In case you hadn't heard, according to talmudic astronomical calculations, once every 28 years, the sun is in the same allignment that it was at the time of creation, and this year is that year, and the moment will occur at sunrise on the day before Pesach begins. No one knows for sure what will happen this year, but it sounds like some crazy things have gone down in the past (Exodus, Purim) and now, thanks to thanks To Vera Schwatz, Professor at Wesleyan, we know of another story of this event from 112 years. This article is from the New York Times Archive, April 8th, 1897. The story details a large group of Jews gathering in Central Park (without a permit) to celebrate and bless the sun, and the police arresting the leadings rabbis because they were illegally assembling. The best Paragraph, in my opinion, reads as follows: The Celebration is rather a complicated matter to explain to anyone. Rabbi Klein's knowledge of English is slight, while [park officer] Foley's faculties of comprehension of matters outside of park and police regulations and local events are not acute. The attempt of a foreign citizen to explain to an American Irishman an astronomical situation and a tradition of the Talmud was a dismal failure.
On April 4, 1969, the first anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, the third night of Passover, hundreds of people of varied racial and religious communities gathered in a Black church in the heart of Washington DC to celebrate the original Freedom Seder. For the first time, it intertwined the ancient story of liberation from Pharaoh with the story of Black America's struggle for liberation, and the liberation of other peoples as well.
2 weeks from tomorrow evening will be the first night of Pesach and will mark the 40th anniversary of the Jews for Urban Justice and Arthur Waskow's "Freedom Seder" in Washington DC. If you want to learn more about this amazing and historical event, please learn more about it on the Shalom Center's Website, and if so inspired, participate in some way in the 40th anniversary seder's that will be taking place all across the country. I received a link to this video of 10 minutes of footage of the original seder and had tears coursing down by face well before the last scene with everyone singing hand in hand "we shall overcome." I hope the video will mean as much to you as it did to me.
The traditional Passover Haggadah ("the telling") begins with the opening invocation and story: "This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry enter and eat, and all who are needy come and celebrate the Passover! This year we are here, next year in the land of Israel! This year we are slaves, next year free men. It is related of Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Akiva, and Rabbi Tarphon that they once met in Bnei Brak and spoke about the Edoxus from Egypt all night long, until their disciples came and said to them: "Masters! The time has come to say the morning prayer!" Today in my class on "Jewish and Christian Dialogue in the Middle Ages" we studies this text in the context of the dual creation of the Easter and Passover rituals, and how the two religions influenced each other. My professor's thesis, is based around the question, "why is the unleaed bread (matzah) that is associated with liberation from bondage, called the bread of affliction at the start of the seder instead of the bread of salvation and liberation?" His answer, of course, is that the Christians had adopted the same symbol of unleaven bread to represent salvation through communion of the body of Christ, and therefore, the Jews had to take an alternative interpretation (huge simplification). From there, we get the story of 5 very famous 2nd century rabbis staying up all night, talking torah, with the destruction of the temple still fresh in memory and no way to make a pascal sacrifice, and the christians emerging and reinterpreting traditional jewish symbols and rituals.
So this is one interpretation of this text. In the video, the meaning of the story is asked to the leaders of the Seder, and in a great alternative interpretation, Waskow jokes that the five rabbis were meeting under the Roman Empire to plan a resistance and rebellion against Rome, and that the students were instructed to come with the password "its time to read the morning prayers" if the fuzz showed up. Not an academic, or orthodox interpretation, but I (and the crowd) love it.
This year I have the incredible blessing to fulfill the annually repeated passover dream of לשנה הבאה בירושלים (next year in Jerusalem!) with my parents, and will be celebrating as a free man of so so much privilege. But as I look forward to this amazing occasion of celebrating freedom in Israel with my family, I hear Waskow's words from 40 years ago resonating just as strongly in our world today. "But just as if we, not are ancestors only, were once liberated in Egypt, so it is we, not our ancestors only who live in slavery. Our slavery is not over, our liberation is not complete. The task of liberation is long, and it is work we must do."
In this time of great joy and celebration of freedom, let us not forget that we still live in a world with Slavery. For those of us living the Jewish dream of passover in Israel, see the concrete apartheid sea through your windows that has not yet been parted for the liberation of the Palestinians. And while I believe that there are miracles in this world each and every day, it will be our hands, peoples of all faiths and backgrounds, that will bring the next much needed passover miracle to all the people of Palestine/Israel. לשנה הבאה בירושלים Liberation Now! Next Year in a World of Freedom!
Hello Friends, So I've been having some major bloggers block recently. I have a whole slew of tabs open with articles I want to share and comment on, and a notebook and head full of stories I'm trying to tell. I would normally just stress out a ton about this, and not end up telling you anything, but I think I'm going to change strategies. Communication is really important to me, but its hard when you're on the other side of the world. So I will do my best to continue posting about my life, but if you're not getting enough, contact me! you can skype me (micahweiss) call my Isreali cell (052-312-6276) email (mgweiss@wesleyan.edu) facebook (Micah Weiss). My new goal is to write something every week; not necessarily an "update" but an essay of somekind; expressing some form of a unified series of thoughts. So stay tuned, stay awesome, and love life. Peace be upon you, Micah
I had an absolutely amazing weekend. Photo hightlights include a trip to Bethleham and the Dome of the Rock the following morning. The only picture I took in Bethleham was one of the seperation wall; but I think it gives a small taste of life in the west bank. I'm working on an essay on what this weekend meant to me, so stay tuned. After the picture of the seperation wall are pictures from my tourist trip to the Dome of the Rock the following morning. Enjoy, and look for more soon!
I know this was hot news a couple of years ago, but my professor for "Contemporary Jewish Spirituality" just sent this article out to the class after a heated conversation on Jewish moral exceptionalism. That controversial topic aside, I think its a really interesting topic of conversation; the intersection of science and religion in this way. What if spirituality can, in one way, be reduced to a genetic predisposition? Does that make it any less powerful? Maybe not; maybe just confirms that there really is something deep down inside that all these people are feeling so powerfully. Thoughts?
While reading some hip Jewish blogs, I stumbled across the website "Jewlicious" which is selling a very odd, and very disturbing collection of T-shirts, dubbed "Jewlicious Apparel." Now, I get that they're supposed to be funny, ironic, playful, and any other number of words that can often be invoked to try and justify offensive statements, but these shirts just don't sit well for me, and I would be bothered to see a young person walking around in them. Maybe I just don't get the humor, maybe I'm taking things too seriously, but these shirts are over my personal line of what its ok to be selling on a jewish themed website, or any website at all. The link for the site is below, but the biggest problems I had off the bat were: 1. "Obama is my (Sex) Slave" ... WTF? 2."Che Herzl" Don't know how Mr. Guevara would feel about being photo-shopped to look like the father of Jewish ethnocentric nationalism 3."Challah hu Akbar" -Is this not just blatantly mocking Islam? 4. "Christ Killer" - why would you wear this? What on earth are you trying to say? 5. "Palestine is for Lovers" -Yes, sweet sentiment, but taken in the context of coming from a presumably zionist leaning Jewish website (offers fee trips to Israel) and Judaisms role in the death, destruction,imposed police-state, economic strangling, etc. over the past many many years... 6. "Rucking Fussians" Whats wrong with Russians? Link to Jewlicious Apparel-Please consider looking and not buying...
