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SEPTEMBER 2024
7:30pm, Friday, September 6th
– Lay-led Shabbat Evening Services (virtual only)
7:00pm, Wednesday, September 11th
– Bet Chaverim Board Meeting (virtual only)
7:30pm, Friday, September 13th
– Shabbat Evening Services w/Rabbi (hybrid)

Chai, Its Meaning and Significance

In Judaism, what does “Chai” mean?

The word “chai’ translated from Hebrew to English means “life.” Within the Jewish faith, the word “chai” possesses both numerical and symbolic meaning. The Hebrew word consists of two (2) letters in the alphabet: Chet (ח) and Yud (י). Together these letters form “chai” which signifies life and represents being alive.

The Numerical Significance of Chai

In Judaism, the word “chai” is numerically significant and the number 18 is universally synonymous with this word. Numerically, the words consists of the eighth (8th) and tenth (10th) letters of the Hebrew alphabet Chet (ח) and Yud (י), adding up to eighteen the number 18, which is also the word “Chai”. According to Jewish traditions and scriptures there are prayers, including the Amidah, commonly referred to as “Shmoneh Esreh” (which translates to “the 18”) and refers to the eighteen individual prayers. There is a deep connection drawn upon the word ‘chai’, its meaning ‘life’ and the numerical value of the letters that comprise this word.

The Symbolic Meaning of Chai

Traditionally, the Jewish religion, similar to many other religions and cultures, place an emphasis on the significance of life. As such, the literal translation of the word “chai’ to ‘life is meaningful on its face. In addition, individuals who observe Judaism or identify with the religion are generally guided by basic principles which include characteristics such as kindness, thoughtfulness, selflessness and remaining good natured, both morally and ethically during life on Earth. In addition to the number 18 or numerical significance, the “Chai” is a recognizable symbol commonly worn on necklaces and engraved on rings.

Writer of my symphony

Play with me

Look into my eyes and see

People walk away but never say goodbye

Someone stole the moon tonight

Took my light

Everything is black and white

Who’s the fool who told you boys don’t cry?

Hours and hours, empowers

Life is no game, but it’s ours

While the time goes wild

Every day, I’m losin’ my mind

Holdin’ on in this mysterious ride

Dancin’ in the storm, I got nothin’ to hide

Take it all and leave the world behind

Baby, promise me you’ll hold me again

I’m still broken from this hurricane

This hurricane

Livin’ in a fantasy

Ecstasy

Everything is meant to be

We shall pass, but love will never die, mm

Hours and hours, empowers

Life is no game, but it’s ours

While the time goes wild

Every day, I’m losin’ my mind

Holdin’ on in this mysterious ride

Dancin’ in the storm, I got nothin’ to hide

Take it all and leave the world behind

Baby, promise me you’ll hold me again

I’m still broken from this hurricane

This hurricane

This hurricane

לא צריך מילים גדולות

רק תפילות

אפילו אם קשה לראות

תמיד אתה משאיר לי אור אחד קטן

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TEL AVIV, Israel – After addressing objections to its title and lyrics, Israel’s revised entry for this year’s Eurovision song contest in Sweden was scheduled to be unveiled Sunday in a broadcast on Israeli television.

The song, performed by Eden Golan, has been renamed “Hurricane” after its original lyrics and song title, “October Rain,” attracted criticism and controversy for appearing to refer to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, in which Israel says more than 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage.

The lyrics — which originally included the lines “Hours and hours and flowers/Life is no game for the cowards” — are now part of a romantic ballad with lyrics such as “Dancing in the storm, I got nothing to hide/Take it out and leave the world behind/Baby, promise me you hold me again/I’m still taken from this hurricane.”

As with any work of verse, Chad Gadya is open to interpretation. According to some modern Jewish commentators, what appears to be a light-hearted song may be symbolic. One interpretation is that Chad Gadya is about the different nations that have conquered the Land of Israel: The kid symbolizes the Jewish people; the cat, Assyria; the dog, Babylon; the stick, Persia; the fire, Macedonia; the water, Roman Empire; the ox, the Saracens; the slaughterer, the Crusaders; the angel of death, the Ottomans. At the end, God returns to send the Jews back to Israel. The recurring refrain of ‘two zuzim’ is a reference to the two stone tablets given to Moses on Mount Sinai (or refer to Moses and Aaron). Apparently this interpretation was first widely published in pamphlet published in 1731 in Leipzig by Philip Nicodemus Lebrecht.^[5] This interpretation has become quite popular, with many variations of which oppressor is represented by which character in the song.^[6]

Though commonly interpreted as an historical allegory of the Jewish people, the song may also represent the journey to self-development. The price of two zuzim, mentioned in every stanza, is (according to the Targum Jonathan to First Samuel 9:8) equal to the half-shekel tax upon every adult Israelite male (in Exodus 30:13); making the price of two zuzim the price of a Jewish soul. In an article first published in the Journal of Jewish Music & Liturgy in 1994, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the co-author of The Yeshiva University Haggadah, summarized the interpretations of three rabbis: (1) Rabbi Jacob Emden in 1795, as a list of the pitfalls and perils facing the soul during one’s life. (2) Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschuetz (1690–1764) as a very abbreviated history of Israel from the Covenant of the Two Pieces recorded in Genesis 15 (the two zuzim), to slavery in Egypt (the cat), the staff of Moses (the stick) and ending with the Roman conqueror Titus (the Angel of Death). And (3) from Rabbi Moses Sofer, the Hatim Sofer (1762–1839), in which the song described the Passover ritual in the Temple of Jerusalem – the goat purchased for the Paschal sacrifice, according to the Talmud dreaming of a cat is a premonition of singing such as occurs in the seder, the Talmud also relates that dogs bark after midnight which is the time limit for the seder, the priest who led the cleaning of the altar on Passover morning would use water to wash his hands, many people at the Temple that day would bring oxen as sacrifices, the Angel of Death is the Roman Empire that destroyed the Second Temple, etc.^[7] The Vilna Gaon interpreted that the kid is the Birthright that passed from Abraham to Isaac; the father is Jacob; the two zumin is the meal Jacob paid Esau for his birthright; the cat is the envy of Jacob sons toward Joseph; the dog is Egypt where Joseph and his clan were enslaved; the stick is the staff of Moses; the fire the thirst for idolatry; the water the sages who eradicated idolatry; the ox is Rome; the shochet is the Messiah; the Angel of Death represents the death of the Messiah]; the Holy One is the L-d who arrives with the Messiah.^[8

Descriptions of Chad Gadya being “entirely in Aramaic” are in error; the song is mix of Aramaic and Hebrew and indicates that the composer’s grasp of Aramaic was limited. For example, the song begins with ḥad gadya, which is Aramaic, instead of the Hebrew form gədi ʾeḥad, and for the cat the Aramaic shunra instead of the Hebrew ḥatul and for the dog the Aramaic kalbainstead of the Hebrew kelev, etc., but, towards the end of the song, we find the slaughterer is the Hebrew ha-shoḥet instead of the Aramaic nakhosa and the Angel of Death is the Hebrew malʾakh ha-mavet instead of the Aramaic malʾach mota and, finally, “the Holy One, blessed be He” is the Hebrew ha-qadosh barukh hu whereas the Aramaic would be qudsha bərikh hu.^[9]Moreover, the Aramaic grammar is sloppy, for example. “then came the [masculine form] cat and [feminine form] ate”.^[10] The suggestion that the song was couched in Aramaic to conceal its meaning from non-Jews^[11] is also in error, since its first publication included a full German translation.

Versions of the song exist in Yiddish, Ladino (Un cavritico), Judaeo-Italian and Judaeo-Arabic.

The Torah itself dictates the counting of the seven weeks following Passover:

“You shall count from the eve of the second day of Pesach, when an omer of grain is to be brought as an offering, seven complete weeks. The day after the seventh week of your counting will make fifty days, and you shall present a new meal offering to God (Leviticus 23:15-16).”

In its biblical context, this counting appears only to connect the first grain offering to the offering made at the peak of the harvest. As the holiday of Shavuot became associated with the giving of the Torah, and not only with a celebration of agricultural bounty, the omer period began to symbolize the thematic link between Passover and Shavuot.

While Passover celebrates the initial liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, Shavuot marks the culmination of the process of liberation, when the Jews became an autonomous community with their own laws and standards. Counting up to Shavuot reminds us of this process of moving from a slave mentality to a more liberated one.

When to Count the Omer

The counting of the omer begins on the second night of Passover. Jews in the Diaspora generally integrate this counting into the second seder.

The omer is counted each evening after sundown. The counting of the omer is generally appended to the end of Ma’ariv (the evening service), as well.

What to Say

One stands when counting the omer, and begins by reciting the following blessing:

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha’Olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tizivanu al sefirat ha’omer.

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to count the omer.

After the blessing, one recites the appropriate day of the count. For example:

What Is the Mishnah?

Published at the end of the second century CE, the Mishnah is an edited record of the complex body of material known as oral Torah that was transmitted in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

Rabbi Judah the Patriarch, also known as Rabbi Judah the Prince and Yehudah HaNasi, undertook to collect and edit a study edition of these halachot (laws) in order that the learning not vanish.

Although the Temple had been destroyed 130 years prior to its publication, in the world described by the Mishnah the Temple still exists and the laws that governed it are expressed in the present tense. While the Talmud (the compendium of the Mishnah and the Gemara, which interprets and comments on the Mishnah) refers to the Bar Kochba rebellion and the defeat by the Romans, the Mishnah itself ignores the events of the Roman occupation of the land of Israel. In this way, the Mishnah is a document that describes a life of sanctification, in which the rituals of the Temple are adapted for communal participation in a world that has no Temple, which escapes the ups and downs of history.

URJ bring them home

Page 97 mishkan T’Filah

The Diameter of the Bomb

The diameter of the bomb was 30 centimeters

and the diameter of its effective

range about 7 meters,

with four dead and 11 wounded.

And around these, in a larger

circle

of pain and time, two hospitals

are scattered

and one graveyard. But the

young woman

who was buried in the city she

came from,

at a distance of more than a

hundred kilometers,

enlarges the circle considerably,

and the solitary man mourning

her death

at the distant shores of a country

far across the sea

includes the entire world in the

circle.

And I won’t even mention the

crying of orphans

that reaches up to the throne of

God and

beyond, making a circle with no

end and no God.

(Yehuda Amichai)