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8 HASHALOM December
2016 / January 2017
December
2016 / January 2017
HASHALOM
9
JEWISH WORLD
JEWISH WORLD
Leonard Cohen was many things – novelist, poet, singer- songwriter –
but he was also a proud Jew, a true mensch and a lover of Zion.
Not many foreign pop stars could be eulogized by Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu as someone who “loved the people of Israel and
the State of Israel.”
But as a Jew and friend of Israel, the Canadian-born singer- songwriter
conducted himself, as in most things, in his own singular way. Nowhere
was this more evident than in his 2009 concert at National Stadium in
Ramat Gan.
Cohen came under heavy pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanction movement to cancel his appearance. Instead, he tried to
organize a second concert in Ramallah, with all the proceeds going to
Amnesty International.
More BDS pressure succeeded in scuttling the Ramallah show, and even
intimidated Amnesty to back away from its willingness to accept Cohen’s
philanthropy.
Having already performed several times in Israel, including his famous
1973 appearance for Israeli soldiers in Sinai during the Yom Kippur War,
Cohen was not so easily cowed. He found another worthy beneficiary for
his largesse in the Parents Circle, a group of Israelis and Palestinians who
have lost children in the conflict and now work together for peace and
coexistence.
The night of the concert I spoke with Parents Circle member Ali Abu
Awad, whose brother had been killed in a clash with Israeli troops, and he
told me: “I was in Israeli prisons for four years and lost my brother, and
am proud to have Leonard Cohen supporting us.”
Cohen’s Jewishnesswasdeep-rooted; his father andpaternal grandfather
were leaders of the Montreal-Jewish community, his maternal
grandfather a renowned rabbinical scholar. It was natural, he once said,
for him to draw on the “biblical landscape” for much of his work, including
such classic songs as “Hallelujah,” “Who By Fire,” “If It Be Your Will,” and
the title song of his recent album, “You Want it Darker,” which ends with
Cohen echoing the Abrahamic cry of “Hineni... I’m ready, my Lord.”
Cohen was a spiritual seeker, and his life’s journey brought him into a
deep exploration of other faiths – not unlike the personal odyssey of the
other truly great contemporary Jewish singer-songwriter with whom he
was frequently compared, Bob Dylan.
His extensive study of Zen Buddhism, including the years spent in ascetic
contemplation at a California Buddhist monastery, are all part of the
Cohen lore. But he insisted that even during this period he remained true
to his Jewish roots.
“In the tradition of Zen that I’ve practiced, there is no prayerful worship
and there is no affirmation of a deity,” he said in 2009, “so theologically,
there is no challenge to any Jewish belief.”
In contrast to Dylan, it was not in Cohen’s more modest character to play
preacher. When he did assume in song the role of truth-teller, in such
songs as “Everybody Knows,” it was with tongue seemingly firmly in
cheek (“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded/Everybody rolls with
their fingers crossed/Everybody knows the war is over/Everybody knows
the good guys lost.”)
Nor, despite his feelings for Israel, could one imagine Cohen, writing such
a politically direct song about the Jewish state as Dylan’s “Neighborhood
Bully” (“The neighborhood bully just lives to survive/ He’s criticized and
condemned for being alive”).
Cohen’s work seemed far more inward-looking than outer- directed, and
he shied away from definitive pronouncements about the world.
Yet even in such an oblique work as his hit “First, We Take Manhattan,”
it is not unreasonable to discern a thread of post-Holocaust Jewish
triumphalism (“But you see that line there moving through the station?/I
told you, I told you, told you, I was one those/Ah, you love me as a loser/
but now you’re worried I just might win”).
Cohen, of course, was no saint, nor tzaddik (righteous man). His
womanizing, drug use, and wayward family life are well documented, and
he was the first to admit his flaws. His close friend and fellow Canadian
poet, Irving Layton, once amusingly described him as “a narcissist who
hates himself.” (Cohen’s response: “That’s good.”)
Yet it is still striking in the many obituaries published about him this
weekend how almost nobody has a bad word to say about Cohen – he
truly comes off as a genuinely decent person, which is not at all average
when it comes to that rare species of humanity who can be truly labeled
as “pop star.”
Nor do I think it exaggerating to regard Cohen as an exemplary
contemporary Jewish artist: One who stayed committed to his roots
while open to all other forms of cultural influence, utilized that heritage
in a meaningful manner in his work while eschewing easy or exploitive
ethnic sentiment, and appreciated the Jewish state and its people while
not forsaking his own socially progressive values.
At the end of his concert in Ramat Gan, Cohen told the crowd he hoped
the event, and the group that benefited it, represented a “triumph over
the inclination of the heart to despair, revenge and hatred.”
He then lifted his hands in the traditional gesture that accompanies the
Birkat Hakohanim, the Priestly Blessing, and intoned upon the crowd
“May God lift his face upon you and give you peace.”
At that moment, the thousands of us in the stadium, no matter what
our names, were all Cohens – and privileged to receive a blessing from a
“kohen gadol,” a high priest of song, for our time.
Leonard Cohen: Artist, mensch and ‘kohen gadol’
Not many foreign pop stars could be eulogized by Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu as someone who “loved the people of Israel and the State of Israel.”
Hanukkah FAQ
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Festival of Lights
WHAT IS HANUKKAH?
Hanukkah, aka the Festival of Lights, celebrates the rededication
of the Second Temple in the 2nd century BCE and the Maccabees’
uprising against the Greeks.
WHEN IS HANUKKAH?
Hanukkah 2016 begins at sundown on Saturday, December 24,
and ends at sundown on Sunday, January 1, 2017.
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?
Hebrew for “dedication,” Hanukkah is an eight-day-long celebration
that commemorates just that: the purging and rededication of
the Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE after the Jews’
successful uprising against the Greeks.
ANY BAD GUYS?
Absolutely: Antiochus IV, one the best villains in all of Jewish history.
As his nicknames - “the Illustrious” and “Bearer of Victory” - suggest,
the ruler of the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire was fond of waging war.
He was engaging in that pastime in Egypt when a rumor circulated in
the region that he’d been killed. Meanwhile, Jason, a Hellenized Jew
who’d been deposed as the Temple’s high priest, heard of Antiochus’
death and saw an opportunity to reclaim his position, so he marched
on Jerusalem with 1,000 men. Antiochus interpreted the clash in the
holy city as a full-fledged Jewish revolt against the foreign rulers,
and, in 167 BCE, he attacked Judea and punished its population by
outlawing all Jewish rites and practices and mandating the worship
of Zeus.
By so doing, most modern scholars agree, the king was simply
intervening in an existing civil war between those Hebrews who
called for a strict adherence to tradition and those, like Jason, who
preached assimilation to Hellenism. Antiochus’ involvement, however,
aggravated the internecine struggle and prompted the traditionalists
to launch a genuine anti-Greek revolt, led by an aged priest,
Mattathias the Hasmonean, and his five sons - Jochanan, Simeon,
Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah - the latter nicknamed HaMakabi, or
the hammer, for his combat skills. Followers of the fighting family
eventually became known as Maccabees. Two years later, led by
Judah, the Maccabees succeeded in defeating Antiochus’ troops,
recaptured the Temple, and set out to purge it of idols.
According to the Talmud, the Maccabees wished to light the
Temple’s menorah, a traditional candelabrum that customarily
burned through the night in Judaism’s holiest place, but discovered
just enough oil to last for one day. Miraculously, however, the oil
burned for eight days, a wonder we commemorate by lighting
candles for eight nights.
Given its themes of Jewish nationalism and rebellion, the rabbis
downplayed Hanukkah’s importance throughout the centuries in
exile, fearing it might inspire their flock to imitate the Maccabees
and take up arms. More recently, however, the holiday has
experienced a renaissance: Celebrated on the 25th day of Kislev—
and therefore usually falling somewhere between late November
and late December on the Gregorian calendar—Hanukkah has
emerged as a Jewish equivalent to Christmas.
ANY DOS AND DON’TS?
As far as Jewish holidays go, Hanukkah is a lenient one, as it
is not a Sabbath-like holiday and therefore forbids no particular
practices. The major ritual of the holiday involves lighting the
hanukkiah, the proper name for an eight-flamed menorah, which
should be completed each night no later than half an hour after
nightfall (except on Fridays). The Talmud, in Tractate Shabbat,
specifies that unlike Shabbat candles, Hanukkah candles must
serve not for illumination but for the sole purpose of reflecting
on the Hanukkah miracle. This is why we light them with another
candle, called the shamash, meaning servant, and why we place
them on a windowsill so they advertise the holiday’s miracle to the
world. As we light the candles, we recite two blessings: “Blessed
are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified
us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the
Hanukkah light[s],” and “Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of
the universe, Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those
days at this time.” On the first night of Hanukkah, we also recite the
Sheheheyanu prayer, traditionally said whenever a happy occasion
is celebrated for the first time in a new season. Hymns and poems
are also sung, most notably “Hanerot Halalu” and “Maoz Tzur,”
both retelling the Hanukkah story. There are also several additions
to the daily prayers, including “Al HaNissim” (Hebrew for “about the
miracles”), a special recitation that is added to the silent devotion
prayer and that celebrates the Maccabees’ unlikely victory.
In a more earthly realm, there’s the tradition of playing with a dreidel,
the Hebrew letters on which stand for “a great miracle happened
there” (or, in Israel, “a great miracle happened here”). There is also
the habit of giving gelt, or money, to children and young adults.
Although there are several explanations concerning the origins of
this custom, the most commonly held one dates to the 17th century
and explains that with miracles and the elation of the historic victory
on everybody’s minds, young, impoverished students would visit
the homes of wealthy Jews and receive a few coins in return. More
recently, nimble chocolatiers presented their own gold-foil-covered
alternatives. Whether cash or cocoa, however, giving gelt fits in
nicely with the overall spirit of December’s gift-giving mania.
ANYTHING GOOD TO EAT?
It’s traditional on Hanukkah to eat fried foods like latkes and
sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts)—a natural choice for an oil-themed
holiday.
ANYTHING GOOD TO READ?
The Hanukkah texts are considered part of the apocrypha and
not included in the Hebrew Bible. They include the two books of
Maccabees, which tell the story of the rebellion and subsequent
victory, as well as the Book of Judith. The sister of Mattathias, and
therefore Judah’s aunt, she is believed to have tempted Holofernes,
a conquering Assyrian general, with her beauty, giving him wine
and cheese and, when he was drifting off to sleep, decapitating
him. The assassination emboldened the Jews, terrified the
occupiers, and saved the town of Bethulia from falling into foreign
hands. To commemorate Judith’s bravery, some communities eat
dairy on Hanukkah, hearkening back to Judith’s feeding cheese
to Holofernes. The heroic act is also the reason for women’s
participation in the mitzvah of lighting the Hanukkah candles:
unlike other commandments, this one commemorates, in part, the
bravery of one Jewish woman, therefore requiring Jewish women
everywhere to partake in the ritual.
ANYTHING ELSE TO DO?
•
Learn more about Hanukkah from that preeminent Jewish
scholar, Elmo.
•
Take that, Irving Berlin! Rock out with Sen. Orrin Hatch’s
Hanukkah song.
•
Build a Droidel, the only dreidel fit for a Jewish Jedi.
•
Get swept up in the great Latke-Hamantash debate.
•
Watch D.W. Griffith’s classic take on Judith.