{"id":5118,"date":"2008-09-18T12:45:56","date_gmt":"2008-09-18T20:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=5118"},"modified":"2008-09-18T12:45:56","modified_gmt":"2008-09-18T20:45:56","slug":"obama-holds-conference-call-with-900-rabbis-for-the-high-holy-days-says-his-volunteers-are-blowing-shofars-of-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=5118","title":{"rendered":"Obama Holds Conference Call With 900 Rabbis for the High Holy Days, Says His Volunteers Are Blowing Shofars of Action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.abcnews.com\/politicalpunch\/2008\/09\/obama-holds-con.html\">Jake Tapper writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., held a conference call with over 900 rabbis this morning to wish them and their congregations a Happy Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (year 5769, for those counting) which begins at sunset on Sept. 29.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I know that, for rabbis, this is the busiest time of the year as you prepare for the High Holy Days,&quot; said the Democratic presidential candidate. &quot;I want to wish everybody a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.askmoses.com\/en\/article\/619,1950034\/What-does-Shanah-Tovah-mean.html\"><strong>shanah tovah<\/strong><\/a> and I hope that you will convey my wishes to all of those [who] pray and celebrate with this Rosh Hashanah.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Obama, who is said to be struggling with some Jewish voters who otherwise traditionally vote Democratic, said that &ldquo;the Jewish New Year is unlike the new years of any other cultures. In part, because it&#8217;s not simply a time for revelry; it&#8217;s a time for what might be called determined rejoicing. A time to put your affairs with other people in order so you can honestly turn to God. A time to recommit to the serious work of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myjewishlearning.com\/daily_life\/GemilutHasadim\/TO_TikkunOlam.htm\"><strong>tikkun olam<\/strong><\/a> ? of mending the world.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Obama was introduced to the group by the chairman of &ldquo;Rabbis for Obama,&rdquo; Rabbi Sam Gordon of Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Wilmette, Ill., and Rabbi Elliot Dorff, vice chair of the Conservative Movement&rsquo;s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and a professor at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/danyaruttenberg.net\/2008\/09\/17\/liveblogging-a-rabbinic-conference-call-with-obama\/\"><strong>Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg<\/strong><\/a>, who live-blogged the conference call, Dorff said his support for Obama &ldquo;is a case of both ahavat Mordechai and sinat Haman.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Ahavat Mordechai&rdquo; means the love of Mordechai, the hero of the story of Purim. &ldquo;Sinat Haman&rdquo; means hatred of Haman, the villain of the same tale, who conspired to slay the Jews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jake Tapper writes: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., held a conference call with over 900 rabbis this morning to wish them and their congregations a Happy Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year (year 5769, for those counting) which begins at sunset &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=5118\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1569],"tags":[12591,7945,12593,12594,12592,12595],"class_list":["post-5118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barack-obama","tag-danya-ruttenberg","tag-high-holy-days","tag-jake-tapper","tag-rabbi-elliot-dorff","tag-shanah-tovah","tag-sukkat-shalom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5120,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5118\/revisions\/5120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}