My Father, My King

I put this video on Jewschool in response to someone posting Phish doing Avinu Malkeinu and I figured I would post it here as well. I think Mogwai does a much better job of expressing the feelings of the high holidays. And not one of them is Jewish!
Shana Tova Umetukah! Have a great sweet new year!

My Rebbe and My Inspiration

Some uplifting images for Elul

Obamamannerisms

Today Michelle Obama came and spoke at the University of Wisconsin so I was able to skip class and hear her speak.
She's a fabulous speaker, maybe even better than Barack himself (he says "um" a lot) and she really rallied me up. She loves to talk about how Barack is someone we can relate to, he understands the issues we face because he at one point has had to face them himself. They both come from a working middleclass background and they are living the American dream. That's not really something McCain or his wife (especially) can say. This is exemplified in every aspect of her speech, but I even noticed it in my favorite part of her oratory skills: That her grammar could use a little work.
I think that it's wonderful that she makes some grammatical mistakes (something only my father and I would pick up on, because we're anal like that) because it says a lot about her image. By speaking like a normal American with less-than-perfect English, she is showing us that she is a normal person like anyone else, taking care of her children and paying back her student loans, and that was indeed a talking point in her speech.
Americans are obsessed with having a perfect leader. Why is it that every time something minuscule shows up in a politician's past, it gets exploited by the media? We forget that leaders are people too who make mistakes and feel guilty about them. I remember when people were freaking out that Barack did cocaine. Would it really change your vote if you found out that your nominee experimented in college a little bit? Apparently for some people yes.
Actually, Obama defended it well on 60 Minutes when this whole balagan started. He didn't deny it, he just exclaimed, “It’s not something that I’m proud of, but that’s part of the journey that I’ve taken. I like to think that by letting people know the mistakes I’ve made that maybe young people behind me are looking and saying ‘You know what? This is a guy who made mistakes and he was able to write his life and get on track.’ And that’s I think an important message.”
So Michelle (whether conscious or unconscious of it) has the same message in her speech mannerisms. By choosing not to have a speech coach who encourages flawless grammar, she is in effect saying, "I am a human just as much as everyone else in this country. I am proud of who I am and I will not create a false image of myself."

I also just wanted to post this picture of Barack because he looks badass:

Israeli Mafia Takes Over Recycling Turf

This is kind of an old story but I just came across it and I think its fascinating and bizarre. Apparently the Israeli mafia has been working to take over the plastic bottle recycling monopoly and the police have been trying to stop them. And they're not doing it for ecological reasons! It's for profit.
This is ridiculous! Israeli has plastic bottle recycling? I've always had so much trouble finding recycling for anything in Israel. Last summer I used to take everything to the back of a supermarket, get yelled at by some sketchy men with beer bellies, get my bottles counted by the cashier after waiting in line for an hour, come back to the scary men and then wait for them to check over my bottles while blowing cigarette smoke in my face. I remember thinking that it was as if Israel wanted to make recycling as hard for me as possible so I would just forget about it and throw it in the trash (which I could never do for ethical reasons, throwing away recycling feels like breaking Shabbat for me).
But now the mafia is taking over? You know, it would be nice if the mafias did take over and made it into a blossoming business but most likely they will continue to launder money and spend it on drugs and firearms instead of recycling campaigns. Stupid mafia.
Hat tip to Green Prophet for the link.

Don't Forget Teshuva

Yesterday, Rabbi Avi Finegold wrote a very nice editorial in The Jew and the Carrot about Agriprocessors that I am starting to agree with.
I was very fiery about this issue after reading allegation after allegation on how terrible that place is. It was their corrupt slaughtering practices that led me to become a vegetarian. I am still very concerned about what is going on behind the doors at Agriprocessors (and all kosher slaughterhouses for that matter) and I am sad that I couldn't attend the interfaith protest there with Rabbi Morris Allan, but after speaking to my Chabad rabbi about the situation I have started to think about it in a different way.
He has a very close relationship with the Rubashkins because Madison is not so far away from Postville, so he drives down there occasionally to get meat and he has been squarely defending them the whole time. Now I think it is a little naive to think that they are completely free of blame, I think there is A LOT of blame to be said for their labor issues, but he reminded me that it is important to differentiate between allegations and convictions.
Until yesterday, the court hadn't ruled anything and all we had to believe was the word of the workers against the word of the management. Now when it comes to huge companies like this that have a history of snaking their way around the law, I think it makes more sense to take the workers complaints more seriously than the management's defense, but (as my rabbi reminded me) both the American legal system and the mishnaic legal system work on the assumption of innocent before proven guilty. At the same time, I could never put all my faith in the American legal system because I know how corrupt it can get - criminals go free and innocent people suffer.
Fortunately, yesterday the courts filed the first criminal charges against Agriprocessors, and I'm sure there are much more to come but, as Rabbi Avi Finegold suggests, especially in the month of Elul, we can't deny them the possibility of teshuva. Apparently, they have already begun.
In response to Governer Chet Culver's denunciation of the plant's labor practices, Agri released a statement explaining how they've helped out Postville and how they're improving the conditions at the plant. Additionally, immediately after the child labor charged were filed against Agri, the OU threatened to remove its hekhsher and almost immediately Agri has made statements about changing for fear of losing the OU. The Jewish Star reports that the OU is even trying to unionize Agri, which would be a big step in the right direction.
So, without trying to sound like an apostate of social justice, we should open our hearts to Agriprocessors. We should continue to criticize them, expect future criminal charges, and take their apologies with a grain of salt (since they didn't lead to much teshuva in the past), but we shouldn't turn a cold shoulder. Ahavat Yisrael even includes corrupt meat murderers and we have to hope that they will change for the better.

My favorite Woody Allen clip