Opinion

Letters

Rabbi Okolica: A Deep Well of Torah Knowledge

I read with great interest Cindy Mindell’s appreciative article on the career and person of Rabbi Henry Okolica (“A Connecticut Icon Celebrates 100,” Ledger, Nov. 1, 2013).

As one of the many people whom Rabbi Okolica interviewed on his television program, in my case, when I first started my career as a UConn Judaic Studies professor in the early 1980s, I especially could appreciate the retrospective of what obviously has been and continues to be a very rich life.

I think that the Ledger’s readers may have missed some of Rabbi Okolica’s obvious depth in Torah knowledge in the story that was related by Michael Tomasso, who recalls seeing the rabbi during his swimming sessions as follows:

“I would come in and call out, ‘Rabbi, good morning; how is the water?’ and he would always respond, ‘Michael, water is life!’”

Rabbi Okolica was not simply responding with a cute truism about life, but rather was quoting a midrashic explanation of Zechariah 14:8, which reads, “In that day, living (i.e. natural) water shall flow from Jerusalem.” The prophet is alluding to a future in which Jerusalem will serve as the center and lifeline of the world and God will be recognized by all humankind.

The rabbis learn from this verse that “Water is called Life.”

Rabbi Okolica’s ability to think in Torah terms even during his daily swim says that much more about this remarkable man.

 

Stuart S. Miller, Professor of Hebrew, History, and Judaic Studies

University of Connecticut at Storrs

Academic Director, Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life

 

Looks Like Iran Now Celebrates Halloween

In the effort to wrest nuclear weapons from the hands of Iran’s murderous, fundamentalist regime, President Obama is failing to remember a basic tenet of negotiation: no agreement is worth the ink of its signatories unless entered into by an honest broker. And that, we don’t have. Instead, the Iranian government, feeling the squeeze of earlier sanctions, decided to switch out its old mouthpiece, Ahmadinejad, for President Hassan Rouhani, outfitting him in the new costume of a “moderate,” along with some slightly less disgusting rhetoric. Looks like the Iranians are getting in the Halloween spirit.

Yet President Obama fails to see the disguise. On July 31, the House passed the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013 by a 400-20 vote, which strengthened current sanctions and authorized President Obama to impose sanctions “on any entity” that maintains commercial ties to Iran. Now the Senate must vote as well, but President Obama wants a delay, arguing that the vote will lessen Rouhani’s ability to “negotiate” in Iran. That implies that Rouhani is somehow a separate power from the Ayatollah and his minions. He is not. He serves them exactly as did Ahmadinejad. It is the same regime which has for so long supplied insurgents to kill American soldiers and continually pledged to annihilate Israel.

Let’s check Rouhani’s calendar. On Sept. 22, just before heading to the United Nations wearing his new “moderate” costume, the French news service AFP snapped photos of Rouhani participating in a military parade in Tehran, which included a banner hanging from a truck reading, in English translation, “Israel must stop existing.” Other trucks carried Shihab three missiles that can reach Israel.

There is absolutely no basis for trusting Rouhani or his boss, the Ayatollah. And the consequences of erring would be catastrophic. As Der Spiegel put it Sept. 16, “Nothing – not even Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons – is a source of such deep concern for the West and Israel as Iran’s nuclear facilities, such as Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo. The installation at Fordo, not far from the holy city of Qom, is viewed as a particularly grave threat.”

I urge the Senate to pass this bill quickly and to take all steps to ensure that its mandate is implemented.

An end to Iran’s nuclear progression would be a gift to the world. If the Iranians are indeed willing to cease nuclear operations, let them do so first. Then comes verification which includes incredibly complicated international supervision of the already enriched uranium stash, given their deep bunkers, and of the heavy water reactor at Arak, which will soon be ready to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.  Then the United States and the other worried nations can consider easing sanctions.  It is madness to do otherwise.

 

June S. Neal, Delray Beach, Fla.

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