Raise your hand if you’ve heard the following: On Friday evening, we cover the challah until after we’ve blessed the wine because we don’t want the challah to be embarrassed that it comes second! I bet there are a good many hands in the air right now. Okay, you can put your hand down. For those who have and who haven’t heard that explanation before, most of us have wondered why we cover the challah before we begin our meal. The story of why we cover the challah is a lot like the story about the congregation whose congregants would bow before going up on the bimah. There is an old tale about a synagogue who had a chandelier that was hung too low above the bimah. It was so low that, every time a congregant came up to open the ark or remove a Torah, each person would have to duck to avoid it. Years later, the synagogue was renovated and the chandelier was raised, but people kept ducking — a person would come up for an honor and bow before going up on the bimah. A generation passed and … [Read more...]
Rabbi, why do some people write G-d and others write God?
Across the board from clergy to congregants, you will see a variety of ways that people spell God. My personal practice is to write out the name, G-o-d, God. Although, when I was in the 3rd grade, I remember a teacher took off points from an assignment because I “spelled God’s name incorrectly,” when I wrote G-d. When I asked my rabbi at the time about it, he said that there was no need for me to write G-d, I could write G-o-d, though he didn’t think the elementary school teacher needed to be taking off points for such things! There is no law that prohibits the writing of God’s name in Hebrew or in English. However, there is a law that prohibits the erasure of God’s name in the Hebrew. Deut. 12:3 reads, “Tear down their altars, smash their pillars, put their sacred posts to the fire, and cut down the images of their gods, obliterating their name from that site.” Rashi comments on the obliteration of their names and says that from this text we learn that blotting out God’s name is … [Read more...]
What does a rabbi do?
I spoke to one of my greatest teachers today. She’s about 3 feet tall, she knows all her colors, she loves to draw, and I see her each day at Schiff Preschool. She asked me a question that I’ve been asked dozens of times before, but this time I gave an answer that was totally different. She asked me, “What does a rabbi do?” Immediately, I thought of all the people I get to teach, from our smallest to our tallest. Then, I thought about all the simchas I get to be a part of; how the smiles at baby namings, b’nai mitzvah, weddings, and more, are contagious and bring light to our souls. I thought of a many more things a rabbi gets to do. But in the end, I told my teacher that a rabbi’s job is to make friends. Just like on Chanukah when we add candles to increase the holiness of the moment, when we add friends, when we expand our community, we also bring in holiness. Hillel’s great ruling for Chanukah was to add a candle for each night because as the holiday goes on, each night is … [Read more...]
Modim Anachu Lach, We Give Thanks to You
Today and this weekend, Americans of all stripes will gather around a table for a seder of sorts. While there is not a set hagadah, Thanksgiving is the time that we recount our blessings and our journeys as a collective. A little over a month after the High Holy Days we measure the progress we have made in our commitments for the new year. Thanksgiving is a time to look into the eyes of friends and family and acknowledge that despite the challenges we face, we have much for which to be thankful. Modim anachu lach This past Thursday, a week before Thanksgiving, Rachael and I were gifted the opportunity to be a part of history, the ordination of the 100th Reform rabbis in Israel. Thanks to the generosity of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and donors from Hebrew Union College, we stood in awe of the time and place. With the medieval walls of Jerusalem as our backdrop, we prayed Hatikvah, and watched as the newest rabbis of Israel were ordained. In a country which struggles to find … [Read more...]
Empty of Ego, Filled With God
In the Hasidic text, Birkat Avraham[i], Rabbi Shmuel B. Nachman speaks about the moment of intense despair that some people, at some point feel… a despair that despite your efforts, you have nothing to show for it…not materially, not spiritually, not socially. Rabbi Shmuel claims that this moment can be, not the nadir of spiritual connection to God, but actually a ‘summit cornerstone’ – for it is in the utter despair that we are as closely empty of ego that we will ever get. If we are open to God in those moments, there is more of us for God to fill. Think of a vessel, the more empty it is, the more space there is for something else… which, can be, if we realize that even in our despair we are in a Holy Place, even if we did not know it… truly Kaddosh…sacred. The Jacob narrative in Torah, these next two weeks of parshiot, relay the story of a man (a teen really) who has made tremendous mistakes, horrific errors in judgement, and committed acts of betrayal against his father and … [Read more...]
