Author: Rabbi David Krishef

Sukkot and the Artprize Competition

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Divre Harav – November, 2010 – Sukkot and the Artprize Competition

Part of the mission of Congregation Ahavas Israel is to be a resource for people who want to explore a Jewish path to God.   As a congregation, we have presented various educational outreach programs to teach members of the Christian community about Jewish holidays and rituals.   Our Passover Seder Experience has been a very successful outreach program, teaching church communities about the elements of an authentic Seder.  My sense is that most Christians have heard of Hanukkah and Yom Kippur, although they may not really know the significance of the holidays.  However, to most people outside of the Jewish community, Sukkot is completely unknown.  They don’t realize that holiday that their Bible calls the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths is still celebrated by the Jewish community in much the same way as it was thousands of years ago.

This past September, to raise Sukkot awareness, a competition called Sukkah City took place in New York.  Rules were published outlining how to build a Sukkah according to halakha.  Entries were submitted.  Twelve finalists were chosen by a panel of jurors.  The finalists were invited to build and display the sukkot in Union Square Park.  One winner was chosen by popular vote.  Does this remind you of a little competition we held here in Grand Rapids, called Artprize?  The organizers and funders of Sukkah city want to expand the competition to cities around the world next year.

During Sukkot, I, like many of you, enjoyed the Artprize competition.  I enjoyed walking around looking at the variety of pieces of art. At some point it occurred to me that Artprize would be a great opportunity to teach about Sukkot.

I am imagining a Sukkah decorated outside and inside with prose and poetry and pictures about the meaning of the Sukkah, the message of the Sukkah and by extension the message of Judaism.  It would be an exploration of homelessness and insecurity versus permanence and rootedness.  It would explore the roots of the American Thanksgiving, and the growing interest in food production and community supported agriculture.

I am not an artist, an engineer, or a carpenter.  This is not a project that I have the skills to coordinate.  I’m just tossing out the idea to see if anyone is up for designing a Sukkah and entering it into the Artprize competition next year.  I’m envisioning a small committee, sponsored by the synagogue, of a few people to design and build the structure, and a few people to create the messages on the walls.  If this is an idea that appeals to you, please contact me.  I will help you create an ad hoc committee to get started in preparation for next year’s Artprize.

The Sacred Choreography of Ballet

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By no means am I an expert in the art of watching and understanding ballet.  However, after watching the Grand Rapids Ballet this afternoon, something struck me that could also describe the nature of sacred community.

The dancing is exquisitely choreographed.  The partners or the group of dancers jump together, rotate together, legs move together, arms move together, and most importantly, they come down together.  An individual dancer moves precisely to the music.  From a purely physical point of view, the most exciting and crowd pleasing part of the ballet is the individual who jumps the highest or has the physical ability to perform the greatest number of tricky maneuvers while flying through the air.  However, doesn’t the beauty of the ballet depends on the most physically powerful dancers reining in their talent, a kind of tzimtzum, a contraction in their powers? An individual dancer who jumps so high that he gets behind the music is no longer beautiful.  One of a pair or group of dancers who shows off her speed, throws off the balance of the entire ballet.  One might say that when a group of people are on stage together, there is an aspect in which the group is only as strong as its weakest link.  The strongest leapers gauge their jumping to match the weakest leaper.  However, there is another way to look at a ballet company.  Each of the dancers on stage has a unique set of strengths.  Some have more physical size, some have more power, some have more balance, flexibility, speed, coordination.  I noticed that in the three weekend performances, some of the principal roles rotated from once dancer to another.  Some roles stayed with the dancer most suited for them, but other roles were played equally well, even if slightly differently, by a variety of dancers.  A ballet company becomes a sacred community when each member appreciates the choreography of the whole and serves the whole with humility.

Within a religious community, there are people with identifiable and unique talents.  However, for a group of people to pray together in a traditional Jewish community, those who can read prayers, read Hebrew, most quickly need to hold back; those who can sing the loudest need to restrain their voices so every voice can be heard; those whose knowledge of the liturgy is most fluent need to let other people claim a role in participating in the service.  A community is not qualitatively better when the “weaker,” less knowledgeable, people stand aside for the more qualified people to take over.  Less fluent people are not a weak link in a sacred community, because we presume that each person has unique gifts that only he or she can contribute.  It is not a harmonious community when a small elite group shuts down the participation of the rest of the people.  A community becomes sacred when each member appreciates the choreography of the whole and serves the whole with humility.

A Critique of Artscroll Press

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I am often critical of the theology of Artscroll publications, and suggest that those who use anything produced by Artscroll need to understand that the theology behind their books is deeply embedded in their translations of text and commentary.

A great example of what I am talking about is found here:
http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2010/10/where-in-world-is-robinson-crusoe-on.html

I encourage you to read the article. The author, Fred MacDowell, describes how a mid 20th century Torah commentator, Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin, made reference to Daniel Dafoe’s Robinson Crusoe as an example of a person living in utter loneliness. The author even reproduces the page from the original Hebrew text, where one can very clearly read the paragraph mentioning Robinson Crusoe.

We also see a scan of the text of the Artscroll “translation,” which without comment or footnote omits that paragraph.

The author gives a number of guesses as to why Artscroll has emended the text of Rabbi Sorotzkin’s commentary:

  • It doesn’t seem natural or proper that an authentic Lithuanian rosh yeshiva of the previous generation, the pride of the great Telzer yeshiva, would have even read Robinson Crusoe much less included a reference to it in his Torah commentary.
  • Even if it was not written by himself, but based on oral talks, it doesn’t seem right that he should have referenced Robinson Crusoe in an oral talk on the Torah.
  • While not explicitly doing so, he almost seems to recommend reading it.
  • It appears strangely close to the much-maligned Torah U-Madda approach. [RK – The approach of the Modern Orthodox]
  • This is farfetched, but it is interesting that one of Orthodoxy’s favorite arch-heretics, the hebraist Eliezer Ben Yehuda, many times cited his having read כור עוני, Yitzhak Romesh’s Hebrew translation of Robinson Crusoe, which was secretly shown to Ben Yehuda by his half-maskil rebbe, R. Joseph Blucker (?). See, for example, his autobiographical החלום ושברו. Reading the fine prose of this book helped kindle a love for the Hebrew language within him.

So once more I caution you – Artscroll publications might seem to make Torah, the Siddur, the Talmud,  and other Hebrew works accessible to the non-Hebrew reader; but be aware that the original text and the version of the text that you are learning might not be the same.  If Artscroll believes that Rashi, Ramban, Rambam, the Siddur, the Talmud, the Torah, or a commentary on any of the above departs from their very narrow theology, they will take the very ‘modern’ approach of emending the text!

Divre Harav/Words from the Rabbi – October, 2010

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Our Sanctuary Shabbat speaker program is entering its fifth year.  We have heard about 50 speakers, and while we have never had a formal description of the parameters of what constitutes a legitimate speaker, I thought I would share with you my own internal guidelines for choosing speakers.
The opportunity to speak at Ahavas Israel is open to any position which does not explicitly contradict a fundamental value of Judaism and the synagogue.  This excludes a speaker on the topic of why we should serve bacon wrapped shrimp at kiddush.  A speaker on an environmental topic, as long as he/she does not advocate wholesale, wanton, purposeless destruction, may agree or disagree with the proposition of human caused global warming and still remain within acceptable boundaries of Jewish values.
Jewish values rarely dictate specific policy.  They instruct us not to be cruel to animals, but leave choice of whether to kill an animal for food up to us.  Thus, I might have a speaker one month urging a vegetarian diet, and another month extolling the role of fur trading Jews in establishing the Jewish community of Michigan, and encouraging us to wear fur shtreimels in their honor.
I have invited Senators Stabenow and Levin, governor Granholm, Judge Steve Pestka, and Representative Ehlers to speak on a Shabbat morning (only Mr. Ehlers and Mr. Pestka accepted the invitation).  I look foreword to inviting our new representative from the 3rd district after the election.  I do not invite politicians actively campaigning for office.
Some speakers are Jewish and have explicitly Jewish messages.  Others are not Jewish, but have Jewish messages.  Still others have messages which are not specifically Jewish (such as domestic abuse) but which I believe are important messages for us to hear.
Part of being a member of a Jewish community is accepting the obligation of learning.  Shabbat is our primary gathering time to study together.  Whatever we have learned, whether it comes from a d’var Torah or a speaker on the topic of kayaking and faith, should both influence and be influenced by our understanding of the Torah reading and by our prayers.
We do not live in a vacuum.  Our world is not defined solely by Torah.  We read books, see movies, watch television, read and watch news from various sources, and interact with a variety of people in the course of an average day.  The sanctuary shabbat speaker series is meant to remind us that our essential Jewish values ought to inform our decision making process.
I realize that this is a pretty lofty set of goals for a simple speaker series.  So far, beginning the fifth year of the sanctuary shabbat speaker program, I have had virtually no trouble finding good speakers on interesting topics (although I acknowledge that some of you might disagree that all speakers have been good and all topics interesting!).  However, I find myself increasingly in need of assistance in finding speakers and topics.  Since we have no budget for the speakers, we only occasionally are able to pay a speaker.  If you know of individuals that would be good speakers or topics that we should address, please share them with me.

Divre Harav/Words from the Rabbi
Our Sanctuary Shabbat speaker program is entering its fifth year.  We have heard about 50 speakers, and while we have never had a formal description of the parameters of what constitutes a legitimate speaker, I thought I would share with you my own internal guidelines for choosing speakers.
The opportunity to speak at Ahavas Israel is open to any position which does not explicitly contradict a fundamental value of Judaism and the synagogue.  This excludes a speaker on the topic of why we should serve bacon wrapped shrimp at kiddush.  A speaker on an environmental topic, as long as he/she does not advocate wholesale, wanton, purposeless destruction, may agree or disagree with the proposition of human caused global warming and still remain within acceptable boundaries of Jewish values.
Jewish values rarely dictate specific policy.  They instruct us not to be cruel to animals, but leave choice of whether to kill an animal for food up to us.  Thus, I might have a speaker one month urging a vegetarian diet, and another month extolling the role of fur trading Jews in establishing the Jewish community of Michigan, and encouraging us to wear fur shtreimels in their honor.
I have invited Senators Stabenow and Levin, governor Granholm, Judge Steve Pestka, and Representative Ehlers to speak on a Shabbat morning (only Mr. Ehlers and Mr. Pestka accepted the invitation).  I look foreword to inviting our new representative from the 3rd district after the election.  I do not invite politicians actively campaigning for office.
Some speakers are Jewish and have explicitly Jewish messages.  Others are not Jewish, but have Jewish messages.  Still others have messages which are not specifically Jewish (such as domestic abuse) but which I believe are important messages for us to hear.
Part of being a member of a Jewish community is accepting the obligation of learning.  Shabbat is our primary gathering time to study together.  Whatever we have learned, whether it comes from a d’var Torah or a speaker on the topic of kayaking and faith, should both influence and be influenced by our understanding of the Torah reading and by our prayers.
We do not live in a vacuum.  Our world is not defined solely by Torah.  We read books, see movies, watch television, read and watch news from various sources, and interact with a variety of people in the course of an average day.  The sanctuary shabbat speaker series is meant to remind us that our essential Jewish values ought to inform our decision making process.
I realize that this is a pretty lofty set of goals for a simple speaker series.  So far, beginning the fifth year of the sanctuary shabbat speaker program, I have had virtually no trouble finding good speakers on interesting topics (although I acknowledge that some of you might disagree that all speakers have been good and all topics interesting!).  However, I find myself increasingly in need of assistance in finding speakers and topics.  Since we have no budget for the speakers, we only occasionally are able to pay a speaker.  If you know of individuals that would be good speakers or topics that we should address, please share them with me.

Men’s and Women’s Spirituality

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Divre Harav/Words from the Rabbi – August/September, 2010

During my visit to Camp Ramah earlier this summer, I was dovening with the boys’ cabins of my son’s aidah.  For this minyan, the girls were dovening elsewhere.  Periodically, the staff wanted to give both the boys and girls a single-sex prayer experience.  One of the male counselors asked the boys, “How do you connect with God differently than the girls?  How is boys’ spirituality different than girls?”
The campers mentioned things like praying with tallit and tefillin, and wearing a kippah.  Afterwards, I mentioned to the counselor that the campers who grew up in egalitarian congregations probably couldn’t really relate to the question.  The answers that were given came from non-egalitarian campers who would have thought that girls would never wear kippot, tallit, or tefillin.
I was and continue to be stumped by the question.  Is there any way in which my religious expression is uniquely male?  There is an underlying spirituality in the ritual surrounding athletic experiences, but God blessed me with a body that lacks the size, height, strength, and coordination for team sports (other than chess!). I can’t help thinking about poet Robert Bly’s turn to male drumming circles, but somehow sitting around a fire shirtless beating a drum and being attacked by mosquitoes doesn’t do it for me.
The religious life committee has scheduled a number of women’s Rosh Hodesh gatherings.  Rosh Hodesh, the celebration of a new month, is a religious moment that even in egalitarian congregations continues to be associated with women’s spirituality.  With the demise of the Sisterhood, the Religious Life committee thought that there should continue to be some women-only outlet for religious expression at Ahavas Israel.
The camp experience made me wonder whether there ought to be a male-only religious program as well.  I have never seriously considered such a program, for the simple reason that my own spiritual sense has never indicated a need for a men’s group.  Are there others in our community who would like a periodic male minyan or men’s study group?  I’m sure that the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs has resources and materials that would support this kind of group.
If an Ahavas Israel Men’s Spirituality group would be meaningful to you, and if you have a suggestion as to what form it might take, I am open to suggestions.
As we approach the fall holidays, I wish each of you a good new year.  May your prayers flow from your lips with sweetness, and may all of your needs – physical, emotional, and spiritual – be fulfilled.