Ma’achil R’eivim - It is a Mitzvah to Feed the Hungry

As we move into the dark of December, illuminated by the Chanukah lights, many are busy with holiday plans, galas, and all the festivities that go along with them.  We often worry this time of year about increasing waistlines, indigestion, and the diet and exercise program we will reluctantly start on January 1st.  Yet, while so many are celebrating, while we enjoy the parties and the delicacies, the 2010 Hunger in America Study by Feeding America shows that the demand for food assistance by Hoosier families is increasing. 

In a recent interview, Katy Bunder, the Executive Director of Food Finders, reported that: “The demand this past year has been nearly overwhelming. We hear more and more that people in our service area are suffering. Kids are going to bed hungry, families have no money for food after paying utilities and rent and seniors are having to choose to buy medication or to eat. We just believe there is more we can do.”

“Local statistics indicate that Food Finders serves an estimated 10,000 different clients per week in programs throughout the mid north Indiana service area.  The survey samples also indicate that 33.9 % of all households seeking food assistance have at least one adult working.  27% of all adults had lost their jobs in the previous 11 months. Women comprise 64.3% of all clients at program sites and 43.1% of the households served have children younger than 18 years of age.  In addition, results also show that 99% of clients have a place to prepare meals and more than half live in traditional households.  99% of clients at emergency food programs are US citizens and 73% of emergency food clients in Food Finders service areregistered voters. More than 50% of clients reported having very low food security which indicates one or more members either skip meals or experience increased hunger due to a lack of adequate resources for food.”

There are many organizations that help to fight hunger, and I encourage you to continue to support organizations that you have donated to in the past.  Locally we have several food drives each year to support Food Finders.  You can make donations of either foodstuffs or monetary donations: Food Finders Food Bank, Inc., 50 Olympia Ct., Lafayette, In 47909-5182 or donate online.

Nationally, MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger is a national nonprofit organization that allocates donations from the Jewish community to prevent and alleviate hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds.

Each year, MAZON ( Hebrew for “sustenance”) grants over $4 million to more than 300 carefully screened hunger-relief agencies, including emergency food providers, food banks, multi-service organizations and advocacy groups that seek long-term solutions to the hunger problem. Many Jews now honor the Jewish tradition of not eating until you have provided for the poor by donating at least 3% of the cost of their life-cycle celebrations – weddings, bar mitzvahs, anniversaries, etc. Donate at: MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, PO Box 894765  Los Angeles, CA 90189-4765 or online.

Our tradition teaches that we are to say a blessing (HaMotzi) before we eat a meal, and then to say a blessing (Birkat HaMazon) after we have eaten.  Our sages asked, why is it necessary to recite a blessing after the meal when we have already thanked God for our food before the meal?  We are taught that when we are hungry it is easy to be thankful for food.  It is when we have been satisfied that is easy to take sustenance for granted and when we have finished eating that it is even more difficult to remember to be grateful.  May we learn that sustenance is not something to be taken for granted, and may we help in being God’s partner by seeing to it that those in need know the feeling of a full stomach, rather than the pangs of hunger. 

Giving Thanks - Hoda'ah

Baruch atah Adonai, ha-tov shimcha ul’cha na-eh l’hodot. 

Blessed are you Eternal One, Your name is Goodness and You are worthy of thanksgiving. 

These words form the chatimah, or seal, at the end of the Hoda’ah prayer, the second closing benediction of the Amidah (Modim Anachnu Lach). It is natural for us to go about our daily lives scarcely noticing the many blessings that we have each and every day. The words of the Hoda’ah remind us that we are surrounded by miracles and blessings – our lives, our health, our families and friends, our work in this world.  The words of this prayer remind us to pause and notice them, to take a moment and lift our eyes up to see the beauty that is in this world, to feel the sun on our face, the wind in our hair, to see the beauty of autumn’s splendid palette of colors as the leaves float down to the ground.

When we pray and sing these words and give thanks for the miracles that we experience each and every day, we realize that we cannot take them for granted. Life is too precious, and these gifts are too important to notice them only when they are gone – when we have been sick, or have suffered pain and loss.  Our daily recitation of the words of the Hoda’ah can lead us to a practice of being aware and appreciative of the miracles that surround us each day, and to also make it a practice of expressing our gratitude to God and to our loved ones. 

At this season of thanksgiving, we are thankful for the daily miracles that surround us each day.  As our awareness of them grows, may we be changed, lifted up, and transformed.

Engaging Israel

On Kol Nidre this year I spoke about the need to engage with Israel, to connect and be a part of our homeland:



Within all of the mixed up and challenging parts of Jewish life here in Israel, it is our place and if we do not stand up for pluralism and equal rights and claim Israel as ours too, we do so at our peril. Israel at 62 has its successes and its faults, its failures. On this holy day of Yom Kippur we recognize that we too have faults and failures, and that we too are still growing, striving, a work in progress. Today Israel needs our help to develop a new way of thinking based on Jewish values, taking the moral and ethical language of Judaism seriously in building this Jewish and democratic state. What Israel needs now is an ideology that addresses the state’s identity as a democratic society that is upheld by moral and ethical values of Judaism, that looks to our teachings to answer the dilemmas of power, sovereignty, social justice and human rights. Israel needs to be reminded of the idealism of the Zionist pioneers and that the ideals and dreams of the past can be developed into both new idealism and realism of the future. 



How can we do this?  Get beyond the headlines, go to Israel and touch your roots, walk in the footsteps of our history, see what our people has built.



I can’t tell you how many American liberal Jews I talk to who have been on many trips to Europe, and to Asia, but have not been to Israel.  And, well, when I  say that I’ve never really traveled Europe - I was in England once when I was in my late teens, but that I’ve been to Israel now 5 times, and hope to go many more times in the future, they look at me with confusion as to why I would go there more than once.  



The Birthright trips have been a phenomenal success.  Taglit Birthright Israel has in 10 years brought 250,000 young college-aged Jews to Israel.  And of those quarter of a million kids who have experienced Israel on these trips, 17,000 of them now live in Israel (that’s 1 for every busload).  If you are between 18 and 26, Sign up for a Kesher trip to Israel with Reform Judaism. Sign up now!

I would love to lead a group trip from on our congregation and if there are enough people interested, we can make that happen. Go on birthright, go to study, go on volunteers for Israel, go on a vacation.  

But don’t just go as a tourist.

 As my colleague Rabbi Ed Feinstein says,  “You can go to France or Italy or even Hawaii as a tourist. See the sites, enjoy the museums, eat in the cafes, shop in the markets. You'll have a wonderful time. But it's not yours. It's a lovely place to visit. But it doesn't belong to you. Israel is yours. The museums in Israel tell your story. The sites are filled with your memories. The cafes are filled with your people. Israel is yours. Go to Israel, and join the argument. Because the argument isn't just Israel's. The argument belongs to us as well.” 



Learn more about Israel’s history.  Too many American Jews do not know enough about the events leading up to the Jewish state or the history of present political and social conflicts in the Middle East.  We are unaware of basic elements that are part of our history, and we are not aware of the amazing Jewish cultural and intellectual flourishing that is a result of the state of Israel’s founding. Read, discuss, debate. Read some more. 



Support pluralism and diversity in Israel.  In response to the recent arrest of Anat Hoffman for holding a Torah scroll, WOW has created a campaign to gather 10,000 photos of women holding Torah scrolls, which are being sent to leaders in Israel. Go through your photo albums from your bat mitzvah celebrations, and do the same. Come carry a Torah on Simchat Torah and upload your photo to the Women of the Wall weblink.

Send your monetary support to the Israel Religious Action Center, to Women of the Wall, to ARZA, to Reform congregations in Israel. Support The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, connect to liberal congregations in Israel through the World Union for Progressive Judaism and Kehillot B’Yachad. Subscribe to the Israel Religious Action Center, the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel and Women of the Wall newsletters.  



Learn more about Israeli politics and Israeli culture. Read Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post online. Follow advocacy issues of religious freedom and equality in Israel through Hiddush. Rent an Israeli movie - most are subtitled.  Read Israeli writers and novelists. Your Hebrew’s not so good? Don’t worry, many of them are translated into English. Listen to Israeli music and news on internet radio.  



Find a way to connect to Israel, to engage with Israel this year.  The words “klal Yisrael” are not just about the state of Israel but all Jews. We are all connected. We cannot ever forget that or let go of the challenge that Israel is a place for all Jews - it is ours to claim, and ours to dream.  Im Tirtzu ayn zo agada - If you will it, it is no dream.




L’shalom,



Rabbi Audrey S. Pollack



September 2010 bulletin article

On the morning that the month of Elul began this year, I stood at the Kotel, the Western Wall in Jerusalem to welcome the new month with the sound of the shofar. I stood with a large group of women, gathered to pray and give thanks to God, and to reflect on the month that was beginning, as we began to prepare for the journey to the new year about to begin in just four short weeks.

That same afternoon, I returned to the Kotel, and witnessed the swearing in ceremonies for new IDF soldiers. Friends and families gathered at the Kotel plaza, watching with a mix of pride and anxiety, knowing full well the dangers that might lie ahead for these young men and women, who must serve in order to protect and defend our Jewish homeland.

And later, I went into the tunnels that have been excavated underneath the Kotel, and pressed my hand onto the stones closest to the Holy of Holies, the same stones that have witnessed history for thousands of years.

In the Yiddish play The Dybbuk, the author Shalom Ansky, conveys a sense of what it must have been like to be among those at the Temple in ancient times:

“God's world is great and holy. The holiest land in the world is the land of Israel. In the land of Israel the holiest city is Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the holiest place was the Temple, and in the Temple the holiest spot was the Holy of Holies.... There are seventy peoples in the world. The holiest among these is the people of Israel. The holiest of the people of Israel is the tribe of Levi. In the tribe of Levi the holiest are the priests. Among the priests, the holiest was the High Priest.... There are 354 days in the [lunar] year. Among these, the holidays are holy. Higher than these is the holiness of the Sabbath. Among Sabbaths, the holiest is the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbaths.... There are seventy languages in the world. The holiest is Hebrew. Holier than all else in this language is the holy Torah, and in the Torah the holiest part is the Ten Commandments. In the Ten Commandments the holiest of all words is the name of God.... And once during the year, at a certain hour, these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was on the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and there utter the name of God. And because this hour was beyond measure holy and awesome, it was the time of utmost peril not only for the High Priest but for the whole of Israel. For if in this hour there had, God forbid, entered the mind of the High Priest a false or sinful thought, the entire world would have been destroyed. Every spot where a man raises his eyes to heaven is a holy of holies. Every man, having been created by God in His own image and likeness, is a high priest. Every day of a man's life is a Day of Atonement, and every word that a man speaks with sincerity is the Name of the Lord. Therefore it is that every sin and every wrong that a man commits brings the destruction of the world.”

As we move through the month of Elul and prepare for the Yamim Noraim, we each prepare to enter into our own holy of holies. We consider all that has happened in the past year and all that we hope and pray for in the year to come. With prayer and song and reflection we enter into a sacred and holy space, a place which transcends time and space and sets us back on the path of remembering, where we have been, who we are, who we are meant to be. On the High Holidays we leave behind our ordinary lives and enter into the holy of holies, and hear again the ancient call of the shofar, summoning us to return - to God, to our true selves, to the path of teshuvah and tikkun olam.

May this year 5771 be for all of us a year of blessing, health, joy, and return,

Rabbi Audrey S. Pollack

Returning Home

I was very sad (we all were) to leave Israel, knowing that our time here has come to an end. It has been a wonderful, enriching, challenging, and growing journey. My Hebrew has improved, so have my text skills, I am learning slowly, to play a new instrument, and I have relished the time with my family to play with them and see them grow and see Israel through their eyes. I’ve been able to slow down, to walk more, to take time for myself to do what makes my heart sing. But duty calls, and the school year is now upon us.

I’m making an ongoing commitment to myself to make time for my own study and growth, to set aside time each week to continue to cultivate what I have been learning, Torah lishma, for its own sake, not just to prepare to teach another class.

We arrived home very late at night, jet lagged, after a somewhat challenging journey, to find that someone had tp’ed our house in a serious way. We think it was a case of mistaken address, but it does seem strange that it was the night we came home. We are not enjoying the clean up.

In the aftermath of the summer storms here (we received pictures over email), the house looks fine, the goldfish are still alive! and the kids are starting back to school (so what’s a little jet lag the first week).

And we went out into the yard to see our apples, growing, red and round and delicious from the summer sun and rain.

End of Pardes

It’s the end of my study time here in Yerushalayim. For the end of our study session, we had a siyyum lunch, and people shared their thoughts on the summer in the form of words, poems, and songs. I didn’t get up and give a speech, but here’s what I would have said: I will miss getting up every day and walking to the bus, riding the bus and listening to the radio or to the conversations in Hebrew, seeing people reading Hebrew newspapers, or studying gemara, or praying tehillim on the way to work and school. I will miss the slowed down rhythm and the peace of Shabbat where you can walk and walk and not hear any sound except those of your own footsteps and a very occasional car on your way to shul. I will miss the possibility of being able to attend more than a dozen, perhaps two dozen synagogues in less than a 20 minute walk from where I live. I will miss wishing the guy in the corner makolet or the clerk at SuperSol “Shabbat Shalom” and have them answer “Shabbat Shalom” in return as if it was the most natural thing in the world, because here in Yerushalayim, it is. I will miss the quiet of knowing that right now all that I have to attend to is this piece of gemara in front of me, even if I am seriously questioning the meaning of the Aramaic and wondering where all of the things that I used to know went out of my head - was it the 16 years of rabbinic work, or lack of sleep from the kids, or does the hard drive just have too much information being stored there. It’s the end of Pardes (yes the English word paradise is related, probably they are originally from the Persian). In Hebrew and in Jewish text, the word Pardes is an acronym for ways of understanding text: P’shat (simple or plain meaning); Remez (hint or allegorical meaning); D’rash (the midrashic or interpretive sense); and Sod (the secret or mystical meaning). Yerushalayim is a place of Pardes. It’s a place that has many planes of existence.

Rosh Chodesh Elul

This Wednesday morning, I again woke early to join Women of the Wall for Rosh Chodesh Elul at the Kotel. Again a large group of more than 100 women gathered on the women’s side of the mehitza, and male supporters joined in solidarity opposite us on the other side. Elul marks the beginning of the daily sounding of the shofar and the chanting of penetential prayers as we move towards the High Holidays, and you can feel changes in the air as the days begin to shorten, and the summer begins to move closer to its end and the new year approaches. This month Anat Hoffman, the leader of Women of the Wall, could not join us, as she is still banned from the Kotel, so she waits for us at the entrance to the Southern wall with the Torah.



In the bright sunlight that began to move across the Kotel plaza, we chanted the morning prayers, and listened to the sounds of men praying on the other side of the mechitza, the divider; and listened to the sounds of both men and women screaming and cursing at us for daring to pray in a group and allow the sounds of our voices singing to be heard. We chanted Hallel, loudly, amid admonitions to “shush” and “lower your voices”, praising God for the new month that had arrived. We listened to the sounds of several shofarot being blown across the divider, in the men’s section, and then recited the blessing to hear the sound of our shofar, as it been sounded at the Kotel by Anat Hoffman, for these past 21 years. We said the blessing, and then as we listened, instead we did not hear it, because the shofar was snatched out of the hands of the baalat tekiah (shofar blower) by the chief of police.

We were then able this month to move calmly to the Robinson’s Arch at the Sourthern wall where Anat met us with the Torah. While several women donned tefillin, as is their daily custom, the Torah was prepared for reading. I was delighted to recognize several friends in the crowd, including Rabbi Jackie Koch Ellenson, director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, and Cantor Rikki Lippitz, who lives in New York but is from my home congregation (where I grew up). Here we heard several shofarot blown, as well as beautiful Torah readings.

Opponents of the group question why Women of the Wall doesn’t just settle for holding all of their davening here at the Southern Wall. The answer is simple - the wall belongs to the entire Jewish people. It is not an orthodox synagogue. It is a symbol for all Jews. That is why the MK Nitzan Horowitz, leader of the Knesset’s lobby for civil equality and pluralism plans to introduce a bill that proposes the Kotel be divided into three sections, including a space which is non-segregated and inclusive. Stay tuned.

For more:
Jerusalem Post: Women of the Wall to Hold Kotel Services
Rosh Chodesh Elul and Women of the Wall
Time Magazine: In Israel, A Fight to Make the Wall More Inclusive
The Forward: For the First Time Since Leaders Arrest, Women of the Wall Gather Amid Angry Protest
Perfect Harmony

Time is Flying By

We are realizing just how quickly time has flown by in our time in Israel and so we’re trying to pack in as much as we can in the short time we have left here, in and around my class schedule and the kids activities.

Gil is doing a ceramics class at an art studio in Talpiot and he is making amazing pieces. The kids are continuing to enjoy getting together with friends they made at camp, and we are enjoying invitations to Shabbat lunch after services. One way to keep cool in Israel’s hot summer is to get into the water. We have been in the Dead Sea, the Kinneret, the Jerusalem pool, and this week we went to Tel Aviv to the beach to swim in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea.

We’re also enjoying the rich cultural heritage of Jerusalem. It seems like there’s always some sort of production, show, musical theater, lecture going on. These next few weeks Jerusalem hosts Khutzot haYotzer, the Jerusalem arts and Crafts festival, going on in and around Sultan’s Pool and full of lots of artists, food, and music. We’re taking in the sights and sounds of Jerusalem and its history. Wednesday evening we enjoyed the night spectacular at the Tower of David, a multimedia presentation that reenacts 3000 years of Jerusalem’s history projected onto the city walls. We also learned more about the history of Jerusalem at the Time elevator, a presentation that whisks you through history. These are great interactive experiences for learning about Jewish history, that happened right where we are walking today.

And, we are reconnecting with our family’s history as well, visiting with my father’s cousin Sarah at her home in Rishon LeTzion. During my year in Israel at HUC, I was a frequent Shabbat guest for the weekend. It is amazing to me that it has been 16 years since I have seen her, and how could I have been away so long, and she looks the same to me, although she is really much older and not able to cook such a feast as she wanted to for our visit, and she apologizes for this many times. But the kids are happy with the chocolate treats and cookies and the boys settle into the kitchen and try to converse with their relatives, Sarah’s grandsons, who are dressed in their white shirts and dark pants, wearing tzitzit and kippot, while our boys are in colorful t-shirts and shorts. They get along well enough despite the fact that our boys don’t speak much Hebrew and they are too shy to try much of their English. It doesn’t matter, family is family. And then out come the photo albums and we try to decipher who is who and how everyone is related and when these pictures were taken, and I am again amazed and overwhelmed by hearing the stories, the stories of Sarah’s family and her long and arduous journey to survive and to come here to Israel and live here, where she can be free to be a Jew, to have a place to call home.

Pardes

My second study program in Israel is through the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. I have heard great things about Pardes for years (really ever since I was a rabbinic student) and promised myself that if I ever had the chance to go sit and study in Israel, Pardes would be one of the places that I would go. Pardes is a place to go and immerse yourself in the study of classical Jewish texts, like Torah, Talmud, TaNaCH (Bible), Midrash, and Halakha. They welcome both men and women, from across the Jewish spectrum, and this is still pretty unusual in the world of Jewish text study - men and women studying together, and welcoming people of diverse backgrounds.

Both Pardes and Hartman are orthodox institutions, but they are welcoming to Jews from across the spectrum. I learned on the first day that Pardes does not consider itself a pluralistic institution, they will follow halacha, but you are free to do what you want. Of course, then you might decide to become more observant as a result of your experiences there. I really appreciate the opportunity to study here with very knowledgeable teachers and to look at things from a different perspective, and again to be learning with students from diverse backgrounds. It is taking me out of my comfort zone and challenging all of us to look at things in new ways and from new perspectives. And, I’m learning text and backgrounds to text in ways that are very different from my Reform rabbinical school training. Sometimes that is a bit unsettling, and in some cases continues to be so (particularly from my feminist perspective), and other times it was like a whole new window opening on something I thought I had understood before, and now have an additional understanding. That’s what it means to truly wrestle with the text. For my part, although other Reform rabbinic colleagues have studied at Pardes before me, I had a bit of trepidation about announcing myself as a Reform rabbi, but found that people accepted me pretty much without issue.

Most of the students at Pardes tend to be younger - college students or post-college studying in the year program, but during the summer programs there are more older students. In my group there are about 1/3 my age or older, and 2/3 are twenty-somethings. This group is a mix from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, and Israel. Interestingly, there are more women than men (or maybe not so much since it’s harder for women to find programs that welcome them). Many come from day school backgrounds, but there are some beginners as well. I am really energized by the fact that there are both young and older people who take their Judaism seriously enough to devote their time and money to coming to sit and study text over their summer break - it gives me hope for the future of the Jewish people. Sometimes I get very depressed over the lack of interest or knowledge within the Jewish community of North America.

The theme for this summer session is “Israel is Real”. I’m finding the approach here to be very different from Hartman, which is good, considering that the themes are very similar. Classes are also yeshiva-style, meaning that we spend some time with the teacher giving introductions and instructions for the materials, and then we sit in the bet midrash in chevruta (traditionally Jewish texts are learned aloud with a partner) and learn the texts together. During this time our teacher is in the bet midrash to offer help and assistance. My Talmud class is “Eretz Yisrael in Halacha and Aggada, through the lens of the last chapter of Ketubot; My TaNaCH class is “The Ideal State”, a view of Israel during the time of King Shlomo’s reign, and the attempt to build an ideal state, (maybe it will give us some insights about modern attempts) as we read the book of Melachim.

Oud

Many people asked “What is that musical instrument that you are going to be learning in Israel on your sabbatical journey?” So, if you’re wondering what an oud is, you’re not alone. The oud is popular in the middle east, but not so much in the midwestern United States. In fact, my oud teacher was a bit surprised to hear from a woman in Indiana who wanted to learn the oud. I became interested in the oud from hearing middle eastern musicians over the years and Israel is a good place to learn. The oud is a stringed instrument that is one of the most popular instruments in middle eastern music. There are two types of ouds, Arab-style and Turkish-style. The oud is played with a plectrum or risha, and the neck of the instrument is bent back at at 90 degree angle, is much shorter than the body and has no frets. This allows the player to use microtones which are common in Arabic maqams (melodic modes), and to increase musical expression with vibrato and slides. The most common series of strings are a double course of five strongs plus a sixth single course or drone string. The bowl of the instrument is shaped like half of a watermelon and is made up of small staves that are glued together. Structurally this makes it very resonant and also an extremely lightweight instrument and therefore more fragile, much more so than the guitar. The European lute is a descendant of the oud.

Learning to play the oud is in some ways taking me back to my musical roots, and in some ways taking me out of my comfort zone. I have had to try and remember music theory that I learned half a lifetime ago and seems to be back there under a lot of cobwebs. Although I have played guitar for more than 30 years, I am learning how to find the notes on a fretless neck. I am learning to listen closely for the sounds of the Arabic modal system, very different from the Western scales. And, in a summer that is full - full of opportunities for growth and learning, for studying text, and exploring Jerusalem, and spending precious time with my family, all of these new skills require practice time. Thankfully, my oud teacher is very patient with me! I have had several oud lessons now and am slowly learning - I am still a beginning student, but I love it. The music of the oud has so many dimensions to it, such a depth and resonance.

Our trip to the North - Galilee and Golan

This past week we’ve been traveling in the Northern part of Israel. We’re staying on the Northwest side of the Kinneret (Sea of Galillee). The kids have especially enjoyed swimming in the warm waters of the Kinneret, which is Israel’s largest body of fresh water and is the source of drinking water for the whole country.

We visited many interesting archaeological excavations in the Galilee and the Golan Heights - the Bet Alpha synagogue, which has a beautiful mosaic tile floor depicting the Akedat Yitzchak, and the signs of the Zodiac; the Baram synagogue, one of the best preserved ancient synagogues, dating back to the third century CE. Its carved archways and columns bear witness to thriving community that was once here. The main central arch is now in the Louvre in Paris. The inscription reads “May there be peace in this place and in all the places in Israel. We also walked through the streets and alleyways of the ancient city of Tzfat and visited the beautiful synagogues, home to the 16th century kabbalists and teachers, which today is home to many wonderful artists and art galleries. Our trip also included tours of the ruins of the crusader fortresses in Acco and the magnificent ancient maritime city of Caesarea, built by Herod.

We went hiking on Mt. Meron, visited kangaroos at the Gan Garoo Australian zoo on Kibbutz Heftziba, and went swimming in the natural water park at Gan HaShlosha. In the Golan heights we saw the border fences with Lebanon and Syria and the sights of many battles that secured the borders in Israel’s all too frequent wars in her 62 years of existence. Up North in Katzrin we visited an olive oil factory and saw the process of olives being pressed into oil, soaps, and other products. We went river rafting on the Jordan. And we enjoyed delicious lunches of hummus, pita, falafel, and many different kinds of salads in the Arab village of Jish and the Druze village of Maz’ada

Muslim Triangle

The events of Women of the Wall early in the morning this past Monday were eye opening enough for one day, but following that was another challenge. The Hartman program on Monday arranged for a day of tiyulim, tours in different facets of Israeli society. So directly after the Rosh Hodesh service with Women of the Wall, I boarded a bus to visit the Muslim Triangle, or HaMeshullash, an area of Israeli Arab towns and villages adjacent to the Green Line to learn about Muslim identity within the Jewish state. It was a day that posed new challenges to our views and ways of thinking, and left more questions than answers. We began with an introduction at the Hartman Institute with Rabbi Ron Kronish, director of the Israel Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel. Rabbi Kronish explained that “Israeli Muslims have a four-part identity: they are Muslims by religion, Arab by language and culture,
Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship, and that “Each person balances these four components of his or her identity in different ways, and adds to it issues of gender and geography. In short, one can say with certainty that Israeli Muslims are a variegated and multi-faceted group.”

We began our tour in the Israeli Arab city of Baka El Gharbiyah, at the Al Qasemi college. The Al Qasemi college is mainly a teachers college, where young women (and a few men) come to learn to become educators. Founded in 1989 to teach Islamic law and religion, it is the leading Islamic educational institution in Israel and hopes to become the first Israeli Arab university in the state of Israel.Al Qasemi also seeks to foster dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions.

We also visited the village of Kfar Kassem and talked with the municipal leaders, about their community and the challenges and opportunities for Arab Israelis. We had also planned to meet with an Arab Israeli member of the Knesset, Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsour, but he was called away for an important vote that day. It was fascinating to hear their stories and to consider the statements that were made, in regards to both positive and negative feelings about being Israeli citizens - the Arab Israelis we talked with said that while they definitely face discrimination in Israel, their status as minority citizens is much better than other places in the Arab world so they also value their Israeli citizenship and do not want to leave Israel to live in Palestine; and the negative aspects of living with the current Israeli government - the towns struggle with denial of building permits and lack of building materials (yes, even within Israeli Arab towns).

Our tour at K’far Kassem ended with a visit to a museum dedicated to the massacre of 1956. This was a very difficult place to visit, first to see the pain that still lingers in the community, and second, to hear of the conflicting views that continue until today over what happened on that day and the aftermath (Those leading us through the Museum repeatedly told us that the Israeli government had never apologized; our group of rabbis was profoundly disturbed by this and on the bus ride home, one of us looked up the event on Wikipedia and found that this case established a famous legal principle concerning the fact that security personnel must disobey illegal orders and that the Israeli government had made an official apology and declared that Israeli school children must learn about the massacre.)

I came away from the museum visit and our day in the Muslim triangle with an even greater understanding of how complicated the situation in Israel is, reminding me just how far things are from black and white, and how many very different shades of gray there are. Most of all, I think that this day impressed upon all of us that pain is pain, for the parents and children of both Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews; and that there is a lot of very difficult work that has to be done in order for both sides to be able to really hear the pain of the other.

Rosh Chodesh Av

This week has been a challenging one in Israel.

Monday morning was Rosh Chodesh Av, the beginning of the month of Av. I woke up even earlier than usual in order to join the Women of the Wall group for early morning prayers at the Kotel, the Western Wall, in the Old City. For more than twenty years this group has gathered at the Kotel every Rosh Chodesh to welcome the new month with prayer and song, and to read from the Torah. The Kotel is one of the most sacred sites for Jews, both men and women. For thousands of years Jews have come to pray at the Wall, to talk to God, to place small notes of prayer in the cracks and crevices of the Wall. But over the last 4 decades the Wall has been divided into separate men’s and women’s sections with a mechitza (divider) between them. The orthodox authorities who have control over the site say that women must pray quietly, inaudibly so that our voices do not disturb the men in prayer, that women cannot read from the Torah or wear tallitot (prayer shawls) or tefillin at the Kotel. Over the years the Women of the Wall group has sued for equality in the Israeli Supreme Court, and women have been harrassed, had chairs and filth thrown at them, been spit on and cursed, and have been arrested for coming to do the same thing that the men on their side of the divider have come to do - lift their voices in song and prayer to God at this most holiest of places.




This Rosh Chodesh Av a large group of more than 100 of us gathered, including a number of women rabbis, to pray, and to show our support for Women of the Wall. We were joined on the opposite side of the mechitza by supportive men, fellow liberal Jews, who came to pray in support and join us for the Torah reading, which is held away from the Kotel, at Robinson’s Arch near the Southern Wall, since the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that we may not read Torah at the Kotel. Only this month we did not make it to Robinson’s Arch. After we chanted the prayer service and sang Hallel, we began to move in a group towards the Southern Wall for the Torah reading. We moved together, singing and following Anat Hoffman, the chairperson of WOW, who was carrying the Torah scroll. As she made her way up the stairs in front of us, I could see pushing and shoving and then we saw that it was Anat being shoved and pulled as the police tried to pull the Torah out of her arms. She was pushed into a police van as the cries rang out in the crowd “Anat has been arrested, the Torah has been arrested.” So instead of our Torah reading this month, we marched and sang our way to the Jaffa Gate Police station, where Anat and the Torah had been taken, to finish the service and to stand in support of Anat. After being fingerprinted and detained for 6 hours, she paid 5000 NIS bail and has been ordered to stay away from the Kotel for 30 days.

My feelings ranged from excitement and pride as so many gathered on this beautiful morning, to trepidation and anger as our group endured taunts, curses and jeers from both men and women at the Kotel, to an immense wave of sadness that at this holy place, there is so much sinat hinam (baseless hatred), and once again to a sense of pride and joy, as I looked at the faces and listened to the song surrounding me, that within all of it, all the mixed up and challenging parts of Jewish life here in Israel, it is our place. We cannot ever forget that or let go of the challenge that Israel is a place for all Jews - it is ours to claim, and if we do not stand up for pluralism and equal rights and claim Israel as ours too, we do so at our peril.

For more:
Arrested Torah
Police Arrest Women of the Wall Leader for Praying with Torah Scroll
Cops Release Women of the Wall Leader
Women of Wall Head Held for Kotel March

Hartman Institute

This week has been very busy and intense as I began my first study program at the Shalom Hartman Institute, in the Rabbinic Torah Study Seminar. I’ve been hearing from colleagues about Hartman for years, and have been looking forward to spending time learning there. They are right, it is a terrific learning opportunity, a chance to sit at the feet of great teachers and engage in Jewish text. It’s also a rare opportunity to learn with rabbis from different movements- There are over 100 rabbis here from Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, Reconstructionist, and Renewal. Our program is taught by some of the best scholars and thinkers in Israel, which makes me not want to miss anything, but the schedule is intense - classes begin at 8:30am and there are different classes and lectures throughout the day with a break for lunch and another short break in the afternoon. After an evening lecture, the day usually concludes around 10pm, by which point I am both exhausted and too wired to sleep because my mind is spinning with all of the material that we are learning. The theme of our learning for this year’s RTS (rabbinic seminar) is Engaging Israel: Bringing Jewish Values to the Dilemmas of Nationhood. We have been learning through the lens of Jewish text and values, about our relationship to Israel, the dilemmas facing Israel today and some of the challenges and responsibilities of being part of Klal Yisrael (the whole worldwide Jewish community).

Rabbi Donniel Hartman, the President of the Hartman Institute, gave the keynote address this Monday evening. He explained the the theme of our studies this year came out of a growing sense of crisis in the relationship between diaspora Jewry and Israel, and the question of whether the Jewish people will continue to function as one people is not self-evident anymore. He asks us to help begin a different conversation, to find common language through Jewish ideals and values for what Israel means and why it is important. He acknowledged that the basic narratives that we tell about Israel are part of the disconnect and that we need to be able to see Israel as a work in progress, which is not a justification of everything that already exists, but an understanding that we love Israel enough to want to make things even better. Our studies during the institute this summer focuses on five essential questions: 1)peoplehood; 2)the question of sovereignty; 3) the challenge of power and what is a Torah of power and Jewish values 4) what makes a Jewish state Jewish 5) the big ideas that Jews can bring to statehood and sovereignty.

Each morning after a brief introduction to the material, I sit with my chevruta (study partner, or in this case, small study group) and we prepare the textual material together, in the traditional way that Jews have studied text together for thousands of years. Then the whole seminar regroups in the bet midrash (study hall), and the teacher goes back through the material with us. We also have elective options which I have been enjoying immensely. I am also really appreciating being with friends and colleagues, and meeting new people and learning together. And, it’s good to know that although I haven’t had enough time to devote to text study over the years, the skills do come back (albeit more slowly than when I was twenty).

While I’m in classes, Phil is taking an intensive counseling course on Trauma and Resilience dealing with psychotrauma and PTSD through the Herzog Hospital’s summer institute, and has been biking Jerusalem. The boys are going to day camp at the Ramah Jerusalem Day Camp, a short Egged public bus ride away. They are having a great time with camp activities, sports, arts and crafts, Israeli dancing, Hebrew and swimming. Each week also includes a field trip. They have already met some new friends and are excited to return next week. In the mornings I have a short ten-minute walk to Hartman with Rachel in the stroller. Rachel is going to gan (daycare) with me at Hartman until 2pm when Phil picks her up and they catch a bus to pick up the boys. The work week and school week in Israel is Sunday through Thursday or early Friday. Since my classes meet Sunday through Thursday, Friday morning becomes our time to shop and clean up for Shabbat. Friday is a short day at camp, so everyone can prepare for Shabbat, and when we went to pick up Seth and Gil today we enjoyed an all camp sing-along, and performances from each shevet (group), that included Israeli dancing and a short play.

Terem

I had the chance to experience the Israeli medical system today. While walking near downtown, and not looking where I was going (probably distracted by a child or something that needed my attention), I somehow managed to trip and fall over one of the stone pillars that are set up all over Israel to prevent cars from driving onto sidewalks or into parks. Phil tried to catch me but I ended up with a cut on my head over my left eyebrow. Since head wounds bleed a lot, soon there were people offering kleenex, one man gave us an entire brick of baby wipes, and several were asking if we wanted an ambulance. (Thank you to all who helped us!) Phil had the presence of mind to refuse that request (surely more than we needed and would mean a long wait and large expense) and go to the nearest urgent care center instead. We decided that we’d better see if it needed stitches, so several concerned bystanders flagged down a cab and we were soon on our way to Terem, the Urgent Care Clinic. We were in and out of there in a very short amount of time, and my cut was glued, not stitched. While I was being taken care of, the kids played in the play area set up for children and had snacks at the snack bar. Maybe Arnett should think about those amenities for Urgent Care centers! While I was waiting I learned more about the Terem Centers: Dr. David Applebaum, a doctor who made aliyah in 1981, worked in the emergency department of Shaarey Tzedek Hospital and with the Magen David Adom ambulance teams in Jerusalem. He noticed how overburdened the ER’s were with non-emergency cases and in 1989 established the Terem Urgent Care clinics in several locations in Jeruslem. On September 9, 2003, Dr. Applebaum was killed, along with his daughter Naava, on the eve of her wedding, in a terror attack at Cafe Hillel. “Dr. Applebaum developed his philosophy that uncompromising commitment to Torah and active participation in modern life were complementary, and not contradictory aspects of serving God. He often said that one should glorify the mitzvah of saving a life in the same manner as one glorifies the mitzvah of the four species. His example will continue to promote healing, kindness, hope and strength for the Jewish people and all of mankind.” I certainly am grateful for his vision and dedication to helping others. Zichrono Livracha - His memory is a blessing.

Israel - Week Two

Time is already going fast! We’ve already been here two weeks! On Sunday we visited the Biblical Zoo, a beautiful park that is over 250 dunams large (62 acres) and includes a lake and reservoir. The main idea of the zoo is to preserve rare and endangered animals with a special emphasis on the animals mentioned in the Bible. We enjoyed wandering down the beautiful terraced pathways and seeing the animals in very large habitats, and saw many animals that are rare and endangered, including red pandas, vultures, and ibex.

After our zoo day we hopped on a bus and spent a wonderful afternoon with Cyrelle Simon in her home in the Bayit Vagan neighborhood. Cyrelle made aliyah 3 years ago after living in West Lafayette for over 40 years, and lives in a lovely community where she and her family had spent many sabbaticals and summers over the years. Consequently, she already had a community of friends to come to when she moved here. It was wonderful to catch up with her and to hear all about what she is doing - she continues to play with music groups here in Jerusalem as she had with the Lafayette Klezmorim, and goes to an ulpan twice weekly where her group is reading Israeli authors. She also has quite a busy social schedule, with her neighbors and friends and with her children and grandchildren that live here and abroad. If you get the shul (Sons of Abraham) bulletin you can hear more in her frequent letters. I enjoyed hearing and sharing the news about the many connections we have in common - it really is a small Jewish world!

We rounded out our week with two different swimming experiences - Yam HaMelach, the Dead Sea; and Breichat Yerushalayim - the Jerusalem Pool. About a 45 minute ride from our apartment, that quickly descends down to the lowest point on earth, and not far from where the scrolls of Qumran were discovered, we spent the day on a quiet beach at the Dead Sea. The beach was beautiful! The kids loved floating in the calm, warm, salty water and then standing in a freshwater shower that Rachel called the tree water since it was piped in next to a palm. Our fellow beachgoers showed us how to dig in the shallows for the mud and soon we were covered in the stuff! We enjoyed a delicous beachside meal overlooking the sea. It was a great day!!

On a not so side note, since my experience of Israel is that it’s where people come together, and a frequent experience is running into friends you didn’t expect to see, it truly is a small world. A little over two years ago, as part of a program through Purdue - the Indiana Center for Cultural Exchange - our congregation hosted a group of Muslim leaders from the Southeast Asia - Thailand and the Phillipines, who came to see our synagogue and meet with a small group of us to learn more about Jews and Judaism. For most of them, this was their first experience meeting Jews, and I was the first rabbi they had ever met. We exchanged contact info and email addresses. On the morning that we woke up to go to the Dead Sea, I checked my Facebook page and saw that one of my friends from this group, Musa, was also going to the Dead Sea that day and that he was on a tour of the Holy Land and had been in the Old City the day before! We didn’t meet up at the Dead Sea since his tour went floating at a different spot than the quiet beach we went to.

The Jerusalem Pool was also great fun! Located off of Emek Refaim, about a 20 minute walk from our apartment, the entrance is hidden - you have to enter through the supermarket entrance. Once inside, it has a great kids pool, a very shallow baby pool, and a great water slide that the boys went down too many times to count. There is also a lap pool for serious swimming. Even though our kids don’t speak much Hebrew and the kids their age didn’t speak much English, they still had a great time together in the water. It was a wonderful way to cool off on a hot day!

Our First Shabbat in Jerusalem

On Thursday afternoon we started our Shabbat preparations by walking to Machane Yehuda market. This open air market is the best place to shop for produce, pastries, household goods, and to people watch. Vendors hawk their wares as shoppers collect bags of fresh tomatoes, grapefruit, pitas, and more. We bought fruit and vegetables and some chocolate treats for Shabbat and then enjoyed some delicious falafel while we watched felow shoppers making their purchases. Friday morning and afternoon people are out shopping for their last minute Shabbat preparations. It’s very busy as people are headed to the bakery for fresh-baked challah, the florist, and other shops to get items for Shabbat dinner and lunch and Seudat Shlishit. Everyone - in line, at the checkout, even the security in the supermarket - wishes you Shabbat Shalom.

Once Shabbat comes in it is very quiet in Jerusalem. The buses stop running and there is much less traffic on the streets. In the Old City a siren sounds to let you knowthat Shabbat is about to come in. Friday evening we walked to Kehillat Kol HaNeshama, one of the Reform congregations in Jerusalem and one of my favorite places to go for services. It’s about a 25-minute walk from our apartment. The kids are still getting used to the idea that in Israel people walk everywhere. Services were very full and I ran into several colleagues here with congregational tour groups. On the walk home we wished Shabbat Shalom to others who were walking home and listened to the sound of z’mirot (Shabbat singing) floating down from open windows. For Shabbat morning services I headed over to the Muirstein Synagogue of Hebrew Union College, where I spent my first year of rabbinical training. HUC has a beautiful Jerusalem campus, in a prime location, not far from the Old City. Attached to the campus is the Beit Shmuel hostel and center which overlooks Jaffa gate. Unlike most synagogues in Israel, the d’var Torah and a good portion of the service is conducted in English, since this is the training ground for rabbis, cantors, and educators who will serve in the US and Canada. I was called up for a group aliyah along with all of the alumni of HUC that were present on Shabbat morning. It was a pretty big group since the summer season brings lots of rabbis leading congregational tours. After Kiddush, visitors were invited to take a tour of the campus led by one of the students who have only recently arrived to begin their year-long studies here. Here’s my picture hanging on the wall from my year in Israel.

Jerusalem, First Week

June 25, 2010 It has taken a few days to get onto the time zone here. We’ve planned for some time to get acclimated and adjusted before any of my study programs start and also to spend some family time together. I am getting to see Israel in a whole new way with the kids since we are looking for activities and things they like to do. Our first full day awake here we found a neighborhood playground only a few blocks away. While the playground equipment is pretty similar to what we have back home, one of the slides is a particular favorite - it has a series of rollers that you slide down on. On one of our first evenings here we walked to the Midrachov (Ben Yehuda street area). This central area is very popular with tourists and Israelis alike and is a fun area for shopping, eating and people watching. Kinyon Malcha (The Malcha Mall) was another interesting adventure. This three level mall is very popular and exciting - shopping malls like this didn’t exist in Jerusalem last time I was here. Lots of people from all over Jerusalem come here to shop. It feels much like malls back in the US except that you see lots of men and boys wearing kippot and tzitzit, and all the restaurants in the food court are under kosher rabbinic supervision. On our third day here the kids particularly enjoyed our trip to the Old City. We started our walk with shopping in the souk in the Muslim quarter, and then walking through the Rovah (Jewish Quarter) and to the Kotel (Western Wall). At the Kotel plaza we each wrote prayers to place into the crevices in the Wall. Other highlights of our first week included a wonderful evening out in Jerusalem and dinner with my friend and chevruta (study partner) Rabbi Sandy and her daughter, who are here on a tour.

Israel - Arrival

After a long day and a half of traveling including a 6 hour layover in Toronto, we arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. It’s very exciting to finally be here!! The kids kept saying “I can’t believe we’re in Israel!” Arriving at the airport is very different than the last time I was here 16 years ago. For one thing, you now go into the airport directly on a concourse. 16 years ago when you arrived, you went down a staircase off the airplane and got onto a bus to the terminal. When you get to the end of the concourse today there is a giant mezuzah - as if to say “Bruchim Ha’ba’im”, “Welcome Home!” Getting our luggage and going through passport control was fairly quick and soon we were on our way. On the taxi ride to Jerusalem we looked out the windows at the desert landscape, all of the road signs in Hebrew, and all the sights. We had slept a few hours on the plane, and were planning to stay up the rest of the day in order to acclimate to the time here but despite our best efforts, all of us slept the rest of the day away. By the time we woke up it was evening, and we went out in search of dinner. We found a nice coffee shop a few blocks down (our apartment is in a great location), and after eating, went back to sleep again.

Getting Ready

Over the last few weeks as we are preparing to travel to Israel, I’m getting more and more excited, and also a bit nervous and a little stressed. Next week I’ll be off to the Hava Nashira songleading workshop, then out west to a bat mitzvah, and then we’ll be on our way. Getting our house ready for the people who will be house-sitting for us is a whole project in itself! Getting everything together to pack - what to pack, will it fit in the suitcases, while wondering how different things will be since I was last there 16 years ago and pondering how much of my textual skills I will remember since it has been a few years since I last studied texts this intensively, and how much music theory do I really remember for learning the oud, is part of the excitement. Over the past few weeks I have started to move more and more into the rhythm of this renewal time. I’ve enjoyed a short get-away alone with my spouse - a very rare opportunity to spend uninterrupted time without the kids. I’ve been able to go to the kids sports games and practices where I am able to focus just on them, being fully present, instead of my all too-often experience of being there bodily while thinking about congregational needs or missing games altogether because of meetings or classes. I’ve been home for dinner and bedtime almost every night - while I have made it a priority to be home for dinner even if it means a very short turn-around, most weeks I am out at meetings and classes many nights and miss reading books and our other bedtime rituals. I’ve been walking much more and taking the time to exercise - a few months ago I put on a pedometer and was shocked at how little I move during the day, too often driving when I could walk, because I have to get somewhere quickly, or because I will need the car later. I expect to do a lot more walking in Israel. Most of all, renewal is about slowing down, about taking the time to see things from a different perspective, as I have learned from my youngest who wants me to go out into our yard nearly every day to see how the apples are growing, and wants to water them to help them grow, even in the rain.

Sinai

This year as we are preparing to celebrate Shavuot, I am reminded of what the ancient rabbis teach, that we all stood at Sinai. My colleague and mentor, Rabbi Steve Foster, who is retiring from Temple Emanuel in Denver in just a few short weeks, teaches us that “we are all made b’tzelem elohim, in G-d’s image, black and white, women and men, tall or short, gay or straight... and we need to treat each other with kavod -with respect and honor”. As a woman, and as a female rabbi, I have faced discrimination and intolerance within the Jewish world, and Shavuot reminds me each year of Rabbi Foster’s message. One of my favorite poems of all time is Merle Feld’s piece entitled “ We all Stood Together”, because it resonates with many of the feelings that we as Jewish women have felt as we struggled to overcome to not be seen as “less than” or “other”.

We All Stood Together

by Merle Feld

My brother and I were at Sinai

He kept a journal
of what he saw

of what he heard

of what it all meant to him

I wish I had such a record

of what happened to me there

It seems like every time I want to write

I can’t

I’m always holding a baby

one of my own

or one for a friend

always holding a baby

so my hands are never free

to write things down

And then

as time passes

the particulars the hard data

the who what when where why

slip away from me

and all I’m left with is

the feeling

But feelings are just sounds

and vowel barkings of a mute

My brother is so sure of what he heard

after all he’s got a record of it

consonant after consonant after consonant

If we remembered it together

we could create holy time

sparks flying.

In her book, Standing Again at Sinai, Judith Plaskow writes: “Jewish feminists, in other words, must reclaim Torah as our own. We must render visible the presence, experience, and deeds of women erased in traditional sources. We must tell the stories of women's encounters with God and capture the texture of their religious experience. We must expand the notion of Torah to encompass not just the five books of Moses and traditional Jewish learning, but women's words, teachings, and actions hitherto unseen. To expand Torah, we must reconstruct Jewish history to include the history of women, and in doing so alter the shape of Jewish memory.”

For all of us to stand at Sinai, means accepting that women have a place in the synagogue and on the bima. This year, ultra-orthodox fanatics in Jerusalem need to be reminded that women also have a place on the bus, and it is not in the back http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/120436/ Women have a place at the Kotel (the Western Wall) and do not deserve to be spit on, attacked, or arrested for praying there http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/119148/ Women can pray wearing tefillin without the fear of physical brutality for doing so http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/128056/ For all of us to stand at Sinai, means recognizing that Jews are not just of white European descent. Last June I was honored to be at the ordination ceremonies in Cincinnati, to witness the ordination of my friend, Rabbi Alysa Stanton, the first African American woman to become a rabbi http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/us/06rabbi.html and http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=7639090&page=1 For all of us to stand at Sinai means accepting GLBTQ Jews are part of the covenant. And this Shavuot brings us that much closer on two counts. First, Reuben Zellman became the first transgender rabbi ordained by the Reform movement this month http://www.jewishjournal.com/community/article/transgender_rabbinical_students_finding_equality_in_the_jewish_world_201005/ And second, Kol hakavod to my future colleague, Molly Kane, for her fourth year sermon. Kane’s sermon on Acharei Mot/Kedoshim, managed to change the stance of our teacher Dr. Eugene Borowitz at the New York campus of HUC. For 27 years Dr. Borowitz refused to sign the semicha of any rabbi who was known to be gay or lesbian. In protest, many of my colleagues declined to have him sign their semichot. This year, for the first time, thanks to Kane‘s moving and powerful words, Borowitz, at the age of 85, signed the ordination documents recognizing gay and lesbian rabbis. Read more about it here http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/05/06/for-we-are-all-one-people-created-betzelem-elohim-in-the-image-of-god/ While discrimination, bigotry, and intolerance in the Jewish world persist, we also have much to celebrate this year.

Judaism in the Digital Age

At the most recent CCAR - Central Conference of American Rabbis - convention in March, I attended two sessions on synagogues and technology - Judaism on the web. Congregations are blogging (as I am now) and podcasting and videocasting services and sermons, and have a presence on Facebook and Twitter. With technology and the internet, we’re doing outreach in a whole new way - CyberJudaism. http://reformjudaismmag.org/summer_2009/ And, the future (as I predicted in a High Holiday sermon in 1998) is here! One of the sessions at the CCAR was on “Visual T’filah” , putting the siddur up on screens in the sanctuary. www.visualtefillah.com One of the first things I have participated in as part of sabbatical is an audio and sound production workshop. While I’ve spent years using microphones and sound equipment, both while speaking as a rabbi, and while singing and playing the guitar, I’ve always wanted to know more about audio production and recording. And as the rabbinate has changed, sound for worship is becoming even more important. So, the workshop I attended recently, a Sound for Worship workshop presented by How-To-Sound, is on the cutting edge of what we need to know now. Our instructor, Mike Sokol, is a professional audio engineer who has done sound recording, and live sound engineering for concerts, rock musicians, churches, and the Obama inauguration, and he was terrific! The workshop was extremely informative and answered all of my questions, and some I didn’t even know I had, about sound systems, mixing consoles, microphone inputs and speaker outputs. We learned about how to make the right choices for mics, where to place them for different instruments, and how to place monitors and speakers. Each of us had our own mixing console to work with and had the opportunity to play sound engineer and mix our own output - it’s much more complicated when you have to think about hearing each instrumentalist or vocalist individually in the mix! To get an idea of this, put on some headphones and listen to a favorite recording of a band that you like and try to hear each instrument individually, then think about the choices the sound engineer made that helped to give the band its unique sound. Being on the other side of the sound equipment as a speaker/musician/singer/performer, it gave me a lot to think about and to listen for, both in terms of live sound and recording/podcasting.

Send-Off Shabbat

My sabbatical renewal started with a really lovely send-off Shabbat service and dinner. It was a very special evening. And I was especially touched to see so many members of our Temple family there and to hear so many heartfelt well wishes for our family! I feel blessed to have a supportive group who have helped to plan this renewal time for our congregation while I’m on sabbatical and to have this great opportunity. The last few weeks have had a very rushed and busy feel as I’ve been trying to get everything taken care of, and remember what details others might need to know. Even though I have been looking forward to this time, I was surprised by the challenge of letting go. In one of my books I used to prepare for my sabbatical leave is a list of “The Top Reasons for Not Taking A Sabbatical”. Among the reasons are:

• You can’t stand all the free time with family and friends
• The congregation might be able to function without me
• You don’t have anything to wear except work clothes
• Maybe people in the congregation will forget my name
• I might forget how to lead services
• Too much rest, prayer, travel and renewal
• Won’t be able to use burn-out as an excuse anymore

So I read this list and I had a good laugh, and then serendipitously into my mailbox popped a message that said “Trusting the Process” . I didn’t really need to read further – like, whoa, there’s a message! And I realized this was a message for me –it said “take some time for meditation and reflection, the moments of introspection are important because they allow me to see my life in a broader context. The activities then take on greater meaning because I feel more conscious and aware of WHY I am doing them.”

That’s after all what a sabbatical is about. In the Torah portion for that Shabbat it even says “On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a Shabbat of complete rest, a sacred occasion. You shall do not work; it shall be a Sabbath of God throughout your settlements” (Lev. 23:3) And next week’s portion tells us about the sabbatical year: “When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a Sabbath of Adonai. Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. But in the seventh year, the land shall have a Sabbath of complete rest, a Sabbath of the Eternal.” Leviticus 25:2-4

So, sabbatical is sacred time, time for rest, renewal and reJEWvenation. I look forward to returning, renewed and refreshed.

I am deeply grateful to Temple Israel’s lay leadership for their willingness to grant us this time away. And my great thanks to all who have worked hard on planning our renewal programs, and have volunteered to provide coverage for Shabbat services. Thank you so much for making this possible! And second, I am especially grateful to have received a Lilly grant, which makes it possible for me to take this sabbatical. So, thank you to the Lilly Foundation.

So, at the onset of this journey, I pray for all of you that God’s blessing be upon you while I am gone from you, that you may experience growth and learning, a renewal of spirit, of new connections to one another and to our Jewish tradition, through study, music, and community.

In the words that we as Jews pray at the beginning of every journey, the words of Tefilat Haderech, the Traveler’s Prayer (this is the setting by Debbie Friedman):

May we be blessed as we go on our way
May we be guided in peace.
May we be blessed with health and joy.
May we be sheltered by the wings of peace.
May we be kept in safety and in love.
May grace and compassion find their way to every soul.
May this be our blessing. Amen