AES RS MAY 11 and 14
1.
The chant!
2.
Online game: bathroom or
fruit
3.
Reading https://www.sefaria.org/Siddur_Ashkenaz%2C_Weekday%2C_Shacharit%2C_Torah_Reading%2C_Removing_the_Torah_from_Ark%2C_Berich_Shmei.2?vhe=hebrew|The_Metsudah_siddur,_1981&lang=he
4.
NEWS LIMERICS
5.
Layout of the camp
6.
Twelve tribes quiz
7.
Commentary
8.
Pidyon haben
9.
Video
10. the numbers
11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwd08M7pr3A
12. Why not one for girls? – Skolnik
It used to be great to go try
To live in Israel on dollars, oh my!
Now each
dollar you see,
Is in shekels worth three
Yes, Israel’s currency is trading too __________
Zohran Mamdani’s performance? let’s state
What New York City’s mayor does rate
In the city, among jews
He’s not getting good news
At 40% his rating’s
not________________
Despite antisemitism that continues to ooze
in Britian’s capitol, good news,
The Community Protection Team
Has 100 cops on the beam
To face assaults and mistreatment of ______________
Terror group Hezbolah sends buzzing tones
Using fiber optics, they have endless clones
From Lebanon, they attack
In pack after pack
Yes, Israel’s soldiers face death by armed ___________
A huge donation appeared with a snap
$200 million a hospital will tap
Jerusalem’s Sharey Z
Thanks him so profusely
That’s Jan Koum, the co-creator of _______ ____
Israel has made their decision
A brave
singer to meet hate and derision
Noam bettan, a Mensch
Will sing his song mostly in french,
Sure to be booed and cheered at ______________
https://www.jta.org/2026/05/03/ny/40-of-jewish-nyc-voters-rate-zohran-mamdanis-performance-as-mayor-poor-poll-finds
https://www.timesofisrael.com/shekel-hits-33-year-peak-hammering-exports-yet-policymakers-are-worryingly-silent/
https://www.jta.org/2026/05/06/global/londons-metropolitan-police-launches-new-100-officer-unit-to-protect-jewish-communities
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-895734
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-895694
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWCnWSoG8nI
Hidden in
the 3rd chapter of this week's portion is something that rarely comes up in
modern Jewish life. This week's portion
contains verses regarding the pidyon ha
Ben, the redemption of a first born son.
3:13—
כִּ֣י לִי֮ כׇּל־בְּכוֹר֒ בְּיוֹם֩ הַכֹּתִ֨י כׇל־בְּכ֜וֹר בְּאֶ֣רֶץ
מִצְרַ֗יִם הִקְדַּ֨שְׁתִּי לִ֤י כׇל־בְּכוֹר֙ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מֵאָדָ֖ם
עַד־בְּהֵמָ֑ה לִ֥י יִהְי֖וּ אֲנִ֥י ה׃ {פ}
For every male first-born is Mine: at the time that I smote every [male]
first-born in the land of Egypt, I consecrated every male first-born in Israel,
human and beast, to Myself, to be Mine, Adonai’s.
Let's WORK
THE NUMBERS! take 1000 American Jewish
families Expecting their first child. Just a smidge under a half of
those will, mazaltov, have a baby girl
and plan a zeved bat, brit bat, simchat
bat-- or welcoming a baby girl by another name,
so that leaves us with? 510 baby boys.
On average,
32% of babies born in the United states are born by cesarian section, which
disqualifies the infant from requiring a redemption, since the verse says all
breachers of the womb belong to me, and the C-section is not what the Torah
has in mind in terms of breaching the womb- at least, not as the Rabbis have interpreted since the
2nd temple period. 510- 163= 347.
In addition
roughly 10% of Jewish men identify as either being kohen or Levi, and all such
call kohanim and levi’im being already dedicated to the temple, their sons are
exempt from a redemption. They are stuck. Furthermore, even having a
mother who was a bat kohen or bat levi removes the infant from those needing a
redemption. There is no easy way to be sure of just how many families qualify
in this regard but it would not be unreasonable to say it's another 10% who are
disqualified this way. 347- 69= 277
now 277 families remain out of our hypothetical 1000.
Only about 40% of American Jews today
affiliate with a synagogue, which is the probably the only way of a family being connected with their Judaism
enough to know of -- or be made aware of Pidyon Haben. That brings us down to 111 families.
Now- Just over 40% of affiliated Jews affiliate
with Reform or reconstructionist Judaism, neither of which support or endorse
the Pidyon Haben, and they do not perform one. That brings us down to 67
families.
And of those
67 from the original 1000, about one
third, being part of the Conservative movement more by inertia than by
intent, will not just not bother even if
urged by their rabbi to have a
Pidyon. That brings us to just over 22
families.
Sadly, we
must add the really awful things here at the end: Stillbirths and late
miscarriages do not disqualify our being compassionate to a family, but they do
absolve any boys born after such awful
losses from requiring a Pidyon. And
then add babies born with health problems where after 30 days after birth the male baby has yet to have a
public name, or a bris, because
the parents are basically living at the hospital as their boy struggles
for life. Or a parent is fighting cancer,
or called up on reserve duty in the USAF
and the Pidyon is pushed away and forgotten. I would suggest that
leaves us about 5 in every 1000.
Inheritance,
illness, ignorance, all reduce the likelihood of this ancient mitzvah being
observed.
5 in
1000. But we need to lower that to 4 in
1000. There are Jews who are synagogue affiliated, Jewish educated, ritually obligated, and who reject doing
pidyon Haben because they see it as anti-egalitarian and patriarchal; on
feminist grounds alone they reject performing this mitzvah.
From 1000
families, 4 will have a pidyon.
Maybe. That’s 0.4% 1 in 250.
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The arrangement of the Camp of Bnei Yisrael
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North
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Asher
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DAN
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Naphtali
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Benyamin
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Levi-Merari
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Yisaschar
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West
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EPHRAIM
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Levi-Gershon
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THE MISHKAN
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Kohanim
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YEHUDA
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East
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Manasheh
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Levi-Kohath
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Zevulun
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Gad
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REUVEN
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Shimon
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South
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12 tribes
quiz
1) The
smallest of tribes was Binyamin. What trait were they known for in biblical
times?
a.
Being left-handed
b.
Being red-haired
c.
Being taller than the other Jews
d.
Being grouchy and mean
e.
Being the best tuba players in the
Jerusalem Symphony
2) The
tribe of Joseph was split into two, Ephraim and Menashe. When do we use their names in Judaism?
a.
At a conversion ritual
b.
At shabbat dinner blessings
c.
As we put the torah away after reading it
d.
During the Passover seder, right at the
start
e.
Dude, those names are Greek, not Hebrew.
3) Who
was the firstborn son of ya’akov and first among the tribes?
a.
Naphtali
b.
Asher
c.
Zevulun
d.
Re’uven
e.
Yerachmiel Hamusta Sha’ar-yashuv Epidermis Ochel-Silan Hakuvtaran Baumgarten
4) Levi
was one of the original twelve tribes, but they got no land, just cities. Why?
a.
They angered God at the incident of the
fires of Ashpah
b.
They failed to sing the Pazer trope
properly
c.
They got jobs helping the kohanim at the
Mishkan and later the Temple
d.
They sided with Datan and Abiram at a
rebellion against Moses
e.
They made everybody angry one day by
talking too much when Moses was teaching, causing everyone to get out of Torah
school nearly 30 minutes late, so they were sent back to Egypt
5) Yehudah
was the largest tribe throughout the Bible’s story. What happens to that tribe?
a.
They become their own kingdom for five
centuries
b.
They fight the Babylonians and lose
c.
They fight the Seleucid Greeks and win
d.
They fight the Romans and lose
e.
They are the source of almost all Jews
alive today
6) Zevulun
had a special logo, related to where they lived, which was
a.
A ship because they lived on the seashore
b.
A river because they lived on the River
Jordan
c.
A sword because they were great fighters
d.
A snake because they ate snakes
e.
An Oreo Milkshake. How can you not love an
Oreo Milkshake?
7) Yissaschar’s
symbol was the donkey. Why?
a.
Because as a tribe they were stubborn
b.
Because as a tribe they were lazy and slow
c.
Because as a tribe they were willing to
endure burdens
d.
Because as a tribe they were suspicious of
horses
e.
Because they stole all 10,000 donkeys of King Sichon of the Amorites, and
boy did his friends mock him for letting that happen.
8) The
tribe of Dan is known for living far to the north and for being the home of
this Biblical Hero-
a.
Sampson the Strong
b.
Solomon the Wise
c.
Deborah the Judge
d.
Chuldah the Prophet
e.
Harper the Ignorant
9) Asher
is a tribe known only for what statement from Moses?
a.
“You grew fat and gross and coarse, and
abandoned the God who made you.”
b.
“May you be the favorite of his brothers,
and your security last all your days.”
c.
“Your brothers will come to you for sauces,
your sisters will travel to you for mustard and prunes.”
d.
“May the eggs of Asher bear dragons, may
they roast the enemies of your people with fire.”
e.
“He is tardy to class, his assignments are
past due, His work is sloppy, Maude the AI could have done better.”
10)
What item represented the twelve tribes as
a whole people?
a.
The Tambourine of Miriam, which had twelve
sides
b.
The Sword of Joshua, which had twelve edges
c.
The staff of Moses, upon which all twelve
names were written
d.
The chest-plate of Aaron the Kohen Gadol,
which had twelve gems
e.
The twelve fingers of our Glorious Supreme
Leader of the People’s Democratic Republic of North Korea!
