Before we formally begin our Lunch ‘n Learn year, zoom in for a special program on NEXT Thursday, August 19th Noon-1:00 p.m.
“Music for the High Holy Days”
What is the history behind some of our favorite melodies?There’s more than one melody for Kol Nidre?Perry Como really recorded Kol Nidre?And more… Join Zoom Meeting for Lunch ‘n Learnhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/99546161373?pwd=WGE5RFYwT0lFN0JFWGhqci90Ylg5Zz09 Meeting ID: 995 4616 1373Passcode: 982930 Dial in: 646 876 9923
On August 10, the Board of Trustees had an emergency meeting to revisit High Holiday Covid-19 protocols in the light of new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control. The Board made the difficult decision to eliminate in-person attendance at all services, including the High Holidays, until further notice. Our Religious School will re-open to in-person instruction in September as previously planned, however. High Holiday services will be streamed on our YouTube channel, as we did last year, and prayerbooks will be made available to all members. Details on when prayerbooks can be checked out will be sent to everyone very soon. Shabbat services will be held via Zoom. Access codes will be provided in Rabbi Lader’s weekly News You Can Use newsletter or by calling the Temple office (216-941-8882) Many factors went into this decision, which was made reluctantly. Among them were these:
The rapid spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant throughout Northeastern Ohio. It now accounts for over 93% of all new infections.
Evidence that fully vaccinated people can contract Delta (“breakthrough infections”) and spread it to others, both vaccinated and un-vaccinated. However, the same evidence shows that the Covid-19 vaccines remain remarkably effective at preventing serious illness and death. If you are not yet vaccinated we strongly urge you to do so, both to protect your health and the health of your family and friends.
New CDC guidelines that strongly recommend having even fully vaccinated people wear masks and socially distance themselves when attending indoor events.
The heightened risk of infection to those on the Bimah who cannot realistically mask during services, such as the Rabbi, Cantor, and our Torah readers.
Allowing in-person attendance would have required rationing the greatly reduced seating. There is not enough time to work out the mechanics of such rationing.
The increased uncertainty about the Covid-19 infection risk in the fall, including the possible emergence of other more transmissible and lethal variants.
The Board’s responsibility to ensure the health and welfare of our community and our community’s responsibility to help mitigate the spread of this insidious virus.
Please be on the lookout for additional information via email and postal mail. If you have questions, please contact Board President Luis Fernandez via email (luisf@oberlin.net) or phone (440-935-4556).
This week we turn to Ekev – Deut. 7:12-11:25. “If only you would listen to these laws …” (Deut. 7:12). These words with which our parsha begins contain a verb that is a fundamental motif of the book of Deuteronomy. The verb is sh-m-a. It occurred in last week’s parsha in the most famous line of the whole of Judaism, Shema Yisrael. It occurs later in this week’s parsha in the second paragraph of the Shema, “It shall be if you surely listen [shamoa tishme’u] … (Deut. 11:13). It appears no less than 92 times in Deuteronomy as a whole. In his commentary on this week’s portion, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (z”l) wrote: “Time and again in the last month of his life Moses told the people, Shema: listen, heed, pay attention. Hear what I am saying. Hear what God is saying. Listen to what he wants from us. If you would only listen … Judaism is a religion of listening. This is one of its most original contributions to civilization. The twin foundations on which Western culture was built were ancient Greece and ancient Israel. They could not have been more different. Greece was a profoundly visual culture. Its greatest achievements had to do with the eye, with seeing. It produced some of the greatest art, sculpture and architecture the world has ever seen. Its most characteristic group events – theatrical performances and the Olympic games – were spectacles: performances that were watched. Plato thought of knowledge as a kind of depth vision, seeing beneath the surface to the true form of things. This idea – that knowing is seeing – remains the dominant metaphor in the West even today. We speak of insight, foresight and hindsight. We offer an observation. We adopt a perspective. We illustrate. We illuminate. We shed light on an issue. When we understand something, we say, “I see.” Judaism offered a radical alternative. It is faith in a God we cannot see, a God who cannot be represented visually. The very act of making a graven image – a visual symbol – is a form of idolatry. As Moses reminded the people in last week’s Torah portion, when the Israelites had a direct encounter with God at Mount Sinai, “You heard the sound of words, but saw no image; there was only a voice.” (Deut. 4:12). God communicates in sounds, not sights. He speaks. He commands. He calls. That is why the supreme religious act is Shema. When God speaks, we listen. When He commands, we try to obey… This may seem like a small difference, but it is in fact a huge one. For the Greeks, the ideal form of knowledge involved detachment. There is the one who sees, the subject, and there is that which is seen, the object, and they belong to two different realms… Speaking and listening are not forms of detachment. They are forms of engagement. They create a relationship. The Hebrew word for knowledge, da’at, implies involvement, closeness, intimacy. “And Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and gave birth” (Gen. 4:1). That is knowing in the Hebrew sense, not the Greek. We can enter into a relationship with God, even though He is infinite and we are finite, because we are linked by words. In revelation, God speaks to us. In prayer, we speak to God. If you want to understand any relationship, between husband and wife, or parent and child, or employer and employee, pay close attention to how they speak and listen to one another. Ignore everything else… Listening lies at the very heart of relationship. It means that we are open to the other, that we respect him or her, that their perceptions and feelings matter to us. We give them permission to be honest, even if this means making ourselves vulnerable in so doing. A good parent listens to their child. A good employer listens to his or her workers. A good company listens to its customers or clients. A good leader listens to those he or she leads. Listening does not mean agreeing but it does mean caring. Listening is the climate in which love and respect grow. In Judaism we believe that our relationship with God is an ongoing tutorial in our relationships with other people. How can we expect God to listen to us if we fail to listen to our spouse, our children, or those affected by our work? And how can we expect to encounter God if we have not learned to listen. On Mount Horeb, God taught Elijah that He was not in the whirlwind, the earthquake or the fire but in the kol demamah dakah, the “still, small voice” It is that voice you can only hear if you are listening. Crowds are moved by great speakers, but lives are changed by great listeners…”
Our Torah portion this week is Va’etchanan – Deut. 3:23-7:11 and calls us to “Listen, Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is One.” Deut. 6:4) The first word to follow this “watchword of our faith” is love – “You shall love the Eternal your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all that you have.” (Deut. 6:5)Listen and love. Rabbi Yakov Nagen in his book Be, Become, Bless: Jewish Spirituality between East and West (2019) comments that “Listening is the absolute sign of love, and an inability to listen is a sign (and a cause) of a lack of true love. When we love someone, we care about them and are interested to hear what they have to say, so we are able and want to listen to them… Listening is not a passive activity. It is an art and it entails great effort. It is: being present. When we listen and allow the words we hear to penetrate us deeply, we make space for the other (for the Other…) and receive them. This is the meaning of love.” (p. 281) Many people cover their eyes while reciting the “Shema,” enabling them to focus on what it is that they are saying. Yet, another way of understanding this is taught in The Little Prince: “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Closing one’s eyes enables one to focus deeply, and when one truly listens, one sees with the heart. Rabbi Nagen teaches us that we are told to listen… and to affirm the Oneness, the singularity, of God. And then we are told to love God… Wherever we are, that place, that time, is where (and when) God is as well. There is a sense of unity in this; a unity of God and a unity with God. The gematria (numerical value) of the word “one” (Echad – אחד – 1+8+4) and the word “love” (ahava – אהבה – 1+5+2+5) is the same = 13. Love means becoming one with another, just like in the archetypal story in the Garden of Eden, “And they shall cleave to their beloved, and they will be one flesh” (Bereshit 2:24). The power of love is in the feeling that the other is not a stranger to me, but becomes “bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” (Bereshit 2:23), and together we become “one flesh” (Ibid 24). The strength of our connection to God stems from the acknowledgment that we are created in God’s image, that God is not strange or external to us. Attaching ourselves to God does not blur our individual identity, it sharpens it. Attaching ourselves to our beloved does not blur our individual identity, it sharpens it. Close your eyes… and listen… with your heart… and love.
Now celebrating its fifth anniversary, Common Ground challenges individuals, organizations and community leaders to build, join and share conversations across our region each summer.
Traditionally held on one day, this year’s anniversary event will expand to two weeks of community conversations from July 16-30. All Common Ground conversations have the same goal: to create spaces where meaningful connections are made and purposeful actions begin. This year, we invite the community to gather around our fifth anniversary theme: Growing Common Ground: People, Place, Shared Power. All Common Ground events are free to attend.
THIS Sunday, July 25
10 a.m. – Plastic Surgery: Cutting Plastic Out of Your Life
Beachwood Community Center 25325 Fairmount Blvd. Beachwood, OH 44122
Cathi Lehn, Sustainable Cleveland Manager with the City of Cleveland Office of Sustainability, and the Plastic Reduction Working Group will serve as your hosts during this interactive conversation focusing on alternatives to plastic packaging. A brief overview of the issue of plastic pollution will be followed by a conversation on new and exciting packaging alternatives. Participants will have an opportunity to imagine and design alternatives for packaging for common household items. The workshop will conclude with ideas for action and a tour of Ron Shelton’s HAF Connects: sustainable art of plastics art exhibit.
Learning and understanding all history creates common ground. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is about people, place, and shared power. Join us for a safe and thoughtful conversation about CRT.
Join a first-of-a- kind Muslim – Jewish group of women to celebrate the 5th year of Common Ground. This year’s theme is “People, Place, Shared Power.” It will be used as an invitation to ask questions and share opinions around: “How can we strengthen the connections between us to build our community?” We will get to know each other, engage in a facilitated discussion, use metaphoric cards, and other treats that will give meaning to our shared time together. This is a safe space that will allow us to hold a friendly, challenging, and authentic conversation.
This week we begin the book of Devarim – Deuteronomy – Deut. 1:1-3:22. Moses begins his series of orations to the people of Israel as they are about to enter the Promised Land. He begins with recalling the past forty years, starting with Sinai, and reminds the people that he could not lead them alone and without help, saying: “Pick from each of your tribes people who are wise, insightful, and seasoned…” (Deut. 1:13) And they did. What does it mean to be wise? Is it insight? Good judgement? Common sense? An orderly and balanced sense? The Mishnah (Pirke Avot 5:9) teaches –
A fool and a sage both have seven traits:
The wise never speak before the wiser.
They do not interrupt their companions;
they are not afraid to reply;
they ask to the point and reply as they should;
they speak of first things first and last things last.
If they have not heard they say I have not heard.
They acknowledge the truth.
The reverse is true of fools.
And Rabbi Chaim Stern teaches, in Day By Day – his collection of daily insights on the weekly Torah portion; this one in preparation for Shabbat:
How can I be at rest when I am jumping to conclusions? Keep me from knowing before I know, from arriving before I get there; teach me that I must earn my wisdom by attending to my experience; and although the only experience I can have is my own, show me how to learn from the experience of others, and thus make it my own.
Perhaps true wisdom is balance, humility, learning from one’s own experiences, being open to new experiences, and always seeking to learn more.
It seems like it was only yesterday that we began the book of Numbers, and yet, with this week’s double portion of Matot/Massei Numbers 30:2 – 36:13, we find Moses sharing instructions and land distribution rights with the Israelites, as well as recounting the journeys – massei – of the Israelites, outlining their travels from Egypt through the desert.
“These were the marches of the Israelites who started from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron. Moses recorded the starting points of their various marches as directed by the Lord….” (Numbers 33:1-2).
Why list every starting – and stopping – point on the Israelites’ journey? Various midrashim and rabbinic commentators offer various explanations: “Cup half full” – 1) the travels are enumerated to emphasize and highlight God’s power, and to ensure that the Israelites recognize God’s strength… “Cup half empty” – 2) the detailed review will act as a rebuke to the Israelites, for according to the Midrash, every place that is listed was a locus of sins committed by the Israelites… “Hey, you held on to the cup!” – 3) Sforno, a medieval commentator, explains that the Torah’s listing acts to praise the Jewish nation – the list of their stopping points highlights the challenges they faced, and by extension praises their faith. Abigail Dauber Sterne, Educator for the Mandel Fellows Institute, suggests that the text might be telling us something about journeys per se. “The Torah is emphasizing the value of travel. By repeating the Israelites’ itinerary, the text draws attention to all the places that the Israelites have been and to all the experiences they have had. In essence, the Torah is saying that there is inherent value to journeys, to life experiences. Whether these experiences are one’s great triumphs and miracles or whether they are one’s trials and failures, they are, in and of themselves, important. For every individual, every family, and every nation, our collected experiences create who we are and what is meaningful to us.” Thus, our Torah teaches us that the recounting of the Israelites’ journeys and their experiences is important for them – and for us – as they (and we) appreciate the development of our people’s (and our own) unique character and identity. As we conclude the fourth book of Torah, we say together:Be strong! Be Strong! And let us strengthen each other!
Last week’s Torah portion (Balak) ended with a cliffhanger, as the Israelites are lured into debauchery and idolatry by the locals, and God becomes incensed. God instructs Moses to kill (impale) the ringleaders. As Moses and the elders are standing there, thinking about what an act of violence this will take… an Israelite tribesman takes a Midianite woman into the tent chamber near the Sanctuary to engage in sexual relations with her, and Pinchas, the priestly grandson of Aaron, follows them in and impales both on a spear. Pinchas’s action has averted a terrible disaster and the plague that has already claimed twenty-four thousand people, is checked. End of portion.
This week’s portion is Pinchas – Numbers 25:10-30, and opens:
The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, “Pinchas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion. Say, therefore, ‘I grant him My pact of friendship [covenant of peace – b’rit shalom]. It shall be for him and his descendants after him a pact of priesthood for all time, because he took impassioned action for his God, thus making expiation for the Israelites.’” (B’midbar 25:10-13)
So it seems that God approves of what Pinchas did and bestows a covenant of peace for him and for his descendants for all time. However the scribing of the text hints that Pinchas’s peace is imperfect. The Hebrew letter vav is comprised of a long vertical stem and a very short horizontal line at the top. (See third letter from the right, above) However, in the Sefer Torah (the Torah scroll), in the specific word shalom in the phrase b’rit shalom – the covenant of peace with which God endows Pinchas in this episode, the vertical stem of the letter vav has a break in it; as if it were an “imperfect peace” [as if it were not whole – or shaleim in Hebrew]. Indeed… In a commentary by Rabbi Marc Wolf, Rabbi Wolf notes that commentators have wondered why the difficult episode of Pinchas is split between the two successive portions read last week and this. He suggests one possible reason: “…in splitting the story, we are afforded some distance from the violence, so that when we read God’s gracious response and blessing of Pinchas and his descendants, it does not sit in as stark a contrast with the bloody outcome of Pinchas’s actions.”
Like many of us, Rabbi Wolf, too, is uncomfortable with the seeming endorsement in the text of Pinchas’s brutal act, and wonders how to understand the reward of the “b’rit shalom – the covenant of peace.” Rabbi Wolf teaches that God has understood that a b’rit shalom is needed because the violence, though mandated, has undermined the unity among the people. Rabbi Wolf suggests that the covenant of peace is not only for Pinchas, but also for the Children of Israel. Peace cannot be perfect, if it is not whole. [Perhaps the Torah scribes underscored this as a message to us, as we read the scroll. Pinchas – and the people – have some healing to do. This then begs the question: what about us? How perfect is our own sense of peace?] Rabbi Wolf concludes, “Rabbinic Judaism could not let the story of Pinchas stand as an example for religious fervor. In a wonderful piece of Talmud from Sanhedrin, when his fanaticism comes face to face with rabbinic courts, the Rabbis acknowledge the immorality, but declare, “The law may permit it, but we do not follow that law” (82a). “This kind of fanaticism and violence are overwhelmingly the dominant voices much of the world hears in the name of religion. However, we are inheritors of a tradition that understands that Judaism is a voice of moderation, and that religion guides us to be better humans, working to fulfill God’s will and to respect life… We walk in the footsteps of the Rabbis who understood the damage done by extremism. We practice a Judaism that seeks sh’leimut – wholeness – in our relationship not only with God, but with each other and within ourselves.”