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Union for Reform Judaism

Summer in Cincinnati June 10, 2009 (2 Comments) by Rabbi Phyllis Sommer (Originally posted on Ima On and Off the Bima) There are lots of "official" beginnings to summer. One of these is, for me, the Rabbinic Ordination ceremonies in Cincinnati, Ohio, the first weekend in June each year. Since my 2nd year in school, I attended every Ordination leading up to mine (in 2003) and many since. It's really an incredible thing to witness these rabbinical students turning into rabbis right before our eyes. In true Cincinnati fashion, the ceremonies are a celebration not only of these rabbinical students, but also of the whole heritage of Reform Judaism that stems from that small city on the border between North and South. Cincinnati, Ohio is truly the birthplace of Reform Judaism where Isaac Mayer Wise founded his synagogue, seminary, and most of the institutions that today comprise the backbone of the modern Reform movement. He was quite a visionary, really creating a "minhag America" - an American custom - that endures today. (Minhag America was the name that Wise gave to the prayerbook he composed.) read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Welcoming New Colleagues June 9, 2009 by Rabbi Phyllis Sommer (Originally published on Thoughts from Rabbi Phyllis) Every year, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion ordains its current class of seniors. It elevates them from their status as "student rabbis" to "Rabbis." All of their training, practice, work, study, learning, and preparation culminates in a ceremony that bestows the title upon them. It is moving, inspiring, and truly memorable. This year, there has been a lot of media attention on the ordination ceremonies that took place in Cincinnati. A great deal of attention has been bestowed upon a great "first" for the College-Institute, the ordination of the first African-American woman as a rabbi. It was a historic moment for the school, for our movement, for our people. In many ways, however, it reminded me of the truly marvelous stories that each of these newly-minted rabbis bring to our school, our movement and our people. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Mifgash Musicale and 6 Degrees of Separation June 4, 2009 by Peter Pundy I'm sitting here this morning trying to figure out how to make it to Mifgash Musicale, the summer institute for synagogue musicians offered by the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), and the Guild of Temple Musicians (GTM). I'm not thinking about how great this program is, this I already know. No, I'm struggling to figure out where to source funds in these trying times to make the commitment to attend before the June 12th deadline! Deliberating this, thinking of everyone I know, it struck me to question how very many aspects of my recent life trace back to Mifgash Musicale. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

My Confirmation Rose June 1, 2009 (3 Comments) By JanetheWriter (Originally posted on JanetheWriter Writes) I am familiar with several Shavuot traditions--eating dairy foods and studying all night--but only recently learned from Ima on the Bima's blog that "it [also] is customary to decorate synagogues and homes with flowers and greenery...." That image reminded me that my own confirmation service--30 years ago today, June 1, 1979--began when we, the three confirmands, affirmed our commitment to Judaism with these words: We speak to you, To the congregation, To the world, And to our religion, And we say: We accept our heritage, And we guarantee A Judaic tomorrow. We then ascended the bima, individually placed a white rose in the basket of flowers already positioned there and said: We offer this flower as a sign of our Judaism. May it ever flourish with the beauty of relevance, with the sweet aroma of genuineness, and with a simple elegance which inspires us to become all of which we are capable. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Why Spin Instructors are Like Rabbis May 26, 2009 (2 Comments) By Rabbi Phyllis Sommer (Originally posted on Ima on (and off) the Bima) I think I've discovered why I like going to Spinning classes. It's just like being at services, except I'm not in charge: It lasts about an hour, just like services. I can get into a rhythm, just like in a good prayer experience. There's a rubric to follow. Sprints, climbs, flat roads....Sh'ma u'virchote-ha, Amidah, Torah service... There's music, sometimes to sing along with.... There's a sense of shared purpose. We're all in this together. There's a lot of stand-up, sit-down.* The instructor uses her hands to indicate "stand up" and "sit down"... just like I do.* She offers encouragement, similar to the way that a rabbi might offer explanations of the prayers. She sometimes throws out questions for the group to answer, just as I might when leading services or giving a sermon. People are often reticent to answer. Just like at services. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

A Fresh Start May 22, 2009 (4 Comments) by Emily Grotta This morning I see the tender plants that I worried would not survive a recent cold snap are thriving. The beets and lettuce are now more than an inch high; the cucumbers are pushing out new leaves; the hybrid tomato plants that I put in seem to be setting roots;  and the peas and beans are close to 10 inches tall. It is mornings like this that make me feel "all's right with the world."  God's world, dormant all winter, is alive and once again giving us hope and a belief in renewal. This Spring I appreciate it more than ever, however, as I, too, am about to begin a fresh start. Next week I leave the Union for Reform Judaism where, for almost 15 years, my vocation and my avocation were seamlessly entwined. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

False Idols May 21, 2009 (2 Comments) By dcc Kris Allen beat out Adam Lambert on American Idol this week. Outside increasing RJ.org's Google rating by including the most popular sentence of the week in this post, why should we be talking about this pop cultural upset on a Jewish blog? Please read on! I am a regular viewer of the show in question, but on a purely sociological level of course and I didn't have a favorite or anything like that... But everyone, and I mean everyone, KNEW Adam Lambert was going to take the crown and become the king of all things rock. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

A Synagogue Upon My Heart May 7, 2009 by JanetheWriter Although I've already been fortunate in having two spiritual homes - one in Edison, New Jersey and one in Woodstock, Vermont - I've been shul shopping for yet a third one in New York City, where I currently live and work. I came to my first spiritual home in 1972 in a somewhat random process that started with my mother looking in the phone book and ended with membership at Temple Emanu-El for our family, including on-the-spot enrollment in religious school for my sister and me. My mother, of course, knows that the phone book is no way to select a synagogue, but extenuating circumstances were at play and for a variety of reasons, that's just the way it happened. Luckily, everything worked out and even today, my emotional attachment to this congregation is palpable. In that building on James Street I was consecrated, became bat mitzvah and celebrated my confirmation and wedding, as well as other family simchas, countless second-night seders, Shabbat dinners, high holy days, and a festival or two, most recently several weeks ago on the last day of Passover. Indeed, Temple Emanu-El in Edison is a synagogue upon my heart. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

What are we teaching our children? May 4, 2009 (3 Comments) by Marge Eiseman Last week, at the Yom HaAtzma'ut celebration, I was busy selling my wares in the little shuk. When the concert started, all the people left, and I finally got up to take a break, I looked over at the little food court that was next to me, and all the bistro tables were left dirty - even though the garbage cans were five feet away. A couple of days later, I saw a woman with a child in the backseat carefully place her empty Starbucks cup on the ground outside her car door, because she had just bought another drink to put into her cup-holder. I asked her, "Don't you want your cup?" and she said, "No." and drove away, leaving the empty cup marking her parking space. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Youth and Family Life

Welcoming the New Month of Iyar April 24, 2009 By Rabbi Phyllis Sommer (Originally posted on Ima on (and off) the Bima) Iyar not Nisan, not Sivan not slaves and not yet fully free the month of transition of transit not here and not there wandering where are we? what are we doing here? once we were slaves now we are free. so what do we do with ourselves? read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Torah

T'fillin - The perspective of a Conservative convert, Reform Jew April 13, 2009 (10 Comments) by Jacob V. Aftel Ohef Sholom Temple of Norfok, VA Well, there it is - mentioned four times in the Torah; Exodus 13:1-10, Exodus 13:11-16, Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and Deuteronomy 11:13-21 where we are commanded that "you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes."  Them and they of course refer to the words of G_d.  The specific words are the story of the exodus and the mitzvot.  Of the 613 mitzvot, the act of laying t'fillin is considered by its adherents to be a serious one to ignore. Beyond the commandment to do so, the Torah does not describe the t'fillin nor does the Torah instruct how the t'fillin should be put on and worn.  Oral tradition is mostly responsible for the handmade, relatively expensive adornment used as an adjunct to daily prayer.  The interpretation of the directive in the Torah is how we ended up with t'fillin. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish Living

Matzo Outside the Box: A Modern Tale of Biblical Portions March 26, 2009 (25 Comments) by Natalie Seltzer As Passover approaches, so does that age-old question: "What are we going to do with all of this left-over matzo?" Little do most people suspect that matzo can be exciting, tasty, and infinite, a truth I discovered when I found out I had an allergy to yeast. I started cooking and eating matzo year-round and discovered that matzo answered many of my cooking and eating dilemmas. Hence, my newly-launched blog that takes matzo to a new level, Matzo Outside the Box. As my alter-ego Bernie and I have learned, Matzo easily replaces traditional breading for eggplant parmesan, dough for pizza, and layers of four layer chocolate cake. Matzo is an old food product (biblical, even). It is extremely versatile... more then just a platform for peanut butter, jelly and cream cheese. Jazz up your Passover Seder this year with this nouvelle cuisine matzo recipe from my blog: read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living

Reform Jewish Education: A Brave New World March 24, 2009 (4 Comments) "There is a new container full of old wine and an old container in which there is not even new wine." -Pirkei Avot 4: 20 New technologies are changing the world of Reform Jewish education, and as Rabbi Scott Sperling puts it, our challenge is to fill the "new container with old wine." In the current volume of Torah at the Center Sperling and others cite examples of this brave new world: A weekly d'var Torah video group on Facebook where teens discuss the weekly Torah portion Online study groups for students in Sderot who can't get to class because of Quasam missile attacks Podcasts created by elementary Jewish day school students Class tzedakah collections transformed into microloans Electronic theme-based siddurim (prayerbooks) created by students and presented during school worship services High school Jewish electronic portfolios Assistive technology that reads written text aloud for special needs students A rabbi reaching out on a social networking site to a child grieving over the loss of a grandparent  read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Torah

I Friended God on Facebook! March 9, 2009 (2 Comments) By Rabbi Paul Kipnes (Originally posted on Or Am I?) I spent much time during my time in Israel, playing on and updating my Facebook page. I reconnected with some old friends and developed connections with some newer ones. There's nothing like discovering an old friend and catching up again. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Choosing Your Label March 6, 2009 By dcc "Some shoppers want food that was grown locally, harvested from animals that were treated humanely or produced by workers who were paid a fair wage. The organic label doesn't mean any of that." The New York Times Organics are big business; the industry boasted more than $20 billion in profits last year reports the New York Times article quoted above. But what does it mean to buy organic or locally raised, significantly more expensive food? It means that if you are talking about it, not just doing it, you need to be labeled as an organic consumer to find some sort of meaningful connection to your grub. We all are searching for that connection that makes us feel good and worthwhile. Food -- being essential both to survival and pleasure -- holds unique position in our journey towards meaningful existence. We are labeling ourselves with something that we choose to see as cleaner when we buy that cage free chicken, that wild fish or those organic veggies. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Us--Back Then March 3, 2009 (7 Comments) by William Berkson When trying to understand what is going on in society, I always feel like I've come in the middle of the movie. I see what's happening, but, not knowing what came before, I don't quite understand what the players' motivations and viewpoints are. And so I don't quite understand what is going on. I always eagerly look to history for a better understanding of the present. So in my quest to understand what is happening now in Reform Judaism, I was delighted to come across the eye-opening article "Miss Daisy's Planet: The Strange World of Reform Judaism in the United States: 1970-1930", by Prof. Yaakov Ariel. It is in the book Platforms and Prayerbooks, edited by Dana Evan Kaplan. I have always had an uneasy feeling that what is called Classical Reform was never quite real, in spite of the passion and lucidity of the famous "Pittsburgh Platform" of 1885. Ariel reveals that the ideology of Reform leaders like Kaufman Kohler--author of the Pittsburgh Platform--and the reality of the lives of Reform Jews were in fact in some ways very different. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Aliyat haNefesh, My Soul Ascends to Jerusalem February 24, 2009 By Rabbi Paul Kipnes (Originally posted on Or Am I?) I'm in Israel now. This might be a good time to reflect upon the purpose of this trip. My Israel Adventure 2009 has three purposes: To attend the convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform Movement rabbis) who meet once in seven years in Israel;  To help guide a small group of Or Ami people (a congregant and his current/future sons-in-law) through Israel; To make my annual Aliyat haNefesh (spiritual ascent) to our Jewish holy land. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish Living

Im ein kemach, ein Havdalah? I'm unconvinced. February 18, 2009 (3 Comments) By David A.M. Wilensky (Originally posted on The Reform Shuckle) A debate has raged this week at iWorship, the URJ's listserve for synagogue Ritual or Worship Committee members, regarding the timing of Havdalah. In this late stage of halachic development, I'm a little amused and taken aback that such a debate could rage at all. Certainly, the timeframe for Havdalah is well established. It must be done after dark, once three or more stars are visible. Simple, right? read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Shabbat

Bicentennial man February 12, 2009 (1 Comment) By Arielle Gingold (First posted on the RACblog) Today we celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. Unfortunately, with a debate between evolution and intelligent design rife in our country, staggering new polling data finding only 4 in 10 Americans believe in evolution, and the ever-present push to teach creationism in public schools, we can't quite call this the happiest of birthdays. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Getting Yourself Organized for the Real World February 6, 2009 By Jake Adler (First posted on the Kesher blog) Jake Adler shares his struggles to find balance in religious ritual, time management, and ultimately, life. My family has never been particularly big on routines. We rarely ever lit Shabbat candles or had Shabbat dinner together in my home. It was never part of our schedule. As the mood took us, we would have Chinese, French, sushi, or my mom's favorite, the local steakhouse. This novel indecisiveness could be thrilling, but at times it was also confusing. With so many options available, it's sometimes difficult to narrow down your options. As a result, I often had trouble knowing when to stop putting things on my plate. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Shabbat

Finding God in the New York Times February 5, 2009 By Gardening Grandma The juxtaposition of three stories in this morning's New York Times made me stop and realize I've been spending far too much time thinking about what's happening to me in my very small footprint in time and far too little time appreciating the great flow of history and God's creation. On page 1 we learn that Dr. Death, Aribert Ferdinand Heim, never atoned for the atrocities he performed at Buchenwald. Writing from his haven in Egypt, perhaps as recently as 1979, he wrote that it was Simon Weisenthal who invented the atrocities he performed, and he decried the possibility of anti-Semitism because most Jews were not Semitic in ethnic origin. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Out of the Narrow Places February 4, 2009 (1 Comment) By Marge Eiseman I wonder why the conversations I've been having lately seem to have the same underlying theme - I can talk to people in different cities, from various parts of my life, and we are all exploring the same thing. Change, creativity and trying to move out of the stuck places are the dominant themes. One of my friends calls this "living in Torah time", and sees the conversations of the mundane as actually our sacred journey played out beyond the temporal bounds of time. The current story we are learning, Parashat B'Shallach, where we collect Joseph's bones and finally face the moment of crossing the Sea with all the attendant miracles and wonders, is an amazing meta-story for us to look at in our culture and our personal lives. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Torah

Sibling Rivalry: Can't Kill 'em so Try to Love 'em February 2, 2009 By Rabbi Paul Kipnes (Originally posted on Or Am I?) I have three siblings: an older sister, and two younger brothers. Our relationships with each other have, like the sides of an accordion, sometimes drawn closer and sometimes moved farther apart. At times distance (east-west coast, California-Israel) has made my heart grow fonder; occasionally the distance provides an easy excuse to ignore them. While we may argue over who is our parents' favorite ("my son, the rabbi"..., kind of hard to beat that), we so often turn to each other when the going gets really tough. A seven-year-old girl, discussing her younger sister and herself, once said: "I think that God is having one big experiment. God put two people who are very different in one house to live and wants to see what happens." Truth be told: my brothers and I had some knock-down, drag-outs in our day, and we all did a lot of kvetching - complaining - about each other too. But in various ways, my siblings are the people who consume much of the space in my heart. Our relationships are intense, complex and deeply cherished. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Mine and Ours January 29, 2009 (13 Comments) by dcc Back when I prayed, during the silent prayer I would always look at my feet taking note of the floor or ground and how it was different from the other places I had prayed. I would wonder who else had looked at this piece of earth while in prayer. I would get lost in the fact that an Omnipotent God can hear in any place. Be it in a summer camp chapel overlooking the Pacific in a once cold, lifeless conference room filled with ruach (spirit) of thousands of teens or in ridged pew of a temple, I would look to the ground to see where I was standing. But I don't do that anymore. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

The Rethinking Reform Think Tank January 28, 2009 (2 Comments) By David A.M. Wilensky (First posted on The Reform Shuckle) The most personal and most moving session I attended at LimmudNY 2009 was called Rethinking Reform and was advertised as being led by members of the so-called Rethinking Reform Think Tank. I do not know who else is in this group, but those leading the session were Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning Executive Director Rabbi Leon Morris, HUC rabbinical student Jill Cozen-Harel and former HUC student, current Ziegler rabbinical student, blogger and one of my many teachers, David Singer. One year prior to this session, at LimmudNY 2008, the three of them came together for the first time from a place of frustration, loneliness, and excitement to create what they now refer to as The Reform Think Tank. I'll let them speak for themselves in the following, their missions statement: read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Blessings for Today: A New Day in America January 21, 2009 (4 Comments) By JanetheWriter We Jews have blessings for all occasions:  for bread, for wine, for joyous times, for sad times, upon seeing a rainbow, for flowers and herbs, for social action... the list goes on. Each morning we thank God for returning our souls to our bodies and for a host of other daily miracles:  enabling us to distinguish day from night, opening our eyes, freeing the captive, lifting the fallen, and so on. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Social Action

Strengthening Reform: 20. Jewish Ethics and Patriarchy January 12, 2009 (10 Comments) by William Berkson Ecclesiastes was wrong: there is something new under sun. Our world has three crucial differences from the worlds of the Torah and the Talmud: science, democracy, and women's equality. As I argued in the last post in this series, modern science means that we need to look not only to our sacred texts for personal guidance, but also to insights of modern science, including psychology and sociology. Thus if we are going to understand what God wants of us ethically, the ethical mitzvot, we need to apply our improved understanding of ourselves and of society, and synthesize that with what we learn from our sacred texts. read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Jewish Living

Siblings of People with Special Needs: Next Steps in Disability Awareness Outreach January 6, 2009 (1 Comment) By Rabbi Paul J. Kipnes Our Congregation Or Ami (in Calabasas, CA), like so many Reform Jewish congregations, spends significant time and energy embracing and supporting families with children with special needs. We are proactively welcoming, because our tradition teaches us that we all were created b'tzelem Elohim, in God's image. Taking our lead from the Union for Reform Judaism's Disability Awareness initiatives, we have come to understand that "with special needs children, there are two values being played out, simultaneously. Working with one child, Brandon Kaplan, for instance, we saw that Brandon is a kid like any other kid created in the image of God, worthy of love. But Brandon is also a special kid and there is an honor and joy to the congregation that he participates to the fullness of his abilities. So he's normal and special, but here's the secret: so is every other kid." read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Finding Words of Hope January 5, 2009 by Gardening Grandma I've always resonated to the writings of the late Rabbi Chaim Stern, editor of Gates of Prayer and Gates of Repentance.  But it wasn't until I read a post by his widow, Lea Lane, on The Huffington Post blog that I realized how his words can be of comfort and encouragement during these difficult days. The passages quoted are from Day by Day, and include this: May I be among those who are hard to provoke and easy to appease. May I be a friend of peace at home and at work, and everywhere I go. When I am angry let me reflect whether my anger is proportionate to its cause and appropriate in its expression. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish Living

Control, God and the University of Miami December 31, 2008 (2 Comments) by dcc There was a very interesting piece in the New York Times Science section this week about religion. A researcher from the University of Miami found that true believers have better self-control. In keeping with the findings of this study, I will not re-write the article but only give you a taste; I am controlling my bombastic desire to be bearer of news and information. [The researcher's] interest arose from a desire to understand why religion evolved and why it seems to help so many people. Researchers around the world have repeatedly found that devoutly religious people tend to do better in school, live longer, have more satisfying marriages and be generally happier. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

What Kind of Jew am I? December 31, 2008 (12 Comments) by Chaim I have been struggling lately about where I fit in the Jewish world and thought the RJ Blog would be a good place to discuss this. I think the reason I have been struggling is because I seem to sort of float between Orthodox and Reform in my religious practice and understanding of Torah. I basically believe the Torah was given to Moses at Sinai by G-d, but not dictated 'word for word'. But rather the ideas and methods in which to connect to G-d were given to (or discovered by) Moses, passed down through the generations, and eventually written down as the Torah we know today. I believe the Torah to be sort of a 'mystical code' of sorts written in simple language to convey deeper metaphysical ideas and concepts. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Remembering a Giant: Arnold Jacob Wolf December 31, 2008 (2 Comments) by Rabbi Elliott A. Kleinman Chief Program Officer, Union for Reform Judaism (First published on the RACblog) When I learned of Rabbi Arnold Wolf's death on Wednesday evening, I was overwhelmed by the loss. Arnold was my rabbi. My parents were founders of Congregation Solel in Highland Park, IL, and Arnold has been a part of every moment of my life. It was Arnold who inspired me to be a rabbi and challenged me to be a Jew, and it was Arnold who taught me how to do both. Some of my earliest memories are of Arnold berating our congregation or our religious school class or the board of the congregation for not doing enough in the pursuit of justice. What I remember most is that we loved every moment of it. God was real and I "had better pay attention" he would remind us. "I am Adonai your God" was not a promise but a challenged to be lived up to every moment in every action. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Lifecycle

Shamor v'zachor - Observe and Remember December 29, 2008 (2 Comments) by Daniel Crane First-year rabbinical student at HUC-JIR Originally written for blogHUC and Daniel's blog Journaling in Jerusalem I've been involved with interfaith dialogue since my first year of college. So when I signed up for Rav Siach, an interdenominational rabbinical student discussion group in Jerusalem, I expected an interesting and smooth experience. The past two months have definitely been interesting, but I could hardly call them smooth! For the past eight weeks, four fellow HUC rabbinical students and I have been traveling to Melitz, a pluralistic education center in Jerusalem, to meet a handful of our future colleagues from other denominations. There are about a dozen participants with three facilitators, and we come from Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, "orthodox," and non-denominational backgrounds. Thus, we come to the table not only with our personal perspectives but also with the weight of our "movements" on our shoulders. And all that weight has made for some very heavy conversations. We discuss and debate issues like commandedness, the role of the rabbi, and denominational distinctions, and we strive to keep our minds open while attempting to understand the thoughts of the others. This can be a significant challenge, but our mutual respect gives us the motivation to try our hardest. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Israel | Jewish Living | Shabbat

The Candle of Contemplation December 26, 2008 by Rabbi Paul J. Kipnes A Story (learned from Rabbi Cheryl Peretz) There is wonderful Hasidic story, told of a conversation between the rabbi and a member of his community. The man once asked: "Rabbi, what is a Jew's task in this world?" The rabbi answered: "A Jew is a lamp-lighter on the streets of the world. In olden days, there was a person in every town who would light the gas street lamps with a light he carried on the end of a long pole. On the street corners, the lamps sat, ready to be lit. A lamp-lighter has a pole with a flame supplied by the town. He knows that the fire is not his own and he goes around lighting the lamps on his route." The man then asked: "But what if the lamp is in a desolate wilderness?" The rabbi responded: "Then, too, one must light it. Let it be noted that there is a wilderness and let the wilderness be shamed by the light." Not satisfied, the man asked: "But what if the lamp is in the middle of the sea?" The rabbi responded: "Then one must take off one's clothes, jump into the water, and light it there!" read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living

A Buoyant Spirit December 24, 2008 (1 Comment) By Marge Eiseman I haven't yet seen the movie "Yes Man" (and I probably won't, since Jim Carrey's energy is a bit much for me!), but it got me thinking about how we present ourselves to the world, and what factors into our essential nature. I know people who are ruled by fear, who worry about things beyond their control and don't expect the best in any situation. Their default setting is "No!" They don't seek new experiences, and they don't see life as a blessing, or have a sense of how they could bring blessing into the world. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Torah

Confirming the Diversity within Our Reform Movement December 23, 2008 (8 Comments) by Rabbi Paul Kipnes Congregation Or Ami Question: What do you get when you take four most thoughtful, compassionate, committed Jewish teens, with whom I have studied Judaism for eight to twelve years, and put them together up on the bimah at Erev Shabbat services? Answer: A very moving Confirmation Class service. Congregation Or Ami's service last night was deeply meaningful. Our Confirmands - Alex Krasnoff, Ross Meyer, Jonny Wixen, and Sarah Wolfson - led the prayers and in between, offered their reflections on a series of questions: If asked by a non-Jewish person what you cherish about Judaism, what would you say? What do you believe or think about God? Having studied Judaism for 10-13 years, what ideas or parts of Judaism are most significant or meaningful for you? What has Judaism taught you that will help you later in life? How do you feel connected to Israel? When have you felt the most Jewish and why? Some of their responses, a picture of the diversity within our Reform Movement, include: read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living | Lifecycle

Color Me Jewish December 21, 2008 By JanetheWriter For as long as I can remember I've been fascinated by colors and the words that bring them to life.  Even today, among my most treasured possessions in a storage box high on a closet shelf is my childhood box of 64 Crayola crayons (circa 1967).  Included in that well worn green and yellow cardboard holder with the flip top and the built-in sharpener are equally well worn sticks of colored wax, each with a name to go with it--"magenta" (my personal favorite), "cornflower," "yellow green" and "green yellow," as well as the most un-PC and now-retired "flesh" and "Indian red." Back then who knew from "wild blue yonder," "outrageous orange" or "razzle dazzle rose?" Not surprisingly, the children's book Hailstones and Halibut Bones: Adventures in Color, the literary equivalent of that box of Crayolas was my favorite in that same era.  Like the crayons, the book--with its worn binding and weathered pages, one of which is affixed with an upside-down bookplate on which I'd neatly printed my name--remains among my most treasured possessions.  On each two-page spread, author Mary O'Neill and artist Leonard Weisgard query readers about a particular color before providing a poetic and wonderfully illustrated answer that, even in a young child, evoked deep emotion.  On page 15 we read: "What is Gold?  Gold is a metal/Gold is a ring/Gold is a most beautiful thing./Gold is the sunshine/Light and thin/Warm as a muffin/On your skin..."  First published in 1961, the words and pictures represent a simpler time:  "What is Brown? Brown is the color of a country road/Back of a turtle/Back of a toad./Brown is cinnamon/And morning toast/And the good smell of The Sunday roast.  What is Purple What is Orange?  What is Red?  What is White?  And so on... read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Time to Cherish December 16, 2008 by Marge Eiseman I guess it always matters where we start telling our stories - does my personal story begin at my conception? Birth? First memory? Last night, I called one of my best friends, and I was hoping that I would reach her 17 year old daughter. I just wanted to check in with her, because, in addition to the normal stress of high school seniors who are waiting to see where they will be accepted for next year, we are all dealing with her mom's new diagnosis of breast cancer. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Lifecycle

"Here I am-Your Partner-Let's Dialogue." December 11, 2008 (3 Comments) by Sybil Schwartz Member of Congregation Beth Emeth, Wilmington, DE Rabbi Bloom's article "What God Can Learn From Us" published in the Winter Edition of Reform Judaism seems to take the approach of considering God's relationship to humans and our relationship to God as evolutionary in development. Intellectually we know that we are but a complicated composite of simple atoms all interconnected in a mortal body with a mind that can learn, conceptualize, create and feel. We have the capacity to master many tasks-the hardest may be the formulation of a mature relationship with God. Maybe for each person our relationship with God is more like a blind date in which the parties try to determine if there is even a connection beyond their first exploratory encounter. And from that first momentary encounter of our ancestors reaching out to the God, we continue to explore that relationship-one that seems to be shrouded in awe and mystery so much of the time. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

The Ghosts of Christmas Past December 10, 2008 (24 Comments) by Andi Rosenthal This article was originally published on InterfaithFamily.com In the midst of packing up the apartment where I've lived for the past seven years, I found them right where I knew they would be, in a box at the very back of the hall closet. Sighing, I opened it. There they were, bells and angels, stars and glass balls, shimmering in every color of the rainbow, shining out of the depths of the cardboard darkness. My Christmas ornaments, every single one with its own story, its own memory. I picked one up--a goofy orange ceramic lobster my sister had brought from Maine--and gazed at it, remembering my final Christmas tree in 2001, the year before I converted. "Throw them out," said my friend Chrissy, as she folded up the clothes I would be donating to a local charity. "It's not like you're going to use them ever again." "No," I replied, a note of stubbornness coming into my voice. "I want to keep them." read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living

For the Blessings that Have Been Our Common Lot November 26, 2008 (3 Comments) by JanetheWriter It seems plausible that Thanksgiving as we know it today derives originally from our tradition's Sukkot. Whether or not this is, in fact, true, in our consumer-driven, must-have-the-latest-greatest-gadget, me-me-me society, this autumnal chag is a wonderful opportunity to step back, to reflect on what really matters and, individually and collectively, to celebrate our many blessings. In my family, Thanksgiving minhag dictates that someone (usually my mother) reads a poem, prayer or other seasonal passage before we dig in. Last year, a few days before the holiday, Connecticut Governor Wilbur L. Cross' 1936 Thanksgiving proclamation crossed my desk and it was I who read it at our Thanksgiving table. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living

Should we invite conversion? November 20, 2008 (63 Comments) By Gardening Grandma Three years ago Rabbi Eric Yoffie said it was time for Reform Jews to actively encourage conversion.  "It is a mitzvah to help a potential Jew become a Jew-by-choice," he told the Biennial assembly. Do you agree with Rabbi Yoffie? In the winter edition of Reform Judaism magazine, two Reform rabbis take on the issue. See what Rabbi Stephen Einstein and Rabbi Rosalin Mandelberg, both members of the Joint Commission on Outreach and Membership, have to say. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Conduct Un-becoming November 17, 2008 (3 Comments) By Andi L. Rosenthal When I was four years old, I learned how to make the Sign of the Cross. As a pre-kindergarten student at the Immaculate Conception School, I was taught that this was a necessary practice to begin and end any conversation we wished to have with God. We were to use this rite any time we needed to talk to God - to give thanks, to pray for help or healing, or even just to ask a question. I remember clearly how the nuns walked up and down the rows of desks, painstakingly correcting each child as they sought to master the choreography of the ritual - the slight touching of the forehead, then the space right below the heart, first left, then right. As a child, it fascinated me that this tiny ceremony was akin to picking up the phone, or in these days, opening up a text window to send an email. Just ask the question, we were taught, and you will receive an answer. So it was with great interest and excitement that I read Rabbi Jack Bloom's article in the latest edition of Reform Judaism magazine. Perhaps because I learned from a very young age that the signs and wonders of God's creation were all around us, or perhaps because I was taught to share my desk with a guardian angel, I found Rabbi Bloom's article to be not nearly as controversial as some would perceive. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Torah

On Gods and Mortals November 17, 2008 (11 Comments) By Larry Kaufman Rabbi Bloom's provocative view of our relationship with God centers on the God of the Torah, and I respectfully suggest that we 21st century Reform Jews relate to Somebody altogether different. Taught as we are that we are made b'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God, we are more likely to look in the mirror than in the Torah to develop our picture. I find more truth than poetry in the story of the little boy huddled with his crayons over a sheet of paper, whose mother asks what he is doing. "I'm drawing a picture of God," he replies. "But Sammy," his mother remonstrates, "nobody knows what God looks like." "Of course not," says Sammy. "I'm not done yet." read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Torah

Closed on Shabbat November 11, 2008 (25 Comments) By JanetheWriter A recent post on her blog by Rabbi Phyllis Sommer (aka Ima on (and off) the Bima) reminds me that Baruch College could learn a thing or two from Isaac and Moishe Nava, proprietors of La Casa de Isaac, a Jewish-Mexican restaurant in the suburbs of Chicago that's closed on Shabbat. This week at Baruch, it's time to register for the spring semester and as is the minhag of the school, students, based on the number of credits earned to date, are assigned a specific timeslot in which to complete their online registration.  Although I certainly am not shomer Shabbos in the traditional sense, I do enjoy celebrating Shabbat and the holidays in a liberal sort of way.  I was dismayed, therefore, to receive an email notifying me that my online registration appointment is this Friday, November 14 at 8:15 p.m.  read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Shabbat

Strengthening Reform 18: The Leaky Glass October 30, 2008 (44 Comments) By William Berkson In response to several of my posts in critique of the current state of Reform theology, fellow RJ blogger Larry Hoffman has said that he views the glass as 'half full', as opposed to my 'half empty'. So while good changes are always welcome, we are in pretty good shape. In particular, he has pointed to the fact that Reform movement is growing in numbers, while the Conservative movement is shrinking. This last fact is indeed true, but it masks grave problems. That is because the "glass" is leaking, according to what I have read. Right now I can't put my hand on the sources, but I have read that a significant part of the increase comes from formerly Conservative Jews joining Reform Synagogues. And I believe that if you take away these, the numbers of Reform Jews have actually shrunk. Hopefully someone here can correct me if I got this wrong. But I believe what is happening is that those who are raised in a Conservative synagogue marry either a Reform Jew or intermarry, and then they join a Reform synagogue, where their spouse feels more at home or more welcome. read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Jewish Living | Torah

Met any lamed vavniks lately? October 28, 2008 (8 Comments) By Gardening Grandma Trying to stretch in a new direction, I'm taking a fiction writing class. This week's assignment: write a character description of a superhero. For me, who never watched Batman or Spiderman and only begrudgingly saw Superman since his alter ego was a reporter, I was at a loss. Who can believe in - let alone imagine - a superhero? But then I got to thinking about our Jewish tradition, and the role superheroes have played throughout our history. Perhaps the superheroes of 5769 aren't people who fly through the air or lift cars with the flick of the wrist. Maybe today's superheroes are the 36 Lamed Vav Tzadikim - the 36 righteous people who, were it not for them, the world would come to an end. Tradition tells us no one knows who the lamed vavniks are, but we can all guess who might be. Anyone have any nominations?   read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Remembering October 27, 2008 By JanetheWriter At last week's Yizkor service, just before the El Malei Rachamim, the rabbi asked people to recite the names of those they were remembering and to say a few words about them. Knowing that my mother would, of course, speak about her parents, I planned to mention two bachelor uncles -- great uncles, really, -- one whom I knew and one whom I did not. Uncle Irv was my mother's uncle, my grandfather's brother, about whom I've written before on this blog. He was a gardener's gardener. As one who kills houseplants with great regularity, I most certainly did not inherit any of his DNA. In a small plot of soil - indoors or out - Uncle Irv could coax tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, beans, flowers and more to burst forth from the earth, all the while smoking forbidden cigarettes and "hiding" them in his pocket whenever one of us came out in the yard to check on him. It's a wonder he never set himself on fire. He was as loving to all of us -- his nieces and their families -- as he was to his beloved plants, and we miss him terribly. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Ever hear the one about the Rabbi, the minister and the bagpiper? October 27, 2008 (3 Comments) By Steve Arnold I know it sounds like a corny joke, but it's the situation I had to balance recently in finally laying the ashes of my late wife to rest. In a world where more than half of all Jewish marriages are interfaith, finding a way to balance those different cultural demands is something we're all going to face. My story starts in April when my wife Marg died suddenly. She was a believing, but non-practicing Anglican and I'm Jewish. Her relatives are hard-right Pentacostals. The funeral service and visitation were marred by some serious and bitter conflicts with her relatives over fundamental questions - Marg and I had always talked about cremation, but her relatives were horrified at the idea her body wouldn't be ready for the rapture. I would sit shiva after the funeral, but for the service itself I wanted a dignified Anglican funeral - they wanted their family pastor to preach "hell fire and damnation." Emotions ran high. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Lifecycle

Bereshit: New Beginnings October 25, 2008 (5 Comments) By Andi Rosenthal  This morning, my weekly Torah study group, along with thousands of b'nei mitzvah children all over the world, began the Torah over again. The beginning comes, in my opinion, at the exact perfect moment, when the chill in the air and the gorgeous vibrant leaves and the deep azure of the Sound all bring the beauty of G-d's handiwork into sharp focus. It's as if, no matter what troubles or joys you are facing, you simply have to notice what a beautiful world we live in. And as a writer, very few narratives intrigue me as much as our sacred story of creation. Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim v'et ha'aretz - in the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth - is one of those perfect first lines - in fact, it is THE perfect first line. And I think any writer worth their keyboard would agree. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Lifecycle | Torah

Strengthening Reform 17: Reasons for the Mitzvot October 23, 2008 (7 Comments) By William Berkson As I wrote in the last post in this series, because in Reform our sacred texts are no longer regarded as authoritative, the "Reasons for the Mitzvot", ta'amei hamitzvot, have moved from being incidental to being central. In Reform, the reasons for the mitzvot become standards for interpreting, accepting, rejecting, and modifying the mitzvot as expressed in our sacred literature. That is why I have been alarmed by the latest turn in Reform thinking, as seen in the 1999 Pittsburgh Principles and in Rabbi Richard Levy's A Vision of Holiness, which expands on the Principles. For in this discussion, the predominant philosophy seems to be, as I said, Romantic Individualism. We as individuals 'try on' mitzvot to see if they are spiritually uplifting, and as part of our 'dialogue' with God we are moved to practice the mitzvot or not. read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Jewish Living | Torah

Control October 20, 2008 (4 Comments) By dcc Tamar Fox at Mixed Multitudes writes about Y-Love's finding that there are "activists" in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg who are destroying advertisements because the food pictured in these billboards is "excessive and indulgent." These ultra-Orthodox food-pleasure police are defacing property of surrounding businesses because they think photographs of food that is just too tasty will distract people and lead them into a life of crime, mischief and non-Jewish activity. Stop me anytime now, but isn't vandalism criminal, mischievous and non-Jewish? Outside of the somewhat backwards tactics of resistance, why can't the ultra-Orthodox practice restraint and control? read MORE Filed Under: Ethics | Jewish Living

"Our Pagan Yom Kippur" from FailedMessiah October 13, 2008 (6 Comments) By David A.M. Wilensky (First published on The Reform Shuckle) Over at the excellent blog FailedMessiah.com, a whistle-blowing blog out to expose far right wing orthodox Judaism as a harmful force in the world (by covering stuff like child molestation and Agriprocessors), there's a really interesting post about the ancient Mesopotamian holiday of Kapuru, held in the Babylonian month of Tashritu. Sound familiar? It's a cool post. Here's an excerpt: Our ancestors borrowed a great deal from a towering, imperial Mesopotamian culture that for centuries dominated the Fertile Crescent. That we used Babylonian calendar names is widely known. Semitic peoples had used the lunar calendar from time immemorial, but named their months differently. What the (Hebrew-speaking) Canaanites called Aviv, Ziv, Eytanim and Bul, the practical-minded Hebrews first renamed months One, Two, Seven and Eight. The Babylonians called them Nisanu, Ayaru, Tashritu and Archasamnu. In time, our ancestors replaced their numerals with the Babylonian names, many of which are named in honor of Mesopotamian gods. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living

On the Subject of Tallit October 12, 2008 (12 Comments) By Mary Hofmann I've been on a strange quest for an answer that never comes, so one more college try!  I love wrapping myself in my tallit.  I feel safe and cozy and experience a sense of balance and oneness with the One that is missing when I don't wear it.  When I've asked about why we aren't supposed to wear our tallitot except for morning Torah services, I receive only responses that tell me that the Torah enjoins us to wear it during morning services, not why I SHOULDN'T wear it in the evening.  Different question. Am I alone out here in the wilderness on this one, or are there others out there who'd like to add to, not break with, tradition on this subject? read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Prostration II October 10, 2008 (4 Comments) By David A.M. Wilensky (First published on The Reform Shuckle) I've posted about prostration before. Some of the more chazanishly demanding parts of the Yom Kipur liturgy at Chavurat Lamdeinu were tackled this year by one of our members, a guy named Steve. Steve grew up in the Conservative movement and later studied super-amazing-loud-operatic chazanut in a yeshiva. He later served for many years as a chazan at a conservative synagogue here in New Jersey. Of course, I know that during a particular Aleinu on Yom Kipur, we're supposed to prostrate ourselves. But after years of a Reform synagogue on Austin, HUC in Jerusalem, and, last year, a Reform synagogue in New Brunswick, I've never seen it done. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living

Authentic Judaism October 7, 2008 (2 Comments) By dcc In the most recent New Voices, Josh Nathan-Kazis interviews Rabbi Rick Jacobs of Westchester Reform Temple about the threat of Chabad to the Reform Movement.  The interview, Rabbi Jacobs's answers and even the questions are worth reading. However I completely dismiss the premiss of this article: "Chabad constitutes a challenge to the Reform movement. When Chabad's rabbis come to town, the local Reform synagogue faces the risk of appearing less authentic than the competition." read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Strengthening Reform 16: Ethical and Ritual Mitzvot October 6, 2008 (5 Comments) By William Berkson In the previous post in this series, I sketched the history of Reform treatment of Mitzvot, concluding with Rabbi Richard Levy's A Vision of Holiness: The Future of Reform Judaism (URJ, 2005). In this book Rabbi Levy, who led the 1999 "Pittsburgh Principles" effort, rejects the traditional Reform distinction in the status of ethical and ritual mitzvot. As I wrote, I think the abolition of this distinction is a spectacularly bad idea. read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Ethics | Jewish Living

Religulous an empty satire October 3, 2008 By Gardening Grandma Rosh HaShanah had been over for a few hours when I found myself at the Emelin Film Club  for a preview showing of Bill Maher's Religulous. Most of the time Maher, who didn't know about his mother's Jewish faith until he'd already decided to leave Catholicism behind, spends a lot of time on Jesus and Christianity, but gives Islam and Judaism short shrift. And of course, the only people he interviews--regardless of their faith--are those who are on the extreme edge. So there's not a Jew without payes in the movie. I'd been looking forward to seeing the movie, but I expected more than some laughs - no matter how good they are. I thought there might be some new insights, some hope that the movie would make fanatics think harder about their actions. Instead, it's Maher doing Maher. He is stuck in his view that organized religion is both absurd and terrifying, and, by ignoring anyone who isn't fanatical about their faith he deprives himself of understanding the role religion plays for the majority of people living in the 21st century. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Rabbi Bachman knocks it out of the park October 2, 2008 (3 Comments) By David A.M. Wilensky (First published on The Reform Shuckle) I've said it before and I'll say it again: The man is a genius. Check out a transcript of Rabbi Andy Bachman's erev Rosh Hashanah sermon here. Here' an excerpt: Surrendering total control is never easy-especially as members of a synagogue community founded on principles that value the intellect over the experiential; the rational over the mysterious; Reform over Tradition. Of course, as we continually need to remind ourselves, the historical circumstances that founded this community in 1861 are quite different from those that demand action in the world today. Our membership, ever growing, comes from all walks of Jewish life-Reform, Conservative and Orthodox and non-Jewish life as well. I find that fewer people have an intellectual ax to grind with Tradition and Reform is not much more than: 1. a commitment to egalitarian values for men, women, gays and lesbians; 2. a rationalist and historical view of the authorship of Torah; and, 3. devotion to the principles of Tikkun Olam, Social Justice and Social Action. But "Reforming Judaism?" I've yet to encounter in my years here a single Jew who truly wants to Reform Judaism. After all, in humility, we could easily spend the next 50 years just figuring out what Judaism IS! read MORE Filed Under: Community | Holidays | Israel | Jewish Living

Assimilation and Its Discontents September 29, 2008 (1 Comment) By Gardening Grandma In its 40th anniversary issue, New York magazine takes a look at how Jews have been assimilated into New York and how, by doing so, have lost some of their identity. Contributing writer David Samuels writes: The ascendancy of the Jews of New York can be viewed as a Hollywood-style triumph, but it can also be read as the tragedy of a group of brilliant outsiders who remade a city in their own image, only to cut themselves off from the roots of their tribal genius, ensuring that the future will belong to the children of the new outsiders--Koreans, Indians, Russians, and Chinese. I'm not sure I agree that "success has ruined the New York Jew." I rather like feeling at home in the city. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Strengthening Reform 15: The Great Mitzvah Muddle September 26, 2008 (6 Comments) by William Berkson The latest expression of the principles of Reform Judaism is the six-page "Pittsburgh Principles" of 1999. The book A Vision of Holiness: The Future of Reform Judaism, by Rabbi Richard Levy, begins with this statement, and expands on it to explain it more fully. One of the questions that was put to focus groups concerned autonomy and mitzvot: "... It is a given that Jews have the autonomous right to choose what beliefs and practices will inform their lives, but for Reform Jews the hard question is the role of Torah and mitzvot in their lives." read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Jewish Living | The Future

Strengthening Reform 13: Mordechai Kaplan and Reform September 14, 2008 (12 Comments) By William Berkson In the last post in this series, I looked at the ideas of one important thinker who has had an important influence on Reform Judaism: Martin Buber. Here I will look at another big influence on Reform in the 20th century, Mordechai Kaplan. Here are three key views of Kaplan. 1. Kaplan's religious naturalism. Classical Reform had been highly theistic, making a traditionally personal God and ethics almost the whole of Judaism. By contrast, Kaplan made God a personal sum of processes in Man that make for salvation, where 'salvation' means a better life both personally and socially--and 'better' means ethically and emotionally. read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Jewish Living

Honoring Fallen Soldiers September 5, 2008 (27 Comments) By Rabbi Eric Yoffie A rabbinic colleague recently sought my advice. Two congregants whose son had served as a doctor in a war zone had asked her to read from the bimah the names of American soldiers killed that week in Iraq. Should the congregation adopt this practice in conjunction with the recitation of Kaddish on erev Shabbat and Shabbat morning? Though she was sympathetic to the request, this rabbi feared that the practice might ignite a controversy. While most of her congregants opposed the war, those who supported it might interpret the reading of names as an act of protest against U.S. policy in Iraq. She didn't want the issue to divide the congregation or offend those who had come to say Kaddish for a loved one. What, she asked, would I recommend? read MORE Filed Under: By Rabbi Eric Yoffie | Jewish Living

Tribalism, Reform Judaism, Rites and Choices September 4, 2008 (19 Comments) By dcc Answer this question for me honestly: Do you, as an active Reform Jew, practice a Jewish tradition simply because that is what Jews have always done? Professor Carol Ochs writes in this week's d'var Torah that our portion teaches us that we can't "keep doing something just because we have always done it." I don't observe rituals simply because my parents do (or don't) observe them, but in all honesty my family's observance does inform my personal observance. And for that matter my community's observance plays a significant role in the formation of mine as well. But I can say with no doubt in my mind that I do not follow Jewish tradition simply because it is the way it has always been done. So why do we continue to practice the brit mila? read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Lifecycle

Strengthening Reform: 12. Buber and Reform Judaism September 3, 2008 (7 Comments) By William Berkson  In the previous post in this series, I described one example of the approach that I think can greatly strengthen Reform Judaism. The key is better to support the sanctity of relationships, and in particular family relationships. And the way to do this is through studying and living the values of Torah and Talmud, supplemented by some of the insights of modern psychology. And the synagogue can be the center of a community that carries out this mission of sacred learning and family support.  My recommendation for Reform to focus on the sanctity of personal relationships of course owes a great deal to the great 20th century Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber.  Buber said that a central way we experience holiness is in I-Thou relationships. In these open and honest relationships we are not simply viewing the other person as a means (an I-it relationship), but are encountering them in a relationship in which both egos are to some extent merged in the I-thou interaction, even while keeping their identity. And we also experience a oneness with God in such interactions.  read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Jewish Living

Keva, Kavanah, and Back to Keva August 25, 2008 By Larry Kaufman As part of introducing Mishkan T'filah at Beth Emet several months ago, Rabbi Peter Knobel gave us "permission" to wander away from whatever  the congregation was reading or singing, and to go anywhere else on the two-page spread that felt more comfortable, or for that matter, wherever our individual thoughts and prayers might lead us. In doing so, he reminded us that in a world where multi-tasking has become commonplace, we might very well be able to join our voices with the community, while our minds were somewhere else. I thought about this at Shabbat services, less than a year into our use of the new, yet by now taken-for-granted, siddur.  We know when and how to follow the liturgy on the printed page; and we know (since we are a worship group of regulars) when we will deviate from the text and follow from memory the lashon (language) and minhag (custom) of our former home-made prayer book. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Shabbat

Theological Summer Camp August 19, 2008 (7 Comments) By dcc David A.M. Wilensky, RJ.org blogger, Kutz Campus regular and liturgy-wonk, was a bit offended by yesterday's post from the Society for Classical Reform Judaism's Executive Director Rabbi Howard A. Berman. His post on the Reform Shuckle outlines and deconstructs the argument that the SCRJ is a vital and important aspect of present day Reform Judaism. My perusal of the rest of Rabbi Berman's post and of the Principles page of the SCRJ website leads me to believe that beyond [supporting] an increasingly outmoded aesthetic, there are no differences between SCRJ and the mainstream of the movement. Certainly the ideology the SCRJ labels Classical is no more than standard Reform ideology. While I am not sure which theological camp is right (or more to the point if any camp can be "right"), it does seem a bit out of place to go to the extremes that have often been supported in posts and comments this blog. My hope for the future of Reform Judaism is that we move past these broad stroke definitions and focus on our mandate to be the light onto the nations, have our youth see those vision and do justice while we walk humbly with our God. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | The Future

Kiev Revisited August 18, 2008 (3 Comments) By Larry Kaufman As regular readers of this blog may have noticed through my comments on other people's posts, I've recently returned from a river cruise through Ukraine -- fortunately arriving home before the Georgian crisis erupted -- and want to share some thoughts in three general areas: Differences between Jewish and secular travel The changes that appear to have taken place in Ukraine since my prior trip in 2001 Ukrainian roots for American Jews read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living | The Future

Strengthening Clasical Reform August 18, 2008 (17 Comments) By Rabbi Howard A. Berman A number of comments in the current discussion on "Strengthening Reform" have referred to various dimensions of Classical Reform Judaism as an "early historic chapter" of our Movement's development, rather than a vital and viable position within the diverse religious community that the Union embraces today. As the Executive Director of the newly organized Society for Classical Reform Judaism, I trust that many readers of this blog saw our first full-page advertisement in the current issue of Reform Judaism Magazine, introducing this new alternative voice in the national Reform family. The SCRJ has been founded as a voice of advocacy for the preservation and creative nurturing of the historic progressive principles, rich intellectual foundations, and  beloved worship traditions of American Reform Judaism. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

RDS at DNC August 18, 2008 (2 Comments) By dcc This weekend Rabbi David Saperstein was asked by the Democratic National Committee to offer the Invocation on the night that Sen. Barak Obama accepts the nomination in Denver. Rabbi Saperstein joins a group of men and women come from across the country and from churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and organizations that are as diverse as the population of the United States. Frank Lockwood, an Evangelical blogger, writes that the "prayer line up that looks, demographically, a lot like America." To me this is the most interesting aspect of this "prayer line up." Regardless that these men and women of the cloth are leaders, and in some cases pioneers, they look like America. I suppose it is only fitting that when the Democratic Party nominates a man of African and American heritage, hailing from Hawaii via Kansas through New York, Boston and Chicago, rising from poverty into wealth, the people who offer prayers and words of faith during this nomination would also reflect America's growing diversity. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

I am a poem August 15, 2008 By David A.M. Wilensky Thursday's 10 Minutes of Torah are all about prayer and this week's by Rabbi Edwin C. Goldberg, was about the left-hand-side-of-the-page (not the mention the left of the ritual spectrum) reading on page 41 of Mishkan T'filah. The reading serves as an alternatative option for what our Reform liturgists have aptly termed Nisim B'chol Yom (daily miracles). In last week's edition, Rabbi Richard Sarason explained that the purpose of this collection of blessings is to bring a little kodesh (holy) into the chol (mundane) of our morning routines. Each one, with the exception of the three identity prayers, addresses a particular part of our morning, from waking up to putting on clothes all the way to the set of shorter blessings into Asher Yatzar, a prayer for going to the bathroom. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Forum on Decorum August 15, 2008 (3 Comments) By Larry Kaufman There is no question that the introduction of decorum in religious services was an important motivator in the early stages of Reform Judaism in Europe.  (The other key liturgical changes were worship in the vernacular, elimination of repetitions, addition of a sermon, and excision of "unacceptable" content - Messiah, resurrection of the dead, restoration of the Temple.) But what did the Reformers mean by decorum? read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Strengthening Reform 10: Synagogues and Families August 14, 2008 (6 Comments) By William Berkson In the last post in this series, I argued that Classical Reform took a wrong turn in rejecting the Talmud, and that this mistake led to the neglect of a key strength of Jewish tradition: rabbinic ethics. Fellow blogger Larry Kaufman argued, "I for one do not believe the health of our movement depends on our attitude towards the Talmud, but rather on our attitude towards our congregants." There is no doubt that good management both by clergy and lay boards are keys to the health of congregations. But there is more: what does the congregation do with and for its members? How does the congregation meet the needs of its members, and potential members? read MORE Filed Under: Community | Defining Reform | Jewish Living

Strengthening Reform: 9. Reform's Wrong Turn August 6, 2008 (18 Comments) By William Berkson Several on this forum have looked back to "Classical Reform" somewhat wistfully, admiring the clear sense of direction and the passion and confidence that Reform Judaism had in that period. And by implication, some feel that that clear direction is lacking now. And I agree. Yet the current muddle I believe has its roots in a fundamental mistake that was made during the Classical Reform period. The mistake was to throw the Talmud overboard. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Defining Reform | Jewish Living | Torah

Your bloggers will be my bloggers August 5, 2008 By David A.M. Wilensky I just got off the phone with my newest blogosphere friend, Avi Montigny, Project Coordinator of JewsByChoice.org. JBC, for those who have not yet had the pleasure of visiting the site, is a group blog written by a group of Jews of a variety of denominations, all of whom happen to be converts. The JBC blog has quickly become one of my favorites in a crowded field of Jewish blogs competing for my attention in my RSS reader every day. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

A Newer, Slower Kosher August 1, 2008 (1 Comment) By dcc Recently I have been reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, which while partly polemical in its approach to local food consumption as opposed to what Pollan calls "the industrialized food chain," did a lot to reinforce my love of good, tasty, carefully created food. But it seems that I am not alone in this re-discovery. In the last week or so my local paper has dedicated significant front page real estate and bandwidth (complete with a new "Times Topic Page") to local and natural food movements. Many people are concerned by the number of pesticides, hormones and antibiotics fed to what becomes our food. We are beginning to ask why everything has the same five ingredients and most of the time we can't pronounce them. The inherent ignorance necessary to continue Pollan's industrialized food chain is coming to an end; people have decided they want to know what they are eating. read MORE Filed Under: Ethics | Jewish Living

A Few Minutes More July 31, 2008 (20 Comments) By David A.M. Wilensky Yesterday a post by Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman appeared on this blog titled "Ten More Minutes of Torah." It was a response to Lewis M. Barth's recent Ten Minutes of Torah for Masei, in which Barth argued that the current Haftarah cycle of three haftarot of destruction followed by seven haftarot of consolation suggest that Reform Judaism should reassess its relationship with Tishah B'Av. Rabbi Schwartzman's post expressed strong discomfort with this idea. Rabbi Schwartzman's first argument is typical of Reform Jews who are uncomfortable with even talking about the Temple in a Reform context. He tells us that, "Given the importance of the Temple in the Conservative and Orthodox movements, whether spiritually or practically, we Reformists would do well to consider exactly what we would be tying onto ourselves were we to adopt Tishah B'Av observances." read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living | Torah

Ten More Minutes of Torah July 30, 2008 (7 Comments) By Rabbi Joel R. Schwartzman In this week's comment on the parashat hashavuah (weekly Torah portion), in Ten Minutes of Torah, Professor Barth suggests that for the sake of the Haftarot that appear this time of year and are centered on Tishe B'Av (the Ninth of Av) that we in the Reform movement might re-consider observing this day as well.  While not a Classical Reformer myself and while I can appreciate the devastation that the destructions of the First and Second Temples meant to the Jewish people, I am not taken with the idea to instate this day into my Reform calendar. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living | Torah

Kabbal-architecture July 29, 2008 (2 Comments) By dcc The most obvious of Kabbalah's modern influences is found in the form of red strings circling the arms of Hollywood celbs. However Alexander Gorlin, FAIA, principal of Alexander Gorlin Architects in New York and member of the Union's Architects Advisory Panel, explains that Kabbalah is a major influence in post-modern architectural styles. He writes in a recent edition of Faith & Form, the premier journal focusing on religion, art and architecture, that he often draws on Kabbalah for inspiration, infusing his synagogue designs with a traditional continuity that has been historically absent in Jewish architecture. As Jews were often expelled from one place to another, it was difficult for them to establish an authentic style of their own. This lack of a historic tradition of Jewish architecture, apart from Polish wooden synagogues, encouraged me to seek out texts of the Old Testament. Noah's Ark, the Tabernacle in the desert, the Temple of Solomon, and the prophet Ezekiel's Vision of the Temple are all described in great detail, including dimensions and materials. These are, however, literal descriptions, as opposed to the more abstract concepts from the Kabbalah, which are more open to interpretation in a modern sensibility. The article is very interesting and worth the read. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Your Place or Mine? July 21, 2008 (9 Comments) By Larry Kaufman You all know about the man from Mars who finds himself on Earth in front a deli, wanders in and begins scrutinizing the display case.  "What's that?" he asks the counterman, pointing to a ring of dough with a hole in the center.  "We call that a bagel," the counterman replies.  "And that?" pointing to an orange slab.  "That's smoked salmon, colloquially known as lox."  "You know what," the Martian says, "I'm going to try some of that lox on a bagel, and why don't you add a shmear of cream cheese." So what would the man from Mars make of Reform Judaism if he should happen to land on this blog?  He would find a chorus singing, "Give me that old-time religion - it was good enough for Einhorn and good enough for Kohler, and it's good enough for me, and should be good enough for you, too - universalistic, minimal Hebrew mumbo-jumbo, no middle-Eastern aspirations, no shtetl accoutrements around our shoulders or coverings on our head," or, as my cousin Miriam used to say, "Ve are vun-hundred pehrcehnt Omericans."  read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Foreign prophets, foreign songs July 14, 2008 (6 Comments) By David A.M. Wilensky Two summers ago, here at Kutz, a girls' cabin led services one day. As we all entered the tron, they were standing at the front singing and clapping their hands. The song goes like this: Lord, prepare me To be a sanctuary Pure and holy Tried and true With thanksgiving I'll be a living Sanctuary for you It's a nice song. The message is fairly basic and unobjectionable. The tune is catchy and sounds slightly gospel. I like it. Since then, I've also heard a variation that incoporates a quote from Torah, "V'asu li Mikdash, v'shachanti b'tocham" ("Build me a sanctuary and I will dwell amongst you"). I like that version even better. When people found out that this verse of song is actually part of a larger song from the wonderful world on contemporary Christian music, they went nuts. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Shabbat | Torah

A Shehecheyanu Moment July 9, 2008 (3 Comments) By Gardening Grandma We ate the first cucumber from my garden this weekend. I brought it into the house, washed it, cut off a large chunk and relished the crisp crunch of a totally delicious and sweet fruit of the vine. A true shehecheyanu moment, I thought, but, even more, I realize now, a moment to simply stop and realize what a blessing it is to have a garden and to be healthy enough to work in it. In an essay first published in Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality, Rabbi Laura Geller recalls the exhilaration she felt on learning about non-traditional berachot. I had never learned about all the occasions for a blessing -- new clothes, new fruit, seeing the ocean, seeing a rainbow; being in the presence of a scholar, on hearing good news or even bad news -- I was exhilarated! God is present at every moment; it is up to us to acknowledge God's presence. We do it through saying blessings. Rabbi Kravitz said, "There is no important moment in the lifetime of a Jew for which there is no blessing." read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Remembering What's Really Important July 9, 2008 (7 Comments) By JanetheWriter In an article in this week's Science Times Michael Bicks recounts the tale of his recent heart attack and how his decision to go straight to the hospital has enabled him to say, "I get to hug my wife and my kids, understand how wonderful my friends are and realize exactly how much I love my life." Amidst the hassles and demands of everyday living--the missed buses and missed deadlines, the packed lunches left sitting on the kitchen counter, the unrelenting phone calls and emails, the spilled coffee, the winding line in the grocery store--it's too easy to lose sight of the wonders and richness of hugging our spouse, valuing our friends and loving our life. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Summertime in the Mishkan July 3, 2008 (4 Comments) By Andi Rosenthal Since 1948, when my congregation was founded, we've had a tradition of layperson-led Friday night Shabbat services. While some people say that it is a lovely break for our clergy, it's a tradition that means a whole lot more than just a way to give our deserving rabbis and cantor the chance to rest and celebrate Shabbat in the company of family and friends. Summer services train new leaders, help congregants to strengthen and deepen their connection to liturgy, and in my case, just last Friday night, gave me the opportunity to understand and appreciate the breadth and depth of the new Reform prayer book, Mishkan T'filah. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Shabbat

Leslie Bass on Reform Judaism July 2, 2008 (1 Comment) By David A.M. Wilensky As readers of Reform Judaism magazine will recall, the RJ Magazine's summer 2008 issue included a series of important questions regarding the Reform Movement and their answers as given by 30 adult members of the Reform Movement. I'm currently at the URJ Kutz Camp with a group of people who will be the future lay and professional leadership of the Reform movement in North America. I'll be featuring many of them as well as many of the younger Kutz staff members this summer in a series of posts here on the RJ.org blog, in which I will be asking Reform high school and college students (and perhaps a few 20-somethings) for their take on Reform Judaism via questions similar to those used in the Magazine. Leslie Bass hails originally from Austin, Texas. This fall she will be a junior at the University of Denver, where she is a double major in Digital Media Studies and Journalism. This July, she will be travelling to Brisbane, Australia to study abroad at the Queensland University of Technology for five months. In high school, she was an active member of NFTY-TOR and board member of her local TYG. She attended the URJ Kutz Camp in the Summer of 2005 and spent the Summers of 2006 and 2007 as Kutz Camp staff. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Holidays | Jewish Living | The Future

Strengthening Reform: 3. God's Providential Care July 1, 2008 (2 Comments) By William Berkson In the last post in this series I explained why science will always leave the door open to belief in a God who gives unity and purpose to nature and to humanity, and a God, who, when we experience the sacred, can inspire us. But can God have the qualities of God as portrayed in the Torah and the Talmud? The most troubled question about God throughout most of Jewish history has been of God's Providence, or caring intervention in the world on behalf of individuals and groups, especially the people Israel. The Torah clearly reports (in Exodus and Deuteronomy) that at Sinai God promised us prosperity--a bountiful harvest--and children if we obey his laws, and horrible punishments if we don't. However, during the revolt of the Maccabees, many devout Jews were killed. This seemed to violate the covenant at Sinai. In reaction to this bitter experience, I have read, the Pharisee branch of ancient Judaism adopted the idea that we can only expect just reward and punishment in a future life after death, olam haba, the world to come. read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Jewish Living

Josh Levin on Reform Judaism June 30, 2008 By David A.M. Wilensky As readers of Reform Judaism magazine will recall, the RJ magazine's summer 2008 issue included a series of important questions regarding the Reform Movement and their answers as given by 30 adult members of the Reform Movement. I'm currently at the URJ Kutz Camp with a group of people who will be the future lay and professional leadership of the Reform movement in North America. I'll be using many of them as well as many of the younger Kutz staff members this summer in a series of posts here on the RJ.org blog, in which I will be asking Reform high school and college students (and perhaps a few 20-somethings) for their take on Reform Judaism via questions similar to those used in the magazine. Josh Levin lives in Sarasota, Florida.  He is a senior in high school.  This year Josh will be the Religious and Cultural Vice President for the North American Federation of Temple Youth's Southern Tropical Region. Josh has three summers of experience at the Kutz, NFTY's Campus for Reform Jewish Teens. Next year, he plans to attend the University of Florida. read MORE Filed Under: Israel | Jewish Living | Social Action | The Future

Comfortable June 30, 2008 (6 Comments) By Mary Hofmann I think comfort is based on a perception of competence . . . you can't feel comfortable when you don't understand what's going on and don't know how to act appropriately in a given environment.   People come to Judaism with great trepidation, intimidated by the enormity of what they don't know. Often worse, Jews born to Judaism but raised in a totally secular environment, feel even more intimidated by all they think they should know in their very genetic structure, and don't - so they stay away, embarrassed and defensive. We want to be welcoming, but the sheer amount of knowledge the aspirant lacks might well be forming an insurmountable wall for many. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | The Future

Edie Joseph on Reform Judaism June 27, 2008 (1 Comment) By David A.M. Wilensky As readers of Reform Judaism magazine will recall, the RJ magazine's summer 2008 issue included a series of important questions regarding the Reform Movement and their answers as given by 30 adult members of the Reform Movement. I'm currently at the URJ Kutz Camp with a group of people who will be the future lay and professional leadership of the Reform movement in North America. I'll be using many of them as well as many of the younger Kutz staff members this summer in a series of posts here on the RJ.org blog, in which I will be asking Reform high school and college students (and perhaps a few 20-somethings) for their take on Reform Judaism via questions similar to those used in the magazine. Edie Joseph currently lives in Gainesville, Florida. She grew up at URJ Camp Harlam, attended Kutz in 2005, and in 2007 received a Bronfman Youth Fellowship in Israel. She will be attending Yale University as a freshman in the fall. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Keep the simcha simple June 26, 2008 (2 Comments) By Mary Hofmann While I enjoyed reading the many perspectives of the contributors to Reform Judaism this month, I was truly saddened by the plight of Elise Silverfield May and those in her situation (which includes a whole lot of us, on a lot of levels!)--the perceived high price tag of being Jewish (page 61 or online here). Her particular alarm rang concerning the temple members' expectations around her son's upcoming bar mitzvah, which were terrifyingly grandiose.  This concern connects well with Rabbi Yoffie's comments at the Biennial regarding congregants reclaiming Shabbat morning services from the grip of private "parties."  If we don't want Reform Judaism to become increasingly about status and wealth, I believe this problem needs to be addressed both in terms of reclaiming both the sanctuary and the sanctity of the event.  I guess it has to do with the values established at each congregation--and all of our opportunities (and obligations?) to revision those values regularly. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Lifecycle | Shabbat | The Future

God the Creator? June 26, 2008 (2 Comments) By Richard J. "Dick" Israel The grand panjandrum of this blog (aka the editor) has decreed that I post or be forever exiled. I must confess that up to now my contribution has been non-existent, but I attribute that to a lifelong (by now that's pretty long) notion I have indulged that those who speak the most have the least to say. That includes yours truly. Nonetheless, in all fairness to those who have been striving to enlarge lay contribution to the evolution of our otherwise clergy heavy Reform Judaism, let me strive to comply by exposing some stray ideas which have drifted through my thoughts recently. First, I tend to consider Reform Judaism as an association of generally like-minded Jewish people who can share religious worship and religiously derived social service activism with each other. That sharing includes financial as well as personal support to the best of each person's ability. I believe, also, in the utmost freedom of belief. I care not what any fellow Reform Jew believes, so long as we can worship together congenially. I care not what religious observances or practices any such fellow worshipper feels to be obligatory, optional or down-right silly, so long, of course, as that fellow worshipper accords me the same indifference. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Neo-Classical Reform Judaism June 26, 2008 (5 Comments) By dcc I have a conundrum: I consider myself a Classical Reform Jew. I do not view the mitzvot as a to-do (or to-don't) list. I feel connected to ethical regulations, while I have no desire to return to the Temple. I am a Kohen, but have publicly renounced my priesthood. However, I don't eat pork or shellfish at home. Reform, not Reformed, Judaism is fluid and over the years, the Movement has been in a constant state of flux, being true to this name. Some of our younger members have seen fit to return to traditions long regarded as out of date, while older members of our community remain Classical in their observance. I fall somewhere in between; I suppose I am a neo-Classical Reform Jew. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Jade Sank on Reform Judaism June 25, 2008 By David A.M. Wilensky As readers of Reform Judaism magazine will recall, the RJ magazine's summer 2008 issue included a series of important questions regarding the Reform Movement and their answers as given by 30 adult members of the Reform Movement. I'm currently at the URJ Kutz Camp with a group of people who will be the future lay and professional leadership of the Reform movement in North America. I'll be featuring many of them as well as many of the younger Kutz staff members this summer in a series of posts here on the RJ.org blog, in which I will be asking Reform high school and college students (and perhaps a few 20-somethings) for their take on Reform Judaism via questions similar to those used in the Magazine. Jade Sank is a 17-year-old recent high school graduate. In the fall she will attend Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. Jade was a member of NFTY-GER, serving as the 2007-2008 NFTY-GER Secretary. She attended the URJ Kutz Camp in the summer of 2006 and the Urban Mitzvah Corps in the summer of 2007. This summer, she is hard at work as a member of the Avodah staff of the URJ Kutz Camp. What has belonging to a congregation (or a Temple Youth Group or a Kesher group or going to a URJ camp etc.) that is part of the larger Reform Movement meant to you? Belonging to my congregation, my TYG, NFTY, Kutz, and Urban Mitzvah Corps has meant everything to me. My eyes have been opened by the millions of ways that I can get involved and make connections not only on a North American scale but a world scale. By becoming involved in many different ways I have achieved small goals that will eventually help the Reform Movement become stronger. The best part about being part of the larger movement is that through the small things I do, I will see the results on a larger scale. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Israel | Jewish Living | The Future

Strengthening Reform: 2. Science and God June 25, 2008 (3 Comments) By William Berkson In the first installment, I argued that Judaism shouldn't try to do without God, because then it will lack the power to inspire us.  That raises the question of whether modern science leaves open the door to God, to religion. There is still a strong movement that says science has superseded religion. This movement, known as "positivism" started with Auguste Comte (1798-1857). Comte had the theory that there were historical three stages in the development of understanding of the world: religious, then metaphysical, then scientific or "positive." Science should sweep aside all religious and metaphysical explanations, and scientific theories of society, in particular, would advance humanity to an ideal condition. Originally, the idea that the world consists only of "atoms and the void," and lacks any guiding purpose had been championed by the Epicurus (341-270 BCE). The Epicureans were unique in the ancient world in denying Providence--that God, or many gods, had a guiding influence on humanity. For that reason, the Jewish sages condemned them and said, "Know what to answer to an Epicurean." (Avot 2:19) Because there are leading scientists who still champion the idea that science has superseded religion, "knowing what to answer" is still a vital issue. read MORE Filed Under: Defining Reform | Jewish Living | Torah

Tallitot Talk with JanetheWriter June 24, 2008 (9 Comments) By JanetheWriter In today's Ten Minutes of Torah and in a recent blog post, Dr. Dvora Weisberg--briefly--and Larry Kaufman--more extensively--discuss tallitot.  Clearly, they are the topic of the day, reminding me of the first time I observed the commandment to l'hitateif batzitzit--wrap ourselves in the fringes. Although I was married, gainfully employed in the Jewish world and even an active member of a synagogue, I was thousands of miles from home and family, and often found myself alone--socially, spiritually, and emotionally.  Seeking community and acting on an ad I'd seen in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, I began to attend "Shabbat Resounds," the once-a-month, student-led Shabbat morning service at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Held in the lobby of the school's building, the service was filled with joyful worship and music, which, together with the sunbeams, did, indeed, resound into the unique architectural crevices of the space before bouncing back down to us. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Why Talitot June 23, 2008 (24 Comments) By Larry Kaufman It's the custom in our congregation for the person who presents the d'var Torah to pose questions for discussion by the kahal, the community. Leading the discussion on Shelach Lecha, I noted that this parashah includes the commandment to wear fringes, a commandment that was essentially negated in Reform Judaism by the Pittsburgh Platform of 1885, the negation remaining in force for well over a hundred years. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living | Torah

Taking back "Religious" and "Traditional" June 20, 2008 (20 Comments) By David Fair The Reform Movement in America is well over a hundred years old. In that time, our movement has developed and expanded many customs and ways of life that reflect a culture, rich with tradition and background. Yet it's a rare week when I don't hear one of our congregational leaders give a sermon where we are not compared to the more conservative movements of Judaism. What I hear the most is how we are justified in not following the Conservative and Orthodox customs of Kashrut, Shabbat, fasting holidays, and the like. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | The Future | Torah

Kashrut cleaning products? June 20, 2008 (1 Comment) By Bryan Freehling I began observing kashrut not when I converted to Reform Judaism thirteen years ago, but when I became a vegetarian almost three years ago. Although I considered observing kashrut upon becoming a Jew, my life partner of fifteen years who had kept kosher until he was 21, was not too amiable to that notion. However, after the passing of our beloved canine companion, Bella, both of us chose to become vegetarian. read MORE Filed Under: Ethics | Jewish Living

Of Covenantal and Other Special Relationships June 17, 2008 (3 Comments) By JanetheWriter Last week, I drafted--and ultimately scraped--a post for this blog because after it was written, I came to realize that not only was it much too personal for the vast world of cyberspace, but also, because I wrote it in anger after someone challenged my belief in the Jews' covenantal relationship with God, I wanted to give myself some time to reflect on what I was saying. Then I read the article in the New York Times quoting a letter from Abraham Foxman to Pastor John Hagee in which Foxman writes, "We look forward to meeting with you to promote a dialogue between Christians and Jews based on mutual respect, reconciliation and the recognition of God's eternal covenant with the Jewish people." Since Foxman raised the covenantal issue with Hagee, I've reconsidered my scraped post and, after a lot of thinking, I'm giving it another shot: read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living | Lifecycle | The Future

The Universe sent me a Shabbat message June 16, 2008 (3 Comments) By Wendy Nelson My daughter graduated from high school Saturday. The weather changed from cold and rainy to a sunny 80 degree day. The plague of cicadas awaited for 17 years and due to arrive by now were yet to emerge from the ground. I arrived early and got a front row seat knowing that I could not miss seeing my beloved child on this special day. It was Shabbat and all was right. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Holidays | Jewish Living | Lifecycle | Shabbat

Jewish-Muslim Dialogue June 14, 2008 (2 Comments) By Emily Grotta Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post has been observing the dialogue between members of a synagogue and a mosque in the Washington area. She writes: Such dialogue is often a balancing act: hopeful yet guarded; genuine yet superficial; teetering on the precipice of the most emotional subjects but often stepping back. Rare efforts such as this one, which ended June 1, go beyond a single mass event and seek more depth and intimacy. read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living | Social Action

On the Cusp of Two Branches June 11, 2008 (2 Comments) By Michael B. Snyder On the occasion of my second marriage, 20 years ago, I bound myself to a woman whose spiritual path had taken her from being born outside of Judaism, to Reform Judaism, to Conservative Judaism, and most recently to the Conservative rabbinate. My own background had been solidly within Reform Judaism up to our marriage. Having been exposed to Conservative Judaism through my wife, I have grown perhaps more traditional in my own practice than is the case for most Reform Jews. Thus I stand on the cusp of those two branches of the tree of American Judaism. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Kabbalist to hot-dog vendor: one with everything June 10, 2008 (2 Comments) By Laurance Kaufman My rabbi used to tease me about being a Litvak.  Having read Y. L. Peretz, I knew this was not an ethnic pigeon-holing; it was a character assessment.  It was Peretz's Litvak who scoffed when the townspeople explained the rebbe's mysterious disappearance early each Elul morning by saying he was visiting Heaven.  Only a Litvak would have followed the rebbe to see where he really went.  And perhaps only a Litvak,  discovering that the rebbe was disguising himself as a peasant and  gathering firewood to see an impoverished elderly widow through the winter, would have commented the next time the townspeople talked about the rebbe going to Heaven, "If not higher." read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living | The Future

Marking Jewish Time June 6, 2008 (5 Comments) By JanetheWriter Today is the 47th day of the counting of the omer.  And, although I do not possess David A.M. Wilensky's "hyper-awareness of Jewish time," I do, in my own way, mark Jewish time. As much a part of my growing up as lighting Hanukkah candles and fasting on Yom Kippur was the pilgrimage my mother, my grandmother and I made each summer to Beth David Cemetery in Elmont Queens.  read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living | Lifecycle

When am I? June 5, 2008 By David A.M. Wilensky I was born on the third day of the month of March in 1989. Much to the eternal dismay of my mother, I celebrated the nineteenth anniversary of that occasion on the twenty-seventh day of the month Adar of this year, 5768. This decision was one of several that I made over the last year that have led me to know always exactly when I am. I'll explain. At the end of August of last year I left my home of Austin, Texas to go to college at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Aside from the usual freedoms you might think of when you think of going off to college, I discovered a particular ritual freedom I hadn't quite thought of before. Of course at home no one stopped me from shuckling in synagogue, though it often garnered a few rather conspicuous glances from other congregants. No one stopped me from standing through the entire Amidah. I even met little resistance at home to the idea of wearing a talit katan every day. But, now, in college, not only could rituals be what wanted, they could be when I wanted. read MORE Filed Under: Holidays | Jewish Living

Expectations and Obligations June 5, 2008 (1 Comment) By Laurence Kaufman A recent post on the Union's iWorship list serve raised an interesting issue, bewailing the lack in the Reform movement of a sense of obligation to draw folks to attending services -- and pointing out that Orthodox Jews do have that sense of obligation.     The question is which comes first -- do people have the sense of obligation because they are Orthodox, or are they Orthodox because they want to feel obligated?   read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

The God I don't believe in showed up today June 4, 2008 (1 Comment) By Barbara K. Shuman In recent years I have proclaimed to myself and others that I don't believe in a personal God, one who hears and responds to my prayers. I sometimes meditate, experiencing silence and stillness as prayer, making space for Divine presence to infuse my life. By quieting mind and halting speech, I open my heart, inviting a Oneness in an attempt to dissolve ego, to focus on that which transcends me rather than on my Self. At other times I pray in order to giver voice to deep yearnings, to hear the inclinations of my heart and better know myself. In synagogue I may speak communal prayers to acknowledge my bond with the Jewish people, to express gratitude for life and its many blessings. But I do not believe in a God up there of whom I can ask favors and expect to have them answered. Or do I?    read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

This Is Your Brain On Age May 29, 2008 (2 Comments) By Rabbi Richard Address, D. Min Baseball is a great game. Often, a lot of attention gets paid to the phenom, the "kid." As teams adjust and reality sets in, the reason returns and we often again celebrate the "crafty veteran." It seems that in baseball, as in life, wisdom trumps knowledge. A recent piece in the New York Times titled "Older Brain Really May Be a Wiser Brain" sheds new light on the expanding research into the older adult brain. These studies are particularly meaningful for my work and our department's major program on longevity and the baby boomers (Sacred Aging). The articles points out that, as we age we take in more information, that here is more "clutter" to sift through. That information is filtered through one's life experience. Truth and falsity are filtered out and, the article says, the result of that filtering may be wisdom. One researcher: commented that wisdom is word for what happens when the mind is able to take in data, assimilate it, and filter it into its the proper place. "If older people are taking in more information from a situation, and they're then able to combine it with their comparatively greater store of general knowledge. they're going to have a nice advantage." read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living | Lifecycle

Muslims Praying at Temple Beth El May 28, 2008 (2 Comments) By Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman (Cross Posted with the RACBlog) The Chappaqua Interfaith Council has always been a diverse group. Chaired by my senior rabbi, Rabbi Joshua Davidson, we have not only Protestants and Catholics, but Baha'i, Quakers, and Muslims, as well. With Rabbi Yoffie emphasizing Jewish-Muslim dialogue in his Biennial Address, and with Rabbi Davidson's relationship with the Upper Westchester Muslim Society, this year felt like a perfect time to bring Temple Beth El and the Upper Westchester Muslim Society together to begin some discussions. On Tuesday, May 20, we had our first session. The dialogue was scheduled to begin at 8 PM, but before we could begin talking, one of the Muslim participants told us that at 8:10, it would be time for evening prayer. He wondered if there was a space they could use, and Rabbi Davidson realized this was an opportunity for us not just to talk about different faith traditions, but for members of Temple Beth El to see first-hand what another tradition's prayers might look like. Just to make sure the Muslim participants would feel comfortable, he asked if it would be appropriate for us to watch the evening prayer. When the answer was, "Sure, that's fine," Rabbi Davidson smiled and made a rather unique suggestion: "How about you pray where we pray. Would you like to use the bimah?" read MORE Filed Under: Community | Jewish Living

Reshaping Kosher May 20, 2008 (2 Comments) By Barbara K. Shuman The one practice I continue to refine and reshape is my observance of kashrut. I was raised in a home that made no distinction between kosher and treif foods. We ate bacon, baked ham, pork chops, and shellfish; and the day following our seder it was not unusual to find my father enjoying a ham and cheese sandwich on rye. When my husband and I married, we began to consider how we would eat and whether Judaism would inform those choices. Initially we determined that we would not cook or eat ham or pork in our home. Then we decided that our intention was to sanctify our bodies, not just our homes, so we stopped eating ham and pork period. Somewhere along the line we gave up shellfish too--not out of a sense of obligation, but more as a "favor" to a good friend--God. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living

Changing the Image May 20, 2008 By Art Grand Growing up, my image of God was based primarily on my father’s memories of being forced to attend an Orthodox cheder where his teachers refused to answer his questions and hit him with a ruler whenever he had trouble reciting prayers he didn’t understand. When my own son was born, my wife and I joined a Reform congregation and I attended services fairly regularly, but I hated God. For me, God was the Old Man in the Sky, distant and remote, and constantly demanding praise. How could I thank a God who’d been so harsh to my father? How could I pray? Then, when I was in my early forties, we moved to the West Coast and joined a small congregation. My son was in 5th grade at the time and my daughter was two. Every Sunday morning I would drive my son to religious school—it seemed like it was 100  miles from our house—and my daughter and I would hang around the school. She’d take her shoes off and play in the sandbox and wander into the classrooms. Everybody welcomed her. For her, religious school was the most wonderful place in the world. Little by little, I began to see Judaism through her eyes. read MORE Filed Under: Jewish Living