Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis

We were privileged to be invited to the Jewish Synagogue of Warsaw (Nożyk Synagogue), Poland and interview Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis , the Emissary of Shavei Israel organization and the Rabbi of Katowice, Poland. Born in Kansas city, Missouri,United States, Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis has been in Poland for more than a decade. We are delighted to dedicated this issue to this interview. 

1. What is the Jewish history significant to Poland.

There is a huge history in Poland which is about a 1000 years old. The boundaries of Poland have been ever Changing. There’s a whole quarterly published about Polish history, given it is a huge subject. There are other places where it’s older, but it’s not as broad. And Jews were in Germany before they were in Poland, because they’ve never that many then. Jews in Poland in the Middle Ages were given autonomy. Meaning they essentially existed in their own communities, side by side with Polish Catholics and mixing occasionally , But under the control of the Jewish leadership. So in that atmosphere, you had tremendous development of Jewish culture, Jewish religious practice , wisdom and a Jewish population explosion occured. So before the war there were three and a half million Jews in Poland. It was the largest Jewish diaspora in Europe at that time. At that time there are already 6 million Jews in America . But Poland was ancient for us . A great amount of our cultures developed here. Religious culture but also secular culture. So today they say that with Jews in America approximately 75% of them are of Polish origin. For much of world Jewry , when we think about what Jewish life was like , we think about Pre-war Poland. The Warsaw ghetto (Jewish Residential District in Warsaw established by Nazi German authorities in 1940s) has become to symbolize about how the war affected the Jews. The Warsaw ghetto uprising has come to symbolize Jews heroism and tragedy.

2. The Star of David is used across many places or monuments of Jewish significance . Is there is a specific history relating to this geometry. 

This is an interesting question and this is a question I had as well and I didn’t find very many good answers. There is an article from Gershom Scholem who is one of the pre-eminent Jewish intellectuals of the second half of the 20th century. He wrote an in-depth article where he looked at Magen David or the Shield of David . if you go to the original city of David, which is part of Jerusalem, and you look at the excavations, there are no 6 sided stars. All the stars there are 5 sides. The six sided star was used as part of Jewish decoration starting in the late 18th and early 19th century, When Jews in Europe started becoming citizens, they started leaving their communities and had a desire to assert themselves in a styles similar to the Christians. Christians had a cross. So we needed something. So at the same time. the Kabbala. Which is part of Jewish mysticism.

started getting popular. The actual national symbol for the Jews is a Menorah. This is in the temple. This is written about in the Torah. You look at the seal of the state of Israel, it’s a menorah . It’s not the star of David. The star of David evolved slowly during the early 19th and then 20thcentury. Basically, you had the Holocaust, and the state of Israel, which we mark ourselves. This cemented it as a universal Jewish symbol. This is according to Gershom Scholem. I traveled in Morocco at one point and I found money from Morocco, which is an Islamic state which has a 6 sided star on it. it’s hard for us to believe that a Islamic state would put a universally Jewish symbol on money. this seems proof of what a recent adoption this is. In Kabballic literature, they talk about awakening. There’s awakening from below, where we reach out and awakening from above where god reaches down. the star represents this meeting point. That’s the general concept. But as a symbol. it’s a very recent.

3.What are the texts you recommend to get a better understanding about the Judaism, its people and its significance. 

There’s a book from Rabbi Joseph Telushkincalled Jewish literacy. A good book on what does every jew need to know to be a good Jew. it includes history , faith, religion, literacy, he’s a very wise man. I would also advise - Simple Words: Thinking About What Really Matters in Life by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz . An important part when you can talk about Judaism is to talk about Israel. And a good book about Israel is the book called Time immemorial (by Joan Peters).

4. There is a widespread perception to the Jewish people being ardent businessmen. Wanted to understand a different perspective to this. In the cemetery in Okopowa stI was able to see many selfless people who were part of a social cause. Could you give us a selfless story of Jewish person and his/her contribution to the common good to society.

One of the most well known person in Poland is Janusz Korczak. There’s a memorial to him at the cemetery. He was a writer, and a pedagogy. He was one of the first people who spoke about children’s rights. he wrote in the 1920s and 30s. He was in the ghetto and he was universally recognized as one of the best expert pedagogy in child rearing. he was so well known that there was an international campaign to convince the Nazis to let him go. The Nazis agreed . But he refused to go. he said, I won’t leave my children. He stayed at the orphanage, and he refused to leave his children. When Children were transported to the death camp, he went with them. (More details can be found here - https://culture.pl/pl/tworca/janusz-korczak)

I’ll also tell you one of my favorite stories about this. There’s a story about the Yossele , the Miser of Krakow. This is told by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.. So there were a lot of Jews in Krakow. There are few rich ones and a lot of poor ones. That’s almost true for most of history. It’s still pretty much today. there was one of them called Yossele. And everyone knew he was rich, and everybody knew he was cheap and miser.

he wouldn't spend money on anything.. And he was getting old, and every Kadisha, the burial society, they went to him, and they said, look, you're getting old. And, you know, we have all these needs in the community, and you never give anything. So. we’re not going to bury you. and he said, ‘What? No way. You are crazy. I have nothing to give’. And after saying so, they leave. And the next day he dies, his neighbor, in the dark at night, buries him . the next day is Friday morning. The Rabbi get a knock at his door and it’s one of the poor people. And he says , ‘Usually on Friday morning, there’s this little money that shows up under my door. It didn’t come this week. I need some money for Friday night as it is Shabbat and I need food for my family’. The Rabbi gives him some Money. Another knock and the same story. And all morning he gets all the beggars coming to him with the same story. And after the forth or fifth time he starts getting curious. And so on the next knock, he asks the beggar that if he has asked anyone for money for help before as this is the first time you have come to me for money and I have never heard of this. He said yes he had gone to Yossele for money . ‘So I went in and he gave me a cup of tea sat me down asked me how my family is, how many kids I have. And then I asked him, if he can give me some money. Hearing this Yoselle face turned red, and said that ‘what do you think I’m rich?’ and he kicked me out. ‘So every beggar that came afterwards to the Rabbis home told the same story, and then the rabbi figured out what was happening. Yossele was giving these people the money. He was doing it in a hidden way. 

Our tradition talks about this . They’re different levels of giving, when you give money to someone who needs it. It’s called ‘Tzedakah’, which is the Hebrew root word for ‘justice’. It’s not a good deal. it’s what’s expected, what’s needed. There different levels of giving. One of the highest level is to get someone a job. So the next level is when the person giving doesn’t know who they’re giving it to. And the person is receiving it doesn’t know really where he is getting it from. That way they don’t feel embarrassed. So the understanding is that Yossele went out of his way to make sure that no one knew that he was giving this money. You know, there’s certainly a stereotype that we as Jews love money, And I won’t lie. We like money. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like money. Judaism is where in an ideal world according to our tradition there’s a clear understanding that profits are good, and that development is good and you’re expected to loan money, but not take interest . if you live in Israel, you have a field (land), which is like most people would, you have to give. You are obligated to give away the minimum 20% to support the community, to support the poor. it’s clearly understood that whenever anyone asks you for money, you have to help them. You don’t have to give them everything you have. But you’re not allowed not to give something. 

There’s a very big tension between particular aspirations for myself, for my group, and my nation and the universal. It repeats itself throughout history. you see it in the Torah. You see it in the books of the prophets. Throughout our history, we see people becoming corrupted, especially leaders and not, being interested in justice. Our tradition clearly shows that God is interested in justice. it’s not a small problem we have today in Israel. So there’s a case where one of the ministers, that the court won’t allow him to be a minister, Because he’s been repeatedly found guilty of tax fraud. That’s horrible. It’s really embarrassing. Additionally, this person is supposed to be religious, even more embarrassing. But the worst still is that all of these people, all of these jews claim to be religious, who claim to care about Morality, justice support him . if you’ve read the Bible, very much like what the prophets complain about 2000 years ago, that there’s no justice. 

I can say for my personal experience. When me and my friends were trying to raise money for some poor people in Israel , it was remarkably easy. Israel is a very expensive place. But if there was some cause that people perceived ‘as just’ It was remarkable for me to see people contribute . But Indeed there is still tremendous amount in inequality present. 

5.The Jewish community is spread across the world and have been so for thousands of years. What teachings can it give for people like us who are also diaspora to live a proper and better life away from our homeland.

So a book I would recommend to read about this - The Jew in the Lotus by Rodger Kamenetz , In the late 80s or early 90s, the Dalai Lama asked a group of Jews visit the Dharamshala and meet him. This book is about that trip. They have all these discussions, and they eat. And after eating, the Jews all pray together and the Dalai Lama’s says , what are you doing? And they said, after we eat we have to pray.it’scalled Birkat Hamazon. What are the themes of the prayer? there are four parts to it. The first part, we thank God for food. The second part, we thank god for Jerusalem. The third part we thank God for our temple, or how we want to return to both of these. And the 4thpart, we thank God for all the good things done. And so the Dalai Lama says, so every time you sit and eat, you mention together The Jerusalem and the temple, you’re longing for it. And you put it in between thanking God for very concrete things, the food and for these non concrete things like the general good. Diaspora Is a huge challenge for us. And the biggest challenge, On the one side, there is anti-semitismAnd on the other side, there is assimilation, And probably but in general, I think we’re more for assimilation than we are of anti-semitism. For me its about How can I keep my children Jewish. First and foremost by fostering our personal connection with our children. This is one of the strongest ways to keep them connected to our tradition. Our tradition is so precise. And I feel like the most important thing for me to do is to emphasize how much I love them, and how our tradition brings us closer and to do everything to minimize the conflict that can arise . To do everything possible to make traditional practices fun; to show how they create connection. We have to be careful not to take it too seriously. That anything and any feelings involved are enjoyable. For e.g. The food is great on holidays. The smells are wonderful. The special clothes, etc. All these things that help us create memories. So, another example is that we are aware that a very important thing for Jews is marrying other Jews. if you want your kids to marry other Jews, put pictures of your parents and grandparents on the wall. Look, these are all Jews who married Jews, right? So it’s something they see every day. Its about creating something that they feel they’re part of and want to continue to be a part of. And of course, for us going to Israel. we try to go Israel once a year, and when we go there our kids feel normal And they feel at home. The longing for home. It’s such an important feeling, So additionally, the Jewish practice every time we pray, we mention Israel. We mention Jerusalem. We mention our longing to go there. And this seems to be one of these things that has kept us very strong. Longing is one of the most important emotions we have. I was listening to a psychologist talking about Dopamine. So dopamine isn’t about getting what you want. it’s about expecting reward. this is the classic problem. If you give kids everything they ask for they don’t care about it much. My daughter’s was playing with a doll we got her, And she wasn’t that excited. And my wife asked, ‘is it not what you wanted ?’ My daughter replied , ‘no, it’s exactly what I wanted. Everything I thought it would be.’ ‘So why aren’t you so happy with this? ‘ my wife asked. My daughter replied ,‘Do you know what was happiest? It was when we ordered it. And when it was on the way. when I knew that in a few days, I’m gonnaget exactly what I want. I was so happy. ‘. That’s when the brain’s firing. That’s when it’s giving us all the dopamine. I try to emphasize to my kids how our tradition makes us closer to each other, how it makes us closer to God, and how it is a tool to make us better people. - Sennaya Swamy Naickar