Category: Ritual

Tamir Goodman’s Sports Tzitzit

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date December 26, 2011

Tamir Goodman, known as “The Jewish Jordan,” made national headlines in the late 1990s when he decided not to play for the University of Maryland because they wouldn’t adjust their schedule to meet his Sabbath observance. Sports Illustrated even reported on Tamir’s decision to play for Towson State in 1999. However, a few years later SI reported:

In retrospect, maybe we went a little too far with the whole ‘Jewish Jordan’ thing. Three years ago (SI, Feb. 1, 1999) this magazine put that label on Tamir Goodman, described his game as ‘enthralling’ and reported breathlessly how he played ‘a foot over the rim when rebounding or dunking.’ The Orthodox Jew who starred for Talmudical Academy in suburban Baltimore was, we wrote, ‘built for basketball.’
Only, as it turned out, Goodman wasn’t built for college basketball. In September 1999 he reneged on an oral commitment to Maryland when he felt the school was lukewarm about his playing ability. He ended up at Towson, where any doubts the Terps might have had about him were borne out As a freshman Goodman scored 6.0 points a game, and last year he played in just seven games, averaging 1.9 points and 2.3 turnovers. His playing days at Towson ended after he accused his coach, Michael Hunt, of brandishing a chair at him in the locker room.

After staging a return to the spotlight in 2007 to capitalize on his high school and college fame, Tamir Goodman has been running basketball camps, putting on clinics, and doing speaking engagements. Now he is turning into a businessman as well.

As any Orthodox Jewish basketball player will tell you, it’s not easy running up and down the court with four woven sets of strings dangling from the four corners of your undergarment. The photos of Tamir hooping it up with a yarmulke on his head and his tzitzit flying through the air as he leaped for a layup became famous and were sources of pride in the observant Jewish community. However, it was not comfortable for ballers like Tamir to wear mesh tzitzit under his jersey.

Now Tamir Goodman is releasing his own brand of sports shirts that come with tzitzit attached. ColLive.com reported on Tamir’s invention which he unveiled at the recent OK Kosher conference:

At OK Kosher Certification’s 13th annual international Mashgiach Conference held Monday, Tamir introduced the “Sport Strings Tzitzit.”
He described it as revolutionary tzitzis garment that features hi-performance properties and a compression fit – offering the wearer ultimate comfort and style for sports and everyday wear.
Tamir was joined at the conference in Chovevei Torah in Crown Heights by a friend who also embodies the notion that being religious does not interfere with his career: boxing champion Dmitriy Salita.
While Salita did not say if he wears the “Sport String Tzitzit” himself, Tamir made it clear that anyone would enjoy wearing them for their UV protection, moisture wicking and anti-odor features.

Goodman’s tzitzit are certified kosher by the OK Kosher certification agency. No word yet on whether NBA star Amare Stoudemire will be wearing the Sport Strings Tzitzit.

Airplanes Lulav Ritual Sukkot Travel

TSA Issued Lulav Alert for Sukkot This Year

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date October 30, 2011

On this blog I’ve written about past incidents on airplanes concerning presumed breaches of airline security when Jewish passengers began to put on tefillin (black leather straps and black boxes known as phylacteries). Like many others I criticized the airlines and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for not educating flight crews that these were necessary parts of Jewish prayer garb and therefore permissible on planes and in airports.

Therefore, I feel it is important to now praise the TSA for its recent notification to all employees concerning the prayer accoutrements that might have been seen in airports and on airplanes during the Sukkot holiday. The TSA’s alert stated that “Observant Jewish travelers may carry four plants – a palm branch, myrtle twigs, willow twigs, and a citron – in airports and through security checkpoints. These plants are religious articles and may be carried either separately or as a bundle. Jewish travelers may be observed in prayer, shaking the bundle of plants in six directions.”

It concluded that “TSA’s screening procedures do not prohibit the carrying of such agricultural items through the airport or security checkpoints, or on airplanes. These plants are not on TSA’s Prohibited Items List. As always, TSA is committed to treating all passengers, including passengers who may be observing Sukkot, with respect and dignity during the screening process.”

Very nice. I hope the TSA remembers to issue this directive in future years as well. So, it seems that Jewish travelers are now free to carry and shake their lulavs through airports and in airplanes (not during takeoff and landing please) without fear of being interrogated, breaching security measures, or being responsible for an emergency landing.

As for bringing your kid’s plastic sword on board an airplane during Purim… don’t push it!

Celebrities Mikveh Oprah Winfrey Purity Ritual Television Women

Did Oprah Go to the Mikveh for Her New Show?

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date October 30, 2011

What has Oprah Winfrey been doing since ending her long-running afternoon talk show last May? If your only news source was JTA.org (the Jewish world’s version of the AP), you might think that she has embraced Judaism on the level of Madonna or Demi Moore.

A misleading title grabbed many people’s attention this week when the JTA published a news brief with the bold header stating “Oprah visits mikvah for new show.” My colleague in Israel, Rabbi Andy Sacks, re-posted the news brief on Facebook and wondered allowed: “Now I have heard of going to Mikveh for Taharaat Mishpacha (family purity), before Haggim or Shabbat, for dishes, conversion, etc. But this is a new one on me.”

Well, apparently Oprah did not embrace the Jewish ritual of immersion in a mikveh before launching her new show (that would have made more headlines I’m sure), but she did visit with two Chasidic Jewish families for an upcoming episode and toured a mikveh. The new series called “Oprah’s Next Chapter” will premiere in January on her OWN network.

Writing on the Forward’s Shmooze blog, Renee Ghert-Zand explained that Oprah stopped by Congregation B’nai Avraham’s new state-of-the art ritual bath while scouting locations to film segments for her new show. “The Shmooze is guessing that the visit to the synagogue’s new, has something to do with Winfrey’s plans to touch upon the halachic concept of ‘family purity’ and the related spiritual nature of immersion in ‘living waters.’ While a crowd of neighborhood people gathered around to get a glimpse of the highly influential mega-celebrity, mikveh lady Bronya Shaffer admitted to knowing virtually nothing about her or her work.”

If the mikveh ends up being showcased on Oprah’s new television show, the Jewish ritual of becoming purified after mikveh immersion at the end of a woman’s menstrual cycle could take off on a large scale. Just look at what effect Oprah had on book clubs!

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Ivanka Trump’s "Flowers" Is Really a Lulav

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date October 18, 2011

There were two funny things about the photos of Ivanka Trump (The Donald’s daughter) and her husband Jared Kushner taken in New York this past week.

First is the fact that the well-to-do couple wouldn’t be using a fancy etrog holder. As Kushner was pushing their baby daughter Arabella Rose on the second day of Sukkot, he was also carrying a lulav and etrog. One would think that Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law would have a nice silver etrog carrying case, but it appears that the Kushner-Trump couple is sporting the simple cardboard box etrog carrying case along with the plastic bag the lulav comes in.

The second funny thing is that the Daily Mail first published this photo over the weekend in its online edition explaining that “Jared, wearing a casual black jacket, pushed little Arabella Rose’s pram along the streets on their way to lunch. He also held some flowers in one hand – perhaps a gift for his wife.” I suppose you could combine a palm branch with some myrtle and willow branches to form a bouquet of sorts, but I don’t think it’s a popular gift for ones wife.

There was no word on where the couple was headed for yuntif lunch or if they had their own sukkah outside of their Manhattan home.

Trump, the billionaire heiress and model, and Kushner were married by Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who also worked with Trump through her yearlong conversion to Judaism. Kushner is the publisher of the New York Observer.

Antisemitism Celebrities Humor Jewish Ritual

Kippah Your Head Covering Outta My Office

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date August 9, 2011

Kippah. Yarmulke. Beanie. Skullcap. You can call it whatever you want, but the Jewish head covering has been in the news and in pop culture a lot lately.

The New York Post reports that an Italian man is suing McKinsey & Co., the international consulting firm, claiming he was fired after repeatedly complaining to human resources that his colleagues made fun of his yarmulke. Ciro Rosselli claims in papers filed in Manhattan federal court yesterday that he wore a yarmulke in the McKinsey & Co. offices where he worked as an executive assistant and was discriminated against for it. I know there are several McKinsey & Co. employees who wear a yarmulke to work. Rosselli’s case is interesting, however, because he’s not even Jewish. He was wearing the Jewish head covering while practicing “theosophy,” an obscure spiritual philosophy that maintains that “there is no higher religion than truth.”

Rosselli’s colleagues at McKinsey & Co. gave him a hard time about his kippah. He claims his boss compared him to Madonna, the Kaballah-loving celebrity who has embraced Judaism despite the fact that she’s Christian. Another co-worker suggested that Rosselli was just trying “to hide his bald spot.” According to the lawsuit Rosselli filed, one co-worker said he wasn’t a “real Jew” and another demanded that he “take that [yarmulke] off! You’re creeping me out!” Rosselli’s lawsuit seeks unspecified money damages from McKinsey & Co. for discrimination and retaliation.

The kippah has also made its way into pop culture. It’s become more common to see actors wearing a yarmulke on television shows (Jeffrey Tambor on “Arrested Development” or Jeremy Priven on “Entourage) and in the movies (Ben Stiller in “Keeping the Faith” or Owen Wilson in “Meet the Parents”). But this is just to let the audience know they are playing Jewish characters.

In a recent episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the kippah was the punchline. Like he did as a writer on “Seinfeld,” Larry David draws on real life situations for “Curb” and shows how humorous they are. I’m sure that living in Los Angeles, Larry David has encountered middle-aged Jewish people who suddenly embrace Jewish observance. And that was precisely the situation he wrote for Bob Einstein, who plays the dentist Marty Funkhowser on the show. In the “Palestinian Chicken” episode, Larry attends a dinner party where Funkhowser, wearing a yarmulke, explains that he’s recently undergone a spiritual awakening following his divorce and mid-life crisis. He has been meeting with a female rabbi each night who has influenced him to become more religious (saying the blessings before meals, wearing a kippah and even considering “Koufaxing” his friends by not playing in the golf tournament on Shabbat).

In this scene (video below), Funkhowser is about to enter a Palestinian chicken restaurant wearing his large velvet yarmulke, but Larry David and Jeff Garlin (playing Jeff Greene) won’t allow it.

I started wearing a yarmulke when I was four-years-old at my synagogue-based pre-school, and then continued to wear it at my Jewish day school in Detroit and whenever I was in a synagogue. During my freshman year of college I decided to wear a yarmulke all the time. At first I probably wore it as a sign of Jewish solidarity and then later for more religious reasons. Today, I cynically joke that I wear it simply to cover my bald spot, although truth be told it probably has protected my head from getting sunburned every now and then.

Leo Rosten claims that the word “yarmulke” comes from the Tatar word for skullcap. However, I think it’s more likely from the Aramaic “yira malka” meaning “awe of the king” as a sign of respect to God. Whatever one’s reason for wearing a yarmulke, they deserve to be treated with respect. Whether you’re an Italian New Yorker experimenting with many religions or a spiritually renewed Jewish dentist going to eat some Middle Eastern chicken.

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Natalie Portman Gives Birth to a Baby Boy

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date June 15, 2011

Since I launched this blog in March 2003, no post has attracted as much attention as the one I titled simply: “Is Benjamin Millepied Jewish?” That post has received dozens more comments than this blog normally receives. And that simple question: “Is Benjamin Millepied Jewish?” has driven traffic to this blog in record numbers.

So, now that Natalie Portman has given birth to a baby boy I’m sure there will be new questions that arise in the public’s mind. As Benjamin Millepied and Natalie Portman welcome their son into this world, will they choose to have a brit milah (bris, ritual circumcision) for their baby son? What will his name be? Will Natalie Portman choose a Hebrew name for her son? Since she is of Israeli descent, will her son’s name be a common Israeli name?

When Natalie Portman releases the name of her baby, I’m sure people will still want more information. Since Ashkenazi Jewish custom dictates that babies are named after deceased relatives, the public will want to know who Natalie Portman’s son is named for. Also, there is no question that this baby was born Jewish because Natalie Portman is Jewish, so there will likely be an international discussion about whether Portman and Millepied will have a traditional bris ceremony on this new baby’s eighth day of life. With the debate over a ban on ritual circumcision currently taking place in San Francisco, I’m certain this celebrity birth will add fuel to that fire.

Finally, Natalie Portman has stated publicly that she plans to raise her child Jewish. Another high profile Jewish celebrity who is intermarried to a non-Jew but raising her child Jewish will add to the discussion about interfaith families. Benjamin Millepied could choose to convert to Judaism in the future, but if he doesn’t he will be in good company with other non-Jewish parents helping to raise Jewish children. In fact, organizations like the Jewish Outreach Institute and InterfaithFamily.com exist to help interfaith families who are giving their children a Jewish upbringing.

Mazel Tov to Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied on the birth of their son. For years we’ve watched Natalie Portman as she’s starred in movies and received award after award. Now, she’ll have a chance to shine as a Jewish mother. I’m betting that thirteen years from now, there will be a headline somewhere that reads “Natalie Portman’s son becomes a Bar Mitzvah.”

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Jon Stewart Can Only Go Shofar

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date January 26, 2011

Last night, Jon Stewart decided to blow a shofar on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” to alert his viewers to some breaking news (Keith Olbermann leaving MSNBC). He called it a News Shofar and announced “Something happened!” but never actually blew the shofar. Instead he just put the shofar to his mouth and kept repeating the words “Hey Look” in a staccato fashion. It sort of sounded like a Tekiah blast followed by Teruah.

Technically, it didn’t look like a ram’s horn, but rather a gazelle’s horn. (Either one is sufficient to use on Rosh Hashanah.) Since Jon Stewart is a producer for The Colbert Report, I think he just borrowed the shofar that Stephen Colbert used to sign off at the end of his show back in 2009.

I wonder what it would take for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to come to my synagogue on Rosh Hashanah for a shofar duet?

Seeing Jon Stewart (Jewish) and Stephen Colbert (not-so-much) blowing the shofar got me thinking about Jewish rituals in which other celebrities have engaged. Here are a few that I was able to dig up:

Howie Mandell putting on tefillin

The Bob Dylan Tefillin

The Beastie Boys Playing Dreidel on Hanukkah

George Costanza, I mean Jason Alexander, Giving a Sermon in Synagogue

Ryan Gosling Leading Prayers (He looks like Eminem here!)

Leonard Nimoy Duchenen (Blessing the Congregation)

Krusty the Klown Reading Torah

Rabbi Ben Stiller Teaching Torah

Darth Vader Waving the Lulav

America Celebrities Food Holidays Jewish Kosher Ritual

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.

Celebrities Jewish Ritual Weddings

Dancing for the Bride

Post author By Rabbi Jason Miller
Post date September 15, 2010

It’s no secret that Jewish wedding rituals have been borrowed by non-Jews. At weddings in which neither the bride nor the groom is Jewish, it is no longer odd to see the groom stomp on a glass at the conclusion of the ceremony. Gentile brides and grooms are now being hoisted up in chairs as the guests dance a circle around them to traditional Jewish Horah music.

The “Mitzvah Tantz” (tantz=dance) performed at weddings is a Hasidic custom of the men dancing before the bride on the wedding night during the reception. It is a mitzvah dance because of the commandment to rejoice with the bride and groom on their wedding night. The Hasids must have appropriated the custom because it is mentioned earlier in the medieval Machzor Vitri (compiled by Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry, who died in 1105).

In the Talmud (Tractate Ketubot 16b-17a), the question is raised: keitzad merakdim lifnei hakallah (“how do we dance before the bride?”). While the question in the Talmud focuses on the debate between the schools of Hillel and Shammai as to whether honesty is the best policy in the case of describing an ugly bride to the groom, there should be no question that it is an honor to dance for the bride on her wedding day. Today, at traditional Jewish weddings, the men sing “keitzad merakdim lifnei hakallah” while dancing joyfully in front of the bride.

Those words came to mind the other day while I watched the popular YouTube video of actor Lin-Manuel Miranda entertaining his bride, Vanessa, at their wedding. Miranda, who wrote and scored the Tony Award winning hit “In the Heights,” recruited the bride’s father and the bridal party to perform the song “To Life” from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Neither the bride nor the groom are Jewish, but they managed to have the word “L’chayim” mentioned more at their wedding than at many Jewish weddings. While not a traditional Jewish wedding ritual, this production clearly fits the mandate to dance before the bride.

Interestingly, in recognition of his portrayal of the Washington Heights neighborhood in “In the Heights,” Lin-Manuel Miranda received an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University, which is located in that neighborhood. The actor, who also appeared in the TV show “House,” is the youngest recipient of an honorary doctorate from YU.

I think it’s fair to say that Lin-Manuel Miranda answered the question: keitzad merakdim lifnei hakallah. Mazel Tov to the bride and groom! Here’s the video:

Celebrities Jewish Movies Ritual Television

Lenny Kravitz and His Tallis Make Cameo Appearance on Entourage

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

Photos of celebs, pro athletes and politicians wearing a kippah (yarmulke) aren’t unusual, but you don’t often see stars wearing a tallit (tallis or Jewish prayer shawl) on TV.

I’ve seen pics of famous Jews like Leonard Nimoy (Spock on “Star Trek”) and Bob Dylan rockin’ a tallit, but it’s unusual to see it in movies or television.

When I think about seeing the tallit on TV and in movies, I think of Ben Stiller wearing one in “Keeping the Faith,” the rabbi in Seinfeld famously wearing one while sitting at his office desk, and Krusty the Clown in a tallis at his bar mitzvah on an episode of “The Simpsons.”

Last night, in an episode of “Entourage,” in its seventh season on HBO, guest star Lenny Kravitz is seen in a synagogue for his niece’s bat mitzvah wearing a tallis (no kippah oddly enough). Super-agent Ari Gold (played by Jeremy Piven and based on Rahm Emanuel’s brother Ari) calls Lenny Kravitz to see if he’s available to appear in a movie. Kravitz even speaks a little Hebrew to the rabbi while he’s on the phone with Ari. Piven, himself, wore a tallis on the show a couple seasons ago at his daughter’s bat mitzvah.

Kravitz is actually half-Jewish, as Adam Sandler sang in one of his “The Hanukkah Song” versions. Jeremy Piven also tweeted that Kravitz is half-Jewish before the premiere of this season’s Entourage. Lenny Kravitz, himself, posted HBO’s sneak peak at his appearance on the show on YouTube (see video below).