Category: Judaism

Matir Asurim, Tzedek Chicago, and Yom Kippur

As a member of Tzedek Chicago who is active with Matir Asurim: The Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People, I was asked to share about this work as part of Tzedek’s Yom Kippur afternoon studies. Below here are my remarks, more or less, from October 12 (Yom Kippur 5785); associated slides are here.

Presentation title page: “Matir Asurim: Introduction to the Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People,” Yom Kippur 5785 — Virginia Avniel Spatz. + Tzedek Chicago logo

Some of us have been worshiping together for much of the day. Others may be joining from another context. Either way, I hope this hour will bring focus to one way we can engage in teshuvah/repair for the coming year. The basic concept for this session is that I was asked to share a little about my volunteer work with the organization, Matir Asurim: The Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People, and bring some text to link that work with Yom Kippur.

Overview, Basics, and Contacts

[SLIDE 2]. The planned shape of the session is:

  • Basics and contact information for myself and the organization Matir Asurim
  • Text exploration: Genesis 44
  • Matir Asurim Guiding Principles
  • Back to Genesis 44
  • Thoughts for Yom Kippur and into 5785

So, let’s get started with some basics

[SLIDE 3] Matir Asurim — “One Who Frees Captives”

Who We Are: “We are a collection of Chaplains, Rabbis, Cantors, Kohanot/Hebrew Priestesses, advocates, activists, volunteers, loved ones of incarcerated people, and people with direct experience of incarceration. We are an all volunteer group who began meeting in 2021. We live and work across Turtle Island, in territories, cities, and rural settings of the US and Canada.”

I’ve been volunteering with Matir Asurim for close to two years,

  • producing the monthly e-newsletter,
  • serving as a penpal/chevruta partner with an incarcerated Jew,
  • helping to create resources for readers who are incarcerated,
  • helping craft materials for outside readers around incarceration,
  • producing some additional programming,
  • and working on organizational infrastructure.

We’ll get into some more specifics a bit later. Meanwhile, some contacts:

Matir Asurim link in bio — Facebook — Instagram — matirasurimnetwork@gmail.com

TzedekChicago linkTree — Facebook — Instagram

See also vspatz.net

Now let’s turn to some Torah text.

Joseph, Judah, and Siblings in Genesis

[SLIDE 4] Joseph and His Siblings

[Summary] Joseph is 12th of 13 siblings in the family of Jacob, Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah. In his youth, he was the favorite of his father, Jacob, and an annoyance to the rest of the family. So, Joseph’s brothers attempt to get rid of him. Their scheming takes an odd turn, however, and, although his family does not know it, Joseph becomes a powerful government leader in Mitzrayim, second in command to Pharaoh.

When famine strikes in Canaan, Jacob sends the brothers down to Mitzrayim, where grain is plentiful, to beg food. Joseph, still unrecognized by his brothers, treats the brothers to a feast at the palace and grants the requested supplies.

Joseph also orchestrates a criminal charge against the youngest brother – thus creating a situation in which the older siblings can again harm a younger brother, or they can act to avoid such harm.

Genesis 44 starts as the brothers leave the palace with the supplies.

[SLIDE 5] Genesis 44 Revised (2023) Jewish Publication Society translation, via Sefaria

1) Then he [Joseph] instructed his house steward as follows, “Fill the men’s bags with food, as much as they can carry, and put each one’s money in the mouth of his bag.

2) Put my silver goblet in the mouth of the bag of the youngest one, together with his money for the rations.” And he did as Joseph told him.

3) With the first light of morning, the men were sent off with their pack animals.

4) They had just left the city and had not gone far, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, go after those men! And when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why did you repay good with evil?”…

[The house steward follows Joseph’s orders, going after the brothers and accusing them of stealing the goblet.]

12) He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest; and the goblet turned up in Benjamin’s bag.

13) At this they rent their clothes. Each reloaded his pack animal, and they returned to the city.

[SLIDE 6] (Genesis 44 cont.)

14) When Judah and his brothers reentered the house of Joseph, who was still there, they threw themselves on the ground before him.

15) Joseph said to them, “What is this deed that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me practices divination?”

16) Judah replied, “What can we say to my lord? How can we plead, how can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered the crime of your servants. Here we are, then, slaves of my lord, the rest of us as much as the one in whose possession the goblet was found.”

17) But [Joseph] replied, “Far be it from me to act thus! Only the man in whose possession the goblet was found shall be my slave; the rest of you go back in peace to your father.”

18) Then Judah went up to him and said, “Please, my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your servant, you who are the equal of Pharaoh. [Link to bilingual English/Hebrew at Mechon-Mamre]

וַיִּגַּשׁ אֵלָיו יְהוּדָה, וַיֹּאמֶר בִּי אֲדֹנִי, יְדַבֶּר-נָא עַבְדְּךָ דָבָר בְּאָזְנֵי אֲדֹנִי, וְאַל-יִחַר אַפְּךָ בְּעַבְדֶּךָ: כִּי כָמוֹךָ, כְּפַרְעֹה

For the last verse, here, I want to look at a few words in Hebrew.

[SLIDE 7] Here’s Genesis 44:18 again in the Everett Fox (Schocken 1995) translation —

Yehuda came closer to him and said:

וַיִּגַּשׁ אֵלָיו יְהוּדָה וַיֹּאמֶר

Please, my lord,

בִּי אֲדֹנִי

pray let your servant speak a word in the ears of my lord,

יְדַבֶּר־נָא עַבְדְּךָ דָבָר בְּאׇזְנֵי אֲדֹנִי

and do not let your anger flare up against your servant,

וְאַל־יִחַר אַפְּךָ בְּעַבְדֶּךָ

for you are like Pharaoh!

כִּי כָמוֹךָ כְּפַרְעֹה׃

va’yigash eilav…

This expression, va’yigash eilavis, is worth considering. It comes up in midrash about this Torah story and it appears in Maimonides vocabulary discussion.

Jewish Teachers Discuss “Approaching”

[SLIDE 8] This is a small portion from Maimonides Guide for the Perplexed. Part 1 has many chapters focusing on Hebrew vocabulary.

BTW, I highly recommend checking out Maimonides’ vocabulary chapters, if you can. Sefaria offers free bilingual text with live links to the Tanakh verses mentioned, and I find it a worthwhile exercise to spend some time with the words Maimonides discusses.

Part 1, Chapter 18 is about three similar words: Karov, Naga, and Nagash

קרוב – נגוע – נגוש

Maimonides writes:

“THE three words karab, “to come near,” naga‘, “to touch,” and nagash, “to approach,” sometimes signify “contact” or “nearness in space,” sometimes the approach of man’s knowledge to an object, as if it resembled the physical approach of one body to another.”

He gives examples of each usage, including Gen 44:18: “…And Judah drew near (va-yiggash) unto him”

While we pursue the exchange between Judah and Joseph, it’s worth keeping this expression and the Hebrew vocabulary in mind, more generally: What does it mean to be near to another person in terms of physical space and knowledge of another?

A number of teachers over the centuries have derived lessons from Genesis 44:18. Here are two…

[SLIDE 9] va’yigash eilav yehudah…

It is asked: Judah and Joseph are already in the same room. So, why does the text tell us that Judah vayigash, “drew near” or “came in contact”?

One answer: Jacob ben Asher says:

The last letters of these three words — vayigaSH eilaV yehudaH, shin-vav-hey — spell “shaveh, שָׁוֶה [equal].” Judah’s step forward changes the dynamic, allowing the brothers to speak directly, as equals.

Another answer: The 18th Century teacher, Or Hachayim, from Morocco, cites Prov 27:19: “As face answers to face in water, So does one person’s heart to another”

Building on his teaching, we can see Judah’s step forward as an attempt to create a face-to-face encounter. This was a struggle for Judah, to step across apparent cultural differences and the gap in their positions. The result, ultimately, was reconciliation between the brothers.

This principle of seeking face-to-face interaction can be useful for the season of teshuvah to consider when taking steps in interpersonal reconciliation.

It is also a guiding principle for Matir Asurim as an organization.

Matir Asurim Guiding Concepts

[SLIDE 10] Panim-el-Panim, seeking face-to-face approach, is a guiding principle of Matir Asurim: “Seeking ‘face-to-face’ interactions, despite difference, distance and bars; approaching one another as equals and striving to work in genuine relationship.”

This shapes our penpal relationships, our creation of resources for those who are behind bars, as well as any advocacy on legislation or change of practices, regulations, and conditions inside.

Matir Asurim seeks to provide resources that reflect realities in carceral facilities which often include circumstances that contradict assumptions in much Jewish teaching

  • reciting prayers or reading Torah right next to toilets;
  • reciting daily prayers upon waking, which might not align with shacharit, morning prayers, at all;
  • figuring out how to create community in isolation, when so much of Jewish life assumes access to community (not exclusively an incarceration issue, but a BIG challenge for Jew who are incarcerated)

There are enormous challenges to organizing across bars, and we know that people inside are counting on those of us on the outside to organize and advocate where they cannot.

Still, it’s crucial to take our lead from incarcerated people and those who have experienced incarceration.

More on this guiding principle and its sources at Matir Asurim’s webpage. See also more thoughts: “Judah Approached.”

Matir Asurim has five other guiding principles

[SLIDE 11] Matir Asurim Guiding concepts

This is a shortened version; visit site for fuller presentation

B’tzelem Elohim [divine image]:

All people are created in the image of the Divine.

We all carry a spark of divine goodness as well as the capacity for creative action and transformation.

Teshuva [repentance/return]:

We believe in human resilience and transformation, in our ability to make amends after experiencing and/or perpetrating harm.

We practice this relationally as conflict arises within our organizing, and also strive to create a world that uplifts restorative accountability processes rather than punishment.

Refua Shleima [Complete Healing]:

We work towards collective healing and wholeness, striving to restore balanced relationships within the broader interconnected web of creation and to heal the traumatic effects of white supremacy, colonization, and other systems of oppression that affect our minds and bodies.

Learning from every person:

Learning from every person requires honoring the contributions and voices of people who have been systemically silenced, including through incarceration. In our conversations, we strive to hold awareness around differences in identity and power dynamics.

Kol Yisrael Aravim Zeh Bazeh

[All Jews Are Responsible, One to the Other]/Communal Responsibility:

“All Yisrael is responsible, one for the other.” Jews have many universalist obligations, but we also have a special duty to other Jews.

A little more on this last principle —

[SLIDE 12] Kol Yisrael Aravim Zeh Bazeh

Matir Asurim works with non-Jewish individuals and organizations on issues, trying to address needs of folks who are incarcerated and returning from incarceration in both the US and Canada.

Many non-Jewish groups are larger and better equipped to cope with more general issues, such as solitary confinement and the death penalty. We are also trying to link up with other affected groups regarding what is often called “religious diet.”

But we also focus on specifically Jewish needs: Trying to ensure that incarcerated Jews and those exploring Judaism have access to penpals and spiritual resources. In some carceral facilities, Jews are still offered a Christian bible and told to “ignore the end.” Trying to supply more appropriate resources is one goal. We also seek to fill requests for obtaining a tallit or tefillin – often an issue for those who are not recognized by Aleph (the biggest Jewish organization working in prisons, which provides resources for some Jews but not all).

[SLIDE 13] At a more basic level, we seek to increase awareness in Jewish communities that Jews DO experience incarceration and that we cannot treat incarceration as something that happens to other people.

This awareness also leads, in turn, to more general concerns about incarceration and the toll it takes on individuals, families, and society….

And that takes us back to Maimonides’ idea that “coming near” can be a matter of knowledge as much as one of physical nearness.

Back to “Coming Near”

[SLIDE 14] Back to Genesis 44

[Summary] Judah approaches Joseph and relates the brothers’ previous visit to Mitzrayim for food rations, when Joseph insisted that they return with their youngest brother. Judah includes in his tale the fiction, from years earlier, of a brother killed by a beast and their father’s real grief over the loss. Judah says that incarcerating Benjamin would increase Jacob’s pain and so offers himself as captive instead. At this point, Joseph can no longer restrain himself, clears the room of everyone except his brothers, weeps loudly, and reveals himself.

Gen 45:4-5 – Fox (Schocken) translation:

Then Yosef said to his brothers: I am Yosef. Is my father still alive?

But his brothers were not able to answer him,

for they were terrified before him.

Yosef said to his brothers:

Pray come close to me! [geshu-na eilai גְּשׁוּ־נָא אֵלַי]

They came close. [va’yigashu וַיִּגָּשׁוּ]

He said: I am Yosef your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

This time, the same verb, nagash, that we saw in Gen 44:18 is used by Joseph to invite approach, and the brother comply. Joseph invites the brothers to hear a truth they previously did not know even though they did know they had a part in causing harm.

In the Torah, Joseph will go on to explain that it’s all good, because even though the brothers meant ill, God meant to put Joseph where he ends up. Still we can consider this verse and what it means for the brothers to hear from Joseph about his direct experience. They come close and learn something they did not know but MUST if they are to understand Joseph’s life and their own roles in the wider world which also includes incarceration as a regular part of its function.

There are ways we all can learn more about the role incarceration plays in our history and our society now and how it impacts individuals and families.

  • We can opt to get closer to individuals who are or have been incarcerated.
  • We can also opt to approach through general learning.

[SLIDE 15] They came close: approaching as a matter of knowledge

  • Explore the complex, interrelated stories of racism, enslavement, and incarceration; of colonialism, displacement and destruction
  • Learn about the over-representation of Indigenous people in US and Canadian carceral systems
  • Learn about the Incentive System in the Canadian carceral system
  • Learn about the Exception Clause in the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution
  • Learn about the “Auburn system” of incarceration, which predates the US Civil War and the 13th Amendment. We have a video and transcript coming soon about Freeman’s Challenge — and I recommend the book….

One of the things that Robin Bernstein, author of Freeman’s Challenge, says she was trying to do with her book is to stop letting the North off the hook in terms of responsibility for our carceral state. Many of us associate exploiting prisoners for profit with the US South and Reconstruction. But her book describes a prison for profit system that pre-dates the Civil War and originates in the North….

For me, learning about the Auburn system, which originated in upstate New York, was a real shift in my thinking. So, coming on that verse, Gen 45:5 — where Joseph says, “I am the one you sold into imprisonment,” really rings new.

More details on some of the topics above, and some related Jewish texts, are available on Matir Asurim’s Resources page — originally prepared for Passover, but also more widely applicable. For more on Freman’s Challenge, visit this page.

In closing, I want to look back at Gen 44 again.

[SLIDE 16]

Returning to Genesis 44:16 Fox (Schocken) translation

Yehuda said: וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוּדָה

What can we say to my lord? מַה־נֹּאמַר לַאדֹנִי

What can we speak, מַה־נְּדַבֵּר

by what can we show ourselves innocent? וּמַה־נִּצְטַדָּק

God has found out your servants’ crime! הָאֱלֹהִים מָצָא אֶת־עֲוֺן עֲבָדֶיךָ

Here we are, servants to my lord, הִנֶּנּוּ עֲבָדִים לַאדֹנִי

so we, גַּם־אֲנַחְנוּ

so the one in whose hand the goblet was found. גַּם אֲשֶׁר־נִמְצָא הַגָּבִיעַ בְּיָדוֹ

[SLIDE 17] When Joseph orchestrates the threatened punishment of Benjamin alone, Judah says “God has found out your servants’ crime!” – ha-elohim, matza et-avon avdeikha

He then repeats the same verb, to find [mem-tzadei-aleph], and offers this poetic statement of collective responsibility:

…so we,

so the one in whose hand the goblet was found,

gam anachnu, גַּם־אֲנַחְנוּ

gam asher-nimtza hagabi’a b’yado, גַּם אֲשֶׁר־נִמְצָא הַגָּבִיעַ בְּיָדוֹ

Many teachers note that Judah seems to be acknowledging the brothers’ long-ago crime. And that verb, mem-tzadei-aleph, finding, might point us to things we might find we are complicit in, like living in a carceral state that relies on ideas of “public safety” leading to people being locked up and tortured.

Judah’s statement — “so we, so the one in whose hand the goblet was found” or “the rest of us as much as he in whose possession the goblet was found” points to an understanding of collective responsibility not unlike what we recite throughout Yom Kippur — when one of us commits a crime, we, all of us, who permitted the conditions that lead to crime, are the ones who sinned.

Gam Anachnu…. Also we…

Musical Legacies

I am intrigued by disagreement among sources, including origins for a piece of music. So, I am sharing here some things I recently discovered trying to find the right citation for “Return Again,” often sung during the Days of Awe.

The song seems to have begun, as many compositions of Shlomo Carlebach (1925 – 1994), z”l, apparently did, as a wordless niggun. (See brief note on Carlebach‘s controversial legacy with links to more information.)

Shlomo Carlebach put Hebrew lyrics (from festival musaf) to the tune:

V'hashev kohanim leavodatam 
velevi'im leshiram ulezimram 
ve'hashev yisrael linveihem
[Restore the priests to their service,
the Levites to their song and psalmody,​ 
and Israel to their habitatio​ns.]

[See Zemirot Database and, e.g., Spotify.]

English lyrics, lawsuit, citations

English lyrics came later. Rafael Simcha (Ronnie) Kahn says he wrote them, and this short video shows Carlebach citing “our friend Ronnie Kahn” for the English.

In 2019, Kahn filed suit against Shlomo’s daughters, Nechama and Nedara, over ownership of the song. Kahn vs. Carlebach, claims there was a joint copyright filed in the 1970s, improperly amended later. In June 2023, a US District Court Judge upheld Kahn’s right to sue, while also dismissing some claims. (See also CaseText and Archive.org.)

Zemirot Database for the English notes permission from Nechama Carlebach and cites Shlomo as (sole) author.

Shaina Noll’s (1992) version credits S. Carlebach and The Carlebach Family.

A number of sources in the last five years or so list S. Carlebach for the tune and R. Kahn for the lyrics.

More background

Cantor/composer Jeff Klepper shares some history here on a 2002 listserv, Hanashir. (Klepper’s slightly dated website; bio at Temple Sinai; see also Hava Nashira).

The Hanashir note includes different lyrics attributed to Rafael Simcha Kahn:

"Return again, Return again,
Return to the home of your soul; 
You who have strayed, Be not afraid, 
You're safe in the house of the Lord"

The note on the 2002 Hanashir list does not discuss the purported lyric shift, from “You who have strayed…in the house of the Lord” to “Return to who you are…born and reborn again.”

…The substantial differences might explain why the video (also linked above), identified as from 1976 and posted by Kahn, is cut off so early in the tune. (There could, of course, be many other reasons for the video’s length.)…

Hanashir does discuss one word change, however:

At a certain point, Shlomo, who started singing his niggun with Ronnie's words as well as the original Hebrew ones, changed the first verse to "...Return to the land of your soul"-- making it more of a (religious, obviously) Zionist verse and less of a general "spiritual" one. I [Robert Cohen] personally thought it was a change for the worse, as it particularized and narrowed whom it might speak to.  Ronnie's words, I thought, spoke to every Jew--as the verse in tefillah does.

Complex legacies

I [Virginia Spatz] personally find it fascinating that this (decades old) discussion focused on the shift from “home” to “land,” while assuming that liturgy about restoration of the Temple spoke to “every Jew.”

I find it fascinating that we have this archived discussion still — however informal it was at the time, and however fleeting it was assumed to be. I wonder, even as I participate in it, about the ethics of referencing a communication that was not written for long-term consumption.

I find it fascinating that the musical and Jewish worlds cannot easily answer the simple query: who wrote this song?

And I find it fascinating and important for us to consider how we honor and build on the work of those who came before us. What kinds of changes are appropriate, as we bring forward materials from the past, and what kinds of acknowledgements are needed?

Featured image is heading from legal filing: “United States District Court, Eastern District of New York. Ronnie Kahn, Plaintiff, -against- Neshama Carlebach and Nedara Carlebach, defendants.”

Kaddish Resources 2024

Sharing some kaddish translations and interpretations

Everett Fox’s translation of mourner’s kaddish, found in Anita Diamant, Saying Kaddish: How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead, and Mourn as a Jew. Schocken, 1999. NOTE: Some add “…v’al kol Yishmael, v’al kol yoshvei tevel [and all Ishmael and all who dwell on earth]” after v’al kol Yisrael” in the last verse. Fox’s kaddish translation (PDF — sometimes used for Tzedek Chicago Torah study). Also found at Open Siddur

Richard Heiberger’s translation, for National Havurah Committee, in memory of Mary Morris Heiberger (1946-2003). NHC kaddish (PDF — prepared for Tzedek Chicago’s Hebrew Learning Community)

Mourners’ Kaddish in Times of War and Violence by R’ Arthur Waskow

Interpretive kaddish by Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi

Mourners’ Kaddish for Everyday by Debra Cash (a poem found at Ritual Well)

A few older posts on kaddish

Exploring Kaddish and More on Kaddish (2014)

Jewish Mourning and Pets (2021)

What Kind of Country Is It?

Moses told the scouts to go up and “…see what kind of country it is. Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many? Is the country in which they dwell good or bad? Are the towns they live in open or fortified? Is the soil rich or poor? Is it wooded or not? And take pains to bring back some of the fruit of the land.” — Numbers 13:18-25

The video below is part of an attempt to “scout out the land” and prompt consideration of what kind of questions we ask about a place that is new to us, and why.

Note to Tzedek Chicago Torah Study participants — you’re welcome to check it out in advance, but I plan to include this in our exploration of parashat Shelach on June 29. To all: maybe I’ll post something more about the actual portion; maybe not.

Video takes a bit to load — also here is link that might work more smoothly.

TEXT used in video The video displays some words, including song lyrics, and that is also available in separate document for anyone who prefers to read in this form. Text of June 29 commentary video (PDF).

200 The USIA film at National Archives (a little more info below, but I cannot find a link to the original music used). NOTE: Video is full of LOTS OF STRONG STROBING

200+ with US Blues The video posted by @LongStrangeTrip710 incorporates the 1973 studio version, from Mars Hotel, of “US Blues.” NOTE: video includes the original film, which contains lots of STRONG strobing.

US BLUES Here’s a link to the lyrics at Dead net. Plenty of performances by (Grateful) Dead and friends available on YouTube, etc.

More Credits/Info

I think this is all the credits, but let me know if I missed something. No full, frame-by-frame image-description for the video, however here’s a summary: Still images from a 1975 “psychedelic” film made as USIA propaganda for 1976 US Bicentennial; includes video performances from Fifth Dimension, Gil Scott-Heron, and Rhiannon Giddens with Paul Simon, plus audio from Chocolate City and some other music. Includes quotes from Numbers 13.

200 The USIA film at National Archives and more about the Bicentennial film project. Slightly more about work of Vince Collins at IMDB.

AQUARIUS “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” was part of “Hair” and released on the 1969 Age of Aquarius album by the Fifth Dimension (Basic information). The video shown came without much explanation from an “Oldies” music channel.

CHOCOLATE CITY Lyrics, credits, and slightly more background for “Chocolate City” and George Clinton’s website.


WHITEY ON THE MOON Two performances by Gil Scott-Heron included: 1970 “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox” album, Flying Dutchman Records, and 1982 “Black Max,” widely available on on internet, although not sure about ownership and don’t know if it’s streamed anywhere; if DVD is an option, try your local library. (Basic info general Wiki and filmmaker’s page) See also this image , from 5783 Shavuot teaching on “faces,” with some words and images from Gil Scott-Heron.

RIVERS/DC Tunes “Conversations Toward Repair” (We Act Radio) page includes credits for Roberta Flack’s “River” and Brent Peterson’s “Clean Rivers.” A brief clip from Rare Essence’s “Don’t Mute DC” was later included in regular intro music.

AMERICAN TUNE Paul Simon, 1973 “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon” Columbia Records (1973 lyrics). Note that the author changed the lyrics in recent years. Brief Billboard note about 2022 Grammy performance with Rhiannon Giddens, for “Homeward Bound: a Grammy salute to the songs of Paul Simon.” In summer 2022, Rolling Stone credited Giddens with changing the lyrics, but Giddens stresses that Simon made the change.

“It’s also very important to say that Paul changed the lyrics, not me – and this song has become one that is so dear to my heart for its ability to say what I have been feeling for a long time.” — July 28, 2022 — @RhiannonGiddens on X

X [formerly Twitter] post from @RhiannonGiddens about Paul Simon’s lyric change.

I ask ‘How?!’

What name of God is an anchor for you through this period of ever-growing mourning? A recent study session* asked participants to focus on this question, based on text from Psalm 16:8:

Shiviti YHVH l’negedi tamid

“I am every mindful of the divine presence”

or “Divine presence is in front of me always”

Participants shared many names — Shekhinah [indwelling presence], Ruach Ha-olam [spirit/breath of all], Ein Sof [without end], “Matir Asurim — the one who releases the bound,” HaTzur (the Rock)….All that came to mind for me was: “Eikha?! [How?!]” —

and, after some further sitting, Psalm 25:4-5

דְּרָכֶיךָ יְהֹוָה הוֹדִיעֵנִי אֹרְחוֹתֶיךָ לַמְּדֵנִי׃

הַדְרִיכֵנִי בַאֲמִתֶּךָ  וְלַמְּדֵנִי כִּי־אַתָּה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׁעִי אוֹתְךָ קִוִּיתִי כל־הַיּוֹם׃

Let me know Your paths, YHVH;
teach me Your ways;

guide me in Your true way and teach me,
for You are God, my deliverer;
it is You I look to at all times.

Later, I was reminded of another text, one which relates in a round about way to the Joseph story — from the current Torah reading cycle — and to my own confusions these days….

Joseph and “Your Own Pit”

Proverbs 5:15-17 says:

15) Drink water from your own cistern [bor-kha],
Running water from your own well.
16) Your springs will gush forth
In streams in the public squares.
17) They will be yours alone,
Others having no part with you

This image from Proverbs echoes language in the Joseph story: His brothers “took him and cast him into the pit [ha-bor]. The pit was empty; there was no water in it” (Gen 37:22).

Commentary on the Proverbs passage links water to Torah and describes an empty pit as a new learner:

R. Akiva says: It is written: “Drink waters from your pit.” A pit, in the beginning, is unable to supply a drop of water of its own, containing, as it does, only what is put into it. So, a Torah scholar, in the beginning, has learned and reviewed only what their teacher has taught them.
“and flowing waters from your well”: Just as a well flows living waters from all of its sides, so, disciples come and learn from the “flowing” Torah scholar.
And thus is it written: “Your fountains will spread abroad.” Words of Torah are compared to water. Just as water is life for the world, so, words of Torah, as it is written (Proverbs 4:22)
— Sifrei Devarim 48:5

I am sure there is commentary linking this passage to the Joseph story….

…if anyone knows, please advise. Otherwise, I’ll look it up and update….

At the time of this incident, Joseph was young, still what we now call a teenager. And his behavior to his family does seem, at least on the surface, quite immature. So, it is tempting to view him as without Torah yet.

But, many young people have absorbed Torah in all sorts of ways. And different commentary, based on the expression “ben zekunim” (Gen 37:3), says that Jacob had been teaching Joseph “Torah of Exile,” learned from Shem and Eber. (More here.) So, what I’m thinking THIS WEEK — who knows what is to come — is that maybe Joseph did not yet have his own Torah.

And that leads me, as very little in this world does not, to Star Trek.

“I fly the ship”

I am still catching up on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and recently saw Season Two, Episode 4, “The Lotus Eaters” (originally aired: July 6, 2023). In this episode, the whole Enterprise crew has lost their memories (but not skills), and the ship’s pilot is trying to remind herself of her role.

I’ve shared this to start at 46 seconds in —

WARNING: The only real violence in the last 3 minutes of this clip is to, and from, some space rocks. But the first 45 seconds are very violent and, on their own, add little to the scene with the pilot. So, view with that caution in mind, please.


When Ortegas yells at the ship’s computer — which she does not recognize, due to the odd memory losses, and so addresses as “miss” and “ma’am” — I was right there with her: “Stop the rocks!”

“Yes, ma’am, please, right now: Stop the rocks!” seems very close to what I’m yelling at civic leaders, at Jewish communities, at the universe, at God. All day. Every day.

So, I was immensely moved by her gradual realization that she might be able to do something to improve the situation, for herself and others: “I’m Erica Ortegas, and I fly the ship!”

Earlier in the episode, Ortegas is not pleased to lose a very rare opportunity for an away mission… with its chance to wear a spiffy fur-like hat in the local culture’s style. Her annoyance is presented mostly as a question of boredom. But don’t we all ask ourselves why we don’t get to be on the fun mission instead of stuck with work based on choices we made long ago? or maybe based on how others view us and our skills? I really resonated with her frustration when told she was needed on the ship instead.

…For more on this episode, here is a piece at Tor and one at Escapist Magazine (see also Memory Alpha)….

I hope Ortegas gets her away mission (although some do point out the perils of being a red-shirt in such circumstance). But I also loved watching her figure out that she could, indeed, do something other than yell about the rocks.

“I am… and I…”

On ordinary days, it can be a struggle to figure out what we can contribute to the world at any moment, however small and unworthy or huge and daunting it may seem. On days when space rocks are bombarding the ship and no one seems in charge… those are the days when all I seem able to manage is a cry of Eikha!?

Some days the answer is: well, I can empty the dishwasher or clean the bathroom. Or, I can answer this letter from a friend or send a gift for the neighbor’s new baby. Some days the answer is: I can assist a colleague in an important electoral campaign, or I can join a protest, or I can share news that seems crucial but ignored. And sometimes, the answer might be: I can sit right here until I figure out what it might mean to “plot a course” for myself and others.

And that brings me back to Psalm 25: Let me know. Teach me. Show me. Guide me.

It is painful to sit with the uncertainty while a crisis unfolds. But maybe sometimes getting to one’s own Torah means staying with the question: “I am Virginia Spatz, and I ask ‘How?!'”

* Rabbis4CeaseFire final shloshim study session

Featured image is from Star Trek Strange New World (S2E04). See, e.g., Escapist article or Memory Alpha.

Alt text for featured image: Enterprise pilot Erica Ortegas in uniform at her station, focused on flying the ship.

DC Tefillin Barbie Does Sukkot

In response to social media showing “Barbie’s Dream Sukkah” (see below), I built this sukkah for DC Tefillin Barbie.

I built it the way doll dwellings were created in my youth, repurposing whatever was at hand and roughly the right scale: cardboard, empty spools of thread, scraps of fabric, an old greeting card with a pretty design…. No one I knew had any kind of “Dream” house or car, although Barbies drove or lived in store-bought items that seemed close to her size. And those “Dream” items are just as foreign today as they were back then. So DC Tefillin Barbie‘s sukkah reflects a different dream: a sheltering peace that covers us all.

Cardboard box sukkah for Tefillin Barbie. sign on back wall reads "Help us see that no work truly prospers unless it bring blessing to others...Never seek to dispossess others of what they have planted." Reform Prayerbook. Another sign reads #OccupyJudaism and shows fiddler (as in "on the roof") on Wall Street Bull. Additional decorations are all homemade or repurposed. greenery visble on roof. one wall is fabric. Tiny lulav and etrog on makeshift table.
DC Tefillin Barbie, Sukkah 5784

This Sukkah’s History

For quite a few years, the sukkah we set up outside our house also looked more like cardboard sukkah 5784 than “Barbie Dream Sukkah.”

Wooden frame sukkah with different sized sheets as walls, sign reads "Spread over all Your Canoppy of Peace"
2010 sukkah in front yard

A few years ago, we gave in and bought a Sukkah Project kit; it’s a marvel of ease in so many ways, but ours retains homemade touches. Two signs in our 5780 sukkah (photos here) were created for the local (DC) “Occupy Judaism” sukkah in 2011. (The wooden sukkah once in our yard was erected at McPherson Square; the materials were absorbed into Occupy K Street after the holiday.)

Kit sukkah with a single, wrap-around-three-sides tarp wall and even root with some rag-tag decorations hanging from roof, including the fiddler and bull sign which hangs in Barbie's sukkah
Inside of our Sukkah Project version 5780
One outside wall of Sukkah Project with canvas sign reading: "Help us see that no work truly prospers unless it bring blessing to others...Never seek to dispossess others of what they have planted." from Reform Jewish Union Prayerbook.
Outside wall of 5780 Sukkah Project

I copied those signs for DC Tefillin Barbie’s sukkah.

corner view with greeting card wall and #occupyJudaism sign plus table with lulav, etrog, and siddr
Corner view of Barbie’s sukkah
Another view of Tefillin Barbie, relaxing in sukkah, against fabric wall, seated on box covered in same fabric, feet up on empty spool of thread
DC Tefillin Barbie and her makeshift “dream” dwelling

Among the items at hand, as the cardboard sukkah was built, were a button from “Coalition of Concerned Mothers,” remembering individuals killed by police, and a sticker from Prison Radio, reading “In American Prisons Life Means Death.”

See related Meditation for Sitting in the Sukkah, 2019, treating those lost to police as ushpizin, mystical invited guests; Michael Zoosman, of Jews Against the Death Penalty, wrote an ushpizin-related meditation this year, focusing on those executed by the state. These items were added as decorations meant to remind DC Tefillin Barbie and visitors to reject “any sense that we are somehow entitled to dwell in safety…when others cannot.”

Barbie, Her Dreams, and Sukkot

This past Shabbat (9/30/23), Tzedek Chicago explored the concept of p’ri eitz hadar — the goodly fruit. So many interesting ideas and related study were raised. In addition, I found this note from some years back about Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik’s linking Sukkot to the Oral Law and my own prayer for living in the fallible structure of the sukkah and of our individual and collective understanding of Torah.

I wrote at the time (and had completely forgotten): “As we prepare to leave the sukkah, we may hope that next year’s construction will be of even stronger, more beautiful materials erected by even surer hands. But that hope for the future need not throw doubt on the value of this year’s construction or diminish our enjoyment in this year’s dwelling place.” This year, I have really struggled with “the enjoyment of this year’s dwelling place.”

I still haven’t seen the Barbie movie and don’t understand a lot about Barbie culture. But I am find myself hoping there are other Barbies out there enjoying their own “dream” sukkot. May we all dwell — if only for a few moments — in structures that honor life’s fragility and our responsibility to create stronger, more inclusive shelters. And may we find ways to work together to bring the dream closer in the coming year.

Barbie Dream Sukkah

In late September 2023, Hey Alma posted these images on Instagram, saying “this is the vibe we’re going for this year.” Comments varied hugely, from enthusiasm for the “vibe” and the opulence of the sukkah itself to wrath at the AI-generated images. A FB post (not Hey Alma) drew criticism because Barbie’s clothes are not tzniut (modest) and the sukkah is pasul (not kosher). I cannot find any credits for the images, which also appear on this site. I first saw these images, shared by Rabbi Brant Rosen, during Torah study with Tzedek Chicago.

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DC Tefillin Barbie

Soferet Jan Taylor Friedman offers much information in relation to her amazing Tefillin Barbie project. Here’s info about my own changes to the Barbie who arrived in 2014. In addition, note: DC Tefillin Barbie holds by Rabbi Isserles who ruled that tefillin are worn on intermediate days of Sukkot — and she lives in her own personal time zone where it’s always eit ratzon, a good time, for prayershawl and tefillin.

Tiny version of Siddur Eit Ratzon Weekday Edition, with Hebrew and English lettering
Siddur Eit Ratzon

She, like me, is experimenting with locally sourced lulav and etrog as part of a wider exploration of Diaspora Judaism.

Very blonde Barbie holds homemade lulav in her sukkah
DC Tefillin Barbie with lulav

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Gatherer of the Last and Lost

This week’s Torah portion, Beha’alothekha (Number 8:1-12:6) is named for its first command, to “mount the lamps” or “go up and light” — or as my attempt at using an on-line dictionary meant for modern Hebrew-English translation would have it: “In your upload”

In the portion, there are a number of interesting uses of words with the root letters aleph- samech – pei [אסף].

In verse 10:25, we read a description of what is special about the tribe of Dan:

וְנָסַע, דֶּגֶל מַחֲנֵה בְנֵי-דָן–מְאַסֵּף לְכָל-הַמַּחֲנֹת

“Then, as the rear guard of all the divisions, the standard of the division of Dan would set out” (JPS 2006)

“Then the standard of the camp of Dan set out, the gatherer of all the camps” (English translation of Onkelos, Drazin/Wagner 2007)

Comment from Onkelos Translation:

Although Onkelos translates Scripture’s me’aseif — from the root a-s-f, “gather” — literally, Saadiah clarifies that it is a metaphor for “the last” of all the camps. Rashi (based on the Jerusalem Talmud, Eruvin 5:1) takes the word literally: the three-tribe division of Dan gathered all the lost articles dropped by the Israelites during their trek in the wilderness. Bechor Schor and Chazkunee offer another, similar interpretation: the division of Dan gathered those who were unable for any reason to travel with their own division.
— comment to 10:25 in the above cited Onkelos

to be continued…

A Teacher-filled Tale and Blessing

This session (Fall 2022) at SVARA, I have been part of a small group exploring “The Dazzling Wisdom of Rabbi Meir.” We began learning of Rabbi Meir’s tendency to add so many “faces” or facets or perspectives to an issue that his colleagues “could not stand on the end of his insight.” We looked at how his colleagues viewed R’ Meir and some of his students fared (Eruvin 13b).

We detoured — or maybe entered the heart of the matter — to discuss the sheretz, its ritual status viz a viz purity, and its relationship to the death penalty (Shabbat 147b).

We explored Rabbi Meir’s initial arrival before Rabbi Akiva, where he could “not stand on the heart of” his learning and went to Rabbi Ishmael, where he gmara‘d g’mara and then returning to R’ Akiva where he svara‘d svara (Eruvin 13a). This was “mei-ikar,” in the beginning or maybe, from the essence of the thing.

Then we learned (returning to Eruvin 13b) about the years-long dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai and the bat kol that settled the practice while widening the teaching.

All this called to mind for me active parallels with my own learning, from youth to whatever age I am now, and from early days of the Havurah movement to wherever things are today. One result of my more organizationally-oriented musings is this “Teacher-Filled Tale” document, which concludes with “Blessing for Recitation by Descendants of Rabbi Meir.”

Teacher-filled Tale with BlessingDownload

Some aspects of more individually-focused musings were shared earlier as “Bowie and Hendrix and God and Meir.”

In deep gratitude to my study partner, teachers, entire dazzling bet midrash, and SVARA as a whole, and to all my teachers.

Image featured is section of the PDF shared.

Bowie and Hendrix and God and Meir

Another set of resources that might or might not make sense outside of SVARA’s “Dazzling Wisdom of Rabbi Meir” Class. (The large PDF repeats two pages from earlier; plain text version, with image descriptions, follows.)

Sefaria Source Sheet on barzel [iron] and the verb chadad [or maybe yachad]

“Eyes and Teachers” in graphic layout and just text plus image descriptions.

Eyes and Teachers for Dazzling_SpatzDownload

Plain text version, with image descriptions (this is PDF, cannot upload RTF, sorry)

Eyes and Teachers for Dazzling_Spatz TEXT and IDDownload