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Vayikra & Tzav: Fire Offerings Without Slaughter, Part 2April 1, 2020 at 5:58 pm | Posted in Tzav, Uncategorized, Vayikra | 2 Comments
The first two Torah portions in the book of Leviticus/ Vayikra mention repeatedly that God enjoys the smell of smoke, especially the smell of burning animal fat.1
Six types of offerings at the altar appear in the portions Vayikra ("and [God] called") and Tzav ("Command"). For five out of six, the donor must bring an animal, lean a hand on its head, and slaughter it. Then the donor watches a priest butcher the animal, splash its blood around the altar, and burn all or part of it to generate smoke. (The other offering is made out of grain, and is sprinkled with oil and frankincense before it goes on the fire, so the smoke will smell good to God.)
Killing and burning animals was the usual technology for worship in the Ancient Near East, and the ancient Israelites probably found fire-offerings spiritually moving. Today some people view the slaughter of animals as an unfortunate necessity, and others find it unethical to kill animals for human food. Can we apply the Torah's six categories of offerings to a more ethically refined set of procedures?
Last week I suggested a new way of interpreting fire-offerings in general. This week I propose six kinds of practices to replace the six kinds of fire offerings.
In the order of their appearance in the Torah portions Vayikra and Tzav, the six types of fire-offerings are:
1) olah (עֹלָה) = rising-offering.
(From the root verb alah (עלה) = go up.)
This is the instruction of the olah: It is the olah which burns on the altar all night until the morning … (Leviticus/Vayikra 6:2)
In an olah the entire slaughtered animal is burned up, so olah is often translated as "burnt offering" or even "holocaust offering". The olah is the only offering which stays on the altar fire all night, until it is completely burned up into smoke. An olah is required twice a day as a matter of routine, perhaps to keep a sustaining level of smoke rising to the heavens.
And the fire on the altar shall burn on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall kindle wood on it every morning and arrange the olah upon it … A continual fire shall burn on the altar; it must not go out. (Leviticus 6:5-6)
A holy day calls for an extra olah. This type of offering is also prescribed for individuals who have been isolated and need to return to a normal relationship with God and their community.2 Perhaps a normal relationship includes continuous, unflagging dedication to serving God, day and night.
For a physical, animal body, fat serves as a reserve source of energy in lean times. But accumulating too much fat is physically unhealthy, just as accumulating too much wealth is spiritually unhealthy. How can we burn up the excess fat in our lives? How can we avoid selfish hoarding? How can we keep our souls directed toward making our own best contributions in a world full of other individuals?
The Jewish practice of mussar calls for a daily review of our actions before bedtime. We record every time we succumbed to an undesirable character trait (such as hoarding) and every time we practiced a good trait we want to acquire (such as generosity). It takes continual self-examination to change a habit.
During our isolation due to the coronavirus pandemic, we could start a journal noting when we acted selfishly, and when we acted generously. We can think about what we will do differently next time. Then when we come out of social isolation, may we offer the olah of a pledge to pay extra attention to our own behavior to make sure we do not lapse back into selfishness.
2) minchah (מִנחָה) = allegiance-offering; a gift to a king as a sign of homage or respect; tribute.
The Torah prescribes an offering of grain, loose or baked, as a minchah to God.
A person who offers a minchah to God, he shall offer fine flour, and he shall pour oil over it and place frankincense upon it … and the priest shall make a memorial portion go up in smoke on the altar, a fire-offering of soothing fragrance for God. (Leviticus 2:1-2)
When I burn my toast, it only sets off the smoke alarm. But before I eat my toast, or any other food, I say a blessing to give thanks for it. My blessing is my gift of allegiance to the source of all life.
During the pandemic, may we express gratitude and allegiance not only to God, but to all human beings who are keeping the world fed.
3) shelamim (שְׁלָמִים) = wholeness-offering.
(From the same root as shaleim (שָׁלֵם) = complete, safe and sound, at peace; and shalom (שָׁלוֹם) = peace.)
And if his offering is a shelamim, if he offers it from the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it unblemished in front of God. And he shall lean his hand on the head of the offering … (Leviticus 3:1-2)
The Torah gives three reasons for offering a shelamim:
todah (תוֹדָה) = thanks,
neder (נֶדֶר) = fulfilling a pledge to make that offering if all goes well, or
nedavah (נְדָבָה) = donating out of generosity.
And this is the instruction for the shelamim offering that he shall offer to God. If he brings an offering of todah, then he shall offer, along with the todah slaughter-offering, unleavened loaves mixed with oil and unleavened crackers anointed with oil and fine flour loaves mixed with oil. Along with loaves of leavened bread, he shall offering his offering along with his shelamim slaughter-offering. (Leviticus 7:11-13)
The same assortment of grain products accompany neder and nedavah animal offerings. The slaughtered animal and the unleavened loaves are divided into three portions: one to be turned into smoke for God, one for the officiating priest to eat, and one for the donor and his guests to eat in God's presence (i.e. in the courtyard in front of the altar). None of the leavened bread is burned for God; it is all eaten by the priest and the donor's party.
The difference between a shelamim for a todah and and a shelamim for a neder or nedavah is the time limit for eating the meat and bread. The donor and his family and guests have one day to eat the meat and bread from a todah. They have two days to eat the meat and bread from a neder or nedavah.3 One theory is that these time limits ensure that the donor invites more guests to share the feast. This increases his generosity.
Today we can say blessings to thank God for our lives and for everything else in the world. (Even though the world includes things we consider bad, I am grateful that there is a world with people in it, and so much beauty and wonder.)
But it is also important to show our appreciation to the human groups and individuals that improve life on earth. We can give individuals thank-you gifts, and give groups our pledges and donations. The more often we do so, the more we add to the world's supply of generosity—and that brings more wholeness (shaleim), and holiness into the world.
During the pandemic, consider leaving a gift on someone's doorstep. Pledge or donate to a good cause to help our battered world recover.
4) chattat (חַטָּאת) = reparation-offering.
(From the root verb chata (חָטָא) = miss the mark, commit an offense against God; make amends for doing wrong.)
If one soul from among the people of the land should chata unintentionally, by doing one of the [negative] commandments of God, [doing something] that should not be done, and he incurs guilt— If the offense that he committed becomes known to him, then he shall bring his offering: an unblemished female goat for his chatat that he chata … (Leviticus 4:27-28)
A different animal must be offered according to the person or group who unintentionally violated one of God's rules: priests, leaders, the whole community, and individuals. All the animals are offered in the usual way for fire-offerings, from leaning a hand on the living animal's head to burning up the fatty parts on the altar to give soothing smoke to God.
And the priest shall make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven. (Leviticus 4:31)
What can we do today when we realize after the fact that we violated a moral or religious rule we want to live by?
If I bite into what I thought was a vegetarian omelet and taste bacon in my mouth, I push the plate aside and say a short prayer for discernment in the future. Both actions help me to accept that I made a mistake, and forgive myself.
But if I realize I did something that hurt another person, I need to find reconciliation not only with my conscience, but also with the person I wronged. I find what I hope is a calm time to talk with the person, then say what I think I did wrong and apologize. (Finding the right time may call for extra sensitivity during a period of social isolation during a pandemic.)
Next I give the other person a chance to say how the offense looked to them. If I need to explain anything, I try to do it humbly, without defending my ego. Then I ask what I can do to make up for the wrong I did. If there is something concrete and reasonable, I do it. Only then can I be forgiven by both the other person and myself.
5) asham (אָשָׁם) = guilt-offering.
(From the root asham (אָשַׁם) = incur guilt.)
If a soul who does wrong commits treachery against God and lies to his fellow about a pledge, or a loan, or a theft, or fraud; or he finds a lost item and lies about it, and he swears falsely … he shall return the stolen item that he stole or the fraud that he committed or the pledge that was left with him or the lost item he found … and he shall pay back the principal and add a fifth … And he shall bring his asham to God: an unblemished ram … And the priest shall make reconciliation for him before God, and he shall be forgiven for everything that he did to become guilty. (Leviticus 5:21-26)
In a case of theft or fraud, the Torah requires both reparations to the person who was wronged, and an offering to God for atonement. Someone who has stolen or cheated and then lied about it bears extra guilt, so that person must give the victim extra compensation and offer an asham to God.
When we have made reparations for our original misdeed, but we still feel guilty about the way we did it, what can we do to clear ourselves? For some people, the answer is to give a large donation to charity, in money or labor. For others, the answer might be a period of saying prayers from the Yom Kippur repentance liturgy. Words make a difference, even when we speak them only to ourselves and our God.
6) milu-im (מִלֻּאִים) = ordination-offering.
(From the root mala (מָלַא) = fill, fulfill. Filling someone's hands is the Biblical Hebrew idiom for ordaining that person as a priest.)4
And God spoke to Moses, saying: Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the chataat bull, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread, and assemble the whole community at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. (Leviticus 8:1-3)
Moses washes the five men who are being ordained as priests, dresses them in their official vestments, and anoints them and the sanctuary and its altar. Then come the fire-offerings: first a chataat with a bull, to atone for anything the new priests might have done wrong inadvertently; then an olah with a ram.
Then [Moses] offered the second ram, the ram of milu-im, and Aaron and his sons leaned their hands on the head of the ram. And Moses slaughtered it, and took some of its blood and placed it on the edge of Aaron's right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. (Leviticus 8:22-23)
The ritual continues with both the altar and the five new priests being anointed with blood as well as oil, the fatty parts of the ram burned into smoke to please God, and the meat of the ram roasted for Aaron and his sons to eat in the holy place at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.
If our goal is to become "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6), then we need to give milu-im, ordination-offerings, whenever our hands are filled—i.e. whenever we receive authority to act in the public sphere.
What can we give today in return for the grant of authority? Humble service, regular prayers or meditations on becoming worthy, and the sacrifice of stepping down again at the right time.
When we have opportunities to elect people to positions of authority, may we choose leaders who will serve with humility, act for the good of everyone, and give a higher priority to the well-being of their people than to re-election.
Ancient Israelites who wanted to give God fire-offerings, offerings of the heart, could come to the altar and follow the established rituals. They knew what to do; and the death, blood, and smoke made the rituals more impressive.
Today we have to think harder about our practices. Yet we can still give six kinds of offerings to the divine, with the fire of our hearts. We can practice rising above selfishness (olah), give allegiance (minchah), cultivate wholeness through thanks and generosity (shelamim), repair mistakes (chataat), undo guilt (asham), and turn our positions of authority into holy ordinations (milu-im).
Let's keep on giving our own offerings! And may the whole world someday become a holy nation.
- See my posts Vayikra & Tzav: Fire Offerings Without Slaughter, Part 1 and Pinchas: Aromatherapy.
- An individual must bring an olah at the end of a period of social isolation because of seclusion following childbirth (Leviticus 12:1-8), because of the skin disease tza-arat (Leviticus 14:1-11 and 9-20), because of genital discharges that require staying away from the sanctuary (Leviticus 15:13-15 and 28-30), and because of a nazirite vow (Numbers 6:9-14). A new priest brings an olah for his ordination (Leviticus 8:18-21).
- Leviticus 7:15-17.
- For more details about the ordination of the first priests, see my posts Tzav: Oil and Blood and Tzav: Seven Days of Filling Up.
Repost: Ha-azinuOctober 9, 2019 at 1:37 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Most years the Torah portion Ha-azinu ("Use your ears") is read the week before Yom Kippur, but in this new year of 5780 it comes afterward.
I did not prepare for Yom Kippur this time, except to find a synagogue in Prague where my husband and I could go. I did not review my deeds of the past year or determine where I had missed the mark. I did not ask anyone for forgiveness (though when a friend reached out to me, I did have an honest conversation and forgive her, and I honor her for that). I did not reconsider my relationship with God.
I was too busy moving and packing and planning for the big change in our lives, and then I was too busy with the beginning of our journey.
I have continued to say a few prayers every morning, and blessings before every meal, but I have not been to a Shabbat service for the past two months.
In Prague I have been grateful for all the Czechs who speak English, and for the English translations on some plaques, brochures, and menus. I have also been surrounded by people speaking a language I cannot begin to understand, and writing in a language I can neither pronounce nor decipher.
But when we went to the Jerusalem Synagogue, and I saw Hebrew texts from the psalms on the walls. I could read them! Softly I began singing a psalm to myself, uplifted not only by the beautiful 1906 Neo-Moorish synagogue building, but by the words in the universal language of the Jewish religion.
On Yom Kippur, we went to a service led by a small congregation in the Maisel Synagogue, built in 1592 in the Renaissance style. The building is part of the Jewish Museum except on Saturdays and Jewish holidays, when the Bejt Praha congregation uses it for its original purpose. We will come back another day to tour the whole building and look and the displays, but on Yom Kippur we sat on folding chairs in the middle of the echoing central hall, and sang prayers.
Although the congregation had hired an American rabbi who spoke English, the prayer books were in Czech and Hebrew. Whenever the rabbi or the cantor began to sing, we could find the right prayer in Hebrew. Most of the melodies were also familiar. We joined in the singing, and their community was also our community for a while.
I have been happy exploring Prague, not worrying about atonement, so I could not plead with God in the spirit of the holy day. But praying in the old synagogue with other Jews brought me comfort and reminded me of God.
After Yom Kippur ended, I polished up my 2012 post on this week's Torah portion, which considers meeting God in a desolate place without comfort, a place where we all find ourselves at some point in our lives. Click on Ha-azinu: The Tohu Within, to read it.
Repost: Ki TeitzeiSeptember 11, 2019 at 9:55 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Our adventure begins before dawn. Everything we still own that we are not taking on the airplane tomorrow is now packed away in our storage unit. (We also loaned our car to our son and daughter-in-law.) At 5:00 a.m. the motel shuttle will take us to the airport, and we will fly the first leg of our trip: Portland, Oregon, to Boston, Massachusetts. This is the trip we have spent years waiting for, the one that will eventually take us to Israel.
Here is my 2015 post on this week's Torah portion: Ki Teitzei: Crossing Gender Lines.
Esther: Stupid DecisionsMarch 19, 2019 at 11:01 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Purim, a Jewish holiday on the 14th of Adar (March 20-21 this year), revolves around the book of Esther, an imaginative farce set in Shushan, one of the capitals of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia (553-333 BCE).
The real kings of this empire were smarter than the average dictator. The founder, Cyrus I, encouraged the fealty of the many ethnic groups in his lands by granting them local autonomy and helping them rebuild their old temples. Darius I recruited administrators and soldiers from many ethnic groups. His son Xerxes I (reign 486-465 BCE), called Achashveirosh in the book of Esther, continued these astute policies of cultural and religious tolerance, making it easier to rule the world's biggest empire to date.
The real King Achashveirosh/Xerxes also successfully crushed revolts in Egypt and Babylon. He built gigantic palaces in two of his five capital cities, Persepolis and Susa/Shushan. He kept a large harem but had only one queen, a Persian noblewoman named Amestris. Xerxes seems to have been a competent political leader with a taste for the standard royal luxuries.
But in the book of Esther, King Achashveirosh is, above all, stupid. His stupid decisions drive a plot of near-catastrophes and amazing reversals.
On the evening of Purim we read and perform the book of Esther, enjoying every comic moment. Late the next afternoon there is a traditional seudah shlishit, a "third meal" which is supposed to be second in importance only to the seder meal on Passover. Unlike the Passover seder, the Purim seudah has no ritual text. But maybe this year it could be a time to discuss some of the stupid rulings the fictionalized king makes—and how easy it is to make similar errors today.
The book of Esther opens with King Achashveirosh spending lavishly on a 180-day drinking feast for his administrators and noblemen, followed by a seven-day drinking feast for the entire male population of Shushan.
And the drinking was according to the dat: There is no constraint! (Esther 1:8)
dat (דָּת) = (plural datim, דָּתִים) rule, law, regulation, edict, decree. (From the Persian word data.)
The word dat is used only in biblical passages written after the Persian Empire took over the Neo-Babylonian Empire and its formerly Israelite territory circa 539 BCE. Dat appears 20 times in the book of Esther. During the course of the story, King Achashveirosh (who likes to drink) issues six new datim on impulse, without constraints such as getting information or thinking things over.
Dat 1
On the seventh day, as the king was feeling good with wine, he said … to bring Vashti, the queen, before the king in her royal crown, to display her beauty to the peoples and the officials, since she was good-looking. (Esther 1:11)
Vashti refuses.1 Achashveirosh is furious.
But the king spoke to the wise men … because this was the king's practice, [to come] before all experts on dat and judgement. (Esther 1:13)
Consulting legal advisors on what to do about this perceived insult from the queen seems like a wise and sensible move—as long as one has competent advisors. King Achashveirosh has seven, but only one speaks: Memukhan, who declares that in order to prevent noblewomen throughout the empire from getting uppity, Vashti must be severely punished. Memukhan proposes a new dat declaring that Vashti is dethroned, divorced, deprived of her land, and banned from the king's presence. Achashveirosh agrees with no further thought.
Today, when do we (or our rulers) act on impulse, following the lead of the first person to speak, without pausing to solicit other opinions? Do we fail to express our own viewpoints when we are given the opportunity to speak?
Dat 2
After a while Achashveirosh misses Vashti. The real Achaemenid kings chose all their queens from seven noble Persian families, but in the book of Esther the king's servants suggest holding a beauty contest to pick the next queen. Each of the many finalists would spend a night with the king. Achashveirosh jumps on this idea without consulting his legal advisors, and issues a new dat declaring the contest and its procedures. Eventually he chooses Esther, the adopted daughter of her uncle Mordecai, a Jew who "sits in the gate" of Shushan as a judge.
Today, when do we pick our romantic partners, business associates, or even presidents based on their looks and charm, without considering any possible consequences?
Dat 3
For no apparent reason, the king picks a self-centered man named Haman as his new viceroy, and orders everyone in the king's gate to kneel and bow down with their faces touching the ground when Haman passes through. In the Torah this is the position of humility before God—which might explain why Mordecai refuses to do it.
When the king's other servants tell Haman that Mordecai is ignoring the dat about bowing because he is a Jew, Haman decides to wipe out all the Jews in the Persian Empire.
Then Haman said to King Achashveirosh: "There is a certain people, scattered and separate from the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their datim are different from all [other] peoples', and the datim of the king they do not follow. So it is not suitable for the king to leave them in peace." (Esther 3:8)
Achashveirosh does not ask which group Haman is talking about. He does not ask which of the king's datim its members are violating, or why. And as usual, he does not talk to anyone else to get another side of the story. For someone unaccustomed to thinking, it is enough that these people are different. Unlike the real kings of the Persian Empire, the Achashveirosh character is easily frightened by diversity.
When do we react with fear (or fear disguised as resentment) because certain people look different, or speak a different first language, or adhere to a different religion?
Dat 4
Given the king's usual blank state of mind, Haman's simple scare tactic might be enough. But the viceroy adds a bribe, promising to pay 10,000 silver disks into the royal treasury if the king commands the extermination of this unnamed people. Without asking a single question, without thinking about justice or remembering his family's tradition of religious tolerance, King Achashveirosh hands over his signet ring to Haman.
And scrolls were sent out by the hand of the runners to every single province of the king [with the order] to destroy, to slay, and to exterminate all the Jews … on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder them. A copy of the writing was to be given as a dat in every single province and shown to all the peoples, to be prepared for this day. (Esther 3:13-14)
When do we abandon our identities, giving the equivalent of our signet rings to others, for financial reasons? For other reasons that would not hold up to scrutiny? Do we ever wonder if we are violating our own principles?
Dat 5
Mordecai begs Esther to intercede with the king. Much drama ensues, with two intertwining plot lines. Haman has just erected a stake for impaling Mordecai when he is forced to publicly honor the Jew for saving the king's life. Meanwhile Esther uses courage and cleverness to get Achashveirosh and Haman where she wants them.2
At her second private drinking feast for the king and his viceroy, Esther asks King Achashveirosh for her life and the lives of her people.
"Because we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, to be exterminated!" (Esther 7:4)
Still oblivious, the king asks her who ordered such a thing.
And Esther said: "The man, the oppressor and enemy, is this evil Haman!" (Esther 7:6)
Achashveirosh believes her at once and, as usual, asks no follow-up questions. He has Haman impaled on his own stake. It is sheer good fortune that Esther is correct and Haman is indeed the malefactor.
When Esther asks the king to revoke the dat about killing Jews on the 13th of Adar, we learn about another standing rule:
… a writing that was written in the name of the king and sealed with the signet ring of the king, there is no way to reverse. (Esther 8:8)
This dat would be ridiculous in a real government. But it does express the truth that some actions have irrevocable consequences. We insult someone, and the person never forgets it. We make a mistake or pass a law that results in someone's death, and nothing can bring the person back to life.
King Achashveirosh gives Mordecai his signet ring and invites him and Esther to write any new dat they like to compensate for the dat about exterminating Jews on the 13th of Adar. A dat goes out giving Jews permission to kill anyone who tries to attack them on that day.
And in every province and in every city where the word and the dat of the king reached, there was gladness and joy for the Jews, a drinking feast and a holiday. And many of the peoples of the land pretended to be Jews, because terror of the Jews had fallen upon them. (Esther 8:17)
Jews all over the empire attack and kill their enemies on the 13th of Adar. There is no due process, no trials to establish guilt or innocence, no follow-up on anyone the Jews accuse who manages to escape. Mob violence rules the day. The king's fifth new dat is an arguably stupid way to prevent a one-day genocide.
When do we, like Achashveirosh, make excuses for violence perpetrated by people who have suffered from discrimination and persecution? When do we, like Esther and Mordecai, use positions of power to improve the welfare of our own people without seeking justice for all people?
Dat 6
Achashveirosh tells Esther that the Jews of Shushan alone have killed 500 men in addition to Haman's ten sons, and asks her if she has any other requests.
And Esther said: "If it please the king, may it be granted to the Jews in Shushan to do tomorrow as well the same as the dat of today, and may the ten sons of Haman be impaled on the stake." And the king said to have it done thus, and the dat was given out in Shushan … (Esther 9:13-14)
The Jews of Shushan take this opportunity to kill another 300 men.
Today, when do we agree to do something merely to please a person who dazzles us, without considering whether it is ethical?
The six new datim King Achashveirosh issues in the book of Esther illustrate that stupid decisions come from:
- acting on impulse in moments of anger or fear,
- taking one person's word for something without checking,
- not collecting enough information, and
- failing to consider our own ethical principles.
Someday may we all learn to be smarter than King Achashveirosh.
- Midrash Rabbah Esther (commentary from the 6th to 11th centuries CE) said that Vashti's refusal was justified because the king was ordering her to display herself wearing her crown and nothing else.
- Before Esther can speak to Achashveirosh, she must risk her life; there is already a dat that anyone who enters the king's inner court without being summoned is put to death unless the king extends his golden scepter. Never mind if there is an imperial emergency; Achashveirosh does not want to be bothered by inconvenient news. When do we disable ourselves by going into denial? When do we make life more difficult by trusting someone who ignores facts to be in charge?
Haftarat Vayehi—Kings: Last WordsJanuary 12, 2017 at 7:40 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Every week of the year has its own Torah portion (a reading from the first five books of the Bible) and its own haftarah (an accompanying reading from the books of the prophets) in the Jewish tradition. This week's Torah portion is Vayechi (Genesis 47:28-50:26), and the haftarah is 1 Kings 2:1-12.
Sometimes a deathbed scene is silent; the dying person is unable to speak, or cannot even recognize the one waiting and hoping for a goodbye. But sometimes there are last words.These words might express acknowledgement, affection, even appreciation. Or the dying person might complain, give advice, or issue an order. Giving a deathbed blessing is different from extracting a deathbed promise.
The Hebrew Bible offers two complete deathbed scenes: Jacob's speeches to his twelve sons in this week's Torah portion, and David's final words to his son Solomon in this week's haftarah.
The Torah portion Vayechi offers three stories of the death of Jacob (also called "Israel"). In the first, Jacob gives an extremely polite order.
And the time came close for Israel to die, and he summoned his son Joseph, and he said to him: "If, please, I have found favor in your eyes, please place your hand under my thigh and do with me chesed and fidelity: please do not bury me in Egypt. When I lie down with my fathers, then take me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place." And he [Joseph] said: "I myself will do as you have spoken". And he [Jacob] said: "Swear to me!" And he swore to him. And Israel bowed down at the head of the bed. (Genesis 47:29-31)
chesed (חֶסֶד) = expected kindness; kindness out of loyalty to a family member or treaty partner.
In Egypt, Joseph is the pharaoh's viceroy, and his father Jacob is only a guest. Although Jacob uses subservient language, he still reminds Joseph that he owes his father loyalty. Then he extracts a deathbed promise from Joseph: to bury him in Canaan, in the cave of Machpelah where Jacob's parents and grandparents are buried.
And it happened after these things, someone said to Joseph: "Hey! Your father is weakening." So he took his two sons with him, Menasheh and Efrayim. And Jacob was told: "Hey! Your son Joseph has come to you. And Israel mustered his strength and sat up on the bed. (Genesis 48:1-2)
In this second story, Jacob adopts Joseph's two sons, giving them each a share of his estate. He kisses them, then blesses Joseph and his sons: the ultimate expression of acknowledgement and appreciation.
But Jacob has eleven other sons, and he addresses all twelve sons in a third deathbed story.
And Jacob summoned his sons, and he said: "Gather and I will tell you what will meet you in the end of days." (Genesis 49:1)
Jacob delivers a long poem with a prophecy about the tribe that will descend from each of his sons. Only one remark is unmistakably about the son himself: a complaint about Reuben.
For when you climbed up on the lying-down place of your father
That was when you profaned it. My couch he climbed! (Genesis 49:4)
Jacob still holds a grudge against Reuben for having intercourse with Jacob's concubine Bilhah some 40 years earlier1. At the conclusion of the poem, a sentence that scholars attribute to a later redactor of the Hebrew Bible credits Jacob with blessing all his sons.
All these are the tribes of Israel, twelve, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them, each one according to his blessing he blessed them. (Genesis 49:28)
Finally Jacob returns to the subject most on his mind.
Vayetzav them, and he said to them: "I am being gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers, in the cave … And Jacob finished letzavot with his sons, and he gathered his feet into the bed, and he expired, and he was gathered to his people. (Genesis 49:29, 49:33)
Vayetzav (וַיְצַו) = And he commanded, and he ordered. (From the root verb tzivah (צִוָּה) = commanded.)
letzavot (לְצַוֺּת) = Commanding, giving orders. (Also from the root verb tzivah.)
In his three deathbed speeches, Jacob expresses acknowledgement and appreciation of his twelve sons (and two of his grandsons) by blessing them. He complains about Reuben. He gives prophecies rather than advice. And he repeats his orders about where he must be buried, but he has no other final requests.
And David came close to the time of death, vayetzav his son Solomon, saying: I am going according to the way of all the earth. And you must be strong and you must be an adult. (1 Kings 2:1-2)
David's first command or order to Solomon sounds more like advice. Now that his young son has become the king of Israel, he must behave like a strong adult.
Next come two sentences in a different linguistic style, using synonyms in multiple phrases. Modern scholar Robert Alter has argued that these verses were added later by the editor of Deuteronomy, in order to improve David's reputation.
And you must guard the custody of God, your god, to walk according to Its ways, to guard Its decrees, Its commandments, and Its rules, and Its admonitions, as written in the Teaching of Moses, so that you shall act with insight in everything that you do and everywhere you turn. So that God will establish Its word that It spoke concerning me, saying: if your descendants guard the way they take before Me faithfully, with all their heart and with all their soul—saying: yours will not be cut off from upon the throne of Israel. (1 Kings 2:3-4)
David reminds Solomon that as king, he must be a guardian of the religion of Israel, and base his own royal decisions on its rules. Then he gives the reason for his pious advice: so that his descendants to rule as kings of Israel forever.
The language of David's deathbed speech reverts to a simpler style as he remembers the worst part of his life, when his beloved older son Absalom staged a coup and took over Jerusalem. Now he broods about unfinished business from those days.
He tells his son Solomon:
And furthermore, you know what Joab son of Tzeruyah did to me, what he did to two commanders of armies of Israel, to Avneir son of Neir and to Amasa son of Yeter: he killed them and he shed the blood of war beshalom…(1 Kings 2:5)
beshalom (בְּשָׁלֺם) = in peace, in peacetime.
David became the king of all Israel through a treaty with his opponent's general, Avneir. Then David's general, Joab, assassinated Avneir.2
About 20 years later, Absalom usurped his father's throne. David fled with his supporters, including Joab. When David's army defeated Absalom's, Joab quickly killed Absalom despite David's order to the contrary.3 After David was reinstalled as king, he pardoned Absalom's general, Amasa, but this did not stop Joab from murdering him under the cover of a friendly embrace.4 David did not dare punish Joab for either killing.
And so you must act in accordance with your wisdom, and you must not let his gray hair go down beshalom to Sheol. (1 Kings 2:6)
Even as David criticizes Joab for killing two generals in times of peace, he orders Solomon to kill Joab in peacetime—and make sure he does not die peacefully.
But with the sons of Barzillai of the Gilead, you shall do chesed. And they must eat at your table, because they came close to me when I fled from Absalom, your brother. (1 Kings 2:7)
While Absalom controlled Jerusalem, Barzillai had fed David and his men in exile at Machanayim. When David returned to the capital, he promised to reward Barzillai and provide for his son.5 Now David orders his son Solomon to honor that promise.
Then he issues a third command. When David fled from Jerusalem, Shimi son of Geira hurled stones and insults at him on the road.6 When he returned in triumph, Shimi apologized for his wrongdoing, accompanied by a thousand Benjaminites who offered to serve King David. David had little choice but to accept the apology and swear not to execute him.7 But David still resents Shimi.
So you must not leave him unpunished, because you are a wise man, and you know what you will do to him and send down his gray hair in blood to Sheol. (1 Kings 2:9)
That is the last thing David says before he dies. Once again, he compliments his son for being wise enough to figure out how to carry out his father's revenge, but does not trust him to make his own decision.
And David slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the City of David. (1 Kings 2:10)
His acknowledgement of Solomon's wisdom is overshadowed by his demands that Solomon carry out his orders, including finding pretexts to execute two powerful men. Is David so self-centered that his only concern on his deathbed is making his successor promise to avenge him? Or is David urging Solomon to get rid of Joab and Shimi before they make Solomon suffer, too?
Either way, David's death is not peaceful. He expresses appreciation for Solomon's wisdom only in order to assure him he can carry out his father's commands. He complains bitterly about Joab and Shimi. He gives Solomon advice about following his religion, but he also issues commands about killing Joab, rewarding Barzillai, and killing Shimi. His last thoughts are about murder and revenge.
Although Jacob is self-centered earlier in his life, on his deathbed he has a broader view than David. His only command concerns his own burial. He is affectionate with one of his sons, Joseph, and two grandsons. He blesses them, and gives prophecies and blessings to his other sons, despite his complaint about Reuben. Jacob dies with dignity, passing on more blessings than obligations to the next generation.
I pray that my own last words (many years from now, God willing!) will be only blessings. And in case I am not granted a deathbed scene in which I can speak to those I am leaving, I am resolved to express acknowledgement and appreciation every day, and avoid complaining about people and giving excessive advice. May the Holy One grant me the strength!
1 Genesis 35:22.
2 After the death of King Saul, David took control of Judah and Saul's son Ish-Boshet took over the Israelite lands to the north. For two years they fought for the kingship of all Israel, until Ish-Boshet's general, Avneir, persuaded him to let David be the king. Avneir made a treaty with David, but afterward Joab tracked him down and assassinated him. David cursed Joab, but did not dare demote him. (2 Samuel 3:6-34)
Later, King David got Bathsheba pregnant, and used General Joab to get rid of her husband Uriah. (2 Samuel 11:1-21) After that, the already powerful Joab was ungovernable.
3 2 Samuel 18:5-17.
4 After Joab kills Absalom, David sends a message to Absalom's general, Amasa. "And to Amasa you shall say: Aren't you my own bone and flesh? May God do this and more to me if you do not become my army commander for all time instead of Joab! (2 Samuel 19:14) David succeeds in recruiting Amasa as one of his own commanders, but his attempt to replace Joab fails; when they are chasing down a band of rebels, Joab tricks Amasa by reaching to kiss him with one hand and knifing him with the other (2 Samuel 20:8-13).
5 2 Samuel 19:32-39.
6 2 Samuel 16:5-8.
7 2 Samuel 19:17-24. When David became bedridden and his older son Adoniyah made a bid for the kingship, Shimi joined Solomon's faction (1 Kings 1:8).
A Hanging Judge?March 20, 2016 at 10:51 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
Tags: death, mourning, names of God, religion
What do you say when someone dies?
Jewish tradition provides three answers. When you first hear of someone's death, you say "Barukh dayan ha-emet", usually translated as "Blessed is the true judge".
When you speak to a mourner (someone close to the person who died), you say "Hamakom yenacham etkhem betokh avalai Tziyon viYrushalayim", usually translated as "May God comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem"; or "Zikhrono/zikhronah livrakhah", usually translated as "May his/her memory be for a blessing." (I rephrase this as "May your memory of him/her be a blessing.")
My father, William R. Backer, died on Friday, March 11, at age 88. I was fortunate to spend the last four days of his life with him, and I hope that someday, many years from now, I can die with similar grace and acceptance, noticing interesting things in the room and smiling when someone holds my hand.
I am glad to receive condolences like "May you be comforted" and "May his memory be a blessing". But the initial statement at the news of a death, "Barukh dayan ha-emet", has always irritated me. I am still wrestling with it.
"Barukh dayan ha-emet" (or sometimes Barukh dayan emet) is an excerpt from a longer blessing recited by mourners at a Jewish funeral, a blessing prescribed by Rabbi Akiva in the Talmud, Berachot 46b. The long version includes other names for God according to the customary formula, but does not explain why we conclude by calling God dayan ha-emet.
Barukh (בָּרוּךְ) = blessed. In Jewish prayer, Barukh is the first word of a blessing recited to thank or praise God. After that first word of appreciation, we give one or more names of God, then state the act of God that we are appreciating. For example, before I eat a handful of blueberries, I say "Blessed are You, God…Creator of fruit of the tree."
dayan (דַּיָּן) = judge; one who passes sentence. (From the root verb din (דִּין) = judged, made legal rulings.)
ha-emet (הָאֱמֶת) = the truth; honesty; what is confirmed; the quality of dependability, reliability, or consistency. (From the same root as amen (אָמֵן) = Yes indeed!)
The sentence Barukh dayan ha-emet implies an anthropomorphic god who judges individual people, decides when to sentence them to death, and always makes the true (correct, honest, dependable, consistent) decision—in other words, the right decision.
Yet we can all think of individuals who deserved to live longer, from innocent infants to adults who were still improving the lives of others. Why should God judge that these people deserve death, by fatal illness or by other means?
Barukh dayan ha-emet is an example of the classic Problem of Evil: If God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and personal, why is this world flawed? Why do bad things happen to good people?
(And in case you are wondering if death is "bad", let me add that Jews traditionally say Barukh dayan ha-emet upon first hearing of any tragedy, including a house burning down or a plague of locusts destroying a crop.)
The easy answer to the Problem of Evil is to say that "God works in mysterious ways" and does everything for a good reason. Every death and every misfortune has a meaning and a purpose, even if we will never understand it.
I reject that easy answer. I do not believe in an unresolvable paradox just because some religious authority tells me to. If an answer neither speaks to my inner heart nor makes sense to my faculty of reason, I look for another explanation.
Here are a few better ways to justify calling God "the true judge":
* "…the blessing teaches us on some psychological level to acknowledge that the binary opposites of Creation, e.g., light and darkness, good and evil, suffering and prosperity—all serve a higher purpose and contribute toward the overall welfare of the world. Were it not for death, the world could not contain or sustain all of the world's inhabitants…" (Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel)
Yes, we could not be fully human without the existence of both good and evil, and the world could not function without light and darkness, birth and death. But if everyone must die to make room for new human beings, then why can't all decent people die painlessly at age 120?
* "…God has given and God has taken; may the name of God be blessed." (Book of Job, 1:21)
Job's pious statement is the source for many commentators who urge us to bless God for everything, good and bad. I can see that blessing God for everything is a useful reminder that we are not in control. But what kind of god are we blessing?
* "Emet is one of the 105 metaphorical names for God in Judaism. …Dayan, 'Judge,' is another fitting name, as an anthropomorphic metaphor for how we feel—that a difficult verdict has entered our own lives—loss, death, the departure and ascent of a soul beyond our world of experience…" (Rabbi Goldie Milgram) (Also see her book Living Jewish Life Cycle.)
Rabbi Milgram continues by hinting that there are tasks for a soul after death. While I cannot follow her there, I can at least relate to the idea that we assign anthropomorphic names to God in order to express our own feelings about something bigger than we are.
Why do we call God dayan? The Hebrew Bible frequently depicts God as judging both individuals and nations. When God's judgment is favorable, God provides rain for crops, fertility, and protection from enemies. When God's judgment is unfavorable, God sends a fatal disease or an enemy army. In the next millennium, the Talmud continued to accept an anthropomorphic god as the judge of the world, and many humans accept it today.
Ha-emet is merely a noun form of emet. Calling God ha-emet is declaring that God is honest, dependable, and/or consistent. These are all desirable traits in a deity, but they do not mitigate God's role as one who passes death sentences—especially when so many deaths seem arbitrary.
It's about time we give up on the paradox called the Problem of Evil, and define the word "God" a different way. If calling God a reliable judge is an anthropomorphism, so is calling God omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and personal. After all, power, knowledge, benevolence, and personal attention are all human qualities. How tempting it is to project these qualities onto a big screen and attribute them to God!
My father was lucky that he lived to age 88, and that his final illness was relatively brief. I am grateful for that, though I cannot direct my gratitude toward an outsized, humanoid god.
If I am emet (honest), I cannot say that God is either a dayan (judge and executioner) or emet (reliable and consistent rather than arbitrary).
So I have decided I will no longer say Barukh dayan ha-emet. The next time I hear that someone has died, I will stick to "May his/her memory be a blessing" and "May God comfort you". Because comfort can come from a non-anthropomorphic God.
Stories from Eve's TreeMarch 10, 2013 at 11:02 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
A story as old as the Talmud says that when Abraham and Sarah went to Egypt, and Abraham suddenly noticed his wife was beautiful, he hid her in a casket and tried to smuggle her across the border.
What happened next? Five women who were certified last year as maggidot ("tellers" of Jewish stories and Torah) have put our own spin on the ancient tale. We'll present it this Saturday, March 16, in a show called "Stories from Eve's Tree". In between scenes about the dubious border crossing, we'll tell other tales about how the lives of women are hidden and revealed—-traditional stories, personal stories, and stories about characters in the Torah as we imagine them. For this show, I wrote a story about about Lot and his wife when they imitate Abraham and Sarah, with hilarious results.
If you can be in Portland, Oregon, this Saturday night, come to "Stories from Eve's Tree" at 7:30 p.m. Here's the poster: SFET flyer
And here's the link to our website: www.storiesfromevestree.com
If you can't be in Portland on March 16, stay tuned! We are forming a troupe and taking this show on the road.
Becoming a MaggidJanuary 15, 2012 at 3:18 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
I am preparing for my certification on January 29 as a maggid (or maggidah, the feminine form in Hebrew). So I decided to look up what a maggid does in the Torah. The word first shows up when Pharaoh tells Joseph his two dreams: one about seven scrawny cows eating up seven fat cows, and one about seven withered ears of grain eating up seven fat ears of grain.
And I spoke to the soothsayers, but none of them was a maggid for me. (Genesis/Bereishit 41.24)
maggid = telling; an announcer, reporter, explainer, interpreter (from the root verb naggid = to tell)
Joseph's interpretation of the dreams rings true for Pharoah, so he is a good maggid.
The word maggid does not appear again until the book of Judges, when Samson poses a riddle to 30 guests at his wedding party. If they guess the answer to the riddle by the end of the seven-day party, he will give them 30 suits of clothing, but if they fail, they will give Samson 30 suits of clothing. The guests learn the answer by cheating, and Samson, in a rage, kills 30 men in another town and strips off their clothing to give the wedding guests.
… and he took their clothes and he gave the sets of clothing to the tellers (maggidai) of the riddle. (Judges/Shoftim 14:19)
In this reference, as in the story of Joseph, a maggid is someone who interprets a mystery. But we get another meaning of the word maggid in the second book of Samuel, which refers several times to messengers describing events to King David. A young Amelekite maggid brings David the crown of King Saul, and gives his eye-witness account of how Saul was fatally wounded in battle, and asked someone to finish him off. The maggid claims he himself did the deed—a mistake, since David responded by having the maggid killed. Later David explains that the maggid thought he was bringing good news, but David did not see it that way. This is a good reminder to me that the same story will be received differently by every listener.
Someone bringing news is called a maggid twice during the struggle between David and his son Absalom for the kingship. One maggid reports to David that the hearts of the Israelite men are turning toward Absalom; David takes this bit of interpretation seriously and flees Jerusalem. Another maggid reports to David's general Joab, describing how he encountered Absalom riding a mule, and when Absalom 's long hair was caught in some tangled tree branches, his mule kept on going, leaving Absalom hanging by the hair. Joab takes this comic story seriously, finds Absalom hanging by the hair, and stabs him to death.
The book of Jeremiah also uses the word maggid to mean a messenger who tells the news orally. But the word acquires more gravity in the book of Isaiah, where God calls Itself a maggid.
I told of the first things, and they came to be; now I am a maggid of new things, before they sprout up, I announce. (Isaiah/Yeshayahu 42:9)
I am God, speaking rightly; a maggid of uprightness. (Isaiah 45:19)
I am a maggid from the beginning to the end, and from the origin of things that had not happened. (Isaiah 46:10)
So in the Hebrew bible, a maggid interprets dreams and riddles; tells eyewitness stories of real events; and (when God is a maggid) foretells the future—or speaks the future into reality.
In the Talmud, a maggid told stories (aggadah, an Aramaic word from the same Hebrew root word as maggid) to communicate subtle truths, while a darshan explained religious laws and technical points in the Torah. The book that Jews still read at Passover is the haggadah (also from the same root as maggid) and everyone at the table who helps to to tell the story of the Exodus is a maggid.
By the Middle Ages, a maggid was an itinerant preacher who quoted from the Torah and offered his own interpretations, and also told other Jewish stories, in order to inspire uneducated Jews to become more devout. A darshan gave the equivalent of a sermon at Jewish services, speaking about the weekly Torah portion and finding an inspiring message for the congregation.
The work of the maggid reached its greatest glory in Eastern Europe during the 17th through 19th centuries, when the chassidic movement fostered leaders who combined the jobs of maggid, darshan, and rabbi.
The old Eastern European model of the maggid faded away during the 20th century. But now a new interest in the maggidic calling is rising, and I know of at least two formal programs to train maggids. I am one of seven women who are completing the first two-year training program offered by Rabbi David Zaslow and professional storyteller Devorah Zaslow.
In some ways I have already been serving as a maggid. This blog, now in its third year, is a series of
drashot (or "drashes", in colloquial American Jewish parlance): commentary on Torah portions that explores meanings we can consider today. I have also been a darshan (one of many!) for my congregation, P'nai Or of Portland, for many years. And my Torah monologues are a creative form of drashot. The only part of a maggid's job that I used to lack was Jewish storytelling. During the last two years, while I have been studying with David and Devorah Zaslow, my drashot have become deeper, and I have learned how tell traditional Jewish stories. (I always rewrite the stories to make them more interesting or meaningful to me and my audience—but that, too, is part of the Jewish storytelling tradition!)
This January 27-29, in Portland, Oregon, the seven of us graduating from the maggid program will lead both Friday evening and Saturday morning Shabbat services, using both traditional liturgy and some creative approaches to prayers, and giving seven drashot on different pieces of the Torah portion for that week, Bo (Come!). That Saturday evening we'll tell Jewish stories in a storytelling concert, and on Sunday we'll have our graduation ceremony.
Because I need to spend all my spare time the next two weeks preparing for the big graduation weekend, I will not be posting any blogs on the first two Torah portions of the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read my previous blogs on the Torah portions Shemot and Va-Eira, go to http://www.mtorah.com and click on the tab "Blogs by Torah Portion".
And for my next blog? Part of my preparation will be writing a four-minute drash on one of the inner meanings of the locust plague in Bo. Look for it in blog form at the end of the month!
Meanwhile, I have become more aware that human beings not only need to tell stories, but we need to hear and read stories to help us interpret our own inner stories, to help us interpret our dreams and our mysterious yearnings and the personal histories we are continually rewriting for ourselves. Ultimately, maybe good stories have the same purpose as good religion and good psychology: the discovery of meaning in our lives.
Rebirth of Torah Sparks and Torah MonologuesApril 18, 2011 at 4:54 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
This is my new site for my blogs on the Torah portion of the week, "Torah Sparks", and my website for my Torah Monologues and creative midrash workshops.
I've been working on this new site for more than a month now, while outside sprouts slowly push out of their seeds or bulbs and up through the dirt, until finally they reach the open air and the sun turns them green.
And my dear and computer-savvy husband, Will, transferred "www.mtorah.com" to this new site just before Passover (Pesach in Hebrew). How delightfully appropriate! Not only is Passover a spring holiday, but it celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from their old life of slavery in Egypt, and how they (and everyone else who decided to join them as they left Egypt) began to learn a new way of life on the other side of the Reed Sea. In their new life, they were all to become priests and priestesses, a holy nation. And that takes a lot of learning and a lot of practice.
I'll address what "holy" means in my next regular blog, on the Torah portion named Kedoshim (Holiness).
I hope this new site will make it easier for you to find sparks of inspiration, and easier for me to continue the "holy" work I've taken on.
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.


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Letters to the editor for Saturday, July 29, 2017
Letter on wildlife preservation nonsensical
I am still shaking my head at the absurdness of a letter submitted by Kevin Crow in the Appeal's July 15 issue.
He wants President Trump to work on protecting wildlife so that he can go and kill them? Wouldn't want you to miss out on "the thrill," e.g. moose in Alaska.
Come on, guys, let's all write letters to the president urging him to halt all the other important issues he is dealing with and grant Kevin's wish. Not!
Judie Hartwick

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Agenda Item
1.1 Call to Order
1.2 Announcements
2.1 Adoption of Agenda
3.1 Approval of Minutes March 12, 2020 Work/Study Session
3.2 Approval of Minutes March 12, 2020 Regular Meeting
3.3 Approval of Minutes March 12, 2020 Closed Session
3.4 Approval of Minutes March 19, 2020 Special Meeting
3.5 Approval of Personnel (March 26, 2020)
3.6 Approval of Extra Duty Pay-Riders (March 26, 2020)
3.7 Approval of Extra Duty Pay-Clubs (March 26, 2020)
3.8 Approval of Substitutes (March 26, 2020)
3.9 Ratification of Contracts (March 26, 2020)
3.10 Approval of Middle School Football Helmets and Shoulder Pads Purchase (Second Re
3.11 Approval of LEAD Innovation Studio Lease 3-Month Extension (Second Read)
3.12 Approval of Planned Restoration of Roofs (Second Read)
3.13 Approval of Purchase of Roofing Materials for 2020 Planned Roofing Projects (Sec
3.14 Approval of Planned Replacement of Doors (Second Read)
3.15 Approval of Planned Replacement of Heating, Ventilation and Cooling (HVAC) Equip
3.16 Approval of Summer 2020 Audio/Visual System Implementations (Second Read)
3.17 Approval of Middle School Music Curriculum Revisions (Second Read)
3.18 Approval of Middle School Gifted Curriculum Revisions (Second Read)
3.19 Approval of Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment Systems (Second Read)
4.1 Approval of Consent Agenda
4.2 Approval of Bids for LEAD Innovation Studio Package 6 (Second Read)
4.3 Approval of Contracts for Probationary Teachers Gaining Tenure for 2020-2021
4.4 Approval of Probationary Teachers Contracts for 2020-2021
4.5 Approval of Contracts for District Support Staff for 2020-2021
4.6 Approval of Contracts for Nurses for 2020-2021
4.7 Recommendation from Superintendent regarding Pay for Park Hill Employees during C
5.1 COVID-19 Pandemic Matters
6.1 Letter of Agreement with EAB Global, Inc. re Superintendent Leadership Forum Memb
6.2 Letter of Agreement with Kagan Professional Development (First Read)
6.3 6th Grade College and Career Readiness Elective Curriculum (First Read)
6.4 Middle School and High School English Language Arts Novels (First Read)
7.1 Current Policy GBEAA - Park Hill Employee Assistance Program
7.2 Current Policy GCBD - Professional Staff Leaves and Absence
7.3 Current Policy GCE - Part-Time and Substitute Professional Staff Employment
7.4 Current Policy GCF - Student Teachers
7.5 Current Policy GDJ - Support Staff Work Schedules
7.6 Current Policy JCB - Intradistrict Transfers
7.7 Current Policy JEA - Compulsory and Part-Time Attendance
7.8 New Policy JECA - Admission of Students
7.9 Current Policy JECBA - Admission of Foreign Exchange Students
7.10 Current Policy JEFA - Closed Campus
7.11 Current Policy JFCH - Student Alcohol/Drug Abuse
7.12 New Policy JFCL - A+ Scholarship Program
7.13 Current Policy JG - Student Discipline
7.14 Current Policy JHG - Reporting and Investigating Child Abuse and Neglect
7.15 New Policy LEA - Student Teachers
7.16 Current Regulation GCF-R - Student Teachers
7.17 New Administrative Procedure JEA-AP1 - Compulsory and Part-Time Attendance (Part
7.18 Current Regulation JEC-R - School Admissions (Regulation)
7.19 New Administrative Procedure JECA-AP1 - Admission of Students (Foreign Exchange
7.20 Current Regulation JECBA-R - Admission of Foreign Exchange Students
7.21 Current Regulation JFCA-R - Student Dress Code
7.22 Current Regulation JFCC-R - Student Conduct on School Transportation
7.23 Current Regulation JHG-R - Reporting Child Abuse/Child Protection (Child Abuse a
8.1 Board Member Reports and Requests
9.1 Adjournment
Meeting Date:
Action Items
4.4 Approval of Probationary Teachers Contracts for 2020-2021
Strategic Plan 2018-2023
Focus Area: Employee
Key Requirements: Quality Teachers, Competitive Teacher Compensation
GCD - Professional Staff Recruiting and Hiring
Provide Name(s) of Attachments
Probationary Teachers 2020-2021
File Attachment:
Probationary Teachers 2020-2021.pdf
Provide Background Details and Rationale
Teachers with less than five (5) full years of service are appointed annually and are considered to be on probationary status. Teachers not notified of non-reappointment by April 15th are considered re-employed for the following year.
Provide Funding Source and Estimated Cost
2020-2021 Division Budget
2020-2021 Salary Schedules
Legal References
Name of Persons(s) Submitting Agenda Item with Title
Dr. Bill Redinger, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources
Presenter(s) if Presentation Anticipated
Dr. Bill Redinger, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources
It is recommended that the Park Hill Board of Education offer contracts to the list of probationary teachers as presented for the 2020-2021 school year.
Recommended By:
Signed By:
Dr. Bill Redinger - Assistant Superintendent
Signed By:
Dr. Jeanette Cowherd - Superintendent
Vote Results:
Original Motion
Kimberlee Ried
Moved, Member
Susan Newburger
seconded to approve the
motion 'It is recommended that the Park Hill Board of Education offer contracts to the list of probationary teachers as presented for the 2020-2021 school year.'. Upon a Roll-Call Vote being taken, the vote was: Aye:
The motion
7 - 0
Todd Fane
Janice Bolin
Susan Newburger
Bart Klein
Scott Monsees
Kimberlee Ried
Kyla Yamada
Powered By


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For the fifth time, leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran held the Trilateral Summit on Syria.
The goal is to speed up the process for peace in the country and reach agreements on how to deal with the refugees.
CGTN's Michal Bardavid reports from Ankara.
Follow Michal Bardavid on Twitter @michal_bardavid
To discuss:
- Metin Gurcan is a security analyst and columnist for Al-Monitor's Turkey Pulse.
- Negar Mortazavi is a diplomatic correspondent for The Independent newspaper.
- Kamal Alam is a visiting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.
- Dmitriy Frolovskiy is a political analyst.
For more:
Erdogan says Turkey-Russia-Iran summit on Syria was productive:https://t.co/cNJyOeDmgQ pic.twitter.com/7W0ZIblIOF
— TASS (@tassagency_en) September 16, 2019
The leaders of Iran, Russia and Turkey vowed on Monday to implement "concrete steps" to de-escalate the situation in Syria's Idlib province and facilitate the return of refugees. https://t.co/rQlcsgZZ4s
— euronews (@euronews) September 17, 2019


text:
Tool to visualise block distribution on Hadoop (HDFS) clusterPosted by Daniel Lanza Garcia on Wednesday, 6 April 2016
Distributed systems always bring new challenges for administrators and users. This is the case with HDFS, the default distributed file system that Hadoop uses for storing data.
In order to face these challenges, tools to facilitate administration and usage of these systems are developed. At CERN, a Hadoop service is provided and we have developed and deployed on our clusters some tools, today we present one of these tools.


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USA California North Coast Sonoma Alexander Valley
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on May 07, 2008
I never heard of this wine until a store in Vegas (2007) showed me it. Was surprised I picked up the 2001. Purple maroon in color, balance was good, and full bodied. Bouquet reminds me of a light zin. First sip is smooth, then a tang appears and has a lingering finish that shows on the middle of the tongue. But I still say this is overall smooth. Not hot either. I feel the extra aging in bottle helped smooth this wine out. Friend notes high alcohol for her; weighs in @ 14%. If you find this try it, you won't be disappointed.
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Evaluation of dysbiosis and markers of intestinal permeability in patients with ty...
- Research Grants
|Grant number:
|Support type:
|Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
|Effective date (Start):
|July 01, 2018
|Effective date (End):
|June 30, 2019
|Field of knowledge:
|Biological Sciences - Immunology
|Principal Investigator:
|Gislane Lelis Vilela de Oliveira
|Larissa Ramos Ribeiro
|Home Institution:
|Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde de Barretos Dr Paulo Prata (FACISB). Barretos , SP, Brazil
In humans, more than 100 trillion microorganisms, mainly bacteria, colonize the oral-gastrointestinal tract, and the vast majority of these reside in the distal portion of the intestine and comprise the commensal microbiota. The most important contributions of the microbiota to the host include carbohydrate digestion and fermentation, vitamin production, development of mucosal associated lymphoid tissues, polarization of specific immune responses, and prevention of pathogen colonization. However, when this relationship between host and commensal is disrupted, the microbiota may cause or contribute to the development of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes (T1D). The aim of this work is to evaluate the oral and intestinal dysbiosis in T1D patients and correlate these findings with clinical data and serum concentrations of GAD65 autoantibodies against pancreatic beta cells. The study will include 40 participants, 20 healthy control subjects and 20 T1D patients, attended at the Department of Health from Barretos and in the Medical Specialist Ambulatories. The project was submitted to the research ethics committee from Barretos Cancer Hospital and all participants will sign the informed consent form and respond a questionnaire concerning lifestyle and dietary habits. Clinical data from patients, such as disease duration, fasting blood glycemia, glycated hemoglobin, GAD65 autoantibodies, and C-peptide will be recorded. Samples of the oral mucosa and feces will be collected for the characterization of the oral and intestinal microbiota by real-time PCR, and peripheral blood samples for anti-GAD65 quantification by ELISA. The results of the oral and intestinal microbiota from patients and controls will be analyzed by using Mann-Whitney test and the correlations of the microbiota results with autoantibodies and the clinical data will be evaluated by Spearmans' test. It is expected to find differences in the composition of the oral and intestinal microbiota in T1D patients, when compared with control subjects, and possible correlations with clinical data and autoantibodies. The relationship dysbiosis with autoimmune diseases is not fully understood and possibly, immunomodulatory probiotics and microbiota transplantation may help in the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as T1D.


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ISO9002, EN46002, CE, FDA At early stage, our products were made from local timbers; after that, we made them from imported timbers of Canada du...
China (mainland)
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Offer to sell stainless kitchenware (spoons, forks, etc.).
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VNW Gift Company
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You Dear Ent. Co., Ltd.
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Evenvic Enterprise Co., Ltd.
Fa Yang Enterprise Co., Ltd.
Vogue-Mart Co., Ltd.
Fang Lin Hung Enterprise Co., Ltd.
Haikou Yidingfa Tech. Co., Ltd.
King Tong Trading Co., Ltd.


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(Yicai Global) Nov. 11 -- Alibaba's business-to-consumer e-commerce platform Tmall facilitated sales of CNY100 billion (USD14.3 billion) worth of goods in just 64 minutes this morning after its Double 11 Shopping Festival got underway at midnight.
It reached the same feat in 107 minutes last year, after taking more than nine hours in 2017 and 18 hours the year prior. In 2015, gross merchandise volume never reached the milestone.


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Give Away: Kisses from Katie
My friend Angie recently gave me this book, she told me this was my kind of book. And boy was she right. I read it in record time.
Kisses from Katie is the story of a young girl who simply said yes to God one day and then kept saying yes to Him each step of the way. Katie moved to Uganda for one year when she was 18 years old. Today she is around age 22, still living in Uganda, mother to 13 adopted African girls, and director of Amazima, a ministry that sponsors children, feeds the hungry, provides vocational training and disciples new believers.
Katie's story is a living example of audacious faith. I loved it so much, I want to give a copy away. Leave a comment with your name below. I will close the comments on Thursday and select a winner. (And if you don't win, you can purchase a copy for yourself at here.). You can also read more from Katie on her blog.


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Genpact Mega Walkin Drive for Technical Support from 16th to 19th September 2014
Genpact Mega Walkin Drive for Technical Support from 16th to 19th September 2014. Genpact Job Openings in Hyderabad for freshers as Technical Support position. Any Graduate freshers are eligible to attend this drive. Candidate Should have basic understanding of troubleshooting,MS Office. Interested and eligible candidates can directly attend the walkin interview at the below mentioned location.
|Company Name
|Any Graduate
|0 – 5 Years
|Job Location
|Job Role
|Technical Support Process
Job Description:
- Should have basic understanding of troubleshooting,MS Office.
- Should be flexible to work on e-mails and calls both.
- Ability to handle Customers query and resolve issues asap as per Standard Procedure.
- Respond to customer inquiries and problem escalations.
- Provide phone support to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues and other internet related issues.
- Maintain a thorough understanding of process and policies.
- Demonstrate innovation and intuition in identifying areas requiring operational adaptation and/or improvement
- Excellent communication skills required.
Desired Profile:
- Any Graduate
- Experienced (bpo/ technical/ semi technical)
- Good communication Skills
- Freshers with good communication skills can apply.
Genpact Walkin Details:
Walk-in Date: 16th to 19th September 2014
Interview Timings: 10:30 AM to 2 PM
Interview Venue:
Rahul Khanna (3FB-B4),
14-45 IDA Uppal, Opp NGRI
Habsiguda, HYDERABAD.
Contact Person: Hepsiba.K
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Topic: (Fleming story) Bond girl ELIMINATION
Sorry but... I've been thinking and feel that the old +1/-1 system leads to an unecessarily protracted game. So...
+1 for your favourite, -2 for the one you want to kick out.
[10] Vesper Lynd (Casino Royale)
[10] Solitaire (Live and Let Die
[10] Gala Brand (Moonraker)
[10] Tiffany Case (Diamonds are Forever)
[10] Tatiana Romanova (From Russia with Love)
[10] Honeychile Rider (Dr No)
[10] Tilly Masterson (Goldfinger)
[10] Judy Havelock (For Your Eyes Only)
[10] Mary Ann Russell (From a View to a Kill)
[10] Lisl Baum (Risico)
[10] Liz Krest (The Hildebrand Rarity)
[10] Domino Vitali (Thunderball)
[10] Vivienne Michel (The Spy Who Loved Me)
[10] Teresa (Tracy) di Vicenzo (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
[10] Kissy Suzuki (You Only Live Twice)
[10] Mary Goodnight (The Man with the Golden Gun)
[10] 'Trigger' (The Living Daylights)


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As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome
The sins of Valeant Pharmaceuticals are well known. Instead of spending to develop new drugs, Valeant bought out other drugmakers, then increased prices of lifesaving medicines by as much as 5,785 percent. Patients had no choice but to pay.
威朗制药(Valeant Pharmaceuticals)的罪恶众所周知。它不是投资研发新药,而是在收购了其他药厂之后,将救命药的价格提高了5785%。病患别无选择,只能付钱。
Valeant's chief executive, J. Michael Pearson, was hauled into a 2016 Senate hearing and verbally thrashed by lawmakers. "It's using patients as hostages. It's immoral," said Claire McCaskill, then the Democratic senator from Missouri. One executive went to prison for fraud. The company's share price collapsed.
威朗制药的首席执行官J·迈克尔·皮尔森(J. Michael Pearson)2016年被传召至参议院作证,受到议员们的猛烈抨击。"这是劫持病患。是不道德的,"时任密苏里州民主党参议员克莱尔·麦卡斯基尔(Claire McCaskill)说。公司的一名高管因欺诈罪入狱。威朗的股价暴跌。
It hadn't always been that way. Before Valeant's fall, its stock was a Wall Street darling, attracting high-profile investors who tirelessly promoted the company on financial news channels. But one investor especially avoided the spotlight — a secretive hedge fund owned by McKinsey & Company, the world's most prestigious consulting firm. McKinsey, in fact, had deep ties to the drugmaker: Four top Valeant officials, including Mr. Pearson, were McKinsey veterans, and the firm was advising Valeant on drug prices and acquisitions.
以前可不是这样。在垮台前,威朗的股票是华尔街的宠儿,吸引了一些知名投资方,他们不知疲倦地在财经新闻频道宣传这家公司。但有一个投资方小心翼翼地避开了聚光灯——全球最负盛名的咨询公司麦肯锡(McKinsey & Company)旗下一家神秘的对冲基金。事实上,麦肯锡与这家制药公司有着深厚的联系:包括皮尔森在内的四名威朗高管,都曾在麦肯锡任职,而该公司还为威朗就药品价格和收购方面提供咨询建议。
That web of relationships underscores the unusual nature of McKinsey's hedge fund, and the potential for undisclosed conflicts of interest between the fund's investments and the advice the firm sells to clients.
McKinsey is alone among the leading consulting firms in operating the hedge fund, which invests for about 30,000 current and former McKinsey partners and other employees. The fund — McKinsey Investment Office, or MIO Partners — is as opaque as its parent.
麦肯锡是唯一一家在运营对冲基金的大咨询公司,该基金为大约3万名麦肯锡现任和前任合伙人及其他员工进行投资。基金名为麦肯锡投资办公室(McKinsey Investment Office),或称MIO合伙公司(MIO Partners)——它的行事方式和母公司一样隐秘。
McKinsey does not disclose the identity of its clients — the chief executives, prime ministers and princes who seek its counsel on management best practices. And even as the firm is privy to market-moving corporate maneuvers and confidential government information, its hedge fund's investments are often secret, with a large part of its approximately $12.3 billion in holdings concealed behind a tangle of shell companies in an island tax haven in the English Channel.
As a result, any intersections between McKinsey's consulting work and the fund's investments are largely hidden.
McKinsey says the way the fund is structured and operated ensures that its employee investors do not stand to benefit from the firm's inside knowledge and consulting advice. Hedge fund managers do not coordinate with McKinsey consultants, the firm says, and about 90 percent of MIO's capital, including the Valeant investment, is managed by outside funds.
"MIO and McKinsey employ separate staffs. MIO staff have no nonpublic knowledge of McKinsey clients," the company said in a statement. "For the vast majority of assets under management, decisions about specific investments are made by third-party managers."
But those assurances of church-state separation are increasingly, and very publicly, being challenged, in Congress and in lawsuits alleging that McKinsey failed to fully disclose conflicts of interest in its work advising companies going through bankruptcy.
In one of them, a federal judge in Virginia last month reopened a coal-company bankruptcy case after learning that McKinsey had not disclosed, as required by law, that it was also among the company's secured creditors, through MIO. The secured creditors recovered the most money. "These are some of the most serious allegations that I have ever seen," said the judge, Kevin R. Huennekens.
在其中一起诉讼中,弗吉尼亚州的一名联邦法官上月重开一桩煤炭公司破产案的审理,此前他得知,麦肯锡并未根据法律要求,披露自己也是该公司的有担保债权人之一——通过MIO。"这是我所见过的最严重的指控,"法官凯文·R·许内肯斯(Kevin R. Huennekens)说。
Among the revelations in that lawsuit was that the head of McKinsey's bankruptcy practice was also a member of the hedge fund's board. Indeed, nine of the 11 people identified as MIO directors are current or former McKinsey consultants.
[McKinsey has agreed to pay $15 million to resolve a Justice Department investigation of its disclosures.]
In Puerto Rico, where McKinsey is advising a board that seeks to reduce the island's crippling debt, The New York Times reported last year that the hedge fund was invested in bonds that gave it a stake in the outcome.
Much of what the fund invests in remains concealed. But The Times uncovered some investments through interviews with former fund officials and shareholders and a review of thousands of pages of documents, including court filings, prospectuses and leaked offshore records. Those investments range from Valeant to a Nepalese casino and a stake in a fund that lent money to the man who became China's most notorious fugitive.
And while outside managers direct most of the firm's holdings, its own traders have directly invested more than $1 billion in assets like commodities, foreign currencies and government bonds. With McKinsey increasingly advising governments around the world, those direct investments, highly sensitive to government policies, create the potential for conflicts of interest.
"The mistake people make is to say, 'Well, conflicts of interest aren't so dangerous, because well-meaning professionals can navigate them objectively,'" said Daylian Cain, who teaches business ethics at the Yale School of Management. "But the research is out on this: No, they can't."
"有人存在这种错误的想法,觉得'嗯,利益冲突没那么危险,因为怀着好意的专业人士可以客观地应对它们,'"在耶鲁管理学院教授商业伦理的戴利安·凯恩(Daylian Cain)说。"但已有研究显示:不,他们办不到。"
Gaining Ground in a Talent War
McKinsey sells itself as a partnership of the best and the brightest, marshaled to confront the toughest problems. But that defining claim was threatened in the early 1990s as soaring Wall Street salaries dimmed the allure of consulting careers. One McKinsey consultant called it a "war for talent."
MIO was set up in part to attract and retain that talent, offering an in-house hedge fund that gave financial advice and had a portfolio of high-quality, low-fee funds, according to a former MIO executive.
It was a novel idea. Management consultants were not known for managing money. It also represented a broad philosophical shift at McKinsey. Tom Peters, the management guru and co-author of "In Search of Excellence," said that during his time as a McKinsey partner in the late 1970s, managers rejected the notion of having financial stakes in their clients.
这在当时是个新概念。此前管理公司很少做资金管理。它还代表着麦肯锡思维方式的一次全面转变。管理大师以及《追求卓越》(In Search of Excellence)合著者托马斯·彼得斯(Tom Peters)称,1970年代末在他任麦肯锡合伙人期间,经理们并不赞同将自己的财务利益捆绑在客户身上。
"You can't be advising people and have a fiduciary interest in the people you're advising," Mr. Peters said in an interview.
Today, on the 13th floor of an aging office building five blocks from McKinsey's home office in Midtown Manhattan, MIO oversees vast sums of money — with what appears to be considerable success.
Internal documents examined by The Times show that from 2000 to 2010, MIO's flagship fund, the Compass Special Situations Fund, had an average annual return above 9 percent, compared with a 1.6 percent loss in the S&P 500 Index. In 2008, when the broader United States stock market fell more than 36 percent, the Special Situations Fund lost about half that amount.
时报查阅的内部文件显示,2000年至2010年间,MIO的旗舰基金指南针特情基金(Compass Special Situations Fund)年回报率超过9%,相比之下同期标准普尔500指数下跌1.6%。2008年,当美国股市大盘跌幅超过36%时,特情基金的跌幅只是这个数字的大约一半。
McKinsey's main competitors, Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group, have nothing like MIO. Regulatory filings show that an outside manager, Vanguard, manages their employees' 401(k) retirement accounts.
麦肯锡的主要竞争对手贝恩咨询公司(Bain & Company)和波士顿咨询集团(Boston Consulting Group)完全没有MIO这样的公司。监管文件显示,其员工的401(k)退休账户由外部管理方先锋(Vanguard)公司打理。
But investments for McKinsey's 401(k) plan, which must be disclosed to the Department of Labor, make up only about half of MIO's assets. The rest, about $6 billion, is the private wealth of McKinsey's current and former partners, according to a disclosure to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
但麦肯锡必须向劳工部披露的401(k)计划投资,仅占MIO资产一半左右。根据向美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission,简称SEC)所作的一项披露,其余约60亿美元的资产是麦肯锡现任及前任合伙人的私有财富。
Those partners have access to a trove of inside knowledge about their clients.
At the same time, the current or former McKinsey consultants who dominate MIO's board include the leaders of the firm's wealth and asset management and energy practices, according to an S.E.C. filing.
That board structure has come under scrutiny by the Justice Department amid the lawsuits alleging that McKinsey engaged in fraud by failing to fully disclose conflicts of interest in its bankruptcy work. The three suits were brought by Jay Alix, a retired bankruptcy adviser who retains a minority interest in a consulting company he founded.
此前有诉讼称,麦肯锡未能全面披露其破产工作中的利益冲突,从而进行了欺诈,这一董事会结构也因此受到美国司法部的详细审查。这三起诉讼是由退休破产顾问杰伊·阿利克斯(Jay Alix)提起的,他在自己创立的一家咨询公司中持有少数股权。
In Virginia, the judge ordered a reopening of the bankruptcy case of Alpha Natural Resources after an official with the Justice Department's Office of the United States Trustee argued that the hedge fund was not a "blind trust," as claimed. The Justice Department pointed out that the head of McKinsey's bankruptcy practice, Jon Garcia, sat on the fund's board. Until he stepped down in 2017, Mr. Garcia received regular reports on the fund's investment decisions and ratified them, the official said.
在弗吉尼亚州,法官下令重新审理阿尔法自然资源公司(Alpha Natural Resources)的破产案件。此前,美国司法部受托人办公室的一名官员称,该对冲基金并非如其声称的那样是"盲目信托"。司法部指出,麦肯锡破产业务负责人乔恩·加西亚(Jon Garcia)是该基金董事。这位官员说,在2017年卸任之前,加西亚会定期收到有关该基金投资决定的报告,并予以批准。
In another case, the trustee's office, which oversees the bankruptcy system, said in a December court filing that McKinsey had "pervasive disclosure deficiencies" in its bankruptcy work with a Colorado coal-mining company. McKinsey, the trustee argued, should be removed from the bankruptcy case and stripped of its fees.
On Tuesday, the trustee's office announced that it had reached a $15 million settlement with McKinsey over the firm's inadequate disclosures in the three bankruptcy cases. Mr. Alix's lawsuits continue.
In a statement, McKinsey noted that the settlement did not "constitute an admission of liability or misconduct," adding that the firm had agreed to the settlement "to move forward and focus on serving its clients."
Until the flurry of attention from the bankruptcies and the Puerto Rico controversy, the very existence of McKinsey's hedge fund had largely escaped public notice. McKinsey declined to make Todd Tibbetts, the fund's longtime chief investment officer, or any other officials available for interviews for this article.
在破产案和波多黎各争议引起人们广泛关注之前,麦肯锡对冲基金的存在基本上没有引起公众的注意。麦肯锡拒绝让长期担任该基金首席投资官的托德·蒂贝茨(Todd Tibbetts)或其他任何官员就本文接受采访。
MIO's secrecy is also manifest in the location it chose to house so much of its money — at least $4 billion, according to S.E.C. filings: the tiny English Channel island of Guernsey.
An Island of Buried Treasure
Trafalgar Court is a grand name gracing a forgettable modern office building wildly out of place in the postcard-perfect town of St. Peter Port. Inside, hundreds of deskbound office workers do the work that is Guernsey's lifeblood: hiding billions of dollars from the outside world.
特拉法加庭院(Trafalgar Court)是一个响亮的名字,位于风景如画的圣彼得港,是一座令人一见难忘的现代化办公楼。在这里,成百上千的员工辛勤忙碌,维持根西岛的命脉:向外界隐瞒亿万美元。
This is the Guernsey headquarters of Northern Trust, a Chicago-based asset manager. For a price, it offers exceptional secrecy through Barfield Nominees, an obscure company it controls.
这里是总部在芝加哥的资产管理公司北方信托(Northern Trust)的根西岛总部。只要付费,它就能通过它控制的鲜为人知的巴菲尔德提名者公司(Barfield Nominees)提供极其保密的服务。
At the Guernsey Registry, there is little information on Barfield Nominees other than that it has three directors, all Northern Trust executives who work at Trafalgar Court. Douglas A. Holt, a Northern Trust spokesman, said Barfield acted as a custodian, holding assets for its clients. These assets are identified only by a number.
在根西岛注册处,关于巴菲尔德提名者公司的信息很少,只有三名董事,都是在特拉法加庭院工作的北方信托高管。北方信托的发言人道格拉斯·A·霍尔特(Douglas A. Holt)说,巴菲尔德扮演着托管人的角色,为客户持有资产。这些资产仅由数字标识。
"The identity of Northern Trust clients and their beneficial ownership is confidential," he said.
Very few documents link Barfield Nominees to McKinsey's hedge fund, but when they do, MIO money can be traced to unusual places like a casino in Kathmandu, Nepal, called the Millionaire's Club.
Then there were MIO's investments — through three Barfield Nominees numbered entities — in a Hong Kong-based asset manager called PAG, formerly Pacific Alliance Group.
The McKinsey fund took stakes in two China-focused PAG funds. In a 2010 London exchange filing, PAG disclosed that MIO had a stake of more than 10 percent in one fund, worth about $20 million. At the end of 2015, MIO also owned more than a quarter of another China-focused PAG fund.
In 2008, Pacific Alliance had made a big bet on a real estate mogul who owned a colossal office and luxury apartment complex next to the site of that year's Summer Olympics in Beijing. Court records show that it lent $30 million to a company controlled by the mogul, who had deep ties to China's intelligence community and was already notorious for allegedly orchestrating the downfall of a Beijing vice mayor with a sex tape.
PAG says it was never repaid its loan. The mogul has fled China for New York. In China, he faces corruption and rape charges, which he says are false. PAG sued him in a New York court in 2017, saying he owed it about $88 million, court records show.
His name is Guo Wengui, though he also goes by Miles Kwok. He is China's highest-profile fugitive, and for years McKinsey was, through PAG, one of his creditors, a fact hidden through Barfield Nominees. There is no evidence that McKinsey knew its investment would find its way to Mr. Guo, with whom the firm said it had no direct dealings.
他的名字叫郭文贵,又名迈尔斯·郭(Miles Kwok)。他是中国最引人注目的外逃人员,多年来,麦肯锡通过PAG是他的债权人之一,这一事实通过巴菲尔德提名者公司得以隐藏。没有证据表明麦肯锡知道其投资会落到郭文贵的手里。麦肯锡说公司与郭文贵没有直接的商业往来。
In its statement, McKinsey said the decision to use an offshore company was driven not by its hedge fund but "by our custodian and the type of investment" — in funds rather than traded securities. McKinsey's hedge fund, the statement added, is "hardly the only investment or pension fund" to use such an arrangement.
But John Christensen, a founder of the Tax Justice Network, a group based in Britain that seeks to bring more transparency to tax havens, said there was a disconnect between McKinsey's mission of spreading corporate best practices and its use of tax havens like Guernsey.
但英国税收正义网(Tax Justice Network)的创始人约翰·克里斯坦森(John Christensen)说,麦肯锡传播企业最佳实践的使命与其使用根西岛这样的避税天堂的做法存在冲突。税收正义网试图让避税天堂有更高的透明度。
"I can't think of any legitimate, genuinely economic reason for using a place like that," Mr. Christensen said.
He should know: For 11 years, Mr. Christensen was the economic adviser to Jersey, a neighboring tax haven.
The 'Pharmaceutical Enron'
The Senate hearings on Valeant Pharmaceuticals examined how the company, under Mr. Pearson's leadership, raised the price of Isuprel and Nitropress, decades-old heart medications commonly found on emergency-room crash carts.
Mr. Pearson relied on an idea he had honed as head of McKinsey's pharmaceutical practice: focusing on acquisitions of existing drugmakers instead of spending heavily to discover the next blockbuster drug.
Before buying Isuprel and Nitropress from a competitor, Valeant consulted McKinsey, which reported that the drugs had "material pricing potential," according to records obtained by the Senate.
After the acquisition, Valeant raised Isuprel's price by 720 percent, and Nitropress's by 310 percent.
As McKinsey consultants were advising Valeant in late 2014, two of MIO's funds, Compass TPM and Compass Offshore TPM, acquired an indirect stake in Valeant, through Visium Asset Management, a fund soon to implode in an insider-trading scandal.
就在麦肯锡的顾问们2014年底为威朗出谋划策时,MIO的两只基金Compass TPM和Compass Offshore TPM通过Visium Asset Management(这个基金很快就因为内幕交易丑闻而崩溃)购买了威朗的间接股权。
Through another outside hedge fund, Aristeia Capital, two other MIO funds acquired shares in Valeant in early 2015, after the company agreed to buy Dendreon, a bankrupt drugmaker. The McKinsey funds were listed among the eight noteholders of Dendreon, entitled to a portion of the $495 million, in cash and Valeant shares, that Valeant paid for the company.
2015年初,在威朗同意收购破产了的制药商Dendreon之后,MIO的另外两只基金通过另一家外部对冲基金Aristeia Capital购买了威朗的股份。这些麦肯锡基金列在Dendreon的八个票据持有者名单上,有资格得到威朗收购Dendreon时,以现金和威朗股票的形式支付的4.95亿美元的一部分。
In a statement, Aristeia said it had learned of McKinsey's role advising Valeant only when contacted by The Times. "Aristeia never sought input from MIO on potential conflicts, because MIO had no investment discretion in respect to these assets," the company said.
McKinsey, in its statement, said its hedge fund "had no input into the investment decisions made by Visium and Aristeia," its third-party managers. Valeant, now called Bausch Health, said it hadn't been advised by McKinsey on mergers and acquisitions since May 2016.
麦肯锡在声明中说,其对冲基金"没有参与基金的第三方管理公司Visium和Aristeia的投资决策"。威朗已改名为博士健康(Bausch Health),该公司说,自2016年5月以来,从未得到过麦肯锡的并购咨询服务。
By October 2015, as Valeant's share price was falling after reports about its undisclosed relationship with a mail-order pharmacy, one research firm described the company as the "pharmaceutical Enron." Enron, an energy company and McKinsey client, collapsed in 2001. Its chief executive, Jeffrey K. Skilling, another former McKinsey partner, was sent to federal prison.
到了2015年10月,威朗与一家邮购药店的秘密关系被曝光,随后公司的股价大幅下跌,一家研究公司将威朗描述为"制药业的安然(Enron)"。2001年倒闭的能源公司安然也曾是麦肯锡的客户。安然的首席执行官杰弗里·K·斯基林(Jeffrey K. Skilling)进了联邦监狱,他是另一位麦肯锡的前合伙人。
Even if the McKinsey fund's investments in Valeant were indirect, the firm's partners stood to profit from their own advice.
"You have to decide, am I a consulting firm or an investment firm?" said Charles Elson, a finance professor at the University of Delaware who focuses on corporate governance. "They're two different things."
"你需要做出决定,自己是一家咨询公司,还是一家投资公司?"特拉华大学(University of Delaware)研究公司治理的金融学教授查尔斯·埃尔森(Charles Elson)说。"两者是不同的东西。"


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