JoelNothman.com

I’ve updated the chart linked from my previous post to include an English translation. Thought that might help some people.

I will be singing next week at one of the communal commemorations for the Holocaust next Wednesday night. At first I was going to only be singing with the Sydney Jewish Choral Society (my usual Wednesday night entertainment), but they invited me also to sing El Male Rachamim (the memorial prayer) alone.

Not only do I have to work out the tune, but there seem to be a variety of texts for the purpose. This chart compares a few samples. Any bits people particularly like or don’t like??

• Is God a dweller on high, or a father to orphans?
• Should God procure space upon or under the wings of His presence?
• Do we mourn “6 million Jews”, or “our brothers, Children of Israel”, or “multitudes of thousands of Israel”, or the “holy and pure”?
• Do we specify “men, women and children”?
• Do we state that their death was “in the sanctification of God’s Name”?
• What different means of death should we list?
• Do we name the holocaust, or list the camps, or mention Germans, or Nazis, or that their name should be erased?
• Do we give attribution to our prayer for them, or to our charity on their behalf?
• Do we mention that among them were the righteous and learned?
• And why is יום pluralised irregularly as ימין when it follows the word קץ?

The Third Commandment treats the matter of mistreating God’s name quite bluntly:

Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not acquit one who takes His name in vain.

Rashi follows the translation of Onkelos in suggesting that the repeated “taking in vain” is once an injunction against those who swear by the Name falsely, and once against those who swear needlessly.

Judaism abounds in traditions of protecting the sanctity of Divine Names in writing, and avoiding them in speech except when necessary. In fact, (להבדיל) the Rabbinic manner of protecting the divine name has taken on characteristics commonly found in linguistic taboo associated with swearing (the other type), euphemism, or political correctness. (more…)

You have seen that which I have done to Egypt, and how I have carried you upon the wings of eagles, and how I have brought you to me.

How should we understand the allegory of being carried on eagles’ wings?
(more…)

Regularly on shabbat in the small synagogue that I usually attend, Or Chadash, we get to the point in the service in which a prayer for the leaders of Australia (and for the State of Israel, and for its soldiers) are recited. If Rabbi Freedman is there, he usually has with him the new United Synagogue Siddur (or “the Sacks Siddur”, whose superior translation I would really like to own), which contains a similar prayer for the British Royal Family and their government, and with a few changes (a reference to the Governor General, states and territories, etc.) we manage the usual prayer. On occasions where we lack the Rabbi or his siddur, the best we have to go off is a prayer for the President and leaders of the USA, as printed in the Artscroll’s Rabbinical Council Edition siddur. Sometimes, not given the resources we even just skip blessing the Queen. (Don’t tell any Royal Family members!)

Since the large Artscroll Siddur that we have at the pulpit doesn’t contain any of these prayers, and especially none specifically for Australia, I’ve put them together on a Letter-sized piece of paper, hopefully perfect to stick in on page 451 over the English translation of Yekum Purkan, which no one at the pulpit reads anyway. With the help of the Rabbinical Council Siddur, I have also attempted to translate the Prayer for Australia into Hebrew, as I have heard requests for that in the past when in other synagogues.

So here it is: Prayers for Australia, Israel and the IDF, ready for printing and pasting! (And hopefully without too many errors!)

Now I just have to remember to do that myself before the coming weekend.

It would seem from a few of his comments that Ibn Ezra had a fascination for the Hindus and their culture.

For instance, the hand-under-thigh oath that we see between Eliezer (?) and Abraham, and between Joseph and Jacob. Rashi takes this practice as akin to swearing on a bible: Eliezer and Joseph swore on the place of circumcision. Ibn Ezra’s comment is not clear on whether “thigh” is mere euphemism as Rashi takes it, but claims that:

It was the law (custom?) in those days for a man to put his hand under the thigh of authority … as if to say: behold, my hand is under your authority to do your will. And this is still the law in India.

(more…)

It is well known that the letters on the dreidel stand for נס גדול היה שם (”a great miracle happened there”, nes gadol hayah sham). One might suppose from what they tell you in school that this phrase is why those particular letters adorn the spinning top.

It’s less well known that the letters originally stood for Yiddish words related to the game that you play with the dreidel:

• נ for nisht - take nothing
• ג for gantze - take it all
• ה for halb - take half
• ש for shtel - put one in

Indeed, knowing Yiddish would make learning the rules of the game a whole lot easier.

Just like Purim, the main symbol of Chanukah has no apparent connection to the festival itself (except for involving lots of fun). Both have Yiddish origins that were tinkered with to create a connection to the festival they became associated with.

Or do you have other suggestions? What does gambling have to do with the Maccabees and oily miracles?

In Genesis 31, Jacob decides that he’s had enough of his father-in-law, Laban, and in the end is pushed to escape secretly. His most beloved wife, Rachel, for whatever reason, takes her father’s teraphim idols, and it’s with this pretext of theft that he angrily greets the large family after chasing them seven days.

Jacob, innocent of any knowledge of his wife’s theft, is outraged by the accusation and basically exclaims:

Nu! So search us. If, somehow, you can find one of us has taken your gods, that person shall not live!

This harshness is from personal upset, but is also theological: Jacob could not understand one of his family having the motivation to take possession of forbidden idols.

The question is: was Rachel’s early death a result of this “curse” from Jacob?
(more…)

I don’t know whether anyone has compiled a best-of for the comments of Abraham ibn Ezra, but it would probably have to be divided into “insights” and “insults”. He is often critical of prior commentators, but not always as cutting and hilarious as on Genesis 29:17 where Leah is described as having עיניים רכות (weak eyes).

Ibn Ezra first blasts those who try to make the text not as harsh to the Jewish matriarch, saying they project their own ideas onto God. He then brings the commentary of a Karaite that he was not particularly fond of:

ובן אפרים אמר שהוא חסר אל”ף, וטעמו ארוכות. והוא היה חסר אל”ף.

And Ben Ephraim said that it (”weak”, rakot) is missing an Aleph, and should mean “long [eyes]” (arukot). Yet he was [the one] missing an Aleph!

Ibn Ezra here not only implies that Ben Ephraim had a screw loose, but that if he indeed was missing an Aleph, he would be a בן פרים, a “son of cows”!

Definitely up there in the top-ten.

Genesis reports Abraham being involved in a few very intense dialogues, and it is interesting to notice some of the phrases he introduces his speech with. In chapter 15, his address to God is “My lord, Hashem”. When bargaining with God over the lives of the people of Sodom (chapter 18), he is more elaborate:

• Here I venture to speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes… (הנה-נא הואלתי לדבר אל אדני ואנכי עפר ואפר)
• Let not my Lord be angry if I go on… (אל-נא יחר לאדני ואדברה)
• And again: Here I venture to speak to my Lord… (הנה-נא הואלתי לדבר אל אדני)
• Let not my Lord be angry if I speak even this last time… (אל-נא יחר לאדני ואדברה אף-הפעם)

Appropriate language to speak with God? Maybe, but when it comes to negotiations with men, the relationship is more equal. Abraham discusses the purchase of a burial site for his late Sarah in chapter 23, and from both parties involved, the speech introduction is usually “my lord, hear me” (אדני שמעני) or “hear me, my lord” (שמעני אדני) or “no, my lord, hear me” (לא אדני שמעני) or “but if you will hear me” (אך אם אתה לו שמעני). Listening skills are in high demand, but…
(more…)