Divre Harav – Words from the Rabbi

Divre Harav – September, 2024

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We’re about one month away from the fall holidays. During the month of Elul, beginning on Wednesday, September 4, one month before Rosh Hashanah, our tradition encourages us to engage in introspection.What kind of person do I want to be? Where is there room for growth and improvement? Where have I been holding on to grudges or unresolved issues? How can I correct the course of my life and become kinder, more loving, more forgiving? How can I better reflect the Divine spark within me?

Some people make it a point to journal during Elul. Each evening, before going to bed, spend 5-10 minutes writing about something you did well that day and some place you fell short and hope to improve on. You might consider writing or revising your ethical will, a letter (doesn’t have to be long) articulating some lessons you’ve learned in the course of your life, and moral guidance and hope for future generations. My colleague Rabbi Steven Abraham of Beth El Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska, offers the following questions to get you started:

  • What are each of our core beliefs and values?
  • How have these beliefs and values manifested themselves in our lives? Are there further ways we’d like them to?
  • What teachings from our parents, grandparents or siblings that speak to us do we want to pass on?
  • What two or three life lessons need to be written down?
  • What are we grateful for in life?
  • Sometimes imagining that you only have a limited time left brings to mind the things in life that are truly important – what are those things for you?

You might also devote a few minutes a day to reading and learning more about the spiritual practices of Judaism and its holidays. Here are a few website to look at. You can sign up for weekly email to bring a bit of learning right to your inbox.

  • ExploringJudaism.org – this is a new project of the Conservative movement, with a growing number of articles reflecting traditional Jewish practice in today’s world.
  • Myjewishlearning.com/ – At more than 20 years old, My Jewish Learning is a granddaddy of Jewish learning websites.
  • Sefaria.org/community – Sefaria is primarily a library of Judaic texts, but also has a library of articles on topics of holidays, Jewish thought and values, mitzvot, and Torah study.

Elul prep for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur can be seen as a kind of self-care for one’s soul. Just as you bring your car into the shop for regular oil changes and tune-ups, and you maintain your home HVAC system, changing filters regularly, your body and soul need attention as well. Marisa joins me in wishing you a joyful high holiday season.

Hebrew word of the Month:

  • Heshbon Nefesh – An accounting of the soul
  • Tzava’ah – An ethical will

Divre Harav – Summer, 2024

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Beginning mid-June, I will be taking six weeks of Sabbatical time. It has been about four years since my last Sabbatical. My pattern has been to take three months of Sabbatical every five years, but I am hoping to split this next Sabbatical into two – six week segments, over the course of two years. With Stuart’s retirement, it is more difficult to be away for three months at a time. It will not be easy covering the six weeks between June 16 and July 28, but between Stuart Rapaport, Rhonda Reider, Dovid Ben-Avrohom, a small additional crew of Torah readers and service leaders, and with your help making the minyan, it is possible. If you would like to help out by sharing a d’var Torah during the service, you can do so at http://tinyurl.com/CAITorahSignup. A d’var Torah should be about 12 minutes.

We are always looking for additional help reading Torah, more Haftarah readers, and people willing to lead a portion of the service. If you are interested in learning, I can connect you to resources, including audio recordings, that will help.

I am hoping to spend Shabbat in congregations in New Jersey, Minneapolis, metro-Detroit, and Indiana to learn new melodies and gather some ideas for enhancing Shabbat practice and community. In addition, I will continue working on a collection of brief introductions to pieces of prayer for Shabbat and holiday mornings. On my Shabbat travels, in exchange for hosting me, I have offered the congregations several book talks on Psalms or prayer, based on my book Reflections on the Psalms. I will be sharing some of that material at our Tikkun Leyl Shavuot evening program on June 11. Don’t forget to make a reservation! 

Beginning this month, I will be on Sabbatical for three months. It is a common practice of rabbis and other clergy to be given a periodic Sabbatical from their regular duties for reflection, for rekindling the spirit and the sense of calling by God, for reconnecting more deeply with the tradition (Scripture, theology, liturgy), and for deepening one’s own spiritual life. While on Sabbatical, I will not be available for my normal Rabbinic duties. I will not be coming into the office, attending meetings, or scheduling appointments. I will not be taking phone calls or responding to email for routine questions. I will not be teaching, leading study groups, leading services, or giving Divre Torah. The office will refer calls or email either to the president or to the appropriate committee.

Clergy organizations suggest that a Sabbatical should not be heavily structured. The idea is to have free time for unexpected projects and learning. The one exception I will make in a normal Sabbatical practice will involve officiating at funerals, if I am in town. However, during normal office hours the initial phone call regarding a funeral should go the office. At other times (weekdays 7:00 am – 10:00 am and 3:30 pm – 10:00 pm or weekends), please call Ann Berman. After the basic funeral arrangements (include date and time) have been set, I will be contacted. If I am available, I will contact the family to speak about the funeral service. Otherwise, Stuart Rapaport or another appropriate person will handle the funeral service.

Hebrew word of the Month:

  • Shabbaton – Sabbatical

Divre Harav – May

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May 14 will be 220 days since the unprovoked attack and horrific massacre of Israeli civilians, men, women, and children, in the area around Gaza. As I am preparing this article in early April, there are still 134 hostages being held by Hamas, approximately 100 of whom may still be alive.

On May 14, we will celebrate Israel Independence Day, the 76th birthday of the modern State of Israel. Israel was established on our ancestral land to be a place where Jews could find refuge and rebuild a state infused with our fundamental Jewish values. By any measure, Israel has been a phenomenal success. It has welcomed immigration of individual Jews and Jewish families and entire Jewish communities from around the world and it has prospered. It has reach out in times of crisis to countries around the world with assistance. It has signed agreements of peace and economic cooperation with a growing number of its neighbor countries in the Middle East.

The upcoming celebration of Yom Ha’atzma’ut ought to be an unqualified celebration, yet we cannot celebrate with our full hearts while hostages are still held in Gaza and while Israeli soldiers are still putting their lives on the line to recover our missing and hold those responsible for October 7 accountable for their actions.

Of these two things I am certain:

  • If the people of Gaza, who elected Hamas to be their representative government, would rise up and return the hostages to Israel along with the leadership of Hamas responsible for October 7, the war would end the next day.
  • If the people of Israel would lay down their arms tomorrow, the hostages would remain in captivity and Hamas would, as they promised, prepare to renew attacks against Israel.

You might wonder whether we should celebrate Yom Ha’atma’ut this year. I do not. I can still see Treblinka, Majdenek, and Auschwitz when I close my eyes, from my trip to Poland last year. Had there been no Israel in 1948, who would have taken in the almost 300,000 European Jews who sought refuge there? The United States took in 150,000 in the 10 years following the Shoah. Israel took in twice that many in just five years. Had there been no establishment of Israel, who would protect Jewish communities of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, and Ethiopia, and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa, in this era of rising antisemitism? Many of these communities chose to make Aliyah in the years following the establishment of Israel. If Israel were to cease to exist as a Jewish State tomorrow, what would happen to its 7.2 million Jews (out of a total population of 9.8 million)? Where would they go – because one thing is for certain, they are not welcome in the Hamas or Palestinian Authority controlled areas of Gaza or the Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”).

It was a Friday afternoon on May 14,1948 when a small Jewish community, led by David Ben Gurion, read the declaration of Independence and proclaimed the State of Israel. I hope you will join me and Ahavas Israel in our celebration of Yom Ha’atma’ut on Tuesday evening, May 14. You can find details elsewhere in the Voice.

Hebrew Phrases of the Month:

  • Megillat Ha’atzma’ut – “The Declaration of Independence”
  • Tzur Yisrael – “Rock of Israel” – a phrase in the Megillat Ha’atzma’ut that some read as a reference to God, and others, to the Israeli army.
  • Medinah Yehudit – “Jewish State” – The Megillat Ha’atzma’ut proclaims the establishment of a Jewish State in …
  • Eretz Yisrael – “The Land of Israel” – The Biblical, ancestral, land of the Jewish people, to be known as …
  • Medinat Yisrael – “The State of Israel”

Divre Harav – April, 2024

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On Monday April 8, the path of a total solar eclipse will cross North America from Mexico, through Texas, up and across the central and eastern United States through Maine, and into Canada through Newfoundland and Labrador. The path of totality will touch a tiny corner of Michigan just north of Toledo. The next opportunity to see a solar eclipse in North America will be in 2044. If you can wait until 2099, the totality of the eclipse will pass right over Grand Rapids.

In ancient times, an eclipse was a sign of Divine displeasure (Talmud, Sukkah 29b). For this reason, historically no blessing was said when witnessing an eclipse. However, since we understand eclipses to be a predictably recurring natural phenomenon, my colleague Rabbi Josh Heller suggests that if you see the total eclipse, you should recite the same blessing that you would recite over other powerful natural phenomena such as shooting stars, earthquakes, lighting, and violent winds:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָּ אֱ–לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָּעוֹלָּם שֶכֹּחוֹ וּגְבוּרָּתוֹ מָּלֵא עוֹלָּם 

You are the source of Blessing, Adonai our God, whose power and strength fill the world.

Leading up to and following the totality, you may also wish to add personal meditations or readings attesting to the power or majesty of creation, such as Psalm 121 or 148.

Remember, however, that you should never look directly at a partial eclipse without proper eye protection. Note that solar viewing glasses are thousands of times darker than sunglasses. During the time of totality, when the moon completely covers the sun, it is safe to look at the eclipse without glasses. When the sun begins to peek out from the edge of the moon, no matter how slightly, you must cover your eyes with the solar viewing glasses again.

I have seen several partial eclipses, but never a total eclipse. I’m looking forward to spending the day with my friends from Fort Wayne, IN, which is just on the edge of the totality, and hopefully find a cloud-free place within the path of the total eclipse to witness something that for me will likely be a once in a lifetime event.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

  • Shemesh, Ḥamah – Sun
  • Yare’aẖ, L’vana – Moon
  • Likkui Ḥamah – Solar eclipse
  • Likkui Yare’aẖ – Lunar eclipse

Divre Harav – March, 2024

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In memory of Dale Krishef, Devorah bat Yoel u’Feigel.

Most of us will sit shiva for two major losses during out lifetime, that of our parents; and some will also have occasion to mourn the significant losses of spouses, siblings, or children. Shiva is an intense period of mourning, during which the mourner does not leave his or her home for seven days, except on Shabbat, when the public rituals of mourning are set aside. The mourner wears the torn shirt (or ribbon) during shiva as a sign of loss and we bring a minyan into their home. For a person who is deeply engaged in Jewish community, who is a regular part of a synagogue community, during shiva the community shows its love by reaching out with food and their presence. I can testify first hand to the power of this love and I am grateful to each person who went out of their way to come into our home during my recent shiva after their loss of my mother.

There is wisdom in the practice of Jewish mourning because it places the mitzvah of taking care of the mourner on the community and encourages the mourner to take time off to mourn and reflect.

Following the intensity of shiva, we say kaddish until 30 days after the burial, known as sheloshim. In the cases of the loss of parents, that 30 day mourning period is extended for a year (although most people stop saying kaddish after 11 months). In my case, I am trying to take the prohibition against attending or listening to programs of entertainment fairly seriously, at least for sheloshim. In the normal course of my life, I use entertainment to distract me from my thoughts. It might elevate my thoughts to a higher level, if I am watching a program of substance, but more often, it is the equivalent of cotton candy – no substance, lots of sugar, a distraction with no content of value. When living under a digital entertainment blackout, I find that at least some of the time I am reviewing memories of my mother, along with my father and other family members who are no longer with us. Some memories are pleasant, but many carry levels of regret and sadness. That’s what mourning is about: sitting with the memories, experiencing and processing and sifting through the sadness to find the hidden beauty underneath.

The custom of marking the anniversary of a death, known as yahrtzeit, by saying kaddish is an additional way that we might continue to observe the mitzvah of kibbud av v’eim, honoring one’s father and mother, or showing the same kind of honor and love for the memory of spouses, siblings, and children. There are two parts to this custom. First, I’d encourage you to come to the synagogue on the Shabbat on or before the yahrtzeit to say kaddish and also, if you are comfortable, to receive an aliyah. Second, to help the synagogue gather a minyan of people on the evening or morning of the yahrtzeit itself to say kaddish.

Finally, four times a year we include a special memorial service in the Yom Kippur and Festival services, known as yizkor. This is an additional opportunity and reminder to spend a few minutes thinking about your loved ones and saying prayers in their memory.

Hebrew (and Yiddish) Words of the Month:

  • Shiva – “seven” The seven day mourning period beginning with the burial.
  • Sheloshim – “thirty” The thirty day mourning period beginning with the burial.
  • Kaddish Yatom – “orphan’s Kaddish” The Kaddish assigned to mourners.
  • Yahrtzeit (Yiddish) – “anniversary” The anniversary of a death according to the Hebrew calendar.
  • Yizkor – A memorial service.