Kol HaLev is Baltimore's new synagogue community in the making

The Yiddish Policeman's Union: A Novel

By Michael Chabon

Reviewed by Richard Reiches

Magic alive and well in the world works of first rate fiction. The Yiddish Policeman's Union is a fine example of this literary magic and is a great read and a lot of fun to boot.

Michael Chabon has authored a number of novels, including the Pulitzer prize-winning The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (which I have also read and is also quite entertaining and well written). In this work, Chabon has taken the Philip Marlowe character and the conventions of the noir mystery of literature and film and delivered a first-rate comic adventure story in an alternative Jewish world.

The book’s premise is that the 1940s, the American government started to let Jewish immigrants escaping the Nazis into Alaska where they created a colony in the city of Sitka. When Jews in Palestine were driven into the sea in 1948, the remainder of the survivors came to Sitka forming a temporary state within a state. Now, in a time close to our present, Sitka is about to revert to its former status, and only a small percentage of the Jews living there can remain. The novel opens within the context of the tenuous status of Jewish life, and this theme continues throughout the story.

Our hero, Meyer Landsman is a noz (which is either real or made up Yiddish slang for detective) in the Yarkovy Homicide Section in Sitka. He is broken down and divorced with a lot of bad habits. Landsman works for his ex, Bina Gelbfarb, who is tough, sexy, and competent.

In the dive of a hotel he is living in, a junkie has been murdered who turns out to be Menachem Mendel Shpilman, the son and heir to the throne of the Verbover Chassidim, a group of devout and gangsters. We soon found out that Mendele was once considered

by many of the Verbovers to be a Tzaddik Ha Dor, or one in a generation capable of becoming the messiah. The plot which ensues will get you involved in the world of chess (no background needed), expose you to a lot of Yiddish words and will explore Jewish Messianic aspirations and beliefs. (Hint: Google “red heifer”).

What makes this work special to me is Chabon’s humor, his use of language, and his insights into life, Jewish and otherwise. Much of the humor is based on the juxtaposition of things which seem like they don’t belong together such as a small nation of Jews is living in rural Alaska (think Wasilla, you betcha). Landsman’s partner, Ber Shemets, is both indigenous tribal (he uses a specially made hammer to intimidate recalcitrant yids) and is an observant Jew who wears a kipah and tsitsit. Another character is Willie Dick, a four-foot-seven, tough as nails detective. The Verbovers are both pious Jews and also totally ruthless, like the mafia.

The prose alternates between pulp fiction mystery and beautiful descriptive paragraphs filled with insights. Some of the best prose deals with Jewish history and beliefs. In a passage about Landsman’s ex-wife, Chabon writes, “You have to look to Jews like Bina Gelbfarb to explain the wide range and persistence of the [Jewish] race. Jews who carry their homes in old cow hide bag, on the back of a camel, in the bubble of air at the center of their brains. Jews who land on their feet, hit the ground running, ride out the vicissitudes and made the best of what falls to hand.”

For a final selection, I will include part of Chabon’s meditation on Messianic thinking.

“But there was always a shortfall wasn’t there? …. Between commandment and observance, heaven and earth, husband and wife, Zion and Jew. They call that shortfall ‘the world.’….only when Messiah came would the breach be closed, all separations, distinctions and distances collapsed. Until then, thanks be unto his Name, sparks, bright sparks, might leap across the gap, as between electric poles. And we must be grateful for the momentary light.”

Enjoy!

Reimagining The Bible: The Storytelling of The Rabbis

By Howard Schwartz

Review by Richard Reiches

Full disclosure: I knew Howard Schwartz when he was a poet and instructor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. He was just beginning to be interested in Jewish legends. Since that time, he has become the premier anthologist and a major scholar of this genre of literature written in English. He has authored books including "Elijah's Violin" in which he has retold many of these stories in a new way.

In "Reimagining The Bible," Schwartz takes on the role of guide in looking at the broad sweep of the Jewish imagination from rabbinic times to the present. His main thesis is that there is a continuity throughout the milennia based on the foundation of the midrash along with basic themes and archetypes which he identifies.

The midrash are the first examples of Jewish storytelling. The rabbis developed these narratives while grappling with gaps or seeming contradictions in the biblical text.

For example, in Genesis, God creates light before he creates the sun, the stars or the moon. The rabbis grapple with what is the nature of this light and what became of it. A number of midrash arise to attempt to answer those questions.

Another example arises from the question of how Cain dies, as it is never answered in the bible.  The most popular midrash on this issue has Lamech, Cain's grandson,

accidentally killing him as he mistakes him, apparently due to the sign on his forehead, for an animal. Schwartz comments that this interpretation fits with the rabbinic belief that crimes deserve to be punished. It also ties together the section of Genesis on Cain with the brief mention of Lamech later on in the Torah.

Subsequent Jewish literature builds upon an assumed knowledge of Torah and midrash.  It utilizes what Schwartz refers to as the megamyth of God's covenant with Israel and 10 other myths which he lists as: (1) God and the bride of God, (2) Creation, (3) Heaven, (4) Hell (Gehenna), (5) the Holy Book, (6) Holy Time, (7) Holy People, (8) Holy Land, (9) Exile, and (10) Messiah.

In the same vein as American mythologist Joseph Campbell, Schwartz analyzes Jewish myths to unearth deep psychological truths rather to prove or disprove myths. Thus, he risks alienating readers who take these as absolute truths.

Schwartz proceeds to take the first myth or theme within Judaism and expounds on the development of the archetypal figure of the Shekhinah. The Shekhinah starts as a depiction of the feminine aspect of God. As the centuries unfolded, this figure was understood as a separate entity. In modern weekly liturgy, Shekhinah is understood to be the Sabbath Queen. Kabbalists (similar to Jungians), believe that even God is in search of his split off feminine aspect of Divinity.

The great Hasidic rebbe, Nachman of Bratzlav taught through stories. One of his most famous is "The Lost Princess." In this story, Nachman builds on the implicit understanding of the Shekhinah.  Schwartz retells this story in a very pithy synopsis with subsequent interpretation showing exactly how the great rebbe uses the theme to talk about the quest for wholeness.

Throughout the book, Schwartz explores the whole range of Jewish literature including folktales, Jewish fairy tales, tales of the supernatural, Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and modern Yiddish and Israeli novels and short stories. He links all of this to the building blocks which he has carefully laid out. It is an impressive feat.

In conclusion, this is a useful reference work and a fine introduction to much of Jewish literature. Most readers will enjoy the many interesting summaries of Jewish stories (including one from Afghanistan about one Jew's search for justice which has an eerie "twilight zone" ending). The 24-page bibliography directs the reader to a potential lifetime of reading.

 My old friend from St. Louis has done well.

Once Upon A Country: A Palestinian Life

By Sari Nusseibeh with Anthony David

Reviewed by Richard Reiches

Sari Nusseibeh, a philosopher educated at Eton, Oxford and Harvard, is the president of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, the only Arab university in Jerusalem. He was the chief representative for the PLO in Jerusalem from 2001 to 2002. He is also a passionate advocate for peace between Israel and Palestine despite the obstacles and setbacks.

If you read his book you will no doubt come to like and respect this man. Yet this is not an easy book to digest, even if you are a critical Zionist like me. Reading from an Arab perspective, even one as Westernized and humanistic as Dr Nusseibeh's, you will be seeing Israel history from the other side. Our victories are their defeats; our gains are their losses; our heroes are usually their villains. This is the purpose of this book: Nusseibeh wants us to see the history of Israel and Palestine from his point of view, and he succeeds.

Nusseibeh is the product of a family which rivals the Kennedys and the Bushs. His ancestors played a vital role in Jerusalem since it was taken back from the Christians by the second caliph, Omar the Just, 1300 years ago. For generations they were entrusted with the key to the Holy Sepulcher. His father had many prominent positions in government including Minister of Defense of Jordan. He passed on his respect for reason and tolerance and openness to western education and democratic values to his son.

The author grew up with the division of Palestine into Israel and Arab territories in 1948 and through the events of the Suez Canal Crisis and the Six Day War. When East Jerusalem was taken by the Israelis in 1967, his world was turned upside down.

Nusseibeh championed the Palestinian national cause as an intellectual and as an activist. The Israeli victories are catastrophes for him and his family, but he engages them in a creative and flexible manner. He draws strength and intellectual support from the integrity exemplified by his father and from medieval Arab intellectuals such as Avicenna, who combined Islam with the rational and empirical philosophy of

Aristotle.

Although at first drawn to the idea of a bi-national democratic state of Arabs and Jews, Nusseibeh's pragmatism leads him to the promotion of two states, side-by-side living in peace. He becomes a supporter of the first Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israel which he views as the beginning a national awakening. However, he is steadfast in his commitment to using non-violent civil disobedience. Enlisted by Arafat to assist with negotiations with the Israelis, he does so reluctantly, preferring to take an independent approach that includes consistently works with the Israeli peace movement.

Nusseibeh maintains a philosopher's commitment to finding the truth and never condescends to a black and white perspective. He is unsparing in his denunciation of Zionist claims to replace the legitimacy of Arab rights to the land and national aspirations with Jewish ones, while never neglecting to denounce the mirror image attitudes among the Palestinians. He asserts an almost mystical connection between Jews and Arabs, even when Israel is expanding settlements and bombing Palestinians and when his fellow Palestinians are beating him up and threatening his life for what they view as selling out to the Israelis.

The author provides a fascinating take on the last 30-plus years of Jewish-Palestinian negotiations for which he has some very pointed first-hand observations. Whereas Israelis leadership consistently maintains there is no Palestinian leadership to negotiate with, the author details Israeli actions to discredit, marginalize, imprison, and sometimes kill moderates like him. He attributes the rise of Hamas to this policy, and he frequently quotes Israeli officials as preferring the extremists to the moderates, whom they considered to be more dangerous.

On the other hand, he is critical of PLO leadership for being inebriated with power and corruption once they finally do assume some autonomy in the West Bank. He faults Arafat for ambiguous leadership even with his closest associates and for being a terrible manager.

Perhaps most fascinating in this valuable and well-written memoir is Nusseibeh's ability to survive as a Palestinian moderate amidst Israeli intimidation, threats, and imprisonment while also negotiating the complex and often violent world of Palestinian politics.

Beyond survival, he is able to take over Al Quds University which he finds in a state of shambles and to make it into a respectable school of higher learning that even includes medical school. Nusseibeh somehow manages to combine brilliance, idealism, and commitment to higher education, learned in some of the finest schools in the West, with the kind of shrewd and agile bargaining and maneuvering that one might learn in the bazaar.

Although you may not agree with the author, you will find him to be a most worthy opponent. If you are like me, you will yearn to have this type of man on the other side of negotiations. Whatever side you take, I urge you to read this book.

Those Talking Post-Messianic Blues

and Kol Halev

By Richard Reiches

For many of us, the Inauguration of President Obama a year ago was a time of exhiliration.  A year later, many of us are feeling if not down right depressed, at least disappointed. No blame here; but we hoped for more, and it didn't happen.

Not that we thought that Obama would be the Messiah, but maybe FDR or Abraham Lincoln, or you fill in the blank here. Maybe this will still happen. Maybe not. "Yes we can" has become:"Well, maybe we can do something."

For want of better words, I will call this the semi-messianic blues. For Jews longing to participate in tikkun olam (the healing of the world), these kind of blues are a kind of occupational hazard. They go with the job of trying to build a better world. For many of us boomers, this is not a new phenomenon.

Jews throughout the millennia have been dealing with the real thing, the failed Messianic syndrome. There have been a number of failed Messiahs, including Bar Kochba, who led the last rebellion against Rome before being utterly defeated, and the big: Sabbatai Zvi, the 17^th century candidate who ultimately converted to Islam in one of those "convert or die" decisions. After Zvi there was a world-wide deep funk among Jews for which Hasidism was one of the responses.

Beyond American politics, there is a doom and gloom in the background if not the foreground in the world. If it isn't fear of terrorism, it is global warming, or the old standby of nuclear war. TV shows on cable feature titles like "10 Ways the World May End." Popular movies like "Avatar" talk about earth being a doomed planet.  A supposed children's movie "Where The Wild Things Are" has the hero Max tell one of the Beasts that the world will end when the sun dies.

This sure isn't the Disney kind of movie that I grew up with in a former era.

And then there is a lot of attention on the part of some to Dec 20, 2012, the official end date of the Mayan calendar and the possible date of the apocalypse.

Which brings me to Kol Halev. In Rabbi Geoff Basik's talk during the High Holidays, he discussed the need for a third kind of space, one other than the home or work place.  This would be a public space for a community to live and grow.

In this time of radical uncertainty there is a need, at least on my part, to celebrate the good old here and now, no matter what is to come. There is a need to try to embody tikkun olam in a more modest way with an emphasis on how we treat each other in a small community. There will be the inevitable screw ups and disappointments. Egos and personalities will intrude. This is part of the challenge. Kol Halev is an opportunity to create such a space.

In this time of who knows what is going to happen in the country and in the world, we can, in the words of Voltaire in "Candide," Leonard Bernstein and Pete Seeger, make our garden grow.

By this I am not advocating a retreat from the world. Quite the contrary. I think we can and must be involved, as individuals and as a shul. A la Rabbi Tarfon, our job is to fight the good fight but not to finish it. What results from our efforts is not something which we control in this world where great and small historical forces are contending.

What the synagogue can do, as we co-create it, is to provide a place for continuing renewal and reinvigoration as we do our work and live our lives.

The Yiddish Policeman's Union: A Novel

By Michael Chabon

Reviewed by Richard Reiches

Magic is alive and well in the world of first-rate fiction. The Yiddish Policeman's Union is a fine example of this literary magic and is a great read and a lot of fun to boot.

Michael Chabon has authored a number of novels, including the Pulitzer prize-winning The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (which I have also read and is also quite entertaining and well written). In this work, Chabon has taken the Philip Marlowe character and the conventions of the noir mystery of literature and film and delivered a first-rate comic adventure story in an alternative Jewish world.

The book's premise is that the 1940s, the American government started to let Jewish immigrants escaping the Nazis into Alaska where they created a colony in the city of Sitka. When Jews in Palestine were driven into the sea in 1948, the remainder of the survivors came to Sitka forming a temporary state within a state. In a time close to our present, Sitka is about to revert to its former status, and only a small percentage of the Jews living there can remain. The novel opens within the context of the tenuous status of Jewish life, and this theme continues throughout the story.

Our hero, Meyer Landsman is a noz (which is either real or made up Yiddish slang for detective) in the Yarkovy Homicide Section in Sitka. He is broken down and divorced with a lot of bad habits. Landsman works for his ex, Bina Gelbfarb, who is tough, sexy, and competent.

In the dive of a hotel he is living in, a junkie has been murdered who turns out to be Menachem Mendel Shpilman, the son and heir to the throne of the Verbover Chassidim, a group of devout and gangsters. We soon found out that Mendele was once considered by many of the Verbovers to be a Tzaddik Ha Dor, or one in a generation capable of becoming the messiah. The plot which ensues will get you involved in the world of chess (no background needed), expose you to a lot of Yiddish words and will explore Jewish Messianic aspirations and beliefs. (Hint: Google "red heifer").

What makes this work special to me is Chabon's humor, his use of language, and his insights into life, Jewish and otherwise. Much of the humor is based on the juxtaposition of things which seem like they don't belong together such as a small nation of Jews is living in rural Alaska (think Wasilla, you betcha). Landsman's partner, Ber Shemets, is both indigenous tribal (he uses a specially made hammer to intimidate recalcitrant yids) and is an observant Jew who wears a kipah and tsitsit. Another character is Willie Dick, a four-foot-seven, tough as nails detective. The Verbovers are both pious Jews and also totally ruthless, like the mafia.

The prose alternates between pulp fiction mystery and beautiful descriptive paragraphs filled with insights. Some of the best prose deals with Jewish history and beliefs. In a passage about Landsman's ex-wife, Chabon writes, "You have to look to Jews like Bina Gelbfarb to explain the wide range and persistence of the [Jewish] race. Jews who carry their homes in old cow hide bag, on the back of a camel, in the bubble of air at the center of their brains. Jews who land on their feet, hit the ground running, ride out the vicissitudes and made the best of what falls to hand."

For a final selection, I will include part of Chabon's meditation on Messianic thinking.

"But there was always a shortfall wasn't there? …. Between commandment and observance, heaven and earth, husband and wife, Zion and Jew. They call that shortfall 'the world'….only when Messiah came would the breach be closed, all separations, distinctions and distances collapsed. Until then, thanks be unto his Name, sparks, bright sparks, might leap across the gap, as between electric poles. And we must be grateful for the momentary light."

Enjoy!

JOSEPH'S BONES: Understanding The Struggle Between God and Mankind In The Bible

Reviewed by Richard Reiches

In Joseph's Bones author Jerome M. Segal, philosopher and instructor of Torah for the Fabrengen Cheder, has successfully taken the advice of fellow philosopher Martin Buber and has viewed the bible with fresh eyes. The result is a rich and challenging read. 

As the subtitle of the book indicates, the focus is on the struggle between God and mankind- particularly the Israelites- over the course of the first six books of Tanakh, which he calls the Hexateuch. What he finds, in ways that some will find radical and even heretical, is that both God and mankind/the Israelites change over this span of the bible through their interaction.

The book draws its title from Joseph's dying request to have the Israelites take his bones with them when God comes to take the people to Canaan. Amazingly, Moses and the people do take Joseph's remains when they leave Egypt, and ultimately, 400 years after his death, Joseph's bones are buried in Shekem.

 From this interesting but until now little heralded act, Segal draws big conclusions. He argues, and is backed up by midrash, that there must have been two arks taken by the Hebrews during the Exodus. Alongside of the ark of the covenant there was an ark for the remains of Joseph. Segal finds in the 400 year fulfillment of the commitment to Joseph an act showing that the Israelites were not the total disloyal, whiny people castigated by God so frequently in the Torah.

Even more radical, Segal finds in the veneration of Joseph- a devotion to a figure of love and compassion the people did not find in the commanding/reward-and-punishment wielding figure of God. I think this is the author's biggest leap, and one that the reader must judge for him or herself.  The author places Joseph in a more prominent and central status than in any previous discussion I have encountered. 

Joseph never hears directly from God but does claim to be directed be Him through his dreams, which he proceeds so brilliantly to interpret. Segal writes "Joseph is the first example of someone who believes there is a meaning to life, and in particular that bad things that happen...may be part of a larger purpose..." Joseph sees purpose in the events of life without being told so by God.

Furthermore, Joseph has an inner sense of what is right and just and thus is quite different from all the biblical figures who are responding to God's direct commands. His forgiveness of his brothers, however imperfect, establishes him as a figure of love and compassion even greater than that shown by God himself, at least the way God is depicted in the text.

Segal argues throughout the book that God is educated by man, especially his chosen favorites like Abraham and Moses, to become more moral and more compassionate, The author calls on philosophical analysis to differentiate a natural morality separate from God's commands. Thus God's actions can be judged according to a standard- separate from His own. Furthermore, the author argues persuasively that the bible (or authors of the bible) has a point of view, apart from God's, that is reflected in what is included and how it is presented.  The bible, according to Segal, often sides with man over God.