Harry Potter to How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have

Harry Potter and the . . . by J. K. Rowlings (Scholastic Trade, 2002)

Immensely popular. We’ve had extensive spontaneous discussions about if Harry is Jewish or what Jewish values are reflected in the characters (especially the value about being truthful and if it’s always the best policy). The fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is thick enough to be impressive just sitting on the coffee table. At the same time that my nine-year old was reading it, I was reading the novel, Only Yesterday, Princeton University Press, 2002, (original publication, 1945), by the Israeli writer, S. Y. Agnon. (I read his Days of Awe each year before the High Holydays). It happens to be as thick as the Goblet of Fire which made a nice picture on the coffee table as we both put down our books one evening. It impressed me that I was reading a novel as thick as my son’s. Only Yesterday deals with a Jewish man’s search for his dream in Israel during the Second Aliyah period in early 1900‘s Israel. There’s a wonderful description of Shabbat in Jerusalem that is worth repeating:

“Isaac was most excited on Sabbath eves, when the city stops its give and take and gleams with the light of the Sabbath. This is the light of the Sabbath whose splendor glows even in the rotten generations. The sun has not yet finished its course in the firmament but beneath the heavens, on the earth below, a great change is already visible. The air is transformed and a kind of hidden joy rises. All the shops are locked and all weekday business comes to a halt. The streets of Jerusalem are emptied of carts and the Holy earth dwells in silence. No wheel turns, no whip lashes, The expanses of the world are silent, and a holy calm is ignited by the silence of the city. At that hour, the old beadle goes out from the Great Synagogue of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai and calls out, The time for lighting candles has come! At that hour, someone jumps from the homeless shelters on Mount Zion and goes up to the top of the roof of a tall house and blows the ram’s horn to warn the nation that the Sabbath is coming. Opposite him, one of the Sadigura Hasids jumps to the top of the roof of the Great Synagogue, Tiferent Israel, with a brass trumpet two cubits long in his mouth, and blows. Immediately, they come out of the rest of the synagogues and climb up to their roofs and blow until their voice is heard outside the Old City walls. Yeshiva students dressed in Sabbath clothes come and climb up on the roofs of the tall houses in the new city and ring the bells in their hands to announce that the time has come to light candles. And in every house and every courtyard, people hurry to prepare themselves to honor the Sabbath. Some savor the Sabbath dishes, for those who savor the Sabbath gain eternal life. And some search through their clothing lest they have forgotten something that is forbidden to carry on the Sabbath, and others urge their little sons to arrange the prayer books for the Sabbath; some put oil in glass lamps and others put some red wine into the oil to make it beautiful; some set the table and others don Sabbath clothes. Anger vanished from their faces and every speech is soft and good, and from every house and every courtyard shine many candles, and the whole city is like a palace adorned with candles and lights. Here a lamp is lit and there a lantern. Here a bowl of olive oil and there pure white candles. Here two candles for remember the Sabbath day and keep the Sabbath day, and two tablets of the Covenant, and there ten candles for the Ten Commandments. Here seven candles for the seven days, and there twelve candles for the twelve Tribes of Israel. Here as many candles as there are people in the house, and there are candles without number. There are houses and courtyards where you don’t see the light of a candle all the nights, and when the Sabbath comes, the whole house is lit up. There are women who used to drop a coin in the box of Rabbi Meir Ba’al Haness and say a special prayer every Sabbath eve before they lit the candles, and now they themselves are supported by that Charity, like people who deposited their money in a secure place and take it out in their hour of need. Now all of Jerusalem has ceased its work and from every house and every courtyard come old and young, dressed in Sabbath clothes, their faces glowing with the light of the Sabbath. People who aren’t important in your eyes on weekdays are exalted at that hour. Gone are angry faces and every eye is shining. Some go to the synagogues and study houses and others go to the Western wall. Some walk slowly and others hasten, as their multicolored robes in all handsome hues are dragged over the stones of Jerusalem and cloak the streets of Jerusalem in velvet and satin. At that hour, all kinds of handsome hues appear in the sky overhead, whither because the Sabbath garb is reflected in it, or the Sabbath garb is handsome because the shine of the firmament is reflected in it when the Sabbath enters. Often, our comrade Isaac followed behind those going to pray until he came to the Western Wall and stood and read with them Give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth forever, as if he too merited that mercy the Holy-One-Blessed-Be-He bestows on those who keep His commandments.”

Only Yesterday pp.270-272

The Chamber of Secrets is also the name of the special place in the ancient Temple where people could put in tzedaka money if they had extra or take it out if they needed it without anyone knowing.

In Beacham’s Source Books Exploring Harry Potter, (2000), by Elizabeth Schafer, several Jewish connections are made. She points out that the Slytherin House has the initials “S.S.” and that the Ravenclaw House resembles the Ravensbruck women’s concentration camp. She also mentions that Harry Potter and his friends resemble the Jewish ghetto children who would fabricate an imaginary world.

Dumbledore presents a beautiful Jewish explanation of the concept of free will when he tells Harry towards the end of the second book that the Sorting Hat may have wanted to put Harry in Slytherin House because of the traits that Harry had which were similar to Lord Voldermort but it put Harry into Gryffindor because Harry asked to be put there. In other words, as Dumbledore says, “It’s not your abilities that get you where you are, but the choices you make.”

Hildilid’s Night by Cheli Duran Ryan (illustrated by Arnold Lobel) (Macmillan Publishing, NY, 1971)

In this Caldecott Honor book, Hildilid hates the night. She tries everything to get rid of it. In the end, she misses the glory of the dawn light because she’s too tired from fighting the night.

Adam and Eve also found the night to be a fearful event. Here’s a rabbinical interpretation from the Havdalah service (the service marking the end of Shabbat) as the candle is raised (said before saying the blessing for the Havdalah candle):

“The Rabbis tell us: As night descended at the end of the world’s first Shabbat, Adam feared and wept. Then G-d showed him how to make fire, and by its light and warmth to dispel the darkness and its terrors. Kindling flame is a symbol of our first labor upon the earth.

Shabbat departs and the workday begins as we kindle fire. And we, who dread the night no more, thank

G-d for the flame by which we turn earth’s raw stuff into things of use and beauty.

The candle’s double wick reminds us that all qualities are paired. We have the power to create many different fires, some useful, others baneful. Let us be on guard never to let this gift of fire devour human life, sear cities and scorch fields, or foul the pure air of heaven, obscuring the very skies. Let the fire we kindle be holy; let it bring light and warmth to all humanity.” (from a service sheet for Havdalah edited from the Book of Songs and Blessings, published by the United Jewish Appeal; Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book, published by the Rabbinical Assembly of America and the United Synagogue of America; Gates of Prayer, published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis)

Use an aluminum pan to save the wax that dripped from the Havdalah candle throughout the year. On Erev Yom Kippur melt the wax and pour it over one of the short, stubby candles and into one of the glass candle holders that are made for them, the kind that fit into most candle holders. If you use the same blue and white Havdalah candle throughout the year, then you get a beautiful set of blue yartzhiet candles that will burn throughout Yom Kippur.

Havdalah needs to be made after three stars are visible in the night sky (not at 5:30 in the afternoon so you can go to a movie) or at the time on your calendar. If it is too late for the kids to be up (in the summertime when they are young) or if it is too late for you to be up (in the summertime when you are too old) then Havdalah can still be made anytime before Tuesday morning as long as you still keep Shabbat. We would often make it early Sunday morning when the kids were younger.

Havdalah is like Shabbat: We make it, not do it.

House That Jack Built-a traditional tale.
Here's the Jewish version from the Passover Seder, Had Gadya:
Once a father bought a little kid for his child for two zuzim.
Then along came a cat that ate the kid that a father bought for two zuzim.
Along came a dog that bit the cat that ate the kid that a father bought for two zuzim.
Along came a stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid that the father bought for two zuzim.
Along came a fire that burnt the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid that the father bought for two zuzim.
Along came water that quenched the fire that burnt the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid that the father bought for two zuzim.
Along came an ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burnt the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid that the father bought for two zuzim.
Along came a slaughterer who killed the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burnt the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid that the father bought for two zuzim.
Along came the Angel of Death who killed the slaughterer who killed the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burnt the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid that the father bought for two zuzim.
Along came the Holy One who killed the Angel of Death who killed the slaughterer who killed the ox that drank the water that quenched the fire that burnt the stick that beat the dog that bit the cat that ate the kid that the father bought for two zuzim.
Had Gadya-all because of one little kid!

How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have? by Julius Lester (Scholastic, 1989)

Jewish-African-American author of many children’s and adult books. He has written three volumes of his autobiography, the last two dealing with his conversion to Judaism. His children’s books include Brer Rabbit retellings, slave stories, and How Many Spots Does a Leopard Have?, a collection of African and Jewish stories.