October 30, 2009

Lech Lecha Gen. 12:1-17:27  

Dear Friends:

I would like to ask you a favor. Please do me the honor of allowing me to be your shaliach. That’s a good Hebrew word wherein you appoint me to be your emissary in performing a mitzvah that you are unable to perform yourself. While I would love to have all of you along with us when we visit Israel, I know that isn’t possible for some, at least not at this time. I’m blessed to be visiting Israel twice within the next 2 months. There is a tradition that encourages us to give Tzedakah in Israel, even if we have to do so through the services of a shaliach. I will be leaving for Israel on November 22nd, and then again, with our congregational trip in late December. If you are so inclined, I invite you to make a donation to the Mitzvah Fund. Please earmark it “Israel Tzedakah,” and I will see that it gets to a worthy place.

Some of you may remember my friend and our scholar in residence a number of years ago, Danny Siegel. Danny found his life’s passion from an exercise much like this one. While I don’t intend to make this a full time job for me, Danny’s work of nearly 30 years was responsible for the distribution of millions of dollars of tzedakah money. His commitment to let people know where their money went also became a great educational tool for thousands of Jews around the world. I hope I can bring a similar, albeit smaller, gift from all of you and for all of you.

In our Torah reading for this Shabbat, the Jewish people first encounter the land of Israel as Abraham and Sarah follow God’s command to pick up and go to the land that God will show them. Ever since that time, we have left the land, been forced from the land, sought food in other lands, but Israel has remained the place that our eyes turn to, and the land to which we return. We love the land, we sometimes argue over the politics, but the land, or maybe even the idea of the land, remains central to our identity as a people. I hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to connect with the land and the people, even from thousands of miles away.

There’s one more way that you can designate me, or a number of others, as your shlichim. In February, a group of us will be returning to the Gulf Coast to do more clean up and rebuilding work. Please look for publicity over the next few weeks about dates we will be holding fundraisers for the trip at Friendly’s. All of the participants will be paying for the privilege of performing this mitzvah. Your meal at Friendly’s will help keep the costs reasonable for those who are able to make the trip. We are already working on filling a second van, so if you’re able to spend an extended Presidents’ Weekend, we would love to have you join us.

2000 years ago, Hillel said: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” Through our collective mitzvot, we will support our own people, we will reach out to others, and we will do it in the next few months.

Other Mitzvah opportunities to watch for include two weeks of providing shelter in our congregation for the homeless, reading to students at Ross Elementary School, and more. We hope everyone will be counted as we bring the world a little closer to wholeness and peace.

Shabbat Shalom u’m’vorach. Have a Shabbat of peace and of blessing.

Sincerely,
Jack P. Paskoff,
Rabbi

October 23, 2009

Noach Gen.6:9-11:32  

Dear Friends:

Some of you have heard me describe one of the greatest sermons I ever heard. I was still a student, and heard someone in the Hebrew Union College community raise the following question concerning this week’s parasha containing the story of Noah and the flood. The sermon asked if we felt that we would be worthy to captain the ark were the flood to come today. If we take a close look at the Biblical story, we would see that that entails being “righteous in our generation.” Of that verse, the Rabbis wonder if that meant just being better than everyone else, theoretically not too tough when all the others are violent and evil, or does it mean truly rising above the immorality going on around us to be fully righteous.

This is a question that we must also ask of Israel today. Is it enough for Israel to just be more moral than the nations and peoples around her, or must Israel be a paragon of morality? Of course, I ask this in reference to the Goldstone report of the United Nations regarding the Gaza War of early 2009. The report condemns both Hamas and Israel for conduct during the war, but singles Israel out particularly harshly, and, to many expert eyes, unfairly.

Is it fair to say that the answer to the question of righteousness being relative or absolute is, in fact, both? In the court of world opinion, I believe we must remind the world that Israel is more moral than most military forces on the planet. Who else distributes millions of leaflets and makes thousands of phone calls to warn civilians that a bombing will take place, advising them to leave their homes? Hamas terrorists certainly do not. They capitalize on the element of surprise and shock, with no respect for the lives of civilians. Compared to Hamas, it is clear to many, although not to Judge Goldstone (sadly, a Jew) that Israel passes the test of “Righteous in our generation” at least in so far as being better than her neighbors.

Having said that, there is also an internal reality. Where did Israel go wrong? Were there additional civilian lives that could have been saved? Was there damage to the infrastructure in Gaza that was unnecessary? While Israel may be better than her neighbors, Israel still needs to be better than Israel was. While it may never be reached, a Jewish State must always strive to attain absolute righteousness, and when it falls short, we need to know why and how it will be avoided in the future.

The Torah challenges us this Shabbat, as it should. Let us not fail, though, in standing up for Israel in the face of the charges of the Goldstone report.

I hope to see all of you at services tonight. Please plan on staying to hear Jack Fischel speak during our Friday Forum about his Encyclopedia of American Jewish Pop Culture.

Shabbat Shalom u’m’vorach. Have a Shabbat of peace and of blessing.

Sincerely,

Jack P. Paskoff,

Rabbi

October 16, 2009

Bereshit Gen. 1:1-6:8  

Dear Friends:

There are many passages in the Torah that stand out as great bumper sticker slogans. The problem with these is that when we see them too often, they lose their impact. We need to work at restoring their meaning. Among these, within the passage we know of as V’ahavta, we find the words, V’shinantam l’vanecha, you shall teach them to your children. Our very old prayerbook, the small blue volume that many of us grew up on, translates these words as “Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.” In the Gates of Prayer, it became “You shall teach them faithfully,” and now, in Mishkan T’fillah, it says, “Impress them on your children.” Regardless of the verb and the adverb, the object of teaching remains the same, “your children.”

Last Sunday morning, we held a game show in the sanctuary. Five adults competed to see if they were smarter than Shaarai Shomayim religious school students, ranging from 4th grade to 9th. I was amazed and gratified to find out what our kids knew. I think the adults who were present felt the same way I did. Our kids learn and absorb so much of what we try to teach them.

When my own kids tell me about school, I am eager to know what they have learned. Some of it, especially in math and science, is clearly beyond anything I have thought about in the past 30 years, but I still want to know. We have a lot more we share in together in history and English. I enjoy being able to have conversations with my kids about books they are reading and papers they are writing. If I was a really good parent, I would try to catch up in math and science, too, but I’m just not that good. What I like to think I am good at, though, is taking an active interest in my children’s educations. I know I am in no way unique in this regard. I would imagine most parents take the same approach. The problem is that we don’t take the same active role in our kids’ Jewish educations. For some, the interest isn’t there. For others, it’s being intimidated or embarrassed at what they don’t know and perhaps never knew.

1800 years ago, Rabbi Akiva was one of our greatest teachers. Far from being a typical student, he was illiterate until he was 40 years old. In at least one telling of his life story, he learned the “alef-bet,” the Hebrew alphabet, sitting with small children as they learned.

Whether you are parents of religious school students or not, consider this your invitation to learn. Join us over the next three Monday nights for Judaism 101. Learn Hebrew on Wednesday afternoons. Study Torah on Shabbat mornings. Make sure your children and grandchildren know that you attend religious school, too. Not all of us are equipped to teach our kids the facts, but we are all able to teach them the importance of Jewish life and learning. Maybe we can’t always be their teachers, but our curiosity, our pride in learning, our wonder at the history, culture, language, and traditions of our people, our active presence and involvement in learning, can make us their greatest role models.

When composer Debbie Friedman set the “old” English translation of the V’ahavta to music, she altered the pronunciation of the word “diligently” by moving the accent. It became “dili-GENTly.” As parents and grandparents, as teachers and friends, may we teach and impress, may we do so gently and with love. See the attached information about our Adult Jewish Growth programs so maybe next year our kids will have some competition when you’re asked if you are smarter than a Shaarai Shomayim religious school student.

I hope to see you all here for Mitzvah Day on Sunday; for now, though, Shabbat Shalom u’m’vorach. Have a Shabbat of peace and of blessing.

Sincerely,

Jack P. Paskoff,

Rabbi

October 09, 2009

Shemini Atzeret  

Dear Friends:

Last Shabbat Eve, there were quite a few of us who gathered at the County Park to welcome Shabbat and to welcome the festival of Sukkot. Unfortunately, it started to rain during the hike, but I think many people enjoyed the opportunity to be together in this unique way.

As the rain was coming down on the last part of the hike, a few people got into a conversation with the naturalist who guided us about the cycles of nature. We talked about the 17 year cicada, and wondered how they know when 17 years are up. While we agreed that there was something in the genetic code, the naturalist referred to this as being somewhat miraculous. I had to agree. He then posed the question, “How do the great grandchildren of the monarch butterflies that came north in the spring know the exact grove in Mexico to return to in the fall when they’ve never been there themselves, and the generation that was there is gone?”

It occurred to me then that the Jewish people are somewhat like those monarch butterflies. We regularly return to places we’ve never been, and even when we return to places we have been, we see them as if for the first time. Think just about this week on our calendar. We have celebrated Sukkot, one of our pilgrimage holidays. We “return” to Israel, whether we’ve ever been there or not. If we haven’t been, though, hopefully we will make the commitment to get there at least once in our lives.

This week we also return to our ancestors. Saturday morning will mark one of the four times during the year that we recite Yizkor, the memorial service when we remember the relatives who are no longer among the living. We return to our memories of the times we shared with them and the lessons we learned from them.

On Shabbat this week, we also observe Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah. That means we return to the Torah. Physically, we roll it from one end to the other, not hoping, but expecting to discover new insights as we set out on the journey again from Genesis through Deuteronomy, knowing we’ll take the journey again a year from now. With the return to Torah, we also have the opportunity to study it anew through adult eyes. Remember that we are starting a new Torah Study group on Shabbat mornings, beginning with the first portion of the Torah on October 17. (The group will meet in one of the upstairs classrooms. Please enter through the James Street doors. Services will follow many weeks, and for the kick-off event, there will be breakfast too. Please let us know to expect you so we have enough food.)

I don’t know if these journeys of return are built into some Jewish genetic code. I do know that they are built into our souls. Let’s celebrate these journeys together.
Chag Sameach. Have a happy holiday, and Shabbat Shalom u’m’vorach. Have a Shabbat of peace and of blessing.

Sincerely,
Jack P. Paskoff,
Rabbi

October 02, 2009

First day of Sukkot  

Dear Friends:

Over 800 students. Remember that number.

I have spent some time recently speaking about the meaning of Sukkot, our festival that begins this evening. (See the attached flyer. We’re at the County Park, rain or shine.) Among other things, living in a sukkah for a week, or just spending a little time in one, reminds us that the “stuff” of our lives can be fleeting and fragile. What we see as permanent can be gone tomorrow. Individuals who are currently homeless are all too well aware of that reality.

Earlier this week, thanks to our congregant, Rich Wolman, I was on a panel speaking about homelessness to a local Rotary group. While my job was to highlight a few things about our rotating emergency winter shelter, it was the gentleman who spoke before me who presented some truly alarming statistics. Ken Marzinko is the coordinator of the Homeless Students Project. As such, it is his job to track over 800 students in the district who lack a permanent address. This is the reality of the community our congregation calls home. Among other things, Ken scrounges to find money for backpacks, school uniforms, and dignified footwear for all of these students. Ken compared the reality of the homeless student to an onion. Every time something happens that sets such a student apart from the rest of his peers, a layer of the onion is peeled away until eventually there’s no connection left, increasing the likelihood of dropping out and poverty. While it never would have occurred to me, something as simple as being the only student in the class who doesn’t have a packet of school pictures to bring home peels away a layer.

We may get rained on a little tonight and throughout Sukkot. It may be a little chilly in the wind. If the weather gets bad, we go inside. During Sukkot, we read from the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes. It begins, with the words “Vanity of vanities.” When we compare our realities to those of a homeless individual, how much would have to be called vanity?

I don’t believe we should feel guilty for what we have. I DO believe we should do our best to share what we have with others. Look through your closets. School District of Lancaster uniforms consist of white or blue collared shirts (no patterns or logos) and blue or tan shorts or pants. We are always collecting these supplies in our Mitzvah Closet in the lobby. Remember, gently used is fine, but we want to make sure that students can wear these articles of clothing with dignity. Additionally, we are exploring a congregational involvement with the PowerPack program. Many students in the district get their only nutritious meals from the free breakfasts and lunches served at school. PowerPacks sees to it that they have appropriate meals over the weekends too. Finally, as we have done since the project’s inception, we will be hosting the emergency shelter in our building for 2 weeks. As of now, only one of those weeks is fixed on the calendar. Please begin letting Marilyn Stein know your availability to spend a night, help with nighttime check in, or provide snacks during the week of December 21-28. ( .) Since most of that is a school vacation week, it is an excellent time to bring your kids to help out, and a perfect time for college students to be involved.

If you don’t have a sukkah in your yard, and can’t make it tonight or tomorrow morning, just spend a few minutes outside. You’ll get the message. Let’s do what we can.

Shabbat Shalom u’m’vorach. Have a Shabbat of peace and of blessing, and Chag Sameach. I wish you a very happy Sukkot.

Sincerely,
Jack P. Paskoff,
Rabbi