Learning from Bad Bunny ... And Hen Mazzig

 

Learning from a Puerto Rican Rapper

I caught the Superbowl Half-Time Show on Monday morning. My, American, rabbinic colleagues were already posting about it. The Israeli writer, Hen Mazzig, suggested ‘Bad Bunny’ offered a “masterclass in a lesson every minority community needs to learn”. I think his analysis might be the most interesting take on antisemitism and how to defeat it I’ve encountered in several years.

 

It’s not been an easy time to be a Latin American immigrant in the United States and when the NFL invited a politically active rapper from Puerto Rico to perform before 100million American Football fans, many expected a combative attack on ICE and the like. What happened was a celebration of love, Puerto Rican culture and an ending that took my breath away in its audacious reclaiming of the phrase, “God bless America,” chanted before listing every country in the entire northern and southern continent in front of a massive advertising billboard which proclaimed, in capital letters, “THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE.”

 

Mazzig’s point was that ‘Bad Bunny,’ “didn’t ask for a seat at the table and then protest when it wasn’t offered.” He just, “took up space.” His suggestion to those who wish to end antisemitism is that, “Rather than asking the world to be afraid on our behalf,” we should celebrate our culture and contribution with the all the vibrancy we can muster. We should focus on showing “true humanity and [proclaiming a] love that is universal in any race, religion, or ethnicity.”

 

I certainly have and will continue to expend time, effort, breath and ink opposing antisemitism. It’s vital to confront antisemitism. But antisemitism will not be ended ONLY by opposing it. Mazzig argues the mere act of opposing antisemitism highlights our fragility. My fear is that if the only way we seek to end antisemitism is through opposition, we will be outnumbered by those forces which are more powerful than we are. We cannot place our faith in our ability to overwhelm our opponents. We have to seek to transform them into our allies. I know that is not easy. It’s just that I don’t think we have another option.

 

Antisemitism, racism and other examples of what Abraham Joshua Heschel called, “the maximum of hatred for the minimum of reason,” can only be ended by all peoples finding points of commonality. We need to share why others should be proud of us, find delight in us and open ourselves to be proud of others in their differences and find delight in them.

It is through pride and celebration that we have a chance to create a less antisemtic world and a better world for us all. So be proud and celebrate.

When the Bar Mitzvah Has Prepared the Wrong Haftarah

 I wrote this several years ago and have held off posting until this year.

It's not about any current young member of the Synagogue I serve

On the Shabbat before Purim, the Mesorah states we should read the regular Torah reading (almost always Parshat Tetzaveh) then the special Maftir Zachor “Remember what Amalek did to you,” (Deut 25:17) from a second scroll. The obligation to remember Amalek is significant – Rambam considering it one of the 613 literally specified Torah mandates (Taaseh 189). And then one should continue with the Haftarah connected to this special Shabbat, ‘Pekaditi Et Asher Asah Amalek’ (I Sam 15).

The former is attested in the Mishnah (Megillah 3:4) and the latter is already attested in the Tosefta (3:1), cited in the Bavli 30a. Interestingly, there is a dispute about whether these readings are to be pushed off until the Shabbat AFTER Purim when Purim falls on a Friday. But the Halachah is entirely clear; Mishneh Torah Hil Tefillah 13:20, SA OH 685:2.

The question is – what to do when a BM has prepared the weekly portion Maftir and the weekly portion connected Haftarah and there isn’t time for them to prepare the (34 verse) Haftarah in the time between this being realised and the BM.

One piece is clear. We should, as a community, read Maftir Zachor, from a scroll. And we will. That can be done after the BM has read the last verses of Tetzaveh which can be done as an Acharon Aliyah. It needn’t be read by the BM.

Various options as to what to do at that point include, cancelling the learning the BM has done and have someone else read the Haftarah or have the BM read the Haftarah they have prepared.

It’s not really something discussed in classical sources, not merely because the practice of a BM reading Maftir and Haftarah as their BM is far more recent, but because the entire way in which Torah was read has gone through a complete inversion since the classical period. In the time of the Mishnah there was no ‘vicarious’ Torah reading for anyone at all. Everyone was expected to read their own Aliyah (Tosefta Megillah 3:12) and even Joseph Caro (d. 1575) protests against ‘vicarious’ Torah reading, “One who doesn’t know how to read, one needs to protest against them so they do not go up to read from the sefer torah.” (OH 139:2) That said there is clear shift in Jewish practice already evident from the time of one of Caro’s great guiding inspirations – R. Asher Ben Yehiel, the Rosh, who says, “The thing we do now, where the shaliach tzibbur reads, that is so as not to embarrass people who can’t read.” (on Megillah 21a 3:2).

 

There is a clear introduction, into traditional Jewish practice, even in ultra-orthodoxy – of a desire not to embarrass a person who is not capable of producing perfect leyning, “at the drop of a hat.” The key word is “Cavod” – honour or more literally “appropriate weight.” That word “Cavod” makes numerous appearances in Halahic discourse around Torah reading; around the issue of calling a Cohen, or a second Cohen if there is no Levi, or calling minors and, in orthodox environments, women. This is behind my sense that an appropriate response to this challenge would need to recognize of ‘Cavod HaOleh’ or ‘Cavod HaBar Mitzvah.’ It’s worth noting, in this case, that BM has worked hard and well on material they have already prepared and is not at fault.

 

More generally, the decent treatment of humans is an absolutely central part of Jewish practice. Onaat Devarim – mistreating people with words, is considered equivalent to Shifchut Damim, drawing blood (Baba Metzia 58b). I think this is especially applicable to a young person, on the edge of adulthood where there is a possibility, both, of drawing a person into a welcoming adult engagement with Judaism, or presenting Judaism as a Tirchah – un-necessary burden.

 

I’m grateful to my colleague, Rabbi Anthony Lazarus Margill who shared this story about one of the great Poskim of 20^th world-Jewry, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. In that situation, the BM prepared the Haftarah connected to the weekly Parasha instead of the Machar Chodesh Haftarah which should have been prepared. This was in Israel where one could assume an increased fluency in Hebrew, but there is a similarity to this case in that, for this particular BM learning difficulties meant they could not prepare the correct Haftarah afresh in the time available between spotting the problem and the BM. Rav Auerbach permitted the wrong Haftarah and movingly ensured there would be no issue during the service. The popular Orthodox magazine, Mishpacha, reported;

“The [father] escorted a proud and nervous [son] to shul. He prayed and hoped that the other [congregants] would have compassion for his son, and not jump on him angrily when he began reading a haftarah that was not Machar Chodesh.

As he entered, he stopped in shock. There, in his Givat Shaul shul, sat Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach. The venerated sage had braved the summer heat and trekked from his Shaarei Chesed home all the way to Givat Shaul — to serve as a bulwark of security and support for a little boy who’d poured his last grain of effort into the wrong haftarah.” https://mishpacha.com/finding-a-finale/

The sefer Divrei Mordechai p.262 deals with the situation where a BM had prepared the regular-week Haftarah for what should have been Shabbat Shekalim. He suggests that the, “In order not to cause the child soul-pain – Agmat Nefesh – the boy could read the blessing before the haftarah, an adult could read the Haftarah for Shekalim, then the boy could read the material ‘which he had prepared’, then the boy could read the blessings after the Haftarah. The Rabbi wisely adds, “there is from this case a warning to Gabbais to inform BMs ahead of time, which parasha and haftarah is upon them to prepare.” Amen to that.[1]

I’m also grateful to another colleague who suggested that, in this circumstance, a BM could read the first and last verse from the correct Haftarah and read the material prepared in the middle. I’m minded to suggest something a little different. The first verse of the correct Haftarah is cited in all the major sources – but the last verse isn’t. I think it would be appropriate for the BM to read the blessings before the Haftarah, the first verse of the correct Haftarah, then switch to Haftarah Tetzaveh, read that to its conclusion and then share the blessings after the Haftarah.

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[1] I’m grateful to David Chaim Wallach for this source, and also a source from Harerei Moshe about a situation where someone starts the wrong Haftarah and only realises their error mid-Haftarah (or perhaps more likely was made aware of the error!)

On Archbishops, Queens and Chassidic Rebbes

I’ve had an unusually ‘Church-intensive’ couple of weeks. On 28^th January, I was St Paul’s to watch as Archbishop Sarah Mullaly was ‘elected and confirmed’ as Archbishop of Canterbury. I got to know the, then, Bishop of London during her time in this diocese and, in particular, at the exceptional evening on the Terminally Ill (Adults) Bill she spoke at, hosted here at New London.

Then, I spent two days this week as part of the Senior Faith Leadership Programme hosted at Windsor Castle. Aside from the formal programme, participants were treated to a late-night private tour of St George’s Chapel, the last resting place of, among a long list of monarchs, Queen Elizabeth II.

No need to worry, my theology and practice remain entirely Jewish, but I was interested in the overlap between one of my favourite Chasidic teachings, the election of an Archbishop and the grave of a Queen.

The tone of the archbishop’s election pulled in two directions at the same time. On the one hand, there was might and glory, pomp, gold and words designed to bolster a mortal human being into fulfilling a role with, at least according to the Church of England, cosmic significance. On the other hand, there was a driving charge; the role is to be a servant, responsible, charged with taking care of the vulnerable and on and on the list went. The gold, the archbishop was reminded in one reading, “is as little as sand.”

I felt something similar underneath the dramatic soaring architecture of St George’s Chapel. One could feel the history, the power, the Empire and the might. But the small nave where the former Queen lies is unadorned and lined only with bare stone. The gravestone itself is carved with the name “Elizabeth II” and dates of birth and death, but there is no mention of her being “Queen” and no highfalutin’ terms of praise.

It all reminded me of the saying of Reb Simchah Bunim of Peshischa. A person should have, in each of two pockets, a slip of paper. On one is to be written, “For my sake was the Universe created.” On the other hand, “I am but dust and ashes.” The idea is that when a person feels a little beaten down, they/we/I can pull out the slip which reminds them/us/myself of my absolute value and unique spiritual role in this world. But if we get a little carried away with the pursuit of material gain or a little arrogant in our claims to ultimate significance, they/we/I should pull out the slip which reminds them/us/myself we are all destined to become dust.

It’s wise advice for Archbishops, monarchs, rabbis and all of us.

Shabbat Shalom