May 15th, 43rd day of the omer, National Dance Like A Chicken Day

 

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 2^nd 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.

 

The arrangement of the Camp of Bnei Yisrael
			North
		Asher	DAN	Naphtali
	Benyamin		Levi-Merari		Yisaschar
West	EPHRAIM	Levi-Gershon	THE MISHKAN	Kohanim	YEHUDA	East
	Manasheh		Levi-Kohath		Zevulun
		Gad	REUVEN	Shimon
			South

 

 

 

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!