Vote!

Rabbi Portnoy came into the office beaming with pride today. She had just seen a photograph of her son voting in today's Israeli elections. After all these years of listening to American Jews opine on Israeli politics, she felt a deep, even if vicarious, sense of involvement and "naches." Her son had told her not to be overly swayed by all the pre-election coverage that augured a strong rightward shift in the Israeli electorate. Watch the votes for Yeish Atid (headed by Yair Lapid) and Yisrael Beiteinu (headed by Avigdor Lieberman). Their split will be the most telling.

Well the polls have closed in Israel and Lapid's party is the big, surprise winner between the two. Netanyahu and Likud have been re-elected to the Prime Minister's office but the rightward lurch has not materialized. Among the breaking stories by Haaretz is this one about Lieberman's conspicuous absence from public view and this one about Lapid's success.

Retelling our Personal Stories - Ellen Agler on Parshat Bo

I am struck in this week’s Torah portion, Bo, by the power of story-telling in our Jewish tradition.  We are reminded that Moses was commanded by God to perpetuate the memory of the exodus from Egypt by retelling the story of the Jews’ successful flight from oppression under Pharoh.  During Passover we put ourselves in the shoes of those who came before us; have a modern day taste of the bitterness of slavery our ancestors endured and celebrate.  Though observance of retelling this ancient Jewish story has changed somewhat over time, we still tell it each year as Moses was commanded.

What is the role of story-telling in modern Jewish temple life?  As the administrator of a large urban congregation I hear many stories from our congregants.  Their stories come from deep places rich with old memories and from more recent experiences.  Listening to stories is profoundly affecting, and these conversations drive decisions that fundamentally affect how we “do business.”

When today’s American Jews who affiliated with well-established temples tell their stories, it has a significant influence on the temple. For example:

·        Individual stories of financial challenges drive temple practices around dues;

·        Meaningful family traditions around b’nai mitzvah impact selection of a date and ritual elements of the ceremony;

·        Volunteers are highlighted as we honor them in the temple publications;

·        Members’ personal stories drive the Just Congregations model for tikkun olam and guide the social justice initiatives our community pursues, and;

·        What is meaningful to members about their affiliation guides the temple’s strategic plan.

 

Personal stories shared by our members are of central importance and, as they are retold, become a part of the fabric of how organizational aspects of temple life are “observed” today.

Yes, the temple business must run smoothly.  There are budgets to meet and staff to supervise. Members expect there to be air conditioning when it is hot outside and heat when it is cold.  Lights should come on when it is dark and the sound system in the sanctuary project words and music from the bimah clearly and with lovely tones.  When all of that is in place and working well, we are happy.  But, a well-run building and balanced budget alone do not sustain a temple community.

This week’s Parasha leads us to ponder the central role story-telling plays in Jewish life. Moses carried forward the story of the Jews’ exodus from Egypt for succeeding generations. It remains as a fundamental Jewish observance even today.  It reminds me that we are doing our jobs as temple leaders best when we respond to the modern day needs of our members as they are communicated through the stories they tell.

Ellen Agler is the Executive Director of Temple Sinai, Washington, DC

What's In a Name? (by Cantor Robins)

What's in a Name?

Parashat Vaera by Cantor Rebecca Robins, Director of Congregational Learning

“Everyone calls me Mr. Goldberg, but you can call me Robert.”

Most of us have had an experience like this at some point in our lives.  Whether the speaker or hearer of the message, whether we found ourselves being called something other than usual by our intent or by the evolution of a relationship, whether we called someone the right name (or the wrong one), this experience can resonate with each of us.

Perhaps you have experienced the sheer joy that comes from someone giving you an affectionate nickname, or the comfort that comes from addressing someone less formally or more formally than you had anticipated.  William Shakespeare may have asked “what’s in a name,” but in this week’s Torah portion we get a bit of insight into the answer.

In the opening line of this parasha, the second in Sefer Shmot, the Book of Exodus, we read “² God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHVH. ^4””  (Translation from JPS)  YHVH is the acronym for the Hebrew letters Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay, which we read as Adonai.  My goodness!  At the very outset of their relationship, before God is about to set Moses and Aaron up to approach Pharaoh and ask him to “let my people go,” before God (in this same portion!) starts sending plagues upon the Egyptian people to force Pharoah’s hand, God reveals God’s name to Moses.

Not unlike the opening quote of this blog entry, we can interpret, from a few lines of Torah, that this is a serious and powerful moment.  This moment is a declaration of relationship, not unlike when your best friend gives you a nick name or your sweetheart calls you honey – but of the significant change in the real-life relationship between the Patriarchs and God and Moses and God.  (Of course, stay tuned to the Torah to see that relationship develop…)  On one foot, perhaps the greatest change is that while God will remain a commander to Moses as he was to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses will be discharged with doing God’s work in the world.

How might Moses have felt when God made this statement to him?  In the act of revealing God’s name to Moses, God also acts on the relationship – and from that we can ask ourselves, where have we seen ourselves operate in this way, and where can we use our name, or the name we call others to help us redefine relationships?

Again, with the Bnei Mitzvah...

posted by Rabbi Jonathan Roos

Winds of change are blowing through the bar and bat mitzvah landscape. A few months ago, the URJ launched a program called “The B'nai Mitzvah Revolution.” A few days ago, Kveller posted an article titled, “Ban the Bar Mitzah.” Despite its title, the writer ultimately concludes (spoiler alert), “I don’t think we should ban the bnei mitzvah.” The writer proposes a “family bnei mitzvah” designed to develop home based Jewish observance and encourage parents to be the primary teachers and exemplars. Good ideas. Good article. I hope you'll read it and react.

The Kveller article offers four points of critique:

1. Bnei Mitzvah don’t accomplish much.
2. They aren’t part of Jewish continuity, but evolution.
3. Your money is a synagogue welfare check.
4. It makes adults look like hypocrites.

They are all valid and Sinai’s clergy, senior staff and members have been working on issues related to all four. It’s good to have bloggers like this who can succinctly state the points and foster a viral discussion on the issue. The blogger, however, could use more real experience and relies mainly on things he or she has heard from academic presenters at conferences or seen in print.  It’s been over ten years since my ordination and I’ve served full time in three congregations in three different states. I’ve worked with hundreds of bnai mitzvah families. The bar/bat mitzvah needs to evolve but it is not so broken as you might think from the blog title.

I’ll offer four quick responses:

1. They accomplish much more than the blogger thinks. Many comments on Kveller have already pointed this out: the ceremony itself is only a small piece of the larger puzzle.  The months (and even years) of relationships built through the training, planning and lead-up to bar/bat mitzvah is quite an accomplishment in many cases. The students and parents also take a tremendous amount of pride in their accomplishment after the fact (and they use that term, “accomplishment”). I know this from families speaking years after their children’s bnei mitzvah.
2. They actually ARE part of Jewish continuity. They may not be required elements of Jewish tradition but the bar/bat mitzvah does help solidify a family’s sense of Jewish continuity. You need to talk with grandparents and great-grandparents of bnei mitzvah students to understand that but they will tell you as much. This is also evident in the feelings and statements of adults who did not “have a bar/bat mitzvah” as a child. They often feel inadequately Jewish or lacking something important.
3. The welfare check analogy is a poorly chosen metaphor (as is the crack dealer one he/she uses). For starters, I doubt the rabbinic student believes that actual welfare “checks” supporting the poor are such a terrible thing (at least I hope not). The whole point is based on the assumption that poor people and synagogues are bad and unworthy of financial support from the larger community. Synagogues, like schools, hospitals, governments, businesses, and rabbinic students, can always be better and must strive to meet the needs of the Jewish community today. But starting from the presumption that synagogues do not merit financial and other support from their members doesn’t do anything constructive for anyone – unless you really do believe that Jews and the world in general would be better off without synagogues at all.
4. “Hypocrites” is an empty slur that should never be the basis of educational or developmental decisions. Education always requires students to learn material that their parents don’t use or know. We require our children to study geometry even when we ourselves can not complete the proofs and constructions on their tests. We require them to read books we disliked or never read ourselves. We require them to take biology, chemistry, or physics even after they have told us that they have no interest in a future career that needs such sciences. Many will tell their teens not to text or talk while driving even while the parents do it themselves. And if you haven’t reached the joys of parenting teens, you’ve probably told your small child to eat everything on their plate even though you yourself wouldn’t force down a meal you find distasteful or after you feel full. Only requiring of students those things that their parents regularly perform and understand is a formula for limitation and a bad pedagogical plan.

All that said, bar/bat mitzvah needs to evolve. The first thing we should acknowledge is that one size does not fit all. This, perhaps, is where synagogues and educators should start. The synagogue tendency toward rules and standardized requirements and services needs to change. It takes more work and it opens the door to inconsistency and loss of clergy control over the services and training, but our students and their families are interested in accomplishing something through bar/bat mitzvah. That accomplishment happens best when it fits them best.

Robyn Helzner on the New Book

Last Shabbat, we finished reading the book of Genesis or B’reishit.  When we complete the reading of a book of Torah, we recite the traditional phrase, “chazak, chazak v’nitchazeik, be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another.”  As we start a new year and a new book of the Torah, Exodus or Sh’mot, we begin to act on that charge. 

The narrative of Sh’mot is a transcendent chapter in the life of the Jewish people telling of our descent into slavery, liberation, receiving the Ten Commandments and our transformation into a nation.

We continually return to the stories of our ancestors to mine the ancient wisdom that we trust will bring an added dimension to our modern lives. May the themes present in this second book of Torah, including the fight for justice, the balance of freedom and responsibility, the power of the individual, and the challenge of building a relationship with God, inspire us to bring strength into our own lives, into the lives of those in our community, and to our world.

Robyn Helzner

Cantorial Soloist