tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66673007280009055142024-03-12T17:02:57.420-06:00Mo-Drashrabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-56357909843294055782016-09-02T15:09:00.003-06:002016-09-02T15:09:48.614-06:00Celebrating Our Stories: Welcoming Our New Torah Scroll<div style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", "Bitstream Charter", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">
<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>SECURING OUR STORY: </strong><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Purchasing and Restoring Our New Torah Scroll</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">We need to raise $9000 to cover the cost, cleaning and repairing of the new Torah -- $1800 for each of the five books. Please consider making a <a data-mce-href="https://www.blacktie-colorado.com/online_sales/nonprofit_donation_enhanced.cfm?id=1586&campaignid=303" href="https://www.blacktie-colorado.com/online_sales/nonprofit_donation_enhanced.cfm?id=1586&campaignid=303">financial contribution toward this goal</a>. When making your contribution, think about connecting it with a book, portion, verse or even a word of Torah. </span></div>
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<li><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">What person in Torah compels you? </span></li>
<li><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Is there a teaching in Torah that is important to you? </span></li>
<li><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Is there a Torah story meaningful to you? </span></li>
<li><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Is there a section from Torah that you are attached to? (i.e.a Bar or Bat Mitzvah portion)</span></li>
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<span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Here is a suggested guideline when considering matching your contribution with a piece of Torah:</span></div>
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<li data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;"><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">$18 to $100 - for a Word or Verse</span></li>
<li data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;"><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">$101 to $500- Chapters or Portion/Parsha</span></li>
<li data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;"><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">$501 and up - Book</span></li>
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When we celebrate our new scroll at Simchat Torah in October -- we will have a printed program that will allow us to share our pieces of Torah with one another.</div>
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You may contribute towards the purchase and restoration of the new Torah scroll <a data-mce-href="https://www.blacktie-colorado.com/online_sales/nonprofit_donation_enhanced.cfm?id=1586&campaignid=303" href="https://www.blacktie-colorado.com/online_sales/nonprofit_donation_enhanced.cfm?id=1586&campaignid=303">here</a>.</div>
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<em>In addition to the costs for purchase, clean and repair ... our new scroll will eventually need 2 new Torah mantles - one for High Holydays and one for the rest of the year. Our current scroll’s mantles were gifts by a B’nai Mitzvah class and a Micah family memorializing a relative. The artist who designed and created these two mantles is eager to create two more for our community. These mantles would cost approximately, $2,500. If your family or group of families would like to purchase a mantle to honor or remember someone dear to you, please contact Rabbi Mo about learning more. </em></div>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>ONE MICAH, ONE STORY</strong>: Listening To A Different Story, A Micah Book Club</span></div>
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Rabbi Morris invites the Micah community to read <a data-mce-href="https://www.amazon.com/Between-World-Me-Ta-Nehisi-Coates/dp/0812993543/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" href="https://www.amazon.com/Between-World-Me-Ta-Nehisi-Coates/dp/0812993543/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;">Between The World And Me</span></a>, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. "In a series of essays, written as a letter to his son, Coates confronts the notion of race in America and how it has shaped American history, many times at the cost of black bodies and lives. Thoughtfully exploring personal and historical events, from his time at Howard University to the Civil War, the author poignantly asks and attempts to answer difficult questions that plague modern society." (School Library Journal)</div>
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In the shadow of our society's current struggle with racial justice, Rabbi Morris hopes to engage the Micah community in discussion on these issues. Mr. Coates book is a beautifully written, provocative piece that provides fertile material for consideration and discussion.</div>
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On Yom Kippur morning Rabbi Morris plans to address the matter of how we American Jews approach the issue of racial justice.</div>
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Following the High Holydays, we will have a communal opportunity to reflect and respond to <a data-mce-href="https://www.amazon.com/Between-World-Me-Ta-Nehisi-Coates/dp/0812993543/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" href="https://www.amazon.com/Between-World-Me-Ta-Nehisi-Coates/dp/0812993543/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8"><span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;">Between The World And Me</span></a>.</div>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>TELLING OUR STORIES</strong>: </span><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Sharing Our Stories With One Another</span></span></div>
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What is in the sacred scroll that tells the story of your life? Choose one of those stories and share it with our community. </div>
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<li>Write it out in whatever form you like and send it to us (rabbimo@micahdenver.org)</li>
<li>Tell it in 140 characters or less and share it with us through Facebook (facebook.com/micahdenver) or Twitter (@micahdenver) at#micahtorahstories. </li>
<li>Forget words, use images, colors, shapes, etc, to express your story send it to us or post it on Instagram (@micahdenver) #micahtorahstories.</li>
</ul>
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We will be collecting stories - however you want to tell them until we Consecrate the New Scroll on October 21st.</div>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>IMPACTING SOMEONE’S STORY</strong>: </span><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Supporting a Refugee Family</span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Since being the refugee is such an integral part of the Jewish story, join us as we partner with a local organization that supports the transition of refugee families into the Denver community. </span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="text-decoration: underline;" style="text-decoration: underline;"><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>CELEBRATING OUR NEW STORY</strong>: Consecrating Our New Torah Scroll </span></span></div>
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<span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Simchat Torah will Rock as it usually does for the Micah community. Part of our celebration of Simchat Torah will include a special ritual consecrating our new Torah scroll. Save the Date for </span><span data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Friday, October 21, 2016 at 7:00pm. </span></div>
rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-41914557483748156962016-06-29T16:05:00.000-06:002016-06-29T16:05:08.562-06:00From Peter Beinart: An American Jewish Trump Emergency<br />Time to form an American Jewish Emergency Committee Against Donald Trump ... A mobilization would counter the shameful acquiescence to Trump in some corners of the American Jewish establishment. By Peter Beinart | Jun. 22, 2016<div>
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<br />In dangerous times, American Jews have a tradition of forming “Emergency Committees.” In 1939, fearing that World War II would imperil the activities of the London and Jerusalem-based World Zionist Organization, representatives of America’s major Zionist groups formed the Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs. Later renamed the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs and then the American Zionist Emergency Council, it operated until the establishment of the State of Israel. Meanwhile, in 1943, Ben Hecht and Peter Bergson created the Emergency Committee to Save the Jews in Europe to pressure Franklin Roosevelt’s government to do more to rescue Jews engulfed by the Holocaust. In 2010, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and some like-minded conservatives created the Emergency Committee for Israel to support Benjamin Netanyahu’s hawkish agenda. <br /><br />But more than a year since Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy, and several months since he became the presumptive Republican nominee, there is still no American Jewish Emergency Committee against Fascism (or bigotry, or whatever name you choose to describe Donald Trump’s attacks on American Muslims, Mexican immigrants, an independent judiciary and a free press). <br /><br />I hadn’t thought about this absence until last Shabbat, when an idealistic young Orthodox rabbi named Joshua Frankel came up to me during Kiddush and proposed creating one. His vision is to create a network of rabbis and lay leaders across the country so that wherever Trump speaks, there is always someone to protest, in Judaism’s name. <br /><br />Of course, some American Jewish groups have already criticized Trump. The Forward’s Nathan Guttman reports that between last December and this May, the Anti-Defamation League condemned Trump’s statements at least five times. The American Jewish Committee called his proposed registry of American Muslims a “horror movie that we Jews are quite familiar with.” The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism organized a walkout of Trump’s speech at AIPAC. The Jewish social justice group Bend the Arc led anti-Trump protests just this week. And earlier this month, four prominent rabbis—one Orthodox, one Conservative, one Reform and one Reconstructionist—jointly declared that “Men and women of faith should indeed form a coalition to denounce the racism and bigotry that Trump spews forth and inspires.” <br /><br />These protests are laudable. But they’ve been episodic. Frankel’s idea is to create something continuous, a protest that does not end until Trump’s presidential bid does. By challenging Trump wherever he goes, rabbis could use his campaign to rouse their own communities against bigotry. After protesting a Trump rally, some might take their congregants to a solidarity event at a local mosque. Others might help immigrants register to vote. The goal would be a rolling mobilization in which thousands or tens of thousands of American Jews join the struggle to defeat the most openly bigoted and authoritarian major party nominee in modern American history. <br /><br />Such a mobilization would counter the shameful acquiescence to Trump in some corners of the American Jewish establishment. It would counter AIPAC’s decision to invite Trump to speak, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’ failure to issue a single press release condemning him and Sheldon Adelson’s pledge to spend as much as $100 million helping him get elected. <br /><br />It would show that American Jews take seriously the Torah’s 36 injunctions to remember the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt. And it would put Jews on the right side during a moral crucible that Americans will remember for decades. Mexicans and Muslims will not always be the reviled outsiders they are in America today. One day, the children and grandchildren of the people Trump is demonizing will be highly integrated and politically influential and they will remember who defended their communities when they were under siege. <br /><br />In defending Mexicans and Muslims, American Jews will also be defending ourselves. Trump is a bigotry entrepreneur. He looks for racial, ethnic and religious resentments that are being underserved by the political class. Today, Jews are not a primary target of those resentments. Nonetheless, Trump’s supporters have generated more public Jew-hatred than any campaign in decades. If you loathe “hyphenated Americans” and yearn to restore the hierarchies of 1950s America, chances are Jews may bother you too. <br /><br />In the mid-twentieth century, American Jews participated in the civil rights movement in astonishing ways. The American Jewish Committee funded the research into the effects of segregation by African American psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark that helped sway the Supreme Court in Brown versus Board of Education. In the 1940s, notes J.J. Goldberg in his book, Jewish Power, the American Jewish Congress employed seven lawyers working to fighting segregation, more than either the Justice Department or the NAACP. <br /><br />The reason was enlightened self-interest. American Jews knew that, as a conspicuous minority with a history of persecution, they would benefit immensely if America became a more equal, tolerant society. Conversely, they knew that if African Americans failed in their struggle for equal citizenship, Jews might also fail in theirs. <br /><br />The same is true today. An election like this comes along once or twice a lifetime. Let the Trump campaign be an opportunity for American Jews to show our children the kind of people we still are. </div>
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rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-64298816200444039532016-06-07T17:48:00.000-06:002016-06-07T17:48:57.803-06:00Shavuot 5776 - A Mountain ExerciseOn June 11-12 Jews around the world will commemorate the most significant mountain experience in the history of the Jewish people - Sinai. On the festival of Shavuot we relive this mountain moment that is such an essential part of the Jewish story. <a href="http://www.jtsa.edu/prebuilt/ParashahArchives/jpstext/yitro.shtml">At Sinai our spiritual ancestors stood together and directly engaged with the divine - and their lives were changed</a>. In honor of that part of the Jewish story and in the spirit of opening up to such moments in our lives, I invite you to take a few moments to commemorate Shavuot in the next couple of days.<br />
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<u>Bringing the Mountain To You - A Shavuot Reflection</u><br />
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<li>Carve out some time where you can sit, relax and reflect.</li>
<li>If you can make it a space where you can experience of bit of the majesty that is part of our Colorado mountains, better yet! </li>
<li>Bring along something to write with (if that is something you prefer) or something to sip on (if that is something you prefer). </li>
<li>Make yourself comfortable ... first physically, make sure you are good to sit for some time. </li>
<li>Then mentally, take a few moments, focus on your breathing, empty your mind of what you have to do or what you did not do ... just clear out your mind of the clutter of the everyday. </li>
<li>Read this teaching from our tradition a couple of times about the Sinai mountain moment: <i>"When the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai, they miraculously were made whole, so that their physical perfection reflected the integrity of their souls. This the Torah describes all the Israelites as ‘standing’ at the foot of the mountain, implying none was crippled; ‘hearing’ the words of God, implying that none was deaf; ‘seeing’ the thunder and lightning, suggesting that none was blind. As they distanced themselves from Sinai and began to grumble about the hardships of the journey, the effect of the miracle began to wear off. Their blemished souls began to be reflected in their blemished bodies."</i> (Numbers Rabbah 7:1) </li>
<li>Consider the nature of this moment that the commentary suggests. You may think, write or even draw in response to the following prompts: </li>
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<li>Remember a time in your life when you felt you were able to ‘stand’ without any weakness or injury. </li>
<li>Remember a time in your life when you felt you were able to ‘see’ with great clarity and vision. </li>
<li>Remember a time in your life when you felt you were able to ‘hear’ with lucidity and comprehension. </li>
<li>Compare and contrast those times - what is similar and different about them? </li>
<li>The commentator names these moments of standing, seeing and hearing at Sinai as ‘miracles’. How comfortable are you applying that term to your moments of standing, seeing and hearing? </li>
<li>How easy or difficult are your moments of standing, seeing and hearing to recreate? </li>
<li>What can you do enable more moments like these in your life?</li>
</ul>
Take a few more moments to be in the moment, reflect on what you thought about, wrote or drew.<br />
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<i>Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad</i>.</div>
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rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-24680151387409471992016-04-10T10:48:00.002-06:002016-04-10T10:51:01.693-06:00The Orange in the White House - Pesach 5776<br />Through the inundation of the presidential campaign, the established stalwarts of our calendar remind us of the bigger and larger cycles of our lives. In Jewish households, Passover is one of the most significant of these points in the mandala of time. Looking through the lens of our impending Seder(s) anticipating an historic outcome in this presidential election season ... I see orange.<br /><br />It was my first Passover Seder at Temple Micah. The tables were set with all the ancient symbols of our tradition that help us to celebrate freedom and its promise: among them matzah, a hard boiled egg, a shank bone, bitter herbs. Sitting rather conspicuously among these familiar elements was a large, round orange! There certainly were not citrus fruits in the bundles carried by our ancient ancestors as they left Egypt … and I had never seen an orange on the Seder plate in my grandparents’ home (my template for the Passover ritual). So, I asked the question of my new community members: What was an orange doing on the Seder plate?<br /><br />The orange, I learned that evening, sat on the Seder plate to remind us of the historical exclusion (and more recent inclusion) of women into Jewish leadership and practice. It was not the most elegant or logical symbol. Apparently, the choice of an orange derived from an urban legend of some traditional rabbi uttering something to the effect of: A woman has as much business being a rabbi, as an orange belongs on the Seder plate!<br /><br />While I did not fall in love with the symbol itself, the idea of it and the fact that someone chose to put it there reflects a couple of essential aspects of Judaism. The first of these elements is that Judaism is a living, breathing entity. It is changing and evolving and not static. While the rituals we do today have roots in tradition and can be traced back through time, they simultaneously integrate meaningful and relevant insights from our contemporary world. This openness to change suggests a willingness to continually examine what is just and fair. At our best we in engage in this process of examination through the lens of our core values and truths. It is one of these truths that lies at the heart of the orange’s journey to the Seder plate.<br /><br />From the very beginning of our Jewish story we are challenged to remember and respect those individuals who have the potential to get caught on the fringes of society. The Torah accounts numerous times that the Israelites need to care for ‘the orphan, the widow and the stranger’, all individuals who tended to get lost in Biblical society. While these specific designations certainly fit the Biblical world, they also speak literally and figuratively to us and our world. The Biblical author did not possess the world view needed to acknowledge, for example, the exclusion of women. However, the Biblical author did understand the essence of compassion, mercy and justice and challenged the audience keep those values as at the forefronts of their hearts and minds. Through the eyes of his time and the lens of these values, he named ‘the widow, the orphan and the stranger’ as those needing our attention. Today, we Jews take the same lens and have the same obligation to name those in need of our attention. Whether those in need be widows, orphans and strangers … or women, immigrants or Palestinians.<br /><br />While, I still do not love the orange, itself, on the plate … I am thankful for the opportunities that we have to see our world through the lens of these values that I still believe hold true today. I relish those ways in which Jews thoughtfully update our tradition to address the needs and realities of our contemporary lives. I look forward to the ways that we creatively integrate these new perspectives into our rituals and traditions … even if they are oranges on Seder plates.<br />rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-76112729398197638092016-03-24T10:44:00.002-06:002016-03-24T12:15:26.544-06:00Purim 5776 - More Esthers NeededIt’s easy to spot the Hamans out there, it’s hard to embody Esther when we encounter him.<br />
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In this current political season, it is not hard to imagine Donald J. Trump sporting the three-sided, Hamentashen-looking hat donned by our least favorite Purim villain. It is not a stretch to see the same bigotry, prejudice and fear-mongering woven into the narrative of the Book of Esther echoing today when we watch and listen to the message emanating from the camp of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.<br />
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In listening to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQgDgMGuDI0">Mr. Trump’s recent speech at the AIPAC convention</a>, I am reminded how difficult it is to confront Haman. I do not think I have spoken with any Jews who are not at the least uncomfortable with this candidacy and at the most outraged by it. When the scheduled speech was announced, my inbox was flooded with reactions and plans by those in attendance at the AIPAC conference to protest in some form or fashion. And yet, as I watched and listened to his speech on YouTube ... I was surprised to hear ovations and cheers as the candidate offered the platitudes about Israel, the U.S. and Iran that for which the 19,000 Jews in attendance were waiting. <br />
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All 19,000 of the attendees were not cheering and there were some <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hundreds-rabbis-walk-out-donald-trumps-pro-israel-speech-protest-hate-bigotry-1550882">people who actually did protest and walk out</a>. And yet, it is probably safe to say that there were still thousands of Jews applauding and cheering on the candidate with the Hamentaschen on his head. After all, his inflammatory remarks have not been about Jews ... and he did march as marshal in the Friends of Israel parade in New York City ... his daughter is a Jew, about to give birth to a Jewish child ... and it seems by the things he is saying about Israel as if we Jews might be ‘safe’ in the crazy world in which Donald J. Trump is elected to the one of the most powerful positions in the world.<br />
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It’s easy to spot the Hamans out there, it’s hard to embody Esther when we encounter him.<br />
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Esther’s challenge was in overcoming her relative comfort and safety. Chances were, or at least it appeared, that her status within the kingdom would preserve her life in the face of Haman’s decree to kill the Jews. He did not appear to be a direct threat to her. By standing up to Haman and the King, she threatened her relative comfort and safety. Her genius, her courage lay in her risking this lack of immediate threat ... and remembering her highest values and paying attention to the larger realities ... she named and confronted Haman. The consequences of her safety and security be damned.<br />
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It is easy to confront Haman when he threatens us directly, it is more uncomfortable and unsettling to do so when the threats are toward the other. The other who seems not like us, but in truth in not very far from us. In this case it is the ‘illegal’ immigrant, the muslim ... but there are plenty more ‘others’ out there whom Haman threatens.<br />
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The challenge of Embodying Esther is about using our Jewish lens on the world ... the lens shaped by our values of justice, mercy and peace ... to recognizing the injustice and intolerance that impacts others. Embodying Esther is not simply about recognizing such things, but putting aside our relative comfort and security and confronting them. Whether the other who faces injustice is a Muslim, an immigrant, a woman, a Palestinian, an African American ... anyone whose security, liberty and dignity is threatened by someone donning the three-sided, Hamantaschen-looking headwear.<br />
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We’ve got plenty of Hamans. We need more Esthers. </div>
rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-60079267562167017972016-01-29T10:31:00.003-07:002016-01-29T10:31:32.287-07:00The Divinity Principle - Yitro 5776<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle">The Mediocrity Principle.</a> I came across this scientific notion while listening to <a href="http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/214/family-physics">this week’s This American Life radio show podcast</a>. Its premise is that no place in the universe is more ‘special’ than another place. All places are scientifically the same, mediocrity abounds. This philosophical construct is used to argue the position that there may be life on other planets - i.e. that earth is not unique or special and that there exist millions of other planets like earth that could produce life.<br /><br />I do not think anyone (or any planet) wants to think of ourselves as mediocre. Once I finished feeling the rejection of being told that I lived on a mediocre planet ... I began to acclimate to the idea, with a twist. The concept that many places could be similar in their potential for life ... makes sense. It is a hopeful idea. I extrapolated the concept to the varied and diverse places here in our planet, in our country ... to the varied and diverse people in our world ... to the varied and diverse moments in our days. And, I liked the idea ... that each was held equally the possibility for ‘life’. Every place, person and moment holds the same potential.<br /><br />But, I was still stuck on ‘mediocrity.’ Potential for ‘life’ is not mediocre at all, it is anything but ‘mediocrity’. Mediocre is ‘Meh’. The potential for life is ‘Wow.’ <br /><br />Torah this week tells us the story of the Sinai moment and the revelation of the Ten Commandments to the Israelites. (Get that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I48hr8HhDv0">Mel Brooks version of this moment </a>out of your mind!) In the course of our story (whether one reads it literally or as myth), Sinai is a singularly special moment of encounter with the Divine. Seen through the lens of the Mediocrity Principle, it is not at all singular and limited, but varied and diverse. <br /><br />The great 20th century rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel, put it this way, “Sinai is an event that both happened once and for all and an event that happens all of the time. What God does happens both in time and in eternity.” Even though it may seem to us that this moment was at only one point on the storyline, such is not the true nature of Sinai or of our moments. Every moment is a potential moment for revelation, for connection to the holy ... for life.<br /><br />So, I humbly offer this spiritual spin on the Mediocrity Principle. For now, let’s call it the Divinity Principle. There is no place, no person and no moment that has any more divinity than the place you are in right now; the person with you whom you are interacting right now; or the moment you living right now ...<br /><br />So ... forget the “Meh” and watch out for the ‘Wow.’<br />rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-43429125164254569982015-12-02T15:48:00.000-07:002015-12-02T17:11:21.758-07:00One Night, One Light for Syrian RefugeesWhen you light your Chanukah candles this coming week - in addition to using that flame to bring light to this dark time of year - I ask you to use those same flames to ignite another kind of fire. <br />
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In recent weeks, especially since the bombings in Paris, many people in the Micah community have reached out to me about the crisis of the Syrian refugees. Driven by concern, compassion and justice people have asked me, “Can we do something?” <br />
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While these families are not the only families in the world seeking safety and security, the plight of these Syrian families seemed to have struck at something deep and significant for many of us. <br />
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In the next week we will gather in various settings and gatherings to light the Chanukah menorah. We will enjoy latkes, exchange gifts and most importantly bask in the glow of love, security and peace. Among these physical, emotional and spiritual blessings of Chanukah, I ask you to make some room in your hearts and in your minds for these families fleeing or seeking to flee Syria. <br />
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In our Chanukah story it is the Syrian Greeks who violently confront the Maccabees. Some 2200 years later, let’s <u>change the narrative</u>. In pursuing their highest values our ancestors turned against the Syrians of their age. Let us pursue our highest values and <u>turn our hearts</u> towards these Syrians of our day and age.<br />
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I ask you to take <u>One Night</u> and kindle <u>One Light for the Syrian Refugees</u> this Chanukah. Use that light to ignite the fire of compassion, justice and peace. And then, let us see where this ignited fire will take us in the coming weeks and months.<br />
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Here is what I propose that our community begins this Chanukah... <br />
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<b>1) One Night, One Light for Syrian Refugees</b> ... Take one night this Chanukah and dedicate it to the plight of the Syrian Refugees. What would this dedication look like? Here are some ideas, but use your own creativity:<br />
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<li>Dedicate the Chanukah menorah lighting to these families for that night</li>
<li>Light an extra candle or entire Chanukah menorah for one of these families</li>
<li>Collect and share some stories from your own family of people leaving their home (by choice or force) to make a better life</li>
<li><a href="http://www.hias.org/act-now-us-refugee-program-risk">Contact one of your congressional representatives</a> telling them that you want the US to welcome these families.</li>
<li>Make a donation as a family to one of these organizations who is working on these families’ behalf: <a href="http://www.multifaithalliance.org/">Multifaith Alliance</a>; <a href="http://www.hias.org/">Hebrew Immigration Aid Society</a>; <a href="http://www.jdc.org/jcdr/where-we-work/syrian-refugees.html">Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief</a></li>
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<b>2) Ask the Questions: What is the REAL Story?</b> ... We are in communication with a few people in the Denver community who can teach us about the political, social and historical context for these families. Look for an upcoming opportunity to learn more with us about the experience of these families who are to be so prevalent in our hearts and minds.<br />
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<b>3) Help Get Us Ready</b> ... Our community wants to be involved in helping families who eventually do make their way to the US and Denver. We need a few people to help figure out what this can look like for our community and how we can make this happen. Please let me know if you want to help us in the coming weeks to accomplish this task.<br />
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<b>4) Do Something</b> ... Once we understand how we may help these families, join us and do something for them. Please let me know if you want to help these Syrian families in the coming months. <br />
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May the Chanukah lights we ignite this year inspire us to try and bring light to where there may be darkness.</div>
rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-28777701392078746632015-09-16T14:07:00.004-06:002015-09-16T14:08:36.327-06:00The Voice of Mrs. GoldMrs. Gold was my 5th grade Religious School teacher ... and I remember her well - but not fondly. She left an indelible mark on me. The school year under her tutelage seemed filled with drama. Perhaps, we were an unruly bunch who responded poorly to her limited classroom management skills. The drama, however, mostly resulted from the nature of the ideas she presented to us. <br />
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Mrs. Gold told us some pretty outrageous things that year. One of the more memorable ones was when she inferred (it might have been stronger than an inference, but I am giving her the benefit of the doubt) that Jews were more intelligent that other people. When we told our parents about these lessons, Mrs. Gold found herself in some hot water. I vaguely remember she was away for a week or two after that particular lesson.<br />
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That canard is not the most memorable idea I remember learning from Mrs. Gold. What I most remember is what she told us about being Jews in the world ... that ultimately, inevitably antisemetism would rear its ugly head. She told us that ultimately, inevitably we Jews are on our own because when push comes to shove the world does care about us. She told us that no matter how safe, secure and free we felt living as American Jews in this latter part of the 20th century that ultimately, inevitably the perpetual waves of history would come crashing down on us -- just like it did for the German Jews in the middle of the century.<br />
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What happened, you ask, when we went to our parents to inform them of these weighty, fear-mongering lessons we were receiving from Mrs. Gold? Well, when we shared with our parents or whoever would listen about this lesson of history and our inevitable fate - unlike with her other ‘lessons’ - there was no hot water to be had for Mrs. Gold. We received the concerned nod and then the weighty acknowledgement of the truth of our situation. <br />
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Mrs. Gold is on my mind this morning - and has been prominent over the past several weeks - because I feel as if she is speaking with this same message once again. I hear, see and feel her voice and its message as I have read, listened and observed our Jewish community react to the proposed nuclear weapons deal with Iran.<br />
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I asked you a few weeks ago if you wanted me to address the deal in our time together. I am heartened by both the number and the nature of the responses I received electronically and in person. The general tenor of what I heard from you was - “Not so much.” You told me that you really do not need me to tell you if I think the proposed deal with Iran is a good one or a bad. Some of your reasoning derived from your skepticism of my political, nuclear and diplomatic expertise. Most of you told me that you do not come to share this space and this time for that kind of discussion, but wanted to engage in matters of spirit and soul. Most of you also told me - in different ways, but with a similar message - that if I thought I needed to address this issue and/or there was a matter of spirit or soul I felt warranting our consideration - you supported me in doing so. <br />
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And in this spirit, I say to you that the matter of spirit and soul that concerns me is not related to the merits of the deal or Iran as a trustworthy partner OR whether the deal will help or hurt Israel or the dozens of other nations who legitimately worry what Iran might do with nuclear weapons OR even the way this proposed deal has starkly accentuated some every growing fault lines within the Jewish community - between liberals and conservatives; secular Jews and observant Jews; Boomers and Millennials. The matter of spirit and soul is the resounding boom of Mrs. Gold’s message that seems to permeate our Jewish psyche. What Mrs. Gold has to say to my class almost 40 years ago is still the same anxious, reactive and fearful message. We as a Jewish people continue to let this worldview dominate our thinking and actions. The matter of spirit and soul is how this deeply ingrained outlook continues to marginalize us as Jews and inhibit us from what our tradition commands us to do.<br />
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Iran is a serious threat. The proposed deal is not perfect. Israel should be concerned about the nuclear capacity and ideological capriciousness of Iran and its leaders. These widely agreed upon statements, do not explain why we respond the way that we do. Why has this proposed deal consumed board rooms and meeting rooms of Jewish organizations around the world as they craft statements and circulate petitions to motivate and manipulate our elected representatives to act accordingly? Why have the efforts to motivate our elected officials become personal, petty and even mean? What is up with ‘us’ that we have so dramatically placed ourselves in the middle of this debate? <br />
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I do remember the lessons that history teaches us about the precarious nature of being a Jew or part of a Jewish community. I would not dare to naively ignore that history or to show any disrespect to those who have suffered as a result of that history. I do believe that there is more than one way to react to those lessons. There are many voices of understanding -not only Mrs. Gold’s - that we must listen to as we seek to create our future. <br />
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In seeking to analyze the competing voices and their messages, I am reminded of an not so traditional interpretation of this morning’s Torah portion that we have studied together in years past.<br />
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In the portion from Genesis, God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham responds by taking Isaac to Mt. Mariah, binding him on the altar and goes as far as raising the ritual knife to kill him ... when God’s (via an angel) demands that Abraham stop the sacrifice and offer something else in Isaac’s place.<br />
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We moderns often react to this story with outrage and disgust - at a God who would ask such a thing and a father who would acquiesce. We must remember, that there is a larger tradition than this modern one - that does not question God’s violent request and celebrates Abraham’s faithful response. Rabbi Michael Lerner turns both responses to the Torah portion on their respective heads, by naming the competing voices he hears/sees in the narrative.<br />
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In Rabbi Lerner’s careful reading of the text, he points out that there are two separate ‘voices’ that Abraham hears as commands from God. Each is named something different in the Torah. The voice that commands the brutal sacrifice is called ‘Elohim’. The voice that demands Abraham abandon the sacrifice is called ‘YHVH.’ Noting this distinction, Lerner suggests a deeper meaning for this difference. The first voice, ‘Elohim’, (literally gods) is not God at all … but the accepted pain and cruelty of contemporary moral standards (which at that time accepted the violence of human sacrifice as a norm.) The second voice, YHVH, (actually the name of God as understood by our tradition) is a messenger of the true God. This God, one of compassion and justice, does not command the sacrifice of the innocent. Abraham hears two powerful influential voices, voices that seem God-like. One promotes and protects the current status quo, no matter what that status quo might be. One that that promotes and champions a higher ideal of justice and mercy. <br />
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Lerner champions Abraham’s ultimate ability to listen to the voice that reflects our highest values, not the voice that perpetuates our pain and suffering. <br />
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<i>“The greatness of Abraham is that he doesn’t go through with it. As he looks into the eyes of the son he has bound for slaughter, he can now overcome the emotional deadness that allowed him to cast Ishmael off into the desert. At the very last moment, Abraham hears the true voice of God, the voice that says, ‘Don’t do it Abraham’, says God. ‘You can break the pattern of passing on to the next generation the pain and cruelty that you have suffered.’”</i><br />
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The voice that sees the world through the lens of pain and suffering and that commands us to act accordingly still speaks to us. Abraham heard this voice, too. He passed his test because he was able to pay heed to another voice. We still tell ourselves this story, because we face this test, as well ... we need to listen to other voices, other messages.<br />
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And what would acknowledging, listening to and responding to another voice look like for us today? It would never mean abandoning rigorous debate about the issues of the day. It would never mean tolerating abuse or violence against our community. It would mean doing so and being able to embrace other paradigms and opportunities for growth, change and peace. Ones that - on the surface - would probably feel uncomfortable and even wrong.<br />
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I spoke to you last night about the death of Leonard Nimoy, the Jewish actor who was renowned worldwide for his role playing the Vulcan, Spock, in the Star Trek universe. In his eulogy at Nimoy’s funeral, Rabbi John Rossove tells this story about Mr. Nimoy doing just that ... <br />
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<i>One year Leonard asked me what I thought of his accepting an invitation from Germany to speak before thousands of Star Trek fans. He told me that he’d been asked before but always turned the invitation down due to his own discomfort about setting in a country that had murdered six million Jews. I told him that I thought it was time that he went, and that he take the opportunity to inform a new generation of Germans about who he was as a Jew and about the Jewish dimension of Spock’s personality and outlook. He liked the idea, and so on that basis accepted the invitation.<br /><br />When he returned he told me that he had shared with the audience his own Jewish story and that Spock’s hand gesture was that of the Jewish High Priest blessing the Jewish community, an image he remembered from his early childhood attending shul with his grandfather in West Boston on Shabbes morning and peeking out from under his grandfather’s tallis at the Kohanim-priests as they raised their hands in blessing over the congregation.<br /><br />He (Leonard) told me that when he finished his talk he received a sustained standing ovation, an experience that was one of the most moving in his public life.</i><br />
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The most frightening thing about the Iran deal - for me - was hearing Mrs. Gold’s message so boldly in our community’s response. More frightening is worrying about what direction such messages take us ... towards safety and security or towards marginality and insularity? We must be open to paying attention to other ways of understanding our place in the world engaging with those whom we share it. May we begin like Abraham and hearing God’s true voice ... and continue like Spock, and be willing to share our stories and blessings - even with those who have cursed us. </div>
rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-87983502761576187342015-05-21T14:37:00.004-06:002015-05-21T14:37:57.549-06:00Bemidbar 5775 - Being CountedThe news of President Obama’s new Twitter feed was not much of a news flash to me (Didn’t he already have one?). <br /><br />The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/22/us/politics/obamas-twitter-debut-potus-attracts-hate-filled-posts.html">news of the rapid response of the racists to President Obama’s new Twitter</a> feed made me sad, angry and dispirited. <br /><br />I know that we are probably speaking of such a small percentage of people who actually would post such nasty, mean-spirited and hateful things. In our day and age, it is does not take many people to stir it up. We live in a world in which the more outrageous or extreme voices gets attention - and, usually, the extremity of those voices are inversely proportional to the amount of people with those views and perspectives. <br /><br />I want to be counted - along with what I suspect are the plurality of voices - who are outraged that any person - yet less the President of our county - is treated in such a manner. I want to be counted and have the world hear -- MOST of us do not feel this way.<br /><br />I have the same reaction when I pay attention to other ways that racism and prejudice rear their ugly heads in our world. Last summer it was in Ferguson, MO. Just recently it was in Baltimore. I believe that most people in our world want safety, security and opportunity for everyone -- regardless of race or socioeconomic status. It seems that we do not have an effective way to say so. I feel strongly about these very fundamental justice issues, but I do not know quite what to do with my convictions.<br /><br />Can we get our voices heard? Can we be counted?<br /><br />In our weekly Torah portion, <a href="http://www.jtsa.edu/prebuilt/ParashahArchives/jpstext/bamidbar.shtml">Bemidbar</a>, our spiritual ancestors are, quite literally, being counted as they begin their trek through the wilderness to the Promised Land. In an interesting use of language the command to ‘take the count’ by God, translates literally to “‘Raise the heads’” of all of the people of Israel.’ Rabbi Abraham Twerski suggests that this ‘counting’ is more than a simple act of logistics, but an act of empowerment: <br /><br /><i>“The Divine words were therefore carefully chosen to avoid misrepresentation of the symbolism of the desert: ‘Elevate the heads of the entire congregation.’ Every individual should know that he or she is capable of being elevated, of achieving the greatest heights.”</i><br /><br />When we raise our heads (and probably our hearts and our souls, too) - it is then we are counted. When we raise our heads, we remember that we can elevate ourselves and the world around us to heights we envision.<br /><br />Perhaps, we can start being counted in this way in regard to these issues in our own backyard - which for our Micah community is Park Hill. Park Hill is a very diverse community - and in many ways it is a microcosm of our larger society. I know we live all over the Denver Metro Area. I realize, too, that our reach to the Oval Office or to Ferguson or to Baltimore is limited at best. By being a part of Temple Micah we are all deeply connected to a neighborhood where we can be counted. When we stand and be counted anywhere, we are taking the steps toward everyone being counted, everywhere. Come let’s begin being counted together ... <br /><br />REAL Park Hill - a burgeoning grassroots coalition of religious institutions and communal support organizations - is coordinating a Community Walk through ‘our’ neighborhood. We will walk together - Black and White (and all the ‘colors’ of the rainbow that make up Park Hill); Jew and Christian (and all of the religious expressions and non-expressions that make-up Park Hill); ‘Middle’ Class and ‘Lower’ Class (and all of the various distinctions we put on one another). We’ll sing, maybe tell a few stories and get to know the Other - whoever the Other may be. As we walk together we intend to let those with whom we share all of our neighborhoods know that we value justice, compassion and peace. And, that we are willing to stand, walk and be counted in order to make our values energize, enliven and encompass our world. We will gather on Friday, May 29th at 7:00pm at 3333 Holly St (the Vicker’s Boys and Girls Club).rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-70693830532567034362015-04-08T17:19:00.000-06:002015-04-08T17:19:23.955-06:00Pesach 5775 - It's Not About The MatzahEating matzah is not really about eating matzah. You want to get a good discussion going? Ask a few Jews about what they do or do not eat at Passover ... you will find proof of the adage: two Jews, three opinions (at least) ... and probably heatedly-expressed ones, as well.<br /><br />What is it about religion that so polarizes people? Sometimes it is people empowered by their faith to impose rigid and judgmental beliefs on those around them - <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/what-indianas-law-everyones-talking-about-318494">like legislators in Indiana</a> who recently empowered their citizens to express their religious beliefs at the liberty and expense of others? Sometimes it is people impassioned by a fear or hatred of a religious communities values, history or standing - <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/what-indianas-law-everyones-talking-about-318494">like the individual(s) who sought to unsettle the folks in Boulder</a> by sending envelopes with harmless white powder and accompanying it with (poorly written) threatening messages. <br /><br />Religion gets - and sometimes deserves - a bad rap. And sometimes, it is quite difficult to face and take that rap. Difficult and challenging because ‘good’ religion ain’t easy. Good religion is the kind that honestly acknowledges the mystery and complexity of the world and the universe - one that does not commonly offer easy black and white responses to the rainbow of living that goes on in our world. Good religion is the kids that when confronted with that mystery and complexity aids us in finding comfort and meaning. Good religion is the kind that challenges even the most agreed upon sacred cows - especially when those ‘cows’ embody or employ ideas that encourage rigidity, stagnation or oppression. Good religion - while rooted and living at the pure core of the religious traditions we know - cannot help but to be related to, intertwined with and inhabiting the same space as bad religion, too.<br /><br />Good religion reminds us that eating matzah is really not about eating matzah. It is not really about changing dishes or avoiding corn or rice or tortillas. It is about reminding us (i.e. putting it back into our minds) of our obligation to participate in the ongoing process of liberating ourselves from Egypt, or as it known in Hebrew: Mitzrayim: The Narrow Place.<br /><br /><br />rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-51161897561465426842015-03-24T22:06:00.001-06:002015-03-24T22:06:05.435-06:00Vayikra 5775 - The Levitical LensI am sad. I am disillusioned. I am angry. It is not that the recent Israeli election changed the status quo. There will be a similar ratio of a ruling ‘conservative’ block and an opposing ‘liberal’ one. It is not even that there were any true surprises coming from Prime Minister Netanyahu -- he was manipulative, combative, parochial and ... consistent. My sadness, disillusion and anger result from how his efforts were rewarded by the electorate. This response gave him - at least in the context of Israeli politics - a landslide victory. It is a harsh reminder of the kind of rigidity, chauvinism and myopia that has Israel’s present and future in what is akin to a death grip.<br /><br />How fitting for me that the mysterious machinations of our spiritual tradition would present the beginning of the book of Leviticus as the Torah lens for me to reflect on these feelings. Each year as we are confronted by Leviticus’ antiquated and anachronistic notions and practices: ardous sacrificial offerings; an officious and domineering priestly caste and all the graphic descriptions of how’s, what’s, when’s and who’s involved. Yes, we endeavor (with moderate success) to translate the sacrificial system into some mythic and metaphorical meaning. At the end of the day - no matter the eloquence of our transformative tale - we have no problem rejecting the relevance of these obligations and relegating them to their appropriate place in our past. I became a Reform Jew - because I was drawn to this willingness to unashamedly, unabashedly and respectfully leave such attitudes and practices where they belong - in our past.<br /><br />Using this levitical lens, I examine these elections and the things that are said, done or promised to be done in the name of Judaism. With the same vehemence with which I reject the relevance of sacrifices in our present and future view of the world, I am compelled to reject these narrow (Mitzrayim like?) attitudes toward other human beings -- no matter how one may label these human beings: Arabs, Israeli Arab Citizens or Palestinians. I am compelled to reject such attitudes that embrace a supposed divine promise for a swath of land while negating the actual divine gifts of compassion, justice and peace. <br /><br />No, the election has not changed the status quo in the Knesset, the Israeli electorate or even Prime Minister Netanyahu. The election, however, has changed me.rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-87146704000215152662015-01-30T12:21:00.003-07:002015-01-30T12:29:28.553-07:00Beshalach 5775 - Beginning to Reflect on IsraelIt was my intention to blog while we travelled in Israel ... I had done it before when I co-chaperoned the Student Interfaith Peace Project trip in the summer of 2008. Perhaps I had more energy then or I underestimated the energy needed in leading a trip, but I found myself at the end of each day physically and emotionally spent -- with the idea of writing as difficult as contemplating running 10 miles, too.<br />
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A few have asked for my impressions and reflections from the trip and I have been endeavoring to place those in a sharable construct ... and even though I am past my jet lag and have the time and energy to write - the sharable construct has not yet been constructed. Our group will reconvene soon and discuss the ways in which we all might share what we saw, felt, thought and experienced. I trust there will be some in person and some virtual opportunities for us to share with our community what we did.<br />
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Perhaps my writer’s block - if I can call it that - is this sense and need to honor the group-ness of this experience. In all of my travels to Israel, this trip was the first time that I have led a group from my community. I have formed community while in Israel, but I have never traveled with, shared and guided the experience of Israel with a previous existing community. The sense of Micah - Park-Hill-residing, Colorado-mountain-loving - being in Israel became a prominent element of the experience of the trip for me. I found myself eager and anxious about the prospect of introducing Micah to Israel and Israel to Micah. I watched and wondered about the interaction and exchange of these two distinctive and significant entities. I embodied the role of of mediator and counselor as I facilitated this increasingly reverberating encounter between the two.<br />
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And so my first reflections on our trip begin with this observation of the sense of ‘us’ being 'there'. This thing we call ‘community’ is the combination and permutation of so many varied kinds of relationships. It is an unruly mess to categorize and quantify (and organize, too!). No matter how we understand it and try to contain or cultivate it, I can say with confidence that ‘community’ is something that transcends time and place - because that is exactly what we did. And the the way in which we did so - to encounter Israel together - enhanced not only the trip we took, but provocatively impacts the way I understand the community to which we return.rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-71069161407744568132015-01-07T12:54:00.000-07:002015-01-07T13:49:54.250-07:00Vayechi 5775 - Farewell, Joseph(A digest of my D’var Torah from Kabbalat Shabbat services on 1.2.15)<br />
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Rabbi Joe Goldman died just more than a week ago ... and he added something to <b>your</b> life.<br />
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‘What?!” you say, ‘I never knew Rabbi Joe Goldman!’ You may have never met Rabbi Joe Goldman, but if you are reading this email and you have a connection to me or to Temple Micah or to someone else who values Temple Micah ... then you owe a debt of gratitude to Rabbi Joe Goldman.<br />
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Rabbi Joe Goldman was Temple Micah’s first rabbi in the 1960’s. It was his spirit, character and vision that set the tone for our community, our values and how a rabbi and congregation partner to create a kehilah kedosha -- a sacred community. <br />
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There are few narrative moments from Rabbi Joe’s tenure that show us who he was and how that spirit still abides among us today. </div>
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<li>Rabbi Joe taught about the trust that is an essential part of a successful partnership between rabbi and congregation when he insisted (and the community responded positively) that the community introduce the teaching Hebrew to its students. (Micah - as a congregation who identified with Classical Reform ideals - did not have a Hebrew component in its education curriculum.) This decision took two partners to make and successfully integrate.</li>
<li>Rabbi Joe taught about the important balance for a religious organization to apply its values to operate both as a community and as a business. Complete with business degree and sales experience, Rabbi Joe understood that it was essential for a congregation to be able to talk about money and conduct its business in a way that reflected Jewish values and the best practices of our contemporary society. He would later use this experience and outlook, to help shape the pension plan and retirement for hundreds of rabbis and Reform professionals. </li>
<li>Rabbi Joe taught about the ideal of radical welcomeness, as he would have no problem speaking about his lack of faith in God - from the bimah or in his office. He set the tone for a Micah community that still prides itself on inclusivity regardless of ideology, theology, socioeconomics, sexual orientation or family construct.</li>
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The Hebrew version of the name, Joseph - who we read about in the last portion of the end of Genesis - is <i>Yosayf</i>. It means: To add, to increase, to enhance. Rabbi Joe Goldman added something, increased and enhanced the lives of any of us who value Temple Micah. <br />
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Thank you, Rabbi Joe. May your memory continue to be a blessing.<br />
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rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-24038239911262253542014-11-19T09:53:00.002-07:002015-01-07T13:50:03.520-07:00Toledot 5775 (Violence in Our Sacred Space)This one hits very close to home. I doubt that if I had ever met my colleagues who were murdered on Tuesday in Jerusalem. I doubt, too, that we would have had much in common or to agree upon if we had the chance to know one another. (I must admit, I have been wrong on such assumptions in the past.) And yet, the fact that the violence occurred in a such a sacred space and time; while the victims were doing something that I do so frequently - in a synagogue participating in communal prayer - feels like a cosmic punch to the gut.<br />
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This tragic act of violence occurs during the week that Jews around the world read the Torah portion, <i>Toledot</i>. <i>Toledot</i> is the story of the conflicted brothers - Jacob and Esau. These twins begin their conflict - in a sacred space - in the womb of their mother, Rebecca. Rebecca feels the physical discomfort and pain of two fetuses wrestling in her belly. She also feels the spiritual discomfort and pain - a cosmic punch to the gut - as these two brothers engage in this conflict in a setting that protects and nourishes them. In a moment of existential angst and fatigue - responding to this conflict and its physical and spiritual impact on her, Rebecca cries out to God: Why? - Why does it have to be this way? Why does it have to be my burden?</div>
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Many of us can identify with Rebecca’s angst -- her outrage, her frustration ... even her sense of violation of a respected order of things. We, too, want to cry out - to the perpetrators of such pain, to the enablers of such a violation - but also to a broader and deeper Facilitator of our cosmos and cry out: Why? Why does it have to be this way? Why is this our continual burden?</div>
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I find it compelling to consider an etymological point of interest about the conflict within Rebecca’s womb. The Hebrew word for this place where life is given and protected is <i>Rechem</i>. It is within her <i>Rechem</i> where the violating conflict occurs. In our tradition when we speak of Mercy, we use the word <i>Rachamim</i>. It looks familiar because the root of the word for ‘womb’ is the same root for the word for ‘Mercy.’ I wonder, what is this profound interplay between the conflict within Rebecca’s <i>Rechem</i> (womb) and the value of <i>Rachamim</i> (Mercy)? How does such conflict exist because of a lack of <i>Rachamim</i>? In what way would <i>Rachamim</i> mitigate the impact of this conflict? How does one end conflict without the presence of some modicum of <i>Rachamim</i>?</div>
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The violation of such a sacred space in Jerusalem this week angers, worries and frightens us. It does not give us cause to forget why we construct such sacred spaces and times and what we endeavor to realize within them. No matter the pain, plight or the suffering one faces and no matter how one’s actions might be cloaked in fighting tyranny and seeking justice - perpetrating such acts in such a vulnerable space is reprehensible. Ironically, it should be within the context of such a space and time, that one would hope to bridge the abyss between people - collectively and individually. We must look beyond the willingness by a tortured few to desecrate such spaces, to our own willingness to continually open those spaces - and in turn ourselves - to the realization of our highest ideals and values.</div>
rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-19387886847698560322014-09-16T17:19:00.001-06:002014-09-16T18:12:28.634-06:00See Clearly, Now! - RH 5774In the last couple of weeks through the medium of video … some very sad, disturbing and tragic events in remote or more private places have been seen by millions of people around the world. ISIS or ISIL has recorded and shared the dastardly beheading of two American journalists. The start to the NFL football season has been overshadowed by the release of a video that records one of its star players punching his then fiancé. In both cases, the videos released contained events that, sadly, are not new - either in human history or in the daily lives of some of the world's inhabitants. And yet, the sharing of the videos served as potent catalysts in dramatically impacting reactions toward those who perpetuated the violence. ISIS/ISIL has been acting in the Middle East for months, but these videos seem to have been part of the impetus for the President to respond in the public and aggressive manner in which he did and plans to lead the country. The NFL had already punished its player for the suspected violence, but the punishment was dramatically increased once the video was released to the public.<br />
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These are two very negative and powerful examples of how actually seeing something, affects us more profoundly than hearing about it, reading about it or even just thinking about it. There exists a potent element to taking the time, utilizing the tools or technology we have to examine and understand the events that unfold around us … and within us. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur serve as a kind of spiritual technology that can be used to see our lives more closely and clearly. It is a kind of seeing that is beyond the scope of our physical senses. It is a kind of seeing that one does with our spiritual 'senses'. <br />
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These High Holydays stake claim to set aside sacred time from our lives to examine our choices and their consequences for us and the world around us. The close viewing - witnessing - of those aspects of our lives that we many not give such close attention to the rest of the year - can be empowering and frightening; transforming and intimidating. This spiritual technology demands self-awareness and the constructive actions that follow. As raw, honest and vulnerable that we may feel by seeing ourselves so closely and clearly - those feelings cannot compare to the numbness, rigidity and stuckness that results when we do not bear witness to the life of our own souls.<br />
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As Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur approach us once again, I pray that we may all see them for the challenge, utility, necessity and opportunity they present … to look honestly, justly and compassionately on the state of our lives … and understand enough from what we see to make this next year one of growth, joy and meaning.rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-64015247096004588652014-08-01T10:50:00.002-06:002014-08-01T11:55:20.408-06:00The Weapons of War - Devarim 5774The weapons of war are heartless, inexact and utterly destructive. Bombs, missiles, shells, bullets, grenades, knives, fists and feet bring pain, injury and loss. Those of us outside the physical theater of war find our hearts heavy with sadness, shock and anguish as we glean the news about and lament the violence and destruction of people and property. We are not soldiers in these battles and cannot feel or know the anxiety, shock and fear that accompanies being there. Nonetheless, It is from afar we feel and experience faint aftershocks of each act of violence.<br />
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However, there is another battlefield that is not limited to a military theater - bounded by geographic constraints and physical boundaries. It is the battlefield of identity, ideas and values. It is the battlefield of communities, nations, peoples. These battlefields cannot be constrained by geography, distance or any physical border. And while there are times when we encounter some of the weapons used in the military theater of battle, these are not the most prevalent weapons in this virtual theater. In this theater, in this battlefield words - and the ideas, feelings and meaning behind them - are the weapons used by the masses for destruction. We are quite impotent when it comes to directly affecting the use of weapons on the physical battlefield, such is not the case with the verbal weapons we witness, experience and utilize in this larger battlefield.<br />
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This week’s Torah portion begins the book of Deuteronomy or <i>Devarim</i>. The portion and the book begin: “<i>Eleh</i> <i>Devarim</i> - These are the words that Moses addressed to all of Israel ... “. The entire book of Deuteronomy/Devarim (34 chapters) are Moses’ words of reminder, encouragement, chastisement and guidance to the Israelites. A simple, yet pithy teaching speaks of the power of these words used by Moses. It also speaks to us about the way that the power of words may be wielded for destruction or construction. A midrash teaches that the word: <i>devarim</i> (meaning ‘words’) can be vocalized in Hebrew to also read <i>d’vorim</i> (meaning: ‘bees’). It suggests that just as sharp, painful and even destructive that a bee’s sting may be - a bee’s honey may also be sweet, pleasing and nourishing. Moses’s words - the words of Torah - contain the nourishing nature of honey and the pain inducing nature of the stinger.<br />
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Even though we may be overwhelmed by the physical violence and destruction of the implements of war, we would be wise not to ignore or underestimate the power contained in the implements of our battlefield - the words we use. It will be the words of politicians, diplomats, soldiers AND the words of the individuals of those communities that will tear down or build up. After this fighting ends - and hopefully it will soon - it will be <i>devarim</i> - words that either continue the destruction wrought in this conflict or somehow, someway begin the work constructing a peace.<br />
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Let us keep these words, these <i>devarim</i> and the message behind them prominent in our minds and hearts as we process and respond to the events unfolding on the physical battlefield in this place so precious to the Jewish people and to the rest of the world.rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-20878261236799402182014-07-08T11:02:00.001-06:002014-07-08T11:02:30.129-06:00My Grandma Knows EverythingMy grandma knows everything. I do not remember what age I was when I first began announcing this piece of information to the world. I do not remember the moment, either, that this realization first struck me as discernable and true. And yet there it was - beyond the lens of the more experienced (and perhaps jaded) eyes of a parent seeing her or his own parent; through the simple, noble and definitive vision of child - in the way that a grandchild can connect, understand and appreciate the wonder of a grandparent - it was quite clear to me: My grandma knows everything.<div>
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I would happily announce this paradigm of mine to anyone who would listen: my family, my friends and my grandmother, herself. In fact, she and I had our own song and dance that we would perform - quick and simple, knowing each other's unspoken cues - that would lead to conveying this maxim to an unwitting audience. Truth be told, this schtick had a certain shelf life that ended somewhere at the onset of young adulthood and the assumption that most of us young adults eventually embody - that we each know everything that we need to know. Even though I have not uttered this bromide in years - as I searched my mind and my heart for the words to share with you this morning - it was these words that I felt compelled to share and explore. My grandma knows everything.</div>
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What did Phyllis Bookatz know? Well, all of us who interacted with my grandma, were keenly aware of what she was thinking or feeling about a particular matter or person - whether we liked it or not. What one thinks and what one feels is not necessarily the same thing as what one knows. I am not standing here with a childlike wonder suggesting that she actually knew everything. My grandma would never claim to be a scholar filled with academic knowledge. As many times as I tried to sit at the feet of my elder and coax her to wax philosophical about questions of an existential or ideological nature, she never really thrived in that kind of exchange. She was too practical, too corporeal. So, I wonder: What did she know? My grandma knows everything.<br /><br />The Hebrew word that we most commonly translate from the verb 'to know' is Da'at. It is used in a myriad of ways in the Tanach - expressing all kinds of knowing or knowledge - from knowing the difference between 'good and evil' to knowing someone in the 'biblical sense' to knowing what is true and how the world works because one's life experience. The mystics understand Da'at as the concrete and solid manifestation of our accumulated understanding and wisdom. The nature of Da'at is not about espousing pieces of information or overwhelming others with impressive data - but honestly and boldly living what we know. Da'at is how we embody what we understand, how we live the truths that are embedded in our hearts and souls. So, from what I thought I understood as a child to what I thought I understood no more as a young adult ... today, as a middle aged adult, I am quite clear in my mind and heart as I tell you: My grandma knows everything.<br /><br />Phyllis Bookatz - in the way she lived her life - embodied this Da'at - this knowing - in how she worked, how she played; how she spent her time, energy and money; how she fought and how she loved. Within this life of actions, deeds and values we see what she knew. My grandma knows everything. However, 'everything', might take too long for us to cover in the time that I am given to celebrate her this morning. So, I ask you to indulge me as I share with you just a small portion of that 'everything' that I am blessed to understand and hopefully 'know' myself one day. <br /><br />My grandma knows about working hard, commitment, perseverance and strength. With her practical, stick-to-it and serious nature - my grandmother was a doer. She was someone upon whom others could depend, someone who would get things done. She would not get caught up in the what-ifs or the emotionality of a task or a project - she would put her head down and do what she needed to do - because it needed to get done. There are many examples from her life about how she knew about these things. My aunts, uncle and mom can tell you examples from their childhood; my cousins share my witness to the thing she did - not just for the community - but for each one of us - the people at B'nai Jeshurun can share them, too and so can the countless others who knew Phyllis in one of her life endeavors. From among these numerous moments of commitment, perseverance and strength ... one profoundly speaks to me. I cannot speak about my grandmother without speaking about my grandfather. The two were inextricably combined in my memory and my heart. They were an entity, a force together. They were yin and yang before it was cool and hip to talk about people being yin and yang. As formidable (and sometimes intimidating) as each could be individually, they were more so together. And yet, almost three decades ago - my grandfather died in a slow, painful and treacherous manner. I remember feeling worried and concerned for her - how would she overcome this devastating loss of her Jules. To this day I am awed and inspired by the way that my grandma lived after he died. Tapping into her storehouse of a lifetime of acquired commitment, perseverance and strength - Phyllis crafted, created and forged a life - that while did not include her beloved Jules - did include meaning, purpose and love. She knew how to commit, to persevere to be strong and how to survive. My grandma knows everything.<br /><br />My grandma knows about being Jewish. Identifying, acting and living as a Jewish person was essential to my grandmother's life. She knew the formal, more public ways that one might understand her Judaism. My grandmother's commitment to Heights Temple/B'nai Jeshurun and Israel Bonds are legendary. Her home (i.e. her kitchen) was ground zero for every significant Jewish holiday. I could go on and on listing these formal involvements and commitments of hers ... But there was more to what she knew about being a Jew. When I first decided to pursue a career as a rabbi in the Reform movement and not the Conservative one, I think I feared how she might respond ... having been so committed and immersed in a Conservative community that she and my grandfather loved so much. And yet, that was never the case for even a moment. From my grandmother, I have come to understand Judaism more deeply and broadly than than the lines drawn by its institutions. Again, while she would have never been one to express it - she lived Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan's understanding that Judaism was bigger being only a religion, or culture or ethnicity ... it is a civilization. And she embraced the fullness of this diversity and it's complexity. She supported and was supported by the religious, cultural, ethnic and national ways of being a Jew. She lived as if Judaism and being a Jew was bigger, larger and more important than any particular ritual or politics or doctrine - and held no patience when those (or other dynamics) got in the way of being a Jew. (And she would let anyone within earshot know what she thought.) When I began the path of becoming a Reform rabbi, I feared I might be taking steps away from her ... And what I have come to understand is that every step I took actually brought me closer to what she knew about being a Jew. Phyllis Bookatz knew about living a Jewish life. My grandma knows everything.<br /><br />My grandma knows about family. We all here know the numbers ... four loving and devoted children; 4 sons and daughter in law who join in that love and devotion; 13 grandchildren, 12 and soon-to-be 14 great grandchildren. In many of our conversations and particularly in our last one, my grandmother wanted me to know how extremely blessed she felt to have the love and devotion of all of her children and grandchildren - she knew complete and genuine gratitude. Each of us can speak of the numerous ways that her presence in our lives mattered deeply to us and enriched us. And yet for me, what she knew ... what I have come to understand from her about family and relationships may be the most precious, essential and difficult lesson to learn. My grandma would not be one to teach the theology of Martin Buber, but she taught me a great deal about his lofty ideal about the nature of divinity. You see, Buber teaches that God is the name for what happens when two individuals love one another completely - for the other's gifts and for the other's limitations. I cannot speak of my grandmother without speaking about this precious piece of ultimate wisdom I learned from my relationship with her. A mature relationship means loving someone for all that they are - because of their greatest gifts and their most challenging limitations. The fact that I can stand here today speaking to you at her request - speaks to what she knew and what I seek to know in my own life. Families and intimate relationships are the most powerful and influential forces of nature in our lives. Like any force of nature they can elevate us and flatten us, bring us joy and pain. When we are able to love one another not in spite of, but because of our flaws and mistakes we are able to experience the full divinity embedded in each relationship in our lives. I understand from my grandma about the sweetness offering and receiving redemption and forgiveness; about the elastic nature of families and relationships and their power to impact and endure. Phyllis Bookatz knew about family. My grandma knows everything.<br /><br />And now perhaps, in the realm that her soul dwells now ... she does truly know everything ... or maybe not. My grandma was always pretty clear - set in her practical and matter of fact way about life, death and what happens beyond this world. In fact, she often appeared as a foil when I have found myself teaching about Jewish views of life after death. She would represent the view that when we die, we die ... there is only this world and so the only thing we can do is make the best of it. Fitting to her nature and way of living in this world, and yet ... In the last year or so she seemed to open her mind to the possibility of another possibility. She would not talk extensively about this shift in ideology, except to mention the thought or possibility of being with my grandfather again someday. For my grandma, this simple suggestion was seismic in nature ... and brings me great comfort. Comfort in the shadow of death and our grief that she may be with right now her beloved Jules. Comfort in the light of the mystery of life that no matter where she may be that all she knew is such an essential and fundamental part of the lives of those of us who cherish and love her.<br /><br />For my beloved grandma, who knows everything ... I offer these words from the poet as my prayer of thanksgiving for the blessing of your presence in all of our lives:<br /><br /><u>Epitaph</u> (Merritt Malloy)<br /></div>
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When I die<br />Give what’s left of me away<br />To children<br />And old men that wait to die.<br />And if you need to cry,<br />Cry for your brother<br />Walking the street beside you.<br />And when you need me,<br />Put your arms<br />Around anyone<br />And give them<br /><br />What you need to give to me.<br />I want to leave you something,<br />Something better<br />Than words<br />Or sounds.<br /><br />Look for me<br />In the people I’ve known<br />Or loved,<br />And if you cannot give me away,<br />At least let me live on your eyes<br />And not on your mind.<br /><br />You can love me most<br />By letting<br />Hands touch hands,<br />By letting<br />Bodies touch bodies,<br />And by letting go<br />Of children<br />That need to be free.<br /><br />Love doesn’t die,<br />People do.<br />So, when all that’s left of me<br />Is love,<br />Give me away.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-90993095980102586262014-06-18T15:37:00.001-06:002014-06-18T16:12:07.455-06:00Avraham Burg on the Kidnapped Israeli Young Men<div style="color: #353434; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; min-height: 16px;">
<em style="background-color: white; color: #033649; font-family: tahoma, verdana, segoe, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: normal;">I find my heart filled with anguish as I pray for the safe return of the three young Israeli men who were kidnapped this past week. The anguish only grows as I observe the myriad of reaction from Jews, Palestinians and the rest of the world. As I struggle to identify and express my own thoughts and feelings, I find perspective in the candor and integrity of the words of Avram Burg, former Speaker of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament). - R.Mo</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: 0px;">The Palestinians: A kidnapped society</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We are incapable of understanding the suffering of a society, its cry, and the future of an entire nation that has been kidnapped by us.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ha’aretz/</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0px;">| </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Jun. 18, 2014 | 12:09 PM</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> | </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">By <span style="color: #1919a7; letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/avraham-burg-1.322">Avraham Burg</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;">Our hearts are in pain over those </span><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.599527" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">three teenage boys</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> whose identities we did not even know a moment ago, but who now belong to all of us. Each of them looks like my own son, the son of every one of my friends and their friends.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Like many people, I hope with all my heart that the moment will come when we see them alive among us, and that all this tension dissipates into blissful relief. I hope, with real trembling, but I cannot and do not want to ignore the silenced truth that surrounds their kidnapping.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Those three boys are truly unfortunate. They are unfortunate because of the trap of fear in which they have been captured, the uncertainty and the fact that their lives are in great danger. Our hearts are in pain, and go out to them and their families because of how, in a single moment, they had to step into the glare of publicity. And these teenagers are unfortunate because of the lie in which they have lived their lives — lives of supposed normalcy that were built upon the foundations of that greatest of Israeli injustices: the occupation.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Now let us turn from their wretchedness to our own. For us, a dramatic or traumatic event is always a very clear, refined and transparent moment. All the plans and failures, the fears and hopes, burst out.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Here are Israel's shallow prime minister and the bumbling police, the masses who cling to futile prayers and not to a moment of human peace. Here are the country's hypocritical chief rabbis, who just a month ago demanded promises from the pope regarding the future of the Jewish people, but in their daily lives remain silent about the fate of the people who are our neighbors, trampled beneath the pressure of occupation and racism under the leadership of rabbis who receive exorbitant salaries and benefits.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Suddenly everything erupts, is expressed in its very essence, emerging from the darkness into the sunlight. This is precisely the moment to examine intentions — because, as said, everything is out in the open.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">First, Netanyahu’s hollowness. Not much needs to be said about it. After all, he is the one who guided all the Israeli-Palestinians talks into the tight corner of the prisoner release issue. He is also the one who, with his own words, violated Israel’s commitment to release the last group of Palestinian prisoners. He is also the one who maneuvered the Palestinian Authority into the corner of unifying with Hamas.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So what exactly is he complaining about, with his dramatic and schmaltzy comments and gestures? His immediate, conditioned, unconsidered response shows that he was just waiting for this moment, if only to say "I told you so." And now that he has, the real question surfaces: What exactly is he telling us? The painful answer: Nothing at all.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Israel's left wing, too, which is supposedly dignified, has become the gaping mouth of the carp stuffed with some sort of gray substance, lying on the Passover seder plate of the gluttonous right wing. The latter, too, are embroiled in a disgraceful fight over a piece of the pie of legitimacy that belongs to the sticky consensus.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">How can it be that not one of them has gotten up and said: Everyone who is on the other side of this black line bears the responsibility. It is not pleasant, but it is the truth. And it is never pleasant, after all.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Before there is a kidnapping — why talk? Nobody is listening anyway because things are quiet. And the moment they kidnap, we must not talk (as the executive director of Peace Now said), since our kidnapped ones are gone. And once it all ends (in what could be, God forbid, a personal tragedy or a collective tragedy that nobody cares about), why should we talk? Everybody is busy once again with Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, the FIFA World Cup or the next scandal.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So this is also a pure moment of insulation. Not the insulation of homes which we are used to, but the insulation of hearts. Few people on the right and the left – except for <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/gideon-levy-1.402"><span style="color: #1919a7; letter-spacing: 0px;">Gideon Levy</span></a>, <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/misc/writers/uri-misgav-1.410158"><span style="color: #1919a7; letter-spacing: 0px;">Uri Misgav</span></a> and a few other cautious and frightened commentators – are trying to grasp the deep roots of the kidnapping.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We absolve ourselves by saying, “They handed out sweets” after hearing about the kidnapping. Their happiness makes us glad, since the happier they are over our suffering, the more exempt we are from taking an interest in them and their suffering. But there is no way around it: This is a sort of happiness that demands deeper study and understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All of Palestinian society is a kidnapped society. Like many of the Israelis who performed “significant service” in the army, many of the readers of this column, or their children, entered the home of a Palestinian family in the middle of the night by surprise, with violence, and simply took away the father, brother or uncle, with determination and insensitivity. That is kidnapping, and it happens every day. And what about their administrative detainees?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What is all this if not one big official, evil and unjust kidnapping that we all participate in and never pay the price for? That is the fate of tens of thousands of detainees and others under arrest, who stayed, or are staying, in Israel’s prisons – quite a few of them for no good reason, falsely imprisoned on false pretexts. The vast majority of them have been exposed to the appendages of military justice, and none of us cares a whit.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All these things have turned the topic of the prisoners into the main subject in the lives of the occupied society. There is not a single household without a detainee or prisoner. So why is it so difficult to understand their joy and our pain, fears and worry notwithstanding? It was, and can still be, otherwise.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">However, as long as the Israeli government shuts all the gates of freedom, flees from all real negotiations that could solve the conflict, refuses to make good-will gestures, lies and blatantly violates its own commitments – violence is all that remains for them.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It has already been proven any number of times that kidnapping sets one free. It seems once again that Israel understands nothing but violence. What does that say about us? This response of ours — which ranges between "They deserve it" and "They are all terrorists," to "I am following orders" and "I did not know what was going on" — says more about us than it does about them.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Despite the enormous and inspiring success of Breaking the Silence (an NGO that collects testimony from soldiers who've served in the West Bank), our own total silence is still the loudest thing around us. We are willing to go out of our minds over one odd and troublesome Pollard, a lone kidnap victim or three kidnap victims, but we are incapable of understanding the suffering of a whole society, its cry, and the future of an entire nation that has been kidnapped by us.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This, too, needs to be said and heard during this moment of clarity — and as loudly as possible.</span></div>
rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-5475968900112165382014-06-03T12:38:00.000-06:002014-06-03T12:38:45.226-06:00Take a Mountain Moment - Shavuot 5774It may not be on your radar, but the Jewish holiday of Shavout is upon us. Historically, it is a big one ... one of the three pilgrimage festivals for which our ancestors congregated in Jerusalem at the Temple. Currently, as far as popular recognition or observance goes, it could be said that Shavuot does not reside on the Mt. Rushmore of Jewish Holidays.<br /><br />Originally, an agriculturally based observance of first fruits, Shavuot also became the medium to celebrate a fairly significant event in the mythic life of the Jews - the Sinai moment. In our story that is told in Torah, the Sinai moment is where God speaks to the Israelite community directly (not through Moses as is commonly thought in the collective Jewish psyche -- or as Mel Brooks or Cecil B. Demille portrays).<br /><br />For most liberal Jews this significant moment in our collective story is hard to embrace. Accepting the literal or figurative truth in the story can be challenging. For me, I certainly lean in that direction ... and yet, somewhere and somehow I do not want to completely reject the possibility of an encounter or experience that wow’s us, moves us and transforms us. When I consider the Sinai story and its implications, I understand it as our tradition’s code for expressing the possibility of encounters with the divine ... and its challenge to think about our readiness and openness to such encounters.<br /><br />So, Jews around the world will focus on the Sinai moment this week. (Tuesday night or Wednesday are the actual days on which Shavuot falls this year). In the spirit of encountering the divine, perhaps you have a few moments (actually on Shavuot or sometime this week) for consideration, cogitation or contemplation of Sinai-esque moments. If you are so inclined, please use this Shavout exercise as a guide.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Mountainous Moments - A Shavuot Exercise</span></b></div>
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<li><span style="font-size: large;">Carve out some time where you can sit, relax and reflect.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">If you can make it a space where you can experience of bit of the majesty that is part of our Colorado mountains, better yet! </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Bring along something to write with (if that is something you prefer) or something to sip on (if that is something you prefer). </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Make yourself comfortable ... first physically, make sure you are good to sit for some time. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Then mentally, take a few moments, focus on your breathing, empty your mind of what you have to do or what you did not do ... just clear out your mind of the clutter of the everyday. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s put aside trying to get our heads and hearts around the actual experience of the divine encounter. Let’s consider the preparation or readiness for such an encounter. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Read this description from Torah about the organization of the Israelites in the wilderness (as they prepared for their spiritual journey) and the explanation of it from the Etz Hayim Torah Commentary: </span></li>
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<span style="font-size: large;">NUMBERS 2:1: The Israelites shall camp each with his <b>standard</b>, under the <b>banners of their ancestral</b> house; they shall camp around the <b>Tent of Meeting</b> at a distance.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div>
<span style="font-size: large;">ETZ HAYIM TORAH COMMENTARY: A person’s identity consists of three elements: the self (the <b>standard</b>); the family (the <b>ancestral banners</b>); and the community (the <b>Tent of Meeting</b>.) </span><br /><div>
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<li>To sum up: Knowing one’s sense of self or place prepares one for encountering the divine. </li>
<li>How ready are you for a divine encounter? How clear, defined or grounded is your own sense of self. Take some time to consider each of these aspects - as named by Torah - of your own place. As you do, write or draw (or some combination of these) as you process.</li>
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</span><span style="font-size: large;">1) Your Standard: What does your ‘standard’ - that which represents you as an individual - look like? How do you regard yourself at this place in your life? What are your blessings? What are your limitations? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">2) Your Ancestral Banners: What does the banner or your family look like? What is the nature of your relationship with the people in your family? Which relationships are most challenging? Which relationships are most rewarding? What are the gifts of your family that you most cherish? What ‘gifts’ are more burdensome?</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />3) The Tent of Meeting: What does your communal tent look like? What the communities of which you find yourself? How do you participation in each of them? How do you contribute to each of them? How do your communities sustain you?<br /><br /><ul>
<li>Imagine your standard, banner and tent before you. Name, visualize and imagine the potential Sinai moments on your current path.</li>
<li>Take a few more moments to be in the moment, reflect on what you thought about, wrote or drew. </li>
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<i>Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad.</i></div>
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Listen all you Godwrestlers, </div>
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that which you call ‘God’ is Oneness itself.</div>
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rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-48644240002121947452014-05-21T13:55:00.003-06:002014-05-21T15:10:57.592-06:00What A Mess?!? - (Bemidbar, May 2014)My garage is a disaster right now. Between planting the garden, helping a friend with a building project, upgrading kids rooms with new beds (which means the old beds live in the garage until they are sold) and the usual collection of bric-a-brac that resides in it … my garage (have I mentioned?) is a disaster. Now, most people who know me (and definitely those who live with me) would not consider me a neat freak by any means. Still, this level of disorder unseats and unsettles me. It frustrates me and makes me impatient with the other contributors to the mess. It inhibits my creativity (the garage is where I do most of my woodworking). In a small, but not insignificant way it makes my home base feel a little less homey.<br />
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In this week’s Torah portion, Bemidbar ... the Israelites are being ordered and organized for their march through the wilderness to the Promised Land. I imagine that this collection of stubborn, unruly and recently liberated slaves had the potential to mythically resemble the state of my garage. Perhaps it is for this reason that they are given very mundane, specific instructions - tribe by tribe and person by person - where and how to stand and with what implements and adornments. Apparently, reaching the Promised Land needs some level of order and even discipline.<br />
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The Etz Hayim Torah commentary explains these machinations in this fashion:</div>
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<li>“Many commentators note the details here of tribal encampments as a way of emphasizing the need for order and organization in achieving a spiritual life. Simcha Zissel Ziv writes: “A person disorderly in behavior is also confused in thought, incapable of stable, consistent work.””</li>
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Or stated differently, how we order the physical impacts the spiritual. And perhaps, too, how we order the physical reflects the spiritual. The various aspects of we human animals (physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual) do not live in separate silos from one another. They exist, interact and react in a rich, complex web. It is web of connectedness the we ignore at own peril and embrace with the possibility of profound growth and meaning. <br />
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It’s time for me clean my garage.</div>
rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-54078936208307917672013-10-09T12:04:00.004-06:002013-10-09T12:04:40.587-06:00Lech L'cha 5774 - Pack Your Bags!We meet Abraham and Sarah (or Abram and Sarai, as they are known at this early point in their story) this week again in Torah ... The portion is called Lech L’cha and these are the words that Abram hears from God. These words are the first clue we receive into the character of Abraham. God tells Abram to, ‘Pack Your Bags! ... go, leave your homeland, the land of your birth, your parents’ house ... to a place that I will show you.’ Abram, in order to become Abraham (and Sarai, in order to become Sarah) needed to leave what was familiar, comfortable and insular. This journey was not a mere physical one - but an existential, emotional and spiritual journey. In order to grow, evolve and mature - Abram needed to pack his bags (physical and emotional) and leave home.<br /><br />Anyone one of us who is a parent or a child (which I think should be most of us!) understands this important aspect of becoming a person. As much as our parents may love and guide us, as much as our homes or homelands may be familiar and life giving to us ... there comes a point (often a painful one) in which we need to extract ourselves in order to better become ourselves. We do not cut off or reject these important relationships, people or the ways that they have impacted us. We do, however, heed the same call that Abraham heard from God: “Leave what is safe and familiar and go to a place that I will show you ... and I will make your name great.”<br /><br />As the Rocky Mountain Rabbinic Council began its iEngage Israel class this week ... I hear echoes of God’s call to Abraham within the class materials, lectures and discussions. The class (and its supporting curriculum from the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel) is designed to give Jews across the political, denominational and age spectrums a chance examine our relationship with Israel and with other Jews in our community. It is a class that will challenge its participants to re-examine our Jewish community’s accepted narrative about why Israel is important and how we translate that importance into relationship. The participants are being asked to leave the friendly confines of their intellectual and emotional homes - at least in the context of their relationship to Israel. They are being asked to extract themselves from a life long narrative and perspective about Israel - in order to consider other ideas about how that relationship may grow, evolve and mature. <br /><br />And like those journeys from our parents’ homes for Abram, us and our children ... this intellectual one may be painful and cause anxiety, but it also promises greatness. We must remember no matter the journey upon which we may find ourselves: the place that God wants us to see, the greatness ... only comes if we are genuinely ready to pack our bags and and go.rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-80889262098089128982013-09-18T21:53:00.000-06:002013-09-18T21:56:15.613-06:00Sukkot 5774 - Build, Dwell and DependThe festival of Sukkot begins tonight (September 18th). Many Jewish Coloradans and their families and friends will find their way to physically sit, eat and/or sleep in a Sukkah this year. As with any ritual, the physical choreography is a way to directing the one observing the ritual to encounter an awareness of a spiritual reality. For many in Colorado - Jewish or not - I believe that the last week of rains and flooding have already opened their hearts and minds to an important spiritual reality related to building and dwelling in the Sukkah. <br />
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The recent flood waters devastated so many lives - destroying homes, businesses and taking lives. Across the spectrum of this impact were realizations by tens of thousands of people in Colorado that no matter how physically secure we feel, we are actually quite vulnerable. And in our vulnerability, we discover the true nature of our power and strength. This awareness is a fundamental intention of the mitzvah to build and dwell in a Sukkah. The 14th century Spanish scholar known as the Menorat HaMaor framed is this way: “The human being must leave his or her permanent home and move into a temporary abode that is devoid of wealth and security to remind her or him how deeply each person depends upon God.”<br />
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The Sukkah is a temporary hut. It is fairly sturdy for something that is supposedly easily put up and torn down. The Sukkah building at Micah every year seems to coincide with at least one good windy, storm. A couple of times in the past few years I arrived at Micah to see the Sukkah on its side, feet away from its original location. I think this uncertainty is part of the intended feel of the Sukkah. We get ourselves out of our comfortable and secure homes, erect these huts with almost open roofs and flimsy walls and spend our time within those walls and under that roof with those we love. If it rains (or even snows some years) we simply move our meal inside. Perhaps, though, for even a fleeting moment (or more if we are fortunate) we appreciate our blessings; acknowledge how little control we have over the forces of nature and where or upon whom our true dependence lies. <br />
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We build a Sukkah and dwell in it so that we understand where our dependence and strength dwells. So, when we realize the vulnerability in ourselves and in other - we know where to turn and we know when to help. As we dwell in our Sukkot this year - the ones in our yards or the ones in our hearts - let us turn to one another and help one another.rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-48868530955918840712013-07-31T16:21:00.000-06:002013-07-31T16:21:11.883-06:00Re'eh 5773 - Peace Talks ... Again.For the first time in three years official representatives of Israel and Palestine are sitting down to engage in formal discussions about creating parameters for peace. We do not have to look very far to find those who think such an endeavor meaningless, hopeless or even dangerous. Cynics question the sincerity of either side’s intentions toward peace, pundits warn that very little movement is possible and then there are those who tell us the talks themselves are too little (<a href="http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2013/07/21/israeli-palestinian-peace-talk-charade/">Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talk Charade)</a> or too much (<a href="http://forward.com/articles/181054/christian-israel-backers-blast-obama-on-peace/#ixzz2aRtJyWdD">Christian Israel-Backers Blast Obama on Peace</a>). If this most recent round of talks were a horse race, the filly called ‘Peace’ might make the odds of a long shot look good. Forget about betting on ‘Peace’, is it even worthwhile watching the race?<br /><br />Yes.<br /><br />Admittedly, the more that the current situation between the state of Israel and the Palestinian people continues the less optimistic I become about a resolution (even) in the near-distant future. Each side continues to become more and more entrenched in its position - building walls (both physical and psychological) between one another. Peace seems like an unattainable, naive abstraction. Reality is too messy, disjointed and plain unfair. Should we just batten down the hatches and defend ourselves against those who would threaten and take what is ours?<br /><br />No.<br /><br />I came across a verse in this week’s Torah portion that - while I am sure that I have read it before - surprised me. This week’s portion, Re’eh, continues recounting Moses’ final speeches to the Israelites. This week Moses is reviewing various laws that relate to preserving the community’s holy place and helping to create a community in which holiness is cultivated. As Moses speaks to the people about being aware of and caring for the poor and needy in the community, he tells them: “There will never cease to be needy ones in your land, this is why I command you to open your hand to the poor and needy ... “ (Deuteronomy 15:11) Never?! For all the talk and promise of covenant; for all of the possibilities in redemption from slavery ... I was surprised by this non-utopian, messy, gray vision for the society that they will create. I find two important ideas in this statement: (1) An acknowledgement that no matter what the Israelites might do - their community will always have those in need, those who lack. It will be messy, imperfect and unfair. (2) Despite the messiness, imperfection and unfairness the Israelites are still (choose your own word here:) expected/obligated/commanded to confront it and do something about it. In the face of the size of the task at hand (in this case, hunger and homelessness), it is not acceptable to resign oneself to impotence.<br /><br />Is it irony? Paradox? A sense of divine humor? Or, maybe it is just a Jewish way of seeing the world. No matter how dire or insurmountable before us the iniquity in the world may seem, we cannot stop opening our hands, our minds or our hearts to those whose lives are impacted by these iniquities. With this nudge from Torah, I will pay attention to the discussions between Israelis and Palestinians. While I will be all too aware of the messiness of our situation, I will also strive to to see the possibilities.rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-8862066585573048132013-07-17T11:30:00.001-06:002013-07-17T11:30:17.275-06:00V'etchanan 5773 - Crossing LinesBeing a young baseball fan, my son is having a hard time getting his head around the concept of an All-Star game. All of the players and teams have been playing so hard against one another (especially those hated Yankees) and then they just stop in the middle of the season and play with each other? Then in a few days they are going to go back to playing against each other? Seriously? When, where and which lines we cross can be a confusing concept for a young baseball fan.<br /><br />Even for those of us who can wrap our heads around the idea of baseball’s midsummer classic, still may have a tough time with other kinds of lines and the conditions, variables and situations that mandate crossing them or not. Ask President Obama. As president he looks around the world and sees turmoil, injustice, cruelty and violations of basic human rights. When is it the right time and what is the right way to cross the lines between sovereign countries and governments and say something or do something? Ask any Jewish person who cares about the land of Israel. We look across the ocean and see things we love and see things that seem dissonant from our deepest values. When is the right time and what is the right way to cross that line of loyalty and support and offer loving and respectful critique and feedback? Ask any human being. We see a family member or dear friend in trouble (or at least what we perceive as trouble). When is the right time and what is the right way to cross the line to say something that may not be heard or understood and quite possible may injure that person or the relationship? <br /><br />Unlike baseball’s mid-summer classic, there are no clear and fast rules that tell us when to cross what lines. These life decisions vary, change and depend upon the particular relationship, situation and other variables at play. Then how do we know the right time and right way to cross those lines between us and those around us? In this week’s Torah portion, V’etchanan (from the book of Deuteronomy), we find what may be the most often recited verse in Jewish history: The Shema. “Listen Israel, YHVH/Adonai is our God, YHVH/Adonai is One.” The Shema is not a declaration of monotheism, but something else. It is a declaration of Israel’s relationship to this deity - that YHVH/Adonai is the ONE and ONLY understanding of divinity for the community called Israel. ‘YHVH/Adonai is OUR god.” This declaration is Israel’s attempt at definition and differentiation. This declaration of self-understanding guided, guides and continues to guide Israel as it grows, loves and acts.<br /><br />In wondering when and how to cross the lines in our lives, we all need what the Shema provides Israel - an understanding of who we are and where we begin and others end. There is not a steadfast template as to when to step on or over those lines between us and others. There is no handbook that guides us how to constructively involve ourselves in the problems of a friend - whether that friend is another country or another person. In each of those moments of decision perhaps the most helpful template is having a clear understanding of how each of us understands the nature of justice, compassion ... of divinity. rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6667300728000905514.post-53498244889053002422013-06-04T13:27:00.003-06:002013-06-04T13:28:05.952-06:00Korach 5773 - Shooting MessengersWe don’t have to pay attention too closely to hear messages from people telling us things that we do not want to hear. These messages originate from varied communication methods we access in the public domain and from the people with whom we work, live and love. The messages relate to all kinds of matters: what we put on or in our bodies to what we put through and in our minds. The packaging of these messages can be harsh, loving or somewhere in between. Because these kinds of messages do not feel good, our first defense is to deflect, deny or destroy them by whatever means we have at our disposal. And yet, even though these messages may be unasked for, unexpected, unrefined and even hurtful ... some of them, maybe even just a few might actually contain something of value.<br /><br />In Torah this week Moses and the Israelites receive a decidedly unfriendly message. In the portion that bears his name, Korach (with some of the Israelites firmly behind him), stands up to threaten the authority of Moses and the Levites. Korach and his followers joined together and confronted Moses: "You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Eternal One is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the community of the Eternal One?" (Numbers 16:3) In <a href="http://www.jtsa.edu/prebuilt/ParashahArchives/jpstext/korah.shtml">the account that follows in the Torah</a> (and in the generations of commentary, as well) Korach and his followers are taken to task for their arrogance and ambition. Korach’s rebellion ends as he confronts Moses before the entire community in a high-noon-esque showdown ... and he and his band are swallowed up by the earth. <br /><br />It does not seem that Moses or God had any intention to listen to their claim that the entire community should enjoy access to divinity and the holiness that follows such access. And while the form and presentation of the message may have been suspect, the actual message seems downright, uh ... Jewish. At least to my contemporary Jewish ears. Despite their dramatic reaction and violent rejection of Korach, it seems that the core of Korach’s idea has some staying power. How many of us - if reading Korach’s statement completely out of context - would disagree or even reject its meaning? And yet, the people who delivered that message - one that Moses and the Levites did not want to hear - were deflected, denied and summarily destroyed. <br /><br />I would not suggest every message we hear has the same amount of accuracy or truth. I would suggest that there is probably a significant amount of truth that we reject out of hand because we are not open to hearing it. It may be the messenger or the way that message is delivered that turns us off ... that turns on the mechanisms of deflection, denial and destruction. Whatever it is, we allow that kernel of truth to be swallowed up so that it is out of sight and out of mind - just like Korach. And so, we may miss out on important truths -- truths that help us grow as individuals or ones that help us to understand the people who bring us these truths and in turn strengthen our relationships and our communities. <br /><br />There is a Korach out there who will soon confront and challenge you ... pay attention and listen before you deflect, deny and allow him and his message to be swallowed up. <br /><br />rabbimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03977073523743946880noreply@blogger.com0