Kol Kehillat Kernow
Voice of the Cornish Jewish Community
May 2003/Iyar 5763

Chairman's Remarks

There are some busy and exciting times ahead for all of us and your committee has been and will be working very hard to bring all the planned events to a successful conclusion. Although I was, unhappily, unable to attend the Communal Seder I heard how well received it had been. On your behalves I would like to say a special thank you to all those people who put so much effort into the food preparation, getting the hall prepared both before and after the service, and to David, of course, who led the service. I hope that in future events as many members of the community as possible will come forward with ideas and, more importantly, offers of help. We are a small group, admittedly, but if we all work together we can make light of a heavy workload.

Our name (and fame) is spreading. I have been approached by several phone callers eager for information about Kehillat Kernow so that they can make suitable holiday arrangements. The Board of Deputies has also asked for additional information for its data base of Jewish Communities in the United Kingdom. As more and more Jewish people move to the area, so our community will continue to grow and I hope that you will continue to give a warm welcome to all newcomers.

Shalom to you all. Harvey

See the enclosed poster for the details of the chief rabbi's visit in June, an event not to be missed!!!

The next page gives details of services for the coming months with Shabbat timings for Truro - please keep it safe. *

Regular Services at Truro Baptist Church: * Services are in the lounge or in the pre-school behind the church, unless otherwise stated.

Siddurs - if you have borrowed one please bring it back, if you want to buy one let us know and we'll organise it for you, if you have one please bring it to the service with you because we are really short of siddurs during most services! To buy ring Kathleen on 01872 273059. Musings from Darlington

A Tale of Two Ditties

I never thought I would belong to two Jewish communities - but as members of Kehillat Kernow and Darlington Hebrew Congregation I guess Aaron and I have the best of both worlds. Not the twinning you might expect and of course given the physical distance of some 440 miles we don’t have the problem of which shul not to attend on Shabbat

On Home Ground I am half of the team that leads our services so it is always a pleasure to sit back and enjoy those so tunefully taken by David Hampshire. This year it was a double bonus to celebrate the Communal seder and the following Shabbat at Carnon Downs. A week later, back for Shabbat in Darlington, we were down a few regulars due to holidays but still mustered a membership turnout of 40% (12 people!)

Refreshed by the Cornish sun and wind I was relaxed, ready to lead our service with renewed vigour but faced our perennial problem which this time was more acute. I can’t sing (not in public anyway). Not many of our congregants can sing in tune. To make matters worse all (bar one) of our ‘real’ singers were away, and that one, ‘Auntie Doris’ had a very bad sore throat. A service without song is like Chanucah without latkes or Pesach without matzo. But all was not lost as thankfully a latecomer provided the necessary melodic input both in terms of quality and volume. The rest of us joined in dutiful (but suspect) harmony

At moments like these I turn to page 570 in the RSGB siddur, to the picture of the beaked, be-tallised bird and the quote from Menachem de Lonzano whose thumbnail biography appears on page 613 in the glossary. Whether the 613 is significant I leave to those more learned than I but Profound Blessings upon Menachem as he gets my vote every time. He tells us: He whose voice is bad and unpleasant and who cannot perform hymns and songs according to their tunes and who cannot remember melodies, even to a man like him it is allotted to raise his voice.

Shalom to all our friends in Kehillat Kernow. Look forward to seeing you again in the summer

John Starr

Literary Pages

The Moshiach's Seudah - a story Herschel and his wife have been invited to the final service of the festival of Passover presided over by his friend Dovvid and his wife. There are four young children also present. They greet the new arrivals joyfully, all talking at once. Dovvid welcomes his guests and motions them into the room where the Pesach table has sat throughout the days of the festival. The Moshiach is already seated in a corner of the room, but no one is aware of the Moshiach's presence.

Wine is poured for the opening blessings. Each participant has a copy of the booklet, which Dovvid has prepared especially for this final night Seder. Dovvid begins to read: ³We are gathered together on the last afternoon of Pesach, to sing, to reflect and to prepare ourselves for the journey into the unknown and unknowable. Let us begin.²

Everyone in the room participates fully, even the youngest child. After the singing of ŒAdir Hoo' comes the first blessing for the first cup of wine. ³We bless the spirit of the world, who creates the fruit of the vine.² As they drink the wine they lean to one side, as is the custom. Herschel, not a regular wine drinker, downs his wine in one go. His wife has, fortunately agreed to drive home so he feels relaxed. The Moshiach looks on impassively.

The next passages concern ŒThe Miriam Tradition' and examine the important role, which Miriam had played in the entire life of Moses and thus, her positive effect in the Exodus itself. Miriam's cup is filled with Spring Water in remembrance of Miriam's well that accompanied the Israelites through the wilderness years. After singing ŒKol Dodi' (The Voice of My Beloved), the second cup of wine is drunk, again in the reclining position. One glass is usually enough for Herschel; after two he is beginning to get distinctly light-headed.

A parable retold by Dovvid's favourite, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, tells of a great king who, getting separated from his ministers and becoming lost during a heavy downpour of rain, is given shelter in the humble house of a villager. When his ministers come looking for him after the rain has stopped, the king pours scorn on their efforts. The Moshiach listens to the story.

At this point a meal is served. Wine is served with the meal and Herschel eats and drinks. His wife is pleased to see that he is relaxing. He has been seriously ill and she wants him to unwind. She is grateful to Dovvid and his wife for their generous hospitality and for the opportunity it offers Herschel to loosen his inhibitions. Everyone eats heartily. Even the few remaining matzos are consumed with relish. The service restarts and the third cup of wine, the cup of friendship, is poured and, after the blessing, is consumed. Herschel is now having serious difficulties focusing on the words on the page, much to the amusement of the children. Nevertheless, everyone enjoys singing ŒAl Kol Eleh' ­ ³On the honey and the thistle, On the bitter and the sweet, On our little baby daughter blessing I entreat², closely followed by ŒBashanah Haba'ah ­ If we care, you and me'. The next passages concern The Messiah. One of the lines says: ³As long as we do not pray in this way, as long as we do not love in this way, The Messiah will not come.² Once again, the Moshiach listens. More songs are sung. Dovvid asks Herschel to read from his favourite siddur. Unfortunately, to Herschel's inebriated eyes, the words blur into one another; moreover, when he turns pages he turns backwards, rather than forwards, which confuses him even more. Dovvid leans across to assist his friend but spills a glass of wine. It pours over a page of the siddur. Dovvid is mortified. He would like to give Herschel a good shaking, but he is a guest so he busies himself with drying off the siddur and shushing the children who are giggling helplessly. The Moshiac remains calm. The two wives are slightly embarrassed by their respective husbands.

Herschel, obviously shaken by the incident with the siddur, has sobered up dramatically and when they reach ŒYerushalayim Shel Zahav ­ Jerusalem of Gold' he joins in with gusto, remembering the tune from a record his sister has given him. For the fourth cup of wine, Herschel drinks non-alcoholic grape juice. The service ends with harmony restored. The Moshiac nods contemplatively. At the same time the Moshiac is also on a whirlwind tour of the world. The Moshiac is checking the balance. If the scales tip one particular way then the Moshiac will stay. If, on the other hand, they tip in the opposite direction, then the Moshiac will leave, never to return. If the balance remains even, then the Moshiac will return next year.

The Moshiac would like to stay, but there is much that gives cause for concern. The Moshiac witnesses addiction and bestiality, cruelty and destruction, egocentrism and faithlessness, greed and hunger, indifference and jealousy, killing of the most senseless kind and lust, murder and narcissism, over-indulgence and pain, quarrels and revenge, suffering and tyranny, unreliability and vice, war and xenophobia, yobbishness and zealotry.

There is also much that is praiseworthy. The Moshiac sees evidence of affection and blessings, concern and devotion, exuberance and friendship, godliness and honour, interaction and jocundity, kindness and love, motivation and neighbourliness, openness and perception, quality and responsiveness, sense and thoughtfulness, unity and vision, wisdom and excitement, and a yearning for the zenith of human achievement. Even so, the Moshiac finds the balance tipping the wrong way. The Moshiac does not wish to abandon the world. Suddenly the Moshiac is back at the Seudah. The friends are saying farewell and the expressions of pleasure at the evening's outcome are enough to maintain the balance.

The Moshiac recalls the stories, the songs, the blessings, the love. The Moshiac will return next year. Elsewhere, the Moshiac sees groups of people eagerly waiting for the Messiah. But it is not we who are waiting for the Messiah.

It is the Moshiac who is waiting for us.

Harvey Kurzfield

Talmud Torah k'negged kulam

Although the monthly study group has come to an end there is no reason why we can't get together as Jews to study Torah. One way of doing this is to have a Torah breakfast before the service. It is an opportunity to study the passage before we get to the service and have discussions which can inform the drusha during the service. All you need to do is bring a Chumash - the different the translation the better - and something dairy/vegetarian to share for breakfast. The Torah breakfast will start at 9 a.m. and finish at 9.50 a.m. every Shabbat we have a service. Initially they will be facilitated by David but very quickly they will be led by those people attending the breakfast. When will they start?

Our first Torah breakfast will be on 14th June, Shabbat Nasso, the focus will be on Numbers 6 and will be an exploration of the Nazarite vow. Events page

MUSICAL AFTERNOON - 22nd June At Carnon Downs Village Hall from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. with refreshments

Ever got to grips with Hatikvah? This social event - the first of its kind for Kehillat Kernow - will be an opportunity for people to get together and sing, in some cases learn, songs in Hebrew. Everybody is welcome - whatever they feel about their voice! It's intended to be fun and an opportunity to share our favourite songs - even in Yiddish and Ladino.

GET OUT YOUR GREASE PAINT - 10th August At the Liperts from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. with refreshments

It's getting close to that time of year when members of our community get a chance to shine for the sake of art! The Literary Festival is set for Sunday, 10th August, from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. in the lower garden of the Liperts. Poetry readings, musical renditions (song, dance or musical instruments), dramatic excerpts ought to be expected. Let Pat Lipert know what you are doing on the day by the last week in July so that a programme can be made up. Wine, cheese and juices will be served. All members of our community are welcome to participate, attend or better yet, do both!

QUARTERLY EVENT: OPPORTUNITIES TO THINK NEW WAYS ABOUT ALL THINGS JEWISH 7th September At Carnon Downs Village Hall from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. with refreshments

Over the last few months the strength of the monthly study group has been dwindling. It is obviously not meeting the needs of people, even with its changed focus. Hence, the committee decided to try something all together different with series of three monthly events, with a speaker, an opportunity to question and reflect, and be refreshed physically and spiritually.

The first of these events will be on Sunday 7th September at Carnon Downs Village Hall from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. with full details to be announced later.

HENCE, FROM NOW ON THERE WILL BE NO MONTHLY STUDY GROUP ON THE LAST TUESDAY OF THE MONTH.

MUSINGS FROM THE BAY We all know kids ask uncanny questions and often their innocence (or what they've probably heard from their elders), affects their preconceptions of that not so strange presence in Cornwall, the ŒJewish alien'. At least, that's what it sometimes feels like when you're entering a Religious Education class during one of our community's visits to local schools. They are often surprised when this vaguely familiar, school marm type, looking probably more like their grandmothers, visits them to talk about some aspect of Judaism. Good grief, we are not so alien after all. We eat, drink water - and no, I won't say it, Œif they prick us we do bleed.' And we make Œgreat egg-bread' as well. When we leave, not only have they gained a greater understanding of our Jewish community, but they also think we are pretty Œneat'.

Some of their questions, though, make one chuckle or cringe, and I thought you might enjoy reading a few of them.

Do Jews always write backwards?

Can Jews wear any colour besides black? (I wore a black dress to one class but quickly changed to a coloured number thereafter)

Do you have to take off your shoes when you go to synagogue?

Can Jewish kids play football? Watch videos? Play outside?

Why can't girls have a bris?

Do children have to behave at services? How are Jewish kids punished?

What do you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner?

Do all Jewish men work in business? Are all Jews rich?

Where do you go when you die?

Are all Jewish grandads moody? Cos mine is!

Pat Lipert

If you are interested in supporting school's work ring Harvey - we are always in demand. Important Dates for your diary: June 6/7th Shavuot June 22nd Musical Afternoon June 30th/July 1st Rosh Chodesh Tammuz July 17th Fast of Tammuz - the three weeks begin July 30th Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av August 6/7th Fast of Av (21.01 hrs - 21.48 hrs) August 10th Literary Festival August 13th Festival of Av August 28th/29th Rosh Chodesh Ellul September 7th Quarterly Event September 26th/27th/28th Rosh Hashanah 5764 September 29th Fast of Gedalia October 4th Shabbat Shuvah October 5th/6th Yom Kippur October 10th/11th/12th Sukkot October 17th/18th Shemini Atseret October 19th Simchat Torah October 20th Issur Chag October 27th Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan

Recipes for a change

Here's one of Cornwall's own! CORNISH HENS WITH COUSCOUS AND FIGS

Source: The Low-fat Jewish Cookbook by Faye Levy- Clarkson Potter/Publishers NY 1997 ISBN 0-517-70364-5

Yield: 4 servings

* 2 1/4 cups chicken broth * 1 2/3 cups couscous (1- 10 ounce package) * 1 cup dried figs (preferably dark ones such as Mission figs, diced) * 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel * 3 green onions (scallions), chopped * Salt and freshly ground black pepper * 2 Cornish hens, each about 1- 1/2 pounds * 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Bring the broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in the couscous and figs. Cover the pan, remove from the heat, and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff the couscous with a fork. Add the lemon rind and green onions and stir with a fork. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let stuffing cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Discard excess fat from the hens. Rub hens with pepper, then spoon 1/3 to 1/2 cup stuffing into each hen, packing it in gently. Reserve remaining stuffing mixture at room temperature.

Set the hens in a small roasting pan or shallow baking dish just large enough to contain them. Roast the hens, basting 2 or 3 times, for 45 minutes or until the thickest part of a drumstick is tender when pierced with a skewer and juices that run from drumstick are clear; if juices are pink, roast hens for a few more minutes and check again. During roasting, add 2 tablespoons hot water to pan juices if they brown.

To serve, spoon the stuffing from the hens onto a paltter. Cut each hen in half lengthwise with poultry shears. Arrange the pieces over stuffing on platter or plates. Cover and keep warm.

Heat the remaining stuffing mixture in a medium skillet over low heat, stirring gently with a fork, about 2 minutes; or heat it in a covered dish in the microwave. Serve in a separate heated dish.

From: Linda Shapiro (lss@coconet.com)

Shavuot Specials

CHEESE CAKE WITH MERINGUE FOR SHAVUOTH

Source: "OUGOT BE KHAMESH DAKOT" (Cakes Prepared in 5 Minutes) by Ruth Yoles

* 4 eggs * 1 pound cream cheese 9% (I use one 9% and one 5% or even both 5%) * 1 cream (shamenet) * 1 tablespoon self raising flour * 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract * 1 tablespoon of lemon juice * Rind of a whole lemon * 1 cup sugar

Well greased round cake pan (26 cm diameter) I use a T- fal springform or a square pyrex dish

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

2. Mix one egg and 3 yolks with cheese, cream, flour, vanilla, lemon juice, lemon rind and 3/4 of cup sugar.

3. Pour the cake mix in the cake pan and bake for 20 minutes.

4. Prepare the meringue by mixing well the 3 egg whites, then add sugar.

5. Spread the meringue on top of the cake, return to the oven and continue baking for 20 minutes.

6. After cooling, keep in the fridge.

From: Viviane & Israel Barzel (i_barzel@netvision.net.il)

KAOULETCH (ALSACIAN BRAIDED CAKE FOR SHAVOUTH)

* 1 pound flour * 2 1/2 ounce sugar * 1 pinch salt * 5 ounce butter * 1/4 liter milk * 3/4 ounce yeast * 1 3/4 ounce powdered almonds * 1 3/4 ounce sugar * 1 3/4 ounce butter * 1 egg * small amount of rhum

Prepare the dough with the first six ingredients. Fill with a mixture made of the next four ingredients.

Braid like a challah. Bake at 200 degrees Celcius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

From: Viviane Barzel (i_barzel@netvision.net.il)

Many thanks to all our contributors this edition. We greatfully receive all recipes and suggestions. If you have difficulty with these recipes e-mail our contributors and I'm sure they'll be only too happy to help, as they were to send them to us!

P.S. If you know where we can get Cornish Hens let us know - kosher of course. Torah Thoughts for Shavuot

This edition they are taken from the website of the Chief Rabbi (http://www.chiefrabbi.org/) so no one who meets him can say they haven't had an opportunity to read some of his stuff!!

Yitro - The politics of Revelation

The revelation at Mount Sinai - the central episode not only of the parshah of Yitro, but of Judaism as a whole - was unique in the religious history of mankind (Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, II, 33) [1]. Other faiths (Christianity and Islam) have claimed to be religions of revelation, but in both cases the revelation of which they spoke was to an individual ("the son of G-d", "the prophet of G-d"). Only in Judaism was G-d's self-disclosure not to an individual (a prophet) or a group (the elders) but to an entire nation, young and old, men, women and children, the righteous and not yet righteous alike.

From the very outset, the people of Israel knew something unprecedented had happened at Sinai. As Moses put it, forty years later:

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day G-d created man on earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of G-d speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? (Deut. 4: 32-33). [2]

For the great Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages, the significance was primarily epistemological. It created certainty and removed doubt. The authenticity of a revelation experienced by one person could be questioned. One witnessed by millions could not. (Judah Halevi, Kuzari, I, 88) [3] G-d disclosed His presence in public to remove any possible suspicion that the presence felt, and the voice heard, were not genuine.

Looking however at the history of mankind since those days, it is clear that there was another significance also - one that had to do not with religious knowledge but with politics. At Sinai a new kind of nation was being formed and a new kind of society - one that would be an antithesis of Egypt in which the few had power and the many were enslaved. At Sinai, the children of Israel ceased to be a group of individuals and became, for the first time, a body politic: a nation of citizens under the sovereignty of G-d whose written constitution was the Torah and whose mission was to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

Even today, standard works on the history of political thought trace it back, through Marx, Rousseau and Hobbes to Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics and the Greek city state (Athens in particular) of the fourth century BCE. This is a serious error. To be sure, words like "democracy" (rule by the people) are Greek in origin. The Greeks were gifted at abstract nouns and systematic thought. However, if we look at the "birth of the modern" - at figures like Milton, Hobbes and Locke in England, and the founding fathers of America - the book with which they were in dialogue was not Plato or Aristotle but the Hebrew Bible. Hobbes quotes it 657 times in The Leviathan alone. Long before the Greek philosophers, and far more profoundly, at Mount Sinai the concept of a free society was born.

Three things about that moment were to prove crucial. The first is that long before Israel entered the land and acquired their own system of government (first by judges, later by kings), they had entered into an overarching covenant with G-d. That covenant (brit Sinai) set moral limits to the exercise of power. The code we call Torah established for the first time the primacy of right over might. Any king who behaved contrarily to Torah was acting ultra vires, and could be challenged. This is the single most important fact about biblical politics.

Democracy on the Greek model always had one fatal weakness. Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill called it "the tyranny of the majority". J. L. Talmon called it "totalitarian democracy." The rule of the majority contains no guarantee of the rights of minorities. As Lord Acton rightly noted, it was this that led to the downfall of Athens: "There was no law superior to that of the state. The lawgiver was above the law." In Judaism, by contrast, prophets were mandated to challenge the authority of the king if he acted against the terms of the Torah. Individuals were empowered to disobey illegal or immoral orders. For this alone, the covenant at Sinai deserves to be seen as the single greatest step in the long road to a free society.

The second key element lies in the prologue to the covenant. G-d tells Moses: "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel. 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to Me. Now, if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession, for the whole earth is Mine. You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation . . .'" Moses tells this to the people, who reply: "We will do everything the Lord has said." (Shemot Chapter 19 Verses 3-8) [4]

What is the significance of this exchange? It means that until the people has signified its consent, the revelation cannot proceed. There is no legitimate government without the consent of the governed, even if the governor is Creator of heaven and earth. I know of few more radical ideas anywhere. To be sure, there were sages in the Talmudic period who questioned whether the acceptance of the covenant at Sinai was completely free. (Babylonian Talmud Tractate Shabbat 88a) [5] However, at the heart of Judaism is the idea - way ahead of its time, and not always fully realised - that the free G-d desires the free worship of free human beings. G-d, said the rabbis, does not act tyrannically with His creatures. (Babylonian Talmud Tractate Avodah Zarah 3a) [6]

The third, equally ahead of its time, was that the partners to the covenant were to be "all the people" - men, women and children. (Shemot Chapter 19 Verse 8) [7] This fact is emphasised later on in the Torah in the mitzvah of Hakhel, the septennial covenant renewal ceremony. The Torah states specifically that the entire people is to be gathered together for this ceremony, "men, women and children." (Devarim Chapter 31 Verse 12) [8] A thousand years later, when Athens experimented with democracy, only a limited section of society had political rights. Women, children, slaves and foreigners were excluded. In Britain, women did not get the vote until the twentieth century. According to the sages, when G-d was about to give the Torah at Sinai, He told Moses to consult first with the women and only then with the men ("thus shall you say to the house of Jacob" - this means, the women (Mechilta D'Rabbi Ishmael - Yitro 2) [9]). The Torah, Israel's "constitution of liberty", includes everyone. It is the first moment, by thousands of years, that citizenship is conceived as being universal.

There is much else to be said about the political theory of the Torah (see my The Politics of Hope, The Dignity of Difference, and - forthcoming - The Chief Rabbi's Haggadah as well as the important works by Daniel Elazar and Michael Walzer). But one thing is clear. With the revelation at Sinai something unprecedented entered the human horizon. It would take centuries, millennia, before its full implications were understood. Abraham Lincoln said it best when he spoke of "a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." At Sinai, the politics of freedom was born.

To read this on line and subscribe to Covenant and Conversation go to:

http://www.chiefrabbi.org/tt-index.html

Subject: Great Fractured bible stories

In the first book of the bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world, so he took the Sabbath off.

Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. Noah's wife was called Joan of Ark. Noah built an ark, which the animals come on to in pears.

Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.

The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with the unsympathetic Genitals.

Samson was a strongman who let himself be led astray by a Jezebel like Delilah.

Moses led the hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread without any ingredients.

The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten ammendments.

The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.

Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the hebrews in the battle of Geritol.

The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.

David was a hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Finklesteins, a race of people who lived in Biblical times.

Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

Many thanks to Gloria and Milton for passing on these real pupil blunders for our edification.