Category Archives: Talmud

The Facts About Pope John Paul I Albino Luciani

On August 26, 1978, the Modernist Sect elected Bp. Albino Luciani to thepapal office, and he took the name John Paul I, in honor of John XXIII and Paul VI. He was the first papal claimant in history to take a double name. (At the time, people joked that his successor would take the name Ringo George a reference to the rock bandThe Beatles, whose members consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison.)

In the Novus Ordo Church Luciani is, of course, in line for being declared asaint, just like all other deceased false Popes who arent canonized yet.Many semi-traditionalists seem to have a soft spot for Pope Luciani, and perhaps this has to do with the fact that he died unexpectedly a mere 33 days after his election, on September 28 of the same year. Althoughcircumstances suggest he was in fact murdered(and as of July 2019, a former mobster has confessed to being a part of his murder plot, accusing Abp. Paul Marcinkus of being the actual murderer) after attempting to expose and root out Freemasons from the Vatican and clean up the Vatican Bank, this tragic reality cannot blind us to the fact that, at the end of the day, even though he may not have had any sympathy for the Masons, Albino Luciani was still a Modernist who participated in the destruction of Catholicism and publicly adhered to the errors of Vatican II and Paul VI. In fact, in some ways Francishumble Pope gig was already anticipated by John Paul I.

Lets recap:It was John Paul I who abolished the solemn papal coronation ceremony, replacing it instead with a mereinstallation. It was John Paul I who stopped using thegestatorial chairand only resumed its use after people complained they could no longer see theirPope. It was John Paul I who first chose to use a curious double name because he couldnt decide which of his Modernist predecessors John XXIII and Paul VI he loved more. It was Albino Luciani who advisedPope Paul VI in 1965 to ease the restrictions on the use of contraceptives, even though Paul VI ultimately decided against it (well, sort of).

The following text is taken from a professional biographical database and gives an interesting picture of Luciani. Although reluctant at first, he ended up embracing the same Modernist ideas of his two predecessors whom he so much admired, even when he knew full well that the novel teachingscontradictedthe old. He liked toparticipate in meetings with the open Modernists at the Second Vatican Council and dialogue with them, instead of shunning and denouncing them:

Bishop Luciani kept a low profile during Vatican Council II, commenced in 1962 by Pope John for the reformation, or, as it was more delicately put officially, renewal, of the Roman Catholic Church. He was among those prelates who had difficulty in adjusting to some of the liberalizing steps taken by the council, such as the lessening of Papal authority in favor of the collegiality of the worlds bishops. The thesis I found hardest to live with was the one on religious freedom, he said later. For years I had taughtthe public law theses of Cardinal [Alfredo] Ottaviani, according to which only the truth [as held by the Roman Catholic Church] had rights. In the end, I convinced myself we had been wrong.

Like other conservatives at the council, Luciani disagreed with the liberal faction when, in the conservative view, it seemed to be calling for an interpretation of the churchs mission that would reduce it to a mere worldly agency of social action. Like them also, he was repelled by the efforts of some progressives from Germany and Holland to challenge such traditions as clerical celibacy and an exclusively male priesthood. But unlike most of the others, he tried to keep lines of communication open and participated in many meetings with the widely shunned progressives.

Bishop Luciani was a consultant to the sixty-member international commission formed by Pope Paul VI in 1963 to make recommendations for dealing with the problem of birth control. Luciani personally concluded that some accommodation for artificial birth control could be made within the teachings of the church, and he wrote to the Pope to that effect. The majority view in the report submitted by the commission in 1965 was that a modification of the traditional ban on contraception was possible and that, at the very least, no blanket prohibition should be made. Against the majoritys recommendation, Pope Paul in 1968 issued the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which firmly restated the papal opposition to birth control in all its forms, including the pill. Although saddened by the drift of middle-class Catholics from the church that was accelerated by the encyclical, Bishop Luciani, loyal to his Pope, suppressed any negative thoughts he might have entertained about Humanae Vitae.

(Source:Current Biography [Bio Ref Bank],1978; Database:Biography Reference Bank [H.W. Wilson], s.v.John Paul I, Pope.)

It is true that, when compared to the trite Modernist drivel weve heard for decades from Francis, Benedict XVI, John Paul II, and Paul VI, Luciani could sound downright conservative at times and might have seemed not too bad, but this is merelyby comparisonand indicative of the terrible shape that Catholicism finds itself in today. The Vatican II Sect can hardly be the standard by which we measure orthodoxy. It would be like asking an alcoholic how much beer one should drink.

Lets look at some more evidence of the liberalism of Albino Luciani.

In a sermon preached in 1976, he remarked that just before the Second Vatican Council began, hehappened to read at the same time two writings: one by Freud, the other by Gandhi (Lori Pieper, ed.,A Passionate Adventure: Living the Catholic Faith Today, [Bronx, NY: Tau Cross Books, 2013], Kindle loc. 4564); and although he denounced theanti-Christian Jewish Talmudasfull of fables and childish and bizarre things, he also held that the diabolical work can help us in understanding the Gospel at certain points (ibid., loc. 2462). For the record, the Talmudteaches that Jesus Christ was illegitimate and was conceived during menstruation; that he had the soul of Esau; that he was a fool, a conjurer, a seducer; that he was crucified, buried in hell and set up as an idol ever since by his followers (Rev. I. B. Pranaitis,The Talmud Unmasked,p. 30).

In September of 1978, after calling U.S. President Jimmy Carter afervent Christian, John Paul I said as part of his Sunday Angelus address:

And [Israeli] Premier Begin recalls that the Jewish people once passed difficult moments and addressed the Lord complaining and saying: You have forsaken us, you have forgotten us! No!He replied through Isaiah the Prophetcan a mother forget her own child? But even if it should happen, God will never forget his people.

Also we who are here have the same sentiments; we are the objects of undying love on the part of God. We know: he has always his eyes open on us, even when it seems to be dark.He is our father; even more he is our mother.He does not want to hurt us, He wants only to do good to us, to all of us. If children are ill, they have additional claim to be loved by their mother. And we too, if by chance we are sick with badness, on the wrong track, have yet another claim to be loved by the Lord.

(John Paul I,Angelus Address, Sep. 10, 1978; underlining added.)

Although it is true that Almighty God loves us and takes care of us in a way that islike toa mother (see Is 49:15; Mt 23:37), it is complete nonsense to say not only that Godisour mother, but even that He is our mothermore sothan He is our Father. The Most Holy Trinity has revealed Himself asFather, Son, and Holy Ghost (see Mt 28:19). Our Lord Jesus Christ referred to the First Person of the Blessed Trinity asFather, notMother (see Mk 14:36), and taught us to do the same (see Mt 6:9). And as far as mother goes, our Lord gave His own Mother the Blessed Virgin Maryto us to be our spiritual mother (see Jn 19:26-27).

We have to remember the dire warnings of the true Popes about the dangers of heresy and other errors that work the destruction of souls,especiallywhen they are not clearly out in the open but hide behind ambiguity and seeming contradiction, and are uttered by people who seem of good will:

Likewise, Fr. Felix Sardas Vatican-approved workLiberalism is a Sinis very instructive with regard to the dangers of and the methods used by Liberals/Modernists, and the excuses that are typically made to escape condemnation.

Finally, the biggest Luciani whopper of them all came on Sunday, September 17, 1978, again at an Angelus address: John Paul I publicly praisedGiosu Carducci(1835-1907), an anti-clerical Italian poet and educator who was actually a Satanist! Pope Luciani said:

Italian professors have, in their history, classic cases of exemplary love and dedication to education. Giosu Carducci was an university professor in Bologna. He went to Florence to some commemorative acts. One day, in the afternoon, he went to say good-bye to the Minister of Public Instruction.No, nosaid the Minister, stay also until tomorrow.Excellence, it is not possible for me. Tomorrow, I have a class in the university and the boys will be waiting for me.I exempt you.You can exempt me, but I do not exempt myself. Professor Carducci really had a concept as high about education as about students. He belonged to the class of those who say:to teach Latin to John, it is not enough to know Latin, it is also necessary to know John and love him. And also:As much is worth the lesson as the training.

(John Paul I,Angelus Address, Sep. 17, 1978; original Italian versionhere)

Papalpraise for the Satanist Carducci, who called Catholic prieststhe real and unaltering enemies of Italy and composed a blasphemous and anti-Catholic ode called Hymn to Satan! See this and more evidence of the Satanism of Carducci at the following link:

How can a supposedly Catholic Pope admire and commend a follower of the devil himself?!For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? (2 Cor 6:14-15).

The fact is that John Paul I was another wolf in sheeps clothing. Yes, he had a very kind demeanor andseemedbenevolent, but no man of God would do and say the things Luciani did and said.

At the end of the day, Bp. Luciani was another dangerous Novus Ordo Modernist, whose attachment to the errors of Angelo Roncalli and Giovanni Montini found permanent expression in the choice of hispapalname,John Paul. The fact that he added the numeralIthe First to his name from the very beginning indicates that he wanted to begin an entire tradition of honoring Roncalli and Montini in thepapal names henceforth.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Sentinelle del mattino International)License:CC BY-SA 2.0

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The Facts about Pope John Paul I Novus Ordo Watch

Commentary

Sometimes in life, you get sideswiped.

And then you have to ask yourself about the degree it was your fault, the degree you were gullible, the degree you wanted something to be what it really wasntnot completely anyway.

No sooner had this outlet published my article celebrating rapper/fashion designer/billionaire Kanye West after his interview by Tucker Carlson, defending the man who calls himself Ye against accusations he was crazy, he jumps a thousand sharks on Twitter by posting this:

Im a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up Im going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE, he wrote in the now-deleted post. The funny thing is I actually cant be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.

I guess, counter to what I wrote, he really is crazy, and bigoted into the bargain, something of a Jew-hater in denial. And not just because he confuses death con with defcon. I hope that wasnt a Freudian slip.

I owe an apology to my readers for misleading them.

Theres more, sadly.

In the midst of his Twitter rants, West blamed the Jews for starting cancel culture, not a very sophisticated view, to put it mildly, because that phrase is merely the latest incarnation of something that has been going on from time immemorial.

People have been canceling and suppressing each others words since long before Gutenberg and type.

But even if we accept that this is something new and special, the most prominent original modern cancellations came from Twitter (i.e., Hunter Bidens laptop)a company that was co-founded by Jack Dorsey, a non-Jew.

The banning of booksanother old tradition of cancellation that may have reached its apotheosis with the burning of the Talmud in front of the Notre Dame cathedral in 1242was recently brought back on Amazon under Jeff Bezos, also not Jewish.

Mark Zuckerberg is Jewish (although not a religious one) and Facebook, now Meta, his company, has been known to cancel people, including me, a Jewish boy ironically, for reasons I have been unable to ascertain. I was also canceled by his Instagram.

(To be clear, I take this as a positive, because I find social media to be a time-sucker for adults and outright destructive for children and teenagers.)

But what actually is on Wests mind, I would wager, isnt really the cancel culture, wretched as it is and despicable whoever it is who is instigating it at this moment.

Its the old blackJewish thing again, and Im downhearted that someone of Kanyes obvious intelligence and cleverness would be drawn into it, especially now when overt anti-Semitism is on the rise again.

Well over 50 percent of religious hate crimes in the United States are against Jews when they are only 2 percent of the population. Its been that way for a few years and doesnt appear to be diminishing.

More than just crimes, the old canary in the coal mine thing is all over the zeitgeist now. You can even find it in most internet comments sections, even at The Epoch Times, though here, at least, it is usually down-voted out by the intelligent readership.

As for Kanye, when he wore his White Lives Matter t-shirt at the Paris Fashion Show, did he think most Jews were not Caucasians?

Well, maybe not. He seems obsessed with the fact that blacks are the real Jews. Some are, obviously, including the Falashas from Ethiopia. Maybe others are, too. Frankly, I dont knowand he probably doesnt either, except in an emotional waybut does that justify, whatever the case, going to death con 3 against the rest of us?

I have seen this rift for a long time, since before Kanye was born.

As is well knowneven Barack Obama mentioned itJews were the close allies of blacks at the beginning of the civil rights movement.

But by the time I got involved personally in the mid-60s, I could smell a change on the way on visits to SNCC (Snick) headquarters in Atlanta, where I met the young Julian Bond and others.

Maybe it was that no good deed goes unpunished thing or maybe some of us, myself included, were doing a little virtue-signaling long in advance of that term being known.

Or perhaps there was some competition in victimhood. We had our Holocaust and they had their slavery, a senseless battle if there ever was one.

But even then I could sense an uneasiness that has grown in present times, including moments of maximum ugliness like the Crown Heights riots in New York featuring the Rev. Al Sharpton.

This makes Kanyes comments especially disturbing because of his influence. Nevertheless, as one who treasures the First Amendment, I dont agree that Twitter should have banned him. (He was also blocked by Instagram for similar antisemitic statements.)

I still want to believe that the answer to bad speech is more speech.

But then I left Twitter years ago when they started to deduct followers from me.

Also, since hes a music business guy, I suspect most of the Jews that West knows are music execslargely secular Jews voting Democraticthat he believes are exploiting black musicians. (Weve seen this before, in Spike Lee movies.)

A growing number of us arent like that at all. In fact, as a religious person, Ye might be surprised that things among our people are going almost inexorably, though slowly, in the opposite direction.

I have a lot more to say about this but I think Ill end it with a rather telling joke going around that includes someone Kanye says he admires:

Whats the difference between Donald Trump and secular Jews?

Answer: Trump has Jewish grandchildren.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Roger L. Simon is an award-winning novelist, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, co-founder of PJMedia, and now, editor-at-large for The Epoch Times. His most recent books are The GOAT (fiction) and I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasnt Already (nonfiction). He can be found on GETTR and Parler @rogerlsimon.

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My ApologiesKanye West Isn't What I Told You - The Epoch Times

Hot button cultural issues such as gender and reproductive health appear to be modern concerns, yet, societies and particularly women in society have wrestled with these issues for millennia. A new cookbook illuminates the long history of these seemingly contemporary concerns.

Published in September by Turner Publishing Company, Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves is a plant-based community cookbook compiled by Maine native Kenden Alfond. The struggles experienced by women and men since the Talmud, a fundamental Jewish text, was first compiled more than 1,000 years ago will be familiar to the modern reader.

The cookbook is organized around the stories of 69 women who appear in the Talmud. Their stories are written by 69 contemporary women rabbis, academics and scholars from around the United States and the world. Each woman from the Talmud is paired with a plant-based, mostly vegan recipe sourced from 60 chefs and home cooks. (The non-vegan recipes call for honey.) The resulting cookbook is expansive and thought-provoking. All profits from sales will be donated annually to a Jewish nonprofit.

Just reading the stories and the dilemmas confronted by the heroines in the Talmud can be inspiring and intellectually compelling for anyone regardless of their religion and gender, said Alfond, who lives in Paris (France) and grew up in Dexter, the granddaughter of Dexter Shoe Company founder Harold Alfond.

Alfond, who eats a lot of plant-based food but is not a vegetarian, writes in the books introduction that the pairing of these stories with vegan recipes creates a way for readers to connect to Judaism and healthy food at the same time.

She, alongside the impressive list of contributors, have been working on Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves since 2020, when the cookbooks sister text, Feeding Women of the Bible, Feeding Ourselves, was published. Alfond previously wrote the vegan cookbook Beyond Chopped Liver.

Rabbi Rachel M. Isaacs, of the Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville and an assistant professor of Jewish Studies at Colby College, sees the book as a way to engage a greater diversity of people in the study of the Talmud.

The role of women in Judaism has evolved over the millennia, said Isaacs, who did not contribute to the book. This book highlights and gives greater exposure to the women in the Talmud, who are often overlooked or whose legacies tend to be diminished. Jewish women have assumed more leadership roles in the Jewish community throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, serving as esteemed scholars, rabbis and prominent lay leaders.

Feeding Women of the Bible, Feeding Ourselves offers festive, modern and accessible recipes such as dandelion-pumpkin seed pesto, challah rolls, sweet beet loaf cake, white bean kale stew with matzo balls, and creamy vegan noodle kugel (the last would be excellent for any vegans youre serving for Rosh Hashanah, which starts Sept. 25.

To ensure that the book did not feature 30 challah recipes, Alfond first collected recipe ideas from the chefs shed recruited to the project, and then made a final list of 69 recipes based on how well each fit with a particular story and within the overall collection.

Some of the stories lend themselves easily to recipes because they reference food, Alfond said. For example, the story of Imma Shalom, written by Myriam Ackermann-Sommer, a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Maharat in New York who will become the first modern orthodox rabbinate in France, shows her giving bread as charity. Azelma Moscati, a passionate Italian baker currently living in Gibraltar, shared her vegan chocolate babka recipefor the story.

Alfond herself wrote the essay about Yehudit, the wife of a rabbi and mother of four children, who after the painful birth of her fourth child disguises herself to ask her husband whether wives must bear children, to which her husband answers no. This leads Yehudit to drink an herbal form of birth control. Yehudits story also points to a larger question of when Jewish law allows women (and men) to use birth control, Alfond writes. This issue of contraception and Jewish law is an ongoing discussion. The essay is paired with a recipe for a nourishing womb tonic created by an herbalist from Massachusetts from plants and herbs, including nettle, raspberry leaf and milky oat tops.

Ideas about gender can be found in the essay about Bruriah, the most legendary female scholar of the Talmud, according to historian and former Colby College professor Elizabeth LaCouture, who now directs the Gender Studies Program at the University of Hong Kong. Bruriah is a woman who transgresses the boundaries of male learning, but in acting like a man, she ensures that the gendering of knowledge as male remains intact, LaCouture writes in the book. The story is paired with a recipe for focaccia.

Each thought-provoking essay concludes with discussion prompts, which readers can chew on while preparing one of the books sweet or savory dishes.

Avery Yale Kamila is a food writer who lives in Portland. She can be reached at:

Social: AveryYaleKamila

[emailprotected]

Corn Latkes with Mango Salsa

The recipe was created by Esther Daniels, who was born in Bombay and now lives in Melbourne. In Feeding Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves, the recipe is paired with an essay about the wife of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, who is consulted by her husband about a significant decision. When mangoes are not available, make the salsa with peaches, nectarines or fresh tomatoes. Yes, we know latkes are traditional for Chanukah, which isnt until December, but corn is in season right now.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 12-15 small latkes

FOR THE MANGO SALSA:

2 firm but ripe mangoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped into -inch (1 cm) cubes

cucumber, finely chopped

1 finely chopped small red onion

2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro or parsley

1 finely chopped jalapeo or small green chili, or to taste

3 tablespoons finely chopped red pepper

1 tablespoon lime juice, or to taste

Salt to taste

2 or 3 pinches of sugar

Extra chopped cilantro or parsley to garnish

FOR THE CORN LATKES:

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

cup (120 ml) non-dairy milk (coconut, soy, almond or rice milk)

15 ounces (420g) fresh corn kernels (approximately 3-4 corn ears)

2 finely chopped green chilies, or to taste

2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion

3 tablespoons finely chopped red pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro or parsley

teaspoon black pepper

Salt to taste

Oil (canola/vegetable/olive)

First make the mango salsa: Mix all of the salsa ingredients except for the garnish together in a stainless steel or glass bowl. Let the salsa sit for at least 10 minutes so that the flavors can meld. Garnish with the chopped herbs.

To make the corn latkes, combine all ingredients except the oilin a large bowl and whisk until thoroughly mixed.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Scoop a tablespoon of the batter into the hot pan and gently flatten with the back of a spoon. Depending on the size of the pan, you can fry 3 or 4 at a time. Avoid overcrowding the pan, and add additional oil as necessary.

Cook the latkes until golden brown on both sides, approximately 2 minutes per side. Remove from the pan and place on a paper towel to remove any excess oil. Repeat until all of the batter is gone. Serve the latkes with the salsa alongside or on top.

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A new cookbook highlights women of the Talmud - Press Herald

Let me begin by telling you about one of the worst sins that I committed this past year.

Al chet she-chatati: for the sin which I committed by accidentally insulting a van driver at Ben Gurion Airport.

I arrived in Israel on Thursday, July 7.

When I arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, I picked up my luggage, and went out to the arrival area, and as I usually do, I found a van a jitney service (in Hebrew, a sherut ) that was going to Jerusalem.

Do you have room for me? I asked the driver in Hebrew.

He told me that his name was Aviyonah. He appeared to be in his seventies. No kippah. Probably an Iraqi Jew.

Here put your stuff next to me, up front.

By which I thought he meant: Put your backpack and your briefcase next to me, up front.

When we got to Jerusalem, he asked me: Where is your suitcase?

My backpack and my briefcase were there. Not my suitcase.

My suitcase was still on the curb at Ben Gurion Airport.

With this, I had a total meltdown in Hebrew, because Aviyonah did not speak English.

Aviyonah called me a few insulting names, several of which I deserved.

Then, he asked for my phone number, and he gave me his number as well.

We have to go back to the airport! I screamed.

Lo, he said. No.

He made a phone call, and a few moments later, coming across the speakerphone were the magical words: Keyn, matzati oto. Yes, I found it.

I could not believe it. Someone another driver had found my suitcase!

Aviyonah pulled into a gas station in Jerusalem.

He got out of the van, walked a few yards and he came back with my suitcase.

This was a miracle, especially because, in the brief interval between the luggage carousel and the sidewalk, the luggage tag had fallen off. Even if someone else had found it, there would have been no way that they could have identified it as my bag.

It also meant something even more ominous. In Israel, an unidentified large suitcase left on the sidewalk would have been a suspicious object. Security forces would have surrounded it, and destroyed it. My bag was moments away from being toast.

I was beyond joy. I was in tears. I reached for my wallet.

Aviyonah said to me: Ma zeh? Tip?

Yes! Yes! What can I give you? I asked, fumbling with the shekels in my wallet.

He shook his head, and this is what he said to me.

Katuv ba-Torah It is written in the Torah.

He then proceeded to quote me from memory this passage from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 22:

If you see your fellow Israelites ox or sheep gone astray, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your peer.

If your fellow Israelite does not live near you or you do not know who the owner is, you shall bring it home and it shall remain with you until your peer claims it; then you shall give it back.

You shall do the same with that persons donkey; you shall do the same with that persons garment; and so too shall you do with anything that your fellow Israelite loses and you find

Then, he said these words to me:

Anachnu achrayim! We are responsible!

Ah, you will say.

He did you a mitzveh. What a nice man!

But, read and say this carefully to yourselves, because there is a world of difference in one small vowel.

He did not do a mitzveh a Yiddish word for a nice thing to do. He did not do what he wanted to do, because he is a nice person.

He did a mitzvah a Hebrew word for what he was obligated to do because he is a Jew.

In those few moments, Aviyonah taught me two things.

He taught me or, he reminded me about the elegant, simple mitzvah of hashevat avdah returning lost objects. It is a Jewish obsession. There is an entire tractate of the Mishnah and Talmud about this. In the ancient Temple in Jerusalem, there was actually a lost and found.

But, it was far more than that.

It was what he said to me: Anachnu achrayim. We are responsible!

These are the maps of responsibility the moral and spiritual GPS that we bear within our souls.

In the words of Rabbi Yosef in the Talmud (Baba Metzia 71a):

If you are lending money to the poor, the poor of your people takes precedence over the poor of another people

the poor of your family take precedence over the poor of your city;

the poor of your city take precedence over the poor of other cities.

Our responsibilities might wind up being global, but they start with ourselves, and with our tribe, and with our people.

That is why I committed a minor sin that day.

I was wrong to have offered Aviyonah a tip.

I saw myself as a customer.

But, Aviyonah saw me as someone with whom he lived in covenant.

It was the voice of our mutual ancestors, saying in a great chorus: This poor shlep of an American Jewish tourist who sits in the van with you you are responsible for him.

We need more of this in American Judaism. I do not mean that we should all have memorized the Torah, and that we should be able to quote passages from the Torah to absolute strangers, at a moments notice (though worse things could happen).

No. I mean something like this.

A cat was pursuing a mouse. The mouse ran into its hole, and when the cat came sniffing, the mouse said: Meow.

The cat walked away.

One of the mouses fellow mice asked him: What was that all about?

The mouse replied: And so you see that it is helpful to know a second language.

Americanism, secularism, individualism: these all combine to create our first language.

But, it is helpful to know a second language, and that is the language of Jewish responsibility.

One of my favorite Israeli authors was the late, lamented Amos Oz.

These are his words:

We have inherited a household of furniture from the Jewish past. We must now decide what will go into the attic, and what will go into the living room.

You take the entirety of the Jewish past and present and this is how you create a Jewish future for yourself.

You figure out what is relevant to you, and for the times in which we live.

Then, you move into the 3 H system of having a responsible Jewish life.

The three Hs are: head, heart, and hand.

Every serious Jew majors in one H.

You then minor in a second H.

As for the third H, you might not ever get to it. Or, you might. But, it will not be your strength.

Which is perfectly acceptable, because the person in the row behind you in synagogue will have that H, and together, we create a whole Jewish community.

One last thing.

Right before Rosh Ha Shanah, I called Aviyonah. I still had his phone number.

I asked him if he remembered me the poor American tourist who had lost his suitcase.

He not only remembered me. He remembered the exact address where I was going!

This is what I told him:

Aviyonah, I have studied with the greatest teachers in the Jewish world.

I have sat in classrooms and lecture halls, and I have heard the best of the best.

But, no teacher that I had studied with ever taught me as much Judaism, in as little time, and in as small a space, as you did that day from the front seat of your van at a gas station in Jerusalem.

He was in tears, and he blessed me for a good year.

Then he asked me if he could bless my congregation as well from afar:

I send blessings to you and to your community, that you should have a good and sweet year.

That was from Aviyonah, to all of you.

A good and sweet year, from a master teacher of Judaism.

(Excerpted from my Yom Kippur morning sermon at Temple Israel in West Palm Beach, Florida)

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The greatest contemporary teacher of Judaism is a van driver in Israel - Religion News Service

I would not normally respond to a letter to the editor which mentioned me or challenged my take on an issue.However, to David Gray I would say that some rabbis do, indeed, take political stands when morality, ethics and national threats are involved.We do not tell our congregants for whom to vote.That would be a violation of being a 501(c)(3) which involves nonprofit organizations such as synagogues and churches. Since I am a retired rabbi, I am no longer encumbered by those strictures.

I see former President Donald Trump, his advisers andsomeof his followers as threats to American democracy. I spoke up and will continue to do so.The tactics, motivations and tone which Trump continues to use, the lies he continues to spew about an election he clearly lost and the violence he is even now able to generate all make him the danger that I described.If you do not see Trump in the same vein as I do, I suggest that you re-watch Ken Burns first episode about America and the Holocaust.See if you do not see what I did.If not, then so be it. The Talmud contains a record of many disputes, some of which never find an agreed upon answer.

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Letter to the Editor: Rabbis do take political stands when morality, ethics and national threats are involved - Summit Daily

Whoever needs, come and eat.

Thats the quote from the Talmud the book of Jewish law that welcomes customers to Goldies Bagels in Columbia, Missouri, telling them that people who cannot afford to pay can get a coffee and a bagel, with cream cheese, free of charge.

The promise is core to the shops mission. Launched as a popup in 2020, Goldies aims to imbue Jewish values into its daily operations.

My whole thing in opening Goldies is were going to be so outwardly proud to be Jewish, founder Amanda Rainey told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this week, after a sign about the Neighbours Account initiative went viral on social media.

Rainey, who previously worked as a Jewish educator, first opened Goldies inside Pizza Tree, a restaurant owned by her husband. It moved to its own location, bringing along a sourdough starter thats used in its bagels. Per baking tradition, the starter has a name Seymour.

In addition to bagels, Goldies serves traditional Ashkenazi desserts such as babka and rugelach. Its Instagram account showcases fluffy round challahs, egg sandwiches made with zhug, a spicy condiment that originated with Yemenite Jews, and tzitzel bagels, a rolled-in-semolina confection thats unique to St. Louis. The wifi password is MAZEL TOV and this year, the shop hosted a Pesach seder for its staff.

The seder inspired the sign. The principle of feeding the needy is so ingrained in Jewish tradition that the Talmud quote posted at the counter is traditionally recited in Aramaic at the seder, when the Israelites exodus from Egypt is recounted.

Goldies had already been handing out free bagels to unhoused people in downtown Columbia, just as Pizza Tree had been doing with slices. And it had already been subsidising that effort with donations that other customers made informally. Sometimes people would slip us some cash awkwardly, Rainey recalled.

But after the seder, a staff member suggested explaining the initiative and citing the quote from Talmud on a sign in the store. The sign explains that customers who cannot pay can ask the staff to charge their meal to the Neighbours Account.

After the sign went viral, people from around the country offered to donate, Rainey said. But she said Goldies is committed to keeping everything local.

We have so many generous people in our community, Rainey said. Those people should give money to somebody where they live; their own neighbours.

Rainey says the shop gets maybe two $5 donations a day, which help pay down the balance of the account, and the store doesnt take donations unless theres an outstanding balance. She hopes the initiative will encourage other restaurants in the area to take on something similar. During the pandemic, other businesses began offering free meals to families with children, and mutual aid groups serve people who are unhoused.

But the point of the Neighbours Account is to welcome people into the store and give them more than just a meal.

Its a bagel and a coffee but when youve slept on the street at 7am, a bagel and a coffee is really helpful, Rainey said. And also we learn peoples names, we check in on them. We treat them like people. And then other people in the community see that and hopefully are inspired to act better.

JTA

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Taking inspiration from the Talmud to feed the needy - Australian Jewish News

Honoring women-focused narratives with thoughts and recipes.

Kenden Alfond is an American in Paris whos spent her adult life working for NGOs and the United Nations from India and Afghanistan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Switzerland, and Cambodia. But a constant in these past eight years is Jewish Food Hero, a food blog created to connect with other Jewish people who care about healthy food and modern Jewish life.

At Jewish Food Hero, we create cookbooks that reflect what we are passionate about: conscientious food preparation and uplifting Torah study, says Alfond.

As of 2022, four cookbooks have been published under the banner of Jewish Food Hero and the fifth one is forthcoming in 2023. The most recent, Feeding Women in the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves, is what Alfond calls a community cookbook. Shes referring to the 129 Jewish women from around the world who contributed recipes and essays to the book. This includes 60 rabbis, rabbinical students, Jewish teachers, and emerging thought leaders who contributed to the Talmudic narratives of the cookbook as well as 60 female professional chefs and passionate homecooks.

The addition of this female-focused point of view to these womens Talmudic storieswhich were recorded and edited by menis a bright and encouraging testament to a modern generation of women engaging in Jewish learning, says Alfond.

The cookbook is the second volume of the cookbook series that Jewish Food Hero started in 2020 with Feeding Women of the Bible, Feeding Ourselves. The woman-focused narrative highlighted 20 compelling female biblical heroines from the Hebrew bible paired with two healthy plant-based kosher pareve recipes inspired by the characters experience.

The idea for these cookbooks came from my desire to create true food for thought by creating a cookbook/study book that retells the stories of women in Jewish text and honors them with our contemporary thoughts and recipes, says Alfond. These books seek to add more Jewish female stories and delicious vegan and plant-based foods to our tables, so we can connect to Judaism and healthy food at the same time.

In Feeding Women in the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves, each chapter is devoted to one female character in the Talmud. Theres a concise, true to the text story, context that seeks to enhance the stories by exploring their historical, social, literary and/or liturgical background for the story, a description of what happens before and/or after the particular story in the Talmud, and an exploration of how the context and position of the story reveals more about its meaning.

Then comes the aggadah or a modern commentary, sometimes in the shape of a fictional story that uplifts the subjects voice without attempting to neutralize her imperfections, flaws or struggles. Readers are then given meaningful questions intended as prompts to inspire further reflection on the story before finishing with the food offeringone vegan or plant-based recipe, each inspired by or honoring the female Talmudic character.

Alfond was drawn to the project given her long interest in learning more about female stories in Jewish texts. These projects, specifically of the Feeding Women series, is how she's been able to learn and study alongside women in the Jewish community. The Talmudic spin was especially helpful for Alfond, who says it was emotionally comforting and intellectually inspiring during the increased social isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This Golden Tumeric Lemon Cake from Feeding Women in the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves is based on the Talmudic characters of Yirmatia and her mother.

In the cookbook, Rebecca Whitman, a doctoral student in mathematics at UC Berkeley, describes how the Talmud records her donation to the Temple in an amount of gold equivalent to her daughters weight. Alongside an overview of the Talmudic narrative, Rebecca offers a modern aggadah and prompts for reflection.

This Golden Tumeric Lemon Cake recalls the gold that Yirmatias mother donated to the temple, says Alfond, and is a variation of a sour milk sponge cake.

This cake mixes apple cider vinegar and soy milk to create sour milk and uses a reduced amount of caster sugar and applesauce to give added texture and sweetness, she explains. Applesauce is also a fantastic vegan substitute for the setting properties of eggs. Dense texture can be the curse of some plant-based cake adaptations. But the combination of baking soda and apple cider vinegar stops this turmeric cake becoming claggy. Instead, it gives a light crumb with that vibrant golden color throughout. The soy milk soured with apple cider vinegar adds the perfect tangy taste to the finished cake.

For serving, Alfond recommends combining a slice with a bright tea or cup of coffee.

Thanks to the lower sugar quantity in the recipe, you can serve it with sweet toppings, she says. It can take a dusting of powdered sugar and/or a dollop of raspberry jam without becoming overly sweet.

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Kenden Alfond Finds Culinary Inspiration from the Talmud - aish.com - Aish.com

Whoever needs, come and eat.

Thats the quote from the Talmud the book of Jewish law that welcomes customers to Goldies Bagels in Columbia, Missouri, telling them that people who cannot afford to pay can get a coffee and a bagel, with cream cheese, free of charge.

The promise is core to the shops mission: Launched as a popup in 2020, Goldies aims to imbue Jewish values into its daily operations.

My whole thing in opening Goldies is were going to be so outwardly proud to be Jewish, founder Amanda Rainey told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this week, after a sign about the Neighbors Account initiative went viral on social media.

Goldie's Bagels, Columbia, MO. pic.twitter.com/ec34eyfmh6

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@TheRaDR) August 25, 2022

Rainey, who previously worked as a Jewish educator at the Hillel at the University of Missouri, first opened Goldies inside Pizza Tree, a restaurant owned by her husband. It moved to its own location last winter, bringing along a sourdough starterthats used in its bagels. (Per baking tradition, the starter has a name Seymour.)

In addition to bagels, Goldies serves traditional Ashkenazi desserts such as babka and rugelach. Its Instagram account showcases fluffy round challahs; egg sandwiches made with zhug, a spicy condiment that originated with Yemenite Jews; and tzitzel bagels, a rolled-in-semolina confectionthats unique to St. Louis. (Its not kosher: Theres a sandwich with both meat and cream cheese on the menu.) The wifi password is MAZEL TOV. And this spring, the shop hosted a Passover seder for its staff.

The seder inspired the sign. The principle of feeding the needy is so ingrained in Jewish tradition that the Talmud quote posted at the counter istraditionally recited in Aramaicat the seder, when the Israelites exodus from Egypt is recounted.

Goldies had already been handing out free bagels to unhoused people in downtown Columbia, just as Pizza Tree had been doing with slices. And it had already been subsidizing that effort with donations that other customers made informally. Sometimes people would slip us some cash awkwardly, Rainey recalled.

But after the seder, a staff member suggested explaining the initiative and citing the quote from Talmud on a sign in the store. The sign explains that customers who cannot pay can ask the staff to charge their meal to the Neighbors Account.

After the sign went viral, people from around the country offered to donate, Rainey said. But she said Goldies is committed to keeping everything local.

We have so many generous people in our community, Rainey said. Those people should give money to somebody where they live; their own neighbors.

Rainey says the shop gets maybe two $5 donations a day, which help pay down the balance of the account, and the store doesnt take donations unless theres an outstanding balance. She hopes the initiative will encourage other restaurants in the area to take on something similar. During the pandemic, other businesses began offering free meals to families with children, and mutual aid groups serve people who are unhoused.

But the point of the Neighbors Account is to welcome people into the store and give them more than just a meal.

Its a bagel and a coffee but when youve slept on the street at 7 a.m., a bagel and a coffee is really helpful, Rainey said. And also we learn peoples names, we check in on them. We treat them like people. And then other people in the community see that and hopefully are inspired to act better.

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Missouri bagel shop goes viral for effort to feed the needy J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

It is probably hard to find a YU student who has heard about the five core Torah values (the Five Torot) and does not have an opinion about them. It is probably even harder to find a student who has never found him or herself in a (perhaps heated) discussion about the Five Torot and their legitimacy. Many students are cynical about the fact that a Jewish institution and its president can choose specific values seemingly at random. Why five? Why these five? Perhaps there should be fewer? Why not more? Some argue that yes, the Torah might speak about the Ten Commandments, the Mishnah about the three pillars of the world and the Talmud about foundational mitzvot; but who are the Jews of today to say that certain values are more essential than others? Some say that YU, as a part of the larger Jewish community, should not have its own set of values. Rather, we should all join the Jewish people as a whole and subscribe to the core Torah values of the Torah community, whatever they are.

Yet many students are supportive, or at least not critical, of the core Torah values. While they acknowledge that the specific values are not divinely chosen nor inspired, they were thought out by President Ari Berman. Described in his biography as an active and erudite spokesman for the Jewish community, he is certainly entitled and capable of thinking about the core values of Judaism, at least from his own perspective. Furthermore, they say that there is nothing wrong with a Jewish institution having a mission statement. Indeed, as Rabbi Berman likes to say, we all started at Har Sinai (roughly represented in the value of Emet) and we are all heading towards redemption (alluded to in the value of Tziyon). But still, due to nuanced and yet significant diversity within the Torah community, different individuals and organizations will find different statements to embrace our shared mission.

While students often talk about their opinions on this matter, the opinions of YUs rabbinic leadership on the matter are not as well known. Perhaps some have spoken privately to a YU rosh yeshiva about his opinion of the five core Torah values, but until this past August, I personally had not heard of any rosh yeshiva addressing the Five Torot publicly or on a recorded shiur online. Moreover, when discussing this matter with my peers, I also dont recall anyone referencing the view of one of the roshei yeshiva. Thus, it was surprising for me to hear two YU leaders address this issue in the same week. During the first week of class of the Fall semester, Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz and Rabbi Menachem Penner spoke to students on Wilf Campus, and on that occasion, they both alluded to and relatively embraced the core Torah values.

Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz is the director of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) Semikha program and the rabbi of Beis HaKnesses of North Woodmere. During the first week of classes of the Fall semester, Rabbi Lebowitz delivered a sichas mussar on Wilf Campus, where he shared with the students five eitzos (pieces of advice) to thrive specifically in a yeshiva like Yeshiva University. His third piece of advice was about taking advantage of the opportunity of having a rebbe and deepening ones connection with him. However, in this context, he also stressed the importance of learning from other rebbeim. He emphasized the tremendous meritin his words, uncommon giftsYU students have to learn in the beis medrash with some of the greatest poskim of the generation. On a more general note, he asked the students not to be so quick to disregard ideas or other people, because he warned, an attitude of bittul [cynicism and cancelation] does not enhance your middos tovos.

At around minute 24, he asked the listeners that the next time instead of making a snide remark of the five core Torah values, maybe pay attention to what does the president mean by them. How does he identify and formulate the goals of our Yeshiva? He included a clear endorsement and praise of President Berman: You know like many of you guys admire the Kollel Elyon guys because they are the strongest guys in learning and they are the guys who seem to be matzliach [successful]? When I was a talmid in the Yeshiva, that was Rabbi Berman. He was the Kollel Elyon guy, who then became a rebbe, who was one of the most matzliach guys in the Yeshiva. And thats before thirty years of accomplishment, that earned him to be the president of the Yeshiva. Rabbi Lebowitz then returned to the issue of the core values, asking, Maybe he has something in mind? Maybe its not just off the wall? Or maybe just on the wall? Maybe there is something there? Dont be mevatel [canceling or disregarding] things.

During the second week of class, he delivered a similar statement on Beren Campus. Towards the end of the first episode of the Teshuva Talks series, Beren Campus Rabbi Azi Fine asked Rabbi Lebowitz about teshuva concerning misguided beliefs or paradigms hitting the Jewish community today. His answer was the lack of genuine Torah values. At that moment he was not apparently referring to YUs Five Torot. However, right after that he rhetorically asked the audience if they had heard about Torah values by any chance. He said, Having real Torah values is so essential to being a good Jew. I happen to be a huge fan, with all the cynicism and the jokes and whatever, and the Purim shpiels, and everything else; Im a huge fan of the presidents five core Torah values. He then proceeded to justify his support explaining that what the President has done is that he said when we look at the world, we look at the world through Torah. And so much of what we do, were just wearing the wrong glasses. Were looking at the world through a perspective, through a value system that the Tannaim never heard of; the Ammoraim never heard of. This answer was a more developed and explicit shout-out of his appreciation for the Five Torot. Furthermore, after the talk was over, I approached Rabbi Lebowitz to tell him that I was writing this article based on what he had said earlier at the sichas mussar. When we spoke he emphasized that he was a huge fan of Rabbi Berman. He also added that he thinks that the recently published draft of A Life of Faith, Meaning and Purpose: Nineteen Letters to Our Students, Rabbi Bermans elaborate presentation of YUs cornerstone values, is amazing.

Rabbi Lebowitz was not the only one to endorse the Five Torot. Rabbi Menachem Penner, Dean of RIETS and the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Holliswood in Queens, also implicitly endorsed the Torot during the opening week of the Fall Zman. At this years annual Pesichas Hazman Kennes Rabbi Penner spoke about taking advantage of everything the Yeshiva has to offer. Understand, use this time to figure out whats important to you. You may have seen in one or two places around the campus, these core Torah values; hiding behind doors, things like that, he said. You know what? We need to have core values. We have to know what it is that we believe and what is important. However, he did not imply that YUs five core Torah values are the core values every student should have. Do those five things resonate with you? Get to know what they are! he emphasized. Whats more important is that you leave Yeshiva University understanding what your values are. If you leave without values, without core things that you believe in, then weve failed; then youve failed.The message here is pretty clear. While our roshei yeshiva did not definitively state that the five core Torah values are the absolute truth, they certainly implied that there is something valid and worth pondering in them. While its easy to disregard and tempting to be cynical, our leaders are asking us to be thinking human beings, to learn from and value what others have to contribute instead of being dismissive.

_________

Photo Caption:Students, faculty and roshei yeshiva listening to President Berman in the Glueck Beit Midrash

Photo Credit: YUNews

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What Do Some of YU's Torah Leaders Think of the Five Torot? - The Commentator - The Commentator

Real history is complicated. Its long-term moral arc might bend toward justice, but it zigzags on the way there, and it certainly takes its own sweet time.

Sometimes, though, someone does something thats straightforward.

According to Alexander Smukler of Montclair, the Russian-Jewish migr who is our analyst for Russias war on Ukraine, thats true of Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the Soviet Unions youngest leader in 1985, its only president (his title kept changing, becoming progressively less clunky), and then fell from power and died in near obscurity at 91 last week.

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Although many people, including Mr. Smuklers friend and mentor Natan Sharansky, think that Gorbachevs decision to let Russian Jews go was the result of a combination of the global pressure and the increasing strength of the internal movement to release Soviet Jewry, Mr. Smukler feels nothing but pure gratitude toward the Soviet president.

Whoever saves one life saves an entire world, he quoted the Talmud. Gorbachev saved many lives, and therefore many worlds; when you count the descendants of each saved Jew, who have full universes.

I and my family and probably thousands of others are members of Gorbachevs list, Mr. Smukler said. Its thanks to Gorbachev that we are living as Jews, living free and happy here, being Jewish, and celebrating Shabbes every week.

Yes, of course the West influenced him, but Gorbachev was different from the others, he said, comparing him to the line of outwardly stolid, gray-suited, gray-faced Soviet leaders who presided over the failing superpower.

Gorbachev was a different person inside, Mr. Smukler said. He had a heart. He had neshuma. He had a soul.

Heres the story, as Mr. Smukler tells it.

As weve recounted in another story (Living Through History, November 12, 2021) Aleksandr Smukler Sasha to his friends was born in Moscow in 1960, to Jewish parents whose Judaism was a deeply buried part of their identity, themselves children of Jewish parents deeply scarred by the Holocaust and World War II. After meeting refuseniks a group largely half a generation or so older than he was and feeling drawn to them, and then joining them; after many adventures and machinations, he, his wife, Alla Shtraks, and the two oldest of their three sons left the Soviet Union on September 20, 1991. (My third son was born in Mountainside Hospital in Montclair, he said, with pleasure.)

Mr. Smuklers first of what turned out to be several meetings with Gorbachev was in 1991, he said. The Russian leaders peak was well past; his power and strength were waning, and he soon was to be toppled temporarily by an ultimately failed coup.

In 1991, Alexander Smukler, with his back to the camera, greets then-President Mikhail Gorbachev.

When we left, I had no clue that Gorbachev would resign on December 25, 1991, Mr. Smukler said. And if someone had told me that the Soviet Union would completely collapse and break into 15 different states. I had no idea. I had no reason to think that would happen.

We left because after being refuseniks for seven years, waiting for our exist visas, Gorbachev was the one who gave us permission to emigrate, like hundreds of thousands of other Soviet Jews who live happily in the West and in Israel now.

He was the first pharaoh who let our people go. That is why for me he is a righteous person.

My grandson was born in the United States, and his name is Theodore. He was named after Theodor Herzl. I could never have imagined, living in the Soviet Union, behind the Iron Curtain, that my grandson would be born in the United States and that my son would name him after Theodor Herzl without fear, without pressure, without feeling any antisemitism.

Mr. Smukler disagrees carefully and respectfully with some of Mr. Sharanskys conclusions about Gorbachev conclusions that the onetime Prisoner of Zion, the first political prisoner that Gorbachev released, who later became an Israeli politician and for years was the head of the Jewish Agency, and who remains a widely respected figure in Israel, published in an op-ed in the Washington Post.

Mr. Sharansky said that Gorbachevs actions were the result of outside pressure. But Gorbachev changed the Soviet Unions policy toward Israel, Mr. Smukler said. It took him more than five years, and an incredible fight inside the Politburo and with other Soviet leaders. But Gorbachev is the one who established diplomatic relations with Israel. He did that just before his resignation on December 25, 1991; the first Soviet ambassador arrived in Israel on December 19, after 29 years without diplomatic relations. So Gorbachev was the one who established that, not Yeltsin.

I wasnt the only one to think that the Soviet empire wouldnt collapse. I think that even Gorbachev didnt realize that it would explode so quickly. The situation was shaky for him that December thats when Yeltsin was trying to minimize Gorbachevs role as president of the Soviet Union, working hard to prepare the meeting of the leaders of some of the republics in Belarus, where they signed a treaty about every republic being independent that was the Belovezhskaya Pucsha Agreement but I dont think that he realized how dangerous it was, even 10 days before he was forced to resign.

Gorbachevs outstanding importance is that he let the Soviet Union collapse without bloodshed. He could have been like Khrushchev or Brezhnev. He could have sent Russian tanks to the Baltic states or started a civil war against Yeltsin and the others who signed that treaty.

But Gorbachev was the first leader to accept that he would resign his enormous power without spilling human blood, and without starting a civil war to protect the dying Soviet empire.

Thats why he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, which he got in 1990, after the peaceful reunification of Germany.

Mr. Smukler talked about a conversation that he had in early 1991 in the British embassy in Moscow with the woman he refers to by her nickname, the Iron Lady thats Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was coming to Moscow because she was visiting Gorbachev, he said. She felt a great sympathy for him, and particularly for his wife, Raisa. I agree with Natan that Gorbachev would never have let our people go without people like Ronald Reagan and the Iron Lady, and without the trust that existed between them.

Gorbachev really listened to them because he opened up to the outside world, Mr. Smukler continued. He grew up inside the Soviet system, and he was like other Soviet and Communist Party leaders because he had been isolated from the outside, from the civilized Western world. He opened that world for himself; he was hungry to learn how the outside world worked, how real democracies existed, how they operated, how the system worked.

Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is flanked by Alexander Smukler, left, and refusniks Valery Engel and Roman Gefter in 1990.

Thats why his communications with Reagan and with Bush Senior were so important. Not many people know that Gorbachev met with those two American president 11 times in five years. He met with Mitterrand Franois Mitterrand was the president of France from 1981 to 1995 and was personal friends with Kohl. Helmut Kohl was Germanys chancellor from 1982 to 1998. And after the Iron Lady retired as prime minster, she came to Moscow almost every month. It was pure friendship and common sympathy. Theyd been friends, together with Raisa.

The Iron Lady told me that she that Gorbachev had changed, and his ability to feel softness as the leader of the last empire in the world amazed her. She talked about his ability to listen, to learn, to change, to leave communist dogma and hardline ideas behind, and that it was because of the incredible influence of the Western leaders hed built real personal relationships with.

Thats my major disagreement with Natan. I think that by the end of his term, Gorbachev was a completely different person than he was when he started.

I agree that without enormous pressure, he probably never would have let Jews go. But he fully understood that the Jewish movement in the Soviet Union was the leading group in the dissident movement. In my conversation with him after he resigned, he told me that the Jewish dissident movement, on both sides of the Iron Curtain, changed him deeply.

He said it was the Jews who made the first crack in the Iron Curtain.

Gorbachev was not a philosemite, Mr. Smukler said; in fact, he knew very little about Jews until he attained power. He was from the south of Russia, the place where historically the Russian Cossacks used to live. (As in the villains who dance so well in Fiddler on Roof, but in real life they were far worse, if less balletically gifted; they led pogroms.) It was a very antisemitic area, historically. And Gorbachev was a very high level communist who was promoted to the top of the Communist Party hierarchy by Yuri Andropov, the powerful head of the KGB. Andropov who, as it turns out, had descended from Jews, a truth that he hid died soon thereafter, and Gorbachev continued his rise. Several times, though, Gorbachev mentioned that he always knew that Andropov was a Jew, Mr. Smukler said.

So, there was an ambitious, smart, young, good-looking politician (and onlookers never should underestimate the power of physical attractiveness) who was neutral, on the whole, about Jews. He was always a pragmatist, Mr. Smukler said.

And then, as he gained power, as he gained more insight, his worldview started to change.

In December of 1989, a group of Jewish leaders in the Soviet Union decided to form the first official congress of Jews in the Soviet Union, and we created the umbrella organization called the Vaad. (It was a secular organization, he explained, although generally in North America that word is used to refer to religious leadership groups.)

I was one of the founders of the Vaad, he added. We sent a request to the Politburo to give us permission to gather, with almost 600 deputies from all over the Soviet Union. The Politburo met and discussed it. Gorbachev was on the side that voted for it, and another group fought hard to prevent it. At the last minute, Gorbachev made the final decision and said that as general secretary, he ruled that the congress would take place.

He let us conduct that congress, and after that, after years of being forced to exist underground, Jewish communal life became official and legal in the Soviet Union, and after that in Russia.

So when it came to letting Jews leave, Gorbachev fully understood the danger of letting thousands and thousands of Jews go, and that giving the refuseniks permission to leave would lead to bigger problems in the Baltics and with other republics with strong national movements. Theyd demand similar treatment, and similar freedom to leave. So he always saw Jewish emigration as a small part of a much bigger problem. He understood that it was a small part of a bigger decision to demolish the Iron Curtain, and that letting Jews go would make it necessary to remove the Iron Curtain altogether.

Natan Sharansky

Still, he let them go.

That is why I think that Gorbachev played an enormous role in the history of the Jewish people, Mr. Smukler said. Although he could not save the Soviet economy and as a result he couldnt hold onto his job because he changed the Soviet Unions relationship to the West he completely changed the world, at least for decades. For what he did for the Jews, his name will be written for thousands of years in the history of my people, Mr. Smukler said.

Mr. Smukler also wanted to talk about Mikhail Gorbachevs relationship with his wife, Raisa. She was the love of his life, and she was also a real partner, he said. I saw them together in 1994 and 1995, and I thought about how people can keep such incredibly strong feelings toward each other. He was the ruler of the biggest and strongest empire in the world and fell down, without millions of dollars without any wealth at all and they went down together, but this incredible feeling for each other survived.

Together, the Gorbachevs were responsible for Americans ability to adopt Russian children; that went on until Putin stopped it. The daughter of a member of an American administration in the Soviet Union wanted to adopt a baby; Raisa Gorbacheva helped convince her husband to give the order that opened the door to these kids, Mr. Smukler said. She initiated legislation that allowed American families to adopt Russian orphans; I want to give Raisa credit because 55,000 Russian orphans were adopted.

Had they not been adopted, they would have had no future at all, he continued; they would have languished in Russian orphanages. Some of them had special needs, including severe diseases, heart disease, cleft palates; some were conditions that could be and were fixed in the United States.

Gorbachev and Yeltsin hated each other, but Yeltsins wife also was supportive of the adoption of Russian kids by American families, and they continued to support the process.

Putin closed the door for thousands of orphans, he added.

Raisa Gorbacheva died in 1999, at 67. Her husband survived her by 21 years. He passed away at the age of 92, after a long-term hospitalization and sickness, Mr. Smukler said. His kidneys were not functioning, and he was suffering for several years.

He was living alone in Moscow, Mr. Smukler said; the only people around him were old retainers who had been with him for years. After Raisas death, he was constantly depressed; his daughter Irina, his only child, lived in Germany with her two daughters. He was abandoned. He didnt have a family. He lived in a dacha that Putin gave him. In the last 10 years he hadnt been active in his foundation, which had been slowly deteriorating.

Mikhail Gorbachev was buried next to Raisa in the Novodevichy cemetery, near many other prominent and powerful Russians. Many prominent and powerful and still-living Russians were at his funeral, but Vladimir Putin was not.

As Mr. Smukler put it, with Gorbachevs death, the last giant of the 20th century passed away.

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Gorbachev was different he had a heart - The Jewish Standard