Shabbat-O-Gram
November 18, 2005 - Heshvan 16, 5766
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman,
Happy
Thanksgiving and Safe Travels to All
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Mazal tov to Fred and Eileen Springer, recipients this weekend
of the ADL’s Daniel R. Ginsberg Humanitarian
Award
Contents
of the Shabbat O Gram: (click to scroll down)
Just
the Facts (service schedule)
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunities
Required Reading and Action Items (links
to key articles on Israel and Jewish life)
Announcements (goings on in and around TBE)
Quotes for the Week
Heard at this
week’s General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities, in
From “Defining Ourselves After Disengagment”
“Disengagement
was impressive in that nobody shed blood, that there was no civil war.”
- Ari Shavit, columnist,
"The
disengagement debate now in
- Rabbi Michael Melchior, Knesset member and
deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office
From “Taglit/birthright
“Participating
on a birthright trip as an Israeli soldier changed my concept that you are only
a Jew if you live in
- Capt. Benny Meir,
From “Re-drawing the face of Jewish Community”
“My
experience at the GA is that intermarriage is like the elephant in the room;
nobody wants to talk about it. But, if you ask people here about what one of
the major challenges is facing the Jewish people today, they’d say
intermarriage. The attitude about intermarriage in the Jewish community ranges
from ambivalent to negative. We need to recognize the positive contributions
that can be made to the Jewish community by interfaith families and do whatever
we can to foster those contributions.”
- Edmund C. Case, publisher, InterfaithFamily.com
“My
great grandmother was a slave so at Passover, I can speak directly about
slavery. Those experiences are just some of the gifts that we can bring to the
Jewish community. It’s all about perception; it’s about how we see
each other. What we’re talking about is the way we see and do Jewish. It
starts with awareness, who is included, who is not included and who’s
missing.”
“With
new people, new blood, new backgrounds and new ideas comes new life to the
Jewish community. Can we embrace that new life?”
- Yavillah McCoy, founder and executive director,
the Ayecha Resource Organization
From “Responding to Disaster At Home”
“It’s
very odd to feel homeless at this point in my life when I’m a successful physician
and my wife is a successful attorney.
“More
than 150,000 homes are uninhabitable, but they have to be rebuilt. Just imagine
the amount of money that will flow into the economy.”
- Mike Wasserman, chair of the Annual Campaign, the Jewish Federation of
Greater
From “Building Community: A Challenge for Americans, A
Challenge for Jews"
“Our
strength as a People lies in our high level of social capital. We have
historically had a high level of social capital - and the secret of our success
is rooted in this."
"We
need to be about reinventing ways of connecting that fit the way people have
come to live. We need to be focused over the next 10-15 years on how we
re-weave the fabric of new communication.”
"Remember
this: going to meetings is good for your stress level."
---
Robert Putnam, author of the best-seller “Bowling Alone.”
“We’re
on the forefront of Operation Promise. As Prime Minister Sharon told UJC
leaders this spring, “I know the promise you made is a promise
you’ll keep.”
-- Zeev Bielski,
chairman of the executive, the Jewish Agency for
From "
“80
percent of the voice mailboxes in the world are Israeli. Instant messaging is
Israeli technology.
-- Larry Weinberg, executive director,
From “Keeping Us Safe at Home and Abroad”
“We
don't want any Jewish institution in this country to be a soft target."
-- Paul Goldenberg, national director, Secure Community Network
Friday Evening
Candle lighting for
Stamford, CT: Candle lighting: 4:15
pm (Oy)
on Friday, 18 November 2005.
For candle lighting times, other Jewish calendar information, and to
download a Jewish calendar to your PDA, click on http://www.hebcal.com/. To see the festivals of other faiths as
well, go to http://www.interfaithcalendar.org/
L’hitraot to our USYers going to the regional Fall Convention this weekend!
Kabbalat Shabbat: 6:30 PM – in the chapel
Tot Shabbat with Nurit:
6:45 PM – in the lobby Thank you to Jackie and David Herman, sponsors
this week’s Tot Shabbat, in honor of Douglas & Nathaniel and in honor
of Nurit Avigdor.
Shabbat Morning: 9:30 AM - MAZAL TOV TO Alana Kasindorf, WHO
BECOMES BAT MITZVAH THIS SHABBAT MORNING!
Children’s services: 10:30
AM, including Jr. Congregation for grades 3-6 and Tot
Shabbat Morning for the
younger kids.
Torah Portion: Vayera - Genesis 18:1
- 22:24
1: 19:1-11
2: 19:12-20
3: 19:21-29
4: 19:30-38
5: 20:1-8
6: 20:9-14
7: 20:15-18
maf: 20:15-18
Haftarah – II Kings
4:1 - 4:37
See a weekly
commentary from the UJC Rabbinic Cabinet, at www.ujc.org/mekorchaim. Read the Masorti
commentary at http://www.masorti.org/mason/torah/index.asp. University
of Judaism,
JTS commentary is at: http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/.
USCJ Torah
THE ENTIRE HEBREW BIBLE (AS WELL AS OTHER JEWISH SOURCES) CAN BE
FOUND WITH SIDE-BY-SIDE TRANSLATION AT
Morning Minyan: Sundays at 8:30 AM (note new
time!!!),
Next Thursday and Friday – minyan will be
at 9 AM!!!
Weekdays at 7:30 AM – IN THE CHAPEL
TO ENSURE A “GUARANTEED MINYAN” FOR
THE DAY OF YOUR YAHRZEIT – GO TO THE ROSNER MINYAN MAKER AT WWW.TBE.ORG AND ALSO CONTACT ME AT RABBI@TBE.ORG.
A
GUARANTEED MINYAN HAS BEEN REQUESTED FOR THIS COMING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22. PLEASE E-MAIL ME AT RABBI@TBE.ORG IF YOU PLAN TO BE HERE. THANKS!!!!
Things
to Chew on this Thanksgiving
As we prepare to sit
down for our Thanksgiving feasts next week, we have much to be thankful
for. We can be thankful for our
families and our health, for a world that provides us with opportunities for
comfort, sufficient food, and long and meaningful lives. We also need to explore together what we
can do to share more of our bounty with others. Below in the next section are some ideas
that are inspired by this, the first Jewish Social Action Month.
Part of what we can do
to help is to make our congregation a more tightly-knit community. Last weekend we got a glimpse of what we
can do together when about 300 of us shared a wonderful Shabbat Unplugged,
singing, dancing and schmoozing – and then many stayed to be inspired by
Jerusalem’s chief archaeologist Dan Bahat, who
spoke again, to another 300 people, on Sunday morning at U Conn. Last Friday night was a real indicator
of what we can do here to create community, especially on Shabbat. People stayed pretty late into the night
– all that was lacking was a late-night “Rebbe’s
Tish” to make it like the congregational
retreats we’ve had in the past.
The efforts of many were required to make it happen, principally the
cantor and musicians, with great assistance to our community partners and the
sponsors of the two combined events, the Robinovs and
Gladsteins.
What was especially
gratifying was to see so many of our kids here last Friday, in particular the
teens, and we are seeing a real renaissance this year for all our youth
groups. For those – of all
ages – who find themselves waking up in their own beds this holiday week
(and not in the
And for those, who were
smitten by the Israel bug after hearing Dr. Bahat
speak, you can hear and read lots more about the subject of his expertise at
these two sites: http://www.templemount.org/
and http://english.thekotel.org/. You’ll be happy to know that next
summer’s TBE
The full itinerary and registration
information will be put online next week (hopefully), with a congregational
mailing to follow. An
organizational / informational meeting for the trip will take place on Sunday,
Dec. 11 at noon, in the lobby.
Please plan to be there if you have any interest at all in coming. Since space is limited and there has
been significant preliminary interest, I need to say that reservations will be
taken on a first come – first served basis, with the receipt of the
deposit being the reservation.
People are going to
OUR NEW ONLINE DISCUSSION FORUM IS OPEN
FOR BUSINESS
Now you can use our website to talk about all things
TBE and all things Jewish! Just go
to our website at www.tbe.org, log into the
discussion forum and follow the simple directions. If you’ve started a discussion,
let me know and I’ll inform the congregation. Naturally, all participants are expected
to adhere to the rules of Internet etiquette and Jewish sensitivity of
language.
Speaking of discussion groups, check out Sh’ma’s online chat about the selection of the
next chancellor of JTS.
http://www.shma.com/jts-shma/ Sh’ma’s
blog on Conservative Judaism. Handicapping the succession for
Chancellor of J.T.S.
Jewish Social Action Month
Jewish Social Action Month Successfully Launched
The
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), who, along with Rep. Steve
For more information on Social Action month, go to http://www.socialaction.com/sa/sa.shtml
Special for Jewish Social Action Month:
Two Contests. Music Lovers: Win a $50 iPod iTunes certificate by sharing your story on what
you’ve done or are doing to heal the world.
Bar/Bat Mitzvah essay contest: Areyvut is looking for a spokesperson to encourage bnai mitzvah students to add to their celebration by
helping others, and there is no better candidate for the position than those
students who have already experienced the meaningful excitement of tikkun olam. The
contest is open to young adults who are (or have recently) taken part in a
community service project in celebration of a bar/bat mitzvah and would like to
share their experiences with others. Winners will have their essays posted on
the Areyvut website, along with receiving other
marvelous prizes. Entries must be received by December 8, 2005. For essay
questions, contest rules, prizes and entry form, click here
.
Economic Justice. The
budget of a Jewish communal organization should be an ethical document. Jewish
nonprofits face budget constraints, but must make sure that the people who
staff and clean the offices receive decent pay and healthcare. Daniel Sokatch, Executive Director of the Progressive Jewish
Alliance, makes the case in Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility, www.shma.com.
Bigger is Better and Smaller is Not More Beautiful. Two Jewish anti-poverty organizations merge to counter the boutiquing of Jewish and American life. Ken Bresler, SocialAction.com’s assistant editor, interviews Simon Greer and Jeffrey Dekro, the executive director of the Jewish Fund for Justice, and the President of the Shefa Fund, respectively.
Transition:
Just Giving
Activist Hilary Lustick describes in GenerationJ.com
how attending a Jewish social justice conference sponsored by the Jewish
Council on Urban Affairs ultimately changed the way she perceives the Jewish
community.
How to Put Together a Tikkun Olam Family Work Project. Steve August, director of Tikkun Olam Family Work Project, prepared this very useful manual for families, who, like himself, want to demonstrate to their children that they, too, want to heal the world and are willing to take action.
Housing the Homeless A Social Action Month Special
For
Thanksgiving http://www.kintera.org/ - an
online bonanza of giving communities.
Also, check out the Ziv Tzedakkah Fund web site at http://www.ziv.org/. The Ziv Tzedakah Fund, founded and chaired by Danny Siegel, is
about Mitzvahs - Fixing Up the World with whatever talents and resources we
have as individuals. Danny Siegel's
Ziv Tzedakah Fund is a
non-profit organization dedicated to the collection and distribution of funds
to various little known Tzedakah projects. It
provides money and support for individuals and programs that offer direct,
significant, and immediate services with a minimum of overhead and bureaucracy.
Ziv is also involved in bringing the educational
message of Tzedakah to communities and Jewish schools
throughout the
Why Does
Presentation with
audience discussion by Eric Reeves, International Darfur
expert, and Adelbagy Abushanab,
Darfur refugee and President, Darfur
Rehabilitation Project, Tuesday, November 29th at 7:00 PM, at
Stamford UCONN, first floor.
In September 2004,
U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, informed the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that “genocide has been committed” in the Darfur region of
Stamford/Greenwich/Darien
SOME NEW SITES TO PERUSE THIS
http://www.jerusalemonline.com/ -
NEW: DAILY VIDEO NEWS SUMMARIES FROM
http://www.allforpeace.org/ -
http://www.allforpeace.org/index.aspx?lang=en The idea of a joint Israeli-Palestinian
radio station is unique and innovative, and one through which we can bring the
vast accumulated experience of both the Jewish-Arab Center for Peace at Givat Haviva and the Palestinian
organization Biladi – The Jerusalem Times to
bear through the electronic media and reach a new audience, previously not
exposed to the message of peace, and bring to them our message. The goals of
the project include:
- ·exposure of the various
aspects of each side to the other side
- exposure of interviewees,
artists and topics of each side to the other side
- emphasis on the different and the
similar
- breaking of stereotypes existing on
both sides
- discussion of common interests such as
health, environment, culture, transportation, economy, etc.
- exposure and reporting on joint
initiatives and projects and on alternative ideas for the conclusion of
the conflict
- providing hope to the listeners
- preparing listeners towards “the
morning after” the conflict
When Should
Baby Girls Be Named?1
By Prof. David Golinkin
The question posed in the title
of this article would seem to be a simple one, but, as we shall see, the answer
is far from simple. Due to historical gaps, it is difficult to sketch a clear
picture of the development of this custom. Therefore we shall discuss five
periods in the history of when boys and girls are named: the biblical period,
the first to eighth centuries, shavua habat, the Hollekreisch
custom in
I) The Biblical Period2
It seems that in the Biblical period,
boys and girls were named at birth. A typical description is found in Genesis
4:1: “Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying:
‘I have gained a male child with the help of the Lord’ ”.
Similarly, in Genesis Chapter
30, seven of Jacob’s children are named. In each case it says: And she
conceived and bore Jacob a son and she said…Therefore she named him X.
After six sons, the Torah says (Genesis 30:21): “Last, she gave birth to
a daughter, and she named her Dinah”.
These and other verses give a
clear impression that children – both boys and girls - were named at
birth.
Indeed, a few verses explicitly
mention boys who were named at birth:
“But as she [=Rachel]
breathed her last – for she was dying – she named him
Ben-oni, but his father called him Binyamin” (Genesis 35:18).
As Tamar was giving birth to
twins,
one of them put out his hand,
and the midwife tied a crimson thread on that hand to signify: This one came
out first. But just then he drew back his hand, and out came his brother, and
she said: “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he
was named Peretz. Afterwards, his brother came
out, on whose hand was the crimson thread; he was named Zerah
(Genesis 38:27-30).
Finally, Isaac was clearly
named by Abraham (Genesis 21:3-4) before
his brit, as opposed to the custom
today.
II)
The First –
Eighth Centuries3
Amazingly enough, there is no
explicit source in the Mishnah or both Talmuds which teaches us when boys or girls were named.
The New Testament Book of Luke,
which was written in
Why was the naming of boys
moved from birth to the circumcision
ceremony? Theodor Gaster
suggests that the Jews at that time were afraid of demons attacking the baby
before the brit, just as Christians only give
a name at Baptism and just as other peoples hide the name for a while after
birth. Therefore, they moved the naming of boys to the brit
ceremony.
And what about girls? There is no explicit source from the
Talmudic period. Samuel Krauss, writing in 1911, assumed that girls still
received their names at birth as in the biblical period. This is an “argument
from silence” but, for the time being, this is all we have.
III) Shavua
Habat4
The term Shavua
Haben “the week of the son” appears
as the name of a birth celebration in nine places in rabbinic literature (e.g.
Sanhedrin 32b). Rashi (ibid.) and others
assumed that it means the brit milah, but this is surprising since the brit occurs on the eighth day and not
on the seventh.
This interpretation is also
contradicted by a source quoted by Nahmanides (Spain
and Israel, 1194-1270) about which event takes precedence over another:
“and in another version of [Massekhet
Semahot] it is taught: Shavua
Habat [= the week of the daughter] and Shavua Haben
– Shavua Haben
comes first”.
In other words, if you have to
choose between going to Shavua Haben or Shavua Habat, the former takes precedence. It is clear from
this source that Shavua Haben
is not a brit, because girls do not have a brit! Various scholars have said various
explanations for Shavua Haben.
Leopold Low said in 1875 that the Greeks held a Hebdomeuomena
festival on the seventh day after a boy was born and he suggested that this is
called Shavua Haben
in our sources.
If we jump forward 1800 years,
we know that Iraqi Jews hold a Shisha festival
on the sixth night after birth for boys and girls. At that festival, girls
receive their names. In other words, the festival is identical for boys and
girls except that girls are named at the Shisha,
while boys are named at the brit. The same may
have been true for Shavua Haben/Shavua Habat. A
festival may have been held for boys and girls on the seventh day, except that
girls were named then, while boys were named at the brit.
This suggestion will remain a hypothesis until further evidence is found.
IV) The Ashkenazic
Custom – The Hollekreisch5
This custom existed for some
900 years in
Before the naming, a series of
verses were recited from the Pentateuch.
Then, they would lift up the
crib and shout in German:
Hollekreisch!
How shall the baby be called?
Ploni
Ploni Ploni (i.e. his
or her name three times).
This is repeated three times
and then nuts, sweets and fruits were given to the boys and girls.
Originally, this was the German
custom for both boys and girls. In time, they stopped performing the ceremony
for boys, since they were named in any case at the brit,
and they observed it only for girls. Rabbi Ya’akov
Emden (d. 1776) says there was not a fixed custom to
recite the verses for girls. Girls received a Hebrew name or a secular
name at the Hollekreisch.
There are at least six
different explanations for the word Hollekreisch.
For example, some suggest that it comes from the French “haut la
crèche”, to raise the crib. This is not convincing because the
word is always quoted by German rabbis, not French. Others said that Hollekreisch means a “holy cry”. This
interpretation is not correct, because the ceremony included giving a secular
name or just a secular name.
The most convincing explanation
is that Holle is Lilith or
an evil spirit which attacks infants and that they cried “Holle” in order to chase away the evil spirit from the
baby. This explanation fits the well- known method of making noise in order to
chase away evil spirits.6
V) A Wide Variety of Customs
from the Sixteenth-Twentieth Centuries7
Beginning in the sixteenth
century, we hear of twenty different customs regarding the proper time to name
a baby girl. In Ashkenaz, they preferred synagogue
ceremonies, while the Sefaradim and Oriental Jews
preferred home ceremonies. Here is a sampling of different customs:
1)
The first time the mother comes to the
synagogue after the birth;
2)
On the day of birth;
3)
At the first Torah-reading after birth;
4)
On the first Shabbat after birth;
5)
On the second Shabbat after birth;
6)
At the Shisha,
on the sixth night, as mentioned above;
7)
One full week after the birth;
8)
On the eighth day;
9)
Two weeks after birth;
10) On the thirteeth day;
11) On the fourteeth
day;
12)
On the eighteeth day;
13)
On Rosh Hodesh;
14)
Within a year of birth.
VI) Some Concluding
Observations
It is clear from the above that
the most ancient custom is to name a girl at birth. This was the biblical
custom which seems to have continued throughout the Talmudic period even when
boys began to be named at the brit. If my
hypothesis about Shavua Habat
is correct, there was a custom in the third century to name girls on the
seventh day after birth.
A more well-attested custom is
the Hollekreisch, going back 900 years.
According to this custom, a girl is named on the fourth Shabbat or on the thirteeth day after birth.
All the other customs are late,
and each was or is practiced by various groups of Jews and is explained in
various fashions.
What can we learn from all of
the above about the status of women in Judaism? It is difficult to give a
definitive answer. On the one hand, the time for naming babies in the biblical
period and in Ashkenaz was egalitarian for boys and
girls, and in Ashkenaz the entire ceremony was almost
identical. On the other hand, one could claim that the lack of a unified custom
for girls beginning in the sixteenth century shows that girls are less
important in Judaism than boys. However, there is another way to explain the
different customs. One could claim that originally, in the biblical period, the
naming ceremony was uniform and egalitarian.8 The transfer of the
naming of boys to the brit in the first
century weakened the status of the original custom of naming girls at birth.
This weakening led to the creation of the wide variety of customs described
above.
Notes
1.
This article began as a
Hebrew responsum written on Rosh Hodesh
Marheshvan 5763. I then lectured on the topic at the
Sixth International Conference on Jewish Names at Bar Ilan
University on June 11, 2003. The complete article appeared in Hebrew in Studies
in Memory of Prof. Zev Falk,
2.
See A. Even-Shoshan, Konkordantzia Hadasha Letorah Nevi’im Uketuvim,
Jerusalem, 1981, p. 468, s.v. vateled;
Entziklopedia Mikra’it,
Vol. 8, cols. 35-37, s.v. shem;
R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and
Institutions, Vol. 1, London, 1961, p. 43.
3.
See S. Krauss, Talmudische Archaeologie,
Vol. II, Leipzig, 1911, pp. 12, 439 n. 123; H. L. Strack
and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar
zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, Vol.
II, Munich, 1924, p. 107; T. Gaster, The Holy and
the Profane, New York, 1955, pp. 33-34.
4.
See L. Low, Die Lebensalter in der Judischen Literatur, Szegedin, 1875, p. 89; J. Bergman, “Schebua ha-ben”, Monatsschrift
fur die Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judentums 76 (1932), pp. 465-470; idem, Ha’am V’ruho,
5.
See Y. Baer, Seder Avodat Yisrael, Rodelheim, 1868, p. 494; Low, op. cit., pp. 104-105;
J. Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, New York, 1939, pp.
42-43; B. Sh. Hamburger, Shorshei
Minhag Ashkenaz, Vol.
1, Bnei Berak, 1995, pp.
415-455; E. Baumgarten, Mothers and Children: Jewish
Family Life in Medieval Europe, Princeton, New Jersey, 2004, pp. 93-99.
6.
See D. Golinkin, “The Satan and Rabbi Yitzhak
Revisited”, Conservative Judaism 35/3 (Spring 1982), pp. 50-54 and
the literature cited there.
7.
For literature about
these customs, see the Hebrew version of this article, notes 49-68.
8.
For the equal status of
women in the biblical period as opposed to the Talmudic period, see Rabbi
Theodore Friedman’s important article in Judaism 36/4 (Fall 1987),
pp. 479-487 = D. Golinkin editor, Be’er
Tuvia: From the Writings of Rabbi Theodore Friedman,
Jerusalem, 1991, pp. 47-57.
Prof. David Golinkin
is President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish
Studies in Jerusalem.
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety. If you wish to
abbreviate it, please contact Rabbi Golinkin at golinkin@schechter.ac.il.
The opinions expressed here are the author’s and in no way reflect an
official policy of the Schechter Institute. If
you are interested in reading past issues of Insight
Required
Reading and Action Items
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