tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62339715768896677252024-03-20T00:28:40.006-04:00Rabbi Audrey PollackRabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-59843191809837814362016-11-09T13:10:00.001-05:002016-11-09T13:10:36.414-05:00After the Election<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">November 9, 2016/ 8 Heshvan 5777</span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After the Election</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rabbi Audrey S. Pollack</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For those who have been asking, what
should I say to my children, how will you respond to the members of your
congregation-our Canadian friends who ask how could this have happened, how is
this possible, what will we do. This is my response:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My father was a proud American.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The son of immigrant parents who had come to
America in the early part of the 20<sup>th</sup> century in search of a better
life free of the persecutions and pogroms against Jews in Eastern Europe, he raised
us with the values of democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was
a student of history, and later a teacher of history, who believed in the value
of public education and the ideals that extend civil rights, freedoms and
justice to every American. On Flag Day and the 4<sup>th</sup> of July, I have
strong memories of him putting out our American flag in its holder on the front
of our house, and being carried on his shoulders to watch the parades. He instilled
in my sisters and me the importance of voting, of civic engagement, and in
dialogue with those whom we might not agree with. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He taught us to believe in the values and
ideals of American democracy and to stand up for the rights of those who did
not have a voice. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My mother is a proud American. Her
grandparents were immigrants who also came seeking a better life, a place where
they would enjoy freedom and as Jews, not fear for their lives because they
were a minority, different, other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She,
like my father, believes in the value of public education and civic engagement
and dialogue. My parents spent their careers teaching in the public education system
and devoted their lives to helping children and families from all walks of
life, ethnicities, cultures, religions, socio-economic status, political
leanings, and beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they raised
me and my sisters in a community that shares those values.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This morning is a mix of
emotions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many political commentators are
writing opinions about what is broken in America, and how the political system delivered
last night’s election results. I will leave it to them to analyze. We must realize
that there is a part of America that is elated by last night’s election
results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have to try and understand
and make sense of what that means. Most Americans that I know, however, are worried,
embarrassed, angry, hurt, and fearful. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As Jews we know all too well the
lessons of history and what happens when hate and fear is allowed to prevail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last night we were expecting the shattering
of a glass ceiling, to see the first woman in US history elected to the
presidency. Today, November 9<sup>th</sup> , is the anniversary of another
shattering of glass, Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. 78 years ago in
Nazi Germany and Austria after years of Hitler's campaign against Jewish
citizens, crowds and soldiers burned synagogues and broke into Jewish houses
and stores, attacking and murdering Jews. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>German authorities looked on without
intervening. The tide had turned.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some of my friends’ children are
asking their parents this morning “what will happen to my friends who came here
from Mexico, who are Muslim immigrants, who have brown skin”? We are fearful of
what will happen to the great strides that were made for the protection of LGBTQ
Americans, for marriage equality, for the rights of women to make their own
decisions about their bodies, for civil rights and religious freedoms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I understand that fear. That fear
runs deep - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My mother always taught us
that it was important to always have a valid passport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d like to think it was because her mother,
who came through the Great Depression as a child, enjoyed clipping articles
from National Geographic and dreaming of the places she wanted to visit, something
she was fortunate to enjoy in her later years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d like to think that. But I know that it is
about something deeper. It is not because we did not have a comfortable life,
not because there was anything rationally known to fear. But “just in case.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is not to say that I think most liberal
Americans should leave the country, even as I know that many liberal Americans were/are
considering options to leave. Last night as we watched the election returns
from our home in Canada, the immigration Canada website crashed from all of the
traffic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To the contrary, I believe that we
cannot allow fear and anxiety to guide us. To be sure, this election will have
great effect on the world. But we must also remember that America is still a
democracy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a democracy that has at
its center a system of checks and balances built into it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must work together to hold back the tide of
xenophobia, racism, misogyny and homophobia. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must recommit ourselves to protect those
who are most marginalized and most at risk. We have to strive together to
uphold decency, fairness, moderation, compromise and the rule of law. We have
to work harder to encourage multiculturalism and diversity, to diversify and
support our own networks of friends, to help those less fortunate, to speak up
when we hear people speaking bigotry and untruths, and to be vigilant.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
We must remind our children each and every day to treat others with respect,
and to always speak up when someone is being disrespectful, to them or someone
else, to be kind, and help people who need help. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stand up for your beliefs and your rights
while taking care to listen to those who disagree. We must continue to teach our
children to stand up for what they believe in and to stand up for the rights
that democracy promises us. We must make sure they know that we are always here
to support and care for them, that our love surrounds them, and that they can
use the power of their love and caring for good in this world. We must work
even harder to bring light into the world.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now more than ever we need the teachings
of our prophetic tradition, reminding us: “Learn to do good. Devote yourselves
to justice; Aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; Defend the cause
of the widow.</span>” (Isaiah 1:17) and “You have been told what is
good, And what Adonai requires of you: Only to do justice; to
love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These same teachings were eloquently phrased
in the inspiring words of Michelle Obama: “When they go low, we go high.”</div>
<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-15757252582866117032014-10-01T12:01:00.000-04:002014-10-07T12:03:40.112-04:00Teshuvah - The Work of A LifetimeRabbi Yisrael Salanter was the founder of the 19th-century Mussar movement in Lithuania. One evening, as he was walking home, he passed a shoe-repair shop and saw the shoemaker working very late by the light of a flickering candle. Rabbi Salanter asked him why he was still working so late into the evening. The cobbler responded: “As long as the candle burns, there is still time to make repairs.” Rabbi Salanter was stunned by the man’s reply. He repeated the words to himself, over and over: “As long as the candle is still burning, there is time to make repairs.” What it meant to Rabbi Salanter was that as long as the light of one’s neshama (the soul) still burns, there is still a chance to improve oneself, and to draw closer to the Creator.<br />
<br />Rabbi Salanter understood that there could be gaps between our knowledge and our behaviors. He created Mussar, a discipline of practices to transform one’s behavior that involved small changes over time. The Mussar masters promoted a path of very gradual change involving routine and regular step-by-step practice. Rabbi Salanter taught that change involves small steps, repeated regularly, since what changes quickly in one direction can just as easily change back again.<br />
<br />
Although we may understand on an intellectual level the need to change, to do things differently, it is quite another thing to actually take steps towards that transformation. If you go to the doctor for a checkup and find out that your blood pressure is too high or that you need to lose weight, but you choose not to do anything about it, then the information has little impact on your life. If however, you choose to make small daily changes— taking a pill for high blood pressure, committing to take a short walk at lunchtime each day—then over time we make those small changes and our life is transformed. Walking this way requires patience, as Rabbi Yosef Yozel Hurwitz (1849-1919) noted: “The problem with people,” he said, “is that they want to change overnight—and have a good night’s sleep that night, too!<br />
<br />We all know that change does not happen overnight, much as we sometimes wish that we could make it magically happen. We aren’t going to step into a tele- phone booth like Superman (if there are any telephone booths left anymore!) and fly off to spin the world back in time and right the wrongs we have done, or fly off to save the world in record time. Real, lasting change happens not in a leap but through a series of small steps.<br />
<br />Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, (1824-1898), another master of Mussar, taught that we make changes to improve our relationships with God and with our loved ones “in simple things, small things, to come through them to the greatest heights.” He also taught, “It is the work of a lifetime, and that is why you were given a lifetime in which to do it.”<br />
<br />
Everyone’s life has its challenges—some more difficult than others. It is through the experiences that we have in life and how we are able to deal with those challenges that we grow and change. As we look back over the last year, can we see the ways in which we have grown and changed? Growth is a fundamental part of life. Every- thing that is alive is growing. Trees, plants, birds, fish, and insects, are all growing or dying. And the same is true for us.<br />
<br />The Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe) each year remind us of that possibility, our potential to change and grow as human beings. It is more important that we start some- where and not be concerned with it being the “right” place. It is more important that we take one small step and find right behind that step another small step to take and not be concerned with our progress on the journey being too slow. It is enough that we take the first steps on this journey of a lifetime. The spiritual challenge is in the moment. This year as we open our hearts and our souls on this journey of transformation, may these small steps move us forward in the coming year to transform our souls and our lives on this journey of a lifetime.Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-72849303531360162082014-08-28T11:29:00.001-04:002014-08-28T11:29:59.394-04:00Ayecha - Where Are You? The Shofar Sounds“Suddenly you are awakened by a strange noise, a noise that fills the full field of your consciousness and then splits into several jagged strands, shattering that field, shaking you awake. The ram's horn, the shofar, the same instrument that will sound one hundred times on Rosh Hashanah, the same sound that filled the world when the Torah was spoken into being on Mount Sinai, is being blown to call you to wakefulness. You awake to confusion. Where are you? Who are you?” (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Real-Completely-Unprepared-Transformation/dp/0316739081" target="_blank">Rabbi Alan Lew, "This Is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation"</a>)<br />
<br />Welcome to Elul. The month of Elul ushers in the season of awakening, on our way to the new year that awaits, as we move through the cycle of the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe. It is traditional to hear the sound of the shofar every morning in Elul, reminding us that we need to wake up and realize who we really are, and where we have been on our journey. The shofar calls us to come back, to return to God and to who God created us to be. The sound of the shofar calls us to wake up to how we are living and how we want to live, how we want to change. We are entering the new year. The shofar calls to us: "What am I doing in this moment of my life?" <br />
<br />Have you thought about how you would like to grow and change in the coming year? The sound of the shofar calls to us: You are more than your long list of errands to check off this week, you are more than the report that needs to get written, you are more than the shortcomings that you see in yourself for all that you have not done. Where are you? Who are you? Who have you been? Who would you like to be in the coming year?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anat Hoffman sounds the shofar </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> on Rosh Hodesh Elul in Jerusalem</td></tr>
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The shofar’s call reminds us to pay attention. As we go on this journey of life we are not alone. Others are walking in front of us, beside us and behind us. God’s presence is with us. We must give careful attention to what we do, what we say, what we think and how we respond to those whom we meet along the way. The blast of the shofar echoes within us. What are we called to do? Who have we been created to be? Are we living each day with mindfulness, with purpose, with awareness?<br /><br />When we hear the shofar’s call we awaken to the journey that we are all on, each and every day, that is most often buried beneath the layers of everything we think is important. The shofar calls us back to our center and reminds us of what is of real importance: reconnecting with our souls, with who we are, with our family, our friends, our God. This journey of return, this path of <i>teshuvah</i> is not a ten day process between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It is not only a yearlong journey, but a lifelong journey of our souls. We need to look at ourselves each day and see who we are and where we are going.<br />
<br />We are all on a journey. Where that journey will take you in the next 60 days is up to you.<br />
<br />My family and I wish you and your loved ones a Shanah Tovah U’Metukah, a year filled with joy and the sweetness of life.<br />
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May this year 5775 be for all of us a year of blessing, health, joy, and return.<br />Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-21900399252485088352014-08-07T20:00:00.000-04:002014-08-21T22:51:55.330-04:00Why I Go To CampWe are back home from another wonderful summer at GUCI. Camp is something I look forward to each summer. Maybe it’s because I’m just a kid at heart and it’s fun to spend two weeks living at camp with lots of enthusiastic kids and staff and other rabbis and cantors and educators. Maybe it’s because I like being able to sit outside in the grass and have deep conversations with campers about God and Torah and what it’s like to be Jewish in a small town and how camp is the place where they feel most connected. Maybe it’s because for two weeks I get to eat camp food (which is great because I don’t have to shop for food, prepare it, or clean up afterwards - that in itself makes it great). Maybe it’s because I get to sing songs I love after every meal and enjoy seeing the whole camp come alive in the Chadar Ochel (Dining Hall) as they sing and dance and jump and do shticks. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Singing in the Dining Hall</td></tr>
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At camp, celebrating Shabbat is cool. Being Jewish is fun and interesting and learning Hebrew is easy. Campers meet and become friends with kids from all over the region and some from much further away, like Israel. Some kids come from large congregations, and some from temples where there are very few students in the entire religious school. Our kids spend time with dedicated counselors -college students who remember their own days as campers and are here to give something back. Camp is staffed with wonderful specialists in art, sports, aquatics, Hebrew, music, and dance, among other things. Our kids learns to canoe, climb the Migdal (Alpine Tower), Israeli dance, and camp out - all in a Jewish atmosphere with friends they'll have for a lifetime. <br /><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welcoming Everyone on the Shabbat Walk</td></tr>
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I've been fortunate to spend most of my summers since ordination at one of our URJ camps. As part of the rabbinic faculty, I am privileged to be a part of a community that grows our youth. When I learn Torah with a camper who is preparing for her bat mitzvah, or talk with the Avodahniks (12th graders who are the work crew at camp) about challenging issues, I see every day that camp builds a sense of excitement in our kids that tells them that Judaism is valuable and something to be proud of. Each day a different camp group leads the Tefillah (prayer) at our beautiful outdoor Beit Tefillah, and they share their thoughts on what a beautiful spiritual place this is. At camp Jewish community comes alive in a way that we cannot duplicate in the few hours we spend together in our congregational educational programs. It is an investment in our children’s future, whose reward is a child who develops self-confidence and who comes away from camp with a love for Judaism. <br /><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shabbat Singing</td></tr>
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Jewish camping is one of the most exciting, enjoyable programs we can offer our children. It offers them a chance to live in a Jewish atmosphere, learning about themselves and their Jewish identity as they gain independence and discover their own strengths. After the first summer, they return to camp eager to be with good friends and continue the personal growth that they have experienced at camp. Perhaps most importantly, children who attend Jewish camps tend to retain their Jewish identity and commitment in their adult lives.<br /><br />
L’hitraot - See you next summer!Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-76291686455111798262014-07-29T11:15:00.000-04:002014-08-21T21:13:21.229-04:00My Heart Is In the EastI am writing as I sit outside under the trees at Goldman Union Camp Institute (GUCI). Camp is a place that is in many ways sheltered from the rest of the world, it is a place of peace, where lifelong friendships are formed, and Jewish souls are nurtured. But this summer I as I sit under the trees, teach and learn, connect with colleagues and friends, sing songs and watch campers grow, I am deeply troubled.<br />
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Since arriving here, Israel has entered into a ground war in Gaza, to protect her citizens from the non-stop barrage of missile attacks from Hamas. Operation Protective Edge began just a few weeks before I came to camp, and in a short time it became clear that the Iron Dome system would not be enough to halt the attacks. Israel has agreed to multiple cease fires, Hamas refused to stop shooting. This forced Israel to consider sending troops into Gaza. After completely withdrawing from Gaza in 2005, going back into Gaza for a ground operation was not a decision made lightly. As Israel calls phones and drops leaflets to warn Gazans to take shelter, Hamas continues to urge its citizens to ignore the IDF’s warnings, to be human shields for the warfare, and continues to place armaments and rocket launchers in schools, hospitals, and mosques. The United Nations continues to condemn Israel for her actions, even as they admit to discovering rockets placed deliberately in school buildings, and then amazingly, handing over those same rockets to the Palestinian leadership.<br />
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Since entering Gaza, Israel has discovered 31 tunnels so far with more than 60 shafts leading to them. These tunnels were built by Hamas using forced child labor. More than 160 Palestinian children died constructing them. Israel us reporting that these tunnels are full of explosives, missiles and other weaponry. These tunnels were built as part of a long term large scale plan to launch a massive assault on Israeli civilians to take place just two months from now, on Rosh Hashanah. This surprise attack was planned to send 200 Hamas fighters through the tunnels under the border from Gaza into Israel, wearing Israeli army uniforms. Then the plan was to take control of kibbutzim and other communities while killing and kidnapping Israel civilians.<br />
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Antisemitic acts of violence and demonstrations are occurring with increasing frequency. These reports of violence and anti-Israel sentiment, which simply put is anti-Jewish sentiment, are frightening. There have been riots and anti-semitic mobs in Paris, Calgary, and Belfast and anti-Israel rioters and vandalism in Chicago, Connecticut and Boston.<br />
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Here at camp, on this past Shabbat, our Israeli counselors shared prayers for peace, and prayers for safety for their families and friends, and for those in the Israeli Defense Forces. The Israeli counselors have shed more than a few tears and I can see worry on their faces, but for the most part, here at camp, we are immersed in providing all of the campers with a great environment for learning about themselves and their Jewish identity. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Israeli Shlichim Share Prayers for Peace</td></tr>
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Friends and colleagues in Israel have been sharing their firsthand experiences, of traveling in Israel, running to bomb shelters, and going about their daily lives. I am proud of our NFTY (North American Federation of Temple Youth) staff and the URJ, who were able to continue touring with our teen groups on our Israel trips this summer and keeping them safe. I am proud of my CCAR rabbinic colleagues flew to Israel on a quickly arranged mission of support. They are taking shelter in stairwells and bomb shelters as they visit the border towns adjacent to Gaza, and deliver care packages of toiletries, energy bars, and other items for lone soldiers. Aliyah flights to Israel have continued, and despite arriving in a war zone, not one family backed out of their plans to make aliyah. <br />
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It is a very troubling time. Many of us feel powerless to be able to do anything. Some of us feel conflicted about what is happening in Israel and what is happening in Gaza. It is certainly disturbing that so many children on both sides of the conflict are again living with fear. And there are people suffering. If you want to do something, below are some ways to support Israel and those who are living with daily missile attacks:<br />
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<a href="http://wupj.org/Contribute/Giving.asp" target="_blank">Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism</a> (Reform Judaism in Israel - IMPJ) through the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), 633 Third Ave. 7th floor NYC 10017. The WUPJ and IMPJ are doing great work to assist those impacted and to keep lines of communication open between Israelis and Arab communities in Israel.<br />
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<a href="https://donate.fidf.org/page/contribute/rapidresponsefund" target="_blank">Friends of the IDF</a> - Friends of the IDF is in Israel supplying the IDF soldiers on the frontlines with snack packages, toiletry kits, and underwear. <br />
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<a href="https://secure-fedweb.jewishfederations.org/page/smartproxy/BSD_AwBSQgYGSF4ARFlGWQNWBQZLUUZdWAtATFZABA/FQRRUA/SA/EhdXRRMBFEc/Bg1XWxYPB1w/DAhXUgYX/ChVTRwIQD1sLHkBHXhFWAhdQRlcZUgFUBxdYE1E" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="45" src="https://secure-fedweb.jewishfederations.org/page/smartproxy/BSD_AwBSQgYGSF4ARFlGWQNWBQZLUUZdWAtATFZABA/FQRRUA/SA/EhdXRRMBFEc/Bg1XWxYPB1w/DAhXUgYX/ChVTRwIQD1sLHkBHXhFWAhdQRlcZUgFUBxdYE1E" width="200" /></a><a href="http://jewishfederations.org/StoptheSirens" target="_blank">Silence the Sirens</a> - The URJ and Jewish Federations of North America are collecting funds to provide emergency aid and alleviate the pain and suffering of our Israeli brothers and sisters.<br />
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<a href="http://www.yadeliezer.org/program_info.php?program_id=38" target="_blank">Yad Eliezer</a> has distributed food and supplies to residents of Southern Israel living under a constant barrage of rockets with food and treats for families stuck at home in bomb shelters.<br />
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<a href="http://www.jaffainstitute.org/home/the-jaffa-institute-responds-to-state-of-emergency-declared-in-sou" target="_blank">The Jaffa Institute</a>, which looks after children across South Tel Aviv and Jaffa, have relocated 170 at-risk children from communities hit hardest from rockets - donations go to recreational activities, learning materials, food and treatment. <br />
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<a href="http://www.natal.org.il/English/" target="_blank">Natal</a> is an organization that provides hotlines for people who are suffering anxiety and need to speak with someone - both for people in the North and the whole of Israel. Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-77490044955615186632014-05-19T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-21T09:42:25.908-04:00Rabbi’s Report to the Congregational Meeting We learn in the Mishnah Pirke Avot (2:15–16) the words of Rabbi Tarfon, who lived in the 2nd century CE: Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor, v’lo atah ben chorin l’hibateil mimena. “You are not required to finish the work, yet you are not free to avoid it.”<br />
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This is true of the work we do here at Temple Israel. Although running our synagogue is demanding and at times may seem overwhelming, we must never be discouraged. To all of the members of our Temple Israel family who take this advice to heart, please know that your work is vital and important and worthwhile. You are the caretakers of our Jewish community.<br />
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We are now, this week, beginning the book of BeMidbar, known in English as the book of Numbers. The Hebrew is best translated as, “in the wilderness.” For the last 32 days, we have been counting the Omer. Every day, on our 49-day journey from Pesach to Shavuot, from Egypt to Sinai, brings us closer to receiving and understanding Torah. Being BeMidbar, “in the wilderness,” teaches us that the journey is a series of small but deliberate steps, always moving forward, always on the journey—together.<br />
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BeMidbar opens with a census, counting all the men of b’nei Yisrael over the age of 20—that is, all of the men who would be eligible to serve as part of an army—from all the tribes, except Levi. The number adds up to 603,550. Here at Temple Israel, in 2014, we count women and children too. But either way, the counting serves to remind the b’nei Yisrael, and us as b’nei Yisrael of Temple Israel, that every one of us counts and is needed for our Jewish community to thrive on this journey that we are on together.<br />
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Each person and family who have hosted oneg Shabbats, baked or cooked and decorated for holidays and life cycle events, worked in the cemetery, cleaned up, played a musical instrument, donated your time, donated money, and contributed in countless ways to the life of our synagogue, including those of you who have participated in multiple committee meetings that sometimes go until late in the evening, you already know this: sometimes we have to work late into the night, but it’s not without its rewards. Some great ideas have come out of those late-night meetings. <br />
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We are a small community, but there are many ways we can grow. There are always limiting factors, like money and volunteer hours. And we know that progress doesn’t always come so easily. Keeping a congregation going is always a challenging task. We may simultaneously feel inspired and tested, and we know that success doesn’t happen overnight. Sometimes, we have to come back and try again and again.<br />
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But know that what makes this community and this place sacred is our connection to each other, our coming together to sanctify our lives and to offer praise and thanks together, our accompanying each other on the journeys of brit and baby naming, b’nei mitzvah, confirmation—-chuppah and parenthood—grief and mourning, learning and prayer, and relationships.<br />
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Do you remember Rabbi Tarfon, whom we started with? He also teaches in that same Mishnah: Hayom Katzar v’hamlachah m’rubah,<br />
v’hapoalim atzelim v’hasachar harbeh u’vaal habayit dochek. “The day is short, the work is great, the workers are lazy, but the reward is great, and the master of the house is knocking [at your door].”<br />
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The truth about being part of a kehillah kedoshah, a holy community, is that the work is long and the expressions of gratitude often are not. What keeps us doing this then, year after year? Because you believe your work is worthwhile. You don’t do it for the recognition. You do it, because you care. At the end of the day, at the end of the year, we have successes, sometimes we have mistakes, but what truly matters, what makes us a holy community in the service of God is that we are here to support each other in times of celebration and in times of sadness; that our children learn and feel a sense of accomplishment, and that the members of our Temple family know they matter and have an important place in our community.Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-44701863581531758282014-04-01T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-19T11:04:47.330-04:00Preparation for Passover Participation!Passover is almost upon us! A holiday that we eagerly await and celebrate joyfully. Passover, with its timeless story of the escape from freedom to slavery, the symbols of the Seder which delight all of the senses, and the excitement of joining together around the Seder table with family and friends to retell the ancient story is looked forward to with great anticipation. As adults, we know the deeper meaning of the holidays - the Passover story of freedom, and the importance of passing on our tradition to the next generation.<br />
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<br />But with children, where do we begin? As it says in the Pesach Haggadah: For the young one, who does not know enough to ask the question, you shall begin with the story, explaining it simply: “This is what God did for me, when I went forth out of Egypt.” The Haggadah’s message not only reminds us that we should begin where a child can understand, but that the celebration of the Jewish holidays is meant to be experiential. After all, we are taught that “In every age, one must regard himself as if he himself had come out of Egypt”. So, make your celebrations experiential and try to involve everyone present!<br />
<br />Children love stories and one of the best ways to get children involved in the celebrations of both Purim and Passover is by reading or telling them the story at an age-appropriate level. Doing this in advance of the holiday will whet their appetites and prepare them for the events to come. Children also love to play dress-up and act. To get them involved in this year’s Passover Seder, have them act out the story as you read it from the Haggadah, or make paper bag puppets and act it out for them.<br />
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<br />Children also love songs, especially simple ones with repeating choruses. Try to interject singing into your celebrations. Try playing CD’s in the car or at home a few weeks ahead so they’ll be familiar. If you don’t feel confident singing by yourself, bring CD’s or an iPhone loaded with mp3’s to your celebration and everyone can sing along.<br />
<br />Almost every Jewish holiday has special foods that accompany the celebration. Involve your child in the preparations - have him help you shop for the ingredients. Give her simple tasks to do in preparing the Seder plate for Passover. As you mix the different elements for the charoset, ask your child what the foods smell and taste like. Are they sweet? salty? sour? crunchy? soft? Children can also make special table decorations for each guest, which can be used every year for your celebration of the holidays. <br /><br />Need help with resources?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/passover" target="_blank">Passover recipes, customs and rituals</a>, and how to put together a <a href="http://www.reformjudaism.org/interactive-seder-plate" target="_blank">seder plate</a><br />
<br />An extensive collection of songs for Passover is available for free download at the <a href="http://www.jewishbirthnetwork.com/passover-sing-along.html" target="_blank">Jewish Birth Network</a> <br /><br />Passover trivia? <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/quiz/?tid=HY.JH.PS" target="_blank">Try this quiz</a><br />
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Hag Sameach! Happy Pesach! Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-81662766891636376772014-03-22T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-19T10:45:56.200-04:00Hashkiveinu - Let us lie down in peace<div style="text-align: center;">
הַשְׁכִּיבֵנוּ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ לְשָׁלוֹם </div>
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Hashkiveinu Adonai Eloheinu L’shalom</div>
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Let us lie down in peace O Eternal our God </div>
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<span id="goog_1567376348"></span><span id="goog_1567376349"></span>As anyone who has children knows, bedtime is one of those both sacred and scary times for kids. And I think the same is true for adults. We all have some sort of bedtime ritual, whether it is falling asleep in front of the TV, or reading a book, or practicing some sort of relaxation exercise. Yet, the experience of going from a state of wakefulness to sleep can be a difficult time for many of us whether we are children or adults. <br /><br />Recently, a dear friend who has been ill shared just how comforting an acknowledgement of God’s presence has been to her at bedtime. During her stay in the hospital she has recited the traditional prayers before sleep not only at night but also as she was being put under anesthesia. Praying the words, and making this part of her nightly ritual, had helped her to not only be less fearful, she told me, but also to recognize an opportunity for blessing – that God was with her as she went from wakefulness to sleep. <br />
<br />These moments of connection with God, which exist in the lull between the hours of a busy day are the most precious and the most prayerful. As we drift off to sleep, we are all linked to the divine source of life, and ask God to bless and watch over us as we find comfort and shelter in a night of rest.<br />
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(cross-posted in Moments of Inspiration - <a href="http://www.jconline.com/life/" target="_blank">Lafayette Journal and Courier</a> - March 22, 2014)<br /><br />Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-44129050944878457682014-03-02T08:00:00.000-05:002014-08-19T10:09:30.402-04:00Like Dreamers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So much has been written about the history of modern Israel, a place we love, and whose politics we also sometimes struggle to understand. I recently finished reading Yossi Klein Halevi’s new book, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Like-Dreamers-Paratroopers-Reunited-Jerusalem/dp/0060545763" target="_blank">Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation</a>”. “Like Dreamers” tells the story of modern Israel through the personal stories of seven men who served as paratroopers in the elite 55th brigade, who were part of the miraculous victory of the war of 1967 and the recapturing of the Old City of Jerusalem. <br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yossi_Klein_Halevi" target="_blank">Yossi Klein Halevi</a> spent the past 10 years following the lives of the
paratroopers who liberated the Kotel in 1967. Not long after making
aliyah in 1982, he decided that he wanted to write a book interviewing
veterans of the battle of Jerusalem. “How had the war changed their
lives? What role did they play in trying to influence the political
outcome of their military victory?" Through ten years of research and
developing relationships with seven of these men, each of whom took
distinct paths. As he follows their stories, Halevi tells the story of
Israel through their eyes and gives us a greater understanding of the
political dilemmas, different ideologies, and myriad personalities that
have shaped Israel today. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1967 paratroopers with 2013 Women of the Wall (Anat Hoffman - chairwoman (right) and Lesley Sachs - executive director (left))</td></tr>
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The characters in the book are not characters, they are real people with real lives and real dilemmas and that is what can give us a greater understanding of many of the internal debates that are a very real part of life in Israel today. Of the seven paratroopers profiled, some became religious settlers, others secular kibbutzniks, musicians and artists. They had careers in high tech, and politics, and industry. Some became active on the left, others on the right. And in this small country, being part of the same small elite brigade connected them together for life in spite of their differences. Their stories serve as a metaphor for the challenges both internal and external that Israel faces today.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Rubinger’s famous photo of the IDF paratroopers at the Western Wall in 1967</td></tr>
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When I was in Israel in November for the Women of the Wall 25th anniversary solidarity mission, I was overcome with emotion at the Wall, in being there together with so many women from so many disparate Jewish backgrounds, yet bound together by a single purpose. After reading "Like Dreamers", I now look at the iconic photograph of the young soldiers standing at the wall in a different way. The young men of the 55th brigade, like all Israelis in 1967, had dreams and visions and hopes. Yet they too came from disparate backgrounds and went on to live different lives all in the same small country, all struggling with the same questions of Israel’s survival, and a quest for “normalcy” within what Halevi describes as "the agonizing complexity of Israel's dilemmas."<br />Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-86707607939029108082014-02-02T08:30:00.000-05:002014-08-18T14:42:37.439-04:00Polar VortexAs I write this we are in the midst of another cold spell. The wind whips across the open fields and the air is a frigid blast from the polar vortex. The sun shines on the frozen landscape and tires crunch on ice on the roads. Our lives feel disrupted as events are canceled, schools and businesses operate on two-hour delays or are closed altogether. Even our membership that relocates to the warmth of sunny Florida for the winter reports that it is cold - they have had to put on sweaters and turn on the heat! <br />
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In the Talmud, tractate Avodah Zarah, “Our Rabbis taught:When Adam, the first human, saw the day getting gradually shorter, he said, 'Woe is me, perhaps because I have sinned, the world around me is being darkened and returning to its state of chaos and confusion; this then is the kind of death to which I have been sentenced from Heaven!' So he began keeping an eight days' fast. But as he observed the winter equinox and noted the day getting increasingly longer, he said, 'This is the world's course', and he set forth to keep an eight days' festivity. In the following year he appointed both the days before and the days after the equinox as festivals.” (Bavli Avodah Zarah 8a).</blockquote>
When it is cold and dark, when the days are short and the nights are longer, we often feel like the first Adam. He worries that the world is returning to the chaos that preceded creation, concerned that warmth and light are disappearing. But when he sees that the light is returning, that the days are growing longer, his fears are eased, and he celebrates both the days leading up to the equinox as they grow shorter, and the days following, as the hours of light lengthen.<br />
<br />There is a reason that we talk so much about the weather this time of year. When it’s -5 with a windchill of -25, when the bitter wind whistles outside and the cold air makes it hard to take a breath, we notice much more than when the weather is pleasant and does not disrupt our plans. It is harder to see the changes that are taking place day by day when it is dark and cold. But Adam’s story teaches us that even when things seem dark and cold around us, not to despair, because the sun will shine again, the days will lengthen, and what has been growing slowly will blossom in days to come.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snow Women of the Wall, Jerusalem</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We aren’t the only ones experiencing colder than normal winter weather. </td></tr>
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<br />Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-3661201656848452322014-01-06T08:00:00.000-05:002014-08-18T13:42:52.978-04:00Renewal On Tu B'Shevat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Shevat, the Hebrew month that usually coincides with February, is the beginning of Spring in Israel. The rains lessen, the sun comes out, and the sap beings to rise in the fruit trees. Tiny leaf buds appear and almost overnight, the almond trees seem to burst into bloom. This is a time for rejoicing, for celebrating the New Year of the trees on the 15th day of Shevat, or Tu B’Shevat, corresponding to the Hebrew letters “Tet” (9) and “Vav” (6), which add up to 15.<br />
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<br />The holiday of Tu B’Shevat is not mentioned in the Bible. It marks the beginning of a new cycle for the tithe on fruit trees. Before the great Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem in 70 CE, ten percent of all produce was set aside for the priests and the poor. When the Temple was destroyed, this tithing ceased. Yet, the principles are still relevant today and it is why we continue to observe Tu B’Shevat by planting trees, sharing the bounty of the land with those in need, and allowing fields to lie fallow during the sabbatical year (every seventh year), and taking care of the earth so it will sustain future generations.<br /><br />The early chalutzim (pioneers) in Israel celebrated Tu B’Shevat by planting trees. This practice continues today. Jewish communities around the world also celebrate Tu B’Shevat as a kind of Jewish earth day, organizing events that express a Jewish commitment to protecting the earth.<br />
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<br />In the early 1600s, The Kabbalists, the Jewish mystics of Tzfat created a new tradition. They saw Tu B’Shevat as a holiday which connected the revival of nature after the long winter and the revival of the Jewish people. They created a seder which included readings about trees, planting and nature, the ingathering of the Jewish exiles and the covenant of the people of Israel with God; and the eating of fruits and nuts. So, the birthday of the trees is also the birthday of the tree of life, a moment when God needs our human presence to witness the annual renewal of life. As we eat fruits and nuts, drink wine or grape juice and read from a special Tu B'Shevat Haggadah, we celebrate the new year of the trees, rejoicing in the abundant gifts of nature which give our senses delight and our bodies life.<br /><br />Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-31884925964082517892013-11-13T22:30:00.000-05:002014-08-18T13:13:10.702-04:00Reflections on the 25th Anniversary of Women of the Wall Rabbinic MissionWe woke early, at 5:30am and grabbed a quick breakfast on our way to the Old City of Jerusalem. We made our way through the narrow, winding streets until we arrived at the security entrance to get to the Kotel, the Western Wall. Standing in line as I waited to pass through security, I looked up at the sign that read: “Dear Visitor, You are approaching the holy site of the Western Wall where the Divine Presence always rests. Please make sure you are appropriately and modestly dressed so as not to cause harm to this holy place or to the feelings of the worshippers. Sincerely, Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites.” In my small bag rested my tallit, and camera. As I put my bag on the conveyor belt, my kippah already on my head, I thought back to the last time I had been to the Kotel for Rosh Chodesh, in the <a href="http://rabbiaudreypollack.blogspot.com/2010/07/rosh-chodesh-av.html" target="_blank">summer of 2010</a>. A summer in which Anat Hoffman, leader of Nashot Hakotel, Women of the Wall, had been arrested for carrying the Torah scroll, and was then prohibited from coming near to the Kotel for 30 days, “so as not to cause harm to this holy place or to the feelings of the worshippers”.<br />
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As I entered the Kotel plaza, the gathering area in the back, which was relatively quiet and empty in the early morning, I thought back to my first visit to the Kotel plaza, on a summer college trip, and of the service we held there, praying together as a mixed group, singing our prayers aloud. I thought about the family trip I had been on with my home congregation, where as a group we made havdalah at the end of Shabbat and sang aloud together Debbie Friedman’s setting of the havdalah blessings. And I thought of the many IDF soldiers who have been commissioned at this same spot, where no longer are mixed groups able to gather for prayer, and where women’s voices have been silenced during public ceremonies such as the IDF commissioning, “so as not to cause harm to this holy place or to the feelings of the worshippers.” <br />
<br />I thought about the 25 years that each month the <a href="http://womenofthewall.org.il/" target="_blank">Women of the Wall</a> have come on Rosh Hodesh, in small groups and large, in rain or heat, in prayer and persistence, to lift their hearts and voices together in prayer out loud, wearing tallit and tefillin. I thought about the Israeli paratroopers who stood at the Wall in 1967 with tears streaming down their faces and of those same soldiers who stood again at the Wall with Anat Hoffman last February, and of the 1<a href="http://womenofthewall.org.il/2013/02/feb112013pressrelease/" target="_blank">0 women who were arrested</a> after the paratroopers and the press left, “so as not to cause harm to this holy place or to the feelings of the worshippers.”<br />
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I looked at the beautiful sunlight glinting on the light colored Jerusalem stone, and I took my place to secure the perimeter edge for the group of my sisters, my mothers, my grandmothers, my daughters, my friends who were coming to raise their voices out loud to celebrate Rosh Hodesh Kislev, the month of dreams, and I prayed<br />
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זֶה-הַיּוֹם, עָשָׂה יְהוָה; נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ</div>
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Zeh Hayom Asah Adonai Nagilah v'nis'mecha vo <br />This is the Day that God has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24)</div>
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<br />And I rejoiced. With more than 800 Jewish women who gathered from all over Israel and across the world, and over 200 male supporters who stood behind the mechitza and the barrier, I rejoiced. I rejoiced with Orthodox and Reform and Conservative and Reconstructionist and Renewal and Just Jews, I rejoiced. I rejoiced with the young girls who were under a tallit chuppah to chant the blessings for the Rosh Hodesh Torah reading. I rejoiced with the Israeli policewomen who came not to harass us this time, not to tell us to shhh be quiet or to wrap our tallitot like scarves, but this time to ring our group with their bodies to protect us from harassment and from things thrown at us, from spitting and yelling and whistles.<br />
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And I thought, surely the Shechina, the Divine Presence who always rests here, rejoices that I am here in the holy place with my tallit, surely the Shechina wants to hear the voices of all Jews raised in prayer in song , surely the Shechina understands that our prayers cannot cause harm to this holy place or to the feelings of the worshippers.Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-8845873058839687042013-09-01T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-17T23:41:09.497-04:00A Question for the New Year: What will I become in the future?What is it about the High Holy Days that draws so many of us into the synagogue? Even if we have not been more than a few times or perhaps not at all during the past year, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur bring us here to pray, to reflect, and to be a part of community. As we enter the doors of the synagogue once again, we are reminded that the gates of repentance are always open, that no matter how often or how infrequently we may have come to synagogue over the past year, we are always welcome here. Sometimes it is difficult to find the path back towards God and Torah and being amongst other Jews. Judah Halevi, the medieval poet said: “When I go forth looking for You, I find You seeking me.” In the process of searching for God, and returning to synagogue, we find ourselves. <br /><br />Judaism is a religion of questions and questioning. So, too, at this time of year, as we approach the Yamim Noraim, we must ask ourselves the important questions, the hard questions. How do we take stock of our actions and our interactions with loved ones, friends, neighbors, even business associates during the previous year? How can we even begin to confront these hard questions? We start by letting go of the fear of ourselves, and acknowledging that we are not perfect, and that we do have the capacity to change. We must ask ourselves: “What have I done? and What have I become?” (Rabbi Jonah of Gerona in his Gates of Repentance, a treatise of the 13th century). To Rabbi Jonah’s wisdom, I think we must add one additional question: What will I become in the future? Our tradition calls the process of self reflection cheshbon hanefesh, literally, “taking an account of our soul”. It is what the period leading up to the Yamim Noraim is all about. This time of preparation is not easy but it is also a gift, an opportunity to begin anew, as we consider not only our interactions and actions over the past twelve months, but the process of teshuvah, of repentance and change. Each day we begin with ourselves, unafraid to confront the past, for as we return towards God, we come to learn that these actions of the past are no longer what we have become or must be in the future.<br />
<br />My family and I wish each of you a Shanah Tova U’Metukah, a year filled with health, joy and the sweetness of life. May this new year of 5774 be a year of health, happiness, and growth for you and your family.Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-33154581970116272342013-08-05T23:27:00.000-04:002014-08-17T23:36:08.762-04:00Elul: 40 Days of PreparationThe month of Elul, the month leading up to the High Holidays, which begins this year on August 7, 2013, is a time for rethinking, self-reflection, and meditation. During this month it is customary that every Jew - not just scholars or rabbis - take time to join in Jewish study, read the Bible, and rethink and take stock of his or her life. Why 40 days of preparation? This custom is explained in relationship to the earliest of reconciliations between the Jewish people and God: the 40 days which Moses spent on Mount Sinai after destroying the first set of the Ten Commandments. Moses had come down the mountain and saw the people with the golden calf. He punished the people, destroyed the calf and then went back up the mountain to fast and pray for 40 days. These ended - on Yom Kippur - when Moses received the second set of Ten Commandments from God as a sign of God's forgiveness and reconciliation with the Jewish people. In identifying the 40 days Moses spent on the mountain with the days leading up to Yom Kippur, the Jewish community tries to spend those 40 days as Moses did - in prayer and study and in rethinking one's life in order to merit God's forgiveness. The month of Elul is 30 days long, and there are ten days from the first of Tishrei to Yom Kippur. So, the 40 days begin with the first of Elul.<br />
<br />There are two major customs associated with these forty days. Each morning of the month of Elul, with the exception of Shabbat and the last day of Elul, the shofar is blown. This is meant to be a spiritual wakeup call, and is also a reminder of the shofar blowing that will be heard on Rosh Hashanah. The second custom is the reading of Psalm 27 at every service. This plea to God for help and deliverance from our enemies is understood at this time of year as a plea for deliverance from our own internal enemies, from the challenges we face daily that may have caused us not to be true to ourselves. As Elul comes to an end, our spiritual preparation, prayers and self-reflection intensify with special prayers of Selichot, prayers of asking forgiveness from God and for spiritual healing.<br />
<br />For your own spiritual preparation leading up to the High Holidays:<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.jewelsofelul.com/" target="_blank">Jewels of Elul</a><br />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0827609302/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1535523722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0807036110&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1DEBD1WGWWX8T8HEGJ8C" target="_blank">Seasons of Our Joy</a> - Arthur Waskow<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Holidays-Michael-Strassfeld-ebook/dp/B0053KAJE4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408332731&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Jewish+Holidays%2C+A+Guide+and+Commentary" target="_blank">The Jewish Holidays, A Guide and Commentary</a> - Michael Strassfeld<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Days-Awe-Treasury-Reflection-Repentance/dp/0805210482/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408332767&sr=1-1&keywords=Days+of+Awe" target="_blank">Days of Awe</a> - Shmuel Yosef Agnon<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Preparing-Your-Heart-High-Holy/dp/0827605781/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408332809&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Preparing+Your+Heart+for+the+High+Holy+Days%3A+A+Guided+Journal" target="_blank">Preparing Your Heart for the High Holy Days: A Guided Journal</a> by Kerry M. Olitzky and Rachel T. Sabath<br />Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-71111599469026138712013-06-02T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-17T23:22:20.807-04:00Do Not Separate Yourself From the CommunityHillel said: Do not separate yourself from the community. And do not trust in yourself until the day of your death. And do not judge your fellow until you have stood in their place. Do not say something which cannot be heard (on the assumption) that eventually it will be heard. And do not say, 'When I have time I shall study,' perhaps you will never make the time. - Pirke Avot 2:5.<br />
<br />The lead article in the <a href="http://reformjudaismmag.org/summer_2013/issue/" target="_blank">Summer issue of Reform Judaism magazine</a> focuses on navigating the cyberworld of technology and re-inventing the synagogue. The new world of networked computing has led us to this new frontier in synagogue life. The relative ease with which we can connect and the openness of the internet as a conduit for information have radically changed the world we live in. The old models for doing synagogue assume a very different structure than the networked connections and social network conversations that many of us are able to have through email, Facebook, texting, and internet exploration. <br />
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Ron Wolfson, visionary educator and cofounder of <a href="http://www.synagogue3000.org/" target="_blank">Synagogue 3000</a>, is the author of <a href="http://www.jewishlights.com/page/product/978-1-58023-666-9" target="_blank">Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community </a>(Jewish Lights Publishing). In a <a href="http://synagogue3000.org/files/factreport.pdf" target="_blank">Synagogue 3000 report </a>last year, Wolfson gave this advice: “ We have to move from a synagogue of programs targeting different populations to a deepening relationship between the synagogue and their members...The best way to root people in the life of the congregation is through relationships….” <br />
<br />Wolfson’s new book is an exploration of <a href="http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/175702/the-future-of-jewish-institutions/" target="_blank">how relationships transform synagogues</a> from institutions into communities: “For me, the value-added must be a face-to-face community of relationships that gives my life meaning and purpose, belonging and blessing. "Meaning" is an understanding of the significance of life. "Purpose" is an imperative to do what you are put on earth to do during your life. "Belonging" is a community of people who will be there for you and with you. "Blessing" is a feeling of deep satisfaction and gratitude, a calendar and life cycle of opportunities to celebrate the gifts of life.” <br />
<br />
At the heart of it, synagogue life is about what Rabbi Hillel taught
thousands of years ago – synagogue life is about community and about
communal responsibility. While we may be busy lamenting the declining
affiliation rates in churches and synagogues across North America, the
good news is that many Jews are very interested in Judaism. Transforming
the synagogue means thinking differently about how to build community
and connectedness. We have to change our measurement of success from
looking at the attendance at programs and services, to looking at how
many people have deep and lasting relationships within our
congregational communities. People come for programs; they stay members
if they have those relationships. Our congregation's recent Conversation
Café’s have been a wonderful way to think about our relationships
within our own synagogue community and think about we can build on the
strengths that we already have.Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-89218742925504107322013-03-10T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-17T23:04:57.186-04:00Bar Mitzvah on the Brain<header class="entry-header">I have bar mitzvah on the brain. Of course, as a congregational
rabbi, I train bar and bat mitzvah students, teach family classes,
counsel parents, and help guide families through this milestone on their
Jewish journeys. But lately I have bar mitzvah on the brain because I
am planning the upcoming service and celebration for our oldest son.
There seems to be a preponderance of articles and discussions lately
about bar and bat mitzvah. Perhaps this is just something I am noticing
in the way that you notice cars when you are in the market to buy a new
one, or how the whole world seems to be pregnant when you are hoping to
have a baby.
</header>I have found some positive messages, such as the nechemta offered by the author of <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/dancing-my-own-way-the-year-i-went-to-60-bat-mitzvahs/273438/" title="Dancing My Own Way">“Dancing My Own Way”</a>,
published this month in The Atlantic. Her story was one that I growing
up in the same era as the author, could relate to, even though I did not
attend even close to 60 bar and bat mitzvahs in my 13th year. I was
moved by <a href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/bar_and_bat_mitzvahs/article/bnai_mitzvah_its_ok_go_ahead_and_cry_20061117" title="Bnai Mitzvah Its Ok Go Ahead and Cry">Wendy Jaffe’s letter to her daughter</a>,
re-posted by one of my friends on Facebook this week, in which she
lovingly explains all of the reasons that we cry at bar mitzvahs.<br />
<br />
Less positive were some of the more controversial pieces that have appeared within the last few weeks, such as this <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/02/atlanta-kid-raps-in-bar-mitzvah-save-the-date-video/" title="Atlanta kid bar mitzvah save the date video">save-the-date video</a>.
As a rabbi and a mom, I have followed the discussions and news features
on this one with interest, but in the end, I hope that for this young
man, he will be able to remember his bar mitzvah not for all of the
notoriety or controversy that has accompanied his save-the-date video,
but for the meaningful ritual of welcome into adult Jewish life that the
ceremony is meant to be.<br />
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And I found myself resonating with some of the messages that <a href="http://jewishfutures.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/to-watch-your-child-struggle-by-alan-sufrin/" title="To watch your child struggle">Alan Sufrin</a> and <a href="http://www.kveller.com/blog/parenting/ban-the-bar-mitzvah-a-rabbinical-student-rethinks-the-time-honored-ceremony/#more-30869" title="Rethinking Bar Mitzvah">Patrick Aleph</a>
call for in their ideas about rethinking bar and bat mitzvah. Sufrin
talks about teaching our children to struggle with themselves and with
their Judaism, and how not to see bar and bat mitzvah as an endpoint,
but as the new beginning that it is meant to be. Aleph calls for a
radical shift in the way that we educate our bar and bat mitzvah
students and their families and prepare them for Jewish adulthood. He
asks why we hold pre-teens to and educational standard that very few
adults have achieved, and suggests that we need to re-examine b’nei
mitzvah expectations and education.<br />
<br />
I can’t stand the idea that the message for young adults today, and
for their family members and guests is only about the party, such as in
this <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/dannafriedberg/31-reasons-why-bar-bat-mitzvahs-were-the-best-ever" title="Bar Bat Mitzvahs the best ever">montage of photographs</a> from bar and bat mitzvah parties. And I find it scary that there is a market out there for <a href="http://jewishspeechwriter.com/" title="bar and bat mitzvah simcha speeches">bar and bat mitzvah simcha speeches</a>
in which you can hire a rabbi to ghost-write the speech for the parents
or even the bar mitzvah boy or bat mitzvah girl’s d‘var torah.<br />
<br />
I want my son and the bar and bat mitzvah students in our small
congregation to know that bar and bat mitzvah is about preparation for a
lifetime as a Jewish adult, that it’s not just an “event” that is all
over by the next morning. I want my son to be part of building a Jewish
community that is a place where most of these b’nei mitzvah will
regularly lead worship, read Torah, and wear their tallitot after the
big day is over. Not that this is all there is to becoming a Jewish
adult, but these certainly are the responsibilities that a young man or
woman is being prepared for. I hope that I am able to teach them that
becoming a bar or bat mitzvah is about attaining a certain level of
Jewish literacy, and spiritual development, and that this is an ongoing
process of Jewish adulthood. I want them to learn and grow and question
and look at the bigger picture of what they will be able to do within
the context of their Jewish lives and our community. That is what it
means to become a bar and bat mitzvah, and take the next step on your
Jewish journey. And that is why as a rabbi and a mom, I continue to do
the important work of helping young people and their families connect to
bar and bat mitzvah as a time for learning, practice and celebration,
within the context of a meaningful, relevant Jewish life.<br />
<br />
(cross posted at <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/bar-mitzvah-on-the-brain/" target="_blank">Kol Isha</a>, the blog of the <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Women's Rabbinic Network</a>) Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-57462931242025594992013-03-01T08:00:00.000-05:002014-08-17T22:57:43.008-04:00The Pesach Project - Passover in the FSU40 years ago, in 1974, 26 year old Soviet Jewish dissident <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/sharansky.html" target="_blank">Natan Sharansky</a> attended his first seder. For Sharansky, it was not difficult to identify with the Pesach story of freedom told in the Haggadah. As a dissident, his life was made difficult and KGB agents waited around every corner. Some years later Sharansky led his own seder for the first time, but without the benefit of a Haggadah to read, or any of the elements of the seder to enjoy – no karpas, no matzah, no maror. Sharansky was alone in his prison cell but he did recount the story of Pesach to the prisoners next door through the small window of his cell. <br /><br />For the community of dissidents in the Soviet Union of the 1970s no symbols were needed to remind them of the power that freedom has to transform society. The compelling story of the Exodus from Egypt, a nation of slaves rising up to defeat the most powerful Pharoah and his army, and lead the people forward to be a free people in their own nation was not ancient history, it was a symbol of of their cause. They understood the bitter tears of slavery that the Jewish people shed while in Egypt. For Sharansky and his fellow prisoners, their lives were a prayer and hope that the yoke of oppression would soon be broken and they would be able to sit reclining at the seder table and taste the flavor of freedom in years to come. In 1986 Sharansky was finally released from Soviet imprisonment and he made aliyah to Israel. He is now the chairman of the <a href="http://www.jewishagency.org/executive-members/natan-sharansky-0" target="_blank">Jewish Agency for Israel</a>, the organization in charge of immigration and absorption of Jews from the diaspora into Israel.<br /><br />As we sit at our seder tables this year, it may seem that 40 years is a short time, a blip in history. Yet our people wandered forty years in the desert on the way to the Promised Land. And our work is not yet done.<br />
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Today in the former Soviet Union it is now possible to both learn about
and practice Judaism: The Reform movement (known as the <a href="http://wupj.org/congregations/fsu.asp" target="_blank">World Union for Progressive Judaism -WUPJ</a>) in the FSU has an active and vital presence:
“After over 70 years of Communism, religious oppression and
persecution, Jewish communities in the FSU have once again become
vibrant with the World Union's assistance."<br />
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The first congregation to officially join the Reform movement was Hineini in Moscow in 1990. Today, over 60 congregations in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states, spanning 11 time zones from the Polish border to the Pacific Ocean, have officially become part of the World Union family, which now has offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev and Minsk. There are currently six native-born rabbis and a full-time academic program, Machon, (the Institute for Modern Jewish Studies), to locate and train local paraprofessional community workers.<br /><br />
The Progressive movement operates nursery schools and Sunday schools all over the FSU under the leadership of a team of full-time education directors. Netzer Olami, the international Zionist youth movement of the <a href="http://wupj.org/congregations/fsu.asp" target="_blank">World Union for Progressive Judaism</a>, has become the largest Jewish youth movement in the FSU, operating summer and winter camps for some 1,000 participants, as well as youth clubs and counselor training programs. <br /><br />
This Pesach, our former WELFTY advisor, Chase Foster, now a 1st year rabbinic student at <a href="http://huc.edu/" target="_blank">Hebrew Union College (HUC)</a> in Jerusalem will be participating this year in the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_702616269" target="_blank">Pesach Project</a>, an annual program through HUC and the World Union for Progressive Judaism. He will be traveling along with 20 classmates to Berlin and then to various cities in the FSU - Gomel, Minsk and Lida, Belarus to assist small Jewish communities that do not have the resources to provide for Jewish professionals. Last year’s FSU trip allowed approximately 5,500 people to join around the seder table with community for Passover. Chase has committed to <a href="http://fsupesachproject2013.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">fundraising $2500 for the Pesach project</a> to help Jews in the FSU celebrate Pesach. <br />
<br />At this season of freedom, may our love for the Jewish people and our support for outreach and education make this Passover a time of re-commitment to our people and our faith.<br />Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-55319026330487982013-01-18T18:00:00.000-05:002014-08-17T20:15:54.218-04:00Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.This week I had the privilege of participating in the <a href="http://www.womensrabbinicnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Women’s Rabbinic Network</a> convention in Memphis TN. Our bi-annual convention of Reform women rabbis from across North America (and one colleague from the former Soviet Union who now lives in Israel), gathered for 4 days of rich learning, beautiful praying and singing, and sisterhood and support. I was privileged to work on planning and leading the opening and closing ritual moments and part of our tefillot (worship) together.<br />
<br />As part of our gathering in Memphis, we went to the Lorraine Hotel where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the evening of April 4, 1968 and the <a href="http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Civil Rights museum</a>. It was very moving to be in Memphis during the week of Dr. King’s birthday. Had he lived, he would have been 84 years old. As we stood together in Memphis at that place where we all lost so much, we reflected on his life and legacy, on what a rare gift he gave to the world with his courage and his passion. <br /><br />
On Tuesday, Dr. King’s birthday, there was an ice storm in Memphis. Many of the downtown area shops and businesses closed, sending their workers home early. At dinner we rose and gave a standing ovation to the hotel wait staff, who had not gone home early, and were there serving our meal, and tending to the needs of hotel guests. (full disclosure, we do this at every one of our WRN conventions, because just as we thank God for food in the Motzi and Birkat hamazon, we are mindful that it is through many hands that food comes to our table each and every day.) As we stood, I was reminded of why Dr. King had gone to Memphis in April of 1968 - sanitation workers in Memphis had staged a walkout to protest unequal wages and working conditions. Black workers were paid significantly less than whites and received no pay if they stayed home in and weather, while their white counterparts were paid. So many of them were compelled to work in rain and snow storms. King had come to Memphis to prepare for a March the following Monday in support of these striking workers.<br />
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Our parashah this week is parashat Bo – “Bo el Paroah”, begins the text, as God says to Moses, “Go to Pharoah”, for I have hardened his heart. God tells Moses to go to Pharoah, his heart hardened, and ask Pharoah to let God’s people go forth from slavery to freedom. It is the message of God to Moses and the teaching of God in Exodus that led Dr. King to have the faith to dream of the end of racial segregation and racial discrimination and achieve equality through the civil rights movement.<br />
<br />Moses does as God tells him and goes to Pharoah demanding that Phaorah let the Jewish people go. But Pharaoh, his heart hardened, responds to Moses’ requests by rebuking him and increasing their workload, making life harder for the Jewish slaves. When the civil rights movement began to gain support, southern whites responded by making the lives of black Americans more difficult, threatening and assaulting civil rights leaders with violence, ultimately taking Dr. King’s life. <br />
Many Jews felt compelled to respond to the fight against racial segregation and discrimination in America. We remembered the teachings of Torah and the call of the rabbis – “you shall not stand by while your neighbor bleeds”, “remember the poor and the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”. We knew what it was like to experience discrimination and hatred. So many Jews felt called by faith and familiarity to serve in the cause of racial justice and equality.<br />
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On the march from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel walked in the front row with King, a spiritual partner in the struggle against racism. On a conference table in the Union for Reform Judaism’s Religious action Center building, black and Jewish lawyers drafted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The president of the NAACP at the time was Kivie Kaplan, a prominent member of the Reform movement’s social action commission. Today, Rabbi David Saperstein, the head of the URJ’s <a href="http://rac.org/" target="_blank">Religious Action Center</a> in Washington, is the only non-African American on the board of the NAACP.<br />
<br />
This coming August marks 50 years since Rev. King’s galvanizing, inspirational speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC and 150 years since President Lincoln signed into law the Emancipation Proclamation.<br /><br />
50 years after Dr. King spoke of the dream that he had for this great country, civil rights and the fight for equality remain an important issue. Dr. King’s dream has not yet been achieved when we continue to see efforts to disenfranchise voters. Dr. King’s dream has not yet been achieved when there is still discrimination in this country towards people of different colors, religions, or ethnic origins. Dr. King’s dream has not yet been achieved when there is discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation. But he had the courage and the faith and the conviction to go forward, and his legacy still burns clearly today as we celebrate his birthday this weekend. He had the courage and faith that Moses had to “Bo El Paroah”, to go to Phaorah and say “let me people go.” His work in the world is now ours to do. As our rabbis teach in Mishna Pirke Avot 2:20-21 “<i>Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor, vlo atah ben chorin lhibateil mimena</i>. “It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it. As we honor Dr. King this weekend, let us remember that it is our responsibility to carry on his legacy.Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-90614587314415387442013-01-06T08:00:00.000-05:002014-08-17T19:43:54.582-04:00Happy Birthday Women of Reform Judaism2013 marks a significant birthday for Reform Judaism – the <a href="http://www.wrj.org/">Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ)</a>, formerly known as the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (NFTS) celebrates its <a href="http://www.wrj.org/Centennial/Default.aspx" title="WRJ Centennial">centennial</a>.<br />
<br />
The first Jewish Sisterhood of Personal Service was organized in New
York’s Reform Temple Emanu-El by Rabbi Gustav Gottheil in the late
1880s. While women now had a place in the sanctuary thanks to the
innovations of Reform Judaism and the abolishment of the women’s
section, women did not have an active role in the spiritual leadership
and congregational governance. Women’s groups offered leadership in
religious schools, decorating the temple and maintaining the temple
kitchen. For the most part, governance positions and access to
membership were not open to women until 1920 when after the passage of
the 19<sup>th</sup> Amendment, granting women the right to vote, Reform
congregations began to offer formal membership to women who were
unmarried or were not widows and sisterhood presidents were given the
leadership opportunity to serve on congregational governance boards.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/national-federation-of-temple-sisterhoods" title="NFTS">National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (NFTS)</a>
was formally organized as a national movement in 1913 at a special
meeting in Cincinnati. Rabbi George Zepin of the Union for American
Hebrew Congregations and <a href="http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/simon-carrie-obendorfer" title="Carrie Simon">Carrie Simon</a>,
a civic leader and Washington Hebrew Congregation’s rebbetzin,
spearheaded the creation of the NFTS as a national organization,
proclaiming that “that the increased power which has come to the modern
American Jewess ought to be exercised in congregational life.” At the
meeting in Cincinnati, Carrie Simon was elected founding president.
Carrie Simon envisioned NFTS’ mission as carrying the banner of
religious spirit and strengthening the congregation. Conservative and
Orthodox women, originally invited to be a part of NFTS, would found
their own organizations with a decade of NFTS’s beginnings.<br />
<br />
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Sisterhoods actively assumed responsibility for many school, temple,
and communal activities. Its national committee on religious schools
funded textbooks for child and adult education, were founding supporters
of <a href="http://nfty.org/" title="NFTY">NFTY</a>,
our Reform youth movement. NFTS brought rabbinical students fleeing
Germany to the US, raised scholarship funds for rabbinical students, and
solely funded a dormitory at <a href="http://huc.edu/about/welcome.shtml" title="Hebrew Union College">Hebrew Union College</a>.
NFTS was also a founder of the Jewish Braille institute, and many
sisterhood women transcribed articles and books into Braille.<br />
<br />
NFTS leaders called for the experiment of electing women to synagogue
boards; called upon its members to lead summer services in the absence
of vacationing rabbis, and instituted Sisterhood Sabbath, a day when, in
some congregations, women could lead the service and preach to the
entire congregation. Today we take many of these contributions for
granted, even as many orthodox and conservative congregations are still
wrestling with and questioning the place of women in leadership. NFTS
recorded important experiences in women’s participation in the synagogue
—the first time a woman trustee sat on the pulpit during services, the
first time a woman read scripture on Yom Kippur, and would later point
to these examples of successful female religious leadership as “a
revelation of what the women may do if they ever enter the rabbinate.”<br />
<br />
Today, the <a href="http://wrj.org/" title="Women of Reform Judaism">Women of Reform Judaism</a>
has grown from 49 sisterhoods with 9,000 members in 1913 to more than
65,000 members in 500 affiliates in the US, Canada and twelve other
countries. The WRJ continues its work building upon the foundation its
foremothers started 100 years ago.<br />
<br />
Happy Birthday Women of Reform Judaism!<br />
<br />
(cross posted at <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/happy-birthday-women-of-reform-judaism/" target="_blank">Kol Isha</a>, the blog of the <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Women's Rabbinic Network</a>)
Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-43067363658490152122012-11-05T10:00:00.000-05:002014-08-17T18:22:15.134-04:00An Attitude of Gratitude
<div class="entry-content">
When each of my sons were in 3rd grade, their classes participated
in a 3rd grade school musical just before Thanksgiving. Recently, while
attending a workshop with our congregational leaders, I found myself
humming the melody and words to one of the catchy tunes: “<a href="http://www.musick8.com/html/current_tune.php?numbering=55&songorder=4" title="Gratitude Attitude Song">I’ve got a gratitude attitude</a>“, by Teresa Jennings. I was at the <a href="https://www.centerforcongregations.org/workshop/flourishing-congregations-moving-dreams-reality">Flourishing Congregations </a>workshop, sponsored by the <a href="https://www.centerforcongregations.org/" title="Indianapolis Center for Congregations">Indianapolis Center for Congregations</a>.
The premise of Flourishing Congregations is based on the concept of
Appreciative Inquiry, that by asking the right questions and focusing on
possibilities rather than problems, a congregational community will be
able to see the larger picture and create energy, innovative ideas and
solutions.<br />
<br />
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<br />
By asking, “What’s the possibility we see in this situation?” we find that:<br />
what we ask determines what we find;<br />
what we find determines how we talk;<br />
how we talk determines how we imagine together;<br />
how we imagine together determines what we achieve. (Sue Hammond, <a href="http://www.thinbook.com/pages/books/tbai_book.htm">The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry</a> , pages 6-7.)<br />
<br />
By beginning with the question of “What gives life when our
congregation functions at its best?”, we are able to search for the best
in people, our congregation and the community around us. Our day was a
model for what we can do in our congregations by asking the right
questions and using the assets that we already have.<br />
<br />
We began the day with Appreciative Inquiry interviews, personal
conversations with someone we did not know and asked questions like:
Tell me about an experience in your congregation when you felt most
alive, most fulfilled, or most enthusiastic about the congregation” or
“Tell me about a time when you most deeply felt a sense of belonging in
the congregation.” These stories helped us to uncover the positive core
of our congregation’s lives and lifted up the potentials and
possibilities and reminded us that in every congregation something works
very well. Our day continued with “<a href="http://www.theworldcafe.com/method.html" title="World Cafe">World Cafe”,</a>
a large group process where we met in successive rounds of small group
conversations that created a “culture of dialogue” and allowed us to
brainstorm and share ideas about best practices that work in our
congregations and network to find ways we can learn from each other
and/or work together in the community. We also spent time in the
process of “<a href="http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=2958" title="Asset Mapping">Asset Mapping</a>”,
using post-its and big sheets of paper as we considered what our
assets, strengths and resources are and how we can match up unconnected
assets to each other to strengthen our congregation and to create new
ideas and new possibilities.<br />
<br />
Not surprisingly, these resources can work well in congregational
life because they focus on hope rather than dwelling on the negative,
something that is the essence of what it means to be a community of
faith.<br />
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<br />
Not surprisingly, also, is that in Judaism we have a Hebrew term, <strong><em>hakarat hatov</em></strong>, for this idea of appreciative inquiry, or looking for the positive, or being reminded that something works well. <strong><em>Hakarat hatov</em></strong> literally translates as “Recognizing the good”. In other words, <em><strong>Hakarat Hatov</strong></em>
is about Gratitude. Gratitude is about recognizing the good that is
already part of our lives; it requires us to think about all of the
things that we can be grateful for that we already have. No matter how
hard things might seem or what a difficult time we might be going
through, there is always something we can find to be grateful for.
Hakarat hatov asks us to recognize the good that we already have, to
acknowledge that what we have is a gift and to be thankful for it and to
give thanks to the One who gave it to us, whether the source of the
gift is another person, or the Source of All, God. As Jews we start each
day with the <strong><em>Modeh Ani</em></strong> blessing, thanking God for the most important gift of all, the gift of life. The short <a href="http://urj.org/learning/teacheducate/childhood/wakeup/" title="morning blessings">morning blessings</a>
that follow remind us to be grateful for the most basic capacities – to
stand, to get dressed, to use the bathroom; all of which are the most
fundamental parts of our existence and without which we would be unable
to go on and do all of the mitzvot that we have the potential to do in
each day.<br />
<br />
As we approach the holiday of Thanksgiving this year, may we find an attitude of gratitude, and may we awaken each day with the <em>middah</em> of <em><strong>Hakarat Hatov</strong></em>, consciously recognizing the good in our lives.<br />
<br />
(cross posted at <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/an-attitude-of-gratitude/" target="_blank">Kol Isha</a>, the blog of the <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Women's Rabbinic Network</a>)
</div>
Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-41545551751565838862012-10-05T11:00:00.000-04:002014-08-17T18:10:56.401-04:00 ופרש עלינו סכת שלומך Ufros Aleinu Sukkat Shlomecha<div style="text-align: center;">
Ufros Aleinu Sukkat Shlomecha </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Spread over us the shelter of Your peace</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ייְָ, הַטּוֹב שִׁמְךָ וּלְךָ נָאֶה לְהוֹדוֹת</em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>Baruch atah Adonai, ha-tov shimcha ul’cha na-eh l’hodot. </em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Blessed are you Eternal One, Your name is Goodness and You are worthy of thanksgiving.</div>
<br />
These words form the <em>chatimah</em>, or seal, at the end of the <em>Hoda’ah</em> prayer, the second closing benediction of the <em>Amidah</em> (<em>Modim Anachnu Lach</em>).
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 <em>Hoda’ah</em>
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.<br />
<br />
From the sounds of the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we have moved into the shelter of the holiday of Sukkot. The <a href="http://urj.org/holidays/sukkot/">Sukkah</a>
is a simple structure. It provides a shelter from some of the elements,
while letting others, such as wind and rain, come in through the roof.
In the Sukkah we can see the stars. In the Sukkah we can appreciate the
wonders of nature, and the fragility of life.<br />
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<br />
The sixth tractate of the second division of the <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Rabbinics/Talmud/Mishnah.shtml">Mishnah</a>
(rabbinic commentary on the Torah, 200CE) is called Sukkah. The very
first verses give a detailed description of how to build a Sukkah:
<ol start="1">
<li>It must be less than 30 feet high.</li>
<li>The walls must be strong enough to withstand ordinary wind gusts.</li>
<li>The shade offered by the roof of the Sukkah should be able to block
most of the sun’s rays while allowing the stars to be visible at night.</li>
<li>There must be at least three walls, made of any material.</li>
<li>The Sukkah must be a temporary structure.</li>
<li>It is a mitzvah to eat one’s meals in the Sukkah.</li>
<li>While it is a mitzvah to live in the Sukkah as much as possible, you
are not obligated to sleep in eat, especially in colder climates. And
if it is raining hard enough that there is more water than soup in your
bowl, you may finish your meal indoors.</li>
<li>The Sukkah can be decorated with fruits, vegetables, and art projects.</li>
<li>There is no minimum size, but the Sukkah must be large enough for at least one person.</li>
</ol>
It is a mitzvah to build your own Sukkah and live in it during the
week of Sukkot. It’s also a mitzvah to wave the lulav and etrog, and to
invite guests to join you in the Sukkah.<br />
<br />
When we spend time in the Sukkah, we get a unique chance to
experience the natural world. We feel wind and rain, hot and cold. We
see the sun and the moon and stars through the schach, and as we eat our
meals we are joined by bugs and bees, and sometimes birds and
squirrels. We become closer to nature and are reminded of our
interdependence with all that lives and grows.<br />
Living in the Sukkah connects us to our ancestors who left the
protection of secure roofs to journey forward in the time of the Exodus
towards freedom. They placed themselves under God’s protection, the only
true source of protection and security<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
ופרש עלינו סכת שלומך </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>Ufros Aleinu Sukkat Sh’lomecha</em> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(Spread over us the shelter of Your peace).</div>
<br />
When we pray the words of <em>Hoda’ah</em> 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. Our daily
recitation of the words of the <em>Hoda’ah</em> 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Moadim L’simcha!<br />
(cross posted at <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A9-%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%95-%D7%A1%D7%9B%D7%AA-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%9A/" target="_blank">Kol Isha</a>, the blog of the <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Women's Rabbinic Network</a>)
Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-85469623193577619132012-09-02T17:30:00.000-04:002014-08-17T17:59:37.091-04:00Spiritual Reflection During ElulWe are now in the month of Elul, the Hebrew month that leads us into the Yamim Noraim, the High Holy Days. Many Jews use this time period to think back on the year that has passed in anticipation of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. A few years ago my colleague, <a href="http://www.rabbidebra.com/" target="_blank">Rabbi Debra Orenstein</a>, introduced me to a very meaningful spiritual tool to prepare for the Days of Awe. The custom is to use the last 12 days of the month of Elul (this year from Sept. 5, 2012 onward) until Rosh Hashanah to review and meditate each day on one month from the last year. On the day of Erev Rosh Hashanah, you review Elul, the month just gone by.<br /><br />Some people will begin each day in meditation or make a quiet space to reflect on the month they are focusing on each day. If you are in the habit of praying the morning prayers, Rabbi Orenstein suggests that you might find this to be a particularly good time to reflect. “The daily prayers in the Amidah, asking for wisdom, forgiveness, healing, justice, a good year, and peace, among other aspirations – create a beautiful vision against which to measure the past year.” <br /><br />This reflection can be done with a study partner, a friend or spouse, or written in a journal. You might look in your calendar – paper or electronic, from the past year to remind yourself of where you were during each of the months of last year. <br />Spiritual reflection can lead to a deeper self-awareness of self, of community, of the world, because it helps us to do teshuvah – literally to return to who we really are. <br /><br />We also do this kind of reflection together as a community during these Days of Awe. And when you are in synagogue for all of the services of Selichot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, if you pay close attention to the themes that run throughout the liturgy of these days, you can see the threads of self-reflection, communal confession and prayers of selichot, asking for forgiveness. But it is really to our benefit to prepare for these 10 days before they begin and then by continuing to let the questions go through you as you go through the ten days of teshuvah – return. <br /><br />My family and I wish each of you a Shanah Tova U’Metukah, a year filled with health, joy and the sweetness of life. May this new year of 5773 be a year of health, happiness, and growth for you and your family.Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-43770520447258318102012-08-08T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-17T17:38:58.975-04:00Everyday Blessings<em>Barukh Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha-olam, Shekachah Lo B’olamo</em><br />
Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who has
such beauty in the world. As summer has passed by all too quickly, I
have delighted in watching my three children enjoying the outdoors and
the world around them.<br />
All too often I find myself caught up in the busyness of life and
forget to notice and be thankful for the many blessings that surround
me. One of the reasons I am grateful for my family is that they remind
me to appreciate the many small gifts that are a part of every day.<br />
<br />
Jewish tradition teaches us to utter brachot <a href="http://http//urj.org/life/observance/?syspage=document&item_id=90500">(blessings) throughout the day</a>,
and in so doing to live at a deeper level of awareness of experiences
that we might otherwise miss. In reciting a bracha (blessing), we
invite in or recognize God’s presence in our midst. Blessings can be
said in any language, and express a kavannah, an intention from one’s
heart.<br />
<br />
According to the great medieval Jewish philosopher, the RaMBaM – Moses Maimonides, there are three types of blessings:<br />
<br />
<em>Birchot HaNehenin</em> – Blessings that we recite before eating, drinking, or smelling nice things.<br />
<em>Birchot HaMitzvot</em> – Blessing that we recite prior to performing a commandment.<br />
<em>Birchot Hodaah</em> – Blessings that express praise of God and give our thanks to God, or ask God for things.<br />
<br />
There are traditional blessings for many of these experiences of
life; you can find these in the siddur. It is also appropriate to
create your own blessing. Begin with the traditional formula: “<em>Barukh Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha-olam</em>
Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe” and then
continue with whatever you want to say – about your life, your health,
how you are feeling, something good or bad that has happened, the world,
your spouse, your children….<br />
<br />
Reciting blessings open us to the potential for holiness in the
world, and remind us that everything is interconnected, linking us to
the oneness of God.<br />
<br />
(cross posted at <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/everyday-blessings/" target="_blank">Kol Isha</a>, the blog of the <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Women's Rabbinic Network</a>)
Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-53866484474559968412012-08-01T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-17T16:57:55.338-04:00Learn Talmud - The 13th Daf Yomi cycle Begins on August 3rdOn August 1st, Jewish men and women across the globe will be joining in celebration of Siyum HaShas, the completion of the seven year cycle of Talmud reading. Daf yomi, as it is known, is the practice of learning a daf, or page, of Talmud each day. Studied in this way, the 2,711 pages of Talmud can be completed in seven and a half years. Two days later, on August 3, 2012, Jews the world over will begin the new Daf Yomi cycle, and begin learning Talmud from the beginning, from Seder Zeraim (Seeds): Tractate Berakhot (Blessings).<br />
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This system of learning Talmud, meant to encourage everyone, not just scholars, to learn Talmudic law and teaching, was developed by Rabbi Meir Shapiro in 1923 in Poland. Talmud is made up of two main parts, the Mishnah, or first written compendium of the Oral Law, codified around the year 200 CE, and the Gemara, which is commentary on the Mishnah, codified by 600 CE. The Mishnah is a commentary on the Torah and the Gemara is a commentary on the Mishnah. The Talmud is the basis for all of the codes and commentaries of rabbinic law, and is also know as Shas, an abbreviation of Shisha Sedarim, or six orders of the Mishnah. Originally these laws and teachings were handed down by word of mouth, hence called the Oral Law, but it gradually came to be codified in the six orders of the Talmud.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first page of Tractate Berakhot</td></tr>
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These six orders, or general subjects are subdivided into 60 masekhtot, or tractates, which is further subdivided into perakim (chapters), and this comprises the 2,711 pages of text. Surrounding the Mishnah and Gemara are later commentaries and codes, marginal texts. Just as we often make notes in the margins of a book, later scholars and teachers did the same with the Talmud text and their commentaries and conversations are recorded on the same page. When you sit down with a daf,or page, of Talmud, you are entering a conversation that has taken place over thousands of years with great rabbis and teachers, and you are sitting at the table entering into conversation with them. You can learn more about the Talmud from this <a href="http://people.ucalgary.ca/%7Eelsegal/TalmudPage.html" target="_blank">interactive Talmud page</a>.<br />
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Until recently, the world of the Talmud has been a challenging and somewhat difficult world for most modern liberal Jews to enter. There is of course a language barrier, since the Talmud was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. There is also the fact that much of the passages assume a certain level of textual knowledge on the part of the reader. Much of the commentators in the margins serve to assist the reader by providing explanations of words, interpreting seeming contradictions, and providing references to Biblical passages and related passages from elsewhere in the Talmud.<br />
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This Daf Yomi cycle will be different than those that have preceded it because of the level of unprecedented access that modern liberal Jews, both men and women, now have to access the text. Although the first English translation of the Talmud was published over 100 years ago, the text has remained relatively cryptic and difficult for non-Hebrew readers. The latest English translations of the Talmud have attempted to render the text in such a way as to make it much more understandable for the lay reader, including not only an English translation, but also guides to the text, biblical references, and unpacking of the more obscure and difficult material. The newest English editions of the Talmud are available in both traditional book volumes and iPad editions.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://artscroll.com/Categories/TAL.html" target="_blank">Artscroll Schottenstein Talmud</a> </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/B0PElQrCt2I?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<a href="http://www.korenpub.com/EN/categories/talmud/new_talmud" target="_blank">Koren Steinsaltz Talmud</a><br />
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The most traditional way to study Talmud is with a partner, in chevruta, or partnered study. The text is read aloud and debated and discussed. In that way it comes alive and it is not just you or your chevruta that is part of the discussion, but all those whose words you are reading, and all those who throughout the centuries have debated and discussed and whose lives have been affected by the rulings on the pages. Many of you may know that I have a chevruta with whom I learn Talmud weekly. Our study is a much more in depth learning than daf yomi ( a page a day) will allow, we don’t have a goal to get through a page or more each time we learn, but to get through as much text as we can understand and discuss, whether that is a few lines, or a few paragraphs. Even so, we are both excited about the new daf yomi cycle, and even more so about the newest editions of Talmud that invite access for more Jews to learn the foundations of Jewish law and life.<br />
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Will you join the 13th Daf Yomi cycle on August 3rd this year?Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6233971576889667725.post-35083498509536432312012-07-08T08:00:00.000-04:002014-08-17T17:32:18.693-04:00An Inspiring Quest<div style="text-align: left;">
A little more than a month ago I received an
email that read: “Hello Rabbi Pollack, Once again I am writing you
about my quest of meeting all the female Rabbis that contributed to the <a href="http://www.jewishlights.com/page/product/978-1-58023-370-5" title="The Women's Torah Commentary New Insights from Women Rabbis on the 54 Weekly Torah Portions">Women’s Torah Commentary</a>
. So far I have met 36 Rabbis and look forward to meeting you. I am
going to be in your area the first week of July 2012 and was hoping that
you would be available to meet with me and sign my book…. Bonny Katz.”</div>
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<a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/3705.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-343" src="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/3705.jpg?w=584" title="WomensTorahPB*" /></a></div>
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As it happened this week I am serving on faculty at our regional <a href="http://urj.org/">URJ</a> camp, <a href="http://guci.urjcamps.org/index.cfm?" title="GUCI">GUCI</a>,
so when Bonny and her husband Ian drove through, they honored me my
stopping here to meet and I signed her book. This is a quest she has
been on for quite some time. It’s not easy to meet up with 54 female
rabbis who live all across North America. I was really thrilled and
honored to be a part of Bonny’s quest. It has been very exciting to be a
part of a Torah commentary that has all female rabbinic contributors.
And as one of the writers, I hope to be able to inspire women and men,
with our teachings on the parashiot.</div>
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<a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/img_9889.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-342 aligncenter" height="225" src="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/img_9889.jpg?w=300&h=225" title="Bonny Katz and Rabbi Audrey Pollack" width="300" /></a></div>
At
camp this session our theme is “Partners with God”. We’ve been looking
at this from many aspects, and one of the shiurim (lessons) this week
that particularly resonated with our campers is the concept of what it
means to be a leader and a role model. We examined the idea of being a
great leader, but not a great role model, and what it takes to be a role
model, from a Jewish perspective, not just in the Torah, but how we can
strive to live our own lives as role models.<br />
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As rabbis, naturally, we are expected to be role models, in all
aspects, not just in Jewish practice, but in everything that we do. One
of the great things about being at camp is that I sit with campers in
programs, at meals, in shiur, and get out there and do activities with
them in the camp setting, not in an office, or behind a desk. We’re all
sweating together this week in shorts and t-shirts in the 100 degree
heat, we’re dancing at song session, and cheering, praying together,
eating together, and having conversations that are meaningful and
important – about God and Judaism, and what it means to be a Jew today,
especially in places where there aren’t many other Jewish kids in their
schools. The other night I led a lights out program for cabin 3. I
brought my guitar and sang some of my favorite songs, and the girls
asked me questions – how long have you been a rabbi, what is the
scariest thing that ever happened to you, what is your favorite camp
song, who are your role models. The kinds of questions that maybe they
don’t ask their own rabbi at home, but here at camp, these are the
important questions.<br />
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The girls of cabin 3 didn’t seem at all surprised to have a female
rabbi doing their lights out program, probably because they see both
female and male rabbis at camp every year. It’s something that I still
find amazing, because when I was their age, there weren’t many female
rabbis at all. In Tefillah (worship services) this week, I’ve also been
reflecting on how much stayed the same and how much has changed. We
are singing many of the same melodies for prayers that we sang at camp,
even as newer beautiful melodies have been added. Back when I was a
camper, there was a vigorous debate over whether or not to include the
Imahot (matriarchs) in the Avot prayer. Today, the Avot v’Imahot is a
given. The debate today is over whether Leah comes before Rachel in the
liturgy. All of this made Bonny’s quest even more amazing and inspiring
for me.<br />
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When I was a camper Bonny’s quest wouldn’t even have been possible.
There were not enough female rabbis back then to have had 54 writers on
the parashiot. The questions we are asking and the discussions we are
having today may be some of the same questions and discussions, but
they are different because women’s voices are added to the mix. As I
hugged her before she left, I told Bonny that I want to hear more about
her journey as it continues – I know she will have some wonderful
stories to tell.<br />
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(cross posted at <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/an-inspiring-quest/" target="_blank">Kol Isha</a>, the blog of the <a href="http://womensrabbinicnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Women's Rabbinic Network</a>)Rabbi Audrey Pollackhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09079327863710503329noreply@blogger.com0