Israel: A Steaming Pot
(Haftarah: Jeremiah 1:1-2:3)
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila is the International Director of the Sephardic Educational Center.
As I sat in the plane on my way to Israel, I reflected on the 43-year relationship I had with my father’s youngest brother.
For North African Jews, it’s a night when we turn over our homes from Passover to Mimouna, a joyous family and community-oriented cultural celebration that’s all about blessings, smiles and sweets.
Kotlianski’s story begins a few days before Passover, on Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat immediately preceding Passover.
As a Sephardic Jew who was raised with the classic Sephardic principles of tolerance, respect and religious moderation, I lament the contemporary absence of these values in today’s Sephardic rabbinic leaders, especially in Israel.
I always wanted to explore the Holocaust on a deeper level.
Three years before the advent of Yom Hashoah, another day was designated to recite Kaddish for the victims of the Holocaust.
As a man of letters, Agnon showed deep appreciation for America’s marketplace of ideas and viewpoints.
It was a Rosh Hashanah like no other. It was the Rosh Hashanah when I felt as if I held a “Book of Life” in my hands. On that day, for the very first time, I opened S.Y. Agnon’s beautiful High Holy Days book “Yamim Noraim — Days of Awe.”
When we sat down for that cup of coffee (or two, or three…), he asked me to recount our previous meetings. For me, those meetings were almost a mirror image of the various issues that came to define his life as a brilliant literary figure and outspoken public intellectual.