Come On and Let Me Know...

Table Talk from the desk of Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld

October 27-28, 2023 • 13 Mar Cheshvan 5784 • Lech L'cha (Gen 12-17). 

The purpose of this email is to let in a ray of hope at the Shabbat table... please forward/print/share.

 

 

This week's first question for your table is a question that I've heard numerous times this week.

It's also one of the toughest questions I've heard in a long time...

What do you do when you find out that someone you thought was your friend isn't really your friend?

Do you try to save the friendship or do you walk away?

How about when a place you thought was safe becomes less safe....
 

Jewish students locked in library during pro-Palestinian rally at Cooper Union

https://www.fox5ny.com/news/cooper-union-jewish-students-locked-library

 

Pro-Palestinian students project anti-Israel slogans on George Washington University library ... https://forward.com/fast-forward/566853/george-washington-university-anti-israel-projection-library/

 

At Brandeis, resolution to condemn Hamas fails student senate ... https://www.jta.org/2023/10/25/united-states/at-brandeis-u-founded-as-a-nonsectarian-jewish-university-

resolution-to-condemn-hamas-fails-student-senate

 

Outraged Jewish NYU student calls out university leadership for antisemitism on campus ... https://www.foxnews.com/video/6339710520112

 

Outraged Jewish NYU student calls out university leadership for antisemitism on campus ... https://www.timesofisrael.com/michigan-state-university-apologizes-for-showing-hitler-on-jumbotron-at-football-game/

 

A Stanford instructor called Jewish students colonizers and downplayed the Holocaust ... https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/13/us/stanford-instructor-jewish-holocaust-comments-reaj/index.html

 

Cornell Professor “Exhilarated” by Hamas’s Attack ... https://cornellsun.com/2023/10/16/cornell-professor-exhilarated-by-hamass-attack-defends-remark/

 

Drexel investigating arson at Jewish student's door amid Israel-Hamas War

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/drexel-dorm-anti-semitism-vandalism/3666052/

 

Israeli student attacked with a stick outside Columbia University library ... 

https://nypost.com/2023/10/12/israeli-student-attacked-outside-columbia-university-library/

 

Swastikas and a Nazi slogan were graffitied in dorm at American University.

https://www.american.edu/president/announcements/october-20-2023.cfm

 

UC Davis faculty member makes  social media post that threatens Jewish journalists, children ... https://www.kcra.com/article/uc-davis-faculty-member-social-media-post/45591044

 

NYU student who ripped down Israeli hostage posters interned for the ADL 

https://www.businessinsider.com/nyu-student-who-ripped-down-posters9p-israeli-hostages-adl-intern-2023-10

 

U of Vermont ‘vigorously denies’ fostering an antisemitic environment on campus, amid federal investigation ... https://www.jta.org/2022/09/15/united-states/u-of-vermont-vigorously-denies-fostering-an-antisemitic-environment-on-campus-amid-federal-investigation

 

Jewish-owned SF ice cream shop vandalized, tagged with pro-Palestine graffiti

https://abc7news.com/smitten-ice-cream-san-francisco-vandalized-pro-palestine-graffiti/13972158/

 

Richmond, CA City Council votes to condemn Israel of “ethnic cleansing”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/tempers-fly-richmond-council-meeting-israel-hamas-18443610.php

 

‘Not safe anywhere now’: American Jews are flocking to gun training classes

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/not-safe-anywhere-now-american-jews-are-flocking-gun-training-classes-rcna120602

 

Question for your table: Should Jews stay or should we go?


Shabbat Shalom,
 

Alexander Seinfeld


 

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Exhuming Obama

The purpose of this blog is to help you turn your Friday night table into the talk of the town. Please print & share.

(If you have our iphone/ipad app, The Amazing Jewish Fact-a-Day Calendar, and it has been malfunctioning the past few weeks, some good news. We have submitted an update to Apple that includes fixing many broken links. If you do not have the app, from now through Sunday we have made it FREE. That's right, that is not an error. The app will be free through Sunday night. All owners of the app (paid or free) will receive the 2.6 upgrade when Apple releases it.)

True story: A woman is just leaving the house on the way to do some really important shopping.... and there's a neighbor whom she always finds so annoying.

"Oh what great timing! My phone is out and I really need to make a call. Do you think I could borrow your cell phone for a few minutes?"

The woman really doesn't want to help. She has a tight schedule and a list of errands. Let her borrow someone else's phone, she's thinking.

This woman is being tested. I will offer my interpretation of her test and how it applies to you and me.

Last week, several astute readers caught an error in this email. I had written that the ghost of Samuel came up feet first. In fact, he the story tells specifically that he came up head first, unlike ordinary ghosts.

The reason is quite simple: he was being called by King Saul, and when being called by a king, you don't come feet-first. See Miss Manners, Chapter 1.

So this leads us to the obvious question: Does the same protocol apply to the president of the United States?

If President Obama were to hold a seance to contact the ghost of, let's say, Jimmy Carter, no wait, technically he's he's still alive. Let's say, the ghost of Dick Cheney....

No, he's technically still alive too.

OK, let's imagine Obama, he's rounding the corner to the final stretch of this horse race, he's got Romney so close behind he can feel his breath on the back of his neck. He's tried everything to get those poll numbers higher, nothing is working. He's into the low 50s, but it's too close for comfort.

So he holds a seance in the Rose Room to see if he can get a little pep talk from the ghost of Ronald Reagan.

Wait a second. Would Obama, a Democrat, turn to Mr. Conservative Revolution for eleventh-hour counsel?

Here's a little presidential secret for you: these presidential guys have a lot more in common than you think.

Anyway, the real question is - does Reagan come up feet first like an ordinary ghost, or does he come up head first in honor of the President?

(Believe it or not, this is actually going somewhere....)

On the one hand, King Saul was a monarch-for-life, while Mr. Obama is an elected, term-limited official.

On the other hand, he's the President. You know, hail-to-the-chief and all that.

Where this is going:

One of the most fundamental of all Jewish values is the concept that every person you meet is created in the same Divine image. (For John Lennon that means, "You better recognize your brother in everyone you meet.")

A person with no Torah but treats others well - especially opponents and adversaries - has a foundation to acquire wisdom, and the wisdom he acquires will stick.

A person who knows the entire Torah but has no respect for others, his Torah has nothing to rest on and he will lose it.

If we Jews were living up to the Torah, we would be so ethical that any non-Jew would do business with us on a handshake.

If we were getting the Torah's core message, we would be so concerned for others that there wouldn't be any hunger.

I think we're on the right track. But we're being tested all the time.

Question for your table: When were you last tested in this area, and how did you do?


Shabbat Shalom

Destroyed

Dedicated by a reader in memory of Chana bas Pinchas (Alzbeta Dolanova), one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors in Nitra, Slovakia, who passed away last week. "Her pride in the continuation of the Jewish people was evident in our every conversation with her."

(To dedicate a future Table Talk, send an email.)

Today you get an amazing Jewish fact, followed by a question for your table....

==========
November 4, 2011
7 Cheshvan, 5772

Destroyed

In contrast to the country’s stunning natural beauty, Israel currently faces several environmental catastrophes, e.g., low rainfall has depleted the aquifers, risking permanent damage; several of the rivers are so polluted with industrial waste that humans are not allowed in their vicinity; there are few municipal recycling programs and a plethora of desert landfills.

Fortunately, organizations such as the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) are working hard to strengthen laws and teach people new behaviors.

More info:
R. Becher's great class on the Land of Israel
SPNI website
JNF website

==========


From the Amazing Jewish Fact-a-Day Calendar


Android version: http://tinyurl.com/amazingandroidcalendar
Iphone/ipod/ipad version: http://tinyurl.com/amazingcalendarlink

+++++++++++++

Question for your table: Is there a difference between "Israel", "The Land of Israel" and "The State of Israel"? And does it matter?


Shabbat Shalom

Climb Out of That Hole

Life underground seems to be a theme of the week.

And patience.

Just as Switzerland completed a 20-year project to build the world’s longest tunnel... (http://tinyurl.com/swisstunnelcompleted)

Just as the Chilean miners were emerging from their 70-day ultra slim-down retreat….

Two patience-required milestones happened in my life that were causes for personal joy. I just wanted to share these with you before I ask this week’s question.

Event #1 – after 12 years of work – yes, that’s not a typo, 12 years – I have in my hands the Hebrew version of the Art of Amazement. It was published just after Rosh Hashana in Jerusalem and it is exactly how I envisioned it. Small, paperback, beautiful cover.

1,000 extra copies were printed to send to Jewish centers around the world where young Israelis are wandering. (15,000 copies were requested, by the way.)

Event #2 – after 8 years of work, yesterday I submitted my very first iphone app to Apple.

How could it be, you ask, since the iphone hasn’t been around for 8 years?

I’ll leave that question unanswered for now. When the app is approved and I can unveil it to the world, then I will tell all.

Now, here’s the stumper for your table:

We live in a time of instant gratification. Food, information, communication, entertainment and you name it – can be enjoyed with the push of a button.

Some of us (including yours, truly) enjoy the slow, delayed gratification of home-grown vegetables.

But let’s face it. We’re all somewhat addicted to instant results. If a computer becomes sluggish, we get impatient, forgetting what computers were like just a few years ago.

One day I imagine our grandchildren are going to ask, “Tell us again that story about how phones used to drop the call…” or “Tell us that story about how you had to push buttons in order to call someone.”

So here’s the question: How can you get instant “spiritual” gratification?

(Remember the rules, there are no wrong answers, but ask at your table

Of course, there is the long-winded answer that I put into a book:

http://www.jsli.org/discount (that’s cheaper than you can get it anywhere else)

Here’s a short-winded answer:

Give to someone.

The moment that you give to someone, you are getting outside of your own bubble. That’s the most basic spiritual experience.

We all pay lip-service to becoming more spiritually-connected.

Time to put your mullah where your mouth is.

Our friend Captain Shulman is now on assignment on the US base in Korea. He just sent a list of Jewish soldiers currently serving overseas.

Why don’t we – you and I – try to make sure that every one of these soldiers gets something for Hannuka. A card, some chocolate gelt, a box of small candles, a book, a silly toy. You name it.

If you know any kids, get them to MAKE cards. Hand-made cards are the best.

Email me for the names. Let me know how many you want.

(The cost of mailing is the same as a US address, but needs 10-14 days.)

Think about it.

(But not too hard.)


Shabbat Shalom