Even though Robert Hertzberg will step down from the speakership of the California Assembly on Feb. 6, he still has plenty to say. The Sherman Oaks Democrat, as a rule, keeps busy.
Nes Gadol Hayah Sham.
We all agree that the letters on the sides of the dreidel stand for \”A Great Miracle Happened There.\” (In Israel, of course, the letters stand for Nes Gadol Hayah Po — \”A Great Miracle Happened Here.\”)
But — and this is why there\’s a book titled \”Two Jews, Three Opinions\” — what miracle are we talking about?
As long as the Jewish people lives, it will generate a living culture, and as long as that culture values the written word, Jews will write books.
Excerpted from \”Common Prayers: Faith, Family and a Christian\’s Journey Through the Jewish Year\” by Harvey Cox. (Houghton Mifflin, $24).
A growing number of Angelenos have either authored or sponsored Mesorah Artscroll texts.
I never expected I\’d write a first-hand account of my journey into interfaith marriage. As a child I attended the West Coast Talmudic Seminary (WCTS) and then Rambam Torah Institute for high school. As a teenager, my social life centered around my involvement in B\’nai Akiva, an Orthodox Zionist youth organization. My parents, Holocaust survivors, never forced me to attend these yeshivas.
\”At the moment of conception,\” says the Talmud, \”an angel takes the drop of semen from which the child will be formed and brings it before God. \’Master of the Universe, what shall be the fate of this drop?\’ asks the angel. \’Will it develop into a strong person or a weak one? A wise person or a fool? A wealthy person or a poor one?\’ Whether the person will be wicked or righteous, this he does not ask.\”
Why not? Why doesn\’t the angel ask God if the soon-to-be-formed person will be wicked or righteous?
So have you heard the one about the two rabbis on a boat? It\’s actually a story told by the Talmud in its discussion of the laws of the sukkah. It seems that Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Gamliel were on a boat during the days leading up to the holiday of Sukkot, and it became clear that they were not going to make it to land in time for the beginning of the festival. Rabbi Akiva sprung into action, pressing the members of the crew for a bit of lumber, some nails, and whatever other materials might be employed, to assemble a sukkah just large enough for himself and for his colleague.
Rabbi Safra roasted the meat. Raba salted the fish.
According to the Talmud, this is what these two great sages did every Friday afternoon, in preparation for Shabbat. The Talmud regards this information as noteworthy because, although both sages certainly had others in their households who could have done this work, they insisted on doing it themselves. \”It is greater to do the mitzvah with one\’s own hands than to delegate it to others\” was the motto by which Rabbi Safra and Raba lived. And they apparently applied this motto without discrimination. It pertained to messy or smelly mitzvot just as it did to mitzvot that did not get one\’s hands and clothing dirty. A mitzvah is a mitzvah.
Students of drama are well acquainted withAristotle\’s view about the \”fatal flaw.\” Protagonists of tragedy, nomatter how exalted, are brought down by a tragic flaw from within:bad judgment or bad character.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.