Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 18, 2005 Page: 22 of 24
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TJP V59-33 08-18-05 p22-24 8/16/05 5:42 PM Page 22
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22
Texas Jewish Post
In Our 59th Year
August 18,2005
Columnists
In My Mind's I
Ideas out live book-
burning, thank God
This column began in my head,
in my kitchen. My brain
was busy with ideas while
my hands were making
stuffed cabbage.
I know: Some people
call them "praakes," or
"galluptzi," or "halishkes."
But where I'm from, they're
just plain "stuffed cabbage."
My husband called them
praakes when he asked me
to make them. He's a com-
petent cook who had
plenty of practice as a young wid-
ower raising a young child alone, but
this is his special request of me. I
never say no. He's equally consid-
erate; he doesn't ask too often.
You see, making stuffed cabbage
is the kind of cooking I hate. It's too
labor-intensive. It takes too long. All
that work, all that time spent, and if
it's really good — and why would I
put all that work and time into any-
thing I didn't intend to be really
good? — it disappears in an eye-
blink. I'd rather invest my effort in
something that will last a bit longer.
(Yes, I know: newspapers don't have
much of a "shelf life," either....)
So I make stuffed cabbage about once
a year. The only culinary task I dislike
more is baking hamantaschen. Same
reasons, but with a rolling pin added.
Anyway, there I was, keeping one
eye on the big pot of boiling water
with the big head of cabbage softening
in it, so I could peel the leaves away
without tearing them, while the other
was on the big bowl with the ground
beef, the egg, the rice, the salt and
pepper, the minced onion, waiting to
be mixed up, and wondering if I'd for-
gotten to put anything in. I do that
sometimes, when my mind is writing
columns while I cook.
(Time for truth: I use instant
minced onion, out of a jar. And during
the rest of the year when I'm not
stuffing cabbage leaves, I do make
"unstuffed cabbage," which is much
easier and quicker and tastes almost —
but not quite — as good. If you'd like
that recipe, I'll be glad to give it to you.)
Where my mind was, was on
books. Because just the day before I'd
been to the Dallas Public Library's
main branch to see "Fighting the
Fires of Hate," the U.S. Holocaust
Museum's touring exhibit about Nazi
book burnings — a World War II
prelude to worse things coming. The
images — posters, photos, films —
were unbelievable and disturbing —
disturbing mostly because the whole
idea is so unbelievable. Does anyone
really believe that getting rid
of a book can get rid of the
ideas in it?
The Germans were so
proud of their book burnings
that they announced them in
advance, giving American
groups — American lewish
groups, primarily— plenty of
time to counter with simulta-
By Harriet P. neous protests. We must all
Gross thank the American lewish
Committee for mobilizing
100,000 in New York and 25,000 in
Chicago for massive main-street marches.
The library exhibit also included news-
reel footage of these events. Too bad they
couldn't stop the book burning or what
followed: the Holocaust, the ultimate
destruction by fire.
But what puzzled me most,
frightened me most, about this
whole exhibit was some other, later,
newsreel film showing the rubble of
German cities after the war. In the
midst of that rubble, fires were
burning — fires into which German
children were throwing books. Nazi
books, but still books. The newsreel
narrator said this was to help clear
the kids' minds of the old ideologies
and get them started on a new path.
But the smiles on the boys' and girls'
faces as they consigned volume after
volume to the flames were the same
smiles seen earlier in the exhibit, on
the faces of young Nazis doing the
same to volume after volume of
"non-Aryan" books.
Does anyone really believe that
getting rid of books can get rid of
the ideas they contain?
I'm afraid I was rather heavy-
handed with my meat mixture this
time, as I took out my upset about
book burning on this innocent target.
I will probably not make stuffed
cabbage again for at least another
year, and I'm sure that when I do —
and whenever I do so further off
into the future — the process will
be accompanied by images of
burning books, and the sure knowl-
edge that history has given us: Ideas,
whether good or bad, cannot be
killed by fire, no matter how many
books — or what kind of books —
people may burn. No matter how
many people may burn....
I hope my husband didn't detect the
taste of angry fire lurking in his praakes.
Email: harrietg@texasjewishpost.com
Ask the Rabbi
Dear Rabbi Fried,
There's been quite a bit of debate
in our family over the disengagement
from Gaza. Is it the right thing to do
or not? Is there a Torah per-
spective on the subject?
— Frank B.
Dear Frank,
The first thing I feel
about this very emotional
and explosive matter is
that we, living in the Dias-
pora, can't be back-seat
drivers for the Israeli gov-
ernment and people.
Precious few of us, if any, know
what's really going on behind the
scenes and what Prime Minister
Sharon's motivations may be,
although his press people have
taken many pains to explain this
move to the public. Our obligation
as lews, whether or not we person-
ally agree with the decision, is to
publicly stand behind any decision
made democratically by the State of
Israel. Our neighbors should always
for the difficult and painful deci-
sions made by the Israeli
government. In Israel, as well, the
mainstream of responsible Rab-
binic authorities have
mandated that nobody is
allowed by lewish law to
rebel against the decision
of the government,
although peaceful demon-
strations may be
encouraged.
The qu estion if Jewish
law allows land for peace,
the answer empirically is
yes, with the caveat that
those making the decision to do
so have strong guarantees for the
peace the land is being traded for,
and that trade will truly save lives
and stabilize the overall security
of Israel.
Although the Jewish law may
allow for such decisions, the fact
that thus is the situation is cer-
tainly a cause for sadness and even
mourning. As we finish the three-
week mourning period marking
see all Jews united in their support the destru ction of our Temple and
By Rabbi
Yerachmiel D. Fried
subsequent loss of Israel and the
exile, we again are faced with a
painful situation that chunks of
our Holy Land, which was again
acquired with the blood, sweat
and tears of our dedicated
brethren, is being taken from us.
Hundreds of thousands prayed
together at the Wailing Wall this
week for the benefit of the dedi-
cated residents of Gaza and the
Land, and we should certainly
offer up our prayers, wherever we
are, for the Al-mighty to ensure
peace in Israel, from our enemies
and with our fellow Jews, and that
Israel should grow and be popu-
lated, not taken away from us.
This we should include in our
prayers that all Jews should be
returned to Israel with the coming
of Moshiach, speedily in our days.
Rabbi Yerachmiel Fried, noted scholar
and author of numerous works on
Jewish law, philosophy and Talmud,
is founder and dean of DATA, the
Dallas Area Torah Association. Ques-
tions can be sent to him at
yfried@sbcglobal.net or at DATA,
5840 Forest Lane, Dallas, TX 75230,
(214) 987-3282.
SIMON
continued from page 5
Mr. I. Lewis Libby, Vice President
Cheney's Chief of Staff, disclosed
the identity of a covert CIA agent for
political purposes and lied to Scott
McClellan, and presumably, to the
grand jury concerning their involve-
ment in denigrating Ambassador
and Mrs. Wilson. And it is all unrav-
eling, as these Washington
conspiracies do. We have reached
the penultimate stage, well
described in Frank Rich's felicitous
phrase, as the time of "liars and their
lawyers," ratting out each other and
trading for transactional immunity.
Finally, they are dismayed by the
ever growing national debt and by
declining admiration for their
country's role in world leadership.
But there is no way and no place to
speak out except at the cost of per-
sonal status — and status is the life
goal of many in the Metroplex.
While they have lost the spirit to
defend the Bush Administration fac-
tually against its critics, they are not
yet ready to gamble hard-earned, if
only self-perceived, social gains in a
process of change. So, they say "let's
don't talk about politics."
Is avoidance an acceptable choice?
May one, for fear of what his peers
might think, walk away from the
responsibility of being a fully partic-
ipating citizen in this republic? There
are many to whom politics, particu-
larly partisan politics, is entirely
unpleasant. That is understandable,
if not easily explicable to political
afficionados. Less acceptable are the
knowledgeable, and previously
deeply interested, but now silent.
Would someone now afraid to
express aloud fully justified distaste
for Mr. Bush's administration really
lose important social standing by
speaking out? Perhaps, and maybe
more so in the DFW area than any-
where else. But is just not talking
about politics too high a price to
pay? Good question.
Henry W. Simon Jr. is an attorney in
Fort Worth.
BOOKS
continued from page 14
Fragments of the "Book of
Giants," alongside other texts such as
an Aramaic book about the patriarch
Levi — the son of Jacob and the
founder of one of the Twelve Tribes
of Israel were found in the Dead Sea
Scrolls, ancient texts discovered in
caves on the shores of the Dead Sea
in the mid-2 0th century.
It is not known how many arti-
facts of this nature exist, and the
number of documents included in
the project is expected to grow as
researchers explore libraries in
Russia, Greece and other countries
for additional manuscripts.
Funded by a research grant from
the British Leverhulme Trust, the St
Andrews team will initially consist of
30 international researchers, with up
to 20 more to be recruited as the pro-
ject develops.
The scholars hope that translating
and publishing the texts, a project
expected to be completed within
four to six years, will provide a valu-
able tool for gaining insights into
how biblical stories were interpreted
by earlier peoples.
"I think there will also be popular
interest," said Davila, "and we want
to make it available for everyone to
be able to read."
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Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 33, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 18, 2005, newspaper, August 18, 2005; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth188093/m1/22/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .