Israel on our Minds

With the Middle East in turmoil, the Jewish world turns to Israel wondering what the future will be. Coincidentally, just last Thursday I met with 15 members of our Social Action Committee to lead a dialogue about Israel as a pilot for a community-wide program.  The goal was simple: to create a safe environment for people to express a diversity of opinions about Israel without fear of conflict or judgment.

As simple as that seems Israel is one of, if not the most challenging, issue for Jewish communities to civilly explore together.  In fact, after years of what I experienced as divisive and not very productive, politically-oriented programming about Israel, I have moved in an apolitical direction and have attempted to take the congregation with me as well.  It is not that I don’t have opinions about the current situation, the government, etc.  Rather, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is more important to try to find ways for people to connect with Israel the country and it’s people than it is to provide forums for a critique of Israel’s policies.

There are times when Israel feels like the elephant in the room:  people have Israel on their mind but do not have a forum in the congregation to discuss their feelings.  That is where this pilot program comes in; it is an attempt to give people a voice without allowing that voice to reverberate in unhealthy ways in the congregation.  All present at the dialogue were pleased with the results.  We did not necessarily agree with each other, but everyone was able to speak their mind without cross talk or judgment.   It is hard to know what we can do here in Santa Rosa about what is happening in Israel.  One thing we can accomplish is to respectfully hear each others' point of view.  Perhaps from there an agenda will emerge that we can all embrace.

A few years back I wrote a sermon for the Holy Days about Israel.  It is a little dated but still worth reading.  The sermon is titled My Heart is in the East, and you will find it at

http://www.shomreitorah.org/sermons.html.

"Death Don't Have No Mercy"

I recently met with some members of the Chevra Kadisha of Sonoma County, the Jewish Burial Society of Sonoma County.  We talked at length about the various challenges they face, especially the need to get the word out about their holy work and how we can help.

In general, Americans are death-averse; we don’t like to talk about death and we work hard to keep the messy details as far away from us as possible.  But, “death don’t have no mercy;” we are all going to die, so it makes practical and Jewish sense to face this inevitability head-on.  According to Jewish tradition, no one is more vulnerable than when they are dead, and great care and respect should be given to the dead.  Kavod Hamet, honoring the dead, is an essential Jewish value as important as ever but lost to many today.

How does one honor the dead?  There are various practices but here are the basics:

Provide Shomrim/Guardians who accompany/stay with the body from death until burial.

Honor the body:  Don’t defile the body—avoid autopsies & embalming (when you can); avoid any alteration of the body after death (organ donations are an exception).

Treat the body with dignity:  Don’t leave the body exposed.  This includes public viewings, which, from a Jewish perspective, are an affront to the dead who, even when made up, only look like a shadow of themselves when they were alive.

Handle the body with great reverence and care:  Even in death the deceased still represents a diminished but real reflection of the Divine, in as much as we are all created B’tzelem Elohim/in God’s image.  This is also why a speedy burial is so important – to leave a body unburied is considered undignified and shameful.  

What does the Chevra Kadisha do?  They can oversee all or part of the process from death until burial.  Most important of all, they handle the holy work of Taharah and Tachrichim, the ritual washing and the dressing of the body, as well as the placement of the deceased into the Aron/casket.

Why use the Chevra Kadisha?  Besides the value of following Jewish Tradition, there is also the value of having members of your own community reverently care for you or your loved ones.  Even under the most professional of circumstances, it is hard to imagine that mortuary employees will handle you or your loved one with as much care or respect as our own Chevra Kadisha.

Are there additional costs involved?  The Chevra Kadisha is made up of a group of volunteers whose only compensation is the satisfaction of fulfilling the mitzvot of Kavod Hamet.  There is often a small fee to cover their costs and the funeral home may charge for Tahara.  However, cost should not be an issue in your decision to use the Chevra Kadisha.  No one will be denied this sacred ritual.

Besides thinking about using the Chevra Kadisha for you or your loved ones in your time of need, please consider volunteering to help by being there for others in your community at their most vulnerable time.

If you would you like to learn about the Chevra Kadisha, call Patty or Marc Bernstein at (707) 546-6043 or visit the website of the Chevra Kadisha of Sonoma County, www.sonomajewishburial.org – which is currently a work-in-progress.

Alienation: Take 3!

Alienation: Take 3

This past Sunday, 30 members of Shomrei Torah gathered together over an exceptional breakfast provided by Leira and discussed their responses to my blog and the issues it raises. We split into four groups of approximately 8 people and had focused conversations based on the following questions:

1. What about the Blog spoke to you?
2. What draws you to Judaism – beliefs and practices?
3. What seems like an obstacle?
4. What does your heart long for religiously/spiritually

Each group identified the similarities and differences in the responses among its members. We then came back together to hear the main themes that had been noted.

Thirty Jews, forty opinions, right? In fact, there was a lot of commonality in folks’ responses. For almost everyone, “God,” however conceived, is a stumbling block to connecting with Judaism, especially as expressed in our services.  Likewise, many pointed to the traditional, Hebrew liturgy as an obstacle.  (Interestingly, though, a few found Hebrew less uncomfortable than English, precisely because not knowing what they’re saying allows them to avoid dealing with the issues and images they find so challenging!)  Some people reported unease with any suggestion that Jews hold a moral high ground: as one participant said, “I was raised to believe that Judaism offered a morally superior system, but that is not what I encounter in the world, either in the States or in Israel.…”  Many report that they are busy doing other things that seem more meaningful to them than what Judaism has to give.  And another commonly-expressed road block during services was simply a lack of Jewish background – “it’s hard to feel connected if you don’t know what is going on…”

On the positive side, most people present felt good about their Jewish communal ties, the sense of belonging, and specifically their involvement at Shomrei Torah.  It was clear that the Jewish emphasis on social justice was a positive touchstone.  Many spoke of their appreciation of the culture – from the music we use in our liturgy to Jewish humor and food.  Others felt enriched by hearing a good d’var torah (discussion of Torah ideas).  And, although many felt alienated from the Jewish canon (Hebrew Bible, Talmud, etc), a number of folks appreciated its use as a means to navigate a moral path through life:  Torah as a moral guide.

As I said in my blog and at the beginning of the meeting, my sole goal was to provide a forum for people to speak their minds, and for me to listen; that goal was accomplished.  As for what’s next, all I know is that I want the dialogue to continue.  If you were at the brunch event, I welcome your further reflections.  If you couldn’t join us, I hope you’ll be in touch with any thoughts or feelings you have about these issues.

Does Evil Exist?

I just returned from an IJS (Institute for Jewish Spirituality) retreat on the Brandeis-Bardin Campus of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.  As an alumnus of the institute, I have access to two retreats every year.  The retreats are a rich mix of prayer, meditation, study and small group discussion.  The focus this year was the challenging subject of “evil”, its place in Jewish Tradition, as well as in our own experience.  The exceptional scholar of Jewish Mysticism, Melila Helner-Eshed, was our teacher and she brought with her readings from the Zohar, the central piece of the Jewish mystical cannon.

Judaism does not speak with one voice when it comes to “evil”,or most theological concepts. Here is a very brief and far from exhaustive outline of Jewish approaches to “evil” over time:

The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) has two main views:

1. Evil is a part of the world, co-existent with Creation (note the tohu v’ vohu  in the first creation myth in Genesis, the evil that flourishes before The Flood, etc.).

2. God is subsumed under everything including “evil”. (Note:  Isaiah, chapter 47; “I create  light and dark, good and evil…”)

The Rabbis of the Talmud offer a number of views, the most prominent being the concept of the yetzer rah and the yetzer tov. This view suggests that we are born a-moral, a tabla rasa, but with two inclinations: one for the good. the yetzer tov; and one for the bad or evil, the yetzer rah.  The goal of life is to have our “good inclination” rule over or control our “bad/evil inclination”. Seems simple enough but in fact, the translation is misleading because, as the Rabbis note, without the “bad/evil inclination”, no babies would be born, no business would be built, in essence, nothing would happen.  Thus, the “bad”or“evil” inclination is really more like an energy source (think sexuality or the drive to compete) which, uncontrolled can lead to bad/immoral/”evil” behavior.

The Middle Ages saw a turn toward Greek thought and the rise of the Jewish philosophic traditions.  The most prominent rabbi of that time was Maimonides and he tends to down play evil suggesting that most evils are either a product of our material nature (anything that comes in and out of “Being” must by definition be subject to injury, disease, decay, and death), or of what we do to ourselves and to each other among other things, idolatry (making something of ultimate concern that is not of ultimate value), or a lack of wisdom.

But what about the mystical canon of Judaism?  What does it have to say?  This is where Melila's teaching was so helpful.  Jewish mysticism flowered at the end of the Middle Ages in part in reaction to rational, philosophic approaches of the Middle Ages.  For the mystics of the Zohar, evil was a real and constant force in creation. Melila joked that if  a child of a mystic from 16^th Castile, Spain ran to her father complaining of dragons under the bed, he would be most concerned and interested, wondering what they want, what they need and how to persuade them to go away!  Not only is the evil and demonic real, to live life fully one must engage,even delve, into “the dark side”, know it intimately enough to be able to work with it, and possibly transform it into something good.

There were two conceptions of evil from the Zohar that I found particularly compelling.  One was the idea that evil is the result of imbalance in the universe between din (judgment) and hessed (loving kindness).  The other was more image than concept – “The world is balanced on the fin of the Leviathan…”, the Leviathan being one of a number of symbols for the malevolent forces in creation….

What do I believe about the existence of evil?  My rational brain sides with Maimonides; most things that we call “evil” are human in origin; we’ve brought them upon ourselves.  That is to say that I generally do not think there are malevolent forces lurking in creation that can posses, take over or influence humanity.  I am also very concerned about the binary affect the use of the word has on any discourse. As Jean Paul Sartre taught in his seminal work, Anti-Semite and Jew, the ability to label the “other” as categorically bad (evil) automatically ascribes “goodness” to you.  However, my gut feels differently; some things, actions, people do on a gut level seem evil to me and at times I really wonder about whether evil exists as a force to be reckoned with in the universe.

In truth, “evil” for me is a conceptual work in progress; I struggle like most to come to terms with “the horror” of reality sometimes.  One comforting Jewish approach is that of Hassidism which, in general, believes that nothing is completely devoid of the holy and thus the chance for redemption exists in almost any situation. Personally, that approach gives me courage to face my own shadow while inspiring me to believe and live for the promise of the future even in the darkest of times.

Martin Luther King Jr. and The Exodus

Every year Martin Luther King  Jr. Day coincides with our weekly readings in the book of Shemot/Exodus. This past week we read from Parashat B’shalakh, the portion that describes the Israelite's exodus from Egypt and their miraculous delivery at the Sea of Reeds.

This story from degradation to freedom is as well-known as any in our tradition.  Revolutionary movements from ancient times until today draw from the deep well of this Master Story of the Jewish people. Martin Luther preached the Exodus story as the theological basis for The Reformation, and Martin Luther King Jr., who we remember this week, often used the Exodus narrative in his struggle for civil rights.

I was a young college student when I really discovered Martin Luther King; when I was feeling down I would go down to the audio room in the library at the University of Vermont and listen to his sermons and other addresses that were on tape there.  I will never forget the time I discovered his "I have a dream" speech…. 

One thing that often gets lost in his extensive biography is what a great preacher he was and how prescient and timeless his words were. One of the books that is regularly on my bed stand is a compilation of his writings - they are truly inspirational!  I want to share some of his words in honor of his name and our Master Story – The Exodus.

We will start with a few words from a sermon he gave at the National Cathedral Episcopal Church in Washington, DC on March 31, 1968.  It's called "Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution":

"I would like to deal with the challenges that we face today as a result of this triple revolution that is taking place in the world today.  First, we are challenged to develop a world perspective.  No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a great Revolution.  The world in which we live is geographically one. 

The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms of brotherhood.... through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet... we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood….  We must all learn to live together as brothers, or we will all perish together as fools.  We are tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality…  I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be... this is the way God's universe is made, this is the way it is structured.”

When I first read those words I practically burst out with the Shemah – “Hear Oh Israel, Adonai Your God, Adonai is One."  As early as 1968, MLK understood how interconnected we all are predicting the kind of globalization and environmental degradation that we are really just recognizing today.

The words from this sermon were delivered on February 4^th, 1969 at Martin Luther King Jr.’s home church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Atlanta, Georgia.  It's called "The Drum Major Instinct."  Reverend King explains earlier in the sermon that the drum major is the guy out in front who gets all the attention.  This is my personal favorite and they mirror my own feeling about what makes for a meaningful life.

"If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want any long funeral.  And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long... tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that is not important.  Tell them not to mention that I have three or 400 other awards, that's not important.  Tell them not to mention where I went to school.

I'd like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King Jr.., tried to love somebody.  I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question.  I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry.  And I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try in my life, to clothe those who were naked.  I want you say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison.  I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness.  And all the other shallow things will not matter.  I won't have any money to leave behind.  I won't have the fine luxuries and things of life to leave behind.  But I just want to leave a committed life behind.”

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke often against the Vietnam War. Just substitute Iraq and Afghanistan for Vietnam and much of what he said then rings true today. Here is one sample taken from a speech he delivered April 4^th, 1967 At Manhattan's Riverside Church:

“Somehow this madness must cease. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam and the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam.  I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken.  I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation.  The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop must be ours.  This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently, one of them wrote these words: "Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the hearts of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism."

I'll conclude with a few words from one other sermon called "I See the Promised Land” which he delivered the eve of his assassination at Mason Temple Church in Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968.

This is how he concludes:

“Well, I don't know what will happen now.  We have some difficult days ahead.  But it doesn't matter with me now.  Because I've been to the mountaintop.  And I don't mind.  Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.  Longevity has its place.  But I'm not concerned about that now.  I just want to do God's will.  And God’s allowed me to go up to the mountaintop.  And I've looked over.  And I’ve seen the Promised Land.  I may not get there with you.  But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land.  And I'm happy, tonight.  I'm not worried about anything.  I'm not fearing any man.  My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

We have made progress since his time but perhaps Dr. King was a little too optimistic.  The Promised Land was farther off than he thought, true redemption, true tikun, seems always to be over the next hill.

Moses did not get to crossover, nor did Martin Luther King Jr..  The Israelites made it but for just a short while and then they were exiled. 

The story of the Exodus lives on in every age and in all of us.  It is both inspiration and charge - to fight against oppression of every kind and never give up on freedom for all people, everywhere.

Fatal Shooting in Arizona

What a shock it was to read about the fatal shooting in Arizona;  6 dead including a 9-year-old child and a Federal judge, thirteen wounded.  The prime target was Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat and a Jew. As of the writing of this blog, she is in critical condition having been shot at close range in the head. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik summed up many peoples' feeling when he suggested that the vitriolic political climate of Arizona was surely in part to blame: "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous... .” (NYT)

What inspired such a bloody and tragic rage? It’s tempting to blame Tea Party activists or the overheated anti-government rhetoric of some in the Republican party, but that would be a cheap shot. However, I do think it is legitimate “to hold Republicans and particularly their most virulent supporters in the media responsible for the gale of anger that has produced the vast majority of these threats, setting the nation on edge.” (NYT)

Jewish Tradition believes in the power of words. It was through words that the world was created - “And God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light” – and it is through words that the world is governed: remember Moses was part revolutionary and part Law Giver. We are a wordy people whose genius is arguably the many worlds we have created with words – the sea of Talmud, the vast oceans of learning in almost every discipline. We are a wordy people that understands the power of words to hurt and to heal.

Intensely aware of the power of speech and of the harm that can be done through speech, the Talmud tells us that the tongue is an instrument so dangerous that it must be kept hidden from view, behind two protective walls (the mouth and teeth) to prevent its misuse. The Talmud also suggests that being wronged with words is especially egregious because there is no way to take the words back once they have been spoken. Speech is compared to an arrow: once the words are released, they cannot be recalled, the harm they do cannot be stopped, and the harm they do cannot always be predicted, for words like arrows often go astray. In the ultimate indictment of lashon harah/derogatory speech, the Talmud in Tractate Erchin 15b, compares lashon harah to murder.

Murder riding on the tide of political vitriol is not new to the Jewish world.

On Nov. 4, 1995, Yigal Amir, a 25-year-old Israeli resident of suburban Tel Aviv and law student at Bar-Ilan University, shot the then Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, as he was leaving a peace demonstration where 100,000 people had gathered to hear him and Labor leader Shimon Peres speak. When asked why he shot the Prime Minister, Amir said he was acting on his understanding of the laws of the pursuer wherein it is justified to kill as an act of self-defense. What’s especially chilling is that just before Rabin’s assassination, extremist rabbis of the far right in Israel had ruled that Rabin, because of his pursuit of the Peace Process, could be viewed as a ‘pursuer’ thus offering a justification for his murder. While some have questioned the direct link of the pursuer rhetoric and Rabin’s assassination, most agree that the vicious tone of the debate about the Peace Process at that time created an environment ripe for violence.

The power to hurt, even mortally wound, as well as the power to heal; words, how easy they flow off the tongue, but how hard they are to retrieve.  A gun shot Yitzchak Rabin, a bullet pierced Gabrielle Giffords' skull.  Six others were gunned down dead and a total of 13 were wounded. Bullets, not words, did the literal damage but the haunting question we are left to ponder is whether, without the hateful speech prior to these hateful acts, would the guns ever have been loaded, would the triggers ever have been pulled.

Pacific Area Reform Rabbi's Conference

I am writing to you from PARR, the annual Pacific Area Reform Rabbis conference in Palm Springs. PARR represents a large region from Texas to New Zealand; there are 200+ rabbis in attendance this year.

I’m here for 3 reasons: To get the word out about our search for a Rabbi-Educator; to study with the conference scholar, Rabbi Michael Marmur; and to learn with/share best practices with my colleagues. And, since I’ve been in the region for almost 15 years, it’s nice simply to see and catch up with people.

Rabbi Marmur’s presentations are about creating a new theology for our time. Interesting to me is the fact that he, like most everyone else I’ve heard/spoken with, is openly acknowledging and speaking about the wide-spread and profound alienation many Jews feel from their Tradition. He is attempting to develop a theological paradigm that will speak to people who are not motivated, inspired or committed to the traditional Jewish focus on Community (an obligation to) and Mitzvah (the sense of both commandment and obligation). He, like most everyone else, has more of a sense of the problem than the solution, though he is offering some interesting food for thought, which is too complicated/involved to blog about and which I am sure to share with you when I return.

Rabbi Michael Comins is also here, among a number of other scholars, and I sat- in on his presentation about his new book, Making Prayer Real. The book is written for the Jewish, religious seeker, who has not been able to connect to Jewish worship, yet yearns for a deep and sustainable Jewish prayer practice. I bought a copy and have invited him to come and speak/teach at Shomrei Torah. He’s been with us before and was very well-received (I am also on his advisory counsel for his other work – Torah Trek).

In addition I attended sessions about the “American Jewish English Dialect” (I bet you didn’t know one existed!), “Clothing and Gender in Jewish Tradition”, as well as an hour meeting with the Israeli Council General from Los Angeles, Yaakov Dayan.

Along with all the learning, we also have services in the morning and the evening. In fact, last night the whole evening program was centered around worship with a focus on innovation. There was a panel discussion amongst the various service leaders (the cantors conference was also in town and joined us for this program), and then three different services were offered. I chose to pray in the “Visual Liturgy Service”. There were no siddurim (prayer books) rather
everything was projected onto the wall. In addition to the words, images were also used to reflect the various themes of the service. Visual liturgies are one wave of the future worth exploring...

I am enjoying being enriched by my time at PARR but when it comes to Jewish life, time away from Shomrei Torah always fills me with gratitude for what we have built and continue to offer together. I can’t wait to be back in time for Shabbat!

Blessings...

RG