Israellycool

With the Jewish Sabbath - followed by Passover - approaching, I will be signing off for a few days.

But before I go, I have been able to obtain for your listening pleasure - wait for it - a part of “Exodus: An Oratorio In Three Parts,” a dramatic biblical reading by William Shatner accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra!

Click on the picture to listen.

You know you want to, since besides listening to William Shatner do a dramatic biblical reading to musical accompaniment by an orchestra, you will learn more about Passover in the process.

In the meantime, wishing all of my Jewish readers a Chag Kasher V’Sameach.

William Shatner is going where no man Charlton Heston has gone before.

Less than a month after the death of Charlton Heston, another of Hollywood’s great over-actors is taking center stage in the retelling of the Passover story.

This week the Jewish Music Group is releasing “Exodus: An Oratorio In Three Parts,” a dramatic biblical reading by William Shatner accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.The album is taken from recordings of back-to-back evening performances in April 2005 at the Robinson Center Music Hall in Little Rock.

In an exclusive interview Monday with JTA, Shatner credited David Itkin, the orchestra’s conductor, with writing the music and bringing together passages from the Bible and the Haggadah to produce the final text.

“It’s his creation,” Shatner said, adding that he thought so highly of the production that he made arrangements to have the two performances recorded.

“On the Saturday night that most of this record is taken from, my thrill was connecting with the audience the way we did,” the star of “StarTrek” and “Boston Legal” recalled.

“The actor, along with 350 voices in the choral group and 75 people in the orchestra, all combined to reach out to this audience of several thousand people. The magic of the CD is that you can hear the connection, especially at the end, between the audience and the actor.”

At first glance, the “Exodus” production sounds more like a project for Shatner’s best-known “Star Trek” co-star, Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy has long been known for mining his Jewish heritage, from basing Spock’s split-fingered Vulcan greeting on the ancient Israelite priestly blessing to drawing inspiration from Kabbalah for a book of semi-nude photographs.

But now, at the very end of the performance, it’s Shatner reciting the priestly blessing — to an enthusiastic ovation.

So does the “Exodus” reading, along with a film in the works titled “The Shiva Club,” point to some sort of later-in-life artistic engagement with his Jewish roots?

No, Shatner says, just a coincidence.

“My being Jewish does not inform the things I do, necessarily,” Shatner explained, speaking by phone during a lunch break from shooting an episode of “Boston Legal.”

” ‘Exodus’ is a wonderful piece, no matter what religion you are. ‘The Shiva Club,’ which is a movie I am attempting to make sometime soon, is about crashing a shiva, if you will. A couple of comics crash a shiva. I could have, I suppose, made it an Irish wake, but the shiva I was more familiar with.”

Just as Shatner says his religious background does not inform his art, he also insists that his turn as the narrator of “Exodus” has not led to any sort of personal transformation or alter his connection to the Passover holiday.

“I come from a Conservative Jewish home in Canada, which is pretty much like an Orthodox home here in the States. And we celebrated Passover every year and held a long seder,” Shatner said, adding that he continues to mark the holiday.

“My daughter makes a seder, but it’s a little more modern” — plenty of English, he explained — “and a little less time than the old-fashioned ones.”

A dramatic biblical reading by William Shatner accompanied by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra? Oh, this is going to be good.

I wonder if it will be anything like his other forays into narrating with musical accompaniment?

Yeah, you know what’s coming folks..

Amazing: A Hasidic man was cast in a Hollywood movie.

More amazing: As Natalie Portman’s husband.

Sublime: He gave it all up.

First he couldn’t hold Natalie Portman’s hand - and now a Williamsburg Hasidic Jew-turned-actor has to give up his chance to hit it big in a Hollywood movie.

Abe Karpen, 25, a married father of three, was cast as Portman’s husband in “New York I Love You,” a film composed of 12 short stories about love in the five boroughs.

“I am backing out of the movie,” said Karpen, a kitchen cabinet salesman. “It’s not acceptable in my community. It’s a lot of pressure I am getting. They [the rabbis] didn’t like the idea of a Hasidic guy playing in Hollywood.

“I have my kids in religious schools and the rabbi called me over yesterday and said in order for me to keep my kids in the school I have to do what they tell me and back out,” Karpen said.

While news of Karpen’s withdrawal sent waves of disappointment through the movie set, the Hasidic community was up in arms over Karpen’s acting gig - forcing him to flee for the weekend, a friend said.

“We are very sorry that this has created a problem for him personally and for the community,” said the film’s executive producer, Jan Korbelin.

“He’s a great ambassador of his faith and it came out of the left field. … This is the last thing this picture should be doing,” Korbelin said. “This film is about love and understanding between different people and communities.”

Just Wednesday, Karpen was strolling along the Fulton Ferry State Park under the Brooklyn Bridge alongside Portman, 26, who sported a dark head-covering and a coat.

“They wanted me to hold her hand, but I said ‘no way,’” said Karpen, who proudly stood his ground. “It’s against our religion. You can’t even hold your wife’s hand on the street.”

Then came the howls of protest about his unorthodox job.

“This is when I woke up and saw that I made a big mistake. My kids mean everything to me and my community where I live means everything to me,” said Karpen, who comes from a prominent Williamsburg, Brooklyn, family.

His longtime friend Levi Okunov said the Karpens had to flee the city for the weekend. “The community wants to kill him,” he said.

Hasidic community activist Isaac Weinberger said Karpen should have known better.

“We don’t watch television. We don’t go to the movies, so to be in a movie is the worst thing. It’s a shame for any Hasid,” he said.

They also don’t roll on Shabbos (lanuage warning).

While many of you reading this will no doubt think he’s a huge jerk for passing up such an opportunity, I think he’s to be commended. He actually has principles.

Still, despite his troubles, Karpen had nothing but kind words for the film and Portman.

“She’s the only one I was willing to work with,” Karpen said. “I was shocked that she’s a Hollywood big shot. We talked in Hebrew. … She wants to become more religious.”

I said principles, not perceptiveness.

Today’s Jew:

• Is an American actor, comedian and musician
• Is the son of two satellite engineers, with his mother having worked on the Hubble Space Telescope
• Has the nicknames JB and Jables
• Has had gallstone problems since he was 16
• Used to hide wires in his clothes and let them “accidentally” fall out to make people think he was a robot
• Shares a birthday with Shania Twain, Jason Priestley, LeAnn Rimes and Daniel Stern
• Often competes for the same parts as Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Recently revealed he and his wife are expecting their second child together

And the mystery Jew is…

Ok, so Pope Benedict ordered changes to a Latin prayer for Jews at Good Friday services by traditionalist Catholics, deleting a reference to their “blindness” over JC, removing a phrase that asked God to “remove the veil from their hearts,” but still hoping Jews will recognize JC.

“Let us also pray for the Jews. So that God our Lord enlightens their hearts so that they recognize Jesus Christ savior of all men.”

It also asks God that “all Israel be saved.”

This got the ADL all hot and bothered, who said the prayer is still “deeply troubling” because of its call to convert Jews.

I personally couldn’t care less about this prayer’s call for Jews to recognize JC. It doesn’t offend me because I know this is what Christians believe. And I don’t believe it presents a danger to Jews, since the Vatican is merely expressing its beliefs, nor calling for physical violence against us.

Of course, feeling so secure in my own faith helps, and I truly believe that the Jewish faith is the true faith. I trust that my Christian readers won’t be offended by that, just as I am not offended by their beliefs.

So ADL: pick your battles!

And still on topic, I have become a very big fan of Tovia Singer in recent weeks. Besides having an entertaining and informative talk show on Israel National Radio, he is also well known as the Founder and Director of Outreach Judaism, an international organization dedicated to countering the efforts of fundamentalist groups and cults that specifically target Jews for conversion.

If you are not familiar with his work, here he is on the Christian radio show Way of the Master (one of Kirk Cameron’s new gigs), responding to the host who is “trying to convert” him to Christianity.

Needless to say, said host bites off more than he can chew.

Only in Israel would the prize for the winning team in a weekly Survivor challenge be a Shabbat Dinner with Challah, honey, wine and Shabbat Candles for the whole team.

And only in Israel would the winning team share that prize with the losers because Jews don’t stop other Jews from eating a Shabbat dinner.

Yup I’m still stranded in Israel but it isn’t so bad. Come visit some time.

I would venture to say that someone needs to brush up on their knowledge of Judaism.

You can view the whole Hamukah series here.

Israelity reports:

A robot programmed to work on Shabbat will do it: clear the table, turn off the oven, control the a/c and click lights off and on - especially the bathroom one that gets turned off accidentally in the middle of the night by half-awake innocents.

According to the Hebrew press, “Shabbat Robot” is the brainchild of White Box Robotics, a subsidiary of Frontline Robotics.

The robot is meant to replace the traditional Shabbos Goy - a controversial term used for non-Jews hired to perform work-related tasks for Jews on the Sabbath.

But it’s gonna cost ya; About $4000 when product hits the market.

I can’t wait to see what ShaBot 6000 will think of this.

crossposted at Elder of Ziyon

Last week I experienced my first truly religious Shabbat meal. I went to the Breslov synagogue in Tsfat full to bursting, and saw and heard the most amazing group act of praying I’ve ever felt. Mostly it was a complete jumble of people saying the same Hebrew words in their own time but ever now and then it fell into unison and was unbelievable. There were also a couple of sessions of a conga-like joining of hands and walking in big snakes all round the room.

I was able to follow along a little (with an English translation thoughtfully given to me) and what struck me was that these people (my people) are praising God, talking about love and thinking good thoughts towards others. It was so non-threatening and I was welcomed even though I was (as you might imagine) dressed completely differently from the crowd (I had what I would call a “settler yamaka” but the rest was strictly Ralph Lauren Chinos (kahki) and a light wind breaker. Most certainly not a black hat and coat and not a hint of fur.

After the service we climbed the hill in near total darkness up the windy alleys of biblical Tsfat back to my friend’s little house where she lives with her husband and 7 kids, the oldest 14 and the youngest almost 2. Good grief, its a hell of a way to live but I know one thing for sure: these people are not a threat to anyone.

The secular proponents of the “all religions are equally bad” line are just plain and simple ignorant and malevolently so. If a scientist thinks he knows something about religion without extensively studying it, he would be just as wrong as a Rabbi who summed up modern astronomy with the phrase Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

If you don’t know me, I’m Brian of London, from the Shire Network News podcast. Our most recent show features an interview with LGF’s Charles Johnson.

As we head in to this Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, I wish you all a G’mar Chatima Tova - may you be sealed in the Book of Life.

Ouch.

Orthodox teachers of Kabbala reacted with disdain Sunday to pop idol Madonna’s Rosh Hashana visit in Israel, during which she took part in a study session of Judaism’s most esoteric texts.

“It is a known fact in Kabbala that impurity and evil are inherently attracted to sanctity,” said a director of one of the most respected Kabbala yeshivot in Jerusalem who preferred that he and his institution remain anonymous.

“That’s why people of Hollywood, a place of iniquity and lasciviousness, are naturally attracted to the holiness of Kabbala.”

The director of the yeshiva said he was explaining a basic Kabbalistic concept according to which “sparks” of holiness tightly connected to “shells” of impurity are waiting to be let free. These “shells” [klipot] are naturally attracted to their polar opposite - holiness.

“Wherever there is holiness and sanctity there is also evil,” added the director, who said that during her last visit to Israel three years ago, Madonna repeatedly tried to contact his institution, but her calls were not returned. “That’s why someone like that lady - I don’t even want to mention her name - is so attracted to the Kabbala.”

Perhaps a bit harsh? I mean, Hollywood actors are certainly able to grasp the true meaning of life. Take fellow celebrity and pop-Kabbalah devotee Ashton Kutcher, who clearly has the right perspective.

Kutcher was quoted by an Israeli daily as telling a group of Israeli businessmen and entertainers on Saturday that Kabbala had answered fundamental questions in his life and made him a better actor.

Yup. He clearly understands what Kabbalah is all about - improving his acting. Not that he couldn’t do with the help.

Yeah, I know. I am sounding too sarcastic. But not to worry. A few sips of my special Kabbalah water and my sarcasm will disappear in no time.

Update: If you think the yeshiva director was harsh, I’ll give you harsh.