Shabbat O Gram for June 8

Mazal tov to Alexa Karp and family on her becoming Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat.  Join us tonight and tomorrow morning for services as we celebrate this smicha and another lovely, peaceful Shabbat together. And remember that next Friday night we'll be honoring our 8^th and 12^th grade graduates.  BTW, I've come up with a great way to ensure remarkable attendance at services:  Just change the name of "Shabbat" to "Mah Jongg."  The turnout at this week's tournament was spectacular - wall to wall Mah Jonggers.  Congrats to Sisterhood on that, and also for TBE's continuing strong presence at the Bennett Center Cancer Walk last week.  It's also gratifying to know that we were well represented at the Celebrate Israel Parade

in NYC, aided by our local day schools.

To see hundreds of photos from last week's spectacular Cantor's Concert,  click here.  Also, see the commemorative journal honoring Gary Lessen. A great time was had by all.  You can view share the photos on our TBE Facebook page as well.  And while you are there, like us!  We like to be liked.

Judaism's Triple Crown

This is a week when we are doing lots of crowning.  Celebrating the Queen's crowning achievement, crowning champions at the French Open, a marquee basketball moment for King James in Miami (though I still believe in the Celtics), potentially crowning a Stanley Cup champion in hockey and, until the shocking news came out that he's been scratched from the race, there was  a potential Triple Crown winner at the Belmont.  Still, lots of crowns and kings and queens in this week's news.

There are actually five different Hebrew words used for "crown" in the Bible.  In later sources, God is constantly represented as wearing crown. Brides and grooms are often depicted as wearing crowns.  And of course, the Torah is as well.

Crowns have a deep symbolism in Judaism, and in particular, in Kabbala.   You can read about it here.  The "crown" symbolizes the spiritual power to receive and integrate into one's consciousness the pleasure of Divine revelation.  Just as in horseracing, there are three prongs to the Kabbalistic crown - these are Judaism's "Triple Crown." These three "heads" correspond to three meanings for "Keter" in Hebrew: "crown," "to wait" and "to surround." Anyone who has watched "I'll Have Another" has to be impressed with this horse's patience, his ability to wait far back in the pack, anticipating just the right moment to make his move, to "surround" his opponent.  So had he run, I'd have been on solid ground predicting a victory.  Maybe next year.

 

Meanwhile, send me some "Jewish" names for racehorses.  "I'll Have Another" sounds like a great name for a Jewish horse (sort of akin to "Pass the Blintzes").  How about "Thinks He's Secretariat?" "Loves his Mother?" "Glue 'Aint Kosher?" "Mr. Ed's Minyan?"  Can you think of others? 

Sex Abuse Cover Ups in the Jewish Community

There has been considerable consternation and media coverage of late about how child sex abuse cases are handled in the haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community. The Brooklyn district attorney, no doubt feeling the pressure, is now pushing for legislation that would require rabbis to report such crimes to the authorities. The coverage has pinpointed an obscure rabbinic prohibition as a major source of the problem: the ancient prohibition against

mesirah, the handing over of a Jew to non-Jewish authorities.

The idea that Jews should be protective of Jewish sinners stems from a longstanding mistrust of just about every government we've lived under - everything until right now, here in America. The most obvious example was the Romans, whom the rabbis had in mind when they advised their students, "Love work, despise positions of power and do not become overly familiar with the government." But the idea of protecting Jews from secular authorities has reached absurd extremes in Jewish law. The principle of mesirah has been used to dissuade Jewish auditors from reporting other Jews to the IRS for tax fraud and, as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ruled, to prohibit us from turning a Jew in to secular authorities for fraudulent kashrut supervision.

It all goes back to Moses. When he struck the Egyptian taskmaster, Exodus tells us that fellow Israelites began taunting him about the incident, which led Moses to become fearful that someone would turn him over to Pharaoh. Rashi posits that Moses wasn't so much concerned about his own fate; he was concerned that his act would lead "villains and informers" to turn him in, making them unworthy of redemption. So he fled, not so much to protect himself as to protect his accusers from suffering the fate of the moser.

But change "Pharaoh" to "NYPD" and the story reads quite differently. If Moses had struck a cop not in Egypt but Brooklyn, wouldn't it have been absolutely appropriate for a fellow Jew to notify the authorities? Now replace "NYPD" with "Sheriff Jim Clark," and would you turn in Moses for striking a cop who was assaulting peaceful protesters in Selma? Wouldn't you want your moral code to protect him? 

True, one person's freedom fighter is another person's terrorist, but I can stand behind an objective moral standard that says that Moses was right, in the context of his times, and a child molester is wrong, anytime, anywhere, and Pharaoh and the NYPD are not created equal. 

We can both protect Moses and turn in the molester for lots of reasons, but in each case, the least relevant factor is that the perpetrator happens to be Jewish. That's mesirah's fatal flaw.

It's time to declaw this dangerous concept, so that it may never again be used to justify the protection of those who inflict suffering on innocent children.

Click here to continue reading "The Mesirah Mess" in the Jewish Week

  

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Cantor's Concert Photos

To see hundreds of photos from last week's incredible cantor's Concert, click here

2012 Cantor's Concert (Photos by Aviva Maller and Steve Labkoff)

Sex-Abuse Cover Ups: The Mesirah Mess - Jewish Week

Originally published in the Jewish Week

Sex-Abuse Cover Ups: The Mesirah Mess

Joshua Hammerman

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

There has been considerable consternation and media coverage of late about how child sex abuse cases are handled in the haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, community. The Brooklyn district attorney, no doubt feeling the pressure, is now pushing for legislation that would require rabbis to report such crimes to the authorities. This scandal has been discussed for years in The Jewish Week and other Jewish media, and recently in The New York Times, with reports of how informants are routinely shunned and victims banned from reporting abuse to the authorities. Anti-Semitic websites have had a field day, comparing this Jewish “code of silence” to the Mafia’s.

The coverage has pinpointed an obscure rabbinic prohibition as a major source of the problem: the ancient prohibition against mesirah, the handing over of a Jew to non-Jewish authorities.  Ironically, the same Hebrew root forms the word “masoret,” or tradition, describing a priceless heritage handed over from one generation to another. But in this case, mesirah, the public disclosure of allegations against another Jew, is considered to be an act that desecrates God’s name.

It is important to emphasize that most rabbinic authorities concur that Judaism has no place for the protection of sexual predators.  Even for those who might otherwise support mesirah, the prohibition does not apply when there is a perceived public menace. As Rabbi Moses Isserles states in his gloss to the Shulchan Aruch, “A person who attacks others should be punished. If the Jewish authorities do not have the power to punish him, he must be punished by the civil authorities.”

While unfortunately there is still considerable resistance in reporting dangerous behavior to secular authorities among the haredim, the problem is less mesirah itself than how these rabbis choose to apply it. To paraphrase the NRA gun lobby, mesirah doesn’t harm people: people do. In this case, those people are insular and misinformed Jewish leaders.

That said, when you read Maimonides’ full explanation of mesirah, it gives one pause to wonder whether the time has come to eliminate it completely from the halachic lexicon.  Maimonides, after all, was neither insular nor misinformed, and he lived in a society that was relatively benign toward Jews. Yet he writes: “It is forbidden to hand over a Jew to the heathen, neither his person nor his goods, even if he is wicked and a sinner, even if he causes distress and pain to fellow-Jews. Whoever hands over a Jew to the heathen has no part in the next world. It is permitted to kill a moser (informant) wherever he is. It is even permitted to kill him before he has handed over (a fellow Jew).”

Maimonides’ condemnation of the moser is reminiscent of the law regarding the rodef (the life-threatening pursuer), whom one is also allowed to kill. This rabbinic concept was employed most infamously by those advocating the murder of Prime Minister Rabin. The moser and rodef are linked explicitly in a commentary by Rebbenu Asher: “Thus, an informer is like a pursuer to kill someone and the victim may be saved at the cost of the life of the pursuer.”

In our world, it is the molester who is clearly the pursuer, not the guy who calls 911. It is the cover-up that shames the entire Jewish community, not the informant. In a free society with just courts and equal treatment under the law, mesirah is a relic, a conversation piece from a more perilous past, like that section of the Haggadah where we ask God to pour out divine wrath against our enemies.

The idea that Jews should be protective of Jewish sinners stems from a longstanding mistrust of just about every government we’ve lived under — everything until right now, here in America. The most obvious example was the Romans, whom the rabbis had in mind when they advised their students, “Love work, despise positions of power and do not become overly familiar with the government.” But the idea of protecting Jews from secular authorities has reached absurd extremes in Jewish law. The principle of mesirah has been used to dissuade Jewish auditors from reporting other Jews to the IRS for tax fraud and, as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ruled, to prohibit us from turning a Jew in to secular authorities for fraudulent kashrut supervision. I for one am glad the Agriprocessors scandal was handled by the secular courts and not kept “within the family.”

Where does mesirah come from?

It all goes back to Moses. When he struck the Egyptian taskmaster, Exodus tells us that fellow Israelites began taunting him about the incident, which led Moses to become fearful that someone would turn him over to Pharaoh. Rashi posits that Moses wasn’t so much concerned about his own fate; he was concerned that his act would lead “villains and informers” to turn him in, making them unworthy of redemption. So he fled, not so much to protect himself as to protect his accusers from suffering the fate of the moser.

But change “Pharaoh” to “NYPD” or “FBI,” and the story reads quite differently. If Moses had struck a cop not in Egypt but Brooklyn, wouldn’t it have been absolutely appropriate for a fellow Jew to notify the authorities? Now replace “NYPD” with “Sheriff Jim Clark,” and would you turn in Moses for striking a cop who was assaulting peaceful protesters in Selma? Wouldn’t you want your moral code to protect him? True, one person’s freedom fighter is another person’s terrorist, but I can stand behind an objective moral standard that says that Moses was right, in the context of his times, and a child molester is wrong, anytime, anywhere, and Pharaoh and the NYPD are not created equal.

We can both protect Moses and turn in the molester for lots of reasons, but in each case, the least relevant factor is that the perpetrator happens to be Jewish. That’s mesirah’s fatal flaw.

It’s time to declaw this dangerous concept, so that it may never again be used to justify the protection of those who inflict suffering on innocent children.


Rabbi Joshua Hammerman is spiritual leader of Temple Beth-El in Stamford, Conn.

Cantor's Concert Journal Honoring Gary Lessen

Open publication - Free publishing - More concert

Shabbat-O-Gram for June 1

Shabbat Shalom and Happy June, as we all look forward to this Sunday's Cantor's Concert.  It's especially gratifying to be able to pay tribute to Gary Lessen. Gary has made an enormous impact TBE helping to guide us through challenging times. 

This past week marked three watershed moments for the Conservative Movement.  In Washington, a group of Conservative leaders met with President Obama (read  JTS Chancellor Arnold Eisen's reactions to the meeting). In Israel, the government's decision to fund Reform, Conservative rabbis set a dramatic new precedent. Rabbi Julie Schoenfeld, head of the Rabbinical Assembly, called it "a historic day for Israelis and Jews around the world." She added that "In order for Judaism to grow and thrive in Israel, it is necessary that the government recognize its obligation to provide equal funding to various Jewish religious streams and expressions that flower in the Jewish state."

The third watershed event was the publication of, "The Observant Life," a massive yet practical one-volume explanation of the hows and whys of "doing Jewish" in these changing times.  It covers everything from Shabbat, Israel, kashrut, lifecycle and prayer to charitable giving, sibling relations, medical ethics, military service, animal rights and same-sex relationships.  In short, it's long.  And it covers everything you need to know about being a Jew, from a Conservative perspective.  The last time that was done was Isaac Klein's "Guide to Jewish Religious Practice," which came out so long ago that I was still in Rabbinical School!  This new book goes far beyond Klein and should become an indispensible addition to every bookshelf. I plan to feature it in my teaching over the coming year.

I'll also be reviewing this new book at services on Shabbat morning.  (BTW, we had a fabulous time at our camp-style service outdoors last Shabbat morning - see the study packet that I assembled for a discussion we held about Israel's emerging moral crisis involving large numbers of African refugees).  Join us and hear about the new book tomorrow.  And of course join us tonight for our always amazing Kabbalat Shabbat service at 7:30.

Wednesday night was TBE's Annual Meeting, a real feel-good evening, where we discussed lots of great things happening here. Below are some excerpts from my remarks:

What is it that takes a community and transforms it into a congregation? What separates us from other places people gather - workplaces, schools or clubs? There is something that makes it so special to be here, but what is it?

There are innovative programs, to be sure, and this year we've stretched ourselves even more to reach groups that traditionally have not flocked to suburban synagogues. Shabbat is cooking on all cylinders for all age groups and we want to do even more for next year.  This past fall, the cantor and I went to JTS to teach future rabbis and cantors how make age old prayers jump off the page, mixing them with lovely melodies and dousing them in contemporary meaning.  Services have been great, for all ages, but this year our greatest leap has been in Adult Education, which had its best year ever here, with more people participating in more vibrant classes taught by passionate teachers.  The ConTEXT series brought university level classes here and cemented our bond with JTS and our movement.  We took interfaith dialogue to new heights with our comparative religions series, the 9/11 Concert and the Interfaith Seder.  We've had great fundraising and social programs too, culminating in our Cantor's Concert this coming weekend.  

So we've had great programs.

But that's not what takes a community and transforms it into a holy congregation - or to use the Hebrew term that is now in vogue - a Kehilla Kedosha.

It's about the people.

It's about a group of lay leaders and professionals not afraid to roll up their sleeves and address any challenge. That goes for board members, committee chairs and everyone who builds community here. It goes for our superb staff as well, collectively the greatest group of people I've ever worked with - our dedicated office and maintenance staff, our superb teachers and tutors, Steve Lander, Ronnie Brockman, Al Treidel, Rabbi Michelle Dardashti and Cantor George Mordecai are the 1927 Yankees of synagogue staffs.

It's about people who look at potential budget deficits and see a challenge, not a crisis; people who are willing to take calculated risks, even to risk failure, knowing that stagnation is not an option.  People who give credit and accept responsibility, rather than the other way around.  People who truly love Israel and understand its centrality to our future.  People who understand that this is more than just a business - it is a sacred calling.  People who understand that it's less about serving our members then about helping our members to serve God.  And by doing the latter, we accomplish both.  Lay leaders passionate about being Jewish and wanting our children to be.  Leaders who feel a fiduciary responsibility to every child who walks through that door.  And that fiduciary responsibility also translates into love.  People who seek excellence.  People for whom the cup is always half full - but on its way to overflowing; people who are a glowing example of what a loving community can be.

People who care about the cost of being Jewish.  A few weeks ago, the board passed a new policy granting a year's free membership to day school families in grades K, 1 and 2 (we already have such an offer for Hebrew School families).  Today Rabbi Dardashti and I told a prospective member about that offer and it absolutely sealed the deal.  She and her husband had been deciding between us and another synagogue and when we said we understand how expensive it is and we want you so much to be part of our family, she could only say "wow."

Is that the Beth El you know?  The Beth El that is about people?  It is for most - it needs to be the Beth El that everyone knows.

Beth El is about people...

Shabbat Shalom!

Israel's (Other) Refugee Crisis

Israel has another refugee dilemma, one that doesn't involve Palestinians, but rather African migrants.  It boiled over this week in South Tel Aviv and the topic fits in nicely with themes of Shavuot (see: Ruth, book of).  We'll be discussing it on Shabbat morning.  See the study packet, consisting of articles and texts.

Shabbat-O-Gram for May 25

Memorial Day and Shavuot: Imperfect Together?

One holiday features dairy foods and the other barbecues.  Unless you are into barbecued blintzes, it seems like a mismatch. 

But Shavuot and Memorial Day have more in common than we would think.  For one thing, both celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer.  For another, they are both curiously neglected and rarely are they observed as originally intended. 

In the case of Shavuot, the celebration of the giving of the Torah at Sinai was a later insertion of history into what was essentially an agricultural holiday.  These days, most Jews are unfamiliar with Shavuot altogether, as it gets the least attention of all Jewish festivals (here's a funny quick primer, "The Idiot's Guide to Shavuot" ).

For more - see my blog post: Subversive Shavuot: Our Most Radical Holiday
 

Memorial Day, meanwhile was originally a day to remember war dead ("Memorial" Day...get it?), before it became an occasion for car sales, beach trips and barbecues.  Maybe this year we can regain some of the deeper meaning of each festival, now that we'll be celebrating them together. 

All weekend long, ironically, our cemetery will be officially closed because of Shabbat and Shavuot. I can't recall a time when our cemetery has been closed on Memorial Day. But on Memorial Day, the second day of Shavuot, we will recite Yizkor prayers at our morning service, and at that time, I'll be reading the names of some American Jewish soldiers who have died recently in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This weekend, I hope that each of us will take a moment to recall those who have made the supreme sacrifice.

For a history of Memorial Day go to the History Channel website and to the official US Memorial Day site. And as I have in prior years on Memorial Day weekend, I share with you the words of Rabbi Roland Gittlesohn in a speech delivered in dedication of the 5th marine Cemetery on IwoJima, in March 1945. It has been called one of the great battlefield sermons to come out of World War Two. 

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SHABBAT MORNING, CAMP STYLE

Weather permitting, we'll be holding Shabbat morning services OUTDOORS this week, in honor of the beginning of the summer season (which Memorial Day and Shavuot both mark, unofficially). Look for us to the left of the office entrance, in the shady area with tree stumps.  If this works out, we'll do it again during the summer.  Dress is campy-warm weather-casual.

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READ JAN GAINES' "LETTER FROM NETANYA"  SENT ON JERUSALEM DAY.

Also, see the new videos from ELI Talks. It's the Jewish Version of the TED series.  I've embedded two of them, one on "What is a Jew" and the other, "Innovation, Revolution and Tradition."  Perfect for Shavuot!

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NUMBERS and NAMES - a TEXT Message for this week's portion

I've had the honor of being included among dozens of rabbis, educators and other Jewish leaders who have contributed to the new book "Text Messages: A Torah Commentary for Teens," being released this week by Jewish Lights. It so happens that this week's portion of Bamidbar is the one that I wrote about.  Nice timing!  With permission of Jewish Lights, I share it with you here.

I've never been great at math, but I've always had a fascination with numbers.

"Who knows one? I know one!" we sing at the Passover Seder-  the same event that boasts four cups, four children, four questions, three matzot, and ten plagues.

Come to think of it, Jews are obsessed with numbers. We even have an entire book of the Torah called Numbers, though in Hebrew it has an entirely different name-Bemidbar, "in the wilderness,"

which is also the name of this Torah portion.

Bemidbar contains a count of the Israelites. It is very rare for the Bible to contain a census, or count, and Jews have always been a little nervous about such counts.  But wait: how could a tradition so obsessed with numbers be so afraid of counting people?

Here's the answer.

We don't want to turn people into numbers.

In the haftarah (the prophetic reading) that goes with this Torah portion, the prophet Hosea seems to be sending that message when he states that the number of the people in Israel cannot be counted, much like grains of sand. Rashi, the great medieval commentator, says something similar in a commentary to Exodus 30, which also contains the story of a census: "The evil eye controls something that has been counted." The Talmud echoes the idea that God only imparts blessing to that which is not quantified. In very traditional Jewish worship services, when people calculate whether there is a minyan (quorum of ten worshippers), they'll count "Not one, not two, not three ..." to fool that "evil eye."

Yes, that practice probably seems superstitious, but what is it really saying to us? It is saying something very big and very valuable: a human being is more than the sum of his or her parts. We can't be reduced to merely our statistics: our age, our phone number, our Social Security number. We are more than all of that.

We can learn this, terribly, from the Nazis. When the Nazis wanted to totally dehumanize someone, what did they do? They assigned him or her a number, and they tattooed that number on the person's arm. After all, if you can reduce an entire life to a number, then it makes it that much easier to erase that entire life. As someone who loves sports, I look closely at statistics, but I know that while a player's stats can be impressive, they never tell the whole story. A basketball player's scoring averaging doesn't

tell us whether he can block out, set picks, or make a perfect pass.

For me, the number "twelve" will always remind me of my favorite quarterback, Tom Brady, and "fifty-six" is Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak, but we cannot measure the accomplishments of these players in numbers alone. When we rate someone's looks numerically ("She's a ten!"), it may be flattering, but we have just turned that person into an object.

In the words of the theme song to the old television show Secret Agent, "they've given you a number, and taken away your name."

We live in a digital age. After all, when you really think about it, what are all of those photos on our computers, or the streaming music, or the text messages, or the Skype chats, or the Google searches? They are all based on computer language, and computer language is nothing more or less than infinite combinations of ones and zeros.

There can be something very powerful-even sacred-about the relationships and connections that we forge online in that virtual world.

But the Torah suggests that from time to time, we step back from the virtual to the real, the world of infinitely complex and infinitely beautiful human beings created in God's image. We are more than our numbers.

Excerpt from Text Messages: A Torah Commentary for Teens
© 2012 Jeffrey K. Salkin. $24.99.
Permission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing, P.O. Box 237, Woodstock, VT 05091
www.jewishlights.com

Let Them Eat (Cheese) Cake

And finally, join us on Sat. night for our "Food for Thought" panel (begins with a musical service at 8:30)

For the main course, we've got renowned food author Ronnie Fein, nutritionist Greta Meyers and Rabbi Michelle Dardashti discussing these intriguing questions, among others...

- What makes Jewish food "Jewish?" 

 - Is kosher/Jewish food healthy?

- How much is enough?  When should we stop eating?

 - Are Jews fatter than the general population?

- Is pizza on Friday night sacrilegious?

- Is the food the prime factor that keeps people identified as Jews?

- What's YOUR favorite Jewish food?

Click here for a complete study guide on "Jews and Food" and be prepared to come here and use your mouths extensively that night, for both talking and eating (yes, we'll have cheesecake!) and some praying too.

SHABBAT SHALOM - enjoy the holidays!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Subversive Shavuot: Our Most Radical Holiday

On Shavuot we receive the Torah, but not that scroll behind curtain number one. What we receive is the freedom to interpret it, to develop its ideas, and the obligation to do so responsively. It is at heart the most subversive and radical of Jewish holidays – as revolutionary as Judaism itself.

Shavuot in Biblical times was exclusively an agricultural holiday.  The Mishna describes first fruits being brought to the Temple.  The inhabitants of the cities of each district  marched to Jerusalem.  An ox, its horns bedecked with gold and its head crowned with an olive wreath, led the way.  A flutist played as they marched and sang pilgrimage psalms.  As the farmers entered Jerusalem, dignitaries greeted them.

The first fruits would be transferred to the priest, who would wave them, and together they would recite the ancient declaration of Jewish origins, “My ancestor was a wandering Aramean.”  There was feasting, celebrating, sharing, a good time was had by all.

As the second Temple era ended and rabbinic Judaism developed, the purpose for Shavuot shifted dramatically.  At that time, there were two major political and religious branches of Judaism, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.  The Pharisees were in control of the Temple cult, they were the priests, the aristocracy, the rulers in Jerusalem.  Their interest was in keeping everything to the letter of the law, following the old ways as had been done for hundreds of years.

The Pharisees were the outsiders, the provincial Jews, and they affirmed that side by side with the written Torah from Sinai, there was also a body of Revelation of principles and methods of interpretation, the Oral Law, which they considered equally the will of God.  The Pharisees were very big on learning and the Torah as a way of life for all people, not just priests.

The power struggle between the two sects was long and bitter.  One, the Sadducees, said that the Torah is final and things can never change.  After all, they were in power and didn’t want things to change.  The other, the Pharisees, were for change, in fact, revolutionary change.

And Shavuot became the vehicle for expressing the Pharisees new ideology.  How?

Well, they counted the days that the Torah says it took for Israel to cross from the land of Egypt to Mount Sinai and they matched it to the already-existent festival of Shavuot.  It took some creative mathematics and interpretation, but they did it.

Now in the Torah, Shavuot was never connected to the Sinai Revelation, to nothing historical in fact.  So this was a revolutionary change, folks.

How many of us would dare to create a holiday?

And what in fact did they celebrate on Shavuot?  The very thing they were doing, the empowerment of human beings to share with God in a covenant of law and interpretation.  Shavuot doesn’t celebrate the giving of the written Torah at Sinai, but our right to interpret it in new ways, to develop it and apply it.  For the Pharisees, the whole world became God’s Temple, the Passover sacrifice was moved into each home and called a Seder; the laws of purity moved to each table and called Kashrut, and each of the holidays given new meaning.  But none more than Shavuot.

Thanks to the Pharisees, the historical dimension of Shavuot became apparent, and none too soon, because the Temple was destroyed in the year 70. Once that happened, there were a lot of unemployed priests and unhappy Sadducees.  The festive offering of the first fruits was discontinued, and the Pharisees picked up the ball and became the originators of a vastly new interpretation of Judaism.

And the Pharisaic leaders took on a new title: rabbi.

Now how did they prepare for Shavuot?  Matching the intensity of Israel encamped at Sinai in the book of Exodus, the three days before the festival became “Shloshet Y’mei Hagbala,”  Three days of intense preparation.  Everyone cleaned, bought new clothes, got haircuts, cooked, and most of all, studied.  Study is the only ritual connected with this holiday.  There is no Seder or Sukkah dwelling, no shofar or lulav, nothing physical.  The cantor might concur that there aren’t even many good songs for Shavuot.  There is nothing special to buy, except maybe blintzes.  The study and interpretation of Torah is all that there is.  It is the central focus.  It is the only focus.

Funny thing.   Imagine if a group of Pharisees were to do the same thing today.  Imagine what the reaction would be, if, say, someone were to, say, invent a holiday, and just slap on an old familiar name to make it look like it was there all along. Actually, that has already happened.  On Kibbutzim in Israel, they’ve reinvented Shavuot again, returning to the Biblical concept of celebrating this as an agricultural celebration.  In the 19th century, the Reform movement added the idea of confirmation to their celebration, and the mystics of Safed added the an all-night study session, or Tikkun Leil Shavuot, 400 years ago.

But no one has been as radical as the Pharisees.

How, then, do we prepare for Shavuot?  I suggest that we prepare by retracing the roots of this holiday, and then by reexamining our ways of looking at Judaism.  Do we see only the old ways as valid, simply because they are traditional?  This, I submit, would be a betrayal of the original rabbinic ideal.  Or, do we see the need to be partners with God in a Covenant, in the act of re-instilling the Torah with new life each generation?

My teachers at the Jewish Theological Seminary used to harp on the idea that Conservative Judaism is the true heir to this Pharisaic tradition.  There is much truth to that.  But I would rather not think in terms of labels, labels that might be in fact outmoded.  Because I also think Orthodoxy, Reconstructionist and Reform Judaism are legitimate heirs to the Pharisaic legacy.

The labels don’t matter.  What matters is that we understand that, at is very core, the Judaism of the rabbis was creative and dynamic – and remains so to this day.

So I prepare for Shavuot by thanking God for the gift of Torah, a magnificent package that we are forever unwrapping, receiving, and re-imagining, again and again.

This appeared first on the Times of Israel website

Jan Gaines' Letter from Netanya: Jerusalem Day

Dear Friends,

  Today I cried. Several times. Well, not exactly cried. More of a tearing up. Because tonight and tomorrow is Yom Yerushaliam.  The day Jerusalem was unified in the Six Day War.  The day Israeli paratroopers fought their way through the Lion's Gate into the Old City and then to the Western Wall. The day Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren blew that historic Shofar to commemorate the return of the Jewish People to its historic place.

 But it was also a special occasion for our beloved rabbi emeritus here in Netanya, Rabbi Ervin Birnbaum. Today he celebrated his first real Bar Mitzvah.  His 13 year old bar mitzvah was celebrated alone in Slovakia, during WW2 where he and his parents were in hiding in different locations. He was in his family home. He took out 13 glasses, found some slibovitz, poured a little in each glass and toasted himself by himself.  After the war, as an 18 year old, he traveled to Israel on the famous Exodus, sheperding a group of 9 and 10 year old Holocaust survivors. 

  Rabbi Birnbaum and his wife later made Aliyah from the U.S. with 3 sons. Those sons are grown and have produced 10 grandchildren.  Their youngest son, Danny, was just written up in The Jerusalem Report as the CEO of Soda Stream, where in 2 years he turned the company around. Danny also davens, along with his wife who is an Israeli folk singer, and their 4 children. They gave us rousing interpretations of Ashrei, L'Dor v'Dor, Ein Kehloheinu and more,.

  That was the first tearing up for me. The family Birnbaum is a beautiful unit, grandparents and grandchildren singing together in celebration of bar mitzvah and 82nd birthday of Zaide. They personify committment, love of the land, and joy at being here together. They epitomize what Israel is all about.

  Rabbi Birnbaum spoke of the meaning of Jerusalem to the Jewish people.  No other people in any land has maintained a historic connection to one place for 3000 years, as the Jewish people. And he repeated the vow of IDF commander Itzak Rabin who declared that "Jerusalem is ours forever."

   That was my second tearing up.

   In the afternoon I turned on a TV channel called MEZZO from Europe which is the music and arts channel for Israel.

They were showing Claudio Abbado conducting Mahler's Symphony No 2, the "Ressurection Symphony". When he came to the final movement, I teared up for the 3rd time and stayed that way with goose bumps as the choir, soloists and orchestra gave an astounding performance.       

Could the MEZZO producers have deliberately scheduled that symphony for today, erev Yom Yerushalaim?  Could they have known that this symphony was peformed in celebration of the unification of Jerusalem, just days after the capture of the Old City.  Could they have remembered that it was Leonard Bernstein conducting the Israeli Philharmonic who created the same goose bumps in the audience as they celebrated the "Resurrection" of Jerusalem? Even at 45 years ago it still resonates in my memory, just from seeing the video and listening to recordings.

   And finally, how does it all come together, on this special Shabbat full of so much history and memory?

   My neighbor, a 59 year old "secular" Israeli, who kisses his mezzuzah every time he leaves his apartment but who hardly ever goes to synagogue, was discussing with me a coincidental item about our building. I said to him, "Nati, I don't believe there are any coincidences in this country. I think this is a place where there are small miracles every day."

  "Not every day, Jan" he said.  Not every day, EVERY HOUR. "

   And so it is. The enormity of the miracle of this re-created land, of its extraordinary people, is a small and large miracle happening every day.

  Jan Gaines

“They’ve Given You a Number, and Taken Away Your Name”

I've had the honor of being included among dozens of rabbis, educators and other Jewish leaders who have contributed to the new book "Text Messages: A Torah Commentary for Teens," being released this week by Jewish Lights. It so happens that this week's portion of Bamidbar, is the one that I wrote about.  Nice timing!  With permission of Jewish Lights, I share it with you here.

“They’ve Given You a Number, and Taken Away Your Name”

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head. (Numbers 1:2)


I’ve never been great at math, but I’ve always had a fascination with
numbers. 


“Who knows one? I know one!” we sing at the Passover Seder— the same event that boasts four cups, four children, four questions, three matzot, and ten plagues.


Come to think of it, Jews are obsessed with numbers. We even have an entire book of the Torah called Numbers, though in Hebrew it has an entirely different name—Bemidbar, “in the wilderness,” which is also the name of this Torah portion.


Bemidbar contains a count of the Israelites. It is very rare for the Bible to contain a census, or count, and Jews have always been a little nervous about such counts. But wait: how could a tradition so obsessed with numbers be so afraid of counting people?


Here’s the answer. We don’t want to turn people into numbers.


In the haftarah (the prophetic reading) that goes with this Torah portion, the prophet Hosea seems to be sending that message when he states that the number of the people in Israel cannot be counted, much like grains of sand. Rashi, the great medieval commentator, says something similar in a commentary to Exodus 30, which also contains the story of a census: “The evil eye controls something that has been counted.” The Talmud echoes the idea that God only imparts blessing to that which is not quantified. In very traditional Jewish worship services, when people calculate whether there is a minyan (quorum of ten worshippers), they’ll count “Not one, not two, not three …” to fool that “evil eye.” 


Yes, that practice probably seems superstitious, but what is it really saying to us? It is saying something very big and very valuable: a human being is more than the sum of his or her parts. We can’t be reduced to merely our statistics: our age, our phone number, our Social Security number. We are more than all of that.


We can learn this, terribly, from the Nazis. When the Nazis wanted to totally dehumanize someone, what did they do? They assigned him or her a number, and they tattooed that number on the person’s arm. After all, if you can reduce an entire life to a number, then it makes it that much easier to erase that entire life. 


As someone who loves sports, I look closely at statistics, but I know that while a player’s stats can be impressive, they never tell the whole story. A basketball player’s scoring averaging  doesn't tell us whether he can block out, set picks, or make a perfect pass.


For me, the number “twelve” will always remind me of my favorite quarterback, Tom Brady, and “fifty-six” is Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak, but we cannot measure the accomplishments of these players in numbers alone. When we rate someone’s looks numerically (“She’s a ten!”), it may be flattering, but we have just turned that person into an object. 


In the words of the theme song to the old television show Secret Agent, “they’ve given you a number, and taken away your name.”


We live in a digital age. After all, when you really think about it, what are all of those photos on our computers, or the streaming music, or the text messages, or the Skype chats, or the Google searches? They are all based on computer language, and computer language is nothing more or less than infinite combinations of ones and zeros. There can be something very powerful—even sacred—about the relationships and connections that we forge online in that virtual world.


But the Torah suggests that from time to time, we step back from the virtual to the real, the world of infinitely complex and infinitely beautiful human beings created in God’s image.


We are more than our numbers. 

ELI Talks - Jewish Version of the TED series

Shabbat-O-Gram for May 18

Shabbat Shalom

This is a big season for honoring cherished members of our TBE family.  This week I had the pleasure of attending the regional Women's League dinner (held here), Kulanu graduation and JCC Annual Meeting, at which many TBE members were honored or elevated to leadership positions.  On Sunday I'll be attending the Bi Cultural dinner.  Plus, there's our own Religious school closing session and, on Wednesday at 6, the Aliyah Service for our 7^th graders.  Mazal tov to all!


BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL'S BAR MITZVAH / TEEN ISRAEL PANEL

This month has been set aside by Taglit-Birthright Israel as a celebration of its Bar Mitzvah year.  Over 150 congregations from 42 states  will be participating in Birthright Shabbats, including us.  It is an anniversary worth celebrating, because nothing has changed the landscape of Jewish peoplehood over the past decade more than these free 10-day trips to Israel.  More than 300,000 young Jewish adults from 54 countries have experienced Birthright Israel, and studies show that the impact of on their life trajectories has been profound, particularly among those from less engaged Jewish backgrounds.  Birthright alums are much more connected to Israel than their counterparts and much more connected to the Jewish community. 

Click here to see my column on how Birthright has changed Jewish life in obvious and not so obvious ways, and the lessons it has taught us.  By far the biggest impact of Birthright Israel is that it has proven, once and for all, that no Jew should ever be written off. 

Back in 1999, the organizers of the program debated whether to focus on those still in high school or those over 18. I was one of those who felt that a highly subsidized high school trip was a far better investment than a 10 day college quickie.  Catch them before they leave the coop, I figured, so that their parents and rabbis can reinforce the message of peoplehood when the teens come home. Once they are in college, it's too late to reel them in, I thought.

I was wrong.

Birthright ended the "outreach" vs. "inreach" debate  for all time.  Game, set and match.  Outreach wins.

Ten days is all it takes.

Birthright is the 21^st century version of the sage Hillel's conversion program.  He accomplished it all while standing on one foot. But then he added, "Go and study." 

The challenge, then, is one we face after any Bar Mitzvah.  We've got to keep them engaged and interested.  But Birthright Israel has given the Jewish community a precious gift - just when we thought they were gone for good, we've got another chance to reach out to them and welcome them home.  Ten days can ignite a flame.  All we've got to do is keep it burning.

Our community is proud to have one of ten pilot communities for the program.  We helped to get it off the ground, and what a difference it has made!  Click here to see why.

As part of the celebration of the Israel experience, at tonight's service we'll hear from five of our teens who have recently visited Israel on the "March of the Living" and "Write on For Israel" programs: Emilie Pollack, Lauren Pollack, Rachel Cohen, Sophie Koester and Brandon Temple.

Join us this evening at 7:30 and the Birthright conversation continues on Shabbat morning!


SEX ABUSE COVER UPS: THE MESIRA MESS

There has been considerable consternation about the recent New York Times front page expose of how child sex abuse cases are handled in Ultra Orthodox communities. Although this scandal has been discussed for years in the Jewish media, many were shocked to read how informants are routinely shunned and victims banned from reporting abuse to the authorities.  Anti-Semitic websites have had a field day, comparing this Jewish "code of silence" to the Mafia's. 

The Times article correctly pinpoints an obscure rabbinic prohibition as a major source of the problem:

"While some ultra-Orthodox rabbis now argue that a child molester should be reported to the police, others strictly adhere to an ancient prohibition against mesirah, the turning in of a Jew to non-Jewish authorities, and consider publicly airing allegations against fellow Jews to be chillul Hashem, a desecration of God's name."

It is important to emphasize that most rabbinic authorities concur that Judaism has no place for the protection of sexual predators.  Even for those who might otherwise support mesirah, the prohibition does not apply when there is a perceived public menace.  As Rabbi Moses Isserles states in his gloss to the Shulchan Arukh, "A person who attacks others should be punished. If the Jewish authorities do not have the power to punish him, he must be punished by the civil authorities."

Click here to read about the biblical root of this dangerous concept and why I feel it is time to declaw it, so that Mesirah may never again be used to justify the protection of those who inflict suffering on innocent children.

A SPECIAL BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT

I am proud to announce our first-ever live birth at our Shorashim nursery school. No we are not promising that all students in our program will graduate "Medical School Ready," but at 2:45 yesterday the students did get  to witness a butterfly emerge from its cocoon.  We don't know the sex, weight or length, but baby and students are all doing fine.

And while we are at it, Shorashim has also birthed a new website as of...right now! I was just the first one to click on it!  Go to http://www.tbeshorashim.org/ or simply visit our website's home page and click on the sunflower.  Tell your friends about our exciting new addition and find out why we are so proud of our newborn nursery school.

See you Shabbat - and at Saturday's night's Comedy Night!

Shabbat Shalom (and Happy Birthday Mara! J)
 
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman
  

Birthright Israel's Bar Mitzvah: Some Reasons to Celebrate

This month has been set aside by Taglit- Birthright Israel as a celebration of its Bar Mitzvah year.  Over 150 congregations from 42 states  will be participating in Birthright Shabbats, including my own, this evening.  It is an anniversary worth celebrating, because nothing has changed the landscape of Jewish peoplehood over the past decade more than these free 10-day trips to Israel.  More than 300,000 young Jewish adults from 54 countries have experienced Birthright Israel, and studies show that the impact of on their life trajectories has been profound, particularly among those from less engaged Jewish backgrounds.  Birthright alums are much more connected to Israel than their counterparts, much more connected to the Jewish community and about twice as likely to marry other Jews and have Jewish children.

I’m about to perform my first Birthright wedding. No, the couple didn’t meet in Israel – they weren’t even there at the same time.  But each of them came back so Jewishly charged that they signed up for Jdate, and, when they met, Birthright was that common emotional experience that propelled their relationship forward.  They followed the Birthright formula – the best way to fall in love WITH Israel is to fall in love IN Israel.  Even though they were back on American soil, Jerusalem had captured their hearts.

There’s something magical in the Birthright Kool Aid. It’s “Spring Break” for Jews, a ten day hook up party; only it’s free, Cancun has been transported 6,000 miles east, the hook up is with a country, and it’s not for one night, it’s forever.  Israelis love to make fun of the program and they’ve transformed the prevailing stereotype of the American tourist from a fat, ugly middle aged guy with a dangling camera around his exposed paunch, to a doe-eyed, wealthy Birthright coed, naïve and unschooled, easy pickings for soldiers, tour guides and fund raisers.  But whatever Kool Aid the Birthrighters are drinking, they come home and rave to about it to their friends and parents, the waiting lists keep getting longer and the kids just keep on coming.  And their elders are following suit.  Tourism to Israel hit record levels in April, a month that is not prime time for college students to travel.  Older adults have caught the bug.

While the program has no doubt increased the connection between American Jews and Israel, a significant majority of American Jews still have never visited the Jewish state, 59 percent according to the recentAJC survey.  But still, at 300,000 and counting, Birthright has reversed one of the many downward demographic trends in American Jewish life and it is changing the culture in numerous other ways.

Some of the ripple effects include:

• A Jewish renaissance on college campuses. Hillel’s growth has been fueled by the Birthright phenomenon, which has enabled Jewish organizations to reach beyond the core activists to students who previously would never have wanted to identify actively as Jews.

• Israel advocacy on campus has never been more vibrant and diverse, and despite the efforts of the BDS and “Apartheid Week,” never more successful. The growing presence of both AIPAC and J-Street on campus corresponds to the increased size of Birthright’s footprint.

• The Startup Nation has birthed a Startup Culture.  Birthright Israel was the ultimate startup by a Jewish community that had become overly beaurocratized and cautious.  This partnership of mega donors, federations and Israel was unprecedented, and it worked.  As result, other startups have addressed a variety of pressing needs.  The results have been mixed but the entrepreneurial spirit has changed American Jewish life, weakening and decentralizing the federations while encouraging the private funders to take more risks in backing worthy projects.

• The partnership with Israel in strengthening Diaspora Jewry barely existed before Birthright, and from a philanthropic standpoint, the program reversed the roles that had existed since the founding of the state.  The money now flows both ways.  Israel recognizes that a thriving Diaspora is essential to its long term survival.  American Jews, meanwhile, have come to recognize that the Israel experience is the only way to ensure a thriving Diaspora.

• Great PR for Israel.  Young adults are getting the word out through their social networks that Israel is a great place to visit and an amazing country, period.  The trips have more than paid for themselves in hasbara value.  When I first spoke about the program to my teens thirteen years ago, they were floored that Israel cared enough about them to invest 70 million dollars in their future. What better PR can there be than that?

• It’s hard to measure the impact on synagogue affiliation thus far, but millennials have never been joiners.  I am seeing an increased interest in community life and Jewish learning among young professionals, however, and Birthright has become a prime tool for recruitment.

• Hummus sales have skyrocketed.    Blame it on Bar Rafaeli, Sacha Baron Cohen or the Zohan, but I think Birthright is the biggest reason why Israeli culture and cuisine have never been so popular on this side of the pond.

But by far the biggest impact of Birthright Israel is that it has proven, once and for all, that no Jew should ever be written off.  Back in 1999, the organizers of the program debated whether to focus on those still in high school or those over 18. I was one of those who felt that a highly subsidized high school trip was a far better investment than a 10 day college quickie.  Catch them before they leave the coop, I figured, so that their parents and rabbis can reinforce the message of peoplehood when the teens come home. Once they are in college, it’s too late to reel them in, I thought.

I was wrong.

As I look down the list of my hundred plus congregants who have been on these trips, there are several whom I’ve barely seen since their bar mitzvahs and I assumed might be lost to the Jewish people.  They are precisely the ones Birthright was created for, not those “core” Jews who have visited Israel often.

Those who opposed Birthright bemoaned the fact that cheap Israel trips are no panacea for assimilation.  They appealed for caution before wasting so much funding on “lost causes.”  They saw periphery Jews as a bad risk.  Such people would likely have advised Ben-Gurion to cut his losses, hold off on statehood and send it to committee.  Rabbi Yitz Greenberg says that a leader should aim to be at most 15 percent ahead of his people. I sense that in this case, the proponents of Birthright Israel were way ahead of the Jewish establishment, and right in step with the times.

The “outreach” vs. “inreach” debate is over.  Game, set and match.  Outreach wins.

Ten days is all it takes.

Birthright is the 21^st century version of the sage Hillel’s conversion program.  He accomplished it all while standing on one foot. But then he added, “go and study.”

The challenge, then, is one we face after any Bar Mitzvah.  We’ve got to keep them engaged and interested.  But Birthright Israel has given the Jewish community a precious gift – just when we thought they were gone for good, we’ve got another chance to reach out to them and welcome them home.  Ten days can ignite a flame.

All we’ve got to do is keep it burning.

First published on the Times of Israel website.