Purim, Just Another Reason to Party

By SAKI KNAFO

Last Saturday, at the start of the Jewish holiday of Purim, Rabbi Shmuel Lein read from a ceremonial scroll at the Chabad of North Brooklyn, a center of Hasidic Jewish culture on Bedford Avenue and North Fifth Street in Williamsburg.

Then Rabbi Lein, a slight 28-year-old with a wild beard and, on this festive day, a crazy-colored tie, shouted out an order — "Party!"— and things began to get a little, well, funky. An Israeli man in a faded Union Jack T-shirt picked up an electric bass and unleashed a stream of psychedelic sounds. A rapper raised a microphone to his lips and lauded the Jewish cornerstones of "Torah and mitzvah, kid." Standing in the 50-strong audience was a man with a tattoo of a Hebrew prayer on his forehead.

In New York and around the world, members of the Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Judaism run Chabad Houses, or outreach and education centers, as a way of spreading Orthodox beliefs to people of Jewish ancestry whom they consider less devout. Since Rabbi Lein and his wife, Leah, moved into the Chabad of North Brooklyn two years ago, they have made an effort to generate excitement in a part of Williamsburg where indie rockers in tight jeans outnumber yeshiva boys in black fedoras.

The Leins have commissioned menorahs from local artists. They serve organic foods at women's meetings and teach classes in kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism that has enjoyed a surge of enthusiasm among celebrities like Madonna. Because many singles live in the neighborhood, the Leins hold plenty of rollicking parties in their crowd-friendly loft space.

"There's always a holiday to blame it on," said Rabbi Lein, "Purim, Tu Bishvat, Lag Ba'omer."

At Purim, a holiday on which getting drunk is considered a good deed, a makeshift pulpit at the front of the room doubled as a bar. Throughout the night, guests poured themselves cups of whiskey and vodka from Costco-size bottles. The guests represented an eclectic mix: an Israeli hip-hop producer with his ponytail in a pink scrunchy, a music-video director in jeans and a blazer, a resident of the Hasidic section of Williamsburg in a satiny frock coat and a black Yankees cap.

"Some people just come here for the big parties," said Michelle Shapiro, a freelance make-up artist. "Some people come just for the prayers."

Whatever their reasons for coming, the guests roundly applauded Nosson Zand, a 25-year-old Orthodox Jewish rapper who lists the Lubavitch sect as a "friend" on his MySpace page.

"Let's get high," chanted Mr. Zand, also known as NIZ.

"High on Hasidis," he added, referring to the philosophy at the heart of the Hasidic movement. SAKI KNAFO

Purim Edition - Show 11

Mendy Pellin signs off the season in this satrical newscast of chabad, israel and the world...

Chabad CBD toasts 10 years

Chabad CBD toasts 10 years

tali borowski

MELBOURNE'S central business district (CBD) is often the venue for business lunches and high-powered meetings. But for the past 10 years, Chabad of Melbourne CBD has also offered spirituality and religious support to the area's Jewish workers.

The shul's annual Purim function last Sunday doubled as its 10th birthday party, with about 400 guests, including Melbourne Lord Mayor John So, Melbourne Ports MP Michael Danby and Member for Caulfield Helen Shardey, hearing a Megillah reading by rabbinical student Sholom Ber Ceitlin. Guests also enjoyed live music and other Purim festivities.
Established in 1997, Chabad of Melbourne CBD was the brainchild of Rabbi Chaim Dov Ber Herzog who noticed "a need and a void" for Yiddishkeit in the city.

After its first official function – a Purim luncheon – proved a resounding success, Rabbi Herzog was appointed shaliach of Chabad of Melbourne CBD, a position he still holds to this day.

Ten years on and the organisation now holds regular "Lunch'n'learn" lectures, attracting an array of local and international guest speakers. Each Friday, students from local rabbinical colleges also visit businessmen to distribute weekly newsletters and help them lay tefillin.

"Their connection to Judaism is sparked by that Friday ... their spirit boosted for the week," Rabbi Herzog explains.
Weekly kabbalah classes have also been a success, with plans underway to hold shabbatons in the near future.

Weekend Reminder: Spring Forward! Daylight Saving Time is here, so don't forget to turn your clocks forward an hour.

This Sunday, March 11, some three weeks earlier than usual, Daylight Saving Time kicks in at 2 a.m. and will last until the first Sunday in November. Based on the passage of the 2005 Energy Policy Act that takes affect this year, DST has been extended by four weeks. Typically, DST begins the first Sunday in April and runs through the last Sunday in October.

The theory behind DST is that people make better use of the extended daylight hours. With longer "synthetic sunshine" consumers have less need for lights, and other appliances. Studies show that energy demand is directly connected to bedtime. During DST, the sun is already up by the time most people wake. Less energy is needed to light the home, so less energy is consumed overall.

More in the Extended Article.

DST HISTORY AND FUTURE

Daylight Saving Time was first adopted in the United States in 1918, coinciding with World War I. Due to its almost nationwide unpopularity; the practice was repealed and not reinstated until Feb. 9, 1942 as a conservation measure during WWII.

Again, it fell into sporadic use since federal law did not mandate states had to observe DST. During this time travel became an exercise in resetting clocks. Anyone driving the 35-mile route between Moundsville, WV and Steubenville, Ohio had to adjust their watches seven times.

The federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 finally made DST a nationwide law - again. Since then it has undergone several amendments that resulted in at least two states opting out of observing the time saving measure – Hawaii and Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation, which spans three separate states.)

Until 2005 when its state legislature agreed to observe DST, Indiana was unique in that it straddled two separate time zones. Because of this, Indiana had 82 counties on Eastern Standard Time with 77 that did not use DST and another 5 counties that did use DST, plus 10 more counties on Central Standard Time that did use DST. Last year, Indiana joined 47 other states, observing DST for the first time statewide.

Evident in the lack of universal acceptance of DST, there are abundant detractors to the idea of saving daylight.

In 1945, author Robertson Davies made this observation, which was strongly felt by many: "I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind... At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme, I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy, and wise in spite of themselves."

Davies arguments are echoed by some historian that suggest Benjamin Franklin first recommended saving daylight in the mid 1750s through his much quoted Poor Richard's Almanack, "early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Other historians refute that assumption by pointing out that Franklin was simply saying people should not waste time in bed, and not suggesting anything like Daylight Saving Time.

Arguments have also been made that the decreased use of lights during DST, does not offset the increased use of air conditioning, especially since the bulk of DST occurs during hot summer months. This is the main reason Arizona opted out of using DST.

Hawaii doesn't use DST because day lengths in the tropics don't fluctuate enough to make the change worthwhile.

No matter what the arguments are, either for or against, DST it seems is around to stay for quite some time.