Category Archives: Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

Before and After Sinai – A poem for B’shallach

22 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Divrei Torah, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Poetry

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Eternal One
Was not Moses your intimate friend
With whom you spoke ‘Face to face’
Who You sent To Pharaoh
To diminish his name
That Yours might prevail over all the earth?

Was he not Your trusted Shepherd
Who stood before despots on Your behalf
And in humility before You?

Why did You betray him?
Moses suffered because he measured himself
Against Your image.

He was Your voice
Your extended hand
Your fingers touching
Water, air, fire, and earth.

You worked against him
Constantly,
Callously,
Using him,
Stiffening Pharaoh’s heart,
Showing You as the only One,
Reversing creation,
Devastating worlds,
Polluting waters,
Destroying crops,
Killing beasts,
Darkening the future.

You made him redeemer to lead the people
And drag them through salt water walls,
In mud and muck birthing them
As You drowned all of Egypt.

The people needed Your fist
But they didn’t change.
They complained at Meribah
Where You ordered Moses to hit the rock
And he did as you commanded.

Your strong hand and arm
Held close to Your breast
You fed them manna
And sated them from Miriam’s wells.

You brought them into the wild
Led them to Sinai
Gave them words
To be a holy nation
Your treasured possession
A nation of souls.

Years rolled by
Miriam died
The waters dried
The people complained
Again.

Moses was old
Tired and worn
Long past his prime.
You told him to speak to the rock
Out of covenantal faith
Permitting the waters to flow freely.

You knew his mind and his weariness.
You knew he would beat the rock
With his stick and water would flow
Surprised – You were enraged
And You denied Moses his dream
To enter the land.

Poor Moses
He did all you commanded.
He was your friend
But You consigned him away to a lonely death
On a lowly mountain.

We, his descendants
Await the day
When the Word will be stronger
Than the fist.

It will be a very long time
Far longer than 40 years.

Poem by Rabbi John L. Rosove

When Religion Turns People into Murderers

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Book Recommendations, Divrei Torah, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice

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“When religion turns [people] into murderers, God weeps.”

So begins Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his important new book (publ. 2015) “Not in God’s Name – Confronting Religious Violence.”

This rich volume is a response to those who believe that religion is the major source of violence in the world, that when humankind abolishes religion the world will become a more peaceful place.

Not everyone, of course, interprets religion this way. Yes, there are violent streams to be found in each of the fundamental texts in Judaism (Tanakh), Christianity (New Testament) and Islam (Qoran), but he writes: “Religion itself teaches us to love and forgive, not to hate and fight.”

He challenges all faith traditions to rethink their respective truths: “As Jews, Christians and Muslims, we have to be prepared to ask the most uncomfortable questions. Does the God of Abraham want his disciples to kill for his sake? Does he demand human sacrifice? Does he rejoice in holy war? Does he want us to hate our enemies and terrorize unbelievers? Have we read our sacred texts correctly? What is God saying to us, here, now?”

At its core, Rabbi Sacks affirms that religion links people together, emotionally, behaviorally, intellectually, morally, and spiritually so as to develop a sense of greater belonging, group solidarity and identity. Most conflicts have nothing to do with religion when understood this way. Rather, conflicts are about power, territory, honor, and glory.

Rabbi Sacks describes dualism as the primary corrupting idea within the three monotheistic traditions. It’s easier, he says, for people to attribute suffering to an outside evil force and not as something inherent within God and basic to the human condition. Seeing the world as “Us” vs “Them” and Good vs Evil may resolve inner angst and complexity, but it’s a false resolution of conflict. Taken to its extreme, fear of the “other” leads to hatred and violence, and when justified by faith results in “altruistic evil.”

“Pathological dualism does three things. It makes you dehumanize and demonize your enemies. It leads you to see yourself as victim. And it allows you to commit altruistic evil, killing in the name of the God of life, hating in the name of the God of love and practicing cruelty in the name of the God of compassion. It is a virus that attacks the moral sense. Dehumanization destroys empathy and sympathy. It shuts down the emotions that prevent us from doing harm…. Victimhood deflects moral responsibility. It leads people to say: It wasn’t our fault, it was theirs. Altruistic evil recruits good people to a bad cause. It turns ordinary human beings into murderers in the name of high ideas.”

Rabbi Sacks reflects on the history of the Jew as scapegoat and the role that antisemitism has played as a reflection of the breakdown of culture: “The scapegoat is the mechanism by which a society deflects violence away from itself by focusing it on an external victim. Hence, wherever you find obsessive, irrational, murderous antisemitism, there you will find a culture so internally split and fractured that if its members stopped killing Jews they would start killing one another. Dualism becomes lethal when a group of people, a nation or a faith, feel endangered by internal conflict.”

Rabbi Sacks sites the bizarre story of Csanad Szegedi, a young leader in the ultra-nationalist Hungarian political party, Jobbik, which has been described as fascist, neo-Nazi, racist, and antisemitic. One day, however, in 2012, Szegedi discovered he was a Jew and that half his family were murdered in the Holocaust. His grandparents were survivors of Auschwitz and were once Orthodox Jews, but decided to hide their identity.

Upon learning of his Jewish past, Szegedi resigned from the party, found a local Chabad rabbi with whom to study, became Shabbat observant, learned Hebrew, took on the name Dovid, and underwent circumcision.

Szegedi’s understanding of the world changed completely. Rabbi Sacks explains that “To be cured of potential violence towards the Other, I must be able to imagine myself as the Other.” Before Szegedi’s conversion, he could not empathize with the “other,” the stranger. Now he had become the stranger, the despised Jew.

Rabbi Sacks looks carefully at all the stories of sibling rivalries in the book of Genesis, and explains that God appreciates each child differently and for each has a blessing. The world as conceived in the Hebrew Bible is not a zero-sum game. The struggle for power, position and ultimate Truth is false. Whereas love characterizes relationships within a tribal unit, justice is the demand for humanity as a whole – and both can and must co-mingle thus allowing for individual/group identity and the greater human family.

Rabbi Sacks addresses his book to all the faith traditions, but most especially, he says, to the moderate Islamic world that shares with us our Jewish religious values, and he calls upon them to stand up against ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other purveyors of fear, intolerance, hatred, and violence.

It would have been worthwhile for Rabbi Sacks to ask moderate Israelis and the liberal Jewish community abroad to imagine what it is like for Palestinians to live under the Israeli military administration in the West Bank on the one hand, and to ask Palestinian moderates to imagine living with the constant threat of extremist Islam to destroy the state of Israel and the Zionist enterprise on the other. Perhaps, if more would do that, to step into the shoes of the “other,” a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might come about more quickly.

My Mother’s Death and Why Writing an Ethical Will is Important

31 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Life Cycle, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

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Having just lost my mother less than two weeks ago, I have been pondering, among the flood of memories that have swept over me, how very short is a human life, even one like hers who lived for 98+ years.

When we are young we assume that we will live indefinitely. We don’t think about the end of life. But when we lose the people we love we realize, as if for the first time that a life, however long, is in truth very brief.

Writing a eulogy for my mother was not easy for me. I have officiated at close to 500 funerals over the past 40 years. I have written eulogies for more than 35 members of my family and my wife’s family. I know what is required in writing such an address – to evoke the essence of a person and reflect on those enduring qualities that left an impression on others. It is always difficult to do this. Nothing, however, came even close to the challenge I felt in writing my own mother’s eulogy.

I avoided sitting down to write. I waited and waited and waited some more until I could wait no longer. Then I struggled to find exactly the right words to express who my mother was, what was in her heart, what animated her spirit and personality, how she developed her core values, who she loved, and what was most important to her.

I thought I would be prepared for her death. After all, these last years were not easy for her as her sight, hearing and mental acuity were seriously compromised. As it turned out, I was not prepared. After she died when I realized that I would never see her again, never see the smile on her face when I came to visit, never again hear her voice, nor feel the warmth of her skin against my lips as I kissed her goodbye and said “Mom, I love you and I’ll see you next time,” and hear her say back to me “I love you too,” I found no words for a eulogy as I contemplated the fact that she was now gone forever.

As we lowered her casket into the double grave with my father who we buried 56 years ago, and covered her with soil, I was struck in a completely new way by the permanence of her death, and I felt what I felt when my father died so long ago – empty, alone and deeply sad.

Now both my parents are gone, and I wish that I had something written from each of them telling me what they loved most, valued and wanted for my brother, me, our wives, and the next generation in our family.

Sharing this with you is by way of an introduction to an invitation I offer those who live in Los Angeles. This coming Tuesday evening, January 5th, at 7 PM at Temple Israel of Hollywood, I will lead a discussion about why I believe it is so important that each one of us, regardless of our age, whether we be old or young, write our “Ethical Will.”

Ethical Wills are documents that Jews have written over many centuries that express a person’s core beliefs, values, desires, and hopes for their children, grandchildren and heirs. Ethical Wills constitute a genre of Jewish literature begun when Jews suffered impoverishment and had little material possessions to leave behind. They contain no lists of assets and property, but they reveal the inner life, heart, mind, and soul of individual Jews who describe with simple eloquence their ultimate values, what they cherish and feel about their families, what lessons they learned distilled over a life time, and the acquired wisdom and truths they want to impart.

In American culture we leave trusts and wills to allocate our worldly possessions. However, is material wealth what is really most valuable in our lives to leave to others?

On one occasion only years ago I read a woman’s Ethical Will at her funeral. It was a powerful experience for all because it was as if she was speaking to us from the other side about what was most important to her and what she wished for her family and dear ones. Ever since I have encouraged people to write these themselves.

I wish I had had such a document from my own mother to have read last week at her grave as we bid her farewell.

I welcome you to join us on Tuesday evening. I will distribute examples of Ethical Wills written over the centuries and ask participants to consider writing their own.

If you wish to join us, please email our worship coordinator, Rachel Lurie, by Monday, January 4 at Temple Israel so we can know who you are and so we can appropriately plan – RA@TIOH.org.

L’shanah chilonit tovah u-briyah. A good and healthy New Year to you all.

Flames Kindled – A Poem for the Shabbat in Hanukah

11 Friday Dec 2015

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Divrei Torah, Holidays, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Poetry

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Flames kindled
This Shabbat-Hanukah night

Hanukah wicks flickering
Casting street-light

Shabbat flames dancing
Illuminating soul-sight

Hanukah – God descends
Shabbat – Jews ascend
Claiming every n’shamah
Sparks seeking light

Shabbat-Hanukah flames kindled
Lifting Israel
Burning bright
Glorious night!

Composed by Rabbi John L. Rosove

HANUKAH READINGS, BLESSINGS AND THEMES FOR DISCUSSION AT HOME

06 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Holidays, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Uncategorized

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Lining up the Hanukah Candles and Blessings:

On each night we add a candle lining them up on the Hanukiyah (Hanukah Menorah) from right to left. The shamash candle lights the others going from left to right (i.e. the most recent candle is lit first). Sing each night the Hanukah melody using the words of the first two blessings. On the first night only, sing the third blessing:

[1] Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam asher kid’shanu b’mitz’votav v’tzi-vanu l’had’lik ner shel Hanukah – Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign Power of the universe, who sanctifies us with mitzvot and commands us to light the Hanukah Menorah.

[2] Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam sh’asa nisim l’avo-teinu ba-ya-mim hahem baz’man ha-zeh – Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign Power of the universe, Who made for us miracles at that time during in this season. Amen.

[3] Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, she-he-chi-ya-nu v’k’yi-ma-nu v’hi-gi-a-nu laz’man ha-zeh. Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign Power of the universe, who has given us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this holy season.

The following blessings may be read and questions for discussion between parents, grandparents and children as the candles of the Hanukkiah are kindled each night.


FIRST CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF TORAH AND BLESSING

With this candle we reaffirm our people’s commitment to the study of our sacred tradition. May the light of this flame cast its warmth upon us all and inspire us to be grateful for the blessings of life and health.

For discussion – Read together this Yiddish proverb: “If you cannot be grateful for what you have received, then be thankful for what you have been spared!” and ask: [1] Why is it important to be grateful? [2] How does learning Judaism actually change our lives?
SECOND CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF LIBERATION AND HOPE

On behalf of all our people dispersed in the four corners of the world that live in fear and distress we stand this night in solidarity with them. Our Hanukkah flames are theirs and their hopes are ours. We are one people united by tradition, history and faith.

For discussion – Read together this statement from Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav: “The whole world is a very narrow bridge; the important thing is not to be afraid,” and ask: [1] Why does fear make it harder for us to love other people? [2] In what ways can we show the Jewish people living around the world that they are part of our Jewish family and that we care about them?

THIRD CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF PEACE AND MEMORY

With this candle we pray that a just and lasting peace may be established between Israel and the Palestinians. May the memory of all those Israelis who gave their lives for peace be a blessing for our people and all peoples of the Middle East.

For discussion – Read together this statement by Albert Einstein: “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding. This may be said of peace between nations, between people, and even peace within oneself.” Then ask: Why is peace so dependent on understanding the “other” person?

FOURTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF TOLERANCE

With this light we pray that racism, political enmity, gender bias, religious hatred, intolerance of the “other,” and fundamentalism of all kinds be dispelled, and may we recognize that every human being is created B’tzelem Elohim, in the Divine image.

For discussion – Read together this passage from the Sayings of the Sages (4:1): “Who is wise? The person who learns something from every other person.” Then ask: [1] How is learning from someone else different than learning math, science or history? [2] What does it mean to “know the heart of the stranger” and what can each of us do to get to know people who are not like us and learn from each of them?


FIFTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF ECONOMIC JUSTICE

With this light we recommit ourselves to work on behalf of the poor in all our communities and throughout the world. May we be inspired not only to feed the hungry and uplift up the fallen, but to act strategically as advocates to reorder society’s priorities so that all may have the opportunity to support themselves and live lives of dignity.

For discussion – Read this statement by Elie Wiesel: “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the  tormented…There may be times when we ar powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” Then ask: What concrete actions can each of us take as individuals and as a family to help the poor and discriminated against in our community and help those in other countries who are oppressed?

SIXTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF CREATION

With this light may we renew our commitment to preserve God’s creation, to support policies that preserve our air, water and natural resources for, recalling the Midrash, if we destroy it there will be no one after us to make it right.

For discussion: Read this passage together from the Midrash collection on the book of Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:28) – “Upon presenting the wonder of creation to Adam, God said: ‘See my works, how fine and excellent they are! Now all that I created, for you I created. Think upon this, and do not corrupt and desolate my world; for if you corrupt it, there is no one to set it right after you.” Then discuss ways in your homes you can help protect the environment.

SEVENTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF FAMILY AND COMMUNITY BLESSING

May the light of this flame cast its warmth upon us all and everyone in the public square to be ever grateful for the blessings of family and community.

For discussion: Read together this passage from the Talmud (Taanit 11a) – “When the community is in trouble a person should not say, ‘I will go to my house, eat, drink, and be at peace with myself.’” Then ask, what can each of us do as individuals to help another human being who is in trouble either in our families or in our community?

EIGHTH CANDLE: THE LIGHT OF MEMORY AND WITNESSING

May these lights, kindled all, inspire us to perform deeds of loving-kindness for others, friend and stranger alike.

For discussion: Read together this passage from the Talmud (Succah 49b) – “All who perform acts of charity and justice, it is as if they fill the world with loving-kindness.” Then ask what little acts of kindness can we as individuals do all the time for others?

On Gratitude

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Poetry, Quote of the Day, Uncategorized

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Tennessee Williams put it exactly right: “You know we live in light and shadow. That’s what we live in – a world of light and shadow; and it’s confusing.” (Orpheus Descending)

No life is simple, but along comes Thanksgiving and tradition compels us to emphasize gratitude regardless of our circumstances, how we may feel and conditions in the world.

For some, gratitude comes easily. For others gratefulness is challenging. Nurturing gratitude, however, is one of our most effective means to dispel the “shadow” and lift us towards the “light.”

Here are a number of reflections from Jewish tradition and world literature that offer us perspective, insight, wisdom, and hope.

“Hodu l’Adonai ki tov, ki l’olam chasdo – Give thanks to God, for Adonai is good…God’s steadfast love is eternal.” –  Psalm 136 (9th century, B.C.E.)

“When you arise in the morning give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself.” – Native American Prayer, Tecumseh Tribe

“How strange we are in the world, and how presumptuous our doings! Only one response can maintain us: gratefulness for witnessing the wonder, for the gift of our unearned right to serve, to adore, and to fulfill. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.” – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972)

“Ingratitude to a human being is ingratitude to God.” – Rabbi Samuel Hanagid (993-1056 CE)

“What have you done for me lately is the ingrate’s question.” – Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

“If you cannot be grateful for what you have received, then be thankful for what you have been spared.” – Yiddish proverb

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward, American scholar, author, pastor and teacher (1921-1997)

“Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.” – Anne Lamott, writer (b. 1954)

“Thank everyone who calls out your faults, your anger, your impatience, your egotism; do this consciously, voluntarily.” – Jean Toomer, poet and novelist (1894-1967)

“We should write an elegy for every day that has slipped through our lives unnoticed and unappreciated. Better still, we should write a song of thanksgiving for all the days that remain.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach, author (b 1948)

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” – Cicero, Roman philosopher (106 BC – 43 BC)

“If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘Thank you,’ that would suffice.” – Meister Eckhart, German theologian, philosopher (1260-1328)

“When I started counting my blessings my whole life turned around.” – Willie Nelson

“The highest tribute to the dead is not grief, but gratitude.” – Thorton Wilder

“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks.” – William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Jacob’s Dream and His Emergence into a Man of Faith

19 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by in Divrei Torah, Ethics, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Stories

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Jacob’s destiny was set from birth and would come at a price. As his mother Rebekah’s troubled twin pregnancy came to an end and the babies were born, Jacob holding Esau’s heel suggesting a strong pre-natal desire to be born first and become the future leader of the tribe. In a clever commentary, Rashi (11th century, France) says that the scene reflects a primogeniture truth, that Jacob was actually conceived first, though he came out second, much as a pebble dropped into a tube first will come out second when the tube is inverted.

Despite being second-born, tradition asserts that Jacob’s spiritual potential merited his assuming first-born rights, and it also suggests that Rebecca knew that Esau, a hunter, lacked the requisite sensitivity, gentility, vision, and prophetic capacity to lead the tribe, whereas Jacob possessed all those virtues.

Jacob’s dream event that opens this week’s portion Vayetze (Genesis 28:10-22) signals the beginning of a new stage in Jacob’s life. He had just fled in fear from an enraged Esau, was alone in the mountains, unsure of himself and exhausted. He fell asleep and dreamed of ladders and angels.

This dream sequence is filled with powerful religious imagery, suggestion and mythic archetypes. The stones Jacob placed under his head are symbolic of what Carl Jung called the Ego, the limited “I” of Jacob, a man still unaware of the implicate order linking the material and metaphysical worlds. The top of the ladder represents what Jung called the integrated Self which unifies the conscious and unconscious into a non-dualistic cosmos.

When Jacob went to sleep using stones as a kind of pillow, we suspect that something unusual is about to happen, that he is on the cusp of new self-consciousness. Lo and behold, he sees angels ascending (representing his yearning for something greater than himself) and angels descending (representing God’s outreach towards him), Rabbi Heschel’s idea of God’s pathos and the Prophet’s empathy.

When Jacob awoke from the dream and opened his eyes, he was astonished: “Surely God is in this place, va’anochi lo yadati, and I did not know it! … How awesome is this place! This is none other than the abode of God, and this is the gateway to heaven.” (28:16-17)

The beginning of any religious experience requires us to understand that we know nothing at all. In Hebrew “I” is ani (anochi is a variant form), and when we rearrange the letters – aleph, nun, yod – we spell ain, (meaning “nothing”). The religious person must transform the “I” of the  ego into a great Self in which the individual becomes part of God’s Oneness. Jacob’s sudden awareness results in his newfound humility and is a prerequisite to the development of his faith.

Despite the spiritual potency of this experience, Jacob remains unaware (i.e. he lacks access to his full unconscious – that is, the integrated Jungian Self) and his faith is conditional. He says, “If God remains with me, if God protects me…, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safe … the Eternal shall be my God.” (28:20-21)

One of the consistent themes throughout the Genesis narratives is that in order for Biblical figures to grow in faith they had to suffer trials. As a protected child of his mother, Jacob had been pampered. However, in being forced to flee for his life from the brother he wronged, Jacob became aware of the shadow (Jung’s term denoting that part of the unconscious consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings and instincts) in which he lived and which would envelop him for the next twenty years. Then he met a being divine and human at the river Jabbok and emerged with a new name, Yisrael – the one who perseveres with God.

From Jacob’s birth to next week’s encounter at the river we witness the patriarch’s evolution from the unconsciousness of his childhood to greater awareness, from a self-centered trickster to the bearer of the covenant. As he progressed he learned to view the world through the eyes of faith as he stood at heaven’s gate.

Shabbat Shalom!

Note: This is an edited version of my 2011 blog.

Teshuvah – An Ultimate Spiritual Reality at the Core of Jewish Faith

09 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Holidays, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

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The midrashic tradition teaches that teshuvah (i.e. repentance, turning, returning) is an ultimate spiritual reality at the core of Jewish faith, and was one of the ten phenomena that God created before the creation of humankind thus giving us the capacity to extricate ourselves from the chain of cause and effect.

Teshuvah is a central theme of the High Holiday season – return or turning to one’s core spiritual essence, to family and dear ones with whom we have become alienated, to friends and community, to Torah, the Jewish people, and God.

The following are selections from classic Jewish texts and from some of our people’s most inspired and profound thinkers (ancient and modern) on the meaning, nature and impact of teshuvah on the individual, community, world, and God.

Teshuvah is a manifestation of the divine in each human being…Teshuvah means “turning about,” “turning to,” “response” – return to God, to Judaism, return to community, return to family, return to “self”…Teshuvah reaches beyond personal configurations – it is possible for someone to return who “was never there” – with no memories of a Jewish way of life…Judaism isn’t personal but a historical heritage…Teshuvah is a return to one’s own paradigm, to the prototype of the Jewish person…The act of teshuvah is a severance of the chain of cause and effect in which one wrong follows inevitably upon another…The thrust of teshuvah is to break through the ordinary limits of the self…The significance of the past can only be changed at a higher level of teshuvah – called Tikun – tikun hanefesh – tikun olam…The highest level of teshuvah is reached when the change and correction penetrate the very essence of the sins once committed and create the condition in which a person’s transgressions become his/her merits. – Gleaned from “Repentance” by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, 20th-21st century, Israel

For transgressions committed between an individual and the Omnipresent, the day of Atonement atones.  For transgressions between one individual and another, the Day of Atonement atones only if the one will regain the goodwill of his fellow. – Mishnah, Yoma 8:9, 2nd century CE, Palestine

Even if one only injured the other in words [and not in deed], he must pacify him and approach him until he forgives him. If his fellow does not wish to forgive him, the other person brings a line of three of his friends who [in turn] approach the offended person and request from him [that he grant forgiveness]. If he is not accepting fo them, he brings a second [cadre of friends] and then a third.  If he still does not wish [to grant forgiveness], one leaves him and goes his own way, and the person who would not forgive is himself the sinner. –  Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, Laws of Repentance, 2:9-10, 11th century CE, Spain and Egypt

The primary role of penitence, which at once sheds light on the darkened zone, is for the person to return to himself, to the root of his soul. Then he will at once return to God, to the Soul of all souls…. It is only through the great truth of returning to oneself that the person and the people, the world and all the words, the whole of existence, will return to their Creator, to be illumined by the light of life. – Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, early 20th century, Palestine)

Humility is the root and beginning of repentance. – Bachya ibn Pakuda, 11th century, Spain

Know that you must judge everyone with an eye to their merits.  Even regarding those who are completely wicked, one must search and find some small way in which they are not wicked and with respect to this bit of goodness, judge them with an eye to their merits. In this way, one truly elevates their merit and thereby encourages them to do teshuvah. – Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, Likutei Moharan 282, 18th century, Ukraine

Rabbi Abbahu said, “In the place where penitents stand, even the wholly righteous cannot stand.” – Talmud Bavli, Berachot 34b, 3rd century, Palestine

L’shanah tovah u-m’tukah

A Good and sweet New Year!

“Sacred Faces” – A Photographer Evokes the Universal Human Spirit

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Art, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

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There are hundreds of photographic images of Buddhas and Christ figures, Virgin Marys and Saints, and real-life human beings including a meditating 70ish woman graced with a beatific face, and a 93 year-old Terezin, Auschwitz and death march survivor.

There is a haunting shot of the “Shoe Memorial” in Budapest where thousands of Jews were shot and drowned in the Danube River by the fascistic Hungarian Arrow Cross militiamen, as well as Hebrew inscribed weathered tombstones in the ancient Prague Jewish cemetery, a secret small synagogue in Terrezin at the end of a driveway with magnificent Hebrew calligraphy calling upon God for redemption from the Nazi horror, and relief details and spires of countless churches in Poland, Prague and Germany.

Taken together these images reflect the diversity of human spiritual expression across time, place and culture, each image illuminated as if by a perpetual flame from within, captured by a gifted and inspired photographer who, a year ago in his 71st year, saw by accident the face of a Buddha that captured his soul as he walked in his neighborhood.

Inspired by a Koryo Buddhist painting entitled “15,000 Buddhas,” Andy Romanoff had an idea, to create an ever-expanding oeuvre of an additional 15,000 photographic images (more or less) of a diversity of religious icons, each representing an unknown artist’s sense of the sacred, and when taken together build a house of spiritual yearning for enlightenment and transcendent oneness.

Andy Romanoff is a Chicago-born Jew and a member of my synagogue community. He views the world as a Jew and with a larger universal vision. He has enjoyed a long career in Hollywood as a camera operator, a cinematographer and an inventor of camera equipment and technology that has enabled photographers to capture images in previously inaccessible environments.

Andy has now embarked upon the artistic and spiritual journey of his life, to record the world’s great religious traditions’ sacred iconography and place them into the context of the whole of humanity’s vision.

Andy calls his photographic enterprise “Sacred Faces.” An exhibit of some of his initial photographs opened in Los Angeles this past Saturday night, February 22, in the Shatto Chapel of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

The show includes many large framed photographs and a projected show onto a large screen of more than 140 images flowing into and out of each other against a background of contemplative music. When the cycle of photographs concluded, I found myself wanting more. Andy promises to oblige.

The exhibit continues for another five weeks. The senior minister of The First Congregational Church, R. Scott Colglazier, will deliver a sermon each Sunday morning through Easter Sunday focusing on one photograph, using it as a sacred text and then reflecting on a specific religious or spiritual theme that the image evokes, such as humility, gratitude, peace, suffering, and love.

This is an exhibit one should see. It is also an exhibit that ought to travel to the great cities of the world because it is moving, inspirational and universal, and it compresses the multitude of spiritual images into a single expression of faith and longing.

Avishai Artsy of KCRW (89.9 FM LA) reported on the exhibit last Friday and interviewed Andy. You can hear the story here:

http://blogs.kcrw.com/whichwayla/2015/02/sacred-faces-finds-inspiration-in-religious-imagery

You can see many of Andy’s images here:

http://andyromanoff.zenfolio.com/sacred

Enjoy!

Being There – Parashat Mishpatim

12 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Divrei Torah, Health and Well-Being, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

≈ 3 Comments

More than twenty years ago I read a wonderful book the title of which I’ve never forgotten because it states such a profound and obvious truth – Where ever you go – There you are! The book was written by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

The volume is both an instructional guide on how to meditate, how to sit, and how to breathe, how to calm the mind and live in the present, and it is about the physical, mental and emotional health benefits that meditators attain over time.

Dr. Kabat-Zinn wrote that we are who we are everywhere we go, that we reveal ourselves fully all the time whether we’re aware of doing so or not, in all of our relationships, at home and in the work place, in our most private moments and in the crowd.

I read the book when Barbara, our then-young sons and I spent a week one summer in a home loaned to us by friends on Malibu’s famed-Broad Beach.

Each morning I awoke early before everyone else, made a strong cup of coffee and walked out on the sand to a bluff to sit on a weathered wooden bench where I’d look at the ocean, smell the morning salt air, listen to the waves, and read.

The book inspired me to begin meditating, and I did so for a year fairly religiously, and though I haven’t continued in a rigorous way since, I still find that I can, even for just a few moments at a time, settle myself down as I learned to do so long ago and feel refreshed and more present.

I recalled those summer days this week as I studied Parashat Mishpatim and encountered one special verse:

“The Eternal One said to Moses, Go up to me to the mountain – and be there, and I will give you the stone tablets and the Torah and the commandment that I inscribed [that you may] teach them.” (Exodus 14:19)

“עלה אלי ההרה – go up to Me to the mountain, והויה שם and be there.”

A redundancy to be sure! God told Moses to go to the top of a mountain. Once there, where else would he be? And why was it necessary for God to say to him also “be there?”

I would imagine that God wanted Moses to pay special attention, to open his sensual and spiritual antennae as he received Torah that he may absorb it as fully as he was capable as the preeminent and most intimate of God’s prophets. God knew, of course, that Moses was human, that he, like all of us, was distractible.

The Kotzker Rebbe commented that sometimes we expend a great deal of effort to reach an exalted goal – a great job, success, wealth, fame, love, family, friends, community – but once we achieve that which we thought we wanted sometimes we no longer want or need it at all, that it’s wrong and destructive for us.

It may be that we’ve lost so much of ourselves in the climbing that we’re no longer in touch with who we really are, having become fragmented and lost along the way.

In moments such as these, what do we do? I believe we need to remember that no one achievement, no one person in our lives, and no one identity, and certainly not wealth or fame, is ever the totality of who we are as individuals.

The Kotzker taught that the goal of our lives cannot be merely to ascend and to reach for an exalted summit, but to “be there,” to be here now and nowhere else.

The Kotzker continued that since God can be everywhere there never was a need for Moses to have had to go up onto the mountain at all, that all Moses ever needed to do was to stop where he was and achieve an ascent in that very place. There he could have received the Torah.

So too is it for us.

May we be like children awakening in the morning, fresh, alive, vibrant, and filled with wonder at the fact of living itself, at the miracle of simply being here.

Shabbat shalom!

Source for the insights of the Kotzker Rebbe – cited in Larry Kushner’s and Kerry Olitzky’s “Sparks Beneath The Surface,” Jason Aaronson Inc,. New Jersey. 1993. page 91.