Clinton's Rebuke

Today's papers reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu by telephone yesterday offering him a stern rebuke regarding the planned expansion of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo.  According to the papers President Obama was furious over the ruckus created during Vice President Biden's visit last week.  Clearly Netanyahu's government erred in the timing of the housing permission's issuance.  Then again perhaps this is exactly what the right wing Interior Minister Eli Yishai intended.  Here is my view for what it is worth.  Jerusalem is not the same as the West Bank.  Call it East Jerusalem if you want, but the city is unified and must remain so under Israeli sovereignty.  Only under Israeli sovereignty have Jews, Muslims and Christians had access to their holy sites (except of course when rioting).  Israel gained control of these areas from Jordan during the 1967 war.  The ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo sits near French Hill and is part of the bustling Jerusalem municipality.  (It is most helpful to look at a map.)  When in Jerusalem I often drive by Ramat Shlomo on my way to my cousin's apartment in the northern suburb of Pisgat Zev.  I agree with Biden's words: "Sometimes, only a friend can deliver the hardest truths," in particular that "the status quo is not sustainable."  Sometimes friends see things about us that we cannot see ourselves.  But what status quo are we talking about here?  The status quo of Arab belligerence against Israel?  Unfortunately not.  The issue is that Israel is far more sensitive to rebuke than the Palestinians and therefore more crucial to moving any American peace process forward.  The fact of the matter is that Israel listens to the United States more often and far better than the Palestinians.  Netanyahu has halted construction on West Bank settlements since taking over as PM.  Where is the thanks for this bold and difficult undertaking?  This act is especially remarkable given that Israelis are rightly far more concerned about Iran.  Where is the other side reaching out across the divide?  Instead the refrain is "Israel should be doing more..."  Did I miss the Palestinian's gesture?  I have noted countless Israeli gestures.  Again I say that if the Palestinians would recognize the State of Israel's legitimate claim to this land if by no other authority than the United Nation's 1947 vote and recognize in particular Israel as a state connected to Jewish history and Jewish aspirations (in Arabic), you would see the vast majority of Israelis falling over themselves and giving territory for a Palestinian state.  Until that day I continue to pray for peace and will try to look past the latest diplomatic row--and the next.

Biden's Visit to Israel

Vice President Joe Biden just returned from his visit to Israel.  He was there to reassure Israelis (and American Jews of course) of the United State's commitment to the State of Israel.  All was going according to plan until Israel's interior minister, Eli Yishai announced plans for the construction of 1,600 homes in a Jerusalem neighborhood on the other side of the green line.  "You see," everyone now says, "Israel is not really interested in peace."  Actually Israel and the vast majority of Israelis, as well as Jews everywhere, have been bending over backwards to make peace for generations.  Israel has steadfastly declared Jerusalem a unified city and not part of the West Bank.  That the timing of this announcement was mishandled by Yishai is of course true and Netanyahu has since publicly chastised him, but the more fundamental truth is that it is always easier to blame others than take responsibility for your own problems and failures.  So how about this one for starters?  The Palestinian Authority is planning on naming a square in Ramallah after Dalal Mughrabi.  In a 1978 terrorist act, Mughrabi murdered 36 Israelis, one American photographer and injured 71 other people.  Last week Palestinians became exercised and even rioted over Netanyahu's announcement that the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem were going to be renovated and declared Jewish heritage sites.  Again the issue is not that Israel is exercising sovereignty over areas it captured in the Six Day War and now controls.  The larger issue is the Palestinian's unwillingness to recognize the historic Jewish connection to the land of Israel.  That was the thrust of the rioters' contention.  In fact too many Palestinian leaders deny that the Temple even stood in Jerusalem or that Jews have lived in the land of Israel for millennia.  It would have been extraordinary if Netanyahu had challenged Palestinian leaders to renovate these historic sites together.  Wouldn't it be something for the history books if Palestinians and Jews pledged to renovate these holy sites together?  I imagine Israeli and Palestinian leaders could have stood together and declared, "Here our father Abraham is buried.  He changed the course of history forever.  We can change our history as well.  Both of our peoples revere this site.  We pledge to work together to guarantee the holiness of this place for all people."  Ok, now I am really dreaming, but such an act could change the course of history-- forever.  The issue is not so much sovereignty over Hebron or Jerusalem.  The larger issue is recognizing the holiness each of us ascribes to these cities.  That can be shared.  Holiness should be shared.

No More Snow, Please

Winter has waned
and with it my sorrow,
the fruit trees flower
like my joy.
Spikenard and myrrh
send up their scents,
and orchards of treasures
blossom and thrive
within them hearts
of friends delight....

So wrote Nahum in late thirteenth century Spain.  I echo his sentiments!  I heard the birds singing this morning.  For more Hebrew poems from medieval Spain see Peter Cole's The Dream of the Poem.

More Earthquakes

Bret Stephens writes in today's Wall Street Journal: "Earthquake magnitudes are measured on a logarithmic scale. The earthquake that hit Northridge in 1994 measured 6.7 on the Richter scale. But its seismic-energy yield was only half that of the 7.0 quake that hit Haiti in January, which was the equivalent of 2,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs exploding all at once.  By contrast, Saturday's earthquake in Chile measured 8.8. That's nearly 500 times more powerful than Haiti's, or about one million Hiroshimas. Yet Chile's reported death toll—711 as of this writing—was a tiny fraction of the 230,000 believed to have perished in Haiti."  Stephens goes on to extol Chile's superior building codes and far superior economy as explanation for the vastly different number of casualties.  I don't know enough about economic theory in general and Milton Friedman in particular to make a judgment on the question that he addresses.  But it is of course obvious to even the most casual of observers that Haiti is a deeply troubled country and that its extraordinary poverty is more to blame for the thousands of dead than January's "act of God."  Haiti has been plagued for centuries with a depth of misery that is compounded more by humans than by God.  That of course is part of Stephen's point.  The earthquake might have been an act of God, but it was made more miserable and more deadly by humans--and in Chile by contrast it was made less deadly by humans.  Still as I read this morning's paper my thoughts turned towards nature.  I remain overwhelmed by the earth's ferocious power.  With all of our human achievements and advancements, as well as our negligence and troubles, when the earth slips and shudders it is as if one million Hiroshimas explodes. Let this be a reminder that we will never be able to tame such a monster. We cannot control nature.  No matter how many earthquake proof buildings we build, the tempest will toss us around at will.  We have only choice left: to live with it, to live alongside nature.  Never forget nature's power!  Pablo Neruda, Chile's Nobel Prize winning poet, speaks of death as a quiet shipwreck.

Death arrives among all that sound
like a shoe with no foot in it, like a suit with no man in it,
comes and knocks, using a ring with no stone in it, with no
finger in it,
comes and shouts with no mouth, with no tongue, with no
throat.
Nevertheless its steps can be heard
and its clothing makes a hushed sound, like a tree.

Nature is both soothing and frightening.  It is the calming waves and the shipwreck.  It is the rustling of the leaves and the snapping of branches.  It is the sand under foot and the exploding of mountains.  It is the blossoming of spring flowers and the movement of tectonic plates.  It is death and it is life.  Let us again join together in prayer for the victims of yet another earthquake.

Ida and Murray

This week my favorite Hebrew School teacher, Ida Stack, died.  And last month the rabbi who officiated at my wedding, Murray Saltzman, also died.  This post is for them.  Rabbi Saltzman was not my rabbi growing up.  He was Susie's.  I still remember sitting in his office preparing for our wedding day.  I still remember standing on the bima of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and Rabbi Saltzman exclaiming in his deep, resonate voice, "Susie and Steve, as you stand together on this day, may you stand together throughout the vicissitudes of life."  To be fair I was too focused on Susie ("Hmm, she looks so beautiful") to remember his exact words but I can still hear him saying, "vicissitudes."  And I remember thinking, "Can we not talk about vicissitudes now... can we get married already and get to the dancing."  There have of course been a lot of twists and turns since then.  But some twenty years later his words have gained more truth.  Most of all I thank him for beginning our life together with his blessing.  Ida Stack was on the other hand a part of my childhood.  I learned the alef-bet from her.  She was that rare teacher that no matter how much a student misbehaved (not me of course) she still smiled and continued to share her love of Hebrew.  This is not to say that she was a push over.  It is instead to say that she loved what she taught and if you were lucky enough to be a student in her class you felt it.  I can still feel her hand on my cheek and her saying, "Well done Steven."  Again maybe she did not say, "well done" too often but I can still hear my name on her lips.  My memories are most certainly imperfect, but I remember my teachers.  I thank them for their teachings, for telling a young groom that there will be many unforeseen twists and turns, some great and some challenging, and for demonstrating by a smile to never be afraid of sharing your love of even something as small as a Hebrew letter.  Let the tradition speak for me.  Let the Rabbi's Kaddish exclaim: "Grant lasting peace, O God, to our people and their leaders, to our teachers and their disciples, and to all who engage in the study of Torah in this land and in all other lands"  Amen.  May their souls be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

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!