Category Archives: Talmud

The field of history has its own history. Not long ago, historians took as their subjects kings and their wars. What great men accomplished became the subject of the history books; children, women and even most men appeared in history books as objects, acted upon by the true figures of history, the leaders. A few reigning queens and exceptional female leaders also counted as actors on the stage of history.

Historians, nearly all of them male, wrote that history. And then a group of historians, most of them female, focused on those great female leaders who deserved more attention.

A little later, historians became interested in the lives of the rest of us: The everyday life of ordinary families in historic times seemed as rich and important a study as the decisions of potentates. At the same time, gender studies seemed consequential. Historians wanted to understand how different societies attempted to regulate gender roles, and how individuals made history as they navigated their lives, conforming to or rebelling against the norms of their societies.

All of this set the stage for reconsidering the role of Jewish women in history. In 1991, Judith Baskin edited a vast survey of the topic, Jewish Women in Historical Perspective (Wayne State University Press; second edition 1998), covering the entire span from the biblical text through the most modern developments. Since that publication, the field of Jewish womens studies has mushroomed. Scholars have found new sources and new perspectives on old sources. Newly found materials from various locales and times overturn the assumption that no records exist of womens lives.

Now Frederica Francesconi, professor and head of Jewish studies at the State University of New York at Albany, and Rebecca-Lynn Winer, associate professor at Villanova University, have brought understanding of the history of Jewish women up to date, gathering essays by an impressive range of scholars in Jewish Womens History from Antiquity to the Present (Wayne State University Press, 2021).

In chronological order, each essay addresses Jewish women at the next period and in another geographic area. Together, the essays provide new insights into the lives of Jewish women throughout history. The essays form not a complete history of Jewish women but highlights from nearly all periods of that history.

In an opening essay, Rachel Adelman, associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Hebrew College in Boston, surveys approaches to the roles of women as presented in the Hebrew Bible. The legal material generally assumes a patriarchal society, but narratives often show women subverting male leadership. God appears as a king, husband, male lover, but also has a woman in mourning and as a mother who loves us as her children. Adelman quotes the late Tikva Frymer-Kensky (professor of Semitics at Wayne State University), who noted that stories of atrocities committed against women might serve as critiques of the social situations that they portray.

Tal Ilan (professor of Jewish Studies at the Freie University in Berlin and editor of volumes of a feminist commentary on the Talmud) considers Gender and Womens History in Rabbinic Literature. Ilan begins with the observation that the classic rabbinic texts are prescriptive, rather than descriptive: They describe how the rabbis believe that people should behave, rather than how people do behave. Composed by one group of men the rabbis for study by men, the texts deal with theoretical women as they properly relate to men. And yet, the texts do, from time to time, disclose information about real women and what they actually did.

After surveying texts about women throughout the Tosefta, Mishnah and both Talmudim, Ilan admits that the gender historian must be resourceful and look for evidence outside Rabbinic texts in the Greco-Roman world at large, at other sources reflecting Jewish society (such as inscriptions and papyri) and the observations of gender historians the world over.

Moshe Rosman (professor emeritus of Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University in Israel) reconstructs the history of Jewish women in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which lasted from 1569 until the end of the 18th century. Religious documents written by men intended for mens reading, Rosman shows, praise obedient women who enable their husbands to study Torah and who behave modestly. The texts praise women who manage their households well and who excel in business.

During this period, women become more involved in synagogue attendance, and a growing literature for women presents Jewish religious learning in the Yiddish language. A learned woman in the 18th century, Leah Horowitz, writes Yiddish prayers for women, prefaced by her Hebrew and Aramaic essays declaring that women must take responsibility for their own observance of commandments, including Torah study. Women in this period did operate a variety of businesses, as revealed in contracts, wills, court records, rabbinic decisions and communal legislation. Married Jewish women often worked in their husbands businesses; widows either sold their assets or continued the business.

A fascinating essay by Frances Malino (professor emerita of Jewish Studies at Wellsley College) considers the impact of the Alliance Israelite Universelle schools on girls across the Sephardic world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Young women from North Africa, the Ottoman Empire and across the Middle East acquired both a Jewish and a French education in these schools. Some of the outstanding students went to France to prepare to become teachers at the same schools. Many also became outspoken feminists (they used the word), advocating more challenging studies for their students. They sometimes defied the male administration of the program, insisting that girls must learn real history, not just moralizing stories.

More than one set of teachers ordered sewing machines, against the instructions of the administrators, so that their schoolgirls could run ateliers of French fashion, learning skills to support themselves and also raising funds for the schools. Jacques Bigart, secretary of the Alliance, maintained a correspondence with each of the dozens of women who taught in these schools (and with each of the men who taught in the boys schools). He kept the teachers deeply personal letters to him, which now give scholars an extraordinary insight into the lives of these brave women.

Natalia Aleksiun (professor of Modern Jewish History at Touro College Graduate School of Jewish Studies) presents Coming of Age During the Holocaust. She builds on diaries of adolescent girls, only some of whom survived, and memoires of their adolescence by survivors.

In the final essay in this collection, Sylvia Barack-Fishman (professor emerita of Contemporary Jewish Studies at Brandeis University) considers Choices and Challenges in American Jewish Womens Lives Today, including intermarriage, alternatives to marriage, opportunities for religious leadership by women in all Jewish movements and the inverse Jewish gender gap, in which men have become less prominent in many Jewish roles as women have become more prominent.

Anyone with an interest in Jewish history, gender studies or, indeed, the history of any place where Jews have lived, will find much of value in Jewish Womens History from Antiquity to the Present.

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New WSU Book Offers Essays About the Role of Women in Jewish History Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News

Shabbos is one of the most widely discussed subjects in the Talmud. Aggadic and halachic aspects of Shabbos are scattered throughout just about every tractate in the Talmud, and are fully examined in one dedicated tractate, aptly named Shabbos.

A

The Talmud tells a story about an elderly man rushing to get home before the start of the Shabbos, carrying two twigs of myrtle to enhance the aroma at home. When asked why two twigs, he answered:

B

In one of the rare instances that the Talmud offers culinary advice, it describes the foods to be served in honor of the Shabbos. Among them are:

C

The Talmud advises us of certain behaviors that can lead to the desecration of the Shabbos, such as:

D

During the Roman occupation of the Holy Land after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Roman Empire issued decrees preventing Jews from keeping the Shabbos. The sage Rabbi Reuvein ben Istrubly was sent in the guise of a gentile to convince the government that it would be in their best interest to rescind the decree and allow the Jews to rest on Shabbos. He argued that:

E

Conducting business transactions is prohibited on Shabbos even through a non-Jewish proxy. But the Talmud speaks of one business transaction that is explicitly permitted on Shabbos through a non-Jewish proxy:

ANSWER KEY:

A4 (Shabbos 32b)

B3 (Shabbos 118b)

C3 (Gittin 6b)

D2 (Meila 17a)

E1 (Gittin 8b)

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A Time To Rest - Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters - Lubavitch.com

OK, I admit it. When Chanukah time came around, I was that kind of Hebrew school teacher.

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You know the type. The teacher who tells the class, The miracle of the oil probably never happened. The Debbie Downer at the front of the room who pollutes the students dreams of eight nights of presents with discussions of the real story of Chanukah. The killjoy who sullies the reputation of the Maccabees by informing the class that the celebrated band of ragtag rebels were also vigilantes, killing Hellenized Jews who sought safety by making offerings to Greek gods.

And, by now, I suppose its obvious that not only was I that kind of Hebrew school teacher, but Im also now that kind of rabbi. These days, however, Im rethinking my hypercritical approach to our Chanukah heroes.

Of course, the sordid details of the holidays history havent changed. The 2,200-year-old saga of the Maccabees isnt pretty. After years of relative calm and social acceptance, Jerusalems Jews faced increasing brutality under the rule of Seleucid Greek dictator Antiochus IV, including the burning of Torah scrolls and the prohibition of Shabbat. When Jews were browbeaten into making offerings to Greek gods, Judah Maccabees father, family patriarch Mattathias, sprang into action. His target was a fellow Jew. As recounted in the first book of Maccabees: When Mattathias saw [the Jew offer a sacrifice], he was filled with zeal; his heart was moved and his just fury was aroused; he sprang forward and killed him upon the altar.

The Hellenized Jews subsequently found themselves terrorized by Mattathias and his followers. Those seen as insufficiently loyal to Jewish law were targeted for attack in what can only be described as sectarian violence, as the first book of Maccabees continues: They gathered an army and struck down sinners in their anger and lawbreakers in their wrath, and the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety. Mattathias and his friends went about and tore down the pagan altars; they also enforced circumcision for any uncircumcised boys whom they found in the territory of Israel. They put to flight the arrogant, and the work prospered in their hands.

It is little wonder that, when it came time to discuss Chanukah in the Talmud, the rabbis changed the narrative. Given the benefit of hindsight, the rabbis saw that the Hasmonean dynastythe Jewish kingdom that arose from the Maccabean insurgencybecame brutal and cruel, the only Jewish regime in recorded history that practiced forced conversion on non-Jews. Born in violence, it became addicted to violence.

Refusing to describe the miracle in military terms, the rabbis instead named the holiday Chanukah, a Hebrew word meaning dedication. They focused their attention on the day the Maccabees rededicated the Temple the Greeks had despoiled.

At this point, you may be wondering where my change of heart enters the picture. Well, Im no less troubled by the history of the Maccabees. Further troubling, still, is the rehabilitation theyve undergone in modern Jewry. Centuries of brutalization, landlessness and persecution have inspired many of us to identify with the bloodiest narratives in our texts and our historythe Maccabees included. Long ago written out of biblical history by our rabbis, the Maccabees have been given new life as proto-Zionist heroes. Anxiety over our physical safety has led us to downplay or ignore the catastrophe of Maccabean terrorism, undermining timeless Jewish values in the process, such as respectful debate and the sanctity of human life.

But this airless critique of the Maccabees leaves us with precious little meaning to salvage from the Chanukah story, let alone joy. And joy is in alarmingly short supply these days. The COVID pandemic, racial injustice, attacks on essential democratic normsall threaten our physical and emotional well-being. Furthermore, here in Metrowest Boston, my congregants are dealing with pervasive and chronic antisemitism, as well as other forms of hate. Our students regularly report incidents of Jew-hatred, from Nazi graffiti on school property to money thrown at Jewish students in classrooms and on buses, and antisemitic social media posts (in one egregious example, an Instagram live account invited classmates to like and subscribe to kill one Jew). Town and school district responses have been woefully inadequate. Students despair of any real progress.

In such an environment, its obvious we need meaning, joy and pride in our Jewish identity. And, thank God, Chanukah arrives just in time to provide all three. In Manhattan, Chicago or Brookline, displaying a menorah may not represent an act of courage. But in Bolton, Acton or Groton, it is a bold act to publicly declare pride in ones Jewish self. Lighting candles, sharing latkes with family, spinning a dreideleach represents a distancing from the troubled Maccabean legacy, but the joy they all bring replenishes our exhausted emotional reserves. This is no small accomplishment in a time when its our store of optimism and hope, rather than little jars of olive oil, that we fear may run dry.

In my mind, the Maccabees reprehensible acts still permanently exclude them from the catalogue of Jewish heroes. But they nevertheless inspire us to insist on publicizing our Jewish identity, even in a world that has a habit of telling Jews it might be happier without us. I deeply admire the ingenuity of Jewish spirit, a spirit thats transformed a story of Jewish vigilantism into a season celebrating the possibility of miracles. Im inspired by generations of Jews who stared into the darkness and saw light, no matter how tenuous or vulnerable. More than ever, Im moved to do the same.

Im still no fan of the Maccabees. But, this year, Im grateful for the light they lit in the Temple. I pray it inspires us to light a path to safety, to justice, to love.

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This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and JewishBoston assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here.MORE

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and (Almost) Love the Maccabees - jewishboston.com

INDIANAPOLIS Priests, imams, rabbis and reverends gathered together at the Indiana Statehouse on Friday to deliver a message to Gov. Eric Holcomb on combating climate change and prioritizing a just transition to cleaner energy.

The delivery of the petition, signed by nearly 800 Hoosiers, coincided with the final day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Our call to address this issue cannot be delayed as governments across the globe have spent the past few days announcing their pledges and commitment to climate change, the Rev. Dr. Carlos W. Perkins, pastor of Indianapolis Bethel Cathedral African Methodist Episcopal Church, said. It is time we make our own pledge.

According to Purdue University, climate change directly impacts Indianas corn production with hot weather and drought stress potentially reducing corn yields by 12% or more in the coming decades.

Human activities in Indiana emitted 192 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018, the schools Agriculture News reported. Indiana had the eighth-highest emissions of carbon dioxide of any state that year despite being ranked only 17th in population.

Indianas coal and gas plants used for generating electricity contribute the most to Indianas carbon dioxide emissions followed by transportation.

Rabbi Brian Besser, leading the Congregation Beth Shalom in Bloomington, described a story in the Talmud, a Jewish religious text, which details passengers on a boat. One passenger begins drilling under his seat, alarming fellow passengers who fear sinking and demonstrating how the actions of one can affect many.

I sign this petition because my faith tradition teaches that we are all in the same boat together, Besser said. Each one of us is responsible for the home we share.

Interfaith leaders promoted proposed legislation to create a climate change task force and urged elected officials to signify their recognition of the crisis through a resolution. Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, announced in September that he would sponsor both pieces of legislation written by youth activists with Confront the Climate Crisis.

We are calling on our governor and legislators to finally address decisively the climate crisis in the coming legislative session, T. Wyatt Watkins, a pastor at Cumberland First Baptist Church, said.

We ask the legislature to declare climate change not only a looming threat but a present and current reality and appoint a task force to develop a climate plan, a mitigation plan, a resilience plan and an energy plan that will allow us to transition to a sustainable energy future here in Indiana.

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Indiana interfaith leaders petition governor for 'just transition' to cleaner energy - The Herald Bulletin

The TalmudPage of the Talmud

The Talmud is the comprehensive written version of the Jewish oral law and the subsequent commentaries on it. It originates from the 2nd century CE. The word Talmud is derived from the Hebrew verb 'to teach', which can also be expressed as the verb 'to learn'.

The Talmud is the source from which the code of Jewish Halakhah (law) is derived. It is made up of the Mishnah and the Gemara. The Mishnah is the original written version of the oral law and the Gemara is the record of the rabbinic discussions following this writing down. It includes their differences of view.

The Talmud can also be known by the name Shas. This is a Hebrew abbreviation for the expression Shishah Sedarim or the six orders of the Mishnah.

Between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE these rabbinic discussions about the Mishnah were recorded in Jerusalem and later in Babylon (now Al Hillah in Iraq). This record was complete by the 5th Century CE. When the Talmud is mentioned without further clarification it is usually understood to refer to the Babylonian version which is regarded as having most authority.

The rabbi most closely associated with the compilation of the Mishnah is Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi (approx. 135-219 CE). During his lifetime there were various rebellions against Roman rule in Palestine. This resulted in huge loss of life and the destruction of many of the Yeshivot (institutions for the study of the Torah) in the country. This may have led him to be concerned that the traditional telling of the law from rabbi to student was compromised and may have been part of his motivation for undertaking the task of writing it down.

In addition to the Talmud there have been important commentaries written about it. The most notable of these are by Rabbi Shelomo Yitzchaki from Northern France and by Rabbi Moses Maimonedes from Cordoba in Spain. They lived in the 11th and 12th centuries respectively. Both of these men have come to be known to Jews by acronyms based on their names. These are respectively Rashi and Rambam.

Rambam compiled the Mishneh Torah which is a further distillation of the code of Jewish Law and has come to be regarded by some as a primary source in its own right.

It is also worth mentioning another codifying work from the middle ages. This is the Shulcan Aruch (laid table) by Joseph Caro which is widely referenced by Jews.

Some Orthodox Jews make it part of their practise to study a page of the Talmud every single day. This is known as Daf Yomi which is the Hebrew expression for page of the day. The tradition began after the first international congress of the Agudath Yisrael World Movement in August, 1923. It was put forward as a means of bringing Jewish people together. It was suggested by Rav Meir Shapiro who was the rav of Lublin in Poland.

It is now possible to study the Talmud online.

The Mishnah (original oral law written down) is divided into six parts which are called Sedarim, the Hebrew word for order(s).

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BBC - Religions - Judaism: The Talmud

The fact that Judaism has its own vast corpus of legal arguments is of little interest to Larry David hes a law unto himself. But every so often his actions give way to a question of Talmudic precedent.

When, for instance, Larry accidentally spilled coffee on a Klansmans robe on Sundays episode and then promised to have it laundered in time for two upcoming hate rallies in Tucson and Santa Fe, he stumbled onto an area well-trod by commentators and scholars: property law.

Throughout the episode, Larry explains how he feels obligated to pay for this white supremacists dry cleaning, even convincing a Jewish drycleaner to do it, telling him, a la Jesus, that hes deciding to turn the other cheek.

Its a crazy scenario, at home with Davids fearful deployment of a Heil Hitler to an antisemitic German Shepherd. But Jewish law is unambiguous about the first part of the predicament: the spilling, where Larry is clearly at fault.

Halachas pretty clear, said Rabbi Mark Wildes founder of Manhattan Jewish Experience, an attorney and a self-described Curb fanatic. If you are negligent or you intentionally or carelessly damage someone elses property, whether its your ox goring another ox from the Talmud, or your car smashes into someone else or you spill coffee on someone elses clothing, you do have responsibility to make the person whole, which means you need to take the item, get it cleaned, or pay for what that cost is.

But, when Larry noticed the telltale Blood Drop Cross on the robe, that complicates things. Wildes says that if the clothing in question is being used for sinful activity and the Klansman makes that clear pretty quickly the person who damaged it is not responsible for cleaning it. In fact, it may be a problem to do so. You may be facilitating the sin by having the garment cleaned.

Maybe theres an argument to be made about finding coats from other Klansmen and spilling coffee on them, Wildes concluded. That actually might constitute a mitzvah.

Chaim Saiman, the chair of Jewish Law at Villanova University, was less sure that the nature of the garment soiled or the guy holding it changed the basic facts of the damage done.

You probably owe him the amount of dry cleaning, Saiman said, though he acknowledged there are considerations about aiding someone in doing something illicit.

Jewish law might say the fact that this guy is a Klansman probably doesnt excuse you from liability, but it certainly would say dont go out of your way to facilitate the illicit action, Saiman said. But then again, if were going by First Amendment law, the rally is not necessarily illegal. Theres tons of case law about Klansmen on parade.

The fact that David has prompted a pilpul or Yeshiva-style dialectic is only fitting. Saiman once thought to write a treatise on Seinfeld and how its need to codify social norms is Talmudic. (One Talmudic discussion on the Hamotzi blessing, Saiman said, corresponds almost perfectly with an episode where an annoying comedian acquaintance of Jerrys tries to quibble with whether or not soup constitutes a meal.)

Regardless of the correctness of Larrys actions vis a vis the Klansmans dry cleaning, this most recent episode of Curb finds our hapless hero performing accidental mitzvot, albeit unconventionally.

For the first time since his near-death experience in Season 5, Larry begrudgingly attends Rosh Hashanah services the result of a bet over whether the shuls rabbi makes a hole on the golf course.

This visit leads to Larry blowing a shofar in the middle of the night, waking up some of his neighbors. Larry also commissions Susie to sew a new Klan robe which ends up having a Star of David embroidered on the back. (If you can sew some Stars of David into the Klansman robe, maybe thatll justify sending it to the cleaners, Wildes said.)

That Larry quotes some Fiddler to the Klansman when talk turns to tradition may also be something of a minor mitzvah. The Talmud appears silent on the issue of getting ones friend to embrace food they love, but are afraid to eat on account of stereotypes, as Larry also does in this episode, but Larry proclaiming his love of gefilte fish in a grocery store is surely some form of culinary good deed for the Jewish people.

But of course in the episode, Larry still engages in some light Lashon hara, telling Freddy Funkhouser that his girlfriend dropped a Pirates Booty cheese snack on the floor and didnt pick it up.

Its indicative of a moral compass gone askew, David insists.

But, cleaning a Klansmans robe, thats permissible in Larrys law, if not always in Judaisms.

Original post:

What does the Talmud say about Larry David spilling coffee on a Klansmans robe? - Forward

Thank you, dear God, for this good life, and forgive us if we do not love it enough. Thank you for the rain. And for the chance to wake up in three hours and go fishing: I thank you for that now, because I wont feel so thankful then. Garrison Keillor

The membership in the synagogue I pray in is made up of many grandparents and great-grandparents. We dont have too many young couples, and the few that we have tend to leave our neighborhood after a year or two of marriage. Its not often that we have the fortune to celebrate a baby-naming. This week we had that fortune, and it was for a fourth-generation baby girl, the great granddaughter of one of the synagogues early members.

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According to the Talmud, Leah was the first person to express openly her feelings of thankfulness to God. It says in Brachot 7b: Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: From the day that the Holy One, Blessed is He, created His world, there was no person who offered thanks to Him until Leah came and thanked Him as it is stated, This time let me thank God.

The reason that after her fourth son she expressed thanks is because, according to Rashi, Now that I have received more than my portion, its time to express my gratitude to God. The question then is what is so praiseworthy about this?

I saw an answer given in the name of Rav Dovid Kviat. He says, The praiseworthy aspect of Leahs behavior here was that she viewed what she received as more than her fair share. It is the nature of human beings to view that which they receive in life as something that they had coming to them. This is what I deserve. If my friend is earning $30,000 a year and I am earning half a million dollars a year, it may not be so easy to recognize my great fortune. It is easy to think Im smarter than him, Im more clever than him, I earned this on my own it was coming to me! The novelty of Leahs comment is that we see that a person has the ability to step back, look at a situation objectively and come to the conclusion that I am getting more than I deserve. This is not our normal tendency. The normal tendency is to view life as either I am getting less than I deserve or I am getting my fair share. The rare person, who lives their life with the attitude that I have gotten more than I deserve, is indeed a praiseworthy person.

THERE IS an old investing adage, with a couple of variations but Ill use this one: Sometimes bulls make money, sometimes bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered.

I have a running joke with my brother that inevitably whenever he tries booking an airline ticket online he watches the price fall and fall. Then instead of being satisfied with the price, he waits, hoping it will continue to fall. It doesnt and then the ticket price spikes higher. He then sends me a pig emoji and a recording of a pig snorting.

Its important for investors to be satisfied with their profits and not try to be pigs. Earlier this week I had a client call and ask if she should sell a particular stock. I mentioned to her that she actually bought the shares, not to hold them long-term, rather she thought the price had dropped too much and thought it would jump higher when they announced their quarterly earnings. She was correct in her short-term analysis. My thought was that she should probably sell because her theory played out perfectly, and she should be happy with the money made. Had she set out to hold it for the long term, I would have discouraged the sale, but her goal was a short-term trade and she achieved his goal. Be thankful, and take your profits to the bank.

Conversely, I had a client who about a month ago gave me a trade to sell. I asked if he should just sell at the market price and he said no. He wanted to sell the shares one dollar higher than the market price. We are talking about a stock with a share price well above $1000. Well, needless to say that in trying to make another $150 he lost over $8,000. Oink, Oink!

Be thankful for your financial wins and dont end up getting slaughtered out of greed.

The information contained in this article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the opinion of Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. or its affiliates.

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Giving thanks and slaughtered pigs - opinion - The Jerusalem Post

If you ask Reuben Sinclair what the key is to a long and rewarding life, the 110-year old won't shy away from sharing some words of wisdom.

"Never worry," he said to a crowd of fellow servicemen and reporters moments before he was honoured at a Remembrance Day ceremony inside a Vancouver elementary schoolon Wednesday.

"If you have a problem, fix it. And that goes a long way," he said.

Sinclair is the oldest living veteran in Canada, having served during the Second World War for three years in the Royal Canadian Air Force. His age also makes him one of the oldest living men in the country.

"I always found time to help people who were less fortunate, and Ithink that's one of the reasons the good Lord keeps me around," he said, laughing.

After laying a wreath at Talmud Torah Elementary school, Sinclair was awarded service medals by the Royal Canadian Legion the latest in a long list of accolades he's received over his lifetime.

His daughter, Nadine Lipetz, said she was proud the children "have a chance to meet a veteran who has a story to tell, and hopefully they can learn from it."

Sinclair was born on a farm in Lipton, Sask.His birth certificate reads that he was born on Dec. 5, 1911 but his family says he was actually born months earlier.

"His older brothers told him he was born in the summer of 1911," said Lipetz. "We think it was the registration date that we've used as his birthday, but in effect he's really 110."

Sinclair worked a number of different jobs during the Great Depressionbefore enrolling in an accounting course. He was hired by the Treasury Department, where he worked until the Second World War.

Lipetz says her father said hecouldn't stand by and do nothing while people were dying in Europe.

He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force at 31, but he was diagnosed with flat feet which kept him from serving overseas, Lipetz said.

Instead, he served as a wireless operator mechanic in Montreal, Vancouver, and North Battleford, Sask.,running transmitters that were used to train pilots to take off and land on blacked-out runways. The program prepared pilots to fly in the night skies of Europe.

When the war ended, he settled in Metro Vancouver, where he opened a garage and wrecking yard with his brother.

In the '60s, he moved to California with his wife Ida. The pair returned to B.C. in 1994, before she passed away just a couple of years later.

Sinclair still lives inside his Richmond condo, where he receivessupport from caregivers.

He spends much of his time reminiscing about years past, including his time in the war. Lipetz sayshe's happy to see more of his family members after being separatedfrom many of them during the pandemic.

"Visits from the family and friends are very big for him," she said. "He's happy and enjoys every day."

Over the years, Sinclair's family has grown to include sixgrandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and a great-great-grandchild.

Asecond great-great-grandchild is on the way.

"We feel blessed that every day is a gift," she said.

Read more:

Oldest living veteran in Canada honoured at 110 years old - CBC.ca

INDIANAPOLIS Priests, imams, rabbis and reverends gathered together at the Indiana Statehouse on Friday to deliver a message to Gov. Eric Holcomb on combating climate change and prioritizing a just transition to cleaner energy.

The delivery of the petition, signed by nearly 800 Hoosiers, coincided with the final day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Our call to address this issue cannot be delayed as governments across the globe have spent the past few days announcing their pledges and commitment to climate change, said the Rev. Dr. Carlos W. Perkins, pastor of Indianapolis Bethel Cathedral African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is time we make our own pledge.

According to Purdue University, climate change directly impacts Indianas corn production with hot weather and drought stress potentially reducing corn yields by 12% or more in the coming decades.

Human activities in Indiana emitted 192 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2018, the schools Agriculture News reported. Indiana had the eighth-highest emissions of carbon dioxide of any state that year despite being ranked only 17th in population.

Indianas coal and gas plants used for generating electricity contribute the most to Indianas carbon dioxide emissions followed by transportation.

Rabbi Brian Besser, leading the Congregation Beth Shalom in Bloomington, described a story in the Talmud, a Jewish religious text, which details passengers on a boat. One passenger begins drilling under his seat, alarming fellow passengers who fear sinking and demonstrating how the actions of one can affect many.

I sign this petition because my faith tradition teaches that we are all in the same boat together, Besser said. Each one of us is responsible for the home we share.

Interfaith leaders promoted proposed legislation to create a climate change task force and urged elected officials to signify their recognition of the crisis through a resolution. Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, announced in September that he would sponsor both pieces of legislation written by youth activists with Confront the Climate Crisis.

We are calling on our governor and legislators to finally address decisively the climate crisis in the coming legislative session, said T. Wyatt Watkins, a pastor at Cumberland First Baptist Church.

We ask the legislature to declare climate change not only a looming threat but a present and current reality and appoint a task force to develop a climate plan, a mitigation plan, a resilience plan and an energy plan that will allow us to transition to a sustainable energy future here in Indiana.

Originally posted here:

Indiana interfaith leaders petition governor for 'just transition' to cleaner energy - Evening News and Tribune

This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forwards free newsletters delivered to your inbox.

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Maybe Rebecca was not deviously plotting a coup to help one son over the other, but strategically trying to show her husband that both their boys had strengths to celebrate. Maybe Isaacs fathering flaws are rooted in the fact that his own father almost sacrificed him at the altar. Maybe I shouldnt view biblical characters through a 21st century lens of privilege and hyper-parenting.

These were among a flood of insights that readers shared in response to last weeks newsletter, titled The Torah is not a parenting manual. It was all about the struggle Ive been having with Toldot, the Torah portion in which Rebecca helps Jacob steal the birthright and then the blessing of his twin, Esau, tricking their father, Isaac, in the process.

It was the first time Ive written a full column about a Torah portion and more of you read it than read any other one since I started this weekly thing 18 months ago. Im not quitting journalism to go to rabbi school or anything, but I thought Id embrace the Talmudic tradition of give-and-take and devote this weeks newsletter to your thoughts on this classic story of family dysfunction.

The Jewish way is to question, Rabbi Hillel Adler of the Consortium for Jewish Day Schools wrote me in an email. Indeed. Thank you for your questions and answers.

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One of the first, and most thoughtful, emails I got last Friday was from Marsha Mirkin, who literally wrote the book or at least a book on how we might relate to Rebeccas parenting choices: The Women Who Danced by the Sea: Finding Ourselves in the Stories of our Biblical Foremothers, published in 2004.

I saw the story as dealing with favoritism and limitations that get in the way of growth and connection, Mirkin said. She noted that the word love is rare in the Torah but present in this chapter, and argued that Rebecca is not so much tricking Isaac into picking her favorite, Jacob, but lovingly nudging Isaac to not totally ignore Jacob.

As a mother of twins, I had argued that Rebeccas overt favoritism of Jacob without regard to the impact on Esau was impossible to imagine. But I found Mirkins take totally relatable. Of course a loving mother would be concerned if her husband seemed to seriously favor one twin; of course she would try to show him the others merits in hopes of giving both their best shot at good lives.

My understanding: Your father took you and was going to sacrifice you when you were young. Dont make that mistake with your son Jacob, explained Mirkin, a psychologist who specializes in families and was a resident scholar at Brandeis University.

Throughout, she shows Isaac something about this ignored son, she added. Twins have different personalities as you experienced and Rebecca was wise, and she and Isaac had a special, close relationship. I think Esau and Jacob both were blessed in ways that fit who they could become based on their individual personalities.

Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons

A Flemish tapestry depicting Toldot, in which Esau sells his birthright to Jacob.

Mirkin was one of several people to raise the Binding of Isaac as important context for the Toldot story, something our rabbi, Marc Katz, also talked a lot about as he helped our twins study the portion for their bnei mitzvah last year. Dont you think Isaac behaves as he does because his psyche was damaged by his father, who, to prove his love for God, agreed to sacrifice him? asked a reader named Randi Hacker. That is some deep trauma to have to live with.

For sure. Who am I to imagine how the untreated PTSD from that episode plays out?

Roberta Gold, who has taught literature for more than 30 years, compared our endless re-reading of the Torah to the study of Shakespearean classics even students who know how Romeo & Juliet ends, she said, are on the edge of their seats and hope the lovers wont die. Every reading brings a new revelation about how and why the tragedy plays out.

The stories in Torah, like all classics of literature, remain classic because they reveal universal truths of human nature that do not change over time, Gold reminded me. You wanted Rebecca to be a role-model mother of twins because you want to be a role model. But you missed the point. Rebeccas flaw of unequal love and favoritism is all too human.

Rebecca is a legitimate matriarch because the Torah does not expect perfection, she continued. The characters seem larger than life, but though there are miracles, they are largely people of this (highly flawed) world.

Nina Mogilnik also found me totally unfair to Rebecca. She particularly chastised me for suggesting that if Rebecca were a normal mom who loved both her twins she might have tried to challenge and change the rules. Mogilnick found this breathtaking, kind of condescending and reflecting some kind of cockeyed chutzpah, and said I was inappropriately viewing the tale through a contemporary lens of suburban-mom privilege.

What on earth do you even mean by normal mom? demanded Mogilnik, who has written for The Jewish Week, the Times of Israel and the Forward, among other places. Is it normal to strive to push your kids to achieve certain kinds of success? Is it normal to prize academic achievement? Is it normal to brag about children? Is it normal to struggle with post-partum depression and still get up off the floor to feed and clothe your kids? Is it normal sometimes to hate your children? To regret having them? Your definition of normal seems to proscribe all kinds of attitudes and behaviors that are endemic to the human condition.

Point taken. I hate the word normal and should never have used it. After getting Mogilnicks note, I rewrote the sentence in the website version of the column to say if she was a mom who wanted the best for both her twins. But Mogilnick also had more to say about Rebecca as both a role model and a realistically flawed character like all of us.

One could argue that Rebecca showed extraordinary courage in essentially demanding of God that God answer why she was made to suffer with quarreling fetuses, and to demand to know if having this strife between her children was her purpose, she wrote.

I am not excusing the discomfort of reading of a mother who clearly favors one child over another, and a father who offers a stingy blessing to the disliked son, Mogilnick continued. At least I have the humility to know that parenting is brutally hard work, that my kids havent lived long enough yet to know everything they think they know, and that the best I can do as their mother is love them to the best of my ability, and equip them to go out into the world and be better than I am.

Actually, that sums up my parenting philosophy almost exactly.

And there was yet more wisdom in my inbox:

From Michael Klayman: I feel Rebeccas pain, because what she did she did for the nation, and not for her family specifically. It must have been excruciatingly difficult for her.

From Susanna Levin: I know a rabbi who says that Genesis (which he calls the book of communications) teaches by showing examples of how not to parent.

David Rubin: Jacob gets his comeuppance big time. He has to spend years running for his life. Laban tricks him just as he was tricked. Then, his sons lied to him (tricked him) when they lied about Joseph. But, in every instance of dishonest and deceptive dealing, the tricky person pays for it in the end.

trobador@aol.com: These books contain archetypal legends, and perhaps a bit of ancestral memory, but the frequently savage ethics of the protagonists are nothing for us modern-day Jews to boast about.

Harriett Epstein: This is real human behavior we are reading not Father or Mother Knows Best.

Rabbi Adler, who I quoted above saying the Jewish way is to question a phrase I particularly love given my chosen career responded to Rabbi Katzs quote about the Torah not being a parenting manual with, of course, a series of questions: Is the Torah a guide on morals? Is the Torah a manual for marriage and relationships? Is the Torah a history book? Is the Torah a book on theology?

Maybe the Torah is just trying to teach us stuff, he concluded.

Sounds right to me. Thanks for helping make that real.

Maybe the Torah is just trying to teach us stuff: Readers respond to tirade about Toldot

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Maybe the Torah is just trying to teach us stuff: Readers respond to tirade about Toldot - Forward