Category Archives: Talmud

Jesus condemned the rabbinical religionists of his day for adding to the Word of God, for heaping rules and regulations upon the people that the rabbis and priests could not keep:

And He said,Woe to you also, lawyers!For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers (Luke 11:46 NKJV).

Most Christians are familiar with the Jewish religion of the Old Testament. In fact, Christians believe that the Old Testament teaches the same truths of the New Testament. There is continuity and discontinuity, as Jesus came to fulfill the Law, but the Old Testament is not a different religion from the New Testament. However, oral traditions, commentaries, and sayings were added to the Word of God so that by the time of Jesus, one could hardly keep up with the extraordinary rabbinical additions to the Scriptures.

Few of us are acquainted with the Rabbinic Judaism that began about the time of Jesus. And yet, it is Rabbinic Judaism that is most often practiced today. In this sense, Christianity is older than Rabbinic Judaism if one considers that modern Judaism is built upon commentaries, oral tradition, and directions for living, as much as the Old Testament. Following the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the resulting diaspora of the Hebrew people, the rabbinical leadership sought to provide a sort of compendium of the Jewish faith.

The purpose of this extrabiblical literature was to carry on the traditions and to provide commentary on the Tanakh (an acronym using the first letters of the three main divisions of the Masoretic text of the Old Testament: the Torah,the five Books of Moses; the Nevim,the Prophets; and the Ketuvim,the Writings) based upon the parts of the Scripture: the law, the prophets, and the writings. The oral traditions, called the Mishna,were assembled and recorded around AD 200.

The written form became the Talmud. More properly, this first recording of oral tradition was known as the Jerusalem Talmud. As the Jewish people began to live in diaspora, some rabbis wanted to return to the old land. Those who gathered in Roman Palestine and the Middle East further recorded oral tradition commentary on the Old Testament, on how to live the Jewish life (Mishna) in diaspora. This is the second part of the Talmud: the Gemara. So, the Talmud, a document of 2,711 pages in its original form, is comprised of Mishna (oral tradition written down), and Gemara (commentary on the Mishna). A second significant event happened that further shaped the Talmud that we have today.

The Jerusalem Talmud first appeared after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. However, around AD 200, persecution led to a second major diaspora, this time to Babylon. While there, the Talmud assumed its most important and final edit. Rabbis Abaye and Rav, and Ravs 10 sons, used dialectical thought (a method of finding truth through affirmation and denial, yes and no, and arguments intended to lead to truth) to establish the final commentaries on the Mishna. Thus, the Babylonian Talmud was established by the fifth century and granted halachic Jewish canon law, or legal status by the people. The Babylonian Talmud remains the authoritative expression of Rabbinic Judaism today.

The Talmud and Christianity

The question, then, is can the Talmud be used to bring others to Christ? Is it an ally in the desire to see unbelievers from Jewish backgrounds come to Jesus as Lord and Savior? The answer may be in Acts 18, the Apostle Paul goes before the philosophers at the Areopagus:

Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, What does this babbler wish to say? Others said, He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: To the unknown god. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for In him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your own poets have said, For we are indeed his offspring (Acts 17:18-28 ESV).

The lessons from Paul, a rabbi of great training in debate, are many. Consider these:

The Talmud is the collection of oral traditions (Mishna) with commentary (Gamera). The Babylonian Talmud is the authoritative version that continues to guide and inform Jewish religious life today. While Christians do not recognize the Talmud as part of Gods inerrant and infallible Word, we should recognize that the Talmud is important to the Jewish people and religion. Thus, as we are called to testify the Lord Jesus Christ to all human beings, and in doing so, follow the Apostle Paul, who sought to both understand and respect the literature and religious inquiry of others. So, we respect the place of the Talmud in Jewish life. While we reject the characterization of our Lord as a sorcerer, we are thankful that we have His name in Jewish primary religious documents. We pray that as the Lord gives us opportunity, we, too, might present the Person of our Lord and Savior Jesus to everyone. For so we recall the passionate prayer of Paul:

Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved (Romans 10:1 NKJV).

Sources

Gustaf Dalman,Jesus Christ in the Talmud, Midrash, Zohar, and the Liturgy of the Synagogue( , 1973).

Jacob Neusner, The Idea of History in Rabbinic Judaism, vol. 12(Brill, 2004).

Jacob Weingreen, From Bible to Mishna: The Continuity of Tradition (Manchester University Press, 1976).

Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud (JHU Press, 2005).

Robert Travers Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash(KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2006).

iStock/Getty Images Plus/marekuliasz

Michael A. Milton (PhD, Wales) is a long-time Presbyterian minister (PCA) and a regular contributor to Salem Web Network. In addition to founding three churches, and the call as Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga, Dr. Milton is a retired Army Chaplain (Colonel). He is the recipient of the Legion of Merit. Milton has also served as chancellor and president of seminaries and is the author of more than thirty books. He has composed and performed original music for five albums. He and his wife, Mae, reside in Western North Carolina. His most recent book is a second edition release: Hit by Friendly Fire: What to do when Another Believer Hurts You(Resource Publications, 2022). To learn more visit and subscribe: https://michaelmilton.org/about/.

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What Is the Talmud? - Christianity.com

Browse > Home / Books, Featured Articles / The Choice: A Novel of Love, Faith, and the Talmud - reviewed by Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen J-Wire

August 25, 2022 by Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen

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Maggie Anton has introduced us to a number of stories around Jewish life, beginning with her series on Rashis Daughters [3 novels] followed by Rav Hisdas Daughter [2 novels] and one about personal relationships {Fifty Shades of Talmud].

The story is based on a young woman reporter of a Jewish newspaper who in interviewing a young up-and-coming rabbinic scholar, convinces him to teach her Talmud- something which does not surprise the reader of today, for it has become not uncommon, it clearly was viewed as a no-no in the 1950s orthodox world. Not even American reform had admitted women into their rabbinical school when this novel was set (this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first woman in North America being granted the title Rabbi by any rabbinical seminary).

One of the things I like about novels by Anton is how easily she makes traditional Jewish texts (in this novels case, it is primarily rabbinic texts). Being of a particular generation, such texts were available in English in what could only be described as an analytical manner which most would consider boring. Even the works of Potok did not really make the texts alive [except perhaps his introduction to most readers of gematria]- he did so in a series of pamphlets he produced as a rabbinical student for a (now defunct) study group known as the Leaders Training Fellowship.

Being a novel of our time, it does reflect sexual tensions and sexual realities rather than dancing around the topic as was common in the 1950s. As such it seems a logical follow-up from Antons 2016 book Fifty Shades of Talmud: What the First Rabbis Had to Say about You-Know-What.

The basis of this novel is how men and women establish relationships. It is what happens in each and every generation. The time of the 1950s and the setting of Jewish New York make this novel unique.

Burt Visotzky of the Jewish Theological Seminary described the novel as a marvellous piece of Midrash (early rabbinic interpretation of a classical text) or, as its called today, fan fiction. Ellen Wolintz-Fields of the Womens League highlights that it is not only a novel but also a guide to learning about the role of women in Judaism and should be required reading in classes on the topic of women and mitzvot and women and Talmud study. I would add that it also dispels some of the buba meisers I have heard over the years about Judaism and sexual relations.

Anton makes no bones about being a Jewish feminist. This novel would not be what it is if this had not been part of what shaped the narrative. It is a book which is well written and interesting.

Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen is associated with the School of Medicine (Sydney), University of Notre Dame Australia as well as on Staff at St. Vincents Private Hospital, Sydney. He has previously held academic appointments at UNSW Sydney and St Louis University. He also served as CEO of the Sydney Jewish Museum for 5 years and was Senior Consultant to Museum Planning Services.

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The Choice: A Novel of Love, Faith, and the Talmud - reviewed by Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen J-Wire - J-Wire Jewish Australian News Service

Jews around the world had a sense of detachment as we watched the brutal attack last week on Salman Rushdie. There is almost some relief in the knowledge that this isnt our battle. It is not our text that was undermined, and it certainly was not one of us who carried out this heinous act. But it is important to ask ourselves how we would react if any of that was the case. If the situation were different, and it was about the chumash he was writing, would Jews still react in horror? Of course they would not encourage anyone to harm such a figure, but would they lament the act? Put differently, what if it was Zalman instead of Salman?

Putting aside the historical issue of bans, both on people and on books, which have had mixed results historically, one of the earliest extended discussions of apostasy and the attitude towards it is in the Talmud. It is the famous story of Elishah ben Avuyah, a second-century figure, who was later known as Acher (literally, the Other).

The exact catalyst of Elishas downfall is unclear. In the Jerusalem Talmud, it is said that he sees a boy fulfill a biblical commandment of sending away the mother bird, by the instruction of his father, only to die shortly thereafter. Besides the magnitude of the tragedy, which is mentioned elsewhere in the Talmud, what makes the episode so perplexing to Elisha is that the two commandments that the boy had fulfilled are both said by the Torah to be rewarded with a long life. In contrast to this account, elsewhere in the Babylonian Talmud it says he witnessed the aftermath of the execution of one of the great sages killed in the second century, and was astonished that that could be the fate of a Torah scholar. In perhaps the longest discussion of Elishas life, the Talmud in Chagiga states that Elisha ben Avuya was one of the figures involved in the study of Pardes, which can be described as a metaphysical study of the world. The Talmud then relates that Elisha saw a vision of a high-ranking angel functioning in a way that was out of keeping with what he had learned about heaven. According to another account, he fell under the influence of Greek thought, whose texts would fall from under his bosom.

In all the accounts, he concludes that what he witnessed can only be explained if there are other forces in control in the universe. And from that point forward, his interpretations and his conduct were influenced by that mistaken notion. Compounding this problem was that repentance was withheld from him for one reason or another. Case in point, depending on the account, subsequent divine voices that he hears or verses that a schoolchild repeats to him are understood, and even misunderstood, by him to mean that G-d is not interested in his repentance. And according to most accounts, he dies without having repented. When he does die, however, it becomes clear that he is in limbo: he studied too much for him to go into purgatory, but his apostasy prevents him from going into heaven. So Rabbi Meir who had tried during Elishas lifetime to bring him back, even when it meant walking alongside him as he rides a horse on the Sabbath in contravention of the law decides that he will eventually bring up smoke from his grave, so that he will receive his purification and can then go to heaven, which is what happens.

There are several unusual elements to this story, not least of which is why it is important to know the background of Elishas fall from grace. More than an entire half of an amud in Chagiga discusses it, and it is found in more than a dozen places across the rabbinic corpus. Does it really matter, if the end result was that he was an apostate? Also, why does Rabbi Meir play such a central role in this story; being the Sage that he was, it would make more sense to diminish Rabbi Meirs involvement. Moreover, it is incredibly difficult to understand that such a downfall should involve divine voices and bibliomancy. What significance does that have?

Three things become clear. The first is that, particularly in the way the story is portrayed, there is a modicum of understanding, if not for Acher than for his circumstances. For one reason or another, he could not find his way back and not for lack of trying. The attitude that is espoused here is to look for insights into how someone could become estranged, not to look for ways to punish them.

The second is that the Talmud is concerned more with the impact that his thought has on Rabbi Meir and others, than it does with the fact that he took on those views. This is borne out by the way the Talmud asks how Rabbi Meir can learn from him; the answer given is that he ate the fruit and threw away the peels, meaning he retained only the doctrinally pure ideas. And also by the statement in Shir HaShirim Rabbah that defines his destruction of plantations, a term for apostasy, as the fact that he used to disturb the study of others telling us that what is of greater concern is the negative impact that Acher had upon other students. That is to say, more will be gained when we look for ways to minimize the impact of mistaken views than to address or correct them.

Finally, the fact that Achers ultimate fate had to come from a divine voice or be communicated through providence is also an indication that it is not up to human beings to decide such a persons fate. In our day and age, this translates into never taking divine justice into our own hands, even as we distance ourselves from offending views.

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What If It Were 'Zalman'? - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

More than 800 attorneys and judges are expected to participate in the 16th annual Jewish Law Symposium on Tuesday, September 13, at the Birchwood Manor in Whippany; it also will be available online. The symposium will feature a panel discussion, The Ethics of Cancel Culture and Redemption.

Benjamin Brafman, a high-profile criminal defense attorney, will highlighting the program. Rabbi Shalom Lubin of the Chabad of SE Morris County, founder of the Jewish Law Symposium, will moderate a panel discussion with Jeffrey S. Chiesa, founding partner of Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC; Karen Kessler, a public relations expert;, and Rabbi Simon Jacobson, a renowned Jewish scholar and thinker.

The laws and ethics of the Talmud have served as a cornerstone of humanitys civil and moral infrastructure, while shaping its legal judicial systems, Rabbi Lubin said. Navigating the timely topic of cancel culture and exploring options of the redemptive process through the lens of both civil law and the Talmud and 2,000 years of Jewish ethics and wisdom is very exciting.

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I find this program to be intellectually stimulating and fascinating; I love attending every year, the symposiums chair Cary B. Cheifetz of Ceconi & Cheifetz, LLC., said. If you come to the Jewish Law Symposium, you will walk away with a body of knowledge you will never forget.

Over the last 16 years, the Jewish Law Symposium has become a premier educational event in the New Jersey legal community. Past panelists include Chief Justice Stuart Rabner, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman, and Justices Barry T. Albin, Gary S. Stein, and Virginia Long, all retired from the New Jersey Supreme Court; Hon. John W. Bissell, Chief USDJ (Ret.); Hon. Stanley R. Chesler, USDJ, and Hon. Freda L. Wolfson, USDJ.; John J. Farmer, former Rutgers Law School dean; and Barry H. Ostrowsky, CEO of RWJBarnabas Health.

The Jewish Law Symposium is a project of Rabbinical College of America. For information, go to http://www.JewishLawSymposium.com or call (973) 377-0707.

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Jewish law symposium to tackle the ethics of cancel culture and redemption - The Jewish Standard

Regrettably, it is now apparent that reasonable, intellectually charitable discussions between progressives and conservatives are quite scarce in many places leaving little room for compromise or legislative success. Many people hate those who disagree with them, perhaps seeing no possible route to the other sides political conclusions other than moral aberrance or callous self-interest. Accompanying this vitriol and anomie, it would seem, is a widespread lack of scepticism toward ones own political beliefs. Some people are not just confident, but absolutely, 100 percent certain that their views about how to order society are optimal. For these people, extremism and animosity might seem to be the only logical route. The philosopher of science Karl Popper went so far as to argue that absolute certainty is the foundational component of totalitarianism: if one is sure that ones political philosophy will lead to the best possible future for humankind, all manner of terrible acts become justifiable in service of the greater good.

Ive written about how extreme points of view are often confounded by a lack of fundamental understanding and abiding overconfidence in their knowledge. I am not alone in that belief, and this holds equally true for both poles of the political spectrum. From Psyche, Popper was right about the link between certainty and extremism

This is not about placing blame, says Kristian Andersen, a professor of immunology and microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute in California. This is about understanding in as much detail as we can the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Did it jump from an animal to us? What was the role of Wuhans wet market or its Virology Institute? It is a complicated story, made less clear by the partisan debate and the obfuscation of involved scientists. Wired tries to make the complex less so, The Origins of Covid-19 Are More Complicated Than Once Thought

Precisely when we seem most connected, we are most distant; precisely when we have all the tools to free ourselves and gain exposure to the wider world, we find ourselves imprisoned and disconnected. A new economy, equipped with new technology, has created a very old politics. Tribal politics.

Technology can enrich our lives and fill it with things that were not there before. But it can also impoverish us and take things away from us.2In his bookUnderstanding Media, McLuhan explained the difference between what technology gives and what it takes away. What it gives us is bright and shiny, but what it takes away is obscure and practically invisible. It gives quickly but takes slowly. Its advantages are therefore seen and spoken about, while its disadvantages are mostly unseen and much less spoken about. This asymmetry creates the illusion that technology is an unmitigated bonus for humanity. But in practice, it always comes at a price. McLuhan argued that history is shaped not so much by ideas as by the tools we use to disseminate ideas. In his view, the medium exerts a greater influence than the message. The events that changed history were not the birth of monotheism, the emergence of humanism, and the growth of feminism, but the revolutionary advent of printing, radio, and television; not the creation of new ideas, but the emergence of new media which shape our very ways of thinking.

The Talmud contains the commentary on Jewish law "beyond the ten commandments." The Talmudic tradition runs deep. It is oft said that a discussion between three Talmudic scholars will yield four opinions. Here is aTalmudic consideration, a commentary on digital media. From Sources, Our Technology Sicknessand How to Heal It

Basing its projection on historic patterns, the U.N. tells us that world population will have surpassed 10 billion during the 2050s. The big question though is how much their computer models should also recognize recent anomalies. Birth rates have been falling. Families are smaller. Education is on the rise. Using past trends, the U.N.says they recognize all of these changes. However, demographers suggest their models insufficiently see where the world is heading.

Is it poverty or population that is the limiting factor for our species? Are you a Malthusian? From Econolife, Are We Near Peak Population? Most importantly, you must watch the video at the end of the wonderful Hans Rosling demonstrating how much our world has changed.

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What I'm Reading (Aug. 25) | American Council on Science and Health - American Council on Science and Health

In his 1994 book, Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren?: Jewish Continuity and How to Achieve It, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zl, described an extraordinary predicament he once faced: The legendary author and theologian was invited to have lunch with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Simultaneously, he was also invited to partake in the London opening ceremony of a new Jewish school, to be held the same day and time as the lunch.

Incredibly, Sacks declined the Prime Ministers invitation and opted to attend the opening of the school. His reasoning? Governments sustain society, but education sustains the world, he wrote.

To those familiar with Judaisms seeming obsession with learning and its reverence for teachers, it comes as no surprise that Sacks, whose writings and lectures composed a lifelong love letter to God and Judaism, regretfully bowed out of lunch with one of the worlds most powerful leaders. Teachers open our eyes to the world, he wrote in his 2004 book, From Optimism to Hope, adding, They give us curiosity and confidence. They teach us to ask questions. They connect us to our past and future. Theyre the guardians of our social heritage. We have lots of heroes todaysportsmen, supermodels, media personalities. They come, they have their fifteen minutes of fame, and they go. But the influence of good teachers stays with us. They are the people who really shape our life.

In honor of the back-to-school season, the Jewish Journal asked various community leaders, educators, writers and thinkers one compelling question: Is there a teacher who shaped your life?

In honor of the back-to-school season, the Jewish Journal asked various community leaders, educators, writers and thinkers one compelling question: Is there a teacher who shaped your life?

Their responses, which included memories of teachers in the U.S., Canada, pre-revolutionary Iran, and Israel, spanned from the 1960s to the twenty-first century. They touched our hearts and reminded us of the precious gift of a teacher who sincerely sees us for our individual potential. Truly, the educators mentioned below are a testament to the ancient words of Alexander the Great, who wisely observed, I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.

Rabbi Dr. David Lieber, remembered by many as president of the University of Judaism and as editor of the Etz Hayim Torah commentary, was a memorable teacher with impact far beyond the classroom. While a student at UCLAs Law School in the 1970s, I enrolled in two of Dr. Liebers Bible courses at UCLA. Dr. Lieber, the institution builder and scholar, took an interest in people, including his students, whatever the setting.

Several years later, when I weighed alternative career paths, it was Dr. Lieber, from among my teachers, whose counsel I sought. His advice, after listening intently, was to pursue that path that I considered most compelling. He offered practical guidance with respect to next steps.

When I think of Dr. Lieber, the words of the prophet Zechariah, Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, spring to mind. Dr. Liebers leadership was not by bombast but by a gently manifested focus on engaging people, individually and collectively, in meaningful Jewish learning experiences. The name Lieber, beloved in Yiddish, was descriptive of the man.

The Torah of Dr. David Lieber, as spoken and by example, is instructive decades later. For this appreciative student, its embodiment remains an aspiration.

Dr. Gil Graff, Executive Director, Builders of Jewish Education (BJE) Los Angeles

Our cherubic, white-bearded seventh-grade English teacher announced to the class that there would be a school-wide Thanksgiving speech contest. It was 1979, and my family had just escaped the Iranian revolution and landed in Beverly Hills. Still dizzy from being uprooted from everything I knew, somehow, I had the idea that I too could write an essay about being thankful. Mr. Kinny was the one who gave me the confidence, perhaps chutzpah, to tell our family story of intolerance, forced expulsion, immigration and open-armed welcome by our adopted nation. I won that contest and delivered my speech in front of the El Rodeo school audience. It was Mr. Kinny, possibly pulling strings to make sure I came out on top, who was able to overlook the language deficiencies in my story, my complete lack of awareness about the historical significance of Thanksgiving, and my broken spoken English, to encourage the new girl from Iran who had the audacity to compete for a speech contest months after her arrival in a new land the very definition of an exemplary teacher.

Sharon Nazarian, President, Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation

I have a story of a teacher that changed my life: Mr. Solomon. He was the English teacher at Hillel Hebrew Academy Jewish Day School. I was a mere nine-year-old who had just moved from Queens, New York to Beverly Hills. My parents were Holocaust survivors and wanted me to continue my Jewish day school education.

I was the new kid who arrived mid-year. It was January 1971 and I was brought into a new school and a new classroom in the middle of the year. I remember interrupting Mr. Solomons class as the principal (Rabbi Gottesman) brought me in to introduce the new student. Immediately, Mr. Solomon welcomed me and hand-picked one of his favorite students, Shirley Davidov, and literally put us together and said, in front of the whole class, You two will be friends. Sure enough, that day changed the course of my life. I was the only child of Holocaust survivors who immediately had an instant friend, whose large wonderful family embraced me, making sure I always felt loved and nourished. Shirley was my maid of honor at my wedding and I too was in hers. Mr. Solomon, through his act of kindness by looking out for the new girl, set my path to feeling held, safe and part of an extended beautiful family.

Lili Bosse, Mayor, City of Beverly Hills

I met Dr. Shlomo Bardin as a camper at Camp Alonim in 1960. For the next sixteen years until his death in 1976, I sat at his feet learning what it meant to be a Jewish educator. I learned that creating meaning was far more important than measuring. I learned that teachers must first touch the souls of their students, and only then would and could the children learn. I learned that the aroma of challah baking on Friday afternoon, singing around the Shabbat table, and a serious understanding of Torah were the keys to teaching my own children, as well as the children of our community. Most importantly, however, I learned that Judaism contained a particularistic and universal vision for humanity, and by watching Dr. Bardin, I learned how to articulate that vision. Not only has Shlomo Bardin left an indelible imprint on my life and career, but also through his vision for Jewish high school education, I helped develop three Jewish high schools in Los Angeles. Indeed, every graduate of Yeshiva University of Los Angeles High School, of Milken Community High School, and of de Toledo High School, can claim Shlomo Bardin as their teacher.

Dr. Bruce Powell, President, Jewish School Management; author (with Ron Wolfson) of Raising A+ Human Beings: Crafting a Jewish School Culture of Academic Excellence and AP Kindness.

The year was 1969; I was a freshman at UCLA. My favorite class was intermediate Hebrew. The professors name was Yigal Yannai, and he was intent upon us learning conversational rather than biblical Hebrew. To accomplish that goal, our textbook was LaMatchil, an Israeli newspaper written in simplified Hebrew. My most poignant memory is when my friend, Tobi (whom I met that year and with whom I remain the dearest of friends) and I were teamed up to pick an article to report on for our final grade; rather than an article, we selected a Moussaka recipe contained in the paper and invited our teacher and classmates to our apartment to experience our final project. Professor Yannai agreed to this plan, which no doubt is what makes him my most memorable teacher ever! Luckily, Tobis Hebrew was better than mine; together we shopped for the then-strange Middle Eastern ingredients, converted the grams and milliliters to ounces and cups, and eventually had a Moussaka casserole in the oven ready to serve as our teacher and fellow students arrived. No one got sick that night, which meant that I guess we learned what Professor Yannai hoped wed learn and then some!

Janice Kamenir-Reznik, Co-founder, Jewish World Watch and Jews United for Democracy and Justice

Her name is Becky Rivka Mark and her subject matter was the great world you could find in books while skipping class. Becky was the librarian at Chorev, the Jerusalem-based school I went to when my family moved to Israel for a spell in the 1990s. To an isolated, alienated young girl in a country I didnt understand, whose new context was wreaking havoc on what I thought was my personality, Becky was an absolute lifeline. She was kind and generous. She recommended books that I continue to re-read to this day, books that showed me that the world was so much bigger than the daled amos mine (four handbreadts a Talmudic term for a small space). She never judged me for bunking off of class and let me hide in the stacks and read and read instead of sitting through another 45 minutes of words I didnt understand. Charles Dickens, Dodie Smith, Shakespeare, Walter Scott shed recommend and Id read and then wed discuss. She never had qualms about hating a famous book you were supposed to like, and that irreverence impressed me deeply. I think about Becky all the time.

Batya Ungar-Sargon, Deputy Opinion Editor, Newsweek

One day in first grade, on a Friday, we had a substitute teacher for Jewish Studies at Stephen S. Wise Elementary school in the 1990s. She was tall and Israeli. I remember that without giving any warning, the first thing she did was to turn off all of the classroom lights. Then she proceeded to speak about Shabbat; and she kept repeating the word Shabbat, in her Hebrew accent, several times. Then, without much introduction, she took us on a journey to her childhood and proceeded to tell us of the sounds and smells of basil and other spices that were used in preparation for cooking meals for Shabbat. After her vivid explanation, she had someone pass out what seemed to be giant pieces of white construction paper and told us to write out a poem about what Shabbat meant to each of us. Her name was Gilla Nissan and I ended up connecting with her later in my twenties. It turns out that she was the parent of a friend of mine who also went to Stephen S. Wise with me; but we only found out when we went to Boston University together. Gilla taught meand still teaches me about Kabbalah, the mystical meaning of each of the Hebrew letters of the alphabet and how to meditate. But it was in that one experience in first grade that Gilla taught me the meaning of holiness, of what it means to sanctify time the meaning of Shabbat.

Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh, Vice President for Jewish Engagement at AJU and Director of the Maas Center for Jewish Journeys; Director of the Miller Intro to Judaism program

It was Steve Hilsabeck who made my senior year at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois especially memorable and important. His class on pop culture taught me that there are many ways to understand American history. You can do it through the study of dates and presidents and wars, but you can also do it through what might wrongly seem like disposable ephemera. Ive taken the lessons he taught in that class and turned them into a lifetime of diversion and study. He was a great charismatic teacher who never treated you like a kid but always like a person.

Rich Cohen, New York Times bestselling author, The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: Worlds Greatest Negotiator

From first grade growing up in Brookline, Massachusetts, Miss McQuaid taught with her feet as she moved around the class and made each of us feel special, and each of us couldnt wait to get to school every morning. I remember my Professor, Dr. Samuel Sandmel, at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, an International Scholar in the New Testament. His book, We Jews and Jesus: Exploring Theological Differences for Mutual Understanding, changed my thinking about the world and I set my lifes path to reach out around the world, being involved in the interfaith movement. This led me to my lifelong relationship with Rev. Jesse Jackson, as my teacher and mentor.

Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Ret. civil rights and human rights activist

We had moved to Montreal a couple years earlier from Morocco. I had fallen in love with English. I was determined to master the language. In grade six, I hit the jackpot with Mrs. Cleland, my all-time favorite teacher. She smoked and wore lots of make-up, and would spend extra time with me after class to teach me how to roll my Rs, among other things. OK, guilty as charged: I was the teachers pet. On Monday mornings, I would often ask her about a word I heard at a sermon that Shabbat. It was an Ashkenazi shul across from where we lived (either Adath Israel or Young Israel I cant remember). One Monday, after telling her that the sermon that week was especially good, I asked her what the rabbi meant when he said multivate. Immediately and without flinching, she replied, Oh no, no David. Its not multivate, its motivate! I will never forget my beloved Mrs. Cleland.

David Suissa, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Tribe Media/Jewish Journal

I can recall when I was in tenth grade at high school in pre-revolutionary Iran and I had a teacher who positively influenced my life: His name was Koorosh (Cyrus in Persian. Iranian Jews respect the memory of Cyrus the Great, so some of their organizations bear his name). And there was also Mr. Mehrdad Mobassery, my chemistry teacher, who now resides in the Los Angeles area. Mr. Mobassery was very young compared to all of my other teachers (he was only 10 years older than me). Since he was young, he brought new ideas and fresh spirit to the class. One of his prominent qualities and skills was his art of communication and how to get the students attention to listen to him. The class was about 50 minutes, but I would not miss a word of what he spoke. It was a mutual collaboration between him and the students; he communicated well and we listened well in return. The most important factor of his teaching was that I could not wait to attend his class because of his empathic and understanding character.

Bijan Khalili, President and founder, Ketab Corp. Publishers

When I met, Rabbi Steve Robbins in 1971 at the Hillel Foundation at the University of Cincinnati campus, the world of Jewish learning finally opened-up. Having sat in Cheder, an ultra-traditional Conservadox religious school in the fifties, I was treated with disdain and disregard. As a female, it wasnt important to really learn, to reinforce my curiosity, to sing or become a Bat Mitzvah. Then I experienced a young man bring Judaism to life for young adults, both male and female, to open-up Torah and inspire us to feel our ancestors pain and joy, to watch the text be mined on multiple levels, most powerfully its mystical secrets, and experience a teachers excitement and energy in sharing text, the content and its inner soul. His teaching transformed my relationship with Jewish learning and became the greatest influence on my own approach as a teacher. Fortunately, he also became my husband and a great mentor in my journey to become a rabbi and cantor. His innovative and pluralistic vision inspired me to see beyond boundaries and tap into my own source of creativity and deep love of Judaism.

Eva Robbins, rabbi, cantor and artist; author, Spiritual Surgery: Journey of Healing Mind, Body, and Spirit

A teacher who shaped my life is Edward Edsall, my tenth grade AP European History teacher at Calabasas High School. Our class started in the fall of 2020, during the pandemic. Despite the fact that we were on Zoom, Mr. Edsalls passion for the subjectand teaching in generalwas evident from day one. He always made class interesting and enjoyable, no matter how difficult the material might have been. Further, he always made himself available to each student, and as we got closer to the AP exam, he went above and beyond by holding morning Zoom sessions for his more than 180 students. He even Zoomed from his car one morning when a family member was taken to the hospital. Mr. Edsall taught me to think deeply and to push myself. He gave me a unique way of analyzing issues and taught me writing methods that I find invaluable. Not only that, but his pearls of wisdom have stuck with me, especially his advice to eat the cheesecake first. Mr. Edsall is one of a kind, and his dedication and enthusiasm will always inspire me to put 120% into everything I do.

Riley Jackson, high school senior in Los Angeles; published author and contributor at the Jewish Journal; founder of Driving with Daisy; Junior Board President at Cancer Support Community Los Angeles and the City of Hope

As I grew up, it was nontraditional teachers who had the greatest impact on my life. When I was 15 years old, I had a painting job with George Ritter, an architect, who taught me more than how to paint with meticulous preparation; he taught me to carefully sand and seal, until the final coat went on like glass, refining my skills with each paint job. From him I learned the discipline of art with an eye for perfection. In high school, I also had a job with Paul Escobar, a janitor, who hired me as his assistant to help him clean the local newspaper and social security offices, where I learned hard work and respect. They believed in me when others did not. They were my first mentors, and they taught me the kind of person I wanted to be. As a father, the greatest joy is seeing mentors like this take an interest in my son. Sam Adler, a classical composer, was my son, Davids, composing teacher at Julliard. He went above and beyond, taking an interest in Davids success. We had never been to Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, or the Lincoln Center before, but it brought tears to my eyes seeing him show up to support David each time.

Bob Hertzberg, California State Senate Majority Leader Emeritus; candidate, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors

Allen Greenberger, of blessed memory, a history professor, found a way to create a class lecture that was irreverent, welcoming, funny, and educationally challenging. The college I attended did not have a significant number of Jewish students or a Jewish Studies division. Professor Greenberger tried to fill this void. He did as much as he could to bring Jewish Studies and culture through creative classes like the History of Yiddish Theater, or Jews in Sports and Memory and History, a course blending history and psychology of the Holocaust. He taught me the value of our history as a Jewish culture through lectures and through action, and how to find ways to share Jewish culture within a system that didnt prioritize it. He taught me that one can be cynical yet remain hopeful that people and the world could be better. I thank him and all the great teachers for their wisdom, patience and care.

Adeena Bleich, Civic and Jewish Community Solutionist

The teacher I want to acknowledge is Tova Eisenthal. She was my seventh through ninth grade teacher in Israel, some time in the nineties. She taught at an Alliance school in Tel Aviv. She was the first person to install in me the notion that I know how to write. She was a literature, Hebrew and writing teacher. Everyone in the class would have to write an essay; we would have a test and she would walk into class and say, The topic that you have to write about is XYZ; Noa, you can write about whatever you want. So she just gave me free hand to do whatever I wanted and instilled in me the notion that I can express myself in writing, which obviously came in very handy, and still comes in very handy. Im extremely grateful to her forever.

Noa Tishby, actor, writer, producer and activist; author, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth

In 1979, I was a freshman at Rambam (the pre-YULA/Shalhevet Modern Orthodox HS in LA). I was placed in the Beit Midrash track for Talmud, and was introduced to serious Talmud study by Rabbi Chaim Shulman, a Talmudist who also had a Ph.D. in Math and Physics. I never had such a brilliant teacher who was also such a kind person. He saw that I loved learning Talmud, so he invited me to study with him on Shabbat afternoons in the Kollel in the Beverly-Fairfax area. Every week he exposed me to new books and the creative world of Talmudic commentaries, and when I open those books today, I can still remember detailed conversations from those Shabbat afternoons. One week I asked to excuse myself early, as I had a Rambam basketball game that Saturday night. I explained that I wanted to be home to change right after Shabbat and then hustle to the game. He understood, but I was concerned that I disappointed him. Then during the game, while standing at the free throw line, I saw Rabbi Shulman standing in the crowd. His presence surprised me and inspired me to play harder. As the final buzzer sounded, he approached me and said Yashar Koach, the traditional phrase he used when praising a Talmudic insight. Rabbi Shulman taught me lots of Talmud, but that night, he taught me what it means to be a rabbi and teacher.

Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Sephardic Educational Center, Westwood Village Synagogue

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Apples of Our Eyes: Stories of the Unforgettable Teachers Who Illuminated Our Minds and Marked Our Lives - Jewish Journal

Rabbi Megan GoldMarche

By Rabbi Megan GoldMarche

Parshat Reeh

As we enter the month of Rosh Hashanah, I get a bit more self-reflective. Both in the lovely thoughtful way and in the self-criticizing judgy way. Am I being the person I want to be?

How many al-heits will I have to say with genuine admonition this Yom Kippur?

While we all claim to not want to be judgmental, we also play the judge all the time, for our friends and family, for ourselves and, for most of us, for strangers, famous people and just about anyone else with whom we come into contact.

This parsha is definitely not anti-judging: We are told we must set up judges in all of our cities, but, of course, it is not just left at that. It is written in Deuteronomy 16:They [the judges] shall judge the people [with] righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show favoritism, and you shall not take a bribe, for bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts just words.

Of course, it would be ideal if we all judged that way but is that really how it works? Is it possible to avoid favoritism? Research shows that we are biased toward people who we like, people like us and people who have been good toward us in the past. We can and should work to eliminate these biases, but they are natural and difficult to uproot.

This leads me to one of my favorite Talmud passages, from B. Sanhedrin 17a:

Rabbi Yohanan says: They place on the Sanhedrin only judges of high stature, and of wisdom, and of pleasant appearance, and of suitable age so that they will be respected. And they must also be masters of sorcery, i.e., they know the nature of sorcery, so that they can judge sorcerers, and they must know all seventy languages in order that the Sanhedrin will not need to hear testimony from the mouth of a translator in a case where a witness speaks a different language. Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: They place on the Sanhedrin only one who knows how to render a carcass of a creeping animal pure by Torah law.

Based on this passage, to be one of the judges we are talking about in the Torah, one needs to be wise, powerful, attractive, not too old or too young, experts in magic, fluent in 70 languages and able to produce a convincing argument that creeping animals, which the Torah states explicitly are ritually impure, are actually pure.

What is this telling us? Basically no one is fit to be a judge. But, of course, we need judges; the Torah just told us we must appoint them.

What does this have to do with me, a local rabbi who recently moved to town to lead Tribe 12, a local nonprofit that connects people in their 20s and 30s to Jewish life and community in Philadelphia today so they will choose to stay connected tomorrow?

I am pretty sure that I am one of the foremost experts in 20s/30s Jewish life based on my work experience. I have been working with 18-39-year-olds to build Jewish community since 2006 and, before that, I was doing the work as a college student at Penn.

And yet I acknowledge that in reality to really know exactly what all 20s and 30s young Jews want and need, you need to be simultaneously 22 and 26 and 30 and 35 and 39. And you need to be single and coupled and queer and straight and white and a person of color and neurotypical and neurodiverse. You need to be Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox and post and non-denominational. You need to come from an interfaith family and a Sephardic family and from the FSU. And I could go on and on and on.

And you can see where I am going. No one person can have all of these traits. And yet we need to do the work of building community for this population and all other populations.So what do we do? We try our best. At Tribe 12, we pay attention, actively listen and then respond, we create diverse offerings, we live in the now and watch for whats next, but most importantly, we are not convinced we are right. We know that what was explicitly impure yesterday may be the purest thing we need tomorrow. We have always been committed to disrupting the ordinary, and we do our best to do it righteously, knowing every day we have a chance to do better.

Thank you for such a warm welcome to Philadelphia and happy end to 5782

Rabbi Megan GoldMarche is the executive director of Tribe 12. The Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in this column are the authors own and do not reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.

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Here Comes the Judge - Jewish Exponent

Sales of recreational marijuana are expected to begin soon on Long Island, another step in the legalization of cannabis in New York for adults 21 and older. This weeks clergy discuss what Scripture says and doesnt say about the drug previously legalized for medicinal prescription.

Rabbi Jack Dermer

Temple Beth Torah, Westbury

The mention in Exodus 30:23 of the aromatic spice kaneh-bosem, which sounds strikingly like cannabis, has led scholars to speculate on the use of the substance during ancient Israelite worship. That historical debate notwithstanding, modern Jews follow the directives of the rabbinic sages on matters of ethics and religious practice. The rabbis in the Talmud remind us that Jews are obligated to observe the laws of the lands we live in. In places where cannabis remains illegal, the majority of rabbis would advise their congregants not to break the law. In states where recreational use is now legal, the question broadens.

If cannabis use makes you tired or lazy, overly self-involved or less likely to contribute to society, then I would urge you to reflect deeply and ask yourself, Is this really worth it? But if cannabis use makes you a more empathetic and thoughtful person, and when used occasionally and safely, it helps you to appreciate all the good that God has given us in this world music, food, loving relationships and nature then I have no issue with Jews using it. Just please, not before service. We dont have enough bagels for everyone to come with the munchies!

Khalid S. Lateef of Deer Park

President and imam emeritus, As Siraataal Mustaqeem Islamic Center, Wyandanch

The highest source for guidance for Muslims is the Holy Quran, which does not mention marijuana, but does address wine as an intoxicant and cautions against getting intoxicated by any means. Quran, Chapter 2, Verse 219, says: They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: In them is great sin, and some profit for men; but the sin is greater than the profit.

Our next source for life guidance is the Sunnah, or sayings and behavior of Prophet Muhammad, in which it is reported that the Messenger of God said: Every intoxicant is khamr (wine) and every intoxicant is haram (unlawful).

The third source of guidance for the Muslims life is the consensus of Muslim scholars. All schools of Islamic jurisprudence unanimously agree that consuming any intoxicant is haram. Finally, the Muslim is encouraged to use logical reasoning. Euphoria is the experience (or effect) of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. This feeling can be achieved through natural means: exercise, music, fasting and religious disciplines. The use of marijuana and other drugs is an unnatural way to feel a sense of euphoria. In short, Islam does not support marijuana use.

The Rev. Earl Y. Thorpe Jr.

Pastor, Church-in-the-Garden, Garden City

While the Bible has many admonishments, codes and teachings regarding personal piety and societal relationships, as with many challenges and questions we face today, there is no specific guidance on recreational marijuana use. However, the Bible always invites us to discernment and deep exploration regarding issues that affect our lived experiences.

The question of recreational marijuana, or any of todays hot-button topics, must be considered holistically and in the context of the Bibles mandate of love and justice. These subjects can never be divorced from their societal relationships and the history of discriminatory laws and enforcement against this countrys poor and minority classes. Too often, we cherry-pick Scriptures to justify our means and desired outcomes on controversial matters. This is terrible and sophomoric theology!

I believe faith is more concerned about justice and the dismantling of power structures that oppress rather than individual questions of does the Bible allow this or that? Therefore, to those considering cannabis use: Please make an informed personal decision. Do not assume that because your faith interpretation condones or prohibits a behavior, that your view should be the law of the land. Instead, allow space for the opinions of others to ensure equity for everyone.

DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS youd like Newsday to ask the clergy? Email them to LILife@newsday.com.

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Asking the Clergy: Your faith and recreational marijuana - Newsday

He asked them Who is called a wise man? They responded to him, The person who sees the consequence of their action. (Babylonian Talmud 32a)

Many years ago I was asked to speak, on short notice, at a symposium in Geneva about the future of the global climate refugee crises. It was an important opportunity, but attending meant I was going to miss my 11-year-old daughter Elianas choir concert, the one for which she had been rehearsing for months. I was crushed, but no compromise was possibleId be on the other side of the globe for every performance.

To my great shock, Eliana didnt care, at least not exactly.

Its okay, dad, she said. If you miss it, you miss it. But do me a favor. When you are here, how about actually being here?

I was stunned, a little hurt, but I knew just what she was talking about. For the past year-plus, Id been wandering around the house, conducting half my business by cell phone, distracted even when I was playing a board game with her. In the great way that children can state a complex thing simply and purely, my daughter had summarized our whole cultures dilemma.

Stuck in a forever state of reactive short-termisman almost obsessive focus on the near futureglued to our devices and grappling with never-ending breaking news and business plans measured in hours and even minutes, weve become too much tree and not enough forest. News about the most recent COVID variant, for example, is a tree. Being part of my kids growing up? Thats the forest. Our short-term addictions, understandable as they are, are obscuring our longer term potentials.

In another story from the home front, my nine-year-old Gideon recently did somethingimproper. Its not important what, but lets just say he wasnt being his best self. When I found out, I flipped out and really read him the riot act.

My wife Sharon pulled me aside and whispered, Ari: Longpath. The word is a mantra in our householdit stands for the deliberate practice of long-term, holistic thinking and acting that, at its root, starts with real, hard-earned self-knowledge. At that instant I saw how off I was. Instead of modeling behaviors of self-awareness to help my son grow, I was reacting, and probably overreacting at that, glued once again to the short-term at the expense of the long-term relationship with my son.

On the highest level, I knew who I wanted to be in that moment with my son, but we are reactive creatures, easily prone to short-term decision-making.

So why is a futurist, who works with multi-national organizations, governments and leading foundations, and whose TED talk has been viewed several million times, writing about conversations with my children?

The future is not just about flying cars, jet packs and robots doing our laundry. Nor is it just about climate change, rampant inequality or the loss of global biodiversity. Taken together, these aspectsgood and bad leave us with an incomplete picture of tomorrows promises and perils.

The huge challenges we face as a society are going to require significant action at a political level. We need to vote at the booth and at the check-out counter in a way that aligns with our values. But that is not enough. Shaping the future also entails doing something beyond the political, something in some ways more difficult and definitely closer to home. Shaping the future towards a world we want to see necessitates that we connect with each otherat the human-to-human levelin a way that has significantly more impact than just how we vote or consume.

How?

Trim tabs. Trim tabs are the small edges of a ships rudder that, although tiny, can make a huge impact on the direction of the ship. The futurist Buckminster Fuller used the metaphor of a trim tab to explain how even small actions could have massive long-term effects, especially when scaled across populations.

Shaping the long-term trajectory of society means connecting with others through a lens of empathy and with an eye on how those interactions will ripple out through time. What makes you a futuristsomeone who cares and wants to shape society towards a better tomorrowis putting your device down when your child enters the room and thinking about how your every action will play out over generations. This is the mindset of a true futurist. This is longpath thinking.

At its heart, the belief in a longpath or longer-term mindset is a Jewish one. After all, were the people who have dragged our story along to every outpostthe people who have waited on and insisted upon a future return. And just as our Passover story promises a transformation that does not happen overnight, the longpath view says that, yes, you can be an agent of change, not just a slave to the current climate, but its going to take some work.

For me, the High Holy Days manifest the essence of a longpath outlook best of all. Rosh Hashanah both reaps the harvest of the past and points us toward our most profound wishes for the future yearbut you cant get there without a Yom Kippur. On this day of teshuvah, which means repentance and return, we understand that to look ahead of us requires that we first look back on the year past and engage in an honest reconciliation with all we have been and all those we have wrongedboth in our own eyes and Gods. Its hard work, but if we do this with an open heart, we have a chance to not only envision a better future, but to participate in creating itfor us and for others.

The longpath view doesnt just look deep into the future, but deep into the past. It holds that you cannot consider the future without transgenerational empathy, a clear accounting of all the preceding generations went through. Then, when you are ready to face the days, months, years, decades and centuries ahead, you must do your future-oriented thinking with future generations in mind. After all, your community and your world will belong to them.

My father was a Polish refugee who escaped the ghetto and lost most of his family in the Holocausthe went on to become a commander in the Jewish resistance. Years later, he used to say, The future really started yesterday. To move through the narrow passages and get to the land of milk and honey, we must adopt a mindset that integrates the far past and the far future.

Transgenerational empathy is not merely a high-flown concept its a practice, a way of taking the future seriously. On our mantel, along with photos of my parents and Sharons parents, and photos of us and of the kids, we have placed a few empty frames, a reminder of the generation to come. Seeing those empty frames is a subtle but persistent reminder that the decisions we make today, as individuals, as a family, as a community, are going to have everyday repercussions hundreds of years from now.

This Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of 5783 in the Jewish calendar. That means were only 217 years from the year 6000. Some say thats the latest time for the messiah to arrive and usher in the redemption. Others insist the messiah can and will come earlier. The real question is: Where do we want the world to be in 6000, and what kind of longpath thinking will help get us there?

To give you a little context, 217 years ago Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, Lewis and Clark headed out on their expedition, Beethoven premiered his Third Symphony and the first steam locomotive had just had its first run. There was no electricity, no cars, no phones, no internet. The United States itself was a mere 29 years old.

Consider what can happen in two centuries. How would you like the world to look in Year 6000 and what are you willing to do to help make it that way?

Its a mistake to think that the people who will be affected will likely not be your people. According to the handy Descendants Calculator, in 217 years, or eight generations, the youngest of my children, 13-yearold Ruby, could have anywhere between 500 and 87,000 offspring, depending on the average number of kids per generation. And thats just one of my three children!

What kind of a world do you want your descendants to live in? What do we have to do collectively to co-create that future?

We dont need the answers this instant, but we do need to start making the small actions and asking the big questions right away.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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When Judaism considers the future, it looks to the past - Jewish Community Voice

Although his formal secular education was limited to attending elementary school, David Sarnoff (1891-1971) combined expert knowledge, visionary business acumen, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a near-maniacal ambition to command a vast radio and television empire. Seizing the opportunity to control the then unfettered airwaves, he created the first coast-to-coast radio network and he transformed the world into a global village.

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Renowned as the Father of American Television, Sarnoff was unquestionably the greatest visionary in the history of broadcasting as he virtually single-handedly developed RCA and NBC into the first great mass-communications conglomerate and singularly pushed the development of television from the initial experiments in the early 1920s to commercial feasibility. His contributions were such that while praising the exceptionally large contribution of Jews to the development of wireless in a 1931 interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, singled out Sarnoff for his work in radio, characterizing it as amazing.

At a time when the standard approach to radio communications was from point-to-point (i.e., from one person to another), Sarnoff was the first person to see the potential of radio as a point-to-mass media where one broadcaster could speak to many listeners, and he transformed radio from an exclusive realm of the transportation communications industry and hobbyists into a media for the masses.

As a young man in 1916, he presented a memo to the head of the Marconi company proposing radio music boxes that could broadcast music, news, sports, lectures and entertainment into peoples homes, but his superiors considered his idea of commercial radio for entertainment purposes to be a hair-brained scheme. On June 2, 1921, he borrowed a Navy transmitter and broadcast the boxing match between the victorious Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier, which drew a then-incredible 300,000 boxing fans listening on their homemade radio sets and essentially launched mass commercial radio. Four years after RCA launched NBC in 1925, Sarnoff became its president.

Under Sarnoffs leadership, RCA and NBC commenced regularly scheduled electronic television transmissions and NBC became the first radio chain in the country. The first broadcast, which he introduced from the RCA pavilion at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair (see exhibit), featured a speech by President Roosevelt (the first electronic broadcast by a president) and was seen by a whopping 1,000 viewers watching on the 200 television sets owned in the New York City region at the time.

Sarnoff was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Signal Corps Reserve (1924) and was promoted to full colonel in 1931. Called to active duty during World War II, he served as General Eisenhowers communications consultant, for which he was decorated with the Legion of Merit (1944) and was commissioned a brigadier general (1945). He was thereafter known as General Sarnoff, a title that he insisted others use to address him.

Born David Sarnow in Uzlian, a small Jewish village near Minsk in Belarussia, Sarnoff spent much of his early childhood as an outstanding Talmud student in cheder and, beginning at a very young age, he sang in the synagogue choir to help supplement his impoverished familys income. His maternal grandfather, Rabbi Privkin, was determined that his little Talmudic prodigy pursue a life in the rabbinate, so he sent young David to Korme to study with his grand-uncle, the leading rabbinical authority of the city. However, though raised in the strictest Orthodoxy, Sarnoff later decided that the constraints of rigid adherence to his faith were unduly onerous, so he turned to Reform Judaism, and his interest in religion in general became relatively unimportant. Nonetheless, he always credited his incredible drive, powers of concentration, keen analytical mind, and ability to overcome fatigue to his early years of Talmudic study.

Sarnoffs father, an itinerant trader, immigrated to the United States and worked to raise funds to bring the family to America. Two days after Sarnoff arrived in New York in 1900 knowing no English, he was selling Yiddish newspapers on the Lower East Side, an endeavor he soon expanded into his first business, a newsstand. Moreover, as a gifted cantorial singer, he continued to supplement the family income by performing as a male soprano in a neighborhood synagogue choir while attending school at night.

When his father died in 1906 of tuberculosis, however, he had to leave school to become his familys sole supporter as an office boy at the Commercial Cable Company. His lack of formal education always haunted him, but it also served to motivate him to achieve greatness: The dread of remaining an am haaretz (a euphemism for uneducated Jew or, worse, an ignoramus) was always under the surface of my consciousness. I jelled in a determination to rise above my surroundings . . .

His employer refused him three days unpaid leave for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and fired him only a few months after he had commenced work. Adding to the familys economic problems, his voice broke just prior to performing for the High Holidays that year and his family was left with no source of income. He joined the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America as a messenger boy and taught himself how to use the telegraph key on his own time. In 1911, he installed and operated the wireless equipment on a ship hunting seals off Newfoundland and used the technology to relay the first remote medical diagnosis from the ships doctor to a radio operator ashore, and he later famously demonstrated the first use of radio on a railroad line, the Lackawanna Railroad Companys link between Binghamton and Scranton.

By 1914, he had risen to contract manager at Marconi, and in 1919, when it was absorbed by RCA, he became its commercial manager. He rose quickly through the ranks at RCA, becoming its general manager in 1921, vice president in 1922, president in 1930, and chairman of the board in 1947. However, it was while working at Marconi in 1912 that one on the greatest legends in communications history was born.

As Sarnoff tells the story, he was alone at his telegraph on April 14, 1912 which he operated for John Wannamaker, who had built a powerful radio station atop his New York store when he picked up a distress call from the Titanic that the mammoth ship had run into an iceberg and was sinking. He was acclaimed a public hero for notifying the authorities, remaining at his telegraph for the next consecutive 72 hours, coordinating the rescue effort, and receiving and transmitting the names of survivors. The story received broad coverage in the mainstream media and was prominently featured by the New York Times in Sarnoffs obituary:

His real first step on the rise to fame and considerable fortune was taken the night of April 14, 1912, the night the Titanic crashed into an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. Mr. Sarnoff had the monotonous job of manager of an experimental wireless station installed by John Wanamaker on the roof of his department store at Ninth Street and Broadway . . .

The young telegrapher quickly notified the authorities and the press, and for the next 72 hours, he sat constantly before his equipment, straining to make out the dots and dashes coming from the Carpathia and other rescue ships. In those days of weak signals, primitive circuits and howling atmospheric interference, it was immensely difficult to receive messages accurately. President William Howard Taft ordered all wireless stations on the Eastern Seaboard except Mr. Sarnoffs shut down to facilitate receipt of messages.

However, there is ample evidence that the entire story is a fiction perpetrated by a self-promoting Sarnoff.

First, even with the worldwide extensive coverage given to the Titanic disaster, there was not a single contemporary account in the media of Sarnoffs heroism and, in fact, he did not tell the story until an interview with American Magazine in 1923, more than a decade after the event took place. Second, the Titanic sank on Sunday night in New York City, when the Wanamakers Department store was closed. Third, the Marconi Company had actually closed the Wanamakers station to prevent it from interfering with its four more powerful coastal stations and, in fact, there was no single wireless operator or station that controlled the air traffic related to the Titanic. Fourth, the telegraph machine at Wanamakers was too small and weak to have received the Titanic signals at that distance.

According to some contemporary critics, what most likely happened was that when the news broke from newsboys hawking special editions on the street, Sarnoff ran to his telegraph station, where he did manage a squad of telegraph operators for the next three days. Many of the very purveyors of the myth have now recanted the story; for example, in a 1987 article in Radio Recall, Catherine Heinz, the former director of the Broadcast Pioneers Library in Washington, D.C., declared that her own Sarnoff 1971 obituary, which had repeated the Sarnoff-Titanic story, was false. Nonetheless, as even a cursory perusal of the internet will show, the fable persists, even though the story has been authoritatively debunked.

Even after abandoning his Orthodoxy, Sarnoff always acknowledged the existence of a governing higher power, but he rejected the idea of hashgacha pratit, the belief in a personal G-d overseeing individuals and the world. He believed that it was futile to discuss whether Jews were a race or merely a group of co-religionists and, in an illuminating 1960 interview with a reporter for The Jewish Journal, he provided an excellent definition of antisemitism and how he saw his responsibilities as a Jew:

The essential Jewish identity is worth preserving because it is an influence that conditions the formation of a better type of human being. Jewish ethics, morality, and wisdom are constructive influences. This does not mean that all Jews are angels, or that they are generally better than other peoples. As we know ourselves, there are bad Jews, just as there are bad non-Jews. The trouble is, however, that whenever they encounter a bad Jew, most non-Jews tend to draw a general conclusion and accuse all Jews of corruption . . . Every individual Jew must therefore assume responsibility for the honor of the entire Jewish people and realize clearly that improper conduct on his part may be damaging to all Jews by encouraging antisemitism.

As a Jew whose lot has fallen to be in the public eye in America, I always remember this responsibility . . . Let us hope that further progress, further enlightenment, and broader humanism will abolish these conditions and bring about a time when non-Jews will cease to make distinctions in their minds between Jews and non-Jews.

Like many people, Sarnoffs interest in Judaism was rekindled when he became severely ill towards the end of his life with a mastoid infection. He sought visits with the rabbis of Temple Emanuel, where he served as a synagogue official, and he found solace in reading the Talmudic passages of his youth in Uzlan and Korme. However, his wife, Lizette Herman, to whom he had been introduced by their matchmaking mothers in synagogue, decided not to bury him in a Jewish cemetery and, instead, he was interred in a Judeo-Christian cemetery in Westchester County.

Unlike William Paley, who sought to hide his Jewish roots, Sarnoff bristled at the slightest hint of antisemitism, always making clear who he was and where he came from. Maintaining that antisemitism was a fact of my life, he believed that his application for a Commission with the U.S. Navy during World War I was rejected because of antisemitism, and he attributed many of his problems at General Electric to antisemitism. He never hesitated to speak out publicly and firmly against anti-Jewish hate, and he refused to accept awards or speak at organizations and clubs with Jewish exclusionary policies.

Infuriated by Nazi antisemitism, Sarnoff began regular travel to Washington after Kristallnacht to meet with branches of the armed forces to plan RCAs integration into the American defense buildup and, in a meeting with FDR in 1941, he advised the president that RCA stood ready to convert its plants to serve the needs of war production. He turned his studios into a training center for civilian defense workers and the cathode rays that he had designed for television became instrumental in radar and other sensing devices used in the war effort. He also helped Jews to escape Nazi Germany to the United States.

The only aspect of the development of radio that disappointed him was having Telefunken of Germany as among RCAs first licensees, thereby giving the emerging Third Reich an early television capability: Very often, the products of science and technology that promise so much for mankind have been perverted to evil uses. Hitler and radio is a perfect case, but I firmly believe that nobody can or should try to halt progress.

In 1952, Sarnoff, then president of NBC, accepted an invitation from Eliezer Kaplan, Israels first Minister of Finance, to come to Israel to discuss building a local vacuum tube factory there. He offered his services to Ben Gurion to help Israel in general, and its military in particular, to establish its own national television broadcasting system. Emphasizing that Israeli television would facilitate the dissemination of the Zionist message and make a major contribution to the ingathering of Jewish exiles, he added that he would assist in fundraising for the ambitious project if Israel would agree to a joint venture between the Israeli military and NBC.

In a July 29, 1952, address at a special ceremony held at his honor at The Weizmann Institute, to which he was elected its first Honorary Fellow, Sarnoff stated that he was impressed by scientific advances in Israel and predicted that television service between the United States and Israel will exist within five years. In a press conference at the Ministry of Communications in Jerusalem, he opined that four strategically placed television stations in Israel could blanket the Jewish State so as to provide television reception across the entire country. Minister of Communications David Zvi Pinkas prematurely announced that the new Israeli government broadcasting center would be dedicated to Sarnoff.

The proposal was enthusiastically embraced by Shimon Peres, then the Defense Ministrys director-general, but Ben Gurion rejected the offer with a terse reply that Israelis are people of the book. We dont need television. Ben Gurions keen opposition to television was likely shaped by his initial encounter with the medium when he visited his sons family in London earlier in 1952. He was dismayed when his grandchildren didnt budge from staring mindlessly at the hypnotizing television images instead of rushing to greet and hug him. He viewed television with contempt as a philistine and anti-intellectual contrivance that would Americanize the socialist Jewish state, promote rampant consumerism, and interfere with the emerging national culture of the young country.

According to Tasha Oren, author of Demon in the Box: Jews, Arabs, Politics, and Culture in the Making of Israeli Television (2004), Israelis were also concerned that television would feminize Israeli soldiers, dumb down Israeli citizens, present anti-Zionist ideas, prevent immigrants from being absorbed into Israeli culture, and jeopardize national security. The Knesset took action to discourage Israeli citizens from even owning television sets by, among other things, imposing a draconian 300 percent tax on them.

Sarnoff ended up not being much of a prognosticator when it came to his predictions for Israeli television, which did not make its initial appearance until 1966 as a part-time educational service for schoolchildren. The first general Israeli broadcast, which aired on May 5, 1968, featured only educational programming and news in the early morning and evenings, with dead air in between. According to Oren, the 1967 Six-Day War played a seminal role in Israels decision to permit national television broadcasts. In marked contrast with the Egyptian army, Israel permitted foreign correspondents covering the war to accompany Israeli troops everywhere and, as a result, Israel became the source of all news regarding the war and the government came to understand the importance of the medium.

In 1949, Sarnoff donated the first electron microscope in Israel to the Weizmann Institute in honor of Chaim Weizmanns 70th birthday and, in 1952, he received the award of an honorary membership at the Institute for his contributions to advancing the science of electronics. Ever conscious of the Holocaust, he implored Israel to create a reservoir of scientific knowledge and talents to replace the great repository of Jewish scholarship and science destroyed by the Nazis. Exhibited here is the original parchment with a dedication from the Weizmann Institute to Sarnoff,

A longtime friend of Weizmanns, Sarnoff later became the first recipient of the Weizmann Award in the Sciences and Humanities at a dinner attended by 1,200 leaders in science, business and public affairs (1966).

Finally, in this February 24, 1963, correspondence on his RCA letterhead, Sarnoff thanks publisher Robert Speller for forwarding a copy of the book The Mission of Israel, which was compiled by Israeli journalist, UN correspondent and Chagall expert Jacob Baal-Teshuva. Essentially a homage to Israel that includes articles, speeches and statements regarding the mission and successful accomplishments of the Jewish state, contributors included five heads of state, four prime ministers, and other distinguished figures, including Jonas Salk, Robert Oppenheimer, Martin Buber . . . and Sarnoff.

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