tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85631666452217458802024-03-14T00:29:40.552-04:00Raise it UpRAISE IT UP
The Blog of Rabbi Rachel GurevitzRabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.comBlogger254125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-81241955333286951792022-02-07T12:39:00.001-05:002022-02-07T12:39:43.980-05:00The Blog Reboot - now at rabbirg.com<p><span style="font-size: large;">For those who receive notifications of new posts on this blog, you've not heard from me here for a couple of years. I'm officially retiring this blog and there will be no further updates here.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I have just launched a personal website at <a href="http://rabbirg.com">rabbirg.com</a>. All of my old blog posts from this site have been imported over there, and new posts will appear there moving forward. The new site is designed to be the landing page for all of my personal, creative endeavors, including a new area of focus that I expect to be launching and developing in the coming months.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Stay tuned for <i>A dram and a drash</i> - a podcast that will be accompanied by blog post updates that represent the blending of my amateur interest in all things whiskey and Jewish wisdom. More on this project is at <a href="https://rabbirg.com/dramanddrash/">https://rabbirg.com/dramanddrash/</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To continue to receive updates in your inbox when the podcast launches and when I post something new on the blog, please scroll to the subscribe box on <a href="https://rabbirg.com/">the new site</a> and submit your email address (scroll down past 'recent posts' on the right side of the page).</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I hope you'll join me at my new site, and I look forward to sharing new posts and insights with you soon.</span></p><p><br /></p>Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-76062793834358674312020-06-13T17:12:00.000-04:002020-06-13T17:12:18.933-04:00Loving, Pride, Equality and Justice A sermon on Loving Day during Pride Month in the face of racial injustice<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;"><i>This sermon was delivered at Congregation B'nai Shalom on June 12, 2020</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">I’d like to take a few minutes tonight to talk about Loving. It turns out that in this moment, on this particular day, there are a lot of very pertinent ways to think about and talk about Loving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Let’s begin with a piece of important history. June 12 is officially ‘Loving Day’ in a number of US States. The day is named for the monumental case, Loving v. Virginia, and the interracial couple at its center, Richard and Mildred Loving. The 1967 Supreme Court decision struck down 16 state bans on interracial marriage as unconstitutional.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Fast-forward to 2015, one in six newlyweds had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity which is more than five times higher than the number of intermarried newlyweds in 1967, according to Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. So much has changed, and yet so much hasn’t. Half a century later, "the toxic residue of Jim Crow across the centuries continues to make its way down the streets and into people's lives."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Those of you in our congregation who are married to someone of a different ethnic background, with a different color of skin to you have directly lived the blessing of coming of age and falling in love after the ‘Loving vs Virginia’ case. You can attest to the looks that you may have received, the strange questions you might get, and the assumptions made about the relationship between you and your kids by strangers on the street. I know that this isn’t every day and all the time, but I know that these experiences haven’t disappeared. I know because I’m the grandparent of mixed race grandchildren. I know because I’ve been out to dinner with my wife, my adult step-children, their other step-mom, my son-in-law whose family background is Philippine and my daughter-in-law whose mother is Korean, and father was African-American. And the waitress in a cool, hipster restaurant in Brooklyn finally couldn’t hold back any longer as we were paying the check and just couldn’t figure out how we were all related.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">It wasn’t aggressive and it wasn’t negative. But if you are hearing words like ‘white supremacy’ or ‘implicit bias’ more these days and you’ve not really taken the time to read or study about these things, you might be wondering what is so wrong with the way things are. We have been socially conditioned to put people in different categories and boxes because of their skin color and ethnic features.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">We haven’t yet learned to assume that what appears to be a family is a family, even if it looks different to yours. And, unfortunately, too many people still believe that they get to judge what is and is not acceptable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Lets talk about another kind of loving. Because this is also Pride month. Before marriage equality for gays and lesbians was recognized Federally across all 50 states in 2015 (that’s a mere 5 years ago!), I used to wonder why the heterosexual majority got to decide if I deserved marriage. Heteronormative assumptions about society implicitly and, through law, explicitly and structurally, meant that ‘society’ was heterosexual and those of us who were not that were outside of the norm and needed to fight for 5 decades to argue, fight, protest, and march… and educate – to reach a point when ‘society’ decided to bestow these equal rights upon us. And we’re not there yet. People who are transgender don’t have equal rights in all 50 States. They can lose their jobs just because of their gender; nothing to do with their job performance. They are at much higher risk of experiencing physical violence perpetuated against them because of their gender. The current administration has been working to undermine the ability of same sex couples to have the same opportunities to adopt children in need of forever families as heterosexual couples. And I could go on. For no legitimate reason save for who they love and have built a home with. Or because their gender identity is different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">I understand these issues better because they are part of my own lived experience. And perhaps you understand them because you know me, or you’ve had direct experiences like these, or you’ve just reached a place where you understand and embrace this kind of diversity. Why do transgender people need our permission to live openly and go to work and go to restaurants and movies and stores feeling safe. What is it about some of these groups that society determines where they belong or if they belong or whether they have the same rights freedoms and opportunities as you or I? And if you believe that, once the inequality has been explained and challenged, it should be addressed, the next question must be… is that just an idea of what ‘nice’ looks like to you, or have you engaged actively in the advocacy and educational work required to make those changes a reality? That’s the difference between being ‘not homophobic’ and being actively ‘pro-LGBTQ equality.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">When we listen to African-Americans now it is the same question. Why do they have to wait for ‘society’ (unspoken but assumed to be a white majority that holds the power’)to grant them equality?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">There was a time when traveling when I would always choose bed and breakfasts from a site called purple roofs. This site listed LGBT friendly places to stay or gay or lesbian owned places. I did not want to stay somewhere where Suri and I would feel eyes on us and be uncomfortable or possibly unsafe as we traveled to parts of the country that I was not familiar with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">This is an experience that African Americans have on a regular basis. Not just where they might travel to but how they pass through neighborhoods and other spaces in the course of their everyday lives. It is how and why a young man taking a jog can end up shot to death. And this is just a modern version of how it was in past decades where a black man who might glance at a white woman or say something in passing on the street could end up lynched. This is why these recent killings of black men whether by law enforcement or by civilians is a contemporary version of lynching. The underlying assumptions of the one who is looking at the black man as out of place are essentially the same. Both are racist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">And the difference between being ‘not racist’ and actively being ‘anti-racist’ is whether or not we see it as our responsibility to bring about the structural changes that would make true equality, opportunity, and safety, a reality in the lives of those who are telling us that this is not the case now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">That’s what this is about. It’s not about politics. It’s not about left vs right. It is about love. Today is Loving day. In Jewish tradition, one of our great Sages re-presents the Torah teaching to ‘Love Your Neighbor as yourself.’ Rather, Hillel teaches it this way: "What is hateful to you do not do to your fellow" (Shabbat 31a).</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">If you are wondering what your role is in all of this and what, if anything, you should be doing, start here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Let’s listen to a few seconds of anti-racism educator, Jane Elliott. [play video]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 14pt;">Listen to her words asking us ‘Is this how you would want to be treated?’ And if your answer is ‘no’ then let’s do some learning and listening and figure out how we might be able to help bring about change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-72557620456198686512018-03-21T18:48:00.000-04:002018-03-24T19:15:53.803-04:00Iron Chef Passover and Wine Tasting 2018 - video and reviews!This year's pre-Passover program went beyond the wine department. Yes, we partnered with Toni deLuca at <a href="http://juliosliquors.com/" target="_blank">Julio's Liquors</a> again, bringing back some favorites from the past couple of years and adding in some new selections. But this year was made extra-special by the incredible foodie contributions of <a href="http://www.rabbisharonsobel.com/" target="_blank">Rabbi Sharon Sobel</a> and her brother Ari, along with our very own in-house chef Rabbi Joe, who contributed to the wonderful dessert options. In the space of less than 2 hours, a number of menu items were showcased to bring fresh ideas and deliciousness to your Passover Seder. And everyone present got to taste everything! Thank you to <a href="http://www.tempbetham.org/" target="_blank">Temple Beth Am of Framingham</a> for partnering with <a href="http://www.cbnaishalom.org/" target="_blank">Congregation B'nai Shalom</a> for this special evening.<br />
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At the bottom of this post is the livestream archive of the whole evening for your viewing pleasure. But first, my reviews of this year's wine tastings.<br />
<b>Wine Reviews</b><br />
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Prosecco - Italy $16.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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– France $31.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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– Chile $7.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Rhone Rouge - France $14.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">La Citadelle de
Diamant Caesar Red Blend – Israel $29.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">We've enjoyed several of these wines in previous years' tastings but we brought them back as some of the best of the batch. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">The light <b>Prosecco</b> is a lovely way to kick of Passover - we served it as an aperitif as people arrived and tasted charoset and appetizers before the main program began. It has light notes of pear and is medium dry. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b>The Sancerre</b> is the priciest wine on the list but it is the most complex and well-balanced wines on the list that we served. It remains one of my favorites. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Over the past couple of years, we've enjoyed the <b>Terra Vega</b> offerings. A couple of years ago we had their Carmenere, which is more often a grape that is used in smaller quantities in a blended wine. But it stands out on its own in a very easy-drinking wine. Their <b>Rose </b>is bright and fruity, fun to drink and an unbeatable value like the rest of their line. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">I had tasted the <b>Louis Blanc Cotes du Rhone </b>prior to our evening but we didn't actually serve it on the night as the distributor wasn't able to get it to us for orders for Passover. It is smooth on the palate, low in tanins, with dark blackcurrant fruit notes. Instead we served the <b>Terra Vega Pinot Noir</b> at our tasting. Like the rest of the Terra Vega range, it is very easy-drinking and an excellent value. It did not have the character that the Carmenere or the Rose had, in my opinion, and was a little light for a Pinot Noir. It might be a nice red option if you are serving a chicken dish with a richer sauce but could easily be overwhelmed by brisket or meat stew. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b>The Citadelle de Diamant Caesar Red Blend</b> was the fullest bodied red of the night. Some tanins and big flavors in the mouth, it will pair well with beef dishes. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #212121; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">The final taste of the night was a substitute for what we originally had on the tasting menu - <b>Vino Sweet Red </b>(Italy). The Vino had been a big hit last year for those who actually enjoy Manischewitz and are looking for a slightly more sophisticated and lighter sweet wine for Seder. Our batch arrived 'corked' - a number of the corks had come into contact with something that damaged the cork and, therefore, damaged the wine. We did a last minute switch to the<b> Bartenura Brachetto</b>. I, personally, am not a big fan of these sweet options (I'd prefer to go for a Muscat dessert wine, of which we've had the Butcher's Daughter Muscat from France in previous years). However, the Bartenura doesn't have the syrupy sweetness of the Vino and was a light, fun wine for those who enjoy the sweeter experience for their Passover Seder.</span></span></div>
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Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-39600712156428513902017-03-18T19:00:00.000-04:002017-03-18T19:00:06.891-04:00Wines for a Passover Meal, 2017 edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last Thursday, Congregation B'nai Shalom co-hosted our second 'Wines for a Passover Meal' kosher for Passover wine tasting at Julio's liquor store, Westborough. Their wine manager, Toni DeLuca, had kindly invited me to help choose the line-up in advance again and, together, we made sure that everything served would be palatable. While there are plenty of excellent kosher wines to be had, there is also plenty of pretty awful stuff out on the market. And I did my fair share of spitting out some pretty unpleasant stuff before we arrived at our tasting list.<br />
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During the course of the evening, I provided a little history on the evolution of the Passover Seder ritual, and a quick reminder of what makes a wine kosher for Passover. You can read about the history of the Seder <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rabbinic-development-of-passover/#" target="_blank">here</a>. At the end of the evening, all presented voted on a limited selection to help me choose the wines we would serve at our Community Seder (April 11). If you are local to our area, you are invited to join us - <a href="http://www.cbnaishalom.org/cbs-family-friendly-second-night-community-seder/" target="_blank">advance reservations required by April 5th via our temple website</a>.<br />
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We also talked a little bit about choosing wines to accompany different kinds of meals. In passing, I mentioned a Moroccan stew that I have made for several years for our home Seder which is rich, spiced but not spicy, and which cooks slowly for several hours on top of the stove, making it an easy choice to serve on a Passover evening if you are exactly sure when you'll arrive at the meal. Here is the recipe - I'm printing it here the way I originally received it, but over the years I have made this a beef stew instead of lamb, primarily due to the availability and price of kosher beef stewing meat over lamb. I think it works just as well with beef. I've also varied the exact combination of spices, depending on what I have had available. The stew can handle a lot of variants and still be delicious. A fuller-bodied red wine is recommended for this dish (my choice from this year's list is indicated further below).<br />
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<b>Moroccan Lamb Stew (or beef) - serves 6</b><br />
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<i>Ingredients:</i><br />
2 lbs lamb shoulder trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (or chuck beef steak, also cut into 1 inch squares)<br />
Salt to taste<br />
1 tsp ground cumin<br />
1 tbsp Garam masala<br />
1/2 tsp Turmeric<br />
black pepper to taste<br />
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves chopped<br />
1/4 cut olive oil<br />
1 large onion, chopped<br />
1 large carrot, peeled and diced<br />
1 stalk celery diced<br />
2 cloves garlic, sliced<br />
1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced<br />
1 cup dry red wine<br />
2 cups low sodium beef stock<br />
1 14oz can tomatoes<br />
1/4 cup pitted prunes, chopped<br />
1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped<br />
1 cup blanched almonds lightly toasted.<br />
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<i>Instructions</i><br />
Put the lamb or beef in a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp pepper, garam masala, turmeric and thyme. Toss the lamb or beef with the spices. If time allows, transfer the meat to a resealable plastic food bag and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.<br />
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In a large dutch oven or a heavy bottomed pot with a lid, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over high heat. Working in batches to avoid crowding, brown the meat on all sides, 5-7 mins per batch. As each batch gets browned, transfer it into a bowl.<br />
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Pour off the fat from the skillet and add the remaining oil. Reduce the heat to medium, add the onion, carrot, celery and 1/2 tsp salt and saute until the onion is tender and has colored slightly - about 5 mins, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon and scraping the skillet to deglaze the pan deposits. Add the garlic and rosemary and stir for 1 minute.<br />
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Stir in the wine, raise the heat to bring to a boil, scraping the bottom and sides to deglaze the pan deposits. Add the tomatoes with the juice, half of the apricots and prunes, the broth, and the meat and any accumulate juice back into the pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 1 hr 15 mins or until the meat is tender and the sauce is thick (I usually do it for closer to 2 hours with beef, on a low light). Season to taste with salt and pepper. <i>This next step I don't usually do...</i> Transfer the meat to a platter and cover with foil. Using a hand blender, puree the sauce. Add the rest of the prunes and apricots and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer gently until the dried fruit is soft, about 15 mins. Serve, sprinkling with almonds.<br />
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I usually serve this stew with Quinoa. Not everyone regards Quinoa as Passover-appropriate. It is a seed and not a grain, but it does expand in water. Of course, Sephardic Jews eat rice on Passover anyway, so for many Jews this is not a restriction, but many Ashkenazi Jews still observe the tradition of avoiding any food that expands in water in this way that may have a grain-like appearance.<br />
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<b>Kosher for Passover Wine Review of 2017</b><br />
So, here are my 2017 reviews of the wines we tasted this year. If you local to our congregation, all of these are available, either in store or to order, from Julio's liquors. The prices below are usual prices. Our event offered a 15% discount on all of the wines.<br />
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<b>Cantina Gabriele 2015 Pinot Grigio</b><br />
100% Pinot Grigio. Regular price $12.99<br />
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This was a crisp, fruity Pinot Grigio with pleasant tones of apple, apricot and pear. A very pleasant wine that I'd be pleased with at any time of year. This is my recommendation for a white wine with fish or chicken.<br />
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<b>La Fille du Boucher 'The Butcher's daughter' 2015 Chardonnay</b><br />
100% Chardonnay. $11.99<br />
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Last year we enjoyed a lovely 2012 Bordeaux reserve from this producer. I was not personally a great fan of this Chardonnay. It had a sweetness that came through after the initial mouthful that I would not usually associate with Chardonnay and did not particularly appreciate.<br />
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<b>Notte Italiana 2015 Prosecco</b><br />
100% Glera $14.99<br />
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This was a very enjoyable Prosecco. Not too dry but not at all sweet either. It had a light pear-like fruitiness to it. A fun way to start the Seder for the first cup of wine - that's how we intend to use it at our <a href="http://www.cbnaishalom.org/cbs-family-friendly-second-night-community-seder/" target="_blank">congregation's community Seder on April 11.</a><br />
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<b>Louis de Sacy NV Grand Cru Kosher Mevushal Brut</b><br />
60% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay, 5% Pinot Meunier. $59.99<br />
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This is priced as an independent producer Champagne. The dry, apple peel fruits were pleasant but were accompanied by a yeasty, doughy taste that was too pronounced. Perhaps part of the impact of the flash pasteurization process to make this a mevushal wine, but not to my liking. A bit like having an apple pie that wasn't cooked through, leaving raw dough in the pie crust.<br />
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<b>Luis Felipe Edwards 'Terra Vega' 2015 'Bin no 902' Malbec</b><br />
100% Malbec $7.99<br />
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I found this a very pleasant pour. However, we tasted their Carmenere last year which was a big hit among our tasters, and I'd still put that one ahead of this year's Malbec. The Carmenere is still available, also at $7.99<br />
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<b>O'Dwyer's Creek 2014 Limite Release Pinot Noir</b><br />
100% Pinot Noir $29.99<br />
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A very pleasant New Zealand Pinot Noir. Very smooth and balanced. Not my top choice for my stew because I think it'll get a bit lost with the richer sauce and flavors of the stew, but would work well with brisket.<br />
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<b>La Citadelle de Diamant 2014 'Caesar' Red Blend</b><br />
70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 15% Shiraz. $29.99<br />
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This was my favorite red of the night. Full bodied, beautifully balanced blackcurrant and earthy tones. This was the Israeli selection of the evening and it is my pairing for the stew.<br />
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<b>Louis Blanc 2014 Crozes-Hermitage</b><br />
100% Syrah $27.99<br />
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This was also a hit with many of the tasters last Thursday. For me, personally, La Citadelle won out for the particular meal I'll be serving at my Seder, but this is a red that I would certainly enjoy for any occasion. A little softer in the mouth, with a little more plum and dark fruit jamminess than La Citadelle.<br />
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<b>La Fille du Boucher 'The Butcher's Daughter' 2015 Muscat Premium</b><br />
100% Muscat $14.99<br />
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A very lovely french muscat dessert wine. Not syrupy at all - light and floral, with honey and melon tones. My choice for a dessert offering for the 3rd or 4th cup of the night.<br />
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<b>Cantina Gabriele 'Vino' NV Sweet Red</b><br />
70% Merlot, 30% Sangiovese $9.99<br />
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This one came out last year but we brought it out again for those who might be looking for a slightly more sophisticated and less syrupy version of a Manichewitz. Far too sweet for my taste, but if that's what you'd like for your Seder, this is a nice alternative.<br />
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In addition to this year's tastings, the following wines are still available from Julio's of the wines we tasted last year. <a href="http://shmakoleinu-hearourvoices.blogspot.com/2016/04/kosher-wines-for-passover-not-your.html" target="_blank">You can read last year's reviews here</a>:<br />
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<b>Joseph Mellot 'La Graveliere' Sancerre</b><br />
100% Sauvignon Blanc $31.99<br />
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<b>O'Dwyers Creek Sauvignon Blanc</b><br />
100% single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc $16.99<br />
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<b>Ella Valley Vineyards Estate Chardonnay</b><br />
100% Chardonnay $24.99<br />
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<b>Louis Blanc 'Vintage' Cotes du Rhone</b><br />
$14.99<br />
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<b>Luis Felipe Edwards 'Terra Vega' Carmenere</b><br />
100% Carmenere $7.99<br />
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<br />Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-45782349094729543692016-09-05T22:40:00.001-04:002016-09-05T22:40:16.358-04:00#BlogElul 2: Act - Thinking about Mitzvot as a kind of technology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every year, my colleague, Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, offers bloggers a shared list of themes that, if followed, allow for some neat collections of thought pieces or images (the #ElulGram) to be found throughout the web on the same theme on the same day. While I seldom keep up with a daily post during this month, I'll be following the general flow of the themes above, and thank Phyllis for the connections that she helps us all make in the blogosphere. On Facebook or Twitter, just search for #BlogElul to see what others are writing.<div>
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Inspired by my teacher, Rabbi Irwin Kula, who has been thinking a great deal in recent years about disruptive innovations and how they might be reshaping Jewish experience in North America and beyond. I'd like to riff off of Phyllis' theme of day 2, 'Act' by introducing the notion that Mitzvot can be thought of as a kind of technology. It was Clay Shirky who, in talking about disruptive innovations, asked us to consider of whatever is the focus of our attention the question, 'what job does it do?' In one easy to grasp example that he offers, he considers the ways in which new technologies have changed the way that we consume music. From the gramophone which brought the sounds of live performances into the homes of listeners, to the rise of the cassette tape and the introduction of the portable cassette player and then the 'walkman', enabling us to carry our own music with us into the street and other spaces; from the CD player to the iPod, exponentially increasing how much music we could transport with us and how little space in our homes we would need to store it, to today's online streaming music services. As consumers, we have responded to each new technology that made listening to music, finding new music, and sharing music a little bit easier. In the process, companies that made old hardware had to either recreate themselves to offer the newer technology, or would find themselves out of business. When something came along that did the essential job better, cheaper, in a way that was more portable, offered more choice, etc. it became the next thing.</div>
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We can take Shirky's question, 'what job does it do?' And ask it of all kinds of things that we use or choose to do. If we accept his basic assumption, if it has a purpose, we will continue to use it or do the activity in question. Religion clearly does an important job for many people. For sure, we live at a time when more people than in the past are questioning that assumption, but the fact that so many of us are engaged in religious life, communities of faith, and ritual practices, suggest that these continue to do a job for us, as individuals and as a community. Exactly what that job is is a little more complex to define than the role of something that delivers music, and the answer may not be the same for everyone. Yet, as the societies and cultures that we live in continues to evolve and change, being able to look at our traditions through this lens can help us stay true to the essence of what Judaism is helping us do even if some of the outer forms (style of a service, choice of music, where rituals take place, the role of online communities, etc.) are changing.</div>
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In traditional verbiage, a mitzvah is a commandment. To young children, we sometimes say it is a good deed. But that doesn't really capture the full essence of mitzvah. Some of the acts that are commanded as Mitzvot are ethical in nature, but some don't come with an explanation in Torah or in rabbinical texts. What would it look like to take a list of Mitzvot and ask the question from a modern perspective, 'what job does it do?'. Rabbi Kula is <a href="http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/the-new-colors-of-clal-organization-steps-forward-to-make-jewish-a-public-good/" target="_blank">thinking about a project that does exactly this</a>. If we can demonstrate how a mitzvah deepens our awareness of the world, strengthens our relationships with others, enables us to have an experience that we might label holy or spiritual, provides a mechanism for taking care of the vulnerable and needy, brings mindful awareness to our engaging in ordinary, everyday things, and so on... We can begin to reframe the deep, deep value of some of the Mitzvot of our tradition. Mitzvah as a technology that we can use.... What mitzvah comes to mind that really speaks to you and helps to shape your sense of self, or sense of holy, or sense of obligation to another?</div>
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Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-22581728760268278172016-09-04T07:30:00.000-04:002016-09-04T07:30:24.316-04:00#BlogElul 1 5776: Who am I? What do I aspire to be?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">creative commons; attribution 273C on deviantart.com</td></tr>
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<i>Who am I?</i><br />
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One of the most essential and yet perhaps most difficult of questions to answer. I can tell you where I was born. I can tell you about my family. I can tell you what I do for a living. I can tell you about some of my favorite and least favorite activities. Perhaps I can go a little deeper and tell you about some of the characteristics that are most present in me, and others that are not so present. I can tell you what I most like about myself and what most disappoints me about myself.<br />
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<i>How much of the above gets to the essence of who I am?</i> How much is superficial and descriptive? Is it even possible to respond to the question of 'Who are you?' in words, or is the best answer, perhaps, the way that we conduct ourselves and the things that we do with the length of our days?<br />
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As we begin the hebrew month of Elul, which announces that we are approaching another Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, this is the time that our traditions encourage us to reflect on these core questions of essence. <i>Who am I? Who do I aspire to be?</i> This year, those of us in the USA are also asking that question communally in a more intense and reflective way. Once every four years, as we decide who will represent us in the highest office in the land, we look at the character of our leaders and the way that they describe the landscape in which they hope to govern and make progress. We have to ask ourselves, <i>who do we aspire to be? What values will shape our sense of self as a nation?</i><br />
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As in previous years, I will be using my blog to offer brief reflections several times a week during Elul, that provide some food for thought as we grapple with these core questions. This year, I'm going to be using the lens of technology and technological innovation to inspire a different way of trying to get at the essence of what it means to be human. This is inspired by the topic that our congregation has taken on for the coming 1.5 years, supported by a grant from '<a href="http://sinaiandsynapses.org/scientists-in-synagogues/" target="_blank">Scientists in Synagogues</a>' provided by Sinai and Synapses. Here is an excerpt from a book that has been inspiring a lot of my thinking as I prepare sermons for the High Holy Days this year on this topic:<br />
<br />Kevin Kelly, author of ‘<a href="http://amzn.to/2bRgWmY">The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape our Future</a>” presents the following insights:<br /><i><br />… we’ve been redefining what it means to be human. Over the past 60 years, as mechanical processes have replicated behaviors and talents that we thought were unique to humans, we’ve had to change our minds about what sets us apart. As we invent more species of AI [artifical intelligence], we will be forced to surrender more of what is supposedly unique about humans… We’ll spend the next three decades – indeed, perhaps the next century – in a permanent identity crisis, continually asking ourselves what humans are good for. If we aren’t unique toolmakers, or artists, or moral ethicists, then what, if anything, makes us special?(p. 48-9)</i><div>
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Today, many of the debates about the impact of technological innovation on our sense of self and our communities gets simplified into the binaries of 'good' or 'bad' impacts. But we are, and have always been, creatures who use technological innovation to enable us to do more and be more. From the most basic of tools that enabled us to mold, shape, and change things in our natural environment, to the technologies that enabled us to write - first on clay plastered on rocks, then on papyrus or parchment, and later in books, with printing presses enabling an enormous leap forward in the democratization of knowledge, literacy, and language - we are not and could not be who we are today, either individually or communally, without the integral role that technologies have played in enabling us to become more.</div>
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I hope you will join me in this exploration of ideas as we look at the question of '<i>who am I?</i>' through a different lens, as we begin this month to recenter ourselves and find our way back to more deeply understanding '<i>who do I aspire to be?</i>'</div>
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-68744897502321578922016-04-11T22:00:00.000-04:002016-04-11T22:00:56.335-04:00Kosher Wines for Passover: Not your Grandfather's Manischewitz!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week, I co-hosted a Kosher for Passover wine tasting at Julio's Liquors in Westborough. Julio's, for those not familiar with it, is not your typical liquor store. They hold several free tasting events a week, ranging from wine evenings, to whiskey, to beer, and many weekend afternoon festivals featuring large selections from multiple distributors. They have a large basement space dedicated to these events. For me, the result is that I've not bought anything that I didn't like in the past four years, because I've had an opportunity to taste pretty much everything I've purchased prior to buying.<br />
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With around 70 people filling the room, we had a lot of fun tasting a broad range of kosher for Passover wines from all over the world, distributed by Monsieur Touton wines. For those who could not attend in person but wanted a review so that they could stop by to make a purchase before Passover (or for those reading this in other locations who are on the hunt for something a bit different), here are my tasting notes from the evening.<br />
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I began the evening with a quick history of wine-producing among Jews, what makes a wine Kosher (and kosher for Passover), and what the origins of the four cups of wine are. I won't post the full presentation here, but just a few key points:<br />
1) Ancient Israel is one of the earliest sources of vineyard growth and wine making in the world. Biblical references include Noah, and the 12 spies who brought a huge vine of grapes back from Canaan as proof of the fertility of the land.<br />
2) The Talmud references 60 varieties of wine. Wines were flavored with spices, salt, date honey, and cooked into a sweet syrup (the equivalent of today's Manischewitz and other sweet kiddush wines).<br />
3) In winemaking there is a process called 'fining' which helps to remove some of the soluble particulates from wine. These can be from organic or inorganic sources. When an animal product is used it renders the wine unkosher. Additionally, for those who are strictly observant, a wine will need a kosher certification stamp on it. Kosher for Passover wines are those where the certifiers will verify that the wine has not come into contact with any grain product from harvest to production. Wine that is 'mevushal' is very quickly flash pasteurized. Today, that can be done with lasers. Historically, it left a somewhat 'cooked' odor to the wine, but today's technology can lead to some 'mevushal' wines being pretty good. The reason for this process has to do with some pretty ancient halachah about avoiding wines that may have been used for idolatrous purposes, and/or mixing with non-Jews in taverns. It has little relevance today, except for strictly observant Jews who continue to follow the letter of the law.<br />
4) The Passover Seder was modeled on the Greek Symposium - a gathering that involved copious amounts of wine drinking. There was some debate in the Talmud about how many cups of wine should be drunk at a Seder. It took a while for our ritual today to become fully formed and settled. One interesting remnant of the original debate is 'Elijah's Cup'. When some rabbis advocated for a fifth cup (based on how they were parsing phrases in Exodus that refer to God's redemption of the slaves from Egypt), it was decided to pour a fifth cup but not drink it. Elijah, who tradition has it will announce the coming of the Messiah, was also understood by these ancient rabbis to be able to answer all unanswered questions when he came. Apparently, this included the question of how much wine we should drink at our Seder!<br />
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<b>Here are the wines we sampled and their 'regularly listed' price. For those going to Julio's who mention last week's tasting, they will honor the preferential pricing they had, while stocks last.</b><br />
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<b>Louis Blanc 'Les Favieres' 2015 Coteaux Varois en Provence $19.99</b><br />
This is an excellent Rose wine that I'd be happy to drink at any time. If you are serving chicken at your Seder, this would be a nice accompaniment. Hints of watermelon, raspberry, and mint. Vibrant, long finish. Mevushal. <i>This sold out at our tasting, but you can place an order with Julio's.</i><br />
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<b>Joseph Mellot 'La Graveliere' 2014 Sancerre $31.99</b><br />
From the Loire Valley in NE France. The priciest wine that we tasted, but an exceptionally good Sancerre. 100% Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Flavors of red grapefruit, balanced minerals, and a little spice on the finish. <i>This sold out at our tasting, but you can place an order with Julio's.</i><br />
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<b>O'Dwyers Creek 2015 Sauvignon Blanc</b> <b>$16.99</b><br />
100% single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. Also organic, vegan and mevushal.<br />
More a mix of tropical fruits (pineapple and passion) than the Sancerre. Citrus, lemon/lime finish - more acidity than the Sancerre. Very fragrant.<br />
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<b>Ella Valley Vineyards 2013 Estate Chardonnay $20.98</b><br />
100% Chardonnay<br />
<i>I've been a big fan of Ella Valley wines since I tasted them about 10 years ago at an Israeli Wine Festival at the Israel museum, Jerusalem (the same museum that holds the Dead Sea Scrolls). I don't love all of their range equally, but on the whole I've found them to be consistently among the better wines to come out of Israel. Not the cheapest here in the USA, but I'd rather pay an extra $5 for an Ella wine than a mediocre Dalton, Alfasi, or Carmel wine any day.</i><br />
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A light, almost sherbert-like crispness with green apple, lemon, and a touch of cinnamon. If you like Chardonnay, you'll like this one. Monsieur Touton is no longer carrying Ella Valley wines, so the case or two that is left at Julio's is the last they'll be bringing into the State of MA for a while.<br />
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<b>Louis Blanc 'Vintage' 2012 Cotes du Rhone $14.99</b><br />
Main grape is Syrah. Also some Grenache and one or two other varietals in small quantities.<br />
Dark blackcurrant and peppery finish with medium tannins. Will pair well with lamb or beef.<br />
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<b>La Fille du Boucher (The Butcher's Daughter) 2012 Bordeaux Reserve $14.99</b><br />
70% Merlot 30% Cabernet. A great story to this wine. Named for the daughter of the largest Kosher meat family producer in France. The daughter runs a famous kosher restaurant in the Old Jewish quarter, Paris. This wine is a very dry red with deep fruits and medium tannins and a long finish. You'll enjoy this if you like an earthier, heavier red. Will pair well with a fattier meat like lamb or a brisket.<br />
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<b>Luis Felipe Edwards 'Terra Vega' 2014 Bin No. 964 Carmenere $7.99 From Chile</b><br />
<i>This sold out at our tasting, but you can place an order with Julio's.</i><br />
This was a big hit at our tasting. Very pleasant, fruity wine that is very competitively priced. Lacks some of the depth of the larger, drier reds, but a very nice wine to either drink by itself, or with a lighter meat dish. I'd even suggest pairing with chicken or turkey if you prefer a red wine. It has a beautiful deep, red color but is light on the nose and has a fruity, blueberry taste with a slightly peppery finish.<br />
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<b>Ella Valley Vineyards 2011 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon $29.99</b><br />
85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot.<br />
<i>See my notes above the Ella Chardonnay for my personal preference for this winemaker and the limited availability moving forward in MA.</i><br />
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This is a well-rounded, predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon wine. It has deep blackcurrant tones, a hint of licorice, and forthright but well-balanced tannins. I'm making a Moroccan beef stew for my Seder so this is the kind of full-flavored dry red that will pair well with a rich, meaty dish. It might be a bit heavy on the tannins and spice for some (in which case the Carmenere is probably the wine for you), but this and La Fille Du Boucher are, in my opinion, the more sophisticated and 'big' wines of the range that we tasted.<br />
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<b>Cantina Gabriele 'Vino' NV Sweet Red $9.99.</b><br />
70% Merlot, 30% Sangiovese.<br />
Think of this as a better 'upmarket' version of Manischewitz. It has a very slight sparkle to it and is sweet but not cloying or syrupy. It comes from South of Rome and is certified vegan as well as Kosher. This isn't my personal taste - I like a chilled dessert wine like a light Muscat, Sauternes, or Icewine. But this one was also a sell-out at the tasting, and I even brought home a bottle, knowing that I'll have guests who really won't enjoy the Ella Valley Cabernet but would rather have something like this. And its only 5.5% ABV!<br />
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I hope you try something a little different for your Passover meal this year. One thing everyone at our tasting came away appreciating - there's much more to Kosher wine than Manischewitz!<br />
<i>Chag Pesach Sameach!</i><br />
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<br />Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-52225823361047831792015-08-26T09:00:00.000-04:002015-08-26T09:00:03.868-04:00#BlogElul 5775: When the music brings you home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Kol Nidre</i>... the anthem with which we begin Yom Kippur. We take the Torah scrolls out of the ark and they bear witness, as if a Jewish court of law - a <i>Beit Din</i> - while we hear these ancient Aramaic words chanted. What, precisely, do they say? Essentially, that we regret any vows or commitments that we have made, we repent for having made them, and we asked that they be discarded, forgiven, and undone; that they no longer be regarded as valid and binding.<br />
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Why would we begin this Holiest of days with such a declaration? Is this one of these Jewish legal loopholes, by which we figured it was easier to just nullify promises we made than deal with the consequences of having made them and failing to live up to them? While that's not why these words feature in our liturgy, what is clear is that the power of Kol Nidre in our communities today has very little to do with the words themselves. But first, a quick history of this prayer.<br />
<br /><i>"For all of Kol Nidre’s significance and power, its origins are shrouded in mystery. There are two “histories” regarding the prayer, one popular and the other scholarly. The popular version connects the wording of the prayer with the religious dilemma facing medieval Spanish Jews. In 15th-century Spain, at the hight of the infamous Inquisition, the Roman Catholic Church embarked on a determined hunt to seek out and punish all non-practicing Christians. In response to extreme anti-Semitism earlier that century, a sizable number of upper-class Jews chose to convert to Christianity in order to, at the very least, avoid social disdain. For a small number, their religious conversion was genuine; but for the majority, their “conversion” was in name only as they still found creative ways to practice Judaism in the privacy of their own dwellings. These Jews came to be known as “marranos” and became one of the foci of the Church’s inquistory offensive. The Kol Nidre prayer, according to this theory, was created in response to these Jews’ desire to nullify their vows of conversion...<br /> Scholars do not wholly refute this understanding of Kol Nidre, but they do contend that Kol Nidre has much earlier roots and probably pre-dated the marranos. According to their research, it is unclear exactly when or where the Kol Nidre legal formula was created. The wording seems to mimic other legalistic contracts of the Babylonian Jewish community of the 6th and 7th centuries. The first undoubtable citation appears in an early comprehensive siddur edited by Rav Amram in the 8th century. Over the next few centuries, the prayer became more widespread and a soulful melody became associated with it. Notably, there were some rabbis who disparaged the prayer as a superstitious attempt by Jewish mystics to nullify vows made by evil forces in the universe intent on hurting the Jewish people. These criticisms were muted by the majority of the people who cleaved to the prayer and aided its spread to other communities."</i> (Rabbi Eric Solomon, 2000, '<a href="http://www.bj.org/Articles/examining-the-mystery-of-kol-nidre/" target="_blank">Examining the Mystery of Kol Nidre</a>')<div>
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By the late Nineteenth Century, as the Jews of Europe and the USA sought greater integration into the societies in which they lived, some felt self-conscious and embarrassed by the words of Kol Nidre. They were concerned that non-Jews might regard them as a people who could not be trusted because they would not keep their word. In Germany, some early Reform Rabbis sought to remove Kol Nidre from the liturgy. But when a <i>machzor </i>(High Holy Day Prayer book) was published without it, congregations rebelled. They insisted that it be sung anyway. Already, for centuries, Kol Nidre was chanted to a haunting tune. Max Bruch, a non-Jewish composer, set it to the melody (in 1880) that we associate this prayer with today, and it is this that congregations across the world today listen for to announce the opening of Yom Kippur. Many congregations, my own included, begin with the sounds of Bruch's arrangement, played on cello or adapted for some other soulful sounding instrument.</div>
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I think there are few other liturgical moments or melodies in our tradition that is as emblematic and central to us as Kol Nidre. In <i>Mishkan HaNefesh</i>, this introduction conveys something of its power:</div>
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<i>Rabbi Leizer survived the death camps and returned to his hometown, Czenstochow, Poland. For years following the Shoah, he roamed the streets playing a hand organ. At regular intervals, amid the numerous tunes he played, he would intentionally play Kol Nidre. As he did so, he would look into the eyes of the children who walked by, looking for a hint of recognition. In this way, he was able to bring many children back in contact with their people.</i></div>
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<i>For us, too, Kol Nidre is a moment of recognition -</i></div>
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<i>a sound that brings us back to our people.</i> (copyright CCAR, 2015, Yom Kippur, p.15)</div>
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What other melodies are so part of your sense of identity that they bring you back home in a profoundly spiritual way? What melodies connect you to a sense of your people? When you hear the reverberations of Kol Nidre, what thoughts and feelings are aroused within?</div>
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Welcome Home.</div>
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Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer, 1927. </div>
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-20880473038043933482015-08-21T14:46:00.000-04:002015-08-21T14:46:57.991-04:00#BlogElul 5775: Yizkor and Forgiveness<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Why do we have a Yizkor (memorial) service on Yom Kippur? It is clearly a ritual that has great meaning to many people. In most congregations it is one of the services of the holiest of days with the largest attendance. There's <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yizkor-the-memorial-service/" target="_blank">an historical answer</a> to the question, if we want to learn more about the original connection between remembrance and atonement. Certainly, some of us attend Yizkor because its just what you do, and it is what those before us did. But, like most things in Judaism, especially in progressive communities, rituals and times of gathering don't continue to be widely observed unless they have a contemporary meaning and value that is experienced by those who engage in them.<br />
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Yom Kippur is sometimes described as like a rehearsal for death. The <a href="http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/confession-vidui/" target="_blank">Vidui</a> (confession) that we pronounce several times over the High Holy Days is a ritual that is also meant for one who has the opportunity to say it if they are aware that they are close to death. There is also a nightly vidui ritual, precisely because most of us can never know when our last day will come. So there is something powerful, as we reflect on our own mortality, about turning our thoughts to those who have already died. They have shaped our lives, and we often see things in ourselves that we inherited from them. There are things that we do, and ways we behave that we are aware that we do because of them, or sometimes in spite of them.<br />
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Yizkor may be a time for appreciation. It may be a time for us to be inspired by our memories of others to seek to live each of our days so that others will have cherished memories of us at some time in the future. It may be a time to find a spiritual path forward to deal with unfinished business, pain or hurt.<br />
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As with each and every step of the High Holy ritual, our new machzor provides prayers, reflective readings, and insights that can help us with all of the above. Here is a piece written by Cantor Linda Hirschhorn entitled <b>Forgiveness and the Afterlife</b> (copyright CCAR, 2015, Yom Kippur machzor, p.581).<br />
<i>I do have an ongoing relationship with the dead, and I do think about the afterlife - my afterlife, that is - after someone I know dies: what happens to me afterwards, in my life.</i><br />
<i>Some deaths come too soon; some deaths are unexpected; some deaths we think we are prepared for, but really we are rarely ready: we don't usually know when a conversation is the last conversation, with so much that may be left unsaid, unresolved.</i><br />
<i>So in this afterlife of mine I am still in relationship with people who have died. I miss them, I talk to them in my mind, I ask them questions about our relationship that I wasn't ready to ask them when they were still alive. I show off my accomplishments, and wish they could witness them; and yes, I still have some of the same old arguments, still trying to prove my point of view. What helps me go forward? How do I resolve these lingering feelings?</i><br />
<i>Here is what makes the Yom Kippur Yizkor so special - this forgiveness prayer devoted exclusively to those no longer with us, that comes late in the afternoon when we are tired, hungry, vulnerable, and open. During this Yizkor I am given the opportunity to forgive myself for cutting off that last phone conversation with my father - I was always in a hurry; he always wanted to chat longer; and then he died. It's during this Yizkor that I have the opportunity to forgive my mother for her harsh ways; to let go of being angry - for my sake in this world, if not for her sake in the world-to-come.</i><br />
<i>For this Yizkor to feel honest and meaningful, I don't want to sentimentalize those relationships. I don't just want to remember the ideals and gifts they may or may not have passed down. I want to remember those relationships exactly as they were, and then be able to forgive myself and them for our failings, for what we never got a chance to repair or finish.</i><br />
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May our memories bring the light of loved ones into our hearts. May our prayers help us forgive and receive forgiveness. With remembrance, may healing come our way.Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-54138446172628161872015-08-16T19:20:00.000-04:002015-08-16T19:20:20.245-04:00#BlogElul 2 5775: Hineni - Here I am<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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At the opening of the High Holy Day prayer services there is a traditional prayer leader's confession, Hineni which, in essence, is the prayer leader proclaiming their unworthiness to lead the congregation in prayer and asking God not to hold the community responsible for the leader's shortcomings. I understand its original intent, but it has never been something that I have felt comfortable saying. I think it was meant as an ego check-in - certainly an important thing to do. But, over the years, it has become a moment that has sometimes been accompanied <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaE8C0jsMZQ">with great cantorial flourish</a> - a performative moment that I have felt expresses the opposite.<br /><br />I usually begin each of the holy days with an invitation to the congregation to travel through the prayer service in any way that enables them to make it a meaningful experience - to not feel obligated to read along with everything that I am doing; to choose readings to sit with longer, to close their eyes and meditate, to go for a walk and return. Even though my soloists and I have woven together liturgy and music with intention and the hope of creating a vessel for meaningful prayer, I have to create something that I believe will touch upon things that many different kinds of people appreciate and, therefore, is likely to lack something for everyone too. And so we all have to be responsible for our own prayer experience, and for our own shortcomings and sins.<br /><br />Until now I have struggled with what to do with the Hineni prayer. Perhaps my feelings about it have been colored by the old joke:<br /><br /><i>During one service in a wealthy synagogue, the rabbi got carried away. Falling on hands and knees, forehead to floor, he said, "Oh God, before thee I am nothing.”The Cantor, not to be outdone, also got down, forehead to wood and said, "Oh God, before thee I am nothing." Seeing this, Levy, a tailor in the fourth row, left his seat, fell to his knees, forehead to floor and he too, said "Oh God, before thee I am nothing.” With this, the Cantor elbowed the rabbi and sniffed: "Look who thinks he's nothing!"</i><br />On the High Holy Days we are all meant to enter into this time of deep introspection and communal reflection as equals. There is no difference between one congregant and another, or between clergy and congregant. This year I have a Hineni that I feel able to read, and one that I will be able to invite each and every person in my congregation to read - each of us quietly to ourselves, as we prepare to enter into the ritual vessel that we are creating together with mindfulness:<br /><br />Here I am,<div>
one soul within this prayer community</div>
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Like those around me, I bring my own concerns and yearnings to this place,</div>
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hoping they will find expression in the time-hallowed words of my people and in the traditions cherished by generations before me.</div>
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May I bring the best of my energies to these Holy Days,</div>
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approaching this spiritual work with open heart and mind, sincerity, and sustained focus on the deep questions of this season:</div>
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Who am I? How shall I live? Where have I fallen short - or failed?</div>
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This night I take up the challenge of the Days of Awe:</div>
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<i>cheshbon hanefesh</i> - a searching examination of my life,</div>
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a moral inventory of my deeds, words, and thoughts.</div>
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During the next ten days,</div>
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let me face the truth about myself and listen to Your still, small voice.</div>
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Taking comfort in your promise that I am always free to change,</div>
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released from staleness and routine,</div>
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let me know the joy of beginning again.</div>
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May I gain strength as I share this task with those around me, united by our common purpose;</div>
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<i>tikkun midot</i> (improving our characters) and <i>tikkun olam</i> (repairing the world).</div>
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I now prepare myself to pray - one soul amidst this holy congregation.</div>
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(copyright CCAR, 2015; Rosh Hashanah Evening Service, p. 16)</div>
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It is another of those moments that the editors of <i>Mishkan HaNefesh</i> have provided alternative ways to encounter (the traditional Hineni is still there too). I am grateful for a text that better reflects how I would like to begin. And, of course, the core questions asked in the text above do not need to wait for the eve of Rosh Hashanah. This month of Elul is <i>the</i> time to begin to ask ourselves: Who am I? How shall I live? Where have I fallen short - or failed? Our inventories of deeds, words, and thoughts are likely to be long. We can take the time we need to review and begin the job of return.</div>
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-46692355285176808072015-08-15T19:00:00.000-04:002015-08-15T19:00:02.145-04:00#BlogElul 5775: Let's get realSpeaking with a colleague the other night, I was hearing how it is not uncommon to hear from those training for the rabbinate that they struggle with liturgical prayer. While this does not surprise me, it may be something that surprises, and perhaps troubles our congregants.<br />
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I can only speak personally, but I've traveled my own path to making prayer work for me. It has taken time - years, in fact. I suspect that most people don't have the patience, but it seemed rather important to me, given my desire to serve as a rabbi to the Jewish community. I've learned to love the 'back stories' (known and theorized) behind why our liturgical prayers came into being. Context and history provide one way in. But getting beyond the literal, and even getting beyond what might have been the original intended meaning, theology, and message, to recast liturgy to speak to us today, has helped me find moments of deep, thoughtful, prayerful experience in the midst of Jewish worship. Music helps a lot too.<br />
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Perhaps more than at any other time of the year, the High Holy Day liturgy can be particularly challenging. In the Reform movement this year, several hundred congregations will be praying out of a brand new machzor, <i>Mishkan HaNefesh (Sanctuary of the Soul).</i> I am so excited by the potential that lies within the pages of this new prayer book. Perhaps, more than any other single thing I can highlight about what makes it so special, is the opportunity to get real.<br />
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What do I mean, by 'let's get real'? I think the best way to illustrate what has been missing for me in some of the liturgy (especially the english language readings) of our previous high Holy Day machzor and what is now available to us in our new book is to share one of the new texts with you. Here is a new text that introduces the <i>Vidui</i> (Confession) on Yom Kippur morning.<br />
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<i>Because I was angry</i><br />
<i>Because I didn't think</i><br />
<i>Because I was exhausted and on edge</i><br />
<i>Because I'd been drinking</i><br />
<i>Because I can be mean</i><br />
<i>Because I was reckless and selfish</i><br />
<i>Because I was worried about money</i><br />
<i>Because my marriage was dead</i><br />
<i>Because other people were doing it</i><br />
<i>Because I thought I could get away with it</i><br />
<i>Because...</i><br />
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<i>I did something wrong.</i><br />
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<i>Because I'm in pain</i><br />
<i>Because I wish I could undo it</i><br />
<i>Because I hurt him</i><br />
<i>Because I lost her trust</i><br />
<i>Because I let them down</i><br />
<i>Because I was self-destructive</i><br />
<i>Because I was foolish</i><br />
<i>Because I'm ashamed</i><br />
<i>Because that's not who I am</i><br />
<i>Because that's not who I want to be</i><br />
<i>Because...</i><br />
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<i>I want to be forgiven.</i><br />
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<i>God,</i><br />
<i>bring down my walls of defensiveness and self-righteousness.</i><br />
<i>Help me to stay in humility.</i><br />
<i>Please - </i><br />
<i>give me the strength to do what's right.</i><br />
<b>copyright CCAR, 2015 (p. 293, Yom Kippur morning service)</b><br />
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I can't read this and remain on automatic pilot. I can't read this and coast through the ritual of reading words out loud in a room full of others, disconnected with the purpose of this holy day. I can't read this without being pulled out of my lethargy and denial and acknowledging that I have been so many of the things listed above. They ring true for me, and speak in a contemporary language that resonates with my experience in a way that some of the traditional words do not. There are other words that are part of the traditional vidui that are much easier for me to read as being about somebody else. But Yom Kippur is not about somebody else. It is about me, what I have done, who I am and who I want to be. And for the ritual of spending designated time in extended communal gatherings and prayer at the High Holy Days to be useful and meaningful, I need tools and texts that will take me to the places that I need to go if I am to emerge at the end feeling like anything has changed (even knowing that I'll need another 're-set' next year).<br />
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This year my #BlogElul posts will all feature new texts or new translations from Mishkan HaNefesh. It is an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of moments within the prayer journey we take over these Holy Days, to familiarize ourselves with the gifts provided by new texts, and to begin to do the work of Soul refinement that can help us enter the New Year with greater intention. I invite you to join me, and share your own reflections to add to the conversation in the comments section. Together, let's make it real this month of Elul.<br />
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<br />Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-73797732117581646672015-04-27T19:30:00.000-04:002015-04-27T19:30:00.897-04:00After death... Holiness - Reflections on the Parsha at the end of our CBS Israel Tour<b><i>Acharei mot - kedoshim - D'var Torah by Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz shared at Kehilat HaLev, Tel Aviv</i></b><br />
<i>Note: the parshiot in Israel are not currently aligned with those in the Diaspora because Diaspora Jews who observed 8 days of Pesach had a Passover Torah reading on the last day of Pesach when Israel had already returned to the Shabbat parsha. Israel and the Diaspora will realign again in a few weeks. This D'var Torah was based on the parsha being read last Shabbat in Israel.</i><br />
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This week has been an incredible week for our group in so many ways. We have experienced so much together and have been given glimpses of so many sides of Israel. To end here, this Shabbat, with you, experiencing new life in Reform Judaism here in Israel is very special.<br />
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This week is a double-Parsha: <i>acharei mot-kedoshim</i>. after death, holiness.<br />
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This week we have been challenged to grapple with this juxtaposition in so many ways. After the Holocaust, the birth of the modern state of Israel. After Yom HaZikaron, Yom Ha'atzmaut. For one of our group, after the death of her mother in recent months, an act of great beauty to memorialize her here while we were traveling together. Yesterday, when we visited Derech Ben, we saw the beautiful community garden built by the parents and community of Ben in a moshav in Misgav, in memory of their son who died at age 24 in the second Lebanon war. Again, after the tragedy of death, holiness - an act of great beauty, remembrance and a place of connection for a whole community (and now also for us, with whom Ben's mother shared his story).<br />
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Our guide, Noam, asked us to think about and talk about the challenge of moving straight from Yom HaZikaron to Yom ha'atzmaut. It is clearly a very powerful transition but how is it for those who sit with the sorrow of a loved one who has died protecting Israel? Is it not jarring to move straight into celebration? Does it not feel forced? I suspect the answer to that question is as varied as the number of Israelis that you ask. Ben's mother felt that it was important for the country to have the two days together, even though she personally cannot shift into celebration on erev Yom Ha'atzmaut.<br />
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In our Parsha, Aaron remains silent. He is not given the time to mourn as the loss of two of his sons comes in the midst of the inaugural ritual performance of the priests and must continue.<br />
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I think of the tradition we have in Judaism that sorrow and joy are not to be mixed, leading to situations when a burial is delayed or shiva is not sat. I struggle with this too for the same reasons as Noam raised for those mourning on Yom HaZikaron. There is no logic to me in asking a family to abstain from mourning rituals because we are in designated 'happy times'. And yet I also understand why the community as a whole needs to embrace the joy to make those festivals meaningful.<br />
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Perhaps what we have here is the tension between the individual and communal need. Aaron needs to mourn but is not given time because he is in the midst of a communal moment. Yom HaZikaron shifts to Yom Ha'atzmaut because as a nation Israel must hold up the joy and blessing of its existence and successes, even while recognizing the losses and work that still needs to be done. Perhaps to live in Israel is to all the time feel that tension between the needs of the individual and the needs of the nation as a whole.<br />
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This does not negate the pain of the individual and their loss but, at a national level, the two days side by side ask us to accept a narrative where hope, rebirth and new possibilities follow from pain and loss. This is a very ancient Jewish narrative. And it is a very Israeli narrative.<br />
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Take, for example, the fast day of Tisha B'Av. Remembering the destruction of the temples and all the tragedies that followed for the Jewish people, there is a tradition that says that the Messiah will be born on the afternoon of Tisha B'v. As the day draws to a close, hope and faith in the future transform a history of loss into something constructive and forward-looking.<br />
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So, after death, hope and maybe joy. But what about <i>kedoshim</i>? Where does holiness fit in this narrative? The root meaning of this word is not really captured by the translation 'holiness'. <i>Kadosh</i> is about setting something apart for a special purpose. Shabbat is <i>Kadosh</i> because it is a day set apart. <i>Kiddushin</i> means set apart because it is the ceremony of marriage where we declare '<i>at mkudeshet li</i>' meaning that this relationship is set apart as distinct and unique from all others in my life.<br />
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<i>Acharei mot - kedoshim</i> teaches us that all of the complexity that we struggle with - the sadness and loss, and the celebration of the State of Israel is because of the special relationship that we all have with it. Israel holds a place in the hearts of all Jews everywhere because we have set it apart as unique and special. Our guides have ensured that during this week we have experienced connection and relationship with many people through many experiences. Tonight we are grateful to have this opportunity to form a new and special relationship with a sister Reform congregation here in Israel.<br />
<i>Kedoshim</i> holds for us the primary statement of this value - Love your neighbor as yourself - we move from loss and sadness as individuals, to connection with others in community through relationship. It is those relationships with the larger community and that sense of greater purpose that enables us to look to the future with hope. And this is why, I believe, that <i>kedoshim</i> follows <i>acharei mot</i> and <i>Yom Ha'atzmaut</i> follows <i>Yom HaZikaron</i>.Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-61497394111206336182015-04-27T17:00:00.000-04:002015-04-27T17:00:01.788-04:00Israel Experience 6: Back to Tel AvivI got a little behind on describing our Israel experience, so this final travel review covers the last couple of days of the trip. We begin up in the Galilee with a couple of stops on our way to Tel Aviv. Our first stop of the day brought us to a very moving presentation and a beautiful place that encapsulated so much of the juxtaposition of pain and hope that we had borne witness to during our travels. We were brought to 'Ben's Way' in a local Moshav - a garden, nature trail and community resource built by the parents of Ben Kornit, who died at the age of 24 in the 2nd Lebanon War. <br />
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Ben's mother told the story of her son; how he had completed his army service and then traveled, including a ride across Mongolia on a horse. Upon returning to Israel, he found himself called up again to serve when the 2nd Lebanon War began. She explained how he came to be one of several soldiers killed when a house they were taking cover in was blown up. Ben's parents decided to memorialize him by building a community nature path and garden that would keep his story and his values alive. Nature and ecology were important to him. So was community connection. So the path took us to places for community cook-outs, a place for gatherings and concerts, and a trail into woods where they discovered a heart-shaped boulder hidden in its midst.<br />
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We learned about members of the community who had helped with the project, including the children from the school on the Moshav, and a local Israeli Arab who had felt a sense of connection with Ben's story and values and had built part of the cook-out area to contribute to the project.<br />
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While we had shifted in time to Yom Ha'atzmaut, this experience was very much tied to the experience of Yom HaZikaron, and we asked Ben's mother how she coped with the transition from one day to the next. She felt that it was important for the nation to have the two days side by side even though she, personally, could not shift into parties and celebrations immediately at the end of Yom HaZikaron.<br />
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From this powerful start to the day we shifted to something quite different as we arrived at<a href="http://www.newfarm.org/international/israel/june05/harduf/index.shtml" target="_blank"> Kibbutz Harduf.</a> This is a remarkable community, bringing together many projects in one, integrated location. They house a school for at-risk children who need to be taken out of their homes, and they work with adults with mental illness (bi-polar, schizophrenia etc.), helping them live healthy lives with work on their organic form or in their workshops making pottery or jewelry for sale while living as part of an integrated community. After a short presentation about the community we were whisked off to the farm. There, we picked lettuce and herbs straight from the fields and gathered eggs that could not be any fresher - we literally pulled them out from under the chickens who had laid them!<br />
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The next step was making lunch. After having been treated to freshly made, healthy food, produced on site by Nir and his crew as we had traveled throughout Israel, now it was our turn to become the chefs. It was all hands on deck as we chopped, sliced, cooked and mixed, and in no time at all we had an incredible feast ready to share. There is no more immediate experience of 'farm to table' than the one we had at Kibbutz Harduf!<br />
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From the Kibbutz we continued on our way to Tel Aviv. We had to bypass one item on our itinerary - a visit to an IDF base - because traffic in and out of the base had come to an almost standstill and we decided that it was better to use the time experiencing as much as we could fit in to the limited time we had remaining on our trip. One of the wonderful things that we experienced about Puzzle Israel was their ability to be nimble in this way and to adapt and change to meet the realities on the ground. The result of this change led to an incredible experience that we added to our trip - a visit to the Joseph Bau museum in Tel Aviv.<br />
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Some of you may recognize Joseph Bau's art work. <a href="http://www.josephbau.com/index.asp?module=album&item_id=2" target="_blank">His posters </a>and the modern Israeli fonts that he developed are instantly recognizable and very famous.<br />
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Today, his daughters tell his story and present his work. If you've seen the movie, Schindler's List, Joseph Bau is the groom in the scene where a marriage takes place (although it didn't happen exactly as depicted in the movie, we were told!). He and his wife were saved by Schindler. In addition to his public work that became well-known in Israel and beyond, Bau also had a secret life, producing all the forged documentation that was needed for the Mossad. In fact, he produced the necessary identity documents for Eli Cohen, the spy that our guide, Noam, had told us about who had brought such valuable intelligence to Israel from Syria. Today, the museum is at risk as the owner of the building wants to turn the rooms into new apartments. You can <a href="http://www.josephbau.com/" target="_blank">learn more about the museum here</a>, and there is currently an exhibit in New York where you can see his work a little closer to home.</div>
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We had a free first evening in Tel Aviv - a chance to walk through the streets and see the bustling cafe life. At the end of Yom Ha'atzmaut everything was packed and we saw the city so full of life. The following day we started at the Rabin Museum. This wonderful exhibition which only opened a few years ago combines a telling of the life of Yitzhak Rabin with a social history of Israel during his lifetime, and the evolution of the peace process leading to the Oslo Accords. From there we made a short stop at Rabin Square and saw the memorial for him there.<br />
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We then had time to wander the Tel Aviv markets. Carmel market is for food and cheap clothing. Nachalat Binyamin market is a local crafts market that is open just two days a week that has the most wonderful array of crafts for the home, jewelry, and the like. This was the most shopping we got to do in a day!<br />
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Before returning to the hotel, we had one of those moments that seem to happen all the time in Israel - bumping into someone you know! I knew that the Alper family from CBS were in Israel the same time as our trip (for a family bar mitzvah of a relative). In the midst of the crowded streets of Tel Aviv on a Friday afternoon, we saw each other! And, it turned out that they had bumped into the other family whose picture we posted earlier in the week - the Feldmans. They had not previously met each other in Westborough and yet managed to figure out the connection in moments.<br />
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In the evening we had a wonderful Shabbat with Kehilat haLev. This is a young, Reform congregation, in the heart of Tel Aviv that has only been in existence for 5 years. Led by a 4th year rabbinic student, Efrat Rotem, their services are characterized by wonderful music and a growing community of all ages. I was invited to share a d'var torah, which I will post separately after this final travel review. After the service they hosted us for a lovely vegetarian dinner as we got to meet some of their community. We finished the night with a few songs together. The photo below is with Efrat and her partner, Ofira, along with two friends of my family, Ralph and Miryam, who have known me since I was two years old. They made aliyah to Israel (he from Scotland, she from Morocco), met and married on a Kibbutz, and moved to Tel Aviv over 30 years ago. They epitomize yet another of the many stories that can be found in Israel.<br />
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Our last day in Israel began with a tour of Jaffa. Noam entertained us once again by taking on the costume of an Ottoman Turk to tell us the history and evolution of Jaffa and Tel Aviv.<br />
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While there, we witnessed two Christian wedding parties - one from Eritrea (and we're not sure where the second was from) -a reminder of yet another side of Israel that we barely had a chance to learn about on this trip - the immigration of many others from around the world, looking for economic opportunities or escaping from war and genocide. Israel has found this immigration challenging due to its small size and the balance between needing to help those in need while placing limits on what it can manage and its need to maintain a Jewish majority in this democratic state.<br />
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We had a fabulous lunch at 'The Old Man and the Sea' at the new port development, where plate after plate of small tasters of salads of all kinds filled the table. And there was one more dinner to come - a final meal with Nir and Guy, owners of Puzzle Israel, before our return to the airport and the long flight home.<br />
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This trip far exceeded my expectations as an organized tour of Israel. Puzzle Israel brings so much that is unique and unlike any other tour I've experienced. I was thrilled to learn and experience so much that I've never seen before, and felt that they provided the broad and multi-faceted narratives of Israel that I wanted any group that I was bringing to Israel to experience. It is hard to sum up a trip that was so packed full of amazing opportunities. In the coming days I hope to be posting reflections from members of our group as they have the opportunity to reflect on what this trip to Israel meant to them.<br />
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<br />Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-60027176424322757012015-04-23T09:04:00.001-04:002015-04-23T09:04:30.998-04:00Israel Experience 5: Life in a MoshavThe paced eased a little yesterday as we stayed up north in the Galilee and took in another rich and diverse set of experiences. We began up on the Golan Heights at one of the northernmost points of Israel, looking down directly on Syria. Damascus was a mere 30 miles from where we stood. UN peace keeping observers are stationed up there to keep an international eye on the border. From this viewpoint, our guide Noam shared the amazing story of Israeli spy, Eli Cohen, who went deep undercover in Syria from 1963-5 and provided Israel with invaluable intelligence until he was caught, tried and hanged in Syria. While up there the 11am morning siren rang out for Yom HaZikaron. From this position the experience was quite different to the night before. We could hear the sirens from other areas behind us but nothing in front of us as, looking at Syria, we had a viceral and stark reminder of what Israeli soldiers have fought and died for.<br />
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From there, we spent the afternoon visiting two moshavim. A Moshav is a small community that shares some characteristics with a kibbutz but from the outside was based on individual ownership of homes and separate incomes and livelihoods. This is what differentiates it from a kibbutz. At the first moshav, we visited a leather-making factory, where leather is shaped into bracelets, belts, bags and more. We all had a go at creating a plaited leather bracelet that we got to keep. Another delicious lunch was served, courtesy of Nir and his catering crew. From there we went on to a religious moshav that runs a dairy farm. We learned about their history, got to bring water for the newly born calves to drink (much cuteness ensued), and watched an incredible robotic machine milk cows. This machine feeds, bathes, and monitors the cows while milking them in a way that is comfortablel and precise. The extremely bright cows line up to enter the milking machine when they want to be milked - approx. 4 or 5 times a day. They have learned that they will be fed and cooled in the hot months. The young cows soon learn to follow once they see all the other cows going in and coming out.<br />
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On our way back to the wonderful accommodations at Vered HaGalil, we stopped for one more special act - we planted an olive tree in memory of Sandra Haley's mother who died earlier this year. It was a touching act that moved us all, and was indicative of the love and compassion that our tour guides have shown to us as they learn about us during this trip.<br />
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We had some rest time before dinner that some used to walk on the wonderful site we were staying at, with views over the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) and some used to get a massage! The night ended with a delicious celebratory meal for Yom Ha'atzmaut at the steak house on site at our hotel.Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-81015684667121656572015-04-22T12:04:00.000-04:002015-04-22T12:04:35.697-04:00Israel Experience 4: A Change of LandscapeToday began in the wilderness landscape of the Judean Desert and ended in the lush, green landscape of the Galilee. An incredible view of the Jezreel Valley, mentioned in the Tenach as the place where Elijah challenged the Priests of Baal to a sacrifice competition, provided our first sense of just how different this new landscape was.<br />
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We were treated to another lunch in situ, courtesy of Nir. Today was make-your-own wraps, with lafaa bread, goats chees, parsley, and zatar, which is Hyssop. Dessert was also wrapped up, but this time we were spreading Nutella and Halva onto the lafaa - yum!<br />
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From here we continued to experience the valley via another mode of transportation - ATV! Along the route we stopped at a naturally occuring watering hole - a popular kind of place found all over the northern hills around the Galilee where Israelis (Jews and Arabs) come to swim, eat, drink and hang out. In our short stop we saw a microcosm of the local society. Israeli arabs smoking a water pipe, an Israeli boy- and girlfriend picnicking togeter, and then a youth group of cyclists who came to take a break in their bike ride. Their leaders demonstrated how to leap into the pool and then gently encouraged all the children to have a go. So much fun!<br />
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We ended the afternoon, prior to an early dinner (where I had a brief reunion with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Shharone and Shlomo, who visited CBS and presented to our congregation lst year at Erev Sukkot), with some team games. I think we've discovered that our group likes games (and some of us are quite competitve!)<span id="goog_1971097284"></span><br />
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The day ended with a change of tone as we entered Yom HaZikaron with a very moving ceremony inthe region of Misagv, where our tour company owners, Nir and Guy, are from. They connected with friends and family and we bore witness to a very moving ceremony that brought out a very large % of the whole town. We stood together in silence while the sirens could be heard al around. This was followed by poetry, family reflections, and music and the names of all those from Misgav who had died serving their country. As each name was read, along the date that they died, they were listed as 'father of so-and-so', 'brother of so-and-so' and more. This is how it is in Israel. Every soldier is someone's brother, sister, father, friend. And almost every single Israeli personally knows someone who died while serving. Memorial day is an emotional and heart-felt observance for all. We felt priveleged to stand witness to get some sense of what this day is all about from within.</blockquote>
<span id="goog_1971097283"></span>Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-74308114509023338102015-04-21T04:54:00.000-04:002015-04-21T04:54:39.599-04:00Israel Experience 3: A day in the desert3 a.m. That was the wake up call for most our group this morning. Those of us planning to hike up Masada in time for sunrise had to leave Jerusalem bright and early. A 20 min uphill hike up a flight of stairs paralleling the ramparts built by the Romans when they laid siege and eventually broke through the wall around Masada and we arrived at the top as the sun had just made its appearance and was slowly beginning to rise in the sky.<br />
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Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu Melech HaOlam, ma'asey bereshit - Blessed are You, Eternal our God Ruler of the Universe, Source of Creation.
This is the traditional blessing to recite upon seeing the sun rise. This was how we began on top of Masada, followed by some morning blessings of gratitude for bodies that work, strength to rise and climb, and then added our own morning blessings of gratitude to the list.<br />
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With photos snapped (views, sunrise, and a family of Ibex - a kind of deer - who had made their way to top of Masada too), our guide, Noam, then transformed himself into the Roman King Herod. He explained how Masada came to be built, what life was like there, how water was brought up, food was stored and more. And then, after the death of Herod and the later destruction of the 2nd temple in Jerusalem, we learned of the band of Jewish zealots who escaped to Masada and then survived an eight month siege before the Romans finally captured Masada, and found the Jews had martyred themselves rather than be taken.<br />
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After much needed coffee, we made our way to Nahalat David - a short hike along a naturally occurring spring with small waterfalls along the way. We splashed and refreshed ourselves and then headed to the Ein Gedi Spa by the Dead Sea where we were treated to a truly delicious freshly grilled lunch by Nir, one of the co-owners of Puzzle Israel (our tour company) and owner of Margolis Catering.<br />
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Due to changes in the ecosystem, the Dead Sea has been shrinking at an incredible rate in recent decades. Now a vehicle takes us down what must easily be a half mile journey from the Spa facility to the Dead Sea. The water itself is not particularly clean looking but we gamely waded in to float and get the photo op! Several added to that with the Dead Sea mud treatment too. Back at the top some tried the Sulphur pools which are warm and wonderful but smell of pungent bad eggs! I know, I'm making it sound so appealing! It is quite a unique experience, but a challenging one.<br />
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A winding drive brought us to the Bedouin-style accommodations for tonight - charming, rustic cabins, more delicious food, and a camp fire with grilled pineapple and marshmallows.<br />
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Oh... and 'the surprise' that was not on our itinerary - the camel caravan. A good proportion of our group braved the camel ride and it was quite a thrill.
One of the big themes of today, but also somewhat of a continuation from the water tunnels yesterday, was shifting from our zone of conflict or panic to our zone of comfort. This was Noam's way of asking us to try things outside of our comfort zone and seeing if we could shift our perspective through our experience. For some, wading through narrow water tunnels was that experience. For some it was climbing Masada. For some (this Rabbi being one of them) it was getting up on a camel (and back down again!)
Over our campfire we shared a few more examples of shifting through these zones by being willing to take on an uncomfortable experience. No doubt, there will be more to come. It is yet one more rewarding aspect of this trip experience we are having together.<br />
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Finally, a lovely photo shared by another Conbgregation B'nai Shalom family - the Feldmans are on a separate tour this week and they were the host family for our emmisary, Ziv Zamir back in Worcester. They managed to fit in a great reunion in Israel!<br />
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<br />Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-51965047699859454572015-04-19T22:01:00.000-04:002015-04-19T22:01:22.438-04:00Jerusalem past and presentFor our second report from Jerusalem we begin outside the walls of today's Old City at the archeological site believed to be the original city of David. While the possibilities of what is being discovered in the layers beneath the surface are exciting, arriving at this site we see that the archeological park abuts and cuts into the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan where people living today are in communities upon that surface. Here again we are exposed to the multi-faceted and complex nature of every site in Jerusalem.<br />
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Up here is also the entrance to the ancient water tunnels that were dug to bring water into the walled city. For this part of today\s report we turn to Andrew, Ben and Lily Rosenfeld who wrote up this report on our morning adventure:<br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Our first adventure of the day was exploring Hezekiah’s tunnels. These tunnels were constructed almost 3000 years ago to transport spring water to the City of David. This was used as a military tactic to provide water even when the city was under siege. We walked down several flights of stairs as we headed towards the beginning of the tunnel, and as soon as we entered the tunnel the cold (but refreshing) water quickly got to almost 2 1/2 feet deep. This may not seem like much for most, but it was quite adventurous for our youngest, 7 year old explorer! We proceeded though the dark 1750 foot tunnel only able to see with the help of our headlamps and flashlights, wading through the narrow and twisting tunnel which at times was less than 5 feet high. We really enjoyed this adventure and found it amazing to think that this underground tunnel was built so long ago without the conveniences of modern day technology.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Some of our group opted for a drier route, but below are the brave souls who waded through, celebrating their victorious exit at the other end!</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">From here we made our way via the Dung Gate (so called because this was the means by which the Romans removed their sewage from the city) back to the Kotel plaza and into the tunnels that take us the length of the Western Wall underground, revealing the amazing scale of the supporting wall that Herod built to create the temple mount, along with remnants of that time such as a pavement, columns and additional water systems. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">We had two in</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">credible guides today. Both were Orthodox women. The first shared that she had close to 40 </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">grandchildren! She brought Jerusalem of 2000 years ago to life as we walked through the Kotel tunnels. Her passion was evident and this was yet another important voice for us to hear, even if we might dispute some of what we heard presented as history. This trip is all about taking in ALL of the narratives and encountering all of the people of Israel and this was an importnat voice for us to hear too. And there was no question that she left us with a feeing of pride and wonderment and deep sense of connection to our ancient past.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">A short lunch break was enjoyed at Machaneh Yehudah - the Jerusalem outdoor food market. Blocks of Halva were aquired, borekas and rogelach enjoyed, spices smelt, and more. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">We ended the afternoon with a very powerful and emotional visit to Yad Vashem. One of our group, Jeff Govendo, saw the same of someone who shared the same last name in the very first exhibit we saw -- someone who occupied a place somewhere on his extended family tree. Our excellent guide emphasizd personal connectioons and individual stories throughout our tour. The museum was packed full - we saw members of St. Stephen's there too, as well as a large group of female IDF soldiers. We learned that it is a requirement for all IDF soldiers to visit Yad Vashem sometime during their service. What makes this Holocaust museum experience unique is the deep sense that is strongly communicated that Israel is the response to the Holocaust. It is the way that, as a Jewish people, we have the ability to make </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Never again mean that we will never again rely on others to provide safae haven to the Jews of the world when trouble strikes. We ended our visit with a brief reflection circle, El Malei, Kaddish, and our gude, Noam, gave each of us a card with the name of someone who perished in the Holocaust whose name bore some resemblance to our own.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">After a break back at the hotel, we had the enormous pleasure of spending a delicious meal wth Joe Federman. Joe grew up at CBS, the son of Toby and Mike who are founding members of the congregation. He is now Bureau Chief for the Associated Press covering Gaza, Israel and the Palestinian authority. We had a wonderful conversation, learning about the nature of the news business in this complex part of the world, post election analysis, the US-Israel relationshiip, the Red Sox, NE Patriots, and more!</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Today's blog post has been written on the bus at 4 am as we make our way to Masada in time for sunrise. Forgive any blurry eyed typos!</span>Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-70771577177920299762015-04-18T18:29:00.000-04:002015-04-18T18:29:10.741-04:00A Post Shabbat Update from JerusalemShalom!<br />
Our Congregation B'nai Shalom Israel trip is off to a great start. It is hard to believe that we have only been here since Friday evening - we have already seen and experienced so much!<br />
We had very smooth and straightforward flights. Once we'd met our tour guides we were taken straight to Jerusalem. The first thing that we notice is that one truly ascends to Jerusalem - the bus began to climb the winding road about 2/3rds into our 1 hour ride to the capital city. Entering from the west of the city, we were taken to the Tayelet for our first amazing view. There we had our own brief Kabbalat Shabbat service as the afternoon began to transition to dusk.<br />
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After checking in to our hotel in the heart of downtown Jerusalem we had a short walk to a delicious, muti-course meal - an opportunity to taste some of the best that Jerusalem has to offer and a wonderful time for our group to really start to connect with each other.<br />
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Today - Shabbat - we started off the day after an incredible breakfast spread with another amazing view - this time from the Mount of Olives. This gave us an opportunity to drive through some of the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. From our viewing point we could see the gravestones of all those buried on the sides of the Mount, and we learned about the location of the original City of David and how the current walled Old City came into being and slowly took shape. Our wonderful lead guide, Noam, engages us all every step of the way with the help of Ben and Lily - the two youngest members of our tour - renacting a biblical scene between the Jebusite King and King David when David acquired the land to begin to build his city.<br />
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From there we entered the Old City via the Damascus Gate into the Muslim quarter and we immediately had all our senses bombarded with the sounds, smells and colors of the market. The city was bustling with energy - while the Jewish quarter remains quiet on Shabbat the rest of the city is open for business. Traveling by foot from the Muslim quarter to the Jewish quarter our group began to get a true sense of the geography and what it truly means when people speak of dividing the city - a task that seems quite impossible as one narrow, winding street in one quarter leads directly in the narrow streets of the next.<br />
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We arrived at the Kotel - the Western Wall. We took a little time in the area of the wall divided for men and women and prayer notes were placed in the cracks. Then we walked over to the continuation of the wall in the excavated Robinson's arch area - an area now designated for egalitarian prayer services. We were there alone and took the opportunity to have a short morning service together. Both on Friday night and Shabbat morning, our melodies, poems and readings highlighted the Jerusalem we were experiencing right before us through our liturgy.<br />
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Lunch brought us back to the Muslim quarter for some of the best falafel and hummous that Jerusalem has to offer. Then a tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - by far the most crowded site we visited all day, reminding us Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land is an enormous source of tourism to Israel, far outscaling Jewish travel by dint of being such a large world population.<br />
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In the afternoon, some of us stayed with Noam to explore more of the old city and some of us headed over for some time at the Israel museum. Both groups had an amazing experience - some wonderful exhibits at the museum, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and findings from the Cairo Geniza. In the old city we took in more views, and had a chance meeting and conversation with a Jewish Israeli of Yemenite descent and a Palestinian Arab from Haifa who were making a documentary about their friendship and the challenges of identity and who were gracious in sharing some of this with us. With this exchange, as with so much of what we saw today, the complexity and many faces of Israel were brought to us in very real and concrete ways. We also stopped in at a 200 year old functioning tehina factory - the smell of sesame for several hundred feet around was incredible!<br />
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Perhaps no clearer example of this was our closing program, which we shared with member of St Stephen's Church who are also traveling from Westborough. Two members of Seeds for Peace - a Jewish Israeli and an Arab Muslim from East Jerusalem - took us through a very intense experience of the challenges of truly listening to each others' narratives. They left us with a sense of great sadness at how few Israelis and Palestinians have these opportunities and how remarkable their friendship is. There is still much to debrief from this experience, not only for our group but also, I hope, with the church group back in Westborough. Pictured below is Father Jesse Abell of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and Micali Morin, who is in Israel for a High School Semester program with NFTY -it was wonderful to have her join us for the evening (and I had an opportunity for a catch-up over an early dinner before the program).<br />
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All this... just one day! And as I finish typing this update, the downtown streets below my window are still buzzing with people who come out to eat, drink and socialize once Shabbat ends - and it is now 1 am! Time to get some shut-eye before we launch into the next full day that lies ahead.<br />
<i>Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz</i>Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-76177026704219082202015-04-15T12:15:00.001-04:002015-04-15T12:15:21.150-04:00On the eve of our Congregational trip to Israel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/PikiWiki_Israel_15514_Jerusalem_landscape.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/PikiWiki_Israel_15514_Jerusalem_landscape.JPG" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
Well... I'm (nearly) all packed and ready for my first congregational trip to Israel with <a href="http://www.cbnaishalom.org/" target="_blank">Congregation B'nai Shalom</a>. We are a group of 17 heading out tomorrow evening and expecting to land in Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon, in time to celebrate Shabbat in Jerusalem.<br />
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Our group ranges from age 7 to mid-70s. Many have never been to Israel and, of those who have, most haven't been for over 20 years. It has been about 8 years since I was last year - the longest gap of travel to Israel that I've had for a while. For our group this is a great adventure as we prepare to see, experience, and taste the great variety that exists in Israel. Our tour company owners are chefs, so we know we are going to eat well, and we have some quite special fresh food experiences lined up.<br />
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- We'll be traveling as far South as Arad and traveling North all the way up to the Golan Heights.<br />
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- We'll be meeting up with Israelis, Bedouins, and Arabs, and learning about Israel from many different perspectives.<br />
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- We'll be grappling with the political, historical and ecological complexities that we find as we journey together.<br />
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And we'll be recording our experiences here on my blog as often as we can.<br />
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I hope that you'll join us on our journey. Feel free to leave messages here on the blog or <a href="mailto:rabbi@cbnaishalom.org" target="_blank">email me</a> with private messages (such as those you would like us to offer a prayer for healing for, or a brief prayer message that you would like me to place at the Kotel (Western Wall).Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-27131067744428246522015-03-26T20:00:00.000-04:002015-03-26T20:00:07.388-04:00How Do We Talk About Israel<br />
<i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Last Shabbat, following the elections in Israel, Rabbi Michael Swarttz and I gave the following sermon at our joint annual Congregation B'nai Shalom/Beth Tikvah service. The presentation was followed by discussion and comment from the congregation. We are sharing our text to stimulate further conversation - perhaps around Seder tables at the upcoming festival of Pesach.</span></i><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Rabbi Rachel
Gurevitz:<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Rabbi
Melissa Weintraub writes, ‘In rabbinic circles, one increasingly hears
sentiments like, “I’m not going to get fired for my politics on gun control or
health care, but I could get fired for just about anything I say about Israel.”
Rabbi Scott Perlo has coined this, the “Death by Israel Sermon.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And yet, 4 days after the
Israeli elections, bringing together our two congregations, how could we not
speak about Israel together? And more than anything, when we speak about Israel
together, whether in a formal community gathering or on each other’s Facebook
walls, we want to bring care, love, and genuine deep listening to <i>how</i> we speak about Israel with each
other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6561385669_178acb01fa_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6561385669_178acb01fa_o.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In his book, ‘<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Relational-Judaism-Relationships-Transform-Community/dp/1580236669" target="_blank">Relational Judaism</a>’, Rabbi Ron Wolfson discusses our relationship with Israel as one of
the vital aspects of relationship building that needs to be deepened in Jewish
communal life. He reports on the impact of ten years of programming in one
congregation in St. Louis that sent their 15 year olds on a Summer-long program
to live with Israeli youth in a Moshav in the 1970s. At the 30<sup>th</sup>
reunion of those who had participated in the program, they surveyed the more
than 300 people who had participated over the years. This revealed that the experience had created
a ‘reference relationship’ with Israel that many respondents claimed was one of
the most important influences in their lives, evidenced by many of the
now-adult participants maintaining regular contact with their Israeli
‘families’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For those of us who have been
to Israel, for those of us who have Israelis in our families, for those of us
that have hosted an Israeli in our homes (such as our wonderful Israeli
emissary program)… these are personal ways of engaging with Israel and forming
a multi-faceted sense of relationship with the land and her people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For others, we rely on what
we can learn from the media. We rely on various Jewish and Israeli
organizations, each with their own set of perspectives, principles, and
policies to inform us. They frame the stories of Israel, the peace process, and
all we try to grasp from the outside for us. But from where do we learn how to
interpret this information and how to critically examine the presentation of a
particular set of perspectives? How do we contribute to the conversations about
Israel, whether within the Jewish community, in broader communal settings, on
college campuses, and on the political stage?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do we talk about Israel?
The answer to that question might depend on what our goal is, and with whom we
are speaking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For some, the goal is to make the case for a very
specific kind of policy or position with regard to Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5548/12101882633_27c26aff84_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="213" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5548/12101882633_27c26aff84_o.jpg" title="" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Photo: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/search/?woe_id=782220">Davos Dorf, Davos, Canton of Graubunden</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When Netanyahu spoke to
Congress 2.5 weeks ago, there was very little of ‘on the one hand’ and ‘on the
other hand’. He had a very specific hand to deal. If you a politician, you
stake out your ground. Whatever you may be feeling about the outcome of these
elections, there is no doubt that Netanyahu clearly articulated where he stood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For some, speaking about Israel has become a
not-so-subtle hiding ground for anti-semitism.
<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was speaking with a
Christian minister who recently returned from a trip to Israel that was
designed to educate ministers about both sides of the conflict. She remarked
that she now saw and understood how so much of the focus on Israel’s ills in
the media and the international stage is so clearly a manifestation of
anti-semitism. Recently on a British TV
show, Question Time, a politician was taken to task by some members of the
audience and other panelists for his virulent anti-Zionism. He denied that he
was responsible in any way for increases in anti-semitic attacks in the UK,
parsing the difference between his anti-Zionism and anti-semitism in ways that
simply don’t stand up to scrutiny. We have to speak up and hold those who
misuse Israel in this way accountable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For some, speaking about Israel is about working to
ensure that the US has Israel’s back. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Secretary_Kerry_Meets_With_AIPAC_Leaders_(12935647324)_(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Secretary_Kerry_Meets_With_AIPAC_Leaders_(12935647324)_(2).jpg" height="211" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is an important role for
all involved in political action in DC. But sometimes this role is conflated
with never publicly criticizing or questioning Israel’s decisions. This is a
delicate subject. Some believe that we risk weakening that support if we
introduce nuance and complexity into this political forum. Others believe that
if we truly wish the US political system to support Israel and help it achieve
a lasting peace with the Palestinians that we are obligated to speak when we
perceive Israel to be doing something that is not in its long-term best
interests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For most of us, Rabbis
included, we speak about Israel because we care about Israel. We speak about
Israel because we want to better understand Israel. We speak about Israel
because we want to learn more about the people and the land. And we want, we
desperately want to find a path forward for peace. And we struggle with how
complicated that is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have always made it my
mission, when visiting in Israel, to find opportunities to speak with Arab
Israelis and Palestinians. I spent a year in Israel, arriving there shortly
after the 2<sup>nd</sup> intifada began. The old city was quiet, and the
shopkeepers had plenty of time to chat. I spent extended visits over mint tea
with some of them, listening to their stories of what was happening in the West
Bank, and the conversations taking place in East Jerusalem. I even traveled
into the West Bank and two refugee camps, led by one of those who I had
befriended over time, to see things for myself. It opened my eyes to another
perspective that, when we only do ‘Jewish Israel’ we can never find. And,
whatever you may think of that perspective, my understanding of what the
conflict is about and what both sides want was enormously deepened by having
taken the time to sit down and have those conversations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Back in the US, it also gave
me access to the Arab Muslim population that was involved in interfaith work
with my congregation and others in my last community in Bridgeport. They
invited me to speak about the Jewish and Israeli perspective on the peace process,
because they knew that I had listened to <i>their</i>
perspective, and we had a mutual respect and, eventually, love for each other,
even though we disagreed when new events in the conflict arose. The bridge
building we were able to do locally was built on friendship and trust first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One cannot help but emerge
from these kinds of discursive and relationship-based conversations with a very
different kind of personal connection to Israel and the people of Israel. One gains entry into the diversity of perspective
and experience of Israel’s citizens. There can be no two-dimensional analysis
or understanding of what is happening or what will happen – it is complex and
multi-dimensional, and ever-changing. And
perhaps most of all, when one is tempted to make statements about Israel, the
perspectives gained from relationship-based conversations with different people
brings about a little more humility – an awareness of what we know and what we
don’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rabbi Michael Swarttz<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In her remarks Rabbi Gurevitz used the descriptors
“nuanced,” “complex,” “multi-dimensional,” and “ever-changing.” These very appropriately describe virtually
everything about the Israeli situation—its people, its politics, its culture,
its security. These aspects of the
situation often get lost in the highly charged arena of Jewish communal
discussion and debate about the Jewish State.
In their place there is an attitude of “If I am right, then you must be
wrong” that characterizes the discussion.
It is a shame that Israel, which at one time united us, and which should
continue to do so, is that which so often divides us. It polarizes us. Why? So much at stake, we care so deeply.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">My reflections this evening come from two
contemporary thinkers. Yossi Klein
Halevi is a journalist and author who was American-born and who made Aliyah as
a young man. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is
the President of CLAL, a national Jewish organization committed to building
bridges across communities to encourage pluralism and openness and to promoting
inclusive Jewish communities in which all voices are heard. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Rabbi Gurevitz is a CLAL Associate, by the way.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000835068986/efca97b027b0f8139395d85fcb547f7e_400x400.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000835068986/efca97b027b0f8139395d85fcb547f7e_400x400.jpeg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tonight we find ourselves mid-way between the
holidays of Purim and Pesach. A few
years ago Yossi Klein Halevi wrote a piece that has stayed with me in which he
describes the Jewish community as divided between <i>Purim Jews</i> and <i>Pesach Jews</i>. Each of these groups identifies with a
different biblical commandment of <i>Zachor</i>,
telling us to remember. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The first voice commands us to <i>remember</i> that we were strangers in the land of Egypt, and the
message of that command is: “Don’t be brutal.” The second voice commands us to <i>remember</i> how the tribe of Amalek
attacked us without provocation while we were wandering in the desert, and the
message of that command is: “Don’t be naive.” You may recall that the Shabbat
before Purim is Shabbat Zachor, and we read the Torah passage commanding us to
remember what Amalek did to our ancestors.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The first Zachor is the voice of Passover, of liberation;
the second is the voice of Purim, commemorating our victory over the genocidal
threat of Haman, a descendant of Amalek. “Passover Jews” are motivated by
empathy with the oppressed; “Purim Jews” are motivated by alertness to threat.
Both are essential; one without the other creates an unbalanced Jewish
personality, a distortion of Jewish history and values.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Klein Halevi suggests that one reason the
Palestinian issue is so wrenching for Jews is that it is the point on which the
two commands of our history converge: the stranger in our midst is represented
by a national movement that wants to usurp us.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And so a starting point of a healthy North American
Jewish conversation on Israel would be acknowledging the <i>agony of our dilemma</i>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Imagine an Orthodox rabbi, a supporter of the
settlers in Hebron (a Purim Jew), delivering this sermon to his congregation:
“My friends, our community has sinned against Israel. For all our devotion to
the Jewish state and our concern for its survival, we have failed to acknowledge
the consequences to Israel’s soul of occupying another people against its
will.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now imagine a liberal rabbi, a supporter of J
Street (a Pesach Jew), telling his or her congregation: “My friends, our
community has sinned against Israel. For all our devotion to the Jewish state
and our concern for its democratic values, we have failed to acknowledge the
urgency of existential threat once again facing our people.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As Klein Halevi asserts, when North American Jews
internalize or at least acknowledge each other’s anxieties, and the legitimacy
of the other’s <i>Zachor</i>, the shrillness
of much of the North American Jewish debate over Israel will give way to a more
nuanced conversation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I thought of Klein Halevi’s analysis in light of my
day yesterday. In the afternoon I
attended via my computer a webinar sponsored by the rabbinic organization <i>T’ruah</i>. <i>T’ruah</i> is the North American wing of Rabbis for Human Rights, an
organization focused on the civil rights of minorities in Israel, including,
but not limited to, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Both groups consist of what most of us would
refer to as “left of center” rabbis.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the evening my wife and I attended a lecture at
our local Chabad in Newton by Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby. Jacoby spoke about U.S.-Israel relations in
the aftermath of the Israeli election.
Needless to say, this was a different crowd than I had been with during
the webinar, with different views and different assumptions.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yesterday afternoon I was with Pesach Jews. In the evening I was with Purim Jews. My problem is I have commonalities with both
groups. Points of agreement and
disagreement with each. Even though I consider myself slightly left of center,
I do understand and share many of the concerns of the Purim Jews.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.clal.org/images/bh_%209.23.08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="http://www.clal.org/images/bh_%209.23.08.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I
now turn to Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, the President of CLAL. In his book <i>You Don’t Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be
Right </i>(this is what this is all about), Hirschfield describes an experience
he had in 2006 when he created a television series called <i>Building Bridges: Abrahamic Perspectives on the World Today. </i>He created the series for <i>Bridges TV,</i> the American Muslim network
based in Buffalo, New York. The show is
a weekly roundtable with different imams, priests, ministers, and Hirschfield
trying to use the wisdom of their faiths to find spiritual solutions to
contemporary problems and demonstrate that disagreement doesn’t always have to
be about demonizing the people with whom they disagree.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Hirschfield
was asked by the people at Bridges TV to invite an Iranian Imam in Detroit,
Mohammed Ali Elahi, to appear on his show.
Elahi had taken numerous positions publicly with which Hirschfield
vehemently disagreed, but he met him and spent a good deal of time talking with
him. Neither changed the other’s
opinion, but they came to like and respect each other nonetheless. Hirschfield writes that the fact that they
had deep disagreements was “precisely why I was open to having him on the show.
It is most important to talk with those people with whom we most disagree.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He
not only agreed to have Elahi on his show, but Elahi invited Hirschfield to
come to his mosque, speak from the pulpit, and then view the premiere of the
show at the mosque with his congregation.
This generated outrage from both Jewish organizations and general political
groups. He was told “You can’t talk to him,” that he would be punished and that
his career would be in jeopardy. People
would see to it that he “would be finished in Jewish life.” He was called a
traitor. His love of Israel was
questioned, along with his commitment to the Jewish community. He writes, “I
was shocked. I began to realize that my ‘sin’ lay in the claim that
disagreement was no excuse for not talking. I had touched that raw nerve that
says you <i><u>do</u></i> have to be wrong
for me to be right.” <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
There are lessons to be learned from Rabbi Hirschfield’s story about how we, internally in the Jewish community, speak to and listen to those with whom we disagree about what Israel does, who it elects, and how it goes about its business. Some of us are Purim Jews; others Pesach Jews. Some, like myself, are a combination of the two. I believe we are a stronger and healthier Jewish community when we can have respectful relationships and civil dialogue with those who differ with us. “Azeh hu chacham? Who is wise?” He who learns from every person, including, and perhaps especially, those with different viewpoints. Given how much is at stake, and how invested most of us are in the Israeli enterprise, it is often easier said than done. But it is a goal well-worth striving for.Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-34119651913478682042015-03-24T17:00:00.000-04:002015-03-24T17:00:03.368-04:00It's All About Those Plagues - the 2015 Passover Parody from Congregation B'nai ShalomHere's what it takes...<br />
One creative congregant with a penchant for great re-writes of big hit songs (thanks Elyse Heise!), another congregant with professional chops for filming, directing and willing to donate hours of his time to editing (amazing Chuck Green!), some generous friends of the aforementioned with superb vocal skills (Rachel Baril and Ashley Harmon), directing (Daniel Jacobs) and audio recording skills (Ean White at Incendiary Arts LLC) and a lot of willing congregants (aged 6 to 90) to act out, act up and have a lot of fun in the process...<br />
Those are the ingredients that get you this year's CBS Passover Parody - All About Those Plagues.<br />
<br />
We hope you have as much fun watching it as we had making it. Please share widely!<br />
(for those receiving this by email, please <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biBGKDoolCk&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">click this link</a> if the video does not appear below)<br />
<br />
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Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-72090742186042907142015-02-20T20:00:00.000-05:002015-02-20T20:00:01.323-05:00Doing something By Heart - Reflections on Parsha Terumah<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2794/4482774263_552659f6e5_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2794/4482774263_552659f6e5_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I was sent a lovely Shabbat greeting earlier today by Jewish
poet <a href="http://www.stumblingtowardsmeaning.com/" target="_blank">Stacey Zisook Robinson</a> that she had read somewhere else. It was the
words of a 5th grade child who had said: ‘God made me by heart.’ It was a beautiful sentiment and one
that could take us to very deep places if we sat and contemplated it a
while. But I was struck at the
timing of the message, coinciding with this particular Shabbat – Shabbat
Terumah – which begins with the words, ‘Tell the Israelite people to bring Me
gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves
him.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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What does it mean to do something by heart?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In colloquial terms, it often means to
know something by memory. But even in the everyday contexts to which we might
apply the phrase, that definition doesn’t really do it justice. I know that
even when there were times in my youth when I tried to commit a piece of music
or a poem to memory, if I truly had something down ‘by heart’ it was much
deeper than that. Relying on my memory I’d often get mixed up, or second-guess
myself and make mistakes. But truly knowing something ‘by heart’ meant that I
had deeply integrated it within myself – it had become a part of me, and
sharing it was a way of now expressing a part of me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are countless idiomatic expressions in the English
language that rely on the heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just a few examples: (found at <a href="http://www.idiomconnection.com/heart.html">Idiom Connection</a>)</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">at heart<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- basically, essentially, what one really is rather than
what one appears to be</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The man seems to be angry all the time but actually he is a
very gentle person at heart. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">close to (someone's)
heart<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- an idea or something that is important to you and that you
care about</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The plan to improve the downtown area is very close to the
mayor's heart.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">find it in one's
heart to (do something)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- to have the courage or compassion to do something</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">from the bottom of
one`s heart<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- with great feeling, sincerely</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The girl thanked the man from the bottom of her heart for
saving her dog`s life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">have a heart-to-heart
talk with (someone)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to have a sincere and intimate talk with someone</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">open one`s heart to
(someone)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- to talk about one`s feelings honestly, to confide in
someone</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">with all one`s heart
(and soul)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->with all one's energy and feeling</div>
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<br /></div>
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To do something by heart is to do something that deeply
expresses some essential aspect of our self. I love the idea that ‘God made us
by heart’ – it expresses so beautifully something of what it might mean to be
made in God’s likeness. And when the Children of Israel were asked that those
whose hearts moved them should contribute to the Mishkan – the Tabernacle that
represents the Presence of God in their midst, this notion then becomes
reciprocal. In fact, I think it goes deeper than that. When the Children of
Israel do something with all their heart – something that innately expresses an
essential piece of who each one of them is (and they do that by bringing not
only things but also the talents and skills that they possess to the job of
building the Mishkan), they actually manifest God’s Presence in their midst.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a powerful lesson. The notion that, by being fully
present and sharing something of our deepest sense through our gifts and our
giving, we are actually manifesting the God Who Dwells Among Us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we, mere human beings, have the
power to do this because our essential selves are, in turn, a manifestation of
an aspect of God’s essence. All we need to do is search within, and then let it
out.</div>
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So each and every one us of can ask ourselves the question,
‘What can I do ‘by heart’ to build the mishkan in my home, my congregation, my
community, my world?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Children
of Israel were given the gift of an opportunity – to help create a great symbol
that would travel with them throughout the wilderness journeys to remind them
how to manifest God in their midst. What reminders do we need? How can this
place<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- this holy space – provide us
with the reminders that we need to live more of life ‘by heart?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We say that the study of Torah leads us
to a life of mitzvot – the spiritual practice of being together, hearing Torah
together, praying for and with each other… this is our modern Mishkan, and it
is one place to start.</div>
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-60201673915506606842015-01-22T10:24:00.000-05:002015-01-22T10:24:02.985-05:00Four stages of Redemption – Why the Freedom story for African Americans is incomplete<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><i>This posting is a version of the sermon I gave last Friday, for MLK Weekend</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr..jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">It is
appropriate that tonight is a Torah Shabbat where we find ourselves in the
early chapters of Sh’mot – the 2<sup>nd</sup> book of the Torah – Exodus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We find our ancestors have become
slaves in Egypt, and we begin the narrative that will lead to our redemption.
And this is Martin Luther King Jr Weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Martin Luther King Jr – an inspiring leader and orator who
drew heavily on the freedom narrative in the Torah to point the way forward for
this country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">And while we
remember and celebrate his legacy, and can clearly look back and see the
progress that has been made since he led the fight for civil rights for African
Americans, recent events continue to remind us that their freedom story is
incomplete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just this week, major
highways around Boston were shut down during the morning commute by those
protesting to keep reminding us that Black Lives Matter and there is a systemic
set of problems that have not been satisfactorily addressed in our country
where our African American brother and sisters are concerned. The picture is
more complicated and nuanced than in MLK’s time. ‘How can it be’, we ask, ‘that
we can live in an era where a person of color is President of the USA, and yet
such inculcated and systemic racism continues to be present in our society?’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Let’s take a
look at this week’s parsha, and the midrashim that our Rabbis spun from this
text to reflect on what freedom and redemption truly look like, as these
insights can inform our understanding of why there is more work to be done in
our society today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Let’s begin
with a core text that becomes the basis for the 4 cups of wine at a Passover
Seder:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><b>Exodus
6:6-7: </b></span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">6 “Say,
therefore, to the Children of Israel, ‘I am the Eternal, and I will bring you
out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their
bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great
judgments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">7 ‘Then I
will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I
am the Eternal your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the
Egyptians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">The Midrash
on these two verses gives us the historical background: </span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">“There are
four expressions of redemption: <i>I will bring you out—I will deliver you—I
will redeem you </i>and <i>I will take you. </i>These correspond to the four
decrees which Pharaoh issued regarding them. The Sages accordingly ordained
four cups to be drunk on the eve of Passover to correspond with these four
expressions, in order to fulfill the verse: <i>I will lift up the cup of
salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord </i>(Psalm 116:13).”</span><span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">The
Jerusalem Talmud expands on this: </span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">“Why do we
have four cups of wine? R. Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Benayah, this
refers to four stages in the redemption. . . “I will bring you out from under
the burdens of Egypt.” Even if God had left us in Egypt to be slaves, God would
have ceased the burdensome yoke. For this alone we would have been grateful to
Him and therefore we drink the first cup. “I will deliver you from their
slavery.” We drink the cup of salvation for God delivered us completely from
serving them. “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm . . . .” Because God
confused them and crushed them on our behalf so that they could no longer
afflict us, we drink the third cup. “I will take you . . . .” The greatest
aspect of the redemption is that God brought us near and granted us also
spiritual redemption. For this we raise the fourth cup.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">What these Rabbis are teaching us is
that true freedom does not happen in a single act. True freedom is never simply
the removal of one kind of enslavement or limitation. We can look back at the
Torah narrative and see that our ultimate state of freedom was represented by
first escaping from slavery in Egypt. But then we began a period of wandering.
We received Revelation and we are presented with a whole system of laws,
practices and ethical principles that provide the scaffolding for a society
that can better ensure the redemptive possibilities for all, albeit through the
limited lens of society at that time (where slaves were still permitted, and
women were not equal to men).</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Finally, we are able to enter the
Promised Land. This is the place where we have the ability for true
self-realization, where no other group determine what is possible for us.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">We can highlight a similar set of
steps when we pull back the lens of history and look at the longer perspective.
Jews took a giant leap in the redemptive journey when the era of Enlightenment
in Europe brought us the status of full citizens. However, as our history
cruelly demonstrated to us, this alone could not secure our sense of freedom
while a society continued to view us as ‘other’. Theodore Herzl understood
this, and the world via the United Nations was finally willing to accept this
after the Holocaust. And so the State of Israel came into being. Whether we
choose to make it our home or not, its existence – even the troubled existence
that it continues to have with its neighbors – provides a place of ultimate
self-realization for us as a people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">And what of the African-American
experience in the US? We see that significant stages of redemption have come
into being. Freed from slavery. But then subject to Jim Crow laws. Civil rights
granted, but other socio-economic and cultural factors continuing to make a
less systematic but still present kind of segregation a reality in the lives of
many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why is this still so?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">There is one step in that ancient
midrash that I skipped over – the step where God confuses and crushes Pharaoh
and his army so that they can no longer oppress us. Hitler was defeated. The
Jewish people won the war of Independence that had to be fought right after the
modern State of Israel was declared. Is this step inevitable? Is the only way
to truly arrive at redemption to overthrow those who were once the oppressors? No-one
wants to see any kind of literal war in this country again. Having just
returned from a vacation in Charleston and Savannah, I have a new awareness of
the devastation wrought by America’s civil war. I hear fear expressed in voices
that wonder whether peaceful protest might inflame some to literally fight back
against our police forces; fears that might not be entirely unfounded given what has already
transpired in recent weeks, even if only by the hand of one or two unstable and
violent individuals. But I reject the inevitability or even the necessity as loudly
as MLK Jr himself rejected violence as a means to accomplishing his ends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">Nevertheless, we have a real challenge that we,
as a society, must be willing to confront. I look at the realities for many
members of our African American communities and I recognize that those
realities have been created by a complex set of systemic issues and remnants of
a history of oppression that continues to leave its mark. Attempts that were
made to rebalance society by providing additional points of entry into schools,
colleges, the workplace, and the voting booth have actually been undone in
recent years by many local and state legislative bodies. The Supreme Court
itself has contributed to the undoing of some of these systems, however blunt
and clumsy they might have been, that helped to level the playing field just a
bit. <b>This is not right. We must not, through our actions or through our
silence, be contributors to the hand of Pharaoh that continues to shape the
lives of African Americans in our country.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">How can we do our part? There are
many civil rights organizations who are leading the way at this time that we
can work with and support. But there is no better place for us to start than
our Reform movement’s very own Religious Action Center. Get on their mailing
list. Respond to their calls for advocacy and action. They work with broad
coalitions of organizations to help get legislation passed in Washington that
can provide the system-wide structures through which change for the better can
come. For example, right now you can sign up to support their call for the ‘End
Racial Profiling Act’. The End Racial Profiling Act would legally prohibit
racial profiling, ensure specialized instruction in federal law enforcement
training, condition state and local governments’ receipt of federal funds on
the successful adoption of anti-racial profiling policies, award Justice
Department grants to state and local governments that best implement practices
that defeat racial profiling, and position the U.S. Attorney General as
watchdog to assess such practices.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">At the end of February we will be
taking our 10<sup>th</sup> grade Confirmation Class on our annual trip to learn
with the Religious Action Center in Washington D.C. They will learn how their
own powers of advocacy and action can be informed by Jewish values, and how to
assess whether legislation being voted on by our politicians brings us closer
to a vision of the kind of society we want to live in, or further from it. They
end their trip with a visit to the offices of our Congressional and State
legislators, to lobby on those issues that they most care about, on behalf of
the membership of the approximately 900 Reform congregations in North America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">Don’t just leave this work to our
teens. The journey to freedom is not complete until we can say of others, as we
can say of ourselves that we have been brought out, delivered, redeemed and
taken to a place where we have the potential for full self-realization within
the society in which we live. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1958
as he stood before the American Jewish Congress, MLK said these words:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">My people were
brought to America in chains. Your people were driven here to escape the chains
fashioned for them in Europe. Our unity is born out of our common struggle for
centuries, not only to rid us of bondage, but to make oppression of any people
by others an impossibility.</span></i><span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .1pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: .1pt;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria; position: relative; top: -5pt;">Friends… we have work <a href="" name="_GoBack"></a>to do.<span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-33315211946535039932014-10-26T16:35:00.000-04:002014-10-26T16:35:55.404-04:00What Noah can teach us about our response to Ebola<i>This is the drash that I shared at Congregation B'nai Shalom this past Shabbat, parsha Noah.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Noah's_Ark_on_Mount_Ararat_by_Simon_de_Myle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Noah's_Ark_on_Mount_Ararat_by_Simon_de_Myle.jpg" height="251" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">While the story of Noah and
the ark is often told as a charming children’s story, it is, of course, nothing
of the sort. The idea that all life on our planet would be wiped out is quite
horrifying. And, while Noah has our gratitude for ensuring the survival of the
species and enabling life to begin again, later generations of commentators on
our biblical story point out his flaws. He might have been ‘righteous in his
generation’ but, they tell us, he would not have been considered so in future
generations. Why not? Because, unlike Abraham, who argued with God for the
survival of the evil cities of Sodom and Gemorrah if only 10 righteous people
could be found living there, Noah dutifully saved his family and the animals he
was instructed to collect, but did nothing to try and save the rest of
humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">We know definitively that the
story of Noah that we find in the Torah is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">a</b>
flood story but is not <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the</b> flood
story. It shares many similarities with other ancient myths about floods,
including ones that predate the likely approximate timeframe of ours. So we’re
not reading history here. Yet what our version introduces that is a variant on
an older telling is a moral element.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The biblical telling emphasizes the destructive consequences of human
immoral behavior. The rabbinic commentaries emphasize the morally deficient
position of Noah who raises the drawbridge on the ark and closes his eyes to
the rest of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">This past week I haven’t been
able to stomach listening to US news channels for more than about 2 minutes at
a time. Based on the wall-to-wall coverage, it would appear that the rest of
the world has entirely disappeared. It might as well be underwater right now.
We appear not to be able to see it at all. Instead, with highly charged, urgent
voices,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>news commentators seem to
leading a nationwide panic attack that obsessively reviews every remote
possibility that someone with the Ebola virus has appeared in our ark.
Politicians are arguing that the drawbridge should be fully up, all entrance-ways
sealed, so that we keep this pernicious disease out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Where is the compassion for
the awful suffering in parts of Africa? Where is the nationwide call for $10
per text, and all the other ways that international health organizations
usually mobilize us to raise millions quickly so that we can provide equipment,
expertise, and ensure that vaccinations work and are quickly produced to be
made available abroad?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">And, while the scale is
serious and action does need to be taken in African countries that are most
severely affected, when it comes to the US, where is our sense of
proportion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Stewart got it
right with his coverage earlier this month:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">After a series of clips of
politicians and commentators announcing that we should do ‘whatever it takes’
to seal up our borders and keep Ebola out, Stewart remarks: ‘Wow, what a
difference in Africa-US travel policy 150 years makes!’ He then goes on to make
the more serious point, through another series of clips that Heart Disease is
the leading cause of death among Americans, killing 600,000 a year. And yet,
when the government comes out with proposals to bring healthier eating to
American citizens, control what is served to children in schools, and other
forms of preventative care, many of the same voices tell us that the government
shouldn’t be telling us what to eat or what we can do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He points out that estimates are that
between 7,000 and 17,000 lives a year could be saved if we expanded Medicaid so
that more people had access to healthcare in our States. And 88 people die from
gun violence every day. So clearly ‘the government should do whatever it takes
to save American lives’, Stewart points out, seems to have more to do with
things that might enter our country from other places, and we seem to be somewhat
more laissez-faire when it comes to the large number of things that we could be
doing each and every day to save American lives from causes that affect an
exponentially larger number of citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">What can you or I do to make
a difference? If we have the means, perhaps a donation to Medicin sans
frontiers, who are putting medics into Ebola-affected communities in Africa to
try and stem the spread of the disease and tend to the sick. Or via American
Jewish World Service, who are directing funds to their partner organizations in
Liberia who are trying to better educate people about how to limit the spread
of the disease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The Story of Noah is several
thousand years old. 2000 years ago our early rabbis were pointing out that Noah
could have done more to try and save others rather than only saving himself.
Now it is 2014. Jewish tradition put morality at the heart of the Flood myth.
There are many ways we can apply those moral values to life-threatening
situations in today’s world. Creating panic over the airwaves is not one of
them. So tune out the TV pundits and the politicians, and tune into some of the
ways we can turn outward and give a helping hand to another human being who is
drowning and need of our support.<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8563166645221745880.post-86112484980932968332014-09-18T11:43:00.000-04:002014-09-18T11:43:36.467-04:00#BlogElul 23: You turn my mourning into dancing<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Today's blog is dedicated to the memory of Mordecai Levow</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>my father-in-law</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Yahrtzeit_candle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Yahrtzeit_candle.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Yizkor on Yom Kippur is ... not about human frailty or the futility of human endeavors. Yizkor on Yom Kippur is about the power of others to affect us, about our power to affect others, about the power of the dead and the living to continue to affect each other. Yizkor on Yom Kippur is ... not simply about remembering the dead, by about attempting to effect change in our relationships with the dead and thus to effect change in ourselves and in our relationships with those who are still among the living.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i>(Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig, in the CCAR Draft machzor, forthcoming 2015, <a href="https://www.ccarpress.org/content.asp?tid=349" target="_blank">Mishkan haNefesh</a>, Yizkor service)</i></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I've missed a number of days of Elul to blog because my father-in-law died last Wednesday. After his funeral in Florida on Friday morning, my wife and her sister returned to sit shiva at our home in Massachusetts. What happened over those days was a reflection of how love, healing, and change are truly what the rituals of remembrance are about, and enable us to do. For those who joined us for multiple nights of shiva, the change that occurred over those days as memories and reflections were shared was quite evident, and powerful for many.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Without sharing the specifics here, the journey we took was one that first confronted the past, and acknowledged the challenge of engaging with memory in the face of difficult relationships. Yet, with the honesty of needing to acknowledge the challenges, the blessings that emerged from those life experiences were also evident. On the following night, more family members gathered and a broader range of perspectives and memories were shared. There were many moments of laughter. There was a release - the laughter not only lifted the weight of some of the challenging memories, but also opened up the banks of memories that were positive and powerful. And so, by the third night, new stories had been laid bare and had risen to the surface. There were words of forgiveness, acceptance, and love. By the fourth night, in a beautiful, spontaneous sharing and connecting of memories and reflections connected to the words of specific prayers as we <i>davenned</i> (prayed) the <i>ma'ariv </i>(evening) service, there was a sense of completeness. We were speaking of a life lived, and memories that we carry with us, but embedded into the heart of the tefilot that were so much a part of Mordecai's being that, when advanced dementia had taken almost all else from him, <i>davenning</i> was the only activity that he could still do, in short bouts.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In the forthcoming CCAR machzor, Mishkan haNefesh, we find a version of precisely how we did our remembrances on the last night of shiva. We are offered 7 paths, where readings, psalms and reflective texts are woven around the 7 thematic blessings of the <i>Tefilah</i>, or <i>Amidah </i>prayer, the central prayer of our Shabbat and Festival liturgy. There is an abundance of material - many, many years worth of exploration and contemplation. There is a clear recognition that everyone remembers differently. There are ways to remember children who died too young. There is a prayer in memory of a parent who was hurtful. There are words to remember one who died violently. There are words to remember dearly beloved ones. And so many more.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
As we return to Yizkor, year after year, we do not necessarily have to engage in the memories in the same way. With the passage of time, and the ways we remember may we, as invited by Rabbi Wenig in the reflection above, find the possibility to change our relationships with the dead, and thus effect change in ourselves and in our relationships with those who are still among the living.</div>
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15774676663563296493noreply@blogger.com0