Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, the esteemed Ponovitcher rov, was asked why Jewish law states that one must leave a cemetery by a different route than the way one came. He responded, “Can any thinking person leave a cemetery the same as when he came?”
Pete, sweet Pete. Pete’s Fruits and Vegetables is not the same without you. Your sons are not the same without you. Your grandchildren are not the same without you. The Greek community of Denver is not the same without you. The Jewish community on the East Side of Denver is not the same without you.
When the human being, living in a world of woe, yet blessed under a blue sky, next to an ocean or with mountains in sight, is pained, speechless or baffled, the cup of Kiddush (santification) and the cup of Havdalah (division) are one and the same.
Am I simply living on the wrong side of the tracks? Or is it cynicism? Perhaps I am seeing the present distorted by rose colored glasses from the good old days? Is it economic — society has robbed many of the good life? Maybe I never noticed before? Maybe nothing has changed?
“Genocide” is an intent to exterminate an entire group, and an effort to actualize the intent. Israel has no such intent. It went to war in Gaza as a matter of self-defense. By definition, self-defense cannot constitute an intent to exterminate an entire group. When Israel declared war on Hamas after Oct. 7, it was not for revenge, not for retaliation, not tit-for-tat. It was for self-preservation.
Last Friday was June 5. My guess is that June 5, as a date, made no more impact on most people than June 4 or June 6. I am sure that June 5 is someone’s birthday or anniversary, but at one time the entire Jewish people and, for least a year or two, the entire world knew and understood June 5.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has been sued by the Trump administration, an action that has unleashed a slew of non-sequiturs. But first, a brief introduction. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit, was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees to counter anti-black racism. The center spent a significant segment of its early years calling out and bankrupting the Ku Klux Klan. This was an important, worthy and creative effort.
We live in a culture of no consequences. From the international to the local, action is contemplated, the consequences are not. But there are always consequences, and when they inevitably come, they come as a shock because, in a culture of no consequences, they are entirely unanticipated. The nations of Western Europe prioritize social welfare and the environment at the expense of defense. And why not? There are no consequences.
As Shavuot approaches and the anniversary of the revelation of the Torah looms, it is inspiring to contemplate the teachings of those who mastered the Torah on a level that is beyond us. One such master was the Vilna Gaon, the “Genius of Vilna,” Rabbi Elijah son of Shlomo Zalman (d. 1797).
The headline above is the number of kilometers that light travels in one year. The Milky Way, the galaxy in which Earth is located, has a diameter of 100,000 light years. To get the diameter of the Milky Way, good luck multiplying the 13-digit number, 9,460,730,472,580.8 kilometers (one light year), by the numbers it would take to write out 100,000 light years.
What is trite today was serious yesterday. As we mark the 78th anniversary of the State of Israel, do you recall what was being said only three short years ago on the 75th anniversary of Israel? All manner of learned commentators, not to mention Israel’s enemies, were informing us that in Jewish history the lifespan of a Jewish state is 75 years.
Who would have thought that a voice message could be a work of art? If you called Arel Rachel Mishory and she couldn’t pick up, you were treated to a serious message lightened as a clever ditty. How I wish I would have transcribed these messages. They made you listen longer than you expected to, when all you wanted to do was to leave your name and number, but they weren’t annoying. They were engaging.