Category: Holidays

Major League Dreidel Gives News Spin to Old Hanukkah Game

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date December 1, 2010

When it comes to Hanukkah there’s really only been one traditional way to play Dreidel. The four sided spinning top has four Hebrew letters on it. Each letter tells you what to do if it lands on that letter — you win, you get half, etc. It might be fun the first time you play, but after several years of playing Dreidel the old game gets boring.

Two new spins on the old Dreidel game have emerged. Eric Pavony founded Major League Dreidel, a pun infested contest to see who can spin the dreidel the longest. And card shark Jennie Rivlin Roberts came up with No Limit Texas Dreidel (NLTD). Instead of cards, players bet, raise or fold depending on the strength of their dreidel hand.

Both games are detailed in an article by Canada’s National Post (hat tip to Adam Masry). If you don’t appreciate a good pun, don’t read on.

Major League Dreidel (MLD) is an amped-up Hanukkah party and battle royale where players vie for the longest dreidel spin. As competitors with such names as Spindiana Jones, Goy Wonder and Spinona Ryder play with the traditional four-sided spinning top, the mid-twenties crowd shouts, high-fives and swigs such Jewish-themed beers as Genesis Ale and Messiah Bold. The league’s main venue, the infamous Brooklyn music hot spot the Knitting Factory, is located in the hipster haven of Williamsburg.

The Jewish puns are endless, as are the inventive costumes. Oscar De La Menorah, for example, sports a boxing robe and trunks in competition. Between bouts, the heavy metal act Gods of Fire play such songs as The Quest for the Latke Oil and Taking the Temple.

Eric Pavony, 31, is MLD’s founder and “knishioner.” “I remember enjoying spinning the dreidel more than actually participating in the traditional rules of the game,” says Panony, who has seen his league grow from 32 competitors to 120 since 2007.

This new take on dreidel spinning reminded me of the Heeb magazine cover from a few years ago featuring the Beastie Boys playing Dreidel.

I’m glad to see people being creative and reinventing the staple game of the Hanukkah holiday. Happy Hanukkah!

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Justin Bieber Says the Shema & Other Jewish Customs Adopted by Non-Jews

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date October 5, 2010

It’s no secret that certain Jewish rituals have become mainstream. In her new book, “Kosher Nation,” Sue Fishkoff explains that kosher food isn’t only for Jewish people anymore. “More than 11.2 million Americans regularly buy kosher food, 13 percent of the adult consumer population,” she writes. “These are people who buy the products because they are kosher… There are about six million Jews in this country. Even if they all bought only kosher food, which is not the case, they would not be enough to sustain such growth. In fact, just 14 percent of consumers who regularly buy kosher food do so because they follow the rules of kashrut. That means at least 86 percent of the nation’s 11.2 million kosher consumers are not religious Jews.”

So, it is clear that there are millions of non-Jews out there who have gone kosher. And that is certainly not the only Jewish practice that has transcended Jewish borders.

I’m sure that at some point in history, if you were at a wedding and the crowd danced the “Horah,” you would be certain that it was a Jewish wedding. But not any more. The circle dance, in which the bride and groom are lifted in chairs in the middle of the circle, is no more Jewish than a bagel these days. Ami Eden, executive editor and publisher of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), wrote an article the day before Chelsea Clinton’s famous wedding entitled “Will Chelsea Dance the Horah?” It was insignificant that Clinton married a Jewish man — likely, no matter whom she married, she would have danced the Horah at her wedding.

The next Jewish ritual that seems to have been adopted by non-Jews is the mezuzah. While the Horah is just a dance, placing the words of the “Shema Yisrael” on the door post of a home is actually a biblically mandated commandment in Judaism. However, as an article in the New York Times last month demonstrated, mezuzas are not only for Jews anymore. Ann Farmer wrote, “The doorways inside 30 Ocean Parkway, an Art Deco building in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, are studded with mezuzas of all sizes and styles: plastic, pewter, simple, gaudy, elegant. The people behind those doors are an assortment, too: Catholics, Baptists, Episcopalians, Buddhists, atheists and even a few observing the High Holy Days this week.”

Many of the gentiles with a mezuzah adorning their door posts didn’t affix the encased scrolls themselves, but decided to keep them hung after the previous Jewish tenants vacated the apartment. The article even mentions an 87-year-old Catholic woman who said she often wished she had inherited a mezuza like many of her non-Jewish neighbors did. The tradition recalled her youth, she said, when her local priest appeared each Easter to write “God bless this house” on her family’s front door. To her delight, one of her Jewish neighbors recently hung a mezuza on her doorway. “Every time I come home and remember, I kiss it and touch it and then I bless myself, saying, ‘In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.'”

And that takes us to the teen pop sensation Justin Bieber. Though not Jewish, it appears that the young Mr. Bieber says the Shema Yisrael before each concert. Isrealli.org, the New Blog of Israel, reports that Scott “Scooter” Braun (otherwise known as Shmuel ben Eliezer), a 28-year-old born to a Conservative Jewish family in Connecticut with many relatives in Israel, discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube. Braun, now Bieber’s manager, told Adi Gold, the NY Bureau Chief for the Israeli newspaper “Yedioth Ahronot,” that “the thing that children from Israel will most want to hear: Justin prays the ‘Shema’ before each show. First he says a Christian prayer, then he says the Shema.”

Based on the number of concerts at which Justin Bieber performs, I’m guessing that he’s actually said the most important statement of Jewish belief many more times in his life than the average 16-year-old Jewish youth. There’s nothing wrong with non-Jews eating kosher food, dancing the Horah, putting mezzuzas on their doors, or saying the Shema. In fact, it only shows how Judaism continues to transcend borders in the 21st century.

It does lead me to wonder about the next “it” Jewish ritual that breaks into the mainstream. With the recent success of Sukkah City in New York, I wouldn’t be surprised if building sukkahs becomes the next attractive Jewish ritual taken up by non-Jewish men who are handy, creative, and think it would be fun to build a temporary hut on their deck. I guess nothing really surprises me anymore.

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Simchat Torah Mysticism in the Age of YouTube

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 29, 2010

Cross-posted to Jewish Techs

Google Images and YouTube videos are helping Jewish educators create new midrash and bring sacred meaning to age-old traditions. Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz created an innovative, interactive experience for the seven hakafot (circles) of Simchat Torah.

Her “Seven Dances for Simchat Torah in the YouTube Era” is available on the Sh’ma Koleinu website. Sh’ma Koleinu is an online center for spirituality and connection from Congregation B’nai Israel in Bridgeport, CT, which seeks to bring sacred meaning to convey something of the deeper meanings of the High Holy Day liturgy.

Gurewitz’s Simchat Torah blog entry uses YouTube videos and Google Images “to try and tap into the different energies and attributes of the lower sephirot as encapsulated by the seven hakafot on Simchat Torah, with selections of images, stories and YouTube videos to explore the seven energies of dance.”

View her creation here.

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Celebrity Ushpizin

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 27, 2010

Cross-posted to CommunityNext

So, we’re right in the middle of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. And if you’re like most people, when you hear the word “Sukkot” you’re thinking of shaking lulavs (palm branches), smelling the etrog (lemon-impersonating fruit), and eating in the sukkah (temporary hut). But there’s this really cool ritual on the holiday that many people don’t know about… it’s called “Ushpizin.”

Now, some people have heard of “Ushpizin” because of a popular, low-budget film by the same name that came out a few years ago about a Hasidic man who spends his rent money on an oversized and overpriced etrog. (I hear James Cameron’s directing the sequel in 3-D.)

If you’ve never heard of the custom of “Ushpizin,” it’s sort of like inviting dead relatives to a dinner party. Ushpizin is derived from the Latin hospes meaning guests (like hospitality). According to Kabbalah, there are seven ancestral guests we invite into our sukkah: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David. Today, some invite the famous women from Jewish history as well.

Inviting the same imaginary folks into the sukkah year after year gets a little, um, boring, so I was thinking it’s time to shake things up a bit (we shake the lulav, so why not this Ushpizin tradition too?!). Here’s what I’m thinking: One night, eight celebrity guests, my sukkah… let the video cameras roll. Now that’s what I call “Reality TV.”

Remember, the sukkah’s not a very big space so it’s going to get crowded. Here’s who’s on my celebrity guest list this year:

1) Mayor Michael Bloomberg – He’s just so Jewy and the gazillionaire probably wouldn’t have a problem picking up the tab for the food. Plus, his take on the whole Islamic center and mosque by Ground Zero controversy makes for interesting dinner conversation.

2) Chelsea Clinton – She just married a Yid, so why shouldn’t she have a nice meal in my sukkah during her first Sukkot.

3) Mel Gibson – After spending a nice evening under the stars with some yummy Jew food, even this guy might warm up to the Chosen People. Plus my wife’s matzah ball soup will help him relax a bit.

4) Tiger Woods – I mean, where else is he getting a home cooked meal these days? And, I’d love to see him hit an etrog with his 9-iron.

5) Michael Jackson – Hey, if we can invite King David into our sukkah, why can’t we invite the King of Pop?

6) Michael Imperioli – The Soprano’s star has been in “The D” filming the new cop drama “Detroit 1-8-7” so I figure he can provide some protection for the other celebs in the sukkah.

7) LeBron James – He’s upset with Dan Gilbert’s irate letter after he left Cleveland for Miami, so a little love from the Jews would help. But I am a little concerned about the 6 foot 8 NBA star fitting in my sukkah.

8) Oprah and Dr. Phil – With all these celebs, we’re going to need someone to moderate and someone to provide some therapy and I guess these two are a package deal anyway.

Oh, and of course my grandma’s invited. What’s a holiday meal without Bubbie? I just hope Mel Gibson watches what he says.

If you could invite eight celebrities for a night in your sukkah, who’d be on your guest list? Leave your list in the comments section below.

Happy Sukkot!

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When Technology & Shabbat Collide, Give the Benefit of the Doubt

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 21, 2010

This past Sunday, the president of New York University issued a mass e-mail apology to students and staff. The day after Yom Kippur might sound like a sensible day for issuing apologies, but the question is whether John Sexton actually needed to make a Mea Culpa.

You see, this official apology to the entire university community was for sending an earlier mass e-mail (the university president’s academic year report) on Friday evening when Jewish students were already observing Yom Kippur at Kol Nidrei services. Apparently, the report was supposed to be sent during the day on Friday (before the advent of the holiday), but it was delayed due to technical problems.

While it’s nice that the university president issued this apology before any complaints were even made, I’m not sure how an e-mail coming into one’s inbox on the Day of Atonement is offensive. Personally, I abstain from using my computer or phone (and thus no e-mail) on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, but I’m not offended if messages reach my account during these times.

I don’t think Jewish institutions should send official e-mail messages on Shabbat and holidays, but of course it depends on the type of Jewish organization. A reform temple sending a reminder via e-mail to its membership on Saturday afternoon about a program that evening might not be considered unseemly, but a JCC or Jewish federation releasing a broadcast e-mail message in the middle of Shabbat would be tacky, raising eyebrows and drawing complaints. NYU, a secular institution, shouldn’t worry about sending e-mail messages to the student body on Jewish holidays. Jewish students at NYU were legitimately angered that the second day of classes were held on Rosh Hashanah, but the president’s e-mail message reaching the inbox once Yom Kippur began is not an egregious act. Sexton’s apology is just an example of political correctness gone too far.

There are certainly times when technology and Shabbat or Jewish holidays collide. In some cases, a tactful conversation is necessary. For instance, leaders in my synagogue might send each other casual e-mail messages on Shabbat and Jewish holidays regarding congregational matters. But it is only when a leader sends an e-mail to the entire congregation that it is problematic. True, no one is being forced to turn on their computer and log-in to their e-mail account to read it on Shabbat or a holiday, but it gives the impression that official synagogue business is being conducted on these days and that’s an impression I don’t want to give.
There are other times when technology seems to collide with Shabbat, but without that intention and the benefit of the doubt should be granted. Here are two examples to demonstrate my point:

1) For several years my Facebook account was set up to automatically upload this blog’s RSS feed onto my Facebook page. This process often took a few hours after I published a blog post. So, on one occasion I posted to my blog at around 4:00 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. The blog post wasn’t fed onto my Facebook account until later that evening, after Shabbat began. The following Monday, I received a finger-wagging message through Facebook from a member of my local Jewish community. She commended me on my interesting blog, but questioned how I, as a rabbi and role-model in the community, could publish a blog post on Shabbat.

Even after explaining to her that the actual post was published well before the onset of Shabbat, but that it didn’t posted to my Facebook profile until several hours later, she chastised me for not taking that into account when I originally posted to my blog. I was immediately reminded that certain activities are prohibited even before Shabbat commences lest others think that you have transgressed the laws of Shabbat (i.e, one may not put wheat into the watermill unless there is enough time for it to be ground before the onset of Shabbat).

2) I am an avid user of Constant Contact, the Web based e-mail newsletter marketing application, and I used to send a weekly newsletter to my subscribers on Friday afternoon. On one particular Friday, the site experienced a maintenance problem and it didn’t send the newsletter until Saturday morning. I discovered that the newsletter wasn’t disseminated until Saturday morning when I checked my e-mail following Shabbat. Of all the subscribers, I received only one irate message from an individual who complained that I sent the newsletter during Shabbat. The irony is that he sent his chastising message to me on Shabbat afternoon. I replied with the explanation that Constant Contact experienced maintenance problems, he he responded, “I figured it was something like that. Sorry. And I guess I shouldn’t have responded on Shabbat anyway!”

So, sometimes it’s important to give people the benefit of the doubt when technology and Shabbat collide. Before jumping to conclusions, it’s possible that the message sent to your discussion group on Shabbat was actually sent by someone in Israel where Shabbat had already ended in that timezone. Maybe that message from the Jewish federation’s CEO to the entire community was scheduled before the holiday, but it got delayed in Cyberspace.

And if you’re a college student at NYU who returned home after breaking the fast Saturday night to find that an e-mail message from your university president had been waiting for you in your inbox since Friday night… let it go. Your e-mail account’s Sabbath observance hasn’t been compromised.

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Karma Contrition: Joel Stein’s Child’s Nut Allergy & Rabbi Compares Helen Thomas to Hitler

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 16, 2010

This Yom Kippur, I plan to speak to my congregation about issuing apologies for things we shouldn’t have said. I know, that sounds like “nothing new under the sun,” but I’m going to look at how karma plays a role in our contrition.

Here’s an example: The witty Joel Stein, who writes the bi-weekly back page for Time Magazine, penned a funny, yet hurtful, LA Times column back in January 2009 claiming that American parents have gone nuts over nut allergies. He wrote, “Your kid doesn’t have an allergy to nuts. Your kid has a parent who needs to feel special.” Ouch!

Stein clearly won no fans from the parents of children with peanut allergies. And I’m sure there were a good number of those parents out there wishing that Joel Stein would get a taste of what they go through on a daily basis — carrying Epi Pens and worrying that their child would come into contact with an allergen. Stein wasn’t alone in writing cynical articles calling into question the mass hysteria caused by over-vigilant parents, but his wit came out as criticism and was very hurtful to many parents.

Fast forward to August 2010 and Joel Stein when karma comes knocking on Joel Stein’s door. In his mea culpa column in Time, Stein writes:

At the beginning of last year, I wrote a column that questioned whether the increase in food allergies among children was a matter of overreporting. It began with this carefully calibrated thought: “Your kid doesn’t have an allergy to nuts. Your kid has a parent who needs to feel special.” After that, I got a little harsh.

The column was not the first thing that came to mind after my 1-year-old son Laszlo started sneezing, then breaking out in hives, then rubbing his eyes, then crying through welded-shut eyes, then screaming and, finally, vomiting copiously at the entrance of the Childrens Hospital emergency room an hour after eating his first batch of blended mixed nuts. But it was the second thing. Because after my nut-allergy column came out, many parents wrote me furious e-mails saying they hoped that one day I would have a child with life-threatening allergies.

Stein maintained his trademark wit and mockery in the column, but managed to sneak in some contrition as well. Perhaps he was thinking that Yom Kippur was approaching and he owed an apology to all the peanut-allergy parents out there. He wrote, “I realize that the more I understand of other people’s difficulties, the less funny they are.” I’m sorry that Stein’s son Laszlo developed a peanut allergy, but I’m glad the writer saw the error of his ways and found the ability to apologize. That is the message of this season of repentance.

Another possible example of karma calling is Rabbi David Nesenoff getting tripped up in an interview with the Jerusalem Post. Nesenoff, a Conservative rabbi, made headlines last May after videotaping journalist Helen Thomas issuing a career-ending anti-Semitic opinion that Israeli Jews should return to Germany and Poland. Yesterday, in either an act of karma or gotcha journalism, Nesenoff put his own foot in his mouth.

Even though he retracted his comparison of Helen Thomas to Adolf Hitler, The Jerusalem Post made sure that both his comparison and the retraction became part of the public record. The Jerusalem Post reports that “Nesenoff proved he isn’t immune to impolitic remarks when he drew analogies between Thomas, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and sex offenders, before retracting the Hitler comparison… Nesenoff also went on to draw an analogy between Thomas, the long-time former UPI and Hearst Newspapers correspondent, and a high school teacher found guilty of sodomy, asking whether such an individual’s record in educating children shouldn’t be blemished by his offense.”

At the end of the phone interview, Nesenoff acknowledged that his comparisons were “a little exaggerated.” The rabbi then retracted the Hitler comparison and said he was sorry.

I don’t question the fact that Helen Thomas should have resigned after making her comments, but the type of journalism used by Nesenoff to acquire those comments was questionable. “What comes around goes around,” as they say. Nesenoff now finds himself apologizing for his own insensitive comments. This could be karma masked as gotcha journalism. Nesenoff tried to retract the statements he made which are damaging to his own character and integrity, but he learned the same lesson that he taught Helen Thomas: Anything you say can and will be used against you.

A lesson was learned in both the case of Joel Stein and the case of Rabbi David Nesenoff. Both men got a taste of their own medicine and issued apologies. No matter how we get there, that is the ultimate goal of repentance — feeling contrite and owning up to your wrongdoing.

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When Technology Needs a Day of Atonement Too

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 12, 2010

Cross-posted to Jewish Techs

I’ve been following the Offlining campaign pretty closely. It’s the brainchild of Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo. They partnered to launch Offlining, an initiative to promote unplugging that was introduced on Father’s Day, to ask people to make a pledge to have 10 device-free dinners between then and Thanksgiving. To date, more than 10,500 have signed on to this pledge.

Yaverbaum told Jessica Ravitz, a reporter for CNN.com, that he “is as guilty as anyone of making technological transgressions. He’s ignored family to check emails while at the dinner table and tuned out of actual conversations to tune into Twitter… I’m the guy who sleeps with his BlackBerry. I’m raising my hand and saying, ‘Yes, I’m an addict.'”

Perhaps that’s why Yaverbaum, who is Jewish, and DiMassimo, who is not, have decided to use the Jewish Day of Atonement as their next big day to get people to give their gadgets a rest. They encourage everyone, religious backgrounds aside, to make Yom Kippur (September 18) a technological device free day. That means that in addition to refraining from eating, drinking, showering, wearing leather shoes, applying perfume, and having sex, the Offlining guys are saying “no” to cellphones, Facebook, Twitter and texting too on Yom Kippur. Jews and non-Jews both use technology to do the precise things we ask forgiveness for on Yom Kippur, like gossiping, so I guess it makes sense to give those things a rest on this day.

As DiMassimo was quoted in the CNN.com article as saying, “It’s annoying to be in a room with people, and yet not be really with them. My dad’s an electrical engineer, and he’s always said, ‘We invent this stuff to serve us, not for us to serve it.'”

The Offlining campaign isn’t the first attempt to get people to give their tech gadgets a rest. If you remember, Reboot launched a Sabbath Manifesto a few months ago to get people to avoid technology and connect with loved ones for a 25-hour period. Signing the Sabbath Manifesto not only meant putting cellphones and computers on hold for the day, but it also meant getting outside, avoiding commerce and resting.

Offlining has a catchy marketing campaign. Using DiMassimo’s advertising company, they’ve created posters with images of celebrities who have gotten into trouble through the use of modern communication technologies. The tagline is that you need not be Jewish to amend for your tweets (Lindsay Lohan), give up drunk dialing (Mel Gibson), or atone for your texts (Tiger Woods, of course) on Yom Kippur.

When I spoke to Ravitz last week about her upcoming article on the Offlining campaign (my quotes apparently didn’t make the final edit), I explained that “it’s great that Offlining’s campaign is directed at everyone, not just Jewish people, because we all use our technology to sin sometimes. Whether it’s texting gossip or belittling someone on Facebook, we need to put technology aside to really atone on Yom Kippur. Plus, without the nuisance of our phones and computers we’ll be able to concentrate on the task at hand much more attentively on the Day of Atonement (prayer and seeking repentance).”

On Yom Kippur we fast — refraining from food and drink — and it has a cleansing feel to it. I think that in the 21st century, a fasting from technology is a necessary cleanse as well.

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Sweet Like Honey

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 8, 2010

One thing I’ve learned since I started Kosher certifying a grocery store’s bakery section is that there are a lot different types of honey. Last week, I was a guest on the Fox2 Detroit Morning Show’s cooking segment called “Cooking School.” I wanted to display various foods related to Rosh Hashanah, so I went to Johnny Pomodoro’s Fresh Market in Farmington Hills, Michigan and grabbed as many different varieties of honey as I could find.

A recent article in Hadassah Magazine by Adeena Sussman (“Sweet Talk”) argues that it’s time for honey to share the stage on Rosh Hashanah. Sussman introduces the reader to many new sweeteners, but I think there’s still enough different types of honey to go around.

On the Cooking School segment I baked (well, not really baked… it was staged) a honey cake for the Jewish New Year. Here’s the final part of the video from Fox2 with Lee Thomas:

I wish everyone a sweet new year!

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Rosh Hashanah Really is a Fashion Show

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 8, 2010

At many synagogues and temples on the High Holidays, people cynically remark that it has the feel of a fashion show. Jewish people, many of whom only attend synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur each year, get all decked out in their most stylish clothes.

Well, this year, there really will be fashion shows on Rosh Hashanah. Apparently, New York Fashion Week couldn’t find any other dates to hold its popular event. According to the NY Times, if they moved Fashion Week earlier in the calendar it would collide with Labor Day and any later would conflict with the European fashion shows. The NY Times explains:

One store has come up with its own solution to Friday’s Fashion Night Out dilemma. Last year Rosebud, a SoHo boutique that features Israeli designers, opened for New York’s biggest shopping party, but declined this year because of the Jewish holiday. “We took a stand,” Fern Penn, the owner, said. Instead she is celebrating Night Out on Sunday and Monday. “This is how I’m dealing with it,” she explained. Or as Tim Gunn of “Project Runway” might put it, she added, “You make it work.”

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Sean Penn Movie in Detroit Wants Conservative Jewish Extras on Shemini Atzeret

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 3, 2010

There have been a lot of movies being filmed here in Michigan over the past couple of years because of the lucrative tax and loan incentives for film production in the state. Apparently Sean Penn will be in Detroit making a new movie called “This Must Be The Place.”

I just received an email message (see below) that the film is looking for extras for a Jewish funeral scene. I fit the description that they’re looking for (I am a Conservative Jew, and I’m between 30-40 years old). The problem is that the two days they need these 30-40 year old Conservative Jewish people are Erev Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret respectively — two major holidays on the Jewish calendar.

The movie, “This Must Be The Place,” stars Sean Penn and is about a Holocaust survivor and his son. I guess when they decided to advertise their need for extras in a Jewish funeral scene, they didn’t consult the Jewish calendar or they would have found that these two days are not the most ideal for the type of movie extras they’re looking for.

And, by the way, I’m wondering if the film’s producer can explain how a Conservative Jew, which is based on ideology or synagogue affiliation, looks different on camera than other Jews. I guess they’re looking for non-Hasidic looking Jews as extras in the movie and thought this was the best way to advertise it.

Personally, I can’t wait for this movie to be released so I can see if I know anyone sitting in the funeral when they should have been in synagogue for the holiday.