Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Celebrating Tu B'shvat

I've always liked this 'minor' festival, a kind of Jewish Arbor Day and Earth Day.  Every year during my rabbinate abroad, we held a Tu B'shvat Seder.  Most congregations have such events, but they're aimed at the children; Clara and I turned it into an adult occasion and we always enjoyed sharing it.

Last year, we got together with some friends from our congregation, Netzach Yisrael in Ashqelon, and shared the Seder at the home of Chaim and Yona Betzal'el.  This year, with my ulpan class in its penultimate week, we celebrated it in school.

Giveret Orli's Kita Daled celebrates Tu B'shvat


The fruit is obligatory, but since man does
not live by fruit alone, a bit of cake never hurt!

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Don't be a Freier!

Eliezer Ben Yehuda
When Eliezer Ben Yehuda and his colleagues began the process of transforming an ancient language of holy texts into a modern language of everyday discourse, their goal was that Jews in their Old-New Land would speak neither Yiddish, the language of a people in exile, or some other language (English, German, French...), languages of other peoples.  So they revived the ancient language, or perhaps more accurately, built Modern Hebrew from the roots of the ancient language.  But of course, ancient Hebrew had no word for 'telephone' or 'radio,' among other words.  Even Rabbinic Hebrew, the Hebrew of scholarly writings of late antiquity, borrows words from other languages.  Other languages do as well.  The Israelis took a cue from the French, who established l'Académie française in 1635 under the imrimateur of Louis the 13th, and created האקדמיה ללשון העברית (Academy for the Hebrew Language) in 1953.  Years ago when I was studying in Jerusalem, we had a field trip to Givat Ram to visit the Acaemy, where we learned, for example, how Modern Hebrew adopted glida for ice cream.

Today, despite the best efforts of the Academy to control the growth and evolution of the language and make it logical, Hebrew has assimilated English words far in excess of what the Academy would prefer.  For example, Hebrew for 'shock' is helem, but one almost never hears Israelis use anything other than shock.  The Academy recently decided that Hebrew for 'podcast' should be taskit, but we'll see in a few years whether Israelis still use podcast or not.

One borrowed word - in this case from Yiddish - that has endured for some years is the term freier, which means 'sucker' or 'chump.'  Freier is not only a word, but an interesting concept in Israeli life.

Because Israelis have a self-image of as powerful and confident warriors, they bristle at any attempt to give them less than they think they deserve.  Any self-respecting Israeli who allows himself to be taken advantage of, is a freier, and Israelis work hard all day long to avoid being a freier.  Even Prime Minister Netanyahu famously used the word, on one of the many occasions when negotiations with the late Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat broke down, in 2006, proclaiming to his people: "I'm no freier."

Judge Rachel Freier.  How would you like to have those steely
eyes glaring down at you from the bench?  Another Judge Judy
in the making?
I feel kinda bad for Rachel Freier, a New York City criminal court judge, who is in fact Jewish and surely must get Jewish defendants standing in front of her and thinking "The judge is a freier; I'll bet I can get acquitted."  Probably, Judge Freier compensates by being extra tough...kinda like PM Bibi Netanyahu.

Selected images from The Daily Freier
I feel less bad for my friend Aaron Sheer, a Tel Aviv-based oleh from the USA, who has capitalized on the term and mindset of freier in creating his satire website, The Daily Freier.  To Aaron's pride, a leading Israeli blogger recently characterized his website as 'The Israeli Onion.'  The website's banner proudly proclaims:  "Live from Tel Aviv.  This is like satire and stuff."  You can find the Daily Freier here:  https://dailyfreier.com/

Given this, I should not have been surprised to see what you see in this picture to the right, which I saw pasted to a side window in a city bus of the 'Dan' bus company in Tel Aviv.  It is a pair of recruiting announcements that were pasted to the left side window in the standing area in the middle of the bus I was riding.

The announcement on the left, is one I've seen before; its large print reads: "When others are laying off, we're recruiting."  Bus drivers are a precious commodity in Israel, and both Dan and the larger Israeli bus company, 'Egged' always seem to be aggressively recruiting for new drivers. Both companies offer training to obtain one's bus driving license, and attractive benefits packages.  (Those contemplating Aliyah, take note!)

But the second announcement, the one on the right, I'd never seen before yesterday.  Its large print reads: "He who doesn't come over to Dan, is a Freier."  It is aimed at those who are already professional bus drivers, and its message is essentially driver, why would you want to drive for anybody else?  But it unabashedly uses the word freier to indicate a qualified driver who would languish in the lower-paid ranks of some other bus company.

The announcement gave me a chuckle, so I snapped a picture of it - what did we do before we had smartphone cameras??! - as I was getting off the bus. (Guess what the Hebrew word for 'smartphone' is?  You guessed it...although the official Hebrew word for mobile phone is nayad, you generally hear the word smartphone!)

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Where I Come from, Rain is a Good Thang!

LaSalle Street in Tel Aviv, this morning
Maybe you recognize the title of this post as the name of a song by Luke Bryan; see the video below!  Yes, we had some more rain last night and today; it fell on and off all day from Tel Aviv to the north of the country.  My morning train to Tel Aviv was pelted with it, pooling on the tracks in some places and slowing down the trip somewhat.  It was pouring when I climbed off the train and caught my bus.

As you probably know, Israel is a relatively dry country.  With her growing population - and growing prosperity that equals higher demand for water - there is always a concern that current sources are insufficient.  The Kinneret Sea (or, Sea of Galilee) is always on the brink of dropping below minimum levels, and the Dead Sea is quickly evaporating.  Israel is getting into desalination in a big way, despite the cost per gallon, because she hasn't got a choice.

Evaporating of the Dead Sea, projected through 2050
But so far this winter, we've had no fewer than three nice, heavy rain storms.  Luke Bryan and his friends may like the rain because it grows corn, which can in turn be made into whiskey, which can in turn be used to help seduce their girlfriends.  But this thirsty land needs rain for far more critical purposes.

Some go so far as to say, that water is the key to regional peace; if Israel and her neighbors could find a way to share the water supplies so that everybody would be happy, all other issues would work themselves out easily.  Perhaps that is a bit pie-in-the-sky, but it is hard to exaggerate the important of water here.

I'm sure someone around here was grumbling about the rain today.  But most of the faces I saw today seemed pretty happy.  When you live in a desert, you see rain for the blessing that it is.


  

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

A Republic - If You Can Keep It

President Trump, excoriating the Press for its coverage of him
at a Press Conference in February, 2017
Many of my readers will recognize the above quotation attributed to Ben Franklin, when asked by an unidentified woman as he and other delegates walked out after the 1787 Constitutional Convention: "Well, Doctor; what have we got - a monarchy or a republic?"

Franklin's response has resonated over the years since then; whenever some American or group of Americans has wondered if the latest purported threat to America's continuing existence as America, someone remembers and quotes Franklin's sage advice.  The point being:  democracy (okay, the USA is technically a representative republic, but let's not quibble here) is a fragile thing; many experiments in Rule by the People have been launched over the centuries, and a number of them quickly descended into the sort of chaos which spawns authoritarian governments and worse.

Since the presidential election of 2016, a number of Americans have wondered if the country had ignored Franklin's advice in electing Donald J. Trump.  It seems that every time the President opens his mouth - or posts something to Twitter - somebody wonders whether he is leading the country down the tubes, and the only way to save America would be to find some pretext to cause the Trump presidency to fall.

As I've 'confessed' several times in this blog, I voted for Trump and therefore would have to accept some of the blame should his presidency prove to be the undoing of America.  And in all honesty, many of the things Trump says are definitely 'cringe-worthy' in my sensibilities.  That said, if would appear that his reference to 'shithole' countries, so widely reported in the media, is not a true quote.  Trump denies saying it at the closed meeting with leaders of Congress, and Senator Dick Durban, who reported to the press that he'd said it - others present at the meeting remember no such quote - has been caught mis-quoting (ie, lying about what others had said) before.  But the world seems to accept that Trump actually said it, perhaps at least in part, because most of us can imagine him saying it given other things he has, verifiably, said.  And since the media has so widely and gleefully reported that he did say it, despite that there were no journalists present at the meeting in question, few are questioning it.

I personally think that the widespread outrage at what Trump supposedly said, is comical.  Politicians, including US Presidents, routinely say saucy things and nobody thinks that the American Republic is in danger.  Powerful politicians on both the right and the left, routinely says things that are probably not fit to print...and the world doesn't come to an end.  But in the case of Trump, the howls of warning that the Republic is in danger rise up from the media anytime he opens his mouth or gets onto his computer. (Or whatever device from which he, or some designated staff member, tweets.)

Just after the news cycle had run out on 'shithole countries,' the President's personal physician was trotted out in a White House presser to report that, after Trump's recent annual physical, he is healthy as a horse and entirely fit - from a physical and cognitive health standpoint - to continue to serve in his office.  The media present, raked Doctor Ronny Jackson over the coals for an hour, trying to punch some hole in his report.  And since the press conference, some in the media have been working hard to discredit the doctor himself.  That's kind of interesting, since the same Doctor Jackson, who is a Rear Admiral in the US Navy Medical Corps, has been personal physician to Presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama before Trump, and made the same announcements at press conferences for the past 12 years, and nobody in the media questioned his judgement or his integrity.  No, it seems that the press is just so eager to discredit and topple the President, that they'll jump on any possibility, and do so with the vigor of a pack of wild dogs.

Given this, the President's ire for the press doesn't seem so ill-considered.  The same press that was, according to many wiser heads than mine, sycophantic towards President Obama, is reflexively disposed to report unfairly - and often inaccurately - on this President.

Interestingly, Obama during his presidency and even as recently as last week, has repeatedly tried to discredit Fox News Network, one of the only major news outlets (along with the Wall Street Journal) that did not reflexively report positively on everything Obama said and did.  So when some network reported negatively on Obama, he got hot under the collar and refused to be interviewed by its reporters.  He received virtually no criticism in the mainstream media for doing the same thing for which Trump - when criticized in the media, fairly or unfairly - is noted.  In mentioning this I'm not trying to deflect criticism of Trump by criticizing Obama.  I'm just pointing out that no powerful politician is likely to suffer negative press coverage that he doesn't think he deserves.

A free and unfettered press has been seen as an important element in American freedom from the beginnings of the republic.  Even so, there have been a number of scandalous episodes in American journalism.  For example, many historians believe that it was shoddy and sensational reporting that dragged us into the Spanish-American War by reporting a hunch concerning the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor as gospel truth, and thus fanning the flames of public opinion towards going to war.  And that's just one example.

I wish President Trump would not spend his valuable time (or that of his staff) in writing up announcements of 'Fake News Awards,' but I do agree that the press needs to be called out for its biases and excesses.  Slanted reporting is nothing new, but seems that this Presidency is bringing out the worst in the degree of bias expressed as 'fact.'  I wish that journalist would get back to the basics of what their profession is supposed to be about, and get back - as a group, not just some exceptions - to their sacred trust of safeguarding the Republic.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Singing Zionism!

A Baby Boomer couple hams it up at an Erev Zemer
Anyone who knows Clara and me, knows that we love to sing.  Working as a rabbi, I always made music and singing an important element in my community's worship.  Additionally, we would add singing to every occasion for getting the community together:  whether for a Jewish holiday or just a social gathering.  Those who knew us in Australia, know that I became quite active in the local ukulele-playing 'scene,' playing with a number of strum n' sing groups, and even running one myself for a while.

Therefore, it should be no surprise that, having moved to Israel, we regularly attend and participate in 'Arvei Zemer - Evenings of Song.  We subscribe to a monthly series offered by the Municipality of Ashqelon's Department for Retiree Affairs, and last night was the most recent gathering.  We have attended other series, and I'm told that such evenings are held all over the country.  As with so many traditions, this one does not seem to speak to the younger generations, who would rather go clubbing:  when we attend, we are often among the youngest people in the room.

In an Evening of Song, a small ensemble of professional musicians leads those in attendance in a series of sing-along songs from the musical tradition of Israel known as Shirei Eretz Yisrael, Songs of the Land of Israel, which express the people's longing for and love of the land and its people with all their eccentricities.  I suppose an evening can be done with recorded accompaniment, but the series we attend is accompanied by a trio consisting of an accordionist, guitarist and a woodwind player who alternates between flute and clarinet.  As with all other things in life, you gets what you pays for.  The words to the songs are projected onto a large screen, people sing with various degrees of abandon and even go forward to pick up an extra hot mike and perform in front when a favorite song comes up.

I think that Evenings of Song are a particularly Israeli institution.  I have not seen anything like it anywhere else.  The closest I've seen is in Australia, the ukulele meetups, although there the instrument is the focus and the music is a melange of Country, Classic Rock and other genres of music.  

I suppose that the closest thing in American life is the Karaoke evening, although admittedly the comparison is not particularly apt because, like the ukulele strum-along's in Australia, such events do not rest in a particular genre of music.  Additionally, karaoke is more an exhibitionist exercise whereas Israeli Evenings of Song are much more about the collective, singing together the songs of the land, with which they grew up.

I don't think that any other country has a genre that is quite the equivalent of Shirei Eterz Yisrael.  These songs, like Sea Shanty and the African-American Spirituals among others, often originated as work songs, in this case for the Zionist pioneers to sings as they went out into the fields, to somewhat ameliorate the back-breaking work they did to reclaim the land and make it bloom.  They also served as an important communal activity in the long evenings on lonely settlements, after the work was done, when there was no television or movies, and little recorded music or radio.  Finally, and many of you who have learned a new language can relate to this, the songs helped the newcomers with the Hebrew language.  They are lyric-rich, and their linguistic structure can help someone just learning Hebrew to assimilate the complex grammatical structure of the language.

A parallel social tradition in Israel - also pretty much limited to Baby Boomers and older - is Rikudei 'Am, Folk Dancing evenings.  Clara likes these, too, although this is where I draw the line because, not knowing the steps, I feel really clumsy trying to mimic others' movements.

While neither 'Arvei Zemer and Rikudei 'Am cannot be said to hold a universal appeal even within the generations that grew up with them, they are certainly unique and popular Israeli institutions that express the Israelis' essential patriotism along with their attachment to their citizen-army.  Having regularr opportunities to attend such evenings, is one of the little rewards that come from living here.
   

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

My Scandal's Bigger than Your Scandal!

Israel's 'First Couple' with sons Avner (on his mother's right)
and Yair (on his father's left)
One nice thing about being a dual US-Israeli citizen living in Israel, is that - lately, at least - both countries are hanging out big, interesting political laundry.  And while Americans at home probably hear only the faintest detail about Israeli scandals, the US scandals are well-covered here...as are, of course, the local ones!

At the beginning of this week, the papers and evening news here were full of reporting on the drunken ravings of Yair, one of the adult (I use that term loosely) sons of Prime Minister Netanyahu.  Daddy Netanyahu has been under investigation by a top-secret police corruption crimes unit, for several suspected levels of corruption in his administration...and even, in his house! (The latter centered on the use of government funds for personal uses by Netanyahu's wife, Sara.)  So young Yair was on an alcohol - and possibly drug - fueled bar crawl with friends and wanted to hit up one friend for a few hundred Shekels to hire a prostitute.  When the friend hesitated, Yair pointed out that the friend's dad - a very wealthy and prominent industrialist - has received favors worth millions of Shekels thanks to Yair's father the PM.  For reasons that I don't think have yet been explained. there's a digital sound recording of this conversation, and of course it has been played over and over again by the broadcast media...not to mention its transcript being printed in the papers.

PM Netanyahu may or may not be guilty of corruption and graft; that's for the courts to decide.  Even if he is proven to be so, whether that will take down his government or not is an open question as members of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) enjoy certain protections from the law, not available to other citizens.  Think of it a the Israeli version of 'Executive Privilege,' although there is no Executive Branch to the government here.

But the Prime Minister gets no scorn from me, only sympathy, regarding the behavior of his son.

It's an unfortunate but widespread phenomenon, that the children of powerful people grow up feeling that their parent's power and protection should guarantee them a life free of the constraints that limit 'ordinary' people.  This goes for the children of powerful politicians, business people, even clergy. (No, this is not a complaint about my kids; Baruch Hashem, they're reasonably self-controlled, and I am no powerful clergyman in any case.)  Remember the high jinx of some children of US Presidents, not to mention powerful members of Congress?  Of course, someone who is inclined to dislike a particular politician because of their political orientation, is also likely to point to that pol's kids' behavior - if they get into trouble or scandal - as reflective of the parent's character.  But it isn't really fair.  If Netanyahu ends up being guilty of corruption, then I hope that the legal system will make him pay commensurate with his offenses.  But I take no delight in watching him and Sara squirm at their son's disgraceful behavior, and the public's fascination with same.  There's no way to avoid the children of powerful people living in a fishbowl, but at least we can try to ignore the spectacle and let them deal with their family issues themselves.
  

Monday, January 1, 2018

Geshem Mabul...

...is Hebrew for what you might call in English, 'raining cats and dogs.'  And we had a bit of that (okay, I do like to understate things sometimes) today.

I went to school at Ulpan Gordon this morning.  Yes, I know it's New Year's Day, but it isn't an 'official' holiday here in Israel.  When I arrived at the station in Ashqelon early this morning to catch the 6:04 to Tel Aviv, I got my first hint that, official or not, darned if the car park in front of the station wasn't more empty than usual at that hour.  Once the train pulled out of the station, I received an affirmation of my first hint as I was one of only two passengers in the car.  And although more came aboard with each stop en route, they were clearly fewer than usual.  In Tel Aviv, there was far less hubbub at the station and on the city's streets, than normal.  At Ulpan, only six students in the class - out of over 20 - showed up.  Some are out of town for holidays abroad, but still...

When the rains began after class had already started, my teacher, Giveret Orli, pointed out that while any rain is considered a blessing in normally-dry Israel, a good soaking on Civil New Year's Day is considered to be particularly auspicious for a good year ahead.  As you can see from the pictures of the flooding in Ashqelon, posted today on a WhatsApp group by my friend Rafi Bloch, my adopted home town received a good soaking indeed!

Leshanah Ezrachit Tovah!


I can't believe the guy is actually getting into this Skoda to
drive away in it!