Author: Rabbi Konigsburg

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Sermon – Parshat Emor

Stuck In The Middle With You

2010

Shabbat Shalom

Parshat Emor is about the rules that apply to the Kohen, the priests who would officiate in the Mishkan/Temple. All the Children of Israel are holy, but the Kohanim are set aside as being at a higher level then Israelites who are not of priestly descent. This meant that there were things a priest just could not do. He (and yes it was always he) could not attend funerals except for very close family members. There were restrictions of who he could marry, what he could eat, when he should bathe and when he was permitted to officiate.

While there are many controversial regulations for the Kohanim, the one that struck me this week was the rule that a Kohen who was physically blemished, from something as simple as a missing finger or a broken arm or if he were blind, lame or a hunchback, all of these would exempt him from service in the Mishkan. Today, we do not consider these blemishes as “handicaps” and we consider it a religious obligation not to deny the handicapped a chance to show what they are capable of doing.

But in ancient times, one did not bring something with a blemish before God. This meant that a priest could not appear if he had a disqualifying blemish. It was also forbidden to bring an animal that had a blemish before God to be sacrificed. Both the sacrificial animal and the one who was sacrificing had to be free of all disqualifying blemishes.

Sunday is Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer. It is a rather strange day and we are not really sure why it is set aside from all the other days of the Omer. Over the centuries, it has become attached to the stories of the rebellion against Rome by the Jews of Israel. How that rebellion began, has to do with what we have learned in this week’s Parsha

It is said that the story of the destruction of Jerusalem began with a party. A certain man had a party and he wanted to invite his friend Kamtza, but not his enemy, Bar Kamtza. But the invitations were mixed up and Bar Kamtza came to the party. The man wanted to throw him out and to prevent embarrassment Bar Kamtza begged to be allowed to stay. He even offered to pay for the entire party. The man picked him up and threw him out. Nobody came to Bar Kamtza’s defense and so he decided to inform against the Jews to Caesar. He told Caesar that the Jews were rebelling and he could prove it. He said that the Jews would not sacrifice an animal that came from Rome. To test this, the Emperor sent a beautiful animal to be sacrificed. On the way Bar Kamtza made a very minor blemish on the animal, one that would make it treif for the Jews but not for the Romans.

The Sages, when they saw the blemish, were going to allow the animal anyway since they wanted to have good relations with the Roman government but the super pious Rabbi Zacharia protested saying, “People will claim that we sacrifice blemished animals.” The animal was turned away, Ceasar assumed it was because they were rebelling and the army was sent to destroy Jerusalem.

Some days I have a hard time trying to decide who is the real villain in this story. Is it the informer, Bar Kamtza or is it Rabbi Zecharia who, in trying to be so pious, brought about the destruction of the Temple, the city and the nation? I keep thinking of this story as I listen to Jews today who try to make any sense out of the relationship between the United States and Israel. In a similar way, it is hard to tell who the villain is in this story. I don’t think it is America nor do I blame Israel. But there are those who say they love Israel who are doing more to bring about the destruction of the Jewish state under the guise of piety patriotism.

Negotiations between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama are really not very different from the negotiations between Israel and the United States under any administration, Israeli or American. The United States would like to see peace in the Middle East. And I really believe that Israel desires peace with her neighbors. But there are some here in the USA and some Jews in Israel who would not like to see peace, so they spread lies and half truths, informing one side against the other and acting so pious that someone should suggest that America or Israel compromise for peace. Let me make one thing crystal clear. One does not make peace with enemies by standing on principles. If there is to be peace, it will come because both sides have compromised and both sides have made concessions.

That said, let me share some compromises that will eventually have to be made. If you look at a map of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the legal and the illegal ones, you will see that if the Palestinians hope to have a country some day, there will be settlements that will have to be dismantled. That is a fact. There will not be enough land to do anything in the West Bank unless some of the settlements are torn down. To continue to permit these settlements to grow, will not only sabotage any possibility of peace, but it will endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers who must be deployed to defend these Jews who are only interested in their own political statements and not the welfare of the entire state. Why should all of Israel suffer because there are fanatics who believe that the West Bank should never be traded for peace? What we will have to give up and what we will be able to keep will eventually be decided by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The United States wants to see those talks begin; America really has no interest at all in what is decided between them. America does care about what fanatics are doing to undermine the possibility of peace.

If someone were to break into your home and barricade himself in your spare bedroom and then want to negotiate so he can stay, that is absurd. For Jews to buy land in Jerusalem so that it will be impossible to share the city with the Palestinians is equally absurd. American money is being sent to Israel to buy up this land so it can be given to Jews and to push the Arabs out of areas of Jerusalem that they have lived in for centuries. The latest scam is to buy the land and say that Arabs will be living there and when the housing is improved, Jewish settlers move it. They then dare the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality to throw them out. These are not the actions of people who want peace. These are actions of people who don’t care if Israel goes to war again.

To these people, if the United States, Europe or any other country want to bring about negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, then they must be discredited at all costs. Every disagreement between Israel and other nations is blown way out of proportion. I read this week that President Obama walked out on Prime Minister Netanyahu and left him “stewing” for two hours in the White House because Obama did not respect the Israeli Prime Minister.

I challenge anyone to find any record of such a snub in any mainstream press account. I make that challenge because I know it to be a lie. Any decent newspaper, American and Israeli, reported at the time that Obama and Netanyahu met long into the night over the issue of building in the Arab sections of Jerusalem. When it was clear that they were at an impasse, Obama ended the session for the evening. Netanyahu’s staff asked if they could remain in the building while they considered the final proposal. Obama’s staff permitted them to stay. Two hours later, they notified the White House staff that they had a new proposal that they wished to share with President Obama. Obama, who was getting ready for bed, came back and met further with Netanyahu. They still could not agree on a compromise and so they quit for the night. That is how the New York Times reported the encounter the next day. It was presented as evidence that both sides were ready to do all that was necessary to find a solution. It was not to be. That is how political compromises work.

It is no secret that Israel and the United States do not see eye to eye on what needs to be done to bring peace between Israel and her neighbors. Israel has political realities that Netanyahu cannot ignore. The United States must press Israel on these issues if there are to be any negotiations. But Obama has political realities he has to face. Israel has many strong supporters in Congress and in the American public. There are good and important strategic ties between Israel and the United States. The United States is not about to “sell out” Israel. If the United States can live with a corrupt Afghanistan government, then our country will not turn our backs on Israel which is the only really stable democracy in the Middle East. We certainly will never sell out Israel to a corrupt, unstable Palestinian government nor will they turn Israel over to Hamas terrorists. Diplomacy is not a game for the faint of heart.

The left also has it fanatics. Divestiture of Israel and university snubs also undermine peace efforts. Israel may not be a perfect state, but it is a long way from Apartheid. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is not responsible for the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. The fact of peace in Israel has no impact at all on the fate of American troops serving overseas. Israel has de facto peace with almost all her neighbors and terrorists may try to disrupt those relationships, but the course of these negotiations will have little impact on worldwide terrorism nor will it stop the spread of radical Islam. Selling out Israel in fact, would make all of these problems more severe.

The Israeli government has some difficult decisions to make if it wishes to make peace and end this constant state of war. There is pressure from the left and the right to undermine any attempt at making a lasting peace. Should we sacrifice anything for peace? 2100 years ago a Sage embarrassed the Sages into turning away an animal that had a minor blemish for a sacrifice that could have saved the Temple and Jerusalem. There will be sacrifices this time for peace. For a real and lasting peace. Yitzhak Rabin understood this and these same Jewish elements cried out for his blood and celebrated his assassination. We can expect Israel not to give one inch of compromise for anything short of a real and lasting peace. And we can expect that the United States will do all it can to insure that Israel will have the peace that She deserves. That road may be rocky and there will be many bumps and bruises along the way. We need to be supportive of Israel as she has to make the difficult decisions about settlements, about Jerusalem and about what needs to be done to bring about peace.

President Obama is not our enemy. Secretary of State Clinton is not our enemy. Our enemy is anyone who acts with malice to prevent peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It certainly includes Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Al Qaeda. It may also include militant Israelis who place their own agenda over the needs of Israel’s government and citizens. It may also include those who are trying to drive a wedge between Israel and the United States, who have a long history of close ties and common bonds. I warn all the Jews of America, let us not fall in line with the wrong side.

May God keep Israel Strong, Safe and Secure and may her government be free to do what it must to bring peace to all her cities speedily and soon. Amen

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21-5770 Mitzvah N-83

Torat Emet
21-5770 Mitzvah N-83
05/02/10

Negative Mitzvah 83 – This is a negative commandment: Do no wrong with any weight or measure

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “You shall do no wrong in mishpat, in size, in weight or in m’surah” (Lev. 19:35). and the Sages of blessed memory interpreted (Sifra on this verse) “mishpat” means the system of standards “in size, in weight” – that nothing should be lacking from the [standard] size and weight as the people of the country have agreed upon it; and so likewise not to mislead one’s fellow-human being in the measurement of land. “or in m’surah” – the Torah was particular even about a small quantity like a m’surah, which is a thirty-sixth part of a log.
If someone transgresses this, he disobeys a positive commandment (Just balances … and a just hin shall you have… Lev. 19:36) and he violates this prohibition. Even if he gives a heathen a short measure or weight, he violates this, and is duty bound to return [the amount lacking]. It is forbidden to mislead a heathen in an accounting: This is included in the scope of the verse, “For all … that do wrong are an abomination to the Lord your God” (Deut. 25:16)
The court has a duty to appoint officials to make the rounds among the stores and shops to correct the scales, weights, and measures, and to establish market prices. If someone’s measures, weights, or scales are not accurate, they are to take them away from him and are to penalize him with a fine. If someone charges above the going prices, they are to compel him to sell at the market prices. The punishment [by Heaven] over weights and measures is more severe than the punishment for immorality; he [the guilty person] is as one who denies the exodus from Egypt.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

This prohibition, together with the positive Mitzvah stated above, forms the core of all business ethics in Judaism. It is just wrong to cheat someone in business. The saying that somehow business is something different from morality and fair play (after all “business is business”) clearly does not apply in Jewish Law. Judaism believes in capitalism, but it does not leave it unregulated. In this sense, our Mitzvah might as well be taken out of the current news. The unfair and unregulated dealings on Wall Street that led to the financial crisis that we are enduring, has its roots in those who would seek an unfair advantage over other investors. Our Mitzvah insists that all business dealings be fair for both the buyer and the seller. There are no exceptions to these rules.

We must also note that these weights and measures, were not, in the time of the Hafetz Hayim, “standardized”. There were different measures in different places. This is why one has to go by the standards of weight used in the location where the business is being conducted. These things may be determined by local custom but that does not give us the right to “adjust” them to suit our idea of what is fair. Whatever the local custom might be, pounds, kilograms, stones etc. we use what is the standard for the local jurisdiction. [For the record: a “log” is about 506 cubic centimeters of solid, dry volume]. Note also that we are very particular when it comes to the smallest measure. Here it is so easy to cheat, since the amounts are so small that who can tell if something is missing? We learn that in the small measures, we must all the more so be careful that we measure correctly.

There is a Midrash about the “sin” of Sodom and Gomorrah. When a person came to town to sell corn in the market place all the people of the city would come and take away one single grain of corn until at last the entire stall was empty. If the seller complained, how could he prosecute everyone since each citizen only took one grain? We have an obligation to pay for what we want and need, and we must always be prepared to purchase it at the going market rate.

The “market rate” is another standard that has to be regulated as well. While the price of goods was not “fixed” in ancient days, there was no one price that a seller had to charge; the seller was still forbidden to charge a price that was too far out of line from the average price in the market. It was expected that a seller would charge a “markup” in the price to cover his expenses and to provide a profit for the seller and his investors. The rule however, is that there is a limit as to how much of a markup one can take. Price gouging, where a higher price is charged depending on how bad the seller needs the item and how difficult it might be to procure the item, is prohibited. One must not profit excessively at the expense of a buyer who does not know the market rate, or just because local conditions might be driving the prices up. The Sages set up limits as to how much profit a seller might be able to claim. Any attempt to defraud a buyer because he is uneducated or desperate, or because one is using false weights and measures, requires that the seller return to the buyer the amount paid that was overpaid.

Contrary to popular belief, these laws also apply to transactions between Jews and non-Jews. There are some so-called pious Jews who think that it is forbidden to cheat a Jew but it is permitted to cheat a non-Jew. The Hafetz Hayim takes great pains to show that this is not true. We have the same obligations to just weights and measures for both Jews and non-Jews. If we wish to bring blessing to God’s name, we treat non-Jews fairly in business. There is a Midrash about Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach, who purchased a donkey with a halter and saddle from an Arab merchant. His students handed over his money and brought the donkey back to the Rabbi with joyful news. When they took off the halter, they found a precious stone hidden there. According to the law, the sale was final and the Rabbi was entitled to keep the gem. The Rabbi asked, “Did the Arab know he was selling the stone with the donkey?” Clearly the price was for a donkey, not for a precious stone. The Rabbi insisted his students return the gem to the Arab. The Arab, when he got the gem back was overjoyed. He said, “Blessed be Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach, Blessed be the God of Rabbi Shimon ben Shetach” The Rabbi held himself to a higher standard and brought to himself and to God a blessing from the Arab.

To insure that all are measuring uses the same standards, the Rabbinic Courts are required to appoint honest agents to check the scales and weights used by venders in the market place, fining and punishing anyone caught with illegal weights or charging illegal prices. These laws of business are more important than the laws of morality. Moral laws are between just a handful of human beings. Business laws can affect an entire community. We need to be very careful about how we read Jewish Law in these matters and not disregard them because they are complicated, unfamiliar and, in our opinion, not needed. Our reputation and God’s reputation depend upon us only holding the highest standards in business. When we have honest weights and measures, we sleep better at night knowing that all of our actions, personal and business, are being conducted with justice, honesty and holiness.

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Turn! Turn! Turn!

A season for everything, a time for every experience under heaven…
A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted…
A time for tearing down and a time for building up …
A time for keeping and a time for discarding…
A time for silence and a time for speaking… [Ecclesiastes 3:1-8]
All across the country, synagogues are finding themselves in trouble. In these economic hard times, it is no surprise that donations to religious organizations are down and that synagogues are facing an economic squeeze. But it is not the economy that is creating the bulk of this problem. The real trouble that congregations are finding is a drop in membership and a lack of concern by the larger Jewish community.
It is not a problem unique in the Jewish community to synagogues. Federations and Jewish communal organizations that rely on donations are also feeling pressure. Without a credible number of volunteers to assist any Jewish organization, all of our communal institutions are at risk.
The reason for this drop in interest in synagogues and in the Jewish community, is the result of our collective inability to acknowledge a demographic and the spiritual shift that has been going on for the past decade or more. We have closed our eyes to the situation, usually assuming that if we work harder we can win back those who have left us. I am reminded of a story about a fly trying to get through a glass window by trying harder and harder to break through. There is a door open about ten yards in the other direction but the fly does not see the open door and the easy path to all the fly desires. He only hears the voice, “try harder” and so he tries and tries to break through the glass, and he will die on the window sill.
We see the goal clearly, to serve and lift up the Jewish community of America. We seek nothing less than addressing their spiritual, emotional and educational needs. And if they don’t know what they need, we will tell them. But they do know what they need, and they are telling us, but we are not listening. Instead of paying attention to their needs we are working harder than ever to give them what they don’t want and we are surprised that our efforts do not bear fruit. We are dying in plain view of the goal that we seek but for some reason, we don’t change direction or our approach.
What has changed that we don’t see? First of all there is the demographic shift. The young, professional Jews today are not similar to those that lived just twenty years ago. Synagogues for the past fifty years have been built on the backs of their schools, with the assumption that if we bring in the children, we will bring in their parents as well. It never really worked right, but it did work. Seventy percent of Jews at any given moment were not members of any synagogue but almost all of them had been part of a synagogue at one point or another in their lives. We took that as a given; that we could not hold onto a member for life, so we tried replacing those who left us with new younger families just starting out. Each family was good, on average, for seven years, about the time it took to have a Bar/Bat Mitzvah for two children. After that, maybe a youth group could keep a family around for a few more years, and if we got lucky and the parents did get involved in the culture of the synagogue, we might have a few more years until they burned out or moved away.
But a funny thing began to happen. Jews who used to marry and have children in their early twenties began to wait, and wait and wait. Suddenly 20 and 30 year old Jews were mostly single or just living together. Marriage was held off until they were in their late thirties and forty year old Jews were parents of preschool age children. Synagogues that relied on their school found that they had to wait an additional decade to attract young families to replace those who were leaving. But ten years of living without a synagogue indicated to these families, that they really didn’t need a synagogue at all in their lives. After all, where was the synagogue when they were single? It is a good question. We never reached out to young Jewish singles. Synagogue programming was always for children and families.
Then there is the technological revolution. Jewish communal institutions fell behind as technology surged ahead. Only a handful of synagogues set up websites and those that did, often never took the time to keep them updated. Shining on the home page was a picture of the synagogue building. Followed by information about last year’s Purim party. But buildings don’t draw in people, nor does an out of date web page. What was minimally needed were pictures of people having fun and a list of things that are happening they would want to attend. But even as new Jewish web pages open, synagogues still find themselves behind the technology curve.
New congregations have been starting out by going viral. Minyanim in Los Angeles, Manhattan and many other cities started out merely by setting up a web page and announcing on the internet that those interested should come to a service. Social networking, Facebook and Twitter quickly gathered an interested crowd. Rather than publishing a Shabbat announcement brochure, most information in these new congregations is spread by website. And yet many established congregations do not invest even minimally in technology and continue to hire personnel who have little or no internet experience. To almost everyone under 50, if something is not on the internet, it does not exist. They don’t go to restaurants that don’t have an online menu, they don’t go to stores that don’t have a web page and they have little interest in a synagogue that does not list its activities on the internet.
The Jews we are seeking have needs that are vastly different than the needs of Jews just two decades ago. It is not just about singles vs. married Jews. Young Jews today do not need synagogues or Jewish organizations for their social life. Young and mid-life Jews already have sophisticated networks of friends and favorite things to do. These Jews do not feel limited in life by antisemitism or prejudice. The entire social network of a synagogue, and the networking that used to be such an important part of synagogue life is no longer needed. The internet connects them to friends and entertainment. Cable television offers hundreds of channels to keep them home and movie theaters offer 16 or more screens so that there is always something to do. Young single Jews today live in gentrified sections of downtown, where they are near work and near trendy bars and restaurants. They live in apartment buildings that have fitness centers. There is no way for a synagogue to be the center of their social life.
Jews today wait longer to have children. This means that a Religious school can no longer be the center of synagogue life. For too long our Religious school was the reason a synagogue existed. We wanted to train young Jews figuring that some day they would grow up to be involved in the Jewish community. The Jewish population surveys tell a different story. Religious school did not help raise up a new generation of committed Jews. Many Jews today feel that Religious schools actually drove them away from synagogues. They learned that Jewish education was only for children and when they became an adult, they had no need for Jewish learning. Many times the curriculum of Religious schools never developed beyond fifth grade and the students only learned how to game the system until a Bar or Bat Mitzvah and then they were done. Population surveys tell us that Jewish summer camps and Israel experiences were far more influential to a child’s Jewish education than Religious school. Our education of teens was almost non existent, and we have learned that teens and young twenty somethings are at the most critical time in their Jewish education. And we offer them next to nothing.
If these are the problems, what are the solutions. There are three areas that need to become the core mission of a synagogue if it wishes to thrive and grow.
First, we need to actively invite adults into meaningful programs of Adult Jewish Education. Young and mid-life Jewish adults are looking to be engaged by their Judaism. They are looking for teachers who will let them grapple with texts, will encourage them to engage in discussions on how Judaism speaks to the moral, ethical and spiritual life they are seeking. They want to read source texts on how Judaism wants them to act in family, business and social situations. They want to know that Judaism is a living religion that has something to say about what is going on in their lives. Surveys, overviews and beginners’ lessons can not be all that we offer. These classes need to be followed up with more advanced level classes. We are all guilty of not providing the advanced level of Judaica that these Jews are requesting. In 1950, many Jewish adults had skipped college to provide for their family during the depression or had joined the U.S. Army to serve in WWII. Today, our population has multiple advanced degrees and has little patience for beginners’ classes. We need to provide for them the serious education they require. We need to heavily invest in teachers and materials for advanced Jewish learning. The Melton program has shown us that money is not the deterrent to Jewish learning. If we offer high level classes and clear parameters for learning, we can attract Jews to Jewish learning. Melton does it without synagogues; I believe the learning could even be more significant if it was done under the auspices of synagogues.
Second, Jews today want to pray. For many years, synagogues often acted as if we did not want people to pray; we thought Jews were looking to be an audience. Cantors and Rabbis for years ran the show from an elevated bima at the front of the room. The congregation just watched or followed along in the siddur. Today, Jews want to lead the service and are willing to learn what they need to know so that they have this skill. They look to Rabbis and Cantors to be their teachers and guides. Jews today prefer services led from the center of a circle or from a stand in the middle of the congregation so that they feel like they are an important part of what prayer is all about. A modern synagogue must understand that the days of “one size fits all” services are over. There needs to be multiple minyanim; one for those who like to sing, one for those who like traditional melodies, and one for those who are looking to pray in a learning environment. Some may want quick davening and some may want more singing. Some may look for a teacher to give a D’var Torah; others may want to lead the teaching themselves. We need to have a big enough tent to include everyone in our buildings.
Additionally,I believe that we are also experiencing a new golden age in Jewish music. There seems to be little interest among young Jews who want to pray to listen to a Cantor sing. Jews today are interested in melodies that are easy to learn, upbeat and with enough repetition so that, if you don’t know the tune at the beginning of the prayer, you are singing along at the end. They would rather chant a wordless niggun then to listen to a Hazzan lead a service. I know of Cantors that have embraced this new music and have had much success in guiding others how to use it to lead a service. I have also seen Cantors who belittle this music and insist that the only “real” cantorial music is that from the beginning of the last century. While there is still a following for this kind of music among seniors, and this music may have some life yet on the concert circuit, old style cantorial music is quickly becoming a liability for congregations seeking new, younger members. The issue is not about using musical instruments on Shabbat. I don’t think that younger Jews really care at all about the pros and cons of this discussion. It is all about if the music itself is engaging and uplifting. The rest is merely a matter of personal preference. If the music is right, whether or not there is a guitar, flute, piano or if it is all acapella, just is not an issue.
Finally, Jews today, young and mid-life Jews, want to know that they have made a difference in the world. Many of them were responsible for service projects in high school and took social action spring breaks in college. Now they are successful in business but they look out the windows of their corner offices and wonder if their lives have made any difference to the world at all. Social Action/Political Action (SA/PA) is missing in their lives and synagogues are in a unique position to provide guidance in this area. Certainly there are some standard projects that need to continue. Services to the elderly, to the homeless and hungry are all important. Giving to Federation and other Jewish causes is also part of this mix. But these Jews want to get their hands dirty. I have seen synagogues start food co-ops to provide local grown food for their members, organizing farmers’ markets in their parking lots. A bus load of Jews has gone way out of town to help an organic farmer weed his garden. Picking up litter from the highway, mentoring at risk students, writing to legislators and lobbying for Jewish causes, writing letters to the editor and opinion columns for newspapers and blogs are other possible projects. Party politics may not be the best course for a synagogue but there are a host of issues that are non-partisan and even issues of interest for interfaith dialogue that all can be part of a congregational SA/PA program.
To do all of this, a synagogue needs to be connected to the world. Sections of the synagogue should have a wireless connection to the internet so meetings can be enhanced with video conferencing and so that questions can be quickly answered. Information should be distributed through websites and social networking sites. Synagogues should make sure that almost all office transactions can be performed on the internet even if the synagogue office is closed. (We find that parents often are online late at night and this is when they decide to attend a synagogue event.) In our 24/7 world, it is important for synagogues to at least be open 24/6. Should the daily minyan be able to text a call for the tenth person?
There are still issues with synagogues that remain unresolved. There is a great question about whether or not a synagogue needs a big building anymore. In an age where everything can be outsourced, we may not need to maintain expensive buildings. Meetings can be held in a multipurpose room or in the homes of members. Sanctuaries may need movable seating rather then fixed pews so that the room can be flexible for when there are more or less people praying and so that the room can be used for more than one or two days a week. Clearly when there are multiple minyanim sharing the space, a larger building with many prayer/meeting spaces can work. It may be better for everyone if smaller groups can come together to share space and responsibilities and maybe share volunteers so that empowered Jews can pray and be involved in different activities as their personal/family situation evolves over time.
Dues are another difficult issue. Should there be membership in the community or should it all be a la carte? Do we need large staffs to do the work or should we go small and rely on volunteers to carry much of the heavy lifting at the synagogue? Can we raise enough from the sale of holiday tickets and donations to keep synagogue doors open? Should we look to a “community organizing” model where people who are served pay to keep the service going? Does a synagogue need to provide food after every service or should we rely on our members to sponsor a kiddush by actually bringing food rather than just making a donation?
There is a difficult issue of Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Can we continue to turn an entire service over to the family of a Bar/Bat Mitzvah for their “event” or is it even possible to limit the celebration to just one small part of a Shabbat Service? Does a synagogue have control over the services or can families create their own service that takes place under the synagogue “umbrella” but not necessarily in the “main” service\?. Should there be celebrations in the “auxiliary” minyanim or do all life cycle celebrations have to be a part of the “main” service? There may not be one answer to all of these questions.
We need to stop arguing the details of Halacha. Other than Rabbis and synagogue officers, Jews today do not care at all about the things we are arguing. They don’t care about the length of the service, they don’t care about musical instruments. They are not concerned with the details of Kashrut. They are not concerned with riding on Shabbat. Once they are a part of a community/synagogue that meets their educational and spiritual needs, they will follow along the halachic path that comes with it. After all, Chabad does not seem to have a problem with their Orthodoxy once they have attracted the many Jews who came looking for serious learning and prayer. How much more so will modern Jews be comfortable in an egalitarian synagogue that welcomes mixed marriages and gay singles and families?
Clearly there are more questions than answers but these are the parameters of the directions we need to address. Synagogues can not act like General Motors and assume that people will always want to buy whatever it is that we are selling. That proved to the be short path to bankruptcy. To grow and flourish, we need to rethink the primary mission of a congregation. Synagogues can no longer be a Beit Tefillah, Beit Sefer and Beit Kenesset, a house of prayer, study and assembly. We need to establish our mission around actions: Torah, Avoda and Gemilut Hasadim; Study, Prayer and Acts of Kindness/Tzedakah. We need to listen more to the needs of Jews today and retool our most basic institutions to serve our community.
Rabbi Tarfon teaches: The day is short, the task is great, the workers are indolent but the reward is great and the Master is insistent. [Pirke Avot 2:20]
Let us move forward together.
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20-5770 Mitzvah N-82

Torat Emet

20-5770 Mitzvah N-82
04/18/10

Negative Mitzvah 82 – This is a negative commandment: do not refrain from rescuing one’s fellow man from danger.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “neither shall you stand idly by the blood of your brother” (Lev. 19:16). For example, if someone sees another person drowning in the river, or in any other perils, he is duty-bound to save him in any way possible. Included in this is the duty to save one’s fellow-man from a monetary loss: for example, if he knows that a heathen or a bandit wishes to attack his fellow, and it lies in his ability to pacify him [the outlaw], he has a duty to pacify him.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Just so there is no question, the law requiring us to save a life refers to all lives, men, women, children, Jews, non-Jews, all races and all social classes. We have a primary responsibility to save any human life that is in our power to save. The reason we have to save non-Jews is not one that I am especially proud of; we save non-Jews for the sake of peace. So that there will not be enmity between Jews and non-Jews. I would have preferred that we do it out of a sense of shared humanity but the net result is the same, we must save all human beings from danger.

There is only one limitation on this Mitzvah. We are not required to endanger our own life to save the life of another. If we do not know how to swim, or even if we do but we are not trained for lifesaving in the water, we are forbidden to endanger our lives to save another person. We can choose an alternative path, we can get a long pole to reach the person in danger, we can go out in a boat to effect the rescue or we can call a trained lifeguard to save the person. We can’t just stand there, but we must do everything we can to help.

Other rules of Judaism are suspended so we can save a life. If the person is drowning on Shabbat, we violate Shabbat to save a life. If the person is famished and needs to eat, the rules of Kashrut are suspended if that is all there is to eat. If stopping to pray will endanger your life or the lives of those with you (from bandits, weather etc.) you are not to pray until it is safe to do so. We are to “live” by the Mitzvot, and not to die by them. Our first priority is to save our own life, then we have to save the lives of others. A Jew can not turn the other way and say “This is not my problem” or “I don’t want to get involved”.

It is also the rule that we must try to protect the property of others as well. If we can, we must warn them of danger and do what we can to prevent a situation where one could lose his or her property.

I should also say that this rule of saving life also applies to animals as well. The only difference is that we are not to violate any other Mitzvot on behalf of animals. We can save a horse from drowning but not on Shabbat. We can help to prevent the death of the animal but not perform work to save the animal’s life. The rule to prevent pain and suffering to animals is a separate Mitzvah.

I have to admit that I am a bit surprised to see this as a negative commandment rather than a positive one. We have a obligation to save a life, yet here, the obligation is not to stand idly by when a person is in danger. I suspect that it is here because of the way the verse from the Torah is worded. (“you shall not…” )

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Sermon Parshat Shemini

1. Shabbat Shalom

2. The very core of our Torah reading this Shabbat is about the day that the priests were installed to their positions in the newly constructed Mishkan, the sanctuary that our ancestors built in the wilderness. It should have been a day that Aaron and his family would remember forever. But they would remember that day for a very different reason.

3. At the height of the installation ceremony, suddenly, the two eldest sons of Aaron, Nadav and Abihu are suddenly struck down by God for offering “strange fire before the Lord”. The ancient commentators and even the modern ones are not really sure what exactly they did. We are not sure if it was a breech of Temple protocol, if it was a character defect in these two young men or if they (as all too often is the case) were just the spoiled sons of the High Priest and unworthy of becoming priests. We are not really given a reason for their sudden death by the hand of God. But perhaps there is a hint about the problem that can be found in the text.

4. Before the story of the installation can continue, there is a short passage that gives a new responsibility to the priests who are officiating in the Mishkan. Aaron is informed by God that priests are not to enter the Mishkan while under the influence of intoxicants. Wine and beer can be consumed when not on duty, but when the priests are to officiate, they are to be completely sober.

5. Not surprisingly, Many commentators point to this passage, coming so close on the heels of the death of Aaron’s two sons, and declare that the sin of these two young men was that they appeared before the Lord, drunk. Unable to properly perform their duties, God struck them dead. One cannot perform holy service unless one does it with a clear mind and with complete control.

6. The problems of alcohol and drug abuse are still with us. The ability of substances to impair our abilities seems to know no bounds. Just listen to the news on any given night and we can see quickly the devastating effect that substance abuse has on our community. Just yesterday, a 28 year old man appeared in court on child endangerment charges. His two toddlers were found in his car at 2 AM, parked in front of a bar. One child was sleeping, the other flagged down a passing woman to tell her that they needed to eat. The young father and his brother were drinking in the bar. There were open cans of beer in the car. They had been drinking all day and had forgotten to feed the children. The police arrested them. Where was the mother? The parents were divorced and it was the young father’s day with his children. Only he forgot to spend it with his kids, he spent it instead partying and drinking.

7. Just like Nadav and Abihu, the children of the wealthy and famous seem to be the ones with the biggest abuse problems. They are in the news all the time. Sometimes they think that their rich and famous parents will get them off the hook when they are arrested. But let me tell you a secret. Substance abuse among the famous may be the fodder for tabloids, but the problem affects many families from all walks of life….. Including seniors and including Jews.

8. I know that there is a common saying that Jews don’t get drunk. I can tell you from my Rabbinic experience, that this proverb is just plain false. I have helped Jewish teens battle drug problems. I had money from a Purim carnival stolen to buy cocaine. And it does not stop there. There are all kinds of addictions that plague humanity. I had a woman embezzle money from the Sisterhood gift shop to pay for her gambling habit. Eating disorders are often just food addictions. I am not talking about someone who just craves chocolate, but someone who has no control at all over their eating.

9. Addictions are not a problem of self control, they are a sickness that is in need of specialized care. It is often not the case that someone can just choose to stop drinking, drugging or gambling. The reality often is that their inability to stop is what is feeding their addiction. The more they drink, the worse they feel because they are out of control, the worse they feel, the more they drink to stop the bad feelings and the cycle goes on until they die, or get some serious help.

10. Do you know someone with an addiction problem? Chances are you do. The signs of addiction are all around us if we choose to open our eyes to the reality. I will bet that most of you don’t know where to buy illegal drugs. Or at least you don’t think you know anyone who sells drugs. I will bet, however, that you do. In almost every condominium and senior neighborhood, there are people, people you know, who always seem to have an endless supply of prescription drugs to share with neighbors. Especially pain killers and anti-depressants. Where do they get this supply and how can they pay for those drugs? They trade for them with your neighbors and sell them so they can buy more. Are you sure that you don’t know anyone? Next time you are at the pool, just ask a friend who you should ask to get a pain killer for “a painful hip”. Chances are someone will tell you right away who you should go to for Oxycontin or Percoset.

11. Hospice nurses tell me that when a senior dies at home, the first thing they tell the family is to destroy the extra drugs that are no longer needed. This way they cannot be stolen when the family is sitting Shiva. I have heard of seniors and others, who, when invited to a party, use their time in the bathroom to explore the medicine cabinet to see if they can steal a few pills while they are there. Sometimes seniors take more than napkins and sweet and low from the table. I have heard of people who have stashed in their purses bottles of wine when they think no one is looking or when asked to “water the plants” when someone is on vacation, they help themselves to a few drinks thinking nobody will miss a few glasses of wine.

12. Gambling is another addiction. I was not the least bit surprised that there were so many arcades in Delray Beach when I got here. I was also not surprised that there is regular bus service to regional casinos. It is one thing to lose money in a casino. It is another to lose your entire retirement fund thinking that the next win will let you replace it all. Only that one win never comes. Hey, I used to like to take a few dollars and try my luck from time to time. I can’t go to casinos anymore. I see the vacant eyes of the men and women mindlessly feeding the slot machines, with endless cash coming in from their credit cards, and I lose my appetite for gambling.

13. With the Internet, gambling has taken on a new dimension. You don’t even need to go to a casino, it is as close now as your own computer and all you need is a credit card to start playing. I have yet to see a cruise ship without a casino that opens just as soon as they are out of United States waters.

14. As far as I know, there is no cure for addictions. One can only learn to live with the understanding that the gambling, the alcohol and the drugs are the enemy and the only good day is one when we are successful in that we don’t abuse anything for the entire 24 hours. Addicts measure success in how many days since their last drink. They support each other in their daily struggle to stay clean and sober. The next time you are on a cruise, you know how much the cruise lines push alcohol, notice on the daily schedule that there is always a group meeting, usually before dinner, for “friends of Dave”. Dave is the name of the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. The meeting is a support group for those who know that if they start drinking again, they will lose their friends, their family and maybe their lives.

15. If you know an addict or someone with an addiction problem; drinking, prescription drugs, gambling, and you want to help, what can you do? First, you have to be determined to stop enabling their habit. Don’t loan them money, don’t give them gifts, don’t cover for them when they get in trouble and stop making excuses for them. They are sick and need help. Talk to their doctor so he will stop giving them pills they don’t really need. Tell family members that there is a problem and they need to intervene. Take the car keys away from someone you know is impaired. Tell them they are no longer welcome in your group if they continue to abuse.

16. I will tell you, this is not easy. Those of us who work with addicts have a saying. We ask; “How can you tell if an addict is lying?” the answer…”His lips are moving.” an addict will tell you anything they think you want to believe to cover for their abuse. They will tell you they have stopped drinking, they have thrown away all their pills, they haven’t been gambling for “a long time” but they need just a few dollars because they are short this month, just until their next check arrives. You think this person is your friend, but they have no friends, they only have their addiction, and they will sell our their friends, their family and anyone who will listen just as long as they get what they want, the money to get their next score.

17. How do they manage to remain addicted so long? Usually they have an enabler, someone like a spouse or a child who does not want to believe that there is a problem or would be too embarrassed to admit the problem. Those of us who work with addictions, also believe that addictions can be hereditary. Just another genetic disease. Do you know someone with children who have addiction problems? Don’t be surprised if they have a parent or a grandparent with their own addiction problem.

18. A person with a serious addiction needs effective intervention. Only when they lose the support of their family and friends, only when they hit bottom, arrested, broke, thrown out for their homes, can they see that their lives are out of control, and only then can they begin to fight back to take control of their lives. It is a painful recovery. They will need to ask God to forgive them. They will need to seek forgiveness from the people they lied to and cheated when they were using, and they will eventually have to find a way to forgive themselves. I have sat in on these “confessions”. There are the lies and the cheating or course, but some have done worse, they have sold their bodies, stolen money from children and parents, embezzled cash from their jobs or from the causes where they volunteer, they have done whatever it takes to get the next drink, and now they have to face the disease and speak out loud the sins of which they know they are guilty. Only when it is spoken out loud, in public, can they break the cycle of abuse and start to heal.

19. I have to ask, sometimes, if we at Temple Emeth are enabling those who may have a drinking problem. We all know that there is wine and hard liquor in the back for those who want a drink and nobody there to limit what they might drink. A small shot of whiskey is one thing. I have seen people, here in our congregation, go out early for Kiddush, and drink their scotch from a coffee cup. We serve wine at every dinner, but never do we offer grape juice for those who don’t drink. I think it is time we had some second thoughts about how we serve alcohol here in our Temple. Certainly everyone who wants a shot of bourbon is not an alcoholic, but do you know how much liquor we go through in a week? And we buy the extra large bottles! I suspect that there are those in the kitchen who know who comes in early and drinks a bit too much. I think what is needed is something more than just looking the other way.

20. Nadav and Abihu paid with their lives for their drinking. Their example should give us all pause. Must we wait until someone dies before we take some sensible steps to control the consumption of liquor at our synagogue and the exchanges of pills in our condo? We know the harm that it does, the auto accidents, the falls and broken bones, the broken families and the broken lives. We need to speak up, to learn the signs of addiction and know what we can do to really help those who struggle with this terrible disease. We may not all be guilty of substance abuse, but we are all responsible. Speak up if you know someone with an addiction, and together we can find a way to help that person find their way to get back control of their life.

21. May God help us do the right think and bring healing back to those who are afflicted. As we say… Amen and Shabbat Shalom

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The Letter

 This is an exchange about issues in Conservative Judaism from the Shefa Network . The issues raised are important and I have added my reply to the end. I have changed the names of the writers to protect their privacy. It began with the link to the article in the Boston Globe. You can find it at this link:
 http://www.boston.com/yourtown/brookline/articles/2010/03/28/conservative_judaism_struggling_with_changing_demographics/

This is how it started:
 On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 10:47 PM, Gary G wrote:   Thank you very much for distributing this profoundly important article.
The Conservative movement needs to wake up quickly and recognize that there are some fundamental issues that are effectively shutting young singles and couples out of existing Conservative congregations.
Besides not offering spiritual and educational experiences that create a draw for this demographic, there is the problem of the economic status of many younger Jews making it difficult for them to purchase homes that are within walking distance of most Conservative synagogues, and how, in general, it is an incredibly expensive proposition to establish an actively participating Conservative Jewish household which, in the end, creates a huge and often insurmountable disincentive for young people to get involved at a point in their life when their incomes are limited in comparison to the expenses they face.
I forwarded this article to my 29-year-old daughter who is an accomplished software engineer and manager in a small high-tech firm and her main comment was the incredible frustration that she feels with the fact that in her community, in order to live within walking distance of a Conservative synagogue and own a home in that neighborhood (never mind the costs of sending children to religious school or day school), one needed to be able to afford a home in a market whose bottom end is well above what she could reasonably afford.  So she has chosen to be a home owner over being located close to the Conservative synagogue and lives in a comfortable home in a decent working-class generally non-Jewish neighborhood that is across town from where the Conservative synagogues are located.  But it means making a significant effort to travel across town to the upper class neighborhood where the synagogue is located, and knowing that it will not be possible to honor the Sabbath by not walking to shul because of the fact that she can only afford to live in a neighborhood that is several miles away from the synagogue.  And she is a Jewishly identified young woman who celebrates Shabbat and the holidays and went to a community day school through the junior grades.
And I don’t think that her circumstances are unique.
This is a problem that really needs to be addressed in a creative way by the Conservative movement.
Wishing all a Chag Sameach and hope that your Seders were enjoyable and memorable.
Kol Tuv,
Gary

Then came this response
On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 11:33 AM, Darcy F. wrote:  

       Thank you very much to those who opened the discussion of factors that may exclude young Jewish adults from active participation in Conservative Judaism.  I would like to add a few more observations from the perspective of someone who’s 35 and still more or less fits into the “young adult” rubric.
 
      The residential geography issue that Gary Goldberg addressed is important.  The dilemma of whether to live within walking distance of shul or buy a home in an affordable neighborhood far away from shul is a common one, but sometimes the choices are even starker than that.  When I was on the academic job market several years ago, I went to six on-campus (i.e., final-round) job interviews.  Three of the six institution were located in towns with no Conservative synagogue.  One town had a Reconstructionist synagogue, which wasn’t exactly what I wanted but probably would have sufficed; the other two institutions were each located 50-80 miles away from the nearest synagogue I would have been willing to attend, meaning that there was simply no way I could work at either of these institutions and also go to shul on a regular basis.  A close friend of mine recently took a job at a small college in a small town that is over an hour’s drive from the nearest synagogue of any stripe.  Her geographic isolation, combined with a demanding work schedule, is so acute that she wasn’t even able to attend (or host) a Passover seder this year.  She was heartbroken.  Before you judge Jews who knowingly choose to live in towns with little or no Jewish community, remember that they’re facing limited job choices within an unpredictable economic landscape.  They have spent years preparing to practice their professions, and they want to take the job offers that will allow them to serve their fellow men in the ways in which they are prepared to do so.  This, no less than shul attendance, is a form of tikkun olam.  Being obliged to choose between practicing your religion and doing the work you care about, believe in, and can do well is going to be heart-breaking, whichever choice you ultimately make.
 
      Another practical problem that some young Jews face is pressure to work on Shabbat and chag.  In recent decades, the concept of the weekend has fallen by the wayside in many professions.  Some employers simply assume that young professionals are available to work six or seven days a week; some combine the standard five-day week with an extensive program of weekend conferences, training programs, and other extras.  Getting time off for holidays that fall on weekdays can be tricky.  U.S. law requires companies with more than fifteen employees to “reasonably accommodate” their employees’ religious observances unless doing so would cause the employer “undue hardship.”  This rather vague law leaves observant Jews dependent on the good will of their employers and colleagues.  In cities with large Jewish populations and in companies and institutions that have considerable experience with observant Jewish employees, this often works out just fine.  In other settings, Jews can easily be pressured– or required– to work on major holidays.  This pressure falls most heavily on younger Jews, who are less established in their communities and careers and have less collegial good will to draw on.  Even in superficially hospitable settings, there may be friction beneath the surface.  An Ivy League Hillel rabbi once told me that he fielded multiple telephone calls every autumn from professors who wanted to know whether Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah were “real” holidays.  The professors explained that they were under the impression that certain Jewish students were simply inventing holidays in order to get out of class.  When attitudes like this are prevalent among non-Jews– even very highly educated ones– it’s not surprising that many young Jews cave to social pressure to go to school or work on Jewish holidays.  They do not wish to be cast as lazybones or liars.
 
     A third issue is diversity.  The American Jewish community is very, very white and, even at this late date, a trifle xenophobic in some quarters.  To those of us who were raised a generation after the Civil Rights Movement, who attended genuinely integrated schools and colleges, who live in racially integrated neighborhoods and spend most of our days in integrated workplaces, it can feel strange to walk into a lily-white synagogue community.  It’s less noticeable in a congregation of twenty or thirty, but when, on the High Holidays, I walk into a room of 200-300 daveners and see not a single person of color, I sometimes feel disconcerted.  Though Conservative synagogues tend to be more socially liberal than Orthodox ones, some congregants are still rather quick to comment on any sort of physical difference.  Even I (fair skin, brown hair, blue eyes) have sometimes been subjected to speculative disquistions about how I “don’t look Jewish.”  I imagine that Jews who have fairer hair or darker skin hear these comments more often than I do.  I recoil– not just because such comments make me feel uncomfortable around the particular person who made the remark, but also because they make me ashamed of the social environment that tolerates such commentary.
 
    In the long run, being appropriately welcoming towards Jews of color, prospective converts, non-Jewish spouses of Jews, and interested spectators will probably go a long way towards making not just Jews of color but also younger white Jews who are accustomed to function in “diverse” settings feel more at home in the synagogue.  I have two specific suggestions that might help.  In the last couple years, the JCC of Manhattan has run a series of programs under the banner of “Jewish multiculturalism”: an Ethiopian Shabbat dinner, an Indian Jewish Purim celebration, and so forth.  I find it tremendously moving and comforting to celebrate Shabbat with a room full of people who exhibit varied complexions and accents and who, as a bonus, are eating food that is not kugel.  I would also encourage Conservative synagogues to partner more with churches, mosques, and community organizations to conduct basic tikkun olam projects like food drives and blood drives.  The goal of this would be to establish that the synagogue is a community institution that engages and serves the surrounding community, not just the Jews.  Non-Jews should feel comfortable coming to their local synagogue for a food drive, a class, or a community event.  The more open, inclusive, and engaged with the local community a synagogue is, the more likely young Jews are to feel proud of it and to want to affiliate. 
 
    Needless to say, these issues are tricky.  It’s inevitable, I think, that living Jewishly will constrain where one can live and what work one can do to a certain extent, and that’s not all bad.  As Frasier once observed on the eponymous sitcom, tough choices can be good for us because they teach us about who we are.  But some of the choices facing young Jews today are so tough that they’re unwholesome, both for the individual and for the community.  A Jew should not have to give up hope of owning a home or of doing the work he wants to do in order to live near a synagogue and remain Shabbat and holiday-observant.  There has to be a middle way.  Part of the solution might involve reaching out in innovative ways to underserved neighborhoods and underserved towns; part of it might involve publicizing the nature of Shabbat and holiday observance and lobbying for public policies that are more respectful of such observance; part of it might involve actively encouraging conversion to Judaism in the hope of fostering a larger and more engaged population of young American Jews, who would eventually sustain a critical mass of involved Jews in a larger number of communities.  I realize that all of these suggestions are likely to be controversial.  Thank you to those who read so far!
    Respectfully,
    Darcy

My Reply:
Darcy,

You and Gary bring up some very important points about Conservative Judaism basing your remarks on the article from the Boston Globe. The issue of falling membership in our movement has a great deal to do with changes in where Jews are living. Remember, that Conservative synagogues over 50 years old, were probably founded in “inner city” settings and, as Jews moved out to affordable housing, the synagogues moved with them. Now, as cities gentrify, will we see synagogues migrate back to the city? Perhaps but I think the independent minyan movement shows us that the young Jews moving back into the renovated apartments downtown will find their own spiritual home, creating in the process their own synagogues.

It was the Conservative Movement however, that first declared (rightly or wrongly depending on who you ask) that riding to synagogue on Shabbat does not make a person a “sinner”. This “heter” may be horribly abused in the suburbs but that does not make it inoperable for those who wish to have a Shabbat in places where there is affordable housing but no synagogue. Riding to synagogue (but not other places) is only one aspect of Shabbat observance and the need to ride to synagogue and find a Shabbat Community there, does not make a Jew a “Shabbat desecrater”. We all make allowances in our Shabbat observances when there are other issues pressing on us and we work hard our whole life to increase our Shabbat observance until we are happy in balancing Shabbat and the rest of our life.

When I was in rural Connecticut, there was an old synagogue there, founded in 1909 that had only a few Jewish families left. One year, they decided to put in the local paper that they were sponsoring a “corn party” at the end of the Summer. To their surprise, over 100 local Jews showed up, Jews who had no idea that there was a synagogue nearby. I suspect that even in far flung places there are more Jews than we imagine, only waiting for someone to convene a minyan. That is how almost every synagogue has gotten its start.

It many surprise you but your parents and grandparents, when they were starting their working life, also had to make the difficult decisions between work and Shabbat/Hag. You can find a great essay on it in Hermann Wolk’s book, “This is My God” (first published in 1959) That is the lot of those of us who live in the diaspora. In Israel, Jewish holidays are national holidays. So we ask if we can have off from work/school, and we work on Sundays and late into the night to make up our lost hours. We rely on the good feelings of our supervisors and bosses to understand that if they can accommodate our religious needs, then we will be happy to help with other staffing problems, like working on Christmas or during Christian Holy Week etc.

As for the diversity issue, that is something we need to teach our congregations. Conservative synagogues have only recently decided to get into the “social action” world, and partner with other congregations and other faiths and denominations. You are correct, Darcy, we have not done very well in this area and I do believe, like  you, it is a key ingredient in attracting young members to our failing congregations. Social action, serious Jewish education (another of our failings) and, as the Boston Globe article mentions, multiple services to meet the many different kinds of Jews out there, these three will go a long way to helping you, Gary and others find their way to a meaningful, spiritual Judaism that is sponsored by the Conservative movement.

Nothing in Judaism is handed to us on a silver platter. If you really seek the kind of community you describe, then put it out there with our social network and see which friends are also looking. That is the first step to finding what you want from Judaism. You can build it  yourself, join with a group an existing congregation and work together to get it to evolve toward you needs and goals, or you can compromise your observances for a short time, sighing like Franz Rosenzweig “Not Yet!” (a quote also widely abused) If you really intend to increase your observance over your lifetime, then, like everything else in life, if you really want it, it will eventually become possible, often sooner then one might think. (“If you will it, it will not [for long] be a dream”)

Darcy, you ask all the right questions and you instinctively know the answers. But you will have to do the work needed to make your spiritual dreams come true. And that will make them all the sweeter in the end.

Randy Konigsburg,
Rabbi
Delray Beach, FL

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19-5770 Mitzvah N-81

Torat Emet
19-5770 Mitzvah N-81
March 28, 2010

Negative Mitzvah 81 – This is a negative commandment: do not harbor hatred in your heart toward your fellow-man.

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “nor shall you bear any grudge” (Lev. 19:18). Bearing a grudge means that one harbors hate in his heart: for instance [in the example from last week’5s lesson] if he tells him (the man who once refused to lend an ax but now is asking to borrow something from the man whom he refused) “Here, I am lending it to you; I am not paying you back as you acted toward me, refusing to lend me something.” This is bearing a grudge where he nurses hate in his heart. Instead, he has to lend it to him wholeheartedly; there should be no ill will whatever in his heart, but he should rather erase the matter from his heart, and not retain it or remember it at all. These two qualities [revenge and hatred] are extremely bad. For all the matters and concerns of this world are vapid nonsense and triviality, and it is not worth taking revenge or bearing a grudge about them.

This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

This week’s lesson and last week’s lesson (18-5770) are almost always taught together; partially because the example used to teach the lesson is the same, One day a man refuses to permit a neighbor to borrow his ax, the next day that same man goes to his neighbor and asks to borrow some other item. If we harbor revenge, we might say, “You wouldn’t lend to me, why should I lend to you?” If we harbor a grudge, we might say, “You wouldn’t lend to me but I am better than you, I will lend something to you even though you would not lend something to me.”

When I was a child, my parents told me that two wrongs don’t make it right. When we act with hatred or grudges, we prolong the healing between two human beings. When we realize, as the Hafetz Hayim suggests, that the world is filled with nonsense and triviality, we understand that such pettiness between neighbors undermines the great possibilities of human interaction. We could be creating harmony, justice and peace; instead we are allowing petty slights to isolate us from our neighbors.

I do understand that when a human being gets angry at another, the issue quickly seems to grow beyond the trivial. There is our pride that has been damaged, our feelings have been hurt, and our dreams may have been shattered. How could we ever imagine we will talk to that person again? How could we ever consider that person a friend? It is so very easy to harbor hatred in our hearts and seek revenge for the damage or hold the grudge inside as it corrodes all of our good will. The problem here is that, more often than not, the person who has offended us has no idea that we were offended. That person is going on his or her merry way and has no idea of the pain and anger in our heart. The hurt feelings and the corrosive effects of the hatred affect our heart and soul, and has no effect on the object of our hatred at all.

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To Life, To Life L’chaim

I stayed up late the other night to watch the US House of Representatives’ historic vote to bring health care to all citizens. I kept thinking, as the votes were counted, that it is about time that the United States joined the rest of the civilized world in providing affordable health care to all. It was quite a political/historical moment. Usually I don’t like to comment on political issues. There are many people who are paid lots of money to speak intelligently on political issues. I am a pulpit Rabbi and my main concern is the well being of the members of my congregation. So my political opinions are all my own and subject to change when I have the chance to do some more research on the facts.

But Health Care is not just a political issue, it is also a moral issue. Judaism has had a long standing concern for the most vulnerable in society. The poor and oppressed have, since the time of the Torah, been singled out as needed to be defended by those in power in society. The list from the Torah is long. We are forbidden to oppress the orphan and widow. We have to let a slave go free if we injure his body. When we free a slave, we have to make sure that he has what he needs to start life over. We need to set aside the corners of our fields to be reaped by the poor. If we drop something while we are harvesting, it is left for the poor to glean. Land can’t be sold forever; it must return to its original owners at the beginning of the Jubilee year. Indentured servants are freed every seven years. There is a tithe that is set aside for the Levites and for the poor. We are commanded to lend without interest, cancel those debts in the sabbatical year and not refrain from lending when the sabbatical year is pending. This is not an exhaustive list but it is still impressive.

The Talmud even tries to legislate exactly how much we should invest in charity depending on if we want to be stingy, moderate or generous. One should not give too much or too little. It was forbidden to live in a city that did not have a community fund for the poor, a soup kitchen and a doctor among other necessities. All of this points to a social need to care for those who were at the bottom of society. To bury the indigent, to provide for poor brides, to care for the elderly, all of these were an essential part of communal responsibilities.

What we have here is Judaism trying to adjust capitalism to be fair to all those in society. It is one thing when society encourages and promotes those who work hard and earn a living. If one works hard enough and is smart, one could also become quite wealthy. Acquiring wealth is the main goal of a capitalistic economy. Judaism is not comfortable with the reality however, that while some people will rise to the top, there will also be those who sink to the bottom. Therefore, Judaism teaches that we have responsibilities to those who have not succeeded. Rambam declares that there are eight different levels of support for those who are in need. Some levels speak to the motivations of the giver. Some protect the dignity of the poor. The highest level is to help a person get back to work so that they can, eventually, support themselves and their families and no longer be in need of support.

Health Care is a part of this system. Since it is well known that health issues can bring an individual and a family to poverty, we have an interest in preventing this kind of poverty. Since the poor get sick and don’t have the means to visit a doctor, there is a potential that serious disease could be spread throughout the community. We are not permitted to do something that could endanger life, and health care is one way we prevent loss of life. Remember also, it is forbidden to live in a town that does not have a doctor. It is not a stretch to say that if the health care is not affordable, then what use is the doctor to the poor in the town?

There is a story of the “good citizens of Chelm” who had a dangerous road leading to the city and people would fall off the cliff and get hurt. After deliberations the citizens of Chelm decided to build a hospital at the base of the cliff. While building a hospital in that location could certainly save lives, how many more lives could be saved by investing in a proper “guard rail” at the edge of the road? When I heard so many representatives, opposed to health care crying out that government was interfering in people’s lives, I thought of that guard rail. It was as if they were saying: “Why should we interfere with people who are not careful on the road? What right do we have to declare that one stretch of road is dangerous and another is not?” Yet, Judaism insists that we have a moral responsibility to look out for each other, by building guardrails, promoting preventative medicine and by providing, for everyone, affordable health care. What good is Medicaid if it does not prevent families from having to lose virtually all their savings and resources before they can access health care? Real health care is care that applies to all members of society according to their ability to pay.

The free market philosophy is that, over time, the best services at the best prices will become available to everyone in society. The problem is that this philosophy can only work if all the service providers are committed to offering the best service at the best price. To prevent collusion between providers and to prevent agreements that subvert the free market to the benefit of the service providers, government needs to step in and foil those who would attempt to profit from the system in a corrupt way by creating an unfair advantage. We have seen how insurance companies all too often, move to protect their own interests rather than the health needs of the community. We hear stories of the abuses; the cancelled policies, the refused coverage, the exorbitant renewal premiums that make sure that those who are well, can get affordable coverage, but if one should have a condition that makes it impossible to get a new policy, the rates are adjusted to be so high that the policy becomes unaffordable and the sick must go without coverage. Regulation of insurance companies will guarantee that the best coverage will be offered at the best price and consumers will not be afraid to access their coverage due to fear of sudden cancellation.

I am sure that there will be many unscrupulous people who will try and defraud this new system as they have done with Medicare and Medicaid. I am sure that there will be provisions that will need to be adjusted, added or repealed. We are imperfect human beings and our ability to evade the law is great if we have the desire to do so. I have no doubt that we will be making changes in this Health Program for many years to come.

I can’t speak about if the Health Plan approved the other night will pay for itself. If it will or will not reduce the federal deficit. Whether or not it is good for the states that must provide the pooled coverage. Whether or not it will promote or kill jobs, or whether or not it will harm the economy. I will leave those questions to those who study this bill. I only know that we have a moral responsibility to see to it that every member of society has appropriate access to health care, so we all are able to live not only productive lives, but healthy lives as well.

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18-5770 Mitzvah N-80

Torat Emet
18-5770 Mitzvah N-80
March 22, 2010

Negative Mitzvah 80 – This is a negative commandment: Do not take revenge on one’s fellow-man

Hafetz Hayim – As Scripture says: “you shall not take vengeance” (Lev. 19:18). Revenge means repaying a person who has harmed someone, according to his own act: for example, if one asked his neighbor, “Lend me your axe,” and he would not lend it to him; and the next day his neighbor has to borrow something from him, whereupon he tells him, “I will not lend it to you, just as you refused me when I wanted to borrow from you.” This is revenge, whereby he exacts vengeance from the other, repaying him according to his own evil action.
This applies everywhere and always, for both men and women.

Compare the example of the Hafetz Hayim to this Midrash from the Talmud (Shabbat 82a): Once a man from Galilee hired himself for three years to a man in the south. On the afternoon before Yom Kippur he said, “Give me my hire; I will go and nourish my wife and children.” His boss said, “I have no money”. The hired man said, “Then give me produce.” And the boss said, “I have none.” “Give me land.” And the boss said, “I have none.” “Give me cattle” And the boss said, “I have none.” “Give me mattresses and coverlets” And the boss said, “I have none.” Then the hired man put his possessions on his back and left in despair. After the fast, the boss took the man’s wages and three donkeys laden with food, drink and all manner of delicacies, and went to the hired man’s home. After they had eaten and drunk, and he had given him his wages, he said to the man, “ when you asked me for your wages, and I said I had no money, in what suspicion did you hold me?” The man replied, “I thought you had bought goods cheaply, and had so used up your money.” “And about the cattle?” “I thought perhaps you had hired them all out.” “And about the land?” “I thought that you had rented it all out.” “And the produce?” “ I thought that it had not yet been tithed. “And the mattresses and coverlets?” “I thought that perhaps you had consecrated all your property to God.” Then the boss said, “And so it was. I had vowed away all my property, because my son does not occupy himself with the study of the Law. But I went to my colleagues, and they freed me from my vow. As you have judged me favorably, so may God judge you.”

It is one thing to judge a person favorably. Even when things do not go as well as we want them to, we have a choice. We can believe that the whole thing is a plot against us and the other person is a scoundrel, or we can judge that person favorably and assume that there is some perfectly valid reason for his actions. In the case of our Mitzvah, perhaps there is a reason that the man cannot lend out the ax. I am sure that we can think of many good reasons he might want to lend the ax but can’t do it right now. Perhaps he has already rented it to someone else. Perhaps it is broken and in need of repair. Perhaps it is collateral on a loan and he cannot let it out of his possession. We could think of many other reasons that the person may not be able to lend out the ax right now.

Now we can understand why this kind of revenge is not permitted. When the tables are turned and the neighbor comes looking to borrow a different tool, our angry man gives a reason why he will not lend it to his neighbor. There is no assumption that there might be a reason that the tool cannot be borrowed; he has given his reason; that he is angry over the incident of the ax the previous day and is punishing the neighbor in a measure for measure manner that may be uncalled for. This is how a feud between neighbors begins, all over the need for revenge over a slight that may or may not be warranted.

The entire issue is contained entirely in our mind. We can be angry over the refusal of the ax and carry it with us, determined to get even some day in the future, or we can judge our neighbor favorably, assuming that there must be a reason he can’t lend the ax today, and let the incident go, so as not to carry the anger forward. I can add that even if we know that the neighbor is stingy and never will lend a tool, we should still not seek revenge; we should lend out our own tools if asked, so as to teach that person, the right way to act as a neighbor. We have to do this with our actions and without any malice, since if we say, “I will do for you what you refused to do for me” we will be in violation of the next Mitzvah.

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Vayikra

Shabbat Shalom

Many people have asked me why I don’t often speak about Israel. There are a lot of reasons that Israel is not the first topic I gravitate to when I begin planning my lessons on Shabbat. First of all, I don’t consider myself a political commentator. Cable Television and Talk Radio have full time commentators that are able to put their full time into examining and researching the nuances of international politics. They do a far better job of analysis than I can do. Second, Judaism is a vast and intricate way of living and Israel is only one part of it. I have to balance my time covering the ritual, historical, spiritual, moral, communal and private aspects of our faith. Israel is a part of this, but it isn’t the only part, so I split my time between them all.

But the biggest reason that I don’t often speak about Israel is because I know that when I do, I make a LOT of people angry with me. I don’t think it is wise to have my congregants come to synagogue to get angry at the Rabbi, so I don’t often venture into the realm of politics.

But I am going there today. This was a very interesting week for Israel, for the United States and for all the pundits and bloggers who comment on every blip in politics between these two countries. There was a bit of a spat last week. Vice President Biden went to Jerusalem. He went to show his support for Israel as indirect talks with the Palestinians was about to begin. But in the middle of his visit, the Interior Minister of Israel decided to announce that there would be 1600 new homes to be built in East Jerusalem. The announcement not only angered the Palestinians, it embarrassed the Vice President. Everyone got angry but as the week ended, our President called the whole thing just a “disagreement among friends”. But if you were reading the papers and listening to the news, one would have thought that we were about to break diplomatic relations with Israel.

The Right wingers here and in Israel saw this as another example of how the Obama Administration is trying to undercut Israel. The Left wingers saw this as another example of Israel snubbing the United States and preventing a Middle East peace agreement. Which one was right? In my mind, neither of them. While they all can point to a myriad of “proofs” that their side is correct, the truth is, as usual, somewhere in-between.

My opinion? Israeli politicians play a vicious kind of hardball that goes far beyond any right/left argument in this country. I have little doubt that the Shas and Yisrael Beytainu parties were looking for a way to embarrass Prime Minister Netanyahu. He needs them for his coalition and they could act with impunity to undercut any talks with the Palestinians and to promote the building of settlements. Now the Prime Minister can’t overturn the announcement without causing the government to fall. He can apologize but can’t give the US a freeze on building in East Jerusalem. The US will not send its envoy, George Mitchell, to Israel; the Palestinians will boycott even indirect talks and the world gets a chance to condemn Israel one more time. Only it gets scarier. This week, for the first time in quite a while, a rocket was fired from Gaza and it killed a Thai worker on a Kibbutz.

Hamas, yes Hamas has asked groups not to fire rockets. Now the Al-Qaeda militants, with whom Hamas has allied themselves, have challenged Hamas to stop them. Hamas buildings in Gaza have been bombed by these extreme militants. Hamas will now have to assert some control over Al-Qaeda; but if they do, they could be seen as being “soft” on Israeli aggression. If they don’t, Israel could invade again and destroy more of the Hamas infrastructure. Hamas is now squirming as much as Netanyahu. This is not good for peace, and it brings both sides way too close to killing each other again.

I generally feel that Israel has to play the same kind of hardball that the Palestinians play. I don’t like it but then, I don’t live there. My opinion: leave this kind of political posturing to the experts in Israel. Between the nuances of diplomacy and the unknown factors that come from Israeli intelligence which we will never know, we should not be telling Israel what to do.

But I don’t feel that Israel is always right. This past week, one of the ultra Orthodox members of Knesset introduced a bill to give full control over conversions in Israel to the Rabbanut. It would also not allow those who converted out of the country to become citizens of Israel. We had barely 48 hours to stop this bill. The outcry from Jews, all over the world was so loud that the bill was pulled from consideration for now. The Jewish Agency, UJC, Federation, Reform and Conservative/Masorti Jews are now in discussions with the Prime Minister’s office to prevent this bill from getting back on the floor of the Knesset. Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, has expressed his support to kill this bill. So far, it is off the table.

But the issue of freedom of religion for Jews in Israel is still on the table. Every attempt to get State money to build synagogues for Conservative and Reform communities is defeated. Any attempt to get our Rabbis on the local religious councils is subverted either legally or illegally. In some cases, rabbis properly chosen for the council find that the Orthodox rabbis refuse to call a meeting. Even rulings by the Israeli Supreme Court have been ignored by these groups who deny basic religious freedom to Jews who are not as frum as they are. These Orthodox groups are rioting over civil rights for people they don’t agree with. They are rioting over parking lots open on Shabbat and are rioting to close industries that dare to be open on Shabbat. They are way out of control and no one, not the Army, the police nor the Government of Israel seem to have the nerve to stop them. They throw chairs at women at the Western Wall who dare to pray wearing tallitot. They have attempted to steal the Torah scrolls from non-Orthodox synagogues and there have been a series of fires at some Conservative synagogues, multiple attempts at arson. So far, nobody has been caught. In this country, these would be hate crimes. In Israel, they happen almost every day. If you want to know why Americans don’t make Aliyah to Israel, look at how Conservative Jews and Reform Jews are treated like second class citizens, being spit upon by Orthodox Jews, and the State does little to help.

On the issue of whether or not Israel is treated fairly by other nations, here I can see where a little paranoia is warranted. Some countries just can’t say anything good about Israel. No matter how many acts of terror Israel endures, she is still told that it is her own fault. No matter how much the Israeli Army tries to fight a war in a humane way, it is never enough. No matter how many humanitarian missions Israel sends to poor countries and to disaster sites, Israel is never given credit. Israel seems to be the country everyone loves to hate.

What I find interesting is how some countries have now had to back away from this stand. Governments sometimes say and do things for all kinds of political reasons, but Western countries can’t fool their citizens for long. England just had a really serious bout of Anti-Semitism and it has so embarrassed the country that they have softened their criticism of Israel. France had Moslem youth rioting in the streets. Jews there are told they should not wear a kippa outside because of the danger. French Jews are leaving France and immigrating to Israel. France is so embarrassed by all of this that the French Prime Minister, in spite of his own problems, has said some things in support of Israel. Turkey says one thing publicly against Israel but still sells Israel vitally needed oil. Saudi Arabia, no friend of Israel, in the face of its own terrorism, has stopped broadcasting hatred for Israel. Even Abu Dhabi, where the Mossad may or may not have killed a Hamas leader, has condemned the Israeli government for the murder but has not condemned the entire country.

Israel has trampled on the civil rights of many citizens. Not just Palestinians but her own Arab citizens, as well as homosexuals of all faiths. There is culture of corruption that we can compare to our own Dade County where politicians are found guilty of all manner of scandals; stealing money, sex scandals, giving no show jobs to friends, bribery etc. They run again for office at the next election and get elected by promising to give more money to those who get out the vote. Arab citizens in Israel get precious little justice in Israeli courts and some elements in the Israeli army seem to think that they can harass Palestinians with impunity.

So you tell me. Am I on the right or on the left when it comes to Israel? Do I believe in the Jewish State, no matter if she is right or wrong? Not hardly. Do I condemn her at every turn for her policies? Never! Do I insist on peace at any price? Nope. Do I advocate killing all the Arabs and ending this long war? No again. Do I believe that Israel has made some mistakes? Yes. Do I think that Israel deserves its bad reputation in the world? Nope. Israel is clearly held to a standard that no other nation is required to hold. Sometimes I agree with Israeli policy, sometimes I don’t. I lend my voice to the most outrageous claims, and roll my eyes over the rest. Israel is just another country trying to make the best decisions it can. Sometimes they do it right, sometimes they don’t. Their track record is no better or worse than any other country. When she gets it right, I am first in line to cheer her on. When she is falsely accused, I am first in line to defend her. And when she is wrong, democracy tells me I can offer my critique and vent my frustration.

So, after all this, I can say without any hesitation. I love Israel. It is the only real democracy in the Middle East. It is the one place where Judaism can be practiced openly. It is the political stage where Jews make a difference in world politics. It is the best refuge for Jews all over the world who are in danger. The existence of Israel makes Anti-Semitism harder in any country since Jews can count on the support of Israel, a State prepared to rescue Jews in danger anywhere in the world. In just a few more years, there will be more Jews in Israel than in any other country in the world. We are first in agricultural research, in technology, computers, reversing desertification, and Israel even has a pretty stable economy in spite of her high taxes and constant state of war. Israel is a miracle, a miracle that I proudly support.

I pray every day that God gives Israel’s government the courage, wisdom and strength to meet every challenge and to be true to her values and faith. May this be our constant prayer, as we say… Amen and Shabbat Shalom