Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court justice, died on Rosh
Hashanah. What gets lost in the sauce, in all the coverage of the more “Jewy” aspects
of RBG’s passing, is the fact that it was also Shabbat, since the first day of
Rosh Hashanah this year fell on the Jewish Sabbath. It’s understandable that
people give more import, emotionally, to Rosh Hashanah, which, after all, is
one of what we call the "High Holidays." But the fact is that Shabbat actually
takes precedence over Rosh Hashanah, which is why Orthodox Jews don’t blow the
shofar on Rosh Hashanah when it coincides with the Jewish Sabbath, because it is forbidden to carry items from place to place on Shabbat. None of this stood in the way, however, of several prominent Jews marking RBG’s death
by blowing the shofar on Shabbat Rosh Hashanah.
Rabbi Matt Soffer, of Judea Reform Congregation in Durham,
North Carolina, heard the news Bader Ginsburg's death on Friday night. “The news brought me to my
knees and I wept,” said Soffer, who determined to find a way to commemorate his
icon, who according to the JTA,
“had come to represent the liberal American feminist spirit for so many.”
From the JTA:
By the time Soffer signed on for services on Saturday morning, he had resolved to address Ginsburg’s death with his community. He did so by revising not the words he had prepared or the prayers he would lead, but by tweaking a core tradition of the High Holidays: the shofar blasts.
Just as the Supreme Court has nine members, one of the shofar blasts, teruah, has nine short notes. Soffer halted after just eight to symbolize the fact that the court has just lost a member who made it complete and, he said, “to honor the speechlessness of our communal grief.”
Actor Mandy Patinkin, who not so long ago made it onto my Comprehensive
List of Antisemitic Celebrities, also blew the shofar, this time to underscore RBG’s
deathbed wish, dictated to granddaughter Clara Spera: "My most fervent
wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."
Thus it was that Patinkin
blew the shofar on MSNBC on Shabbat Rosh Hashanah. “And I want her wish to
be heard, so I will blow the shofar for her,” said Patinkin with a lot of put-on pomp and circumstance, blowing a pretend
tekiyah gedolah as a sort of dog
whistle to Jewish Democrats. “And so now her wish will be heard,” announced the
BDS-supporting anti-Trump actor, “and let it be heard throughout the land.”
Well, here's @PatinkinMandy blowing the shofar on @MSNBC to attempt to ensure that RBG's dying wish is heard. pic.twitter.com/T7jAa6SfKY
— Steph Haberman (@StephLauren) September 21, 2020
11-year-old Micah Blay was driven by his mom Dana Marlowe from their
home in a Maryland suburb (on Shabbat Rosh Hashanah) to blow the shofar for 250 people
outside the Supreme Court, in Washington, D.C., which he said was, “definitely
like kind of scary.”
May her memory be a blessing...a revolution...a revelation...a call to action with the blast of the Shofar on the steps of the Supreme Court on Rosh Hashana. #rbg #RBGRIP #RuthBaderGinsburg pic.twitter.com/Fe7rACmJMa
— DanaMarlowe (@DanaMarlowe) September 19, 2020
From the JTA:
“[We] were literally dipping ceremonial apples into honey” at the start of the Rosh Hashanah holiday “when my phone started blowing up” with messages.
Marlowe tweeted that she was “devastated” to hear of Ginsburg’s passing and decided immediately to make a pilgrimage to the Supreme Court the following day, the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
“It was shock and heartbreak and I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
Micah added that the family was “doing the right thing” in deciding to spend one day of Rosh Hashanah in front of the Supreme Court honoring “a great person” like Ginsburg.
The blowing of the shofar at this time of year calls Jews to
repentance. What is repentance? It is being sorry for sinning, and having done something
contrary to Torah law, resolving not to do it again.
Everyone has their own way of doing things, honoring the people they admire, and making a point about the things they
believe. But I wonder if these people realize how insensitive is this act, the act of blowing a shofar on Shabbat, to their coreligionists, those still faithful to Torah precepts upheld for thousands of years. I wonder how “liberal” it can be to cause
so great an offense to the sensibilities of the Orthodox who watch on in dismay
at the seeming disregard for God’s Torah without the least little care or
concern for their beliefs, and the hurt these actions cause.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a giant by any measure. But it does no credit to RBG,
no honor to her Jewishness, to expropriate a religious vessel and to use it in an
inappropriate way to mark her passing. My hope in writing this here is not to
shame anyone, God forbid, but in hopes that the shofar not be abused this way
in future.
Gmar Chatima Tova. May you be
inscribed for good.