Fusion 613

Torah thoughts: Synagogue music defines our times and our souls

2012-03-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

I know a day will come when I will be sitting with a bunch of people my own age, probably in an assisted living home, when I am past the time of working and listening to the music of my generation. That music hovered between the generation of Woodstock rock and pop music that followed in those tumultuous years. I can envision the humorous moment when my imaginary grandchildren sit beside me and tease me about the music I listen to calling it old fashioned. Yet how can I explain to them what that music meant to me? How can I help them imagine how that music defined the generation that pushed the boundaries of so many social conventions in American culture and fought back against a clearly unjust war we were fighting in South-East Asia? They probably will not grasp it as I might not grasp the music of their times.

The music does define us in terms of memory and in relation to our sense of community. So it is with the ancient Israelites. What music did the children of Israel sing when they dedicated the Tabernacle? The Torah portion Tzaveh describes the accoutrements that God commands the Israelites to construct in the first house of worship. As a matter of fact the Talmud speaks to the issue of musical instruments. ‘In the Holy Temple of Jerusalem and from the days of Moses, the rabbis teach that there was a flute and a cymbal made of bronze’ (B. Ar. 10b). We have a sense of the priestly ritual and the musical instruments they used for communal worship inside the Tabernacle. But we do not know the actual music that put the words to song. What were their favorite melodies? What were the melodies they learned over 400 years in Egypt? Surely they must have borrowed many aspects of their way of life from Egyptian culture. And, spiritual speaking, it should not surprise us if they adapted melodies they heard in the market or the sacred places of the Egyptian religion into their own new religion.

Maybe they did not borrow from Egypt. The point is that the music of a time and place gives us a sense of belongingness to something that is eternal. Is that what it is all about? Is there not a balance between the need to identify with our past and the knowledge that each generation sculpts its own vision of its culture? Synagogue music is one example of the kind of topic that is challenging because we all represent different ages and geographical backgrounds as well as diverse religious orientations. Judaism has such a broad spectrum of religious practices originating from countries and civilizations from all over the world. As a matter of fact one of our greatest strengths has been our ability to adapt to changing circumstances inside the larger culture. Synagogue music traditions have adapted to the mainstream cultures where Jewish communities developed.

We have seen over the last century how Reform Judaism has adapted its music heritage to American culture and embraced a broad selection of choices of Jewish music. Just as the demography of the Reform movement changed, especially after World War Two, so too did the music. We grew in size and built hundred of temples. Our music started out sounding not altogether too different from our Christian counterparts in the liberal branches of Christianity. As secular culture in America grew in influence, it too inspired synagogue music.

The last three decades of the 20^th century has certainly transformed Reform Jewish music. The advent of women cantors and song leaders contributed to a much more diverse selection of music for our liturgy. As Reform Judaism embraced so many different constituencies based upon gender, sexual orientation, and other branches of Judaism, can we expect anything but innovation in the music of the Temple or synagogue?

As a general rule for even liturgy and music the only constant rule here is that change is constant. There is a legitimate case to be made that we should cherish the melodies of the past. The issue is whose past? The songs I grew up with would not meet my spiritual needs today. Yet the music that defined me as a young adult is nowhere to be found today either.

People say, “Rabbi I want the music I heard in the temple.” The problem is that such music is probably not the same music that many others in the same temple identify with as their music. So how much energy will we put into debating which authentic melodies that everyone supposedly loved when we face the reality that our assumptions are not accurate? Would it surprise anyone that this question of what are the authentic melodies will continue to be debated for the next generation and those after them?

Some of us identify with guitar music genre and others with a sound that is more complex in its musicality. Then we talk about chanting over singing and then comes the issue of participation of the congregation in the singing versus listening to the voice of a cantor or soloist to inspire us. We will be embarking upon a more proactive role towards reinvigorating our choir in the course of the upcoming months. Will that enrich our participation and will it establish new traditions for our congregation?

We understand that our congregants have different tastes about music and liturgy. Finding the right music is about selecting music that fits the tone of the prayer as well as fits the musical culture of the congregation. It is a religious chemistry test of mixing the right components that makes for an inclusive and inspiring service. It is not an easy matter.

So this is the reason why we decided tonight to confine our music to the Gates of Song. It was the book we used here at Congregation Bet Yam since the early nineties. We selected some of the beautiful music in that book even though not all might agree that these specific tunes are the exact ones we used to sing here. But it is from this collection of liturgical music that the clergy and volunteers used. We hope it is has given us comfort and warmth for the soul.

In some of the psalms on the Sabbath we sing “Shir Ladonai Shir Chadash” Sing unto the Eternal a New Song.” What does the phrase “sing a new song” mean for us today? Does it mean new instrumentality or music that reflects the times and culture in which Jewish communities live? Or does the effort that we produce from inside ourselves matter most of all? The soul must sing if we are to have uplifting prayer. We have a responsibility to put out our best effort to summon from inside ourselves the fresh new approach to communal worship. Working for a meaningful worship experience is a challenge for us as individuals as well as for us as a community. It takes stretching of our heart and souls regardless what we are singing to share and compromise our expectations with others who have the same hopes and desires to hear the melodies of their past.

In 1978, I drove out to the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College to participate in a colloquium for potential Rabbinical students. Seated inside the majestic Plum Street Temple, the fifty or so participants met with the famous composer in residence at the College whose name is Bonia Shur. With his burly eye lashes and Latvian accent, he enchanted us with the spirituality of his music. He taught us the music he wrote, Yom Zeh L’Yisrael, which we sang as the processional tonight. I will never forget that music because when we sang it I gazed over to one of the participants who was a lovely young lady with blonde hair…Well I think we all know the rest of that story.

I always say that in the synagogue everything is personal. How much the more so when it comes to music.

Shabbat Shalom

legislation to prohibit Shariah law and all foreign religious law in American courts

2012-02-29T12:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.islandpacket.com/2012/02/27/1979891/sharia-law-is-not-form-of-religious.html#storylink=misearch

Hi folks,
Here is a perspective I have and wrote in my newspaper column for the island packet about the flurry of states trying to enact legislation banning foreign law or shariah law in the court systems.
Take a look and tell me what you think.
Shalom
Brad

Torah Thoughts: Immigration and Jewish values-Parashat Mishpatim

2012-02-17T13:11:00.000-08:00

Parashat Mishpatim

On this Shabbat we embark upon an experimental idea to enhance our congregation’s Shabbat Morning experience. Tomorrow morning we inaugurate the Hot Topics Shabbat. Besides the fellowship of a little nosh and an abbreviated worship service, we intend to engage our congregants in a different kind of study and discussion. Rather than diving into the sea of commentaries, we will use the Torah portion as a jumping off point to discuss provocative and challenging issues in the public domain. Can Torah values enlighten our understanding about controversial topics today? Do contemporary politics determine our religious values or do our religious values inform our view of society’s most vexing problems?

Tomorrow morning we shall address the immigration issue in light of the Torah’s views on the stranger. “You shall not wrong the stranger or oppress him for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:20).Given that God commands us to be kind to the stranger for we were once strangers in the land of Egypt, how do we reconcile that moral imperative with our response to both legal and illegal immigration issues that have received so much attention? The Torah teaches us to be kind to the stranger regardless o f the legal status. It creates a bedrock value for Jews over history to welcome the stranger. This value also impacts Israel today with the influx of illegal immigrants from Asia, Africa and China.

We Jews understand the importance of immigration to our spiritual heritage. Quite a few within our own congregation are immigrants arriving here during the period of Nazism. Other congregants come from Israel and the Former Soviet Union. The experience of being an immigrant is part and parcel of our spiritual DNA as any value can be embedded into our consciousness. Yet, since most of us are second and third generation Americans is our perspective towards non-Jewish and illegal new arrivals different than how we view Jewish immigration? My own belief is that before we make a decision on people who are poor and who are illegal immigrants we should familiarize ourselves with Jewish history and ethos regarding our own values towards treating the stranger in our midst.

We have witnessed a movement in our country to modify and restrict illegal immigration in states like Arizona, Alabama and South Carolina. We have witnessed the President and the Congress over the last two administrations attempt and fail at enacting comprehensive Immigration Reform. Lots of debate and accusations all the way around with regard to the legislation and the debate as to how best to protect our borders and differentiate between legal and illegal immigration. Certainly we have seen the depth of bad will that spreads when these issues are stoked by pending state legislation as well as by the intended and unintended consequences of an unstable and volatile economy. These factors pull apart the social fabric of our country.

Of course we are not the only nation that struggles with these kinds of issues. It is even more ironic to watch Israel, which like America, is a nation of immigrants. The idea of settling new Jewish immigrants is part and parcel of Israel’s mission and its strength for the future. But the Israelis have problems with non-Jews who come from far flung nations such as the Philippines, Somalia, China and other nations. These people who yearn for a livelihood come to Israel’s prosperous economy. Here Israel must face its own Jewish past when we were illegal immigrants to Israel in light of the British mandate let alone to so many other countries during the period leading up to World War Two. Now Israel struggles with what policy to adopt that is consistent with Jewish values of respecting the stranger in our midst and at the same time does not threaten the economy or Israel’s ongoing security issues and the Jewish character of Israel.

How do we react to the millions of illegal immigrants who have crossed our borders? They use our social services which we pay for and their children born in this country become citizens. Should we support state government efforts to close our borders and severely restrict potential illegal immigration? They are our landscapers and our dish washers and our agricultural labor and our apartment maintenance people etc. In an economy of so many unemployed can we really count upon the idea, as some presidential candidates have intoned, of self deportation? There are so many citizens who need a job. Must we act to rid our country of illegal immigrants so that we can return these manual labor jobs to the unemployed in our midst? Is that policy realistic? Is it right?

The Hebrew word for stranger is ger which derives from the root to sojourn or dwell. It refers to a person who has come to dwell in our nation who is not a member of that nation. In the ancient land the stranger would come to the nation because of famine or many other political or economic hardships. The Torah narrates the stories of Abraham and Isaac who both left Canaan to Egypt because of famine. Of course Jacob and his clan went down to Egypt under Joseph’s protection. In that situation we came in as legal immigrants but were then declared illegal and cast into a 400 year slavery.

The Bible tells us that the stranger must be accepted into our community. In fact they too were expected to observe the Sabbath as the Israelites. By reading the books of Chronicles which details much of Israelite history, we see how the Israelite kings used foreign immigrants for public work projects.

“David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the Land of Israel, and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the Land of Israel, numbering them were found a hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred.”

Israeli Supreme Court Justice Haim Cohen wrote, “These strangers, migrant workers, were of vital importance. It was they who did the heavy manual labor, and it would appear that already then the Israelites themselves avoided such work.” Justice Cohen goes on to argue that Judaism has embedded in its spiritual reservoir the utmost respect for non-Israelite residents. And this fact of history and theology supports why we have been overwhelmingly sensitive and empathetic to the immigrants who have come after us to America.

One final piece of evidence comes from medieval Spain. The commentator Moses Ibn Ezra commented on the verse not to oppress the stranger. He writes, “As a resident alien, he has no family roots in the land, so it would be easy for the citizens to wrong him whether regards to money or to housing, and even to oppress him by means of false testimony. You must not wrong a stranger either, merely because you have more power than he. Remember that you were once strangers like him.”

Does this not bear relevancy for today? True we must make difficult decisions. Will we support efforts to purge or cleanse our country of these people? Will we come to grips with America’s ideal and its promise? True, we must be honest about our feelings about Hispanics and other minority groups in general as we decide our position on illegal immigration. Is the best or proper solution for illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship? Or do we as a society continue a national policy of perpetual indecision?

The Torah tells us, “Have one law for the stranger and the citizen alike”(Lev.24:22). Putting both laws together is a political and spiritual challenge to keep this nation strong.

Torah Thoughts: Parashat Yitro. Environmental and Spiritual Sustainability

2012-02-12T23:03:00.001-08:00

Parashat Yitro 2012

In the presidential heat of an election year, we listen to the debates. Two particular controversial ideas, for example, are the debt crisis and the unemployment rate. Regarding the debt crisis candidates challenges us to consider what we shall leave behind to our grandchildren with regard to the out of control debt that our country incurs each day. The same idea of what we leave behind to our future resonates when we hear about preserving the environment at the cost of sacrificing old and new jobs. The debate over the recent pipeline proposal from Canada to Texas that the Administration put a hold on is a classic example of pitting jobs against preserving the environment.

This idea of being aware of what we owe our progeny resonates for us in Judaism. In particular this week we observed the holiday of Tu B’shevat which is the 15^th of the month of Shevat. It is a holiday that is growing in Jewish consciousness because it was established long ago to celebrate the trees and the benefit they provide us. Needless to say this little known holiday gives us a new perspective on the environment. We are all especially sensitive to global warming, air pollution and spoiling of the nation’s waterways. Again this holiday reminds us of the moral imperative that Jews should embrace as part of our stewardship to the planet to work for repairing the physical world –tikkun olam.

What is the key term today in the culture that responds to these issues? It is sustainability. Moral sustainability and economic sustainability and spiritual sustainability are all interconnected to the political and cultural climate of our country and to the world. Congregation Beth Yam can contribute to environmental sustainability by doing what we can inside our house of worship as well as for the community at large to contribute to preserving our pristine Hilton Head and Bluffton area. On a broader scale Jews we have worked to support the Jewish National Fund which grows trees in Israel. Trees still need to be planted in Israel and the environment is still at risk in Israel with regard to water issues and particularly the drying up of the Dead Sea. Our children and grandchildren are growing up with the responsibility that environmental sustainability is essential for our future.

The underlying point is that we and our progeny will have to accept that in order to achieve sustainability for our economy, our environment and our spirituality that we will impose limitations on our desires to pursue our pleasures, conveniences and our way of life. That is the challenge we face as humans when we are also supposed to be caretakers of the world that God gave us. We have to do more with less is the ethos of our age.

I want to share with you a Talmudic story (BTa’anit 23a) about a man who lived in the first century of the Common Era. His name was Honi and he was a respected sage. Rabbi Yohanan asked whether it was possible for a man to doze off and dream continuously for 70 years. One day, as he was walking on the road, he saw a man planting a carob tree. He asked him, “How long will it take this tree to bear fruit?” The man replied, “Seventy years.” He asked, “Are you quite sure you will live another seventy years to eat its fruit? The man replied, “I myself found fully grown carob trees in the world; as my forebears planted for me, so I am planting for my children.

Are there not a lot of things that we do and work for in our life that is not for us alone but is for those who come after us? How many of us, for example, have addressed with experts the importance of proper estate planning? We all want our assets to go to our descendents and we want to know that our wishes and our values will be respected so that the assets are channeled to our loved ones. Our work, the product of our labor, is not just about us. The benefit is for those who we care about besides us alone. That is partly what sustainability is all about. We need to plant a future, like Honi, for our progeny that our economic, spiritual and physical environment will be fruitful for them as it was for us.

In this week’s parasha Yitro, God gives us the Ten Commandments. There is no mention per se about the physical environment in the Ten Commandments. But idolatry and creating idols reminds us that when we think we can do whatever we want with our world and with our environment that we are subtly turning ourselves into an idol. In other words when human desires and human needs have no check upon them then we have built a Tower of Babel, an idol to ourselves.

When forget to respect the Shabbat then, for example, we have lost touch to let the land remain fallow and regain its resources to grow crops in the future. We have threatened our spiritual heritage of the Sabbath and our economic interests to preserve sustainability for the earth.

When we forget to adhere to not coveting our neighbors’ possessions do we not risk unleashing unrestrained desires to acquire anything and to use any resources from our land for anything so long as it satisfies our consumption desires? Is that not coveting our neighbor’s possessions? When that happens have we sacrificed sustainability for unbridled consumption and, therefore, the future that Honi wanted for his forbears.

What is so important to realize in the connection between the Ten Commandments and the environmental sustainability issues is that our survival and our ethical standing requires us to impose limitations upon our wishes and desires. The Ten Commandments are about God saying to us that we must accept boundaries upon our behavior. We are not totally free to live the way we want. For a society to sustain itself it must create and identify moral and immoral behaviors. That is what the Ten Commandments are about and what the rest of the mitzvoth demand from us. They teach us what God wants from us and they teach us how we can live as a community in a way that honors humankind and God who created us.

How do we defeat hatred? Parashat B'shallach

2012-02-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

Parashat B’shalach

(A nuclear armed Iran: How do we defeat hatred?)

It is chilling and frightening to digest continuing news reports as Israel contemplates when and if to launch a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. I say this not just because of the repercussions, both intended and unintended, for Israel let alone for the United States. I say this because following the course of this scenario gives rise to an unknown and unpredictable apocalyptic chain of events. For those events to unfold Israel will determine that it will have no choice, as though it was backed up against the wall with no place else to go, except to strike out against Iran. The potential of a nuclear Holocaust arises from the ideological triumphalism that stokes the hatred of the religious and political leadership of Iran. On the other hand, can Israelis definitively know whether such a justifiable and legitimate preemptive attack, despite their enormous military arsenal, will serve Israel’s security interests and its diplomatic reputation in the world?

Rest assured Israeli society and its policy makers, military brass and its political leaders are grappling with this question. Yet the Torah portion, B’shallach, reminds us from the annals of ancient history, in vastly different circumstances, of a situation when we felt our backs were up against the wall. The last 70 years were full of threats from the Arabs that they would drive us into the sea. In this week’s parasha we see the origin of that horrific thought when Israel began their trek out of Egypt. Bolstered by the devastation of the plagues, they stood at the shore by the Sea of Reeds. Pharaoh, violating his promise to let them leave Egypt, pursues the people with his armed forces to the Sea. Here our story could have ended and the Israelites would have not even been a footnote in history. But the Torah narrates the drama of Israel’s faith and its fears to take the leap into the sea.. Even Moses is not sure how his people could avoid the wrath of Pharaoh’s triumphalism and hatred. Once again it is an existential moment of life or death for the Jewish people.

The point in the story I want to highlight in the Torah mirrors what we are experiencing today with Iran. We see the power of unrestrained hatred in the hardened heart of Pharaoh. It was ugly and destructive for us and for Egypt as well. In chapter 14 of Exodus, all we have to do is to imagine the rhetoric then and apply it to today’s Iranian leaders as they set their sights to annihilate Israel.

“He (meaning Pharaoh) made ready his chariot and took his people with him. He took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them.” The Egyptians were headed to the Sea and thirsting to wipe the children of Israel off the face of the earth. The drama intensifies as the Israelites debate what to do. Some cried out to God for salvation. Others demanded that Moses lead them back to Egypt to resume their place as slaves. Moses himself is not entirely sure what to do and how to navigate through this crisis. God even becomes vexed at Moses and scolds him.

“The Lord said unto Moses: “Why cry to Me?

Tell the children of Israel to march forward.

As for you lift up your rod,

Stretch your hand over the sea and divide it

And the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.” (vs15-16)

Yes there was a miracle coming from God but there was also another message which was that Moses and the people had to own their own survival too. They had to take decisive action along with divine intervention if they wanted to survive Pharaoh’s onslaught.

We have witnessed this scenario play itself out before in Israel’s modern history. In 1948, for example, King Abdullah of Jordan rode in front of his army to the banks of the Jordan River and fired the first shots against Israel near Kibbutz Degania and then returned home. Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser in 1967 and Sadat in 73 also threatened to cast Israel into the sea. Now President Ahmenijhad has stoked fear into the hearts of Jews world –wide. History teaches that the names change but the goal is always the same.

Once again Israel stands at the shore of the sea deciding what action to take when a modern day Pharaoh seeks our destruction. Once again we witness the internal struggle that only Israel can wage with itself to make its decision as the threshold for stopping or delaying the Iranian momentum to wage nuclear war narrows. Time is running out, the experts say, before Iran is immune to Israeli military intervention. Some Israelis say we will have to learn to live with this reality in the Middle East. Still others, especially past American leaders, have recently been quoted as saying caustically, that Israel should not worry so much since Iran has only one bomb and Israel has 300. I still cannot fathom the moral underpinnings behind that sentiment.

Who can fathom the deep seated hatred against the Jews that circulates through the heart of the Iranian political leadership? There are ways to counter a military force. There are weapons and military strategy and luck. But how does Israel defeat hatred? Divine intervention freed us but we will never know if Pharaoh ceased to hate the Israelites. The only answer is to never given in to hatred.

In fact the sages of the Torah addressed this obsession to hate. In the Midrash the sages observed that Pharaoh himself made ready his own chariot to destroy the Israelites. From that they inferred a principle that hate disrupts protocol. In other words he uncharacteristically saddled his horse and chariot from the uncontrollable hatred. Kings usually stand by, while servants prepare their chariot and harness. Drunk with hatred for Moses and the Israelites, Pharaoh prepared and harnessed his own chariot. As soon as his courtiers saw what he was doing they followed him.

Trickle down hatred is an old syndrome which appears in the soul of the so-called Supreme Leader of Iran. Hatred infected his courtiers, the revolutionary guards and Ahmenijhad the Iranian president. Nothing has changed today when it comes to the intoxicant of hatred and how it can corrupt and become self destructive in any human being let alone people in political power.

We cannot forget that symbolically speaking world Jewry is standing at the shores of the Sea with our people in Israel. We will support them and advocate that our America be there with and for Israel at this hour. The real lingering question that remains, the thorniest one of all, is how to counter the hatred not only of Iran but in the Arab world? In other words, how do we beat back hatred of us? Alas this has plagued us for far too long. But it is our burden to bear. This time Israel can defend itself with its military prowess. But the long term battle of defeating hatred and winning over enemies as friends may be the most complex and frustrating strategic effort that Israel and world Jewry must battle against for years to come. We will need more than military might to defeat the advocates of hatred.

The only way you can defeat hatred is by not giving into it. We will need to retain our own faith in God not because we expect God will split the sea again. We need God to enable us to check our own emotions and spirit to not let the bitterness of someone else’s aggression and hatred dampen the Jewish spirit to win the peace. We cannot let our adversaries see us descend into cynicism or hatred. We cannot give up the Tikvah the hope of our place as a light to the nations or that we would return to the fleshpots of Egypt. In other words we too have a dream that Isaiah spoke of when he said that “nation shall not lift up sword against nation nor will they study war anymore.” That vision belongs to the Jewish ‘We have a dream speech.’

Interfaith extended family: A challenge for Jewish Grandparents

2012-01-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

http://www.islandpacket.com/2012/01/28/1943596/grandparents-must-act-as-faith.html#storylink=misearch

Here is yesterday's column from the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette on Grandparents coping with children and grandchildren being raised in an interfaith family. Your comments are always welcome.

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King

2012-01-15T19:48:00.000-08:00

In honor of Martin Luther King Day

This weekend America remembers the works and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In our community the Martin Luther King committee had an interfaith service on Thursday evening at the AME church. There was a white and black speaker at the service. The audience had a decent ratio of interracial participation. I delivered the invocation and along with scriptural readings from clergy around the community we achieved the good feeling of unity and remembrance of Dr. King and the cause of social justice.

The next night Congregation Beth Yam had its own Shabbat services that highlighted the civil rights movement and Dr. King’s life. Instead of the typical preacher we invited John Gadson who serves on the board of the Penn center. This was a vocational training center started in the Lincoln administration and educated blacks for almost a century. Dr. King visited there and held meeting of interfaith clergy on its campus because it was the only place that had the facilities to house blacks and whites in those days. Located on Lady’s Island near Beaufort, South Carolina, the Penn center is on the national historic registry. Mr. Gadson, who was once the executive director of the Penn center, and went on to be a teacher in the business school of the university as well as worked in economic planning for South Carolina governor Richard Riley, gave us a history of the Penn center and related his own experience of meeting Dr. King at a meeting of young black leadership.

Our service was packed and the music was dynamic especially with the singing of the Negro national anthem. People felt moved and they remembered the civil rights era as well as learned about a wonderful historic institution in the low country that they never visited or even had heard about before. The feedback was strong and positive. Many commented that they were truly moved. We had a great turn out from the Black community and the socializing was even further evidence that people want to find ways to come together.

Monday morning at 9:30 will be the community march that will lead us to the high school with a great program. We shall remember and hopefully be inspired. Dr. King’s message deserves our time and has earned our respect. I hope that our congregants at Beth Yam will show up and support the congregation and the community at large.

One can say that a lot has changed for the better in terms of race relations since the sixties and the era of Dr. King’s ministry. We have just dedicated a monument in Washington D.C. to Dr. King. We all understand the critical role he played in this country’s history. His advocacy of non-violence and his passion for a better America is still an important message for us to reflect upon and work for in our society. The work is not, however, done because we are even more racially diverse and in need of renewing our commitment to maintaining an ethos that the content of our character means more than the color of our skin. Dr. King’s vision is about social and economic justice as well as racial harmony.

How many of us have friends from another race? When was the last time when we shared a meal or went out socially with a couple or individual from another race? These are the kinds of questions that we should ask at this time because we could make a difference by just starting with ourselves. Tikkun Olam or repairing the world starts with each of us.

Torah thoughts for the Sabbath

2012-01-07T20:51:00.000-08:00

Torah Portion: Parashat Vayechi - January 6, 2012

When a patriarch or matriarch of the family dies, there are different levels of transition. In the life cycle the preparation for the funeral takes center stage and the family comes from all over to participate and plan the funeral service. People are usually on their best behavior. The children are reflecting and pulled between comforting the surviving parent and, depending on their age, attending to their children too. The rituals of the service and the shiva that follows plays a powerful role in giving the family and the community an opportunity to pay respects to the family, testify to the best qualities of the deceased and begin to find a sense of healing. The service transforms the deceased into state of mind from a state of being. Rituals help us canonize our beloved ones into our memory as well as to the communal memory. One would think that would be enough emotional turmoil, but, there may be many more complex and conflicting emotions as well as unresolved issues that even a funeral and shiva cannot bring closure to in this period of mourning. That is exactly where the impact upon the children and the extended family is most acute. It is at these moments when we are all redefining our place not only inside ourselves but in relation to the rest of the family members.

The torah portion is exactly where we find these kinds of issues playing themselves out with the advent of the death of Jacob. Rather than a time for coalescing the children of Jacob in total unity, the emotional climate in this Genesis story is volatile. Rabbinical commentaries are looking to see through the story whether the past can resolve itself or whether the death of Jacob will trigger past conflicts and tear a part the tribes of the sons of Jacob. What do the rabbis see? Furthermore what can we learn from the tense moments and underlying suspicions that surface in the Torah portion that can shed some light between families struggling with the death of a patriarch or matriarch? A strong foundation in the future for our children and grandchildren requires parents and especially grandparents to be transparent not only about their wills but also about values.

The truth is that in the Torah portion there were tensions and fears percolating beneath the surface that revealed many long term resentments between the children and with Jacob himself. Even the text of the Torah tells us that after Jacob’s death, the brothers were afraid that Joseph would slay them all in revenge for their selling him into indentured servitude. The Torah teaches that people are the same in the ancient or contemporary world when it comes to grieving. In other words rivalries and jealousies will always exist and parenthetically, people have the capacity to rise to the occasion and they can, on the other hand, regress to an embittered side of themselves.

Tonight we are reading the final Torah portion, Vayechi, in the book of Genesis. Let’s remember that Joseph had brought the entire family to Egypt. He has revealed himself to his stunned brothers as the second most powerful man of Egypt next to Pharaoh himself. He has taken no vengeance even though his brothers live in fear that at any minute he might do so. But they know that Joseph will not hurt them as long as their father Jacob lives. By chapter 50, Jacob has blessed all the children and given them his patriarchal message. It is now time to return him to the cave of Machpelah in Hebron to be buried alongside his father and mother Isaac and Rebecca and his wife Leah and grandparents Sarah and Abraham. Imagine the scene of everyone gathered together at the cave. Joseph has received permission from Pharaoh to escort his father’s body back to their homeland of Canaan.

This situation is not altogether different from modern day families who come together to bury a parent. They will put on their best face on in front of the community. And many times there are families who have worked out their issues and the funeral can be an opportunity to build stronger bonds in an extended family.

Unfortunately, the rabbinical stories sense that this moment of burial in the Torah was full of latent fears and old unsettled accounts that threatened to destroy the unity of the tribes of Jacob.

Let me give you a brief flavor from the Talmud of this family’s issues. In one Midrash the sages tell us that once the word of Jacob’s death became public, Esau and his clan came, the progeny of Ishmael, and the children of Abraham’s second wife Keturah all attended. Their purpose was to make war upon Jacob’s children for all the injustices their parents experienced.

In one episode from the Talmud, Esau saw that there was an extra burial space opened available since Rachel was buried outside of Bethlehem. Esau said that he wanted that space next to his father for himself. They text of the aggadah describes the story of the verbal altercation between Esau and his nephews. They refuse to let him have the plot for himself claiming that he sold his birthright to Jacob long ago. Acknowledging this fact, Esau still insists that they show him the bill of sale for the entire burial property that Abraham purchased years before from Ephraim the Hititte. This family feud ends up delaying the funeral. The brothers are about to send Naphtali back to Egypt to retrieve the bill of sale for the cave . At that point one of the sons of Dan, Hushim became so angry at the idea of delaying the burial and it being an insult to their grandfather takes a club and strikes Esau on the head so hard that his eyes popped out. At that very moment, the sages say, Jacob opened his eyes and smiled. They then buried him immediately.

One final story was the moment when sons of Jacob had arrived back to Canaan. The brothers watched Joseph go over to the pit where they had originally thrown him when he was a youth. The brothers said, “Surely he will take his revenge against us!” But Joseph did no such thing. As he stood and remembered those days, he invoked a blessing that they had survived and thanked God for all the good in his life. Needless to say the fear from their actions against Joseph’s was real and palpable inside the brothers. This is not an exactly harmonious family situation.

This is not what we like to think about when imagining our ancestor Jacob’s burying our revered patriarch Jacob. And yet is it all that foreign to us when we are talking about the here and now? Whether it is money or family heirlooms, the death of a parent is a time of delicate emotions even in the best of situations. How many people do we know who have estranged relationships with their parents, children and siblings? Yes, we live our daily lives without focusing on old jealousies or hurts but these ritual moments of life transitions raise to the surface all kinds of issues that can distract us from focusing on the meaning of a loved one’s life. We can see from this story in Genesis that issues were not worked out and while time passes people deal with their issues differently. Some can get over the past and others do not.

What also exacerbates these issues today is the geographic reality that families are increasingly spread out all over the country and the world. It becomes harder to work out issues from childhood and move on. The challenge, nevertheless, is when unresolved hurts or conflicts fester over years which mean it becomes harder to resolve them and the time of a funeral is a difficult time to make shalom even if we look united on the outside.

Today we have so many social medium available to keep us in touch with relatives, and, therefore, more opportunities to make amends. The question is whether we have the will to do so? Truthfully I have witnessed all too many episodes of family members either unwilling or simply afraid how to go about making peace with family members.

Building trust with family is an ongoing process and one that requires us to take the time to keep up with family and make an extra effort to get together. Even learning how to communicate with our children about the contents of the will and removing the doubts and questions about who gets what is, in my estimation, an important part of the process of keeping the family together after a parent passes. Transparency is critical when grandparents are thinking about the long term of the well being of children and grandchildren.

I have learned from others that preparing for one’s death and sharing our plans with the children is the best way to create a pathway for the future that our children and grandchildren will remember us maintain civil and even warm relations between themselves. But the best way to avoid issues like what we saw at the end of life is to work on them now.

Shabbat shalom

The president speaks

2011-12-16T12:09:00.001-08:00

Now he moves to israel and the peace. He supports israel. Peace is in the long term interest of israel. A strong israel transcends all politics. He cites tikkun olam again. Unshakeable commitment to israel and its security, he proclaims. No administration in history has done more to secure israel than obama, he proclaims.
Iran now. Us will take no options off the table.
US was there to help israel . "Dont believe others who tell a different story. Those are the facts." Now he quotes from pirke avot. , we are not obligated to complete the task. Neither can we desist from it. Heneni he says. He will keep america's promise no matter how long it takes. Our best days are still to come.
The crow is applauding wildly.
Thats's it. Commentary to come later.

The president speaks

2011-12-16T11:45:00.001-08:00

Compliments urj religious action Ooooo center. The crowd cheered.
He is talking about his daughter attending so many bar and bat mitzvah services. She is the expert on jewish ritual in the Obama house.

Now he is talking about this weeks' torah portion. He quotes the hebrew word heneni! Joseph is the central figure. He sees and feels that the biblical jewish story and his own story resonate together.
He quotes the term tikkun olam repairing the world. He has captured the convention.
Now he is talking about the value of change and how his administration hss made changes. Health care, gay rights, economic justice, ending the war in Iraq and so forth.
The crowd loves it.he speaks of the shared values that transcend all faiths. his mission is about about the struggle to enable all americans to enter the middle class. He says" heneni here I am. " he is willing to fight for all americans to achieve this objective.

The president speaks.

2011-12-16T09:40:00.001-08:00

We have just spent the last hour listening to the Religious Action Center celebrate its 50th anniversary. Videos, testimonial speeches and a jazzed up version of America the Beautiful. We are still waiting. Patience.

Day Two the URJ Biennial Convention

2011-12-15T21:59:00.000-08:00

Blogging the URJ convention: Day Two

It is after midnight. I am sitting outside of my hotel with my computer in the unusually balmy night here in National Harbor. So much to say and so little strength to say it at this hour. Maybe that is a blessing for all my readers.

One of the reasons why I love this convention is the kvell moment. I mean those precious moments where one can run into a dear friend be it a colleague or former congregant. But when suddenly a former youth in my congregation who I officiated at his bar mitzvah comes over to me and is now a junior in high school and gives me the biggest hug and with his wonderful smile greets me. I feel the presence of the Eternal with me in this moment. To know that we are making a difference in the lives of our congregants is what it is all about. This teen is in the regional leadership of the reform movement and that makes me so proud. He has not only grown in stature but in his maturation as a young man. We are blessed to have such fine young people. Truthfully the URJ conventions are reunions of an extended family that defies the imagination. Years ago our relatives used to attend the cousins clubs. Now we have the Biennial convention. Here we are all cousins under the big tent of mishpachah.

Tonight there were three highlights. One was listening to the honorable Deputy Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak. What I shall remember about him was his posture, that is, the way stood with such pride and joy as the crowd stood up and applauded him. It was not that he was relishing the adulation and respect from us all. It looked as if he was this senior statesman and so proud of his country and his role. Think about the rough and tumble fisticuffs of Israeli politics. Here was a night when he could absorb progressive Judaism’s appreciation and respect for the man who has served Israel so honorably over the decades. He gave a great speech reassuring us that he was committed to Israel being a democratic state despite what we may read about the legislation in the Knesset. He applauded us for what we have contributed to the state. And he also acknowledged that it was important for him to listen to us. That is no easy task for an Israeli political leader or for any Jew given our penchant for verbal combat on the drop of a dime. Two Jews and three opinions proclaims the old adage. He said that in Israel it was two Jews and four or five opinions!

The next event was honoring the legal team of David Boies and Ted Olson both of whom received the Maurice Eisendrath Bearer of Light award. Both of these men are famous lawyers who have represented their respective Democratic and Republican parties in some of the most important legal cases of the last two decades. Remember they were adversaries in the election results of the Bush-Gore presidential election. Now they have joined forces to take on the state of California to oppose proposition eight which discriminates against same sex marriage. There are getting ready for their appearance at the Supreme Court and they are doing their best to educate the country that the government should no longer discriminate against its citizens regarding choosing a partner. The fact that these two giants of American jurisprudence could stand together and transcend the partisan divide on this issue was truly an inspiration to us all.

Finally the evening program concluded with resolutions. The most important one to mention was Reform Judaism’s stand on economic justice for all. Our temple President Ted David was invited to serve on that committee. Kudos go to Ted and the committee for his work to bring the resolution to the plenary.

I do not want to skip the fact that the Republican House Majority Leader Representative Eric Cantor spoke to the assembly. The fact that he is Jewish was a wonderful addition to the role he was playing as the Majority leader of the House of Representatives. Briefly he assured the audience that his party and the congress would stand behind Israel and do everything in its power to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. His received a warm welcome and applause. We were fortunate to have him at the Biennial. Tomorrow we shall here from President Obama.

I enjoyed going to the session this morning on Progressive Judaism in Europe today. We had several rabbis from Germany, Great Britain, and Poland talking about the challenge of maintaining Jewish life in these countries. There is the competition with Habad and the Orthodox establishment and the cultural differences of Jewish identity issues in Europe in a post Holocaust era and migrations of Jews from the former Soviet Union into Western Europe. The World Union of Progressive Judaism works with our movement all over the world. Of course the governments in Europe support through taxes the different religions in Europe. What a challenge and yet more congregations and even a rabbinical school for liberal Jews in Germany are growing each year.

Last but not least I went over to one of the halls to listen to an Israel jazz group called Seeds of the Sun. Fantastic. The leader Mattan Klein who I know personally is a flutist. We have to find a way to bring them to Hilton Head one day. Good night to all and Good morning to you all.

Shalom

Blogging the Union of Reform Biennial convention: Day One

2011-12-15T05:43:00.000-08:00

On the road again with Rabbi Bloom at the Union of Reform Judaism Convention

I am driving on Interstate 95 in the Washington D.C. metro area heading onto I 295 into National Harbor, Maryland. To my surprise I see a charming convention city town. The Gaylord Hotel and its convention center is the centerpiece along with other nice hotels and boutiques settled along the Potomac River. National Harbor, Maryland and the Gaylord Convention center plays host to the Union of Reform Judaism Biennial convention.

Here there are 6000 Jews, the largest population to date attending the Biennial convention, gathered together to learn, celebrate, worship, study, socialize in myriads of workshops and learning sessions. Congregation Beth Yam is well represented with 10 participants. We should be proud of the commitment our leadership is making by joining this sacred community of five days.

In addition to the URJ convention the Women of Reform Judaism are having their convention concurrently with the URJ. Suffice it to say that the experience of so many reform Jews together in one convention center is sure to be a an enriching experience. For many it is a reunion and for the first timers the experience of walking through the enormous exhibition hall and seeing so many booths with fantastic Jewish artists and Jewish organizations from all over the world might feel overwhelming in a wonderful way.

This afternoon I entered a workshop of about 100 participants and listened to the panel discuss different ways congregations can welcome and integrate interfaith families. Our own Marcia Frezza was one of the panelists. The Outreach movement devotes itself to this effort to create the kind of environment inside congregations where families can feel like they really are part of congregational life.

Dinner followed and then we returned to the convention hall for the rest of the evening. All I can say tonight was that I felt like I was on a 3 and one-half hour tour without ever moving an inch. I say this because the diversity of activities on the program was so broad and diverse. Truthfully I could not see any real connection between these programs but they were, nevertheless, fascinating.

We heard from Rabbi Eric Yoffe, the retiring president of the URJ and he brought out the incoming successor Rabbi Richard Jacobs. Rabbi Jacobs announced the new URJ initiative for the next ten years on youth engagement. We listened then to a famous and incredibly humorous psychologist and author Dr. Wendy Mogel who gave an insightful and astute analysis on the state of Jewish parenting while making us laugh at the way Jewish parents today over indulge their children. “Good Jewish parents gone bad.”

After Dr. Mogel, we were watched the next speaker introduce Natan Scharansky. Remember he was the famous prisoner of conscience in the Soviet Union until he was freed in 1986. He became the symbol of the free soviet Jewry movement. He is a short man but a giant of Jewish conscience. Scharansky immigrated to Israel and eventually wrote several books, served in the Israeli cabinet and now heads the venerable Jewish Agency. He spoke to us about the tremendous importance of sending young people to Israel with the birthright program that over 300,000 Jewish young people from America have gone on the Birthright program. He also spoke about the contribution that American Jewry has made to Israel especially in teaching Israelis about Jewish spirituality that they might not experience in Israel. Scharansky acknowledged that both Israel and American Jewry can benefit each other.

Next the program was going to honor the memory of the beloved singer of Israel Debbie Friedman. She died this past year. She was an amazing soul who turned around the world of Jewish music for the synagogue and, therefore, the spirituality of Reform Judaism. The tribute to composer Debbie Friedman continues even to the point that the Reform movement’s Cantorial School was renamed as the Debbie Friedman School of music. A band performed one of her compositions. Then they announced the first Debbie Friedman award for someone who excels in Jewish music. The first recipient of the award was Theodore Bikel. At 87 years old, Bikel came out on stage and spoke about Debbie Friedman and in respect to Debbie; he sang three songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and ladino.

At that point the official activities concluded. I was grateful. Yet then the entertainment began with several prominent musicians entertained the late night enthusiasts. I would say that was enough for the evening. It is an amazing and exhilarating experience to be here and we are just getting started!

some reflections about various naratives of history in Israel from my recent trip.

2011-12-09T09:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/11/26/1875586/israel-visit-is-a-trip-through.html
Dear friends here is last weeks' article that appeared in the newspaper that I wrote about Israel. Take a look and have a wonderful shabbat.

Jewish ethics and history explain why Israel would trade Gilad Schalit for 1027 Palestinian terrorists

2011-11-15T05:26:00.000-08:00

This is the link from the article I wrote in my recent monthly newspaper column in the Island Packet. I hope you will click on the link and take a readand as always I welcome your comments.
shalom
Brad
ps. I never choose the title to the columns and this one is certainly problematic. Thanks Bill

http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/10/29/1844795/negotiations-for-prisoner-of-war.html

Arriving Home from Israel: The beginning of our Reflections.

2011-11-13T05:44:00.001-08:00

Israel Trip Post- Returning Home

We arrived home right before Shabbat. Some remained in Israel and the rest left on our respective flights around 11:30pm. Each of us is adjusting to life at home. Surely we are glad to be home and resume the creature comforts of our normal life. No more deadlines to a meet a bus at 7:30am. No more worrying about where are next stop will be. No more concerns about the security. We are now back in charge of the pace of our lives. This is as it should be. It will take most of us a few days to a week to readjust to the time zone and to get the sleep we all need. That will come and we can address ourselves to telling the stories of our trip to all our friends. And surely there will be many stories!

From my perspective, the trip introduced most of the first timers to Israel to a new perspective about Israel that transcends everything that the media reports and others who we know have visited Israel in the past have shared with us. We saw it with our own eyes. We experienced it with our hearts and souls. We listened to everyone’s perspectives and we saw a living and breathing civilization. It is a miracle of history yet we all understood that the challenges Israel still faces from internal and external forces are real too. We have embraced the dream and we saw some of the realities. They are all part of the tapestry of what Israel means to Israelis and to all Jews around the world.

We learned that Israel’s security is paramount in our mind but more than that is the culture and the spirit of the people that have created the miracle of Israel. When we visited the Herzl museum and learned about the beginnings of Zionism only about 115 years ago and then sat inside Independence Hall where David Ben Gurion declared the modern state of Israel and then standing on the Golan Heights overlooking the frontier of where Israel expanded its borders and defended them in the Yom Kippur War, and then standing at the graves at the Military Cemetery in Jerusalem. These experiences and many more we experienced helped us all to grasp the drama, the victory, the glory and the pain of israel’s birth and its struggle for existence. My sense is that this group has added a new perspective of how the Israelis have made sense of it all and that too is part of the miracle of Israel.

We also learned once again the time honored lesson that understanding history is part and parcel of our search for meaning. But this time it is not just about recent history but on this trip it was expanding our horizons about ancient history. We walked underground at the Wall in Jerusalem, beneath the tunnels in the City of David southeast of the Temple. We walked through the remnants of Herod’s world at Masada, Caesaria and the Holy Temple. We could experience the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum. All of this and more proved to us that our presence in the land of Israel was established long ago. And in that way our sense of Jewish identity is no longer dependent upon our roots in Europe. Sure that is where we usually trace our identity. It is only natural to think of ourselves and our forbearers. But now it is time to go beyond to embrace our historic roots in the civilization of Israelite culture and the Bible itself. This is why the early Zionists, Ben Gurion particularly, emphasized the Bible as a historic map for our people and stressed its reading as a living document and the key to unlocking our past so that Jews would embrace the modern state of Israel as the legitimate continuation of the ancient Jewish and Hebraic civilization.

The Israel trekkers have much to consider in their reflections upon how this trip has impacted their lives. My sense is that the new friendships that were made will become some of the long lasting benefits from this trip. In that way it makes for a stronger congregation at Beth Yam for encouraging this kind of commitment to Israel but also this trip builds a better congregation. I hope we can have more trips sponsored by our temple to Israel and to other Jewish communities around the world who are affiliated with Progressive Judaism.

It was my privilege to lead this group and I want to thank them and the leadership of the congregation for giving their blessing to organizing this trip. Thank God for bringing everyone back in good health. Keyn Yehi Ratzon. May it be God’s will.

Trip to Jordan

2011-11-12T15:24:00.001-08:00

Trip to Jordan

We proceeded from Elat to the Yitzhak Rabin border crossing that would lead us into Jordan. Our tour guide Tamar and trusted bus driver Uzi drove us to the border crossing where they waved goodbye. We stood in line to exit Israel and then began what many in the group felt to be an uncomfortable experience of walking with our luggage across a corridor of about fifty yards into Jordan. Our trekkers expressed to me that they really felt vulnerable walking from one country to the next. Images of check point charley in the old east-west divide were conjured up into their minds. But that feeling started to disappear as our Jordanian tour guide Naim greeted us along with the new bus driver and a tourism policeman who accompanied us throughout the trip. Naim’s mission was to make us feel at ease and safe being in Jordan. He tried to ease our underlying uneasiness by assuring us that we were safe and that Jordan welcomed us. In fact Naim used his knowledge of Hebrew and fluent English to prove to us that Jordan and Israel were friends and valued our presence.

We began our trip to Petra which was about one and a half hours. Naim showed us the places of historic significance such as the Mt Hor which was where, according to the Torah, where Aaron died. Basically these two days in Jordan were geared to experiencing Petra and then heading north to Amman. At the same time we would be following the kings highway which is one of the oldest highways in history. Second we would be passing three territories that go back to the trek of the Israelites in their journey to the Promised Land. The first region surrounding Petra was the Edomites and then headed north into the ancestral lands of the Moabites with the final stop in Amman which was the land of the Ammonites. At the same time through our stops at various places we would see the modern state and culture of Jordan.

Petra: We finally arrived in Petra. Our hotel was right next to the area of Petra. We began our descent into the valley of the Nabatean kingdom which build Petra, the city out of stone. It took about a mile or so to get to the famous “Treasurey Building” that Steven Spielberg made famous in one of his Indiana Jones movies. We walked down a narrow pathway with rock formations protruding and one can start to see evidence of civilization and the remnants of public art work that once decorated the entrance to the Nabatean kingdom. We finally arrived to the first level Treasury Building and one cannot help but gasp at the beauty of the structure with Greco roman pillars carved out of the rock. A few of us continued downwards and beheld the amphitheatre and other public buildings built into the rock. Of course the Bedouin were there to let us ride horses or ride in a carriage for price down and up. And if we wanted we could take a came as well. But none of us went in that direction –too stinky.

My sense was that Petra captured the imagination of the group and garnered the respect for the Nabatean civilization. Naim did his best to offer theories about the Nabateans and what the various buildings might have been used for but only guesses. That seems to be a pattern in trying to decipher archaeology in the Middle East.

We walked all the way up back to the hotel and which was about a 2 mile trek. We had dinner t at the hotel. Everyone liked the hotel. The next day at 7:30 am we boarded the bus and began the last leg of the trip towards Amman. We made a few stops which are required by tour guides not only for the use of the facilities but to visit roadside stores with all of Jordan’s best products. It is just part of the process of touring the Middle East. Our first big stop was at the Crusader Castle near Madaba. Wow. What we saw was an enormous castle that enabled the crusader army (it housed over 5000 troops at one time) to see over the valley. We entered inside and could feel the sounds of the soldiers and imagined them and their horses and the community they formed. We felt no admiration for them personally but we definitely, after having visited the crusader castle in Acco, why Arabs use this imagery as a rallying cry against the west. We had lunch in the city of Madaba and then to Mt. Nebo outside of Amman.

We also went to visit the St George Greek Orthodox Church with the famous 6thb century Mosaic of Jerusalem. That was special. The candles were lit and one could listen to the Greek Orthodox version of chanting that set the mystical tone as we entered and took our pictures. It also showed to us that there is a Christian presence in Jordan. They are a minority but one that lives beside their Muslim countrymen peacefully.

We got off the bus noting that Mt. Nebo is the mountain that God had Moses stand on to view the Promised Land showing him the land and reminding him that he would never enter it himself. He died there and was buried by God somewhere in the valley near Nebo. The land now is in the hands of the Franciscan Church. I gathered the group together on Mt Nebo overlooking Israel. Since it was clear in the mid afternoon we could see the tops of buildings in Jerusalem. That was awesome too. But I explained to the group that this marked the end of the Israelite journey. In a sense it was our moment following in the footsteps of our ancestors in the Torah. We could see what they saw. We could imagine their eyes looking in great anticipation for the beginning of the promise fulfilled. We were in the Diaspora but just across the way from the Promised Land. What a feeling. It was not about our Ashkenazi roots in Poland, I explained, it was, however, about our roots in the land of Israel. Our historic roots as recorded in the Torah and in the Bible have been the underlying theme of this trip. It was about remembering all the touring we did in Jerusalem and the archaeological sites we visited of our civilization that once flourished. It was the vision that Theodore Herzl possessed to revive our roots in the soil. Our group could now see that this moment was going to be an appropriate conclusion and represent a full circle of the Exodus and the journey of the Jew in discovering his or her heritage.

We spent the rest of the night in Amman at the Marriot. The next day we headed off to the final spot of the Roman city of Jerash. That was the city named for the emperor Trajan. I have never seen any Roman city like this one. One could walk down the Cardo and imagine that glory of this city in its day. The Roman amphitheatre, the columns and the religious sites all contributed to a glimpse of history and what this region looked like two thousand years ago. We were all stunned to see this Roman city preserved so well.

I just want to say something about Amman. Remember Jordan is a country of about 6 million people. Half the population is Palestinian and the rest are Arabs who lived here before the Palestinians arrived. It is country that is about %85 percent barren dessert. Three million live in Amman. It is sadly a city struggling to be a major player but does not quite make it. Our people were taken back on the bus ride to Jerash at the amount of trash on the side of the roads we saw. On the other hands the peace treaty the Israelis and the Jordanians signed was a good thing because Jordan has definitely benefitted by tourism and USIA development funds to small businesses. So there is a respect for Israel and America in Jordan along with the respect and reverence for the King and his family. Naim was willing to talk to us about the politics of the Middle East and give us his perspective. He also talked about cultural life in Jordan such as the tradition that the grooms side of the family pays for the wedding of a son. His narrative of the process of giving his son a wedding was most enlightening.

We arrived at the Jordanian border and drove across to the Israeli side at the border crossing called the Allenby Bridge. Our tour guide Tamar and Uzi met us there and we headed back to Tel Aviv to get our bags and prepare for the farewell dinner and then off to Ben Gurion Airport.

the 48 war for independence

2011-11-03T14:09:00.000-07:00

We left the hotel today about 7am. Saying goodbye to Jerusalem, we headed along highway 1 towards Tel Aviv. The climate was balmy and warm. The theme for the day was tracing the amazing stories and history of the people who ushered Israel to victory in the 48 War of Independance. Our first stop was at the Ayalon Institute. This was the place that functioned in the forties as a real life kibbutz but in reality it was used as an underground bullet making factory. We went down spiral steps into the bunker that was the size of a tennis court and heard the story how these kids for two years alluded the British and made thousands of bullets for the soon to be War of Independance. we were all amazed at their story and their discipline how this clandestine operation worked successfully. just imagine a kibbutz right under the british noses hiding these teens who risked life and limb to perform this vital function to make ammunition for Israel.

then we headed over to Yafo and briefly toured the area. beautiful stores and history of arabs and jews living together and world powers like napoleon who visited YAFO on his way to Eygpt.
our next stop was Independance Hall where David ben gurion declared the state of Israel. the movies we saw and the presentation we heard were stirring and inspirational.
we stopped to have lunch and then headed off to the Palmach museum which was the museum that honored the work of this elite group of the Hagana that led many missions and gave their all to usher israel into a modern army. there we witnessed an exhibiton following the lives of one troop of palmach soldiers from their training to the battle for independance.
my sense is that our group really could grasp the modern history of the birth of israel and the miracle of how few resources they actually had to defend the state against the armies of the arabs. it truly was a miracle. finally we had dinner at a time honored middle eastern favorite restaurant in yaffo called dr. schackshukah. awesome and delicious.
tomorrow we are off to haifa and caesarea.

Catching up and leaving jerusalem

2011-11-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

Good evening everyone. Sorry I missed a day but I just ran out of time and steam. This has been our last night in Jerusalem. I will try to cover two days worth of history. Jerusalem is all about fighting for history. Whether it is an ancient relic demonstrating our presence two millennium ago or the battle ground of Ammunition Hill in the 67 war we have learned that history is just as precious as water in the Middle East.

Yesterday we set out to visit Masada. Of course we paid homage to and purchased many products at the Ahavah factory outlet store. Mostly Russian Jewish Israelis helping us. The women will be even more beautiful and their skin soft like ancient Israelite women were because of these Dead Sea products. The mud masks alone will make us feel renewed.
We arrived at Masada and entered the visitors center where we too the gigantic tram to the top. You should know that serious historians are really at odds about what Eliezer and the Zealots really did to their own people when the Romans breached theWalls. The telling moment that the story we all grew up with is doubtful is whe the Israel tank core stopped having their induction ceremonies on Masada. (they now do it at Latrun)
Anyway we heard all kinds of theories from the tour guide knowing full well that the debate continues on this subject.
The weather was great and toured Herod's winter palace. We imagined the lifestyle that went on there and then 60 or so years later the zealots taking over the plateau. Herod had everything a monarch could use to survive including a water sisters,plenty of grains and communal building to sustain life for as long as he needed. Aside from the story recorded in the pages of Josephus about Masada, one could not help but respect the building vision of Herod even if by all accounts he was a vicious man and a murderer.
Of course we discussed the importance of the story of Masada in building the self confidence of the burgeoning new state of Israel.
Afterwards we we had lunch at the visitors center and traveled to the Dead Sea. Yes some of our folks had the courage to cover themselves with mud. They looked great. We relaxed and enjoyed the balmy weather. Lots of Russian Jews there basking in the mud.
So we finally returned to Jerusalem. A very nice day.

Today.
We left for touring Jerusalem. First we went to Hadassah Hospital at the Ein Kerem campus. Many of the women have been involved in the organization. Proudly Bet Yam members have their names listed on plaques for their tzedakah. We made a visit to the maternity ward.then we entered the synagogue and listened to a cd tour and explanation of the history of the Chagall windows and their Meaning. For a moment we gathered in a circle and recited and then chanted the prayer for healing. Very moving.
Our next stop was Ammunition Hill where learned about the battle to take all of Jerusalem. Many of us were hearing the details of this battle for the first time. The Israelis prevailed but sustained enormous casualties in those six days of June 1967. The courage and bravery of Israeli soldiers became emblazoned upon our hearts and minds.
Now we changed the mood to another miracle of history.we drove to the Israel Museum and had lunch first. fYI the museum underwent a major renovation. From that point we went outside to see the model city of ancient Israel in Temple Days outside. This was fantastic. It is a huge model that is enormous but precise to every detail. Jerusalem must have been such a spectacular city!
We the descended into th Shrine of the Book meaning the scrolls called the Dead Sea Scrolls. People were practically stunned. Just think that these texts,a little over 2000 years old has transformed biblical studies. Our presence and history repeats itself again and again. The texts were amazing not just for the age but for the quality of the message and the scribal art. I cannot say enough here about the excitement of viewing these texts.

The last stop was the Knesset the Israeli parliament. Since it is in session right now we could not enter. But we did visit the famous menorah across the street which is the national emblem of Israel.we took pictures. As we left and headed towards the bus, the school kids who were also there ran over to us. It was fantastic. They surrounded me and a few others throwing questions to about what we thought about Israel. I was speaking Hebrew and English at the same time. Wow! The children and the soldiers who were also there represented the chain of tradition
That must be preserved to protect and defend Israel.
Is that enough?
Off to Tel Aviv in the morning.
Shalom
Rabbi Bloom

Women at the Wall: Jerusalem is the city of possibilities

2011-10-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

We were out the door on the bus at 7am headed over to the southwestern motel otherwise known as Robinsonn's Arch. Two women in our congregation Judi and Kathy became bnot mitzvah and read from the Torah,co-officiated with me along with Judy B as cantor and delivered sermons on the Torah portion. It was truly a sacred moment for all of us. I am so proud of them. I cannot say enough.robinson's arch is simply an extension of the western wall. It is blocked by construction at the archaeological site so the orthodox leave it alone. This means girls and women can have their services close enough to the wall without being harassed by the religious police. The officials we worked with gave us conservative prayer books and a Torah but they asked that the women not hold the Torah even though they did not stop them from reading it. Jerusalem is a city of contradictions.
This was definitely a highlight of our trip. We were all moved from their faith and commitment. This was a life changing moment on many levels. More will come from this experience reading from the Torah and praying towards the Wall. Awesome!
We then changed the mood and went over to the tour of the Wall going in the opposite direction underground beneath the Arab quarter. Archaeology was the theme the rest of the morning. The history of these structures built in King Herod'time is overwhelming.just how far down the Walls go is mind blowing. It is a must tour. Many orthodox young adults pray along these underground walls. They probably are praying psalms but they are standing together. Very interesting.
We returned to the Jewish quarter for lunch. We visited the Burnt House excavation of a Herodion house.
Afterwards we toured special historic sites in the Jewish quarter including a visit to the long awaited reconstruction of the Hurva synagogue. Absolutely spectacular in capturing the old Jewish world of synagogue architecture in a modern setting.
Finally the group went shopping for a while.
The last event was a meeting and conversation with my wife 's cousin Dina Rand. She has lived in Samaria for over 24 years. She was fantastic as she spoke so eloquently of her views about Israel especially religious pluralism , Arab and women's issues. Dina was engaging, articulate , sensitive and humble. The group was impressed. Enough for today and tomorrow we head off to Masada.
Shalom
Brad

Holy sites in modern Israel.

2011-10-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

What a day! In Jerusalem there is a burning fight not just for land but for truth and a battle for memory. Holy sites exist on all sides. No one can be neutral about Jerusalem. Anyone who claims to be objective is either a liar or a fool.
So let's begin today's journey when we met up with Amir cheesiness a retired army officer and former advisor on Arab affairs to the late mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kolleck. This man was a no nonsense military man not a diplomat. He focused his lecture to us on the Arab Israeli problem of demographics in Jerusalem. He discussed the impact of the well known security fence upon Jerusalem Jewish Arab ratio. Apparently the gap is narrowing from a 75-25percent Jewish Arab population ratio to a %67 to %33 ratio in the next few decades. In fact Arab residents who live on the other side of the fence have their yellow card pass through the checkpoints and go to work in Israel. Also the affluent ones are now buying from Israelis their expensive homes in places like the once totally Jewish French Hill section of Jerusalem. We learned many more facts on the ground never reported in the press. His outstanding talk gave us much to be concerned about regarding the demographic threat to Israel's territorial integrity.

Off we went to start the journey of the heart. We arrived at Yad V'Shem the Holocaust memorial and museum to the 6million. We received an introduction by our guide at the avenue of the righteous Gentiles who risked their lives to save Jews. Most had been to the Washington memorial museum.people commented that Yad V'Shem felt tame compared to thewashington monument. Our group was certainly affected each in their own way.We traversed the exhibition until we arrived at the end. I could see in their eyes the sadness and the heart wrenching emotions rising to the surface as we gathered together. At that point we entered the Yad VShem synagogue. They let us come in and in this beautiful wooden contemporary style with a magnificent ark from Europe.our soloist Judy Bluestone sang and Felicia Pascal read from Jewish poetry on the Shoah holocaust. We needed to express ourselves spiritually in ways where just plain talking about our feelings would not suffice.
Lunch in the cafeteria was ok and a necessary break from this vigil into the kingdom of night.Afterwards we prepared ourselves to enter the heartbreaking memorial to 1.5million children who the Nazis murdered during these years of the Shoah. We walked into a dark winding pathway where we could here a voice out of the darkness say the name and age of the child. As we heard this voice recite an endless list of names, we gazed at the lights of 5 candles refracting against the glass so that it looked like a million lights. I
Will not say anymore on this subject. Needless to say Yad V'Shem opened up many eyes and continued the learning process. I do not want to forget to mention the numbers of soldiers who came to learn about the holocaust. In fact Tamar says it is required for every soldier to visit Yad V'Shem
Next we drove to mt Herzl to visit the grave of the founder of the modern state of Israel Theodore Herzl. The exhibition and movie teaching his life were excellent. The movie traced the story of an Israeli actor preparing for the role of Theodre Herzl in a movie. Creative approach to what could have been a tedious approachbut the movie was contemporary while teaching about his life and the times he lived in that led Herzl to make a huge contribution to the history of Zionism. Not Done yet!
Our final stop was at the national military cemetary. That took many of us by surprise our guide Tamar took us to the grave of the famous and beloved Israeli war hero johnathan Yoni Netanyahu. We felt the shivers as Tamar narrated his story. There it was this respected icon of holy sites and precious memories. As tired and emotionally drained everyone was we all felt we had done the right thing by pushing ourselves to visit these graves of Israel's fallen.
A final ride back to the hotel for a respite and then we walked over through the unbelievable Mamilia street open Mall to a restaurant called coincidentally enough Herzl. You can put it on your restaurant to go visits.
We were drained emotionally from today. It was ok nevertheless.
Shalom from yerushalayim
Rabbi Bloom

One would think that was enough.

Shavua Tov a good new week from jerusalem

2011-10-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

Shabbat is over and the city is pulsating with young people in the streets. The cafes are bustling with business and the buses back in action. So what have we been doing over Shabbat?
Let's start back on Friday. I left us after our trip to the frenetic Mahaneh Yehudah the Jewish market. We regrouped and our bus took us to Shabbat services at the reform congregation kol haneshamah.
We sat down with about 100-130 people. Most of them are American ex-pats,some native born Israelis and pilgrims like us. This is not a service that the group would have expected in a typical reform Jewish service in the states . The rabbi sat at a table on a slightly raised platform dressed in total white informal attire.no cantor to sing the music of the liturgy. There was no shtick or gimmickry. He simply sat at the table and chanted the service with beautiful, easy to sing and meditative melodies. There was no doubt the he was the center of the service. Yet his style was subdued as he was leading them without exhibiting any effort to get the people involved. It just seemed natural and and comfortable. Rabbi Kelman spoke in hebrew to us in his sermonette. The prayer books were either hebrew only or English -hebrew. The reaction of the group was quite positive. Some folks felt it to be a little cultish but most felt uplifted and renewed even those who do not know hebrew or a bit rusty. The board member welcomed us from bet yam.
We returned to the hotel Leonardo and had our sabbath meal. Bruce freeman and his family,son of Harold and Barbara Freeman, who has lived in Israel for over20 years joined us and discussed politics in Israel and gave a dramatic and passionate explanation about why Israelis feel so emotional about Gilad schalit.
Shabbat morning
We walked to Hebrew Union College and attended Shabbat morning services there. This service was led primarily by rabbinical students and a cantorial student along with faculty members from HUC. This was also primarily a hebrew worship experience along with piano accompaniment. I was given one of two aliyot or blessings recited over the Torah reading.a great honor for me and our community.
After the services rabbi JoelOseran, long time staff member of the world Union of progressive Judaism, spoke to us about the challenges and mission of progressive Judaism around the world. He gave us a tour throughout the beautiful campus and bid us farewell.
Even more to come. Tamar our guide led us on a walking trip into the old city through the Jaffa gate. We walked into the Arab quarter and had a delicious lunch. We ordered either felaphel or lamb schwarma. Satiated and happy Tamar guided us through the holy Sepulcure church one of Christianity's oldest holy sights. It was packed with Christian pilgrims from all over the world. The main attraction was the small but ornate chapel where, according to Christian tradition,Jesus was crucified. Very intense and sacred holy site.
The group returned to the hotel for rest and dinner.Ijoined one of the groups who ,ate at a restaurant called Adon. Everyone enjoyed themselves.
Is that enough for one day?

ShavuaTov Tov
Brad

Friday was a day of going down and ascending to holy places

2011-10-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

It is Erev Shabbat in Jerusalem. You can feel the pressure as everyone is shutting down and getting ready for Shabbat. I am happy. Our last stop today was walking through the Jewish market. We have the sweetest tasting ballot in the world. We ate felafel and just felt the energy of the excitement and the packed crowds buying their Shabbat groceries. The men in their booths shouting out their prices. The different spices and the aromas! Reach nichoach a sweet aroma to Shabbat. Machaneh yehudah is the largest outdoor Jewish market in the world. We walked and we ate. We are resting now before the bus picks us up to attend services at kol haneshamah the reform congregation in Jerusalem. I will tell you more after Shabbat is over.

We entered the old city today through the dung gate. Tamar and I provided an introduction to the history of the Wall and the El Aksamosquue and the dome of the rock. Men and women went to their respective sides separated by a fence. Some prayed. Some watched the orthodox davenport or pray fervently. The men's side of the Wall has a cave win extensive library and portable arks. One could see several minyanim going on at the same time. It is always interesting to listen to the varied reactions of people toward the western wall.
Since I am going backwards in time we were taken to visit the new excavation to the south of the old city. These are called the city of David. It was there that we descended downwards through the tunnels and witnessed with our eyes the amazing engineering feat of ancient Israelites who cut out of Jerusalem stone underground tunnels to preserve water for the city. King hezekiah directed this project which kept Jerusalem safe from the aAssyrian army in the 8th centuries. Yes it was a challenging walk through narrow passageways. But we coulée the genius of our ancestors at work in ancient times. Remember water is a very precious commodity in the middle east.
Everyone was tired and then we
We headed up to the wall as I mentioned. Drinking water and staying hydrated was critical.
Oh I forgot to mention we ad the famous Israeli breakfast at the hotel. That must have given us the energy to get through the walking up an down the hills of Jerusalem.
Now time for Shabbat. Tomorrow morning we will go to Hebre Union College for services with lunch and casual strolling through the Arab and Christian quarters.
My people earned their Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom from our group to you in yerushalayim
Rabbi Bloom

Arrived in Jerusalem

2011-10-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

I can see the king David hotel, the YMCA, the old city and the panorama of jerusalem at night. Our wonderful group from the Hilton head area are all here safe and sound albeit a little tired from the trip.
Where does one begin this trip blog? Our tour guide is a nice young lady named
Tamar. I am sure we will learn more about her as the trip proceeds. We are an energetic group with a good sense of humor. Some of us are hear for the first time and others are veterans of Israel. We will a learn from each other. I am not concerned.
Besides having dinner at a nice restaurant tonight on King George, we drove to a scenic vista of the old city. it was Becoming dark and so we could marvel at the city lights but we could not behold that sunset radiating down upon the dome of the rock or the El Aksa mosque . But we said our blessings of thanksgiving made a kidding and delighted in the most delicious Hallah in Jewish history.
My main point tonight was that I hoped that we as a group would allow ourselves to move beyond being a tourist and embrace this trip as a journey as if we were real life pilgrims. No matter our age a trip to Israel calls us to listen and watch carefully how the past shapes our future.
Tomorrow we will go to explore the jewish quarter, the western Wall, excavations on the south side of the Holy Temple and , of course, we will make our way beforee Shabbat commences to theJewish market. Watch out hallahs! then we will worship at Kol HaNeshamah, the exciting and inspiring reform congregation in Jerusalem.
Shabbat Shalom
Rb

Emotions are Real: A Perspective on Grieving the loss of a loved one

2011-10-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

Yizkor Yom Kippur: Day of Atonement Memorial Service

Aaron, the brother of Moses, had just lost his two sons, Nadav and Abihu. The Torah tells us in the book of Leviticus that God sent a strange fire and took them both out for apparently not following directions set out by God in the Torah for making sacrificial offerings. Aaron’s response was; “Vayidom Aaron,” And Aaron remained silent.” What did that mean? What does silence mean as compared to weeping or as other biblical patriarchs did which was to cry, throw dirt upon them and tear their garments? Yet with Aaron, the high priest, it was silence. It feels unusual. The reaction is not typical of how most people react to the death not just of children but towards any loved one. Yet this is the situation of Aaron and it feels like a mystery to us because we don’t know what is beneath the surface. His silence almost invites us to ask questions about what he was really feeling. Surely there is a connection for us to see that reacting to grief varies and we all struggle with different means to accept the loss of a loved one.

I think there are many occasions when people exhibit emotional reactions that leave us perplexed as they mourn a loved one. Sometimes it is silence and other times it is a non-stop mourning that goes beyond Judaism’s 11 month initial period of mourning. Everyone mourns differently and we should resist making too many judgments about someone else’s way of mourning and determining what is appropriate and inappropriate. All that is really important is that the mourners are truthful with themselves and the issues they are facing as a result of losing their loved ones.

I remember a man who lost his teenage son to cancer. Joshua was his name and the father used to take his chair out to the cemetery and read or sit there and talk to the grave as if he was speaking to his son. People in the community used to comment to me about how strange that appeared to them after the first year. He continued to visit his son’s grave for some time afterwards. We all use different ways to cope in the short run and the long run with the death of a child or a loved one.

There is so much that life can teach us about handling our careers, parental roles, our financial responsibilities, and so on. But what course do we take and what books do we read and what tv reality show do we watch that will instruct us how to mourn the loss of a loved one? What college or university teaches how people can mourn their loved ones? The truth is that none of these are either appropriate or enough for us to expect to learn how to mourn and how to cope with long term grief.

Judaism has an established a process of one year for mourning starting with the laws and rituals that guide us from the moment we hear of the loved one’s death to the washing of the body in a ritual specific way to the final interment. Judaism gives us the 7 days of shiva and asks us to take time out and get our bearings and receive the comfort of the community. Thirty days or shloshim comes next from the time commencing with the interment. Then the unveiling and the obligation to recite mourner’s kaddish for a loved one each day for 11 months. Mitzvot such as giving tzedakah in their memory, starting programs in the memory of the loved one or getting involved in the causes that they loved or the causes that were responsible for their deaths is also typical. People tell me all these things help.

The challenge is a deeper one which is confronting the long term journey to live without their presence. All of us understand what I mean when a grief-stricken spouse says’ life just does not feel the same since he or she passed.’ We understand the internal meaning when a senior adult confides; “my friends are all passing. Who is left?’ We know what it means to experience multiple emotions like anger, frustration, comfort and release in one setting and feel exhausted afterwards.

How did Abraham react internally when he had to bury Sarah? He purchased a cave called Mahpelah in the ancient city of Hebron to give her a proper resting place. Jacob made sure that Rachel was buried and provided her with a separate tomb from the rest of the Patriarchs and matriarchs buried in the Cave of Mahpelah. And it was God who laid Moses down to rest and with a kiss let him enter life eternal on the plains of Moab burying him in a place where no one would ever know. Still the Torah is quiet about exposing emotions. The children of Israel cried when Moses died. But we do not usually get a sense of the internal emotions at work inside the matriarchs or patriarchs.

Nevertheless, Judaism provides us with a framework to cope. It offers us a year of ritual and structure to transition. Beyond that we have the opportunity to remember, as we are doing right now in worship, three times a year at the festivals and particularly at Yom Kippur. Yet there is a difference between what all the rituals in the world can do, and we should not underestimate their efficacy, to the internal resources we all must summon up inside ourselves. The strength to grieve and mourn long term is not about suppressing emotions inside ourselves. It is not about lashing out at the world even when we want to do so and feel justified in doing so. It is not about exhibiting anger at everyone who we believe or imagine could have or should have done more for us or our loved ones. The strength is about seeing inside ourselves where the real needs are and recognizing how to address those secret emotions rather than let them become toxic to us and others.

Silence is not a bad thing. Crying and screaming is not bad either if we know when to exhaust those emotions and move on to living life. Silence does not means being stoic and unfeeling just as emoting does not mean being out of one’s mind. When we are trying to comfort friends and family who are struggling with the loss of a loved one then one of the important values is trust that the mourner will display the emotions they are most comfortable using to deal with the death of a loved one.

And all we can pray to god for them is that they are truthful with themselves. Grieving a loved one in the short or long term means that mourners face hard truths. Some of those truths are about emotions such as loss and loneliness and our need for security and identity. Some of those emotions are about frustrations. They are all real issues. The challenge is to understand the emotions we are experiencing. And the same challenge for us who comfort mourners is to respect those emotions.

May God comfort you amongst the remnants of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. May our loved ones be remembered for blessing.

Yom Kippur Morning Sermon

2011-10-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

Yom Kippur Day

A High Holy Day Prayer that opens the door to Jewish history and to ourselves.

Recently at Shabbat services I led a discussion focusing on one of our prayers, the Unatane Tokef prayer. A member of the congregation commented that he remembered how his mother would cry when she read that prayer each year. The tears streamed down her face to the point that the page was basically yellow over the years as she returned to the prayer at the High Holy Days.

The generation of my grandmother who either came from the old country or whose parents were immigrants understood that life was a fragile thing. They were regular people; they had no college degrees nor did they hold important positions in the corporate world or in the professions. They did have courage and strength to break the chains of their oppression in Europe and immigrate to America. They inherited the belief that Rosh Hashanah was a blend of contradictory experiences. One was joyous welcoming the New Year with apples and honey. The other was unsettling believing that God hears us and judges us especially at this time.

The prayer Unatane Tokef is one of the most poignant examples of the High Holy Day drama of God who sits on high and opens the three books to determine our fate. Yes, it is hierarchical. But we do have the opportunity to change our fate. We have choices and we have the opportunity to make corrections through Prayer, Repentance and Giving to those in need. But there is a sub text in this prayer where history plays a role in our thinking about how vulnerable we are. Second there is a struggle today to come to grips to find a way to understand this prayer if we do not accept the literal and traditional notion of God as arbiter of our fate.

Last night on Kol Nidre I spoke to us about belief in god. It is a theological challenge. But what I want to focus on today is another question; how does Jewish history influence the development of our spiritual life? We need to be aware of and understand what was meant when some of our most important high holy days prayers were written. The prayers do not normally reveal their historic origins but the Unatane Tokef is an exception. And by exploring this one prayer and its historic origins we can better come to grips with a modern interpretation not only of the Unatane Tokef for our times but also for the entire experience of the High Holy Days.

If we peruse the pages of the High Holy Day Mahzor, particularly on Yom Kippur, we never see a preface about the history of any prayer except one prayer- the Unatane Tokef prayer. The prayers are supposed to be anonymous so that we should not cast them into any one time period. The goal is so that they should be timeless and not constrained to a particular time period which could narrow their meaning for future generations. That makes sense.

Yet if we examine the Unatane Tokef, we see the exact opposite. We read a preface regarding a story of Rabbi Amnon of Mayence who basically committed an act of martyrdom, and before going to his death he wrote this prayer. It leaves us with an impression that this rabbi was German and lived in medieval times. And the invoking of a historic context sets a tone that our history is very much connected to our prayer experience no matter when the prayers are recited.

In a newly published study of this prayer, one which offers us new interpretations for our times, the story of Rabbi Amnon is discussed. As might be expected there are lots of different scholarly views about him and the history of the prayer. Yet the predominate view is that the story is at least from the 11^th century even if its roots go back even earlier. But the historic times of this period was the Crusades and the story goes as follows. Apparently the bishop of the community in Germany summoned Rabbi Amnon and requested that he convert out of Judaism into the Bishop's faith tradition. The rabbi responded that he would consider the request and get back to the bishop in three days. Almost immediately the rabbi realized that it was a major mistake to leave that opening. So the rabbi decided not to return with an answer. Afterwards the agitated cleric had Rabbi Amnon brought to him and decreed that his fingers and his toes would all be cut off.

Rabbi Amnon was brought back to his home. When Yom Kippur came, after he was carried into the synagogue, in a moment of divine inspiration he recited this prayer Unatane Tokef. That is basically the primary story of how this prayer came to be. Some scholars say that it came from Germany. Others will argue that its origin was in Italy and then France but the German origin stuck for all time. It was the one prayer that captured the feeling of vulnerability of the Jewish population in medieval Europe in the aftermath of the Crusades which impacted them in no less a traumatic way than the Shoah did in our time. Notice that if any or all of this is true that there is no evidence of hatred or bitterness. It is a prayer that acknowledges that life is unpredictable and that we are vulnerable on so many different levels.

We have no corroborating evidence about Rabbi Amnon but we know that the root letters of his name mean faithful one. How appropriate for this story of a martyred rabbi who defied the religious authorities that tried to force to him to convert out of Judaism. Whether the rabbi actually existed or not is not the issue. If he is a metaphor or a representative symbol of an entire generation we sense the dignity of his thoughts despite the unfathomable pain he experienced in his suffering. How does all this fit into our modern day mind set?

Putting aside the issue of defining our belief in God, modern people struggle with too much negativity in general and in religion as well. Do we not like things that are positive and the glass half full rather than deriving spiritual energy from someone else’s suffering? Who wants to be reminded of the traumas of our history? Yet that is exactly what the congregant’s mother understood who cried each year when she read the prayer. Her generation and those who preceded her understood and lived that kind of anti-Semitism. It was real for them and for us in America it is not real. Except for the remnants of Holocaust survivors, we have lived in a relative cocoon of security.

This may be one reason why modern Jews, particularly on the progressive side of Jewish life, ask how this liturgy relates to us. Have we lost something valuable or precious from our past that numbs us to the underlying meaning of our prayers? This question is not about God. This is about us and our connection to our history. This is about making an island in America believing that we are different and that we do not have a vested interest in our past. I fully respect that there are limits to how much we can relate to the history of prejudice and bigotry against the Jewish people. But can we abandon such a history? Do we strip the prayer of its roots especially when our rabbis wanted us to focus on this meditation of Rabbi Amnon before chanting Unatane Tokef?

My view is that during the High Holy Days we need to reconnect with a Jewish past. The issue is not simply judging the efficacy of the prayers in the Mahzor based upon how relevant they are to our lives. How can we make such a judgment unless we gather in a broader historic context to evaluate it? The High Holy Days are, in my estimation, a series of sacred moments in the lifecycle of our year when we receive a reminder that we are products of our history which does not mean we are automatically obliged to relive it and, I fear, we will experience a kind of spiritual amnesia of our past if we do not strive to learn our history. That thought worries me.

We come to these prayers with divergent beliefs in God. We enter the Holy Days with different expectations about what we are to get out of the long hours of worship. Our tradition says the Days of Awe are about a sense of reconciliation on multiple levels. We are supposed to ask not only God but ourselves some hard questions about our behavior and face the uncomfortable task of making peace with people who we have offended and those who have hurt us. There are religious and social reasons which motivate us to attend services. For some the purpose is social, that is, to be seen in the pews and for others the purpose is to reaffirm our communal connections in this spiritual convocation. We are even supposed to fast which can be painful and then within hours change our mood to break the fast with joy and lots of good food. There is a communal solidarity that motivates us.

What is most important is that we engage the prayers on whatever level we can as compared to reading them without any sense of investment or personal interest in the prayers. Unatane Tokef reminds us that god is the shepherd and we are the flock. The prayer is also a wakeup call that human achievement is still limited and cannot determine the outcome of everything that happens to us. This time honored prayer gives us a pathway how to make things right and avoid the justice that may be coming our way. There are a multitude of options today about how modern people can interpret this prayer and the role of God as judge over us. But there is another lens that we should wear when we read this prayer. It is a lens of memory. It is a lens that makes us remember that someone else like us long ago also read this prayer in a synagogue. Rabbi Amnon created it in a time when Jewish survival was a real question in the Crusader world of medieval Germany. His heart and soul should not be lost in the voice of our prayers.

Do we remember our parents reading this prayer? Or maybe it was our grandparent’s generation that evoked that unforgettable pathos that touched us so deeply? I like the idea of having the prayerbook my parents used to pray at High Holy Days. I would hope that we could own a prayerbook and one day bequeath it to our children and grandchildren. It isn’t much different than having a parents’ cherished possession after they die so that we can feel the memory in the object. It connects us to them. It provides comfort even when we miss them so much. These objects bring our loved one back to life. And it is not too different if we were to open their prayerbook. Their fingers touched the pages. Their eyes recited the words and their thoughts pierced the words of the book.

The idea of connecting to our past and personalizing that past with our loved ones is the main point. We need to reconnect that past like wearing the spiritual jewelry of our loved ones.

I would like to read this poem to you by Dan Pagis, a survivor and a famous Israeli poet.

Hidden in the study at dusk,

I wait, not yet lonely.

A heavy walnut bureau opens up the night.

The clock is a tired sentry,

Its steps growing faint.

From where? In Grandfather’s typewriter,

An Underwsood from ancient times,

Thousands of alphabets are ready.

What tidings.

I think that not everything is in doubt.

I follow the moment, not to let it slip away.

My arms are rather thin.

I am nine years old.

Beyond the door begins

The interstellar space which I’m ready for.

Gravity drains from me like colors at dusk.

I fly so fast that I’m motionless

And leave behind me

The transparent wake of the past.

The prayerbook is the old typewriter with lots of letters and ideas. But it was grandfather’s typewriter which connects to that nine year old curious boy. And we all, regardless of our age, hurry throughout our lives to work, raise children, pay our bills, go to parties, visit the kids and the grandchildren. Yet that typewriter and the memory of Grandfather is the point of departure that is what connects that kid to his grandfather years later.

I associate Rabbi Amnon’s prayer with Pagis’ image of the grandfather’s typewriter. It is also a link to his age and to his generation’s tragedy. It is more than that because Unetane Tokef ultimately proclaimed a message to the future of Judaism that we could prevail in hard times. Our own personal code of conduct would not diminish no matter what a hostile world was prepared to do against the Jewish people. Our relationship with God would never disappear. Our faith is steadfast no matter what curves and challenges life hurls at us and in particular what people or countries that dislike us will do to us. Unatane Tokef prayer captures the pride and courage of holding fast to our values even when the darkness surrounds us.

Yom Kippur Kol Nidre Sermon

2011-10-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

Yom Kippur Evening: What about God?

I was standing in front of a class on religion, a guest lecturer, at Mississippi State University during a visit to my rabbinical student pulpit some thirty years ago. The student asked me, “You do believe that the Bible is true? You believe that the bible is the word of God, right?” All of sudden I looked like the deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming car. I gazed over to the host instructor, an Episcopalian priest, who looked back at me, and, with a little smirk taking shape on his face motioned me to answer the question. I began to fashion a response that parts of the Torah and the entire Bible were probably written in by human beings, even if we assume that some form of divine inspiration was involved in their writing. One could feel the tension in the room rise as if I was pronouncing blasphemy. Needless to say the students blasted me expressing disappointment and bemusement at my thoughts. Surely a rabbi believes in the inerrancy of the Scriptures, they imagined.

The truth is that it is difficult for Jews to define ourselves in a theological sense. Our Christian neighbors often react curiously when we describe ourselves as a mixture of ethnic group, religion and nation state when responding to their questions about what we believe and how God belongs to our theology. We just do not fit into mainstream western categories o f religion. We are a blending of several forces in the society at large. And if we think people from outside of Judaism are perplexed by our attempts to explain ethnicity and religion together then just imagine how we sound to ourselves when trying to define what Judaism means.

A current example of this creative tension is the one sponsored by the popular Jewish magazine called Moment. In its Fall publication it ran a symposium interviewing scholars, poets, teachers on one question. Can there be Judaism without a belief in God? Just imagine the multitude of answers given on this question. And I believe that if we held the same symposium here at Beth Yam we would probably encounter a broad spectrum of viewpoints as they did in the pages of the magazine.

This question is fair because we are sitting here tonight most likely holding the same level of practices and viewpoints as to whether or not God is absolutely essential for us to even have High Holiday services. No doubt Jews are going to disagree on everything except about what someone else should believe. But the moment is the High Holy Days and is it not fair to ask ourselves whether a faith tradition like ours needs God and whether Judaism would be Judaism without God? My view is that Judaism can handle a wide variety of viewpoints that do not include those who believe in god. Yet in the long run Judaism cannot sustain itself if God is taken out of the language and the conversation and the dialogue that we have in the realm of worship and spiritual dialogue.

Because Judaism is a faith tradition that focuses more on external acts, be they ritual acts or quite simply actions of ethnic solidarity, rather than depending strictly upon internal tenets of belief we have been able to dodge that bullet of theology. But when it comes to the High Holy Days this is one of the moments of the year when we, as a community, are obliged to face our beliefs or lack of beliefs about God, Judaism and any other aspect of the Jewish experience and ask ourselves these questions: not just whether Judaism needs God, but, if the answer is no then what exactly enters our minds when we utter the words out of the prayer book like Adonai Hu HaElohim-the Eternal is God?”

It is not unusual for those who would disavow belief in God to find themselves rising with the congregation to recite the Kaddish or the Shema or singing the Kol Nidre or Avinu Malkeinu. Why not? We know that Judaism as system of laws and rituals focused its energy primarily on establishing a fence around the Torah which meant that first and foremost the priority of our sages and the community was to secure the practice of law and ritual. Our sages were much more flexible about what we thought or believed in as compared to what we actually did with our laws and rituals. I remember a rabbi explaining to me that by practicing rituals it would lead to belief as compared to waiting for belief before practicing rituals.

Not surprisingly the scholars over the centuries could not agree on the basic tenets of Jewish belief. Yes they would agree about fundamental Jewish practices but not about an absolute list of basic beliefs. Great medieval scholars like Moses Maimonides, Gersonides, Bayah ibn Pakudah all debated each other over the centuries to create the ultimate list of what every Jew should believe. The result was that no one ever created that uber list of Jewish doctrine that everyone would subscribe to in order to be a believing Jew.

There are lots of Jews who discarded their beliefs in God when they came to this country. The Jewish socialists and Yiddish secularists celebrated Jewish culture and ignored Judaism. The same people who founded and led the movement to settle Palestine in the early part of the 20^th century also came from primarily secular backgrounds. Thus, Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, was a completely secular Jew from Vienna, Austria. They focused on the new Jewish state in a way where religion was present but it did not define the character of the new Jewish identity burgeoning into the modern state of Israel. We still see that clash of culture today between so-called secular Israelis who do not believe in God vs. those religious or dati Jews for whom the only credible Israel is an ultra-Orthodox Israel.

In America we call ourselves a religious nation but are Jews God fearing people? The answer is mixed and the spectrum as broad as the number of Jewish opinions. Besides the mainstream branches of Judaism there is even a Humanistic Judaism movement of temples that declare they do not believe in a deity but still have services anyway. This movement was considered so outside the box that the normally liberal reform movement refused to admit their congregations into the movement decades ago.

In the symposium article entitled, “Can there be Judaism without God?” Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, the greatest Talmudist of our times, said, “Judaism without belief in God is like humanity without life- A collection of dead bodies, cemeteries and memorials.” Rebecca Goldstein, an atheist and highly regarded author and philosopher said, “”If an open-minded look at the world makes a person conclude that this is a godless universe, does she have to renounce the culture she grew up with, that has done so much to develop a moral outlook and human values? The answer, for me and many others, is no.” Rabbi David Wolpe commented, “Judaism without God exists. “It can last a generation or two, but will disappear without the roots that gave it nourishment. Absent a connection to God, Judaism cannot sustain itself.” Noah Feldman, professor of international Law at Harvard responded, “You can be a culturally committed Jew, for whom the ritual is symbolic; a Diaspora Jew, committed to the practices of Jewish life outside Israel; or a Zionist Jew, connected with Jewish life in Israel. So, while those who believe that Judaism cannot exist without God, there are clearly those who think it can and should.

Part of our challenge is recognizing that we don’t fit into the neat theological litmus test of belief that our friends in the Christian community have developed in their faith tradition. It is the reverse situation where they focus on belief and practice is secondary. We are seeing in America a long term effort to make America a more God-fearing country and we can see the repercussions of this type of strident religiosity in our political culture. But Jews just are not wrapped that way. We struggle with God. We wrestle with the Divine. We are always probing and testing ourselves and our beliefs. And that is not any different than what our ancestors did since biblical times either.

For us we can say “I’ don’t believe in God but I still rise to recite the Shema.” We can listen to the music of Kol Nidre and not think about the meaning of the words themselves. It is the music that carries us to a place of history which inspires us to remember the hard times and the defiance our ancestors demonstrated in the face of bigotry and hatred towards us. We can sing Avinu Malkeinu and there is no belief in God neither as “Our Father” nor as “Our King” yet we still sing the melody and the words and it resonates deeply in our souls. Does it make sense? No. But does it work? Yes.

Elie Wiesel tells the story of the trial against God conducted by a rabbinical court in one of the concentration camps. He recalls that they held a trial to condemn god for not saving the Jews. The rabbis debated and came up with a verdict. God was judged guilty of the crime. After the decision was announced that a rabbinical court found God, guilty of silence in the Holocaust, the chief rabbi of the court exclaimed, “Now that the decision has been reached the court will break so that we can pray the evening service.” Only with the Jewish people.

But what about us? We are not all scholars who write Torah commentaries or philosophical treatise on the existence of God. We have our histories. We have the years and life experience. We do not have the threat of eternal damnation hanging over our heads if we do not swear absolute homage to God. We are free thinkers. But do we take God seriously? It is not about absolute belief. It is about not giving in to the inertia of forgetting what is sacred in our lives. It is about not forgetting the pain and the beauty of what makes our life worth living. It is about having seen suffering and wondering why have I survived these years? What is my purpose? Are these questions less important as one accumulates years?

It is true that Judaism is more than only the focus on God. It is about the struggle to understand, to question everything, to pursue learning and to see how the presence and idea of god follow us no matter how much we may want to ignore the Holy One. Judaism is a culture. It is a tree with many branches extending out from it. But the trunk of that tree contains the presence of God and that we cannot ignore. Judaism needs God, I believe, in the same way that a tree needs the soil which it is rooted and without which it cannot survive.

I do not believe we can always give the answers to our grandchildren and children that they want to hear when they ask us about God. We may even disappoint them with our answers. But what we should not do is to think that being a Jew provides the option to forget about God and to ignore the conversation about God that is part and parcel of our lives to the last breath whether we admit it or not. Just because we can accept non theistic viewpoints in the synagogue does not mean that we don’t cast God out like the goat which carries our sins on Yom Kippur into the wilderness! We need that religious and spiritual grounding even if we cannot always fall in line into the kind of God fearing people we admire.

A congregant came to the Rabbi, “Rabbi,” he complained,

“I am struggling and I cannot resolve my God issues.”

“What are the issues?” the rabbi asked.

I keep struggling about whether there really is a judgment and a judge.”

“What does it matter to you!”

“Rabbi! If there is no judgment and no judge, then what do the words of the Torah mean?”

“What does that matter to you?” the rabbi quipped.

“Rabbi! ‘What does it matter to me? What does the rabbi think? What else could matter to me?”

Well, if it matters to you as much as all that,” said the rabbi, “then you are a good Jew after all-and it is quite all right for a good Jew to struggle: nothing can go wrong with that person.”

Whether Judaism or something we choose to call “Judaism”- can survive without god remains, alas, an open question for some. For me, however, Judaism without God would have to be called by a different name, and I pray, that day will never come. Judaism can tolerate and embrace all kinds of perspectives as long as we do not give up on the struggle to define, understand and believe or not believe in God. It is the questioning that counts. Always the questioning.

Shabbat Shalom, Shana Tova.

Rosh Hashana Evening Sermon 2011: Finding the Innermost Point in the soul of the Synagogue

2011-10-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Rosh Hashana Evening

A rabbi assumed the pulpit of his new congregation. As he was speaking with the leaders of the congregation he was asking questions regarding the congregation’s minhagim or customs on the High Holy Days such as blowing the Shofar during the preceding month of Elul after the morning minyan. This custom is about helping the congregants to prepare for their prayers and getting ready for the penitential season. The Rabbi commented to the leaders, “We have to have everything in place. The synagogue must be ready too. All the chairs and tables must be set in their place. The building committee must oversee all the details to make sure it all runs smoothly as Rosh Hashana arrives. “But even with that kind of preparation”, the Rabbi continued, “there comes Satan into the congregation and he extracts from the soul of the community, the innermost point. Everything remains as it was and the wheel keeps on turning only that the innermost point is missing.” The rabbi spoke passionately when he raised his voice and exclaimed, “But, so help us God, we cannot ever let that happen here!”

Who knew that Judaism had its own character of Satan? Yes we do and while Satan, as defined by Jewish tradition, does not resemble the Christian concept of Satan, yet, the Jewish view of Satan can upset the spiritual equilibrium not only of a person but of an entire community on multiple levels. We know of and quite possibility belonged to such congregations in our lifetime. A beautiful edifice and talented clergy with capable and savvy leadership should be all that it takes to make a synagogue successful. Yet quite often it is not that simple because a synagogue or temple can be dragged into matters that can distract and move the community away from ever touching souls.

So what does the term ‘innermost point’ mean and how does it directly affect us as a congregation? How can we hold onto to that point in our congregation especially as we celebrate Beth Yam’s 30^th anniversary? What I see here is that there is a spirit in this congregation of great talent and devotion. Our challenge is to tap into the souls of people in ways that bring us to experience Judaism in ways we would never have imagined. We should be creating an environment that says stretch ourselves educationally and spiritually and don’t be afraid to grow in our feeling towards Judaism and its people. We are doing this already by producing our new Torah Shelanu book. We have other projects that keep our hand on the pulse of the innermost point. It requires us to understand how heart, memory and conscience work together and balance the normal focus on the upkeep of our congregation. We want to continue to help our congregants to have choices to grow themselves educationally and spiritually.

Judaism typically portrays the High Holy Days as people making choices between behavior that is either good or not. God opens three books and we, through our prayers and actions, will determine whether or not God will inscribe and seal us into the Book of Life. But think about a different set of choices. Suppose the issue is not about good versus bad behavior. Let’s imagine that the innermost point that Satan would steal from a community was forgetting about the spirit or the values that makes for a healthy and vibrant temple. Maybe the synagogue where the temple organization works but the spirit is dormant is exactly what the rabbi in the story was afraid could happen to his new community. It is possible that the story is teaching us that we need and want stability in our lives and in our temple too. But when we focus exclusively on the structure and lose perspective about what makes a community sacred then the innermost point the rabbi referred to is missing and then we may remain in a limbo rather than being sealed in the book of life.

I feel confident that that this past year our temple made great strides in keeping that Satan from stealing the innermost point from us at Beth Yam. We commissioned the writing of a brand new Scroll of Esther as well as purchasing and refurbishing a beautiful Torah. We had learning sessions with our scribe Neil Yerman and we dedicated it and wrote the holy letters in the Torah. We also embarked upon a special project which you have received tonight. It began with about 18 adult writers and we learned for three sessions engaging in creative writing exercises based upon a theme in the Torah. It was an intense and for some mystifying experience, particularly for those who had no prior experience in studying Jewish texts let alone trying their hand at creative or spiritual writing. The group of truly faithful students created a momentum and produced a collection of poems, memoirs, essays and even a recipe. They were amazed at the effort that they could never have imagined doing in their lives. But the circle grew and we invited visual artist in the temple and they began to create their art. The circle widened even further and we engaged teachers and children in the religious school to do their writing and behold we now present you with the “Torah Shelanu” Our Torah representing Congregation Beth Yam’s efforts to capture and hold onto the innermost point of the Temple Community.

I do not believe that if we had never done this project our temple would have been any worse for it. No one would have missed it. We would be carrying along with the same momentum we are used to doing here at the Temple. But this project did happen and it involved many generations of people from all over the world that belong to our Temple. I hope you will peruse and eventually read the book. We had participants who spoke of their experiences immigrating to this country, the aftermath of the Holocaust growing up in the Bronx, mourning an Israeli soldier killed in Lebanon, straddling between living Jewish life in New York vs. the low country. The project involved tapping into people’s memory and trying to make sense of their lives in the here and now. We know these people, but, did we realize what was in their souls. Did they themselves understand what they would find? That sense of reaching inward and discovering not only what we could write or what visual art we could produce is exactly what the rabbi was talking about when he spoke of the innermost point in the temple. It is the spark, the creative spirit the ability to surprise ourselves by what heart, memory and conscience can reveal to us.

This project also taught us that it takes an ability to remember how small things often reconnect us to the big picture of the temple and preserving Judaism. I think we need more opportunities to stretch our vision and give people the chance to shine and to learn new skills no matter their age. We also should be more in tune with sustaining our temple’s reputation with doing new and creative activities that are outside the box. Our work in social action and Outreach to the interfaith and the national awards we have received should be a continuation of a culture at Beth Yam that is building a spiritual infrastructure that is as beautiful as the physical infrastructure that envelops us when we enter this temple.

If any temple or our congregation focused only on the mechanics of operating a congregation and that became the center of our focus then, symbolically speaking, the presence of Satan has prevailed. Satan, in rabbinical thought, does not challenge God for supremacy, but, likes to dislodge us and distract us from fulfilling the commandments of the Eternal. We see many rabbinical stories about Satan. Even one of the most famous has Satan trying to prevent Abraham from taking Isaac to Mount Moriah when God commands him to sacrifice him. Satan represents not the personification of evil or the devil but rather a malaise, a single minded conformity, the resistance to grow in knowledge and spirit not just for a person but for a community. That is what the rabbi was thinking about when he exclaimed, “But we will not let that happen here!”

If we take out the Torah Shelanu book and examine the verse that we chose to inscribe on the front cover, we will see its message for this day of Rosh Hashana. We chose Genesis 2:9 When God exposed Adam and Eve for violating his command of eating from the fruit of the forbidden tree. God goes directly to Adam and asks him, “Ayechah” where are you?” Did God mean to ask if Adam knew where he was literally? What did God mean from that question, Where are You?” Scholars have been interpreting that question since the beginning of Torah.

But I will give you one story that exemplifies that “Where are You, “applies to each of us. Almost two hundred years ago Rabbi Schner Zalman was arrested and jailed in St. Petersburg. Actually his own people accused him of instigating Jews to more spiritual growth and it threatened the Orthodox authorities who went to the gentile authorities and had him arrested.

While the rabbi was sitting in his cell, the guard spoke with him. The rabbi could see the distress in the face of the guard and how he was afflicted with many concerns. The guard started to ask the rabbi questions that he had always wanted to understand about Scriptures. Finally he asked the Rabbi, “Why did God ask Adam, “Where are You’ in the garden of Eden?”

“Do you believe,” answered the rabbi, “that the Scriptures are eternal and that every era, every generation, and every person is included in them?”

“I believe this,” said the guard.

“Well then,” said the rabbi, “in every era, God calls to every person: “Where are you in your world? So many years and days of those allotted to you have passed, and how far have you gotten in your world?’

The guard smiled and said, “Bravo Rabbi! Then his heart trembled.”

This story can speak to us because ‘Rosh Hashanah is challenges us to ask this question ‘, Where are You?’ And to ask this question that God asked Adam is to admit we need to make a change and think carefully about how we are living. It is the same question that the writers of the Torah Shelanu project asked themselves. It is the question that every temple should pose when evaluating how well we are doing as a congregation.

And as we celebrate our temple’s 30^th anniversary we can ask this question of ourselves. I am personally happy and pleased to be continuing with you in the years to come and I look forward to joining you in the continuing saga of finding, and preserving that innermost point of this congregation. It brings us all great satisfaction when we can embark on projects that brings out the best in people, when our members who are sure what the end is but have faith believing that the vision will become clear. And that is what happened in Torah Shelanu and often times in life that kind of faith is necessary to meet life’s challenges.

Thirty years old means a person who is old enough to make it on their own and reflect upon their past enough to understand how they want to live in the future. So to it is with us. Where are We? How do we want to go into our thirties and build the congregational family that will bring us nachas and preserve the innermost point of the congregation’s soul? This congregation has so much to give to itself and to the community, locally and nationally. We have already done so. Now we move forward seeking a deeper understanding of who we are and ultimately securing the attention of god and being sealed in the book of life. May it be God’s will that we find that innermost point for us and for the future of Jewish life in the low country.

Shana Tova.

Rosh Hashana Morning Sermon 2011

2011-10-01T19:08:00.001-07:00

Rosh Hashana Morning: The Challenge of Israel Pursuing Peace

Over sixty years have passed, since Israel was created, and although Israel is a country of slightly more than seven million people, it no doubt receives more than its fair share of media attention. I don’t know about you, but I wish that Israel received a lot less media scrutiny, or perhaps those that are scrutinizing it were a lot less biased than they are.

The recent drama leading up to the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly is a case in point. Everything leading up to speeches by President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu and PLO Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas quickly became a form of political theater, and once again we were obliged to watch as Israel emerged isolated on the world stage. What with its rapidly deteriorating relations with Turkey Egypt and even Jordan, the same old scenario seems to playing itself out again, and what history seems to be teaching us is that, frankly, we Jews will have to depend on ourselves if we hope to survive.

Those of us who live in the Diaspora find ourselves watching know full well that our fate and Israel’s are inextricably bound together. We feel inside us the historic and spiritual bonds that tie us to Israel’s fate, and we fear that if Israel were to decline the future of our community would be in jeopardy as well. History has taught us that much, for what happens to Jews in one part of the world ----and especially Israel—happens to us all.

The question I raise is what is the spiritual big picture that we should remember when we are watching such a rapid degree of change going on around us with Israel and its Palestinian neighbor? The answer is that we cannot forget the lessons of history. When Jews win the peace, and even make sacrifices for peace, they have protected their long term security. Rising above the fray of international isolation and holding on to the moral imperative of Israel’s pursuit for peace are the two values that have sustained us in history and today. Remember when we recite the Unetaneh Tokef we affirm that prayer, repentance and tzedakah are all values that we affirm to make a difference in our lives. Similarly, Israel and the Jewish people worldwide will rely upon these values too in order to meet the challenges of its international relations, its domestic challenges and its mission to have its own security as well as to find a pathway to peace with its Palestinian neighbors.

In the Midrash Rabbi Meir told the story that illustrates the tension we have withstood dealing with superpowers when our fate was in their hands. For in ancient times God showed our biblical patriarch Jacob the prince of Babylon going up and coming down a ladder. Then God showed him the prince of Media, Persia, going up and coming down. Next God showed Jacob the prince of Greece going up and coming down and then the prince of Edom which in Rabbi Meir’s time meant the empire of Rome going up and going down. Then the Holy One said to Jacob, You, too, go up. In that instant our father Jacob grew fearful and said, “Perhaps, God forbid, as there is a coming down for these nations, there will be a coming down for me as well. God replied, “Fear not for though you go up, you will never experience a coming down.” (Leviticus Rabbah)

We have lived with this perennial fear that, despite God’s promises to us, we would fall prey to the Great Powers who dominate the world, and who care little for our survival. The truth is that God’s promise was only half true. We did rise as a nation in ancient times, but, those nations did disperse us and scatter us throughout the world. At the same time we outlasted these great empires. Still we have risen again and bear witness to the ancient promise that God made to our ancestors fulfilled. Nevertheless we can empathize how Jacob feels with regard to the fear he experiences because we feel it too today. It is the fear of isolation. It is the fear of standing not only before the world but against the world as if we were being judged unfairly by the entire world community.

And yet what makes this political drama so gut wrenching is the fact that Israel’s adversary and neighbor, the Palestinian Authority, is attempting to imitate what Israel did back in 1947 when Israel made its appeal to the United Nations for recognition as a country. Instead of the victim of hatred and bigotry that we experienced during World War Two that helped propel Israel to statehood, now after a long term Palestinian propaganda campaign over many years has been in operation, Israel is the oppressor and the Palestinians are the victims. Even Israeli public opinion is divided on that issue as is Jewish opinion around the world. What else is new?

I have no intention to speak directly about the politics and policy issues surrounding the current situation at the UN. Instead my concern at the High Holy Days is about reinforcing our moral and spiritual focus when these dust storms of politics, especially this seemingly perfect storm against Israel, arises and attempts to discredit Israel and the Jewish people.

I want to share a story about how hard it is to remind our own people, let alone the rest of the world,about the big picture of making trade offs for peace. In the 2^nd century of the Common Era when Rome ruled the land of Israel, the Roman government decreed that the Temple in Jerusalem which had been destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE was now to be rebuilt. An enemy of the Jews went to king of Judea and said that the Jews were going to kill him and that he should let Caesar know that the Jews were going to rebel against the king. So the evil man counseled the Jewish king of Judea, a protectorate of the Romans that he could rebuild the Temple in another place or simply add a few more cubits to the original measurements of the planned renovation knowing full well that even a minor change in the design would nullify the religious sanctity of the structure.

Once the decree was issued to change the measurements of the new Temple everyone knew that it was impossible to accept and that, in effect, the project to rebuild the Holy Temple was cancelled. The people gathered together and began to weep and then get angry and begin to contemplate rebelling against Caesar.

The rabbis got wind of the politics and the potential repercussions of insurrection against Rome. So they sent Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah to meet with the assembly of outraged Judeans. As he stood before them he told a fable. As a lion was devouring his prey, a bone stuck in his throat. He wailed saying, “I shall give a great reward to anyone who removes it!” An Egyptian heron which has a long beak, came forward, plunged his beak into the lion’s throat, pulled out the bone, and demanded, “Give me my reward.” The lion roared, “Move off! Go boast, prattling, ‘I entered a lion’s mouth in peace and came out in peace.’ You can have no greater reward than that.” So too, it should be enough for us that we entered into dealings with the Roman people in peace and have emerged in peace. (Genesis Rabbah)

I don’t see this story as simply about the Jewish people or, in a contemporary setting----Israel, submitting to the whims of a superpower. It is about staying above the fray and keeping one’s focus on the really important priorities and values. The lesson that this tale teaches and that we have learned from the modern state of Israel is that achieving peace is always a painful and frustrating process. Israel feels as if they are giving up so much and they want and deserve a big reward for the sacrifices Israel gives up for peace. It can push Israel to the edge of its national and political sanity. Despite the feeling that Israel is giving up more than it receives in peace negotiations, in the end, peace is always Israel’s greatest victory.

Historians comment on a related story of the Cuthean who advised the Romans not to rebuild the Temple because it might lead to a rebellion against Roman rule—which is precisely what happened in 132 C.E. when the Jewish general and (would be messiah) Bar Kochbah led his countrymen in a disastrous revolt against Rome that ultimately cost hundreds of thousands of lives and put an end to any Jewish self governmental presence in the land of Judea until 1947.

Israel’s will to endure has been tested too many times in the previous century, and because of its military and moral discipline it has prevailed against the existential threats to its national existence. It is not the perfect state. Many Israelis disagree with its policies and have recently protested in unprecedented numbers for their country to address the most serious social and economic issues impacting the ability of Israelis to live above the poverty level. The fact that they did this and there was no -Jew against Jew violence- reflects that moral discipline. They all understand that no matter how angry they are at the current practices of the government, only peaceful means of protest were tolerable, and that civil dialogue was the only way to resolve problems for long term prosperity and for the security of the state of Israel itself.

And when it comes to the process to achieve peace with its neighbors, Israel’s moral discipline is often stretched to the limit. Once again Israel will have to make sacrifices for peace. The so-called Arab spring is certainly a test for Israel’s strategy in the Middle East. It requires Israel’s best judgment and wisdom in the long term and short term. We watch to see the ups and downs of the process of realignment noting that in the Middle East alliances go up and down with the desert winds. At the end of the day are we bystanders to this continuing saga of Israel at risk in a hostile world?

Of course the answer is no. But there is more that we can do for the Israel. We must all follow the tenets of our faith’s teachings on these high holy days. May we maintain that moral discipline now for the sake of our progeny who do not realize as we do that everyone has a role to play in keeping the peace for Israel. That is part of the reason why Congregation Beth Yam is sponsoring a trip to Israel next month. It is our duty to travel there and visit the country, speak to the people and listen to the issues. We are involved and engaged as supporters with a fervent commitment to do what we can to support Israel’s bid for peace and its work for economic and religious freedom.

Again, the Jewish people will sacrifice for peace as it did when it gave up the Sinai and parts of the West Bank and Gaza for peace. It is painful now just as it was painful for the Jews to accept the Roman decree to abandon the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. But peace had to prevail and that is the same lesson today. Shalom is the central value that Judaism teaches for civilization to endure. For that reason, I pray, Israel will endure.

This is how keeping our sights on the big picture resonate for Israelis for when they read the torah portion of the Akedah that we read on Rosh Hashanah morning. They see themselves in this story and living it in a way that is direct and raw. When families see their children off to serve in the armed forces they feel as if they are taking their own to the mountain as Abraham did to Isaac and offering them up as a burnt offering. The potential price for preserving peace and security chills the bones of a parent. Yet they do it because it is necessary and essential for the people to have peace.

May it be God’s will to imbue the leaders and the people of Israel with the spiritual and moral strength to find the pathway to a negotiated settlement and usher in a new era of peace. It may appear to be unrealistic but can we ever give up on the hope and prayer for peace?

Fourth HIgh Holy Day Poem-Chapter Four Book of Ecclesiastes

2011-10-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

This is the final poem in this series. Thanks to everyone for their comments. I wrote it not only because of my reading of Ecclesiastes chapter four. A part of this poem is a memory from a man I once knew who recently died. He had achieved great success in business but poor health followed him for years even as far back as the mid 1980s. I hope you will comment.

Chapter four Ecclesiastes

I built my company

A tower piercing

Through the dense clouds

And when I sold it

I received a seat

A golden chair

At the table of monarchs.

I liked to walk

In my sculpture garden

Where Henry Moore and friends

Gazed upon me

And I upon them.

Ah the beauty of success!

My back began to hurt

Pain rushed through my bones

Moving me to distraction

Which I could no longer bear.

Then a surgery I never recovered from

In a reflection I could no longer

See myself which is when

My descent began

I died a few weeks ago

And now all I do is reflect:

Eyes see time in reverse

The moments of the past

The quietude afforded me

Now which I ignored in life

The thoughts I left behind

They were too shy

To visit me in the previous world.

I found a companion here,

Kohelet, I read his book

And I felt the emptiness

The” sacrifices of fools.”

What is wisdom?

A mirage, the worship of work

The deity of my hands?

Or was it

A gust of wind that

Pressing against my face

Left without fanfare?

I read Kohelet’s book

And looked into a mirror

Of memory hearing

The tumult of sounds and voices

Wisdom is sight

Without eyes,

Listening without ears

I remember the house I lived in

And the house of God

I never entered.

Wisdom is a prayer

For the unborn

The youth who will

Pick up a smooth round

Stone by the riverside

That fits perfectly

Into a hand

Whose snap of the wrist

Will cast it across

The serene waters

To behold the ripples

That propels the stone

To its many destinations.

Part Three: High Holy Day Poem Inspired from Chapter Three of Ecclesiastes

2011-09-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

You will surely recognize the attempt in this poem to play off of the famous passage in chapter three beginning with the phrase " To everything there is a season."

Questions:

To every insight in the world

There is a question that precedes it.

Questions that refuse to disappear

Which rankle us like a stone

Inside our shoes

Or irritate us like a mosquito bite

Just ask the question

And relief will dull the pain.

Questions of doubting and questions of believing

Questions of living and questions of dying

Questions of searching and questions of discovering

Questions of writing and questions of speaking

Questions of children and questions of parents

Questions of praying and questions of silence

Questions of tearing garments and questions of sewing garments

Questions of humility and questions of pride

Questions of fear and questions of faith

Questions of Jews and questions of others

Questions of God and questions of questions

Questions of forgiveness and question of stubbornness

Questions of returning and questions of leaving

Do we ever tire of asking questions?

Take comfort

Remember that answers are no better

For your life is a tapestry of questions

No longer fearing them

But embracing the possibility of being

And it is this reality

That is your calling.

Are you ready?

A Poem for the High Holy Days

2011-09-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

This is the 2nd in a series of high holy days poems. I hope you read it and consider this poem in your thoughts of reflection as we approach Rosh Hashana this Wednesday evening.
L'shana Tova Tikatevu
May you be written in the book of life.

Chapter Two Ecclesiastes

I am all the ages of human kind

Voices and wisdom of the years

Speaking through the languages of man

I once inhabited

And have since forgotten

Because what I only

See is what I am

And that dear friend

Is the folly of my life.

Was work my wisdom or

The jobs I had

The friends who

Surrounded me

And their rancor

Or my own indulgence

Which set me on a crooked pathway:

At times lost

To the truth

And to what end?

Now I search for the smallest things

The morsels of insight

I desire and no longer

Shall I wear the crown

A diadem of a good name

Or the garments of pride

Which glistened with the

Wisdom I thought was mine.

My bones ache

And I walk haltingly

My eyes dim

And I hear sparingly

My back is curved

And I stretch hesitantly

But my appetite

For truth does not abate

For I have learned

That the service

I perform next

To the altar of confession

Has become the sacrifice

I offer to the Holy One

And the work of my conscience

Is my day of atonement

Where the fast of my soul

Restores the years I once lost

Which I gather in the harvest of this lifetime.

High Holy Days Reflections

2011-09-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

Last night was a beautiful Slichot service and educational program. I am thankful to our Cantorial soloists and musicians and to all the writers and visual artists who participated in the program before the services.

Over the next few days leading up to the High Holy days I will be posting a series of four poems I wrote based upon my reading of the first four chapters of the Book of Ecclesiastes. As I age I am beginning to see the wisdom of Ecclesiastes or Kohelet in a way that I could not grasp as a younger person. You will find that the theme of work and career are part of what Kohelet devotes his attention to in trying to teach us how we waste so much time when we go overboard and practically deify the word of our hands. There is a balance here and where that is largely depends on each of us. But this is a wakeup call kind of sacred text and I am inspired by it. So these poems I shall share will hopefully give us something to think about and imagine how we might change our pathways or decided what we learned from our strengths and our failings.

I wish you all a Shana Tova u Metukah. A sweet and happy New Year.

Chapter One

The stone craves eternity

Lying peacefully near a cactus

Biding its time

Until a desert wind swirls through

Carrying it to another hopeful spot.

The stone sees that the sun still shines

The waters of a nearby stream smile

And mountains whose peaks point

Towards heaven become sentinels

Steadfast and sage- like

While looking down upon creation.

The future will not forget this stone

Nor will I release it from my grasp

Or cast it into another garden of forgotten

Stones waiting for deliverance.

Creation is a circle without beginning

Or an end

When memory understands

That the repetition of time is the breeze

Backtracking through a sacred canyon.

Listen, dear stones, certainty

Is an idol perched upon an altar

Made of you

And the wisdom you seek

Is an illusion carved into

Your crevice by

By my own breath.

article from my newspaper column in the Island Packet for 9-11

2011-09-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/09/10/1786520/our-best-is-needed-to-emerge-from.html

I wrote this column and it appeared today in the Island Packet and I hope you will take a look and tell me what you think.

Hebrew; A language that is a tapestry of history

2011-05-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

Homage to Hebrew in Honor of Israel Independence Day

I admit that as a child I despised attending Hebrew school after a day of going to school all day. I was no different than a lot of Jewish kids growing up in America. Many of us swore that after Bar or Bat Mitzvah we would never go back and never wanted to learn more Hebrew. The truth be told was that I did continue to pursue my studies at the congregation on Sunday mornings until 10^th grade and then Confirmation. But I never learned more Hebrew. And I was just fine with that.

Years later my life’s purpose took me to Jerusalem and in Rabbinical School I was in the middle of a classroom learning four kinds of Hebrew from modern, rashi script, biblical Hebrew and Talmudic Hebrew. How else would I learn to read our ancient texts if not in the original language? There was no question that it was the holy work as compared to the torture I experienced as a middle school kid. Now I was studying four or five hours after classes. Then I was going out into the Jerusalem streets trying out my burgeoning Hebrew skills making mistakes but each day learning a little more how to communicate with Israelis. Soon I could start to read newspapers and have light conversations with people. What a liberating feeling! I started to love Hebrew and feel that the language was the portal into the world not only of the Jewish past but also into the future of our destiny.

I was amazed to learn about the story of Eliezer Ben Yehudah the founder of Modern Hebrew. Most people hear ben yehudah and they think of the street in downtown Jerusalem where everyone finds the tourist shops in the center of Jerusalem. Indeed, many cities in Israel have streets named after Eliezer ben Yehuda. Eliezer ben Yehuda grew up in eastern Europe with a traditional yeshivah education. His life took him to the beauty of Hebrew and in the midst of the early years of immigration to Palestine he started his quest to adapt the classical languages of Hebrew to the street and into the mouths of Zionists of all stripes who came to settle this holy land.

Stories abound how he made his children speak Hebrew in the house at the beginning of the 20^th century without having anyone else to speak with in the school yard. But at the end of the day it all paid off and his scholarly genius reached into rabbinical and biblical texts and created the first modern Hebrew dictionary. By 1919 when the Institute for Technology (later to be named The Technion) adopted Hebrew as the official language of the school and instruction (1924), the Hebrew language took off and gained nation wide acceptance. There are dramatic stories of fights in the faculty many of whom were from Germany and who insisted on German as the language of instruction. The the majority of faculty and staff prevailed with Hebrew as the language of instruction. Other moments occurred when the British took over Palestine after World War One, the military administration recognized Hebrew as the official language of the Jewish people. Then Eliezer ben Yehuda formed an academic institute that would study Hebrew and introduce new Hebrew words into the language to keep up with the times.

Most American Jews can make their ways through the prayerbook with varying degrees of comfort. Younger generations who have visited Israel can incorporate more Hebrew into their vocabulary than their forbearers. Hebrew is an amazing language when we think that a hundred years ago Jewish intellectuals were struggling how to reinvigorate Hebrew from the scholarly language into one that the popular culture of Jews around the world could embrace as part of a new image of national pride for Jews around the world.

Today Hebrew has matured and has so many distinctive features like any language. Its sounds and nuances differ based upon where the historic backgrounds of Israelis. Jews from Arab countries speak in an accent that sounds distinctive in the same way as those who come from Ashkenazi cultures speak the language. The expressions and uses of American English have certainly crept into the language as it has influenced all the languages of the world.

When we speak Hebrew not just in worship services but also in modern Hebrew we are blending our history from the Bible and Talmudic times through the Middle Ages into the world today. We may not know it but the words of Hebrew are truly a tapestry of Jewish history. In honor of Israel’s Independence Day let us celebrate the beauty of the Hebrew language and the miracle of resurrecting it. It is just one more example of the miracle of Israel that arose out of the dust to a new life that we celebrate on the 63^rd anniversary of its declaration of Independence.

For all my local low country readers, don’t forget to attend the low country celebration this Thursday beginning at 5pm at the Temple.

May 12th: Israel Independance Day in the Low Country

2011-05-10T07:25:00.001-07:00

This week we shall celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut-Israel’s 63^rd birthday. I now know for sure Israel has made it in the world when as I was paging through a new flute instruction book I came upon a brief piece of music entitled “Israel melody.” I was curious so as I sight read it I started to play the piece and it was, low and behold, the music for HaTikvah-the hope-Israel’s national anthem!

What a wonderful way to begin a practice session. The point is that there is so much that is amazing and beautiful about Israel that is ignored because the world’s focus on Israel is always about Middle East peace. Of course that is critical and it deserves our attention. But what American Jews, Israelis who live in America and Israelis too need to remember and do is to share the beauty of Israel’s culture around our country and the world.

We have always surprised the world with what we could do in the sciences and the cultural arts. Even the Sacramento Kings basketball team (they got a one year respite to remain in Sacramento-whew!) has an Israeli player on the team! Israel wins a gold medal for wind sailing in the most recent summer Olympics. The awards and the achievements are too numerous to mention here but it would do us well to remember that in anticipation of our community’s observance on Thursday May 12^th, the focus is a celebration and we need every Jew in the low country to attend. There are many who are from other faiths inside our community and who love Israel as well. We need everyone!

The biggest problem that we American Jews need to address is how Israel’s adversaries continue to demonize it and paint Israel in the most unflattering way. They do it over and over whether through the internet, the newspapers, the U.N. and many other media outlets. It is a propaganda war and American Jews can make a difference by coming out and saying “I am proud of Israel.”

And we do need the support of the Christian community in America. Liberal Jews need to rethink how we can strengthen Israel’s place in the culture of America. I think the recent spectacular and successful Navy Seals operation to take out Osama Bin Laden will reaffirm that America and Israel stand shoulder to shoulder when it comes to facing the common enemy of extremist Islamic terrorism. But we have to go deeper by exploring new relationships with religious institutions that may not share all our viewpoints on domestic issues but who identify with us when it comes to Israel’s survival and its value as a legitimate Jewish nation. As long as churches know that converting Jews is off limits then we can work together.

In other words if we are comfortable in our own skin then we should not be afraid to let others into our tent who have honorable intentions and who respect Israel. Their reasons for doing so may be theological and not coincide with Jewish belief but we can work around it. It is something we should explore in the future.

Israel has so much to offer the world. Sixty three years has proven how prolific Jewish culture is as a force for good. Christians and adherents of religions from all over the world can drink from our wells and learn from us as we have done from them over the millennium. All we ever wanted was the chance to prove ourselves and from my viewpoint Israel, with all its challenges, is doing the job well. It may be tumultuous and it may be controversial and it may be dramatic, but, in the end Israel is a miracle and that is what Israel Independence Day celebrates.

Community is critical to religion

2011-05-09T06:40:00.000-07:00

Last week a group of temple leaders and myself traveled to Washington, DC to attend the Reform Movement’s conference on Social Justice, a hallmark of reform Judaism. The conference, sponsored by the Religious Action Center, highlighted the enormous effort that Reform Judaism invests in advocacy for liberal political and humanitarian issues. The main reason for our trip was to accept the coveted Irving Fain award for excellence in social justice programming. Our congregation’s efforts at organizing an interfaith coalition to address feeding the hungry and housing for the homeless caught the attention of the committee and earned us well deserved recognition. I was so happy for our congregant leaders who stood up on the stage and received the citation and recognition before over 300 people, including the leaders of the movement. Our congregation is now on the map. It is a great feeling.

We heard from political leaders such as Senator Carl Levin, Representatives Nancy Peolosi, and Rosa DeLaura. We also heard from a nun from New Orleans. She was the nun who wrote the book Dead Man Walking portraying her reaching out to a death row inmate and the relationship they developed before his execution. Remember the movie from this book that stared Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn?

The central theme of the sister’s ministry is opposing the death penalty. She gave an honorable and down to earth argument against the death penalty. One of the aspects of her speech that resonated for me was the idea of community. She talked about the community we all come from and that part of the strength of religion is how well it provides a sense of community to people who are seeking to belong somewhere.

My purpose is not to argue about the death penalty. It is, instead, to recognize that we are all looking for community. Today we can find it on the internet as well as face to face. Both have their drawbacks and even their dangers as we all know from so many stories. Yet, let’s not get sidetracked with those kinds of stories. The truth of the matter is that we are social beings and we need community to ground us and to feel a sense of belongingness to the world around us.

Think about it that the underlying theme of the Torah is all about building a sacred community. From the instance that we see Adam and Even expelled out of the Garden of Eden, the failed generation of Noah and then the beginnings of Abraham and Sarah trying to establish a new age of monotheism, we see that the individual is lost unless they are connected to a patriarch or to a people like in Exodus. Leviticus is all about community. It may be dry reading and tedious but don’t forget that it is all about building a spiritual infrastructure to enable the people to provide a communal expression of their relationship to God.

Today we are searching for the right faith and the old rules do not necessarily apply. People are living all over the country. They do not have roots like many of us had when we were growing up. We are living in a stew of different faith traditions that swirl around us. Again it is the choice we make. Is it the people who define what we believe or is it the doctrine we chose and then find the people who subscribe to it that determine what we will do?

When I see beautiful buildings and sanctuaries, I ask myself ‘Does the beauty of the building mirror the spirit that pervades the hearts and spirits of those who worship there? The sister was trying to tell us that even in a prison which is a horrible habitation for human beings (I have visited them and taught inside a medium security prison in Illinois) there is a spark of humanity amongst people who have done bad things to others in their lives. I suppose one could say by analogy that the beauty of a house of worship does not automatically mean that the people inside it reflect that same spirit either.

It is an imperfect world and religion contributes to many of the problems we have today. But when religion is on target the leaders and adherents understand that building a strong and welcoming community that opens up the potential of people to find faith and to learn their scriptures and to connect with God and then practice the good things that bind us all together then is religion at its best.

Religion is also at its best when it recognizes that alleviating the suffering of others is also part of the mission. That could be in a prison or for a hungry child or a poverty stricken family looking for a job. It is all part of Judaism and Christianity’s mission as well as Islam. If we could focus as a religious community on those values we might see a lot more unity in this country.

"Loving your neighbor as yourself:" Not so fast!

2011-04-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Torah portion: Kedoshim Leviticus

If we took a survey about the state of our country’s moral climate today how many of us would put ourselves in the glass is half full category and how many of would say we are in the glass is half empty group? We are facing so many issues from the sluggish economy, three wars, a rolling stone political culture damaging our nation’s democracy and a percolating stew of American citizens that represent every race, religion and creed imaginable in our society today. Despite all this tumult do we feel that we share the same fundamental sense of right and wrong that unites us as a country?

The same set of questions can be applied to our American Jewish community let alone to Israel. We are living in an age when synagogues and Jewish communal organizations are learning how to do more with fewer resources. We are watching the demographics eat away at the longstanding sense of Jewish continuity as Jews struggle with values regarding whether or not to raise Jewish families or how to accommodate interfaith families who want to identify in the Jewish community but who still feel a kinship with other religious traditions of the non-Jewish spouse. Is the glass half empty or full when it comes to preserving our heritage and traditions?

Our Torah portion this week is Kedoshim and it addresses the basic ethics of what it means to be a Jew today as it spoke to our people in ancient times. The portion is referred to in scholarly circles as the holiness code because it says that god wants us to imitate divine behavior by living in a sacred community and following the mitzvoth that make us feel close to the Divine Presence. This portion guides us on how to maintain a glass half full approach knowing full well that we are all making decisions about how we live Jewishly and what it means to us to be united as a Jewish community. We are concerned about our own survival and, yet, we also worry about Israel as it contends with an explosion of political unrest in the Middle East. Are we not all asking what values unite us as a Jewish community despite all the different philosophies and observances of the Jewish community as well as the non-practicing Jews in American society?

Somehow the Jewish people over history have had to answer the question of how do we balance our internal priorities with our relationships to the world, more specifically, the communities we lived in. Today is no different. We know we should preserve our distinctive identity and at the same time we share in the life of the world. Our rabbis, of blessed memory, in commenting on this week’s Torah portion, were cognizant of this balancing act. They focused in on the phrase in the Torah portion, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It is not just about how we live with our non-Jewish neighbor but about how we get along with our fellow Jew and Jewish community. It is not just about how we view our neighbor but how we think about ourselves.

Only Jewish hermeneutics could dissect a simple phrase like “you shall love your neighbor as yourself, “ and say the meaning of the verse is more complicated than what meets the eye. One of Judaism’s all time famous and respected sages, Rabbi Akiva, said it was the most important teaching in the Torah. ‘Not so simple’ said the grandson of the commentator Rashi in the 10^th century whose acronym was Rashbam. He was a little more real politik by saying that we should love the neighbor only if that person is good but if he or she is wicked then let the fear of God be upon the person.

Another great ancient sage by the name of Hillel took a completely different approach by saying that maybe the negative of this verse could be more inclusive than the positive dictum of loving one’s neighbor. He said, “Whatever is hateful to you do not do to the next person.” I like this phrase because even though it feels better and more politically correct to sound a more affirming or positive tone, the truth is that we as Americans will most likely disagree on most issues. But we have a better chance to achieve moral consensus on issues by agreeing on what we all would despise done against us as compared to rallying around the positive of what should or should not be done to someone else. In effect the glass empty approach might be the preferred way of teaching more universal truths.

And then the sages ask, what do we do when we just don’t respect ourselves? How can one person love someone else when they have no regard for themselves? The rabbis struggled with this idea. Another sage Ben Azzai who disagreed with Akiva about this issue expressed the concern that the criterion of love to one’s neighbor is not the measure of love towards oneself. One who is indifferent to his or her own lot in life, who has no self respect, is not entitled to show any less respect to their neighbor. Ben Azzai quoted another verse in Genesis “This is the book of the generation of man,” is truly a fundamental principle superior to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.” The fact that god created us all trumps the fundamental dictate to act kindly to others.

The truth of the matter is that our rabbis were realistic and practical about human strengths and flaws. They knew full well in ancient times the nature of human beings and how we act out our own flaws upon others. Without being psychologists, they diagnosed the moral ills of a society and taught that no matter how we see ourselves we have an obligation to behave in a civil way in public. A civil society demands that people restrain themselves and their actions on an emotional level and a physical level. Not to do so would lead to the self destruction of our society.

We can see that this point is coming out more poignantly with the recent observance of the 150^th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Sincere and hard reflection is necessary but not solely about recreating civil war battlefield scenes and who won but recognizing the fact that 620,000 troops perished together on all sides. “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” somehow got lost somewhere in the excitement.

We are also instructed in this week’s portion that it is not just about how we feel about people but more importantly how we act towards them that really makes a difference. “The stranger who resides with you shall be treated the same as the native –born, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” It is not just about where we have been born but about where we are in our core values and experiences that determines whether we as a society will survive or decay. Has not our Jewish immigrant past taught us that lesson?

Whether my cup is half full or empty depends upon how I am feeling about the world I am living in. There are times when we need to set up boundaries for not only someone else but for ourselves. Remembering to keep a smile on our face or think before we speak or remembering that good manners takes precedence over the Torah itself are the kinds of maxims that come to us from the Torah portion. Whether we believe in the conventional ideas of God is immaterial, what is important is that the Torah says that God gave us these laws not just for what ritual items matter but for how we were supposed to create a sacred community. That is what this is all about. Not just how good we can be but also how bad we shouldn’t be. That gets us to the same place at the end of the day.

Shabbat Shalom

check out the link.

2011-04-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-04-16/50-most-influential-rabbis-in-america/

Here is the link to the article I was refering to in my blog.

The fifty most influential rabbis in America and the rise of Habad

2011-04-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

This past week Newsweek and the Daily Beast came out with its list of the fifty most influential Rabbis in America. Sadly, I must admit that I didn’t make the list once again. Maybe I was close but who knows. I’ll try harder for next year’s list.

The list gives criterion for how the reviewers decide who gets onto the list. What I noticed that was different was that more women appeared on the list. That is a good thing. Second, I took a step back to acknowledge the fact that Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, the titular head of Habad in Crown Heights, Brooklyn was rated number one this year for the most influential rabbi in America. For years Rabbi Krinsky was the second in command to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the famed and revered Lubavitch Rabbi that led Habad and touched many souls. His imprint is still felt upon Habad. Rabbi Krinsky does not pretend to have that kind of charisma but has continued to build the international organization of Habad throughout the world. The fact that a Hasidic rabbi in America garners the award for the most influential rabbi should give us all pause for reflection.

His number one status represents a great symbolic achievement for Habad. Who would have imagined decades ago that the most influential rabbi in America would have been a black hat rabbi from Crown Heights, Brooklyn? It is not just about Rabbi Krinisky. The underlying point is that this media ordained award demonstrates that the entire Habad movement is an equal player as any of the major branches of Judaism.

Having served congregations in communities where Habad rabbis also served, I can attest to the challenges of working with them. Their approach is not necessarily community based or collaborative. They do not generally join the rabbinical groups where rabbis from the other branches meet and discuss issues in the community. They refrain from being participants with other Jewish organizations in community based events. They choose to do their own thing and many times get a powerful constituency to follow and support them. Many of their successes are funded by Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews let alone unaffiliated Jews. That constituency is really what they specialize in attracting. They are great at reaching out to the people on the fringes who just do not feel comfortable in more mainstream organizations. Sometimes it is about money and other times they see in the Habad movement rabbinical couples who run their synagogues with such passion and commitment which in turn draws a dedicated cadre into their community.

Trust me when I say that many of the major branches cry foul at the various strategies Habad employs to get publicity or, for example, convince political leaders to let them put their gigantic Hanukah menorahs on public property and light them at Hanukah. This always stirs anger from the mainstream Jewish community regarding the principle of prayer on public spaces. Yet they do it regardless.

On college campuses many of the Habad centers have garnered more student activity than the Hillel centers. A Hillel rabbi from my daughter’s campus said referring to the Habad rabbi on campus, “They are eating us up alive.” They have consistently good food for Shabbat. They invite everyone to the home of the rabbi and rebbetzin and they make people feel welcome into their community.

My own congregants have told me stories of how their children have become frum (pious and observant) and chosen an observant lifestyle. That does not always mean they chose Habad but it often happens that way. Habad does not look to attract the interfaith but they strive to reengage disaffected Jews on the streets and even in the prisons. They are outreach oriented in an equally powerful but different way than what Reform Judaism, for example, does by growing its outreach movement.

Rabbi Krinsky’s recognition as the number one most influential rabbi in America means that as much as we resent some of their tactics, Habad is part of the pantheon of major American branches of Judaism. In fact as much as we do not like to admit it, I think we could learn a lot by them. Their reach is worldwide and their rabbis’ willingness to go to the ends of the earth and put their livelihood on the line in far outreaching countries and communities should be a model for any young rabbi looking to make a difference in the world.

What is your view?

Have a continued great week of Passover.

Passover Part Two: Sharing Traditons is a Tricky Business

2011-04-17T08:40:00.001-07:00

Just as I am preparing for the last minute thoughts and interpretations for the Seder and the festival services of Passover, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Christians are and have been reshaping the Passover Seder and using a Christian lens to redefine it as Christian ritual. Most of the interpretations surrounding this new practice relate to the Christian attraction to the age old belief that Jesus’ Last Supper must have been a Passover Seder. Thus by reenacting the Seder in this context, Christians are actually growing in their appreciation of the Jewish roots of Jesus. In addition the writer of the article, Diane Cole, wrote that some Christian groups really resonate with the symbolism of the four cups of wine and the matzah as symbolic hints to the blood and body of Jesus.

I have to admit that reading these kinds of articles really nags at my heels. It is the classic dilemma for the modern rabbi. We want to create an inclusive environment for interfaith families and we want to share the teachings of Judaism outside the walls of the congregation to the community at large. Yet I find myself shaking my head saying that there are consequences to sharing. I remember a Christian colleague and good friend of mine calling me up one day asking if I could lend him a chuppah for an interfaith wedding he was performing. These kinds of situations remind us that America is all about sharing culture and religion. Isn’t that a good thing? Is it a good thing when one day we will adapting Muslim holidays like Ramadan and calling them Christian and Jewish feasts?

This can only happen in America. Is it a good thing? Maybe, if keeping the peace is the issue. But resorting to that kind of diversity at the cost of losing our roots and religious continuity cannot be a good thing. Surely there must be a middle ground to learning about other people’s religious traditions and respecting them as they are versus deciding that one has the right to do whatever they want to reshape them regardless of what they mean to the religion itself.

There should be a sense of integrity and respect for diversity without having to take these rites and hurl them into a completely different cultural and religious milieu. For example, I used to lead model Seders for Christian churches and they loved learning the history and the rich symbolism of Passover. But that did not mean that they and their minister would say, “We can do this and then turn it into the moment of Jesus’ Last Supper. Yea, that works!”

But in America that is exactly how it does work! It is sad in some regard because I realize that Jews who want so desperately to fit in to American life and fear doing anything that would cast us into outsider status will stay silent. The fact that interfaith marriage has changed the religious landscape of American Jewry is another factor to consider in achieving a balance for families who practices both religions. I would hope that Christians married to Jews and raising Jewish children will educate their Christian families and friends to think about what it means to take someone else’s religious traditions and then substitute a completely different meaning for the rituals that took thousands of years to develop. I hope that is not too much to ask. The same obligation should be said as applying to the Jewish partner for their Christian spouse’s religious heritage.

I can certainly understand how my Christian colleagues get upset when they see how American commercial culture has turned Christmas into a secular holiday and extracted out of the holiday all the religious content that went into making it sacred for Christians all over the world.

Let me give you another example. I am not an American Indian. That does not mean that I do not respect the rituals and traditions of Native American religion and culture. I do. I can sit and read their poetry and be inspired and listen to their sages tell stories of their world view and feel enriched. That does not mean I will go out and actually redefine their rituals as Jewish ones that should be part of my synagogue’s liturgy.

You see the issue is not just about the Passover Seder or Hanukah or Christmas holidays staying true to each religion’s own traditions. It is, however, about teaching Americans to understand and respect these holy days and ceremonies in their own historic and theological framework. I also believe that people of faith should learn the history of their own faith tradition and its connection to the Jewish faith before unilaterally and sometimes impulsively deciding to incorporate such rituals into their religious systems. And that goes for any religious institution considering adopting a new ritual from another religion into their own community’s religious practices. A bit of humility and respect for history goes a long way.

I thought you should see this story

2011-04-16T22:06:00.000-07:00

Losses great for both sides of religious, political wars

http://m.islandpacket.com/island/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=pizCOwdP&src=cat

Final thoughts on the rabbis' conference

2011-03-30T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Rabbis conference: Day three and four

We have concluded the conference of the CCAR. I can now see quite clearly that progressive Judaism is truly at a crossroads. From a liturgical standpoint, we are embarking upon a new journey to create a High Holy Day Mahzor. I attended a meeting with the chairs of the project and listened to them discuss their idea of faithful translations of liturgical texts. We saw very clearly at this early stage of the process and after viewing sample texts that Reform Judaism is once again redefining itself in more than a liturgical way but that by producing such a prayer book we reshape our belief system. The team of committees in this process is looking forward to a prayerbook that will be contemporary and relevant to reform worshippers. The question is not just how faithful their translations will be but how faithful the committee members are to the ideas and history of Judaism that has bequeathed us this beautiful spiritual heritage. Once again a few will alter the course of history for the many.

We also had an opportunity to discuss a position paper that a group of rabbis who on their own developed a document calling for significant organizational change in the entire organizational culture that comprises the Reform Movement. The last session of the day we listened and reacted to their initiative that has already led them in dialogue with the volunteer and rabbinic leaders of Reform movement. Sitting in the room there had to be over two hundred rabbis. I sensed that there was a unanimous belief that our national organizations had to reaffirm a new vision if Reform Judaism is to remain viable in the American soil. There was also the recognition that we had gone astray on many levels and lost an edge of energy and focus that is supposed to inspire us to serve the congregations and individuals who belong beneath the tent of Progressive Judaism.

The issues are not only about allocation of financial resources and fundraising. Those issues are critical to securing a strong future. The underlying issues revolve around establishing a consensus about what we stand for and where we should direct our energy in the upcoming years. It is also about who really sets the vision and leads this movement. There is a growing feeling in the hearts of rabbis that while we cherish the partnership models we have spoken about between rabbis and volunteers the real discussions must address the reality that there is not a consensus about how rabbinic authority and volunteer leadership can respect each other’s expertise. That is the delicate subject beneath the surface that must be part of the conversations that will lead us to a brighter future.

This convention brought us all together to take workshops, expand our knowledge and reconnect with our community of rabbis. We studied, ate the cuisine of New Orleans, and prayed together. We even laughed and sang together. Of course conventions like these put us all on an equal footing that we cannot experience on a day to day basis. We charged our batteries and we grew in wisdom. Even though rabbis have to take care of our congregations first and foremost, we cannot ignore our responsibilities to the global Jewish community and the Reform Movement in particular

The rabbis say, Pray as if everything depends upon God. Act as if everything depends upon you.”(Talmud).

Day Two: The Rabbi Conference

2011-03-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

The Central Conference of American Rabbis Convention: Day Two

We gathered together again in the morning for a massive shacharit (morning) service of five hundred rabbis. Guitars playing, drums sounding, Torah chanting and visual transformation of prayer scenes to set a mood displayed upon large screens on the bimah (stage). It was all about expanding our horizons in communal worship with new and unconventional means that could enhance the worship experience. Computer technology is used to stimulate our imagination and stretch our hearts and souls.

We watched the transition of new rabbinic leadership in the conference. Rabbi Johnathan Stein, the newly installed President Elect of our Conference, spoke about the visioning our role and impact upon the future of Reform Judaism. He also spoke about youth and why we need to do much more, especially for college kids, if we want to have a movement in the future. Third, Rabbi Stein reaffirmed support for Israel and that despite all the issues that Israel faces in these tenuous times that the Central Conference of American Rabbis will always stand behind Israel.

The next major program was a tour of the World War Two museum. In addition to the regular exhibition about D-Day in Europe, the museum had another major exhibition on Jews in World War Two including D-Day itself. Many video presentations of Jewish soldiers narrated their own experiences during those years. Some told stories of anti-semitic confrontations. Others claimed that they never had any anti-semitic event.

I was taken back by a video of a Rabbi military chaplain, Rabbi Eichorn,who led the first worship service in Dachau concentration camp. The people appeared numb and almost emotionless at his adjurations to encourage their participation. Holding the small Torah in his arms, dressed in his uniform and chanting the Shema, the Rabbi tried to give the people hope.

Artifacts on display were tephillin, prayerbooks, and even a Jewish divorce document (get) that the Conservative Jewish rabbinical authorities asked Jewish servicemen to sign before they went into battle. Why would anyone ask someone to do that? The rabbis knew full well that only a man can give a woman a divorce. If no man exists than the rabbinical court cannot grant her a divorce. This means that technically the woman would be trapped living her life in a limbo status.
It is an odd feeling being inside that museum. I grew up in a time when young people were totally opposed to the Viet Nam war. We rejected serving in the military. Everyone knew it was an unpopular war and one that divided the nation. Young Americans in these times became disillusioned with their parents way of looking at the world. World War Two was something in the recent past but before the time that the children of the veterans could remember. It has been in recent years that we have all begun to open our eyes and comprehend the significance of those years and the miraculous achievement of allied troops and the American people.

Once again this exhibition teaches how Jews did their part in the most critical moment in modern American history. Just think for a moment of the repercussions had the Germans defeated the allied troops. We Jews are always sensitive to perceptions that Jews did not hold their own in American history. This exhibition surely tells the story about how their Judaism impacted their view of the world. It may not matter to us today about what kind of service veterans perform for themselves. But we can see through this special exhibition that their words and deeds earned the respect of so many in America.

Admittedly, I have a special interest in this situation because my father, of blessed memory, participated and survived Day-Day One. He was part of the 4^th division which landed upon Utah beach. He made it through Paris and ultimately to the Sigfried Line in the Battle of the Bulge where he sustained a shrapnel wound that took him out of the war and into two years of surgery before he would leave the army. I remember his dog tags which had the letter H inscribed which meant Hebrew. He most certainly knew what a lot of Jewish GI’s knew which was that if they got captured by Nazis that Jewish soldiers would risk immediate death and execution. One soldier in the video told the story of how an American major encouraged the Jewish soldiers under his command to get the letter P (Protestant) or C (Catholic) superimposed over the letter H. Such choices we cannot fathom today.

Blogging the CCAR convention: Day One

2011-03-27T23:57:00.000-07:00

A convention of Rabbis: Day One in New Orleans

I suppose you could say that being at a rabbi convention is like a doctors or lawyers or any profession’s gathering together for a yearly convention. Maybe there are quite a few similar aspects between all the professions at these kinds of professions. Even spiritual leaders are competitive and like to talk real life stuff that only colleagues can share. Even the spouses can relate to other spouses, male or female, that cope with a career that is supposed to be a calling.

I found myself initially seeing familiar friends. I cannot describe the exhilaration of seeing and embracing them. It almost feels like an adrenalin flow because we have such history behind us. For some we shared the same classrooms in Israel when we began our studies at the Hebrew Union College. Still others, we worked together in communities and developed new friendships over the years. Those bonds are enduring. It is important for all of us to remember that almost all reform rabbis in America went to the same rabbinical school. We attended the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. We all went to the Jerusalem campus and then we attended the Los Angeles, New York or Cincinnati locations. We are bound together to these places and relationships we made in those days, given that we attended HUC-JIR for five years. Just think about how many students one can get to know over the years!

In the afternoon program we listened to Dr. Scott Cowen, President of Tulane University. He told the dramatic story of his experience during Katrina and why he has chosen to make this hurricane ravaged city his permanent home. He urged us to come back and not give up hope on New Orleans. He shared several stories of strides in education and culture that have been made over the last five years. Overall he imbued us all with hope against despair and made us feel good that our national organization had chosen New Orleans for its annual convention.

Then after a large communal dinner, we adjourned to evening services. This time we had a rabbi (no pressure!) leading the services along with the Panorama Jazz Band. They provided the music for the service. It was the first time I had heard a jazz band accompanying a rabbi leading a worship service. The ideas just started to flow inside me for what I can take back to my own congregation. Watch out Bet Yam!

But there was something special about worshipping with four hundred rabbis. Just getting lost inside the group and not leading a service myself was special. It was just me the rabbis and God. At first I felt it a bit contrived in the sense that we might not be able to transcend our roles and worship like anyone else.. But after a while I embraced the atmosphere seeing the rabbis I have known for so long and the ones I do not know join together in worship. I sensed a real spiritual continuum from generations of rabbis who prayed together and bonded in a special sacred camaraderie.

I also observed that I am not one of the young ones anymore. (It took me this long to admit it?)Those wearing the sport coats and jackets are the old ones. The young colleagues are much more informal and casual in their dress. One could identify the diversity of the reform rabbinate in this snap shot. Fifty percent of the rabbis are women and a much larger attendance of gay and lesbian rabbis as well. That big tent idea has worked and it has changed the face of the reform movement including the reform rabbinate.

We are certainly different today. Yet there is enough room for us all to fit inside this tent. This I do believe.

Island Packet Article: Japanese spirituality sustains this unique people.

2011-03-27T23:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/03/26/1596771/dont-overlook-japans-spirituality.html#storylink=misearch
Take a look at this piece that appeared in my monthly newspaper column. what do you think?

A new leader for Reform Judaism should blend innovation and humility

2011-03-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Torah portion of the Week: Parashat Shmini- Leviticus.

When one is promoted to a greater position of responsibility in a job or volunteer position, how should we behave? When the call comes and they say we want you to join the congregation’s board or to become the president of the congregation, what is the proper response? Maybe it depends upon who we are as well as who is doing the inviting. These are all part of the emotional, political and even theological variables that come into play when a new leader takes the reins of responsibility. What we find is that one has to balance that sense of awe of the responsibility with the confidence, passion and authority that percolate inside a new leader. It is not easy. Many have failed at establishing that blend of humility with confidence. The reform movement is about to see these dynamics take shape in the arena of our national organizational life.

The Torah portion this morning, parashat shmini, leads us into the psychological mindset of a new leader’s initial challenge to balance these forces. We see the final public installation service of clergy, in this case, the high priest Aaron and his sons. In the 9^th chapter of Leviticus, Moses says to Aaron, “Come forward to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering making expiation for yourself and for the people; and sacrifice the people’s offering and your burnt offering and making expiation for them as the Lord has commanded.”(9:7) What we see here is not only the ritual involved in the public role to play as the high priest but also the priest’s private moral integrity. Public and private sides of the priest underlie his credibility. Aaron is a role model but not better than the people. He must confront his own transgressions first before he can lead the people in expiating their own sins before God.

Can this parasha give us insight on what are the spiritual challenges of not only being a religious leader in biblical times but for all times and especially for our new President of the Union of Reform Judaism?

The rabbis picked up on the idea of Aaron’s rise to high office and saw in it lessons about how people balance these emotions. They taught about the idea of bushah or humility that the more power and authority conferred upon a person the more careful one has to be in assuming the mantle of leadership.

We see this dynamic happening today within the Reform movement. The world now knows that a new President of the Union of Reform Judaism has been appointed today. Rabbi Richard Jacobs of Westchester Reform congregation in New York, now becomes the President designate until the current head of the Reform congregational arm, Rabbi Eric Yoffee, completes his term of service in 2012. The next year for Rabbi Jacobs will be a preparation process, just like Aaron, the High Priest, experienced not only for the job but for the personal spiritual and moral challenges of the position.

The reform movement has its hopes tied to Rabbi Jacob’s success. He is known as an innovator and change agent not only in his congregation’s success story but for the organizations he has worked with over the years. He will have to balance the financial concerns of maintaining the national URJ’s organizational appetite and then embody in his own persona a hopefully infectious spirit with inspiring new ideas that will return Reform Judaism to a much healthier place spiritually.

At the same time that we applaud a person for being innovative (with his acclaimed green synagogue and noted solar powered ner tamid) and dynamic, my hope is that we will see in him an embracing of people with humility for the great responsibility of setting the tone for the entire reform movement. Our rabbis of blessed memory commented on the verse “Moses said to Aaron,”Go to the altar.” Aaron supposedly hesitated to approach the tent of meeting so Moses said to him. “Why are you hesitant?” “It is for this that you were chosen.” Moses said to his brother,” It is just because you hesitate and are modest that you were chosen.”(Rashi as interpreted by degel mahanah Ephraim).

There is a caution here which is that part of the success of the high priest or any national religious leader is based upon those who surround him or her. For Aaron he brought his sons to the sacrificial rites before the people. Their credibility stemmed from his own standing before the people. Yet in the next chapter of Leviticus, chapter 10, we read the story of two of Aaron’s four sons, Nadav and Abbihu, who disregarded the proper and divinely ordained ritual process for sacrificial offerings and did their own thing. The tragic result was God sending forth a fire that consumed the sons and took them to their death. Aaron’s response to the horror of the events was “Vayidom Aaron,” And Aaron was silent.”

This is an extreme situation and an obvious personal setback for Aaron just as he has assumed the position of High Priest of a brand new Israelite religion. Yet he faces it all with deep humility. That tells me a lot about the quality of the man. It seems to me that we need to have a sense of the quality of the new leader Rabbi Jacobs. Position can raise the person to a new level of insight and sometimes the person can redefine the position. The point is that moving forward towards a new future requires the leaders to set a new tone. Yet, it is not only about the ideas themselves. It is also about the integrity of the person who represents the system that serves the people. We should not forget that the cadre of holy vessels that surround the leader also will determine the credibility of the leaders and the mission. It is all tied together. If they can exemplify the same moral tone as their leader then we have synergy which provides the most solid kind of leadership for any organization.

Finally, the reform movement is in desperate need of a broad vision and a new tone. Rabbi Jacobs has been quoted as speaking about stretching a wide inclusive tent over American Jews and the reform movement in particular. Rabbi Jacobs should have the support of all of us at the start of his journey. He will face multiple challenges and competing priorities. The URJ board has called upon him to ascend upon the altar of our movement. He will implement the rituals and give us more than his ideas and more than allocating resources in various new program thrusts. He must first give us himself, the person who is as a leader and, hopefully, demonstrate that his strength and confidence is balanced by an equally powerful sense of humility.

His learning and worship practices are critical to his credibility and, so too, of course, is his ability to reflect and lead us all on a journey of introspection about how we can be wiser and better as a movement. That starts with Rabbi Jacobs which is why this is an awesome moment in Reform Judaism’s history.

Shabbat Shalom

The Deliverance: Receiving Our New Megillat Esther

2011-03-20T11:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes things that happen at the last minute can test our patience but when we get in just barely under the wire, it is, in another sense an adrenalin flow too. It could be filing papers in the court, paying taxes, or paying a mortgage. Deadlines do matter even if there is some flex time. Showing up on time to Shabbat services or being prompt at your doctor’s office knowing full well you that you will still have to wait significantly longer than the time you were supposed to arrive for your appointment. It is just part of doing business in America. There are deadlines and there are deadlines.

But when it comes to a deadline of having a brand new Megillah Ester arrive to a congregation the day before Purim then we are talking about the Biblical standard of meeting our deadlines. That is a whole different story. Missing the deadline of sending a brand new Megillah to a congregation the day before the holiday of Purim would trigger any number of divinely inspired consequences that would impact us and the scribe who wrote that Megillah in the first place. Just the idea of stirring up the divine wrath after missing Purim with our newly commissioned Scroll of Esther would preclude me on the Sabbath from imagining the repercussions.

We have waited almost 9^th months from the time when the planning started for our congregation to commission our scribe Neil Yerman to not only write a Scroll of Esther for the holiday of Purim but also design and create a beautiful container that would enable us to keep it in the ark of our congregation along with the Torahs. Thanks to another donation last year we also have a scroll from the Book of Ruth, the book we read on the holiday of Shavuot, inside our ark. Now we add the scroll or Megillah of Esther to our collection of holy books. We as a congregation should take great pride at the sight of our expanding collection of holy scrolls and ask ourselves what does it mean for us to increase this collection?

First, the advent of the new scroll of Esther represents another example of Maimonides levels of Tzedakah. One who gives anonymously is considered the second to the highest rung of charitable acts. The first is one who helps someone help themselves. We are grateful to the donor who made this gift possible for us. The donor was part and parcel of the planning and the design of the work of art as well as, of course, the funding of it. We are all most grateful to the individual. We bless this person and all who are near and dear to the individual with continued good health and nachas or satisfaction for their generosity and kind spirit. Giving our financial resources to the Temple is critical for our congregation to survive. It is about the group and not just the individual. The spirit of philanthropy at this congregation is strong not only in mortar and brick but also for the spiritual life of the congregation.

Second, what makes this Megillat Esther special? Besides the fact that it is brand new and written for us and designed by the artist and scribe with us, there is even more based upon the style and structure of the Meggilah that deserves our attention. As I hold it and open it before us, please note that the Megillah is to remain on these spindles to roll as the reader reads it. Why? The two reasons are that we wanted everyone to watch the reader using the yad during the ceremonial reading the Scroll so that the congregation could see the inside of the Megillah itself. Second we were mindful that the Sephardic tradition also contains their Torahs in containers this way rather than taking out the scroll the way we customarily do. Just go into a synagogue from the Sephardi tradition and we will see them open up the containers with the Torah scrolls remaining inside. Also note that the parchment is not lambskin but goatskin and tanned to the dark brown style of texts, both Torah and Megillot scrolls, that belong to the Jewish cultures of North Africa.

Third, this new addition of the Meggilat Esther symbolized another step in the maturation and growth of Bet Yam into a full service congregation. In that way it must also signify the growth and maturation of the Jewish community of the low country. The building is built and that sends a message about the scope of our presence. Now what we focus on is defining the depth of our Jewish community. A beautiful edifice or more Torahs and scrolls of festive holidays like Purim do not automatically guarantee that we are a wiser and more learned congregation. Yet, this new scroll can bestow upon us a sense of authenticity about the ethos of Beth Yam. It means that we respect tradition and that doing things by tradition is a positive value as long as it fits into our sensibilities and values as liberal Jews.

At this point let me share with you more about the Megillah in Judaism. There are actually five megilot or scrolls in Jewish tradition. We read Song of Songs between Passover and Shavuot. We read Eicha or Lamentations on the fast day of the ninth of Av which we commemorate the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem. We read Ecclesiastes during the holiday of Sukkot. And, finally, we read Esther on Purim. Each one of them is read from a scroll or Megillah. But we are most used to using the term Megillah to refer to Esther itself.

Jewish law decreed that all of us were obligated to read the Megillat Esther, not just men. Not so different from the laws of sounding the Shofar, the rabbis said that while each person should read it, they could fulfill their obligation by hearing it read in the synagogue.

Similarly, the Megillah reader must have in mind to fulfill the mitzvah on behalf of the listeners. For if the listeners do not hear every word then they have not fulfilled the mitzvah. It is proper and fitting to have a valid handwritten Megillah that one can say word for word quietly in case one cannot hear the words from the reader. Also, Jewish law stated, women who sit in the women’s section (Orthodox tradition) are encouraged, if possible, to obtain a valid Megillah from which to read for in the women’s section it is difficult to hear the reading and women are obligated to hear the Megillah the same as men. If one is in morning during the week of Shiva, one may read the Megillah at home but the person is encouraged to attend the Purim services to hear it read. There are many more customs surrounding the Purim and the reading of the Megillah.

Today this Megillah arrived at 1pm. Our scribe flew down to Hilton Head and our President, Ted David, met together and transferred possession of the Megillah to the congregation. This now becomes part of the history of Beth Yam. Now it is ours and we shall read it with great joy. For the Talmud says; “With the arrival of the month of Adar, one should be exceedingly joyful.”(Ta’anit 29a) Our sages added, “Should all other festivals ceased to be observed, the days of Purim will never be annulled.” (Midrash on Proverbs)

Finally, tradition says, “in the time to come all the other parts of the Prophets and the Writings will lose their worth and only the Torah of Moses and the Book of Esther will retain their value.” (Jerusalem Megillah ch. 1.5)

The deadline has been met. Our scribe Neil Yermon has, in the spirit of the biblical btzalel, the artist who designed the Tabernacle, completed his mitzvah and traveled two thousand miles from New York to Hilton Head and back to deliver us this gift. My prayer is; ‘May the shechinah rest upon all the works of his hands.’ This moment represents an, aliyat hanefesh, an ascent of the soul for us and all those who will read and hear its words for the future.

Deadlines are not to be trifled with in the bible. The world is safe again and the deliverance of the Megillah symbolized the deliverance of the Jewish people from the grip of Haman. Our future is secure once again. Ken Y’hi Ratzon.

The Sabbath of Remembrance: Thou shalt not Hate

2011-03-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend is Purim. Those who show up to services in synagogues around the world will hopefully rejoice in the fun and frolic of this holiday. Let’s not forget that there is a serious side in preparing for Purim. I am not referring today to the customs of shlach manot or preparation of food gift packages to friends and to the poor. I am not referring to the optional fast day which tradition calls the fast of Esther. Instead, this Shabbat we will read the Torah portion- parashat tzav- which comes from the book of Leviticus. At the end of the Torah reading, when we come to the last set of verses, we will bring out a second Torah in addition to the one we read and open it to Exodus and read several verses reminding us to remember the evil Amalek. This was the biblical figure who attacked the Israelites from behind in their journey into the desert. This was the most vulnerable part of the Israelite encampment because the women and the children were at the back of the formation. The Torah tells us to “blot out” Amalek’s name and then it also tells us “not to forget” him. Because it is a mitzvah to read these verses at the end of our Torah reading, the rabbis fixed this Sabbath and called it Shabbat Zachor-the Sabbath of Remembrance.

Why do we pay attention to this little known ancient barbarian or tribal chieftain who terrorized the Israelites? Is it because of the connection to Haman, the evil one who almost succeeded implementing a policy of ethnic cleansing of the Jews in Persia, thereby setting up the story of Purim which we shall read Saturday night at Temple? The answer to this question is in part yes. But I must believe that there is more to it than simply remembering the evil man in either story. Someone said to me recently, does not this kind of rabbinic mandate to blot out his name ultimately perpetuate hatred in people? How can Judaism advocate us to hate anyone?

There is a possible outward appearance that by remembering our bitter feelings to Amalek or Haman or any of these nefarious leaders over history that we indulge the emotion of hatred. But the rabbis taught us to remember them not to hate them. Remembering does not mean hating them forever but it does mean rejecting their actions. It means learning from what they did to our ancestors and being careful today because good and evil are shaped by history and experience.

I know critics within Judaism say that we are obsessed with those who are trying to annihilate us. Maybe we should take a broader perspective and resist being so dependant emotionally upon a siege mentality towards our own history. Yet, I wonder if that change of heart does not create a slippery slope for us when we start to soften the impact of the demagogues and tyrants of the past, the successors to Amalek?

It is certainly a balancing act for Jews in observing Purim to intermingle our celebration of Jewish heroism and remembrance of how close we came to extinction. Maybe that is why humor is the only safety valve that the rabbis had at their disposal that would enable Jewish communities to cope with the ongoing potential threat of a Haman in any period of Jewish history. That is why we use the groggers on Purim and cheer for Mordechai and Ester and put on plays to make fun of ourselves. It is all about balance in our spiritual health. Humor itself is an effective tool or emotion that we have to offset the pressures and the anxieties of life.

We would be wise not to focus so much on the man Amalek or even Haman or any other despotic ruler against the Jews in history that such emotional energy saps our love of humanity and our trust of the good people who have been our friends. We have many of them. Let us learn from all our experiences to beware the potential threat and to still celebrate and make holy our lives. Enjoy Purim and Chag Sameach.

finding the creative voice

2011-03-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

Finding the Creative Side: Part Three

Part of the problem between us and God may relate to a problem that focuses on ignoring the creative side of ourselves. Let’s face it when we start asking questions about god and speculating about why we are here in this universe and whether God really cares about us we are tapping into the creative wellspring that makes us human.

As a parent I remember asking my daughter to do creative things like be a ballet dancer and study the piano. She did both of these activities for years. Like most parents we started our kids off on them for physical training, mental acuity and discipline. They did them all and we took pleasure especially when they actually enjoyed themselves. But we knew that it was about developing their creative instincts.

I wonder whether we cared as much about those instincts when it came to religion. Sure we took them to Hebrew school and Sunday schools. It started out as fun in the early years. But we all knew what happened as they grew older. They began to see that serving God was akin to serving Pharaoh when it came to after school Hebrew or getting up early to Sunday school at Temple. They began to resent it and protest and resist us and we became Pharaohs to our children. What happened to the creative, God searching side, the side of our kids that showed us wonder with their imagination about God? What happened to it?

Not for all Jewish kids but for a lot of them Judaism became too much of a period of servitude rather than sacred service or growing the spirit. Too many other activities competing for their time is one rationale. A world that does not value Torah learning is another one. Parents who are not involved personally in their faith and preach one line of expectation but who do not practice it in their lives becomes another explanation about why kids lose their interest in religion. God can be found in the pages of the books in the Temple library but the problem is that few open the books and then God becomes invisible. If so, is it no wonder that people lose interest in their religious affiliation?

The challenge is to rekindle that sense of wonder. Grandparents can absolutely do this. Parents can too. Kids need to see their parents striving and learning. They may not show it but they will do it in their way eventually. They still model us for good and for bad. We are never too old to set an example for our kids and our grandchildren. So we all need to get going and get out of our comfort zones to become creative again. We can find God in ways we never thought imaginable. I love watching my congregants take on new hobbies and passions in the community. Social activism is definitely one way. I cannot tell how many people in my current congregation who are retired and were never active in a temple or the Jewish community. Yet when they retired they started to explore joining a temple and now they are amongst the most active in the congregation. Retirement does bring us to the pathway of spiritual renewal. We just have to resist the all too familiar feeling of avoiding things that represent change. Change can be good. Change can help us grow spiritually. Taking the time to really think about the way we conceive of God and building on that with continued to learning is absolutely a wonderful opportunity for growth.

You do not have to be a trained scholar to engage the Eternal One. Just be a person strives to discover and to learn. We are all on a journey in our lives. Deriving the most meaning and the truth of the life we live is part of the religious quest. God is part of that quest. Take a step to read a book or write a thought. One day at a time.

The Torah Portion of the Week: Leviticus

2011-03-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

Parashat Vayikra: Momentous Decisions

March 11, 2011

There have been moments in Jewish history that defined the course of Judaism for centuries to come. One of those epic decisions occurred almost a thousand years ago when the Roman legions under the General and soon to be elected Emperor Vespasian entered Jerusalem and destroyed it including the Holy Temple. Judaism was, therefore, at a crossroads for the rest of its history. How would Judaism survive when the central institution of Jewish identity and communal worship, the Temple, was obliterated from the face of the earth?

I chose this question tonight regarding the Temple and the sacrificial tradition because our Torah portion begins the book of Leviticus. It is the book that sets out the order of sacrificial rites, the purity laws, and the regimen of priestly duties that accompanies the sacrificial offerings. For us that world is long gone. No one, not even the mainstream Orthodox, actively plan to return to reinstate the Temple sacrificial cult. We have assigned this material to Talmudic study and to preserve the ideal of the Temple in our theology and more specifically in the traditional prayer books, but, Judaism has moved forward to renew itself and proved that it could do so. Because of Rabbinic innovation and political skill our forbearers were able to substitute prayer and study as the means of expiation of sin.

The lesson for tonight is not about the value of sacrifices themselves but about how Judaism adapted itself to the most serious challenge to its existence. The sages reorganized the entire faith from a system of sacrificial offerings to relying upon prayer and study. That was the genius to our survival. Furthermore, have we not been adapting to the challenges of history for two thousand years? Yet, hearing the call of the Eternal One from the desert Tabernacle or the Western Wall at the Temple in Jerusalem and its sacrificial rites was a means to an end. It was always about the heart and soul of the people reaching out to God.

Let’s take a look back in history to the time after the Roman conquest of Jerusalem. It is important to remember that synagogues were part of Jewish culture in the heartland of Palestine. There were prayers and worship services. The Jewish sages, Pharisees and rabbis taught Torah. But it was the Temple that was the center of the nation’s spiritual life. People traveled to Jerusalem for pilgrimage holidays like Passover, Purim and Shavuaot. The sacrificial system had been in place as the symbol of national identity and communal worship for a millennium and was also used by all the religions of the Middle East.

And then one day it was all over. It was not simply a political crisis. It left a void in the national spiritual identity. What would people do to continue to fulfill the sacrificial commandments that God commanded the children of Israel to perform from the beginning of our history? Quickly the rabbis negotiated with the Roman authorities to establish a center for learning and study in a small town called Yavneh. One rabbi in particular, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, becomes the leader negotiated with the Roman emperor a pathway towards a future amidst the rubble of Roman conquest in the year 70 CE.

It is an amazing story told in the Talmud that Rabban Yochanan had his disciples declare him dead and put him inside a casket to be taken out of the besieged city of Jerusalem. After his escape he made his way to the Roman general. Just after Vespasian had been informed that the Roman Senate had elected him Emperor and Yochanan ben Zakkai appeared before him. Vespasian respected Yochanan ben Zakkai. Vespasian informed him that he was about to leave his assignment to become the most powerful person in the ancient world at that time.

According to the Talmudic account,Vespasian said to Yochanan ben Zakkai, “I am now going away from here and will send someone else to take my place. You may, however, make a request of me, and I will grant it.” Rabban Yochanan said, “Give me Yavneh and its sages, the dynasty of Rabban Gamaliel.” Think about that. Suppose, as some sages at the time advocated, he had convinced Vespasian to restore Jerusalem. How would Judaism have looked or survived if the Romans restored the Temple sacrificial tradition?

But it did not. In fact some would say it was a brilliant strategic decision that enabled Yochanan and his sages to operate under the Roman radar to reestablish the rabbinic presence in the ravaged and war torn Palestine of the first century of the Common Era. It was that decision that started the process of reconstituting Judaism without sacrifices. It was that decision that propelled the idea of prayer as the only way a Jew could find atonement from their sins. That was a revolutionary decision. And when Rabban Yochanan said, “Our prayers would take the place of our sacrifices to God,” Judaism was transformed.

It is not that our sages forgot sacrifices or did not pray for the rebuilding of the Temple. They did just that. But in the meantime they instituted a new approach raising the synagogues and their local prayer customs as well as the study of the Scripture as the main opportunities for Jews to find God and to receive God’s forgiveness. We take that for granted today but with the lens of history we can realize that what is amazing about our history is the ability of the spiritual leadership to reinvent itself in the midst of this existential crisis that put the future of the people and Judaism itself at risk. At the end of the day, that momentous decision to relocate the rabbinical center of learning at Yavneh changed the face of Judaism from a sacrificial based religion to strictly one of prayer, study and communal worship.

What we may not realize is how the sacrificial tradition influenced the way communal prayer, and, therefore, our current prayerbook would be structured for two millenniums. Most of the passages that directly referred to sacrifices were excised from the Reform prayerbook but the underlying influence is still there nevertheless.

How ironic it is that all of us who would never pray for the rebuilding of the Temple still aspire to stand at the Western Wall of that Temple. It is not about the sacrifices themselves. We stand at the Wall for our history. We hear an inner voice that calls from those stones. It is that calling that is the magic of the Western Wall. Similarly the first word of the Torah portion in Leviticus is, “And God called out to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting.”

Rabbi Eleazar said Prayer is more efficacious than sacrificial offerings. He also said, “Ever since the day the Temple was destroyed, the gates of prayer have been closed. But though the gates of prayer are closed, the gates of tears are not closed. ( Talmud: B BErachot 32b)

One more text from the Midrash: We read from the Song of Songs (5:2) The congregation of Israel said to the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, I am numb as though asleep, for lack of the Temple, “nevertheless my heart wakes in house of payer and houses of study.”

We have learned that God’s calling us makes us hear the divine voice in different ways as individuals. We have also learned how we as communities reform our way of worship as a people too when it came to listening to the voice of God in the Torah. What we give to God is our prayers, our deeds, our Tzedakah, our thoughts and questions. All of these bring us closer to the Eternal One.

Shabbat Shalom

God wants us to ask questions.

2011-03-10T18:24:00.001-08:00

God: Part Two

Jews have a hard time with God because many so- called progressive, Conservative and even secular Jews have other Jewish outlets to encounter the Jewish experience other than directly dealing with God. We have gastronomic Judaism where we can go to the deli and eat our favorite cultural delights and say, “That is my Judaism.” Some will engage in cultural organizations that help the cause of Jewish survival. They say that is their Judaism. Others who aren’t sure what they are but have Jewish names or had Jewish ancestry are out there too. They have found other religions or no none at all. Yet they too retain that sense of identity despite the fact they don’t know what to do with it.

The problem is that we don’t have just one way to define ourselves. Even traditional Jews who practice the laws, the Halachah, can perform the functions of what God wanted from us but that does not automatically mean that they have a personal relationship with God, a way of communicating and believing that the creator sees into our hearts and souls!

I believe that Jews are the people of the commentary. We love to comment and to seek to understand something that we feel is deeper inside a text. Whether that text is the Torah, the Talmud, the Midrash or the Kabbalah, we possess that powerful sense of questioning about what we see inside the words. That has carried us into so many other realms of inquiry and is partly responsible why Jews have made so many contributions into the realms of the arts and sciences.

I am afraid that we have become too placid about searching for the eternal question of God inside our lives. Is it a passing thought or even a distant memory? I would really like to know what people are thinking about in relation to God. I am sure that one does not have to be Jewish to have an inquiring mind. Please! To the contrary, all I am saying is that there seems to be a general sense of serious questioning about God in our lives. Fundamentalist and Charismatics in all faiths have their place. People on the other end of the spectrum have their place as well. I am not talking about sitting in a communal worship setting and asking these kinds of questions. I am referring to the private life of a person who can sit down, take the time to read a book or write a thought and imagine a discussion with the Holy One like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Sounds crazy?

We are losing our spiritual edge if we become immersed only in the digital reality of technology. We must rescue the part of ourselves that in humility questioned our reason for existence and our mission or purpose for being here. It is not that we will necessarily answer that question but just to ask it and to know that God wants us to ask it even if there is not a direct response to our questions about “Why” is good enough. We must feed the spiritual mind with questions. The spiritual side of ourselves relishes the questions. Have we come to an age where we are starving the spirit and feeding the intellect? What do you think?

Finally, too much is at stake for the continuity of our people not to address this question. It is a global problem when religion runs rampant and leads to war. But this is a private matter, an individual issue, for each person to figure out where they are in this world. A secular world that stifles the spirit of questioning and imagining our connection the Eternal One is equally destructive. Do we need to re-establish a balance in our lives where the matters of the spirit can remind us that inside each of us is a poet, a theologian and philosopher all tied together? Yes, think it is so. It is the creative side of who we are. Let’s not forget that precious aspect of our humanity.

Where are you God?

2011-03-08T06:27:00.001-08:00

Jews have a hard time talking about God. I say to myself that I want to talk more about God but I fear that on the pulpit if I do discuss God, that glassy eyed look will infect the entire congregation at Shabbat services. Yet I must explore first my own ambiguity not about God’s existence as the creator of the universe, but, I want so desperately to feel that God cares and knows we are here. I am searching myself, as if this is my life’s journey, to see if I can discover that presence just for me let alone for everyone else in my congregation.

I think we have lost the art of talking to god. I read the stories of how simple Jewish people could talk to god out of the depths of a shtetl and its poverty and danger too. Yet they carried on conversations with the Holy One. I am not so attracted to the great philosophers of Judaism even though I read their works and admire their determination to make Judaism relevant in the world they lived in during the Middle Ages and even through today. I cling to simple stories and prayers. I look for the poetry of God talk. I search not so much for the answer to God but for the question. I yearn to live in the question.

I see that the pathway between the Holy One and me branches out into many different directions. There are many roads traveled in this search for the questions. I can hear God calling me from the very pages of Genesis, “Ayecha,” Where are you?” (2:9) For me religion is all about a life of self discovery and rolling in the meadow of that question “Where are You?”

I do not see God as simply an inner voice or only an outstanding presence that “rolls darkness into light and light into darkness.” I can’t even define God or know what I am speaking about or to whom. Does that make me an unbeliever or just crazy? An agnostic? I relish the journey of discovering not only the essence of myself as I study, pray, teach torah, and write a poem. But all these sacred acts bring me closer to Eternal One. How do I know this is so? I don’t. But I would swear it to be true. I can live with these paradoxes. I can sustain this search with the creative tension I yearn for as I search for truth and for the question that opens the door to truth I have not yet grasped. This is the game of hide and seek with God that I have engaged in over the last twenty five years. I am hiding and I am seeking!

Not every act is an inquiry into the Godhead. Of course I can perform the rituals and savor them. I can read the prayers to myself and to my congregation with feeling and kavanah (inspiration). I once had a dream that I would text God. I said, “Are you there?” Does a text message have a better chance of reaching God than a letter to God sent to the Post Office? I have more to say on this. What is your view of God?

No More Theological Bullying

2011-02-15T11:18:00.001-08:00

Why am I a Jew?

I taught a class Sunday with our high school students. They are truly a wonderful and respectful group of kids. They are smart and insightful. Currently we are working with them on a congregational project. We are writing a book of stories, memoirs, poems and meditations from all age groups throughout the temple. We are doing this because we have commissioned a scribe to bring us a refurbished Torah. We thought that since every Jew is supposed to write his or her own Torah that we too would invite everyone to bring their life stories and the wisdom they have learned and put it down in a literary format of art as well as invite visual artists to contribute to this project called Torah Shelanu (Our Torah) This is an amazing project. I am so proud of the congregation for the amount of writers who are working from a spiritual point of view and expressing private thoughts and ideas in the public domain for all to see. They have courage and imagination.

The young people and I spoke about a variety of questions regarding how they see themselves as Jews. And this is what I sensed and took away from our fantastic discussion. On the one hand they are proud of being Jewish. They know they are different. One said, “We are the outsiders at school.” Yet, several recounted stories how their fellow classmates in public school proclaimed that they would one day go to hell for not accepting Jesus as their savior. One student was retelling a story of what it felt like to be Jewish as being different than anyone else in the class at the age of five years old!

I sense with them that they are used to being on the defensive because they are Jewish. It has it pros and cons. The benefit is learning at a young age the truth about being a Jew and how people view us with their prejudices and bias. It is good that our kids learn sooner than later how to deal with ignorance about Judaism. Defending the faith is part and parcel of what Jews do century after century.

The cons are concerning too. My feeling is that there is something sad when people can stand up for themselves based upon beliefs they proudly proclaim that they do not believe in and have such a serious problem articulating what they, in fact , do believe in.

I have been dealing with this issue and Jewish kids since I started out in the rabbinate. Serving in smaller communities, I have listened to the same vignettes coming from their counterparts over the decades. There is only a fellow student or one or two more in the classroom. The Jewish kids automatically feel isolated. As they enter high school, Christians who are curious ask Jewish kids what they believe. How do they answer and not lose their social standing in the school community?

I will be curious to see how they will focus on this question, “Why am I a Jew?” We have to help our kids get beyond a definition of Judaism that means what we do not believe in. Instead we should strive for a definition of Judaism those points to a clear message about what we do believe in. That does not mean we forget the question. It simply means we teach our kids to define themselves on their terms and not on the terms of what others ask them about in the cafeteria.

In the end it is all about education. Talmud Torah K’neged Kulam. Education leads to the fulfillment of all other commandments. Learning is the key. Judaism is not only about survival or only about saying what wrong. We have to not forget the blessings in our lives.

I cannot wait to see how the kids will struggle with this seemingly simple question which may be, in fact, more complex than we think. We write and study sacred texts and even pray so that we may understand ourselves and God in relation to each other and the world around us. The spiritual struggle is an ongoing one. Our kids need our wisdom to answer the questions they receive from their classmates who come from other faiths.

I pray that the time will come when we will not see religious bullying of Jewish kids or kids of other non-Christian faiths. I say this because if some makes threatening comments about someone going to hell for not believing in their faith then I would consider that bullying. No more theological bullying. Some would call it legitimate proselytizing. I call it theological bullying.

We need an oracle today? Urim and Thummim

2011-02-11T12:39:00.001-08:00

Torah Portion: Exodus-Tztzaveh

2/11/2011

The Jewish world, particularly Israel, would certainly like to consult an oracle to find out how the situation in Egypt will ultimately get resolved. As always we are living with questions and wanting more answers. As much as we would like to know and to anticipate, once again we see that we still live in a world where the unpredictable still overshadows us in Egypt and also in the Middle East. The recent decision of President Mubarak to remain in office shocked the hundreds of thousands of protesters who were expecting him to announce his departure from office yesterday. This would have been enough proof that we ought to be careful about predicting the future. Now we read reports that he has, in fact, left for his summer home in the Sinai abdicating his authority to the military. No oracles here, not even the chief of the CIA!

The Torah portion this week describes the ritual objects the Tabernacle including some which provided divine guidance about future events. The high priest consulted the Urim and the Tummim. No one can translate these words accurately but they represent the oracle that the high priest used in determining God’s will concerning the fate of the Jewish people. Would that we could find those shinny stones that enlightened the Priesthood and the prophet Moses. We surely could use them today given the high stakes for the outcome in Egypt and the repercussions down the road towards Israel.

Are the reasons our ancestors depended on this oracle then and other rituals the same as why we need religious rites and rituals today? The answer is yes. The basic character of human beings is the same. We need rituals to balance between our need to control our world or at least our own lives knowing full well that we can never know for sure what is in store for us. Religious rituals are the way we communicate with God and persuade the Almighty to give us an equal playing field in coping with an unpredictable world.

We should not forget how important ritual objects are in preserving history. The entire Torah portion for this week is all about the holy vestments of the priest as well as the ordination ceremony of the priests in the Tabernacle. In addition the portion discusses the mitzvah of lighting the perpetual light in the Tabernacle. All of these traditions commemorate the Israelite past as they are starting a brand new faith tradition.

At the same time we see that part of what religion is about is figuring out the Divine Will. We want to know what God wants us to do in our human affairs. Something inside us says, “Go ask God for a sign when we aren’t sure about the right step to take in dealing with a difficult situation.” Yes we believe in one god. The intellectual side of our brains says that life is arbitrary. The emotional side asks, “How can we harness divine power to predict the actions of our adversaries before they descend upon us?” There is a part of us that wants a short cut or just maybe access to divine insider information to know what will happen to us before it actually occurs.

According to the Rabbis the Midrash describes just how the person petitioned the Urim and the Thummim. The High Priest would face the ark and the questioner stood behind him. If he prayed from the heart, the Holy Spirit would envelop the priest at once. He would look into the ephod and do so with prophetic insight, seeing the letters on the Urim and Thummim facing him with “Yes” or “No.” And thus he would answer. People would not ask two questions at once, but one after the other.

What we know about these two oracle objects is very little. We never read of one instance in the Torah of Moses consulting the Urm and the Thummim. Moses’ successor Joshua was ordered to request of his high priest Eleazar to receive an oracle from them before going to war. The most dramatic example of the use of the Urim and Thummim was in ISam 14:40 when Saul had put a curse on anyone whoudl eat during the battle, but Jonathan, not knowing of the curse, had tasted honey. In a public inquiry, Saul asked, apparently through Urim and Thummim for the guilty party and the lot pointed to Jonathan.

The Urim may have been stones were employed like a dice. Scholars tell us that after the Babylonian exile they fell into disuse. Judges and priests were available to render judgment in these kinds of matter. Even the historian Josephus in the 1century CE reported that the Uurim and Thummim had not been used for two hundred years.

While we do not have an accurate translation the popular definition is light and right. The Septuagint called the lots “brightness and perfection and the Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, translated these words as “teaching and truth.”

Rituals like the Urim and the Thummim impose order on reality. They give us structure and preserve a communal memory as well as an individual one. Religious rituals instill confidence and security in a world that often feels quite the opposite. Religious rituals remind us that cultures need stability to keep at arm’s length the unpredictable will and temperament of the Eternal One. In a way rituals give the opportunity to operate by a system of rules that even God must respect and follow. It is like creating an equal playing field for God and humankind.

Today we still value these traditions. We preserve the chain of tradition for people who claim they are descendants of the Temple priest. Even their assistants, the Levites, know that they are from a great line too. So many rituals in Jewish law exist for the purpose of preserving the Temple sacrificial tradition even if no one expects it will ever again return. It is comforting and it reminds us where we have been.

I cannot help but wonder if Honi Mubarak saw himself as the incarnate symbolic exemplar of the Pharonic dynasty which was why he initially insisted to stay on despite the opposition of the people of Egypt. Was he the priest and Pharaoh of Egypt in his mind? Did he have an oracle to consult that suddenly led him to change his mind after making his speech last night that he would never leave his office prematurely? Maybe the lesson is that the people will give leadership a lot of room to govern and even give up a degree of autonomy. But if that leader abuses his people, no matter how many years they ruled or what traditions they claim to uphold because of their God ordained or self ordained role, the people will tear them down.

God may ordain the priesthood but it is up to the person to earn the respect from their work. Nadav and Abihu, the sons of Aaron appointed to be their father’s heir apparent, were destroyed by a divine fire when they did not follow god’s rules on burning a sacrifice. Hosni Mubarak was a modern high priest who as president of Egypt, apparently crossed over a line with his people, long suffering Egyptians, to the point where his priestly role no longer could protect him. Then it was time to go.

The Middle East as well as Egypt and Israel are always unpredictable. We could always use a reliable Urim and Thummim for guidance on Egypt’s future as well as Israel’s well being. Like our biblical ancestors, we just do not know how effective the oracles of the past were nor are we aware of any oracles today. I am afraid we shall have to stay tuned.

A message from Joe Wilson as a guest on my blog.

2011-02-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Reader,
This is the first time I have invited a guest to contribute to this blog. As our elected representative to the United States Congress I welcome Rep. Wilson to express his views on this non-partisan issue. We should know how our congressman thinks at this critical time for Israel, Egypt and the Middle East. I thank him for taking the time to contribute to this blog. I would welcome your viewpoint on his remarks.
Shalom,
Brad
Excerpt from Congressman Wilson
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rbbloom@comcast.netX

Patel, NealRabbi, Below is the excerpt the Congressman would like to submit for your blo...
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Rabbi,
Below is the excerpt the Congressman would like to submit for your blog regarding the situation in Egypt. Please let me know if our office can help you in any other way. Also, I have attached a high resolution photo from your recent trip to Washington.

Thanks.

“As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I am deeply concerned with the recent events surrounding the current administration in Egypt. Mr. Mubarak’s announcement to not seek re-election was the first step in moving toward a democratically elected government.

Egypt’s current administration should immediately take steps to schedule an open and free election. This political reform must happen without further delay so as to minimize the current violence and on-going chaos engulfing the country.
Leaders of the opposition movement must not embrace extremist elements who are merely attempting to gain power as a means to damage Egypt’s relationship with countries like the United States and Israel. Mr. Mubarak’s administration should see to it that the will of the people is satisfied sooner rather than later.”

Neal Patel | Communications Director
Congressman Joe Wilson (SC-02)
2229 Rayburn HOB | Washington, DC 20515
O: 202.225.2452 | C: 202.731.6987

My trip to the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

2011-02-04T07:29:00.000-08:00

I just arrived last night from a driving journey to Washington, D.C. and back for the purpose of attending the National Prayer Breakfast. The event was held at the Hilton Hotel on Connecticut Ave N.W. Remember that is the hotel where President Regan was shot by John Hinkely. Needless to say the security was intense. Yet, when I sat down I found the atmosphere almost jovial. There were diplomats, heads of state, and elected officials from the Congress, clergy and people of faith from all the religions. Yes, there was outside across the street a very small demonstration by a group condemning religion. What else is new in Washington?

Putting aside the remarks of the President for a moment, there were some really inspiring and entertaining speakers. One of the miners in the Chilean mine accident, Jose Enriquez, spoke of the travails of faith and the spiritual challenges the miners faced inside the mine. With a translator Enriquez told us that when they opened a hole to the miners and sent down food and water, they also sent down a small bible with that person’s name inscribed on the cover to each miner. When the capsules were ready to take each person to the surface, Enriquez insisted that the individuals get on their knees and make a prayer. His point was that religion and spirituality played a paramount role towards enabling the miners to survive this crisis.

Emmy award winning vocalist Alison Krauss stunned the entire audience with her amazing voice. I had never listened to her before but she had a voice that inspired everyone. Then Hollywood film producer Randall Wallace, a man born in small town poverty of Tennessee and then Virginia told his story of the ups and downs of his life and the humility he learned from his grandparents and parents in the rural south. His career as a film producer also took him to the wealth he aspired and back to having nothing. At that point he wrote a script which he ultimately produced called Braveheart. He was a good old fashioned story teller. Very effective.

Elected officials spoke about their prayer breakfast traditions they have in the Congress. Many of these groups usually meet once a week. The speakers from the US Senate or the House of Representatives all lauded these experiences as the most meaningful of their week. Yes it was nice to see the bipartisan participation in the program as well as in the audience. They read from Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.

Then the president spoke. Most news reports televised his comments on Egypt. Of course that is to be expected. But I really liked what he had to say through the rest of his remarks. He spoke about his own prayer life and how he as a community organizer in Chicago without religious affiliation worked with clergy. It was there that he became a Christian. He also spoke about the need to balance in his spiritual life the foundation of his core values with the need to respect others with completely opposing political views. He spoke about his wife and thanked her for tolerated him. (That is universal with most men with any brains!) Then he spoke of his praying on his older daughter who is of age now that she is going to her first school dances. He spoke of “Boys” and the length of her party dresses. Boy did that resonate with everyone!

Finally Captain Mark Kelly, the astronaut and husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords from Tucson, Arizona spoke and delivered the benediction. He discussed his transformation of spirit and discussed how he the astronaut and science guy used to see the world and human events as completely arbitrary. Now he has a different understanding about destiny and the power of the human spirit. He took me by surprise when he concluded his remarks by saying that he would read the benediction from the prayer that his wife’s Rabbi recited over her hospital bed. That was truly a blessing moment. Her Rabbi is Stephanie Aron. I do not know her but it makes us all proud to see a rabbi being an effective comfort to her congregant.

After it was all done, I took a cab over to the Dirksen office building and met up with our Congressman Joe Wilson. His staff and I walked over to the Capital building where Joe and I discussed the situation in Cairo. I will save this for another blog. For now I will say that one can feel the change in the American Foreign Policy establishment towards Middle East policy. Change is coming. I do not know what it is but it is happening behind the scenes.

I am glad I went. More to report to you over the weekend.

We shall talk on Sunday.

The sudanese children in Cairo

2011-02-01T07:24:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends,

We are all watching the news of the crowds of Egypt’s uprising or, some say, revolution. I came across a poem that I wrote five years ago when the Egyptian government was dealing with thousands of Sudanese refugees living in the parks and square of Cairo. Eventually the Egyptian authorities put them, despite their appeal for mercy, onto buses and shipped them back to the Sudan. Many of them were refugees and fearful for their lives. So this situation in Egypt reminded me of Sudanese people’s aspirations for freedom. I would like to share this poem because the bottom line is that people’s lives are on the line. The voice of the people, be it Egyptian, Sudanese, Tunisian, Iranian and any other people’s cry for democracy and basic human rights, must be heard. I pray that God’s will to provide a peaceful resolution to this crisis will inspire the people in the streets and those in the government and the military as well.

Sudanese Children in Cairo

Black fists

Outstretched arms

Bare chests

Mother’s breasts

Children’s hearts

Old men’s bones

Defy life’s illusions

And the drumbeaters

Flying in desert winds

Sweeping and twisting limbs

And the stickmen who beat

The breath out of black skin.

Sudanese children sleep

Faces buried in the mud

Holding birthday candles

A doll

A baby’s blanket

And a suitcase.

As wild dogs howl amidst the cries and screams

Echoing in a Cairo park.

Slabs of human flesh

Heaped onto buses

Perspiration indistinguishable

From a plague of heartbreak

Infecting the breathing corpses

Transported to camps

As angels on high immune

To the black exhaust

Rising to the sky

From the exile below

While the righteous wait

Sheltered in armbands

And ID cards

Who shut their eyes

As the storm passes.

Silent tears lost I the desert

Anger executed

And death is the last rite

Wearing a headdress

Of royalty in the tribe

From the land of their fathers

Whose flute sings freedom’s

Song in a city park’s

Grave to the living dead

That tells tales of martyrdom

And God alone cried above the moonlight.

The Messiah

2011-01-30T19:46:00.001-08:00

Today I had the opportunity to deliver a lecture at a church service on the Jewish ideas of the Messiah. The church, Chapel without Walls, conducts its weekly service in our sanctuary on Sunday mornings. It is an intimate congregation that usually attracts 35-40 people. Today there were about 100 people. How ironic that my friend Rev. John Miler would introduce me as a guest speaker to my own pulpit! We all got a laugh out of that observation. The experience was a positive one because when Christians and Jews speak about the Messiah we are really talking about apples and oranges. Yet my sense is that because both Jews and Christians were sitting together inside a synagogue sanctuary in a church service was a sign of the importance of learning and sharing ideas between the religions. We need to do more of it.

For mainstream Christian theology the Messiah represents an internal process of redemption and salvation usually connected to believing in Jesus of Nazereth as the Messiah, the son of God as a precondition to entering Heaven. For Jews the concept is very different. We see the Messiah as a human being performing acts of heroism which unite a people and return the Jewish people to their homeland. In fact the five criterion of the Messiah in conventional Jewish theology are, defeat the enemies of the Jewish people, establish the Temple service in Jerusalem, bring together the Jewish people back to the land of Israel and, finally, usher in an era of peace for the Jewish people and the world.

The Messiah ideas have changed from the times of the Bible to the period of late antiquity and then into the Middle Ages. Jews followed the law-halachah- and the belief that not only were the Scriptures holy but also the rabbinic literature of the Talmud as well. The Jewish people have had to defend their beliefs over history, particularly with the Catholic Church in Spain and other nations. Jews also had to contend with a history of false Messiahs going back to the times of the Romans when Rabbi Akiva declared Bar Cochbah, the Jewish general who defied the Roman army in 136CE, as the Messiah. Sabbatai Tzvi called himself the Messiah in the 17^th century in Europe. Most of the Jewish communities believed him until the Turkish authorities arrested him and he converted to Islam before his death.

The period of the Enlightenment in the 18^th century ushered in a new era of thinking about the Jews. The messiah ideas reflected themselves not in a person but or in a return to the land of Israel. Instead it was to integrate Jews into the mainstream of European life. But by the time of the latter part of the 19^th century arrived, the Messiah ideas grew into the movement to settle Jews into the land of Israel. Theodore Herzl led that movement and the settlement of Jews in Palestine. Zionism took on a kind of Messianic movement in Jewish life. In America the reform movement took the opposite view. In the 19 century the reform rabbinate come up with their platform which said that the Reform Judaism would no longer accept a belief in the Messiah nor in a return to the land of Palestine. Of course that all changed by the middle part of the 20^th century when Reform Judaism changed its tune and embraced the call to resettle Jews in Palestine. In those early days of Reform Judaism the movement was trying to embrace American culture and acculturate German Jews into the mainstream of American culture.

Today we see resurgence in the Messiah ideas with the HABAD Hasidism one side and progressive Judaism on the other side of the theological spectrum. The reform movement now advocates social justice and in that way we do not need a personal messiah but we can bring about an era when social justice and learning combine to repair the world and heal it. Part of that thinking comes from Jewish mysticism in the 17^th century. How powerful ideas are and how they reappear centuries later in places we would never imagine!

The upshot of today’s lecture is that Judaism has many different ideas about the Messiah. It is an act of communal not individual redemption. This is consistent with Judaism’s focus on the history and promise of the Jewish people. Communal revelation and salvation define our religious underpinnings. Yet history has certainly influenced the creative instincts of Jewish communities to defend the traditional ideas of the Messiah as well as to create new adaptations of the Messiah as the times required.

Finally, today was a wonderful opportunity for all of us who attended the service to discuss the teachings of our respective religion’s teachings on the Messiah. Different religions learning together the similarities and differences of our respective faiths goes a long way to show how religion is a force for unity and good in our country. We need to do more of it and not less.

The revolution in Egypt

2011-01-29T20:38:00.000-08:00

I have taken a break from the blogging world. I am back.

The world is fixated on the tumult in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia. We are watching the news because we all know the potential dangers that lay ahead of us if Egypt does not resolve their issues in a peaceable manner. The thought of the potential scenarios is reason enough to pray.

I was on a rabbis’ mission in Egypt over twenty years ago. We traveled throughout Cairo and down the Nile to Luxor and then returned on an overnight train back to Cairo. We entered and toured through the Moses Ibn Ezra synagogue which has since gone through extensive renovation.

We could see back then the extensive poverty that was spread throughout Egypt. What we learned from the tour guides back then was that the people of Egypt were a peace loving and not a revolutionary people. They could withstand much suffering as long as they had enough to live on. Even then I remember viewing thousands living and sleeping at night in the cemeteries of Cairo. I recall the little villages and the children without shoes when we stopped during our cruise down the Nile River.

At the same time we saw the great Islamic universities and the cultural elite that flocked to Cairo because there one could indulge one’s needs, according to the guides, in Cairo more than any other Arab capital. I learned of the paradox between the great civilization of Egypt and its enormous poverty living side by side. Not much has changed over the years.

I am no foreign policy expert. I do not propose to make any predictions. I am about hope in the future. We all know that there has been a tenuous peace between Israel and Egypt. The parties have worked together to maintain the peace between them and have cooperated in dealing with the Palestinians. Considering that only 43 years ago the Egyptian President Gammal Abdul Nasser was predicting annihilation of Israel in the 67 war and then Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem and Camp David we have seen that Egypt is capable of doing evil, but also, rising to the occasion and contributing to world peace.

Most recently the Islamic fundamentalist killed Christian Coptics in Egypt coming out of their church services. They make up 10% of the population. The Muslim population reacted in favor of the Coptics and protested on their behalf. Does that happen for Christians in Iraq when Sunnis go after Iraqi Christians? The answer is no.

Facts like these give me hope that despite the chaos we see on the streets somehow peace will prevail and that whatever changes occur in Egypt, the largest and most prominent of Arab nations, will make Egypt better in the future without hurting Israel. That is my prayer.

reflection from Tuscon:When

2011-01-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/01/15/1511055/unity-necessary-to-heal-nation.html#

Here is my article from today's Island Packet.

Reflections on Tucscon: When?

2011-01-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/01/15/1511055/unity-necessary-to-heal-nation.html#

Here is my column in the Island Packet published on Saturday. I hope you will take a look.
Shavua Tov
A good week.
Brad

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The Memorial Service in Tucson

2011-01-12T20:47:00.000-08:00

Reactions to the Memorial Service in Tucson

It is sometimes amazing what will touch a chord in the soul of person. I sat down to listen to the speech on television like the rest of the nation. The commentators have been postulating all kinds of theories regarding this moment and this speech in the Obama presidency.

Unexpectedly, my emotions got the better of me when I listened to the first musical piece that the orchestra played. It was Aaron Copland’s “The Common Man.” I have heard portions of it in the movies but not the entire piece. Suddenly tears started to emerge and gently flow down upon my cheeks.

Why did that happen? I suspect that this music reminded me of the majestic dignity of the American person. Our great arms and shoulders lifted this nation to greatness. Our muscles and the integrity and unity of spirit has made this nation the beacon of light for all who aspire to a better life. There is a quiet dignity of this music as if I was walking inside Arlington’s National Cemetery through the rows of soldiers who gave their lives to protect what we all value as our freedoms, or our way of life.

Somehow the music lifted my spirits beyond the political pundits and the debates raging on public policy issues that have surfaced since the alleged shooter went on a crazed rampage of killing last Saturday. Maybe the music captured some pent up emotions from this tragedy that finally rose to the surface when I heard the brass and the percussion of Copland’s “The Common Man.” What makes this country great is the everyday citizen. It is the person who grows up and never looks for the limelight but who raises a family, pays their taxes and enjoys the fruits of their labors. And then that moment arrives when an emergency occurs and the average decent person rises to the occasion and sees the challenge that a community or a nation faces. The common man, the American man and woman rises in spirit and body to the occasion. The American, robed in dignity and glory, and in quiet humility gets the job done for the welfare of the community. That is the common man, the first responders; the people protected and initially cared for the wounded until they could be transported to the Hospital.

What I love about being an American is in those moments of great adversity how we face challenges and overcome obstacles and perform in a righteous and humble fashion. The music of Aaron Copland allowed me to see something in us that words could not communicate.

I know that there are many issues which I feel need to be debated in our community about the continuing tragedy of gun violence and treating the mentally ill. We own this problem and it is an American problem. But before we tackle these issues in the public domain there must be a spiritual connection to enable us to have the dialogue and fix what is hurting our culture.

Music can lift our spirits and inspire us to our task which is a noble one and that the events of Tucson will propel us to a better place securing our country’s future.

A tragedy in Tuscon

2011-01-09T19:40:00.000-08:00

Let me begin by saying that I have taken a break from blogging over the last week. We went away to visit family. But now I have returned and will resume the fusion613 blog.

My sense is that the crimes committed against the congresswoman and her staff that included the other victims will lead us into important contemplation and introspection over the next few weeks. We are all shocked, horrified and bewildered by the young man who is suspected of committing these unspeakable actions.

We will be reading many news reports. All kinds of information will be flowing out of media sources. Commentators will latch onto these issues and analyze them from the political, moral, and even the theological level. No doubt we will all have to make up our minds in the time to come concerning the significance of these crimes. Right now we pray for the recovery of the wounded. We mourn for those who died.

I will leave you with a question. I listened to the CNN interview with a Stephen Farely who is the elected official that replaced Congresswoman Gifford in the Arizona State House. He wanted to reassure the public and Americans in general that the actions of this young man in Tucson did not reflect the character of the people of Arizona. He said, “this is not who we are.”

I appreciate his passion to defend his state. But I must think about his statement. We should think about what this man said. “This is not who we are!” Really? I am not saying yes this who we have become or no, America is not about this kind of person. It is an important question. Do not dismiss this question so fast. It deserves our consideration.

I will return to this question. Please God, may it be your will to bring a complete healing to the wounded and provide them strength on their recovery. Bestow upon them and their families the faith they need to get through these days.

Dear God, let it be that in this moment you will instill courage to the families who must now bury their loved ones. May all their loved ones join together to support the grieving families and day by day stand by their side in this hour of darkness. Show your light of compassion and love upon all who are in need of your presence. Amen

Does God really harden the heart of a person? Torah portion Va'era -Exodus

2010-12-31T12:13:00.001-08:00

Two parties are engaged in a conflict and then one of them escalates the issue into a personal battle knowing full well that others will suffer due to their unrestrained bitterness. Has that person acted of their own free will? The individual made the choice and consequently tripped the wire from reasoned debate to a lashing out of emotions. The point is that one made the decision to behave in this way and therefore bears responsibility for the way their behavior impacted the resolution of the situation.

What does one do when a person says,’ I was justified acting out this way because I am right and even God is on my side?’ We might conclude that this person had mental health issues. Sometimes we can watch the body itself react to the emotions. We could make the argument that such bravado severely diminished their credibility, to say the least.

In this week’s Parasha Va’era we have a situation where we see the temper of Pharaoh growing increasingly belligerent towards Moses and the idea of freeing the Israelite slaves. The Torah uses polite language by saying that Pharaoh in verse 13, “And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.” This was the response after the plague of blood running in the Nile River. In verse 22, it is written; “And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he did not listen.” That was after the plague of the frogs. After the plague of lice when there seemed to be a respite, the Torah says, “But when Pharaoh saw there was respite, he hardened his heart.” Each time there was a plague the Torah carefully says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

Only after the 6^th plague which was boils do we see a change in the language of the Torah. Here the Torah says, “And the Eternal One hardened the heart of Pharaoh for he did not listen as the Eternal One had said to Moses.” This refers to chapter seven when God says “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” From that point on the Torah provides us with several statements saying that God and not Pharaoh will harden the heart of Pharaoh.

So what is the problem? Is the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart due to the intervention of God or was it due to Pharaoh’s own will? This question invokes the theological and the ethical dimensions which deal with whether Pharaoh is utilizing his free will or whether he is a victim of a divine plan. And this issue raises for us an even larger issue than just free will versus divine intervention. The idea of hardening one’s heart is about an issue of really knowing and owning the emotions we carry into a conflict situation. At the end of the day the sages teach that God’s presence can lead a willing soul to repentance. A person who refuses to return to that behavior, however, cannot count upon God to be there. When we find ourselves in the midst of a conflict that ignites or triggers our most combustible emotions, God is not the one who is going to stop the momentum of anger.

The sages wondered if Pharaoh was succumbing to Divine intervention or responding to his own emotions before the stiff-necked Israelite people and Moses’ chutzpah in challenging the God-like Pharaoh. Let’s see what some of our sources say about this matter and how it relates to us in the way we hold ourselves accountable in conflict situations.

The rabbis were sensitive to the potential theological issue between Pharaoh’s responsibility for the unresolved conflict and how God may be accused as partly culpable. In our Midrash one of our sages R. Yochanan said, “The idea that God would harden Pharaoh’s heart might provide an opening to the heretics against Judaism saying, “Pharaoh was not allowed by God to repent.” Ramban, Moses Nachmanides of 15^th century asks; “If the Eternal One hardened his heart, then what was Pharaoh’s crime?”

Most commentators struggled with the dilemma of free will versus self determination. Many tried to argue that the Torah never tried to interfere with Pharaoh mending his ways. They argued that the Torah used this kind of language to describe Pharaoh’s own stubbornness. I’m not sure that approach really worked then or today.

Some of the medieval Jewish philosophers like Isaac Albo and Sforno interpret the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh to fortify his and Egypt’s endurance to bear the suffering due to the plagues. It was never about freewill. Moses Maimonides, the great scholar of the 12th century said, that there are times when a person’s sin is so grave that he or she is penalized by not being granted the opportunity to turn from his or her wickedness, so that he or she dies with the sin that he committed. In other words they sinned of their own free will until they forfeited of the opportunity to repent. Maimonides’ view was that God did not force Pharaoh to do evil to Israel or to commit iniquities in his land, or the Canaanite tribes to adopt abominable cultic practices or even Israel to serve idols. All of them sinned at their own promptings, forfeiting their right to repentance.

What Maimonides wanted to say was that there is a mutuality of relationship between humans and God. God did not force Pharaoh to choose evil. That decision rests upon the conscience of Pharaoh. Once he persisted on this course of action in defying Moses despite the overwhelming proof of God’s power , Pharaoh became obsessed and unable to rethink his position or control his emotion of unbridled anger.

The Talmud states this beautifully, “ Resh Lakish explained the meaning of the verse in Proverbs (3:34) “if to scorners he wills scorn, but to the meek, he will show favor.” The rabbis taught “If a person tries to defile themselves, he or she is given an opening; if he or she tries to purify themselves, he or she is helped from above.” In other words God will go with the flow of the person’s temperament. Note the difference between the rabbis saying that for the evil action God will give that person an opening to continue their behavior whereas for the good person God will help that individual do good.

Judaism’s response is that at the end of the day we choose whether we soften or harden our hearts. God will be part of that moral and emotional upheaval in either direction. But the positive help God gives us to do good is not the same as recognizing God’s passive assistance given in the form of removing the obstacles in our path should we choose evil.

And that is how the rabbis resolved a potentially vexing theological problem when thinking about how the language of Torah might give the bad impression that God would actually help Pharaoh resist the Israelites. Yet we need to take this issue to a personal level and relate it to our lives.

There are times when we get involved in issues when the stakes are high or even the opposite when the stakes in an argument are so low that we find ourselves binging on our emotions. The emotions control us and direct our response. We have lost perspective. And there develops a downward spiraling of emotions that distances us from the thoughtful way of conflict resolution.

We know this happens and its impact in the political arena, in business, in the professions, academia and the list goes on. Even in our personal lives can we recall an issue that grabbed us so personally that we allowed our deepest fears and anxieties to control our responses? Maybe that is what happened to Pharaoh? When that happens, we become unaware how we sometimes unconsciously put our own interests ahead of everyone else. We make decisions in the process that we delude ourselves into believing are for the greater good but not really. Some call this narcissistic behavior. What is truly at stake? Is it all in the end about human pride? Pride is the source of building integrity and it can be, when abused, the poison that leads us astray. Not even god can turn a person away from the intoxication of pride when it controls our every move.

What makes this issue as timeless and timely is because it is a universal issue. The secular New Year is in front of us and we should not lose the opportunity to review how we ourselves cope under stress with our emotions. Some of us can do so and others have serious problems with anger and keeping focused on the real issue in a conflict versus allowing ourselves to become obsessed with pride or ego. That is always an important lesson for this year or any year.

May this year teach us that the presence of God will be there to help us mediate our desire to return in repentance. Let us not forget the lessons of Pharaoh that to harden our heart is our choice. Refuse a way out of that spiral of hatred and be prepared for self destruction. That is not what we were put on this planet to achieve with our lives.

Shabbat shalom

President of Israel convicted of rape

2010-12-30T16:24:00.001-08:00

The former president of the state of Israel is convicted of rape. Just to read that sentence causes me to take a deep breath and exhale. Sadly we are already inoculated from the moral shock of such events given what we in America have witnessed with politicians and their sexual exploits. I do not think I need to go into specifics on that issue. Needless to say we like to hold Israel up to a higher standard. We are so proud of Israelis when they achieve in science, business or the humanities. Then we see the President go down because of a violent crime like rape. The thought of it, nevertheless, strikes us as deeply disappointing. Why can’t the political leadership rise to the heights of excellence as moral and political leaders just like their contemporaries in other fields of endeavor? Of course we have to be fair and ask that question of America’s national leaders as well. Isn’t Israel different?

One hopes that when a person takes on a position of leadership that they will rise to the level of the position. What do I mean? The reality is that when someone is promoted to an important high profile position there is an expectation of behavior that goes along with the job even if it is not specifically written down in a job description. Moral integrity is an example of that standard that one would hope religious, business, or political leaders would aspire to beyond what they have already achieved in their lives. Maybe I am just naïve.

King David, beloved of Israel, conspired to send the husband of Bathsheba, a married woman who he had taken a fancy to, Uriah the Hittite, to the front lines of the battle with the Philistines. Knowing full well he would probably meet his fate in battle, David sent him so as to have Bathsheba to himself. Nathan the Prophet knew about this and put it to him. Yes, David did ultimately confess his transgressions. And the first child they had together after the death of Uriah the Hittite ultimately died. They both paid a deep price of sorrow for their lust towards each other. And yet David went on to be the symbol of the ideal in Israelite culture and the exemplar for the Messiah. Go figure.

The Israelites wanted a king so that they could be like all the other nations. Samuel the great judge and prophet first resisted the crowd and advocated for religio-political leader like Moses or Joshua. But he succumbed to the people and first anointed Saul. Israel has always wanted to be different and unique from the rest of the world. We want so badly to fit into the cultures of the world. Is President Katzav an example of what it feels like fitting into the world?

I hope not. ‘Democracy has triumphed,’ say Israeli prosecutors. Maybe they are correct. But the stain on the office of President of Israel, following in the footsteps of Haim Weitzman, Chaim Hertzog, Yitzhak Navon , will not go away easily and risks eroding public confidence in the nation’s political culture. Now we can have a prayer for the government which would be for God to guide Israel and America’s leaders to conduct their lives with the same faith and loyalty to the values of Torah that the people are asked to abide by in their daily lives.

Exodus: Paranoia against the Jews begins> The Jewish conspiracy.

2010-12-27T09:13:00.000-08:00

Exodus

12-24-2010

Sadly, one could not have asked for better timing with this week’s Torah portion and the hateful remarks against the Jewish people on Greek national television from Greek Orthodox Bishop Seraphim to learn how history repeats itself from its biblical roots to today. From the moment that Pharaoh declared the Jewish people in Egypt a dangerous threat to national security to the political and religious leaders throughout history leading up to the most recent example of a Greek Orthodox Bishop railing against Israel and the international Zionist conspiracy as the cause for the collapse of the Greek economy. It is the same old song of hatred and how disappointing that a prominent Greek Orthodox Bishop would say these things as well as hold Jews responsible for promoting single parent families and homosexuality.

Talking about demonizing Jews, the people who listened to Pharaoh revered him as a God-like person. In the first chapter of Exodus, Pharaoh warned of the growing numbers of Jews in Egypt and the potential threat they posed to Egypt and how it was incumbent upon Pharaoh to devise a plan to contain them. This was the first time in Jewish history that we see a leader speaking of the Jewish conspiracy as a national threat We could not know what the Egyptians thought about Pharaoh’s warnings. Were they convinced on Pharaoh’s say so alone? Similarly, the Greek public may not have been swayed by the Bishop’s unrestrained hate speech, but, do not think for a minute that many citizens heard him and privately shook their heads in the affirmative.

Why is this moment in Israelite history significant for us today? The answer is that this passage became a precursor to a history of anti-Jewish leaders portraying us as the danger or the problem people. It is also important to recognize that from this historic experience we must be proactive in responding with our narrative when we see hate mongering and not fall prey to this kind of demonizing of other peoples. So tonight I want to explore the origin of this myth in the Torah and how one medieval commentator responded to it. Finally I will discuss the current events of how hate speech challenges us to respond and use wisdom in doing do so.

Pharaoh said in Exodus 1:9-10, “Look, the Israelite people have become too many and too strong for us.”

“Come; let us deal shrewdly with them

Lest they increase

And if war breaks out they will join our enemies,

And fight against us and leave the country.”

This is the first moment in Jewish history where we see the birth of the myth “the Jewish Problem.” We became the “Jewish Problem” people forever more and we still hear it in the words of Bishop Piraeus Seraphim. Let us tonight briefly review Jewish viewpoints throughout history. How does this verse play out in our consciousness today?

We see in this passage that Pharaoh was convinced that the growth of the Jewish people was potentially a real problem to Egypt’s national security. The text, at this point in the book of Exodus, does not tell us why this is so nor what he plans to do about it. Did he think about enslaving them or committing an act of extermination? We do not yet know the answer to these questions.

There is a difference of opinion in translation on an issue that relates to the intention of Pharaoh. In the phrase “the Israelite people have become too many and too strong for us,” there is a disagreement between Jewish and Christian translations. In the Septuagint and the Vulgate translations they translate the phrase mi menu as connoting “more than”. In other words these translations imply that Pharaoh believed that there were more Israelites than Egyptians. Jewish translations, on the other hand, from Mendelssohn, Hirsch, Buber-Rosenzweig translated it as they are too many and too powerful for us.” The Hebrew letter mem from me menu meaning “more than us” is one of relativeness. In other words Pharaoh is saying that the Israelites are getting too much for us to contend with. Does that mean politically, economically? We do not know the answer.

So then why does the Torah says in Pharaoh’s words, “Come let us deal shrewdly with them.” Why would Pharaoh feel so threatened? Surely he could have wiped them off the map of the earth? One commentator Ramban, Moses Nachmanides of 15^th century Spain, believed that would be treason to smite all the Israelites without cause. He knew this was a people that had come to the land at the bidding of his royal predecessor. He could not reverse such a decree from his father. Pharaoh had to come up with a reason that he implemented through policy and not genocide. The second reason was that his subjects might not agree with expulsion or extermination. Finally, Pharaoh was concerned that the Israelites would resist and fight against him.

Nahmanides sees that the policy of levying harsh taxes against the Israelites foreigners not of money but of forced labor was the first stage in Pharaoh’s grand plan. That is the beginning of slavery. Then the policy of forcing midwives to turn over the Israelite first- born. When the midwives rebelled, and then came the final solution by Pharaoh which was to command all his people to kill every male child. Ramban’s view is that Pharaoh used a camouflaged policy of increasingly repressive and deceptive policies so as to make it look like he was using legitimate force to deal with this problem people. That is how Nachmanides understands the set up and strategy of Pharaoh coming out of the verse, “Come let us deal shrewdly with them.”

The shrewd one is Pharaoh because he knows he cannot compromise his reputation and authority as the God-like leader of Egypt by simply murdering everyone. He must utilize the legitimacy of his unchallenged role to portray himself not as the aggressor but as the defender of Egypt. That is the political language of framing the enemy as the demon people. That kind of thinking canonized the strategy that so many kingdoms and religions would adapt in their demonizing Jews over history.

The myth of the Jewish conspiracy was born then. It has followed us since ancient times. Besides the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion text in modern times, Hitler used the same strategy with the Nuremburg Laws before he sent us to the concentration camps. He was ridding Germany of this dangerous people who threatened to pollute German racial purity. But first he had to establish why doing so was in the national interest just like Pharaoh.

The really tragic aspect of this is when we read accounts of how Jews believed that a ruler would never expel us because we were so critical to the welfare of the state. Did the Jews in Spain think that way? We know that the Jews in modern German thought that they were so valuable to the German economy and country that Hitler would eventually get over his obsession with the Jews. We know how that situation worked out.

So that is why whenever we hear the same kinds of words portraying the perennial Jewish conspiracy mythos today, especially when it comes from a high ranking cleric, we would be wise to take it seriously. Bishop Seraphim is not Pharaoh. But he counts in the continuum of history’s anti-Semites with the same old obsessive fear and hatred that betrays the very foundation of faith and teaching that his Christian calling is supposed to model to his people and to the world. Certainly he brings shame to the Christian faith and to the culture of Christendom as a whole. And how sad as well as ironic is the timing of the Greek Orthodox Bishop’s remarks during the week leading up to Christmas.

I cannot help but mention that the recent decision of some municipal rabbis in Israel to issue an edict not to rent property to non-Jews is equally mean spirited. Condemned by the Israeli Prime Minister and many other prominent leaders, this kind of policy demonizes the Arab Israeli population which lives side by side with Jewish Israelis. It is another example of how we too are vulnerable to the same fears that underlie and promote policies of intolerance on all sides of the political spectrum-even the good guys.

If there is one lesson to be learned it is that we have to be swift to expose hate speech and policies that run against our own values. Second, we must be proactive in communicating our narrative to the public because we all know that there is a growing constituency out there in America and around the world who work hard at providing a completely different and false narrative about Israel’s existence and its role in the world. Finally, let’s not forget that our values and our history define us and no one else.

New Year's Question:"Where are you?"

2010-12-25T18:36:00.000-08:00

http://m.islandpacket.com/island/db_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=xZFAkI5i&src=cat
Here is today's Island Packet column on the question we might ask of ourselves in ancticipation of 2011.