New Depths of Disgust ....If you're not worried, you should be.

Over the weekend, an act so heinous it's indescribable, took place in Chicago. A little boy was stabbed 26 times because his family is Palestinian-American. His mother was also stabbed multiple times and is currently hospitalized. The perpetrator was their landlord, a man named Joseph Czuba, who had, in the past, given the child toys and even built him a treehouse. According to the New York Times:

In court documents, prosecutors described the landlord, Joseph M. Czuba, 71, who has been charged with murder and hate crimes, as angry, erratic, paranoid and violent. 

He had been listening to conservative radio coverage of the Middle East war in the days before the attack, the prosecutors said, wanted his Palestinian American tenants to move out of his building and was increasingly concerned that he was in personal danger because of his connection to them.

So he stabbed the kid and his mother. In America. In Chicago. In a place that is supposed to be safe...his home. No child should be sacrificed on the altar of political rhetoric. What happened in Chicago is as heinous as what happened in Israel...and Gaza, too. Innocent people died on both sides. Civilians. Children. Grandparents. Non-combatants all, and all are dead because the politics of hate is practiced world-wide. And it's increasingly practiced in these here United States. 

Last week, the Twin Cities Jewish community came out for an event in support of Israel. When we arrived, the line already snaked around the building. Police and County Sheriffs were positioned around the building, parking lot, and all doors. While they were there because credible threats exist and the intent is to make us all feel safe, I did not feel safe in the slightest. I did not feel safe because I knew Jews and Jewish events in the United States are considered targets. Still, more than 1700 people showed up. 

The venue, one of the local synagogues on the Minneapolis side, was filled to the scuppers. Every available seat, every available standing-room space was takens. Hundreds more could not even get into the building, and listened to the live stream in the parking lot on iPads, tablets, and phones. I saw almost every one of our morning minyan regulars as well as dozens of other St. Paul denizens. We were lucky; we may have been all the way in the back, but we could hear Senator Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, and Governor Tim Walz clearly denounce the slaughter in Israel. We listened to speaker after speaker pledge unwavering support for Israel, but we also knew in other places we were being called war criminals and murderers. Oh, you know the drill. 

As Israel is held to some bizarre standard that precludes self-defense, all Jews become targets for hate. In Australia, 1,000 protesters in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House chanted Gas The Jews.  Jewish students on college campuses across the US are threatened by groups that would silence those who support Israel. Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia, all Ivy League institutions, have become centers for antisemitic actions toward students by other students under the guise of free speech. For the most part, the administrations have remained woefully silent. Google Jew Hatred on Campus and you can check it out for yourself. Claims that this is about Israel just don't hold up; it's about Jews. 

UPenn President Liz Magill, after being faced with unprecedented backlash to the university's lack of response to concerns voiced by Jewish students, alumni, staff, and board members, sent out a letter basically apologizing. She wrote:

At Penn, we are confronting these events in the wake of recent antisemitic acts on campus and individuals, with a public history of speaking out viciously against the Jewish people, appearing on campus as part of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.

Many have voiced their anger and frustration about this event. Please know that I hear you. I know how painful the presence of these speakers on Penn’s campus was for the Jewish community, especially during the holiest time of the Jewish year, and at a University deeply proud of its long history of being a welcoming place for Jewish people. The University did not, and emphatically does not, endorse these speakers or their views. While we did communicate, we should have moved faster to share our position strongly and more broadly with the Penn community.

"A welcoming place for Jewish people."  Yup, that's what she said. Maybe it's me, but that one gave me the creeps. Would she have said, "Black people," or "Italian people," or even "Catholic people?" I don't know,  but her tone left me ever so slightly unsettled...and suspicious of her motives. Maybe I'm just too sensitized by the rhetoric around me. 

Getting rid of Jewish people in general is definitely on a whole lotta tables. The new rhetoric is just like the rhetoric of Nazi Germany, of Imperial Russia, or even the Inquisition...just wrapped up in a white flag with a blue star. When so-called intellectuals rave about supporting Palestine's struggle to be "free," they have no clue that Palestine was never a country to begin with. They rant about Gazans not being able to leave...well, maybe they could if Hamas had officials at the border to check passports...which they don't...which is why the border to Egypt is closed. NOT because the Egyptians or the Israelis closed it. Maybe they'd still have a potable aquifer if they hadn't used all the pipes and funding for rocket launchers... but hey! that was not an Israel problem; that was a Hamas problem,  not that anyone would admit to that. As the radical masses carry on about these injustices, they blame Israel, not Hamas for the squalid conditions, in turn, giving the haters open season to hate not Israelis, but all Jews. 

We are not safe from the extreme right, nor are we safe from the extreme left. We are oh-so-conveniently stuck in the middle. 

Tempio Maggiore

Every synagogue I know has security details in place on Shabbat. Outside doors are locked, easy, welcoming access is no longer possible. Several years ago, while in Italy, I was told to register before going to the Tempio Maggiore di Firenze for shabbat. I sent an email, then upon arrival in Florence, I went to make sure I made the list on Friday morning. I was stunned to see the fences and soldiers with automatic weapons patrolling in front and on the grounds of the synagogue. Tonight, while I was in Talmud class, a representative of the safety committee popped in to say we could no longer leave an interior chapel door open for people coming in for minyan. Is this what is coming for us? Apparently, and it scares the hell outta me. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Readers have written asking me what they can do to help. Like I have a magic answer for that? Actually I might: send money. Right now, Israel has numerous organizations that are crying out for donations for relief, supplies, body armor, you name it....they need it. Below is a list sent from my friends in Herzliya of established placed to donate with some I've added:

Friends of IDF 

Lone Soldier Center 

Help ZAKA 

United Hatzalah 

Magen David Adom - this link is being matched by Mike Bloomberg:  

Stand With Us where you’ll also find items to share on your social media

Leket Israel our local food rescue and distribution initiative

Shaul Foundation for families in crisis 

St. Paul Federation Israel Emergency Campaign 

Jewish Agency: Victims of Terror fund  

More agencies can be found Here:  TC Jewfolk Resources to Help Israel During Operation Iron Swords. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

The age-old adage,  

put your money where your mouth is,  

applies big time here. 

Please find a fund you like and pitch in. 

There is no "Yeah, but....."

The Kedem family (z"l)
executed in their home on Nir-oz Kibbutz

Tamar Kedem messaged friends in Australia at 2.45pm on Saturday to say they were all inside a bunker inside their home on Kibbutz Nir-oz in southern Israel.  

“Hi guys, we got into the shelter in our house, we’re all doing okay,” the message said. One hour later, Tamar stopped responding to messages. Shortly afterwards, Hamas terrorists entered the shelter and executed them.

from The Jewish Chronicle 

Allow me to make this as simple, clear, and factual as possible.

When terrorists go door-to-door slaughtering civilians, that's not an act of war, that's a pogrom. 

I'm sure you've heard the word bandied about on many occasions, but maybe you don't really know what a pogrom is. According to Merriam Webster, a pogrom is 

an organized massacre of helpless people; specifically, such a massacre of Jews

Britannica provides a broader definition: 

Pogrom, (Russian: “devastation,” or “riot”), a mob attack, either approved or condoned by authorities, against the persons and property of a religious, racial, or national minority. The term is usually applied to attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In case you're wondering, pogroms did not stop after the early 20th century when Jews fled Russia and the Ukraine. One might (and probably should) call the Holocaust a mega-pogrom, but they did not stop after the Nazis were defeated either. Nope. Pogroms continued in Poland, notably in Krakow and Kielce, Hungary, Slovakia,  and even Great Britain in the 40s. Anti-Jewish riots have never really stopped. Ever. 

This weekend was just another pogrom in a long line of state-sanctioned hatred of Jews. The difference is, we're fighting back once again. 

But why bring up ancient history now? Well, probably because it's not so ancient. Recognizing Hamas for what it is, a state-sponsored terrorist organization, is only the first step in dealing with the disaster that is Gaza. 

The propaganda machine will never admit that there has never been an independent or otherwise Palestinian state on that land. The last independent state was during the Second Temple period, and that kingdom, the one where Herod was king, was absorbed into the Roman Empire as a vassal state, which it remained under various empires like the Ottoman and the British until Israel was declared a sovereign state in 1948. 

Jews, on the other hand, have had viable kingdoms there, built major economies, had currency, government, and state symbols on independent nations on that land. We predate the other Abrahamic siblings; Christianity...remember Jesus was one of us... started in the early years of the Common Era and Islam was founded in 610 C.E., 600 years after Christianity. At no time, not even during the exiles, were all Jews removed from our land. We have been there as an identifiable people since the Iron Age when the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were established....which is about 1200-1100 B.C.E. That's a pretty substantial history even discounting the Five Books of Moses as a historically accurate source.  In other words, we were there as us long before the other faith groups. We ARE the indigenous people.

Now that we have that out of the way....

Noa Argamani's abduction 
from Supernova.

First: there is no moral equivalency for the actions of Hamas. No one can call terrorists who execute civilians in their homes and at music festivals "freedom fighters" of any kind. They are murderers. Terrorists. Enemies of all humankind. They deserve to be hunted down just like they did to the families of Kibbutz Nir-oz and the kids at the annual Supernova Rave. If you think there is, then you are an antisemite, hate Jews, and believe in genocide. 

Second: Israel withdrew all forces from Gaza in 2005, but retained border control...for obvious reasons. In 2006 Hamas won the parliamentary elections, defeating Al Fatah, but a year later, wrested all control of Gaza, tossing out all opposition from Fatah. While this is a gross simplification, it's important to note that Gaza had its own government for a brief moment. Where is that government now?

Third: Hamas is a state-sponsored terrorist organization holding the people of Gaza hostage. The people of Gaza have been consistently denied their human rights NOT by Israel, but by Hamas who uses any and all money coming into the territory to promote violence instead of building an economy. Hamas systematically prevents them from having a state, NOT Israel. Hamas prevents open elections, Not Israel. Hamas prevents dissenting opinions from being aired, NOT Israel. Hamas rules Gaza with an iron fist around the throats of the populace.

Fourth: Hamas claims Gaza has been under siege for decades. I would posit that is not true.  Israel has been under siege by Gaza  since missiles have been constantly and continually fired at border towns and kibbutzim in southern Israel since 2001. Those missiles are aimed at schools, hospitals, and markets, therefore preventing the people of that region from any semblance of normal life. Children of towns like S'derot do not know life without bomb shelters. 

Israel has a moral imperative to defend her citizens. If bombs are launched at school yards, buses, and civilian spaces, and terrorists infiltrate cities as suicide bombers, Israel had an obligation to find the source and stop it immediately. No other nation has ever been told to stand by for negotiations while the civilian population is under attack. 

NO OTHER NATION. 

Then why is Israel the exception?

Well, you could say because it is prosperous. Or because it has been involved with border issues since the Balfour Declaration. Or maybe it's because it opened its arms to refugees from all over the world.

Or maybe, just maybe it's because there were mostly Jewish refugees.

I'm going with that last one. 

If you don't want Jews in your country, great; that's your loss. But we still get to live peaceably in our homeland. Just like the French. Or the English. Or the Egyptians. Or the Syrians. No one argues with their right to be in France. Or England. Or Egypt. Or even Syria. 

But not Jews. We're told we don't have that right.

Do not attempt to revise history so you can claim you pre-date us and bar us from our own homeland. That's total bull-hockey. You don't pre-date us. We've been around that area along the Mediterranean without exception for about 3000 years, give or take a decade. Sorry folks, but we qualify as indigenous.

And do not think for one Jerusalem nano-second that Israel's current domestic issues will impede our ability to defend our own. You'll find out the hard way that even with all the intelligence failures...and good gravy, there are too many to list...if you think Israel is going to fall, you are wrong. It will not. 

You can call Israel names yet everyone, including Israeli Arabs, gets to live in Israel. And vote. And get health care. And have access to education. Jews, however, cannot reside in most Arab countries. Still. To this day. You can claim Israel doesn't support civil rights, but have a Palestinian Pride Parade in Gaza and see how long it takes for you to be tossed off a roof. You can say whatever you want,  but it does not mean it's true. 

Yet, Israel is singled out again and again for having the temerity to simply exist. 

Now, do you want to talk about all those Hamas Freedom Fighters.....or do you remember this is what Nazis looked like? Jews were routinely rounded up to be shipped off to death camps. If they could get away with it, that's exactly what Hamas would do to us. 

Oh, you don't believe that. Hmmm. The Hamas Charter of 1988 clearly states judenrein, a Jew-free zone, is the intent:

From the Preamble:  

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).

From Article 7: Moreover, if the links have been distant from each other and if obstacles, placed by those who are the lackeys of Zionism in the way of the fighters obstructed the continuation of the struggle, the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).

From Article 13: There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with.

From Article 15: The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised. To do this requires the diffusion of Islamic consciousness among the masses, both on the regional, Arab and Islamic levels. It is necessary to instill the spirit of Jihad in the heart of the nation so that they would confront the enemies and join the ranks of the fighters.

Those are just a few highlights; the red is mine. Read the whole thing if you really want to check out the actual Hamas agenda. I guarantee it's not what you thought it was. Oh, yeah... it doesn't stop at Jews. Just so you know. 

Yaffa Adar

So, what happened last Shabbat? Terrorists obliterated border barriers and crossed into Israel. They also went in by sea and by parasailing. The intent was to murder any and all persons, civilian or military, encountered. They executed civilians at point blank rage in their homes and in shelters. The attacked a music festival taking place nearby. According to eyewitnesses, several women at Supernova were raped before being shot at point blank range. More than 260 bodies have been recovered. Hostages of all ages, from infants to elderly Israelis, including an 85 year old woman, a Holocaust survivor named Yaffa Adar were abducted at gunpoint from towns, the kibbutz, and the festival. 

Oh, and in many cases, the terrorists were narrating the events on camera for the world to see. I'm not going to post them here...just go to YouTube and search Hamas Social Media. You can watch until you vomit.  

Hostages were transported into Gaza; one can only surmise they are being used as human shields, stashed wherever Hamas thinks Israel will bomb because they know Israel will not willingly kill civilians...hostages or otherwise. On PBS Newshour tonight, I heard a Palestinian complaining that this time, Israel did not notify them they were going to bomb his neighborhood so they could get out. What other country notifies targets in advance of airstrikes to get civilians out of the way? (I don't think Russia does that for Ukrainians.) Israel does. The people of Gaza are complaining that Israel did not notify them. Did Hamas notify Kibbutz Nir-oz they were going to execute any Israeli they found? I don't think so. 

I have only one question: where are all those Gazans who say they want a real country, one with an economy, one with food on supermarket shelves, and one with petrol for their gas tanks? If they are out there, they are the ones who should be ridding Gaza of these terrorists, not the IDF. They are the ones who should be fighting the thieves and the murderers in their midst. The people of Gaza must decide exactly what they want. otherwise this is an endless cycle. Until they make a viable decision, they are culpable for the actions of Hamas. They are just as guilty as if they pulled the triggers themselves. Kinda like the Germans who closed their drapes and looked away. If you're looking for an equivalency, you can use that one.

Gaza, your victim card has expired; there are no more pathetic excuses for allowing Hamas to run your country. If you want a country, get yourselves an economy instead of a terrorist regime. There are way more of you than there are of them. All that foreign aid they're using to line their own pockets and build tunnels? That's YOUR money, not theirs. They do not have your good and welfare in their sights. After all, Arafat died with a $12,000,000 personal bank account in Paris. If it was good enough for Arafat.....

Wake up, People of Gaza! Take control of your own future ...if for no other reason than for the sake of your children. When that day comes, you will find you actually have partners for peace and economic stability not just next door, but all over the globe. You'd have to be morons to not take advantage of that.

We, the Jewish People, will welcome that day, but We, the Jewish People, will not stand idly by until it comes. We will protect our country.

We are

עם אחד

One People

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Yeah, we just showed on the beach at Akko up after WWII. 

Not.

Oldest known coin marked YEHUD...Judea...in Aramaic.
5th-4th Century BCE.
In other words, we've been there for a long, long time.

Sitting In A Sukkah While Thinking About Stuff.

Rabbi Held

In the past, I've written quite a bit about Sukkot when hanging out in these little huts covered in vegetation materials like corn stalks and branches. This year, it's 90°F. It was so hot yesterday, that they cancelled the Twin Cities Marathon due to excessive heat. Last year, it snowed. Go figure. But whatever the weather, our shul has a long standing tradition of eating breakfast in the sukkah after minyan...Even when it's been snowing. (Thank you Neal and Sandy!)

This year, our new education rabbi's first, Rabbi Held held forth with passage of the Bavli Talmud about Sukkah requirements as taken from arguments about its height in the Talmud. See, Queen Helena of Lod's sukkah was more than 20 cubits high; according to some of the rabbis, this made it "unfit." I won't go into the arguments that went along with that, but Rabbi Held had us all in the palm of his hand. After leading us through the labyrinth of issues with the height and size of her sukkah, he shares the conclusion:

Now that the Tosefta can be explained according to all the statements cited by the amora’im in the name of Rav, no proof can be cited with regard to the essence of the dispute between Rabbi Yehuda and the Rabbis with regard to a small sukka more than twenty cubits high.

Before you go asking that age old question, "What's a cubit?" I'll tell you what it is: it's a unit of measure, an ancient measure of length, approximately equal to the length of a forearm... about 18 inches or 44 cm. I'm guessing that's Noah's forearm they're talking about...but who knows?

But wait! There's more! 

If you want a real experience in Talmudic minutia, read the whole argument about the size of the queen's sukkah (the William Davidson Edition Talmud in English.) It's the most confusing, confounding debate about the size...mostly height of a sukkah. And in the case of Queen Helena, the sages seem to decide not to mention the sukkah may not be exactly to their specification. Is it because she's a queen? Or a woman? Or she needs fresh air? Or had a bunch of sons who may or may not be minors living with mom? Whatever the reason, they left her alone to do her thing with her kids. I kinda liked that ending. 

Maybe I like it because it's in complete contrast to our own government? I kept thinking about the bull-hockey going on with passing a budget to keep the federal government from shutting down. Lost in all the absurd, devious, mean-spirited, destructive behavior from the right wing cabal, The Freedom Caucus, the notion that these jackasses were elected by the people to run the government for the benefit of We, the People is inconceivable. 

Probably because they weren't elected by even a lot of the people. This is problematic. 

General Milley

Outgoing Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, gave an impassioned speech at his farewell ceremony on September 29th. Milley was Chairman of the Joints during the most tumultuous period of our recent history... when feckless loser attempted to overturn the 2020 election. Heather Cox Richardson explained:

Milley had been at Trump’s side at the start of the former president’s march across Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020, to threaten Black Lives Matter protesters, although Milley peeled off when he recognized what was happening and later said he thought they were going to review National Guard troops. Since then, Milley has spoken out against strongman rule and vocally defended the U.S. Constitution. 

The day after the debacle, Milley wrote a message to the joint force reminding every member that they swore an oath to the Constitution. “This document is founded on the essential principle that all men and women are born free and equal, and should be treated with respect and dignity. It also gives Americans the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly…. As members of the Joint Force—comprised of all races, colors, and creeds—you embody the ideals of our Constitution,” he wrote. “We all committed our lives to the idea that is America,” he wrote by hand on the memo. “We will stay true to that oath and the American people.”

But Milley's speech this weekend went a step further. He said, 

“You see, we in uniform are unique among the world's armies. We are unique among the world’s militaries. We don’t take an oath to a country. We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king or a queen or to a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don’t take an oath to an individual.
 
“We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.…
 
“Those who sacrificed themselves on the altar of freedom in the last two and a half centuries of this country must not have done so in vain. The millions wounded in our nation’s wars did not sacrifice their limbs and shed their blood to see this great experiment in democracy perish from this earth. No. We, the United States military, will always be true to those that came before us. We will never, under any circumstances, turn our back on our duty."

What a concept! The duty of any official in the service of the United States government... from a private enlistee to the president...takes an oath of office swearing to protect the Constitution of the United. States:

“I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

And the Constitution has some pretty definitive stuff in it like separation of church and state, equal rights under the law for all citizens, freedom of assembly, speech, and even to bear arms, although what is meant by the Second Amendment is woefully unclear. Congress and We, the People, have ratified amendments to the Constitution, beginning with the Bill of Rights. But once an amendment is passed, repeal is not at the will of a president, congress, or even SCOTUS. From the ACLU:

But the president cannot repeal part of the Constitution by executive order. And Congress cannot repeal it by simply passing a new bill. Amending the Constitution would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, and also ratification by three-quarters of the states.

Yet, a cabal has arisen in Congress that seeks to undo that which We, the People, have held sacred for over 200 years: democracy. The Freedom Caucus seeks to hogtie the government in such a way that no laws or actions can occur without their express permission. They are not the Republican Party, nor do they represent most Republicans. However....

They have the GOP in such a state of terror that they are afraid of them. Tonight, Matt Gaetz filed a motion to remove the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy because McCarthy, who is, quite frankly, no prize, worked across the aisle to get a stop-gap bill passed to keep the government running. Interestingly enough, these clowns wanted to shut down the government, leaving the military, the air controllers, and the TSA working without pay...yet congress would not forego their own paychecks. 

Congressman Jeff Jackson (who I follow devotedly because the guy is a plain speaking human) wrote the following:

The fundamental issue is that we’ve got about 20 members of the majority party - the hardcore members of the right-flank - who want to shut down the government. Pulling a stunt like that comes with a media bonanza, and that’s what they’re after.

That's exactly what they're after. A while ago, Congressman Jackson pointed out those who make the most noise do the least amount of work. Aggrandizement, self or otherwise, is part of the show, the circus, not about governance. So when you listen to the bulloney tossers like Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, know you are listening to an extreme minority with very loud voices. For the record, there are. 45 known members of the Freedom Caucus, but there are 222 Republicans in the House our of 430 Congressional seats. 

45. 

45 Congressclowns hold the entire country hostage. 

45 Congressclowns that supported the overturning of the presidential election. 

45 Congressclowns that pretty much supported the January 6th insurrection. 

45 Congressclowns who swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States...and did not. 

I guess if lining your pockets is your paramount concern, Congress is a good place to do that. These guys are about power and pocketbooks, not about the good and welfare of We, the People....especially if Some of Us People are not white, Christian, misogynistic, haters-of-others.

That's not supposed to be who We, the People are, but I am afraid that is exactly what We, the People, are becoming. Too many Americans are closing their living room curtains to ignore what is happening around us. Good Germans all. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

I am less scared of feckless loser winning the 2024 election

than I am of his getting the GOP nomination and losing. 

A Quick Word or Two

Just a quick note now that the sun has set, I have eaten, and I'm already feeling guilty in the new year. 

It was actually really crowded today

Yom Kippur is not a happy kinda holiday. It's a 26-27 hour fast...and I do mean a no-nuthin' kinda fast...and it's a whole lotta time in synagogue. The last few years, for a whole lotta reasons, have been hard on me. It was more than the glances toward the back of the social hall looking to see if Ziggy and his buds had slipped in the back door. It was more than sitting by myself because the Senior Son is all the way in Milwaukee and Family Junior Son is across town in their shul. 

When our first and long-time rabbi retired, no one could've predicted the strife that would follow and the toll the pandemic would take on our little shul. Our transition has been uneasy on the good days, downright awful on the not so good ones, all of them moving us away from the carefully crafted principles we established at the start of the experiment in Jewish egalitarianism. I'm not kidding when I say we because Ziggy and I were there at the start, actively committed to this burgeoning community. 

But now, I suspect the stress is all in the rearview mirror with the distance between then and now growing quickly. Rosh Ha'Shanah services were welcoming like in the early days. People were laughing in the hallway, greeting friends and even strangers with warmth and welcoming smiles. Kids escaped onto the bimah a few times, only to be scooped up with guffaws, not groans. It was nice. I found it comforting to daven sitting in the pew my family has occupied since day one. And it was really nice when the Junior son joined me for Ne'ila, the last service as the Gates of Heaven are closing. We would break our fasts with the rest of the family at my cousins' house, a long standing tradition. 

So why am I feeling guilty already?

Easy. It's Monday night and I did not have a blog entry ready to go. I was nervous about Yom Kippur this year. Seriously. I know that sounds weird for someone who has been doing this her entire life, but this year felt different. Lots of it had to do with the recent changes at shul, as well as the really nice Rosh Ha'Shanah. Was I expecting too much? Was I imagining the change because I wanted it so badly?  Was I setting myself up for another disappointment? Whatever my brain was fixated on, it was making me nervous and I was very much aware of it. I couldn't settle into a topic for this week because I was totally focused on Yom Kippur...and not in the way we're supposed to be focused. 

But it was all for naught. Services were terrific. I made it all the way through the "morning" services from 10:00 until 2:20 with only one stroll for a breath of fresh air. I was back for mincha, the afternoon service, and even stood for all of Ne'ila...not an easy feat when you've been fasting for 24 hours. I wanted to be there. It was the first time I actually wanted to be there since Ziggy died. And it felt really good. And I have no real reason to feel guilty because I will hit the publish button before midnight. 

G'mar chatima tova! May you all be sealed in the Book of Life for a good year. 

PS: lots of people at minyan this morning! Life is good! 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Only my agnostic/atheist FIL could manage to

pass away on Yom Kippur morning.

We can never forget his yahrzeit.

This is year 9.

Pop, we all miss you muchly.

OWNERSHIP

 First thing first: Miss Myrus, at 91, is alive and well and living in New York City. I am verklempt! I am hoping to have updates from the lady herself soon. I hear she does email!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this past weekend marked the end of 5783 and the start of 5784. All things considered, the Jewish year is supposed to be from the beginning of the earth until now, but uh, our history goes back a bit further than 5700 years. But for the moment, let's talk about the Hebrew calendar. 

Fundamentally it's a lunar calendar, but in the land of mathematics and calculations, it's a luni-solar calendar. How the holidays and leap years are calculated is a total mystery to me, but there is a High Holy Day to next High Holy Day calendar in the kitchen in plain sight so I can adjust my life according to all the holidays and observances. 

On a social/familial level, my life, and the lives of most of my family members, are kinda marked in relation to the Hebrew calendar. Grandma Bessie was born on Shavuot in 1900, but died on Sukkot in 1977. Ziggy died the week after Shavuot. I got married right under the wire for the solemn days before Tisha b'Av. Uh-oh, that's really close to Passover....so forth and so on. You get the idea. 

I don't think the holiday/home event correlation is much different in any ethnic group. Major events happen, and often they are put into perspective in relation to a community event...like a holiday. It's a time marker and one that can be quite comforting....or not. Our earliest memories are often tied to events like Passover or Christmas or Eid or Diwali...some special occasion when families gather. Not all memories are good, but good or bad, they link us to our personal past. I had great Passover memories, but Ziggy had terrible Christmas ones that ultimately helped to steer him toward Judaism...and a way to make a whole set of new memories, most of which were pretty good because they were family times. 

Rosh ha'Shanah, the first of the Days of Awe, is really a call to introspection. It's mental house-cleaning. The expectation is that we look at the good and the bad of the year, figure out what we can fix, and what needs improvement in the coming year. I take that examination pretty seriously; it's for me, highly personal, and definitely not easy. And it takes place in the middle of pretty happy family stuff. My big bro comes in from Philly to spend the holiday with us, which is cause for great celebration amongst the kiddos. The food is really good, services might be a bit long, but they're also kinda nice. Standing somewhere in the middle of this, I'm trying to figure out how to do better.  

Instead of Happy New Year, we say "l'shanah tova u'metukah," (שָׁנָה טוֹבָה וּמְתוּקָה‎)...to a good and sweet year. At the same time, we use the Book of Life as a metaphor to address that coming year. We wish a good year by saying, May you be inscribed in the Book of Life, but closer to (and on) Yom Kippur we say, May you be sealed in the Book of Life. 

In the liturgy for Rosh ha'Shanah, there is a piyyut, a poem, that addresses exactly that called Unetaneh Tokef. Who wrote it and when is pretty much a debatable issue, but that doesn't change the awe-filled intent of the prayer. It's pretty scary stuff, especially when you're a kid, but the older you get, the more you understand why facing life and death head on is a part of our very existence. 

All mankind will pass before You like a flock of sheep. Like a shepherd pasturing his flock, making sheep pass under his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living; and You shall apportion the destinies of all Your creatures and inscribe their verdict.

On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed

how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; 

who will live and who will die; 

who will die after a long life  and who before his time; 

who by water and who by fire, 

who by sword and who by beast, 

who by famine and who by thirst, 

who by upheaval and who by plague, 

who by strangling and who by stoning. 

Who will rest and who will wander, 

who will live in harmony and who will be harried, 

who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer, 

who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, 

who will be degraded and who will be exalted.

But Repentance, Prayer, and Charity mitigate the severity of the Decree.

The last line is the best, the one that tells us we can fix ourselves, that no decree is final, and that there is always hope. But here's the kicker about that last line: we must take responsibility for our own actions. We own who we are and what we do. As a kid, I totally believed that. Come to think of it, I still do.

I can remember Grandma Bessie weeping on Rosh ha'Shanah as she recited Unetaneh Tokef. She used to tell me the only one who could change the Holy Decree was me, and that I was in charge of what I did. And if you don't think this 8 year-old was terrified by that idea, you have another think coming. 

Terrified as I was, however, the idea that I was in charge of me was planted pretty early. I hope I did the same for my guys. But it's not something I can or would ask. This is the deepest part of one's being...the admission that one is in charge of one's own actions. 

Yom Kippur starts next Sunday night and ends at darkness on Monday night. Most of us will fast from right about 6:30 in the evening until 8:00 p.m the next day. This family will gather with our cousins as we have done for the last 37 years (except for two years of COVID) to break our fast with hard boiled eggs, bagels, herring, carrot ring, and assorted other really good stuff. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that odds are pretty good there won't be a blog next Monday night. Just so you know ahead of time. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Owning your own behavior, actions, deeds

is always a good thing no matter what you believe.

If everyone did that............

Miss Myrus: The Power of Magical Thinking.

Our Miss Myrus

I've written, albeit briefly, about Miss Myrus, my 5th grade teacher, in other posts. 

A teacher can change the trajectory of a life. Over the course of 19 years of classroom learning, I have had good teachers, a few truly great teachers, and a few who should never have become teachers in the first place. But no teacher can hold a candle to Miss Hazel Myrus (now Mrs. Virgopia...or so we've heard.)

 

My long-suffering (grin) BFF who was in that class with me agrees: no teacher could make a room fill with magic like she could. A world traveler, she brought a Balinese shadow puppet theater into the room so we could all be Balinese puppeteers. She talked about standing in the Valley of the Kings and looking down to the doorway that hid Tutankhamun's tomb. When Miss Myrus told us about it, we were right there with her. She's been in India and Thailand, showed us silks from both and the differences between them, and taught us what made silk good or bad. She taught us about the Buddha, and why Shinto gates look that way. On top of it all, she could make math understandable. This was a true skill. 

My copies

Even before I set foot in her classroom, she visited our 4th grade room with books for everyone. She lent me her copy of TUTANKHAMEN after she heard I'd already read GOD, GRAVES, and SCHOLARS because if I want to be an archaeologist, I should be encouraged to be an archaeologist. She promised we would discuss this further when school began in the fall. We did. The time she spent with me changed me. I was always the trepidatious one, but Miss Myrus gave me a taste of how sweet learning could be. I think her sinister plot was to leave me hungry for more learning. It took a while, but...

If you don't know,
I'm not telling. 

When Miss Myrus decided we were going to do a play called THE MAGIC COOKIE JAR, she asked me to help "fix" the script for the class. For reasons I will never understand,  she told me I was a natural playwright. I didn't know what a playwright was, but I found out. And I would eventually give up an archaeology/anthropology major to get my degrees in theater (specifically as a director) and go on to spend some 30 years writing plays for children. And getting paid for it.  Ah, the power of suggestion. 

See, Hazel Myrus was a true magician. She made the world small enough to get through the door of the classroom at Jacob Gunther Elementary School, before blowing it all up to fit the room. Magic.

So why write about this now? Little Miss is in third grade and Young Sir just started kindergarten. Both are excited about school at the moment. I hope this lasts. I hope they have great teachers. But above everything else, I hope they have a teacher like Miss Myrus who made learning magic. 

Which got me to thinking about kids in schools. Look, I'm not advocating for LORD OF THE FLIES in 3rd grade, but I don't see why a 3rd grader shouldn't  have the choice to read Harry Potter?  Or even A WRINKLE IN TIME. Every kid needs a Miss Myrus right about now. Every kid should know the pleasure of magical thinking. And every kid should be allowed to explore books that open up new worlds, new ideas, and new horizons.

And right now, I could use some of her kind of magical thinking 

This has one of the worst, un-creative summers I can remember. I don't know if it was the heat, or the smoke in the air that made breathing a chore, but whatever the reason, working on either of the new books has been rubbish. My characters have stopped talking to me; now they just smirk, something I cannot abide. The BIG book is so complicated I want to pitch the whole thing...but I know there's a really good story buried under all that extraneous detail. I've macheted the damn thing twice now and I'm still not happy with it. The smaller book is just boring and it wasn't always boring but it is now. Everybody is too damn nice. Which brings me to the refrain that's taken up space in my head.

Too damn nice. 

Too damn nice.

See how they bore

See how they bore

They do horrid things and they never pay

They expect to be welcomed home anyway

No repercussions ever get in the way

'Cause everyone's too damn nice.

This is an ongoing issue with me and my characters. Usually, they perch on my shoulder while I'm driving and spill. Not lately. Driving over to the cemetery Sunday to see Ziggy before the High Holy Days, I called the staff meeting in the car and yeah, they ALL showed up. 

Meanwhile, for the record, this is why I like hands-free phones in the car. No one can tell I'm cajoling my characters into telling me what's going on. Not that they did. [BIG GIANT SIGH.] It just looks like I'm yammering away on the hands-free phone. I like looking less crazy some days. 

Okay. I'm gonna shut up now and go back to pretending I'm editing. Or pretending I'm getting ready for Rosh HaShanah. Either way, nothing is getting done. Feh.

For the record, Miss Myrus has gotta be in her 90s now; I have no idea if she's still out there, but I am hoping that maybe she is, and that maybe someone will see this and share it with her. She will always be the best teacher I ever had. I hope she knows that. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you're in the Twin Cities,

hie yerownselves down to either Sholom Campus.

They have knishes in 2 sizes: big and small.

They are not to be missed!

Bonus Tip

L'shana tova u'metukah to all that observe.

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life

for a sweet New Year.

That Time Of Year Again: Minnesota State Fair

Yes, I went to State Fair this past week. First one since the pandemic hit. I thoroughly enjoyed my three favorite State Fair things: roasted corn, seed art, and watching Aunt M march toward onion rings. I cannot handle fried food, so I must live vicariously watching Aunt M eat. And tasting. I did get to taste the onion rings (best ever every year) and a Tom Thumb Donut. But the seed art was brilliant as usual....and it wasn't fried.

This is something that may or may not be unique to the Minnesota State Fair, but I will tell you there is always a line to walk by the wall with seed art in the Agriculture Building. Mona Lisa At The Minnesota State Fair took home the honors. Not my favorite this year, but definitely a fine work of seed art.

Ziggy introduced me to the Roasted Corn Stand the first year he took me to State Fair, back in 1975. It was our ritual; we went every year. One day was for just us, no kids. We got there right when the gates opened at the crack of dawn, ate breakfast at the Hamlin Dining Hall, had roast corn for lunch, followed by malteds at the dairy building. Stopping at Peters Wieners in the Food Building to visit his high school friend, Lu Ann Peters. These days, compelled by tradition, I always stop to see if she's there. This year, she was. For a moment, I could almost sense Ziggy's grin as Lu Ann caught me up on all their old friends. I loved it.

On a less nostalgic note, turns out this Labor Day marks a milestone event for The Wifely Person Speaks: the blog has been viewed a half million times. That means over 500,000 clicks on my weekly nonsense have been recorded and duly noted. Yes, I know all about bounce rates. But the WP is strictly a blog, no adverts, no questionnaires, no request for interactions; just me and my opinion. Of course, some weeks are better than others. Do I want to "monetize" the blog? No. That's not why I do this. I do it, as the Senior Son would say, for "shits and giggles."

While this may all sound very exciting on the surface, the one person I wanna share it with isn't around to celebrate...or poke holes at my thinking.That snarky guy from ZJOD who told me, "Sign up for this new Blogger thing. Who knows? Maybe one day you'll use it," would probably think it's all kinda funny. I tend to agree with him....but I would probably call it surreal.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have a new roof, I really like the new fridge, and as I type this, thermometer reads 97°F, I've watered the bleepin' hibiscus 4 times already this afternoon, and I cannot go out on the mirpeset without something on my feet. So I'm gonna go downstairs, pop open a bottle of Spotted Cow, and find a cool corner in which to read. Even with a new a/c unit, I'm on Energy Saver, so it's just okay in the house. Tomorrow, the high is predicted to be a chilly 92°F. I can't wait to open the windows again. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o' the Week

What can I say? 

I'm a South Shore girl pining not for the fjords, 

but for my home beach.

Gotta  beach of your own?
Go catch a wave