Category: blog archive

Honoring the Gifts of our Rabbinic-Education Interns

At the Rhea Hirsch School of Jewish Education (of HUC-JIR, LA) pre-Graduation Dinner, I had the honor of sharing, before their families and classmates, the many gifts our interns shared with us. Dan Medwin, Lydia Bloom Medwin and Sara Mason touched so many lives. My words are below:

Dan, Lydia and Sara, being rabbinic-education students, you know that this dual role brings not less work but double the nachas. At Congregation Or Ami, we are schlepping much nachas at the many gifts you have shared with us this past year. Or Ami is populated with so many people whose learning deepened through your creative talents. I wanted to bring them here, so that they could tell you themselves how you have touched their lives. Alas, they could not be here. So I carry their words and feelings to you instead.

These are the gifts you have given us.

Dan, hear the words of the boy who, after watching your fabulous “Back to the Holidays” video set induction, said that coming to Mishpacha (our Family Alternative Learning program) was as cool as playing his X-box video game. Dan, like Moses, you have utilized the latest technology to create a Mt. Sinai-esque sound and light show which effectively furthered your curricular goals, and successfully worked to bind your students to the Holy One and the people Israel. Thank you.

Lydia, hear the words of the man in recovery from alcoholism, who, after sharing his story with you, said that he had never felt so profoundly heard as when he sat with you. Lydia, like the prophet Ezekiel, you let the still small voice inside him be heard, and thereby taught him, and the rest of our congregation who read of your experiences in the beautiful articles you wrote, where they might find their Higher Power. Thank you.

Sara, listen to the words of the mother who confessed to me at the final Mishpacha session that, at the year’s start she had no desire to talk about God (which happened to be the theme of the whole year), but now she relishes every conversation about God with her child and spouse. Sara, like the prophet Balaam, you transformed her, through your magical Mishpacha lessons, so that her allergy to talking about God is becoming a quest for continuous experience of blessing and holiness. Thank you.

Dan, listen to the praise of the Mishpacha parent who, after you confidently answered a question that plagued him for many years, quietly told me, “now that’s a teacher I can learn from!” Dan, like generations of teachers before you, you quieted yourself sufficiently and heard the essence of his heartfelt question and, responding from the heart, helped him continue his spiritual search. Thank you.

Lydia, see the beautiful smiles of all those beautiful, energetic teenagers, who appear session after session at Temple Teen Night, to socialize, eat pizza and do Jewish learning along the way. Lydia, like King Solomon before you, who inherited from David a chaotic kingdom and then transformed it into a vibrant peaceful community, you inherited the Temple Teen Night community and transformed it – through your wisdom, caring and enthusiasm – into a wonderful, if somewhat noisy community for teachers as well as for students. Thank you.

Sara, embrace the words of the young Mishpacha child who, upon hearing that you will become our rabbinic intern next year, was reported to shriek with joy, saying, that “you made learning so much fun!” Sara, like Miriam who brought music and rhythm to our people’s plodding steps through the wilderness, you have brought the joy of learning in the synagogue, to moms and dads and kids and grandparents, many of whom had grown up expecting something very different from their temples. Thank you.

Each of you – with chochmah (wisdom), chesed (kindness) and ahavat yisrael (love of our people Israel) – have made the light of Or Ami – my people, God’s people, our people – to shine ever more brightly, at Congregation Or Ami and in our Jewish community.

What other gifts you have given me? We talked a lot about these in the individual meetings we shared this past week. You have taught me about tzimtzum (holding back) and gadlut (exploring the great questions about belief). You invited me to learn savlanut (patience) and led me to greater hitlahavut (enthusiasm), as each of you have questioned, challenged, pushed back and pushed forward, laughed and led, thought and taught, throughout this whole year. You have made me a more thoughtful educator and, by definition, therefore, a better rabbi.

So schepp nachas, each of you, and your many parents and relatives too, for you have gifted our community Or Ami with such a bright light, that we shall continue to perceive the beauty of being Jewish, long after you depart from our congregation. We shall miss you. I shall miss you! Mazel Tov on your graduation. And thank you!

URJ and RAC Celebrate Justice for California Gay Community

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2008 – In response to today’s ruling by the California Supreme Judicial Court declaring the state’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, Mark J. Pelavin, Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Alan Henkin, Regional Director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Pacific Southwest Council, issued the following statement:

Today’s ruling is a landmark step toward ensuring the right of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans to share in the joys and privileges of marriage that have long been afforded to heterosexual couples. As the Court rightly noted, “An individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation,” and that “an individual’s sexual orientation – like a person’s race or gender – does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.”

Much like the 2003 decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, today’s ruling serves as affirmation that we cannot allow our nation to continue to divide into separate and decidedly unequal groups: those adults who are free to express their love for one another in marriage and those who are not.

The Reform Jewish Movement has long been committed to welcoming GLBT Jews into our congregations, synagogues and communal life and strongly supports legislative efforts to provide equal opportunity through civil marriage for gay and lesbian individuals. As we teach our children, all individuals are created b’tselem elohim, in the image of the Divine; today’s ruling reflects that concept of inherent equality.

This is a historic day, a day to celebrate. Tomorrow, however, is the day to begin organizing against the all-but-inevitable initiatives to amend the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage equality. As soon as we finish today’s victory toast, we are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

—

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose more than 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 1800 Reform rabbis.

California Ends Gay and Lesbian Couples’ Exclusion from Marriage


We celebrate the news that California Ends Gay Couples’ Exclusion From Marriage.

Earlier today, the California Supreme Court handed down a historic decision upholding the freedom to marry in In Re: Marriage Cases. California’s high court is the second state high court to rule in favor of ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. (My home state of Massachusetts ruled over 4 years ago.)

With this ruling, our country has the opportunity to continue seeing how families are helped and no one is hurt by ending exclusion from marriage, just as other countries around the world have done.

Jewish tradition, which recognizes that all people were born b’tzelem Elohim (in the image of God), has a long supported the blessing and sanctification of marriages between two mature, monogamous, consenting adults, whatever their gender. Reform Rabbis voted in 1996 to support marriages between gay or lesbian Jewish couples and voted in 2000 to support rabbinic officiation at such unions. Now the State of California has recognized the validity and sanctity of such unions!

Mazel tov to all who worked for this day!

There’s an Elephant in the Room; He’s Smoking Dope

We, Jews and Jewish families, living relatively comfortable lives, find ourselves increasingly facing uncomfortable truths: that abuse of drugs and alcohol runs rampant through our community. Jews are not immune from the battle with the bottle or the pull of the pills. Though we talk about it less than some communities, alcohol and drug abuse – especially among teens and young adults – continues to ruin lives.

It is time to face facts: too many of our kids have access too much money, easy transportation and freedom from parental oversight that allows them to explore and get hooked on drugs and booze well before we adults even have a clue. For those who are searching for something, our high schools – secular and Jewish alike – provide ample opportunity to experiment and get hooked. It is happening too often with our “nice Jewish boys and girls.”

At Or Ami we talk about the difficult issues: sex, drugs, disease, death. Our Or Ami Center for Jewish Parenting strives to help our community face the future by talking about those subjects that often make us uncomfortable, and by bringing our Jewish values and healing tradition to the conversation. Sometimes we pass on valuable insights through eNewsletters; sometimes we gather parents for open discussions about the challenges we face parenting.

Recently, our Rabbinic/Education Intern Lydia Bloom Medwin gathered together our Temple Teen Night participants for a discussion on the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. I watched in amazement as our students listened attentively, and responded inquisitively, to the experience of one Jewish mother whose “nice Jewish boy” overdosed on drugs. Read on…

Rabbinic/Education Intern Lydia Bloom Medwin writes:

“You Can’t Compete with Heroin, Mom.”
These words helped speaker and author Rita Lowenthal comprehend just how deeply her son had descended into addiction. Rita’s son Josh began experimenting with drugs at age 13. By age 38, he had died of an overdose. This made Rita a particularly poignant speaker at our Temple Teen Night session focusing on the issue of drugs and alcohol one Wednesday. Rita’s reflections helped us to begin to understand the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as the nature of addiction, as it functions in our own Jewish community.

Talking to kids about the dangers of alcohol and drugs requires honesty. So we began by admitting that Judaism is not a religion that forbids the pleasures of alcohol. On the contrary, we customarily use wine in our holiday and life cycle celebrations. We drink wine to make these moments special and to increase the joy. However, Judaism also understands that moderation and responsibility are the keys to drinking at Jewish celebrations. Clearly, our tradition understands that there is a difference between alcohol use and alcohol abuse.

Alcohol and drug abuse can be dangerous and is certainly illegal for our youth. Rita explained to a fully engaged group of seventh through eleventh grade students about the risks of even experimenting with these substances, especially for the type of people who are naturally adventurous. We learned that while some people might be able to try a drug and then never touch it again, so many others try it once and cannot stop abusing drugs until the day the substance kills them. As such, just trying drugs could mean a life sentence. That is what happened to Josh Lowenthal when, at age 13, his mother found that it was already too late. In and out of rehab and jail for twenty-five years, Josh went from devastation to healing to hope and back again in a vicious cycle. Josh, a bright and outgoing Jewish kid, was musically talented who was inclined to write poetry and listen to NPR. Still, as Rita so eloquently in her book, “One Way Ticket,” even her “nice Jewish boy” wasn’t immune to the realities of addiction.

Congregation Or Ami is a community where we talk openly about drug and alcohol use. At Or Ami, students can ask the difficult questions and receive honest answers and thoughtful advice. If one of our students or our families is in trouble with drugs or alcohol, they can turn to Rabbi Paul Kipnes (who has been trained in Alcohol and Drug Counseling and Spiritual Care), our Rabbinic and Education Interns and our temple family for help. Or Ami will always respond with an open mind and open arms. For many, Or Ami has already been the first stop on the road to recovery.

Drug and alcohol addiction is nothing new; its roots stretch back to Biblical times. Addiction is a disease that affects a great deal of people, and the Jewish community is not immune to its ravages. At Congregation Or Ami, we are working to understand (and teach) more about the nature of this disease. Simultaneously we support our families who are currently struggling with addiction and we celebrate with those who have found recovery through the Twelve Step Program.

We welcome all those struggling with these issues to contact Rabbi Paul Kipnes or Rabbinic/Education Intern Lydia Bloom Medwin for support or Jewish resources regarding addiction and recovery.

Talking about that Dope-Smoking Elephant
Or Ami is committed to shining a light on this age-old problem. We have learned that when parents talk openly and calmly, kids hear what they have to say. With the support of Bruce and Wendy Friedman, and the Wolfson Family Foundation, Or Ami has been holding conversations – public and private – about the challenges of alcoholism and addiction. Each year Or Ami introduces another rabbinic student to the realities of addiction in the Jewish community and we provide him/her with opportunities to develop pastoral skills to address these challenges. As Lydia Bloom Medwin moves onto her new internship at UCLA Hillel, Rabbinic Intern Sara Mason will learn and teach about the dangers of addiction.

After the High Holy Days, our community will gather again under the auspices of our Or Ami Center for Jewish Parenting to learn from Beit T’shuvah, a Jewish halfway house in Los Angeles, about what we parents can do do help our kids combat the pull of the pills.

Until then, explore my blog article on Talking to Your Kids about Drugs and Alcohol, Part I. We parent more effectively when our eyes are open wide.

As always, I am here to listen, to strategize and to help, as we all walk the tightrope between parenting too much and parenting too little. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Email Rabbi Paul Kipnes here.

Did You Call Your Mother (or Father)?

It made the Top Ten: Kibud Av v’Eim – Honor Your Father and Mother (coming in at #5, between the commandments about our relationship with God and spirituality, and those about how we treat other people). It made it into the Holiness Code: You shall revere your mother and father (appearing right after God tells Moses to tell us to be holy, kedoshim tehiyu).

The way we treat our parents tells us more about about the character of a person than the words he speaks or the gifts she brings. Looking for a spouse or partner for the long haul? Watch how he or she treats his/her parents. Wondering if you children will treat you well when you get older? Just look in the mirror and observe how you treat your parent(s). After all, we are the role models for our own children.

I call my father every morning (usually at 8:15 a.m., right after I drop the kids off at school). Why? Because he likes hearing what is happening in our lives. Because he enjoys the conversation. Because I love him. Because I want my kids to follow my lead and call me regularly when I get older. And as a small way to repay the debt I owe him because this wonderul man spent his adult life working, stressing, supporting my siblings and me. It is the least Ican do. (Yes, I call my mother also, plenty).

Our Or Ami Center for Jewish Parenting recently gathered adults together for a discussion about how to parent our parents. Those who attended said it was intense, because the emotions surrounding the aging of our parents can be intense.

Can we prepare ourselves for the inevitable process of watching our parents age? How can we hold onto the sacredness of who they are and what they have meant to us? Our congregant Don Weston, 83 and going strong, offers these words of wisdom.

Aging Parents: What Do They Want from Us?
by Or Ami Congregant Don Weston

I am 83 years old and I have two children so I guess that makes me an aging parent. I enjoy talking to people, particularly young people. I ask police officers how the crook business is. That always gets a smile. I talk to bank tellers and ask for samples. That always gets a smile. I talk to anyone and everyone. What I find interesting is the response I get with my closing comment. I generally always end my conversation with a young person with, “Be careful out there and call your mother.” Mostly I get a surprised look and a smile and a comment like, “Okay I will” or, “I haven’t talked to her in awhile” and sometimes just a guilty look. Amazingly, they don’t seem to forget it. If I happen to see them again, they smile and say, “I called my mother.”

I can’t tell you what every parent wants. I believe I can tell you what we don’t want. We don’t want to be left out of the loop, the loop being the family: you, your spouse, our grandchildren, your in-laws, and your friends. Aside from respect, kindness and consideration, we need to know what’s going on in your life. We need to know the little things that happen in our family. How did you do at Mah Jong or poker? What movies have you seen, or what do you have going on for next week? How are the kids doing in school? We need to know that we haven’t been put out to pasture or placed on the back burner. We need to be in touch. Most of all, we don’t want to feel forgotten. At the same time, we don’t want to bother you.

You have a cell phone 24/7 so give us a call, maybe when you’re waiting in line for something. Bring us up-to-date. I kno, I know. You are going to have to hear about a friend’s surgery or how Mrs. Fein slipped and fell in the mall. So what? You forgot how to listen? (The more you talk, the less you will have to listen.) I realize that some of us don’t move into modern times as easily as others, and you’re also going to hear (more than once, I’m afraid), about when gas was 24 cents a gallon, and the comedians were a lot funnier (and a lot cleaner). Okay, okay. So once in a while we slip into “the good old days.” Is that so bad? Then give us some of your good old days.

You have to understand that when the phone rings and we answer and we hear, “Hello Ma (or Mom or Mama or Pa or Pop or Dad or Daddy), it’s your loving daughter (or son),” to us it is like manna from heaven. The back doesn’t hurt as much, the sun is a little brighter, and love is coming through the phone.

Listen, I love to talk, but enough is enough. So be careful out there and call your mother.

Talkback

When do you fulfill the fifth commandment to honor your father and mother?

How do you keep your relationship going with your mother or father?

As always, I invite you to join the conversation. Leave me a comment. (You may also contact Don Weston by email.)

Beit T’shuvah: Jewish Rehab Clinic in Los Angeles County

Our Center for Jewish Parenting is always on the lookout for stories, resources and information to help parents. In conjunction with our Madraygot/Jewish 12 Steps Addiction Education and Prevention Project, we aim to educate, support and prevent addiction.

We get a boost in this week’s Jewish newspaper. The Jewish Journal wrote a beautiful series of articles on Beit T’shuvah, a Jewish rehab clinic/synagogue/halfway house in Culver City. Beit T’shuvah is one of LA’s gems, helping with the vast population of Jewish alcoholics, addicts and their families.

Read on:

In the small lobby, a teenage boy with blondish hair sits passively on a couch, staring at the wall, not reacting to the threats thrown his way.

His mother, her face puffy from crying, pleads with her husband, the boy’s enraged stepfather, who slams in and out of the building, furiously yelling that the boy stole his car and his money to buy drugs.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz tries to calm everyone down, but he gives no solace to the boy, telling him firmly that he’s screwed up and will have to pay for it. “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime,” says the rabbi — a refrain from his own criminal past.

Hang out for any length of time at Beit T’Shuvah, a Jewish rehab clinic/synagogue/halfway house in Culver City, and you might have your heart broken by scenes like this. The residents, about 110 men and women of all ages, nearly all of them Jewish, are drug addicts and alcoholics — often with a criminal record. Read more

Take a look at two other articles on this topic:

One day at a time, one person at a time

Drug abuse debate: Legalization, medication or therapy?

Prom Prep 101: Foster Girls Prepare for Prom

Hedi Gross and Rabbi Kipnes write:

Congregation Or Ami teamed up with other synagogues and churches to again run Prom Prep 101. The Calabasas synagogue, as part of its ongoing commitment to help children in the foster care system, has latched onto the Prom Prep 101 as an opportunity to give back. Young foster girls ages 15-18 came from the Department of Children and Family Services to take part in making their upcoming Prom a beautiful memory. Most of these girls were able to go to their proms because of Prom Prep.

Event chair Debbie Echt-Moxness reflected back on her heartfelt call for volunteers and dress donations. In response to Debbie’s congregation-wide mailing, Congregation Or Ami’s Mureau Road synagogue was overwhelmed with prom dresses – new and slightly used, jewelry, make up and endless offers to volunteer the day of the event. Debbie recalled that “We told people that Prom Prep 101 was a wonderful opportunity to get involved and make a difference in the lives of foster care kids. Our ‘goal’ was to help make 50 under-privileged girls feel beautiful and special, inside and out. I truly believe that we all come away from this experience feeling blessed and holy, for having made someone else feel more whole.”

At Prom Prep 101, volunteers signed in, put on name tags, and were given a tour through separate rooms of shoes, accessories, and professional make-up artists and hair stylists who volunteered their time and day off to help out. Calabasas Oaks resident Hedi Gross, who brought her daughter Molly, captured the overwhelming feeling of goodness: “Nothing prepared us for the emotion we felt when we walked into a room FILLED with beautiful gowns, broken down by size and color (most with tags still on them). It was AWESOME! To realize that each girl would feel like Cinderella for the day was simply beautiful…breath-taking. I looked around to see if I was the only one crying, but all the other mothers were wiping away tears at this awesome sight!”

Once the teenage girls began to arrive, Prom Prep 101 quickly went into motion. In the main sanctuary, the girls received beauty tips on what to wear, what not to wear and “the message that our clothing puts out into the world.” Escorts were assigned to their girls, blow dryers turned on, and make-up as applied. Calabasas cousins Molly Gross and Carly Feinstein popped into a “dress room” to help a girl named Melissa (not her real name). Although Melissa was already being ushered/hosted by a mother-daughter team, Melissa quickly took to my Molly and Carly. Before you knew it, Melissa had her own large team, primping and supporting her as she moved from beauty station to station. Melissa chose a gorgeous dress, picked out accessories, sat with the hair stylist and the make up artist. She looked divine. Walking down the aisle for the fashion show, Melissa appeared to walk on air.

Prom Prep 101 reminded participants, the foster girls and volunteers alike, about the power of kindness and compassion to transform lives. Hedi recalls that “It was quite obvious that Melissa was a girl with a light within. Eighteen years old girl, attending college next year, she adores track and field. Melissa is bright, happy, confident, and on a mission to help the world. I found it so moving that she was offering to my girls words of encouragement! She told them to “believe in yourself” and “you can do anything in this lifetime. Originally, I thought we would need to be offering words of encouragement to her. We went there believing we could help someone feel better about themselves (even for just one day) but in reality we left feeling like the lucky ones, simply for having met these girls.”

Professional photographer Jaime Rothstein volunteered to photograph Prom Prep 101. The Calabasas resident talked about the delightful experience photographing the teens. “It truly was an honor to be part of such a day that puts so many smiles on so many young girls’ faces. I am so proud and in awe of all who organized this day for being angels and giving so many girls their wings to fly and feel beautiful and confident and hopeful and loved. I know there is a God because of what I experienced today.”

Judaism teaches that mitzvah (commandment or ethical action) is found in the giving, but the true gift is in the warmth one feels long after the event is over. For more information about Prom Prep 101 or to volunteer for next year’s event, contact Or Ami president Susan Gould at (818) 880-4880 or the4goulds@roadrunner.com.

Truth Telling when Teaching about Sexuality

How do we communicate to our children the challenges of dealing with their own sexuality and the dangers – physical, emotional, spiritual – of becoming sexually active before they are older? Abstinence only programs, advocated by some, provide incomplete information.

I recently signed onto a Clergy Statement on Public Health and Ethical Concerns with Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs and the Need for Comprehensive Sexuality Education. The letter was submitted to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. A central contention of our statement, sponsored by the Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice and Healing, is:


Young people need to know that “there is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing” but they also require the skills to make moral and healthy decisions about relationships for themselves now and in the future. We call on you to support comprehensive sexuality education programs that honor the diversity of religious and moral values in the community. Such education teaches that decisions about sexual behaviors should be based on moral and ethical values, as well as considerations of physical and emotional health. It affirms the goodness of sexuality while acknowledging its risk, consequences and dangers, and it introduces with respect the differing sides of controversial issues. It includes information about abstinence, contraception, and STD prevention.

Note the statement that we should teach about abstinence, contraception and STD prevention, as well as a positive valued approach to thinking about sexuality.

Got Any Great Passover Seder Ideas?

We had two great seder experiences this year. One with the whole Kipnes East Coast family; one with just my folks, my sister and her family, my wife, kids and family.

One highlight was the use of Youtube videos for educational and sometimes just entertainment value purposes. One video kept everyone quiet and paying attention during Rachatza (washing).

Here are the videos and links:

Get Down Moses – early
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hH3crBQyyhY&feature=user are you smarter than a 7 year old?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJrKPb95YzU&eurl=http://www.crownheights.info/ Matzah man video
http://youtube.com/watch?v=naP1uOCiEfI&feature=related

Problems in Darfur
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qQwCCm-H-sU
The youngest two kids also regaled us, between parts of the seder, with Passover-themed magic tricks.

I’m collecting new suggestions for next year’s pre-Passover Seder Ideas article. Got any good ideas? Click on the comments button below and please share them.

Take a Turn Down J-Street: Supporting Israel in a New Way

I’ll be at the AIPAC National Convention in June 2008, because what other organization can gather together so many leaders of the American government – from both sides of the aisle – and from the Administration – for the primary purpose of talking about and supporting Israel. And until and unless someone else can fill that role, AIPAC has our clear support.

But that doesn’t mean that AIPAC always speaks in my voice. Sometimes my concern is heightened by certain positions AIPAC has taken, or its hardline on certain issues. If AIPAC follows its mantra, that it supports takes its cues from current Israeli government, what do we do when (a) the current Israeli government is either too hardline or too weak or too unethical [as happens from time to time] OR (b) the current Israeli government needs a little loving redirection or stern talking-too? In those times, the actions of an organization committed to speaking for the current government acts against that government’s own interest.

That’s why we must keep our eyes on the new J-Street Project, the new lobbying group and a political action committee, which supports Israel, but with a decidedly liberal outlook. (Read Haaretz’s discussion about it here. Shmuel Rosner blogs about it here.) The J-Street Project’s coffers are smaller; its membership roles are far overshadowed by its older cousin. Still, such diversity could be good for the American Jewish Community (many of whom see AIPAC positions as hardline conservative) and good for Israel.

Consider J-Street Project’s new video. Then you decide.

Will it make it? Will J-Street Project survive the test of time? What dangers are there to splitting the pro-Israeli lobby in America?

For now, sit back and watch. Great things may be happening in the Pro-Israel community!

Prophetic Outrage: Preaching and Anger from Biblical Times to Today

The language of outrage – full of drama, harshness, condemnation – fills the sermons of our prophets back in Biblical times. They spoke truth to power, condemning leaders and machers whenever their behaviors transgressed our expected moral standards.

Rabbi Ron Stern of Stephen S. Wise Temple reflects upon this kind of preaching and suggests that this Biblical model of prophetic preaching is alive today in churches around this country. To understand the controversy which arose around the preacher Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor, you need to understand this background.

Hear the first part of Rabbi Stern’s sermon on Youtube by clicking here.

Then check out the second part of the sermon.

Shake Up Your Seder: New and Collected Ideas 2008


Tired of the boring seder experience. Here are my new and collected Seder ideas for 2008/5768.

Check out the Seder Ideas!

By the way, the picture is from Or Ami’s annual Seder in the Wilderness Congregation Retreat. 400 people turn out for various Passover experiences. I was Pharaoh in 2007. View the pictures here. Join us at the retreat by clicking here.

Let me know if you used any.

20 Year Old Matthew Leads Service Celebrating Exceptional Children

Sometimes you get a letter that lets you know the community is doing it right. This from Matthew’s mom:

March 2008 Dear Rabbi Paul, Thank you so much for including Matthew in the amazing Shabbat service celebrating people with special needs. It was so gratifying on several levels As you know, Matthew is 20-years- old and has Fragile X Syndrome. Part of what I was looking for in joining Congregation Or Ami was providing a community for supporting Matthew as he grows into adulthood and moves beyond the ready-made community of school. I knew that COA had a reputation of welcoming families with special needs children. And that has turned out to be so. When you have a child with disabilities, you frequently feel like an outsider, so to feel a part of is a wonderful feeling. So when you asked Matthew to participate in the Special Needs service, I was thrilled for the opportunity. I was even more thrilled when Matthew responded to your request, saying “ I would be honored.” Nervous though he was, he rose to the occasion and sang the blessings beautifully, with the flair of his personality shining through. I was so touched by your attention to him, allowing him to be himself, and by the presence of Brandon and Michael Kaplan on the bimah with him. Matthew, like the rest of us, feels a sense of purpose when he has an important role to play, rather than being an observer, as our special needs children often are. It is my fervent hope that Matthew will continue to play a part at COA and that his love of Judaism will grow. Thank you for helping us to find our home. Shalom, Diane Smith Matthew Simon’s proud mom

Make Sudan an Offer It Can’t Refuse

Sadly, we’ve been here before. The world I mean. Facing Genocide.

It seems that we keep forgetting that all the talk in the world has no effect when the killing is happening. That murderers will make false promises and lie if it will allow them to continue with their murderous plans. That only when confronted directly, usually with force, will they stop.

Mark Helprin gets it right with Make Sudan an Offer It Can’t Refuse (NYTimes, 3/25/08).

Violating sovereignty is a matter of immense consequence and gravity. Then again, so is genocide. [emphasis mine]
Although Darfur is part of Sudan, it is physically distant from the country’s heartland and sources of military power. Every inch of the 600 miles of barren territory between Khartoum and the killing grounds is an opportunity for a reprieve commanded by American air power — with not a boot on the ground. The Sudanese military in Darfur can be trapped there without sustenance, to wither or retreat as the bulk of Sudanese forces are kept out. And the janjaweed can be denied tangible support merely by severing the few extenuated routes of supply……none of this would prove necessary were the United States willing to go further and threaten or accomplish the destruction of the Sudanese regime’s means to power over a country that has been pulled apart centrifugally by multiple secessions. One needn’t be squeamish about such a proposition. It pertains to a government that has long massacred hundreds of thousands of its “own” people in its South and West, supported international terrorism and menaced most of its neighbors. The precise targeting of a substantial portion of its 1,200 armored vehicles and 1,100 artillery pieces; its telecommunications exchanges and microwave towers; its dozen small naval vessels; its aircraft, runways, munitions, military headquarters, logistical stores, security ministries and presidential residences would be only a few days’ work for long-range bombers dispatched from remote bases, and the planes of two carrier task forces hastened to the Red Sea.Which would the regime in Sudan prefer? To be annihilated, or to discontinue its campaign of mass murder in Darfur? Given Sudan’s record, very few nations would be willing to come to its aid with other than a pro forma whimper, and given the geography and the air and naval balance, no nation could. Though many a repressive dictatorship would protest, and Sudan’s patron, China, might determine to speed up the formation of the blue-water navy it is already building, little else would change except for the better.

We, descendants of the Holocaust, inheritors of a world that stood idly by, should know better, and act better.Want to understand more? Jewish World Watch speaks truth to power.

Spirituality Work for Rabbis

JTA (Wednesday the Rabbi Sat Still), offered nice insights into the spirituality work being done by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, my alma mater, the group that taught me to care for my soul.

“What we’re trying to do, on one level, is renew rabbis, cantors and educators whose jobs just drain them,” says Rabbi Rachel Cowan, the institute’s director and one of the founders of the spiritual retreat program. “It gives them rest and companionship. They’re really quite lonely.”

In the process, Cowan says, retreat participants report back that they are better at their jobs.

“Rabbis need to be genuinely present in people’s lives at times of pain and joy, not coming in with a formula,” she says. “What blocks them from doing that is overwork and emotional burnout.”

Simply put, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality retreats helped me find God (again). Important work. I miss it. Hopefully this summer I will be able to return for a retreat.