May 2013
Rabbi’s Message May 2013
The Sound and Silence of Torah
Rabbi Abahu said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: `When God gave the Torah, no bird chirped, no fowl flew, no ox made a sound, angels did not fly, Seraphim did not say “Kadosh,” the sea did not stir, no creature spoke. The world was utterly silent–and a voice was heard: “I am the Lord your God.”
Midrash Shemot Rabbah, 29
A season is set for everything…under heaven:
…
A time for silence and a time for speaking.
Kohelet 3:1, 7
Reading and interpreting Torah, my teacher Rabbi David Aaron has said, is perhaps the only thing about Jewish community that remains constant across time and space. Think about it: What do we twenty-first-century Reform Jews have in common with Jews in Babylonia 500 years before the Common Era, or with Jews in Jerusalem while the second Temple stood, or with Jews in eleventh-century Europe, or twelfth-century North Africa, or with Ultra-Orthodox Jews today? And they with each other?
We may not speak or dress or eat or pray or think the same way. We may not raise our children or give tzedakah or celebrate or mourn the same way. We have different priorities and different ethics and different theologies from Jews of different lands and distant eras, not to mention the Jews who may be living down the street or a few states over from us, today. By what right do we all call ourselves Jews? By what measure do we feel any sense of community or continuity with other Jews?
We even read and interpret the Torah in vastly different ways. But there’s the thing: we all study Torah. In every part of the Jewish people, we return to it, again and again, seeking truth.
Now, I know we don’t every single one of us individually study Torah. Some of us are profoundly ignorant of Torah. Some Jews actively repudiate much of what’s in the Torah. And yet, if we were to ask any Jew in the world what makes her or him feel most Jewish—whether the answer is love of Israel or honoring parents or lighting Shabbat candles or speaking Hebrew or Yiddish or Ladino, or feeding the hungry or eating bagels with lox—it all leads back, in part if not in whole, to Torah. Consciously or not, just about everything we do as Jews is informed—or was once, thanks to some teacher, beloved or forgotten, some ancestor or ancestor’s teacher—by Torah.
You may be be thinking this over now, trying to imagine what I mean, or looking for a point to argue. After all, we’re Jews. We find the values of analysis and argument in the Torah, too. Perhaps we can set up some time to actually have this conversation, perhaps even in honor of Shavuot this month, but here and now my point is simply this: Shavuot, the anniversary of God’s revelation to Israel at Sinai, God’s supreme gift of Torah, is coming.
Beginning this year on the evening of May 14th, the 6th of Sivan every year in the Hebrew calendar—Shavuot—we celebrate Torah, the source of our wisdom and strength and sometimes our folly, our link to God and each other, our past, present and future.
How does Torah provide all this? Through speech and through silence. In the words that pile up week after week, crowded columns tumbling across scrolls of parchment, words we read and chant and discuss; and also through silence. The gaps in the narrative, where names or years or thoughts don’t appear. The stories of silence, when one or many of our protagonists fall speechless before the sanctity, pain, joy, or plain mystery of life in this world. Our own silence, as we listen to generations of readers and teachers before us unfurl and embellish all those words.
Shavuot is not the raucous, excessive celebration of Simchat Torah, when we mark the end and beginning of another Torah reading cycle with dancing and revelry. Rather it is a quiet, understated celebration, our least-known festival, a tribute to a moment of revelation when, as with all revelations, there was silence. And there was speech. And then the world changed, forever: for us, for every Jew who came before or after. A cord connecting us all.
5/3/13 Friday – The Rhythm of Jewish Time
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By Rabbi Jordi Schuster Battis, 5/03/2013
On Shavuot, every spring, we return to Sinai. We stand at the foot of the mountain enveloped in cloud and fire, the mountain hanging over our heads as if dangling from the Heavens themselves1, and we accept the Torah that was given to us when we assembled there together in the Wilderness long ago.
Our tradition holds that all who are Jewish, in any generation, were in attendance at Sinai: the Israelites of the Exodus standing there in person and the souls of all Jews of future generations there as well, even though their bodies had not yet been created.2 We say that those included the souls of those who came to Judaism through their birth as well as those who became Jews later in their lives-both are equally considered to be children of Abraham and Sarah.
In many segments of the liberal Jewish world, we have shifted from using the term “convert” to the term “Jew by choice.” But, in our age of multiple identities, all of us are Jews by choice-or, at least, we have the option of when and how to identify ourselves as Jewish and to access our Judaism. Indeed, our tradition suggests that at the time of Sinai, too, the choice to be a part of this way of life was ours. As Maimonides wrote in his famous “Letter to Ovadiah the Proselyte,”
Know that our fathers, when they came out of Egypt, were mostly idolaters; they had mingled with the pagans in Egypt and imitated their way of life, until the Holy One, may He be blessed, sent Moses our teacher, the master of all prophets, who separated us from the nations and brought us under the wings of the Divine Presence, us and all proselytes, and gave to all of us one law.
That is, the Israelites in the generation of the Exodus themselves were not a people distinct in their beliefs or behaviors until they learned together and practiced together. Indeed, the Torah suggests that those who crossed the Sea were not only the direct descendents of Jacob (Joseph and his brothers’ children’s children) but that a “mixed multitude” accompanied them,3 eventually to be integrated into B’nei Yisrael, this same family. Those who were Children of Israel by birth and those who were Children of Israel by adoption all had to make the active choice to join not only in the belief in one God but also in the identity as one nation there at Sinai, as we make the same active choice today.
Ruth made this choice when she elected to accompany Naomi into Naomi’s family, community, and fortune. The Jew by choice sitting next to us in synagogue, or at our kitchen table, affirmed this choice when he entered the mikveh or when she stood before her beit din. Each of us makes this choice each time we intentionally engage in Jewish ritual, meaningfully take part in Jewish conversation, or deliberately teach the words of our tradition to our children, speak of them at home or on our way, when we lie down or rise up.4
We are given the opportunity every year at Shavuot to commit and recommit ourselves to this Tribe-this amalgamated, multitudinous, somewhat batty people, whose beliefs are not all the same, whose practices are not all the same, whose heritage is not all the same, and yet who identify as having a shared name, a shared story, and a shared lineage, by birth or otherwise. Let us turn to each other this Shavuot, this year and every year-to our spouses, our children, our friends, and our neighbors-and say with Ruth, “Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”5
- BT Avodah Zara 2b; BT Shabbat 88a
- Midrash Tanhuma, Nitzvim 3
- Exodus 12:38
- Deuteronomy 6:7
- Ruth 1:16.
Rabbi Jordi Schuster Battis serves as the Pedagogic Coach to the faculty of Mayim: The Elementary Learning Community at Temple Beth Shalom of Needham, MA, and as the rabbi of Temple Shir Hadash in Westford, MA. She lives in Natick, with her husband, Seth, who taught her by example about what it means to actively choose to become a Jew, and their son, Gershom.
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Share your voice: ReformJudaism.org accepts submissions to the blog for consideration.
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By Rabbi Jordi Schuster Battis, 5/03/2013
On Shavuot, every spring, we return to Sinai. We stand at the foot of the mountain enveloped in cloud and fire, the mountain hanging over our heads as if dangling from the Heavens themselves1, and we accept the Torah that was given to us when we assembled there together in the Wilderness long ago.
Our tradition holds that all who are Jewish, in any generation, were in attendance at Sinai: the Israelites of the Exodus standing there in person and the souls of all Jews of future generations there as well, even though their bodies had not yet been created.2 We say that those included the souls of those who came to Judaism through their birth as well as those who became Jews later in their lives-both are equally considered to be children of Abraham and Sarah.
In many segments of the liberal Jewish world, we have shifted from using the term “convert” to the term “Jew by choice.” But, in our age of multiple identities, all of us are Jews by choice-or, at least, we have the option of when and how to identify ourselves as Jewish and to access our Judaism. Indeed, our tradition suggests that at the time of Sinai, too, the choice to be a part of this way of life was ours. As Maimonides wrote in his famous “Letter to Ovadiah the Proselyte,”
Know that our fathers, when they came out of Egypt, were mostly idolaters; they had mingled with the pagans in Egypt and imitated their way of life, until the Holy One, may He be blessed, sent Moses our teacher, the master of all prophets, who separated us from the nations and brought us under the wings of the Divine Presence, us and all proselytes, and gave to all of us one law.
That is, the Israelites in the generation of the Exodus themselves were not a people distinct in their beliefs or behaviors until they learned together and practiced together. Indeed, the Torah suggests that those who crossed the Sea were not only the direct descendents of Jacob (Joseph and his brothers’ children’s children) but that a “mixed multitude” accompanied them,3 eventually to be integrated into B’nei Yisrael, this same family. Those who were Children of Israel by birth and those who were Children of Israel by adoption all had to make the active choice to join not only in the belief in one God but also in the identity as one nation there at Sinai, as we make the same active choice today.
Ruth made this choice when she elected to accompany Naomi into Naomi’s family, community, and fortune. The Jew by choice sitting next to us in synagogue, or at our kitchen table, affirmed this choice when he entered the mikveh or when she stood before her beit din. Each of us makes this choice each time we intentionally engage in Jewish ritual, meaningfully take part in Jewish conversation, or deliberately teach the words of our tradition to our children, speak of them at home or on our way, when we lie down or rise up.4
We are given the opportunity every year at Shavuot to commit and recommit ourselves to this Tribe-this amalgamated, multitudinous, somewhat batty people, whose beliefs are not all the same, whose practices are not all the same, whose heritage is not all the same, and yet who identify as having a shared name, a shared story, and a shared lineage, by birth or otherwise. Let us turn to each other this Shavuot, this year and every year-to our spouses, our children, our friends, and our neighbors-and say with Ruth, “Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”5
- BT Avodah Zara 2b; BT Shabbat 88a
- Midrash Tanhuma, Nitzvim 3
- Exodus 12:38
- Deuteronomy 6:7
- Ruth 1:16.
Rabbi Jordi Schuster Battis serves as the Pedagogic Coach to the faculty of Mayim: The Elementary Learning Community at Temple Beth Shalom of Needham, MA, and as the rabbi of Temple Shir Hadash in Westford, MA. She lives in Natick, with her husband, Seth, who taught her by example about what it means to actively choose to become a Jew, and their son, Gershom.
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Share your voice: ReformJudaism.org accepts submissions to the blog for consideration.
5/2/13 Thursday – Delving Into T’fillah
By Rabbi Edwin Goldberg
Part Two: Chevruta (Intense Text Study) With A Thousand People
Last week I wrote about the decision of the Machzor editors to break the shofar service into three parts, with each part appearing in a different section of the service. As I mentioned, the three parts of the shofar service carry different themes: God’s sovereignty, God’s remembrance of us, and God’s redeeming us. When these three themes are presented one after the other, especially towards the end of the Rosh Hashanah morning service, it is hard to reflect on the spiritual depth of these insights. By dividing the shofar service into three, more attention on each section is possible.
For example, let’s consider the first theme, God’s sovereignty, or Malchuyot. The editors place this theme (with the sounding of the shofar of course) towards the beginning of the service, when traditional God is proclaimed the ultimate Sovereign. (The celebration of Rosh Hashanah in the fall, as opposed to the spring when the first Hebrew month falls, may have to do with the ancient custom of proclaiming earthly rulers in the fall.)
In the traditional high holy day prayer book, biblical verses from Torah, Psalms and Prophets are chosen to serve as windows into the theme of God’s sovereignty. In addition, a declaration of our need to acknowledge the power of God is added in a liturgical piece that came to be called Aleinu. Like a small-town actor that makes it to the Great White Way, the popularity of Aleinu led it to being added to the general Jewish prayer book.
This section, like the other two, also features contemporary poems, in an effort to expand our notion of God from being the supreme Ruler to also the spiritual partner. In other words, God’s majesty is not only reflective of the gilded trappings of a medieval court. The power of God is also felt in the flash of insight brought by a spiritual moment, or the recognition that our righteous actions affect God.
The second section of the shofar service – presented before the reading of Torah – deals with God’s memory, Zichronot. Once again ancient and
modern material is presented, and our editorial desire is to expand the notion from God’s remembering to include our remembering as well.
The third section, Shofarot, coming towards the end of the service, offers the theme of hope. Redemption is presented as something that God brings and/or we bring through our mindset and our acts of hope and goodness.
All three sections present the biblical and modern citations under the title, A Minyan of Passages for Reflection.” This title refers not only to the fact that traditionally ten (re: minyan) citations from the different sources were included. It is also an invitation for the individual worshiper to
reflect on the deeper meanings of these words.
Ideally the editors also imagine that congregations of any size might also pause in the prayer recitations and shofar soundings to study in groups of two or three (chevruta) and turn the sanctuary into a house of study, even if only for a few minutes. The texts are chosen to invite such a
discussion.
Clearly such activity works better when observed at the discretion of the worship leader and when the three parts of the shofar service are not presented one after the other.
The editors of the machzor hope that, in introducing these innovations, the words of the great Zionist rabbi Isaac Kook will be realized: “The old shall be made new and the new shall be made holy.”
Rabbi Edwin Goldberg has served as the senior rabbi of Temple Judea in Coral Gables since 1996. In July he will begin serving as the senior rabbi of Temple Sholom of Chicago. He is the coordinating editor of the forthcoming CCAR Machzor and is the author of five books. His newest book is, Saying No and Letting Go: Jewish Wisdom on Making Room for What Matters Most.
5/1/13 Wednesday – Israel Connections
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By Rabbi Marc Rosenstein, 5/01/2013
If you will it, it will not remain just a dream.
-Theodore Herzl
So I had a little too much to drink at the Independence Day picnic and my head was spinning so I lay down on the grass for a minute…
There were sirens blaring and lights flashing, and the word went around that the prime minister of the State of Israel was making a surprise Yom Ha’atzma’ut visit to Shorashim. What excitement! Fortunately, our sound guy had set up a PA system for the kids’ skit, so the PM was able to step up and immediately begin to speak.
“Chag Sameach to you all! I am very pleased to be able to address you, citizens of Shorashim, directly on this joyous day when we celebrate the 87th anniversary of the creation of the first independent Jewish state in two thousand years. And I want to thank you for your contributions to the difficult process of the past two decades. For it was just twenty years ago, in 2015, when we reached a crucial turning point in our history, when we chose a new leadership: a leadership of dialogue, of hope, a leadership that looked forward instead of backward, whose motto was not “never again!” but rather “what can we become?” You, the representatives of liberal Judaism, played a crucial role in the transformation that occurred. From a bleak time of stagnation and pessimism, of “no one to talk to (inside or out),” we moved to a mode of hope, of vision, of optimism worthy of the heirs of Herzl. And I do not exaggerate when I say that if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be where we are today!
“And where are we today? Let me recount the changes of these two decades:
- The new leadership of twenty years ago, young and idealistic, led a large-scale community organizing effort that generated a national civil dialogue about the vision of the Jewish state, and shifted the discourse from one of fear and embattlement to a constructive search for solutions.
- The messianism that had driven politics was transformed from one of romantic nationalism (blood and soil) to one of human redemption (tikkun olam).
- A model of religion based on communities was accepted. The chief rabbinate and the entire government religious bureaucracy were dismantled, and religion moved to the private sphere.
- The Jewishness of the state was clarified as primarily cultural (mainly language and calendar) and a major effort to eliminate discrimination against minorities was made. Residential and educational integration were part of this project.
- These internal developments helped change the terms of the discourse with the Palestinians from one of competitive victimhood to one of cooperative development.
- And so, agreement was reached to accept the partition of cis-Jordanian Palestine into two countries – Israel and Palestine, with mutual recognition, agreed borders, treaties governing refugees’ claims, reciprocal guarantees of partial cultural autonomy for minorities on both sides of the border, and sharing of water and other resources. This was accompanied by a painful but constructive Truth and Reconciliation process to defuse historical resentments.
- The rocky but ultimately successful process of democratization of other nations in the region, together with the settling of the Israel-Palestine conflict, allowed economic cooperation and cultural exchange that have enriched all of our lives and made Israel into a true “light unto the nations…”
And then a neighbor’s kid tripped over me in the dark, and I was left with a splitting headache, and a vague memory of hope.
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Share your voice: ReformJudaism.org accepts submissions to the blog for consideration.
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By Rabbi Marc Rosenstein, 5/01/2013
If you will it, it will not remain just a dream.
-Theodore Herzl
So I had a little too much to drink at the Independence Day picnic and my head was spinning so I lay down on the grass for a minute…
There were sirens blaring and lights flashing, and the word went around that the prime minister of the State of Israel was making a surprise Yom Ha’atzma’ut visit to Shorashim. What excitement! Fortunately, our sound guy had set up a PA system for the kids’ skit, so the PM was able to step up and immediately begin to speak.
“Chag Sameach to you all! I am very pleased to be able to address you, citizens of Shorashim, directly on this joyous day when we celebrate the 87th anniversary of the creation of the first independent Jewish state in two thousand years. And I want to thank you for your contributions to the difficult process of the past two decades. For it was just twenty years ago, in 2015, when we reached a crucial turning point in our history, when we chose a new leadership: a leadership of dialogue, of hope, a leadership that looked forward instead of backward, whose motto was not “never again!” but rather “what can we become?” You, the representatives of liberal Judaism, played a crucial role in the transformation that occurred. From a bleak time of stagnation and pessimism, of “no one to talk to (inside or out),” we moved to a mode of hope, of vision, of optimism worthy of the heirs of Herzl. And I do not exaggerate when I say that if it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t be where we are today!
“And where are we today? Let me recount the changes of these two decades:
- The new leadership of twenty years ago, young and idealistic, led a large-scale community organizing effort that generated a national civil dialogue about the vision of the Jewish state, and shifted the discourse from one of fear and embattlement to a constructive search for solutions.
- The messianism that had driven politics was transformed from one of romantic nationalism (blood and soil) to one of human redemption (tikkun olam).
- A model of religion based on communities was accepted. The chief rabbinate and the entire government religious bureaucracy were dismantled, and religion moved to the private sphere.
- The Jewishness of the state was clarified as primarily cultural (mainly language and calendar) and a major effort to eliminate discrimination against minorities was made. Residential and educational integration were part of this project.
- These internal developments helped change the terms of the discourse with the Palestinians from one of competitive victimhood to one of cooperative development.
- And so, agreement was reached to accept the partition of cis-Jordanian Palestine into two countries – Israel and Palestine, with mutual recognition, agreed borders, treaties governing refugees’ claims, reciprocal guarantees of partial cultural autonomy for minorities on both sides of the border, and sharing of water and other resources. This was accompanied by a painful but constructive Truth and Reconciliation process to defuse historical resentments.
- The rocky but ultimately successful process of democratization of other nations in the region, together with the settling of the Israel-Palestine conflict, allowed economic cooperation and cultural exchange that have enriched all of our lives and made Israel into a true “light unto the nations…”
And then a neighbor’s kid tripped over me in the dark, and I was left with a splitting headache, and a vague memory of hope.
Submit a blog post
Share your voice: ReformJudaism.org accepts submissions to the blog for consideration.