A fox seen while ascending Pikes Peak
Wishing everyone a great Shabbos!
1 year ago
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
לאכן מיט יאשטשערקעס
והנה ה׳ ניצב עליו, ומלא כל הארץ כבודו, ומביט עליו
א סצענע פון לעבען
א געדיכט פון עומק הלב
אן א גראם און אן א טעם
מ'וויל נאר די אמת טאן
איך וויל און דו ווילסט נאר ווער פארהעלט?
די שאור אין די טייג
אבער מ'גייאט נאך ווייטער און ווייטער,
און מ'גראבט זיך נאך טיפער און טיפער.
און ס'גייט זיך און ס'ציעט זיך
און די נשמה גיסט זיך פון תוכ-תוכיות נקודת הלב
אלץ איז שטיל ווי דאס ערשטע נאכט פון די בריאה
אבער אין די שטילקייט הערט מען א שעפּטש א קול דממה דקה
א פּלוצעמדיק גייסטלעכע הימל געשריי
"וואס וויינסטו אידעלע?
"ביסטו דאך א חלק אלוקה ממעל -
דארפסטו זיין בשמחה
Technorati Tags: Yiddish, Thoughts, Life, Judaism
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Rebuilding Babel : A Redux in Blank Verse
I heard an interesting vart over Shabbos.There are certain concepts in the weekly Torah portion that can only be properly understood in the light of chassidus.
וַיּאמֶר ה' הֵן עַם אֶחָד וְשָׂפָה אַחַת לְכֻלָּם, וְזֶה, הַחִלָּם לַעֲשׂוֹת; וְעַתָּה לֹא-יִבָּצֵר מֵהֶם, כֹּל אֲשֶׁר יָזְמוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת.
And the LORD said: 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do; and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do.Rashi gives three explanations of what they wanted to do -
To build a tower that would reach to the Heavens to wage war against G-d for taking the Heavens for himself, to speak against the One above [in general it would seem] or to build a Heavenly support to prevent a future flood.
Seemingly G-ds answer makes little sense in light of the tower's purpose. Was does G-d wish to prevent them from fulfiling their machinations? No matter how high the tower were to be built, it would never reach G-d . . . No building would actually serve a support stop the sky being ripped asunder once more by flood. What does G-d need to foil in their actions when seemingly they are vain in the first place?
If we take a closer look at the Biblical verse, we see the people built the tower "lest [they] be scattered upon the face of the entire earth" thus undoing their world "of one language and uniform words." Men no longer wanted to be scattered by future floods. Instead they wished to remain unified and uniform. They wished avoid the Divine duty of spreading out upon the land and make a dira b'tachtonim. Dispersion would lead to development and change in human culture, language, society and life.
Thus they built an edifice upon which all could congregate. The tower would serve as focal point - binding humanity together in a single cohesive society.
¤
They wanted, to bring a modern analogy, to create a UN. Just as today many people falsely assume that true peace and unity is through the assimilation and acceptance of all cultures into one cohesive identity, so too then.
What they missed was that true unity best expresses itself by the vary nature of the differences - that the homogeneity brings to stagnation and ultimately failure. It's one of the earliest sophisms recorded in human history - it's the destruction of true distinction and honor, instead supplanting it with intellectually dishonest truisms fit only for feel good messages found in the fortune cookies of cheap Chinese take-out.
....
Before Gimmel Tammuz the Rebbe in many ways was our Migdol. Just like Michael the prince of water and Gabriel the prince of fire, kindness and severity, are two conflicting and diametrically opposed concepts, yet in their root above - under a supreme divine presence - they can coexist through their essential nullification to the same source . . . So too before Gimmel Tammuz the very existence of a Rebbe prevented the dispersion, conflict, debate and degradation of those around him (to some degree).
But when the Cats away, the mice will play . . .
Now we have our shlichus abroad . . . we have spread out fulfilling what those who built the tower tried to fight. We're doing what out tower so wanted us to do.
. . .
A word to the wise . . .
Of course, as we say in French, eino domeh hamoshel le'hanimshal, the parable can not be truly compared to the lesson we learn from it.
For while the dispersion and cultural dissonance of the Tower of Babel was something very much wanted Above, the same is not true in our case.
Our shlichus, our sojourn in all places abroad, is not to lesson our original goals and ideals - our native tongue. We must go out to the world around us . . . but we must pay heed to elevate it to us - not sink in the mire we wish to let others know they can be released from.
Like the soul . . . if it does not go down, then why was it created? And if it does not wish to return once below, what good will it do?
וד"ל
Technorati Tags: Judaism, Chabad, Rebbe, Dvar Torah, Tower of Babel, Crown Heights, Shlichus, Politically Correct
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Weekly Riddle 15
To some the beginning of the end, for others the end of the beginning.
Worthy am I to atone for the punishment of the sinning.
A day of solitude, a day of fraternity,
my blessings for you will go on for eternity.
I'll give 5 points each to the first two people to answer correctly after the initial person gets it. As well, I'll give 100 points to anyone who l'chaim tonight with me.
Technorati Tags: Riddles, Life
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
New York, Do You Love Your Jews?
I've written about Hollywood's portrayal of Orthodox Jews in the past.
With the film New York, I Love You coming out, people seem to be interested in Natalie Portman's portrayal of a chassidic woman.
While if anyone can pull off a relatively inoffensive and accurate portrayal of a Satmar meidel it would be Natalie (a friend of mine was actually an extra during the principal photography, and told me he spoke briefly to Ms. Portman about her experiences with Chabad), I find the trailer rather interesting.
For it would seem that even while portraying religious Jews in a film, they aren't interesting enough to be heard. For while the Jewish story is an eleventh of the film, no dialog is used from it. We make for good images in passing, but can't have depth.
Sigh.
Technorati Tags: New York I Love You, Film, Videos, Judaism, Hollywood, New York, Natalie Portman
Sunday, October 18, 2009
The Highest Sukkah in the World
Zebulon Pike tried to clime the mountain that would one day bear his name. Unable to make it to the pinnacle, he questioned if it was indeed possible to surmount the top.
Though he never did stand upon it's gusty peak, we did make the journey up.
Click on the link to enjoy the post . . .
Pikes Peak from afar
At 14,115 feet, Pikes Peak comes in at half the height of Mt. Everest. Part of the yearly tradition in the Springs has been to bring a pop-up sukkah to the top, thus creating the highest sukkah in the world.
Jason, a dear friend of the Chabad, rented a car to ascend the winding path to the top.
A fox noshing on popcorn at the halfway point
Above the tree line there's only snow and rock against a gray sky
A look out down below to the Garden of Hashem and the city at large
At the top we quickly began to assemble to pop-up sukkah despite the strong gusts of wind on frigid top. As soon as we had put up the Sukkah, however, a park ranger came to us and told us that we had four minutes to take it down and leave the mountain top in order to be out by park closing.
We managed to gain a few extra minutes, in the interim greeting the guests at the Cog Train's arrival.
The train arrives
. . . and the non-Jewish conductor offers to make an announcement on the loud speaker to let the Jews know there's a sukkah on the peak.
Unfortunately, the Jews were sparse.
Jason (a staff Sargent in the army) bentches Lulav and Esrog!
As seen on Lubavitch.com
Love the wind in the kapote
Enjoy the almost alien views on the way down.
Goodbye Pikes Peak
On the bottom we met an Egyptian man named Mahmoud who offered to make Falafel for us. Unfortunately it wasn't kosher . . . We spoke for a while, then noticed a most interesting person walking by - a guy with a brown kilt, rangers hat peaked with a feather, Lennon glasses, a a leashed dog, bowie knife and handgun at his military belt.
Speaking to him, it turned out he was Jewish!
And so the trip to Colorado ends . . .
Back to New York and back to life.
Technorati Tags: Colorado, Pikes Peak, Sukkos, Mivtzoyim, Photography, Travel, Nature
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Dancing in a Cowboy Sukkah
A shorty of a post - this one has some of the amazing sites (and sounds - watch the rocking video!) of Chol Hamoed Sukkos in Colorado Springs.
Click on the link to enjoy!
The first day of Chol Hamoed we went to the campus to shake Lulav and Esrog - we managed to shake lulav with at least 20 plus Jews - out of a total Jewish student population of around 200!
ChaZaL came to jam on the guitar and get the students pumped about the party that night.
Bentching Lulav with a professor
Kalman Katz - a local Jew comes with his guitar and whiskey in hand!
The ad hoc Jam Band was great!
Cadets from the academy - l'chaim!
I've made this post rather brief - since the next one will be a real whopper!
Stay tuned next week forA Lulav on Pikes PeakA look at things to come:
or
Chabad Gets High in the Most Elevated Sukkah in the World!
Technorati Tags: Sukkos, Chabad, Campus, Colorado Springs, Music, Video, Photography, Travel, Mivtzoyim
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Mottel and the Mystery of the Imaginary Cliff People
Throughout my travels, I've been to my fair share of ruins (modest hyperlinking -I know) . . . The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are, however, in a very different class. Click on the link to expand the post and learn of their sordid tale.
Note: This post was slightly reworked on Wed October 14 12:29 am
As a child I was given more then my fair share of compulsory Native American education (Though from what I seem to recall, it's no longer appropriate to refer to them as Native Americans. What are they allowed to be called today? First Nations? Indigenous Peoples? Primordial Denizens?)
As such stories of the Anasazi (which due to a weird mental association - the result of the plethora of cultures I was educated about as a - conjures up images of the West African trickster spider Anansi) piqued my interest in visiting the local ruins. Advertised as the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, offering "an archaeological and natural history preserve", and and "authentic Anasazi cliff dwellings, built more than 700 years ago." Who could refuse - even at the 9 bucks per person entry fee.
Parking in the parking lot - located conveniently only a few feet away from the ruins, we entered the Pueblo Anasazi History Museum and Gift shop.
The museum looked like it had last been updated in 1976, and the gift shop was at least twice the size of the exhibition (and sells John Wayne toilet paper!(?)).
On to the ruins then . . .
Everything looked nice, and with the option to climb through and around the ruins, one could really explore them very closely. It almost seemed odd that in oh so regulated America it was possible to climb up the wall of a 700 year old ruin - I mean even Poland and Lithuania had made the attempt to rope off certain things! But nu, nu . . . who was I to argue with policy.
(A tipi set up to let visitors know that not all Native Americans lived in tipis)
What would you know, then when after the trip I googled the ruins to find out a little more about the site, only to learn that the only thing authentic about the Manitou Cliff Dwellings were the cliffs. That's right - they were a fake!
Apparently in 1906 when the husband of one Mrs. Virginia McClurig wasn't appointed superintendent of the grand (and authentic) Mesa Verde ruins, she built her own in the Springs!
In short, I was in a hundred year old tourist trap!
Now, I don't mind tourist traps per say . . . when they're honest. I mean, I'll shell out my share of money to see the worlds largest ball of wax or whatever . . . but then I know it's fake and can gauge the deal as such. Yet here the wording made everything seem almost fishily real.
Whatever. At least I got to climb inside the Tipi.
Technorati Tags: Manitou Springs, Cliff Dwellings, Travel, Fraud, Photography, Colorado, Native Americans
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
