Music and the Flag.

Tonight, this:

The Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi (same name as my congregation in Connecticut), home of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life (home of a virtual Torah study I've enjoyed for years), was victimized by arson early this year.  It is one of many incidents of anti-Jewish action not just in the USA, but all around the world since Hamas struck in October 2023.

Today is Flag Day, and somebody in my community posted a poem:

I am the flag of the United States of America.

​My name is Old Glory.

 

I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.

I stand watch in America's halls of justice.

I fly majestically over institutions of learning.

I stand guard with power in the world.

Look up and see me.

​

I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.

I stand for freedom. I am confident.

I am arrogant. I am proud.

When I am flown with my fellow banners,

My head is a little higher,

My colors a little truer.

 

I bow to no one!

I am recognized all over the world.

I am worshipped - I am saluted.

I am loved - I am revered.

I am respected - I am feared.

I have fought in every battle of every war for more than 200 years.

I was flown at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appamatox.

I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France, in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome and the beaches of Normandy.

Guam, Okinawa, Korea and KheSan, Saigon, Vietnam know me.

 

I was there. I led my troops.

I was dirty, battleworn and tired,

but my soldiers cheered me and I was proud.

I have been burned, torn and trampled on the streets of countries

I have helped set free. It does not hurt for I am invincible.

I have been soiled upon, burned, torn and trampled in the streets of my country.

And when it's done by those whom I've served in battle - it hurts.

 

But I shall overcome - for I am strong.

I have slipped the bonds of earth and

stood watch over the uncharted frontiers of space from my vantage point on the moon.

I have born silent witness to all of America's finest hours.

 

But my finest hours are yet to come.

When I am torn into strips and used as bandages for my wounded comrades on the battle field,

when I am flown at half mast to honor my soldier,

or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving parent at the grave of their fallen son or daughter,

​

I am proud.

I am the flag of the United States of America.

Originally entitled, My Name is Old Glory by Howard Schnauber

© 1994 the author [Mr. Schnauber has given permission to the public to use this poem for program or publishing purposes. Please credit the Fort Collins Public Library Local History Archive, Oral History Interview of Mr. Howard Schnauber, the author.] 

A friend told me about the "Rise Up, Sing Out" concert that No Kings is hosting today.

==============================================================

It's been a fiber-y week otherwise.  On Monday evening, the Triangle Fiber Guild had a class on Tunisian Crochet.  I didn't get a copy of the handout, but figured out two of the stitches from the teacher's demonstration:

I plan to take this apart ('frogging' in yarn people parlance) and restart at seven inches width, so it can be a Warm Up, America! blanket piece.

At the end of the week I went to a professional conference, in St. Louis but not near the ballpark.  Which was fine because the Cardinals are not in town this week.  With the NBA and NFL finals, and the start of the FIFA World Cup, is anybody focused on baseball this week?

While there, I finished a scarf:

Middle is a strip of Red Heart All-in-One Granny 
yarn, left over from a scarf.  I picked up on the 
sides with Big Twist in red, and worked longways.

The photo was taken at the airport, just before I packed the scarf and took out another project.  It is a small sweater using two hanks of ChemKnits Creations yarn.  My return flight was badly delayed so I arrived in the wee hour of Saturday morning, and took this photo while I knitted at luggage claim:

Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day, and I continued to work on the sweater throughout the day, while I was at TheaterFESTival to learn about local companies (I found two or three with which I may work), and in the evening when I went to see "The Mystery of Irma Vep" as it was closing and that was my only opportunity.  My mother worried that I would be too tired, but the play is lively and full of tricks so I was fine.

The sweater now looks like this:

It's below the sleeves, working on the body until the rainbowy yarn runs out.

Remembering

Today is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we read names of persons murdered in the Shoah during World War II.  In my congregation the reading happened on Sunday, and I participated, reading five pages, doing my best with names and geography.

Eight nights of light.

It was a stunning beginning to the holiday as we learned of the terrorist attack in Bondi Beach.  And the terrorism continues throughout the world, with synagogues and other Jewish buildings receiving bomb threats, as so many of them have in the last two-plus years since the attacks of October 7, 2023.  Of course these attacks didn't start then, but they have tripled and multiplied even more than that.  It's as if the attacks let people feel empowered to bring their anti-Jewish views and intentions into the streets, the gathering places, the eyes of the world.

And there is the other side, which are people coming together in support, to do good deeds to overcome the evil that is happening, to show that just as the candles each evening overcome the darkness of the night, so too can the goodness in the world overcome the darkness that threatens to wash over us.

One of the observations in my rabbis' Hannukah message to the congregation really resonates with me:  "Perhaps, the miracle of Chanukah is not that there was enough oil for the menorah to last eight days, but rather, that on the first day, when they saw how much oil was left, that the Maccabees had enough faith to go ahead and light it anyway."  This is something I've often thought as well: the miracle is that their faith held despite everything that had happened to them.  In many ways, that is how it feels to be Jewish today.

These are the videos I posted this year:

If Lin-Manuel Miranda Wrote a Hanukah Musical - Jared B. Goldsmith

A 'Wicked' Hannukah - Six13  (and the Maccabeats' one seems even more applicable this year)

I'm Spending Chanukah in Santa Monica - Tom Lehrer (because it's Tuesday) performed by Honest 2 Betsy and Ravi Round the World

Puppy for Hannukah - Daveed Diggs

Happy Hanukkah - Matisyahu (it's a live session so the audio isn't great)

Dancing with the Stars' special dance, the first time they have celebrated Hanukah, plus Celebrating Channukah on the International Space Station

Burn - the Maccabeats, one of my favourite Chanukah videos

On the eighth day, two with 'eight' in the name, Ocho Kandelikas (in Ladino) and Eight Nights, One Heart

Again this year I bought the ChemKnits Creations Channukah box for myself:

Some days came with stitch markers or a little light.  On the bottom photo, it is Day 1 on the far right and across to Day 8 on the far left, plus the bonus skein at the top.  This way each of the miniskeins is 10gm and the extra is 20gm to give a total of 100gms in fingering or DK weight.  My favourites this year are Day 7 (sadly, sold out) followed by Day 5 and the bonus skein.  Now to figure out what to make.

Eighty-Seven Years Ago

On November 9-10, 1938, Kristallnacht or "The Night of Broken Glass".  As one commemoration today said:

Kristallnacht marked a turning point in Nazi Germany -- the moment when years of escalating antisemitic legislation burst into open, coordinated violence carried out by Nazi stormtroopers (Sturmabteilung), SS forces, Hitler Youth, and civilians. On those two days in November 1938, close to 100 Jews were murdered, and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

It is one of many things we must never forget.  In that memory, tonight many homes are leaving a light burning all night, as a reminder and a signal of sanctuary across the decades.

Habemus Papam.

Not just a new Pope, but one from Chicago, so the city and memes have been going nuts.

We know he is a baseball fan:

He's the result of a marriage of a Cubs fan and Cardinals fan.

There is some speculation:

We're pretty sure he's a Bears fan, which might lead to updates of the Popemobile and regalia:

  

And of course, he knows which team doesn't have a prayer:

  

Of course, entering to a classic song is mandatory.  And I found it fun that his name wasn't high on the lists of likely chosen held by the major betting houses.

Some people have made the observation that:

It will now be a mortal sin to put catsup (or ketchup, or however you spell it) on a hot dog.

In addition to a pizza joint updating their offerings, other well-known Chicago food vendors have posted, both proudly:

 .....and cheekily:

May he live to the age of Abraham, or at least Moses.

The traditional eight.

This year, in addition to posting a Channukah song every evening, I posted a Channukah image to my social media feed.  In addition to the two I posted earlier, I used these:

A reminder that there are still October 7th hostages.

This is my absolute favourite.

This year's songs were:

• Tom Lehrer's "I'm Spending Hannukah in Santa Monica"
• The Maccabeats' Wicked tribute, "Defying Gravity (We'll Rise Above)"
• Six13's Taylor Swift tribute from last year, "Era-lution of Taylor Swift"
• And their tribute to Wicked this year, "A Wicked Chanukah"
• A new-to-me band from Ukraine doing Woody Guthrie's "Honeyky Hanuka"
• Y-Studs didn't follow the "Wicked" pattern, but went with The Jacksons
• A new one that I wasn't sure I'd like, but did at the end:  "Tomorrow"
• Finishing with a favourite of mine, "Burn" by The Maccabeats

Plus a bonus video about those gifts given over the Twelve Days of Christmas.

This year my daily Channukah treat was a gold-foil-wrapped sugarplum from Andy's Orchard.  I haunted their website until orders were available, and snatched up goodies (including some other dried fruits, and dark chocolate-dipped apricots for my parents) before they sold out.

In between.

Today in the Jewish calendar is Shabbat Shuvah, also known as "the Sabbath of return", also reminding us that we are in the midst of the season of repentance.

It is a time of introspection, and reflection, and asking and giving forgiveness for known and unknown faults and trespasses.  Many people use it as a reset, to begin some new practice or way of living.

I saw an imagine, that I cannot now find, which said

Many pay attention to how they

live between

Rosh Hashonnah and Yom Kippur,

when they should pay attention

to how they live between

Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashonna.

That is something important to think about.  I try to live well and considerately and appropriately all year, but it's not easy and I know I fail.  Instead of wallowing in the failure, I try to learn, and do better.  After all, we cannot change the past, but we have the power to change the future.

The other Mother's Day.

We had the week-late Mother's Day today, with Thai food and a surprise arrival by the younger granddaughter, driving from her new home in DC (closed on the condo midweek) back to Charlotte to finish packing up and bidding her roommates and their dogs good-bye.

It was a fun afternoon with cupcakes and ice-cream to end the meal, and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, and no sugar almond cookies, and stories of the girls as younglings, and my brother and I as wee ones, and fresh eggs from my brother and sister-in-law's chickens.

Different chickens lay different colours and shapes.
The blue one is more intense in reality.

Work was busy, and I restarted the test sweater, and I managed to register for DFW Fiber Fest 2024.  For a few timeslots I had to make a decision about the class to take - which isn't easy!  I checked shows and there aren't ones at most of the theatres I usually visit, so I may have quiet evenings, or I may visit friends.  Geopolitically it's been a tough week.  And I learned that our beloved, retired cantor died in March, and I'm upset at missing the original notice.

Eight nights of light and music.

Technically the first night wasn't, because I was in a hotel and couldn't light candles.  But every other night - three at friends' house and four in my own - I lit the hannukiah, said the incantation, and prayed.

My friends are Russian Orthodox and heard of Channukah, of course, but didn't know much about it.  They were interested in the process of setting and lighting the candles, and happy with the pieces of gelt (chocolate money) and gummy candy I brought for them.  I explained the dreidel game, but we didn't play - too busy going to plays and visiting.

It has been a rough Hanukah for many Jews this year, with the attacks by Hamas on October 7th and then the attacks by much of the world as Israel retaliated and defended itself.  So much of the world has been outspoken against Israel, and even supporting Hamas in its declaration to wipe Israel and all Jews off the face of the earth: Nazis of the 21st Century.  It is scary and disheartening.

Like many Jews, I became more open in who I am.  I wore my "Channukah Makes Me Jump For Oy!" sweatshirt last weekend, while at plays and otherwise.  I've been posting the Jewish side of things on Facebook and responding to some friends who are blindly supporting the Palestinians as if they are the only indigenous persons in the region, overlooking the fact that "Palestine" is a name imposed on the area by colonizers, first the Romans and later the British Mandate.  If you look at the historical record, the area was called by other names, which is part of the reason it wasn't chosen for the new country that became Israel.  As Golda Meir pointed out, until 1948 anybody of any religion - Jewish, Muslim, or Christian - who lived in that area carried a Palestinian passport.

Every night, I've posted at least one song.  This year's list:

Night 1:  Rise Up

Night 2:  A Star Wars Channukah because a cousin posted this picture to me:

Night 3:  Burn

Night 4:  Several songs based upon Taylor Swift's oeuvre:  Era-lution of Taylor Swift, the full version of the last song on that compilation - Chanukah ("Shake It Off"), and You Can Light With Me.

Night 5:  Shine  (and by great coincidence, since the video shows people being swabbed to go into a bone marrow donor database, the next day I received notice that "[o]n Sep 30, 2014 you helped facilitate a donor drive in Chicago at <location>. We are thrilled to inform you that a donor recruited at that drive has transplanted a 61 year old man battling Myelodysplastic Disorder."  Yes, I have also been swabbed and am in the database.  It's the second time I've received a notice that somebody found a lifesaving match thanks to the donor drive we held.)

Night 6:  Elton Johnukah and Candles On The Sill

Night 7:  West Side Chanukah Story

Night 8:  From the recent March for Israel, a version of Am Israel Chai ("The People Of Israel Live" or "We're Still Here") - so necessary in the last two-plus months.  And the future.

This year, Hannukah has so much more resonance for the Jewish people.  And I have so much I want to say, but it all gets choked together and I cannot type clearly.  Maybe in another post.

There and There and Back Again.

I made it to DFW Fiber Fest last Sunday, and delivered all my donations, plus a donations form with photos of all the items (the ones left previously and the ones that I carried) on the back.  The volunteer who accepted my bag grinned hugely when he saw it, as it makes their work very much easier!  I had time on Saturday while traveling, and in the evening, to make two more blanket pieces out of scraps:

Yes, the one on the left looks a bit wonky, but it measured evenly.

The class I took was on Dragon Boat Decorations and I am fascinated and we all started making many with different designs and colours and I think if they'd let us we would have been there until the event closed.  Mine are the three in the lower lefthand corner:

I finished with a volunteer shift for closing, packing away yarnbombing items and helping vendors pack and move out of the vendor hall.

Then I flew out to San Diego and spent three days at a conference, which was small but meant for learning and networking:

Back to Dallas, since it's very difficult to get flights across the country unless you live in New York or Washington, DC, and then home the next day.  While at the conference and traveling to Dallas I knit a hat, and then I made another one:

In a sense I knit three hats, because the one on the left came out too tight on the first go, so I knit it again with an additional repeat's worth of stitches, and this is a better size.  Both are destined for sale in a holiday crafts show in November, and if they don't sell they are going to charity.

I've read two books, one finishing "The Time Machine" which was an assignment in my class on the origins of science fiction, and the other "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" which was written for young adults but I found it very interesting.  When I recorded them I saw my last books read were finished in June, so it's been a gap of time when I didn't have the mojo, it seems.  I did reading but mostly magazines, and also books on cybersecurity and the like while I participated in a drafting workshop related to the CISSP exam.

I got home just ahead of Tropical Storm/Cyclone Ophelia, which gave us a very windy and wet Friday evening and most of Saturday.  She departed just in time for my parents and me to go to the season opener for the North Carolina Symphony, which was just marvellous.

Now it's almost time for Yom Kippur, the most solemn of Jewish observances, a day of reflection and repentance.  In addition to the thoughts at the top of this post, I wish to share the following, which my best friend shared to me.  The Vidui is a recital we make several times in the next 24 hours, and the one used in services is an acknowledgement of failings, both individually and collectively.  This one is the other side, an acknowledgement of accomplishments, and a reminder of what to continute to do:

To all who observe, may you have an easy fast and be written for a healthy and happy 5784.

Tying them together, and wonders

Friday was the second one of the month, and thus we had another lay-led service.  My friend Mark led it and asked me to give the drash or discussion of the parasha of the week.  It is Ki Tisa, mostly known for the story of the golden calf.  As with all sections, it contains much more, and this is that I said:

Source:  https://www.judaicawebstore.com/olive-wood-desk-ornament-ten-commandments-hebrew-english-

When we last met, it was for Yitro, full of events of which the main one people remember is standing at the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive the ten rules or commandments.  This echoes in today’s portion, Ki Tisa, when Moses goes up the mountain – twice – to receive the written version of the Pact with G-d.

G-d says to Moses, in 19:5, “Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My convent, you shall be My treasured possession among all the people.”  This is the essential bargain that G-d makes with the Israelites: Follow the rules I give to you, and you will be my treasure; I will make of you “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”  (19:6)

In the weeks since then we have read Mishpatim, wherein we receive additional rules about how to conduct ourselves and our community; Trumah, wherein G-d asks for the gifts that will be used to build the Ark wherein the written version of the Pact will be stored; and T’tzaveh, more rules about how to prepare for worship, including the vestments of the priests and how to perform sacrifices.

All of this happens since the end of Yitro, when the people were afraid and asked Moses to be their intermediary and speak to G-d for them, in 20:15-18.  Moses agrees and goes up the mountain to have the discussion, and learn details about the Pact.

So for all this time, Moses has been in the “thick cloud where G-d was” and the people do not see him.  It goes on for four weeks of our time, although it’s not clear how long it takes to the Israelites, although clearly it’s also a long time for them.  We know what happens: based upon their experiences in Egypt, they take some of the items that G-d wanted them to use for the Ark, their gold jewelry, and make a statue in the shape of a calf – familiar from some of the animistic gods of Egypt* – and perform worship acts to it, even though they were told in 20:45:  “You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth.  You shall not bow down to them or serve them.”

So we finally get to this week’s portion, which is much longer than Yitro although just as eventful, and halfway through in 31:18, we learn that “Upon finishing speaking with him on Mt. Sinai, [G-d] gave Moses the two tablets of the Pact, stone tablets inscribed with the finger of G-d.”  These will go into the Ark that we learned about two weeks ago.

In effect, we’re at the end of a long, long meeting between G-d and Moses and they finally realize what everybody else has been doing for all this time.  As we know, G-d is angry and wants to destroy the people; Moses talks Him out of it and takes the tablets down the mountain.  Then Moses sees what the people are doing, which is contrary to what they were told, and which is against the first item on the tablets he holds.  So Moses breaks the tablets, and we know the rest of the scene.  He asks G-d to destroy the people, and since Moses wouldn’t let him do it a few paragraphs ago, G-d won’t do it now.  There is retribution and punishment, but not complete destruction of the people.  Then there is a reconciliation, and Moses carves new tablets, goes back up the mountain, and G-d tells him how to inscribe the new tablets.

He also gives Moses some additional rules for the people, including – very specifically – “You shall not make molten gods for yourselves” in 34:17.  He also describes festivals, possibly to let the people know how they should be celebrating, so they don’t feel they have to again imitate the religion of Egypt or others they see which have celebratory events.

Moses is up there another forty days and nights doing all this, and this time the people waited for him, and when he comes down “the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with G-d.”  [34:29]  Any time that Moses speaks to G-d after this, his face will again be radiant, as a sign to the people that these discussions really are happening, and the words that Moses speaks are divine ones.

Some people say that this radiance is the first of the “wonders [such] as have not been wrought on all the earth or in any nation” [34:10], although many of the wonders described are taking over the lands of others as long as the people “tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred posts” – specific instructions in 34:13 to prevent idol-worship such as occurred earlier in this parasha.  I think differently.  The first wonder is that the people are not overall destroyed – we don’t have a repeat of the flood, or the destruction of Sodom.  Some people are sickened by a plague, but others survive to continue forward.  Moses asked in 34:8 that G-d “Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!”  After giving the additional instructions about how to worship, and cooking, and so on, G-d orders Moses to “Write down these commandments, for in accordance with these commandments I make a covenant with you and with Israel.”  [34:27]

That is what I think is the real wonder: the forgiveness.  The second chance.  Or, if you keep reading through all the destructions, and the exceptions, the nth chance.  This is the real wonder of our G-d: Not the endless destructions, but that we have a chance to learn, and to get another chance to follow the Pact, or renew our dedication to the covenant, and to serve G-d to the best of our ability.  We may find yet more rules to follow as we do so, which makes it more difficult to continue.  After all, according to the rabbis there are 613 rules to follow, which is a lot, especially since some conflict with others.  Yet if we do our best, avoid worshipping graven images, honor our parents, and otherwise follow the rules of the Pact and of comportment, we too will be closer to G-d, and may receive some of the divine radiance ourselves.

* There are also discussions that it is based upon a god of Cannaan, which means it is not just a disregard of the Second Commandment, but directly the cause of the directive to destroy physical manifestations of the local religions, to avoid being absorbed by them.

As before, the above is not exactly what I said; I opened with a comment tying it to one of the readings Mark chose for earlier in the service, and there was some extemporaneous revision as I read the comments.  A few of those I have edited into the above.

When I attended Torah Study the next day, somebody raised the question of "why a calf" and I've now gone down that rabbit hole of research, adding the footnote to my d'var Torah above.  Our rabbi promised to do some research also.  I will be interested to see where our efforts intersect.

Again, I spoke.

It was a busy weekend, beginning with the end of a busy week and the Lay-Led service.  On Saturday I had a lot of errands and a theater company board meeting.  Many of the errands involved delivering treats to friends and baked goods to BiCi Co.  I wanted to get rid of some packaged items, so made fancy cupcakes for the holiday:

Clearly my decorating skills need a LOT of practice.

I also tried baking a recipe from a video I watched.  I think the biggest problem is that there isn't enough leavening.  The baker said she did a version off-camera with the "emptins", or liquid yeast, and it didn't do much.  Same as I found when I baked, making a quarter of the recipt:

   

Before baking on the left, after (the bottom) on the right.  No raisins, just seeds, as the raisins I have are fairly large and I didn't want to chop them.  It was fairly solid, not completely a brick, but tasty.

And of course I baked challah for the service.  Everybody seems to like the snack and this week several took an extra piece for later.  I tried a fancy braid as I did last month, but the dough was not cooperative so I reverted to a very simple three-strand braid, which resulted in a very long loaf:

   

On the left, before baking, with the sample roll.  The roll was done and eaten by the time the loaf came out.  I didn't glaze the loaf this time due to lack of milk and not wanting to deal with a partial egg.

I finished the weekend watching the Super Bowl, with just a few snacks.  Having friends and colleagues supporting both teams, I declared myself for Team Guacamole then forgot to pick up an avocado or any packaged stuff so didn't have the iconic snack.  But I did have another iconic snack, this from Chicago:

I also had a sausage for my main course, during the second half.

A friend offered to lead the services this month and next, as long as I do the drash or d'var Torah - the sermon.  This week it's a tough one because while Yitro is short, it is full of elements including two of the key items in Jewish belief.  Because it was a busy work week, and even my evenings were busy with things, I didn't have the time I wanted to take to think about what to say and I felt my drash was unfinished when I gave it.  There was some revising on the fly, and this is the result:

Yitro is a fairly short parasha but it is full of events.  Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, brings Moses’ wife and children to him, and they have a reunion, including a big dinner with Aaron and other leaders.  Jethro talks to Moses about creating the court system for settling disputes, distributing the responsibility to others to help judge while keeping the communications from and to G-d for himself.

There are the two main elements of this parasha that people usually focus on: the story of how the people gather at Mt. Sinai, how they prepare for the event, and how they are given the first instructions and the promise to be the chosen people.  For many people, standing at Sinai is the key part of this parasha.  We refer to it frequently in our services and our traditions.  “We were all at Sinai” is something you hear regularly in worship and blessings at events.

The other key point is the giving of the ten rules.  G-d says to Moses, in 19:5, “Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My convent, you shall be My treasured possession among all the people.”  This is the essential bargain that G-d makes with the Israelites: Follow the rules I give to you, and I will make of you “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”  (19:6)  Instead of being slaves and on the lowest rung, as they were a few weeks ago, the Israelites will be the most revered category of persons.

But can all the people really be priests, or is it just Aaron and his Clan?  Or, as suggested in the opening scenes when he speaks of taking G-d’s words to the people and their prayers and questions to G-d, it is just Moses?

When Jethro asked Moses what he is doing, sitting there with people coming to him all day and night, Moses said (18:15-16) “It is because the people come to me to inquire of G-d.  When they have a dispute it comes before me, and I decide between one party and another, and I make known the laws and teachings of G-d.”  While Jethro helps Moses find a way to distribute responsibility for the middle one, by creating a series of courts and sharing the responsibility to make decisions and resolve disputes, for the other two, however, there is no distribution by Moses.  He continues to be the only one who speaks to G-d and who informs the Israelites about G-d’s laws and teachings.

I posit that this changes at Mt. Sinai.  All of the people prepare, not just the priests, and all gather at the foot of the mountain.  The people see the power and majesty of G-d in “the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking.” (20:15)    They are afraid, though, and ask Moses if he will “speak to us, and we will obey; but let not G-d speak to us, lest we die.”  Moses reassures him but the people hang back while he does to explain things to G-d.  The people are afraid of direct communication, and it is as though the noise of the horns and thunder prevent them from hearing G-d.  They continue to need an intermediary – Moses – to communicate.

It is for G-d to change this.  In the last few lines of this parasha, G-d seems to take worship from the hands of Moses and the priests, and hand it to the individuals.  G-d tells Moses to instruct the people how to worship, and specifically says in 20:21 that “in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you.”  This makes it clear that the Israelites can pray anywhere.  They are instructed how to make an altar, and that the altar can be different types.  This means that each of us can enter into a direct relationship with G-d, by making our own offerings.  We no longer have a single source of messages from G-d, or one person who can take our prayers to G-d.  Just as Moses distributed the responsibility to adjudicate disputes to others, here G-d distributed the ability to communicate to the community, to each individual standing there.

In the centuries since, we have come to recognize that we don’t need to meet in a single large group for worship, we can meet in smaller groups.  We can each have our own relationship with G-d.  We have a space for our own prayers, directly to G-d, in our services, and instead of thunder and the bleating of horns we recognize “the still small voice within”.

Just as we believe we each stood at Mt. Sinai to hear the words of G-d, so do we believe that we each may continue to hear those words for ourselves.  We don’t need priests to interpret or intervene: as the men of the tribes began to interpret the laws and settle disputes for themselves, so do we individuals have the power to enact our own contract, our own covenant, to follow the terms offered by G-d.

What Names Can Mean

Last night was the monthly lay-led service, and once again I was asked to give the d'var Torah.  I also baked a loaf of bread for us to share at the end:

Yeasted pumpkin bread made with roasted butternut squash and a milk glaze.

Trying to come up with something to say, my focus was captured by the title of this week's passage, which is also the way Jews refer to the book of Exodus - by its Hebrew name "Sh'mot", not the Greek word which attached to it much later, as Christians and others translated and adapted the Pentateuch.  This is what I said, with a few changes on the fly that may not be captured here:

We know that parashot are called by their (usually) first word.  This week’s parasha is Sh’mot – the word means “Names”.  It starts by listing the names of Joseph’s brothers who traveled to Egypt.  It gives other names as well, including – as Rabbi Fuchs is fond of listing – those of the many women without whom Moses would not have survived, from Shiprah and Puah, the midwives, to his sister Miriam, his wife Zipporah, and so on.  You can read and hear many d’var Torahs about “The Amazing Women of Exodus” including on the Reform Judaism website and Rabbi Fuchs’ blog.

We know that in the Torah, if somebody has a name, it is because they are important.  There is something significant about that person.  Persons without names are not important for who they are, but for what they do, as when Pharaoh’s daughter saves Moses from the river, or when Pharaoh himself responds to Moses and Aaron by making life harder for the Israelite slaves.

G-d asked Adam to give the animals names, and in other places it is G-d who gives people new names at key points in their lives: Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel.  Sometimes we hear that a name has an especial meaning, as when in this parasha Moses names his son Gershom, “for, he said, ‘I have been a stranger in a foreign land.’” (Exodus 1:22)   And G-d also takes a name in this week’s parasha; at 3:15 we read:

And G-d said further to Moses, “This shall you speak to the Israelites: The Eternal, the God of your ancestors – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you:

This shall be My name forever,

This My appellation for all eternity.

The writers of the Torah are not the only persons who focus on names.  William Shakespeare’s famous lines include “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” from Romeo and Juliet in addition to her lament “wherefor are thou Romeo?”, which modern people think means “where are you?” because she cannot see him under balcony.  However, in the language of Shakespeare’s time Juliet is complaining because his name makes him unsuitable as a lover – if he were not Romeo, and a Montague, her family would approve.

Royalty often take a regnant name, different from the one by which they were previously known.  The House of Windsor had been the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until the first World War made a German name unpopular.  Performers often change their names, either by choice or by requirement; in the registry of actors, if somebody already uses a name the next person has to use something else, which is why there are initials and people known by their middle name.  Truck drivers have handles, and so do people on social media.  Westley became the Dread Pirate Roberts, and later offers the name to Inigo Montoya, whose well-known introduction has become a classic example used and meme’d by thousands.

Names can tell something about you: where you are from, who your parents are, your religion, your culture, what or who was in the news when you were born.  You may have a familynickname, a social nickname, a work name.  Some cultures believe your one true name has so much power that nobody can know what it is, and people use different names in different situations which conceal it.  Some people change their name as a way of marking a passage: marriage, divorce, professional achievement.  Children going to college often choose a new nickname or other appellation, to memorialize their stepping out of childhood and the family into their adult being.

Some names are evocative; say them and an image, a personality, instantly spring to mind.  Maybe you have an impression of the person and what she or he did in their lives.  Think of Hartford’s Katherine Hepburn and you get an impression of a tall, thin, independent woman, with a certain vocal tone and mannerisms.  Mark Twain – a pseudonym used by Hartford’s Samuel Clemens – may bring up a man in a white suit, or a mischievous boy talking others into painting a fence.

Think also of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate on Monday, and in whose name a national Day of Service was instituted.  What do you think of when you hear Dr. King’s name?  Many white people in the places he walked thought and referred to him negatively (I won’t use the words they called him and others in the civil rights movement).  Black people – who were called “Negro” at the time, another example of a name and how it changes over time – thought him a leader, savior, a beacon for persons who sought and fought to overcome discrimination based upon prejudice, much as many of us in this room likely do.  Maybe you think of a loving husband to his wife Coretta – this is the image that inspired a new sculpture on the Boston Common, which shows their hands and arms in an embrace, “a representation of vulnerability and security” according to the executive director of the group that oversaw its creation and installation this week.

When you hear the name of Dr. King, or of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, whose birthday was earlier this week and who walked beside Dr.King and other Civil Rights leaders in many marches, what do you think?  Do you want to step up to their example and try to change the world?  Do you want to help people in your community?

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel presenting the Judaism and World Peace Award
to Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Dec. 7, 1965 (Wikimedia Commons)

Think of the future, when you will be but a name in people’s memories, and remember Iago’s remonstration in Shakespeare’s Othello that “Who steals my purse steals trash / 'tis something, nothing / 'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands / But he that filches from me my good name / Robs me of that which not enriches him / And makes me poor indeed”.  How will you want them to remember you?  Do you want to be but a type, somebody who took action, nameless otherwise?  Or do you hope that somebody will hear your name, and like the others, a face, a voice, an example spring to mind for others to follow?

Your name can be your legacy.  How will you be remembered?

{NB:  I deleted the information about our community Day of Service on the following Sunday, as that is irrelevant to most of my readers and will be out of date soon after this posts.}