Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Something I wonder about

I wonder to what extent I can be counted in a minyan, the quorom of at least 10 male Jews over the age of 13 that is necessary for communal prayer? If there are at least 11 men the question is moot. But if there is only 10, as occasionally happens, then there might be a problem. I don't know who I could ask and if I were indeed not-countable, I couldn't exactly say the next time I was one of only 10 men that I could not be counted. That would be my "outing" and I will NOT do that to my family. My solution? Try to avoid being one of only 10. I do not like leading prayers & try to avoid that also.


Monday, October 19, 2015

Climbing up on Solsbury Hill

Yeah, I love that song. I'll get to it in a second.

Lessee here...



I intended to go to Aargareezem on Wednesday, September 9. But that was when this part of the Middle East was hit by a  terrible dust/sand storm. The storm lasted several days but Wednesday the 9th was the worst. My wife suffers from asthma & even though I had taken the day off work, I had to stay home & help take care of her. I imagine that visibility on the Mountain was not very good that day.

My Israelite Samaritan friend had brought this collection of IS daily (and other) prayers, transcribed into modern Hebrew, to my attention. I printed out the 30-page collection (including cover & appendices) & actually read it in synagogue on both days of our Rosh Hashanah holiday & on our Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Hatorah holiday. This was the high point of my holidays. Nobody noticed (good).

During our Sukkot holiday I saw an article in an Americn rabbinic journal in which it was pointed out that 3 of our so-called halachot l'Moshe miSinai (see 
https://www.ou.org/torah/mitzvot/taryag/31_halachos_lmoshe_misinai_according_to_the_rambam/) had to do with sukkot. I noticed that in addition to these 3, 12 have to do with tefillin & how to write a Torah scroll and 1 has to do with our adding an additional 5 days to the time a woman is niddah; i.e. none of which Israelite Samaritans (I don't know about the others) do. So, I wonder if our rabbis didn't develop the (rather curious, I think) idea of halachot l'Moshe miSinai as a way of keeping the less learned masses away from Israelite Samaritan practice, that we should not see them and get ideas.

In the above regard, I recall posts between my IS friend & I from last October.  I wrote:
_____ 

"Your citation of Nehemiah 8:14-15 is very interesting. The plain sense of the text is that the items mentioned are for use in building the sukkah, not for any "Four Species." The Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 36b-37a) discusses this very issue & these very verses. Rabbi Yehudah (bar Ilai' 2nd century CE) says that the items mentioned in Leviticus 23:40 are indeed for building one's sukkah with and cites Nehemiah 8:14-15 in support of his opinion. His view is rejected, of course, on the presumed grounds that Leviticus 23:40 refers to four specific, exact species, not broader categories as you have mentioned above ("any nice fruit" and "branches from any green tree"), and that if one couldn't find any of them in a given year one would be unable to build a sukkah that year.

Ezra 8 makes it clear that the Jews who returned from Babylonia knew *nothing* about the Torah. They probably looked north, saw Israelite Samaritans building sukkot like the one pictured above and thought "Hmm..." Ezra & Nehemiah would have done their best to stamp out this view but it must have persisted at least until Rabbi Yehudah bar ilai's time many centuries later."
_____ 

He replied:
_____ 

"Dear Sabi,

thank you so much for your encouraging comment. Your suggestion that the returners from the exile did what they saw in the North very interesting and logic."
_____ 

About three weeks ago, I dreamed that my IS friend was introducing me to the (Israelite Samaritan) High Priest. I told the HP that my IS friend was very patient with all my questions, and that I was profoundly grateful for his English IS Torah and that it was the only printed Torah in book form that I read anymore.

I am going to the US next week (for 2.5 weeks) to see my parents, brother & some good friends. I very much wanted to go to Aargareezem before I went. This past Wednesday, Oct. 7, was the day. The boys were in school & the army, respectively. They have no idea of the depth of my fascination with the ISs & I would like to keep it that way. My wife wasn't entirely thrilled but being an extraordinarily patient woman, she did not ask me not to go. I emailed my IS friend & he said that he would be in his apartment in Kiryat Luza. I had a thoroughly uneventul drive there (good). I drove up to the National Park on the summit first. To my chagrin, there was a handwritten sign on the gate explaining that for "technical reasons" the site was closed. Major frump.

(It's now late Monday night & I'm sitting here at the airport waiting to board my flight.) So I went to my IS friend's apartment; I hink he's more or less always there on Wednesdays. I told him about the sign. I know that he knows all the Israel Nature and Parks Authority personnel there and that ISs may enter the site free, pretty much whenever they like. He made a few calls and informed me that they were doing major maintenance work on the electricity, water, etc. and that closed meant closed. Before I could double major frump, he told me that we would do something that, to me, was just as good as going up to the holy sites. He told me that we would go meet the High Priest, the High Priest. I had emailed my friend and told him -- inter alia -- about my dream but I was still kinda floored. My friend & I talked for a while. I told him that it was disturbing to see that the little compound where the ISs offered the Passover lambs was unkept & had so much litter, including in the 6 pits. 


(After I had come down from the closed park & while I was waiting for him, I had walked around the compound. I prayed that one day I might be privileged enough to be here not as a spectator or an occasional visitor, but as a member of the IS community taking part in the holy rite there. The iron grate over the shallower pit where the ISs burned the parts of the lambs that must be offered to God had burnt residue on it. I dabbed ome on my finger & smeared it on the inside back cover of my copy of the English translation of the IS version of the Torah. One day!)


I told my IS friend hat I had downloaded the aforesaid IS prayers and that I had read them in our synagogue on each day of our Rosh Hashanah & on our Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah and how this had made my holidays.My friend said that he admired me for my devotion and said that I must keep the questions coming. 


He had two other visitors: A Palestinian journalist from nearby Nablus & a Palestinian doctoral candidate from Columbia University in NYC. The latter was writing her dissertation on some aspect international law and was interested in the legal staus of he IS community. He introduced me as an orthodox Jew who was very drawn to the IS (version of our) faith. My IS friend and his two other guests spoke at some length in Arabic; I just sat there & occasionally smiled. At one point my friend thanked me for my patience and said that we would go see the High Priest soon. I replied that Ihad been waiting to meet the High Priest for 52 years (I'm 52) and that I could wait a little longer. He laughed.


At one point my IS friend took a call on his cellphone and then told us that we would go see High Priest Aabed-El ben High Priest Aasher ben High Priest Matzliach now. We went to see the High Priest in his home, which was right next to the Passover compound. We sat on couches in a room just off the entrance. It seemed too small to be a living room; my guess is that it was his room for receiving visitors. His wife (?) brought out (very smooth) Turkish coffee in little china cups on a matching tray. When the High Priest came in, I stood up and then sat down when he did. He wore a red kind of fez/turban and a brown kind of suit. He first spoke in Arabic with the two Palestinians. Then my IS friend spoke to him (also in Arabic) about me. I got the distinct impression that that this was not the first time he was hearing about me, that my IS friend had mentioned me to him before. My IS friend asked me what I would like to say to the High Priest. I told him what I had said in my dream, that I was very grateful to my friend for patiently answering all my questions and for his translation of the Torah, and added that it was the only chumash (printed Torah in book form) that I now read. I said that I would like to come to Aargaareezem more often but that my wife would not approve. The High Priest (through my IS friend) said that my family was of utmost importance and that I must face Aargaareezem when I pray (I told him that in our synagogue I can do that without arousing any suspicion since the synagogue faces that direction anyway). He said that devotion to God, in any form, was important. My IS friend beckoned me to sit next to the High Priest and receive his blessing. He put his hands together, held them as close to my head as he could without touching it and moved them back-and-forth while he pronounced what I think was the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24. I was very moved and concentrated as hard I could. When he was finished, we all took our leave. My IS friend helped me buy some of the very good tehina/tahini they make up there; I wanted to take it to the US. I drove back home.


Practically, what did I get out of my visit? When I pray now, I substitute "Aargareezem" for Jerusalem, and Shema and Eloweem for A-donai and Elokim, in all my prayers. I face Aargareezem unless doing so might attract unwanted attention. But whether I face Aargareezem or Jerusalem, it is Aargareezem that is in my heart.


Morally, ethically, High Priest Aabed-El has blessed me. I must now show myself worthy of his blessing by trying to be a better person in some way[s], by improving my character, and by working on my less-than-desirable traits.


So, what does Solsbury Hill have to do with it? (Try this version, with lyrics.) This song makes me think about how I have come to be interested in the Israelite Samaritan version of our faith & have become so strongly attracted to it and to Aargareezem, and how I must keep this secret. Gabriel sings:


"To keeping silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut...

...When illusion spin her net
I'm never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette

When I think that I am free..."

Sigh

Aargaareezem, Bit El - Kal yaamee 'ayyeenoo!*


* Mt. Gerizim, the House of God - All the days of our life!

Monday, August 10, 2015

Dog days of August

Well, we're into the "dog days" of August. But for me that's a good thing. I love our dogs. Their being canines, as opposed to hominids, doesn't detract from their being full members of our family. When I was doing my annual stint of IDF reserve duty back in the summer of 1993, I was at a small base on the Israeli-Egyptian border about 50 kilometers or so north of Eilat. We were out on patrol one night. Our modified light truck was near the northern end of our patrol route & we turned off the lights & stopped for a break. Our Bedouin tracker made coffee for everyone. I barely sipped mine. We were at least 20 kilometers from the nearest electric light, in the middle of the desert. It was a perfectly clear night & I just stood there looking upward, gaping at the stars. The sky was carpeted with them. I saw the Milky Way. I saw falling stars. I have never seen anything like it either before or since. I felt the wonder & majesty of God that He created such things and afforded me the privilege of being able to see them. Well, when I walk the dogs or just interact with them, I get that same sense of wonder & majesty, I see God's handiwork (as it were) and feel grateful and privileged . Woof!

I mention the dogs because I had a dream a while back in which one of them featured prominently. I dreamed that the bigger of our two dogs carried a very large snake in his mouth. He carried it into our bedroom and dropped it on my wife who was asleep. I know exactly what this means. The dog, as per what I wrote above, is an agent of God. The snake is the same as the one that bit me in my dream on June 6 of last year. The snake that bit me was tiny; this snake was huge. Why? Because a bite from a tiny snake was all I needed to set my mind & heart free. I was well on my way and was ready to be bitten (as it were). My wife (may God bless her!) is nowhere near where I was then, let alone where I am now. She is not ready to be bitten (as it were) and would need the bite of a considerably bigger snake. So, the dog had to drop a whopper on her. In writing this I just realized that my readiness to be bitten was symbolized in my being awake in my dream from June 6 of last year. That my wife is not ready to be bitten may be seen in the fact that she was asleep in my more recent dream.

I had another dream that I was at my Israelite Samaritan friend's home for Shabbat, although I don't remember whether it was his home on Holon or his flat in Kiryat Luza on Aargareezem. It was very late at night & I couldn't sleep because I was anxious and excited about going to the IS synagogue for Shabbat morning prayers, which start before dawn. One day!

I fasted, of course, on the Ninth of Av a few weeks ago although it was solely for appearences' sake. Sigh.

I am looking forward to going back to Aargareezem early next month for my annual visit. By then our youngest son will be back at (boarding) school; our oldest son recently started his IDF service. The boys do not know about the depth of my interest in the Israelite Samaritan (version of our) faith and I would prefer to keep it that way. There has been bad craziness in Samaria of late & I hope it will be OK to drive there.


Sunday, June 28, 2015

More on counting

The Israelite Samaritans are celebrating Shavuot today (Sunday, 28 June). Last week, I emailed my IS friend & asked him until what day should I count the Omer, until this past Friday night/Saturday, making 49 days, or unil last night (Saturday)/this morning, making 50 days. Jews, if course, count only 49 days. While our Shavuot is the 50th day, we do not count it; our last day is 49. He said that ISs count 50 days & so I did as well. (May God grant that I one day celebrate Shavuot on Aargareezem as it is meant to be celebrated!)

Yesterday, I looked the source of this whole kerfuffle, namely Leviticus 23:15-16, which says:

"And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Shabbat...sevencomplete weeks; even unto the morrow after the seventh Shabbat you shall number fifty days..."

The plain meaning of the text is that we count 50 days. The Jewish sage Rashi comments on this and says that it means "until, but not including, 50", i.e. 49.Thus the Jews count only 49 days. The claim is that if we were to count 50 days this would not be "seven complete weeks." But the problem with hat is that the text clearly says that we are to count 50 - not 49 - days! Why can't it mean that we re o count seven complete weeks *plus* one day. This would be in keeping with "...you shall number 50 days." I think that this more Rabbinic sophistry that does not jibe with the plain written sense of the Torah.

I counted 50 days. May it be God's will that I do so next year as well (and the year after that, and the year after that, etc., until a ripe old age)!

nb

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Little goats & such

I wrote another poem:


Slaughterhouse Rules
by Northwardb (northwardb@gmail.com)
Copyright April 2015; all rights reserved.

#

Once I played the doubter
and killed a sacred cow.
I didn't mean to do it.
("What will I do now?")

I had savored holy blood
and scarce knew what I'd done
But I swung my knife again
and killed another one.

I put away my blade,
shaken to the core,
but the taste on my tongue lingered
and bid me butcher more.

I raised my arm and slashed
and quickly felled my third.
Now no longer playing
I greatly culled the herd.

Staggered by the slaughter
of much that I'd held dear,
"Where," I cried to Heaven,
"Where can I go from here?"

I led the remaining cows
away from what I'd known,
my knife now dull from wear,

I started writing this very late one night while I was out walking the dogs. It just started cming to me & I started writing on my phone (I saved it as a looong SMS).

I've taken a fierce liking to to Chava Alberstein's version of the classic Passover Seder song Chad Gadya. Click here for a YouTube clip. She has a beautiful voice, which I think even non-Hebrew speakers could appreciate. While I do not share her rather left-wing politics and certainly do not share her sentiments regarding the song & all the controversy it originally generated (click on the first link above, the one on her name, go to page #4), the song really speaks to me. A single work of art (a poem, a painting, a song, etc.) can mean 100 different things (none of which may have even remotely occurred to the artist!) to 100 different people. That is the beauty of art; its ability to inspire is limitless.

So after Chava Alberstein sings about the Angel of Death taking care of the butcher (she leaves out the part about God taking care of the Angel of Death), she sings (rough translation by yours truly):

"...Spring hasn't arrived, Passover hasn't come.
What is different? I am different this year.
On all [other] nights, on all [other] nights I asked only four questions.
Tonight I have another question:
How long will this cycle of terror continue?
Tonight I have another question:
How long will this cycle of terror continue?
Pursue and be pursued,
beat and be beaten,
When will this insanity end?
What is different? I am different this year.
I was a lamb, a whole kid;
today I am a leopard and a ravenous wolf.
I was a dove and I was a deer;
today I don't know who I am..."



Ooh, this talks to me.

Spring heralds hope & Passover heralds deliverance and I feel that I have little of either. Asking a fifth question signifies a breaking of forms (after all, there are only fourquestions). The cycle of terror and the insanity are a hint to the next image. That I was a lamb, a whole kid & a deer means that I used to be accepting and satisfied with the forms and conventions of (in my case) orthodox Judaism. But now I am a pursuing, beating ravenous wolf who upsets the applecart, who is not accepting and who is not satisfied with the forms and conventions of orthodox Judaism. Once you've upset the applecart, you can't get the apples back. Some roll away and are lost, others get smooshed, etc. I long for some kind of rest, some kind of equilibrium ("How long will this cycle of terror continue?...When will this insanity end?...") but am disheartened because I don't see the possibility of that happening. I tried to capture this dynamic in my first poem above. Alberstein's song continues

_____ 

"...One little goat, one little goat
which my father bought for two zuzim
_____ 

(this is how the song starts; this is actually the opening stanza) and then ends
_____ 

Here we go again, back at the beginning.

_____ 

How's that for optimism?


I've been reading up about Uriel da Costa & have tracked down a copy of his book in a library here in Jerusalem. Light summer reading, eh? What a pity he was not aware of the Israelite Samaritans. Some of his criticisms of rabbinical Judaism seem to jibe with certain IS views. 


I have been counting the omer in the Isrselite Samaritan mode; today is the 39th day, by the way.


I actually spoke today to an acquaintance who knows a bit of how I feel about the IS's, Aargareezem, etc. This person was struck how one can just go right up and stand / walk on Givot Olam on Aargareezem, where the Tabernacle stood. Even those o'dox rabbis who say that one can go up to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem say that you have to immerse in a ritual bath first and wear only certain kinds of shoes and then you have to avoid certain areas up there. My acquantance marveled at the contrast. I cited Deuteronomy 30:14, "Because the word is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it." Rabbinical Jews have a fetish for (figurative) fences, around their holy place nd around the Torah itself. To this IS's say that fences are barriers that impede contact! "Because the word is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it."


I have to go back to the US in October for a visit. I will definitely want / need to go to Aargareezem first, possibly in early September, before our "Rosh Hashanah." Every Friday night, as we welcome in the Sabbath, I implore God to send me of the holiness of that Place, Aargareezem.



Monday, April 13, 2015

April angst

Well, our faux Passover has come & gone. I had hoped to be able to go up to Aargareezem to pick some of the wild lettuce that the Israelite Samaritans use for the bitter herb but we were very busy at home & my wife would not, I think, have approved. The boys, who were home, would have asked questions that I would prefer not to answer. The wild lettuce grows just about everywhere in Israel but how spiritual would that be? From Aargareezem it would have been very spiritual and the local stuff would have been a pale imitation. So horseradish it was.
 
It will be easier to go up to the Mountain late this summer, before our "Rosh Hashanah", like I did last year. Our eldest boy will be in the IDF & our youngest will be back in school.
 
I am counting the omer because I am frequently called upon to lead the Saturday evening prayers at our synagogue & when our youngest son is home my wife likes me to count with him. Each night I say to myself before I count I that I am doing so under compulsion.
 
The Israelite Samaritans will begin counting on Saturday night, May 9, I believe. I have asked my IS friend how I must count & what I must say.
 
I finished Gerald Russell's book. Very good, all chapters. I detected one mistake. Mr. Russell wrote that the Israelite Samaritans believe that the Torah was given on Aargareezem not Mt. Sinee. I read where he referred to the Sullivans. What a pity that things did not work out for them. I must admit that I fantasized about Mr. Russell referring to me, the Israelite Jew who became an Israelite Samaritan. May it be Shema's will!
 
I wish everyone a happy & healthy new year. May Shema shower His blessings on you!

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

February ramblings

I've posted what I think about Esau, that he gets a bum rap, & how I think that our Jewish Sages love to demonize him. I asked my Israelite Samaritan friend how Ishaab (to use the IS style) is seen by the IS community. He replied, "As holy as his brother, seeker of peace and pampered by the Almighty, so human and so compassionate." How wonderful!

I saw a review of Gerald Russell's book "Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East" & ordered the book. I had it shipped to my parents in the US & Dad forwarded it to me here. I am almost finished with the first two chapters, on the Mandeans & the Yazidis. I am reading the chapters in order & will get to the (5th) chapter on the Israelite Samaritans eventually. It is a very good read so far. My IS friend said it is "good and accurate."

I first became aware of the "Samaritans" way back after my (Conservative) bar mitzvah. I received from the synagogue a Hertz chumash which I still have (actually I have my brother's; maybe he has mine?) In his commentary on Genesis 49:7, Yaaqob is giving his blessing to Shehmoon and Libee. The Masoretic Text version reads: "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." The Hebrew for "Cursed" is arur. Rav Hertz writes in his commentary: "It is characteristic of the untrustworthiness of the Samaritan Text that instead of the reading arur, 'Cursed be their anger,' it has adir, 'How splendid is their anger!'" The IS Version of the Torah reads "Great is their anger, for it is strong, and their wounding, for it is so hard. I will disperse them in Yaaqob and scatter them in Yishraael."

His sneering condescension aside, I think that Rav Hertz completely misreads the Israelite Samaritan version. Adir also means great or mighty, which is clearly the meaning it has in the Israelite Samaritan version. I don't get that Yaaqob is praising or commending his sons' anger at all. Otherwise he would not "disperse them in Yaaqob and scatter them in Yishraael." That Yaaqob wasn't praising their anger is also obvious from Genesis 49:6, which reads not all that differently in the two versions. The Jewish version reads: "Let my soul not come into their council; unto their assembly let my glory be united; for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they houghed oxen." The Israelite Samaritan version reads: "In their secret my soul will not be involved, and in their assembly my honor will not be angry; Because in their anger they slew men. And in their will they lamed an ox."

So until I discovered the Israelite Samaritans and their version of our faith, I would read Rav Hertz every year and think "Those poor benighted Samaritans..."

A few Shabbats ago at our synagogue, as we were waiting for 10 men to show up so we could say the afternoon prayers, the discussion turned to whether Jews should or should not go up to the Temple Mount. The guys looked at me and I said that I don't go up there. I wanted to shout, "BECAUSE IT IS NOT THE HOLY PLACE CHOSEN BY GOD!!! THAT IS AARGAREEZEM!!!"

But I didn't. Shouting rarely does any good.

In Exodus 24:7, the Jewish Masoretic Text says, "...we will do and we will hear," whereas the Israelite Samaritan Text says, "...we will hear and we will do." Our Jewish Sages make such a big deal that we declared that we would do God's words even before understanding ("hearing") them & that without doing there can be no understanding. Now that I think about it, I think our reading makes little sense. How can we do God's words if we do not know what they are & what God in fact wants?