Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Year Inclusiveness Prevailed (Jewish Week)

The Year Inclusiveness Prevailed
by Joshua Hammerman
N.Y. Jewish Week



2013 was a very good year for the Jewish people - and an even better one for the Jewish Message.

Wait, what? How can I say this at the end of a year when the Pew report led pundits to declare that the sun is setting on American Jewry; a year featuring major organizational scandals involving sex abuse cover-ups, kickbacks, illicit affairs and, in the case of the Holocaust Claims Conference, a scam that bilked the German government out of $57 million?  A year when Israel and America were at loggerheads over a risky deal with Iran, when Ryan Braun was suspended for doping and Steven Spielberg failed to win the Oscar for "Lincoln?"  Fittingly, the Oscar for best song was won by Jewish director Sam Mendes' aptly named film, "Skyfall."

But the sky did not fall. 

American Jewry is in fact ascendant, and Israel, despite approaching a crucial crossroads with Iran, has never been in a superior geostrategic position, with the Arab world engulfed in internecine conflict.  And with vast untapped natural gas reserves off shore and water desalination in high gear, Israel's economic potential is soaring.

The most significant revelation of the Pew survey was not the increasing rate of assimilation or the attrition rate of all the movements (Orthodox included).  It's that almost every American Jew loves being Jewish.  We feel pretty - and we look it.  Now we can make fun our old neuroses (such as when Sarah Silverman suggested recently that Brandeis team mascot is a nose), knowing that Adam Levine is People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive and Esquire's Sexiest Woman is Scarlett Johansson.  Deep down, we like ourselves.  We look like Mila Kunis, pitch like Craig Breslow and win six Nobel Prizes in a single year.  In 2013, the self-doubting Woody Allen morphed into the self-affirming Stuart Smalley.

When 94% of U.S. Jews say they are proud to be Jewish, this is nothing short of miraculous, given the Chicken Little version of history that we've been force fed for generations. I can't think of another time in Jewish history where 94% would even have had the confidence to open the door for the pollster, much less admit openly that they are proud to be Jews.

A new kind of Jewish community is being forged, one less dependent on traditional boundaries and definitions.  A wider variety of behaviors has become normative and acceptable. Fewer are being left out of the big tent - including those who are non-observant, intermarried, gay, people of color or not halachically Jewish.  This is scary to many, but the train has left the station.  And not just here.  The reigning Miss Israel is of Ethiopian background, and the 2013 winner of Israel's version of "The Voice" was an Israeli Arab.  This is the year when the Women of the Wall finally broke through that glass Chuppah, and when Israeli women refused to sit in the back of the bus.  The Sharansky plan to create space for pluralistic, egalitarian prayer at the Kotel was yet another example that the Jewish message of inclusiveness, the mandate to love the stranger, is winning out.  

In the U.S., that message was embodied this year by Edie Windsor, her lawyer Roberta Kaplan and the three Jewish Supreme Court justices, who together overturned the Defense of Marriage Act and set the country on a new track where marriage equality has not only become imaginable, but inevitable.

The Chicken Littles will point to evidence that younger Jews are rejecting denominational labels (like young Americans of all religious backgrounds), and many are fleeing ritual, synagogue affiliation and organizational involvement.  Theirs is more of a Judaism-by-choice, a cafeteria Judaism where God and tradition are no longer the only items on the menu.

It's interesting that only 39% of Pew's "Jews by religion" claim that God even exists. But 42% of Jews who claim to be of "no religion" attend Passover Seders, and many attend High Holidays services - those occasions when the Jewish Message is most powerfully reinforced.  Something very tangible is keeping even the most assimilated Jews in the Jewish orbit at a time when ethnicity and nostalgia have lost their pull.  And for many whose ancestors long ago left the fold, something is pulling them back.

Pew indicated that the Holocaust has enduring power for American Jews.  But for Pew Jews, the lessons of the Shoah emphasize resilience, hope and loving the stranger, not fear, shame, hatred, revenge and despair.  Seventy years after Auschwitz, our mourning has dissolved into pure, constructive remembering.  We are moving on.  Pew painted a picture of a Jews who feel welcome in their neighborhoods and are unscarred by bias (fewer than half - 43% - feel that Jews face discrimination).  In fact, Pew Jews think several other groups face more bigotry than they do, including, wonder of wonders, Muslims.  

Amazingly, post Holocaust Jewry has never abandoned its basic human capacity for kindness, even as we continue to struggle with the God who allowed Auschwitz to happen, and who allowed 20 children to die in Newtown, hundreds of lives to be shattered in Boston and 1127 to die in a decrepit Bangladesh clothing factory and nearly 6000 in a Pacific typhoon.  So we struggle with God, but struggling with God has always been a central feature of the Jewish Message.

The defining battle taking place in the Jewish world right now is not between Orthodox and liberal, because the same struggle rages within each of the movements too.  It is the battle between justice and love, strictness and acceptance, between exclusivity and inclusivity, between keeping out and welcoming in.   In 2013, the pendulum tilted toward love.

In the Sh'ma's opening paragraph, the one that begins "You shall love," it states that "these words shall be on your heart." 

Why "on" your heart and not in it? 

The Kotzker rebbe responds:

"We should at least keep these words "on" our hearts, for everyone has a time when his heart opens, and if we have kept the words on our hearts, then they will be ready to fall in, in that short moment of openness."

In 2013, our hearts opened just slightly, just enough for that divine message, the one imploring us to love, to sink in.

We've officially entered the post-guilt, post victimhood era of American Judaism. 

It was a very good year.  



Friday, December 27, 2013

Shabbat-O-Gram for December 27

Shabbat-O-Gram

Thank you to our TBE volunteers at Inspirica (here photographed with "Lander Claus") and Pacific House, who brought holiday cheer to so many last Tuesday night. It was, as always, a deeply inspiring and humbling opportunity to perform an important mitzvah. Thanks also to all who prepared food and donated time and other items for this important annual project.  Next year, I fully intend to sit on Steve Lander's lap, as long as all cameras are OFF!


A Look Back... A Look Ahead

As we stand on the cusp of a new secular year, this is an appropriate time to look back and look ahead.

Looking Ahead:

I'll be going solo this evening with the cantor away, but this year-end setting provides us with the perfect opportunity to take a sneak peak at a new Sabbath prayer book still in production.  This siddur is based on the very popular new High Holidays machzor that we began using a couple of weeks ago.  Curious to try this one out (and share reactions)? Come tonight at 7:30. 

Looking Back:

Many of us look back with great fondness at the years Rabbi Barb Moskow served our school and community.  I'm delighted that Barb will be delivering tomorrow mornings d'var Torah.  Join us for services, beginning at 9:30.

Meanwhile you can look back at last week's parsha packet  Moses and the Hero's Journey, which, along with some additional Legends of Moses' Childhood, enabled us to compare the stories of Moses with the journeys of ancient historical and mythological heroes from other cultures and faith traditions (including, appropriately, Christianity).

Looking Back:

Many of us look back with great fondness at the years Rabbi Barb Moskow served our school and congregation.  I'm delighted that Barb will be delivering tomorrow mornings d'var Torah.  Join us for services, beginning at 9:30.

Looking Ahead to the new week:  Our experiment in Doodle Minyans has passed with flying colors.  We've had minyans every day since the Minyan Maker went online.  But past performance is no guarantee of future results.  So sign up for the next few days here.

Looking Ahead to the New Year:

Check our upcoming bulletin and other announcements for a plethora of January events. Of special note is a showing of the film "Journey of the Universe" on Jan. 14, with guest speaker Teresa Eickel of Interreligious Eco-Justice Network.  It's one of the most inspirational spiritual films I've ever seen, and yet it hardly mentions religion at all. See more information here.  

Y.A.C at T.B.E: Jan. 10 @ 6:30 - a wine and cheese reception for young couples, the premier event for our new Young Adult Couples group.  If you know of a young couple in our area, (member, non member, child of a member, including interfaith couples, married, unmarried, straight, gay,) let us know so we can invite them personally.  As for age range - we'll let you determine that! Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible.

Also, we've got some great Shabbat programming coming up, including a new series of Learner's Services, where a key theme of contemporary Jewish life will be  wedded to both the portion of the week and a prayer from the liturgy: Shabbat Conversations: Parsha, Prayer and Purpose.  

Also, we'll continue the series "This American Jewish Life, with TBE congregants sharing perspectives on their life journeys.  These testimonies showcase the extraordinary stories our congregants have to tell.  At the next one, on Friday Jan. 10, we'll hear from a TBE young adult who has confronted the demons of addiction and recovery.

And the Israel trip information session has been rescheduled to Sunday Jan 5 at noon. Over 20 people have already registered!  You can preview the trip and book online here. Space is limited! 


Looking Back at 2013:


Below is an article of mine appearing in this week's Jewish Week's Year End Supplement.  To you and yours, a safe and happy secular new year!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

It Was a Great Year.  Really.
By Joshua Hammerman

2013 was a very good year for the Jewish people - and an even better one for the Jewish Message.

Wait, what? How can I say this at the end of a year when the Pew report led pundits to declare that the sun is setting on American Jewry; a year featuring major organizational scandals involving sex abuse cover-ups, kickbacks, illicit affairs and, in the case of the Holocaust Claims Conference, $57 million taken out of the pockets of survivors?  A year when Israel and America were at loggerheads over a risky deal with Iran, when Ryan Braun was suspended for doping and Steven Spielberg failed to win the Oscar for "Lincoln?"  Fittingly, the Oscar for best song was won by Jewish director Sam Mendes' aptly named film, "Skyfall."

But the sky did not fall. 

American Jewry is in fact ascendant, and Israel, despite approaching a crucial crossroads with Iran, has never been in a superior geostrategic position, with the Arab world engulfed in internecine conflict.  And with vast untapped natural gas reserves off shore and water desalination in high gear, Israel's economic potential is soaring.

The most significant revelation of the Pew survey was not the increasing rate of assimilation or the attrition rate of all the movements (Orthodox included).  It's that almost every American Jew loves being Jewish.  We feel pretty - and we look it.  Now we can make fun our old neuroses (such as when Sarah Silverman suggested recently that Brandeis team mascot is a nose), knowing that Adam Levine is People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive and Esquire's Sexiest Woman is Scarlett Johansson.  Deep down, we like ourselves.  We look like Mila Kunis, pitch like Craig Breslow and win six Nobel Prizes in a single year.  In 2013, Woody Allen morphed into Stuart Smalley.

When 94% of U.S. Jews say they are proud to be Jewish, this is nothing short of miraculous, given the Chicken Little version of history that we've been force fed for generations. I can't think of another time in Jewish history where 94% would even have had the confidence to open the door for the pollster, much less admit openly that they are proud to be Jews.

A new kind of Jewish community is being forged, one less dependent on traditional boundaries and definitions.  A wider variety of behaviors has become normative and acceptable. Fewer are being left out of the big tent - including those who are non-observant, intermarried, gay, people of color or not halachically Jewish.  This is scary to many, but the train has left the station.  Not just here.  The reigning Miss Israel is of Ethiopian background, and the 2013 winner of Israel's version of "The Voice" was an Israeli Arab.  This is the year when the Women of the Wall finally broke through that glass Chuppah, and when Israeli women refused to sit in the back of the bus.  The Sharansky plan to create space for pluralistic, egalitarian prayer at the Kotel was yet another example that the Jewish message of inclusiveness, the mandate to love the stranger, is winning out.  

In the U.S., that message was embodied this year by Edie Windsor, her lawyer Roberta Kaplan and the three Jewish Supreme Court justices, who together overturned the Defense of Marriage Act and set the country on a new track where marriage equality has not only become imaginable, but inevitable.

The Chicken Littles will point to evidence that younger Jews are rejecting denominational labels (like young Americans of all religious backgrounds), and many are fleeing ritual, synagogue affiliation and organizational involvement.  Theirs is more of a Judaism-by-choice, a cafeteria Judaism where God and tradition are no longer the only items on the menu.

It's interesting that only 39% of Pew's "Jews by religion" claim that God even exists. But 42% of Jews who claim to be of "no religion" attend Passover Seders, and many attend High Holidays services - those occasions when the Jewish Message is most powerfully reinforced.  Something very tangible is keeping even the most assimilated Jews in the Jewish orbit at a time when ethnicity and nostalgia have lost their pull.  And for many whose ancestors long ago left the fold, something is pulling them back.

Pew indicated that the Holocaust has enduring power for American Jews.  But for Pew Jews, the lessons of the Shoah emphasize resilience, hope and loving the stranger, not fear, shame, hatred, revenge and despair.  Seventy years after Auschwitz, our mourning has dissolved into pure, constructive remembering.  We are moving on.  Pew painted a picture of a Jews who feel welcome in their neighborhoods and are unscarred by bias (fewer than half - 43% - feel that Jews face discrimination).  In fact, Pew Jews think several other groups face more bigotry than they do, including, wonder of wonders, Muslims.  

Amazingly, post Holocaust Jewry has never abandoned its basic human capacity for kindness, even as we continue to struggle with the God who allowed Auschwitz to happen, and who allowed 20 children to die in Newtown, hundreds of lives to be shattered in Boston and 1127 to die in a decrepit Bangladesh clothing factory and nearly 6000 in a Pacific typhoon.  So we struggle with God, but struggling with God has always been a central feature of the Jewish Message.

The defining battle taking place in the Jewish world right now is not between Orthodox and liberal, because the same struggle rages within each of the movements too.  It is the battle between justice and love, strictness and acceptance, between exclusivity and inclusivity, between keeping out and welcoming in.   In 2013, the pendulum tilted toward love.

In the Sh'ma's opening paragraph, the one that begins "You shall love," it states that "these words shall be on your heart." 

Why "on" your heart and not in it? 

The Kotzker rebbe responds:

"We should at least keep these words "on" our hearts, for everyone has a time when his heart opens, and if we have kept the words on our hearts, then they will be ready to fall in, in that short moment of openness."

In 2013, our hearts opened just slightly, just enough for that divine message, the one imploring us to love, to sink in.

We've officially entered the post-guilt, post victimhood era of American Judaism. 

It was a very good year.  

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Shabbat-O-Gram for December 20

Ask NOT What Your Service Can Do For You… 

This Friday evening, Cantor Mordecai and I will take a field trip with some congregants, attending services in Manhattan at a place that has been called the “Next Big Thing” in the movement to revitalize prayer.  Services will also take place back here, at the usual time, with Katie Kaplan leading (thanks, Katie!).  If you would like to join us in NYC at Romemu, contact the cantor or myself; and even if you can’t make it, their website is worth a peak.
                                                                                           
Recently, the cantor and I also attended a daylong conference on “Prayer as Practice,” organized by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. where we shared ideas on how to instill services with greater intensity and significance.  This is a high priority objective here, and we have recently enhanced our Friday Night services even more by bringing Beth Styles aboard.

We are now ready to take the next step, and that step involves each of us.

Typically when we enter the synagogue for services, we ask ourselves questions like, “What is the rabbi going to say today?” or “Will I be inspired by the music?” or “How can I survive until the Kiddush?”   I’m proposing that we need to change the focus of those questions and become more active participants.  This might sound like I am calling for a Kennedy-esque moment, i.e. “Ask not what the service can do for you…. but what you can do for the service.” 

Not exactly.

I prefer to take the “not” out of that plea.  I think it is perfectly fine for us to ask what the service can do for us.  Yes, by all means, ASK!  And when you do that, something magical will begin to happen.

We should ask that question, but the key is to ask it before we walk in the door. In other words, we need to enter the room with a goal in mind.  We should be able to articulate to ourselves just what it is we need from that service and what we want our encounter with the prayers to do for us.

·         Some might be looking to the service for inspiration to effect social change in the world, to work for the liberation of oppressed minorities, to help the homeless or the hungry, to work toward an end to gun violence, child abuse or climate change.  A number of prayers can help us along that path, along with readings in the supplement and personal reflections.  But it’s the experience as a whole that can give us hope, some strength in the face of the endless frustrations and setbacks that we all face when trying to repair the world. The service both grounds us and propels us forward. It gives a sense that our exhausting struggles aren’t in vain.

·         Others might be seeking a deeper connection to Israel and Jewish peoplehood.  I can’t chant Lecha Dodi, for example, without seeing the gorgeous mountains around Safed in my mind’s eye – or the people at my summer camp gathered at sunset .  Hashkivenu keeps bringing me back to moments when Israelis were especially vulnerable.  Plus. the use of Hebrew connects me in a profound way to Jews everywhere and from every generation, past, present and future.

·         For others, the service is that safe place in which to work out our own inner conflicts, seeking guidance and comfort in the face of relationship issues, job related stress or health crises. It’s a place where we can be alone-together…and never lonely.

·         For others, the service is a time to cultivate positive ethical qualities like patience, optimism (or, on a more spiritual level, hope), listening, empathy, spontaneity, or self discipline.   Prayer itself is a discipline – and the act of committing to attend public worship on a regular basis can anchor us, just as a commitment to regular exercise or yoga might.  For many who come to our services now, they can’t imagine NOT being here.

·         Some might be motivated by the struggle to forge a more personal relationship with God.  “Struggle” is the operative term here.  The very term Israel MEANS to struggle with God.  In a real sense, it’s a struggle to connect, to find meaning in life that goes beyond self-interest and ego.  This is the place where that struggle can find resonance, if not resolution.

·         For others, it is a chance to slow down the crazy pace of life.  The repetition of melodies and the leisurely pace of the service helps us to do that.  Studies show that meditative prayer actually slows down the heart rate and reduces blood pressure.  If your goal is to reduce your stress level, you have come to the right place. 

·         For others, it’s a chance to reconnect with family members, those no longer with us (through Kaddish), those we’ve come to visit or, for that matter, those we’re not talking to!  

·         For those visiting from out of town (e.g. college students), it’s also a great time to reconnect with roots – to find our way home.

·         For others, it’s simply the chance to connect, perhaps for the first time, with a non-judgmental community.  Our service is so accessible (and our congregants sol welcoming) that it provides a low threshold for those seeking to find their way in.  We break down barriers that separate people, so that our differences seem trivial by the end of the service.  At our Kabbalat Shabbat service, you are guaranteed at least one “Shabbat Shalom” greeting from someone you don’t know!

·         And for others – including me – a prime goal is that the experience of praying together opens our hearts to love, so that each week we become just a little more capable of reaching out.  I truly believe that we have become a more loving congregation because of our services, and that in turn has made me a more caring person.  And that in turn, has begun to have an impact on our community, our world – and on Judaism itself.

People have noted that at our services, many close their eyes in intense prayer, some even weep. Know that most of these are people who only recently wouldn’t have been caught dead at Shabbat services at all, much less weekly.  I would venture to guess that most have serious questions about God and a number are undoubtedly agnostic.  But none of that matters if we come here with a goal to set aside the static of daily life, the issues that always distract us, the cynicism that infects our souls and the loneliness that chases us into seclusion.


It all begins with the music.  It’s been said that chanting is “part science, part ecstasy and part mystery.”  Contemporary philosophers speak of “stages of consciousness” that we ascend through repeated chanting in settings such as ours.   The more we do it, the higher we are able to leap.  Week after week, it gets better.  Our hearts really do become more open.  The words leap off the page and come alive through our prayer.  

Having a goal facilitates a sense of ownership and investment and it neutralizes the two dominant themes that interfere with authentic, heartfelt prayer: nostalgia and obedience.  If the only reason we come to services is that Zayde did it, odds are we won’t come back very often – and even if we do, our grandchildren won’t.  Nostalgia compels us to ossify what we are romanticizing, to freeze it in time, to change nothing, even when old forms have otherwise become meaningless to us.  Too many synagogues (and movements) have succumbed to that.  Nostalgia and blind obedience to old ways are not helpful.

The beauty of Jewish prayer is that the liturgy changes very little, but everything else is constantly being reimagined: the melodies, the architecture, the prayer space, the instrumentation, even the way we dress.  We should feel totally unbound in seeking the best ways to make prayer “work” for us, all the while adapting it to cultural trends around us.  Even Leonard Cohen tunes can find their way into a contemporary service – but the words remain the same.  Without innovation, we are dooming a 3,000-year-old tradition to the trash bin of history by rendering it irrelevant.   I don’t think Zayde would like that too much.

Once you articulate a goal, the measure of success is not determined by the “performance” of the service itself.  If my goal is that I emerge from services a more patient person, the measure of success is not whether the cantor’s voice cracked or the rabbi mixed a metaphor.  It’s whether I’m less impatient the next time I’m standing in a long line at the bank.  Setting personal objectives brings clarity to that nagging question as to what connection there is between what we are doing in the synagogue and what we are doing on the outside.  Everything we do in here suddenly becomes astonishingly relevant to our lives out there.

So your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to help bring yourself to the next level – to Prayer 2.0.  That will enrich your life immeasurably, and it will also enrich the lives of your fellow congregants. 

So ask. By all means, ask what your service can do for you; and in doing so, you will do a whole lot for your service and your congregation.


“My Kid Wants a Christmas Tree”

One of the most discussed statistics from the recent Pew survey was that a surprisingly high number of Jewish families reported having Christmas trees in their homes.  It actually shouldn’t be so shocking, considering how prevalent Hanukkah bushes were back a generation ago, in the 1950s, as Jews strove to assimilate.  There is no easy answer when a child asks for a tree, but even without Hanukkah to “protect us” this month, as I wrote a few years ago, the way to counteract a day of XMas saturation is through a year of living Jewishly.

Shabbat is a weekly chance to "gather around the tree," albeit a tree of wax, for a moment of reflection and a warm hug . And the day is bookended by candles, with the multi-colored multi-wicked havdalah candle accompanied by sweet smelling spices at the end. Then throw in the Sukkah and the family festivals of Passover and, most fun of all, Purim, and you've got more than enough to compensate for the tree.

In the end, the Christmas tree is a religious object, "pure and symbol." (Click here to see a terrific comprehensive listing of the Christian symbols involved – even the candy cane has religious significance).  Anyone who calls the tree a secular matter is simply, well, barking up the wrong evergreen.  Want a secular symbol in your school?  Fine.  Tell the principal to leave the tree up an extra month and use it to celebrate Tu B'Shevat!

So what is the best response? I've always felt that kids need a firm grounding in one faith and, if that faith is to be Judaism, it is best to keep the tree out of the house.  However I see no problem in helping Christians celebrate their holiday in other houses, hospitals or homeless shelters, as my family has done at Pacific House for years.  This would be true of Christian grandparents too.

And then, as much as possible and all year, long, we need to light those Jewish flames. This is especially true in this era of mixed identities and the blurring of lines.  For kids, the response is to affirm the values, warmth and joy of our tradition.

Now if it's the adult who wants the tree, that's an entirely different question.

Looking Ahead

Our services will have varying leaders and styles during the next few vacation weeks. By the time we are all back together in early January, we’ll be ready to apply all we’ve learned and the spiritual energy we produce here should be extraordinary indeed. 

Check our upcoming bulletin and other announcements for a plethora of January events. Of special note is a showing of the film “Journey of the Universe” on Jan. 14, with guest speaker Teresa Eickel of Interreligious Eco-Justice Network.  It is one of the most inspirational spiritual films I’ve ever seen, and yet it hardly mentions religion at all. See more information here.  Also, we’ve got some great Shabbat programming coming up, including a new series of Learner’s Services, where a key theme of contemporary Jewish life will be  wedded to both the portion of the week and a prayer from the liturgy: Shabbat Conversations: Parsha, Prayer and Purpose.  Also, we’ll continue the series “This American Jewish Life,”  with TBE congregants sharing perspectives on their life journeys. These testimonies showcase the extraordinary stories our congregants have to tell.  Last week, Dana Horowitz spoke of how the murder of her father changed her life – and through her, it has changed us all (read her story here).


Shabbat Shalom


Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Shabbat Conversations: Parsha, Prayer and Purpose

1      
Join us for these special Learners’ Shabbats, where a key theme of contemporary Jewish life is wedded to both the portion of the week and a prayer from the liturgy. Together we’ll be weaving connections between ancient words and living souls.

January 11: Between Song, Sea and Sap:  Spirituality and Flow (Portion: Beshallach, Shabbat Shira; Prayer: Mi Chamocha)

January 25:  Commandment and Choice:  How should post modern Jews relate to 

Jewish law?  (Portion: Mishpatim; Prayer: Ahava Rabbah)

Feb. 1:  Love and Loneliness:  Why 1 is not the loneliest number (Portion: Terumah; Prayer:  Sh’ma) 

March 1: Getting to Grateful:  Developing an attitude of gratitude (Portion Vayikra ; Prayer: Morning Blessings)


March 15: Unity and Payback:  Is revenge ever a good thing? (Portion: Zachor; Prayer: Alenu)

This American Jewish Life


In mid December, we inaugurated a new series of Shabbat presentations, modeled loosely on the NPR series, “This American Life,” with TBE congregants sharing perspectives on their life journeys. These testimonies showcase the extraordinary stories our congregants have to tell.  In December, Dana Horowitz spoke of how the murder of her father changed her life – and through her has changed us all (read her story here).

Over the next two months, we’ll hear two more stirring testimonies.

Jan. 10 (Friday Evening): Rachael, a congregant who grew up here will be discussing her personal journey in recovery and how she developed her spiritual identity based on the values instilled in her at TBE.

Feb. 22 (Shabbat morning): “To Yeruham and Back (with apologies to Saul Bellow)” - Brett Goldberg will discuss the decade he spent living in Israel, during a time of great intensity, promise and peril for the Jewish state.


Every congregant has a story to share, one that weaves itself into the tapestry of TBE.

“Journey of the Universe” film and discussion with Teresa Eickel – Jan 14




Do we have a Tu B’Shevat treat for you!  On Tuesday January 14 at 7:30, we’ll be showing the film “Journey of the Universe,” a highly acclaimed, Emmy Award winning, epic documentary exploring the human connection to Earth and the cosmos.  Afterwards, a discussion will be led by Teresa Eickel, executive director and co-founder and of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network.  Terri has been instrumental in advising us in our solar panel project and in sharing our accomplishments with religious institutions across the state and beyond.

The Jewish Arbor Day is really Sustainability Day, the perfect time for us to celebrate TBE’s recent focus on preserving our planet.  Even with our solar panels, CSA and Mitzvah Garden, it remains for us to draw the deeper spiritual connections that motivate us in the sacred work we are doing.  “Journey of the Universe,” while focusing more on science than religion per se, is one of the most exhilarating spiritual films I’ve ever seen.

The film invites viewers to become travelers on a journey that explores the origins of the universe, the emergence of life, and the rise of humanity. Filmed on location on the Greek island of Samos, the birthplace of the mathematician, philosopher and mystic Pythagoras, “Journey of the Universe” weaves together the findings of modern science with cultural traditions of the West, China, Africa, India, and indigenous peoples to explore cosmic evolution as a process of creativity, connection, and interdependence.

What is rare about this film is that the creators have been able to tell the story from many different perspectives in a seamless and coherent way, using them to enhance our understanding, but also our appreciation of what we don’t understand. The story of what we have learned about the universe is our ultimate story, one of extraordinary achievements and wondrous potential.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Joshua Labkoff on Sh'mot

Shabbat shalom!

          Those of you who know me know well, know that I’ve always been fascinated by amphibians and reptiles.  It all started when I was young hanging out at our local pool club, a place that my whole family loved.  One of my favorite memories was the endless hours we would spend “frogging” in the pond, behind the club. The pond was teeming with animals, like snakes, frogs, and, if we were especially lucky, the occasional snapping turtle.   Looking back now, I really appreciate mom for letting us keep our catches on the kitchen counter!  My parents used to call them our “guests” because they would always make me take them back to the pond a few days or weeks later.

As the years went on, my interest in these critters grew. From frogs to snakes, to salamanders to newts, to turtles we’d seen them all here in Stamford – mostly in my back yard! At times, frogs filled the house just like they did in the ten plagues! But for me at the time, it seemed like the 10 blessings! Over the years, we’ve had frogs, snakes, lizards, turtles, hamsters, fish – oh yes, we eventually moved up the evolutionary ladder and got a mammal, a cat we named Perry. 

I currently care for a snake.  Believe me when I tell you this, the snake can be a better pet than a cat . For starters one day, Perry decided he was hungry… for my pet beta fish. My snake, Gingi, has never eaten any of my other pets. Gingi sleeps through the night with little interruption, while Perry decides to be cute at the most inconvenient early hours.

In the Torah, the cat hardly appears.  In fact, in ancient Egypt, the cat was considered a god (Similar to how Perry thinks of himself!). The snake, meanwhile, appears in the Torah right at the beginning, with a starring role in the Garden of Eden.  True, it was evil, but loveable.  Really, can you blame it for the fact that Adam and Eve were so gullible? 

In my portion, Moses stands before Pharaoh, and he demonstrates the power of God by turning his staff into a snake.   As the midrash states, the Holy One carries out a mission through anything, even through a snake, even through a gnat, even though a frog. That’s really an important message, that every animal has a purpose like all of Gods creations, including us. 

          Becoming a Bar Mitzvah I am finding my own purpose and place in the world.  As mom would say, I am developing my identity, my own sense of who I am and the roles that I will play as I grow older. It is an on-going challenge for me, like it is for so many young people.  I am grateful to my mom and dad and Bicultural Day School for giving me such a strong secular and Jewish education and such a firm grounding in positive Jewish values.  I know that I will take those values with me anywhere that I go into the world. 

Over the years, one of the most important values that I have learned is to respect the environment and all of god’s creatures. Cruelty towards any living thing is wrong, even when directed against something as simple as a frog or a snake.  With most of our critters, we’d catch them and release them back into the pond or brook, showing our respect for the environment and for the “circle of life”.  My parents always said if we took the animals out of their environment, what would be left for us to find the next time we’d go out Frogging?     

I’ve taken these life lessons to heart. For my mitzvah project I am working at the Animal Embassy at the Stamford Nature Center. That is also a place of happy memories with my mom and dad. While there, I plan to work with the staff help them get their message about endangered species and ecology out to the kids of Fairfield County.  Another role is to use one of my other hobbies, video editing, to help create some interesting videos for their website.

In just two weeks, I will be going to the Galapagos Islands with my dad and sister, to learn more about the endangered species and the role of reptiles and other species in the environment.  The Galapagos is one of the last places on earth where literally thousands of species, many of them endangered, live with little impact of mankind. 

The Torah teaches us to be mindful of our environment, to treat it with respect and to leave things better than we found them.  It’s my hope that through my project and trip, I can bring these lessons to life.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Shabbat-O-Gram for December 13

Shabbat-O-Gram



Tonight is our annual 7th grade sleepover at my house.  Mara and I are looking forward to it! Mazal tov to Joshua Labkoff and family, as Josh will become Bar Mitzvah here on Shabbat afternoon, snow or shine!  BTW, If you think the forecast is bad here, it's been snowing like crazy in Jerusalem; they are calling it the worst storm in decades.  Check your email on Sat. night or Sun. morning for weather-related announcements.  Even if our Israel Trip meeting is postponed for this Sunday, know that spaces are filling fast. Check out the trip's website and contact me with any questions.  

A Workout for the Soul

  

This Shabbat we will be joined by Beth Styles once again, but this week she will be coming both on Friday night and Shabbat morning.  In light of the Pew Report, congregations have to be prepared, with an even greater sense of urgency, to experiment more with what goes on in our pews. We feel we have hit upon a superb formula for Friday nights, a communal prayer experience that opens up our hearts to loving one another.  As people return again and again and our numbers continue to grow, the experience fills a very personal need for each participant, bringing us to a higher level of purpose and unity.  In simplest terms, it feels good - and the service is becoming as indispensable for many as a daily workout or yoga exercise.  It is a workout for the soul, strengthening the heart muscle, our capacity to care.

Beth describes our service as "a beautiful way to bring special meaning to life, reflection of the week we just experienced, our accomplishments, our joys, our challenges and desire to connect with the divine, the universe, and our community."

That pretty much sums it up.

This week we'll be introducing some of that Kabbalat Shabbat musical style, with guitar and keyboard, to Shabbat morning.  
 
It's a one-week experiment, for now, but one I hope you will try with an open mind and, even more to the point, an open heart.  This week, of all weeks, we need that place where we can find comfort and healing together, Friday night AND Shabbat morning.

So join us this Shabbat. And if you are coming tomorrow, try to be here for the beginning, at 9:30, as we will be introducing some new music right from the start.

Life after Newtown

    

Today is a difficult day on several calendars:  Friday the 13th (which is actually a lucky day for Jews) coincides with the Tenth of Tevet, a minor fast day.  This weekend is also the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre - an additional reason to fast (which I am doing right now).  We'll be marking the Newtown anniversary at services both this evening and on Shabbat morning, with special songs and prayers. On Shabbat morning we'll be hearing from Dana Horowitz about her family's harrowing history with gun violence.  You can read more about that in today's Stamford Advocate article about the vigil that took place last evening (see photos on this page) and the Stamford Patch article here.  I had the honor of attending a brief portion of the vigil and can only commend those behind the event, including Dana and Marni Amsellem, for their dedication toward addressing the tragedy of gun violence. 

How can we best recall the senseless murders that took place a year ago?

The Torah leads us in that direction this week, with a portion where both Joseph and Jacob die is named, literally, "he lived." See Godcast's cartoon summary of Vayechi.  Unlike the Egyptians, who glorified a cult of death, Jews respond to death by perpetuating life and by helping the living.

For us this week, propelling the post Newtown world toward life takes us in three distinct directions.

1)     Healing - tonight and tomorrow we'll pray and sing together, and through our tears will emerge some sense of healing. We are all affected so profoundly by what happened last year.

2)     Activism - see the 2013 State Scorecard and see how improved gun laws could really make a difference for public safety.  Connecticut is way ahead of most states, for which we can be proud.  But nationally, there is a long way to go.  And so we ask, what can we do to change our culture of violence?

3)     Acts of Kindness - The people of Newtown have asked that we remember the victims through performing 26 acts of kindness and love, one for each of the victims.  See the Newtown Kindness website, and learn more about the victims on the very moving  Sandy Hook family site.

All of these options lead us in the direction of life, affirming and choosing life in the face of death, life after Newtown.

Picking up a loose end...

Last Shabbat we had a fascinating discussion related to the Torah portion about displacement of populations (in the portion, Joseph did just that to Egyptian farmers).  I made mention of the current proposal to displace Bedouins living in southern Israel, called the Prawer plan.  Well, this week, to the credit of the Knesset, the Prawer Bill was scrapped.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman