Royal Wedding Shabbat Sermon: An Outline

Rabbi Michael Beals                                                     Royal Wedding Shabbat Dvar Torah
April 29, 2011                                                            Wilmington, DE
A.  Jewish Links to England
The history of the Jews in England goes back to the Norman Conquest. The first written records of Jewish settlement in England date from the time of William the Conqueror in 1066, although Jews may have lived there since Roman times.^[1]
Isolated attacks on Jews also occurred at Colchester, Thetford, and Ospringe, but the most striking incident occurred at York on the night of March 16 (the day of the Jewish feast of Shabbat ha-Gadol, the shabbat before Passover) and March 17, 1190. The Jews of York were alarmed by the preceding massacres and by the setting on fire of several of their houses by the anti-Jewish rioting in the wake of religious fervor during crusaders' preparations for the Third Crusade against the Saracens, led by Richard. Their leader Josce asked the warden of York Castle to receive them with their wives and children, and they were accepted into Clifford's Tower. However, the tower was besieged by the mob of crusaders, demanding that the Jews convert to Christianity and be baptized. Trapped in the castle, the Jews were advised by their religious leader, Rabbi Yomtov of Joigney, to kill themselves rather than convert; Josce began by slaying his wife Anna and his two children, and then was killed by Yomtov. The father of each family killed his wife and children, and then Yomtob stabbed the men before killing himself. The handful of Jews who did not kill themselves surrendered to the crusaders at daybreak
The Jewish presence continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290. After the expulsion, there was no Jewish community, apart from isolated individuals who practised Judaism secretly, until the reign of Oliver Cromwell. While Cromwell never officially readmitted Jews to Britain, a small colony of Sephardic Jews living in London was identified in 1656 and allowed to remain due to Cromwell's need of their financial assistance.
The Jewish Naturalisation Act of 1753, an attempt to legalise the Jewish presence in England, remained in force for only a few months. Historians commonly date Jewish Emancipation to either 1829 or 1858 when Jews were finally allowed to sit in Parliament. Due to the lack of anti-Jewish violence in Britain in the 19th century, it acquired a reputation for religious tolerance.
In 1837, Queen Victoria knighted Moses Haim Montefiore; four years later, Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was made baronet, the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. The first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, Sir David Salomons, was elected in 1855, followed by the 1858 emancipation of the Jews. On July 26, 1858, Lionel de Rothschild was finally allowed to sit in the British House of Commons when the law restricting the oath of office to Christians was changed; Benjamin Disraeli, a baptised Christian of Jewish parentage, was already an MP.
In 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister having earlier been Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1884 Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild became the first Jewish member of the British House of Lords; again Disraeli was already a member. (Though born a Jew, Disraeli's baptism as a child qualified him as eligible for political aspirations, presenting no restrictions regarding a mandated Christian oath of office.)
By 1882, 46,000 Jews lived in England and, by 1890, Jewish emancipation was complete in every walk of life. Since 1858, Parliament has never been without Jewish members. Synagogues were built openly, in some cases large, architecturally elaborate Victorian Gothic buildings such as the one in Newington Green, North London.

 In the 1930s and 1940s, some European Jews fled to England to escape the Nazis. Jews in Britain now number 300,000, and England contains the second largest Jewish population in Europe, and has the fifth largest Jewish community worldwide

B.  Breaking of the Glass during The Royal Wedding

Buckingham Palace is keen that the wedding takes account of the multi-cultural nature of modern British society, so Muslim, Hindu and

Jewish traditions will be incorporated into the Church of England ceremony.

According to detailed wedding plans, due to be released on Sunday, a small amount of mehendi or turmeric, paste will be smeared on Kate's hand in a Muslim pre-wedding ritual. The couple will then offer each other a morsel of food to express mutual love and affection in accordance with the Hindu practice, and then William will smash a glass with his foot as at Jewish weddings.

Buckingham Palace spokesperson Esther Calthorpe-Watts said: "They want everyone to feel a part of the wedding. And while, religiously, the ceremony will be completely Anglican in nature, they felt it appropriate to include these small gestures towards other faiths.

 

C.  ROYAL WEDDING KETUBA

A British-born artist and calligrapher living in Jerusalem, Michael Horton, has made a traditional Jewish marriage-certificate for the young couple, and it is written in both Hebrew as well as English.

The royal ketubah (כתובה – Hebrew for marriage certificate) bears many of the same features that appear on regular ketubot (plural of ketubah) but was also specially adapted for William and Kate. The text was altered somewhat to make it appropriate for a church wedding and removed some of the more specifically Jewish legal terms of the marriage agreement. It reads, in part: "May we remain committed to each other's physical and mental well-being, and to each other's emotional and spiritual growth."

However, it is has been stylized in the traditional Jewish format with the Ten Commandments featuring at the top of the ketubah held by the (traditional) Lion of Judah symbol on the right-hand side, and a lion from Prince William’s coat of arms (less traditional for Jewish ketubot) on the left.
The Hebrew writing has been done, as is traditional, in the elegant calligraphy that is used for writing other sacred Jewish texts, such as the Torah scroll; the mezuzah, which is placed in a case and affixed to door posts; and other such items.
The Ketubah also features King Solomon’s Temple and King David playing the harp as well as an image of Westminster Abbey in London where William and Kate will be married.
Having spent 40 years producing ketubot and other similar artwork, a friend suggested to Horton that he make one for the upcoming royal wedding.
The ketubah, which took eight days to complete, was presented to the British Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, who has sent it to William and Kate ahead of their wedding.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East...The Jewish state's President Shimon Peres on Tuesday offered his and the Israel's congratulations to the British Royal family on the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton.
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D.  ISRAELI GOVERNMENT WISHES MAZEL TOV TO THE ROYALS
"On behalf of the people of Israel and myself I wish to extend sincere congratulations to Your Majesty and to the Duke of Edinburgh," read the letter sent to Queen Elizabeth II, William's grandmother.

Peres’ letter states, "We share in their happiness and hope that their lives will be filled with love, wisdom and understanding as they begin their journey together."

E.  PRINCE CHARLES SUPPORT OF WORLD JEWISH RELIEF

Prince William's father has also been linked to Jewish news -  he's decided to become an official patron of the World Jewish Relief charity. Prince Charles was moved by a 2007 video depicting the situation of impoverished Ukrainian Jews, as well as a 2008 visit to the Jewish Community Center in Krakow. His involvement will focus on helping Jews of the Ukraine.

F.      IS CATHERINE MIDDLETON AN “MOT” (MEMBER OF THE TRIBE?)

the future princess' mother was born Carole Goldsmith. Could Prince William possibly be marrying an MOT - and how would that sit with the House of Windsor?

Technically, according to Slate magazine, royals can only be removed from the line of succession if they marry a Roman Catholic - so Jews are still a-ok. But as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, I think the queen would sleep a little better at night if her line married Anglicans or similar.

Sadly, according to fairly definitive online source JewornotJew.com, even if there are Jews in Kate's family tree, at least five generations of the Goldsmith clan have been married in churches, so if there was any Jewish link (and I have a hunch there was...) it was lost long ago

Royal Wedding Shabbat at Congregation Beth Shalom of Wilmington, DE

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

You are Cordially Invited to Attend

the

Congregation Beth Shalom

ROYAL WEDDING SHABBAT CELEBRATION

THIS FRIDAY

The twenty-ninth day of April, two thousand and eleven

Six o'clock for Royal Repasts on a British Theme -- including a Kosher Champagne Toast and Scones

services to follow at half past six o'clock

featuring a sermon which will answer many  British-Jewish questions including:

"If Catherine Middleton Windsor's mother's maiden name is Goldsmith -- does that make the future Queen of England an M.O.T.?"

Passover and Resurrection: Second Chances

     When I hear the word, "Resurrection," I immediately think of Christianity, which is appropriate as this-coming Sunday, April 24, is Easter.  It is also still Passover, which will continue through the evening of Tuesday, April 26.
     But Resurrection is originally a Jewish, not a Christian concept.  In its original form, Resurrection was not something reserved to Jesus on Easter Sunday.  Rather, in its Jewish context, it was and remains a very democratic idea, reserved not for just one person, but for every person. 
     In fact every morning, my young girls greet their day at the Albert Einstein Academy, our Delaware Vallley Jewish day school, by singing, Modeh Ani Lefanecha.  They, along with their fellow Jewish students, are each thanking God for reimplanting their souls in their bodies (sh'he-he-zar-ta bee nishmati) after a night of sleep.  Poetically speaking, sleep is akin to death, where God watches over our souls.  Waking up is considered miraculous -- the first of many miracles God will perform for us on any given day.  In Jewish theology, waking up every morning in Resurrection.
     Many traditional Jews also hold on to the idea that at the end of time, every human being who has passed away wil be revived with their soul reimplanted in their bodies, for a final judgement followed by life eternal.  This concept is called me-ha-yei ha-may-tim, Resurrection, and the words are preserved in both the Orthodox and Conservative Movement prayerbooks, in the thrice-repeated daily second benediction of the Amidah, our core prayer which replaces the thrice-given animal sacrifices of biblical times.  The Reform and Reconstuctionist Movements, finding the concept too supernatural, have replaced the words with me-hay-yei ha-kol -- Who resurrects everything.  The idea is that God, working in nature, takes the death-like state of winter, and replaces it with rebirth in spring, and that, too, is an expression of God's limitless powers, and unlike Resurrection of the dead, natural rebirth is emperical -- you can experience it now.
     What inerests me about Passover and Resurrection, is the idea of second chances.  Half way in the Jewish calendar after Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Jews are given a chance to re-examine their lives at Passover.  We are invited to expel the hametz in our lives, that which rises, symbolic for ego and pride.  We can make course corrections, and become better people through our observance of Passover.  Likewise, every morning, when we experience Resurrection through waking up, we are also being given a second chance.  In truth, through teshuva, repententance, Judaism, at its heart, is a religion of second-chances -- or constant opportunities for self-improvement.
     So I think it is time for liberal Jews to join their traditional brethren and reclaim Resurrection as a fundamental Jewish concept.  Like our Christian neighbors, it is appropriate for us to view Resurrection as a fundamental hopeful message.  But unlike our Christian neighbors, to whom we wish a Happy Easter, we can view Resurrection as being open to not just one august person, but to each of us, great and small, not just on this coming Sunday, but every day that God chooses to reimplant our soul in our body, and give us another day of life.
     Hag sameach -- Happy Holiday

Happy Passover to One and All

Enjoy this high-tech romp through the Passover story, sent to me by a special friend with a good sense of humor and who's great with a baton.

http://www.facebook.com/l/cc2daQooKJlvR5Gt8_oTdEqEDdQ/www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIxToZmJwdI

Same-Sex Civil Unions and Passover

On April 13, 2011, I was given three minutes to give testimony before the Delaware House of Representatives’ Administrative  Committee,  at our state capitol, Dover,  in support of Civil Union legislation.    My representative, Greg Lavelle, R-Sharpley, came out of chambers after my testimony to say that I had impacted his vote.  In the end, he abstained, resulting in a 4-1 vote, which allowed the bill to be released from committee and considered  before the full House. The following day, the House approved SB 30, 26-15. For the first time in Delaware’s history, this bill gives same-sex couples the same protection under Delaware law afforded to heterosexual couples.  Below is my testimony:
____________________________________

      With Passover right around the corner, the Bible states clearly,
"Avadim hayinu," we were slaves unto Pharaoh in Egypt, so when you come
into your own land, flowing with milk and honey, be sure to care for the
needs of "the Orphan, the Widow and the Stranger," in other words, those
most vulnerable in society.  I know that is only by the Grace of God
that I live as a free Jewish citizen of the United States of America and not as a
Jew living in Nazi Germany.  And if I were a Jew living in Nazi Germany,
than both I and my homosexual neighbor would be destined for
extermination in Hitler's Death Camps. Therefore I am compelled by the
Bible to speak up for my homosexual neighbor and their desire for equal
treatment under the law with this Civil Union Bill.

      In Genesis 1:27, our sacred text teaches that we humans are made
in the image of God, b'tslem Elohim.  What business do we have to judge
God's creation, black or white, Christian or Jewish, Gay or Straight?
By the State recognizing one type of union over another, and giving
rights to some and not to others, we stand in God's place judging
creation, and that is pure idolatry.

      Finally, the text which every theologian has based their opinion
comes from Leviticus 18:22. Yet eating shell fish is also described as
an abomination, so biblically speaking, any of you legislators going out
for crab, oysters or shrimp cocktails after today's hearings are
committing the same level of Biblical transgression.

But most important, you do violence to the text itself if you read
Leviticus 18:22 out of context.  Because in the verse right before,
Leviticus 18:21, reads: "Do not allow any of your offspring to be
offered up to Molech and do not profane the name of your God, I am the
Lord."  So we can logically only understand the prohibition against male
homosexual behavior within the context of pagan worship.  In fact all of
Leviticus Chapter 18 is prohibiting pagan practices both in Egypt, from
where we were leaving and Canaan, to where we were going.  The Torah
text can not be successfully used to comment on same-sex unions between
consenting adults today.  The text can only be used to prohibit male
homosexual behavior to glorify the pagan god Molech.   

      Thank goodness, particularly in this time of Middle East upheaval
directed against authoritarian regimes, we do not live in an idolatrous
or an oppressive theocratic society. Perhaps you might do us all a favor
by making Civil Union the law of the land for all, and allow each house
of worship to bless and sanctify these unions according to our own
unique faith tradition.