Or should I say, “Vive La Jerusalem!”? As it turns out, although I am studying tons of Hebrew, the survival language I am being forced to use is French. It seems that in someone’s infinite wisdom, I have been placed in a dorm of 100% native French speakers, (er, um, with an average age of 19—use your imagination regarding chaos levels) and when I say that my spoken French is better than their spoken English, that is not actually saying anything good about my French. Let’s just say that if I was an RA responsible for this floor, I would have probably already quit. But enough of that—who really needs to study or sleep? Lots of Miscellaneous Thoughts . . . So we have a fragile cease fire, and for this I and many others are saying “Baruch HaShem.” The general feeling here seems to be one of collective “we’ll see,” and the Israeli saying of “Better a critical editorial than a praiseworthy obituary” contains much truth and perspective. How does anyone weigh defense...
Since my interviews last year, I have consistently maintained that if there is something odd or confusing encountered in any of the changes to our services that have come up while I have led services, that I would much prefer that the questions be asked directly to me than spoken about in frustration where I an unable to aid in the dialogue. If something comes up, I encourage you to email me at: rabbi@sinaileeds.uk with the heading “Ask the Rabbi” and I will happily answer them in order in this space. This week, the question was: “Why two days of Rosh Hashanah in Reform Judaism but not two days of Chag (holiday) for the pilgrimage festivals? (And why isn’t there a second day of Yom Kippur!?)” We can quickly deal with Yom Kippur. The answer as to why there has never been a doubling of days of observance lies in pekuach nefesh —the saving of a life. Two days of complete fasting is simply much more dangerous than one, which for healthy people is not dangerous. Isn’t it nice to hav...
(Translation by Rabbi Paul Moses Strasko of the original article: https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/unsere-woche/ein-wunder-dass-wir-ueberlebt-haben/ ) Witness Anastasia Pletoukhina regarding the attack in Halle and how she survived the danger in the Synagogue Ms. Pletoukhina, you were in the Synagogue in Halle yesterday when the attacker tried to carry out a bloodbath. How did you survive the events? Wednesday morning we were already in the Synagogue—it was actually quite a beautiful day—good weather—sunshine. Around noon, as the Yom Kippur service began, we heard a loud bang. At first we thought that someone had set off fireworks, but then the security guard came in and told us: “There is an armed man outside who is trying to get in. He is shooting at our door.” What happened next? We were completely stunned and paralyzed—we couldn’t actually react at all. The security guard had called the police immediately. The congregation was rushed upstairs int...
Comments