Thursday, March 28, 2013

Shabbat-O-Gram March 29



  


Click here for an explanation of this Kabbalistic Omer Counting Calendar 

 Source: Velveteen Rabbi blog.  

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Last Half of Passover:
  
Passover Services

Join us for services on Friday night at 7:30 and again on Shabbat morning. we will be in the lobby for both services (in those comfy blue chairs).  On the intermediate Shabbat of the festival, it's customary to read from the Song of Songs, that exquisite bit of biblical erotica.  Here's a background article about the Song and why we read it this week.  

Pesach concludes on Monday and Tuesday mornings with festival services at 9:30 AM(Yizkor's on Tuesday).  Because some of our regulars are away for the holiday, please make a special effort to attend on either or both of these mornings!  It is so appreciated!  There is no 7:30 minyan on those two days.


Special Mitzvah for a Congregant

I'm delighted at the response I received recently when I asked for some help in finding odd jobs for a young congregant struggling to meet rent expenses.  I have one more request, this time on behalf of a congregant in his 60s who recently was required to vacate his apartment through no fault of his own.  Because he is living alone and on a fixed income, housing options are limited.  If anyone in the congregation has a mother-in-law suite, vacant carriage house or something similar that could be rented for below market value, that would be ideal.  I know this person very well and can vouch for his trustworthiness.

A few years ago, during the worst of the economic collapse, I used this space to help match congregants with job opportunities and we also ran a number of seminars.  We serve congregants in need of everything from rides to friendly visitors to baby sitters to shiva meals to hurricane relief.  That's what a congregation does for one another and for its community.  That's what happened once again this week as TBE congregants led a Seder at Atria.  See the photo below and, in the spirit of the holiday, click here for our 2013 Passover album, including our Interfaith Seder and Religious School activity day.  


     

See also Aaron Patashnik's Bar Mitzvah d'var Torah from last Shabbat, and the booklet of source materials from our Interfaith Seder, including quotes from Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lau Tzu, the Quran, the New Testament and of course, many Jewish sources.  And click here for the study packet on whether it's OK to eat legumes on Passover ("Give Peas a Chance"). It's the most thorough explanation of the issues that you will find. You can read why some of the great rabbis ages gone by thought that avoiding lentils on Passover was "idiotic."  And yet the custom has persisted for 700 years.  And now, the main reason to keep it is that it has been around for 700 years! For some, with a plate full of rice, Passover would simply not be Passover anymore.  

But old traditions sometimes change, as they discussed this week at the Supreme Court...

DOMA and Beyond



In light of yesterday's gripping Supreme Court arguments, I share once again the column I wrote when New York State legalized gay marriage; I make the case for gay marriage as the right Jewish moral choice, even for those who might have issues with homosexuality.  While the article focuses on equal protection within the state, the argument can extend to federal protections as well, as they were doing yesterday at the Supreme Court.


"All Who Are Hungry, Come and Eat" Homelessness in Stamford

Last week I had the chance to meet Jason Shaplan, CEO of Inspirica, which used to be known as St. Lukes Lifeworks.  This non-denominational agency has been doing fabulous work and I saw it in action at their remodeled Franklin St. headquarters. Homelessness is up by 57% in suburban and rural areas over the past three years.  In 2011, more than 16,000 people used Connecticut's homeless shelters, including 2,700 children.  The good news is that Inspirica is doing something about it, helping to break the cycle of poverty, joblessness and homelessness in significant ways.  I plan to bring Jason here in the near future, but in the meantime, go on their website to see how you can volunteer, and let me know how you might wish to organize a group from TBE to volunteer together. 

And speaking of volunteering, thank you to all who contributed 200 bags to the JFS Passover food drive.


Obama's Visit and Anne Frank's Chestnut Tree

It's been a week since President Obama's return from Israel, but it will not soon be forgotten - both the images and the words.   Images like the welcome at the airporthis being serenaded by children singing "Tomorrow" in Hebrew, English and Arabicthe address to Israeli students in Jerusalem, and last but most certainly not least, the speech at Yad Vashem.

Those words spoken there will have a very long shelf life.  If you have not heard or read the President's speech at Yad Vashem, take a few moments to read it.  Here are a few excerpts:

For here we learn that we are never powerless.  In our lives we always have choices.  To succumb to our worst instincts or to summon the better angels of our nature.  To be indifferent to suffering to wherever it may be, whoever it may be visited upon, or to display the empathy that is at the core of our humanity.  We have the choice to acquiesce to evil or make real our solemn vow -- "never again."  We have the choice to ignore what happens to others, or to act on behalf of others and to continually examine in ourselves whatever dark places there may be that might lead to such actions or inactions.  This is our obligation -- not simply to bear witness, but to act....

...Here we pray that we all can be better; that we can all grow, like the sapling near the Children's Memorial -- a sapling from a chestnut tree that Anne Frank could see from her window.  The last time she described it in her diary, she wrote: "Our chestnut tree is in full bloom.  It's covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year."  That's a reminder of who we can be.  But we have to work for it.  We have to work for it here in Israel.  We have to work for it in America.  We have to work for it around the world -- to tend the light and the brightness as opposed to our worst instincts.

So may God bless the memory of the millions.  May their souls be bound up in the bond of eternal life.  And may each spring bring a full bloom even more beautiful than the last. 

The story of Anne Frank's chestnut tree is inspiring.  The tree outside her old house in Amsterdam  died recently, but its saplings were harvested and are being planted at sites all over the world, among them 11 sites in the US.  The venues are deeply symbolic; one sapling that will be planted just outside Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., where African American students braved angry mobs in the fall of 1957 to integrate the school.  Boston Common is another site, where American aspirations for liberty first bore fruit.

The closest site to us is at the Liberty Park 9/11 Memorial.  But we at TBE have our own living memorial.  The Holocaust memorial garden planted just outside our sanctuary windows by a group of 7th graders a half dozen years ago is once again beginning to bloom.  The kids in the photo below are now freshmen in college, but this garden is a reminder of their lasting contribution to the memory of the Holocaust and of their dedication to their synagogue. (Can you recognize who they are? See more photos here). It should be in full flower just in time for the community Yom HaShoah program here next weekend.
  

   

Minyan Mastery
What does the word "daven" mean?  Why do we need ten for a minyan?  With our current emphasis on building up our morning minyan,  here is a link to our "Minyan Mastery" feature, with all the minyan material that's fit to print.

Shabbat Shalom!  A Sweet Pesach!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Omer Calendar

click below to enlarge

See how counting the Omer can become a mindfulness practice.  See also the description below from the Velveteen Rabbi.blog:

The kabbalists of Jewish tradition developed the idea that these seven weeks are a special time for focusing on a set of seven sefirot, seven divine qualities which we share with God: lovingkindness, boundaried strength, harmony and balance, endurance, humility, roots / foundation, and nobility / sovereignty.
I like to think of these qualities as facets of a gem, and during each week of the Omer, a different facet is held up to the light. Or perhaps, lenses / facets of a prism. Shine white light through a prism, and the seven colors of the rainbow emerge. Shine divinity through the prism of these seven weeks, and these seven qualities come into new focus.
And because there are seven days in each week, we rotate through the seven qualities each week, too.
Today is the day of chesed she'b'chesed, lovingkindness within lovingkindness. Abiding love, abounding love, lovingkindness and compassion which overflows our hearts and spills into the world around us. May we embody this quality as we move through the world today, on this first step toward the wonder of the revelation at Sinai.

If you're looking for Omer-counting resources, here are four wonderful books for counting the Omer: one by Shifrah Tobacman, one by Rabbi Min Kantrowitz, one by Rabbi Jill Hammer, and one by Rabbi Yael Levy. Rabbi Levy is at Mishkan Shalom, and each year she sends out daily Omer teachings via email and Facebook -- you can learn more, and sign up, here: Count the Omer with Us from Passover to Shavuot. And the spiraling map of the Omer count which illustrates this post was adapted from the one I found here: Counting of the Omer | Temple B'nai Abraham -- but I added the color-coding and the indications of which qualities are ascendant on each day. Here's a printable pdf if you want it: ColorfulOmerChart[pdf]

Source: Velveteen Rabbi blog

Monday, March 25, 2013

Wishing You a Crummy Pesach


  
Click here for photos from our Religious School Passover 
programs and our Interfaith Seder

Dreaming of a "white" Pesach?  With snow in the forecast, we might get that tonight. How about a crummy one? We get that every year.  "Crummy," as in crumb-filled, that is.
    
You can't escape it.  The crumbs are everywhere.  It demands excessive preparation and obsessive preoccupation.  This is a holiday that fills our experience, not just for a week, but for weeks prior and for days in its wake.

The message of Passover is itself very simple: freedom is good, freedom means responsibility, freedom means compassion for those who are less free, and freedom means exploring constantly just how free we really are.  Add to this the idea that the Jewish people, gathered in their homes on this night for thousands of years, have adapted this universal message to our unique story, one of heroic triumph over darkness and despair; and how each family has crafted its own particular version of the story for this annual re-enactment.  The goal is that all of us, especially the children, consider ourselves to have escaped Egypt in order to teach the message to the next generation, and to the world.
    
In this multimedia age, where children can't expect to learn a lesson unless it is projected to them in 3-D, the age-old teaching technique of Passover remains impressive.  The secret is the crumbs.  They are everywhere.  Like those frogs in Pharaoh's bed, Matzah crumbs infest our lives.  It does no good to sweep them up, because two minutes later, they are there again.  Wherever we turn, we are reminded of the message.

Matzah is the bread of poverty, slave food, part of the terrible night when the angel of death hovered so near.  It is the food of the past, reminding us of our roots in earliest civilization, a time when farmers didn't know yet how to make bread rise.  Matzah is also the bread of curiosity and discovery.  It prompts the questions, and in the case of the afikomen, it lies at the end of the search for answers.  Sometimes Matzah is hidden or covered, sometimes it is revealed.  It is the food of mystery, yet it is as simple as a food can get, completely unadorned and unbloated. 

The fact that these crumbs transform our lives for these eight days drives home the message of Passover long after the afikomen has been digested.  Speaking of which, even digestion itself changes on Passover (if you haven't noticed this, all power to you), and the usage of toothpicks skyrockets. 

As if Matzah crumbs at home weren't obtrusive enough, how about in the office or at school.  For fifty one weeks of the year, it is reasonably possible to keep one's Jewishness a relatively private matter, should we want to.  But not on Passover, when the company vacuum cleaner finds its way more than once into our offices.  The act of bringing a Matzah sandwich to public school on this holiday has been formative experience for American Jews for generations. It's hard to get through any meal including Matzah without it becoming the center of attention.  Matzah can be very demanding in that way.  But on the other hand, lunchtime conversation about the meaning of freedom, compassion and responsibility sure beats talking about the weather and the latest episode of "Glee."

So, on behalf of the professional and lay leadership of TBE, as well as the Hammerman family, I wish all of you a healthy and crummy Passover!

President Obama's Reflections at Yad Vashem

Among the many words spoken last week by President Obama in Israel, these poetic, inspiring reflections given at Yad Vashem received relatively little fanfare.  I reprint them here:


Remarks by the President at the Hall of Children, Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem    Jerusalem

THE PRESIDENT:  “Unto them I will give my house and within my walls a memorial and a name…an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”

President Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Chairman Shalev, Rabbi Lau -- thank you for sharing this house, this memorial, with me today.  And thank you to the people of Israel for preserving the names of the millions taken from us, of blessed memory -- names that shall never be forgotten.

This is my second visit to this living memorial.  Since then, I’ve walked among the barbed wire and guard towers of Buchenwald.  Rabbi Lau told me of his time there, and we reminisced about our good friend, Elie Wiesel, and the memories that he shared with me.  I have stood in the old Warsaw ghetto, with survivors who would not go quietly.  But nothing equals the wrenching power of this sacred place, where the totality of the Shoah is told.  We could come here a thousand times, and each time our hearts would break.

For here we see the depravity to which man can sink; the barbarism that unfolds when we begin to see our fellow human beings as somehow less than us, less worthy of dignity and of life.  We see how evil can, for a moment in time, triumph when good people do nothing, and how silence abetted a crime unique in human history.

Here we see their faces and we hear their voices.  We look upon the objects of their lives -- the art that they created, the prayer books that they carried.  We see that even as they had hate etched into their arms, they were not numbers.  They were men and women and children -- so many children -- sent to their deaths because of who they were, how they prayed, or who they loved.

And yet, here, alongside man’s capacity for evil, we also are reminded of man’s capacity for good -- the rescuers, the Righteous Among the Nations who refused to be bystanders.  And in their noble acts of courage, we see how this place, this accounting of horror, is, in the end, a source of hope.
For here we learn that we are never powerless.  In our lives we always have choices.  To succumb to our worst instincts or to summon the better angels of our nature.  To be indifferent to suffering to wherever it may be, whoever it may be visited upon, or to display the empathy that is at the core of our humanity.  We have the choice to acquiesce to evil or make real our solemn vow -- “never again.”  We have the choice to ignore what happens to others, or to act on behalf of others and to continually examine in ourselves whatever dark places there may be that might lead to such actions or inactions.  This is our obligation -- not simply to bear witness, but to act.

For us, in our time, this means confronting bigotry and hatred in all of its forms, racism, especially anti-Semitism.  None of that has a place in the civilized world -- not in the classrooms of children; not in the corridors of power.  And let us never forget the link between the two.  For our sons and daughters are not born to hate, they are taught to hate.  So let us fill their young hearts with the same understanding and compassion that we hope others have for them. 

Here we hope.  Because after you walk through these halls, after you pass through the darkness, there is light -- a glorious view of the Jerusalem Forest, with the sun shining over the historic homeland of the Jewish people; a fulfillment of the prophecy: “you shall live again…upon your own soil.”  Here, on your ancient land, let it be said for all the world to hear:  The State of Israel does not exist because of the Holocaust.  But with the survival of a strong Jewish State of Israel, such a Holocaust will never happen again.

Here we pray that we all can be better; that we can all grow, like the sapling near the Children’s Memorial -- a sapling from a chestnut tree that Anne Frank could see from her window.  The last time she described it in her diary, she wrote: “Our chestnut tree is in full bloom.  It’s covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.”  That’s a reminder of who we can be.  But we have to work for it.  We have to work for it here in Israel.  We have to work for it in America.  We have to work for it around the world -- to tend the light and the brightness as opposed to our worst instincts.

So may God bless the memory of the millions.  May their souls be bound up in the bond of eternal life.  And may each spring bring a full bloom even more beautiful than the last. 


Sunday, March 24, 2013

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Aaron Patashnik on Tzav


You might have guessed from my name that I come from Jewish royalty.  Yes, I am a Kohen.  Of course you would have known that from my name…. No, not Patashnik, as that is Russian slang for a cosmonaut who was cut off from the cord in space and drifted off. I’m talking about my first name-Aaron, who was the head priest all those years ago.

Being a Cohen has many privileges – like having the first aliyah and….and…. actually  … well… that’s about it.  But it also teaches many lessons – including some found in my portion.

For instance, the cohen not only performs the sacrifices, but later on, the next morning, after the sacrifices are completed, he is the one who disposes of the ashes.  In other words, the most important guy in the nation is the one whose job it is to take out the garbage.  Now that’s not something you see the Queen of England do all the time.  But it teaches an important lesson about humility.  Not only did he take out the garbage, but he put on ordinary clothes before doing it.  As the commentary in our humash states, “This ensures that he never forgets his link to the ordinary people who spend their days in mundane” activities.

Humility is something I’ve had to learn as well.  As most of you know, I am very humble – I am more humble then any of you could even dream of being. It is one of my best qualities.

But seriously… I’ve also learned humility from my sport interests.   In baseball, I’ll gladly bunt or hit behind the runner for the good of my team.  In basketball, I take as much pride – maybe even more - in a timely assist as I do in a torrent of three pointers.  It’s the little things that win games, like blocking out for rebounds or tipping a pass or good sportsmanship, like picking up a teammate - or even an opponent when they are down, literally or figuratively.

Let’s go back to the cohen’s clothing for a minute.  When he wasn’t taking out the garbage, the fashions he wore weren’t intended to express humility, but instead the power of ritual.  I can relate to that as well.  For me, designing my own my tallit was something very important.  I’m going to be wearing it for the rest of my life.  It has the Cohen blessing on it and a pattern that I picked and of course, purple, as it is my favorite color.  It turns out that one of the colors worn by the ancient cohanim was – you guessed it… green!  No, purple! 

I’ve always loved purple, even though I never liked Barney… Purple is one color that can be dark or light, exciting or soothing, all in one color.  Sort of like a person.  Maybe it’s sort of like me.  People have many different emotions, and purple expresses them all – the coolness of blue combined with the fire of red. 

My mitzvah project has also helped me to learn some lessons in humility.  I’m collecting donations to raise money towards the Israeli Sports Center for the disabled. The Center helps men and women of all ages to participate in over 20 sports, and have had participants in the Paralympics. If you want to know more about this absolutely amazing organization, you can follow the link to the website that is in my Bar Mitzvah booklet, after Shabbat is over, of course.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Pass-O-Gram


 
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Passover
   
This week's Shabbat-O-Gram is  sponsored by David and Dayna Patashnik 
in honor of Aaron becoming Bar Mitzvah
  
Mazal tov to Aaron Patashnik and his family as he becomes Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat, and to Gail Trell, who will be celebrating her 70th birthday at services Friday evening. We are expecting so many people that the service tonight will be in the sanctuary.  Join us! 

Passover is a time when families come together.  Sometimes, that's not a good thing.  The short film "Passover at the Wellmans" presents one such case.  I previewed it the other day, and then sat with Mark Golub for a Shalom TV panel discussion on the movie.  You can see it this Saturday at 8:00 PM and Sunday afternoon at 3, on Shalom TV, channel 138 on Cablevision.

President Obama's visit to Israel will be much discussed at next week's Seders, no  doubt. "Operation Desert Schmooze," as Jeffrey Goldberg dubbed it, seems to have hit the mark, at least as the Israeli TV commentators have covered it.  The bromance between Barack and Bibi seems to have come to full flower in the bright Jerusalem sun.  The President's speech to Israeli young people today was masterful, showering love on Israelis while also delivering a clear message as to the need for and advantages of peace. Read the transcript and judge for yourself.  Better yet, watch it.  Palestinians should be impressed at how sympathetic this audience was to their needs.

The Fifth Child  

Last weekend was National Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath, and with legislation pending both in Washtington and Hartford, this is most definitely a time to heed Hillel's oft quoted maxim,  "If Not Now, When?" This is a time for all faiths to reflect on the plague of gun violence in our society.  
  
My columns in this week's NY Jewish Week and in Thursday's Stamford Advocate  were based on some reflections I initiated in this month's temple bulletin, on the prospect of having a new "Fifth Child" at our Seders this year.  Also see the Interfaith Seder booklet that I put together for last night's Seder, containing reflections by leaders of many faiths. Click here for photos of the event. See also last week's parsha packet for Gun Violence prevention Sabbath. Also see this EXCELLENT new website exploring Passover themes from Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives: Exodus Conversations. I'll be exploring it more during Passover services this coming week.

Below are some excerpts from the Jewish Week piece:
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I propose that this year we add a Fifth Child, updating a custom used back in the heyday of the Soviet Jewry movement, and more recently as a stand in for Gilad Shalit or those facing debilitating illness.  Now we have a new Fifth Child.  Alongside the one who does not know how to ask, we must now include the one who can't ask, not because she's stuck in a Gulag or Gazan prison, but because he's been killed, right here in America.  This is the child whose inquisitive mind has been stilled forever by the magazines of a maniac's assault rifle, or by the single bullet of a parent's unlocked handgun, or at the hands of an abusive caregiver, or as result of incessant bullying and unremitting cruelty.  

There are far too many Fifth Children out there, and we've allowed that to happen. We have produced a society where child sacrifice is once again in vogue.  That child, though now residing in our cemeteries, deserves a place at this year's table.

In this way, Passover is exceptionally relevant in the wake of Newtown. It points to the anger and violence that we are combating (I wish we could get beyond military terms.) in our society and within our hearts as well.  The current struggle is about firearms for sure, but it's also about our combustible souls.

According to Slate, in the nearly three months from Newtown to March 7, 2,659 Americans were killed by guns. That running tally is incomplete, but it is illustrative, and that tally includes nearly 200 teens and children.  So in the three months since the children died at Newtown, there have been effectively ten more Sandy Hooks in this country. 

And still, Congress hems and haws. 

Military assault weapons and high capacity magazines continue to be freely available in a civilian society where they serve absolutely no good purpose.  Even after Newtown, the best Washington appears able to do is come up with a plan to enhance the system of background checks.  Our reps appear stuck in these narrow straits of Egypt, addicted to our culture of violence, bound to these narrow straits by political arm twisting and pressure lobbying.  It seems as if our representatives are voting, metaphorically, with a gun to their heads.  There is no other way to explain the lack of outrage and moral resolve in preventing future Newtowns and eliminating the tenth plague of gun violence from our society. It has already resulted in the deaths of the first born.  At least Pharaoh had the good sense to stop the plagues then and there.  But not us.  In our homes, movie theaters, city streets and schools, the second and third born are awaiting their turn. 

The sage Hillel famously said, "If not now, when?"  In Congress, prodded by the N.R.A., that rabbinic call to arms (oops) has been transformed into a sullen teenager's "If not now, whenever!"  I have news for everyone: this is the "now" that Hillel was talking about. If large magazines and assault weapons aren't curtailed now, they never will be.  And if they aren't, more children will die - and their blood will be on our cold, dead hands.

I was one of four thousand clergy to sign a letter written by Newtown clergy imploring senators to vote for strong legislation prevention gun violence.  Four thousand! In this country it's hard to get four thousand clergy to agree that the sky is blue, but the cause of ending gun violence mends denominational differences even as it rends families and communities apart. 

For the rest of the article, click here.

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Four Ways to Connect Your Seder to Israel and the Jewish People 

This handy Seder supplement comes to us from the Masorti movement (the Conservative movement in Israel) and Merkaz Olami.  It helps us to incorporate some important current events into our Seders, including the recent election and the Women of the Wall.


 
Resources from the Rabbinical Assembly
This guide is intended as a brief outline of the policies and procedures relevant to the preparation of a kosher for Pesah home.

B'dikat Hameitz: 
The Search for Hameitz
This one-page sheet includes text, instructions, and transliteration for the ritual of searching for hameitz and the destruction of hameitz.

There are few aspects of Jewish observance as complicated as preparing for Passover. This post clarifies the various hameitz-related preparations for Pesah.

SEDER MATCH-UP


With an "early" Passover sneaking up on us quickly, it's easy to be caught off guard regarding Seder preparations.  As in years past, I'd like to compile a list of households with space at the table for guests who might be looking.  If you have room at your table, please indicate how many spaces and for which night(s), whether you can accommodate children and any other information that would be helpful to know.  I would get back to you with names of prospective guests to invite, as the need arises.

PESACH GUIDES AND HAMETZ

Find the complete 2013 Rabbinical Assembly Passover Guide at this link.
Find a Search for Hametz guide with study materials here.
Read about the laws and customs of hametz here.

And Passover services on Tuesday and Wednesday, for the first two days, will be in the sanctuary at 9:30.  On Monday, before the holiday, we'll have a Siyum for the first born at the conclusion of minyan.  And speaking of minyan....

Minyan Mastery
What does the word "daven" mean?  Why do we need ten for a minyan?  With our current emphasis on building up our morning minyan,  here is a link to our "Minyan Mastery" feature, with all the minyan material that's fit to print.

Shabbat Shalom!  A Sweet Pesach!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Interfaith Seder Source Materials



Click here for the booklet of source materials from our Interfaith Seder, including quotes from Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lau Tzu, the Quran, the New Testament and of course, many Jewish sources. Click here for photos of the event.


See also the Exodus Conversations website, where Muslim, Christian and Jewish representatives discuss aspects of the Passover story and Seder ritual.  Click here for my Jewish Week column, "The Fifth Child" and here  for my Stamford Advocate op ed on the Seder and gun violence. 






Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Bloomberg Limits Seder Portions


Bloomberg Limits Seder Portions
NEW YORK—Following his recent ban on soda containers over 16 ounces, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that he now intends to place similar limits on wine and matzo consumption at Passover Seders.
“Everyone knows that Jews struggle with obesity,” the mayor declared at a news conference yesterday at Gracie Mansion, “so why aggravate the problem by drinking four whole cups of wine and eating three large sheets of matzo at a single meal?”
Noting that the Passover foods are a Jewish tradition dating back thousands of years, the mayor said, “That may be so, but look at the health problems they create. You eat all that unleavened bread, and your system is bound to get backed up. It’s no wonder Moses was pleading, ‘Let my people go.’”
Bloomberg added, “No one needs that much wine at a meal, either. And, shamefully, the biggest offender is a Jewish icon—the prophet Elijah. On Seder night, he goes from house to house drinking. Who does he think he is, some frat boy?”
In a surprising display of erudition in Jewish law, the mayor said he was familiar with, and opposed to, the adherence to the strictest requirements encouraged by some Torah sages. “If you intend to adhere to the shiurim of the Chazzon Ish, or even Rabbi Moses Feinstein, take your Seder out of the City,” said a defiant Bloomberg.
He outlined his restrictions as follows:
For the drinking of the four cups – “3.3. oz. will be the maximum permitted under New York City law. You may think 5.3 ounces is a saintly amount to drink for each of your 4 cups, but it is overly burdensome on the NYPD when they have to haul your machmir tuchus off to detox.
For the Eating of Matzoh – “No more than the size of 1/3 of an egg, measured by weight and not volume. You will be subject to citation or arrest if you feel the need to stuff half of a ‘Talmudic’ egg in your mouth and choking on your high halachic standards.”
The Mayor then left the press conference angrily, turning only to add, “Next year in Jerusalem. IF you can fit on the plane!”
Several Jewish organizations have already filed lawsuits in Brooklyn courts, claiming that the mayor’s new proposal infringes upon their religious rights. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwieback, legal counsel for Agooda Israel and author of the book When Abbada Things Happen to Agooda People, said, “Instead of downsizing Seder foods, the mayor should be increasing them, like donating his nuts to make more charoses.”

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

The Fifth Child


(Special to the Jewish Week)

On Passover we read about the Four Children, each of whom approaches the Seder experience from a different angle. We are called upon to explain the Exodus story in the manner most developmentally appropriate for each child.

The Fourth Child is arguably the most challenging one, since that child doesn’t even know how to ask. I propose that this year we add a Fifth Child, updating a custom used back in the heyday of the Soviet Jewry movement, and more recently as a stand-in for Gilad Shalit or those facing debilitating illness. But now we have a new Fifth Child. Alongside the one who does not know how to ask, we must now include the one who can’t ask, not because she’s stuck in a Gulag or Gazan prison, but because she’s been killed, right here in America. This is the child whose inquisitive mind has been stilled forever by the magazines of a maniac’s assault rifle, or by the single bullet of a parent’s unlocked handgun, or at the hands of an abusive caregiver, or as the result of incessant bullying and unremitting cruelty. 

Deeply embedded in the Exodus narrative is a subtext, the idea that Egypt is not merely a place but also a metaphor. Rabbinic wisdom relates the Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, to the term for “tight place,” in the sense of one’s being constricted. In this literary interpretation, the shackles of slavery are a reflection of our own narrow-mindedness. If Egypt is a metaphor, then we are enslaved not to Pharaoh, but to our own prejudice and anger — and to our pervasive culture of violence.

There are far too many Fifth Children out there, and we’ve allowed that to happen. We have produced a society where child sacrifice is once again in vogue. That child, though now residing in our cemeteries, deserves a place at this year’s table.

In this way, Passover is exceptionally relevant in the wake of Newtown. It points to the anger and violence that we are combating (I wish we could get beyond military terms.) in our society and within our hearts as well. The current struggle is about firearms for sure, but it’s also about our combustible souls.

According to Slate, in the nearly three months from Newtown to March 7, guns killed 2,659 Americans. That running tally is incomplete, but it is illustrative, and that tally includes nearly 200 teens and children. So in the three months since the children died at Newtown, there have been effectively ten more Sandy Hooks in this country. 

And still, Congress hems and haws. 

Military assault weapons and high capacity magazines continue to be freely available in a civilian society where they serve absolutely no good purpose. Even after Newtown, the best Washington appears able to do is come up with a plan to enhance the system of background checks. Our reps appear stuck in these narrow straits of Egypt, addicted to our culture of violence, bound to these narrow straits by political arm twisting and pressure lobbying. It seems as if our representatives are voting, metaphorically, with a gun to their heads. There is no other way to explain the lack of outrage and moral resolve in preventing future Newtowns and eliminating the 10th plague of gun violence from our society.

The sage Hillel famously said, “If not now, when?” In Congress, prodded by the NRA, that rabbinic call to arms (oops) has been transformed into a sullen teenager’s “If not now, whenever!” I have news for everyone: this is the “now” that Hillel was talking about. If large magazines and assault weapons aren't curtailed now, they never will be. And if they aren’t, more children will die — and their blood will be on our hands.

I was one of 4,000 clergy to sign a letter written by Newtown clergy imploring senators to vote for strong legislation to prevent gun violence. Four thousand! In this country it’s hard to get 4,000 clergy to agree that the sky is blue, but the cause of ending gun violence mends denominational differences even as it rends families and communities apart.

Ending this plague is the cry of our generation, a moral imperative and a Jewish imperative. It is universal and particularistic.  Before Newtown there was Northridge — the JCC shooting in 1999. As a Jew, I care about all innocent human beings, but I also know that my own people are especially threatened by a gun-running culture that allows, through gun show loopholes, for white supremacists like Buford Furrow Jr. to procure unconscionably lethal weapons without a problem and blast 70 gunshots into a JCC  complex with the intent of killing lots of Jewish kids.
So this Passover, we need to wonder about who is not at the table.  The children of Newtown need a voice. So do the four children of Shirley Chambers, the Chicago mother who lost all four of her children to gun violence. All human life is of equal value. Let all those children now become the Fifth Child at our Seders  all children, everywhere, who have fallen victim to our society’s gun-sanity. They are the child who cannot ask because we have allowed them to be killed on our watch.

We are killing our own children because we are letting them be killed. 

This crucial issue is the real “right to life” movement, for no matter what our beliefs regarding the origin or end of life, everyone agrees that first graders have a right to live.

Together, let us search for a common path that will lead us from Egypt, from the scourge of violence that has plagued us for far too long.

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman is spiritual leader of Temple Beth-El in Stamford, Conn.

Monday, March 18, 2013

TBE Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary: Max Zussman on Vayikra


Shabbat Shalom.

Life is filled with encounters with people, both friends and relatives and total strangers.  Each one has the potential to greatly affect you – to change everything.

When I was 6 or 7 years old, I was hanging out with neighbor Mahesh, who is four years older than me.  So I went over to his house to shoot baskets – it was almost the only time we ever played together.  I was just beginning to get interested in basketball.  So I asked, “What’s your favorite team?” and he said the Boston Celtics.  So I decided, why not, sounds good - and I became a Celtics fan for life.  I watch a lot of games and follow them more closely than any team in any sport.  And if you ask most of my friends, they would tell you right away that I am a h-u-g-e Celtics fan.

Mahesh went his way.  He’s in high school now and I don’t see him much.  We hardly ever played basketball together after that day.  But his influence on me is still very strong.  On a court on one day, one encounter changed my life and my sporting world.

Jewish history is all about how simple encounters, even with strangers, can make a big difference in our lives.  My portion is the first one in the book of Leviticus – Vayikra – which describes the ancient form of religious worship known as sacrifice.  We don’t do sacrifices anymore, but there are still lessons for us to learn.

One lesson is the word sacrifice itself – In Hebrew, it’s KORBAN, which comes from the Hebrew word “Karov” which means “close.”  To give a sacrifice was a way that our ancestors brought themselves closer to God.  But in doing that, they had to take a trip to Jerusalem, which could have taken many days, and on the way, they would have encounters with many different people, including a brief encounter with the priest who took the animal from them at the temple.

It’s similar today – no we don’t sacrifice animals (Don’t worry, Dylan).  But in being part of a synagogue, while we are praying to God, we are also coming closer to other people. On the first day of Hebrew School we meet a new teacher and new madrich,  or teacher’s aide, people that I may not have known that well.  By the end of the year it’s clear that they have made a big difference in our lives.  Mrs. Hammerman was a great teacher this year and made going to Hebrew School a more positive experience.  (The Rabbi did NOT tell me to say that).  It’s encounters like these that help us become who we are.   And it doesn’t just happen in a synagogue of course, it’s everywhere.
      
A few years ago, my family traveled to Guatemala.  It was a very fun trip but along the way, I did see a lot of poor, hungry people on the streets.  In the markets, people would sell you five bracelets for, like, 25 cents.  So I bought a couple of dozen and just gave them to all my friends.  True, we managed to lose almost all of them within a week, but this brief encounter in the market helped these poor people and it made my friends happy. 

For my mitzvah project, I am doing two things.  I’m volunteering my time at Person to Person, where I am helping to sort food, clothes, toys and tools, so that people in need can come and get them.  I’m also donating some of my bar mitzvah money to an organization that my grandma started in Hilton Head, called Backpack Buddies.  This charity provides food over the weekend for disadvantaged children who get free meals at school during the week.

Although I will probably never meet the people who I am helping at Person to Person or Backpack Buddies, I know that I am affecting their lives every bit as much as Mahesh changed mine – maybe even more.

Through acts of kindness like this, the brief encounter that can change a life doesn’t even require you to even be in the same state as the person you help.  But it still can change a life.