From The Bimah: Jewish Lessons For Life

February 25, 2023

The mass murderer of 11 innocent people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh will go on trial in April. The Justice Department is seeking the death penalty. What do we think of that? Two questions present themselves. First, if we were to look for wisdom from Jewish sources, should the Tree of Life mass murderer be sentenced to life in prison, or the death penalty? One of the strongest arguments against the death penalty is concern that the justice system might makes a mistake and convict and execute an innocent person. That is not a concern here. There is 100% certainty that on October 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the defendant murdered 11 innocent human beings. If we know that he did this unspeakable act of evil, would the primary Jewish source suggest that this is one of the rare times we would favor capital punishment, or not? Remember, however, that mass shootings in America are tragically and depressingly all too common. If you beli

Rabbi Wes Gardenswartz and Alan Teperow as they discuss Alan's passion for painting.

This week, we are reading Parshat Mishpatim. This Torah portion is all about rules and regs. After the revelation, God spells out in minute detail what the people should do and how they should behave. It’s not a conversation, not open to interpretation, the laws are given without explanation and the people simply accept them. They say, na’aseh v’nishmah—we will do what God says and then we will seek to understand what we are doing and why. So often, this is how we engage with our world. That is how law enforcement agents get into trouble. They get so hooked on forcing people to behave in a certain way, so focused on doing rather than thinking, that they lose track of what is appropriate force and end up causing harm rather than maintaining order. It happens in the classroom too. Recently, I was speaking with a family. Their child had come up with a creative way to solve a math equation. Their methodology wasn’t the same as what was being taught, but it worked. Every answer they wrote on their worksheet was ri

A 26-year old named Ilya Sosansky was the seventh victim of the terrorist attack in Jerusalem on January 27 in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood. Ilya Sosansky was a graduate of AMIT Technology High School. AMIT sent out an email describing the indescribable loss of this young man. Ilya Sosansky was a beloved, popular DJ. His friends described him as a young man filled with a joy for life, who could cheer up anyone. Adi Yona referred to Ilya as, “A charm, a walking smile, a good soul who only did good.” At the end of AMIT’s email are three Hebrew words: “Hashem Yikom Damo,” meaning, may God take revenge for his blood. How do we think about praying for revenge? It is a complicated question with sources on both sides. On the one hand, there is a famous prayer for bloody revenge during the Shabbat Musaf service Av Harachamim that is in traditional Orthodox siddurim that channels the vengeful, bloody energy of Psalm 137 (“By the rivers of Babylon, there we say…and wept”), which climaxes by invoking a

If there's one lesson of this coming Shabbat, it is that life is not a solo sport - we are better when we are together - all of us. That applies to leadership - Yitro teaches Moses to include others as leaders. That applies to family - Moses listens to Yitro, including him in decision making. And that applies to community - when our ancestors gathered at Sinai, they spoke together as one, including all. We are holy when we are one. We are stronger when we are one. We are better when "we" is truly inclusive of all! This week at our Talmud Class we have the privilege of learning in conversation with a true expert on how to get inclusion right, Shelly Christensen, co-founder of Jewish Disabilities Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM). She will be teaching us, “From Longing to Belonging: How wisdom from Isaiah gives us God’s definition of inclusion.” Click here for texts.

Often, we experience music in a passive way. In a synagogue setting, very few of us know where liturgical melodies come from and rarely do we have the time to consider the effect of any particular melody on our prayer experience. (Even when we do have the time and inclination, we often struggle to find words to articulate the impact of a melody on our emotional or psychospiritual experience.) This class is about tuning in--literally--to the magic of Sephardic music. These melodies are fascinating. They are often rhythmic and upbeat. They play with intervals and motifs which sound exotic to our ears. When paired with prayers, these melodies have a very different effect on our hearts than do the traditional Ashkenazi melodies that sometimes dominate Jewish spaces. During Talmud, Elias sings different Ashkenazi and Sephardic melodies for five different prayers and we as a clergy team are going to be discussing how each melody affects our heart and our internal experience. This class isn't about music theory or m

January 28, 2023

The law of unanticipated consequences. As Micah Goodman shares with Danny Gordis in this utterly fascinating conversation about Israel today (35 minutes and well worth it), conservative leaders are chastened and restrained by the law of unanticipated consequences. Since we never actually know what will ensue from our conduct, the wisest course is humility and restraint lest we unintentionally unleash a hurricane that we never saw coming. Micah offers two examples: What is the unanticipated consequence of birth control being readily available in Europe? Answer: Radicalized xenophobic, racist, far-right politics. How? Because of the pill, European families had smaller families, which led to fewer workers, which led to increased immigration to fill those worker slots, which led to Muslim immigration, which led to complexity and navigating cultural difference, which led to a conservative backlash against Muslim immigration, which led to the ascendancy of far-right xenophobic parties in Europe. Unan

The great writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez once observed: “Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life, and a secret life.” I learned of this quote in the forward to a fascinating book about secrets. Written by noted American Jewish author Letty Cottin Pogrebin, the book is entitled Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy. Pogrebin talks about how deeply held, and deeply embarrassing, secrets were part of her family’s culture.

“Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am the Lord. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements. And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God…I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…” But when Moses told this to the Israelites, they would not listen to Moses, their spirits crushed by cruel bondage.” Exodus 6: 6-9. Our reading this week begins with God promising the Israelites, through five famous verbs, that God would save them. The promises all turned out to be true. Every year at our seders, we celebrate these five verbs of redemption through the four cups of wine and the fifth cup for Elijah and Miriam. Famously, however, the Hebrew slaves who were the intended audience for this reassurance could not take it in. Why not? Because of Abraham Maslow. In 1943 Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist

January 14, 2023

How do we think and talk about Israel now as its new government (In Israel, a Hard-Right Agenda Gains Steam. Patrick Kingsley, NY Times, 1/11/23) takes power? Here are five options. Do not think and talk about Israel. It is too upsetting. It is too much. We have our hands full. There are synagogues and rabbis who do not talk about Israel because it is too divisive. Protest and/or boycott members of the governing coalition whose words and policies are anti-democratic and anti-pluralistic. More than 330 American rabbis signed a letter doing just that. Improve your Hebrew so that you can follow contemporary Israeli discourse in Hebrew. As Danny Gordis points out, there is far more nuance, complexity, and movement within Israel than is reported in English newspapers, and we should have humility before giving up on an eternal homeland whose language we do not speak and read fluently. Words matter. Sound the alarm, eschew complacency, for the many red lines that violent words from newl

January 7, 2022

We all want the best for our children. For many parents, this means affirming our children no matter what they do and normalizing their feelings and reactions in every moment. This school of “gentle parenting” teaches that the world is a tough place, but we as parents can strengthen them with our love and acceptance. Jacob’s parenting philosophy appears to be the opposite. He seems to believe that the more he criticizes and critiques his children, the better off they will be. He takes it upon himself to point out their failures, even with his very last words. Interestingly, when Jacob becomes a grandparent, he changes his ways. He not only affirms and loves his grandchildren, but he also claims them as his own descendants. He blesses them. He lifts them up. If we drop the ball in one generation, is there still time to pick it up?

In November, a woman posted the following thread to Twitter: “Several guys moved in next door, students I guess. And I’ve gotten two confused DoorDash drivers for them in the last week, and their trash can was completely overflowing with pizza boxes. I don’t think they cook. I am feeling such a strange motherly urge to feed these boys.” A minute later, she posted that she had decided to bring over a pot of chili when the weather cooled down over the weekend as a kind, neighborly gesture. When I first saw the post, I was touched. In my mind, we all live in these disconnected universes, especially after COVID, and the idea that someone would notice what others were throwing away and would care enough to cook for strangers—I found that to be sweet. But that’s not how others interpreted the post. This kind woman was trolled. Her initial post was retweeted 556 times with acerbic and vitriolic commentary. People accused her of “imposing” her life preferences on others, of being condescending, of being “presumptuous

For the past few years, 5th grade has been my sweet spot teaching religious school.  To be honest, I think 10 is the perfect age.  They're just beginning to think of themselves as individuals, and just beginning to access abstract thought.  Because they’re still kids, they haven’t learned the teenage trick of looking bored and disconnected at all times.  They’ll squeal with delight when you share a cool story, and they are so full of energy and joy. I love teaching 5th grade.  But this year, my class has put me to the test.  Renowned child-psychiatrist, Foster Cline, used to say that any kid worth their salt will test your boundaries.  Let’s just say my class this year is worth a lot of salt. Teaching them feels like playing verbal whack-a-mole

December 17, 2022

The Jew. Rich. Powerful. Behind the scenes exerting undue influence. Getting richer and richer while the non-Jews in society get poorer and poorer. Where does that horrific trope—from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to the Mapping Project—begin? What is the origin story for the hateful things that Jew-haters say about us? The origin story is in the Torah. And the tropes are true in the story the Torah tells. How does Joseph. second only to Pharaoh, who ends up enslaving the Egyptians, and giving the fat of the land to his own family, seed hatred against our people, and what do we do about it?

This week a Peter K. Newman of Dayton, Ohio wrote a letter to the editors of the Wall Street Journal in which he tells the following joke: A departing CEO met with his successor, presented him with three numbered envelopes and advised him to open these if he ran into trouble. After sales and profits dropped during the next quarter, the new CEO opened the first envelope. It contained the message: “Blame your predecessor.” The company continued to struggle during the next two quarters, so the new CEO opened the second envelope. It contained the message: “Distract your critics by reorganizing.” Finally, because the company’s year-end results were still disappointing, the new CEO rushed to his office and opened the third envelope. It contained the message: “Prepare three envelopes.” This joke is about the danger of repeating unfortunate patterns that we inherit; and the flip side of the joke is that it invites us to think about how we might transcendthe unfortunate patterns that we inherit. Because the new CEO co