DRASH FROM EREV ROSH HASHANA SERVICES
Shanah tovah. Each Jewish holiday celebrates a different aspect of life: Passover is a celebration of freedom; Shavuot celebrates revelation. Sukkot is a celebration of the harvest of our accomplishments. Chanukah celebrates the power of light over darkness, Tu B’Shvat celebrates trees, and Purim celebrates good fortunes. Yom Kippur, in 9 days, celebrates our ability to be cleansed and forgiven, and tonight and for the next two days, is Rosh HaShanah, when we celebrate the beginning of a new Jewish year and sanctify the passage of time. To move forward into the new, to prepare ourselves for the season of teshuvah – spiritual return and atonement, we must look back before we move onward. We are to look at our past, honestly and with clarity: who have we hurt, who must we forgive, where must amends be made, what have been our successes, and what have been our mistakes?
I invite you all right now to take a moment to contemplate where you have been in this past year. What goals did you achieve? What actions must you renew your dedication to? Where have you traveled, spiritually and physically, since last Rosh HaShana? On friend’s birthdays, I often express the idea that it’s another time around the sun. Where on this earth have you traveled to in the last year as we traveled around the sun? My year has brought me to many beautiful and inspiring places and moments. With all these trips, the travels that I want to speak about tonight were when I flew almost 7,400 miles in 14 hours and landed at my home. This was a historic trip, taken with 23 others, many of whom had never been on such a trip before – but all of them were also home when we landed. In June, I had the honor and deep pleasure of accompanying the first ever Congregation Beth Shalom trip to Israel, the Jewish homeland. I didn’t know until I returned that it was our first congregational trip! What I did know is that 8 kids, between 10 and 14 years old, and 15 adults, spent 12 amazing days experiencing Israel. I also know that few of us will ever forget this trip, what we saw, how we felt, and what we learned.
I have lived in Israel for 8 months and traveled there 9 other times. You would think that a tiny nation, the size of New Jersey, with almost half of it being barren desert, would not hold many surprises or new sites after so much time spent there. You would be wrong. There remain many places, national parks and entire cities that I still haven’t visited. There is so much packed into this small and beautiful land – so many hidden places, so many religious sites, communities and stunning hikes, so many relatives including some I haven’t even yet met. Every trip that I have taken to Israel as an adult, including the three Hillel Birthright trips that I have staffed, included new places. On this trip, the new stops included Ein Shemer: a kibbutz and greenhouse where Arabs and Jews work together studying and assisting the fragile environment, Kibbutz Ginossar on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where we stayed in their beautiful Kibbutz Guest House while we explored the green north of the country, Kfar Nachum – an ancient city known to Christians as Capernaum where Jesus is believed to have preached in the synagogue, and the Hula National Park whose restored wetlands host millions of migrating birds each year.
Of course the real highlight was not these new places that I saw, it was seeing Israel through the new eyes of the CBS participants. For most it was their first time there, and witnessing their reactions to the awesome beauty of the landscapes, hearing their questions, seeing their enjoyment of all the delicious food, witnessing the joy, the tears, the wonder and excitement, all made me feel like I was seeing it all for the first time.
While everyone walked away with different take-aways, realizations, and specific memories from this trip, there were a few moments that defined it for me. Israel is the only place that when the airplane lands I always tear up. There is something about seeing it, our homeland, and knowing that our people re-built this land in the horrible aftermath of the holocaust, that brings tears to my eyes. On this trip, the tears didn’t stop when we landed. When we arrived in Jerusalem, and stopped at Mount Scopus, and first looked down at the Old City with it’s walls, golden and white domes, and the New City: filled with construction cranes and modern buildings, I burst into tears again. The next day, when we toured the Old City, we arrived at the Kotel – the Western Wall, one of the only structures left from the Holy Temple. As we approached the ancient holy spot, power spot, for moments of our own personal prayers, I approached the wall with my two sons, and two other boys whose mother’s were in the women’s section of the plaza. I explained how there are always people at the wall, and many more at prayer times, Shabbat and holidays. I explained the notes in the crevices, and I started to cry again. One of the kids who was with me, who is 11, asked “Rabbi, are you crying?!”. I said “uh huh, and I don’t know why”.
Another moment that stands out was the next day, Shabbat in Jerusalem. A small group of us walked to Shira Chadasha - A New Song, a congregation in Jerusalem that describes itself as Egalitarian Orthodox. A mechitzah, a divison between the genders, runs through the length of the room, but women and men take turns leading the Service and reading from the Torah from a bimah placed in the middle. The room was packed; about 300 people attend every Shabbat morning. This congregation, with its amazing singing, reminded me that the spirit of Judaism is alive and well. Our traditions are intact and are evolving. Am Yisrael Chai – the Jewish People live!
There was also a beautiful moment of interfaith understanding. We were touring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Christianity’s most holy site. It was during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and many Muslims were in Jerusalem to pray at Al Aksa – the third holiest shrine in Islam. Evidently, many Muslim visitors decided to tour the Christian sites of the Old City as the Church was filled with women wearing hijabs. A man approached me and asked me, in Hebrew, to explain the Christian relic that I was in front of. I quickly realized that my limited conversational Hebrew could not explain the theological details of the item. I asked him where he was from and he said Ramallah – the default capitol of the Palestinian Authority located about 15 miles from Jerusalem. He then explained that he had asked me, specifically, as he had seen my kippah and knew that I spoke Hebrew, and he didn’t speak any English. I wished him a Blessed Ramadan. He smiled and wished me a Shabbat Shalom. It was a moment of peace for the children of Abraham: Jew and Muslim, standing in Christianity’s holy spot. Jerusalem is a holy city.
Israel recharged me. Spending 2 weeks in Israel left me energized for facing the challenges of Jewish life here in Modesto. Here we are about .1% of the local population – there we are 80%. I can better enjoy being here knowing that one non-stop flight away from SFO is the world’s largest Jewish community, 6 million Jews, living in our ancient homeland. Israel is the company headquarters; CBS is the local franchise office.
In the book of Isaiah, 62:6, it says: “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, they will never be silent day or night”. We, the Jewish people all over the world, are among those watch people. Some guard the city from its actual walls; others guard Israel from afar. We must remain active and diligent. Israel is not perfect, no country is – but we love it’s people, landscapes and history and Israel is under attack, on college campuses, and in communities all around the world and country. We must be involved, and there are various ways to do so. Follow the news, not just the sound-bites, but what is actually going on there. The Times of Israel website is updated every few minutes; the Forward and the J, the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California Jewish bulletin, are great sources for news. Read: there are some new, wonderful books that have recently been written about Israel: “My Promised Land” by Ari Shavit and “Like Dreamers” by Yossie Klein HaLevi. Ask: learn more, bring your questions to my Yom Kippur afternoon Q&A session or to our weekly Adult ed discussions. Write: to our elected leaders, to the local newspapers, on facebook and to friends and co-workers; make sure that they have the full story about what is really going on in Israel and the very real threats that it faces from terrorism and boycott. Engage: through AIPAC, J-Street, ZOA, Hadassah, or the JNF, find a pro-Israel organization that reflects your values and interests and stay involved. I will be attending the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, DC this March and I hope to bring a delegation from this community to this valuable gathering of pro-Israel leaders and politicians. Israel is truly unique. When it comes to supporting Israel’s obligation to defend itself, this seems to be the only policy issue that Democrats and Republicans agree upon. We, the guardians of Jerusalem’s walls, must ensure that our US government always works closely with and supports Israel. Here at CBS we have forged a partnership with CUFI, Christians United for Israel, to work together, despite our religious differences, to strengthen Israel and defend her. And, among all the ways that we can serve as watchers and learners, teachers and students, the best is to travel there. I hope to lead our 2nd CBS trip to Israel within the next few years. Please speak to me if you are interested. If we can get two or three dozen people to sign up, I’m happy to lead such a trip at any point before that. Israel is a magical place, a land of contradictions and paradoxes, of ancient legends and modern miracles. Engage with it, experience it, watch over its gates and walls. At the end of Yom Kippur we’ll all sing: Next year in Jerusalem. May it be so! Shanah Tovah.
I invite you all right now to take a moment to contemplate where you have been in this past year. What goals did you achieve? What actions must you renew your dedication to? Where have you traveled, spiritually and physically, since last Rosh HaShana? On friend’s birthdays, I often express the idea that it’s another time around the sun. Where on this earth have you traveled to in the last year as we traveled around the sun? My year has brought me to many beautiful and inspiring places and moments. With all these trips, the travels that I want to speak about tonight were when I flew almost 7,400 miles in 14 hours and landed at my home. This was a historic trip, taken with 23 others, many of whom had never been on such a trip before – but all of them were also home when we landed. In June, I had the honor and deep pleasure of accompanying the first ever Congregation Beth Shalom trip to Israel, the Jewish homeland. I didn’t know until I returned that it was our first congregational trip! What I did know is that 8 kids, between 10 and 14 years old, and 15 adults, spent 12 amazing days experiencing Israel. I also know that few of us will ever forget this trip, what we saw, how we felt, and what we learned.
I have lived in Israel for 8 months and traveled there 9 other times. You would think that a tiny nation, the size of New Jersey, with almost half of it being barren desert, would not hold many surprises or new sites after so much time spent there. You would be wrong. There remain many places, national parks and entire cities that I still haven’t visited. There is so much packed into this small and beautiful land – so many hidden places, so many religious sites, communities and stunning hikes, so many relatives including some I haven’t even yet met. Every trip that I have taken to Israel as an adult, including the three Hillel Birthright trips that I have staffed, included new places. On this trip, the new stops included Ein Shemer: a kibbutz and greenhouse where Arabs and Jews work together studying and assisting the fragile environment, Kibbutz Ginossar on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where we stayed in their beautiful Kibbutz Guest House while we explored the green north of the country, Kfar Nachum – an ancient city known to Christians as Capernaum where Jesus is believed to have preached in the synagogue, and the Hula National Park whose restored wetlands host millions of migrating birds each year.
Of course the real highlight was not these new places that I saw, it was seeing Israel through the new eyes of the CBS participants. For most it was their first time there, and witnessing their reactions to the awesome beauty of the landscapes, hearing their questions, seeing their enjoyment of all the delicious food, witnessing the joy, the tears, the wonder and excitement, all made me feel like I was seeing it all for the first time.
While everyone walked away with different take-aways, realizations, and specific memories from this trip, there were a few moments that defined it for me. Israel is the only place that when the airplane lands I always tear up. There is something about seeing it, our homeland, and knowing that our people re-built this land in the horrible aftermath of the holocaust, that brings tears to my eyes. On this trip, the tears didn’t stop when we landed. When we arrived in Jerusalem, and stopped at Mount Scopus, and first looked down at the Old City with it’s walls, golden and white domes, and the New City: filled with construction cranes and modern buildings, I burst into tears again. The next day, when we toured the Old City, we arrived at the Kotel – the Western Wall, one of the only structures left from the Holy Temple. As we approached the ancient holy spot, power spot, for moments of our own personal prayers, I approached the wall with my two sons, and two other boys whose mother’s were in the women’s section of the plaza. I explained how there are always people at the wall, and many more at prayer times, Shabbat and holidays. I explained the notes in the crevices, and I started to cry again. One of the kids who was with me, who is 11, asked “Rabbi, are you crying?!”. I said “uh huh, and I don’t know why”.
Another moment that stands out was the next day, Shabbat in Jerusalem. A small group of us walked to Shira Chadasha - A New Song, a congregation in Jerusalem that describes itself as Egalitarian Orthodox. A mechitzah, a divison between the genders, runs through the length of the room, but women and men take turns leading the Service and reading from the Torah from a bimah placed in the middle. The room was packed; about 300 people attend every Shabbat morning. This congregation, with its amazing singing, reminded me that the spirit of Judaism is alive and well. Our traditions are intact and are evolving. Am Yisrael Chai – the Jewish People live!
There was also a beautiful moment of interfaith understanding. We were touring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Christianity’s most holy site. It was during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and many Muslims were in Jerusalem to pray at Al Aksa – the third holiest shrine in Islam. Evidently, many Muslim visitors decided to tour the Christian sites of the Old City as the Church was filled with women wearing hijabs. A man approached me and asked me, in Hebrew, to explain the Christian relic that I was in front of. I quickly realized that my limited conversational Hebrew could not explain the theological details of the item. I asked him where he was from and he said Ramallah – the default capitol of the Palestinian Authority located about 15 miles from Jerusalem. He then explained that he had asked me, specifically, as he had seen my kippah and knew that I spoke Hebrew, and he didn’t speak any English. I wished him a Blessed Ramadan. He smiled and wished me a Shabbat Shalom. It was a moment of peace for the children of Abraham: Jew and Muslim, standing in Christianity’s holy spot. Jerusalem is a holy city.
Israel recharged me. Spending 2 weeks in Israel left me energized for facing the challenges of Jewish life here in Modesto. Here we are about .1% of the local population – there we are 80%. I can better enjoy being here knowing that one non-stop flight away from SFO is the world’s largest Jewish community, 6 million Jews, living in our ancient homeland. Israel is the company headquarters; CBS is the local franchise office.
In the book of Isaiah, 62:6, it says: “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, they will never be silent day or night”. We, the Jewish people all over the world, are among those watch people. Some guard the city from its actual walls; others guard Israel from afar. We must remain active and diligent. Israel is not perfect, no country is – but we love it’s people, landscapes and history and Israel is under attack, on college campuses, and in communities all around the world and country. We must be involved, and there are various ways to do so. Follow the news, not just the sound-bites, but what is actually going on there. The Times of Israel website is updated every few minutes; the Forward and the J, the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California Jewish bulletin, are great sources for news. Read: there are some new, wonderful books that have recently been written about Israel: “My Promised Land” by Ari Shavit and “Like Dreamers” by Yossie Klein HaLevi. Ask: learn more, bring your questions to my Yom Kippur afternoon Q&A session or to our weekly Adult ed discussions. Write: to our elected leaders, to the local newspapers, on facebook and to friends and co-workers; make sure that they have the full story about what is really going on in Israel and the very real threats that it faces from terrorism and boycott. Engage: through AIPAC, J-Street, ZOA, Hadassah, or the JNF, find a pro-Israel organization that reflects your values and interests and stay involved. I will be attending the AIPAC policy conference in Washington, DC this March and I hope to bring a delegation from this community to this valuable gathering of pro-Israel leaders and politicians. Israel is truly unique. When it comes to supporting Israel’s obligation to defend itself, this seems to be the only policy issue that Democrats and Republicans agree upon. We, the guardians of Jerusalem’s walls, must ensure that our US government always works closely with and supports Israel. Here at CBS we have forged a partnership with CUFI, Christians United for Israel, to work together, despite our religious differences, to strengthen Israel and defend her. And, among all the ways that we can serve as watchers and learners, teachers and students, the best is to travel there. I hope to lead our 2nd CBS trip to Israel within the next few years. Please speak to me if you are interested. If we can get two or three dozen people to sign up, I’m happy to lead such a trip at any point before that. Israel is a magical place, a land of contradictions and paradoxes, of ancient legends and modern miracles. Engage with it, experience it, watch over its gates and walls. At the end of Yom Kippur we’ll all sing: Next year in Jerusalem. May it be so! Shanah Tovah.
DRASH FROM ROSH HASHANA SERVICES:
Shanah Tovah. Last night I spoke about my travels to Israel as part of thinking about how we all have traveled through life in this past year. This morning I want to continue this theme of looking back to where we have each been. I’m the kind of unique person that when I arrive in a new city that I’m visiting, even if only for a few minutes, I visit the local synagogue. I used to do this by consulting the yellow pages in the phone book and seeing if there was a listing right after “swimming pools”; now I do it with google. It’s been a wonderful experience to see proof of Jewish life in Charleston, West Virginia, Richland, Washington, Roswell New Mexico and Alexandria, Egypt to mention just a small handful of Jewish communities that I’ve seen
This past summer I had the experience of driving to Denver. On my drive through southern Wyoming on Interstate 80, I passed Rawlins, Wyoming, population 9,259. It’s a pretty town, up on a hill over the Sugar Creek, the county seat of Carbon County and full of older brick buildings. I stopped to get a bite to eat and thought. “how many Jews live in this town?”. It’s a game that I have played many times before, speculating how many Cohens or Goldbergs might be found in the local directory. It does often seem like most towns in this country have at least one Jewish lawyer, doctor, or social worker.
There are about 14.2 million Jews in the world: 6.2 million in Israel, around 5.8 million in the Unites States and the other 2 million in every other time zone, and living in almost every nation. We are .2% of the world’s population. According to the JewishVirtualLibrary.org, in the Unites States, we are, on average, about 3% of the total population. A few more interesting statistics: North Dakota, Kansas, and South Dakota are the states where the smallest percentage of Jews in the local population are found: .1%, .12% and .2% respectively. (Here in Modesto, by the way, we are probably about .2% of the local population so I guess we share at last something with South Dakota). Mississippi is next up with the fourth smallest percentage: .4%, followed by Arkansas with .49%. Hawaii, Oklahoma and Wyoming all have a Jewish population percentage average of .5%. (New York has the largest where we are almost 11% of the state’s population). Also keep in mind that Wyoming has the smallest over-all population of the 50 states - less than 600,000 people live in the entire state. So it is estimated that 2,000 Jews live in Wyoming, mostly in Jackson Hole, Casper, Cheyenne, and Laramie. So how many Jews live in Rawlins? None. According to bestplaces.net, 36% of the city affiliates with a religion: 10.5% catholic, 10% Mormon, 2.5% other Christian churches, and 0.00% are Jewish. We are in good company, there are also no Muslims or Eastern Orthodox Christian in Rawlins, Wyoming. I stood in line at a gas station and looked around at the ranchers and church ladies of Rawlins. How would they react if I told them that I was Jewish? Had the people in this town ever even met someone who was Jewish?
We are used to living as a minority. Every since the Romans destroyed our Holy Temple in the year 70 CE, we have lived as a minority in other people’s lands until the re-birth of Israel in 1948. There, standing in the wide open plains of Wyoming, it was very clear what the Jewish experience has been like for almost 2,000 years. I was probably the only Jew in that county at that moment and I was just passing through.
Guess where the largest Passover Seder in the world takes place? The answer is the Rawlins of Nepal: Kathmandu, where there is no native Jewish population. Yet an estimated 7,000 Israelis visit there every year. These are mostly younger people in their 20’s celebrating the end of their army duties before college starts and looking for a spiritual experience and some escapism from the tensions of the Middle East. In 1986, the Israeli embassy started to offer a holiday celebration for these visitors. In the 1990’s Chabad Lubavitch took over the running of the Seder which is now attended by 1,500 people and takes place in a huge army tent set up in front of the Israeli embassy. In fact, it is now three simultaneous Seders led by different Chabad emiseries. Let the immense logistical challenges of this sink in for a moment. The year-round Jewish population of Kathmandu is probably less than a dozen people, and kosher meat, matzah and wine are not available there at all. All of these supplies must shipped in and conform to Chabad’s strict Orthodox standards of kashrut. Why do they do this? Because we are family, and wherever we have journeyed as a people, we know the importance of providing hospitality to others.
“And God appeared to Abraham in the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the doorway of his tent in the heat of the day” Genesis 18:1. Ignoring the important and fascinating theological implications of Abraham seeing God, this text offers some strange details. For example, why does it say that Abraham was sitting? The posture of our ancestors is not usually the focus of the Torah text. Because, the rabbis of the Midrash explain, Abraham had just circumcised himself three days before at the age of 99 and he was recuperating. Why was he at the doorway of his tent? Because even at this moment of physical discomfort Abraham was looking for travelers in need to offer hospitality to. Why does the Torah add a weather update? Because God did not want to burden Abraham with guests when he should have been resting and recovering.
“And he lifted his eyes, and he saw, and behold, three people stood over him, and when he saw them, he ran to greet them from the tent door, and bowed to the earth, and said ‘my master, if I have found favor in your sight, pass not away from your servant. Let water be fetched and wash your feet and recline under the tree, and I will fetch a morsel of bread...’”
Abraham was seeing a vision of God, and interrupted it to take care of guests. True, they turn out to be angels and are actually part of the vision, but Abraham doesn’t know that yet. He simply sees guests, and at the age of 99, giving no thought to his own pain or the heat, races after them to offer water and food. This is our heritage; this is who our ancestor was, and who we remain as a people.
If you have ever driven on I-80 in the days after Labor Day, you can’t miss the RV’s, art cars, and other strange vehicles, all covered in white dust, and most with bicycles tied to the roof. These are the attendees of Burning Man, which is [quote]: “an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance” that takes place for a week, including Labor Day weekend, each year in the Black Rock Desert, 120 miles north of Reno. Full disclosure: while I know many people who go every year, I have never been. During the rest of the year, the barren Black Rock Desert’s population is the same as the number of Jews in Rawlins: zero. But for one week, each year, it becomes the 6th largest city in Nevada, larger than the capitol of Carson City. 70,000 people make the trek to this isolated corner of the country. The weather is at best unpredictable. As the festival’s website explains:
“Be prepared for volatile extremes, and ready for anything and everything. Temperatures by day have been known to exceed 100 degrees. Pre-dawn temperatures can approach freezing. Thunderstorms and dust storms arise with breathtaking swiftness, transforming the playa into a gigantic mud puddle in a matter of moments. Winds are often 20-30 mph under normal conditions, and winds from 40-70mph can be felt during a storm. While the weather in late August/early September is usually warm, it can be downright arctic. When it comes to the weather at Burning Man, it’s much better to be over-prepared.” Why do people not only endure this, but look forward to it all year long? Because it’s all about community and artistic expression.
In 2015, Burners were asked if they belong to a religion or denomination. 71% said no, but 29% said yes. Of this number, the 2nd largest percentage after Catholics, said they were Jewish, 23%. All other religions and denominations, such as Buddhist, Rastafarian. Pagans, and Muslims were much, much smaller, in the single digits. So about 4,600 Jews attended Burning Man in 2015.
Meals and activities at the Burn happen in camps, and there happens to be a Jewish camp. In fact there at least two. Here is how the Milk and Honey Shabbat camp describes itself: “ Join us to welcome Shabbat with prayer, reflection, ecstatic singing, and a vegetarian and vegan-friendly meal. Our service is rooted in the Jewish tradition, but all denominations and faiths are welcome to join hands and hearts. Come to our camp as the sun sets. We will welcome the sabbath as a sea of twinkling stars envelops us. After a service, songs, and time to reflect, we will guide you to our dining area and seat you at a communal bedouin-style table. We will nourish you with a multi-course meal, and ease you into the embrace of an evening in the dust.” 600 attended the Service and 400 the dinner. My friend also added: “I also heard that there was another Shabbat meal for 700 people - but they were invited and it was fancy/catered dinner.” So not only is there a Jewish community at Burning Man, but there is also the other community that you don’t go to.
I think there is so much to learn from all of this, beyond how much Jews love to travel: Wherever you go, there is a Jew; sometimes it’s you. As the Mishnah teaches: “where there is no man, be a mensch”. Community is a very powerful reality: appreciate it, help create it, sustain it. The core of our spiritual community is hospitality. From Abraham’s tent, to the Kathmandu Seder, to the desert of Nevada, we can see a face of God when we welcome our fellow into our tents and hearts. Shana Tovah.
This past summer I had the experience of driving to Denver. On my drive through southern Wyoming on Interstate 80, I passed Rawlins, Wyoming, population 9,259. It’s a pretty town, up on a hill over the Sugar Creek, the county seat of Carbon County and full of older brick buildings. I stopped to get a bite to eat and thought. “how many Jews live in this town?”. It’s a game that I have played many times before, speculating how many Cohens or Goldbergs might be found in the local directory. It does often seem like most towns in this country have at least one Jewish lawyer, doctor, or social worker.
There are about 14.2 million Jews in the world: 6.2 million in Israel, around 5.8 million in the Unites States and the other 2 million in every other time zone, and living in almost every nation. We are .2% of the world’s population. According to the JewishVirtualLibrary.org, in the Unites States, we are, on average, about 3% of the total population. A few more interesting statistics: North Dakota, Kansas, and South Dakota are the states where the smallest percentage of Jews in the local population are found: .1%, .12% and .2% respectively. (Here in Modesto, by the way, we are probably about .2% of the local population so I guess we share at last something with South Dakota). Mississippi is next up with the fourth smallest percentage: .4%, followed by Arkansas with .49%. Hawaii, Oklahoma and Wyoming all have a Jewish population percentage average of .5%. (New York has the largest where we are almost 11% of the state’s population). Also keep in mind that Wyoming has the smallest over-all population of the 50 states - less than 600,000 people live in the entire state. So it is estimated that 2,000 Jews live in Wyoming, mostly in Jackson Hole, Casper, Cheyenne, and Laramie. So how many Jews live in Rawlins? None. According to bestplaces.net, 36% of the city affiliates with a religion: 10.5% catholic, 10% Mormon, 2.5% other Christian churches, and 0.00% are Jewish. We are in good company, there are also no Muslims or Eastern Orthodox Christian in Rawlins, Wyoming. I stood in line at a gas station and looked around at the ranchers and church ladies of Rawlins. How would they react if I told them that I was Jewish? Had the people in this town ever even met someone who was Jewish?
We are used to living as a minority. Every since the Romans destroyed our Holy Temple in the year 70 CE, we have lived as a minority in other people’s lands until the re-birth of Israel in 1948. There, standing in the wide open plains of Wyoming, it was very clear what the Jewish experience has been like for almost 2,000 years. I was probably the only Jew in that county at that moment and I was just passing through.
Guess where the largest Passover Seder in the world takes place? The answer is the Rawlins of Nepal: Kathmandu, where there is no native Jewish population. Yet an estimated 7,000 Israelis visit there every year. These are mostly younger people in their 20’s celebrating the end of their army duties before college starts and looking for a spiritual experience and some escapism from the tensions of the Middle East. In 1986, the Israeli embassy started to offer a holiday celebration for these visitors. In the 1990’s Chabad Lubavitch took over the running of the Seder which is now attended by 1,500 people and takes place in a huge army tent set up in front of the Israeli embassy. In fact, it is now three simultaneous Seders led by different Chabad emiseries. Let the immense logistical challenges of this sink in for a moment. The year-round Jewish population of Kathmandu is probably less than a dozen people, and kosher meat, matzah and wine are not available there at all. All of these supplies must shipped in and conform to Chabad’s strict Orthodox standards of kashrut. Why do they do this? Because we are family, and wherever we have journeyed as a people, we know the importance of providing hospitality to others.
“And God appeared to Abraham in the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the doorway of his tent in the heat of the day” Genesis 18:1. Ignoring the important and fascinating theological implications of Abraham seeing God, this text offers some strange details. For example, why does it say that Abraham was sitting? The posture of our ancestors is not usually the focus of the Torah text. Because, the rabbis of the Midrash explain, Abraham had just circumcised himself three days before at the age of 99 and he was recuperating. Why was he at the doorway of his tent? Because even at this moment of physical discomfort Abraham was looking for travelers in need to offer hospitality to. Why does the Torah add a weather update? Because God did not want to burden Abraham with guests when he should have been resting and recovering.
“And he lifted his eyes, and he saw, and behold, three people stood over him, and when he saw them, he ran to greet them from the tent door, and bowed to the earth, and said ‘my master, if I have found favor in your sight, pass not away from your servant. Let water be fetched and wash your feet and recline under the tree, and I will fetch a morsel of bread...’”
Abraham was seeing a vision of God, and interrupted it to take care of guests. True, they turn out to be angels and are actually part of the vision, but Abraham doesn’t know that yet. He simply sees guests, and at the age of 99, giving no thought to his own pain or the heat, races after them to offer water and food. This is our heritage; this is who our ancestor was, and who we remain as a people.
If you have ever driven on I-80 in the days after Labor Day, you can’t miss the RV’s, art cars, and other strange vehicles, all covered in white dust, and most with bicycles tied to the roof. These are the attendees of Burning Man, which is [quote]: “an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance” that takes place for a week, including Labor Day weekend, each year in the Black Rock Desert, 120 miles north of Reno. Full disclosure: while I know many people who go every year, I have never been. During the rest of the year, the barren Black Rock Desert’s population is the same as the number of Jews in Rawlins: zero. But for one week, each year, it becomes the 6th largest city in Nevada, larger than the capitol of Carson City. 70,000 people make the trek to this isolated corner of the country. The weather is at best unpredictable. As the festival’s website explains:
“Be prepared for volatile extremes, and ready for anything and everything. Temperatures by day have been known to exceed 100 degrees. Pre-dawn temperatures can approach freezing. Thunderstorms and dust storms arise with breathtaking swiftness, transforming the playa into a gigantic mud puddle in a matter of moments. Winds are often 20-30 mph under normal conditions, and winds from 40-70mph can be felt during a storm. While the weather in late August/early September is usually warm, it can be downright arctic. When it comes to the weather at Burning Man, it’s much better to be over-prepared.” Why do people not only endure this, but look forward to it all year long? Because it’s all about community and artistic expression.
In 2015, Burners were asked if they belong to a religion or denomination. 71% said no, but 29% said yes. Of this number, the 2nd largest percentage after Catholics, said they were Jewish, 23%. All other religions and denominations, such as Buddhist, Rastafarian. Pagans, and Muslims were much, much smaller, in the single digits. So about 4,600 Jews attended Burning Man in 2015.
Meals and activities at the Burn happen in camps, and there happens to be a Jewish camp. In fact there at least two. Here is how the Milk and Honey Shabbat camp describes itself: “ Join us to welcome Shabbat with prayer, reflection, ecstatic singing, and a vegetarian and vegan-friendly meal. Our service is rooted in the Jewish tradition, but all denominations and faiths are welcome to join hands and hearts. Come to our camp as the sun sets. We will welcome the sabbath as a sea of twinkling stars envelops us. After a service, songs, and time to reflect, we will guide you to our dining area and seat you at a communal bedouin-style table. We will nourish you with a multi-course meal, and ease you into the embrace of an evening in the dust.” 600 attended the Service and 400 the dinner. My friend also added: “I also heard that there was another Shabbat meal for 700 people - but they were invited and it was fancy/catered dinner.” So not only is there a Jewish community at Burning Man, but there is also the other community that you don’t go to.
I think there is so much to learn from all of this, beyond how much Jews love to travel: Wherever you go, there is a Jew; sometimes it’s you. As the Mishnah teaches: “where there is no man, be a mensch”. Community is a very powerful reality: appreciate it, help create it, sustain it. The core of our spiritual community is hospitality. From Abraham’s tent, to the Kathmandu Seder, to the desert of Nevada, we can see a face of God when we welcome our fellow into our tents and hearts. Shana Tovah.
DRASH KOL NIDRE / EREV YOM KIPPUR:
Shanah tovah and gut yuntif. On Rosh HaShana I spoke about some of the places that I visited last year as a way of thinking about the year as a journey. I spoke about the Jewish homeland and our first-ever CBS trip to Israel, and I spoke about being in Wyoming as a way of exploring the ancient Jewish ideals around hospitality. Tonight I want continue this theme and speak about a place that I have spent time as we each, once again, journeyed around the sun.
Life is a journey. We all are born small, and then we learn and grow, and slowly become the people that we are. We all have experienced the excitement and challenges of our first time away from home, the first time traveling on our own, and a moment of being lost. Our Jewish ancestors, according to Kabbalah, represent archetypes of different attributes. Abraham, “Mr. Hospitality”, represents Chesed – loving kindness, giving of himself, compassion for others. Isaac, who is bound on the altar, represents Gevurah – inner strength, boundaries, limit setting; and Jacob is the archetype of Tiferet – the splendor of balance, the beauty found in the proper amount of giving and receiving, the balancing scales that are the zodiac’s symbol for this ancient Jewish season of introspection and renewal. And Jacob is also the archetype of the journeyer. He runs away from his home, settles in his grandfather’s old country, and returns decades later with two wives, two half-wives, and 13 children. He then re-settles in his birthplace, only to relocate to Egypt in his old age to escape a famine. He is a man on the move – spending much of his life away from his family and his homeland. Jacob, more than any of the other patriarchs and matriarchs, knows about leaving home, travelling on his own, and being lost.
As we read in Genesis/B’reishit Chapter 28: “And Jacob left Beer Sheva, and set out for Charan. He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.”
Notice the three times that the word “place” appears in just one verse. This is clearly significant. In Hebrew the word for place is “Makom”, which is also a name of God, as the divine is The Place of the Universe. God, according to Judaism, is all there is, was, and will be and God may be found in all things, people and places. As Jacob is about to realize, he may need to leave his home, but one can never leave God’s presence. Back to our story: “He had a dream; a ladder was set on the ground and its top reached heavenward, and angelic messengers of God were going up and down on it.” God then blesses Jacob in this dream vision and tells him “Remember, I am with you. I will protect you where ever you go and I will bring you back to this land...”. Jacob awakens and says: “Surely God is in this place and I did not know it!” “Full of awe, Jacob said “How awesome is this place – Mah Norah HaMakom HaZeh! This is none other than the House of God and this is the gateway to heaven”.
“God is in this place and I did not know it”. All places are locations where God can be found. When Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk was 5 years old, he asked his father, "Where is God?" to which his father answered: "God is everywhere!" The future Rebbe then responded "No, I think God is only where you let God in." Tonight I want to speak about a place where I have spent much time this past year, searched for God, and sometimes even found God. Tonight I want to speak about Modesto.
Modesto may be a modest town, but we, as its Jewish community, have so much to be proud of. We held outdoor Chanukah celebrations this past year in Oakdale, Turlock, Manteca and Tracy – the first public Jewish events to ever occur in these cities. Our downtown Modesto Chanukah candle-lighting and our party back here at CBS were attended by more than 150 people. We again prepared meals for dozens of First Responders on December 24th and 25th and delivered more than a hundred meals to people in need. We partnered with Family Promise and Neighborhood Church to host three homeless families for a week in our synagogue classrooms. We hosted a regional Kadima weekend for Jewish middle school students from all over Northern California who filled our sanctuary with their singing, learning and socializing. We had more than 80 people participate in a Kabbalah adult education class series on eight Tuesday nights in the spring. We hosted speakers from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Christians United for Israel, and the musicians, singers and pastor from the Congregation of Zion church in Stockton for an Israel Rock Shabbat that attracted more than a 100 people. Four days later, 15 adults and 8 kids traveled to Israel on our first-ever congregational trip. We kicked off our Beit Sefer Hebrew School program and Sunday adult ed classes with a free Sunday afternoon concert with the CBS Rock Band, Leah Shoshanah’s beautiful original music and The Hebrew Project. We rented out and filled the State Theatre for a screening of the award winning film “Son of Saul” about a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and followed the screening with a panel discussion with a survivor, a therapist and a historian. What was particularly moving for me was to know that we had distributed dozens of free tickets to high school and college students to see this film and then hear directly from Gloria Lyon as she told her story and answered their questions. We hosted Rabbi Sara Shulman, the Director of the brand new Camp Ramah of Northern California. We offered our 24th season of Sunday Afternoon concerts bringing in amazing talent from all over the country and Canada. Our holiday celebrations have been extremely varied and fun: Hebrew Fest BBQ and sleep over for Sukkot, Simchat Torah with dancing and l’chaims, planting trees in public parks for Tu B’Shvat and having a mystical Seder with fruit, nuts, juices and wines, Purim shpiel, adult party, and kids carnival, two Passover Seders: a late-night traditional one and a shorter Musical Seder with more than a 100 people at each one and delicious catered meals, and our first ever all-night Shavuot Tikun Leil study session and Sunrise Service.
Our cultural programs such as Latkes and Vodkas, Jewish Comedy and Wine Tasting, and Shalom Deli brought hundreds of people together for Jewish food, entertainment, and learning about our community. We hosted visiting college students studying world religions and entire grades of students from local high schools. Every week we have had Friday night Services, always with topical and meaningful Drashot, often with lots of music, and sometimes with guest speakers. Once a month we have had Tot Shabbat Family Services. Every Saturday we have had a minyan so people can say Kaddish, find modern meaning in the wisdom of the Torah, and celebrate Shabbat with lunch and being together. Our Beit Sefer Hebrew School program for Kindergarten through 7th grade engages our children on Sunday mornings; our CBS Family Fest offers monthly hands-on holiday activities for families with younger children. Our Adult Education classes on Sunday, Meaningful Judaism and Adult Hebrew, explores Jewish practice, belief, history and texts.
We have so much to be proud of. And we also have some important questions to ask ourselves about our community and our ownership of it.
I am so incredibly honored and excited to serve as your Rabbi, Teacher, Spiritual Leader, Community Organizer and Cheerleader. My enthusiasm for this position has only increased since starting to work here full time 15 months ago. We must realize, however, it’s not just about what I can do; it’s about what we all can do together.
I was in Denver last month and attended a Conservative congregation there. It was a pleasant Service and there were about 100 people in their sanctuary on Shabbat morning, which given the larger size of the Jewish community there seemed about right. But I noticed that I was one of the youngest people in the room and I just turned 49. Then the Service ended and the Rabbi announced that to honor their custodian of 10 years, the children and families of the congregation’s preschool and junior congregation would join us. And then about 120 more people walked in to the room. Ok that’s not accurate, the 50 or more kids who were there ran in to the room and their teachers and parents followed.
Many of our members here in Modesto have told me that their parents lived here but their children moved away, to the Bay Area or LA. But there are families and Jewish individuals moving into the Central Valley, to Tracy and Manteca, and there are families who live right here in Modesto that are not involved. In fact, I’m convinced that practically everyone in this room knows someone who is Jewish and who is not involved here at CBS but could be and should be. In a larger community we perhaps could accept that some Jewish families won’t participate. In a community of our size, we could do much better.
We should ask ourselves: Where do we see ourselves in 10 years, in 5 years, or in 2 years? Can we imagine ourselves as a vibrant center of Jewish culture? Do we realize that everyone must roll up their sleeves, work together and participate? I don’t expect 150 people to attend Services every Friday night or Shabbat morning. I am asking everyone here to join us for a holiday, cultural event, or class before next Rosh HaShana. Yom Kippur is the most intense and hardest of observances. So, please also join us for the fun stuff: Sukkot, Simchat Torah, the Golf Tournament, or a Musical Shabbat. You could check out a Study Minyan, a Kabbalah class, or a Sunday concert. Our success is based largely on our volunteer leadership: consider getting involved with Family Promise in mid-December and July, help out with Café Shalom, or Latkes and Vodkas. Invite a Jewish co-worker or neighbor to come with you. Please look through our annual calendar of cultural programs and holiday celebrations, circle three or four or more, and be here with us.
This is our holy place. I have felt God’s presence when someone attends Shabbat Services here for the first time and they are so warmly welcomed. I have seen God’s glory when someone studies Judaism here and then goes to the mikveh with us and becomes a Jew, a son or daughter of Abraham and Sarah. I have heard the still small voice of The Holy One during a guided meditation at our Kabbalah class, or during a Quiet Amidah in a crowded High Holiday Service, and most of all when in the midst of that quiet, a child sings or plays.
Our successes are clear and are becoming better well known. The J, the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, even did a cover story on our community. We have been a vibrant part of Modesto and the greater Central Valley for 99 years. But our challenges are also becoming more clear: STP, the Same Ten People. The same ten people can’t do it all, make up every minyan, or rebuild this community by themselves. We all can do more.
As Mahatma Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. We need to move forward, together. Let’s look at the map and choose the way that brings us closer to each other and farther ahead on our shared journey. Let’s make Beth Shalom all that we want it to be and all that we know that it can be. Let’s grow this place, and fill it with greater energy and more people every week of the year. This is one of my deepest hopes as we journey together into the new year. Shanah tovah – may we all be written in the book of life, health, happiness and success.
Life is a journey. We all are born small, and then we learn and grow, and slowly become the people that we are. We all have experienced the excitement and challenges of our first time away from home, the first time traveling on our own, and a moment of being lost. Our Jewish ancestors, according to Kabbalah, represent archetypes of different attributes. Abraham, “Mr. Hospitality”, represents Chesed – loving kindness, giving of himself, compassion for others. Isaac, who is bound on the altar, represents Gevurah – inner strength, boundaries, limit setting; and Jacob is the archetype of Tiferet – the splendor of balance, the beauty found in the proper amount of giving and receiving, the balancing scales that are the zodiac’s symbol for this ancient Jewish season of introspection and renewal. And Jacob is also the archetype of the journeyer. He runs away from his home, settles in his grandfather’s old country, and returns decades later with two wives, two half-wives, and 13 children. He then re-settles in his birthplace, only to relocate to Egypt in his old age to escape a famine. He is a man on the move – spending much of his life away from his family and his homeland. Jacob, more than any of the other patriarchs and matriarchs, knows about leaving home, travelling on his own, and being lost.
As we read in Genesis/B’reishit Chapter 28: “And Jacob left Beer Sheva, and set out for Charan. He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.”
Notice the three times that the word “place” appears in just one verse. This is clearly significant. In Hebrew the word for place is “Makom”, which is also a name of God, as the divine is The Place of the Universe. God, according to Judaism, is all there is, was, and will be and God may be found in all things, people and places. As Jacob is about to realize, he may need to leave his home, but one can never leave God’s presence. Back to our story: “He had a dream; a ladder was set on the ground and its top reached heavenward, and angelic messengers of God were going up and down on it.” God then blesses Jacob in this dream vision and tells him “Remember, I am with you. I will protect you where ever you go and I will bring you back to this land...”. Jacob awakens and says: “Surely God is in this place and I did not know it!” “Full of awe, Jacob said “How awesome is this place – Mah Norah HaMakom HaZeh! This is none other than the House of God and this is the gateway to heaven”.
“God is in this place and I did not know it”. All places are locations where God can be found. When Rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of Kotzk was 5 years old, he asked his father, "Where is God?" to which his father answered: "God is everywhere!" The future Rebbe then responded "No, I think God is only where you let God in." Tonight I want to speak about a place where I have spent much time this past year, searched for God, and sometimes even found God. Tonight I want to speak about Modesto.
Modesto may be a modest town, but we, as its Jewish community, have so much to be proud of. We held outdoor Chanukah celebrations this past year in Oakdale, Turlock, Manteca and Tracy – the first public Jewish events to ever occur in these cities. Our downtown Modesto Chanukah candle-lighting and our party back here at CBS were attended by more than 150 people. We again prepared meals for dozens of First Responders on December 24th and 25th and delivered more than a hundred meals to people in need. We partnered with Family Promise and Neighborhood Church to host three homeless families for a week in our synagogue classrooms. We hosted a regional Kadima weekend for Jewish middle school students from all over Northern California who filled our sanctuary with their singing, learning and socializing. We had more than 80 people participate in a Kabbalah adult education class series on eight Tuesday nights in the spring. We hosted speakers from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Christians United for Israel, and the musicians, singers and pastor from the Congregation of Zion church in Stockton for an Israel Rock Shabbat that attracted more than a 100 people. Four days later, 15 adults and 8 kids traveled to Israel on our first-ever congregational trip. We kicked off our Beit Sefer Hebrew School program and Sunday adult ed classes with a free Sunday afternoon concert with the CBS Rock Band, Leah Shoshanah’s beautiful original music and The Hebrew Project. We rented out and filled the State Theatre for a screening of the award winning film “Son of Saul” about a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and followed the screening with a panel discussion with a survivor, a therapist and a historian. What was particularly moving for me was to know that we had distributed dozens of free tickets to high school and college students to see this film and then hear directly from Gloria Lyon as she told her story and answered their questions. We hosted Rabbi Sara Shulman, the Director of the brand new Camp Ramah of Northern California. We offered our 24th season of Sunday Afternoon concerts bringing in amazing talent from all over the country and Canada. Our holiday celebrations have been extremely varied and fun: Hebrew Fest BBQ and sleep over for Sukkot, Simchat Torah with dancing and l’chaims, planting trees in public parks for Tu B’Shvat and having a mystical Seder with fruit, nuts, juices and wines, Purim shpiel, adult party, and kids carnival, two Passover Seders: a late-night traditional one and a shorter Musical Seder with more than a 100 people at each one and delicious catered meals, and our first ever all-night Shavuot Tikun Leil study session and Sunrise Service.
Our cultural programs such as Latkes and Vodkas, Jewish Comedy and Wine Tasting, and Shalom Deli brought hundreds of people together for Jewish food, entertainment, and learning about our community. We hosted visiting college students studying world religions and entire grades of students from local high schools. Every week we have had Friday night Services, always with topical and meaningful Drashot, often with lots of music, and sometimes with guest speakers. Once a month we have had Tot Shabbat Family Services. Every Saturday we have had a minyan so people can say Kaddish, find modern meaning in the wisdom of the Torah, and celebrate Shabbat with lunch and being together. Our Beit Sefer Hebrew School program for Kindergarten through 7th grade engages our children on Sunday mornings; our CBS Family Fest offers monthly hands-on holiday activities for families with younger children. Our Adult Education classes on Sunday, Meaningful Judaism and Adult Hebrew, explores Jewish practice, belief, history and texts.
We have so much to be proud of. And we also have some important questions to ask ourselves about our community and our ownership of it.
I am so incredibly honored and excited to serve as your Rabbi, Teacher, Spiritual Leader, Community Organizer and Cheerleader. My enthusiasm for this position has only increased since starting to work here full time 15 months ago. We must realize, however, it’s not just about what I can do; it’s about what we all can do together.
I was in Denver last month and attended a Conservative congregation there. It was a pleasant Service and there were about 100 people in their sanctuary on Shabbat morning, which given the larger size of the Jewish community there seemed about right. But I noticed that I was one of the youngest people in the room and I just turned 49. Then the Service ended and the Rabbi announced that to honor their custodian of 10 years, the children and families of the congregation’s preschool and junior congregation would join us. And then about 120 more people walked in to the room. Ok that’s not accurate, the 50 or more kids who were there ran in to the room and their teachers and parents followed.
Many of our members here in Modesto have told me that their parents lived here but their children moved away, to the Bay Area or LA. But there are families and Jewish individuals moving into the Central Valley, to Tracy and Manteca, and there are families who live right here in Modesto that are not involved. In fact, I’m convinced that practically everyone in this room knows someone who is Jewish and who is not involved here at CBS but could be and should be. In a larger community we perhaps could accept that some Jewish families won’t participate. In a community of our size, we could do much better.
We should ask ourselves: Where do we see ourselves in 10 years, in 5 years, or in 2 years? Can we imagine ourselves as a vibrant center of Jewish culture? Do we realize that everyone must roll up their sleeves, work together and participate? I don’t expect 150 people to attend Services every Friday night or Shabbat morning. I am asking everyone here to join us for a holiday, cultural event, or class before next Rosh HaShana. Yom Kippur is the most intense and hardest of observances. So, please also join us for the fun stuff: Sukkot, Simchat Torah, the Golf Tournament, or a Musical Shabbat. You could check out a Study Minyan, a Kabbalah class, or a Sunday concert. Our success is based largely on our volunteer leadership: consider getting involved with Family Promise in mid-December and July, help out with Café Shalom, or Latkes and Vodkas. Invite a Jewish co-worker or neighbor to come with you. Please look through our annual calendar of cultural programs and holiday celebrations, circle three or four or more, and be here with us.
This is our holy place. I have felt God’s presence when someone attends Shabbat Services here for the first time and they are so warmly welcomed. I have seen God’s glory when someone studies Judaism here and then goes to the mikveh with us and becomes a Jew, a son or daughter of Abraham and Sarah. I have heard the still small voice of The Holy One during a guided meditation at our Kabbalah class, or during a Quiet Amidah in a crowded High Holiday Service, and most of all when in the midst of that quiet, a child sings or plays.
Our successes are clear and are becoming better well known. The J, the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, even did a cover story on our community. We have been a vibrant part of Modesto and the greater Central Valley for 99 years. But our challenges are also becoming more clear: STP, the Same Ten People. The same ten people can’t do it all, make up every minyan, or rebuild this community by themselves. We all can do more.
As Mahatma Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. We need to move forward, together. Let’s look at the map and choose the way that brings us closer to each other and farther ahead on our shared journey. Let’s make Beth Shalom all that we want it to be and all that we know that it can be. Let’s grow this place, and fill it with greater energy and more people every week of the year. This is one of my deepest hopes as we journey together into the new year. Shanah tovah – may we all be written in the book of life, health, happiness and success.
DRASH YOM KIPPUR:
Shana Tova. I’ve been speaking over the high holidays about places I have been and journeys that I’ve taken this year. I feel like it’s an appropriate topic, to look back at where we have been before moving forward, as life itself is a journey. This year, among the many places that I’ve visited and spent time in, Jerusalem, Rawlins, Wyoming, and of course Modesto, the hardest journey I undertook was to Europe, and walking through the gates of Auschwitz Birkenau twice within 5 days. I took this powerful trip as part of a delegation from the Bay Area Board of Rabbis who traveled to Poland and Germany last fall to see the rebirth of Jewish Life there today and also to mourn the destruction of 75 years ago. It was a trip that certainly impacted my year and taught me a great deal.
I can’t remember a time that I didn’t know about the Shoah. I was the generation, growing up in the 1970’s, that was shown graphic films of the Holocaust in Hebrew School. Nazis who had entered the United States after the war and lived nearby in Upstate New York were a frequent topic of Shabbat sermons at Temple Israel. My father was born in Berlin, remembers Hitler’s rise to power and anti-Jewish graffiti painted on his father’s shop sign right below the apartment that they lived in. My step-father, who I met when I was 7, was a Hungarian survivor whose younger sister and mother where murdered by the Nazis. As a young child, I remember asking my father where our family was from, and he pointed on the map to two small cities in Southern Poland: Tarnow, Nowy Sanz, and the tiny shtetle of Yudlowa. I couldn’t help but notice Bochnia, a dozen or so miles to the east, and think how in Poland there is a city that my last name probably derives from. Thus began my fascination with genealogy and the Old Country.
I traveled there in 1999, saw these places, and also saw Sopron where my step-father was born on the Austrian border, Krakow, Warsaw, Prague and Bratislava. When the rabbis trip was announced, I knew that this was something that I had to do. Shoshana and I went to Prague for a few days of Jewish sight seeing, then took an overnight train to Poland, spent 24 hours seeing Auschwitz, Nowy Sanz and Krakow together, and then I took a train to Warsaw to meet up with my colleagues.
There is no question that Jewish life in modern Poland is strong, growing, proud and active. Young people, the grandchildren of survivors, are rebuilding synagogues, opening JCC’s, and engaging in an outreach and in-reach campaign that is truly inspirational. A new museum in Central Warsaw details the 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland and is filled with thousands of visitors every day. Jewish communities are re-forming where the destruction of the Second World War and communist rule had barely left a trace. Where proof of Jewish life remains, it is being protected, in the form of new fences and signs at Jewish cemeteries, plaques on old synagogue buildings, and memorials to destroyed communities. Much of this work has been carried out by the non-Jewish residents of these towns: priests, mayors, volunteers, local and EU funding have all contributed to the work of honor this vast Jewish history, our history. Some of these cities and villages were 40%, 50%, or even 80% Jewish before the war and now, in most cases, all that is left is these buildings, markers, graves, and memories. Warsaw was 25% Jewish before the war – 3 million Jews lived in Poland and Poles today have a fascination with Jewish culture. A Christian Zionist whom we met with explained that “there is a sense of void in the collective consciousness of the nation. The traces of Hebrew and Jewish ruins/remains excites the imagination, creates a sense of magic, and points to the vanished underpinnings of Polish civilization and society.”
The trip was filled with so many moments of tears, community, kaddish, amazing kosher meals, “ah hah” moments where the context of the Polish Jewry and holocaust became so sharply focused, meeting amazing people, taking hundreds of photos, writing pages and pages in my daily journal, exploring, walking, traveling, stopping, praying, wondering, asking questions...One moment perhaps summarized it all, the complication of it all, the paradoxes, the beauty, the depth of despair. It was our last day in Poland, All Saints Day, when Poles en masse visit cemeteries. We were in the woods outside Tarnow, where my grandmother grew up, and just past the modern suburban houses we visited the site of a Nazi killing field. A huge soviet memorial towered over the site - with no mention of the Jews who were murdered there. Smaller, modern more accurate memorials also marked the spot. An Israeli group had clearly visited a day or two before, leaving balloons with Hebrew messages written on them. Here is the poem I later wrote:
I can’t remember a time that I didn’t know about the Shoah. I was the generation, growing up in the 1970’s, that was shown graphic films of the Holocaust in Hebrew School. Nazis who had entered the United States after the war and lived nearby in Upstate New York were a frequent topic of Shabbat sermons at Temple Israel. My father was born in Berlin, remembers Hitler’s rise to power and anti-Jewish graffiti painted on his father’s shop sign right below the apartment that they lived in. My step-father, who I met when I was 7, was a Hungarian survivor whose younger sister and mother where murdered by the Nazis. As a young child, I remember asking my father where our family was from, and he pointed on the map to two small cities in Southern Poland: Tarnow, Nowy Sanz, and the tiny shtetle of Yudlowa. I couldn’t help but notice Bochnia, a dozen or so miles to the east, and think how in Poland there is a city that my last name probably derives from. Thus began my fascination with genealogy and the Old Country.
I traveled there in 1999, saw these places, and also saw Sopron where my step-father was born on the Austrian border, Krakow, Warsaw, Prague and Bratislava. When the rabbis trip was announced, I knew that this was something that I had to do. Shoshana and I went to Prague for a few days of Jewish sight seeing, then took an overnight train to Poland, spent 24 hours seeing Auschwitz, Nowy Sanz and Krakow together, and then I took a train to Warsaw to meet up with my colleagues.
There is no question that Jewish life in modern Poland is strong, growing, proud and active. Young people, the grandchildren of survivors, are rebuilding synagogues, opening JCC’s, and engaging in an outreach and in-reach campaign that is truly inspirational. A new museum in Central Warsaw details the 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland and is filled with thousands of visitors every day. Jewish communities are re-forming where the destruction of the Second World War and communist rule had barely left a trace. Where proof of Jewish life remains, it is being protected, in the form of new fences and signs at Jewish cemeteries, plaques on old synagogue buildings, and memorials to destroyed communities. Much of this work has been carried out by the non-Jewish residents of these towns: priests, mayors, volunteers, local and EU funding have all contributed to the work of honor this vast Jewish history, our history. Some of these cities and villages were 40%, 50%, or even 80% Jewish before the war and now, in most cases, all that is left is these buildings, markers, graves, and memories. Warsaw was 25% Jewish before the war – 3 million Jews lived in Poland and Poles today have a fascination with Jewish culture. A Christian Zionist whom we met with explained that “there is a sense of void in the collective consciousness of the nation. The traces of Hebrew and Jewish ruins/remains excites the imagination, creates a sense of magic, and points to the vanished underpinnings of Polish civilization and society.”
The trip was filled with so many moments of tears, community, kaddish, amazing kosher meals, “ah hah” moments where the context of the Polish Jewry and holocaust became so sharply focused, meeting amazing people, taking hundreds of photos, writing pages and pages in my daily journal, exploring, walking, traveling, stopping, praying, wondering, asking questions...One moment perhaps summarized it all, the complication of it all, the paradoxes, the beauty, the depth of despair. It was our last day in Poland, All Saints Day, when Poles en masse visit cemeteries. We were in the woods outside Tarnow, where my grandmother grew up, and just past the modern suburban houses we visited the site of a Nazi killing field. A huge soviet memorial towered over the site - with no mention of the Jews who were murdered there. Smaller, modern more accurate memorials also marked the spot. An Israeli group had clearly visited a day or two before, leaving balloons with Hebrew messages written on them. Here is the poem I later wrote:
Leaves fall in an inviting golden wood.
The sun shines through the cool early afternoon of autumn.
Sounds of birds, breezes, children, a chicken in a backyard;
a couple rides by on their bikes and stops to listen
...to our group of rabbis reciting the prayer of memorial
at the mass grave of children, 800 youngsters,
brutally murdered by the Nazis 70 years ago
flags, candles, toys, pictures, balloons, messages,
left on the ground
mixed with the falling leaves and grass
and Israeli boot-prints in the mud
The day is no less lovely, it’s very lovely, perhaps too lovely;
can anything ever be too lovely?
People visit; it’s a national holiday of outings to graves.
It’s not a silent and forgotten space.
I’m glad that there are others there
Strangely comforted to see a parent with children
Trying to explain what happened there
As if anyone can explain, or understand.
There is nothing to understand
Evil, seemingly full and absolute
Was unleashed against a world
Of children, parents, siblings, woman, men, teachers, leaders,
holy and pure ones
Killed, burnt, shot, tortured, drowned, hated, mutilated...
Words fail completely. There is no way to
describe or tell what happened when
The Holy One blinked for a divine second
and sacredness was only to be found in the
simple acts of powerless people finding
some small secret power to help another.
God was not dead, S/He lived in the hearts of those who
prayed,
hoped
fought back
comforted
saw
remembered
lived
died
fled
hid
were in hiding
wrote
healed
believed
That one day
we would still be here
and would be safe
and those who survived
would have children
who would
pray
hope
sing
laugh
dance
dream
build
grow
teach
learn
heal
and would raise a glass
in blessing
and in smiles
to say “to life!”
we praise life
we believe that we can
we know that life is worth living
we, the eternal optimists
who praise The Eternal One
for the miracles that in every day are with us
and for the wonderful goodness of each season,
evening, morning, and afternoon
Even on an afternoon in Poland
where the extremes of beauty intersect
with the extremes of destruction and hatred
where life can be rebirthed
at the very place where lives were shot down
It can’t be explained or understood.
It doesn’t make any sense.
Perhaps life doesn’t make any sense
But I believe that it does.
And the obscured meaning
still connects all living things
with spirit, soul and life
in a far greater circle
How do I incorporate these memories into my daily life? How do we, as modern Jews, honor the memory of the 6 million without becoming obsessed with this 10 year period of time at the risk of forgetting the 3,500 years of Jewish history that preceded it and followed it? I don’t want my Jewish identity to be tied into proving Hitler wrong – I don’t want my Jewish soul and expression to have anything to do with hate, destruction, or Hitler - may his name be erased.
My step-father was an amazing person, full of warmth and humor. Few would have guessed that he was a survivor. He had a part-time hobby impersonating Inspector Clouseau. What inspired me even more than his continued faith in God and devotion to Jewish observance, was his continued faith in humanity. He loved meeting people, entertaining them, and seeing the goodness in them. As Anne Frank said: “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart” and “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” In less than a month a production of the play, The Diary of Anne Frank will be performed here in Modesto at the Gallo Center and CBS is co-sponsoring the Sunday Matinee performance. A friend of Anne Frank’s who is mentioned in the diary, Ursula Foster, later lived in Modesto, was very active here, and is buried in our cemetery. Her son, Cliff Lester, will be with us for the play and will afterwards share his powerful photographs of survivors. Clearly attending this event, telling others about it, ensuring that high school and college students know that they can attend it for free, is one way that we honor this painful history.
I know that I need to go back to Eastern Europe – there is more for me to see there. When they are a bit older, I want to bring my own children there – to see the places that our family lived for hundreds of years, to help restore a cemetery where our relatives are buried, to understand the beauty and joy that was Jewish life in Poland for hundreds of years before the 1930’s. I’d like you to travel there with me. I strongly believe that anyone with Ashkenazi heritage should visit the Old Countries. It is important for the non-Jews that live there to see us visiting these sites and know that we are still a vibrant people. It is educational for us, to understand what happened there and to see Jewish life rebounding where it was almost eliminated. It is powerful, for the souls of our departed loved ones, to know that they have not been forgotten – that we come to place a pebble on the graves that bear our family names, and see the rolling hills where our DNA was formed. Please get involved with organizing a CBS Jewish Heritage trip to Eastern Europe within the next couple of years.
Psalm 104, which we recite on the new moon is among the most profound of King David’s poems. It describes the beauty of the natural world, the web of life, the blessings of plants, animals and humanity. And in the midst of all the praise and joy – one verse stands alone:
“When you hide Your face, God, they feel panic; when you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust”. This line is like the years of the Shoah set in the context of our people’s long history. And this verse, and this history, leaves us with questions that may have no answers. 1/3 of all Jews were murdered 75 years ago, but we are still here – strong and proud. How do we sanctify their deaths? How do we live our lives, not keeping the murderers in mind and what they did, but keeping our loved ones in mind and also their loved ones? We are about to recite Yizkor and state the power of memory. How do we best honor our loved ones? What righteous actions do we need to commit to in the absence of what our loved ones did and brought to this world? How do these memories live within us, every week?
I don’t have the answers, but I know that we must ask the questions.
May their memories be a blessing for us, our community, and the whole world.
My step-father was an amazing person, full of warmth and humor. Few would have guessed that he was a survivor. He had a part-time hobby impersonating Inspector Clouseau. What inspired me even more than his continued faith in God and devotion to Jewish observance, was his continued faith in humanity. He loved meeting people, entertaining them, and seeing the goodness in them. As Anne Frank said: “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart” and “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” In less than a month a production of the play, The Diary of Anne Frank will be performed here in Modesto at the Gallo Center and CBS is co-sponsoring the Sunday Matinee performance. A friend of Anne Frank’s who is mentioned in the diary, Ursula Foster, later lived in Modesto, was very active here, and is buried in our cemetery. Her son, Cliff Lester, will be with us for the play and will afterwards share his powerful photographs of survivors. Clearly attending this event, telling others about it, ensuring that high school and college students know that they can attend it for free, is one way that we honor this painful history.
I know that I need to go back to Eastern Europe – there is more for me to see there. When they are a bit older, I want to bring my own children there – to see the places that our family lived for hundreds of years, to help restore a cemetery where our relatives are buried, to understand the beauty and joy that was Jewish life in Poland for hundreds of years before the 1930’s. I’d like you to travel there with me. I strongly believe that anyone with Ashkenazi heritage should visit the Old Countries. It is important for the non-Jews that live there to see us visiting these sites and know that we are still a vibrant people. It is educational for us, to understand what happened there and to see Jewish life rebounding where it was almost eliminated. It is powerful, for the souls of our departed loved ones, to know that they have not been forgotten – that we come to place a pebble on the graves that bear our family names, and see the rolling hills where our DNA was formed. Please get involved with organizing a CBS Jewish Heritage trip to Eastern Europe within the next couple of years.
Psalm 104, which we recite on the new moon is among the most profound of King David’s poems. It describes the beauty of the natural world, the web of life, the blessings of plants, animals and humanity. And in the midst of all the praise and joy – one verse stands alone:
“When you hide Your face, God, they feel panic; when you take away their breath, they perish and return to the dust”. This line is like the years of the Shoah set in the context of our people’s long history. And this verse, and this history, leaves us with questions that may have no answers. 1/3 of all Jews were murdered 75 years ago, but we are still here – strong and proud. How do we sanctify their deaths? How do we live our lives, not keeping the murderers in mind and what they did, but keeping our loved ones in mind and also their loved ones? We are about to recite Yizkor and state the power of memory. How do we best honor our loved ones? What righteous actions do we need to commit to in the absence of what our loved ones did and brought to this world? How do these memories live within us, every week?
I don’t have the answers, but I know that we must ask the questions.
May their memories be a blessing for us, our community, and the whole world.
DRASH FROM NEILAH - THE YOM KIPPUR CLOSING SERVICE
I’ve been speaking to you for these past 10 Days of Awe about journeys that I have taken this year: to Israel, Wyoming, in Modesto, and to Europe. Life is a journey – we are always moving. Our photo albums and computers are filled with pictures of the places that we have been in our lives.
Of course, even when we are travelling and on the go, many moments are about stopping: at stop signs, lights, traffic slow downs, coming to a halt as life throws us yet another curve ball. It’s important to realize the significance of these stops. Life is a journey, not a goal or the destination. Let us pause right now to think about and appreciate the pauses in our journeys, the rest stops in our lives.
The rabbis of the Mishnah instruct us: “Repent one day before you die”. We should live every day as if it may be our last for we never know when it may in fact be. The rabbis also teach us in the Mishnah: “Do not be sure of yourself until the day you day.” We should never feel like we know exactly what we can accomplish in our lives. We are always moving forward, learning, growing, and evolving. This is the essence of Yom Kippur and we now move into the final moments of this sacred day. “What should I do next?” may be the most ancient of questions that humans have asked themselves.
Our wonderful CBS Office Manager, Sandy Fitzgerald has a great quote in her office. “What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things that you thanked God for today?” As part of our commitment to being better people, closer to our true selves, I encourage you to consider making appreciation a daily part of your life. Try to wake up and say “Modeh Ahni” - I am thankful for my life and the gift of a new day. Tell the people that you live with that you love them; thank them for the small and large things that they do for you and others. Let us fill your lives with appreciation and blessings.
How would we live if we knew that this day would be our last? What would we say, what we do and not do? I’m not suggesting that we live every moment as if it were Neilah, but live every day knowing that Neilah is coming.
The gates of repentance, spiritual return and cleansing never close. So, if the gates are teshuvah are always open, then what is the significance of these last minutes of Yom Kippur? To know that the time has come to become the people that we want to be in this new year. I once sent in a grant evaluation and apologized to the foundation that I was sending it in at the last minute. They wrote me right back saying: sometimes, often, that is what the last minutes are for.
We will all die with things in our in-box and on our to-do list. Our work will never be done. There will always be more that we want to do accomplish, one more book to read, one more movie to watch, one more recipe to try, one more attempt at humor to post on facebook. When we die, we probably won’t think about our e-mails. We will probably ask ourselves did I live my life fully? Did I love enough? Did I experience and journey enough? Did I make my mark on this world and leave it at least slightly better than I found it.
So here, at the cusp of a new year, with the Yom Kippur sun sinking lower, ask yourself: Where have we been and where are we going?
It can be challenging to fast, it can be hard to ask for forgiveness, but the hardest part is feeling forgiven and actually forgiving ourselves. The best way to know that we are no longer the same person that we were when we stumbled, fell, hurt others, broke our commitments is to make actual change. And this is the hour, the final hour of this day of cleansing, to actually do so. So look inside your heart and life and make at least one real improvement. Think of at least one relationship that you can heal, one aspect of yourself that you want to improve, and/or one way to connect with community.
Take these moments as the sun is setting to decide what is really important in your life. Make a commitment. Honor it.
The great rabbi Hillel is famous for asking: If I am not for me, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And, if not now, when?
The sun sets, the gates are closing. May we all be sealed for a good, healthy, happy, successful, rain-filled, blessing-filled year. Amein.
Of course, even when we are travelling and on the go, many moments are about stopping: at stop signs, lights, traffic slow downs, coming to a halt as life throws us yet another curve ball. It’s important to realize the significance of these stops. Life is a journey, not a goal or the destination. Let us pause right now to think about and appreciate the pauses in our journeys, the rest stops in our lives.
The rabbis of the Mishnah instruct us: “Repent one day before you die”. We should live every day as if it may be our last for we never know when it may in fact be. The rabbis also teach us in the Mishnah: “Do not be sure of yourself until the day you day.” We should never feel like we know exactly what we can accomplish in our lives. We are always moving forward, learning, growing, and evolving. This is the essence of Yom Kippur and we now move into the final moments of this sacred day. “What should I do next?” may be the most ancient of questions that humans have asked themselves.
Our wonderful CBS Office Manager, Sandy Fitzgerald has a great quote in her office. “What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things that you thanked God for today?” As part of our commitment to being better people, closer to our true selves, I encourage you to consider making appreciation a daily part of your life. Try to wake up and say “Modeh Ahni” - I am thankful for my life and the gift of a new day. Tell the people that you live with that you love them; thank them for the small and large things that they do for you and others. Let us fill your lives with appreciation and blessings.
How would we live if we knew that this day would be our last? What would we say, what we do and not do? I’m not suggesting that we live every moment as if it were Neilah, but live every day knowing that Neilah is coming.
The gates of repentance, spiritual return and cleansing never close. So, if the gates are teshuvah are always open, then what is the significance of these last minutes of Yom Kippur? To know that the time has come to become the people that we want to be in this new year. I once sent in a grant evaluation and apologized to the foundation that I was sending it in at the last minute. They wrote me right back saying: sometimes, often, that is what the last minutes are for.
We will all die with things in our in-box and on our to-do list. Our work will never be done. There will always be more that we want to do accomplish, one more book to read, one more movie to watch, one more recipe to try, one more attempt at humor to post on facebook. When we die, we probably won’t think about our e-mails. We will probably ask ourselves did I live my life fully? Did I love enough? Did I experience and journey enough? Did I make my mark on this world and leave it at least slightly better than I found it.
So here, at the cusp of a new year, with the Yom Kippur sun sinking lower, ask yourself: Where have we been and where are we going?
It can be challenging to fast, it can be hard to ask for forgiveness, but the hardest part is feeling forgiven and actually forgiving ourselves. The best way to know that we are no longer the same person that we were when we stumbled, fell, hurt others, broke our commitments is to make actual change. And this is the hour, the final hour of this day of cleansing, to actually do so. So look inside your heart and life and make at least one real improvement. Think of at least one relationship that you can heal, one aspect of yourself that you want to improve, and/or one way to connect with community.
Take these moments as the sun is setting to decide what is really important in your life. Make a commitment. Honor it.
The great rabbi Hillel is famous for asking: If I am not for me, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And, if not now, when?
The sun sets, the gates are closing. May we all be sealed for a good, healthy, happy, successful, rain-filled, blessing-filled year. Amein.
Photo taken by Alex Photo email: photo.modesto@gmail.com