Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 22, 2020

Most religious congregation continue to hold services and classes/lectures online due to the coronavirus pandemic concerns and restrictions.

Here is a sampling of upcoming services and events.

Permanent Diaconate Ordination Mass: Archbishop Jos H. Gomez celebrates the Mass during which 11 men will be named as permanent deacons, 9 a.m. Aug. 22. The Mass will be live streamed from Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral in Los Angeles. Watch here: lacatholics.org/diaconate

St. Innocent Orthodox Church: The Rev. Yousuf Rassam leads the Great Vespers service, 5:30 p.m. Aug. 22 (watch on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/StInnocentTarzana). The Divine Liturgy is outdoors and open to the public, 9:30 a.m. Aug. 23. 5657 Lindley Ave., Tarzana. 818-881-1123. Church website: stioctca.orthodoxws.com

Regathering Weekend at Shepherd Church: Indoor services, 6 p.m. Aug. 22, and 9 and 11 a.m. Aug. 23 at all locations plus and online viewing (live.shepherdchurch.com). Locations: 19700 Rinaldi St., Porter Ranch, 818-831-9333; 5901 De Soto Ave., Woodland Hills, 818-888-7501; 34709 Agua Dulce Road, Agua Dulce, 661-268-1488). Email: mail@shepherdchurch.com. For details on the Regathering: http://www.shepherdchurch.com/weekend. http://www.theshepherd.org/#

West Valley Christian Church: Pastor Jim Bell discusses How to Be a Star, at an outdoor service, 6 p.m. Aug. 22 (under the awning on the southeast side of the property). The Rev. Rob Denton explains Fish and Chips, part of the Gone Fishin sermon series, based on Luke 9:10-17, 9 a.m. Aug. 23 (outdoor on the lawn; bring your own blanket or chair, shade umbrella, wear a mask and practice social distancing). Also, an online service, 10:45 a.m. (go to website for link). More details here: http://www.journey365.org/about/covid-19. West Valley Christian Church, 22450 Sherman Way, West Hills. 818-884-6480. http://www.wvcch.org; http://www.facebook.com/westvalley.christianchurch

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles: The daily Masses are live streamed from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, 7 a.m. (in Spanish) and 8 a.m. (in English); Sunday Masses are live streamed, 7 a.m. (in Spanish) and 10 a.m. (in English): lacatholics.org/mass-for-the-homebound. For local parishes that live stream Mass: lacatholics.org/parish-livestreams. For more information: lacatholics.org

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church: Two services on Aug. 23: An outdoor traditional service in the Serenity Garden, 8:30 a.m. (must make a phone reservation by noon Aug. 22 to attend; see website for rules to follow; bring your own Bible), and a contemporary and live stream service, 11 a.m. (click on the link found here: bit.ly/2Z5fhnF). 8520 Winnetka Ave., Winnetka. 818-341-3460. http://www.our-redeemer.org

The Church on the Way: Online Sunday services, 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Aug. 23. Read the Aug. 17 update on in-person meeting: bit.ly/32apAsj. The church is in Van Nuys. 818-779-8000. Email: info@tcotw.org. thechurchontheway.org; http://www.facebook.com/myTCOTW

Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost with St. Luke Lutheran Church: The Rev. Janet Hansted leads the service, 9:30 a.m. Aug. 23 (click on the Zoom link from here: bit.ly/3iHXg7j). The church is in Woodland Hills. 818-346-3070. http://www.stlukelutheran.com

The End?: The Rev. Joseph Choi explains the message, based on 1 Peter 4:7-11, 10 a.m. (in English) and 11:30 a.m. (in Korean) on Aug. 23. Watch here: youtube.com/numcvideo. Northridge United Methodist Church, 9650 Reseda Blvd. 818-886-1555. http://www.northridgeumc.org

Hymn Sing Sunday with Knollwood United Methodist Church: The Rev. Kalesita Tuifua delivers the message based on Roman 12:1-8, at 10 a.m. (English language) and 1 p.m. (Tongan language), on Aug. 23. The church is in Granada Hills. 818-360-8111. Send an email to receive the bulletin and live link (to be sent on Friday-Saturday) to: office@knollwoodchurch.com. Watch the service on YouTube from the churchs website http://www.knollwoodchurch.com

Sunday service with Episcopal Church of St. Andrew and St. Charles: The Rev. Canon Greg Frost delivers the message at an online service, 10 a.m. Aug. 23. Check the website for the bulletin and the YouTube link. The church is in Granada Hills. 818-366-7541. Email: office@2saints.org. http://www.facebook.com/2saintsgranadahills; http://www.2saints.org

Reseda Church of Christ: Live stream Sunday service, 10 a.m. Aug. 23. http://www.facebook.com/ResedaChurch; resedachurch.com

Sunday service with Sherman Oaks United Methodist Church: The Rev. Garth C. Gilliam delivers the message, 10 a.m. Aug. 23. Check the website for the church bulletin for the service. Watch the service from the website or listen by phone, 669-900-6833 and use ID: 92413458020. Church, 818-789-0351. Email: soumc@sbcglobal.net. soumc.org; http://www.facebook.com/soumc.church

Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost with Prince of Peace Episcopal Church: 10 a.m. Aug. 23. Find the Sunday bulletin and link to the service here: bit.ly/3h83EUS. The church is in Woodland Hills. 818-346-6968. http://www.popwh.org

Woodland Hills Community Church (United Church of Christ): The Rev. Craig Peterson leads the 10 a.m. Aug. 23 service. Piano prelude, 9:45 a.m. Watch on Facebook here: bit.ly/2AxVuoq or through the website link. More information on the churchs activities and volunteer opportunities here: bit.ly/2CpwdOB. woodlandhillscommunitychurch.org

Better Together: The Rev. Michael McMorrow explains the message, 10:30 a.m. Aug. 23 (bit.ly/336XPCR). McMorrow frequently gives a Mid-Day Reset, at noon during the week on the centers Facebook. Center for Spiritual Living-Granada Hills. 818-363-8136. Watch the service here cslgh.com or here: http://www.facebook.com/csl.granadahills

Body Parts: The message, based on Romans 12:1-8, will be explained, 10:30 a.m. Aug. 23. Services are lead by the Revs. Beth Bingham and Curtis Peek. Click here for the service on Facebook: bit.ly/392shiy. Check the website for the church newsletter. Congregational Church of the Chimes is in Sherman Oaks. 818-789-7124. Email: office@churchofthechimes.org. churchofthechimes.org

The Tie That Binds: The Rev. Stephen Rambo explains the message during the online service, 10:30 a.m. Aug. 23. Center for Spiritual Living-Simi Valley. 805-527-0870. http://www.cslsimi.org; http://www.facebook.com/cslsimi

When Things Change: The Rev. Steve Peralta, from North Hollywood United Methodist Church, explains the message, based on Exodus 1:8-2 and 10, 10:30 a.m. Aug. 23. 818-763-8231. Email: nohofumc@gmail.com. Facebook: bit.ly/2BPcdo4. nohofumc.org

The Power of Acceptance: Jimmy Burns shares his thoughts on the centers August theme, 11 a.m. Aug. 23 (use this Zoom link and ID: 3148040257). Unity Burbank Center for Spiritual Awareness. http://www.facebook.com/unityburbank

Preparing Our Souls for the High Holy Days: Shomrei Torah Synagogue in West Hills co-presents an online program with the Center for Contemporary Mussar in Philadelphia. Third lecture On Prayer, with Rabbi Richard Camras, from Shomrei Torah Synagogue, 5-6 p.m. Aug. 26. Upcoming lectures, presented on Wednesdays, include tzedakah, on averting The Severe Decree and preparing for Yom Kippur. Free. Register in advance bit.ly/2DmbN94. 818-854-7650. stsonline.org

Adat Ari El: Shabbat services, 6 p.m. Aug. 28 and 9:30 a.m. Aug. 29 (Torah portion: Ki Teitzei). The Conservative Jewish congregation is in Valley Village. The congregations Facebook: bit.ly/31u5ski. http://www.adatariel.org/worship/shabbat-services; http://www.adatariel.org

Shomrei Torah Synagogue: Musical Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. Aug. 28 and a Shabbat morning service, 10 a.m. Aug. 29. Click on the link to download the prayer book and to watch the Shabbat services and other programming, http://www.stsonline.org/media-galleries/live-streaming. The synagogue is in West Hills. 818-854-7650. http://www.stsonline.org

Temple Ramat Zion: Kabbalat Shabbat, 6 p.m. Aug. 28 and Shabbat morning service, 9 a.m. Aug. 29. Watch the services here: bit.ly/2C4Z8Y5. The Conservative Jewish synagogue is in Northridge. 818-360-1881. http://www.trz.org

Temple Judea: Shabbat live stream service, 6:15 p.m. Aug. 28. Also, Havdalah at Home, 7 p.m. Aug. 22 and 29 on Facebook Live (bit.ly/3fEI0G5). More online programming, see this page: templejudea.com/covid19response The Reform Jewish congregation is in Tarzana. The temples Facebook: bit.ly/3fEI0G5. 818-758-3800. Email: info@templejudea.com. templejudea.com

Temple Ahavat Shalom: Shabbat service, 6:30 p.m. Aug. 28 (contact the temple in advance for a link to the Zoom service). The temple is in Northridge. 818-360-2258. Email: info@tasnorthridge.org. http://www.facebook.com/TASnorthridge; http://www.tasnorthridge.org

Temple Aliyah: Shabbat services, 7 p.m. Aug. 28 and a morning service, 10:30 a.m. Aug. 29 (check website for Zoom meeting information or, by phone, 669-900-9128 and use ID 114134 894). The Conservative Jewish congregation is in Woodland Hills. The temples Facebook: bit.ly/3gBeqCL. templealiyah.org/livestream; http://www.templealiyah.org

Shabbat at Temple Beth Emet: The Burbank temple holds a service, 7 p.m. Aug. 28. Check here for Zoom instructions to join the service: bit.ly/2ONsBZe. For the August newsletter Chai Times: bit.ly/3l3x3BQ. 818-843-4787. Email: office@templebethemet.com. http://www.templebethemet.com

Shabbat with Valley Beth Israel: Rabbi-Cantor Mark Goodman leads the services on Facebook, 7 p.m. Aug. 28 and 9:30 a.m. Aug. 29 (bit.ly/3gTUZ8o). The temple, founded in 1948, is in Sun Valley. 818-782-2281. myvbi.net

Why Is Your Faith Passionate About Social Justice?: Interfaith Solidarity Network presents a forum on the topic, 4-5:30 p.m. Aug. 30. Participants include people who follow: Atheism, Bahi, Buddhism, Christianity, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Scientology and Sikhism. Register in advance for the Zoom meeting: bit.ly/34eLblT. For more information, email Rabbi Jim Kaufman: rabbikaufman/2tbhla.org

Temple Ramat Zion: Reservations are being taken for High Holiday services Rosh Hashana, Sept. 18-20, and Yom Kippur, Sept. 27-28 on Zoom from the Conservative Jewish synagogue in Northridge. Non-member tickets $180. Members renewing their membership, or those wanting to become members, will have Zoom seat information sent after payment (www.trz.org/form/trzmembership2021). 818-360-1881. http://www.trz.org/our-services

Chabad of the Conejo: Reservations are being taken for High Holiday services Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Services will be held outside in Agoura Hills and Oak Park. Fees: $100 for either Rosh Hashana or Yom Kipput; $180 for both. Register here: bit.ly/3272L8S. 818-991-0991. http://www.chabadconejo.com

Send information at least two weeks ahead. holly.andres@dailynews.com. 818-713-3708.

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Religion events in the San Fernando Valley area, Aug. 22-29 - LA Daily News

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2020

By Mike Caton

John 6:59, He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Why did Matthew, inspired by God to write, put this verse in his book? What is significant about the fact that Jesus taught these things in the synagogue? I am certainly not pretending to know everything about God, but lets think about this for a few minutes. This conversation took place after Jesus had fed the 5,000. He sent his disciples on across the lake while he dismissed the crowd. Then he slipped away, walking on the water, to his disciples. The next morning, the crowds couldnt find Jesus, so they too crossed the lake, to Capernaum, where they continued to search for them. And they found him in the synagogue.

If people were to be looking for you, where would they most likely find you? The synagogues were developed during the time between the testaments, when the Jews were in exile. The temple had been destroyed, folks were scattered many miles from their homeland, and the synagogues came into being as a kind of substitute for the temple. The Jewish people would gather there for teaching, prayer, and fellowship. Eventually these became the hub of the Jewish communities. Schools were established there for the children, to teach them about God. And something was pretty much going on there every day. And this is where the crowds found Jesus.

Again, where can you most likely be found? Most of us would probably say at work, since we spend so much of our time there. But how much time do you spend with Gods people? How much time do you spend studying Gods word, praying, fellowshipping with Gods people? I know we cant simply camp out in the church building, but this not about a building so much as a lifestyle? Will someone searching for us find us where Gods people are, about Gods business? Kinda makes you think, doesnt it?

Father, help me be found with your people. In Jesus name, amen.

Mike Caton is the preacher at Mount Olive Church of Christ in Belhaven.He volunteers at the Ponzer Fire Department and works part time with Hyde County EMS. If you would like to receive dailydevotionsin your inbox, emailmikecaton@centurylink.net.

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Weekly Devotion John 6:59 - The Coastland Times - The Coastland Times

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2020

When travel comes back, and it will, I have on my list one of the best kept travel secrets, the city of Dijon, the capital of the bountiful Burgundy region in France, one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Located about 200 miles southeast of Paris, the city boasts exceptional gastronomy, as well as historical landmarks and cultural attractions.A short train ride away from Paris about an hour-and-a-half by train Dijon is an important rail link on the railways of France, which possesses one of Europes technologically advanced rail systems. For my weekend sojourn before COVID-19, I took the intercity, high-speed and comfortable TGV rail service of the French National Railroads. The French system of high-speed trains extends the range of convenient day trips, and Jews in Dijon often travel to Paris and Lyon, the latter also about two hours away to the south.The city is considered the headquarters of Dijon mustard and cassis, that sweet, dark red liqueur made from black currants. Dijon was granted exclusive rights to produce this product in the 17th century.I stopped at the Maille Boutique, established in 1845. Its a wonderful location to rendezvous, popular with tourists and locals alike. The establishment displays a wide range of mustards, over 40 varieties, prepared or served on tap, as well as other condiments, vinegars and gherkins. Antoine Maille founded the brand in 1747. Today it is produced in Chevigny Saint Sauveur, located a few miles from town. Thus, Dijon mustard is no longer manufactured and packaged in the town of Dijon. Other brands are manufactured in various towns in Burgundy, such as Fallot mustard firm which has a mustard mill in Baune.The Grey Poupon mustard brand, well-known in the US and around the world, (it has a kosher certificate from the Orthodox Union in the US) originated in Dijon in 1866. The name comes from a merger of Maurice Grey and Auguste Poupon.Moreover, the town boasts rare wines to go with delicious cuisine. Wine-tasting is very popular in this getaway located in the Burgundy vineyard.Foodies and gourmets just love the Dijon market. Admire the produce, flowers and cheeses. Gaze at the markets ironwork framed building designed by Gustave Eiffel, born in Dijon and designer of this covered market, as well as the Eiffel TowerOne of the reasons I enjoyed Dijon was that it stands out as a city of clean, winding pedestrian streets, with wooded 15th-century houses, a city where the old town remains the shopping center. I walked down the Rue de la Liberte, where I found everything from clothes stores and pharmacies to establishments specializing in mustards and local wines. This main street leads from the 18th-century, Porte Guillaume (an Arc de Triomphe design) to the Place de la Liberation, which is a large square in front of the Palace of the Dukes of Burgundy. The square remains a pedestrian area which is brought to life by water jets in summer. It is semi-circular in shape and opens onto the iconic Palace. Today the Palace houses the Town Hall, the Tourist Office and the Museum of Fine Arts.Regarding the Palace, Dijon was a former Roman camp on the great military highway linking Lyon with Mainz. Dijon began its important role in history in 1015 when Robert I, duke of Burgundy, made the city the capital of his duchy.THE DUKES of Burgundy placed the Jews under their protection in 1196. The synagogue and a Sabbath House were situated in the Petitie Juiverie section, as well as a cemetery.After the expulsions of 1306 and 1315, only a few Jews settled here, until 1789 when they again moved in permanently. Many came from Alsace. The Jewish population numbered about 400 in 1902.Today, approximately 225 Jewish families reside in Dijon, a city of about 159,000 residents. Dedicated in 1879, the synagogue in Dijon is the focal point of the Jewish community. It is located at 5 Re de la Synagogue. I learned that the main synagogue, completed in 1879, served a robust community which by World War II numbered 550 persons and that Jews were absorbed into the mainstream of life in the city.Although the town synagogue was used as a stable and garage by the Germans, the house of worship survived World War II. One person who may have been responsible for its escaping destruction was a Catholic clergyman, Chanoine (Canon) Felix Kir, who later became mayor of this municipality, as well as a member of parliament. Kir persuaded the Germans not to destroy the temple. He hid Jewish ritual objects in his home.Eighty percent of the community perished at the hands of the Germans, including a 36-year-old rabbi named Elie Cyper, a member of the resistance. Visitors going to the synagogue can walk along the pedestrian crossing (named the rue du Rabbin Elie Cyper) connecting the Rue de la Synagogue to the Place WilsonIn September 1944, Dijon was liberated from the Nazis who occupied the city throughout the war, and who kept the town under tight surveillance because it is an important railroad and highway center.In the fall of 1944, that first Yom Kippur of liberated Europe, American Jewish GIs from throughout the battle zone flocked to Dijon. There were so many American Jewish troops here, that the overflow prayed in the streets, it was said.After World War II, the Jewish community began anew. Since the vast majority of Dijon Jews had been deported during the war, it was not until the 1960s with the influx of the North African Jews that the community flourished again.There are other signs that a Jewish presence has been in the Dijon area for many years. This travel writer kept seeing road signs to nearby Troyes, the birthplace of Rashi, (1040-1105) the great commentator of the Bible and Talmud. It is said that in Rashis day, rabbis traveled to Troyes, (two hours away) via Dijon, and often stayed over in Dijon.An excellent source on Dijon is the book An Uncertain Future, Voices of a French Jewish Community, 1940-2012, by Robert I. Weiner and Richard E. Sharpless.At press time, all hotels, restaurants, shops and boutiques in Dijon were open. Face masks are compulsory in all closed places and when moving about. Visitors from the US and other countries, including Israel, have not received the green light to visit most countries in Europe. When the restrictions are lifted, put Dijon high on your travel list.The author is a travel writer and travel-lecturer, is the author of the just-published, Klaras War, A Novel; A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe (Pelican Publishing); Klaras Journey, A Novel (Marion Street Press); and The Scattered Tribe: Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond (Globe Pequot Press). Follow him on Twitter @bengfrank

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Dijon, France: One of the most beautiful countries in the world - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2020

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A wall is being built aroundShorewood, Whitefish Bay and the east side of Milwaukeebut most people will never see it or even realize it's there.

The wall is formed by the Lake Michigan bluff, combined with utility poles and steel wire atop streetlights, to form an eruv, a symbolic enclosure that allows Orthodox Jews to carry items outside of their home during the weekly Shabbat observance, which begins at sundown on Fridays and lasts through nightfall on Saturdays.

The eruv allows them to bypass traditional Shabbat restrictions because the new contiguous wall of utility lines, overhead wires and Lake Michigan bluff creates a new public-private space that acts as an extension of the home under Torah law.

With the eruv, Orthodox Jews will be able to push baby strollers to synagogue service and bring casserole dishes to potluck Shabbat dinners.

Eruvs, or eruvin, already exist in Mequon, Bayside, Glendale and Milwaukees Sherman Park neighborhood.

But Shabbat-observant Jews living in Shorewood, Whitefish Bay and the east side of Milwaukee have never had an eruv until now.

Construction on the eruv began Aug. 11.The work is expected to take two weeks.

Orthodox Jewish communities in the area have wanted an eruv for nearly 30 years, but the plansfaltered due to the labor and expense involved, as well as a disagreement aboutwhether the cliff along Lake Michigan could count as a natural eruv boundary.

When Rabbi Joel Dinin joined Lake Park Synagogue nearly three years ago, he made it his mission to build upon the work of his predecessorsand finish the eruv project.

Although Lake Park Synagogueled the eruv effort, other Orthodox communities have also contributed years of planning.

Rabbi Micah Shotkin of New Jersey secures a wire to the Wilson Drive streetlights in Shorewood on Aug. 11. The wire will help form the boundaries of an eruv, which is a symbolic enclosure that allows Shabbat-observant Jews to carry items outside of their home during Shabbat. The eruv will encompass the east side of Milwaukee, Shorewood and part of Whitefish Bay.(Photo: Scott Ash/Now News Group)

The eruv will roughly encompass the area east of the Milwaukee River from North Avenue in Milwaukee to Silver Spring Drive in Whitefish Bay.

With the eastern boundary defined by the Lake Michigan bluff, the rest of the enclosure will be formed with a network of utility poles, wire erected from streetlights on Wilson Drive and the Oak Leaf Trail Bridge that runs over Capitol Drive.

The section of the eruv made of utilitypoles and streetlightsis actually meant to function less like a wall and morelike a series of doors, Dinin explained.

"Were essentially making a giant house out of doorways," Dinin said.

Each doorway requires a top beam that is directly above the two side posts. When a wire runs off to the side of a pole, as it often does, a small plastic tubeis attached to the pole so that the beam runs flush with the tube.

We Energies approved and installed the plastic tubing along the utility poles. The project also required permission from village officials in Shorewood and Whitefish Bay, which granted approval for New Jersey Rabbi Micha Shotkin tostring wire between thestreetlights on Wilson Drive.

Shotkin will also have to install a piece of wood underthe Oak Leaf Trail Bridge over Capitol Drive.

In planning the project, Dinin worked with Rabbi Mendel Senderovic, a local expert in Jewish law, to inspect the perimeter of the eruv,identifyany obstacles and figure out ways to preserve a continuous boundary.

When theres no buildings or electrical lines, you have these gaps, Dinin said. So you have to be creative.

At one point, Dinin found himself rooting around in the bushes behind the Shorewood Police Department when he realized he shouldnotify the police about what he was doing.

The police officer he spoke with was initially caught off guard by the request, which Dinin said is a typical reaction.

"It's not necessarily out of anti-Semitism, but because it strikes them as weird," he said. "Once people actually learn more about what we want to do, they say, 'Of course. No problem.' Everyone has been very supportive."

Although Dinin and others have worked hard on the project, many laypeople will probably never notice the small changes to the utility poles and bridges.

From Dinin's perspective, that's a good thing.

"With a good eruv, no one knows its there," Dinin said. "The hope with this is that it helps the community, but no one ever sees it."

The eruv will also benefit residents affiliated with Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic sect of Orthodox Judaism.

Chabad of the East Side Rabbi Yisroel Lein said the lack of an eruv in the area caused many new families to live elsewhere.

This opens up a lot of doors for a lot of people, Lein said.

ContactJeff Rumage at (262) 446-6616or jeff.rumage@jrn.com. Followhim on Twitter at @JeffRumage orFacebook atwww.facebook.com/northshorenow.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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Read or Share this story: https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/northshore/news/shorewood/2020/08/17/eruv-ease-shabbat-restrictions-north-shore-jewish-community/3309008001/

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A new eruv that is going up in the North Shore will ease Shabbat restrictions for Orthodox Jews - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2020

The most sacred Jewish holidays are approaching, bringing with them the longest and most well-attended services of the year. Even in the best of times, a congregations intensive preparations for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur take months. But this year, there is no road map for those preparations, which are dominated by the mortal threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic. The most basic feature of the High Holidays, gathering in a large room with many people, is unsafe.

As they plan for an unprecedented, socially distanced High Holiday season, Bay Area Jewish communities are making widely varying, highly creative and often surprising choices.

Prerecorded services with slick, professional video production. Livestreamed services with a homey feel. Outdoor services with strictly limited attendance. A drive-in program featuring the best of the High Holidays liturgy. A Rosh Hashanah seder on Zoom. Audio recordings. Gift baskets of machzors, games and honey for a sweet new year.

Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Sept. 18 and Yom Kippur at sundown on Sept. 27.

The first question is, what can be done in person? While some communities have decided the risks are too great, others are going for it, while making services and programs as safe as possible.

At Congregation Beth Israel, an Orthodox synagogue in Berkeley with 270 member households, the High Holiday committee is putting together small outdoor services at multiple locations within the Berkeley eruv, where many of the congregants live. There will be two shifts of morning services, but no evening services. Seats will be 8 feet apart, masks will be required, attendance will be strictly limited, there will be minimal singing, and the service will be as abbreviated as Orthodox halachah allows.

Though Orthodox Jews are prohibited from using electricity on Shabbat and major holidays, Beth Israel has found a way to do a little livestreaming. Kol Nidre, the most important service of the season for many Jews, will be streamed before Yom Kippur technically begins at sundown.

Beth Israel also will be offering a few chances to hear the piercing blast of the shofar in small groups around Berkeley.

Not being able to sing the classic High Holiday melodies together is a huge disappointment, but Beth Israels Rabbi Yonatan Cohen is trying to look on the bright side of that challenge.

In most years we rely, perhaps too heavily, on the familiar melodies and communal energy to carry us, to arouse us, and awaken us towards teshuvah [repentance], he said in an email.

This year I suspect that just reading the words of Unetaneh Tokef(who by plague) or of Avinu Malkeinu (withhold the plague from Your heritage) will crack open our hearts, for our hearts are already cracked and our longing for Gods presence and deliverance is deeper than prior years.

At Chabad of Marin in San Rafael, in-person services are the only option on the table. Luckily, the house has a yard that can safely accommodate over 100 people at a social distance, said Rabbi Yisrael Rice, who co-directs the Chabad center with his wife, Guila Rice. So they plan to hold the full Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in the backyard.

Im trying to minimize risk and make people comfortable, Rice said. But hes also offering other options so people can feel more secure in coming in a smaller environment. For example, some of the services will be preceded by microservices that will include crowd-pleasing highlights such as Avinu Malkeinu, shofar blowing and selections of the High Holiday Torah portions.

Based on prior years, Rice believes Yom Kippur will sort itself out, in a way. Yom Kippur has its own built-in microservices, he said. The Americans come for Kol Nidre, the Russians come for Yizkor, and the Israelis come for Neilah [the dramatic conclusion of Yom Kippur].

So were not getting large groups of people all at the same time. We end up with smaller groups; people of various backgrounds have the parts that they were brought up with.

At Congregation Beth David, a Conservative synagogue with 500 member households in Saratoga, Rabbi Jaymee Alpert is offering a microservice of sorts as well.

Her congregation has been doing online services daily since the start of the pandemic, and will be doing the same during the holidays. But the synagogue is also offering an alternative on the second day of Rosh Hashanah a parking lot experience, Alpert calls it.

Alpert and Rabbi Philip Ohriner, Beth Davids previous rabbi, will cover the greatest hits of the season, including shofar blowing, Avinu Malkeinu and Unetaneh Tokef. They will be seated on a riser at one end of the Beth David parking lot, separated from each other by a plastic barrier.

Attendees will remain in their cars, spaced evenly throughout the parking lot. Each carload will need to download an app that will connect them by Bluetooth to the service. It will be over in less than an hour.

Alpert said prerecording services isnt right for Beth David. Weve been doing live Zoom services for months now, and it has worked really well for our community, she said. For Beth David, its having that live element that works well, and it allows people to participate. We can even do a full-ish Torah service the readers read from a Chumash [a printed book containing the Torah] instead of a scroll, and were able to have people say the blessing like theyre having an aliyah. People appreciate that live interaction.

That said, she will be shortening some of the famously long holiday services. You cant ask people to sit for four-hour services on Zoom.

After the virtual Erev Rosh Hashanah service, which kicks off the new year observances, Alpert will lead a Rosh Hashanah seder over Zoom. It is a ritual meal featuring symbolic foods, but is much less involved than its Passover cousin. The Rosh Hashanah seder is a widely observed tradition in Sephardi and Mizrachi communities but is little known among Ashkenazi Jews.

I will admit that my prior experience with Rosh Hashanah seders has been limited, Alpert said. I have been to them, but never led one before, so Im doing some research, and this will be a new experience for me.

Alpert is not the only Ashkenazi Jew turning to a seder this year. Beth Israel, the Berkeley Orthodox synagogue, is hand-delivering a box of holiday gifts to all members, including a greeting card, honey for a sweet year, resources on praying at home, activities for families with children, and instructions for a DIY Rosh Hashanah seder.

Congregation Beth Sholom, a Conservative synagogue in San Francisco with 330 member households, is preparing gift baskets as well. They will include machzors (High Holiday prayerbooks), games for families and discussion questions.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Rabbi Dan Ain was reluctant to stream services, but loosened up after his congregants began asking for them.

Throughout the day on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there will be several streamed options, including a straightforward, but abbreviated, morning service; a soul music experience with Ains frequent collaborator musician Jeremiah Lockwood; and two family services for kids of different ages.

For those who want the full, traditional Beth Sholom experience, audio recordings are being made available. A big part of Beth Sholom services, Ain said, is the deep bench of expert lay leaders who handle services throughout the year. Want to hear Marilyn and Max and the whole gang of familiar member voices? Want to hear Betty chant the haftarah as she has done every year at Beth Sholom for decades? Longing to hear Rabbi Russell sing the signature piyyutim (liturgical poems) of the season? They will all be available to hear.

At Mission Minyan, a lay-led traditional egalitarian community in San Francisco, recordings will play a role as well. Typically, Mission Minyan expects 300 to 400 people over the course of the High Holidays. This year, the leaders have opted not to hold in-person services at all, though there will be some small gatherings for shofar blowing. And, in accordance with their traditional stance on halachah, they will not be livestreaming anything on the holidays themselves.

Its really, really bad for us, said David Henkin, a member of the administrative committee. The kinds of things that we do are about getting people together in a small space for loud singing and inviting strangers over to our homes for Shabbat meals, which you really cant do in a pandemic.

Mission Minyan will gather virtually several times for Selichot, the tradition of singing penitential poems and prayers during the two weeks leading up to the High Holidays. Those gatherings will be recorded, and members can listen to them on the holidays as a way of feeling close to the community, Henkin said.

I cant speak for what everyone in the end will decide to do. For me, best case is that the whole High Holiday season is full of the kind of musical experience or some part of it that we associate with the days themselves, and that being able to sing together after a fashion during Selichot will produce that seasonal feeling, he said. And because its recorded, if people want to plug into that on the day itself, I hope they will get something out of it.

Several congregations plans are still in flux, with some rabbis cautioning that its still early, with Rosh Hashanah a month away.

At Beth Chaim Congregation, an independent, progressive synagogue in Danville with 300 member households, Rabbi Dan Goldblatt said he and his team are looking at several different scenarios.

Services will be virtual, but who will lead them is still up in the air. Normally, it is a cantorial group of about 10 members. But this year, some are weathering the pandemic out of town, and Goldblatt is weighing how many he can safely assemble in the sanctuary.

Were trying to determine whether theres any way we can have several people there but be safely distanced, Goldblatt said. Singing is a very problematic thing with regard to the virus, so were looking at possibilities, maybe keeping doors open to circulate air.

Hes also thinking about the advantages Zoom offers. Were thinking about things that virtual allows that we normally dont do, he said. People are hungry for community right now.

Reform synagogues are responding to the challenges in two main ways: Some will be livestreaming services, as they have been for months. Others will be prerecording most or all of their High Holiday services and then streaming them at the appointed time.

The choice comes down to a question of immediacy and a homey quality, versus a well-produced, high-quality experience, as multiple Reform synagogue leaders put it.

Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco, with 500 member households, organized a series of focus groups to find out what members want from services this year.

In a normal year you get a fully immersive experience, said executive director Gordon Gladstone. They come in the morning on Yom Kippur and stay throughout the day and they can explore a lot of pieces of liturgy, text study, Torah study, a number of things.

Participants in the focus groups agreed they wanted to experience a feeling of community, as well as be inside their historic sanctuary, with its high blue dome and unique stained-glass of Moses in Yosemite. Gladstone called the space a lodestone for this congregation.

To give Sherith members an experience of well-rehearsed, awe-inspiring music and a sense of immersion in the sanctuary, the Reform congregation hired a professional video crew and is safely recording all of the music and prayers and sermons ahead of time. There may be some live elements, but the leaders havent decided yet.

While Gladstone acknowledges that theres no perfect solution, If we let perfect become the enemy of good, what we put on will be unsatisfactory.

Peninsula Temple Beth El, a Reform synagogue in San Mateo with about 800 member households, weighed the same concerns and decided to have both prerecorded and live components in their services.

To facilitate the recording process, they removed a sliding wall at the back of the sanctuary and put in a Plexiglas wall, enabling Cantor Elana Jagoda Kaye to safely sing at full blast. Several musicians in an adjacent room were conducted by Jagoda Kaye. Video feeds connected her to the rabbis on the bimah and vice-versa. Meanwhile, a professional video crew recorded the whole thing.

In a way, today was Rosh Hashanah for me, Associate Rabbi Lisa Kingston told J. last week.

Other recordings will be made of families reflecting on the year. The congregations baal tekiah (shofar blower) will record himself at home doing the shofar portions of the services. And in addition to the regular Yizkor service, people will share memories of their loved ones.

Were trying to spotlight voices of our congregation, instead of having it feel like the congregation is just watching the clergy team, Kingston said. Using technology, she said, has been a blessing.

At two other Reform synagogues J. contacted, the clergy team opted for livestreamed rather than prerecorded services.

We want people to be with us at a particular moment, said Rabbi Yoel Kahn of Congregation Beth El, a Reform synagogue in Berkeley with 525 member households. We feel that it is most authentic to be in real time together.

In a normal year, Beth El has a choir but also emphasizes congregational participation in the music. Thats a big loss for us this year, Kahn said. But our cantor has chosen familiar music, music that we hope invites people to sing along at home.

Kahn will lead from the bimah in the Beth El sanctuary, but hell be alone. The congregations other rabbi, Rabbi Rebekah Stern, and Cantor Elaya Jenkins-Adelberg will be leading their portions of the service from home, as they have been doing since the onset of the pandemic.

We could not find a way to sing together, and thats core to what we do, Kahn said. But all three of us will be on screen at the same time. And members of the community will do a reading or light candles or have an aliyah, and theyll come into the screen and then go off again.

At Congregation Rodef Sholom, a Reform synagogue in San Rafael with 1,000 member households, the main services will be livestreamed, but congregants will gather in small groups for five different tashlich ceremonies, and there will be two group beach mikvah events, an annual tradition at Rodef Sholom.

Rabbi Lara Regev, the director of Jewish learning and living, said that livestreamed Friday night services have been working well for months now, so it felt natural to do the same for the High Holidays. They feel lovely and homegrown, and thats important; it feels like Rodef Sholom. Its not 100 percent polished like some synagogues want.

There will also be montage videos where lots of people get to talk about their hopes for the new year, so our community gets to see each other, because thats missing for so many people.

The diverse approaches, services and programs detailed in this article are a small slice of Jewish life in Northern California. J. spoke with leaders of 10 Jewish communities, but there are well over 100 in the region. Each is reckoning with an unprecedented High Holiday season in its own way, each one hoping to be inscribed, once again, in the Book of Life and go on to a sweet new year.

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Prerecorded services, backyard worship, a drive-in: High Holidays during a pandemic - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2020

The decision to send Israel down the rabbit hole of a fourth general election in a year and a half could come this weekend, either at the prime ministers residence or at his private home in Caesarea, when Benjamin Netanyahu sits down with his darling wife and eldest son. Some might say this is imprecise: When two people constitute a majority, the third person is just sent to do the job.

Issues like the national interest, the peoples welfare, a revived economy and even compassion wont be on the table. In the world of this triumvirate, nothing is sacred but violent, democracy-killing attempts to save him from his corruption trial.

PODCAST: Inside Israel's no-change, no-cost peace deal with the UAEHaaretz

And of course theyre saving themselves from leaving the prime ministers residence in November 2021 as part of the rotation agreement with Benny Gantz. Just this week the former Gaza settlers marked their uprooting from their pleasant villas. The Jewish people cant absorb the uprooting of yet another Jewish family, this time from a nice Jerusalem neighborhood.

If Netanyahu does opt for an election, it wont necessarily be because he believes he can bring in the 61 Knesset seats needed for his bloc to form a government without Avigdor Liebermans Yisrael Beiteinu. This didnt happen the last three times. But hes fairly certain that no one else will be able to form a government either. So hell remain a caretaker prime minister forever and drag Israel into a fifth election (or somehow annex parts of some other party to Likud).

A weakened police commissioner, acting state prosecutors anything is better than strong and independent law enforcement chiefs who would keep pawing at the soiled garments of someone who already has serious indictments against him.

The deadline has been postponed until this Monday, August 24, the 100-day anniversary of the birth of the government, which could also become the day of its demise. If the life-extending legislation proposed by MK Zvi Hauser isnt passed, the Knesset will dissolve automatically. It will fade away like a bad dream ahead of an even worse reality.

Whether the madness is realized or postponed by a few months, we mustnt let the truth disappear into Likuds propaganda swamp: 100 percent of the blame for yet another election would be on Netanyahu.

Its frustrating to hear and see in the superficial (or biased) media nonsense that the two sides are quarreling over the national budget and appointments, as if this werent merely an excuse. In the name of unholy balance, the media grants equal time to the crook, to the serial violator of the coalition agreement not only its provisions but also its spirit and to the decent, naive partner.

For Netanyahu, every agreement is infrastructure for its violation. Every contract is the basis for a unilateral, rapacious cancellation. This extreme episode with Gantzs Kahol Lavan must teach every political player a lesson, someone like right-winger Naftali Bennett. After the next election, its he who could get from Netanyahu a proposal to rotate the premiership.

Ultra-Orthodox in the catbird seat

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The only lucky politicians who havent yet met up with this dark side of Netanyahu are the ultra-Orthodox. It works the opposite way for them: Every agreement is a basis for an upgrade. They get everything they want and a bit more.

Okay, this is understandable Netanyahu doesnt have other allies. He has quarreled with Lieberman, Bennett, Kahol Lavan, opposition leader Yair Lapid and his sidekick Moshe Yaalon. They all hate him and wish hed disappear.

The ultra-Orthodox, who saw Netanyahu decisive and merciless in the first wave of the coronavirus, are now rediscovering their benevolent and fawning partner of yore. When Gantz entered the unity government as alternate prime minister and defense minister, he depended in part on Interior Minister Arye Derys guarantee that the agreement would be upheld.

Gantz, who chose to believe him, should ask former Labor Party chief Isaac Herzog where Derys promise to make him prime minister is buried.

So as the second wave is upon us and an election is the only thing on Netanyahus mind, the ultra-Orthodox are denuding the shelves of his political supermarket. An airlift of yeshiva students from the United States? Check. Four hundred million shekels ($120 million) for Torah institutions as the rest of the education system collapses? Check. No lockdowns in contagion hot spots in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods? Check, and the checks keep getting written.

Incidentally, Netanyahu also wants to allot another 300 million shekels or so to religious-Zionist institutions in cash, to stanch the bleeding of Likud voters rightward to Yamina. Generous.

And still, the ultra-Orthodox dont want an election. In private conversations, the heads of United Torah Judaism, Construction and Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman and Knesset Finance Committee chief Moshe Gafni are worried they might be harmed at the polls. Voters are angry at them because of the coronavirus the lockdowns, the stigmas and the ignoring of their living conditions that turns a quarantine into a hatchery for the coronavirus.

The feeling is that their representatives in the Knesset and the cabinet arent fighting hard enough for them.

This is also the case in Derys Shas, which gained strength in the last election but whose Knesset seats are vulnerable. A dire economy, which first and foremost is affecting poorer people, could keep some of Derys voters home on Election Day or move them to other parties.

Back to Kahol Lavan. The sobering-up there is complete but belated. What every political observer has understood since Day One of the government, theyre only realizing now: Netanyahu never imagined letting go of his Balfour Street residence. It was deception.

The most disappointed person in Kahol Lavan is Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi because he pushed most enthusiastically for a unity government, sincerely believing in the prime ministers intentions and the strength of the agreement. What he has experienced on his own skin in the 100 days of this endeavor has caused him to loathe Netanyahu deeply. Gabi is emotional about Bibi, even more than Benny is, people in the party say.

Kahol Lavan will have a hard time in a new election. Though it seems the bleeding of voters from the party has stopped, even if it wins 12 Knesset seats, what will that provide other than a decentralization of power in the center-left camp thats facing one big Likud?

At the moment, its not in the cards that Gantz and his partners will join up with their ex, Lapid; maybe there will only be a reshuffle in the leadership, with Gantz trading places with Ashkenazi, or a new star known or unknown. Prof. Ronni Gamzu yes, our Ronni, the coronavirus czar believes hes an excellent candidate for this, according to sources who know him.

Lapid, meanwhile, keeps on working, though he hasnt yet created the momentum in which the graph of projected votes is stealthily creeping upward. Like Netanyahus physical excursions (on Wednesday, to the Mahaneh Yehuda Market in Jerusalem once again), the opposition leader is in campaign mode. This week Lapid went back to focusing on voters from the former Soviet Union, whom in every election he tries to lure from Lieberman and Likud. (This worked for him in 2013; since then, less so.)

When he arrived for an interview at Russian-language Channel 9, they told him that all of a sudden Likudniks are showing up there, too, the ones they only see at election time not only Higher Education and Water Resources Minister Zeev Elkin but also Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. And in addition to these Ukraine-born Likudniks, Public Security Minister Amir Ohana is showing up, too.

This isnt surprising. Netanyahu has made up his mind to wipe Lieberman out at the ballot box and get rid of his biggest political nuisance the only leader on the right who has declared a divorce and proudly calls himself the project manager for removing Netanyahu.

A little revisionist history

One of the problems with Netanyahu (and not the worst of them) is that in his old age his tendencies to exaggerate and fantasize have increased extraordinarily. These traits, in addition to his tendency to lie beyond recognition and aggrandize himself something awful, are giving rise to an extreme revision of history.

This is the famous madness playing tricks on his mind; a middling prime minister in reality, a revolutionary king in his imagination. These delusions also lead to imbroglios.

This was the case when, in an interview with an Arab television channel, he described the United Arab Emirates as a liberal democracy (and soon removed the evidence from his Facebook page). Or when he waxes about the peace in exchange for peace hes making, as opposed to the dwarves who preceded him and made peace in exchange for territories and tears (Menachem Begin) or for terror attacks (Yitzhak Rabin) or for missiles (Ariel Sharon).

So many crude lies and sick distortions in one tweet. So many delusions of grandeur and narcissism in one man. The above post appeared on his Twitter account after his big lie was exposed in a Donald Trump press conference at the White House. Trump, in his inane but sometimes refreshing directness, simply acknowledged that the deal to sell planes to the Emirates, a country with a lot of money, is absolutely real contrary to the hysterical denials by the Prime Ministers Office.

The story of the peace with the Emirates is a dizzying example of the speed at which the glory of the world passes. The prime ministers tremendous achievement was demolished in record time. One effective campaign he spearheaded as opposition leader against Rabin bore the headline Dont give them guns. And now, after releasing terrorists and strengthening Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, hes giving them not guns but stealth fighters, weapons systems and the most advanced combat and intelligence machines in the world.

From the start, Netanyahu lied about the planes. He told people his position on sales of smart weapons to Muslim countries hadnt changed. Incidentally, he brought up the subject at his own initiative, even before the deal was exposed by Nahum Barnea in the daily Yedioth Ahronoth. Only in retrospect, some of his interlocutors have told me, did they understand: He had a huge lump of butter on his head and should have known better than to go out in the sun. He was just trying to preempt the heat he knew was coming.

The man who sneaked behind the back of the defense establishment and approved Germanys sale of submarines to Egypt (on the grounds that a secret prevented him from updating the defense minister, the navy chief and the overall military chief) did it again this time in the air, this time claiming he didnt share because he was concerned about leaks.

Netanyahu isnt the first to manage dramatic moves in a crooked way. Rabin didnt let defense officials in on the discreet process he conducted in Oslo; he did so only very late too late. And Rabin, in the battle for credit and the bottomless hatred between him and Shimon Peres, kept his foreign minister in the dark about his talks with Jordans King Hussein.

But Netanyahus pattern, centralist on the one hand and fraudulent on the other, is far more disturbing both in the submarine affair and in the crooked trajectory with the Emirates, a move that has mainly served Trump and the U.S. economy, including his cronies and son-in-law Jared Kushner, the chief macher. And after all, Netanyahu isn't Rabin.

The top cop waiting game

At the end of next month Dina Zilber, the deputy attorney general for public-administrative law, will complete her eight-year term. Her long, dry title covers a long list of responsibilities, like advice on the work of the government and security organizations, and supervision regarding conflicts of interest (an issue thats always in the news).

About three years ago Zilber, a gifted and esteemed civil servant, found herself in an ugly dispute with the justice minister at the time, Ayelet Shaked, after implying criticism of the latter. A year later, again in a public speech, Zilber derided the new discourse that demands an obedient discourse, shunned artists and a reined-in media. She called this wounding and scarring, marking and tagging.

Shaked went bananas; she boycotted Zilber, demanded that she not represent the Justice Ministry at Knesset meetings and in the cabinet, and insisted that Zilber resign. To no avail. Six months later, it was Shaked who was fired, by Netanyahu.

Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has slated his senior aide, attorney Gil Limon, as Zilbers successor. This is almost a guarantee that he wont be selected. The procedure is that the justice minister brings the candidate for approval by the cabinet. At Balfour they wouldnt want Mendelblit to decide or Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn to be involved. So in the context of our non-functioning government since December 2018, Zilbers important post is expected to remain unstaffed until, sometime over the rainbow, theres a functioning government.

And speaking of non-functioning, since December 2018, when the Knesset was dissolved before the first of three elections, the police havent had a permanent commissioner. The acting commissioner, Motti Cohen, has been Israels most permanent acting official.

Ohana, the public security minister, has announced time after time that soon / by the end of the month / next week hell present his candidate, but at the beginning of the week he retreated. If were heading into an election, maybe its inappropriate to appoint a police commissioner at this time, he said. Ohana is the last person youd suspect to be interested in the word inappropriate.

Ostensibly, his retreat should be interpreted thus: Under the coalition agreement, the final candidate must be approved by Kahol Lavan. This partys people in the cabinet wont approve anyone for whom the sole criterion is a willingness to close new investigations into Netanyahu. Since no such agreement will be forthcoming, it might be that the prime ministers residence has decided to wait with the appointment until after the election.

If a right-wing and ultra-Orthodox government is formed, the skys the limit. If the dead end persists and Kahol Lavan remains in the government, Cohen will remain acting commissioner. In such a situation, theres no way hell open investigations even if theyre crying out to the heavens. The proof is that these investigations havent been opened yet. Its doubtful they ever will be.

Bennett the statesman

Naftali Bennett is keeping mum. Over a week has gone by since we were informed of the death of the annexation of parts of the West Bank, and the Yamina chief, who in his eight years in politics has never missed an opportunity to give Netanyahu a right hook, hasnt been seen in any television studio.

He has sufficed with tweeting, while his partners, Shaked and Bezalel Smotrich, are flitting from one channel to the next, lamenting over the lost annexation.

MK Matan Kahana is a man of Bennett and Shakeds faction in Yamina and is very close to Bennett. This week somebody on Twitter charged that Yamina, despite the buckets of spit Netanyahu is dumping on it, will once again recommend to the president that Bibi be asked to form a government after the next election. But this isnt going to happen again, Kahana wrote in reply.

This isnt a slip of the keyboard. Opinion polls are giving Yamina 18 or 19 Knesset seats, three times its current showing. It went into the current Knesset with six seats, which shrank to five after the defection to the governing coalition by Rafi Peretz, an opportunist who underwent accelerated conversion therapy with Netanyahu to become the minister of Jerusalem affairs and heritage.

The leap in the publics affection, including the numbers on his suitability to be prime minister, stems from the change in Bennetts agenda: Things like the coronavirus instead of territories and security issues.

Now, when Yaminas darling the annexation takes a bullet between the eyes and Bennett stays mum, its clear hes in a different state of mind. Bennetts next election slate is currently being finalized and will look different: Mostly secular, less nationalist and very far from the Smotrichesque, messianic, Arab-hating and homophobic stream. Smotrich is a big headache for the senior partner.

Netanyahu suffers from a certain shortsightedness when he automatically includes Bennett and Yamina in his bloc. What Kahana wrote, Bennett is saying in conversations with associates. The ritual in which Yamina rushes to the Presidents Residence to declare support for Netanyahu and later reiterates the move in signed loyalty oaths may not be relevant anymore.

Netanyahus failed, egomaniacal functioning in the coronavirus crisis, which Bennett is calling a disaster, disqualifies the prime minister in Bennetts eyes from a leadership role. Bennett, too, now believes that the country is only Netanyahus fifth priority, maybe fourth.

In a conversation with an associate, he compared Netanyahu to an uncongenial, capricious bus driver who for about a decade did his job well and brought his passengers safely to their destinations. In the past year the driver has totally lost it. Hes driving the bus to the abyss. The passengers who want to stay alive must save themselves.

Netanyahus shortsightedness and the emotions at home that dictate his actions regarding Bennett and Shaked have gotten him making decisions about them that this time might smack him in the face. He didnt bring them into his current government because his wife demanded vengeance. And what has happened? On the outside, Bennett has become a hit. If Netanyahu had brought him into the government and put him in the limping Health Ministry, Yamina probably would be doing much more modestly in the opinion polls.

After the April election last year, when the far right didnt make it into the Knesset, Netanyahu swiftly booted its people from the education and justice ministries. Why? The explanation can apparently be found in the previous paragraph. When Netanyahu was compelled alarmed and frightened to appoint Bennett defense minister, he made a joke of it at an election rally. The activists didnt laugh.

Bennetts interlocutors believe that in his view, the cup of poison has overflowed. Now his mission in life is to build a barrier against Netanyahu, the vote vacuum cleaner who time after time has sucked away Bennetts voters. Bennetts working hard on the how in long nights poring over the data.

So I asked Bennetts people: Why has he been silent about the stolen annexation and the F-35 deal with the Emirates? The following has to be the governments policy for the coming year: Defeat the coronavirus.

Bennett, too, talks about the insanity of another election. This line is helping him come across as the responsible adult and someone who hasnt been dazzled by the wealth of possible Knesset seats.

Still, its hard to imagine a politician however responsible and concerned he may be watching his stock soar to fantastic heights and not wanting to make the exit of his life. And as we well remember, a lot of time has gone by since Bennetts last successful exit.

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This weekend, the Netanyahu family is set to decide if Israel is going to election - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2020

A British nudist who liked to give press briefings wearing only a pith helmet and boots and a dapper Scotsman partial to wearing kilts with his dress uniform in contravention of Army regulations have much to teach modern military strategists. During World War II these two British officers, Orde Wingate and Colin Gubbins, developed inventive applications of irregular warfare in high-intensity conflict against peer competitors. Their innovations provide constructive lessons for the U.S. military, particularly for the United States Marine Corps as it considers its new primary role as a counter-force in the Pacific as outlined in the recent Commandants Planning Guidance.

The interwar British Army found itself continuing to shoulder globe-spanning responsibilities, at the same time that much of the leadership could see the need to prepare to fight major power adversaries. After the Vietnam War the U.S. military largely chose to discard knowledge hard-won from jungle fighting to focus on Soviet hordes in the Fulda Gap. Similarly, after two decades of counter-terrorism, many reject the idea that there is anything to learn from these low-intensity conflicts (the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other theaters of the Global War on Terror) and want to shift focus instead to conventional great power threats.

Nevertheless, lessons from Wingate and Gubbins irregular warfare experiences offer two models of continued relevance for future high-intensity warfare. First, relying on American special operations forces is not enough. Instead U.S. conventional forces should staff and train trusted partners and create hybrid units with foreign partners. U.S. officers and non-commissioned officers can provide the backbone for tactical command and staff work and can direct indigenous forces. In wartime these units could conduct operations against the adversary in enemy (or contested) territory using guerrilla-style attacks and sabotage in support of conventional operations. Working with, training, and preparing foreign forces now to conduct stay-behind operations would be a force multiplier in future conflict. Countries agreeing to such a partnership may also see a benefit from powerfully allying with the United States. Second, the U.S. military should establish specially provisioned, conventional forces in approximately company-sized units designed to conduct long-range penetration operations against enemy lines of communication. They should be able to operate for up to a month or longer without resupply.

Wingate and Gubbins, both artillery officers and graduates of Woolwich Military Academy, were influenced by their Scottish heritage and their experiences in various theaters on the edges of the British Empire. They had different personalities and leadership styles, but both came to see that unconventional warfare including the use of auxiliary or foreign forces could be a force multiplier in conventional warfare against peer adversaries. Wingate is most well-known for his activities in Palestine, Abyssinia, and later Burma with the famous Chindits. (The name was a corruption of the Burmese chinthe, a mythological lion-like creature that frequently guards Buddhist temples in pairs of statutes.) Gubbins great contributions were his development of doctrine and training for the Special Operations Executive, and later his operational contributions when he later became the head of the organization. The British Special Operations Executive directed subversion and sabotage against Axis forces in occupied countries and directly influenced the organization and training of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, the progenitor of the CIA and U.S. Army Special Forces. (Unlike the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, the British Special Operations Executive did not have an intelligence component, and instead focused purely on subversion and sabotage).

Orde Wingate

The geographic span of Wingates influence is considerable. Theres an Israeli sports and military training institute named after him, in addition to dozens of streets, and an eponymous school in Ethiopia. His remains are interred in Arlington National Cemetery alongside those of the U.S. bomber crew with whom he died in India. He regularly alienated his superiors as well as his peers, but developed influential patrons including Winston Churchill. Churchill eulogized Wingate as one of the most brilliant and courageous figures of the second world war. The British prime minister claimed that he recognized him as a man of genius, and I hoped he might become a man of destiny. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin credited Wingate as having possibly the largest influence on Israeli military theory and practice.

Wingate was raised in an austere Protestant household, became an ardent Zionist (and was close to Chaim Weizmann, Israels first president), dabbled in Marxism, and broke a years-long engagement to marry a teenager more than a decade his junior. He was an eccentric who in the field often ate raw onions while naked but for foot and head-gear, and scrubbed himself with a rough brush rather than bathing, and did not believe in brushing his teeth. Wingate was also manic-depressive, and while wrestling with a bout of cerebral malaria stabbed himself twice in the neck in a suicide attempt in Cairo.

Like several other military geniuses and iconoclasts (such as Lt. Col. Earl Pete Ellis, Brig. Gen. William Billy Mitchell, and Col. John Boyd), Wingate had amazing success in getting himself disliked by people who might otherwise have supported him, according to Adm. Louis Mountbatten, the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command. Nevertheless, Wingate typically engendered great loyalty not only in his British subordinates, but also the foreign fighters he fought with in Sudan, Palestine, Ethiopia, and Burma.

Colin Gubbins

Gubbins was in many ways Wingates polar opposite. He was described as genial, calm, charming, and soft-spoken, as well as energetic and efficient. At a time when his society was notoriously fixated on class, he was a rare general officer who mixed freely among all ranks, and was seen as ahead of his time in how he treated female staff. One of his principal secretaries remembered that he would not tolerate any discrimination in how women working for the Special Operations Executive were treated.

Gubbins was an experienced officer who fought for four years on the western front of World War I until he was wounded. Following the war he had a diverse series of assignments including service in the Archangel campaign aiding the White Russian forces; countering the Irish insurgency as British troops withdrew during the Anglo-Irish war; frontier duty in India; and leading an independent company tasked with slowing down the Nazi invasion in Norway. In designing doctrine for Special Operations Executive Gubbins studied history closely drawing lessons from British adversaries, including the Irish, the Boers, and the German Col. Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbecks successful World War I campaign against the allies in East Africa. He took on the Special Operations Executive mission despite knowing that the British bias against unconventional warfare service would likely negatively impact his promotion potential. (Wingate was conscious of this bias as well, which is why he was loath to fall under the Special Operations Executive, and fought to keep his forces conventional.) Gubbins son joined the Special Operations Executive and was killed at Anzio. Unlike Wingate he was gracious and took slights without complaint, notably after the war when his rank was reduced from brevet major general to his pre-war rank of colonel, impacting his pension and requiring him to seek additional work in his retirement.

Use of Local Forces

What relevance do Wingate and Gubbins have today? Both were products of an expeditionary army that had frequent practice in small wars, often leading native troops, and were used to fighting at a far remove from their supply lines or reinforcements. In the British Army lessons were shared by officers who had served in varied environments and applied in other areas of the empire. Wingate and Gubbins biographies well reflect the typical diversity of assignments officers could expect at the time. Drawing upon their experiences, both focused on the use of local forces supported by British advisers to support larger conventional missions in World War II.

Special Night Squads

Wingate developed and led the Special Night Squads in Mandatory Palestine during the Arab Revolt of 1936 to 1939. Each squad was made up of a handful of British officers and non-commissioned officers, and staffed by Haganah (Jewish defense force) fighters. The Arab Revolt was directed not only against the British government, but also against the growing Jewish communities spreading throughout Arab territory. Wingate arrived in Palestine having studied Arabic and led Arab troops in the Sudanese Defense Force, but he did not suffer from the latent antisemitism that much of the British officer class often exhibited. Wingate saw that British tactics were failing, with truck-borne troops spotted long before they got to the scene of an Arab attack. With headquarters approval, he recruited from the illegal Haganah to develop his Special Night Squads. Wingate focused on speed, physical fitness, training, and the ability to operate at night. His squads took the offensive, and focused on developing intelligence, to lead to raids to generate additional intelligence, in a virtuous cycle. (Seventy-plus years later, U.S. Joint Special Operations Command perfected a similar intelligence raid intelligence cycle in Iraq.) While technically a counter-insurgency force, the squads operated much like guerrillas.

The Gideon Force

Wingates next venture was leading the Gideon Force in Abyssinia (December 1940 to June 1941), where his indigenous unit made up of Ethiopian troops coordinated and supported a larger conventional British campaign against Italian forces. Wingate led the forces that triumphantly reinstalled Emperor Hailie Selassie to his throne. (Interestingly, at the time, Wingate fell under MI(R) the War Offices Research branch in Ethiopia, which later along with Section D from the British Secret Intelligence Service was combined into Special Operations Executive). The Gideons operated similarly to the Special Night Squads, crossing terrain assessed as impassible, using physically hardened troops, camels, and other pack animals to surprise the Italians. They employed hit-and-run tactics successfully in situations as lopsided as 300 versus a force of 12,000 Italian and colonial troops. With a focus on mobility and rapid action at decisive points, Wingates forces applied maneuver warfare. At one point, 1,000 Ethiopian and Sudanese troops in the Gideon Force with 500 in reserve drove 7,000 Italians into a rout. One final battle resulted in 7,000 colonial troops (of which 1,100 were Italian members of black-shirt battalions) surrendering to 35 Sudanese fighters. Ultimately, the Gideon Force was credited with defeating an Italian army more than ten times its own size as it liberated Abyssinia. While Wingate advocated for the development of British special forces (contemporaneously, others were establishing the Commandos and Special Air Service), his units of local volunteers were led by regular British troops in many cases territorials, which approximate todays U.S. National Guard or reservists. He also saw that his unconventional warfare forces were designed to operate in support of a larger conventional mission.

Special Operations Executive

Gubbins arrived in Poland just days before the Nazi and Soviet invasions as a liaison officer to prepare to conduct guerilla warfare, but quickly had to retreat. A similar attempt to coordinate with the Czechoslovakian and Polish general staffs in Paris failed. He helped plan internal British resistance to a Nazi invasion, and then served in Norway. After these initial back-foot efforts, Gubbins came to MI(R), the War Offices research branch which developed into the Special Operations Executive and was placed in charge of doctrine and training. Gubbins devised a strategy to work with governments in exile to identify and train locals for sabotage operations in their home countries. A central element of Special Operations Executive was its focus on coordinating attacks to support overarching strategic goals. Ultimately, Special Operations Executive pursued a two-phased approach. To begin with, small units of well-trained elite saboteurs carried out specific missions to damage enemy infrastructure (such as critical plants for war materiel). In the second phase Gubbins envisioned moving to larger formations of less-trained resistance forces (much like Mao Zedongs theory of insurgency), who would attack enemy lines of communication in support of the allied theater commanders offensive operations as nations were liberated.

During phase one, native units also created covert smuggling rat-lines into occupied territories. One such Special Operations Executive maritime unit was the Shetland Bus a fleet of Norwegian fishing vessels used to infiltrate and exfiltrate men and equipment in occupied Scandinavia. Gubbins doctrine focused on surprise, maneuver, and peripheral attack. Plans for breaking contact and escape were essential. He recommended pinprick night attacks to sap the morale of the enemy. Successful guerrilla attacks cause an enemy to disperse forces to protect their rear areas and supply-lines.

U.S. Special Operations Command units do train partner forces, and thus it may be argued that the British example has already been adopted. In addition to the standard foreign internal defense missions, so-called 127 Echo missions allow units to develop foreign counter-terrorism forces in this manner. Per 10 U.S. Code Section 127e, the Pentagon can spend up to $100 million annually on support to foreign forces for counter-terrorism operations. In these programs foreign units conduct combat operations with US operational guidance. However, unlike 127e programs the Special Night Squads and the Gideon Force in Ethiopia were directly led by conventional British officers and non-commissioned officers embedded in those units.

The famous Special Operations Executive Jedburgh teams of 1944-45 (in which a British or American officer, a radio operator, and a local translator parachuted into occupied territory to coordinate with local partisans primarily in the European theater, but also in the last months of the war in Asia) similarly provided a trained component embedded in an indigenous force. Like the British imperial army, the Marine Corps history has been that of an expeditionary force, frequently used as an imperial constabulary and fighting small wars. Conventional Marine units have often found themselves partnering with local forces. Many argue that their embedding with indigenous partners in initiatives such as the Combined Action Program in Vietnam were successful force multipliers for American efforts in that conflict.

Establishing partner forces in the Pacific now may allow greater operational flexibility for American forces in a future Asian war. At a minimum U.S. Marines should train foreign units that would allow Marines to fall into leadership billets during a conflict, and/or preparing them to conduct sabotage missions. Similarly, partner forces in the Baltics could address European security needs. A Pacific conflict is expected to be quick and brutal, and the United States will not have an opportunity to move forces into theater to extensively train partner forces. Marines will have limited resupply, and be required to operate for extended periods on their own. Thus, developing trained units now who have local knowledge may be crucial for future success.

Long-Range Unconventional Forces

Wingate may be most famous for his Chindits program, which should be considered as two separate campaigns in which British forces conducted long-range penetrations of Burma, directed against Japanese lines of communication. The first was more of a proof of concept to show that, properly equipped and trained, a brigade-sized British force dispersed into smaller columns could operate in the jungle against the enemy more than 100 miles from friendly forces. In February 1943, Wingate led his first foray against the Japanese. This first campaign showed that the Chindits were able to carry out ambushes, destroy bridges, and harass the enemy. They used air-drops for resupply, and without organic artillery assets instead called for air strikes. They lost nearly a third of the men who started the campaign and of those who returned roughly a quarter who survived were still combat effective, but the first Chindit force had a psychological effect damaging Japanese morale, and lifting British spirits as a first successful offense in the Far East.

Wingate sought to sell his concept of long-range operations to British leadership and succeeded in reaching Churchills attention. The prime minister brought Wingate with him to the August 1943 First Quebec Conference between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada to brief the participants about the first successful Chindit mission. Having gained the prime ministers support, Wingate returned to the British Army headquarters in India, and was given the equivalent of an Army Corps for his second Chindit mission. Training and organizing commenced in late 1943. Wingate again divided his units into columns roughly approximating a reinforced rifle company of 250 soldiers along with a command element, a recon platoon, heavy machine-gun platoon, mortar section, and indigenous troops from the Burma Rifles. In February 1944, Lt. Gen. William Bill Slim, commander of the British Fourteenth Army, gave Wingate the order to carry out attacks against the Japanese rear and their lines of communication, and to cause as much havoc as possible to support the larger British offensive. This Chindit mission was aerially inserted with gliders, landing 9,000 men and 1,000 mules, to create strong points in occupied territory. The second Chindit campaign may be seen as a historical antecedent to two examples from the war in Afghanistan: the Operation Rhino raids by U.S. Army Rangers in October 2001 in Kandahar, and the use of Camp Rhino by Marine Task Force 58, which conducted an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf. Wingates death in a plane crash ended his plan to use the Chindits as a long-range force and they instead became regular infantry for the remainder of the campaign.

Gubbins employed a concept similar to the Chindits when tasked with operating against the Nazis in Norway. Gubbins led an independent company, designed to engage in mobile harassment of the enemy with sufficient logistics to self-sustain for one month. The unit had its own engineers, signals, mortars, and anti-tank capabilities. They successfully slowed the German invasion and exfiltrated from Scandinavia with minimal casualties.

Certainly, U.S. forces have the capability for deep insertion into hostile territory and have done so in modern conflicts (e.g., the 101st Airbornes 2003 air assault into northern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom). The issues facing the United States in a potential war in the Pacific are not only those of the tyranny of distance, but also that adversaries have learned not to allow the United States to build up its logistics or operate from large land bases or carrier strike groups, and have greatly invested in anti-access/area denial weapon systems to keep U.S. forces from being able to operate effectively. The U.S. Marine Corps Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations is already an initial recognition of the need to distribute the force in the Pacific in smaller units to reduce their footprints.

For these reasons, there is value in examining Wingate and Gubbins use of small units that can operate independently with self-sustain logistics (or minimal outside logistic support) against numerical odds inside the adversarys anti-access/area denial curtain, on the enemys terrain or land he has captured for extended periods of time, often with the coordinated assistance of local forces.

Conclusion

Both Wingate and Gubbins faced many of the same problems that modern planners face in designing units that can operate against a numerically superior enemy. Two insights appear to have particular salience still today. First, the use of irregular forces largely made up of foreigners with a backbone of British officers and non-commissioned officers was a force multiplier that had dramatic impacts in multiple theaters for the British. Local troops intuitively knew their environment, and were willing to defend their home country. The addition of the professional British staff-work and resources immeasurably improved their capabilities. Wingates Special Night Squads in Jerusalem and the Gideon Force that liberated Abyssinia, or Gubbins sabotage operations in occupied Europe and later resistance campaigns supported by the Jedburgh teams, all repeatedly demonstrated the utility of this approach. Second, the development of self-supporting maneuver units designed for long-range penetration operations in support of a conventional mission as demonstrated by the Chindits and Gubbins independent company in Norway helped contribute to the United Kingdoms strategic goals and to the Allied victory against the Axis powers. Lessons from these two Pax Britannia practitioners remain salient for todays centurions guarding Pax Americana.

Christopher D. Booth is a career national security professional, and formerly served on active duty as a commissioned U.S. Army armor and cavalry officer. He has extensive experience abroad, including assignments in war zones and austere environments in the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and Europe. He is a distinguished graduate of Command & Staff College Marine Corps University, where he was a fellow in the General Robert H. Barrow Fellowship for Strategic Competition from the Marine Corps University and the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Creativity, and a scholar in the Gray Scholars Program Advanced Studies on Social & Political Conflict. He graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School, and received a BA from the College of William & Mary.

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When You're Outnumbered: Lessons from Two British Masters of Irregular Warfare - War on the Rocks

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Posted By admin on August 20, 2020

Recently I did two amazing things; two things that seem to have nothing in common, but are surprisingly intertwined.I finished Masechet Shabbat, the second masechet in the seven-and-a-half-year cycle of learning Talmud. And I finished the first 100 kilometers of the Israel Trail, a trail that consists of about 1,100 kilometers in total.As I started considering these two accomplishments and thinking about how proud I am of myself and how grateful I am to have the opportunity to reach this moment, I realized just how similar these two activities are.Last year, my family set a goal of walking the Israel Trail together. So far, we have found nine days to put aside for the task, and we broke each day into 10- to 12-kilometer hikes. At the beginning of January, when the last Talmud cycle finished, one of my good friends created a group for women in my small community and encouraged me to try to learn the daily daf. Ive certainly never learned Gemara before Ive never learned many things but I decided I would listen to the daily class given by Rabbanit Michelle Farber of Hadran and see how I did.Both of these activities were far-reaching and seemingly unrealistic goals. How could I, a middle-aged, not-particularly-learned, not-particularly-athletic mother of six find the time, the energy, the drive and the understanding to reach these goals? Both goals are so large and expansive. It would have been so easy, with either goal, to laugh off the process, to simply say its too much; its too lofty a goal; its too time-consuming or expensive or complicated or hard to follow through. Its too so many things.But instead, in both instances, I told myself that I would give it a try. I didnt say that I would finish, but rather that I would try. And in trying, Im seeing the magic of the task at hand. Each day when I show up for the daf and listen to the shiur, Ive accomplished another day and Im one day closer to the goal. Will I get through the 7.5 year cycle and complete all 2,711 pages? Who knows? But am I learning a little Talmud every single day? Yes.Every day that we schedule a trip up North and then finish a hike, Ive accomplished another day and Im one day closer to that goal, too. Will we managed to get the family together for the rest of the 1,000 kilometers and hike the entire way? Who knows? But am I learning about the Land of Israel and enjoying time with my family each time that we head out? Yes.AND THEN COVID-19 hit, and there were so many more reasons to say neither task could be done. Who has time to learn a daf a day with a job (now being done from the living room), six kids in school (now being done from the living room), and a husband (now working from the living room)? And who can possibly think of hiking when we are stuck in perpetual lockdown, one step away from being put into quarantine after the lockdown and scared to book a cabin and lose the deposit if someone becomes sick? There were just so many more reasons not to continue with either goal.And yet, of course, there are so many reasons to continue. The daily daf created consistency in the midst of lockdown chaos; the goal of getting on the Israel Trail again created excitement and anticipation in a time of fear and concern. When you start something large and potentially overwhelming, there is always room to try to back out. Its scary to think of committing to something time-consuming and energy-draining. But really, the commitment is just to that one moment, that one day. Yes, it would be wonderful to finish the Talmud cycle and to get to those last kilometers in Eilat, but the fact that Ive started the journey is also enough. The fact that Ive learned over 200 pages of Talmud, and the fact that Ive walked 100 kilometers of the land in Israel is, in itself, such an accomplishment. And each time that I add just one day or one footstep to that accomplishment, it adds that much more magic. Mt. Meron (Credit: Amichai Sussman)Its amazing to see how much each step adds up. When I think about the thousands of pages of Talmud ahead of me, or the thousand kilometers still to take, I start to wonder, Who am I kidding?. I cant accomplish these goals. But then, when I look back at how many pages of Talmud Ive done, I can see that they actually start to add up. There is substance there each day of learning has turned into the completion of more than 200 pages. When I look back at the trail and see that we walked through Kiryat Shemona, all the way up Mount Meron, past Safed and down to the Kinneret, I can see that accomplishment on a map. Each day looks like endlessly hot, dry land, but at the end of a few days, I could actually see the physical distance and the kilometers weve hiked. While the experience of working on both of these goals is invigorating and ego-boosting, its also ego-deflating and humbling. How can both exist at the same time? Each time I finish a daf, and particularly when Ive now finished two masachtot, I feel empowered, smarter, excited. With each hike that we take, I feel strong, accomplished (and allowed to eat a lot of chocolate for all those calories Ive obviously burned). But the little that Ive accomplished also opens my eyes to the vast expanse of things that I dont know and places that I havent been. That creates a deep feeling of humility, and at times even frustration, to think of how much more there is to learn and hike.Yet I will continue with both pursuits. With each daf that I learn and every step that I take along the Trail, I learn more about the people of my history, the land of my history and myself. These two pursuits of hiking the Land of Israel and learning the foundational text of our nation are intricately intertwined for me, and will probably continue to be for the many years to come as I reach for both goals; one daf and one step at a time. Originally from Los Angeles, the writer frequently writes about raising six sons in Israel and her experience as an olah.

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Walking through the Talmud and the land of Israel - The Jerusalem Post

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The laws of marriage are derived from the Torah portion of Ki Teitzei. The Talmud explains that there are three ways to betroth a woman:

A woman is acquired by (i.e., becomes betrothed to) a man to be his wife in three ways, and she acquires herself (i.e., she terminates her marriage) in two ways. The Mishnah elaborates: She is acquired through money, through a document and through marital relations.

Although this description of marriage may sound legalistic, Judaisms perspective and insight into the profound meaning, beauty, romance and mystery of marriage can be discovered by exploring the meaning behind the seemingly technical details of the law.

There are three ways to betroth a woman, not merelyMarriage has three dimensionsbecause the Torah would like to give us more options for creating the legal state of marriage, but rather because marriage has three dimensions. Each of the three methods of betrothal express one of the three dimensions of the relationship.

(Practically speaking, even one of the methods of betrothal suffice to usher in all three dimensions of the marriage. In fact, the rabbis prohibited betrothal through intimacy, and it has become the universal custom to betroth through a form of money. Yet, the law offers three forms of betrothal to teach us to be aware of all three dimensions that can be initiated by any one of these forms.)

The first form of betrothal is through moneythe groom gives the bride something of monetary value. Money, which is tangible and physical, represents the physical aspects of the relationship. The couple will live under the same roof, eat dinner together, have a joint bank account and file a joint tax return. They will spend time together and enjoy each other's company. Yet, while important, the physical aspect of the relationship is not all there is to marriage.

The second form of betrothal is through writing a legal document. The document itself does not have to have any monetary value; its value is abstract and intangible. The document represents the spiritual aspect of the marriage. The couple will share ideas with each other, and enjoy each other's wit, wisdom and point of view.

Betrothal by document reminds us that marriage is more than just living together; marriage is about creating a bond between two souls (or, as the mystics say: reuniting two halves of the same soul).The document represents the soul connection that is established (or reestablished) through marriage.

The third form of betrothal, marital intimacy, represents the ultimate goal of Intimacy is considered a holy experiencemarriage. In Judaism, intimacy in the context of a sacred marriage is considered a holy experience, for it is a fusion of body and soul. It is when the first two dimensions of marriage, the physical unity and the spiritual unity, merge. The physical union expresses the deepest spiritual bond.

The marriage of man and woman is a reflection of the spiritual marriage between Gd, the groom, and the Jewish people, the bride. Perhaps we can add that our relationship with Gd is also expressed through these three forms of betrothal: 1) betrothal by money: Gd blesses us with our physical life, health and necessities, allowing us to enjoy our physical life on earth; 2) betrothal by document: we enjoy a spiritual connection with Gd, by studying His document, His Torah, which contains the mysteries of His deepest thoughts; and 3) betrothal by intimacy: the ultimate expression of our connection with Gd is through performing a mitzvah. For the physical act of the commandment is an act of intimacy with Gd, whereby our body and soul become one with His infinity.

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The Three Forms of Betrothal - Torah Insights - Parshah - Chabad.org

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Posted By admin on August 20, 2020

By Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks

In Shoftim, Moses speaks about the great institutions of Judaism: courts, judges, officers, kings, priests, Levites and prophets. In the case of the prophet, Moses says in the name of G-d:

I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself: I will put My words in his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him. (Deut. 18:18)

The phrase a prophet like yourself cannot be meant literally. In the quality and clarity of his communications with G-d, Moses was unique. He was unique in the miracles he performed. Most importantly, only he was authorized to proclaim Torah he was Israels sole legislator.

The king and Sanhedrin both had powers to make temporary enactments for the sake of social order. prophets were given the authority to command specific, time-bound acts. But no one could add to or subtract from the 613 commandments given by G-d through Moses.

This, therefore, is how Rambam explains our passage: Why is it said in the Torah: I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself (Deut. 18:18)? He will come not to establish a religion, but to command them to keep the words of the Torah, warning the people not to transgress them, as the last among them said: Remember the Torah of Moses My servant (Mal. 3:22).

In other words, the prophets who followed Moses, from Elijah to Malachi, were not revolutionaries. They did not intend to create something new but to restore something old. Their task was to recall people to the mission Moses taught them: to stay faithful to G-d, and to create a just and compassionate society.

Eventually, during or after the Second Temple period, most of these institutions ended. There were no kings because Israel had no sovereignty.

There were no priests because it had no Temple. But there were also no prophets. How important was this? And what happened to prophecy? The Talmud gives two radically opposite opinions. The first:

Rabbi Yocanan said: From the day that the Temple was destroyed, prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to fools and children.

We cant be sure what Rabbi Yochanan meant. He may have meant that children and fools sometimes see what others dont (as Hans Christian Anderson illustrated in the famous story of the Emperors New Clothes).

He may, though, have meant the opposite, that prophecy deteriorated during the late Second Temple period. There were many false prophets, soothsayers, doomsayers, mystics, announcers of the apocalypse, and messianic movements, all confidently predicting the end of history and the birth of a new order of things. There were religious sectarians.

There were Essenes expecting the arrival of the Teacher of Righteousness. There were rebels against Rome who believed that their military hero would bring freedom, even the messianic age. It was a fevered, destructive time, and Rabbi Yochanan may have wanted to discredit, as far as possible, any dependence on supposedly divine certainty about the future. Prophecy is the chattering of children or the rambling of fools.

However the Talmud also cites a quite different opinion:

Rabbi Avdimi from Haifa says: From the day that the Temple was destroyed prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to the sages. Ameimar said: And a Sage is greater than a prophet, as it is stated: A prophet has a heart of wisdom (Ps. 90:12). Who is compared to whom? You must say that the lesser is compared to the greater. (Since a prophet must have a heart of wisdom, the Sage, who is wisdom personified, must be greater still).

This is seriously interesting. The early judges in Israel were Kohanim. When Moses blessed the people at the end of his life he said of the tribe of Levi, They shall teach Your laws to Jacob and Your instructions to Israel (Deut. 33:10). When Ezra taught Torah to the Israelites, he positioned Levites among the people to explain what was being said. All this suggests that when the sages teachers and masters of Jewish law traced their intellectual-spiritual lineage, they should have done so by seeing themselves as heirs of the Kohanim and Leviim. But they did not do so.

We see this from the famous Mishnah that opens Pirkei Avot: Moses received the Torah at Sinai and handed it onto Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly.

The sages saw themselves as heirs to the prophets. But in what sense? And how did they come to see themselves not just as heirs to, but as greater than the prophets. What is more, the proof text they cite means nothing of the kind.

The verse in Psalm 90 says, Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. The Talmud is playing on the fact that two quite different words sound alike: (we may gain) and (a prophet). In other words, only by suspending our critical faculties is the proof-text a proof.

Something very strange is happening here. The sages, who valued humility, who knew that prophecy had come to an end in the days of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi five centuries before the destruction of the Second Temple, who believed that the most one could hear from heaven was a bat kol, a distant echo, are here saying that not only are they prophets, but they are superior to prophets.

All this to teach us that the sages took the ideals of the prophets and turned them into practical programmes. Here is one example. Remonstrating with the people, administering rebuke, was fundamental to the prophetic task. This is how Ezekiel understood the task:

G-d said: Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me Say to them, This is what the Sovereign L-rd says. And whether they listen or fail to listenfor they are a rebellious peoplethey will know that a prophet has been among them. (Ez. 2:3-5)

Ezekiel must take a public stand. Once he has done that, he has fulfilled his duty. The people will have been warned, and if they fail to listen, it will be their fault.

The sages had a completely different approach. First, they understood the task of remonstrating as belonging to everyone, not just prophets. That is how they understood the verse, You shall surely rebuke your neighbor so you will not share in his guilt (Lev. 19:17). Second, they held that it should be done not once but up to a hundred times if necessary. In fact you should keep reprimanding a wrongdoer until they hit you or curse you or scold you. All of this, though, applies only if there is a reasonable chance of making the situation better. If not, then we apply the rule: Just as it is a mitzvah to say something that will be heeded, so it is a mitzvah not to say something that will not be heeded.

Note the difference between the two approaches. The prophet takes a heroic stand but does not take responsibility for whether the people listen or not. The rabbis do not take a heroic stand. In fact, they democratise the responsibility for rebuke so that it applies to everyone. But they are ultra-sensitive to whether it is effective or not. If there is a chance of changing someone for the better, then you must try a hundred times, but if there is no chance at all, better be silent. This is not only a wise approach; it is a highly effective one.

Now consider peace. No finer visions of a world at peace have ever been given than by Israels prophets. This is just one:

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the L-rd as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

Now consider rabbinic teachings:

For the sake of peace, the poor of the heathens should not be prevented from gathering gleanings, forgotten sheaves, and corners of the field. Our masters taught: for the sake of peace, the poor of the heathens should be supported as we support the poor of Israel, the sick of the heathens should be visited as we visit the sick of Israel, and the dead of the heathens should be buried as we bury the dead of Israel.

Once again, the difference is glaring. What for the prophets was a dazzling vision of a distant future was, for the sages, a practical program of good community relations, a way of sustaining peaceful coexistence between the Jewish community and its Gentile neighbors. It was imaginative, gracious and workable.

There are many other examples.

The sages achieved something extraordinary. Throughout the biblical era, the Israelites were constantly tempted by idolatry and foreign ways. The prophets were often driven close to despair. During the rabbinic era, Jews became a people defined by religion, commandments, learning and prayer, sustained voluntarily and maintained tenaciously against all pressures to convert to the majority faith. That is because the Rabbis did not focus on distant visions. They devised practical programmes. These may have lacked drama, but they worked.

The sages, perhaps to their surprise, realized this. Where the prophets failed, they succeeded.

I believe that institutions like prophecy survive when they are translated from utopian ideals into practical policies. The greatness of the sages, still not fully appreciated by the world, is that guided by the visions of the prophets, they gave us the instructions for how to get from here to there.

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Why the sage is greater than the prophet - The Jewish Star

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