Category Archives: Talmud

I attended Jewish day school from the age of three.

At Jewish schools, the day is longer than at other schools, often starting at 8am and finishing after 4pm. Teachers squeeze in a double curriculum of maths, science and English in addition to Torah, Talmud and Hebrew language lessons.

To have command of Jewish texts you must be literate in Hebrew and Aramaic. These ancient languages can be difficult and the grammar is fiddly. The alphabet also reads from right to left.

When I was 11, I visited Israel for the first time. I met my Israeli cousins and the languages I was learning at school took on a new dimension.

I understood that if I wanted to be able to speak to my cousins, or to be literate in my traditions foundational texts, I needed to learn these languages.

Everything Jewish was deeply interesting to me: Torah, Talmud and Jewish philosophy. I devour it all. At university, I completed double degrees in arts and law. I worked in the Parliament of Victoria and for the Parliament of Australia.

My life was rich and full and yet, despite being highly literate in Jewish texts and Jewish languages, I was never asked to present my Jewish knowledge in any religious setting. None of my friends were asked either.

In Orthodox Judaism, leadership roles in religious life are mainly held by men. Women, no matter how literate they are, are used to taking a back seat.

While sometimes Orthodox Jewish law does not allow women to take on certain religious roles (such as being a witness in a Jewish court), there are plenty of opportunities that are allowed, but cultural conditioning can prevent women being put forward for them.

All-male panels are unfortunately common. Women not being considered for the same Torah teaching opportunities in religious life occurs with unfortunate frequency.

Read more from the original source:

Orthodox Jewish women are raising their voices together - The Age

In 1911, my grandpa Jake was born in the small Hungarian village of Torun in the Carpathian Mountains. While he was still a child, the village became a part of Czechoslovakia, and after World War II, it fell within the borders of Ukraine.

My grandpa was just a little boy when World War I broke out. His father was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army. My grandpa and his mom fled to her parents home in Synevyr. Grandpa Jake later told my aunt that he remembered seeing Russian soldiers lead men out of Synevyr with ropes around their necks, never to be heard from again.

Thankfully for me, my grandpa and other family members were able to immigrate to the United States in 1920. In 1939, my grandfathers brother Leon traveled back to Europe to visit family that had been left behind.

Uncle Leon wrote that when he got off the bus in Torun, he immediately recognized that everyone was my mishpacha because this one was wearing one of my old sweaters and that one was wearing my old trousers, and another had one of my hats.

During his visit, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, and my Uncle Leon almost fell into the hands of the Nazis. His family was able to artfully redirect a local official, and thanks to Uncle Leons own quick thinking during an ensuing encounter with a German soldier, he was able to leave Czechoslovakia.

His grandfather my great-great grandfather wasnt so lucky. He and dozens and dozens of my distant cousins were unable to leave Europe. Most all of them were murdered during the Shoah.

What we are witnessing now, we have seen before.

In 1938, Hitler began his occupation of Czechoslovakia by first annexing the Sudetenland, claiming it as ancestral German territory. Russian president Vladimir Putin similarly set the stage for his invasion of Ukraine by backing the territorial claims of separatists in the countrys southeastern regions.

Because of yesterdays events, the lives of more than 40 million Ukrainians including 50,000 Jews, among them President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are endangered.

In the days to come, we will learn more about this unfolding situation. As Jews, we have a special obligation to support members of our mishpacha, our own family. The Talmud teaches that kol Yisrael arevim zeh bazeh all Jews are responsible for one another. (Shevuot 39a).

We have seen this before and we know, sadly, that such brazen acts of aggression do not end well.

Will we raise our voices? Will we come to their aid? Or will we watch quietly as innocents are led away with ropes around their necks?

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

Nazis killed my family in Ukraine. Now, we fight Putin

Continue reading here:

Jewish history is repeating itself in Ukraine. This time, we must fight Putin back - Forward

Oakland City Council member Rebecca Kaplan has announced she wont be running again for council or making a bid for mayor. Instead, shes looking to win a seat on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in June.

If elected, she told J., she would aim to further the same policy goals as a supervisor that shed focused on as a council member: affordable housing, better public transportation and increased community health services such as neighborhood clinics.

These issues are vital to strengthening our communities, she said in an email. Yet the overwhelming majority of the funding, and policy control, over these issues is actually held at the County level and thus, running for County Supervisor would allow me to mobilize resources and influence actions on a wider scale to help our communities.

Kaplan has been on the local political scene for a long time. In 2000, she ran for city council as a Green Party member and lost but with 44 percent of the vote and endorsements from Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky and ACORN.

By the time J. interviewed Kaplan for a profile in October 2019, she was on her third consecutive term in her at-large seat (which isnt tied to a district but rather represents the entire city) and had recently been elected president of the council, making her the first openly LGBTQ person to occupy the role.

In 2010 she ran for mayor and came in third, and in 2014 she finished second. Now, instead of another mayoral run in 2022, she is setting her sights on the county board, where, she says, she would become the first openly LGBTQ supervisor.

Kaplan will run to fill the District 3 seat of Wilma Chan, who was killed after being hit by a car last November. (Since then the seat has been held by a replacement appointed by the Board of Supervisors.)

The County Supervisors also get to sit on important regional Boards, which also allocate significant funding, and thus, bringing my regional experience to this task would also allow us to strengthen the future for Alameda County, which sits in the heart of the Bay Area, and which also has been subjected to disproportionate air pollution and congestion, she wrote.

Kaplan grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, and attended the Hamilton Hebrew Academy, an Orthodox school, where she studied Torah and Talmud in Hebrew and Aramaic.

I was really into it, she told J. in 2019.

For high school she went on to the Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, where studying Talmud prepared her for law school, she said. Todays shes a member of Kehilla Community Synagogue. Kaplan was previously a member of the AC Transit Board, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board and the Alameda County Transportation Commission board.

The five-member Alameda County Board of Supervisors has a total constituency of close to 1.7 million people. District 3 includes Alameda, San Leandro and parts of Oakland, as well as several unincorporated communities in the East Bay.

See more here:

Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland city council member, to run for county supe J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Adele was really on to something.

Do you know why Spotify changed their automatic shuffle setting?

Adele.

She didnt like the shuffle option.

Adele wrote them, Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. She felt that an album tells a tale and changing the order of the music would mean missing the rich depth of the artists message. In order to appreciate the full beauty of a collection of songs, the listener should trust the order of the composer for the musics complete emotional journey and follow the path the artist created.

The shuffle button used to be Spotifys most accessible option now it is virtually hidden, thanks to Adele.

As we approach the holiday of Purim, the idea of music playing out of order strikes a chord. As the events of the Purim story unfolded, they seemed random, haphazard, shuffled. A fickle king, a greedy adviser, a dead queen, a Jewish queen. A few feasts, a few fasts. An overheard treason plot, a page in the kings chronicles. The rise of Mordechai, the gallows, and the downfall of Haman. Who could have understood the interaction of the many complex, interwoven pieces of this Divinely-constructed jigsaw? At the time, Gods presence was hidden. Everything seemed random. No one could see the hidden hand of God conducting the events on the Persian stage from behind-the-scenes.

Beneath the surface there was indeed a rhyme and reason to the clashes and chaos. The was an underlying beauty waiting to be revealed through the Divinely crafted order of events.

But beneath the surface there was indeed a rhyme and reason to the clashes and chaos. The was an underlying beauty waiting to be revealed through the Divinely crafted order of events.

And it was reversed, the Jews dominated their enemies (Esther 9:1). Everything was overturned, inside out. Suddenly, there was an orderliness to the chaos. A script for the dramatic events. A flash of light in the post-prophecy world. The Jews were living after the destruction of the 1st Temple. They lacked the closeness and clarity of Gods presence the previous generation enjoyed. They were living in Shuffle mode. But the beauty of the Purim story is that even when life looks like a pur, a lottery subjected to the whims of chance, there is a Master Conductor pulling all the strings. There is a Divine symphony being played; we just need to find the right frequency to hear it.

God is referred to as a rock. (There is no rock like our God [Samuel I 2:2].) The Talmud teaches (Megilla 4a) that the Hebrew word for rock, tzur, is linguistically related to the word Hebrew word for artist, tzayar. God is the Ultimate Artist, even greater than Adele. He weaves the disentangled threads of our lives into a masterful tapestry, composing the stand-alone notes of our lives into a majestic symphony.

Right now the tapestry is facing backwards, we can only see the ugly, chaotic backside. The album sounds shuffled, the chapters seem incomplete.

But Adele is right. Every work of art tells a story and its presented in that order for a reason. The listener needs to play the album through, track by track to appreciate the depth.

The music of our lives is ordered to perfection, crafted by the Master Designer, arranged by the loving Composer. We have to trust that His composition is in perfect order. To see the artistry in the complex design, we need to attune our ears to hear the full brilliance of the music.

We wait for the day when the tracks weve been playing since the beginning of time will be heard as one symphony. On that day, the Shuffle button will disappear and the discordant notes of our lives will come together and all will be revealed.

About the Author

Tamara Ezekiel is a creative content writer who enjoys sharing meaningful ideas that make you sit up and think. Tamara is in her final year studying for her Linguistics BA in UCL. She is based in London, England though she knows enough Americans to distinguish her cookies-in-milk from her biscuits with tea.

See the original post:

Spotify's Shuffle Button and the Meaning of Purim - aish.com - Aish

More on Fiddler

I enjoyed Saul Singers article on some of the history of Fiddler on the Roof (Feb. 4).

Fun fact: In the original Yiddish, If I were a rich man was Ven ich bin a Rothschild (If I were a Rothschild), based on an actual monologue by Tevye in the book.

In the movie, a common device put into the mouth of the Tevye was as the good book says. and then he makes a nonsensical statement whereas, in the book, Tevye often quotes (or misrenders) popular biblical quotes, completely missing the point of the quote, in an effort to sound more educated than he is.

I do not speak Yiddish, so I read a translation of Fiddler. The translator would leave the quote (or misquote) in the original Hebrew (or whatever). In a footnote, the translator would translate into English, explaining the malapropisms that Tevye made, including how he was misusing the quote, sometimes even explaining the wordplay used by author Sholom Aleichem.

There was even an instance where Tevye uses an as the Talmud says and then says something thats complete gobbledygook (but meant to sound like Aramaic).

Ive heard, theres plenty of other Yiddish wordplay in the original that gets lost in translation.

Another fun fact that was touched upon in the article: Why Zero Mostel wasnt in the movie. Zero defined the role of Tevye on Broadway, but director Norman Jewison (not actually Jewish) knew of Zeros reputation as being impossible to deal with. He also figured that Zeros personality was too large and would eclipse the other characters.

Chaim Topol had played Tevye in a Hebrew Fiddler in Israel. When they were looking to bring Fiddler to England, they cast Topol, who didnt speak a word of English back then and actually memorized the score to learn English. Topol was highly acclaimed as Tevye. Although he was quite young at the time, he played a very convincing middle-aged man (which he had previously done in the 1964 Israeli comedy Sallah Shabati).

This is how they came to cast Topol as Tevye in the movie. His Tevye was so highly acclaimed in England that Jewison was told to consider him for the role. Jewison was blown away, and controversially cast Topol over Mostel.

I had heard that when Topol played Sallah Shabbati, he was so convincing that he showed up to the hotel he was booked at in character and they threw him out, thinking he was a schnorrer. Topol was a master at his craft.

Its also worth noting that Topol was even younger in that earlier role, but played an elder Mizrachi oleh which was another factor in Jewison casting him.

Michael FishmanManhattan, NY

A Kindness Remembered

Sarah Pachter had a very special article in last weeks Jewish Press, about saving face, making sure not to embarrass anyone. This reminded me of an incident that happened many years ago when I was the Shabbos guest at the home of the late great chazzan Binyamin Glickman, ah. I accidentally spilled some of my bright red wine on the sparkly white tablecloth. I was horrified, but then a minute later, the chazzan accidentally spilled his wine all over the table as well.

Nothing was said, but I never forgot his kindness in minimizing my embarrassment.

Amy SchwartzVia email

Preparing Teens For Campus Antisemitism

Todays antisemitism is a litany of lies about Israel, which are lies about Jews. The most common antisemitic buzzwords on campus are: Arabs are the lands indigenous people/Jews stole the land; ethnic cleansing; genocide; occupation; apartheid.

It is every congressional rabbis responsibility to make sure our teens go off to college knowing how to stand up against the Big Lies. We are urging our rabbis to make sure his/her teens know how to easily stand up against the slanders and blood libels. Rabbis can call teens in for a get-together, and/or e-mail material stressing that it is important information to know before entering university.

Rabbis must prepare teens to fight campus antisemitism. This is their obligation. Otherwise they are leaving our teens open to being bullied on campus, to cowering, hiding their Jewish identity, or worse, believing the lies, losing their Jewish pride, and even becoming anti-Israel activists a la the anti-Semitic J Street and Jewish Voice for Peace.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard RosenbergVia email

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Letters To The Editor - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

Who, among the Children of Israel, contributed textiles, precious metals, and other materials for the construction of the Tabernacle (Mishkan)?

Lets imagine a tent in the wilderness

A young woman removes her gold earrings and holds them in her hand, savoring their delicate workmanship for the last time. When she looks up, her mother-in-law, who gave them to her at her wedding just a few months ago, nods in assent. She drops the earrings into the basket in the middle of the tent. It is filling up quickly. Her mother-in-law removes an intricate necklace that she borrowed from a neighbor when they left Egypt, and adds it to the basket. A 12-year-old niece takes off the two golden bracelets she inherited from her grandmother. They are very old, those bracelets. Some say they have been handed down, grandmother to granddaughter, from the days of Rebecca, who received them from Eliezer at the well.

Accompanied by a few men from the family, the women bring the basket of jewelry as a contribution for the Tabernacle.

And the men came in addition to the women (al ha-nashim), everyone of generous heart brought bracelets, earrings, rings, and body ornaments, all golden items (Exodus 35:22)

What does the phrase al ha-nashim, in addition to the women, come to teach us? Rashi, as explained in Siftei Chachamim, explains that even a woman contributing her own jewelry to the Tabernacle required her husband or father to accompany her and approve her donation.

Ramban, on the other hand, emphasizes that women had more jewelry than men, and eagerly took initiative. Some men indeed came in addition to the women, but women were the primary donors of jewelry.

Why did women have more jewelry to start with? Granted, in biblical society, as in our own, women likely adorned themselves with jewelry more than men did. But there is another possible explanation more specific to our narrative. A midrash recounts that the men had already offered their earrings for the Golden Calf (Exodus 32:3, Tanchuma Pinchas 7), while the women did not.

The author of Or HaChayim, Rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, offers an additional insight. Jewelry is among our most beloved possessions: because it is personal, because it is made of gold, and because each piece is unique. Women freely gave over precious and finely crafted items, knowing that they would be melted down and re-formed.

How many wedding rings went into the keruvim, the figures that symbolized Gods love for Israel? Did Rebeccas nose ring, passed down through the generations, become part of the golden altar on which sweet-smelling incense was offered?

Back in the tent, the young woman takes up her spindle and chooses a hank of wool dyed blue, techelet. Spinning is a womans wisdom. It has taken her many hours, since she was a very little girl at her mothers knee, to perfect the rhythm, the art. She spins the techelet into smooth, even thread. In nearly every tent in the camp, the women who are wise of heart are spinning with wool blue and red and crimson and with flax.

Every wise-hearted woman spun with her hands, and they brought the spun yarn of blue and red and crimson and linen. (Exodus 35:25)

Rabbi Eliezer cites this verse as the source for his assertion that a womans wisdom is only in her spindle (Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 3:4). We usually emphasize the negative side of this statement, Rabbi Eliezers opposition to womens Torah study (see here for an in-depth discussion). There is also a positive side. Spinning, like many handicrafts, is an art that requires its own wisdom. The women gave not only their cherished possessions, but their time and unique expertise to the Tabernacle.

Outside the tent, a few young children offer snacks to a long-haired goat to keep it quiet and calm, while their aunts quick and agile fingers spin its hair into shining yarn. Goat-spinning is a rare skill, but the quality of the live-spun goats hair is unsurpassed.

All the women whose heart moved them in wisdom spun the goats. (Exodus 35:26)

The Talmud (Shabbat 74b) derives from this verse that the women spun the hair while it was still on the goats, and goes on to state that this was an extraordinary and unusual skill.

Why would anyone spin hair while it is still attached to a goat? According to Seforno, live-growing hair has an extra shine and splendor to it. Again, we see that women spared no effort in making the finest possible contributions to the Tabernacle.

Early in the morning, an elderly woman looks in her bright copper hand mirror, arranging her headscarf, putting on a bit of makeup. She has had that mirror since her youth. She still remembers a certain night in Egypt, her husband coming home exhausted from the hard labor of brickmaking, and how she brought out that mirror and flirted with him Today, she takes her mirror and joins her daughters and granddaughters in the crowd of women gathered at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, praying with devotion and intensity, thirsty for words of Torah, eagerly offering their mirrors as copper for the Tabernacle.

He made the copper laver, and its base of copper, from the mirrors of the masses of women who massed at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. (Exodus 38:8)

Rashi tells the story of the women in Egypt, who used their mirrors to awaken the desire of their enslaved and spiritually exhausted husbands and rekindle hope for the future redemption, beginning with the birth of countless babies. Ibn Ezra tells of the women in the desert who renounced worldly desires and sought only to learn Torah and serve God.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

What is love of God? It is to give everything, willingly and gladly, to commit our heart and soul, our desires and emotions and impulses, our wisdom and skill, our strength and material wealth.

The Tabernacle was built of rare and precious materials, crafted with consummate skill. Women played a unique and vital role in creating a place of sanctity, imbued with a whole peoples love of God.

Go here to see the original:

The women's precious gifts, made with consummate skill - The Times of Israel

Portrait of Charles Dodgson

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (pseudonym Lewis Carroll, 1832-1898), was a British author best known for his iconic Alices Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There (1871), the latter of which included several celebrated poems such as Jabberwocky, The Walrus and the Carpenter, and The Hunting of the Snark. A polymath, he was a leading photographer and portraitist in the nascent field of photography; the creator of several games, including the doublet word ladder, still popular today, and a forerunner of Scrabble; and an inventor, whose creations include the nyctograph, a device that facilitated the ability to write in the dark. He was also an accomplished mathematician and logician credited with establishing much of the foundation for modern logic, number theory and cryptography.

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Carrolls books, which he published himself using his own funds, became instantly popular and sold 120,000 copies by 1885. Contemporary booksellers say that the books, which have been translated into 70 languages, are still among their best-selling childrens books. The Alice books have influenced a great variety of artists and writers, including Walt Disney, whose beloved 1951 Alice in Wonderland film is today a cult classic considered one of the greatest animated masterpieces of all time. Many of Carrolls invented words are now part of the established lexicon; many of his expressions have become common catchphrases down the rabbit hole; curiouser and curiouser; off with their heads etc. and references to Alice continue to suffuse the culture. My personal favorite example is a 2008 opinion by a D.C. court against the EPA in which the judge critically wrote that the EPA was employing the logic of the Queen of Hearts, substituting the EPAs desires for the plain text.

Carroll was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England, and he remained a faithful Anglican throughout his life. The Anglican Church in his day promulgated the medieval Churchs historical antisemitism and scapegoating of Jews as moneylenders, social outcasts, and murderers. Although the Victorian age was a period of gradual progress and increasing acceptance of Jews (including particularly widespread sympathy for the plight of Jews escaping persecution and destitution), rising unemployment, economic difficulties, and the meteoric growth of communal discontent soon turned public attention to the social impact of immigration. Increasing pressure was brought to bear on the government to limit immigration, particularly Jewish immigration, which much of the British public claimed created a serious threat to national life.

It is against this background that Carrolls unambiguous antisemitism should be considered. He characterized Jews as, among other things, sarcastic; either hunchbacked or misers; obsequious unless very young; squinting; dishonest; look like goats; have beards a yard long; and, of course, have hooked noses.

In his use of syllogisms and establishing logical premises, he frequently used phrases such as All Juwes [sic] are greedy. In his Symbolic Logic, he employed such propositions as No Gentiles have hooked noses; No Jew is ever a bad hand at a bargain; There are no Jews in the house; No Gentiles have beards a yard long; and, that all-time antisemitic favorite, No Jews are honest. Recent republications of Symbolic Logic, mindful of this loathsome material, retain it intact, but include a prominent disclaimer that the vile language was not deleted in the interests of retaining the historical accuracy of the original work. (Would that the contemporary purveyors of woke-ism, who censor anything they believe to be discriminatory or insensitive based upon todays alleged standards, act accordingly.)

Carroll saw Judaism as a religion of whiners and complainers entirely devoid of spirituality. For example, in Chapter 19 of his Sylvie and Bruno, Dr. Arthur Forester, a character whom Carroll portrays as a highly intelligent and ethical character, depicts the Jews as mentally undeveloped. This lack of development in the Jews analytic ability is evidenced by their blind and faithful adherence to their Old Testament, in which rewards and punishments are constantly appealed to as motives for action. That teaching is best for children, and the Israelites seem to have been, mentally, utter children. He also mocked at the very idea of strict Shabbat observance as life-denying piety.

In Sylvie and Bruno, Carroll tells the story of a tailor a stereotypical clich for Jewish vocations (although Carroll does not specifically identify him as Jewish, the implication is clear who agrees to extend credit to a customer, but only if he agrees to pay double the outstanding debt each year. In his 1930 essay, Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, economist John Maynard Keynes cites the attempt by Carrolls tailor to secure specious and illusory future gain as a metaphor for his proposition regarding the irrationality of postponing personal gratification. Keyes there is ample evidence that he, too, was an antisemite observes that Carroll almost certainly intended the tailor to be Jewish because the Jews, as the race that uniquely introduced the promise of immortality to religious faith, have done the most for the principle of compound interest and particularly loves this most purposive of human institutions.

In an 1885 diary entry commenting on a childrens production of Gilbert and Sullivans The Pirates of Penzance, Carroll writes: It was a very charming performance, and some of them have lovely voices, specially `Elsie Joel who acted Mabel: she looks Jewish. It is almost as if Carroll was saying she was surprisingly a good actress, even though shes Jewish, and other reviewers were somehow able to admire Elsies performance without mentioning her Jewish appearance.

On the other hand, in an August 18, 1884, correspondence, Carroll wrote:

One hospital manager wrote that he knew a place where there were a number of sick children, but he was afraid I wouldnt like to give them any books and why, do you think? Because they are Jews! I wrote to say [that] of course I would give them some! Why in the world shouldnt little Israelites read Alices Adventures as well as other children?

However, Carrolls love of children may have trumped his contempt for Jews; note his characterization of Jews as obsequious unless very young, suggesting that his animus against Jews in general may not have extended to children.

Furthermore, when a number of prominent Oxford graduates joined in sending a memorial of solidarity to British Chief Rabbi Nathan Adler expressing sorrow and amazement regarding the Russian persecution of Jews, Carroll was one of the 245 signatories. Perhaps his exercise of cognitive dissonance may be harmonized by observing that, although many cultured and refined British citizens like Carroll were antisemitic, as per the prevailing social fashion at the time, many nonetheless considered themselves to be moral and ethical people who cared about discrimination against all minorities, including Jews so long as the Jewish riffraff remained far away from British shores and did not seek to contaminate Great Britain by seeking to immigrate there.

Carroll was known as a logophile who delighted in puzzles, metaphors, wordplay, and invented words (see, most famously, Jabberwocky) and many theories exist seeking to discover the cryptic allegorical meanings of the Alice stories. Various scholars ascribe a wide-ranging variety of symbolic interpretations to the tales, including analytical approaches that are political, metaphysical, philosophical, theological and psychological and, as we shall see, Talmudic.

One writer sees Alice as a secret history of religious controversies in Victorian England. Some philosophers see the books as a metaphor for the monstrous mindlessness of the universe, as seen through a nonsense tale told by an idiot mathematician, As Martin Gardner argues in The Annotated Alice, the entirety of Through the Looking Glass is a chess game in which living pieces are ignorant of the games plan and cannot tell if they move under their own will or by invisible fingers.

Others argue that the two Alice books are expressions of Carrolls subversive protests and that he used childrens literature as a way to confront the horrors of Victorian respectability, and still others see them as satires of non-Euclidian mathematics featuring imaginary numbers (the very idea of which Carroll rejected as ludicrous). Noting that Alice is the only mature and rational character in Wonderland We are all mad here, says the Cheshire Cat many logicians argue that Alice is actually a satiric exercise of Carrollian logic wherein he explores the repercussions of suspending common sense in favor of dysfunctional intellectualism and fantasy thinking wholly removed from the world of rationality and logic.

Perhaps the most common theories see Alice in purely psychological terms, including particularly through the Freudian lens of Carrolls infatuation and ostensible erotic attraction to the ten-year-old Alice Liddell, a daughter of the dean of Christ Church Oxford who, according to almost all scholars, was the inspiration for the Alice stories. It was on one of Carrolls many boating trips with Alice and her sisters on July 4, 1862, that he originated the framework of the stories and, at Alices enthusiastic urging, decided to write the stories which, according to the Freudians, represented an outlet for his repressed desires.

But one of the most intriguing hypotheses was described by Dr. Abraham Ettelson in his pamphlet Through the Looking-Glass Decoded (1966), in which he argues that Alice is actually a cryptogram of the Talmud written in code. He notes the frequency and importance of mirrors and inversion in the Alice stories and concludes that Through the Looking Glass and the Talmud are mirror images of each other. He argues that the principal subtext of Alice and Looking Glass is the Jewish way and sees the books as Carrolls use of a Midrashic approach that employs layered interpretations and ethical analysis to expound on the pshat (the primary meaning of the text).

As Ettelson would have it, Jabberwocky is a code name for the Baal Shem Tov. He divides the word Jabberwocky into two halves and then reads each part in a mirror; the result is Rebbaj Yckow, or Rabbi Jacob. (This gamesmanship evokes Charles L. Dodgsons construction of his own pseudonym; he formed the name by translating his first and middle names, Charles Lutwidge, into Latin, which became Carolus Ludovicus; reversed their order; and translated the name back into English as Lewis Carroll.) Ettelson further observes that the first stanza of Jabberwocky the famous `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and wimble in the wabe . . . contains no less than half of all the Hebrew letters; that one of Carrolls nonsense words in Jabberwocky is frumious which, of course, is a fusion of the words frum and pious; and that the ferocious jaw-snapping Bandersnatch contains an anagram for Satan.

The ball of worsted wool that Alices kitten plays with symbolizes the woolen tzitzit, a proposition not all that far-fetched when one considers that worsted wool is a twisted woolen thread and that tzizit is a tassel of twisted cord. Moreover, Carroll adds that Alices kitten curled up in a corner which, according to Ettelson, evokes the four corners upon which tzitzit are worn. While most commentators dismiss the Talmud theory as, at best, sheer fantasy, most nonetheless agree that Ettelsons methodology and analytical framework favorably compare with Carrolls own logomania.

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In this very rare original August 2, 1889, handwritten correspondence, Carroll writes:

They have been an enormous time, binding the copy of Alice Underground which I hope to present to the Duchess: but they have promised to send it now, & expect to receive it today. What had I better do with it? As I see in the papers that H.R.H. [a reference to Helen] is gone, or just going, abroad. Shall I send it to you to forward to her? Or is she so constantly moving about, that it would be better to keep it until she returns to England?

Alice Liddells parents tried to arrange a match between their daughter and Prince Leopold, the youngest son of Queen Victoria. A romance blossomed but, after Queen Victoria who is broadly considered to be the inspiration for John Tenniels rendering of the nasty Queen of Hearts in the Alice stories blocked the marriage to a commoner, Leopold married Helen, the Duchess of Albany. Helen employed Ethel Heron-Maxwell, the recipient of our letter, to care for her young children, Princess Alice (almost certainly named after Alice Liddell, whom Leopold never forgot) and Prince Charles-Edward.

Carroll began writing his Alice manuscript under the working title Alices Adventures Under Ground. He presented the original handwritten manuscript to the storys inspiration, Alice Liddell, in 1864, and a facsimile edition of this original was released at Christmas 1886. Carroll was the darling of the royal household beloved by all particularly by Princess Alice, who adored him and his stories and in 1889, he commissioned a finely bound version of this facsimile which, as our letter evidences, he presented to Helen.

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Carroll wasnt the only antisemite to play an important role in the Alice books. John Tenniel (1820-1914) was an English illustrator, graphic humorist and most prominent and popular political cartoonist of the day who served as the principal political cartoonist for the popular Punch magazine, but he gained immortality for his 92 illustrations for the Alice books. Carroll originally drew the artwork for the books himself but, as a perfectionist who recognized his own limitations, he convinced Tenniel to do the work quite a coup, given the unlikelihood that a publicly renowned artist and cartoonist would agree to illustrate a childrens book written by an Oxford lecturer who was essentially an unknown of no importance.

Tenniels portrayal of Jews included the usual antisemitic features such as a hooked nose and dark, oily hair. In particular, he frequently lampooned Benjamin Disraeli as Fagin, the Jewish leader of a crew of child pickpockets and robbers in Dickenss Oliver Twist; for example, in one drawing, he has Disraeli instructing his fellow politicians how to effectively pick the pockets of the public.

Exhibited here is From the Nile to the Neva, an original Tenniel cartoon published in the August 9, 1890, issue of Punch. It depicts Tsar Alexander III, a staunch antisemite who accused the Jews of the murder of Alexander II and launched pogroms against them, with his boot on the neck of a feeble and helpless bearded Jew and about to wield his sword of persecution. However, the Ghost of Pharoah appears behind him and, speaking from bitter experience, warns Forbear! That weapon [of persecution against the Jews] always wounds the hand that wields it.

In this classic example of his anti-Jewish drawings, Tenniels point is that the Jews wield secret power which they use against those who would abuse them. In later drawings, he makes clear that, though seemingly weak, the Jews of Russia are actually rich and powerful and use their secret cabal against poor Russian citizens.

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Malice In Wonderland - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

In honor of Women's History Month, BroadwayHD is celebrating some of Broadway's iconic female characters with new titles coming to the platform including Yentl from Yentl, Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Tracy from Hairspray Live!. Although very different, they all are strong, independent women that the premiere streaming service for live theatre is recognizing this month.

Beginning March 1, fans can enjoy Barbra Streisand playing the title role in the Academy Award-winning film Yentl, as well as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, an unsettling tale of a Victorian-era barber starring Tony Award winners Angela Lansbury and George Hearn.

On March 3, the iconic Tony Award-winning based Broadway musical, Hairspray Live! hits the platform - featuring exciting stars like Harvey Fierstein, Maddie Baillio, Kristin Chenoweth, Ariana Grande, Garrett Clayton, Derek Hough, Jennifer Hudson, and Martin Short. In addition to the new titles, BroadwayHD has a plethora of titles with trailblazing women including A Night with Janis Joplin, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (Audra McDonald), Ann (Holland Taylor), Rose (Dame Maureen Lipman), Donmar Warehouse's The Tempest, Donmar Warehouse's Julius Caesar, Donmar Warehouse's Henry IV, Indecent (Katrina Lenk), Pipeline (Karen Pittman), The Girls in the Band, Coppelia (Michaela DePrince), The Glass Menagerie (Katharine Hepburn), and Neighbors (Cecily Tyson).

BroadwayHD will also be celebrating Stephen Sondeim's birthday on March 22 with the release of Judy Collins' Letter to Sondheim. Riverdance's 25th Anniversary Special will be arriving in perfect unison with St. Patrick's Day on March 17. With the thrilling energy and passion of its Irish and international dance, fans of all ages can immerse themselves in the extraordinary power and grace of its music and dance. On March 29, BroadwayHD will have the exclusive US premiere of Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky, a well-balanced and hard-hitting biography of one of the world's most flamboyant show-business moguls.

"We are thrilled to release a star-studded lineup of content this month. With March being Women's History Month, we want to celebrate some of Broadway's iconic female characters from titles like Yentl, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Hairspray Live!," said Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley, co-founders of BroadwayHD.

A full list of new productions coming to BroadwayHD this March include:

March 1- For Me and My Gal is a 1942 American musical film directed by Busby Berkeley and starring Judy Garland, Gene Kelly - in his film debut - and George Murphy, and featuring Martha Eggerth and Ben Blue. The film was written by Richard Sherman, Fred F. Finklehoffe and Sid Silvers, based on a story by Howard Emmett Rogers. The film was a production of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM.

March 1- Barbra Streisand plays the title role in the Academy Award-winning film Yentl, which tells the story of Rebbe Mendel, a single father who teaches the Talmud, a sacred text of Judaism, to the boys of his small Polish town. Behind closed doors, he also instructs his daughter, Yentl, despite the fact that girls are forbidden to study religious scripture. When Yentl's father dies, she still has a strong desire to learn about her faith -- so she disguises herself as a male, enrolls in a religious school, and unexpectedly finds love along the way.

March 1- One of the darkest musicals ever written, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is the unsettling tale of a Victorian-era barber who returns home to London after fifteen years of exile, in order to take revenge on the corrupt judge who ruined his life. When revenge eludes him, Sweeney (George Hearn) swears vengeance on the entire human race, murdering as many people as he can, while his business associate, Mrs. Lovett (Angela Lansbury), bakes the bodies into meat pies and sells them to the unsuspecting public. Based on the 1973 play of the same title, this version from 1982 stars Tony Award winners Angela Lansbury (Mame, Gypsy) and George Hearn (La Cage aux Folles, Sunset Boulevard). It features a lush score by the legendary Stephen Sondheim and is directed by Hal Prince, who died this past year, leaving behind a stunning legacy of work on Broadway--from Cabaret to The Phantom of the Opera.

March 3- Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Hairspray Live! takes place in 1962 Baltimore. Plump teenager Tracy Turnblad's dream is to dance on "The Corny Collins Show," a local TV program. When against all odds Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight and meets a colorful array of characters, including the resident dreamboat, Link; the ambitious mean girl, Amber; an African American boy she meets in detention, Seaweed; and his mother, Motormouth Maybelle, the owner of a local record store. Tracy's mother is the indomitable Edna, and she eventually encourages Tracy on her campaign to integrate the all-white "Corny Collins Show." Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (producers of all of NBC's live musicals and the upcoming "A Few Good Men Live") serve as executive producers of Hairspray Live! It stars exciting newcomer Maddie Baillio, Dove Cameron, Kristin Chenoweth, Garrett Clayton, Harvey Fierstein, Ariana Grande, Derek Hough, Jennifer Hudson, Martin Short, Ephraim Sykes and Shahadi Wright Joseph, with special appearances by Billy Eichner, Sean Hayes, Andrea Martin and Rosie O'Donnell.

March 10- Rhythm of the Dance celebrates the rich history of Ireland and incredible art of Irish dance, heralding a new era of Irish entertainment It's internationally rated as one of the most popular Irish step shows on the planet. A visual spectacle bringing the viewer on a historic journey, travels back into the world of Irish Celts during a Great War between clans. Utilizing traditions of step dance, the choreography tells the tale of a battle that left Ireland in ruins, yet expressing a continued hope that the Emerald Isle shall stand again, united in peace. This rich display of Gaelic culture features lead dancers: Michael Byrne, "All England Boys Champion" of Irish Dance; Nicola Kennedy, competitive Irish step dancer since age 4, now a successful teacher; and Emma O'Sullivan, a famous Sean-Ns "old style" traditional Irish dancer. Receiving critical praise and having millions of fans around the world, Rhythm of the Dance is a show every Irish music and dance fan will love.

March 17- A powerful and stirring reinvention of this beloved favorite, celebrated the world over for its GRAMMY-winning score and the thrilling energy and passion of its Irish and international dance. Twenty-five years on, composer Bill Whelan has rerecorded his mesmerizing soundtrack while producer Moya Doherty and director John McColgan have completely reimagined the groundbreaking show with innovative and spectacular lighting, projection, and stage and costume designs. Immerse yourself in the extraordinary power and grace of its music and dance - beloved by fans of all ages. Fall in love with the magic of Riverdance all over again.

March 17- Riverdance Live from Beijing was made to suit China with singing, dancing and music.

Judy Collins Letter to Sondheim- March 22 - A Love Letter to Stephen Sondheim was filmed in May 2016 at The Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver, CO. Collins takes the audience through Sondheim's remarkable treasure-trove of music, interweaving stories of Broadway with her personal anecdotes. The award-winning singer-songwriter is esteemed for her imaginative interpretations of traditional and contemporary folk standards and her own poetically poignant original compositions. Collins is joined on the program by the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Glen Cortese.

March 24- Lucky Stiff is a 2014 American musical comedy film directed by Christopher Ashley and starring Jason Alexander and Dennis Farina (in his final film role). It is based on the 1988 musical of the same name by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty and the 1983 novel The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Mike Butterworth. Set in "1970-ish," the farcical film musical concerns hapless English shoe salesman Harry Witherspoon (Dominic Marsh) who is informed that an American uncle he never knew has died and left him a $6 million fortune. But as Harry soon finds out, the bounty comes with a catch: he has to travel with his uncle's body, fully preserved by a taxidermist, to Monte Carlo on a dreamed of, but never experienced vacation. Otherwise the entire fortune goes to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn.

March 29 - Show Stopper is an honest, well-balanced and hard-hitting biography of one of the world's most flamboyant show-business moguls. It is an emotionally powerful film illustrating the rise and fall of a man who modeled himself after Hollywood ubermoguls Adolf Zukor, Lew Wasserman and the Greek tragic hero, Icarus. Punctuated with key interviews, including those that despised Drabinsky's draconian style, journalists and financial analysts who predicted his demise, industry insiders and the elite of the theatre community that mourn his passing, this film charts Drabinsky's career, the art that inspired him, and the ten-year battle to bring him to eventually convict him. This will be the film's US premiere.

To learn more about BroadwayHD, visit http://www.broadwayhd.com.

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YENTL, HAIRSPRAY LIVE! & More is Coming to BroadwayHD for Women's History Month - Broadway World

These French Jewish women felt left out.

Though France is home to the worlds third largest Jewish community, Tali Trves-Fitoussi, 29, and Myriam Ackerman Sommer, 25, had no place to seriously study Torah and Talmud with other women.They were looking for rigor, and the few programs organized for Jewish women in the past had been short-lived, or presented few opportunities for in-depth study.

So they built a school themselves.

They call it Kol-Elles, a play on the word kollel in Hebrew, a school for the advanced study or Torah and rabbinic literature and elles or the feminine version of they in French. It embraces an Orthodox perspective, but also a feminist one.

I wanted to create a space where I could find women to talk to, who loved Torah as much as me, said Trves-Fitoussi, who works in digital marketing.

Now a year old, Paris-based Kol-Elles enrolls 200 women from across France. Of various levels of Jewish observance, they range in age from 20 to 70. Teachers are both male and female and include Trves-Fitoussi and Ackerman Sommer, who was raised in the south of France and is the first French rabbinical student at New Yorks Yeshivat Maharat, the pioneering program to train Orthodox women clergy.

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In 2017, she and her husband, Emile Ackerman, who is studying to be a rabbi in New York, founded Ayeka in Paris, a co-ed study group for young Jewish professionals. But Ackerman Sommer and Trves-Fitoussi said they knew many Jewish women craved a school of their own, one devoted to womens learning.

So many women have come to us and said thank you for creating a space where we can learn together and create a sense of community together, said Trves-Fitoussi.

Among the offerings on the school calendar this year is a Daf Yomi class a daily study of Talmud - and courses on Jewish womens leadership and the teachings of Maimonides.

Since its founding, the school has awarded scholarships to eight women. The prerequisite for all students: a strong grounding in ancient Hebrew.

Kol-Elles also teaches through social media, with nearly 2,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook.Though its lectures and study sessions are serious, the program often takes a lighter approach on Instagram. A quiz on a Torah portion, for example, includes cartoon figures and popular music.

Kol-Elles, a school for French Jewish women to study ancient Jewish texts, tends to take a lighter approach to the material on its Instagram page.

Its goal is to grow the school, build a corps of French Jewish women teachers and help students share their learning as widely as possible. Ackerman Sommer wants her students to publish articles in scholarly publications, but also to create podcasts and Instagram posts.

She noted that traditional Jewish study halls are bereft of works by women. This might have been the case in any library a century or two centuries ago, that most books would have been written by men, but secular society has since caught up and Orthodox Jewish women are left behind, she said.

But that could be changing.

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In France, women found a school of their own to study ancient Jewish texts - Forward

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington. Image via supremecourt.gov

The debate over the next Supreme Court nomination is heating up. During the presidential campaign, candidate Joe Biden promised that, if elected, the first chance he got he would nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, and President Biden reaffirmed that commitment when Justice Stephen Breyer announced his resignation.

Predictably, Republicans are gearing up to make it as difficult as possible for Bidens nominee to be approved by the Senate (as Democrats would do if the shoe were on the other foot). GOP leaders have skewered the President for, in their view, making race and gender the primary qualifications hes looking for (never mind that during his campaign for president, Ronald Reagan promised to appoint the first woman to the Court, rather than the best judicial mind possible.)

Race and gender both do and dont matter. Up until the appointment of Thurgood Marshall in 1967, every Supreme Court Justice was of the same race and gender. Most Americans agree that diversifying the Court is a good thing. But whoever Bidens nominee is, she and the nation should have full confidence that she was outstandingly qualified and also a Black woman. Luckily, as weve learned in the several days, there is no shortage of people who fit that bill.

It is ridiculous to think that gender and race are the most important criteria for a judge. President Biden himself emphasized this at the official announcement of Breyers retirement, when he said first that he was going to pick the person best qualified for the job, and second that it would be a Black woman.

The debate that has begun inevitably raises the question: what constitutes the criteria for a person to assume a place on the most important court in America?

Over a thousand years ago, the rabbis of the Talmudic period asked the same question about the highest court in the Jewish tradition, the Sanhedrin. Their answer will surprise you, because the rabbis have a fascinating insight into the type of mind that makes the best judge.

The Talmud, a twenty-volume collection of rabbinic argumentation on all aspects of Jewish law, mostly in Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke), is not a code of law. There was no entity to officially enact it as a code. While the Romans were canonizing their law, the rabbis were doing the opposite. The Talmud is the canonization of disagreements. Why?

Jews were expected to study the Talmud and follow Jewish law. But when you open the Talmud, you dont find the law; you find an argument! If you want to find the law, what youre supposed to do or obey, dont open the Talmud.

There was, of course, a prevailing side in the Talmudic arguments, and thats what the Jew was supposed to observe. But they were also expected to study the opinions of the losing side. They were expected to study views that they were NOT to follow or live by.

You live according to the ruling of one side but you study and understand the positions of the other side. You are expected to listen to voices youre not supposed to follow or obey! You read things by people you disagree with. You live by one ideology or practice, but you study others that you might find quite objectionable.

With that in mind, the Babylonian Talmud, in the section on the Sanhedrin, discusses the qualifications of a judge (rabbi) for that high court. It says, They place on the Sanhedrin only one who knows how to render a carcass of a creeping animal pure (kosher) by the law of the Torah.

In the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, a carcass of a creeping animal is listed as the most impure, or unkosher, thing imaginable. A person becomes impure not only if they eat it; but even if they touch it! And yet, when the Talmud asks who is qualified to serve on the Sanhedrin, it is one who can make a convincing argument based on the Torah! that such an animal is kosher!

What kind of mind does it take to find reasons why something they know is unkosher is kosher? Such a mind would have to be quite sophisticated to muster convincing arguments to declare an unkosher animal kosher. But it would also require a flexible mind; one not subservient to one point of view or ideology.

It would require an open, curious, and empathetic person who was motivated to learn not only why they are right; but why they might be wrong. To be worthy to serve on the Sanhedrin, the rabbis sought a mind that was able to create a convincing argument why something was true that they knew to be not only untrue, but even quite objectionable.

The usual response to opinions and world views that we disagree with, or even detest, is to become judgmental and resentful of those putting forth such ideas. But the rabbinic mind, honed by the extraordinarily complex argumentation that unfolds on every page of the Talmud, was supposed to be able to replace judgement with curiosity. Instead of judging those with whom you disagree, you wonder: why do they hold that view?

You are judgmental when you ask why that person is wrong. You are curious when you ask why they are right. The goal of an argument is not to win; but to learn something.

With this way of arguing, the rabbis ask us to break out of the confines of our world view or ideology and to see the world through the eyes and experiences of others.

Empathy is something catastrophically missing from much of the discourse in our country. Ideology and partisanship smother our political conversations and, increasingly, the deliberations of the Supreme Court. This dearth of empathy was made crushingly clear during the discussion in the Supreme Court about the Texas law practically nullifying the right to abortion.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the sole woman in the conservative flank of the court, demonstrated a profound lack of empathy for so many women when she persisted in asking about how easy it is for women to leave unwanted babies with authorities or put them up for adoption.

Empathy is surely not the sole criterion for a judge, but it is critical to the character of a great judge. That is why the voice and experience of a Black woman, never before on the Supreme Court, is so important.

Michael Berk is Rabbi Emeritus ofCongregation Beth Israel, the largest Jewish congregation in San Diego and the oldest in Southern California.

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Opinion: For Empathy's Sake, America Needs a Black Woman on the Supreme Court - Times of San Diego