May 26, 2010
I am just back from the Rabbinical Assembly Annual Convention, this year in NYC. We debate the issues of the day, do Jewish learning, these days we train in management skills, and we engage in mass complaining about congregants. Only kidding about the last item. We do talk about our congregations, of course, and I pinch myself each time. This year I chose to focus on theology and internet resources, an interesting tandom of subjects which I will pursue in more depth over the summer. We also studied and dedicated the new conservative movement High Holiday Machzor. Beth El has purchased it (a mere 2700 of them) and it will be inaugurated on Rosh Hashanah. It is a wonderful prayer book with great commentaries on the sides of the pages, transliterations of every congregational response, and much food for thought when/if we want a break from the prayers themselves.
Speaking of summer pursuits, steel yourselves. It’s Wednesday will be signing off for a while after another stimulating year – at least for me - of give and take. I have once again received extra vacation time from the Board and will be away from my desk in June (except five days in the middle) and July. The technicalities are the same ones I proposed last year: I give back four weeks of salary, and the Board gives me an extra four weeks of time off. June is normally a relatively quiet month around the shul. Rabbi Harris will be taking on my tasks as required, assisted by Hazzan Lubin and Adjunct Rabbi Abramson and the rest of the staff. I am sure you will be well served as you were last year at this time.
Why am I doing this again? That was always the plan. The work grows and grows as our congregation and its programming grow. The rabbinical transactions continue to multiply, so that keeping up becomes more and more demanding. The next phone call can be the next funeral. The next email can be a question about God, and whether it is or not, it is always followed by 150 more in the next 24 hours (not counting spam). Despite spending 3-4 hours every day just on emails – forget Facebook - I have over 1500 unanswered ones in my Inbox right now (it was 1300 at this time last May.) Hopefully not too many of them are yours. I do have a day off each week, but it’s mostly a day off from being in the office.
Fortunately, I love my job, one which makes my life always stimulating and challenging. And I know that others have the same pressures. My daily pressures, however, keep me from big picture thinking or reading in my field or planning for new initiatives of any complexity, not to mention sleep, and it’s hard to lead well in that reality. I think I do better, and the shul benefits, from the extra time off.
I will miss talking to you, except for the chance encounter in the neighborhood or at the beach. I hope you have a good and relaxing summer, and many nice Wednesdays.
May 17, 2010
Shavuot falls Tuesday night to Thursday night, and I didn’t want you to have to suffer through a whole week without any It’s Wednesday. Here are some thoughts about Chag Shavuot.
Shavuot is the holiday without a name. Shavuot means “weeks.” It’s the “Feast of Weeks” that is celebrated seven weeks after the second day of Pesach. It’s a harvest holiday in origin, like Passover and Sukkot, it’s the one that celebrates the first fruits that become ripe in the Mediteranean around now. When our younger kids bring baskets of fruits onto the bimah on Wednesday morning, they are continuing a very ancient tradition. A large group of tenth graders will also come onto the bimah on Wednesday morning, in their case to be confirmed. The Rabbis in Talmudic times calculated the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai to have been at this same time of year and added that layer of meaning to the harvest celebration. We study Torah a good part of the night (Tuesday night) to celebrate the gift of Torah. Confirmation, which sees our older kids mark the completion of the first stage (let it not be the last) of their formal Jewish education, is a logical but relatively new addition to the holiday.
Shavuot is a nice package of celebration and Torah study and kid-oriented activity. Those ingredients very much fuel my rabbinic fires, so I love Shavuot. Most Jews have less fervor for it, so that its comings and goings are sometimes overlooked. Truth is, that has been the case for ages. Shavuot has struggled for millennia to find a rightful place and focus alongside our other major holy days. The Sinai and Confirmation additions represent rabbinic tinkering to fix the problem. We are still tinkering. Maybe if it had a real name it would be more cemented into the Jewish psyche. We could have a contest. Anyway, each year I hope some more Jews will make at least a part of Shavuot part and parcel of their lives. Bill Rudolph
P.S. The detail of the services, nighttime study (Tikkun), Thursday Yizkor, and so forth, is available at the website (www.bethelmc.org) and will appear in the Tuesday listserv announcements.
May 12, 2010
Last week I wrote about the struggle we all have with knowing when not to “sweat the small stuff,” using as an example from my little part of the world a soccer/ religious school retreat conflict, how one family decided to go with soccer, and positive as well as negative ways of looking at that decision. Many wrote back. More were upset with me than usual, feeling that I should not be making public judgments about those kind of family decisions or that I was lumping together everyone who didn’t send kids on the retreat even if the reasons were different or more compelling. To anyone who felt that way, and I wrote to them but surely there are more out there, know that rabbis walk a delicate line on these matters and I may have crossed too far over it. Others would say no, I was right to make analogies with Sandy Koufax and the World Series and what was implied about priorities needed to be said. And still others saw this as part of a larger set of issues that relate to the challenges of being Jewish in our time. I share a small set of the responses, each of which could spark its own It's Wednesday, and wish you a good Wednesday, the last before Shavuot. Shavuot BTW will preclude this column’s regular appearance, so I hope to write early in the week. Bill Rudolph
- I think that it is easy to judge other peoples' choices, but rarely does the outsider know the full details of a child's life or a family's life. I would never presume to judge one's commitment to Judaism (or values) based on whether a child attends a fourth/fifth grade retreat.
- We live in a time and area where Jews live among others without feeling "different." Haven't we been striving for that in some way? The synagogue, while serving many crucial purposes, isn't the only source of learning and social enrichment. I think that as Jews, we need to be a worldly people, to believe in our ideals and still live and play with our non-Jewish neighbors. To achieve this, we will always have conflicts between our secular, religious and Jewish community obligations. How we resolve those conflicts is defined on the balance we desire, which I believe is a personal decision. If you, or Dr. Nagel believe that balance is skewed, then you should try to figure out why and how to address it. I do know that calling into question a family's commitment to Judaism falls into the "guilt" motivational school which I find is rather ineffective.
- With tongue in cheek, I can say that baseball is life. The rest is just details. And, the Beth El Gray softball team is 7-1. Qvell over that!
- The way I see it - it's a jungle out there. Hundreds of people and organizations have personal self-interested agendas suggesting in no uncertain terms what each us should be spending our precious, limited resources (read, time and money) on.
We can't easily begin to make a choice without first picking a place to stand. Where we stand then determines the framework in which we "judge" our options.
You offer three frameworks in your conundrum today:
1. the larger world view,
2. the Jewish view, and
3. The soccer team view.
Three frameworks, three perspectives, three answers. All correct from their own perspective. If you try to reconcile them, you're going to give yourself a splitting headache.
So how do we pick our perspective? In your case, the traditional thinking goes, Number 2 pays my mortgage, so I better go with that. The Washington Post and the soccer coach are charged with Numbers 1 and 3. If, however, you consistently take a broader view, you may eventually find yourself in the role of the Homeless Rabbi. I personally applaud your attempt to step out of your "assigned role", even if only for a few reckless moments on a Wednesday morning.
- Both of my kids have been involved in organized sports since kindergarten or first grade, and they are now in high school where they both play multiple varsity sports. Our own choice-- and it certainly is a personal family issue-- is that up through the b'nai mitzvah years, religious school trumped sports. [Our son,] who desperately wanted to play [a particular sport] for years, just simply wasn't allowed to until eighth grade because of the time commitment. Guess what? As a senior, he played [varsity] on the [local high school] team. [Our daughter] also started [that same sport] in eighth grade. For her, it has interfered with upper school attendance, but we have no doubt that she is committed to Judaism. She'd go more often if she could, but here we let her attendance slide. My kids both played other sports through elementary and middle school, but when it came to practices or games, there was sometimes a compromise, but overall, they went to religious school.
Our sport experience has shown us that we took the right path-- for us. My kids may not be the most outstanding players on their various teams, but even if they were, to what end? They will likely not be college varsity athletes, rather, they will play multiple intramural sports to stay active. The religious school education they got at Beth El provided them with a solid foundation for life. We are happy with the balance we struck, and we hear few complaints from our kids about the choice.
- My apologies for being too quick to respond mostly to the questions of sports vs religious education. I tell my kids to read all instructions, but... The overall happy balance question, which I will still focus on kids, is simply to, well, provide balance and don't get caught up in what your friends' kids are doing. It can be a struggle since we live in such a AAAA+++++ environment in this part of the County-- but you have to consciously make the choice not to have your kid sign up for that extra soccer clinic, or AP class, or high-powered summer program. They will be happier, and you will be happier, too, now and in the long run. If the foundation is there, they will be successful adults.
- You will recall that the subtitle to a popular book on this subject was, "And it's all small stuff." The problem is that, in this context, not all of these "commitments" have the same level of importance, at least to many of us. The genius of the Conservative movement is that each individual can choose their relative level of commitment to the religion, within certain boundaries; this is unlike the underpinnings of modern orthodoxy, but not too dissimilar to the reform movement approach. I must admit that neither I nor most of my closest conservative friends REALLY keep kosher both at home and in restaurants, but we still are conservative Jews, at least in our minds. We raise our kids this way too. In short, I think it is admirable for people to put Judaism first, and I aspire to do that myself, but the heart of our approach to religious life is the right of the individual to choose their level of commitment and impart that to their children. In this sense, there is nothing "wrong" with what these parents have done.
- I do not feel your question is trivial at all. I actually see this as one of the fundamental defining challenges for the American Jewish community in the next decade: to what degree will we define Jewish life as successfully inspiring particularistic Jewish experiences, and to what degree will successful Jewish life be defined as bringing one's Jewish self (overtly and with intentionality) to the secular world we inhabit. The obvious challenge with the latter aspiration is that most Jews are not able (or inspired?) to bring Jewish ideas and values to bear on the everyday life, instead compartmentalizing Judaism to a few hours a week in a given location. Another fascinating approach might have been to discuss with families how, given the time conflicts, how can we make team sports a Jewish experience?
- I find it difficult to propose a formula (mathematical or narrative) that globally addresses a proper balance between Jewish and secular activities. There are just too many person/community/situation vagaries that would contravene anything I constructed. But as you pointed out, what we should never do if we feel that there is too much of a tilt to the secular side is to invalidate the person or community on the "wrong" side. Instead, using the example you provided, we might more productively ask what earlier Jewish community or educational experiences contributed to the parent's point of view? What can the Jewish community do that might recalibrate his/her balance? How might we modify the education provided to the child so he himself might say to his parents, "There's a time for Jewish activities, and there's a time for sports. I want to attend the Jewish event." Perhaps this sort of inquiry is one important aspect of what we want to accomplish as part of our CE21 initiative at Beth El.
May 5, 2010
Boker Tov. Students of geomatria (numerology) must love today’s date, but this should not be construed as a suggestion of a particular lottery play.
The dizzying pace of the news, and what is making news, takes my breath away more and more often. Just in the last week we have the growing disaster that is the Gulf oil spill, the Times Square bomb attempt, a UVa student murder, etc.
With my other eye and ear I focus on what is going on in our congregation. There is much to qvell over and celebrate every day, and I feel lucky to be part of it. And there are also little irritants that I struggle to know how to deal with precisely because they occur in the context of the kind of news I noted above. You want an example? Let’s try this one.
The recent 4th-5th grade Religious School retreat was very successful but not every kid was there to take part. One parent, in explaining to Dr. Nagel why their child was not there, suggested that the retreat be moved earlier in the year, because many children are on soccer or baseball teams this time of year. Since, the parent says, a commitment had already been made to teams and many parents stress the need to uphold those commitments to teach the value of commitment, and if all the children had gone on the retreat some games would have had to be forfeited which would have unfairly affected the whole team, their kid was kept home.
Dr. Nagel wrote an excellent response to this parent. I would have been briefer. “This is not Sandy Koufax and the World Series on Yom Kippur,” I would have said. A forfeit will not go on the permanent transcripts. Commitment to Judaism is also a commitment to be upheld, one which may well play a more significant role in a child’s adult life than soccer or baseball (which most kids will not play after middle school) if s/he sees that it’s something important that can even trump a ballgame.
But then I stop myself. Why am I getting worked up about this? Compared to the serious things in our world that trouble me and you, this is relatively trivial. I should be happy this family is involved in Jewish life. I should be happy this child is being given access to a good Jewish education. I should be pleased this family chose to belong to our congregation. Many choices were made by this family that should be celebrated. In short, I should keep this in perspective, focus on the good, be happy, and not “sweat the small stuff.”
What do you think? Ponder this on this numerically exciting Wednesday and write if you wish - to the address below and briefly please. Think/ speak more to the question of finding a happy balance and perspective in our lives than to the specific issue noted here.
P.S. Following up on the “sexting” discussion, let me alert you to a program just put together by our Youth Director, Adam Zeren.
On May 23, 10-11:30 AM, we offer a Parent Computer Safety Seminar, taught by Debbie Kovalsky, a locally based Internet safety consultant.
She will explain all that kids are doing online these days and provide parents with tools to protect their kids from online dangers.
April 28, 2010
Last week’s topic was sexting, the story out of a nearby middle school where students used cell phones to buy, sell and trade nude, sometimes faceless photos of girls from that school and the nearby High School. I shared the Jewish insight about our bodies being “little tabernacles” that need to be taken care of in the same modest respectful way that we treat a holy place. And I talked about the proper kind of punishment for the kids involved, more lenient than my first reactions because kids at that age live in the moment and have little understanding of the consequences of their actions. One congregant called me a “wuss” for taking that stand, but I’m sticking with it.
Today I let you write the column. I paste on a small but representative sampling of the many comments received on this subject, which evokes a lot of emotion among people of all ages. There is more to read than usual, but I think it’s worth the time.
Best regards and enjoy the last Wednesday of April. Bill Rudolph
- I spoke with my Pyle child about the recent incident. I pointed out how humiliated some girls must be when a group of boys confront them in the cafeteria with the news that they have circulated their naked photos. She said that the girls are not humiliated, they are proud of what they did.
- [My sixth grader] says that to be popular for a boy, you need to fail and call people the “f” word (homosexual) and the girls need to be promiscuous. When I was shopping for a dress for my 1st grader, most things even at her age were inappropriate. If I am having a hard time finding little girl clothes for a little girl, lord knows what will be available when she is a teen.
- Glad to see someone else remembers Sixteen Candles. I have to say I don't think these kids' lives should be ruined but it is just further evidence to me that our kids in down county are so spoiled that they seem to have missed out on basic values....my child included. I think they had to contact police because of the possibility of coercion but it would be great if parents took the lead in holding their children accountable for their acts. I learned the hard way when my child was the subject of cyber bullying that many of these parents either don't care or can't believe that their brilliant future Ivy League students can be really mean and inappropriate. Like it or not writing on the bathroom wall is different than this.
- While I applaud our principal's and Pyle's efforts to educate children on cyber safety, I believe that the parents need to be the real educators on this topic. Too many parents give their children what the older siblings have, or what the parents think they need to fit in or be socially accepted. It infuriates me when I see a 13-year-old on an iPhone. I hope all the kids involved in this case have their technology taken away for a long time, until they've proven to their parents that they are capable of being trusted with it again.
- Well said, and we support openly spying/monitoring. However, there is another option favored by a (small) number of Beth El parents. No cell phones, no kids' email addresses, no Facebook, no TVs in their rooms, no cable, and Internet access only in the open areas of the house. Maybe we are troglodytes, but our kids ride their bikes around the neighborhood, meet friends at the park, invent games/plays with their friends, read loads of books, play music, join us for family game and movies nights, etc... They haven't seen most of the images in the popular media, which is a huge driver of this "need" to grow up quickly. We don't feel we've lost anything.
- I'm writing because I AGREE with you about lesser punishment for these kids. There was an incident the other day at Whitman where a ("nice") kid who I know was arrested-- the police came and took him away in handcuffs from what I hear-- for what would have been considered a minor drug infraction in my teenage years (I need not go into the details). Was that appropriate? I suppose the police wanted to make a statement to the student body. The kid's court appearance is today, and I don't know what will be of his college acceptance. We'll find out, I am sure. And, several years ago, the son of friends had his future ruined when he was in middle school. His high school neighbor had given him "weed" to sell, which this kid-- not thinking of course-- went ahead and did, probably to be "big" and "popular." There was no indication that he was a user and they did all of the tests. With zero tolerance, this kid was expelled from all Fairfax schools forever and his parents had to scramble to find a private school that would take him. I'm talking about a brilliant kid who is now going to Northern Virginia Community College. What a waste. I think about it all of the time.
- What I tell my kids, among other things, is that times are different from when I was young. I don't condone the "mistakes," but there is no margin for error any more-- error that comes from undeveloped brains that just don't think about consequences. As you say, these kids "live in the moment." Doing something wrong may have such huge consequences down the line these days. It's frightening for parents of "good" kids. These so-called good kids make mistakes all the time, take risks. But, that's what growing up is all about. If we don't allow kids to make mistakes, they won't learn what to avoid and how to protect themselves in the future. They should be punished in some manner, of course, but also with an understanding about brain development. Let's not go overboard and ruin their lives. Let's help them do a course correction, understand what they did wrong, be vigilant that they don't do it again, but not go overboard and potentially have their lives take a big downward turn.
- Clearly, I have strong feelings here, with two teenage kids in my household, but many more kids-- their friends-- who are also "my children." We are lucky to live in a community where it really is community parenting-- not just my neighborhood, but my son's best friends are all Beth El kids and all of the parents watch over each other's kids. It's still not enough, and we talk about it all the time. We are scared that our kids are going to make that one mistake that in this day and age will have life-long consequences.
April 21, 2010
The new thread can wait a week. Bethesda and beyond are a buzz about the “sexting” scandal at the Middle School where the most Beth El kids matriculate. In case you were stuck in Europe like congregants B and S, students bought, sold and traded nude, sometimes faceless photos of girls from that school and the nearby High School. These photos were circulated on cellphones for at least several months. The police have been called in and school administrators are busy trying to understand why all their preaching about the dangers of inappropriate internet behavior went unheeded.
I have two thoughts to share, the first a particularly Jewish perspective, taught to us ironically in last Shabbat’s Torah portions and shared by me with those in attendance at Shabbat services which happened to include 60 kids from that very Middle School. Commenting on all the regulations about bodily purity and impurity in the Torah portion, Abravanel understands the expression “My tabernacle” to be referring not just to God’s sanctuary which must be kept pure but to our own bodies. Our body is indeed a mikdash me’at, a “little sanctuary.” From that understanding follow many implications: we must watch what goes into our body, we must take good care of our body, and our body must be treated in the same modest respectful way that we would treat a holy place. There is so much wisdom in that understanding. Many of us, our kids too, take it to heart in how we eat and how we keep in shape. I hope the modesty part gets equal attention, in how we dress and how we stay dressed when cameras are involved.
The second thought is about what police and school administrators should do in situations like this. There is a felony involved for those who shared these photos online. The girls who posed exercised poor judgment. My first reaction was that a serious example needs to be made of these kids so that others would not follow the same path. Real punishments should be meted out. But then I heard from my wife, who really understands middle school kids, and from Petula Dvorak in the Post. I have come to the realization that, first off, middle school kids mostly live in the moment, are into themselves, want to be accepted by their peers, and have little understanding of the consequences of their behavior. And, second, what these kids did is not so different from what kids like them have been doing forever. How different are the nude photo entrepreneurs from the geek who makes cash off Samantha’s panties in Sixteen Candles (Gail and I saw that on our fourth date)? As one expert on parenting in the internet age put it, “When you wrote a name on the bathroom wall, only the people who used that bathroom saw it. Technology allows those mistakes to be much bigger.” Today, the digital equivalent of words on that bathroom wall on Facebook can keep a kid out of college. I am now advocating lesser punishments for these kids, certainly their lives should not be ruined. The real action must be on the part of all parents, going forward. Instruction about the pitfalls of this kind of technology will work for some kids. For other kids, success may require what Dvorak calls “all out spying,” to protect those kids from themselves; in those cases, Dvorak recommends SpyParent.net. When all kids get their cellphones and/or reach middle school, extra attention is appropriate. If we allow them to be on Facebook, at that stage at least, make sure we are our kid’s Facebook friend or have their password. At the very least, family discussion of this case is in order. For the kids’ sake.
April 14, 2010
Our Scholar in Residence, Hazon CEO Nigel Savage, has come and gone and made quite a mark in the process. Nigel, in his special passionate fun way, made us look in new ways at the planet on which we live. Religion is supposed to make us do that, and we saw it happen for a pretty magical 36 hours in our shul. The last text we studied together will provide a good starting point for a new thread, next time.
It’s the week between Yom HaShoah and Yom Ha’atzmaut, Holocaust Remembrance Day and Israel Independence Day. Seventy years ago few would have predicted that we would be observing these days. The Holocaust was not even imaginable, and nobody knew for sure if Israel would declare its independence or survive the predictable attempts to destroy it soon after. Let me share my two current thoughts about these observances.
One, I hope that readers of It’s Wednesday in this same week 500 years from now will be hearing about Israel’s latest exploits in science and technology, these the result of joint efforts with the scientific community in the adjacent Arab countries. And I hope that the Holocaust will be a minor day of observance on the Jewish calendar, minor because so much growth and accomplishment will have followed it in the Jewish community of subsequent centuries that its impact upon our history will seem minor compared to our current assessment.
Two, in some ways I wish that another date had been chosen for Yom HaShoah. The 28th of Nisan is one of many dates on the Holocaust timeline that could have been chosen for this day of memory. Putting it so close to Israel Independence Day, which could be nothing but 5 Iyyar, cannot help but create a linkage between the two events. Of course there is a relationship between Israel and the Holocaust. When our shul trip to Paris and Israel stopped in Drancy, the deportation railway station where Parisian Jews were sent off to die in Auschwitz, and then flew the next day to Israel, we understood that Israel represents an answer to the dangers represented by the Holocaust. With Israel as a sovereign state, the six million would not have died. But the problem is that the juxtaposition is misused - by some Israeli politicians who dwell excessively on the victim hood of the Jews, and by Holocaust deniers and their ilk who say that we got Israel only because the world powers felt guilty about what was (supposedly) done to us during WWII. Friends, Israel was our homeland 3000 years ago, and we cherished the dream of returning and rebuilding it for 2000 years. Our claims are ancient and constant through the millennia, and they are based on far firmer footings than the destruction of European Jewry (as real and horrendous as that was.) So, care needs to be taken as we consider these two major realities that distinguish this phase of modern Jewish history.
The lives that most of us live on a Wednesday like this one seem so trivial in comparison to days in the life of a Holocaust victim or survivor, or of a chalutz building and defending the state of Israel. Do take a moment or two to reflect on these momentous events that very much have shaped the Jewish community and the Jewish psyche in our time. Best regards. Bill Rudolph
P.S.
Celebrate Israel at 62.
For the head, hear Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz at 7:30 PM Sunday at Beth El as this most brilliant teacher talks about the promise and the reality of Israel at 62.
For the heart, a night of music begins the same hour at Ohr Kodesh Monday night as our two congregations join for an evening of a cappella performance, communal singing, Israel dancing and refreshments, all for $5/person.
April 7, 2010
Boker Tov and happy chametz.
Last week, on Thursday not Wednesday, I shared a text that our Confirmation class learned with Nigel Savage, who is coming as our Scholar in Residence in just two days. Let’s first figure out the text and then I will offer a shameless plug for Nigel, who is an inspirational leader that you will want to meet and hear.
Here is the text, repeated in case for some reason you don’t save every It’s Wednesday as you should:
Our Sages taught:
A man should not move stones from his ground to public ground.
A certain man was moving stones from his ground onto public ground when a pious man found him doing so and said to him,
“Fool, why do you move stones from ground which is not yours, to ground which is yours?”
The man laughed at him.
Some days later the man had to sell his field, and when he was walking on that public ground he stumbled over those stones.
He then said, “How well did that pious man say to me, ‘why do you move stones from ground which is not yours to ground which is yours?’
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Baba Kamma, 50b
Many wrote in. I think Congregants M and J got it best.
M: He laughed at the man because he thought him a fool for mischaracterizing his actions (he was moving stones to public land, not to his own land). When he later tripped over the stones (on public land), he realized that his own land was impermanent in that it could be bought and sold at will, while the public land is really "his" land, as it is all of our land. We are here as conservators and stewards of this collective property.
J: he becomes cognizant after the sale that the only land that is really "his" is that in which he has a stake as a member of the general public.
Nigel Savage has created the largest and most successful Jewish environmental group in the U.S. Check it out at www.hazon.org. Hazon does biking, healthy eating, climate change, retreats, and it’s still a young organization. Nigel’s work and wisdom are very much based on applying Jewish tradition to the world’s challenges in unique spiritual ways that are not what one expects. The theme for his four talks will be “Jews, Food and Planet Earth.”
Friday night he speaks following Shabbat dinner (you need to reserve today to Hattie Goodman at hgoodman@bethelmc.org) which follows instrumental and traditional services. Come to one or all three parts. He is giving the sermon in the Shabbat morning sanctuary service and after Kiddush, and he will speak in the Men’s Club slot on Sunday morning. All the detail is available on our website, www.bethelmc.org. I guarantee you will be happy you showed for this.
On this first Wednesday after Pesach, enjoy the summer day and try to remember what a harsh crazy winter it was. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Yom Hashoah begins Sunday evening. We will observe “Holocaust and Heroism Day” with a special program honoring the survivor generations. 8PM. Contact me or the Hazzan for more information.
March 31, 2010
Boker Tov and happy Pesach.
No, you are not confused. Wednesday was yom tov and I didn’t want to miss a whole week, especially since congregant W wrote that I am too entrenched in negativity – Madoff, Menachem, the U.S. Israel rift - and he isn’t enjoying what I send so much. Even one disgruntled reader is too many, though I cannot promise to avoid reality all the time.
In ten days we host our Scholar in Residence, the founder and CEO of Hazon, Nigel Savage, whose topic for the weekend will be “Jews, Food and Planet Earth.” He is an amazing young Jewish leader, as you will hopefully see. I met him on the Israel Ride, spent the 3 years since then working to get him as our Scholar. Our Confirmation class got to meet with Nigel on our recent NY trip. Here is the text that we studied with him.
Our Sages taught:
A man should not move stones from his ground to public ground.
A certain man was moving stones from his ground onto public ground when a pious man found him doing so and said to him,
“Fool, why do you move stones from ground which is not yours, to ground which is yours?”
The man laughed at him.
Some days later the man had to sell his field, and when he was walking on that public ground he stumbled over those stones.
He then said, “How well did that pious man say to me, ‘why do you move stones from ground which is not yours to ground which is yours?’
Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Baba Kamma, 50b
What do you make of this? For a start, why does the man laugh? And what causes him to change his mind? Write back if you wish or wait till next week when I will share some thoughts.
For more information about the weekend, brought to us through the generosity of the Myra Reinhard Family Foundation, look on our website, www.bethelmc.org. The Friday night services (including the instrumental Kol Haneshama service) and dinner (you need to sign up) and talk will be a highlight, as will Nigel’s two talks on Shabbat day. Don’t miss this. I guarantee it will be stimulating.
In the meantime, Passover continues for 5 ½ more days. I’ve enjoyed two wonderful sedarim and already had more candy and sweets than I consume in the average month, so I am not in a rush to see it end. Enjoy this Thursday and Moadim l‘simchah - happy intermediate days of Pesach.
March 24, 2010
Passover is coming but I have to try to wrap up our discussion about the Israel – U.S. administration rift that developed around Vice President Biden’s visit to Israel and the announcement of an approval for new housing units in Jerusalem. There has been a ton of ink, much of it painful to read, about that announcement and the response. What I wrote used less ink. It was a criticism of the Israelis and of the administration, but the part that got your attention was when I opined that American Jews should not be joining the chorus of those critical of Israel because there are more than enough of those without us.
The responses were about equally divided. If you see people getting aliyahs in the next few weeks, you can guess that they are among those who wrote in agreement. But the lineup of congregants who thought I was wrong was a significant one, including many who are my friends, people who have eaten at my table, been to Israel with me. Here is one sample, from congregant W:
While I usually (almost always) come away from "It's Wednesday" with a smile on my face and a jump in my step, today was the exception.
There is the belief in AIPAC and in a number of Beth El congregants that Israel can do no wrong and therefore whatever the country does must be right and the rest of the world is wrong (Ah, if they only knew the whole story!). I do not subscribe to that belief.
I suspect that you may include me with Thomas Friedman and other "Jews who take upon themselves the role of knowing and prescribing what is best for Israel - whether Israelis would agree or not." I see nothing wrong with that. I would rather give Israel counsel on what I think is in its best interest and the interest of the Jewish people than to support every decision that Israel takes. It is the same standard I apply in responding to decisions taken by the American government. Would you want it any other way?
Whether George Mitchell can help achieve enduring peace at this time is debatable, with most lining up on the Mission Impossible side. That being said, the actions of the Israeli government substantially reduced whatever flicker of hope there was and once again cast the Jewish state in a strongly negative light in the eyes of the world. To what end ---- some apartment buildings in East Jerusalem? Is that the "big picture"? Whether Netanyahu knew of the actions of his Interior Minister is beside the point. He accepted it if not defended it. That his government would otherwise fall is not an acceptable rationale. What then is the role of a statesman and a leader?
I have been watching the nascent J Street movement for a number of months. Last week I signed their petition and made a contribution to further their objectives. Sadly, AIPAC has all the power, money and influence in Washington DC these days. I am hopeful that a more reasoned pro-Israel voice will be heard --- one that will better serves the long term needs of Israel and the Jewish People than lock-step AIPAC. I see that hope in J Street.
Rather than offering a critique, let me offer to W, and to all of you, the following very concise explanation of my position. I have given this much thought lately, and most of my life. I think it all depends on how we see the situation with Israel and its neighbors. If we think the neighbors want to live side by side with Israel and just need a reasonable agreement that protects Palestinians interests, then apartment and settlement building in disputed areas is a provocation that is preventing peace. American Jews might well join the chorus of those who want Israel to avoid provocations and do all it can to make peace. If we think that Israel’s existence is the provocation and that the neighbors will not let a Jewish state of any size exist if they can help it, then we should understand that almost anything Israel does is a “provocation” and complaints about specific actions (eg. settlements, Gaza incursion) are just a tactic for undermining its existence. If so, then American Jews should look at the vast array of forces which are trying to de-legitimize Israel, not to mention those working for its physical annihilation, and not add to the chorus but be very guarded in our criticism of its policies and decisions – at least in public. And we should be supportive of groups like AIPAC (whose membership is far more diverse than some think and which works to garner support for whatever Israeli government is in place.)
As you can surmise, I fall into the second viewpoint. I wish it were otherwise, for the near future for Israel is a bleak one if my assumptions are correct. But I look pretty much in vain for people in Israel’s neighborhood who see a two state solution (which I support) as anything more than a temporary phase. I look in vain for a younger generation raised with acceptance of even that temporary phase. So, I think in the short run Israel needs as many friends as possible, and friends criticize friends in private.
Have a good Wednesday and a good lead up to Passover. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Needs tips for leading your Seder? Need fun activities for your kids while you are cleaning and/or preparing for the holiday? Check out Family Education Director Elisha Frumkin’s blog for articles, resources, and ideas on Passover and much else. It’s really amazing. http://jewishfamilyliving.blogspot.com.
March 17, 2010
When I was Hillel Director in Ann Arbor, a Jewish student’s exam was scheduled for Yom Kippur. The professor didn’t want to give a makeup. The department chair intervened and a makeup exam was to be scheduled. But when? So the chair consulted with a prominent Latin prof who was also president of the largest synagogue in town. Her opinion: the student should take the exam one minute after the blowing of the shofar at the end of the holiday. That is when the makeup was scheduled, since the suggestion came from a fellow Jew who should know and care. To suggest an exam one minute after a day of fasting was an ignorant suggestion, and it also showed an arrogance that the prof (who consulted nobody) thought she knew what was appropriate for this Jewish student within what she thought were the parameters of Jewish observance.
Why do I recall this ancient tale? We are in the midst of one of the more explosive rifts in the 60+ years relationship between Israel and a U.S. administration. It’s not quite a “crisis,” Hillary Clinton said yesterday, but it’s pretty close to that. It began with an unnecessary and unfortunate embarrassment of Vice President Biden during his visit to Israel. The Interior Minister who caused this embarrassment should have been fired on the spot, but wasn’t because then the ruling coalition would collapse. I am upset by that Minister’s action. Just as unfortunate was the reaction of our administration, which used this incident as an opportunity to pillory Israel as if peace was finally about to break out and the slap in the face of Biden had overturned the whole effort. The Israeli Ambassador was called in for a dressing down, and all kinds of threats and demands were made (some public and evidently some private).
Back to the Latin prof. What bothers me the most in all this drama is the role of some Jewish Americans in fanning the flames. These are Jews who take upon themselves the role of knowing and prescribing what is best for Israel - whether Israelis would agree or not. Some may be in the President’s inner circle, but I don’t know what goes on there. Noticeable to the outside world is the lobbying group J Street, which condemned the Biden slap in the face, stood firm against “provocative actions on any side intended to undermine efforts to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” and headed to the White House on Monday to deliver petitions collected over the few days of the crisis that would “show the Obama administration that there’s broad support for a tough but fair approach to ending the conflict.” I call that piling on. On an individual level among Jewish Americans is Times columnist Thomas Friedman, whose Sunday column accused the Israeli leadership of “driving drunk” and questioned Biden’s manhood for not picking up and leaving when insulted in the way he was. I struggle to think of any positive value to this column, which will not bring about coalition change but certainly serves to embarrass Israel and further fan the flames of administration anger. But I am sure Friedman, and J Street, think they know what is best for Israel, just as the Latin prof in Ann Arbor thought she knew what was best for the Jewish student whose fate was partly in her hands.
If you want to register your concerns about this situation, you have options. You can write to me. Better you should check out the websites of AIPAC (look for “Reaffirm the US-Israel Alliance”) or The Israel Project (see “Protect the Us Israel Relationship”). If you think J Street is on the right path, check out their website (see “Stand with the Obama Administration on Israel”). Each provides easy ways to contact elected officials from the President on down.
Let us hope that this mini-crisis will pass. Occasionally something good comes out of such difficulties, but first the hemorrhaging has to be stopped.
I will try to calm down and hope more important people do also, and I hope you have a good Wednesday. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Enough politics? Then take in some theatre. We have tickets for “Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?” this Sunday evening and “My Name is Asher Lev” on April 4th in the afternoon. Both are well worth seeing. Contact Ricardo Munster at rmunster@bethelmc.org.
March 10, 2010
Last week I wrote about a bad choice I made early in my rabbi career and shared the insight that bad choices often provide the kinds of experiences that we grow from. I got some responses – not as many responses as usual which makes me happy that so few of you ever made a bad choice – and heard from you about some good but tough learning experiences. Learning from bad decisions with kids, or family disputes not ended so they simmered longer than they needed to, or lies to protect someone which only made things worse. The response that struck me the most was from a young attorney, let’s call him J.
J did a complicated real estate deal, which I don’t begin to understand, and made a small error that left a Florida guy who happens to be Jewish with property that he hadn’t bought. The guy refused to return it. J’s law firm made him a large offer to compensate him for his “trouble,” he asked for 8 times more. I am not sure what happened in the end, but J was frustrated not only by his own error but by the refusal of the Florida Jewish man to do what was right, to return what he hadn’t paid for and had acquired only by an error. J now checks every deal ten extra times, but hasn’t come to peace with the behavior he encountered.
The Torah is full of teachings about returning to its owner what is not ours. It would seem to be a no brainer, anything else would be akin to theft. But there are people out there who believe they have earned anything that comes to them, however it comes. This gets played out on so many levels. The one I see the most is on the simplest level: people who don’t say a word when they are undercharged at a restaurant or store even though ultimately it will come out of the waiter’s or clerk’s salary. And obviously there are more egregious examples. What are these people thinking? How do they get that way? If you know, please enlighten me.
I try hard to practice what I preach, always correcting any mistake a merchant makes that would cost him/ her money. I draw the line only with health insurance. Having tried twice to return an overpayment, I learned that expecting that system to figure out what to do with the money I returned, in any reasonable amount of time with any proper cloture, was highly unrealistic. So I stopped trying and kept the money, probably one hundred bucks over the years. I apologize publicly for this, it wasn’t my money to keep. But anything else? Anything else I consider theft, and that is not kosher.
On this Wednesday, I hope that we each examine what happens when we intersect with other people’s property and income, and make sure we do the right thing.
P.S. The Saul Bendit Adult Institute began/begins this week. You can register at the door. Tuesday morning and Wednesday night classes offer a wonderful smorgasbord of learning opportunities from the sublime to Jews in sports. If you overpay, the difference will be returned. If you don’t register, you will not know how good/fun the learning is. Go to www.bethelmc.org for detail.
March 3, 2010
Purim has come and gone, another smashing success. And now to a new thread, about paths to wisdom.
I was with Rabbi Harris and our Adjunct Rabbi David Abramson at the mikveh last week. Together we were bringing J, who was on the ten year conversion plan, into the Jewish people. It’s a three part process and in one of the lulls the three of us were schmoosing and one of us asked - not sure why- if we remembered the worst moment in our rabbinate. Here goes mine.
Many years ago, I was the Hillel Director at Michigan State University. It was my first real job. We held a Simchat Torah Soviet Jewry rally in my second year. We had a service and then went into the streets to dance a little, in solidarity with Jews in Russia who on that same night dared to do likewise and express their Jewishness regardless of the consequences. One of the students suggested we head over to campus to continue our rally, and so we did. And then one said that we should go to the University President’s house (he lived on campus) and enlist his support for the cause. I didn’t think much of the idea, but I was young and inexperienced and not sure I should go against the will of the students. And I hoped the President was out of town raising money, which was what he mostly did. So I went along. We got to his home, several students knocked on his door (it was well after 10PM) and we waited a minute or two, and it seemed that my prayers were answered. But then the lights started going on and there was the President (Clifton Wharton) coming through the front door in his bathrobe with not the nicest smile on his face. And of course the students who had knocked on the door disappeared into the crowd, and that was “the moment.” I was left to explain what we were doing. It was a most awkward encounter, and only got worse the next morning when the student paper wrote up the story and the Jewish faculty began calling to ask what possessed me to do what I had done. Only one of them asked for my resignation and I survived that incident, and the wisdom I acquired from it has helped me in different ways since.
I heard a story recently that resonates with that experience. After a long hard climb up the mountain, the spiritual seekers found themselves in front of the great teacher. Bowing deeply, they asked the question that had been burning inside them for so long: “How do we become wise?” There was a long pause until the teacher emerged from meditation. Finally the reply came: “Good choices.” “But teacher, how do we make good choices?” “From experience,” responded the wise one. “And how do we get experience?” “Bad choices,” smiled the teacher.
Spend a little time on this Wednesday pondering a bad experience or bad choice in your professional/ adult life, and what wisdom you acquired from it. I am always glad to hear what you come up with. Click the address below. Nobody reads my emails but me. Best Bill Rudolph
P.S. Today is the deadline for the Shabbat dinner that kicks off the Worship and Study Minyan sponsored Shabbaton – see the Tuesday listserv announcement or www.bethelmc.org for more information. Sunday is our larger community’s “Routes: A Day of Jewish Learning,” featuring great teachers and many hundred students – find out more at www.pjll.org
. The BEPS annual fundraiser is Sunday night and the Saul Bendit Adult Institute begins next Tuesday and Wednesday.
February 24, 2010
The Torah readings this time of year focus on the construction of the mishkan, the portable shul used by the Israelites in the Wilderness. It says that every time we build a shul we bring God closer to us. Not that God lives in the shul - even when it is called the House of God (the name our founding fathers and mothers chose in the early Fifties) - but that God’s presence is brought nearer when we build it.
I always ask myself what about our shul would attract new members, but before I answer that I try to guess what about us would attract God if S/he was contemplating membership ( I do think we would make it honorary and skip the dues). Some years back I hit on the motto/ masthead logo for Beth El that we still use, until somebody wiser thinks of better: “Congregation Beth El: Where Tradition and the Creative Spirit Merge.” I think that does partly define who we are, and that ethos – and the kind of members and empowerment we have – have contributed to our growth and success.
Purim begins this Saturday night. It is Case Number One for who we are. We have a traditional Megillah reading, done now totally by members. Some years back Scott Glick came to me and asked if we could do an additional creative reading with song parodies set to popular music. From that little conversation has come “Megillah Madness,” a totally unique and creative Purim shpiel that has engaged hundreds of congregants as performers (under Scott and now Alan Simon’s leadership) and made the Purim traditions amazingly alive for thousands and not coincidentally brought in a lot of potential members. Bit O’Megillah, for the preschool and younger set, used to feature hired entertainers and story tellers but that too has now been taken over by a small cadre of Minyan Chaverim members who are giving us “Bit O’Megillah According to Sesame Street.” In the morning we will repeat the Megillah reading and in the afternoon the Men’s Club puts on its annual Carnival. Well over one thousand different people will partake of these different pieces of the Purim three-cornered pie. I don’t know if I want Beth El to be known as the Purim Shul, but I do know that the creative way we make the Purim tradition come alive attests to the values that we represent.
Come join us Saturday night and/or Sunday. And make today a day where we relish our freedom from the Haman’s of history and resolve to be like Esther in standing up for freedom when we see it endangered. Bill Rudolph
P.S. In the winter months we have been emphasizing learning – first the Thirteenth Principle, then the Community Torah Institute and the CE21 home conversations.
Shabbat morning will see the graduation ceremony of our latest Adult Bnai Mitzvah class. The 18 people, some maybe 30 years old and some maybe 95 and the rest in between, will lead parts of the service and celebrate the completion of an eighteen month program of learning under Rabbi Harris’s shepherding hand. They know they don’t know everything, but they certainly know a lot more than they did. Come share in their accomplishment and contemplate being part of the next class that begins in the fall.
February 17, 2010
More than the usual, I have Torah on my mind. Partly because of the ongoing discussion of the Post cover story about our community scribe Menachem Youlus. I continue to wrestle with this dilemma, and you continue to write to me about it. I am waiting now for the analysis of the expert scribe who is in town today (delayed from last Wednesday when we had a little storm here). In the meantime, congregant S comes forward with an interesting analysis – not of the story itself but of some of our reactions to the story.
Wow Rabbi, you seem to have unleashed a torrent of projective test responses that reveal much about how we Jews in the US think about ourselves in relation to the non-Jewish community (Madoff redux) and how lashon hara is very much a relative concept (eyes/ears of the beholder/listener). I took your column to be a justified attempt at transparency since the story involved the congregation directly and Beth El individuals closely. The anger I read in several of the responses may be an expression of "why do we have to be worried about being worried about what non-Jews think?" Perhaps we have the equivalent of the double negative which is saying "I worry a good deal about what non-Jews think." But ironically, I doubt that the story created much "buzz" in the non-Jewish community. Should the story have had top billing in the magazine? Whenever a subgroup feels that a "family" affair has been exposed, that subgroup tends to feel picked on. As for lashon hara, again I believe it's a subgroup sensitivity. If a cover story appears about a Hollywood celebrity or about a politician on "the other side" with the same level of facts versus innuendo, the black flag of lashon hara doesn't deem to get unfurled. S
Torah is on my mind also because this Sunday is the eleventh Beth El Community Torah Institute. You may recall that the Institute was an early creation when I began as Associate Rabbi in the mid nineties. This year we are changing up the format, doing our first interfaith Institute, bringing in teachers of “torah” from the three major western faiths to talk about leadership as viewed through the prism of their scripture. The invitation has been posted on line and will arrive at your doorstep today or tomorrow. That is so late - it was almost printed when the storms hit. Please try to take in at least the morning plenary (10:15AM to noon then a light lunch), though some prefer the afternoon breakouts where we get to study text with the scholars in a more intimate setting. There is plenty of parking on Old Georgetown Road on Sundays.
Sunday is the kind of day that shows the energy of our congregation - Religious School’s many hundreds of kids and their drivers, the Torah Institute, the Megillah Madness dress rehearsal, two kinds of Yoga, two levels of Talmud, the BEPS Sundae Matinee, and more. It’s Federation Super Sunday too, try to squeeze that in and respond generously when called. And enjoy a quiet Wednesday in the meantime. Bill Rudolph
P.S. We have now launched BECoN, the Beth El Community Network. It will someday be a terrific networking tool for congregants, offering information about congregants’ professions and businesses and services. Useful when we say, “I need an estate attorney, maybe a Beth El member does that kind of law?” And it has the beginnings of a Community Bulletin Board, where members can share interests or hobbies or Redskins tickets or borrow a roof rake. BECoN is easily accessed via our website, www.bethelmc.org. Please take a look. It’s just up and running but its potential is great. That depends on your filling it with content and using it.
February 10, 2010
I feel like I moved to Alberta but forgot I had moved. I hope you are blessed with good electricity or good friends. Don’t forget to study the shul listserv for program notes. This is Washington, so the odds are that everything is cancelled. Minyan continues to benefit from the presence of those living nearby. The Bar Mitzvah of Jeremy Kaplan took place in the midst of the blizzard, and the way our community chipped in to help make it happen made the day especially memorable.
Last Wednesday I wrote about the Post Magazine piece on our well known community scribe, Menachem Youlus, and whether his stories about Torah scrolls rescued from the Holocaust are true. I sought your counsel on whether we should continue to use him as our scribe while questions remain. More than 75 responses came pouring in, and I had meetings with two of the principals. An expert scribe from NYC is scheduled to come in today to examine the rescued scrolls that reside in our area. This may determine if they could have originated at times and in places that would fit with Menachem’s accounts. We may never know if the accounts themselves are true or not, as there is little evidence and the scrolls aren’t talking (at least about this.)
I now share some representative responses. Excuse the length of this column, which isn’t 1/10 of what I received. Do read at your leisure. I will be looking to share some conclusions about this in coming weeks. In the meantime, have a good Wednesday and take good care during this storm. Bill Rudolph
Story [from Post] was appropriate but did not go far enough. Wish it had really answered the question of what he is doing and where the torahs he is selling are coming from. Let's find a sofer in Baltimore. D
I hope that we continue doing business with Menachem at least until the rest of this story unwinds, and I was bothered by the gotcha tone of the article. As you note, even if the allegations are true it does not appear that Menachem defrauded anyone for personal gain. In fact, I was surprised at how little he charged for the "rescued" Torahs. At the end of the day, if the allegations are proven, I would ask: (1) Do the natures of any of the wrongdoings have the potential to impact the quality of the repairs that Menachem provides for us? (2) Were any of the wrongdoings so vile and so unredeemable that Menachem should not be allowed an opportunity to maintain his business and mend his life if he owns up and apologizes with good deeds? Regards, J
I think our congregation should still do business with him if he does teshuvah. We have all made mistakes. My mother loves a good story and exaggerates many of my childhood experiences for comedic effect much to my embarrassment. Menachem let the lie get too far but to the extent he admits his mistakes, apologizes to those he's harmed and tries to make amends, I think we should forgive him. He is skilled at his craft and may be deprived of other business opportunities as a result of this endeavor. B
I was appalled. Yes, I think the Post had an unfortunate agenda in putting it on the cover. I think Menachem was too glib in explaining away the facts that he'd given away five of the two Torahs that were under the floor boards, that he reburied 200 people from the unmarked grave (if you dig 20 graves a day, that's ten days of non-stop digging), that he used a metal detector in a cemetery, to name a few. He did profit from the finds. He lied. A goniff is a goniff. M
With Menachem, we're dealing with actual physical evidence...torah scrolls. Either he found them at a concentration camp on in a metal box in a cemetery or he didn't. Undocumented facts just doesn't cut it anymore in a world that is demanding transparency......and we're talking about large sums of gelt. We don't need any more bad press. Madoff dug us a deep hole. For someone who is known for repairing sacred Torahs, I hope he can repair his reputation! S
If everyone were to stop doing business with Youlus, it would ruin him. Unless more comes out disputing his ability, competence, or integrity when it comes to doing repairs, I don't see his offense being substantial enough to stop all dealings with him. I would question whether we want to have him speak about his Torah adventures, especially when it comes to our young people. (I thought I'd never quote Ronald Reagan but), "trust but verify" seems to me to be the way to deal with Menachem in the future on issues other than the purchase of Torahs rescued from the Holocaust. H
I am in a state of shock after reading your "It's Wednesday" this morning.
The Washington Post article itself was lashon hara, whether or not the co-author is a long-time congregant. The article spread disparaging tales about a pious Jew in order to entertain the newspaper's readership. As you know, the Torah forbids a Jew to behave in this way.
Your E-mail to the congregation further publicized the lashon hara, compounding the original transgression. As you know, repeating lashon hara originally uttered by another Jew is forbidden.
Moreover, a Jew who hears (or reads) lashon hara about a fellow Jew is forbidden to believe it. It makes no difference whether the tales seem plausible or implausible on an intellectual level. As you know, believing lashon hara about a pious Jew is forbidden.
Finally, your suggested "referendum" on whether Beth El should now cease to do business with Rabbi Youlus, based on this lashon hara, is truly appalling. Rabbi Youlus's reputation has already been damaged, with the active assistance of a long-time congregant. Why would you want to fan the flames, invite further talk, and suggest further harm to Rabbi Youlus?
I respectfully urge you to re-think this one and make this unfortunate incident into a "teachable moment" for all. M2
On the basis of the Post's cover story - and the fact that there is hardly a daily newspaper that doesn't include or infer a scandal - it is very easy to believe that Rabbi Youlus is basically dishonest - a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat etc. Thus, he is "guilty" by inference. Is this the way we want to react? "Guilty" until proven "Innocent"? I do not believe that any fair-minded person should rush to judgment. A person's good name, reputation, family, role in society, is at stake. So I say, yes, let's continue to do business with Menachem unless and until there is positive damning evidence to warrant not doing business with him. Sincerely, B2
Like you I am very conflicted in my feelings about Rabbi Menachem. Dishonesty is almost always unaceptable unless it is to protect life - as for example telling an SS officer that there are no Jews in your house when you are in fact hiding some. Rabbi Menachem did not present his stories as just stories but as factual accounts of his efforts. At the very least, his integrity is highly suspect until and unless he can verify what he has been telling people. Until such time, I do not feel that someone like him is suitable to repair a Torah, although he still might be a suitable source from which to purchase one. B3
I am relieved that there doesn't seem to be a taint of financial misconduct--I think that would be much worse. From what I've read, it seems clear that these *were* pre-WWII Torahs from Eastern Europe and surrounds, that he *did* restore them and make them kosher again, and then sold them for a fairly decent price, considering. The question is in their provenance. I do wish he could or would provide proof.
Unfortunately, it's also a question of shem tov [good name.] Has he forfeited his shem tov completely over this? What happens to his family's good name? What happens to the shop? He's done so many mitzvot as a sofer and a teacher and he has always seemed so warm and engaging. Does the fact that he apparently is a good storyteller take away from these?
So, I am saddened by the whole situation. What I have settled on, without closing my eyes to the facts (whatever those may be), is that perhaps he was trying to do a mitzvah by getting these Torahs into the hands of congregations who needed them; he just got carried away by stories that *could have been,* but weren't. I hope he'll be able to take whatever action he needs to take in order to restore his shem tov. S2
Thanks for doing this. I’d wondered about the article and its meaning for Beth El. The other part of the issue is that Rabbi Youlus is obviously a fine scribe and teacher, and so far all we have are accusations by the author and what may be inappropriate responses. While I too wonder why Rabbi Youlus has responded poorly, and clearly he may have done things wrong, this is only an accusation in the press, and we don’t have his full responses to the issues. In other words, should Rabbi Youlus be “tried” in the Washington Post and then convicted by us? Where I’m going in answer to your question is that until we have more information, and until we decide that this would keep us from using Rabbi Youlus to work on our Torah’s, I’d keep him. A
If this man does a good job on the Torah repairs, this should be our only concern. We do not inquire nor are concerned if our plumber or electrician or gardener has some questions about his private life. If any of these folks are out and out criminals, that is a different story, but this fellow just seems to have an active fantasy life and should only be criticized if he actually cheated someone and if that is proven. I would be happier if we were less worried about what the Gentiles think, that 's their problem. We have enough problems. C
February 3, 2010
Before picking up a new thread, I feel the need to respond to many inquiries and concerns about the cover story of this Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine. It was impossible to miss the story about Rabbi Menachem Youlus and the Torah scrolls from the Holocaust-era that he has rescued and restored. It appears that some of the fascinating rescue stories, sifrei Torah found under the floorboards at Bergen-Belsen and the like, stories that have earned him the nickname “The Indiana Jones of Torah Scribes,” may not have happened.
Whether or not this Post account is good for the Jews (see below), it is relevant to our own community. Menachem, as everyone calls him, is the scribe who repairs the Beth El Torah scrolls. He is also the scribal broker who arranged for the writing of our new Chapel Torah, spoke to us several times in the process of its completion, and helped us dedicate it in the fall of 2008. Not to mention that the co-writer of the Post story, Martha Wexler, is a longtime Beth El congregant. I know both pretty well. And I have thought about this almost non-stop. My personal take on this?
1. Our new Torah is not a Holocaust Torah, we have no exposure on that count. The Holocaust Torah in the Gallery is on loan from the Czech Judaica collection that was bought up by a British philanthropist and made available to communities around the world.
2. Menachem needs to respond to the issues raised in this article in a much better manner than he has so far. I am not a forensics expert, but for now I am left thinking that Menachem loves a good story too much.
3. There is no evidence or claim that Menachem was out to profit monetarily from rescuing (or not) these Torah scrolls and putting them in good hands. If, however, at the end of the day some of these Torahs are not what they are purported to be, then their donors were deceived and that is wrong.
4. Some of you wrote that you wish this story had never been written. I have mixed feelings on that. But I agree with many who wrote that they would rather this had not been a cover story. I don’t know why it was. I seriously doubt it was put there to make Jews look bad, or that Gentiles will think less of us because of this article. I just think that things Jewish seem to have a fascination for the public beyond what we can understand.
I am left with many questions, but one immediate one: does our congregation continue to do business with Menachem when we need Torah repairs (remember that he is the only scribe in town) or when we want to hear a loving and exciting teacher of Torah writing? Click on my e- address below and let me know what you think.
Have a good Wednesday, which will be one of many cancellations and hopefully some good Plans B. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Meah begins tonight, late registrations taken at the door. Jewish Literacy 101 returns this Sunday, my first free Sunday in ages. 11AM at my house, 5214 Roosevelt Street, between the shul and NIH.
The topic flows from our Torah reading cycle:
“The Ten Commandments: Which one is most difficult to follow? Do you have to honor your parents under all circumstances? Why do Christians count them differently? Why are there really only nine?”
No fees, no registration. Weather permitting - do check the listserv Sunday morning if we get still more snow.
January 27, 2010
I just spent quality time with two of our congregants, D and S, who were genuine Jeopardy contestants. Reminds me how important learning, and competing, are in our community. So here is your chance to test your knowledge on this winter Wednesday.
1. Did you ever hear of CE21? Don’t say “no,” I will be crushed. That is the multi-year initiative to engage more congregants in lifelong Jewish learning, creating new models and rethinking what we do currently on all age levels. We launched it last spring, it was the focus of my major High Holiday sermon, and about 150 of you have been targeted for home-based group conversations that begin this weekend. Armed with data from those conversations, our Task Force begins the design phase where we propose and test new ideas and models.
2. Does the name Joshua Jacobson strike a chord? It should. He is Professor of Music at Northeastern, expert on Jewish music and cantillation, and founder of the Zamir Chorale. He will be our Scholar in Residence this Shabbat Shirah and will teach us on Friday night and Shabbat morning/afternoon. Information is on the listserv and website (www.bethelmc.org) and page 8 of the January Scroll.
3. Did you know we have a fine library and creative Library Committee? The annual Literary Luminaries series, sponsored by our Library Committee and our Men’s Club, is this Sunday. It will bring educators/communal leaders Drs. Erica Brown and Misha Galperin to our congregation. 10-11AM, to talk about “The Case for Jewish Peoplehood: Can We Be One?”
4. Does the name Maimonides show up in your speed dials? Likely not, since he hasn’t been taking calls for some centuries. He is arguably the most brilliant Jewish thinker ever. And one of the most troubled, trying to reconcile faith and reason around issues such as resurrection. Monday night we host the second public reading of the play “The Thirteenth Principle,” written by our very own Steve Ashman. There is no charge but you absolutely need a reservation. Only 20 of 180 seats remain available. Contact Playreading.ashman@gmail.com.
5. Have you heard of Meah? That is the number of hours (100) of high level adult Jewish learning offered in the nationally renowned two year Meah program that we hope to embark upon soon. In the meantime, we have a “Mini – Meah” to whet our appetites, four Wednesday nights beginning February 3, on Jewish encounters with the foreigner over the ages. It features amazingly high quality Jewish Studies professors from nearby campuses. Contact Ricardo Munster at rmunster@bethelmc.org.
Quite the lineup of high quality opportunities to learn, and talk about learning, that will engage our community in upcoming days. It’s impressive, and a little daunting. I plan to use this Wednesday to rest up for all this that awaits us. Pace yourselves as well, and have a good day. Bill Rudolph
P.S. One easier question in case you were struggling with the first five. Do you know where Rabbi Greg Harris is right now? He and Rev. Ron Foster from the Bethesda United Methodist Church across the road are, as we speak, co-leading the third annual joint mission trip to New Orleans. We wish all our folks there much good building and good community building as they do Tikkun Olam, helping to repair the world one home at a time.
January 20, 2010
An American industrialist once came to visit the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim, Yisrael Meir Kagan (1838-1933), a rosh yeshiva known especially for his writings about lashon hara (gossip), proudly gave the man a personal tour of his yeshiva and asked him if he too would like to be a partner in the building of Torah. The man looked at the saintly rabbi. He observed the young teenagers studying Torah in the cold bare room. He witnessed the sincerity and genuineness of everything he saw. He thought hard. Finally he magnanimously replied, “Rebbe, I will fund the whole thing!” Only the Chofetz Chaim could merit such a miracle. The Chofetz Chaim took the man’s hand and blessed him with all of God’s blessings and then said, ”My dear friend, you are indeed a very generous and righteous person, but as much as I would like to, I cannot accept your offer. The holiness you see and feel is the result of the contribution of hundreds of people. A loving tear accompanied each small donation. It is upon those tears that we have built success. It is upon those souls that the Shechinah (the Divine Presence) rests.”
This story resonates with the relief effort for Haiti, where the devastation is almost indescribable. We read about rock stars and athletes donating hundreds of thousands of dollars and wonder whether our relatively small contributions are worth the trouble. At the end of the day, go with the Chofetz Chaim. Two good destinations for your tzedakah remain the American Red Cross and the Jewish Federation (working through the Joint Distribution Committee). Reach them at: www.redcross.org and www.shalomdc.org/helphaiti.
Also, with disasters and tikkun olam in mind, please look around the house for unused musical instruments, or send some cash, so that our Beth El/ Bethesda United Methodist work team arrives in New Orleans on Monday bearing tangible assistance for a wonderful after-school tutoring and music ed program called Roots of Music. Contact Sani Barr for information, sanibarr@hotmail.com
Best wishes for a good Wednesday. Bill Rudolph
P.S. This Friday night is our annual Shabbat Shalom at Home, an early incarnation of the Shabbat dinner/RA concept that I talked about last week. I still need a half dozen RA’s (rabbi allies) to host dinners – 3 dinners/ 3 years. You will be glad you volunteered. And if you wish an invite this Friday, write to me at my e- address below.
January 13, 2010
I want to finish up the thread about the clash of tradition and modernity. We talked about how the individual Jew is caught between the under-institutionalized home and the over-institutionalized synagogue, and last time offered the suggestion of Rabbi Harold Schulweis that what we need for now are some kind of “halfway houses,” mediating structures to bridge the gap between home and shul, and ultimately to strengthen both. And we talked about chavurot as one lively mediating institution, both the traditional ten family kinds of groupings and the amazing non-traditional chavurot (minyanim and Family Camp for example) that we have developed. These chavurot work well, but they are not for everyone and reach less than a fifth of the congregation.
So now for a more radical idea for a mediating structure which isn’t a structure. Schulweis proposes creating a cadre of rabbi allies (RA’s we will call them). These would be congregants who would themselves be the mediating structures, creating a “blood and flesh nexus” between the synagogue and the individual, between the clergy and the laity. They could be the link that helps people feel welcome in the intimidating over-institutionalized synagogue. They could be there in family rites of passage, trained to help make these rites less a routinized pro forma exercise and more a vital stage in the Jewish growth of individual and family. They could help bring Shabbat and festivals into the homes of others through personal invitations that would model how to make these special times both comforting and natural.
The idea is that there is an untapped reservoir of congregants who want to do more than serve on committees or down some bagels. They are willing to learn in order to teach, to give of themselves to help make spiritual contributions to the lives of others. We have some already who share these kinds of tasks, who are engines for growth and change. We need more.
How would we start developing a strong cadre of RA’s? I am not sure it’s been done, and it will take time, but congregant H, responding to the difficulty most of us have making our homes more Jewish, gave me my lead:
“One thing that has helped us create more of a Jewish home is when Beth El started the Shabbat dinners. A group of friends from [our son’s] class do Shabbat dinner now every few weeks. Maybe now it's every 2 months or so...but we all gather at each other's homes for a potluck Shabbat dinner with the kids/teens and say the blessings, eat and chat. Some adults thought the kids will never want to do this anymore and not only do they want to do it but ask why are we not doing it more.”
Here then is my proposed starting point: the Shabbat dinner. As simple as it is to invite others to join us at our Shabbat table, it is still one of the most transforming experiences that modern Jews can experience. The testimonials to this are multitudinous. So let’s start with that. I am looking for a few dozen RA’s to agree to host three Shabbat dinners a year for three years. There will be some RA training, resources, help with invitation lists, whatever is needed. Down the road, I hope that the invitees become hosts themselves. I am sure that as our Shabbat dinner tables become more and more special, so will our homes become better able to stand side by side with our synagogue in the sacred task of making Jews.
I hope you will sign on to this. Please click on my email address below and volunteer to be pioneers in the Beth El RA Project. And have a good Wednesday. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Tonight, at the end of this Wednesday, we tackle one of the most controversial issues in Israel’s relations with its neighbors and with the United States. Israel Seminars – an educational organization with no political agenda - is in town and will lead a highly interactive discussion on the provocative issue of the settlements. Designed for those who are sure the settlements are stumbling blocks to peace, for those who are sure the settlements are an excuse for anti-Israel diatribes and actions, and for those who are not sure. 7:30PM.
January 6, 2010
I want to pick up on the thread begun before my little vacation break.
I have been reacting to a piece by Harold Schulweis that talks about Conservative Judaism confronting tradition and modernity, more specifically the split between the public agenda of tradition (the business of synagogues) and the private agenda of the modern Jew which focuses more on individual needs and choices. Last time I shared the suggestion to close all shuls for a hundred years so the Jewish home could reassert its primary role, and how challenging that would be since most of our homes are “under-institutionalized” from a Jewish perspective. On the other hand, our synagogues are mostly over-institutionalized, often too large and impersonal and teaching things that don’t always resonate.
So, we have the individual Jew caught between the under-institutionalized home and the over-institutionalized synagogue. We can’t close the synagogues (yet) and we cannot quickly transform the home, so Schulweis says what we need is some kind of “halfway houses,” mediating structures to bridge the gap between home and shul, and ultimately to strengthen both. Where do we find or create such mediating structures?
Congregant M (you will see why he is one of my favorites) knew one answer, he just didn’t know he knew it. He wrote, “Hi Bill, another great thought-provoking piece. I once thought chavurot would serve the role of halfway house, but never really participated in one, so I have no first hand evidence as to whether it works. Your acolyte, M.”
Schulweis, unknown to M, writes: “The synagogue chavurah is the liveliest illustration of such a mediating institution. It provides the individual with an association small enough to see and hear him, large enough to move him beyond privatism. The synagogue chavurah is a single example of what religious leadership can do to create a non-threatening environment, a peer group with whom the individual can express doubts and fears and taste the joys of decision and choice. It is only one model of the way the lonely individual Jew may take her first steps towards the larger institutions of her people. Through the chavurah s/he has the opportunity to experience peoplehood, Torah, acts of loving kindness. The synagogue is thereby humanized, personalized, rendered accessible.”
Beth El has many traditional chavurot, groups of ten or so families who have been together over the years, sharing joys and sorrows and together searching and growing as Jews. When a chavurah member has a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, or a shivah, you see the dividends. We have found, however, that it’s harder for new chavurot to take root these days – people are busy and they don’t see the dividends right away. In recent years, at least at Beth El, some amazing non-traditional chavurot have developed. These include some of the alternative minyanim (especially Worship and Study, Minyan Chaverim) and Jewish Family Camp. These groups, 20 or 30 families or more apiece, provide just what Schulweis talks of: a great peer group that makes our large congregation more intimate along with providing multiple opportunities for learning and exploring the doubts and feeling the joys of being Jewish. The more members we involve in these “halfway houses,” the more you and we will be strengthened. Some are easily accessed, for others you need to let the clergy know if you are ready to get involved with what exists or in creating new.
Next week I will conclude this thread with a more radical idea for a mediating structure, one that doesn’t yet exist. Stay tuned, and have a good Wednesday, the first of the new Gregorian calendar year. I hope 2010 will be a good one for you and for all of us. Bill Rudolph
P.S. This Shabbat please join us for Sisterhood Shabbat. Sisterhood and Zhava members conduct the whole service. Remembering that women’s roles in the service were basically non-existent until a few decades ago just adds to the joy that we feel each year at this time.
December 23, 2009
Last week I reacted to a piece by Harold Schulweis that talks about Conservative Judaism confronting tradition and modernity, more specifically the split between the public agenda of tradition (the business of synagogues and rabbis) and the private agenda of the modern Jew which focuses more on individual needs and choices. And to the question of how a synagogue can navigate between these two seemingly conflicting streams, I opined that Beth El is doing relatively well with this, providing lots of choices and empowerment and avenues for individual creativity. But we hardly have the solution. Looking ahead, I asked, how might we do even better?
Schulweis, a highly esteemed West Coast Conservative rabbi, has a number of suggestions, one of which I will share in each of the next few weeks. First the radical suggestion, that of Samson Raphael Hirsch, a leading German Orthodox rabbi of more than a century ago. “If I had the power, I would provisionally close all synagogues for a hundred years. Do not tremble at the thought of it,” he went on. “What would happen? Jews and Jewishness without the synagogue, desiring to remain such, would be forced to concentrate on a Jewish life and a Jewish home.”
Neither I, nor my family, like that suggestion. More seriously, Hirsch is correct that the synagogue is no surrogate for Jewish living, but a hundred years’ moratorium on synagogue life appealed to no one in his day and is even less likely today. The moratorium depends on a vibrant Jewish home life and the contemporary Jewish home is not often enough that. Rather, the Jewish home today is usually what sociologists call “under-institutionalized.” If a vibrant Jewish home today depends on the average Jew -left pretty much to his or her own devices - to create Jewish ambience and content, for the most part it won’t happen. Correct me, and Schulweis, if we are wrong.
The problem wouldn’t end there either. Remember, our zayde came to shul because he was Jewish; if his grandchild (=that is us) comes at all, it is in order to become Jewish. But coming, this grandchild often finds the synagogue an alienating institution, often too large and impersonal, often speaking of beliefs and practices that don’t resonate.
The individual Jew feels caught then between the under-institutionalized home and the over-institutionalized synagogue. We can’t close the synagogues (yet) and we cannot quickly transform the home, so Schulweis says what we need are some kind of “halfway houses,” mediating structures to bridge the gap between home and shul, and ultimately to strengthen both. Where do we find or create such mediating structures? Tune in next week – or the week after if I actually take a few days of vacation - for one suggestion that we are already doing but need to do better. The following week I will present a new idea for your consideration.
Until then, have a nice Wednesday and a relaxing long weekend. Remember that Christmas was often a time when Jews were afraid for their lives. Be thankful that now (here at least) we are mostly afraid of getting stuck in holiday shopping traffic.
December 16, 2009
I want to launch a new thread today, but first a shout -out to two congregants who are getting a lot of press these days. First is Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama-appointed executive pay czar. Ken was also the Special Master of the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. You can’t help read about his work almost daily. Just last week, Bank of America decided it didn’t want to answer to Ken any longer and paid back $45 billion to the U.S. Treasury, meaning to you and me. Yes, that is 45 BILLION dollars. And other big banks seem to be following suit. It’s not clear if these banks are that healthy yet, and their motivation is many sided, but it’s clear that Ken is showing once again that he knows how to do the nation’s business.
Second is Stuart Levey. Check out the feature article in the latest
Newsweek called “Obama’s Enforcer.”
www.newsweek.com/id/226495. It talks about how President Obama’s patience with Iran has worn thin, and this is where Stuart Levey -
the last name rhymes with ‘heavy’ – comes in. What Stuart, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence,
does for a living is a kind of genteel arm-twisting—intended to persuade international banks and businesses it would be bad for them to be seen dealing with rogue states like Iran and North Korea. He is very effective at this and as a result is the most senior Bush administration official, after Defense Secretary Robert Gates, to be retained by Obama. Evidently Stuart is feared and hated in Tehran, where ‘all the officials know how to pronounce his name right,’ says a European diplomat who follows Iranian affairs for his government.
Our Kippot go off to these two congregants who represent the interests of our country so effectively.
Now to my issue of the day, stimulated by my attendance at last week’s Biennial Convention of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (the umbrella group for Conservative congregations around the world). There was a lot of discussion about the tension between individual choice and the needs of the community, and how in many ways that tension defines the challenge of Conservative Judaism today. How so? I picked up an article by Harold Schulweis that sketches out the dilemma pretty well.
Schulweis says that traditional religions like Judaism are based on the belief that public and private life can be regulated by law. Synagogues (and their rabbis) function based on that notion and value the traditional outlook that is reflected in ritual and prayer. But the world of the individual Jew, whether within or without the synagogue, is increasingly nontraditional. S/he owns a private agenda of personal hopes and fears that has little in common with the traditional public agenda. This includes concerns about the challenges of marriage, raising kids, aging and loss of parents, fears about illness, career concerns, the search for meaning. Modern Jews sees themselves facing these challenges pretty much as individuals, free to think and decide what to do themselves. They make voluntary choices, they may even find deeper pride in choosing than in chosen-ness. They are suspicious of ”groupism,” by which we mean the expectations of the community and the imperatives of Jewish law. Rather, voluntarism and individualism and pluralism create the atmosphere that the individual Jew breathes today.
How does a synagogue navigate between these two conflicting streams, that of tradition and that of the individual choosing to do as s/he wishes? That is a discussion for the next times, and maybe for all time. It’s not simple. But for now I find it reassuring to look at this congregation’s landscape and realize that the great success we are having (most at the Convention were not experiencing our growth and creative energy) is partly due to our harnessing (partially at least) the forces that are most front and center for modern Jews. Offering choices in almost every aspect of our programming is our response to the call of pluralism. Encouraging and provoking individual creativity and ownership of our program is how we confront the forces of voluntarism and individualism. While this navigation is not easy, we are not being pulled downstream. More on how we might go even more upstream next time.
For now, I wish you a happy Wednesday, the fifth day of Hanukkah.
December 9, 2009
Time for a break from the news and a Hanukkah thought that also speaks to the character of the American people.
Billings Montana is an attractive metropolis nestling within the great open spaces of the American West. Citizens of Billings say it is a good, civilized place to live. They pride themselves on the quality of their schools and their strong family values. So it came as a shock to many when, in November 1995, a series of hate crimes took place against minority groups within the city. [You may have heard some of this before, but a good complete and true story bears repeating.]
Whoever was responsible for these acts must have thought that their victims would be easy targets. Billings is predominantly white; Native Americans, African Americans and Jews make up only a small percentage of the population. But there are just enough of them to frighten and harass. There was a series of nasty attacks at the same time. Graves were overturned in a Jewish cemetery. Offensive words and a swastika were scrawled on the house of a Native American woman. People worshipping at a black church were intimidated. A brick was heaved through the window of a Jewish home where the child had displayed a menorah (it is halachah to publicize the miracle).
But the white supremacists, or whoever they were, had reckoned without the citizens of Billings, who had an answer for them - and it wasn't what the hate-mongers were expecting. An alliance quickly emerged, spearheaded by churches, labor unions, the media and hundreds of local citizens.
The results were dramatic. Attendance at the black church rose steadily. People of many different ethnic backgrounds and faiths began to attend services there. Their message was clear: 'We may be all different, but we are one also. Threaten anyone of us and you threaten us all."
A similar spirit propelled volunteers to come together and repaint the house of Dawn Fast Horse, the Native American woman. This happened at amazing speed. Dawn had awoken one morning to see that her house had been defaced. By that evening, after two hundred people [!] showed up to help, the house had been repainted.
When it came to the incident of the brick being thrown through the window of the Jewish home, the interfaith group had a creative idea. They recalled the example of the Danes during World War II who worked quickly, within a two-week period, to transport almost every Danish Jew to safety in Sweden until the end of the war.
So the people of Billings organized a campaign. The local newspaper printed a Hanukkah page, including a full-color representation of a menorah. Billings residents cut the paper chanukiyah out and displayed it in their windows. By late December, driving around Billings was a remarkable experience. Nearly ten thousand homes were displaying those paper chanukiyot in their windows, and they remained in place throughout the eight days of Hanukkah. It was a brilliant answer to the hate-mongers: A town that had few Jews was saying with one collective voice, “We are all Jews now.”
The story of what happened in Billings quickly spread, inspiring a national movement against hate called “Not in Our Town,” which is still going strong. That Jewish child who had so innocently displayer her menorah in the window helped set in motion a chain of events that affirmed all over America the liberating principle of unity in diversity.
Not for nothing does a menorah have many candles flickering on a single stand.
That wonderful story is my gift to you. Have a good Wednesday, one to think about all we can do when we stand together, and to think about what you are each getting me for Hanukkah this year.
P.S. The last part of the last line wasn’t serious. Nor will our second annual Latke Hamantash Debate be at all serious. Join our four clever debaters and then munch on the goodies (and more) this Sunday at 10-11AM. And have a Chag Urim Sameach.
December 2, 2009
Judaism places an extremely high value on truth. As the rabbis understood them, not one but two of the Ten Commandments (numbers 3 and 9) are about nothing else. An often quoted rabbinic saying (Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 55a) is: “Truth is the seal of the Holy One, blessed be He.” The God of truth is found wherever there is truth and God’s absence is felt wherever there is falsehood.
While most of us were very deep in sleep very early Friday morning, Tiger Woods was out crashing his SUV into a fireplug/tree after which his wife was smashing in the car window with a golf club to drag him out of the vehicle until help came. You must have heard about this. Even the least gossip-minded people among us are having a difficult time not pondering the most scandalous possibilities that could have led to such a situation. Tiger has issued a statement about what happened. The statement was surely not a lie, but it didn’t feel anything like the truth and it barely concealed the agent, media consultant, personal blogger, sponsor liaison and attorneys who must have worked hard on it. Rumors are flying. Woods shouldn't come forward simply to quell these rumors. He shouldn't present the real account of the event to quench the public's thirst for knowledge or because he knows the plain truth will be revealed in due time. No, he should submit to veracity mostly for his own well-being.
Many of us have done something we regretted and hoped we could get away with half truths or admitting to a small part of what we did or saying nothing, all in the hope that the whole thing would pass. Most of the time, not dealing with the situation forthrightly left open wounds and – wonder of wonders - didn’t bring us any peace either. For our own well-being, we needed to seek forgiveness and tell the truth. Truth is indeed the seal of God.
I wish you a good Wednesday, maybe a day to deal with regrets and full truths. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Two good upcoming events are the Teacher Recognition/ Kol Haneshama Service Friday night at 6:30 (dinner follows but you need to call today for a place) and the second annual Latke Hamantasch Debate on Sunday December 13th. Parents of the 71 (!) kids who will be Bnai Mitzvah in 2012 should report this Sunday at 11AM.
November 25, 2009
It’s Erev Thanksgiving, and we are fresh off one of the best and certainly best attended joint services we have ever held with our neighbors at the Bethesda United Methodist Church. Our adult choirs joined together to perform the “Chichester Psalms,” music composed by Leonard Bernstein for orchestra and chorus, and it was amazing. Our children’s choir also sang a moving rendition of “Children of Freedom.” And I gave the sermon, about Herb Stein and Ben Stein and developing an attitude of gratitude.
Here is what I didn’t have time to say about Thanksgiving to our friends across the street (the Psalms took a big chunk of the one hour service):
Thanksgiving was certainly not ordained by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai, but it feels very much like a Jewish holiday. First, because it teaches us to be thankful for all our blessings, and gratitude is surely a Jewish value. Not just Jewish of course, but high on our list. And second, because Thanksgiving is observed with a festive meal, and eating is surely THE essential Jewish way to observe a holiday. Thanksgiving is probably the day when Jews feel most at home in America. And then, our mazal, THE VERY NEXT DAY comes the official beginning of the Christmas season, which is when Jews feel least at home in America. But we Jews across the street have the advantage of having you on the opposite corner, so we don’t feel nearly so alone.
America is a great and welcoming land, and we are fortunate to be here. Even in the Christmas season, we don’t feel that much not at home. Double negative, but you get the point.
For your Thanksgiving meal, here is a prayer provided by the Partnership on Jewish Life and Learning. A little ritual is in order at the big meal. If you want more, get hold of our own Debbie Fink’s It’s a Family Thanksgiving (www.harmonyhearth.com). For now, this might just work:
A Blessing for Thanksgiving
We are grateful for the food before us and for the friends and family around us, for the good in others and the bounty in our lives. May we appreciate our country and never take our freedoms for granted. May we seek ways to perform tzedaka and mitzvot, charity and good deeds. And, may we thank God for "nourishing and maintaining us constantly, every day, at all times, and in every hour." Amen.
Have a good Wednesday and a great Thanksgiving Day. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Saul Golubcow is a new member who is Thursday night minyan captain (and on the CE21 Task Force.) This Thursday night is one of the biggest challenges of the year minyan-wise. We can’t expect a miracle every year, like the one I wrote about after last Thanksgiving. Please join Saul if you can. And Sunday night is not easier. 8PM. Takes 15 minutes. Saul is also author of a wonderful piece in the latest Voices of Conservative Judaism. If you can’t find it, go to http://www.uscj.org/Betting_on_Belief8222.html
November 18, 2009
Yesterday morning I spoke to a world religions class at WJ. Those who were awake at the 8:20 hour heard me say that one of the things I like most about Judaism is that it speaks both to the head and the heart. What I saved for you was how just the previous 36 hours had brought home that wonderful reality to me.
On Sunday evening I was privileged to conduct a shivah minyan following the funeral of Ruth Smallberg z”l, mother of Sheila Smallberg Cohen. Sheila and her family moved 5-6 years ago to California. While in our community, Sheila was a major force in Jewish music, with our adult choir and Friday services and with the Calliope singing group. The Calliope people, mostly Beth El members, were all at the packed shivah. Already at the Shema it was clear this would be no ordinary shivah minyan. Calliope members – besides Sheila there are Deborah and Debbie and Debbie and Sandy and Rene - have beautiful voices and harmonizing built into their DNA, and so we prayed in three and four part harmony in the most elevating and spiritual way. Totally not planned. As Sheila said when I looked over to her right after that Shema, “I can’t help it.” All of our hearts were touched.
Monday evening I had a different kind of privilege. I was invited to hear the first public reading of a play called “The Thirteenth Principle.” The play was written by one of our newest members, Steve Ashman. Steve is a banker. In his spare time he writes plays. This one was presented at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 13th and H NE. My going was a five hour commitment, on my day off, and I was wondering why I agreed to go - until I was there.
The play explores the controversy around the major theological issue faced by Moses Maimonides (the Rambam). He is famous for his thirteen principles of faith, a rendering of which surrounds our chapel doors. The thirteenth principle is about bodily resurrection. Did the Rambam believe in it or not? Would pressure from the Orthodox rabbinate sway him to the traditional view, or would the forces of reason move him to a more rational position? And what role would a simple house servant play in his decision? Steve has created a wonderful and stimulating framework in which this dilemma plays itself out. The audience gets wrapped up in the theology, and matters of Middle Age Jewish and Muslim history and faith become real and captivating. It was a treat for the mind of the highest order.
Write back, if you will, and briefly share with me a time (the more recent the better) where your heart or your mind was grabbed by some thing or some event in the smorgasbord that Judaism sets before us. Thanks in advance, and have a good Wednesday. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Jewish Literacy 101 meets again this Sunday (November 22nd) at my house, 5214 Roosevelt Street, behind the shul, 11AM – noon. Plenty of parking and snacks. Speaking of snacks, our topic will be: “Keeping Kosher – Why You Should Consider Doing It and How It Is Done.”
November 11, 2009
Boker Tov. I want to share some thoughts about Kristallnacht, the anniversary of which was this past Monday evening. It is lodged in Jewish memory as a turning point towards the Final Solution. I just read an account of one reaction to that worst of evenings that reflects the best in the Jewish spirit.
In 1872 the Hochshule fuer die Wissenschaft des Judentum opened in Berlin, operating as an academic institute for Jewish Studies and as a rabbinical seminary. Many well-known professors of Jewish Studies and rabbis were educated and taught at this institute. They included Leo Baeck, the uncontested leader of German Jewry as well as lecturer in Midrash; Ismar Elbogen, lecturer in Jewish History; and rabbinic student Günter Friedländer, who managed to obtain visas to South America for a good number of other students including Heinz Fischel, Manfred Braude, Karl Rautenberg, Fritz Winter, Hans Harf and others. From 1933 until November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht, the Hochshule served as a social, spiritual and religious center, existing under the intolerable conditions imposed by the Nazi regime in Berlin.
Jump 65+ years later. In 2004, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Rabbi Hans Harf passed away. One of the published eulogies stated: "The formative event in Rabbi Harf's life that led him to Jewish activity was Kristallnacht. As he often said, it was also the formative event for many teachers and students at the Hochshule who were present at the pogrom that took place on the night of November 9, 1938."
What happened that night? The eulogy goes on to shed light on that. Many Hochshule teachers and students were present that night, paralyzed with fear. Cries of "death to the Jews" were heard, and all thought that their end was near. Windows were smashed, stones were hurled at a dizzying rate. Leo Baeck took control within the building. He gathered the students and teachers together and ordered them to each pick up a stone that had been thrown from without. In an authoritative voice he said, “We swear today that each one of us takes one stone thrown by these who persecute us, and at the first chance we can, to escape and settle in other countries; and each stone will become the cornerstone of a synagogue or Jewish school.”
Just one of the survivors’ stories illuminates the response to this charge. Rabbi Fritz Winter traveled to South America from Germany. Rabbi Winter passed through Cochabamba, Bolivia and established a synagogue there, which stands to this day. Later, in Montevideo, he was one of the outstanding rabbis of the New Jewish Community (NCI), at which scores of Conservative rabbis have served.
It seems that others who were present that night in the Hochshule did similar things. Beyond the historical truth of the story, it no doubt stands as a symbol of Jewish behavior throughout history - to transform mourning into joyousness, destruction into building, repairing the broken shards in order to mend the world.
Amidst the difficult memories of the Holocaust lie so many stories of hope and determination. May we be inspired by them to do more ourselves to repair the broken shards that we see all around us. And what better day to make that our resolve than Wednesday? Bill Rudolph
P.S. It’s Veterans Day. The news from far away and as close as Texas should remind us of the sacrifices that American soldiers make in serving our country. Try uso.org or troopssupport.com for a myriad of ways to support our military. Also, there are 10,000 Jews in the military. See jcca.org/JWB for ways to help them.
November 4, 2009
Last Wednesday I shared some of your memories of your rabbis growing up, following on my discussion of the Minneapolis Three (rabbis) portrayed in the Coen brothers’ movie A Serious Man.
Let me share some more of the 100+comments I received, all of which I acknowledged I hope, after which I will present my semi-amateur analysis of why some rabbis are the way they are. Once more, a longer It’s Wednesday than the norm, but it's your words not mine so please forgive.
Rabbi 1: incompetent, kindly, split the congregation of 40 families, too young to remember more. Rabbi 2: claimed semicha from destroyed Hungarian seminary, best pal was a convicted arsonist (not a shul member), sold hot suits from the basement of the parsonage, FBI investigated for various reasons, used to put gefilte fish balls physically in children's mouths, when fired refused to move out of parsonage and held Torah hostage, told shul president's wife that the president was having an affair with the Sisterhood president (surely wasn’t). Rabbi 3: from Israel, not good with teaching kids, defaulted on Hebrew Free Loan so guarantors (my father the main one) got stuck, beat his wife that had cerebral palsy, deserted her and left her without funds to go back to Israel and congregation out of rachmones let her stay in the parsonage J
I have a woman rabbi story. [Editor: only one I received about women rabbis but more than worthy of inclusion] We grew up in a 300 member family congregation (the only one in our town) with a revolving door of rabbis. Fast forward to our son and family moving to Minneapolis... a woman rabbi - Stacey Offner. She was warm to all of us. She quickly found niches for our son and daughter in law within the congregation (Social Committee/Finance Committee). Most important, when one of our grandchildren had problems at birth and was in the hospital for a month, she visited him often and sat for an hour or more each time just rubbing his hand/back and never told the kids. The nurses finally told them. Here is a woman rabbi and a true mensch (female version!! ) J
Anyway, for me, I did not have a close relationship with our Rabbi growing up. Our rabbi was close to my Grandfather, who was the President of the synagogue I belonged to in Washington Heights. On my Bar Mitzvah day, the weather was terrible. It rained heavily throughout the evening before, and on into the morning. My family's relatives, some of whom had traveled long distances, brought their umbrellas into the synagogue (not the sanctuary) . The rabbi devoted his sermon to lecturing the visitors about NOT carrying their umbrellas to synagogue as he considered it carrying and therefore a violation of Shabbat. My grandfather (sitting on the bimah) , who was as learned a man as a Rabbi, and a man who had survived both Dachau and Buchenwald, was so steamed he did not talk to the Rabbi for days on end. L
My wonderful Rabbi when I was growing up was Rabbi Benjamin Brilliant of the Pelham Parkway Jewish Center -- a conservative synagogue in a Jewish shtetl-like neighborhood in the Bronx. A great place to grow up! Rabbi Brilliant was like a grandfather to me. To give you a snap shot of the man, one day I was not able to go to Hebrew School because I was sick. Rabbi Brilliant, who glanced in each Hebrew school class every day, called my mother to make sure I was okay because he noticed Sara Rivka wasn't in class. Our childhood centered around the synagogue, with Hebrew school (Mon thru Thurs for the boys and T/Th for the girls), Friday night services, Junior Congregation on Saturday morning, Tallis and Tefillin club on Saturday night, and Sunday school! Rabbi Brilliant knew every single one of us and made us feel loved, secure, and part of a very special community. He will always hold a special place in my heart. B'shalom, R
At around age 17, a friend (who belonged to a different synagogue) and I decided we would like to "have" a bat mitzvah. It was not an option when we were 12 or 13, but it became an option, at both shuls, a few years later. We made arrangements for study and a ceremony with her rabbi (we liked him better). My rabbi learned of this from the other rabbi, who notified him as a courtesy. Furious, my rabbi called me into his study to tell me how deeply disappointed he was in my character: I had gone behind his back; I was sneaky; I lacked intellectual integrity (because I had agreed to an "easy," substandard course of study) etc., etc., etc. After I stopped sobbing, I agreed to drop my plans (I should have had more backbone!). Out of loyalty, my friend dropped out of the arrangement as well. Around 20 years later, my friend had an adult bat mitzvah in Boston, although she only mentioned it months later because she thought I would still find the subject traumatic! R
The senior rabbi was Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, the great scholar. A major intellect, we used to joke that you needed an outline to follow his sermons, particularly on the high holidays. But when he was there with me, blessing me at my Bat Mitzvah (Friday nights, then, no Torah) and at my wedding, I felt like the only person in the world to him at that moment. Another joke around Great Neck, when he was photographed visiting the Vatican years ago, was "Who's the guy with Waxman?" (the Pope, obviously!) T
Enough stories, now for some instant analysis. There were many fascinating rabbi memories that you shared, about half positive and half not. On the latter, I think one of the big issues in the rabbinate is ego. Some rabbis have a “big ego” that makes them seem dominating or aloof or both. I have learned a general lesson about egos, as I go through life. The lesson is that people who are described as having big egos actually have small ones. They need to feel powerful and they need a lot of gratification so that their small ego will feel (temporarily at least) large. Back to the rabbinate now. Those rabbis who do not suffer this deficiency usually create different kinds of memories by leading their congregations in a way reflective of their (lesser) ego needs. They want the congregants to feel power and to experience the gratification that comes from that empowerment. Congregations usually grow better that way.
Enough with rabbis, next week we start a new thread. Have a good Wednesday. Bill Rudolph
October 28, 2009
Last Wednesday I wrote about the Minneapolis Three, the three quite unexceptional rabbis portrayed in the Coen brothers’ movie A Serious Man. I asked you to write back about the rabbi whom you remember most from your growing up days, and whether s/he was a good influence in your life. As a sign of those times, not one of you wrote about a woman rabbi. That will be different going forward. Besides reading all your comments, many many dozen, I also had time to write a sermon on the film and deliver it last Shabbat. It’s on our website www.bethelmc.org with other brilliant sermons.
Now let me share a first set of the comments I received. A longer It’s Wednesday than usual and I am only scratching the surface of the good you wrote to me. More next week. I was pleased to see that the film rabbis weren’t exactly what you grew up with. And I was also pleased at how many commented that they are happy with the rabbis they have now. Eliciting that was of course the whole point of this exercise. Only kidding.
So read on, as much as you can on what I hope is a good Wednesday. Bill Rudolph
We were only members of a shul 1-2 years when I was growing up but that membership came about because my mother went to the rabbi after my parents’ divorce. She was upset that my brother never had a Jewish education and would not have a bar mitzvah. The rabbi gave our family a free year of membership, arranged for tutoring for my brother to have a bar mitzvah, got him on the calendar and got me some Hebrew tutoring so I could start Hebrew school the next year with my peers. That outreach to our family had a big influence on me in terms of my sense of community that comes from synagogue membership. R
smart but cold and aloof, clearly preferring his wealthier congregants. L
Let's try Rabbi Saul Teplitz, whose arrival in our town (Harrison, NY) in the late 1950's, and into the house directly across the street from ours, meant no more cherished Christmas tree and no more pretty Christmas lights adorning the outside of our home. Sigh.
Teplitz delivered some of the best sermons ever, but what I remember most was his obliging my father by visiting me one day ca. 1970 to attempt to persuade me to break up with my gentile girlfriend. Sigh.
Definitely "a force in producing the kind of Jew that I am today": confused, conflicted, and angry. A
There were two rabbis. The one who ran the Hebrew School made a bigger impression. He was a holy [I deleted the not positive expression]--turned me from being a model Hebrew student to ditching my studies as soon as I had my Bar Mitzvah. M
The rabbi that defines my childhood and my religious experience most profoundly though is Rabbi Joe Weinberg, who I'm sure you knew as well. He was the man who sat with my family as my aunt died at 39 in the mid-1970s, the man who led my family's trip to Israel in 1977, the man who spent time with my father as he tried to come to terms with my relationship with a non-Jew, the man who worked with my now husband in his process to convert to Judaism, the man who married us, and the man whose legacy in the civil rights movement and political activism I truly respect and admire. Despite the sheer magnitude of the congregation we belonged to, he still managed to have a personal connection to so many of us. I felt that he was there and accessible to me and to my family when we needed him. I'm just so sorry that he's not still with us and able to guide more people.
Thanks for taking me down memory lane ... I've run through a number of tissues in the process! L2
I grew up at Temple Beth Shalom, Haddon Heights, NJ, led by Rabbi Albert Lewis. My strongest memory is not a good one. I was terrified of the questioning that Rabbi Lewis put the Bar and Bat Mitzvah's through on their haftorahs [during the service.] I always thought that he was ruthless in questioning kids on the content...so much so that I was terrified of my own Bat Mitzvah. I was so nervous, that I didn't want to drive to shul that night. My haftorah was for Vashyislach. I was a wreck.
Turns out that, while I did not wish the Rabbi ill, he was sick that night and was not able to lead the service. A family friend, the go to 2nd, led the service and mercifully skipped the Socratic questioning. I knew I was lucky, for sure.
Fortunately, I didn't live in fear of Rabbi Lewis forever. I came to appreciate his skill as a leader and as a very smart, charismatic and holy man. S
I grew up across the street (literally) from Rav Soloveitchik (aka "The Rav"). I davened at his shul (Maimonides) and sat next to my dad, grandfather and brothers, no more than 5 feet from him. I didn't realize until years later how amazing that was. I now remember the reverence of all the "grown ups" towards him (they would stand when he went to the bathroom), but to me, he was simply a very soft spoken, easy going man. I knew he was "holy", and assumed this was what all rabbis are supposed to be and to look like -- a personification of Hashem. I was in a shul where many people made me feel like they were constantly frowning on my lack of piousness. The Rav was just the opposite -- he seemed perfectly content simply to see me in the building. J
I always read, but never write. First time for everything.
Growing up in a small town, I learned about capitalism and Rabbis in two ways. First, the small towns didn't get the best Rabbis, and even then, they didn't stay. Second, I grew up thinking the words "and $50 to the congregation" were part of the Misheberach.
So, yes, there is tremendous variance in quality of Rabbis in the country and how they are able to help. B
The senior rabbi at Baltimore Hebrew in my youth was _________. He was distant and had no influence on me at all. What I remember most about him is that he once told my father, in regard to the Holocaust, "we must forgive and forget." My father never talked to him again. We were married at Baltimore Hebrew by Cantor R, who was as warm as Rabbi _______ was cold. M2
When I was 8 years old, I was hit by a car going home from Hebrew School. I was not hurt much. But what I do remember is that the Rabbi was at my side almost immediately and drove my mother to the Hospital behind the ambulance and stayed with us and brought us home. To this rabbi, every congregant was important, even little me. A2
Rebbe Rosenblatt was revered but short w/ goatee...he was a scholar of Eastern languages at Johns Hopkins...interviewed/tested boys (there were no bat mitzvahs) before the bar mitzvah in his study filled w/ book shelves, heavy dark furniture & light by lamps (ie. nothing overhead)...I remember one question, "What kiddush is recited on Yom Kippur ?" I don't remember my answer...it wasn't correct...the correct answer is NONE....He shared my failure w/ my parents after the interview to laughter (though they wouldn't have known the answer...but I didn't know that then)...I remember that after half a century.
The sermon at my bar mitzvah (women in the balcony behind a curtain)...started w/ "What is a schlemiel ?"...I remember the warmth in my cheeks & the relief when I realized he wasn't talking about me! J2
October 21, 2009
With the holidays in the rear view mirror, Gail and I took in a movie late Monday afternoon. A Serious Man seemed the obvious choice, a Coen brothers production, very Jewish in content with strong reviews. There were just 10-12 people in the theatre at that odd hour, only half were from Beth El.
(SPOILER ALERT)
The movie is quite something. Not nearly as dark as No Country for Old Men, but hardly Mary Poppins. From the appearance of a dead man (a dybbuk?) at the poor shack of an Eastern European Jewish family to a tornado heading for the Hebrew School kids standing in the parking lot of a suburban Minneapolis shul ca. 1967 – where and when the Coen brothers grew up - there is a steady stream of great subplots and amazing characters – at the center of which is the hapless hero, college physics professor Larry Gopnick. To say this man has no mazal would be a gross understatement. But let me not say more about the plot, in case you are intending to see the movie or in case I decide to speak about it this Shabbat.
What I want to talk about is rabbis. Yes, there were three rabbis in this movie who the hapless hero seeks out for advice and support. What a collection! Or maybe – and here is where you will participate in this discussion – not so different from what you grew up with.
Rabbi #1 – the Assistant Rabbi. Young. Gives the word nebbish new meaning. Spouts nothing but meaningless platitudes.
Rabbi #2 – the Senior Rabbi. More distinguished in appearance but can only offer advice in the form of a lengthy tale about a dentist who found the words “save me” inscribed on the lower incisors of one of his patients. When asked what meaning there was to this discovery, the Senior Rabbi could only say that people are always asking him that question.
Rabbi #3 – the Rabbi Emeritus. Very holy. Too busy to see the desperate Professor Gopnick even though we can see clearly that he is doing absolutely nothing at the time Gopnick comes begging for an audience.
The attorneys don’t come out much better but that is not my problem.
One has to assume that these rabbis reflect the rabbis the Coen brothers grew up with or encountered during their lives. Minneapolis in that period was known for the quality of its rabbis, or at least that is what I was told. But maybe the Minneapolis Three are more indicative of what people grow up with than I think. A scary thought but relevant to the Jewish journeys we are all on.
My request is that you write about the rabbi you most remember from growing up. How do you remember him/her? Was s/he a positive, neutral, or negative force in producing the kind of Jew that you are today? Please click on my email address below, and please BE BRIEF. I will gather your comments and share the representative (and brief) ones as we go from Wednesday to Wednesday. May this particular one be a good one for remembering. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Mitzvah Day is this Sunday – good for the soul and the community. Beth El Gala is November 7 – good for the soul and the shul. Info available on our website,
www.bethelmc.org.
October 14, 2009
The holidays are over for a while. Though I am fine with that, I must admit that the crush of holidays make it impossible to keep up with all the tasks on my To Do List. That little luxury is over. Don’t hesitate to remind me if I owe you a response.
Learning is on my mind now. Saul Bendit classes started yesterday for Tuesday morning learners and tonight for the majority of stakeholders. The snappy new brochure is an appropriate vehicle to display a great smorgasbord of classes about kings and presidents, prayers and teshuvot, life and death, early local Jews and women of valor, great books , sustainable foods, healing. If you misplaced the brochure, try our website, www.bethelmc.org. You can register at the door.
This Sunday Jewish Literacy 101 resumes. At my house behind the shul. No fees, no sign ups, no prerequisites, good coffee and snacks, learn this time about Jewish perspectives on health care and why I didn’t talk about that on the holidays. JL 101 will continue once/ twice a month through the year, please G-d.
CE21 (Congregational Education for the 21st century) was the subject of my High Holiday sermon given in each service. The sermon is posted on the website. I said we need new thinking about Jewish learning on all levels of our congregation. And no sooner did the wisdom of that statement hit me than with the start of Religious School. The School – meeting Sundays and weekdays - is larger than it has been anytime this decade, which is great. But after its Sunday opening there followed four weeks of cancelled Sunday classes due to the holidays.
What if we were already doing new thinking, not even radical thinking? We might have said this: why must Jewish holidays be like American holidays, which are primarily observed by taking off from school (or work) and hanging around or going to the mall/ beach. Why not have our kids build sukkot on the second of the Sunday mornings, the eve of Yom Kippur? Why not invite all the kids and parents to those sukkot for social time on the third of the Sundays, Sukkot? Why not have the kids at shul for Simchat Torah related activities - for example opening up the whole Torah and doing a GPS through its columns - this past Sunday which was the fourth? Even with some teachers unavailable because of yom tov’s, we still could have fashioned an experiential program that would have been at least as worthy and create more good memories than what most of the kids (and their parents) did all those Sunday mornings. Correct me if I am wrong.
We are soon to engage all of you in the CE21 process. Please be ready with your thoughts and wisdom. Have a good Wednesday in the meantime. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Sunday October 25 is Mitzvah Day. Check out the possibilities on the website. Many are new. Let’s make good on what is surely one of our main resolves for the new year.
October 7, 2009
Last week was the interview with God. You liked it, and have spread it ‘round the world. This week, the holidays are coming to a close. For clergy, they are always both elevating and exhausting. Right now I am feeling more the exhaustion. Next week I pick up a new thread for this column. Today will be mostly business.
Clergy and the Board (through the Worship Committee) undertake a review of the High Holiday services each fall. I do my own as well. I have drawn my tentative conclusions about the three regular services. I also think I know most everything that went awry, but maybe not. I don’t have much feedback about the kid services. Truth be told, the view from the bimah is idiosyncratic and not always reflective of the reality in the pews. Your general and specific thoughts and feedback– positive and negative - would be most helpful as we do our review. Click on the email address below and, as always, please be both honest and brief.
Sukkot is now two thirds complete. We put behind us something very individual - the splendid introspective isolation of Yom Kippur - to sit outside in the neighborhood, under the stars, with family and friends. The weather, except for a few critical minutes Friday night, has cooperated nicely. But we are not done. There is much left to pray for or be thankful for.
Friday is Hoshana Rabbah, as mini a holiday as there is. The morning service ends with beating the willow branches into the ground as we chase away the last remnants of any sins and shortcomings we have resolved to remove/improve. The gates of repentance are still slightly ajar. Think if you need it.
Shabbat is also Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day of Sukkot, with a different agenda. Besides the usual prayers , we recite the prayer for rain for the first time and also recite Yizkor. We need the rain, Israel much more so, and it’s always good to remember those who gave us life or love. There are services Friday night (6:30) and then at 7:30AM and 9:30AM Saturday.
And then comes Simchat Torah, the last and most electric of the holidays, the premier celebration of the gift of Torah. The evening service (Saturday 7:30PM)) is brief and is followed by lots of Torah dancing as well as schnapps or Hershey bars (on an age appropriate basis.) The morning service (9:30AM Sunday) is like none other during the year, with aliyot for all, snacking all morning, going from Deuteronomy to Genesis, fun Musaf davvening led this year by Aryeh Portnoy, weird hats, honoring Leslie Dellon and Mitchell Solkowitz for service to the shul.
A week later we usher in the new month of Cheshvan, also known as Mar Cheshvan (Bitter Cheshvan). Bitter? Because it has no holidays, just normal Jewish life. Sounds OK to me.
Have a nice Wednesday, a good day to be in a sukkah for lunch or dinner. The one at Beth El is always open. Moadim L’Simchah (Happy Sukkot)!
P.S. Jewish Literacy 101 returns from a long hiatus Sunday a week, October 18! Last year it fell victim to our renovation. That work is done, the dust has mostly cleared. You know we always are finding some more. Join me at our home, 5214 Roosevelt Street (behind the shul), 11AM – noon, for the first JL101 of the new year. Topic: “Is there a Jewish View on Health Care Reform?” No registration or prerequisites or anything, but not this week, it’s Simchat Torah and I’ll be out celebrating.
September 30, 2009
There is nothing resembling an original thought left in me at the moment, so let me share a reading that I found preparing for Yom Kippur. The author is unknown, but I wish I could take credit as it packs in one place more good advice about life than I thought possible. And what better time for good advice than the start of a new year?
“Come in,” God said. “So, you would like to interview me?”
“If you have time,” I said. God smiled and said:
“My time is eternity and is enough to do everything. What questions do you have in mind to ask me?”
“What surprises you most about humankind?”
God answered: “That they get bored of being children, are in a rush to grow up, and then long to be children again. That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health. That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live neither for the present nor the future. That they live as if they will never die, and they die as if they had never lived…”
God’s hands took mine and we were silent for while, and then I asked…
“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons you want your children to learn?”
God replied with a smile:
“To learn that they cannot make anyone love them. What they can do is to let themselves be loved. To learn that what is most valuable is not what they have in their lives, but who they have in their lives. To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to others. All will be judged individually on their own merits, not as a group on a comparison basis! To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but is one who needs the least. To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love, and that it takes many years to heal them. To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness. To learn that there are persons that love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings. To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it totally differently. To learn that a true friend is someone who knows everything about them… and likes them anyway. To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they have to forgive themselves.”
I sat there for a while enjoying the moment. I thanked God for the time, and for all that God has done for me and my family, and God replied, “Anytime. I’m here 24 hours a day. All you have to do is ask for me, and I’ll answer.”
Author Unknown
I hope you have a good Wednesday and a happy and festive Sukkot. Sukkot is overtaking Pesach as my favorite holiday. I hope you will experience it at least a little, beginning Friday night. Moadim L'Simchah.
September 23, 2009
We are in the midst of Aseret Yimei Teshuvah, the Ten Days of Repentance. This is a good time to think about reconciling ourselves with God (if needed) and with other people whom we might have harmed or treated less than well (who of us doesn’t need that?). If our repentance is done with sincerity and we make good whatever damages can be made good, then we hope for forgiveness from God/ the other person. This Shabbat morning, in the sanctuary service, I will lead a discussion about repentance and forgiveness, using as test cases Bernie Madoff, Lt. William Calley and Michael Vick.
It’s also a time to think about where we are going in life. To guide our thinking, we turn to the great rabbinical scholar Dr. Seuss. In his famous book “Oh the Places You’ll Go!,” Dr. Seuss talks about a very familiar place to us all in our journey through life, a place he calls “the waiting place.” Dr. Seuss writes:
You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggle roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
Headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…
…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.
Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.
As we review the past year during this High Holiday season, and as we look ahead, it’s a fine time to ask ourselves where we are in life and whether we have somehow or in some way become stuck in “The Waiting Place.” Take time from your self-examination to have a good Wednesday. Bill Rudolph
P.S. Information about Yom Kippur services, the Manna food drive, unique introductions to the Kol Nidre prayer, and the afternoon Seminar with its text about God, will be forthcoming in the next few days. If not then, when?
September 16, 2009
Boker Tov.
You have shown remarkable patience as you awaited the crucial comparison of Beth El responses on the question “Why Do You Come to High Holiday Services?” with those of our sister shul in Scarsdale. And now comes your reward. Nicely formatted when I sent it.
Scarsdale Responses (in order of popularity):
Jewish People/ Tradition plurality of responses
Spirituality/ Personal Peace very common
Social/ Community very common
Sermons/Learning somewhat common
For the “children” somewhat common
Family/ Nostalgia somewhat common
Communicate w God occasional
Sense of Obligation occasional
Rituals occasional
Personal Improvement occasional
Beth El Responses (as noted last Wednesday):
Jewish People/ Tradition very common
Spirituality/ Personal Peace very common
Social/ Community most common
Sermons/Learning somewhat common
For the “children” occasional
Family/ Nostalgia occasional
Communicate w God somewhat common
Sense of Obligation somewhat common
Rituals somewhat common
Personal Improvement occasional
Now to the comparisons and my brief analysis. Note that each survey had a little over 100 respondents, some of whom noted multiple reasons.
Jewish People/ Tradition: more than half of the Scarsdale people included this reason, not even a quarter of Beth El. Since I think this is more a feeling than a reason, I prefer your response level.
Spirituality/ Personal Peace and Social/Community: no big differences here, these are very common reasons for attending and both are excellent reasons in my opinion.
Sermons/ Learning: responses similar from both congregations; except for wishing this were the most common response, I am OK with this.
For the “Children” and Family/ Nostalgia: much more operative for Scarsdale respondents, I am pleased that Beth El people were not much motivated by these considerations.
Communicate with God and Sense of Obligation and Rituals: I was most pleased that these are somewhat common reasons for attending for Beth El folk, as these are substantive reasons for attending. The obligation reason is about mitzvah, and that is good. I found it interesting that each of the three was only occasionally noted by the Scarsdale people.
Bottom line: I am encouraged by your responses, they represent reasons for attending services that are in tune with what services – in my humble opinion - should be providing. They look even better when compared to the responses of the Scarsdale congregation. So, I for one am staying put here.
I look forward to seeing you at services – which you all presumably attend for some of the reasons above - and wish you a ketivah v’chatimah tovah – may you be inscribed and sealed for a good new year.
September 9, 2009
Last Wednesday I published a sampling of the close to 100 responses (now more) to my High Holiday survey question - Why Do You Come to Services? As promised, today I will share my effort to put your responses into categories – similar to those in the Scarsdale survey – and indicate which were more/less common. Some of the categories need a little explanation and that is done in brackets. There is much to ponder here. Next week, on the eve of yom tov, I will compare you to your counterparts in Scarsdale. There are differences. I know you won’t sleep waiting to hear what they are, but have a good Wednesday in the meantime. And forgive if the formatting is poor, which seems to happen even if the original is total perfection.
Jewish People/ Tradition. Very Common [To feel connection to the Jewish people, be part of something larger, “link in a chain.”]
Spirituality/ Personal Peace. Very Common [To find sense of peace in an otherwise hectic and stressful life, experience the holy.]
Social/ Community. Most Common [To be with friends, the extended synagogue family, sharing in each other’s lives. “I come to see my friends.”]
Sermons/Learning. Somewhat Common
Communicate with God. Somewhat Common
Sense of Obligation. Somewhat Common [Feeling obligated, commanded to come, along with apologies that this wasn’t a good reason. It is. ]
Rituals. Somewhat Common [Hear the Hazzan, davven, say kaddish.]
“For the Children.” Occasional [Come for their sake, to solidify their sense of being Jewish.]
Family/ Nostalgia. Occasional [To create, or recall, powerful memories of “doing Jewish” with parents or grandparents.]
Personal Improvement. Occasional [Become a better person.]
P.S. Remember that you can get an early start on some of your High Holiday goals by attending Selichot, this Saturday night, beginning at 10PM. Joint program and service at Ohr Kodesh.
September 2, 2009
There were close to 100 responses to last week’s pre High Holiday survey question - why do you come to services? They were mostly brief. I am seeing categories and more/less common responses forming in front of my eyes and will share them next week. And compare them with the Scarsdale shul the following week. In the meantime, here are some representative responses to ponder. Much more content here than my usual - there was a lot to choose from and it was hard to cut. Read as much as you can. And have a nice Wednesday. Bill Rudolph
I come to services to be together with ALL my ancestors (beginning with Adam and Eve) and all the other Jews from China to Australia to Argentina, and so on. I also come for the music. (Short enough?) M
major chord: friendship and inspiration.
minor chord: tradition and feeling of community W
To honor my ancestors, celebrate the joy of simchas, seek shelter from life's storms and visit with dwindling friends. M2
Also, in answer to your inquiry, I attend HH services out of habit, because I always have like my father, grandfather, etc. before me. I fear being the “weak link” in the generational chain. My entire being hopes that my son and his progeny will continue to attend. It also helps that I find a calming comfort (the opposite of jewish guilt?) from attending. A
Reasons I attend:
1. General feeling of duty/obligation to the tradition/religion
2. Set example for my children
3. My wife would never let me live it down if I missed high holidays
4. Forced introspection
5. See friends--bask in the communal spirit
6. Hedge my bets by slipping into the book of life before it closes
M2
It's where I feel I belong. While I'm lost during most of the Hebrew portions, I love the sermons, the songs and sharing "yom tov" greetings with people I see often, see seldom and total strangers, with whom I feel a major connection. R
I come to services to pray to my God, the God of Israel. W2
With regard to Shabbat there is a highly emotional and hedonistic reason--I love that intangible feeling of calm, of pausing to reflect, of feeling the meaning of Shabbat. I also enjoy being part of a community, and I can always count on that happening. I like remembering I am Jewish in a very pure way. The High Holiday services are different--it's usually much more about obligation, I sometimes have to struggle to organize the family, and there's the somewhat high-stakes meal planning. However, once I'm there I'm always glad, even if those feelings I have on Shabbat are attenuated. The focus of reflection is different, looking back and forward, and that is meaningful in a different way. C
I come to shul because it is a place of comfort, security, balance, a sanctuary in a sea of secularities. A place to learn, question, explore, express gratitude, find favor, remember and nurture.
I come to shul to experience the contrast between the hush of silent devotion and the exuberance of melodic harmonies. I come to add my voice and kavahnah to my community of prayer.
As a self-proclaimed guardian of this gift of faith, it is my right, obligation, honor and calling to preserve this precious legacy for those who will walk after me. J
1.) Outside possibility of spiritual uplift - Occasionally, when the congregation is davening loudly and passionately, most likely at Neilah or some similar moment, I get a palpable feeling that there is a many thousand year vein of very powerful energy that we tap into and experience as a deep buzz in our gut.
2.) Am Israel Chai - The experience of community on the haggim can at moments also very powerful. My favorite moment is on [Kol Nidrei] when the crowd of people soberly crossing Old Georgetown road is so great that it begins to offset the traffic and signal patterns. A2
I go to services mainly because I think I have to. I want to be an observant Jew because I feel it is my responsibility and something I am supposed to do. I also enjoy feeling close to God which I do when I see the majesty of the ark and Torah. Finally, I like the social aspect--seeing my friends at shul. hope this doesn't upset you. I know you want the truth. A3
My reasons for coming on the holidays: 1. family tradition (including guilt), 2. setting an example for children to remain in the fold, 3. maintaining a "discipline" of repentance, 4. hearing your sermons. (Numbering meant to separate the reasons; not to prioritize.) S
Among the most important reasons I attend high-holiday services ... to teach my children and to honor my parents, who would be proud of me for doing what I can to pass Judaism on to their grandchildren. R2
1. Preserve and continue crucial aspects of Jewish observance so as to preserve overall Jewish existence
2. It would feel strange and "wrong" to be anywhere else
3. Reconnect with the Shul and fellow members
4. Inspiration and opportunity for self-reflection
5. Relearn how to parallel park in a space 4 inches longer than the length of my car. A4
I come to services for spiritual sustenance and the positive feeling of being part of a Jewish, prayer community. Riveting, I'm sure....sorry Rabbi - that's all I got! S2
This may sound weird, but I think I come to services both to get a break from my children and for my children. By "getting a break," I don't necessarily mean physically, because many times they are with me, but getting away from catering to their every need, and to be able to escape and to focus on my faith for a few hours. It's an opportunity to feed my soul and feel the connection to my faith that I haven't been able to fully do for a number of years because of my constant struggle to balance "me" time and "kid" time. At the same time, I bring them to services so they can start to appreciate and learn the service, and hopefully develop their own sense of faith and belonging so one day, they will escape to their synagogue to get away from their kids! L
The first reason I go to shul on the high holidays is because I cannot do otherwise. Not going would feel as if I had abandoned a core connection with Judaism. The second reason I go is to bond with my family and experience with them a sense of awe about the holidays rooted in my childhood. The third is that I feel good being in shul. H
August 26, 2009
The High Holidays are coming, too fast. The clergy surely think about them more than the average congregant. The September issue of the Scroll will describe some of those thoughts.
In the meantime, so we are not alone in anticipation, I want to conduct an online – but lo tech – survey. It follows on a similar survey done by my colleague David Fine and written up in the summer 2008 issue of Conservative Judaism which was part of my vacation reading. Fine had read The Jew Within (Eisen and Cohen) where High Holiday services are presented as posing a particular challenge. “People believe they should be participating, but they don’t quite know how to endow Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with personal significance.” Rabbi Fine wanted to see if this is so. On Rosh Hashanah in 2007 Rabbi Fine asked his Scarsdale congregation to send him notes explaining why they come to services. He did not specify if he meant on the High Holidays or Shabbat though most assumed he meant the former. He received 102 responses. Each was in the congregant’s own words, not based on picking from multiple choices that the Rabbi might have presented but which could have influenced how people responded. Congregants could point to more than one reason. Rabbi Fine then analyzed the responses into basic categories in order of popularity and presented them on Yom Kippur
Now I ask you to think about this question – why do you come to services? - and make your own responses. You can present multiple reasons for coming. Be as thoughtful and provocative as you wish. There are no wrong answers. You won’t offend me. But please also try to be brief, 25-50 words should suffice - I can only read so much if you want me to also keep up with the rest of my job. In the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah, I will share some of the responses individually and then as they fall into categories that make sense (Rabbi Fine came up with 13 based on the responses he received). Since you are competitive, I will also compare your responses with the feedback from Scarsdale. I think this will help us achieve a focus as we think about High Holiday services and tell us a lot about the yearnings and doubts and hopes that we bring with us to shul.
August 19, 2009
The book list is out, the High Holiday thread will be delayed a week while I deal with a rather atypical It’s Wednesday topic.
I meet with a lot of families and hear lots of stories. I trust in the law of three - when I hear something three times, I think it is not to be ignored. When I heard the following story for the third time in recent weeks, I decided to share it with you. It is probably irrelevant if you don’t have a spouse or significant other. If you do, read on.
The story is basically this: the husband has pretty much managed the family funds over the years. There were problems due to investment decisions or loss of income, or the current recession, that caused the husband to make financial decisions (loans, second mortgages, notes) that would serve to keep the family budget “whole.” The husband never shared these decisions with his wife. She only found out because he died and there was less to live on than anticipated, or because bank or collection notices came to the wife’s attention. The situations were not good, causing pain and anger.
I was shocked to hear this three times in a short period. Each of the three stories was a little different of course, but in each case it was the husband who made financial decisions without his wife’s knowledge. In no case was there deception for personal gain – no money was being stashed away so the husband could run off to a golf resort or worse. I think the husband just didn’t want to worry his family. And he didn’t want to disappoint anyone, didn’t want anyone to think that the major breadwinner (which the husband still is in most families) was not meeting the family needs. I think the husband took on a burden that must have been heavy. I do not think he needed to bear it alone.
So, I am recommending – for the sake of shalom bayit (domestic tranquility) down the road and shared responsibility now - that couples do some taking stock about money. Both about what has gone down already, and looking forward. In these difficult economic times, how much more important it is that both know what is going on and what challenges the family may face. Make sure there are wills too. From the Jewish standpoint, the High Holidays represent a time in which we are commanded to do a cheshbon hanefesh ( accounting of our spiritual wellbeing). It will be good to do a general cheshbon as well. It’s the right thing to do.
Best wishes for a good Wednesday and a good conversation soon - about money - with your loved one.
August 12, 2009
Boker Tov.
Summer is fading, but not the opportunities it offers. I have a thread that I will take up next Wednesday that will lead us into the holidays. In the meantime, I have decided not to dwell on the NJ money-laundering rabbis. But did you hear the “Top Ten Signs that Your Rabbi Was Indicted?” My favorites from the list are these four: that he suddenly takes on the tradition of wearing his hat on his face, another is that the shul’s silent auction now includes kidneys, a third is that the rebbitzin is suddenly on JDate, and a fourth is that the rabbi announces that he will be spending the rest of the summer “upstate.” Reacting to this and other gloomy developments on the international scene can wait. Let me dwell instead on literacy, and see the good place where the gloom about that can lead us.
In the summer reading pile was a review of a book called Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesn’t, written by BU Religion Chair Stephen Prothero. He notes that America is the most religious nation in the developed world, if religiosity is measured by belief in the supernatural (though we Jews do our best to bring down the numbers but fortunately there are few of us). At the same time, Americans are also the most religiously ignorant people in the Western world. Fewer than half of us can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and only one third know that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. 75 percent mistakenly think the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves,” which is opposite of what the Bible teaches and is Ben Franklin speaking. More than 10 percent think that Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc [do you get why?]. One half cannot name even one of the four Gospels. And so on. Given America’s role in the world, it is more scary to think that we must know even less about Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism, than we do about Judaism and Christianity.
Prothero spends much of the book explaining the reasons for this decline in religious literacy. Unquestionably it’s one manifestation of a more general decline in the public’s cultural and civic knowledge. He talks about that too. According to polls conducted by the National Constitution Center, only one third of Americans can name even one of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. So is it any more startling that only one third can identify the preacher of the Sermon on the Mount?
I know our congregation is more literate than this, even about Christianity. But we can do even better, and the decline of religious and general literacy is everyone’s problem. It can be fixed one book at a time. I do hear from you about all the fiction you are reading, but that’s only a partial solution. So, using the miracles of the electronic age, and with summer still holding forth for a few weeks, I ask you to share with me a book of non-fiction – Jewish or religious or general - that you read and enjoyed lately. I will tally the inputs, look for patterns, and share the results with you right away – before too much more of the summer is gone - in a special edition of It’s Wednesday. Just click on the email address below (don’t push Reply). Title and Author. Thanks in advance. And best wishes for a good Wednesday.
August 13, 2009
There were 75+ responses to yesterday’s column about the decline of literacy and how we can confront it one book at a time. More than 150 non fiction books were recommended. I now share, as promised, what I gleaned from your submissions. I hope you will find time to take on one or more of these before summer’s end.
Note that responses came from as far away as Hawaii and from sisters in law and nieces and cousins of members around the States. It’s Wednesday is no secret anymore.
In no priority or alphabetical order then, without bibliographic finery:
Category One. Five that appeared on multiple lists:
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
A Safe Haven: Harry S Truman and the Founding of Israel By Ronald and Allis Radosh
Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated And Reunited By Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
Category Two. Other worthy or intriguing titles (*specific Jewish interest)
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared Diamond
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg* [ a classic]
Your Inner Fish : a journey into the 3.5-billion-year history of the human body by Neil ShubinCut of Stone and/or My Own Country both by Abraham Verghese
The Genius Factory by David Plotz
The Murmuring Deep by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg*
Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health Wealth and Happiness by Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein.
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacob*
August 5, 2009
Boker Tov.
With thanks to God for keeping me alive on 12,000 foot Colorado mountain passes, I once again provide for your Inbox, beginning on the first Wednesday of August, by 7:30AM, and then each Wednesday thereafter, like clockwork, this little column. Quite the grammatical disaster was that sentence, but it’s good to be back and I hope you missed me a little.
My extended vacation was what I hoped it would be. I didn’t quite figure it out in advance, but it worked out that June was a month to get back control of my life – reintroduce myself to my family, cut down the email and reading piles, pull out the weeds, make our new spaces part of our home. July was more for fun and relaxation. I won’t bore you with the detail.
I confess that I still agonize for weeks over this first column of the new season. Not for lack of something to say. Not to worry, I did read a lot and think about the macro and the micro of Judaism and shul life at this juncture in history. You will hear more as the Wednesdays and Shabbatot go by and on the High Holidays. But to pick out THE most important issue or idea to inaugurate this new season of It’s Wednesday? That was too daunting.
So let me just share a quote from Abraham Joshua Heschel (in an essay in the collection Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity) that continues to guide me through work and play and might serve all of us well: “I seek to understand the present and the future while I disagree with those who think of the present in the past tense. I consider in my own intellectual existence that the greatest danger is to become obsolete. I try not to be stale. I try to remain young. I have one talent and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: See life as doors. Some are open, some closed. You have to know how to open them.”
I look forward to talking with you each Wednesday, and hope that this Wednesday will include at least some sense of wonder and other good things.