Do

 Once there was a lonely woman.  She went to class by herself.  She did homework alone.  No one wanted anything to do with her.  There was a good reason for it; she was not a nice person.

Feeling isolated, she went to a rabbi seeking advice.  A far as she was concerned she was fine.  Life was treating unfairly (people tend not be able to see personal flaws).  While sitting with the rabbi her personality shone through and he saw the young woman for what she was, selfish and self-centered.

“What should I do?” she wept as she told of her isolation.

The rabbi listened compassionately, waited and then said, “Here is what I want you to do.  Go to the school cafeteria as you usually do at lunch but I want you to look for people to help with their trays, paying for what they cannot, getting them salt, a seat, whatever.”

The young woman went away relieved that she had a specific task to do.  It enabled her to focus on something and slowly, as she performed these helpful duties, she began to see herself differently, and, as a result, others began to view her differently too.

Many programs like Dr. Phil or lots of self-help books emphasize what is wrong with our lives and how to fiddle with it.  They tell us to enroll in step programs or take certain classes which will change our behavior.

The Jewish approach tells us that what we do influences the way we think and behave. That is why we place such a heavy emphasis on mitzvot and tend to minimize creeds or statements of faith.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “God is more immediately found in the Bible as well as in acts of kindness and worship than in the mountains and forests. It is more meaningful for us to believe in the immanence of God in deedsthan in the immanence of God in nature.”

Heschel teaches us that our actions, mitzvot, as a response to the call of God.  That in addition to the fact that when we act we change our character are strong reason to follow the mitzvoth our faith places before us.

There are always mitzvot to perform  On Shabbat we bless our children, bless our spouse, light candles, make Kiddush.  Pesach follows with its own actions/mitzvot.  Each time we act with God, travel the path of our ancestors we alter some powerful part of our self.

 

 

This is for the thoughts I place at the bottom of my column:

A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought- -Abraham Joshua Heschel

Own It

I have a question to ask.

In some form, the question has been forming in my mind for a very long time. Just now it seems to be taking enough shape so that I am finally able to give it a voice. Let me begin by sharing with you to brief vignettes.

Long ago, I was engaged in interviewing at different Synagogues around the country. For the purposes of becoming their rabbi, the congregation and I needed to first agree that there was a mutual interest. I would be invited to a visit with them and answer assorted questions. A standard question that each “Rabbi Search Committee” would ask, “Will you eat in a congregant’s home if they do not keep kosher?”  Hmmm.  The question was posed, and my mind would swing into gear; for underlying each question is a subtle dilemma for the congregation. Surely, they would not ask about kashrut if it were a meaningless issue. Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that there was some recent event in the committee or Congregation’s mind or experience that compelled them to pose the question.  Furthermore (talk about crossing a rabbi’s eyes!) it can be then inferred that there was some infidel around the table who does not actually keep it kosher home and will either cringe or easily jump on any suggestion that he or she is any less valid citizen of the community when the rabbi admits that he will not eat at this fellow’s table.

Second vignette: Time ago, shortly after I was ordained, I was invited to a Christian colleague’s home for dinner in my first pulpit. Together with my wife and our children and we went over to their home on a Sunday afternoon to join them for a lively evening. Now, you must be anticipating the problem: where was the food coming from? After all, can hardly be expected of a Christian ministry to keep the laws of kashrut. “Don’t tell me the rabbi has double standards!”

As it happens, this minister and his wife purchased glass plates, new utensils, shopped for supervised foods at the local market, called me with some questions about the permissibility of fish purchased at that market and excitedly inquired about whether it was correct to cook the food in their non-kosher oven. After weeks of preparation, fact-finding, and research at the library we were invited to sit at the table with a tacit validation of our Jewish customs.

Why is it that Jews seem to be undeterred in their own lack of observance, demanding of the rabbi that he recognize the lowest standard of practice as legitimate?  Call Christians will weather brimstone to preserve the integrity of our traditions and mitzvot?

Now to my opening question, why? Why are we so hard on Jews who observe their faith, Judaism? I know many observant members of lots of Conservative communities or often intimidated and made to feel backward and somehow in validated by the friends whose own practices are lax.

There are 613 mitzvot in the Torah-many more and ancillary writings. No human being can ever compass all of these. They are too many and too diverse to hope to fully bridge the chasm between observance and mitzvah. Yet we must attempt. He as Theodore Herzl put it, “Even though it may lie beyond us we have no right to stop trying.”

It is my guess that many of us have ceased trying.

Just as maturation is lifelong processes that cannot be condensed or minimized, Jewish growth must also be on a continuum. The moment we attempt to force environment to fit into our preconceived mold is when we stop growing. When Judaism is made to conform to our existing mold of practice, we atrophy. Imagine doing that in our business: when we are satisfied with sales, we keep everything maintained exactly the same for the rest of our career.  Such a business model is ridiculous. “Where there is no development,” says the Talmud, “there is regression.” No one stands still. No human being stops studying, analyzing, learning and retaining his mental acumen. In life, we either gain or lose.

If Jewish observance is too daunting, we must make no attempt to negate Jewish practice or reduce it to a lower level.  We would do such a thing with our children: we demand continual advancement for them. Why should we expect anything less of ourselves?

Let me put it another way, if we are in the same place that we were five years ago in our Jewish commitment and observance, is that not a betrayal of the best we have to offer and be?  Is that not shortchanging our ability to grow and learn?

Our religion is a gift to the world that keeps on giving, but only if first we take it and own it.

On Learning from Children

Rabbi Zushya hungered to achieve a level of holiness that would enrich his life.  So Zushya travelled from master to master asking the same question.  One day his journey intersected withe famous Maggid.

The Maggid responded to Zushya, “You can receive your answer by observing a small child.  A child can teach you how to be happy for no particular reason. He can teach how to never be still even for a moment when you need something.  He will cry and fret until he is calmed.”

What did the Maggid mean by this?

He was talking about God and life.  Rabbi Zushya needed to understand that happiness can be found when we live in the moment and let go of what has passed.  Have you ever seen a little girl cry and then laugh two seconds later?  She does not hold on to her anger but lets it go; releasing it once the moment is gone.

Little ones are always on the move.  The smaller the child, the more active they are. 

I heard once of a football player who decided to do an experiment.  He imitated everything his four-year old did.  The child climbed the stairs on their knees, so did the father.  The child danced, the parent danced.  At the end of the day the adult was thoroughly exhausted.  Imagine, indicates the Maggid, if good people put that kind of effort into a relationship with God, doing mitzvot.  The world would not even need the Mashiach!

Finally, tots have temper tantrums.  If they do not get what they want they stamp their feet and cry.  Says the Maggid; we need to follow their example.  When we see an injustice we should shout, even scream.  When we witness evil we should be as upset and vocal as a toddler.  Can you imagine how wonderful this world would be if every time some evil act was done others began to wail and carry on like a police siren?  Bad people would soon be shut down.

Good advice, wasn’t it?

Advice to Graduates

           Shimon, the son of Gamliel, thought hard.  When asked this question he could not help but search through years of lessons, discussions, and arguments.  “Sometimes,” he reflected, “they embraced each other; other times they stormed off in a discernable anger.”  He saw the greatest scholars of all time scratch their heads in wonder.  And now here he was being asked the question, “What is the greatest truth that you know?”

Shimon understood, after all the learning he had been exposed to, that this was the hardest question he had ever been asked.  Slowly, Shimon opened his mouth.  “All my life I have been raised with Sages.  What I have learned is that the best to learning the truth is silence.  When I am quiet and do not rush to make others hear my opinions I am free to hear the full story first.”

They nodded, listening.

Shimon drew in a breath and continued.  “Practice is more important than study.  After all, you can memorize facts galore but what a person does is more important than what he knows or says.”

A cool breeze blew through the orchard as if agreeing with the young scholar.  No sound was heard as Shimon continued.  “One who speaks too much brings sin into the world.”

Shimon, son of Gamliel, really lived in Israel two thousand years ago.  These words were actually spoken by him.  He said three things that I want the graduating class of any time or year to absorb.

1. Listen.  Do not make snap judgements.  If you are too busy speaking or contemplating what you will next say your mind will not be open to what is being uttered by others.

2. Be good.  Do good.  Words are cheap.  They can be spewed forth and be meaningless.  If you really want to make a difference in the world, follow the mitzvot.  Be a Jew.

3. If you prattle on and just let words gush out, sooner (rather than later), you will hurt someone.  It is so easy to wound another by careless words.  Think first.

Now make these words and truths yours and we will always be proud of you.

Rabbi Jonathan Case

Pesach

Pesach is conditional.  Let’s take a quick look at the familiar story:

Moshe rabbenu had to work with the people to convince the Pharaoh to release the slaves.  God did not do it.  Moshe did.

During the last plague the Jews were told to gather sheep* into their homes (for a festive meal) and to paint their lintels with blood to deter the Angel of Death.  

Later, trapped by the Red Sea and the approaching chariots God taunted Moshe and the people to stop praying and have a hand in their own salvation.  The sea only split when they waded in.

“Put your trust in God, but mind you keep your powder dry,” declared Oliver Cromwell.

A unique attitude I have found in our faith and nowhere else is that we are ‘partners’ with God and not dependent underlings.  We are key players in doing the Will of God.  As the Aleynu reads, our task is “To complete the world under the Kingship of the Lord.”  This is sanding the hard surfaces from Creation.  God deliberately left the world unfinished.

There are numerous objectives in the Pesach seder.  Yet, one that often becomes forgotten is the idea is to become engaged with God.  We are challenged by the 613 mitzvot.  The beg us to enter into a relationship with the Giver.  Mitzvot are our connection to the Divine.

Scholem Asch told of a few survivors of a terrible pogrom that decimated Lublin.  One man returned to find his parents were murdered and many of the town’s inhabitants forcibly converted.  He roamed the streets and heard the stories and sighs of the survivors.

He found himself on a narrow street where merchant’s stalls were located.  There was one man calling buyers to his booth.  But when he looked inside there was nothing there.  He asked the old man, “What do you sell here?  Your booth is empty.”

And the old man answered, “I sell faith.”

Faith is imperative to continue fulfilling our destiny of marrying God’s Will to bring “light to the world.”

Perhaps then on Pesach we can look for clues – lying in full sight-  to bring much needed relief to our fellow Jews and the world.

*Bear in mind the sheep was a deity in ancient Egypt.

Bless me. Bless Us. Bless God.

Taking full notice of what we see and how we react to it undergirds the whole Torah.  God wants us to look, really look, at His work.  From the “Beginning” where God commands all of life to emerge from the dormant earth to the mitzvot of protecting one another, God’s ultimate concern is our interrelationship with the world.

Torah begs us to be engaged in all facets of life.  The pathway to engagement is to see grass, observe birds, listen to the cicadas, and participate in other people’s joys and oys. 

That is why the Talmud tells us we must say one hundred blessings each day.  We bless new clothes, our ability to see, walk, relieve ourselves, eat, experience holy time, and see the mysteries of nature.  One cannot do these things with eyes closed.  When we bless our world we become part of it.  We witness creation.

We are supposed to notice beauty.  Who knows?  Perhaps God will one day ask if we took the time to notice the variegated stripes on a mosquito’s leg.  “It is quite ornate.  I spent a lot of time designing it,” He might say to us.  Such a small miracle is remarkable.

Shug Avery, one of the characters in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple said, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”

The universe is a harmonious, seamless place, where the only potential renegade variable is us.  Yet, with Torah as a guide we can at once work with God’s world and feel content instead of wondering what to do next.  The way we see matters.  Here is an illustration:

A man walked over to gaze at a construction site where workers were busily cementing bricks.  He asked a bricklayer, “What are you doing?”

The bricklayer answered that he was making twelve dollars an hour to do his work.

The observer asked a second man the same question.  He responded, “I have to support my family, and must earn enough for their needs.”

The third man said, “I am building school for children.”

Being a part of the universe that is fully alive, pulsating with energy is to uncover a great source of personal strength.  To see the world as dynamic, alive, flowing with possibility is to access and harness our potential.

Each prayer we utter changes the object of the prayer as well as us.  Everything we say is of consequence.  The opposite is also true: There are no secrets in the universe.  Nothing is done that does not have a ripple effect.  Everything matters.  That is why it is so important to pay attention.

Judaism’s insistence that we daven, say one hundred blessings each day, observe the 613 mitzvot, conspires to create a meaningful life and better world.

A visitor to Princeton University once remarked to Albert Einstein, “I am surprised that you work so hard.”  Einstein replied, “I am surprised to hear you say that.  I never work.  Everything that I do is pleasure and enjoyment.”

With such a regard for where our feet travel, what our mouth says, what our eyes see, and what our hands do, we become fully alive acting in consonance with the Lord, God.

As the year draws to a close consider bringing God and self into closer alignment.

° Try saying a few more blessings each day (plenty are in the back of the siddur (prayer book) or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_prayers_and_blessings.

° Put a tzedaka box on the counter and make putting something in a daily practice.

° Come to shul.

° Make it a point to do someone a favor once each day.

° Bless your food before eating

° Keep far from people and places that are bad for you.

Embrace life.