A man came to see me and said, "I was born in 1938 in Romania." Or maybe it was '39. It wasn't later.
That was a kind of miracle. How many Jewish children born in Romania that year lived?
He was very small. That was because he was hiding with his mother and never had much to eat. He did not speak until he was six years old. He always had to be quiet.
After the war he traveled in a boat from Europe. He arrived in Trinidad and young boys with black skin threw oranges at the boat. He had never seen a Black person. He had never seen an orange.
His parents had more children in their new life in South America. He felt he reminded his parents of the war, that they wanted him to disappear. He wore his childhood in his size.
When he grew up, he moved to the US. He avoided synagogues, Judaism, G-d. Then many years later his daughter got involved. One day she had a baby boy, and she wanted him to read the priestly blessing at the bris.
So he came to shul to learn to read it. And he told me his story. And he stayed in shul and "took a chance on G-d". He raked the leaves. He joined the board.
He died but his story did not die. Today, on Yom Hashoah, I remember him.
Yehi zichro baruch.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Words of Comfort
Five years ago, eight young men left this world in a tragic shooting at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva. They were shot as they studied in the library/Beit Midrash. One of these boys was the son of a friend.
Two years ago, I joined my friend and her family at the gravesite to commemorate his yahrzeit. It was a Sunday afternoon. Two nights later, we received the call that our four and a half year old nephew Lucas had been killed in a car accident.
Last night, I went to be with my friend at the memorial for the boys who died on Rosh Hodesh Adar at Merkaz HaRav. I want to share some of what I heard there in hopes that it will bring comfort at this season to Eddie and Sophie and all who loved Lucas, to Mimi and Paul whose son Ben died last week, and to anyone reading it.
My apologies in advance for any lapses in my memory or misunderstandings. The hour was late, the Hebrew was rapid and often accented.
Two speakers last night impressed me deeply. One was an elderly great man, I do not know his name, he is a Rosh Yeshiva, not from Merkaz Harav. He spoke in accented Hebrew, clearly Yiddish was his first language. He was the only speaker who brought books with him to read from and he read from the Gemara with Yiddish accented Aramaic, translating some parts into less accented Hebrew. American English was also in the background of his accent. He got my attention when he mentioned, in an aside, that he was born in Shanghai.
From Wikipedia:
Another wave of 18,000 Jews from Germany, Austria, and Poland immigrated to Shanghai in the late 1930s and the early 1940s.[30] Shanghai at the time was an open city and did not have restrictions on immigration, and some Chinese diplomats such as Ho Feng Shan issued "protective" passports. In 1943, the occupying Japanese army required these 18,000 Jews, formally known as "stateless refugees," to relocate to an area of 0.75 square miles (1.9 km2) in Shanghai's Hongkew district (today known as Hongkou District) where many lived in group homes called "Heime".[31] The total number of Jews entering Shanghai during this period equaled the number of Jews fleeing to Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa combined. Many of the Jews in China later moved to found modern Israel.
Shanghai was an important safe-haven for Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, since it was one of the few places in the world where one didn't need a visa. However, it was not easy to get there. The Japanese, who controlled the city, preferred in effect to look the other way. Some corrupt officials however, also exploited the plight of the Jews. By 1941 nearly 20,000 European Jews had found shelter there.
This rabbi seemed to me as if he carried the history of the Jewish people in the 20th century in his body. He spoke of Rav Kook. He told stories that I did not understand.
And he taught a Gemara from Yevamot, the point of which was to say that a yahrzeit, the anniversary of a death, is considered like one of the shalosh regalim (three pilgrimage festivals). He went on to talk about the importance of walking at the regalim, how even one who arrived in a cart had to get down the last way to the Temple. How walking allows us to slowly come in to something. And how for anniversaries, Yahrzeits, as my friend calls them "angelversaries", we need to enter slowly, we are entering a holy time.
I regret that because of my difficulties in understanding, I did not retain more of what this great man said. He did speak several times about why he was there, and how important it is to bear the burdens of others and to be with those who are in sorrow.
The other speaker who impressed me greatly was the Be'er Sheva Chief Rabbi Yehuda Deri (Aryeh Deri's brother). He had an amazing presence, when he spoke I saw lots of energy and light around him, and I was quite a distance away. (Davka, the shul, Beit Knesset Yeshurun, felt very hamish, close and accessible and though we were of course on the balcony, I did not feel distant from the speakers or musicians.)
He started out by speaking about Nadav and Avihu, the two sons of Aaron who were killed suddenly on the day the Mishkan (tabernacle) was dedicated. He talked about the contrast - the happy celebration and the deaths, of course referring to the fact that the terror attack at Merkaz HaRav happened on the day that we were celebrating Rosh Hodesh Adar, when we increase joy. (And Lucas died on carnival.) He said that everyone cries when the portion of Aharei Mot (After the deaths - Leviticus 16) is read on Yom Kippur and quoted a commentary saying that is why we read it on Yom Kippur, because tears open the gates of heaven.
The middle of his talk was about Tzedakah (giving charity) and Gemilut Hasadim (acts of kindness). He quoted a teaching that when the merit of our fathers and the merit of our mothers fails us, doing acts of kindness will never fail us, interpreting a beautiful verse from Isaiah:
Isaiah 54:10: For the mountains (the merit of the fathers) may move, and the hills (the merit of the mothers) be shaken, my lovingkindness/loyalty (hasdi) will never move from you....
He had two other messages. One was based on a verse, all Israel wept after them. He said that the loss was not the loss of the families alone, but the loss of all Israel and that each of us there had to feel the loss. I think this is a teaching for whenever a child dies.
His last message he explicitly said was a message of comfort. It was based on a Talmud passage in Taanit 9 where it is written that Israel had three great parnasim (caretakers of the community in the broadest sense) - Moses, Aaron and Miriam - and that each brought a gift - by the merit of Moses, Manna, by the merit of Aaron, the clouds of glory, by the merit of Miriam, the well. He then said that the Gemara (?) says that these gifts all left Israel in one month, but that this is a problem because we know that Moses died on the 7th of Adar, Miriam in Nisan, and Aaron on Rosh Hodesh Av. Then he went on to say that what it means is that after Miriam and Aaron died, the well and the clouds did not depart, because Moses, their brother, carried on their work in the world. I took him to mean that as long as ones family are alive, as long as a sibling is alive, a child is not gone from this world. He also explicitly said that as long as the Yeshiva studies Torah and carries on the work of these boys, they have not departed.
May these words be of comfort to all who mourn this month and at all times, and may we find away to "hafach mispedi lemachol li" to turn weeping into dancing. At the end of the memorial, there was beautiful music and dancing.
Avraham David Moses, ztz"l
Two years ago, I joined my friend and her family at the gravesite to commemorate his yahrzeit. It was a Sunday afternoon. Two nights later, we received the call that our four and a half year old nephew Lucas had been killed in a car accident.
Last night, I went to be with my friend at the memorial for the boys who died on Rosh Hodesh Adar at Merkaz HaRav. I want to share some of what I heard there in hopes that it will bring comfort at this season to Eddie and Sophie and all who loved Lucas, to Mimi and Paul whose son Ben died last week, and to anyone reading it.
My apologies in advance for any lapses in my memory or misunderstandings. The hour was late, the Hebrew was rapid and often accented.
Two speakers last night impressed me deeply. One was an elderly great man, I do not know his name, he is a Rosh Yeshiva, not from Merkaz Harav. He spoke in accented Hebrew, clearly Yiddish was his first language. He was the only speaker who brought books with him to read from and he read from the Gemara with Yiddish accented Aramaic, translating some parts into less accented Hebrew. American English was also in the background of his accent. He got my attention when he mentioned, in an aside, that he was born in Shanghai.
From Wikipedia:
Another wave of 18,000 Jews from Germany, Austria, and Poland immigrated to Shanghai in the late 1930s and the early 1940s.[30] Shanghai at the time was an open city and did not have restrictions on immigration, and some Chinese diplomats such as Ho Feng Shan issued "protective" passports. In 1943, the occupying Japanese army required these 18,000 Jews, formally known as "stateless refugees," to relocate to an area of 0.75 square miles (1.9 km2) in Shanghai's Hongkew district (today known as Hongkou District) where many lived in group homes called "Heime".[31] The total number of Jews entering Shanghai during this period equaled the number of Jews fleeing to Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa combined. Many of the Jews in China later moved to found modern Israel.
Shanghai was an important safe-haven for Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, since it was one of the few places in the world where one didn't need a visa. However, it was not easy to get there. The Japanese, who controlled the city, preferred in effect to look the other way. Some corrupt officials however, also exploited the plight of the Jews. By 1941 nearly 20,000 European Jews had found shelter there.
This rabbi seemed to me as if he carried the history of the Jewish people in the 20th century in his body. He spoke of Rav Kook. He told stories that I did not understand.
And he taught a Gemara from Yevamot, the point of which was to say that a yahrzeit, the anniversary of a death, is considered like one of the shalosh regalim (three pilgrimage festivals). He went on to talk about the importance of walking at the regalim, how even one who arrived in a cart had to get down the last way to the Temple. How walking allows us to slowly come in to something. And how for anniversaries, Yahrzeits, as my friend calls them "angelversaries", we need to enter slowly, we are entering a holy time.
I regret that because of my difficulties in understanding, I did not retain more of what this great man said. He did speak several times about why he was there, and how important it is to bear the burdens of others and to be with those who are in sorrow.
The other speaker who impressed me greatly was the Be'er Sheva Chief Rabbi Yehuda Deri (Aryeh Deri's brother). He had an amazing presence, when he spoke I saw lots of energy and light around him, and I was quite a distance away. (Davka, the shul, Beit Knesset Yeshurun, felt very hamish, close and accessible and though we were of course on the balcony, I did not feel distant from the speakers or musicians.)
He started out by speaking about Nadav and Avihu, the two sons of Aaron who were killed suddenly on the day the Mishkan (tabernacle) was dedicated. He talked about the contrast - the happy celebration and the deaths, of course referring to the fact that the terror attack at Merkaz HaRav happened on the day that we were celebrating Rosh Hodesh Adar, when we increase joy. (And Lucas died on carnival.) He said that everyone cries when the portion of Aharei Mot (After the deaths - Leviticus 16) is read on Yom Kippur and quoted a commentary saying that is why we read it on Yom Kippur, because tears open the gates of heaven.
The middle of his talk was about Tzedakah (giving charity) and Gemilut Hasadim (acts of kindness). He quoted a teaching that when the merit of our fathers and the merit of our mothers fails us, doing acts of kindness will never fail us, interpreting a beautiful verse from Isaiah:
Isaiah 54:10: For the mountains (the merit of the fathers) may move, and the hills (the merit of the mothers) be shaken, my lovingkindness/loyalty (hasdi) will never move from you....
He had two other messages. One was based on a verse, all Israel wept after them. He said that the loss was not the loss of the families alone, but the loss of all Israel and that each of us there had to feel the loss. I think this is a teaching for whenever a child dies.
His last message he explicitly said was a message of comfort. It was based on a Talmud passage in Taanit 9 where it is written that Israel had three great parnasim (caretakers of the community in the broadest sense) - Moses, Aaron and Miriam - and that each brought a gift - by the merit of Moses, Manna, by the merit of Aaron, the clouds of glory, by the merit of Miriam, the well. He then said that the Gemara (?) says that these gifts all left Israel in one month, but that this is a problem because we know that Moses died on the 7th of Adar, Miriam in Nisan, and Aaron on Rosh Hodesh Av. Then he went on to say that what it means is that after Miriam and Aaron died, the well and the clouds did not depart, because Moses, their brother, carried on their work in the world. I took him to mean that as long as ones family are alive, as long as a sibling is alive, a child is not gone from this world. He also explicitly said that as long as the Yeshiva studies Torah and carries on the work of these boys, they have not departed.
May these words be of comfort to all who mourn this month and at all times, and may we find away to "hafach mispedi lemachol li" to turn weeping into dancing. At the end of the memorial, there was beautiful music and dancing.
Avraham David Moses, ztz"l
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Sorry, another recipe - Stuffed Cabbage for Dummies!
I must have written at least 5 blog posts in my head the past month - about our trip, about the Israeli elections, about place, about Obama's inauguration and gay marriage. I even sat down to write at least one but got sidetracked.
So here is nothing profound - just another recipe. It's my adaptation of Madhur Jaffrey's "Tembel Dolma" from World Vegetarian. The title means:
Stuffed Cabbage for Dummies!
It's not stuffed. The recipe might seem daunting but it's actually really easy and after you do it a few times it gets easier.
1 small cabbage, cored and shredded
1 1/2 cups rice (I use basmati)
1 onion, thin sliced
2 tablespoons chopped almonds (buy them chopped already)
2 tablespoons craisins (that's hamutziyot)
1/2 cup fresh dill (or less - I don't measure nor do I "finely chop")
oil for frying onions
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
Boil a big pot of water, add the cabbage, and blanch it. She says boil 1 minute but every time I make this I say "I could have boiled the cabbage less". It just needs to wilt a little. Drain the cabbage and save 3 cups of the liquid.
Fry the onion till it just starts to brown. Turn down the heat and add the rice and almonds. Stir that for a minute or two, then add the dill, cranberries, salt and pepper.
Now you layer the stuff - 3 layers of cabbage, 2 layers of rice mix. In the big pot, put a layer of the wilted cabbage, then half the rice mixture, then another layer of cabbage, then the rest of the rice, then the last layer of the cabbage. On top sprinkle the teaspoon of sugar.
Now you put a plate on top of it - I never have the right size plate so I use 2 small plates. Use corelle ware, because the plate is going to boil. Now add the 3 cups of liquid. And put a lid on the pot.
Boil and then turn down the heat and cook 20-25 minutes (or longer if your rice takes longer). Turn off the heat and leave the pot for 30 minutes.
You are supposed to be able to turn this dish out in one piece, but I have never succeeded.
Did I mention this is a vegan (parve) dish???
Take it to a pot luck!
So here is nothing profound - just another recipe. It's my adaptation of Madhur Jaffrey's "Tembel Dolma" from World Vegetarian. The title means:
Stuffed Cabbage for Dummies!
It's not stuffed. The recipe might seem daunting but it's actually really easy and after you do it a few times it gets easier.
1 small cabbage, cored and shredded
1 1/2 cups rice (I use basmati)
1 onion, thin sliced
2 tablespoons chopped almonds (buy them chopped already)
2 tablespoons craisins (that's hamutziyot)
1/2 cup fresh dill (or less - I don't measure nor do I "finely chop")
oil for frying onions
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
Boil a big pot of water, add the cabbage, and blanch it. She says boil 1 minute but every time I make this I say "I could have boiled the cabbage less". It just needs to wilt a little. Drain the cabbage and save 3 cups of the liquid.
Fry the onion till it just starts to brown. Turn down the heat and add the rice and almonds. Stir that for a minute or two, then add the dill, cranberries, salt and pepper.
Now you layer the stuff - 3 layers of cabbage, 2 layers of rice mix. In the big pot, put a layer of the wilted cabbage, then half the rice mixture, then another layer of cabbage, then the rest of the rice, then the last layer of the cabbage. On top sprinkle the teaspoon of sugar.
Now you put a plate on top of it - I never have the right size plate so I use 2 small plates. Use corelle ware, because the plate is going to boil. Now add the 3 cups of liquid. And put a lid on the pot.
Boil and then turn down the heat and cook 20-25 minutes (or longer if your rice takes longer). Turn off the heat and leave the pot for 30 minutes.
You are supposed to be able to turn this dish out in one piece, but I have never succeeded.
Did I mention this is a vegan (parve) dish???
Take it to a pot luck!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
A great oatmeal molasses cookie
I played around with a couple of recipes and made them like this:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda (maybe 3/4 would be better)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
I would have loved some cloves
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 Tbsp Blackstrap Molasses (aka the universal mineral healing potion)
3/4 cup sugar
Sift dry ingredients, mix up wet ingredients well, mix the two together
Add 1/4 cup chopped almonds, 1 1/2 cups oatmeal, 1/4 cup raisins or craisins or if you don't have raisins and want the cookies to be really good like mine were - chopped prunes!!!
Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes - they will be golden or darker. Don't overcook.
Let me know if you try it, ok????
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda (maybe 3/4 would be better)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
I would have loved some cloves
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 Tbsp Blackstrap Molasses (aka the universal mineral healing potion)
3/4 cup sugar
Sift dry ingredients, mix up wet ingredients well, mix the two together
Add 1/4 cup chopped almonds, 1 1/2 cups oatmeal, 1/4 cup raisins or craisins or if you don't have raisins and want the cookies to be really good like mine were - chopped prunes!!!
Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes - they will be golden or darker. Don't overcook.
Let me know if you try it, ok????
Sunday, December 2, 2012
A story about Ron Thiemann my teacher
One of my favorite memories about Ron Thiemann goes like this:
I think I was in my senior year, maybe even my last semester of college. I was a TA in Ron's Religion 102 class, the class where I had met him my freshman year.
He was looking for someone to drive him to the airport early one morning and was offering to pay. I was happy to volunteer.
I think he picked me up at my house, in a white sports car. I don't know what it was - probably not a Mazda Miata (remember them?) but maybe an old Triumph or something, stick shift. We drove (he drove) to the airport on Cobbs Creek Parkway. Maybe it was even a Saturday, or else it was just very early in the morning. There was no traffic at all.
Then the best part - I got to drive this sports car back to his house!
And for this he paid me $10!!!
And then, because this was the kind of guy he was, I think he even wrote about it on a recommendation for me, about how helpful I was, or else he took the trouble to write me a note of thanks.
So let's see - I got like 30 minutes alone with my advisor, whom I greatly admired. I got $10. And I got to drive a cool white sports car. And then I got an additional thank you!
What I love about this memory is how different things seem when you are 20 and when you are 36 or so (that was his age then) and when you are 50. Those little joys like driving a car that mean so much when you don't own one. What $10 meant to me then and what it means to me now. And the joy of driving down an empty, beautiful road, where I had never been before.
I think I was in my senior year, maybe even my last semester of college. I was a TA in Ron's Religion 102 class, the class where I had met him my freshman year.
He was looking for someone to drive him to the airport early one morning and was offering to pay. I was happy to volunteer.
I think he picked me up at my house, in a white sports car. I don't know what it was - probably not a Mazda Miata (remember them?) but maybe an old Triumph or something, stick shift. We drove (he drove) to the airport on Cobbs Creek Parkway. Maybe it was even a Saturday, or else it was just very early in the morning. There was no traffic at all.
Then the best part - I got to drive this sports car back to his house!
And for this he paid me $10!!!
And then, because this was the kind of guy he was, I think he even wrote about it on a recommendation for me, about how helpful I was, or else he took the trouble to write me a note of thanks.
So let's see - I got like 30 minutes alone with my advisor, whom I greatly admired. I got $10. And I got to drive a cool white sports car. And then I got an additional thank you!
What I love about this memory is how different things seem when you are 20 and when you are 36 or so (that was his age then) and when you are 50. Those little joys like driving a car that mean so much when you don't own one. What $10 meant to me then and what it means to me now. And the joy of driving down an empty, beautiful road, where I had never been before.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Who Made Me the Teacher I am?
This is my undergraduate advisor, Ron Thiemann, z"l, as I knew him 30 years ago. He passed away on November 29, 2012, at the age of 66. His passing reminds me of that quote that goes around - people will forget what you say and forget what you do, but they won't forget how you made them feel.
It's hard for me to believe that Ron has died without my having a chance to say goodbye to him. I would like to think that I told him enough times how much he meant to me, but of course we never tell anyone that enough.
Ron was a very charismatic teacher. He was energetic, so smart, and pushed us all the time to think. My friend Bill from college wrote that Ron taught him to think, to analyze, to really understand someone else's argument before disagreeing. His classroom was charged, full of excitement and of the joy of learning. He was tough on us - quick to tell me on my papers when he thought I'd missed the mark or failed to understand the material. A 3.7 from him meant something. A 4.0 was an extremely happy day - one I did not see frequently!
I took my first class with him in the spring of 1979. It was not an easy semester for me - a lot fell apart for me then - but in his class I felt whole and happy. He cared about us and he cared about what he was teaching. I fell in love - with a TA, with the material we were learning, with learning itself. And somehow that love stayed with me beyond that semester and into my religion major.
I took my questions and my challenges to Ron. He was never diminished by a student's challenges. He supported me through my learning and through the years that followed. We stayed in touch. I don't know if he recommended me for rabbinical school but I know he knew I was there, and later in my congregation, and later here in Israel.
He had a turbulent career at Harvard and some challenges. He and my mother became Deans in the same year - 1986. I remember going out to lunch with him somewhere and talking about it - he was in orbit, as my mother says, very busy, very challenged. I'm not sure if I saw him after that, but we talked in 1990 I'm sure, and later when I was here in Israel.
I got from him that wonderful teachers love what they are learning, love their students and love seeing students grow. I got from him that religion matters, greatly, in our world.
One of the courses I never took from him was one he always taught - Religion and the Third Reich. He was a big fan of Dietrich Bonhoffer, and he deeply believed that what we think and how we live matters.
I'm so grateful that at age 17-20 I had such a caring, committed teacher. If you are reading this, thank one of your teachers!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Chocolaty Cookies
At long last a recipe!
We doubled this from the cookbook and it made about 40 cookies. You can half it if you don't want so many.
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar (you could use less)
1 tsp vanilla
Mix all this together until smooth. Add:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
Mix it all together, then add 1/2 cup chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup chopped nuts if you want (we didn't).
Now cover the batter with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for one hour.
To make the cookies, take small balls of the dough and roll them in powdered sugar. The kids made the balls about the diameter of a quarter - I made them a little bigger. Put them on a greased cookie sheet or on greaseproof paper on the tray. Put them back in the freezer for 10 minutes, then straight to a 350 degree/170 degree oven. Bake for 12 minutes or more or less. The sugar on top gets cracks and looks fun. I found them a bit soft at 12 minutes, but your mileage may vary. Personally, I would skip the sugar coating, but the kids enjoyed doing it!
Enjoy!
We doubled this from the cookbook and it made about 40 cookies. You can half it if you don't want so many.
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 cup sugar (you could use less)
1 tsp vanilla
Mix all this together until smooth. Add:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
Mix it all together, then add 1/2 cup chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup chopped nuts if you want (we didn't).
Now cover the batter with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for one hour.
To make the cookies, take small balls of the dough and roll them in powdered sugar. The kids made the balls about the diameter of a quarter - I made them a little bigger. Put them on a greased cookie sheet or on greaseproof paper on the tray. Put them back in the freezer for 10 minutes, then straight to a 350 degree/170 degree oven. Bake for 12 minutes or more or less. The sugar on top gets cracks and looks fun. I found them a bit soft at 12 minutes, but your mileage may vary. Personally, I would skip the sugar coating, but the kids enjoyed doing it!
Enjoy!
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