Toni Morrison famously referred to Bill Clinton as the “first black president,” writing that he displayed “almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas.”

Well, a recent NYTimes op-ed by David Brooks got me thinking: Can Barack Obama be the first Jewish president?

Though surely it wasn’t his intention, Brooks seemed to describe Obama using tropes commonly associated with the exilic/diasporic Jew.

Obama has been a sojourner…

There is a sense that because of his unique background and temperament, Obama lives apart. He put one foot in the institutions he rose through on his journey but never fully engaged. As a result, voters have trouble placing him in his context, understanding the roots and values in which he is ineluctably embedded…

He was in the law school, but not of it…

It was this last line that clued me into this idea, as Rabbi Yitz Greenberg has written that one of the dimensions of exile is “to be fully in the world, yet not totally of it. ”

And while I am not advocating for this description, can’t you imagine someone using the following words to describe Jews?

“This ability to stand apart accounts for his fantastic powers of observation, and his skills as a writer and thinker. ”

Such is Brooks’ depiction of Obama.

Interestingly, the Jewish Brooks uses these descriptions of Obama to account for America’s wariness of him. But he does write for the NYTimes, so maybe he’s a self-hater.

(That’s a joke.)

Benyamin Cohen’s new book My Jesus Year is nearing its release date. Subtitled “A Rabbi’s Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith,” it’s actually closer to a Year of Living Biblically for the NASCAR crowd: Cohen bumps around between Big Tent revivals, tiny backyard churches, and Ultimate Christian Wrestling. Most mind-blowing part? When he’s taken to an extensive, expensive compound built and maintained by Prince Rahm of the Black Hebrews (excerpt here.) Most offensive part? When Cohen is serial-dating in New York City and dumps a girl based solely on the fact that she’s a midget. (Or that’s what he makes it sound like. Which, if that *wasn’t* the real reason, is even worse…)

Publisher’s Weekly just raved about the book. I found myself alternately giggling and groaning. But the website is a good time, and has a bobble-head Jesus. What more could you ask for?

Remember when all of Jewish Law was ruled by a committee of 71 judges, each of whom were able to speak 70 languages, and arbited on everything from matters of life and death to where the annual Sukkah party would be? Well, those days are back again. Venerable Rabbi Adin Even-Yisrael Steinsaltz, who translated the Talmud into Hebrew (and is writing quite a kickin’ explication of the Tanya), is the Prince of the Sanhedrin.

And, in this document, Rav Steinsaltz lays it down on behalf of the Falun Gong.

[T]he Government of the People’s Republic of China, with no due process of law, arrests large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners, interns them in labor camps, and perpetrates further violent and illegal acts against them, including murder and organ harvesting from live people – Falun Gong practitioners, all of this as a means of vengeance, punishment and repression, despite the fact that Falun Gong practitioners never acted against the Government of the People’s Republic of China in any way….

The paper further calls upon any athletes to refrain from going, and on governments to not participate in festivities:

The Court finds it appropriate to turn to the Government of the People’s Republic of China with an unequivocal demand to assure the minimum of liberties as indicated by the seven Noahide commandments, as given to Adam, to Noah and to all humanity.

All told — and especially (cue the broken record) with the lack of human rights in other Orthodox news — it’s inspiring to see rabbis standing up for human rights like this. Much less, a group of rabbis who spends more of their time deciding whether to sacrifice animals on the Temple Mount than to, say, protesting the Olympic Torch run.

No word on whether any world government is complying with the decree yet. But we’ll keep you posted.

Today is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria Ashkenazi, aka the Arizal or just the Ari (1534-1572). He was the father of modern Kabbalah and studied under greats such as Radbaz and the Shita Mekubetzet. The Arizal was no elderly sage–more like a boy wonder–by the age of 22 he was studying Zohar intensely and at age 36 he lived in Safed and rubbed shoulders with Rabbis Joseph Caro , Moses Cordevero (Ramak), Shlomo Alkabetz, and Moshe Alschich. The Arizal tackled hot topics including reincarnation and transmigration of souls. He also had a major influence in introducing the mystic system into Jewish religious observance. His ideas were compiled by his student Chaim ben Joseph Vital, into the work known as the Eitz Chayim.

What had you accomplished by age 22?

(Stay tuned for a new section about magic and the supernatural–coming to MJL this Fall…)

One of the customary practices in these nine days is the avoidance of meat: it’s the way we commemorate the destruction of the Temple, where daily animal sacrifices were once brought.

Refraining from food is symbolic, of course. The idea is not just to avoid meat but to limit ourselves so that we can better focus on the spiritual.

As Jewschool notes, Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, of the National Synagogue in Washington, D.C., published an op-ed in the New York Times calling on Agriprocessors and the OU to own up for its actions — which, by writer Josh Frankel’s accounting, is the first time a Yeshiva University-educated, OU-certified rabbi has taken a loud and public stand against Rubashkin. Frankel forgot the best part of the article — it’s called “Dark Meat.”

Hirhurim makes some logical complaints about the op-ed. But I really, really hope this breaks through the OU’s circles. Unfortunately, their last big spat with an independent investigator didn’t go so well — the panel investigating Baruch Lanner’s sexual-abuse allegations didn’t include any women (considering that’s who most of the abused people were) and kept most of their findings internal. Not to mention the whole Le Marais fiasco detailed here when, instead of trusting their own kosher supervisor in his allegations of kosher violations, they kept their exclusive contract with the restaurant and fired him.

On the elevator this morning, a courier — this legit-looking man in his late 30s or so — took out one of the earbuds to his iPhone and hooked it atop the massive golden cross on his neck. And for the next four floors, the rest of my elevator guests and I heard, very loudly and publicly, an Alicia Keys clone shrieking out “Jesus, Jee-e-eee-zuss” in holy tremors over a sustained, mid-tempo soft-R ‘n B keyboard track.

I used to shiver every time I heard the word “Jesus,” as though the name alone might dig into my skull and involuntarily convert me. I actively tried to avoid saying it. I was in Bible Club in my public high school along with a bunch of born-again Christians (although part of it was, admittedly, because of this girl with amazing hair who smelled like vanilla) and thought I’d open myself up to this strange other religion that we shared a world with. But even today, when I feel too much Christian energy around me, I start to worry that they’re preparing to shove me into a portable baptismal pool.

And then I heard about the Church of Latter-Day Saints, and how they practice after-the-fact conversions on dead people, and started freaking out even more about where my soul is going to end up. Who’s missionizing to me without me knowing it? I voiced these concerns to my cousin Zev the other day, the one who grew up, not just as the son of an Orthodox rabbi, but the son of a Hasidic rabbi who KNOWS EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE. He looked at me like I was crazy. “Why should I care?” he said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with me.”

Now that Ehud Olmert is on his way out, it’s time to evaluate his possible successors. Or at least their language skills.

Seymour Reich, one of the United State’s most prominent Jewish leaders, fears that should Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz be elected Kadima  chairman and become prime minister, his poor English would damage the State of Israel’s ties with America’s Jewish community.

Reich, president of the Israel Policy Forum and a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, offers former Defense Minister Amir Peretz as an example.

“Peretz found it very difficult to explain his ideas and thoughts to the Jewish community,” he said. “He couldn’t overcome it, although he tried to very hard. I hope any new Israeli leader will be fluent in English and will be able to understand both the subtleties and phrases.”

MORE… 

These past few days have been weirdly Communist-centric for me. First, my book that’s coming out in October. Then there’s the movie I’m watching and the articles I’m editing, Fall of Communism and another one you’ll get to see soon. And then this bizarre conversation about Jews and Communism, and was it nearly as bad as the Holocaust? — and are you allowed to say anything is nearly as bad as the Holocaust? — and how we managed to flee.

And then, last night, I entered the lion’s den.

The Park Slope Food Co-Op is virtually the only place in our neighborhood to buy organic food. My wife’s been a member for a few months, but I’ve been avoiding joining, in part because I thought it was a fad, but also because my friend Saul was a member and then it started taking up his whole life, and then he started only dating Co-Op members…and, as you might imagine, he started having to avoid the Co-Op after a few too many of those incidents.

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For anyone who missed the public outcry last week about the Israeli youth group Bnei Akiva’s new single-sex policy on their yearly singing contest — I know, pretty much everyone in the universe — catch up, read the article, and come back.

Back? Good.

Now, the good news is spreading through the land like the sound of — well, like the sound of women’s voices. “Restrictions can be eased on listening to a woman singing when there is a clear assessment of innocent listening to innocent song,” Rabbi David Bigman is quoted as saying on YNet, explaining a statement in the Talmud (or overturning it, depending on your position) that says “The voice of a woman is Ervah [lit. nudity], as the verse [in Song of Songs 2:14] states ‘let me hear your voice because your voice is pleasant and appearance attractive.’”

Rashi, in his commentary on the situation, says that a woman’s voice is inherently attractive to a man, and, therefore, he shouldn’t listen to them. A plethora of alternate readings follow, which you can read about if you want…although I’d recommend checking out the ever-reliable Stereo Sinai, who sum up the arguments well, and who first pointed out this article. They make the coolest band bumper stickers EVER. Buy one now.

For “the perpetual discussion of what it means and how it feels to be a Jew”, even though “there is no resolution to Jewishness, other than to elaborate on its endless ways”, nothing can compare with those immensely popular films of Allan Konigsberg. (The Common Review)

Natan Sharansky argues in his latest book that identity is the ally, not enemy, of freedom. (The Jewish Week)

The exhibit is called “The New Authentics: Artists of the Post-Jewish Generation”, but what, if anything IS “post-Jewish”? (Nextbook)

Adam Mansbach’s new novel, “The End of the Jews” explores the “slipperiness of Jewish identity.”(Nextbook)

A new book looks at the impact of Birthright Israel on Jewish identity. (Jewish News Weekly)