The Super Bowl – a reflection of a violent America

Watching the Super Bowl, likely the last time I do so, I felt alienated from my own country for the Super Bowl and football generally present a world that is contrary to my Jewish values.

To understand why, go to my Blog at the Times of Israel –  https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-super-bowl-a-reflection-of-a-violent-america/

 

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Hearing God at Sinai again – Parashat Yitro

This week is the 5^th Torah portion in the Book of Exodus – Parashat Yitro – in which the Ten Words are uttered, inscribed in the tablets of the law, and brought down from Sinai by the prophet Moses to the people of Israel. As we consider this singular event in the history of Judaism and western religion, it’s worth our while to pause for a moment to consider the nature of the first and most transformative event in Moses’ life.

He was in Midian tending sheep when he came upon a bush that burned unconsumed. The sight of it was so unusual that Moses stopped to ponder the miracle. Then he heard God’s voice charging him to go to Pharaoh and free the Hebrew slaves and take them out of Egypt.

The portion begins by telling us about Jethro, a Midianite Priest and Moses’ father-in law, who rabbinic commentators suggest enjoyed a close mentor/mentee relationship together.

The Torah describes how Jethro taught Moses to govern the people – to delegate and decentralize, to appoint judges and give up control over smaller cases, to allow others to act, judge and lead, to relinquish many of the burdens he carried as prophet, judge, and military chieftain.

Moses did as Jethro advised and we might imagine that Moses became calmer, more intentional and self-reflective. In this relaxed state Moses could heard God’s voice – not as an audible sound but as an intuitive quiet murmuring sound, much like the sound that breath makes as it passes through the lips, like Elijah’s kol d’mama daka, the voice of conscience.

One commentary notes that we can read “Mi chamocha ba-eilim Adonai – Who is like you, Adonai, among the mighty?” another way – as “Mi chamocha ba-ilmim Adonai – Who is like You, Adonai, among the silent ones.”

This reading of the text suggests that Moses entered into a quiet internal dialogue with God!

We don’t know the exact location of the sacred mountain of Sinai, but where ever it was the experience of the divine transformed each individual there and the Jewish people as a whole.

Each time we learn Torah and interact with the sacred text, tradition teaches that we reenact the Sinai experience, that we join our ancestors as our people received Torah. If we listen carefully, perhaps we may be able to hear God’s voice echo from the mountain top through time to us.

To hear, however, we first must rid ourselves of the noise in our lives, pause, and listen. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said: “Only when we’re able to share in the spirit of awe that fills the world are we able to understand what happened to Israel at Sinai.”

Yitro teaches that the revelation of Torah filled the world with limitless potential for holiness and spiritual uplift.

Tradition teaches that whenever the Ten Words are read, the congregation stands in memory of the experience at Sinai when Moses brought down Torah.

 

Response to a parent of a JVP child

I have written a response to a rabbinic colleague whose child is a supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and who, I believe, has set aside moral standards when evaluating Jewish organizations in their relationship with Zionism and the State of Israel.

To read my blog at the Times of Israel, go to https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-response-to-the-parent-of-a-jvp-child

Dr. King’s Sermon at Temple Israel of Hollywood – February 26, 1965

Dr. Martin Luther King spoke from the bimah of Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles on Shabbat evening, February 26, 1965, only five days after the assassination of Malcolm X.

Security was tight around the synagogue on that evening. Sharpshooters were placed on the apartment building across the street on Hollywood Boulevard. Dr. King delivered his sermon with two large body guards standing directly behind him.

The Sanctuary was filled to capacity with 1400+ congregants. Rabbi Max Nussbaum reminded the congregation that since it was Shabbat, applause following Dr. King’s remarks would be inappropriate. He said: “You will wish to applaud, and you will not do so!”

This existence of the recorded speech was discovered by the wider Los Angeles Jewish community and was noted in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal before Martin Luther King Day in 2007. National Public Radio learned of it from the LAJJ article and requested permission to air it nationally that year. It was aired both in 2007 and 2008.

The speech borrows from many other addresses Dr. King delivered over the course of his career and is an example of the eloquence, passion, and deep intellect that was Dr. King. He was 35 years old when he delivered it.

You can listen here – http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlktempleisraelhollywood.htm

 

 

The Waters of Meribah Before and After Sinai – Parashat B’shalach

“Pass before the people … take the rod with which you struck the Nile…Strike the rock and water will issue from it and the people will drink? And Moses did as he was told. The name of the place was called Meribah because it was a place where the Israelites quarreled.” (Exodus 17:5-7)

This event, at the close of this week’s parashat B’shalach, occurred in the first year of the 40 years of wandering.

At the end of the 40 years the people returned to the waters of Meribah and cried again for sweet water. God spoke to Moses, saying: “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and you shall speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water, and you shall bring forth water for them from the rock and give drink to the community and to its beasts.” (Numbers 20:7-8)

Moses, however, didn’t do as Gold had told him. Enraged by the people’s complaints, Moses struck the rock twice with his rod. Water indeed came out but God wasn’t pleased: “Inasmuch as you did not trust Me to sanctify Me before the eyes of the Israelites, so you shall not bring this assembly to the land that I have given to them.” (Numbers 10:12)

Two incidents at the same place, Meribah, 40 years apart – the first Moses was told to hit the rock and was praised; the second time, Moses was told to speak to the rock, hit it instead, and was punished.

Rabbi Marc Gellman explains that between these two events was the revelation at Sinai and the giving of the Torah. Sinai was intended to change the people through the covenant and transform raw emotions to reason, physical strength to law, violence to dialogue, and brutality to compassion and justice.

Moses’ defiance the 2nd time was his greatest sin because in hitting the rock Moses showed the people that Sinai had changed nothing at all. God intended that a new age would commence then, but Moses prevented history from moving forward. Sinai wasn’t large enough to matter.

We have to ask – did Moses really not understand God’s command to speak to the rock and its meaning?  Rabbi Gellman believes that he did and developed this midrash to explain:

“Moses understood clearly that God wanted him to speak to the rock and usher in the Messianic age of peace and tranquility; however, Moses knew that though the desert land was behind, the land of Canaan was ahead… Moses knew that even though the land was given by God, it would still have to be taken by the people. And [he] knew that the people could not take the land without force….that the strong hand that smote the Egyptians would still be needed to smite the Canaanites. Moses knew that it was too soon for the power of the fist to yield to the power of the word and… by hitting the rock [God would not allow him to] enter the land … [but] at least the people would be able to enter the land.

Moses said to God: ‘It’s too soon for the power of the fist to yield to the power of the word….’

God asked Moses: ‘When do you think it will be time?’

Moses answered: ‘I don’t know. All I do know is that…You were the One Who [first] sanctified the power of the fist…  the people learned that the land and the fist go together. If You wanted the fist You should never have given me the signs and wonders. Now it’s too late.”

God was silent… [Moses] said: “Why did You let me do the miracles? Why did You command me to strike the rock the first time? …If the power of the fist is to disappear it must begin with You, El Shaddai. Together we have made Your people free of Pharaoh’s power only to enslave them again to the power of the fist. O God, help us to become free for Your words.”

God said to Moses: “When my people enters the land you shall not enter with them, and neither shall I. I shall only allow a part of My presence to enter. The abundance of My presence I shall keep outside the land. The exiled part … shall be called My Shekhinah and it shall remind the people that I too am in exile… I shall be whole again on that day when the power of the fist vanishes forever. Only on that day will I be One. Only on that day will My Name be One. Only on that day Moses, shall we enter the land together. Only on that day Moses, shall the waters of Meribah become the waters of justice and righteousness shall gush from My holy mountain.”

Then God lifted Moses to Heaven …and the shepherd’s staff slipped from his hand, fell into the waters of Meribah, and was gone forever. And God kissed Moses on the lips and took his breath away.”

We wait still for the power of the word to vanquish the power of the fist, for the world to yield to reason, law, justice, dialogue, compassion, righteousness, and understanding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tamika Mallory on “The View” Refuses to condemn Minister Farrakhan

Yes – Farrakhan has done much for African Americans, but his good works are tarnished by his vicious anti-Semitic, homophobic and bigoted rhetoric over many years. That Tamika Mallory avoids condemning Farrakhan’s hatred is a discredit to her.

 

That being said, it’s good that the national women’s march has condemned anti-Semitism and homophobia, but as long as Ms. Mallory continues to be a visual leader of the March, the national March is tarnished and tainted by hate and bigotry. One would think that the March’s leadership would either demand that Ms, Mallory publicly disassociate herself from Farrakhan or they would ask for her resignation from the leadership.

 

The move this week by Republican House leadership to strip Rep. King of all committee assignments accompanied by calls for his resignation from Congress for his bigotry and racism is a credit to the Republican leadership. If only they would do the same vis a vis the occupant of the White House. Why can’t the Women’s March do the same vis a vis Ms. Mallory?

 

Here is the conversation on the view. https://youtu.be/iRzOS7SNKmY

Dr. Martin Luther King – In celebration and Memory

I can’t help but feel how much further we’ve come as a nation since Dr. King’s life ended so suddenly and tragically. Anyone alive then will remember where you were when you heard the news, and we’ll remember Robert F. Kennedy’s poetic, compassionate and eloquent response in the rust belt states that evening of Dr. King’s death.

With the blaring light of this corrupted Trump era, it ought to be clear to anyone with a conscience that we still have much distance to travel to fulfill Dr. King’s aspirations and the aspirations proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence.

Trudge on we must! I’m confident that these next two years will move us forward as a nation in many areas with our new Congress, and as candidates begin to declare their quest for the White House, we’ll be setting the stage for another epic battle at the polls next year which, with effort, a far better outcome will be forthcoming than was the case in 2016.

We at Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles celebrate Dr. King’s life and vision every year on the weekend commemorating his birth, and we’ll do so again this coming Friday during Kabbalat Shabbat services – January 18 at 6:30 pm. If you live in Los Angeles, please come and join us. The community is welcome.

We will play 13 minutes of a 43-minute sermon Dr. King delivered from our bimah at Temple Israel of Hollywood in April, 1965. The recording is so clear it’s as if he’s in the room with us, though it has been nearly 54 years since he stood before a packed congregation.

You can hear the entire speech here – https://www.tioh.org/images/audio_collection/MLKSpeech_TIOH_1965.mp3

For a longer selection of Dr. King’s most memorable quotations – go to my blog at the Times of Israel where I have posted them – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dr-martin-luther-king-in-celebration-and-memory/ .

Note: The final quote is Dr. King’s statement of support for Zionism and the State of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people.

Request – Share the list with your friends from the Times of Israel. They will remind us not only of the greatness of the man, but of our own prophetic tradition and engagement as Jews in the struggle for human rights.

 

On secrecy – Lord Acton

“Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.”

 

-John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton – Lord Acton (1834-1902)

There are hearts that are stones – Reflecting on Trump’s latest outrage

“In contrast to the prophets of the Hebrew Bible who sought to establish goodness in the world, the President’s Oval Office speech this week exposes his malignant world view.”

This is taken from my blog at the Times of Israel. To read it, please go to https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/there-are-hearts-that-are-stones/

 

 

 

Human Rights Organizations appeal to Israeli government to stop the deportation of refugees to Congo

….Over the past two decades, a few hundred asylum seekers fleeing war and persecution in the DRC have come to Israel. Immediately upon their arrival most filed requests for political asylum, but the Ministry of Interior affairs has never reviewed them. Nevertheless, to Israel’s credit, for more than 15 years Israel has carried out a policy of group protection for the Congolese who reside in Israel legally and have been given the chance to rebuild their lives.

However, on November 7, 2018 without any change in conditions in the DRC, the Ministry of Interior placed a notice on its website that it intends to withdraw group protection from the Congolese community. The decision was based on a secret assessment drawn up by the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs that they deliberately kept from the public and which stands in contradiction to reports from reliable sources and by the international press that conditions remain dire in the Congo. Nothing there has changed.

For the complete story, please click onto my blog at the Times of Israel:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/human-rights-organizations-appeal-to-stop-the-deportation-of-refugees-to-congo/ .