The Bais Yaakov School of Washington, DC

The Orthodox Jewish community of the Greater Washington, DC area does not have a Bais Yaakov school. This lack of a Bais Yaakov high school was not an inevitability. During the post-war efforts to rebuild eastern-European orthodox Judaism in the United States, a young rabbinic couple attempted to build a Bais Yaakov in the District of Columbia. The husband, Yisrael Orlansky, was born in Poland in 1929¹ and fled to Lithuania with his family as Poland was about to be invaded. When the USSR captured Lithuania, they were sent into exile in Siberia for the duration of the war.² The wife, Rachel Finkel, was born in Germany in 1929, and she survived the Nazi concentration camps.³

After coming to the United States, Yisrael Orlansky studied in the Mirrer Yeshiva in New York and attained Semicha in 1949.⁴ There he met Rachel Finkel, and they married in 1949. The couple moved to Washington, DC in 1950 to work in Jewish education.

At first, the Orlanskys lived in an apartment at 1502 P St. NW, which was in the heart of the old Jewish community of Washington, DC. In the 1950 census, Yisrael Orlansky reported that he worked as a Hebrew Teacher at a private school, and Rachel Orlansky reported that she worked as a kindergarten teacher for a private school.⁵ They may have been working at the Hebrew Academy of Washington or at one of the Orthodox synagogues’ Hebrew schools in the area.

In October 1953, the couple bought a house at 222 Jefferson St. NW,⁶ which was closer to where many of the Orthodox synagogues had had been moving as their communities moved towards the suburbs. In the following year, fall of 1954, Rachel Orlansky opened a Nursery school in that house.⁷ The couple planned to develop this nursery school into a Bais Yaakov school for girls. Rachel Orlansky was working with Gittel Kaufman, the wife of Rabbi Harry J. Kaufman, rabbi of the Beth Sholom Talmud Torah Congregation.

In Fall 1955, Rachel Orlansky and Gittel Kaufman opened a kindergarten class for their new Beth Jacob School of Washington. Classes for the Nursery and Kindergarten may have been held in 702 Jefferson St. NW or 4904 Georgia Ave. NW.⁸ The sources from Fall 1955 conflict. The school’s business address was the Orlansky’s house, at 222 Jefferson St. NW. The kindergarten and pre-school classes were most likely co-ed classes that admitted both boys and girls. A 1958 registration advertisement describes the kindergarten and pre-school classes as “for boys and girls.”⁹

In the next academic year, the school added a first-grade class. This first grade class was only for girls in accordance with the general mission of Beth Jacob Schools to education Jewish girls.¹⁰ To signify the young school’s growth from a nursery school to an elementary school, they inaugurated the first board of directors in November 1956. A representative from the National Association of Hebrew Day schools, Rabbi Meir Belski, spoke at the ceremony. The ceremony was held in the Talmud Torah synagogue on 16th Street and Emerson.¹¹

As the school expanded into the elementary grades, it needed to take on more staff. Hannah Auerbach, the daughter of a rabbi in Alexanderia, and a student at George Mason University, taught at the Beth Jacob School in the Fall of 1957.¹² Like Rachel Orlansky, Hannah Auerbach was a refugee from Europe. When she was a baby, Auerbach fled Nazi Germany with her parents after Kristallnacht.¹³

In the Fall 1957 semester, the Beth Jacob School added a second-grade class. In September 1957, the school acquired a house at 1501 Gallatin Street NW to be used as a school building.¹⁴

The Beth Jacob School helped organize a dinner to honor a long time Jewish educator, Leib Eisenberg, for his 84th birthday.¹⁵ The articles associated with this celebration described him as a founder of the Beth Jacob school.¹⁶

In the summer of 1958, the Beth Jacob School ran a day camp.¹⁷ If things went well during the summer of 1958, the advertisement for camp registration would be the only piece of evidence that this camp even existed. Unfortunately, tragedy struck and produced news reports.

On July 31, 1958, Louis Kosberg, a driver employed by the Beth Jacob School, was driving 11 children home after day camp. He had already dropped off two children when he reached the intersection of Peabody Street and Georgia Avenue.¹⁸ Kosberg was heading east along Peabody Street with 9 children in his station wagon. He stopped at the stop sign before attempting to cross Georgia Avenue. The southbound traffic was backed up through the intersection, so he waited until someone gave him room pass through. Kosberg did not initially see anyone coming in the northbound direction, so he continued driving into the intersection.

Kenneth Buck was heading north on Georgia Avenue in his sedan at around 30 miles per hour. When both drivers noticed each other, Kosberg tried to accelerate out of the intersection and Buck slammed on the breaks. Kosberg could not accelerate fast enough, and Buck’s breaks did not slow him down in time. Buck’s sedan plowed right into the rear-right corner of the station wagon sending it spinning around. The three children seated in the rear facing bench of the station wagon were flung out of the car and sustained severe head injuries. Two of the three children died of their injuries, while the third recovered.¹⁹

Though this car crash was a terrible and saddening incident, the news reporting on it provides a glimpse into what kind of people were sending their children to the Beth Jacob School. The news reporting on the story provided the identities of all the passengers of the station wagon at the time of the crash. The two children who died were siblings 8-year-old Phyllis and 4-year-old Samuel Goldfeder. Their father, Harold Goldfeder, owned a pharmacy. Two of Yisrael and Rachel Orlansky’s children were in the car, 4-year-old Joseph Chaim and 5-year-old Moshe. Joseph Chaim was the third child thrown out of the back seat of the station wagon, but he recovered from his head injury and survived the crash. 4-year-old Irit Barak the daughter of the second secretary of the Israeli Embassy, Baruch Barak, was also in the car. 6-year-old Ira Davis, son of Rabbi Albert Joseph Davis, the rabbi of Ohev Shalom and previously the director of Bais Yaakov of Baltimore. The last three children for whom I could not determine the profession of their parents were 8-year-old Pamela Friedman and siblings 7-year-old Karen and 4-year-old Eddie Karl.²⁰

This carpool is by no means a representative sample of the 60 or so students who had been attending the Beth Jacob School in the previous academic year. Nor were all these students at the day camp necessarily students at the school the rest of the year. We can divide up these students by gender, age, and background. There were three girls in the carpool who were 7 or 8 years old. These are girls who could have attended the first and second grade classes at the Beth Jacob School in the 1957–1958 academic year. There were five boys and one girl between 4 to 6 years old. These six children could have attended the pre-school or kindergarten class in the previous academic year.

Six children’s parents were laymen and three came from rabbinic homes. One child was the daughter of an Israeli diplomat. To this day, Israeli diplomats have continued to send them children to the Jewish day schools in the area.

Though the car crash was horrific and tragic, the Beth Jacob School of Washington opened for classes in Fall 1958. The school was now offering pre-school and kindergarten classes for boys and girls and first through third grade classes for girls. The school took on Rabbi Simcha Sterzer as an administrator. In November 1958, Rabbi Simcha Sterzer hosted a television program in which students at the Beth Jacob School sang Hanukkah songs.²¹ Sterzer also served as a cantor for the high holidays at the Young Israel Shomrei Emunah synagogue in 1958–1961.²²

Over the course of the 1958-59 academic year, the Beth Jacob School had been renovating its building on 1501 Gallatin Street NW. The school hosted a dedication ceremony on June 7, 1959. As part of the ceremony, the school stated that it had grown to 100 students over the course of the five years of its existence.²³

In October 1959, the school appealed to the Board of Zoning Adjustment to allow the Beth Jacob School of Washington to establish “a day school consisting of nursery and kindergarten and all elementary grades.”²⁴ I’m not familiar with the legal environment of Washington, DC at the time. The Beth Jacob School had been operating out 1501 Gallatin Street NW since 1957. It took them two years before they appealed to the Board of Zoning Adjustment to have a permit to operate a school in a residential area. I don’t know if they were granted an adjustment after this appeal.

The Beth Jacob School of Washington reopened for the 1959–1960 academic year after they had renovated their house at 1501 Gallatin Street NW. I do not know if they were able to expand to have a fourth-grade class in 1959–1960, but as I will explain later there is reason to suspect they did not expand beyond third grade.

In January 1960, the PTA of the Beth Jacob School held a fundraising ‘package party.’ The announcement for the event described the event. “Admission will be by package. A gay evening of auctioning, door prizes, blintzes and other delicacies.”²⁵

In June 1960, the Beth Jacob School began to appeal for funds to close its budget deficit. Rabbi Yisrael Orlansky claimed that 40% percent of his 100 students were receiving tuition assistance.²⁶ The school also needed to fund renovations to its facility to comply with local regulations for schools. These pressures created a $10,000 gap in the budget.²⁷

Despite the budget difficulties the Beth Jacob School opened for the 1960–1961 academic year.²⁸ The parent teacher association of the Beth Jacob School held another package party fundraising event in February 1961.²⁹ In March 1961, the school hosted a Purim party for which the nursery and kindergarten performed a Purim play.³⁰

At the end of the 1960–1961 academic year, the Beth Jacob school appealed to Board of Zoning Adjustment once again. In this appeal, the Beth Jacob school only asked to create a school spanning pre-school through third grade for 60 students.³¹ This was a less ambitious appeal than the October 1959 appeal. The fact that the school anticipated having third grade as the highest grade in the school in 1961 implies that the school was unable to expand beyond third grade in 1959 and 1960.

The Beth Jacob School of Washington did not survive the summer of 1961. On July 28, 1961, the Beth Jacob school sold its building at 1501 Gallatin Street NW.³² The school did not reopen for the 1961–1962 academic year. The short period of its operation has faded from the communal memory of the Greater Washington Jewish community.

Rabbi Yisrael and Rachel Orlansky left Washington, DC after their Beth Jacob school closed. They sold their house at 222 Jefferson Street NW in August 1961.³³ By the mid-1960s the Orlansky family was living in Brooklyn. Rabbi Yisrael Orlansky worked as the Assistant Principal of the Bais Yaakov of Boro Park.³⁴ The Orlansky family moved to Israel sometime in the 1970s and Rabbi Yisrael Orlansky worked as an administrator for the Chinuch Atzmai school system.³⁵

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1. ^“Rav Israel Orlanksy,” geni.com https://www.geni.com/people/Rav-Israel-Orlansky/6000000002189223060 Accessed Jan. 14, 2025
2. ^See Chaim Tikotzki (ed.), lapid eish novahrdokai, Jerusalem: Yisrael Orlanksy, 1993.
3. ^“Rochel Orlansky (Finkel),” geni.com https://www.geni.com/people/Rochel-Orlansky/6000000002189170221 Accessed Jan. 14, 2025.
4. ^“English Letter With Signature of Rabbi Avraham Kalmanovitz of Mir,” Tiferet Auction House https://www.tiferetauctions.com/auction/289-%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%AA-49-%D7%9E%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%AA-he/lot-54-%D7%9E%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91-%D7%91%D7%90%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%AA/ Accessed Jan. 14, 2025 [Letter is dated to August 23, 1950. It certifies that Rabbi Israel Orlansky graduated from the Mir Rabbinical College in February 1949.]
5. ^National Archives at Washington, DC; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Year: 1950; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 3071; Page: 79; Enumeration District: 1-502.
6. ^Document Number: 1953039899. Book Type/Roll: LAND/10066/605. DC Recorder of Deeds.
7. ^“Nursery Classes,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Aug. 28, 1955.
8. ^“Beth Jacob Women Set Meeting Date,” National Jewish Ledger (Washington, DC), Nov. 25, 1955.
9. ^[Ad], “Beth Jacob School of Washington,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), June 15, 1958.
10. ^ibid
11. ^“School to Install,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Nov. 16, 1956. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1956-11-16/ed-1/seq-49/ The article says 14th street, but compare with Lawrence Frenkel, American Synagogue Directory, New York: Frenkel Mailing Service, 1958. https://archive.org/details/americansynagogu00unse/page/14 which places Talmud Torah at 4901 16th St. NW.
12. ^“Ms. Auerbach Is Engaged,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Nov. 17, 1957. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1957-11-17/ed-1/seq-87/.
13. ^Morton Isaacs, “Chana Auerbach Isaacs,” Rochester Holocaust Survivors Archive https://jewishrochester-chai-archive.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/individual%20Resource%20Folders/Isaacs%20Chana%20Auerbach/Isaacs%20Chana%20Auerbach2.html Accessed Jan. 14, 2025.
14. ^Document Number: 1957032354. Book Type/Roll or Frame/Page: LAND/10939/417. DC Recorder of Deeds.
15. ^“Synagogues Mark Brotherhood Week,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Feb. 14, 1958.
16. ^“Eisenberg, 84, to be Honored,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Feb. 15, 1958. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1958-02-15/ed-1/seq-8/.
17. ^[Ad], “Beth Jacob School of Washington,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), June 15, 1958.
18. ^“Day School Car Crash Kills Girl, Injures 8,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Aug. 1, 1958. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1958-08-01/ed-1/seq-21/.
19. ^“Driver of Car Held Responsible in Death of Day Camp Children,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Aug. 8, 1958.
20. ^“Collision of Camp Car Kills Child, Injures 8,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Aug. 1, 1958.
21. ^“Churches on the Air,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Nov. 29, 1958. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1958-11-29/ed-1/seq-10/.
22. ^“Yom Kippur to Begin at Sunset Tomorrow,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Sept. 22, 1958. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1958-09-22/ed-1/seq-6/, “Jewish Yom Kippur Begins at Sundown,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Oct. 11, 1959. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1959-10-11/ed-1/seq-51/, and “Rites Sunday to Open Rosh Hashanah Holiday,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Sept. 8, 1961. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1961-09-08/ed-1/seq-44/.
23. ^“Beth Jacob Day School sets Dedication Rite,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 4, 1959. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1959-06-04/ed-1/seq-59/.
24. ^“Classified: Officials Notices: Board of Zoning Adjustment,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), Oct. 9, 1959. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1959-10-09/ed-1/seq-66/.
25. ^“Beth Jacob Party,” National Jewish Ledger (Washington, DC), Jan. 22, 1960.
26. ^“Funds to Meet Deficit Sought by Girls’ School,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), June 17, 1960.
27. ^“Jewish School Seeking Funds,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), June 17, 1960. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1960-06-17/ed-1/seq-2/.
28. ^[Ad], “Beth Jacob School of Washington,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), Aug. 28, 1960.
29. ^“Beth Jacob School Sets Package Party,” National Jewish Ledger (Washington, DC), Feb. 3, 1961.
30. ^“Purim Party Set,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), March 5, 1961. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1961-03-05/ed-1/seq-9/.
31. ^“Classified: Official Notices: Board of Zoning Adjustment,” Washington Post (Washington, DC), June 30, 1961.
32. ^Document Number: 1961022276. Book Type/Roll: LAND/11641/576. DC Recorder of Deeds.
33. ^Document Number: 1961023454. Book Type/Roll: LAND/11647/381. DC Recorder of Deeds.
34. ^[Ad], “Birkas Mazal Tov Beis Yaakov D’Boro Park,” Der Tog (New York, NY), Nov. 3, 1967. https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dertog/1967/11/03/01/article/63.1.
35. ^“25 Million Dollar Children Torah Rescue Fund Proclaimed by Chinuch Atzmai Torah Schools,” Jewish Observer (New York, NY), February 1980. https://agudah.org/wp-content/uploads/1980/09/JO1980-V14-N06-7.pdf Accessed Jan. 15, 2025.

An Index of Classic Yiddish Cinema

This is an unofficial list of classic Yiddish movies based on the catalog of the National Center for Jewish Film. 

1909 – The Yiddisher Boy https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/yiddisherboy.htm

1921 – The Wandering Jew aka The Life of Theodor Herzl https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/theodor_herzl.htm

1923 – East and West (Mizrekh un Mayrev/ Ost und West) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/eastandwest.htm

1923 – Yizkor https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/yizkor.html

1931 – A Cantor on Trial (Khazan afn Probe) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/cantor.html

1931 – The Feast of Passover (Di Seder Nakht) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/feastofpassover.htm

1931 – His Wife's Lover(Zayn Vaybs Lubovnik) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/hiswifeslover.htm 

1932 – The Return of Nathan Becker (Nosn Becker Fort Aheym) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/returnofnathanbecker.htm

1932 – Uncle Moses https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/unclemoses.htm

1932 – The Unfortunate Bride (Di Umgliklikhe Kale) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/unfortunatebride.htm

1933 – A Vilna Legend (Dem Rebns Koyekh) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/avilnalegend.htm

1933 – The Wandering Jew (Der Vanderner Yid) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/wand.html

1935 – Bar Mitzvah https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/barmitzvah.htm

1935 – Children Must Laugh (Mir Kumen On) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/filmsaz.htm

1935 – Yosl Cutler and His Puppets https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/yoslcutler.html

1936 – Love and Sacrifice (Libe und Laydnshaft) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/loveand.html

1936 – Yiddle With His Fiddle (Yidl Mitn Fidl) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/yiddle.htm

1937 – The Cantor's Son (Dem Khazns Zundl) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/CantorsSon.htm 

1937 – The Dybbuk (Der Dibuk) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/dybbuk.html

1937 – Green Fields (Grine Felder) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/greenfields.htm

1937 – I Want To Be A Boarder (Ich Vil Zeyn a Boarder) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/boarder.htm

1937 – The Jester (Der Purimspiler) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/jester.htm

1937 – Jolly Paupers (Freylekhe Kabtsonim) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/jollypaupers.htm

1937 – The Living Orphan (Der Lebediker Yusem) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/LivingOrphan.htm

1937 – The Vow (Tkies Kaf) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/thevow.htm

1937 – Where is My Child? (Vu iz Mayn Kind?) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/whereismychild.htm

1938 – A Day In Warsaw https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/poland.htm

1938 – Mamele https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/mamele.htm

1938 – The Singing Blacksmith (Yankl Der Schmid) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/singingblacksmith.htm

1938 – Two Sisters (Tsvey Shvester) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/twosisters.htm

1939 – Kol Nidre https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/kolnidre.htm

1939 – A Letter to Mother (A Brivele der Mamen) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/alettertomother.htm

1939 – The Light Ahead (Fishke der Krumer) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/lightahead.htm

1939 – Mirele Efros https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/mireleefros.htm

1939 – Motel the Operator https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/motl.html

1939 – Mothers of Today (Hayntige Mames) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/mothersoftoday.html

1939 – Tevye https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/tevye.html

1939 – Without a Home (On a Heym) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/withoutahome.htm

1940 – American Matchmaker (Amerikaner Shadkhn) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/americanmatchmaker.htm

1940 – Overture to Glory (Der Vilner Balebesl) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/Overture.htm

1949 – God, Man and Devil (Got, Mentsch, un Taybl) https://jewishfilm.org/Catalogue/films/godmananddevil.htm

At some point I want to do a podcast where I review most of these films. Something akin to the Kill James Bond podcast though a little more serious. If anyone would like to get in on this plan let me know. It would be good to have a 2 or 3 person cast. 

Moving to Substack (Kind of)

I've had some of this blog moved over to subtack for some time. lazymasmid.substack.com I think I will post new things in parrallel on both blogs. I will leave my less coherent rants for this website. 

How the Movie Der Dybbuk Uses Hoshanas as Foreshadowing

As we have just finished celebrating the holidays of Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret, I was reflecting on how the iconic Sukkot ritual of Hoshanot is protrayed in the movie Der Dybbuk. When I first had the opportunity to watch the Der Dybbuk, I was initially struck with how proper and correct its portrayal of Jewish ritual felt to me. All of the cinematic portrayals of Judaism in American media that I was exposed to felt inauthentic. Either the writers don't really understand Jewish ritual or they are trying to simplify and explain it to their audience. 

Der Dybbuk was written for an audience that was already familiar with Jewish ritual. The writers and director were able to just place a scene of Hoshanot, a Sukkot ritual that is often overshadowed in depictions of the holiday by the Sukkah and the Arba Minim, with the full confidence that their audience would understand what was happening. 

The opening act of the movie introduces Nisn (chonon's father) and Sender (Leah's father) while they visit their Rebbe during the holiday of Sukkot. In the first scene of the movie both Nisn and Sender keep missing opportunities to get their Rebbe's approval for a vow they have both accepted. We, the audience do not yet know exactly what this vow entails. Sender commits to trying again the next day, which is Hoshana Rabba. 

The next scene opens in the synagogue while the Chazan is reciting Hallel. We hear the Chazan chanting last verses of Psalm 115. 

There are two scenes that take place within the synagogue during the opening act of the movie. The first scene contains a small portion of the Hallel. Specifically, we hear the Chazan recite: 

השמים שמים ליי והארץ נתן לבני אדם

"The heavens belong to God, but the earth, he gave to mankind."

לא המתים יהללו יה ולא כל ירדי דומה

"The dead cannot praise God, nor any who go down in silence" 

The inability for the dead to praise and worship God is a common motif in the Hebrew Bible. In addition to it literally meaning the dead cannot worship God, this statement comes with other implications. The dead cannot offer praise because they cannot speak. Perhaps the dead enter a domain of existence that prevents them from offer praise to God. For a viewer who is already familiar with the story of the Dybbuk, this line is ominous. The Dybbuk is a dead person who has stolen the ability to speak from a living person. In some ways this line is a prayer beseaching God to keep the dead quiet and at peace. It is also a warning that any dead person who does attempt to speak will not be doing anything righteous with that power. All this forboding information is contained within this short line.

The first verse the Chazan recites is also foreshadowing the final act of the movie. After being presented with Leah possessed by a dybbuk, Rav Azriel of Miropol holds two Din Torahs. The first Din Torah is to nullify the vow that Sender and Nisn made which is drawing Chonon and Leah's souls together. The second Din Torah is to force Chonon to leave Leah's body by putting his soul in Cherem. (Although not exactly addressing the ideology behind dybbuk trials, I recommend Historia Civilis' video on animal trials for a background on using trials to combat evil forces.) During the first Din Torah, the meshulach informs Rav Azriel that Nisn did not accept the nullification of the vow. Rav Azriel responds that if the heavenly worlds tried to maintain the vow, he would overturn their decision. In this instance he is drawing from an established tradition in Jewish theology that rabbinic courts on earth have more authority over interpreting the Torah law than God does. The verse in Psalm 115 states, "but the earth, he gave to mankind." The implication is he gave the earth to mankind to govern. This verse can be read as an affirmation of the tradition of mortal rabbinic decisions overriding divine understanding of Torah law.  

Another potential reading of first verse is the spirits/souls of the dead belong in heaven and the living human beings belong on earth. Though verse literally says, "The heavens belong to God," you can broaden God to include all divine and spiritual entities. There are ideas within Jewish mysticism that understand each human soul to be a small part of God. These souls, after they are freed from their human shells upon death, must return back to heaven and should not linger on earth. If one soul does linger on earth it can cause become a dybbuk. By declearing the heavens to be the realm of the divine, this verse can also be read a plea to prevent the conditions, that can create a dybbuk, from forming. 

After this short section of Hallel the scene shifts to the street outside of the synagogue. We see the meshulach figure appear outside and make his way into the synagogue. When he enters the synagogue, the congregation is up to the Hoshanas. Specifically, the Chazan is reciting אבן שתיה, which is the second round of Hoshanas that are recited on Hoshana Rabba. Each round of the Hoshanas has a theme or topic, and אבן שתיה describes the temple in Jerusalem. The section is a plea to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. 

While the Chazan recites the Hoshanas, Sender and Nisn discuss the details of their vow with someone who was standing next to them. This scene is where we the audience finally learn of the details of the vow and its dangerous implications. Interlaced within the dialogue describing the vow, we hear the Chazan chanting the Hoshanas. 

The word הושענא, which is the refrain of the entire Hoshana ceremony, means 'please save.' The whole ceremony is meant to beseach God for salvation. The ceremony is based upon a ceremony that was performed in the temple in Jerusalem which was meant to ask God for a good rain season in the winter. The success of the crops in Palestine were reliant upon a good rain season. In exile, the prayer has expanded to ask for all manner of divine salvation and blessing. In the Jewish tradition, rain is a symbol of God's blessings in general. 

The cries of 'please save' us echoing in the background of Sender and Nisn's doomed vow are a warning that the vow will require salvation. The Hoshana prayer becomes of foreboding chant for the clamity of the dybbuk that is to come. 

As I mentioned above, the specific section of the Hoshanas that the Chazan recites describes the temple in Jerusalem and serves as plea to rebuild it. The symbolism of the temple as the holiest place on earth represents the holiest acts a person can do, which are love,sex, and marriage. Chonon ends up corrupting the holiness of these acts and causes a disaster. 

Through Chonon's conversations with his friend Henoch, we the audience learn that Chonon has a somewhat Sabbatean ideology. He believes that holiness can be found in the most impure of places. He concludes that his love for Leah must be channeled through a Satanic lust in order for him to secure his marriage to her. When he reaches out to the Satanic forces for help, they grant his wish to be with Leah, but he becomes bound to her as a dybbuk and not through a marriage. 

Marriage and love are very holy things within the Jewish tradition. The Song of Solomon, which is sung throughout the movie, is considered one of the most holy texts within the Hebrew Bible. The most holy acts are also the most dangerous and can be easily corrupted if done improperly. In the opening scene of the movie, Rav Azriel of Miropol, holds his Hasidic court. He delivers a drasha in which he explains the great risk the high priest takes when he enters the holiest chamber of the temple on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, and recites the holiest name of God. If the high priest had improper intentions when performing the ceremony, he could cause great destruction. Through this speech, Rav Azriel describes the main theme of the movie, the holiest acts are both the easiest to corrupt and when corrupted have grave consequences. 

When the movie juxtaposes the Hoshana about the temple in Jerusalem with Sender and Nisn's vow to marry their children, it is infroming us the audience that the holiness of the temple is representing the holiness of love, sex, and marriage. The resulting calamity of the vow will defile the temple; Chonon's sacred love for Leah will become a dangerous lust that consumes him and transforms him into a dybbuk. 

I may come back to offer more thoughts about Chonon's lust itself, Leah's autonomy and relationship with Chonon, the various homosocial pairings of Sender and Nisn and Chonon and Henoch. There is also a good chance that it may take me a few years before I revisit this. 

My Favorite Biblical Hebrew Imperative

I've decided that I need to practice writing more casually. I was reminded of my favorite biblical Hebrew imperative word, since it shows up in פרשת וירא. 

Most of the language of the Hebrew Bible is written in some kind of formal register. Often you can tell the difference between the style narratives, such as the events of plagues in וארא and בא, and the style of legal codes, such as in משפטים. 

In many of the stories in בראשית, the narration of stories is in one register, but the dialogue of the charaters is in poetic verse. The story of גן עדן in the second chapter of בראשית is the perfect example of this. Most biblical stories do not write the dialogue of the characters in poetic verse. Sometimes it seems that the dialogue is written in a jargon register. The narrative tries to highlight that the characters are speaking and that they speak differently than how the narrator speaks in the story. 

This is where my favorite imeprative comes into play. The imperative form in bilblical Hebrew is almost always used in dialogue. When a character uses the imperative, it signifies that they are speaking differently from the narrator.  My favorite imperative is גש, גשה or גשי. These are used as commands for someone to move somewhere. They aren't moving very far. If you want to tell someone to move a few steps to the left, it seems like you would use גש. Whereas if you wanted to tell someone to go to a different location, you would say בא. The word גש appears in its imperfect form, when used by the narrator. There are plenty of examples of ויגש, in context they usually refer to someone approaching something. 

Many of the imperative phrases that us גש are very short and quick to say. I suspect that brevity is a signifier of more colloquial speech, or at the very least, the language of commands. 

In וירא, we have (Genesis 19:9):

וַיֹּאמְרוּ גֶּשׁ־הָלְאָה וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָאֶחָד בָּא־לָגוּר וַיִּשְׁפֹּט שָׁפוֹט עַתָּה נָרַע לְךָ מֵהֶם וַיִּפְצְרוּ בָאִישׁ בְּלוֹט מְאֹד וַיִּגְּשׁוּ לִשְׁבֹּר הַדָּלֶת׃

The word גש means to move a little bit and הלאה means the direction away from here. The phrase really rolls off of the tongue. It is a very short phrase, גש הלאה. It feels like something that you could shout, its a command for someone to back off. The mob is commanding Lot to back away from the door to his house to let them in. 

Another example of גש as a quick command word appears in II Samuel 1:15.

וַיִּקְרָא דָוִד לְאַחַד מֵהַנְּעָרִים וַיֹּאמֶר גַּשׁ פְּגַע־בּוֹ וַיַּכֵּהוּ וַיָּמֹת׃

Here, David is commanding one of his servants to execute the Amalekite man who claimed to have killed Saul. The language he uses to command the execution includes the word גש, since the servant is only traveling within David's vacinity to where the Amalekite man. The the instruction for the kill is פגע בו, which is the imperative, strike him. The command is phrase itself is very short. It's only three syllables (I don't count the שוא as a syllable), just like גש הלאה from before. It's a quick and deadly command. 

The last example of this kind of brief command language comes from Ruth 2:14:

וַיֹּאמֶר לָה בֹעַז לְעֵת הָאֹכֶל גֹּשִׁי הֲלֹם וְאָכַלְתְּ מִן־הַלֶּחֶם וְטָבַלְתְּ פִּתֵּךְ בַּחֹמֶץ וַתֵּשֶׁב מִצַּד הַקּוֹצְרִים וַיִּצְבָּט־לָהּ קָלִי וַתֹּאכַל וַתִּשְׂבַּע וַתֹּתַר׃

In the context, Boaz is being kind to Ruth and he invites her to join the fieldworkers for their meal. It is a very different context from the story of Lot, where the violent mob is yelling at him, or for David when he commands someone's summary execution. The exact language of a command can be mirrored between stressful and calm contexts. Boaz says גושי הלום, (which is also three sylables) which means come here, it's the opposite command of גש הלאה. 

There are other imperative forms of גש that show up in more poetic contexts. In the blessing story of Isaac, Jacob, and Esau, Isaac speaks in a poetic register. Twice he uses the words גשה נא and once הגישה נא when he asks his sons to approach him. 

There is a rather emotionally charged example of גשה used in one of Isaiah (two electric boogaloo)'s prophecies (49:14-21):

וַתֹּאמֶר צִיּוֹן עֲזָבַנִי יְהוָה וַאדֹנָי שְׁכֵחָנִי׃ הֲתִשְׁכַּח אִשָּׁה עוּלָהּ מֵרַחֵם בֶּן־בִּטְנָהּ גַּם־אֵלֶּה תִשְׁכַּחְנָה וְאָנֹכִי לֹא אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ׃ הֵן עַל־כַּפַּיִם חַקֹּתִיךְ חוֹמֹתַיִךְ נֶגְדִּי תָּמִיד׃ מִהֲרוּ בָּנָיִךְ מְהָרְסַיִךְ וּמַחֲרִבַיִךְ מִמֵּךְ יֵצֵאוּ׃ שְׂאִי־סָבִיב עֵינַיִךְ וּרְאִי כֻּלָּם נִקְבְּצוּ בָאוּ־לָךְ חַי־אָנִי נְאֻם־יְהוָה כִּי כֻלָּם כָּעֲדִי תִלְבָּשִׁי וּתְקַשְּׁרִים כַּכַּלָּה׃ כִּי חָרְבֹתַיִךְ וְשֹׁמְמֹתַיִךְ וְאֶרֶץ הֲרִסֻתֵיךְ כִּי עַתָּה תֵּצְרִי מִיּוֹשֵׁב וְרָחֲקוּ מְבַלְּעָיִךְ׃ עוֹד יֹאמְרוּ בְאָזְנַיִךְ בְּנֵי שִׁכֻּלָיִךְ צַר־לִי הַמָּקוֹם גְּשָׁה־לִּי וְאֵשֵׁבָה׃ וְאָמַרְתְּ בִּלְבָבֵךְ מִי יָלַד־לִי אֶת־אֵלֶּה וַאֲנִי שְׁכוּלָה וְגַלְמוּדָה גֹּלָה וְסוּרָה וְאֵלֶּה מִי גִדֵּל הֵן אֲנִי נִשְׁאַרְתִּי לְבַדִּי אֵלֶּה אֵיפֹה הֵם׃

This passage describes how Zion has lost all her children, and how she will feel when God brings her children back home. The section makes use of a great Hebrew word for which there really isn't an exact equivalent in modern English. We have words for people who are have lost loved ones and are forever grieving. A widow or widower is someone who's spouse has died. Biblical Hebrew has such a word for a woman whose children have all died. She expects to grieve for her lost children for the rest of her life. Zion is described as such a woman in this passage. 

In order to illustrate the overwhelming return of the children Zion thought were dead, Isaiah (two electric boogaloo) describes a tiny snapshot of what a room suddenly filled with children would sound like. "There isn't room for me move over so I can sit." 

Songs of Volozhin

In around 2021, when I first got my hands on a copy of Abraham Zvi Idelson's Thesaurus of Jewish Music, I noticed a few melodies in the volume on Eastern European Jewish Folk music that were attributed to Volozhin. As I was studying in Yeshiva at the time, this of course piqued my interest. Many yeshivas are proud of their musical herritage, but few melodies seem to reliably originate in Volozhin. Beneath these melodies in Idelson's thesaurus, I noticed the citation Reshumoth V. 

What was Reshumot?  

Following WWI, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Alter Druyanov, and Yehoshua Chana Ravnitzky created a journal for Jewish enthnographic study, which they called Reshumot. Over the course of the 1920s they published at least six volumes. (After the creation of the state of Israel, the Reshumot journal was revived under a new generation of ethnographic and folklore scholars.)

In volume five of Reshumot, published in 1927, there is an article by Yitzchak Rivkind titled "From the Collections of the Volozhiner." This article has two parts, the first describes the closure of the Volozhin Yeshiva and theater art that was created in response to the closure. The second part is about the Songs of Volozhin. It contains four music scores of songs that were sung in the yeshiva along with some background information. 

The first song in this article is a tune for Chasal Siddur Pesach. The commentary describes how it was a regular practice for the Rosh Yeshiva to host yeshiva students at his house for the Pesach Seder. This version of Chasal Siddur Pesach was sung at these sedarim and it was very popular among the members of the Yeshiva. The author, Yitzchak Rivkind, believed that Rav Itzele Volozhiner either composed the tune or at least adapted the tune for Chasal Siddur Pesach. 

The second song is called Al Tirah Yisrael. It is an original song for which both the tune and the words were written by Rav Itzele Volozhiner. Rivkind suspects that he wrote this song after advocating for the Yeshiva to the Russian government. The song itself tells the Jewish people not to be afraid because of their vulnerable position as a persecuted minority. Instead they should celebrate the Torah and rely upon God. 

There are two more songs at the end of the article that have no commentary associated with them. One of them is called Gut Yom Tov, and is a tune with a repeating refrain of "gut yom tov." The last song is titled The Volozhiner Dance. 

I have scanned the portion of the article on the songs of Volozhin. 

Yitzchak Rivkind, "From the Collections of Volozhin: The Songs of Volozhin," Reshumot vol. 5 (1927): 376–382.

I have also transcribed the four scores and uploaded them to musescore. 

https://musescore.com/user/81422653/sets/12656116

I want to try to do more of these music transcriptions at some point in the future. There are a fair amount of hard to find collections of religious Jewish folk music that might benefit from this transcription. 

The Golem as a Medium of Self-Defense

In the obscure corners of the internet that I frequent there has been some discussion about the golem as a story about self-defense in the context of recent Israeli military actions. Though it is understood that the self-defense angle is a modern addition to the story, I was kind of curious about how and when that element of the story developed. 

The earliest written version of the golem story is from a 17th century autograph kabbalistic text called יסודי תורת משה and remains unpublished. The short story, as translated by Moshe Idel in his book Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid, reads as follows:

And I have heard, in a certain and explicit way, from several respectable persons that one man, [living] close to our time, in the holy community of Helm, whose name is R. Eliyahu, the master of the name, who made a creature out of matter [Golem] and form [ẓurah] and it performed hard work for him, for a long period, and the name of 'emet was hanging upon his neck, until he finally removed for a certain reason, the name from his neck and it turned to dust.

Later retellings of this story would add a specific justification for why Rav Eliyahu Baal Shem of Chelm deactivated his golem. Rav Yaakov Emden, a descendant of Rav Eliyahu, in שאילת יעב"ץ ב:פ"ב explained that the golem slowly grew and Rav Eliyahu deactivated it out of a fear that it would destroy the world. This becomes the core of later more elaborate versions of the story. In which a rabbi creates a golem and the golem becomes a threat to the community or the wider world. 

In the earliest versions of the Maharal of Prague's golem, the Maharal creates a golem which he uses to help him with chores. When the Maharal forgets to deactivate the golem before Shabbat, the golem begins to go rougue and damages property. Then the Maharal deactivates the golem and hides the golem's body away. 

The story of the Maharal's golem is a historically romantic folktale that exists in the context of other romantic literature in the 19th century. These other romantic short stories and novels play with the idea of a golem or golem-like being developing feelings as an individual character. Most famously, there's Frankenstein's monster, but there are versions of this story that are specific to the golem. Rudolf Lother's short story The Golem of Rabbi Loeb, which was published in english translation in the Menorah magazine, portrays the golem as the manifestation of Eleazar's love for his reluctantly bethrothed Esther. (See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3); (Also see Eden Dekel and David Gantt Gurley, "How the Golem Came to Prague," in Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 103, No. 2 (Spring 2013): 241–238.)

None of these stories contain any events in which the golem becomes the protector of the Jewish communtiy. Yet somehow, in the 1920 film The Golem: How He Came into the World, the golem is specifically created to protect the Jewish community of Prague. 

In the narrative of the film, the emperor sends a decree to expell the Jews from Prague since they have been accussed of killing Christ and oppressing the Christian residents of the city. In response, the Maharal creates the golem. For a bit the Maharal tests the golem's abilities by having him aid in household chores. The Maharal and his golem soon set out to meet with the emperor during a festival and somehow convince him to repeal the decree. 

Upon arriving at the festival, the emperor asks the Maharal to entertain the crowd with one of his magic tricks. The Maharal offers to show a moving picture of Jewish history, but warns that if the audience laughs at all there will be dangerous consequences. This stipulation is a trap. The Maharal projects the image of a caravan of middle eastern nomads, one particularly wizzened man looks to the audience and declares that he is Ahasuerus the wandering Jew. The audience bursts out laughing. With the pretext, the Maharal causes the roof of the banquet hall to begin collapsing. Some people get crushed in the rubble, while others jump out of the windows to their deaths. In desparation the emporer offers to repeal his decree against the Jews if the Maharal saves him. Immediately, the Maharal orders the golem hold up the collapsing roof, saving the emperor and the others who haven't been crushed yet. 

Using the literary motifs of the romantic versions of the golem story, the movie translates the increasing power of the golem into the golem distancing itself from its creator and becoming more human. It is this emotional development of the golem that eventually leads it to kidnap the Maharal's daughter Miriam and accidentally set the ghetto on fire. 

The golem movie seems to have greatly popularized the self-defense element of the golem story. Almost all of the versions of the story that follow contain some element of Jewish community self-defense in the golem story. This element of community protection becomes integral to the comic book super heros that were based on the golem. 

The golem movie did not orginate the self-defense motif in the golem story. I was able to locate one published version of the golem story contianing a narrative of communal self-defense. It's likely there are a few more that pre-date the 1920 golem movie, but I have not been able to locate them. 

In 1897, the Jewish Publication Society produced a small book of Jewish folktales by Henry Iliowizi called In The Pale. One of the stories in this book is titled The Baal Shem and His Golem. Although the title seems to make it fit right into the tradition of previous golem stories, almost everything contained within it is a departure from the traditional golem story. 

This is the plot summary: 

Payutin, the recently appointed magistrate of Karolin, falls in love with Mayor Pozanow’s daughter Tilka. The couple, holding deeply antisemitic beliefs, recruit Russian Orthodox Father Shapirow, the son of a Jewish convert, to convince Mayor Pozanow to target the Karolin Hassidim. Mayor Pozanow instructs the Karolin fire brigade to respond to any loud festive noise created by the Hassidim worshiping as if it was a call of emergency, and then charge the Hassidim with disorderly conduct and fine them for the cost of the false alarm. 

Rav Aarele Baal Shem of Karolin instructs his Hassidim to ignore the new policy and continue worshiping as usual. Then, he enlists the help of the local Jewish blacksmith Pulasky to create a golem. After spiritually cleansing himself, Pulasky studies the divine names with Rav Aarele and summons a divine workforce to staff his workshop all night. When the sun rises, Pulasky and his spirit team have created a fire breathing iron monster. On the day of Payutin and Tilka’s wedding, Rav Aarele sent the iron golem to attack the wedding. The golem killed all the people at the wedding and destroyed the mayor’s house.

That's the story, its just the Jews lived happily ever after and defeated their enemies. There's no part where the golem turns on the Jewish community. In fact the story stresses "Not a Jewish house was damaged; not a Jewish body hurt." 

Although the story refers to Rav Aarele's creation as a golem, the creature is quite different from the traditional golem. In the underlying mystical reasoning for the golem, it is necessary for the golem to created from clay just like God created humans from dirt. The golem is created in a human form. The fact that the golem appears on the outside to be almost human was intriguing to the romantic authors who sought to explore the similarly almost human mind contained within the golem. 

Rav Aarele's golem is neither made from clay nor formed to look like a human. This is how Rav Aarele describes the golem to the blacksmith Pulasky, 

. . . forge for me a horror of black iron. It shall be as awe-inspiring as Death, as terrible as the Plague, gigantic as the Anak who followed Noah's Ark through the waters of the deluge, implacable as Satan the Beast and Lilith the Harlot. Hissing serpents shall be its hair; its eyes shall glow like the fire of hell; from its mouth shall shoot forth a live dragon as tongue; its claws shall be like those of the tiger; and its tail a venomous hydra. The Golem's hands shall reach to the soles of its feet. Dress it in a garb of feathers as black as Abaddon. It shall stride forth with wings outspread, shall breathe fire and vomit flame; a hellish roar shall issue from its throat; and I shall cause it to move and act as a power possessed of reason and will.

This golem is as inhuman as possible. Iliowizi specifically rejects any of the romantic human weakness or instability of the traditional golem. Rav Aarele's golem is simply an agent of death that can only harm oppressors of the Jewish community. The reference to the safety of Jewish houses during the golem's rampage is a clear reference to the death of the Egyptian firstborn in the Exodus story. Iliowizi's golem is an idealized form of divine protection and defense. 

In creating this perfect divine agent of retribution, Iliowizi rejects the foundational message of earliest golem stories. Looking back to Rav Yaakov Emden's retelling of the story, the golem is inherently a growing threat to safety of the world. Later story tellers found different ways of expressing this threat. They all illustrated it with some harm befalling the Jewish community. While transforming the golem into an agent for community defense, Iliowizi sheds the fundamental message of all the golem stories. That a human cannot create a perfect creation.

Paul Wegener synthesized Iliowizi's golem of self-defense with human feeling golem of the romantic stories. He created a powerful message about the dangers of violent self-defense and how it can backfire. In doing so, he maintained foundational message of the limits of human achievement.

The archetype of Iliowizi's golem is still very present in the cultural imagination of the modern Jewish community. We tell ourselves that Rav Aarele's monster golem is attacking the bad guys, and everyone it kills deserves to die. We tell ourselves that no Jewish houses will be harmed by the golem. After all the golem we created has been ridden of human weakness and will only target our oppressors. 

Just because Iliowizi denies that the golem is a danger to the world, does not make it true. He simply gives us permission to pretend that the golem can maintain our communal defense forever without any consequences. Such a blind attitude will only lead us to severe consequences. 

Iliowizi's golem is a complete fantasy, whether or not he intended it to be read as such, that's what it is. An army is made up of people, not divine mechanical monsters. Unlike divine mechanical monsters, people are immoral. There is no such thing as a moral army, let alone a 'most moral army in the world.'