The Bay Area's own coterie of deranged religion-hating WASP-wannabees, the Bay Area Women in Black (BAWIB), are holding their annual TASHLICH ceremony at Lake Merrit on September 26 this year, from 11:00 AM till 12:00 Noon.
Which is a Saturday.
Saturday is shabbat.
Something here seems very wrong...........
To quote someone with whom I am in e-mail contact:
"Tashlich is supposed to be on Sunday, 9/20, this year. It is NEVER performed on Shabbat -- unless you're a self-hating Jew, who knows nothing about the details of their religion and uses it merely as a cudgel with which to attack political enemies."
Regarding Rosh Hashana, this Wikipedia article clarifies "Rosh Hashanah is observed as a day of rest (Leviticus 23:24) and the activities prohibited on Shabbat are also prohibited on Rosh Hashanah."
Key is that tashlich involves stuff prohibited on the Sabbath - according to a friend, melacha ("work") and borer ("selection").
Rosh Hashana this year is from sunset September 18 (Friday) till nightfall September 20 (Sunday).
[Sunset: when the light begins to fade. Nightfall: the light of day is entirely gone.]
Per OU , "If the first day of Rosh HaShanah falls on Shabbat , Tashlich is said on Sunday, the second day."
Okay, that's a little too much information, but it's quite clear. Rosh Hashana (New Year) is on Saturday the 19th. Tashlich then should be the next day.
Apparently there's a bunch of holidays that are TWO days everywhere except Israel - something having to do with the moon, signal fires, clouds, and runners from Babylon - all very interesting (crazy complicated) and not really relevant to my point, but in any case, Tashlich this year is done on Sunday September 20.
Not the next sabbath. EVER!
Nor involving four (!) large demonic puppet heads or idols - these are trademarks of the Bay Area Women in Black, usually carried by men in shrouds - voodoo, as far as I know, is not an accepted part of the Jewish belief system.
[Maybe those four(!) effigies represent the Four Apostles, but in that case the whole thing is completely wacko. Get help, ladies, you're nuts.]
What they are doing is NOT Jewish. Nor is it a valid reflection of any other recognizable belief system. Wrong date. Desecration of the Sabbath. Weird demon dolls.
It is a horrendous bastardization of Jewish ritual. There's a very broad line between interpretation and ideological deviance. They've crossed it.
3 comments:
Bay Aarea women in black is a notorious anti-Israel group who recently sponsored anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon at a local Unitarian Church.
No one doubts their real agenda
Staging a fake Jewish religious ceremony on the Jewish Sabbath strictly for the purpose of demonizing the Jewish State of Israel, is as offensive to real, practicing Jews as would be Caucasian People blackening their faces with burnt cork and strutting the cakewalk in a Minstrel Show is to African-American People.
Women in Black is fairly active here in Santa Cruz, with core organizer, feminist Anne Simonton at the helm, and with Man in Black, John Thielking often in tow. While the WIB here have mostly focused on the War in Iraq, Simonton has a decidedly anti-Israel bent.
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