Category Archives: Talmud

A woman who claimed on Facebook that Grenfell Tower victims were burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice has been found guilty of stirring up race hate.

Tahra Ahmed, 51, posted virulently antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media, with one sent just days after the fire in West London that claimed the lives of 72 people.

An Old Bailey jury deliberated for eight hours to find her guilty by a majority of 11 to one of two charges of stirring up racial hatred by publishing written material.

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During the trial, prosecutor Hugh French said Ahmeds posts in January and June 2017 had crossed the line as to what is acceptable in a liberal society.

On June 18 2017 four days after the disaster she posted a video on Facebook of the blaze and referred to it as a Jewish sacrifice.

She stated: Ive been at the scene, at the protest and at the community meetings and have met many of the victimssome who were still in the same clothes they escaped in.

They are very real and genuine, their pain and suffering is raw and deep and their disgusting neglect by authorities continues.

Watch the footage of people trapped in the inferno with flames behind them.

They were burnt alive in a Jewish sacrifice.

Ahmed went on to link Grenfell to an antisemitic conspiracy surrounding the 9/11 terror attacks in New York in 2001.

An earlier post, on January 26 2017, also set out an antisemitic conspiracy theory, jurors were told.

Police launched an investigation after a story was published in The Times newspaper on December 11 2017, focusing on some of those who attended public meetings after the fire.

An examination of Ahmeds Facebook account revealed a history of antisemitic comments, the court heard.

Mr French said that, while Ahmeds Facebook account demonstrated strongly held beliefs, the two posts identified were clear demonstrations of racial hatred.

The prosecutor said: Looking at the language of the posts, the crude racial stereotyping and the insulting tone, the Crown say that you can infer that she posted them either intending to stir up racial hatred (or) that racial hatred was likely to be stirred up.

Mr French told jurors that people sometimes expressed outspoken or offensive views on social media and were entitled to their opinions.

But there was a limit, and the right to express views had to be balanced with the rights of other people, often minority communities, to live without being stigmatised or abused, he added.

Ahmed, from Tottenham, North London, denied wrongdoing, arguing her posts were political rather than antisemitic.

She made no reaction in court as the jury delivered its verdicts on Friday.

Judge Mark Dennis adjourned sentencing until February 11.

Ordering a pre-sentence report and allowing Ahmed continued bail, he said: All sentencing options are open. Nothing must be read into that one way or another.

Tahras post

According to the CST, the prosecution said posts on Ahmeds Facebook account revealed a history of antisemitic comments and propagation of a number of conspiracy theories, including references to the Holocaust and 9/11.

TheCST made a formal complaint to the police about Ahmeds post, and Mark Gardner, its chief executive subsequently provided a series of witness statements for the prosecution case, explaining the antisemitic and grossly offensive nature of Ahmeds comments.

Dave Rich of CST told Jewish News:Tahra Ahmeds claim that the Grenfell fire was a Jewish sacrifice is one of the most despicable antisemitic slurs I have ever heard. Grenfell was a terrible tragedy and for her to exploit it to promote her vile hatred of Jewish people is beyond belief. It is absolutely right that she has been held accountable for her actions. Tahra Ahmed left nobody in any doubt about her twisted worldview when she gave evidence herself. It was an antisemitic stream of consciousness full of abusive, hurtful and utterly false claims about Judaism and Jewish people. She is in a long tradition of antisemites who claim that they are only criticising the religious teachings of the Talmud, or Zionist politics, or some mysterious secret cabal, but really it is all just a way of dressing up old-fashioned hatred of Jews.

A police investigation into Ahmeds activities arose as a result of a story published in The Times newspaper on December 11 2017 focused on some of the people who attended public meetings after the Grenfell fire.

Following the verdict at the Old Bailey,Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: Tahra Ahmed sought to twist the Grenfell Tower tragedy to fit her venomous world view in which it seems that any evil can be attributed to Jews. She used peoples suffering and anger in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy and tried to wield it as a weapon against Jews before an audience of tens of thousands on social media.

We are pleased that the jury has convicted her over her wicked fabrications. As we have seen, her hatred has not only enabled her to abuse the Grenfell tragedy, but also to accuse Jews of being responsible for 9/11 and of supposedly exaggerating the Holocaust. As the prosecution observed, she used her position as an aid volunteer in the aftermath of Grenfell to bait the mob against Jewish people, making her conduct particularly repulsive.

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Woman who said Grenfell victims 'burnt alive in Jewish sacrifice' guilty of race hate - Jewish News

A few days ago I came across the recently published The Social Justice Torah Commentary, an anthology of essays by various rabbis and Jewish social justice activists on issues such as racism, climate change, mass incarceration, immigration, disability, womens rights and voting rights. The book is meant to be a guide for weekly Torah study and is undoubtedly a rich source of material for sermons. I havent read all the essays, but the ones I have read provide an interesting take on Jewish texts and concepts.

As a criminal justice reform and mental health advocate, I especially appreciated Rabbi Joel Mosbachers essay riffing on Parashat Acharei Mot, addressing the overrepresentation of people with severe mental illness in our criminal justice system. I do not agree with every point made in the books essays but regard such commentary as a completely legitimate way to look at Torah in light of contemporary moral and social realities.

But then I read a Times of Israel article by Rabbi Barry Block, the anthologys editor, and I was reminded of precisely whats wrong with contemporary Jewish social justice discourse and, perhaps, with the book itself.

Referencing the battles over the way race and racism are taught in K-12 schools, Rabbi Block said that as a rabbi he is troubled by this assault on the concept of social justice, which Jewish religious leaders have been championing for longer than the term has existed.

The truth is, he said, that social justice is a noble and worthy concept that has every place in our classrooms and our broader society. At this critical time in our nations historywhen many Americans have a renewed understanding of the extent to which systemic racism has infected our nation, while many others willfully close their eyes to that harsh realityembracing our Jewish tradition of social justice has never been so pressing.

I couldnt agree more that social justice is central to who we are as Jews and our role in the world. And I couldnt disagree more with the narrow manner in which some rabbis and activists define that term for the community.

Last I checked, nowhere in the voluminous commentary on social issues in the Jewish tradition is there a single mention of the term systemic racism. To be sure, racism is a perfectly valid explanation of disparity among different groups in society. But it is not the only explanation. Attributing our social ills to systemic racism alone ignores the crucial role played by poverty and socio-economic status (especially generational wealth), family structure, and the sheer amount of time it takes for a community that experienced centuries of oppression to rise out of its previous conditions. Indeed, insisting that there is a single way to understand group outcomes and that anyone who disagrees or cites alternative explanations is willfully closing their eyes is mind bogglingly illiberal.

This is gospel, not commentary.

This shrunken conception of social justiceI call it Tikkun Olam Hakatan (a small tikkun olam)excludes from its covenant millions of American Jews who want to make the world a better place but may not agree with this particular formulation about what needs to be fixed or how to fix it. We shouldnt have to all agree on exactly what ails society or from where it derives in order to be part of the social justice fold.

According to the Pew Survey, 45 percent of politically conservative Jews say that social justice is essential to their Jewishness. Seventy percent of very liberal Jews agree. If social justice werent so closely linked to a particular ideological and political agenda, imagine how many more conservatives might emphasize it. Nearly half do already!

My friend Leon is a Jewish political conservative. He is highly engaged in supporting people with disabilities, volunteers an untold number of hours to the cause and donates thousands of dollars every year. While Leon recognizes that American history is replete with racial discrimination and that such discrimination persists in certain sectors, he doesnt believeand not for lack of consideration of the evidencethat systemic racism exists in America today. While I do not agree with Leon that there is no systemic racism in society, I know that his heart is in the right place and I honor his support for people with disabilities in the best tradition of Jewish social justice.

Does Leons wrongthink on systemic racism bar him from this very exclusive Jewish social justice club for the ideologically pure?

One can feed the hungry and not agree with the systemic racism explanation of disparity.

One can welcome the stranger and not agree with that explanation of disparity.

One can work to change our criminal justice system and not agree with that explanation of disparity.

Whats missing from the Social Justice Torah Commentarynot just from the book but from the philosophyare the multiple ways people can engage in social justice and make the world a better place. The Talmudthe original commentary on Torahis a collection of thousands of arguments among rabbis, and then even more arguments by later rabbis about what the earlier rabbis were arguing about.

One would expect that progressive Jewish thinkers would emulate this mode of commentary and argumentation about how to best lift people up. One would hope that their vision of a more perfect world would include people with whom they disagree just like the rabbis in the Talmud did in their time.

Nothing about social justice should be controversial, Rabbi Block tells us. To the contrary, everything about social justice should be controversial.

It is through controversy and argumentation that we develop both better insights into and more creative solutions to our social ills. The Rabbis in Talmudic times understood this in their own context. Too many in todays progressive rabbinate dont.

The problem with modern Jewish social justice discourse is not that it doesnt have anything valuable to add to Jewish life, but rather that it claims an absolute monopoly on the truth and regards anyone who disagrees as willfully closing their eyes.

The problem with modern Jewish social justice discourse is not that it doesnt have anything valuable to add to Jewish lifeit has much to addbut rather that it claims an absolute monopoly on the truth and regards anyone who disagrees as willfully closing their eyes.

We need a bigger, more inclusive vision of Jewish social justice.

David Bernstein is the Founder of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV.org). Follow him on Twitter @DavidLBernstein.

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The Incredibly Shrinking Conception of Jewish Social Justice - Jewish Journal

The first teaching of Mishnah Rosh Hashanah famously speaks of four new years, among them Tu BShevat as the New Year for the Trees. In Jewish law, the 15th of Shevat marks a turning point for the status of fruit, from forbidden to permitted; in kabbalistic tradition, its an occasion for a mystical Seder. In this Yiddish story, Tu BShevat resounds, instead, with the awe of the High Holiday season: It is the arboreal Day of Judgment. The trees stand trial, while the prosecutor and the defense argue their cases with Talmudic proofs. Published in 1904, Fridmans fable presents a dark and unsettling take on the notions of sin, merit, and justice before the Heavenly Court.

Though the trees intone hymns and three times a day they sway with praise for His beloved Name, He who gives them sun and rain in their season; though the trees persist in exalting the One whose praises cannot be exhausted, who told humankind that grapes are delicious and olives rich, so that they should be ripped and eaten; though the trees have never strayed to another, they do not even know the taste of their own fruitsstill, their hearts flutter: perhaps they are not pure of sin

But the great, massive trees with their wide branchesthey, who hoarded the suns warmth for themselves, hiding its shine from the others; they, who were the first to be dampened with fresh dew drops and the last to fall in a storm; they, who looked upon the lovely flowers and youthful saplings with bare condescension, at times sparing them a few rays of sunthese trees stand tall and secure. Such trees need not tremble on the Day of Judgment! Satan himself has not enough power to accuse them. And when they do join the others in their appeal to the heavens, it is a gesture of goodwill.

And the hoarse cry of a shofar sounds through forest and garden. A branch cracks, the wind howls. The trees strike Ashamnu and the whole forest quivers and trembles before the mighty and awesome Day of Judgment.

It is winter, and the trees, poor things, are frozen from the cold. Branches that once bore fruit are shriveled now, stooped under heavy snow. Fruits lie gathered in cellars; no one cares for the trees until they are needed once more.

They were told that winter was for their sake; granted to them, to rest and gather strength for the summer, to grow and to bloom. They were told that winter would only last three months, it would be over quickly, and then a sweet spring would arrive, with its fields of flowers and fragrant breezes, brilliant sun and skies

And the trees, Gods precious creationswith the power to nourish a world but not a drop of intellectdo not ask of what use this summer may be; as though they had forgotten that their shadows shielded others, their fruits nourished someone else. And so they wait for spring, hoping for summer.

And in the summertime? They struggle to support fruits they can barely lift; too often a branch breaks from the unbearable load, a tree withers before its time. But things are a touch happier. From time to time a warm ray alights; one is sprinkled with dewdrops. Though theres not much to enjoy, one forgets his troubles, the noise all around, savoring the sensation of pride and vengeance as humans walk past another tree that has borne less fruit

But now its winter and oh, how difficult it is to live in such bitter cold! Oh, how difficult to withstand a storm! It is a strange winter; it started already in autumn, and now it stretches on endlessly, unceasing. Who knows how long it will last? And what if, heavens forbid, they receive a damning decree on the Day of Judgment?

And the hoarse cry of a shofar sounds through forest and garden. A branch cracks, the wind howls. The trees strike Ashamnu and the whole forest quivers and trembles before the mighty and awesome Day of Judgment.

The court is ready; the prosecutor reads aloud the record of sins.

The first accused is an apple tree. His branch felled a neighbors fruit, and for this sin he will be judged.

And he weeps, the accused, swearing he is not guilty. A rascal threw a rock that hit his branch; the branch, bending over in pain, felled the fruit.

He defends himself! the prosecutor cries. He asks for mercy: This is proof of guilt. Next.

The defense counsel tries to rise, but they wont allow it. An admission by the accused is worth the testimony of a hundred witnesses. No further claim can redeem him.

The grapevine is second on trial. He has made souses who have succumbed to drink.

And the vine, he bursts out laughing:

Drinking is a crime? Then may their mouths be stopped up! I forced no one!

The defense counsel rises. The prosecutor does not stop him; he appears to be asleep.

Is it really the vines fault, the defense counsel opens, that they drink themselves to intoxication? His wine is sweet and stronga joy for God and man. To punish him would be a crime.

The mouse does not steal the foodthe hole does, the prosecutor cries out, then catches himself. It is pointless.

Next is the cherry tree. A bird of prey poisoned itself from his berries.

The court rings with cries: Murderer! Murderer! The tree quivers in fright.

If only it would quiet down, the murderer could defend himself: The bird of prey devoured his choicest fruits! He is not guilty that the cherry juice turned to poison as the bird stuck its tongue inside. But the clamor of the birds party and the cries of Murderer! silence him.

The defense counsel is lost for words, and the prosecutor yells and carries on frightfully. The court is glad when the case is quickly resolved.

The olive tree is fourth. His sin: drawing from an unkosher source

The audience lets out a wave of astonished cries as the olive tree approaches. Him, under trial? They do not understand.

Glancing around, the olive tree stands calm. Its no simple matter, charging an olive tree.

The defense counsel finds a merit: One uses his oil for the menorah. The wicks of the Eternal Flame are soaked in its fats. Therefore

He neednt say more. This is a fine merit. And if it draws from an unkosher source, then, G-d forbid, the menorah would be unfit, the Eternal Flame impure ... The prosecutor knows this, and lets him continue.

And so it goes, tree after tree, some of them proud and assured, others stooped and broken.

And when no accused remain, the sexton of the court reads the verdicts aloud:

The apple tree confessed to felling the fruit of his neighbor. The righteous court sentences him to grow without rain.

The vines claims have been accepted. He is not guilty.

The cherry tree is a murderer. He confessed, and must therefore give his fruit to the bird of prey in perpetuity. His confession has saved him from death.

The holy olive tree is pure.

And this tree ... and that tree The list continues until the last defendant.

And when the court hall empties, the prosecutor and the defense counsel smile, watching the trees depart. They are pleased with their compromise.

Translated by Dalia Wolfson

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The Day of Judgment for the Trees - Tablet Magazine

The improbable hybrid of a tallit, a Jewish prayer shawl, and a sajjada, a Muslim prayer rug. A family recipe for an Iraqi date pastry that evokes layers of Arab-Jewish identity. Glazed stoneware for trans Jews to use in ritual practice. A film of screen recordings and Zoom exchanges about disability and displacement.

Photo by Daniel Toretsky

Toretsky describes his installation in the JMMs courtyard as both an act of defiance and a reaffirmation of Jewish peoplehood.

These works, and many others, are on display at the Jewish Museum of Maryland as part of a multimedia exhibit called A Fence Around The Torah: Safety And Unsafety In Jewish Life, curated by Liora Ostroff.

Through paintings, poetry, video art and more, the Baltimore exhibit aims to capture how antisemitism and white supremacist violence threaten American Jewish communities while also recognizing the harm Jewish institutions have done to marginalized community members and neighbors.

The exhibits title comes from Pirkei Avot, which instructs us to make a fence around the Torah. But as the exhibit points out, safety practices, designed to protect Jewish communities, can also perpetuate harm for diverse Jewish groups. For instance, as exhibit contributor Ami Weintraub, a teacher and organizer, has argued in the Forward, the increased presence of police in Jewish spaces can make those spaces unsafe for Jews and other people of color.

Photo by Liora Ostroff

Annabel Rabiyah, Hannah Aliza Goldman, Coral Cohen and Arielle Tonkins multimedia installation includes an audio play and a hybrid ritual object, the outgrowth of almost two decades of Muslim-Jewish organizing.

Before the exhibit opened, Ostroff and the museums executive director, Sol Davis, partnered with representatives of various Baltimore organizations to hold conversations about safety in different areas of Jewish life. The material and content of the exhibit are co-authored and co-created with artists and the community, Davis wrote in an email.

The exhibits representation of Jewish life is radically complex and controversial, and highlights the role that Jewish museums can and, the exhibit argues, should play in uplifting Jewish identities that have been historically underrepresented.

Davis said that A Fence Around The Torah, his first full-scale exhibit at the museum, can serve to build bridges of understanding between segments of the Jewish community.

This is a living exhibit that engages with Jewish life in the present and supports us toward envisioning and building the Jewish future, he wrote in an email.

For Danielle Durchslag, the exhibit is an opportunity to share a work her film Dangerous Opinions which, because it criticizes wealthy American Jews identification with victimhood and their unwillingness to discuss the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, she has struggled to display.

The challenge for me in trying to present my work publicly is that in Jewish cultural output, there are two poles that are generally lauded and accepted, Durchslag said. One is content about our victimhood, and the other is content that is somehow promotional about us.

Courtesy of The Jewish Museum of Mary...

Marisa Baggett portrays how security that makes one Jew feel safe can make another feel unsafe.

More museums, she said, need to feature critical work that falls in between those two poles. If Jews are fully human, and I strongly suspect we are in fact, I know we are then were not just good guys and victims, she said.

The radical thing I want to suggest is that presenting ourselves in that way is in and of itself antisemitic because if were fully human, then were everything the good, the bad and the ugly.

Courtesy of The Jewish Museum of Mary...

The Jews of Blois recited the Aleinu while being burned alive.

The exhibit examines that spectrum, as well as the impact of antisemitism. Weintraubs contribution to the exhibit, a wheat paste poster called LDor VDor and made in collaboration with the Rebellious Anarchist Young Jews Collective, chronicles some of the history of antisemitism, connecting the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018 to the murders that followed the first case of the blood libel in continental Europe in Blois, France, in 1171.

Its important that people keep their eyes on Pittsburgh and know were still grieving and that were still in a lot of pain and not just from that one event, Weintraub said.

What happened here is a bigger story than just that one moment, and its ongoing.

The poster, like the exhibit overall, speaks to how art can be essential to both engaging with history and dealing with contemporary issues. Art allows us to reinvestigate cultural loss, reframe cultural narratives, and illuminate connections between past and present problems, curator Liora Ostroff wrote in an email.

For instance, Marissa Baggetts painting Are You Jewish? reflects the painful impact of racial profiling in Jewish spaces, a response to rising antisemitism.

The self-portrait depicts Baggett after being denied entry to a synagogue where she has worshipped and worked as a chef. Her transgression? Wearing her hair in its natural state.

Sometimes a stranger will visit her shul, Baggett said, and treat her like shes the stranger. It doesnt feel safe. It doesnt feel welcome. You feel like youre constantly on trial, and it goes against everything in our Jewish principles, she said. We have to do more than just welcome the stranger we have to welcome ourselves.

Courtesy of The Jewish Museum of Mary...

Marisa Baggett envisions a future where all Jews communal needs, including safety, are met.

Yet Baggetts other work in the exhibit, Talmud Shenui, imagines a vibrant, multicolored Jewish community where everyone is recognized and included something of a throughline for the vision of the entire exhibit.

We have to keep representing our beautiful, wonderful experiences and selves in Jewish spaces, where we belong, Baggett said. We have to keep persevering to show that weve always belonged and that our experience is a valid Jewish experience.

While the Jewish Museum of Maryland is temporarily closed due to the omicron variant, the museum will start giving virtual tours of the exhibit in February email fence@jewishmuseummd.org to participate. Additionally, most of the art can be viewed online.

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In Baltimore, a Jewish museum captures the precarity and beauty of American Jewish life - Forward

On Dec. 30, 2021 my hometown of Louisville, Colorado burned. I had an appointment earlier that day at Avista Adventist Hospital, mere hours before it had to be evacuated because of approaching flames. I saw smoke to the west but didnt give it much thought, though I was well aware of the high winds. As the realization of the approaching fire began to dawn, it set off a flurry of frantic phone calls and panicked packing.

My family and I had to flee the Marshall Fire, along with almost 35,000 of our neighbors, grabbing pets, valuables and anything we could carry. Most people went north, but we went west to the mountain town of Nederland. While we had shelter, we had no internet and spent the night communicating with friends and family to get news. At one point, we listened via telephone to our mayor reporting on the fire from my sisters TV in Minnesota. It was only at 5:30 the next morning that we learned that our home was still standing.

We were among the lucky, despite a multiple-day evacuation. Whole neighborhoods were leveled, including one just a half-mile from my house. Early estimates suggest the Marshall Fire caused more than $513 million in damage but the true cost is the leveling of neighborhoods, and of families with nowhere to come home to. The loss is unfathomable.

Fires used to be a seasonal phenomenon, but have become year-round as a result of climate change. Record temperatures and drought can turn grasslands into tinder, forests into kindling, and all it takes is a stray spark to destroy thousands of acres and whole communities. Having witnessed the destruction that warming temperatures wrought in my community, and considering the lack of meaningful action at a federal level, I am convinced that Jews have a unique role to play in the fight to save our planet.

Since the 1970s, Colorados wildfire season has increased by 78 days. This isnt a fluke 90% of the Western half of the United States is experiencing a prolonged drought as a result of climate change. Consistently low rainfall and snowpack levels and above-average temperatures over the past 20 years have depleted reservoirs, dried up forests and set the stage for longer and more intense fire seasons. Some scientists believe the West is experiencing a multi-decade megadrought.

Nearly 80% of American Jews believe climate change is a crisis or a major problem, and 71% of Americans at large worry that global warming will impact future generations. As Jews, we have biblical and historical experience confronting existential crises, being displaced and reinventing the way we live. It is never easy to overcome, but its only possible if we translate our pain, grief and anxiety into action. To do that, we need to bring the full power, people and spirit of the Jewish community to address climate change collectively.

The West isnt the only region that is experiencing the impact of climate change: more than 40% of Americans live in counties hit by climate disasters in 2021. In that context, its not surprising that climate change has jumped to the top of the list of issues Americans and the American Jewish community are concerned about.

And yet despite growing urgency, we havent seen meaningful action at the federal level. Congress is currently considering the Build Back Better Act, a bill that would invest more than half a billion dollars in clean energy, sustainable transportation and cleaning up polluted communities. But its being delayed and whittled down by the fossil fuel industry and elected officials who do their bidding.

We still have a chance to get it across the finish line if we make our voices heard, whether thats by showing up on our Senators doorsteps or calling their offices. Across the country, Jewish Americans are coming together to protect the communities we love and call home, and to take collective action on climate change. Climate-concerned Jews across the country are forming action groups called Dayenu Circles at synagogues, JCCs and on college campuses, transforming our organizations to serve as models of what a just, thriving, resilient and clean-energy-powered future can look like. Most importantly, Jews are coming together to confront this crisis collectively, with spiritual audacity and bold action.

The Marshall fire will have a long-term, devastating impact on my community. We are resilient and will ultimately recover, but much has been lost forever. We are praying for the safety and well-being of our community, offering hizuk courage to those who were impacted as we take steps to recover and rebuild. If you are moved to help those in need, please consider contributing to JEWISHColorados Boulder Fires relief fund.

I am reminded of a story from the Talmud where Honi sees a man planting a carob tree. He asks the man how long it will take for the tree to bear fruit, and he responds: Seventy years. Honi wonders incredulously if the man really thinks he will be alive seventy years from now to enjoy the trees fruit, and the man smiles. He answers that when he was born into the world, he enjoyed the fruits from carob trees that his father and grandfather planted. Just as they planted for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren.

The choices Americans make on climate change in 2022 will decide what kind of world our children and grandchildren inherit. Like the carob trees that nourish a community years after their planting, the Jewish community must take action on climate change so that we can thrive from generation to generation ldor vdor.

To contact the author, email editorial@forward.com.

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

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My home almost burned in Colorado wildfires. Jews have a special responsibility to fight back - Forward

The Babylonian Talmuds lesser-known counterpart the Jerusalem Talmud is getting its moment in the limelight with the introduction of its first and only complete online manuscript, along with full English and French translations.

Released late last month by Sefaria, a nonprofit offering free access to Jewish texts, the Jerusalem Talmud joins its Babylonian cousin, which Sefaria previously made available online.

As a Jewish text the Talmud, an ancient collection of rabbinic interpretations on matters of faith and religious law, has never been known for its accessibility. It can take years of study before one is able to navigate the Talmuds passages without a teacher. Until the modern era, virtually only those who possessed an Orthodox Jewish education mostly men were given the scholarly tools to decipher the often-cryptic texts written in Aramaic, an ancient Levantine language.

In the digital age, it is possible to make the Talmud available to anyone with an internet connection but Sefarias initiative ups the ante by also making the texts understandable, with links, references, and translations at the click of a finger.

Incorporating a translation into English made by Heinrich Guggenheimer first published by academic press Walter de Gruyter between 1999 and 2015 Sefaria has created a digital edition of the Jerusalem Talmud incorporating all 17 print volumes, section by section, appearing with its original Aramaic counterpart. And while it may be especially vast in scope, this latest effort is merely an extension of what Sefaria is always doing: steering Jewish texts considered obscure back toward the mainstream.

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The question at the center of the effort of uploading the Jerusalem Talmud to Sefarias site with images of the original manuscript, translations into two languages, and linked cross-references is whether this access will lead to deeper, more grounded conversations among learners of the Jewish tradition of all ages, genders, and levels of knowledge.

According to Lev Israel, chief data officer of Sefaria and one of the main staff members behind the effort to put the Jerusalem Talmud online, the issue is not only about access, but also about what it means to learn from a computer rather than from a book, a manuscript, or another person.

Illustrative: This undated photo provided by Sothebys in New York shows the first-ever printing of the Talmud in Venice in the 1520s. (Sothebys via AP)

Were in the middle of this transition which has already altered our perception, and its hard to get perspective on this, says Israel. The digital text is malleable. If you have low visibility, you can increase the size. If youre blind, you can have the computer read it aloud. The Jerusalem Talmud amps this up: Were increasing access for people who had access. Its a radical accentuation of what weve been doing all along.

For Israel, making the Jerusalem Talmud available online isnt just about providing access, its also about changing the narrative around this important text within Jewish religious and academic scholarship.

I hope this changes what the Jerusalem Talmud means for future generations, he says. That the story ceases to be that its inaccessible that its a mysterious, distant type of book once its more at hand. Because it is so obscure, the Jerusalem Talmud often gets brushed under the rug.

The story of the Jerusalem Talmud is the story of the lesser stepsister. The term Talmud usually refers to the combination of the Mishnah, a written version of the oral tradition of the Torah that was written mainly in Hebrew until the 3rd century CE, and the Gemara, commentaries on the Mishnah written in Aramaic in two major ancient territories, Babylon and Palestine.

Each of these two commentaries represents its own body of wisdom, with unique interpretations of the Mishnah, and each covers slightly different aspects of Jewish law. But whereas the Babylonian Talmud, which was codified around 500 CE, was circulated in complete manuscripts throughout the Middle Ages, the Jerusalem Talmud was rarer, with the only known complete manuscript dating as late as 1289 CE. So, for most of Jewish history since the destruction of the Second Temple, it was the Babylonian Talmud that was studied and consulted to decide religious matters, to such a degree that the word Talmud became synonymous with the one that emerged from Babylon.

Senior lecturer at Bar-Ilan University Dr. Moshe Simon-Shoshan. (Courtesy)

The Jerusalem Talmud was not completely forgotten but its scarcity, as well as its style, made it more difficult to apply. Its also written in a different Aramaic from the one that became familiar to yeshiva students who pored over the Babylonian Talmud. As Dr. Moshe Simon-Shoshan, a scholar of rabbinic literature and senior lecturer at Bar-Ilan University, explains, the Jerusalem Talmud is shorter, more cryptic, and less edited than the Babylonian Talmud, also known merely as the Bavli. Its harder to make sense of the text, he adds, and so that people have to be more careful in reading and interpreting the Jerusalem Talmud or Yerushalmi, as it is also known especially since the links in the text arent as clear.

I often say, says Simon-Shoshan, that you will never complain about the Bavli being unclear after you open the Yerushalmi.

Even its name is misleading. Known as the Jerusalem Talmud, it was likely written and compiled in the Galilee, incorporating texts from Caesarea and Tiberias, centers of rabbinical learning after the Bar Kochba revolt, which shifted the center of rabbinic activity and Jewish life from Judea toward the north.

And while it was not written in Jerusalem, as the name might suggest, it refers to the laws of Jewish life in the Land of Israel, at the center of which was Jerusalem known spiritually as Zion. Some scholars call it the Palestinian Talmud, while others yet call it the Talmud of the Land of Israel. And all this debate exists before one even looks into a single page of this complex Jewish source.

An additional complicating factor when considering the two Talmuds is that the Yerushalmi was codified first and may have even been available in Babylon at the time of the compilation and completion of the Bavli.

Dr. Elana Stein Hain, director of faculty and senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. (Courtesy)

Dr. Elana Stein Hain, director of faculty and senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, points out that while the Bavli was popularized by Jewish tradition over the past 1,500 years, the Yerushalmi is an important intermediary step to understanding the wisdom of Hazal, the Jewish sages of the Talmud.

Anyone who really wants to understand the development of Hazals thought, says Stein Hain, cant do it by skipping straight to the Bavli. The Yerushalmi is an intermediary step. It can actually give you a sense of why they developed the Bavli as they did, or how they could have developed it differently.

The Yerushalmi, Stein Hain adds, got cut off early, and so it didnt become dominant. And while, in her words, the supremacy of the Bavli will not be undone, its possible that Sefarias making the Yerushalmi available online with translations represents its Cinderella moment.

Some people have thought of the Yerushalmi as very secondary, continues Stein Hain, who is also on Sefarias board of directors. Others see it as a critical way of understanding the Bavli. I try to understand the big ideas that are in Hazal, not just the bottom line of [rabbinic law], and so the Yerushalmi gives me a whole new set of ideas.

Sefaria chief data officer Israel says that the project to bring the Jerusalem Talmud to broader readership is about improving the quality of discussions taking place at this particular moment in history.

The conversations that happen nowadays on the internet, but also in our living rooms, are really more about who can yell the loudest, who can be the most shocking, Israel says. They bear no relationship to fact. Its all about whats most persuasive and I think a lot of the work were doing is to provide resources to ground the conversation in primary sources.

Simon-Shoshan, too, sees the move to digital platforms as being groundbreaking in the way our global societies are restructuring their notions of knowledge, education, and communication.

The move to online text isnt like the move from written manuscripts to printed books, he says. Its like the move from oral traditions to written texts.

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New online translation by Sefaria may be the Jerusalem Talmuds Cinderella moment - The Times of Israel

The Jewish obligation to observe commandments is traditionally divided along male/female lines: men pray three times daily, while women dont have to; men put on tefillin, while women do not. Some womens recent efforts to observe the religious privileges theyre exempt from have made ripples in the Jewish world, and even the news.

But what if we told you that the foundation for all this was wrong? That Judaism recognized not two, but as many as eight genders? The Mishnah describes half a dozen categories that are between male and female, such as saris or ailonit the terms refer to an non-reproductive version of the male or female body, respectively and categories that refer to ambiguous or indeterminate gender.

Although these terms seem to provide the refreshing view that a binary view of gender in Judaism is relatively recent, a closer look shows that Mishnaic rabbis were apt to privilege maleness in the case of indeterminate or multiple genders. But contemporary scholars like Rabbi Elliot Kukla are repurposing that halakhic discourse to provide a road map for our recognition of non-binary people in todays Judaism. Gender-neutral restrooms start to look like small potatoes.

November 9, 2015

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The 8 Genders of the Talmud - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Fifth of the six orders, or major divisions, of the Mishnah, Tosefta and the Talmud

Kodashim (Hebrew: , "Holy Things") is the fifth of the six orders, or major divisions, of the Mishnah, Tosefta and the Talmud, and deals largely with the services within the Temple in Jerusalem, its maintenance and design, the korbanot, or sacrificial offerings that were offered there, and other subjects related to these topics, as well as, notably, the topic of kosher slaughter of animals for non-sacrificial purposes.

This Seder (order, or division) of the Mishnah is known as Kodashim (sacred things or sanctities), because it deals with subjects connected with Temple service and ritual slaughter of animals (shehitah). The term kodashim, in the Biblical context, applies to the sacrifices, the Temple and its furnishings, as well as the priests who carried out the duties and ceremonies of its service; and it is with these holy things, places and people that Kodashim is mainly concerned. The title Kodashim is apparently an abbreviation of Shehitat Kodashim ("the slaughter of sacred animals") since the main, although not the only subject of this order is sacrifices.[1][2][3]

The topics of this Seder are primarily the sacrifices of animals, birds, and meal offerings, the laws of bringing a sacrifice, such as the sin offering and the guilt offering, and the laws of misappropriation of sacred property. In addition, the order contains a description of the Second Temple (tractate Middot), and a description and rules about the daily sacrifice service in the Temple (tractate Tamid). The order also includes tractate Hullin, which concerns the slaughter of animals for non-sacrificial use, as well as other dietary laws applying to meat and animal products. Although Hullin is about the slaughter of animals for non-sacrificial, and therefore unsanctified purposes, because the rules about the proper slaughter of animals and birds, and their ritual fitness for use were considered to be an integral part of the concept of holiness in Judaism, they were also included in the order regarding holy things.[2][3]

Seder Kodashim comprises eleven tractates, with a total of 90 chapters, as follows:[2][3][4]

This Seder, or order, has eleven tractates, arranged, like most of the orders of the Mishnah, mostly in descending sequence according to the number of chapters.[3]

The traditional reasoning for the order of the tractates according to Maimonides, beyond the ordering according to number of chapters, is that Zevahim is first as it deals with the main physical purpose of the Temple, namely, animal sacrifices. Menahot continuing the subject of offerings, and so is placed next, according to the scriptural order and the status of meal-offerings as supplementary to the meat offerings. After dealing with offerings to the Temple, Hullin follows, dealing with the related topic of "secular" slaughter for meat. Bekhorot, Arakhin and Temurah all discuss auxiliary laws of sanctity and follow the order in which they appear in the Torah. Keritot then follows, as it largely discusses the offering for the transgression of certain commandments, and Me'ilah follows that as it also deals with transgressions of sanctity, although of a lighter nature. After dealing with laws, two mostly descriptive tractates were added, Tamid discussing the daily sacrifice and Middot which overviews the Temple in Jerusalem. Finally, Kinnim was placed last as its laws deal with accidental and rarely occurring situations.

In the Babylonian Talmud the sequence of the treatises follows the general order except that Bekorot is before Hullin, and innim is placed before Tamid and Middot.[4]

As part of the Mishnah, the first major composition of Jewish law and ethics based on the Oral Torah, Kodashim was compiled and edited between 200220 CE by Rabbi Yehudah haNasi and his colleagues. Subsequent generations produced a series of commentaries and deliberations relating to the Mishnah, known as the Gemara, which together with the Mishna are the Talmud, one produced in the Land of Israel c. 300350 CE (the Jerusalem Talmud), and second, more extensive Talmud compiled in Babylonia and published c. 450500 CE (the Babylonian Talmud).

In the Babylonian Talmud, all the tractates have Gemara for all their chapters except for Tamid which has it only for three chapters and Middot and Kinnim which don't have any[2][3]

Although the subject matter was no longer directly relevant to life in the Babylonian academies, the Gemara was motivated by the idea that the study of the laws of the Temple service is a substitute for the service itself. Also, the rabbinic sages wanted to merit the rebuilding of the Temple by paying special attention to these laws. However, in the modern Daf Yomi cycle and in the printed editions of the Babylonian Talmud, the Mishnah for the last two tractates are added at the end, to complete the order.

The Jerusalem Talmud has no Gemara on any of the tractates of Kodashim. Maimonides, however, mentions of the existence of a Jerusalem Talmud Gemara to Kodashim; however, it is doubtful he had seen it, as he is not known to have cited it anywhere. Nonetheless, this order was a subject of study in the Talmudic academies of the Land of Israel, as many statements contained in the Gemara of the Babylonian Talmud are attributed to the rabbinic scholars known as Amoraim in the Land of Israel. The assumption is that there was once a Jerusalem Talmud Gemara to Kodashim but that it has been lost.[2][3][9]

There is a Tosefta for the tractates Zevahim, Hullin, Bekhorot, Arakhin, Temurah, Me'ilah, and Keritot. Tamid, Middot and Kinnim have no Tosefta.[3]

More:

Kodashim - Wikipedia

In southeastern Nigeria, many Igbo, members of Nigerias third-largest tribe, believe they are of Jewish ancestry. Some of their traditions, such as circumcision and menstrual rituals, resemble those of Talmudic Judaism. The Igbo population is estimated at 30 to 35 million. Dozens of communities have become fully practicing Jews, and countless more incorporate elements of Judaism into a syncretic belief system. While the tribes origins remain unconfirmed, Igbo Jewish oral tradition traces the Igbo back to an African Hebrew diaspora that resided near the Niger River after the 722 BCE expulsion of the Israelites from the northern kingdom. This predates even the Babylonian exile of 586 BCE.

The Igbo are not accepted as Jews by the Israeli government. Consequently, they remain subject to ongoing threats, including severe persecution in the wake of Nigerias liberation from British colonialism. For example, between 1 million and 3 million Igbo were slaughtered en masse during the Nigeria-Biafra war that lasted from 1967 to 1970.

Early last summer, an Israeli filmmaker went to West Africa with a film crew to document Igbos stories. While there, the crew was arrested in Ogidi by the Department of State Services (DSS) on July 9 and imprisoned for approximately 20 days without trial. An elderly Igbo woman, who had welcomed them, was also arrested by the DSS and imprisoned alongside the team. After the international community got involved, the filmmakers were released and subsequently returned to Israel. A Nigerian film director and cinematographer was then arrested at the end of July for associating with the filmmakers.

Ambitious filmmaking projects that feature marginalized communities are admirable. However, outsiders must fully understand the specific risks to these communities. They must recognize when their efforts do more harm than good to the locals, lest they endanger them.

This time, heavy press scrutiny and extensive international support mitigated the worst. The filmmakers, who got the lions share of attention, were released within three weeks. The locals received far less media coverage, despite being the subjects of the film, and lacked the support of international embassies. Although elderly, the Igbo Jewish woman was detained for a longer period of time. Unlike the Israelis, she was not given hospital visits or Chabad kosher meals.

While the Nigerian government clearly violated basic human rights, the filmmakers also contributed to the fallout. They traveled to Nigeria claiming to aid the locals and while there, frequently posted about their experiences on social media. Some of their posts contained overtly political undertones and disclosed identities of specific Igbo Jews. One Instagram photo showed the filmmaker with Igbo King Eze Chukwuemeka Eri and the following description: Israel X Igbo are locking arms.

Irrespective of intent, this and other posts could easily be interpreted as promoting a political alliance between Israel and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) or other groups which are viewed as separatist by the Nigerian government. On paper, freedom of speech is protected under Nigerias constitution. In practice, Nigeria typically censors certain types of ideas, including discussions about ethnicity, political diversity, and differing views of morality. In other words, Nigeria is not Israel, the United States, Canada, or Australia; protections surrounding freedom of speech, legal representation, and other rights expected in the developed world are not widely available.

Whether or not this is moral or ideal in our eyes, it is a reality that must be recognized. The Igbo Jews have already suffered immense harm from their own government, as well as from neighboring ethnic groups. The film crews reckless actions further risk an already isolated and vulnerable population. Thus, the filming was in direct contradiction of the Talmudic value of communal responsibility toward the well-being of ones fellow Jew. This is core to the Jews as a nation and a people.

The filmmakers have repeatedly condemned the Nigerian government for the arrests, without taking time to reflect on the ways in which they themselves may have brought harm upon the very community they claim to support. Two local Nigerians are known to have suffered as a result of the film crews lack of cultural awareness and sensitivity. The fallout of this incident could cause harm to many more.

Although it may not be possible to reverse this particular situation, it is possible to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. First, this film crew can reflect on the ways in which they acted irresponsibly, as opposed to milking the story on YouTube and painting the Nigerian government as the villain in an attempt to absolve themselves. Second, they can make a public statement acknowledging the specific ways in which they contributed to the situation. Third, they can do their due diligence in educating themselves about their countries of interest to ensure that this kind of voluntourism mentality does not persist, should they continue their work. Far be it for one Jew to add to the suffering of another.

This post was co-authored by Rebecca Sealfon who is a Reconstructionist Jewish writer and social media consultant who lives in New York City. She started and maintains a popular Israel-Palestine peace forum called Unity is Strength, which receives more than 1,000,000 views per year and attracts writers from Israel, Palestine, and all over the world. Rebecca has published in the New York Daily News, Smithsonian magazine, and the Daily Beast, as well as appeared numerous times on national television.

Iman J. Sultana is completing a Peace and Conflict Studies graduate degree at the University of Waterloo. Her specialty is conflict zones in MENA, including Israel-Palestine, Kurdistan, and Yemen. She is also interested in environmental-based peacebuilding and social entrepreneurship. In her free time, Iman administers online peacebuilding communities.

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A reckless Israeli film crew in Nigeria and the Igbo Jews who paid the price - The Times of Israel

LOS ANGELES Adam Nimoy gazed across a museum gallery filled with Star Trek stage sets, starship replicas, space aliens, fading costumes and props (think phaser, set to stun). The sounds of a beam-me-up transporter wafted across the room. Over his shoulder, a wall was filled with an enormous photograph of his father Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock on the show dressed in his Starfleet uniform, his fingers splayed in the familiar Vulcan live long and prosper greeting.

But that gesture, Adam Nimoy noted as he led a visitor through this exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center, was more than a symbol of the television series that defined his fathers long career playing the part-Vulcan, part-human Spock. It is derived from part of a Hebrew blessing that Leonard Nimoy first glimpsed at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Boston as a boy and brought to the role.

The prominently displayed photo of that gesture linking Judaism to Star Trek culture helps account for what might seem to be a highly illogical bit of programming: the decision by the Skirball, a Jewish cultural center known mostly for its explorations of Jewish life and history, to bring in an exhibition devoted to one of televisions most celebrated sci-fi shows.

But walking through the artifacts Adam Nimoy recalled how his father, the son of Ukrainian Jews who spoke no English when they arrived, had said he identified with Spock, pointing out that he was the only alien on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Jewish values and traditions were often on the minds of the shows writers as they dealt with issues of human behavior and morality, said David Gerrold, a writer whose credits include The Trouble with Tribbles, one of the most acclaimed Star Trek episodes, which introduces the crew to a cute, furry, rapidly reproducing alien life form.

A lot of Jewish tradition a lot of Jewish wisdom is part of Star Trek, and Star Trek drew on a lot of things that were in the Old Testament and the Talmud, Gerrold said in an interview. Anyone who is very literate in Jewish tradition is going to recognize a lot of wisdom that Star Trek encompassed.

That connection was not explicit when the show first aired. And a stroll through the exhibition, which covers the original television show as well as some of the spinoffs and films that came to encompass the Star Trek industry, mainly turns up items that are of interest to Star Trek fans. There is a navigation console from the U.S.S. Enterprise, the first script from the first episode, a Klingon disrupter from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a display of tribbles.

To some extent, the choice of this particular exhibition Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds to help usher the Skirball back into operation after a Covid shutdown reflects the imperatives museums everywhere are facing as they try to recover from a pandemic that has been so economically damaging. These days honestly, especially after the pandemic museums are looking for ways to get people through the door, said Brooks Peck, who helped create the show for the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. Museums are struggling to find an audience and are looking for a pop culture hook.

It seems to have worked. The Star Trek exhibition has drawn 12,000 attendees in its first two months here, a robust turnout given that the Skirball is limiting sales to 25 percent of capacity.

This has been bringing in new people, no question, said Sheri Bernstein, the museum director. Attendance is important for the sake of relevance. Its important for us to bring in a diverse array of people.

Jessie Kornberg, the president of Skirball, said that the center had been drawn by the parallels between Judaism and the television show. Nimoys Jewish identity contributed to a small moment which became a big theme, she said. We actually think the common values in the Star Trek universe and Jewish belief are more powerful than that symbolism. Thats this idea of a more liberal, inclusive people, where other and difference is an embraced strength as opposed to a divisive weakness.

The intersections between the television series and Judaism begin with its two stars, Nimoy and William Shatner, who played Capt. James T. Kirk. These are two iconic guys in outer space who are Jewish, said Adam Nimoy. And it extends to the philosophy that infuses the show, created by Gene Roddenberry, who was raised a Southern Baptist but came to consider himself a humanist, according to his authorized biography.

Those underlying connections are unmistakable for people like Nimoy, 65, a television director who is both a devoted Star Trek fan and an observant Jew: He and his father often went to services in Los Angeles, and Friday night Sabbath dinners were a regular part of their family life.

Nimoy found no shortage of Jewish resonances and echoes in the exhibition, which opened in October and closes on Feb. 20. He stopped at a costume worn by a Gorn, a deadly reptilian extraterrestrial who was in a fight-to-the-death encounter with Kirk.

When he gets the Gorn to the ground, hes about to kill him, Nimoy recounted. The Gorn wants to kill Kirk. But something happens. Instead he shows mercy and restraint and refuses to kill the Gorn.

Very similar to the story of Joseph, Nimoy said, referring to the way Joseph, in the biblical book of Genesis, declined to seek retribution against his brothers for selling him into slavery.

Leonard Nimoy died in 2015 at the age of 83. Shatner, who is 90 and recently became the oldest person to go into space, declined to discuss the exhibition. Unfortunately Mr. Shatners overcommitted production schedule precludes him from taking on any additional interviews, said his assistant, Kathleen Hays.

The Skirball Cultural Center is set on 15 acres, about 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

The exhibition ran for about two years in Seattle after opening in 2016 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek TV shows 1966 debut. (That version was on NBC for three seasons.) The exhibition had been intended to tour, but those plans were cut short when the pandemic began to close museums across the country.

The exhibition was assembled largely from the private collection of Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft and founder of the Museum of Pop Culture, who died in 2018.

Peck said he wanted to commemorate the anniversary of the series with an exhibition that explored the outsize influence the television show had on American culture. The answer that I am offering is that Star Trek has endured and inspired people because of the optimistic future it presents the good character of many of its characters, Peck said. They are characters that people would like to emulate.

Skirball faced a bit of a challenge in trying to explain to its audience how Star Trek' fit in with what they do, he said. Happily it completely worked out. I had always hoped that Skirball could take it. Skirballs values as an institution so align with the values of Star Trek and the Star Trek community.

Bernstein, the Skirball director, said the exhibition seemed a particularly good way to help bring the museum back to life.

There was never a better time to present this show than now, she said. We very much liked the idea of reopening our full museum offerings with a show that was about inspiring hope. A show that promised enjoyment.

By spring, Star Trek will step aside for a less surprising offering, an exhibition about Jewish delis, but for now, the museum is filled both with devotees of Jewish culture, admiring a Torah case from China, and Trekkies, snapping pictures of the captains chair that Kirk sat in aboard the Enterprise.

There is no such thing as too much Star Trek, Scott Mantz, a film critic, said as he began interviewing Adam Nimoy after a recent screening at the museum of For the Love of Spock, a 2016 documentary Nimoy had made about his father. A long burst of applause rose from his audience.

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To Boldly Explore the Jewish Roots of Star Trek - The New York Times