Author: Rabbi David Krishef

Reflections on the Psalms

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An interview with Samuel Zinner about my book. The book is available on Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFCYR1NP. If you are in Grand Rapids, I have a few copies that I can sell for about 20% off. It makes a great Hanukkah (or Christmas) present!

Samuel Zinner, Ph.D. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2002. At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Zinner concentrated in modern and ancient languages and literatures, history, and Museum Studies. He contributed to German Scholars and Ethnic Cleansing 1920- 1945 (Berghahn Books 2004), which was awarded the American Library Association’s prestigious “Choice Outstanding Academic Book of the Year Award” for 2005. He has contributed articles to Religions/Adyan (Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue), and other academic journals. He has served as a peer-review referee for the journals Old Testament Essays, Paedagogia Christiana, etc. His work has been published internationally in a variety of languages by Oxford University Press, De Gruyter, etc. Zinner’s work has been praised by Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Philip R. Davies, Hebraist John F. A. Sawyer (Durham University), Targums scholar Robert Gordon (University of Cambridge), and others. Zinner is currently an editor of the forthcoming volume Origins and Applications of Language and Number (Rowman and Littlefield), which includes contributions by Noam Chomsky, Gregory Chaitin, and other eminent scholars. Zinner’s recent conference participations include presentations for the Oregon Jewish Cultural Project “Bob Dylan: Jewish Perspectives on his Repertoire” and “The Bible and the Qur’an: Comparative Studies” at the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, Iran.

Divre Harav – November, 2023

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Ahavas Israel has been involved in an interfaith Thanksgiving service for at least 40-50 years, originally with a group of churches in our neighborhood, and for the past 20-some years, a city-wide coalition convened by the Kaufman Interfaith Institute of GVSU. The service takes place on the Monday night before Thanksgiving. It is designed to be a glimpse through the window at an authentic expression of gratitude from a variety of traditions, including Sikh, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, Native American, Catholic, several Protestant Christian denominations, Unitarian, non-theist, and Jewish. During the years that I have been involved in planning the service, I have tried to stress that we’re not creating a service which erases the differences and the unique character of each our traditions, but rather one which weaves the texture, and color of our differences together in a color rainbow tapestry. I am always moved and lifted up by the offerings of prayers, music, dance, and song.

I had a different reaction to a service which I attended earlier this year in my role with the Grand Rapids Police Department’s Clergy on Patrol, I attended a memorial service for officers with Michigan connections who have fallen in the line of duty. Each officer, the first of which was George Powers, a detective shot by a suspect in a train robbery, was represented by a current officer who presented a rose in their memory. The service itself was moving, but the hymns and music and prayers were distinctly Christian. I found myself feeling like an outsider, excluded from the service.

Recently, I went to a meeting of clergy working with the police at which the police chaplain was invited to present about his position and duties with the department. He talked about the importance of a chaplain not pushing his personal faith, but being available and accessible to all. I brought up my feelings of exclusion at the memorial service, and offered my thoughts that an organization connected to the government and laws of the State, comprised of people from a variety of faiths, has the responsibility not to promote Christianity over other faiths. To my mind, this kind of memorial service is not an experience in which people witness the faith of other traditions, but rather one in which all people attending remember and pray for the fallen officers and their families together. Therefore all prayers and hymn should stay away from language expressing a preference for a particular tradition, referring instead to a common God which might appeal to all people of faith attending. Rather than a tapestry illustrating unique differences, it is a blanket weaving universal threads of love and comfort, joining people together in prayer.

These are two different models of interfaith prayer. There is a proper place for each one. Each one has integrity and beauty. I will be out of the country and miss the Interfaith Thanksgiving service this year, but I hope you will go and represent Ahavas Israel in my place. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Hag Ha-hodaya – Thanksgiving
  • Hodu – India
  • Turkiya – Turkey (the country)
  • Turkee – Turkish
  • Tarnegol Hodu – turkey (the bird)
  • Hodu LaAdonai! – Give thanks to Adonai!
  • Toda – thank you

Divre Harav – October, 2023

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A Hasidic teaching I studied recently suggested that God is represented by words. God is found in the words of the revelation at Sinai, the words of Torah. But it also suggested that when we live our faith fully, that we not only hear God’s words, we also actually hear God’s voice, a more powerful connection.

The difference between words and a voice is this: Words might be seen as an artifact of an ancient world, the dusty remnants of a previous generation. A voice, on the other hand, is an active presence, something alive and vibrant. Faith, commitment, spiritual energy, belief, is what transforms the words on the page into a living, contemporary, compelling, tradition.

I have been on a quest to learn how to transform words into a voice and to teach others how to take the words of Psalms or words of the Siddur and derive transcendent meaning from a single sentence, verse, or phrase. It began with a four year journey reading Psalms and writing reflections which appeared in columns in the Voice and in posts on our ahavasisraelgr.org website. In the past year, I have collected those reflections and published them as “Reflections on the Psalms,” a demonstration of the process of contemplative reading in order to see what word, phrase, or sentence draws the reader’s attention, and discerning a larger message by connecting that passage with Jewish wisdom.

Our prayer books contain many words. Our services are rivers of words, in which you dip your consciousness like a fishing line to see what comes out. I like to think that the words that stick with me after a service are a message from God. God’s voice is in those words. My job is to figure out what God’s voice is trying to say to me.

I want to help you find God’s Voice in the words of our tradition, in Torah, in the Bible, in the Siddur, in Rabbinic literature. I’d like you to join me for our many Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret and Simhat Torah services, for my Zoom Torah study, or for my Sunday morning survey of Mishnah classes. 

And if you’d like to purchase the book, you can find more information and a link to Amazon here, https://embodiedtorah.com/reflections-on-the-psalms/, or search for the title on Amazon.com. Discover how the Psalms can inspire you to engage significant contemporary issues. This is not a commentary on the meaning and message of the Psalms; rather, this book considers the Psalms as a collection of phrases and images that invite us into brief meditations using Jewish wisdom for spiritual development.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Tehillim – Psalms
  • Hit’bon’nut – Contemplation (from the word bina, understanding)

Divre Harav – September, 2023

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My childhood rabbi died in July. Rabbi Kassel Abelson was one of the giants of the Conservative movement. He was chair of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, helped found USY, was present at the creation of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin (the original Ramah), and shaped the introduction of egalitarianism and GLBTQ+inclusiveness into the movement.

The egalitarianism that he and Beth El Minneapolis instilled in me as a core value in the mid 70’s is what insulated me from swallowing the Orthodoxy that the Ba’al Teshuvah yeshivot tried to feed One Year Program students at Hebrew University. Ramah Wisconsin instilled a love of Hebrew and traditional Jewish practice. While for social reasons I was never completely comfortable in USY, I moved back and forth between the AZA and USY world, solidifying my sense that my future partner in live would have to be someone who shared my love for Judaism. So when it was time to go to the Seminary, JTS was the only option for me.

Growing up, Rabbi Abelson was mostly just the powerful Voice on the bima. He was less threatening than the other powerful Voice in the Minneapolis Conservative rabbinate who actually frightened me. He would call people out for standing up to leave the sanctuary during a sermon. Rabbi Abelson, on the other hand, radiated kindness, even though he was a distant personality. By the time I neared my teen years, Beth El had a series of assistant rabbis who took on the teen portfolio, so they were the rabbinic figures I grew close to.

I remember my first conversation with Rabbi Abelson in 1977 when I went into his office for the pre-bar mitzvah meeting. Parents of b’nai mitzvah students obvious talked, because my mother warned me that he would talk to me about going to Ramah Wisconsin and that I should tell him I was going to Camp Tikvah, not Ramah. But I did go to Ramah about two years later, in part because of the tremendous scholarship program that Rabbi Abelson had built to send kids to Ramah.

So even though my relationship with Rabbi Abelson wasn’t as deep as I wish it could have been, looking back, I clearly see how much I am a product of Rabbi Abelson. By helping to create Ramah, USY, a program of incorporating young people into learning serious synagogue skills, reading Torah and leading services, teaching the importance of inclusiveness in synagogue life, he shaped who I am today, and for that I am grateful.

In a small congregation, Rabbi and congregant have much more access to each other than in large congregations such as where I grew up. The ratio of congregants to rabbi in a small congregation allows the rabbi to get to know each member. Of course, I know those who make it a point to come to services, classes, and programs, better than those who come rarely. But I want to know each member and our business model as a congregation is based on the importance of the financial and personal contribution of each member. 

Although I grew up within a large congregational model, I do not regret devoting my career to the blessings of the small congregation.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Rav – rabbi
  • Rebbe – the rabbi of a hasidic community, typically a charismatic leader.

Reflections on the Psalms

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With gratitude to the Holy One of Blessing, I am excited to announcing the publication of Rabbi Krishef’s Reflections on the Psalms!

Discover how the Psalms can inspire you to engage significant contemporary issues. This is not a commentary on the meaning and message of the Psalms; rather, this book considers the Psalms as a collection of phrases and images that invite us into brief meditations using Jewish wisdom for spiritual development.

Reflections on the Psalms, published by Luminescence LLC, is available on Amazon.

You can find endorsements of the book from Rabbi David Wolpe, Rabbi Brad Artson, Rabbi Elana Zaiman, Rabbi Pamela Gottfried, Rabbi Elliot Dorff, and the Rev. Fred Wooden, here.