Tag: Tikkun Olam: Changing the World

Calabasas Boy Overcomes Serious Disabilities to Become a Bar Mitzvah (Acorn, 5/24/07)

The local weekly, The Acorn, tells us about one of the more emotional events at Or Ami, the upcoming Bar Mitzvah service of Brandon Kaplan. Brandon cannot write or speak, but he understands Judaism and loves Torah. And on Shabbat this Memorial Day Weekend, he becomes a Bar Mitzvah. I suspect there will not be a “dry eye in the house.”

But lest we think otherwise, B’nai Mitzvah for kids with special needs is not out of the ordinary, at least at Congregation Or Ami:

[Rabbi Paul] Kipnes emphasized that no matter what a child’s needs are, it’s never a question of if a child can have a bar or bat mitzvah- it’s when the ceremony will take place.

“There are two values being played out, simultaneously,” Kipnes said. “Brandon is a kid like any other kid created in the image of God, worthy of love.

“But Brandon is also a special kid and there is an honor and joy to the congregation that he participates to the fullness of his abilities. So he’s normal and special, but here’s the secret: so is every other kid.”

Congregation Or Ami has programs geared toward helping families with special needs children. One major program involved a coordinator calling all appropriate families to prepare them for the program or find ways to change it to make it work for them, Kipnes said.
Or Ami also has a support group for parents with special needs.

“There is a sense that children with special needs, physically, emotionally, mentally, don’t have a place in the synagogue, in the Jewish community,” Kipnes said.

“That’s just not true, particularly here. We have celebrated b’nai mitzvah with children with autism, emotional developmental problems, intense dyslexia, Tourette’s syndrome – the Torah and Judaism are available for all of them.”

Coping in the Shadow of the Virginia Tech Shootings

The Virginia Tech shootings are horrifying. Within each of us wells up a mixture of reactions: worry, anger, anxiety, sadness and more. We wonder how to respond to our children. We struggle with our own fears and pain. With the help of our Union for Reform Judaism, I offer these prayers, readings and suggestions for how to help children cope. Read prayers.

Helping Children Cope: There is no easy formula for what to say to children following tragedies like the shootings at Virginia Tech. Clearly, the images and discussions of the violence are so prevalent that we cannot completely shield our children from seeing or hearing them. Questions you may face include:

1. Am I safe? Is it going to happen to me?
2. What can we do to help?
3. Why do people hate?
4. Why did they do this to us?
5. What will happen next?
6. Are we in a war?
7. How can we defend ourselves?

Years ago, after 9/11, some thoughtful articles were published on what to say or do with children. Cautioning you that each parent needs to evaluate where each individual child is developmentally and emotionally, I make them available to you again. Remember also that we need to consider both short term worries and longer term fears. Read more.

Speaking Out for Religious Freedom and Marriage Equality


Religious leaders must speak out on the moral issues of our day. The prophets did it. The sages did it. Rabbis throughout their time did it. Earlier this month I did too.

I lent my voice, and my understanding of the evolving Jewish tradition, to two efforts occurring in the State of California regarding Marriage Equality. In addition to supporting an interfaith amicus brief asking the California Supreme Court to decide that it is a violation of the California Constitution to deny same sex couples access to civil marriage, I wrote a letter to The Honorable Mark Leno (13th Assembly District), which said the following:

Along with other religious and spiritual leaders, I join with California Faith for Equality in writing to you in strong support of the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act” (AB43). I commend the protection this legislation provides for religious freedom while ensuring equal treatment under the law for same-sex couples.

I affirm the right to freedom of conscience and recognize that the state may not require religious groups to officiate at, nor bless, same-sex marriages. By the same token, I oppose appeals to sacred texts and religious traditions for the purpose of denying legal and social equality to same-sex couples. The state may not use the religious convictions of one faith for civil law that affects people of all faiths and people without religious affiliation. Furthermore, clergy should not be placed in the position of treating some couples they marry differently than others.

I thank you for setting a standard of leadership and integrity by exercising your legal right and your moral responsibility to pass legislation to end marriage discrimination in California. The right to love and to form a family through marriage is a fundamental human right, and was so recognized by the California Supreme Court in 1948. California public opinion has been moving with remarkable speed to support fair and equal treatment for same-sex couples. History is clearly on the side of full civil rights for all.

I commend your demonstrated respect for our constitution, for the separation of church and state, and for loving, law-abiding families. I join with you in standing on the right side of history, and in standing on the side of love.

History, and a compassionate honest interpretation of Jewish tradition, shows that this is the right path, the moral path, for us to support. I was honored to be able to raise my voice in support.

Imagine the Nightmare: Tourists Walking Through a Museum of the Darfurian Genocide

Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, spoke at a Mass celebrating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s inauguration. His words about the Darfurian Genocide are haunting:

Despite the committed efforts of our President, Congress, and ourselves, I fear that we will commit what Dr. King described as the most tragic political sin good people can make – we will be “too late.” As he said, “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.” Later, there will be time for regret for past failures; now is a time for action. For make no mistake – our legacies will be measured not by our sentiments or even our efforts – but by whether in the end we stop or fail to stop this genocide, by whether we save the children or they perish on our watch.

I have a nightmare, that years from now, there will be a Museum of the Darfurian Genocide – that will be part of the genocide trail. And tourists will go from Cambodia to Rwanda, from Auschwitz and Treblinka to Darfur to learn of the pillage, rape, murder, and starvation. And they will gasp and they will sob, and many among them will doubtless wonder: Where were our parents? Where were our President and Congress? Where was NATO? the EU? Above all, where was the UN? Did they not know? Did they not care? We cannot let that happen.

Withdrawal from Gaza: A Brilliant Documentary Movie

We just returned from viewing the poignant Israeli documentary movie, WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA (Hayetzia MeAza), by director Joel Blasberg. Screened as part of the Israeli film festival, this remarkable film documents the emotionally charged political event where Jews were pitted against Jews, yet where no one was harmed. In the summer of 2005, approximately 8500 Jews were uprooted from their West Bank and Gaza Strip settlements as part of the “disengagement” process to secure peace with the Palestinians.

Shedding tears throughout the movie, we were drawn into the heart-wrenching stories. Remarkably, no one – the messianic settlers, the secular army officers, the youthful soldiers tasked with listening to the settlers’ painful stories and then compassionately evacuating them – came across as extremist or as meshuganas (crazies).

Truly an important film, capturing a heart-wrenching event in Israeli history.

Of course, in the shadow of this past summer’s kidnapping of the soldier into Gaza, the Qassam rockets lobbed into Israel proper from Gaza and the Lebanon 2 war, it is easy to see the disengagement as a terrible mistake. However, before Israel can truly defend itself, it needs to tend to its soul. And the responsibility for lording over a few million Palestinians in Gaza has wounded this soul. Let the Palestinians try to govern themselves or let the world see that it is not Israel’s actions that brought upon the Palestinians the pain they now endure…

Darfur: Genocide Again and Again


Abby Leibman of Jewish World Watch, an organization whose motto is “Do not stand idly by,” spoke at Congregation Or Ami last night about the ongoing Genocide in the Darfur region of the Sudan. I am again horrified by the inaction of the world to this ongoing travesty.

We learned that action by the world’s countries can work. After hundreds of thousands were killed in the Rwandan genocide, President Clinton acted in Kosovo, ensuring that only 5,000 lost their lives. While that was 5,000 souls too many, it does show that when we put our minds to it, we can stop the mass killing, rape and ethnic cleansing.

Time to act before the nightmare becomes even more real. Pick an organization and get involved:

Venturing Out In the Cold: Exploring Addiction and Recovery in Minnesota

On Sunday, I left Los Angeles with its toasty 78 degree weather. When I awoke the following morning in St. Croix, Wisconsin (just over the Minnesota border), it was minus 19 degrees outside. Walking from the hotel to the waiting van, I thought my tuchis (rear end) would freeze off. Yet, after spending a few days at Hazelden, a residential addiction treatment center in Minnesota, I found myself warmed by the profound healing happening amongst recovering addicts, their families and the incredible Hazelden staff. [All the names, situations and stories are composites. In order to protect the confidentiality of all involved, I generalize from my experiences and those of my colleagues.]
I am one of four rabbis and a rabbinic spouse attending the Hazelden Foundation’s Spiritual Care Providers Professionals in Residence program. Recognizing that even Rabbis and Rabbinic families suffer from the disease of addiction, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), my national rabbinical organization, raised funds so that our delegation could acquire the education necessary to help our own. We seek an understanding of chemical dependence and our role in helping persons affected by addiction recover and heal – physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Jews Don’t Drink!?! How many times have you heard that Jews don’t drink? Well we do. And we use chemicals, misuse prescription drugs, snort coke, and engage in a myriad of other addictions too! Like just about every ethnic group, our Jewish brothers and sisters too are seduced by their addictions until their lives are damaged beyond recognition. Slowly, too slowly, our Jewish community is waking up to help. So here I schlepped during the frigid Minnesota winter to deepen my pastoral skills in ways that could benefit both my colleagues and my Or Ami congregants.
In the past fourteen years, I have run recovery retreats, led Jewish 12 Step meetings on Yom Kippur, co-written curricula for developing Jewish 12 Step groups, and mentored rabbinical students to become 12-Step-friendly rabbis. None of this, however, prepared me for the intensity and depth of emotion that permeates this wonderful community.
At Hazelden, we participated in a family program in order to understand how addiction affected relationships. We partnered with addicts to learn first-hand about the challenges they faced. We listened to lectures about alcoholism as a disease and heard inspiring speakers who provide guidance and hope. At one point, I looked out the window at the falling snow hiding the frozen ground beneath. It reminded me that there is so much heartache hidden beneath the faces arrayed before me in Hazelden’s community room. But in the fellowship of recovery, the stories were shared and the pain revealed. Always, I was amazed at the strength of character that it took to face it and fight back.
We learned so much about addiction and recovery.

  • About how addiction is about a “desire to be numb” and the recovery is about “the desire to be alive.”
  • About how many addicts in recovery are grateful for the crisis in their life – their rock bottom – that brought them to recovery.
  • About one study which showed that a person with an alcoholic parent but an otherwise stable family was still FIVE TIMES more likely to develop alcoholism as was a person from a multi-problem family without an alcoholic parent.
  • About the three C’s: Cause, Control, Cure (a family member of an addict DID NOT Cause the disease, CANNOT Control the addiction, and CANNOT Cure it either).
  • About the fifty-pound phone, the notion addicts use to describe how hard it is initially to lift the telephone headset to really reach out for help.
  • About how the craving for the object of your addiction (booze, a joint, some pills) is so insidious and powerful that it is stronger than anything else (love of family, concern for job, caring for spouse).

Beyond making me so grateful for all the wonderful parts of my own life, my stay at Hazelden also taught me how addiction can rob anyone of the fullness of life.
This morning we were playing outside during a break. We had heard that in below zero temperatures, you could throw a full cup of boiling water up into the air, and it would vaporize before it hit the ground. We had to try it, and vaporize it did. I immediately thought of my newfound family group partners. Their lives were once so full. Yet as the chemicals heated up their days, those cherished lives – marriages, careers, economic security, families – were vaporized in less time than it took for that water to vaporize.
I feel so honored and fortunate to be learning this. And to have the opportunity to deepen my pastoral skills so I can reach out and help others. May the Holy One grant me the chance to use this learning to lead others down the path of recovery from addiction.

Keep Far From Sin: Join in the Iraq Debate

These days, I think alot about sin. I wonder, worry really, if most of us have sinned these past years as we neglected to notice – really notice – that war raged on in Iraq. Most of us sat back in our comfy chairs, sipping our lattes and driving our nice cars, while American men and women gave sacrificed their days and their lives fighting on behalf of our country. Whether you supported the decision to enter the war or opposed it, whether you think that decisions were made based on lies or truth-telling, the fact remains that our country is embroiled in a war in Iraq and it is time for us to pay attention.

To go about our days, ignoring the fact that we are involved in this war, may be termed sinful. As Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Reform Movement’s Religious Action Center in Washington DC, wrote in the Jewish Forward on Friday, Feb 2, 2007, it is Time for Our Community To Join the Iraq Debate:

At last, the debate over America’s disastrous situation in Iraq has begun in earnest. With the entire nation now engaged, it is long overdue — and then some — for the Jewish community to weigh in and determine what insights Jewish values and interests can offer. We must do so not only because our prophetic tradition mandates that we speak out on the great moral issues of the day, and not only because as Americans we ought be deeply concerned for what this war means to our country, but also because Israel’s interests and security are so clearly at stake.
Yet in contrast to the stands taken on the Vietnam War, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and even the first Gulf War, too few rabbis have preached from the pulpit on the issue, and too few organizations have debated Iraq policy openly, let alone taken a position on the war and the urgent choices our nation must make. Read more.

So oppose the war or support it. Argue for a surge or against an escalation. Discuss – civilly please – whether to send in 20 thousand troops, withdraw them all, send in one hundred and fifty thousand, or do something else. But discuss, debate, get involved. To remain on the sidelines, during this great moral debate… now that would be sinful!

Shining the Light of Tikun Olam: Fixing the World from Jerusalem

Our Sunday began walking in the dimly lit passages of the tunnel that runs along the base of the Temple Mount. Our touring Sunday concluded as Rabbi Uri Regev, head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), challenged us to live up to the ideals of Congregation Or Ami’s name (“Light of My People”) by truly becoming an Or Lagoyim, a shining light of Jewish values to the world. In between, we saw, we volunteered, we remembered and we contemplated what it means to engage in Tikun Olam, fixing this messed up world of ours.

Israeli archeologists have opened a passage (Kotel Tunnel) that runs eastward from the Kotel (Western Wall) along the walls at the base of the Temple Mount. We marveled at the intricate construction: each stone was etched with a perfect rectangular frame, each level set back exactly the same few centimeters from the one below it, and each stone perfectly flush with its neighbors. We contemplated (without conclusion) how the builders could have moved and placed foundation stones the size of school buses. Then, in amazement and wonder, we walked along the same stone street that our ancestors walked along back in Herodian times. In this dimly lit and slightly claustrophobic tunnel, our Jewish souls shined as we walked through history come alive.

Next, we visited Yad LaKashish, Lifeline to the Elderly, a Jerusalem workshop that takes Jerusalem’s elderly off the park benches, teaches them a craft, provides them with meals, transportation and supplemental medical care, and then sells their beautiful crafts to raise money to support this holy enterprise. Once a one room workshop, Yad LaKashish has grown into a multi-room complex dedicated to Tikun Olam, fixing the world by rediscovering the value (both spiritual and economic) of one elderly person at a time. These crafts are beautiful! We agreed that the light of Or Ami would shine brightly by filling our soon-to-be built Gift Shop with these crafts. Before leaving, our little group spent at least $4,000 (American dollars) on gifts – exquisite tallitot, beautiful wall hangings, and intricate jewelry – that will connect our family and friends back home with these sparks of holy social justice work.

Meir Panim and Koach LaTet reminded us of the transformational power of volunteerism. These Meir Panim “Food Houses” (sounds more humane than soup kitchens) offer meals in tasteful restaurant-like settings to thousands of people around the country. Koach LaTet (literally, “the Power to Give”) is like Israel’s Salvation Army, collecting furniture and clothing, refurbishing them, and then delivering it to Israel’s needy families. We volunteered our time. Some of us cut blankets, sewing them into scarves to warm the homeless and disadvantaged as winter approached. Others engaged in manual labor, lifting and arranging boxes of donated medical supplies to be shipped to medical clinics in low income areas or schlepping old palates and crates to the garbage bin. Then we ate the same lunch at the same tables as Meir Panim’s low income guests. Apparently, the monies we would have spent on our lunchtime restaurant meal were donated to Meir Panim so we could experience another form of living. We who dine in top notch restaurants were humbled to taste the watery soup and nibble on the spicy chicken and the quartered potatoes. Still, we were uplifted to learn that all this was made possible because one man wanted to carry on the memory of his son Meir who died from an incurable disease. From the darkness that consumed his son’s life, one father illuminated the world l’taken olam b’malchut Shaddai, to fix the world [as it should appear] in the realm of the Holy One. A few of us committed ourselves to developing a monthly Or Ami Tikun Olam volunteer day at the local Valley Sova Food Pantry so we can help fix (and feed) our little corner of the world.

Israel’s Mt. Herzl memorial and military cemetery connected us with Israel’s recent past and to the heroes who gave their lives to change the world. We visited the memorial to Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, who in 1897 convened the first Zionist Congress with the purpose of recreating a homeland for the Jews. Im tirzu, ein zo aggadah, he said. If you will it, it is no dream. We placed little stones (the Jewish act that signifies visitation to a grave) at the grave of Israeli Prime Ministers Golda Meir and at the memorial to assassinated Prime Minister and peacemaker Yitzhak Rabin. We witnessed Israel’s egalitarian tradition in the military sections: the grave of military hero Yonatan Netanyahu of the 1976 Entebbe rescue sits humbly next to the graves of less famous but equally venerated Israeli fallen enlisted men and women. Reflecting on the sacrifices these men and women made reminded us that with the rebirth of the State of Israel in modern times, we have changed the world in significant ways. Jews now have a homeland, free from persecution. The world, though they do not always appreciate it, now sees a vibrant example of democracy in the Middle East and unparalleled open access to religious sites throughout holy Jerusalem.

We ended the day at Beit Shmuel/Mercaz Shimshon, home to our Reform movement’s international parent body, the World Union for Progressive Judaism. In forty short minutes at the end of an exhausting day, Rabbi Uri Regev talked about the ongoing struggle to nurture in Israel and around the world a progressive, egalitarian form of Judaism which is committed to vibrant openness and social justice values. He illuminated the challenges: Chabad’s success at raising monies to claim a monopoly on Jewish life in the former Soviet Union with their patriarchal, hierarchical orthodox Judaism, and the ongoing attempts by Israel’s orthodox religious parties to block the development of an Israeli constitution that would guarantee the rights of all Jews in Israel to a civil (or a reform Jewish) wedding or burial and the rights of all Israel’s citizens (women and Israeli minorities included) to a equality under the law. In a riff on our name Or Ami (Light of My People), he challenged us appropriately to become that light to our whole people – not just the Jews who become members of Or Ami – by engaging in the conversation about what Israel’s character should be, by planting a progressive Judaism in the former Soviet Union (home to a quickly growing Jewish population) and by deepening our involvement in Tikun Olam, Jewish social activism.

An exhausting day! Sure, we found babysitters for the kids and enjoyed a dinner out at restaurant 1868 as adults. But the call to transform the world – and the challenges that we face in doing so – enflamed our imaginations as much as the tasty Israeli cuisine filled up our bellies. May we all be up to the task… to live up to our name – to be a light unto our whole Jewish people. Laila Tov – Good Night.

Sowing Seeds of Anger

On Thursday, I sat in the synagogue at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and heard a preacher captivate the entire community with a beautifully crafted, exquisitely presented sermon on anger. I sat transfixed, thinking she was talking to ME, even as (I learned later) others thought she was talking to THEM. This young darshan (Torah interpreter) Jocee Hudson, a fifth year Rabbinical student, began by saying: A few months ago, I planted seeds of anger within myself. Anger. And I am tending to these seedlings with such care and gentleness. I’m trying hard not to over-water them. I’m trying to keep them in the sunlight. I’m trying to talk to these anger-seeds, softly, to help them grow.
Teaching that the English word “anger” comes from a Norse word, “ang,” which means loss or grief and that anger, then, is the loss or grief we feel when we consider what could be, if it weren’t for injustice, Jocee urged us, quietly and passionately, to embrace anger to transform the world.

Many of us are afraid of anger, because anger in some people leads to acts of violence and destruction. But what if it led to acts of transformation, peaceful transformation, and ethical societal change? Jocee noted that being outraged means knowing what values are central to who we are—and feeling those values deep within us—feeling them in our stomachs. Being outraged means expressing anger when society crosses over that line between morality and immorality. Being a good leader means building communities in which everyone feels outrage if we step over that line.

Frankly, it is scary to speak about outrage to people who often only want us to “be nice” and who do not want to hear about critiques. Yet we teach that the job of the rabbi is

To comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

Or as Jocee reminded us that Isaiah said (Isaiah 1:14-17): God is angry—angry at the injustice in our world. Isaiah hurls Divine words at his community; “Your new moons and fixed seasons fill Me with loathing! They have become a burden to Me, I cannot endure them. And when you lift up your hands, I will turn My eyes away from you….Cease to do evil; learn to do good. Devote yourselves to justice; Aid the wronged. Uphold the rights of the orphan; Defend the cause of the widow.”

Just as we speak about God of a Comforter or a Healer or a Peace-maker or …, so too must we remember that in our tradition, surely God gets angry when humans fail to rise to the level of ethical behavior that we might expect. Perhaps the God of Anger does not punish in our world today, but, says Jocee, let us remember that “Anger” is the term that we, in our limited human vocabulary, can use to point toward God’s reaction to us when we allow the vulnerable to remain powerless.

Hmmm, peaceful anger or anger that leads to peaceful change. Interesting, huh?

Darfur: Is This Another Case Where the World Sits Idly By?

I remain worried and saddened that we seem impotent to address the continuing genocidal violence that alights the Sudan and now neighboring Chad and other countries. Peace accords are signed; violations begin immediately. The website OurPledge.org, Americans Against the Darfur Genocide, headlines with: Darfur Humanitarian Situation Bleakest Ever; Khartoum Continues to Reject Deployment of Multinational Peacekeepers: The violence in Darfur is accelerating, and over 4 million civilians, two-thirds of Darfur’s entire population, now need emergency assistance in order to survive. In his Nov. 22 report to the UN Security Council, the UN’s aid chief Jan Egeland gave his most negative assessment yet of the genocidal destruction being committed throughout the region: “Villages, camps, and communities outside the urban centers of Darfur are again being burnt and looted. Women and children are abused, raped, and killed with impunity. Just ten days ago the village of Sirba saw three attacks by government forces and Arab militia that resulted in innocent civilians, mainly women and children, killed and injured. I met some of the victims in the hospital of El Geneina. A mother told me how she held her two-year-old daughter in her arms as the child was willfully shot in the neck by an armed man, despite her repeated begging to spare her daughter. The wounded child did, as I could see, miraculously survive and now recovers in the good care of the Sudanese local doctors. Neither the Government [of Sudan] nor the African Union was able or willing to show presence or deploy proactively in Sirba before the massacre, despite repeated warnings by villagers and aid workers of the impending attacks.” Meanwhile, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has repeated his opposition to a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur, a “hybrid” arrangement supported by the United Nations as well as the Bush administration. According to Bashir, “Any talk that we [the Sudanese government] accepted joint forces is a lie.” This genocide is a problem we CAN solve! Why aren’t we? We Jews, who have experienced this and worse, should be particularly concerned and vocal. That’s why we are and must remain involved with Jewish World Watch.

People Who Inspire Me: Two HUC Interns Walking the Breast Cancer 3-Day

In between their overwhelming studies and their huge responsibilities running our Mishpacha Family Alternative Learning program, two HUC interns, Rebecca Saliman and Rachel Isaacson, walked the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in San Diego to support the Susan B. Komen’s foundation. They were part of a 15 member team of students and friends from Hebrew Union College. The team, led by Rachel Isaacson, was named Emunah (believe in Hebrew), because they believe in a world without breast cancer. Team Emunah raised over $39,000 for breast cancer research and medical assistance, and ranked 24th for fundraising out of over 900 teams in the San Diego walk. To make time beyond the daily grind to participate in gemilut chasadim (acts of lovingkindness), especially for people you really don’t know: that makes them inspirational.

Rachel’s experience is shared on her blog.

Rebecca writes:

I was touched…
I was touched by just how many people came out to support us. As we walked through the streets of San Diego, thousands of people lined the streets, giving us high-fives, candy, pins, stickers for our name cards, and smiles of encouragement. People dressed up in funny costumes and met us along the way. I looked forward to seeing “Smile Guy and Little Grin,” a father and his three-year-old daughter who were dressed up in yellow smiley-faced outfits and handed out stickers. When we walked through a residential area, one family stood at the top of the hill and cheered as we reached the top, “you know where you are?” they shouted, “YOU’VE REACHED THE TOP OF THE HILL!” As we were about to walk up a really steep hill on the second day, people lined the entire base of the hill, high-fiving us on our way up; somehow the hill didn’t seem so ominous. One woman made thousands of home made cookies for us at rest stop 5–just what I needed after miles 15,16, and 17 on the second day. It felt like everyone was behind us, encouraging us, pushing us, motivating us. It was amazing.

I was in awe…
I was in awe of a woman who has walked in every single Breast-Cancer-3-Day walk this year (12 in all). I was in awe of two sisters who walked for their third sister who was battling breast cancer and died the first night of the walk…and the two sisters kept walking. The walk was a celebration of life.

I was sad…
I was sad when I walked through the tent of remembrance and I saw photos of people who were registered to walk in the San Diego Breast Cancer 3 Day but never made it to this weekend. People wrote the names of people they were walking for…thousands of names. And I realized just how many people are affected by breast cancer and just how many people are invested in finding a cure.

I laughed…
I laughed as we sang while we walked, at the man who was dressed up as a mammogram machine (wearing a box with two holes cut out and a sign: place breasts here), at the crazy sweep vans completely covered by bras, at the walkers’ creative costumes (i.e. the boobies – dressed up as bubble bees). I laughed because though people’s feet were covered in blistered, we were all still smiling.

I walked 60 miles in three days and it was amazing. As we completed the last mile and entered Pet-co stadium for closing ceremonies, I walked, teary-eyed, through a tunnel of walkers who had already finished. They slapped my hands as person after person looked into my eyes and said, “Good job. You’re amazing. You did it.” We all did it…4,500 walkers, 450 volunteer crew…and the entire city of San Diego behind us all the way. My team of 15 Hebrew Union College students and friends raised over $40,000 and together we raised 11.3 million.