Earlier this week, I was jolted awake from a dead sleep at 1:10 a.m. by the piercing sound of my smoke detector. This was not the annoying beeping sound those detectors make when you burn the salmon on the cast iron skillet, no, this was the most terrifying, loud, screech that ensured that if something were wrong, I would wake up. This sound blasted through the apartment because the fire alarm in my section of the complex was ringing through the halls. As I gathered some things to exit the apartment, I finally got my breath back, and my first thought was, “I hope everyone is okay, let everyone be okay.” I was undoubtedly holding some other feelings at that moment as well, but I was almost relieved that this was my first reaction, because I don’t believe it would have been my first thought a few months back. However, I had recently studied a teaching by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, also known as Reb Zalman, and a founder of the Renewal movement. He suggests that when we hear a … [Read more...]
What’s All This Bowing About?
As a child I remember standing in services looking forward to the chance to bend my knees and bow. It was this exciting change of pace, a time for me to do what the adults were doing. As a teen, I remember seeing how some people bowed and others didn’t and I wondered what was going on — so I went to the rabbi with my question, “What’s all this bowing about?” Maybe you have wondered the same thing. Perhaps you’ve been standing in prayer and suddenly you notice people are bowing and so, you too bow! But you’ve always wondered, why do I bow here and not there? Sometimes it may even look like people are bowing more than others, so who’s doing it “right”? This question of “doing it right,” is an interesting one in prayer, especially in Reform Judaism, where we tend to focus much more on how it makes us feel and less on “is this exactly how we were prescribed and commanded to do it.” As has been codified in our law codes (like the Shulchan Aruch), there are in fact specific moments … [Read more...]