israeli politics

Since everyone has been writing to me about how wonderful the inauguration was, and some even praised all the Jewish elements in it, I have to put in my two cents  Let me begin with Leonard Cohen’s Halleluja.  Recently Rolling Stone Magazine published an article about the text and how Cohen was including holiness into every aspect of life.  It was a good analysis and may even have shown how someone introduced an element into the ceremony that way beyond the intention.  First off, that art isn’t all that mysterious – but just a measure of putting the right things together.  Secondly, that being a king puts a human being in danger of being greedy and hurting his people.  Third, that only when you’ve been betrayed by a woman and are totally demeaned do you say Halleluja. And fourth, that everything is worthy of rejoicing, whether the divine exists or not.  So even though the phrase Halleluja in Hebrew means “Praise the Lord,” it doesn’t matter what you’re praising.  It’s like what my Rebbe told me when I asked him in the middle of a lession if we’re doing all this work and there’s no God, he thought a while and then said, “Whether there is a God or not, a Jew has to study Torah.”

january 21, 2021 – halleluja Read Post »

israeli politics, my life in tel aviv

First thing in the morning we will be getting our second vaccine.  Because I seem to react to everything with force, I’m not planning any activity.  But I will be glued to CNN and FOX, my eyes on the football bags. 

Israeli politics is much less dramatic.  We were not even told that all our info has been shared with Pfizer. If the whole debate in the US in recent years has been about the right to privacy, we aren’t in the discussion.  

january 19, 2021 – tomorrow – inauguration Read Post »

israeli politics

the only shop I’ve been in for almost a year is the butcher shop (It’s probably not true – we bought some chairs last summer as I recall).  But anyway I needed some bread – and although I usually just order everything from the supermarket, we had to get money from the cash machine and the bakery was next door.  But it has been so long, I couldn’t figure out how to order the bread, and I wound up asking the guy behind the counter to choose what kind and then where I should pay.  I can’t believe how difficult it was for me to maneuver a simple purchase.  But maybe I’ve just got my UTI back again.

The bread, by the way, was pretty indifferent.  And sliced too thin.  And cost too much.

january 17, 2021 – bread Read Post »

israeli politics

i woke up this morning with the strong desire to make a disk.  My efforts with Robert Priest are going very slowly because i don’t have a recording room at home. When i get out, I’ll find a recording studio and just do my part.  But I’d really like to do more interactive work with a group.  I was too young last time.  bare

january 16, 2021 Read Post »

israeli politics

a poem in Yiddish

my grandson likes to quote poems – a while ago he picked up a Russian nursery rhyme from me and I recorded it.  he can still quote it at the drop of a hat, and last week he did an English poem – with great humor and emotion.  Today he asked me to give him a Yiddish one – and i know he needs something short and funny.  So i wrote one.  

דער קאטער שלאפט זיך אפן דאך

ער גייט ארויס אין הגאס ביי נאכט

ער טומעלט זיך ארום א סאך

און שלאפט גאנצענע טעג אך דאך

too late to give it to him, but i’ll bet he learns it fast.

in English it would be

The cat sits on the roof

he goes wandering at night

he raises such a ruckus 

so he sleeps all day on the roof

 

 

 

january 10, 2021 – Read Post »

israeli politics

Ronny Sommek

 

Zoom

 

I count the bears on R’s pajamas   

From twelfth grade listening

To me reading a poem

About ballet shoes.

The teacher T’  in the next square

Missed a hair above the left eye

When she tried to be exact

Plucking her eyebrows

The beard of Teacher Y’

Is more manicured

Than the Gardens of Luxembourg

And the cat on the lap of  H

Deserves an embrace.

D’ judging by his shirt is a member

Of the Nature Conservation Group,

And the flowers in the vase behind him

I identify as permitted to pick.

K’s turtle-neck sweater is black and, she

Looks like the raven in the old Scottish ballad,

And I hope that T doesn’t fix that eagle nose

That really complements her,

And while we’re on the subject of the nose:

The fact that P’ is the ideal

Of painters of Aphrodite

That N’ is freckled

And H’ is too close to the camera.

 

She’s the last to turn off the video

And my eyes suddenly munch on my own

the screen that fills

with squares of chocolate.

 

translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut –

all rights reserved

January 10, 2021 – poem by Ronny sommek Read Post »

israeli politics

Today at my brother’s weekly Mishna lesson we got to this: 

Mishnah 5:18.  Whoever causes the multitudes to be righteous, sin will not occur on his account; And whoever causes the multitudes to sin, they do not give him the ability to repent. Moses was righteous and caused the multitudes to be righteous, [therefore] the righteousness of the multitudes is hung on him, as it is said, “He executed the Lord’s righteousness and His decisions with Israel” (Deuteronomy 33:21). Jeroboam, sinned and caused the multitudes to sin, [therefore] the sin of the multitudes is hung on him, as it is said, “For the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he caused Israel to sin thereby” (I Kings 15:30).

The responsibility of a leader is great.  I don’t know what I would do, how I would sleep at night.   The fact that our leader was supposed to come up for a criminal trial this week, but managed to get it postponed, seems to me to be a very bad example to set.  “It doesn’t matter what you do, but whether you get caught”  is not a good rule to follow.  

 

And to my mind, the responsibility of choosing a leader is no less great in a democracy.  

 

january 9, 2021 – Mishna lesson Read Post »