From Our Rabbi
Avdim Hayinu, We Were Slaves in the Land of Egypt
Dear friends,
According to multiple organizations, there were 46 million people enslaved in 2016, with an estimated 18.3 million of those in India “Andrew Forest puts world’s richest countries on notice: Global Slavery Index.” (Sydney Morning Herald. Australia. Fairfax. 31 May 2016.)
As we sit down at our Seder meals this month we would do well to remind ourselves and others that slavery is not an ancient crime, but alive and well around the world and even in “the land of the free!” Estimates arrange from 27,000 to 60,000 in the United States.
The Sage in Pirke Avot, ethics of the fathers commented, “It is not the interpretations we offer that are essential but the deeds we perform.” In the midst of our imbibing and fressing and blessing we ought “walk the walk” and not merely “talk the talk.” I urge you to read up on slavery around the world and in America. One such organization among a staggering number among dozens upon dozens devoted to ending trafficking, forced labor etc is The Exodus Road
Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, The Exodus Road supports active operatives in India and southeast Asia, primarily in Thailand, and in the United States. As of December 31, 2015, The Exodus Road claims to have directly supported 667 rescues, made 191 arrests, works with a total of 201 operatives, and operates in 4 countries. The Exodus Road’s web site states that it is not a faith-based organization. Another site which features an incredible number of similar efforts can be found on Alliance Against Modern Slavery.
Here is a short list of American charities to which you can contribute and help turn the idealized words into idealized actions:
United States Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking LA
Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS)
Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth (MISSEY)
Wishing you a sweet Passover
The Diary of Ann Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank
Performed at Foothills Playhouse in Easley
Sunday, March 26 at 3:00 pm
If you would like to join the Rabbi, please contact him so that he can get the tickets. School children will have a pizza lunch after religious school, and then there will be a carpool leaving from the temple at 1:30 pm. Please be on time! If you would like to meet us at the playhouse, the directions are below.
Take I-85 South toward Greenville—Take exit 40 toward Easley onto SC-153 N(Highway 153)5.7 mi—Take ramp onto Calhoun Memorial Hwy (US-123)2.4 mi/ – Keep right onto Main St (SC-93)2.3 mi—Continue on W Main St (SC-93)0.3 mi/ – Turn left onto Folger Ave 0.1 mi/ – Turn left onto Gulf St 278 ft—Arrive at Gulf St. Your destination is on the right—201 S 5th St, Easley, SC 29640-2825
Save the Dates!
Movie Night: Saturday, March 18 at 7:00 pm, Woman in Gold
Sunday School: Sunday, March 19 beginning at 9:30 am with Hebrew.
Hebrew School: Wednesday, March 22 at 3, 4, and 5:00 pm
Kabbalat Shabbat: Friday, March 24 at 5:30 with wine and cheese
Saturday Service: March 25 at 9:30 am
Sunday School: Sunday, March 26 beginning at 9:30 am with Hebrew.
Anne Frank Play: Sunday, March 26, leave the temple at 1:30 to carpool.
Hebrew School: Wednesday, March 29 at 3, 4, and 5:00 pm
Kabbalat Shabbat: Friday, March 31 at 5:30 with wine and cheese
PLEASE REMEMBER TO RSVP TO THE TEMPLE FOR ALL EVENTS!
Message from our Rabbi
Dear friends,
After my clip-on sunglasses finally broke apart, I went to amazon.com and secured a new kind of sunglasses that fit neatly over your regular eyeglasses. Putting them on for the first time I was quite disappointed to see that I could not see all that well. The view in front of me was quite fuzzy. Shifting the sunglasses to and fro, up and down, I hoped the fuzziness would go away. Alas it did not! As I was preparing to send them back to amazon, the thought occurred to me that the front of their lenses might have a protective piece of cellophane. Sure enough that was the reason my vision was impaired.
Our holiday of Purim famous for the wearing of masks coincides with the theme of hiding one’s identity. Esther, the heroine of our tale, hid her Jewish identity until Uncle Mordecai said to her: “Do not imagine that you in the King’s palace can escape any more than all the Jews. ” (Esther 4: 13) The name Esther itself, is from the Hebrew meaning “the one who hides!”
We are bid to unmask ourselves and be true to our inner identity, be it in our relationship to family, friends or our people. So often we pretend to be someone else, but as the story of Esther bids us to use a more modern saying. “You can run, but you can’t hide!” This is the time to take off the cellophane and allow ourselves to better see our own authentic selves as Jews and as human beings.
I look forward to our Purim celebration this Saturday afternoon beginning at five.
Chag Sameach.
Rabbi Yossi J. Liebowitz D.D.
Rabbi in the Community
The Rabbi has been busy with visiting congregants. He has worked closely with the Interfaith Alliance as well as the Spartanburg Green Congregations. Coming up this month he will speak at Central Methodist Church on repentance.
From the Heart with Rabbi Liebowitz
Dear Friends,
It was fashionable from the 1950’s through the late 1970’s for rabbis to schedule four types of sermons a month; a sermon on Israel and in defense of the same, a sermon on social action, a sermon on anti-Semitism and a sermon on Jewish values as it pertained to human concerns. In recent years I, along with many of my colleagues have found sermons on Israel less easy to give. Similarly, as anti-Semitism has ebbed that option has also, thank goodness, ebbed. We live, as the Chinese proverb would have it in interesting times. In recent days, we have received mixed news. On the one hand, the Pew Research has noted that when it comes to favored and least favored religious groups, Jews by a small percentage are the most favored; nearly 70 per cent have positive about us.
Quite gratifying! That is the good news! However, that leaves some thirty percent who are to put it mildly negatively inclined towards us. On the heels of this report has come alarming news regarding dozens of threats to synagogues, temples and Jewish Community Centers. Hoaxes, notwithstanding, these threats need to be taken seriously, and they are a form of hate mongering. Additionally, one synagogue cemetery has been desecrated with numerous tombstones overturned and others defaced and vandalized. Growing anti-Semitism is, in my judgement connected to the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanction) movement which has gained great traction on college campuses. It has become fashionable to become a detractor of Israel focusing on its foibles while ignoring equally ugly moral lapses by many other nations. Leaving aside the political concerns of how effective the BDS movement is, or how justified it is, there is no doubt that Israel is now seen as a pariah among the nations who have established a false equivalency to Apartheid.
Things go in cycles. The rabbis wondered: when the Messiah comes and every day will be a Paradise, that is to say a Sabbath, will we have any need for any Jewish holidays? If everyone, for example would not sin in a messianic age, what would be the need for Yom Kippur? But they concluded that the one holiday we would never abandon is Purim. The sages asserted that the theme of Purim is about the threat to Jews and that threat never ever goes away. As such, constant vigilance is called for. I know that many in this generation do not see Israel as heroic as our parents had. In my own view, Israel is with all its foibles a great nation. We need to assert that greatness even as we maintain the integrity to acknowledge its deficiencies. Without such assertions of its value, anti- Semitism will continue to fester and grow. It will be used to fuel what
Alan Dershowitz called “Judeo-phobia.” We have seen such a proliferation in Europe and it is sadly making its ways to these shores. As the Israel proverb would have it, “We have seen this movie before!”
Wishing one and all, in anticipation of the warmth of spring, the best Rabbi Yossi J. Liebowitz D.D.