OTHER VIEWS
Shabbat On The Slopes
s Jews around the world pre-
pare to celebrate Shabbat
Friday afternoons, a small
community in Park City,
Utah, also welcomes in Shabbat with a
beautiful tradition that we were fortu-
nate to have shared in.
Just days after the Winter Olympics
closing ceremonies, we experienced
Kabbalat Shabbat at the top of Deer
Valley Mountain. Every Friday at 3
p.m., Jewish skiers find their way to the
Sunset Trail, where a small log cabin sits
and awaits for its visitors to experience
a wonderfully spiritual Shabbat service.
A
Julie Schlafer and Tammy Gorosh
both live in West Bloomfield. They're
shown at Deer Valley Mountain, Utah.
We arrived promptly and were greet-
ed.by Paddy Wood, a member of Har
Shalom, a 200-family synagogue in
Park City. Paddy explained that three
years ago, she and Rabbi Joseph
Goldman (the once-a-month visiting
rabbi from New Jersey), decided to start
a Kabbalat Shabbat service in the
mountain cabin, generally reserved for
Episcopalian services. A member of the
shul volunteers to ski to services with a
backpack filled with challah, wine, can-
dles, prayer pamphlets and the
mezuzah, which is held by Velcro to the
doorpost.
On Sunday mornings, the
Episcopalians attach by Velcro their
cross to the very same door.
On a recent Friday, the volunteer
The Arab Anti-Semitism Surge
Washington, D.C.
n the hierarchy of concerns of
American Jews, anti-Semitism usu-
ally trumps every other issue, even
concern about Israel.
That fact poses a big problem for
those U.S. Jewish leaders who hope —
as do a majority of Israel's citizens —
that even in the midst of the current car-
nage, a way can be found to revive polit-
ical negotiations with the Palestinians.
I
James D. Besser is the Washington cor-
respondent for the Detroit Jewish News.
His e-mail address is jbesser@his.corn
But among rank-and-file American
Jews, faith in such negotiations will be
harder to come by as Arab leaders toler-
ate, and even encourage, hatred right out
of the annals of Nazi Germany, and as
their open anti-Semitism gains traction
in Europe and other parts of the world.
American Jews have ever-changing
opinions on peace in the Middle East,
and even on the arch-villain Yasser
Arafat, the Palestinian Authority leader.
Today, after 18 months of bloody
Palestinian violence, his standing is lower
than ever, but that could ease somewhat
— as it did in 1993 — if the Palestinian
The Children Know Four
New York
espite the late hour and
exhaustion (not to mention
wine), many a Jewish mind
has wondered long and hard
during a Passover seder about all the
Haggadah's "fours:" four questions,
four sons, four expressions of redemp-
tion, four cups. There's clearly a
numerical theme here.
While some may superficially dis-
miss the Haggadah as a mere corn-
pendium of random verses and songs,
it is in truth a subtle and wondrous
educational tool, with profound
Jewish ideas layered through its seem-
ingly simple text.
The rabbis who formulated its
D
V
3/22
2002
30
Rabbi Avi Shafran is director of public
affairs for Agudath Israel of America, a
national Orthodox organization. His e-
mail address is: shafi-an@amechadcorn
core, already extant in pre-talmudic
times, wanted it to serve as a tool for
planting important concepts in the
hearts and minds of its readers —
especially its younger ones, toward
whom the seder, our tradition teach-
es, is aimed. And so the authors of
the Haggadah employed an array of
pedagogical methods, including
songs, riddles and puzzles, as means
of conveying deeper understanding.
And they left us clues, too.
When it comes to the ubiquitous
"fours," we might begin by pondering
the essential fact that Passover is when
the Jewish people's identity is solemnly
perpetuated; the seder, the ritual
instrument through which each Jewish
generation inculcates our collective
history and essence to the next.
Which is likely a large part of the
reason so many Jewish parents who
are alienated from virtually every
failed to arrive at the
shared some thoughts.
log cabin and, as a
One offered a prayer
result, there was no
of thanks that the
fire in the fireplace,
Olympics were peace-
no challah, wine,
ful. Another had just
prayer pamphlets or
returned from Israel
mezuzah. What was
and prayed for peace;
present, however,
still another offered a
were 20 Jews who had
prayer for innocent
gathered to share in
people who are treat-
an experience that
ed poorly.
JULIE
TAMMY
warmed our hearts in
We then sponta-
SCHLAFER GOROSH
spite of the frigid tem-
neously sang Shalom
Community Views
perature. Represented
Aleichem and numer-
in the group were peo-
ous other songs and
ple from Montreal, California,
prayers from memory, since the prayer
pinnsylvania, New York, Florida, Ohio,
pamphlets had not arrived. This made
Utah and the two of us from Michigan.
our experience even more spiritual as
First, we introduced ourselves and
the prayers were offered from our hearts
leader takes bold steps to revive
Recently, there was yet anoth-
a peace process he shattered.
er particularly graphic example.
Much harder to change will
A professor, writing in Al-
be the reaction to an anti-
Riyadh, "documented" how Jews
Semitic groundswell that began
must use the blood of Muslim
even before the collapse of the
and Christian youngsters for
Oslo peace process.
Purim pastries.
Anti-Semitism has always
In America, we have no lack
been a popular tool in the
of bigoted conspiracy theorists,
JAMES D.
rhetorical arsenal of Israel's foes,
but it is inconceivable that their
BESSER
but in the past few years, it has
effluvia
would appear in any
Special
become far more venomous,
mainstream
publication.
Commentary
more widespread and more offi-
Al-Riyadh is more than just
cial.
"mainstream" in Saudi Arabia; it
Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism is no
is a government-controlled newspaper, in
longer an undercurrent; it seems to be a
a land where freedom of the press is
core value, promoted by government
unknown.
bodies, intellectual elites and an increas-
This is the stuff ordinary Saudis read
ingly radical Islamic clergy
in the morning as they sip their breakfast
other Jewish observance still
rather part of a people, mem-
feel compelled to have at least
bers of a nation that uncon-
some sort of seder, to read a
strained by geographical
Haggadah, or even — if they
boundaries but linked by his-
have strayed too far from
tory and destiny all the same.
their heritage to comfortably
We seek to impress them
confront the original — to
with the fact that they are
compose their own. (I once
links in a shimmering, ethe-
RAB BI AVI
joked before an audience that
real chain stretching back to
a "vegetarian Haggadah"
SHAF RAN
the Jewish nation's birth, to
would likely appear any year
when it was divinely
Sp ecial
now, and someone in atten-
Com mentary redeemed from mundane
dance later showed me pre-
slavery in Egypt and entered
cisely such a book — though
a sublime servitude of a very
it lacked the "Paschal Turnip" I had
different sort — to God — at Sinai.
imagined.)
So, on Passover, as we celebrate the
And *so the role we adults play on
birth of the Jewish nation and plant
Pesach night, vis-a-vis the younger
the seed of Jewish identity in the
Jews with whom we share the experi-
minds of smaller Jews, we are in a
ence, is a very specific one. We are
sense ourselves "birthing" — giving
teachers, to be sure, but it is not infor- life to the Jewish future. And, while it
mation per se that we are communi-
may be the father who traditionally
cating, but something more: identity.
leads the seder, he is acting not as
At the seder, we are seeking to instill teacher but rather in something more
in our children the realization that
akin to a maternal role, as a spiritual
they are not mere individuals, but
nurturer of the children present.