tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/talmud-35202/articlesTalmud – The Conversation2023-12-13T20:53:51Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176562023-12-13T20:53:51Z2023-12-13T20:53:51ZI’m your man: How Leonard Cohen’s life, poetry and song make him a prophet of love in a particularly dark midwinter<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/im-your-man-how-leonard-cohens-life-poetry-and-song-make-him-a-prophet-of-love-in-a-particularly-dark-midwinter" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Leonard Cohen is hardly the first name that comes to mind as a spokesperson for “the true meaning of the holidays.” </p>
<p>As a religious studies scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-of-brian-terry-joness-legacy-of-a-surprisingly-historical-jesus-130582">specializing in the history of earliest Christianity</a>, and a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2279666243993">Cohen fan from a Christian background</a>, I recognize that “festivity” is simply not a word that sits with Cohen — who was always more slyly depressing than holly jolly.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/a-conversation-with-matthew-r-anderson/id1650272494?i=1000637487270">the beloved and late Jewish poet, novelist, and singer-songwriter from Montréal does talk about light, and profoundly so</a>. His words bring a certain bitter-sweetness to the shortest, darkest days of the year in the northern hemisphere, days which coincide with religious festivals involving light. </p>
<h2>Exterior, interior darkness</h2>
<p>Despite wide differences in their celebrations and what they commemorate, <a href="https://theconversation.com/hanukkahs-true-meaning-is-about-jewish-survival-88225">Hanukkah</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/apocalypse-booze-and-christmas-an-ancient-abc-172014">Christmas</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/yule-a-celebration-of-the-return-of-light-and-warmth-218779">Yule</a> and earlier in the year, <a href="https://theconversation.com/diwali-a-celebration-of-the-goddess-lakshmi-and-her-promise-of-prosperity-and-good-fortune-191992">Diwali</a> all feature candles and twinkling lights. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-blaze-of-light-in-every-word-vale-leonard-cohen-68690">A blaze of light in every word: vale Leonard Cohen</a>
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<p>Whether or not these festivals were made for this purpose, they help people cope with short days, exterior darkness and even increased <em>interior</em> darkness accompanying <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/sad-science-why-winter-brings-us-down-but-won-t-for-long-1.2981920">seasonal affective disorder (SAD)</a> and other stresses as the nights get longer headed towards winter solstice.</p>
<h2>This year feels gloomier</h2>
<p>However, while violence never ceases, this year feels even gloomier, with a sharp rise in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/hate-crime-record-levels-toronto-1.7037413">hate crimes</a>, <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/03/controlling-misinformation">polarizing disinformation</a> — some spread by <a href="https://www.routledge.com/American-Evangelicals-for-Trump-Dominion-Spiritual-Warfare-and-the-End/Gagn/p/book/9781032415680">“Christian” nationalists who deny democracy</a> while seeking to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-christian-rights-efforts-to-transform-society-120878">remake North American society in their image</a> — <a href="https://theconversation.com/violent-and-disturbing-war-images-from-the-mideast-can-stir-deep-emotions-a-ptsd-expert-explains-how-to-protect-yourself-and-your-kids-from-overexposure-216405">and with war</a>. (Now we’re starting to sound more like Cohen.)</p>
<p>In reaction to the Israel-Hamas war and its global effects, instead of embracing festivals of light, some are choosing to downplay them. The city of Moncton, New Brunswick <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-city-hall-menorah-hanukkah-francis-weil-1.7046813#">decided not to display their traditional menorah and nativity scene</a>. But the decision provoked a strong negative response <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-menorah-mayor-dawn-arnold-statement-1.7048461">across Canada and globally, occasioning a speedy reversal</a>. </p>
<p>Cohen’s frequent mentions of failure, regret, suffering, violence and mortality make him far more <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6WnnZRSKYs">blue, than Christmas</a>. But I can identify at least four ways Cohen’s life and poetry make <a href="https://www.mqup.ca/prophets-of-love-products-9780228018643.php">him a prophet of love</a> who illuminates these dark times, based on my recent research on religious imagery in his poetry and music.</p>
<p><strong>1. Cohen wasn’t afraid to lean into the fact that, worldwide, people are religious, and religious symbols have power.</strong> Remove religious allusions from Cohen’s writing and you’d lose most of his work. His book titles, from the first <em>Let Us Compare Mythologies</em> (1956) to final <em>The Flame</em> (2018), show just how aware of <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2016/11/leonard-cohen-the-christ-haunted">the near universal symbolic currency of religion</a> Cohen was. </p>
<p>Religion was a handy way for Cohen to talk about sex. But equally true is that sex offered a device for him to talk about religion. For him, these insights were entwined with the sense that each person reflects the Divine. He observed, “I think that everybody leads a spiritual life… in touch… <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Leonard_Cohen.html?id=s8RbAgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">with their own deep pools of divine activity</a>.”</p>
<p><strong>2. Cohen never caricatured religious traditions. He pointed to the richness of many faiths while stating his own positionality.</strong> Cohen knew that understanding others starts with understanding oneself. “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Leonard_Cohen.html?id=s8RbAgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">I would never say anything else but that I am a Jew</a>,” he repeatedly insisted. Cohen’s maternal grandfather was a noted scriptural scholar and his paternal <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9707000/shaar-hashomayim-celebrates-century-in-westmount/">great-grandfather helped found Montréal’s Congregation Shaar Hashomayim</a>. Yet as deeply rooted as he was in Judaism, Cohen’s knowledge of other faiths was both profound and wide-ranging. </p>
<p>In my research I show <a href="https://atlanticbooks.ca/stories/im-your-saint-cohen-and-st-paul-studied-in-prophets-of-love/">how important Jesus was to Cohen</a>, without making the mistake of claiming he was Christian. I explore the profound impact of Catholicism on his childhood. I also note how interwoven through Cohen’s corpus is his decades-long practice of Zen Buddhism, his readings in Sufi mysticism and his study of Hinduism. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/oct/17/how-leonard-cohen-mined-sacred-texts-for-lyrics-to-his-songs">Jewish tales from the Mishnah and Talmud</a>, <a href="https://www.heyalma.com/leonard-cohens-rabbi-reveals-the-jewish-theology-behind-the-music/">kabbalistic philosophy</a>, ancient Christian legends, poetry from Federico Garcia Lorca and Rumi, and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/10/21/498810429/leonard-cohen-on-poetry-music-and-why-he-left-the-zen-monastery">Zen reflections on longing</a>, attachment and nothingness all combine in his work. </p>
<p>As a poet, writer and thinker Cohen abhorred cliché, while leaning into religious complexity and diversity.</p>
<p><strong>3. Cohen respected faith and spirituality but called out religious hypocrisy.</strong> In 1984 he remarked: “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Leonard_Cohen.html?id=s8RbAgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">There’s always the possibility of mystification and manipulation</a> …. There are evil forces in the world ready to imperialize religion but I’m confident the forces of good are stronger.” </p>
<p>These words seem optimistic for the man who also wrote:</p>
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<p>“Give me Stalin and St. Paul / I’ve seen the future, brother / It is murder” (“The Future,” from Stranger Music). </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leonard Cohen’s ‘The Future.’</span></figcaption>
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<p>Cohen himself was not immune to abusing the power that comes with being revered. He was fortunate in successfully transforming his <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201211115215/https:/www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-leonard-cohens-tales-of-seduction-look-different-through-a-metoo/">seemingly misogynist relations with women</a> into lyrics rather than litigation, partly by the complicated and disarming ways he wrote about regret, apology and forgiveness, and partly <a href="https://sharpmagazine.com/2018/11/06/how-do-we-come-to-terms-with-leonard-cohens-legacy-in-the-metoo-era/">through age and death</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marianne-and-leonard-a-new-film-tells-us-little-about-the-woman-fixed-in-the-role-of-musicians-muse-128112">Marianne & Leonard: a new film tells us little about the woman fixed in the role of musician's muse</a>
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<p><strong>4. Most importantly, Cohen used religious stories and images to find common cause with and give courage to others in dark times.</strong> His most famous lines are perhaps from his song <em>Anthem</em>: </p>
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<p>“Ring the bells that still can ring / forget your perfect offering / There is a crack in everything / that’s how the light gets in.” </p>
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<p>Harry Freedman, in <em><a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/leonard-cohen-9781472987273/">Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius</a></em> finds multiple Jewish religious references behind <em>Anthem</em>. I’ve discovered even more. Cohen took on the mantle (importantly, for him a <em>biblical</em> mantle) of recognizing and lifting up the light that can be discovered in, despite, and through human suffering. As I have written elsewhere, “<a href="https://www.mqup.ca/prophets-of-love-products-9780228018643.php">A crack in everything means especially a crack in human beings</a>.”</p>
<p>In his last years Cohen lived into his name <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/cohen">of cohen (priest)</a>. Friends and colleagues of mine who attended his final concerts, some religious, but many <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-spiritual-87236">“spiritual but not religious,”</a> described them as sacred spaces.</p>
<p>Cohen’s lyrics dwell on human failure, regret and violence. Yet according to his musical collaborator Sharon Robinson, <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/sharon-robinson-reflects-on-touring-with-leonard-cohen-194281/">touring became “a type of meditation” for Cohen</a>, and his final concerts ended with him blessing the crowd. Typically for Cohen, who never let a line have only one meaning, the title of the album <em>You Want It Darker</em> refers to both his fans and his God. There is <a href="https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/2315/darkness-and-light-leonard-cohen-and-the-new-cantors-a-playlist-for-the-high-holidays/">both a challenge to the Divine, and acceptance of an end</a>, in it.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Leonard Cohen’s ‘You Want it Darker.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Cohen’s ominous passing, ongoing relevance</h2>
<p>Cohen’s 2016 death on <a href="https://lithub.com/cohen-dies-trump-wins-and-we-will-sing-about-these-dark-times/">the eve of a sharp turn toward hate politics when Donald Trump was elected</a> seems doubly ominous seven years after the passing of the <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/leonard-cohen-remembering-the-life-and-legacy-of-the-poet-of-brokenness-192994">poet of brokenness</a>. </p>
<p>Knowledgeable of many faiths, but observant above all of the human condition; daring the Divine to answer humanity’s sorrows: this is what makes Cohen an unlikely but fitting spokesperson for another dark midwinter season. </p>
<p>My own vote for a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/douglas-todd-leonard-cohen-may-help-us-find-hope-in-today-s-holy-broken-world/ar-AA1izeLe">Cohen holiday favourite</a> might be <em>Come Healing</em>. It’s why Cohen, a man about whom surely no Hallmark festive movie will ever be made, just might be this year’s answer to the darkness: </p>
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<p>“And let the heavens falter / Let the earth proclaim / Come healing of the altar /
Come healing of the name.”</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Robert Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Leonard Cohen, a man about whom surely no Hallmark festive movie will ever be made, dared the Divine to answer humanity’s sorrows.Matthew Robert Anderson, Adjunct professor, Theological Studies, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1861922022-08-12T12:15:55Z2022-08-12T12:15:55ZAn interfaith discussion on the role of religion in mental health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471956/original/file-20220630-16-jlgfm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C60%2C6720%2C3712&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Human connections can help people through difficult times.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/biracial-female-psychologist-hands-holding-palms-of-royalty-free-image/1309449027?adppopup=true">fizkes/iStock/Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religious leaders often try to support the people they serve during challenging times. This supportive role was especially important during the past few years as the nation dealt with a pandemic, social distancing and the loss of more than a million lives.</p>
<p>In a recent discussion sponsored by <a href="https://www.ap.org/press-releases/2019/religion-news-service-ap-and-the-conversation-launch-global-religion-journalism-initiative">the Global Religion Journalism Initiative</a>, academics and religious leaders discussed faith-based mental health counseling, including its benefits and limitations. </p>
<p><a href="https://faculty.txstate.edu/profile/1922200">Natasha Mikles</a>, an assistant professor at Texas State University, moderated the discussion. </p>
<p>Academic panelists included <a href="https://gsep.pepperdine.edu/about/our-people/faculty/thema-bryant/">Thema Bryant</a>, a trauma psychologist, ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and professor at Pepperdine University and <a href="https://brandeishillel.org/winberg">Rabbi Seth Winberg</a>, senior chaplain at Brandeis Hillel at Brandeis University. Publisher and author <a href="https://www.davidrmorris.me/about">David Morris</a> also took part.</p>
<p><em>Below are some highlights from the discussion. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em></p>
<p><strong>Natasha Mikles: Are there times when religion can actually be a source of stress rather than comfort for someone who’s going through a difficult time?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Thema Bryant</strong>: Yes, religion can be used for healing and empowerment, and it also can be used to oppress, marginalize and shame. In psychology, there’s something called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000124">positive religious coping and negative religious coping</a>. Positive religious coping is believing that God is loving and ultimately wants to help, and that’s associated with positive mental health outcomes. Fundamentally believing that God is harsh and trying to penalize me is associated with more negative religious outcomes, and more negative mental health outcomes. </p>
<p><strong>Seth Winberg</strong>: Yes, depending on the person and the circumstances, the faith, traditions and the community that one is living in, faith can certainly be a burden, or a strain, or a source of trauma. But for many people, faith provides a community, a social network, a sense of shared values, a rhythm to life and a common culture that I think is very powerful. </p>
<p><strong>David Morris</strong>: Yes, too often people are given simplistic platitudes about how their loved one is in heaven. But as grief continues, they might be shamed a little bit <a href="https://theconversation.com/pushing-closure-after-trauma-can-be-harmful-to-people-grieving-heres-what-you-can-do-instead-185352">and be told that they should move on</a>. But grieving takes time. There are plenty of examples in religious literature of people in tremendous grief and tremendous sorrow. </p>
<p><strong>Natasha Mikles: What tools can religious professionals use to help people have a more balanced understanding of how their religious tradition thinks about mental health?</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Seth Winberg</strong>: In a page of the Talmud, there’s an open dialogue that rabbis across generations and people of faith across generations are having with each other. And I sometimes encourage students to feel free to try to talk to me or with anyone in that kind of open way – to take the risk of asking questions that we might think we can’t ask and still be a person of faith. I think, because of our modern, maybe American, perception of clergy, people don’t expect contemporary faith leaders or rabbis to be open to that kind of discussion. But that’s <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0103.xml">where Rabbinic Judaism started</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Thema Bryant</strong>: Yes, I think there’s a wonderful role for ministers and other faith leaders to play in promoting and creating space for mental health. And one of the pieces is transparency. I have seen ministers from pulpits talk about mental health challenges, talk about their grief, or talk about themselves going to therapy. That can really open the door, letting our humanity show.</p>
<p><strong>Natasha Mikles: In the past two years of the pandemic, have you seen a change in the types of things that young people are struggling with?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Seth Winberg:</strong> What I’ve observed personally is a kind of suspended animation of young adults’ social, emotional and spiritual development. I think they’ve really suffered from a lack of in-person interactions in a variety of aspects of their lives, but particularly their social spiritual development. It really does something to be physically distanced from people in such extreme ways. </p>
<p>It’s not so obvious what the right faith-based responses are. One of them is just being present with people and being with them as they try to figure it out – not trying to give them answers and biblical verses, but to just let them express that really uncertain feeling. And having them feel that there’s a slightly older adult in their lives that just nods and lets them express those doubts and those questions, I think, can be helpful.</p>
<p><strong>Thema Bryant:</strong> I would definitely agree that a major challenge for young adults has been loneliness and disconnection. Another big piece is around injustice. Some sanctuaries have fought for these issues, but other sanctuaries have not only been silent but have actually promoted really oppressive [ideas]. And I like to say it’s healthy to be outraged about outrageous things. And there are some outrageous things that have been done and said, even in the name of faith and religion. Young people have a need not only for community and companionship, but [support in] addressing social injustices.</p>
<p><em>Watch <a href="https://vimeo.com/718711297/7c787fbe57">the full webinar</a> to hear the panelists discuss the impact of COVID-19 on in person religious traditions, clergy burnout and share more actionable advice for incorporating mental health discussions in faith.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186192/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Academics and religious leaders address the role of faith and community in managing mental health issues in young people and society as a whole.Emily Costello, Director of Collaborations + Local News, The Conversation USThalia Plata, EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1829932022-05-16T19:47:39Z2022-05-16T19:47:39ZWhat is the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463340/original/file-20220516-20-ua0k96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C10%2C6579%2C4436&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai at Mount Meron in northern Israel on April 29, 2021, as they celebrate the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ultra-orthodox-jews-gather-at-the-grave-site-of-rabbi-news-photo/1232595538?adppopup=true"> Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel – which in 2022 falls on Wednesday night, May 18 – until recently has attracted as many as half a million visitors every year. The annual gathering, which takes place at what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520221123/defenders-of-the-faith">Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai</a>, is by far the largest Jewish pilgrimage in modern times. </p>
<p>In 2021, at least 45 people – <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/dozens-killed-in-stampede-at-israeli-religious-festival-11619748818">mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as “Haredim” in Hebrew – died</a> in a stampede when <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/110-years-ago-100-people-fell-from-a-balcony-at-mt-meron-11-were-killed">over 100,000 people</a> gathered in a space meant for only 15,000. </p>
<p>This year, Israeli authorities have <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/admission-tickets-among-changes-for-lag-bomer-at-mt-meron-a-year-after-disaster/">imposed strict new rules</a> to control the crowd. </p>
<p>I have participated twice in the pilgrimage – once in 1994 as a newly observant Jew seeking religious meaning, and again in 2001 as a <a href="https://jewish.cofc.edu/documents/jewish-studies-faculty-and-staff-bios/joshua-shanes,-associate-director.php">scholar of Jewish history</a>. What fascinates me about this pilgrimage is the way it weaves together Jewish mysticism, folk practices and modern-day nationalism. </p>
<h2>Early history</h2>
<p>The Jewish practice of worshipping at the graves of holy men is at least a thousand years old. Many Jews – particularly those whose ancestry comes from the Arab world, called “Mizrahim” or “Sephardim” – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/640490">believe that these saints can act as their advocates</a> in the “celestial court.” They pray at their gravesites for everything from children to good health to a livelihood. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage to Meron, in the hills of the Galilee near Safed in the northern part of Israel, <a href="https://seforimblog.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins/">initially focused on the graves of other holy figures</a> said to be buried there, particularly the early rabbinic sages Hillel and Shammai, whose debates on Jewish law helped lay the foundation for rabbinic Judaism 2,000 years ago. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Jews-of-Spain/Jane-S-Gerber/9780029115749">Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492</a>, Safed grew into an important center of Jewish mysticism, <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/kabbalah-a-very-short-introduction-9780195327052?cc=us&lang=en&">known in Hebrew as Kabbalah</a>. The most important and influential of these mystics was the 16th-century scholar Isaac Luria, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=1174">whose innovative teachings</a> transformed Judaism and changed the course of Jewish history. Under his influence, the focus of the Meron pilgrimage shifted to Shimon, whose burial place was among the many such graves of ancient rabbis that Luria <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=1174">“identified” with supernatural guidance</a>. </p>
<p>Shimon is by tradition credited with the composition of the Zohar, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=6634">the core text of all subsequent Jewish mysticism</a>, though scholars have determined it was actually composed in 13th-century Spain. </p>
<p>Sixteenth-century mystics, and the Jews who follow in their footsteps, are thus particularly interested in connecting to him. They are especially interested in doing so on the anniversary of his death, the day on which the Zohar states he revealed the deepest secrets about God, and pilgrims expect to experience a taste of that revelation. Since at least the <a href="https://seforimblog.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins/?fbclid=IwAR2jQqJFvOdpZl_JuiIlZia5MJR1gyvHrFqiiRkiYmgJkBMMwRKEzP4sjy8">18th century</a>, Jews have widely recognized that date as the holiday of Lag BaOmer.</p>
<h2>The pilgrimage</h2>
<p>The Hebrew name of the holiday Lag BaOmer refers to its date in the Jewish calendar: the 33rd day of the ritual to “Count the Omer.” During this period, observant Jews count the 50 days from the holiday of Passover, which commemorates the exodus from Egypt, to the holiday of Shavuot, commemorating God’s revelation and giving of the <a href="https://www.ou.org/judaism-101/glossary/torah/">Torah</a>, the Jewish holy canon. </p>
<p>These seven weeks of the Omer are traditionally days of mourning, commemorating the death of 24,000 students of the <a href="https://www.ou.org/holidays/expressions_of_mourning_in_sefirat_haomer/">great sage Rabbi Akiva</a> in the second century from a plague, seen as a punishment by God. Only five people survived, including Shimon. Haircuts, music, weddings and all celebrations are prohibited during that seven-week period. </p>
<p>On Lag BaOmer, the restrictions are lifted in accordance with the tradition that on this day the plague ended. <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520221123/defenders-of-the-faith">Mystical tradition credits this to Shimon’s death</a>, which was understood as having the power to eradicate the decree of the plague. According to that tradition, Shimon instructed that the day of his passing be celebrated rather than mourned, and thus was born the celebration we know today.</p>
<h2>Rituals and prayers</h2>
<p>In the 20th century, even before the founding of Israel, the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron grew into a mass event.</p>
<p>Pilgrims light bonfires symbolizing the light of Torah revealed by Shimon, or perhaps the literal fires that the Zohar states surrounded him at the moment of his death. In fact, they are lit not only at Meron, but throughout Israel and the world. </p>
<p>For some secular Zionists it evokes not Shimon Bar Yochai but instead Shimon Bar Kosiba, known as <a href="https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/gallery/yearly_cycle/lag_baomer/Pages/lag-baomer.aspx">Bar Kochba, who led a rebellion of Jews in Judea against the Roman Empire</a> that occurred around the same time. For over a century, the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3641233.html">Zionist movement has glorified</a> that rebellion for its military heroism, despite Bar Kochba’s ultimate crushing defeat.</p>
<p>The earliest pilgrims to Meron <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/640490?seq=1">were mostly Moroccan Jews</a> who arrived in Israel intent on continuing their tradition of graveside visits to saints, convinced of the possibility of magical remedies and blessings through their holy intervention.</p>
<p>Many pilgrims to Meron celebrate the kabbalistic custom there of giving a boy his first haircut, leaving the sidelocks, at 3 years of age. In recent years, ultra-Orthodox Jews of European ancestry – especially Hasidim – have increasingly dominated the site, although all sectors of Jewish society are represented there. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage is one of the only truly widespread expressions of folk religion in Judaism today. As anthropologist <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0228.xml">Edith Turner</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501726033-011">wrote in her classic essay on Meron</a>, pilgrims come to Meron with deep faith in its power to bring blessings to them.</p>
<p>The celebration is an intense, highly packed event that offers participants an ecstatic experience of communing with God in a collective of tens or even hundreds of thousands of fellow Jews. </p>
<p>I can certainly attest to this effect. In 1994, at the start of my journey into Orthodox Judaism, I joined the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron. At that time, the festival hosted many Moroccan Jews, who camped outside the main grounds. Several among them had live animals ready to be slaughtered and eaten to celebrate their sons’ first haircuts. The Ashkenazic Hasidic Jews – <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Hasidism">sects of Jews from Eastern Europe</a> deeply influenced by Jewish mysticism and devoted to their leaders – dominated the inner spaces of the compound. </p>
<p>Everywhere I walked, people offered me free drinks, convinced of the promise that it would bring blessings to their family. Meanwhile, gender-segregated crowds <a href="https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1387837918132195330">sang and danced in unison</a> for hours into the night, creating a palpable sense of euphoria and connection to a collective eternity. Some of us pushed inside to approach the gravesite and prayed for blessings of success, while others pushed to reach closer to the bonfires. </p>
<p>There were several fires, each representing a different Jewish community, although by custom the main fire is lit by the head of the “Boyan” Hasidim, so called because their leaders originally lived in the city of Boyan in Ukraine. It was in the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/what-is-toldot-aharon-hassidic-sect-whose-members-were-killed-at-meron-666808">area of a different Hasidic group, known as Toldos Aharon</a>, that the tragedy on April 30, 2021, occurred. This group <a href="https://twitter.com/moshe_nayes/status/1387889426412544014">can be seen dancing</a> in 2021, just before the tragedy. </p>
<p>By the time I returned in 2001, I had become a full-fledged Hasid myself and was living in Betar Illit, a massive Haredi settlement south of Jerusalem. I recall far fewer Moroccan families camping in tents. But the number of Haredim, joined by Sephardim, modern Orthodox and even secular pilgrims, seemed to have exploded, serving to enhance that sense of eternal community, of Jewish connection across time and space. </p>
<p>I have long since left that Hasidic world, for a variety of reasons. But I do not for a moment discount the very real experience of divinity and eternity enjoyed by Meron pilgrims, and their deep need to return to it each year. </p>
<h2>Political overtones</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bearded men dressed in black and wearing wide-brimmed black hats walk amid a sea of gravestones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a funeral at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva on April 30, 2021, for one of the victims of the Meron stampede.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ultra-orthodox-jews-attend-the-funeral-of-one-of-the-news-photo/1232607694?adppopup=true">Gil Cohen Magen GIL /AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The events leading up to the deadly stampede of 2021 need to be viewed in context of Haredi society in Israel – <a href="https://www.jpr.org.uk/documents/Haredi_Jews_around_the_world.Final.May_2022.pdf">today over 14% of the Jewish population, but growing rapidly</a> – and the power wielded by its leaders. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">granted Haredim extensive autonomy</a> in their education system, military deferments, welfare funding and more. Israel’s parliamentary system, which offers small political parties disproportionate power, has <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/an-israeli-irony-status-quo-erodes-as-haredi-political-power-increases-668034">carefully protected and expanded that autonomy</a> </p>
<p>As a result, Haredi leaders have successfully fought enforcement of government oversight and safety regulations, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/17/world/middleeast/israel-orthodox-jews-haredim.html">from COVID-19 restrictions</a> to the Meron festival. <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">Countless officials</a> had warned that Meron was a disaster waiting to happen. But on the eve of Lag BaOmer last year, Aryeh Deri, then interior minister and leader of the Sephardic (and Ultra-Orthodox) Shas party, said Jews “should trust in Rabbi Shimon.” “This is a holy day, and the largest gathering of Jews [each year].” “Bad things,” <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">he promised</a>, “don’t happen to Jews on religious pilgrimage.” </p>
<p>Similar sentiments were <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-leading-rabbi-thinks-not-studying-torah-is-more-dangerous-than-coronavirus-1.8677335">voiced by Haredi leaders</a> when they prematurely opened their schools in 2020, promising that Torah study would hold the plague at bay. </p>
<p>One hopes that the Haredim and other Israelis will accept government oversight and limits at the site imposed in 2022. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/lag-baomer-pilgrimage-brings-orthodox-jews-closer-to-eternity-i-experienced-this-spiritual-bonding-in-years-before-the-tragedy-160149">first published on May 7, 2021</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Shanes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Jewish history explains why the annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel has such power and meaning.Joshua Shanes, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1777002022-03-10T17:06:29Z2022-03-10T17:06:29ZPurim spiels: Skits and satire have brought merriment to an ancient Jewish holiday in America<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450711/original/file-20220308-13-1rdyqqv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C1000%2C637&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A theater performance during the Purim holiday in Warszawa, Poland.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Purim_spiel_2009.jpg">Photograph by Henryk Kotowski</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-new-yorks-19th-century-jews-turned-purim-into-an-american-party-155197">Purim, the springtime Jewish holiday</a> packed with much merriment and humor, recalls the biblical story of Queen Esther.</p>
<p>In this tale, the queen stayed true to her Jewish roots and used her status to sway her husband, King Achashverosh, to defend the Jews against the sinister plans of Haman, the king’s adviser, who <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-story-of-purim/">had plotted to wipe them out</a>. </p>
<p>In commemoration, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/purim-101/">Jews participate</a> in yearly communal readings of the Scroll of Esther, which is part of the Hebrew Bible canon, engage in gift-giving and host large meals. </p>
<p>A lesser-known tradition is the Purim spiel, a play put on in schools and synagogues that tends to add even more color to a cheerful holiday. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://gratz.academia.edu/ZevEleff">scholar of American Judaism</a>, I interpret the Purim spiel as a carefully curated lampoon meant to allow for a limited amount of public criticism of rabbis and the institutions that support Jewish life.</p>
<h2>A satire on life in religious schools</h2>
<p>The Purim spiel likely dates to medieval times, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/purim-plays-and-carnivals/">borrowed from the annual Carnival festivals of Christian Europe</a>. In the early 1800s, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/lithuanian-yeshivas-of-the-nineteenth-century/4F08A935BE8736FAF81C7CAF584F482C">it took on a new form in Volozhin</a>, which at the time was a small Lithuanian town with a high concentration of Jews. Volozhin was home to the Etz Hayim yeshiva, a pioneering advanced academy for young men where pupils would pore over the Talmud, the classic rabbinic text of Jewish law. </p>
<p>The Volozhin <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/yeshiva">yeshiva</a> set the standard for subsequent Jewish academies in Eastern Europe. It was also the model for the schools that currently flourish in the United States and Israel. </p>
<p>The headmaster of the yeshiva – called “rosh yeshiva” in Hebrew – would <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4zKCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT84&dq=%22purim+rabbi%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQ6-eQyqX2AhUGTd8KHZ-DCOcQ6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=%22purim%20rabbi%22&f=false">shrewdly appoint a “Purim rabbi” each year</a>. The “ordainee” would put on a one-man routine that tended to poke fun of the school’s administration and satirize various aspects of yeshiva life. </p>
<p>One memoirist, writing in 1930, recalled that the leading scholars of his community eagerly anticipated the Passover vacation return of yeshiva students who would recount the musings and humor of the Purim performance that had taken place several weeks earlier in Volozhin. </p>
<p>In most instances, the sharp and witty criticisms were tolerated – if not celebrated – by the schools’ administrations as keeping within the jovial spirit of Purim. After the holiday, the “Purim rabbi” returned to his student status and the rosh yeshiva would once again regain control. New yeshivas in Europe adopted the Purim rabbi tradition to bring up something that might have gone unstated about, say, a poor teacher, the food, or facilities to improve their schools’ offerings. </p>
<h2>Purim spiels in the US</h2>
<p>In time, this custom migrated to the U.S. In major yeshivas in Manhattan and New Jersey, these “‘rabbis’ rule with force on Purim,” a popular Hebrew-language newspaper, Ha-Do’ar, reported in March 1959. The writer was referring to the Purim spiel tradition that had become significantly ensconced in American Judaism. </p>
<p>The standup routine evolved into an ensemble production in the post-World War II period, perhaps because of the rise of television sitcoms, the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/timelines/1943-1959/">golden age</a> of Broadway musicals, and, in the <a href="https://www.insider.com/vintage-1970s-photos-saturday-night-live-2020-9">1970s, the advent of “Saturday Night Live</a>.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451040/original/file-20220309-27-1wg4a6s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white cartoon of a man in uniform standing on a stool, holding a sword in one hand while dropping a die from the other, with other caricatured characters stand next to him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451040/original/file-20220309-27-1wg4a6s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451040/original/file-20220309-27-1wg4a6s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451040/original/file-20220309-27-1wg4a6s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451040/original/file-20220309-27-1wg4a6s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451040/original/file-20220309-27-1wg4a6s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451040/original/file-20220309-27-1wg4a6s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451040/original/file-20220309-27-1wg4a6s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A cartoon depicting the Purim spiel from the 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dan_Levkovitch_07.jpg">Dan LevkovitchIsareli/The Israeli Cartoon Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As seen in copies of scripts held in archives, in 1963, rabbinical students at Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, which had recently moved to the northern Chicago suburb, produced parodies titled “North Side Story.” The following year, HTC humorists wrote “Bye Bye Beardie” to vent frustrations over the many draft dodgers who enrolled in the school primarily to avoid the draft rather than to study for the rabbinate. </p>
<p>Purim spiels paved inroads to the Conservative and Reform ranks, as well. Isaac Klein, an important Conservative rabbi, <a href="https://library.buffalo.edu/archives/collections/detail.html?ID=110">kept a notebook that he labeled “Purim Thora</a>” that preserved many witty lines – mostly in Yiddish and Hebrew – that he employed in his years at the Jewish Theological Seminary. </p>
<p>The Reform students and faculty at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati routinely laughed aloud as its young men performed Purim satires that <a href="http://prestohost54.inmagic.com/Presto/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=ZGU2OTc5Y2UtNjY0Yy00MzUyLWFlMzUtNWExZDQ3YTNhNjQz&rID=Mjc1NDY=&qrs=RmFsc2U=&q=cHVyaW0gc3BpZWw=&ph=VHJ1ZQ==&bckToL=VHJ1ZQ==&rrtc=VHJ1ZQ==">caricatured noted figures</a> such as the American Zionist leader Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver and Hebrew Union College President Julian Morgenstern. </p>
<h2>A reflection of Jewish self-confidence</h2>
<p>The rise of Purim spiels in yeshivas and rabbinical seminaries put congregations on notice. <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2034/Waxman--The_Old-Fashioned_Purim_Spiel.pdf?1646773090">Rabbi Mordecai Waxman</a>, a young Conservative rabbi, hoped aloud in the pages of Boston’s Jewish Advocate in 1940 that “the Purim-spiel is now a thing of the past.”</p>
<p>Waxman was part of a rising generation that had labored mightily to improve decorum in their synagogues. The slapstick and lowbrow tone of the Purim plays did not agree with Waxman’s vision for the American synagogue.</p>
<p>Other pulpit rabbis developed a thicker skin. In 1954, the <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2035/YI_Prakim.pdf?1646776377">Orthodox Union</a> included a Purim spiel script composed by the amateur comedians of the Young Israel of Flatbush – replete with generic barbs and jabs at rabbis and lay officers – in its monthly program manual for synagogue activity. </p>
<p>With the permission of campus rabbis, Jewish undergraduates circulated routines for coeds on other college quads to merrily use on Purim. </p>
<p>The rise of the Purim spiel in America, then, can be understood as a measuring stick of Jewish self-confidence in the New World. The most self-assured religious leaders welcomed it as a once-a-year occasion for controlled comedic chaos and rabbinic introspection. It was meant to help glean insight from the wisdom of young people and others, predicated on the belief that things would return to normal on the other side of Purim. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zev Eleff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Jewish holiday of Purim, being celebrated on March 17 this year, has an interesting tradition of satirizing life in yeshivas.Zev Eleff, President and Professor of American Jewish History, Gratz CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1694982021-12-14T13:28:44Z2021-12-14T13:28:44ZOrthodox Jewish women’s leadership is growing – and it’s not all about rabbis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436182/original/file-20211207-25-626kka.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=120%2C130%2C6589%2C4335&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opportunities are expanding for Orthodox Jewish women to formally study Jewish texts. This event in Jerusalem celebrated women who completed the 7 1/2-year cycle of daily study of the Talmud.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More Orthodox Jewish women around the world are following the path of ordination, though controversy over female rabbis continues in most Orthodox circles. But as more and more Orthodox women are showing, ordination is not the only route to religious leadership. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/people/core-faculty">Jewish Studies professor</a> who researches gender and religious authority, I have spent five years <a href="https://www.associationforjewishstudies.org/publications-research/ajs-perspectives/the-body-issue/orthodox-female-clergy-embodying-religious-authority">interviewing and observing</a> Orthodox women who have been <a href="https://www.fsrinc.org/searching-for-a-usable-past/">ordained</a>. I have also spent several years researching the expansion of women’s leadership roles outside the rabbinate, and the growing acceptance of their authority.</p>
<p>Just a decade ago, only a handful of women had been ordained by Orthodox rabbis – decades after their peers in more liberal Jewish denominations. But in 2013, the “stained-glass ceiling” blocking women’s leadership shattered, as the first group of female rabbinical students graduated from a New York seminary called <a href="https://www.yeshivatmaharat.org/">Yeshivat Maharat</a>.</p>
<p>Today, almost 50 Orthodox women have been ordained at Yeshivat Maharat. But other roles for women are growing and changing more quickly, with many serving as guides to Jewish law, professionally trained rabbis’ wives and congregational scholars. </p>
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<h2>Yoatzot halacha: Female religious guides</h2>
<p>Yoatzot halacha, who are “advisers” or “guides” to Jewish law (halacha), are women who have studied Jewish legal texts on topics such as sexuality, intimacy, pregnancy, birth and what Orthodox Judaism calls “<a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-laws-of-niddah/">family purity” laws</a>, which deal with menstruation. They also provide counseling to Jewish women about a variety of issues related to marriage, relationships, sex and reproduction.</p>
<p>Training for yoatzot halacha, or yoatzot for short, began in 1997 at <a href="https://www.yoatzot.org/home/">the Nishmat program</a> in Israel. Graduates answer questions posed on the phone or <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315818597-8/yoatzot-halacha-ruling-internet-one-question-time-michal-raucher">online</a>. When the first class graduated in 1999, many of them began working on the yoatzot hotline. Today, Nishmat’s yoatzot have answered <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/465818/summary">over 100,000 questions</a>.</p>
<p>Many yoatzot work in <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/G/bo43631171.html">communities</a> in the U.S., the U.K. and Israel. They can authoritatively answer questions about the laws of <a href="https://www.mikvah.org/overview">Taharat Hamishpacha</a>, or “family purity,” and teach classes about them. Some yoatzot are hired by individual synagogues, while others are employed by a community, with their salary paid by multiple synagogues.</p>
<p>Yoatzot and their advocates make it clear that they are not rabbis and often define their authority as focusing on the laws of family purity. Yet they present an <a href="https://doi.org/10.2979/nashim.22.162">alternative mode of legal decision-making</a> on these issues that sometimes cut ordained rabbis out of the picture.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315818597-8/yoatzot-halacha-ruling-internet-one-question-time-michal-raucher">my own research</a>, I’ve seen how the way yoatzot provide answers differs from a rabbi. When yoatzot answer questions about family purity, they answer based on their understanding of Jewish law as well as their own personal experiences observing these laws. It is precisely this expertise and empathy that <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv102bg0n.13">draw Orthodox women to turn to yoatzot</a> and not rabbis. </p>
<p>Yoatzot also answer questions brought <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315818597-8/yoatzot-halacha-ruling-internet-one-question-time-michal-raucher">anonymously</a> through the website, which is a significant shift from how rabbis are used to answering legal questions one on one. They might also engage in <a href="https://www-jstor-org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/j.ctv102bg0n?turn_away=true">longer conversations</a> about marital happiness and sexual satisfaction. </p>
<h2>The professionalization of the rebbetzin</h2>
<p>For generations, the closest women could come to being religious leaders <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814786901/the-rabbis-wife/">was to marry them</a> instead. But in recent years, the role of the rabbi’s wife, called a rebbetzin, has become more professionalized, with formal training and institutional authority – as is true of many <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179612/the-preachers-wife">Christian preachers’ wives</a>, as well.</p>
<p>The Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus has placed rabbinic couples on more than 20 college campuses in North America to mentor, teach and guide Jewish students. The program says it trains Orthodox rabbis and their wives to help Orthodox students on secular campuses “<a href="https://oujlic.org/about/#methodology">balance their Jewish commitments with their desire to engage the secular world</a>.” Husbands’ positions are full time, while their wives’ are part time. They receive distinct training and <a href="https://oujlic.org/careers/responsibilities-benefits-ou-jlic-educator/">are paid separately</a>. </p>
<p>Even ultra-Orthodox rebbetzins formally serve as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2015.1005877">outreach activists</a> to non-Orthodox Jews. Often, young couples will receive training for their future roles while living in Jerusalem for several years. The organization <a href="https://nerleelef.com/">Ner LeElef</a>, for example, trains men and women separately in the skills they will need as outreach activists. Women’s positions include traditional women’s tasks like cooking and hosting guests, as well as teaching classes and recruiting unaffiliated Jews into the ulta-Orthodox movement.</p>
<p>Many ultra-Orthodox rebbetzins leverage the <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1353/sho.2020.0023">internet</a> to further their outreach. Women refer to their roles as one of <a href="https://www.thelehrhaus.com/commentary/yeshivish-women-clergy-the-secular-state-and-changing-roles-for-women-in-ultra-orthodoxy/">spiritual leadership</a>, not “clergy.” This term is meant to distinguish them from rabbis while simultaneously creating a unique leadership position.</p>
<h2>Congregational scholars</h2>
<p>Finally, Orthodox women have benefited from an increase in opportunities for them to study rabbinic texts, particularly <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/talmud-101/">the Talmud</a>, which is often seen as a <a href="https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/next-year-i-will-know-more">catalyst for their religious leadership</a>.</p>
<p>The first women’s seminary opened in <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/R/T/au43630589.html">Israel in the 1980s</a>, and since then, Orthodox women have had several more options for advanced Talmud study in the U.S. and Israel. Of note is the <a href="https://drisha.org/scholars-circle/">Drisha Scholars Circle</a>, which until 2014 educated women in the same material that men would study for <a href="https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/60930">ordination</a>. Yeshiva University in New York has been offering students a similar opportunity for advanced Talmud study through the <a href="https://www.yu.edu/gpats">Graduate Program in Advanced Talmud Studies for Women</a>.</p>
<p>Women who have received this high level of religious education have also been holding positions of leadership in synagogues.</p>
<p>Take <a href="https://www.lss.org/meet-our-clergy.html">Lincoln Square Synagogue</a> in New York, which has a history of pushing boundaries regarding women’s involvement in synagogue ritual. In the early 1970s, it was among the <a href="https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/a-pioneer-at-age-12/">first Orthodox synagogues in New York</a> to hold a bat mitzvah, the girls’ version of a coming-of-age ceremony that was traditionally only available to boys. In the late 1990s, Lincoln Square Synagogue hired its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/06/nyregion/unusual-but-not-unorthodox-causing-stir-2-synagogues-hire-women-assist-rabbis.html?pagewanted=all">first female congregational intern</a>, and has had several since – many of whom completed advanced Talmud studies for women or had Ph.D.s in Jewish Studies.</p>
<p>Other Orthodox women with Ph.D.s serve in positions of congregational leadership elsewhere. Dr. <a href="https://www.thedowntownminyan.com/who-we-are">Mijal Biton</a>, for example, is not ordained but is the Rosh Kehilla, or “head of the community,” of The Downtown Minyan in New York.</p>
<p>As they offer classes and answer questions for women, female religious leaders are creating a new cadre of educated Orthodox women. Jewish philanthropies, meanwhile, are <a href="https://www.jofa.org/devorah-scholars">investing in women as congregational leaders</a> in order to inspire the next generation. Together, they are formalizing new spaces for women within the Orthodox Jewish community and changing how girls in their communities see their own potential.</p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169498/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michal Raucher has received funding from the American Academy of Religion, the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, and the University of Cincinnati for her research on Orthodox women rabbis. She also received payment from Leading Edge for a report on Orthodox women's leadership. </span></em></p>Religious leadership roles for Orthodox Jewish women are expanding, including community scholars and guides on Jewish law.Michal Raucher, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1672412021-09-07T12:53:44Z2021-09-07T12:53:44ZWhen does life begin? There’s more than one religious view<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419172/original/file-20210902-27-p91yt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=99%2C0%2C5866%2C4010&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People protest in Texas after the governor signed a bill to outlaw abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-march-toward-the-governors-mansion-at-a-protest-news-photo/1233171885?adppopup=true">Sergio Flores/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The most restrictive abortion law in the country went into effect on Sept. 1, 2021, after the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21053670-whole-womans-health-v-jackson">voted 5-4</a> to deny an emergency appeal. In Texas, abortions are now illegal as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — before many women and girls know they are pregnant.</p>
<p>To date, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-laws-government-and-politics-health-77c9ba98c4f4ab46fdbd5bcc47b5b938">13 other states</a> have passed laws establishing this six-week limit, but they face court challenges for state interference in women’s constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/18/texas-heartbeat-bill-abortions-law/">Texas got around that problem</a> by forbidding state officials from enforcing it. Instead, the state authorized private citizens to sue anyone who helps these women — family members, rape crisis counselors, medical professionals — and promises at least US$10,000 plus attorneys’ fees if they win. Opponents have dubbed it the <a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/planned-parenthood-seeks-immediate-restraining-order-against-texas-right-to-life">“sue thy neighbor”</a> law.</p>
<p>These so-called heartbeat bills outlaw abortion after an embryo’s cardiac activity can be detected – generally around six weeks – although <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/05/abortion-doctors-fetal-heartbeat-bills-language-misleading">many doctors</a> argue that <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/the-fetal-heartbeat-that-can-be-detected-at-6-weeks-isn-t-quite-what-we-think">the idea of a heartbeat</a> at this stage is misleading since the embryo does not yet have a developed heart.</p>
<p>In addition, these laws generally refer to the fetus as an “<a href="https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess124_2021-2022/bills/1.htm">unborn human individual</a>.” These are strategic choices designed to muster support for the idea of <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-personhood-movement-timeline">fetal personhood</a>, but they also reveal assumptions about human life beginning at conception that are based on particular Christian teachings.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/in-texas-reproductive-freedom-congregations-catch-on-as-new-abortion-law-looms/2021/08/25/851b2a78-05fb-11ec-b3c4-c462b1edcfc8_story.html">Not all Christians agree</a>, and <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2017/04/when-does-life-begin-outside-the-christian-right-the-answer-is-over-time.html">diverse religious traditions</a> have a great deal to say about this question that gets lost in the polarized “pro-life” or “pro-choice” debate. As an advocate of reproductive justice, I have taken a side. Yet as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9KgEkVUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of Jewish Studies</a>, I appreciate how rabbinic sources grapple with the complexity of the issue and offer <a href="https://forward.com/life/faith/406465/what-youre-getting-wrong-about-abortion-and-judaism/">multiple perspectives</a>. </p>
<h2>What Jewish texts say</h2>
<p>Traditional Jewish practice is based on careful reading of biblical and rabbinic teachings. The process yields <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Halakha">“halakha,”</a> generally translated as “Jewish law” but deriving from the Hebrew root for walking a path. </p>
<p>Even though many Jews do not feel bound by halakha, the value it attaches to ongoing study and reasoned argument fundamentally shapes Jewish thought. </p>
<p>The majority of foundational Jewish texts assert that a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=xh9vy_dvO6YC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=absence%20of%20the%20%22full%20person%22%20status&f=false">fetus does not attain the status of personhood until birth</a>.</p>
<p>Although the Hebrew Bible does not mention abortion, it does talk about miscarriage in Exodus <a href="https://www.biblestudytools.com/rsv/exodus/21.html">21:22-25</a>. It imagines the case of men fighting, injuring a pregnant woman in the process. If she miscarries but suffers no additional injury, the penalty is a fine. </p>
<p>Since the death of a person would be murder or manslaughter, and carry a different penalty, most rabbinic sources deduce from these verses that a fetus has a different status. </p>
<p>An early, authoritative rabbinic work, the Mishnah, discusses the question of a <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Oholot.7.6?lang=bi">woman in distress during labor</a>. If her life is at risk, the fetus must be destroyed to save her. Once its head starts to emerge from the birth canal, however, it becomes a human life, or “<em>nefesh</em>.” At that point, according to Jewish law, one must try to save both mother and child. It prohibits setting aside one life for the sake of another.</p>
<p>Although this passage reinforces the idea that a fetus is not yet a human life, <a href="http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2010/No.%202/Abortion%20in%20Halakhic.pdf">some Orthodox authorities</a> allow abortion only when the mother’s life is at risk. </p>
<p>Other Jewish scholars point to a different Mishnah passage that imagines a case of a pregnant woman <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Arakhin.1.4?lang=bi">sentenced to death</a>. The execution would not be delayed unless she has already gone into labor.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Traditional Jewish practice, or halakha, is based on careful reading of biblical and rabbinic teachings, like the Talmud.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Talmud_Set.png">User:Magister Scienta</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>In the <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Talmud">Talmud</a>, an extensive collection of teachings building on the Mishnah, the rabbis suggest that the ruling is obvious because the fetus is <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Arakhin.7a?lang=bi">part of her body</a>. It also records an opinion that the fetus should be aborted before the sentence is carried out so that the woman does <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Birth_Control_in_Jewish_Law/ZWQ0iIOUnaUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=precedent-narrative">not suffer further shame</a> – establishing the needs of the woman as a factor in considering abortion.</p>
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<h2>Making space for divergent opinions</h2>
<p>These teachings represent only a small fraction of Jewish interpretations. To discover “what Judaism says” about abortion, the standard approach is to <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/58044.26?lang=bi">study a variety of contrasting texts</a> that explore diverse perspectives.</p>
<p>Over the centuries, rabbis have addressed cases related to potentially deformed fetuses, pregnancy as the result of rape or adultery, and other heart-wrenching decisions that women and families have faced. </p>
<p>In contemporary Jewish debate there are <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rIhh_Rx7utwC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=%22The+murder+of+an+unborn+child+is+classified+as+a+crime%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=GDVR3Ndm4V&sig=HIMz-n5TMbuAfO-joplDqYphCwc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjk5aCm5YDcAhVkrlkKHU7yAy0Q6AEIKTAA">stringent opinions</a> adopting the attitude that abortion is homicide – thus permissible only to save the mother’s life. And there are <a href="http://rcrc.org/jewish/">lenient interpretations</a> broadly expanding justifications based on a women’s well-being.</p>
<p>Yet the former usually cite contrary opinions, or even refer a questioner to inquire elsewhere. The latter still emphasize Judaism’s profound reverence for life.</p>
<p>According to a 2017 Pew survey, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/22/american-religious-groups-vary-widely-in-their-views-of-abortion/">83% of American Jews</a> believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abortion-in-jewish-thought/">All the non-Orthodox movements</a> have statements supporting reproductive rights, and even <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abortion-in-jewish-thought/">ultra-Orthodox leaders</a> have resisted anti-abortion measures that do not allow religious exceptions. </p>
<p>This broad support, I argue, reveals the <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/393168/why-are-jews-so-pro-choice/">Jewish commitment to the separation of religion and state</a> in the U.S., and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0748081400001387">reluctance to legislate</a> moral questions for everyone when there is much room for debate.</p>
<p>There is more than one religious view on abortion.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-more-than-one-religious-view-on-abortion-heres-what-jewish-texts-say-116941">an article</a> originally published on May 19, 2019.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Mikva has contributed to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Planned Parenthood.</span></em></p>‘Heartbeat’ abortion laws like the one enacted in Texas are often based on particular Christian views, but there are many religious perspectives on abortion. What do Jewish texts say?Rachel Mikva, Professor of Jewish Studies, Interim Academic Dean and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Chicago Theological SeminaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1601492021-05-07T12:44:22Z2021-05-07T12:44:22ZLag BaOmer pilgrimage brings Orthodox Jews closer to eternity – I experienced this spiritual bonding in years before the tragedy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399048/original/file-20210505-15-1fgken9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C5%2C3453%2C2305&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A condolence message and candles for the victims of a stampede during a Jewish ultra-Orthodox mass pilgrimage to Mount Meron, projected on a wall of Jerusalem's Old City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/may-2021-israel-jerusalem-a-condolence-message-and-candles-news-photo/1232635524?adppopup=true">Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The annual Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Mount Meron in Israel attracts as many as half a million visitors every year. Because of COVID-19, this year’s event was less crowded, but even so, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/110-years-ago-100-people-fell-from-a-balcony-at-mt-meron-11-were-killed">over 100,000 people</a> were packed into a space with a capacity for perhaps 15,000. This <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/dozens-killed-in-stampede-at-israeli-religious-festival-11619748818">overcrowding reportedly</a> contributed to the recent tragedy, in which at least 45 people, mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews known as “Haredim” in Hebrew, died in a stampede. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1387912885821755399"}"></div></p>
<p>This is by far the largest pilgrimage of Jews to what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520221123/defenders-of-the-faith">Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai</a>.</p>
<p>I have participated twice in the pilgrimage – once in 1994 as a newly observant Jew seeking religious meaning, and again in 2001 as a <a href="https://jewish.cofc.edu/documents/jewish-studies-faculty-and-staff-bios/joshua-shanes,-associate-director.php">scholar of Jewish history</a>. What fascinates me about this pilgrimage is the way it weaves together Jewish mysticism, folk practices and modern-day nationalism. </p>
<h2>Early history</h2>
<p>The Jewish practice of worshipping at the graves of holy men is at least a thousand years old. Many Jews – particularly those whose ancestry comes from the Arab world, called “Mizrahim” or “Sephardim” – <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/640490">believe that these saints can act as their advocates</a> in the “celestial court.” They pray at their gravesites for everything from children to good health to a livelihood. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage to Meron, in the hills of the Galilee near Safed in the northern part of Israel, <a href="https://seforimblog.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins/">initially focused on the graves of other holy figures</a> said to be buried there, particularly the early rabbinic sages Hillel and Shamai, whose debates on Jewish law helped lay the foundation for rabbinic Judaism 2,000 years ago. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Jews-of-Spain/Jane-S-Gerber/9780029115749">Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492</a>, Safed grew into an important center of Jewish mysticism, <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/kabbalah-a-very-short-introduction-9780195327052?cc=us&lang=en&">known in Hebrew as Kabbalah</a>. The most important and influential of these mystics was the 16th-century scholar Isaac Luria, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501726033-011">whose innovative teachings</a> transformed Judaism and Jewish history. Under his influence, the focus of the Meron pilgrimage shifted to Shimon, whose burial place was among the many such graves of ancient rabbis that Luria <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=1174">“identified” with supernatural guidance</a>. </p>
<p>Shimon is by tradition credited with the composition of the Zohar, <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=6634">the core text of all subsequent Jewish mysticism</a>, though scholars have determined it was actually composed in 13th-century Spain. </p>
<p>Sixteenth-century mystics, and the Jews who follow in their footsteps, are thus particularly interested in connecting to him. They are especially interested in doing so on the anniversary of his death, when the Zohar states he revealed the deepest secrets about God, and pilgrims expect to experience a taste of that revelation. Since at least the <a href="https://seforimblog.com/2011/05/printing-mistake-and-mysterious-origins/?fbclid=IwAR2jQqJFvOdpZl_JuiIlZia5MJR1gyvHrFqiiRkiYmgJkBMMwRKEzP4sjy8">18th century</a>, that date has been accepted as Lag BaOmer. </p>
<h2>The pilgrimage</h2>
<p>The Hebrew name of the holiday Lag BaOmer literally reflects its date in the Jewish calendar, the 33rd day of the Omer, the ritual counting of 50 days from the holiday of Passover, commemorating the exodus from Egypt, to Shavuot, commemorating God’s revelation and giving of the <a href="https://www.ou.org/judaism-101/glossary/torah/">Torah</a>, the Jewish holy canon.</p>
<p>These seven weeks are traditionally days of mourning commemorating the death of 24,000 students of the <a href="https://www.ou.org/holidays/expressions_of_mourning_in_sefirat_haomer/">great sage Rabbi Akiva</a> in the second century by plague, seen as a punishment by God. Only five people survived, including Shimon. Haircuts, music, weddings and all celebrations are prohibited during that seven-week period. </p>
<p>On Lag BaOmer, the restrictions are lifted in accordance with the tradition that on this day the plague ended. <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520221123/defenders-of-the-faith">Mystical tradition credits this to Shimon’s death</a>, which was understood as having the power to eradicate the decree of the plague. According to that tradition, Shimon instructed that the day of passing be celebrated rather than mourned, and thus was born the celebration we know today.</p>
<h2>Rituals and prayers</h2>
<p>In the 20th century, even before the founding of Israel, the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron grew into a mass event.</p>
<p>Pilgrims light bonfires symbolizing the light of Torah revealed by Shimon, or perhaps the literal fires that the Zohar states surrounded him at the moment of his death. In fact, they <a href="https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/gallery/yearly_cycle/lag_baomer/Pages/lag-baomer.aspx">are lit not only at Meron</a>, but throughout Israel and the world, although for some secular Zionists it evokes not Shimon but instead the <a href="https://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/English/digitallibrary/gallery/yearly_cycle/lag_baomer/Pages/lag-baomer.aspx">“Bar Kochba” military rebellion against Rome</a> that occurred around the same time. </p>
<p>Its <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/640490?seq=1">earliest pilgrims were mostly Moroccan Jews</a> who arrived in Israel intent on continuing their tradition of graveside visits to saints, convinced of the possibility of magical remedies and blessings through their holy intervention.</p>
<p>Many pilgrims celebrate the kabbalistic custom of giving a boy his first haircut, leaving behind the sidelocks, at 3 years of age. In recent years, ultra-Orthodox Jews of European ancestry – especially Hasidim – have increasingly dominated the site, although all sectors of Jewish society are represented there. </p>
<p>The pilgrimage is one of the only truly widespread expressions of folk religion in Judaism today. As anthropologist <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199766567/obo-9780199766567-0228.xml">Edith Turner</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501726033-011">wrote in her classic essay on Meron</a>, pilgrims come to Meron with deep faith in its power to bring blessings to them. “This is a popular celebration, with a long history that shimmers through the events at various points.”</p>
<p>The celebration is an intense, highly packed event that offers participants an ecstatic experience of communing with God in a collective of tens, even hundreds of thousands, of fellow Jews. </p>
<p>I can certainly attest to this effect. In 1994, at the start of my journey into Orthodox Judaism, I joined the Lag BaOmer pilgrimage to Meron. At that time, the festival hosted many Moroccan Jews, who camped outside the main grounds. Several among them had live animals ready to be slaughtered and eaten to celebrate their sons’ first haircuts. The Ashkenazic Hasidic Jews – <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Hasidism">sects of Jews from Eastern Europe</a> deeply influenced by Jewish mysticism and devoted to their leaders – dominated the inner spaces of the compound. </p>
<p>Everywhere I walked, people offered me free drinks, convinced of the promise that it would bring blessings to their family. Meanwhile, gender-segregated crowds <a href="https://twitter.com/kann_news/status/1387837918132195330">sang and danced in unison</a> for hours into the night, creating a palpable sense of euphoria and connection to a collective eternity. Some of us pushed inside to approach the gravesite and prayed for blessings of success, while others pushed to reach closer to the bonfires. </p>
<p>There were several fires, each representing a different Jewish community, although by custom the main fire is lit by the head of the “Boyan” Hasidim, so called because their leaders originally lived in the city of Boyan in Ukraine. It was in the <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/what-is-toldot-aharon-hassidic-sect-whose-members-were-killed-at-meron-666808">area of a different Hasidic group, known as Toldos Aharon</a>, that the tragedy on April 30, 2021, occurred. This group <a href="https://twitter.com/moshe_nayes/status/1387889426412544014">can be seen dancing</a> this year, just before the tragedy. </p>
<p>By the time I returned in 2001, I had become a full-fledged Hasid myself and was living in Betar Illit, a massive Haredi settlement south of Jerusalem. I recall far fewer Moroccan families camping in tents. But the number of Haredim, joined by Sephardim, modern Orthodox and even secular pilgrims seemed to have exploded, serving to enhance that sense of eternal community, of Jewish connection across time and space. </p>
<p>I have long since left that Hasidic world, for a variety of reasons. But I do not for a moment discount the very real experience of divinity and eternity enjoyed by Meron pilgrims, and their deep need to return to it each year. </p>
<h2>Political overtones</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a funeral at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva on April 30, 2021, for one of the victims of the Meron stampede." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399050/original/file-20210505-23-1j7g7o2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a funeral at Segula cemetery in Petah Tikva on April 30, 2021, for one of the victims of the Meron stampede.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ultra-orthodox-jews-attend-the-funeral-of-one-of-the-news-photo/1232607694?adppopup=true">Gil Cohen Magen GIL /AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The events leading up to the deadly stampede need to be viewed in context of Haredi society in Israel – <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/haredi/2020/?chapter=34272">today about 12% of the population, but growing rapidly</a> – and the power wielded by its leaders. Israel’s first prime minister, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">David Ben Gurion, granted Haredim extensive autonomy</a> in their education system, military deferments, welfare funding and more. Israel’s parliamentary system, which offers small political parties disproportionate power, has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">carefully protected and expanded that autonomy</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, Haredi leaders have successfully fought enforcement of government oversight and safety regulations, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/17/world/middleeast/israel-orthodox-jews-haredim.html">from COVID-19 restrictions</a> to the Meron festival. Aryeh Deri, the interior minister and leader of the Sephardic Shas party, said on the eve of Lag BaOmer: “This is a holy day, and the largest gathering of Jews [each year].” Bad things, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">he promised</a>, don’t happen to Jews on religious pilgrimage: “One should trust in Rabbi Shimon in times of distress.” </p>
<p>Similar sentiments were <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-s-leading-rabbi-thinks-not-studying-torah-is-more-dangerous-than-coronavirus-1.8677335">voiced by Haredi leaders</a> when they prematurely opened their schools last year, promising that Torah study would hold the plague at bay. <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-meron-calamity-haredim-question-the-price-of-their-own-autonomy/">Countless officials</a> had warned that Meron was a disaster waiting to happen.</p>
<p>One hopes that this tragedy will lead Haredim and other Israelis to accept government oversight and limits at the site. </p>
<p>One should not for a moment, however, discount the vital need of members of this community to bond with one another and God at this place, any more than we would discount the legitimacy of other religious and secular communities finding it elsewhere. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Shanes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Lag BaOmer pilgrimage, in which 45 people died recently, takes place each year to what is believed to be the gravesite of the second-century Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.Joshua Shanes, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1297452020-01-17T13:55:43Z2020-01-17T13:55:43ZWhat is a bar mitzvah?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310308/original/file-20200115-134777-1kikjy7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Jewish ritual of bar mitzvah. which marks a 13-year-old young man’s assumption of religious and legal obligations under Jewish law.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/israelphotogallery/16977015801">Israel_photo_gallery</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is a common scene on many a Saturday morning in cities and towns across the United States to see seventh- and eighth-grade boys and girls, a few not Jewish at all, gather in synagogues and temples to watch a classmate’s bar mitzvah. </p>
<p>This coming-of-age ritual marks a 13-year-old man’s assumption of religious and legal obligations under Jewish law.</p>
<p>In my experience, many modern-day teens who gather for this ceremony have no idea what the word bar mitzvah means, nor how the ceremony they have come to observe evolved. </p>
<h2>Early practice and history</h2>
<p>The roots of the bar mitzvah, which literally means “son of the commandments,” are obscure. The term never once appears in the Hebrew Bible. </p>
<p>Ancient rabbis, writing in the compendium of Jewish law known as the Talmud, did declare that boys are <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.5.21?lang=bi">obligated to fulfill the “mitzvot”</a> – the commandments of Jewish law – beginning at the age of 13. But as <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/near-eastern-judaic/faculty/sarna.html">an historian of Judaism</a>, I know that rabbis and commentators have struggled with the question of why the age of 13 was actually chosen. </p>
<p>After some debate, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopaedia-judaica/oclc/70174939">these Jewish scholars concluded</a> by the 11th century that it must have been an orally transmitted requirement handed down to Moses when he stood atop Mount Sinai. There, Moses received not just the Ten Commandments but also, according to Jewish tradition, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnc72">all Jewish law, both written and spoken</a>.</p>
<p>The first use of bar mitzvah for the Jewish coming-of-age ritual <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopaedia-judaica/oclc/70174939">seems to date to a 15th-century rabbi named Menahem Ziyyoni</a>. </p>
<p>The bar mitzvah ceremony at that time was a modest affair with two or three major components. First, was an “aliyah.” This meant that the bar mitzvah boy was, for the very first time in his life, called up to <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1933255/jewish/The-Aliyah-Step-by-Step.htm">make a blessing</a> over the public readings from the Torah, the sacred handwritten scroll containing the Five Books of Moses. In addition, the bar mitzvah boy often delivered his first public “discourse,” teaching the community and offering thanks to his parents and visiting guests.</p>
<h2>Modern-day bar mitzvah</h2>
<p>The bar mitzvah boy, however, was not expected to read from the Torah, chant the Prophetic portion associated with it, known as the Haftarah, or lead any part of the prayer service, as so many do today. </p>
<p>Those elements <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvcwnc72">came later</a>, in <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/History_of_the_Jews_of_the_Netherlands_A.html?id=ekZCAAAAIAAJ">the 18th and 19th centuries</a>, when the bar mitzvah grew in importance for the Jewish communities of Europe, North America and the Caribbean. As traditional <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691164946/jewish-emancipation">Jewish communal authority weakened</a> during the Enlightenment period, newly emancipated Jews across the globe became citizens with civil and political rights.</p>
<p>Anxious parents wondered whether their sons would carry on ancestral traditions such as observing Jewish law, studying Jewish texts, marrying within the faith and raising their own children Jewish. The more they worried, the more they focused on the bar mitzvah – the last religious rite of passage they could control. </p>
<p>By the early 20th century, many bar mitzvah boys publicly pledged “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=utRCAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA155&lpg=RA1-PA155&dq=%E2%80%9Cto+love,+honor+and+keep+the+Holy+Torah%22&source=bl&ots=T9dnVmdoPj&sig=ACfU3U3KL6TPoSVk6x25Z5c04kqGuNhWrQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7vbC0j4LnAhVjUN8KHYjUBP0Q6AEwAHoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9Cto%20love%2C%20honor%20and%20keep%20the%20Holy%20Torah%22&f=false">to love, honor and keep the Holy Torah</a>.” The 20th century also witnessed the spread of a parallel ceremony for girls, known as the <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300101973/american-judaism">bat mitzvah</a>, meaning “daughter of the commandments.”</p>
<p>In lands where Jewish life was changing rapidly, families seemingly sought to stave off fears of the morrow. Parents strove, at least momentarily, perhaps for one fine Saturday morning, to reassure themselves and the community that Jewish learning and life would continue despite the lure of modernity and its many seductions.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan D. Sarna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Jewish coming-of-age ritual of bar mitzvah evolved to its current form during the time of Enlightenment, when Jewish families feared losing their traditions.Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1169412019-05-19T17:10:41Z2019-05-19T17:10:41ZThere is more than one religious view on abortion - here’s what Jewish texts say<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275205/original/file-20190517-69199-pihxvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey discusses a bill that would virtually outlaw abortion in the state.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Abortion-Alabama/750adb6ccd4940c8babeb6ec2986ac67/7/0">AP Photo/Blake Paterson</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>An updated version of this article was published on September 7, 2021. <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-does-life-begin-theres-more-than-one-religious-view-167241">Read it here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Alabama’s governor signed a bill recently that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/15/politics/alabama-governor-signs-bill/index.html">criminalizes nearly all abortions</a>, threatening providers with a felony conviction and up to 99 years in prison. </p>
<p>It is one of numerous efforts across the United States to restrict access to abortion and challenge the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/410/113/">Roe v. Wade</a> that legalized abortion nationwide. </p>
<p>Six states <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2019/05/which-states-have-passed-six-week-abortion-bans.html">have recently passed legislation</a> that limit abortions to approximately six weeks after the end of a woman’s last period, before many know they are pregnant. Although the laws have not yet taken effect and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/26/health/heartbeat-bills-abortion-bans-history/index.html">several have been blocked</a> on constitutional grounds, if enacted they would prohibit most abortions once a doctor can hear rhythmic electrical impulses in the developing fetus.</p>
<p>Called “fetal heartbeat” bills, they generally refer to the fetus as an “<a href="http://f2a.org/images/Model_Heartbeat_Bill_Apr._2019_version.pdf">unborn human individual</a>.” It is a strategic choice, trying to establish <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/the-personhood-movement-timeline">fetal personhood</a>, but it also reveals assumptions about human life beginning at conception that are based on particular Christian teachings.</p>
<p><a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2017/04/when-does-life-begin-outside-the-christian-right-the-answer-is-over-time.html">Not all Christians agree</a>, and diverse religious traditions have a great deal to say about this question that gets lost in the polarized “pro-life” or “pro-choice” debate. As an advocate of reproductive rights, I have taken a side. Yet as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9KgEkVUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of Jewish Studies</a>, I appreciate how rabbinic sources grapple with the complexity of the issue and offer <a href="https://forward.com/life/faith/406465/what-youre-getting-wrong-about-abortion-and-judaism/">multiple perspectives</a>. </p>
<h2>What Jewish texts say</h2>
<p>Traditional Jewish practice is based on careful reading of biblical and rabbinic teachings. The process yields <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Halakha">“halakha,”</a> generally translated as “Jewish law” but deriving from the Hebrew root for walking a path.</p>
<p>Even though many Jews do not feel bound by “halakha,” the value it attaches to ongoing study and reasoned argument fundamentally shapes Jewish thought. </p>
<p>The majority of foundational Jewish texts assert that a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=xh9vy_dvO6YC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=absence%20of%20the%20%22full%20person%22%20status&f=false">fetus does not attain the status of personhood until birth</a>.</p>
<p>Although the Hebrew Bible does not mention abortion, it does talk about miscarriage in Exodus <a href="https://www.biblestudytools.com/rsv/exodus/21.html">21:22-25</a>. It imagines the case of men fighting, injuring a pregnant woman in the process. If she miscarries but suffers no additional injury, the penalty is a fine. </p>
<p>Since the death of a person would be murder or manslaughter, and carry a different penalty, most rabbinic sources deduce from these verses that a fetus has a different status. </p>
<p>An early, authoritative rabbinic work, the Mishnah, discusses the question of a <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Oholot.7.6?lang=bi">woman in distress during labor</a>. If her life is at risk, the fetus must be destroyed to save her. Once its head starts to emerge from the birth canal, however, it becomes a human life, or “nefesh.” At that point, according to Jewish law, one must try to save both mother and child. It prohibits setting aside one life for the sake of another.</p>
<p>Although this passage reinforces the idea that a fetus is not yet a human life, <a href="http://traditionarchive.org/news/originals/Volume%2010/No.%202/Abortion%20in%20Halakhic.pdf">some orthodox authorities</a> allow abortion only when the mother’s life is at risk. </p>
<p>Other Jewish scholars point to a different Mishnah passage that envisions the case of a pregnant woman <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Arakhin.1.4?lang=bi">sentenced to death</a>. The execution would not be delayed unless she has already gone into labor.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/275207/original/file-20190517-69204-193eh8f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jewish sources generally see the fetus as part of the mother.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Talmud_Set.png">User:Magister Scienta</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Talmud">Talmud</a>, an extensive collection of teachings building on the Mishnah, the rabbis suggest that the ruling is obvious: the fetus is <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Arakhin.7a?lang=bi">part of her body</a>. It also records an opinion that the fetus should be aborted before the sentence is carried out, so that the woman does <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Birth_Control_in_Jewish_Law/ZWQ0iIOUnaUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=precedent-narrative">not suffer further shame</a>.</p>
<p>Later commentators mention partial discharge of the fetus brought on by the execution as an example – but the passage’s focus on the needs of the mother can also broaden the circumstances for allowing abortion.</p>
<h2>Making space for divergent opinions</h2>
<p>These teachings represent only a small fraction of Jewish interpretations. To discover “what Judaism says” about abortion, the standard approach is to <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/58044.26?lang=bi">study a variety of contrasting texts</a> that explore diverse perspectives.</p>
<p>Over the centuries, rabbis have addressed cases related to potentially deformed fetuses, pregnancy as the result of rape or adultery, and other heart-wrenching decisions that women and families have faced. </p>
<p>In contemporary Jewish debate there are <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rIhh_Rx7utwC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=%22The+murder+of+an+unborn+child+is+classified+as+a+crime%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=GDVR3Ndm4V&sig=HIMz-n5TMbuAfO-joplDqYphCwc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjk5aCm5YDcAhVkrlkKHU7yAy0Q6AEIKTAA">stringent opinions</a> adopting the attitude that abortion is homicide – thus permissible only to save the mother’s life. And there are other <a href="http://rcrc.org/jewish/">lenient interpretations</a> broadly expanding justifications based on women’s well-being.</p>
<p>Yet the former usually cite contrary opinions, or even refer a questioner to inquire elsewhere. The latter still emphasize Judaism’s profound reverence for life.</p>
<p>According to the 2017 Pew survey, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/22/american-religious-groups-vary-widely-in-their-views-of-abortion/">83% of American Jews</a> believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abortion-in-jewish-thought/">All the non-orthodox movements</a> have statements supporting reproductive rights, and even <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/abortion-in-jewish-thought/">ultra-orthodox leaders</a> have resisted anti-abortion measures that do not allow religious exceptions. </p>
<p>This broad support, I argue, reveals the <a href="https://forward.com/opinion/393168/why-are-jews-so-pro-choice/">Jewish commitment to the separation of religion and state</a> in the U.S., and a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-law-and-religion/article/her-pain-prevails-and-her-judgment-respectedabortion-in-judaism/A9C998BF0AFB20EDC9152B6342A539B7">reluctance to legislate</a> moral questions for everyone when there is much room for debate.</p>
<p>There is more than one religious view on abortion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Mikva has contributed to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Planned Parenthood.</span></em></p>An expert explains that many of the foundational Jewish texts assert that a fetus does not attain the status of personhood until birth.Rachel Mikva, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Chicago Theological SeminaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1023202018-09-17T16:25:09Z2018-09-17T16:25:09ZYom Kippur: A time for feasting as well as fasting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236685/original/file-20180917-158231-1wxi5e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yom Kippur break fast.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr-morshee/23569071658">danbruell</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was the bag of Fritos that gave me away. As a secular Jewish kid whose family did not belong to a synagogue, I did not think twice about riding my bike to the convenience store around the corner during the afternoon of Yom Kippur. </p>
<p>I knew that it was a solemn holiday when observant Jews do not eat or drink. But my public school was closed for the holiday, and there was little to do. </p>
<p>As luck would have it, as I came back around the corner, I nearly ran over a schoolmate who was walking on the sidewalk. I lived in a predominantly Jewish suburb of New York and was conscious that although I wasn’t fasting, he almost certainly was. The bag of corn chips that I was carrying betrayed me as a traitor to my faith.</p>
<p>Years later, as a scholar and author of <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9781479872558/">“Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli,”</a> I came to understand why the Jewish practice of abstaining from food on Yom Kippur is so out of step with the rest of Jewish tradition.</p>
<p>In both its religious and cultural guises, Judaism has always revolved around food.</p>
<h2>Eating as a pleasure of life</h2>
<p>In ancient times, Jewish priests known as “cohanim” sacrificed bulls, rams and lambs on the altar inside the courtyard of the Temple in Jerusalem, symbolically sharing a banquet with God. </p>
<p>After the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70 and <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-diaspora">Jews were dispersed throughout the Mediterranean basin</a>, food remained a Jewish preoccupation. Because the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/overview-of-jewish-dietary-laws-and-regulations">kosher laws</a> restricted what Jews could put in their mouths, much of every day was spent figuring out what and how to eat. </p>
<p>In 20th-century America, the <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9781479872558/">Jewish delicatessen</a>, with its fatty, garlicky fare, became on par with the synagogue as a communal gathering place. </p>
<p>The worldly emphasis of Judaism has, since ancient times, recognized eating as an essential pleasure of life. A passage in the Jerusalem <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/talmud-101/">Talmud</a> states that Jews will be called to account in the afterlife if they have not taken advantage of opportunities to eat well.</p>
<p>Food, <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674011113">according to</a> historian <a href="http://as.nyu.edu/content/nyu-as/as/faculty/hasia-r-diner.html">Hasia Diner</a>, “gave meaning to Jewish life.” As the old joke goes, most Jewish holidays can be summed up by a simple formula, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat!”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Yom Kippur as a holiday of inversion</h2>
<p>But not the Day of Atonement, which is a ritual rehearsal of one’s own death through refusing the demands of the body.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236689/original/file-20180917-158228-1qkrm6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236689/original/file-20180917-158228-1qkrm6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236689/original/file-20180917-158228-1qkrm6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236689/original/file-20180917-158228-1qkrm6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236689/original/file-20180917-158228-1qkrm6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236689/original/file-20180917-158228-1qkrm6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236689/original/file-20180917-158228-1qkrm6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Day of Atonement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaufmann_Day_of_Atonement.jpg">Isidor Kaufmann</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Hebrew, Yom Kippur is connected linguistically to <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/purim">Purim</a>, the springtime holiday of masks and merrymaking. But one could well ask: How is the most mournful day of the Jewish year comparable to the most raucous and ribald one? </p>
<p>On Purim, Jews drink alcohol, don disguises and feast on pastries. The element of masquerade, it has been said, makes it the one day of the year when Jews pretend to be other than Jewish. </p>
<p>Not eating on Yom Kippur similarly inverts the normal pattern of Jewish life. It is by abstaining from eating that Jews connect both to God and to their fellow Jews. </p>
<h2>A symbol of rebellion?</h2>
<p>For secular Jews, there is no better way to rebel against religious Judaism than to dine publicly on Yom Kippur. </p>
<p>In 1888, a group of anarchist Jews in London rented a hall in the city’s East End, where most of the Jews lived, and organized a <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/16771/the-festive-meal">Yom Kippur Ball</a> with “antireligious lectures, music and refreshments.” </p>
<p>Over the next couple of decades, similar celebrations sprouted up in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Montreal, often triggering protests. Indeed, when Herrick Brothers Restaurant on the Lower East Side of New York <a href="http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2012/09/day-of-atonement-indeed-yom-kippur-riot.html">decided to remain open on Yom Kippur in 1898</a>, they unwittingly exposed their clientele to violence. Patrons were physically attacked by other Jews on their way to synagogue.</p>
<p>For starving victims of the Nazis, every day was Yom Kippur.</p>
<p>In a famous passage in Holocaust survivor <a href="http://eliewieselfoundation.org/elie-wiesel/">Elie Wiesel</a>’s nonfiction masterpiece, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Night.html?id=ELbHiPmYSM4C">“Night,”</a> the author, who was imprisoned in Auschwitz and Buchenwald, recalls deliberately eating on Yom Kippur as a “symbol of rebellion, of protest against Him,” for His silence and inaction in the face of the Nazi genocide.</p>
<p>“Deep inside me,” he writes, “I felt a great void opening” – not only a physical one, but a spiritual one as well. </p>
<h2>A new tradition</h2>
<p>Nowadays, most Jews who do not fast on Yom Kippur are simply not part of a community of Jews who participate in synagogue life. Conversely, <a href="http://theweek.com/articles/443325/why-even-nonjews-should-celebrate-yom-kippur">many non-Jews</a> who are domestic partners of Jews do fast on Yom Kippur.</p>
<p>But whether or not one fasts on Yom Kippur, the tradition has developed <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/religion-food-and-eating-in-north-america/9780231160308">over just the last few decades</a>, according to scholar <a href="http://www.sas.rochester.edu/rel/people/faculty/rubel_nora/index.html">Nora Rubel</a>, of a lavish, festive meal at the conclusion of the fast.</p>
<p>For many Jews, as historian <a href="https://history.columbian.gwu.edu/jenna-weissman-joselit">Jenna Weissman Joselit</a> has noted, <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/244748/breaking-the-fast">the break-fast meal</a> is the most important aspect of Yom Kippur, in ways that outshine the religious elements of the day.</p>
<h2>Breaking the fast in pop culture</h2>
<p>In American popular culture, Jewish characters are often shown breaking the fast – while it is still daylight – with flagrantly non-kosher foods. </p>
<p>In Woody Allen’s 1987 film comedy, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093818/">Radio Days,”</a> set in Brooklyn during the Great Depression, a Jewish family is so infuriated that their Communist Jewish next-door neighbor (played by Larry David) is eating and playing music on Yom Kippur that they fantasize about burning down his house. But then the uncle (played by Josh Mostel) goes next door and ends up not only eating <a href="https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=radio+days+woody+allen+yom%5c&view=detail&mid=49D5A43C913397EB0D4E49D5A43C913397EB0D4E&FORM=VIRE">pork chops and clams</a>, but being indoctrinated with Marxist ideology to boot.</p>
<p>In a 2015 episode of “Broad City,” Abbi and Ilana down <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/broad-city-releases-yom-kippur-video/">bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches</a>, while in the inaugural episode of the Canadian Internet series “YidLife Crisis,” which debuted in 2014, Yom Kippur finds Chaimie and Leizer in a restaurant consuming poutine – french fries with cheese curds and gravy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yh5uWajtPtA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Breaking the fast.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The break-fast meal</h2>
<p>In real life, the menu for the break-fast meal typically mirrors that of a Sunday brunch: bagels, cream cheese, smoked fish, noodle kugel (casserole), and rugelach (jam-filled pastries).</p>
<p>However, it may also include dishes from the host’s ethnic Jewish origins. Eastern European Jews traditionally dine on <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/09/13/221775504/the-secret-to-making-it-through-a-yom-kippur-fast-kreplach">kreplach</a> – dumplings stuffed with calves’ brains or chicken livers, Iraqi Jews drink sweetened <a href="https://jwa.org/blog/eating-jewish-break-fast-with-iraqi-almond-milk">almond milk</a> flavored with cardamom and Moroccan Jews enjoy <a href="https://jwfoodandwine.com/harira-moroccan-lamb-and-legume-soup">harira</a> – lamb, legume and lemon soup – a dish that was borrowed from Muslim neighbors who were breaking the fast of Ramadan.</p>
<p>Whatever is on the menu, Jews eat with a vengeance to conclude the holiday, restoring them to the fullness of not just their stomachs but of their very Jewish identities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Merwin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert explains why the Jewish practice of abstaining from food on Yom Kippur is so out of step with the rest of Jewish tradition.Ted Merwin, Part-Time Associate Professor of Religion, Dickinson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/882252017-12-07T18:47:06Z2017-12-07T18:47:06ZHanukkah’s true meaning is about Jewish survival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198025/original/file-20171206-31532-4wxjt6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/101422984?src=SCgcp5hYcu4pdFCFBZP2cA-1-67&size=huge_jpg">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every December Jews celebrate the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, perhaps the best-known and certainly the most visible Jewish holiday.</p>
<p>While critics sometimes identify Christmas as promoting the prevalence in America today of what one might refer to as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/hanukkah-sucks-amirite/419649/">Hanukkah kitsch</a>, this assessment misses the social and theological significance of Hanukkah within Judaism itself. </p>
<p>Let’s consider the origin and development of Hanukkah over the past more than 2,000 years.</p>
<h2>Early history</h2>
<p>Though it is 2,200 years old, <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/jewish-literature-between-bible-and-mishnah-2nd-ed-stand-alone-cd-rom">Hanukkah</a> is one of Judaism’s newest holidays, an annual Jewish celebration that does not even appear in the Hebrew Bible. </p>
<p>The historical event that is the basis for Hanukkah is told, rather, in the post-biblical Books of the Maccabees, which appear in the Catholic biblical canon but are not even considered part of the Bible by Jews and most Protestant denominations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198027/original/file-20171206-31539-1ehaius.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Maccabees receive their father’s blessing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThe_Maccabees_receive_their_father's_blessing.jpg">The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on the Greco-Roman model of celebrating a military triumph, Hanukkah was instituted in 164 B.C. <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">to celebrate the victory</a> of the Maccabees, a ragtag army of Jews, against the much more powerful army of King Antiochus IV of Syria. </p>
<p>In 168 B.C., Antiochus outlawed Jewish practice and forced Jews to adopt pagan rituals and assimilate into Greek culture. </p>
<p>The Maccabees revolted against this persecution. They captured Jerusalem from Antiochus’s control, removed from the Jerusalem Temple symbols of pagan worship that Antiochus had introduced and restarted the sacrificial worship, ordained by God in the Hebrew Bible, that Antiochus had violated. </p>
<p>Hanukkah, meaning “dedication,” <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/origins-judaism-canaan-rise-islam?format=HB&isbn=9780521844536#5w0geqHTDUrD7fPj.97">marked this military victory</a>
with a celebration that lasted eight days and was modeled on the festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot) that had been banned by Antiochus.</p>
<h2>How Hanukkah evolved</h2>
<p>The military triumph, however, was short-lived. The Maccabees’ descendants – the Hasmonean dynasty – routinely violated their own Jewish law and tradition. </p>
<p>Even more significantly, the following centuries witnessed the devastation that would be caused when Jews tried again to accomplish what the Maccabees had done. By now, Rome controlled the land of Israel. In A.D. 68-70 and again in A.D. 133-135, the Jews mounted passionate revolts to rid their land of this foreign and oppressing power. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198028/original/file-20171206-31521-139cbfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFrancesco_Hayez_017.jpg">Francesco Hayez, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first of these revolts ended in the destruction of the Second Jerusalem Temple, the preeminent center of Jewish worship, which had stood for 600 years. As a result of the second revolt, the <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/judaism/origins-judaism-canaan-rise-islam?format=HB&isbn=9780521844536#5w0geqHTDUrD7fPj.97">Jewish homeland was devastated</a> and countless Jews were put to death.</p>
<p>War no longer seemed an effective solution to the Jews’ tribulations on the stage of history.</p>
<p>In response, a new ideology deemphasized the idea that Jews should or could change their destiny through military action. What was required, rabbis asserted, was not battle but perfect observance of God’s moral and ritual law. This would lead to God’s intervention in history to restore the Jewish people’s control over their own land and destiny.</p>
<p>In this context, rabbis rethought Hanukkah’s origins as the celebration of a military victory. Instead, they said, Hanukkah should be seen as commemorating a miracle that occurred during the Maccabees’ rededication of the temple: <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">The story now told</a> was how a jar of temple oil sufficient for only one day had sustained the temple’s eternal lamp for a full eight days, until additional ritually appropriate oil could be produced. </p>
<p>The earliest version of this story <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.21b?lang=bi">appears in the Talmud</a>, in a document completed in the sixth century A.D. From that period on, rather than directly commemorating the Maccabees’ victory, Hanukkah celebrated God’s miracle.</p>
<p>This is symbolized by the kindling of an eight-branched candelabra (“Menorah” or “Hanukkiah”), with one candle lit on the holiday’s first night and an additional candle added each night until, on the final night of the festival, all eight branches are lit. The ninth candle in the Hanukkiah is used to light the others.</p>
<p>Throughout the medieval period, however, Hanukkah remained a <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Jewish-Way/Irving-Greenberg/9780671873035">minor Jewish festival</a>. </p>
<h2>What Hanukkah means today</h2>
<p>How then to understand what happened to Hanukkah in the past hundred years, during which it has achieved prominence in Jewish life, both in America and around the world? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198026/original/file-20171206-31552-1vdc7v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hanukkah today responds to Jews’ desire to see their history as consequential.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/candles-menorah-light-hanukkah-897776/">Pixabay.com/en</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The point is that even as the holiday’s prior iterations reflected the distinctive needs of successive ages, so Jews today have reinterpreted Hanukkah in light of contemporary circumstances – a point that is detailed in religion scholar <a href="https://academics.rowan.edu/chss/departments/philosophy/faculty/AshtonDianne.html">Dianne Ashton’s</a> book, <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">“Hanukkah in America.”</a></p>
<p>Ashton demonstrates while Hanukkah has evolved in tandem with the extravagance of the American Christmas season, there is much more to this story. </p>
<p>Hanukkah today <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814707395/">responds to Jews’ desire</a> to see their history as consequential, as reflecting the value of religious freedom that Jews share with all other Americans. Hanukkah, with its bright decorations, songs, and family- and community-focused celebrations, also fulfills American Jews’ need to reengage disaffected Jews and to keep Jewish children excited about Judaism. </p>
<p>Poignantly, telling a story of persecution and then redemption, Hanukkah today provides a historical paradigm that can help modern Jews think about the Holocaust and the emergence of Zionism. </p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In short, Hanukkah is as powerful a commemoration as it is today because it responds to a host of factors pertinent to contemporary Jewish history and life. </p>
<p>Over two millennia, Hanukkah has evolved to narrate the story of the Maccabees in ways that meet the distinctive needs of successive generations of Jews. Each generation tells the story as it needs to hear it, in response to the eternal values of Judaism but also as is appropriate to each period’s distinctive cultural forces, ideologies and experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Avery-Peck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hanukkah was instituted in 164 B.C. to celebrate military victory, but the meaning has changed over time with the circumstances of the Jewish people.Alan Avery-Peck, Kraft-Hiatt Professor in Judaic Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/717742017-01-26T20:55:02Z2017-01-26T20:55:02ZExploring the complexities of forgiveness<p>Friday, Jan. 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day – an annual day that honors the memories of the victims of the Nazi era. Seven decades after Hitler perpetrated his terrible genocide on the Jewish people, the world is faced with a disturbing question: Can the Nazis be forgiven?</p>
<p>As a member of a Jewish family that endured the war, this is more of an emotional question. I grew up in Australia, where my grandparents came after the war. I was surrounded by many survivors – members of my own family among them. Australia has the <a href="https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2011/194/4/ageing-holocaust-survivors-australia">highest number</a> of Holocaust survivors per capita outside Israel. </p>
<p>I grew up in a community of these remarkable people, but not once did I hear the topic of forgiveness for the Nazis discussed. The Nazis hardly warranted their consideration. Instead, what prevailed was the distinctive Jewish response to the tragedy of the Holocaust of not asking why, but what do we do now. Invariably the answer was a single-minded determination and commitment to rebuilding a new generation of proud and committed Jews.</p>
<p>As a rabbi and teacher, however, I see the question as more complicated. It challenges us toward a more profound examination of some of Judaism’s deepest ethical mores and theological beliefs.</p>
<h2>Forgiveness: What is it?</h2>
<p>First, it is important to understand the concept of forgiveness and its place in Jewish belief and practice.</p>
<p>In the Jewish belief there is a distinction between forgiveness and consequences. Lack of consequences is not synonymous with forgiveness and negative consequences does not equate with lack of forgiveness, as in forgiving one’s child for demonstrating carelessness or inconsideration while still holding her accountable. </p>
<p>Rather, according to <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/911908/jewish/Teshuvah-Chapter-Seven.htm">Jewish teaching</a>, the essence of forgiveness is that the forgiver allows for his relationship with the forgiven to be healed. It is a way of saying to the offender, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You have hurt, you have injured, you have wronged, and you will suffer the consequences – but despite all that, I accept you, and I can still have a relationship with you.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, why forgive?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154325/original/image-20170125-23854-ct6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154325/original/image-20170125-23854-ct6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154325/original/image-20170125-23854-ct6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154325/original/image-20170125-23854-ct6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154325/original/image-20170125-23854-ct6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154325/original/image-20170125-23854-ct6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154325/original/image-20170125-23854-ct6w7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What does Judaism say about forgiveness?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gtwiggs/58822134/in/photolist-6ctLJ-atgwUB-8yhKSf-e7eNdT-pFE9Me-9gBc4C-5uhyHz-63CV4c-5uhrrr-dkVGrD-bmPGrX-7QBfzv-dJu49c-9EVAjB-6QJdyp-dSz74c-fj8rD-9hLP5g-qzgDoN-8ppkn5-pMPsPi-6fSXcE-8XgMPk-dtsRHQ-4s2K9w-KgeeK-4NeZqh-bmPKXH-9rs9Tz-7dweuQ-6dpxzW-7yGCdL-co3tss-9EVyDp-avtDCx-9EYuzf-dYqzeW-nqocft-ERufb5-8rPkCX-4k4PP2-9Y4Hqr-8LTb5G-dJu9p4-b47brz-99y7WN-a3ehza-bmPJep-6fNE8x-skPfwv">Glenn Twiggs</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Judaism teaches that the concept of forgiveness constitutes one of the most essential fundamentals of the human relationship with God and with each other. </p>
<p>Throughout the Bible there are numerous examples of <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9895/jewish/Chapter-34.htm">God forgiving human sin</a> and humans forgiving their <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8215/jewish/Chapter-20.htm">fellow beings</a>. Furthermore, one of the <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9975/jewish/Chapter-11.htm">basic principles of Jewish ethics</a> is that humans are mandated to emulate the divine characteristics through which God relates to us. </p>
<p>Thus, just as He is kind, merciful and forgiving, so too must we strive to conduct our own lives in the same manner toward others. And indeed, inasmuch as every human being is imperfect and needs the favor of forgiveness from God and from his fellows, Judaism’s <a href="http://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.31a?lang=bi">“Golden Rule”</a> necessitates that we be prepared to grant others the very same favor that we expect from them.</p>
<p>But far from being just a necessary but regrettable allowance, Judaism teaches that the practice of forgiveness was divinely designed from the very outset of creation. Thus, the reason why God deliberately <a href="http://www.sefaria.org/Bereishit_Rabbah.3?lang=bi">created us imperfect</a> is because through the process of sin and reconciliation, both the forgiver and the forgiven can experience tremendous <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7906/jewish/Chapter-27.htm">personal and religious growth</a>. </p>
<p>It is common experience that when two people in a relationship are able to forgive one another for their flaws and offenses, this process draws them even closer than they would have been had the offense never taken place.</p>
<h2>Elements of forgiveness</h2>
<p>Yet, everything has its limitations. So, what are the parameters of forgiveness, and what are the requirements for it to be earned?</p>
<p>According to Jewish law, a <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/911891/jewish/Teshuvah-Chapter-Two.htm">person may not expect forgiveness</a> unless he undergoes a sincere effort to perform “teshuvah,” meaning “repentance” or “return.” The elements of teshuvah include rigorous self-examination and require the perpetrator to engage with the victim, by confessing, expressing regret and making every effort possible to right the wrong that he committed. </p>
<p>By sincerely fulfilling all of these elements of “teshuvah,” the offender has done everything in his power to earn the right to ask the victim for forgiveness. So, <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/911891/jewish/Teshuvah-Chapter-Two.htm">Jewish law states</a> that a truly repentant “returnee” whose repeated requests for forgiveness are rejected on three occasions by his victim, has done all he can and need not make further efforts at reconciliation. At this point, the blame for the lack of resolution is transferred to the victim of the original offense.</p>
<p>It remains clear, however, that if the perpetrator fails to perform the requirements of teshuvah, forgiveness has not been earned and cannot be granted. For while granting earned forgiveness is an act of grace that may be emotionally restorative, uplifting and inspiring, nevertheless, to grant unearned forgiveness is not kind but callous, and can only further desensitize both the perpetrator and the victim to distinctions of morality. </p>
<h2>Not on behalf of another</h2>
<p>Consequently, if the victim is no longer alive, is absent or otherwise unable to receive the perpetrator’s teshuvah, the possibility for the perpetrator to seek forgiveness is <a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/911898/jewish/Teshuvah-Chapter-Four.htm">seriously impeded</a>. For at no time can any person presume to offer forgiveness to a perpetrator of a crime to which he was not a victim.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154329/original/image-20170125-23858-1f4cx4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154329/original/image-20170125-23858-1f4cx4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154329/original/image-20170125-23858-1f4cx4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154329/original/image-20170125-23858-1f4cx4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154329/original/image-20170125-23858-1f4cx4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154329/original/image-20170125-23858-1f4cx4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154329/original/image-20170125-23858-1f4cx4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forgiveness cannot be granted when the victims are not there to forgive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/us_embassy_newzealand/16301426229/in/photolist-qQv55V-jyVXpD-njX49P-jyXT9o-jyWTLL-DwVWcC-nfWTdR-bP4UDx-9Avg9L-ubM4U-e9Dzjn-jAv6Ny-8V79fL-rSJuS3-ubLuK-8V6Kfm-rSSQca-bBGWcf-rSJDKJ-7yKgZE-rQZKWT-bzRvrq-bQBCrK-bzRvxS-rSKPGs-bBGWkm-s831hA-sagJ6n-8V72hA-8V7bf1-7yKh3L-ec84pc-8V77DW-8V3LPk-8V6WTA-8V45H4-ec7Byx-8V6TTW-8V6Lnw-7yFukR-8V6Yqf-8V3Z8Z-8V718Q-8V3JDr-sagHAV-7yFuj4-eogC6t-8V42eg-8V6MGo-8V6Qhy">US Embassy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In such cases, the perpetrator must realize that he has no recourse to obtain forgiveness from any human being. Certainly, he must endeavor to complete all of the elements of teshuvah, which may include (for example) sincere and wholehearted efforts to make restitution to the victim’s relatives or community. </p>
<p>Ultimately, however, the only source from whom he may obtain forgiveness is from the heavenly court, and God alone will judge if his “teshuvah” has been sufficient to earn it.</p>
<h2>Why it is not possible to forgive</h2>
<p>The answer then to our original question of whether the Nazis can be forgiven becomes clear. The level of teshuvah that would be necessary to rectify the monstrous Nazi crimes would be enormous indeed. It also begs us to ask another question: Has any individual Nazi ever demonstrated this type of remorse, contrition and superhuman determination to make amends?</p>
<p>I have not heard of a single such instance. And even if there was such a person, his murdered victims are no longer alive to even consider granting forgiveness.</p>
<p>So, since we are human beings who still have a conscience to discern good from evil, the only conclusion we must come to is that we cannot in any way forgive the Nazis. To think otherwise would be to dishonor the victims of the Holocaust and to degrade our own moral compass.</p>
<h2>How can we honor the victims of the Holocaust?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9895/jewish/Chapter-34.htm#showrashi=true">Jewish law and thought</a> believes that the the power for good can always be stronger than the power for evil. </p>
<p>The Nazis showed a truly terrifying power for destruction and brought much darkness to the world.</p>
<p>But together we can choose to illuminate the world with the light of morality and kindness, one good deed at a time. Our efforts will surely bring our world much needed peace and harmony. As the Sages assure us, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“a little bit of light dispels a great deal of darkness.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Rabbi Raphael Jaworowski, a Jewish scholar and writer, contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71774/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yerachmiel Gorelik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can the Nazis be forgiven? A rabbi explains why this question needs a more profound examination of some of Judaism’s deepest ethical mores and theological beliefsYerachmiel Gorelik, Lecturer, Philosophy of Traditional Judaism, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.