Reassured?

I keep restarting Jewish People, Jewish Thought, simply because it's so textbooky. It's excellent, mind you, just dry.

I found this on page ten: "The overall theme of the biblical narrative is Israel's successes and failures--mainly failures--in fulfilling the divine demands."

I think I feel better.

Rambling about the afterlife, eventually

from the Plaut commentary on Lech L'cha (yes, I'm that far behind; I should be caught up by next year):

"Few biblical dicta have been more clearly reflected in history than the statement that those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse it will be cursed, or that those who are blessed bless Israel and those who are cursed curse Israel. The decline of a nation can often be clearly related to the way it has treated the Jew, and its prosperity stands in direct proportion to its sense of equity and human dignity. For if "this people Israel" does rest at the fulcrum of spiritual history, its condition must be essential to the welfare of its environment."

. . .

"To be sure, the world has but rarely given credence to this view. It has not usually seen the Jews as a "great nation," typifying humanity's highest and noblest aspirations. Christians and Muslims have exalted Abram/Abraham as their spiritual father and at the same time have denied validity to the religious quest of the Jews."

I know sadly little about Islam, and I've not had an in-depth conversation about religion with a Muslim (this ought to change), but one thing that has always bothered me about a certain type of Christian (by no means all, just a certain type) is their conviction that Judaism ought to be over. I feel fortunate that I haven't run into the situation described by several of my classmates in my Introduction to Judaism class, in which close friends and family members were horrified at their decision to convert.

According to their own stories, these particular people came from only-casually-Christian backgrounds and were therefore surprised at their kith and kin's vehemence; I'm not sure the rabbi teaching the class really got that those Christians were honestly afraid for my classmates' souls. Judaism isn't so much into the idea of eternal damnation, but a fair amount of Christianity is, and nobody wants to see someone they love condemned to hell for eternity.

Although my personal idea of what happens after death varies from moment to moment, swinging from "nothing" to "Sheol" to "reincarnation" to "it doesn't actually matter, what matters is what we do while we're here", the idea of being condemned to hell forever with no hope of redemption has never quite rung true for me. I can't think of many people who would deserve that, and even if there are, it's not my judgment to make. Clearly.

(As a side note, I am aware that traditional Judaism believes in physical resurrection in the Messianic Age, and that's why cremation is right out. [That, and Shoah, but that happened later.] Of course, many thousands of years have passed for some people, so there is probably less left of them than ashes, and if the Almighty can somehow restore them to a physical body, why can't He restore ashes?)

(As a side note to the side note, if there is an afterlife, do we get to see our pets again?)

Jacob, Jacob and Sons

A question came up in Torah study this week as to whether the order of Jacob's sons in Exodus 1:1-4 was significant. It took me a couple minutes to refer back to Genesis to confirm what I was thinking, by which point the discussion was three or four topics beyond that question, and I didn't feel like trying to take us back, but:

1:1] These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household: 2] Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3] Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4] Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5] The total number of persons that were of Jacob's issue came to seventy, Joseph already being in Egypt.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun are Leah's sons, born in that order. Benjamin, tacked onto the end of those six brothers, is Rachel's younger son, Joseph (already in Egypt) being the elder. The break after Judah may refer to Leah's having had the first four before any other wife or concubine had a child.

Dan and Naphtali are the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's maid, who were born before Gad and Asher, the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maid.

So the grouping makes sense that way. (Poor Dinah, Jacob and Leah's daughter, never gets mentioned again after the Shechem incident.) Whether there is any further significance, I do not know, although I'm sure it has been discussed many times by the rabbis and later scholars. And regular folks sitting in Torah studies.

Wabbit Season!

I've been wondering for some time how the word "nimrod", the name of a great hunter in the Bible, became an insult.

Apparently, we have Bugs Bunny to blame. He calls Elmer Fudd a "poor little Nimrod", and, people failing to catch the allusion, the name transformed into a put-down.

From that link comes one to an article claiming that Bugs Bunny is Jewish. "Of course, being smart asses, we have to add that RABBIT - T = RABBI."

Not mentioned in that article is that he generally solves his problems by talking his way out of danger rather than through physical means, a time-honored tradition among our people.

Oh, and just for fun...

THOSE CANAAN DAYS (from the aforementioned musical)

Do you remember the good years in Canaan?

The summers were endlessly gold

The fields were a patchwork of clover

The winters were never too cold

We'd stroll down the boulevards together

And everything round us was fine

Now the fileds are dead and bare

No joie de vivre anywhere

Et maintenant we drink a bitter wine

Those Canaan days we used to know

Where have they gone, where did they go?

Eh bien, raise your berets

To those Canaan days

Do you remember those wonderful parties?

The splendour of Canaan's cuisine

Our extravagant, elegant soirees

The gayest the Bible has seen

It's funny but since we lost Joseph

We've gone to the other extreme

No-one comes to dinner now

We only eat them anyhow

I even find I'm missing Joseph's dreams

Those Canaan days we used to know

Where have they gone, where did they go?

Eh bien, raise your berets

To those Canaan days

It's funny but since we lost Joseph

We've gone to the other extreme

Perhaps we all misjudged the lad

Perhaps he wasn't quite that bad

And how we miss his entertaining dreams

Those Canaan days we used to know

Where have they gone, where did they go?

Eh bien, raise your berets

To those Canaan days

Eh bien, raise your berets

To those Canaan days

Go Go Go Joseph!

So the past few weeks of Parashot have involved the Joseph story (Joseph was taken to Egypt in chains and sold/Joseph was taken to Egypt in chains and sold), and I've had a hard time listening to Torah study because I keep getting songs from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat stuck in my head.

I mentioned this to one of our rabbis, who kind of curled her lip in polite disdain. I don't think she's an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan.

I didn't intend to be either, but Cats came out when I was a 1o-year-old with a subscription to Cat Fancy magazine, and Phantom of the Opera came out when I was a pudgy, overly-romantic 14-year-old, so I hope I can be forgiven the nostalgia value.

Cherubim

As I prepare to return to work after a rather blissful week off, a gleaning from the Plaut commentary on B'reishit:

The Cherubim

According to tradition, they were angels of destruction, while those hovering over the ark (Exod. 24:22) were guardian angels. All had the faces of children. From this we may learn that if children are trained properly they resemble the cherubim of the ark; if not, those of Eden. -- Moshe Mordecai Epstein

This seems about right.