(Originally posted on Facebook)
Sunday, July 31, 2022
On Reproductive Choice - July 23, 2022
Anyone But Ourselves - Reading for B’nai Jehudah Daily Minyan - July 31, 2022
Facebook Live Daily Minyan Original Reading
The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah
July 31, 2022
On this day,
Eternal One,
You offer us new light
With which to see the miracles in this world.
On this day,
Abiding Presence among us,
You have enabled us to seek out our special place
Within Your creation.
On this day,
Provider of wisdom,
You have set before us a path to freedom
To apply Your teachings to our actions in our everyday lives
Leading us to enlighten our souls
Realizing that we must not to use our knowledge to control
Anyone but ourselves.
On this day,
Revealer of Your essence,
You accompany us along our journey
As we seek to bring justice and understanding
To the human community
So that Your peace and love
Will encompass us in a warm embrace.
On this day,
Make us one
As You are One.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Invisible Bonds - Original Reading for Facebook Live Daily Minyan on July 26, 2022 for The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, Overland Park, KS
Daily Minyan reading
July 26, 2022
Creator of the universe,
Wellspring of wisdom,
Eternal spirit connecting us one to another
Shine down on us the light of understanding
That will make clear
The true yearnings within our souls
Not the hopes that others decide for us
But the dreams that emerge from the depths
Of our existence
That we strive to make real.
If we could truly see one another in the light of day
Not even the darkness of night
Could divide us and prevent us from
Sensing our mutual presence
Because what binds us is not the separation
Inherent and apparent in the material world
When our eyes are open
But the invisible ties that constantly flow between us
That we can feel, if we try,
When our eyes are closed.
That is how Your Teachings, Your Presence,
And Your Oneness, Eternal One,
Can make us one
If we only allow it to come to be.
Monday, July 18, 2022
"To Bask in Your Light and Your Oneness" - Original Reading for Facebook Live Daily Minyan - The Temple, Congregation B'nai Jehudah, Overland Park, KS 07182022
Daily Minyan Original Reading
The Temple, Congregation B'nai Jehudah
July 18, 2022
Eternal God,
Creator of all things
All beings
You have given us light to sense this wondrous world
And the universe around us
And provided many ways for us, beyond and besides our sight,
to experience the miraculous nature of our existence.
You have inspired in us the pursuit of the light of knowledge
That has enabled us to bring into focus
Views of far-away galaxies, distant in both space and time,
Whose images amaze us and remind us
How small our planet is,
But, also, how we are part of something so mysterious and
So expansive, that we can hardly fathom or understand
How it all came to be.
Even more, Eternal One,
We ask You for the wisdom to turn
our amazement, our wonder, our awe
into love for the people who are our fellow travelers on earth
So that we will realize that we all need each other
to grow and to thrive.
May we overcome our differences just enough
To be able to bask in Your light and Your Oneness
So that we will see ourselves as one people
on this one world
That journeys with so many other worlds through
Endless time and space.
Thursday, July 7, 2022
Light, Freedom, and Responsibility - Daily Minyan Original Reading for the Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, Overland Park, KS 07072022
Facebook Live Daily Minyan Reading
For The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah
July 7, 2022
Eternal God,
How can we preserve what You have created?
How can we bring light to our nights, with calming and aspiring dreams, and increase the brightness and goodness of our days?
You have given us the ability to distinguish between what sustains life and what diminishes individual and collective survival.
You have enabled us to enhance our environment, but sometimes, we falter and follow a path that can inflict damage upon our world.
You have provided us with the creativity and commitment that can bring peace between people, but there are moments when conflict, even war, seem to be, for some, a preferred choice, with tragic results.
You have taught us, through examples of vision and leadership in the stories of our heritage, how we should assume responsibility for our own well-being and for that of our fellow human beings.
Author of liberty, Your Torah leads us to work for freedom that will be a blessing for everyone, not only for a privileged few.
Enlighten us, O God, to love our fellow human beings as ourselves
In all we say and do
So that Your Oneness will lead us to a renewed oneness among us.
Monday, July 4, 2022
I don’t kneel when I pray - July 4, 2022
July 4, 2022
I don’t kneel when I pray.
It is not in my religious tradition or heritage to do so.
Bow? Bend the knee? Yes, at certain times, during public worship.
I don’t kneel when I pray.
If I did, I would not do so at the 50 yard-line,
Letting people know that I am doing it in order to make a point
So that they will join me and bring attention to an act that,
When done alone, quietly, can be accomplished with humility,
Yet, when practiced publicly, perhaps praying in such a way that leaves out people of other faiths, or those who don’t profess a faith,
That humility disappears.
I don’t kneel when I pray.
Today, as our country turns 246,
I do not kneel.
However, I do pray.
Sitting, quietly.
I pray
For the people who have died in yet another mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois and those affected by the trauma of the moment;
For freedom and safety for the citizens of Ukraine, who continue to face the arrogance of their neighbor to the east that does not seem to want to let them live;
For the women and families whose reproductive choices have been upended by appointed and confirmed purveyors of justice who have left them open to those who would impose their beliefs on all citizens;
For the opening of closed minds of administrators, teachers and students in schools that would accept public funds to perpetuate their perspectives that define certain people out of their circle of salvation and acceptance;
For an end to attempts to ignore the difficult parts of the past and present of our nation, where denial of the humanity of natives, slaves, arriving immigrants aspiring citizens and many others, for many reasons, continues to close too many eyes to the wonders of our diversity.
Still, I pray
For the creativity and ingenuity that can extend opportunity to all people.
For the embrace of anyone who would join our national experiment in order to build it up, rather than to tear it down;
For compassion towards our neighbors and towards people in need, realizing that we can, if we so desire, fashion a “gilded age” not of possessions and power, but of hearts of gold that will bring us together in solidarity for agreed-upon truth and growing freedom, rejecting demagoguery and a thirst for power and encourageing partnership and coming to shared understandings;
For walking, side-by-side, with members of our communities and with people across our planet, recognizing that we have a world that needs cherishing and preserving, for us and for future generations.
I don’t kneel when I pray.
I don’t ask or demand that anyone else pray.
I don’t need anyone else to pray in my way.
Still, I pray, with words of my heritage,
Praising the Source of existence
Who, I believe,
Keeps us alive
Sustains us
And brings us to each new day, and each new year,
So that we can make this world a place of hope
And joy
And love
And peace.
Saturday, July 2, 2022
To seek partnership - Facebook Live Daily Minyan Original Reading for The Temple, Congregation B'nai Jehudah - June 27, 2022
Daily Minyan Reading
June 27, 2022
Eternal God,
May the arrival of evening
Give us a chance to look back
On this day and recent times past.
May Your guidance shed light
On our place in the world
And within the human family.
Teach us to value creation
To cherish freedom
To seek partnership when possible
And to love our neighbors as ourselves
So that they may extend back to us
Love and understanding
All within the embrace of Your eternal love.
At a time when there is so much division
May the sense of Your Oneness
Renew our commitment
To engender unity and hope in this corner of
A vastly wondrous Universe.
Humility, Arrogance and Leadership - D'var Torah - Parashat Korach - July 2, 2022 (for the Temple, Congregation, B'nai Jehudah, Overland Park, KS)
Standing before my congregation to lead High Holy Day worship was always a milestone and a challenge unto itself. The weeks, even months, of preparation as a rabbi serving a small congregation encompassed a wide range of tasks, as I was the only full-time staff member. Service orders, set-up plans, publicity, music, flowers, and assigning parts to congregants, were all responsibilities that I either did on my own or shared with part-time staff and volunteers. Oh, did I mention four sermons, two for each holy day? How could I forget?
There was one moment on Yom Kippur, usually as the service began, that I added to worship over the years. Gates of Repentance included this reading before the confessional prayers on Yom Kippur morning: “I hereby forgive all those who have hurt me, all who have wronged me, whether deliberately or inadvertently, whether by word or by deed. May no one be punished on my account. As I forgive and pardon those who have wronged me, may those whom I have harmed forgive and pardon me, whether I acted deliberately or inadvertently, whether by word or by deed.”
At the beginning of Yom Kippur, before the open ark, I shared my own version of that prayer, bringing to light, in a few original sentences, the difficulties of congregational life that may lead to conflict, often based on misunderstandings that arise which, at times, could not be fixed or healed. I realized that, in my striving to be a humble leader, I needed to make that statement. It had deep meaning for me, and I hope that it set an example for my community members, perhaps fostering closer relationships and positive results for the year to come.
I thought about that moment in Yom Kippur worship of my rabbinate in relation to this week’s parashah, Korach, because of Moses’ immediate reaction to Korach’s initial protest. The text says, in Numbers Chapter 16, verse 4: VAYISHMA MOSHE, VAYIPOL AL PANAV, “And Moses listened, and he fell on his face.” Some commentators assert that this act illustrated that Moses was ashamed. From my perspective, it was a display of humility characteristic of Moses in the common biblical and rabbinic view.
Leadership is fulfilling, but it also can be difficult, challenging, and, very often, lonely. Some people who are dissatisfied with their leaders may have legitimate criticisms based on extensive knowledge of their current situation. Others may not see the whole picture. They may, instead, focus primarily on what they believe they deserve in terms of communal or political position and status.
In the Torah reading for this week, KORACH, there seem to be two rebellions against Moses and Aaron and their leadership. Korach, accompanied by 250 claimants, was a cousin to Moses and Aaron. He was a Levite, so that he had significant duties in Israelite worship, but he was not eligible to be among the priestly families who served as ritual leaders. Korach claimed that, if it was true that all the Israelites were holy, then no one, not even the priests, should be considered holier than anyone else. Korach viewed the leadership of Aaron and Moses with a feeling of jealousy, seeking for himself and his associates their power, without acknowledging the burden of responsibility that Moses and Aaron had taken upon themselves and the difficulties involved in leading the people.
Dathan and Abiram were instigators of unrest based on their own dissatisfaction with the plight of the people following their flight to freedom. They thought that being descendants of Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, gave them the right to be leaders over Moses and Aaron and everyone. Furthermore, they saw the state of the Israelites in the wilderness as less preferable to their former life of slavery in Egypt. In their complaint, they called Egypt “a land flowing with milk and honey,” using the very phrase that described the lush land of Canaan that the people would eventually enter. The Torah recounts that both of these rebellions, which saw leadership as a function only of status and not also of inspiration, met their demise at the hand of God. I will spare you the details.
We may be understandably uncomfortable with the specter of anyone being crushed by divine power. These tales of rebellion, which are two stories merged into one, must be in the Torah for a reason, so that we can derive some lesson on a metaphorical level or gain some insight on leadership and community life.
So what can we learn from this parashah? One way of viewing the disposition of the rebel leaders, Korach, Dathan and Abiram, is to note how they undermined their own cause through their envy, anger and pessimism. They had disqualified themselves from instilling any sense of hope and confidence among their people. They saw the plight of the moment, blamed it on their leaders, and tried to convince the people that they could do better, without offering anything more than demagoguery and an utter rejection of the status quo. They weren’t willing to admit that the current leadership could, in any way, take them along a path towards a better life and welcome change. Some of them hadn’t moved from the mindset of slavery in Egypt, where their needs were met with a great measure of disrespect and cruelty. They were not yet free people who could see their new status as an opportunity. According to the Torah, one reason that the Israelites wandered for so long was that they needed a change in attitude that could only be nurtured over a period of years with patience and perseverance. The Israelites had to let go of their past before they could adopt an optimistic outlook toward the tasks of community-building that awaited them in the decades to come.
True leadership requires an ability to adapt and change, encouraging people to think in new ways and to consider untried ideas and approaches to the challenges before them. It also requires humility to balance out arrogance. Moses showed that trait when he fell on his face in front of the entire people.
Torah commentator Yeshayahu Leibowitz saw Korach’s assertion about the holiness of the Israelites to mean that “we have achieved our goal of being a holy people and nothing more needs to be demanded of us” to maintain that sanctity. It was as if Korach was saying, and even boasting, “I am already holy and I don’t need to change.” Yet, what the Torah actually says in Leviticus is “YOU WILL BE HOLY, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy.” Holiness is about becoming. It is an ongoing journey. Leaders and people like Korach, Dathan and Abiram thought they had nothing to learn from anyone or from any new experience. Leaders and people like Moses and Aaron see their own imperfections, lament the need to stand firm in the face of overwhelming opposition, and are willing to learn something new to move along the road towards greater effectiveness and even holiness. It is through learning from what we have done wrong and realizing what we do right and well that we become a KAHAL KADOSH, a holy community.
We can view humility and arrogance as two ends of a spectrum, but, lately, I am sad to see them pitted against each other in a seemingly never ending battle. When arrogance is given power, the content of truth narrows to the point of no longer being true at all. The ability to issue a judgment that takes various viewpoints into account in community life, and in legal decisions, loses the possibility of considering mitigating circumstances and applying even a measure of mercy and empathy to the people involved in a particular situation. It can, I believe, lead to a loss of the human decency we so sorely need in order to promote the well-being of our fellow community members.
Judaism teaches that, sometimes, we can find holiness even in conflict. We read in Pirkei Avot: “Every controversy that is in the name of Heaven shall, in the end, lead to a permanent result, but every controversy that is not in the name of Heaven shall not lead to a permanent result. Which controversy was in the name of Heaven? The controversy of Hillel and Shammai. And which was not in the name of Heaven? The controversy of Korach and all his company.”
The Talmud noted that most of the disputes between Hillel and Shammai were decided in favor of the house of Hillel because the students of Hillel were kindly and modest, they studied their own rulings AND those of the house of Shammai, and they were even so [humble] as to mention the perspectives of the house of Shammai before stating their own.”
In our conversations, in our controversies, and even in the midst of our polarized times, may humility, coupled with confidence and forthrightness in sharing and practicing our cherished values, guide us to the promised land of understanding and equality, a place where we will know wholeness, holiness, and peace.
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