Good yuntif.
My goodness ... things have been pretty busy around here lately… but I’m guessing things are pretty busy in most of your houses every day, too?
Anyone else feel like you spend all your time running?
Running from here to there and then back again … why, we don’t even stop running when we are on vacation … we make tons of plans of things to see, things to do, and things to visit … so much so that, when we return, we sometimes need a vacation from our vacation.
Once, I flew to India for six days and spent every single day in a different city … I literally made a list of 6 things I wanted to see on that trip and got on a new plane every day, going from place to place to place to place to place to place ... and then “the vacation” was over. In hindsight, I got to see six amazing places, but does that really sound like a vacation?
How about lists … anybody here got a "to do" list that is so long you feel like you’ll never, ever be “finished” with it?
Or, more likely, how many of us are afraid to even write everything down on our to do list for fear that it would be so overwhelming we’d never actually do it?
In these busy times, we just seem to run ... and run ... and run.
[The Violinist of L’Enfant Plaza ... Footnote 1]
Imagine, if you will, a young man standing on the plaza level of the L’Enfant Plaza subway station in Washington, DC. Wearing blue jeans, a longsleeved tshirt, and a Washington National baseball cap, he pulls out a violin from its case and throws a couple dollars and the change from his pocket as seed money to inspire the passersby to do the same thing. For the next 43 minutes, the young man plays six classical pieces of music.
What do you do when you walk by, hearing him play?
It’s rush hour, 7:51 am on a Friday morning and, for the next 43 minutes, the young man plays six pieces of classical music.
What do you think happens?
During this 43 minutes, 1,097 people passed by on their way to work … during that time:
“Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation … annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? ... [But,] what if he's really good?”
I mean, really, who has time to stop and listen when you are rushing on your way to work?
But, on that particular Friday in January:
"Those private questions we answer so quickly as we are running from place to place would be answered in an unusually public way.
No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made … [a $3.5 million Stradavarius].
His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?"
You should know that he did not play popular music “whose familiarity alone might have drawn interest. [You see,] that was not the test. [Instead,] these pieces were masterpieces that have endured for centuries on their brilliance alone, soaring music befitting the grandeur of cathedrals and concert halls” and, surprisingly, the acoustics were quite good.
The man playing the violin was literally one of the top three violinists in the world and his name was Joshua Bell. Bell has played for heads of state, the best symphonies in the world, and sells out to standing room only crowds everywhere he plays … he has even received a prize as the best classical musician in America. He makes $1,000 a MINUTE to play … on a $3.5 million dollar Stradavarius.
When the Washington Post set up this experiment a few years ago that January morning, they were worried that they might cause a public scene, that Mr. Bell might get hurt from the commotion and the crowd ... and that they might need to call in the police for crowd control.
So, what do you think happened?
Well, it took three full minutes of playing before anything at all happened … 63 people had already walked by before anything at all really happened … what was the breakthrough?
A middle-aged man sorta’ cocked his head and seemed to notice that there was a guy over that was playing some music, and then he kept walking.
A half minute later, someone finally dropped something in his violin case – a woman threw in a dollar bill … and she kept right on walking.
It was not until 6 minutes into his performance that someone actually stood against a wall and finally, really listened.
He played for 43 minutes. Out of 1,097 people who passed by in those 43 minutes, only 7 people stopped what they were doing for one minute to listen … they were buying lottery tickets, walking to work, getting their shoes shined. 27 people gave money, most of them on the run … he made $32.17. Some of the 1,070 people who walked by were only 3 feet away, yet few even turned to look.
What does this story say about us?
Some might say that we as a people don’t pay much attention to what is going on around us.
Some might say we have too much closing us off from the rest of society, since many of those 1,070 who passed by were on the phone or listening to iPods.
Some might say we just need to give ourselves more time in the morning to slow down.
I might suggest that we look even wider in answering the question. Perhaps we need to get outside ourselves a little more.
Stop.
And look.
Our sages teach that the bush on the side of the road was always burning, Moses just happened to be the first one to pay attention to it.
Today, it is Rosh HaShanah, the beginning of our year, the beginning of the Ten Days of Awe and, on Yom Kippur morning, we will read from the Torah a passage that includes these phrases, “choose life,” therefore, “that you and your descendants may live,” by “loving your God, listening to God’s voice, and holding fast to the One who is your life and the length of your days.” [FN 2] Certainly, the passage is talking about choosing to live “the good life” and follow the mitzvot, but I believe that this presupposes that we choose to actually live.
[Long pause]
Recently, our community has lost so many people.
Our individual families have lost too many loved ones, and our community has lost someone who gave to so many … we have lost too many people we have loved.
But we can choose life, and really live.
[How Should We Choose to Live Our Lives?]
You know, you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their presets on their car’s radio station … check out the stations they have programmed in and you can tell if they like hard rock, easy listening, jazz, classical, or the news … or maybe a combination of all of them.
Even more so nowadays, I guess I should say check out the “Top 25 Most Played” on their iPod or iPhone, and you can learn a lot about someone … what kind of beat gets ’em moving, what kind of stories they connect with … yep, you can tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to.
I’m pretty sure that I shared this secret with some of you, but the rest of you have to promise not to tell anyone … but … “I love country music.”
Back when I lived in Vegas and LA, I had to whisper it, but here in Austin? Here, I can say it with my head held a little higher … and my voice a little stronger, because people here in Texas just understand better that good country music can tell a great story ... and great stories, especially when set to great music, are really what touch our hearts.
Now people make jokes all the time about country music … about how you “cain’t” write a song unless it’s about your momma’ dying … or your dog dying … or a relative getting out of prison … or your brand, new pickup truck.
Now, don’t get me wrong. All of those topics are perfectly fine themes for a country song … and I absolutely love the ones about pickup trucks because, maybe you can take the girl out of Georgia, but you can’t take the Georgia out of the girl.
But what really gets me about country music is the “realness” – is that even a word? The lyrics just always seem to be about living life to its fullest.
One day a few years back, I realized I had to pull my car over because I was crying. It was the first time I heard a Tim McGraw song with such an extraordinary story that it made me stop and think. [FN 3]
Tim McGraw was singing about how a man felt, after it sunk in, that he only had a short time to live. The narrator of the song asks the man what he did after he learned his fate, and the man responds in the chorus of the song like this … he says:
I went sky diving,
I went Rocky Mountain climbing,
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Blue Manchu ...
OK, now I am not going to tell you go bullriding … I’ve seen what that can do to people … why do I tell you about a song like this on Rosh HaShanah?
The name of the song was “Live Like You Were Dying.”
[Deep breath.]
Over the past few years, I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals visiting people who were sick and in need of healing.
Once back when I was a student, I held a rather elderly woman’s hand who had asked for a Rabbi … and, well, she got me. Even though she wasn’t always lucid during my visit, her daughter told me that all she wanted to do was say the “Sh’ma.” Laying in her hospital bed, so fragile and so weak, when I told her I would sing the Sh’ma with her, she sat upright in the bed and sang in her loudest voice with gusto and pride.
As I was walking back to my car, I thought about that stage in my life where I might need medical care in the future … and, when I got into the car, the song “Live Like You Were Dying” came on the radio.
I don’t believe there is anything such as coincidence … I think that maybe God sometimes works anonymously.
What’s the message? It is plain and simple:
Go.
Do.
See.
Live.
[Deep breath.]
Yes, there are places we can go … and things we can do.
For example, on my birthday one year, I did one of the things I love most … I got in the car with two of my friends and we went for a drive … I think we were gone for a grand total of eight hours.
We drove northeast from Las Vegas and went to the tiniest little towns called Beatty and Rhyolite … yep, of all the places I could have chosen for my birthday, and I wanted to go to Beatty and Rhyolite, Nevada. And while we were there, we did one of my favorite things in the whole world … we went to see the town cemeteries.
You know, you can tell a lot about a person’s life by what is written on their tombstone, especially in the backwoods of Nevada.
And you can learn a lot about a family by seeing who is buried next to whom, and by figuring out how they were related.
And each time I visit a cemetery, it reminds me of my own mortality.
You see, every day we are here, we are writing our own eulogy. By our actions and how we treat others, we decide what will be said about us when we are gone.
[Deep breath.]
The song lyrics continue:
He said I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn’t,
And I became a friend a friend would like to have,
And all the sudden going fishin’ wasn’t such an imposition,
And I went three times that year I lost my dad.
I finally read the good book,
And I took a good long hard look,
At what I’d do if I could do it all again.
The message is simple:
Figure out what is important to you.
Figure out who is important to you.
And figure out a way to combine the two.
[How Do We Judge Each Year and Make it Meaningful?]
Which leads me to another favorite song at this time of year … it is a song from the Broadway musical Rent, called “Seasons of Love” … but I’ve always thought it should be named the most powerful phrase within the song … I’ve always thought it should be called, “525,600 minutes.”
You see, that’s how many minutes there are in a year … and so I ask:
How did you spend your last 525,600 minutes?
[Long pause]
How do you plan to spend your next 525,600 minutes?
[Long pause]
Fourteen times in our sacred scriptures we hear the word, Hineini, here I am … once even in today’s Torah portion.
So, what does it mean to be truly here? What does it mean to be truly present in one’s life?
Well, it might look like different things to different people.
Could it mean turning off the electronics in our lives, the TV, the iPod, the iPad, the Blackberry, yes, just for a few minutes and connecting with the real people in our lives?
Could it mean reaching out to hold someone’s hand and really holding it when someone needs not for you to listen, but instead maybe just for them to be heard?
Could it mean thinking about what our goals truly are? What do we want to be remembered for? What do we want people to say about us in our eulogy?
It could mean a new commitment to more hugs, and less things in our lives.
It could mean … [ long pause ] … what does it look like to you now?
Hineini.
Here I am.
What do you want this to look like for you?
Rosh Hashanah … This is Hayom Harat Olam – this is the day creation began … and this is the day when we can begin to recreate ourselves.
And so I leave you today with three new year’s wishes for all of us …
I pray that we can stop running … and running … and running … and instead find
as many meaningful moments as we can in the next 525,600 minutes … so that we can mean it each and every time we want to say, and can truly choose to say, Hineini.
I pray that each of us takes the opportunity to truly “live like we were dying” … for many, many years to come.
And, lastly, when the beautiful music is playing, I pray that we stop and notice … and give ourselves a chance to really listen.
Who knows, we might be hearing the “Flop of L’Enfant Plaza” … who became the winner of the Avery Fisher prize, recognizing the best classical musician in America.
Gut yuntif.
1. The first section of the sermon is based on Gene Weingarten’s article in the Washington Post on April 7, 2007: “Pearls Before Breakfast: Can One of the Nation’s Great Musicians Cut Through the Fog of a DC Rush Hour? Let’s Find Out.” All quotations in this section of the sermon are from this story. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
2. Deuteronomy 30:16-19.
3. “Live Like You Were Dying is a country-western song made famous by Tim McGraw. Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman cowrote this Grammy Award-winning “Best Country Song” (47th Annual Grammy Awards).
Friday, September 24, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Tonight's Sermon on Parashat Shoftim ... on the American Judicial System ...
Shabbat shalom.
No matter where I have worked, I have always sought to work with people of the highest ethical standards, but mostly for a selfish reason … I wanted to be able to sleep at night.
As a lawyer, this was somewhat troublesome … as you may know, in many states around the country, judges have to run for election to the bench. They have to put up signs and billboards and all of these things cost money … and the people most likely to give them money are the people they know … and the biggest group of people they probably know is? Lawyers.
As a baby lawyer fresh out of working for a judge in the court system, I remember asking my boss (and mentor) how he decided to whom he should give … and he said, "I give to them all. The list of donors is made public, which is a good thing, but I might not pick the right person, so I have to give to them all."
A few years later, I remember being called into a Senior Partner’s office and being asked to listen to a voicemail message that bothered him … the voice on the message said:
"Hi, ____ , this is Judge _____. I was looking over the list of donors to my re-election campaign and realized that your firm hasn’t taken the opportunity to make a donation to my campaign yet. I just wanted to remind you that you still have time to make one if you’d like … and see you in court soon."
OK, so yes, this WAS a court in Las Vegas, but WOW. My boss and I both sat there stunned. This man had been a member of the bench for many years and, while I always thought he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the tree based on some of the decisions he made, I never expected this kind of “in your face” politicking.
Believe it or not, these same issues are not new … they have been around thousands of years, and are included in this week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, which is most often translated as "magistrates" or "judges."
This week, Moses tells the people that they are required to appoint "magistrates and officers for their tribes," and that "they shall govern the people with due justice." But there must have been a problem with the way justice had been administered in the past, because God goes even further and specifies the following things: that judges are not to judge unfairly ... that they shall show no partiality ... and that they shall not take bribes because, as the Torah says, “for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just.” This is followed by one of the most famous lines in the whole Torah, “Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that Adonai your God is giving you.”
Within the past few days, we have witnessed an extraordinary piece of history, for several reasons. This is the first time that three women have ever sat on the US Supreme Court ... so now women make up 1/3 of the Supreme Court, even though we make up slightly more than 50% of the population? Well, I suppose it is better than before. : )
Even more interesting is that, with the addition of Elana Kagan, there are now three Jews sitting on the Supreme Court. Hmmm … Jews are 2% of the population and represent 1/3 of the Court … honestly, I’m not sure what to make of that except that a lot of Jewish parents have raised a lot of Jewish kids who turned out to be a lot of Jewish lawyers … and maybe that our heritage and tradition of studying the laws in the Torah and other Jewish texts makes our American system of jurisprudence pretty darn attractive. : )
To me, though, this week’s appointment of Elana Kagan to the Supreme Court and the recent appointment of Sonjia Sotomeyer represent one of the biggest challenges that face our country today.
Good people of great scholarship who have addressed the hard issues in America have the hardest time getting appointed to the highest Court in the land. Every administration, democrat or republican, has to find a really smart person they think will decide their critical issues the way they want … who hasn’t actually expressed an opinion publicly on pretty much any topic important to Americans today. They can’t have been too friendly with any one political party, they can’t have actually stood for anything … or they might be disqualified.
An old episode of the West Wing addressed this very concern when the person furthest to the right on its Supreme Court was killed off … but the liberal administration knew they couldn’t get the person they wanted (someone perceived to be far to the left) approved. The solution (and, of course, this only happens on television) was to ask the justice furthest to the left to step down so both political parties could get someone they perceived to be in their best interest.
Simple solution, right? Everybody gets what they want.
Sure, but the coolest part of the entire episode, at least for a former lawyer watching, was hearing one of the characters talking about the need for divergent opinions on the court - that it is bad for a country to have to settle for the middle-of-the-road, least offensive, most “vanilla” candidate who can get approved and that, if we do so, we lose the beautiful voice of the minority, or dissenting, opinion … the minority opinion that can later become the jewel that is found and inspires great change in this country.
Remember the great case of Plessy v. Ferguson, in which our United States Supreme Court said that “separate but equal” was constitutional?
The lone dissenting and now-famous voice in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision was from Justice John Marshall Harlan, an interesting character because he and his family owned slaves in Kentucky, and during the Civil War he staunchly defended the right to slavery. At the same time, however, he also joined the Union Army to fight to preserve the Union. After the Civil War ended, he changed his attitude on slavery and became a staunch critic of it and defender of civil rights for African-Americans.
Today, Justice Harlan could never have been a US Supreme Court justice.
Politics and justice shouldn’t mix. As the Torah teaches, Shoftim, judges, should neither feel pulled nor obligated to one side or the other … either because they have to ask the lawyers appearing before them for money to run for election or because they have to be quietly beholden to political parties in order to get appointed. We should reconsider how judges become judges … there has to be a way to take the politics out of justice because some of the greatest changes that have ever happened in the US has come through our judicial system … there has to be a better way.
My prayer for our country is that our newly-appointed Justice Kagan, and actually all judges, both who have to run for office as well as those who are appointed to positions (some for their lifetime), do exactly what the Torah teaches: that they not be swayed by the lure of bribes, that they shall always judge fairly, and yes, justice, only justice shall they pursue.
Shabbat shalom.
No matter where I have worked, I have always sought to work with people of the highest ethical standards, but mostly for a selfish reason … I wanted to be able to sleep at night.
As a lawyer, this was somewhat troublesome … as you may know, in many states around the country, judges have to run for election to the bench. They have to put up signs and billboards and all of these things cost money … and the people most likely to give them money are the people they know … and the biggest group of people they probably know is? Lawyers.
As a baby lawyer fresh out of working for a judge in the court system, I remember asking my boss (and mentor) how he decided to whom he should give … and he said, "I give to them all. The list of donors is made public, which is a good thing, but I might not pick the right person, so I have to give to them all."
A few years later, I remember being called into a Senior Partner’s office and being asked to listen to a voicemail message that bothered him … the voice on the message said:
"Hi, ____ , this is Judge _____. I was looking over the list of donors to my re-election campaign and realized that your firm hasn’t taken the opportunity to make a donation to my campaign yet. I just wanted to remind you that you still have time to make one if you’d like … and see you in court soon."
OK, so yes, this WAS a court in Las Vegas, but WOW. My boss and I both sat there stunned. This man had been a member of the bench for many years and, while I always thought he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the tree based on some of the decisions he made, I never expected this kind of “in your face” politicking.
Believe it or not, these same issues are not new … they have been around thousands of years, and are included in this week’s Torah portion, Shoftim, which is most often translated as "magistrates" or "judges."
This week, Moses tells the people that they are required to appoint "magistrates and officers for their tribes," and that "they shall govern the people with due justice." But there must have been a problem with the way justice had been administered in the past, because God goes even further and specifies the following things: that judges are not to judge unfairly ... that they shall show no partiality ... and that they shall not take bribes because, as the Torah says, “for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just.” This is followed by one of the most famous lines in the whole Torah, “Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that Adonai your God is giving you.”
Within the past few days, we have witnessed an extraordinary piece of history, for several reasons. This is the first time that three women have ever sat on the US Supreme Court ... so now women make up 1/3 of the Supreme Court, even though we make up slightly more than 50% of the population? Well, I suppose it is better than before. : )
Even more interesting is that, with the addition of Elana Kagan, there are now three Jews sitting on the Supreme Court. Hmmm … Jews are 2% of the population and represent 1/3 of the Court … honestly, I’m not sure what to make of that except that a lot of Jewish parents have raised a lot of Jewish kids who turned out to be a lot of Jewish lawyers … and maybe that our heritage and tradition of studying the laws in the Torah and other Jewish texts makes our American system of jurisprudence pretty darn attractive. : )
To me, though, this week’s appointment of Elana Kagan to the Supreme Court and the recent appointment of Sonjia Sotomeyer represent one of the biggest challenges that face our country today.
Good people of great scholarship who have addressed the hard issues in America have the hardest time getting appointed to the highest Court in the land. Every administration, democrat or republican, has to find a really smart person they think will decide their critical issues the way they want … who hasn’t actually expressed an opinion publicly on pretty much any topic important to Americans today. They can’t have been too friendly with any one political party, they can’t have actually stood for anything … or they might be disqualified.
An old episode of the West Wing addressed this very concern when the person furthest to the right on its Supreme Court was killed off … but the liberal administration knew they couldn’t get the person they wanted (someone perceived to be far to the left) approved. The solution (and, of course, this only happens on television) was to ask the justice furthest to the left to step down so both political parties could get someone they perceived to be in their best interest.
Simple solution, right? Everybody gets what they want.
Sure, but the coolest part of the entire episode, at least for a former lawyer watching, was hearing one of the characters talking about the need for divergent opinions on the court - that it is bad for a country to have to settle for the middle-of-the-road, least offensive, most “vanilla” candidate who can get approved and that, if we do so, we lose the beautiful voice of the minority, or dissenting, opinion … the minority opinion that can later become the jewel that is found and inspires great change in this country.
Remember the great case of Plessy v. Ferguson, in which our United States Supreme Court said that “separate but equal” was constitutional?
The lone dissenting and now-famous voice in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision was from Justice John Marshall Harlan, an interesting character because he and his family owned slaves in Kentucky, and during the Civil War he staunchly defended the right to slavery. At the same time, however, he also joined the Union Army to fight to preserve the Union. After the Civil War ended, he changed his attitude on slavery and became a staunch critic of it and defender of civil rights for African-Americans.
Today, Justice Harlan could never have been a US Supreme Court justice.
Politics and justice shouldn’t mix. As the Torah teaches, Shoftim, judges, should neither feel pulled nor obligated to one side or the other … either because they have to ask the lawyers appearing before them for money to run for election or because they have to be quietly beholden to political parties in order to get appointed. We should reconsider how judges become judges … there has to be a way to take the politics out of justice because some of the greatest changes that have ever happened in the US has come through our judicial system … there has to be a better way.
My prayer for our country is that our newly-appointed Justice Kagan, and actually all judges, both who have to run for office as well as those who are appointed to positions (some for their lifetime), do exactly what the Torah teaches: that they not be swayed by the lure of bribes, that they shall always judge fairly, and yes, justice, only justice shall they pursue.
Shabbat shalom.
Monday, August 9, 2010
An Update Regarding "Women of the Wall" ... Can We Take Your Picture Please?
Three weeks ago, I gave a sermon (posted here) regarding challenges happening in Israel with respect to progressive/liberal/reform Judaism. Simply put, it seems that Jewish religious freedom doesn't really exist in Israel.
A little more than three weeks ago, Anat Hoffman, the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center and a founding member of "Women of the Wall," was arrested for carrying a Torah near the Western Wall ... the charge was that she did something that was "religiously offensive" to others.
Below is the information from a sheet I prepared with more background about Anat's arrest and the subsequent project to photograph 10,000 women/girls holding Torahs between now and Simchat Torah ... we started this past Friday night and have pictures of about 50 women so far ... and we are going to keep taking them! Here is the information ... take a look and let me know what you think. : )
Official Website of “Nashot HaKotel / Women of the Wall” …
http://womenofthewall.org.il/
Video Showing Anat Hoffman’s Arrest …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAENxv3odjo&feature=player_embedded#!
Rabbi Leah Berkowitz’s Blog … With an Eyewitness Account of Anat Hoffman’s Arrest …
http://thisiswhatarabbilookslike.wordpress.com/
Blessing for Women to Read While Holding a Torah for this Purpose …
Open my heart to your Torah. Blessed is the One who made me a woman.
Letter including the Petition from Women of the Wall to:
- Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister
- Rubi Rivlin, Speaker of the Knesset
- Tzipi Livni, Head of Kadima and leader of the opposition
- Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency
- Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites
can be found at: http://womenofthewall.org.il/take-a-stand ... here is the text:
Shalom,
I am writing today to tell you that Women of the Wall are not alone. Our daughters and our rabbis, our mothers and our grandmothers, our cantors and our teachers hold the Torah, read from the Torah, and study the Torah every day. Hundreds of thousands of women and young girls embrace our Torah Scrolls while their prayers reverberate in our synagogues. We pray without disturbance, without fear. Our prayer is seen as normal and accepted. Only in Jerusalem do women pray with fear and only in Jerusalem are women treated as criminals for practicing Judaism.
On Rosh Hodesh Av 5770 we experienced unthinkable abuse by the very political and legal system that we, as Jews of the world, established to offer sanctuary and to initiate the renewal of modern Jewish life. How is it that as Jewish women, we are free in Berlin, in Rome, and in Chicago, while in Jerusalem it is illegal and profane for us to read from the Torah?
During the days and weeks between the 9th of Av and Simchat Torah we will be sending you pictures from our families, synagogues, and communities. You will see women read, study and embrace Torah Scrolls. On their faces will be joy; not the expression of horror captured by journalists as police took a woman holding a Torah into custody.
We ask you to open your eyes and see what is ordinary every place else in the world: women embracing Torah, reading from the Torah, rejoicing with the Torah and learning from the Torah. We ask that you see and be blind no more to the injustice of religious oppression.
- Your Signature Here.
A little more than three weeks ago, Anat Hoffman, the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center and a founding member of "Women of the Wall," was arrested for carrying a Torah near the Western Wall ... the charge was that she did something that was "religiously offensive" to others.
Below is the information from a sheet I prepared with more background about Anat's arrest and the subsequent project to photograph 10,000 women/girls holding Torahs between now and Simchat Torah ... we started this past Friday night and have pictures of about 50 women so far ... and we are going to keep taking them! Here is the information ... take a look and let me know what you think. : )
Official Website of “Nashot HaKotel / Women of the Wall” …
http://womenofthewall.org.il/
Video Showing Anat Hoffman’s Arrest …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAENxv3odjo&feature=player_embedded#!
Rabbi Leah Berkowitz’s Blog … With an Eyewitness Account of Anat Hoffman’s Arrest …
http://thisiswhatarabbilookslike.wordpress.com/
Blessing for Women to Read While Holding a Torah for this Purpose …
.פתח ליבי בתורתך. ברכו שעשני אישה
P’tach libi b’toratecha. Barchu she’asani isha.
Open my heart to your Torah. Blessed is the One who made me a woman.
Letter including the Petition from Women of the Wall to:
- Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister
- Rubi Rivlin, Speaker of the Knesset
- Tzipi Livni, Head of Kadima and leader of the opposition
- Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency
- Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites
can be found at: http://womenofthewall.org.il/take-a-stand ... here is the text:
Shalom,
I am writing today to tell you that Women of the Wall are not alone. Our daughters and our rabbis, our mothers and our grandmothers, our cantors and our teachers hold the Torah, read from the Torah, and study the Torah every day. Hundreds of thousands of women and young girls embrace our Torah Scrolls while their prayers reverberate in our synagogues. We pray without disturbance, without fear. Our prayer is seen as normal and accepted. Only in Jerusalem do women pray with fear and only in Jerusalem are women treated as criminals for practicing Judaism.
On Rosh Hodesh Av 5770 we experienced unthinkable abuse by the very political and legal system that we, as Jews of the world, established to offer sanctuary and to initiate the renewal of modern Jewish life. How is it that as Jewish women, we are free in Berlin, in Rome, and in Chicago, while in Jerusalem it is illegal and profane for us to read from the Torah?
During the days and weeks between the 9th of Av and Simchat Torah we will be sending you pictures from our families, synagogues, and communities. You will see women read, study and embrace Torah Scrolls. On their faces will be joy; not the expression of horror captured by journalists as police took a woman holding a Torah into custody.
We ask you to open your eyes and see what is ordinary every place else in the world: women embracing Torah, reading from the Torah, rejoicing with the Torah and learning from the Torah. We ask that you see and be blind no more to the injustice of religious oppression.
- Your Signature Here.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Studying with Colleagues ... and the Value of Being Away ...
Every once in a while, I hear someone grumble about a rabbi's time away from the office. I know it is less convenient for congregants, but time and study away can be renewing ... and that is better for congregants in the long run, right?
The New York Times recently posted an interesting article about clergy burnout: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/nyregion/02burnout.html?_r=1. I've only been a rabbi for two years, but I already worry about this ... I already worry about life-work balance ... I already worry about disappointing others because I can't be everywhere I think (or they think) I should be.
But I feel a change coming ... even if it is just a small step.
Tomorrow, I am not going to feel guilty about driving to Houston to study with the Women's Rabbinic Network colleagues from the Southwest Association of Reform Rabbis. It will be good for my congregants for me to study with a Talmud scholar, something I have the rare opportunity to do these days. It is worth the three-hour trip each way in my poor car with no air conditioning, right?
It will be good for me to get away tomorrow, even if it is to study for only four hours ... and I'll be back tomorrow night from Houston, better than ever. : )
The New York Times recently posted an interesting article about clergy burnout: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/nyregion/02burnout.html?_r=1. I've only been a rabbi for two years, but I already worry about this ... I already worry about life-work balance ... I already worry about disappointing others because I can't be everywhere I think (or they think) I should be.
But I feel a change coming ... even if it is just a small step.
Tomorrow, I am not going to feel guilty about driving to Houston to study with the Women's Rabbinic Network colleagues from the Southwest Association of Reform Rabbis. It will be good for my congregants for me to study with a Talmud scholar, something I have the rare opportunity to do these days. It is worth the three-hour trip each way in my poor car with no air conditioning, right?
It will be good for me to get away tomorrow, even if it is to study for only four hours ... and I'll be back tomorrow night from Houston, better than ever. : )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)