Shabbat-O-Gram
Planting in our Mitzvah Garden last Sunday on
our school's Mitzvah Day
Shabbat
Shalom and Happy Memorial Day Weekend
Tonight let's soak in the warmth of early
summer on this holiday weekend, as we welcome guest speaker Professor Jacob Kavalio, an uncle of Zarin Keydar and Cantor Fishman.
On this day when our
attention has been on President Obama's call for a saner, nuclear free world
while visiting Hiroshima, Professor Kavalio will speak about the
complicated relationship between the Jews and Japan. We also
welcome back Beth Styles as our musical guest. On Shabbat morning, we
read the portion Behar.
Among our Torah readers will be Shayna Druckman, returning to read as part of
our "B'nai Mitzvah alumni" program, who two years ago delivered this
brilliant commentary, comparing Behar to the movie "Frozen."
"Kindness works in a cycle," she wrote. "If you treat
others with kindness, you'll get it back in return."
Things
to do while stuck in traffic or in line at the airport
First of all, if you are stuck in traffic and
reading this, I hope you are not the driver! It used to be that long
weekends were not optimal times to send out congregational emails. But these
days, over half of you are reading your Shabbat-O-Grams on mobile devices -
in other words, while sitting in traffic at the GW Bridge or in (on) line at
JFK, waiting to be strip searched by the T.S.A. So, as a public
service, here are some suggestions that will keep you from yelling at your
kid in the back seat or going full Rambo while digging into your pocket for
cash to check your luggage.
1)
Take a deep breath - that's always a good idea. It really does get
better. Just maybe not on this trip. You can add some Shabbat
meditation to the mix by listening to Nava
Tehila's playlist. People loved last week's service, which was attended
by nearly 300. The room was really rocking to Ya'aloz Sadai
(psalm 96). Or livestream our service this evening - click
here and follow us, and you'll get an email reminder of all our
livestreamed events.
2)
Buy your tickets for our "Soul
to Soul" concert next Thursday. You
mean you haven't done that yet? There are countless reasons to be here,
aside from supporting TBE: the original
and outstanding mix of Yiddish and African American music, the vocal
talents of our extraordinary cantor, the statement of unity at a time when
too many try to divide us, the chance to celebrate our richly-deserving
honorees Peter and Betsy Kempner, and, oh yes, did I say the music? And to
order tickets all you have to do is click
here and it will be done before you reach Fort Lee.
3)
Go with the Slow. Mobility is overrated - We need to move on from
"moving on." Sometimes standing still is precisely the
antidote to this "spring forward" generation, when we barely have
time to catch our breath from the latest outrageous comments made by supposedly
responsible public figures, before the next one is uttered. No wonder we fail
to be shocked. We're moving too fast to stop and smell the sewage.
4)
Smell the Roses, too: Look out the window and notice the ordinary miracles Albert
Einstein put it best: "There are only two ways to live your life. One
is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.
Choose." Listen to Sarah
McLachlan and that is sure to soothe you.
5)
Remember. This is, after all, MEMORIAL Day. So take a few moments to
remember. Remember those who have made the supreme sacrifice so that you can
wait in traffic while heading to the Hamptons or Jersey Shore. Of the
more than 6,800 Americans who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since
fighting began nearly 15 years ago, we know that 53 called themselves Jews. The Forward
profiled 37 of those Jewish servicemen and women in February 2011
and 13 more in September 2012 ; since then, three more have died and have
been identified as Jewish by such groups as the National Museum of American
Jewish Military History. Read their
stories. Read also this from the
Wall Street Journal on the Jews who died in the American Revolution.
6)
Count the Omer - It's just as relaxing as and far more spiritual than counting
sheep. Yesterday was Lag B'Omer. Click
here for a full explanation of that enigmatic but enjoyable holiday. Read
this introduction
and see
Goldie Milgrom's Kabbalistic Omer Calendar, and see how Nachman of
Bratzlav celebrated it.
7)
Listen to Mary
Oliver recite her poem, "A Summer Day." Those who come regularly to Kabbalat Shabbat services know
that I love this poem - it's in our service guide and we'll be reading it
tonight.
8)
If you are feeling especially paranoid and
conspiratorial, think about the most outrageous anti-Semitic conspiracy
theories you've ever heard, and compare them to these.
9)
Jewish Spelling Bee - a great activity for those long car rides. The National
Spelling Bee concluded last night (in a tie), so let's continue with a Jewish
Spelling Bee. You can start with these
Jewish words that have made it into the national Bee, including the piece
de resistance, "knaidel"
(which in my mind is misspelled), which was the winning word in 2013.
And let's go even one step beyond, with a Jewish Autocorrect Bee. Guess
in advance how Jewish words will be autocorrected by your phone.
"Knaidel" becomes "insider," "Shma" becomes
"Ahmad" (interesting) and "blintz" becomes
"bling." Speaking of blintz...
10)
Time to plan for Shavuot. See the schedule
below.
11)
And finally... plan for next summer's trip!
I am delighted to announce that registration
has begun for our rescheduled European Jewish Heritage trip, now set
for July 2-14 2017. The
website is now up and running, with full itinerary and pricing.
When we planned the trip for this summer, a number of you suggested
that you would be very interested in such a trip, just not for this
summer. So, your wish is my command. We've shortened it slightly
to reduce costs (though it can easily be extended on either end). This
trip is very important for Jews of all ages to take. With "March of the
Living" now no longer an organized event within our community, I am
looking into providing scholarships to those teens whose families go on this
trip. Scholarship forms will be sent out this summer. We'll be
hearing from Stephanie Hausman, a TBE teen who participated in the March, at
services on June 10. If you are interested in next year's trip,
sign up now!
Shabbat Shalom and have a warm and wonderful
holiday weekend!
|
Author of "Embracing Auschwitz" and "Mensch•Marks: Life Lessons of a Human Rabbi - Wisdom for Untethered Times." Winner of the Rockower Award, the highest honor in Jewish journalism and 2019 Religion News Association Award for Excellence in Commentary. Musings of a rabbi, journalist, father, husband, poodle-owner, Red Sox fan and self-proclaimed mensch, taken from essays, columns, sermons and thin air. Writes regularly in the New York Jewish Week and Times of Israel.
Friday, May 27, 2016
Shabbat-O-Gram "Are We There Ye?" Edition
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