Category: blog archive

Yachatz: The Middle Matzah of Brokenness (a New Ritual)

Haggadah Insert for Use during this Financial Depression
By Rabbi Paul Kipnes,
Congregation Or Ami, Calabasas, CA
With help from Rabbinic Student Ilana Mills
Formatted copy here.

Pass out copies and read before other Yachatz readings. The leader takes out the middle Matzah, breaks it in two and holds up both pieces.

Reader 1: At every Passover seder, we break the middle matzah. In a few moments, we will put the larger piece aside for the Afikoman or dessert. Usually, we place the smaller piece back between the two whole Matzot, as we prepare to remember our ancestors’ lives as slaves in Egypt. Tonight, however, we delay the second part of the ritual so we can consider the brokenness in our world.

Everyone: Tonight, throughout our country and our world, and even perhaps around our Seder table, people are experiencing more brokenness than in recent memory. Younger and older; working, unemployed and retired; singles and couples, and families of all configurations – so many lives have been damaged by the economic depression and uncertainty about the future. Unlike the middle matzah broken on purpose, they find that a series of financial decisions – some made by them, some out of their control – have shattered their economic security.

Reader 2: Tonight, different than in previous years, we take this second piece of matzah and crumble it here (on a plate or on the tablecloth) to remind us of how amidst the current financial crisis, the world seems to be crumbling around so many people. Like the glass broken at a wedding which reminds us of the tireless work the couple must do to escape shattering their marriage, this crumbled matzah reminds us of all the work we must do to help others whose lives are shattering.

Everyone: As we stare at this crumbled middle matzah, let us pause to consider the pain of lives crumbling around us. So many feel so alone. So many experience despair. Like our Israelite ancestors felt before Moses and Miriam came to set them free, our people today despair over the difficulties in repairing the brokenness of their lives.

Reader 3: Our ancestors, slaves of Pharaoh, survived the oppression in Egypt. Helping each other, holding each other up, they walked through the Yam Suf (the Red Sea). With persistence and determination, they passed through those difficult times. And we all can too. If we help each other. If we remember to open our hearts, open our wallets, open our community. If we welcome in and support those in need, those who are no longer strangers to financial struggle. And so we say together:

Everyone:

Ha lach-ma an-ya di a-cha-lu a-va-ha-ta-na b’ar’a d’mitz-ra-yim. This is the bread of affliction our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat; Let all who are in need come share our Passover. This year here, next year in Israel. Today bound; tomorrow free.

Liven Up Your Seder 2009

Each year, I try to provide a series of new ideas to enhance the Seder experience. Here are some engaging options for 2009, with some old favorites at the end of the post.

The Middle Matzah of Brokenness: Haggadah Insert for During Economic Recession: Add this ritual before or in place of the Yachatz reading.

Jewish World Watch’s Matzah Set: My favorite! The 5-card set explores the symbolism of Matzah as it relates to issues of affliction, redemption and action. It serves as a resource for discussion at your Seder table and as an advocacy kit with current action items!

The Fifth Question: What Would You Ask? My Rabbinical friends offer one more question to ask at the seder, along with a short elaboration on why their question is timely and meaningful. Pick one or two to read at the seder and then invite participants to answer.

Top Ten 10 popular Passover Videos of years past: many animated, many musical, not all kid-appropriate. Plus two more, from Birthright and United Jewish Communities. Consider playing one or more during your seder to engage the YouTube generation. Since seder is supposed to be a multimedia experience (playing with food, telling stories, teaching each of the four types of children in ways he/she can hear), playing YouTube video is just the next appropriate addition!

Why is There a Football and a Corkscrew on our Seder Table? Add this new ritual to your seder, encouraging new ways to tell the story of the Exodus.

In Search of Freedom: A Passover Seder for Darfur: From American Jewish World Service. Integrate elements of this or make it your seder this year.

AIPAC’s Haggadah Supplement is designed to invite discussion around your seder table about the necessity for each of us to participate in the political process in order to make a difference for America and for Israel.

Contemplating Elijah: Read and consider at the appropriate Seder moment: Harvey Cox comments: “I have come to look forward to the opening of the door for an Elijah who is always a no-show, and I have come to believe that precisely by not appearing, that great prophet is showing us something we need to know. What does it mean that there is never anyone at the door? What if, for all practical purposes, no messiah can be counted on? Would that make any significant difference in the way we engage in the present human enterprise?” Through the poem Elijah’s Violin, poet David Lehman responds.

Contemplating Elijah 2: Poet Phil Schultz responds to: “The question is by not appearing at the door does Elijah deliver a greater gift of wisdom, or is the disappointment of his dependable absence a secret message only prophets can understand?” How do your seder participants respond?

Now, Some Old Favorites:

Can We Eat Beans, Rice, Corn and Peas on Passover?

Answers to the age-old question about eating kitniyot on Passover.

Passover: Ancient Rituals, New Perspectives
Spice up your Seder: Dressing in Drag, Getting Stoned, Pillow Talk, Feeling the Beat
Reflections from Sedona as We Prepare for Pesach OR Oy, Why Did We Have to Wander for Forty Years?
Make it a Multi-Media, Multi-Sensory, Musical Seder Experience
Rabbi Kipnes’ 8 Ways to Make Your Family Seder Engaging
Passover Songsheet
Sing along with Cantor Doug Cotler’s Favorites
Or Ami Passover Booklet 2007
Almost everything you wanted to know about Passover: Preparing for Passover, Hunting for Hametz, How to make your Seder meaningful, How to capture the attention of the kids,The Story of Passover in 6 (short) Scenes, For the Adult Seder: Four Ideas from the Rabbi’s Tisch (table)
For the Adult Seder: 4 Ideas from the Rabbi’s Tisch (Table)

Preparing for Passover

Creative Ideas for Your Passover Seder Table, 2004
Make your seder engaging and meaningful this year!

Haggadah

When World Politics Became Personal

My 20 year old niece Yonina is an officer in the Israeli Defense Forces. Since she made aliyah, returning to the country of her youth, and especially upon entering the IDF (soon after Lebanon 2), I have begun to view Israeli and Mideastern politics through a different lense. No longer was it theoretical. No longer were hawkish or liberal positions interesting polemics. Everything affected or could affect the life of my beloved niece Yonina. I have never quite been able to clearly articulate these concerns.

Gershom Gorenberg, whose writing I came to appreciate when he wrote for The Jerusalem Report, has written a poignant piece about the intersection between his son’s service in the Israeli Defense Forces and his own responsibility for political activism.

Cross posted on The American Prospect and Gorenberg’s own blog South Jerusalem, he writes:

A friend has volunteered to drive. He’ll drop us off in a suburb outside Tel Aviv, near the entrance of the Israel Defense Forces induction center. My son and I will talk, with our eyes on our watches, and I’ll hug him, and he will swing his duffel bag over his shoulder and walk in. I’m writing beforehand. You are reading this after the event. For my son, as he has described his feelings, that gate marks the precise physical location of the end of childhood. For me, it marks the end of the countdown that began with his birth. It is the line between one type of anxiety and another, shaded in a deeper gray.

But the kicker is found in the final paragraphs where Gorenberg illuminates why politics is so personal in Israel:

So I will take my son to the induction center. I have to hope that his task will be made up of what is essential, not what is objectionable. I also know that the relative balance will be determined not by him, or even his commander, but by those who sit around the Cabinet table. This will not allow me to relax. The outgoing government, under the supposedly centrist Ehud Olmert, set loose the furies in Gaza. The new government will be led by Benjamin Netanyahu, whose rhetoric is built from fear and the fantasy that the military can solve all problems — and in relative terms, Netanyahu will be the moderate in the coalition of aggressive rightists he is putting together. In the interregnum between the two governments, my son is getting his uniform — receiving his chance to serve and his burning sliver of responsibility. The burden of political activism he leaves to me, to his mother, to our friends, to the failed parties of the Israeli left. Never has the need for political change seemed to me so personal, so demanding, so out of reach, and so immediately necessary.

How to Guide Your Teen (or pre-teen) Toward Good Decision Making

Somehow our three children have become three teenagers. They are amazing, loveable but totally exhausting. Having successfully navigated our children’s early years, we – like most parents of teenagers – find ourselves facing new challenges: their intense emotions, hormonal changes, extreme academic demands, and opposing instincts to separate from and connect with parents. To whom do we turn for advice and inspiration, to nurture these precious children toward living lives with good values?

Dr. Bruce Powell with teensAllow me to introduce national award-winning educator Dr. Bruce Powell, founder of New Community Jewish High School and two other Jewish High Schools. As a parent, a rabbi and a community leader, I have witnessed up close how this educators’ educator guides parents (and grandparents) through the stressful, yet immensely rewarding process of guiding our teens (and pre-teens) toward making good decisions.

While preparing to attend, read the article below, Parenting Jewish Teens, for Jewish values which inform the process of parenting teens.

Parenting Jewish Teens

By Joanne Doades

Author of Parenting Jewish Teens: A Guide for the Perplexed (Jewish Lights Publishing) and the Director of Curriculum Development for the Union for Reform Judaism Department of Lifelong Jewish Learning.

In the Book of Genesis, we encounter many stories of individuals who leave their parents’ homes under difficult circumstances. For today’s Jewish teens, the struggle for leave-taking begins long before the actual physical event. This is an emotional and often conflict-filled process of separation generally beginning around the time of bar/bat mitzvah, peaking between the ages of 15 to 19, and usually subsiding by the early to mid-twenties.

Peace in the Home
How well Jewish parents handle this natural but challenging process can have a significant impact on shalom bayit (peace in the home), and set the stage for relationships with the soon-to-be-adult children for many years to come. Since the teenage years are such a time of change, experimentation, and identity redefinition, it can be hard for parents to sort out which issues require their attention and which can be ignored. And given the fact that many teens enact the separation process around matters of Jewish observance, it is not surprising that parents of Jewish teens may find themselves asking the question: “What happened to the child I thought I had raised?!”

Fortunately, Jewish tradition offers parents helpful guidance during this important and challenging family transition:

Model Desired Behavior
Though it may not be apparent, teens are keen observers of their parents’ behavior, and are quick to notice contradictions and inconsistencies, so sending clear messages–in words and in deeds–is essential. A tale is told about the Zhitomer rabbi who was once walking with his son when they noticed a drunken father and his drunken son stumbling along. The rabbi said to his son, “I envy that father. He has accomplished his goal of having a son like himself…I can only hope that the drunkard is not more successful in training his son than I am with you.” (Voices of Wisdom: Jewish Ideals and Ethics for Everyday Living, Jonathan David Publishers)

Continue to Build Mutual Trust
The importance of parental honesty with children is clearly delineated in the Talmud (Sukkah 46b). Parents are instructed to refrain from promising their child something they might not be able to deliver, lest they cause feelings of disappointment in the child and teach dishonesty, however inadvertently. In relationships with teens, parents may feel the teen cannot be trusted because the teen secretly behaved in a way that violated family rules and norms. However, it can sometimes be the case that the parents have created a situation in which the teen might be strongly tempted to violate rules that are no longer realistic or appropriate. While a parent is responsible for preventing a (post bar/bat mitvah) teen from committing a wrong if it is within the parent’s ability to do so (Babylonia Talmud, Shabbat 54b, Sukkah 56b), unrealistic restrictions could sometimes cause a teen to commit a wrong. In this case, the parents are unwittingly putting a stumbling block before their child (Leviticus 19:14). Mutually respectful dialogue is essential to producing guidelines with which both parent and teen can live.

Chastise When Necessary, But Do So Carefully
The Torah clearly states the obligation to let another person know when he or she is doing something wrong (Leviticus 19:17). It is equally important, though, that this be done with great sensitivity. Notes commentator Avnei Azel: ” ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke your neighbor’…What is the link between these two parts of the verse? The explanation is that one can only truly rebuke a person that one loves and whom one wishes to see mend his ways, such as the way a father rebukes his son. The closer a person is to another person, the greater the love and the more earnest the rebuke. A rebuke which is the product of love is more effective.” (Torah Gems Volume 2, Yavneh Publishing House)

Manage Your Anger
Teenager behavior can be quite vexing and even downright infuriating. An enraged response on the part of the parent, however, should be avoided. According to Maimonides: “Anger is…an exceptionally bad quality. It is fitting and proper that one move away from it and adopt the opposite extreme. [A parent] should school himself not to become angry even when it is fitting to be angry. If he [or she] should wish to arouse fear in his children and household…to motivate them to return to the proper path, he should present an angry front to them to punish them, but he should be inwardly calm. He should be like one who acts out the part of an angry man in his wrath, but is not himself angry.” (Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Deot 2:3) Parents can apply this advice by taking a few minutes, if need be, to collect their thoughts, put the situation in perspective, and respond appropriately to the problem at hand. This approach stands a far better chance of getting the desired results.

Positive Interactions Should Outweigh Negative Ones
If parents are always chastising their teens about the more annoying aspects of teen behavior (messy room, inattention to schoolwork, issues about money, laziness, loud music, to name a few), there will be little opportunity to normalize the relationship. The Torah warns against being vengeful or bearing a grudge (Leviticus 19:18), because such behavior can cause us to continuously view another through an overly negative lens. The advice of the Talmud (Sanhedrin 107b) is to discipline with the left (weaker) hand and to reach out with the right (stronger), so that reconciliation is possible. Relationships between today’s parents and teens can deteriorate quite quickly unless parents deal with difficult issues and move forward in a constructive way.

Respect Differences in the Area of Jewish Observance
It is often quite difficult to accept the fact that a teenager may not want to participate in the family’s Jewish observances in the way he or she did when younger, and this can feel like a rejection of a parent’s core values. However, the Talmud teaches us not to impose restrictions that cannot be adhered to (Bava Batra 60b), so it is wise to make accommodations during this time, where possible, in order to facilitate an eventual return to parental teachings. A wonderful model for this can be found in a tale that is told about the Baal Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name), the founder of Hasidism. When a distraught Hasid came to see him, the rebbe gently asked: “What is the problem?” “It is my son,” the Hasid bemoaned. “He no longer follows our religion,” “Do you love your son?” the Baal Shem Tov inquired. “Of course I do!” the man cried. “Then love him even more,” was the rebbe’s response.

Move from Control to Consultation
Our forefather Abraham is instructed by God to leave his native land and his father’s house and to go to a land that God will show him (Genesis 12:1). Why the redundancy [saying leave your “land”, your “father’s house”]? If you are leaving your native land, are you not by definition leaving your father’s house as well? Perhaps the message is that in order to grow to become the person you are meant to be, you must step out into the world in a decisive way, leaving behind the rules, regulations, and practices of the home in which you were raised.

At some point children need to separate from their parents, both emotionally as well as physically. Despite the legitimate and real feelings of loss that Jewish parents may experience during this transitional period, it is important to facilitate this process in a constructive way so that teens can grow into emotionally healthy adulthood. Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson of the University of Judaism puts it this way: “While casting a giant shadow over our children’s perceptions and actions, their maturation entails a retreat of the parents’ ability to impose their own preferences. Ultimately, children learn to become responsible for themselves and their own behavior. Can we, as parents, learn to let our children take charge?” Knowing when to hold them close and when to nudge them toward independence is one of the most difficult–and important–trials of parenting Jewish teens.

Encourage Teens to Stay Involved in the Jewish Community
Pirkei Avot (2:4) urges us to not separate from the community, and this is great advice for Jewish teens and their parents. Recent studies indicate the strong influence of parents in teen decision-making about continued involvement in Jewish activities such as Hebrew high school, youth groups, summer camps, and Israel trips. These are positive experiences in which teens continue to learn, grow, and socialize in settings defined by Jewish values, a wonderful antidote to many of the objectionable images and messages so antithetical to Jewish beliefs and practices that can be found in the popular media. Jewish parents, too, can benefit from remaining affiliated with Jewish institutions such as the synagogue and community center during their children’s teenage years, and parents can help create Parenting Jewish Teens groups when pre-bar and bat mitzvah family education programs are no longer available.

In the Torah, when God calls out to individuals for whom God has a special job, the response that indicates commitment in every sense of the word is, “Hineini–here I am!” Perhaps the job of parenting Jewish teens today is to say to our teens, “Hineini,” and to live its message in our parenting each day.

Talkback:

Since it takes a village to raise a child, we at Or Ami your insights about how to raise good, valued Jewish teenagers. Please take a moment to share your nuggets of wisdom on Parenting Jewish Teens. Author of the best piece of advice will receive a Tefillat HaDerech (Traveler’s Prayer) keychain from Israel.

Diary of a Rabbi Blogger

Blogging has become somewhat of a lifestyle for me. Part hobby, part holiness, part habit. Readership is going up, as is the level of recognition from the blogging community.

The Union for Reform Judaism’s Reform Judaism magazine recently included Or Am I?, this blog, in its “Best of the Blogs“, listing 3 top Jewish blogs. And Google’s A Jewish Blog Sampler included Or Am I? in its sampling of blogs.

This month, The Jewish Family Magazine printed my Diary of a Rabbi Blogger (since its not online, I reprint it below):

Diary of a Rabbi Blogger
by Rabbi Paul Kipnes

November 2006: The Birth of Rabbi Blogging
Rabbi blogging began as we prepared to leave on Or Ami’s first Family Trip to Israel. Struggling to bridge the divide between California Jews and our Jewish state, I decided to try out a new technology, the “blog” (a contraction of the term “Web log”). I figured it would allow stateside friends and congregants to track our Israel experiences. Little did I realize just how small this vast world would become. Armed only with the knowledge my 20-something intern passed on in an hour, I played with the medium, reflecting upon current events and the weekly parasha. The experiment soon morphed into Or Am I?, a blog exploring the intersection of the soul, Jewish spirituality and daily living.

December 2006: Holy Blogging!
Blogging our Israel trip provided daily opportunities to find universal meaning in being a Jew in the Holy Land. I spent downtime on the bus reflecting upon each day. Sometimes I would pass the computer to invite participants to jot down their impressions. I would post these impressions and pictures each evening, and each morning I was astounded by how many friends and congregants virtually traveled alongside us. The power of blogs to connect people to experiences and ideas a world away was energizing.

January-June 2007: Sharing Simchas Electronically
I began posting stories and Torah teaching on the blog. I had a modest readership. Then when Brandon Kaplan, a young man who could not read, write or speak became a bar mitzvah, the celebration had to be shared. His masterful signing of Torah, his machine’s vocalization of his d’var Torah speech, and his joyous hugging of Torah bespoke his deep love of Judaism. Guest bloggers gave voice to the nachas (joy) we all schepped (shared). Blogging provided an outlet to publicize our communal simcha and its meta-message: this special-needs child was just like every other kid. People who could not attend the service shared in the celebration. I learned that cross-posting articles in both our eNewsletter and the blog could further expand the circle of celebration.

January 2007: Blogs as eSermons
Although I spent the early part of the year kicking my BlackBerry addiction, I soon found blogging to be addictively spiritual. Whether teaching Torah, kvelling about community news or connecting Jewish values and current events, blogging provided an electronic bimah (stage) for reflection and inspiration. I realized that blogs were sermons for Internet surfers, offering a wider congregation for Torah teaching. When our Reform movement started its own blog (RJ.org) I linked up to a whole community of rabbi bloggers.

July 2007: The Original GodBlog
While I was blogging our experience on faculty at the Reform Movement’s Jewish Summer Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, someone joked that although The Ten Commandments arrived on two tablets of stone, previously our sacred teachings were transmitted wirelessly. They said that originally God spoke, and anyone with rudimentary Wi-Fi adapters (called “ears”) could hear God’s message. If Torah encompassed our mytho-history, stories, values, laws and teachings, perhaps Torah then was God’s original blog, the Holy One’s reflections on birthing and raising the children of Israel.

Chanukah 2008: 8 Blogs for 8 Nights
I got this silly idea to blog each night of the Festival of Lights. We explored Chanukah’s historical basis, social justice imperative, spirituality through mystical contemplation, its lessons about religious freedom, and its modern engaging music. A “you comment and I’ll give tzedakah” contest raised $152 for tzedakah and engaged many people in rudimentary blog conversation. A blog tracking program showed that more than 50 percent of my congregation read the blog and eNewsletter posts. But the pressure of finding something significant to share each night took its toll as blogging took over my vacation. On New Years I resolved to pre-blog next Chanukah, writing some posts ahead of time to relieve the pressure.

January 2009: A Community of Bloggers
As Israel and Hamas moved closer to direction confrontation, I discovered a whole community of bloggers dedicated to exploring Israel, Torah and Judaism online. CNN’s 24/7 news failed to rise to the plethora of perspectives from all across the political and religious spectrum. Whereas Israeli newspapers offered a certain amount of news, the blogsphere exploded with perspectives from soldier’s mothers, on the ground reports every five minutes, Twitter press conferences and perspectives from all across the political spectrum. I soon found myself reading the blogs before the papers, and then creating links on my blogs to informative posts from my new blogfriends.

February 2009: Blog On!
Although we laugh at Al Gore’s “invention of the Internet,” we Jews joke that we were responsible.

One apocryphal story suggests that after digging down 1,000 meters, French scientists found traces of copper and concluded that centuries ago their ancestors had developed a telephone network. Not to be outdone, English scientists dug 2,000 meters down, found thin shards of glass and proclaimed, “The English had advanced high-tech fiber optic digital communications a thousand years earlier than the French.” One week later, Israeli newspapers reported: “After digging as deep as 4,000 meters in a Jerusalem marketplace, archeologists found absolutely nothing. They conclude therefore that 4,000 years ago Jews were already using wireless technology.”

More seriously, Jews have been using the latest technology for generations to transmit our sacred Torah teachings from one generation to another. Some created Jewish newspapers and eZines. Others, like Debbie Friedman and Doug Cotler, used modern music — tapes, CDs and iTunes downloads — to rejuvenate our prayers. Now we have electronic synagogue bulletins, DVDs, Web sites, podcasts, synagogue Facebook pages and rabbi blogs.

What does it all mean? Old wine in new bottles. Community brought closer. Blogging is just Moses on a virtual mountaintop, offering a newer version of Torah’s storytelling and value teaching.

I Friended God on Facebook!

I spent much time during my time in Israel, playing on and updating my Facebook page. I reconnected with some old friends and developed connections with some newer ones. There’s nothing like discovering an old friend and catching up again.

That’s why this is so fascinating. While in Israel, with the help of creative people from Hebrew Union College‘s library, I was able to “Friend” God.

Yup, the Holy One has a Facebook page. Like most busy beings – corporeal or otherwise – God hasn’t updated the page since, oh, just after Creation. Still, its quite a ego boost to be able to “friend” Yedid Ha-lam, the Eternal Friend of the Universe.

Check out God’s Facebook page.

Lessons From Jet Lag, Part 1

Jet lag (according to the Centers for Disease Control): symptoms that result from temporary desynchronization of circadian rhythm between a traveler’s internal clock and the external environmen.

Jet lag (according to me): It is 1:36 am and I am AWAKE. Arrrggghhh!

Ten reasons Jet lag is worth it?

  1. You don’t get to visit exotic countries on the other side of the world without changing time zones and paying the price in jet lag. And the exotic countries, even the ones I have visited nine or ten times, are still enchanting.
  2. Pictures and memories: while being up late at night, memories of the trip come flooding back, and with it, the impulse to review “just a few” of the pictures that captured those wonderful experiences.
  3. Traveling abroad (or even across country) may pull me away from my family, but every time I return, I am blessed with being able to experience them anew. I get to hear new stories of school, activities and sports successes. I feel anew the warmth of their hugs.
  4. My wife and kids, beautiful each, are revealed to be even more beautiful than I last remembered! Every time.
  5. Gifts. Take a trip far away for a while, and I am expected (or I expect myself) to bring back gifts. With it comes the worry of finding the right gift (thank you to a few friends who pointed me in the right direction) but also the joy of the smile on their faces when I get it right.
  6. Mail (snail mail and email) My gosh, there are piles of it at home and work. Jet lag provides an honest excuse for not getting through it right away.
  7. Flying on an airplane. You cannot get jet lag unless you fly on a jet. No matter how many times I am on a plane, I am always amazed that these things can fly and can actually take off and land safely. I have read the “How Things Work” books about the mechanics of air flight. Being almost a Physics major in college, I even understand the words. But the actuality of flying still amazes me.
  8. Quiet Time: jet lag, awakening you in the middle of the night, when no one else is awake, entices its victim with the sweetest of rewards: the opportunity to reflect, undisturbed, upon issues and experiences of the trip (or the day, or of life). No kids rushing in. No friends somewhere waiting to Facebook chat. No chores to be done.
  9. Blogging: Blogging provides the means with which to share my reflections – both mindless and meaningful – with others who, by virtue of being on my email, blog subscription or facebook pages, might find some meaning in my babble.
  10. Hashkeevaynu: We get to field test our prayers. Each night at bedtime we pray with our kids the Hashkeevaynu (as Jews do around the world): hashkeevaynu Adonai Eloheinu l’shalom, v’ha’ameedaynu Malkeinu l’chaim – that we are laid down by God (with God?) to sleep, and that we rise up renewed for living. We pray u’fros aleinu sukat shlomecha, that God’s holy sukkah shelters us peacefully as we sleep. Jet lag awakes me to the peacefulness of my home, when my beloved wife is sleeping soundingly, and my darling children looking so innocent in their beds.

Jet lag also has an end. Having eaten a piece of toast and a cup of water, I lay myself back down to sleep. Beloved sleep will come now at 2:15 am, ending the effects of dreaded jet lag. Or I will eventually “hit the wall” and need to nap in my office during one of my prescheduled open calendar spaces. Either way, I receive a well-deserved depreve from jet lag.

Talkback (I’d love to hear):

  • How do you combat jet lag?
  • What blessings have you discovered from being up in the middle of the night?

Reform Rabbis’ Prayer Works: Rain in Israel after Months of Drought!

There are those who believe that if you pray, God brings the rain. Even though I don’t really believe this theology, it needs to be said. Tongue in cheek. Mostly.

Israel has had a bad winter, at least as far as rain goes. Not enough. Drought-like season.

So the Ultra-Orthodox gather at the Kotel (Western Wall), pray for forgiveness for their sins (sexual) and hope to bring the rain. Some even take credit for it:

Shevat 28, 5769, 2/22/2009. Sheer Coincidence?, We wrote that sexual transgression prevents rain from falling in Israel. We said that Thursday night’s mass prayer at the Kotel was to atone for sexual transgressions. Look what happened. It has been raining buckets ever since.

Sheer coincidence, right? Pure happenstance. You’ve got to be kidding! For sure, our
prayers brought the rain.

Here’s the rub. The ultra-orthodox prayed for weeks. No rain.

Then Reform Rabbis gathered en masse on February 23rd in Jerusalem for the Central Conference of American Rabbis convention and voila! It rains. It pours.

Now I’m not saying that our prayers brought the rain.

But it IS kind of interesting that while various orthodox groups have been praying for rain all season. But when we put our prayers to it, the rain comes.

Hmmm… Perhaps if we extended more religious rights to the Progressive Movement in Israel, we could really renew the state, making it clean (of religious corruption), shine (with the light of real Jewish spirituality) and sparkle(with the brightness of social justice).

Who Is Counting? … Me!

This is my ninth trip to Israel since birth. A pause to recount:

  1. A family trip connected to my sister Lori becoming a Bat Mitzvah.
  2. The NFTY Leadership Machon Year in Israel, between high school and college, living at Machon Greenberg, Kiryat Moriah in Jerusalem, 1981-82.
  3. Rabbinical Studies Year in Israel study at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, living off Rechov HaPalmach, near the President’s house, 1986-87.
  4. A post-ordination trip, with Michelle and our (then) 9 month old daughter, to see travel and visit family and friends, 1992. Visited my sister Lori and her (then) two kids.
  5. The Rabbinical CCAR convention in Jerusalem, a mini-trip I shared with my father-in-law Murray November. Fun, energizing, but shortened by the death of our beloved grandmother Ruby Gilner, 2002.
  6. Or Ami’s first official Mission to Israel 2004, a two person trek with congregant Mark Wolfson. Two men, Or Ami’s “Advance Team,” showing up in the Holy Land during the Intifada, proof for a frightened American Jewish community that it was safe to travel to Israel. It was my wife’s 40th birthday present to me.
  7. Or Ami’s first Family Trip to Israel, rescheduled from the summer of Lebanon 2 War to December 2006. In addition to introducing our children to Israel for what I hope will be the first of their many visits, we led a delegation of 40 people total. A wonderful multigenerational experience. Read about it here.
  8. Or Ami’s first Adults only trip, with 23 Or Ami members, our guide Alexandra and our driver Avi in January 2008. First class all the way, great hotels, great connections, and snow in Jerusalem. Read about it here.
  9. This trip: brief touring with Mark Wolfson and his three son in laws, followed by a glorious week attending the CCAR convention, 2009. Read about it here.

How many times have YOU been to Israel? How were these trips meaningful?

National Pluralistic Study

The Jerusalem Post covered the National Pluralistic Beit Midrash (House of Study):

The Jerusalem Post covers the CCAR’s
National Beit Midrash unites Israelis, North American Reform rabbis
Mar. 1, 2009maya spitzer , THE JERUSALEM POST

The conference hall was crowded with groups of four as far as the eye could see; the discussions impassioned, the excitement palpable. Hundreds of Jews – American and Israeli, men and women, religious and secular, new immigrants and sabras, right wing and left wing, sat with one another, intensely engaged in the sacred texts before them – studying, challenging and questioning one another and themselves.

The Batei Midrash Network, a group of pluralistic organizations dedicated to Jewish learning throughout Israel, hosted this landmark day of learning at the Jerusalem International Convention Center on Friday, the fourth day of the weeklong Central Conference of American Rabbis Jerusalem 2009 Convention.

The event brought together Israeli Batei Midrash members and a delegation of the American rabbis for a day of hevruta learning, the traditional mode of Jewish study dating back to talmudic times, involving textual analysis and discussion in small groups.

Friday’s hevruta groups, each with two Israelis and two Americans, studied Shabbat, tradition, renewal and Israel-Diaspora relations. With more than 600 participants, this was the largest assemblage of its kind in the history of the young Beit Midrash movement in Israel.

For the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Beit Midrash was symbolic of the growth and success of the Progressive (Reform) Movement, and of Jewish pluralism as a whole in Israel. “People from all over Israel have come to Jerusalem to study with Reform rabbis,” said Rabbi Peter Knobel, president of the Central Conference.

Against the backdrop of the state’s refusal to recognize non-Orthodox streams of Judaism, the event demonstrated the solidarity of the worldwide Reform movement, said Rabbi Miri Gold, who is currently embroiled in a fight with the government for recognition as rabbi of Congregation Birkat Shalom in Kibbutz Gezer.

“We have a long way to go,” said Gold, citing the Boston Tea Party’s slogan of “no taxation without representation,” “but the existence of the Beit Midrash shows the strong presence of pluralistic Judaism in Israel, a presence that needs to be recognized.”

“There has been longstanding, unfortunate discrimination, but we’re being proactive, working on advocacy against it,” said Rabbi Yoel Oseran, vice president of international development at the World Union for Progressive Judaism.

He said there was “clear evidence” of the movement’s success in its newfound visibility: the large number of wedding ceremonies performed, the Progressive synagogues now in every major city in Israel despite lack of government funding, and the strong growth in their kindergarten programs. “Certainly the Beit Midrash is reflective of the direction of Reform Judaism and its growing embrace of Jewish scholarship,” Oseran said.

“The goal of this convention is to engage experientially, in a meaningful way, Israel and Israelis. Today we created the largest national Beit Midrash, and with Torah and love of the Jewish people in common, we hope to forge meaningful personal connections,” said Rabbi Donald Rosoff, chairman of the Central Conference convention committee.

The Reform American rabbis from the Central Conference studied alongside their Israeli hevruta partners, united by a dedication to Jewish learning and a belief in its relevance to contemporary concerns.

In hevrutot, “we find ways to integrate modern life and ancient text, bringing the wisdom, humor, philosophy, and halachot of the texts alive in our lives now,” said Roni Yavin, the conference’s Israel chairwoman. “We are maintaining the tradition of Jewish learning from talmudic times and bringing new life to the text at the same time. Israelis want to touch the Talmud themselves.”

The rise of such Beit Midrash-style learning lies at the heart of Israel’s growing Jewish Renewal (Hithadsut Yehudit) movement (no connection to the Jewish Renewal movement that began in North America in the late 1960s and early 1970s), in which people seek to “take more active responsibility for their Judaism,” Yavin said.

From cities to kibbutzim and moshavim, Israel has seen a rise in Jewish Renewal activities: pluralistic study of Jewish texts in batei midrash, communal holiday celebrations and Kabalat Shabbat activities, not associated with specific streams of Judaism.

The Beit Midrash’s planners hoped it would initiate a wider dialogue between the North American and Israeli Jews. “We hope this serves as a big bridge between our communities,” said Yavin. “This process will enable many Israelis to create meaningful personal relationships with our deep and rich Jewish culture. It can enlighten and help us grapple with the existential questions and current challenges facing the individual and the general Jewish public in Israel and abroad.”

“In the past, Israelis thought that Americans would come here to learn from them. It’s been my experience that Israelis now understand the mifgash [encounter] is two ways, and that’s really inspiring. Lilmod ulelamed [to learn and to teach] each other,” said Michael Weinberg, the Central Conference’s chairman of the Beit Midrash.

A number of conference participants attributed the rise of the Jewish Renewal movement to a perceived void and spiritual yearning among secular Israelis. The uptick in mainstream hevruta study and similar activities “symbolizes an evolving Israel,” said Rabbi Mary Zamore of Westfield, New Jersey. “Those who are secular recognize something is missing from their lives. They are yearning for text, yahadut [Judaism], and realize they can do that and still be modern and educated at the same time.”

Rabbi Elyse Goldstein of Toronto, who runs Kolel, one of the few such batei midrash in North America, sees a parallel lack there, and hopes to spur the transplantation of similar institutions overseas.

“As much as Israelis realize they need an outlet for spirituality, American Jews are feeling the same way and saying, ‘You know what, I don’t know that much about Judaism, and I’m not willing to go to a place where there’s only one point of view presented.'”

The Batei Midrash Network, which was established in 2003 by five batei midrash, now includes 21 of Israel’s 30 Beit Midrash organizations. More than 3,000 Israelis take part in Batei Midrash Network’s yearlong programs, and 10,000 participate in its short-term programs.

It is primarily supported by the UJA-Federation of New York, the Avi Chai Foundation, and the Metro-West Federation of New Jersey.

Hebrew is Palpitating My Heart

There’s another aspect of being in Israel that palpitates my heart. Hebrew. Danny Siegel, poet and tzedakah (charitable giving) champion, once wrote the poem, Hebrew:

I’ll tell you how much I love Hebrew:
Read me anything Genesis,
or an ad in an Israeli paper, and watch my face.
I will make half sounds of ecstasy,
and my smile will be so enormously sweet
you would think some angels were singing Psalms
or God alone was reciting to me.
I am crazy for her Holiness
and each restaurant’s menu in Yerushalayim or Bialik poem
gives me peace no Dante or Milton or Goethe could give.
I have heard Iliads of poetry, Omar Khayyam in Farsi,
and Virgil sung as if the poet himself were coaching the reader.
And they move me
But not like the train schedule from Haifa to Tel Aviv
or a choppy unsyntaxed note from a student
who got half the grammar I taught him all wrong
but remembered to write with Alefs and Zayins and Shins.
That’s the way I am.
I’d rather hear the weather report on Kol Yisrael
than all the rhythms and music of Shakespeare.

This poem captures one scrumptious aspect of my trip to Israel. Being immersed in Hebrew. Having spent two full years in Israel (post-High School gap year, and first year of Rabbinic School), I learned enough Hebrew to be semi-fluent (at least as far as conversations about eating, politics, religion and day-to-day living). But I was self-conscious enough to let my Hebrew slide. Then, a year ago, I hired a Hebrew tutor to meet me once weekly at a local coffee shop, so that I could talk and hear Hebrew. We graduated to some reading of newspapers and stories. Then she brought me a book in simple Hebrew (Shlosha Yamim Vayeled – Three Days and a Boy) and I surprised myself by plowing through it very quickly. Now as I journey around Jerusalem and the rest of the country, I relish opportunities to speak, read and immerse myself in the Holy Tongue. (I recently wrote about my Love Affair with the Holy Tongue here).

It is important to me, as a Jew and a Rabbi, to be able to communicate in our people’s language. So I traded family histories with the taxi driver in Hebrew. I spent a morning studying with Israelis in the Pluralistic Beit Midrash (study session) all in Hebrew. I am tantalized by the Hebrew in the signs for auto parts or housewares. I find myself eavesdropping on the conversations in the Beit Café (coffee shop), because the Israelis’ Hebrew is finally becoming intelligible. The news on the radio, in Hebrew (speaking still a bit too quickly for me), challenges me to deepen my command of the language. Though most Israelis want to speak with me in English, I respond to them in Hebrew. I can pretty much get along solely in Hebrew. Very cool.

While English was the main language of the CCAR convention, but true to our commitment to the Holy Tongue, our program committee raised up the offerings in Hebrew. Our CCAR convention offered a plethora of opportunities to study texts in Hebrew, to interact with Israelis in Hebrew, and to pray only in Hebrew. In short, so many American Reform Rabbis are fluent in Hebrew – thanks to our mandatory first year of study in Jerusalem. Because we recognize that the Hebrew language connects Jews everywhere as one people.

By the way, the picture is of me and Rabbi Rick Winer (who blogs at Divrei Derech). I’m the good looking one (on the right).