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From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

By Temple Emanuel in Newton

Bringing weekly Jewish insights into your life. Join Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz, Rabbi Michelle Robinson and Rav-Hazzan Aliza Berger of Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA as they share modern ancient wisdom.
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Shabbat Sermon: Raising The Cup We’ve Got with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for LifeNov 21, 2020

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Shabbat Sermon: Cultivating Hope During Seemingly Hopeless Times by Dr. Irle Goldman

Shabbat Sermon: Cultivating Hope During Seemingly Hopeless Times by Dr. Irle Goldman

I must tell you that whenever I have entered this sanctuary, I am reminded of the Starship Enterprise of Star Trek….and now I have the honor of speaking from the Control Room, And I flash to Spock communicating “Beam me up Scotty”… For me, this is a metaphor of how we use the spiritual power of this Sanctuary to create a Place For Healing. A true story. When my 40 year old son Adam Goldman-Yassen was in second grade, they brought the class to the Temple Emanuel sanctuary…and they showed them around and said of these chairs back here, “ These is where the rabbis sit. And Adam, having been brought up the the Newton Centre Minyan, the precursor of Minyan Ma’Or, A LAY-LED CONGREGATION, raised his hand and asked :“What’s a Rabbi?” I share that story with you because I believe Psychotherapy is the attempt to create a secular clergy to supplement what the religious clergy can offer. We are ALL the Purveyors of Hope.

Mar 25, 202420:24
Talmud Class: Why Don't We Say Hallel on Purim?

Talmud Class: Why Don't We Say Hallel on Purim?

For Talmud this week a different kind of move, in two ways. First, we are actually going to study a page of Talmud, tractate Megillah 14a. Second, we are going to examine a halakhic question: why do we not say Hallel on Purim? We say Hallel on Pesach, when we were rescued from Egyptian slavery. We say Hallel on Hanukkah, when we were rescued from the Syrian Greeks. We say Hallel on Yom Haatzmaut, when we established the State of Israel. Why do we not say Hallel on Purim, when we were rescued from genocide in the Persian Empire? And what does this halakhic conversation teach us about how traditional Jewish sources value Israel and value the diaspora as places for Jewish living?

Mar 23, 202436:49
Shabbat Sermon: Have a Little Faith with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: Have a Little Faith with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

I want to start with something lovely, a little bit of serendipity. I meet from time to time with a good friend to catch up. This friend has a tradition, after our conversations, of giving me a book to read. He is a big reader, a person of ideas. So often he gives me a new book, usually hard cover, that just came out, and that he had read right away. But on this last occasion, for reasons I do not know, he gave me a book off his shelf, a used book, a paperback that he had read long ago. The book is called Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom, who had achieved fame with Tuesdays With Morrie. I love the title. I would love to have a little faith.

At first I wondered whether this book could possibly speak to our world today. It came out in 2009. That is not only 15 years ago. That is a different universe ago. All the places that I love: America, Israel, Harvard, the Jewish community in North America, were so different back then. Could a book written before October 7, before Israel’s longest war, before the scary rise of anti-Semitism, before the toxic division in our own country, could such a book speak to us now?


Mar 16, 202422:04
Talmud Class: "I'm Just Not Into Israel"...Which of the Four Children is That?

Talmud Class: "I'm Just Not Into Israel"...Which of the Four Children is That?

A hypothetical based on a real-world situation, not at Temple Emanuel, but at another Jewish organization: Imagine you are on the rabbinic search committee for some institution near and dear to your heart: shul, Hillel, federation. You read the resume of a candidate. Superb. Excellent education. Deep experience at Jewish summer camp. Has lived Judaism in a rich journey. Doing exceptionally well in rabbinical school. You go into the interview very favorably disposed. At the interview, you like this candidate. You feel a connectivity. Chemistry is good. Then you ask this candidate about Israel. The candidate responds: I am not anti-Zionist. I am just not into Israel. I want to teach Torah, mitzvah, Shabbat, chagim, tikkun olam, a Torah of love and bridge-building. And I can’t do that with Israel. Israel is just too divisive. Israel does not build bridges. It creates rallies and counter rallies. So I am not against Israel, it’s just not part of my religious identity nor will it be a part of my rabbinate. Should we hire this candidate, reject this candidate categorically, or reject this candidate with some ambivalence? Here is a lens. At the upcoming Pesach s’darim, there is that classic kneged arbaah banim, The Four Children. The voice that says “I am very into Judaism. I am training to be a Rabbi to teach Torah and mitzvah. But I am not into Israel. I am not anti-Zionist, I am just not a Zionist”—is that Wise, Wicked, Simple, or the One Who Does Not Know what to Ask? One last layer of complexity: Last year Hebrew College’s Rabbinical School changed its admissions policies so that intermarried rabbis can get admitted and ordained (a move that I enthusiastically agreed with and supported). How do you think of the non-Zionist rabbi in the larger context of the fact that intermarried rabbis are now being admitted and ordained? Are you good with both? With neither? With one but not the other, and if so, how does your thinking work? Complexity. It may be coming soon to a seder table near you.

Mar 16, 202434:28
Shabbat Sermon: Build a Tabernacle in the Wilderness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: Build a Tabernacle in the Wilderness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

The IDF has an intelligence unit whose name does not exactly roll off the tongue. It is called Terrain Analysis, Accurate Mapping, Visual Collection and Interpretation Agency. As Dan Senor and Saul Singer point out in their new book The Genius of Israel, which came out on November 7, 2023, the job of this intelligence unit is to analyze millions of details in millions of images gathered by Israeli satellites, airplanes and drones

For example, if the war in Lebanon happens, Israel would need to send paratroopers into enemy territory. How do they get resupplied with food and other essentials? Israeli technology has captured millions of images which have to be interpreted for the light it sheds on where food and drink might be found. While this unit uses computers and algorithms to help process all this big data, computers only get you so far. Human beings need to read and analyze the data.

The challenge is that this work is extremely tedious and painstaking. Another word might be boring. It takes an unusual capacity for patience and attention to detail. It’s not a job for everyone. But Israel has figured out a way to solve this problem. The title of the book is the genius of Israel, and Israel’s solution is genius.

Israel has created a special unit filled by Israeli soldiers who are neurodiverse. Pairing autistic soldiers with this elite intelligence unit is a win win.

It is a win for the IDF because these neurodiverse soldiers have the smarts and patience to interpret millions of details in millions of images.

And it is a win for these soldiers and their families. Serving in the IDF is a badge of honor. Not being able to serve is stigmatizing. Pairing neurodiverse soldiers with a special unit that utilizes their distinctive intelligence gives these young soldiers a feeling of accomplishment, of being needed and valued. And it also gives them analytical skills that they can use when their army service is over.

Mar 09, 202421:30
Talmud Class: The Bible Story About No Good Options

Talmud Class: The Bible Story About No Good Options

No good options. All options are bad. There is a hard-to-understand Bible story, 2 Samuel 24, about what do we do when there are no good options. King David commissions a census. How many soldiers are there in Israel and in Judah? The text assumes, without stating why, that this is a grievous sin. King David’s general Joab knows this is a sin but does it anyway because the King has commanded it. What makes the sin particularly puzzling is that God incited David to do the census. God punishes David and Israel for the very census that God instigated. What is that? Once King David has the answer to how many soldiers he has, he learns from the prophet Gad that God is furious with him. Punishment is coming, and King David gets to choose from among three horrific options: a 7-year famine, a 3-month military defeat, or a 3-day pestilence. The pestilence that follows claims the lives of 70,000 perfectly innocent citizens of Judah and Israel. To King David’s credit, he owns that he has made a mistake, and he seeks atonement. The story raises so many questions: Why is taking a census is a sin? And why, if God instigated it, is it a sin? How can God punish David and the kingdom for a census God instigated? Why is there collective punishment? Why, if King David sinned, do all the citizens of his kingdom have to suffer? How does King David secure atonement? What does this rich story teach us about our world today, where there is a lot of suffering and not a lot of good options?

Mar 09, 202440:43
Shabbat Sermon: Real Body Positivity with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Shabbat Sermon: Real Body Positivity with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Dronme Davis tells a powerful story.  She was nine.  At the time, she had developed the habit of biting her nails until they were raw and sometimes even bleeding.  A teacher told her, in all seriousness, “if you keep biting your nails, one day you’re doing to meet a boy and you’re going to want him to date you and he’s going to be holding your hand and will look down and see how disgusting your hands are and he’s not going to want to date you.” Even as a nine-year-old, Dronme knew that there was something very wrong with this picture.  How could it be that her teacher didn’t see the pain that she was holding, the pain that was pushing her to self-harm in this way?  How could it be that at nine, she is getting the message that her relationship to her body should be predicated on the perception of a potential partner?  That her body exists to make someone else happy?

Mar 02, 202415:48
Talmud Class: Is the Sun Rising or Setting on American Judaism?

Talmud Class: Is the Sun Rising or Setting on American Judaism?

Please look at this iconic photograph of a chair at the Constitutional Convention. The chair has a sun which is ambiguous. Benjamin Franklin famously wondered out loud, is the sun rising or setting? https://files.constantcontact.com/d3875897501/094c58c3-688a-4ef0-a325-c75a886b067a.png Now please read this evocative article entitled “The New American Judaism” by Shira Telushkin published recently in The Atlantic. https://files.constantcontact.com/d3875897501/abe8a1a9-3ebd-45aa-b776-e060145674b6.pdf?rdr=true The presenting problem is the great rabbi shortage. There are not enough rabbis to serve the congregations that need them. In Rabbi Chiel’s day, the Seminary ordained 60 rabbis a year. In my day, 35 rabbis a year. Today, between LA and New York, the Seminary and Ziegler ordain 12. Ziegler sold its campus and its few rabbinical students meet in the religious school classroom of a local synagogue. So too HUC is ordaining fewer and fewer rabbis, as a result of which it closed its Cincinnati location, its flagship since 1875. What does the great rabbi shortage mean for American Judaism? Shira Telushkin opens with a congregation that simply could not find a rabbi and, after some time, was reduced to getting a rabbi that would do fee for service, officiating at Shabbat and holiday services, paid by the service, but not being a pastor or otherwise involved in the leadership of the synagogue. Shira Telushkin treats the great rabbi shortage as a symptom of a systemic change. Something is going on here. Deeper trends are at play. What is her analysis? Do you agree with her assessment? She entitles her article The New American Judaism, meaning, quite explicitly, that an older American Judaism (and the institutions that served it) are being eclipsed. Let’s bring the chair of the Constitutional Convention and the Telushkin article together. Does she think American Judaism is rising or setting? What do you think?

Mar 02, 202436:13
Shabbat Sermon: Reflections of Our Israel Mitzvah Mission Travelers

Shabbat Sermon: Reflections of Our Israel Mitzvah Mission Travelers

This week we enjoy the reflections of Sonia Saltzman, Noah Rivkin, Rhiannon Thomas, Michael Gardener, and Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz on their Mitzvah Mission to Israel.

Feb 24, 202439:13
Talmud Class: Unpacking Our Israel Mitzvah Mission

Talmud Class: Unpacking Our Israel Mitzvah Mission

The Temple Emanuel 50-person mitzvah mission to Israel last week experienced the confusing reality that diametrically contradictory truths can both be true. Normal or not normal? Is Israel a nation in mourning, as Rachel Korazim taught? Or is Israel getting past October 7, not in mourning, trying to live a normal life, as Donniel Hartman taught? Yes, and yes. Returning the hostages? Is it absolutely essential that Israel do everything possible to bring the hostages home? Or will it undermine the success of Israel’s war effort if it has to fight with one hand tied behind its back in order to secure the release of the hostages and free terrorists who will jeopardize the lives of Israelis in the future? Yes, and yes. Unity? Is Israel’s unity post October 7 real, or beginning to seriously fray? Yes, and yes. Is there a diplomatic or military solution? Do Israelis believe a two-state solution is possible after the betrayal of October 7? No. Is a military solution possible meaning that war will go on and on generation after generation? No. So many Israelis have stories of Gaza civilians whom they trusted who turned out to be Hamas operatives and gave Hamas intel which they used to lethal effect on October 7. Every Israeli knows soldiers who have died. (Two people in my brother-in-law’s Jerusalem minyan are fathers saying Kaddish for their sons who fell in battle. Such infinite grief is all over Israel, palpable.) Peace is not the answer. War is not the answer. What do you do when there is no answer? To be in Israel now is to experience profound contradiction. And yet, here is one more: to a person, all 50 of the TE travelers felt deeply anchored and at peace being in the Gaza envelope. Many expressed the view that they felt better in the Gaza envelope than in Newton because showing up for Israelis felt just right. 50 out of 50 were glad that they had come. Such unanimity is rare. In Talmud tomorrow we unpack what these living contradictions mean for us now.

Feb 24, 202442:55
Shabbat Sermon: Turn the Lights Back On with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Shabbat Sermon: Turn the Lights Back On with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

February 17, 2024

Feb 17, 202417:22
Neurodivergent Torah: A Celebration of Autistic Culture & Liberation with Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman
Feb 10, 202428:58
Talmud Class: Saying Yes When We Don't Have the Foggiest Idea of What We Are Saying Yes To

Talmud Class: Saying Yes When We Don't Have the Foggiest Idea of What We Are Saying Yes To

Have you ever said yes to a commitment without knowing what that yes would mean to your life? 

If you have taken a new job, moved to a new city, gotten married, had children, or nurtured a loved one through a rough patch, you have said this type of yes.  

The address for saying yes without knowing what yes means is the famous phrase “na’aseh v’nishmah” in Ex. 24:7 in our reading this week. That is what the Israelites say after receiving the Torah at Sinai and then the supplemental civil and cultic laws and statutes in this week’s portion. This phrase is translated in different ways. “We will do and we will obey.” “We will faithfully do.” And “We will do and we will understand.” 

What often gets lost in the story is four verses earlier the Israelites, having been given a full report on all of God’s commands and rules, proclaimed: “All the things that the Lord has commanded we will do.” Na’aseh without any nishmah. Ex. 24:3 

What is the difference between “na’aseh” in verse 3 and “na’aseh v’nishmah” in verse 7? It sounds potentially nerdy, like who cares. But this technical Torah question may go to the very heart of what we love, care about, and work for the most: our marriage, our children and grandchildren, and the ideas and ideals and causes closest to our heart, like Israel’s security and America’s democracy.

Feb 10, 202437:22
A Conversation with Annette Miller

A Conversation with Annette Miller

Rabbi Michelle Robinson sits down with Annette Miller to discuss her role as Golda Meir in 'Golda's Balcony,' a play opening in Boston on February 23. They discuss inhabiting the iconic figure and what her legacy can tell us about the events of today.

Feb 07, 202434:45
Talmud Class: Transformation

Talmud Class: Transformation

The holy grail in Jewish education is “transformational.” An Israel trip like Birthright or any of our Passport experiences are supposed to be “transformational.” Going to any of our wonderful day schools is supposed to be “transformational.” Jewish summer camp--24-7 immersion, lifelong friends--is supposed to be “transformational.” The idea of a “transformational” experience is that the person is different on the other end. But the two big salvation stories in Exodus suggest that “transformational” experiences may not transform. That the very notion of a transformational experience may be an illusion. You might think that the splitting of the Sea of Reeds would be transformational. “When Israel saw the wondrous power which the Lord had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord; they had faith in the Lord and His servant Moses.” (Ex. 14:31) And yet three days later the afterglow of the miracle has already dissipated as “the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” (Ex. 15-24) In our reading this Shabbat, the Israelites stand at Sinai. God comes down and reveals the Torah. The first commandments are I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt. Don’t make idols. You might think that standing at Sinai, the thunder and lightning, divine revelation, is transformational. But famously while Moses is getting the ten commandments, the Israelites are already busy violating them, building the golden calf and saying that the golden calf brought them out of Egypt. These stories suggest that transformational experiences may not transform. And yet, October 7 did transform. As Rachel Korazim taught us in her recentsessions on Israeli poetry since October 7, Israel is not the same. Israelis are not the same. Putting this all together is confounding. Splitting the Sea of Reeds does not transform. Standing at Sinai does not transform. But October 7 transforms. What does it say about us, what does it say about the human condition, that positive experiences like standing at Sinai or the splitting of the Sea of Reeds do not transform, but that the horror and loss of October 7 do transform?

Feb 03, 202446:50
Am Yisrael Chai with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Am Yisrael Chai with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

January 27, 2024

Jan 27, 202417:06
Talmud Class: Should the Jewish People Lower our Expectations?

Talmud Class: Should the Jewish People Lower our Expectations?

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” Mark Twain


I think of the Mark Twain quote whenever I ponder a signature piece of wisdom of my late mother that I resisted as a teen, but that I agree with as an adult. My mother used to say: “Lower your expectations.” 


My mother’s rationale: If we go through life with high expectations, there is a higher likelihood we might be disappointed. If we go through life with lowered expectations, there is a higher possibility we might be pleasantly surprised.  


I thought of my mother’s wisdom when hearing the sobering, indeed searing Israel at War Podcast with Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi. They confront the reality that 100 plus days later, Israel is scaling back its military operations in Gaza without having accomplished the aim that more than 90% of Jewish Israelis all agreed to on October 8: Wage war in order to crush, destroy, defeat Hamas. And now, more than 100 days later, Hamas is not crushed, destroyed or defeated. Many of those who planned October 7 are still alive. Their military capacity, including missiles, is not destroyed. Their tunnels are not destroyed. Hamas, its evil and its genocidal menace, persist. How do we understand this moment? 


Donniel: We need to move from a messianic Zionism (Israel can solve any problem, Entebbe style) to a more realistic Zionism which owns the limits of our power, which owns what we cannot solve. He talks about a Dayeinu Zionism. If God took us out of Egypt, but not through the Sea of Reeds, it would have been enough. If God took us through the Sea of Reeds, but had not fed us in the desert, it would have been enough. What is the meaning of this seemingly impossible text? That we should be satisfied with what is, even when what is is not ideal. Donniel quotes his father’s signature teaching that we are to thank God for being satisfied after a meal even if all we ate was an olive.  


Yossi Klein Halevi: I could not disagree with you more Donniel. Your Dayeinu Zionism leaves Israel uninhabitable in the south and in the north where hundreds of thousands of Israeli are internally displaced refugees. We cannot be satisfied with an olive here. We have to crush Hamas to live. 


Donniel: Great. We have to crush Hamas. But we haven’t and we likely can’t. And we are facing Hezbollah. And the Houtis. And the hatred of much of the world. And the Hague. Time for more realistic expectations.

 

How do we understand this very sober moment in the Jewish people’s story? This week, Shabbat Shira, we read of the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, and the Shira, the song of joyful exaltation following total victory. We would all love the Shira. But if the Shira is not going to happen, can we be good with Dayeinu?  Should we be lowering our expectations?

Jan 27, 202434:22
Shabbat Sermon: Brothers and Sisters with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: Brothers and Sisters with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

I have been thinking a lot about something that many of us—not all, but many—have in common: brothers and sisters.  I have been in a deep brother and sister place this week for two reasons.

I am the youngest of six children.  My five older siblings live in different places. Two live in Los Angeles, one in New Jersey, one in Denver, and my sister Jill and I live in Newton.  This past Monday night, for a brief, incredibly sweet, totally-to-be-cherished nano second, we were all in the same place together, Brooklyn, for the wedding of Jill and Steve’s son Ari to his wife Esther.  Between geographical challenges, health challenges, Covid, and life, the six of us don’t get a chance to see one another altogether in the same place nearly as much as we would like.  The last time all six of us were together was at another nephew’s wedding in Denver before the pandemic.  So it felt incredibly special, and rare.

And, just as we were dancing at Ari and Esther’s wedding, my brothers on Shira’s side of the family, Ari in Jerusalem, Daniel in Atlanta, and I were concluding saying Kaddish for our father after the 11 months.  Every morning, and every evening, in Jerusalem, Atlanta, and Temple Emanuel, we said Kaddish for our father, and it was deeply meaningful that we were doing so together in our respective cities.  This past Tuesday we said our last Kaddish.  

Sharing the wedding and the Kaddish with brothers and sisters made me think about the special blessing, and special challenge, of brothers and sisters. A deep paradox lies at the heart of the sibling relationship.

Jan 20, 202419:01
Talmud Class: Three Stories About Trees

Talmud Class: Three Stories About Trees

There is a Jewish holiday that few know, Tu B’Shevat, the new year of trees, celebrated next Wednesday night and Thursday, January 24-25. If Passover is the most broadly observed holiday, Tu B’Shevat is among the least observed—a holiday about trees in the dead of winter. To prepare ourselves for the holiday next week, we are going to study three stories about trees: A story about a tired and thirsty traveler who is nourished and renewed by a tree’s shade and fruit and gratefully offers the tree a blessing. Taanit 5b-6a. Shel Silverstein’s classic children’s story The Giving Tree (1964) is the antithesis of the first story. In Silverstein’s tale, the human has no gratitude and just keeps using the tree, taking and taking until reducing it to a stump. Why is a story about an abused tree and an abusive human a bestseller? What does this troubling story teach us, and how are we to understand its apparent popularity? The story about a person who plants a carob tree that will not yield fruit for 70 years because he had inherited carob trees that had been planted for him by others. Taanit 23a What do these stories about trees teach us about us?

Jan 20, 202438:19
Shabbat Sermon: Meeting Change with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Shabbat Sermon: Meeting Change with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

January 13, 2024

Jan 13, 202413:55
Talmud Class: Signs and Wonders That We Can Believe In

Talmud Class: Signs and Wonders That We Can Believe In

Our reading this week, parshat va’era, features otot u’moftim, signs and wonders, that are intended to persuade Pharaoh of God’s power and therefore that he should let the Israelites go. The problem is, while the signs and wonders are indeed powerful-- a rod turning into a snake, the Nile turning into blood, millions of frogs jumping up and down--the signs and wonders do not succeed in their appointed task: Pharaoh remains unconvinced. Our reading reminds us that signs and wonders do not work. In one of the Talmud’s most famous stories, Rabbi Eliezer tries to prove that his theory about the oven of Achnai is correct. He tries to do this with signs and wonders. Rabbi Eliezer said to them: If the Halacha accords with me, let this carob tree prove it, whereupon the carob tree was uprooted from its place and moved one hundred amos. Unconvinced, the sages said to him you cannot bring proof from a carob tree. He then said to them: If the Halachah accords with me, let the water canal prove it, whereupon the water in the water canal flowed backward. The sages said to him: You cannot bring proof from a water canal. (Bava Metzia 59B) Today we talk about why it is that signs and wonders never work. They never convince the unconvinced. Even the tenth plague—there was no home where a first born was not dead—persuades Pharaoh only temporarily. But he soon changes his mind and mobilizes his army and cavalry to pursue the Israelites at the Sea of Reeds. In the end, the Egyptians are never persuaded. They are defeated. They drown. We bring some learning from Sheila Heen, the head of the Negotiation Project at Harvard Law School, about why even the most powerful arguments and signs and wonders never convince the unconvinced. And we talk about signs and wonders that do work and that we can believe in.

Jan 13, 202439:35
Shabbat Sermon: When We Feel Weariness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: When We Feel Weariness with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

If a picture paints a thousand words, then a screen shot I saw this week conveys a truth that we need to reckon with.  The screen shot shows the different realities of New York City and Israel on New Year’s Eve.  New York:  fireworks. Israel: taking fire, the glare of missiles and rockets that Hamas still manages to fire into Israel.  New York: people on the streets, reveling, counting down in anticipation, 5-4-3-2-1, Happy New Year! Israel, another night in the bomb shelter?

What do we do with this asymmetry? 

Jan 06, 202416:40
Talmud Class: Wisdom - What Does It Look Like, and Where Can We Get It?

Talmud Class: Wisdom - What Does It Look Like, and Where Can We Get It?

Wisdom. We could all use it now. Many of us had hoped and prayed for a better 2024, a happier 2024, a more peaceful 2024. But now that we are in 2024, we are faced with the same stubborn challenges of 2023, deepened. The election cycle in America. The ongoing war in Israel and Gaza and the simmering threat of war with Hezbollah. 

Ongoing tensions on our college campuses, including one five miles from Temple Emanuel. In the face of all this complexity, what might wisdom look like, and where could we get it? 

Today we examine two classic Jewish stories on wisdom: Solomon, who urges splitting the baby down the middle, in response to two women who each claim to be the mother, and Joseph, who plans for the lean years during the years of abundance. Both the Bible itself, and the rabbinic tradition, link these stories. What is the relationship between Solomon’s wisdom and Joseph’s wisdom, and what does each offer us now?

Jan 06, 202441:13
Shabbat Sermon: God’s Afikomen - Hidden Messages in Vayechi with Dr. Lynne Heller

Shabbat Sermon: God’s Afikomen - Hidden Messages in Vayechi with Dr. Lynne Heller

A member of TE, Dr. Heller is a respected member of the Hebrew College MEAH Bible faculty and has taught many courses at TE. Dr. Heller combines her passion for biblical text with her academic background in Jewish Studies and Comparative Literature and holds a Ph.D. from NYU.

Dec 30, 202324:31
Shabbat Sermon: A Christmas Story with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Shabbat Sermon: A Christmas Story with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

My grandfather was a curmudgeon, especially this time of year. He would start to get grumpy mid-November, when Christmas lights started going up around town and his mood would really sour after Thanksgiving when retailers began blasting Christmas carols. Then a simple trip to the grocery store would send him muttering angrily under his breath up and down the aisles and then all the way home. His mood wouldn’t improve until February when the last decorations were finally packed away.

I never fully understood what exactly my grandfather had against Christmas, but I somehow unconsciously adopted some of his feelings. For a long time, Christmas music at the mall or at grocery stores would put me on edge. Christmas lights made me think about climate change. And if anyone wished me a Merry Christmas, I would rush to explain I don’t celebrate but that I hope they had a good holiday season.

But then something shifted.

Dec 23, 202310:13
Shabbat Sermon: Maestro with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Shabbat Sermon: Maestro with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

With Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Dec 16, 202317:07
Talmud Class: The October 7 Kaddish, the Holocaust Kaddish, and Hallel

Talmud Class: The October 7 Kaddish, the Holocaust Kaddish, and Hallel

The prayer life of the Jewish people gives voice to contradiction and dissonance. On the one hand, all week long we have been singing Hallel, in which we acclaim how God saves us: I called on Adonai; I prayed that God would save me.... God has delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I shall walk before Adonai in the land of the living. On the other hand, a poem by Israeli Asaf Gur, called Kadish, offers a different reality. Yisgadal V'yiskadash Shmei Raba And no one came Many thousands called Him on Shabbat morning Crying His name out loud Begging Him with tears just to come But He ceased from all His work No God came And no God calmed Only Satan celebrated uninterrupted Dancing between Kibbutzim and the slaughter festival... This poem evokes the spirit of the Kaddish we recite on Yom Hashoah: Yitgadal Auschwitz Vyitkadash Lodz Sh'mei raba Ponar... What do we do with this dissonance? Is the Joseph story helpful? When Joseph is sold into slavery, when he is unjustly sent to prison for a crime he did not commit, when he lives as a prisoner, three times the Torah says "The Lord was with Joseph." What does that mean, and what does that mean to us?

Dec 16, 202341:14
Shabbat Sermon: Fight for your Heart with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Shabbat Sermon: Fight for your Heart with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Ever since October 7, I have been living in an anxiety-filled, doom-driven stupor.  All day, from the moment I wake up until I go to bed at night, I check my news apps compulsively and obsessively, worried that there will be some new development that will rock my world the way that horrible attack did. At night, I delve deeper.  I doom scroll.  I read every new article I can find. I search for stories and testimonies I haven’t read yet.  We sleep-trained the baby, so now he mostly sleeps through the night (thank goodness), but I’m still waking up every few hours just to check, to make sure nothing has drastically changed.


In the morning, every morning, Solomon and I have the same conversation. Solomon shares his concern about how much I am marinating in all of this. I share how essential it feels to know what is happening. After all, if I don’t read the paper, how would I know that Oakland is having a teach-in where teachers have been given lesson plans that include books for kindergarteners with pages like “I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or a grown-up! ” How would I know that 93 members of the House refused to acknowledge that anti-Zionism is Antisemitism . If I am not up to speed with what is happening in the world and what is being said about it, how will I possibly engage with young adults who write to me that they aren’t sure they can come to Yisod anymore because they are decidedly pro-Palestine. How will I help young adults to process what is happening and to maintain their connection to Israel if I don’t know what they’re reading and seeing and responding to?

Dec 09, 202313:17
Talmud Class: How Has October 7 Changed the Project of Jewish Education?

Talmud Class: How Has October 7 Changed the Project of Jewish Education?

Before October 7, our children were blessed to live in a world where their Jewish commitments were not an obstacle to making friends or fulfilling their dreams. Yes, there has always been some anti-Semitism. But for the most part, our kids could be who they were, without hiding anything. Our job was to inspire them to give voice to all parts of themselves: their love of sports; music; drama; dance; and their Jewish lives. You can do soccer and you can do Judaism. It’s an and. That task now feels quaint. To the extent that our children love Israel, and the Zionism that made Israel possible (which is how we have educated them), they will face a world in college that is explicitly hostile to those commitments. Some might be tempted to disconnect from the hot mess, too depressing and complicated. Some might be bullied into silence. If they still love Israel, they become at best Marrano Zionists. Still others might be tempted to turn on Israel and claim that it is an illegitimate state. But in the bullying anti-Israel climate of today’s college campus, among universities whose presidents cannot condemn genocide against the Jewish people as against their university’s code of conduct, who among our 18–22-year-olds would have the moral courage to stand against the tide and say: I stand with Israel. I am a proud Zionist. Yes, there surely are Jewish students who are out as Israel supporters even today, and we are proud of their moral courage. But it is not easy. How do we help them? We will examine texts about Joseph in Egypt in the Torah and in the midrash; Robert Putnam’s classic American Grace; and Dara Horn’s People Love Dead Jews to talk about how the challenge of educating our children Jewishly has changed dramatically as a result of October 7. How do we prepare our children for the world they now face?

Dec 09, 202343:53
Shabbat Sermon: Engaging the Darkness Without Becoming Dark with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: Engaging the Darkness Without Becoming Dark with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

This morning has been so beautiful, so joyful, just what we needed. Daniel’s Bar Mitzvah. Eli’s Bar Mitzvah. Ronna’s birthday. Elizabeth’s naming, three generations of love.

And the reason it is especially joyful is that things have been so dark. Eight weeks of war later, with no clear end in sight, we don’t know when it’s going to end, we don’t know how it’s going to end, it’s dark. What the hostages who have been freed have reported about their captivity, what they had to endure, is dark. The hostages who have not been freed, what they and their families are going through, is dark. The hostages who have been murdered, dark. The resumption of war, and what that means for Israelis who are now in battle, and for Gazans who are caught in the crossfire, who have been so ill served by Hamas, is dark. What do with do with all this darkness?

I have wrestled with this darkness. I have found two positions that are not helpful.

I have tried disconnecting from the heartbreak. Not reading the news. Following only sports stories. But I know that is not okay.

And I have fallen into a rabbit hole, following the news obsessively, worrying all the time, not sleeping through the night. That doesn’t help anybody.

Is there a way to engage the darkness without becoming dark? Is there a way to engage this depressing reality without becoming depressed? Is there a way to follow a story that generates heart ache and heart break every day without falling into a rabbit hole?

The holiday of Hanukkah offers us some helpful insight here.


Dec 02, 202318:55
Talmud Class: Jacob's Tattered Envelope - and Our Own

Talmud Class: Jacob's Tattered Envelope - and Our Own

An envelope structure is a great way to tell a story. The story begins with a place, an event, a memorable moment. Stuff happens. The plot unfolds. And the story ends back at the same place or a newer, deeper version of the same event or memorable moment. A classic example of an envelope structure is God, Jacob, and Bethel. Last week’s reading: At the beginning of Jacob’s dangerous journey, when he is alone and vulnerable, God promises to be with him, to protect him, and not to leave him until he comes safely back home. Jacob pours oil upon a stone, creating a pillar at a place called Bethel, which the Torah notes used to be called Luz. (Genesis 28: 13-19) This week’s reading: Many years later, Jacob now has four wives, eleven sons and his daughter Dinah. He and his large family have made it back home to Canaan and survived his reunion with Esau. It seems like God has fulfilled God’s promises. The Torah self-consciously and intentionally creates an envelope structure: God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and remain there; and build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau. (Genesis 35:1) Thus, Jacob came to Luz—that is, Bethel—in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. There he built an altar and named the site El-bethel, for it was there that God had revealed Himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. (Genesis 35: 6-7) God parted from him at the spot where He had spoken to him; and Jacob set up a pillar at the site where He had spoken to him, a pillar of stone, and he offered a libation on it and poured oil upon it. Jacob gave the site, where God had spoken to him, the name of Bethel. (Genesis 35: 13-14) Promises made at Bethel. Promises fulfilled, duly noted, and celebrated, at Bethel. Clean. Neat. Tidy. Or not? What do we learn about the apparent envelope of Jacob’s story that can help us make sense of our own reality that is not clean, not neat, not tidy?

Dec 02, 202342:31
Shabbat Sermon with Lishi Baker

Shabbat Sermon with Lishi Baker

We hear a lot these days about “the college campus,” and I just want to note, it is important to remember that every student is different and every student is experiencing his or her campus differently. I don’t speak for all college students, perhaps not even most, and what I’ll share today is my perspective based on my experience. I strongly encourage you to continue to talk to other college students you know – ask them how they have responded to their unique campus climates, and what they have been thinking about over the last 7 weeks.

In that spirit, when I think about my Jewish peers on the Columbia campus, here are a few types that come to mind.

Nov 25, 202321:56
Talmud Class: Is God Relevant?

Talmud Class: Is God Relevant?

How do we understand the double absence of God since October 7? The first absence is obvious: where was God when Hamas butchered, maimed, kidnapped, and performed unspeakable atrocities upon the innocent? Not there. The second absence is less obvious but still noteworthy: in the countless articles, podcasts, and conversations, we hear very little about God. Yes, we recite psalms every day. Psalms are poetry about God. Yes, we recite a prayer for the IDF and for the hostages every day, and we pray that God will protect the IDF and rescue the hostages. But for all of our daily prayers, how relevant is God to this moment? Winning the war is relevant. Destroying Hamas is relevant. The courage of IDF soldiers is relevant. Maintaining America’s support for Israel’s war effort is relevant. Maintaining awareness of the hostages (see the unbearably painful exhibit outside the State House of 240 empty chairs at a holiday table) is relevant, the posters are relevant, and the blue ribbons are relevant. Rallies like last week’s in Washington are relevant. Raising millions upon millions of dollars for Israel continues to be hugely relevant. But God? Is God relevant? Our text will be Jacob’s vows in this week’s portion: If God is with him in certain ways, he is with God. The implication is clear. If God is not with him, he is not with God. Is that us, now?

Nov 25, 202347:33
Shabbat Sermon: What to do about the State of Judaism in the Jewish State? with Rabbi David Golinkin

Shabbat Sermon: What to do about the State of Judaism in the Jewish State? with Rabbi David Golinkin

The State of Israel has a religious establishment that is totally out of touch with most Israelis and a school system which does not teach Judaism. What can be done about this dual problem?

Nov 18, 202329:08
Talmud Class: Rabbi David Golinkin on Israel at War

Talmud Class: Rabbi David Golinkin on Israel at War

This is a Talmud class like no other for a moment like no other. One short story encapsulates the moment. There are tragically so many moments like it. On Sunday, Shira was speaking with her brother Ari and sister-in-law Tziporit who live in Jerusalem. They had just returned from the funeral of a close friend who was a member of their shul in Jerusalem. This man was 44. He had aged out of being required to do miluim. He could have taken a pass. He could have opted out. He is married and has five children. But he, and 360,000 others, believe that Israel’s very existence is at stake. This is Israel’s Second War of Independence. So, he volunteered to fight even though he did not have to fight. His life is about something larger than his life. He died in battle, leaving a widow, five fatherless children, and a grieving nation. My siblings had no words for their heartbreak. Funerals, shivas, sleepless nights (their children are in harm’s way) are how they are spending this war. How are Israelis living through this? They can never press pause. Rabbi David Golinkin, who lives in Jerusalem, shares his reflections. The rest of his teaching on Shabbat, as the Scholar in Residence for the Rabbi Samuel Chiel Kallah, is replete with sources, texts, precedents. Talmud class is from his heart.

Nov 18, 202356:21
Shabbat Sermon: When Parents and Children Disagree About Israel with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: When Parents and Children Disagree About Israel with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

This morning I want to tackle a question that is granular, sensitive, painful, common—and coming soon to a Thanksgiving table near you.  What do we do when different generations in our family disagree, passionately, about Israel?  This is not a new question.  It is an old question. 

What is new is the urgency of the question in light of the massacre of October 7, and Israel’s ongoing response in the weeks since.  If this war continues to be protracted, if both Gaza civilians and Israeli soldiers continue to die,  the latent differences among the generations will only get exacerbated.

Several families have come to see me asking how they should respond to views of their children that are very different from their own.  My son told me that he attended a rally to pressure Israel into a ceasefire.  My daughter told me that she has been calling our Senators to force Israel into a ceasefire.  I can’t even believe it.  What do I say?  What do I do? 

What happens when these different views are expressed around the Thanksgiving table?  

Nov 11, 202321:11
Talmud Class: How Does This Chapter Compare?

Talmud Class: How Does This Chapter Compare?

About the daily stories of rising anti-Semitism, two questions. First question: How does this current chapter compare to previous chapters? The Haggadah contains the famous passage vehei she’amdah: This promise has stood us and our parents in good stead. For not only has one enemy stood over us to annihilate us. But in every generation enemies have stood over us to annihilate us. Yet the Holy One keeps the promise to save us from their hands. Take a look at the one-page rendering of Jewish history in the Haggadah entitled A Night to Remember. It is a timeline of Jew hatred. In what ways is the current chapter like previous chapters? In what ways is the current chapter unique? How would you compare this present moment to our long history of anti-Semitism? Second question: What should we do about it? What is the response of Elie Wiesel in Souls on Fire? What is the response of Dara Horn in People Love Dead Jews? How do Elie Wiesel’s and Dara Horn’s responses compare? What works for you as a response?

Nov 11, 202347:45
Shabbat Sermon: 2023? with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

Shabbat Sermon: 2023? with Rabbi Michelle Robinson

November 4, 2023

Nov 04, 202315:26
Talmud Class: Moshe Dayan's Hard Words in 1956, Israel's "Gettysburg Address"

Talmud Class: Moshe Dayan's Hard Words in 1956, Israel's "Gettysburg Address"

All of us worry about the courageous soldiers of the IDF going into the alleys and tunnels of Gaza. It fills us all with deep dread. The ground invasion, and what it will mean to Israeli soldiers, has resurfaced a very important text in Israeli history, Moshe Dayan's brief remarks at the funeral of an officer named Roy Rotenberg who was murdered in 1956 patrolling the Israeli-Gaza border in the same area where more Israelis were murdered on October 7. Dayan's brief speech is called Israel's Gettysburg Address. In few words, he nails the reality of what it will take to keep a Jewish state alive. The words seem exhausting, depressing and all too true. They were true in 1956. They remain true today. Shavit tells the story of why the conflict which eventuated in death along the Gaza border in 1956 and again in 2023 will never be resolved, which will make Dayan's words the eternal cost of an eternal Jewish state.

Nov 04, 202350:17
Shabbat Sermon: Hope - What Poland’s Jewish Rebirth Means for the Jewish World with Jonathan Ornstein

Shabbat Sermon: Hope - What Poland’s Jewish Rebirth Means for the Jewish World with Jonathan Ornstein

October 28, 2023

Jonathan is the CEO of the JCC in Krakow Podland


Oct 31, 202310:58
Talmud Class: Do the Two Psalms We Say Every Morning and Every Evening (Psalms 121 and 130) Help?

Talmud Class: Do the Two Psalms We Say Every Morning and Every Evening (Psalms 121 and 130) Help?

Elie Wiesel talked about madness descending on Europe in the 1930s. Cultured, urbane, sophisticated Germans who loved opera and philosophy, and who were nice to their dogs and cats, warmed to the Nazis. A similar madness is descending on American college campuses and universities today. It is madness because throngs of students feel that Israel is an apartheid regime; that it is morally always in the wrong; that Hamas was justified in doing what it did; and therefore, these undergrads and graduate students will criticize Israel only and will not criticize Hamas at all. J.J. Kimche, a graduate student in Jewish history at Harvard, recently published a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Harvard Shrugs at Jew-Hatred.” This is his concluding paragraph: As a grandson of an Auschwitz survivor and a student of German-Jewish history, I was always incredulous that highly cultured Germans, the people of Goethe and Beethoven, could have displayed sympathy and even enthusiasm for the Nazi slaughter of the Jews. Now I believe it. I have seen it happen here [at Harvard]. All of this creates a darkness and heaviness in our heart and in our soul. Question: Do psalms help? Twice a day, every morning and every evening, we offer Psalm 121 and Psalm 130. The act of saying psalms, together with other Jewish communities in Israel and throughout the world, feels like an important statement of solidarity. But do the words of the psalms, if we actually think about what they mean, address the pain in our hearts? Do they give us a helpful insight in how to think, how to feel, how to act, in this fraught moment?

Oct 28, 202346:03
Shabbat Sermon: The Paradox of Forever Love with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: The Paradox of Forever Love with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

            I would like to start with something lovely, the most beautiful words in the world:  I love you forever. Think of the people and places that have inspired these magical words.

            I have a question.  How long is forever?  How long do we get to keep who and what we love forever? 

            This past Monday, our beloved friend and teacher in Jerusalem, Micah Goodman, was speaking to 100 Conservative Rabbis about what is going on in Israel, and he said something about forever love that is so quintessentially Micah.  I had never heard it before.  But once he said it, it was obviously true.

            Micah observed that there is a paradox about what we love forever.  Namely, if we assume that what we love forever, we will have forever, then we will not have it forever; we are at serious risk of losing it.  But if we worry that what we love forever we may lose, it may not last forever, and if we work hard on preserving it, there is a higher chance that we can hold onto it.  If we assume it, we lose it.  If we don’t assume it, if we worry that we could lose it, we have a higher chance of keeping it.

            The most obvious example is marriage.  When a couple gets married,  they pledge to love one another forever.  What all of us who have been married for any length of time know is that this pledge is not self-executing; it cannot be sustained by the power and beauty of the chuppah; it must be sustained by both spouses investing in their marriage every day.  It must be sustained by both spouses making their marriage their highest priority.  Taking a marriage for granted, taking anything for granted, puts what we love in grave jeopardy.

            Micah’s lens for understanding Israel today is the paradox of forever love. 

Oct 21, 202323:08
Talmud Class: What Does the Coda to the Noah Story Say About Noah, About Israel and About Us?

Talmud Class: What Does the Coda to the Noah Story Say About Noah, About Israel and About Us?

The weekly Torah portion always speaks to our world, but never more so than now. The word hamas is in the third verse of the portion. The presence of hamas spells the ruination, death, destruction of the entire world. "The earth became corrupt before God; the earth was filled with lawlessness (hamas)." Genesis 6:11 In his JPS Commentary on Genesis, Nahum Sarna observes “hamas here refers predominantly to the arrogant disregard for the sanctity and inviolability of human life.” A violent society will meet a violent end. The world filled with hamas must come to an end. Innocent people will die. That is our portion. Tragically, that is our world. The story is well known, but it is the less well-known coda to the story that also speaks so loudly to our times. Noah and his family survived. They were alive and well. Plus, God promised repeatedly that God would never again destroy the world. The first never again is spoken by God. You might think that Noah was in for better days. The flood is behind him. The death and destruction are behind him. His family is intact. He can now rebuild the world in blessing. Happy days are here again. But the coda tells us precisely the opposite is the case. He gets drunk. He commits some kind of embarrassing sexual immorality, the details of which are deliberately vague. He repeatedly curses his grandson. He sews discord and hatred among his sons and grandchildren. He dies rageful and broken. Oh, and this sad coda chapter lasted hundreds of years, a third of his life. What does Noah’s sad end—after he and his family had survived the flood and the destruction of the world—say about him and, more importantly, about Israel and about us now?

Oct 21, 202352:11
Shabbat Sermon: Our Golda Moment with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Shabbat Sermon: Our Golda Moment with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

How many of you have seen the play or the movie Golda’s Balcony?  If you have, you know about that powerful moment, early in her career for Israel, she is Golda Meyerson at the time, it is January, 1948, it is three years after the Shoah, it is five months before Israel’s independence would be declared and the war for independence would start, and Golda is with American Jews, at the General Assembly of Jewish Federations, held in Chicago on January 21.  Her mission was to inspire American Jews to support the incipient Jewish state and the Jewish army in the war for its very existence.  She was supposed to raise $25 million.  She ended up raising $50 million. 

Make no mistake.  This is our Golda moment.  Golda’s secret sauce contained three ingredients.  They apply to us with equal force.

First, American Jews in 1948 learned of horrors and atrocities, murder and death, that befell innocent Jews of Europe.  Slaughter.  It made American Jews angry, sick to their stomach, nauseous, worried, grief-stricken, and determined to fight back.

Check.  American Jews in 2023 woke up last Shabbat morning, and every day and every sleepless night, through our insomnia, through the pits in our stomachs, we read stories that claim us, stories of horrors and atrocities, murder and death, that befell innocent Jews in the towns and villages near Gaza.  By the way, none of these areas were settlements.  None of these areas could in any remote way be called occupied lands.  None of these areas carry moral complexity.  These were indisputably and properly Jewish communities whose Jews, celebrating Simchat Torah, celebrating a peaceful music festival were slaughtered precisely because they are Jews living in Israel.

There was a second secret sauce to Golda’s success:  American Jews in 1948 knew that if Jews were to make good on their promise of Never Again, we would have to create, sustain, and defend the State of Israel. Europe was a killing field for Jews.

Part of the infinite tragedy of the Simchat Torah massacre was that Israel also became a killing field for Jews; and that peaceful Kibbutzim and villages were soaked through with Jewish blood.  The Kishinev pogrom came to Israel.  It was not supposed to be that way.

Hatred of the Jewish people continues in these shores.  Elias and Lorena are in New York, with Mikey at Columbia for a freshmen parents’ weekend.  But in our Talmud conversation yesterday, Elias shared that on Thursday night Mikey called him and Lorena and was very rattled.  New York, and Columbia, have a significant Jewish population. You would think in the week that Hamas had committed these atrocities, Columbia would be a safe space where Jewish students could protest.  Two hundred Jewish students showed up.  But there was a counter protest of 700 Palestinian students and sympathizers.  Campus police were so concerned about the safety of Jewish students at Columbia that they were whisked away to the Kraft Hillel Building, where the 200 students could continue their protest, in private, behind locked doors.

What?

How could it be?

How could it be that 700 people at Columbia University, or the Harvard students that signed that odious statement, would walk with Hamas

The American Jews to whom Golda spoke knew what we now must also know: that evil is real, hatred is real, and if never again was to be real, it would take a partnership between Israeli Jews and American Jews.  Israeli Jews, then and now, are on the front lines.  What do we do to help?

Which leads to the third ingredient of Golda’s secret sauce: we are not helpless and we are not hopeless.  We have agency and we have power.  That’s what those American Jews on January 21, 1948 understood when Golda raised 50 million dollars. David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, called Golda Meir the “Jewish woman who got the money which made the state possible.”

Golda’s generation in America helped create the state.  Our generation in America now can help sustain the state. 

Oct 14, 202316:06
Talmud Class: Israel at War and the Challenge of Hate

Talmud Class: Israel at War and the Challenge of Hate

At the rally for Israel on Monday at the Boston Commons, there were two clarifying moments. When Senator Markey called for de-escalation, he was loudly and roundly booed. When Congressman Auchincloss observed that Israel did not ask America to de-escalate on 9/12, he was loudly and roundly cheered. What is that about? 

Last Shabbat was the worst day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. This week is the worst week for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The prayer we say about Nazis on Yom HaShoah applies with equal force to Hamas. It is as if it were written for Hamas. The obscene and ongoing barbarism, savagery, cruelty, inhumanity of Hamas raises a question: what do we do with the hatred that can take root in our own soul as a result of Hamas’s evil? 

Consider the Haftarah for Shabbat Zachor, wherein God commands genocide: 

           Thus said the Lord of Hosts: I am exacting the penalty

           for what Amalek did to Israel, for the assault he made upon them

           on the road, on their way up from Egypt. Now go, attack Amalek,

           and proscribe all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike men

           and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and

           asses! I Samuel 15:2-3.

 

What did you think of this Haftarah before this week? What do you think of this Haftarah now? 

I get hatred. I get the desire to exact revenge. But what does that do to our soul? In response to the Harvard students who “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” Rabbi David Wolpe, as is his wont, cut to the core issue poignantly and concisely: “If mutilation, rape and caged children cause in you a swelling of nationalistic pride, an impulse to parade and celebrate, then your soul has rotted to its roots.”

Israel has an unquestionable right and responsibility to protect Israeli citizens and rescue hostages. How do we destroy our enemy, while not becoming like our enemy? How do we destroy our enemy, while preserving our soul?

Oct 14, 202350:04
Talmud Class: Does the Last Chapter of the Torah Provide Us a Guide for How to Live and Die?

Talmud Class: Does the Last Chapter of the Torah Provide Us a Guide for How to Live and Die?

The last chapter of any book is critical to understanding the meaning of the book. The last chapter of the Torah, Deuteronomy 34, which we encounter this weekend on Simchat Torah, is in several ways a surprising last chapter, given the book as a whole. The Torah is supposed to be about life. Choose life. But Deuteronomy 34 is about death. Why end with death when the book is supposed to be about life? Why does Moses have to die on the wrong side of the River Jordan? Why does God command Moses to climb to the top of Mount Nebo to see the river he can never cross and the land he can never enter? How is this fair and just? We only read this sad chapter--Moses’s death on the wrong side of the River Jordan, his life work unfulfilled--on Simchat Torah, which celebrates the joy of Torah. How does Moses’s death fit with the larger agenda of the joy of Torah? What do we learn about how to die, and more importantly how to live, from the last chapter of the Torah?

Oct 07, 202342:25
Sukkot Day 2 Sermon: We're Keeping the Etrog Tree with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

Sukkot Day 2 Sermon: We're Keeping the Etrog Tree with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

October 1, 2023

Oct 01, 202308:37
Sukkot Day 1 Sermon: Would You Rather Be a Supreme Court Justice or a RICO Defendant? Choosing Ice Cream vs. Choosing Life with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Sukkot Day 1 Sermon: Would You Rather Be a Supreme Court Justice or a RICO Defendant? Choosing Ice Cream vs. Choosing Life with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

I have two classmates from the Harvard Law School class of 1986 who are extraordinarily famous. World famous, but for different reasons.

One of them, Elana Kagan, is a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. She just made news recently because she has argued that the nine justices of the Supreme Court should be held accountable for their ethical practices, and that power without accountability is not a healthy combination in a democracy.

The other of them, Kenneth Chesebro, made news recently for being indicted as one of the 19 defendants in the Georgia RICO case for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Mr. Chesebro is presumed innocent. The prosecution must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. But if convicted, he faces jail time.

I have been thinking so much recently about their different trajectories: Supreme Court Justice. RICO defendant. And I have been wondering how did their paths diverge so dramatically?

Sep 30, 202318:05
Talmud Class: "I Don't Do Pessimism" Our Posture? Should it Be?

Talmud Class: "I Don't Do Pessimism" Our Posture? Should it Be?

In his final podcast of 'For Heaven’s Sake' for the year 5783, entitled “Farewell 5783,” Donniel Hartman said something that really stuck with me. He said: “I don’t do pessimism.” Despite all the drama and tension in Israel, the many articles and voices talking about how the country is deeply divided, how this is the greatest domestic crisis in Israel’s 75 years, a cold civil war, Donniel does not do pessimism. He goes to demonstrations every week; learns; teaches; advocates; gives public speeches; does podcasts. But he will not surrender to pessimism. Donniel here channels the spirit of the late Shimon Peres who famously observed: “Optimists and pessimists die the exact same death, but they live very different lives!” Do Jewish texts have a position about pessimism? Are there circumstances when pessimism is not only okay, but even called for? On the one hand, there is no shortage of texts in the Donniel/Shimon Peres tradition of eschewing pessimism. Hagar crying at the well when she and Ishmael were banished and thirsty; Jeremiah buying real estate in Anathoth even though he is in jail and the Babylonians are coming; Nehemiah telling the returnees to Jerusalem after the exile “You must not mourn or weep…Do not be sad, for your rejoicing in the Lord is the source of your strength.” On the other hand, there is a whole other tradition called prophecy, which is not infrequently saturated by deep pessimism of sin, national failure, exile, and destruction. The same Jeremiah who bought the house from prison also is the source of our Tisha B’av morning Haftarah: I will make an end of them, declares the Lord: No grapes left on the vine, No figs on the fig tree, The leaves all withered; Whatever I have given them is gone. Why are we sitting by? Let us gather into the fortified cities And meet our doom there. For the Lord our God has doomed us, He has made us drink a bitter draft, Because we sinned against the Lord. How do we put all this together? Is there ever a time for us to be pessimistic, or not?

Sep 30, 202355:49
Yom Kippur Sermon: Next, Next! Now, Now! with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

Yom Kippur Sermon: Next, Next! Now, Now! with Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz

A writer named Robert Hubbell is not Jewish. He and his wife are both observant Catholics. But earlier this year he wrote an essay entitled “My Kippah” about the fact that one of his most cherished possessions is a kippah. He did not know any Jews growing up. One of the first Jewish people he ever got to know was a law school classmate, a woman who became a fast platonic friend and study partner. After they graduated from law school, their friendship continued, and Robert Hubbell and his wife were invited by this friend to join what she called their synagogue havurah, a group of friends that met regularly for conversation, learning and friendship. This observant Catholic couple finds themselves going to Shabbat dinners, Passover seders, Neila services at the Temple and the break-fast after Yom Kippur was over. At all these moments, Robert Hubbell would borrow a kippah and return it when the event was over.

When his friend had her first son, Robert Hubbell and his wife attended the brit milah. Before the ceremony began, his friend presented him with a beautiful hand-knit kippah and said: “Here. It’s about time you had your own.” Since then, Robert Hubbell would wear the kippah to all the events as the young families in this havurah lived their lives. He wore his kippah to their Bar and Bat Mitzvah services, weddings, and joyful religious gatherings.

As the years went by, however, he started wearing his kippah to the funerals of the families in his havurah. One day, alas, he had to wear his kippah to bury his friend. He writes:


On Tuesday, I helped to bury my dear friend. She was 65…As I approached the grave, I wondered, “What profound thought is one supposed to hold in mind while helping to bury a lifelong, dear friend?” My mind was blank. No profound thoughts. All that came to mind was, “I am wearing the kippah I wore to her firstborn’s bris.”


That kippah symbolizes the wellspring of our relationship, our mutual respect for one another’s faith traditions. The taut stitches of the kippah mirror the strong bonds of family and friends she wove into the beautiful tapestry of her life. She is gone, but I will hold tight to the kippah as a physical manifestation of her life, just as I will hold fast to the community of family and friends that is her enduring legacy and testament to the world.


There is so much pathos, poignancy, beauty, sadness to this story.

Sep 24, 202318:57