Mark's Questions

Was there a "Jewish Book of the Dead"?

I understand that the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (in particular the Department of Jewish Family Concerns) is beginning to work on tools (programs, etc.) to help baby-boomers getting older.

I think, it's time to start thinking about how we die.

I'm convinced that there are texts buried in Psalms (perhaps elsewhere) that are "passage way" readings. What I mean by this is that they can be (perhaps were by our ancestors) used to help the dying individual approach the moment of death. I am aware of many books written in the past ten years for the survivors of death.

I want a text/book (or perhaps a text-book) that will help me (perhaps let's start with my 89 year old mother) approach and handle my own death.

I realized one evening after weeks of visiting a particular gentleman in the hospital that he was not going to get out of there vertical. I found I was able to comfort/calm him a bit by softly singing. Two Carlebach melodies came to mind. Two different Psalms: Esa Einai and Pitchu Li. Esa Einai made me feel like I (he) was going to get out, with some help.

Pitchu Li, which until then I had always sung very up-beat. But, that evening, soft and quiet, the words came out beseechingly. I had an "ah hah!" moment.

I've mentioned this idea to a number of people involved in Jewish "healing" who listen politely. I've mentioned it as a possible rabbinic thesis to rabbinic students who contact me at Nisus for tech support. Nobody's picked up on the idea.

Can we do a reading of Psalms that searches for "gates" looking for a way of interpreting these gates not as physical gates to a city, but spiritual passageways to another "realm"?

Which finger of the Yad points?

On a poster for the museum show The Precious Legacy; Judaic Treasures from the Czechoslovak State Collections you can see 15 "Yads."

Only one of these is left-handed (which does not surprise me). Of the remaining right-handed ones (made, primarily, of silver and wood with a little ivory and other materials) the hand is curled into a fist and the thumb points. Yet more odd, in another, the pointer is made of red coral (?) and the thumb (which serves as the pointer) is tucked under the index finger (as in the Signed English Alphabet "T").

Has anyone studied conventions for pointers? Does a database of them exist in any museum? If not, where would we begin to set one up?

Hillel, the Tai Chi Master

Two geeks with whom I work (both of whom used to be graduate students in linguistics: she's now a software engineer, he's a product manager (and the computergeek who enables my WWW site)) independently study Tai Chi in their spare time (they're single).

Now and then I see them standing in one another's office with one foot off the ground.

I asked them about this and they explained that this is the "basic" Tai Chi posture. You are to balance as though a rope holds you up through the center of your body.

I told them of Shammai, Hillel and the Ger and their faces lit up in appreciation.

Long ago I recall a comment by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (then only Schachter) to the effect that Shammai was a master of the Zen Koan.

Could Hillel have been a Tai Chi master?

The Jerusalem of...

What places have been called

"Little Jerusalem"

or

"The Jerusalem of..."

and based on what criteria?

Did the local population designate their place as such?

or

Did Jews from elsewhere identify the location in that manner?

What Does Reform Judaism Say about 'Ol Malchut Shamayim?

Emil G. Hirsch Jewish Reformer 1886/04/09 p. 9
"Modern scholarship has spoken and its voice cannot be hushed. It has shown that Moses is not the author of the Pentateuch; that Sinai is not the cradle of what is highest and best in Biblical Judaism... that the whole apparatus of priestly institutionalism is of non-Hebraic origin: the veritable "laws of the Gentiles." The Abrahamitic rite, the dietary and Levitical laws, sacrificial ritualism, the festal cycle and the like, are not indigenous to the Jewish soil."
Quoted in Michael Meyer, Response to Modernity a history of the Reform Movement in Judaism. Oxford University Press, 1988, p.273.

Meyer, Michael. Response to Modernity a history of the Reform Movement in Judaism. Oxford University Press, 1988, p.273.
"Kohler described the later tefilin (phylacteries) and mezuzah (biblical inscriptions on the doorpost) as : "talismans" whose origin was in primitive blood daubing and called the wearing of the Talit (prayer shawl) "fetishism." Such laws, spurned by Reform Jews in practice, seemed totally discredited by discovery of their parallels elsewhere in the ancient Near East." [CCARY, 2 (1892): 126-128; 17 (1907): 205-229; Kohler, Hebrew Union College and other Addresses (Cincinnati, 1916), 306.

Meyer, Michael. Response to Modernity a history of the Reform Movement in Judaism. Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 196-197
"Schorr did not negate rabbinic Judaism entirely. He acknowledged that the Talmud contained precious and venerable precepts that played an important role in the spiritual history of Judaism. Like other Reformers, his respect for it simply declined progressively as later Rabbis more and more lost the daring which had characterized their forebears. The Pharisees and early Tannaim had been willing to abrogate old laws and institute new ones in accordance with their particular situation. Legislating for their age alone, They had not sought to bind the hands of succeeding generations. But with the canonization of the Mishnah at the end of the second century and thereafter, rabbinism ceased to be a free process of adaptation and became the multiplication of onerous restrictions with little concern for contemporary circumstance. Instead of advancing religious development, rabbinism had increasingly held it back. Moreover, the Rabbis had misread the Bible. Their literalism, for example, had made them find tefilin (phylacteries) in the text of the Torah, preventing them from realizing that the commandment "Bind [God's precepts] as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead" (Deut. 6:8) had to be understood merely as a metaphor for remembering, not as mandating a particular ritual act."

Meyer, Michael. Response to Modernity a history of the Reform Movement in Judaism. Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 370
"In 1965 a special CCAR committee on rabbinical status confirmed the existence of a state of crisis long in the making. Predominantly it saw the crisis as one of waning rabbinical authority. Reform rabbis no longer felt they were effective leaders. Lacking the authority of revealed texts to which more traditional colleagues could appeal, they found that respect for their position and person did not prevent the encroachments of temple officers and boards. Lay leaders had begun to regard rabbis rate executives who were expected to perform in accordance with their desires and expectations."

Why do we break the *Middle* Matzah?

An eight year old asked me the other day why we break the middle Matzah for the Afikoman.

I searched in a dozen Haggadot and other sources, (including academic ones, e.g. Bokser's "Origins of the Seder") and I can find nothing. I am familiar with the interpretation of the three matzot as symbolic of the Cohanim, Leviim and Israel. I also know of an explanation for why we eat the smaller portion. But these tell me nothing about why we break the middle Matzah.

Does anyone know of an explanation and a source?

On April 29 2002, Dr. Josh Backon <backon@vms.huji.ac.il> wrote:

The opening scene in MR. SATURDAY NIGHT (about an ageing Jewish comedian trying to make a comeback) has many shots of authentic Jewish food. Some of the plot revolves around Jewish food !

What is "authentic" Jewish food?

I can think of:

Matzah

Challah
(only true challah (i.e. bread from which "Challah is taken"))

Charoset

Choelent

I learned from some Polish Catholics that Gefilete fish is an authentic Jewish food. A Polish cookbook has a recipe for "Fish the Jewish Way" which is Gefilte fish and is specifically eaten on Christmas!

What else? What determines that a particular food is "Jewish"?

A Starting Point

© Mark Hurvitz
Last modified Monday February 24, 2003.