Holidays

From the Heart with Rabbi Liebowitz

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Dear Friends,

Some time ago I came across this cartoon. What attracted it to me was the “Jewish sense” of multiple interpretations. The Midrash comments that “Like a hammer striking a rock will yield many splinters, so looking at a verse of tradition will provide many meanings.” Why did the chicken crossed the road?

One favored paradigm, not unlike the literary response in the cartoon, bids to look at any verse, story, or tradition as multilayered: The literal view, the view that hints at something greater, the interpretive view (Midrash) and the Sod, or secret mystical understanding. In the case of the chicken crossing the road:

The four interpretations are:

1. Literal – to get to the other side
2. Hint – she must have a motivation
3. Midrash – Her mate is on the other side, OR to get away from a predator OR to get sustenance, OR to go back to its nest
4. Mystical or Sod – this is not about a chicken but a metaphor for our souls that are always making a journey – to heaven eventually?  To a transformative state, improving ourselves Or (well you enter into the conversation and come up with another splinter, i.e. interpretation that fits you.)

As it is Sukkot time we are mindful of one symbolic sense of the Lulav and Etrog:
The Sages of the Midrash insisted that there are four types of Jews:

· “Etrog Jew” is both learned and filled with good deeds
· The “Lulav Jew” has learning but no good deeds;
· The “Myrtle Jew” has good deeds but no learning
· The “Willow-branch Jew” has nei- ther learning nor good deeds.

What kind of Jewish person do you wish to be? We are commanded to bind these four together, in order to remind us that a Jewish community consists of many types of Jews all of whom must be accepted and lovingly included within our Jewish community.

Congregational life is certainly most reflective of the variety of Jewish types cited above. Surely there are many more: cultural, Yiddishist, political, Zionist, Hebraists, Meditative, etc. It is diz- zying to keep track of them all, let alone bind them together in a union that strengthens our community. I hope that the coming year (post pandemic we pray) will be for our temple com- munity a place to explore all of those possibilities. In these pages are events that hopefully speak to each of you, if not all then at least some. (Film – Interfaith Services, dinners, movie time, Torah study etc.)

If it’s not too late: Shanah Tova, Chag Sameach My best wishes to one and all.

Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz, D.D.

From the Heart with Rabbi Liebowitz

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Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don’t turn from it, for nothing is better than it. (Pirkey Avot chapter 5) Ben Bag-Bag.

Dear Friends,

At this time of writing, we are well into reading from the book of Deuteronomy. It is largely a farewell speech by Moses as the People of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land. Its title differs from the Hebrew Devarim which simply means Matters and connotes Divine utterances. The Western title Deuteronomy does indeed capture the theme of the book as well for the book is filled with repetitions, most prominently another version of the Ten Commandments. Readers are often perplexed by this repetition. I think of the apparent redundancy as consistent with the modern Hebrew saying – “I have already seen this movie!” A deeper look, however, will allow the reader to take note of subtle differences which offer some exquisite meanings not found in the previous version.

As we begin our calendrical sojourn to the High Holy Days in the late summer as our tradition bids us to do, I anticipate the liturgy in our Prayer book, the Machzor. The late Rabbi Richard J. Israel author of “the Kosher Pig and other Curiosities of Modern Jewish Life” told the anecdote of the Jew who was seen ripping out a page from the High Holy Day prayer book. Facing rebuke by another member of the community, he said: “It is my custom that the week before the New Year I rip out a single page out of our Machzor. Though I plan to live as long as Moses did, (120 years) there would still be thousands of pages left to omit even if I were to live to the age of Methuselah. (1000 years)

Our A.D.D, culture surely encourages brevity. Just consider the fifteen-minute segments in our regular TV shows punctuated by commercials and previews. In my youth my Rabbi would offer his High Holy Day sermon which would go on for at least forty-five minutes. What was the fifteen minutes introduction is now the standard length of any rabbinical talk. Any longer than that would prompt some members of the flock to point comically to their watch as a not too subtle reminder it was time to wrap things up. Fair enough as most of us in our culture do not have what Germans called Sitzfleish. Or as a modern quip would have it – “The mind can absorb no more than the seat can endure!” Many a Jewish visitor to Protestant Churches are impressed by the brevity of the service. Not so much at a full Catholic Mass in which you can likewise grow fungus by the time it is over. Our 24 hours Yom Kippur marathon does contain numerous repetitious prayers causing not a few eye-rolls when hearing Avinu Malkeinu yet once more.

The above quote by the rabbinic sage and disciple of Hillel the Elder some two thousand years ago is wise as it is ironic. He offers the imperative that we engage in repetition as you never know what things you may have missed the first time. Why ironic? Aside from this single maxim encouraging a second or even third look he is not mentioned any where else in the Talmud. His teachings were quite brief. My seventh grade English teacher told me that one would do well to re-read Huck Finn every ten years as we all have new eyes as the years pass. It is also the same for viewing classic films such as The Graduate. In my youth I saw Mrs. Robinson as a villainous character. As the years have passed, I now see her as a pained, almost sympathetic figure compromised by the choices she made in her youth.

Looking forward to seeing you at the High Holy days again and again and again and again, if not sooner!

Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz, D.D.

A Message from our President

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I hope everyone has enjoyed a wonderful summer and is beginning to look ahead to the fall season.

I know many of us are preparing for our children or themselves to go back to school. My favorite part about this time of year has always been school supply shopping. I have enjoyed this ritual for decades. From my own education, teaching elementary school to sending three children to school, I could not wait for school supplies to be displayed at the local office and discount stores. I literally could look at school supply offerings for hours. Making selections could even take more than one trip to the store. For me, new notebooks have endless possibilities, with the shiny cover and the pristine lined pages. What will I document in them, how will they be filled? Will it be with facts? Will I write a well-intentioned journal that I invaria- bly stop after a few weeks, or will it be daily lists that seem to go on forever?

Also, I am accustomed to using a paper planner, no digital calendar for me. I use a planner that is based on the academic year and guess what, this is the time of the year to select a new planner! More fun for me! I pour over websites that sell planners. It is truly amazing these days, the planner selections.

One can select a planner from their favorite designer or you can actually “build” a planner from cover to cover with just about any calendar configura- tion imaginable. Once I select and receive my planner, again, endless possi- bilities. What will I do productive this year and keep track of in my new planner? Will it be board meetings, luncheons, maybe a party here and there? Basically, a new planner is a blank slate with so many prospects, hope and renewal.

The time of year to purchase new note- books and a planner dovetail for me with the Jewish High Holidays that also bring with them a blank slate. We celebrate the beginning of a new year and the ending of the past year with much observation, reflection and reverence. After Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur the sense of renewal and hope is palpable.

Our Rabbi and Ritual Committee are busy planning the High Holidays which we hope to observe in person and virtually. Please check the calendar in Temple Topics for all upcoming events. In August there is a Temple BBQ planned at which I hope to see many of you. During September we observe Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah along with going back to Sunday School. Already, the calendar is filling up with so many possibilities!

I wish your notebooks and calendars to be filled with all you enjoy, be that time with family and friends or other endeav- ors that make you joyful. Most of all I wish each of you a wonderful new season and year, Shanah Tova!

Tina Lyon
Board President, Congregation B’nai Israel

Update for Services

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Covid-19 Policy for the High Holy Days

The Ritual Committee in concert with the Temple Board met this week to outline a Covid-19 Policy for the upcoming High Holy Days services. Based on the most recent CDC guidelines, those who are fully inoculated are welcome to attend holiday services in person, and mask wearing is expected. Services will be streamed via Facebook Live for those unable to attend. We want everyone to be healthy and happy for the New Year.

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Dear friends,

My first year in rabbinical school was in Jerusalem, one year after the Yom Kippur war had ended. It was a sobering moment when on the anniversary of its conclusion the nation came to a standstill. As is done every year on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, a siren was sounded for two minutes. Everything stops! Traffic, pedestrians at corners, shopkeepers! The weeks leading to that day were filled with re-burials for those who died in the Sinai and were interred in temporary settings. Nearly three thousand casualties in a small nation which proportionately in America would have meant millions!

A woman standing next to me spoke after the sirens went silent. She told me she had been a nurse on the Egyptian front, had witnessed the carnage. Despondently, she spoke of a soldier who was on life support lingering between life and death and how she wanted to withdraw the sustaining IV and let him die. “I feel that about the Jewish people,” she then remarked. “I had a family that was all but destroyed in the Holocaust. As with the Jewish people I sometimes think after this latest carnage that we need to pull the plug and end our existence. Let us at long last give up!” What response could you offer at such a moment? Who can judge that woman’s despair? Not I then or now!

April each year is filled with small observances that follow Passover but which are large in meaning: Holocaust day, Yom Hazikaron (Israel Memorial Day) and then Yom Ha’atsmaut (Israel Independence Day).

An Israeli member of the Knesset remarked: “That is how we do it: first a sad day of remembrance followed by the jubilance of independence. “ Somehow we find a way to persist. The news out of Israel is often dire. Newspapers tend to focus on the bad news, the injustices and excesses of the Jewish nation state, disproportionately so! One of the antidotes that I prescribe is a website Israel 21C. It is filled with happy reviews of Israel’s technological prowess, efforts for reconciliation and steps for peace. Such newsworthy items are eclipsed by the ugly realities of the Middle East. It provides us with some balance. Not to ignore any of the concerns that arise when we consider the poor machinations that befall any nation state which are by definition endemic! Hopefully not epidemic!

I will celebrate Israel’s Independence Day this year as I do every year. On page
8 you can review that which I review every year; Israel’s Independence day declaration. It too, is an antidote to despair and a reminder never to pull the plug!

Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz D.D.

From the Heart with Rabbi Liebowitz

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Dear Friends,

One of my favorite Yiddish expressions is “Mitten d’rinen!” roughly translated as “In the middle of everything!” Two examples:

You finally settle down in the bathtub after a long arduous day and the doorbell rings! “Mitten d’rinen!”

It is some long-lost relative who happens to drop in unexpectedly; or you are on an important business call and a friend

beeps in on your cell phone who just has to ask you one question. “Mitten d’rinen!” Not now!

I tend to think of the end of February as a “Mitten d’rinen!” time of the year. Winter is not quite over, and Spring is just a few weeks away.

No mistake that Groundhog Day takes place in the first week of this month. It is a lovely tradition that is steeped in silliness and in anticipation of the end of one season giving way to the next.

This year’s turn of the season adds another and more painful aspect beyond the chilling effects of winter which will hopefully abate.

The pandemic is still with us, painfully with us! We all know the statistics for each day brings a shocking review of death and illness. The vaccines are finally here

as are other measures that if followed will minimize harm. It is human nature to practice denial. Some think they are indestructible and have some special

immunity from this plague. Some religious leaders in defiance have done what they could to ignore the proscriptions and prescriptions. One woman, a devout Christian,

was questioned why she was gathering at church service with hundreds of others. She cheerfully insisted: “I am bathed in the blood of Christ” which somehow offered her immunity.

Such foolishness is not limited to Christian devotees as many of our traditional brethren have also gathered for huge celebrations. In all instances, illness and death follow.

I am as anxious as anyone to return to our sanctuary filled with members. It is still not safe! We remain virtual! All of us are filled with an anxiety (or should be) about how diligent we need to be.

Many of my rabbinical colleagues often face pressure to allow services to resume in the temple. There is a wide range of responses to life cycle events. I have elected at this perilous time

to officiate at our cemetery sadly for funerals and unveilings, practicing distancing and mask wearing. Many of my colleagues will only officiate virtually. I respect their choice. Home visits

are out of the question for many. I have continued at holiday time to visit members with some trepidation. Hospital visits are not possible now. It is ironic that the holiday of masks is upon us, Purim!

Beyond the comedy of the normal celebrations is a subtext about the threat to Jewish life. It is for the foreseeable future Purim every day. I wish it were otherwise. In Hebrew the word for

patience is Savlanut. It is related to Hebrew root Samech Bet Lamed – S B L meaning toleration or suffering. There is an old equivalent in English. In a scene from the

film Dr. Zhivago, Yuri’s half-brother Yefgraf says, “He suffered me to buy him a new suit of clothes!” (The book is better by the way!)

I wish one and all Savlanut, patience at this time and not suffering. Purim and joy is if not around the corner – it is in view!

Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz D.D.

 

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