April 22, 2011
Shabbat Shalom v`Hag Samaeach! So, raise your hand if you are suffering from bagel withdrawal? Then again, many dietary studies suggest that we are better off without the bagels.
Have you heard of the Paleo-diet: it suggests that we eat like caveman: plenty of meats, fish, vegetables and fruits, but no bread products because cavemen were not agrarian. Hmmm, except for the matzah, it sounds like our Seder menu!
Indeed, for many during Pesah, except for the Sedarim, there is a strange effect of feeling constantly hungry; that there just doesn’t seem to be enough to eat during Pesah! Yet, in our day and age, there is such a wealth of readily available Kosher for Passover products on the marke, and especially in our metropolitan area.
I remember growing up in suburban Maryland and our annual family trek to Washington, DC, the Sunday before Pesah, to the only store that carried Kosher for Passover products. In this region, we are rather spoiled by the Pesah plenty, not so in other parts of the Jewish world.
My niece, Riva, who is a journalist for the WSG on long-term assignment in Brussels, learned this very lesson as she went to buy at the last minute kosher wine for Pesah. She wrote about the travail of doing such in her blog: Hunting Kosher For Passover Wine In Brussels
She writes: “Brussels has about 20,000 Jewish inhabitants—but try finding a bottle of wine that is Kosher for Passover…known in French as the “Jewish Easter.”
She goes on to describe her last-minute search for the wine: “All of the supermarkets I called, even the “hyper-markets,” don’t carry kosher wines. This is the gist of the conversation I had with five different large stores: Riva: “Do you sell kosher wine?” Store: “What’s that?”
And some stores in Brussels have kosher wine, but not Kosher for Passover. There is a specialty wine shop in the St. Gilles neighborhood of Brussels…that sells Kosher for Passover wine. However, they closed early in the afternoon ahead of the holidays.
I asked the man on the other end of the phone if he might know of any other shops that sell Kosher for Passover wine and may still be open: “There’s only two [of us],” he said, trailing off. “…I’m not sure if the other one is [operating] anymore.”
Well, I don’t know if she found the wine, her blog doesn’t supply the answer as she concludes by stating: “The super-sweet Manischewitz wine, a staple on tables across the U.S. during Passover, is only distributed in Central Europe.”
However, there is a rather serious page 2 to the topic of procuring Pesah supplies and that is underscored in our Haggadot when we recite כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח”Let all those in need come and make Pesach.”
The mitzvah to help those in need celebrate Passover is an integral part of our tradition. It is customary to donate each year to special funds for the poor to help offset the additional expenses of the holiday. We explicitly express this generosity as we sit down to the seder and recite ha lachma anya. We are recalling the “bread of poverty” that the Hebrews ate as slaves in Egypt, and then we invite the poor to join us by saying: “Whoever is hungry, let them come and eat; whoever is in need, let them come and celebrate the Passover festival.” In remembrance of our hunger in Egypt, we offer to share our wealth with those in need.
Caring and giving to others are core values that underlie the celebration of Passover. In this spirit, a unique Israel Defense Forces delegation helped this Pesah to bring relief to the Jews in Japan who have seen their homes, and any hope for carrying out their Passover traditions this year, decimated.
Tzvi Yehuda Mansbach, a lieutenant in the Israel Defense Forces rabbinical corps, went to Minamisanriku, Japan with 60 members of an IDF aid delegation, and has been tending to the spiritual needs of the delegation members as well as the local community. He brought with him “seder kits” for each soldier and extra kits for “Tokyo’s Jewish community, for whom finding mahtzah, wine and Passover Haggadot for the holiday was a difficult if not nearly impossible challenge.”
As these Israeli soldiers helped the local Jewish community celebrate Passover, they also fulfilled the mitzvah of supporting the less fortunate. In fact, the aid delegation “includes 50 doctors and brought with it 62 tons of medical equipment and 18 tons of humanitarian aid, including some 10,000 coats, 6,000 blankets, 8,000 gloves and 150 portable toilets.”
My dear friends, as we gather this Shabbat Hol HaMoed Pesah, our bellies still bursting from our sumptuous Sedarim; let us never take it for granted – the power of redemption is needed b`kol dor v`dor – in every generation – let us be thankful for our blessings and remindful of our obligations.
ALUASA.
March 25, 2011
Human Sacrifice
Shabbat Shalom.
This Shabbat is the 3rd in the series of special Shabbatot leading up to Pesah, Shabbat Parah – The Sabbath of the Red Heifer – the Parah Aduma; the cow whose hide had to be comprised of nearly totally red hairs, not more than 2 black hairs on it to be qualified.
The ritual of the Parah Aduma is read before Pesah because it was necessary in the days of the Temple, that if you had come in contact with a corpse, you were forbidden to enter the Temple courtyard to offer your Pesah sacrifice unless you had been cleansed with the admixture of the ashes of the Parah Aduma mixed with water.
In ancient days, there was great concern for the spiritual taint transferred by contact with the dead. It was of great concern for the Kohanim, whom where permitted to only come in contact with the dead of their most immediate family. This was because finding a Parah Aduma was extremely rare, and without the admixture, a Kohain could not be purified and thus, remained disqualified from serving in the Temple.
This issue of a Kohain coming in contact with the dead was recently in the news. A dental school student, who is a Kohain, requested from the dean to be exempted from performing the required autopsies on cadavers because of his Kohain status. The dean refused based on the student’s fore-knowledge that it was a requirement.
When I read the story, I wondered which rabbi had advised this student, because, there are clear T`shuvot – Responses on Laws of Judaism, by prominent Orthodox rabbis, that state a doctor, who is a Kohain, is permitted to come into contact with the dead, including working on cadavers while in school, because it may lead to saving lives, and this also applies to dentists.
Such T`shuvot clearly indicate that it is permissible to sacrifice one’s future ability to serve God in the Temple in order to do P`kuah Nefesh, the saving of lives.
A fascinating concept, one is permit to sacrifice one’s ritual rights in order to serve the greater good; the closest we can come to fulfilling in our day and age a form of human sacrifice – giving of one’s self to save others. And, once again, we are seeing examples of the willingness of others to so sacrifice themselves.
We are witnessing the unfolding saga of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, so many lives lost and shattered. And, we have seen so many risking their lives to rescue the victims and to recover the bodies.
Then, there are the workers from the damaged nuclear power facility, going back into the damaged reactors, time and time again, at great risk and extreme likelihood of being exposed to fatal doses of radiation. They have been called heroic, potentially, even very likely, voluntarily sacrificing their lives to save thousands of others.
And, today is the 100th anniversary of another incident of human sacrifice, but one that was not voluntary, but eventually did lead to saving lives of others. March 25, 1911, 29 Washington Place, Lower East Side of Manhattan, 146 garment workers lost their lives in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire; most of whom were female, age 16 – 23, and recent Jewish & Italian immigrants to America. The tragedy was exacerbated by the management that kept stairwell and exit doors locked, blocking their escape routes!
From that tragedy came laws to protect the safety and rights of workers – paid by the sacrifice of 146 lives.
Yes, our prayers continued for those still in the throes of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan, and the the sacrifices of many to save lives. And, we also need to add our prayers the victims of the Shirtwaist Factory fire, in a way that is most appropriate, please rise and recite with me the Mourner’s Kaddish in their memory:
Sermon 7/11/09
Is Congressman Peter King (RNY) Right?
Shabbat Shalom.
So, is he buried yet? Of course, I refer to the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Although, I really don’t walk to talk about MJ, I feel goaded into doing so by comments from two people, and by one aspect of it all that really bothers me.
First, is a comment posted on FaceBook. This person wrote: “I had to lecture my rabbi on the significance of Michael Jackson.”
My initial reaction was, that poor rabbi, is he living in a vacuum with no perception of the world around him? I remember when I was 15 and working at a summer camp. The local Top-40 station must have played at least once an hour the song: “ABC – 1, 2, 3 – as simple as you and me;” it became engraved upon my brain!
My second reaction was, that poor rabbi, having to listen to a lecture on the significance of Michael Jackson from a congregant!
Then there were the incredulous comments made by Congressman Peter King. He used strong words such as pervert and claimed to be vocalizing what a vast number of others were thinking: how absurdly inappropriate is the adulation surrounding Jackson’s death; did he cure cancer?
Yes, Michael Jackson did have a significant impact as an entertainer, but what I think Congressman King was trying to say is what my grandmother of blessed memory would have said, “geh – noog, – enough is enough!”
Then there is the aspect that really bothers me: how can you treat the human body in such a disrespectful manner and allow over 2 weeks to transpire before the body is buried? Yes, I realize that the Christian tradition does not follow the Jewish tradition that we bury our dead with respectful expediency. But, come on now, 2 weeks! It’s a shanda! Where’s the closure? Where’s the ability for a family to mourn and to begin the recovery process? Where’s the kavod hamait – the respect for the dead?
Where? I’ll tell you; it is in a story from a funeral that took place last Thursday in Texas, and it surprisingly made the newswires, but probably few saw it due to the media frenzy that continues to swirl around Michael Jackson.
The Dallas Morning News reported that “Tom Berger got his minyan Thursday, and then some. Berger, who was in his 50s, died … after living 34 years at the Denton State School. He could not walk or speak and had profound mental disabilities. Did he know he was Jewish? Did he know that a minyan is a quorum for many Jewish rituals? Who knows? But his family surely knew, and they made sure he was part of regular Jewish activities at the facility. When Berger died, however, his family was gone. His mother and brother had died several years ago. They had made financial arrangements for a Jewish funeral in Dallas. But what of the spiritual arrangements? The funeral home called Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas where the chaplain, Rabbi Howard Wolk, knew he had a challenge…how to assemble a [funeral] minyan for a man with no direct community ties? This doesn’t happen often, Rabbi Wolk said.
It being 2009, the rabbi sent out an e-mail on Wednesday asking for Jews to come to the cemetery Thursday morning. When he left for the graveside, he knew of only six replies.
People trickled in. Men and women, young and old, some were observant of many Jewish rituals and some less so. Some knew each other, but many were as much strangers to each other as they were to the man whose remains rested in the unadorned wooden casket. When Rabbi Wolk started to speak…the crowd easily doubled the ritual requirement. Why did they come?
“I’d want someone to do it for me,” said Saul Meyer.
“It’s the final action we can do for somebody. God took care of burying Moses,” said Paltiel Brodsky. “We try to emulate God.”
“Here I was worried that we wouldn’t even have a minyan and we far outshined that,” Rabbi Wolk told the group. “Even someone who could not communicate verbally to another individual was able to bring people together.”
Rabbi Wolk and his small, instant congregation asked a God of justice and mercy to care for the soul of Tom Berger. And they prayed for their community that embraced Berger for a first and final time: “May He who creates peace in heaven also create peace for us, and for all Israel.”
My dear friends, that is Kavod HaMait – respect for our dead – this is what we do as a sacred community.
Kain y`hee ratzon – may it so be God’s will & ALUASA.
By JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News
Ye of Little Faith
Parashat Sh`lakh L`kha 5769
Rabbi Mark Mallach
Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael
Springfield, NJ
Shabbat Shalom.
This Shabbat we learn from the Torah portion the reason why the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before being permitted to enter the Promised Land. So, nu, what was the reason?
Many blame Moshe! After all he was the leader, the entire nation followed after him as they meandered in the wilderness. There are those that suggest that the Israelites wandered so long because, Moshe, being a man, refused to stop to ask for directions!
Of course, there are others who suggest a different reason, such as the great Biblical commentator, Rashi. Rashi explains that it was God’s punishment for the Israelites’ reaction to the negative report of 10 of the 12 spies sent to scout out the land, that those 10 spies lacked sufficient faith and their report further undermined the already weakened faith of the people.
It wasn’t that the spies misspoke about what they saw in the land of Israel; they gave a fair and accurate report of its assets and its fortifications. It was the manner in which they gave their report, the commentary that they layered over the facts when they described the military potential of the Canaanites by stating, “we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves and so we must have looked to them.” (Num. 13:33)
Thus, the mission of Sh`lakh L`kha – “You shall send spies,” turned into a un-mitigated national disaster for the Israelites. Those very 2 Hebrew words that define this parasha, Sh`lakh L`kha, are a powerful statement on their own right. This Erev Shabbat, I want to share with you something that Cantor Nadel forwarded to me, an interesting twist on the word Sh`lakh that he had received from a colleague, Cantor Richard Wohlberg.
Cantor Wohlberg suggests the theme of Sh`lakh L`kha should have been positive, a simple fact-finding mission to bolster the people’s morale on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Instead it weakened their morale. Now, here’s the twist, take the work Sh`lakh – spelled Shin Lamed Het – reverse the order of the letters – HET – Lamed – Shin – and it forms the word Ha`lash, which means to “weaken!”
Moshe had sent the spies on a positive, forward thinking mission, but they acted in a backward manner due to their lack of faith. Instead of acting in good faith, their mission reversed and it became HaLash – weakened!
Does this ancient concept of going from Sh`lakh – a mission with positive objectives to Ha`lash – a mission with negative results, reverberate into our day and age? You bet it does!
This past Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter visited Gaza; the visit itself is in violation of the international boycott of a Hamas as a terrorist organization. He went there on what he surely considered to be a positive mission; he went there to persuade Hamas to accept international demands, including the recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
The day after Carter’s visit, Ahmed Youssef, the deputy Hamas foreign minister praised Carter’s historic visit to Gaza. However, in response to Carter’s proposals, Youssef issued the following statement: “The visit has not led to a significant change. Hamas finds the conditions unacceptable. Recognizing Israel is completely unacceptable.”
Yes, it was a bold, provocative attempt by President Carter – but, the end result, no more than another example of Ha`lash, weak and ineffective.
The cantor’s friend is his email also suggested a word in English that when spelled backward gives a profound reversed meaning. The word is “live” – L I V E – reverse the spelling – E V I L – Evil. How true that rings when it applies to life under Hamas in Gaza – their rule is tantamount to perpetuation of evil and destruction.
Our ancestors were doomed to wander the wilderness for 40 years due to their lack of faith, due to their Ha`lash perspective on their own ability to succeed. We, Ahm Yisrael today, cannot afford such a lack of faith and wander the wilderness of the peace process for another 40 years. We cannot live our lives under the constant threat of the evil of Islamic fundamentalism.
Just this past Sunday, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benyamin Netanyahu, issued his own words of Sh`lakh L`kha – a positive mission towards peace – by declaring Israel’s willingness to accept a 2-state solution – to live side by side with a Palestinian, but demilitarized state. May we all have the faith to be strong, to be resolved to be Sh`lakh and pursue peace!
Kain Y`hee Ratzon – may it be God’s will – ALUASA.
Ye of Little Faith
Parashat Sh`lakh L`kha 5769
Rabbi Mark Mallach
Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael
Springfield, NJ
Shabbat Shalom.
This Shabbat we learn from the Torah portion the reason why the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before being permitted to enter the Promised Land. So, nu, what was the reason?
Many blame Moshe! After all he was the leader, the entire nation followed after him as they meandered in the wilderness. There are those that suggest that the Israelites wandered so long because, Moshe, being a man, refused to stop to ask for directions!
Of course, there are others who suggest a different reason, such as the great Biblical commentator, Rashi. Rashi explains that it was God’s punishment for the Israelites’ reaction to the negative report of 10 of the 12 spies sent to scout out the land, that those 10 spies lacked sufficient faith and their report further undermined the already weakened faith of the people.
It wasn’t that the spies misspoke about what they saw in the land of Israel; they gave a fair and accurate report of its assets and its fortifications. It was the manner in which they gave their report, the commentary that they layered over the facts when they described the military potential of the Canaanites by stating, “we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves and so we must have looked to them.” (Num. 13:33)
Thus, the mission of Sh`lakh L`kha – “You shall send spies,” turned into a un-mitigated national disaster for the Israelites. Those very 2 Hebrew words that define this parasha, Sh`lakh L`kha, are a powerful statement on their own right. This Erev Shabbat, I want to share with you something that Cantor Nadel forwarded to me, an interesting twist on the word Sh`lakh that he had received from a colleague, Cantor Richard Wohlberg.
Cantor Wohlberg suggests the theme of Sh`lakh L`kha should have been positive, a simple fact-finding mission to bolster the people’s morale on the verge of entering the Promised Land. Instead it weakened their morale. Now, here’s the twist, take the work Sh`lakh – spelled Shin Lamed Het – reverse the order of the letters – HET – Lamed – Shin – and it forms the word Ha`lash, which means to “weaken!”
Moshe had sent the spies on a positive, forward thinking mission, but they acted in a backward manner due to their lack of faith. Instead of acting in good faith, their mission reversed and it became HaLash – weakened!
Does this ancient concept of going from Sh`lakh – a mission with positive objectives to Ha`lash – a mission with negative results, reverberate into our day and age? You bet it does!
This past Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter visited Gaza; the visit itself is in violation of the international boycott of a Hamas as a terrorist organization. He went there on what he surely considered to be a positive mission; he went there to persuade Hamas to accept international demands, including the recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
The day after Carter’s visit, Ahmed Youssef, the deputy Hamas foreign minister praised Carter’s historic visit to Gaza. However, in response to Carter’s proposals, Youssef issued the following statement: “The visit has not led to a significant change. Hamas finds the conditions unacceptable. Recognizing Israel is completely unacceptable.”
Yes, it was a bold, provocative attempt by President Carter – but, the end result, no more than another example of Ha`lash, weak and ineffective.
The cantor’s friend is his email also suggested a word in English that when spelled backward gives a profound reversed meaning. The word is “live” – L I V E – reverse the spelling – E V I L – Evil. How true that rings when it applies to life under Hamas in Gaza – their rule is tantamount to perpetuation of evil and destruction.
Our ancestors were doomed to wander the wilderness for 40 years due to their lack of faith, due to their Ha`lash perspective on their own ability to succeed. We, Ahm Yisrael today, cannot afford such a lack of faith and wander the wilderness of the peace process for another 40 years. We cannot live our lives under the constant threat of the evil of Islamic fundamentalism.
Just this past Sunday, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benyamin Netanyahu, issued his own words of Sh`lakh L`kha – a positive mission towards peace – by declaring Israel’s willingness to accept a 2-state solution – to live side by side with a Palestinian, but demilitarized state. May we all have the faith to be strong, to be resolved to be Sh`lakh and pursue peace!
Kain Y`hee Ratzon – may it be God’s will – ALUASA.
******************************************************************************
Compassionate Halacha
Parashat Emor 5769
Rabbi Mark Mallach
Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael
Shabbat Shalom.
Thank God for Shabbat, it has been an unfortunate week for the congregation for funerals, 3 this week; may their memories be for a blessing.
At one of funerals, there was an unusual request. The situation was that the brother of the deceased was himself hospitalized and unable to be at the funeral of his sister. I was asked by the daughter of the brother if it would be all right at the cemetery, before we began to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish, if she could call her father on her cell phone so he, too, could recite the Mourner’s Kaddish with the others.
Now, no rabbi likes to be asked a potentially problematic, emotionally charged question at the last minute, what we call, to give an answer Ahl Regal Ehad – while standing on1 leg. Meanwhile, my mind quickly raced through the 2 possible answers: a) the Halachi answer to the question, which would not be what the family wanted to hear, or, b) the compassionate answer recognizing the emotional needs of the bereaved.
I chose B and said, yes. When it came to that moment, he could hear us and we could hear him on speaker phone, reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish for his sister, his voice breaking with the emotion.
You might ask, what is answer A, the Halachic answer? In simplest terms, it would have been no. The Mourner’s Kaddish is a prayer that is only to be recited in the presence of a minyan, a quorum of 10.
However, I am often asked if it’s OK to simply recite it in the privacy of one’s home, alone. And, the answer is no. The answer is that one needs a congregation to respond to your prayer with a Y`hey she`may rabah… and Amen. Our sages understood that at such times it is ever more important to part of a minyan, part of a sacred community that is there to give you solace and comfort during your time of need.
The Halacha is very specific, to be counted in a minyan, you must be physically in the room, which means a virtual minyan or conference call minyan is not possible.
So, why did I say yes? I said yes out of the need for compassion and the need to maintain human dignity that has evolved over the centuries of rabbinic thought based partially on this week’s Torah portion, Emor.
In this parasha, there is a passage about the rules of participation of the Kohanim, the priests that served the Temple, that to the modern ear sounds devoid of compassion. The Torah states:
EESH … AHSHER YEEYEH BO MUUM, LO YIKARAV L`HAKRIV LECHEM EHL`OHAV – No man … who has a defect – muum – shall be qualified to offer the food (literally the bread) of his God.” (Lev. 21:17)
The Torah then specifies a series of muumim, defects, which disqualify the Kohan from performing public worship: the blind, the lame, those of unequal or broken limb, …infirmity after infirmity, all disqualify the Kohanim, and, no reasons are given as to why.
Essentially, a religion is not a democracy. A religion can have arbitrary or capricious rules that forbid some people to perform certain ritual functions, and require others to do so. However, we all recognize that our society continues to evolve and has always tried to deal with the strictures of religions.
As years pass, we may conclude, for example, that the death penalty is no longer wise or appropriate. We may conclude that slavery is no longer acceptable. We may conclude that bigamy is no longer permitted. Many years ago, the Conservative Movement ruled that a blind person can be a Torah reader, contrary to what this week’s parasha states. Sometimes, these changes in our secular world are entirely compatible with our religion. Other times, secular progress causes real tension in our religious life.
About 1/2 a century ago, the Conservative Movement took a historical step to reconcile Judaism’s requirements and the advances in our secular world, and the result was what we now consider to be normative Judaism in the Conservative Movement: egalitarianism. Next, we agonized over the propriety of female rabbis and cantors, and the result was that women are now found in both occupations in our Movement.
More recently, finally after the realization that in our secular world it is wrong to discriminate against the gay and lesbian community, we in the Conservative Movement have caught up and recognized that there are times that the need to respect human dignity speaks louder than 1 or 2 verses in the Torah. Thus, the need to be compassionate, the need to recognize the human condition, the need to assure the emotional needs of those around us, all derived from our organic interpretation of our Torah, leads us to permit what the ancients would have forbidden. It remains our obligation to ask today’s sages to find ways to allow all Jews to fulfill all Jewish obligations and to allow all Jews to perform all Jewish tasks. A religion can indeed be arbitrary, but it should not be inhumane.
Indeed, next Friday night, we will join with other MetroWest congregations for Shabbat Shalem – A Sabbath of Inclusion, to learn more how we as a community can be more inclusive of those with special needs.
We need to not only open our hearts to respond to a loved one hospitalized and unable to attend his sister’s funeral, but also to open our doors to those in need.
Kain Y`hee ratzon – may it be God’s will that we do so – ALUASA.
Shabbat Shalom. 11/21/2008
There is one phrase is this week’s sedra, Haye Sara, that keeps drawing me back to it. It is in the beginning of the narrative, which finds Avraham seeking a burial place for his beloved Sara. He approaches the local Hittite tribal leaders, and has to beg and supplicate himself, and then agrees to pay an outrageously inflated price. The phrase that keeps drawing my attention is how he identifies himself to the Hittites: “GEHR V`TOE`SHAV AH`NOCHEE EEM`MAH`CHEM – I am a resident alien among you” (Gen. 23:4).
Every time I read this phrase, I begin to wonder what it must have been like for Avraham to live as a resident alien amongst the natives of the land. What it must have been like to be mistrusted and denigrated as foreigner by the Hittities? Or how it must have felt to bear the jealousy of the Hittites over his hard work and success? How it must have hurt to be considered other, not one of us in the eyes of the Hittites?
Sadly, you don’t need to wonder, you only have to look around and see the consequences. How does it feel, just ask the family of Marcello Lucero, because you can’t ask him.
From the AP newswire: “It was meant to be a short jaunt to a friend’s home …[but] Marcello Lucero never made it. His walk, and his life, came to a brutal end when the Ecuadorean native was allegedly beaten and stabbed by a group of teenagers [all 16 – 17 from the local high school], who police said wanted “to beat up some Mexicans…Lucero’s death …was quickly labeled a hate crime by authorities, and it’s not an anomaly. Figures recently released by the FBI show hate crimes motivated by anti-Hispanic bias have been on the upswing since 2003.”
In Patchogue, LI, and too many other locales in this country, and contrary to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy’s opinion, the brutal, senseless murder of Marcello is not a “one-day story.”
On one hand, so many, regardless of their political orientation, can take great pride that we live in a country where the actuality of a child born to a white mother and a black father can become in reality the President of the USA.
On the other hand, there have been an un-precedent number of threats expressed against the life of President-elect Barak Obama! It is a sad statement that such xenophobia still exits in our society.
What does it mean to be other in a society? What does it mean when no matter how long you have lived in a country, no matter what your legal status may be, that you are still considered to be “GEHR V`TOE`SHAV – a resident alien – not one of us!
Perhaps County Executive Steve Levy needs to consult his own heritage by turning back to our Torah portion and noting the extremes that Avraham went to fully vet his rights and establish his legitimacy. What did he do? He stood before the assembled Hittites at the gate of the city – what we would call the court of public arena. He bowed low before their leader Ephron and in a voice heard by all, he agreed to pay that outrageously inflated price; a steep price to buy respect.
Marcello Lucero never even got a fair chance to pay such a price. But sometimes, thanks to our democracy, our constitution, our justice system, our courts of law, the tables are sometimes turned and it becomes the hatemongers who end up paying the price.
Last Friday, November 14th, “a jury awarded $2.5 million in damages … to a Kentucky teenager who was severely beaten by members of a Ku Klux Klan group because they mistakenly thought he was an illegal Latino immigrant… The jury found that the Imperial Klans of America and its founder wrongfully targeted 16-year-old Jordan Gruver, an American citizen of Panamanian and Native-American descent. The verdict included $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages against “Imperial Wizard” Ron Edwards.”
It is so hard, it is so dangerous, in our day and age, even in our own local area to still be, no matter your legal status, a “GEHR V`TOE`SHAV – a resident alien! How many more Jordan Gruvers need to be brutally beaten? How many more Marcello Luceros need to be savagely murdered because of their ethnicity?
Just last Friday night we heard from members of our congregation during our commemoration of Kristallnacht describe what it meant to be other, and we expressed the ever so important litany of Do Not Forget – Never Again! Yet, ethnic genocide continues.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy’s answer is to implement Anti-Bias courses in the county school system; I hope it helps. But a stronger message will hopefully come from the courts of Suffolk County when they punish those 7 perverted, hatemongering teenagers to the maximum sentence allowed by the criminal codes!
Indeed, Avraham Avinu’s words resonant into the 21st century, GEHR V`TOE`SHAV AH`NOCHEE EEM`MAH`CHEM – let us pray that no one should be made to feel to be a resident alien in any place that wish to call home.
ALUASA
The Religion of Politics: 8/28/08
TBAY: RE`EH 68FRI
RABBI MARK MALLACH
Shabbat Shalom.
OK, lets put Torah aside tonight and talk politics.
Now, if you know my history of speaking to the congregation, then you know that I do not tell you whom to vote for in an election. Yes, there are many preachers, Christian & Jewish, who will tell you exactly whom you should be voting for. I have never been so presumptuous. Democratic, Independent or Republican, it is your constituently guaranteed right to vote as you see fit or even not to do so; the choice is yours and I respect that.
What I have advocated and will continue to do so is to base your voting choices on at least one vital and critical factor: the candidate’s support of Israel. In the reality of a presidential campaign, there does not tend to be significant difference on declaring one’s support for Israel, hence, the voting choices that we make for congress and the senate often are more important in order to assure that on Capitol Hill the peace and security of Israel is protected.
With that being said, let me tell you that I was enthralled watching the DNC and I look forward to the upcoming RNC. But, truth be told, these aren’t really conventions, they are Revival Tent Meetings! Wednesday night, when the camera panned the delegates and I saw two guys mit de peyes, I thought to myself, what are they doing at a Revival Meeting?
What were they doing there? They were participating in the true religion of America, politics!
Speech after speech at the DNC, and I’m sure it will be virtually the same at the RNC, listed a litany of values that the party stands for that are straight out of our Torah, what is called in the lingo: the Judeo-Christian ethic.
Speaker after speaker sounded like a Bible-belt preacher thumping away as he or she quoted from the words of God. It sounded something like this:
“If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner and he gives you a sign or a portent…do not heed the words of that prophet or that dream-diviner…be careful to observe only that which I enjoin upon you” (Deut. 13: 2,4, 1). Translation: Don’t vote for my opponent no matter what they promise!
Or, it sounded something like this:
“There shall be no needy among you…if, however, there is a needy person among you…do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kinsman. Rather, you must open your hand and lend him sufficient for whatever he needs… do not neglect the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your settlements” (Deut. 15: 4, 7-8, 14: 27, 29). Translation: Raise the minimum wage, create new jobs, health insurance for all, no child left behind!
Or, when it comes to international relations, it sounded something like this:
“You will extend loans to many nations, but require none yourself; you will dominate many nations, but they will not dominate you” (Deut. 15:6). Translation: End our trade deficit, decrease our dependence on foreign oil, and stop nuclear proliferation in nations such as Iran.
All of these biblical quotes are from this week’s portion, parashat Re`eh. Oh, wait a second; I thought I said in the beginning that I wasn’t going to speak about the Torah tonight? Oops, I lied.
There’s one more verse from this week’s sedra that I want to share and it expresses what I believe is the bottom line message that each speaker at the DNC wanted to say and what each speaker at the RNC will want to say, but can’t. Instead, they will have to couch the message of this verse with all sorts of niceties and pleasantries as we recently heard. Such as, so and so is truly my friend and colleague in the Senate, but let me tell you why you shouldn’t vote for him. This verse opens this Shabbat’s portion: RE`EH AHNOCHI NOTEN LEEF`NAY`CHEM HAIYOM B`RACHA OOK`LALA – SEE, THIS DAY I SET BEFORE YOU A BLESSING AND A CURSE” (Deut.11:26). Translation: vote for me and America will be blessed, vote for my opponent and America will be cursed. Goodnight, thank you very much and God bless America!
Folks, lets face it, over the next 2 months, we are going to hear a lot of bible-thumping inspired rhetoric, and I urge you, no matter whom you are inspired to vote for, keep in mind the opening words of parashat Re`eh: RE`EH AHNOCHI NOTEN LEEF`NAY`CHEM HAIYOM B`RACHA OOK`LALA – SEE, THIS DAY I SET BEFORE YOU A BLESSING AND A CURSE – Choose the blessing, the blessing that the USA will remain Israel’s strongest partner and work to guarantee an Israel at peace with security!
ALUASA.
The Seder Will Never Be The Same Again
Hag Samaeah. Pesah is a complicated holiday on many levels. There is the sheer joy of celebrating our redemption through the historical re-enactment process we call the Seder. Then there is the sheer exhaustion of multiple Sederim and Yamai Tov! There is the feeling of becoming f`klempt as I unloaded my Pesadik supplies into the cabinets, and now I begin to worry when will we find time to turn the kitchen back around!
However, the most difficult aspect of this holiday is sitting down to the Seder and reflecting on who is no longer with us this year. The power and angst of these emotions were eloquently described in an Op-Ed piece by Sally Friedman, which appeared in the NJStarLedger, on 4/18/08.
Ms. Friedman reflects on various issues of preparing for the Seder and then states, “Ultimately, all of those Passover seder issues will yield to the monumental one… This will be the 2nd seder without our matriarch, my mother. And last year, her death was still so new and raw that it didn’t feel real. There was the weird sense that she’d be back with us next year. Now it is next year, and the void in our hearts and our lives is entirely real.
Loss is always monumental in the life of a family, and this one is decidedly so. Because my mother lived to be 97, we’d grown accustomed to her presence at every family event. Like foolish innocents who should have known better, we just assumed it would go on and on…Tomorrow night, everything will be the same — and entirely different because of that empty place at the table.
My daughters speak often and lovingly of their grandmother and have claimed some of her things as a tangible way of remembering and keeping her close. One of them instantly asked for the seder plate that Mom used back in the days when she hosted all of us for this ritual meal …
But this year… her matzo balls, light as air, incredibly fluffy, always perfect, will not be bobbing in the soup. And I can’t imagine that any more than I can imagine sitting down at the table and not seeing her flushed face across from me.
We’re all keenly aware of how my mother’s absence will be a palpable presence tomorrow night… Nothing can shield us from that.
Friends who have lost parents had told me that the “firsts” were the hardest. I disagree. I think perhaps the subsequent ones are just as tough because the true finality of endings sinks in. And the “never again” is not yet a dull ache.
So I’m sure I’ll be teary often as we go through the ancient rituals. I’m sure I’ll have moments of a sadness so wide and deep that it’s tough to reduce them into mere words. Mom is gone. The family center of gravity has shifted, as it inevitably must. Maybe some year soon, we’ll all accept that.”
Ms. Friedman concludes with 3, short, yet poignant words: “But not yet.”
Pesah is all about memories. Reliving the memories of our ancestors who came out of slavery b`mitzrayim. Building future memories in our kinderlach that they will, God-willing pass along to our grandchildren. And recalling the memories of those who gave us live, shared our lives with us, or unfortunately, those to whom we gave life. May all their memories continue to console and inspire us as we rise to recite Yizkor on page 188.
U`SHAV`TEM MAI`YIM – Drawing Water From the Wells
Shabbat Shalom. It has been a hectic few weeks for me, mostly for the good, unfortunately, not all. As you are probably aware, Genya & I returned early this past Tuesday morning from our vacation trip to Israel only to learn that my Aunt Shirley was gravely ill, and subsequently died just 14 hours later; we returned from her funeral just last night. She was my father’s sister, the last of that generation, z”l, may her memory be for a blessing.
On our flight back from Florida, my window faced the ocean and as I looked out upon it, my thoughts returned to our recent trip to Israel, and I recalled our approach to Ben Gurion Airport. As the plane comes into Israel, it does so over the expanse of the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and there is always that initial excitement when you see the coastline off of Tel Aviv. At that moment, on the on-board Israeli music channel, the song being played was U`SHAV`TEM MAI`YIM – Drawing Water From the Wells. It was then I realized that the concept of Mai’yim – water, had become a powerful metaphor of our visit to Israel.
We landed in Israel and drove straight to the Yam HaMelekh, the Dead Sea, where we spent the next four days at a beautiful hotel spa & resort. We noticed on the drive down to the sea its diminishing water level. It is becoming a problem of potential catastrophic nature in Israel; the lack of rain, low levels of the Kinneret & Yam HaMelekh, increased need for residential, industrial and agriculture use of the water. And, it impacts the peace process – how to appropriate a fair share of a limited and sacred resource – U`SHAV`TEM MAI`YIM –Water From the Wells.
However, so far this winter, thank God, there is has been significant rainfall; It even snowed just days before our arrival, with snow falling as far south as the hills of the Negev. And while we were at the Dead Sea, it rained and snowed again in the North and in Jerusalem.
On our 1st full day at the Dead Sea, we visited the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, which was about 20 miles north of our hotel. However, because of the recent rains, we were advised to check before going to be sure the hiking trails up to the waterfall and pools that eventually run down through the Wadiot into the Dead Sea were open. The heavy rains can cause even days later flash floods in the Wadiot.
Thank goodness, for our sake, everything was fine and we enjoyed the visit to Ein Gedi, the hiking, the beauty of the reserve, seeing the native fauna, the waterfall and pools – it is all breath-taking! Contrast our visit to this past Monday, February 25th, when a 30 year old man from Syosset, LI, NY, Cantor David Tauber, a graduate of the Miller School of Sacred Music of the Jewish Theological Seminary, was swept away and drowned in a flash flood at the very place we had hiked just days before. U`SHAV`TEM MAI`YIM –Water From the Wells – can change ever so quickly from the spring of life to the cause of death.
Indeed, this metaphor of the sacredness of Mai`yim, water, became even more evident to me on our visit to the holy city of Jerusalem. Motzei Shabbat, Saturday evening, we joined the crowds at the Ben Yehuda Pedistrian Mall in downtown Jerusalem. Now, you must understand the process of this visit. While Genya goes from store to store searching for just the right gift to bring home for each person; I find a comfortable spot to sit and watch the masses pass by.
The spot I found was before an art gallery featuring Israeli artists. In its window was a photography exhibition that caught my eye and I learned something about Jerusalem that I had never noticed before. It was a display of Israeli Fire Hydrants, all in different shapes and colors. Israeli fire hydrants, you should know, are different from ours.
I went into the gallery and asked the owner about the pictures, he happened to be the artist. He explained that the he had photographed about 150 different hydrants in Jerusalem. They were all distinctively Yerushalmi but they were also all different from one another. To him each one seemed like a person, with its own unique personality. He said: “There is only one other thing in Jerusalem like those hydrants. It is the Jewish people: We are all the same and yet we are all different from one another.”
I thanked him, went back out to my seat of observation and as I waiting patiently for Genya to finish her shopping, the veracity of what this artist said hit home.
Those fire hydrants, each different, each poised to provide life-saving mai`yim – life saving water, photographed against their Yerushalim shel za`hav stone background truly represented the diversity, power, hope and prayers of Ahm Yisrael – the Jewish people. Sitting there, watching hundreds pass that window of fire hydrant photographs, I felt home, and began to think of when will be my next visit back home – when will I be able to return again to our land of Israel?
We can’t always live ‘at home’ – but there’s no reason that we can’t visit our home frequently: V` U`SHAV`TEM MAI`YIM – Draw Water From her Wells, the life source of Ahm Yisrael. May each of us be blessed to visit our homeland, soon!
ALUASA
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Truly Super!
Shabbat Shalom:
So, here is my question: what was the most superlative event of this past week? Or, shall I say, what was the superer of the superist?
Of course, if you are a NY Giants fan, then you are still floating in rarefied air over the Superbowl. Jon Stewart of Comedy Central had the most astute comment on the rivalry between the teams. He said that it couldn’t be that NYC is better than Boston, after all, they are both only buildings. Rather, it is the people of NYC who are better than the people of Boston!
Then there was SuperDuper Tuesday! So who won the primaries?
Clearly, Senator John McCain is now the Republican nominee. Funny, there is one thing I don’t understand about those in the Republican Party who say is not conservative enough; I didn’t know he was Jewish!?!?
As for the Democrats, Senator Obama won more states while Senator Clinton won more delegates. Many of you might not know how multi-cultured Barak Obama really is: the son of a Muslim father, now a born-again Christian and he has a Hebrew 1st name. Yes, Barak in Hebrew means “lighting,” and the pundits clearly felt that his bolts of lighting lit up the support of his hasidim, his devoted followers.
Indeed, this is the most multi-ethnic, multi-gender, multi-religious presidential race in our history. Will our next president be the 1st woman? The 1st African-American? The 1st Mormon, a Baptist minister, or the 1st former POW?
No matter where each of us might fall on the political spectrum, we can certainly agree that the road to the White House is still a multi-lane highway; Superduper Tuesday did not clearly pave the way for 1 candidate to dwell in the White House.
Yes, the path to dwell in the White House; a structure of almost supernal nature, which leads me to the most super event of this week, this week’s Sedra: Terumah. We read in Exodus 25:8: “Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them – V`AHSUE LEE MEEKDAASH V`SHA`CHAN`TEE B`TOE`CHEM.”
Our sages, the original spin-doctors, have long struggled to explain this verse. How could a non-corporeal deity need a physical structure to dwell in? What possible building could hold the ineffable? What could a God that desires to break the yoke of idolatry need with such an anthropomorphic concept?
In response to such questions, our rabbis sought out answers in the spiritual realm. In an early Midrashic collection, Avot D`Rabbi Natan, we find the following: “Let them make,” [what does that imply?] – great is work, for even the Holy One…did not have the Divine Presence abide among Israel until they [, the Israelites], had done the work.” Avot D`Rabbi Natan has to be the inspiration behind the Kevin Costner film, Field of Dreams, “if you build it, he will come.”
Centuries later, the Kotzker Rebbe, Menachem Mendel spins the word, B`TOE`CHEM: “It says among them and not among it, to teach you that each person must build the Sanctuary in his own heart; then God will dwell among them.”
135 years ago, the Sefat Emet, Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter, elucidated further on this very concept:
“Material things have no will. And everything must have a will—that is essential. This proves that these things depend upon humanity who has a will. And with this will humanity can incline every thing towards God . . . This is the meaning of the verse: “let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them”—among each individual (T’rumah 5633).
Bottom line? There are certainly those who viewed Eli Manning’s escape from a game-ending tackle as a miracle. And, as a country, we struggle with a political climate that is at odds with candidates’ religious points of view and will a candidate’s religiosity or lack thereof impact on how he or she dwells in the White House?
However, all of this, in the words of Kohelet, Ecclesiastes, is Hevel, puffs of air, like chaff in the wind. And when all is said and done, what really matters is the super, superlative verse from this week’s sedra: “Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them – V`AHSUE LEE MEEKDAASH V`SHA`CHAN`TEE B`TOE`CHEM.”
It us up to each of us to build a sanctuary in each of our hearts and to let God dwell therein. Having God in your heart, no matter if your are running for president or not, must be understood as a means to live our lives with a greater sense of Kedusha, holiness. May we all be blessed with the will and fortitude to let God dwell B`TOE`CHAYNU, within us.
ALUASA.
