In the final Torah portion of the Book of Genesis, Jacob (aka Israel) delivers an ethical will to his children. Jacob's first request was to be returned to his homeland, the Land of Israel when his descendants left Egypt. This isn't the first nor the last instance of our people's connection to the land that God promised Abraham. When we describe the Jewish connection to the modern-day State of Israel, we look back 3000 years to a story like Jacob's. In life and death, our people turn toward Israel.    Over the last 80+ days, we have heard wave after wave of antisemitic rhetoric that tries to displace us or divorce us from our homeland, but our Torah portion this week reminds us of our eternal connection to the Land. Jacob's insistence to return to his birthplace, even in death, reminds me of a classic Israeli song, "I Have No Other Land." The great musician Ehud Manor wrote these words in June of 1982, and it became a hit in 1986. Since then, the song has become an anthem for Jews and … [Read more...]

Dear Temple Emanu-El, In the next few days Marita & I depart for Israel.  For a bit more than a week, we are going to be volunteering our unskilled manual labor doing a variety of things, ranging from picking vegetables and tree-fruit, to wrapping bandages in the hospitals.  We do this because the folks who normally would be harvesting and wrapping are on the front lines with the IDF (or have gone back to Thailand).  We will be meeting with various families of Jewish captives still in Gaza, as well as soldiers, and survivors of the October attacks by Hamas. We hope to 'bear witness', hear their stories, and bring them back to you.  We want to keep the flame of hope alive for our hostages, and to gather our collective strength against this ongoing existential war.  We have been told that the hundreds of letters that we will deliver (which you wrote), and the thousands of dollars that we will donate (that you gave) will be extremely welcome, but no less than our presence representing … [Read more...]

We have come to banish the darkness! These are the opening lyrics to a classic children's song in Israel. In Israel, "Ba'nu Choshech L'garesh" (the Hebrew title) is a classic Chanukah song as ubiquitous as "I have a little dreidel" in the United States. To match the words, when little kids perform this song throughout Israel, they all hold individual candles or flashlights. The lyrics go:   We have come to banish the darkness. In our hands are light and fire. Everyone is a small light. But together, we are tremendously bright.  Flee, darkness! Be gone, night! Flee before the Light!  The lyrics make sense in December. We have the fewest hours of sunlight during this time of year, but daylight will become longer and longer after Chanukah. Yet, we all pick up on the deeper meaning of the song. The darkness in the song is not just the absence of light; rather, it is the presence of evil in our lives. Chanukah commemorates the Maccabean War to drive the evil Assyrian Greeks from the Land of … [Read more...]

As the sun sets this evening, Jews around the world will light the first candle for Chanukah. I write this note to our Temple Emanu-El community, knowing that these days are brutally hard for us as Jews. Our tradition asks us to place our lit menorahs in the front windows of our homes, as a matter of Jewish identity, faith, and pride. But the Talmud acknowledges that in times when it is dangerous to do so, we are permitted to place our menorahs elsewhere in the house; however, we are still commanded to light them. In the Anderson home, our menorah will be placed in our front window to be seen, but I do understand that each one of you will make the choice that is best for you at this time. The role of the rabbi is to speak the truth, but also to put our situation in the grand landscape of Jewish history. Our faith tradition and our history have taught us we will get through these times of unrest through the strength that we find through one another, as well as the promise of better days … [Read more...]

These days continue to be very hard to be a Jew. The war between Israel and Hamas has caused many of our eyes to open up to facts about our American society that are so painful to us because they are hateful. The Israeli captives exchanged for convicted Palestinian terrorists (in a 1:3 ratio) cause us to give profound thanks, while at the same time makes us remember the vast majority of those who are still in Gaza (if they are alive at all). Many of us are politically more engaged now than we have ever been in our lives as we realize that Israel's well-being has now risen to the top of our priority list for any upcoming election.  The Jewish future, as the Israelis claim, is in a state of existential crisis. Our college students are on the front line.  We obsess with the news headlines and coverage.  We actively evaluate each friend and relationship based on whether their actions and words endorse or condemn our right to exist. When times are really tough, our tradition has us look to … [Read more...]