According to our tradition, on this very night thousands of years ago, we Jews received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. With matan torah/the giving of the Torah, came the strategy and the means to create a new type of (aspirational) civilization, one that would change the world forever. …and so tonight, we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot! Jewish communities from around the world will read the Book of Ruth, recite joyous prayers, eat dairy meals, and bring harvest colors into their homes. However, my favorite way to celebrate Shavuot is through Tikun Leyl Shavuot, group study, and learning. Education and study are paramount values in Judaism, for they signify the Jewish view of the world: that through effort and honest intention, progress towards something higher can be achieved. Throughout history, empires have marked their greatness by seeking to erect something permanent for all to see: statues, temples, buildings, plazas. Yet we know, regardless of what the powers of each age insist, that … [Read more...]
The Real Deal
Recently, I was speaking with a friend on the telephone. This friend also happens to be a Temple Emanu-El congregant. When she asked me how I was doing, I told her the truth, “some days are better than others, and some weeks are better than others.” She was surprised at what I said. “Really?” I assured her that this was true. It happens that this week I am doing ok, but there have been other weeks where the time has been rough. I don’t think for a moment that I am unique in this. I know that I am not. My family and I have been (and continue to be) in as strict quarantine as we can manage, for all the right reasons. And that can take its toll. Most of the ‘lows’ that I experience come from missed opportunities and events that time will not give back. All of us are experiencing this in one way or another: Graduations that are absent of anticipated celebration, life-changing trips canceled, simchas delayed, hugging … [Read more...]
Planning for an Unknown Future
In the best of times, we can plan ahead weeks, months, maybe even years in advance. We know that life has its risks, but we do our best to try to account for surprises and volatility. Today, we can’t confidently say what we’ll be doing in a month, or a year from now. Living in such flux, we ought to be able to rely on the certainty of at least a few things: our family, our friends, and Temple Emanu-El to pull us through. The reason we should be able to do this goes back nearly 2000 years. Rabbi Akiva said, “The one who studies Torah in their youth will study Torah in their old age, and the one who had students in their youth will have students in their old age” (Babylonian Talmud Yevamot 62b). What Rabbi Akiva means with this teaching is that whatever is dear to us, whatever we make a habit, will stick with us throughout our life. Scientists know this to be true when it comes to forming and breaking habits. Whether we want to improve our mental health, physical health, or become … [Read more...]
The Memes of 200 CE: Teachings of Pirkei Avot
This may very well be one of the biggest memes of the Jewish world: If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? — Pirkei Avot 1:14 (You can even find this teaching in the entrance hall to Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium!) If you’ve been on social media even a little bit throughout this pandemic, you’ve become well versed in the less holy category of internet “memes” that cover a variety of topics: from making light of a hard situation, to offering inspiration, critique, and sometimes just something completely random to get our minds off of everything else going on in the world. Memes have been floating around the internet well before the pandemic, but I feel like I see them more and more in my newsfeeds. But I’d like to draw our attention to a Jewish text that I’ve always thought had a slight parallel to “meme” culture (but obviously far more holy). The parallel is that the text offers tangible, relatable, and quick teachings for … [Read more...]
Reaching Higher in these Corona Days
For better or worse, there is a certain amount of social (and personal) pressure to better ourselves in these Corona Days, to use the unexpected time to make ourselves better. For some of us, this means learning to play the piano. For others, it means spending quality time with our family. Some of us seek to get in shape, or finally get to those photo albums, or rekindle old friendships. There are many ways to better ourselves, and certainly, the time seems to be conspicuously present, like an unopened gift, waiting for us. One of the ways that we can better ourselves is to make ourselves ethically and morally, even spiritually…more. It is harder to qualify this, but it is possible. The second half of this week’s double Torah portion, Kiddushim, begins with the words: “God spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I am holy, YHVH your God.”(Lev 19:1-2) The Torah portion then goes on giving us a (seemingly) … [Read more...]
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