By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: PIXABAY)WALL CALLMuch as I enjoyed “Jerusalem – When the dream became the reality” by Stewart Weiss (May 22), I must take issue with his final paragraph. While the narrative may fit our romanticized version of the truth, chief rabbi Shlomo Goren, together with Colonel Motta Gur were not the first to arrive at the Kotel after the battle for Jerusalem in 1967. And, furthermore, Rabbi Goren did not blow the shofar.I refer you to the autobiography of Uzi Eilam, Eilam’s Arc – How Israel became a Military Technology Powerhouse. Uzi was commander of the 71st Battalion who followed Col Gur into the Old City and onto the Temple Mount. I quote, “I do not recall how I found the stairs that led to the Wall but within minutes I was standing with the small staff of the 71st Battalion in the small yard that had stood adjacent to the Wall for centuries.” He continues, “I was informed by radio that Rabbi Goren had arrived at the Temple Mount plaza... I sent a soldier to bring the rabbi to the Wall, where I met him. Goren was in a highly elevated spiritual state. He was grasping a shofar... he tried to blow it but the excitement of the occasion stopped him from making a sound. ‘Rabbi,” I said to Goren, ‘Give me the shofar, I play the trumpet, and I know how to blow a shofar.’ I succeeded in issuing a number of clear, loud blasts.”Uzi Eilam went on to become the director of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and today plays trumpet in an orchestra of retired musicians.RHODA GOODMANAshkelonStewart Weiss responds: With all due respect to Mr. Eilam, Rabbi Goren himself, in declassified documents, states explicitly (as quoted in The Jerusalem Post by Benjamin Glatt in his article on June 7, 2017, “Uncovering the Divine Spirit during the Six Day War”): “When I got to the Temple Mount I blew the shofar, but first I fell to the floor and bowed down, as you are supposed to bow down at the siteof the Temple.”Furthermore, Mr. Eilam himself affirms that when he arrived at the Temple Mount, Rabbi Goren was already there. But if Uzi sounded the shofar as well, he too should be very proud!CHEESECAKE CONTEMPLATIONOf all the wonderful foods associated with the Jewish holidays, which was my favorite? A non-Jewish colleague once asked me that.“Well,” I answered after giving the question a bit of thought, “it’s a toss-up, actually, between a crumb-topped cheesecake enjoyed during Shavuot and the boiled head of carp savored during the Rosh Hashana dinner.” It should come as no surprise that I was rewarded with one of those “you-gotta-be-kidding” looks.I was not, though, being entirely honest but did not want to start explaining about hamantaschen and why a marvelous Purim pastry is named for one of the vilest enemies of the Jewish people. Cheesecake, however, was something universally familiar and its relevance to Shavuot more easily understood.Not that there’s anything wrong with cheesecake, mind you. On the contrary, it’s a terrific confection that, as proven by Pascale Perez-Rubin (“Cheesecakes for Shavuot,” May 22), can be prepared and served in a virtually endless number of variations. The problem, though, is that the product is, well, commonplace and readily available throughout the year in most bakeries, dairy restaurants and coffee shops. Holiday-centric cuisine, after all, should be anticipated as well as enjoyed, which is what makes chocolate-filled doughnuts, matzo brie and tayglach special. Cheesecake, like latkes and kneidlach, is, for the most part, part of our day-to-day routine.Consideration, therefore, might be given to replacing cheesecake as the principal motif for fulfilling the custom of having milchig on Shavuot with something both savory and less ordinary, such as cherry cheese knishes, cream-based tuna mousse or ricotta filled kreplach. Cheesecake of one sort or another we can treat ourselves to at any time; that which we enjoy from year to year only should take center stage and be reserved for Shavuot.I am, unfortunately, not much of a rebel and will most likely succumb to tiresome tradition and, as everyone else, will eagerly wait for a shtikele cheesecake as the dessert to our holiday meal.Of course, the one that we’ll be serving will be somewhat less ornate and creative that those featured by Ms. Perez-Rubin, but it will be no less caloric and satisfying.BARRY NEWMANGinot ShomronPARTICULAR PATTERNThe arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, so lovingly cultivated by former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and the treacherous former prime minister Shimon Peres, made such an obvious deduction that we allowed 500 thugs to drive us out of Lebanon after inflicting massive casualties, so why shouldn’t he follow the same pattern (“A four-month coincidence?” May 22).This pattern has continued with the terrorist in a suit, Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas. Like the abused person, we go back for more when all that would need to be done was what any normal country would do to enemies sworn to its destruction. The words that frighten Israel are “destruction of the enemy” and sadly, for some inexplicable reason, the prime minister simply does not want to apply sovereignty throughout the historic Jewish land to which we were miraculously returned. It seems that Netanyahu became prime minister for the sole purpose of making sure we will always be subservient to our enemies and so-called friends (e.g. on The Temple Mount, where the Muslims are in control and where US President Donald Trump has decided they must remain).EDITH OGNALLNetanya
