Ha'Azinu
Hello!
Content notes for this week's newsletter are antisemitism and sexual assault.
Jewish Calendar
This week's torah portion is Ha'Azinu. The bulk of it is calligraphed poetically in two columns per column. We're almost through the torah! Sometimes when I read over a parsha I have a particular favorite verse. This week it's Dvarim 32:2:
יַעֲרֹ֤ף כַּמָּטָר֙ לִקְחִ֔י
תִּזַּ֥ל כַּטַּ֖ל אִמְרָתִ֑י כִּשְׂעִירִ֣ם עֲלֵי־דֶ֔שֶׁא
וְכִרְבִיבִ֖ים עֲלֵי־עֵֽשֶׂב׃
May my discourse come down as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew, like showers on young growth,
Like droplets on the grass
Rashi says that torah is life to the people as rain and dew are life to the world (with a little language lesson in old French!)
Sforno says in a slightly insulting way: torah is useful to all people, learned and unlearned, as rain and dew are useful to all plants!
Chizkuni says the full value of torah is revealed over time, not immediately, like the eventual result of rain and dew are trees and fruit!
I say hell yeah, this rocks.
(image is of Captain Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation raising his finger, about to say "make it so". Instead, the meme has in yellow hebrew text Ken Yehi Ratzon, a common refrain in the liturgy meaning "may your will be so!".)
In other news: holy cow we made it through Yom Kippur everyone. I'm proud of us. A piece from the Neilah (closing) yom kippur service, and also the daily morning prayers: Mah anu / what are we? Meh chayeinu / what is our life? Meh chasdeinu / what is our lovingkindness? Mah tzidkeinu / what is our justice? Mah yeshuateinu / what is our salvation? Mah kocheinu / what is our power? Mah gevurateinu / what is our strength?
"our." This shmita year, of all years, my hope is that we live more in a place of collective and mutual support, providing and receiving both.
Anyway, Sukkot starts on Tuesday and it's one of my favorites. Happy shake a lemon at G-d week.
Israel problems and antisemitism problems
The Jewish cemetery in Ioannina was desecrated again. I almost certainly have relatives in this cemetery. I do not know who they are, though I could make guesses based on the family tree I have a scanned copy of. A piece of writing this newsletter that weighs on me is how incredibly frequent worldwide the desecration of Jewish cemeteries is in particular. Every article seems to have a section about how close it is to the last vandalism in time or in space, at that particular cemetery or one across the city. Whether each of these is done as a hate crime with antisemitic intent or just mindless property damage I don't know, but either way it is difficult to swallow when the graves belong to your great-great-aunts and uncles and cousins.
The US Envoy about Antisemitism endorsed JewBelong, a cringey-at-best advertising program that (among other problems) conflates antizionism with antisemitism. At least I'm not the only one who was irritated about the "wearing a kipah teaches you about antisemitism" poster.
Tzedek Collective's Art in Solidarity auction is on, including some amazing pieces at a variety of price points. Half the proceeds go to Palestinian LGBTQIA organization AlQaws.
https://twitter.com/mizrahigh/status/1438687579134586881
Miscellaneous
I appreciated this short piece from Arielle Korman about davening with Carlebach melodies. Some groups I'm a part of have (thankfully) worked to eradicate those tunes from their services, but other times service leaders do not necessarily know which tunes are originally from him. This is an area I personally need to review in my own service leading and fix it.
In general you do not need to believe in G-d or talk about your beliefs to participate in Jewish communities, but if you want one that is specifically for atheists interested in improving the world through human action Humanistic Judaism just might be for you. Philadelphia local newspaper Chestnut Hill Local recently profiled humanistic jewish group Folkshul. Humanistic Judaism is decidedly not my path but I am thrilled it seems to be on an upswing in popularity, because I do agree that Judaism doesn't have to be about G-d. If it sounds like your jam, check out the Find a Community page on the Society for Humanistic Judaism's website, including online community The Spinoza Havurah.
Also, humanistic jews are still Jews, so consider not using Jesus based idioms about it.
https://twitter.com/jeremyfprice/status/1437210835554799623?utm_source=pocket_mylist
There's a very cute article and photo series about Camp Bechol Lashon on NPR's website. While I have mixed feelings about the role jewish summer camp plays in our communities due to cost, if nothing else (not to mention it happening during the ongoing pandemic), it means a lot to see Jewish kids of color having similar jewish summer experiences as I did while in community with each other.
Mizrachi songwriter Loolwa Khazoom has a new EP out called Stripped Bare which was reviewed and explained in Hey Alma. She also released a poem on her patreon called Yom Kippur Failure that reads like a deeply relatable punch to the heart.
Fun fact: Moe Jeudy-Lamour, who plays the goalie on Ted Lasso, grew up shomer shabbos and seems like a pretty cool dude.
Events!
9/19 Sukkot Drash from Hadar: The Gap that Can’t be Breached: Longing for God's Presence by Rabbi Avi Strausberg
9/19 High Holidays: Cannabis & History from Mirushe Zylali
9/19 Medieval Spain: A Conversation on Art, Literature, and History, co-organized by Fordham’s Center for Jewish Studies and The Met Cloisters, "focusing particularly on Jewish presence within and across the geopolitical regions at the meeting points of Christian- and Muslim-ruled Spain"
9/19 Jewish Cultural Work as Organizing with JVP Philly and Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky
9/23, 9/30, 10/7 Shmita: Our Radical Ancestral Eco-Justice Solution for a Sustainable Future w/ Rabbi David Seidenberg (suggested donation $18-36, NOTAFLOF)
9/20-27 Jewish Ancestral Healing summit
9/23, 9/24, 9/26 SVARA's drop-in Mishna collective, Days of AWEsome edition
9/30 Secular Yidishkayt and Social Justice in the US South, with Josh Parshall by Yiddish Book Center
9/30 Don't Ask Don't Pray: Gender Resistance and Sexual Recognition in Reform Jewish Holiday Rituals
10/10, 10/17, 10/24 Mizrachi dance lessons on Moroccan, Bukharian, and Yemenite dance, $10/session
10/26 Burning Bushes: Queer Yiddishism and the lesboerotic, with Mira Schlosberg and Hinde Ena Burstin. (Australia-based, 9 PM PDT)
Jewish Pet of the Week
The Jewish Pet of the Week is Fern! I love this beautiful calico cat, who belongs to an internet friend of mine.
See you next week,
<3
Meli