Judy-ism to Hava Nagila

We have a whole religion called Judaism. But who was Judy? We want to know!! I wrote these parody lyrics and performed them at The Actors' Temple on May 20, 2024. Here is a link: https://youtu.be/yDO0e0Q8ezc Judy, we love you, Judy we need you, Judy you are a heck of a gal. Judy, we love you, Judy we need you, Judy, you are Hebrew's best pal. You have been who knows where, Judy we really care. Judy come back to us into the light. We're looking everywhere, Judy we’re in despair. We need you back again right here tonight. Judy, Judy, Judy, Who are you? We’d like to know it. Who are you? Come on and show it. Where you’ve been, we can’t discover. Who you are, we would uncover. Who are you? Who are you? Solve this mystery!

The Four Worlds and the Mishkan in Terumah

The Four Worlds of the mystics of Spanish Kabbalah in the 13th Century, including Azriel of Gerona, then Moses de Leon, Isaac b. Samuel of Acre, and later Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (first half of 18th Cent. from Padua), in The Way of God, derived the concept of the Four Worlds from Isaiah (43:7) which is also in the haftarah for B’reisheet כֹּ֚ל הַנִּקְרָ֣א בִשְׁמִ֔י וְלִכְבוֹדִ֖י בְּרָאתִ֑יו יְצַרְתִּ֖יו אַף־עֲשִׂיתִֽיו׃ “All that is called by my name for my glory (Atzilut) I have created it (Beriyah) I have formed it (Yetzirah) and I have made it (Assiyah)." The four worlds also describe the primal elements of the natural world: Action or earth; Emotion or water; Intellect or air; Essence or Spirit or the energy of fire. Assiyah is the physical world: the material universe in which we live and perform actions and deeds. Yetzirah is the world of angels or energies: of emotion, creativity, and expression; Beriyah is the world of the soul forces that receive guidance and of thought and intellect; Atzilut is the eternal unchanging Divine world of God’s emanations and influences. The Tabernacle or Mishkan, from the word, Shakan, meaning dwell, consists of a courtyard outlined by lace hangings, and a Tent of Meeting, divided into two sections, containing holy golden objects. The outer courtyard of the Mishkan represents the world of Assiyah, doing, where sacrifice is offered, washing is done, and confession and prayers are offered. The outer half of the tent with the golden menorah giving light for the eyes, the Incense altar with its hypnotic scent and smokey, almost tangible cloud, the table or shulchan with sweet tasting bread, and the sound of tinkling bells from the High priest's robe, represents the world of Yetzirah: the emotions created by engaging all the senses creating feelings of uplift, wonder, and reveling in all the magnificent beauty of the gleaming golden furniture. The inner half of the tent represents Beriyah, the Holy Aron or ark, the place of the words on the tablets of the Ten Declarations, which require intellect, thought, and choice, the command center of the human being from which all emotions and actions flow. The world of Atzilut is represented by the space between and above the wings of the angels on the ark, from where God's voice could be heard. The Mishkan was a physical representation of how human beings create and live in this world. All the spiritual teachers say that thought and choice produce emotion, and lead to deeds, all of which create our world. The design of the Mishkan imparts this knowledge and deep wisdom, showing us that, similar to the teachings of the Chassidic masters and to Buddhism: right thought leads to joyous and uplifting emotions, which lead to blessed action and happy lives. Choosing to think of and care about the Divine and each other, which the 10 Commandments help us to do, and appreciating the Divine and the beauty, goodness, and uplift we receive through our senses, lead us to enjoy our lives and express our joy though an active, expansive, and good life. The design of the Mishkan can speak this to us: be guided by your intellect. Choose the good and beautiful. Choose joy. Enjoy everything that comes to you through your senses, and act, living life fully and joyously.

Links to Rabbi Jill Hausman's Published Articles on the Web

https://www.tikkun.org/hiding-in-plain-sight/ (Vayakhel) 2023 Tikkun Magazine online; https://www.jta.org/2011/10/18/ny/the-gift-for-eating-forbidden-fruit (B’Reisheet) 2011 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2012/10/16/ny/in-the-wake-of-the-flood (Noach) 2012 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2019/11/05/ny/the-quest-for-perfection (Lech Lecha) 2019 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2014/10/28/ny/the-road-to-jerusalem (Lech Lecha) 2014 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2021/10/21/ny/abraham-had-faith-but-not-blind-faith (Vayera) 2021 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2015/11/10/ny/the-good-parent (Toldot) 2015 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2020/12/10/ny/the-blessing-of-a-forthright-confession (Vayeshev) 2020 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2017/12/26/ny/a-deeper-level-of-forgiveness (Vayechi) 2017 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2018/12/24/ny/the-promise-of-the-unknown (Shemot) 2018 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2014/02/04/ny/the-essence-of-jewish-royalty (Tetzavah) 2014 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2018/02/27/ny/the-lesson-of-the-golden-calf (Ki Tissa) 2018 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2020/04/21/ny/the-holy-ties-that-bond (Tazria) 2020 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2015/07/08/ny/the-violent-passion-of-pinchas (Pinchas) 2015 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://www.jta.org/2018/08/08/ny/the-circles-of-giving (Re’eh) 2018 NY Jewish Week, Times of Israel; https://truah.org/resources/the-paradigm-of-a-perfect-world/ Chukat 2015 T'ruah.org;

If There Were No Chanukah, There Would Be No Christmas

If there were no Chanukah, there would be no Christmas. Why is that so? Toward the end of the Greek Empire, the Greeks were feeling tremendous pressure from the new power in the world, the Roman Empire, which was threatening to engulf them. We are familiar with the Nazis trying to exterminate all the Jews and so many others, Catholics among them, during the Second World War. In the 2nd Century BCE, a similar thing was happening, only the Greeks were not attempting to kill the Jewish people, although many were murdered; they were trying to destroy the Jewish religion. The Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV’s idea was to resist Rome by making his Syrian Greek Empire thoroughly Greek. Only Greek Gods could be worshipped, only Greek culture could exist. The Jewish religion must be wiped out. A band of Jewish rebels resisted swearing allegiance to the Greek Gods and to the worship of Antiochus IV himself as a God. Jews were forced to eat pork, prohibited from observing the Sabbath and from circumcising their children. A band of them, later called the Maccabees, ran into the hills to train as a guerilla army. The Greeks sent larger and larger forces against them, even elephants, the “tanks” of the day. Then “a great miracle happened there,” (symbolized by the letters on the dreidel): the few defeated the many; the weak overcame the strong. When the Jews returned to Jerusalem, they cleaned and rededicated the great Temple. There is a legend that a small amount of holy oil burned for the eight days of the re-dedication celebration. However, most importantly, Judaism survived, and Jesus, also known as Rabbi Joshua, could be born, about a hundred and fifty years later. There is a growing acknowledgement from Christians that Jesus really lived as a Jew and died as a Jew. And there is a small but growing acknowledgement from within Judaism that Jesus’ teachings are fully Jewish, and that he was an important prophet, in the tradition of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. So if the Jews had not defeated the Greeks, there would have been no Rabbi Joshua, to become Jesus, the great teacher to Christendom. As we celebrate this holiday season, may we appreciate our common roots, accept and love each other, and know that we are much more interdependent than we realize. Happy Chanukah! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! This article was previously published by Times Square Chronicles online, Tuesday, December 16, 2014. Jill Hausman is the Rabbi and Cantor of the historic Actors’ Temple in NYC.

My Solution to World Peace

My solution to world peace is that everyone should move to Queens (NY). Then we would all take the subway together: the #7 Train and the E and the F trains. We would all get along, and then after having lived in Queens, if people want to go back to their countries, they can. Living together in Queens would definitely create world peace, but NY City might have to build a few more home and subway lines.

A Prayer for All People

A PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE By Rabbi Jill Hausman: Eternal Source, as you are The One who gives life to all, We pray for all our brothers and sisters, Of every race, religion, nation, and neighborhood. Help us to see you in every human face; To feel you in the warmth of every human heart. Teach us to love and to heal each other; To make peace and to respond to each others’ needs. As we inhabit one Earth, we are one human family, With one Divine Parent. As you send blessings to us, Please bless all of our brothers and sisters, With good health, prosperity, insight, wisdom, and joy, And help us to be a blessing. If we have a vision of a time of peace and harmony, Surely we and You, Eternal One, Have dreamed it together.

An Out of Body Experience - V'Zot HaBeracha

On Simchat Torah we read the very spare account of the Death of Moses (Deut. 34:5). At the beginning of the Chapter, The Holy One shows Moses the Promised land: north from Jerico to Gilead, east of the Jordan River, and even farther north to the territory of Dan. Moses sees southward to Jerusalem and continuing south, all the way to the Negev in the very south of Israel, and all the way west to the Mediterranean Sea. The sages point out that this is a physical impossibility. No one on earth, even on a mountaintop, could possibly see all that standing in one place. I suggest that this is a description of an out-of-body experience, one in which Moses traveled outside his physical body to see the entire land. Then in verse 5, the Torah tells us that "Moses died there," "by the mouth of God." Rabbis have suggested he died by a Divine Kiss. Perhaps he never re-entered his body, and became wholly that non-physical energy which we experience on earth as Soul. He left the physical and never returned to that incarnation, easily, it seems, and hopefully, with great joy, having seen what he journeyed to see for forty years, fulfilled and blessed.