

Hamdallahs reassurance came on the heels of US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons claim that the PAs intent is to cease the payments to the families of those who have committed murder or violence against others. Ironically, both Israeli and Palestinian officials were incensed by the statement, and Tillerson was forced to modify it. Washington and Ramallah he said the following day are engaged in an active discussion on the matter.

So far, however, all Abbas has done is call the shots on the venue of a meeting between his honchos and Trumps team, agree to water and electricity deals that benefit the PA and give the White House cause for false optimism. Undoubtedly, he has already figured out how to get around the Taylor Force Act, if and when it passes. A revised, bipartisan version of the bill, in particular geared toward guaranteeing that ordinary Palestinians are not robbed of humanitarian services as a result of their leaders violations will provide him with sufficient loopholes to keep his martyrs in clover.

Ramallah may be a mere 10 miles from Jerusalem, but it like peace is light-years away.

Ruthie Blum is an editor at the Gatestone Institute

This piece was originally published in Israel Hayom.

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Peace Is Light-Years Away - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on July 14, 2017

The Anti-Defamation League strongly condemned on Friday the deadly terror attack near the Temple Mount, which killed two Israeli police officers and left a third injured.

For decades, there has been unceasing incitement against Israel, rife with false allegations about policies and actions in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount, from Palestinian and Israeli Arab religious and political leaders, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, and Director of ADLs Israel Office Carole Nuriel wrote in a joint statement.

They added that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemnation of the attack in a phone call to Prime Minister Netanyahu was appropriate but not sufficient.

He and other Palestinian and Arab political and religious leaders must now take concrete action to curb anti-Israel incitement, they added.

We send our deepest condolences to the families of those killed, as well as to the entire Israeli National Police force community, and hope for the quick recovery of those injured.

Three terrorists opened fire on a group of policemen near Lions' Gate in Jerusalems Old City on Friday morning, killing twoIsraeli police officers and injuring two more before the attackers were killed by police.

The attackers were later identified by the Shin Bet as 29-year-old Muhammad Ahmad Mahmoud Jabarin, Muhammad Ahmed Fadel Jabarin 19, and Muhammad Hamed 'Abd al-Latif Jabarin, 19, from Umm el-Fahm in northern Israel. The assailants fled to the Temple Mount where they were killed by police officers. Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said guns were found in their possession.

Jpost.com Staff contributed to this article.

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Posted By simmons on July 13, 2017

"I wish no one cared what celebrities think about the situation in Israel," actress Mayim Bialik wrote in 2014.

Bialik, who plays Amy Farrah Fowler on the hit sitcom "The Big Bang Theory," may be out of luck. She's a big celebrity, and the Israel-Palestine issue is a contentious one.

And the self-proclaimed chatterbox, who actually can't speak right now a doctor-ordered voice break due to long-term strain on her vocal cords didn't hold back when HuffPost Canada asked her opinions via email.

The observant Jew calls herself both a proud Zionist, which means that she supports the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish state, and a proud liberal.

She told HuffPost Canada that her family lives in the Israeli settlements, which are civilian communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The United Nations Security Council has called the settlements illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, but Bialik tells HuffPost she'll leave the last word to the people who live there.

"I do not get to decide unless I choose to move to Israel where I think people should and shouldn't live," she said.

"I know there is complexity to the situation with settlements and I don't always understand or ever understand [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu, but I respectfully insist that Israel has a right to exist and that peace and coexistence is a main goal of mine as a liberal Zionist Jew."

The mom of two spoke out a few months ago on her website, GrokNation, in response to an interview with Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, in which Sarsour disagreed with the idea that Zionism and feminism could co-exist.

"You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none," Sarsour said.

Bialik wrote that she was both a Zionist and a feminist, and that the former movement encompasses a wide variety of perspectives on both the Israeli occupation of the region and the settlements.

"Accusing Zionism of being incompatible with feminism is exceptionally short-sighted," she wrote. It smarts of a broad-stroke bias against the entire Jewish people for the violations that occur in a state that was founded on the principles of Zionism."

She also doesn't like the use of the word "occupation" to describe Israel's control over the territories, which include the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, calling it "inflammatory."

"[It] paints a not entirely accurate picture especially for people who don't know anything about Israel or the matzav [situation] much like calling Israel an apartheid state," she told HuffPost.

The UN Security Council, General Assembly and the International Court of Justice consider Israel to be the occupying power in the territories.

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The actor expressed her anger at queer Jewish women being asked to leave Chicago's dyke march last month because they were carrying Jewish Pride flags, telling HuffPost she thought it was "disgusting and absurd."

Bialik courted controversy in 2014 when she donated money to send bulletproof vests to Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

Before her imposed talking break, Bialik also recently filmed a funny commercial for Israeli company SodaStream.

The company was targeted by a boycott campaign because one of its factories was in a West Bank settlement. The factory has since been moved.

But while Bialik may seem an unabashed champion of Israel, she has reflected in the past on her own conclusions.

In the same 2014 piece for Kveller, she wrote that watching the Mel Gibson movie "Braveheart" led her to ask some pointed questions, including whether the people who hate her for being Jewish because she supports Israel's right to exist are anti-Semitic.

"Is the freedom that William Wallace fought and died for 1,000 years ago in Scotland the same freedom that the Palestinian people fight for?" she wrote. "And is that freedom the same as the freedom for Israeli citizens to live without rockets falling on you and without your neighbors rallying actively for you to be pushed into the sea simply because you exist as a Jew?"

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Mayim Bialik Calls Herself A Proud Zionist And A Proud Liberal - Huffington Post Canada

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2017

Here in northern New Jersey, we live in the cultural and religious shadow of New York City.

Sure, we have fine synagogues and top-notch day schools and even excellent kosher restaurants. But face it: You have to cross the Hudson River to find a rabbinical seminary or a national Jewish organization.

Which makes it noteworthy that a young Teaneck educational institution is bringing students to Jersey.

The institution is Lamdeinu thats Hebrew for teach us and it is a community beit midrash, a house of study for adults, offering classes in Talmud, Tanach, and other Jewish subjects. It holds its classes in Congregation Beth Aaron in Teaneck, but it aims to draw students from the entire community.

And as it has developed in the three years since it began in July 2014, the community includes both banks of the Hudson.

A large percentage of our students are from outside the Teaneck area, Rachel Friedman said. Ms. Friedman is dean of Lamdeinu. She is a former associate dean of Drisha, the Manhattan beit midrash that was one of the first Orthodox institutions to provide advanced Talmud training to women.

During the summer, Lamdeinu has an advanced Talmud class restricted to women many of whom work as teachers and have their summers free. During the year it has a women-only Talmud class for students with less Talmud experience. Most classes, however, are coed.

We teach at a very high level but we are not a graduate school, Ms. Friedman said. People come to Lamdeinu to enrich and enhance their religious lives through learning the richest part of our tradition.

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Learning with Lamdeinu - The Jewish Standard

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Posted By simmons on July 13, 2017

Photo Credit: Jewish Press

The Longest Mesechta? We Shall Return To You (Bava Basra 176b)

Mazel Tov to all those Daf Yomi participants who are finishing Mesechta Bava Basra.

* * * * *

The last daf of Tractate Bava Basra is numbered 176, making Bava Basra the longest tractate in the Babylonian Talmud. Those exploring connections between various units of the Oral and Written Torah note that the longest portion of the Chumash, Parshas Naso, contains 176 verses while the chapter with the most verses in Tanach, Chapter 119 of Tehillim, also contains 176 verses.

The Gaons Observation

If not for the comparatively long commentary by the Rashbam, Rashis grandson, Bava Basra would not be the longest tractate. As the Vilna Gaon observes, Berachos is actually the longest tractate, although, when published, it only comprises 64 dapim (since it has little commentary as its subject matter is less complicated than that of other mesechtos).

One Tractate Three Gates

In truth, though, Bava Basra only part of a much longer mesechta. Rav Yosef says (Bava Kamma 102a) that Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, and Bava Basra are really one tractate divided into three parts. Bava means gate. Thus, Bava Kamma is the first gate, Bava Metzia is the middle gate, and Bava Basra is the last gate. Indeed, ancient manuscripts show all three tractates as one tractate divided into 30 chapters. Interestingly, Rabbi Levi ben Chaviv criticized Mahari Beirav calling Bava Kamma Tractate Kamma as the entire Bava Kamma is only the first gate of a longer tractate (Responsa Ralbach 147).

Halachic Implications

This topic has halachic implications. The Gemara (Bava Kamma 102a) explains that if the Mishnah mentions a difference of opinions regarding a certain halacha and then later mentions just one of the opinions stam, i.e., without mentioning that it is the opinion of only one tanna, we must assume that Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, the redactor of the Mishnah, ruled according to that opinion. This rule is valid, however, only if all the opinions appear in the same tractate and the Gemara therefore attributes importance to the question of whether Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, and Bava Basra should be regarded as one tractate or not.

Ignorance And Derision

During the Mendel Beilis blood libel trial of 1913, the Talmud itself was used to support allegations against the Jews. The prosecutors, however, were so ignorant that one of them held up a tractate Bava Basra and called it the last grandmother, hinting at its sinister significance (baba in Russian means grandmother). The Jews present at the trial had to stifle their laughs.

Sanhedrin And Makkos One Tractate?

Some maintain that Sanhedrin and Makkos also comprise one tractate, containing 14 chapters, and a few old manuscripts do indeed combine these two tractates. The Rambam mentions, but rejects, this opinion in the introduction to his commentary on the Mishnah. On the other hand, the Ramban (Devarim 21:13, etc.) and the Rashba (Kiddushin 22a) cite a passage from Talmud Yerushalmis Tractate Sanhedrin when the passage actually appears in Makkos.

The Ralbag (Parshas Mishpatim, Shoresh 16) also calls chapter 2 of Makkos chapter 13 of Sanhedrin, and the commentary Meleches Shlomo on the Mishnah mentions that most of the sefarim he has seen designate the conclusion of Makkos the end of chapter 14 of Sanhedrin.

According to the opinion that Makkos and Sanhedrin are one mesechta, Seder Nizikin is possibly organized according the number of chapters each mesechta has. Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, and Bava Basra together have 30 chapters; Sanhedrin with Makkos together have 14 chapters; Shevuos has eight chapters; Eduyos has eight chapters; Avodah Zarah has five chapters; Avos has five chapters (chapter 6 is actually a beraisa); and Horayos has three chapters (see Margalios HaYam at the beginning of Sanhedrin and the last page concerning Tractate Avodah Zarah).

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Daf Yomi - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By richards on July 13, 2017

If somebody asked you to name the most important verse in the Torah, what would you say? The Jerusalem Talmud actually discusses this question. In this talmudic passage, Rabbi Akiba proposes the verse: Love your fellow person as you love yourself (Leviticus 19:18).

No doubt, Rabbi Akibas choice is a worthy one. Loving your fellow person as yourself is about putting yourself in another persons shoes. It is about the foundational ethical and emotional imperative of empathy, of being attuned and sensitized to the feelings and sentiments of another person.

This perspective also is endorsed by Rabbi Hillel the Elder in the Babylonian Talmud. When asked by a prospective convert to recite the entirety of the Torah while standing on one foot, Hillel famously stated: Dont do unto another that which is hateful to you. The rest is commentary, now go and learn.

But not everybody concurs with this answer that loving another person as you love yourself is the klal gadol baTorah (fundamental Torah principle). According to Ben Azzai, a second-century contemporary of Rabbi Akiba, the overarching metaprinciple of the Torah is to be found in Genesis 5:1, a verse which includes the statement that man is created in the likeness of God.

If Rabbi Akibas choice was to opt for a verse that is a cornerstone of human psychology, then Rabbi Ben Azzai opted for a verse with far-reaching consequences for political thought. According to Rashi, Ben Azzai argues that because we all are fashioned in the Divine image, we all possess innate, intrinsic and nonnegotiable human dignity and worth, and thus must not be dehumanized, discriminated against or murdered.

Indeed, the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible are quoted hundreds of times in the works of political theorists such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant and John Locke, who envisaged modern-day representative democracy. There is a clear and pervasive linkage between the Torahs revolutionary notion that we all are in Gods image and the modern application of this sacred ideal in the American Declaration of Independence (All men are created equal) and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, endorsed by the French National Assembly after the French Revolution.

The prayer Shema Yisrael, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one (Deuteronomy 6:4), also can be regarded as the central verse of the Torah. Spiritually and theologically, the Shema may indeed be the prime verse of the Torah, as it captures the monistic unity of God, and also the kabbalistic-panentheistic insight that everything which exists is contained within the infinity and eternity of the oneness of God.

In addition to the three cardinal verses discussed so far, there is a fourth contender for the most central verse in the Torah.

In the midrashic anthology Ein Yaakov, compiled by the 15th-century Sephardic sage Rabbi Yaakov ben Habib, we find this verse, which is brought forth in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi. According to ben Pazi, the chief verse of the Torah appears in this weeks parsha, and it reads: You shall offer the first lamb in the morning, and the second lamb during twilight (Numbers 28:4).

This is most perplexing. After all, this verse seems to be discussing a mere administrative technicality, namely, what is the prompt and opportune time at which to bring forth the Temple offerings. A contemporary reader might easily glance over this verse and dismiss it as mere ancient esotericism.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The reason ben Pazi crowns this precious verse as the most cardinal one in the Torah is because he has the genius to understand that there is only one thing that truly attests to a persons character his deeds.

The key to success and growth in any field of human endeavor, this verse implies, is daily regularity. For example, if I want to be a spiritual person, then I should pray every day, thrice daily, and not just when the spirit moves me.

All too often, people seek a breakthrough in their lives and strive to attain growth in one large stride. Thats not the most effective way, implies our verse. The best way to become your highest self to awaken the giant within, in the words of Tony Robbins is simply to put in the work, day in and day out.

Or as the late Stephen Covey explained in his masterful work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, it is precisely our habits, the things we regularly do, that define us, who we are and what we stand for.

No non-Jewish sage appreciated and internalized the veracity of this universal truth better than Aristotle, who already observed 2 1/2 millennia ago that excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

Shabbat shalom.

Rabbi Tal Sessleris senior rabbi of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel. He is the author of several books dealing with philosophy and contemporary Jewish identity.

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Parashat Pinchas: You are what you consistently do - Jewish Journal

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