Reform Judaism

The Torah in Haiku: Vayikra

2010-03-19T17:53:14Z

by Ed Nickow
Temple Chai, Long Grove, IL
(Originally published in The Torah in Haiku)

Vayikra: G-d called

Does G-d call us today?

What are you hearing?

Two years ago, this blog began with an entry for Vayikra. Now The Torah In Haiku has about 250 visitors a month, more than 100 fans on Facebook and almost 150 followers on Twitter. I am grateful to everyone who has taken the time to share this fun way of exploring Torah.

Teaching tots about Shabbat: Don't blow out the candles

2010-03-19T03:59:03Z

by Linda K. Wertheimer
Originally posted on The Jewish Muse

Shabbat had little meaning to me as a child. My family never attended a Friday night service, lit candles, or bought challah, and my husband's family did not either. Shabbat dinner? Neither my husband nor I attended one until we were grown-ups. Now, as parents, we want to make Shabbat a part of our 2-year-old son's existence.

Once or twice a month, we light the candles and sing the prayers over the candles and the bread. One of the first times we lit the candles, Simon's face shone in excitement.

"Birthday?" he said. He started to purse his lips and move closer to try to blow out the two candles. "No, Simon," I said. "It's Shabbat. We don't blow out the candles on Shabbat." His Dad and I tell him that on Shabbat, we let the candles flicker until they burn out. The light in his eyes stays, and he is content to watch the flames dance. He grins, too, as we sing the prayers, and often tries to sing along with us.

Tonight will not be a Shabbat night. We will dine with my parents to celebrate my Dad's upcoming birthday. This time, a candle may be blown out. If we ate at home, I am not sure I would pull out the candlesticks. It is not something I have ever done with my parents. It is something my husband and I do with Simon.

Our Shabbat dinner is as quick as a regular night dinner. A 2-year-old's capacity for sitting at the table is minimal. Still, on at least one Friday night, we sat and sang several Shabbat songs, and Simon sat on his Daddy's lap, clapping his hands. Some Fridays, we take him to temple for the Tot Shabbats. As he does at home, he watches the candle lighting, his eyes taking in the scene.

I have no idea what our toddler absorbs when we mark the start of Shabbat, which starts Friday evening and ends on Saturday night. I hope he will grow up to appreciate Shabbat. Maybe Jewish ritual, because it was introduced to him so early, will become a natural part of his life. When we light candles and sing Sabbath prayers, it as if we shut out the outside world for a moment. As the evening progresses, I sometimes wander back to the table before the candles die out. For a little longer, I savor the simple beauty of Shabbat.

For now our observance of Shabbat is limited to Friday evenings. Perhaps someday we will do more.

I would love to know how you mark Shabbat in your home. Do you have suggestions for others trying to make ritual a bigger part of our lives? Send in a comment. Shabbat shalom.

Tweet the Exodus: A Drama in the Blogosphere

2010-03-18T22:18:36Z

by JanetheWriter

A little over a year ago, I was big into Twitter and wrote this post about what it is and some of the folks using it in the Jewish blogosphere. But then graduate school, the Union's Biennial convention and a few other things got in the way, and sadly, I gave up tweeting.

This week, I came back. No, not to tweet myself, but to follow those who started to Tweet the Exodus (@TweetTheExodus). Yes, you heard me correctly: "Tweet the Exodus." An incredibly creative group of rabbis has convened a complete cast of characters in the "tweetosphere" and is tweeting the story of our people's escape from Egypt. Cast members (among others and not in order of appearance) include @Slavedrivers, @The_Israelites, @PharoahOfEgypt, @Moshe_ben_Amram, @The10Plagues, @DaughterOfLevi, @Young_Miriam and, of course, @God_of_Israel. (Although the Almighty has yet to make an appearance in the drama, you can read what the Almighty thinks about it here).

As the God of Israel noted, the endeavor is getting some pretty amazing press, including a front-page article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal and this write-up in New York Magazine. Check it out for yourself at www.twitter.com. Not a tweeter? No worries...you can sign up just to follow along. And, while you're there, don't forget to follow the Union and the RAC.

As for me, I'm anxiously awaiting the cameo appearance late in the drama of my favorite character: Nachshon. Yes, I can wait a few weeks for this year's matzah, karpas and farfel sprinkled in sweetened coffee, but Nachshon? I don't know...how many tweets until @Nachshon enters from stage right?

The Movement

2010-03-18T19:00:35Z

by Rachel Tasch
president, Temple Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, CA

"There is movement in this room," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), in summary of a two-day meeting I attended in Atlanta. "There is movement in this room," he repeated, to emphasize the depth of conversations and experiences shared by the participants, who are leaders of 25 of the largest congregations in the URJ. Every two years, this meeting of large congregations is convened, to focus our efforts on the biggest challenges we face as the primary address of progressive Jewish life in North America.

The themes brought out at the conference included:

The challenge of demographics - our adult population is again and the generation under 50 is not necessarily affiliating at the same rate
The challenge of financial stability - our operating expenses rise faster than our revenues, so we need to find multiple avenues to achieve the revenue needed
The challenge of articulating clearly the value of synagogue membership (to a generation with many choices and few barriers) and the value of the Union itself.

This last point, the value of the Union, inspired me to do a better job of educating our membership about the larger Reform Movement of which we are a part. How many of us understand what it means not just for us to belong to Beth Am, but the Beth Am belongs to the URJ? Did you know we pay "dues" to support the URJ just like you pay to support Beth Am? Of those dues, which are substantial at about 6% of our budget, about half go to support Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary where all of our Jewish professionals train (called "the College"). And the other half go to support operations of the URJ that benefit us all, including the system of summer camps (like our Camp Newman-Swig), the Religious Action Center in Washington, DC, our advocacy activities in Israel, and the staff of congregational specialists. Both the College and the Union have undergone major restructuring over the past year to reflect the new realities of decreased revenues, and they have emerged as leaner, more efficient operations (see more on the restructuring efforts). At Beth Am, we are served by the large congregation specialist, who has been invaluable to my work as president by connecting me with other congregations who have faced similar situations and can offer advice.

These connections with other presidents remind me that, as special a congregation as Beth Am is, we are part of a larger network of special Jewish places, 900 of which are part of the URJ. There is strength in our numbers. Through our movement and our determination to face challenges, we continue to shape a vibrant Jewish life in North America.

Pesach: A Season for Social Justice

2010-03-18T14:54:35Z

by Kate Bigam
Press Secretary, RAC

Passover is rich in social justice themes. It is impossible to study the story of our redemption and not feel compelled to eradicate injustice in the world today. If your family or congregation is looking for a way to engage in social justice advocacy and awareness while remembering the story of our slavery in Egypt, we've got a few suggestions for you.

Is your synagogue already planning something creative and social justice-themed? Leave a comment a let us know!

Webinar: Social Justice Perspectives on Home Seders
Is participating in the Seder ritual a liberating experience for you? Join us on March 23, 2010, from 3-4:00pm EDT, for a Passover webinar, "The Long Road to the Promised Land: Social Justice Perspectives on Home Seders." Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, URJ Worship Specialist, and Naomi Abelson, URJ Social Action Specialist, will explore ideas for deepening the experience and raising the consciousness of those gathered around your Seder table. Learn more and register now.

Host a Child Nutrition Seder
Each year during the Seder we read, "Let all who are hungry come and eat." This Pesach, the organized Jewish community -- including the Religious Action Center, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Mazon -- want to help you raise anti-poverty and anti-hunger awareness during your traditional Passover Seder. You can:

Incorporate elements of the Child Nutrition Seder using our easy one-pager at any time during your Seder
Host a Child Nutrition Seder using this special Haggadah

Help release the shackles of hunger that bind our children and prevent them from achieving their full potential. You can learn more by visiting our Child Nutrition Seder page or by contacting RAC Legislative Assistant David Goodman at 202-387-2800.

Use a Passover Companion in Your Seder
The Religious Action Center provides a compilation of a variety of Seder inserts and themed Haggadot. A sampling:

Join the fight to combat malaria this Pesach and help people on their journey toward freedom, from plague to promise. Download the Nothing But Nets Passover Packet (PDF).
Congregation Beth El of Sudbury, Mass., has written a special piece to lend a contemporary context to lessons from the Passover celebration. Download their Darfur Passover Companion in MS Word format or PDF format.
These readings highlighting global concerns can be incorporated into your traditional family and congregational Seders. Download American Jewish World Service' Passover insert (PDF).

Keep programming!
Want even more Passover resources? Visit the RAC's Passover page, where you'll find additional social justice programs, or the URJ's Passover page, where you'll find outside-the-box Pesach info and ideas, including matzah recipes, information and activities for adults to share with kids about Passover, a synagogue sounding board about congregational Pesach programs.

Jewish Early Childhood Educators Take the Lead in Their Own Growth

2010-03-17T18:18:47Z

by the ECE-RJ Communications Committee

Recently, forty-nine educators from URJ congregations across the United States came together for the tenth annual conference of Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism (ECE-RJ), Take the Lead In Your Own Growth: A Leadership Intensive, held March 7-9, 2010 in Dallas Texas.

For two and a half inspiring days, the group focused on how early childhood centers within the Reform movement discover and express their core ideals and values in many areas of early childhood administration, from building a vision of community to the importance of the budget process. We considered challenges and issues in our field and studied innovative program ideas. The conference scholar-in-residence was Lyndall Miller, Director of Jewish Early Childhood Education and the Legacy Heritage Institute for Jewish Early Childhood Educators, at Gratz College in Elkins Park, PA.

The intensive began Sunday afternoon with a gathering to welcome Panim Chadoshot (New Faces) after which we immediately immersed ourselves into an enriching session considering the topic, "How can Havdalah help us understand the various aspects that go into being a leader in a Jewish early childhood program?"

Temple Shalom welcomed us on Monday. The inspiring discussion began with "directing the light of the Jewish image of the child," and continued with consideration of how environments impact young children. On Tuesday, we were hosted by Temple Emanu-El, and engaged in discussions about the importance of directors as professional staff members of our synagogues. We explored the concept of teaming with teachers and parents as we deepened our understanding of the integral roles we play as directors. The closing ceremony was filled with ruach as we reflected on the wealth of information and introspection we had obtained with our colleagues.

The Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism (ECE-RJ), are the newest professional affiliate of the Union for Reform Judaism. ECE-RJ represents professionals in all fields of Reform Jewish early childhood education, serving as a voice for educators, guiding synagogue leaders by offering them the most current information about the benefits of early childhood education and engagement for congregations and young families. In addition ECE-RJ in partnership with the URJ, provides useful guidelines for its members and their extended communities about salaries, contracts, benefits, and opportunities for lifelong learning. ECE-RJ sponsors an annual opportunity for professional growth and development open to directors, teachers and others who are dedicated to the vision of early childhood education.

Brother, Where Art Thou?

2010-03-16T20:00:35Z

by Larry Kaufman
Also posted at LarryKaufman.Wordpress.com

Maybe because we've been reading on Shabbat about the brothers Moses and Aaron, I was particularly sensitized to brothers when our Torah study class recently read Jacob's dying exhortation to his sons. What particularly struck me was the efforts of several Biblical translators to avoid translating achim as brothers.

Our teacher, Rabbi Andrea London, along with many class members, had the Women's Torah Commentary, and most of the others had the revised Plaut Commentary, both of which present Chaim Stern's translation of Genesis. My text was the Art Scroll Stone Chumash with a translation by Nosson Scherman.

The line we were talking about reads, in the Hebrew, Shimon v'Levi achim, klei chamass m'cheirotaichem. Left to my own devices, and aided by my own desk dictionary, I would render this Simeon and Levi are brothers; their weapons are instruments of violence. (My Ben-Yehuda-Weinstein Pocket Dictionary also offers kinsman or countryman as possible ach translations, but neither of these figure in the translations of Genesis I consulted.)

Seeing achim, I was startled to hear Rabbi London read Simeon and Levi are partners; instruments of violence are their plan. And my surprise was only enhanced when I looked at the translation I had in front of me: Simeon and Levi are comrades; their weaponry is a stolen craft.

Encountering these two different translations, or non-translations, of the same word, I did some further homework, and found that the 1995 Jewish Publication Society translation makes Simeon and Levi a pair. The 1917 JPS, following the King James, has brethren, which I see as old-fashioned but acceptable. Robert Alter translates the phrase under scrutiny as Simeon and Levi, the brothers, although there is no the in the Hebrew. Everett Fox chooses Simeon and Levi - such brothers - no such in the Hebrew either. (There are also further variations in the translation of klei chamass m'cheirotaichem, but they're not germane to the main thrust of this discussion.)

Now, in defense of the eccentric renderings, their contrivers were obviously trying to get into Jacob's mind, and to convey what he was trying to convey. We know that Simeon and Levi are brothers, two among the twelve; and they are also brothers to Dinah, in whose defense they earned the scorn their father is expressing. But, if we know Hebrew, we also know that if Jacob had wanted to say Simeon and Levi were partners, he could have called them shutafim; if he had wanted to call them comrades, he could have said chaverim; if he had wanted to identify them as a pair, he could have used zug. But the text reads achim - brothers.

As I have recounted before, I once overheard a business colleague scolding his secretary. "You shouldn't have done what I said, you should have done what I meant." From opposite ends of the religious spectrum, Rabbis Scherman (Orthodox), the comrades man, and Stern (Reform), the partners man, agree that brothers alone is not good enough for helping us understand what Jacob meant, it's important to convey that they're two of a kind.

This leads us to the core question: what IS the job of the translator? Is it to tell us what the original language says, or what it means? Rabbi Amy Memis-Foler introduced me to the idea that any translation is a commentary; and in a different spin on the difficulty of going from one language to another, the Hebrew poet Chaim Nachman Bialik is credited with the simile that reading poetry in translation is like kissing the bride through her veil. Fellow-blogger William Berkson cites an Italian proverb that equates translation with treason.

One indication of the importance of a text written in a language other than the reader's own vernacular is the availability of multiple translations. Why do we need more than one? One reason is that, even though the source text is static, language in general is dynamic, so while one generation's translation may combine fidelity and fluency, a few generations later, the fluency may have disappeared. A concept like the familiar form in the second person singular (thy and thine) doesn't exist in Hebrew nor in contemporary English - so a locution that combined fidelity and fluency in the era of King James would provide neither today. But we leave it alone in Shakespeare (this above all, to thine own self be true) while we change it in liturgy (All the world shall come to serve Thee/You).

Since my obsession with translation surfaces especially in the context of Torah study (and to a lesser extent, in the context of liturgy), my first impulse is to want the translator(s) to be as faithful as possible to the inherent meaning of the words. The commentary can then suggest how those words might be understood. Even in a Bible edition without commentary, the explanation can be handled in a footnote.

If I owned the printing presses, I would follow the rabbinic PaRDeS tradition. Pardes, as a word, is translated orchard, but as an acronym it encapsulates p'shat, remez, drash, and sod. In this updated PaRDeS approach, the p'shat is the simple translation, remez is the context, drash is the interpretive explanation, and sod (for which the p'shat is secret) is the lesson to be derived. In such a case, the p'shat would be achim. The translator's "reading," like partners or comrades, would be the remez. The back story - Simeon and Levi's actions in defense of their sister - would be the drash, interpreting why Jacob has paired these two sons in this way. The sod here would be contained not in the word achim itself, but in its amplification as their mutual commitment to violence.

But I don't own the printing presses, and I continue to brood about the variations on the achim theme: partners, comrades, a pair. They all seem to suggest that brothers (at least these brothers) have a bond beyond common parentage. As a corollary, we find words like brotherhood and fraternity (from the Latin frater, brother) that extend a brotherly bond to closely linked men without common parentage. It's interesting that when the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods changed its name to Men of Reform Judaism, it left the name of its magazine unchanged: Achim. Brothers. When we sing Hinei ma tov u ma na'im shevet achim gam yachad, we think, or at least I think, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. Think, too, about Schiller's Ode to Joy, typically sung to Beethoven's music. Wouldn't you translate Alle Menschen werden Brüder as All men become brothers?

No, if you're part of the gender-sensitive Reform movement, you'd probably translate it as All people become siblings. But that's a blog post for another day.

We Welcome the Month of Nisan

2010-03-16T19:52:54Z

by Phyllis Sommer
Originally posted on Ima on (and off) the Bima

The time is upon us
for freedom...
for freeing
ourselves
from the bondage
of slavery
of winter

spring comes
and we break free

Nisan comes and it's like the world opens up.

The waters part
the world renews.

The new moon of Nisan is only 15 days from the moment of the Exodus...it takes only a few moments for freedom to come, but a lifetime to truly believe in it.

Experience the Exodus as you've never experienced it before - in every generation, we should feel as though we personally went forth from Egypt. If I had been there, I'm sure I would have tweeted it - http://twitter.com/TweetTheExodus - it will be amazing.

Definitions II

2010-03-16T18:12:02Z

by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)

One should never occupy oneself with the legends and midrashim relating to the messianic age, and should not consider them as central beliefs, as they foster neither love of nor obedience to God; likewise one must not calculate the end - as our sages said, "accursed be those who calculate the end." One must simply wait and believe... -Rambam (Maimonides) Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings 12:2

Because of its commitment to the state of Israel, and to having that state function as a modern, democratic, Jewish state, Orthodox Zionism was from the beginning viewed positively by many "secular" Israelis. While these Orthodox aroused opposition and resentment sometimes by their insistence on public observance of religious strictures (no El Al planes on Shabbat, no pork...), they were also respected as loyal, constructive citizens who were generally moderate in their Orthodoxy (witness the Orthodox kibbutz movement), and who shouldered their full share and even more than their share of the sacrifices needed to build the country. Indeed, since the beginning of Zionism, the stridency of the polemic between the different strands of Orthodoxy (pro- and anti-Zionist) has been greater than that between the Orthodox and secular wings of Zionism.

The problem is that for the past two thousand years, it seems that whenever we have messed with messianism, the outcome has not been good. Jesus, Bar Kochba, Shabbetei Zevi, enlightenment, socialism - whenever we (or some of us) became convinced that a particular leader, or policy, or movement had the power to redeem us, redemption only ended up receding farther into the future, and there was a lot of collateral damage. So while it is very inspiring to recite the standard Orthodox Zionist blessing for the state that refers to Israel as "the first flowering of our redemption," there is also a potential danger in believing that we live in messianic times. Thus, when the amazing victory of 1967 gave apparent support to the belief that we could hear the messiah's footsteps, it intensified the old and powerful dilemma that attends outbreaks of messianic fever: what means are justified to move the process along?

And so today, Orthodox Zionism is itself subdivided into different strands: There are those who are sure they have figured out God's plan, and who know that we are experiencing the redemption. Our having attained sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel is clearly proof that that is what God wants - and thus we are forbidden to partition it, regardless of what realpolitik or common sense or the world might argue. This view characterizes the supporters of the settlement of the territories occupied in 1967, and in its extreme form has led to various extreme manifestations such as the Jewish terrorists of the mid 80s, and Yigal Amir's assassination of Yitzchak Rabin.

On the other hand there are the moderates, trying to continue the tradition of seeking a synthesis between Orthodoxy and the complex, modern reality of life in a democracy, in some kind of harmony with the world, trying to advance redemption not by reclaiming all the land of the biblical promise, but by trying to build a sustainable state that manifests Jewish moral values.

Meanwhile both of these strands of Orthodox Zionism are further subdivided by halachic issues having little to do with messianism - they continue to struggle to define their relationship to cardinal issues of the modern world such as the place of women, the treatment of homosexuals, and nature of rabbinic authority, the degree of openness to western culture in general. Every community, every family, indeed every individual represents a different set of compromises. Not to mention the constant traffic of people changing, moving from one community or one ideology to another.

Indeed, they really are not all the same.

Welcoming Rosh Chodesh with Women of the Wall

2010-03-16T15:22:54Z

by Liz Piper-Goldberg
Legislative Assistant, RAC

(Originally published on RACblog)

"Wondrous God, in ancient days You led our people from bondage to freedom; redeem us now out of our exile from one another, making all Israel one united people!"
-From the liturgy for Rosh Chodesh

Tomorrow is Rosh Chodesh Nisan, the beginning of the Hebrew month of Nisan. Rosh Chodesh, which literally means "head of the month," is the holiday that marks the beginning of each month in the Jewish calendar.

Many communities meet to pray and celebrate Rosh Chodesh together each month. One such group is the Women of the Wall, a progressive prayer group that meets at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem. You may have been following our coverage of the recent events surrounding the Women of the Wall. In late 2009 Nofrat Frenkel was arrested for wearing a prayer shawl, or tallit, while praying at the Wall, and in January 2010, Anat Hoffman, who serves as director of the Israel Religious Action Center and leader of Women of the Wall, was interrogated and fingerprinted due to the actions of this group.

Below the jump, you can find more information on the Jewish rituals associated with Rosh Chodesh, prayer resources to hold your own Rosh Chodesh service, and ways that you can get involved in supporting the Women of the Wall. If you're on Twitter, follow @womenofthewall and #kotelwomen tomorrow to track their t'filot in Jerusalem!

Are you holding your own Rosh Chodesh Nisan event in solidarity with Women of the Wall? If so, email a description and photos to me and media@womenofthewall.org.il!

Each Jewish month begins at the time of the new moon. In ancient times, after the new moon was sighted, someone would go to the top of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem with a long pole of wood. He would set the end of his pole on fire and wave it around until he could see someone on another hilltop waving his own pole. The second person waved his pole until he could see a third person waving, and so on until the message reached Babylonia.

In contemporary practice, Rosh Chodesh celebrations begin the Shabbat before the new month, with the recitation of birkat ha-chodesh at the conclusion of the Torah reading. Birkat ha-chodesh is a special prayer that articulates our hopes for the month to come, from peace and prosperity to success in business, good health, and piety. The prayer includes an announcement of the day or days on which Rosh Chodesh will fall, and the name of the month that is about to start. During t'filot on the actual first day of the new month, a special prayer, ya'leh v'yavo, is inserted into the Amidah. Hallel, pslams of praise, are also recited during a Rosh Chodesh service.

Here, you can access prayer resources and readings for Rosh Chodesh.

The month of Nisan is characterized by the holiday of Passover, which is deeply associated with the ideal of freedom. When we join together in announcing, blessing, and celebrating each new month, we stand with the Women of the Wall and all those working for religious freedom and civil equality in Israel. Religious pluralism is at risk in Israel, and the Reform Movement has taken a central role in speaking out in support of the Women of the Wall. Our message is clear: The Kotel belongs not just to one individual, group, or denomination but to all Jews.

From this month to the next, you can take a stand. It's not too late to hold a short service for Rosh Chodesh Nisan, or to plan an event for the next Jewish month, Iyyar, which will begin on April 14. For resources, educational programming, and ways you can get involved, visit http://urj.org/israel/wow/ regularly, or contact me by email or 202.387.2800.

URJ On the Ground in Haiti

2010-03-15T21:54:26Z

by Naomi Abelson
Social Action Specialist, URJ

In the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of rain on my window, which is typical this time of year in Port-au-Prince. From the comfort of my warm bed, the sound of the rain on the window was pleasant and soothing. That is, until I woke up and remembered where I was and that all around me there lay thousands of families sleeping in tents that are ill-equipped to provide adequate shelter from rain, winds and floods sure to sweep through the region during the hurricane season.

These tent cities have emerged all across Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area. They have sprung up in every inch of space available - empty lots, front lawns, sidewalks, parks and even in the streets blocking traffic. In some cases, these tent cities are well-funded. When driving through the city, you may notice an organized grid of strong, durable tents and sanitation systems, organized by NGOs (including UNICEF, UN Foundation or Feed the Children) through funds received by individual donors or organizations like ours. However, more often what you see when driving through the city is a series of make-shift tents, cobbled together with rope and sticks, tarps and bed sheets.

Upon a closer glance, you will see "regular" street life continuing as best it can in these horrific conditions. Groups of women sit together in the hot sun, cooking rice and beans and washing clothing. Children pour soapy water over their heads as they stand in buckets, bathing. A group of men huddle together to watch a soccer match on a small tv set that has been setup on the sidewalk. Or, an improvised "storefront," selling three mangoes, a pair of flip-flops or a couple bottles of Coke - whatever items the owner may have in excess.

In Port-au-Prince, we walked through one of these tent cities. Criss-crossing our way among family tents, we played with the children and heard stories from survivors. One man, trained as a carpenter, can't find work to support his family. Another was turned away from rescue efforts immediately following the earthquake, despite his disaster relief training (he even showed us a certificate to prove his training). A mother told us that for safety reasons, she won't allow her children to leave the immediate area surrounding their tent. And many spoke of family members lost or misplaced in the chaos that is today's Port-au-Prince.

One woman spoke of the rain we had the night before. She pointed to her family's tent and explained that during the night, the roof tarp leaked and the ground became so damp and muddy that the children wouldn't lie down. Instead, her family stood all night.

These are only some of the tragic stories I heard and the horrific conditions I witnessed. I went to Haiti on behalf of the Union for Reform Judaism to conduct a needs-assessment and identify how we can best provide aide. But when there are so many needs, so many lives lost and such grave poverty, where do we even begin?

To date, the Union for Reform Judaism has raised more than $1.17 million. These funds are being allocated to short-term emergency recovery and long-term rebuilding efforts to construct safe and secure family homes, reopen schools, create employment opportunities and provide much-needed social and medical services. I am honored to be part of a community that is taking serious action and truly making a difference. Learn more about the Union's efforts and how you can help by visiting our website.

See more photos:

Nothing New Under the Sun

2010-03-15T15:29:31Z

by Marge Eiseman

I just read the entire "Percy Jackson & The Olympians" series - marveling at Rick Riordan's casual incorporation of ancient Greek mythology into modern life. The whole notion of "Western Civilization" is tracking the energy and ideas of this culture as it has moved to stay with any time period's most powerful nation in the world. I'm tickled to think that Mount Olympus is connected to New York, and the underworld to Los Angeles, we can blame the Bermuda Triangle on the Sea of Monsters!

The Dalai Lama is aging, and his voice isn't as strong as it used to be. Interestingly, he begins sentences strong, and then fades. The inaudible part is remarkably easy to fill in, because his teachings have completely permeated Western society. The most challenging idea was "If you can fix something, do it. If not, forget about it. (This only applies if it's yours to fix in the first place.)" Imagine living so confidently that there is no regret and no worry, no fretting over the next right step, just seeing what is yours to do and doing it.

When leading services last Shabbat in Sterling, IL, I asked the folks what they would say if they could have a "face-to-face" with God, like Moses had. Some would challenge God, and ask why there ever had to be a child in a wheelchair, unable to play; another woman wanted to just listen. At the end of services, Margo said, "I love your stories...you tell them so I understand and relate them to my life, and then I can remember them!"

I think I'm finally getting it - this is how life is. Things happen, we respond. Last Wednesday night, I met a friend of a friend - we spoke about children's literature and what he was reading to his precocious 5-year-old daughter and his wife's PhD work, and their younger child's emerging language - and I awoke today to find out that he will never see his wife and two young children again. Inexplicably, they were all killed in a car accident over the weekend. "He is an atheist, not into that spiritual stuff," our mutual friend said. "What kind of support group can we find?"

He doesn't need a support group (yet) -- he needs friends and family and people who will just keep moving him through the next few moments, days, eventually, weeks, months and years.

I've been thinking about mystery (a good fog will make that easier)...and about how it doesn't matter if he believes in spiritual stuff or science. I think it is obvious to all that the pattern is "everything that is born, lives a lifetime and dies" and none of us knows that length of time that we will live. The quality of our lives, the love and interactions and good (and bad) that we do becomes the memories that linger, the echoes of our having been alive.

The thing about believing or being an atheist, is that those are concepts of the head, while the response to losing one's whole family in a senseless car accident is all about heart. He gets love, right?

I grabbed the song, "Bitter or Better" by Jana Stanfield, as one of my lifelines at the beginning of my journey after Baki's death. The message of the song is "bitter or better, the choice is up to you" and sometimes, it was a conscious thought that accompanied every breath.

This guy is in unimaginable pain right now -- maybe shock still -- and will most likely spend the rest of his life trying to get to some new "normal". One doesn't get over this, one only gets through it, and if well-supported, maybe learns to integrate this experience into his own life story and work.

Notice NONE of this answer depends on God or belief. Just that since we're still alive, we have to keep living, doing the best we can to make sure that when we DO die, the echoes that live on as memories in the hearts and minds of others will be positive and loving.

King Solomon was right after all - there's nothing new under the sun. We just find the story we need to tell at the right moment, and hear it in new ways when we're ready.

Davar Acher: Still Waiting to Hear God's Call

2010-03-15T14:57:31Z

by Richard A. Siegel
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Rabbi Rapport ends his d'var Torah by noting the title of the book and the parashah are taken from the opening word, vayikra, "and [God] called," which he interprets to mean that "God calls us to holiness, to a life of meaning, to a path of harmony."

This is a valiant attempt to redeem Leviticus for the modern reader. But I can't help thinking that if the central message is the search for holiness, surely it could have been delivered more poetically, more invitingly, more . . . spiritually. Should not God's call to us to find holiness in life be rendered in words flowing with holiness and piercing immediacy themselves?

The parashah does begin with promise, for a manual supposedly devoted to the spiritual ascendance of the soul: "And God called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying: 'Speak to the Israelite people, and say to them . . .' " What are these words to be? Will they be tender and gentle, soothing the feverish soul that feels lost in the world? Will they be powerful, lifting in their force the psychic burdens that stoop our shoulders? Will they be provocative, charging our minds with thoughts that lead to the cessation of thought? Will they be seductive, grabbing us by the heart and hurtling us into transcendence?

No! None of the above. The very next words in the text, which are to reveal the purpose of our calling, are instead stultifying and prosaic--like the first line of a recipe--and obsessed with irrelevant minutia. "When any of you presents an offering of cattle to God, you shall choose your offering from the herd or the flock . . ." We can seek deeper meanings in this, but we cannot really believe that a spiritual seeker who picks up this book will easily find wisdom in it.

Richard A. Siegel is director of the School of Jewish Communal Service at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, California.

D'var Torah: Learning to Love Leviticus

2010-03-15T14:32:49Z

by Joe Rooks Rapport
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Reform Voices of Torah)

Genesis is easy to love: its soaring narratives, its rich poetics, the family dramas whose lessons are as old as they are new. Exodus tells the tales of the beginnings of our people. It retains much of the beauty of the Genesis narratives and it includes all the drama of our journey from slavery to freedom.

Very little "happens" in Leviticus. The whole book takes place in one month, the first month of the second year of the Exodus, and it all occurs at or around Mount Sinai. The few narrative elements are fragmentary and even these are usually provided simply for the explanation of some particular custom or law.

"A frequently encountered reaction to the book is the desire to get on to the book of Numbers--which at least has some intriguing narratives such as Moses' sin and punishment, the faint-heartedness of the spies, and Balaam's reversed prophecies" (Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses [New York: Schocken Books Inc., 1990], p. 498).

In other words, if it serves no other purpose, Leviticus makes Numbers seem interesting!

Leviticus is, by all accounts, "an acquired taste" filled as she is with complex laws of purity and sacrifice. Leviticus is an ode to rite and ritual in an age when tradition itself is often ignored and even denigrated. And yet, for the careful eye and the willing heart there is much to be learned within her pages.

Leviticus has been called the heart of the Torah because of its placement at the center of the text and for its central locale, which is set at Sinai. But on a deeper level, Leviticus is truly the heart of the Torah because her central message is the search for holiness, which is at the heart of our desire to read the Torah and to live a life that is guided by its teachings.

Learning to love Leviticus has been, for me, a lifetime in the making, but join me on this journey for these next few weeks and together we may find some holiness waiting around the corner for us to share.

Logic and Analogic

One of the keys to loving Leviticus is to accept her on her own terms; to read the text as it was intended to be read and not through the filter of our own modern eyes.

The great anthropologist, Mary Douglas (Leviticus as Literature, [Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999], pp. 20-21), argues that Levitical thinking is "analogical" as opposed to the analytical Western model of thought. Analogical thinking is not a more primitive analysis of the world in which we live, but something wholly apart from it. Leviticus presents a reality conceived by a system of connections and disconnections, what fits and what is unfit.

It is a complex concept, but at its core, what Douglas means by analogical thinking is quite simple. Imagine a young child who asks, with tear stained cheeks, why her grandmother had to die. In the logical world in which we have been raised, an appropriate answer to her question might be: "Well, sweetheart . . . Bubbie had pneumonia, an infection in her lungs. This made it very difficult for her to breathe and you know how important breathing is. The doctors gave her medicine to try to make her better, but it didn't help and so she passed on." This is a logical answer, in the sense that it explains what happened in rational terms. But, at times such as these, I think we can recognize that neither the question asked nor the answer given truly addresses the reality of what has happened in their lives.

An analogical response to the same question might begin: "Everybody dies. It says in the Bible: 'generations come and generations go' (Ecclesiastes 1:4). I remember when my bubbie died, I felt sad too." And then family stories might be told and shared until, with no recourse to logic or reason, the hurt has begun to heal in some small way. While such a response may not explain the phenomenon in a rational sense, it sets it in a context that provides comfort and order and justice. It addresses the real questions beneath the question. "Did I do something wrong? If I had loved her more would she still be here? How is it fair that someone we love can no longer be with us?" By placing our loss in a context, by understanding our lives as a part of something greater than ourselves, we find answers that satisfy more than facts or proofs.

This is the "logic" of Leviticus. To understand our world, we must find our place within it. To understand our lives, we must see them as part of a greater whole. To understand our relationship with God, we must understand, somewhat, the nature of God's holiness and how to bring holiness into our own lives as well.

Vayikra: A Beginning

While these ancient texts of ritual cleanliness, animal sacrifice, priestly rite, dietary laws, and disease may obscure these basic truths from our modern eyes, still in all, there are lessons buried beneath them that can speak to us as well.

The opening word of Leviticus that gives the book and this first parashah its name is vayikra, which means, "and [God] called." God calls us from the pages of Leviticus. God calls us to holiness, to a life of meaning, to a path of harmony. God calls us to a sense of connectedness to a world within ourselves, within our families, and within all life upon this planet. Learning to love Leviticus is a lesson in learning to listen to God's call.

Rabbi Joe Rooks Rapport is co-senior rabbi with his wife Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks at The Temple, Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom, in Louisville, Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. from Washington University in 1988 and has taught Bible and Jewish thought for two decades at Bellarmine University in Lousiville.

Let All Who are Hungry Come and Eat

2010-03-11T16:14:40Z

by David Goodman
Legislative Assistant, RAC

(Originally published on RACblog)

Believe it or not, the impetus for the creation of the National School Lunch Program in 1946 was that malnourishment was rendering large numbers of young men ineligible to join the military. When President Truman signed the 1946 National School Lunch Act, the preface said that the creation of the program was a "measure of national security, to safeguard the health and well-being of the Nation's children." (Can you imagine anyone saying that today?). Today, Child Nutrition Programs are a crucial financial safety net for over 31 million students who receive breakfast, lunch, and an afterschool snack during the school year, as well as during the summer. These programs all fall under the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill, which is coming before Congress this year to be reviewed and refunded.

The depth and breadth of hunger in the United States can be easily conveyed by statistics: 17.6 million food insecure households, making up 49.1 million people. A record of nearly 38 million people relied on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, formerly known as food stamps, at last count. These numbers are even starker for children: the food insecurity rate for households with children is nearly double the overall average. Feeding America, which operates more than 200 food banks and soup kitchens across the country, found that 38% of those they served were children under age 18, and four out of five food insecure families served have children under 18.

Child nutrition programs ease the burden on these families by assuring children at least one healthy meal a day. But these are more than nutrition programs: Studies show that school meals have a positive effect not only on hunger but also on classroom behavior, test scores and school attendance. School meals also support better nutrition, and address the problem of childhood obesity and related health problems. They are a multi-front anti-poverty tool, and must be robustly re-funded when Congress reauthorizes them this year.

Urge your Members of Congress to support increased funding for child nutrition programs by sending an e-mail through the RAC's Chai impact action center, or host a Child Nutrition Seder to raise awareness about childhood hunger in America. As we say each year in the Seder, "Let all who are hungry come and eat!"