Heckers Unbleached Flour has been ongrocery shelves in New York and surroundingareas since 1843. It would not have lastedthis long if there were not a spoonful ofconfidence in each and every bag.The Uhlmann CompanyCHANUKAH MUSICQUIZ ANSWERS1. A. Passover and Purim, as well asChanukah, appear in the liturgicalpoem Ma’oz Tzur by the 13th- and14th-century German poet Mordecaiben Yitzchak Halevi. It contains sixstanzas—the first expressing Israel’smessianic hopes for the reestablishmentof ancient Temple worship; thesubsequent ones praising God fordelivering the Jews from the Egyptianbondage, from the Babylonianexile, from Haman’s plot, and fromthe Seleucid Greek threat; andthe concluding verse pleading forIsrael’s speedy redemption. Passoveris referenced in verse three (“cheilPar’o v’chol zar’o yardu k’evenbim’tzulah”—“Pharaoh’s army andall his seed went down like a stoneinto the deep”) and Purim in versefour (“Agagi ben Ham’data”—“theAgagite, son of Hammedatha,” whichrefers to Haman). Source: JewishHeritage Onlinecontinued on page 20TRINITY COLLEGEHILLEL<strong>reform</strong> <strong>judaism</strong> 10 winter 2012
JEWISHLIFEBOOKSAn Insider’s Guide to the Jewish Conversationa conversation with Rabbi Lawrence A. HoffmanRabbi LawrenceA. Hoffman, theBarbara and StephenFriedman Professorof Liturgy, Worshipand Ritual at HUC-JIR in New York,talks to RJ’s editorsabout his latest book, One HundredJewish Books: Three Millennia of KeyJewish Conversation (Bluebridge Press,2011), which offers commentary on keyJewish writings from biblical times toour day, opening a window onto threemillennia of Jewish dialogue and debate.How did you conceive of a guide tothe Jewish conversation?Back in the 1970s, while serving asa visiting professor at the University ofNotre Dame, I found myself in a conversationwith a Catholic colleaguewho sought to describe an experiencethat had proved personally transforming.The next thing I knew, I was saying,“That was your life in Christ.”“Yes,” he said, “Exactly!”The problem was, I had no real ideawhat I had said. I had simply intuitedthe right conversational response. I was,as it were, learning to speak “Catholic.”This was my first inchoate notion of lifeas a set of conversations.Is Judaism a conversation?Yes. We are what we talk about—or,better, what we talk about is what we arelikely to become. Think about conversion.People raised as Jews internalizea Jewish conversation they take forgranted. Converts are always playingcatch-up—as are serious Jews whowant to take the conversation deeperthan what they learned as children.What is the best entry point intothe Jewish conversation?I start with the Bible, particularlythe Books of Genesis, Isaiah, Psalms,Ecclesiastes, and Job. Genesis is theformative statement of human distinctiveness:our gift of self-consciousness,which evokes the existential questionof who we are and what we ought tobe. The prophet Isaiah demonstratesour ethical impulse—the outwardexpression of human self-consciousnesstoward others. The Psalms providethe other side of the coin—our interiorlife of prayer, spirituality, and connectionto the Divine. But what if thegoodness we perform amounts to nothingin the end? What if our ideals areillusions that evaporate into dust?That’s the subject of Ecclesiastes. AndJob personifies the equally disturbingproblem of evil: how bad things happento good people.Genesis, Isaiah, Psalms, Ecclesiastes,and Job together lay down the parametersof human conversation for all time:self consciousness, ethics, spirituality,and the twin threats of meaninglessnessand mortality.So far, the conversation soundsuniversal—not specifically Jewish.Judaism is a “Jewish take” on theuniversal human predicament. The specificallyJewish version culminated in<strong>reform</strong> <strong>judaism</strong> 11 winter 2012the Babylonian Talmud (ca. 6th–7thcenturies C.E.). It is composed in conversationalform, as if half a millenniaof rabbis had somehow assembled for alengthy debate on just about everything—without,however, any bindingdecision being reached at the end. It isperfectly normal to think your waythrough several pages of closely contestedargument, only to find that youstill do not know the answer to thequestion proposed in the first place.That openness provides grist for a conversationalmill that has lasted all thistime. Hillel and Shammai (c. 1st centuryB.C.E.) are paradigmatic opponents.For purposes of practice, we generallyfollow Hillel, but commentators continueto discuss the guiding principles ofShammai too, because Judaism isexpansive, unafraid of contention, andinviting of curiosity and challenge. If Iwere banished to a desert island with asingle book to take along, I’d choosethe Talmud.What are other essential Jewishtexts that Jewish conversationalistsshould know?Medieval Judaism continued the legalconversation in commentaries, codes ofJewish law (which themselves attractcommentaries), and responsa (closelyargued legal directives in response tolife’s challenges). From this period wealso inherit our liturgical works—thesiddur (prayer book for weekdays andShabbat), machzor (prayer book for holidays),and the haggadah (the service forthe Passover seder). The conversationalso expanded to include the writings ofprominent Jewish philosophers such asMoses Maimonides (1135–1204) andJudah Halevi (c. 1075–1141); the foundationalwork of Jewish mysticism, theZohar; the fascinating Jewish travelogueof Benjamin of Tudela (1130–1173),who explored Europe, Asia, and Africa;and ethical wills, letters to the next gen-
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