From the Rabbi's Bunker & S.O.G April 3: God Wants Us to Stay Inside

From the Rabbi's Bunker

This picture says all we need to know about the times we live in...

and it makes clear the plain fact that...

...God Wants Us to Stay Inside

Our tradition tell us that God does not exist solely in the deep-cleaned crevices of the Kotel.  God is everywhere.  God is in other narrow spaces too, like that narrow birth canal from the darkness of Egyptian slavery (the word "Egypt," mitzrayimmeans "narrow places"), or those narrow slits between our fingertips and nails, those hard to access places where disease can grow.  

Here is a handwashing blessing we can recite as we invoke blessing and life with each scrub. Read this - it takes as long as two "Happy Birthdays."

So how do I know that God wants us to stay inside?  Truth to tell, I don't have any idea what God wants.  But any God I would invoke would want us to preserve life at all costs, whether that life be our own, that of our neighbor, those of our fellow Americans and those of others around the world.  We can accomplish all of the above simply by distancing ourselves from other people, which is best accomplished by staying home.

This is a message that had to be repeated constantly by people in the public trust, and that includes religious leaders.  That's the message of an article distributed today by the Religion News Service: "Why religious congregations may be crucial to halting the spread of COVID-19."  The role that faith leaders can play in getting the word out about public health measures is considerable. While some are taking this responsibility seriously - as evidenced by that photo at the Kotel, and rabbis who have addressed the crisis with due halachic seriousness,  and the Pope, who will be celebrating Holy Week essentially alone.  A rabbinic colleague wrote in the New York Times, "I Never Used My Computer on the Sabbath - Until the Coronavirus." And he found, as we have, how enriching the virtual can actually be. Last night we had a wonderful interfaith service (and an equally wonderful women's seder led by Beth Styles).  During the service, I noticed that Rev. Kate Heichler was in attendance and sent a "chat" note to her about how much of a pleasure it was to see her in our virtual midst (she left our community a few years ago).  She replied:

Rabbi Josh, et al, we are paradoxically more connected in our social distancing - we don't think we need to be in the same geographic location to come together. We could have done this anytime - but now it's all we can, so we do.

Yes, God is everywhere, even in a Zoom chat online.  I think I wrote my book thelordismyshepherd.com: Seeking God in Cyberspace twenty years too soon.  What I wrote then is coming to fruition today: "We find God on the Internet because it binds us all as one." Only now are we beginning to truly experience the internet as a sacred place, as opposed to the bastion of social deviants, terrorist murderers, political propagandists and Russian bots. God is there too.

So that is why the scene of packed pews in some states last weekend was so infuriating.  I would hope that Texas and Florida in particular will now get their act together and ban such public gatherings.  Given the efficacy of the current online options, anyone squeezing bodies into pews is committing moral malpractice - and that Florida minister deserved to be arrested.  The only question is whether there should be consequences for his political accomplices and enablers too.

The Talmud makes it clear that God wants us indoors during a pandemic.  My colleague Rabbi Robert Gamer put together a source sheet on the topic, and one of the sources he cites could not be clearer:

 

Sounds pretty sensible to me.  Get inside, and close the door behind you - and stay there, night and day until the angel of death passes over and that leaves behind a flattened curve.

Why?  Because God wants us to. 

Heroes

This photo of the New England Patriots truck - taken an hour ago by Melissa Burke-Fahey as it headed into NYC - carrying 300,000 masks that were airlifted from China, for NY's beleaguered health workers.

This crisis has spawned entirely new categories of heroes, the greatest of them being those first responders and medical specialists on the front lines. I am in awe of their courage - and a number of them are congregants at TBE. We send out prayers, love and admiration to lift you up.

Heroes can also be public servants, like all the public health officials who let science guide them and speak truth to power; and political leaders who lead and do not seek simply to cover themselves and evade blame while people are dying.

And then there are the regular people, like the dozens from our congregation who have already responded to our call to assist Stamford Hospital financially and through the construction of face shields.

And there are heroes like a Toronto landlord, described in the following tweet:

In Toronto, several tenants of a building were worried they couldn't pay their rent during the Coronavirus pandemic. Their landlord sent them this letter. His name is Chris. Be like Chris.

Heroes.

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Here's a quick access guide to this weekend's prayer and learning events:

SHABBAT @ TBE, VIRTUALLY:

FRIDAY NIGHT SERVICE 6:00 P.M.

Click here to participate in Friday night services this week using Zoom. IF YOU PREFER TO CALL IN BY PHONE AND LISTEN TO THE SERVICE:  CALL-IN (646) 558-8656, MEETING ID 775 369 802.

Click here for a pdf of the Kabbalat Shabbat service.

SATURDAY MORNING TORAH STUDY 11:00 A.M.

Click here for a pdf of Shabbat Morning services.  (For you to pray on your own.)

Click here to participate in Saturday morning Torah Study with Rabbi Hammerman using Zoom.   IF YOU PREFER TO PARTICIPATE BY PHONE:  CALL-IN (929) 205-6099, MEETING ID 106 626 196.

Click here for an in-depth discussion packet for the portion, Tzav, on happiness and gratitude.

Click here for a brief summary sheet.

Click here for the entire portion, taken from the Etz Hayim Humash.

ON SUNDAY

  

GLOBAL GATHERING FOR HEALING

Sunday, April 5, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) EDT (New York Time)

Join a world-wide healing service this Sunday with other Masorti/Conservative communities around the world featuring clergy and musicians from Israel, England, Brazil and the United States.  See flyer for details: Click here for Facebook access. 

HEAL AND HANGOUT - WITH MYSELF, RABBI GINSBURG AND CANTOR KATIE

Sunday, April 5, at 1:00 p.m. on Zoom or by Telephone

Share time together and relax. Click here to participate with Zoom.  

If you prefer to connect by telephone, dial (646) 558 8656, meeting ID 866 408 956.

And click here  to register for our virtual Seder at 6 PM on Wed night. 

More Passover Resources

 

Okay, I couldn't resist this one

See our archived prior dispatches from the rab-bunker for other Passover resources. 

If you are looking for last minute seder plates and other Passover items, Kol Bo in Boston, the best Judaica store on the planet, is suffering like so many businesses.  Check them out and order online.

Click here for a clearer pdf file of this Four Children passage

Stay safe, stay home and save lives

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

From the Rabbi's Bunker: April 1: Save a Life; Everything New is Old Again

From the Rabbi's Bunker Grades K and 8 at their recent virtual meet-ups --------------------- One day bleeds into another.  It's hard to avoid the devastating realities that our nation and world are facing.  The numbers are simply staggering - but this can never be just about numbers, as each human life is of infinite value.  If we lose sight of that, we lose part of our humanity.  While it's fine (and even recommended) to turn off the news for much of the day, we can never allow ourselves to be desensitized to the magnitude of this tragedy. We'll have Kabbalat Shabbat at 6 on Friday again, and this week I'll be joined by Katie Kaplan.  I'll be leading Torah study on Shabbat morning at 11.  If you want a sneak preview (or just to study on your own), you can download the Tzav study sheet as well as the Parsha Packet for Tzav on Happiness and Gratitude.  It's really hard to think in terms of gratitude, much less happiness, these days.  So one of the questions we need to ask, is where do we go with our sadness, our loss - our loneliness?  I just took part in a study session for rabbis on the topic and will share some reflections at Friday night's service. I am acutely aware that many who will be "attending" our Zoom Seder next week will be alone on Pesach for the first time.  And just about all of us will have an empty place at the table, set for someone who is either too sick to attend or unable to get there because of the realities of distancing. Our virtual Seder registration is "zooming," which is not surprising.   Please register here, as I'll be sending out emails to the group to prepare everyone and assign a few parts.  If you are planning to join us, please bring to the table any family Passover heirlooms that you might want to show the group - a wine cup, for instance, or an old Haggadah with key family dates in it.  You could also show us any exotic family customs or foods - like a unique haroset recipe. Save a life... Remember, as we sit at home in our protective cocoons, we are saving lives; and of you save a single life, you save an entire world... Debbie Friedman sings "Save A Life" in 1997 וכל המקיים נפש אחת מישראל מעל העליו הכתוב כאילו קיים עולם מלא "It was for this reason that man was first created as one person [Adam], to teach you that anyone who destroys a life is considered by Scripture to have destroyed an entire world; and anyone who saves a life is as if he saved an entire world." Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5 Check out the origins of the precept, "Whoever Saves a Life Saves the World" (Mosaic), as there is controversy as to how universal this famous dictum was intended to be.  But for our purposes, it is all about the infinite value of each human life.   And while we are looking to Debbie Friedman for healing, listen to this classic version of her Misheberach, sung only weeks after 9/11.  As the death toll from Covid-19 has now passed that of September 11, all the more do we need her soothing prayers now. Debbie Friedman - Mi Shebeirach (2001) Everything New is Old Again In preparing for the upcoming holiday, I've been paying particular attention to how Passover has lifted Jews through dark times, ever since the first one in Egypt. I pulled out some pages of historical Haggadahs during times of distress, culled from the classic collection, "Haggadahs and History," by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi.  Take a look at them, especially the ones printed during the Holocaust era, like the one below from France.  The Haggadah has over 4,000 different versions, and each one is testament to the uncanny ability of Jews - and others - to overcome the darkness and find the light. Ways We Can Help There will be a guaranteed minyan on Thursday.  https://zoom.us/j/874975176 Meeting ID: 874 975 176 See below a lost of loca l organizations who are assisting many people during this crisis.  This list will be shared at Thursday evening's Interfaith Healing Service at 7 PM (link for Zoom is HTTPS://ZOOM.US/J/161406713) So there are ways we can make a tangible difference.  Volunteers downtown have been calling thousands of local seniors and shut-ins, offering to assist with food shopping and other needs.  That's going on within the congregation as well. But the way we can make the greatest difference is simply to stay at home.  This full-page ad/poem appeared in the Washington Post yesterday Or, as Larry David put it in this PSA... Recommended Reading New poll shows COVID-19 creating enormous spiritual interest (RNS) "When Staying Home Isn't Safe" (e-Jewish Philanthropy) For most of us, staying home means reducing our risk. For those experiencing domestic abuse, it means becoming more vulnerable. Pandemic Meets Pastoral (LA Times) a cantor and rabbi couple are stuck in Jerusalem, separated from their congregation in Italy during the plague. In time for global self-isolation, 'Anne Frank Video Diary' premieres on YouTube (Times of Israel)    That Discomfort You're Feeling Is Grief (Harvard Business Review) We're feeling a number of different griefs. We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn't feel that way, and we realize things will be different. THE TWO BIG G'S - GOD AND GOVERNMENT (Religious Freedom Center). The trillion dollar rescue bill and its impact on church / state separation. Pathogen Resistance: a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language Passover Resources 2020 Seder according to Dr. Seuss (thank you Barbara Lieberfarb-Rothstein): I do not want you in my house I do not want you or your spouse I do not want to eat with you At Sedar One or Sedar Two Don't get me wrong I think you're nice Bu the CDC gave me this advice You must avoid one plague more And shoo Eijah from your door At next year's Sedar we will tell How we were all saved by Purell The 11th Plague: Passover During Coronavirus (Forward) - This year, Passover will be like no Passover before. Self-quarantined in our homes to avoid doing harm to ourselves, our loved ones, and society, Passover will be smaller than ever before. But it will also be powerful. We are, after all, living through a plague of our own, one deserving of inclusion in the list of the Ten Plagues that God meted out against the Egyptians as he rescued the Israelites from slavery and brought them out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. The plague of the coronavirus will leave no community untouched, no family unscathed, whether in terms of health or finances. What can we learn about this modern day plague from the Ten Plagues in the Book of Exodus? What can coronavirus teach us about the Ten Plagues? We asked 20 influencers to write about the 11th Plague: Passover in the Age of Coronavirus. Here's what they had to say. The Haggadah: A New Telling of the Exodus Story - (The Torah.com) Tracing the celebration of Passover during the Second Temple period, and highlighting the new dimension the haggadah /seder brought to the holiday.  Fascinating historical survey. Passover Resources from JTS THE PATH OF REDEMPTION: Hadar Pesach Reader 5780 HIAS Haggadah J-Street Haggadah, J-Street Haggadah Supplement (featuring commentary by Amos Oz) Integrity First for America Haggadah Supplement (by Amy Spitalnik) It's almost impossible to believe that in our generation-in our beloved America-Nazis march in our streets and attack our synagogues, spreading violence, hate, and terror. Racism, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy are very much present in our generation too. Mah nishtanah? Does nothing change? How to Set the Seder Plate for Passover (My Jewish Learning) Stay safe and save a life - Rabbi Joshua Hammerman