Thursday, November 29, 2007

So many books, so little time...

Just in time for Chanukah, we are hosting a book fair at the temple this week. The social hall is packed with current, Jewish books for any age level and all genres. This is a great opportunity to build your Jewish library and make a family activity out of buying a few good picks. Here are a few recommendations from the adult fiction aisle:

Roz Reisner, temple librarian, recommends "The War of the Rosens" by Janice Eidus. She describes the book: "A great coming-of-age tale set in the Bronx in 1965. Emma Rosen, a budding poet, tries to understand the nature of good and evil as it plays out in her eccentric Jewish family."

I recommend "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer and "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon. These two books represent some of the best of new American Jewish fiction. They are funny, well written, and engaged in many of the biggest issues of contemporary Jewish life.

For kids, the awarding winning book, "Hanukkah at Valley Forge" by Stephen Krensky with illustrations by Greg Harlin, is a great tale that weaves together American history and the story of the Maccabees.

If you are interested in traditional texts, be sure to pick up a copy of the JPS translation of the Tanakh, the Harvey J. Fields Torah Commentary set, or the new translation of the Torah by Robert Alter.

Also, be sure to join in one or more of the special events we are holding in connection with the book fair: a discussion of the book, "As a Driven Leaf" by Milton Steinberg on Thursday at noon, Roz Reisner's talk during services Friday night, our havdallah and story-teller event on Saturday night, or the chance to meet and hear from Israeli author Penina Moed-Kass about her book "Real Time" on Sunday at 11 AM. All events at the temple. Contact the office or check our website for more info.

Happy reading!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

"Modeh Ani - I Thank You"

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you and your families are blessed with happiness, good health, and feelings of deep gratitude on this holiday.

Judaism holds gratitude as one of the highest virtues and commands its expression in our daily liturgy. In fact, the very first thing a person should say upon waking – even before getting out of bed – is a personal prayer of thanks: “modeh ani l’fanecha melech chai v’kayam, sheh-hechezarta bi nishmati b'chemla rabba emunatecha – I gratefully thank you, O living and eternal God, for you have returned my soul to me with compassion, great is your faithfulness.”

Let’s cultivate our sense of gratitude by adopting some ideas and practices from the morning thanksgiving prayer:

1. Make gratitude a fixed practice in your day. Set aside five minutes each day to contemplate the things for which you are grateful.

2. Express your gratitude daily. Each day, tell at least one person that you are grateful and tell them why you are grateful to them.

3. Be thankful for the basics first. The prayer simply thanks God for the fact that we have woken up for another day. Don’t set the bar too high in your contemplation of things for which you are grateful.

4. Let your gratitude last forever. While we know that we will not live forever, the prayer acknowledges that God - thing to which we are grateful - is eternal.

5. Express gratitude to those who help you but whom you can not see.* Just as we should thank God even though we may not literally see God, so too should we thank the sanitary workers who clear our trash before even we’ve brewed our first cup of coffee, the members of our armed forces who defend us and fight for us thousands of miles away, and anyone whose efforts help us when we don’t see them.

6. Let the things for which you are grateful lead you to help others and treat them with kindness. Our tradition teaches, “mitzvah goreret mitzvah – one mitzvah leads to another mitzvah.” Live that teaching.

7. Acknowledge the good while you have it.* The daily prayer for thanksgiving is recited upon waking in order to teach us that a person should not wait for a more convenient time to express their gratitude but say thanks in the moment of appreciation.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin offers this challenge at the end of a chapter he wrote about gratitude: "Right now, before you finish this chapter mark down the ways in which your life is blessed, and for which you can and should express gratitude to God." So, go ahead. Take his challenge and bring the results with you into this year’s Thanksgiving celebration.

I'll start: Todah Rabbah! Thank you, for the opportunity to learn and study with you every day, for the privilege of serving as rabbi of this community, and for the generous support you provide for me and my family.

*Quoted from Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, A Code of Jewish Ethics, Vol. 1: You Shall Be Holy (2006), Chapter 7 “Becoming a Grateful Person.” This book is a must-have for anyone interested in Jewish values and ethics.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Count the stars

I am writing this post during a break between sessions at the STAR PEER alumni retreat, an annual conference I attend as part of my connection with STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal). The conference reunites me with a small group of rabbis who are committed to ensuring a lasting, energized Jewish future by strengthening synagogues. The conference always brings stars - top scholars and Jewish community leaders - to focus and enrich our efforts. I want to share with you some of the best teachings so far from this year's conference.

Last night's key note speaker, Jewish Theological Seminary's new chancellor Arnold Eisen, offered an inspiring assessment of the state of American Judaism. Chancellor Eisen has embarked on a campaign to redefine the meaning of "mitzvah." He cited one of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan's central principles: the Jewish people are commanded by more than just Torah from Sinai. Eisen believes that anyone who steps into a synagogue does so because they feel a sense of obligation or commitment to something. It may be an obligation to respond to the God of their understanding (revelation), an obligation to appease their parents (Jewish guilt), an obligation to preserve the Jewish people (ethnic pride), or any other compelling thing. Chancellor Eisen challenges us to expand our understanding of "mitzvah" to include the broad sweep of commitments felt by our people. I agree with him, but want to know from you: what obligation, tug, or commitment keeps you connected to Judaism and our synagogue?

Sandy Cardin, president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, spoke to us about risk. He cited the amazing benefits reaped by entrepreneurial Jewish leaders in the past decade (he cited Reboot, STAR, and S3K as examples) and urged us "don't cede the territory of innovation to them just because you are in institutional settings." Sandy then drew on Jewish history for a number of examples of great risks that produced history changing rewards for the Jewish people: Yohanan ben Zakkai's worship revolution following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, Rambam's codification of the Mishneh Torah, and Abraham Joshua Heschel's march with Martin Luther King, Jr. What risks have you taken in your life that have impacted your Jewish identity, practice, or beliefs? Are there limits to the risks we should take in a congregation? Are there limits to the rewards we can achieve?

Chancellor Eisen argued that the future of progressive American Judaism can be great and urged us to heed our calling to make it great. Again, I agree with his optimism but want to know from you if you think the glass of American Judaism is half full or half empty. And are you ready to fill it the rest of the way?