Congregation Shaarei Shamayim Shabbat Gathering

Shabbat Gathering: Kabbalah vs. Facism.

Brian D. Johnson -

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

(To unsubscribe from the newsletter, click the link at the very bottom of this email.)

Here we go.

R.Danya Ruttenberg is a familiar name to regular readers of this Shabbat Gathering newsletter. I’ll confess that I don’t read every issue of her newsletter, but I do read the subject lines to see if the topic is something that grabs me. This week, I was grabbed. “Kabbalah Against Fascism: The Day The Jewish Mystics Tried To Take Down Hitler. Literally.” Yep. I’ll read that.

First, define terms.

Kabbalah is the mystical part of Judaism. It has something to do with the folk traditions that some of us observe. And some of it has to do with pondering such questions such as how Hashem created the world. Kabbalah has everything to do with teachings that are concealed, hidden. It’s based on texts such as the Zohar, Tanya, and the Sefer Yetzirah — texts that the average synagogue doesn’t typically delve into. And more. Among other things, it has to do with magic.

R.Danya recounts how some Jews tried using the magic of Kabbalah to protect us from Hitler and Stalin. Really. She relates several anecdotes about the specific ways people tried to cast magic spells. Some are funny. Some are gross. And they all have something to say about how Jews — along with the rest of us — have to band together to push aside evil. (I won’t steal the rabbi’s punchline.)

Yes, no, both.

I think R.Danya has done both a service and disservice the way she describes earnest rabbis doing the best they could to staunch and maybe even reverse the progress of fascism during WWII and Stalin’s Soviet Union. Chickens, airplanes, ceremonial sacrifice… R.Danya renders it as if it were a scene from a Mel Brooks movie and not one of Brooks’ best ones.

The way R.Danya describes the earnest efforts of the rabbis, she makes it all too easy for us to laugh at them and perhaps feel superior to them. Certainly more sophisticated. Me? I have a tendency to admire people who follow their beliefs to the frontiers of art, faith, passion, and maybe even sanity. Who am I to poo-poo doing something so freighted with cries to Hashem for mercy? The world is very big, and I can but apprehend a smidgen. The rest, the part beyond the breadth of my reason, is something I relate to with imagination and faith and … magic.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Mit vareme grusn,
(With warm regards,)

All my love,
brian.

PS

After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
Bob Dylan asked Streisand to sing with him as early as 1971 — they’re only now, on her new album, getting the chance to duet.
The ForwardPJ Grisar
The alternative siddur for ‘God-optional’ services - The Jewish Chronicle
Martin Di Maggio is leading efforts to establish Humanistic Judaism in the UK
The Jewish ChronicleSimon Rocker
What a lion, a rabbi, and a dog taught me about grief
Grieving a pet can feel lonelier than mourning a person. But even in silence, memory finds its way to sanctify the bond.
The ForwardBenyamin Cohen
Being a Jewish mother is a state of mind, so please call her | Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle
Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and no one deserves a celebration more than your Jewish mother. She has sacrificed her entire life for your happiness, and if you don’t believe me, just ask her. Remember that weird period of time when you were a sort of amorphous blob made up of a soul,
Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle | Jewish Life, Jewish Community and Events in WisconsinRob Golub
For teens by teens, the ‘Daf Punk’ podcast delivers a daily dose of Talmud - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Friends at a Long Island high school invite teens like them — especially girls — to engage in the page-a-day study of Judaism’s vast body of law and lore.
Jewish Telegraphic AgencyMaytal Exler-Kaunfer
Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
The Antisemitism Awareness Act’s added language says it would not infringe on religious liberty to protect the claim that Jews killed Jesus.
The ForwardJacob Kornbluh
A daughter’s devotion: one woman’s experience of saying Kaddish - The Jewish Chronicle
Sarah Birnbach met a few obstacles along the way – but also found great kindness and spiritual companionship
The Jewish ChronicleSimon Rocker

-30-