tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44747348518078120512024-03-08T00:47:24.480-08:00Parent's Torah: Spiritual Lessons from Parenthoodby Rabbi Ilana GrinblatRabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-43284994931119353792022-09-14T16:45:00.009-07:002022-09-23T10:19:51.098-07:00Sharing the Burden<span id="docs-internal-guid-a77342e9-7fff-84b6-2db2-79bf7aa7b4ce"><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen (under its load) on the road, and ignore them. Rather, you shall pick up the load with him."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-- Deuteronomy 22:4</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"> </p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 20pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recently, I spoke with a chaplain who works at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, the largest youth scout camp in the world. The camp is named after Waite Phillips, who together with his wife Genevieve, donated 127,000 acres of land to the scouts. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 20pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This camp features one- to three-week backcountry treks where participants carry on their backs 30- to 50-pound packs with all their supplies, including tents, food, water, and clothes. The scouts hike about 10 miles per day. They climb mountains and rappel down rock formations. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 20pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The chaplain recounted that on a recent trek, one scout contracted altitude sickness and was up much of the night vomiting. In the morning, when the ailing scout picked up his pack to start hiking, it was empty. His fellow scouts had divided the contents of his pack among themselves to carry them for him. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 20pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The chaplain also recalled how one scout couldn’t make it all the way back to camp on the last day. He became exhausted shortly before reaching the camp. His fellow scouts carried him the rest of the way. The chaplain was so moved by the kindness of these teens, he fought back tears as he told me these stories. This verse calls on us to lighten each other’s burdens and make sacrifices for one another. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 20pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indeed! As Waite Phillips of blessed memory said, “The only things we keep permanently are those we give away.” </span></p><div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-15271432512686332372021-08-20T14:44:00.003-07:002021-08-20T14:46:11.573-07:00<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> The La Times recently interviewed a woman in Missouri who decided against receiving the Covid vaccine. She explained why she and her friends decided against vaccination, saying: “the stronger someone’s trust is in the Lord, the least likely they are to want the vaccine or feel that it’s necessary.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When I read this quote, I realized that inaccurate theology can be fatal. If she contracts Covid, the underlying cause of her illness would be a misunderstanding of how God operates in the world.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">“Behold I set before today a blessing and a curse…” This verse teaches that God presents options for us, between life and death, blessings and curses. We can’t merely sit back passively and assume that everything will be fine. We must actively choose between these options.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This idea is echoed in an old story, recounted by Rabbi Edward Feinstein in Tough Questions Jews Ask: “A man who goes up to heaven at the end of his life. He stands before the throne of God. The man looks up at God and says, “You know, I’ve very angry at You! Can’t You see that the world You created is filled with suffering and ugliness and destruction? Why don’t You do something to fix the world’s mess?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">God looks down at the man, and in a gentle voice says, “I did do something. I sent you.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In this time of uncertainty, may we do everything in our power to “choose life,” so that we and our descendants may live.</span></p>Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-60093688926540639232021-03-03T22:44:00.000-08:002021-03-03T22:44:09.233-08:00<p>"<i>An eye for an eye</i>..." (Exodus 21:24) <br /></p><p>The Vilna Gaon noted that this verse doesn’t actually say “an eye for
an eye,” but rather “an eye beneath an eye.” He noted a hint in the
verse that it refers to monetary compensation for injuries. The letters
beneath (subsequent to) the letters in the Hebrew alphabet for the word
ayin (eye), are the letters of the word kesef (money).</p>
<p>As this pandemic drags on and intensifies, our eyes are pained and
weary. Our vision blurs from endless hours staring at screens. In our
exhaustion, this teaching offers a different perspective. This verse
teaches that to understand what God wants from us, instead of looking
ahead at the screen, we must look “beneath.” When our friend tells us on
the phone that they are fine, can we hear the pain under their words?</p>
<p>Chris Burkard described photographing surfers in the arctic as:
“Riding the storm surf with crazy undertows and huge currents and winds
from some of the roughest seas in the world, but it all kind of comes
together when the storms subside and there’s these glimpses in between
these harsh moments when you get perfection.” May we live to see the day
when the storm of this pandemic subsides. Until then, may we glimpse
the glimmer of hope hidden beneath our sorrows.</p>
<p>As Amanda Gorman wrote in her inaugural poem: “For there is always
light, if only we’re brave enough to see it, If only we’re brave enough
to be it.”</p><p> </p>Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-23574150036493591632020-04-21T19:11:00.000-07:002020-04-21T19:11:14.576-07:00The Trick: A Yom Hashoah Reflection<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-baac13f8-7fff-b447-350d-748b9043806d" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;">I woke up
at 6:30 am (on a day when I could have slept in) and my mind started racing:
What if I lose my job? What if my husband loses his job? What if one of my
immediate family members gets the Coronavirus? As Mark Schiff wrote, “my mind
loves to take me on trips through very bad neighborhoods.” Indeed, my tour had
begun.</span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">I was eager to end my mind’s trip through this </span><i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">bad </span></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">neighborhood, so I got on the elliptical and put on a recording of Trevor Noah’s </span><i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Daily Social Distancing Show</span></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> on the television for comedic relief. In this episode, he interviewed Christina Koch, a NASA astronaut who recently returned
from 11 months in space, the longest mission any woman astronaut has ever completed.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">Trevor asked Christina: “How do you prevent yourself from going crazy when you’re stuck in that small environment for so long?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">She answered: “It’s all about how you frame it and your grattitude, just like what we’re going through now.” She further explained that for her, “the trick is to put the right thing on repeat in my head.” So if she found herself missing something from earth and thinking something like, “I wish
I had a latte right now,” she would replace it with something unique she had now that she’d never have again, like “Wow, I’m really going to be bummed out when I can’t look at these auroras from space again,” and repeat that in her mind. That way, she flipped the negative into a positive. So instead of thinking, “I’m so over this… when is it going to be over…you’re actually thinking wow, I want to savor every moment.” Genius!</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">Her idea reminded me of an article I read months ago which offered another mental trick which is key to happiness. The </span></span><a href="http://www.jongordon.com/positive-tip-get-to.html"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; white-space: pre-wrap;">article</span></span></a><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;"> by Jon Gordon, an author and speaker on leadership explains that two simple words can transform your whole outlook on life. He explained that we often say things like, “I have to take the kids to practice.” “I have to go to this meeting,” “I have to go to
work today” or “I have to see my family this weekend.” – as though we don’t have a choice in the matter. He suggested instead of saying “have to,” to say that we “get to” do those things – since those tasks are a privilege, a sacred gift. “We get to go to a job while so many are unemployed. We get to raise our children even if they drive us nuts at times. : )”</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">I read this article months before the Coronavirus outbreak, but I didn’t implement this change to the way that I spoke. I still talked in terms of have to. Now, though, I realize just how right Jon Gordon is. Many of the things I had to do before the Coronavirus outbreak, I don’t get to do anymore. I don’t have to drive my daughter to school or dance class because she doesn’t get to go there anymore. I don’t get to go to the drycleaner or Goodwill because they’re closed. I don’t get to visit family and friends. I’m acutely aware that like all jobs nowadays, my job is a privilege that may end
at any point.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">Our tradition is big into the language of “have to” and of “obligations” – a long list of 613 have tos – mitzvot (commandments), to be exact. This language reflects the reality of human psychology. If we have to do something, then we get it done, whereas if it’s optional, we’re less likely to do it. We are far less motivated to do extra-credit assignments than required ones. I know this from my own experience. After my mother’s heart attack, I learned from CNN that exercising for 30 minutes 3 times a week reduces one’s chance of heart attacks by a third. So I added 30 minutes of daily exercise to my to-do list as a “have to” – a mandatory obligation. If I had added it as an optional activity, it wouldn’t get done.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">Yet, the problem with the language of obligation is that our life can become an endless list of have-to’s which can eclipse our sense of joy and gratitude for these activities. The root of the word Mitzvah (commandment) comes from a root that means to join or attach. So each obligation is a chance to connect to each other and to God.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">This idea is echoed in a verse from last week’s Torah portion. After the ordination of Aaron and his sons as priests, Moses told Aaron to bring a purification offering. Moses said, “And they brought that which Moses commanded before the Tent of Meeting; and all the congregation came
close and stood before God.” (Leviticus 9:5) In this verse, the verbs “commanded” and “came close” are juxtaposed. Every commandment is a chance to get closer. Each “have-to” is actually a “get-to.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">Actually though, the trick to happiness isn’t two words – but just one. It’s a word that has come up a few times in the last few weeks, striking and puzzling me each time. My dad keeps reminding me how “lucky” we were to be able to have my daughter’s bat mitzvah in person on March 14</span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 7.0pt;">th</span></sup></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">. He is absolutely right. The bat mitzvah was in the last open synagogue in Los Angeles, the day
before it closed. Each time, he says it though, I feel a certain irony. It would have been luckier if it had been a day earlier, and we wouldn’t have had to cancel the party. It would have been luckier if it had been a few weeks earlier and her grandparents could have kissed her when they wished her mazel
tov. But he’s right, we were extremely lucky.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">This weekend, I zoomed with my Aunt Laurie, who had Covid-19 and was released from the hospital recently. She too said how “lucky” she was to have survived. Here too, surely it would have been luckier not to get this disease – not having to spend harrowing days in the hospital where her
family couldn’t even visit her. Where after returning home, her daughter had to dress up in a hazmat suit to bring her food. Still, the fact that Laurie emerged from this horrible experience with a sense of being lucky is the key to her recovery and happiness.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">Actually, the first time I was struck by the word “lucky” was when it was said to me by Yetta Kane, a Holocaust survivor from Temple Beth Shalom in Long Beach. Her husband, Rabbi David Kane, of blessed memory was the Cantor Emeritus of that synagogue when I was the rabbi. Yetta always tells me that she is so lucky and that she “won the lottery.” The reason she gives is because her children, grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren practice Jewish life and keep kosher homes. She uses the metaphor of the lottery, not for monetary gain, but for the Jewish continuity in her family.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">I am always struck with that same sense of irony whenever she says the word lucky. In many ways, she lost the lottery by being born as a Jew in the worst time and place in Jewish history to have been born a Jew. She witnessed first-hand the worst horror in human history – and fled with her
family while being shot at – through the forests of Eastern Europe to ultimately live in a small stall with a horse in Siberia for over a year eating pig food. (Her younger sister was born in that stall.) Talk about confinement! The space shuttle is a palace by comparison.</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">But through it all, she considers herself “lucky” to have survived and that attitude is what gave her and her husband the courage to create a beautiful family, to care for a community, and to teach us the recipe for courage. Yetta and David Kane’s memoir is aptly called, “How To Survive
Anything.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">In these past weeks of restrictions I’ve thought so much about Yetta and Anne Frank and all the Holocaust survivors who had to endure confinement much worse than this. As I see how familial friction increases when the family is stuck in close quarters for extended periods with fear of death
looming, I think of Anne Frank and her family, and how much worse it was for them in much smaller quarters for much longer with a greater probability of death. Yet somehow, she managed to retain hope and to transmit that hope to us. As Anne Frank wrote, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Perhaps, we should put that on
repeat in our head!</span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">Yesterday, I caught a glimpse of that hope. I was filming my daughter for a dance audition for her school’s dance elective for next year. To get a better view, I stepped outside my front door. There I heard my neighbor Scott coaching his fifth grade students for a Zoom performance of </span><i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Romeo and Juliet</span></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">. In that moment, I was touched by the resilience of the human spirit. After the bombing in Tel Aviv on the Dolphinarium dance club in 2001, a sign was put at the site of the bombing that said, "</span><i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Lo Nafsik Lirkod</span></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">" - we will not stop dancing. Indeed, the virus can keep us home but it can’t keep us from dancing, theater, and improving the world. </span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black;">This Yom Hashoah, I pray: Someday soon, may we again </span><i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">get to </span></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">do what we </span><i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">had to </span></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">do before the Coronavirus, and may we remember just how </span><i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">lucky</span></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> we are to do so.</span></span></div>
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Name="footnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footer"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of figures"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope return"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">“We cried out to Adonai, the God of our ancestors, and Adonai heard
our plea and saw our affliction, our misery and our oppression.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">
(Deuteronomy 26:7)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“So why isn’t our crying out working
now?” my step-mother, Melissa, asked at our Passover Seder after she read this
verse. My brother Josh jokingly suggested putting blood on the doorposts of our
houses like the Israelites did.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On reflection, I realized that
Melissa’s question contained a few logical premises. Her question assumed that:</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">God sent the
original plagues, we cried out to God and God stopped the plagues – as stated
in the Bible.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Therefore,
crying out to God should work for this plague too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">It’s simple Geometry – the
transitive property – so why isn’t it working?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Beneath her question, Melissa raised
deeper questions:</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Did God send the
plague of Coronavirus? and</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Can God stop
it?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Did God send this plague</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">? I spent some
time entertaining the idea that God may have sent the Coronavirus plague. After
my Amazon Alexa told me the world’s air pollution had dropped due to people
staying home, I went on a bike ride and wondered. I thought about how we’ve
been in this state in recent years where the youth – headed by Greta Thunberg –
understood the need to change our behavior to avert climate change, while older
people in power have resisted. Perhaps, God would be tempted to send a plague
that kills the older but not the young, causing people to stay home thereby
reducing air and water pollution. This plague has caused humanity to realize we
can live more humbly to avert death – which is what we need to do to avert the
destruction of the planet through climate change. Perhaps, I mused, God did
send this plague.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">But then after I returned from my bike ride, I learned that a
relative was in the hospital with Covid-19. He’s been on a ventilator for the
past week. A few days later, another family member in another part of the
country was taken to the hospital with Covid-19 as well. In both cases, their
spouses and children were not allowed to visit them in the hospital. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">God surely wants none of this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The God that I believe in is a God of snuggles, hugs and kisses – a
God who knows that zooming is a second-rate substitute for sitting beside a
loved one and holding their hand. I imagine that like me, God is grateful for
the blessings of Zoom, Skype and Facetime – which are infinitely better than no
contact at all. Still, it’s not the same.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">God surely didn’t send this plague...</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">And while I’m all for crying out, I’m not holding my breath that
crying out will save us. As our sages said in the Talmud, “Where there is a
possibility of danger, we should not depend upon a miracle.” Don’t get me wrong
– I’d <i>love</i> a miracle, but I’m not expecting one.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The only way out is for our medical researchers to find a vaccine. In
the meantime our medical professionals need to keep caring for the sick, our
social service agencies to offer support the needy, our grocery workers and
deliverers to keep us fed, the clergy to provide comfort and the rest of us to
hunker down and Zoom our friends and family through this catastrophe. God will
provide us strength and inspiration in these endeavors.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">To be honest, I don’t know if God even sent the first 10 plagues in
Egypt, but I do know that the Israelites recognized that the time of the plagues
was their shot to get out and create a different kind of society which
glorified life rather than death. So too, this moment is our chance to
transform how we live.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">As Rabbi Sharon Brous said, after the plagues, the Israelites
“rebuilt a society that was the counter-Egypt, that was the anti-thesis of what
they had experienced in their suffering in Egypt, and we will rebuild a society
that is counter to the injustices and oppressions and indignities of this world
that we have lived in.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Or as Rabbi Steven Leder wrote, “Do not come out of hell
empty-handed.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Indeed, let’s create a society based on the antithesis of
isolation. Let’s create a society based on love, justice, and togetherness. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">So Josh, I don’t think blood on the doorposts is the answer this
time. Melissa, I don’t think crying out is the solution either. I don’t think
God sent this plague, but I know we can learn from it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">From the first 10 plagues, our people learned to “be kind to the
stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” From this plague, let’s
learn that we have the power to radically change our lives quickly to avert our
destruction. Let’s care for the earth and each other with renewed ferocity.
That way, we won’t come out of <i>this</i> hell empty-handed. </span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-72966495642352356912020-04-08T11:06:00.005-07:002020-04-08T11:07:29.604-07:00Zooming Elijah
<br />
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On
Saturday, I attended an unprecedented event – a zoom bat mitzvah – the
first ever hosted by Temple Aliyah. The bat mitzvah girl, her family and
the clergy who participated in the service
were each at their respective homes, as were the congregants, extended
family and friends. The service was beautiful – with all the usual,
moving parts of a bat mitzvah – the shining,confident bat mitzvah girl
leading the prayers, the Torah and Haftorah reading,
and giving her speech, as well as the kvelling parents and the
wonderful rabbis blessing her with love.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Out
of the entire service, there was one moment that stood out to me. The
way the Zoom call was set up, during the actual service, the immediate
family’s view on their screen was limited.
Then, as the service came to conclusion for the Shehechiyanu blessing,
the call was switched to gallery view so that the immediate family could
see the extended family and friends on their screen. At that instant,
the mom’s eyes welled up with tears of joy.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although
her family was standing alone in their living room, in that moment, she
saw that she wasn’t alone. As I watched, I thought: That’s what Judaism
is all about.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the musical, <i>Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat</i>, when Joseph is sitting in prison, he sings:
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; margin-left: .5in; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Close every door to me,<br />
Keep those I love from me<br />
Children of Israel<br />
Are never alone</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
has been the Jewish theme-song ever since because it encapsulates the
central message of our faith. Even though we may feel lonely, we are
never actually alone because God is with
us. We are connected to Jews throughout the world, to Jews backward in
time all the way to Abraham and Sarah, through each subsequent
generation in our history to the present and from the present forward in
time to a better future. More broadly, we are connected
to all of humanity going back to Adam and Eve, all created in the image
of God – thereby connected in shared sacredness and common hope for a
better world.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On
Passover, this idea is symbolized by opening the door during the Seder
to welcome Elijah, who symbolizes redemption. Elijah simultaneously
symbolizes past and future and our connection
to Jews worldwide and throughout history.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
Passover has the potential to be the loneliest we have ever
experienced, as our Seder tables will be smaller than ever. As Rabbi
Bradley Shavit Artson noted in last week’s Jewish
Journal, at this year’s Seder, Elijah may be our only guest. But even
if we feel lonely, we won’t be alone. All over the world, we are in this
predicament together.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">David
Suissa noted that paradoxically, the fact that there are smaller Seder
tables means that there are also more Seder tables this year than ever
before. We can take comfort in the idea
that the door to Elijah will be opened in more homes than ever this
year. In this sense, Elijah and Zoom have something in common. They’ll
both be busier than ever– connecting us spiritually as we separate
physically.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the recent weeks, I’ve felt these connections through time and space
reverberate. On Zoom, I heard Natan Sharansky in Jerusalem offer his
advice for isolation based on his experiences
in solitary confinement in Soviet prison. In the Global
Masorti/Conservative Gathering for healing, I heard the shofar’s blast
from Jerusalem, along with prayers from Argentina, New York, and LA. I
read the Passover prayers from the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto
and Bergen-Belsen – from Seder nights infinitely more bleak than this
one. I’ve seen the Federation staff working constantly to help the
community with food, a community call line, and countless webinars,
learning and support opportunities. And I heard the
voices of our rabbis coming together to support one another while
holding together each of their community – teaching so much Torah that I
could barely keep up with it all.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
profusion of content and networks ultimately all boils down to the same
thing – to that transformation my friend, the mom of the bat mitzvah
girl experienced. It all comes down to
the moment when we think we’re alone and then realize we’re not. This
Passover, may we have such a moment. May we celebrate our
interconnectedness as we never have before with abundant hopes <i>l’shana
haba</i> for the year to come.</span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-61647326636816145942020-01-09T12:54:00.002-08:002020-01-09T12:54:44.026-08:00Market Madness<i> </i>"I'm not going to the
Kosher Market anymore," my twelve-year-old daughter Hannah declared
after hearing about the shooting in the Kosher grocery store in Jersey
City.<br />
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
I wasn't sure how to respond to her.</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
After the shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh over a year ago,
Hannah declared that she would no longer go to any synagogue that does
not have armed security. The synagogue we normally attend has armed
security, so I was able to accommodate her new policy rather easily. But
I go to the Kosher market with Hannah every week - and I don't expect
them to hire armed guards anytime soon. Should I leave Hannah at home
alone when I go to the Kosher market? What kind of message would that
send to her?</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
"We're going to have to be brave," I said gently, and explained that if we stop going to the market, the haters win.</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
"I'm brave in other ways," Hannah said. She is at once an adventurous
child and a cautious one. She will eagerly zipline and rock climb, but
she is very careful when it comes to her health and safety.</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
"We're going to have to be brave in this way." I said.</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
I felt deeply pained after this conversation. Like many parents, I long
to give my children a better life than I had. That's my central
motivating principle, and I try to do everything I can to give my kids a
joyful life. But in this way, my children's youth is worse than mine
was. I never had to worry about going to the kosher market or to
synagogue. I never worried about my safety at school after a threat of a
shooting on social media, like the threat at my son's school a couple
months ago. Never would I have imagined that I would need to give my
daughter a pep-talk to go to the grocery store! What has this country
come to?</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
I spoke this morning on the phone with my friend who is
Iranian-American and Muslim. We mused: How do we find joy amidst all
this sadness? What did it mean for me to be on vacation and celebrate
Hanukkah while Jews were being stabbed in New York? What does it mean
for her to hope for a Happy New Year when Iranian American citizens are
being detained at US airports? How do we live like this?</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
This week's Torah portion is called Vayechi - and he lived. The portion
begins by recounting that Jacob "lived in Egypt for 17 years, and the
days of his life were 147 years." This verse contains the two ways the
Bible refers to someone's life. Sometimes, the Torah states they "lived"
and sometimes, “the days of their years were” a certain number. The
text distinguishes between true living and merely existing.</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
This week, Hannah and I went to the kosher market for the first time
since the shooting and her declaration that she wouldn't go. Hannah was
scared, and I felt nervous too, but I also felt something else. Before
now, going to the market had simply felt like an errand. Now it felt
like an act of defiance.</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
I thought about all the hechsher's on the food in the store - the
symbols which certify that the food is Kosher. Of all the products in
the world, there is one that should never be given a hechsher -- hatred.
When hate becomes acceptable, Pandora's box opens - emboldening all
sorts of haters to commit acts of violence.</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
In
painful times, our first instinct is to pull into ourselves - to stay
home and lick our wounds. But our tradition teaches us to do precisely
the opposite. It calls us to override our natural tendencies - to go to
the market and to synagogue - and to reach out not only to those within
our faith community but also to those who are different from us.</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
</div>
<div class="yiv6657190670xmsonormal">
Amidst all the sadness lately, I find myself urgently hungry for joy
and for life, wherever I can find it. This week, the title of the Torah
portion "And he lived" no longer seems merely a description but also a
command. Live passionately, live defiantly, live lovingly, so you and
your descendants may live.</div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-20580142873562427412019-12-30T11:39:00.000-08:002019-12-30T11:39:09.751-08:00Rock of Ages<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I hiked with my kids up Cathedral
Rock in Sedona at Sunset and saw a breathtaking view. When I returned to the
car, my husband told me, “Another incident occurred.” I quickly looked on his
phone and learned what had happened. Five Jews had been stabbed at a Hanukkah
party in New York, and violent assaults against Jews in America had occurred
each night of Hanukkah. The exhilaration I felt on the magnificent cliff just
moments before vanished instantly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
As I looked further on the phone, I
read an <a href="https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/writers/mira-berenbaum/">article</a> that my sister Mira wrote for the New York Jewish News about
her experiences of anti-Semitism at the University of Syracuse where she is a
first-year student. In the article, Mira explained that
she grew up in a “Jewish bubble” -- attending Jewish day school from pre-school
to twelfth grade with summers at Camp Ramah and then a year in Israel before college.
Mira was excited to go to college and meet diverse students of all different
backgrounds. But then, a couple months into her college experience, 14 racist
and anti-Semitic incidents occurred at the university in an eight-day period –
throwing into question her sense of safety on campus. She concluded the article
by saying, “And alas, my Jewish bubble has popped.”
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I thought of everything else that
has popped lately.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The joy of vacation. <i>Pop.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
My children’s innocence. <i>Pop.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The sense of security of Jews in
this county. <i>Pop.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Five Jews are stabbed, and somehow all
Jews are wounded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Why?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In this week’s parasha, Judah explains that
his brother Benjamin cannot go down to Egypt without his father because “nafsho
keshurah binafsho” “his soul is tied to his soul.” Benjamin and Jacob’s souls were
inseparable. Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that this Torah portion is also
the first time that the term <i>b’nai Yisrael</i> (the children of Israel) is
mentioned. Just as all parts of a human body are interconnected, the souls of
the people Israel are intertwined.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">With this idea in mind, I rewrote the <i>Asher
Yatzar</i>, the prayer for the body, as a prayer for the Jewish people and all
those in need of healing. I recite this prayer for those injured in the attacks
and for all of us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<i>Tzur Chayeinu, asher yatzar et
am yisrael b’chochmah, uvarah bo mishpachot, mischpachot, yeladim, yeladim.
Galui v’yadua lifnei kiseh kvodechah she’ im nifga echad mehem or yehareg echad
mehem, kulanu koavim. Baruch Ata Adonei, rofe amenu, b’nai yisrael, rofe et
umot ha-olam u’mafli la’asot</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Rock of Our Lives, You created the
people Israel, and the peoples of the world with wisdom, and created in them
interconnected families and children. It is clear and known before the throne
of Your Glory, that if one Jew or if one innocent person is injured or killed,
all of us are pained. Blessed are you, our God, please heal our people, the
children of Israel, heal the people of the world, and work Your wonders, and
let us say Amen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-42996863568125332302019-12-24T10:31:00.003-08:002019-12-24T10:31:42.852-08:00Un-Usual<br />
Earlier this week, my 15-year-old son overheard me talking to my husband about the shooting in Jersey City.<br />
<div>
</div>
<div>
"What happened?" He asked.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
I told him that there had been a shooting in a Kosher market in New Jersey.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
"Oh, the usual," he said.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
I was taken aback by his response, but I knew where it came from. Over the past couple years, he has seen me saddened and frantically working to write up messages to the Board of Rabbis in response to many tragedies - from the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, to the one in Poway, from the bombing of the mosque in New Zealand, to the churches in Sri Lanka, and the list goes on. Reports of violence directed against religious groups are commonplace in his life.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Indeed, a sense of getting used to such violence seems to have crept into our national life. What I had been commenting about to my husband was how little coverage the Jersey City shooting had received. I didn't even hear until later that the shooting took place in a Kosher grocery store, since CNN was only focused on the impeachment hearings. My son's response echoed a sentiment that is seeping into our society that violence is so frequent that it's easy to start tuning it out.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
However, I told my son that this far from the "usual." During my childhood and until a few years ago, Jews were not being shot in U.S. synagogues and kosher markets. I remember a bomb scare at my synagogue when I was a child, but it was a prank call, a false alarm. Indeed, my grandparents came to this country with their parents precisely for this reason - because it was safer than Poland and Russia. They would be rolling over in their graves if they knew that their great-grandson would think for a moment that it was "usual" for Jews to be shot for being Jewish in America.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
This week's Torah portion echoes the longing that my grandparents felt for tranquility. The portion is called Vayeshev (and he settled). It begins with Jacob settling in the land of Canaan. Jacob returned after twenty years away from his homeland -- after lots of drama where his father in-law tricked him into marrying Leah, and he had to work for seven more years to marry Rachel. After having twelve children and lots of rivalry, "Jacob wanted to settle down in peace" (Rashi). Jacob longed for calm, but the next chapter of his life turned out to be the opposite.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Like Jacob, many Jews in this past century fled to America, the Goldena Medina (the Land of Gold in Yiddish) in hopes of a more peaceful life. They risked and some lost their lives trying to get here. My grandfather came to the US on a boat when he was 9; his older sister died on the way.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Each night at dinner during our visits, my grandfather would tell stories about his glory days serving in the US Army. These tales often recounted anti-Semitic comments that had been directed to him and how he stood up for himself against those insults. Still these stories were always filled with tremendous pride in this country and gratitude for being here. The idea of Jews being killed in synagogue or the kosher market in this country was unthinkable.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
A couple months ago, my son said something else that struck me. He said, "I don't understand why when anything happens anywhere, it's your problem." He understood, for example, why when a rabbi dies in Los Angeles, I need to send out a notice to alert the other rabbis. But he didn't understand why if a mosque was bombed in New Zealand, I similarly had to send out information.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
In reflecting on his comment, I realized this idea is the crux of Jewish faith and of what it means to be a person of conscience in this world. When life is lost or threatened, when places of worship are desecrated, wherever, whenever, that's everyone's problem. Violence can never be allowed to become "the usual." All people deserve the tranquility that Jacob and our grandparents longed for - that we still dream and work for today. Until that peace is achieved, we can never settle for "the usual."</div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-69863051771487441052017-08-17T18:13:00.002-07:002017-08-17T18:13:33.757-07:00Blessings and Curses
<br />
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<span style="margin: 0px;">I forced myself to watch.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"></span> </span></div>
<br />
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<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">Anderson Cooper</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">, a CNN news host,</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">informed viewers that </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">the video clip of the car
attack was disturbing and those with children in the room should have them turn
away, but my children were</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">n’</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">t in the room.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> I had no excuse. So I watched the car slam
into the people and heard the people screaming, “Oh my God, Oh my God!”</span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{a3ed1cc1-8659-4d9c-8f82-7e8a45f74e58}{198}" paraid="2031812514" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px 48px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><i>See, this day, I
set</i></span></span><i><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">
before you </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">blessing</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> and curse: </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">The blessing</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> if you </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">obey the commandments of the Lord your God, that I command you this
day, and the curse if you don’t obey the commandments that God</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> has given you, and turn</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> from the path that I
enjoin upon you this day.</span></span></i></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559685":720,"335559731":720,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{a3ed1cc1-8659-4d9c-8f82-7e8a45f74e58}{204}" paraid="793916832" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">And yes, this is
what it looks like.</span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{a3ed1cc1-8659-4d9c-8f82-7e8a45f74e58}{230}" paraid="1486683582" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">When </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">murder</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">s</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">, </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">we see </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">this </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">curse</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> on the tv</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> screen – of</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> people running and
screaming, the blood, the picture of the victim, again and again.</span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{a3ed1cc1-8659-4d9c-8f82-7e8a45f74e58}{240}" paraid="685700617" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">Reading further in
the </span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">parasha</span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">, two words jump out
at me.</span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{a3ed1cc1-8659-4d9c-8f82-7e8a45f74e58}{250}" paraid="812725802" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><i>Lo </i></span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><i>Tigodedu</i></span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">:
Do not gash yourself.</span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{2e72a3d8-5a96-4e31-96c9-2c529d14d263}{59}" paraid="952153596" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">This verse refers to
the prohibition of cutting oneself as a sign of mourning. But the rabbis of the
Talmud</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">
</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">understood
it more deeply. They understood that the word </span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">Titgod</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">edu</span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">
(to cut) could</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">come from</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> the root,</span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> Aleph,
Gimmel, Daled, </span>which means “t</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">o bind,</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">”</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">meaning the formation</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> of separate groups,
sects, factions.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">So, they read the verse</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> as a prohibition on dividing the community</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">into different sects</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">[</span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">Yevamot</span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">
13b- 14a]</span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{2e72a3d8-5a96-4e31-96c9-2c529d14d263}{99}" paraid="1203631332" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">And that’s what
we’re witnessing in our country today.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> Again, and again, the story repeats.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> When c</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">ertain groups b</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">o</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">nd together by cutting
themselves o</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">ff from other</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">s in t</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">he </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">society – and tell themselves a story in which
those other groups are to blame for all the woes in their lives </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">and in the country</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">, the b</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">o</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">nding </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">soon </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">turns into gashing. The toxic
rhetoric of blaming the other – Jews, blacks, immigrants, LGBT, Muslims, etc. –
doesn’t stay as words for long. Soon, the gashing with words turns into actual
gashing, and the blood </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">flows</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> from the wounds.</span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{2e72a3d8-5a96-4e31-96c9-2c529d14d263}{131}" paraid="1327225629" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">In her latest book, </span><i></i></span><i><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">The Blessing of a B Minus</span></span></i></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">, Dr. Wendy </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">Mogel</span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">
refers to “Mean World Syndrome</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">,</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">” </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">a psychological </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">condition whereby exposure to horrific images
in the mass media leads one to </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">be fearful and overprotective. Perhaps, we all
have Mean World Syndrome nowadays. How could we not? It doesn’t take long to
contract that disease. It only takes a moment to see </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">the car plowing into the
people</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">
and </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">to
</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">become
traumatized.</span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{2e72a3d8-5a96-4e31-96c9-2c529d14d263}{137}" paraid="633260753" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">So what do we do in
this mean world of ours? </span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div paraeid="{2e72a3d8-5a96-4e31-96c9-2c529d14d263}{164}" paraid="1543446079" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; text-indent: 0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;">We stand together on
the mountain and proclaim the blessings. We scream from the rooftops the
foundational ideas – </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">that </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">each person is created in the image of </span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">God, </span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px;">“endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights </span></span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;">that among these are </span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_Liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_Happiness" style="color: inherit;" target="_blank"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN">Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness</span></span></span></span></a><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="margin: 0px;">.</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;">”</span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"> We call for an end for the gashing that
strikes at the heart of our nation. We embrace life – as precarious as it is.
And we hope that somehow, some way, despite all evidence to the contrary, that
blessings will prevail.</span></span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;" xml:lang="EN"><span style="background-color: inherit; margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></span></span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":120,"335559740":240}" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></span></span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-62112864861078612202017-06-28T12:14:00.000-07:002017-06-28T12:14:04.933-07:00The Wall<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing: 0in; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"><td style="background-color: transparent; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 6pt 15pt 6.75pt;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Those two words and place bring up a host of memories. The
Wall always had a central place in my family. I don't remember the first time
I visited the Kotel - as we went so many times in my childhood. My father
always spoke about how he had missed his college graduation to fly to Israel
during the 1967 war and drive a garbage truck to fill in for the Israeli
garbage truck drivers who were called to battle. He described the excitement
that he felt when he heard over the bus radio the announcement that "the
Old City is Ours" and how he went to the wall for the first time on
Shavuot, where men and women danced together in celebration that the wall was
under Jewish sovereignty for the first time in 1,878 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I remember staffing a USY Poland-Israel Pilgrimage trip, after
10 days of traveling through Poland and literally walking through the gas
chambers in Auschwitz, landing at Ben Gurion and going directly to the Wall.
The excitement of the high school students on that trip was contagious and
palpable as we approached the Wall for the first time. One of these teenagers
saw the barracks where her grandmother had been in Auschwitz, and then a few
days later, at the holiest place of the Jewish people. After witnessing the
remnants of the attempts to exterminate our people, we were coming home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I remember fifteen years later,
coming to the Wall with my daughter for the first time - when she was three
and having her dictate a prayer for me to write on a slip of paper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Her prayer was: "I love my family. I hope no one in my
family will feel sick. I love froggy and baby [her stuffed animals]. I love
God and God is in my heart." She put the paper in between the stones at
the wall, and added her voice to the chorus of generations who have prayed at
that place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yet, although the wall is supposedly the holiest place of our
people, it's a place where I never really felt at home. I was raised in a
Conservative-egalitarian synagogue where I could participate fully in the
service. For my <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">bat mitzvah</span></em>,
I read the full<em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"> Torah</span></em>
portion, led all the prayers, wore a <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">tallit</span></em>,
and was given a pair of <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">tefillin</span></em>.
To me, it was always a given that girls and boys were treated equally in
synagogue - as in all the other areas of my life -- but not at the Wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">At the Wall, I couldn't have had a <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">bat mitzvah</span></em>. If my brother had a <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">bar mitzvah</span></em> there, my
mother and I wouldn't have been allowed to stand next to him and participate
in the service. At the Wall, if women pray audibly, they are shushed; if
women try to read <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Torah</span></em>
or pray as a <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">minyan</span></em>,
chairs are thrown and the women can be arrested. When I went to the Wall with
my daughter, we couldn't stand with my son or husband. As I wrote down my
daughter's prayer, I couldn't hear my son's prayer on the other side of the
partition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I remember years ago when I visited the other side of the
Wall. It was a secluded area, less crowded, an archaeological site - which
had the large stairs that had been the entrance to the temple in ancient
times. There is a psalm, (Psalm 126), <em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Shir
Hama'a lot</span></em>, the song of the stairs which is recited in the grace
after meals on holidays. The psalm states: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 22.5pt;">
<em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A song of the stairs:
When God brought back the captive to Zion, we were like dreamers. Our mouth
was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.</span></em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
As I walked up those stairs, I felt a connection to those who had walked the
same stairs in ancient times, and those who sung and dreamed about those
stairs for thousands of years in exile. I was thrilled when I learned that
part of this area would be designated as an egalitarian prayer space - which
meant that girls would be able to have<em><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">
bat mitzvahs</span></em> at the Wall without fear or violence, and that I
could pray with my husband and son at this holy place. At long last, we too
would have a home at the Wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When I think of my visit to the Wall on the Poland-Israel
trip, I think of one of my co-counselors, Joel Chasnoff. Like me, Joel was
raised in an intensively Jewishly-involved family on the East Coast. Joel was
so inspired by that visit to Israel, that he decided to make aliyah after
college and served in the IDF. While serving in a tank unit, he discovered
that because his mother converted to Judaism in a Conservative conversion,
the rabbinate wouldn't agree for him to marry his Israeli fiancé and if he
died during battle, he would not be buried in a Jewish cemetery. After
growing up in Jewish day school, living his entire life as a Jew, and risking
his life for the Jewish state, he was told that he was not really Jewish
after all (and would need to convert under Orthodox auspices).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">With all these memories in mind, I am devastated by the two
decisions that the Israeli government made on Sunday. The government
suspended its 2016 decision to create an egalitarian prayer space at the
Kotel, and the government's ministerial committee for legislation approved a
proposed law that expands the authority of the Israeli chief Rabbinate and
threatens the status quo on conversion to Judaism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In this week's Torah portion, the people are suffering from
intense thirst as they trek through the desert on their way to Israel. God
instructs Moses and Aaron to bring forth water from the rock for "the
congregation and their beasts." Commenting on this verse Rabbi Harold
Kushner wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The people drank like beasts, each person concerned solely
with easing his or her own thirst. Only when we share with others what we
ourselves also crave, do we rise above the animal level and become truly
human.</span></em><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Indeed, the essence of being human is the ability to share. As
any parent of young children can attest, one of the hardest and most
fundamental lessons that a child must learn is how to share their toys.
Likewise, one of the most essential lessons that we must learn as a Jewish
people is how to share our sacred places, so that all Jews can feel at home
in our homeland.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In his moving memoir about his experiences in the IDF, the
188th Crybaby Brigade, Joel wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">"After two generations where Israel defined itself as a
post-Holocaust haven for Jews - in other words, the past - Israel now faces a
much greater challenge: defining its future." A small group of rabbis in
Israel decide "who's in and who's out," of the Jewish people. Yet,
Israel's future... depends on all the reject Jews that they've been pushing
away from the table: the half Jews, and intermarried Jews, the queer and bi
Jews, and the women rabbis, and young, freethinking Israelis who crave
spirituality, not just restrictions, and the children of supposedly
illegitimate converts like me."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Only when all Jews are able to
climb those stairs, will we be able to truly fulfill the psalmist vision:
"Our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing." Only
then will our thirst be quenched.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">
</span></span>Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-37799498418986686182016-08-04T14:41:00.000-07:002016-08-04T14:41:00.997-07:00My Day with the King<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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through the Skirball, pointing to an ancient artifact. This was certainly no
ordinary day at the office!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recently began working at
the Jewish Federation for the Board of Rabbis. Last week, I received an email
from a local doctor that a<span style="background: white; color: black;"> Nigerian
Hebrew King Eze Eri will be visiting the LA area and would like to meet Jewish
leaders and visit Jewish sites. The email offered a link to his website. So, I
invited the Board of Rabbis executive committee to join me and the King for
lunch at the Skirball.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">At the entrance of the Skirball, I
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out from the crowd. He was dressed in a long white robe covered with gold
embroidery designs of Jewish significance – shofars, lions, and crowns. Around
his neck, he wore maroon necklaces. His large, red yarmulke featured a gold crown
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">When we sat down for lunch, the king’s
attaché introduced him as King Eze Chukwuemeka Eri, the king of the Igbo people
of Nigeria, which is comprised of people of many faiths, including Messianic,
Christian, Muslim, and Jews. The King explained that in Genesis, Gad was the 7<sup>th</sup>
son of Jacob [Genesis 35:26], and Eri was the 5<sup>th</sup> son of Gad [Gen.
46:16]. He asserted his people were the descendants of Eri, who after the
Exodus and travelling through the desert for forty years did not enter into
Israel along with the rest of the Tribes. He advised that his people are one of
the lost tribes of Jacob. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">He described the Jewish practices
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eighth day, not eating pork or shellfish, praying, etc.</span></div>
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was to meet fellow Jews as sisters and brothers and to say that “we are one”
people. He was not facing any crisis in the community; he did not need money or
help. He only wanted to get to know the local Jewish community and reflect
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Rabbi Uri Herscher, the founder of the Skirball Cultural Center
greeted the King and noted that Abraham's first act as a Jew was to welcome
strangers into his tent. “It is in that spirit of welcome that the
Skirball was founded," he said. "And in that same spirit, we
welcome you here today.”<span style="background: white; color: black;"> </span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">During our meeting, my colleagues,
Rabbi Joshua Hoffman of Valley Beth Shalom and Rabbi Jon Hanish of Kol Tikvah
asked the King thoughtful questions, such as:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">What is your typical day like as a
king in your community?</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The King said that he sits all day and people come to him with their
familial and business problems, and he judges their situations. Just like King
Solomon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">How did you become king?</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;"> <i>How will the next king be
chosen?</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">He explained that when his mother was pregnant, the king at the
time had a prophecy that her unborn child (Eze Eri) would be the next king.
Shortly after he was born, both his parents died. When King Ere came of age, he
resisted becoming the king at first. Instead he tried to go into business, but
all his endeavors failed. He realized that resisting his destiny was futile and
accepted the kingship.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">King Eri explained that the next king will be chosen from his
family, and would not necessarily be his son. He would someday have a prophecy
of who the next king would be or if not, the community would wait for God to
make known the next king.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Rabbi Hoffman noted that the story of the tribe of Gad choosing not
to enter the land of Israel is actually in this week’s Torah portion. Gad is
only mentioned a few times in the Torah – when he is born and when he has
children – but the main story of the tribe of Gad appears in this week’s Torah
portion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The king responded that this meeting was clearly meant to be and
that God had certainly chosen this moment to bring us together.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">There’s a prayer that traditionally is
recited when one sees a king. <i>Baruch Ata Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha’olam
Shechalak michvodo l’basar vadam</i>: Blessed Are You, God, Ruler of the
Universe who gave a portion of God’s honor to flesh and blood. I had never
before had the occasion to say this prayer, but now, I understand what it means.
The king certainly had a certain charisma – a god-like glory – in the way he
carried himself. Everyone we met throughout the day responded to that quality.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">I took the King through the Skirball’s Noah’s Arc exhibit, which he
loved. When he saw the story-time performance for the children in the outdoor amphitheater,
the King asked if he could speak when the performance was over. The staff
graciously agreed. He introduced himself to the group and offered a blessing to
the children. As we walked back through the museum, children followed him,
excited to see a king.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">As I took him through the exhibit on Jewish history, the King
enjoyed the synagogue and the artifacts. As we looked through the exhibit on
the countries from which Jews have come – Spain, Morrocco, India, Eastern
Europe, etc., he searched for Nigeria. His message was clear. The lost tribe no
longer wants to be lost.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">The King then asked to see the American Jewish University. As we
walked to our cars, the moment felt surreal. He asked that I come to Nigeria in
November for their annual celebration commemorating the time when the tribe
settled in that area in biblical times. I promised to seriously consider it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">When we arrived at the American Jewish University, I introduced the
king to Rabbi Patricia Fenton who gave us a tour of the library. “Today, I am
meeting my sister rabbis,” he exclaimed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Jackie Benefraim, the Special Collections Librarian, then provided the
King a tour of AJU’s rare book room and collection of Bibles from throughout
the world – including Africa. The king searched for a Bible in the language of
his people – looking for his place on the shelf of Jewish history.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Then we talked with Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, the dean of the Ziegler
Rabbinical School. Rabbi Artson mentioned Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, who both Rabbi
Artson and I had the joy of teaching when he came from Uganda to study to be a
rabbi. Rabbi Sizomu has since returned home and now serves in the Ugandan
Parliament.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Artson said, “I tell my students that the future of the Jewish
people is in Africa.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">When I returned home, I opened this week’s Torah portion and read
the story of the tribe of Gad and reflected on this extraordinary experience.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">It’s not every day you meet a king who is your brother.</span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-27126717606601429002016-07-14T13:17:00.000-07:002016-07-14T13:17:01.097-07:00Open Heart<div style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> Last week, having heard that Elie Wiesel passed away, I picked one of his books off my office bookshelf.
What better way to honor Wiesel's memory than to read his words. Of course, I've read </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><i>Night</i></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> and others of Wiesel's writings, but this book was
different. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><i> Open Heart</i></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> is a memoir of Wiesel's experience of emergency heart surgery when he was eighty two.</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">
Because of my father's work on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum,
Wiesel was a family friend.
I remember vividly how during his speech at the opening of the museum in
1993, Wiesel turned to then President, Bill Clinton and called him to
action about the former Yugoslavia saying, "we must do something to stop
the bloodshed in that country!" Wiesel embodied
the Jewish conscience - that "Never Again" means not merely Never Again
to us - but never again to anyone.</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> In reading </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><i>Open Heart</i></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">,
I feel that I got to know Wiesel personally in a way that I hadn't
before - as he lets us into his operating room and into his heart.
There, I came across a passage that stopped me in my tracks. It was
Wiesel's mission statement - the purpose by which he
lived his life. I read and reread the piece, savoring each phrase,
unpacking it as one would a Talmudic text.</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">
I was struck by the juxtaposition of events - that Wiesel's death was
immediately followed by the
shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, as well as of the five
police officers in Dallas - Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael
Krol, Sergeant Michael Smith, and Sr. Cpl. Lorne Ahrens. In this
turbulent time in our country and our world, Wiesel's
words seem to be the exact message that we need to hear right now.
Wiesel wrote:</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 0 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> </span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>A credo that defines my path:</i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> I belong to a generation that has often felt abandoned by
God and betrayed by mankind. And yet, I believe that we must not give up on either.</i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 0 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> Was
it yesterday-or long ago- that we learned how human beings
have been able to attain perfection in cruelty. That for the killers,
the torturers, it is normal, thus human to act inhumanely? Should one
therefore turn away from humanity?</i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>The
answer of course, is up to each of us. We must choose between the
violence of adults and the smiles of children, between the ugliness of
hate and
the will to oppose it. Between inflicting suffering and humiliation on
our fellow man and offering him the solidarity and hope he deserves. Or
not.</i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> I
know-I speak from experience-that even in darkness it is
possible to create light and encourage compassion. That it is possible
to feel free inside a prison. That even in exile, friendship exists and
can become an anchor. That one instant before dying, man is still
immoral.</i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 12pt 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> There
it is: I still believe in man in spite of man. I believe
in language even though it has been wounded, deformed, and perverted by
the enemies of mankind. And I continue to cling to words because it is
up to us to transform them into instruments of comprehension rather than
contempt. It is up to us to choose whether
we wish to use them to curse or to heal, to wound or to console.</i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 0 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i> As
a Jew, I believe in the coming of the Messiah. But of course
this does not mean that the world will become Jewish; just that it will
become more welcoming, more human. I belong, after all, to a generation
that has learned that whatever the question, indifference and
resignation are not the answer. </i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 0 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>Illness
may diminish me, but it will not destroy me. The body is not eternal,
but the idea of the soul is. The brain will be buried, but memory will
survive it. </i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 0 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i><br />
</i></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>Such is the miracle: A tale about despair becomes a tale against despair. </i></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0 0 0 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><br />
In this excruciating time in our country and our world, may our story about despair become a story against despair. </span></span></span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-84814073664176422612016-06-20T19:46:00.002-07:002016-06-20T19:47:35.045-07:00The 11th Commandment<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Wearing the new dress that my
husband bought me for my birthday, I walked to synagogue, excited to hear my
son read the Torah, on the first day of <i>Shavuot</i>. How fitting that on the
holiday which celebrates the giving of the Torah, my son was about to read the
Ten Commandments for the first time, as a trial run for his bar mitzvah this
coming February. What better birthday present could there be than to hear him
chant those words?! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On the way to synagogue, we ran into
my step-mother. “Did you hear about the news this morning?” she said. “No, I
replied,” and then she told me what happened in Orlando.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A short while later, my son read the
Ten Commandments, standing between his two grandfathers. As he chanted, those
two simple words, “<i>Lo Tirsach</i>” – “Do not Murder,” rang in my ears. More
than three thousand years since those words were first spoken, and they have
yet to be heard. How different our world would be if everyone followed that
simple commandment!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When the holiday concluded and I tuned
back into technology, the week was filled with images and stories – from the
doctors in Orlando recounting how their teams had responded to the flood of
injured patients to the parents and friends who lost loved ones.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Last week was awash with these heartbreaking stories until Friday
night, at Open Temple when the pictures of the 49 killed in Orlando were shown
on the screen before the recitation of the Mourner’s Kaddish. As the Kaddish
was recited, I thought of three other simple words. The words were from a
handwritten sign which was placed at the Dolphinarium, a disco in Tel Aviv,
after a terrorist bombing that killed 21 and wounded 120 people, fifteen years
ago, this month. The sign read:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Lo nafsik lirkod. Lo nafsik lashir.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">Lo
nafsik lichlom. Lo nafsik likavot.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">We won’t
stop dancing. We won’t stop singing.</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-bidi;">We won’t
stop dreaming. We won’t stop hoping.</span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The terrorists kill many; they wound
many; they blast giant holes through the hearts of bereaved family members.
They make people even thousands of miles away from the shooting feel unsafe and
bereft.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>However, the murderers cannot
achieve their ultimate goal – the destruction of our free society. That’s
because we will not stop – we won’t stop treating people with dignity and
respect. We won’t stop struggling for greater liberty, acceptance, and love. We
won’t stop following the ancient 10 Commandments – and the contemporary 11<sup>th</sup>:
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><i>Lo Nafsik Lirkod</i>: We won’t
stop dancing.</span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-17979445768001585362015-09-13T16:58:00.000-07:002015-09-13T16:58:15.965-07:00My Favorite Part<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> In my home,
there’s one refrain I often hear. Whenever I turn off the television while my
son is watching, he invariably says, “No, Mom, this is my favorite part.” I
must have an uncanny talent – of knowing exactly what his favorite segment is
of every program because no matter when I turn off the television, it’s his
favorite part.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I thought of this refrain recently.
This past week, my kids returned to school, and they were very upset that
summer was over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s as though they’re
crying out, “Don’t stop summer. It’s our favorite part of the year.” I share
their sentiment. As beach and water park outings give way to homework and
routine, how can we not be heavy-hearted?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I feel similarly about the coming of
fall as about the passage of years. As my kids grow, they shed their past
passions and adopt new ones which leaves me missing the prior stages. My son
started middle school this week; I remember fondly when he was in preschool and
madly in love with his big Elmo doll. I remember when my daughter screamed,
“Stop the Car” when she saw a Hello Kitty store – but now she considers Hello
Kitty babyish. In my heart, I feel like screaming: “Don’t stop loving Elmo;
that was my favorite part!” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As we approach the new school year,
the people in this week’s Torah portion are also facing a big transition. After
forty years in the desert, they are about to enter the Promised Land. In
anticipation, Moses summoned all the people together to reaffirm their covenant
with God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
the people were assembled, Moses said:</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
stand today, all of you before God – your heads, your tribes, your elders, and
your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, and your
stranger who is in your camp, from the woodchopper to the water drawer to enter
the covenant of the Lord, your God, and into God’s oath, which the Lord your
God makes with you today –that God may establish you today for God as a people,
and be your God, as God promised you and swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob.</span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
this passage, two words strike me. The first is the Hebrew word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kulchem</i>, which means “all of you.” This word
emphasizes that the entire community gathered before God, yet this idea can
also apply to each person. To truly enter the covenant, “all of you” needs to
be present – mind, body, heart and soul. The other phrase is “today.” In this
one paragraph, the word “today” repeats three times. Together, these words challenge
us to be fully present each day.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
verse’s emphasis on “today” hints at an imperative to let go of yesterday. In
her new book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thresholds</i>, Rabbi
Sherre Hirsch includes this quote of unknown origin: “You can’t start the next
chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Indeed,
nostalgia for the past can mar the enjoyment of the present. If I dwell on the
sadness that my kids are not small anymore, I might overlook the joys of their developing
new skills. If we long too much for summer, we may miss whatever joy can be
found this fall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How
fitting then that this Torah portion is the last one that is read before Rosh
Hashanah. This verse strikes me as both a goal and a prayer. In this coming
year, may we stand, all of us, in each day. Rather than pining for the past,
may we embrace the present – and hopefully find some new favorite parts along
the way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-35774542499577885862014-11-26T12:34:00.002-08:002014-11-26T12:34:24.108-08:00The Lasting Supper<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
were sitting around the table at Friday night dinner, eating up a storm. My
step-grandmother Sandra made a scrumptious feast of home-baked challah, sweet
and sour meatballs, delicious chicken and more. My twelve-year-old sister Mira finished
her dinner quickly (since meatballs are her favorite). Sandra remarked, “I
spent days preparing this meal, and it’s gone in five minutes!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
a depressing thought! In the subsequent weeks, Sandra’s statement haunted me.
While cooking on Fridays, I’d feel disheartened. Why am I spending the day
making a nice meal that will quickly disappear?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
this week’s parasha, the Israelite tribes bring an offering to celebrate<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the completed tabernacle. The leader of each
tribe brings the same present each day for a twelve day period. Members of the
tribes surely spent many hours making the silver dish and bowl and golden spoon
of exactly the correct weight, filling them with flour and oil for the meal
offering, and choosing the choicest animals. I wonder how each tribe felt after
their offering day was complete. Were they disappointed that the gift they had
worked so long to prepare was past?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whereas
they may have thought their gift only lasted one day, their story is read now,
thousands of years later, and will continue to be read long into the future.
The offerings lasted far longer than they thought.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
idea reminds me of a midrash about the ram in the story of the binding of
Isaac. In Genesis, when Abraham nearly sacrifices his son Isaac, at the last
moment he sees a ram caught in a thicket which he offers instead. In the
biblical account, the ram’s part is fleeting. He appears on the scene and is
immediately killed and consumed in flames. Yet, in </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Pirkei de Rabi
Eliezer</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">,
the rabbis argue that the ram’s role was not over. Rabbi Hanina taught that no
part of the ram went to waste. Its dust became the foundation of the altar in
the Temple. Its tendons became the ten strings on the harp of King David, and
its skin became the girdle that the Prophet Elijah wore. The horns of the ram
became shofars, one of which was blown at Mount Sinai and the other of which
will be blown in the future at the messianic time of the ingathering of the
exiles.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
unsure how the mechanics of this miraculous preservation of the ram’s parts
works. Nonetheless, this fanciful midrash makes an important spiritual point –
that our efforts may last longer than we think.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
is true of the offerings of the ram and at the dedication ceremony can also be
said about dinner. I once cooked a brisket when my sister Mira was at my house.
Mira told me, “You’re a good cook, so am I. We come from a long line of good
cooks.” Mira inherited confidence in cooking from her grandmother Sandra to her
mother Melissa to her and she will hopefully transmit that skill to her
children as well. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whereas
Sandra thought the food she made was gone in minutes, it actually lasted far
longer. The love and confidence contained therein persists.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So
Sandra, I beg to differ with you. I don’t think the meal was gone momentarily.
Like the ram, your cooking endures – perhaps even until the time of the
Messiah.</span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-41232830527784017072014-11-18T12:28:00.004-08:002014-11-18T12:28:53.292-08:00Summarizing Two Decades -- and Millenia<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">A
college friend of mine recently found me on Facebook. We hadn’t spoken to each
other since graduation, but I was happy to hear from him. Since we had been out
of touch for so long, he began by summarizing the last nearly twenty years of his life. In
a few bullet-pointed sentences, he concisely explained how he had started a
Ph.D. program, left to work in the corporate world and married and had a child.
I was surprised how such a long period of time could be encapsulated so
succinctly, and I did my best to describe my adulthood in a few brief
sentences. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">On
reflection, I realized that the past decade of my life could be summarized in
just one sentence — a verse from this week’s Torah portion, Genesis 25:22. This
verse describes Rebecca’s experience of being pregnant</span><i><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">: </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“<i>And the children struggled together
inside her; and she said, ― If so, why this me? And she went to inquire of God</i>.”
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This week’s Torah parasha <i>Toldot</i>
(Generations) tells the story of Rebecca and Isaac becoming parents. The
parasha explains that Rebecca and Isaac had struggled with infertility.
However, once they conceived, Rebecca found that pregnancy was much harder than
she had anticipated. She was in a great deal of pain and called out to God. Her
fragmented question: “if, so, why this me?” indicated the depth of her anguish.
Her question was an existential one; she longed to understand her place in the
world. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Rebecca sought God, who then responded to her in
turn. Until this point in the Torah, God had spoken to other people, but
Rebecca was the first person to take the initiative to address God directly and
prompt God to answer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">God told Rebecca that she was pregnant with twins,
and that these children would each lead a future nation. In responding, God
didn’t remove Rebecca’s pain but helped her see the bigger picture by imparting
significance to her suffering. God reminded her that her life — and her current
pain — was a part of something larger, and this purpose gave her strength to
endure. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Rebecca went <i>lidrosh</i> “to inquire” or seek
God. This verb is the root of the later word <i>midrash</i> (which means the
interpretation of Torah). Rebecca’s quest serves as a paradigm for the process
of Torah study, which seeks to gain an understanding from God of our life’s
purpose.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Like Rebecca, I too found child-rearing more
difficult than anticipated. This experience prompted me to question my place in
the world and reassess my priorities. Through the vehicle of Torah, I turned to
God for answers and discovered new meaning in life. This insight doesn’t remove
the struggles of raising children but imparts a sense of fulfillment. Rebecca’s
verse captures the spiritual journey of parenting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The verse also encapsulates the spiritual quest of
the Jewish people since Rebecca’s time. Throughout the generations, the Jewish
people have found life <i>far </i>more challenging than we anticipated. In
crises, we turned to God and asked repeatedly, “If so, why this me?” Through
Torah, we sought and seek our purpose. In turn, God doesn’t remove our
suffering but reminds us that our actions have ultimate significance. This understanding
has given our people the strength to persevere through the ages.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">As it turns out, summarizing a decade or five
millennia is easier than it seems. Only one sentence is needed: “<i>The
children struggled within her, and</i> s<i>he said, ‘if so, why this me’ and
went to inquire of God…” </i>The rest is history. </span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-38640665025043258072014-03-31T14:49:00.000-07:002014-03-31T14:49:04.560-07:00The Un-birthday Gift
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Each year, a few days before each of
my children’s birthdays, a package arrives at the door from Louise, my former congregant.
Inside the package are two wrapped presents – one to the child whose birthday
is coming and one to the sibling. The present for the birthday child has a card
saying “Happy Birthday” from Louise and the present to the sibling has a card
which says “Happy Un-Birthday” from Louise. The “un-birthday” present is
typically small in size – such as alphabet stamps or a book – but its impact on
my family has been immense.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>On the morning of my son’s birthday,
my daughter woke me up at 6:00 am announcing, “I’m ready for my un-birthday
present from Louise.” The un-birthday present allowed her to greet the day with
excitement. The day of a sibling’s birthday can be hard for a small child,
causing them to feel left out or jealous as their brother or sister is showered
with gifts and attention. However, the un-birthday present makes the sibling
feel special and allows them to enjoy fully the magic of the day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My children don’t see Louise often,
but she has developed a relationship with them as the one who remembers them on
their “un-birthday” each year. As I cherish these packages, I started to think
of the un-birthday gift as not merely a present but a way of life. The giver
thinks about who might feel left out or lonely at a given time and through an
act of kindness, brings them joy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This approach is echoed in this
week’s Torah portion, called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">M’tzora</i>,
which means one who has a skin disease. As a result of this infection, the
afflicted person had to be separated from the community until they recuperated.
The parasha opens with God instructing Moses how the priest should help
reintegrate the recovered person into the community. God explains that the
priest should go outside the camp, “and see,” and if the affliction has been
healed, conduct a ritual of purification.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As
Rabbi Harold Kushner notes, the moment of recovery from a serious illness
entails a mix of feelings – including relief and happiness which may be coupled
with “resentment over what had been gone through as well as envy of people who had
remained healthy.” Anticipating these feelings, the priest is “not to wait”
until the person comes to him, but rather to go to meet that person where he or
she is. The priest needs to take the initiative and reach out to the person who
is in an emotionally delicate state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
have also known others who have followed this priestly approach – such as Toby
Lee, of blessed memory, who was also my congregant. Toby was always the first
to invite newcomers to the community to her home for Friday night dinner. When
she realized I would be alone for Friday night dinner, she invited me to her
home week after week, and we shared countless meals together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The
examples of the priest, Toby, and Louise challenge me to wonder: Who can I
reach out to? Who is in an emotionally delicate moment – whether recovering
from an illness, new to the community, facing a difficult transition, or even
feeling a bit sidelined in another’s moment of joy? What kind word or action
can brighten their day?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As
we approach Passover, this week’s parasha reminds us that it’s not always the
grand, sweeping gestures like the splitting of the red sea that distinguish
between affliction and freedom. Sometimes, liberation can come in a smaller
package. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-16379457842028505672013-10-14T12:14:00.000-07:002013-10-14T12:14:29.697-07:00Sweet and Sour<br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19521" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> I am totally out of sync.</span><br />
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19521" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span> <br />
<div id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19346">
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19345" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19344" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span>
The Jewish calendar sets aside certain times of year for joy and others
for sadness. In late winter, the month of Adar ushers in a time of
celebration. However, this past year a string of familial illnesses and
problems began on the first day of Adar and continued through the
spring. The happiest time of the year for me was a fun-filled summer
spent with my children – which coincided with the month of <i>Av</i>
on the Jewish calendar during which Jews mourn the destruction of the
ancient Temple in Jerusalem. This fall, “zman simchatenu,” the time of
the joyous holiday of Sukkot coincided with a new period of sadness for
our family – as my step-grandmother was hospitalized. I feel intense
emotional dissonance. What do you do when you <i>feel like</i> dancing on <i>Tisha B’av</i> and mourning on <i>Simchat Torah</i>?</span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19345" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19344" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19528" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19527" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span>
In this week’s Torah portion, Noah and his family must have felt an
overwhelming mix of emotions. After the flood, they must have felt
tremendous loss at the scope of the destruction, yet also relief that
the flood finally ended, offering them a new chance at life. Once the
flood concluded, God forged a <i>brit</i>, a covenant with Noah
and his sons, along with their descendents (i.e. all humanity) and all
living creatures. The covenant elaborates responsibilities for humanity
to keep key commandments (including not committing murder), and God
promising never to flood the world again.</span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19528" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19527" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19531" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19530" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span> This first <i>brit</i> between God and humanity foreshadows the second <i>brit</i>
that God made with Abraham and Sarah and their descendants in next
week’s Torah portion. This second covenant includes more commandments
for the Jewish people to keep and more promises by God. As Jews, we are
subject to three different covenants – the one with all humanity, the
one with the Jewish people, and the one we make with our family.</span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19531" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19530" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19534" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19533" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span>
Each of these covenants has emotions that go along with our
responsibilities, which do not necessarily overlap. We may experience
familial joy during the Jewish season of mourning. Conversely, a
familial tragedy can occur on a joyful Jewish holiday, as can a horrific
event in the world – such as the shooting in Nairobi that happened
during Sukkot. In such moments our emotions are mixed. We experience
discord between how we feel as a person or as a family member and as a
Jew at that moment.</span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19534" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19533" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19572" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19571" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19574"> </span> Our tradition recognizes emotional conflicts and symbolically represents them. On Shabbat, salt is placed on the <i>challah</i>
to remind us of the sadness that accompanies celebration. Likewise, a
glass is broken under the wedding canopy to signify that even at our
happiest moments, our joy is inherently incomplete. Someh<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack" rel="nofollow" style="font-family: verdana, geneva, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;"></a>ow
at joyous times, we are even more aware of the passage of time. We wish
such moments could last forever, and we know that they can’t.</span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19572" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19571" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv6915169993MsoNormal" id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19540" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span id="yui_3_13_0_rc_1_1_1381716290598_19542" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span> </span>
Perhaps then the emotional dissonance that I’ve been experiencing is an
inevitable bi-product of the blessings of being in multiple covenants –
connected to family, community and all humanity. While synchronicity
between these realms is not always possible, we can hope that joy in one
realm can offer some comfort for sorrows in another.</span></div>
</div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-65225554611079672162013-05-20T10:43:00.002-07:002013-05-20T10:43:31.679-07:00Passing the Baton<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> “Who is coming for dinner this week?” My nine-year-old son Jeremy asked.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Dror
and his family and Rachel and her family are coming because they’re
becoming rabbis next week, so we’re going to celebrate.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Okay,” Jeremy said and walked away.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
was struck by how unremarkable what I had said seemed to my son. He
knows that Dror is married to David, and it would never occur to him
that this fact could possibly hinder his becoming a rabbi. By contrast, I
remember nervously waiting one spring, six years ago to hear whether
the Conservative movement’s committee of Jewish Law and Standards would
decide to admit homosexual students into the rabbinical school, so that I
could write Dror’s letter of recommendation. Dror had given me the form
for the letter just in case, and I put it in my desk drawer for months
as we waited for the ruling to come. I remember the moment of joy when I
got to take the form out of the drawer and write that letter; it felt
like a miracle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
Jeremy, though, the idea of a man married to a man as a rabbi is as
natural as the fact that his mother is a rabbi – which was a possible
for me but unthinkable for my mother’s generation. Likewise, my kids
didn’t understand what a big deal it was when Barak Obama was elected
President. They enjoyed the excitement of watching the states being
called for each candidate and then hearing the announcement that Obama
had won a second term. Yet, they couldn’t comprehend the historical
significance of the moment because it never occurred to them that skin
color could possibly be an impediment to becoming president.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
remember as a child, my brother once teasing me that he was better than
me because he could be President and I couldn’t. I retorted that he
couldn’t be President either because he’s Jewish. He agreed, and the
conversation moved on. Both of us understood as a given that one had to
be male and Christian to be President. Fast forward twenty five years,
and I remember crying as I held my infant daughter in my arms and voted
for Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary because I never imagined
that I would be able to vote for a woman for President. I hope to live
to see a woman President and then for my daughter, it will be a given
that a woman can lead this nation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
hard-fought victories of one generation feel natural and normal to the
next. With each new child, the world gets a fresh chance at redemption.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This interchange with my son shed light on one of the Torah’s greatest enigmas. In the Torah portion of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hukkat</i>
(rules), when the people complained about lacking water, God told Moses
to take the rod, assemble the community, and speak to the rock to
produce water from the rock. Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation,
and Moses said, ‘Listen you rebels, shall we get water for you out of
this rock?” He hit the rock twice, and water flowed from it. God then
told Moses and Aaron that since they didn’t trust God enough, they won’t
lead the people into the Promised Land. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Commentators
for centuries have been puzzled by this story. What precisely was their
mistake? Was the problem the words that they used or in striking the
rock? Why were Moses and Aaron punished so severely for a seemingly
small error? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some
modern commentators note that God had previously asked Moses to hit a
rock to elicit water, which had worked well in the past. Perhaps then,
Moses’ mistake was in using a prior approach rather than listening to
precisely what God wanted from him in the moment. According to Rabbi
Harold Kushner, God’s response shouldn’t be viewed as a punishment, but
rather “a recognition that their time of leadership was over,” and it
was time for a new generation to take the helm.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">No
matter how great the leadership of Moses and Aaron, the role of being
head of the community or High Priest (like President or rabbi) is a
temporary job. Only a generation born into freedom would be ready to
take on the next set of battles of settling the Promised Land.
Liberation is a relay race.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the end, I wonder if Moses and Aaron saw the conclusion of their
service as a punishment or rather if they were filled with pride to
watch Joshua who they had mentored grow into leadership. I imagine they
felt more joy than regret.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although
I can’t know for sure how they felt, I know that’s how I feel. This
year I had the extraordinary opportunity to mentor Dror’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chevruta</i>
(study-partner) Rachel, a senior rabbinical student, wife, daughter,
and mother, as she prepares for the rabbinate. I shared with her lessons
I learned both from my successes and struggles as a rabbi and a mom. I
hope that I can help her go further in the rabbinate than me by giving
her a head start and awareness of a few pitfalls to avoid along the way.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
realized that the evening on which she and Dror will be ordained is the
Hebrew date of my fortieth birthday. Forty is an important number in
the Torah. Noah’s family and the animals were in the ark for forty days;
the people journeyed in the desert for forty years. Forty represents
the completion of a significant journey. Personally, I cannot imagine a
better way to celebrate my birthday than to watch Dror and Rachel be
ordained and to listen to Dror give the commencement address. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
I appreciate the historical significance of the moment, I’m glad for
now that my children, Rachel’s child, and Dror and David’s child don’t. I
hope they won’t know the heartache of fearing one’s gender or sexual
orientation may be an impediment to their dreams. Then they can take us
on the next leg of the journey and truly enter the Promised Land.</span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-26445626703259423322013-01-10T13:33:00.001-08:002013-01-10T13:33:15.736-08:00In the Groove<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This winter break, one
of the greatest joys has been watching my kids learn to ice skate. My husband
grew up in Israel where there were no winter sports. He tried to learn to skate
once or twice as an adult without success. In contrast, I grew up skating each
winter in Washington DC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result, I
knew that if I wanted my kids to ice skate, it was up to me to teach them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Earlier this winter, I
took my five-year-old daughter Hannah to an ice skating birthday. She went from
holding both of my hands during skating to only one. Over winter break, I took
her skating again. As a few weeks had elapsed, Hannah felt uneasy at first but
soon remembered how to skate while holding only one of my hands. Towards the
end of the session, she succeeded in skating around on her own. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By happenstance, my
folks invited us to ice skating the very next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hannah then really got the hang of it. Since
it had only been one day later, Hannah didn’t have time to forget what she had
learned the day before. Skating came smoothly and easily to her, and she skated
on her own the whole time. Hannah was so proud of herself, and I was thrilled
to watch her skate with confidence. Even the rink staff member noticed, and
said, “Look at you go!” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This week’s Torah
portion recounts the beginning of a major change for the Jewish people, as they
begin to move from slavery to freedom. Moses conveys God’s request that
Pharaoh, “Let My people go, that they may worship Me.” Following God’s
instructions, Moses explains to Pharaoh that they need to travel for three days
into the wilderness to sacrifice to God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">God’s plan here is
curious. Why three days? God wants the people to leave slavery permanently – not
just for a weekend! Like a good negotiator, did God encourage Moses to ask for three
days because that is the most time Pharaoh might accept?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Or perhaps, like a good
educator, God understood that the people need to enjoy three consecutive days
of freedom to get the hang of it. Once they had a sustained experience of
freedom, then they would never be able to go back to slavery. Perhaps, God knew
that three consecutive times is the charm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I recently read an
article in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Los Angeles Times</i> by a
woman named Corinna Nicolaou, who called herself a “none.” She used this descriptor
because, “that’s what pollsters call Americans who respond on national surveys
to the question, ‘What is your religious affiliation?’ with a single word:
“None.” Corrinna was raised without religious affiliation, but this year, she
wants to make a change. She looked in the “Worship Directory” of her local
paper, and for her New Year’s resolution, she decided to visit each
congregation.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I read the
article, I was impressed by Corinna’s openness to try new experiences and
embark on a spiritual search. How brave of her to seek as an adult something
she missed as a child! Yet, I wondered whether her approach would work. In the
column, she didn’t specify whether she would visit each congregation once, or
more often. As with ice skating and freedom, one day is not enough to learn the
sport of worship. Following God’s advice in this week’s parasha, she may want
to consider attending each congregation for three consecutive visits to get
past the initial awkwardness of a new setting and become familiar with the
melodies and the people.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I saw this phenomenon
at work in my congregation. One day a young woman (named Jalzalla) came to
visit the synagogue. At first, she sat alone, not knowing anyone. She seemed a
little out of place, as she was about sixty years younger than most of the
congregants who regularly attended. She came again the following week, and a
lady came to sit next to her and showed<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4474734851807812051" name="_GoBack"></a> her how to follow
along in the prayer book. As she came to services week after week, Jalzalla
became closer to the ladies. When Jalzalla eventually decided to convert to
Judaism, the ladies bought her a necklace with the Hebrew name she chose and
cheered her on as she was called to the Torah for the first time. By coming
week after week, she got into the groove of the community.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The experience of ice
skating reminded me that while we can learn new tricks at any age, some skills
are more easily acquired as children. I wondered: what activities do I want to
be in my children’s repertoire before they leave home? (Maybe next year, we
should try skiing!) When it comes to winter sports, sacred community, or
freedom, I’m grateful that we won’t be “none”s. </span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-28460386879183517912012-12-20T16:39:00.002-08:002012-12-20T16:39:24.486-08:00The Angel's Cry<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
morning, I turned on CNN for a few minutes to catch up on the day’s events. The
program showed pictures of the teachers and students murdered at Sandy Hook
Elementary school whose funerals were being held today. The reporter then offered
the latest update on the investigation at the gunman’s home. Finally, the
newscaster said that after commercials they will have a segment on bullet proof
backpacks that kids can wear to protect themselves when in school. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>‘Good God!’ I thought. ‘What has
this world come to?’ I’m supposed to be writing a speech for a baby naming that
I’m conducting next week. But how do you welcome an innocent, new life into
such a world – where kids need to wear bulletproof backpacks to school?!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This coming week’s Torah portion is
called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vayechi</i> which means “And he
lived.” The Torah portion which concludes the book of Genesis, describes the
deaths of Jacob, and later Joseph. Yet the portion refuses to be named or defined
by death; rather itemphasizes life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly,
the Torah portion which describes Sarah’s death is called, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chaye Sarah</i>: “The Life of Sarah.” In both accounts, the quality of
the person’s life is emphasized, rather than their death. These titles echo
God’s words in Deuteronomy: “I have set before you life and death, blessing
and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendents may
live.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4474734851807812051#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span></span></span></span></a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">An
ancient Jewish group at Qumran understood life as a battle between the forces
of death and darkness and those of life and light. That’s what life feels like
nowadays. As wreaths and teddy bears pour into Sandy Hook, people are trying to
bring any kind of light and love after the death and destruction that was
brought to that community and to the whole country. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
small ray of light that came out of the massacre is that there now seems to be
an awakening happening. In addiction work, people often talk about hitting
“rock bottom” – the lowest point within a person’s life where they decide they
have to change. It feels like we’ve hit rock bottom as a country, and have
realized that our laws, which fail to prevent murder, and our culture, which
glorifies violence, must change. My inbox fills with petitions from every
conceivable group calling for common sense gun laws. From Obama on down, every
parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, and teacher, has been weeping, hugging the
kids in their lives a little tighter and feeling a call to action.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Issues
that seemed unfixable – causes that seemed politically unfeasible – suddenly
seem like they must and will change, if we come together. We hear the call of
the angel of God, who when Isaac was bound on the altar with a knife to his
throat screamed to Abraham, “Do not raise your hand against the boy or do any
harm to him.” <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4474734851807812051#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"></span></span></span></span></a>We’ve finally decided to heed God’s call and choose life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
one loud voice, the souls of the entire country are crying out the prayer with
which Jacob blessed his son Joseph before his death, a prayer that is recited
at bedtime by Jews all over the world: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hamalach
ha-goel oti mi-kol ra, yivarech at hanearim</i>: May the angel who redeems me
from all evil, bless the children.”</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4474734851807812051" name="_GoBack"></a><div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
</div>
</div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-87428982382863875462012-11-26T13:16:00.000-08:002012-11-26T13:16:38.108-08:00The Bedtime Question<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Why
does <i>Abbah</i> (Dad) want to listen to Israeli radio so much?” My eight year old son Jeremy
asked me as I was tucking my five year old daughter Hannah into bed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh
no, I thought. I had hoped to avoid this conversation. I had hoped to spare my
children from worrying about our family in Israel and my daughter’s best friend
who is in Jerusalem for the semester. But the kids could tell something was up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“There
are some problems in Israel now.” I began gently. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What kind of problems?” Jeremy
asked. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Some fighting,” I said. Jeremy kept
asking questions, so I explained that there are some rockets being fired into
Israel and Israel is trying to shoot down the rockets before they hit the
ground. (I tried to offer as G-rated an explanation of the recent events as
possible). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then,
Hannah asked, “Are rockets going to fall here?” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“No,”
I reassured here. I thought of my cousins and friends in Israel who aren’t able
to offer their children such an unequivocal reassurance of their safety.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This week’s Torah portion echoes the
fear that those parents felt. The portion begins with Jacob poised to meet his
brother Esau from whom he had fled twenty years earlier fearing that Esau would
murder him after Jacob tricked him out of his father’s blessing. Jacob learned
that Esau is coming along with four hundred men, and “Jacob was very afraid and
was distressed.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bereshit Rabbah</i>
explains that two verbs used for his fear indicate that he had dual fears. He
was afraid that Esau would kill him and distressed that he might be forced to
kill his brother in self-defense.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jacob prepared for the impending
confrontation in three ways. He geared up for battle by dividing his family and
entourage into two separate camps – (so that even if one group were attacked,
then the other group would survive). He also sent Esau a large group of animals
as a gift – hoping that diplomacy would avert a military clash. Finally, he
prayed and wrestled with a mysterious stranger (or angel) through the night. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Fortunately, the anxiety-provoking
encounter between Jacob and Esau did not lead to violence, but rather to an
embrace. Jacob told his brother, “Seeing your face is like seeing the face of
God.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Reading this story in light of
recent events in Israel and Gaza, I felt a number of parallels. After the kids were
in bed that night, my husband and I watched Israeli television which had
several powerful segments. The first was by a military commander who explained
and showed the recent technological advances in weaponry that Israel was using
in response to the rockets coming into Israel to target Hamas’s operations
while trying to avoid civilian casualties. He showed how the person aiming the
missile at a Hamas target can redirect the missile if any civilians enter its
range. He quoted the Mishnah’s famous saying that anyone who kills a person, it
is as if they “destroyed an entire world.” He explained that this appreciation
for the sanctity of each human life is such a central part of Israeli culture
that many strikes are cancelled or averted at the last moment to spare
civilians. He explained that errors will occur but when they happen, they will
be assessed to learn what can be done better to spare civilians.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jacob’s two-fold fear – both of
being killed and killing others – was readily apparent in the commander’s
words. The general conveyed the ability of recognizing the other as also
created in God’s image – which Jacob expressed to Esau when they reconciled.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The news also had two other interviews
– one with an older man in Ashkelon who kept his bakery open despite the
rocket-fire. He explained that his son was called up into the army, but he
continued working to provide for his family. He said he hoped for “quiet.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The other segment was an interview
with an attorney also in Ashkelon who was staying home with his family and had
only gone to the grocery store to get some food. He explained that although his
kids were afraid, he was trying to look on the bright side and use the week as
an unusual opportunity to spend lots of time with his family. He mentioned that
because both he and his wife are lawyers and normally very busy, now that they were
home with their kids (since the schools and offices were closed), they had an
opportunity to play cards, talk and reconnect. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I was struck by the resilience and
perseverance of these families. Like Jacob they prepared for the worst but prayed
for the best. Even in the crisis, their actions reflected their deepest values.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I am not so naive to believe the
current confrontation between Israel and Hamas will end in mutual embrace, the
way that Jacob and Esau’s encounter did. Nonetheless, I hope for “quiet” – so
that the bakery shop owner can sell his food in peace, and that the lawyer
couple can find other ways of having quality time with their kids. Most of all,
I pray for a world in which no child has to ask: “Are rockets going to fall
here, Mom?”</span></div>
Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-72716233794540805012012-05-13T17:01:00.000-07:002012-05-13T17:01:45.012-07:00The Piano<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As dance class was about to begin, I
struck up a conversation with my friend Dana, who was trying the class for the
first time. “You’re going to love this class,” I told her, and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>explained how I’ve been enjoying these classes
for the past couple months. I haven’t danced frequently since college, but now
I’m getting back into it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In
January, I attended a dance class by accident. Sara, the mother of a child in
my daughter’s preschool, invited us to a Chanukah dance jam which I thought was
for children. As it turned out, the session was for adults, and I enjoyed it so
much that I ended up going to Sara’s classes regularly. On days when I take the
dance class, I feel more energetic and upbeat for the rest of the day and focused
when I’m with the kids. I feel a bit funny about spending time and money on
myself, but dancing is so uplifting that it’s worth it. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Dana explained that she had studied
piano when she was younger. She has wanted to buy a piano for years but other
expenses always take precedence. She’s been thinking that since playing piano
for fifteen minutes each day will relax her and make her a better mom then it
might be an important priority after all. Dana explained that she noticed that
around age forty a lot of women are finding or rediscovering their passions,
and it’s exciting to see. Some friends are going back to school; others are
changing careers or pursuing new hobbies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
week’s portion contains a reiteration of the famous commandment to honor our
parents. A central chapter of the Torah called the Holiness Code begins with a
broad proclamation of principle: “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord Your God,
am holy.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4474734851807812051#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></a>
The very next line offers the first specific instruction on how to achieve that
goal: “Each person shall respect their mother and father…”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4474734851807812051#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></a> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Perhaps
in addition to honoring our parents, we also need to respect what makes us
better parents. This spring I’m taking that commandment more seriously.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With
both my step-mother and mother-in-law living locally, Mother’s Day is normally
a very busy day for our family. On Mother’s Day, I typically have lunch with my
step-mother and dinner with my mother-in-law – making sure to call my
grandmother in Connecticut and step-grandmother in New York between meals.
Fittingly, the anniversary of my mother’s death falls on the day before
mother’s day this year, so l said <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">kaddish</i>
(the memorial prayer) for her at synagogue yesterday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
Mother’s day, I’m making one change in the usual plan. Before heading off to
pay tribute to my “mothers,” I started the day off with a dance class.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Each
one of us has things that can help us be more patient with our kids and more
passionate in our activities. This mother’s day, in addition to honoring our
parents, let’s also honor what we need to be great parents and vivacious
people. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
hope that Dana decides to get her piano soon. In the meantime, I’ll definitely
be dancing.</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4474734851807812051#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"></span></span></span></a><div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4474734851807812051#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></span></span></span></a></div>
</div>
</div>Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4474734851807812051.post-53317033035793563272012-02-24T12:12:00.001-08:002012-02-24T12:12:56.053-08:00The Gifts We MakeMy son recently celebrated his eighth birthday, and I spent the few days prior to his party baking the birthday cake. On Friday, I bought ingredients and on Saturday night I baked a rectangular cake as well as a circular one. On Sunday, I decorated the cake. First, I made white, red and black frosting. I then shaped the rectangular cake into a bowling pin and frosted it accordingly — even adding a red liquorish for the stripes of the pin and black liquorish for the bottom. I frosted and decorated the circular cake as a bowling ball to accompany the pin.<br /><br />I don't cook much in general, and I'm not an artsy kind of person. But for some reason, for my kids' birthdays, I become obsessed and feel compelled to make elaborate cakes. Every year, my husband asks: Why can't we just buy a cake from the store? Wouldn't that be easier? He's right; it would be far simpler to buy a cake (which would take about 10 minutes rather than three days). However, my mom always baked our cakes with us as children, and even though baking the cake takes longer, I can't imagine doing it any other way.<br /><br />In this week's Torah portion, the Jewish people also embark on a consuming art project. In the parasha, God gives extensive instructions on how to build the mishkan, the portable sanctuary which housed the ark and the tablets during the forty-year desert trek. These detailed architectural plans fill nearly the entire last third of the book of Exodus. Thirteen chapters of the Torah are devoted to this topic. By contrast, the creation of the world takes only two chapters!<br /><br />The instructions for making the tabernacle are incredibly specific and frankly tedious to read. Why then does the Torah devote so much attention to this topic?<br /><br />The reason God gives in Exodus is: "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk (a 19th century Hasidic master) noted that God did not say, ‘that I may dwell in it' meaning in the sanctuary, but rather "that I may dwell among them," – among the people. Kotsk explained that each person should build a sanctuary in their heart for God to dwell there.<br /><br />The reason the Torah devotes so much attention to the mishkan construction is the same as why I feel compelled to bake the birthday cake each year. When cooking with my children, we create a kind of magic. The joy of the birthday begins not on the day of the party but in the anticipation of baking together. It's my way to thank God for another year of life.<br /><br />Likewise, after fleeing Egypt and entering the covenant at Mount Sinai, the people needed to do an art project for God. They longed to thank God for the covenant -- not through words but by making something beautiful. They yearned to express their gratitude for their precious freedom and newfound relationship with the divine.<br /><br />When we were finally done with the three day cake ordeal, my son turned to me and said, "Wow, Mom, it looks like a real bowling pin and ball!" At that moment, I smiled and knew that all the effort was worth it. I imagine that my mom and God were smiling, too, from above.Rabbi Ilana Grinblathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00733125386483757004noreply@blogger.com0