Eden in the Sukkah

The story goes that a Hasidic Jew had saved 50 rubles so that he could buy the best citron possible for the holiday. With joy in his heart, he went to buy the citron; however, on his way he met a friend who looked miserable. It became clear that his friend’s horse had died and now the poor man could not make a living. “How much would a new horse cost?” the man asked his friend. “45 rubles,” he replied. The Hasid gave the man 45 rubles, and with the five remaining rubles, he bought himself a cheap, shriveled-up citron.

That night in the synagogue the rabbi announced, “I smell the scent of the Garden of Eden. Everyone take out your citrons!” The rabbi inspected every citron until he came to the Hasid who was too embarrassed to even take his citron out. “Let’s see it,” demanded the rabbi. The Hasid sheepishly revealed his citron. “That’s it!” declared the rabbi. “The scent of Eden!” The rabbi asked what led the man to buy such a citron, and the Hasid told the rabbi all about the money he had saved and then given away.  Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins

The Person Next to You

I dislike articles that begin with, “I am sitting on my lounge chair looking up at the….”.   It likely probably stems from my early essays that all began that way.  I mistakenly assumed that people would be interested in what I was doing on a Wednesday evening in April….

Anyway. 

As I stood this year on the bima marveling at this wonderful community of people who gathered to pray on Yom Kippur evening I was struck was the wide variety of people that comprise our congregation.  We are all Jews with the same collective history and unconscious but that is where the similarity ends.

We came in fine clothes from the most posh and fashionable stores, recently obtained clothes from Goodwill, and with an amazing scale of skin tones.  We had every conceivable color present!  Straight, frizzy, curly, done-up, shaved close, blonde, gray, dyed, and black hair.  People with serious addictions to food, alcohol, pornography, drugs and gambling.  Entrepreneurs and thieves.  Tzaddiks and scoundrels.

There were gossipers and rubber-neckers, swindlers, cads, and altruistic saviors.

Transsexuals, bisexuals, homosexuals, heterosexuals, people faithful to their partners for life and others who were not.

Then the Hazzan began to intone, just before Kol Nidre, “I hereby declare it is permitted to pray with sinners.”  At that moment all barriers dropped.  No one was better than the next.  All became equal in God’s eyes (always that way actually) and more importantly, in one another’s eyes.

To be rid of judgmentalism is utopia.  It is perfection and exactly what G-d wants from us.  Forget about what you heard about disparity of wealth, learning, class, orientation, or color, what really divides humanity is being judgmental, believing that someone unlike us, is worth less.

I’d like every day to be Yom Kippur (minus the fasting) when pretense is stripped away and we all stand before God knowingly naked and indistinguishable from one another.  Death is like that.  But it would be a shame if we wait for the end of life to teach us the ultimate lesson of life.  We are all the same.

Ten for Parents

Ten Crucial Thoughts on Parenting

10. Some part of any money that comes your way should be for tzedaka.

9. The way you fulfill your appetites should be preceded by, “How does Judaism say I should do this?” 

8. You have a home in Israel.

7. Nothing is more important to your moral development than Jewish education.

6. Come to shul with me.

5. Make a Shabbat table.

4. It is important to daven.

3. I expect you to live as a Jew.

2. Zei a mensch.

1. “This is what I believe about God…”

Read the list. Discuss them.  Let them become part of the dialogue.

Prayerful Hints

“Work is great.  It warms us,” declares the Talmud (Gittin).

Who does not like a vacation?  Yet, who sits around and just that?  So many people set withering agendas on vacation.  Sports, adventures, hiking, catching a bus or running for a plane or boat, parsing on hundreds of miles, and on. 

Perhaps we have all learned that keeping busy, being productive makes us feel “warm.”   A good day concludes when we have exhausted ourselves with sightseeing.

The same is true for life in general. We seek work that gratifies us, knowing we have expended energy in a constructive manner.  We enter into relationships and know that it will take ongoing effort to ensure continuity.

An Israeli joke tells of Yossi and Shmulik sitting at a café in Tel Aviv drinking coffee all day.

Yossi explains, “We have to watch our caffeine intake.  Too much and it interferes with our sleep at the office.” 

The Holy Days are upon us.  We will sit for long hours seeking forgiveness, meting our responsibility as our ancestors did before us, greeting old friends and looking for God.

In most of those tasks we succeed but there are times when in the course of seeking God we are derailed.  That may be because no one bothered to ever explain how to look for the holy One.

-       Plato wrote the first sentence of his famous “Republic” nine times before he was satisfied.

There are different approaches to God.  They do not all work all the time.  We must be prepared to try different avenues.  How about sitting still?  Try quieting the mind and simply focus.  Or repeat a meaningful word(s) from the prayers like Shma Yisrael, or Hashevaynu Adondai (Return to me, God).  How about moving your body (what we call “shuckling”) as a form of prayer?

-Noah Webster worked for thirty-six years on his dictionary, even crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice to gather information.

Follow his example and read the marginal notes for inspiration.  Or bring an inspiring book with you to shul to resource during the service.  We keep books for reference in the bookcases at the rear of the Sanctuary for this purpose.

-Milton rose at 4 am every day so he could finish Paradise Lost.

Don’t give up.  If one form does not work, try another.  Singing is a way to cast your soul outward.  If it is, sing louder. 

-       Cicero practiced speaking in front of his friends every day for 30 years to perfect his elocution.

Why not read up on the Holy Days before you arrive at shul?  There are loads of books in the library and innumerable sources on line.  Come prepared.

-       Byron rewrote on of his poems ninety-nine times before he was satisfied.  Only then was it declared a masterpiece and has become a classic.

When we put effort into work, vacations, the yard or whatever we come away with a feeling of accomplishment, a rewarding sense of success.  Since it happens in every sphere on our lives why not shul too?    

- Gibbon spent twenty-six years writing The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.

I do not think you will be in services that long but come prepared, dedicated to search for your Maker.  As Torah says, “Seek Me and you will find Me.”

Don’t Have a Happy New Year

A wandering merchant came to a town square offering to sell the elixir of life.  Of course, large crowds would surround him, each person eager to purchase eternal youth.  When pressed, the merchant would bring out the Book of Psalms and show them the verse: “Who desires life?  Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from guile.”

Rabbi Artson tells that tale as it demonstrates the greatest truth of life: what we do influences how we live.  On one plane, it is widely accepted that healthy eating produces a healthier lifestyle.  Yet, it is equally true that our outward behavior towards others crafts the inner image of our identity.

Show me a kind-hearted person, generous with deed and word, and I will show you a happy person.  The opposite is also true- a foul-mouthed, mean-spirited person will harbor a nasty cauldron of inner bitterness.

We control how we act and how we act controls how we construct our thoughts.

Rumi and so many other inspired poets speak of following your heart while our faith says the opposite, “Your heart will be drawn after your actions.”  In other words humans have the propensity to justify what we do, even when it is bad.  We merge into one being with what we say.  In stead, the Jewish attitude is to do mitzvot and your heart will follow.

We are headed into the season when the measure of our self is taken, both by God and us.  As we approach the end of the summer we see our reflection mirrored in the eyes of those with whom we interact.  When we see their disapproving glance we can fend off the negativity or be brave – as God would have it - and ask, “How did I create this?”  Equally so, watch for the look of love in another’s eyes and you will find joyful validation.

One man seeking wholeness went to see a mystic.  He yearned for healing.  Half starved, the mystic ordered the man to be fed and then had him repeat the viduy (confession), ashammnu, bgadnu, gazalmu etc- “we have sinned, we have betrayed, we have stolen…..”

In the course of repeating the list of sins he fainted.  When he came to the mystic sent him away ordering him to never again forget that some words are important as deeds, some words are actually deeds and some deeds take control of our self.  They and us become one.

Don’t have a happy New Year, make it a good one through your actions.

Mazel Tov!

Mazel tov!

Everyone, Jew and gentile, has heard this phrase.  We take it to mean, ‘Well done!”   Or “congratulations!”  Actually, mazel tov means “good luck.”   

The words are meant to ward of the “evil eye.”  Ok, say something good happens to you.  If someone comes up and says, “What a wonderful thing to happened to you” (i.e. I am envious and it should have happened to a nicer person) they would be putting the “evil eye” on you, this is wishing something bad.

Another generation may remember saying “kayna hara” after hearing good news, which are words to chase away and bad wishes or spirits.  Going back another generation, some will even remember spitting over their shoulder when something good was spoken to chase away a possible curse.

“Mazel tov” – good luck -- was originally a way to disrupt the pathway of the evil eye.

Going back even further in time, “mazel” was how the star lined up.  “Mazalot” means constellations.  In Israel there are star charts of the floors of some synagogues.  Astronomy was an important way to chart of the passage of time.   One scholar, Rabbi Shmuel was said to be more familiar with the pathways of the stars than the streets of the city where he lived.

Going back millennia, mazel tov indicates a wish for the stars to align in a favorable pattern to bring about a good outcome.

A Time Anomaly

Moses dispatched twelve spies to determine the viability of the Land.

Tisha B’Av (forty days later) the Jews deny their heritage in fright and refuse to enter the Land.  They are sentenced to forty years of wandering.

The first Temple was destroyed on the same date.

The Second Temple was destroyed on the same date.

The Judean revolt was quashed leading to 2,000 years of exile.

Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all Jews from Spain.

So, is Tisha B’Av fated to be a day of darkness and excruciating pain?   We will fast and read Lamentations on this date.  Is the ninth of Av cursed?

Is there such a thing as good or bad luck?  Are things fated by the universe and therefore we are trapped? 

I remember my father telling me when I was saddened to hear about all the tragedies on Tisha B’Av.  He soothed my anxiety by telling me that the Mashiah would be born on this day.

Maybe we can change our ill fortune; God has not written our lives before they have been lived. 

We are not as stuck as we feel.

We are not fated or slated for anything but are ever free to choose our own destiny.

In the seventeenth century Italian violinists kept toads in their violin cases.  Before a concert they would pull out their toad and stroke it for good luck. Centuries later it was discovered by herpetologists that toads secrete alkaloids that dry out skin.  Toads actually helped them play better because they fingers did not stick to the strings!

Maybe there is no mazel tov: there are only the results of our efforts.