The holiday season

At this time of year, in the United States more than in Israel, we are all confronted by the festivities and cultural climate celebrating Christmas, the major holiday of a rival faith. Living, as I do, in New York City, the sounds and sights of Christmas are unavoidable. The streets of Manhattan are lit up with colorful lights, the music of Christmas carols is pervasive, and the people one encounters in the subways are in gift-shopping mode and a smiling mood. It is impossible for a Jew not to be affected by all of this.

There is another dimension to the entire scene, and that is the fact that Hanukka was just over, and often actually coincides with the Christmas season. One tempting way for a Jew to deal with this is to say to himself or herself, "they've got their Christmas, we've got our Hanukka, and all is well." The commercial culture of Christmas, which even Christians often bemoan, demands just this of us. Spend your money, buy your gifts, no matter what your cultural or religious background, this is a season for all. It is Christmas for some, Hanukka for others, and Kwanza for still others. We are all pretty much the same, with a few minor differences. You light candles, sing "I have a little dreidel", and eat latkes, and we decorate trees, sing "Silent Night", and eat gingerbread cookies, but it is all the same. Smile, be friendly, and spend your money on gifts.

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Jacob, Esau and Annapolis

One of the core beliefs of Judaism is that there is much that we can learn from the Torah which is directly applicable to our everyday lives. Doing so is often fraught with difficulties, especially difficulties of interpretation and comparison. I would like to share with you one example of a Torah text which has implications for a very "hot" current topic, the upcoming international conference in Annapolis, Maryland, sponsored by the United States, with the participation of Israel, the Palestinians as at least a few Arab nations.
 
The text in question is the current portion of the week, Vayishlach or Genesis 32 and 33. In it we read of Jacob's return to the Holy Land and his encounter, after decades, with the brother who hates him, who has threatened to kill him, Esau. How reminiscent is this of the contemporary encounter of Israel with an enemy who has indeed threatened to exterminate us, certainly to vanquish us as a national state.