Category Archives: American Jewish Life

The Creative Impulse, Solitude and Genius – Anticipating Sabbatical Leave

16 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Art, Health and Well-Being, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Quote of the Day

≈ 3 Comments

Six years ago Daniel Pink published A Whole New Mind: Why Right-brainers Will Rule the Future. There he made the case that in business, manufacturing, construction, law, medicine, the sciences, education, religion, and the arts creativity will be the competitive difference that distinguishes one thing from another.

A key requirement of creativity is the need for solitude, as discussed by Susan Cain in her thoughtful piece this past weekend (“The Rise of the New Groupthink,” NY Times, Sunday Review, p. 1): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?pagewanted=all

Ms. Cain writes:

“…most humans have two contradictory impulses: we love and need one another, yet we crave privacy and autonomy. To harness the energy that fuels both these drives, we need to move beyond the new groupthink and embrace a more nuanced approach to creativity and learning. Our offices should encourage casual, cafe-style interactions, but allow people to disappear into personalized, private spaces when they want to be alone. Our schools should teach children to work with others, but also to work on their own for sustained periods of time. And we must recognize that introverts…need extra quiet and privacy to do their best work.”

For me, almost nothing creative comes when I am working in my synagogue office. To make matters more difficult I deliberately leave my door open because I want to send the message that I am accessible and welcome all comers. Yes, I can get certain kinds of work accomplished even with this open-door policy, but almost nothing new or inspirational will come to me in that environment. Creativity happens for me at home when I’m alone studying, reading, thinking, and writing. Creative ideas also come during worship services, when I’m teaching, listening to others teach, and during pastoral counseling when two hearts, minds and souls are engaged with each other.

The novelist and Nobel laureate Pearl S. Buck wrote:

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. She must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency she is not really alive unless she is creating.”

Though artists are special human beings whose sensitivity and talent are more exquisitely developed and tuned to their environment than the rest of us, we all have the capacity to create and that creativity can come in a multitude of ways. Yet, we are, most of us, deluged with too much noise, too much interaction with others, and we are plagued by intellectual, emotional, psychological, and spiritual fragmentation and exhaustion that stops creativity altogether. As individuals and a community, this state of being is deadly and self-destructive. We need to be able to encourage ourselves and our institutions (as my teacher Rabbi Larry Hoffman has recently written) “to create environments that catalyze the greatness within us and within our people by encouraging brilliance, supporting genius and rewarding excellence” in every arena.

To begin, we need to reclaim solitude as a necessary element of our lives, and then when we reemerge, energized and inspired, we need to find ways to share our gifts.

In two weeks beginning on January 29 my congregation has granted me Sabbatical leave that I will take in two pieces over the next 18 months. I will return from the first segment in mid-April. The remainder will be in the Fall and Winter of 2012-2013.

In this first period I will be traveling to Israel (leaving on February 1) to study on Ulpan in Jerusalem in order to improve my spoken Hebrew and comprehension. When I return home I look forward to quiet and uninterrupted time to read, study and write. I will most likely continue to post here from both Israel and home during that time.

I am grateful to Temple Israel of Hollywood for this time away.

A Story of a Jewish Soldier Fighting in George Washington’s Army During Hanukkah

19 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Holidays, Stories

≈ Leave a comment

In February I will be spending the first part of my sabbatical leave enhancing my spoken Hebrew ability at Ulpan Or in Jerusalem. For Hanukkah the Ulpan sent me this story, and I share it happily with you.

Hanukkah sameach!

It is Hanukkah in the year of 1776. The winter is hard and the cold is fearsome. We are starving for bread. We have no clothes to warm our bodies and no shoes for our feet.

At these moments, I am reminded of my father in Poland. I recall how much he suffered at the hands of the cruel Baron. I remember I was but a youngster and saw my father dance before the Baron. How terrible was the sight. My father was made to dress up in the skin of a white bear and he danced for the sport of the Baron and his guests. How great is my pain and shame. Father dances as a bear and the Baron jests and revels. I affirm in my heart that I will never be so humiliated myself. At my first opportunity, I set sail to America.

It is now the first night of Hanukkah. This very night, two years ago, I fled from my father’s home in Poland. My father gave me a Hanukkah menorah and said, “When you will light, my son, these candles for Hanukkah, they will illuminate the path for you.” From that day on, my menorah was as an amulet. Wherever I go, I take it with me.

Suddenly, I feel a soft, tender hand upon my head. I lift my eyes, and behold it is him, in all his majesty, General George Washington standing upon me. He asks me, “Why soldier do you cry? Is it then so very cold?”

I forgot at that moment that I am a soldier in the presence of my superior, and spoke before him as a child to a parent. “My master the General,” I said. “I cry and pray for your victory. I am certain with the help of God, we shall prevail. Today, the enemy is strong; tomorrow they will surely fall, for justice is with us. We seek to be free in this land; we desire to build a country for all who flee from oppression and suffer abroad. The Barons will not rule here. The enemy will falter and you will succeed.”

The General shook my hand. “Thank you, soldier,” he said, and sat at my side next to the menorah. “What is this?” asked the General. I told him I brought it from my parent’s home. Jews the world-over light this menorah to celebrate the great miracle of Hanukkah and the miraculous salvation of the Jews. The light of the Hanukkah menorah danced in the eyes of General Washington as he called forth in joy, “You are a Jew from the children of prophets and you declared that we shall prevail.” “Yes my master,” I answered with confidence. We will be victorious as the Maccabees of old, for our own sake and the sake of all who follow us to build a new land and a new life.

The General got up; his face was ablaze. He shook my hand and disappeared into the darkness. My faith was rewarded, victory was achieved, and peace reigned in the land. My General became the leader of our new country, and I became one of its citizens.

I quickly forgot those frightful days and nights at Valley Forge. However, that first night of Hanukkah, with General Washington, I carried in my heart always as a precious dream.

The first night of Hanukkah the following year of 1777, I was sitting in my house in New York on Broome Street, with the Hanukkah light in my window. Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. I opened the door, and incredibly, my General, George Washington is standing in the doorway. “Behold, the wondrous flame, the flame of hope of all Jewry,” he called forth in joy as he gazed upon its light.

The General placed his hand upon my shoulder and said, “This light and your beautiful words lit a flame in my heart that night. Surely, you and your comrades will receive due recognition for all of your valor at Valley Forge. But this night, accept from me, this medallion.” He hung the medallion of gold upon my chest and shook my hand. Tears came to my eyes; I couldn’t say a word. The General shook my hand once again and left the house.

I stirred as if coming from a beautiful dream. I then looked upon my medallion and saw a beautiful engraving of a Hanukkah menorah with the first candle lit. Below was written, “As an expression of gratitude for the candle of your menorah.”

This medallion is part of the permanent collection in the Jewish Museum in New York.

 

Reinvention of Hanukkah in the 20th Century: A Jewish Cultural Civil War

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

≈ 2 Comments

Last week I was privileged to hear a presentation on Hanukkah by Noam Zion, a fellow of and the senior educator at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, who led 40 Rabbis of the Southern California Board of Rabbis in a superb 2-hour conversation entitled:

   “Reinvention of Hanukkah in the 20th Century: A Jewish Cultural Civil War                 between Zionists, Liberal American Judaism and Habad –                   Who Are the Children of Light and Who of Darkness?”

Noam offered us a comprehensive view of Hanukkah from its beginnings (© 165 B.C.E.) through history and how it is understood and celebrated today by Israelis, American liberal non-Hareidim Jews and Habad. Based on Hanukkah’s tendentious history and the vast corpus of sermons written by rabbis through the centuries, Noam noted three questions that are consistently asked: ‘Who are the children of light and darkness?’ ‘Who are our people’s earliest heroes and what made them heroic?’ ‘What relevance can we find in Hanukkah today?’

Though religiously a “minor holyday” (Hanukkah is not biblically based, nor do the restrictions apply that are associated with Shabbat, Pesach, Shavuot, Succot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur), Hanukkah occupies a place in each of the ideologies of the State of Israel, American liberal Judaism and Habad.

For example, before and after the establishment of the State of Israel the Maccabees served as a potent symbol for “Political Zionism” for those laboring to create a modern Jewish state. The early Zionists rejected God’s role in bringing about the miracle of Jewish victory during Hasmonean times. Rather, such leaders as Max Nordau, Theodor Herzl, David Ben Gurion, Chaim Weizmann, Jacob Klatzkin, and A.D. Gordon emphasized that Jews themselves are the central actors in our people’s restoration of Jewish sovereignty on the ancient land, not God.

For 20th century liberal American Jews Hanukkah came to represent Judaism’s aspirations for religious freedom consistent with the American value of religious freedom as affirmed by the first Amendment of the US Constitution. Even as the holiday of Hanukkah reflects universal aspirations, the Hanukkiah remains a particular symbol of Jewish pride and identity for American Jews and their children living in a dominant Christian culture.

For Habad, Hanukkah embodies the essence of religious identity on the one hand, and symbolizes the mission of Jews on the other. Each Hassid is to be “a streetlamp lighter” who goes out into the public square and kindles the nearly extinguished flame of individual Jewish souls, one soul at a time (per Rebbe Sholom Dov-Ber). This is why Habad strives to place a Hanukkiah in public places and why Hassidim offer to help Jews don t’filin. Every fulfilled mitzvah kindles the flame of a soul and restores it to God.

Noam concluded his shiur (lesson) by noting that the cultural war being played out in contemporary Jewish life is based in the different responses to the central and historic question that has always given context to Hanukkah – ‘Which Jews are destroying Jewish life and threatening Judaism itself?’

The Maccabean war was not a war between the Jews and the Greeks, but rather was a violent civil war sparked by intense enmity between the established radically Hellenized Jews and the besieged village priests living outside major urban centers (the High Priest in Jerusalem had already been co-opted by Hellenization). The Maccabees won the war because moderately Hellenized Jews recognized that they would lose their own Jewish identity if the radical Hellenizers were victorious. They joined in coalition with the village priests and together they took the Temple and rededicated it. That historic struggle has a parallel today in a raging cultural civil war for the heart and soul of the Jewish people and for the nature of Judaism itself.

The take-away? There is something of the zealot in every one of us, regardless of our respective Jewish camp. If we hope to avoid our past sins of sinat chinam (baseless hatred between one Jew and another that the Talmud teaches was the cause of the destruction of the 2nd Temple in 70 C.E.) we need to prepare our own constituencies to be candles without knives, to bring the love of God and the Jewish people back into our homes and communities. To be successful will take much courage, compassion, knowledge, understanding, and faith. The stakes, however, are very high – the very future of Israel and the Jewish people.

Is it any wonder that Hanukkah, though defined by Judaism as a “minor holiday,” is, in truth, a major battle-ground for the heart and soul of Judaism and the Jewish people?

During Hanukkah, which begins on Tuesday evening, December 20 (25 Kislev) I will reflect more on these themes in this blog.

“The International Delegitimization Campaign against Israel and the Urgent Need of a Comprehensive Two-State, End-of-Conflict Peace Agreement”

07 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History

≈ Leave a comment

“I decided to write this paper because I have of late been asked questions from both Jews and non-Jews that until recently I had never heard before, questions that call into question the very legitimacy of the State of Israel. I have seen nothing in print that can serve as a comprehensive primer, fact sheet, briefing and background paper that can assist rabbis, Jewish leaders, college and university students and faculty, and our friends in the interfaith community, in dealing effectively with the complexities and nuances that underlie the growing international movement to delegitimize Israel.”

So begins my article (CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Fall 2011, pages 90-109) that can be accessed on Temple Israel of Hollywood’s Web-site – See About Us – Then Clergy – Then Clergy Writings – Then Rabbi Rosove’s Writings (www.tioh.org – http://www.tioh.org/about-us/clergy/aboutus-clergy-clergystudy.)

In this piece I address the following questions and themes:

  • What Is the Delegitimization Movement and What Does It Seek to Do?
  • Why Israel Is Not an Apartheid State Despite Claims by the Delegitimization Network
  • The United Nations General Assembly: The Central International Arena of Delegitimization Efforts
  • Other Delegitimizing Actions (The UN Resolution on “Zionism as Racism”; The Protocols of the Elders of Zion; Palestinian school textbooks; Official Palestinian maps; The Israel Lobby by John Meersheimer and Stephen Walt; Israel’s security barrier; International boycott of Israel; Israel as the “greatest threat to world peace”; The UN’s Goldstone Report)
  • We Cannot Deny That Israel Is an Imperfect Democracy
  • The Settlements
  • Legitimate Criticism vs Delegitimization: Embrace Loving Critics and Distance Delegitimizers
  • Jewish Organizational Perspectives: Who Is Really In and Out of the Pro-Israel Camp (a review of 14 major American Jewish organizations and their respective positions Israel)
  • Why Settling the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Is Strategically and Morally Necessary Now Before It Is Too Late
  • What Do We do Now?

Conclusion of the article:

“An old UJA advertisement once read “We never promised you a rose garden.” Anyone with eyes wide open understands the truth of this statement. Indeed, the situation between Israelis and Palestinians and within their respective societies is complex and difficult. Nevertheless, unless this conflict is settled, I fear for the Zionist enterprise altogether. In the 1970s there was an American Zionist movement called B’reira (“There is an  alternative”) and that alternative is a two-state solution. That message is even more to the point today.”

Mr. President: Commute Jonathan Pollard’s Sentence

01 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History

≈ Leave a comment

It is time for President Obama to commute Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence to time served for his guilty conviction of spying for Israel. Not only has Pollard now spent 26 years in prison, but he is in failing health. The latter would not be reason enough to commute the sentence if the punishment really did fit the crime, but the sentence from the beginning was grossly unfair.

Long ago it was revealed that Casper Weinberger, the then American Secretary of Defense, bore such animus against Pollard for his leaking American security documents to Israel that the Defense Secretary wanted to make a severe example of Pollard for his treachery. Weinberger had submitted a letter to the judge in Pollard’s case incorrectly alleging that information from Pollard had reached the former Soviet Union, and it was on this basis that the judge made the sentence so severe.

All this information was recently repeated to Vice President Joe Biden when he met with seven American Jewish leaders about the Pollard case. Included in this meeting was Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, Dr. Simcha Katz of the Union of Orthodox Congregations, Rabbi Julie Schonfield of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and Michael Adler, a Miami community leader.

The meeting was called because two months ago the Vice President publicly condemned Pollard in the harshest terms provoking a strong response from many in the American Jewish community. The good news is that VP Biden welcomed a meeting at all. To date he is the highest-ranking American official ever to hold a meeting about Pollard, as was reported by Rebecca Anna Stoil, the Washington Representative of The Jerusalem Post. However, the Jewish leaders agreed to strict confidentiality as to what Biden’s response was or what he would advise the President to do in this case.

Pollard’s sentence is extreme relative to the sentences of other guilty foreign spies and agents. The average sentence in an American court given to others convicted of the same crime of spying for an ally as Pollard received has been two to four years. People convicted of treason also served far less time than Pollard. The Jewish leadership delegation cited to Biden the case of Hasan Abu-Jihad, who received only a 10-year sentence for spying for al-Qaida. American spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen, convicted of spying for the former USSR, also were given less time. Other than Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed for passing top nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union in the early 50s (only Julius was likely guilty), no one has received a more harsh sentence than Jonathan Pollard – and again, his crime was passing secrets to an ally, Israel.

Reason and precedent dictate that Jonathan Pollard be released with a commutation of his sentence soon, perhaps before Hanukah. Humanitarian concerns also recommend his early release. Pollard has been hospitalized 4 times in the last year and suffers from a number of maladies including diabetes, nausea, dizziness, black-outs, problems with his gall bladder, kidneys, sinuses, eyes, and feet.

Finally, the Jewish leadership delegation told the Vice President that there is virtual consensus in the American Jewish community that President Obama should commute Pollard’s sentence to time served. The Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis both passed resolutions years ago calling for justice and commutation. I agree wholeheartedly.

There is a political consideration here for the President as well. Though his record is solidly pro-Israel (only the Republican Jewish coalition refutes this based on anti-Obama political enmity), his releasing Pollard would be well-received in Israel and would undercut the same Republican Jewish Coalition that loves to distort and lie about Obama’s pro-Israel credentials.

Mr. President – commute Pollard’s sentence now!

Why I Declined to be on the Host Committee for AIPAC in Los Angeles

18 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism

≈ 3 Comments

I was invited to become a member of the Host Committee for a Gala Fundraising event sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Los Angeles in February, 2012. I have declined the invitation, with a heavy heart, and when the Southern Pacific Synagogue Initiative Director of AIPAC invited me to speak with him about why, I wrote this letter and welcomed a follow-up conversation with him. I wanted you to see an edited version of that letter.

Dear Judah:

I welcome the opportunity to meet and begin a conversation with you. Thank you for the offer and outreach.

By way of introduction, my involvement with AIPAC goes back to the 1980s. I was very friendly with Tom Dine (one of the first Executive Directors of AIPAC) who was a congregant when I served at Washington Hebrew Congregation in D.C. in the mid-80s. I have always been respectful and appreciative of AIPAC and its multitude of contributions to the security of the State of Israel through its advocacy in Washington.

One issue for me which keeps me from signing on as a member of the host committee is that too many people involved with AIPAC have become intolerant of American Jewish diversity and uncritical of Israel’s government policies that are undemocratic and reflective of extremist nationalism. For AIPAC (and for that matter, for any pro-Israel Jewish organization) to say nothing is essentially to give tacit support to those undemocratic forces within the government and Israeli society that run counter to the principles articulated in Israel’s own Declaration of Independence calling for a just, democratic society that includes all citizens of the Jewish State.

That is not the only difficulty I have, however. The refusal of AIPAC leadership to meet with J Street leadership, to join together as two pro-Israel organizations when there is consensus on a particular issue, or even to enter into a public debate with J Street President Jeremy ben-Ami about the differences between AIPAC and J Street in their respective approaches to American Jewish politics in Washington, D.C. vis a vis Israel does not serve the cause of Israel as a vital democracy and adds fuel to the flames of many Republican leaders in Congress and their Jewish pro-Israel supporters who seek to make Israel a wedge issue in American politics for political gain. This has never before happened in the 63 year history of the State of Israel vis a vis the American Jewish community.

I believe AIPAC could do much to change this negative and divisive atmosphere by addressing these undemocratic and intolerant trends directly and publicly, but it declines to do so. Remaining quiet is not good for Israel or for the American Jewish community.

Having said this, please understand my own Zionist and pro-Israel background and thinking. I am a national Vice President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), supportive of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), am a member of the Advisory Board of the Daniels Center of Tel Aviv, and have assisted as a congregational rabbi at my own synagogue in helping our Israeli Reform brothers and sisters build two Reform synagogue centers in Israel (Kehillat Mevasseret Zion and Congregation Darchei Noam in Ramat Hasharon). I take missions of my congregants to Israel every two or three years. My synagogue Day School has a 3 year exchange program with the Tzahalah Elementary School (in north Tel Aviv) as part of the LA-Tel Aviv partnership. I have raised millions of dollars for State of Israel Bonds. And I am an active member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street, though I have not always agreed with every position that J Street has taken.

J Street, in my view, is essentially correct in its approach to Congress and Israel, that we American Jews have both a duty to support Israel as a pluralistic democracy that champions human rights and civil liberties, as well as supporting all efforts that will bring about an end-of-conflict solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that results in two-states for two-peoples living side by side in peace and security. I agree with J Street’s position, as well, that pro-Israel American Jewish supporters must be free to criticize Israel’s government (arguably the most right-wing extremist government in the history of the Jewish State) without fear of being placed in cherem (excommunication and pariah status) when it acts in ways that we, as American Zionists and lovers of the Jewish State, believe do not support a peaceful and secure two-state resolution and compromise with the Palestinians.

If you are interested, please read my Rosh Hashanah morning sermon this past High Holiday season which is posted on my synagogue’s web-site (www.tioh.org) to learn what is behind my thinking about Israel, her security and liberal Zionist values.

This is why I have declined to be an active supporter of AIPAC, though again, I am grateful and appreciative of AIPAC for its many years of past advocacy for Israel in our nation’s capital. If you feel comfortable I ask that you share this letter with AIPAC leadership in Washington, D.C.

L’shalom,

Rabbi John Rosove

Admiral Ami Ayalon – A Sane Voice for a Two-States for Two-Peoples Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

28 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism

≈ 2 Comments

It makes me feel hopeful when I hear Israeli experts and I find myself nodding in agreement with virtually everything they say. Such was the case last evening (Thursday) at a Los Angeles J Street event featuring Admiral Ami Ayalon, former Commander of Israel’s Navy and head of Shin Bet, Israel’s General Security Service, along with J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami about whom I have written before (see my Book Recommendations).

In 2003 Ami Ayalon joined with Palestinian Professor Sari Nusseibeh to develop a set of principles for a permanent agreement between Israel and the Palestinians – see http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/1273B3972DA8E47185256DD00055A0CF. Eventually, 450,000 Israelis and Palestinians signed on signaling a consensus on what is likely to be the contours of an eventual two-states for two-peoples end-of-conflict solution.

Last evening, Admiral Ayalon repeated the general principles and noted the following:

[1] We have gone backwards over the last three years. Pragmatic leaders in Arab countries cannot deliver what they could have delivered three years ago. There is a new Middle East, more unstable with different divisions of power. Leaders are weaker and the Arab street is stronger. Egypt has disappeared as the potential guarantor of an agreement. Turkey is no longer the ally to Israel it once was;

[2] It is time to recognize that the settlers have made it possible for Israel to be accepted de facto and de jure within the Arab world; but, it is now time to bring the settlers who live outside the main block of Jewish settlements and east of the security fence home with full compensation and deep expressions of gratitude by the Jewish people and the state of Israel for their sacrifice. These people, despite many of their extremism, are NOT our enemy. They are our people. It is time for Israel’s government to say that Israel should not build in those areas east of the fence, but within the areas that will be within Israel after an agreement (per the statement of principles), Israel has every right to continue to build and expand, and should say so;

[3] Direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will not work at this time and we should not be pushing this as an end goal nor as the determiner of whether there is progress or not towards an agreement. Rather, both sides need to come to a consensus through others around the stipulations noted in the set of principles (above);

[4] The President of the United States is the ONLY world leader who will be capable of bringing the Israelis and Palestinians to the consensus position. The Quartet and the UN are not so capable. If the President succeeds, all others will follow and there will be an international consensus. The Israelis know it and the Palestinians know it.

[5] Admiral Ayalon told us that J Street has enabled him and people like him to have a voice in America because his ideas, though representing the consensus, are not welcome by and large in the organized American Jewish community despite the vast majority of American Jews (according to all non-partisan surveys) agreeing with those ideas.

Barbara and I left this meeting feeling at once hopeful and infuriated that the common consensus shared by all except the extremists has given way to the extremist minority. When will that stop? This week’s Parashat Noach reminds us of the catastrophe that can occur when avarice, fear and hatred win the day. However, we cannot forget that the dove and the rainbow are the hope of the Jewish people and humanity as a whole.

 

My High Holiday Sermons – 5772

16 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Holidays, Israel/Zionism, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

≈ Leave a comment

The three sermons I delivered during the High Holidays this year can be accessed by clicking to your right on Temple Israel of Hollywood or going directly to the sermons by clicking http://www.tioh.org/about-us/clergy/aboutus-clergy-clergystudy. If you go through the Temple Israel website, you will see the link to the holiday sermons alongside my colleagues’ and my photos on the Temple’s home page. My three sermons are:

Thirty-two Pathways in the Heart – Kol Nidre 2011 (I consider 32 life-lessons I have learned in my nearly 62 years. These are means I have found to a healthier, wiser and more sacred way of living.)

Beyond Crisis: The Case for Aspirational Zionism – Rosh Hashanah Shacharit 2011 – (I make the case that Israel and the Jewish people need to expand our crisis-mode way of thinking and responding to legitimate and real threats as the only means of assuring Israel’s and the Jewish people’s survival. I embrace what Dr. Tal Becker has characterized as “Aspirational Zionism.” Aspirational Zionism emphasizes Jewish values and Jewish heritage as co-equal with concerns about Israeli and Jewish security, specifically focusing on the prophetic and rabbinic values of tzedek chevrati – social justice).

Doing a Congregational Cheshbon Hanefesh – Erev Rosh Hashanah 2011 (I ask fundamental questions about both the nature of our synagogue community at Temple Israel of Hollywood and about us individually as Jews in this 2nd decade of the 21st century: Who are we as a liberal Jewish community? What is necessary for our synagogue community to be ‘visionary’ as opposed to ‘functional’? And what might we as individual Jews do to enhance our Jewish literacy and our spiritual/religious lives?)

I welcome your comments to any of the ideas I present in these sermons, whether you agree with me or not.

Moadim l’simcha!

 

 

 

The Torah is Political – Rabbis can be too

02 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Divrei Torah, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

≈ 4 Comments

Every year before the High Holidays the issue of politics, rabbis and the pulpit are raised in the Jewish and general media. Should they or shouldn’t they speak on contemporary issues such as Israel, health care, economic justice, the poor, minorities, civil rights, war and peace, etc. that have political dimensions to them? Should they speak only about purely “spiritual” and personal matters? What, if any, limitations should rabbis impose on themselves?

This past month the following pieces appeared in the Jewish and general media:

  1. “The Torah is Political – Rabbis Can Be Too.” by Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, North America, The Huffington Post, September 26, 2011 – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-jill-jacobs/rabbis-and-political-sermons_b_980423.html
  2. “When Rabbis Politicize the High Holidays,” op-ed by Dennis Prager, LA Jewish Journal, September 14, 2011 http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/when_rabbis_politicize_the_high_holy_days_20110914/
  3. “Blank Slate Rabbis” – “Letters to the Editor,” LA Jewish Journal, by Rabbi Ken Chasen, Leo Baeck Temple, LA, in response to Dennis Prager’s op-ed piece http://www.jewishjournal.com/articles/item/letters_to_the_editor_high_holy_days_un-vote_palestine_20110921/

Before I offer a few operating principles that have guided me, it is important to define what we mean by “politics.” Here is a good operative definition from Wikipedia:

“Politics (from Greek πολιτικός, “of, for, or relating to citizens”), is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs. It also refers to behavior within civil governments. … It consists of “social relations involving authority or power” and refers to the regulation of public affairs within a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.”

Should rabbis be “political?” We should and have every right in the sense of the meaning above. There are limitations, however. What we say must be said on the basis of Jewish religious, ethical and moral principles that promote common decency, equality, justice, and human freedom, and based on both the values of B’tzelem Elohim (that every human being is created in the Divine image and is therefore infinitely worthy and valuable) and Ohavei Am Yisrael (that we share a “love for the people of Israel”).

Every rabbi should understand when speaking that we Jews hold multiple visions and positions on the myriad issues that face our community and society. Rav Shmuel (3rd century C.E. Babylonia) said Eilu v’eilu divrei Elohim chayim (“This and that are the words of the living God”). In other words, there are many legitimate and authentic religious and moral perspectives that must be respected.

In the realm of partisan politics, the American Jewish community has no unanimous political point of view, though since WWII between 60% and 90% of the American Jewish community has supported moderate and liberal policies and candidates for political office locally, at the state and national levels. We are a politically liberal community, and there are also conservatives among us.

The Reform movement (represented by the Religious Action Center in Washington, D.C., the social justice arm of the Union for Reform Judaism) has consistently taken moral, ethical and religious positions on public policy issues that come before our government and in our society as a whole. These positions are always based on our movement’s understanding of the Jewish mandate L’taken ha-olam b’malchut Shaddai (“To restore the world in the image of the dominion of God,” which means for us to adhere to standards of justice, compassion and peace – i.e. Tikun olam).

This being said, my view on the role of the Rabbi on the bimah aligns closely with Rabbis Jill Jacobs and Ken Chasen (above). I take issue with Dennis Prager’s position for the same reasons that my friend, Rabbi Chasen, did in his Letter to the Editor.

In addition to what my colleagues wrote, there are a few operating principles that guide me when I speak or write:

  1. I do not publicly endorse candidates for political office;
  2. When I offer divrei Torah and sermons, I do so always from the perspective of what I believe are the Jewish moral, ethical and religious principles involved. At times those sermons are, indeed, “political,” but they are not, in my view, “partisan;”
  3. I do not claim to have the final word on any matter that I address. I respect opposing views and believe that the synagogue should be a place where honest and respectful debate occurs. I have therefore invited people to speak in our congregation with whom I do not agree;
  4. I speak for myself alone and say so when I take positions in the media.

Plato warned that passivity and withdrawal from the political realm carry terrible risks: “The penalty that good [people] pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by [people] worse than themselves.”

G’mar chatimah tovah.

Follow up on Mel Gibson – and a poem on Forgiveness

25 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Poetry

≈ 1 Comment

Someone I respect emailed me this morning following my post on Mel Gibson and said the following:

“John, I think you’re giving Gibson more benefit of the doubt than he deserves. Actually, is there really any doubt to begin with? I don’t think so.”

My private response to him was as follows, which he said I should have said in the first place – so here it is:

“I can’t know his (Gibson’s) mind and heart – his actions are clear, and the only benefit of the doubt I offer is really irrelevant anyway. It’s what his deeds are, and so far, he is unredeemed.”

A Poem…

Avraham Chalfi (zal) an Israeli actor and poet, wrote a moving piece on forgiveness called “A sightless God and Forgiveness” – as follows:

“A sightless God with lantern in hand / Seeks a path in the evening dusk / And everyone says: / Here comes the moon / And like a tree it rises / Pouring light on the road… // The rooftops sparkle like a looking glass / Leafy branches of light anoint me / And above the city, within sail-clouds / The stars moor on a skyward shore … // May forgiveness beautify all hearts / No soul is foul or at fault / There are no sinners among us. / We are weary of drifting in the dark. / And blind God will forgive in the light of our eyes.”