tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3741946423963427896.post7496022989900838414..comments2011-02-01T05:29:29.931+02:00Comments on Why Is Vasseira Here?: Nefesh B'Nefesh, Swing and a Miss...Yoni Vasseira / יהונתןhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08668269718965140169noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3741946423963427896.post-82133784964749533612010-02-26T18:16:37.516+02:002010-02-26T18:16:37.516+02:00Yoni,
I am embarrassed twice (once for you and you...Yoni,<br />I am embarrassed twice (once for you and your wife and once for the Russian gentleman) on behalf of all of us who work in synagogues. No one should be met with that level of bushah.<br /><br />As for your name, I have two comments. The first is that it is beoming more common for someone in our leadership to ask "How do you know someone in our shul is Jewish? Their name ends in a vowel." The number of Italian men who who have married into our community is becoming so large that it is beginning to go unnoticed. And I am referring to those who have joined us and are raising Jewish families, not those who marry out and are lost. So there is not much in a name, and any Jewish leader - professional or lay - who makes a judgment from the other end of a phone call based on a name is a fool.<br /><br />The other comment comes from one of my congregants from over a decade ago. His family lives in an area that is not what you might call ethnically diverse. At a parent night at the public school, he told me, he realized that his third grader only encountered ethnic diversity at Hebrew school. In his class that year were Asian, black, Hispanic and Russian children, all as Jewish as you or I.<br /><br />Many years ago there was a Yiddish song that included the phrase "Shicker is a goy" - the drunk is a non-Jew. It was a stereotype of both Jews and non-Jews. They are alcoholics, we are not. <br /><br />As we now know, Jews excel beyond their percentage of the population (another gross generalization, I know)not only in the arts, sciences or whatever field of endeavor, but we have MOTs who are alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, spouse abusers, pederasts - you name the thing we would like to believe Jews aren't and you can find one or more who are. <br /><br />So while I am saddened by the inexcusable lack of derekh eretz you encountered in of all places a synagogue, I am not completely surprised. Ordination or a job with a communal institution does not make any of us superhuman or better people than we are. That comes from encountering people who show us the way, as you and your wife did when you helped the man who needed help.<br /><br />I love the story of the challot. I have told a version of it for years. I have altered the ending to make it both more child friendly and to teach another lesson. I have the rabbi who observes the entire exchange explain to the two men that what they are doing is exactly what they thought they were doing - fulfilling God's will. It will be harder, now that they know about one another, to continue to fulfill their mitzvah AND accept that they are delighting God who is indeed both accepting the offering and feeding the family of the Shammas. But they must continue. In my version they continue, and their families become great friends. <br /><br />It is my hope and prayer that as your family continues on its journey, you are able to change the ending in a similar manner.<br /><br />Marbim Sameach,<br /><br />Ira WiseIra J. Wisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12562334169931991726noreply@blogger.com