Happy Purim!

Below is a brief video about Purim.  It is only a partial retelling of the story.  It certainly does not fulfill the mitzvah of reading the megillah, but it may make you laugh.  And this is the most important part of Purim. It is the one day when we are commanded to not take ourselves so seriously.  When you think about the fact that we are laughing and making fun at the most serious of subjects, namely antisemitism and Haman's attempt to exterminate the Jewish people, it should give you pause.  Instead we make noise, put on costumes, drink too much and celebrate with wild abandon.  Laughter really is the best medicine.  Enjoy!

Report from Haiti

Here is a slideshow about the the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti and the American Jewish World Service's extraordinary work there.  It remains heart wrenching that some 230,000 people died in one small country, most in a single city.   Haiti's population is nearly 10 million.  Even before last month's disaster over 80% of the population lived below the poverty line.  There is much work that remains to be done there and much suffering to alleviate.  As a Jew I strive to respond to suffering everywhere.  The AJWS is a worthy organization to help us begin such efforts.

Haiti: Hope and Healing in the Aftermath of Disaster

View more presentations from ajws.

Snow and Global Warming

I just returned from Baltimore, visiting potential colleges with my daughter (more about that another time I am sure).  The city was still covered by nearly four feet of snow.  There were literally mountains of snow everywhere. Cars were still buried and the sidewalks not yet plowed.  All of this snow has led some to argue that the science of global warming is incorrect.  If the earth is heating up how can there be more snow suggest some friends and politicians.  Tom Friedman weighed in on this issue, again, in today's Times.  I am not a scientist, so I evaluate things differently.  Nonetheless I find the science convincing because I find the logic indisputable.  Here is my logic.  Human beings produce a lot of garbage and waste.   We produce more today than we did years ago.  I try my best to be environmentally conscious, but my efforts feel lacking.  My wife and I probably drive about 400 miles per week.  Nearly every room has a surge suppressor because there are so many electronics running or charging.  Everyone has a computer, cell phone and iPod.  None of these things are necessities of course, but my kids would have difficulty expressing this sentiment because they are so much a part of the computer age.  I still remember talking to my friends on the house phone so living without a cell phone seems plausible and even welcome.  Turning the cell off remains one of the only joys left of flying today.  We are not a particularly wasteful family, but we do use a lot of juice, in particular electricity, gas--and even oil to heat the house.  Even though our cars and appliances are far more efficient than those I grew up with, logic suggests that we are using more than when I was a teenager.  Even if my family is using the same amount of energy as in the "ancient days of the 70's and 80's," the world's population is far larger.  The US population has increased by about 75 million since then.  That would seem like a lot more juice and a lot more waste.  The notion that human beings can go about doing whatever they want and whatever they like and not worry about the consequences to our earth is illogical.  The idea that we are not having any negative impact on our world appears to me wrong-headed.  I don't know about the ocean levels rising, the polar ice cap melting, more droughts and fires in the west and more snowstorms and hurricanes in the east, but I do know that we are changing our world.  To suggest otherwise seems illogical.  We could argue about the forecasts, but we do better to band together and lessen our impact on the world.  There is no place to go if we ruin our only home.  As a Jew I am commanded to care for my world.  We are its custodians.  So the question should not be what more can I keep doing, but what must I change.  The even more important questions are: what must we change?  How can we change--today?  How can we better care for our world?

Blanket of Snow

 

What is it about the snow that seems so serene when in fact it is a ferocious assault on modernity and our modern conveniences.  Is it because the snow appears as a soft blanket?  Or perhaps that it is a pure white--until the salt and sand, dirt and grime of modernity darkens it?  For better words, I turn to one of the greats, Emily Dickinson (#942).

Snow beneath whose chilly softness
Some that never lay
Make their first Repose this Winter
I admonish Thee
Blanket Wealthier the Neighbor
We so new bestow
Than thine acclimated Creature
Wilt Thou, Austere Snow?

Despite all of our efforts, nature always has the last word, and of course the best.  The cool winter air, swirling for a day with snowflake upon snowflake, and now with white clumps falling from the trees, should instead of being an inconvenience, be a source of delight.  We can do without our cars and computers for a few days.  Let the bright, white snow be a calming blanket.  Take in its serenity.

Just breathe in and say, Amen.

Rabbinic Leadership Initiative

Below is a picture of the group of rabbis who are a part of my cohort in the Shalom Hartman Institute's Rabbinic Leadership Initiative.  In the three years we have studied together this group of Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist rabbis have not only learned a great deal from the Institute's scholars but also and perhaps more from each other.  Most important of all we have become the closest of friends.

Where else but at Jerusalem's Machon Hartman and because of the vision of Rabbis David and Donniel Hartman would such a diverse group of rabbis have assembled together.  What first drew us to the program was our passion for Israel, love of Torah study and the opportunity to study with the leading Jewish minds of our day.  What continues to draw us to the Machon are our bonds to each other.

Dr Micah Goodman

Yesterday we studied with one of the emerging stars among Jewish scholars, Dr. Micah Goodman.  In addition to his extraordinary mastery of traditional and philosophical texts, he hosts a weekly TV show on Jewish values and directs an institute (located in Ein Prat) where secular and religious Israelis study together.  It is a joy to study with him.  I hope we can one day welcome him to our adult education program.  We studied with him the biblical books of Ezra and Ruth.  These two books represent radically different approaches to Jewish identity.  Ezra claims that Jewishness is defined by birth and by a "holy seed."  Ezra angrily banishes the foreign wives of Israelites when he returns to the land of Israel from Babylon in the fifth century BCE.  He outlaws intermarriage and even more importantly institutes the public reading of the Torah, a ritual we still perform 2,500 years later.  Ruth on the other hand opens the doors to Jewishness wide.  Ruth converts to Judaism because of her commitment to her mother in law, and by reciting but a few words.  "Your God shall be my God and your people my people..."  Ruth was a Moabite, one of Israel's sworn enemies and about whom Deuteronomy absolutely forbids positive relations.  At the end of the book that bears her name we learn that King David and therefore the messiah descends from her line.  What is most interesting about these two books is that they are both part of the same sacred book, namely the Bible.  Our Bible canonized a disagreement that continues to this day.  Our Bible's first opinion is to advocate a pluralism of ideas and to leave the disagreement undecided.  What makes one a Jew remains a complicated question.  I remain grateful that the Bible raises more questions than it answers.

Greetings from Jerusalem Part 2

Rabbi David Hartman

Rabbi David Hartman created the Shalom Hartman Institute where I am now studying. He is a remarkable rabbi.  It is an honor and privilege to study with him. On Shabbat afternoon we studied a selection from Moses Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed.  We have studied many selections from Maimonides here at the Institute.  It is remarkable that a book written 800 years ago still holds sway over our hearts, but more importantly it is extraordinary how it holds sway over our minds and instructs us how to live as Jews and moderns.  We had two classes with David Hartman on, surprisingly enough not Talmud but, Erich Fromm. Fromm wrote in The Art of Loving:  "If I truly love one person I love all persons, I love the world, I love life."  Hartman models for many of us such a life, a life committed to the Jewish world and modern world.  He is unafraid of questions.  He is unafraid of struggle, and therefore no stranger to controversy.  What is most remarkable is that I have found him to be loving and caring when addressing people and especially us, his students, yet tenacious and unforgiving when struggling with our texts.  I leave you with one of his teachings.  He taught us that the anchor of our lives is to squeeze joy out of what is available to us.  This teaching is but one example of why he is my rabbi.  This idea also embodies what is so life affirming about modern Israel.  Joy is never handed to you.  It is something that requires great effort.  It often requires wringing it out of everyday matter and ordinary stuff.

My Jerusalem Montage

A brief video of a few of the scenes that I took while in Jerusalem.

Report from Jerusalem

At present I am studying at Jerusalem's Shalom Hartman Institute. We have had many classes, lectures, discussions and a few moments to enjoy Jerusalem.  More about the classes and learning in another post, and perhaps some thoughts about my wanderings through this city's streets another time.  For now one impression.  Nothing has seemingly changed since I was last here in July.  I often marvel that the news from afar about the place in which I now sit seems always more depressing when there than here.  Israel appears on the edge of crisis, facing missiles and enemies within and without, yet when here little seems amiss.  With the exception of the disastrous construction project, building a rail line cutting through the center of town on Jaffa Street very little seems to have changed in six months.  I am not one to dismiss Israel's struggles in a cavalier manner, but when here in Jerusalem they seem less pressing than when there on Long Island.  Perhaps it is only my heart that is so at ease.  I feel at home in Jerusalem.  I would like to believe that all would feel similarly if they were here visiting Israel as well.

Greetings from Jerusalem

Israel Helping Haiti Part 2

I am sure that you join me in praying for the people of Haiti.  The destruction and continued suffering are difficult to comprehend.  In the midst of this there is a bright spot for the Jewish people.  Days after the earthquake, Israel rushed aid to Haiti.  As of January 20th, 383 people have been treated in the IDF's field hospital, among them dozens of children, 140 life-saving operations have been performed, 60 patients are currently hospitalized and 7 babies have been born in the hospital.  View the CNN video now making the rounds among those of us who feel that we can now really hold our Jewish heads high.  Caring for the world at large seems to feed that part of our being more than just caring for ourselves.  For more details about Israel's efforts and many more videos visit the Israeli government website.  Then again today's Times reports that Israelis feel great ambivalence about the aid efforts.  I for one am still hounded by the innumerable articles, sermons and discussions about God's role in the disaster.  I fail to understand the tendency to blame the Haitians for this earthquake or the need to defend God before the indifference of nature.  Read this week's New Yorker for more on this theme.  Let's be honest about nature.  Let's be honest about faith.  And so I conclude with the words of the Psalmist: "God is our refuge and stronghold, a help in trouble, very near.  Therefore we are not afraid though the earth reels..."

Wearing a Religious Device

If you have not read about this you have to watch the following YouTube video about how a Jewish teenager's wearing of tefillin forced a US Airways flight to make an emergency landing.  I am sure that this is not what God intended when saying, "Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children..." (Deuteronomy 11)  The police officer's characterization of tefillin as a religious device is most unusual.

Israel Helping Haiti

I wish the American media covered stories such as these.  It is a brief video of the IDF unit helping Haiti's earthquake victims.  The Israeli soldiers delivered a baby who is now named, "Israel."

Responding to Haiti

I respond to the ongoing tragedy in Haiti first with prayer and then with action.
And so I begin with a prayer written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.  It was first composed in response to the 2004 Tsunami:  "We join our prayers to the prayers of others throughout the world, for the victims of the earthquake which this week has brought destruction and disaster to many lives.  Almighty God, we pray You send healing to the injured, comfort to the bereaved, and news to those who sit and wait. May You be with those who even now are engaged in the work of rescue. May You send Your strength to those who are striving to heal the injured, give shelter to the homeless, and bring food and water to those in need. May You bless the work of their hands, and may they merit to save lives.  Almighty God, we recognize how small we are, and how powerless in the face of nature when its full power is unleashed. Therefore, open our hearts in prayer and our hands in generosity, so that our words may bring comfort and our gifts bring aid. Be with us now and with all humanity as we strive to mend what has been injured and rebuild what has been destroyed.  Ken Yehi Ratzon, ve-nomar Amen.  May it be Your will, and let us say Amen."
Second, I offer this picture of the State of Israel's quick humanitarian response.  The Israel Defense Forces’ emergency aid team arrived in Haiti on January 15.  It consists of a medical unit as well as search and rescue teams. The mission has established a major field hospital adjacent to Port-au-Prince’s soccer stadium. At present this is one of the largest medical facilities currently operating in Haiti with the capacity to treat up to 500 patients per day.  To view more pictures follow this link.

And finally I urge you to join me in giving tzedakah in order to support the ongoing efforts of the many aid organizations now working in Haiti. I am giving to the American Jewish World Service.  This is always my top pick in such situations. To read more of the AJWS's efforts follow this link.  May healing soon come to the nation and people of Haiti!

Follow Up

Here are two recent articles related to my post Stopping Terror.
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens writes: "One of life's paradoxes is that we are as often undone by our virtues as by our vices. And so it is with civilizations, ours not least."  I disagree that torture (that is my view of waterboarding) should ever be permitted.  I agree that we should stop worrying about political correctness.  Terrorism is a danger coming from the Muslim world.
In today's New York Times, Tom Friedman writes: "Finding people with the courage to confront that breakdown — the one identified by the father, the one that lures young Muslims away from the mainstream into a willingness to commit suicide against innocent civilians as part of some jihadist power fantasy — is what matters most right now."  Until the Muslim world loudly cries: these terrorists are our enemies as well, this is not Islam; we have no choice but to add their countries' citizens to the list requiring extra searches.

Pope Pius XII

A great deal has been written in the Jewish press about the march to canonizing Pope Pius XII as a saint.  In Jewish eyes the man who served as pope during the Holocaust remains a controversial figure.  Did he do enough to save Jews from the Nazi onslaught?  Did he do enough to save Europe from the evils of the Nazi regime?  It seems clear to me that he did not.  To be honest there were few in power who did enough.  The United States failed to bomb the tracks leading to Auschwitz arguing that it would divert valuable resources from the war effort.  We turned away the SS St Louis from our American shores, sending hundreds back to Germany and most to death.  Some historians have argued that this act emboldened Hitler (y"s) in his march to the final solution.  Through the lens of historical hindsight few did enough.  There were of course a few extraordinary individuals.  These righteous gentiles were almost always simple, pious folk and not those who occupied positions of leadership or power.  Read Yad VaShem's account of the righteous gentiles here.  I wish the Pope did more. I also wish the Catholic Church would open its archives so we can learn more of the history.  The question about Pope Pius becoming a saint is different.  I believe every human being is fallible.  This is part of what makes me a Jew.  This is what I learn from reading the Bible.  Moses is a great leader but given to anger.  David is an extraordinary warrior and poet but given to, shall we say, sexual indiscretions and even murder.  I would not call these leaders saints.  I would not call anyone a saint.  I believe that people are given to errors.  I believe in the infallibility of no one.  I have no saints.  I have only one God.  Whether Catholics call Pope Pius a saint is in their hands.  The issue is more a matter of Catholic belief than Jewish history.  Jewish belief is clear on this point.  History has yet to rule on the matter.  For more information about Pope Pius's wartime record read this article.  

Stopping Terror

I just returned from a short trip to visit my parents in St. Louis.  I traveled through the airports with relative ease despite the increased security following the attempted terror attack in Detroit.  My bag was searched by hand at Laguardia and my tubes of shaving cream and toothpaste were confiscated.  (I always forget that four ounce rule.)  Herein lies the problem with our current system.  We make new regulations and restrictions in response to each thwarted (thank God!) attack.  We have to take off our shoes.  We can't carry on toothpaste.  But our approach is backwards.  We are so wrapped up in individual rights and so worried about trampling on them that we are left to regulating objects and things.  Unfortunately our enemies are individuals not things.  Terrorism is an instrument used by hate filled individuals.  People whose hearts are so steeped in hate will find whatever things they can place their hands on to cause damage, destruction, fear and terror.  So we need to worry more about the individuals who would cause us harm.  We need to call such individuals our enemies.  We need to identify them before they board a plane.  One clear and decisive rule would be this.  If a father alerts authorities about his son's increasing radical views then he should be placed on an immediate no-fly list.  If your dad turns you in then you are really headed for trouble.  I can't imagine doing something so terrible that  my dad would call the police first.  But this very bewilderment explains why I went to St. Louis in the first place.  And one final point.  Regulating things creates the illusion that we can fashion a system that is 100% effective.  All you have to do is design a better machine to detect my potentially harmful five ounce tube of  toothpaste.  (See David Brook's recent column for more about this point.)  This illusion keeps us from the more important task of identifying hate-filled individuals before they can cause us harm.  Unfortunately you can never keep out all of our enemies.  Terrorism will be a part of our landscape for a long time to come.  But you can prevent it from creeping into your hearts.  You can prevent it from sowing hate.  That, and that alone, is 100% in our hands.  

Belated Happy Hanukkah

Last week I attended my daughter's high school winter concert.  She sings in the school choir.  Here are the songs they performed: Siyahamba (a South African Swahili hymn), Maoz Tzur (our very own Rock of Ages), Noche de Luz (Night of Silence), I'll be There (by the Jackson 5), The Storm is Passing Over (a Gospel standard) and the Halleluyah Chorus (from Handel's Messiah).  First of all let's state the obvious.  A far more diverse selection of music than the days of Solomon Schechter!  And also to be honest, I have still not come to terms with the conflicting feelings of seeing and hearing my daughter sing verses from the New Testament's Book of Revelation (that is what the Halleluyah chorus is structured around).  My feelings are something of a mixture of "Wow, she sings so well.  It makes me so proud." with "That's not what we believe.  No, we are still waiting."  Nonetheless the multi-ethnic quality of the occasion was wonderful to behold and despite the inability of Maoz Tzur to measure up to the music of Handel and great Gospel (I love Gospel!) I was taken in by the event's pluralism.  And this of course brings me to Hanukkah.  The Maccabees would have been none too pleased.  This concert and the celebration of Hanukkah in the midst of a non-Jewish culture would have, to be honest to our history, angered them.  David Brooks had it right in his New York Times column.  The heroes of the Hanukkah story were radical in their ideology.  "They were right and the rest of the world wrong" was their motto.  There was nothing good to be found in the non-Jewish world.  Its influences must be opposed at all costs.  It is this kind of ideology that leads some to destroy, apparently, a mosque in Israel's West Bank.  Read the Jerusalem Post's account here and the New York Times account of this tragic tale and its aftermath here.  This destructive act appears to have been a deliberate attempt to live by the Maccabees' values.  And herein lies the essence of Hanukkah in today's world.  The overwhelming majority of the Jewish world celebrates Hanukkah and the victory of the Maccabees but does not call its heroes' values their own.  We live in two worlds.  We have one foot in the Jewish world and one in the non-Jewish world.  Even at day schools where we only sing our own songs, we live in two worlds.  Even in Israel, in our sovereign Jewish state, we are both Jewish and modern.  In my new world we sing their songs.  They sing ours.  That is how I choose to live.  I am thankful for the victory of centuries ago.  I am thankful as well that the Maccabees did not remain in power for very long.  I also hope and pray that their ideology never rules the day.  There is good to be found in my world and the outside world.  It is easier and simpler to be a fanatic and say "Only I am right.  Only my Jewish world."  I choose instead complicated and nuanced.  And by the way my Shira sang beautifully!

Orrin Hatch's Hanukkah Song

I am sure you read about this in The New York Times.  I am still not sure what to say about it...  Happy Hanukkah from Senator Orrin Hatch!? I guess the response is better left to song: "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.
And by the way, here is the story of that most famous of Christmas songs.