Texas Jewish Post (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 1, 2020 Page: 8 of 12
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TEXAS JEWISH POST $ SINCE 1947
8 I October 1,2020
Here comes the
Bart & Kimberly
r'
see FRIED, p.ll
Jonah and RBG:
responding to challenge
judge, hy
unanimous vote
Laura Seymour is director of camping services at the Aaron Family Jewish
Community Center.
gestion, she decided to attend
Barnard College — and there she
became one of the school’s Cen-
tennial Scholars. Yet after gradu-
ation, she still had no focus, no
choosing; now, all has culmi-
nated in something she had very
much chosen — to do the best
she could in the profession to
which a long string of unplanned
experiences and a nasty unpleas-
antness had finally led her. Who
can say that God was not guiding
her all the way? Who can say that
hand as she moved into and out
of situations that were more in-
can make a most delicious lem-
onade of them.
y Harriet
P. Gross
By Rabbi
Yerachmiel
D. Fried
By Laura
Seymour
SHALOM
FROM THE
SHABBAT LADY
comes first
in all things; during this home-
quarantine, the four of them
have made masks to give away.
And the shiva for my sister, at
their home, graciously embraced
so many who came to mourn
with Diane and me.
When all of us look back at
our lives, we see patterns of in-
as
Dear Bart and Kimberly,
The holiday of Sukkot is referred to as “our time
of joy” (Siddur, holiday prayers). There is a mitzvah
of joy on every holiday, as the Torah says “vesamachta
bechagecha,” be joyous on your holidays (Deuteronomy
17:14). Sukkot, however, has something unique about it,
as a time of joy which transcends that of any other time
in the Jewish year.
Let’s consider for a moment what brings us happi-
ness. Most people would say that they feel happy and
comfortable in their homes, where they have their nice
furniture, creature comforts and familiar surround-
ings. If that was truly the source of joy, that joy is quite
vulnerable and transient. What if one suddenly lost
their home in a flood? What if someone lost their job
and had to foreclose on their home? As tragic and un-
settling as that would be, Jewishly one would still need
to find a way to be joyous in life. In order to do so, we
must fi nd a deeper source of joy than our physical sur-
roundings. We have been “wandering Jews” for thou-
sands of years, uprooted from homes and communities
with barely the clothes on our backs, but have somehow
never lost our joy for life.
The true source of Jewish joy
is our timeless connection to a
higher Essence. Our connection to
the Almighty has no relationship
to time and place. Thousands of
years ago we had a special connec-
tion to God in Israel with the holy
Temple. Even when we lost both of
those, we retained our connection
through Torah and mitzvot. For
millennia Jews have lived an inter-
connected, yet separate, existence
with our Diaspora neighbors. The
“place” we live in is our Jewish
world, with its own language, customs and loving rela-
tionship to God.
We bring that relationship alive on Sukkot by sitting
joyously in our sukkah. Let’s take a look at the progres-
sion of the holidays of this period of time.
On Rosh Hashanah we “coronated” the King and
“entered His palace,” remaining there, close to the
King, for 10 days. On Yom Kippur we purified our-
selves, transcending food and drink and forging a new,
deep connection. This bond is not of a transient nature;
rather, it becomes part of our very existence.
Sukkot is the time we celebrate that eternal bond.
But it’s not enough to simply celebrate our new relation-
ship; rather, we need to “live” this connection.
suddenly, the prophet of either/or is
confronted by the God ofboth/and.
God is Melech ha-Olam, Sovereign
of All, the God of global concern. In
God, there is no such thing as care
for our own apart from concern for
the other, because in God there is
no such thing as the other. Global
responsibility is the meaning and
purpose of Jewish particularism,
just as particularism is the indis-
pensable foundation of global con-
cern... This is the question of the
book — the question of all time:
How can you be sleeping? How can you rest in oblivious
serenity when the tempest rages about you?
As we celebrate throughout this holiday time, with
all the joy in the coming days, we must remember and
pledge to do all we can to make the world a better place.
Jonah was concerned about himself and his people but
we are all together in this world. Working with chil-
dren and our staff, we ask, “What does making the
world a better place look like? What can I do?” The
answer is different for children of different ages and for
each of us at different points in our lives, but there is
always something we can do. The Book of Jonah ends
with God asking Jonah a question — but there is no
answer from Jonah. So what is your answer? What will
you do in this coming year?
ASK THE
RABBI
[ i
Dear Families,
This past week at the Goldberg Early Childhood
Center, I told the children all about Jonah plus I gath-
ered staff (through Zoom, of course) for learning about
the book in much more detail. What will the children
remember? We never know but one special class asks
me every time they see me, “Show us your socks! ” Yes, I
have an enormous sock collection that requires thought
each day on what to wear. This day I had to choose be-
tween my “whale socks” and a much more important
message about a special prophet today, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg. I wore my “RBG Socks” and talked about her
as an important person who, like Jonah, often had to
stand up and say the hard things people needed to hear.
I told them that RBG wasn’t like Jonah because Jonah
ran away from warning the people. We talked about not
being afraid to take responsibility and so much more.
For my conversation with our J staff, we read the en-
tire Book of Jonah, which is very short and questioned
throughout. My hope is always to make us look at what
we can learn today about ancient texts rather than as-
sume they have nothing to tell us. (“There is nothing
new under the sun” — but we’ll come back to that line
in Ecclesiastes at Sukkot.) If you read Jonah on Yom
Kippur afternoon, think again about what Jonah’s ac-
tions tell us for today. I reached back to an article by
Rabbi Ed Feinstein from 2012 for these words:
By this command [to go to Nineveh ], God is asking Jo-
nah to confront the humanity of the enemy and to discov-
er that the divide that separates him from his enemy can
be healed. Jonah had made a career preaching the hard
choice between particularism and universalism. Now,
t/uVi w&uIa
Columnists, opinion from the TJP F
Last week, I asked for Ruth
Bader Ginsburg to smile upon my
attorney niece Diane, and hasten
her confirmation to a promised
judgeship. And — she did! Less
than a week ago, the Senate met,
and Diane was affirmed with a
100% yes vote. She will now don
the robes of a new position in the
Eastern Federal District of New
York State. Let me tell you about
Diane, the living proof that when
life hands you lemons, the lem-
onade you can make may have
wonderful consequences...
Diane was always an out-
standing student, but had no
idea what she wanted to do after
high school. At her parents’ sug- her daughter, which should come
not too long after this pandemic
is over.
As did RBG, Diane manages
to smoothly navigate all life’s
waters. At work, she’s a superb
purpose. However, sitting around litigator; at home, she is wife
and doing nothing was not her and mother, hands-on all the
way, so she took an entry-level way, with a husband-father who
job at a bank. But before long, she is truly her partner and greatest
was being harassed, sexually, by supporter. Family
one of her co-workers. Instead of
a quick and angry response, she
began a methodical campaign
of complaint, starting with her
immediate supervisor and mov-
ing upward in steps, keeping re-
cords on how nothing was done
by anyone along the way. Eventu-
ally, she reached the bank presi-
dent himself, and told him the evitability. Things happen
whole story. He asked her what they should. I am sure that God
she thought should be done with in Heaven was holding Diane’s
and to those who had ignored
her reports, and she outlined her
ideas. He agreed, and then asked evitable than of her personal
what job she’d now like for her-
self. Her answer: none. She was
going to leave banking, with the
intention of entering law school!
Google Diane Gujarati today,
and you can read all about her
achievements at Yale, and after-
ward. She has kept her maiden
name professionally; her father,
a native of Poona, India, met her Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not smil-
mother — my late sister — at the ing on her now? Life unfolds, and
University of Chicago, where she when it hands you lemons, you
was working on a master’s degree
in education and he was earning
i u
his doctorate
in mathemat-
ics. Each had a
longtime love
of the other’s
culture that
ultimately
united them
IN MY
xvx x in marriage.
MIND’S I Today’s pub-
licity identi-
fies Diane as
Indian-Jew-
ish; I had the
pleasure, a while back, of leading
the Bar’chu from the bima at the
bar mitzvah of her son, and am
now awaiting the bat mitzvah of
Sukkot a deeper source of joy
Dear Rabbi Fried,
Could you please explain what is accomplished by sit-
ting and eating in a sukkah? We understand it is a mitz-
vah to do so and the kids love it, but truth be told, it is
sometimes quite a schlep, both building it, taking the food
in and out, and sitting in the sometimes not ideal weather.
Could you provide some insight which would perhaps add
some meaning?
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Wisch-Ray, Sharon. Texas Jewish Post (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 74, No. 39, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 1, 2020, newspaper, October 1, 2020; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1305762/m1/8/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .