Vayikra - 28 March 2008, 3 Nisan 5769
March 28, 2009 by karyn
Vayikra
Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pages 757 – 778;
Revised Edition, pages 660 – 673
Haftarah Vayikra
Isaiah 43:21 – 44:23
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pages 978 – 982;
Revised Edition, pages 682 – 685
Saturday 28 March 2009, Shabbat Nisan 3, 5769
Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black, Leo Baeck Centre For
Progressive Judaism, East Kew, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Leviticus, which we start this week, is the central book of the Torah, ascribed, as its English name suggests, to the priestly families, and rising to the lofty heights of chapter 19 with the ‘Holiness Code’ – ‘You shall be Holy, because I, the Eternal God, am holy’, and yet based in the practicalities of the sacrificial cult just introduced with the commissioning of the tabernacle at the beginning of the desert wanderings. Our portion details various of the different offerings, unleavened meal and animal sacrifices – burnt offerings, first-fruits, well-being, guilt and trespass offerings, of birds and bulls, and rams and lambs.
Animal sacrifices are, I would suggest, anathema to most people in the modern world. I recall some years ago that as part of a summer camp program, the children created sheep from orange juice bottles with toilet roll legs, all covered with cotton wool, and then, during the Shabbat morning service, ‘sacrificed them’ by dismembering them. Even though it was patently pretend, and without the shekhita and the blood, it was still an uncomfortable experience for most of us – taking us back to times and experiences in the Jewish past that we are pleased to have moved away from! From time to time we read in the media that some religious group shocks the wider community by making some public animal sacrifice. Indeed, the Samaritans, who trace their descent back to the Torah and to the Israelites, still offer sacrifices on Mt Gerizim, north of Jerusalem. They believe it to be God’s chosen mountain, and we may view this practice as an archaic and tiny remnant of times past – and even go to witness the spectacle, which is indeed like a time machine to our own history. Yet many of us still continue to eat meat, considering it as a commodity, comfortably distanced from the fact that a living animal is being killed for us to consume; far away from the blood and the writhing and the terror and the mess. One wonders if, in a sense, killing an animal in our presence, in a ritual way, as a sacrifice, isn’t preferable? If we have really moved on from animal sacrifices, shouldn’t we have moved on from eating them as well by now?
Since in the modern world we have moved ourselves so far away from the abattoir that children can be some years old before they realise that meat used to be alive, it is worth noting that one of the common words used for sacrifice in this portion is korban – from the root k-r-b – to draw near. By bringing their own, hand-reared animals, perhaps sometimes almost family pets, to be sacrificed, it would certainly bring our ancestors near to the realities, nearer to the nexus between life – and death. We might think of the sadness of taking a much-loved animal to be ‘put-down’ at the vet. But in the case of sacrifice, the animal’s life was being given up so that those who offer it could themselves live, both physically, since they got to eat some of it, and spiritually.
There is, I think, another sense in which to understand korban – bringing near. It is clear that our ancestors believed that God usually lived in the heavens, whilst we lived on earth, even though God could visit and talk to us on earth. This is borne out by the story of Jacob’s ladder, reaching from the earth to the heavens, with angels ascending and descending upon it, and by the large number of references to ‘high places’ and hills and mountains – most obviously Mount Sinai. It was at these high places, where the earth was seen to rise up and the heavens to come down to meet it (as cloud), that humans and God could meet. Yet, wandering in the middle of a sandy desert, how could this connection, this relationship, be continued? A tall column, based on the sands but with its top in the clouds could fulfill that purpose, and indeed that is what we learn about as the pillar of cloud by day and of fire (or fire-illuminated cloud) by night, that led the people. Perhaps this pillar really was with the Israelites for every day of the forty years, but even if it was, it was at God’s whim, and left the Israelites, and particularly the priests who were supposed to be in charge, powerless. By burning a fire on the altar, and sending up a column of smoke from the burning wood and sacrifices, on a still day a tangible link could be established between the earthly domain of the people and the heavenly domain of God, and indeed perhaps God could be enticed to move into the beautiful tabernacle, gleaming in gold and white and sumptuous in its royal blue and purple and scarlet, and to dwell amongst the Israelites? Hence the offering of the korban draws God and the Israelites nearer together. We have undoubtedly moved on – from have we also moved away?
Dinner Table Questions:
1) Would we eat meat if we had to raise the animals and then be present whilst they were killed?
2) What do vegetarians eat to enjoy a special Shabbat Dinner?
3) Without animal sacrifices, discuss what each of you could do to bring God nearer to you and your family.
Rabbi Miri Gold Petition Update
March 24, 2009 by nicola
Quoted from the Pluralist:
March 15, 2009
Dear Friends of IRAC,
We are happy to announce that the petition will be presented to Israeli President Shimon Peres in just two weeks! This will be an incredibly important moment, as Rabbi Gold’s case will appear once again before the Supreme Court in June.
With over 9,000 signatures, we hope to surpass our goal of 10,000. In the last week alone, we received another 1,000 signatures.
We still need your help; if you have not signed the petition yet, please sign it.
Forward this e-mail to your friends, family members, and colleagues to sign this petition, at www.irac.org, to support pluralism and equality for all Jews in Israel .
Also, if you have collected signatures in your congregations, please send them to us by e-mail.
Stand Up and Be Counted: www.irac.org
L’Shalom,
Anat Hoffman
Sign the Petition
Take a stand for Reform rabbis in Israel
Click here to support Rabbi Miri’s Gold case in the Supreme Court.
Vayakhel-Pekudei - 21 March 2009, 25 Adar 5769
March 21, 2009 by karyn
Report on rule tightening for Diaspora converts raises alarm bells among Reform
March 21, 2009 by Steve
The Israeli Reform movement threatened this week to return to the High Court if the Interior Ministry goes ahead with reported plans to implement new and more rigid rules for Diaspora converts who want to immigrate to Israel.Last week, the New York Jewish Week reported it had obtained a copy of secret interior ministry documents outlining a plan to require converts seeking to immigrate to spend at least 350 hours studying Judaism in a “recognized” Jewish community and and spend 18 months in the community in which they are converting - nine of them after the conversion - to prove their sincerity. The new rules are to be approved before the new government is installed, the newspaper said.
“This is an ongoing saga,” said Rabbi Gilad Kariv, head of the local Reform community. “It goes back to [March] 2005, when the High Court deemed illegal the interior ministry’s policy to demand of converts to stay in the communities where they had converted for at least 12 months. But unfortunately, it seems the ministry prefers to set criteria unilaterally, instead of engaging the different religious denominations in an ongoing dialogue. If they will actually make the proposed new guidelines official, we will go back to the Supreme Court.”
According to the Jewish Week report, the new guidelines were designed to “prevent non-Jewish foreign workers who reside in Israel from converting quickly in Jewish communities overseas, and then declare Aliyah,” or immigration to Israel.
The article asserts that the new guidelines are so secret “that even the ministry’s spokeswoman said she was unaware of them.”
In this light, some Jewish community leaders, who asked not to be identified, told Anglo File they were puzzled by the report. “The current interior minister, Meir Sheetrit [of Kadima], is on his way out; I have a hard time believing that he’s working on a plan that would inevitably cause an international uproar. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad commented: “There are currently no naturalization criteria for converts, and in accordance with the 2005 court ruling… the Interior Ministry is obliged to implement criteria for reviewing citizenship requests.”
Groups such as Itim, the Jewish Life Information Center, and the Israel Religious Action Center have accused the ministry of not adhering to the court’s decision, and the alleged attempt to institute rules that are even more strict has many in the Jewish world fuming. Hadad says the ministry is still working on compiling the criteria to implement the court’s ruling.
“We respect Israel’s right to protect its borders,” Rabbi Kariv told Anglo File Wednesday, “and it is true that there is an ongoing attempt to abuse the Right of Return by insincere converts. But we need to find the right balance between. Unfortunately, the ministry does not seem to strike the right balance; it is acting in an arrogant way that doesn’t show any respect to the communities of the Diaspora.”
Ki Tissa - Parah - 14 March 2009, 18 Adar 5769
March 14, 2009 by karyn
Purim - 10 March 2009, 14 Adar 5769
March 10, 2009 by karyn
Purim
Tuesday 10 March 2009, Shabbat Adar 14 5769
From Rabbi Paul Jacobson, Emanuel Synagogue, Woollahra, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Autonomy and Commandments
The Shabbat before Purim is known in Jewish tradition as Shabbat Zachor. The word “Zachor” exists in the command form in Hebrew and represents two very distinct commandments. First, Jews are obligated to remember the heinous ambush that the Amalekites perpetrated against the Israelites after the Israelites escaped from Egyptian bondage. Second, Jews are reminded to “blot out” the memory of Amalek. In the synagogue, we remember Amalek’s ambush by reading a special portion of the Torah (Deuteronomy 25:17-19). According to many sources, Haman, in Megilat Esther, is considered to be a direct descendant of Amalek. We blot out the memory of Amalek by drowning out Haman’s name during our reading of the Megillah.
One of the special features of Shabbat Zachor involves the reading of a special Haftarah from the book of I Samuel. In this particular episode, the prophet Samuel commands King Saul to attack Amalek and spare no one in the process. Saul heeds Samuel’s order only partially. He kills all of the people, but spares the Amalekite King Agag and saves the sheep, oxen, and lamb as the spoils of victory. Samuel is not amused. He says, “You may look small to yourself, but you are the head of the tribes of Israel. The LORD anointed you king over Israel, and the LORD sent you on a mission…” (I Samuel 15:17-18). Later, Samuel remarks that God has rejected Saul as king (I Samuel 15:23).
The story from this past Shabbat’s Haftarah represents an extreme set of circumstances, and a devastating series of commandments ordered by God. In contemporary society we are outraged when murderers and bombers claim that they have been “commanded by God” to pillage, destroy, slaughter, maim and kill. Clearly, some sense of autonomy is necessary, some aspect of discernment is crucial so that a cognisant and mindful human being will determine what is to be considered as a command for good, and what might be a command with potentially damaging consequences.
In the Progressive movement, we pride ourselves on the concept of personal autonomy. But in some circles, it seems as if Judaism, replete with time-honoured traditions and mitzvoth –sacred obligations or commandments – has become merely “optional.” If we don’t feel like observing a particular commandment or a certain practice “doesn’t have meaning for us,” we can exercise our personal autonomy like a “Get out of jail free” card in Monopoly. But as Samuel reminds us, “The LORD has sent [us] on a mission.” It is true that each of us possesses free will and can make autonomous decisions. But as Jews, we might exercise our autonomy to perform mitzvoth, rather than shying away from them. After all, a special mission has been ordained for us.
We are not being commanded to go and destroy towns. In fact, the situation is just the contrary. On Purim, we are instructed to stop and to listen, to hear the words of the Megillah, to reflect on the ancient story of our people, and to celebrate the miracles of the Purim story. We are commanded to engage in a Purim s’udah, a special meal, where we join together with family and friends. We are obligated to give mishloach manot, offering gifts to those in our community who are in need. All of these sacred duties represent positive commandments of our tradition, activities in which it is worth using our personal autonomy affirmatively to be Jewish and to do Jewishly. As we celebrate the festival of Purim, let us endeavour to recognise the sacred mission bestowed upon us by God and our tradition – to serve others in community, to learn and to grow, and to celebrate the presence of God in our lives. Let us work faithfully and tirelessly, choosing to impart Jewish values to subsequent generations.
Tetzaveh - 7 March 2009, 11 Adar 5769
March 7, 2009 by karyn
Tetzaveh
Parshat Zachor
Exodus 27:20 – 30:16 and Deuteronomy 25:17 – 19
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pages 618 - 632 and 1507 - 1508
Revised Edition, pages 563 – 572 and 1335
Haftarah Zachor
Esther 7:1-10 and 8:15-17
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pages 1649 – 1650
Revised Edition, pages 1453 – 1454
Saturday 7 March 2009, Shabbat Adar 11 5769
From Rabbi Fred Morgan, Senor Rabbi, Temple Beth Israel, St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
“Where will you find God?”, asked the Rebbe of his disciples. “What a strange question”, they remarked. “Doesn’t Judaism teach us that God is everywhere? The answer must be that we find God everywhere”. “No”, replied the Rebbe, “this is the answer: You will find God wherever you let God in.”
The Torah portions of last week and this, Terumah and Tetzaveh, deal with the requirements for the construction of the mishkan, God’s dwelling place in the midst of the people during their wanderings through the desert. But why does God oblige the people to build a special place for God to dwell? Later in history, why does Solomon build a Temple for God in Jerusalem? Later still, why did Jews begin to gather in synagogues to worship God?
The mishkan in the wilderness, the Temple in Jerusalem and the synagogues of our day have played different roles in Jewish life and history, but they have in common their function as places where God dwells.
Surely, though, as the Rebbe’s disciples argued long ago, God is everywhere. I can speak to God as easily – perhaps even more easily – in my own bedroom as I can in a great edifice dedicated to God’s name. This is a common view today, and it is perhaps one reason why our synagogues aren’t more crowded from week to week. Why should I attend shul if I can speak to God anywhere; if, as the Psalmist says, the whole earth is full of God’s glory?
Whenever I ask myself that question, if I’m being honest my reply is, Because I don’t speak to God ‘anywhere’. In most places – shopping for groceries in Coles or Safeway, browsing through Borders or buying a shirt and trousers at Chadstone Shopping Centre - I am oblivious to God’s presence. I need a space that is dedicated to the purpose of having a conversation with God. Sometimes I find that space in nature, in the mountains, along the beach or in the bush. I know then that I am alive in God’s creation, and I feel God’s nearness. But more often I am too caught up with whatever it is that I’m doing in Coles, or Borders, or Chadstone, to concentrate on God.
The synagogue, like the mishkan and the Temple, gives us the opportunity to focus on God’s presence, to enter into real conversation with God. It’s not that God isn’t everywhere; it’s just that God isn’t ‘anywhere’. For us easily distracted human beings, God must be ‘somewhere’, if we’re truly going to feel God’s presence. Being mere creatures locked into the world, we need to locate God somewhere in order to focus our thoughts on God. The synagogue is one of those places. Though we associate many functions with the synagogue – praying, learning, socializing, carrying out deeds of social justice, organising visits to the sick and much more – the synagogue depends for its unique success on containing the presence of God within it.
This, in turn, depends on the people who pray, learn and socialize in the synagogue. It is not the synagogue building that houses God, but the people who welcome God into the midst of the synagogue. Without that welcome, it is easy for the synagogue to become the religious equivalent of Coles, Borders or Chadstone – a place of worldly distraction, not a mishkan, a place of holy dwelling. It is easy to read this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, with its myriad of details surrounding the mishkan and the priests’ vestments, as an ancient equivalent of Chadstone’s Shopping Centre. It is only the presence of God in the midst of the people that maintains the mishkan’s spiritual integrity. As the Chasidic Rebbe replied to his disciples, “You will find God wherever you let God in.”
Questions for the Shabbat table
- Where do you find it easiest to speak to God? Do you find the synagogue conducive to prayer? If not, in your opinion what would need to change for this to be possible?
- For you, is ‘speaking to God’ the same as ‘prayer’? What role does prayer play in your life?
- After being criticized for marching with Martin Luther King in Selma, Alabama, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously commented that sometimes we pray with our feet. What do you think he meant by that comment? How does his comment relate to our topic?
Progressive Jewish Study seminar in Israel announced
March 6, 2009 by Steve
DREAMS AND REALITIES:
The People, the Land and the Torah of Israel
A Progressive Jewish Study Seminar
July 9th - 19th 2009 / October 15th - 25th 2009 / December 3rd - 13th 2009
Anita Saltz International Education Centre
World Union for Progressive Judaism
Over the years, the Saltz Education Centre has been running highly creative and informative study seminars in Jerusalem and around Israel.
We will now be running our Progressive Jewish Study Seminar: DREAMS AND REALITIES: The People, the Land and the Torah of Israel.
If you are looking for an unforgettable learning experience and the chance to understand the Israeli narrative in all its dimensions - this is the seminar.
We will be running the seminar on the following dates:
July 9th - 19th 2009 / October 15th - 25th 2009 / December 3rd - 13th 2009
The total price for the seminar is $2000 (not including airfare).
The price includes: lodging (on the basis of double occupancy, there is an additional fee for reserving a single room), half board, (full board on Shabbat), and all educational programs. If you are interested in receiving more information regarding this fascinating seminar, please contact Elyse Leifer-Anker at elyse@wupj.org.il
Description of the Seminar:
This unique seminar is designed for Progressive Jewish adults seeking a deeper learning experience from within the political, historical and spiritual centre of our people. We will journey from Jerusalem to the centre of the country and then down into the desert. After ten extraordinary days, participants will return to their home communities intellectually and spiritually renewed.
We will address such questions as why do we face Jerusalem when we pray? What does it mean to be in a Diaspora and how do we understand the idea of Homeland? For centuries Jews have been connecting Torah and spirituality with a specific geographic location, after this seminar you will never look at the prayer book or the Bible in the same way again. The seminar will also explore prayer, its origins, melodies and tradition through experiential as well as traditional learning.
Finally we will explore what possessed a people who had been living outside of its land for two millennia to begin the process of "moving back home?" What transformed yeshiva boys into farmer-soldier-pioneers? How did Hebrew become the dominant language of Israel after being relegated to religious practice for so many years? Here is an unparalleled experiential learning opportunity for those interested in understanding the deep roots and ideas behind the Jewish State of Israel.
Testimonies
I have just come back from the ten-day Seminar in Jerusalem thoroughly inspired and exhausted in equal measure. I am full to the brim with ideas as to how to focus the work I am doing at Sinai. The seminar provides a wonderful opportunity to engage as a Reform Jewish adult with Israel and Reform Judaism in a meaningful and inspiring way. As a result, I have strengthened links with the other participants from the UK and made new connections with those in Reform communities around the world. I have also gained a much clearer understanding of what is happening in the world wide Reform Jewish community.
Many thanks once again
Nick Dyson
Leeds, UK
To say thank you somehow seems inadequate to express the depth of appreciation that I and my congregants feel as we reflect back of the trip that you and your staff created for us. The level of teaching was consistently excellent. The level of care and concern for every detail was outstanding. This trip, dedicated to an exploration of Zionism after 60 years of statehood, raised the bar significantly in terms of Israel travel and study within our congregation. The people who were with me have not stopped talking about it and there is now a strong “buzz” in the congregation about more Israel travel. I would recommend to all of my colleagues to work with you and the Saltz Education Centre to create such extraordinary learning experiences. Many, many thanks.
Shalom,
Rabbi Michael A. Weinberg
Temple Beth Israel
Skokie, IL
What you created for us was truly a gift. I can’t thank you enough. I really credit the positive nature of the experience to the program and the teachers. Admittedly, you had a willing group of highly motivated learners. Our blessing was that the material was always intellectually stimulating and our teachers were learned, passionate, and genuinely interested in the process. I never felt lectured down-to, and I always felt that our teachers were as respectful of us as we were of them. I only hope that the experience was as rich and rewarding for you as our teachers as it was for us.
L’Shalom,
Barbara Stoner
Temple Beth El
North Carolina
ITINERARY
FOR
SALTZ EDUCATION CENTER
Thursday Welcome to Jerusalem
Arrival at Beit Shmuel
Dinner
Introduction to Program
Making Sense of Jewish Public Culture: In Israel and the Diaspora
Friday Jerusalem in the Jewish Mind & Soul
Breakfast
Praying in Jerusalem
Jerusalem in the Jewish mind: Text and Field Study
Lunch
King David: Political & Spiritual Leader in David’s City
Prepare for Shabbat
Kabbalat Shabbat Services atan Israeli Reform Synagogue
Shabbat Dinner
The Western Wall: Questions and Critiques
Shabbat Heavenly and Earthly Jerusalem
Breakfast
Shabbat Morning Services.
Kiddush and Lunch
Walking Jerusalem through the Psalms: Field Study
Shabbat rest time
Seudah Shlisheet-Torah Study
Havdallah
Free Evening in Jerusalem
Sunday Community and Society: Yesterday & Today
Breakfast
Praying in Jerusalem
Study Tour of the Israel Museum, Visit Second Temple Period Model
Jewish Quarter: Reflections on the Second Temple
Lunch
Introduction to the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism
Dinner
Songs of the Land of Israel and the Secular Prayer
Monday Destruction and Rebuilding
Breakfast
Praying in Jerusalem
Leadership During the Holocaust: Field Study Yad Vashem
Lunch
Israel’s National Leaders: Field Study Har Herzl
Discussion and Debriefing
Free Time
Tuesday The Price and the Benefits of Sovereignty
Breakfast
Jewish Responses to Power and Powerlessness: Text Study
Tel Aviv: The First Modern Hebrew City or the First Modern Jewish City?
Lunch in Tel Aviv
The Palmach Museum: Inter Active Learning Program
Meeting with Israeli Reform Movement’s Pre Army Program-Mechina
Dinner in Tel Aviv
Wednesday Israel as an Ethical Sovereign Jewish State
Breakfast
Prayer Workshop
Confronting Ethical Issues: Jerusalem - Text and Field Study
Lunch in the German Colony
Free time
Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue: The Israel Religious Action Centre
The Strategic Arena: Political and Current Event Analysis
Thursday Prophecy and Pioneering in the Desert
Early Breakfast and checkout
Depart for Sde Boker
Ben Gurion as a Visionary Leader - Field and Text Study
Lunch in the Desert
Tour the Fields of Kibbutz Yahel
Dinner on Kibbutz Yahel
The Story of a Reform Zionist Kibbutz
Friday Zionism and Progressive Judaism
Sunrise Desert Hike and Morning Service
Picnic Breakfast in the Desert
Discussion: The Philosophy of Kibbutz Lotan
Desert Meditation and Solo Experience
Lunch
Prepare for Shabbat
Kabbalat Shabbat
A Unique Shabbat Dinner: Kibbutz Lotan
Shabbat The Desert, Zionism and Ecology
Breakfast
Shabbat Morning Services in the Desert
Kiddush and Lunch
Study Program at the Ecological Centre
Seudah Shlisheet - The Third Meal: Torah Study
Havdallah
Return to Jerusalem
Sunday Planning for Tomorrow
Breakfast
Prayer Workshop
The role of Progressive Judaism in the Jewish World
What I am taking back with me: Conclusion
Festive Closing Lunch
Rabbi Rich Kirschen
Director
Anita Saltz International Education Centre
World Union for Progressive Judaism
13 King David Street
Jerusalem 94101
ISRAEL
Office: +972 2 620-3622 Mobile: +972 54 818-3833 Fax: +972 2 620-3525
Rich@wupj.org.il www.saltz-center.org
World Union for Progressive Judaism 34th International Convention
November 25, 2008 by nicola
| March 18, 2009 | to | March 23, 2009 |
CONNECTIONS 2009
MARCH 18-23, 2009
World Union conventions are unique international gatherings – full of spirit, learning, sharing and fun – where Reform, Progressive and Liberal Jews from around the world come to connect with and energize each other, and help shape the future of their movements.
This year’s convention theme - “Our Heart, Our Soul, Our World” – reflects our connection and commitment to Israel, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and to our global Reform Jewish family.
For several activity-filled days, we will offer workshops and panel discussions, walking tours and field trips, study and entertainment, and the most uplifting and universal Shabbat celebration observed anywhere in the world. You can also sign up for optional tours before and after the convention.
For more information, contact Adi Reiter at adi@wupj.org.il or +972-2-620-3613.
Please visit our CONNECTIONS 2009 Web site for further information, updates and to register.
Upcoming Events
