A Friend Indeed
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Welcome Ambassador Huckabee!
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Jewish Humor Central is a daily publication to start your day with news of the Jewish world that's likely to produce a knowing smile and some Yiddishe nachas. It's also a collection of sources of Jewish humor--anything that brings a grin, chuckle, laugh, guffaw, or just a warm feeling to readers. Our posts include jokes, satire, books, music, films, videos, food, Unbelievable But True, and In the News. Some are new, and some are classics. We post every morning, Sunday through Friday. Enjoy!
McKenna: Leonard Cohen was born into a Jewish family in Montreal in 1934. Yet his influences come also from the Catholic and Protestant communities of that city. And perhaps its that cosmopolitan background that gives him an intriguing angle, particularly on biblical history. In the song Hallelujah, he draws on a wonderfully and subversively passionate passage in the second book of Samuel. It happened towards evening when David had risen from his couch and was strolling on the palace roof that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful. David made enquiries about this woman and was told 'why that is Bethsheba, Allion's daughter, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.' Then David sent messengers and had her brought. She came to him and he slept with her. Now she had just purified herself from her courses. She then went home again. The woman conceived and sent word to David - 'I am with child'.
In the song there's the baffled king, David, and there's the baffled singer, Leonard Cohen, in search of the lost chord that certainly pleased the lord and might possibly please the woman. And there's the original story too, reduced now to the domestic and physical situation that it was and always is. Bethsheba may have broken the throne, but she also tied David to a kitchen chair. Delilah did something similar. There's more to be learned from the bible than God's dealing with the human race. There's also the dealings of women with men. There's the hard fact that nothing can be reconciled - at least not here.
Cohen: Finally there's no conflict between things, finally everything is reconciled but not where we live. This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled but there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess and that's what I mean by Hallelujah. That regardless of what the impossibility of the situation is, there is a moment when you open your mouth and you throw open your arms and you embrace the thing and you just say 'Hallelujah! Blessed is the name.' And you can't reconcile it in any other way except in that position of total surrender, total affirmation.We enjoyed the ballet performance and hope that you will, too.
"It started out as a small event of several people seeking to welcome Shabbat in the nature, facing the sea," says Iris Bertz, marketing and development director and a member of the port's executive committee.
They asked us for permission to welcome Shabbat with song and interpretations for the children, and hold the ceremony at the port. It soon became very clear that people were starting to gather round.
"And then the mats were replaced with chairs, songbooks were printed – and the number of participants today reaches 1,000. Beit Tefilah is responsible for the content, and we're in charge of the logistic side. The result is a peaceful ceremony, accompanied by melodies."
As almost everyone loves Shabbat, the crowd is very diverse. "It's the type of event that almost everyone can relate to," explains Bertz. "And because it takes place in the summer, when there are many tourists around, they usually join in and often add their own version of the prayers."
Does this reflect a social change?
"No. I think that many of us believe in a secular way. I believe that this need always existed, and we just found a place for it. People want this gathering, and our Shabbat welcoming ceremony is an event one can easily identify with and connect to.
"Apart from people who observe Shabbat, this event relates to any other level between secularity and Reform Judaism, and to those who simply enjoy the Shabbat rest, which is most of us.
"Just like on Yom Kippur many people who are not religious fast, on Shabbat people want something different to happen to them once a week, which will take them to a more festive and emotional place.
"We take Shabbat and the prayer, bring them closer to people and let them enjoy it as it is. We are just allowing it to happen, and in front of the sunset and sea – it's the perfect place."
“Our sketches are religiously oriented,” group member Yair Ya’akobi told Arutz Sheva. “This means we take every day situations from the typical religious milieu, we try to take them to extremes and see what happens.”Most of the sketches are in Hebrew, spoken so fast that they have Hebrew subtitles. The video below is an exception, because in it no words are spoken. Here's the scene: A young man is headed for shul on Shabbat morning. He gets dressed, then absent-mindedly puts his cellphone into his shirt pocket.
Ya’akobi emphasized that while many comedy groups essentially make fun of religion, Under-Dos makes sure not to push the limit and not to make fun of the values in which its members and religious viewers believe, but just of the situations that can arise in their lives.
“What we try to do is to be 100% kosher, because it’s easy to push the limits and then you find yourself making fun of the values that you stand for, and we really don’t want that,” he said. “We just look at things from different angles and with a wink.”
Many objects have been designated by our sages as Muktzah--we are forbidden from moving them, in some cases, even for activities permitted on Shabbat. Muktzah may not be moved directly with one's hand or even indirectly with an object (such as sweeping it away with a broom). However, Muktzah may be moved in a very awkward, unusual manner, with other parts of the body, e.g.: with one's teeth or elbow, or by blowing on it.Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!