09/03/08 Jerusalem yeshiva shooting tragedy

"Wrapped in white cloth"

An article in the UK Guardian newspaper noted that the bodies were "wrapped in white cloth". I found this apparently simple error telling. Had the journalist realised that they were in fact wrapped in the prayer shawls - as in all Jewish male burials - that had been a daily part of their lives they might have had a different perspective.

In a similar way they also were not buried with "books", but the blood-stained books and scrolls that they had dedicated part of their lives to studying. The books Jews believe contain God's blueprint for a just and compassionate society.

These young people would no doubt have gone on to teach others the ways of decency and compassion throughout their lives. Now not to be. May they rest in peace.

I received by email a photo from Zaka - the saintly people who go in after these events to clean up the mess. Zaka arrived at the yeshiva even while the shooting was going on. They had to duck the bullets until it was safe to go in. It was a photo you could not forget. It was taken in the library. The walls were lined with holy books, the floor was covered in blood. It could even be the blood of the misguided gunman as well as his victims. The Zaka volunteer was in this mess, on his hands and knees.

We all learn, we all suffer, it is truly noble to stand by one's people.

A Lubavitcher chassid I know who I consider to be an angel spoke at a public channukah lighting which happened to be after a similar tragedy. I only remember his opening words, but I always will:

"The Jewish response to dark events is to do more mitzvahs, to bring more light into the world" he said.

Tzedaka - healing the world - for the world (30/12/07)

A simple way to describe tzedaka is 'giving to charity'. That's not a very accurate way to describe it. but it gives people a general idea.

Tzedaka is a concept in Jewish teaching. It's also a vital part of a Jewish life, in that anyone who wants to keep a truly Jewish life must include the giving of tzedaka in it. It's nearest neighbour is certainly 'charity', but tzedaka is so much more, and in some ways less too. There is one important difference between the concepts of tzedaka and charity, and that is obligation. A Jew is obligated to give tzedaka whether he (or she) likes it or not. We are obligated to help our fellow Jew and our fellow human being in their difficulties.

The idea of obligation is important, because it implies that we are not doing someone a favour when we hand over a part of our income. We are doing it because we are all responsible for one another. We are also, in biblical teaching, all created in the image of God, meaning the spiritual image rather than the physical image. Clearly we don't look anything like God at all!, and in Jewish teaching God has no physical form. Only we humans have a physical form 'borrowed' so we can live out our incarnation on Earth.

Tzedaka is justice.

Because we are all humans created in the image of God we are all embued with a certain amount of holiness (kedusha). Clearly some of us have more kedusha than others, implying that we have a soul which develops from lifetime to lifetime. Often those with a lot of kedusha give a lot of tzedaka!

One should try to give up to ten per cent of one's net income as tzedakah, but in any case tzedakah should be given regularly, preferably daily. The philosopher and great teacher Maimonedes of the thirteenth century developed a teaching of eight levels of tzedakah, which is widely respected to this day.

At the lowest level one gives but does so begrudgingly. Better than this is to give willingly, but not as much as one should. On the next 'rung' one gives, but only when asked by a poor person. Level four is described as giving directly to the poor without having been asked. However, the donor and recipient know each other's identity. Better than this is that the donor does not know who the recipient is, but the person who receives still knows who the donor is, and better still is that the giver knows who the recipient is, but the recipient does not know who give the tzedaka.
The seventh level is to give anonymously to a fund, which then distributes the money.

The highest level is to create a situation which helps the poor or needy person out of their situation. It is interesting that in recent years major charities such as Oxfam have begun to work towards this ideal.

Let us all work towards healing the world by giving tzedaka. There is no shortage of people who need it, and one should have no trouble finding a organisation to give it through.

Borat, Jerusalem, gay pride

Sat. night, went to see Borat
Saturday night decided to go and see what all the 'Borat' fuss was about. Some of our friends warned us not to go, others went themselves and had a great time.

Verdict: Definitely funny, but I wasn't falling off my seat. The scene at the rodeo, where he led his supposedly redneck audience into cheering his increasingly proposterous announcements, was one of the really funny bits. That, and the naked wrestling throughout the hotel. Actually, most of it was pretty funny and definitely silly.

Somehow Mr Baron-Cohen managed to portray the worse side of the USA in his film. Deliberate? Or just humour?

Jerusalem, Gay Pride, Tolerance
This caused quite a lively debate in our household. Should 'gay' people have to hide the way they are? Of course not! But why do they have to parade it like that, in the face of others who deeply believe homosexuality, or at least practising homosexuality, is wrong?

Why shouldn't they? After all, statistics tell us many Orthodox Jews must themselves be gay, and their problems are compounded by the strict prohibitions against homosexual acts in the Torah. Why should they be bound by other people's morality?

But why shouldn't the Charedim show their outrage too? After all, they and their ancestors didn't come to Israel to have their beliefs parodied in front of their faces, in the holiest city of all. And so on.

While meditating on these passionate yet opposing points of view I began to see something else still. I began to realise, it's not even about gays, straights and the ultra-Orthodox. It's about secular Jews and religious Jews.

But more than that, it's about secular and religious Jews trying to drown each other out, each one fighting for a bit more ground, each denying the legitimacy of the other. It's about intolerance rather than accomodation, and that causes hurt and conflict.

The issue here is not sexuality, or whether we should all be frum, it's tolerance. It's about living together, indeed as brother and sister. The moment we use force to try and suppress 'the other', we call into being an equal and opposite force. Neither side wins. It is as if the other is another side of ourselves, the other side of the same coin. Mothers die, children become orphans, more senseless suffering, no one wins.

Melanie Phillips: This cowardly Jewish leadership
Jewish Chronicle, 8 September 2006

... and she's right.

Anyone going to say anything? Probably not.

Either Melanie Phillips is right and a lot of other people are wrong, or Melanie is wrong and the others right.

I happen to be firmly in the former camp. If anyone has the right to call Britain's Jewish leadership a bunch of cowards, it is Melanie Phillips, because - standing alone on many occasions - she herself is anything but cowardly.

Melanie is always among the first to defend our people against baseless verbal and physical attack, on this occasion she is criticising the palpable silence among Jewish leaders during the recent Lebanon crisis, while the public debate seemed so often to centre around Israel's "disproportionate" reaction to the unprovoked attacks on both military and civilians by Hisbollah guerrillas.

But who are our leaders? Are we talking about the charity bosses, UJIA and so on, the religious leaders (who waste no time putting wrongs to right when it come to attacking other Jews), the Chief Rabbi, or who? That strange Victorian body, the Board of Deputies?

Certainly one hears quite regularly from Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs in defence of Jews and Israel. And I have certainly heard the Board of Deputies pop their head above the pulpit from time to time. But on this occasion, and in general, I have to say she is right. Prominent British Jews do very much tend to keep their heads down, presumably hoping things will "blow over".

Is this right? No. Is this a desertion of their moral duty to make proper use of their privileged position to defend us? Yes it is.

Melanie highlights parallels between the behaviour of communal leaders now and in the 1930's, when we were faced with the rise of Nazism in Germany. She is right, not much difference.

With a growing torrent of lies and distortions we, the very People of the Book, had better stand up and be counted. If we don't start to defend ourselves, to correct these distortions, we can hardly be surprised if they take root and vicious lies, distortions, negative images and cruel stereotypes about Jews and Israel become the norm.

Guardian Watch 9 September 2006

Article: A Policy of Punishment
Author: Ismail Haniyeh
Extracts: "Israeli war crimes ..."; "at the heart of our region's problems is the Israeli occupation"

The mere fact that the Guardian published this says a lot. There is no question Haniyeh is the democratically elected leader of the Palestinians. But is he not also the figurehead of an organisation that has sent countless impressionable young men (and the odd woman) to blow themselves up while killing and maiming as many innocent bystanders as possible?

I can't help feeling the Guardian has generously given a platform to this enemy of peace who the rest of the democratic world has refused to support, to put it mildly.

Guardian Watch 31/08/06
George Galloway: "Resistance" my ***! When are you going to grow up?

Article: "Hizbullah's victory has transformed the Middle East" by George Galloway

Extracts: ..."resistance movement", "a settler garrison of the imperial west"

The Guardian has managed to find 2/3 page - including a colour picture - to devote to the rantings of George Galloway, that defender of democracy and friend to freedom fighters world-wide.

George, as readers will remember, won the Bethnal Green seat at the last general election, by using the classic populist tactic of installing himself in a deprived area of London and exploiting "the people's" anger and (to use a politically-correct term) alienation. Yup, wherever anger lurks, George is not far behind to sympathize with the Proletariat and picking up a few votes along the way.

Friend of non-governmental armed groups everywhere, George willingly embraced Hizbollah's description of itself as a "resistence movement". What is it resisting? Israel's occupation of Lebanon? No, Israel left years ago, until the recent provocation by Hizbollah. Resisting what, then? Israel's existence full-stop? I couldn't possibly comment, you decide.

He then goes on to mention the "Iraqi resistance" (presumably some very angry men "resisting" the idea of peace in Iraq), and glories in the puncturing of the "myth of invincibility" of the Israeli armed forces. Then on to Israel's war crimes.

I suppose the daily firing of rockets straight into Israeli cities is another form of "resistence" against Israeli citizens existing, as opposed to what Israel does, which is "war crimes".

After a quick return to the devastation Israel has rained upon Lebanon, George gets straight into a none-too-subtle comparison of Israel with Apartheid South Africa. How many black South African MPs were there during Apartheid, George?

Peacemaker George then sums up the outcome of a likely peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, paying lip service to the notion of Arab acceptance of Israel, ignoring the lack of it that has kept this conflict alive for so long, then another dig at Israel as "a settler garrison of the imperial west".

Then we have the "Palestinian resistance" - which I always thought was just a grinding, ceaseless violence preventing any chance of a negotiated settlement. "The Israeli leaders' intransigence" will bring down the State of Israel "on their heads". (Because the Palestinians have been urging them to stop this pointless violence?)

"There is still time to choose peace" says peacenik George. Yes, George, I pray you are right. And finally we are mercifully released from this one-sided diatribe with a dire warning of terrible things to come.

Freedom fighters, the Resistance, Israel's single-handed devotion to an ongoing state of war? When are you going to grow up George? Isn't all this just a modern version of the Proletariat versus the Aristrocracy? So naive.

Armed guerilla groups don't need your sympathy. They have no power to resolve anything, only to cause more discord and stir up more hatred. The "resistance" you so love isn't going anywhere. Only a genuine desire for peace among two parties will get there. We haven't found the other party yet, we're still waiting.

Guardian Watch 28/08/06
Article: "Meet The Anti-Germans" by Luke Harding
Extract: ..."as well as politicians in suits, another group had turned up to express their enthusiasm for Israel's attack on Lebanon"
Comments: A good article to start with. This comment demonstrates the Guardian's insidious way of publishing opinion masquerading as fact. The implication is clear: Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Lebanon. The reality: Israel acted to try and remove the threat from Hisbollah, an organisation outlawed by the UN Security Council, which had been provoking Israel with rocket attacks on its civilians for years.

NATFHE Israel boycott - nat fhery fair?

Zenjewish say:

Why the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) conference pick on Israel when they boycott academics? This fair? I mean, Israel just one little country among many. Surely these highly intelligent people not picking one country at random for boycott?

I mean, Israel full of Jews, this just coincidence?

Oh, I know, next week they boycott Chinese academics because China very repressive place, almost the most repressive in world. I mean, the Tibetans would agree. They lose their whole country and culture to China. Temples destroyed, people in slave labour camps, you name. China government kill many people they no like their opinions. Or Tianneman square protesters - mental hospital for them. So, if I Chinese I have to tell the McCarthy committee I don't like what my government does or they boycott me too, no?

Then there also Burma academics - they imprison elected leader, Iran academics - sponsor terrorists, Japan academics - they fish the whales. All sorts academics we must ask what their views are.

I silly fool. I thought they just pick on Israel. That would be double standard. That be anti-semitic. These academics very clever people, surely not blind.

Bin Laden's Back!
It's great to see Bin back again after such a long break. I think the picture shows him looking a little spiritual, almost as though having a personal conversation with the Prophet himself.

The latest photo shows Bin with a curious expression - almost Mona Lisa-like. Is he smiling, or is it compassion we can see in his eyes? On the one hand he seems to be telling God that, yes, he still believes, yet on the other he could almost be losing his patience with God. The wannabee suicide bombers keep coming, yet the evil Western world somehow still exists, and is rather similar to how it's always been.

The hands - unusually - are not clutching an AK47 rifle, this is a departure for Bin, if indeed it is Bin Laden himself, and not a stand-in. I mean, is Bin Laden really alive? To be honest this could just as easily be my cousin from Muswell Hill, North London, or perhaps a Reform rabbi. But not an Orthodox rabbi, that would be going too far.

The background depicts solitude, peace and quiet even, and again marks a departure from the solemn-looking would-be martyrs with loaded rifles, uniforms and green headbands we are used to seeing. Maybe Bin is on holiday. Do revolutionaries have holidays? Do revolutionaries die? I'll have to work that one out another time.