Torah Study with Rabbi Liebowitz
Rabbi Liebowitz will be using Skype for the Torah Study. If you want to join him on Saturday morning starting at 10 a.m
Rabbi Liebowitz will be using Skype for the Torah Study. If you want to join him on Saturday morning starting at 10 a.m
“and the Lord took Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, to work it and guard it. (Genesis 2:15) Upon creating the first human beings, God guided them around the Garden of Eden, saying; ‘Look at my creations! See how beautiful and perfect they are! I created everything for you. Make sure you don’t ruin or destroy My world. If you do, there will be no one after you to fix it ’ (Midrash Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) Rabbah 7:20)
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Dear Friends,
Each morning we are bid to recite the following prayer which beckons us to imagine the world is being re-created every day, a new Genesis:
“Praised are You, Our God, Ruler of the universe, former of light, creator of darkness, maker of peace and the creator of all things. In Your mercy light shines over the earth and upon all who inhabit it. Through your goodness the work of the creation is daily renewed. How great are Your works, O God, in wisdom You have made all of them. The earth is filled with your creations.” (Daily Prayer, Yotzer Or (Former of Light))
The late John McCain in his presidential bid strongly argued for conservation saying that even if you don’t believe in climate change it is still important to protect our resources. That attitude even precedes Teddy Roosevelt who labored to protect our nation’s parks and their resources. I personally understand that climate change is real; from forest fires in Australia to weather weirding across the globe marked by iceberg melt and drought. Our heritage has long encouraged respect for nature and an attitude of modesty about our place in creation:
Why were human beings created last in the order of Creation? So that they should not grow proud – for one can say to them, ‘Even the gnat came before you in creation!’ (Tosefta Sanhedrin 8:3)
Sometimes the problems of this world seem insurmountable. Our concept based on mysticism Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) beckons us to do our part, however small in resurrected Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden. My rabbi versed in Yiddish would encourage me when I got frustrated with my Hebrew by saying Yidl by Yidl. Rabbi Israel Salanter (1810-1883, founder of
Lithuania’s Musar Movement) offered this perspective: “First, a person should put his house
together, then his town, then the world.”
I chair the subcommittee for the Spartanburg Interfaith Alliance called Spartanburg Green Congregations. At long last our temple is practicing what it preached. Our recycling bin is being used. (Thanks in no small measure to Susan Abelkop who made them happen!) Throughout our building are little blue recycling containers. Please use them! Plastic, paper, aluminum oh my! (Alas no glass!) The large bin is presently in the portico. Feel free to bring your own disposables when you come to Temple.
It is fairly large. I would hope it will become insufficiently small as you will fill it up, (a nice problem to have or what I call a Messianic problem!) We have taken other steps in the past (Energy saving LED bulbs in the sanctuary–thank you Rex!)
In the meantime as Purim nears, and spring is on the way I wish one and all a happy March as we march on fulfilling the imperatives of our precious faith.
B’shalom
Rabbi Yossi J. Liebowitz D.D.
Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6: 4–5
Dear Friends,
In the birth pangs that separated Christianity (a onetime Jewish sect) from Judaism, lots of accusations back and forth were hurled one to the other. For our ancestors’ part we derided the legends of resurrection, virgin birth, and the claims of divinity. Early Christian assaults configured that Judaism was a religion of stern laws and their faith one of love. In its most virulent forms, Christianity divided the deity into two parts, the God of vengeance for Jews and the God of love for Christians. All this notwithstanding, Judaism hardly articulated a place of eternal punishment asserting that “all people had a place in the world to come (heaven).”
Judaism is a religion of love.
filled with love talk; Ahava rabba – With a great love have I loved the people Israel and Ahavat Olam – With an Eternal love have I loved the House of Israel.
As the celebration of love is celebrated in our culture by the day dedicated to Valentine, (Some think it is connected to a more ancient Roman festival Lupercalia) we are given an imperative to consider how caring is our heritage and how affectionate is our spiritual legacy. Though it is of Christian origins, Valentine ’s Day is one observance wherein we can all find an excuse to celebrate love from all our traditions.
Wishing one and all a beautiful month
Rabbi Yossi J. Liebowitz, D.D.
Rabbi Liebowitz was a speaker at the Martin Luther King celebration at Spartanburg memorial Auditorium on January 20. The Cap & Collar will perform Friday, February 7 at SMC.
Dear Friends,
My brother, sister, and I would wait patiently as dad would eventually drive up at the end of a long hot summer’s day in his cab. Exhausted, dehydrated, and hanging on for a few more hours, dad would nevertheless summon the energy to share some of his more colorful tales from the day’s work. On occasion someone famous would hop into his cab – Sean Connery, Vincent Price, just to mention a few. Dad had made a science out of teasing. With chutzpah he would engage whichever celebrity entered into his yellow cab. Once, Joe DiMaggio “Joltin’ Joe” ambled in. Pretending not to recognize him, Dad started to make some uncouth remarks about how lousy the Yanks were doing that summer. “They’re goin’ nowhere this year,” he would intone with no small measure of chutzpah. “They’ll be fine!” DiMaggio retorted. “What the heck do you know?” said dear old dad. “Well,” said the famed Yankee clipper of years gone by (this was 1966 and he was making Mr. Coffee commercials) “I played baseball.” “Really?” said Dad, “who are you!”
“Joe DiMaggio,” came the expected response. “Not possible,” teased my father. “DiMaggio was a skinny good looking kid; you’re a fat old man!” When asked what DiMaggio then did my dad said: “He laughed heartily and then I got his autograph.” Which brings me to the other story of Paul Simon who had annoyed Joe DiMaggio with his lyric from the film “The Graduate, “Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio? A nation leans its tired eyes to you!….What’s that you say Mrs. Robinson, Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away!” DiMaggio thought the song was an insult, believing that Simon had declared him dead. He actually wanted to sue him for libel until it was explained that Joltin’ Joe was a lost figure, a celebrity that all admired, whether they were a Yankees’ fan or a Dodgers’ fan. It did not matter.
As we enter 2020, I can’t help but think about the heroes we have lost, the people we admired who transcended normal discourse. People who made us proud to be Americans! How our country longs for statesmen and stateswomen! Where have they gone? People who put principles over politics. Love of country over party. I am not much for celebrity. “A celebrity is someone who is famous for being famous.” It was not always that way! I grew up reading “Profiles in Courage” and I now wonder when those days will return. When will our political tribalism be checked by a devotion to right and justice? When will decent verbal discourse and eloquence return to the American conversation? In my youth I favored William Buckley’s TV show“Firing line!” It was a thoughtful engagement of issues. While I agreed with perhaps 10 percent of his comments, I never felt anything but appreciation for his thinking, his eloquence and his deportment. On occasion, George Will will resurrect in me similar admiration. In my work on addiction at the Betty Ford center as a 5th step counselor; they would say of some alcoholics that they had “to get sick and tired of being sick and tired.” I pray that the coming year will have us recover from the vitriol and anger that so often masquerades as genuine discourse. As the psalmist declared; “from the depths I call unto Thee!’
Happy New Year
Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz, D.D.
“We saw the great spirits work in almost everything; sun, moon, trees, wind, and mountains. Sometimes, we approached him through these things. Was that so bad? I think we have a true belief in the Supreme Being, a stronger faith than that of most whites who have called us pagans… Indians living close to nature and nature’s ruler are not living in darkness.” Walking Buffalo Stony
Dear Friends,
Of late I have become interested in Native American spirituality and culture. At the annual Rotary Thanksgiving meeting, I was honored to address the gathering with a message about that holiday. The history of the Pilgrims and the Indians is far more complicated than Grammar school version. I recommend the following you tube summary called The Real Story of Thanksgiving:
One of the cogent points revealed is that the holiday was actually a day of fasting, not the more gluttonous celebration that characterizes our observances. Additionally, it records the political intrigue that led to a peace which was only sustainable for less than a half century. Our holiday of thanksgiving is also relatively new having been originated with Lincoln’s proclamation. There is a cynical Israeli saying; “A nation is founded when a group of men get together and lie about their origins.”
It is said that slavery is the first sin of America. Given the racism that continues to this day, that is not hard to assert. Another assertion is that the treatment of the American Indian could easily contest that view. It is sad to say that the plight and suffering of Native Americans, First Nations etc. continues unabated. Mortality is very high, along with alcoholism and other afflictions that mark the condition of these peoples. In my charitable efforts I support a Catholic orphanage that sustains Native American culture and helps “lost children.” (St Joseph’s Indian School, see page
It strikes me as a far cry from the obscene practice of taking young children in the 19th and 20th centuries from the homes in order to convert them, westernize them and “civilize them.” It is a dark history.
I also tend to focus on the gift of Native American spirituality. Called by one scholar “Religions of place,” their faith is centered on feeling a part of Nature, not over it or beneath it. In our climate challenged times we would do well to celebrate such attitudes summed up by statements like “My brother the river!” Here is one sensitize Native American review:
“Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? “ Tecumseh (shooting star) Shawnee
Best Wishes,
Rabbi Liebowitz
Dear Friends,
As there are no punctuation marks in the Hebrew Bible we are allowed to creatively insert them, altering the meaning of a verse here and a paragraph there. This has its advantages. I was quite troubled years ago in reciting the last lines of the Birkat HaMazon. “I have been old and I have been young, I have never seen a righteous man forsaken or his children begging bread!”
Is that affirmation at all true? Who has not seen the innocent hurt and evil folk prosper? How often has this moved us to question God and His/Her justice! My Rabbi Michael Roth of blessed memory solved this dilemma by simply adding a question mark to the statement, thus turning the assertion into a prayer protest, a statement of amazement. “I have been old and I have been young, I have never seen a righteous man forsaken or his children begging bread?”
Reasonably, the sentence that follows makes for a fitting invitation to God to correct worldly injustices: “The Eternal will give strength to His/Her people. The Eternal will bless all peoples with peace!”
In that spirit I have re-punctuated the quote from the psalmist as a query regarding how pleased are we that all our brothers and sisters don’t measure up. I have given many a triumphant sermon celebrating our Jewish accomplishments; disproportionate Jewish Nobel prize awards, contributions to science, literature and more. Yet, with the demise of Jeffrey Epstein, the alleged crimes of Weinstein and a myriad number of Jewish scoundrels I have been forced to confront the fact that my triumphalism is not always balanced.
I remember vividly that many Jews hearing of the assassination of JFK followed their expressions of profound sorrow with the prayer, “Please God, I hope the assassin was not Jewish?” When days later Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby, a Jew, our apprehension once more returned.
Some time back, one Jewish writer tackled this issue head on, noting our reflexive posture that does not always serve us well psychologically. Her words merit repeating! Shayn McCallum, I am Jewish Feb 20, 2018.
We have a bit of a reflex. It means we do get ashamed when a member of the tribe does something reprehensible.
But, you know, isn’t that strange? Everyone should be mature enough to realize that people are individuals and every people on earth has its embarrassing “black sheep”. Why do we tend to feel so mortified every time we get a Harvey Weinstein, Jared Fogle, or Bernard Madoff? I mean, when was the last time you saw a bunch of WASPs agonizing over what the world will think of them because of something disgraceful done by a white protestant? Why do we feel horror as though our disgraces will be paraded in front of us as a taunt? Perhaps because this is what has always happened to us throughout history. One Jew commits a crime and there’s a pogrom or an expulsion. We do worry about it, even if such a reaction is no longer on the cards.
Jews tend to be held to collective moral standards quite a lot- not just by Non-Jewish society but in our own communities. It makes us anxious to make sure our scandals stay inside the community. Even though, statistically, it is only to be expected that a certain percentage of any population will tend to be not nice people, we feel terrible shame when someone identifiably Jewish is publicly disgraced.
Actually, we need to get over this. Weinstein is a sexual predator and he is a Jew, there is absolutely no connection between these two things. Yet, medieval terrors and traumas die hard, especially when anti- semitism has not gone away.
I invite you to write in your thoughts which will appear (with or without attribution) in our next Temple Topics.
Wishing you a wonderful 5780
Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz D.D.
Dear Friends,
Trying out the Rabbit Swamp Trail on my new bicycle, I noticed that many of the cyclists wore only hats, but a few sported helmets. Thinking this was a “safe road” I asked one cyclist if it was necessary to wear a helmet. He responded, “Only when you fall!” I think about religion and how it is used only when you fall. A cousin to this perception is the old saying; “There are no atheists in foxholes!” I wouldn’t entirely dismiss occasional usage of faith in dire circumstances, but like the person who exercises at the gym just once a year, you won’t get religion’s full effect. Prayer and observance is a discipline whose vitality depends on a measured involvement with some degree of frequency.
On occasion new members will find that it takes several visits to our services to get the ritual and the tunes, as they may be unaccustomed to our ways. With rare exception they will be able to join in, sing and stand etc. feeling quite at home within a month.
I recently came across this poem written by a colleague on the occasion of the Jewish month of Tammuz which we now celebrate. It speaks to our need to pulsate to all the seasons of our lives religiously, not only in difficult times, but in times that invite joy.
Relationships break,
Hearts break,
Life can break us sometimes,
But repair is real,
Healing is in our hands,
And hope,
And new beginnings,
Like a full moon in a darkened sky Rising to greet us
Full of possibility
And whispers of good things to come!
Wishing you sweet blessings of healing and hope -this full moon of Tammuz. Amen
Rabbi Yossi J. Liebowitz D.D.
“It is the doom of men that they forget!” (from the Arthurian legend as recorded in the film Excalibur).
Dear Friends,
The song “As time goes by!” from the film Casablanca is well known by my generation. It also sums up the dynamic of memory with its imperative “you must remember this!”
At times I take note of the familiarity that all of us have as it relates to celebrities. For example, I grew up with the late-night King Johnny Carson, while my father remembered Jack Parr and Steven Allen who preceded him. Within a span of years Jay Leno will be unknown to the next generation. As I age, I find myself groaning at the television when a simple jeopardy question goes unanswered which for me is quite obvious. It is the way of things, but not of the Jewish faith.
When reading any Talmudic passages, one is immediately struck by the constant references to sages who preceded one another. As in, Rabbi so and so said in the name of Rabbi so and so the son of… well you get the idea.
For professional Jews, rabbi, cantors, and educators who live and breathe Judaism 7 – 24, we are puzzled by the unfamiliarity with basic Jewish heritage.
A rather decent antidote to this is the book by Joseph Teluskin called Jewish Literacy. It is filled with quick read essays designed to acquaint one with the essence of our heritage. As American Jews, we have fostered a part time Judaism that inhibits a fuller grasp of our traditions. I do not despair all that much, for in a recent poll Jews rated more aware of Religion than most, ironically falling behind atheists who can boast greater knowledge. I am still trying to figure that out. One telling statistic reported that more than half of American Jews knew who Maimonides, the famed philosopher rabbi, doctor court advisor was. That’s not bad!
As time goes by this summer, I try personally to deepen my own familiarity with our heritage. In our weekly study on Saturday I was recently flattered by one attendee who thought much of my eclectic recall of Judaism. I humbly indicated that compared to some of my teachers with whom I study yearly I wonder at what they wonder about. No doubt they, in turn, are humbled by their own teachers.
Judaism with its deep and abiding heritage can be intimidating, but I prefer to see, as the Talmudic metaphor would have it, the heritage as an ocean to which we can fish a great deal of wisdom and history. For all of us who want to pass this heritage forward to the next generation there is no better way than setting an example by learning and exploring.
An old anecdote: A beatnik (boy does that date me!) was once asked by a visiting Englishman, “I say, old man how do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Without missing a beat, the beatnik answered “Practice baby! Practice!” Without that commitment, goals for our children to have a Bar or Bat mitzvah becomes an empty ritual, more Bar (i.e. celebra- tion) than Mitzvah (tradition). They might as well be taught Pig Latin once a week, if that is the relevance for them. (Forgive the treif comparison!) I came to prize my heritage for many reasons, not the least of which was seeing my grandfather davening (each morning with tallit and tefillin). He stood by my side in prayer. It made all the difference. In the center of the Talmud are passages called Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers). An essential teaching of the sage Ben Bag-Bag was “turn it over and over for everything is in it!” (5:22)
May this summertime be one of relaxation and one of enrichment. “As time goes by!”
B’shalom
Rabbi Yossi J. Liebowitz D.D.