Shanah Tovah!

Shanah Tovah - Happy New Year!

Shanah Tovah, everyone!

I won't be writing a new blog post this week, as I'm preparing for the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which starts tonight, Sunday. Every year, I write my main High Holiday sermons around a central, common theme. (You have to hear or read the sermons to find out this year's theme... :-p) After Rosh Hashanah, I will post the first two sermons in the series here on the blog, and then after Yom Kippur I will post the final two. I wish you all a wonderful holiday, and the start of a wonderful new year. May it be a year filled with new experiences, thought-provoking questions, growth, joy, love, and perhaps most importantly of all - for us and the entire world - peace.

Shanah Tovah u'Metukah - May you have a Happy, Healthy, and Sweet New Year!

Warmest regards,

Rabbi Gerber

Ki Teitzei: What the Torah Expects of You

 I want to begin by acknowledging that I've been off the blog for several weeks. In part, it was sort of a summer hiatus, and in part I am trying to decide how and if to continue this blog. I've been writing about the weekly Torah portion for thirteen-plus years now, and it may be time for a new topic and/or format. Your feedback and opinions are welcome, by the way. In the meantime, I will continue writing through the end of Deuteronomy, but will likely stop writing after that, either temporarily or perhaps more permanently. I just wanted you, my readers, to be aware. Thanks for your understanding!

This week, our Torah portion offers a series of laws that have a common theme. I find it interesting that the text doesn't outright *name* the theme (though it does so elsewhere), yet it's hard to miss it when you put all the pieces together. Our synagogue follows the triennial cycle of readings, so our Torah portion this week begins at Deuteronomy, 24:14, and here's how the reading starts off (I'm paraphrasing for brevity):

- Do not abuse a needy or destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger.
- Pay people their wages on the same day (i.e. in the proper time).
- No one should not be put to death for someone else's crimes, even family members.
- Do not subvert the rights of vulnerable people in society.
- Leave some of your field for the poor and the needy.

I imagine you can see the theme as well as I can, right? Take care of those who either can't take care of themselves, or who have a lower status than you in society. You may be in a position to take advantage of them - clearly the ability is there and you won't face immediate consequences - but God will know, and just don't do it. The reason why I wanted to highlight the theme specifically, is because I think sometimes people get bogged down in the details. "Oh, sure," someone might say, "this applies if I own a field, or am meting out capital punishment, or have laborers working on my property... but I don't live in ancient times! None of this applies to me." Which is why I want to divert our attention away from the specific scenarios and instead focus on the overarching principle.

The idea that the Torah is putting forth, is that every person in society has obligations towards that shared community. In America, we hear a lot of people touting individual liberties above everything else, and the concept of certain "inalienable rights." Now, I would never disagree with each person's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit (though not guarantee...) of happiness. However, the Torah is reminding us that our personal desires and interests are not the only factor at play. We are also part of a network of interconnected parts and people, and sometimes we are required to focus less on ourselves and more on the system as a whole.

As we work our way through the Jewish month of Elul, in which we prepare ourselves daily for the upcoming holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (blowing shofar in morning minyan and reciting a Psalm for the Season of Repentance), I urge each of us to think about this concept. Don't get too focused on the literal subjects of day laborers, courts punishing people, and what you're supposed to do with your field. What about sharing your income, resources, time, and energy with people less fortunate than you? What about speaking up on behalf of people who are being abused or taken advantage of, either within our country or around the world? Or abused animals, or the very planet itself? These laws in Deuteronomy 24 really do apply to all of us. We are never asked to be perfect or flawless, but we are indeed expected to strive to be better; to aspire to keep making the world (around us as well as globally) a little bit better every day. And that idea never gets old.

CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1. Publicdomainpictures.net
2. Picryl.com
3. pxhere.com
4. Smart Chicago Collaborative on Wikimedia Commons (it's a quote attributed to Albert Einstein that states, "Strive not to be just a success, but to be of value.")

L'Chaim (newsletter) article, September, 2022: Striving for Balance in the New Year

Striving for Balance in the New Year

It’s hard to believe, but we are about to enter our third High Holiday season of the Covid-era. And it really has turned into an era, hasn’t it? Remember when the pandemic first began, and we thought we were shutting down “normal” operations for a week or two? Obviously (we told ourselves), once this crazy thing blew over, it would be back to business as usual. Oy. Then we gradually realized it would be going on for longer - a lot longer - and once we entered the second year and the conversation shifted to one new strain after another, people really started to accept the concept of “a new normal.”

So, here we are in year three. The good news is, the fatality rates have dropped significantly, and we’re (please God) hopefully entering the phase where Covid is another version of the flu; requiring vigilance and inoculation, but not causing widespread existential dread. With the High Holidays just a few weeks away, this is a good time for us to reflect on what has remained the same and what has changed. What new things, for better and for worse, have we had to embrace or at least acquiesce to incorporating into our lives? And what have we had to let go of to function and to adjust? So many things seem vastly different, before Covid vs. after.

Yet, at the same time, our values and needs are in many ways still the same. How we feel about family, community, and the world around us persists, despite some new considerations. And it is this balance that I invite us all to hold onto as we enter the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe (a.k.a. The High Holidays). In Judaism, we sometimes talk about “Keva” and “Kavanah.” Keva refers to fixed prayers that repeat service after service, day after day, century after century; e.g. the Shema, Amidah, Aleinu, and Kaddish. Some stuff remains the same, and that helps us feel safe, comfortable, familiar, and a sense of belonging.

But there’s also Kavanah, meaning “spirituality” or “intention,” and very often this requires newness, change, updating, and fresh approaches. We are encouraged to offer our own individual, unique prayers, and through those prayers perhaps view ourselves and the world around us with a fresh perspective. And this is my hope for all of us as we enter the High Holidays. Let us hold onto what is the same year after year and feels safe and reassuring - the Sanctuary, the familiar tunes, and the cycle of Jewish holidays. Yet let’s also embrace the “new normal” of hybrid services with a zoom component, and the ways that our lives feel different this year from every year that came before.

We need a healthy balance of Tradition and Change. It is true for navigating a post-pandemic world, how we should think about Jewish prayer, and perhaps also for how we live our lives. It is good to feel comfortable, yet it’s also imperative that we challenge ourselves to do new (and sometimes scary) things. Rosh Hashanah is still a few weeks away. I hope we can all use this time to find our Keva *and* our Kavanah, and enter the new year with both a sense of belonging and groundedness, yet also feeling ready (and maybe even excited?) for whatever changes still await us.

Shanah Tovah u’Metukah - I wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, and Sweet New Year!

Sincerely,

Rabbi Gerber