The Jewish Table - Sh'ma Journal March 2012

When we consider a Jewish home, it is often the table that captures our imagination. Around that table, families eat, talk, argue, create habits, and construct what becomes family lore and memory. We devote this issue of Sh'ma to examining what happens at a Jewish table — what we eat, who is invited to sit with us, and what we learn. The word tisch, the Yiddish word for table, is closely associated with a rebbe's Shabbat gathering. Or Rose and Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi discuss the role of the rebbe; Joel Hecker reflects on how a kabbalist might understand the pathway of food and spirit; Charlotte Fonrobert explores how the Shulhan Arukh (the Set Table) became a metaphor for Jewish law and tradition; Shulem Deen shares his history at a rebbe's tisch; Aryeh Cohen and Rachel Nussbaum suggest ways to rethink the hierarchical nature of the "tisch" and establish an egalitarian setting; Ruth Abusch-Magder looks at the foods on the Shabbat table and the women who stir the pot of cholent; and Joel Feigelson asks us to think about what the line from the Haggadah — "Let all who are hungry come and eat" really means today.

This month's Sh'ma Journal: Jews & the United Nations

This month's Sh'ma Blog has many interesting posts. Here is one of them:

A Tale of One City – With Two Songs.

By Matt Bar, Founder and Executive Director of Bible Raps.

It is said you can’t truly understand a subject until you can teach it. Consequently, I have always had difficulty teaching my students about Israel as there are so many layers to this country and its people. It’s a tight knot. I highly encourage you to closely examine this month’s Shma Journal. Each article provides insight into the politics of Israel and the UN, and for me, they made me more aware of how little I know about this subject. As far as my contribution, I’ve decided to give two distinct impressions with two songs about the same city: Jerusalem. One is of helplessness and another of empowerment. Their juxtaposition serves to highlight the complicated relationship a Jew may have with the Holy Land and its inhabitants’ relationship to history and the world stage.

Click here to hear the songs.