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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!
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Friday, May 27, 2016
Shabbat-O-Gram "Are We There Ye?" Edition
Friday, May 13, 2016
TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Russell Moskowitz on Kedoshim
Shabbat Shalom
As I’ve been studying to become bar mitzvah, I’ve
learned that the Torah has something to say regarding just about any
topic. So when the rabbi asked me what
my interests are, the first thing that came to mind was, of course, “Basketball,”
a game that I’ve loved since I was
literally smaller than the ball. Once I could walk, it was not long before
I learned how to shoot. So I wondered whether the Torah could have anything to
say about my favorite sport.
After all, basketball wasn’t even around when the
Torah was written. Actually, a form of
the sport was played in the ancient world – in Mexico about two thousand years
ago. But the Torah was written at least
five hundred years before that.
Still, the Torah has many things to teach about
basketball, and lots of those things are found in my portion of Kedoshim, which
is filled with important laws.
For instance, there’s the law that states, “DON’T
STAND IDLY BY YOUR NEIGHBOR.” In real
life it means to stand up for people who are in trouble. But in basketball terms, it means to help out
on defense. I can recall a number of
times when we’ve teamed up to stop a bigger player and we were able to shut him
down. Or, if my teammate was trapped in
the corner, it was my job to find an open space and call for the ball so he
could pass it to me. Basically, the
message of this commandment is to be a team player, and that we are ALL in this
together.
Another law states, “DON’T PLACE A STUMBLING BLOCK
BEFORE THE BLIND.” Of course, if we take
it literally, it means that we shouldn’t make fun of people with
disabilities. Commentators also state
that we shouldn’t mislead people, or, as we often say, “blindside” them. That happens in basketball all the time, like
when people set an illegal screen. Sometimes faking is good, like when a shooter
does a pump fake in order to get open. But in real life, we should aim to be honest
– in other words, to be straight shooters.
In another verse, the Torah instructs us to REPROVE
OUR NEIGHBOR. That means that we need to
correct things that other people are doing wrong. However, when we point out someone’s
mistakes, we should NOT embarrass them. At
one time, long ago, I had a habit of dribbling into the corners. When I did that, my coaches would quietly
correct me when I came over to the bench.
They never yelled at me in public. THEY must have read the Torah!!
My portion includes the commandment not to STEAL. It’s actually there twice. – Well in basketball, unlike life, it’s good
to steal! Sometimes, a great defensive
play can decide a game just as much as a clutch shot or a great assist.
But even in basketball, not all forms of stealing are
proper. Stealing a call, for instance,
by flopping – is not a good thing (even though I’ve probably done it a couple
of times).
The most important commandment in my portion also
happens to be the most important one in the entire Torah: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS
YOURSELF. In basketball terms, that
means to put the team before myself. I enjoy making a great pass just as much
as a great shot. But since the verse
also says to love myself, I also need to have the confidence to take the shot
when I am open.
My mitzvah project ties into this theme. PeacePlayers International uses
basketball to unite, educate and inspire young people to create a more peaceful
world. Based on the idea that children who play together can learn to
live together, this organization brings together children from different religious,
ethnic and cultural backgrounds to develop friendship and mutual respect.
So as you can see, the Torah has a
lot to say about basketball. So now that I’m a bar mitzvah, I hope I’ll be able
to use these important lessons both on the court - and
off.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
What Can I Do to Celebrate Israel Today?
The Shabbat-O-Gram is sponsored this week by Michael and Leslie Moskowitz in honor of Russell becoming Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat morning.
This week's Shabbat-O-Gram is coming out a day early as we celebrate Israel's 68th today (the Hebrew date actually falls tomorrow, but it is moved up a day to avoid bumping up against Shabbat). Mazal tov to Russell Moskowitz and family as he becomes bar mitzvah this Shabbat morning. Join us for our Mediterranean Shabbat on Friday night at 7:30, featuring the long-awaited return of Avram Pengas and his group. And please do something else: Go to this Facebook event page and share it with your friends. Go ahead. Do it..... I'll wait right here.
WHAT CAN I DO TO CELEBRATE ISRAEL TODAY?
Israel is 68 today, and there are a number of things we can do to keep Israel in our thoughts...
- Do what our 6th graders did - they have been corresponding with Arab-Israeli middle schoolers from my son Dan's classes in Lod. I am really, really proud of our kids for doing this. You can watch their videos here. And read Dan's amazing blog here.
- Read Benji Lovitt's hilarious and poignant 68 More Things I Love About Israel
- Join me at the JCC this afternoon, along with some of our Hebrew School classes, for a community celebration.
- Become an activist. See the ADL's Guide for Activists containing lots of background information on Israel. See the American Jewish Committee's brief guide to the Arab-Israeli conflict and how the New Israel Fund advocates for a democratic and inclusive Israel. It's a confusing matter, to read contrasting narratives. The Hartman Institute's iEngage project is very helpful in navigating beyond the noise. Better yet, the radio program "On Being" placed the narratives side by side.
- Watch this video
| 68 Facts You Probably Don't Know About Israel |
- Join us HERE on Friday night for our musical Mediterranean community celebration! Did I mention that already?
- Check out Yelp's Best Hummus Places in NYC. All of them. Today.
- Read about Ten Israeli Technologies that Changed the World
- Can't get enough of this video of Nava Tehila, our guests NEXT Friday night!
- Watch last night's official celebration on Mt Herzl. Even if you can't understand the Hebrew (there is some English narration) it's very moving, especially as the transition from Memorial Day to Independence Day takes place. The torch lighters this year represented inspirational individuals and groups that have overcome significant challenges. But most of all it's the music and choreography that I love - see at 1:19 a mash-up of opera, middle eastern and rap, based on the rap number by the Ethiopian-Israeli band Kafe Shahor Hazak (Strong Black Coffee), "Yehye B'Seder" ("Everything's going to be OK"), preceded by a by Subliminal's "No Limits" - which in the Hebrew also can mean "No Borders," a not-so subliminal message for the one-staters, perhaps? (A less subtle message was sent a few minutes before, at 1:16 on the video, when the flag formation's formed the words "One Nation, One State"... to big applause). But Yom Haatzmaut in Israel is essentially a politics-free zone, at least among the 4/5th of the population who observe it. The other fifth will observe it on Saturday, under another name.
- Watch "Pillar of Fire," the classic series chronicling the history of Zionism. Episodes 1 and 2 are below:
- Read the reflective poetry of Yehuda Amichai, Israel's greatest poet, including the poem, "Jews in the Land of Israel."
- Take a moment to remember Israel's 23,000 fallen soldiers and other victims of war and terror.
- Plant a tree in Israel.
- Download Kol Yisrael on itunes and listen to Israel's main radio stations all the time.
- Take a look at a live shot of the Western Wall and leave it on your desktop all day.
- Or how about this spectacular panorama view from the Inbal Hotel. Go there now, with the afternoon sun glowing off the Old City walls!
- Look back at some of our prior TBE Israel trips.... say 2012, 2010, 2003, 2004, 2005 (prior ones too!)
- Watch these Jerusalem Archeology Slides
- Start planning your next trip to Israel. To whet your appetite, view these video Postcards from Israel.
- Recognize, today and every day, just what a miracle it is that the Jewish people have returned to our homeland after 2,000 years. There are lots of challenges for Israel and lots of things to critique. But that remains the overwhelming fact. And that's why me must celebrate today!
And Friday night too!
Happy Birthday, Israel!
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman
Friday, May 6, 2016
Shabbat-O-Gram for May 6
Shabbat-O-Gram
This evening our K-2 families will celebrate Shabbat in a very special manner, with dinner and a Shabbat program. Those wishing to see our younger grades in action (especially if you have pre-schoolers) are more than welcome to come join us! Then, at 7:30 our main service brings back two of the musical group Banot as our guest musicians - we also welcome Cantor Fishman back from Israel. Can't wait to hear all about it! Shabbat morning is Sisterhood Shabbat - plus we'll celebrate the upcoming wedding of Alison Greenwald and David Ash. Mazal Tov to all!!
And for you mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day!
Scenes from a Marriage
Our annual 7th Grade Wedding took place last Sunday,
culminating in the traditional fist-bump.
To see lots more wedding photos
(courtesy of Fred Canpolat Photography)
plus our entire 7th grade life-cycle album, click here.
See how kids made their own tallitot, a huppah, a ketubah,
and even decorated their wine cups.
One more reason why our Religious School is the best around:
experiential Jewish education at its best!
Scenes from a March
TBE's Steph Hausman at Thursday's March of the Living.
A TBE Men's Club Memorial Candle on the tracks leading to Birkenau
Thank you to Mindy Hausman for sending me the photos
so we all could experience the March with her in real time.
Since the first March of the Living was held in 1988, over 220,000 participants, from 52 countries, have marched down the same 3-kilometer path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance Day as a silent tribute to all victims of the Holocaust.
The Non-Jew in Jewish Law: A Needed Conversation
A couple of weeks ago, the Law Committee of the Conservative movement (CJLS) approved a paper on the "Status of Non-Jews in Jewish Law and Lore" (you can read it here ). This paper is meant to be a polemic against rabbis in Israel who draw upon theologies and legal positions in the Jewish tradition to discriminate and dehumanize non-Jews. While Rabbi Reuven Hammer acknowledges in the essay that those positions do exist in the Jewish tradition, there is also a stronger tradition that calls for tolerance and respect. He argues that we should view the less tolerant opinions as artifacts of more vulnerable times so that we live according to the highest ideals of Judaism. Take a look at the responsum. It begins a conversation that has been needed for a long time.
Israel at 68
Next Friday at 7:30, we will celebrate Israel's 68th with a spectacular cabaret-style Mediterranean Service. if you are coming here after dinner, leave some room for falafel!
Click here for a stunning slide show from Israel 21c, showing some of the major contributions Israel is making for the world, from revolutionary wheels that allow wheelchairs to go down stairs, to an ice technology that freezes breast tumors, or even a pocket sensor that can identify the chemical makeup of your food.
Despite all her challenges and flaws, Israel remains what it has always has been, a stunning, miraculous presence on the world stage and in the hearts of the Jewish people.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Shabbat-O-Gram for the end of Pesach
Shabbat-O-Gram
הַנִּצָּנִים נִרְאוּ בָאָרֶץ, עֵת הַזָּמִיר הִגִּיעַ; וְקוֹל הַתּוֹר, נִשְׁמַע בְּאַרְצֵנוּ
"The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land."
Song of Songs 2:12
Passover 2016 in Israel: Buttercups on Kibbutz Nir Yitzchak
Passover 2016 in Stamford: Blossoms at Beth El Cemetery
Happy End of Passover to all. The seventh and eighth days are full festival days; our office will be closed on Friday and services will take place on Friday and Shabbat mornings at 9:30. On Friday, Gerry Ginsburg will give a guest d’var Torah. Saturday’s service will include Yizkor prayers. The festival ends on Saturday night slightly after 8:30 PM, or whenever three stars appear in the sky and the aroma of hot bagels rises over Fairway. Ironically, Israelis, who normally observe only seven days of Passover, will also have an eighth day of breadlessness, because the festival runs right into Shabbat. Sorry about that, Israelis (not!).
Text-Driving a Siddur
Friday night’s service will be at the usual time of 7:30. Since I will be “going solo” this week (we miss you, Cantor Fishman!), and since the service is abridged (we skip Lecha Dodi and other parts of Kabbalat Shabbat on a festival) I thought we would take the opportunity to sample the new Conservative prayer book. Read about Siddur Lev Shalem here. Our ritual committee has taken a good look at it and recommended it. I’ve also been sharing insights from it over the past several weeks and inviting those attending our services to peruse the text. Before our board discusses it over the coming weeks, I thought it would be a nice idea for us to take it out for a test drive at services. You can call it a text-drive. Your reactions will be most helpful! On Friday night we’ll also be getting a briefing on the much anticipated arrival this week of a Syrian refugee family to our community.
Go in Peace, Return in Peace
Several of our students and families will be heading to Israel this coming week with Carmel Academy and Bi Cultural Day School, and Steph and Mindy Hausman will be going on the March of the Living. We wish them all a safe and amazing journey! And if any of them are in town this Friday or Shabbat, we are offering an aliyah to the Torah and special blessing, on the house!
Mazal tov to our 7th Graders (class wedding is Sunday)!
Judaism as a Path of Love
Song of Songs and the Holocaust
It’s customary on Passover to read the Song of Songs, arguably the greatest love poem ever written (with a polite nod to a certain W. Shakespeare). In a speech delivered in early April to a group of interfaith scholars, Rabbi Arthur Green looked at the centrality of the Song of Songs in framing Judaism as a path of love, rather than legalism and obedience. He writes:
The Song of Songs was in fact first spoken at Sinai itself, the day of the mystical marriage (between God and Israel). While the public voice of God may have been heard as declaring do’s and don’ts, at the very same moments He was whispering sweet nothings into His beloved’s ear.
To stand in God’s presence, Green asserts, is to live a life shaped by love.
As you all hopefully know by now, this message has been a central one in my own rabbinate. It has been an uphill climb to convince people that Judaism really is a religion based on love, for two main reasons:
One is that it flies in the face of what the non-Jewish world - as well as most Jews - have long considered Judaism to be. We’ve bought into the notion of the vengeful “Old Testament” God and of Judaism's obsession with do’s and don’ts. It’s noteworthy that the Song of Songs didn’t make it into the Hebrew Bible until the last possible minute, during the second century - by which time the Gospels had already taken shape, along with their negative stereotypes of Judaism. Perhaps Rabbi Akiva had that PR problem in mind when he became such an advocate for adding the Song to the canon.
Secondly, there is the specter of the Holocaust. Green understands that it is very difficult to speak of God’s love when so many are still asking where that loving God was in 1944. Green asserts that the Jewish soul is only now beginning the slow process of recovering from that trauma. That progress is enabling us once again to explore spiritual path of openheartedness and compassion, less burdened by anger, cynicism and grief.
Green’s essay is an important one, especially this week, as we are nestled between past and future, closing Passover and re-reading the Song of Songs as nature comes to life around us, while anticipating Yom Hashoah this coming Wednesday night (join me at our community commemoration at Temple Sinai), seven decades years since the last embers of Auschwitz were doused.
By now you should have received the Yellow Candle from our Men’s Club. Read about the Yellow Candle here. It will be very meaningful for every TBE family to remember the Holocaust by lighting this candle during the coming week. By supporting this program, we can also support Holocaust education for our teens by helping them to go on the March of the Living and other similar pilgrimages (including our TBE trip to Europe now scheduled for the summer of 2017).
Judaism as a Path of Kindness
Pirke Avot 6:6 as it appears in Siddur Lev Shalem
During the 49 day period between Passover and Shavuot (the Omer), it is customary to read that classic work of rabbinic wit and wisdom, Pirke Avot. In chapter 6 of Avot, we find a list of 48 qualities that enable us to acquire Torah, nearly a perfect match for this period of counting as we ascend to Sinai to receive the Torah. That connection has been drawn explicitly by rabbis devoted to ethical behavior, or "Mussar" as it is called. Each of these Middot (qualities) is a crucial turn on the path toward a life of holiness - and happiness. My suggestion is that we each try to explore one of them each day. You can find the full list here, or click on each of them below for helpful study guides. I plan on focusing on each of them later in the year as we approach the High Holidays - but it’s never too early to start!
Getting our Goat
Last week I wrote about the tragic overtones of the song “Chad Gadya.” Little did I know how, just as I was writing this, another little goat nearly caused a great deal of commotion. If the headline weren’t so scary it would have been laughable: “Three Jewish Men Arrested for Attempting Goat Sacrifice” on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, just as Passover was about to begin. That tiny piece of real estate has borne its share of controversy. Just a few days before, in an act of outright anti-Semitism, UNESCO tried todeny Jewish ties to the Temple Mount altogether. What this combustible piece of land requires is level headedness and compromise. Not an attempt at restoring an ancient ritual that many very pious Jews consider barbaric. Maimonides himself considered sacrifices a paltry pagan predecessor to prayer. Thankfully, and all kid-ding aside, the Israeli police once again proved that they are the G.O.A.T., at least when it comes to goat-spotting, and an international incident was averted - though I suspect that for the goat the reprieve was only temporary.
Shabbat Shalom and
Happy End of Pesach!
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman
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