Category Archives: Stories

“Jewish Stories from Heaven and Earth: Inspiring Tales to Nourish the Heart and Soul” edited by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins – A Book Recommendation

22 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Book Recommendations, Stories

≈ Leave a comment

Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins’ Jewish Stories from Heaven and Earth: Inspiring Tales to Nourish the Heart and Soul does precisely that – nourish the heart and soul, and I recommend it highly to Jews, people of all faith traditions, atheists and agnostics, rebels and anyone who cherishes the human spirit. It is a collection of stories that Dov has collected in his journeys around the world over the last two decades. This, from his introduction, describes well the content and impact of this special volume:

“The tales told in this book emerge out of the Jewish tradition, but can undoubtedly be read and enjoyed by people of all faiths. They are Jewish, but also very human stories, universal in content and theme…

These…are not simply stories, not mere legends spun out of the mysterious minds of a talented muse. Rather, they are tales of courage, devotion, and passion: narratives of commitment to education, perseverance, piety and familial love, community solidarity, heroic behavior, and extraordinary achievement. They come from the muse of the famous, and the not so famous [Israeli Prime Ministers, rabbis, scholars, teachers, physicians, survivors, journalists, the elderly and the young]…

One cannot come away from reading these amazing chronicles of life at its heights and depths without experiencing a surge of pride in our Jewish heritage.

In these tales are the best and the worst of God’s creations: people who are gentle, kind, compassionate, audacious, and heroic; and others who have tried to extinguish from the planet that glowing ember of spirituality called the Jewish People. You will be lifted to the highest mountaintop and plunged into the darkest abyss in the course of reading about the lives of people who are simply trying to eke out a living…

Taken together, these tales exemplify what it means to be the Jewish People, whose history is as old as Babylon and as new as Tel Aviv…”

Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins is a lecturer, educator and author. Everything he publishes is worthwhile reading, and this is one of them. It is published by Jewish Lights Publishing, (www.jewishlights.com), 2010. I hope you will include it in your stack of books to be read! I saw it about a year ago, bought it and finally got around to reading it. I am glad I did. So will you!

 

 

 

The Principle – B’tzelem Elohim – as Applied to Social Media

07 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Ethics, Stories

≈ 1 Comment

Once the Baal Shem Tov (or, the Besht) summoned Sammael, the lord of demons, because of some important matter that he wished to command Sammael to do. Sammael roared at the Besht – “How dare you summon me! Up until now this has happened to me only three times; in the hour when the Tree of Knowledge was violated, the hour when the Israelites created the golden calf, and the hour when Jerusalem was destroyed.”

The Besht bade his disciples to bare their foreheads to Sammael, and on every forehead, the lord of demons saw inscribed the sign of the image in which God creates the human being.

Upon that, Sammael did as the Besht requested, but before leaving on his mission, he said humbly and beseechingly: “Oh Sons of the living God: permit me to stay here just a little longer and gaze upon your foreheads.” (Tales of the Hasidim, by Martin Buber – p. 77)

Imagine the world if every human being were aware every time he/she looked upon another human being of what is inscribed on our foreheads – B’tzelem Elohim – that each of us, regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, race, religion, ethnicity or nationality is created in God’s image! There would be no “other!”

My friend Alex Grossman applied this principle of sameness to his post concerning the social media and the growing tendency to self-censor because of the fear of personal attack. It is worth reading as well as his first response to a reader.
http://mediatapper.com/are-there-taboo-subjects-in-social-media/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sign – A Midrash on the Rainbow – D’var Torah for Parashat Noach

28 Friday Oct 2011

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

≈ 1 Comment

God looked out upon creation and saw violence and chaos engulfing humankind and the earth. There was neither kindness nor justice. Empathy had ceased, eclipsed by fear and hatred. In Divine rage God determined to destroy everything and return creation to primordial darkness.

The Eternal mourned what He had once called “good” and recalled how great an effort He had made to create the heavens and the earth, to give life to growing things, to design and fashion the birds, sea creatures and animals. Sadness grew within the Divine heart. The Creator stepped back from the brink and wondered; ‘Is there perhaps one human being on earth, different from the rest, who fathoms Me, and for whose sake I can begin anew?’

In a blink of the Divine eye, God peered into every human soul seeking that one person, better than the rest, who might be good and pure enough to hear the Divine voice.

To His relief, God found one man named Noah, and he told him to build an ark, save his own family and two of every creature, for the rest would be destroyed. As the Eternal contemplated the devastation that would soon come, Divine tears flooded the earth for forty days and nights. When, at last, God’s tear ducts were dry the waters receded, land reappeared and the ark docked. God then spoke to Noah:

‘I am God, Noah, Who created you and brought you to this place. Look now and see the cleansed earth. The world is once again new. There is no rage nor hatred, violence nor hubris corrupting the human heart. I will make with you a covenant marked by a sign that will remind us both how I created the world in peace, destroyed it, and allowed it to begin anew that it might be a place of love and peace.

The sign of this covenant will be a smile that will stretch across the heavens and fill the sky. It will be an arc of light shining through the flood waters, a vision of loveliness that will inspire love and awe for Me. This promise, Noah, shall be called the ‘rainbow,’ and it will be My promise that never again will such devastation engulf the earth. Yours and your children’s responsibility will be to protect and nurture My creation, for if you destroy it there will come no one after you to set it right.’

Then God bent towards the earth and stretched the Divine arm across the sky and formed an arc. Where God’s hand had been there appeared a sheltering bow of every color spread out across a blue canvas of sky. And God spoke of the colors and the sign of the rainbow:

‘First comes red for the blood pulsing through human veins that carries My Godly soul and the life of humankind; orange is for the warmth of fire and its power to create, build and improve upon what I created; yellow is for the sun that lights the earth and gives vision to earthly eyes that they might see Me in all things; green is for the leaves of trees, their fruit and the grass that all creatures might feed and be sustained in life; blue is for the sky, sea and rivers that join air and ground and reveal that all is One, divinely linked and a reflection of Me; indigo appears each day at dusk and dawn to signal evening and morning, the passage of time and the seasons, the ever-renewing life-force in all things; violet is for the coming of night when the world rests and is renewed, carrying the hope that all might awake each morning and utter words of thanksgiving and praise.’

God explained to Noah that the rainbow appears to the human eye as a half circle; ‘Do not be fooled! There is more to life than what the eye can see. There is both the revealed and the hidden. The hidden half of the bow extends deep into earth that you and those who yearn for Me might come and discover vision and Truth, and reveal the message of love and peace to all the earth.’

God told Noah, ‘Remember this blessing, My child, and you will remember My promise – Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, zo-cheir ha-brit v’ne-e-man biv’ri-to v’ka-yam b’ma-a-ma-ro.

Praised are You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of the revealed and the hidden, Who remembers, is faithful to and fulfills the Divine covenant and promise.

Inspired by classic Midrashim

A Story to Warm Your Heart

27 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by in Life Cycle, Stories

≈ 3 Comments

Elie Wiesel said, “Some stories happened but are not true, while others never happened but are true.” This may be one of them. I received it this morning from Janet Waxman, the wife of Congressman Henry Waxman, and I thank her for it. (see below for notes on the original story)

The brand new Rabbi and his wife were newly assigned to their first congregation to reopen a Shul in suburban Brooklyn. They arrived in early February excited about their opportunities. When they saw their Shul, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Erev Purim. They worked hard, repairing aged pews, plastering walls, painting, etc., and on 8th of the Adar (February 17th) they were ahead of schedule and just about finished. On February 19 a terrible snowstorm hit the area and lasted for two days. On the 21st, the Rabbi went to the Shul. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high. The Rabbi cleaned the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Erev Purim service, headed home.

On the way home, he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Magen David embroidered in the center. It was just the right size to cover the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the Shul. By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The Rabbi invited her to wait in the warm Shul for the next bus 45 minutes later. She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the Rabbi while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The Rabbi could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.

Then the Rabbi noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was white as a sheet. “Rabbi, “she asked, “Where did you get that tablecloth?” The Rabbi explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted  there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Poland. The woman could hardly believe it as the Rabbi told how he had just bought “The Tablecloth.” She explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Poland. When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to a camp and she never saw him or her home again.

The Rabbi wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the Rabbi keep it for the Shul. But he insisted on driving her home. That was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Erev Purim. The Shul was almost full. The service was great. At the end of the service, the Rabbi and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return. One older man, whom the Rabbi recognized from the neighborhood, continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the Rabbi wondered why he wasn’t leaving. The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Poland before the war, and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike? He told the Rabbi how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a camp. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years between.

The Rabbi asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the Rabbi had taken the woman three days earlier. He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman’s apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Erev Purim reunion he could imagine.

[Note: The original story was written by the Rev. Howard C. Schade, pastor of the First Reformed Church in Nyack, New York and was published in the December 1954 issue of Reader’s Digest. Cheryl Wetzstein read the original at the Library of Congress: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/22/tablecloth-is-a-love-story/?page=all. Gratitude to Kitan Smole who told me of the source.]