Kafka's Hebrew notebook in the Israeli National Library
Before his death Franz Kafka gave his archive Max Brod who published The Trial and Metamorphosis despite Kafka’s request to burn all his unpublished work. Max Brod came to Israel and brought the archive with him. After his death Max Brod’s secretary Esther Hoffe took the ownership of the treasure. Allegedly there are never published novels but no one knows for sure as it was never cataloged. Esther Hoffe’s daughter Eva and Ruth living in Israel sold part of the archive to a German research institute. No one knows exactingly what they sold or what they still keep in Israel in their safe deposit boxes. BBC got the story.
The enlargeable Jerusalem photo beamed to us by Todd Bolen via bibleplaces.com. We are probably looking at the Christian or the Arab quarters of the old city. Comfortably reclining under the sun are the square and symmetrical wattage of the solar panels, the high-strung, cross-like “traditional” TV antennas, the voluptuous water barrels painted black to appear thinner and to trap heat, the breathlessly perspiring condensation boxes and of course the attentively detached, confidently dominant satellite TV dishes. That house in the middle got more disks than apartments, perhaps a radio signal outpost? What the dude on the broadcast minaret is thinking when he dishes the takbir, is the reception as good? The Crescent Moon above the minaret’s green dome wired somewhere down below, it moonlights as a lightning rod for the neighborhood.
Behold an allegorical layer superimposed on the ancient urban fabric. The “dish veil” looks like a foreign fashion. But if you walk the narrow streets facing the facades you will hardly see it. The “dish veil” is easily and quickly removable. To clean the dirty dishes off the table slate grab the four corners of a magical tablecloth…abracadabra there is no trace of the feast for the senses, the buildings appear au naturel circa 18th century – naked, pure and innocent like Adam and Eve. Yet there is the claustrophobic, choking, uneasy apprehension that all the gadgets are permanently anchored, dialed directly into the brains of the inhabitants, the tubes of the information life support IV dripping into the blood stream of imagination. You can picture the wires snaking down the soft, apple rotten crevasses of the pale, pinkish limestone, plugged and soldered into the human conscience circuit. A reversal along the metaphorical vertical access, the flip of the modernity flop played out on the most stubborn of stages. Traditionally the submerged dark mystery is below ground in the proverbial basement, the hidden foundation, while the persona emerges above ground lit by the sun. Here the captured sun energy descents from the soaked with revelation firmament to energize and illuminate the concealed subterranean layer of dreams and desires. The Jerusalem roof is the new spiritual catacomb. The Jerusalem of Gold glistening with shadows of the parabolic reflections.
Baba Baruch Business
On the subject of Move over Baba Bernie Madoff, here glides the carpet surfer Elazar Abuhatzeira. There is new book by Professor Yoram Bilu that looks at the phenomena in Israel: The Saint’s Impresarios: Dreamers, Healers, and Holy Men in Israel’s Urban Periphery (Israel: Society, Culture, and History).
Naturally this is not just about Moroccans and it would be a mistake to cast this business as uniquely Israeli. Definitely one of the two oldest professions… There is a review of the book in Haaretz – A “Baba” is born. Now we know why Baba Baruch’s Beer Shevah brother, Baba Elazar Abuhatzeira needed to steal so much money from the working and hardly working Jews. The dude got an underground tunnel from his house, “not to see women” of course:
“The Baba Baruch invented the new version of the tzaddik. Bilu writes in his book that already in the 1980s and 1990s, Baruch Abuhatzeira raised his father, Rabbi Israel Abuhatzeira, known as the Baba Sali, to the level of a national holy man. Masses of people began to visit his poor home in Netivot and to fill up bottles of water, which they believed became curative and brought luck, after being blessed by the tzaddik. After the death of the Baba Sali, his son built him a gravesite with a characteristic white dome in Netivot, surrounded by a national park that has become the most important site for hilulot in Israel.
At the same time, Baba Baruch built himself a sort of palace, as well as a neighborhood called Kiryat Baba Sali. He wore traditional robes, a la Baba Sali, and began to implement a program to turn himself into a kabbalist: in other words, abstaining from women and engaging in kabbala. Despite his shady past, which included affairs with women, he succeeded in acquiring status and prestige.
Many grandsons of the Baba Sali have started flourishing hatzerot (literally, courtyards) for themselves: Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira built a luxurious one in Be’er Sheva, which includes a tunnel that connects his home to the synagogue, so that he won’t have to see women on the way to prayers; in the north, David Abuhatzeira, the rabbi of Nahariya, conducts a court that is similar in terms of prestige and status. Because they had the sense to go far away, rather than competing with them, the Baba Baruch has been conducting battles of prestige for years with “the X-Ray,” a stranger who settled in Netivot and eroded his power. The latter seems to have gained the upper hand. Just recently, the foundation for commemorating the Baba Sali filed a petition – one of many – against the Sdot Hanegev Regional Council, claiming that, contrary to the regulations, it allocated 34 dunams (about 8 acres) for building a yeshiva.”
Interesting so it was Baba Baruch who marketed his father. Is that “X-ray-ted” dude in Netivot a Rabbi or a Rapper?
I would be remiss not to mention that Baruch’s brother Meir who was the father of Elazar and Baba Sali himself are not responsible for the shenanigans. In fact a reader of this blog writes:
“…both Meir and his father were truly saintly men who lived lives of absolute simplicity, humility and service. I’m saying this in absolute sincerity. They both lived on the verge of poverty their entire lives with no political aspirations or involvement whatsoever. They were both a source of great pride, joy and leadership to the community of Moroccan jews during the extremely(!) difficult period of the transition from Morocco to israel, and just on that account I am very proud of them. The current generation has definitely made a mess out of things, and I have nothing to say in their defense.”
Hanoch Daum is really most qualified to speak on this subject and he immediately points to the crux of the matter. Motti Elon is not just a charismatic leader or a great “communicator”. He is the Rebbe of the entire religious zionist movement. This is not some shmendrik named Leib Tropper that everyone knew was a creep even before the tapes. Just look at the YouTubes of Motti Elon, they don’t call this a “tish” for nothing. But do read Hanoch Daum’s article: Rabbi Elon affair shows that adoration of rabbis needs to be reassessed.
What used to be the great cafeteria and now the great Greek Hall at the Met on Sunday.
On a Tel Aviv bench, photo by Max Reider
I weep easily, but this film in Hebrew is just hard to describe. Half a century in half an hour. Lodz, Frankfurt, Auschwitz, Arkhangelsk, Samarkand, Tel Aviv, Rego Park, Paris, Sinai. This film is a heartbreaking masterpiece.
The fatal story of a family discovered with detective precision based on the photos found in a garbage container in Tel Aviv. The film is strikingly minimalist, yet hauntingly beautiful. The dramatic suspense of the biblical fate punctuating one family, one of many. The unsettling proximity of the tragic century (the video is slow to load but well worth it, pay no attention to the commercials): Ynet – תעלומה במכולה הירוקה
thejc.com – Palestinian attack on JC website. For the background of this event there is a somewhat long post by David: Treppenwitz – A week in (Egypt) England.
I have been thinking about the sweeping metaphors, like “Egypt”, etc. Douglas Rushkoff for example says the “dark ages” got a bad rap, but then he falls into the same trap by describing that ten centuries period as “good”. Lars Brownworth laments the historical clichés about the Byzantine millennium. The soundbite descriptions are not even true for the eight years, as in the “Bush decade”, let along centuries. So when you start a conversation with a sweeping and patently inaccurate metaphor your description trends towards the one-sided oversimplifications, hopelessly inadequate in portraying the complex, multidimensional and multistaged historical dramas.
We all know the precarious posture of the European Jewry, the Islamic expansion in Europe is a political hot potato, considered by many a threat to the entire European civilization. But it is astounding that David Bogner fails to mention that he lives in the west bank town armed and surrounded by a wall, travels to nearby capital in a bullet proof bus, and I believe David walks around with a gun. His town Efrat is precariously perched on the edge of the Palestinian annexation. And he still complains about the security in London? In fact the security detail in London is there to guard against the terrorist virus hatched within a mile from the David Bogner’s new home, the deadly virus now spread all over the western world.
Shannon Orand, the object of Leib Tropper abuse, is converted in Israel. Jewish Israel reports: “Jewish Israel would like to wish a heartfelt Mazal Tov to JI member Shannon Orand upon her conversion to Judaism which she received in Israel earlier this week. Welcome to the Jewish people, Rachel (Shannon’s Hebrew name)! Shannon withstood an extremely challenging test over these past few weeks, as news of Leib Tropper’s compromising behavior hit the press and blogosphere. Shannon is a valued member of Jewish Israel.
Beit Din: Rabbi Rafi Ostroff, Chief Rabbi Dov Lior of Hevron, Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu of Safed
She actively participates in our interactive forums and talkbacks, and provides us with invaluable information. We were in touch with her and very much aware of the disturbing circumstances involving Leib Tropper. We offered Shannon our hopes and prayers for a quick, proper, and decent resolution to this episode. We opted not to publish any information until this incident came to a positive and fruitful conclusion, and indeed it has.”
Shannon “provides us with invaluable information”, no kidding… Make sure to read the interview there, it’s fascinating. Shannon is an enviable position, most people start Judaism with the best intentions, only to discover that it’s a corrupt, materialistic crock and Shannon is hopefully going backwards, to the forgotten paradise.
Still unanswered questions:
- who are the “trusted rabbis” who leaked her tapes?
- who are Leib Tropper’s Johns?
- what’s the going rate for an endorsement by a godel?
- will there be an apology from Tropper and the dissolution of the EJF racket?
- will there be an end to the spiritual deceit at Kol Yaakov in Monsey?
Hypothetically if an Israeli needs a kidney, a registered organ donor or even a relatives of an registered organ donor will have the priority for a transplant. A move perhaps targeting the hareidim that use and even occasionally traffic in organs but are prohitbited from donating the organs by the religious law – BBC.
Vincent van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, 1885. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
David Brooks is correct, Hanukkah is the archetypal upheaval, the blueprint for the pivotal eruptions, a model casting a long shadow on the historical patterns. As Saddam Hussein would put it – “the mother of all revolutions”.
The plot itself is as old as the world. On one side the urban elites and the rich landowners. On the other side the traditional and poor “Taliban-like” peasants, full with resentment for the aggressive and forceful “westernization”, the revolutionary stirrings infused with the appeal for the national and religious independence. The heretical Hellenized worship is a euphemism for the allegiance to the “westernized”, to the progressive superpower. The armed revolt follows and the Maccaby Modin “team” takes over Jerusalem, the clan starts the Hasmonean dynasty to last almost two centuries.
The Hanukkah is spun, especially in America, as a revolt for freedom; but the Hasmoneans were as far from liberty as they were from the Greek experiment in democracy. Grotesquely the closest analogy to the Hasmonean revolt in our time is the Khomeini revolution in Iran, out with the westernized elites and their allegiance to the superpower and in with the Persian pride and tradition. In fact Khomeini modeled his religious dictatorship Veleyat-e Faqih on the post-democaratic Plato’s Republic.
But the lights, the lights, half kingdom for the lights… The Hasmoneans needed a seal of God’s approval, especially considering the ruthless reign they had in store for the people (note how the story speaks about the oil “sealed with approval” and ” pure”, you know right there we are dealing with some monkey business). So why the mishpoche Maccaby couldn’t come up with a better story, just “here is one light for eight days” basta? Perhaps after the revolt, again as a blueprint for the revolutions to come, there was a “cultural revolution” and all the “hellenized” poets and writers were dead or hiding, no one to decorate the newly powerful with a proper mythology, the “light of the nations” withered and so the Hanukkah story got no shpil. Compare this to Purim and all the attributes of a good plot – sex, jealousy, royal intrigue, revenge, murder, even tabletop dancing and the carnival.
But let’s linger with the flickering lights for a moment. When we speak about a culture of “enlightenment”, especially in the context of the post Bastille western democracies in Europe and America, we understand the “light” as a triumph of education, science and reason, in other words the classical inventions of the Hellenistic ethos. The enlightenment is the victory over the indoctrination and the blind devotion to the ideological totalitarianism inside the hermetically shut Judeo-Islamo-Christian cosmos. In this context to recast Hanukkah as an “enlightenment” is the intergalactic mother of all the saturnalian dreidel spins.
But even if you give the Maccaby brothers the benefit of a doubt. Are we now to celebrate the Bolsheviks despite the ruthless reign, just because originally they had the good intentions? If one is to assume that struggle for the cultural and national independence is just, than we have to face the very Hellenism institutionalized by the Hasmoneans, ironically starting with the introduction of the Greek “festival” format to commemorate the victory itself.
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus AKA Pompey the Great
Finally, the “what-if” speculations are futile. But still 63 years on the other side of baby Jesus, the Hasmonean princes, the brothers Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II were fighting each other for the throne. Each of the brothers played the Roman card appealing to the General Pompey in Syria. Pompey sensed the imperial opportunity and marched on Jerusalem. The weakest of the two bothers, Hyrcanus was installed as the King and High Priest, the ambitious and proud Aristobulus was thrown into prison together with his sons. Rome became the de facto power in Judea. The Hasmonean stage was set for the messianic eruption, the enslavement and the yahrzeit licht of the exile.
On a more upbeat note, could you pass another latke please! Wait, wasn’t the potato introduced to Europe after the conquest of America? Aha, now the “freedom”, the “lights”, even the “gifts” make the perfect sense. One of the Jewish skills honed in the diaspora is to define culture as a reaction, response or even an osmosis of the dominant ideas. And there is no better way to commemorate this proud legacy than to have the winter solstice holiday as a response to a neighbor’s yontev. So let’s shop and party hard! The dreidel stops here.
Concise and complete post on Hasmonean history by Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman – The Hasmonean Dynasty:
- 152 B.C.E. Jonathan the Hasmonean becomes the ruler.
- 143 B.C.E. Jonathan the Hasmonean murdered by Tryphon, a pretender to the Seleucid throne.
- 142 B.C.E. Simon the brother of Jonathan becomes the ruler.
- 140 B.C.E. The Hasmnonean Kings are now also High Priests.
- 134 B.C.E Simon and his two sons murdered by his son-in-law with the help of Seleucids. Surviving son Yohanan Hyrkanus becomes the King and High Priest.
- 104 B.C.E. Yohanan Hyrkanus dies and another Simon’s son Aristobulus ascends to the throne.
- 104 B.C.E Aristobulus ruled only for one year by he managed to treat his mother with the utmost cruelty, imprison three of his brothers, and kill his another brother, Antigonus.
- 103 B.C.E Alexander Yannai comes to power when he married Aristobulus’ widow, Salome Alexandra (Shelomzion). We are holding at a 50 year mark after the Chanukah at this point. And here is the rest of the story:
“The Maccabees had not fought only to free the Jews from foreign domination, or for power and wealth. They had risen initially against elements in the Jewish population who sought to Hellenize themselves and their countrymen. Their struggle was transformed into a war of independence against the Seleucid Empire only when it sought to aid the Hellenizers by persecuting Jews and Judaism. Yet gradually, the Hasmonean descendants of the Maccabees themselves acquired the trappings of Hellenism. They began to conduct their courts in Hellenistic fashion and were estranged from Jewish observance. This transition went way beyond the need of any monarch at that time to make use of Hellenistic-style coinage, diplomacy, and bureaucracy. The Hasmoneans employed foreign mercenaries to protect them from their own people.
Opposition to the Hasmonean house came from a variety of corners. First, they had never made peace with remnants of the old-line Hellenizers among the landed aristocracy. Second, the Pharisees opposed the concentration in Hasmonean hands of both temporal and religious power, demanding that the Hasmoneans relinquish the high priesthood, since they were not of the proper high priestly lineage. Third, other groups, whose point of view is represented in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, accepted the legitimacy of the Hasmoneans as high priests but condemned them for also holding political power.
All these factors had already led Alexander Janneus to prepare his wife, Salome Alexandra, for the succession and to recommend to her that she compromise with the dynasty’s opponents. This she did effectively for some nine years until her death in 67 B.C.E. Yet she failed effectively to designate her successor, and her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, fought one another for the crown. Both eventually appealed to the Romans. By this time Rome was already in Syria and positioned to swallow up Judea. Aristobulus was remembered by later sources as a great hero, a man possessed of the spirit of the Maccabees, seeking nothing less than freedom from foreign rule. Hyrcanus was pictured as a weakling, desiring power for power’s sake, at any cost to himself and his nation. In 63 B.C.E., as the two fought with one another, each turned to the Roman general Pompey, in Syria. After a series of negotiations, Pompey decided to capitalize on the situation by satisfying the longstanding Roman desire to dominate Palestine, the strategic land bridge between Africa and Asia. He played the brothers off against each other for a time, then marched on Jerusalem and took it by storm.
Thus ended the Hasmonean dynasty. The Romans were now the country’s real rulers. They awarded the high priesthood to Hyrcanus II and imprisoned Aristobulus II. He and his sons would for years show themselves to be true Maccabean descendants, repeatedly escaping Roman imprisonment to seek against all odds to wrest Judea back from the Romans. But the Hasmonean star had set.”
Also excellent, David Brooks in the NYT – The Hanukkah Story. In passing David Brooks makes a fascinating point, the festival custom was part of the Greek culture. So much for getting rid of the Greek influences. Kudos to Brooks for highlighting the ambivalence of the story, alas even he needs to remain politically correct enough, not only he has to allude to the fact that the Hasmoneans were essentially the trailblazer for the Taliban, but he omits the sourcing of the narrative itself. And naturally the Hasmoneans invented more than the festival and the lights, they invented the spin, the narrative. So the anti Jewish atrocities that Brooks repeats are mostly sourced in the post-Hasmonean Talmud and the Apocrypha of the time. Imagine if the Taliban would win the war in Afghanistan, what would they teach in schools about the Americans? Heck you don’t even need to ask an Islamist, just ask some leftie American and you would hear that it’s all about the American torture. It gets even more complicated than Brooks would let you to imagine.
P.S. Also Interesting review of the new book by Hanan Eshel – The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State in the Biblical Archeology Review.
latkes via sassyradish
Zucchero performs with Rafi Adar in the Roxane Club in Tel Aviv. Judging by Zucchero’s looks, this must be in the late 80s, the time he wrote his best songs. A very nice rendition. ►►►read more
