History

The modern state of Israel was founded by a United Nations resolution in 1948. However, the Jewish connection to the land of Israel goes back to biblical times, continuing through the periods of the First and Second Temples. While the Jewish people scattered all over the world following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Israel continued to be a spiritual and cultural focal point.

Israel’s establishment as a modern Jewish state came about as a result of Zionism, a political and cultural movement whose aim was bringing the Jewish people to the land of Israel where they could rule themselves and be safe from anti-Semitism. In the decades before Israel’s founding, when the land was under Ottoman and then British rule, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated from other countries to settle there.

Demographics

Seventy-five percent of Israel’s citizens are Jewish, and 25 percent are non-Jews, of which most are Arab. Since its founding, Israel has welcomed millions of Jewish immigrants from all over the world, with large immigration waves from Europe in the late 1940s, from North Africa and the Middle East in the 1950s, from Ethiopia in the 1980s and ’90s and from the former Soviet Union in the ’90s. All Jews who settle in Israel are entitled to citizenship under the Law of Return.

Religious Outlook of Israeli Jews (Self-Identified)

Secular: 43 percent
Traditional: 37 percent
Religious (Orthodox): 11 percent
Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox): 9 percent

Jewish Population By Country/Region of Birth

Native born: 70 percent

Former Soviet Union: 12 percent

Africa: 6 percent

Europe: 5 percent

Asia: 3 percent

North and South America: 3 percent

Religious Identity of Israel’s Non-Jewish Citizens

Muslim: 82 percent
Christian: 9 percent
Druze: 9 percent
Other: 4 percent

Economy

Israel has a highly developed industrial economy with a GDP of $311 billion in 2016, the 35th largest in the world. Its GDP per capita is nearly $35,000, ahead of several European countries. Its dominant sectors include high-technology, where the “start-up nation” has emerged as one of the world’s most dominant players, attracting many of the largest tech companies to establish research facilities. Israel is also among the world’s largest exporters of military hardware and technology and is a major center for diamond cutting and pharmaceuticals.

Thanks in large part to its rich history and numerous biblical and other archaeological sites, Israel enjoys a vibrant tourism industry. It has welcomed approximately 3 million tourists annually in recent years, although the number fluctuates significantly depending on the political situation and the level of violence and terrorism.

Government

Israel is a parliamentary democracy in which parties are awarded legislative seats based on the proportion of votes received. Individual parties rarely earn enough votes to form a legislative majority, and coalition politics are the norm. Elections must take place by law at least every four years, though in practice they occur more often. Israel has no formal constitution, relying instead on a series of Basic Laws that govern the essential functions of state institutions. The executive branch is headed by the prime minister and legislative authority is vested in the parliament, known as the Knesset, which has 120 seats. Israel has an independent judiciary whose highest authority is the Supreme Court.

Culture

Israel’s official languages are Hebrew and Arabic. The country boasts several internationally translated writers, and has a diverse array of cultural institutions, such as orchestras, dance troupes, theater companies and museums —  the highest number of museums per capita in the world. The country’s film and television industries have gained international attention in recent years, with several TV shows adapted into American programs or broadcast internationally via streaming services like Netflix. Israeli cuisine, with its mix of cultural influences and use of fresh Mediterranean produce, has also become popular in many Western countries. Sports in Israel is dominated by soccer, but basketball, tennis and other sports also enjoy sizable followings.

Major Issues

Religious Pluralism

Equality for all Jewish religious denominations has been an elusive goal for non-Orthodox Israelis and a source of ongoing tensions in relations between the State of Israel and non-Orthodox Jewish communities abroad. Jewish conversions and marriages performed in Israel by non-Orthodox rabbis are not recognized by the state, prompting some non-Orthodox Israelis to go abroad for such services. Jewish converts from abroad routinely have their Jewish status questioned and encounter a range of related problems as a result. The ability of non-Orthodox Jews to worship in their chosen manner at Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, has been curtailed by police force for years despite Supreme Court rulings and the promises of Israeli authorities to establish a place for non-Orthodox prayer at the ancient pilgrimage site.

Arab-Israeli Conflict

Israel has been in a state of conflict with its neighbors since its very founding, and most Jewish Israelis are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces at age 18. (Men serve approximately three years followed by annual reserve duty, and women serve approximately two years.) Though peace treaties were signed with two neighboring Arab states — Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994 — the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is among the world’s most intractable. Israel has launched a number of military operations aimed at countering rocket fire from the Gaza Strip since it withdrew unilaterally from the coastal territory in 2005, dismantling 21 Jewish settlements and relocating 8,000 Israeli citizens. The West Bank, where some 400,000 Israelis live among 2.7 million Palestinians, has been the source of less violence aimed at Israel in recent years; however Israel’s 50-year occupation of the territory has resulted in mounting international criticism.

Inside Israel’s internationally recognized borders, its Arab citizens — who largely attend separate schools and live in separate neighborhoods from Jewish citizens — complain of discrimination in a wide range of sectors, and the poverty rate among Arabs is roughly double that of Israelis generally.

Terrorism

As part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, violence aimed at civilians has long been a concern in Israel. According to Israeli government sources, well over 3,000 civilians have died in terrorist attacks since 1920, the bulk of them carried out by groups or individuals professing anger over Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.

As a result, tight security is a fact of life for Israelis, with bags searched routinely at the entrance of government offices, transportation hubs, shopping malls and even some restaurants. Israel is also considered a global leader in counterterrorism, having staged a number of daring operations over the years aimed at rescuing hostages and exacting retribution against terrorist operatives.

Economic Inequality

Despite its socialist roots, Israel is today among the most unequal countries on earth, with Turkey, Chile and the United States the only affluent democracies that are more unequal, according to one recent study. In 2013, it also had the highest poverty rate among affluent countries and the seventh lowest rate of government spending on social services. In 2011, frustration over the rising cost of living led to mass protests that some said were the largest in the country’s history. Political parties focused on bread-and-butter quality of life issues have fared well in recent national elections.

International Isolation

In recent years, Israel has faced a rising tide of criticism of its policies toward the Palestinians that has taken aim at the country’s very legitimacy and alarmed Israel’s leaders. Most prominently, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, has had some limited success at pressuring Israel. Meanwhile, the Palestinians have become more aggressive in seeking to isolate Israel within international forums, most prominently at the United Nations. In 2004, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, at the urging of the Palestinians, issued an advisory opinion finding that Israel’s construction of a security barrier in the West Bank is illegal. In 2016, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution stating that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were flagrant violations of international law.

Intra-Ethnic Tensions Among Jews

The tension between Israel’s Middle Eastern and European identities is personified in the struggles between Ashkenazi Jews (who trace their heritage to Germany and Eastern Europe) and Sephardic or Mizrahi Jews (Sephardic Jews trace their heritage to Spain and Portugal; Mizrahi Jews are those Jews and their descendants from Arab countries).

Mass immigration of Sephardic Jews from Arab lands in the 1950s and ’60s made Sephardic/Mizrahi Jews a majority of the population, but Ashkenazi Jews continue to dominate positions of power in the Israeli establishment, and many Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews feel that they have been treated like second-class citizens by the Ashkenazi Jews.

Distinctions

• Israel was the third country to elect a female head of state, Golda Meir, who served as prime minister from 1969-1974. (The first two were Ceylon [now Sri Lanka] and India, in 1960 and 1966 respectively.)
• Israel’s largest city, Tel Aviv, is considered an international hub for LGBTQ culture. Its annual gay pride celebration, which draws tens of thousands of Israelis and tourists, lasts a full week , with a parade that attracts more than 150,000 and is the largest such parade in Asia. In 2016, Tel Aviv was pronounced “the gayest city on earth” by the Boston Globe.
• Israel has more vegans per capita than any other country. A 2014 survey found that 8 percent of Israelis are vegetarian and nearly 5 percent are vegan, meaning they abstain from all animal products. Just .05 percent of the world’s population is vegan.
• Israel has the world’s highest rate of venture capital investment as a percentage of GDP.
• Israel ranks 15th globally for overall number of Nobel Prize laureates
• Israel is home to both the lowest spot on earth, the Dead Sea, and the world’s lowest freshwater lake, the Sea of Galilee.
• After Canada, Israel was the world’s second-best educated country in 2012, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Israel’s Largest Cities (by population):

Jerusalem: 815,000
Tel Aviv-Yafo: 415,000
Haifa: 272,000
Rishon LeZiyyon: 200,000+
Ashdod: 200,000+
Petach Tikvah: 200,000+

The post Modern Israel at a Glance appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

This lack of concern for black people’s struggles began to change as Eastern European Jewish immigrants and southern black migrants encountered one another in rapidly growing northern cities. These Jews, often more politically radical than the German and Spanish Jews who preceded them in America, and having experienced similar persecution in Europe, were more attuned to the economic hardship and racial violence black Americans faced. Yiddish newspapers called black lynchings “pogroms,” and their newly organized unions and political groups were more likely than others to include black people. In many cities, the majority of Communist Party members were African Americans or Eastern European Jews.

But while both communities established civil rights organizations to combat bigotry and discrimination, they rarely worked together. And Jewish organizations, peopled and controlled by white Jews, largely ignored the growing number of Jews of color. When black groups approached Jewish groups for help, most Jewish groups balked, fearful of tying their fortunes to those they perceived as even more hated.

All this changed in the 1930s. Largely in response to Nazism abroad and rising anti-Semitism at home, Jewish groups reached out for allies and black organizations responded. Black and Jewish organizations increasingly worked together to challenge employment and housing discrimination, racial and religious violence, and exclusion from social, educational and professional organizations. These cooperative efforts were driven by self-interest, but it was a far more spacious notion of self-interest than before, rooted in the recognition that if any were not safe, none could be safe.

After the war, this cooperation broadened to a fuller set of collaborations. Jewish groups filed court briefs in desegregation cases; the NAACP helped lobby U.N. delegates to support the creation of a Jewish state. Of the three well known civil rights workers killed at the start of Mississippi’s Freedom Summer of 1964: Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney, two were Jewish and the third African American. Along with other allies, African Americans and Jews together compelled the desegregation of medical associations, bowling leagues, beaches, restaurants, housing developments and department stores. In 1948, black and Jewish activists convinced New York to create a public university, the State University of New York, to compensate for racial and religious discrimination at private colleges. Joint lobbying efforts promoted more robust social welfare policies and emphasized the teaching of tolerance in public schools and community organizations. And increasingly, Jews — particularly secular and Reform Jews — identified the fight for civil rights as a Jewish ethical obligation.

But during these same years, economic and racial tensions destabilized the partnership. Eastern European Jews still saw themselves as outsiders, victims of white oppression. They failed to appreciate how their white skin helped them rise economically, even in the face of persistent anti-Semitism. Many of them operated businesses in black communities — often formerly Jewish neighborhoods – and prided themselves on their relative lack of racism. But to African Americans, these were white business owners exploiting poor and marginalized outsiders. Economic tensions between shopkeepers and customers, landlords and tenants, were often interpreted – by both sides — as black-Jewish fights.

The fact that white Jews had risen economically also led to some patronizing attitudes that inflamed tensions further. Jews saw their success as proof that liberal meritocracy worked and counseled patience, moderation, and compromise. Few understood when African Americans, concluding that white liberals could not understand the depth of systemic racism, turned toward more nationalist and seemingly radical ideas, broadly known as Black Power. Even as most white Jews clung to their faith in race blindness, African Americans understood that white America and its institutions would never be – and should not be – race blind.

By the middle of the 1970s, these differences splintered the coalition that had done so much to advance civil rights in America. Black and Jewish groups continued to collaborate on issues like aid to education, expanding the social safety net and assisting groups facing ethnic and racial violence around the world. But these were smaller and less public actions than those of the civil rights era, and the bond between the communities weakened as both increasingly turned inward. While they continued to share many of the same values and commitments, and African Americans and Jews continued to be the most reliable Democratic voters, their organizations no longer acted in concert or placed those shared commitments center stage. What remained were persistent class and racial tensions, and the anger and resentment they produced were increasingly openly expressed.

By the turn of the 21st century, the situation began changing once again. As the U.S. turned more politically conservative, and as issues important to both groups came increasingly under attack, black and Jewish groups began to tentatively reach out to each other again. White Jewish political and religious organizations also began a more robust engagement with Jews of color. Both outreach efforts expanded slowly, then exploded after the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016.

Trump’s views alarmed many in both communities, who saw their hard-won political gains slip away and their deepest values challenged. Many also recognized an increasing danger to their security. Local synagogues teamed up with black churches, national organizations reengaged with each other, and younger Jewish activists in particular energetically proclaimed their commitment to racial and economic justice. In 2019, several House members even formed a congressional Black-Jewish caucus.

In this new movement, many more groups have active, even leadership, roles, including Hispanic, LGBTQ, undocumented, indigenous and impoverished communities. Feminist groups, progressive churches and others now energetically embrace the broader and deliberately intersectional struggle for justice and inclusion. This has shifted the agenda of the new civil rights struggle as well as its political understandings. While black-Jewish relations remains a central commitment of many Jews, both black and white, it is now only one piece of a larger community of progressive activists of all religions and ethnicities.

The post Black-Jewish Relations in America appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

How long does Yom Kippur last?

Do I have to be a synagogue member to go to Kol Nidre and other Yom Kippur services?

Where can I stream Kol Nidre and other Yom Kippur services?

Why do people fast on Yom Kippur?

Do children have to fast? Is anyone exempt from fasting? Can I at least drink water?

I heard it’s OK to wear sneakers to services. Is that really true?

What prayers are unique to Yom Kippur?

What parts of the Torah are read on Yom Kippur?

What’s this I keep hearing about the Yom Kippur breakfast? I thought people skipped breakfast on Yom Kippur.

Are there any special words or phrases I need to know for Yom Kippur?

What’s Yom Kippur about exactly?

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, when we ask forgiveness for the wrongs we have committed over the past year. Jewish tradition believes that on this day God places a seal upon the divine decrees affecting each person for the coming year. Traditionally, Jews fast on this somber day and also refrain from other bodily pleasures.

How long does Yom Kippur last?

Yom Kippur, which falls 10 days after Rosh Hashanah, lasts one day. It begins at sundown and concludes at sundown the following day. The fast itself lasts 25 hours.

Do I have to be a synagogue member to go to Kol Nidre or other Yom Kippur services?

No, although most synagogues require you to purchase High Holiday tickets in advance. If the cost is prohibitive, you can sometimes request a lower rate. In addition, many synagogues do not require tickets for their Yom Kippur afternoon services. A number of congregations and other Jewish institutions offer free services for the entire holiday, but you may need to do a little research to find them. Some suggestions to get you started are listed here.

Where can I find a live stream of Kol Nidre and other Yom Kippur services on the Internet?

While traditional Jews do not use technology on Yom Kippur, a growing number of non-Orthodox congregations are broadcasting Yom Kippur and other holiday services online. Many also broadcast Shabbat services and make previous services available for streaming anytime on their website or YouTube channel. Learn more about streaming High Holiday services here.

Why do people fast on Yom Kippur?

Yom Kippur is the day on which we are instructed to divorce ourselves as completely as humanly possible from the mundane world in order to devote ourselves with all our hearts and minds to our relationship with the divine. Fasting is the most widespread manifestation of this devotion. Other examples include: refraining from washing, sexual relations, and the wearing of leather (a sign of luxury in earlier times).

Do children have to fast? Is anyone exempt from fasting? Can I at least drink water?

Traditionally, Jews are not required to fast until they reach bar/bat mitzvah age (12 or 13), and children under the age of 9 are not allowed to fast. People for whom fasting is a health risk, along with pregnant and nursing women, are also exempt. The fast includes abstaining from water, but, again, only if doing so does not pose a health risk. Find tips on fasting without jeopardizing your health here.

I heard it’s OK to wear sneakers to services. Is that really true?

Yes, many Jews wear sneakers, or white athletic shoes, on Yom Kippur. That’s because of a desire to avoid leather (a sign of luxury in early times) and the tradition of wearing white, as a symbol of purity.

What prayers are unique to Yom Kippur?

The evening of Yom Kippur begins with Kol Nidrei, a prayer that is repeated three times and asks that all vows and oaths that we have made throughout the year be forgiven so we can start the new year with a clean slate. Another major prayer is the Viddui, or confession, which includes Ashamnu and Al-Chet, prayers which list all the sins individuals in the community have committed.

What parts of the Torah are read on Yom Kippur?

On Yom Kippur, congregations traditionally read a passage from Leviticus about the sacrificing of a goat (the origin of the term scapegoat). The Reform movement has replaced that reading with one from Deuteronomy about the human freedom to make moral choices. In addition to these readings from the Torah (the five books of Moses), on the afternoon of Yom Kippur it is customary to read the Book of Jonah, from the Prophets section of the Bible.

What’s this I keep hearing about the Yom Kippur breakfast? I thought people skipped breakfast on Yom Kippur.

A break-fast is an informal meal in the evening, after the Yom Kippur fast has ended. In the United States, break-fasts tend to resemble morning breakfast (or at least brunch) in that they tend to be dairy (rather than meat) and include bagels, cream cheese, smoked fish, salads and sandwich fillings like cheese, tuna salad and egg salad. Find some recommended recipes here.

How do I greet people on and before Yom Kippur? And are there any special words or phrases I need to know?

You can say, “Have an easy fast” or “gmar chatima tova” (may you be inscribed for a good year.) It’s also acceptable to say “shana tova” (happy new year). As for other words and phrases for the holiday, check out our glossary for Yom Kippur. (We also have ones for Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, as well as other major holidays.)

Want to learn more about the High Holidays? Sign up for a special High Holiday prep email series.

The post Yom Kippur FAQ: All About the Day of Atonement appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

What is a shofar?

What traditional foods are served?

What do “shana tova” and “gmar hatima tova” mean?

How long does Rosh Hashanah last?

Do I have to belong to a synagogue to go to Rosh Hashanah services?

Is it possible to live-stream Rosh Hashanah services from my computer?

Is it true that you are supposed to throw bread in the water on Rosh Hashanah?

What prayers do we read on Rosh Hashanah?

What sections of the Torah are read during Rosh Hashanah services?

What is the prayer book for the High Holidays called, and are there any other special Hebrew terms I need to know during the holidays?

What is Rosh Hashanah about exactly?

Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is simultaneously a time of great celebration and subtle trepidation. It is a day to celebrate our creation, but also a day of accounting and judgment for our actions. On Rosh Hashanah, we relate to God as the ultimate judge. The symbolic Book of Life is opened and we become advocates for our personal inscription in it. We review the choices we have made over the past year, our actions and our intentions, as we attempt to honestly evaluate ourselves. You may want to consult this list of questions to help in your introspection.

What is a shofar?

A shofar is a ram’s horn that is blown like a trumpet during the Jewish month of Elul that leads up to Rosh Hashanah, at Rosh Hashanah services and at the end of Yom Kippur. The four sounds of the shofar – tekiah, shevarim, teruah and tekiah gedolah – remind many people of a crying voice. Hearing the shofar’s call is a reminder for us to look inward and repent for the sins of the past year.

What traditional foods are served? Are any foods forbidden? And what’s the reason for those round challah loaves?

Traditionally Jews eat sweet foods — like apples and honey, challah and tzimmes — to symbolize a sweet new year. (Here are some Rosh Hashanah recipes you may want to try.) Chicken and brisket are frequently served at Rosh Hashanah meals. In Sephardic tradition, a number of foods believed to signify our wishes for the coming year are eaten, such as pomegranates, leeks and pumpkins. All foods that can be eaten year-round are permitted. And the challah? It’s round as a reminder of the never-ending cycle of life.

What do shana tova and gmar hatima tova mean?

Shana tova  means “Have a good year.” A similar expression is L’shana tova umetukah, which means “for a good and sweet year.”  Gmar hatima tova literally means “a good signing/sealing.” This is a traditional greeting during the days from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, referring to the belief that on Rosh Hashanah our fates are written, or inscribed, in the Book of Life, and on Yom Kippur we are sealed in it.

How long does Rosh Hashanah last?

Traditionally Jews observe two days of Rosh Hashanah. In 2022, Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Sunday, Sept. 25 and ends at sundown on Tuesday, Sept. 27. However, many Reform congregations observe only the first day. But the holidays don’t end there: Yom Kippur falls 10 days later, followed by Sukkot and Simchat Torah.

Do I have to belong to a synagogue to go to Rosh Hashanah services?

No, although in most synagogues you will need  to purchase High Holiday tickets in advance. If the cost is prohibitive, you can usually negotiate a lower rate. In addition, a number of congregations and other Jewish institutions offer free services, but you may need to do a little research to find them. Some suggestions to get you started are listed here.

Where can I find a live-stream of Rosh Hashanah services?

While traditional Jews do not use technology on Rosh Hashanah, a growing number of non-Orthodox congregations are broadcasting High Holiday services. Many also stream Shabbat services and make previous services available for streaming anytime on their site or YouTube channel. Learn more about streaming High Holiday services here. You can also learn about how to get the most out attending a Zoom prayer service here.

Is it true that you are supposed to throw bread in the water on Rosh Hashanah?

Yes, during the Tashlich ceremony, usually held on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Jews symbolically cast off their sins by throwing pieces of bread into a body of water.

What prayers do we read on Rosh Hashanah?

While some of the liturgy is similar to other weekday or Shabbat services, much of it is unique, and several of these prayers are repeated later on Yom Kippur. Arguably the most famous part of Rosh Hashanah services is the blowing of the shofar, and the most famous prayer is Unetanah Tokef, which inspired Leonard Cohen’s “Who By Fire.” A close second is “Avinu Malkeinu,” which means “our father, our king.”

What sections of the Torah are read during Rosh Hashanah services?

On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, most synagogues read Genesis 21:1-21:34, the section where Sarah and Abraham, after years of struggling with infertility, are blessed with a son, Isaac, after which Sarah banishes Hagar, the handmaid who is the mother of Ishmael. The second-day reading, Genesis 22:1-24, continues where the first day left off, with the story of the Akedah, Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac.  (In Reform congregations that observe only one day of Rosh Hashanah, only Genesis 22 is read.)

What is the prayer book for the High Holidays called, and are there any other special Hebrew terms I need to know during the holidays?

The prayer book for the holidays is called the Mahzor, and yes, there are numerous words and terms associated with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. You may find our Rosh Hashanah glossary and Yom Kippur glossary helpful.

Want to learn more about the High Holidays? Sign up for a special High Holiday prep email series.

The post Rosh Hashanah FAQ: All About the Jewish New Year appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

The plot of Balaam’s story is simple enough: Balak sends Moabite emissaries to hire him, but it takes some convincing because God has told Balaam not to agree to curse Israel. When Balaam finally relents, he cannot understand why his donkey refuses to walk in a straight line, eventually just lying down in the road. As Balaam hits the donkey, the donkey speaks—which seems not to be all that surprising to Balaam—and it is revealed that a divine messenger has been blocking the donkey’s path the whole time.

The messenger gives Balaam permission to go on to Moab, but on the condition that the prophet speak only what God tells him. Upon arriving, Balaam doesn’t curse the Israelites as Balak requested, but blesses them. Furious, Balak demands Balaam do what he was hired to do, but Balaam again blesses Israel. And so on repeatedly, from different vantage points and with different words, but always with the same outcome.

Here then, in the middle of Israel’s trek through the wilderness, we find an extended discourse not just on Israel’s blessedness, but even more so on the nature of prophecy and the power of the word.

The Bible is generally opposed to what we might call non-standard forms of divination: sorcery, witchcraft, and the like. These are forbidden not because they are some sort of false magic, but because they are in fact effective. So too with words of blessing and curse, even from a foreigner.

Balak knows that Balaam’s words are effective. “He whom you bless is blessed indeed, and he whom you curse is cursed,” Balak tells him in Numbers 22:6. So too, implicitly, does God, who instructs Balaam not to curse Israel “for they are blessed.” Words have real power in the Bible — oaths are binding, blessings are permanent. Balaam’s story is built on the recognition that a word of curse could spell Israel’s doom, even if that word came from a foreigner. Even if that word had been bought and paid for.

But Balaam also reveals that the true prophet cannot say just anything. As he says repeatedly, “I can utter only the word that God puts into my mouth.” Balaam is obedient to the divine will—indeed, he even goes so far as to refer to Israel’s deity as his own. Balaam thus also symbolizes the extent of God’s power and influence.

That power and influence is manifest at this particular moment in Israel’s story. Here, as Israel has become so numerous and is about to enter the promised land, Balaam comes to fulfill the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis to bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. Balaam uses identical language here: “Blessed are they who bless you,” he says. “Accursed they who curse you.” Balaam even echoes God’s promise that all the peoples of the earth shall be blessed through Abraham, saying, “May my fate be like theirs.”

Though a foreigner, Balaam holds a lasting place in Judaism. His words—“How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel” (Num 24:4)—are part of the regular prayer liturgy and adorn synagogue sanctuaries around the world. Yet despite what appears in these chapters to be an unstintingly positive portrayal—of a foreigner who is compelled to say only what Israel’s deity tells him, who is true to God rather than following Balak’s money—a tradition runs through the Bible that understands Balaam to have been almost entirely the opposite.

In Deuteronomy, we read that though Balaam was hired to curse Israel, it was God who turned the curse into blessing — as if Balaam wanted to curse Israel, but failed. Even worse, according to Numbers 31, the Israelites killed Balaam when they conquered Midian because Balaam incited them to worship foreign gods.

This weird mixture of positive and negative press is mirrored in the rabbinic literature, which both praises — or at least respects — Balaam as a recipient of the prophetic spirit, and condemns him as evil and, following the brief biblical allusions, as being responsible for Israelite apostasy.

The ambivalence that surrounds the depiction of Balaam may be a reflection of ambivalence around the status of foreigners in ancient Israelite and early Jewish society; a reticence, perhaps, to give too much credit to a non-Israelite, or to admit the possibility that God might have spoken through a foreigner. Whatever the reason, Balaam’s reputation remains somewhat up in the air, even as his words remain part of the Bible and Jewish liturgy to this day.

The post Balaam the Prophet appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Troubling theological questions simmer beneath Eicha’s surface. These questions relate to God’s nature and to the manner of the relationship between the community and God. Can humans understand God’s ways? Is God an ally or an enemy? Are the people’s sins responsible for the calamity or is it disproportionate and unjust? Is the nation defiant or remorseful? Ashamed or outraged?

These are the critical topics in the book, illustrating the intersection between emotions and theology and outlining a blueprint for coping with pain and loss.

The structure of the book both reflects and encourages theological complexity, offering two divergent approaches to suffering. In one approach, humans come to terms with God’s actions and recognize God’s justness. In the other, humans resist reconciliation and maintain a defiant posture of incomprehension and outrage.

The first approach is reflected in the book’s first and last chapters, which focus on procuring an admission of culpability from the nation. These chapters struggle with suffering — but they also struggle with sin, with the guilt and shame that accompany a confession. In the first chapter, Jerusalem acknowledges God’s righteousness and declares that the destruction occurred “because of all of my sins.” Similarly, Chapter 5 progresses toward an assumption of responsibility, with the community finally proclaiming, “Woe to us for we have sinned!” These chapters arrive at a measure of theological equilibrium, regarding sin as the cause of suffering and concluding that the world makes sense and God is just.

Chapters 2 and 4 suggest quite the opposite. Guiltless children die alongside their righteous leaders and anger is directed toward God, who lobs punitive actions angrily and disproportionately. These chapters depict the incomprehension of humans who struggle with God’s active role in their suffering. If the peripheral chapters of the book project some measure of comprehension, these chapters reflect bewilderment and outrage.

How can one book produce such different perceptions of God’s role in human suffering? The structure of the book indicates that the two opposing approaches co-exist in tension.

Chapters 1 and 5 illustrate the need to rely on simple faith, on the belief in God’s justness, and in a meaningful pattern of relationship between God and the Jewish people. Without this type of faith, the world is dark and absurd, incomprehensible and evil. Moreover, by adhering to this approach, Israel can understand how to repair its relationship with God and restore order to its world.

Nevertheless, Eicha does not rest upon facile answers. Chapters 2 and 4 face the world’s tragedies with stark frankness. Pat answers cannot explain the death of children, mass tragedy, illness, and suffering. Yet these too are part of the human experience and the relationship with God. Chapters 2 and 4 make room for the complexity of the human condition and the inability to comprehend God’s ways.

How is it possible to maintain a relationship with God within such a disquieting paradox? How does one balance simple faith in a divinely ordered world with dismay and anger over its cruelty and unfairness?

This possibility depends upon a willingness to live with complexity and uncertainty, but also upon humility and tenacity, the steadfast determination to maintain faith in both God’s goodness and human resilience.

This we see from the middle chapter, Chapter 3, which is the core of Eicha and its ideological crux. In its middle section (verses 21-39), the chapter describes a sufferer contemplating the theological and philosophic implications of suffering. In reflecting upon God’s nature, the sufferer detects not a wrathful God, but benevolence, kindness and loyalty.

The kindness of the Lord has not ended, His mercies are not spent.
They are renewed every morning— Ample is Your grace!

And later:

For the Lord does not reject forever,
But first afflicts, then pardons In His abundant kindness.
For He does not willfully bring grief or affliction to man,
Crushing under His feet all the prisoners of the earth.

These verses of hope surround the very epicenter of Eicha – the middle verses of the middle section of the middle chapter — whose subject turns abruptly from God to human beings. At the apex of the book, God does not appear at all. Instead, the individual considers the lessons that he may draw from calamity.

The section opens with this verse: “It is good for a man, when young, to bear a yoke.” This is actually the third of three consecutive verses that begin with the word tov (good), tantalizing the reader with the optimistic notion that good lies at the heart of the human experience.

Why is suffering good? Eicha does not explain how it arrives at this startling conclusion, leaving it instead to the individual to determine how pain can be constructive, a conduit to character building and a deepened relationship with God. The sufferer directs the reader to accept hardships with equanimity and regard suffering as beneficial and ennobling. At Eicha’s deepest point, it puts its faith in human resilience and the ability to survive in a broken world.

Eicha’s structure mirrors a whirlwind, its placid center engulfed by swirling misery. This design represents the shape of the sufferer’s theological experience. Two parallel rings enfold the sufferer, representing the tangled fluctuation between theodicy and outrage. Oscillating between these contradictory approaches is critical to contending adequately with the theological questions presented by loss.

Yet within the surrounding turbulence, the sufferer can find tranquility in their innermost being. Humans have the ability to combat the onslaught of hostile forces that swirl around us by drawing on the hope and faith that lie at their core. In this way, Eicha weaves a magnificent portrait of the resources and resilience that lie deep within the human soul.

The post The Book of Eicha: Faith in a Whirlwind appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

While Jewish tradition maintains that human life is of infinite value and that its preservation and extension overrides virtually every other religious imperative, relieving pain and allowing for the soul’s peaceful departure are also values well-established in Jewish tradition. Of course there is a moral distinction between hastening death and removing obstacles to its natural progression, but in practice the difference isn’t always easy to discern.

Below is a general overview of a number of issues that commonly arise at life’s end — and how Jewish authorities have weighed in on them. Jewish thinkers often emphasize that specific cases vary substantially and must be considered individually. And while weight is always given to a patient’s wishes, those who are concerned about complying with Jewish law are always urged to consult with trusted advisers.

Artificial Nutrition/Hydration

For patients unable to eat or drink, doctors can provide food and water intravenously or through a feeding tube. This is a common situation faced by those with advanced-stage dementia. Most Orthodox authorities generally consider nutrition, hydration and oxygen — even if artificially provided by a feeding tube or ventilator — to constitute essential human needs that should never be discontinued as long as they are effective. This position is was also reflected in the 1990 paper on end-of-life care authored by Conservative Rabbi Avram Reisner. However, the Conservative movement’s religious law authorities also endorsed a paper by Rabbi Elliot Dorff, who advanced several possible justifications for removing artificial nutrition and hydration for the terminally ill, among them the contention that a medically administered treatment that conveys food and water to the patient by tube is more properly regarded as medicine than as simple food and water.

Hospice

Hospice is a form of medical care for people suffering from terminal illnesses with a life expectancy of six months or less. Patients are typically referred to hospice care when further medical treatment is not expected to reverse the course of their disease and they elect instead to focus on therapies geared toward reducing pain and sustaining the highest quality of life for as long as possible. Jewish hospice programs are typically equipped to provide hospice services while abiding by Jewish traditions. Because hospice focuses on a patient’s quality of life rather than aggressive medical treatment, some Orthodox rabbis do not believe hospice conforms with Jewish tradition. However, not all Jewish authorities agree. Many contemporary Jewish authorities argue that Jewish tradition allows a focus on comfort and pain reduction and the eschewing of aggressive medical interventions in certain circumstances.

Do Not Resuscitate Orders

Known as DNRs, these are legally binding directives signed by doctors ordering medical professionals to withhold CPR or advanced life support in the event a patient’s heart stops functioning. DNRs are typically requested by patients who are elderly or are suffering from an advanced terminal illness that makes it unlikely they would survive CPR without a severely diminished condition. Some Jewish authorities consider these orders extremely problematic, as a patient needing CPR is in acute distress and could be saved, even for a brief period, with proper treatment. But given the often low success rate of resuscitation and the high likelihood of adverse effects for the elderly or those weakened by terminal illness, some authorities permit DNRs under certain conditions. Reisner, in his 1990 paper on treatment for the terminally ill, writes that it is proper to respect a patient’s DNR request in cases where it is not possible to restore “a full measure of life.”

Advance Directives

These are documents specifying a person’s wishes concerning medical care in the event they are unable to make such decisions for themselves and/or appointing a health care proxy to make decisions on their behalf. The laws concerning advance directives vary considerably from state to state. A number of state-specific forms are available here. In addition, both Conservative and Orthodox Jewish versions of advanced directives are available, some of which explicitly state a person’s desire to have Jewish law and custom respected in their health care choices. There is typically also space to name a specific rabbi to be consulted when making such choices.

Experimental Therapies

While most Jewish authorities would require a patient to submit to a therapy if it is known to be effective at curing their condition, this is not the case with respect to experimental treatments whose success rate and potentially adverse side effects are not known. These can include treatments whose effectiveness has yet to be demonstrated in clinical trials, or new drugs whose safety and effectiveness have not yet been established. Jewish authorities from across the denominational spectrum support the right of a patient to refuse treatment that is risky or of unproven value. Equally, a patient who desires to undertake an experimental therapy in the hope of being cured is permitted to do so even if there are risks involved. According to some authorities, this is even the case with a hazardous treatment that may itself result in death. Dorff writes that it is permissible to undertake a hazardous therapy if it presents a “reasonable chance” of cure, even if it simultaneously poses a risk of hastening death if it fails.

Refusing Treatment

Jewish tradition generally requires that every effort be made to sustain and extend life, but that position is not absolute. In cases where diseases are incurable, and medical interventions would be risky, painful, of uncertain efficacy or serve merely to prolong a life of unbearable physical or psychic pain, there is support in Jewish tradition for an individual’s right to reject such treatment. This was the reasoning behind the Reform Rabbinate 2008 ruling that a lung cancer patient did not have to submit to chemotherapy that could extend her life by three months, but only at a cost of significant pain and suffering. Within the liberal denominations, there is broad respect for individual autonomy in making decisions concerning health care, including the right to refuse care if the patient feels it would not be effective or would be too painful. Among Orthodox authorities, there is also support for refusing treatment in situations where it would not cure the patient but would only prolong individual suffering.

Praying to Die

Taking active steps to hasten death are prohibited in Jewish law, but praying for death is another matter. The 14th-century Catalonian Talmud scholar Rabbenu Nissim, commenting on the talmudic story in which the maidservant of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi prays for his death, observes: “There are times when one should pray for the sick to die, such as when the sick one is suffering greatly from his malady and his condition is terminal.” (Nedarim 40a:2) The Jewish bioethicist J. David Bleich has formulated it this way: “Although man must persist in his efforts to prolong life, he may, nevertheless, express human needs and concerns through the medium of prayer. There is no contradiction whatsoever between acting upon an existing obligation and pleading to be relieved of further responsibility.”

Withdrawing life support

Many Jewish legal experts believe it is permissible to withhold advanced life-support measures from terminally ill patients. However, once such measures have been provided, withdrawing them to let natural death occur becomes more problematic. While there are grounds in Jewish law for withholding advanced life-support measures from terminally ill patients, once such measures have been provided, withdrawing them to let natural death occur becomes more problematic. As a general rule, withdrawing life support is not permitted in traditional readings of Jewish law. However, there are many contemporary Jewish authorities who consider a person to be dead if activity in their brain stem stops. If such a patient were kept “alive” only by means of medical machinery, these authorities would permit those machines to be disconnected. For those seeking to adhere to more traditional interpretations of Jewish law, there have been some interpretations used by rabbinical medical experts, that have been applied to withdraw treatment in cases where a patient is entirely dependent on machines for breathing and blood circulation and has little hope for recovery. However, it must be considered on a case by case basis, informed by accurate information between the physician, rabbi and family.

Organ Donation

Jewish authorities from across the spectrum of religious observance, from Reform to ultra-Orthodox, support the lifesaving potential of organ donation, with some authorities going so far as to suggest that Jewish tradition mandates organ donation. Traditional requirements — such as burying the dead quickly, avoiding defilement or benefit from a dead body — that would seem to preclude organ donation are superseded by its lifesaving potential. The Halachic Organ Donor Society (an organization for Jews who want to strictly comply with Jewish law) offers an organ donor card that specifically states that any transplant procedures be conducted in consultation with the deceased’s rabbi. The Conservative movement has a similar card.

Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide

Most Jewish authorities adamantly reject euthanasia or assisted suicide of any kind. Taking active steps to hasten one’s death is considered tantamount to suicide, while assisting another to do so may be considered murder. A number of Reform rabbis have challenged this view, questioning the validity of the commonly drawn distinction between active measures to hasten death and merely withholding treatment or removing impediments to death. Peter Knobel, a prominent Reform rabbi and past president of the movement’s rabbinical association, has argued that in certain cases, active euthanasia may even be a praiseworthy act, however this remains a decidedly minority view. Over the years, the Reform rabbinate has repeatedly reiterated its opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Truth-Telling

While honesty is a well-established imperative in Jewish tradition, there is ample precedent for the idea that full disclosure of a terminal diagnosis ought to be withheld from a patient since it may sap their will to live. Various biblical sources are cited in support of this idea, including the prophet Elisha’s response to the query of Ben Haddad, in which the prophet told the king he would recover from his illness though he knew the opposite was true. The Shulchan Aruch rules that, while a person near death is instructed to confess their sins, they must also be reassured that many have confessed their sins and not died. (Yoreh Deah: 338) Bleich has gone so far as to suggest that a doctor not only refrain from conveying information that might cause a patient to despair and thereby hasten their death, but he must continue to “feign medical aid even though there is no medical purpose in his ministrations.”

End-of-life decisions can be challenging, particularly for those who wish to ensure that the decisions comply with traditional Jewish law. And, while there are areas of consensus, there are also differences in how Jewish leaders interpret relevant Jewish teachings and texts. While the article provides an overview, we encourage families concerned with abiding by Jewish practices and beliefs when facing these difficult decisions to consult with trusted spiritual leaders for advice.

Resources

Articles

“Jewish Ritual, Reality and Response at the End of Life: A Guide to Caring for Jewish Patients and Their Families” by Rabbi Mark A. Popovsky

“End of Life: Jewish Perspectives” By Rabbi Elliot Dorff

“Advanced Illness and Orthodox Jewish Law: Approaches to Communication and Medical Decision Making”

Reform movement discussion guide on end-of-life issues

Halachic Guidelines to Assist Patients and their Families in Making “End-of-Life” Medical Decisions

“Does Judaism Allow Organ Donation?”

Advance Directives / Living Wills

Rabbinical Council of America (Modern Orthodox) Health Care Proxy Form

Agudath Israel of America (Haredi Orthodox) Halachic Living Will

Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative movement) medical directive

Jewish living wills for specific states

Halachic Organ Donor Card (HODS)

Conservative movement organ donor card

Organizations

National Institute for Jewish Hospice

Chayim Aruchim: The Center for Culturally Sensitive Health Advocacy and Counseling

Kavod v’Nichum

Chevra Kadisha Registry

National Independent Jewish Funeral Directors

Sign up for a Journey Through Grief & Mourning: Whether you have lost a loved one recently or just want to learn the basics of Jewish mourning rituals, this 8-part email series will guide you through everything you need to know and help you feel supported and comforted at a difficult time.

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The post Jewish Perspectives on End-of-Life Care appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

But what do Jews believe about Jesus?

• For some Jews, the name alone is nearly synonymous with pogroms and Crusades, charges of deicide and centuries of Christian anti-Semitism.
• Other Jews, recently, have come to regard him as a Jewish teacher. This does not mean, however, that they believe, as Christians do, that he was raised from the dead or was the messiah.

While many people now regard Jesus as the founder of Christianity, it is important to note that he did not intend to establish a new religion, at least according to the earliest sources, and he never used the term “Christian.” He was born and lived as a Jew, and his earliest followers were Jews as well. Christianity emerged as a separate religion only in the centuries after Jesus’ death.

Who Was Jesus?

Virtually all of what is known about the historical Jesus comes from the four New Testament Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — which scholars believe were written several decades after Jesus’ death.

While there is no archaeological or other physical evidence for his existence, most scholars agree that Jesus did exist and that he was born sometime in the decade before the Common Era and crucified sometime between 26-36 CE (the years when the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, ruled Judea).

He lived at a time when the Roman Empire ruled what is now Israel and sectarianism was rife, with major tensions among Jews not only over how much to cooperate with the Romans but also how to interpret Torah. It was also, for some, a restive time when displeasure with Roman policies, as well as with the Temple high priests, bred hopes for a messianic redeemer who would throw off the foreign occupiers and restore Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.

Was Jesus the Messiah?

The question “was Jesus the messiah?” requires a prior question: “What is the definition of messiah?” The Prophets (Nevi’im), who wrote hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, envisioned a messianic age as as a period of universal peace, in which war and hunger are eradicated, and humanity accepts God’s sovereignty. By the first century, the view developed that the messianic age would witness a general resurrection of the dead, the in-gathering of all the Jews, including the 10 lost tribes, to the land of Israel, a final judgment and universal peace.

Some Jews expected the messiah to be a descendant of King David (based on an interpretation of God’s promise to David in 2 Samuel 7 of an eternal kingdom). The Dead Sea Scrolls speak of two messiahs: one a military leader and the other a priest. Still other Jews expected the prophet Elijah, or the angel Michael, or Enoch, or any number of other figures to usher in the messianic age.
Stories in the Gospels about Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, and proclaiming the imminence of the kingdom of heaven suggest that his followers regarded him as appointed by God to bring about the messianic age.

More than 1,000 years after Jesus’ crucifixion, the medieval sage Maimonides (also known as Rambam) laid out in his Mishneh Torah specific things Jews believe the messiah must accomplish in order to confirm his identity — among them restoring the kingdom of David to its former glory, achieving victory in battle against Israel’s enemies, rebuilding the temple (which the Romans destroyed in 70 CE) and ingathering the exiles to the land of Israel. “And if he’s not successful with this, or if he is killed, it’s known that he is not the one that was promised by the Torah,” Maimonides wrote.

What About Jews for Jesus?

Jews for Jesus is one branch of a wider movement called Messianic Jews. Members of this movement are not accepted as Jewish by the broader Jewish community, even though some adherents may have been born Jewish and their ritual life includes Jewish practices. While an individual Jew could accept Jesus as the messiah and technically remain Jewish — rejection of any core Jewish belief or practice does not negate one’s Jewishness — the beliefs of messianic Jews are theologically incompatible with Judaism.

Did the Jews Kill Jesus?

No. Jesus was executed by the Romans. Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution, not a Jewish one.

For most of Christian history, Jews were held responsible for the death of Jesus. This is because the New Testament tends to place the blame specifically on the Temple leadership and more generally on Jewish people. According to the Gospels, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate was reluctant to execute Jesus but was egged on by bloodthirsty Jews — a scene famously captured in Mel Gibson’s controversial 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ.” According to the Gospel of Matthew, after Pilate washes his hands and declares himself innocent of Jesus’ death, “all the people” (i.e., all the Jews in Jerusalem) respond, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25).

This “blood cry” and other verses were used to justify centuries of Christian prejudice against Jews. In 1965, the Vatican promulgated a document called “Nostra Aetate” (Latin for “In Our Time”) which stated that Jews in general should not be held responsible for the death of Jesus. This text paved the way for a historic rapprochement between Jews and Catholics. Several Protestant denominations across the globe subsequently adopted similar statements.

Why Was Jesus Killed?

Some have suggested that Jesus was a political rebel who sought the restoration of Jewish sovereignty and was executed by the Romans for sedition — an argument put forth in two recent works: Reza Aslan’s Zealot and Shmuley Boteach’s Kosher Jesus. However, this thesis is not widely accepted by New Testament scholars. Had Rome regarded Jesus as the leader of a band of revolutionaries, it would have rounded up his followers as well. Nor is there any evidence in the New Testament to suggest that Jesus and his followers were zealots interested in an armed rebellion against Rome. More likely is the hypothesis that Romans viewed Jesus as a threat to the peace and killed him because he was gaining adherents who saw him as a messianic figure.

Did Jesus Reject Judaism?

Some have interpreted certain verses in the Gospels as rejections of Jewish belief and practice. In the Gospel of Mark, for example, Jesus is said to have declared forbidden foods “clean” — a verse commonly understood as a rejection of kosher dietary laws — but this is Mark’s extrapolation and not necessarily Jesus’ intention. Jesus and his earliest Jewish followers continued to follow Jewish law.

The New Testament also include numerous verses testifying to Jesus as equal to God and as divine — a belief hard to reconcile with Judaism’s insistence on God’s oneness. However, some Jews at the time found the idea that the divine could take on human form compatible with their tradition. Others might have regarded Jesus as an angel, such as the “Angel of the Lord” who appears in Genesis 16, Genesis 22, Exodus 3 (in the burning bush) and elsewhere.

Are There Jewish Texts that Reference Jesus?

Yes. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus mentions Jesus, although the major reference in his Antiquities of the Jews appears to have been edited and augmented by Christian scribes. There are a few references in the Talmud to “Yeshu,” which many authorities understand as referring to Jesus.

The Talmud tractate Sanhedrin originally recorded that Yeshu the Nazarene was hung on the eve of Passover for the crime of leading Jews astray. This reference was excised from later versions of the Talmud, most likely because of its use by Christians as a pretext for persecution.

In the medieval period, a work called Toledot Yeshu presented an alternative history of Jesus that rejects cardinal Christian beliefs. The work, which is not part of the canon of rabbinic literature, is not widely known.

Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah, describes Jesus as the failed messiah foreseen by the prophet Daniel. Rather than redeeming Israel, Maimonides writes, Jesus caused Jews to be killed and exiled, changed the Torah and led the world to worship a false God.

Special thanks to Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences, for her assistance with this article.

To read this article, “What Do Jews Believe About Jesus?” in Spanish (leer en Español), click here.

The post What Do Jews Believe About Jesus? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

First, you should read our overview article about the basics of converting to Judaism. In particular, be aware that different streams of Judaism have different requirements and standards, and that communal norms vary from country to country. So if it’s important to you that your conversion be recognized in a specific place, such as Israel or the United Kingdom, or in a particular community, you will want to ensure that your conversion process follows its standards. You may also want to do some research to ensure that the rabbi or institution with whom you are working is widely respected and that his or her conversions are widely recognized.

Regardless of which type of conversion they ultimately undergo, most prospective Jews by choice get started by enrolling in Introduction to Judaism or Judaism 101 classes, which are frequently offered at synagogues, Jewish community centers and other Jewish institutions.

For assistance finding such classes near where you live, you may want to:

• Contact your local Jewish federation or Jewish community center.
• Review the Reform movement’s list of upcoming Introduction to Judaism courses here. The movement also offers an online version of this class.
• Check out the Conservative movement’s list of upcoming conversion classes here.
• Contact a local Orthodox congregation or rabbi and ask which class they recommend for prospective converts. Click here for your nearest Orthodox Union -affiliated synagogue To find your nearest Chabad-Lubavitch congregation, click here.
• If you are in Israel, click here for more information about the conversion process there.
• For information about non-Orthodox conversions in Europe visit the World Union for Progressive Judaism site.
• It is also possible now to take classes online — and even go through the entire conversion process online. However, many communities, particularly in Europe, do not recognize online conversions.

If you know of other class directories not listed here, leave information in the comments or email community@myjewishlearning.com.

Are you considering conversion to Judaism? Sign up here for a special email series that will guide you through everything you need to know.

The post Converting to Judaism: How to Get Started appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Jewish Immigrants Seek a Safe Haven

The war had its roots in waves of Zionist immigration to the Land of Israel, beginning in the 1880s and peaking in the 1930s and ’40s, with the flight of Jews from the Holocaust. Their plight and the absence of a single country willing to give them a home made urgent the need for a Jewish state.

READ: A History of Jewish Immigration to the Land of Israel

Following World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jewish displaced persons set their sights on aliyah, but the British government — in control of Palestine since 1917 and keen to maintain friendly relations with the Arab world — refused to admit them. As violence between Jews, Arabs, and the British mounted, Britain handed over the problem to the United Nations.

READ: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate

In 1947, Palestine’s population of 1.85 million was approximately one-third Jewish and two-thirds Arab. The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) proposed the end of British rule and the partition of the country into Jewish and Arab states and an internationally controlled area around Jerusalem. The Zionists, desperate to enable Jewish immigration and with an eye to future territorial expansion, accepted the plan. The Arabs rejected it as they opposed any Jewish rule in Palestine.

On November 29, on the heels of the UN General Assembly’s vote in favor of partition, Jewish settlements and neighborhoods were attacked by Palestinian guerrillas.

READ: The United Nations Partition Plan (General Assembly Resolution 181)

What ensued was, in effect, two separate conflicts: a civil war between Palestine’s Jews and Arabs (November 29 1947-May 14 1948) was followed by the establishment of the state of Israel and its invasion by five Arab armies; the ensuing war lasted until July 1949.

A Civil War

In the civil war, the Haganah — the Jews’ underground defense organization — together with two smaller paramilitary units, the Etzel (National Military Organization) and the Lehi (Israel Freedom Fighters), fought against loosely organized Palestinian fighters and volunteers from Arab countries. Between November and March, the Haganah’s main challenge was to repel Arab attacks on isolated settlements, Jewish areas of mixed cities, and on the roads.

The road to Jerusalem came under attack and the Jewish neighborhoods of the capital were cut off, unable to receive supplies, food, or water. The Jewish forces repelled most Arab attacks but suffered heavy defeats, for example the loss of 35 soldiers en route to defend the Etzion bloc of settlements.

In April 1948, in anticipation of the British departure, the Haganah launched Plan D, an offensive program for the expansion of Jewish-controlled territory. Operation Nahshon — hoped to open the road to Jerusalem. On April 9, the Etzel and Lehi invaded Deir Yassin, an Arab village near Jerusalem, killing more than 100 Arab civilians and prompting the flight of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. Tens of thousands of additional refugees fled following the Palmach’s conquest of Haifa, Jaffa, Safed, and Tiberias.

Jewish casualties followed: Seventy-seven medical personnel of Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus were killed by Arab forces on April 13, and on May 13, following the fall of Kfar Etzion, 129 of the settlement’s defenders were killed by Arab villagers from the Hebron area.

READ: The 1948 Fall of Kfar Etzion and Its Re-establishment After the Six Day War

By mid-May, the Haganah had routed the Arab forces and was in control of the major cities and more than 100 Palestinian villages. It had 30,000 fighters under arms and had taken delivery of a major arms purchase from Czechoslovakia. On May 14, 1948, the eve of Britain’s departure, David Ben Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel at a ceremony in Tel Aviv. The next day, the new state was invaded by the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.

READ: The Complete Text of the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel

The War Escalates

The immediate challenge faced by the newly formed Israel Defense Forces was to rebuff the Arab attack, defending Jewish settlements until the arrival of reinforcements. The first month of the war was marked by heavy fighting against Jordan’s Arab Legion in Jerusalem; by the end of May the Jordanians had conquered the Old City and expelled its Jewish inhabitants. Syria’s advance into the Galilee was repulsed by the inhabitants of Kibbutz Degania, and the Egyptian invasion was blocked just north of Gaza at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai.

Following a month-long truce brokered by the United Nations, hostilities resumed in July 1948. In Operation Dani, the IDF broke the siege of Jerusalem by capturing Lod and Ramle, two Arab towns in the Jerusalem corridor; 50,000 Palestinian refugees fled their homes. In October, following a second UN-sponsored truce, the IDF captured the upper Galilee in Operation Hiram and, in operations Yoav and Horev, drove the Egyptian army out of the Negev by December. In March 1949, Operation Uvda saw Israeli forces complete their conquest of the southern part of the country by capturing Eilat.

READ: Who Are the Palestinians?

The War of Independence was concluded by the signing of armistice agreements between Israel and the surrounding Arab states. Israel was left in control of 78 percent of mandatory Palestine — around 50 percent more than it had been allocated in the partition plan. The remaining 22 percent was split between Jordan (West Bank and East Jerusalem) and Egypt (Gaza Strip). An independent Palestine was never established, and no Arab state recognized Israel’s existence.

Repercussions of the War

In the shadow of the Holocaust, the victory of the new Jewish state over five Arab armies has sometimes been interpreted as little short of a miracle. Yet more prosaic explanations are available. Israel’s troops numbered twice as many as those under Arab command. Moreover, partly as a result of the high number of World War II veterans in its ranks, the IDF benefited from better training and organization than its adversaries had. Ben Gurion referred to the Arab armies as Israel’s secret weapon: “They are such incompetents, it is difficult to imagine.”

Yet the Jews paid a high price for their victory. More than 6,000 Israelis — 1 percent of the population — were killed. Many of the casualties were refugees and Holocaust survivors, newly arrived in the country. The war also intensified divisions within the Jewish population. After the creation of the IDF, it had been agreed that independent paramilitary units (the Etzel and the Lehi) would be absorbed into the new national army.

But in June 1948, the Altalena — a ship carrying arms destined for the Etzel — reached Israel. Determined to head off separatism and the threat of civil war, Prime Minister Ben Gurion ordered the Etzel to hand over the weapons to the IDF. When the ultimatum was ignored, Ben Gurion ordered the ship to be shelled; 16 Etzel fighters and three IDF soldiers were killed during the confrontation.

READ: Israelis, Palestinians and the Clash of Nationalisms

Ultimately, the war’s biggest losers were the Palestinians, who were prevented from establishing a state, forced to live under Israeli, Egyptian, or Jordanian rule and, in the case of more than 700,000 refugees, unable to return to their homes. Traditional Zionist accounts of the war claimed that the refugees fled at the order of the Arab leadership, to clear the way for the invading armies. But contemporary historiography paints a more complex picture.

Drawing on government and military archives, Israeli historians such as Benny Morris have concluded that most Palestinians fled during the fighting, afraid of imagined — or occasionally real — atrocities committed by Jewish soldiers, but that some were victims of an ad hoc Israeli policy of deportation. Prevented by the Israeli authorities from returning home after the war and kept in squalid camps in every Arab country except Jordan, these refugees became an important catalyst for the escalation of the Arab-Israeli conflict into the 1950s and beyond.

The post Israel’s War of Independence appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

• There is no Jewish prohibition against owning pets, who belong to 60 percent of American households. And while we know of no studies on Jewish pet ownership, anecdotal evidence suggests that pet ownership is not uncommon among Jews, even in the Orthodox community.
• Today, some Jews have even created Jewish life cycle rituals and mourning rites for pets.
• In addition, numerous articles about the halachic (Jewish law) implications of pet ownership have been published, presumably in response to growing interest in pets among traditionally observant Jews

Below are some common questions about Jews and pets:

Is it true that Orthodox Jews don’t have pets? And what’s the origin of the perception that Judaism is averse to pets?

While there are no studies on Jewish pet ownership, anecdotal reports do suggests that pet ownership is less common among Orthodox Jews than among the general Jewish population. One possible explanation for this may be that Orthodox Jews on average have more children than do other Jews, leaving them with less time and money available to care for pets. Another factor may be the perception that pet ownership is frowned upon or will get in the way of ritual observance.

The idea that observant Jews are averse to keeping household pets may derive, in part, from the fact that dogs — the most common household pet in the United States and many other countries — are the subject of numerous derogatory statements in the Torah and Talmud. Additionally, keeping pets poses a number of challenges for the Sabbath-observant, although none of them is insurmountable. One other factor that has discouraged some Jews from owning dogs is an association with the Holocaust: Natan Slifkin, an Orthodox rabbi who was written extensively about Judaism and animals, has suggested that some European Jews have a “hang-up about dogs” born of the Nazis’ fondness for and use of the animals.

Can Jews own pets and still comply with traditional Jewish laws?

According to many Jewish sources, pet ownership is permissible provided the animals do not pose a danger to people or property.

As biblical sources attest, the Jewish patriarchs were shepherds and kept livestock. Jewish laws concerning treatment of animals — in particular the injunction against animal cruelty and the requirement that kosher animals be slaughtered by hand rather than hunted in the wild — clearly imply that Jews kept domestic animals.

The question of keeping pets for reasons of pleasure, companionship or because they serve some useful purpose is of more recent vintage. Contemporary authorities who have considered the permissibility of keeping pets have looked to talmudic sources that offer somewhat conflicting views about the propriety of keeping animals for non-agricultural purposes. One source in the Talmud (Bava Kamma 80a) states the permissibility of raising certain types of dogs and cats because they keep the house free of vermin — implying that animals may be kept if they perform a useful function. Yet elsewhere, the Talmud stipulates that dogs must be kept chained, which would clearly limit their usefulness. Another talmudic opinion states that those who keep dogs are cursed.

The requirement of chaining dogs persisted in later Jewish legal codes. Maimonides (the 12th-century scholar) reaffirmed that requirement and noted that dogs cause damage that is “substantial and frequent.”  The Shulchan Aruch (a 16th-century code of Jewish law) rules that it is forbidden to own an “evil dog” unless it is kept tied up; if one lives in a border town one can keep a dog (presumably for protection) provided it is let loose only at night — a reflection of the earlier talmudic principle of keeping animals if required for a particular function.

Rabbi Moshe Isserles (a 16th-century Polish rabbi also known as the Rema ), in his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, takes a slightly more permissive stance, noting that since Jews live dispersed among non-Jews, it’s permitted to own a dog if that’s the common practice of the surrounding culture, but an animal that is liable to harm people must be kept chained.

Rabbi Howard Jachter, who reviewed these precedents in a 1992 essay for the Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society , asserts that the attitude toward dogs can be extended to all pets and concludes that the prevailing opinion is that pet ownership is permissible so long as the animal does not endanger people or property.

Can I spay or neuter my pet?

Not according to Jewish law. This prohibition is explicit in Leviticus 22:24, which states (regarding male animals): “You shall not offer to the Lord anything [with its testes] bruised or crushed or torn or cut. You shall have no such practices in your own land.” The Shulchan Aruch codifies this rule explicitly. Isserles, in his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, notes that neutering a female animal is also prohibited.

Over the centuries, rabbinic authorities have proposed various leniencies in this prohibition, but none have been universally accepted. Some permit sterilization if done to alleviate suffering or to save an animal’s life; however in this case the procedure should be done by a non-Jew. In cases where non-sterilization would lead to financial loss, some decisors permitted it if the animal were first sold to a non-Jew and then another non-Jew was designated to perform the procedure. The Israeli Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Aviner has permitted Jewish veterinarians to spay female animals in case of therapeutic need on the grounds that neutering of females is considered a less serious infraction than neutering males. However neutering merely for convenience or for population control — the most common reason pets are usually neutered — remains forbidden. In 2015, Israel’s agriculture minister floated the idea of suspending a government program to neuter the country’s population of feral cats, apparently out of concern for the injunction against neutering. However, the proposal was not enacted and the program was not suspended.

Today, most pets adopted from animal shelters are already neutered. Since owning a neutered animal does not pose a problem from the perspective of Jewish law — only taking the active step of performing the procedure or ordering someone else to do it — traditionally observant Jews can avoid the issue by adopting pets that have already been neutered.

Can one care for a pet while observing traditional Shabbat laws?

Shabbat laws pose a number of issues for pet owners. The Talmud declares that animals are muktzeh, the term for items that cannot be handled on the Sabbath because they are used for prohibited activities (such as farming), and the Shulchan Aruch states that one should not move an animal on the Sabbath. However, this does not mean it’s forbidden to feed or play with animals on Shabbat, and in addition, there is some dispute as to whether the muktzeh designation applies to household pets.

The Torah, in Exodus 20:10, requires that an owner allow his animals to rest on Shabbat and Jewish holidays. This ruling is understood to prohibit an animal from performing any act prohibited to a Jew on the Sabbath. (If dogs could turn on lights or cook, for example, an observant Jew would not be able to order their dog to perform these tasks on Shabbat.) Since carrying is prohibited on the Sabbath, this would clearly prohibit having a dog fetch the morning newspaper. Whether a dog may “carry” identifying tags around its neck hinges largely on whether the tags are considered a benefit for the dog or for its owner. Holding a leash while walking a dog is not considered carrying, according to several sources. However, both the Shulchan Aruch and Maimonides rule that the leash must be kept no more than three inches below the hand of the person holding it.

A final concern regards capturing a pet that has gotten loose on the Sabbath. The Mishnah states that one who traps a domesticated animal on the Sabbath is exempt from punishment; however there is some debate over whether that means it is permitted to do so or merely that a violator would not be liable. According to Jachter, if an animal offers only limited resistance to an owner’s attempt to capture it, there are grounds for allowing its capture. However, if an animal offers significant resistance, it cannot be recaptured on the Sabbath. As a result, it’s good practice on the Sabbath not to remove an animal from a leash, or release a bird from a cage, to avoid the problem altogether.

Can you feed your pet non-kosher food?

Yes, with two exceptions. According to the Shulchan Aruch, one cannot derive benefit from a biblically proscribed mixture of milk and meat. Consequently, it is forbidden to feed a pet any food that includes milk and meat. This law applies only to biblically proscribed milk/meat mixtures, which are limited to ingredients from kosher domesticated animals. Non-kosher animal meat mixed with milk, for example, would not be prohibited.

The other exception is Passover, when it is forbidden not only to eat leavened grains, but even to own them or benefit from them. There are a number of possible workarounds for pets, including selling the pet to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday, making your own pet food, or purchasing kosher-for-Passover pet food. Some kosher certifying agencies, such as Star-K, publish annual lists of kosher-for-Passover pet food brands.

Are there any Jewish laws governing how you treat your pet?

Yes. While Jewish tradition permits human beings to make use of animals, acts of cruelty toward them are expressly prohibited — a principle known as tza’ar baalei chayim. General principles of how Jews ought to treat animals show concern both for the physical suffering of animals — Maimonides forbids using an animal to thresh a field if a thorn is stuck in its mouth, for example — as well as their emotional pain, as evinced by the law barring the taking of eggs from a nest while the mother bird is present. Jewish tradition also dictates that one feed one’s animals before feeding oneself. According to some authorities, this principle may not apply if the animal is capable of securing its own food. According to Slifkin, the permissibility of declawing a cat or removing a dog’s tail is not discussed explicitly by Jewish legal authorities; however the general principle is that causing pain to animals for the benefit of humans is permitted provided the benefit is not trivial and the pain is not too great.

Are there any Jewish rituals for mourning a pet?

The idea of mourning a pet in the way one mourns a relative is deeply controversial, with authorities from even the liberal Reform movement maintaining that reciting Kaddish or performing a Jewish burial rite for a pet is inconsistent with Jewish tradition. In a 1984 responsum, Reform Rabbi Walter Jacob wrote that it would be wrong to recite the Kaddish prayer for a deceased pet — not due to any explicit violation of Jewish law, but because of propriety. “We should not use a prayer which is dear to the heart of every Jew to commemorate a dead animal,” Jacob wrote. A separate Reform responsum rejected burying a pet in a Jewish cemetery, again not citing any explicit legal precedent, but rather asserting that “the whole mood of tradition” counsels against it.

Nevertheless, some rabbis do perform pet burials and a number of Jewish rituals for pet loss have been developed. In 1998, the journal of the Reform movement’s rabbinical association published a ritual for pet loss by veterinarian Ruth Chodrow that includes readings from the Bible, among them several psalms. Other Jewish pet rituals have been published by Rabbi Susan Schein  and Rabbi Janet Offel. Some rabbis who perform such rites say that they should not mimic human funerals.

Can I give my dog a bark mitzvah?

If you must. The first record of a bar/bat-mitzvah ceremony adapted for a dog was (according to Wikipedia) in 1958, but this canine rite of passage seems to have had its 15 minutes of fame only in the Internet era. A search for “bark mitzvah” on YouTube yields over 1,700 results, and articles on the practice have appeared in the New York Times and the Associated Press. Some ceremonies have included Torah scrolls, dogs wearing kippahs, and celebratory parties for the honoree and its canine “friends.” The term was even trademarked with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2007.

Not everyone, however, is amused. In a letter to the Times responding to a 1997 mention of a bark mitzvah in its pages, Rabbi Charles Kroloff, who later served as president of the Reform movement’s Central Conference of American Rabbis, wrote: “This is nothing less than a desecration of a cherished Jewish tradition and degrades some of the central principles of Jewish life. I urge readers to reject such practices.”

Human bar/bat mitzvah celebrants seeking ways to incorporate their love of pets and other animals into the “mitzvah,” or community service, projects that are often part of this life cycle event, can find suggestions and a related Jewish curriculum here.

Are there any other Jewish rituals for pets?

In recent years, some Jewish leaders have developed public rituals for pets. Some synagogues now have pet-friendly Shabbat services  while others have created opportunities to bless pets in synagogues. There has also been some effort to revive the practice of Rosh Hashanah LaBehema, the Jewish new year for animals, on the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul. Some contemporary Jewish animal advocates have sought to re-establish the holiday as a time for prayer and reflection on the proper relationship between humans and animals.

Learn more about Jewish rituals and practices related to honoring or caring for animals here.

Do pets (and other animals) have souls?

According to the creation story in Genesis, God blew into Adam the breath of life (nishmat chayim) and he became a living being (nefesh chayah). Both nefesh and neshama are Hebrew terms used for “soul.” From here, some understand that human beings have two types of soul — a nefesh, that equates to one’s animal instincts, and a neshamah, a higher level of consciousness capable of connection with the divine.

Both the Midrash and Maimonides reject the idea that animals have an afterlife in the world to come, the implication being that they do not possess higher immortal soul of human beings. However, the Jewish mystical tradition associated with Rabbi Isaac Luria believes in the transmigration of souls between humans and animals. A human soul that requires further rectification could be reincarnated in the body of an animal. For this reason, Hasidic Jews historically were often exceedingly careful about the kosher slaughter of animals for fear they might house the souls of repentant sinners.

Can I euthanize my pet?

Jewish law prohibits cruelty to animals, but does not prohibit killing them. Virtually all Jewish authorities agree that euthanizing an animal that is suffering is permitted. In, Man and Beast: Our Relationships with Animals in Jewish Law and Thought, Slifkin writes:

According to some authorities there is no restriction on killing animals, provided that one kills them in a painless manner. However, it seems that all would agree that if an animal is suffering, it is permissible to kill it in order to put it out of its misery.

The post Judaism and Pets: Questions and Answers appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

• The practice derives from Leviticus 19:27 in the Torah, which states: “You shall not round off the corners on your head, or destroy the corners of your beard.” According to the 12th-century scholar Maimonides, this prohibition was a way to differentiate Jews from idolatrous priests, who shaved their beards.
• The prohibition on shaving has traditionally been understood as barring the complete removal of the hair with a razor. And because for centuries it was generally too difficult to achieve a close shave without a razor, observant Jewish men tended to be bearded.

According to the historian, Rabbi Berel Wein, beard norms began to change among some Orthodox men in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, when chemical depilatories became available, enabling hair removal without a razor.

More recently, the advent of electric shavers makes it possible to achieve a close shave without a razor actually touching the skin. As a result, many men today do shave their beards while continuing to follow Orthodox interpretation of Jewish law. However it remains customary in most ultra-Orthodox circles to retain one’s beard as a sign of piety.

Some Jewish men, particularly Hasidic ones, refrain even from trimming their beards. Although there is no prohibition on trimming one’s beard with scissors, those who avoid it seek to avoid even approaching violating the Torah prohibition on shaving. This practice is influenced by Kabbalistic (Jewish mystical) traditions, which regard the beard as holy. Rabbi Isaac Luria, the kabbalist known by his acronym, the Ari, was said to have been careful not even to touch his beard lest some hairs fall loose.

For Hasidic and some other Orthodox men, the practice of not shaving at all extends to the sidelocks, known in Hebrew as payot (often spelled and pronounced payos, or payes) — literally “corners.” As with beards, practices on payot vary within Orthodoxy. Among Hasidic Jews, payot are often very prominent and sometimes curled, but they are also often tucked discreetly behind the ear. Many observant Jewish men consider it sufficient merely to avoid complete removal of the sideburns.

The rabbis of the Talmud considered beards attractive — referring to them as hadrat panim, the splendor of one’s face. According to a passage in the tractate Bava Metzia, the Talmudic sage Rabbi Yochanan was considered a beautiful man, yet he was not included on a list of rabbis whose beauty reflects that of the biblical patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). The reason, the Talmud offers, is that Rabbi Yochanan did not have a beard.

Some Jewish men who usually do shave nonetheless allow their facial hair to grow during periods of mourning. This is traditionally done for 30 days following the death of a close relative. It is also traditionally observed during two annual periods of communal mourning — the Omer period between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot, when Jews mourn the deaths of the students of the Talmudic sage Rabbi Akiva; and the three weeks between the fast days of the 17th of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av (Tisha B’Av) when Jews mourn the destruction of the ancient temples in Jerusalem.

The post Why Do So Many Orthodox Men Have Beards? appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

Read the full text of the Book of Lamentations in Hebrew and English on Sefaria.

The prophet basically blames Jewish immorality and idolatry for the tragedy. Yet there is a fascinating outburst in Lamentations 3 in which the believer, as it were, accuses God of being the enemy — like a lion lying in ambush to destroy his victim. The prophet comes close to losing his faith (“I thought my strength and hope in the Lord had perished”) before the memory of God’s past kindnesses restores it — barely.

The Book of Lamentations is read softly at first. The volume of the reader’s voice builds to the climax, which is sung aloud by the entire congregation: “Turn us to you, O Lord, and we will return. Renew our days as of old.”

Reprinted with permission of the author from The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays.

The post The Book of Lamentations appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

A New Culinary Picture Emerges

The face of the new nation changed, and gradually a new culinary picture emerged. But first the infant state found itself surrounded by enemies, and absorb­ing 100,000 immigrants a year. This time the wave was comprised not only of displaced survivors of the Holocaust, but of Jews from all over the Middle East. With each ethnic group came different styles of eating and cooking.

The massive immigration was a strain on the economy, so the period from 1948 to 1958 was a time of government-regulated zena (food rationing) and ma’abarot (makeshift dwellings). Women cooked with khubeiza (wild greens) from the fields; new foods, like Ben-Gurion’s “Israeli couscous,” were intro­duced to satisfy the needs of the multicultural population; and surplus vegetables, like eggplant, were ingeniously used to simulate meat. Israel’s canning industry increased production, supplying canned tomato paste and puree, hummus, tahina, and mayonnaise in tubes.

READ: Recipe for Israeli Couscous-Stuffed Acorn Squash

One of the many issues to be resolved in this new Jewish country was the official position on the dietary laws [kashrut]. Ben-Gurion decided to remain with the “status quo” agreement, maintaining rabbinical supervision of kashrut in all government organizations, military service, schools, and hospitals.

Even the rabbis, however, had to compromise. The U.S. government, through the Agency for International Development, sent millions of pounds of preserved foods, such as dried eggs, dried skim milk, butter, dried codfish, and cheddar cheese. Maury Atkin, who worked at the newly created Israeli embassy in Washington at the time, recalled how the rabbis in Israel asked if the cheese was kosher. “We told them that cheddar cheese was the most wholesome cheese sold in America, even if it includes a small amount of non-kosher animal rennet. Because there were so many starving children, the Chief Rabbi of Israel issued an edict that the cheddar cheese sent over would be kosher for children up to the age of 14.”

READ: How to Make Israeli Hummus

Kosher meat was scarce as well. Before the war it was often imported to Pales­tine from Romania. After the war, it was eventually supplied from Uganda, Argentina, and Brazil. The only kosher beef in the early years of the state came from male calves produced from the rapidly growing herds of dairy cows. Under a Jewish Agency program, thousands of heifers were being sent to Israel from the United States by plane and ship. It was not until the late Fifties, however, when water sources had improved, that large herds of beef cattle were introduced into the Israeli agricultural economy.

Diversity of Israeli Food

As the fertility of the land increased, so did the excitement of creating food to meet the needs of the growing population. “Israel is unique,” said Shaul Homsky, author of Fruits Grown in Israel. “Within a small area, for example, a subtropical climate exists — near the Sea of Galilee, where mangoes, kiwis and bananas can grow — alongside a temperate climate in the mountains of Galilee and the Golan, where cherries and apples grow.”

Diversity of Israeli agriculture also has been affected by the constantly changing population; the European population that developed in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s was accustomed to eating apples, plums, and cherries, while later immigrants from Middle Eastern countries liked to eat and grow grapes, olives, and dates.

“Because of the lack of a deep agricultural tradition,” Mr. Homsky wrote, “farmers on the kibbutzim [agricultural collectives] were ready to accept new techniques and experiment with new fruits and vegetables, unlike in a coun­try like Greece, where for generations farmers have been tilling the soil in the same way and people have had the same diet.”

READ: Recipe for Israeli Salad

Sometimes the experiments did not work. In 1961, Moshe Dayan, minister of agriculture, decided to replace Israel’s favorite Marymont — a large, oval, and juicy tomato — with a thicker-skinned, cylindrical, and almost juiceless tomato, slightly larger than a cherry tomato. Dagan thought this “Moneymaker” would be heartier and cheaper to produce, and would appeal to the export market. In the transition from one strain of tomato to the other, 5,000 tons of Mon­eymaker tomatoes were to be grown in the first season, half for local consumption and half for export. Farmers were encouraged to grow only Moneymakers. But he experiment was a failure both inside and outside the country, and the local press dubbed it Dayan’s “assault” on agriculture.

READ: Recipe for Falafel

Still, new fruits and vegetables had an increasing presence in the local market, and ambitious young chefs began to take advantage of their novelty. Chef Uri Guttman, who from the late ’60s on was considered the ambassador of the Israeli kitchen, came up with innovative concoctions like a hot avocado soup; “St. Peter’s fish” with mango and pomegranate; and crepes stuffed with pears, nuts, dates, and figs. Schooled in the French culinary tradition, Guttman traveled around the world representing Israel in cook­ing competitions and adapted unusual recipes to what was available in the country. He also developed menus for army bases and restau­rants, using local products. “One of my dreams was to establish an Israeli cuisine,” he said. “It is hard, though, with Jews coming from so many countries.”

Golan Heights Wine and Grapes

When the Golan Heights were annexed in 1967, apples — one of the few fruits that the Israelis were not adept at growing — were planted there and thrived in the cold nights and the high, dry altitude. Israelis also had the same success with grapes at the Golan Heights Winery, close to the Syrian border. These new varietals were of a much higher quality than Baron de Rothschild’s plantings had been at his low-lying coastal wineries a hundred years earlier. The Golan Heights Winery, jointly owned by the nearby kibbutzim that supplied the grapes, introduced its first vintage in 1983, from grapes planted ten years earlier. These kosher wines have been winning sil­ver and gold medals in international competitions ever since.

In 1973, Dr. Itzhak Adate, a scientist with the Vulcani Institute in Rehovot [an Israeli city] went on a professional tour to New Zealand where he tasted the kiwi, which had been introduced from China. Bringing a few cuttings and seeds back, he asked the kibbutzniks at Kibbutz Ammiad, located down the road from his home, to plant them. By 1980 the first kiwis had come to the market. With the abundant crop, Scottish-born Jeff Marks, a wine hobbyist and a member of the kibbutz, suggested that kiwi wine might taste as good as cordials made from pears, berries, and plums. Today, the kibbutz exports kiwi wine to countries throughout the world. Ironically, although Israel’s agricultural industry is at the forefront of the global marketplace, kibbutz involvement has become proportionally less, with less than 2 percent of Israel’s population now living on the kibbutzim.

Throughout the Middle East, where emotions run high, politics also plays a major role in the complicated global market. Since the 1980s, for example, when all trade with Iran was blocked, Israel has become the main exporter of Iranian variants of mint, parsley, and other herb seeds for Iranian-American growers.

READ: “Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking” Wins James Beard Book of the Year Award

In the past two decades, with a general rise in disposable income and the elimination of travel taxes imposed on the struggling economy, Israelis have become open to new experiences in travel and food. After their two-year mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces, many young Israeli soldiers go abroad, most frequently to travel in East Asia or Latin America and to spend some time working in the United States. Many of these young people return home with new culinary tastes, as did American Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s. A number of them have become chefs, schooled in international cuisine and influential in the development of modern Israeli cooking.

Biblical Foods

Despite their global lifestyles, the new Israeli chefs still cultivate a link to the foods of the Old Testament. Grapes, dates, lentils, and chickpeas are but a few of the ancient ingredients that have captured their imaginations in producing signa­ture dishes. With constant waves of immigration, Israel is rapidly incorporating the native cuisines of its new populations.

The story of Israeli food is not just a Jewish story — its recipes cross borders more easily than people do. It is also the story of a land that has overcome harsh natural deprivation to bring forth new agricultural produce. Because it constantly incorporates so much from the rest of the world, Israel may never boast of one “cuisine,” but it will always retain a rich mixture of fine tastes. It reflects the modern mosaic of the country, embracing the culinary influences of its Arab neighbors and accommodating the varied tastes of the world’s Jews.

This article is reprinted from The Foods of Israel Today.

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The Torah and the Bible

The Torah, Prophets (Nevi’im) and the Writings (Ketuvim) collectively make up The Hebrew Bible (what Christians refer to as the Old Testament). The Bible is often referred to by the Hebrew acronym TaNaKh (usually spelled Tanakh, or Tanach). Numerous editions and translations of the Bible and the Chumash (the text of the Torah) can be purchased online. However, you can also read (and search) the entire Bible (along with many other major Jewish texts) in Hebrew and English translation free of charge on Sefaria.

The Weekly Torah Portion

Readings from the Torah, which are divided into 54 weekly Torah portions (each one is called a parasha, or parsha), are the centerpiece of the Sabbath morning service. My Jewish Learning offers a summary, featured commentary and more than 10 additional commentaries for each Torah portion. Find more weekly Torah commentaries here.

During the Torah service, the Torah scroll is taken out and the weekly portion chanted or read aloud. The Torah scroll, also known as a sefer Torah, is hand-written on parchment according to numerous specifications by a sofer (scribe), a specially trained individual.

The Torah’s stories, laws and poetry stand at the center of Jewish culture. They chronicle God’s creation of the world, the selection and growth of the family of Abraham and Sarah in relationship to God in the land of Canaan, the exile and redemption from Egypt of that “family-become-nation” known as Israel, and their travels through the desert until they return to the land of Canaan. Along the way, Israel enters into a covenanted relationship with God, and God reveals many of the rules for governing a just society and for establishing appropriate worship.

The Torah’s Five Books

The English names for each of the Torah’s five book are actually Greek, and like the Rabbinic names for the books, they describe the contents. The common names for the books come from a significant word in the beginning verses of the book. The following are the names of the five books and a brief summary of each (click on them for longer summaries):

Genesis (“Origins”)/Bereishit (“In the Beginning”)

Genesis tells the story of creation, Noah and the flood, and the selection of Abraham and Sarah and their family as the bearers of God’s covenant.  Stories of sibling conflict and the long narratives of Jacob and his favorite son Joseph conclude with the family dwelling in Egypt.

Exodus (“The Road Out”)/Shemot (“Names”)

Exodus tells of how the family of Jacob grew and then was enslaved in Egypt.  The baby Moses, born of Israelites but adopted by Pharaoh, becomes God’s prophet who, after bringing 10 plagues down upon Egypt, leads the Israelites through the Red Sea to freedom and to the revelation at Mount Sinai. The story of the Israelites worshipping the golden calf, which follows soon after the revelation at Mount Sinai, is almost obscured by lengthy materials on the building of a sanctuary (tabernacle) in the wilderness.

Leviticus (“Laws of the Levites”)/Vayikra (“And God Called”)

Leviticus deals mostly with laws of Israelite sacrificial worship. Related rules include the basis for Jewish dietary laws (kashrut) and issues of purity and impurity.  The holiness code, which describes a sanctified communal life, is a highlight of the book.

Numbers (“The Census”)/Bamidbar (“In the Wilderness”)

Numbers begins with a census of the Israelites and the tribe of Levi. A group of Israelites spy out the land of Canaan; their discouraging report sends them back into the desert for an additional 38 years, during which the Israelites continue to behave badly, rebelling against the authority of Moses and his brother Aaron, and having illicit relations with Moabite women.

Deuteronomy (“Second Law”)/Devarim (“Words”)

Deuteronomy is Moses’ final message to the people of Israel before they cross over the Jordan River into Israel. Moses reminds the people of how God has redeemed the people from Egypt and of the details of the covenant between Israel and God.  In stark language, Moses describes the rewards for observance of the laws of the covenant and the punishment for disobedience. Finally, Moses passes along his authority to Joshua who will lead the people into the land.

Origins of the Torah

Traditionally, the Torah has been seen either as a document that was entirely revealed to Moses by God on Mount Sinai (along with the whole of the Oral Torah, i.e. the Mishnah and other works of Rabbinic literature which build upon the written Torah) or that Moses completed the Torah during the trek through the wilderness (including what was revealed on Mount Sinai). Historians and literary critics, noting historical inaccuracies and duplications that indicate a composite text have suggested that the Torah includes sources from the period of King David and King Solomon (around 1000 BCE), from the seventh century BCE during the reign of King Josiah, and from the sixth century BCE during the Babylonian exile.

Connection Between the Torah and the Prophets

In the works of the prophets, and in many of the writings, narrative elements from the Torah like the exodus from Egypt are re-used to make new points. Laws from the Torah like the specifics of Sabbath law prohibitions are also commented upon and expand their scope in later works. Another set of connections between the Torah and the Prophets is indicated by the weekly Prophetic portions (Haftarahs), which are paired with each of the 54 weekly Torah portions.

The post The Torah appeared first on My Jewish Learning.

In Jewish tradition, Elijah is the one who will announce the coming of the messiah and the redemption of Israel, a fact celebrated in a song traditionally sung during the Havdalah service at the close of Shabbat, which prays for Elijah’s return “speedily in our time.” Some also sing this song during the Passover Seder, as they invite Elijah into their homes to drink from a cup of wine poured just for him, and during ritual circumcisions, as a newborn male is brought into the covenant between God and the Jewish people.

Although his story spans only a handful of chapters of the Bible and there is no biblical book that bears his name, Elijah’s legacy surpasses that of virtually all his colleagues. But who was Elijah and how did he come to earn such a prominent place in Jewish tradition?

Elijah’s Hebrew name literally means “my God is Yahu,” a form of the biblical name of God, symbolizing perhaps his zealousness for God and his efforts to keep the Israelites from straying from God’s path. He hailed from Tishbeh, a town in Gilead, east of the Jordan River in present day Jordan, which makes him an outsider of sorts in the king’s court in northern Israel, where he was sent to deliver God’s message.

Elijah’s time as a prophet coincided with a period in which the Israelite people have been led astray, induced to worship the foreign deity Baal, who they believed was a bringer of rain. A defining moment comes when Elijah summons the people to Mount Carmel and challenges the prophets of Baal to offer a sacrifice without the use of fire. The prophets call out to Baal repeatedly, but to no avail — their sacrifice remains unconsumed.

In response, Elijah places a sacrifice upon the altar and douses it with water. He calls out to God and summons a fire from the heavens which consumes not only the sacrifice, but the stone altar and surrounding earth as well. Transformed for the moment, the people proclaim that God alone is the true God — a peak moment for Elijah.

But it turns out to be short-lived. The people’s faith wavers and the king’s wife Jezebel seeks to have Elijah killed. Fearing for his life, Elijah flees to the desert, where, in a moment that echoes the revelation at Sinai, God sends a shattering wind, an earthquake, and then a fire. Elijah does not encounter God in any of these powerful phenomena, but in the calm that follows, when he hears a “still, small voice” — and within it, he finds God. For theologians, this moment is an archetypal one, underscoring that Spielbergian special effects are not a prerequisite for a revelatory encounter with the Divine.

Elijah’s powerful moment of intimacy with God in the desert does not restore him and he is unable to continue serving as prophet. He seeks out Elisha, who assumes his role as God’s spokesperson to the kings of Israel.

On the face of it, Elijah’s story is not unique for a biblical prophet — others also perform miracles, chastise the people, face resistance and retribution and have personal experiences of revelation that bring them closer to God. Yet, Elijah’s story sets him apart from his peers and helps explain the unusually prominent place he has come to occupy in the Jewish imagination.

The chapters in which he appears are among the most dramatic in all of the Bible. Elijah’s zealousness for God, his prophetic angst, and his existential loneliness have an intensity that is unmatched by other prophets. The Torah declares that “never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom God encountered face to face.” But Elijah’s encounter with God makes him a close second — except for the one way in which Elijah’s intimacy with God surpasses even that of Moses.

When his time on Earth comes to a close, Elijah does not die; rather, the Bible reports that God transports him to the heavens on a fiery chariot. While God honored Moses by attending to him at the moment of his death, it is Elijah who is invited into the divine realm.

While the Book of Kings provides little explanation about this curious feature of Elijah’s story, his journey to the heavens has captured the imagination of many early interpreters of the Bible, who began to develop visions of Elijah’s unique afterlife. Already in the Second Temple period, his role as the harbinger of divine redemption was noted by the biblical prophet Malachi.

The rabbis of the Talmud imagined Elijah sitting intimately with God in the heavenly court and traveling back and forth between the divine and human realms. These stories, and those that followed, depict an Elijah who continues to take interest in the world he left behind, offering assistance to those in need and seeking out the one who will usher in the messianic era.

Elijah became a part of not only the Jewish past, but the Jewish present and our hopes for the Jewish future. Chance meetings with a stranger that led to a fortuitous reversal of fortune were spun into tales of personal encounters with Elijah. Over the centuries, Jews came to look out for Elijah at times of difficulty in the hope of personal or communal redemption.

And so, Elijah became part of our ritual life. We sing of him as Shabbat comes to an end in the hope that in the new week he will announce that redemption is at hand. We welcome him into our homes during Passover, the holiday that celebrates our redemption. We look for him as we bring a newborn into the covenant, in the hopes that the newborn child might be the messiah who will usher in the era of our redemption. And those of us who have been fortunate enough to encounter him along the way tell the tales of how he assisted us at a time of need.

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Psalm 137 is recited on the eve of Tisha B’Av, which commemorates the destruction of both Temples. It opens the liturgy, and sets the tone for the day. The liturgy of Tisha B’Av includes a wide array of kinot, poems of sorrow and mourning, giving voice to themes of exile and longing. But this ancient psalm, older than the kinot, captures the pain of exile from the Land of Israel perhaps most eloquently of all. The psalm is short — only nine verses — and can be divided into three parts, each with its own themes and challenges for today’s spiritual yearners. The first four verses read as follows:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, sat and wept, as we remembered Zion.

There on the poplars we hung up our lyres,

for our captors asked us there for songs, our tormentors, for amusement:

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

How can we sing a song of the LORD on alien soil?

In these opening lines, we can hear the sadism of the locals as they mock the newly-arrived Israelites: “Sing us one of those spirituals from the Old Country…” Some scholars remark that the Israelite response, “How can we sing… on alien soil?” reflects another aspect of loss: the poet, like many of the exiles, is wondering whether the God of Israel can hear or act when the people are no longer in their homeland. Perhaps prophecy and prayers only “work” when the People of Israel are located in the Land of Israel? This is more than a rhetorical question: the exile commemorated on Tisha B’Av is not only about distance from a physical place, but also from God. That distance is the cause of pain and loneliness that is reflected in the psalm.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither;

let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you,

if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.

Here, the pain of loss melts into resolve. The poet doesn’t know if God has forgotten, but the poet has not forgotten! The Temple in Jerusalem was the place where God and the people found great intimacy. The memory of this closeness is what Tisha B’Av is ultimately about: not a longing for sacrifices, but for the intimacy with God that worship evoked.

These lines are reflected in some well-known Jewish customs. In many times and places, Jews would leave a wall of their home unfinished or unpainted. This was a reminder that wherever the householder lived, it was still a place of exile until Jerusalem and its people would once again be whole. This practice is first described in the Talmud, Bava Batra 60b.

Another famous Jewish ritual reflects these verses: breaking a glass at a wedding. After all, surely the moment a couple is married must be their “happiest hour.” Shattering a glass at this moment reminds onlookers of the work still to be done, although perhaps this couple’s love is a step in bringing unity back to a fragmented world.

The final verses of the Psalm throw the reader a moral curveball:

Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall;

how they cried, “Strip her, strip her to her very foundations!”
Fair Babylon, you predator,

a blessing on him who repays you in kind

what you have inflicted on us;

a blessing on him who seizes your babies

and dashes them against the rocks!

The violent revenge fantasy of these lines is painful to read (smashing our enemies’ babies on the rocks!); many of us wish it wasn’t there at all! In fact, many liturgies don’t print them, closing the poem after verse 6, about keeping alive the memory of Jerusalem. What might we do with these harsh words?

It is not our task to validate these violent revenge fantasies, but we can seek to understand them. The poem doesn’t claim that anyone ever did these awful things. Instead, these words reflect the anger of the victim. Imagine the victim in a concentration camp — or consider your own feelings walking through Yad Vashem or the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Is anger not a valid emotional response? Can these feelings help us empathize with other oppressed peoples, and understand that suffering and oppression easily translate into rage? The imaginary deeds we would never justify, but the seething hurt behind these sentiments make the passage extremely, and uncomfortably, powerful.

All this reflects the deep spiritual power of Tisha B’Av. We remember that, no matter where we may be, we live religiously in a state of Exile. We long for a reconciliation with God and with one another. And, through our fasting, our mourning, our kinot, and this psalm we become more compassionate with those who suffer. Because we’ve been there, too, in our Jewish history.

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In the wake of the Temple’s destruction, Judaism transformed from a religion of sacrifice to a religion of prayer and Torah study. Indeed, the rabbis of the Talmud, who lived centuries after the destruction, declared explicitly that without a Temple, Torah study and prayer took the place of sacrifice in Jewish worship. Nearly 2,000 years later, they remain utterly central to Judaism.

So some may be surprised to learn that the Talmud (Taanit 30a) prohibits Torah study on Tisha B’Av:

The Sages taught: All mitzvahs practiced by a mourner are likewise practiced on Tisha B’Av: It is prohibited to engage in eating, and in drinking, and in smearing oil on one’s body, and in wearing shoes, and in conjugal relations. It is prohibited to read from the Torah, from the Prophets, and from the Writings, or to study from the Mishnah, from the Gemara, and from midrash, and from collections of halakhah, and from collections of aggadah.

Alongside fasting and engaging in acts of self-indulgence and comfort (moisturization and footwear were counted in this category in the ancient world), Jews refrained from studying sacred literature. But why?

The answer is that Torah study brings pleasure. As Psalms 19:9 has it:

The laws of God are just, gladdening the heart,

the commandments of God are lucid, making the eyes light up.

But wait! The Book of Lamentations, one of the five megillot, is read in synagogue on Tisha B’Av. Doesn’t this violate the prohibition against Torah study?

According to the Talmud (same page, Taanit 30a) a few books are an exception to the “no Torah study” rule. Lamentations, a series of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem, which is obviously fitting for the occasion, is on the list. Also included in the exception: Job, a book about the suffering of the righteous, and certain passages of Jeremiah that lament the destruction of the first Temple and upbraid Israel for their faithlessness.

Over the centuries, Jews have often understood this passage in the Talmud to mean not that Torah study is forbidden on Tisha B’Av, but that it must be restricted to passages that are mournful. Indeed, in addition to reading Lamentations, Jewish recite regular daily prayers including passages from the Torah — for instance, the Shema (even though this passage is not mournful). In synagogue, they also read Torah (the reading for Tisha B’Av is Deuteronomy 4:25–40, which describes the destruction of the Land of Israel) and haftarah (Jeremiah 8:13–9:23).

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Let’s start with the second part of the Jewish canon, the Prophets (Nevi’im). The early prophets — the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings — claim to tell the history of Israel from the time of the conquest of the land after the Exodus through the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. Nothing in the style of these books suggests that they are divine in origin. Though in places they certainly talk about God (in the third person), they present many different perspectives on this era and share all the pitfalls of humanly written histories

Some of the later prophets — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets — explicitly claim to reflect divine revelation. The second verse of the Book of Jeremiah states that “the word of the LORD came to him [Jeremiah] in the days of [King] Josiah …” In case this is not definitive enough, the first real prophecy in the book opens: “The word of the LORD came to me.” (Jeremiah 1:4) Several other prophetic books contain similar claims, though not all. Isaiah simply begins: “The prophecies of Isaiah son of Amoz, who prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the reigns of…” (Isaiah 1:1). The book makes no explicit assertion of divine origin, though this was surely assumed by his audience.

Most of the books of the Writings (Ketuvim), the third section of the Tanach, completely lack the suggestion that they are from God. Psalms is a book of prayers to God, not from God (though some early Jews considered it divinely inspired). In most of the Book of Job, God is spoken of in the third person. Proverbs is mostly human wisdom. The five Megillot (scrolls) also lack any suggestion of divine authorship. Song of Songs, for example, is explicitly attributed to Solomon, with no hint of divine inspiration.  Only some sections of Daniel contain prophecies attributed to God—though unlike earlier prophecy, these are mediated by an angel.

In sum, much less than half of the Prophets and the Writings contain any internal suggestion that it originated from God. Much of later Jewish tradition assumes that these books may have a divine hand behind them —whatever that might mean. But this idea developed only in the post-biblical period.

Even the Torah itself – the first five books of the Bible—nowhere suggests that it is all divinely authored. Only in Exodus, the Bible’s second book, does the ubiquitous formula “The Lord spoke to Moses saying” begin. Absolutely nothing in Genesis suggests that it was originally understood as given from God. The first words of the Bible are, “When God began to create heaven and earth” — not “God said to Moses, ‘When I began to create heaven and earth.’” The final book of the Torah, Deuteronomy, presents itself as Moses’s speech, not God’s.

And yet, the traditional Jewish position is that it is all divine in origin. This position is taken for granted in rabbinic literature, but is already suggested by some late biblical books that call it “the Lord’s Torah,” “the Torah of Moses,” or even “the Lord’s Torah given by Moses” (2 Chronicles 34:14).

The classical formulation of the divine origin of the Torah comes from Maimonides: “The eighth fundamental principle is that the Torah came from God. We are to believe that the whole Torah was given us through Moses our Teacher entirely from God … through Moses who acted like a secretary taking dictation….”  (For a longer version of my claims here, see the second chapter of “The Bible and the Believer: How to Read the Bible Critically and Religiously.”) This assertion has some roots in earlier rabbinic literature and, as noted above, in the very latest books of the Bible. But its status as dogma is debated, and is connected to the fraught issue of whether Judaism is just a religion of deeds or also has central creeds like Christianity.

Even so, Maimonides’s position concerns the Torah only—not the entire Bible, and as noted above, goes beyond the explicit claims of the Torah concerning its authorship.

Modern biblical scholarship even casts doubt on the divine authorship of the sections of the Torah which explicitly claim to have come from God, including those that follow the formula “The Lord spoke to Moses.” The Torah contains too many contradictions to all be seen as divine. Do servants get released after six years, as stated Exodus, or at the Jubilee year (once every fifty years), as noted in Leviticus? Which divine speech is the correct one?

Biblical scholars have shown that the Torah contains too many contradictions and infelicities to be divine, and it instead came into being over a very long period of time, reflecting the understanding of various ancient Israelites, living in different places at different times, of what God wanted of them. (For more on this, see TheTorah.com.) But a text that reflects people’s understanding of God is quite different from a text dictated by God to Moses and preserved without error for three millennia — the view of Maimonides and a position upheld by many Jews within the Orthodox community.

Should this matter? Does scripture need to be perfect in order to retain its scriptural status?

For many Jews, the Bible does not get its power, or even its authority, from being a divine document. When reciting the blessing recited after reading from the Torah, we laud it as Torat emet— a Torah of truth. That need not mean that it is entirely true, but only that it contains profound truths. Sometimes these truths are close to the surface. Other times they are brought out through interpretation — even radical interpretation that fundamentally changes the original meaning of the text.

Truths can be found in many places, but as Jews it is our obligation to search out and to follow the truths we find in the Torah—to make the Torah, indeed the whole Tanach, into our central orienting text. The Jewish community has created the books of the Bible and placed them — most especially the Torah — as the central compass of Jewish life.

Being Jewish means adopting this Bible-centric position — buying into the Torah and using sections of it (along with other wise texts from other traditions) as a guide for our lives and to create continuity with our ancestors — even if we are not following the Bible as God’s revealed truth.

Marc Zvi Brettler is a professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Duke University.

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The Multiple Tragedies

The 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz is a date in which many tragedies and pitfalls happened, according to the Mishnah (Taanit 4:6). It is traditionally believed to be the date that Moses broke the original Ten Commandments tablets after coming upon the Israelites as they worshiped the Golden Calf. The Roman rulers forbade sacrifices to be made in the Second Temple on this date in 69 C.E., and, in the following year, the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem were breached. This attack led to the destruction of the Temple three weeks later.

In Hebrew, the period of the Three Weeks is known as “bein hametzarim,” or, literally, “within the straits” or “within the borders.” This name comes from a verse in the Book of Lamentations, or Eicha, which is read on Tisha B’Av:

Judah has gone into exile because of affliction, and because of great servitude. She dwelt among the nations, she found no rest; all her pursuers overtook her within the borders. (Lamentations 1:3)

This idea of borders — or “restrictions” — alludes to the additional restrictions of mourning which are traditionally taken on during this period.

Traditionally, Jews take on several mourning customs during the Three Weeks. Similar to the period of the Omer, no weddings, parties, or public celebrations are held. Some people abstain from getting haircuts and shaving. Some people also refrain from going to concerts or listening to music during this period.

The Nine Days

The last nine days of the period, starting with the first of the month of Av, occupy a special status. Foods traditionally associated with joy, such as wine and meat, are forbidden, except on Shabbat. Bathing, beyond what is absolutely necessary, is prohibited, as is doing laundry, and buying or wearing new clothes.

This culminates in the fast of Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av, a day that is spent entirely in mourning–by fasting, praying, sitting on stools instead of chairs, and reading the book of Lamentations. The Mishnah, in Masekhet Taanit 29b, decrees that these additional restrictions are only valid in “shavua she-hal bo,” or the week that Tisha B’Av occurs. Many Sephardic Jews only observe the restrictions within this period.

“Decreasing … in Joy”

Even though the Three Weeks mark the time of the Temple’s destruction, there are signs of hope throughout. The three haftarot read during this period, are full of admonitions and prophetic passages that warn about the consequences of sin. Yet each ends in a promise of eventual redemption.

The Talmud says, “When the month of Av enters, one should decrease in joy.” The Hasidic rebbe Rabbi Chaim Elazar Spira (1861-1937), said that, though the Talmud says to “decrease in joy,” it should be read, “decrease…in joy.” In other words, though it is proper to mourn, even in that mourning, we should do so joyously, knowing that better times are ahead.

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