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SUKKOT – 5773

In loving memory of Malka, z’l

Renew our days as of old, Leviticus 5:21

Renew a steadfast spirit within me, Psalm 50:12

Israel’s enemies, using “Western” terminology, have learned how to manipulate facts and distort reality, words to intimidate our, often  naïve, uninformed people young and old. Anti-democratic, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel forces use to their advantage the freedom they enjoy in our democratic countries.

Luckily, here in Montreal, we are blessed to have an academic democratic institution, ie: Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR) under the superb academic leadership of Prof. Frederick Krantz, whose sole aim is to teach the public at large, Jewish and non-Jewish students and citizens, how to defend against such increasingly racist, anti-Semitic attacks.

The festival of Sukkot, according to our traditional explanations for this holiday, symbolizes the booths in which the Israelites dwelled during their forty-years journey through the desert, after coming out of the land of Egypt.

You should dwell in booths seven days: all that are borne in Israel shall dwell in booths: that your future generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I the Lord your G-d, “ (Leviticus 23:42-34)

Our tradition regards the period of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot as the days of celebration and renewal, a new beginning for Am Israel, the People of Israel.

We, should actually picture ourselves dwelling in the type of booths that we build today. Leviticus relates that they dwelled in Sukkot [booths], but does not say what those Sukkot were.  The Rabbis debated what exactly this meant, and in the halachic Midrash of Leviticus we find the following dispute:  Rabbi Eliezer says: They were real Sukkot; Rabbi Akiva says: the Sukkot were clouds of glory.  Rabbi Akiva’s opinion, that the clouds stood for the presence and radiance of G-d, became the majority Rabbinic interpretation, and is found in the Targum, in later midrashim, and in medieval codes. 

The prayer Hashkivenu, the second blessing following the Shema in the evening services, invokes the related idea of a Sukkah of Peace. A Sukkah of peace, a shelter enclosing love and hope, and oprovidingprotection from hate, war and destruction.

Chag Sukkot Sameach to all friends of CIJR, to the entire House of Israel and to all supporters of Israel.

(Baruch Cohen is the Research Chairman, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research.) (Top)

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES DECLARATION

Orat@Muqata

Jewish Press,  October 3rd, 2012

A thousand years ago, during the Gaonic period, the Tishrei holiday period, culminating with Sukkot, was the highlight of the year.  Pilgrims would flock to Israel to spend the holidays in Jerusalem.  In those days Israel was ruled by the Fatimids, whose empire stretched from the Levant to Northern  Africa.  The Fatimids recognized the Israeli Gaon as the leader of all Jews in their empire.  The Gaon was the head of the Israeli yeshiva, known as the Gaon Yaakov Yeshiva or the Eretz Ha-Zvi Yeshiva – the last remnant of the Sanhedrin.

The main holiday events took place on the last day of Sukkot, Hoshana Raba.  The Gaon would lead the people around the Temple Mount, and then the crowd made its way to the Mount of Olives.  After they climbed the mountain, they circled it seven times.

According to tradition, during the last three and a half years before the destruction of the Temple, the Shechina, the divine presence of God, moved to the Mount of Olives.  There, God called on the people of Israel to repent.  But the people did not repent, the Temple was destroyed, and the divine presence left Jerusalem.

A monumental stone marked the spot where God looked over the Temple Mount. The Gaon would sit on this stone as he spoke to the assembled crowd. After a holiday sermon, he blessed the Jewish communities of the Diaspora, mentioning each by name, and those Jews who donated to the local community.  He announced new appointments (semicha) in the yeshiva and throughout the areas under his jurisdiction.

This was also the time when the Gaon pronounced a ‘Herem’ (excommunication) against those who strayed from the path.  Specifically against the Karaites, for not following the Rabbinic Kashrut laws on eating milk and meat.  In those days the Rabbinic Jews lived in the area south of the Temple Mount, while the Karaite Jews lived across the valley, in Silwan, on the south-western slope of the Mount of Olives.

In what became known as the “Mount of Olives Declaration,” the Gaon announced the dates of the holidays in the upcoming year.  This Declaration emphasized the centrality of Israel for Jews everywhere.  Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer talks about this issue at length (ch. 8) and establishes that the calendar must be set by the Jews of Israel, regardless of their position.  “Even if there are prophets abroad and laymen in Israel, the calendar must be set by the laymen in Israel.”.…(Top)

IN JERUSALEM, 6,000 CHRISTIANS MARCH IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL

Anav Silverman

Tazpit News Agency, October 5th, 2012

Thousands of Christian Evangelists paraded through the center of Jerusalem, marking the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Oct 04, 2012.  Thousands of Christian Evangelists paraded through the center of Jerusalem, marking the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Oct 04, 2012.

Photo Credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90

There was love in the air of Jerusalem on yesterday afternoon. Marching through the streets of Jerusalem, approximately 6,000 Christian friends of Israel made their way with flags and smiles, which they readily shared with Israeli bystanders—from ultra-orthodox to secular Jews of all ages and backgrounds.

Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov (Yisrael Beiteynu) welcomed the Christian visitors, who were led by Evangelical community leaders visiting from across the world to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, the Christian celebration of the seven-day Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

The throngs of visitors, who came from over 100 countries, sang Hatikva and wished “chag sameach (happy holidays)” to Israeli bystanders, who gathered to watch, smiling and waving back. Israeli children collected flags and souvenirs that the Christian participants brought with them to give out from their home countries.

According to the prophet Zechariah, in the messianic era Sukkot will become a universal festival and all nations will make pilgrimages annually to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast there:

    And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the God of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso of the families of the earth goes not up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the God of Hosts, upon them there shall be no rain. (Zech. 14:16-17)

Among the different delegations, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bolivia, Chile, India, Nigeria, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, United States, Canada, Great Britain, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, South Africa, Germany, France and Italy, were of the many nations that attended.

The march was part of the many activities surrounding the Feast of Tabernacles, organized by the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ), which works to express and strengthen Christian support for the State of Israel and the Jewish people….In 2011, more than 25% of all incoming tourists to Israel came for the purpose of this pilgrimage, and 42% of those visitors were Christians…..(Top)

ROMNEY, BY TWO TOUCHDOWNS

Charles Krauthammer

OC Register, October 4, 2012

It was the biggest rout since Agincourt. If you insist, since the Carter-Reagan debate. With a remarkable display of confidence, knowledge and nerve, Mitt Romney won the first 2012 debate going away.

Romney didn't just demonstrate authoritative command of a myriad of domestic issues. He was nervy about it, taking the president on frontally, not just relentlessly attacking, but answering every charge leveled against him – with a three-point rebuttal.

And he pulled off a tactical coup by coming right out of the box to undo millions of dollars' worth of negative ads that painted him, personally, as Gordon Gekko – rapacious vulture capitalist who doesn't just lay off steelworkers but kills their wives – and, politically, as intent on raising taxes on the middle class while lowering them for the rich.

The Romney campaign had let these ads go largely unanswered. But a "kill Romney" strategy can only work until people get to see Romney themselves. On Wednesday night, they did. Regarding the character assassination, all Romney really had to do was walk out with no horns on his head. Confident, smiling and nonthreatening, he didn't look like a man who enjoys killing the wives of laid-off steelworkers.

Not a very high bar, I admit. But remember: It's President Obama who set the bar. And succeeded. Romney suffers from unprecedentedly high negatives (50 percent), the highest unfavorability rating at this late date for any challenger in the past three decades.

As to the policy, Romney finally got to explain to the 60 million Americans watching that he intends to lower taxes across the board, particularly for the middle class. As for the rich, he got to explain the difference between lowering tax rates and reducing tax payments. He repeated at least twice that the rich would continue to pay the same percentage of the tax burden, while lower rates would spur economic growth.

His success in doing this against a flummoxed Obama does more than rally the conservative base. It may affect waverers – disappointed 2008 Obama supporters waiting for a reason to jump. They watch Romney in this debate and ask: Is this the clueless, selfish, out-of-touch guy we've been hearing about from the ads and from the mainstream media?

And then they see Obama – detached, meandering, unsure. Can this be the hip, cool, in-control guy his acolytes and the media have been telling us about? Obama was undone Wednesday in part by his dismissive arrogance. You could see him thinking annoyedly: "Why do I have to be onstage with this clod, when I've gone toe-to-toe with Putin?" (And lost every round, I'd say. But that's not how Obama sees it.)

Obama never even pulled out his best weapon, the 47 percent. Not once. That's called sitting on a lead, lazily and smugly. I wager he mentions it in the next debate, more than once – and likely in his kickoff.

On the other hand, Obama just isn't that good. Not without a teleprompter. He's not even that good at news conferences – a venue in which he's still in charge, choosing among questioners and controlling the timing of his own answers. By the end of the debate, Obama looked small, uncertain. It was Romney who had the presidential look.

Re-election campaigns after a failed presidential term – so failed that Obama barely even bothers to make the case, preferring to blame everything on his predecessor – hinge almost entirely on whether the challenger can meet the threshold of acceptability. Romney crossed the threshold Wednesday night….

Romney [showed] that he is not the clumsy, out-of-touch plutocrat that the paid Obama ads and the unpaid media have portrayed him to be. He did, decisively. That's why MSNBC is on suicide watch. Why the polls show that, by a margin of at least two-to-one, voters overwhelmingly gave the debate to Romney…..(Top)

DEMOCRATS MAY DRAW WRONG LESSONS
FROM DENVER DEBATE DEBACLE

Jonathan S. Tobin
Contentions,  October 4.2012
 

Shell-shocked Democrats are still trying to figure out what happened to President Obama last night as he got his clock cleaned by Mitt Romney. Most of the post-mortems seemed to center on his lack of aggressiveness on stage and his failure to raise the sort of personal attacks on Romney that have largely characterized the Democratic campaign. The expectation now is that the next time Obama and Romney face off, the president will be more engaged and perhaps ready to attack the challenger in a way that will please his followers. But the question Democrats should be asking themselves today is not just what was wrong with Obama that caused him to be so lackluster, but whether an attempt to savage Romney in person will be such a smart idea.

While the president did mention some of his familiar class warfare themes, pundits were almost unanimous in expressing their surprise that the phrase “47 percent” never passed through the president’s lips. Liberals were also appalled by his omission of any mention of Romney’s Bain Capital experience or tax returns. But if the only lesson the president learns from his defeat in Denver is that he must double down on personal attacks on his opponent, he may be setting himself up for another drubbing on October 16.

Democrats know that personal attacks on Romney have taken a huge toll on the Republican in recent months. They have had some success depicting him as a heartless plutocrat who cares nothing about ordinary people and who stashes money abroad while not paying taxes at home. Romney’s “47 percent” gaffe hurt him in large measure because it fit right into the portrait Democrats have been painting of him. But the assumption that the president would have done better had he echoed these nasty and quite personal barbs is faulty. Presidents are supposed to be presidential while leaving the business of carving up their opponents to lesser beings like vice presidents. If Obama’s cheering section in the media thinks getting down into the gutter on stage during a presidential debate is what Obama needs to do, they may soon be proved wrong….

Yet the ultimate problem for the president is not so much what he did or didn’t say; it’s that he gave us a glimpse of the man that Republicans have always claimed him to be: the arrogant liberal poseur who looks down his nose at the rest of us. More than all the videos in which Obama uses racial incitement or talks down individual initiative, the real danger is that on the big stage of the first debate, he came across as less likeable. The stuffy, long-winded bore we saw in Denver is not the historic figure that inspired millions with his messianic promises of hope and change….

The conundrum for Democrats is that the president has very little to say for himself or his record. Shorn of the demonization of the GOP, Obama is left with nothing. While such attacks work well on the campaign trail and in television ads, they are not likely to help in a face-to-face debate. Looking ahead to the next encounter, it won’t be hard for the president to better his Denver performance, but what last night might have exposed is not so much fatigue or overconfidence as it is the emptiness at the core of his re-election campaign. (Top)
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