Although many Jews were active in the leadership of the Russian Revolution, and the government of the Czar was less than friendly to the general Jewish population, there were many anti-Semitic overtones during the revolution. One well-known chant during the revolution was : "Tea of Wissotzky, Sugar of Brodsky, and the Czar is Leiba Trotsky!" (inferring Jewish domination).
Today there is no more Lebedyn Sugar, the sugar produced by Lazar Brodsky (1848-1904), aka the "Sugar King," a Jewish man from Kiev who produced a quarter of the country's sugar production and was an acclaimed philanthropist. Nor did Marxist Communism live out the century, as had been the dream of Marxist revolutionary and Red Army Leader Leon Trotsky (1879-1940). Wissotzky Tea, on the other hand, is now a popular tea in the land of Israel.
The Wissotzky Tea company was established by Kalman Zev Yankelevich Wissotzky (1824-1904). The son of a merchant, Wissotzky's foray into the tea trade came after he studied in the Volozhin Yeshiva, worked at a government organized Jewish agricultural colony, and studied Torah in Kovno with Rabbi Israel Lipkin. In 1849, he created the Wissotzky Tea Company and soon became known as the "King of Russian Tea."
Wissotzky was a generous philanthropist who supported many Jewish institutions, and was particularly interested in helping cantonists, young Jews who had been forcibly conscripted into the Russian army for 25 years (basically life); most lost their connection to Jewish life. Via the Parisian Alliance Israélite, he set up what eventually became the philanthropic fund now known as "The Wissotzky Fund."
A strong believer in Zionism, Wissotzky did not live to see his company relocate to Israel. He died in 1904, just as his company expanded to New York and London. By 1917, they ceased operations in Russia. In 1936, a Wissotzky plant was opened in Tel Aviv, where the company's headquarters eventually relocated.
Copyright © 2012 National Jewish Outreach Program. All rights reserved.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Know What Is Above You
It is human nature to value privacy. This value, probably dates back as far as Adam and Eve. Once they had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they instinctively wished to hide.
While Jewish life is extremely social, Judaism itself recognizes and values the importance of privacy. The Israelites are even praised for the fact that their tent doors did not face one another, meaning that one could not look into another person's tent from one's own dwelling. While this is usually referred to in praise of the Jewish value of modest behavior, it also demonstrates Judaism's basic respect for personal privacy.
Judaism does not demand that someone else monitor a person's behaviors. Part of the basic Jewish philosophy of Free Will insists that all people have the ability to make their own choices. Halacha, Jewish law, is meant to guide a person how to live a moral life. The great sages add some of their own insights in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), a tractate of the Mishna.
Rabbi Judah the Prince, who compiled the Mishna (200 BCE), is quoted in Pirkei Avot 2:1 as saying, "Reflect on three things and you will never come to sin - know what is above you - a seeing eye, a hearing ear and all your deeds as written in a book."
Being that God is omnipresent (as the children's song goes: "here, there and everywhere"), one is always held accountable for one's actions. Those who are "religious" in their public actions but deliberately transgress in private, demonstrate that while they are fearful of others seeing them act improperly, they lack the very basic element of belief in God's omnipotence. Not only is God able to see and hear one's actions, but every person's actions are recorded, and are reviewed at the end of the year.
Copyright © 2012 National Jewish Outreach Program. All rights reserved.
While Jewish life is extremely social, Judaism itself recognizes and values the importance of privacy. The Israelites are even praised for the fact that their tent doors did not face one another, meaning that one could not look into another person's tent from one's own dwelling. While this is usually referred to in praise of the Jewish value of modest behavior, it also demonstrates Judaism's basic respect for personal privacy.
Judaism does not demand that someone else monitor a person's behaviors. Part of the basic Jewish philosophy of Free Will insists that all people have the ability to make their own choices. Halacha, Jewish law, is meant to guide a person how to live a moral life. The great sages add some of their own insights in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), a tractate of the Mishna.
Rabbi Judah the Prince, who compiled the Mishna (200 BCE), is quoted in Pirkei Avot 2:1 as saying, "Reflect on three things and you will never come to sin - know what is above you - a seeing eye, a hearing ear and all your deeds as written in a book."
Being that God is omnipresent (as the children's song goes: "here, there and everywhere"), one is always held accountable for one's actions. Those who are "religious" in their public actions but deliberately transgress in private, demonstrate that while they are fearful of others seeing them act improperly, they lack the very basic element of belief in God's omnipotence. Not only is God able to see and hear one's actions, but every person's actions are recorded, and are reviewed at the end of the year.
Copyright © 2012 National Jewish Outreach Program. All rights reserved.
Never Fear
Don't worry about not getting accolades for a good deed; we often forget that these, too, are recorded above.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Twenties and Thirties
In the last decade or so, it has become commonplace for the media to note the decline of adulthood--meaning that childhood has been prolonged for so long that young adults are remaining at home and dependent on their parents' support well into their twenties. Whether this is a factor of economics, or a result of the parenting choices of Generation X, or one of other numerous variables, this extended adolescence is most often presented as unnatural and negative...But is it? When one looks at the Book of Numbers, which starts with God's directive to take a census of the Jewish people, one sees that Judaism itself recognizes a difference between young adulthood and true adulthood.
In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), Rabbi Judah ben Tema notes that "a 20 year old begins earning a livelihood, a 30 year old attains full strength" (5:25). This "schedule of life markers" is demonstrated in the varying ages that are used in taking the census of the Children of Israel as recorded in the Book of Numbers. In Numbers 1, God ordains that the census be taken counting the people from twenty to sixty years old. These were the ages of all those who would be eligible to serve in the army and go to war. The ages for counting the Levites, as directed by God, instructs that the Levites be numbered from ages "thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter upon the service, to do work in the tent of meeting."
In the structure of the ancient Israelite society described by the Torah, there is no more important factor than a life centered on the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The work of the Levites was not necessarily difficult, but it required that those involved truly feel the responsibility of their work. This type of maturity, according to tradition, one only truly attains at the age of thirty.
Copyright © 2012 National Jewish Outreach Program. All rights reserved.
In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), Rabbi Judah ben Tema notes that "a 20 year old begins earning a livelihood, a 30 year old attains full strength" (5:25). This "schedule of life markers" is demonstrated in the varying ages that are used in taking the census of the Children of Israel as recorded in the Book of Numbers. In Numbers 1, God ordains that the census be taken counting the people from twenty to sixty years old. These were the ages of all those who would be eligible to serve in the army and go to war. The ages for counting the Levites, as directed by God, instructs that the Levites be numbered from ages "thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter upon the service, to do work in the tent of meeting."
In the structure of the ancient Israelite society described by the Torah, there is no more important factor than a life centered on the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The work of the Levites was not necessarily difficult, but it required that those involved truly feel the responsibility of their work. This type of maturity, according to tradition, one only truly attains at the age of thirty.
Copyright © 2012 National Jewish Outreach Program. All rights reserved.
Friday, May 25, 2012
The Book of Ruth
Ruth was the Moabite wife of Machlon, one of the sons of Elimelech and Naomi, a wealthy couple who had fled Bethlehem during a bitter famine. Elimelech's family had settled in Moab, a neighboring country with which Israel had a history of conflict.
When Elimelech and his two sons died, Naomi chose to return to her homeland. Her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, decided to go with her. When they reached Israel, however, Naomi urged them to go back to their fathers’ homes. Orpah did leave. Ruth refused, declaring: "Where you [Naomi] go, I shall go, your people will be my people, your land will be my land, and your God will be my God."
Upon their return to Bethlehem, Ruth and Naomi lived a lonely and impoverished life. People resented that Naomi’s family had fled the famine, and they did not trust her Moabite daughter-in-law. To keep from starving, Ruth gathered excess barley that fell during the harvest in the field of Boaz, a relative of Elimelech. Boaz noticed Ruth’s unique qualities of modesty, loyalty and humility and encouraged her to continue gleaning in his field until the end of the harvest.
In the meantime, the elders of Bethlehem debated whether Ruth was a true convert and whether she could marry a Jewish man. Naomi, however, knew that Ruth was devout and sincere. She directed Ruth to go to the ceremony at the close of the threshing and seek out Boaz, who had been so kind to them. She told Ruth to present herself to him as a potential mate and assured Ruth that Boaz would take care of her.
That night, Ruth demurely waited at Boaz’s feet, signaling her intentions. Boaz, who was much older, an established landowner and a leader in the community, had not thought of himself as a possible suitor until that night.
Boaz and Ruth married and their son, Oved, was the grandfather of King David.
For a more detailed (an illustrated) outline of the Book of Ruth, please visit the National Jewish Outreach Program's special Shavuot website.
This Treat was originally posted on May 27, 2009.
Copyright © 2012 National Jewish Outreach Program. All rights reserved.
When Elimelech and his two sons died, Naomi chose to return to her homeland. Her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, decided to go with her. When they reached Israel, however, Naomi urged them to go back to their fathers’ homes. Orpah did leave. Ruth refused, declaring: "Where you [Naomi] go, I shall go, your people will be my people, your land will be my land, and your God will be my God."
Upon their return to Bethlehem, Ruth and Naomi lived a lonely and impoverished life. People resented that Naomi’s family had fled the famine, and they did not trust her Moabite daughter-in-law. To keep from starving, Ruth gathered excess barley that fell during the harvest in the field of Boaz, a relative of Elimelech. Boaz noticed Ruth’s unique qualities of modesty, loyalty and humility and encouraged her to continue gleaning in his field until the end of the harvest.
In the meantime, the elders of Bethlehem debated whether Ruth was a true convert and whether she could marry a Jewish man. Naomi, however, knew that Ruth was devout and sincere. She directed Ruth to go to the ceremony at the close of the threshing and seek out Boaz, who had been so kind to them. She told Ruth to present herself to him as a potential mate and assured Ruth that Boaz would take care of her.
That night, Ruth demurely waited at Boaz’s feet, signaling her intentions. Boaz, who was much older, an established landowner and a leader in the community, had not thought of himself as a possible suitor until that night.
Boaz and Ruth married and their son, Oved, was the grandfather of King David.
For a more detailed (an illustrated) outline of the Book of Ruth, please visit the National Jewish Outreach Program's special Shavuot website.
This Treat was originally posted on May 27, 2009.
Copyright © 2012 National Jewish Outreach Program. All rights reserved.
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