That's right, the women are smarter

We have talked about Rosh Chodesh once so far on this blog.  What we didn't mention there was the reason for why women were given the holiday of the Jewish New Moon as a gift of their own.  The Jews were getting antsy and had the shpilkas.  Familiar story?  We are so anxious and nervous and chatty and just don't know how to wait and listen.  See Woody Allen for more on that.  Anyway, yeah so we just couldn't wait any more when Moses was up on Mount Sinai getting the holy words of the Torah from God.  Believe it or not, but the story goes that they decide to build an edifice of their own.  Forget you, God, essentially is what they were saying, and they built the Golden Calf.  All the gold they had was thrown in to the bubbling pot.  They danced and sang around their very own creation.  Better than waiting, right?

Umm...wait a second, throw in your precious jewelry?  To build an idol?  A God-like symbol?

No, no, said the women.  We will not part with our adornments!  What foolish women would do such a thing?  Not us Jewesses.  No way!  We keep our jewels, God or not.

So the women kept their gold and their mirrors.  They had patience.  They knew that God would eventually deliver.  Just take a deep breath and rely on your intuition.  And, indeed, Moses eventually appears with the written words.  The women are gifted the holiday of the New Moon.

Jah Levi was Kid Goldstein growing up? Return!

We have just come across the reggae artist Jah Levi.  He is a spiritual healer.  According to his bio, he is a spiritual leader in two churches:  Essene and the Peruvian Soga del Alma.  We're not sure what it means to be a card-carrying member of the Native American church, but he's got one.  He is an herbalist and acupuncturist.   His music is entrancing.  We aren't too educated in reggae music, but Bob Marley's One Love sounds good to us.

And his father was folklorist Kenneth Goldstein (a historian on Adirondack music...full disclosure:  the Whole Phamily has deep roots to the ADKs...yes, we are all connected).

So give it up, Mr. Levi...we believe that you're connected deep, deep, deep.  We believe you have healing powers.  We believe you create great music. 

Not a smidge mention of the Jewish factor other than your father's last name.

Hmm....

Time to come on home!

Raz Hartman had a vision.  You can visualize it, too.  It starts with being in the Sinai desert, nothing at all on the horizon.  Then you see one little speck.  That speck turns out to be a person.  But it's not just one person, it's 10 people.  They get closer.  Not 10 people, it's 100 people.  As the mass gets closer, you realize it's not 100 but 1,000 people.  No, it's not just 1,000, it's more like tens of thousands.  Then you realize it's hundreds of thousands of people, all the Nation of Israel and they are all dancing and singing in the desert, walking closer toward you.  And you realize that the music is coming from the center of this mass of people.

This music is coming from the tribe of Levi.

This vision inspired a song called Shuva which is for sale CD Baby.  You can listen to just this one sample which is Track #7  (this one little track does not do justice).  This is the star song of the CD and it is not available to listen fully online.  The liner notes are important, as well.

Simply put:  Shuva means return.

In the meantime, we have a hankering to get back to the woods.  Frolicking around in Paul Smith's isn't too far away...

The Whole Phamily is a network of Jewish names. Jews have only had surnames for a few hundred years. First names, on the other hand, have been around for time immemorial. It was always "child, son/daughter _of_". Like, "Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah." On headstones, the deceased is usually commemorated by their first name, child of their parent's first name. Getting called up to the Torah is done similarly. Like it or not, our names actually do connect us to the past, present, and future. All together, they make up one greater family. The ganse mishpucha* as it were.

Is your last name Gold, Goldberg, Goldstein? Silver, Silverberg, Silverstein, Silverman? What about Field, Feldman, Feldstein? Or, Cohen, Cohane, Coen, Katz? Perhaps you have known a Fisher, Fishman, or Fish.

Do the names Shapiro, Shufro, Shafran sound familiar? Have you had a friend named Bernstein or any of the various Rosen Rosens (a tilt of the head to Fletch)?

These are all some of the very obvious Jewish names, but there are so many more. Naturally many of the original Jewish names that families took on in their homelands before arriving in North America were changed. Blobstein went to Blaine. Eisenberg became Eis. Altman became Alan.

The Whole Phamily's proprietary database will allow you to enter in your own family name and see what we have about it. Or perhaps you already know that Mullens was originally Mulinsky. Write it up and tell us that story.

Why should you care about your name, anyway?

And, what does it matter that it is a Jewish name?

Isn't your name a good name?

Don't you use it every day?

*ganse mishpucha: Yiddish phrase for "whole family"