TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Liam Raz on Tazria-Metzora

Shabbat Shalom!

This week’s Torah reading is a double portion:   Tazria / Metzorah. 

Like our double portion, I know I am also speaking today to a “double audience”   .

I am talking both to people in this room and those of you who are watching from home.

So first, thank you all for coming.  

I am proud to be the first Bar Mitzvah here at Temple Beth El following our reopening.  

The Torah portion talks about Contagious diseases and Quarantine !!!

  Sounds familiar???   

It talks about a planned approach to move out of quarantine back to regular life.  

It also talks about our obligations to individuals, community, and our tradition, as we deal with mysterious diseases!  

It is therefore appropriate that even though COVID is not yet behind us, we’ve found a way to feel comfortable coming back.  

We now have passed the one year anniversary of this pandemic,   and here we are,   together, in this sanctuary   as a sign that we are returning to everyday life,  slowly but safely.

This is the first weekend back, so we are trying a lot of things out.   

Combining Zoom with in-person,  and trying to make sure everyone feels a part of things.   

On this special occasion, I want to discuss the lessons Covid has taught us, one year in. 

First:  We’ve learned that you should never put off a celebration. 

Our Jewish tradition tells us that the world was created in seven days.  

And yet,   the Jewish nation was not yet created during this very crucial week. 

It goes to show that a HUMAN ACT is needed to become Jewish,   AND that we need to put in an intentional effort to continue our tradition. 

This week’s portion begins with the famous instruction that “on the eighth day, a male newborn would be circumcised.” 

 

This specific act involves HUMAN EFFORT to continue the tradition of the Jewish people. 

As some you may recall from personal experience, It is not very comfortable for a baby, or his parents, to undergo circumcision on the eighth day of life.  

Some may also think that it may not be very convenient to celebrate a Bar Mitzvah during a global pandemic.   

But, this is EXACTLY the point!  .  We do not delay a celebration! 

Why???   

TRADITION!!! 

THIS IS OUR TRADITION:   There is a time and place for everything.   and YES...  it DOES involve HUMAN EFFORT!  

Today is the Shabbat that was assigned to me at birth to celebrate my bar mitzvah . 

So pandemic or not  - our tradition continues  even if it is inconvenient, and not exactly as was planned 13 years ago. 

THIS is definitely a time to celebrate!!!  

Not only because of my Bar Mitzvah, but this so happens to be the weekend of Yom Ha’atzmaut,    The birthday of Israel.    A time when our nation moved from a disaster to establishing a new norm. 

Some of you know that my English name “LI-AM” means “my nation” in Hebrew.  

What better time than, for someone with lots of Israeli relatives, to celebrate becoming a Bar Mitzvah! 

SHALOM to everyone watching from Israel right now!! 

My Hebrew names are: Shevach and Aryeh, in memory of my paternal great grandfathers. 

As some of you may know, last week was also Yom HaShoah,   Holocaust Memorial Day.   

My great grandparents were Holocaust and pogrom survivors, who lost their families but rebuilt their lives again in Israel.   

My family member David Tessler, who never got to stand for his own Bar Mitzvah, was only six years old, my little sister’s age,   when he was murdered in Auschwitz. 

And yet, our nation recovered from the holocaust, and moved on to build a prosperous country. 

Celebrating My Bar Mitzvah on the same day that the state of Israel was declared is a reminder to all of us that even after bad times - recovery, and establishing a new norm, is possible. 

One of the important lessons we learned from Covid is to adapt to changed circumstances. 

Like many, It has been a rough year for me:

- My dear grandfather, Yitzhac Raz, of blessed memory, passed away at the start of the pandemic.

- My previous school closed down...   Permanently...   Not just for the pandemic!. 

- Like many here, I’ve also had my shares of quarantines, and it is not easy for a kid who loves playing soccer, and loves to play outside with friends, to go virtual. 

- Most of you may have noticed by now  - zoom is not really so much fun :-)  

But the point is…  Things are getting better!!  I’ve learned that we should try not to give up on the things that keep us going from day to day...  the routine things...   the little things that keep us human. 

Things like: cooking, exercise,   and being nice to one another.  These are all things that I’ve kept doing

I love to cook and do so often.  I love soccer,   and luckily I’ve been able to practice and play through much of the pandemic.

I’ve made new friends and had new experiences this year , and I made the most out of these times!!

Like this week's parsha,   this year also taught me that human kindness, and care for each other can lessen the burden of a disease.  

Some of you may have noticed that this week’s parsha talks A LOT about Leprosy.  BUT...  it is also about getting along with one another

The Hebrew word, Metzorah, which means having Leprosy, also, according to the rabbis, is an abbreviation for Motzi-shem-ra, which means slander.    Leprosy is seen as a spiritual disease.  

When you are living in close quarters, IT IS JUST as important to watch what we say as to socially distance to avoid catching a disease.

Either way,   you can cause lots of harm if you are not careful.   

Finally,   COVID has taught us how to deal with illness.  

As friends and people in the community caught COVID-19, I learned about acts of kindness that could be as simple as bringing over some chicken soup, and other food and treats, to help people through their challenges. 

When people are THAT sick, they feel lonely and helpless.  It’s important not to abandon people at a time like this. 

Covid has challenged people in lots of ways.    Everything from cancelled trips to shortages of toilet paper. 

Speaking of toiletries,   those shortages inspired my mitzvah project, which has been to collect toiletries and money for Inspirica,   an organization that provides shelter and helps people to free themselves from the cycle of homelessness.  

Please look at the brochure that I’ve prepared to learn more about my project and how you can help. As I become a Bar Mitzvah on this weekend, there’s so much to celebrate! 

PLUS... we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel for Covid. This light opens the way to a bright, more promising future!

But while we should never put off a chance to celebrate, we know that the need is still great,   and the Torah teaches us never to stop reaching out to others so we can face challenges as a community,   strong and determined to move on!

In This Moment, April 16: Yom Ha-atzmaut - a Wistful Hope; Bye, Bye Bernie; American Idle - Being a Bystander in a Digital Age; Reflecting on the Past Year

In This Moment The Shabbat-O-Gram is sponsored by Rebekah and Liran Raz in honor of their son, Liam, becoming a Bar Mitzvah on Shabbat morning. As we bid adieu to our scheduled Zoom-only services (though weather may impact some Friday nights including this one), here are some photos from last Shabbat. My thanks to all those who have made every service an oasis of calm and warmth at a harrowing time. We've often been graced with the presence of Hazzan Rabinowitz, who last week led the Torah service (while I carried the Torah "from out of Zion," in the split screen, with Jerusalem as my background). It will be the last opportunity for him to lead a service here for a while, since we are returning to the sanctuary, which made it a special thrill. You can watch the video here. As a bonus, you can also watch our discussion about why pigs are taboo, found later in the service.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Yom Ha'atzmaut. Mazal tov to Liam Raz, whose bar mitzvah will be celebrated in the sanctuary this Shabbat!

Click on the video above to the right to watch a unique colorized version of David Ben Gurion declaring the state in 1948. Above on the left you'll find the full Independence Day Ceremony on Mt Herzl. Some highlights: At 23:45 - musician Idan Raichel sings his song "Longing" ("Ga'agua"), assisted by young singers impacted by loss from terror or war; 36:30 - Koolulam stages one of it's patented mass sing alongs, this time with medical professionals singing the song "Teta'aru Lachem," "Imagine to Yourselves" by Shlomo Artzi, one of my favorites; expressing not the defiant, utopian idealism of John Lennon's "Imagine," which has it's place, but a more wistful Israeli version, replete with the scars of loss, but hopeful nonetheless - the perfect song for now. Imagine a beautiful world less sad than what it is and we walk in it with suns in our pockets imagine a beautiful world A city in the darkness a simple world imagine a little happiness It was a lovely ceremony, upbeat and confident, befitting the first country in the world to reach the almost-end of the pandemic. And it was surprisingly apolitical (there was an uncomfortable political moment earlier in the day, when the Prime Minister was chastised by a bereaved father. Read more about it here). As always, Israel is a complicated place, but last night's ceremony reminds us that this mishmash of resiliency is somehow thriving, with suns in their pockets - Jewish, Arab, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrachi, Ethiopian, Orthodox and Secular, all the tribes, It's a mishmash, but it's our mishmash, and we cherish it. Click here for 73 Fun Facts About Israel. How about 73 Bible Verses honoring this birthday? And click here to read "73 +1 Reasons I Love Israel." Also, watch the Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony. Also see Modern Israeli History: A Timeline and How Hatikva Became Israel's National Anthem (MJL). To gain a better understanding of the stakes raised by the current Netanyahu trial, listen to this podcast, which describes the undermining of Israel's free press. Bye, Bye Bernie The death of Bernie Madoff brings to mind a destructive and humiliation chapter of American Jewish history. At the time of his arrest in 2008 I made some waves by advocating his excommunication from Jewish life. You can read my original open letter here - and you can read some of the reaction here and here and here and here. (See the reaction of other rabbis, in today's Forward). The damage caused by this man can never be understated. He nearly single handedly destroyed Jewish philanthropy. As i told the Jerusalem Post in an interview at the time.. "My synagogue's teens received free Israel trips three years ago because of the generosity of the Lappin Foundation in Boston, but because that money had all been 'invested' in Madoff's fund, that gift that we received was in essence stolen money. . . Even those organizations not directly impacted may have profited in some manner from this money that was stolen from innocent people. Every penny that Madoff ever donated is dirty money." Returning to the Sanctuary... Reflecting on the Past Year As we anticipate our return to in-person / hybrid services, let's look back and pay tribute to the Zoom services and events that sustained us for these many months. ones, and which are continuing on weekdays and Sundays at 1. You can watch videos of many of our services and other key events, which have been collected at this website. The Torah implores us to choose life. At a time when we have hit a wall and feel so fried at the duration of this pandemic, isolation seems to be creeping ever upon us like the afternoon shadows. And that's where only people can save us. Not places. People. TBE is nothing more and nothing less than the sum of its human parts. And those human parts have come through this year for one another. I am so happy that this long nightmare is coming to an end, But Zoom services were not part of the illness - at their best, they were part of what helped us to heal. We chose life. Hope Stanger has written a lovely tribute to our still-ongoing daily Zoom minyan, which she has given me permission to share: When Rabbi Hammerman asked our congregation on Shabbat morning if we dress differently for Shabbat on Zoom services, I said jokingly that I do dress differently for Shabbat, because I think about our daily minyan group seeing me in the same Brooklyn, NY sweatshirt on multiple occasions, and what they might think; it made me laugh and cringe that someone might say: Does she only own one piece of clothing??  The truth is that Shabbat signifies a new sacredness given to us each week, and I want to honor that by wearing something a little more festive. Over the course of two months, between mid-August and late October, both my brother and my mother passed away. I sat two shivas, almost back-to-back; each quite different from the other; both without the usual gatherings of family and friends. Post-shiva, I went through an extraordinary level of grief, and through that, what held constant in my healing process was knowing I was signing onto afternoon minyan. Each day, I felt my hands being held and my heart being soothed as I chanted the familiar prayers and supported others who their lost loved ones. Having this available to me every day was invaluable. I could just be myself; be wherever I needed to be; and have the support and love of the people in our minyan knowing I was suffering and holding me close. It’s been a very unique experience being a part of this virtual yet intimately connected group. Because of Covid necessitating a new format for synagogue prayer, we come together on small screens instead of in a chapel; connecting through energy, chat boxes and words rather than in person, and precisely because of this, we have become a minyan family. And my minyan family holds a sacred space in my heart every day. Being able to meet on Zoom was one of the biggest gifts during a truly difficult year for everyone. As a therapist, I was able to schedule my days with the space for daily minyan; this has allowed me to say the Mourner’s Kaddish every day, which would not have been likely pre-Covid. When my dad passed away in 2007, I came once a week for a year to say Kaddish. Now I get to say it every day, and I know that’s just what I've needed to heal and to honor my family. What touches me the most is that during minyan, we write in the names of those in our lives who need healing, and we say the prayer for refuah shlemah in the middle of the Amidah. Each day, I pause and focus my energy and attention on the names I write as well as all the names and initials that any member of our minyan family writes in. I envision each person thriving in their lives with whole health and well being. With those I know, I physically picture them happy, healthy and free, and with others’ names, I send them healing and energy and imagine them so happy in their lives. I can share that a dear friend of mine who has been dealing with metastatic cancer had a clear PET scan after being held in our chat prayer box. I know that we all hold the prayers and intentions for each other, and this means the world to me; to both give and receive. As life readjusts and we slowly come back to our in-person synagogue life, I still look forward to the privilege of being with our minyan family at one o’clock every weekday. Thank you, Hope, for articulating what we are all feeing, as we now are approaching reached the end - of the beginning.

How Have We Changed?

And so we ask, how have we changed? And what have we learned? This article describes some of the lessons learned from the pandemic: Not “Back to Normal.” Better! Reaffirming a bevy of classic Jewish values, starting with Pikuakh Nefesh, the sacrosanct supremacy of saving lives. Also including humility, kindness, patience, justice and community. Everything Is Connected Take the Long View "From racial justice to health improvements to ecological sustainability, our work is rendered imperative by the awful reality of COVID-19."

American Idle What does it mean to be a bystander in a digital age?

Next week Jews around the world will read in the Torah (Lev. 19:16) the commandment not to stand idly by the blood our neighbor.  There is no question that the sources stand on the side of active intervention rather than passivity. As the Talmud states (Sanhedrin 73a), “Whence do we know that if a man sees his neighbor drowning, mauled by beasts, or attacked by robbers, he is bound to save him? From the verse, ‘Thou shalt not stand by the blood of thy neighbor.'”      But recent events are demonstrating that idleness is no longer an option, now that most onlookers carry in their pockets small, hand-held instant-justice machines that can make star witnesses out of nine-year-olds. When a crime happens and you are there, either your cellphone camera is on or you are in someone else’s has you in the frame. Either way, you will be found – and you will be involved. What does it mean to be a bystander in a digital age? We’ve been asking that question a lot lately. The riveting testimony of the trial for the murder of George Floyd has been marked by emotion, especially from the mouths of the youngest bystanders.  Darnella Frazier, the teenager who filmed the viral video of Floyd’s arrest, said during her cross-examination that there have been nights when she has stayed up and apologized to Floyd for not doing more to save his life. “(Floyd) looked like he was fighting to breathe,” said another teen witness, Alyssa Nicole Funari, 18, who was outside Cup Foods during the arrest. Funari took a moment before proceeding, leading the prosecutor to ask whether she was having difficulty recounting the incident. “It was difficult because I felt like there really wasn’t anything I could do as a bystander,” Funari said. “The highest power was there and I felt like I was failing — like, failing to do anything.” “Technically I could have done something; but I couldn’t do, physically, what I wanted to do,” Funari said, because police were ordering bystanders to stay back. Again and again, we heard the voices of the bystanders, like off duty firefighter who wanted to give CPR. They’re now stepping up to take responsibility for their inaction. But was it inaction?  At the other end of the spectrum, we’ve seen bystanders fail to respond correctly to recent hate crimes directed against people of Asian descent. Two New York City apartment building workers were fired for failing to help a 65 year old Asian American woman as she was being violently attacked on the sidewalk outside. As she was being physically and verbally attacked, cameras show these workers not only failing to intervene but then then closing the door on the woman.  In Orange County, CA., an Olympic hopeful was in a park training for the summer games when a man targeted her in an incident that she captured on video. She became, in effect, her own corroborating witness, victim and bystander all in one. Research shows that most people are more than willing to intervene and help someone. A whole branch of psychology has grown from this question, based on the famous 1964 Queens stabbing attack on Kitty Genovese that was ostensibly witnessed by 38 passive onlookers who did nothing to stop it. It later was shown that the numbers were inflated, and that in fact New Yorkers did not deserve the reputation for apathy that has been given them. But recent events force us to ask ourselves, if we were outside of that Manhattan apartment building or Cup Foods in Minneapolis, what would we have done? And how has digital technology changed the equation since 1964? Or since biblical times. When the young Moses went out and saw his fellow Israelite being beaten, as he was about to strike the taskmaster the text says “he turned this way and that…” Perhaps he saw no potential witnesses and figured it was okay to strike. Or perhaps he saw lots of people around, but they all looked haggard and weary – like slaves – and he calculated that no one would have the strength to testify against him. Moses understood that moral paralysis is the mark of enslavement; the people had been cowed into complicity – to idleness – indifferent to the plight of their fellow and unlikely to get involved. So Moses got involved. In Leviticus 9:22, an older Moses is once again a bystander as Aaron blessed the people.  But then, curiously, in the very next verse, Moses joins Aaron in a blessing do-over, and this time “the glory of G-d appeared to the entire people.”    According to Rashi, Aaron’s initial blessing was a misfire. And Aaron, afraid he was not in God’s good graces, appealed to Moses, who immediately leapt once again and joined his brother in a renewed appeal to God, who this time responded with an appearance. The Baal Shem Tov takes from this the lesson that we are bystanders for a reason; not to stand in judgment -- and Moses did not -- but to share the burden. From that perspective of humility, Moses did not judge Aaron. He simply seized the moment when his moment arrived, and he ran to assist.    Those people in Minneapolis waited for their moment, having no idea that their moment to act would be delayed for nearly a year. That’s a lot of bystanding, but not a minute of idleness. They may not have been able to save George Floyd, but through their testimony, they may save the integrity of the American justice system. These heroic bystanders witnesses in Minnesota heard the clarion call of Elie Wiesel: “Don’t stand idly by if you witness injustice. You must intervene. You must interfere.”

Shabbat Shalom! Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

In This Moment: Porky's Revenge, In-Between Times, Vaccine Passports

In This Moment April 9, 2021 Click to watch this week's Town Hall event with Senator Blumenthal Shabbat Shalom! A busy week, highlighted by our Town Meeting with Senator Blumenthal (was that an official 2022 kickoff that I heard, on his home Zoom?) as well as Yom Hashoah. In Israel, Bibi received the mandate to form a government, but the numbers do not currently favor him. Read Marc Shulman's excellent analysis of what's going on there, and this piece about the racist party that would become part of a prospective right-wing government. Tonight will mark our last scheduled Friday night that is totally virtual, although it should be noted that beginning next week, each week we will decide on Thursday whether to revert to a Zoom-only service because of weather concerns. So check your local listings. In any event, all services will still be available at home, so no one should feel pressured to attend in person. Shabbat morning I'll be discussing the portion of Shemini, which features the Torah's most comprehensive discussion of the laws and concepts of Kashrut.  Here is the discussion packet and fact sheet on Kashrut, and some links to additional "How tos" and "Whats."  With its roots in the Bible, the system of defining which foods are Kosher was developed by the rabbis of late antiquity. Its application to changing realities has been the work of subsequent generations, including our own. Tomorrow I'll focus on that most quintessential of Kashrut's foils, the pig - and did you see in today's NYT how wild boars are taking over Haifa? Sweet revenge for the porcine family! And yet, at the same time, on the front page of Ha'aretz today, archeological proof that the taboo against pork was strong even in medieval Oxford (where there is no shortage of bacon and lard, so I hear). So lots of piggledy wiggledy to discuss tomorrow. The Place In Between We've reached a strange "in-between" place, a moment of liminality, between one stage of our lives, and the next. Religion lives in these spaces; as we stand at a threshold, where we can shed one identity and begin to assume a new role. For many of us, as we exit from the year of Covid, we will be leaving behind loved ones who never quite got here. Our good friend Rabbi Vicki Axe is commemorating the first yahrzeit of her beloved Harold, and she has pulled together her thoughts into a podcast and lovely essay, "Love and Loss in the Time of Covid." You can link to the essay and podcast here. Speaking of love and loss, I was enraptured by the new season of Shtisel and would love to participate in a discussion about it. Let me know if you are interested . Meanwhile, to get us started, see this perceptive essay from the Forward. Whatever our situation, the next few months are going to be transitional, and then some. Over the past several days, I've been dealing with people planning all those postponed weddings and namings - and for those who are getting married after having spend Covid under the same roof as their future spouse, it will be as if they've already been married for a decade even before the glass is broken. The consensus is that the timespan of Covid living can be measured in dog years. So we are about to enter the most religiously charged few months of this generation. Really, we entered it a year ago. But it will not end when the doors open. It will be raised to a new level. Let's make the most of this time of growth and change. What do Jewish sources have to say about this return to "normalcy" following extraordinary events? See David Golinkin's "Jewish quotes on a return to normalcy," from the JPost. Vaccine Passports As we prepare to cross that threshold, there has been much discussion of so-called vaccine passports, and whether vaccination should be required for admission to schools, businesses, sporting events and, oh yes, places of worship. This should not be a politically-tinged conversation (just like masks shouldn't be). Last week, the libertarian party of Kentucky was called out for what Forbes described as "an extremely poor comparison of vaccination passport programs to the yellow Star of David that was forced to be worn by Jews during the Holocaust." (See for yourself: "Vaccine Passport Comparison To Holocaust Symbols Stirs Debate.") Israel has been implementing a Vaccine Passport system for about a month. And it has worked. I believe it makes sense to generally require vaccination or accurate texting when people are going to be in close quarters, once vaccines are available to all who want them. There will be exceptions, such as with children. This midrash explains why: A group of people were sitting in a boat. One person pulled out a hand-drill and proceeded to drill a hole beneath their seat. The fellow passengers screamed at the incredulous sight and asked, “What do you think you’re doing?!” The hole-driller dismissed the question and responded, “What do you care? Am I not drilling under my seat?” They replied: “Because you are sinking the boat with us in it!’” (Vayikra Rabbah 4:6). That is precisely why we will need to reenter society with our vaccine passports in hand. Below is the full quote of the midrash, for you to clip and save - and place it in your wallet, right next to your vaccination card. Rabbi Joshua Hammerman ‌ Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community