From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

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Talmud Class: The Bible Story About No Good Options Mar 09, 2024

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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?

Shabbat Sermon: Real Body Positivity with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger Mar 02, 2024

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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?

Talmud Class: Is the Sun Rising or Setting on American Judaism? Mar 02, 2024

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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?

Shabbat Sermon: Reflections of Our Israel Mitzvah Mission Travelers Feb 24, 2024

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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.

Talmud Class: Unpacking Our Israel Mitzvah Mission Feb 24, 2024

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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.

Shabbat Sermon: Turn the Lights Back On with Rabbi Michelle Robinson Feb 17, 2024

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February 17, 2024

Neurodivergent Torah: A Celebration of Autistic Culture & Liberation with Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman Feb 10, 2024

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This Shabbat, I’m going to share a personal story very different from the kinds of sermons I used to give when I worked in a congregation. I want to be clear it is my story. I recognize that in this room there are Autistic people and family members who have their own perspectives that may differ from mine. They are just as important and valid. We are a large and diverse community.

Three years ago, a neuropsychologist assessed our then 3-year-old son and called a few weeks later to tell us that was Autistic. I was so relieved. Our son was verbally precocious, made intense eye contact, and was very charismatic and social. He also loved being read a wall calendar or a Hebrew/English dictionary as a bedtime story, struggled with transitions and unpredictable meltdowns, and ran in circles around his preschool classroom here in Temple Emanuel, seeking sensory input he wasn’t getting. Bedtime could take 2 manic hours. Like our ancestors in this week’s parasha, my family was in an unknown wilderness, and we were ready to receive some Torah.

Except the Torah the doctor delivered to us didn’t seem right.

Instagram: @rabbishoshana

Web: https://www.rabbishoshana.com/

Talmud Class: Saying Yes When We Don't Have the Foggiest Idea of What We Are Saying Yes To Feb 10, 2024

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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.

A Conversation with Annette Miller Feb 07, 2024

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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.

Talmud Class: Transformation Feb 03, 2024

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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?

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