Shabbat-O-Gram for May 18, 2013

Shabbat-O-Gram

Our 7th Graders just before their "Aliyah" service on Tuesday evening Shabbat Shalom With Shavuot behind us, this week we are blessed with not one but two ufrufs at services on Shabbat morning, celebrating the upcoming weddings of Matt Miller and Jamie Morvitz, and Alexis Kraus and Marc Steinberg.  I can't recall having two ufrufs at the same service here before.  We are doubly blessed! It's giving me dreams of filling Yankee Stadium with TBE couples - but mass weddings really aren't our thing. And thank you to their families for sponsoring our weekly announcements.  Mazal tov! Speaking of blessings.... Is it just coincidence, or was it divinely ordained that the new Star Trek film open on the very weekend when we read the Torah portion most directly associated with the series? Although I've never been a real Trekkie, I've always been intrigued with the Jewish connections with Star Trek, the most famous being that Vulcan hand salute which mimics that gesture of blessing made by the high priests in ancient times, a blessing found in Numbers 6:23-26 . The new Spock, BTW needed special training to get that salute down. Jewcy, a hip Jewish site, now chimes in with "Jew Trek", which claims that the new film version of the old TV series has been rendered Judenrein. As he writes, this is what "the Jew of Star Trek has been reduced to: A cultural heritage, a memory of a series long past. Now, we look to the future. Too bad J.J. Abrams is such a goy.  Thank you to congregant Beth Madison for alerting me to following site, created by a rabbi and Trekkie, with a link to an entertaining essay titled, "New Star Trek Movie: A Vulcan Holocaust?" This is an opportune week to reflect on the meaning of blessings.  Tradition instructs us to try to utter 100 blessings every day, whether spontaneous or not.  Many can be found in the daily prayers, and some can be found in the grace after meals (see Birkat Hamazon explained in Wikipedia and in the Jewish Virtual Library); it can be downloaded at Birkat Hamazon [pdf]).  Some more spontaneous blessings can be foundhere. Twenty years ago, in 1993, I asked a confirmation class to come up with 100 blessings of their own, a list of what they are most thankful for.  Read their list here (and it's amazing to see some of them are teaching the same lessons to their own children).  Two weeks ago, our 3rd and 4th graders were sitting in my office and I asked them to do the exact same thing.  Their list of 100 blessings  includes dogs, Doritos, family, Laffy Taffy, teeth, the beach, clapping, our feet, the seasons, aliens, love, justice, Connecticut, Israel, t-shirts, baby brothers, and aardvarks.      Admittedly, it's not easy to achieve the 100 blessing threshold each and every day, even if the reciting the Amida alone, three times daily (with its nineteen blessings on weekdays) brings us nearly two thirds of the way.   We all have so much to be grateful for. A student once asked Rebbe Elimelech the following question, regarding the famous statement of our sages: "How is it possible to bless God for bad news with equal fervor as for good news? Go to the study hall" replied the Rebbe," and ask your question to my brother, the saintly Reb Zusia." When the student laid his eyes on Reb Zusia, he could easily imagine the suffering this man must have experienced in his lifetime. The pain of illness and poverty were etched on his face. The student proceeded to ask: "How is it possible to bless God for bad news with equal fervor as for good news?" Reb Zusia's reply: "Why are you asking me? How do I know the answer? Nothing bad has ever happened to me!" So, what am I grateful for? In a week, I'll be watching my eldest child graduate from college.  Ask me then! Shabbat Shalom!  And mazal tov to all our graduates, brides and grooms, and anyone else celebrating life transitions this month and next. Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Sarah Lederman on Mikketz

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hanukkah!

This morning I’d like to tell you about a people who fought off their oppressors to gain freedom after a lengthy struggle, only to finally emerge victorious but battered. When they won, one of the first major events that happened was an important miracle, unlike anything they had seen before. They returned to their main temple and listened to their spiritual leader – then they cleaned up the place that that had been hit hardest by the occupation.

Of you’ve guessed what I’m talking about. No, it’s not the Maccabees and the Hanukkah story.
It’s “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

My mom introduced me to “Star Trek” when I was seven years old, with “The Next Generation,” and I’ve loved it ever since. How much do I love it? Everyone knows that Tribbles are giant fur balls that eat everything, breed and annoy Klingons. But did you know that the Klingon armada obliterated the Tribble home world? Or that even shape-shifting aliens, called Changelings are easily wooed by those furry creatures. If you’ve never seen a Tribble, I brought one in.

Star Trek DS9 and the Hanukkah story have a lot of similarities. For example: they both have villains that oppress a people, resistance fighters who opposed them, and in both cases the resistance wins and that victory is followed by a miracle. In the case of Star Trek, that miracle is the arrival of the emissary of the prophets and the discovery of the celestial temple, the home of the Bajoran gods.


As with Hanukkah, the weak defeated the mighty. A small Shakaar resistance cell, which
included Kira Nerys, a Judah Maccabee – like figure if there ever was one, did whatever it took to get rid of the Cardassians, who wanted to destroy their way of life – and actually did destroy it. When the war was won, they were able to restore some of their ancient glory. They did this in the same that Jews rebuild communities today – with the help of the Federation.

One of the ancient practices that they brought back was a month-long fast called the Time of Cleansing, in which they cleansed themselves of sins in a way very similar to Yom Kippur. Their services, held every day, included special prayers to the prophets, asking for forgiveness.

They even have rabbis, called Vedeks, who lead the services, meditate and study the visions of the prophets and their interpretations. People come to the Vedeks to ask advice or seek blessings. They do not have any dietary laws, as they often had no food and had to eat whatever they could find.

However, they have something like bar or bat mitzvah. As children, they begin to wear special earrings that contain the crest of their family. They are passed down from generation to generation.


And to mourn the death of a loved one, they even have something like a yahrzeit candle, called duranja.

Of course there has to be a villain to this story. In this case, his name is not Antiochus, but Gul Dukat. He was the head of the occupation during its final years. Like Korach, who battled Moses in the wilderness and was swallowed up by the earth, Dukat eventually met his end when he was thrust into a giant pit of flames.


As you can see, the faith of the Bajorans is truly what holds them together especially during the long occupation. Without their faith, they would have given up a long time ago, and their culture would have been lost. As Kira said, “That’s the thing about faith. If you don’t have it you can’t understand it. And if you do, no explanation is necessary.”

I feel the same way about being a Jew. As I become a bat mitzvah, I hope that I will be as secure in my faith as Kira is in hers. One way that I can do that is through service to others. For my mitzvah project, I did a series of bake sales to raise money and awareness for Heifer International. Heifer International is an organization that makes families that can not support themselves self-sufficient, by giving the families animals, like cows, that they then take a product from, such as milk, and the family uses some to feed themselves, and they sell the rest. When the animals have babies, the family has to give some of the offspring to another family that needs them. The new family is taught how to take care of the animals, and they promise to pass on the gift to another person.


I hope you can see how fitting it is for me to support an organization that works to end hunger, when my portion is about how Joseph prevented starvation during a famine. And how did that all happen? It all began with Pharaoh’s dreams about skinny cows and fat cows. It all begins with heifers, but heifer International doesn’t just do cows. It also provides families with goats, sheep, chickens, llamas, alpacas, honeybees, water buffalos, ducks, rabbits, geese, and, if I could say it in a synagogue, pigs.