How Do You Do Hodu?

 The purpose of this blog is to make sure there's hodu at every table... Please share...

Happy birthday shout-out to Teri in Portland!

Question for your Thanksgiving table – someone asked me today – "Do you think the tenor of Thanksgiving has changed, now that Columbus has become so controversial?"

As long-term readers of this email know, this is that special week in November when we pull out, dust off, revamp and update our annual Hodu message.

Here are a few questions to stump everyone at the table.

Try this one first: Why turkey?

Serious question: Why do Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

(I.e., like it's their religious duty, like matzah on Pesach.)

If anyone says, "They ate turkey so we have to eat turkey," you can politely let them know they are wrong on 2 accounts.

First of all, would it really be so bad to have a Thanksgiving pizza? Or Thanksgiving hamburgers? Or a red beans and rice Thanksgiving? How about a Chinese Thanksgiving? Curry Thanksgiving, anyone? Do vegetarians do Thanksgiving? 

(I know I'm not the first to ask this question, but it seems far from resolved.)
Second, they probably didn't eat much turkey.

At that original Thanksgiving in 1621, they apparently ate mostly venison.
I know, shocking, right?

Let's go back in time.

Imagine you are on the boat with Columbus.

(Maybe you're even a Jewish refugee from the Spanish Inquisition.)

PS - If you'd like to know about the Jews who sailed with Columbus, send me an email.

Of course, you and your geographically-challenged buddies think you're in Asia.

It's a strange world! Strange people, fauna and flora.

And you see this funky chicken.

The Wampanoag Indians call it neyhom.

What do you, O Spanish sailor, call it?

Remember, it looks vaguely like a chicken and you think you're in India, so naturally you call it "Indian chicken."

Are you with me so far?

French explorers agree that it looks like a chicken and they call poulet d'Inde (Indian chicken), later shortened to dinde (pronounced "dand").

English settlers think it looks more like a Turkey pheasant than a chicken, so they call the bird turkey.

Jewish explorers side with the French and call it tarnegol hodu — "Hindu chicken" — later shortened to hodu.

What's interesting for us is that the Hebrew word HODU also just happens to mean "give thanks" (in the imperative mood for all the grammarphiles out there).


So back to our main question for your table: What food should you eat on Hodu Day?

(Hodu, of course.)

Now try asking somebody Jewish at the table this stumper:

You're Jewish, right? Can you explain what "Jewish" means?

Forget the religious or cultural meaning; we want to know the etymology of "Jewish".

It means something like, "a state of being thankful". (Happens to be from this week's Parsha by the way.)

Ergo, if you're living up to the name "Jewish" then you are....

....living in a state of being thankful.

Let that sink in before asking the next question: How often?

(Once a year? Once a month? Once a week? Once a day?)

That could be a lot of hodu to stuff yourself with.

Final question for the table: How do you do hodu?

Happy Hodu-Day and

(which for some is the same as saying...)

Shabbat Shalom


PPS - When you shop using Amazon Smile, you can designate Jewish Spiritual Literacy as your charity, and they will gift a percentage of your purchase to JSLI - for the same cost to you.

To learn about other JSL projects, click here.

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Hardly of Hearing?

 The purpose of this blog is to perk up some ears at the Shabbat table. Please print and share...

This is what happened:

The other day, I scheduled a meeting with someone. I asked him to bring a couple items to the meeting, let's call them X, Y, and Z.

He shows up to the meeting without X, Y and Z.

I ask him, "Why didn't you bring X, Y and Z, as you said you would?"

"I never said that! I NEVER said that. I'm sure I never said that."

"Boy, I wish I had a recording of our conversation...."

4 questions for your table....

Who's right?
More broadly, who's more responsible, the speaker or the listener? 
Is this possibly a case of "people hear what they want to hear"?
What's the moral of the story?


Shabbat Shalom
 

PS - Yes, the image as always is clickable...


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Fall of Giants

 The purpose of this blog is to invite some giants to the Shabbat table. Please print and share...

When my grandfather died about 20 years ago, I and a few other family members prepared eulogies for the funeral. 

However, the rabbi in charge gently informed me that in that community, he normally says the only eulogy. 

Well, I said, today I'll be speaking too.

"You see," he persisted, "Family members are often overcome with emotion and it can be very difficult for them and everyone else. This is why we do it this way."

It was my only chance in my life to bury my grandfather, I wasn't going to budge. "It's a big mitzvah, I want to do it."

It was also my first ever eulogy. My own rabbi had guided me thus: A good eulogy makes them laugh and cry at the same time.

But he wasn't going to go down without a fight. "Why do you say it's such a mitzvah? Where in the Torah is there such a mitzvah?"

"Um... Parshat Chayei Sarah, 2nd verse?"

He had  no further comments or questions.

This week the world lost some staggering human beings, each a giant in their own way. 

First and foremost was Rabbi Dovid Feinstein zl, a rabbi's rabbi and yet a very down-to-earth man.

Here's an audio portrait of his greatness.

Second was Rabbi Lord Dr (I'm not 100% sure that's the correct order) Yonatan Sacks zl. There were many eulogies of him, but here's one that not enough people heard:

https://rabbidunner.com/harav-Wlord-jonathan-sacks-zl/

Third was my aforementioned grandfathers mechutenes - that's Yiddish for in-law - Eleanor Rubinstein of Portland. She passed away this week at 100 years + 7 years + 1/2-year — she had the wisdom of a 100-year-old, the energy of a 7-year-old, and the innocence of a 6-month-old.

One of her grand-daughters eulogized:

A role model in every way, she demonstrated an unwavering commitment to volunteering. Starting with the Red Cross during War War II, she consistently found ways to give back, whether it was the PTA, Girl Scouts or the National Council for Jewish Women. Well into her 100s, Eleanore volunteered weekly for Store to Door, making calls to homebound seniors with her miniature dachshund Sophie sitting in her lap..... Maintaining her positive spirit and clever wit to the end, she said all of her goodbyes before she passed. When asked if she wanted to rest between Facetime calls, she declined: “I’m going to be resting for a very long time.”

 

And last but not least, this week marked the 6th Yahrzeit of the Har Nof martyrs. I blogged about them then and you should only read it if you want to be both uplifted and sad at the same time.

The question for your table - it's rather cliché yet still great for conversation — What do you want them to say at your funeral?

Shabbat Shalom
 

Announcement: To become a partner in the publication of groundbreaking new book, Body and Soul: A Torah Guide to Health, Fitness, and Longevity, Medically-Annotated, it is now possible to contribute a dedication in someone's honor or memory to be printed in the book, please email dedications@jsli.org for instructions and may the merit of your contribution uplift them and the Jewish People and the world. Eight years in the making, this collaboration of Torah scholars, doctors and dietitians will, we hope, change the way we relate to our bodies and to food.


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The Ideal Form of Government?

The purpose of this blog is to democratize the Friday night dinner table. Please print and share...

How accurate would you say was my election prediction last week?

Some people think we have the best possible system, because in the long-term it's so stable compared to other democracies.

But how can anyone be happy with a system that spends - collectively - over a billion dollars just to elect the president? 

Combined, all of the races have spent $14 billion.

These amounts seems obscene to me. Can't we get the job done cheaper than that (without outsourcing to China)?

Imagine what else could have been done with that $$$. 
 

Election week always reminds me of my late friend Norman Hansen.

I met Norman in the 1980s when he was 90. He had retired at age 65 and spent the next 25 years reading many books of history and political science and traveling the world. 

So by the time I met him, he was a highly-opinionated old man.

My favorite quote from him: "The biggest mistake of my life was voting for Roosevelt in 1944 - I should have known he was too sick!"

Norman was a keen student of political theory, and loved to quote Toynbee quoting Lord Acton: "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Yet paradoxically, he had come to the conclusion that "the greatest form of government possible" is a "benign monarchy". That is, something like the Danish model, he said. (Although I am not sure now which period of Danish history he was referring to.)

So all this leads to tonight's question for your table: What's the ideal form of government?


Shabbat Shalom

Announcement: To become a partner in the publication of groundbreaking new book, Body and Soul: A Torah Guide to Health, Fitness, and Longevity, Medically-Annotated, it is now possible to contribute a dedication in someone's honor or memory to be printed in the book, please email dedications@jsli.org for instructions and may the merit of your contribution uplift them and the Jewish People and the world. Eight years in the making, this collaboration of Torah scholars, doctors and dietitians will, we hope, change the way we relate to our bodies and to food.


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