mazel & mishagoss

Posing Questions that would Cross a Rabbi's Eyes

After taking a class on Jewish mysticism, I’ve become a much deeper thinker about reincarnation and resurrection, but some concepts still pose confusing dilemmas for me. For instance, if our soul is put inside many different bodies over the course of thousands of years, and all those bodies return to life simultaneously, (after Mashiach arrives) can our soul hold a contest to see which of its bodies best fits into a size 6 Versace dress? And also which profession can afford to buy it at Nordstrom? Stuff like this truly perplexes me.

And will all the dozens of husbands I’ve been married to over many lifetimes hold a general meeting to discuss things like, “Did she dust under the piano when you were married to her?” Or “How did you put up with her dried-out brisket for 55 years? I had to become a vegetarian shortly after we said, “I do!”

I also discovered a reincarnation belief that Jewish souls go around again and again in “family groupings” so your loved ones can always remain together. But with one caveat … your relationships might change or switch around. Can this mean what I think it means? My youngest daughter physically resembles my beloved grandma, who was always so kind and nurturing to me. Could that just be their shared DNA or has my grandma actually returned so we’d stay closely connected? Peeking into my collegeaged sleeping daughter’s bedroom, (Is that you, Nana? I miss you so much!) I lean over to cheerfully whisper, “Good morning!”

“It’s never good morning!” she retorts. I freeze. (Wow! That’s utterly amazing. Morning = Mourning! I’ve been told it’s not healthy to grieve so much. Only my Nana would offer profound advice like that upon first opening her eyes!) “Mmmm, I sure miss homemade chicken soup,” I continue hopefully. “How about making a pot today?”

“Go away! Cook your own dumb soup!” my daughter shouts, throwing a pillow at my head. I suppose that could be considered borderline nurturing? I have another idea. Nana loved to knit and I’ve kept a lovely cardigan she made many years ago. “Look at this sweater?” I say, as my daughter combs her auburn hair. (Nana had reddish hair too!) I peer into her eyes for signs of recognition of a garment she once lovingly created. “Oh no, you don’t! You’re not handing that ugly thing down to me. If you want to wear oldfashioned stuff like that, that’s your business, Mom. But if I were you, I’d put it in my next garage sale!”

Fine. Maybe we don’t go around in family circles. But that’s even more exciting! That means I could have been someone famous in a previous life! My brain goes to work making obvious correlations to all my quirky personality traits. 1) I hate being pitied - I used to be Eva Peron singing, “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina!” 2) I refuse to play tag in pools because I get headaches from children swimmers chanting incessantly - I was Marco Polo’s wife! 3) My favorite meal is an

Orange Julius with a Caesar salad - I was Cleopatra! 4) I constantly tell my kids to speak up because I can’t hear them - I was Charlie Chaplin’s mother! 5) When we’re out of cereal, milk, or eggs for breakfast and my kids are starving, I eye Hostess Twinkies and think, “Whatever…Let ‘em eat cake.”I was Marie Antoinette! 6) When lecturing my daughters, instead of saying, “Listen here, young ladies,” I say, “Go to your room, Little Women.” - I was Louisa May Alcott! 7) I don’t use profanity and my biggest cussing outburst is, “Oh shoot. Shoot! Shoot!”— I was Annie Oakley! 8) I talk to my engagement ring and sometimes even confide my deepest secrets to it. There can be no doubt that I was Marilyn Monroe … because wait for it … diamonds ARE a girl’s best friend!

Alright. So maybe I won’t have a past life regression based on the above evidence. And perhaps when resurrection occurs, people will have far more important matters to work out with God than their many husbands’ opinion of them. But I’m signing up for more Kabbalah classes and this time I’m bringing my twelve-year-old son (who used to be my Rabbi!) because he’ll surely ask far more intellectual questions than I am capable ofand together we’ll get to the bottom of this! STEPHANIE

La

Encinitas (760) 854-4212 cottageencinitas.com

ESTHER COHEN: A REFUGEE FROM THE NAZIS, SHE HELPED CREATE THE HAGANAH AND IDF CANINE UNIT

Esther Cohen was born in 1930 in Würzburg, Germany, as Else Karola Sichel. Her family fled before the Holocaust and she subsequently joined the Haganah militia and later the IDF’s canine division, the Oketz Unit.

“I remember the Nazi rise to power and Hitler visiting my town,” Cohen said.

She witnessed the gradual deteriorating circumstances for Jews. She recalls an incident around Christmas time in 1934: She was out with her grandmother and they saw decorations.

A lady asked, “Are you excited that Santa Claus will bring you presents?”

A 4-year-old Cohen replied, “We don’t believe in Santa Claus, we have the Hanukkah man.” Her grandmother interrupted, telling the bewildered German lady: “The child doesn’t know what she’s talking about!”

She recalls another incident where she wanted to see a Shirley Temple film but Jews were forbidden from going to the cinema after the Nuremberg Laws had been passed in 1935. However, a sympathetic non-Jewish neighbor volunteered to take her. But she did not enjoy the film for fear that someone would figure out that she was Jewish.

Her family escaped to the British Mandate of Palestine in September 1938, when she was 8 years old.

Cohen said that it was not easy adjusting to a new country. They managed to get her grandparents out of Germany shortly after Kristallnacht, following much paperwork. Her parents opened a grocery store.

It was in the store that she met Austrianborn cynologist (canine scientist) Rudolphina Menzel (1891–1973).

Menzel helped to establish the canine unit for the Haganah, the forerunner of the modern-day IDF Oketz Unit.

“I always loved dogs,” Cohen said. Menzel used mostly Boxers that she had brought over from Austria. The Haganah also relied on German-origin breeds such as German Shepherds, Dobermann Pinschers and Great Danes because these were the breeds that Jews had brought from Europe.

Menzel was also involved in reviving Canaan Dogs, Israel’s national dog breed. But Cohen said that Canaans cannot be used for battle because “they are not so courageous.” She describes Menzel’s work with dogs as “highly innovative” and “adaptable.”

Cohen was in a scout movement as a child and many in her circle of friends ended up joining the Haganah. Her work in the dog unit began in a camp at Kfar Haim, near Haifa. She eventually became an officer and an instructor for the unit. Cohen said that she acquired much of her skills from Menzel and from her own practical experience.

One of her first tasks was to teach a group consisting of a few Holocaust survivors about dog mating habits.

“I was only 19 and yet here I was facing people who were much more experienced in life than me, and I had to explain something difficult. It was very challenging. But after that was done, I was not afraid to do anything.”

Cohen recalls one incident at the outbreak of the 1948-49 War of Independence when she and her family took a bus to see her grandparents near Haifa and were forced to turn back due to fire by Arab forces. She also witnessed a skirmish between the Haganah and the Irgun, a rival Jewish militia before they ended up merging into the IDF.

Her Haganah training included instruction in the KAPAP system of defensive tactics, hand-to-hand combat and self-defense. She also learned stick-fighting and jujitsu. She had a sidearm.

The Oketz Unit trained dogs for numerous tasks including guard duty and searchand-rescue. Cohen also revealed that they utilized messenger dogs and employed spies embedded deep within the Arab lines who used a whistle that had a frequency that humans could not hear to summon the messenger canines. These spies would send valuable information via these dogs back to the Israeli side.

“Long before modern-day communication, this was a safe and efficient way to send messages that really helped in the war,” Cohen said.

“Dogs are pack animals and you have to show them who the alpha is. But you also have to reward them,” she said. Cohen also recalls one particular dog that would fake a limp when asked to perform difficult drills, and they therefore could not use it. Not many dogs were killed in action, but she witnessed seven of them succumb to rabies.

She was later stationed at Tzrifin. On one occasion Egyptian forces saw a massive Great Dane in the Negev and mistakenly reported that the Israelis were using “trained tigers.”

Cohen left the IDF in 1950. The Oketz Unit she helped create was disbanded in 1954, although the military continued to use dogs. Oketz was revived in 1974 and the unit saw action in Lebanon.

Cohen eventually married her childhood friend, Alexander Cohen, and the couple moved to a farm. Today she enjoys a quiet retirement in Haifa and has two children, six grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.