May Her Memory be for a Blessing
We are saddened to announce the passing of long-time member, Arielle Wilson. Arielle passed away on Saturday. A graveside service will be held.
We are saddened to announce the passing of long-time member, Arielle Wilson. Arielle passed away on Saturday. A graveside service will be held.
A very big thank you to everyone who helped
make the Purim Shabbat so special for everyone.
It was wonderful to have so many helping
hands. Without all of your assistance, dinners like this
would not be possible.
Check Temple Topics for our next meeting.
We look forward to seeing you then.
Have a wonderful Passover!
Peggy Ann Buchman
4/1 Henry Vogelstein
4/1 Earl B. Yoffe
4/2 Samuel Davidson
4/2 Irwin Leader
4/4 David Gordin
4/4 Eleanor Oppenheimer
4/8 Jennie Abelkop
4/8 Ben Stauber
4/11 Dorothy Singer
4/11 Samuel Smiley
4/13 Herman Price
4/14 Aaron Kaplan
4/15 Sam Reichal
4/16 Etta Goldman
4/17 Sharon Massey
4/18 Louis Blumenfeld
4/18 Fannie A. Levin
4/18 Israel Margolis
4/20 Evelyn Edmundson
4/20 Anna Reichel
4/21 Sylvia Cooper
4/21 Blanche Lyon
4/22 Harry Packer
4/23 Samuel Lazarowitz
4/24 Aladar Hirschler
4/24 Mary Vogelstein
4/25 Helen Levenson
4/26 Nancy Geller
4/26 Samuel Packer
4/29 Jack Minsky
As the weather warms and early blooms appear, I vividly recall a disappointing day during my freshman year in college. While trying to register for my spring classes, I discovered that a course I had been hoping to take was closed. Instead of Modern Fiction, then, I would have to enroll in another class to complete my English requirement. I selected one called Early British Romantic Poetry, which I chose quite reluctantly and did not expect to enjoy.
To my surprise, I loved the class, and over the years I’ve retained much of the knowledge and insight that I acquired by reading works by Shelley, Keats and Wordsworth (whose poems very often employ the imagery of springtime, by the way). Something similar happened in graduate school, when I was closed out of a seminar on Hegel that I was hoping to take. Instead, I had to enroll in a course on the philosophy of art, which was a subject I knew little about and in which I had almost no interest. Little could I have suspected then that I would wind up specializing in just this field, and would write my doctorate dissertation and numerous scholarly articles on this very subject.
To some, turns of events like these may amount to little more than happy coincidences and good luck. Others might see them as instances of what is described by the Hebrew word b’shert, or “what is meant to be.” But it’s not just course selections that reveal these turns of fortune. What would life had been like, for example, had you turned down the invitation to the dinner party where you met your spouse, or where a casual introduction at a cocktail party led to an amazing job offer?
Whether it’s luck or it’s b’shert, very often the most significant gifts that we receive in life, and the ones which help us to grow the most, are not what we expect. Very often, in fact, these occurrences even turn out to be contrary to what we had actually been planning for ourselves.
This is not to say that plans are unimportant. They certainly are. But in addition to all the rational thinking that goes into our plans, we must also cultivate the wisdom to understand the limits of how much planning we should do, when to implement our plans, and when to keep them on the drawing board. We must also learn how to adapt to the surprising dynamics of life by not clinging so stubbornly to our plans when circumstances require us to change.
For me, the takeaway from these memories, and many other besides, is a reminder of the need to be open, receptive and spontaneous in our expectations and dealings with the world. This is precisely the situation we have found ourselves in lately as a congregation. Without planning or searching, we were fortuitously contacted by Cantor Shira Ginsburg, who went on to lead our beautiful High Holiday services this past year. Similarly, just when our previous Cantor, Jason McKinney, was leaving us for a congregation in North Carolina several years ago, Converse University was hiring two new faculty members named Courtney LeBauer and Steve Graff, who, along with Converse Professor Keith Jones, have been gracing our services with their exquisite musical gifts. The same can be said for Elliott McCarthy, who joined our temple at the precise time that we needed the ritual talent and knowledge that he brings to our Friday evening Shabbat services.
Eastern philosophical traditions instruct us to be open to all possibilities. Judaism teaches us to have faith that the lives we live are rich with meaning. Our own experiences as a community inspire us to be grateful for the gifts we enjoy.
With these thoughts in mind, I wish everyone a healthy and joyous spring filled with surprise, wonder and gratitude.
Mark Packer,
President
Sisterhood will hold a brunch meeting. We welcome all members as well
as anyone interested in joining Sisterhood to attend.
Enjoy delicious food, visit, and discuss upcoming
Sisterhood projects. The latest project, an exit door in
the Sisterhood room, is well underway so come see the
progress. Many thanks to Rex Russell for
overseeing this project.
3/5 Meyer Bernstein
3/7 Esther Bromley
3/10 Samuel Hecklin
3/11 Gussie Hecklin
3/12 Lenore Axelrod
3/13 Jeanne Hutchinson
3/15 Alvin H. Levin
3/16 Samuel Cohen
3/16 Emil Mortge
3/17 Morris Cohen
3/17 Abraham Felsher
3/17 Alan Silverman
3/20 Ray Fishbein
3/22 Iman Bornstein
3/23 Anne P. Gray
3/25 Lillian Bernstein
3/25 Esther Garrell
3/29 Sidney August
3/30 Molly Black
3/30 Rose L. Katz
3/30 Margaret Wachter
Sometime back in the 1980s, the Dalai Lama was visiting the United States. While he
was here, he requested an audience with some rabbis so that he could learn more about Judaism.
During the conversation, he asked one of the rabbis to express, in just a few words, a basic
insight about Jewish belief and practice. The rabbi replied that one essential thing to understand
about Judaism is that Jews always disagree with one another.
“That’s not true!” quipped another rabbi.
Ten Jews, eleven opinions. That’s what my father always used to say. And if we scroll
through the pages of the Talmud, we can see the truth in this. Over the course of many centuries,
rabbis disagreed and debated with one another about such issues as how to interpret the Torah,
what certain symbols in the liturgy mean, and the best ways to practice the rituals, among many
other topics. In the absence of a pope or some other religious authority to settle the matter, the
discussions were left open, without resolution, so that future generations could continue the
conversation.
Yet, in spite of all the differences in opinion, somehow the Jewish people have
remained united as an enduring faith tradition throughout many years of exile, diaspora and
persecution. It amazes me when we host visitors from other countries as far away as Latin
America and Eastern Europe, that we all recite the same prayers and even sing the same
melodies when we pray together as Jews.
Sameness in difference, and difference in sameness, might have been a good way to
inform the Dalai Lama about who we are.
It is therefore rather discouraging to see how these insights and values are quickly
disappearing from American political life. E Pluribus Unum, said the founders of the
Republic: Out of Many, One. But as more and more people burrow ever more deeply into
their information silos and echo chambers on social media and cable news, the value of
difference and disagreement for the democratic conversation has been forgotten, and is even
greeted with hostility. In addition to the many other gifts the Jewish people have given to
Western civilization, the revival of a robust but civil conversation on contentious topics could
certainly be one of them.
Louis Brandeis, who was the first Jewish Justice of the US Supreme Court, aptly noted
that when we find the opinions of others to be disagreeable and even obnoxious, “the remedy
to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.” Similarly, the philosopher John Stuart
Mill, one of the most passionate defenders of liberty, remarked that however true an opinion
may seem, “if it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed, it will be held as a dead
dogma, not a living truth.”
As the world around us explodes with controversy and uncertainty, let’s not forget
what these thinkers are teaching us about viewpoint toleration. Let’s also remember how our
traditions instruct us about the life and sustenance to be found in disagreement, as opposed
to the mind-numbing dullness that results from conformity of opinion. To be Jewish is
certainly to disagree with our fellow Jews. Let’s not lose sight of this wisdom when we
disagree with our fellow citizens.
Mark Packer