Observatory Offline

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory in Chile has been hit with a cyberattack that has taken its website offline and forced it to suspend all observations, authorities there said.

Even email services were limited in the aftermath, illustrating the broad impact of the hack.

Nested high up on a plateau in the Chilean Andes at over 16,000 feet above sea level, ALMA is one of the most powerful and advanced radio telescopes in the world. Notably, ALMA helped take the first image of a black hole in 2019, in a collaborative effort that linked radio observatories worldwide into forming the Event Horizon Telescope.

Thankfully, ALMA's impressive arsenal of 66 high-precision antennas, each nearly 40 feet in diameter, was not compromised, the observatory said, nor was any of the scientific data those instruments collected.

In High Places

What makes ALMA so invaluable is its specialty in observing the light of the cooler substances of the cosmos, namely gas and dust. That makes ALMA a prime candidate for documenting the fascinating formations of planets and stars when they first emerge amidst clouds of gas.

Since going fully operational in 2013, it's become the largest ground-based astronomical project in the world, according to the European Southern Observatory, ALMA's primary operators.

So ALMA going offline is a distressing development, especially to the thousands of astronomers worldwide that rely on its observations and the some 300 experts working onsite. Getting it up and running is obviously a top priority, but the observatory said in a followup tweet that "it is not yet possible to estimate a date for a return to regular activities."

As of now, there's no information available on who the hackers were, or exactly how they conducted the attack. Their motivations, too, remain a mystery.

More on ALMA: Astronomers Think They Found the Youngest Planet in the Galaxy

The post Hackers Just Took Down One of the World's Most Advanced Telescopes appeared first on Futurism.

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Hackers Just Took Down One of the World's Most Advanced Telescopes

Droning On

Someone thinks it's a great idea to fly 500 drones over New York City to create a huge ad in the sky on Thursday evening. Because New Yorkers certainly don't have any historical reason to mistrust unknown aircraft over their skyline, right?

As Gothamist reports, the drone swarm is part of a "surreal takeover of New York City’s skyline" on behalf of — we shit you not — the mobile game Candy Crush.

Fernanda Romano, Candy Crush's chief marketing officer, told Gothamist that the stunt will "turn the sky into the largest screen on the planet" using the small, light-up drones.

Though this is not the first time the Manhattan skyline has been used as ad space — that distinction goes to the National Basketball Association and State Farm, which did a similar stunt this summer during the NBA draft — local lawmakers are ticked off about it nonetheless.

"I think it’s outrageous to be spoiling our city’s skyline for private profit," Brad Hoylman, a state senator that represents Manhattan's West Side in the NY Legislature, told the local news site. "It’s offensive to New Yorkers, to our local laws, to public safety, and to wildlife."

Freak Out

Indeed, as the NYC Audubon Society noted in a tweet, the Candy Crush crapshoot "could disrupt the flight patterns of thousands of birds flying through NYC, leading to collisions with buildings" as they migrate.

Beyond the harm this will do to birds and the annoyance it will undoubtedly cause the famously-grumpy people of New York, this stunt is also going down with very little warning, considering that Gothamist is one of the only news outlets even reporting on it ahead of time.

While most viewers will hopefully be able to figure out what's going on pretty quickly, the concept of seeing unknown aircraft above the skyline is a little too reminiscent of 9/11 for comfort — and if Candy Crush took that into consideration, they haven't let on.

So here's hoping this event shocks and awes Thursday night city-goers in a good way, and not in the way that makes them panic.

More drone warfare: Russia Accused of Pelting Ukraine Capital With "Kamikaze" Drones

The post Huge Drone Swarm to Form Giant Advertisement Over NYC Skyline appeared first on Futurism.

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Huge Drone Swarm to Form Giant Advertisement Over NYC Skyline

You know that "research" going around saying humans are going to evolve to have hunchbacks and claws because of the way we use our smartphones? Though our posture could certainly use some work, you'll be glad to know that it's just lazy spam intended to juice search engine results.

Let's back up. Today the Daily Mail published a viral story about "how humans may look in the year 3000." Among its predictions: hunched backs, clawed hands, a second eyelid, a thicker skull and a smaller brain.

Sure, that's fascinating! The only problem? The Mail's only source is a post published a year ago by the renowned scientists at... uh... TollFreeForwarding.com, a site that sells, as its name suggests, virtual phone numbers.

If the idea that phone salespeople are purporting to be making predictions about human evolution didn't tip you off, this "research" doesn't seem very scientific at all. Instead, it more closely resembles what it actually is — a blog post written by some poor grunt, intended to get backlinks from sites like the Mail that'll juice TollFreeForwarding's position in search engine results.

To get those delicious backlinks, the top minds at TollFreeForwarding leveraged renders of a "future human" by a 3D model artist. The result of these efforts is "Mindy," a creepy-looking hunchback in black skinny jeans (which is how you can tell she's from a different era).

Grotesque model reveals what humans could look like in the year 3000 due to our reliance on technology

Full story: https://t.co/vQzyMZPNBv pic.twitter.com/vqBuYOBrcg

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 3, 2022

"To fully realize the impact everyday tech has on us, we sourced scientific research and expert opinion on the subject," the TollFreeForwarding post reads, "before working with a 3D designer to create a future human whose body has physically changed due to consistent use of smartphones, laptops, and other tech."

Its sources, though, are dubious. Its authority on spinal development, for instance, is a "health and wellness expert" at a site that sells massage lotion. His highest academic achievement? A business degree.

We could go on and on about TollFreeForwarding's dismal sourcing — some of which looks suspiciously like even more SEO spam for entirely different clients — but you get the idea.

It's probably not surprising that the this gambit for clicks took off among dingbats on Twitter. What is somewhat disappointing is that it ended up on StudyFinds, a generally reliable blog about academic research. This time, though, for inscrutable reasons it treated this egregious SEO spam as a legitimate scientific study.

The site's readers, though, were quick to call it out, leading to a comically enormous editor's note appended to the story.

"Our content is intended to stir debate and conversation, and we always encourage our readers to discuss why or why not they agree with the findings," it reads in part. "If you heavily disagree with a report — please debunk to your delight in the comments below."

You heard them! Get debunking, people.

More conspiracy theories: If You Think Joe Rogan Is Credible, This Bizarre Clip of Him Yelling at a Scientist Will Probably Change Your Mind

The post That "Research" About How Smartphones Are Causing Deformed Human Bodies Is SEO Spam, You Idiots appeared first on Futurism.

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That "Research" About How Smartphones Are Causing Deformed Human Bodies Is SEO Spam, You Idiots

Seder Nezikin (Damages)

Seder Zeraim (Seeds)

Berachot

Pe'ah

Demai

Kilayim

Shevi'it

Terumot

Ma'asrote

Ma'aser Sheni

Hallah

Orlah

Bikkurim

Seder Nashim (Women)

Yevamot

Ketubot

Nedarim

Kiddushin

Seder Kodashim (Holies)

Zevahim

Menachot

Hullin

Bechorot

Arachin

Temurah

Keritot

Me'ilah

Tamid

Middot

Kinnim

Seder Tehorot (Purities)

Keilim

Oholot

Nega'im

Parah

Tehorot

Mikva'ot

Niddah

Machshirin

Zavim

Tevul Yom

Yadayim

Uktzim

1.Tenanof the original--We have learned in a Mishna;Tania--We have, learned in a Boraitha;Itemar--It was taught.2. Questions are indicated by the interrogation point, and are immediately followed by the answers, without being so marked.3. If there occurs two statements separated by the phrase,Lishna achrenaorWabayith AemaorIkha d'amri(literally, "otherwise interpreted"), we translate only the second.4. As the pages of the original are indicated in our new Hebrew edition, it is not deemed necessary to mark them in the English edition, this being only a translation from the latter.5. Words or passages enclosed in round parentheses () denote the explanation rendered by Rashi to the foregoing sentence or word. Square parentheses [] contained commentaries by authorities of the last period of construction of the Gemara.

Sources: Sacred Texts

Read more:

Babylonian Talmud [Full Text] - Jewish Virtual Library

Theater veteran Tovah Feldshuh has performed in 10 Broadway shows over the last five decades, garnering acclaim and Tony Awards love for Yentl and Goldas Balcony, among others. But theres a unique thrill to her current role on stage, as the endearing mother of Lea Micheles Fanny Brice in Funny Girl.

I get entrance applause at the top of the stairs, she says. Its kind of fabulous.

The crowd at Broadways August Wilson Theatre has been nothing short of euphoric ever since Feldshuh and Michele joined the company of Funny Girl in September. And the stakes couldnt have been higher. When the revival opened in March, 60 years after Barbra Streisands star-making turn in the beloved musical, it was plagued by negative reviews, bad buzz and wilting ticket sales.

Adding to the drama: Beanie Feldstein was originally cast as Fanny Brice instead of Michele, who has a long-publicized obsession with Funny Girl. One thing (criticism about Feldsteins voice) led to another (Feldsteins early exit from the show), resulting in Michele finally getting to take the main stage. The 73-year-old Feldshuh replaced Micheles former Glee co-star Jane Lynch, who initially played Mrs. Brice and left with Feldstein. Throughout the casting choices, surprise departures, and critical pile-on, theres been no shortage of headlines to dine out on the on- and off-stage gossip.

There is a reason its the most publicized show in New York, Feldshuh says over tea and fresh fruit at her Upper West Side apartment on a recent fall afternoon. It has a kernel of the American dream. Lea finally got the part she was destined to play in the first place, and shes brilliant in it.

Feldshuhs certain kind of maternal energy and shes played her share of Jewish mothers on stage and screen in Kissing Jessica Stein and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend seeps into real life as she interjects her musings about the theatre to make sure her company is well fed. Had we been cast in the first place, she says, taking a sip from her mug, this would not nearly have been as interesting a story.

Theres another reason that people have been clinging to the well-documented saga. Its a shot at redemption for Michele, who largely stepped back from the spotlight in 2020 after former Glee co-stars accused her of bad behavior on set. Feldshuh brushes off the idle chatter. I have no interest in reading about or knowing about it, she says in a way that, nonetheless, suggests shes acutely informed of the spectacle surrounding Michele. She adds, The Talmud says its forbidden to gossip.

Spoken like a true Jewish mother.

What has it been like to be back on Broadway?

Its a thrill. This thing fell into my lap. Forget just coming back to Broadway. What is it like to be in Funny Girl? Its like performing with The Beatles. Our performances, thanks to Lea Michele, are theatrical events.

Next year marks your 50th year on Broadway. How will you celebrate?

I want to have a party. We need to stop the conveyor belt and celebrate this accomplishment. Im so grateful I can do eight shows a week. I am an athlete. I am fit. I weigh 111.4 pounds, which is what I weighed in seventh grade. And you dont want to mess with me.

I was at your opening night, and the energy in the audience was electric. What was it like for you?

It was absolutely phenomenal. Basically the audience is saying to you, the second you step on stage, thank you. I feel very good about my work in the show. [The producers] let me say Oy, and they let Lea say Oy gevalt, and theyre letting me go, toi toi toi, which now gets a good laugh.

Has the reception been that enthusiastic every night?

We had no idea we would get that kind of reception. Weve only been doing it for five weeks, but thats the reception we get.

How were you first approached for the role?

I got this call from [producer] Daryl Roth saying Would you be interested in playing Rosie Bryce on Broadway? I said, I wouldnt be uninterested. I went to see the play, looked at the part and said, Maybe I can do something with this. I accepted the offer and saw the play innumerable times. Fanny Brice is the most startlingly brilliant role for a woman in the American musical theater. The rest of us are her spokes. But we dont have to be wallpaper. We function to bring out various assets and liabilities of Fanny Brices character. So I said yes. [But] how can I distinguish this part? Well, I got one advantage: Im Jewish. And Im the first actress of the Jewish religion to play this part on Broadway in 60 years.

Thats surprising to learn. What is gained by a Jewish actor playing Fannys mother?

As Katharine Hepburn said, God exists in the details. You want to come to any part youre playing as a sharpened pencil, a really fine point. And theres a difference between an Italian mother, an Irish mother, a Jewish mother, a Swedish mother A lot of Rosie Brice is not on the page. Its not some bravura role. How do you lift it off the page and make it deep, true, real and Jewish? This is a Jewish story about a Jewish girl. What makes it different, being a Jewish mother, is the manner in which a child is loved, cared for, touched. Its very demonstrative. The manner in which a Jew often catastrophizes first, which is written into Fannys part Wheres the torture? she says. The manner in which all is not always well, or all is not ever totally well; the Jew epigenetically has the specter of the possibility of extinction.

Did you do any research, or do you have enough experience from having a Jewish mother and being a Jewish mother?

and a Jewish grandmother. And no divorces in our family. I researched on Wikipedia that [Fannys mother] came here when she was 10 years old from Hungary. Had I been in the original production, I would have asked to explore the Hungarian accent. But I was a replacement, and to come in with that kind of a change would have been too drastic for the production. So I let it go. Other than that, its not that I didnt do research. I have enough in my memory bank.

Whats it like working with Lea Michele?

Lea never talks about herself. Never. The word diva doesnt even apply to her. It doesnt come close. Shes a working actress. Shes very good for the community.

What would surprise someone to know about her?

Her fans could enjoy the fact that her greatness of talent is coupled with her decency as a human being. And those who are not her fans, let me assure you, she is a dream to work with. Shes certainly wonderful to me. She calls me mom.

You were also in Yentl, another show thats closely associated with Barbra Streisand. Do you know each other?

She saw Kissing Jessica Stein and loved it, so she called me.

Have you spoken to her since youve joined Funny Girl?

I have not. I emailed her and said, Dearest Barbra, Im finally playing your mother. Love, Tovah. I dont know that shell come to see it. We all hope she will see it. I dont know. Shes in California, and shes 80.

How do you prepare to perform each day?

Would you like some of this apple? You should try some, its really good I get to the theater early. I like to close my eyes. I put my mask on and my earplugs on and listen to Headspace. I wake up at hour call. Just recalling the image Im starting to yawn. I change into the beginning of my costume and go to the stage to warm up my body and voice. By that time, its the half-hour mark. I get into my corset. Im one of two people who wear a corset in this show. I love wearing it. It makes me stand up straight. And then I start to go over the scenes.

How do you come down after a show?

The curtain call is so insane. It takes a while to relax. I ride my bike to the theater most nights. Now that were in a hit [show], everybodys flocking to the theater. So very often, well go out for a bite and then Ill bike home. I have a neon vest, and I bike up Central Park West. Im very careful. Sometimes I go to bed at 2 in the morning. I take Sleepytime Extra tea and melatonin. It takes tremendous discipline to calm down my mind.

Its a pretty long show. How do you spend time in between your scenes?

Could you pass the berries? When I was following Janes track, the dresser would say, And now Jane goes into the stage management office and sits and chats. I said, You got the wrong actor here. I do not sit. I do not chat. I study my script, like every good Jewish girl.

Is there a plan to record a cast album?

I hope so. What makes me sad is were not eligible for the Tonys. I hope they create something special for us.

Tovah Feldshuh (in red) on the Cannes red carpet for Armageddon Time.Getty Images

Youre also in James Grays new movie Armageddon Time. What was it like working with Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins?

Fabulous. Jeremy Strong as a real standout in that movie. Hes a superb artist and a wonderful man. When he works on set, hes in the tunnel. And, frankly, so are most of us. Tony is a gas. Hes hilarious. He can tell a dirty joke right before they say action and then do the part. And Anne Hathaway is like Lea Michele, just a superb human being. Shes very well brought up, very kind, very warm. Working for James Gray was pretty exciting because, who knew we were going to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival?

What was it like to go to Cannes?

It was exquisite. I was walking home Andy [Levy, Feldshuhs husband] and I rented a beautiful apartment near the Croisette and I met Julia Roberts. Shes a foot taller than me. She threw her arms around me and said, I have loved your work all my life. She started to name my theater credits. I said, You should run for president of the United States.

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Funny Girl Star Tovah Feldshuh on Sharing the Stage With Lea Michele and What the Talmud Says About Gossip - Variety

Marking the end of the annual Torah reading cycle, Simchat Torah is one of the most joyous days on the Jewish calendar. Tradition calls for dancing with Torah scrolls and eating festive meals and sweets.

Filled foods are a hallmark of the holiday, which this year will be observed from sunset Oct. 17 to sunset Oct. 18 (in Israel, and in Reform communities, its a day earlier).

In pursuit of tasty treats for such a sweet day, I explored a new cookbook that matches the stories of women in the Talmud with recipes. Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves: Uplifting the Voices of Talmudic Heroines and Honoring them with Simple, Vegan Recipes is by Kenden Alfond, a blogger (Jewish Food Hero) who also wrote Beyond Chopped Liver.

The new book pairs stories about 69 women from the Talmud (written by female rabbis, educators and others) with mostly vegan recipes (gathered from 129 women who are chefs, food bloggers and home cooks from around the globe).

The recipe below inspired by the story of a rabbis daughter includes a layer of date caramel and is thus perfect for Simchat Torah. The story, which has inspired rabbinic thought on financially independent women, is about how the daughters wedding contract stipulates she retain her own possessions and manage her own finances.

The recipe is by Yal Alfond-Vincent (Alfonds Paris-based daughter), and my writeup is adapted for style, space and my experience in making it. Note that the cookies need to chill before being served.

Line the bottom and sides of a loaf pan (8-by-4-by-2 inches) with a large piece of parchment paper so its easy to lift out the squares.

Place almond flour, cup coconut oil, syrup and salt in the work bowl of a food processor. Process until until paste forms (3 to 5 minutes). Press mixture evenly into the bottom of prepared pan. Smooth with a metal spoon. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Once this layer is well chilled, pulse the almond butter, dates, figs, vanilla, lemon juice in the food processor until smooth. Taste and stir in more lemon juice if desired. Evenly spread on top of shortbread with a metal spoon. Wet the back of the spoon with water or additional juice and smooth. Return to fridge for at least 1 hour.

Melt the chocolate: Place chips or broken-up chocolate bars with remaining 1 tsp. coconut oil in small pot over low heat until smooth, stirring occasionally. Pour over the chilled caramel layer, titling the pan so the chocolate spreads evenly. Place pan level in refrigerator overnight. (Can be made 3 days ahead.)

Use the paper to lift the millionaire squares out of the pan in one piece. Cut into 16 pieces with sharp knife. Serve at room temperature. Wrap leftovers individually in plastic and store in refrigerator.

Notes: Use solid, room-temperature coconut oil, which will have a strong coconut taste. If thats an issue, use triple-refined coconut oil or a non-palm oil solid baking shortening. Choose a nut butter without added oil or sugar. Use vegan chocolate that is 54% to 72% cocoa solids. If using chips, 2 cups equals 12 oz.

Link:

No-bake 'millionaire' bars are a rich treat for a sweet Simchat Torah J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

(RNS) When you think of moral heroes, you probably go to Rosa Parks, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela or Elie Wiesel. They were all great moral heroes. But, sometimes you need to encounter someone who has a teaspoon of heroism. Those are my two guests on this podcast two human lulavs, who showed that they could bend but not break.

Click below to listen to the audio and let us know what you think.

It is time to play the game of movie trivia.

Question: what is the most important one-word quote in motion picture history?

I can see some of you getting ready to raise your hands. Well, I cant see that, but I am imagining it.

Some of you would say it is the last word from Orson Welles classic film, Citizen Kane: rosebud.

But, no. Sorry. That is not the answer I am looking for.

Lets talk about one of the great American movies of our time: The Graduate.

Now, in fact, there was either nothing Jewish about The Graduate or there was everything Jewish about The Graduate.

It is not only that it starred Dustin Hoffman, who is about as Jewish as it gets.

It is not only that Simon and Garfunkel provided the soundtrack which is also about as Jewish as it gets.

Benjamin Braddock, the alienated graduate, could have been Benjamin Bronstein.

Mrs. Robinson could have been Mrs. Rubinstein.

The Graduate was a totally Jewish movie.

Lets remember the movie together.

Ben Braddock is a product of Southern Californias upper middle class. He has just graduated from college. He is lost. He does not know what he wants out of life.

At his graduation party, a family friend approaches Benjamin.

I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening?

Many of you know the word that comes next.

Plastics.

There you have it. Perhaps the single most important one-word line in all of motion picture history.

If you are of a certain age, you remember that we used that word to describe people and it was not a compliment. She is so totally plastic.

Plastic described people who were artificial. It also described people who could twist themselves into being whatever others thought they should be, or into being what society thought they should be.

To be plastic is to be infinitely malleable.

Dont get me wrong. I believe in being flexible.

Jews are now in the process of finishing the festival of Sukkot.

We have been shaking the lulav, the palm frond.

What is the greatest quality of the lulav?

It bends. It is flexible.

The Talmud asks the question: Why does a sofer, a scribe, use a quill made out of a reed to write a scroll of the Torah?

Because, it says, a person should always be as flexible as a reed and as unyielding as a cedar.

But, you cannot be so flexible that you forget the core of who you are. When that happens, you break.

Or, your soul breaks.

I have spent a certain chunk of my life reflecting on that whole notion of plastics.

Perhaps the original word plastics in The Graduate that piece of advice the friend offered Benjamin Braddock was not, in fact, his way of saying Ben should be infinitely malleable.

If you remember the mass-production of plastics an innovation in the late 1960s then perhaps the friend was merely saying: Hey, Ben, plastics is going to be a thing, and you should get in on the ground floor.

If the movie had been made in recent years, it would have been what? Bitcoin?

We laughed when we heard plastics, because it was the ultimate synthetic material.

Southern California, where The Graduate took place, was the ultimate synthetic place.

Nothing was real in the world of The Graduate.

During the late 1960s, we used the word plastic as a derogatory term. It meant someone was as synthetic as the material itself.

But, this whole thing about plastic reminds us of something else.

Malleability? Not so good.

A faith tradition that holds out the model of an Abraham, of prophets, of Maccabees who refused to bend to the assimilationist waves of Hellenism, of Spanish Jews who let themselves be burned rather than convert to Christianity, of Russian Jews who resisted the dominant religion of Marx and Lenin for the subversive religion of God and Torah no one has ever come up to us and said that magic word: plastics.

Flexible? Much better. We all have learned how to be flexible, especially since the pandemic.

With flexibility has come resiliency.

Link:

How to bend and not break - Religion News Service

When the Supreme Court ruled in June to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion, 87-year-old Barbara Meislin immediately called her grant adviser at the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and started mapping out which reproductive-rights organizations she could support through philanthropy.

We need to fight back, the Marin County resident said.

For Meislin, that meant adding money to her Federation donor-advised fund a managed account that lets her have a big say about which groups and causes will receive grants from those funds.

This summer, she focused on organizations supporting womens rights and democracy itself. Im doing everything I know how and can [do] to help us survive, she said.

Many local Jewish philanthropists say they feel the same way when it comes to defending womens reproductive rights.

It was sort of this steady march up with each threat over the Trump presidency, and now with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, [donors are] stepping it up again, said Amy Lyons, executive director of the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation, a Jewish-driven entity focused on supporting community needs across the Bay Area.

At the Federation, according to Rebecca Randall, the agencys managing director of philanthropy, donor-advised funds and supporting foundations granted $1.2 million in the name of reproductive rights from July 2021 through August 2022.

Since 2018, she added, more than 200 Federation donors and supporting foundations have given approximately $3.9 million to agencies that provide reproductive health care, protect abortion access and do other advocacy work around these causes. (By comparison, for the fiscal year ending in June 2016, the total given toward reproductive rights was only just above $250,000.)

This is one of those issues that we knew our community as a whole cared about, even if they hadnt necessarily started funding it in a big way, Randall said.

In May, seeking to support reproductive rights in a more explicit way, the Federation developed a guide titled Reproductive Rights Giving Opportunities.

The need for an abortion affects 1 in 4 women of reproductive age, the guide begins, adding that 75 percent of abortion patients are low-income women who cant use insurance for the procedure. The Rabbis of the Talmud are clear, it adds later, Abortion is permitted, and in some cases required, for the health and safety of women.

The guide lists agencies that the owners of donor-advised funds have recommended supporting, including the Abortion Care Network, two local branches of Planned Parenthood, Access Womens Health Justice, Center for Reproductive Rights, the Guttmacher Institute, NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation and National Network of Abortion Funds. An update this summer added the National Council for Jewish Women, which has its own Jewish Fund for Abortion Access. (Abortion access is a Jewish value plain and simple, its webpage states.)

The Rabbis of the Talmud are clear: Abortion is permitted, and in some cases required, for the health and safety of women.

Supporting reproductive rights is not the only hot issue these days, as there have been big jumps in other donor-advised giving at the Federation. In the fiscal year that ended in June 2022, for example, educational organizations were granted $23 million from Federation donors, a sizable increase of over $5 million from the previous fiscal year, according to Randall.

Meanwhile, the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation has doubled what it has granted to reproductive-rights groups over the last five years. Grantees include NARAL, Planned Parenthood and ACLU Northern California.

In July, the Goldmans added six $10,000 grants to smaller, grassroots organizations working toward the same goals, including Groundswells Catalyst Fund for Reproductive Services, which focuses on directing health resources to low-income women, women of color and transgender people. In August, the National Abortion Federation was added as a grantee.

In all, John and Marcia Goldman have donated $245,000 this year toward abortion access and womens reproductive health care, according to Lyons.

Prompted by the Supreme Court ruling in June, the S.F.-based Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund awarded two rounds of emergency grants totaling $1 million to reproductive health and rights groups. These include Just the Pill, I Need an A.com, If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice and the Abortion Movement Fund. The extra funding came in addition to Lisa and Douglas annual award of approximately $1.4 million in grants in support of abortion access and delivery. (John and Douglas Goldman are brothers.)

The S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council is one of the Federations largest grantees and a major partner in advocacy for abortion access and activism around legislation tied to protecting reproductive freedom.

JCRC aggressively advocated for Assembly Bill 1666, introduced by Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of the East Bay and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in June. It protects California abortion providers and their patients from civic actions brought by states where abortions are banned or significantly restricted.

Jessica Trubowitch, JCRCs director of policy and partnerships, said that the rise in giving to Federation donor-advised funds speaks to the concern that our community has for where abortion rights and access are right now in many U.S. states.

Julia Abramson, JCRCs community relations associate, added that the grant money from the Federation helps her mobilize and attract more volunteers to participate in abortion rights advocacy. Shes currently running a campaign for Proposition 1, the Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment, which will be on the California ballot in November.

The Federations support really makes me happy and excited for what we can do in this Prop. 1 campaign, mobilizing our communities, Abramson said. So although its a very troubling and anxious time, it has me activated and hopeful.

Meislin echoed Abramsons feelings. She is encouraged by the growing philanthropy and political activism that has emerged since the landmark ruling in June that overturned Roe vs. Wade.

Im very concerned about the survival of our democracy right now, she said. I think were in very dire straits. Maybe things like this particular Supreme Court ruling have awakened people who would otherwise be half asleep.

Original post:

Jewish donations to support abortion rights groups are booming J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Anyone who tried singing with a group live on Zoom during the pandemic knows just how chaotic and deeply unsatisfying such an experience could be. Zoom just wasnt made for that.

As much of Jewish communal life resumes in person, many are thrilled to once again be raising their voices together in song and in the same key and tempo. On Oct. 30, Joey Weisenberg will provide a unique opportunity to do just that when he visits the Bay Area to teach a workshop and give a concert at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.

A giant of contemporary Jewish music, in the words of Sherith Israels Cantor Toby Glaser, Weisenberg will share techniques on setting up singing spaces, harmonizing, finding the groove and cultivating silence. A program presented by local cantors and a concert involving Weisenberg, local synagogue choirs and workshop participants will follow. All events will be in-person only.

Since communal life was disrupted by the pandemic, Ive gained a much deeper appreciation for the preciousness of every musical moment, Weisenberg, 40, wrote in an email to J. More than anything else, Im just excited to get to be a part of the beautiful spiritual soundscape we create together!

Weisenberg is the founder of the Philadelphia-based Rising Song Institute, which fosters Jewish spiritual life through music. (It is a program of the Hadar Institute, an egalitarian educational institution in New York.) He has led singing workshops around the world, and he said the Sherith Israel program is for Jewish professionals and lay leaders, musicians and anyone who wants to transform their local musical culture.

Glaser told J. he attended one of Weisenbergs workshops in New York a few years ago and was blown away by the experience.

His teaching is really grounded in Jewish thought, philosophy and scholarship, Glaser said. He really uses a lot of text, whether its from the Torah or the Talmud, to emphasize the way the melody affects us on a Jewish level.

In contrast to the Reform tradition of Jewish music, which is grounded in American folk music (think Debbie Friedman), Weisenberg works with melodies based on Jewish liturgical music, said Glaser. Its a different style to a lot of Jewish popular music thats been written, he said.

With its massive dome and evocative stained glass windows, Sherith Israels sanctuary is an ideal place to get transcendental with the music, Glaser said. Temple Isaiah in Lafayette and Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael are co-sponsoring the events.

The author of Building Singing Communities: A Practical Guide to Unlocking the Power of Music in Jewish Prayer and The Torah of Music, Weisenberg plays multiple instruments and composes new nigguns, or wordless melodies. His latest album, Leila, dropped earlier this year.

He said he is looking forward to working with as many Jewish music lovers as possible.

The more people who attend, the richer the sounds, the deeper the conversation, the more uplifting the experience, he said. And I hope this will merely be the starting point of a much longer journey into collective song.

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Joey Weisenberg coming to S.F. to help build 'singing communities' J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

PODCAST Hello Colorado Rapids fans. This week on Holding The High Line, Red sits down with Marcelo Balboa to have a long awaited interview. We discuss his playing career, big picture thoughts on the game, getting into media, and reminisce about his time covering the Rapids for Altitude Sports. Just like with Richard Fleming, we dont know what the future holds for Celo. But we appreciate everything hes done for the sport in this country and the Rapids.

Holding The High Line is an independent soccer podcast focused on the Colorado Rapids of MLS. If you like the show, please consider subscribing to us on your preferred podcatcher, giving us a review, and tell other Rapids fans about us. It helps a ton. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. You can find a full list of pod catchers were on with links on this Twitter thread. Our artwork was produced by CR54 Designs. Juanners does our music. Email us at rapids96podcast@gmail.com if youd like full transcripts of any episodes.

HTHL ison Patreon. If you like what we do and want to give us money, head on over toour page and become a Patreon Member.

Matt Pollard is the Site Manager for Last Word on Soccer and an engineer by day. A Colorado Convert, he started covering the Colorado Rapids as a credentialed member of the press in 2016, though hes watched MLS since 96. When hes not watching or writing about soccer, hes being an outdoorsman (mostly skiing and hiking) in this beautiful state or trying a new beer. For some reason, he thought that starting a podcast with Mark was a good idea and he cant figure out how to stop this madness. He also hosts Last Word SC Radio.

Mark Goodman, the artist formally known as Rapids Rabbi, moved to Colorado in 2011. Shortly thereafter he went to Dicks Sporting Goods Park, saw Lee Nguyen dribble a ball with the silky smoothness of liquid chocolate cascading into a Bar Mitzvah fountain, and promptly fell head over heels in love with domestic soccer. When not watching soccer or coaching his sons U-8 team, hes generally studying either Talmud or medieval biblical exegesis. Which explains why he watches so much MLS, probably. Having relocated to Pittsburgh in 2019, he covers the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the USL for Pittsburgh Soccer Now.

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Holding The High Line Podcast: The Marcelo Balboa Interview - Last Word on Soccer

Browse > Home / Featured Articles / Was the fruit of the Tree of Life from which Adam and Eve ate really an apple? J-Wire

October 19, 2022 by Rabbi Raymond Apple

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Ask the rabbi.

WAS IT REALLY AN APPLE?

Q. Was the fruit of the Tree of Life from which Adam and Eve ate really an apple?

A. The text (Gen. 2:7) doesnt say a word about apples. All it speaks about is the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Whatever fruit it was, Adam was warned not to eat it. He disobeyed, as did Eve, and their punishment was expulsion.

Now was it literally a piece of fruit that they ate, or was the fruit allegorical?

How, after all, could eating a physical piece of fruit be wrong? And why should anyone think the text is talking about an apple when apples are regarded so highly later on in the Bible?

Surely the verse is teaching a moral lesson, and the word fruit is not to be taken literally.

As an analogy, remember that we have common idioms such as the fruit of ones deeds, which no one takes literally as a reference to apples, oranges or any other specific fruit category.

The lesson the Torah is teaching is that there are some kinds of indulgence (hence the word eat) that are out of bounds.

In this case, there is a clear sexual implication; when Adam and Eve replaced purity and holiness with sensuality and lust, their Garden of Eden was over.

However, the belief that there was an actual apple must have come from somewhere.

In the Midrash, there are suggestions that the fruit that symbolised the forbidden indulgence could have been a fig, grapes, wheat, quince, pomegranate, nuts or the apple of paradise, i.e. the etrog (citron).

This last view is promoted in the Septuagint and elsewhere, and Nachmanides, in fact, sees the name etrog as deriving from an Aramaic root denoting passion or desire.

In time, the word apple may have come to be the general term for any fruit, and when Biblical and post-Biblical writers said (e.g. Song of Songs 2:5) that apples were good for ones health, they may have been thinking of fruit in general.

It was early Christian writers (e.g. Jerome) who identified Adams sin with an actual apple, perhaps because they misconstrued the Greek references to the apple of paradise or possibly because the shape of the apple suggested a sexual connotation.

RABBIS IN THE WORKFORCE

Q. How is it that some rabbinically qualified people take on jobs outside the rabbinate?

A. This was always the case.

Because of the principle, Do not make the Torah a spade to dig with (Avot 4:5), Talmudic rabbis practised a variety of professions; one was even a gladiator.

The concept of the rabbi was quite different from the modern idea of a congregational minister. The rabbi was no more (or less) than a learned layman. Certain professions became particularly common among rabbis, especially medicine.

The modern spread of yeshivah learning has created thousands of rabbis who work in industry, commerce and the professions. Indeed, when the Lubliner Rav, a great rosh yeshivah, was asked where he was going to find congregational posts for his 300 students, he said he expected only one would be a community rabbi but hoped the other 299 would be learned enough to appreciate their congregational colleague.

Rabbis who work in other areas ought to be able to exert a subliminal spiritual and ethical influence and to raise the quality of society from within.

Whatever the profession he chooses, a rabbi must always ensure he is a role model of morality and decency.

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Was the fruit of the Tree of Life from which Adam and Eve ate really an apple? J-Wire - J-Wire Jewish Australian News Service

by Daniel Golovenko | 18 October 2022 |

The story has been told so often in Adventist circles around the world that it sometimes seems almost like sacrilege to revisit it: on October 22, 1844, thousands of faithful believers, mainly in the New England states, gathered in hopeful anticipation that the skies would break open and the Lord Jesus Christ himself would descend.

The text about cleansing the sanctuary (Daniel 8:14) would later come to be understood, in light of the symbolism of the day of atonement, as something being done in the heavenly sanctuaryChrist furthering his priestly ministry.

What happened at the disjunction between the initial theory and its later explanation is still known today as the Great Disappointment.

Though it is an oft-told origin story, it deserves an honest review. Most of us are decently familiar with the 2,300-days prophecy of Daniel 8:14 and its termination in 1844. Yet when the movement began no one was discussing the date of October 22. So why did The Great Disappointment happen on that particular day?

Its development and revision post-disappointment are almost as noteworthy as the disappointment itself.

Samuel Snow

Anyone who has read the story of the Millerite movement will know that several dates or ranges of dates had been proposed for Jesus to return. Originally, Miller preached that the end of the world would occur sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844.[1] When the original time frame passed, they recalculated for April 18-19, 1844, which also passed uneventfully.[2]

The Millerites relied heavily on an interpretation of the ten virgins of Matthew 25 to say that they were in tarrying timethus excusing the several unfulfilled predictions as Gods delaying his coming. It is at this point in the story that a preacher named Samuel Snow, at a Millerite camp meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, in August of 1844, presented to the gathered company the date of October 22.

You may have heard that October 22 was chosen because it was the Day of Atonement in 1844, the holiest day according to the Jewish calendar. You may be surprised to learn, then, that Yom Kippur fell on September 22-23 that year.[3] This discrepancy in the story causes understandable concern for some believers,[4] and begs the question of how Snow arrived at the October 22 date.

The methodology Snow used to calculate his prediction is complex, to say the least. At the time it was merely reported that,

Brother Snow remarked with great energy on the time, and displayed much research in his presentation of the evidence which, in his view, points to the tenth day of the seventh month of the Jewish sacred year, as the day of the Lords Advent.

Ironically, this report was followed with a cautionary remark: We should hesitate before we should feel authorized to attempt to make known the very day.[5]

Snows own publication of this idea ends with predicting Christs return on the tenth day of the seventh month of the year of jubilee: and that is the present year, 1844.[6]

The Karaite calendar

The key here is that Snows prediction was contingent on how one determined the start of the Jewish calendar year in 1844. The contentious point in Snows chronology is his use of the Karaite Jewish calendar.

The Karaites were a sect of Jews who believed that all of the divine instruction was recorded in the Torah, without the additional explanation from the Midrash or Talmud, as prescribed by Rabbinic Judaism. Snow and his supporters said that Karaites determined their calendar in accordance with strict Mosaic law, and determined the new year by the new moon nearest the barley harvest in Palestine, which would mean their calendar started April 19, 1844.[7]

There is evidence that the Karaites themselves had actually stopped utilizing their traditional calendar by this time, and may have begun keeping the festivals in accordance with the Rabbinical calendar. Snow nonetheless relied on the obsolete calendar to generate October 22 as the modern tenth day of the seventh month.

Ultimately, whatever the rationale by which Snow determined the October 22 date, it came and went, leaving thousands with shattered hope.

The cornfield vision

What would eventually become Seventh-day Adventism was birthed in the aftermath of the Great Disappointment. While Adventism has grown far beyond what it originally looked like in the late 1800s, there is still one major thing which ties us to October 22: a vision that Hiram Edson had in a cornfield on October 23, 1844.

Hiram Edsons explanation had a simple yet revolutionary premise for the disheartened Millerites: there was a sanctuary in heaven and, rather than returning to earth for us, Christ had just changed his location in the heavenly sanctuary. In Edsons own words,

Heaven seemed open to my view, and I saw distinctly and clearly, that instead of our High Priest coming out of the Most Holy of the heavenly sanctuary to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the end of the 2300 days, that he for the first time entered on that day the second apartment of that sanctuary; and that he had a work to perform in the Most Holy before coming to this earth. [8]

In that statement Edson tied the the tenth day of the seventh month with Christs ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. All subsequent discussions among Adventists on what happened in 1844 have been shaped by that cornfield vision.

October 22 today

The present significance of October 22 differs depending upon whom you talk to in the church. Undoubtedly it is because of the Great Disappointment that October is Adventist History Month. Some may even feel that October 22 is a sort of quasi-holiday unique to Adventism, commemorating a foundational event in our history.

Yet no part of this origin story is safe from scrutiny, and most aspects of it have provoked ongoing discussion. The method by which Snow and his allies arrived at October 22 would nowadays be considered exegetical butchery by even traditional Adventist scholars, which may explain why there has been no robust scholarly effort in Adventism to revive Snows predictive methodology. Parables are prescriptive, rather than descriptive, truths, and it would be thought illogical to use them in the manner the seventh-month movement did.

Furthermore, Snow made use of the discredited Ussher chronology, a famous timeline of earths history which calculated the Bible chronologies to a level of specificity for which they were never intended. Archbishop James Ussher added up the Old Testament numbers and pronounced that the first day of creation fell at the entrance of the night preceding the 23rd day of October the year before Christ 4004that is, around 6 pm on 22 October 4004 BC, on October 23! How ideal it seemed to Samuel Snow that this present world would end on October 22 and the new world begin on the 23rd, just as it did originally![9]

Some within Adventism have tried to defend the validity of the Karaite calendar upon which the Millerites used to choose October 22 rather than September 23.[10] Unfortunately for them, there is no solid evidence that any portion of the Jewish community observed Yom Kippur on October 22 that year.

It remains, however, that the most common critique of October 22 is none at all: it has diminished in significance over the years for most Adventists. A Sabbath School quarterly a few years ago discussed 1844 in detail, without defending October 22 at all.

Why we still defend it

A defense of October 22 would probably not be necessary if it were not for Hiram Edsons claiming Christ transitioned in the heavenly sanctuary that very day. Edsons experience has undergone scrutiny over the years.[11] The provenance of his written account is disputableit was written roughly five decades after the fact.

Yet in spite of the famous cornfield story, Edsons vision was not as instrumental to the development of the doctrine as some might believe.[12] The strongest bulwark for October 22 is that Sister White claimed that God was in the preaching of the seventh-month movement. But while she was clear that God propelled the movement, there is no quotation to say that God provided the precise date in October.

It is important to remember that while the Millerite movement was extraordinarily effective, it was mistaken. We may never know why God permitted thousands of believers to suffer such a soul-crushing disappointment. Furthermore, any effort to devise a biblical reason to cement October 22, 1844, as the definitive day Christ moved in the heavenly sanctuary would be hard-pressed to find crystal-clear support in scripture.

A decline in interest

With every subsequent generation of Adventists there is a decrease in concern over this bit of our history. The lack of reference to October 22 may simply be that 1844 is such a common shorthand for what happened that it seems unnecessary to resurrect the questionable specifics.

But in fact, it is simply not as clear-cut as we would like it to be. Whether Christ moved in the heavenly sanctuary on October 22, September 23, or some other time between 1843-1844 is not relevant. Please remember that the 2,300-days calculation stood on its own merits even before Snow introduced October 22. Miller himself wrote,

I have never fixed on any month, day, or hourI am not a prophet. I am not sent to prophesy, but to read, believe, and publish what God has inspired the ancient prophets to administer to us, in the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments.[13]

The 2,300-days prophecy still terminates around 1843-44 according to Adventist calculations. As for what happens in the heavenly sanctuary, it has scriptural support to stand on its own. Both skeptics and believers who feel their faith is contingent on irrefutable accuracy of the date of October 22 would probably also argue about whether Christ cleansed two or one demoniac, (Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-21; Luke 8:26-40)which is to say again, the precise date isnt relevant.

Whatever your opinion of October 22 may bewhether it is unquestionably the day on which Christ entered the heavenly holy of holies, or a day on which thousands were deluded into a doomsday movement, it is still a part of history that shaped who we are, and we shouldnt forget it.

Daniel Golovenko pastors in the Allegheny West conference in Ohio.

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Where Did October 22 Come From? - Adventist Today

Thought nonbinary gender was a modern concept? Think again. The ancient Jewish understanding of gender was far more nuanced than many assume.

The Talmud, a huge and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, contains in fact no less than eight gender designations including:

In fact, not only did the rabbis recognize six genders that were neither male nor female, they had a tradition that the first human being was both. Versions of this midrash are found throughout rabbinic literature, including in the Talmud:

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar also said: Adam was first created with two faces (one male and the other female). As it is stated: You have formed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. (Psalms 139:5)

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar imagines that the first human was created both male and female with two faces. Later, this original human being was separated and became two distinct people, Adam and Eve. According to this midrash then, the first human being was, to use contemporary parlance, nonbinary. Genesis Rabbah 8:1 offers a slightly different version of Rabbi Yirmeyas teaching:

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created him as an androgynos (one having both male and female sexual characteristics), as it is said, male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Said Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created for him a double face, and sawed him and made him backs, a back here and a back there, as it is said, Behind and before, You formed me (Psalms 139:5).

In this version of the teaching, Rabbi Yirmeya is not focusing on the first humans face (or, rather, faces) but on their sex organs they have both. The midrash imagines this original human looked something like a man and woman conjoined at the back so that one side has a womens face and a womans sex organs and the other side has a mans face and sex organs. Then God split this original person in half, creating the first man and woman. Ancient history buffs will recognize this image as similar to the character Aristophanes description of the first humans as both male and female, eventually sundered to create lone males and females forever madly seeking one another for the purposes of reuniting to experience that primordial state. (Plato, Symposium, 189ff)

For the rabbis, the androgynos wasnt just a thing of the mythic past. The androgynos was in fact a recognized gender category in their present though not with two heads, only both kinds of sex organs. The term appears no less than 32 times in the Mishnah and 283 times in the Talmud. Most of these citations are not variations on this myth, but rather discussions that consider how Jewish law (halakhah) applies to one who has both male and female sexual characteristics.

That the androgynos is, from a halakhic perspective, neither male nor female, is confirmed by Mishnah Bikkurim 4:1, which states this explicitly:

The androgynos is in some ways like men, and in other ways like women. In other ways he is like men and women, and in others he is like neither men nor women.

Because Hebrew has no gender neutral pronoun, the Mishnah uses a male pronoun for the androgynos, though this is obviously insufficient given the rabbinic descriptions of this person. Reading on we find that the androgynos is, for the rabbis, in many ways like a man they dress like a man, they are obligated in all commandments like a man, they marry women and their white emissions lead to impurity. However, in other ways, the androgynos is like a woman they do not share in inheritance like sons, they do not eat of sacrifices that are reserved only for men and their red discharge leads to impurity.

The Mishnah goes on to list ways in which an androgynos is just like any other person. Like any human being, one who strikes him or curses him is liable. (Bikkurim 4:3) Similarly, one who murders an androgynos is, well, a murderer. But the androgynos is also unlike a man or a woman in other important legal respects for instance, such a person is not liable for entering the Temple in a state of impurity as both a man and woman would be.

As should now be clear, the rabbinic interest in these gender ambiguous categories is largely legal. Since halakhah was structured for a world in which most people were either male or female, applying the law to individuals who didnt fall neatly into one of those two categories was challenging. As Rabbi Yose remarks in this same chapter of the Mishnah: The androgynos is a unique creature, and the sages could not decide about him. (Bikkurim 4:5)

In many cases, the androgynos is lumped together with other kinds of nonbinary persons as well as other marginalized populations, including women, slaves, the disabled and minors. For example, concerning participation in the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot) during which the Jews of antiquity would travel to the Temple in Jerusalem, the mishnah of Chagigah opens:

All are obligated on the three pilgrimage festivals to appear in the Temple and sacrifice an offering, except for a deaf-mute, an imbecile, and a minor; and a tumtum, an androgynos, women, and slaves who are not emancipated; and the lame, the blind, the sick, and the old, and one who is unable to ascend to Jerusalem on his own legs.

As this mishnah indicates, it is only healthy, free adult men who are obligated to appear at the Temple to observe the pilgrimage festivals. People who are not adult men, and men who are enslaved or too old or unwell to make the journey, are exempt.

As we have already stated, the androgynos was not the only person of ambiguous gender identified by the rabbis. Similarly, the rabbis recognized one whose sexual characteristics are lacking or difficult to determine, called a tumtum. In the mishnah from Bikkurim we cited earlier, Rabbi Yose, who said the androgynos was legally challenging for the sages, said the tumtum was much easier to figure out.

The rabbis also recognized that some peoples sexual characteristics can change with puberty either naturally or through intervention. Less common than the androgynos and tumtum, but still found throughout rabbinic texts, are the aylonit, who is born with organs identified as female at birth but develops male characteristics at puberty or no sex characteristics at all, and the saris, who is born with male-identified organs and later develops features recognized as female (or no sex characteristics). These changes can happen naturally over time (saris hamah) or with human intervention (saris adam).

For the rabbis, what is most significant about the aylonit and the saris is that they are presumed infertile the latter is sometimes translated as eunuch. Their inability to have offspring creates legal complications the rabbis address, for example:

A woman who is 20 years old who did not grow two pubic hairs shall bring proof that she is twenty years old, and from that point forward she assumes the status of an aylonit. If she marries and her husband dies childless, she neither performs halitzah nor does she enter into levirate marriage.

A woman who reaches the age of 20 without visible signs of puberty, in particular pubic hair, is deemed an aylonit who is infertile. According to this mishnah, she may still marry, but it is not expected that she will bear children. Therefore, if her husband dies and the couple is in fact childless, his brother is not obligated to marry her, as would normally be required by the law of levirate marriage.

A nonbinary person who does not have the same halakhic status as a male or female, but is something else that is best described as ambiguous or in between, presented a halakhic challenge that was not particularly foreign for the rabbis, who discuss analogs in the animal and plant kingdoms. For example, the rabbinic texts describe a koi as an animal that is somewhere between wild and domesticated (Mishnah Bikkurim 2:8) and an etrog yes, that beautiful citron that is essential for Sukkot as between a fruit and a vegetable (Mishnah Bikkurim 2:6, see also Rosh Hashanah 14). Because they dont fit neatly into common categories, the koi and the etrog require special halakhic consideration. The rabbinic understanding of the world was that most categories be they animal, vegetable or mineral are imperfect descriptors of the world, either as it is or as it should be.

In recent decades, queer Jews and allies have sought to reinterpret these eight genders of the Talmud as a way of reclaiming a positive space for nonbinary Jews in the tradition. The starting point is that while it is true that the Talmud understands gender to largely operate on a binary axis, the rabbis clearly understood that not everyone fits these categories.

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The Eight Genders in the Talmud | My Jewish Learning

Literary critic, poet andWall Street Journaleditor Adam Kirsch visited Yeshiva University on September 21 for a conversation with students from theZahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thoughtand theJay and Jeannie Schottenstein Honors Program. Kirsch spoke with Straus Center Program Officer Tal Fortgang and a room full of Yeshiva College students about his book,Come and Hear: What I Saw in My Seven-and-a-Half-Year Journey Through the Talmud, and his series of columns forTableton hisDaf Yomi(daily Talmud study)excursion.

Kirsch began by explaining what motivated him to take on the project ofDaf Yomias a non-Orthodox Jew, literary critic and novice in the world of Talmud study. He was inspired by the 2012Siyum HaShas(celebration of the completion of theDaf Yomicycle)and figured he could gain insights into what animated todays Orthodox Jews, as well as how the ancient sages continue to exert an influence over Jewish cultureobservant or nottoday.

He immediately began receiving feedback on his discoveries, as chronicled in a regular column atTablet. Kirsch reports hearing from yeshiva students and non-observant Jews alike, and began to see his mission as acting as a scout for people with backgrounds similar to his ownthose who had not encountered the Talmuds unique mode of argument or its assumptions about the intermingling of the natural and supernatural worlds.

Kirsch emphasized to the students in attendance that an element of Talmud study that stands out to an outsider is that the argument is often an end in and of itself. He also pointed out that because the Talmud is more than just a code of lawit touches on so many different topics, involves many indeterminate arguments and records many episodes not legal in natureit allows Jews in every era to share reference points that can unify a people who may be geographically and philosophically disparate. For instance, the term tikkun olam meant one thing in the time of the Talmud, another thing in the Medieval era and another thing to many contemporary Jews. Whether or not Jews today are using the term in accordance with its original meaning, they still feel the need to ground their understanding in a term that resonates with other Jews.

Students eagerly peppered Kirsch with questions about the past, present and future of Talmud study. Kirsch noted in response that study of the Gemara is undergoing a renaissance today among observant Jews, academics and people simply interested in understanding the development of Jewish thought. He contrasted this renaissance with early American Jewish literature, which derided Talmud study as backward and barbaric, a symbol of the old world American Jews were leaving behind.

Today, he concluded, the Talmud is available in many languages, on many platforms, with many commentaries, at the push of a button. Whether the democratization of Talmud study will turn out to be good for the Jews or not is yet to be seen.

The event was the latest in a series sponsored or co-sponsored by the Straus Center and Schottenstein Honors Program. Recent events included a conversation with theJerusalem Posts Zvika Klein and a dinner discussion withTablets Liel Leibovitz and YUs own Rabbi Daniel Feldman.

You can learn more about the Straus Center by signing up for our newsletterhere. Be sure to also like us onFacebook, follow us onTwitterandInstagramand connect with us onLinkedIn.

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A Daf Yomi Scout: Literary Critic Adam Kirsch Shares Insights from His Seven-Year Study of the Talmud with YU Students - Yu News

Why Yom Kippur is one of the happiest days of the year.

A few years ago, I had the privilege of awarding someone a medallion at an AA meeting, a celebration of a significant milestone of sobriety. I am always inspired from being among people who have the courage to admit their addiction, name their enemy, and confront it on a regular basis.

The recovery program is made up of 12 steps, and the meeting I attended addressed Step 8, which is to make a list of all persons we had harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all and Step 9, to make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

People reflected on the experience of being willing to make amends with people, some whom they hurt and others they were hurt or injured by.Then one person got up and said something I found fascinating.When she arrived at this step in her recovery, she realized one of the people she most needed to make amends with was herself.The mistakes she had made, the excuses, missed opportunities, damaged relationships, sabotaged success she had caused herself, left her needing to be willing to forgive herself, to make amends with herself.

The next person who spoke disagreed and pointed out making it about ourselves is what got us into trouble to begin with. Amends is about others, it doesnt always have to be about the I, and that kind of thinking is misguided and can lead to bad outcomes.

I walked out of the meeting moved by both sides and thinking about this question. Who was right?

The Talmud reconciles two different statements of Reish Lakish. The first: Great is teshuva, repentance, as the penitents intentional sins are counted for him as unwitting transgressions. The second: Great is repentance, as ones intentional sins are counted for him as merits. The Talmud explains the seeming contradiction: When one repents out of love, a higher level of repentance, his sins become like merits, but when one repents out of fear, a lower level, his sins are counted as unwitting transgressions (Yoma 86b).

I understand how the power of teshuva can transform my mistakes, indiscretions, poor judgment, and intentional violations into accidental, careless ones.Picture a judge lightening a sentence because of good behavior and still putting criminal charges on the record, but lesser ones. But what does it mean that my intentional mistakes can become actual merits? How can those mistakes be turned into merits, virtues, assets, acting in ones favor?

Surprisingly, the answer can be derived from sleeping bats.

Many people know that bats sleep upside down but few know the reason. While bats can fly, they cant take off. Some birds can take off from a dead stop by simply flapping their wings, but bats cant. Birds wings are long and feathered and can generate enough thrust to achieve liftoff, but bats wings, as ScienceFriday explains, are basically large, webbed hands. Once airborne, a bat can use these webbed hands to sustain the flight over long distances and steer seamlessly, but they have a problem: they cant do the necessary flapping to take off.

Bats use the momentum from falling to take flight.

So what do bats do if they can fly but cant take off? The answer is they dont take off -- they fall down. During the night, they use their claws to climb up a tree. Once they get high enough off the ground, they drop, using gravity to gain momentum and they use the momentum from falling to take flight.

Perhaps this is the meaning of Talmud quoted above.Not all types of teshuva are equal. If you do teshuva because of fear of punishment, you dont want to suffer the consequence, then your fall can be considered accidental.

But if you do teshuva, not out of fear, but from love, enthusiasm and excitement then you are ready to fly and can use the momentum generated from your fall to give you lift, to take off, to discover things and achieve things you previously couldnt.

For many, Yom Kippur is a dreaded day, not only because of the physical pleasures we are denied but because they think it is a day to beat ourselves up, to rack ourselves with guilt, blame, fault, fear and dread.

Yom Kippur is not a day to beat ourselves up, to knock ourselves further down.

That couldnt be farther from the truth.The Mishna lists Yom Kippur as one of the two happiest days of the year.Yom Kippur is not a day to beat ourselves up, to knock ourselves further down.We are here to confront our mistakes, to think about failures and the times we have fallen, but to use them to give us the momentum, the energy, and the knowledge of how to fly.Your fall turns into your uplift, into flight.

In Steve Jobs Commencement Speech to Stanfords Graduating Class of 2005, he retold his story of getting fired from the company he created at the age of 30. It was the most devastating setback of his life. He fell and he fell fast. Though it could have destroyed him, Jobs explained to the graduates that getting publicly fired turned out to bethe best thing that could have happened to him.

Losing his position and success as the leader of Apple opened him up to express his creativity more freely. He started a company called NeXT, helped launch Pixar, reclaimed his role as CEO of Apple, and the rest is history. Failure opened Steve Jobs up to express himself more freely and forced him to create his way out of his rock bottom into the super-success he enjoyed at Apple. As he explained to the graduates: It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

J.K. Rowling has sold more than 500 million books and is one of the wealthiest women in the world, but in a commencement speech of her own she described that she needed to fall before she was able to fly. She described how at the time of her own graduation from college, her greatest fear was failurea fear that became reality seven years later as she struggled through single-parenthood, unemployment, and poverty all at the same time.

Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Failure, she said, revealed her true character:I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

We make amends with ourselves not by excusing our fall but by transforming it into momentum to give us lift. The world gives us our fill of fear, worry and anxiousness. Lets resolve to change from love and longing, from lift.

We have made mistakes, we have fallen down sometimes in anger or outrage, sometimes in judgment and sometimes in envy.Yom Kippur is not about beating ourselves up, staying down, feeling sad, somber or guilty.

Consider what went wrong, why it went wrong, and use that knowledge to learn from it, to gain lift, to take flight and to ensure it doesnt happen again. We dont need to sell that many books or build a revolutionary company to achieve success in our lives. All we need is to get up after we have fallen and take flight.

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Why Bats Sleep Upside Down and The Secret of Yom Kippur - aish.com - Aish.com

Jordan Palmer, Chief Digital Content OfficerPublished September 27, 2022

Dear Reader,

Fall has officially begun, and it appears the summer heat that has endured here in St. Louis is finally gone. Its time now to think about fall-like things, Rosh Hashanah, Yom, Kippur, long sleeve shirts and sweaters, colorful leaves, October baseball and of course pumpkins.

Pumpkins? Yes, pumpkins. Yes, for two reasons. First, this weekend is the opening of pick-your-own pumpkin season at Eckerts Farms, and because pumpkins have played a very important role in Jewish life long before they became associated with fall events like Halloween and holidays like Thanksgiving.

In the 16th century, one of the first crops brought back from the New World to Europe was the pumpkin. The gourd was easy to grow and stored well during cold winters. In her book The Book of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden writes that since it first appeared in Italy, pumpkin has been associated with the Jews.

Ravioli filled with pumpkin a familiar dish to anyone who frequents Italian restaurants at this time of year was originally a Sephardic creation. Italian Jews also developed recipes for pumpkin puree, pumpkin flan, and pumpkin fritters, a Hanukkah delicacy, wrote Roden.

Pumpkins are featured in many Sephardic recipes. It is tradition, among Sephardic Jews, to eat something containing pumpkin for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

According to MyJewishLearning.com,many Sephardic communities developed their own pumpkin specialties. A jam or sweet spread made with pumpkin was common throughout the Sephardic world, especially as a Rosh Hashanah delicacy. Pumpkin was also commonly used in soups and stews, just as it is today. In addition to these ubiquitous dishes, each Sephardic community adapted pumpkin which is nothing if not versatile to its own cuisine and paired it with the ingredients available to them.

Leah Koenig, the author of Modern Jewish Cooking, writes that early acceptance of the pumpkin by Jews was important for the future of New World foods.

Sometimes, Jewish communities inadvertently helped normalize unfamiliar ingredients and helped usher them into wider acceptance over time, writes Koenig. Not only was this true for pumpkin, but for many other New World vegetables as well, from artichokes to tomatoes.

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Though pumpkins are not mentioned in the Torah specifically, they do appear a handful of times in the Mishnah and the Talmud.

According to Jteach.org, in the Talmud, Tractate Sukkah 56b, Abaye said: A young pumpkin (in hand) is better than a full grown one (in the field).

Talmud, Tractate Berachot 48a Rabbah said to [Abaye and Rava], To whom do we bless [i.e. say Grace After Meals]? They replied, The All-merciful.

And where does the All-merciful dwell? Rava pointed upwards to the ceiling; Abaye went outside and pointed towards the heavens. Rabbah said to them, Both of you are Rabbis; for that is what the proverb says, Every pumpkin is known by its stem.

Mishnah Shabbat 17:6 (about actions which are permissible on Shabbat) If a stone sits in a pumpkin one may draw water with it [the pumpkin] if the stone does not fall out, but one may not draw water with it [if the stone] does [fall out]. [If] a vine-branch is tied to a pitcher, water may be drawn with it on Shabbat.

So, as we kick off the year 5783, dont forget to embrace this fun part of our heritage both as Americans and as Jews. In honor of how our Sephardic ancestors used pumpkins in a wide variety of dishes, I hope we can get creative this year with how we use and think about pumpkins. How about a new twist on pumpkin pie, or pumpkin bread? Please keep me posted if you do.

The pick-your-own season run throughout October. Guests can visit any of the Eckerts farms to pick their perfect Halloween pumpkins. Eckerts Millstadt location has additional attractions of private bonfire sites and haunted wagon rides.

Belleville, Millstadt & Grafton Farms |Select Days from Sept. 24-Oct. 30

For more information on Eckerts,visit the website.

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Fall in St. Louis means it's time to embrace the Jewishness of the pumpkin - - St. Louis Jewish Light

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) -- Sunday is the start of Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Jewish New Year, which marks the beginning of the Jewish High Holy Days.

The millennia-old holiday is an occasion for reflection and is often celebrated with prayer, symbolic foods, and the blowing of a traditional horn called a shofar. This year's Rosh Hashanah marks the start of year 5783 in the Hebrew calendar.

Here's what you need to know about the history and meaning of Rosh Hashanah.

Rosh Hashanah has its roots in the Talmud, although it isn't entirely clear when the holiday was first celebrated. The Talmud says that the world was created on the first day of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. Jewish people celebrate Rosh Hashanah on the first and second days of Tishrei -- which usually line up with September or October in the Gregorian calendar.

Although it's not completely clear when Jewish people first celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Book of Leviticus includes a passage in which God tells Moses that the first day of the seventh month is a day for rest, marked with the blowing of a horn. But it doesn't include the name Rosh Hashanah.

According to National Geographic, the earliest mention of Rosh Hashanah by name is found in the Mishnah, a Jewish legal text dated to 200 C.E.

"Rosh Hashanah" means "head of the year" in Hebrew, and the two-day holiday is considered a time to reflect and repent in anticipation of the coming year.

It is also referred to as the "day of judgment." The holiday traditionally calls on people to consider how they might have failed or fallen short in the past year -- and how to improve and grow in the coming year.

This is symbolized by one of Rosh Hashanah's most iconic traditions, taschlich, in which participants symbolically cast off their sins by throwing morsels of bread into a body of running water.

There are 14.8 million Jewish people around the world, and practices associated with Rosh Hashanah vary even within individual communities. People usually celebrate Rosh Hashanah by attending synagogue and refraining from work -- including schoolwork -- and sometimes the use of electronics. Families might also light candles at home

Rosh Hashanah is often celebrated with special foods, like apples dipped in honey, which symbolize the hope of a sweet year to come.

Challah bread, baked in round loaves instead of braids and dipped in honey, is also popular. So are pomegranate seeds and the head of a ram or fish -- to symbolize the "head" of the new year.

One of the most distinctive elements of Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the Shofar's horn, a ram's horn. The blowing of the horn is used as a call to repentance during the holiday.

The horn is typically blown in the morning of both days of Rosh Hashanah. The unique instrument dates back thousands of years to the time of Abraham and Isaac.

Rosh Hashanah kicks off the High Holy Days, also known as the Ten Days of Penitence. The High Holy Days end with Yom Kippur, which is considered the most sacred of Jewish religious holidays.

Yom Kippur is also known as the Day of Atonement. It represents an opportunity for people to atone for their sins and ask for forgiveness from God and other people.

While Rosh Hashanah tends to be a joyful celebration, Yom Kippur is a more somber holiday often marked by fasting.

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5 things to know about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - WDJT

Last month we began the Jewish New Year of 5783 by addressing the life of Moses, our greatest philosopher and lawgiver.

Now as we say goodbye to 5782, we turn our attention from the theoretical and philosophical to the practical, that is to the deeds that make a society work or fail. We turn our attention to the stories that surround the life of Moses successor: Joshua.

Unlike Moses, Joshua was neither a philosopher nor a great writer. He gave us no great intellectual insights. Instead, Joshuas story is of the tale of a pragmatist. He is the man who turned Moses ideas into everyday realities. Joshua is a technocrat and soldier, more the doer than the thinker, more the pragmatist than the idealist. Joshua leaves no great insights nor quotable phrases. Instead, his is a narrative that echoes throughout both Jewish and world history and impacts our lives even until today.

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The story of Joshuas life is one of a man who has to deal with daily lifes messy details. The Bible tells us that Joshua did not deal with the future but with the here and now, not with great ideas but rather with the myriad of details we call life. His stories are not that of the academic ivory tower but of the basic necessities of survival. A Talmud passage attempts to differentiate Joshua from Moses by stating: The face of Moses was like the sun; the face of Joshua was like the moon (Bava Batra 75a). In other words, the Talmud saw Joshuas shine as a reflection of the work that Moses already had done.

Others might disagree. When we read Joshuas story we come to realize that he was much more than a mere reflection of Moses. In reality, there are two Joshuas. The first Joshua was Moses loyal deputy, the second Joshua only appears after Moses death as he assumes the task of national leadership.

We learn about the first Joshua in Sefer BaMidbar (the Book of Numbers). In the desert, the text calls him Moses mesharet. The Hebrew term mesharet means a loyal subordinate. Joshua is the paradigm of a disciple plus intern; he is also the eternal optimist. When the 10 spies stated that Israel could not succeed, Joshua, along with Caleb, wrote the minority report insisting that Israel should press forward and enter the land of Canaan. The people of Israel rejected their report and for that mistake the Children of Israel would spend some 40 years wandering in the desert.

We first learn of Joshua as a fierce fighter. He fought Israels first battles and won. Not only was he a fierce warrior, but he was also a brilliant general. He taught us that leaders must never lead from behind but must always live by the dictum acharai/after me! From Joshuas perspective, leadership from behind is no leadership at all. Joshua was not only fierce in war but also generous and kind in peace. We know about his professional life yet we know little about his personal life.

After Moses death we meet the second Joshua. This is a Joshua who mixed faith with innovation, and creativity with a generosity of spirit. Our second Joshua is a person devoted to both the past and to the future. He is a leader willing to take calculated risks, to listen, and to act. Joshua taught us not to fight the next battle based on the last battle. He understood that a nation dare not base its military on the superficial but must understand its future challenges and prepare itself to meet them. Joshua taught that leaders who do not keep their focus on the here and now tend to fail themselves and their nations.

Joshuas life is one that raises many questions. He first enters the Biblical stage as a warrior. The Bible never reveals to us the reasons that Moses picked Joshua. What we do know is that long before Joshua became Israels second leader he demonstrated his leadership capabilities. During the years of aimless wandering in the desert, all who were a part of the post-Exodus generation would perish and a new generation would be born into freedom. It was this new generation that would be tasked with entering into the land of Israel. Of the 12 who scouted the land, only Joshua and Caleb would survive and cross the River Jordan. By the time they entered into the land of Israel, they were old men with young ideas.

Joshua was also lucky. Moses had to struggle to succeed and often failed; Joshua seems to have been above the fray. During his term of office, we read of no major criticism, and the people generally tended to do what he asked. Had Israel learned the lessons of the golden calf? Was Joshua the savvy politician, actor or both? Was he simply lucky? The text is silent.

Unlike Moses, Joshua was a leader who had crossed the River Jordan both physically and mentally. Joshua was Israels first leader of a now independent and less immature nation, one whose destiny would be in its own hands. By crossing the river, Joshua became a leader who by necessity would have to deal with lifes less exciting but practical issues. Joshua took us from national childhood to national adulthood.

In typical Biblical fashion we see Joshuas positive and negative qualities. Joshua was a strong and optimistic leader. Yet he never appointed a successor, and after his death the nation would have to deal with a political vacuum. Is the text teaching us that strong leaders prepare their replacements? Does Joshuas life remind us of how dangerous it is for a nation to be burdened with a weak line of succession?

Joshuas life teach us who live many millennia later much about leadership and war. Did Israel suffer because it quit its battles too early? Is the text telling us that a premature peace may hold dire consequences later and that leading from behind is a formula not for peace but for disaster?

These are open questions raised by Joshuas life and leadership. They are questions to be debated for all eternity. Perhaps this is the reason that the story of Joshua contains no lofty pronouncements or poetry. His tale is a story that teaches us that war is a dirty business, sometimes necessary but never glorious. Joshua taught us that at times nations must do what is necessary but never celebrate anothers suffering. These are essential lessons to consider as we enter the New Year of 5783.

Peter Tarlow is a police chaplain for the College Station Police Department and the Rabbi Emeritus of Texas A&M Hillel Foundation. Tarlow is a member of the Texas A&M Faculty of Humanities in Medicine, and the director of the Center for Latino-Jewish Relations.

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Peter Tarlow column: Story of Joshua is of a by-the-book leader - Bryan-College Station Eagle

East Room

12:06 P.M. EDT

THE FIRST LADY: Good morning.

AUDIENCE: Good morning!

THE FIRST LADY: As we gather in honor of the High Holy Days, I know that all of our hearts are with those affected by the hurricanes.

May many have had to flee their homes, as youve seen. Temples will be shuttered on Yom Kippur. And some will have to break their fast without beloved family beside them.

I hope that their faith and our prayers bring them comfort during this dark time.

In Judaism, the Days of Awe these 10 days of reflection and repentance call for introspection. But its not an endeavor taken alone.

The prayers on Yom Kippur begin with we. We have gone astray. We have not lived up to the best versions of ourselves as individuals and as a community.

Its a recognition of a powerful truth: that we fail together, we forgive together, and we heal together, too.

Thats why there is hope to be found in this sacred time as well.

Its a chance to release the burdens that have weighed us down and reach toward the light of the divine; to be with family, facing the best and worst of ourselves surrounded by love, knowing that we will emerge stronger than before.

Its a moment to remember that we the path we walk will one day end and hold close those who travel beside us.

The Days of Awe remind us that its never too late to begin again.

We, all of us, are a work in progress. So we continue that work: speaking truth, fighting for for justice, believing that we can heal our broken world.

Let us look toward the past with wisdom and turn toward the future with joy.

Let us remember that there is hope and healing ahead. In our highs and our lows, we are not alone, and there is beauty and sweetness in every step of the way.

Now, Im grateful to be here with my family, including so many people who have become family over the years. (Laughter.) And that it now includes Kamala and Doug.

You know, there are so many things (applause) yes. You know, there are so many things that you have both brought to our lives. But during the High Holidays, I am especially grateful for the chance to join you, Doug, in honoring traditions that I know that you hold close to your heart.

So, thank you for spending this special time with us.

Everyone, please welcome the Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff. (Applause.)

THE SECOND GENTLEMAN: Thank you, my good friend Dr. Biden. You have always been such a leader in bringing people together, and you do it with compassion, and you do it with purpose. And thats exactly what youre doing here today by welcoming our Jewish community to the White House. So, thank you so much.

And on a personal note back at you (laughter) you and the President have really made our family feel like your family. So, thank you so much.

And again, I also want to echo Dr. Bidens words of comfort to those who have been affected by these horrible storms. Our prayers are with you, and we will continue to do everything we can to support all of you and your families and your communities.

And my wife, the Vice President Kamala and I (applause) were honored to join you as well as we welcome in this new year. Shana Tova.

And its a particular honor for me as the first Jewish spouse of a President or a Vice President. (Applause.)

But do you know, for years, as a lot of you know, the Bidens invited our community for celebrations when they lived at the Vice Presidents Residence. And now, the Vice President Harris and I my wife (laughter) are we are very grateful that we get to continue in the tradition that they set forth.

The doorposts there are protected by mezuzot thats two mezuzahs. We hosted a Passover Seder. Weve lit a historic menorah for Hanukkah. But now, we gather in the White House during the Days of Awe, as Dr. Biden mentioned, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Now, in my family, Rosh Hashanah meant a trip to my grandmothers apartment in Brooklyn. (Laughter.) And I can still smell that brisket cooking and burning in the kitchen. (Laughter.) I can still taste the slightly warm challah, but slightly stale (laughter) on the table.

And, of course, as a lot of you remember, my grandmother begged all of us kids not to jump on the couch because I took the plastic coverings off! (Laughter.)

But this is also a season to reflect and atone and repent for both of our shortcomings and those that we see around us.

And lets be clear we all know this: Jews worldwide face horrendous discrimination and violence and antisemitism. And one of the reasons that our great President ran for president was to confront the kinds of hate and antisemitism that we all saw and were mortified by in Charlottesville. (Applause.)

And on this issue on this issue, we have a President and a Vice President who know that all Americans must be able to worship without fear or violence. (Applause.)

And we also know they are two leaders of deep faith who believe in tolerance and inclusion, not just for our Jewish community but for all communities. (Applause.)

And our President has said, and I quote, If Jewish history and tradition teaches us anything, its the resilient belief in the promise of tomorrow.

So as the Jewish community in the United States and Israel and around the world take stock and renew our hopes for the start to 5783, we are grateful to be sharing it in one of the Jewish communitys best friends.

Please join me in welcoming the President of the United States, Joe Biden. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Well, as youre about to find out, Doug and I married way above our station. (Laughter.) Youve already seen one example of that. Youll soon see another. Doug, thank you for the introduction.

And Doug is right. Youre the first, but Kamala often says you wont be the last. Kamala wont be the last woman to be Vice President or President. (Applause.)

So let me start by recognizing this reception comes at a very difficult time for so many Jewish families in Florida, possibly for some of you who have loved ones in Florida mothers, fathers, grandparents, friends. Our heart goes out to everyone there in the state experiencing what could be may be one the most devastating hurricanes in the history of that state.

And I say Ill Im going to say more about that this afternoon. Im making a major address on this.

So many families just celebrated New Years and are now in this solemn part of the High Holidays. Some of you are from the area or have family and friends there. And as I said, its got to be tough time for a lot of you.

And I want to Representatives Ted Deutch and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are here, and a lot of other friends. (Applause.) Good to see you, Ted.

And were working closely with the governor and the entire Florida delegation Democrat and Republican making sure that we do everything we can, including now search and rescue, recovery, and rebuilding efforts, which is going to go on for a while. Going to go on for a long while.

And whatever it takes, were going to be there as one nation and one America. Were not going to walk away.

So let me just say, Ted, youre a dear friend. Youre retiring after 12 years. Dont go. Change your mind. Do something. (Laughter.) Were really going to miss you, pal. No, we really are. Were going to miss you in Congress. Weve worked together closely for a long time. And I look forward to your leadership on the American Jewish Committee. So, thank you. (Applause.)

When Jill and I were Vice President and First [Second] Lady, Jill and I honored were honored to host the first Rosh Hashanah reception at the Naval Observatory.

And today, as President and First Lady, were humbled to host the first High Holidays reception ever in the White House with so many of our friends. (Applause.)

Now, if I acknowledge everyone by name, well be here (laughter) for the Hanukkah reception in December. (Laughter.)

But this is Ted Ted and Debbie, I also want to acknowledge someone else who means a great deal to our family: Rabbi Michael Beals of the Congregation Beth Shalom in Wilmington, Delaware. (Applause.) There you are.

With his predecessors Rabbi Kraft and Rabbi Geffen thats where I received my education. I probably went to shul more than many of you did. (Laughter.) You all think Im kidding. He can tell you Im not. (Laughter.) Im not.

Beth Shalom is home for countless friends. And, for me, its been its been a home. And over the years, weve shared deep conversations about faith and and finding purpose. And theyve always, always, always been there for my family in the good times and not-so-good times.

And just like rabbis, synagogues, and Jewish community centers in your hometowns, youre always there; your congregations are there for you and for everyone in the neighborhood, whether theyre Jewish or not.

And thats the tradition I got raised I spent a lot of time Im a practicing Catholic, but I Id go to services on Saturday and on Sunday. (Laughter.) You all think Im kidding. Im not. (Laughter.)

So, look, thats the power of the Jewish community all across America.

And Doug mentioned the High Holidays are a sacred time for introspection and renewal and and repentance, and a time to ask for forgiveness, to mend our relationships with God and with our fellow men.

The late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who passed away two years ago, once said that the most important lesson of the High Holidays is that nothing nothing is broken beyond repair. Nothing is broken beyond repair. Its never too late to change and to be better. Ive always believed that message, and I also think its universal.

And weve emerged from one of our most difficult moments in our history. I believe nothing is broken beyond repair, and theres a lot we can do to change things and bring people together.

We can and we are emerging stronger from this pandemic. Were building an economy that works for everyone. Were were responding to the cry of for action by the climate. Were were (applause) were actually rallying the world. Were rallying the world to keep support for Ukraine strong and consistent and (applause) and Ukraines right to exist as a people.

You know, and were were showing that we can do big things as a country when we work together, regardless of our political party, from taking on gun violence, to supporting our veterans, to rebuilding America itself, to ending cancer as we know it.

But there is a lot more we can do, but we have to do it together, to restore the soul of America. When I ran, I said one of the reasons I was running, literally, was to restore the soul of America, bring back some decency and honor in the way we talk about one another, the way we deal with one another standing up to antisemitism that was constantly lurking in the shadows. (Applause.)

You know, the Jewish people know better than any what my father, who was not Jewish but would constantly use the phrase, silence is complicity. Silence is complicity.

I was reminded of that yet again during my recent trip to Israel. I reaffirmed Americas unshakable commitment to Israeli security. As a matter of fact, the Prime Minister was telling me he said, I remember what you said Id forgotten what I said when I landed. (Laughter.) He looked at me, he said he said, You looked at me and you said, Its good to be home. (Laughter.)

But, you know, the first place I went back to was Yad Vashem. And there were two Holocaust survivors there who immigrated to America after the war but returned to that sacred ground to speak to young people so we never forget.

And I think that after all they experienced in the 40s, today theyre witnessing a record high antisemitism in 2022 they never thought would be the case again. Although, maybe they did, in their hearts, think it could happen. But they were there.

I decided to run for President and this is not hyperbole you know youve heard me say this for over almost three years now that, when I saw those people walking out of the fields literally walking out of the fields in Virginia, carrying torches, Nazi flags; and chanting the same exact antisemitic bile that was chanted on the streets of Berlin and Germany in the early 30s.

And when asked, when the young woman was killed, What do you think? And the comment made by a former leader was, There are good people on both sides.

Ive made it clear since I was elected, including two weeks ago at the first-of-its-kind summit against hate-fueled violence at the White House: Hate can have no safe harbor. Its never defeated; it only hides. It hides under rocks. And when we breathe a little oxygen under those rocks, it comes out it comes out.

And failure to call it out is complicity, and the silence is complicity. We cant (applause) no, I mean it.

We cant remain silent. The rest of the world looks to us.

Thats why I established the first Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Combat Antisemitism at the at the ambassadorial level. (Applause.)

I appointed Deborah Lipstadt, a Holocaust expert, to this critical position. She is here today. Where are you, Deborah? All the way in the back. (Laughter.) Thats usual with her humility. But, Deborah, thank you for being willing to do it. (Applause.)

And we worked with Congress to secure the largest increase in funding ever for physical security of nonprofits, including synagogues, religious organizations. (Applause.) Because nobody nobody should fear going to a religious service or a school or walking down a street wearing a symbol of their faith. Nobody. Nobody. Period. (Applause.)

We launched the first National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism and its first-of-its-kind White House Initiative on Hate-Motivated Violence, working hand in hand with the Jewish community. And many in here are working with us.

Im not going to remain silent. We cant remain silent. I mean this sincerely. If we let it go, democracy and everything else is at stake. We cant remain silent.

So, let me close with this. The Jewish tradition holds that from the time the Book of Life is opened on Rosh Hashanah until the gates close on Yom Kippur, our fate hangs in the balance. Its in our hands its in our hands to change, to do better to ourselves, for ourselves, and for others.

I believe we face a similar inflection point as a nation.

My hope and prayer for the year ahead is that, for one of the most difficult moments that weve gone through in a long time, we emerge stronger.

That resilient belief in the promise of tomorrow is embodied in thousands of years of Jewish history and in the story of America.

So lets do the work ahead lets do the work together, regardless of what your political persuasion. Lets recognize the work of our democracy.

You know, as the Talmud instructs, It is not required that you complete the work, neither may you refrain from it. It is not required you complete the work, but neither may you refrain from it.

To bridge the gap between the world we see and the future we seek, to keep the faith, to remember who we are. Were the United States of America, damn it. Theres nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.

So God bless you all. May this be a happy, healthy, and sweet new year. And may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life.

But before I leave today, I have a special part of this program I want to mention.

One that of things that Jill and I appreciate the most about opening the White House to celebrate people who mean so much to the country I cant think of anyone better who embodies the sacred spirit of this season than the special guest we have here today.

Born in Tel Aviv. Stricken by polio as a as a child thats made it difficult for him to walk ever since. Came to America to pursue his God-given talent that moves our souls. An Israeli-American icon of our time. One of the most celebrated violinists of our times. Please join me in the Foyer to hear a special performance from Itzhak Perlman. (Applause.)

Itzhak. He plays from the heart. As the rabbis tell us, What comes from the heart enters the heart. And youre about to experience it.

God love you all. God be willing that we have a good year. Thank you. (Applause.)

Q Mr. President, whats your message to Vladimir Putin today, following the annexation?

THE PRESIDENT: Ill be talking about that a little later today, okay? Lets celebrate now. (Applause.)

12:27 P.M. EDT

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Remarks by President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff at a Reception to Celebrate the Jewish New Year - The White...

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