tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66228915509897021852024-02-20T04:05:32.858-08:00Rabbi Rank's BlogRabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-28127693088970621382021-09-19T02:54:00.002-07:002021-09-23T18:31:35.926-07:00YOM KIPPUR, 5782 / 2021--UNLIKE A ROLLING STONE<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><b><i>G’mar <u>h</u>atimah tovah, </i></b>everyone,
good to see you all and with this tenth day of the Ten Days of Repentance, we
hope and pray that we are able to finish the holidays secure in the Books of
Life and Health and Fulfillment, and I wish you all a <b><i>tzom kal, </i></b>an
easy fast.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A friend of mine commented
recently that he could not imagine how I must feel to finally come to what
would be my last High Holiday sermon at Midway and was interested in what I would
have to say. He raised the issue several weeks ago, and frankly my head had not
yet risen to High Holiday altitude, and I told him that I didn’t know what I
was going to say, but I wasn’t too worried because I usually come up with something.
But his question got me thinking, not so much about a High Holiday sermon, as
much as what a blessing it has been to be involved in this congregation and what
a turn of good fortune it was to have landed here. And the irony of it all is
that a big part of my having ended up at Midway has to do with a sermon, which
is a story in and of itself. It’s a story that begins well over 20 years ago in
my search for a new pulpit. As it turned out, the Rabbinical Assembly wanted me
to interview at this wealthy and prestigious Philadelphia congregation, which I
did, and after about six weeks, I received a letter from the chair of the
Search Committee stating that there would be no future for me at that
synagogue, in pretty much those words, which struck me as a bit overdramatic, but
that was what he wrote. There was nothing to do about it and I forgot about it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some years later, in 2002, a book
was published, “The New Rabbi,” that chronicled the search for a new rabbi at
that synagogue, and the author, Stephen Fried, devoted a page to my interview. According
to Fried, I gave the wrong answer to the question, “What kind of sermons do you
give?” And I remember that question because I didn’t know how to answer. It was
curious that I was so caught off guard since at that time, I had already given
eighteen years worth of sermons and one would think after eighteen years, I
would know what kind of sermons I give. Anyway, not certain how to answer, I
mentioned a recent sermon I had given, a review of Bob Dylan’s religious
journey that took him from Judaism to Christianity and then back to Judaism,
and since we are all on a religious journey of sorts, even if some of us have
been parked at a rest stop for many years, I thought people would be able to
identify with the struggles encountered when searching for not merely the
truth, but a kind of ultimate truth in one’s life. So I told the Search
Committee about that sermon, and that was apparently the end of the interview
because they wanted a rabbi who would speak about “rabbinics, scholarly work,
and religious sources” (page 152) and not Bob Dylan. Frankly, I don’t know of
any congregation that wants its rabbi to speak about “rabbinics, scholarly
work, [or] religious sources.” It sounds deadly, but who am I to tell anyone
what the people in the pews want to hear? Anyway, that failed interview left me
in a professional limbo for several months, until the Rabbinical Assembly told
me that I should consider Syosset. And I may have said at the time, what is
Syosset or where is Syosset? I had no idea. But I did come out for an
interview. It went well. Midway hired me and I am now beginning my 23<sup>rd</sup>
year of delivering sermons to you, though if someone were to ask today, what
kind of sermons do you give, I most likely would still not know how to answer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Though I have to tell you, and I’m
just making an observation, sometimes people have come up to me after a sermon
to say something like, “Rabbi, I really enjoyed your… uhm… your… uhm…well, what
you call it—a sermon?” And I’ve always felt good about that because it seems to
me that the best kind of sermon is the one that doesn’t sound like a sermon. So
one way I could have answered that fateful question long ago is that I give
sermons that don’t sound like sermons. But that answer also may not have worked
because I have a theory as to what really happened in Philadelphia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is the theory: The RA sends
me to this wealthy and prestigious congregation in Philadelphia. The angels
above hear what is going on and declare, Oh no—Rank is going to a congregation
that will eat him alive. What to do? The good Lord steps in and says, “No
problem—I’ll just have the head of the Search Committee ask ‘What kind of
sermons do you give?’” Another angel turns to the Lord and responds, “What good
will that do?” The good Lord says, “Rank has no idea how to answer that
question. He’ll bomb the interview and we can save him from that pulpit.” Yet another
angel asks, “But Lord, then what?” And the Lord says, “We’ll send him to
Midway.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now I can’t vouch that this cosmic
conversation actually took place, but I will say this. Twenty-three years ago,
I had no idea where I was going, but having landed here at Midway which has
afforded me and our family so many fulfilling years, I can’t help but think
that the hand of God wasn’t in it in some way. And putting aside all our
preconceived notions about God, we might try to think of God as this invisible lure
toward fulfillment. Why did you go to college at Binghamton and not Michigan?
Why did you take that job in the city and not in Great Neck? Why did you marry
you-know-who instead of you-know-how? All these decisions we make, some of
which we make thoughtfully and some of which are executed in a fog or in the
moment, lead us either closer or further from where we need to be. And when we
make those decisions that bring us closer to where we need to be, it’s God
working in the background, silently, unobtrusively in the extreme by which I
mean we don’t even think God is there. But a big part of what faith is, after
all is said and done, is recognizing where God is, or was, and whether we
followed the lure or resisted it. And when you are able to recognize all the
little signals and put them together, almost like those pictures you draw by
connecting the dots, it ends in one big “ah-ha!” moment, and that’s the hand of
God that has beckoned you to advance in the right direction.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Over the years, I have probably
spoken to you about faith and God a lot because, and I hope this doesn’t sound
too ridiculously obvious, but this is a synagogue and if not here, where? The
fact is that we don’t live in a world where we hear much God talk. This is partly
due to the secular nature of our society and partly due to living in the
Northeast. If we were down South, I suspect we would hear more God talk, but we
don’t live in the South, we live in New York, and I think in order for Jews to
be Jewish, especially for us who live <b><i><u>h</u>utz la’aretz,</i></b> that
is, outside the land of Israel, it’s very important to live with a sense of God’s
invisible presence. The synagogue at best is the place where we need to
reenergize, refuel, recharge our spiritual selves by thinking about God as the
lure, the magnet, the pull that draws us toward the emotionally, spiritually,
and psychologically satisfying space in life—the space where we need to be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My good colleague, Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb of Jerusalem, and a former visiting rabbi at Midway over the holidays, whom we were most fortunate to have, reminded me that <b><i>teshuvah,</i></b> aside from meaning
turning, also means “answer.” We could easily think of the <b><i>Aseret Yemei
Teshuvah </i></b>as “The Ten Days of Answer.” So if <b><i>teshuvah</i></b> is
an answer, what is the question? This is Jewish Jeopardy. And the question is
the question God asks Adam, the question God asks all of us Adams and Eves, <b><i>“Ayeka?
/ Where are you?”</i></b> Are you in the space where you need to be? Are you
home? Have you followed the Lure?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You remember Rabbi Mordechai
Waxman. Rabbi Waxman was one of the most distinguished rabbis of the
Conservative Movement, and the spiritual leader of Temple Israel in Great Neck
for many years. His influence and energy are still talked about today. Back in
1958, he edited a volume on the Conservative Movement entitled “Tradition and
Change.” And what was so influential about that volume was the title itself, such
that it became the slogan of our movement. The Conservative Movement was the
the movement of tradition and change. I don’t know if anyone ever truly
understood what the relative percentages of that two-ingredient recipe were.
Was it 80% tradition and 20% change? Was it 20% tradition and 80% change? Was
it 50/50? Did anyone dare establish what the percentages would be or was it
meant to be undefined permanently? Looking back at all the changes that the Conservative
Movement has instituted over the years, and there have been many and they have
been substantial, each one was made with the intention to reach the greatest
number of Jews and to meet Jews where they were at, in their own space. From
driving on Shabbat, to the use of electricity, to counting women in a minyan,
to ordaining women as rabbis, to homosexual marriage, each and every time we
made a change it was to expand the tent. And we have been expert in expanding
the tent, but we have not expanded the number of people in the tent. If
anything, that number has shrunk. And that’s because religion is fundamentally
about tradition, not change. Can you imagine—Midway Jewish Center: Warmth, Joy,
Tradition and Change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hmmm…I don’t think
so. It wouldn’t work, because religion is about tradition, not change. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the early 1900’s, our Reform
brothers and sisters invested huge amounts of money into the Conservative
Movement because they wanted us to change. They were a little embarrassed by
us. Actually, they were a lot embarrassed by us. We were East European
immigrants. We were poor. We dressed like we had come out of the shtetel, because
we had just come out of the shtetel. We spoke Yiddish. We were grateful to be
in America, but we didn’t understand America. Our already established Reform
Jewish brothers and sisters in America knew that we would never feel
comfortable in their Reform synagogues, with the organ, and the English, and the
non-kosher foods. Moreover, they knew that they would not feel comfortable with
us in their Reform synagogues. They wanted to create a middle ground movement
that would help acclimate their poorer immigrant brethren, that’s us, to
American culture. The first half of the 20<sup>th</sup> century saw tremendous
growth in the Conservative Movement thanks to, among other factors, Reform
philanthropy. Solomon Schechter, the Chancellor of the Jewish Theological
Seminary in the early 1900’s, famously said, “You can’t be a rabbi in America
unless you understand baseball.” That was a prescription for a new kind of
rabbi. Schechter was saying something about Conservative Judaism, and that was its
mission was to Americanize Jews. We succeeded. Long ago. We changed just as we were
supposed to. I would call it a success on a scale of a grand slam, except in a
grand slam, the players run around the bases and eventually come to home plate,
the space where you are supposed to be. If the Conservative Movement were truly
successful, it would have brought us back home to our Judaism. And it didn’t. At
some point, 40 or 50 years ago, the movement’s leadership had to say: Okay—we
all understand baseball. We don’t need another baseball player. Now we need
Jews who embrace their Jewish identity as fervently as they embrace their
American identity. And by Jewish identity, I mean more than just stating: I am
proud to be Jewish. I mean behaving as Jews have behaved for centuries: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>observing Shabbat, understanding Hebrew, praying
regularly, keeping kosher, defending Israel the Jewish homeland, and loving—with
all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might—the Lure, the Magnet,
the Pull that draws us to the place where we need to be, that place called
home. Our Jewish home. And I think that’s where our Conservative Movement, a
movement I adore, a movement I have dedicated my professional life to, has come
up short. The inability to reinvent yourself is the road to oblivion. It’s as
if this movement has been on its own, with no direction home, a complete
unknown, like a rolling stone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Oh,
excuse me—I may have slipped into the Bob Dylan trap. You know, I was reading
up on Dylan’s song, “Like A Rolling Stone.” It’s regarded as a transitional,
revolutionary song for Dylan, moving him from folk into rock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rolling Stone, the magazine, rated it as
number one in a list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” Once, at a press
conference, Dylan was asked if the song wasn’t about a girl he was trying to
torment or if he wanted to truly change people by forcing them to see
themselves. And he responded with a chuckle and said, “I want to needle them,”
which I think is the kind of elusive answer one might expect from a young
artist, as Dylan was at the time. Can you imagine if Dylan were a rabbi and
someone asked him what kind of sermons do you give and he’d say, “Well, I like
to needle the congregation.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I
don’t want to needle anyone—that sounds painful—but I do believe we need to
recognize that a Jewish community that purports to be a vibrant Jewish
community, has to intensify its observance of Yiddishkeit, Jewishness. The
locus and future of religious development no longer rests with a national
organization, certainly not ours, but rests within individual synagogues. We
have seen many synagogues either close their doors or merge, and that trend will
continue. It may be a blessing in disguise because the fact is the Jewish
community spends way too much money on heating and air conditioning, plumbing
and electricity, and the eternal and ever-present leaks in the roof, and too
few dollars on effective Jewish education for adults, children, and school
faculties. The joke about us in the 50’s and 60’s was that our movement was burdened
with an Edifice Complex—we built buildings—beautiful, architecturally
sophisticated, large buildings. We were telling America that we were proud to
be Jews and we’ve made it in this country. But many of those buildings today
have closed, and others struggle to remain open, and virtually none attract the
numbers they were originally built for. We spend way too much time and money on
buildings and way too little on the people in them. This has to change. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Midway
is going to be one of those synagogues that make it. We have to commit today
how we intend to address our Judaism that could use a good shot in the arm. I
have had extensive talks with Rabbi Joel and our president Michael, and with a
number of other members about how we must change in order to generate vibrant,
smart, engaged Jews who themselves will be leaders in creating Jewish community
here and elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Later
this year, beginning with Hanukkah, we’re going to return to a project that we
started pre-Covid, writing a <b><i>sefer Torah,</i></b> completing a <b><i>sefer
Torah,</i></b> which is a mitzvah, and that project we hope will generate some
substantial dollars that will set Midway on a new initiative to reenergize the
Jewish future. I envision it as a Midway Birthright, used to invest in our
people, our children, ourselves, our Judaism. We won’t neglect the physical
space; the Board of Trustees would never let that happen. But this special
fund, separate from the General Fund and administered by a group separate from
the Board of Trustees will substantially subsidize transformative Jewish
experiences for the people who matter most—our children, our teens, our adults,
our families and our faculties. In the next century, we build not buildings; we
build people, we build Jews.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You
know where you can find the best people? Right here at Midway. What a cast of
characters we have had over my tenure here. You have kept me on my toes,
thinking, laughing, strategizing, studying, and growing. We have, Barukh
HaShem, a great community. I almost feel guilty on what a great time I’ve
had.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t feel like 23 years have
passed. It feels like I got here maybe just a couple years ago. I still feel
like the new rabbi, or as one famous Nobel laureate put it, forever young. That
prescription doesn’t really work in the real world. El and I were on vacation,
and this was several years ago. I was not yet eligible for Social Security. And
we stopped at a small grocery to pick up a few lunch items—some yogurt,
crackers—whatever was available in Montana that had a hekhsher on it. I paid at
the register, handed the receipt over to El (she actually looks at receipts), and
she says, the kid at the cash register gave you a discount. I said, what kind
of a discount? She said, he gave you a senior citizen discount. I said, I
didn’t ask for a senior citizen discount. She said, I guess you didn’t have to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
truth of the matter is that the pulpit, not the rabbinate, but the pulpit requires
young clergy, and thank God, Barukh HaShem, we have that in Rabbi Joel who is
so talented and has brought multiple, engaging new programs to Midway, and we
have it in Cantor Frei with whom it has been a privilege, an honor to work
with, and we’ve embarked on a search for an assistant rabbi whom I’m sure will
fit in and bring even more energy to the congregation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This
is an exciting time for us all and in spite of this crazy pandemic, we’re in a
good space because it’s time for me to move on, and I’m ready to move on. Of
course, El and I have no idea where we’re going. I guess somewhere far enough
to give the new clergy configuration the freedom to operate unhampered and
close enough to always stay connected to you. Where is that? Who knows? And as
I enter this final year of service to you, you may also be wondering where the
synagogue is going. And there is undoubtedly some uncertainty about that. Well,
you know, life is a journey. And when you really don’t know where you are
going, you just have to have a little bit of faith, and a little bit of courage
to go forward. You have to pay attention to the Lure, the Magnet, the Pull. And
wherever you are in this journey, and we all are on a journey, we have to stick
to the synagogue and to tradition, because when we do that, we will never be on
our own, and we will never be at a loss for the direction home, and we will
never be a complete unknown, because in this chain of tradition that reaches
back 3500 years of which we are the most recent links, we can never be merely a
rolling stone. How does it feel? That feels pretty good.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">G’mar
<u>h</u>atimah Tovah!</span><o:p></o:p></i></b></p>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-58441193832263319772021-09-10T11:27:00.001-07:002021-09-10T11:27:20.356-07:00ROSH HASHANAH, 5782 /2021--FEAR AND SHAPIR—IT’S ALL GOING TO WORK OUT<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Shanah Tovah,
everybody. It’s wonderful to see so many of you here this Rosh Hashanah. It’s
wonderful to see more of you this year than I did last year. And for those who
are streaming our service, I wish I could see you, but I hope you are as happy
to see me as I am happy to see everyone here. Next year, God-willing, we will
truly be beyond Covid and all will feel more comfortable about being at an
in-person service. Clearly we have some way to go in fighting back this
pandemic. We’ll get there. I am sure. Much of life requires a great deal of
patience.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In addition, to borrow a famous
line from Charles Dickens, a Tale of Two Cities—"It was the best of times
and the worst of times…” I think that pretty much summarizes our family’s experience
this past year. Our daughter, Shuli, met a wonderful young man, Aaron Shansky,
and the two married and that was just the best of the best this year. But Rami,
our eldest, also died tragically and that was just the worst of the worst. El
and I want to thank you all for your kindness and compassion and your
understanding during that very difficult time. We sent out many notes of thanks
but most likely were not able to reach everyone, but we both thank you all for
your cards, and emails, and donations, and concern. Thank you, thank you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A guy goes to a psychiatrist and says
“Doc, you got help me, I can’t sleep at night.” The psychiatrist asks, “What
seems to be the problem—family issues, work issues, money issues? The guy says,
“No, it’s the ghosts underneath my bed. They’re very, very noisy.” The doctor
says, “You have ghosts underneath your bed?” The guy says, “Yea, they’re huge,
ugly, and above all, very, very noisy!” The doctor knows he’s got a tough case here
but says, “I think I can help you. It’s going to require a lot of therapy. Can
you see me twice a week for about a year?” The man says, “That’s fabulous, Doc.
I don’t know how to thank you. I’ll start next week.” Next week rolls around,
and the man doesn’t show up. Two weeks, three weeks, four weeks go by, and the
man never calls or makes an appointment, and the doctor basically forgets about
him, until a full six months later, the doctor meets the man at a local bar and
the two immediately recognize each other. The doctor says—“So good to see you
but how are you sleeping these days? “Like a baby,” the man responds, “thanks
for asking, Doc. I got the whole thing solved.” The doctor says, “I guess you
were able to find another psychiatrist to help you through those sleep issues?”
No, the man replies, “I saw a carpenter.” “The psychiatrist is now totally
puzzled and says, “A carpenter?” “Yea,” the man says. “For $50 bucks he sawed
the legs off my bed and now the ghosts can’t crawl under there anymore.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I don’t know if you have any ghosts
underneath your bed, but I do know that for many of us, there have been a whole
lot of sleepless nights, with so much to worry about, even to fear, during the
past 18 months. The two candidates for the scariest developments of 2021 are
the pandemic, with its Delta variant adding a substantial scare element into our
lives, and also anti-Semitism, which has been on the rise for a few years
already. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You know, I serve on the Board of
Ethics of the Town of Oyster Bay, which has really turned into a lovely experience,
far more satisfying than I could ever imagine, and one day, I was speaking with
one town volunteer and we were talking shop—she about her church and me about our
synagogue. She wanted to know all about what we were doing to keep everyone
safe. So I told her about social distancing, reconfiguring the sanctuary,
streaming, zooming, masks, and so forth. She was fascinated and then she said,
“Rabbi, what are those ugly white cement boxes lining the synagogue?” “Oh,
those,” I replied, “those are security barriers to keep anti-Semites and other
crazies from ramming the building or the people in and around it.” She was so
taken aback, really shocked, and then realized the kind of issues a Jewish
community has to think about, and what a smart move we had made. By now, I’m
sure she has seen how beautiful they look thanks to Sisterhood and Men’s Club
and all of you for contributing to giving them a happy floral face. And they
are beautiful, though when we think about why they need to be there, the
bigotry and the violence in our society, those reasons remain truly ugly facts
of life in America these days.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was ordained in 1981. If anyone
had told me that 40 years later, in 2021, I would be presiding over active
shooter exercises in our Religious School, herding the kids into safe rooms
where they would have to know how to lock the door and sit quietly, I would
have thought the prediction unbelievable. But that’s what we started doing
pre-Covid, and we will most likely have more such exercises in the future
because as a responsible and conscientious leadership will tell you: pray for
the best; prepare for the worst. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a better feeling about beating Covid
than I do about beating anti-Semitism. And that is for the simple reason that
at least for Covid, there’s a vaccine. Anti-Semitism, in contrast, is a virus,
a cancer, a disorder, for which there seems to be no treatment. If anyone
thinks that by writing more letters to the editor, or staging more rallies, or
hounding our representatives in government for stricter legislation will in the
end finally neutralize this disease, they are operating under a grand illusion.
Anti-Semitism has been with us for centuries and will most likely continue for
centuries more. But even with no cure, there is a way to manage it, and it’s
not by running scared, it’s by standing fearlessly, with resolve and
conviction, that Jews are true Americans, that they are as good and decent as
any other Americans, and that Jews have as much a right to a national homeland
as any other ethnic minority or majority. When Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota
representative, groups America and Israel along with Hamas and the Taliban,
she’s thinking irrationally and speaking out of ignorance. When Wyoming
representative Marjorie Taylor Green equates Covid precautionary mandates with the
treatment of Jews during the Holocaust, she is thinking irrationally and
exposing her own profound ignorance of the Shoah. When irrational claims of
this nature are made, it is our duty to point out just how irrational and
ignorant they are, but the one thing we should not do is let statements like
these scare us. In our hands, we have the greatest weapon known to humankind—the
truth. And when we speak the truth, whether to power or the powerless, we need
never be afraid.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Actually, let me tell you a story
about fear. Rabbi Avi Weiss, the former spiritual leader of the Hebrew
Institute of Riverdale, and the founder of Yeshivat Hovevei Torah, an open Orthodox
yeshivah, once had an opportunity to introduce Ariel Sharon, the former prime
minister of Israel, as a hero of the Yom Kippur War and a fearless general. And
Sharon got up and said, Rabbi—you think during those wars I had no fear? I had
plenty of fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But one must act as if
one has no fear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The prime minister’s confession is
not only quite a public admission, but it’s grounded in good, kosher Jewish
philosophy. Yitzhak ben Yehudah Abarbanel (1437-1508), a Portuguese financier,
philosopher, and Bible commentator, wrote as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Those who go to war thinking they will
not die are not real heroes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just the same, those who give charity
but have no concern about money, are not serious givers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Heroes and patrons are those who act
contrary to their feelings, their fears.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Based on Abarbanel to Genesis 32)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This idea, so at odds with the
generation that grew up thinking do it if it feels good, is urging us to
consider our feelings only up to a certain point. Feelings are certainly not to
be ignored, but neither should they be in charge. Sometimes the right thing to
do doesn’t feel good at all. To admit an error is humbling, but it’s most likely
the right thing to do. Keeping a promise even though it’s going to cost us big
bucks, is painful, but it’s most likely the right thing to do. To openly protest
hateful speech may itself make you the target of other people’s irrational
wrath, but it’s most likely the right thing to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The fact is that there are many
things we do in life that provoke anxiety and fear, but we do them because they
are either the right thing to do or they are important enough for us to take
the risk. There is virtually nothing in life that doesn’t entail some level of
risk, some fear. But much of life is not about avoiding risk, which is
impossible, but rather its managing risk, which is unavoidable. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Let’s talk risk. Based on the
National Center for Health Statistics data, what do you think is the greater
mortal risk—bungee jumping of canoeing? Canoeing is riskier. What is riskier—skydiving
or a dance party? The dance party is more dangerous. What is riskier—flying in
an airplane or driving a car? The answer is driving a car. <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/564015/probability-being-killed-everyday-activities-chart">https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/564015/probability-being-killed-everyday-activities-chart</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What about your risk of
contracting Covid? Well, there is a risk, obviously, but like all the other
aspects of our life, we make smart decisions, we don’t tempt fate, and we put
into play those precautionary measures that the best of the medical community
advises, which means maintaining a distance from others, wearing a mask,
washing hands, avoiding big crowds, and above all, getting the vaccine. These
behaviors are not based on fear, but on managing the Covid risk we all face
when we venture forth to do whatever it is we need to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One
way to draw the Covid risk down to the bare minimum would be to stay at home,
but then, oddly enough, one has to take into consideration the risk of staying
at home. Household accidents account for three times as many deaths as do
injury from auto accidents. Believe me—I totally understand the desire to maximize
time spent at home. El and I don’t go out that much at all. But the point is
this: try as we may, we never bring the risk factor down to zero. It’s just not
possible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Can you imagine what life would be
like if we kept every risk factor in mind every second of our lives? We would
be paralyzed, literally, with fear. And that is no way to live.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a lovely passage in the Mahzor, in
the Shaharit Amidah, in which we ask God:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let
fear of You [God} descend upon all Your works<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Well, after
all we have had to say about fear, of what possible value is there in asking
God to bathe us all in some sort of cosmic, divine fear? To answer this
question, we turn to the writings of Rabbi Joseph Soloveichik (1903-1993). He
was the Rosh Yeshivah of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of
Yeshivah University. He was known simply as the Rav (the Rabbi), and he was and
still is held in great esteem by Orthodox and liberal Jews alike. He wrote that
there is a certain kind of fear that in a sense dispels all other fears, and
that is, as you might expect, <b><i>pa<u>h</u>ad Adonai,</i></b> or fear of the
Lord<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Al HaTeshuva by Rabbi Joseph B.
Soloveitchik). Why is that? Because you and I are expert worriers. We worry
about things over which we have no control. We worry about things over which we
do have control. We worry about things that haven’t happened yet, as if we know
what the future brings. Our wise ancestors knew all this and though they did not
quite say, there is nothing to fear except fear itself, what they did say, is
let the fear of God be your only fear, because to fear God is really a dramatic
way of saying, let’s all use our God-given brains, our seikhel, our wit, our
intelligence, to manage the risks, the fears in our lives. We are not helpless.
And if the only fear we allow is the fear of God, then everything else is going
to be okay.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The term shofar is a curious name.
Some say it has to do with a root meaning curvy. A shofar has to be curvy. It’s
a reflection of the twists and turns of life. But I think the term comes from
the same root as the Aramaic <b><i>shapir,</i></b> which means—it’s good, it’s
kosher, it’s all right. The shofar blasts let us know that however broken the
world may be, however broken our lives are (and life can get pretty broken) and
scary), with the help of family, friends, community and the Kadosh Barukh Hu, <b><i>shapir,
</i></b>it’s going to work out. Maybe not the way we ever imagined, maybe not
the way we ever desired, but <b><i>shapir</i></b>—we are resilient, we are
flexible, we are adaptable, <b><i>shapir</i></b>—we are going to be okay, kosher,
it’s all going to work out. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
beginning of wisdom is the fear of God (Psalm 111:10)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Wisdom, the
ability to see the big picture, the wide screen, the long term, the beginning
of all that is <b><i>yirat Adonai,</i></b> the fear of God, which ultimately gives
birth to the courage to act, in spite of our fears.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I know you have been living with
some fears because I have been living with some fears. You think I have no
fears? I do. Plenty of them. And with this year beginning a year of transition,
as I prepare to move onto the next phase of life, I have a few more fears, and you
probably do as well. I don’t think I can convince you or anyone else, to be
free of fear; I can’t even convince myself of that. But I’m going to keep on
trying because I’m not going let hateful, bigoted, loud-mouths ruin my day, and
I don’t want a virus to ruin my life. So when it comes to the bigots of the
world, we’re all going to call them on the carpet for being hateful and
irrational, and when it comes to Covid, we’re going to follow the predominant
medical recommendations and we are going to continue living, cautiously, but living
and going forward.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
beginning of Psalm 27 reads:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The
Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And there’s
the challenge the Psalmist presents to us. Whom shall we fear? Whom shall we
fear? Will it be Covid? We’re going to do what we need to do in order to manage
it. Will it be the anti-Semites? You know, hatred usually consumes the people
who spout it, besides which we can take the wind out of their sails by merely
speaking the truth. Will it be God? I hope so. Because the fear of God is the
fear that puts all the other fears to rest. When it comes to our fears, a
carpenter cutting off the legs of our bed will not help. Because the problem is
never the ghosts underneath the bed, the problem is always the ghosts in our
head. And there’s no one else in charge of our heads, but us. <b><i>Shapir</i></b>—it
will be okay, it’s all going to work out.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thank you, everyone, and Shanah
Tovah.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-25299862283058325972021-07-02T09:47:00.000-07:002021-07-02T09:47:48.245-07:00REFLECTION AND EULOGY FOR RAMI: i.e., ABRAHAM SIMSON RANK (1982-2021)<p><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I want to
thank everyone who is with us here today and who may be streaming this service
from elsewhere. We have with us multiple communities that were in some way
connected to Rami. We have his friends and neighbors from LA, the wonderfully
giving Temple Aliyah community of Woodland Hills guided by my colleague and
friend, Rabbi Stewart Vogel. We have Ellen and my own wonderful community of
Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, Long Island, streaming. A special thank you to
my colleague, our associate rabbi Joel Levenson, training now to be a chaplain
for the New York National Guard. Rabbi Joel has seen me at my worst and has
guided our synagogue during my absence for which I am deeply grateful. A
special thanks to our president, Michael Schlank, now the CEO of the NJ Jewish
Community Center camps, a prestigious position. He has been eminently understanding
during this difficult time and we are very grateful to him as we are so very
proud of him. And to our Executive Director, Genea Moore, who is handling many
of the shivah arrangements back home and keeping the synagogue running smoothly
as always. Genea is the best. We have family from all over—California, New
Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Maryland, Israel, Canada, and even Australia.
And we have many business associates who have been working with or in some
other way connected to Rami. In addition, we have Rami’s sister and
brother-in-law, Shuli Rank and Aaron Shansky, and we have Rami’s brother, Rabbi
Jonah Rank and I know his wife, our daughter-in-law, Rabbi Dr. Raysh Weiss is streaming
from Pennsylvania. We have also with us our mehutanim, Dori Lieberman of
Calabasas, CA, and Dan & Melodye Warshauer of Calabasas, CA. We have Rami’s
step siblings, Amanda and Andrew. Above all, we have our daughter-in-law,
Rami’s wife, Lauren, and her two beyond delicious kids, our grandchildren,
Nathan and Aiden. And, of course, there’s Ellen and myself, Rami’s parents, and
on behalf of all of us, we thank each and every one of you for being with us
today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It really is
amazing to me just how many ways and how many times one can say, “I can’t
believe this,” or some variation on that theme. There is:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I can’t
believe this is happening.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is
unreal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This is
incredible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I can’t
believe this has happened to Rami.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I can’t
believe this has happened to us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">After awhile,
you realize that you have uttered this statement or some variation thereof 200,
300 times or more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And the fact
of the matter is that there is little else to say. I think there is good reason
why, in the Torah, after one of the more prominent tragic episodes, the death
of two young priests, Nadav and Avihu, their father, Aaron, the High Priest is
silent. Vayidom Aharon, Aaron, the man who served as Moses’s spokesperson, the
man who always found the right words to say, failed to find the right words to
say (Lev. 10:3), because there are no right words, let alone words, to say,
except some variation on, I can’t believe this has just happened.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Whenever we
are faced with the unspeakable, it’s best to begin with words that are always
good words to speak, and those are words of Torah. From Ecclesiastes, the
biblical author known as Kohelet, we learn:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><i>Lo
lakalim hameirotz </i></b>/ The race is not won by the swift,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>V’lo
lagiborim hamil<u>h</u>amah<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>/ Nor
the enemy defeated by the valliant;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Vegam lo le<u>h</u>akhamim
hale<u>h</u>em<b> </b></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>/ Nor is bread
obtained by the clever,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Vegam lo
lanevonim osher<b> </b></i>/ Nor is wealth accumulated by the intelligent,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Vegam lo
layodim <u>h</u>ein</i> / Nor is favor secured by the learned,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><i>Ki eit
vafega yikreh et kulam</i></b> / For the time of mischance comes to all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Ecclesiastes
9:11)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The time of
mischance comes to all. And Kohelet states the occurrence of mischance not as a
punishment from God, even though it may feel like one, not as a test from God, even
though it may feel like one, but simply as a reality of life. And the
mischances in life are not born equal. Sometimes the mischance is an annoyance,
sometimes it’s disruptive, and sometimes it really changes your whole life. But
Kohelet reminds us that they will come. His words were meant perhaps to prepare
us, though we are never truly prepared.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I never worry
about the people who shed tears at the loss of a loved one. I worry about the
people who don’t. They are the ones whom I feel have lost nothing and that is a
shame. But for those of us who grieve over Rami, the blessing in those tears is
that they mean that Rami’s life touched us in some deep way. And Jewish ritual—shivah
(the seven days of mourning), the lighting of a seven-day candle, daily recitation
of kaddish, getting to the synagogue for Yizkor, the special memorial service
four times each year, all these are designed to make sure that we gain a handle
on our loss, and that the loss never gain a handle over us. And we begin that process
by telling stories. And the good thing here is that Rami, unbeknownst to him,
has left us a huge amount of material. So let me share a few stories about Rami,
right from the beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As a baby, the
kid never slept. El and I had to rock him for a long time before he would go to
sleep. That was undoubtedly a trait anticipating a life that was full of
activity, motion, fun, laughter, getting things done. As an adult, he needed a
good nap now and then but on balance, he didn’t need much sleep to operate on
all six cylinders—or maybe all eight, maybe ten. When he was little, as the
family traveled down the Garden State in New Jersey, when we went under and
overpass, and the overpass naturally diminished the daylight, Rami would
shout—“Hey who turned out the lights?” That became a kind of game we played
whenever we went through a tunnel or under the overpass, and the light would dim,
we’d shout, “Hey—Who turned out da lights?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rami was never
one to be fully engaged in school. That really saddened me because he was just
so bright. Growing up, he didn’t think of himself as intelligent or capable,
but I knew he was. And this based solely on his ability to listen to an episode
of “The Simpsons” and then repeat the script from beginning to end almost
verbatim. And then repeat that episode over and over, multiple times. It was
uncanny. He took great pleasure in knowing that his proper English first and
middle names are Abraham Simson, the character of Homer’s father in “The Simpsons,”
and to make matters even better, he was growing up in a town named Springfield
(Springfield, NJ). That made him a bona fide character in “The Simpsons.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Our family
lived in Springfield, NJ, for 12 years but Rami for 13. When it was time to
leave Springfield for our new home in Syosset, Long Island, Rami stayed behind.
He was a senior at Jonathan Dayton High School the same high School that Ellen,
his mother, and Rami’s uncle, Gary, graduated from, and having been elected
president of HaGalil, which was the New Jersey region of USY, that is the
Conservative Jewish youth group, Rami wanted to remain in New Jersey and not
move with us to New York. USY loved Rami and Rami loved USY. He loved it ever
since one of the earliest programs he attended—a canoe trip on a sleepy river
during which the kids were caught in a sudden and ferocious thunder and
lightning storm, they were trapped beneath a bridge sheltered from the pouring
rain, the fire department was called out to rescue the kids and when he finally
got onto terra firma, Rami blurts out, “That was best USY event we’ve ever
had!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It made sense to me that he would
be chosen president because he was respected among his peers, was a person with
substantial organizational skills, and someone with a respectable understanding
of what it means to be a Jew. Rami was a real “let’s get things done” person.
And he got things done.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course, the
trick in staying in Springfield was needing a residence to stay at, and that
was easily accomplished through his grandparents, Marvin and Millie Simson, who
lived in town and who graciously, I would say courageously, took on the
responsibility of housing and looking after Rami in that senior year—1999-2000.
On the one hand, staying with Grandma and Pop was a no-brainer. All of our kids
felt perfectly at home at Grandma and Pop’s—it was truly their second home. Where
else could you get pizza or hamburgers for breakfast? Grandma was driven to
satisfy her most precious customers and she did. On the other hand, both Grandma
and Pop took on the responsibility of hosting a teenager, and one with ambitious
(one might say “wreckless) plans like driving at night or right after a major
snowstorm---or during a major snowstorm. Rami would say—“Grandma, trust me!”
which Grandma later confessed to us that of all the words that ever came out of
Rami’s mouth, those three were the most terrifying.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Before the
days of NetFlix and Disney Plus, and before Block Buster, there was a small
video shop in Springfield, across the street from Bagel Supreme (great bagels
there) and a block from our home, and there the owner, John, knew what kind of
films we all loved. And that’s when we started watching these totally
ridiculous films that made us howl with laughter—Airplane, Naked Gun, Hot Shots,
Kindergarten Cop. Again, Rami would memorize dialogue from these movies and then
recite the scripts for us. Then later on he would watch more serious films and absorb
them as well. And he was a reader—this young man who did not really care for
school all that much would read novels and books that were challenging, like Moby
Dick—not exactly light reading. He loved it. And later on he’d read through
biographies and listen to podcasts, absorbing all sorts of random information.
He was fascinated by history, politics and economics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When Rami was
somewhat established in LA and told us that he wanted to pursue an MBA, I
said—Rami: Graduate School? He said, well I find the material “intellectually
stimulating.” I said, Did you just use the word “intellectually” and
“stimulating” in the same sentence where one word was modifying the other? He
got his MBA studying remotely at Arizona State University. And if any of you
have followed him on Facebook, you know that every so often, mixed into photos
posted of his family, of Lauren and of Nathan and Aiden, he would write social commentaries
on political and economic matters, and these pieces were brilliantly crafted
and reasoned beautifully. It didn’t matter whether you agreed with his position
or not. He was a masterful essayist. He eventually began creating his own
podcasts, zeroing in on a host of colorful characters to interview in his
light-hearted yet serious way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rami majored
in Film and Television Studies at Boston University, did his senior internship
in film production in LA, and following graduation, wanted to stay in LA because
that’s where the action was. I was mildly concerned about allowing him to
pursue something for which the risk of failure was substantial, but then again,
failure is a mighty mentor, and I figured, let the kid follow his dreams. And
as our cousin Clyde put it (that’s Clyde and Toby of our LA family), people
were losing their jobs and getting fired all over the place, but Rami kept on
getting hired. El and I are deeply, deeply grateful to Clyde and Toby for
looking after Rami during those early years when he was out on his own. And the
attention they have given to Rami over the past few months has been extraordinary
and invaluable to Lauren, El and myself as they daily visited Rami, for
extensive periods of time, interfacing with the medical staff and making sure
that he was never alone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some of you
might appreciate this tale from his earlier days in production when one of his
supervisors told us how much she enjoyed working with Rami and how responsible
and conscientious he was. And then she added—And you know, the set can be crumbling,
the actors may be quitting, and Rome may <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>be up in flames—but Rami is taken’ lunch.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The most
important part of Rami’s experience in LA was meeting and falling in love with
Lauren, our daughter-in-law. Together they created two of the most delicious
kids, and two of the biggest fans of Shin Godzilla in the world: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nathan 8, and Aiden 6. Lauren—you and Rami had
something special together the first time you met. Your love of family, of fun,
of sports, of the movies, of Jewish tradition, were all very real and held you
together. This past Shabbat, June 26, was your tenth wedding anniversary. Rami didn’t
make it by two days. But all told, it has been a 12-year association. And Nathan
and Aiden adored their Daddy so much. Rami was a great Daddy, introducing his
kids to his own loves—trains, golf, video games, and of course, film. Maybe
someday Nathan and Aiden will take up piano, and play like their father would,
usually a Billy Joel tune which he so loved—Piano Man or Angry Young Man.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rami’s most
recent completed venture was the Amazon Prime series Goliath where he was co-
Producer with a talented and dedicated group of people for whom he had great
respect. And I know it was a thrill and honor for him to work with the show’s
central character, Billy Bob Thorton, whose performance in Bad Santa was yet
another one of those comedies, this one a tad edgier, that early on Rami and I watched
together and howled with laughter throughout.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">During
the pandemic, Rami gained an expertise in Covid testing that few in his field
could lay claim to. He was integral to keeping the set clean and the actors safe
from exposure to Covid. I actually consulted with Rami on a few matters related
to what we were doing at Midway back on Long Island, maintaining reasonable
precautions as we conducted in-person services beginning in June of last year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When Rami was
diagnosed with thyroid cancer, we were given to understand that this was the
kind of cancer that is treatable with the proper therapies, and Rami was all
set for that. His attitude was, as usual, Let’s get it done. Rami and Lauren
called us on the way to the hospital, as they so often called us when they were
on the road, and Rami was joking and laughing the way Rami was always joking
and laughing. Lauren commented, “It sounds like he’s going snowboarding and not
about to have major surgery.” And she was right. That’s exactly the way he
sounded. Things didn’t go quite as planned. And here we are.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At one point,
while I was alone with a doctor, I asked what to expect of Rami after we weaned
him off all the drugs, what might he be like when he woke up. And he said,
“We’re concerned that he may never wake up. And I thought well that’s not
possible because he’s the kid who never slept. Surely, he would wake up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">During the
days leading up to the MRI that would confirm our worst suspicions, I slept
poorly. We all slept poorly. We all had many dreams, disturbing dreams, mostly
nightmares, but I had this one dream that really stood out. I was walking along
a beautiful path, not far from a calmly flowing stream, and beside a park of
manicured bushes and trees. It was a sort of resort, very California-ish, and
there were lovely colorful homes along the path. I came across one home with a
door wide-opened, and I thought, I will enter that house, even though I
certainly did not belong there. I entered the house. It was dark but light
enough to see that inside was not a small homey cottage but a huge space, big
enough to house a large yacht, and there it was—a sailing yacht, with three
masts and a massive hull. It was made of polished mahogany and fitted with gorgeous
riggings, cables and shiny copper accents. I wanted to board this sailing ship.
I did not belong there, but I wanted to see it up close. It was very dark. I
walked on the deck admiring the yacht, it was so beautiful, and the ship rested
in silence, I n its place, but I still needed the light in order to truly see.
So I started searching for the lights, you know, to find the switch.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It
was so dark and the sailing ship was so vast and intricate, and really I did
not belong there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And
then a voice called out and I knew I was in trouble, walking around this ship,
trespassing, within some random house, again trespassing, and the voice inquired,
politely, what was I was doing there. So I said, “O—I’m just here looking for
the light switch. Are you the captain of the ship?” And the voice replied, “No,
I’m a neurologist,” and I thought, O—this is great. I need a neurologist. I’ve
got all sort of questions for the neurologist. I have hundreds of questions for
the neurologist, except I couldn’t remember exactly what the questions were. There
were so many, but I could not remember a single one. And so I asked the only
question that came to mind, which was, “Who turned out the lights?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">That’s when I
woke up. I woke up because I asked the question that had no answer.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">No one knew
who turned out the lights.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And no one
knew how to turn them back on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">This boat
would never sail.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And this boy, our
boy, the kid who never slept, was not going to wake up, for the time of
mischance comes to all, not as a punishment, even though it feels like it, and
not as a test from God, even though it feels like it, but just as a reality of
life. And this one is one that truly changes our lives. We will never be able to
rid ourselves of the mischances in life. We will only be able to control how we
respond to them. And so we connect to a power greater than ourselves that says,
when it happens, as it will, choose life. Make sure that you get a handle on
the loss so that the loss does not get a handle on you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Okay. I think
we can live with that. What to do? Well, I don ‘t think I can offer a recipe on
what to do. But I think it best to begin very simply. What do parents do for
sleeping children? They sing lullabyes. I’m not sure if Rami was into
lullabyes, but maybe a few bars of Billy Joel. As Rami might say—Abba, you got
this! Okay, Ram, I got it. Because Billy Joel actually composed a lullabye, a
very beautiful one, under circumstances much different from those we know face,
yet with lyrics eerily fitting for this time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">He sang:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Good night my angel now it's
time to sleep<br />
And still so many things I want to say<br />
Remember all the songs you sang for me<br />
When we went sailing on an emerald bay<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And like a boat out on the ocean<br />
I'm rocking you to sleep<br />
The water's dark<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: #202124; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: verdana;">and deep inside this ancient
heart<br />
You'll always be a part of me<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Zihrono
L’evrakhah—Whenever we think of you, Ram, we’ll remember your smile, your
jokes, your laughter, your intelligence, your love of family, your love of life.
And all that will be a blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Alav<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hashalom—Rest in peace.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-70710035188050656492021-02-05T07:17:00.004-08:002021-02-05T07:17:30.047-08:00ARE YOU A ZOOM ROOM UN-SENSATION?<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It’s coming up on a year’s time that we
have all been sent to our rooms, that is, Zoom Rooms. With the pandemic forcing
us to take special precautions, prayer, meetings, conferences, and even social
gatherings have taken place virtually, in the virus-free, sanitized world of
cyberspace.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">The experience has been
liberating and oppressive all at once, but the better part of ourselves should
recognize the blessing in having such a tool at our disposal, especially during
a crisis like this one. Nonetheless, as with other social interactions, the
following proposed conventions will minimize the awkward and uncomfortable faux
pas that so many of us have experienced or witnessed. A few tips are in order
to avoid becoming a Zoom Room Un-Sensation:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">YOUR NAME<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We all have one, and it’s not Batman,
Supergirl, or “The Beaver.” In a session with multiple windows and people who
do not necessarily know each other, use your name, your proper name, and no
other. In the very least, it should be your first name, but preferably, it
should be your full first and last names.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">YOUR FACE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Look at that punim (Yiddish for face)! I
am—and it’s a fine photo but, hey—are you there? I don’t know because I can’t
see you. I can only see your photo. Showing up to a Zoom event with only your
photo in the window gives new meaning to the tongue-in-cheek reprimand—Earth to
Jerry, earth to Jerry…. A photo in your window, in place of you in the window,
suggests that you are not fully present, unless there are such extenuating
circumstances as you might offer in advance of the session. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">YOUR DRESS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Zoom era has generated more jokes
about wearing pants (or more accurately, not wearing pants) than I’d care to
repeat, but how about the dress from the waist up. Have you been invited to a
Bat or Bar Mitzvah? A memorial service? A conference? That ceremony calls for
something other than pj’s or jeans and your old college sweatshirt. Skip the
high heels if you so like, but appearances in a visual medium matter. Consider
the circumstances and dress accordingly.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">YOUR TECHNICAL TOYS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You are probably accustomed to the
television blaring in the next room, but the people in the Zoom Room trying to
hear one another are not. Turn off, or at least turn down, the volume of that
device. Your cell phone ought to be silenced as well and it’s best not to
answer during a Zoom session, unless you suspect an emergency. Finally, the
device on which you have connected to Zoom most likely offers you an
opportunity to multi-task—write that report, shop for new shoes, play solitaire.
etc. But everyone knows when you are distracted. Avoid multi-tasking, be
present, even though your presence is only a whisp of digits in cyberspace.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">YOUR BACKGROUND<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Zoom offers the tantalizing option,
through alternate backgrounds, of placing oneself in the jungles of Amazon, a
bustling rue in Paris, or outer space. We all like creativity so you may
indulge, as long as the background is appropriate for the session at hand. If
you are at a business meeting, you may not want to show up in the Sahara
Desert. Moreover, unless you are seated in front of a green screen of sorts,
your own apparition in the virtual background will become ghost-like, as your
face and body disappear and reappear with your own natural movements. It is
disturbing to interact with anyone who is missing a limb, a chest, or a head. A
mundane, real background, like your living room, is a far better choice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">YOUR CONVERSATIONS<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Zoom offers the opportunity for private
conversation in Chat, an area running vertically on the right sign of the
screen where one may chat with the entire group or a single person. But what you
ought to avoid is calling out to Mrs. Goldberg about a personal health issue,
or any private issue for that matter, that would compel others to stop
speaking. Etiquette would demand that we not speak over one another, so when
you initiate a private conversation with that Mrs. Goldberg, you force others
to shut up or be as rude as you are in dominating the room. The chat area is
reserved for your private conversations. And that’s where they belong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">YOUR SPELLING<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As long as we have given up on oral
communication in favor of the written word, if texting can be so described, it
is important for you to pay attention to spelling, so that your words are not
misconstrued. As one Zoomer wrote as he was trying to get his camera on,
“Please bare with me.” Thanks for the invite but I’ll pass. Moreover, please
don’t use CAPS which is the written equivalent of shouting. Whether spelling
out your name or tapping out a chat, write for maximum clarity, and that
includes following the conventions of the written word.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">YOUR LANGUAGE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Is your mic on? It probably is which
means that the last expletive that fell from your lips was heard by the others
in the windows on your screen. Zoom can be frustrating for newcomers, but there
is no excuse for broadcasting that frustration via the @#$%^& words that
far too often pass for acceptable language. They aren’t. It is of some interest
to learn that Aunt Sadie can pull her own weight with the pirates flying the
Jolly Roger. But when those words are transmitted to the 50 other people in the
Zoom Room, what can I say but—ARRRGH!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You might ask me, with a great deal of
justified righteous indignation—Exactly who made you the Zoom Czar, the Cyber
Kaiser, the Internet Imperator?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Okay—I
hear you. This is a self-appointed position perpetrated with a maximum of
hubris. But I bet I write for more than just a few who have been annoyed by one
or two of the above realities. The pandemic is not over yet. We have a longer
future of interactions in the Zoom Room than anyone ever thought. There’s a
deliberate equality in a Zoom Room where all the windows are of equal size.
There’s nothing wrong with striving to be unique or different, but if you do,
make sure you do so for all the right reasons, and not those that will make you
a Zoom Room Un-Sensation.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-8591514877494902472020-11-30T05:43:00.004-08:002020-11-30T05:43:38.491-08:00A MACCABEAN CHALLENGE FOR 21ST CENTURY JEWS<p><span style="text-align: justify;">Let’s admit it: Hanukkah is no
match for Christmas. Put the two in a boxing rink and Christmas would knockout
Hanukkah in the first minute of the first round. Then again, it wouldn’t be a
fair fight. Christmas is one of the two major holidays in the Christian faith
and Hanukkah is a minor holiday among any number of other really important
Jewish holidays. That’s not to say that Hanukkah is unimportant or irrelevant.
To the contrary, it deserves better than its reputation among our young folk as
the “holiday when you get gifts.” But the minor designation does stem from a
few glaring deficiencies about this holiday—</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>There is no mention of it in Torah;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>There is no mention of it in Tanakh or the Jewish Bible;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>It involved few restrictions unlike Shabbat or a major festival
like Pesah;<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Even the rabbis weren’t sure what to make of it and wondered:
What is Hanukkah?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Fair question. In truth, Hanukkah
was as much a second century BCE Judean civil war as it was a war against the
Syrian Greeks. They were Judea’s overlords and unabashedly espoused Grecian
values. They glorified the human body, found circumcision abhorrent, chose to embrace
the existence of many gods unlike the Jewish insistence on only one, found
Shabbat a waste of time, and bristled at the national aspirations of the Judean
community. And yet there were plenty of Jews who found common ground with the
Syrian Greeks. Frankly, many 21<sup>st</sup> century Jews would see the exposed
human body as artful, circumcision problematic, the Sabbath as no impediment to
labor, and any condemnation of pagans or polytheists as bigoted. The Maccabees,
in contrast to Jews then and perhaps today, saw danger in the wholesale
acceptance of such foreign values and were willing to wage war to oppose them.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;">It is very difficult to resist a dominant culture that you
want to be part of. But what happens when the dominant culture is chipping away
at your own? What to do? The Maccabees knew what to do. But in our own day, do
we? The fundamental problem with the liberal Jewish world is that even when
recognizing the debilitating factors working against our spiritual selves, the resistance
needed to oppose those factors contradict everything we have worked for during
the past 100 plus years. We wanted to become Americans and did, but did,
knowingly or unknowingly, at the expense of our Jewishness. And the fruits of
our lopsided efforts are evident in a liberal Jewish world that is largely
illiterate in Hebrew, either uninterested in or alienated from Israel,
disenfranchised from its own spiritual heritage, and searching for meaning
everywhere but in the incredibly rich 3000 years of Jewish meditations on the
meaning of life and the human raison d’etre.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0in; text-align: justify;">Bleak a picture as this may be, I have to believe that the
will to deepen our own Jewish identities remains intact, and all it takes is a
bit of prodding to release that subdued passion. I’m no Maccabee, but let me offer
a few ways to reclaim our authentic Jewish selves:</p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>When people say that God is not a fact, believe them. But remind
them that man does not live by facts alone. God is a reality, and a reality
that has inspired thousands of generations to vigorously pursue liberty and
social justice. We dare not abandon such a powerful faith.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>That faith and science are forever at odds disparages both faith
and science. Faith is about following truths that help us live full lives.
Science, in contrast, offers no way to live our lives, but does provide us with
tools for ascertaining certain truths. That is why there are many scientists
and medical professionals who are themselves people of faith. There need not be
any contradiction between the two.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>English is the lingua franca of the world, but Hebrew is the
lingua Judaica—the language of the Jewish people and we should take pains to
enhance our Hebrew vocabulary. It is as difficult to be Jewish with no Hebrew
skills as it would to be an American with no English skills.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>The fact that the Jewish heritage may have evolved during the Dark
Ages (if not earlier) does not make it a relic of the Dark Ages. It was then,
as it remains today, an invitation to eternity,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>connecting us with ancestors stretching back generations, as with
descendants stretching forward for endless centuries. The modern disdain for
the past contrasts with the value Jews grant tradition.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Israel is the Jewish homeland and all Jews, citizens of Israel
or not, are connected to it. Israel is not a foreign country like Italy or
Spain. Love of Israel does not suggest disloyalty to the country of one’s
citizenship, no more than close friends undermine the integrity of one’s
marriage.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span>Jewish identity should be based on Jewish values and principles,
which may or may not incorporate aspects of the dominant culture. But the
guiding hand in the formation of Jewish identity should not be the demands of
the dominant culture, but the Jewish values and principles that have guided us
throughout the generations.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Every system requires a shot of
energy now and then in order to maintain itself. The Jewish world is long
overdue for that shot. Which brings us back to Hanukkah. The above six points
is what the Maccabees might tell us were they around today. And so Hanukkah, no
matter how minor a holiday it may be, delivers a message with a major punch.
Anything less than the above prescription for Jewish life is a crude hybrid of
Jewish and western secular culture. The first Maccabees would never stand for that.
Why should we?<o:p></o:p></p>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-53085917108784887702020-10-02T08:50:00.002-07:002020-10-02T08:50:35.523-07:00 AN ANTI-SEMITE WALKS INTO A SUKKAH… <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Among a handful of topics I find the least appealing to address is the issue of anti-Semitism. I primarily
don’t like it due to its abuse by Jewish professionals who have used it to galvanize Jewish community.
After all, when Jews feel threatened, we tend to regroup, band together, and lift our voices in protest.
Hatred generates fear in the hated, and fear compels the vulnerable to seek security in numbers. It’s
good to belong to a group. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Anti-Semites would undoubtedly agree: it’s good to belong. In their case, they seem bound by a
common hatred, directed against us, which provides an easy way for disparate personalities and groups
to coalesce. Hatred is a fellowship generator. And it’s so easy. Hatred requires doing nothing for the
hated, it accesses one’s righteous anger to produce feelings of superiority, and it’s free. Hatred works.
Community organizers know that. Politicians know that. Terrorist groups know that. And by this time in
our lives as a people, we should know that too. When we actively combat hatred, we are telling people
that the group they belong to is founded on a false premise, which means that the whole group is
bound by a lie. That’s a threatening message to deliver effectively. It not only calls into question a
person’s belief system, it questioning the group itself, the very mechanism that creates fellowship. Even
when your group is based on a lie, it still feels good to belong. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">We have reason to be concerned with the fate of our nation. With the waning of the Judeo-Christian
ethic in the western world, America’s Christian love has faltered and created a void. It seems that
people’s sociological lives abhor a vacuum as does nature, and a host of hatreds have moved in to fill
the void, with results markedly different from the effects of Judeo-Christian love. One may argue that
given a long history of religious wars and crusades, the whole Christian love thing didn’t work out so
well, a point well taken. The difference is this. When people talk of love while beating up their neighbor,
it creates a dissonance which may lead to a reconsideration of how one thinks and acts. But when
people preach hatred and beat up their neighbor, there’s nowhere to go. It’s honest and consistent,
despite it being unconscionable. God’s love was meant for all humanity, and humanity is still grappling
with the ramifications of that principle. People who are serious about their love for God must also be
serious about their love for God’s creations. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If you are a Mexican, Moslem, Black, or female, you have been hated. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If you are a law enforcement officer, a politician, a Democrat or a Republican, you have been hated. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If you are an evangelical, a scientist, an Asian, or a white male, you have been hated. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And, of course, if you’re Jewish, you have undoubtedly been hated. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Actually, if you don’t belong to a group that has been the target of someone’s hate, you should feel
insulted. If it all didn’t erupt into violence now and then, anti-Semitism would be comical, but there is
nothing funny about it or hatred. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When I want the Jewish people to gather, I want the impetus to be positive. I want them to gather for a
celebration, for prayer, for study, for justice. I want Jewish passion to ignite over the fact that we are
each 3500 years of age, and bear a message of a life lived with justice and godliness in a world with a
deficit of both justice and godliness. But that, of course, is part of the problem. How often have we
heard that anti-Semitism persists due to ignorance and fear? When we remain divorced from our
neighbors, it’s far easier for them to indulge in fantasies about how horrible we are. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I’m not a huge football fan but I did take note in the exchange between the Patriots Jewish Julian
Edelman and the Eagles’ DeSean Jackson after Jackson posted anti-Semitic comments on his Instagram
story. Edelman offered to take Jackson to the Holocaust Museum and offered to go with Jackson to the
African American History Museum, both in Washington DC, and afterwards “grab some
burgers and…have those uncomfortable conversations.” Edelman’s response was a touchdown. With a
click of the “post,” social media allows millions of people to send nonsense and abuse to millions of
others out there in invisible and anonymous cyber-land. But real dialogue requires two visible bodies,
with two sets of eyes that are connecting, and conversation emanating from two mouths. Social media
is a kind of body slam to true dialogue, but people like Julian Edelman have the courage to help it get
back on its feet. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I know some Jews who have gotten really angry about the anti-Semitism that is surging these days.
Their anger is understandable, but it remedies nothing. Anti-Semitism has been around for over 2000
years. It’s not going away any time too soon. But if you want to be in the business of combatting antiSemitism, here are three positive actions to take: </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">1. Support the Anti-Defamation League that combats anti-Semitism, hatred and bigotry of all
forms; </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">2. Support AIPAC in its defense of the State of Israel, the hatred of which is anti-Semitism in
disguise; </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">3. Take to task, politely, those who use anti-Semitic tropes, or engage in stereotypic slurs, that is,
take a tip from Julian Edelman; </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And finally, and perhaps most importantly, keep the door of your sukkah unlocked. Ahhh—you thought
I forgot the whole sukkah connection by now. I didn’t. Sukkot are famously open for anyone to come
and visit and for all of us to generously invite guests into. Of course, this year may not be the best to
overindulge in such invitations but the fact is that the sukkah is an abode for everyone to come into and
sit, eat, drink, talk, discuss, bond, laugh…eat some more…and wonder about the miracles in our lives.
God has given us a world full of mysteries and jaw-dropping beauty. We may be guests in God’s world
but we should never be strangers to each other. And should the sukkah become a place for burgers
(kosher) and an uncomfortable conversation, that’s a sacred task to be fulfilled—a mitzvah we should
all be immersed in, just like sitting in the sukkah.</span></p>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-25990502621532128082020-09-29T06:00:00.004-07:002020-09-29T06:01:38.941-07:00 WALKING THE WALK<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Gut Yontiff, everyone. I have to begin with an apology. This will
take less than a minute<a name="_Hlk51932749">: </a><b><i><span style="background: whitesmoke;">Mayn be’emes antshuldikn, tu di gantse shpeeler
fun “Fidler oyfn Dakh” in Eeddish, far vos ikh hob gezogt ven ikh hob ersht
gelernt veigen a produktsye fun dem pietza az dos vet gedoyern tsvey vokhn
avek fun Brodvey. iz ikh oongerecht!</span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Well, that felt good. If you didn’t understand what I said, not to
worry, I barely understood what I said. If I ever slip into Yiddish during a
conversation, you can be sure someone else translated it for me, in this case, a consortium of
helpers including my Uncle Irving, Esther Eisenberg (God bless her) and if you
can believe this—Google Translate. But I wanted to start this sermon in Yiddish
as an act of teshuvah. You see, when I first heard that Fiddler on the Roof was
going to be produced off-Broadway in Yiddish, I said to myself, well, this one
ought to last about two weeks. Then I
saw the production. Oh my God—it was fabulous. Beginning in July of 2018, it
was slated to run for only six weeks at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, it was
extended four times, and then moved uptown to Stage 42 where it played for 11
months until its close in January of this year. Amazing and boy—were my initial
instincts about this production off base!<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">I didn’t think one could improve on the script by Joseph Stein or
the lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, but Shraga Friedman’s Yiddish translation was
magical and people walked away from the production thinking somehow it felt
more authentic, more genuine than the English version itself. I was shocked in
thinking the same thing myself. What is it about that production that made it
so popular?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">You have to begin with Sholom Aleichem’s “Tevye, The Dairyman,”
first published in 1894. Sholom Aleichem, beyond telling stories that would
make you laugh, and sometimes cry, was addressing a deeper phenomenon, which
was the conflict between tradition and change. It’s no accident that the
opening song of Fiddler is Tradition. Tevye and his community have their
traditions. Everyone has a role and everyone has a place and everything runs
like a well-ordered machine (most of the time). Tevye has four daughters and
his daughters will prove the challenge to his beloved traditions. You know the
story. The first doesn’t want to accept the matchmaker’s choice for her beloved
and instead wants to marry, you’ll excuse the expression, for love. The second
one chooses a Jewish man, but a new kind of Jewish man—a revolutionary (or as
my father would refer to him---a CommooNEEST). And the third daughter falls in
love with a non-Jewish boy, a development Tevye cannot accept. With all these
changes, life was no longer the well-ordered, well-structured social construct
that Tradition had provided the community, presumably for centuries, whether
real or imagined.<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Fiddler ends with Tevye walking away from ole’ mother Russia, sometime
in the early 1900’s, with an audience knowing the sequel to the story. How does
the audience know the sequel to the story? Because the audience is the sequel
to the story. We, the audience, know how far we’ve walked away from the traditions
that Tevye adored, how far from those communal structures that kept little Anatevke
humming, and even how far from the language of the play, from the Yiddish of
our forebears, which if not for our familiarity with the musical to begin with and
the blessed English subtitles projected onto the stage, we would not have
understood. The conflict between tradition and change is a universal theme
which explains the popular notion that Fiddler has been produced some where in
the world everyday since its debut in the 1960’s, something which has come to
an end due to—what else?—Covid 19.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">One of the ironies of Covid-19 is, disruptive though it has been,
in an odd sort of way it forced us back into some traditional modes of living.
The synagogue was closed but the Zoom Room of Midway Jewish Center has not only
not missed a single minyan since we started zooming, but our minyanim, both
morning and evening, have never been larger. We chose not to zoom on Shabbat, a
decision that was respectful of Jewish tradition, but our pre-Kabbalat Shabbat
service sometimes drew over 50 or 60 windows, meaning the number of people participating
far exceeded the number that might attend on a typical Friday night. As
families were unable to fill their days with the 101 activities and
appointments that somehow we have managed to fill our days with, more families
were spending more time together. It was challenging but it also gave us pause
to think about how we spend our time. Anecdotally we know that there was a
whole lot of baking going on during the height of the pandemic, bread and
hallah baking in particular. And I can tell you for sure that as often as Tevye
turned to the Ribbono shel Olam, the Master of the Universe, for a few private
conversations on critical matters of the day, there were a whole lot of
conversations going on in our community with the Ribbono shel Olam too, about
abundance and scarcity, employment and unemployment, fear and faith, sickness
and health, and about life and death. I don’t think Covid made us more
religious, but I think it made us more mindful of what religious people think
about, which includes human vulnerability, gratitude for little things,
dependence on loved ones, and the blessings we all too often take for granted
when those blessings are suddenly snatched from our lives. Covid-19 did not necessarily
bring out the good in people, but it brought out the genuine character of
people. It had a way of exposing peoples’ identities. And for some of us, we
found out who were our friends and who were not.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">I had a funny experience recently. My laptop, a MicroSoft Surface,
requires no password for access as the notebook opens on the basis of facial
recognition software. One day, I sat down to work, and the screen clearly
indicated that it did not recognize me. I did what most of us would do: turned
the computer off and rebooted, and still, the computer did not recognize me. I
was mildly offended. And then I realized, I had forgotten to take off my mask
and the computer literally did not recognize me. That was actually good news: it
meant that both the computer and my mask were working</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Facial recognition is one of a series of biometric technologies
that identify people on the basis of texture, shape, and movement. One of the
most fascinating biometrics, and perhaps the scariest in terms of invasion of
privacy, is recognizing people by the way they walk. According to a New York
Times article in October of 2019, the latest technology is learning how to
decipher identities based on gait, that is how one walks because our walks are
as distinctive as our characters. If you think of personalities like Groucho
Marx, Walter Matheau, or even Mae West, whose personas were in part a
development of a unique walk, it makes sense. But you probably never thought of
yourself as having a gait that actually gave away your identity. According to
some French and Australian researchers writing in the Journal of Applied
Physiology, the way we walk is that distinctive. The way we walk identifies us.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">If we were to search for this biometric in the intuitive sense of
our ancestors, we might find it in the expression—to talk the talk and to walk
the walk. It’s a way of determining whether a person who espouses certain
principles actually abides by them. They may talk the talk, but the character
is ultimately defined by walking the walk. The walk is one’s true identity. Again,
we might find an intimation of the gait theory in the metaphor of path. One person
pursues a noble path while another may have gone down the wrong path. And so it
is with the whole of our moral character. We may talk the talk, but it’s our
walk or the path we take that reveals our identity to the world.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">You may think that the path and the walk are easy determinations,
as if there were some travel guide out there determining what the path of
righteousness actually is. But there isn’t. <span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The moral and right thing to do is
not always clear and there are always people on different roads, or let’s say
multiple paths, who speak authoritatively and passionately about which
direction to go, and muster their arguments or proofs to back up their claims.
Which direction shall you go—to the right or to the left? How far to the right?
How far to the left? Those are decisions we all must face.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Over Yom Kippur, we read the book of Jonah and there is a puzzling
passage at the close of the book which speaks to this issue. You remember that
Jonah was charged with going to the Assyrian city of Nineveh to tell them that
their doom was fixed and that they would in short order be destroyed. Jonah did
not want to do it, runs away, is swallowed by a very large fish, accepts God’s
charge reluctantly, goes to Nineveh, and tells the people they are all going to
die for their sins. But the people of Nineveh repent, God forgives them,
destruction never comes, and Jonah ends up looking like a fool. He was really
upset. He was having a bad day. Plus which, it was hot and there was no air
conditioning. God shows Jonah compassion and causes this tree to grow shielding
Jonah from the blazing sun. He cools down, but the tree withers, Jonah grows
depressed and shvitzy, begs for death, whereupon God says to Jonah—“You cared
about the plant, which you did not work for and which you did not grow, which
appeared overnight and perished overnight. And should I not care about Nineveh,
that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand
persons who do not yet know their right hand from their left, and many beasts
as well!” It’s a response that has caused much puzzlement over the centuries as
to God’s exact meaning. Surely in Nineveh, a great city, there must be people who
are moral and ethical, who do know their right hand from their left. Then again,
maybe God is asking Jonah, and perhaps all of us, to consider our own ignorance
about ethical living. We may all know a whole lot less than we believe when it
comes to determining which is the right path, the righteous path in life to
take. And at those times in life when we are most vulnerable or fragile, when
the turmoil that life can be is forced upon us, those are the times when we are
most likely to turn to the tried and true, to that which has been done for
hundreds if not thousands of years. Those are the times when we turn to
tradition because there is in long- established, age-old, time-honored ritual and
faith a stability that life does not always offer us with any degree of
generosity. We turn to the stability of the past because of the instability and
frightening nature of the present. The number of people who turned to prayer or
baking hallah with their children over the past few months, is not at all
surprising.<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Edmund
Burke (1729-1797), the great 18<sup>th</sup> century Irish Member of
Parliament, philosopher and statesman, was no fan of the French Revolution,
sympathetic though he was to some of its ideals. He felt that a movement
steeped in the principles of the Enlightenment with its attacks on traditional
institutions like monarchy, clergy, religion, and class would surely end in
violence and dictatorship. And so it was this
high-minded revolution evolved into what we now refer to as the infamous
Reign of Terror in 1793-94, when thousands who purportedly did not tow the new
line of enlightenment were put to rest by the guillotine and then later, when
disorder threatened most seriously, only a figure like Napoleon, whose rule was
tyrannical and absolute, could bring stability back to France. That wasn’t at
all what the Revolution had hoped for. The fact is that history gives us
multiple examples of damage done by people who thought the world needed
something radically new and were seduced by their own inventiveness. The most
obvious examples are the Communists who killed in the name of the working class
or the Nazis who killed in the name of the nation or volk. Both movements were
experiments in social engineering to make the world a better place, both are
regarded today as colossal failures, and if there is one thing that both had in
common, it was the war they waged against religious tradition. They regarded
tradition as a threat.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">On the surface, America still has respect for religion and
tradition, but my sense is that it ain’t what it used to be. Our western world remains
suspicious of religion, dismissive of God, contemptuous of faith, and
disdainful of religious authority. And yet—look at what we’re doing here. We
are gathered here in what can only be described as a counter-cultural
demonstration. We are doing something that our ancestors have done for centuries,
engaged in age-old rituals and appealing to God to cleanse us of sin and move
us to set out on a better path in our lives, better for ourselves and those
around us. Whoever thinks it backward to look to the past for answers that are
enduring and reassuring thinks so because they themselves are apparently facing
in the wrong direction.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Tradition
is not nostalgia. Nostalgia is nice but it’s the past in memory alone. Tradition
is the past meeting the present and it
is an essential component of civilization. It provides stability, comfort, and
context to all the challenges we face. Edmund Burke and Reb Tevye would have a
meeting of the minds on this very subject, if not a rather peculiar
conversation between one speaking with an Irish brogue and the other with a
Russian Yiddish accent. Yet both would agree that to look backwards to the
tried and true, to that tested by generations of communities that have come to
some settled understanding of what makes for stability and peace, is not a
naïve thing to do. It’s a smart thing to do. And it’s not that Burke didn’t
believe in change; he did. And Tevye himself knew that concessions must be made
if one were sensible and prepared to live in the modern world. But neither
believed that the past was so obsolete that there was nothing within it to
guide us. Burke and Tevye would have agreed that the allure of tradition lies
in the order of the past, the assumption that there is purpose and meaning to
life, and in the supremacy of God. Tradition is thus a vehicle for navigating the
craziness of life. How many times have you heard someone sigh and observe what
we are going through right now with the following expression, “This is just
crazy!”</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
that is why, so often, you hear in this community an appeal to what we call Halakhah.
Halakhah is typically translated as Jewish law, but what it really means is the
way we walk. Halakhah is our gait. Halakhah is the way we identify ourselves as
Jews, it’s the way we take the beliefs that are most sacred to us and give them
legs. We take the talk and turn it into walk. And we don’t wait for a pandemic
to turn our lives upside down before we turn to the past for answers. We live
this halakhah each day of our lives.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
liberal seminaries these days are filled with young people who have not grown
up in religiously observant families, but are nonetheless, drawn to ancient
texts that challenge them into thinking how the past might invest a present
with richer meaning. And maybe for us, set in our ways as we may be, comfortable
without anyone challenging our routines, maybe it’s high time that instead of
just watching a musical like Fiddler and dreaming of a past that is no more,
actually find a way to incorporate some of that past into the present in order
to create a richer, more stable today. This is not an attempt to turn anyolne
into a Goldas or a Tevye, but it is a challenge to you to deepen your religious
convictions through practice, to pick up some good books and read about ways
you can bring a little more Shabbat and a little more kashrut and a little more
prayer and a little more study into your lives. In incorporating a little more
Halakhah into our lives, we adjust our gait and thus our identities, and we
could all begin to walk a little more authentically, because we are Jews.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
conclusion, I would like to say a few words of apology. </span><a name="_Hlk51932773"><b><i><span style="background: whitesmoke;">Mayn be’emes
antshuldikn tu dem gantsn geshtalt fun “Shtisel,” ven ikh hob ersht ervist az
Netflix vet durkhfirn a seriye vegen khareidishe EEden in Yisroyel, alt oyf Yiddish,
az dos vet gedoyern be’erekh tsvey vokhn. Iz ikh oongerecht! </span></i></b></a><span style="background: whitesmoke;">Oh—that felt
good too. </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I just apologized to the entire cast of Shtisel </span>for having said, when I first learned that Netflix would air a
series about Haredi Jews in Israel all in Yiddish, that this one ought to last
about two weeks. Was I wrong on that account too! I can’t wait for Season 3. And if there is a
season 4, and the writers are running thin on ideas, I’m thinking that if they
were to introduce, let’s say, a Long Island Conservative rabbi into the plot,
maybe I could audition. The possibilities for scandal are infinite! Jerusalem
meets Oyster Bay!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;">Shtisel. <span style="background: white; color: #333333; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What is it with tales of religious life,
Yiddish, and American Jewry? There is an allure to this spiritual life as
defined by Halakhah, one that we are almost afraid to admit to. But why resist
its charm? Fiddler ended with Tevye walking away. We are the sequel to that
story and the story is not over. We are the Jewish people—the story is never
over. We have the ability and resources to walk back toward tradition. And in
this topsy-turvy world that we are now thrust into, when we don’t even
recognize what our lives have become, tradition may be just the walk we need to
remember exactly whom we are.</span></p>
<span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I want to wish you all a Tzom Kal, an easy fast and
a Gmar hatimah tovah, a secure and sealed listing in the Book of Life, of <b><i>Gezint
</i></b>(health), and a <b><i>besser Yur </i></b>(a better year).<b><i></i></b></span>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-28700982607348113282020-09-23T06:05:00.000-07:002020-09-23T06:05:08.201-07:00SMASHING STATUES & OUR SELVES, AND THE LANGUAGE OF JEWISH REPAIR<p><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: center;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I am a sinner. I’m not ashamed to say
it only because Judaism assumes all of God’s children are sinners, flawed,
coming up short, etc., including those who have come before us, those who are
destined to come after us, and all those hanging around these days, whether we
know them or not. No human is perfect. We are all sinners. Acknowledgement of
this reality is a good way to prepare for the holidays.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Every nation has its heroes. They’re
all sinners too. But here’s the thing about sinners, the heroic and unheroic
alike. The dark, unrepentant, thoroughly corrupt sinner is a rare phenomenon
for sinners engage in saintly acts now and then. No one is a total sinner just
as no one is a total saint. As the rabbis contend, we all have a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yetzer
hara,</i></b> an evil inclination and a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yetzer hatov,</i></b> a good inclination,
and the clear majority of people on earth are an amalgam of both praiseworthy
and dastardly deeds. When we paint them as one or the other, whether sinner or
saint, we turn them into phony persona, a canard only but nothing real. That
distortion is a disservice to their humanity and our own, as we promote only a
caricature rather than a character.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Those who might tear down statues of
American heroes whom we know to be flawed men (the clear majority are men) have
an ally in the Torah. When Moses instructs the Israelites as to how they should
relate to the pagans of the land which they are about to possess, he says,
“Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the
fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that
site” (Deuteronomy 12:3). That’s how to handle falsehood according to our
biblical ancestors, and there was no falsehood greater than idolatry. We have
seen this biblical zeal carried out in our own day. In 1996, the Taliban of
Afghanistan systematically destroyed museum collections that were deemed
unIslamic and in 2001, they blew up the giant and majestic Buddhas of Bamiyan
which dated back to the sixth century. In the last decade, ISIS was responsible
for dismantling almost all the churches in Mosul and throughout their reign of
terror, destroyed ancient and medieval sites that had been protected for
centuries as part of the history and culture of those lands.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">It might also be noted that the Jewish
people, historically, have not been spared these attacks, though having few
structures to burn or tear down, the focus of the ruling party’s purifying
powers had been our sacred texts. In 1242, some 1,200 volumes of Talmud were
burned in Paris. A favorite action of the Nazis was book burnings of all
subversive literature, which would include anything written by Jews. One might
argue that a book is not a statue, which is obviously true, but both are
expressions of an era, a reality, a point of view, for right or wrong, and
their destruction or desecration are almost always carried out by the morality
police, officially or self-appointed purists who themselves are sinless.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">That “sinless” adjective was a bit of
sarcasm. We are all sinners and when harsh judgments are given full reign, we
become vulnerable to the very same cruelty when we find ourselves on the
outs<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of a new wave of self-righteous
purists out to purge the sins of the day, or of the past.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The language of religious repair, or
let’s be even more specific, Jewish repair, is lost on most moderns. Our highly
secularized world, fueled by a destructive political polarization, has drained
the color from people and turned them into mere caricatures of good and evil,
purity and impurity. But the characters in our lives, as the choices we must
make, are rarely that distinct. Most people are a muddle of wisdom and
foolishness, honesty and falsehood, morality and its trespasses. And so it is
that Judaism teaches us to live life with compassion, and to give people the
benefit of the doubt, to forgive, and where we find it difficult to forgive, to
in the very least, understand. We are all sinners as we are all capable of
good.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">According to an old midrash, Rabbi Shimon said that the
angels erupted into argument with God’s decision to create Adam. The celestial
prosecution charged the future Adam as lying and combative. The defense claimed
Adam would be righteous and merciful. God thereby threw the Angel of Truth out
of heaven (ouch!) and proceeded to create Adam (see Genesis Rabbah 8:5). It
sounds as if the rabbis thought that our species (their’s too) was created at
the expense of truth. To the contrary, humanity and truth reside on earth and
our destiny is to grapple with the truths of who we are, our righteous and
merciful ways, and our sinful and surly selves. We are rarely either/or but
rather both/and.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 15.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">
The better way to deal with the darker side of our history is not to destroy
the old artistic expressions, but reframe the lives of those so remembered, and
most importantly, support those artistic endeavors that would reflect our own
understanding and values. So too, at this time of year, when we face our own
flaws, I hope we choose not to destroy ourselves, but rather remake or reinvent
ourselves, to give ourselves the permission and fortitude to express ourselves
in new ways that are more life-affirming and life-fulfilling. If we must
protest vigorously, and we should, let’s arm ourselves with the language of Jewish
repair work: compassion, understanding, forgiveness, insight, creativity and
vision. This is the terminology that can heal the self and a nation, at least
temporarily. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">But rest assured we’ll be back next year because
we can never fully escape or extinguish our sinfulness or for that matter,
Barukh HaShem, (Praise God!), our saintliness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-75118793809013278032020-09-21T13:31:00.001-07:002020-09-21T13:31:12.994-07:00A LITTLE FORGIVENESS, PLEASE: A ROSH HASHANAH SERMON, 5781 / 2020<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Shabbat
Shalom, everyone, and Shanah Tovah—a good and a healthy year to all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Schwartz is taken in handcuffs to court
and stands before the judge. The prosecutor rises and says, “Your honor, Mr.
Schwartz was caught red-handed stealing a can of peaches from the local grocery
and he admits his guilt.” The judge shakes his head and announces, “Mr
Schwartz, we cannot have theft in the community. You must bear the consequences
of your crime. There are six peaches in this can and I sentence you to six days
in jail for every peach stolen,” and the judge slams his gavel on the bench. A
woman rises in the back of the court room and calls out, “Your, Honor!” The
judge immediately recognizes her and responds, “Mrs. Schwartz, I am not
inclined to any leniency in this case,” to which Mrs. Schwartz replies, “I know,
but he also stole a can of chick peas.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rosh
Hashanah is Yom HaDin—Judgment Day, a day when God judges all of humanity. Judges
wield real power. Anyone authorized to take your money, in the form of a fine,
or take your liberty, in the form of incarceration, wields real power. But the
more immediate power we have had to deal with these days is the power of a
pandemic. I was curious. I wanted to know the size of a single Corona virus
particle. We’ve all seen its microscopic structure in the media, but what is
its actual size? Turns out its size varies between 70-90 nanometers. A
nanometer is one billionth of a meter or 10 to the power of negative ten. In
other words, it’s really small, yet left unchecked, Covid-19 brought the world
to a standstill. That is real power. Who among has not felt during the past
several months incarcerated in their own home? And the effects of that pause in
our lives still reverberate—in empty sports stadiums, a darkened Broadway,
half-empty restaurants, diminished air traffic, masked faces, unemployment, religious
services in a tent, and much anxiety even with a rate of infection as low as it
is in our own beloved New York State.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If
Covid-19 has not felt like a harsh judgment, perhaps the social unrest in the
country does. We’ve had to deal with a lot these past several months—racial
tensions, questions about policing protocols, second thoughts on statuary and
how we represent our history, and on top of all this, a hot presidential
election come this November. I suspect that having been locked up as long as we
were exacerbated our responses to some of the more intractable fissures within
our social fabric. And it seems very clear, in the polarized atmosphere of our
nation, that we are presently engaged in an uncivil war. It’s no longer clear
to me that we love our neighbors as ourselves, and if that is the case, if the
Torah no longer holds sway over our beliefs and behaviors, it would be worth
our while to reflect on that development and explore whether we are comfortable
in the place we now find ourselves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Daryl Davis is a professional musician, a pianist, who has played
with BB King and Chuck Berry. Back in 1983, he was playing a gig in Frederick,
Maryland, at the Silver Dollar Lounge, and at the end of the session, a man
comes up to him and says that he had never in his whole life heard a black man
play like Jerry Lee Lewis. So Mr. Davis said to this patron that both he and
Jerry Lee Lewis had been influenced by the same black boogie-woogie and blues.
The patron said—No, no that just wasn’t possible. So Mr. Davis said, it was
possible because he knew Jerry Lee Lewis and the two were friends. So the
patron said—No, no that’s not possible either. Then the patron invited Mr.
Davis to the bar for a drink. The two sat down at the bar and the patron said
that this was the first time he had ever had a drink with a black guy. So Mr.
Davis asked why was that. And the patron hesitated for a bit and then said—because
I belong to the Ku Klux Klan. That served as a turning point in Mr. Davis’ life
as he sought out members of the Ku Klux Klan to talk with them with the intent
of dispelling all the stereotypes and misconceptions they had about black people,
It culminated in a book published in 1998 entitled, “Klan-destine
Relationships: A Black Man’s Odyssey in the Ku Klux Klan.” Mr. Davis eventually
infiltrated the office of Robert Kelly, the Grand Dragon or so his title, and
over time, moved Mr. Kelly to drop his membership and close down the chapter he
ran in the state. Mr. Davis now owns a collection of white robes turned into
him by members of the Klan whom he has befriended and influenced to abandon
their racist points of view.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
don’t think Mr. Davis ever forgave Klansmen for their racism. But he did not
see them so much as the enemy as he saw in them an opportunity for dialogue. It
would have been easy to scream and protest against them. It was much harder to
sit down and speak with them. Davis’ actions were either extraordinary
foolishness or extraordinary courage—and maybe a little bit of both.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We all know that this is a time of
selihah, forgiveness. We are encouraged to forgive others for the sins they
have committed against us. That’s the pious directive we encounter year after
year. Do we succeed? Do we forgive others for their sins? Let me put it another
way. Think of the person whom you do not like. We all probably have a few
people like that in our lives. This person is not a nice person. How did you
think of this person last Rosh Hashanah? Is this person still on your no-fly
list? Did you forgive this person? I bet some of you did, but I also bet a much
larger percentage did not. How do I know? Because forgiveness is one of the
most difficult things in the world to grant. People generally don’t want the sinners
of this world to be forgiven. We want them punished. We want justice. Were we
to forgive, it be almost as if we didn’t care about justice. And that grates
against us. It doesn’t seem fair. And that’s why it is so hard to forgive. If
you haven’t forgiven that person or people or whomever it is you’ve got issues
with, I don’t blame you. I only want to acknowledge the challenge forgiveness presents
and how we by and large resist its fulfillment.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As the western world continues to move further and further away
from its religious moorings in Judaism and Christianity, we have replaced the
culture of guilt with the culture of shame. I know that we typically use the
terms of shame and guilt interchangeably, but they are different. Ruth Benedict
(1887-1948), the American anthropologist and folklorist, did great work in
defining the difference between a shame culture and a guilt culture. A shame
culture is one in which a sin committed renders the sinner an object of
embarrassment and ridicule. The sin and the sinner merge and the one is
indistinguishable from the other. Time may erode the shame but there isn’t much
you can do to rid yourself of it. The sinner may seek refuge in another city,
hide, or even commit suicide. Greek culture was very much a shame culture. But
Judaism and by extension, Christianity, opted for guilt. We understand guilt. With
guilt, the sinner has committed some wrong, might even feel shame, but there is
a way to remove the guilt through all the ways we talk about removing
guilt—confession, repentance, prayer, doing acts of goodness, etc. In other
words, the sin and the sinner are two different entities. There’s a great story
in the Talmud (Berakhot 10a) about this. It’s about Rabi Meir and his brilliant
wife Beruriah. There were some undesirables in the neighborhood who bothered
Rabbi Meir. He prayed to God for their death. Beruriah turned to her husband
and said, Meir, the verse in Psalms reads:</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><b><i><u><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">H</span></u></i></b><b><i><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ata’im yitamu min ha’aretz</span></i></b><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> / may sins disappear from the earth (Psalm 104:35)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It doesn’t say, <b><i><u>h</u>ot’im,</i></b> the sinners</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The verse teaches us to pray that sin
disappears. How does that happen? It happens when the sinner repents. A sinner
repents and sin is removed from the earth. And Rabi Meir accepted her
interpretation, prayed accordingly, and the undesirables did repent of their
evil ways (Berakhot 10a).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That kind of thinking is not fashionable in America today where
the sinner and the sin have merged into one. It is because we are increasingly
a shame culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once you have committed
the sin, you are a sinner forever. It’s no recipe for a society as diverse as
ours if there would be any hope to get along with each other.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If
I told you there were people in this world who do not deserve forgiveness, I
bet many of you would agree with me. I would agree with me. But guess who may
just disagree: God. The Talmud discusses three Jewish kings who were so bad,
they were denied entry into the World to Come. One was Menasheh ben Hizkiyahu,
a seventh century BCE ruler. The Bible describes Menasheh as having put to
death so many innocent people that he filled Jerusalem with blood from one end
of the city to another (II Kings 21:16). And yet, one of the rabbis, Rabbi
Judah, comes to his defense claiming, as the Bible also lets us know, that
Menashe did teshuvah and his years of repentance far exceeded his years of sin.
When it came time for Menashe to leave this world, the <b><i>middat hadin</i></b>,
the Angel of Justice, blocked his entry into the World to Come. In other words,
justice demanded that a man with a history of such grave sins be thrown into
the dustbin of history, there to decompose and be forgotten. No way could
someone with so much blood on his hands make his way into eternity. God
disagreed, Rabbi Judah claimed. God dug a tunnel by which Menashe could
secretly slip into the World to Come right under the nose of the angel. Think
about that—God allowing compassion to override justice. Did Menashe really deserve
entry into eternity? I don’t think I’m that forgiving. But according to Rabbi
Judah at least, God is.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
like to think of God’s capacity to forgive and humanity’s resistance to forgive
as one of the features distinguishing God from humans. History proves that when
it comes to forgiveness, people are infamously not up to the challenge. There
is a scene in Schindler’s List where Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist
who saved more than one thousand Jews during the Shoah, is talking to Ammon
Goth, the SS officer in charge of the construction of the Plaszow Concentration
Camp. Goth is heartless and sadistic. He kills Jews as a sport. It makes him
feel good. After all, Jews are the problem. The cause of all Germany’s problems
points to one and only one source: the Jews. Goth and Schindler are talking
power. What is power? “Why do they fear us?” Schindler asks. Goth says they
fear us because we can kill them, and that’s power. Schindler says, “That’s not
power.” And he tells Goth a story. A criminal is brought before an emperor. The
man knows he has committed a crime. The emperor knows that he can put this man
to death. But instead of invoking the death penalty, the emperor pardons the
man. That, Schindler says, is power. To know that you can ruin another person’s
life, but choose not to, to descend into accusations and recriminations against
another, but choose not to, that is a kind of unearthly self-control that runs
counter to human history and perhaps even human character. That is power.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Goth wants power. He tries to pardon a Jew. Instead, he ends up doing
what he always does: he kills yet another Jew. He has no control over the
basest of his instincts. He thinks himself justified in every insult he hurls
at Jews. He does so not because he is powerful. To the contrary, history
exposes him as an utter fool. His problem is not only his inhumanity, which is
clear enough, but even more importantly, an almost absolute disconnect from
God.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ki imekha haseli<u>h</u>ah / [God], Yours is the power to forgive<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lema’an tivarei / And thus You are feared.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="text-align: justify;">So Psalm 103:4. Feared? Why? It would
seem more likely that the power to forgive would produce not fear but relief or
jubilation or wonder. Instead, it is fear that the power to forgive generates.
And it does so because the power to forgive runs so counter to ordinary
experience. It comes as a surprise or a shock as if you were walking down a
street turned the corner and suddenly came face to face with some person you
thought dead long ago. Forgiveness is that rare. It’s so contrary to normal
human operations. But Judaism is rarely satisfied with normal human operations.
It has always sought to guide us in the path of elevated human operations, to
go beyond our emotional reflexes. Beyond the animal instinct, and respond in
ways more thoughtful, more deliberate.</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s be real. We are all essentially
imperfect beings. We have selective memories, we stretch the truth, we fall
victim to jealousy, we may be selfish, we are not above the unkind word, we get
stuck in bad habits, we let our tempers get the best of us, and our prejudices
sometimes expose the worst of us. How do we live with ourselves? The shame
society says you can’t. The guilt society says you can. The guilt society says
don’t confuse yourself with your shortcomings, and don’t confuse your neighbors
with their shortcomings, because we have the power to reflect, we have the
power to regroup, we have the power to repent, and we thus have the power to
forgive others as we do ourselves.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of
course, we could ask ourselves philosophically, if you have a power and never
use it, do you really have the power? Whatever the answer to that question is,
I’m telling you now that we are all invested with an incredible power, and that
in a world so poised to kill the sinners, we ought to focus less on justice,
which roots us in the past, and more about forgiveness, which opens up the
possibility of the future.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Two
Martians are doing research on earth from the safety of their spaceship,
gathering all the information they can on this bi-ped, earth-bound species we
know as humans. One says to the other, “Very interesting. They have developed
satellite-based nuclear weapons.” The other says, “Interesting, indeed. So
we’re dealing here with organisms that are an emerging intelligence.” But the
first Martian counters, “I don’t think so. The weapons are pointed at
themselves.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
think we need to cut each other a little slack. I think we need to admit that
no one of us has the total answer. I think if we are serious about this other
principle we espouse, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” then we have to embrace
the fact that such a principle is without meaning if we think it applies to
only the neighbors who share our views, as opposed to those who do not.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
had a professor at the Seminary who once told a group of us something that
always stuck with me and that was this: people are going to have many opinions
about you and express them to you. So just remember this. You’re not as good as
people say you are, but you’re also not as bad. I found that comforting. And I
think it applies to the world in which we live. And don’t get me wrong. I am
not as forgiving as God. But I don’t have to be. I’m not God. None of us are. Then
again, we could all be a little more forgiving of our neighbors than we have
been in this deeply politicized, polarized world that we now find ourselves. We
could use the power of forgiveness to begin the conversations that make for a
better world. Because though there are clearly people in this world who are in
fact, really, really bad, there’s a whole huge demographic out there that are
not as bad as they have been portrayed, and another huge demographic that isn’t
as good as they have been portrayed. A little more humility all the way around is
in order.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You
may ask: well, how forgiving do I have to be rabbi? And I can actually quantify
that answer. You have to start somewhere. If you start out small, that’s okay.
I would suggest that you all begin to look at each other a little more sympathetically,
and with just a little more forgiveness, I would say that all it takes is about
70-90 nanometers worth of forgiveness. If a despicable virus of that size can
change the world, think of what just a little more beloved forgiveness in our
lives could do.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ketivah
va<u>h</u>atimah Tovah—everyone—May we all be inscribed and sealed into a year
of life and good health, mutual respect, and understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-65358130353332294902020-09-18T11:43:00.009-07:002020-09-18T11:45:14.336-07:00STREAM OF PRAYERFULNESS<p> </p><br />
<p align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">What
is prayer? How does one pray? We pen the mahzor, the special prayer book of the
High Holidays, we recite the words on the page, and that is prayer.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Is
it?</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">This
year, with services abbreviated generously due to our concern with people
sitting together for too long a period of time, our moments of prayer must be
more efficient, more productive, more moving than ever before. The thoughts the
words on the page generate are as much the prayer as the words on the page themselves.
Perhaps even more so. I don’t mean the automatic thoughts that pop into our
heads like—O my God, Sylvia finally bought a new dress, but more of the thoughts
that the prayer itself generates. Let me take you on a journey though a prayer
as its words generate other thoughts. The prayer below is a mere snippet from
the Unetane Tokef prayer. The bold print are the words on the page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The regular print are the thoughts those
words sometime generate in my brain which become part of the prayer:</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>Vekhol
ba-ay olam / And all those who have come into this world <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">I am
one of those who have come into this world, How did that happen? It’s a
miracle. If I am a miracle then everyone around me is a miracle. How many
miracles are there in this room—500, 600…? Did God specifically want me to come
into this world at this time…?</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>ya’avrun
lefanekha kiveni maron / pass before You like sheep.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Like
sheep? I like sheep (baa-aaa-aaa) but I don’t think I pass before God like a
sheep. Or maybe I do pass before God like a sheep? Is it that God sees me as
cute, like a sheep? Oh yes, I’m as cure as Telly Savalas. Maybe the idea is
“gutlessness.” Am I gutless. Like a sheep? Maybe. I’m diplomatic? What does
that mean? Do<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lie? No. I don’t lie. I
try not to lie. Maybe I lack courage… Maybe I am gutless?</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>Kvakrat
ro’eh edro / As a shepherd’s searching gaze meets his flock<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">God
is looking at me? Wait…at me? No…at all of us. God looks at us. Why? Because
God is fascinated by us? Are we fascinating? God is the shepherd so God cares
about us. Yes, God cares. God looks at us in a caring way. Sure. Wait—all 600
of us? Or 600,000 of us? Yes. God is God and can look at all of us. God is that
which can look at all people on earth, all 8 billion of us caringly. New
definition of God: that which can look at 8 billion people simultaneously in a
caring way. But what if ours is only one universe among many…?</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>ma’avir
tzono ta<u>h</u>at shivto / passing every sheep beneath his rod <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Sheep
again. Gutlessness. What’s with the rod? God needs a rod? God is a shepherd and
shepherd’s carry rods. Does God own a dog too? Shepherds have dogs. And play
the pipe now and then. Thought: God is lying on a cloud playing the pipe.
Contrasting thought: God isn’t lying on a cloud playing the pipe because God is
too focused looking at us caringly. Right. Lose the pipe. Lose the cloud. Lose
the dog. Wait—keep the dog. God looks lovingly on all living things. Dogs too.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>ken
ta’avir/ so You too pass Yours [i.e., God’s]<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Yours.
Who is Yours? I am Yours. We are all Yours. Everything is Yours. Covid-19 is Yours?
Is Covid-19 Yours or ours? I’m glad that I am Yours. I’m not glad Covid-19 is
Yours. Am I, are we, and Covid-19 in the same category as Yours? No, because
God does not gaze caringly, lovingly, at Covid-19. God is weeping over those
who have lost their lives to Covid-19. God is a weeping shepherd. Do I believe
in a God who is a weeping shepherd? I don’t have to answer all these questions.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>v’tispor
v’timneh v’tifkod nefesh kol <u>h</u>ai / counting and numbering every living
thing<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">God
is counting. I hope God is better at math than I am. Am I a number in God’s
head? God does not have a head. But God counts. I am a number. We are all
numbers. There are what—600 people in this room and we all have a number? What
is my number? God has my number!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh yea,
God has my number. When I can’t figure out who I am, God can, because God has
my number. What number am I? What number do I want to be? Suppose I am a huge
number like somewhere between five and six billion. Maybe God uses exponents to
count us. Maybe God raises us to some power of 10. God counts us to raise us to
a power. Gog makes us powerful. We’re going to have brisket for lunch. Why am I
thinking of brisket? Lose the brisket. Thin power.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b><u>v’tahtokh</u>
kitzvah l’khol beriyah / regarding <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
soul of every living thing<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Every
living thing has a soul. Even sheep. There are many souls surrounding me. We
are spirits, in the material world. That’s a line from the Police. I wonder if
God likes the Police. Spiritus Mundi. God speaks Latin. God speaks every
language in the universe (universes?). But spiritus mundi (translation: Spirit
of the World) sounds like one spirit, but we are all unique spirits, or maybe
we are none of us unique spirits. Maybe that’s why we are all sheep, not in gutlessness
but in a shared common spirit. All of our spirits comingle in this room. We
sometimes do not understand each other, but our spirits understand one another
perfectly. Our spirits and God speak one language.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>v’tikhtov
et gizrei dinam / writing down their verdict (for the New year).<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Oh Lord,
the verdict. Guilty or not guilty. Are there only two verdicts? Usually there
are only two verdicts. Maybe in God’s head there are more than two verdicts.
Maybe in God’s head there a billion verdicts or eight billion verdicts? Do each
of us get out own verdict? What is my verdict? What verdict do I deserve? Do I
deserve to live another year? I think so. Wait…what does God owe me? What does
God owe any of us? God doesn’t owe us anything. Am I prepared to die? Am I
prepared to live? I’d like to live another year. I’d like that to be part of my
verdict. I want God to raise me to some power of ten.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>B’rosh
Hashanah yikateivun / On Rosh Hashanah it is written <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">God—it’s
Yontiff. You shouldn’t be writing anything. Does God abide by Halakhah? I love
this tune. So is God above the law? Is the president above the law? No. Then
God is not above the law. Wait…a president is not God and God is not a
president. Halakhah is the way we relate to God, not the way God relates to us.
Okay, God, You can write on Yontiff. I love this tune. God loves this melody.
Can God sing and write simultaneously? Yes. New definition of God: One who can
sing, write, play the pipe, pet a dog and look lovingly at eight billion people
simultaneously, while lying on a cloud. What a ridiculous definition! What a
marvelous definition. Will I share that with my colleagues? No. Why? Is it the
gutlessness?</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>uv’yom
tzom kipur yeihateimun / and on Yom Kippur sealed…<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Ten
more days until Yom Kippur. So much to do in ten days. I don’t have my Yom
Kippur sermon written. I don’t have to worry about that today because on Rosh
Hashanah, I can’t write. Only God writes today. I can sing, sing this melody, sing
with God. God—let’s harmonize. Wait. What needs to be done in ten days? Lots.
That’s my deadline. Don’t say deadline. I’ve never liked that word.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><b>kama
ya’avorun v’khama yibareiun /how many shall pass and how many will be born?<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">Death
and birth, both beyond human understanding. I don’t want to do any funerals
this year. I will do funerals this year. There has never been a year since 1981
when I have not done multiple funerals. That’s a lot of funerals. But I have
done many baby namings since 1981. I have done more funerals than baby namings.
I like the baby namings. I like the funerals. Is that true—I like funerals? If I
can bring comfort to people than that is satisfying. Will the Jewish people
live this year or die? That’s my business. I have to make sure that the Jewish
people live this year. And not die. Really—is that all on me? It’s on all of
us. We all have to do more baby naming. We’ll have to get rid of this damned
Covid-19. Did I just say “damned” in a prayer? Is that a sin counted against
me? No, because God looks caringly at us all. God is my, our shepherd.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">A
final thought on thinking about prayer: I probably cut out more extraneous
thoughts than I should have, but this exercise is already a bit too long.
Nonetheless, I want to let you know about what happens in my head during
prayer, if it in anyway helps your head during your prayer. After all, two
heads are better than one, and if two are better than one, I wonder how much
better 600 heads might be.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">L’shanah Tovah Tikateivu—May we all be written and sealed
into the Book of a Purposeful, Healthy, Fulfilling and Prayerful Life.</span> <o:p></o:p></p>Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-58380148049540382312020-07-03T11:09:00.001-07:002020-07-03T11:09:20.588-07:00A MORE SOBER 244TH BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR AMERICA<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(or: On the Imperfect Perception
of Human Perfection)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Do you ever feel dirty? I'm not talking about what your
pants look like after working in the garden or on your car engine, or having
just painted the den a new color or cleansing a clogged pipe. I refer now to
the kind of dirtiness one might feel having committed some moral wrong. How do
we get rid of that sense of dirtiness?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Most of us are familiar with the story of Moses, Aaron and
the rock. The children of the Israel were desperate for water and these two
intrepid leaders of the Israelites were at a loss as how to proceed. God
instructs both of them to order water from the rock, which would quench the
thirst of the entire nation. But instead of speaking to the rock, Moses struck
the rock with his staff. More importantly, he suggested that the provision of
water to the people was a human rather than divine act. And for this sin, both
he and brother Aaron were denied entry into the promise land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After all these two did in the wilderness for the Jewish
people, seems a bit harsh, no?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The first part of our parashah covers a less known ritual of
the Jewish people which has to do with purification after contamination. The
contamination is a result of contact with a dead body or being in close
proximity to death. In such a case water mix with the ashes of a burnt red
heifer, together with some Cedar wood and “crimson stuff,” is sprinkled over the
contaminated people in order to purify them. You’ve never seen that ritual because
following the destruction of the Temple, it could not be performed. But at one
time, purification was a center stage, spotlighted, central feature of Jewish
ritual practice. There are entire Talmudic tractates dedicated to the process. Libera
Judaism does not focus on that aspect of Judaism any more. In a sense, according
to biblical and Temple era Judaism, we all live in a state of perpetual impurity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the surface, there is no apparent connection between the two
sections. At a deeper level, perhaps the Torah is trying to suggest a certain
reality which we all too often evade. Do we not all commit hundreds of minor
acts of varying degrees of sin throughout the course of the day, communicating half-truths,
speaking ill of others, killing a helpless bug, etc.? Are we not all guilty of myriad
minor infractions daily? Each sin, in and of itself, is a mere trifle, a speck
of dust, no more. But taken in the aggregate, as all those mini-sins
accumulate, hour after hour and day after day, shouldn’t we feel a certain pain
of conscience that would question our own moral posturing? Our ancestors felt this
profoundly, most of all in facing death, a sort of existential encounter with
human frailty, finitude, and meaninglessness. In a fantasy of sorts, I can hear
Moses pleading with God, “I only hit the rock. It was a rock. It has no
feelings. People know that I attribute all to you. Really—no Promised Land over
that!?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moses never said any of that. He
didn’t have to. He knew something that most of us ought to know, if we don’t
already.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If we were to doubt the effectiveness of the waters of
lustration in cleansing ourselves of our own moral failings, I suspect we would
be asking a question that began with our biblical ancestors. Did any of them
really believe that a few drops of holy water cleansed them of impurities? We
are a people with a long history of both obedience and rebelliousness. I can
well imagine someone doubting that the waters of lustration were just a weird ritual,
but I suspect those same people still faced the troubling anxiety of that which
brought the waters of lustration to be: the reality of facing our own human frailties
and failings daily. How do we get cleaned when we all too often do dirty work,
our own or those of others for whom we are obliged?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Moses and Aaron were two of the greatest leaders that the
Jewish people has ever known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet,
the Torah tells us a tale of their humanity. They committed a sin. They were
not perfect. They were not, in that sense, pure. They were, in a word, human.
And as if parashat <u>H</u>ukkat needed to drive home this point even further,
we learn of Aaron’s death on a mountain top. And his burial would forever be
shrouded in obscurity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I would hate for anyone to think of themselves as being
hopelessly contaminated. On the other hand, I would hope that all of us would journey
through the few years allotted us in life with a deeper awareness of our own
shortcomings and misdeeds. America is not perfect. The founding fathers were
not perfect. Our leaders are not perfect. I am not perfect. You are not
perfect. Perfection, for the most part, is an illusion. That does not free of
us from pursuing what is right and good and beautiful. It frees us from the disappointment
when in the end, we fall short. And so the words of the great prophet Michah
(6:8): “He has told you, O Man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of
you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That’s what seems to be missing: the humility. If we all knew
just how limited we all were, we might strike each other less and speak to one
another more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Happy 244<sup>th</sup> birthday, America. God bless you. God
bless us all. And Shabbat Shalom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-20446924117880540772020-06-26T12:16:00.002-07:002020-06-26T12:16:29.411-07:00SECOND THOUGHTS ON STATUES AND SINS<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Chances are there is some
metalwork in your home which you don’t give much thought to: pots, pans,
railings, fences, etc. This week’s parashah is a section of Torah that might
get you thinking about the metal work in your home, because it touches on just
that issue. This week’s parashah is Korah, and you might recall it focuses on
the most infamous of rebellions during the 40-year trek in the wilderness. Korah
and his followers are unhappy with how much power the two brothers, Moses and
Aaron, wielded over everyone else. They demanded that power be more equitably
divided among the people for all the Children of Israel were holy. This was
very much an internal family squabble. But it was a very large family squabble
as it was a very big family. Korah had 250 followers in lock step with his
demands.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So Moses constructs a plan to
determine where holiness lay and where it does not. He asks Korah and the 250
followers to take their fire pans, used in the burning of incense, and make an
offering to the Lord. They do just that. But almost on cue, an earthquake erupts,
swallowing the leaders of the rebellion, including Korah and his entire family,
and then an overwhelming conflagration breaks out and consumes all 250
men. All that remained were the smoking fire pans. What an extraordinary
human tragedy. One would presume at that point to take the fire pans and junk
them. But that is not what God instructs Moses and Aaron to do. To the contrary,
God asks that all the fire pans be hammered into sheets of metal which will
then plate the altar of incense. Now it must be understood that the altar
already was plated. This new cover would be a second cover. But why would fire
pans used in an attempt to overthrow the legitimate authority of Moses and
Aaron be then used for a visible altar, and one that is understood to be
integral to the worship of God? It seems strange. The Torah asserts that the
visible plating would be a warning to all would-be rebels to reign in their
passions. Still, why would such a dark period be given such prominence and
reverence within the community?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>America
right now is deep into an iconoclastic mood, that is, we want to tear down
statues commemorating what many claim to be tributes to racism and bigotry, in particular,
statuary that glorified the racism against our black brothers and sisters who
have suffered mightily since the founding of this country and even before. By
the same token, art provides testimony to an age, for better or for worse, and
when we hide such art from view or destroy it, we do damage to truth and that’s
something that no moral human being can support. One sure way to misunderstand
where we are today, is to ignore or distort who we were yesterday. There is much
about our past that we can be grateful for, and much that ought to humiliate
us. But that’s who we are and like God’s solution for what to do with the fire
pans, it is sometimes better to keep the sins, our sins, visible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We live at a time that has
been very cruel to the arts. It is no wonder that the thrust of social
sentiment is to destroy the statuary rather than mold or chip away at new ones
that might dramatically express a new sentiment about who we are as Americans
today, or at least what we hope to become. Periods of crisis, like the one we
find ourselves in, tend to be periods of great creativity, and now is the time
to capitalize off the anger, the frustration, and the hopes of people for a
nation yearning to be free of racism and bigotry. We have all become very adept
at telling each other how terrible we are and damning ourselves for our sins,
as if there is anyone in this world who can actually lay claim to living free
of sin. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And yet, there is another
way. Like Abraham Lincoln, who hoped to rebuild the South after the Civil War,
and Nelson Mandela who evoked widespread amnesty for past crimes in order to
kickstart a new and improved South Africa, the time has come to move forward
without further humiliation. I am the first to admit that sometimes the only
way to effect change is to put up your dukes and fight. Then again, to bring
about change forcefully but peacefully, ala Mahatma Gandhi or a Martin Luther King,
is a real test of one’s character and proof of one’s true mettle. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-56079548718651846232020-06-16T05:25:00.002-07:002020-06-16T05:25:55.249-07:00THE TOUCH SCREEN AND THE HUMAN TOUCH<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; tab-stops: 22.5pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Their
mother had died the day before and I was in the midst of meeting with them to
help prepare for the following day’s eulogy. The son began to describe a trip
to the national parks, years ago, in which the family enjoyed a three week
excursion, witnessing the wonders of nature, the glories of sleeping late and
homework-free evenings, and the love that his parents showered on him
uninterrupted by work obligations or synagogue meetings. The daughter then
turned to her brother and asked, “What trip was that!” She then proceeded to
tell me about long hours of imprisonment in a moving vehicle, the boring nature
of nature, the anxiety surrounding unstructured time, and the unsympathetic
response of her parents—particularly her mother’s—to her protestations. And such
is memory. Two people, having experienced the same event, will experience it
and thus remember it in different ways. Even one person might remember an event
differently after many years. That cannot necessarily be explained only as the
effects of aging. New experiences help us evolve and we begin to remember the
past in light of whom we have become.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
slavery in Egypt—was it a horror or just an aspect of the good ole’ days? If I
were an Israelite, I’d vote for horror, and I’m sure I could find some fellow
Israelites to support me. But what about this memory by some of the wandering
Jews: “If only we had meat to eat.<i> </i>We remember the fish we used to eat free
in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic. Now
our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to
look to!” (Numbers 11:4b-6). From the “Where’s the Meat?” Israelites, slavery may
indeed have been horrible, but at least they had what to eat. The experience of
slavery is remembered by various Israelites in very different ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A
more contemporary but complicated memory has to do with our relationship to the
Internet. It was not long ago that many top social scientists and clergy were
questioning America’s addiction to their electronic screens. It looked as if
everyone walked around deep in prayer, heads bowed and hands together, though
their hands were holding a smartphone and their eyes were glued to a screen.
Some began to wonder if the next generation would even be able to read or
understand facial expressions, let alone communicate with a hard copy human
being, assuming fate would bring them into contact with one. That was a few
months ago. Today, after three months of no concerts, no sports, no theater, no
synagogue, and for too many, no work, most of us are thanking God for the
Internet. In a period of serious social isolation, what would we have done
without our electronic toys and their glowing screens? But how are we to
remember this newfound relationship with our electronic toys—blessing or some
unnatural addiction?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The same
question might be asked of the Israelites’ desire for meat. What could be bad
about such a desire? It seems innocuous enough. God granted the Israelites this
indulgence, sending enough flocks of quail to sate their gluttonous passions
for days. Yet the whole scene ends with an outbreak of a plague that kills many,
and that very spot in the wilderness earns a dark and ominous name, <i>Kivrot
Ha-Ta’avah,</i> Graves of Desire. In this case, the Torah teaches that
sometimes too much of a good thing is not a good thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A
similar lesson is conveyed in a racially charged narrative in which Aaron and
Miriam complain about Tziporah, Moses’ wife, for being a Kushite. The
implication seems to be that she was dark-skinned and therefore unsuitable for
Moses. God takes great umbrage with this charge and strikes Miriam with
“snow-white scales” (Numbers 12:10). Many commentators see this as a clear
rebuke of racism, as if God were saying—If you like white then I’ll give you
white. But the white that covers Miriam is the most unwelcomed white there is. The
Torah teaches that the color white may be pleasing, but there is nothing
inherently good or superior to the color white when it comes to human skin
tones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prior
to the Covid-19 pandemic, many non-profit organizations commiserated over the
difficulty involved in getting people to come out to anything. Study sessions,
board meetings, lectures, socials, etc., all garnered tepid responses and the
only successful in-person events were those that culminated after a tremendous
human effort. It was not a model of a healthy social network, nor was it
sustainable. The lure of staying home was abetted by a plethora of electronic devices
that brought into our homes everything we ever needed, including concerts,
sports, theater, and so forth. Some argued that life had changed, that the
in-person event was a thing of the past as people grew more individualistic and
our social networks atomized. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, at
least, we had the option of going out—to a ball game, a concert, the movies, a
dinner with friends. But then the pandemic essentially sent us packing to our
rooms. It was at that point, when we were no longer able to choose to leave,
that we realized what we were missing: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
inability to shake a person’s hand, give a friend a hug, whisper a notion into
the ear of a loved one, or embrace one another in a warm welcome or heartfelt
good-bye. Those rituals are uniquely human though impossible to do in Cyberspace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When
all this virus disruption is over, I hope we remember these electronic tools
not only for what they provided, but also for what they failed to provide. Our
addiction to them may be a contemporary idolatry, a form of worship so all-consuming
that we deny face-time, that is, with our actual faces, with those who need our
attention the most—our spouses, children, parents and siblings. The Corona
virus may have taught us a profound lesson in the need to turn off these
electronic devices for substantial parts of our day. And maybe all day on
Shabbat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
touch screen is only a cheap thrill when compared with the ultimate upgrade,
the blessing of the human touch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-90987643068916422842020-06-12T07:11:00.000-07:002020-06-12T07:11:13.170-07:00SOMETHING NICE ABOUT THE POLICE AND WHAT THE DEMONSTRATIONS TELL US ABOUT WHO WE ARE AS AMERICANS<br />
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The demonstrations and protests of recent days, charging
police with brutality and their departments with systemic racism, has gotten me
thinking about whether there isn’t a broader context in which all this unrest
rests. Certainly the killing of George Floyd as captured by a simple cell phone
video, and so many other instances of unarmed black men killed while in police
custody, calls for change and an end to the racial injustice that has plagued
our nation since its inception. Like so many others, I find my patience having
run out with a political structure that fails to correct the flaws that are
themselves the very opposite of what we Americans hold dear. At the same time, the
more generalized attack on the police as an institution is misguided. One
crisis, the pandemic, has driven the other crisis, anti-Semitism, off the
radar, but it was a mere three months ago when our synagogue and so many other
Jewish organizations were working closely with the police to protect our institutions
from attack. The police have been our friends and continue to be so. That some
bad actors remain in their employ is a problem and that these bad actors are immune
from prosecution is an even bigger problem. But to attack the police as an institution
itself is clearly unsound. They arrest criminals, keep drivers honest, help
maintain public order, break up fights, etc. The police are an essential service
and a wholesale vilification of them is simple nonsense.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s a reason why we stumble into hatred of authority.
In recent days, our experience with authority has been uniquely negative. Think
the Catholic Church and how people whom we should otherwise respect have fallen
from grace as testimony of sexual misconduct has repeatedly surfaced. The
Church had its way of protecting bad actors, moving them from parish to parish,
with hopes that a new space might give rise to needed reforms. Instead, it gave
the head pray-ers a fresh population to prey upon. It was not a tactic that
inspired trust in the Church as an institution.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our politicians themselves, authorities legitimated by the
consent of the governed—that’s us—are themselves held in virtual contempt. A 2019
Gallup poll found only 13% of Americans giving senators a very high or high
rating in terms of honesty or ethical standards. That percentage dropped a
point when Americans assessed members of Congress as a whole. The long and
short of it is fairly clear: we have a problem respecting authority. And that’s
a posture that the Torah will find problematic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In this week’s parashah, B’ha-alotekha, Miriam and Aaron are
taken to task for speaking ill of Moshe’s wife, a Cushite woman. Many modern
commentators see in this episode racial discrimination, the Cushites being a
dark-skinned people. Of course, the presumption here is that Moshe, Aaron and
Miriam are white, a presumption with no textual support. Who knows what color
they were? Jews are a multi-colored group. Moreover, when God reprimands Aaron
and Miriam, it is not over their alleged racial insensitivity, but rather their
challenge of a man with whom God speaks, “mouth to mouth, plainly and not in
riddles” (Numbers 12:7). There is a hierarchy of authority in the wilderness and
Moses is at the top, governed only by God. In the wilderness, authority is to
be honored, not challenged, and for a group of Jews as unruly as the Children of
Israel, that was probably a plus on many levels.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This respect of authority never sits well with contemporary
Americans. We are a nation born of a rebellion against a ruling authority, the
British Empire. Even before that, we were all and still are the heirs of that 18<sup>th</sup>
century historical period known as the Enlightenment that rejected the wisdom
of the Bible, attacked the authority of the Church, and ignored the guidance of
the clergy. There were good reasons for the Enlightenment to move people in
those directions, but it did place an enormous burden on the individual who was
often left at a loss for knowing how to proceed in life ethically or socially.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The authority of tradition rests in the fact that it is
old, that is, it’s been going on for a long time. It’s been going on for a long
time because it organizes our time, inspires our imagination, guides us in our
moral dilemmas, and consolidates disparate people into a more or less cohesive
group. When all that is taken away, we are left to the whims of cruel authorities
who will consolidate people for their own inimical purposes, whether that
authority is a despot or something more naturally sinister like a pandemic.
Believe it or not, pandemics do consolidate people—around illness, health care,
death, and fear. It’s not a good way to get organized.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the most marvelous by-products of the pandemic was a
reinvigorated Kabbalat Shabbat on Zoom. We all somehow knew that on Friday,
with the sun setting, and our week so horribly disrupted by social isolation,
it was good to get into the Zoom Room and see our friends, neighbors and
family. And sing. And sway. And dance a little. And reflect on our lives. And
wish each other Shabbat Shalom. All in the name of this prescription that we had
been given long ago to remember and observe Shabbat, as we learned from our
ancestors and through the study of Torah.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Just to be clear, no authority is above the law and certainly
not above ethics. To protect bad actors from prosecution is a recipe for
disaster. There is work to be done in the law enforcement agencies throughout
the country. Trigger-happy police must be prosecuted. Clerical sexual predators
must be prosecuted. And as for lousy politicians, there’s an easier solution
there. Vote. But when we disparage whole institutions, whether it is
government, the police, or religion, we are indulging ourselves in foolish
fantasies that would suggest we can live without them. But we can’t. We never
have and we never will. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The authority of Torah is an authority worthy of our
respect. It organizes us and guides us with principles that places respect for
God’s creatures, regardless of their color, up there with truth, love and
kindness. There are all sorts of time-honored institutions that are in need of
reform, but let’s be sure that we engage in a surgical strike and not carpet
bombing. God gave us brains for a reason. At a time of civil unrest and
emotional distress, cooler heads must prevail.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-86965761293004949882020-06-07T08:30:00.001-07:002020-06-07T08:30:30.027-07:00ADAM, EVE, AND GEORGE FLOYD<br />
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In spite of the fact that we are still
in the midst of a pandemic which has forced upon us a very unnatural way of
life, and that we were all witness to a horrific arrest of a black man on a
minor charge that ended in his death, and that for now more than a week the
county has been subject to civil unrest the likes of which have not been seen
since the Vietnam War, let’s get out of town for a bit. I don’t know about you
but I’m exhausted. Let’s take a trip into time past. I'd like us all to journey
back into mythological time to the point where the first man, Adam, wakes from
a deep sleep and witnesses a creature he has never seen before, Eve. If you
recall your biblical tales, Adam had searched for a partner among the beasts in
the garden of Eden and much to his dismay found no suitable partner. And God,
wishing Adam not to be alone, schedules surgery, knocks him out, removes a rib,
and builds another being who will become known as Eve. What did Eve look like?
What did Adam see when he first set eyes upon her? We’ll have to use our
imagination a bit for this, but certainly her anatomy was not quite like Adam's.
That must have been noticeable. Her hair did not look like his and perhaps her
skin color did not match his own. She was quite possibly shorter than him, or
maybe taller, and perhaps she weighed more than him, but let’s not do that to
her—she definitely weighed less. And Adam looked at her, a creature different
from himself, and exclaims, “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of
my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). Now some theologians have long noted that Adam was
not the brightest banana in the Garden—his partner, Eve, seemed to be far more
curious, far more verbal, and far more daring than Adam, and yet Adam, in his
innocence, gives us one of the Bible’s earliest insights into our relationship
with each other, and that is no matter how different we are from each other,
our humanity is the common denominator that unites us all. Adam was able to recognize
Eve’s differences and yet say—she and I are fundamentally the same.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">America has gotten itself into a bed
habit. We are forever looking at each other and figuring out just how unlike we
are from one another. Our differences are dizzying. We are split into Democrats
and Republicans. Gays, straights, bisexuals, Christian evangelicals, Jews, Muslims,
blacks, whites, cops, non-cops, white collar workers, blue collar workers, red
state, blue state, purple state, deep state, antifa, white supremacists,
millennials, boomers, Generation Xers, males, females, gender benders, etc. Under
certain circumstances, we can’t even look at one another and figure out which
pronoun to use. Given all this diversity, someone is going to look at it all
and blithely remark—It is our diversity that unites us. But frankly, we don’t
look so united these days. We have become a nation of disjointed individuals,
divided by a myriad of categories, with rigid, formidable boundaries guarded zealously
as if they were built out of gold.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis
as captured on a cell phone camera was so awful, so wrong, so perverse, that it
is hard to believe that anyone, let alone the police, could be so deaf to the
pleas and desperation of another human being, unless Officer Chauvin, now
charged with murder, was blind to the fact that his knee was on the neck of
another human being. We should be careful to not blame the sins of the few on
the group as a whole but the question is worth asking: have we become so
divided, so individualistic, so separated one from another, that all we can see
is “the other” but never the underlying humanity that unites us all?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Bible still rests at the
foundation of our nation, but it along with God have taken a serious beating in
the name of a host of contemporary movements that have a better way. But that
better way seems rather elusive, and given the anger in the streets, coupled
with the looting and burning of both public and private property, in many cases
the businesses of black-owned small businesses, things have never been more
disunited and chaotic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In parashat Naso, the term used for
counting or taking a census is Naso, which literally means “to lift up,” almost
as if one were lifting something up to the light to see it better. Over the
years, it has become increasingly clear to me when looking at people carefully,
that very few of us fit neatly into any category at all. Once you sit down and
talk to people—more than a “How are you?” or a “What’s up?”—and listen to who
they really are, and understand a little bit about their joys and sorrows,
their fears and challenges, their dreams and aspirations, it becomes clear as
the day is bright that they aren’t a whole lot different from who you are. You
might even discover that these people, purportedly so different from you, are
actually the bone of your bone and the flesh of your flesh.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I really don’t know what kind of
legislation can be passed which will lift us up out of the rut our nation finds
itself in. But I do know that each one of us has the ability to lift up our
neighbors, our friends and family, and see them in their full complexity and
not as a simple label that they have either adopted for themselves or were
subject to by a society dumbed down by identity politics. God did not make us
one-dimensional—none of God’s creations are. God does not want us to be alone,
live alone, or die alone. But God wants us to know that we all are descendants
of a single source and that the way we see each other is a testament to whether
we are human or beast.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-85432274005746766162020-05-22T12:59:00.003-07:002020-05-22T12:59:34.318-07:00WHAT WOULD MOSHE DO?<br />
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
week, we begin the fourth book of the Torah known as Numbers, or in the Hebrew,
B’midbar. B’midbar means desert. At the heart of this word is a three-letter root,
dalet, bet, reesh or just think DBR. It is a root which means “word” and gives
us the Hebrew for the Ten Commandments or more accurately, the Ten Words,
Aseret HaDibrot. But the root should also trigger another verbal formulation
with which you are familiar from the seder. That would be the word dever, which
means pestilence, that is, a fatal epidemic disease. Is it possible that the
same root which gives us the word “word,” is the same root that gives us the
word, disease or pestilence? There are many linguists who think the meanings so
diverse that the two words must stem from different roots. But the phonetic similarity
is so strong that the two words, davar and dever, demand our attention and in
the very least, some meaning, even if only mystical, that would bind the two
together.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
are all in some sort of wilderness right now, beset with difficult questions.
How do we move forward? Do we dare move forward? What risks are we willing to
assume in opening New York too soon? What risks are we willing to carry in
remaining closed too long? Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs,
recently pointed out that with declining GDP comes a decrease in life expectancy.
So although it is clear that there is a connection between pestilence and one’s
health, there is no denying the connection between the economy and one's health.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We
should all feel for those whose paychecks suddenly dissipated, virtually
overnight, and have been left with a host of anxieties about how to pay the
mortgage, or for food, the Internet, electricity, academic tuition, and so
forth. An unwelcome and dreaded party crasher has turned our lives upside down
and thrown us into a wilderness and the question is will we find dever, pestilence,
or davar, the words that guide us through the wilderness, this unprecedented
crisis, this midbar? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Michael
Schlank, president of Midway Jewish Center, and Mark Gelfand, chair of the Board
of Trustees, have come up with a slogan to help us navigate life at this time.
It is this: What <br />
Would Moshe Do? Think of the acronym WWMD: What Would Moshe Do? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">W<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Wash your hands. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">W<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Wear your mask. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">M<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Manage the risks. We can't bring them
down to zero, but the precautions we take will minimize the risks we face. And<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>D <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Distance
yourself from others. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
way to survive the wilderness, the midbar, is to avoid the dever, the
pestilence, but find the davar, the guiding word. We can do this. Just ask
yourself “What Would Moshe Do?” and each of us will make it through the
wilderness we now find ourselves in. Covid-19 isn’t going away so quickly. But
we are going to have to continue living our lives. We will do that and we will find
the way to cross this wilderness to get to the Promised Land.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shabbat
Shalom, everyone, and take care of yourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-74721461832873444472020-05-15T13:15:00.001-07:002020-05-15T13:15:20.648-07:00GIVE THE GAIA A BREAK<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The other day, realizing that I had been in my study for way
too many hours, I ventured into the back yard for a few breaths of fresh
air. It was a gorgeous day. The temperature was in the mid-sixties, a few
wisps of cloud drifted in the sky, and a light breeze filtered through the air.
It was hard to believe that with so beautiful a day as it was, there were many
people succumbing to the Corona virus throughout our nation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But what has been a tragedy for human life on earth, has
turned out to be quite a blessing for the earth itself. Satellite photography
has ascertained a dramatic drop in air pollution since populations around the
world have been subject to lockdown. The smog has dissipated, smoke-spewing factories
have gone dark, and auto exhaust has decreased to a bare minimum. Air quality in
areas as diverse as Milan, New Delhi, Jakarta, the Himalayas and elsewhere have
dramatically improved. I guess this is what one refers to as the silver lining
in an otherwise period of darkness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This Shabbat, we bring the third book of the Torah, Vayikra
or Leviticus, to a close. We do so by studying a double portion: B’har-B’hukotai.
The portion begins with a record of God speaking to Moshe at Mount Sinai. God
instructs Moshe to speak to the Children of Israel as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ki tavo’u el ha’aretz<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When you finally enter the
land<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Asher ani notein lakhem<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The land which I am giving to
you<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">V’shavta ha’aretz shabbat lAdonai<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Make sure you grant the land
rest, a real Shabbat for the Lord (Leviticus 25:2).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It really is an extraordinary use of the term Shabbat, which
would typically apply to human beings. Humans work six days a week and then
rest on the seventh, but now, the Torah goes on to explain, the Israelites are
to work the land for six years and leave it fallow in the seventh. This mitzvah
is known as Shemitah, which means “release.” It releases the earth from is
unending cycle of production.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To give the land a Shabbat is almost to treat it as a fellow
human being. It’s a dynamic that underscores the intimacy with and respect that
the Israelites were to have for their new land. They treat it like a
virtual human being that requires rest in order to be productive. And we find
this intimacy between humans and non-human subjects among all those who take their
profession seriously. It’s like BB King and Lucille, which is the name he gave
all his guitars. It’s like the gardeners who speak lovingly to their flowers,
so that they grow to their fullness. It’s like the sailor who sails a ship that
is not an it, but a she. So, too, our ancestors worked an earth that they knew
from the start was a living thing, and this before science told us just how
alive the earth was, brimming with nutrients, microorganisms and species beyond
number.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
When we speak of earth as having a Shabbat, we speak in a very spiritual vein.
It almost borders on an idolatry in which nature is elevated to a stature it
does not deserve. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then again, if we
think not of earth as the holy dirt of Israel, but rather as the distinct
planet of a solar system, knowing just how rare this planet of ours is in the
whole scheme of the universe (there seems to be nothing quite like it), would
that not be proof positive to treat it with a deference, if not reverence, due
something as rare and precious as this little blue planet?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If there was any doubt about the pressures we place on the
planet where we live, working it as we do day-and-night, it should now be very
clear seeing how its atmosphere and air quality improved once we ceased our own
labors. Sadly, all this became transparent by virtue of a terrible pandemic
that forced us all inside. God never intended the Earth to rest like this. But
maybe God is sending us a message of sorts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once we have emerged from this pandemic and return to a life
that we are more familiar with, perhaps this experience will have taught us
something about how better to interface with our home planet. The Greeks called
her Gaia. It’s a word that we would borrow for words like geography. And like our
Torah of old instructed us, every now and then, you gotta give a Gaia a break.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shabbat Shalom Everybody. Have a
peaceful and healthy Shabbat. And let’s remember to treat the earth as lovingly
as we would our home, because after all, it is our home.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-61598843025987593542020-05-10T07:53:00.004-07:002020-05-10T07:53:47.226-07:00ON VIRUSES AND HOLINESS<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This
week’s Torah portion, parashat Emor, begins with an instruction to a special
group of people, the kohanim or priests, to keep far away from any people lest
they become contaminated, which ought to strike an eerily familiar note to all
of us now living through the pandemic of 2020. What makes it even more uncanny
is the fact that the people whom they must particularly avoid are the dead. And
these days, with a prohibition against hospital visitation, even for a spouse, a
sibling or a child who may dying (has v’Shalom), and with graveside funerals
attended by no more than ten people, and usually fewer, and with shivahs
conducted in cyberspace but not in the space of a living room, dining room, or
perhaps the most important space in the home, the kitchen, we have all become
the priests of old, avoiding death, in a world where this virus has already cut
short the lives of 77,000 Americans, 21,000 New Yorkers alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For
some of us, the ancient prohibition imposed on the kohanim is odd. After all,
isn’t it a mitzvah to visit the dying, to sit with them in prayer, to attend to
the dead? And don’t we have in our consciousness great religious figures who
have done just that, like the biblical prophet Elisha of old who revived a dead
child or a more contemporary example of Mother Teresa who devoted her life to
care of the poor, sick and dying of Calcutta? Both are profoundly religious
characters who confronted death rather than avoided it. And we honor them for
their courage. So, what are we to make of the priestly prohibition against
coming in contact with the dead?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For
one thing, Judaism is very much a tradition of life, in stark contrast with the
Egyptian religion which was focused on death and the afterlife. As a result of
that emphasis, the Jewish people to this day regard life a priority, health a
value, and medicine a noble art. Pikuah nefesh doheh et haShabbat—to save a
life takes precedence over Shabbat. Save a single life and you have saved an
entire world. Have you met my daughter, the doctor? These are all Jewish
prescriptions with which we are familiar. But there is something else going on
with the priests which in our highly secularized minds we may miss, and it is
this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Holiness
is always something that is set apart. The Hebrew term for holiness, kedushah,
actually comes from a root meaning to set apart. When something is holy, we
encounter it in a way that we encounter no other thing. The Torah is never
touched with our bare hands. We dare not walk around the Temple Mount, where
the holy Temple once stood, in Jerusalem. To pull a blade of grass from the
earth on Shabbat would be unthinkable. We cover our heads immediately upon
walking into the sanctuary of a synagogue. The holy pulls the shades down on
the world around us and thrusts us into the world beyond us. It awes us. It
silences us. In a world where no thing is holy, and no time is holy, we are
forever trapped in the here and now. But in a world where an object, a space,
or a day, or a week become holy, it removes us from the here and now, and makes
us think about our place in the grander scheme of things: the role we play on
earth, the space we occupy in the solar system, the meaning of our life in the
Milky Way, and what in God’s name are we doing at all in this thing we call the
universe? That is what the holy does for us. It humbles us, it matures us, it
fills us with wonder about the simple fact that we are alive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Had
I the power, I would have rid the world of this dreaded Covid-19 before anyone
could have become familiar with its name. But neither I nor anyone else had the
power to do so, and it has descended upon us like a noxious gas, invisible and
lurking, with us doing all that is probable to avoid it. And now that the virus
is here, and may be here for some time to come, and now that we, like the
priests of old, are bidden to avoid death to the best of our ability, we might
just start thinking about how to strengthen or enhance the holiness in our own lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The
religiously keen know that however many steps we take to control our fate, we
are never and never will be in total control. We are guests in God’s world and
when we strive to avoid death, grab life, do all that is possible to promote
good health for ourselves and those around us, we are in lockstep with the path
God has laid out for us. The pandemic of 2020 affords us the time to rethink
the place of holiness in our own lives. What Jewish tradition can we
incorporate into our lives religiously, that will make us think about our own
holiness? When people genuinely incorporate holiness into their lives, they never
become holier than thou, which would be the exact opposite of holiness. Rather,
when we incorporate holiness in our lives, it makes us realize the holiness in
the thous, and the thees, and the yous, and the hims and hers. The genuine pursuit
of holiness makes us see the sanctity of life around us, and that is a better
way to live, and an essential tool to get us through even the most challenging
of crises we may encounter.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-8038040888398843772020-05-01T12:15:00.001-07:002020-05-01T12:15:14.561-07:00WERE THAT GIVE ME LIBERTY OR DEATH GUY ALIVE TODAY<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Back in 1775, the
leaders of the great state of Virginia debated the wisdom of sending its troops
to support a revolution against British rule of the colonies. One of the state’s
politicians and accomplished orators, Patrick Henry, gave a rousing speech in
support of the revolution and allegedly ended his speech with words that every
American student knows: Give me liberty or give me death. America is a polity
that cherishes its freedoms—freedom of speech, of press, of religion, and so
forth. But there are times when we are stricken with a suspicion of freedom,
when the idea of allowing people to do or say whatever they may is actually a
bad idea, and we are living one of those moments. Under ordinary circumstances,
we would never allow a single politician to tell us to close our businesses, our
schools, our parks or our beaches, wear face masks, keep six feet of distance between
ourselves and anyone else, and if we feel sick, stay home. These are days when
we are living the very opposite of liberty, but it’s not due to the whims of a
tyrant, but the vicious effects of a virus, a vaccine for which we still hope
to create.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are some
people who are very upset about this. And they have good reason. When
businesses and places of socializing close, people lose their jobs. Since
shut-downs began, a staggering 30 million plus in the country have filed for
unemployment, rates which rival those of the Great Depression. Many others have
had their hours cut, their compensation sliced, or both. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a lot of pain in our nation right
now. People have got to pay the mortgage, the electric bill, and buy food. It
is no wonder that some are clamoring to get back to work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But getting
back to work before the virus has been stopped poses a risk to those getting
back to work and those who would choose to patronize those facilities. How many
asymptomatic people are walking about and unknowingly infecting equally
unsuspecting victims? How might such a dynamic contribute to another growing
curve of infected people? Will such a curve once again overwhelm hospitals?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How might opening businesses too soon
contribute to another round of closing businesses once again?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have noted
with particular concern the push to reopen meatpacking plants before employees
have been tested for the Coronavirus. Will these employees be subject to undue
risks because of our need for meat? Will meat be packaged by people who are
already suffering from the virus? Will the food chain be compromised by a rash
move to get things started before things can safely get restarted? These are
the kinds of questions that arise when people want to buck the precautionary measures,
move too quickly, do as they please, the consequences be damned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our Torah
portion this week is a double -header—Aharei Mot-Kedoshim—which literally means
“After death/Holy Ones.” The title makes for the rather jaded observation,
though containing a few kernels of truth, that after people die, we talk about
how good they were. But actually, the Torah portion itself urges us to act very
differently. The Torah portion, in a passage even more famous than Patrick
Henry’s legendary words, urges us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Our heritage
was perhaps the first to make love the foundation upon which all other moral
decisions rest. And so, in matters of life and death, it seems to me that we ought
best choose life over liberty, especially where the suspension of liberty is
clearly temporary. This pandemic will not last forever. The economy will come
back. A dead person does not. Our liberties have been seriously curtailed for
the time. It’s not a happy situation, but know that we are doing this out of
love for our neighbors and for ourselves. Were Patrick Henry around today, he
might just give a rousing speech in which he concludes as follows: Give me
life, and not to worry, the liberties will return. It does seem as if this
pandemic is going to last forever. It won’t. Let’s none of us be foolish in
trying to restart too soon. Too rash a rush to return to normal, may just be
the difference between liberty and death.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-14463420948668220362020-03-04T09:37:00.004-08:002020-03-04T09:37:57.751-08:00A RABBI AND A HINDU PRIESTESS WALK INTO….<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyone
who has taken a trip down South Broadway in Hicksville cannot help but notice
an abundance of commercial establishments catering to a substantial Indian
population. The fashion displayed in the windows is an array of creative designs,
robust colors and fabrics. There are plenty of restaurants, some veggie and some
even kosher. India is a fascinating country, the seventh largest by square
miles and the second most populated in the world. It exhibits such biological
diversity that it is known as “megadiverse,” only one of 17 countries so named.
It is home to the largest population of wild tigers in the world. It boasts the
world’s fastest growing telecommunications industry. Though English is widely
spoken, there are some 22 official languages. Of great interest is the fact
that India and Israel collaborate on extensive military, economic and strategic
programs. It is no wonder that Israel and India have found each other. Both
have a common history in breaking with British rule, India in 1947 and Israel
in 1948. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Still,
I would imagine that the interactions between the Jewish and Indian communities
on Long Island are few and far between. Maybe that is about to change. I
received a refreshing call from my colleague, Mindy Perlmutter, the Executive
Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Long Island (JCRC), to
sit on a panel with Indians who had reached out to the JCRC in order to forge a
closer relationship between the two communities. The Indians were
representatives of the Telugu Literary and Cultural Association (TLCA), which
seeks to preserve the culture and language of the southern district of
Telangana, where Telugu is the local language, spoken by some 80 million people!
A distinct cultural ethnicity wished to connect with the Jewish community? I jumped
at the opportunity. The TLCA leadership presented the panelists with a colorful
shawl as a gift, since kindness to guests is deeply valued in Indian/Hindu
culture. We heard of some challenges the Indians face either due to their
darkened skin or religious faith. I spoke about human diversity as a blessing
from God. I sat next to a Hindu priestess who also shared some insights about
the Hindu view of the world and recited some prayers. The meeting ended with—what
else?—food, kosher Indian delicacies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In
this age of rampant hatred, bigotry, and open anti-Semitism, it was profoundly
edifying to meet with a group that wanted to establish a connection with us. And
the TLCA members in attendance were just lovely, kind, gentle, and genuinely
interested in who the Jewish community was. At the same time, I found myself
amused by the irony of meeting with this kindly group of Hindus whom our
biblical ancestors might have consigned to the sword due to their belief in
multiple gods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Hindus believe in
some 3,000 greater and lesser deities. This fact alone qualifies them as the
polytheists with whom our forebears forbade us to fraternize. In one gruesome
biblical tale, the priest Pinhas ran a spear through the bodies of an Israelite
and his Midianite-polytheist lover, thus stemming a plague brought on by our
jealous God who nonetheless took the lives of some 24,000 Israelites. And yet,
there I was with modern-day polytheists, reflecting on our common challenges,
sharing in our respective world views, and expressing appreciation for each
other’s culture and customs. It was the loveliest of gatherings, though the
irony of it all did not escape me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As
with so many other things in this gorgeous and multi-layered world of ours, reality
is never quite as simple as it first appears. I have read and watched some
films about Hindu spirituality, but this was the first close encounter with the
people of that tradition. Professor Hayden J. Bellenoit of the U.S. Naval
Academy, who lectures on the history of British India, notes that Hinduism
defies the neat split the western world so often employs, pitting the
monotheistic traditions like Judaism and Christianity against pagan traditions
as practiced by the Greeks and Romans. Professor Bellenoit puts it like this: “The
best descriptor [of Hinduism] would be henotheistic, meaning that there is one
Supreme Being or central divinity but also other, lesser gods.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Professor
Bellenoit makes a nice distinction. And were we really honest with ourselves,
monotheists do have traditions of angels, not gods, but certainly divine beings
greater than humans. I wondered how they might differ from the Hindu gods and drummed
up the temerity to ask one of the Indians about how angels and gods might
differ, if they do. My new Hindu friend explained that the gods operate on a
higher spiritual plane. That is how she explained it and it gave me an
understanding of how Hindus might differentiate between their gods and the
Bible’s angels. It was all so fascinating. I did, however, question my
enthusiasm. Was I in some way betraying my own faith, or worse, being
disingenuous, in expressing appreciation for Hindu culture, which promotes a
theology so contrary to our own?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our
biblical ancestors were exercised over the whole polytheistic movement because
they understood the reality of one God to be so powerful and unassailable. They
found polytheism absurd with its pantheon of gods who operated on a moral level
not much higher, and sometimes far below that of humans. The jealousy of the
gods, their wars, their love affairs, their capricious decisions, their
jealousies, their deceits, were all so ridiculous that our forebears could do
no more than laugh at it at best, or go to war at worse. But we don’t live in 2000
BCE any more. And though we remain firm in our faith in the one God, today the
Jewish people face another theological challenge far more insidious than the
polytheism of the past or the present. It is the challenge of atheism, the
world view in which God is absent because God does not exist. For those who
construe our lives as an accident, our earth as an anomaly, our existence as
pointless, our God as a fiction, and our fate as doomed—all that is the real
problem. To be sure, the real challenge to Jewish thought these days does not
come from the people who are seeing too many gods, but from the people who cannot
conceive of even one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">At
some point, the priestess had the room chant, “We are God, having a human
experience.” I wasn’t among the chanters because as much as I approve of the
human experience, I don’t think of myself or anyone else as God. And yet, I do
believe, and I think we all should, that each of us bears a crystal of godliness
in our hearts. Was I quibbling over a mere matter of semantics? Not really. When
it comes to theology, precision matters. Then again, would that all of us could
see a little more of God in the people we love and in the people whom we love a
whole lot less. As Jacob said to his brother Esau when the two finally met
after twenty years of estrangement, “…to see your face, is like seeing the face
of God…” (Genesis 33:10).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I
like these Hindus. I like the initiative they took in meeting us! I like their
spirituality. I like their craving for peace. I like their food. We are not all
God. I am certain of that. But when we access the godliness stored within us, we
do have a human experience, and it is the very best experience that humanity
can achieve.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-26083382957931293142019-10-11T02:55:00.001-07:002019-10-11T02:55:44.731-07:00LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE CREATION OF HAPPINESS, Yom Kippur, 5780--Oct. 9, 2019<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Gut Yontiff, everyone and <b><i>G’mar <u>h</u>atimh
tovah</i></b>—We have now officially entered the tenth day of these Ten Days of
Repentance. Let’s make sure we observe this day fully and pray to be sealed
into the Book of Health, Prosperity, Fulfillment and Peace.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One day, parents of a 13-year-old boy, mindful of the
affluent suburb in which they were raising their son, wanted him too understand
how grateful he should be for the riches and luxuries that he so often took for
granted. And in order to drive this point home, they decided to take him on a
trip to the countryside, where he could witness farm life, or at least people
whose lifestyle and circumstances were markedly different and less
sophisticated than their own. So the family took this trip, stayed in the
countryside for a few days, and did their best to expose the young man to how
“the others” lived. The boy was deeply impressed and on the way back, the
parents asked him what he had learned from the excursion. The boy reflected on
the family vacation and admitted that he found the whole thing eye-opening. He
noted as follows: our family has a swimming pool, but the farm family had a
river flowing near their property; our family has these outdoor electrical
lights, but the farm family looks at the night time stars brighter than he has
ever seen in his life; our family goes to the store to buy food, but the farm
family just grows their own; our family has a dog, but the farm family has four
dogs; our family is on property surrounded by a high fence, but the farm family
seems to have fields that go on forever. The parents were a little taken aback
by their son’s responses and finally asked him—Well what do you make of all
this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whereupon their son concluded, “I
never knew how poor we were.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The last time I looked at the Declaration of
Independence, that august document asserted that our Creator has endowed us
with certain unalienable rights, and among them are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. I think we’re doing okay in the life department because
after all, here we are and thank God we all look pretty much alive. As far as
liberty goes, we still live in a country defined by a generous set of civil
liberties and a court system to which we have recourse when we feel those
liberties violated. But when it comes to happiness, we don’t seem to be doing
as well. The United Nations, in its World happiness Report, found the United
States to hold position number 18, well below Australia in position number 10,
and Canada in position number 7, and 17 below the happiest nation in the world:
Finland. It would seem to me that in a nation that feels good about itself, we
would rate happier on the happy scale. But we didn’t. A survey by the American
College Health Association also found 52% of college students feeling hopeless
while another 39% have suffered from a depression that made it impossible for
them to work effectively. That’s a lot of unhappiness. If we are all supposed
to be pursuing happiness, I would say that our Happiness GPS system is
malfunctioning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We can all probably come up with reasons for our
unhappiness. We certainly live in a bruising and fractious atmosphere of
political combat, which judging from everyone I speak to, makes us anxious. We
listen to media outlets that strike us as hopelessly bias, and with all the
charges of fake news and skewed reporting, many of us don’t know whom to
believe, and in some cases, what to believe. Some people are very upset by the
1%, that is, that percentage of the population that seem to be making wildly
more money than anyone else, perhaps because that’s true. And some of us are
unhappy because there is a sense that we are living in a kind of end-time, in
which the melting ice caps and burning rain forests point to a depletion of
earth’s resources that this precious little blue planet of ours simply cannot
sustain for long. Our days, or perhaps the days of our children on this earth,
are numbered. If that doesn’t make you unhappy, I don’t know what would.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One of the most popular courses at Yale University is
taught by Professor Laurie Santos. It’s PSYC 157: Psychology and the Good Life.
It essentially a course on the psychology of happiness, a course which draws on
scientific research that has focused on what it is that makes people
happy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of the research stems from
the influence of Dr. Martin Seligman who was the founder of a strain of
psychology known as positive psychology or the psychology of wellbeing. Because
so much psychology of the past has dealt with people exhibiting a variety of
mental illnesses or imbalances, Seligman’s idea was to find well-adjusted
people, happy people, study them, and thus develop a whole school of psychology
focused on mental wellbeing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How is your mental health these days? Are you happy?
And if you are happy, what is it that has made you happy?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When you wake up in the morning, is it a new day or is
it another day. How you view that day may determine whether you are an optimist
or a pessimist. The difference is important because as you may have already
guessed, optimists are happier. You almost have to be by definition. What makes
optimists happy are at least three different criteria:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Optimists believe they are in control so events do not happen to
them, rather they make things happen. When you feel yourself in control, you
will almost always feel happier.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Optimists are forward-looking, that is, they relegate the past to
the past and see the neutrality of the present moment as an opportunity to make
something good happen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Optimists tend to see the possibilities whereas the pessimist
tends to see the problems. Because the optimist is confident that changes can
be made, every problem presents the possibility of change. It is the ability to
see opportunity in crisis that make optimists happy<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the famous last chapter
of the Book of Proverbs, we read about the <b><i>Eishet <u>H</u>ayil</i></b>,
the Woman of Valor, who is our earliest example of a woman who has it all—a
husband, a family, a business, and prestige within the community. Her many
attributes are enumerated—her market transactions, her late hours, her wisdom,
and her industry—and among them is this one: <b><i>Vatis<u>h</u>ak l’yom a<u>h</u>aron
</i></b>(Proverbs 31:25b), “…she looks to the future cheerfully.” How many of
us look to the future cheerfully? The Woman of Valor was also a woman of
happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>John Kralik was an attorney in LA and at the age of 53,
he found himself in a particularly disheartening position. He was on his second
divorce, alienated from his two kids, financially stressed out, unable to give
his employees a Christmas bonus, he didn’t feel good about his weight, and on
top of everything else, he was just feeling miserable. One day, on a hike, he
decided that something had to change and in response to that yearning, he
decided that he would write one thank you note each day to someone for whom he
ought feel a sense of gratitude. And so he set about this task that culminated
in a book entitled, “365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude
Changed My Life.” Right now, you may think that you don’t have 365 thank yous
to give, and if you think that, you’re right, because I estimate that just
about everyone has 10,000 thank yous to give. The fact of the matter is that
grateful people tend to be happy people. They forever see what they have as a
blessing of sorts, and this even among those people who are not necessarily
religious.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What is it about <b><i>hakarat hatov,</i></b>
acknowledging the good in life, that makes us happy. I think the issue has to
do with a human evolutionary adaptation to the environment, in which
identifying danger or problems register foremost in our brains. We can
understand this easier if you think about the media and what sells. What sells?
Bad news. Everyone is interested in bad news. We are almost predisposed to a
fascination with bad news, probably because it serves as a warning to do
whatever we need to do in order to protect ourselves. Good news? It doesn’t
sell! Good news requires no action or response on our part but a mass shooting,
a terrorist attack, a vicious hurricane, wildfires, etc. that will get our
attention. That then is why gratitude makes us happier because all the other
stuff that we are biologically and psychologically drawn to is not making us
happier. It also suggests that we are biologically drawn to a distorted
perception of the world because by ignoring or paying short shrift to the good,
we read out of the world the good that actually is. We distort the reality of
our lives. It is only by saying thank you that we actually correct the
distortion and literally get a grip on reality.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The story is told of a young man in his thirties who
goes off to one of these male bonding weekends where the whole issue of men
getting in touch with their feelings is discussed. On the agenda are all the
people that have done good for us whom we have never properly thanked. The
conference comes to a close and the young man returns home, having made a
promise to thank his father whom he believes he has never properly thanked. He
gets his father on the phone and his father says, “Oh, nice to hear from you
son, l’ll get your mother.” The young man says “No, Dad, I want to talk to
you.” There is a pause in the conversation and his father replies, “Are you in
trouble?” The son says “No, Dad.” The father says, “You need money?” The son
says, “No, Dad—I just want to say thank you for being such a great father and
supporting me these many years and always being there when I needed you.” There
s another pause in the conversation, and the father asks, “Have you been
drinking?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The point is that if you think about those times when
someone has actually taken time out and thanked you, it may have taken you by
surprise but it probably also made you feel really good. Think about how many
people you could make happy by virtue of a simple expression of gratitude. We
are all veritable happiness making machines.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>How often after one of these terrible mass shootings do
we hear neighbors talk about the alleged shooter in terms like these—He was so
quiet. He kept to himself. He never bothered anyone. And, of course, the shock
value in all this is the combination of an irrational act of terror from
someone who otherwise has seemed so overwhelmingly polite or, in the very
least, innocuous. But what people may be describing, perhaps unknowingly, are
individuals who are socially isolated, who don’t belong or fit into traditional
communities that would otherwise reign in the wayward thinking and anger of its
members. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In Christian faith communities, you have people talking
about the true meaning of Christianity and it is a tool for dealing with
people’s anger. So yes—you may in fact hate your neighbor, but wait—Is that very
Christian of you? Maybe you have to rethink that hatred of your neighbor. And
in Judaism, there was always a concept of <b><i>mipnei darkei shalom,</i></b> meaning
“for purposes of peace.” Yes, we know that you are averse to participating in
certain affairs of the wider community, but you know what—you’re going to
participate anyway <b><i>mipnei darkei shalom,</i></b> for purposes of peace,
and remember, Jewish people are big proponents of peace. I don’t mean to
suggest that either faith community offers<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a foolproof structure for tempering the passions of their constituent
hot heads, but they do have such mechanisms in place that can respond to people
with such proclivities, hopefully before someone does something foolish and or
tragic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When people grow alienated from that tradition, what
will serve as the energy to counter their baser inclinations? Remember we live
in an age where religion is viewed with suspicion, some of that attitude
justified given the bad behavior of clergy, and we also live in an age where
the emphasis on individualism condones the life choices of loners. I’m going to
make a couple of generalizations now—always dangerous—but I think they are
justified as a broad sweeping observation, with notable exceptions. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It’s hard to be happy alone;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Joy is an emotion almost always shared with someone else;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is no accident that
when the Torah commands us to be joyous over a festival, as for example it does
with Sukkot (coming up in just a few days), it then adds that you must be
joyous “with your son and daughter (read that as your family), your male and
female slave (read that as your employees), the Levite (read that as the local
leadership), the stranger, the fatherless and the widow (read them as the
people whose life situations inhibit them from full participation in the
community). In other words, don’t let anyone play the loner. Everyone should
feel the joy because that’s how we experience joy. No one truly experiences joy
sitting in front of a computer screen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Unless you’re talking to your grandchildren. Have I
told you about my grandchildren? Wait—this is important, and it has to do with
the role of the Internet in our lives. We are struggling as a modern liberal
society to determine the effects of the Internet on our lives and we will
probably not fully understand its impact for at least another couple
generations. On the one hand it is an incredible tool of staying in touch with
loved ones. Anyone who has used Face Time or Google Hangout or Zoom knows firsthand
the power of this technology. On the other hand, the way we consume
entertainment these days, or listen to lectures, from Netflix to Amazon Prime
to On Demand to Spotify, all these applications which have brought the world
into our kitchens, our dens, and our bedrooms, have also given us reason to
never leave home. Remember the old American Express ads which touted the
American Express credit car with the slogan, “Never leave home without it”? That
ad would no longer resonate in this new generation of technology. Now you have
few reasons to ever leave home because the purchase can be made from the
comfort of your home. Does that keep us connected or is it isolating us
socially from one another. And if we grow increasingly socially isolated from
one another, can we ever be happy?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is a Conservative Movement teshuvah, a rabbinic
answer to an interesting question about whether one can create a minyan
on-line. In other words, let’s say we decided, next year, instead of coming to
shul for Kol Nidre, everyone stayed at home and tuned into the Zoom Room Kol
Nidrei service, and we get 1200 people in the same cyberspace room. Would that make
for a legitimate minyan? My initial response to that questions was—What a great
idea! Maybe not for Kol Nidre but during the week—why schlep out to the
synagogue for an evening service? Stay at home, log onto the Zoom Room, we get
ten people and a minyan we have made. The rabbis rejected the idea. They said
there is no such thing as a minyan in Cyberspace. A minyan must take place in
real space. In real space we can put a hand on someone’s shoulder, we can talk
to a person with our mouths and read their facial expressions, we can create
holy space by filling physical space with sacred and ancient sentiments—that’s
a minyan. We dare not think that community can be real, if the community isn’t
in real space. To be part of a community is to feel a sense of belonging, and a
sense of belonging creates happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It turns out a lot of things we think would make us
happy don’t. Do you think that having a bigger house will make you happy?
Researchers have determined it doesn’t. What about having great grades in
school? No—that apparently doesn’t make students happy. What about being able
to take a long and luxurious vacation? No—that won’t make you happier. What
about making more money? Will that make you happy? Two Nobel Laureates in
Economics, Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, studied 1000 American households
and did find a positive correlation between making more money and happiness,
but only up to about $75,000. After that, there seems to be little increase in
happiness as one’s income rises. That puts the price of happiness at about
$75,000—I’m going to say $78,000 because I want to adjust for inflation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>What about time? Do you think having more time would
make you happy? There is this relationship between time and money in so far as
some people believe that time is money. But that is just a platitude that
doesn’t hold up under analysis. A professor at the Harvard Business School,
Ashley Whillans, teamed up with Elizabeth Dunn, a professor at the University
of British Columbia, to study how people interact with money versus time. And
they discovered something very interesting. They found that if they were to
give someone $100, that person would likely spend it on a treat of sorts, some
unbudgeted item. On the other hand, given an extra hour, the person would use
it to complete some task, bills, yardwork, and so forth. It’s odd because
treated as commodities, money is very elastic—you can theoretically get more of
it by working an extra job. Were you to pay your bills with it, you would still
have some left over for a treat. Time, in contrast, is very inelastic. You only
have so much of it. But once people get a little extra of it, they use it for stuff
that they are already committed to doing. The odd thing is that when asked
about time, many Americans, especially parents, express a sense of
exasperation, of feeling rushed and pressured, of wishing they had more time to
spend with their family and friends. There is, on balance, far greater
satisfaction that comes with an abundance of time in contrast with what may
come from an abundance of money, yet given the extra<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>time, people waste it on doing what they
already are slated to do. They don’t use their time for a treat. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isn’t it interesting that within Jewish
tradition, time is sanctified. The Festivals, Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur—all times when we are actually forbidden from doing the very work that
had we the extra time, we would definitely use to complete that work. And yet,
the tradition says, don’t use it in that way. The work gets done. The pay
checks will come. But once the time passes, there is no getting it back. It is
precisely because it is so finite in its nature—at least for a living human
being—that time becomes infinitely more precious than money. If we had more
time, we would be happier, provided we used it wisely. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There was a woman living in a poor, rural town, far
into the countryside, that the townspeople regarded as a surly, sour witch. Frankly,
the townspeople were not terribly nice either, so you can imagine just how
terrible the old woman must have been! She seemed always complaining, always
bitter, always spiteful. Most people avoided her. She was uniquely unlikeable. And
then, on her 80<sup>th</sup> birthday, she threw a party for the townspeople.
They weren’t sure what to make of it. Go to that party of that ungrateful,
resentful curmudgeon? Then again—it was a party—music, dancing, free food and
drink. They went and to their utter surprise, found a woman completely
changed—singing, laughing, playing the hostess with the mostess and making sure
that all the guests were well taken care of. It came time to cut the cake and she
called for a bit of order in the towns square. She was about to make a speech. She
welcomed the guests. She expressed the hope that they were having a good time. She
emphasized how much she wanted them to take a slice of cake and the party
favors she provided for all. And then she said—If I seem different to you this
day it is because I am. All my life I have been pursuing happiness and for
eighty years, I have failed to find it. And so, I have decided to stop pursuing
happiness, because I have discovered that happiness is not out there. Pursue
happiness and you will find only unhappiness, because true happiness is in here
(point to heart) and it is up to you to create it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The townspeople were stunned and had never heard such
profound thoughts from anyone, no less from a woman they had so disliked. And
so the townspeople got their cake and their party favors, they walked back to
their cottages next to a beautiful river shimmering in the moonlight, gazed at
the stars shining brilliantly in the night sky above them, breathed in the rich
fragrance of the fields of grass stretching out beyond them for miles, and it suddenly
dawned on them all just how rich they really were, and that sense of wealth in
things intangible, made them happy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There
is actually a very simple happiness test that you can take which will determine
whether you are happy or not. I had to think a bit before taking it because I
wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. Anyway, I took the test which is all of four
questions, and as it turns out, I am happy to report that I am happy. But I
think I already knew that. Anyway, on this most sacred day of the year, I want
to wish you all life, liberty, but not the pursuit of happiness, for that is a
sure path toward finding nothing more than unhappiness. Rather, I wish you the strength
and wisdom to create your own happiness, and that way, you will never have to
take a test to find out if you are or you aren’t.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tzom
Kal—Have an Easy but also a Very Fulfilling Fast!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-13425541372408242702019-10-02T12:18:00.000-07:002019-10-02T12:18:05.211-07:00STEPPING INTO YOUR SELF, ROSH HASHANAH 5780 / 2019<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Shanah Tovah, everyone. It is wonderful to see us all
together, the Midway Family, and may we all be blessed with a New Year of
Prosperity, Health, and above all, Peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Several men are in
the locker room of a golf club, cleaning up after eighteen holes in the hot sun.
A cell phone on a bench rings and a man engages the hands-free speaker function
and begins to talk. Everyone in the room stops to listen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He says: Hello<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She says: Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He says: Yes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She says: I'm at the mall now and found this beautiful leather coat.
It's only $1,300. Is it okay if I buy it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He says: Sure, go ahead if you like it that much. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She says: I also stopped by the Mercedes dealership and saw the new AMG
C 63S sedan. I really liked it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He says: How much? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She says: $75,000<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He says: Okay, but for that price, I want it with all the options. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She says: Great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And one more
thing. The house we wanted last year is back on the market at a reduced price.
They're asking only $2.3 million. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He says: Well, go ahead and give them an offer, but start at $2 million.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She says: Okay, I'll see you later. I love you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He says: Bye. I love you too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The man ends the conversation, looks up, and all the other men in the
locker room are looking at him in astonishment. Then he smiles and asks: Anyone
know whose cell phone this is?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Every now and then,
people say. Be yourself. I think that is, in general, good advice. Oscar Wilde
(1854-1900), the Irish poet and playwright, is purported to have said, “Be
yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” That, too, is fairly sound advice.
But suppose you were to wake up one day and realize that you don’t particularly
care for the person you’ve become? Should you still strive to be yourself or
should you strive to make some changes and be the person you think you ought to
be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Felicity Huffman, one
of the stars of the comedy-drama “Desperate Housewives,” is one of the 51
people who got caught in a college admissions scheme that has brought shame to
her and to her family. She admitted to paying $15,000 to boost her older
daughter’s SAT scores in order to increase her chances of admission into a good
university. “Good university,” by the way, has since been identified as places
like Stanford, Yale, Georgetown and the University of Southern California.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is about as clear
an example of cheating as there is. Why would a parent do something like this?
The predominant reason given in the media was anxiety over their children’s
future and whether the parents had done enough for their children. Who among us,
so many parents in this room, hasn’t wondered whether we have done enough for our
children?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Should I have gotten
her that math tutor in the eighth grade?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Should I have
encouraged him to take a couple more AP courses?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Should I have
discouraged her from taking so many AP courses?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Should I have made him
go to that therapist for his social anxieties?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s not easy being a parent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I mention Felicity Huffman because I commend her
for having come around, for having done the right thing—admitting her guilt and
accepting her punishment, which includes 14 days in prison, a $30,000 fine, and
250 hours of community service. That sounds like a fair punishment, but the
real punishment was not the sentence given by the judge, but the question posed
to her from the daughter she wanted to help, who asked her mother why she
didn’t believe in her, capping that question with a more damning statement: “I
don’t know who you are anymore.” Perhaps Felicity realized that she had become
someone she didn’t want to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When parents take over
their children’s lives, becoming their CAOs—their Chief Advancement Officers—completing
their homework, writing their essays, and challenging the school every time
they perceive a given grade to be unfair—they do a great disservice to their
children. And this may sound a tad harsh: the disservice committed is
preventing a child from either succeeding or failing on their own. There is
nothing sweeter than a success achieved by one’s own independent efforts, and
as for failure, parents have a critical role to play when it comes to failure.
We are able to teach our kids to never confuse failure with tragedy. We’ve all
learned that lesson, in many cases the hard way, but it’s true. And it’s a
lesson best learned at a younger rather than an older age. To rid children’s
lives of failure is to deny them an important learning experience. And if you
say, not without reason, that it’s not what you know but who you know, I will
counter that by saying that the who-you-know will probably open some doors for
you, but ultimately it’s the what-you-know that keeps you in the room. There
has to be a good deal of correspondence between what the public sees on the
outside of a person and what is actually going on within the inside of a
person.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">L’olam yehei adam
yerei shamayim b’seter uvegalui<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">People should always be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yerei shamayim,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(something like people who act always with reverence
for heaven, whatever that means)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">in public and in private.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is a truth found in our prayer books and our
mahzorim, recited every single morning. It’s an ideal, to be sure, because
everyone has a public life that is a little different from their private life.
I would assume as much and there’s nothing wrong with that, but there is
something wrong with a public face that is so out-of-whack with one’s private
life that the two clash in what can only amount to a tragic and fatal
collision. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I think very sadly about how hard it must have been
for Robin Williams, a brilliant comedian and actor, to be Robin Williams. Or
Kate Spade, the fashion designer, to be Kate Spade. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or Anthony Bourdain, the celebrity chef, to be
Anthony Bourdain. When they ended their lives, as all three did, we were
shocked. We suddenly learned that their private persona was at serious odds
with their public persona. They had so much to live for, they were all so
talented, they were all so bright and creative, yet they could not synch their
public and private lives? They were not the people they really wanted to be. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is an old midrash about Yom Kippur (really
it’s about this entire season of repentance) which I have always found a bit
forced, but over the years, come to appreciate. It’s a midrash in which an
analogy is drawn between Yom Kippur and another Jewish holiday, but one that on
the surface would seem the least likely candidate for an appropriate analogy,
and that is Purim.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The midrash
essentially draws this comparison on the basis of an alternative name for Yom
Kippur (a Day of Atonement) which would be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yom
Kippurim</i> (a Day of Atonements). And so the midrash goes—Yom Kippur is
really (and now I’m going to translate): Yom (a day), k’ (like), Purim (Purim).
And how exactly is Yom Kippur like Purim? It is like Purim in a number of
respects, but for our purposes, they are both days of wearing masks. On Purim,
we wear the masks of Esther and Mordechai, and on Yom Kippur we wear the masks
of someone we are not. We put on our masks, or in other words, we enter this
whole season of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">teshuvah</i> in disguise,
failing to see within ourselves all the stuff that is making us believe or act
in ways that do not truly reflect just how talented, just how blessed, just how
loveable we really are. In our heart of hearts, we all know what we need to
change, and we even come close to admitting what it is we need to change, but
ultimately, change is hard. To change means having to concentrate and invest in
ourselves and what happens if we fail?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This resistance to
change seems to be universal. And you know who resists change most vehemently?
Addicts. Addiction is a serious problem in our nation. If you are, or you know
anyone who is addicted to drugs or opioids, you need or you need to get someone
else help. It’s a matter of life or death. The National Institute of Drug Abuse
estimates that every day in our nation, 130 people die of drug overdose. These
people have become something they are not; their addiction is preventing them
from being who they truly are. There is a way to break the habit, which entails
both an alternative drug therapy and a 12-Step program. The 12-Step program, I
think, is a particularly effective program for those courageous enough to
follow it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the thought occurred to
me that if it works on the addicts, maybe it would work on any of us who need
to change, but no matter how many times we make the commitment, the resolution,
the pledge, somehow we end up drifting. Could it be that we are addicted to our
own bad habits and negative attitudes?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I don’t know how many of you attend a 12-Step
program, and I’m not asking you to tell me, but if you do go, I want to commend
you and honor you for seeing within yourself a need that the 12-Steps addresses,
and for you having the courage and discipline to change. There are 12-Step
programs for alcohol addiction, drug addiction, gambling addiction, food
addiction, and I wish there was one more 12-Step program for attitude
addiction, devoted to all of us who are trying to kick those aspects of
ourselves that are, let’s say, unlovable. It’s those personality traits that
make us jealous, envious, resentful, arrogant, dismissive, condescending,
temperamental, vengeful, spiteful, loud, self-righteous, petty, stingy, lazy,
bigoted... I could keep going but while in the presence of a fundamentally
loveable crowd such as this one, there is no need. We each know our weaknesses,
we each know our shortcomings and how difficult it is to extirpate them from
our character. And that’s where the 12-Step program comes in because woven
within the 12-Steps is this definite world view which compels us to take the steps
that move us to change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Step #1: Admit that you are powerless over your
addiction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Step #2: Accept into your life a power greater than
yourself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Step #3: turn your life over to that power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I need not go into all 12-Steps because the first three actually tell us
something that our Jewish heritage has been telling us for 2500 years:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">L’olam yehei adam
yerei shamayim b’seter uvegalui<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">People should always be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yerei shamayim</i> (live in awe of Heaven)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">in public and in private.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The 12-Step program, whether it is framed within a
context of spirituality or secularism, will always remind you that you can’t do
it alone, that you have to find a power greater than yourself to help you make
the changes you need to make. For us, as Jews, that power is the power of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yirat shamayim,</i> living in reverence of and
with reverence for heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yirei
shamayim</i> walk this world not as the king of beasts, but as guests of God in
a world of His creations—the mountains and the valleys, the oceans and the
heavens, the planets and the stars. They see themselves as guests in God’s home
and because they are guests, they behave as guests, with a large degree of
reserve and respect for the world in which they find themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yirei shamayim</i>
do see themselves as the very pinnacle of material creation. As the Psalmist
puts it, “You have made humanity just a tad shy of angelic” (Psalm 8:6). The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yirei shamayim</i> can look at the crooks,
the murderers, the dictators, the terrorists, and still claim that with all of
its faults, human life is outstanding. And because humanity has been so marvelously
crafted by God, one dare not think of harming oneself, no more than one might
think of destroying the work of a Michelangelo or a Picasso, though in this
case, the artist is God. That creates an urgency to synch your public face with
your private face.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yirei shamayim</i>
not only believe that they must do what is right and good and moral, but they
believe that they are every year, or possibly every moment, held accountable
for their every action. In other words, they are not lone actors in this world.
They are partners with God—subordinate partners to be sure, but partners
nonetheless—and they had better toe the line when it comes to their responsibilities
in this world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yirei shamayim</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> are not arrogant, for arrogance would be a sin.
But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yirei shamayim</i> are confident, as
creations of God, that they are worthy of love—the love of others and the love
with which they ought to treat themselves. I want to let you know that we are
all worthy of love. And we’re loveable not because we’re perfect—who is perfect
anyway?—but we are loveable because we are the most extraordinary of all
creations on earth. And until we find life elsewhere in our universe, we are
the most extraordinary creations within the universe, to be loved by others,
and to be worthy of self-love as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">V’ahavta l’reiakha kamokhah<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Love your neighbor as yourself… (Leviticus 19:18)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Love yourself! But that returns us to our initial
question: Do you love yourself? And what happens if you don’t, if you have
become someone you really don’t want to be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Whatever it is within yourself that you don’t love,
you can get rid of. But you’re going to have to admit that you are powerless,
and that there does exist within this universe a power greater than you, and
that this power is capable of operating within you if you let it, and with that
power operating within you, you can make just about any change you put your
mind to. You have to become one of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yerei
shamayim</i>, operators in life who act only with great reverence of and for Heaven,
and you have to do it in public and in private. Not easy, but doable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Does the possibility of a long-term period of
concerted effort scare you? Don’t let it scare you. Adam and Eve were exiled
from the Garden of Eden. They lived together, east of Eden, tilling the earth, raising
children, and struggling to stay alive. After years of struggle, when their
children were grown, the dog had died, the mortgage was paid, they decided to travel
and see the world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They journeyed from
one corner of the earth to the next. In the course of their journeys, they happened
upon the entrance to the Garden of Eden, the old neighborhood, now guarded by the
cherubim, angels, bearing an eternally turning, flaming sword. They considered
whether or not it was possible to return to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Suddenly, the cherubim disappeared, the eternally turning, flaming sword
vanished into thin air; the path into the Garden opened and a marvelously rich
voice filled the air: “Eve, Adam—if you really want to return, you are free to
enter.” Adam and Eve immediately recognized the voice as the voice of God. God
had not spoken to them since their exile and now God spoke again, this time
with an invitation to return to paradise. But the two had forgotten what
paradise was like, and so far as they were on vacation, they wanted to know
what they could expect should they devoted their limited time to a trip to Eden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So this is where God had to become a travel
agent, to explain the better features of Eden. “The Garden is paradise,” God
responded. “In the garden there is no work, no struggle, no toil, no pain, no
suffering. In the Garden there is no self-consciousness, no moral dilemmas, and
no challenges. Day after day, life goes on, uneventful, no surprises, everything
is perfectly controlled. It is an endless life of ease.” Eve turned to Adam and
Adam to Eve, whereupon Eve said, “Our lives together have been all about the
challenges we’ve met, the successes we’ve achieved, and the failures we’ve
overcome. It has been the crises that we have endured, without running away
from them, hiding from them, that have made us the humans we are today.” And
Adam, reflecting on Eve’s response and God’s description of paradise, concluded,
“It sounds like a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” The
two turned their backs on paradise, and as Eve and Adam continued on their
journey having refused even an hour or two in Eden, one could hear that deep,
resonant voice again say, “Good choice.” (After a tale by Rabbi Ed Feinstein).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If you were to think
back on some of the most memorable moments in your life, aside from those times
when the One Arm Bandit smiled generously upon you in Vegas, the moments we
appreciate the most are very often connected to extended periods of sacrifice.
These are periods in our lives when we kept late hours, concentrated on just a
few goals, exerted ourselves mentally and physically, and accomplished what we
needed to accomplish either on our own or with a trusted team. We shortchange
ourselves when we think that what we have coming to us we can get for free. And
what we get for free, when we get it, is not appreciated, for after all, we
exerted no effort in obtaining it. Change is difficult, but if you really want
to change, the difficulties are what make the whole process worthwhile.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One last thought. We
believe in the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. We also
believe in the God of Sarah, the God Rebecca, the God of Rachel and the God of
Leah. There is only one God, but each of our ancestors had their own unique relationship
with God. Their God is not going to help you. Only your God is going to help
you, and your God is the God that you establish an intimate relationship with. It’s
your God who will be your higher power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Be yourself, but be the
self that is fashioned by God. Don’t be the self fashioned by resentment,
hatred or jealousy, drugs, alcohol or gambling or an unhealthy solicitousness
for your children. Be the self in private that everyone loves in public, and if
you fail, that’s no sin. The only sin is to think that change is impossible… And
also answering someone else’s cell phone pretending to be someone you are not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Shanah Tovah, everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-40934240502713259002019-07-05T11:43:00.002-07:002019-07-05T11:43:16.663-07:00THE ROW OVER ROE<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To write about abortion these days is a sign
either of courage or madness, and perhaps a bit of both. Nonetheless, to ignore
abortion given the distressing and volatile space it occupies in contemporary
political discourse strikes me as negligent, and it’s not as if Torah doesn’t
have a thing or two to say about the matter. As with so many tough issues that
require thoughtful reflection, Torah urges us to use one of God’s greatest
gifts to us: our reason. Let’s indulge both our courage and our madness in
thinking however briefly about this troubling debate within the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To begin with, a clarification: The abortion
debate in our nation will be addressed through the courts, a dauting task even
for so august an institution as the American judicial system since abortion is
so much a tangle of ethics, faith, biology, and identity. My approach will
focus heavily on the moral, not legal dimensions of abortion. The legal
discussion is best left to lawyers and the courts. Secondly, let’s agree to
reject those simple-minded labels: pro-choice and pro-life. Quick and dirty
political tags are designed to create adversity, not clarity, as if pro-lifers
reject choice and pro-choicers reject life. I wish people were that neatly
categorized, but they aren’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Many Jews believe that the thrust of Torah,
because it allows for abortion, somehow is protective of a woman’s right to
choose. Only half of this perception is true. Torah does allow for abortion
under certain circumstances, but the license it gives to abortion is not based
on a woman’s autonomous self. The Torah permits abortion based on its perception
that a fetus is not a human being. A fetus would be regarded as something more
akin to a growth, or an organ like any other organ in female anatomy, and as
such, its removal can in no way constitute murder. Moreover, if given the
choice between saving the life of a viable human being and an organ that poses
some sort of threat to that human being, the Torah is fairly certain that the mother’s
life takes precedence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court
struck down a Texas law, and thus all such laws, that prohibited abortion under
any circumstances. The decision was largely based on the presumption of a
constitutional right to privacy which would cover a woman’s decision to end her
own pregnancy, again under certain circumstances. What made the decision
controversial was a serious question about whether the US Constitution actually
did provide for a right to privacy, and even if it did, whether such a right
would cover abortion. Moreover, the decision provoked protest and outrage since
not everyone sees the fetus as would the Torah, as a mere growth or organ of
the mother. If the fetus is a human being, then ending its life is murder, and
no right to privacy can possibly used to condone murder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The story goes that Supreme Court Justice Hugo
Black (1886-1971) was given to removing his $0.25 copy of the Constitution from
his back pocket, waving it about and declaring something to the effect of—I
searched through this document and can’t find any provision for a right to
privacy. Most legal scholars would agree that there is no explicit clause to
that effect, but might also argue that the Constitution does provide for
certain protections that seem to emanate from a concern for privacy. Leaving
that legal argument behind, it seems to me incongruous that a document serving
as the basis for American civil liberties could not in some way be understood
as protective of privacy, but even that is a far cry from a clear and
unequivocal right to privacy. You can see why Roe rests on contested, and thus
shaky legal grounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But today, in 2019, Roe is challenged in
another way that the justices in 1973 could not have anticipated. Attitudes
toward pregnancy have adjusted in line with medical advances that have made
pregnancy and birth much safer. Mothers are exposed to the fetus’ heartbeat,
sex, a photo of the fetus in situ, and the potential for any birth defects.
Twenty-first century parents may hang that sonogram photo of the fetus on the
refrigerator, attend a baby shower, arrange for a Gender Reveal party at which
the baby’s gender is announced, and even create a Facebook page for the
anticipated arrival. They may even name the fetus before its birth. Parents and
health care providers have conferred, most likely inadvertently, a kind of
personhood on the fetus that it heretofore did not have, and when popular
perception of a fetus evolves from the mysteries surrounding gestation to an
entity treated as a person with a specific identity, some future Supreme Court
just might champion a State’s interest or obligation to protect life over and
above any right to privacy that Roe attempted to guarantee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The rate of abortions seem to be diminishing,
according to those who monitor these surgeries. That’s a good thing. I wouldn’t
wish any woman the trauma of having to terminate a pregnancy. On the other
hand, a legal system that would force women to bear children they do not want
would create a host of social problems that would not bode well for babies,
mothers, parents, politicians, the nation, and a host of others we could
probably enumerate without end. But as you can see, there are good reasons why
the abortion question remains as divisive and volatile today as it was 50 year
ago. In the end, I doubt that the Torah could unequivocally conclude that
abortion should be either legal or illegal. As with so many ethical questions,
the genius of Torah assures us that the justice of any one abortion will always
be bathed in the shifting light and shadows of the reasons why it is sought.
And to wade through that morass of factors, circumstances, emotions,
apprehensions, etc., will take a Solomon, not a Supreme Court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-1592608504945119142018-11-07T05:53:00.003-08:002018-11-07T05:53:57.278-08:00THE TREE OF LIFE / THE SOURCE OF LIFE<br />
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The settings for our nation’s now not uncommon mass shootings are varied
in size and function. In size, they may be as broad as an outdoor music
festival as in Las Vegas or as confined as a night club in Orlando. In
function, they may be as secular as a business’ central headquarters or as spiritual
as a church. If there were a hell, there would certainly be a special spot in
it for those who would open fire in God’s holy precincts, second only to the
most unconscionable of all settings, a school, as was the case in Newtown, CT
and Parkland, Florida.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Jewish community, ever sensitive to the senseless loss of God’s
children, has always been shaken by these mass shootings, the latest of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which took place at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life
synagogue on a Shabbat morning. Eleven members of the tribe lost their lives
that day in a barrage of bullets triggered by a man full of hate. There is no
setting “better” than any other when it comes to the loss of life, but the
shooting in one of God’s holy sanctuaries does raise that age-old question with
even greater poignancy: where was God? Where was ‘the Guardian of Israel who
neither slumbers nor sleeps”? (Psalm 121:4). Where was the Source of Life of
whom the psalmist wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Lord will guard you from all harm;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He will guard your life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Lord will guard your going and coming<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now and forever. (Psalm 121:7-8)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our good member, Sharon Aaronson, has raised this question, as I am sure
so many of us have, because of all the places one might rest assured of God’s safety
and security, a sanctuary would be top on the list. Apparently, it isn’t
necessarily so. How do we reconcile the paradox of violence in God’s spaces of
peace?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">God has given us two tremendous gifts--one is the gift of Torah and the
other is the gift of freedom. Torah teaches us how to live and freedom gives us
the liberty to live as we choose, including ways that run counter to Torah. If
we were so constituted as to be unable to violate law and tradition, that would
be the greatest proof that humans are trapped--allowed to make certain choices
but prevented from others. That's neither reality nor freedom. We can all
choose to live in any number of ways--healthy and unhealthy, safely and
dangerously, lovingly and hatefully. God teaches us which are the best choices,
but does not make the choice for us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When our kids first began to drive a car solo, it was a bit nerve-wracking,
yes? The best way to keep them from an accident is to never have them drive or
enter a car to begin with. But that would be a terrible decision. Our children
need freedom; all people do. But with freedom comes a certain degree of risk as
not all people make the choices that are godly. We are all free to abuse our
freedom. If we were not free to do so, we would not be free.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As tempting as it is to question God when it comes to the senseless massacres
of this world, we may just try thinking of God as asking us a few questions as
well:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Why
are you blaming Me for Pittsburgh? Did I give this man an assault rifle?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. Why
are you blaming Me for Pittsburgh? Did you not learn anything after Sandy Hook?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. Why
are you blaming Me for Pittsburgh? Did I teach you to hate your neighbor?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At a time like this, it is easy to question God, but it’s a dodge. The
most damning aspect of all these shootings is that we have the power to, in the
very least, minimize the casualties, and somehow society has managed to skirt
the challenge. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Still, we may charge God with a degree of irresponsibility. If God is as
omnipotent and as omniscient as the divine reputation goes, where is the divine
intervention when needed. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A couple of responses are warranted
here, the first of which is this: how do we really know that there is no divine
intervention? Only God knows how many other shootings have been foiled or
averted, remaining unaccounted as they never materialized to begin with. But
there is a stronger idea to contend with when it comes to God’s omnipotence and
that is this: Is God really omnipotent? The idea of an omnipotent and
omniscient God is actually a Greek idea, not a Jewish one. The Greeks were very
much involved with ideas of perfection and in imagining the perfection of the
gods. They, not the Jews, imagined gods that were omnipotent and all-knowing. A
close reading of the Bible, written of course from a Jewish perspective, does
not give us an idea of a perfect or omnipotent God. Our God is much more
human—making decisions, regretting them, becoming angry, overcoming anger,
listening to people and also commanding people who nonetheless defy divine
orders. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Jewish mystics (we call them the Kabbalists) had another way
of thinking about this. In order to make room for humans, God had to give up
some of His power and energy in order to grant us the freedom and power to act.
God did not leave us without direction, however. God did give us the Guide book
to life, otherwise known as the Torah. But it’s up to us, not God, to implement
it. That makes human decisions, our decisions, exceedingly important. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where was the Source of Life at the Tree of Life that Shabbat morning?
I believe the Source of Life was in that sanctuary, calming those congregants who
were hiding, strengthening those officers who were pursuing the assailant, and
leading the martyred up toward the heavens above. Our God-given freedom is
among the most precious gifts given to us, and also the most dangerous. We will
have too take God’s injunction to preserve life more seriously, by enhancing security
in our synagogues, and anywhere that people gather en masse. We will also have
to vigorously pursue those social conditions that will hamper the designs of
the wicked who seek to inflict damage on us and others. And we will continue to
ask hard questions as there is some modicum of comfort in being able to ask and
wonder. But in the end, as with so many other aspects of life, the real
questions revolve not around what God can do for us, God having given us so
much guidance already. The real question is what are we prepared to do for God in
creating the peace that God intended us to enjoy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6622891550989702185.post-7470356294879521682018-11-07T04:56:00.000-08:002018-11-07T04:56:03.528-08:00THE TREE OF LIFE / THE TREE OF TRUTH<br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the tasks of the sages
of old is to determine why one narrative of the Torah follows another. This phenomenon,
known as <b><i>semikhut parshiyot,</i></b> or the juxtaposition of stories,
applies to this week’s parashah, <b><i><u>H</u>ayyei Sarah</i></b>. The first
story in <b><i><u>H</u>ayyei Sarah</i></b>, meaning “the life of Sarah,” oddly enough
is not about her life but about her death. She dies at 127 years of age and
Abraham must go about the business of securing land for her burial. This story
follows the much discussed and debated tale of Abraham’s sacrifice, or
attempted sacrifice of his son Isaac, also known as the <b><i>Akeidah</i></b> (literally,
the Binding, Isaac having been bound upon an altar and prepared for sacrifice).
So the rabbinic question in this case would be—why does the tale of Sarah’s
death immediately follow the tale of Isaac’s sacrifice. The Torah is silent on
this matter so the rabbis resorted to their creative juices to craft an answer.
And they found their answer in Satan—the evil angel.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Satan, never up to any good,
decides to inform Sarah about the attempted sacrifice. He transforms himself into
the likeness of Isaac and appears before Sarah. Sarah, seeing her son, but noticing
that something looks a tad off, inquires of her son’s wellbeing, asking the
exact question Satan would have her ask—What has your father done to you? And
so Satan, in Isaac guise, does something we would all typically admire: he
tells the truth. He goes through the whole narrative—how God instructed Abraham
to take the boy, travel to some far-off destination, build an altar, bind the
child on the altar, prepare to offer the child to God, and with knife raised above
the child’s head, an angel from heaven intervened and prevented Abraham from
completing the task. Not a word Satan spoke was false, but for Sarah’s fate, it
made no difference. So shaken by the initial details, her soul departed before
Satan completed the full account. And that, the rabbis tell us, is the reason the
tale of Sarah’s death immediately follows the tale of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b><i>Akeidah</i></b>, Isaac’s Binding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The rabbis’ explanation is
often used as a morality lesson in how we go about expressing the truth. As the
old adage goes, the truth hurts. But how hurtful should the truth be? Should
the truth scathe? Should it kill? Is every truth worth verbalizing if it serves
no other purpose than hurting the person who hears it? As one might expect, the
rabbis advise discretion. But there is another way of understanding the
rabbinic tale of Sarah and Satan, and one that very much addresses the
challenges of our day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last Tuesday, when we
gathered at the Mid-Island Y in memory of our 11 slain brothers and sisters,
murdered by a person filled with hate¸ I found myself incapable of singing. It
was a strange phenomenon. I had already spoken on several occasions to our
Religious School students about the tragedy, and had no problem discussing the
massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, and how our own synagogue had
long ago instituted security protocols and safety measures in the interest of
keeping our members safe. And yet, while on stage, before a crowd of thousands,
the weight of how hateful people can be, how self-righteous they can be of
their convictions, how perfectly diabolic they will act given the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>opportunity, weighed heavily upon me, and I that
felt if I opened my mouth the slightest, I would dissolve into tears. I was
facing a truth, and the truth is that there are people in this world who
absolutely detest Jews. They hate our guts.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But as true as that may be,
it is also not the full truth. The first memorial I attended was sponsored by
the Islamic Center of Long Island located in Westbury, NY. Imagine the Moslems
pulling together a memorial in memory of 11 slain Jews. There were many rabbis
and Christian ministers present, including, of course, representatives of the
Moslem community. They spoke lovingly of the Jewish people, lamented the lack
of civility in the nation and the hatred that is fueling so many of our
debates. Last night, at our Shabbat service, two Moslem families attended to
show their solidarity with us. We welcomed them and their presence was a sure
gesture of their respect for us. Just a couple days ago, I received a call from
our old custodian, Roberto, who just had to speak to me, to express his
condolences on the murder of 11 strangers, but whom he knew as Jews and therefore
connected to our community, a community of Jews whom he does know and loves. So
yes, there are people in this world who hate us, but there are also people in
this world who love us, and when we hear only one part of the truth, without
looking at the full truth, we die the death of Sarah.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We are living in silos of partial or incomplete truths.
We talk to people who reflect our own political views rather than engaging
those with different points of view. We are speaking in echo chambers and
instead of reaching out to our neighbors who differ with us in love, we
demonize them as the enemy and dismiss their views as dangerous. It may be very
difficult to love one’s neighbor, but when we feel justified in hating our neighbors,
it will almost always go nowhere good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thank God for America. It has been and I suspect will
continue to be a wonderful place for the Jewish people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for every anti-Semite who resides in this
country, there is a minyan of non-Jews who love and respect us. So beware focusing
on incomplete truths. We must always embrace the fuller truth. For some of us,
it will be the only way we will ever be able to sing again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Rabbi Rafi Rankhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12758663592185004926noreply@blogger.com0