November 27, 2009

Vayetze Gen. 28:10-32:3  

Dear Friends:

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, with plenty of food and family, and plenty of things to be thankful for as well.

Spending this week in Jerusalem has been wonderful. Not only have I spent some time with Ari and his friends, but I was also honored to share with the Silberts in Jillian’s Bat Mitzvah. Most of the times I’ve visited Israel since I lived here 26 years ago, I’ve been with groups. This week I’ve gotten to reacquaint myself with how great a city this is for walking. I’ve seen things that are familiar from years ago, but there is so much new construction that I have also gotten confused in once familiar places.

The big news around here is the ongoing negotiation for the release of Gilad Shallit, being held by Hamas for a few years already. While Israel has shown over and over again that she will eventually engage in a lopsided prisoner exchanges, there is grave concern about releasing hundreds of people who had been involved in terrorist activity in the past. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

I’m sorry I missed hearing our guest speaker on Sunday morning, having been here already. I did, however, spend Tuesday afternoon helping to serve lunch at Carmei Ha-Ir, the soup kitchen that received the proceeds from the book. We served people of all ages and from many different national backgrounds, old and young. Some kissed the mezuzah on the way in and out and recited Birkat Ha-Mazon when they were finished. Others came, ate, and left. Some came with people they knew, others sat with strangers. I worked alongside a recent Orthodox immigrant from England, a child of Ethiopian immigrants, a group of young girls who apparently volunteered there regularly, and a group of B’nai Mitzvah age boys who seemed to know the routine as well as anyone and took great pride in helping. I was the beneficiary of gratitude for doing the smallest things. I was blown kisses by an older woman who couldn’t twist the top off the soda bottle. I’ve shared the term Shaliach with you before. While you were there hearing our speaker and buying the books, I felt like your emissary here, helping out at the other end of this cycle of Mitzvot.

(While the Orthodox woman and I disagreed on religious practice, I was very impressed as she was praised for her work. She deflected the praise by saying, “L’shem mitzvah, for the sake of the mitzvah.” It was almost as if being praised detracted from the mitzvah in her mind, and she was very sincere.)

So here’s what you have to look forward to next. As I walked the streets of Jerusalem, I compared street names to those in our community. Here streets are not named after fruits and nuts, nor are they named after forms of British royalty we long ago rejected, nor after creative plays with the names of the developers. Here streets are named after people and events that helped shape the Jewish people and the modern state of Israel, with a few exceptions. So, beginning when I get back and get someone to help me upload pictures of these street signs, your job will be to determine who or what these signs are about. (I’m pulling the easy ones. I won’t give you Abraham Lincoln Street!)

I’m looking forward to sharing more with you when I return. For now, Shabbat Shalom u’m’vorach. Have Shabbat of peace and of blessing.

Sincerely,
Jack P. Paskoff,
Rabbi

November 20, 2009

Toldot Gen. 25:19-28:9  

Dear Friends:
Growing up on an island, even on Long Island, means that bridges become an important part of life. There are the workhorse bridges. Other than Simon and Garfunkel, no one ever waxed poetic about the 59th Street Bridge. Then there are the bridges that are works of art with great stories to tell, like the Brooklyn Bridge. Finally, there are the bridges with genuine majesty. Seeing the towers of the Verrazano Bridge rising up over the horizon on the Staten Island side is a beautiful sight. It goes without saying that bridges represent freedom and connection.

In our Torah reading for this Shabbat, we transition from the Abraham stories to the Jacob stories, and we dismiss son/father Isaac with just a few brief and sometimes embarrassing interludes. We identify him as “merely” being the bridge between the two more famous and more important relatives. Growing up with a father who worked for a construction company his whole working life, and having a brother who is a civil engineer, I learned that there is nothing insignificant about a bridge. We should not dismiss Isaac so lightly.

Periodically, our young people will ask me to write a letter of reference for their college applications. I am always impressed that the University of Pittsburgh sends a thank you note to people who send such letters. The note always includes a copy of the following poem:

THE BRIDGE BUILDER
An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm, vast and deep and wide,
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim-
That sullen stream had no fears for him;
But he turned, when he reached the other side,
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,“ said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting strength in building here.
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?“

The builder lifted his old gray head.
“Good friend, in the path I have come,“ he said,
“There followeth after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.“

-WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE

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

Sincerely,
Jack P. Paskoff,
Rabbi

November 13, 2009

Chaye Sarah Gen. 23:1-25:18  

Dear Friends:
I’ve always been fascinated by synchronicity, the notion that apparently unrelated events can come together in very profound ways. Think about events of this past week. On the 9th, we marked the 71st anniversary of Krystallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, often identified as the start of the Holocaust. That same day, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Just 2 days later, on the 11th, we observed Veterans Day, originally established to mark the anniversary of the armistice that brought an end to World War I. Sadly, other than a bank and government holiday, we too rarely acknowledge this holiday at all.

(Interestingly, in Canada last week, the red poppy that used to be seen frequently around Memorial Day in this country is still ubiquitous on Veterans Day. It was nice to see. It troubles me that that tradition has all but disappeared in our country.)

The connections among these events in history are easy to see, but the timing compresses 80 years of history into a single week. During World War I, not only was the ideal of the age of reason shattered, we also saw the Russian Revolution. While it was certainly not the goal of many of the revolutionaries, their efforts resulted in a totalitarian regime that continued the oppression of Jews and eventually created a situation where Jews were denied permission to leave the country. The punitive peace treaty that resulted from World War I was also a contributing factor in the appeal of Hitler’s nationalism that proved inspirational to many Germans, and even though we were all relieved to know that the Holocaust was over, the Jews of Europe were not fully free until the end of the Soviet Union, an event that most recognized was imminent when the Berlin Wall was taken down.

I had occasion to be in one of the area nursing homes on Veterans Day. There was a full military honor guard, paying tribute to the World War II veterans who were residents. I looked at these now old men, and realized what their service had meant, to the world and to our people. I feel that all too often, we have failed to express our gratitude to these individuals, not by reading proclamations and paying homage, but by living out the ideals for which they fought.

Over and over again, the Torah tells us, Zachor, remember. We must remember the pain of the Holocaust. We must remember the years of waiting of the Jews of the Soviet Union. We must remember global injustice. We must remember the joy of freedom. We must remember the courage of those who fought to bring that freedom to us. We must do all of these things, not just one week a year that coincidentally brings these anniversaries together, but every day.

I hope this provides some food for thought as we prepare to enter Shabbat, the foretaste of the Messianic Age, when we will all know justice and peace.

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

Sincerely,

Jack P. Paskoff,
Rabbi

November 06, 2009

Vayera Gen. 18:1-22:24  

Dear Friends:
Greetings from Toronto! I look forward to sharing our Biennial experiences with you when we return. My regret at not being home this Shabbat is that I won’t be able to be with all of you at services tonight. I think you’ll find this 1st Friday service (6PM) to be meaningful and memorable.

Many of our young people who attend Camp Harlam, the Kutz Camp, or visit Israel have close friendships with Israelis who are their counselors and their friends. That these friends are in the active duty military in Israel, or in the reserves, is something that our kids have a hard time understanding. They don’t always grasp that before college, there is a duty to a country that needs to be honored as these Israeli kids serve up to 3 years in the army. Our kids don’t understand the fear, the honor, the courage, and the patriotism that many Israelis feel. Nevertheless, our kids feel a connection. This is one reason that our kids selected as the theme for their service tonight, “Diaries of an Israeli Soldier.” During the course of the service, our kids will read Hebrew and English. They will sing and chant. You will enjoy their instrumental talents on guitar, flute, and violin. You will be inspired by what they learned from their Israeli counterparts, and you will be inspired by the commitment our students display in putting this service together and conducting it for our congregation. Even though I can’t be with you tonight, I hope you will show your support for the members of our youth group.

It was somewhat ironic that our kids selected this theme before they learned that Dan Jacobson, son of Randi and Bill, has just been inducted into the Israeli army. To the best of my knowledge, while there have been many of our kids who have been connected and devoted to Israel, Dan is only the second child of our congregation to move to Israel, at least for a time, and enter the military. The first was Cliff Firestone in the 1970’s. What better way for us to show our respect for Dan than by being present for this service tonight.

One of the innovations of our no-longer-so-new siddur, Mishkan T’fillah is that it restored the prayer for the State of Israel to our service. Tonight, you will all have the opportunity to join in this prayer, to pray for peace, and to rise and sing Hatikvah together. Your presence at tonight’s service will be a profound expression of solidarity with Israel, with Dan, with Randi and Bill, and with the members of our youth group. I hope you will make every effort to attend.

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

Sincerely,
Jack P. Paskoff,
Rabbi