The Official Blog of Congregation Adas Emuno, a Reform Jewish Temple located in Bergen County, New Jersey. ✡
We are one of the oldest synagogues in New Jersey, founded on October 22, 1871 in Hoboken, and presently located in the Borough of Leonia. ✡
As a congregation, we are committed to an inclusive and participatory form of religious observance, education, and spirituality. ✡
Congregation Adas Emuno is a member of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Last week's Shabbat was quite the hit with Chinese food served at the Oneg (see our previous post, Chinese Food on Shabbat), and in response, congregant Lauren Rowland forwarded the following from David Mamet:
Lauren
A long time ago, I used to live around the block from Bernstein's Kosher Chinese on Essex St. I never ate there on Christmas and never ate there on a Saturday night when the place was hoppin'.
Just to reassure our readers, this is all in jest, and the Chinese food we served was Kosher, coming from Veggie Heaven in Teaneck.
And with that, our best wishes on this New Year's Eve Shabbat! See you in 2011!
Tonight people all around the world gather together to celebrate a holiday... a holiday called Shabbat!
Of course, this year, our Sabbath coincides with the Christian celebration of Christmas, and it is something of an informal tradition for American Jews to go out for Chinese food while everyone else is off celebrating. This notion has made its way to the highest levels of government in the United States, as noted in a post that appeared on this blog earlier this year, Seasons Greetings Courtesy of Elena Kagan.
And whether you do go out to a Chinese restaurant, or order in, or do something else entirely, Chinese food on Christmas has come to be symbolic of our experience as a minority. an experience humorously portrayed in the following YouTube music video, Chinese Food on Christmas:
Tonight at Congregation Adas Emuno, I'll be the lay leader for Shabbat services, and guess what we'll be serving at the Oneg? Yes, you guessed it: Chinese food! See you there!
And, blessings of the season to you all! Shabbat Shalom!
Well, Hanukah may be over now, but the pleasant memories linger on. And it is certainly not too late to share with you the latest about the Senior US Senator from the great state of Utah, Republican Orrin Hatch. What does Hatch, a Mormon from Utah, have to do with our Bergen County Reform Jewish congregation, you may ask. Well, nothing directly, but Time magazine reports that he recently wrote a song called, "Eight Days of Hannukah," which they described as "a snappy, earnest ballad about the Jewish holiday that went viral Dec. 9 after Tablet magazine posted a video for the track online." And here it is, courtesy of Vimeo, a leading alternative to YouTube:
While the 75-year-old Mormon looks a bit uncomfortable and out-of-place throughout the two-minute "making of"-style video, the man is serious about his love for God's chosen people: check out the mezuzah necklace he flashes at 00:45. "Anything I can do for the Jewish people, I will do," Hatch told the New York Times. "I feel sorry I'm not Jewish sometimes."
Well, Senator, perhaps you remember the old advertising campaign for Levy's rye bread? Here's a reminder:
Well, you don't have to be Jewish to love Hanukkah! Happy Chanukah to you, and Happy Holidays!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
For this last night, and day. of Chanukah, I would like to share with you my favorite Chanukah song, "Light One Candle," by Peter Yarrow. Here is a beautiful live concert version of the song, by Peter, Paul, and Mary:
This is very much a song about social consciousness, social justice, and social action, one of the great themes of the Jewish religious tradition. And here are the lyrics:
Light one candle for the Maccabee children
With thanks that their light didn't die
Light one candle for the pain they endured
When their right to exist was denied
Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice
Justice and freedom demand
But light one candle for the wisdom to know
When the peacemaker's time is at hand
Don't let the light go out!
It's lasted for so many years!
Don't let the light go out!
Let it shine through our love and our tears.
Light one candle for the strength that we need
To never become our own foe
And light one candle for those who are suffering
Pain we learned so long ago
Light one candle for all we believe in
That anger not tear us apart
And light one candle to find us together
With peace as the song in our hearts
Don't let the light go out!
It's lasted for so many years!
Don't let the light go out!
Let it shine through our love and our tears.
What is the memory that's valued so highly
That we keep it alive in that flame?
What's the commitment to those who have died
That we cry out they've not died in vain?
We have come this far always believing
That justice would somehow prevail
This is the burden, this is the promise
This is why we will not fail!
Don't let the light go out!
It's lasted for so many years!
Don't let the light go out!
Let it shine through our love and our tears.
Don't let the light go out!
Don't let the light go out!
Don't let the light go out!
As we come to the end of our festival of lights, let the melody and the sentiment linger:
So, here's a brand new Chanukkah video that's went viral last week (going viral means it's very popular, for those of you unfamiliar with the term). A couple of nights ago, my son Benjamin called me over to show it to me, I said I'd post it here.
And yesterday I saw it mentioned online via The Chronicle of Higher Education's e-mail newsletter, which directed me to a short item entitled, ‘Candlelight,’ the Viral Video From the Maccabeats. The Chronicle introduces it by saying, "A Hanukkah treat from the Maccabeats, an a cappella group at Yeshiva University. It’s viral, folks, so apologies if you’ve already seen it."
So there's it's officially certified as viral, not surprising as it is a catchy little number.
And over on the video's YouTube page, the Maccabeats write
Okay, I'm exaggerating just a tiny bit here. And technically, when it's spelled with an H instead of a Ch, there's supposed to be a dot under the H, which indicates that it's pronounced as the guttural "ch" sound that is not found in English, but is present in some other languages, such as German (ach du lieber!).
For some, it's quite the conundrum, and the subject of a lighthearted song by the LeeVees:
Of course, there is one standardized way to spell the name of this holiday, and that's as follows:
See, it's spelled cheit, nun, vav (which represents the "oo" sound in this context), kaf, hei. Simple! That's going right to left, of course, because that's the direction you read and write in in Hebrew, and there are no vowels represented (aside from the vav indicating "oo"), which is typcially the case in Hebrew, although it is possible to fill in vowels using diacritical marks.
The process of translating from one writing system to another is called transliteration, and is a separate issue from the process of translation itself, which has to do with the meanings of the spoken language. And we often don't acknowledge the fact taht learning another writing system is a separate and distinct task from learning another language, and of course it's much easier to just learn another language that uses the same writing system, for example learning French when you know English (although you do have to learn about the extra accent marks), or learning Hebrew when you already know Yiddish (a German dialect which is written in Hebrew, but uses the Hebrew alphabet in a slighty different way to accomodate itself to the different sounds of Yiddish).
You see, there's a lot you can learn from going to Hebrew School...
So, with just two more nights of Chanukah coming up, here's a very nice original song about Chanukah performed live by the rock group Barenaked Ladies--the video is not much to look at, but it's the sounds that count.
Anyway you look at it, it's a spellbinding holiday!
Executive Officers President: Michael Fishbein Vice President: Elka Oliver Financial Secretary: Mark Rosenberg Treasurer: Marilyn Katz Recording Secretary: Susan Grey Immediate Past President:Lance Strate
Trustees Annette DeMarco Michael Fishbein Virginia Gitter Marshall Jacobowitz Jody Pugach Michael Raskin Norman Rosen Lauren Rowland Ronald Waxman Doris White Sandra Zornek
Posts
