Caesar's Coin Conference today

The morning was given over to Faith Communities: Looking Forward and Working Together.

The Rev. Dr. Bernice Powel Jackson, President and Moderator of the WCC for North America spoke of her experience pastoring a church in New Orleans and the slow laborious road to restoration of the city. How do we move from charity to justice? By making the rebuilding of New Orleans a priority of our synagogues and congregations. By keeping this on the agenda of public discussions in this election year and not just writing but visiting our congresspersons and staff to declare their accountability on this issue to us and to our congregations.

Rabbi Marla Feldman, Director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, spoke of the Massachusetts Health Care initiative being instigated by faith communities listening to the stories of people without health care or with restricted access to it. Our mandates for speaking out are from the Holiness Code of Leviticus and the Hebrew Prophets; from the notion that humanity is created in the divine image and God's covenant with creation. She spoke of not waiting for consensus to emerge in our faith communities but creating a climate for social change.

To be reminded of the biblical mandates for implementation of religious values and social justice in our society is a good thing for a biblical scholar. And to hear from such excellent speakers as these, in addition to E.J. Dionne last night, was a priviledge. I know it's not kosher for a New Yorker to be star-struck, but the arrival of Gloria Steinem in the refectory for dinner last night as the guest of Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun was unforgettable!

The PEN Writer's Festival is underway and here's a free event today that interests me:

April 29 | Circumference Celebrates Poetry in Translation

When: Tuesday, April 29
Where: Housing Works Bookstore Café: 126 Crosby St.
What time: 7 p.m.

With Brian Henry, Christina Svendsen, Jeffrey Yang, and special guests

Free and open to the public. No reservations.

Join translators Brian Henry, Christina Svendsen, and Jeffrey Yang for a reading of poetry in English and the original languages. Brian Henry will read his translations of Tomaž Šalamun and Ales Steger from Slovenian, Christina Svendsen will read her translations of Kurt Schwitters from Germany, and Jeffrey Yang will introduce us to the work of Su Shi and other Chinese poets.

Cirumference is a biannual journal of poetry in translation devoted to presenting translations of new work from around the globe, new visions of classical poems, and translations of foreign-language poets of the past who have fallen under the radar of American readers.

For more information, please visit: www.circumferencemag.com

Location of Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in Soho:

126 Crosby Street, NYC 10012
(212-334-3324)

Subway:

* W / R to Prince Street
* B / D / F / V to Broadway-Lafayette
* 6 to Bleecker Street

Bishop Gene Robinson is currently being interviewed by Paul Allen on BBC Radio 3's Night Waves. The first clarification is that he was elected not appointed to the Episcopate (as is the case in the C of E). Then follows a discussion of interpreting the will of God and the role of the Bishop as a prophet and critic of the state.

The Marys of Jewish, Christian and Muslim Traditions.

Mary Magdalene, Jesus' mother Mary, and Mary of Bethany are three prominent Marys in the gospels of the New Testament and Christian tradition. Aspects of their lives and ministries are rooted in the figure of Miriam in Hebrew Scriptures and resonate with interpretations of Miriam in the second temple period. In the Qur'an, Mary is sister of Aaron and mother of the prophet Jesus. We will meet in a seminar discussion format to explore the origins and development of these female figures.

This one credit course will meet one Thursday a month, 6:00 to 8:45pm including dinner, on September 18, October 23, Nov 20 and Dec 18th, 2008. The course will be limited to 12 students of which three may be full-time students. Auditors are also welcome to apply, but preference will be given to those students registering for academic credit. Please register as soon as possible to ensure your place in this fascinating course.

In May I will send out more details including a list of books, resources, and proposed summer readings!

To register for the course, please be in touch with:

James W. N. Murphy
Program Manager of Lifelong Learning &
Center for Christian Spirituality
Director of the Master of Arts Program
murphy@gts.edu
212-243-5150 ext. 461
Toll Free: 888-487-5649 ext. 461
General Theological Seminary
175 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10011-4983

Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah, May 11-12

The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah
May 11 – 12, 2008
Inaugural conference of the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies
Honoring Professor Louis H. Feldman

May 11 • Noon – 6:00 pm
Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History 15 West 16th Street

Noon – 1:00 pm • Viewing of "Imagining the Temple: The Models of Leen Ritmeyer"

Session 1, 1: 00 – 3:30 pm

From the Tabernacle to the Dead Sea Scrolls
Chair: David Horwitz, Yeshiva University

Gary A. Anderson, University of Notre Dame
The Inauguration of the Tabernacle Service at Sinai

Shawn Zelig Aster, Yeshiva University
Centralization of Worship in the First Temple and Israelite Religious Belief

Shalom Holtz, Yeshiva University
Temple as Asylum and God as Asylum in the Psalms

Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
The Temple Scroll: A Utopian Temple Plan from Second Temple Times

Session 2, 3:45 – 6:00 pm

The Second Temple: Between Rome and Eternity
Chair: Moshe Bernstein, Yeshiva University

Menachem Mor, Haifa University
The Jewish and Samaritan Temples: Religious Competition in the Second Temple Period

Miriam Pucci Ben Zeev, Ben Gurion University
From Tolerance to Destruction: Roman Policy and Jewish Temple

Joshua Schwartz and Yehoshua Peleg, Bar Ilan University
Notes on the Virtual Reconstruction of the Herodian Period Temple and Courtyards

Leen Ritmeyer, Trinity Southwest University
Envisioning the Sanctuaries of Israel—The Academic and Creative Process of Archaeological Model Making

May 12 • 9:00 am – 5:30 pm

Stern College for Women
Geraldine Schottenstein Cultural Center
239 East 34th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)

Session 3, 9:00 – 11:30 am

The Jerusalem Temple in Medieval Christianity and Islam
Chair: David Berger, Yeshiva University

Frank Peters, New York University
Ruined Expectations: Christians and Muslims and the Jerusalem Temple

Moshe Sokolow, Yeshiva University
Fadai’l al-Quds: Jerusalem, The Temple and The Rock in Muslim Literature

Vivian B. Mann, Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Imagining the Temple in Late Medieval Spanish Altarpieces

Session 4, 12:30 – 2:45 pm

The Jerusalem Temple in Medieval and Early Modern Thought
Chair: Elisheva Carlebach, Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Jonathan Dauber, Yeshiva University
Images of the Temple in Sefer ha-Bahir

Mordechai Z. Cohen, Yeshiva University
God Dwelling in the Sanctuary? Interpretive Strategies of Maimonides, Nahmanides and Sefer ha-Hinnukh

Jacob J. Schacter, Yeshiva University
Remembering the Temple: Commemoration and Catastrophe in Medieval Ashkenazi Culture

Matt Goldish, Ohio State University
The Temple of Jerusalem from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

Session 5, 3:00 – 5:30 pm

The Jerusalem Temple in the Modern World
Chair: Joshua Zimmerman, Yeshiva University

Jess Olson, Yeshiva University,
“Jerusalem Rebuilt”: The Temple in the Fin-de-siècle Zionist Imagination

Maya Balakirsky Katz, Touro College
The Second Temple in Contemporary Orthodox Visual Culture

Ann Killebrew, Pennsylvania State University
Recent Excavations and Discoveries On and Near the Temple Mount

Robert O. Freedman, Johns Hopkins University
Digging the Temple Mount: Archaeology and the Arab-Israeli Conflict from the British Mandate to the Present

Concluding Remarks

Louis H. Feldman, Yeshiva University
Steven Fine, Yeshiva University

Attendance is free and open to the public.
Register at http://www.yu.edu/cis or call (212) 960-0189

About the Center

The Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies, established by President Richard M. Joel in 2007, is an expression of the longstanding relationship between Yeshiva University and the land and state of Israel. The Center nurtures excellence in interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching of Israel from the biblical period to the modern state.

The Center for Israel Studies supports research, conferences, publications, museum exhibitions, public programs, and educational opportunities that enhance awareness and study of Israel in all of its complexities. The Center seeks to be a national and international forum for engagement of the political, economic, social, historical, religious, and cultural significance of Israel in the world community.

Peter Pham reports on the recent successful transition of power in Botswana in contrast to the plight of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe. On March 31st, President Festus Gontebanye Mogae of Botswana stepped down and was succeeded by his vice president, Seretse Khama Ian Khama (generally known as Ian Khama).

Mogae had more than a year left on the five-year term to which he was reelected in October 2004 (Botswana is what could be described as a hybrid Westminster parliamentary democracy with the executive state president being elected by a majority vote of the newly returned legislators after each general election; there is also an advisory upper House of Chiefs).

However, having succeeded to the presidency upon the retirement of his predecessor, Sir Quett Ketumile Joni Masire, on April 1, 1998, Mogae faced the fact that the Batswana constitution set a limit of ten years on any incumbent's tenure as chief executive. Hence, as he simply stated at the end of his State of the Nation address last November: "Mr. Speaker, in accordance with the Constitution, I will leave the leadership of our country to His Honor the Vice President – a patriot, who I am sure will carry the mantle of leadership with distinction, as he has previously done."

The rest of the article explores reasons for Botswana's political and economic stability.

Bethany beyond the Jordan and the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem

The Christian Century reports that King Abdullah of Jordan has given a 2 and a half acre site at the traditional location of Bethany beyond the Jordan to the Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Jerusalem. A church and a retreat center are to be built there. The Baptismal Site (Bethany beyond the Jordan) is already a proposed World Heritage Site.

Here are some pictures.

The hill at the heart of Bethany was already revered in antiquity as a holy site marking the spot from which Elijah ascended to heaven (2 Kings 2:5-14); perhaps that is why John the Baptist lived and baptized there, for the personalities, lifestyles, and missions of John and Elijah are frequently associated in the New Testament. The Byzantine writers Jerome and Eusebius mentioned 'Bethabara beyond the Jordan' in the 4th Century as a pilgrimage destination where people went to be baptized in the same waters that John the Baptist used for his mission. Pilgrims' accounts as early as the 4th and 6th Century' AD mention the hill at Bethany east of the river where Elijah ascended to heaven. In the late 3rd or early 4th Century' AD, according to much later sources from the I1th and 14th Centuries. Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, is said to have crossed the Jordan River and visited Elijah's Hill and the cave where John the Baptist lived, and built a church there to commemorate John the Baptist.

In case anyone missed it, here's a eulogy for Bishop Krister Stendahl posted in Episcopal Cafe earlier this week.

This week J. is in town and we took off one morning to visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Japanese cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Here's the flowering cherry.

Civil Liberties and the FLDS Raid in Texas

Earlier this month, Texas authorities raided a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) ranch and took more than 400 children into state custody. As the custody hearings regarding these children continue, questions of the child, parental and religious rights implicated in the controversy continue to emerge.

As part of the NYCLU's continuing Civil Liberties Discussion Series, Lisa Graybill of the ACLU of Texas will discuss the civil rights and civil liberties issues at play in FLDS case.

The discussion is on Tuesday, May 6 at 7 p.m. in the NYCLU offices at 125 Broad Street on the 19th floor.

Following the presentations, NYCLU staff will lead a discussion with the speakers and attendees. Pizza and drinks will be provided to get the discussion going.

The Mozarabic version of the Canticle from Sirach 51:13-19

A Song of Pilgrimage (from Ecclesiasticus 51)

While I was still young,
I sought Wisdom openly in my prayer.

Before the temple I asked for her,
and I will search for her until the end.

From the first blossom to the ripening grape,
my heart delighted in her.

My foot walked on the straight path,
from my youth I followed her steps.

I inclined my ear a little and received her,
I found for myself much instruction.

I made progress in Wisdom;
to the One who sent her,
I will give glory.

I directed my soul to Wisdom,
and in purity have I found her.

With her, I gained understanding from the first,
therefore will I never be forsaken.

My heart was stirred to seek her,
with my tongue will I sing God's praise.

This beautiful canticle included in Enriching our Worship and now part of our Daily Office in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd and elsewhere originated in a sub group of the Standing Commission on Liturgy of which I was a part way back in the 80's. Howard Galley was a part of that sub group. We were looking for Wisdom Canticles and he sent me to look at examples in the Latin Mozarabic Psalter in the library. What you see here is the end result.

Now I find that 11QPSa Column 21 has the following indicating that a version of our Psalm was sung at Qumran!

When I was still young, before I had gone astray, I searched for her. She came to me in her beauty, and up to the end, I kept investigating her. Even when the blossom falls, when the grapes are ripening, they make the heart happy. My foot tread on a straight path, for since my youth I have known her. I had hardly bent my ear, when I found much teaching. A wet-nurse she became to me, to my teacher I give my honor. I determined to enjoy myself, I was zealous for the good,incessantly. I became ablaze for her, I could not avert my face. I stirred my soul for her and on her heights I was not calm...(the column breaks off...)