DRASHOT - Torah Explanation...
Jewish Time - Shabbat B'reishit 5776 – 2015
Shabat Shalom. This Shabbat is known as Shabbat B’reishit, the Sabbath of Genesis, Creation, when we read the first portion of the Torah “In a Beginning...”. Note that despite all of the mistranslations, B’reishit is not “in The beginning...”. The Torah begins with a mystery, a question, it wants us to wrestle a bit with what this implies: there were other beginnings, there are other stories, we may not be the only universe...
Of course the important question when we read any line of Torah is “Mah zeh bah l’lamdeinu – what does it come to teach us?” What does it mean to you and to me? What is the relevant and timely message in these ancient words?
To me, the relevant topic of this Shabbat is that we are at a time of new beginnings. We have celebrated the birthday of the universe, Rosh HaShanah we have celebrated the date when we are cleansed and re-born, Yom Kippur, we have celebrated our harvest of accomplishments on Sukkot and we started to read and study the Torah anew on Simchat Torah. The page of this new year is blank, white, clean and empty. We are about to write our books of life for the year. This is a time of fresh starts, for the universe, for the humanity, for our community, and for us as individuals.
I ask that we fully take advantage of this moment of newness. Many of us have worked hard to clean and repair this building and to heal and grow this community. There are concrete ways that we all can help. Allow me to suggest just a few for us to think about and put into action.
Despite all of the jokes about Jewish guilt and complaining Jewish mothers and mothers-in-law, I want this place, this holy space, to be a guilt-free zone. This is a place that we can try to enter and leave at least some of our emotional baggage at the door. When we you see someone, ask them how they are, really listen, and don’t grill them about where they have been and why we haven’t seen them here in a long while or at all. Be friendly, be welcoming; be warm. It takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. Smiles and frowns are both contagious; let’s make this a place where people feel good about being here. Let’s all try to grow this community, invite people that we know, and make them feel comfortable when they are here. It will take all of us to make and maintain this building as a guilt-free, positive zone. I know that we can do it.
Secondly, be positive: towards others, and towards yourself. Assume the best about others, not the worst. We all have different opinions; we all have conflicting ideas about what this community should do better. Let’s create a harmony, not a clashing noise of conflict. If there are rifts forming, see how we can each lessen them, not add to them. We need each other, and in a Jewish community the size of this one, if we are stuck with each other or blessed with each other, this is the only Jewish congregation for many many miles. I pledge to do whatever I can, as your Rabbi, to try to understand what you each need and want. If there are people that are feeling hurt or upset here, please encourage them to talk to me so I can better understand where healing needs to occur. I can only help solve problems that I know about.
Avoid lashon harah – negative speech. Gossip spreads faster than a bad cold and is usually not true and certainly more dangerous than some sneezes and coughs. When people are talking about others, their actions and motives, please gently remind them that it’s often hurtful and almost always unproductive to do so. We are not perfect, none of us are. Please make this a year that we don’t take delight in other’s shortcomings. Nothing can undo a community quicker than senseless rifts, accusations of wrongdoing, martyrdom of communal hurts, victimizing ourselves and others. We all know what I’m talking about; we all do these things. This year, let’s do it much less. Encourage dialogue. Engage in active listening. Speak to me or board members when there are concerns. Accept the decision of the group and our elected leadership and help them inform their process with your calm input. Let’s make things much less personal. Try to have thicker skin. Not take everything as an attack or challenge to your or a friend. Most misunderstandings are just that – mistakes, misunderstandings. Be forgiving, with yourself and with others. It’s easy to notice the flaws, the problems, the shortcomings. Let’s all work hard to focus on the positives so we can address the challenges, together, gently, lovingly, with a desire to heal the problems, not grow them. Complaints come cheap. Let’s go for quality. When you feel the negativity rising, take a break, take a breathe, take a walk; come back ready to add to the conversation and move us further as a community, not backwards or stalled in the middle of the intersection. Be positive.
Last of all, for now, keep in mind that some people come here just on Shabbat and/or on Sunday mornings for adult ed. Other people work here, many people volunteer here for many hours a week. We have a limited staff and the demands are great. When you see someone here on Shabbat, remember that it’s Shabbat. They probably don’t want to engage in their CBS work or volunteer work on Shabbat. Ask before asking a question or starting a CBS-related conversation. If you have a complaint or a concern about the way that someone did their job or un-paid volunteer job, Shabbat is not the time to discuss it. At all. I am happy to engage in the community and work hard for it 24/6. We all need at least one day off that we are not hearing concerns and complaints. If you have a question, and we all often do, e-mail or call the person during their working hours. Set a time to speak with them. Do not confront them here on Shabbat. There is a large number of volunteering hard working people here who need to know that this a work-free zone on Shabbat and holidays. If something comes up during Shabbat, make a mental note of your concerns, and wait until after Shabbat. The office is open 9am – 1pm, 5 days a week. Please do not call our staff at home unless it is a true emergency involving a sickness or a death. Being upset or wanting some information does not likely qualify as an emergency.
There are some many ways that we can all be involved and more invested in our community. There are so many ways that we can make this an incredible year at this time of new beginnings. I have offered just three: help us make this a guilt free zone, be positive and avoid negative speech, respect our staff’s and volunteer’s need for a day off. Over the next few months I will continue to use these drashot to talk about healing and growing our community. This the foundation. Let us build up. Let us have high hopes. Let us dream together; let us strengthen each other. Let us strive to be the best people that we can be, the best congregation that we can be and make this the best world and community that we can imagine and then some. Kein Yehi Ratzon – may that be God’s will and our wills as well. Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Shalom Bochner
Shabat Shalom. This Shabbat is known as Shabbat B’reishit, the Sabbath of Genesis, Creation, when we read the first portion of the Torah “In a Beginning...”. Note that despite all of the mistranslations, B’reishit is not “in The beginning...”. The Torah begins with a mystery, a question, it wants us to wrestle a bit with what this implies: there were other beginnings, there are other stories, we may not be the only universe...
Of course the important question when we read any line of Torah is “Mah zeh bah l’lamdeinu – what does it come to teach us?” What does it mean to you and to me? What is the relevant and timely message in these ancient words?
To me, the relevant topic of this Shabbat is that we are at a time of new beginnings. We have celebrated the birthday of the universe, Rosh HaShanah we have celebrated the date when we are cleansed and re-born, Yom Kippur, we have celebrated our harvest of accomplishments on Sukkot and we started to read and study the Torah anew on Simchat Torah. The page of this new year is blank, white, clean and empty. We are about to write our books of life for the year. This is a time of fresh starts, for the universe, for the humanity, for our community, and for us as individuals.
I ask that we fully take advantage of this moment of newness. Many of us have worked hard to clean and repair this building and to heal and grow this community. There are concrete ways that we all can help. Allow me to suggest just a few for us to think about and put into action.
Despite all of the jokes about Jewish guilt and complaining Jewish mothers and mothers-in-law, I want this place, this holy space, to be a guilt-free zone. This is a place that we can try to enter and leave at least some of our emotional baggage at the door. When we you see someone, ask them how they are, really listen, and don’t grill them about where they have been and why we haven’t seen them here in a long while or at all. Be friendly, be welcoming; be warm. It takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. Smiles and frowns are both contagious; let’s make this a place where people feel good about being here. Let’s all try to grow this community, invite people that we know, and make them feel comfortable when they are here. It will take all of us to make and maintain this building as a guilt-free, positive zone. I know that we can do it.
Secondly, be positive: towards others, and towards yourself. Assume the best about others, not the worst. We all have different opinions; we all have conflicting ideas about what this community should do better. Let’s create a harmony, not a clashing noise of conflict. If there are rifts forming, see how we can each lessen them, not add to them. We need each other, and in a Jewish community the size of this one, if we are stuck with each other or blessed with each other, this is the only Jewish congregation for many many miles. I pledge to do whatever I can, as your Rabbi, to try to understand what you each need and want. If there are people that are feeling hurt or upset here, please encourage them to talk to me so I can better understand where healing needs to occur. I can only help solve problems that I know about.
Avoid lashon harah – negative speech. Gossip spreads faster than a bad cold and is usually not true and certainly more dangerous than some sneezes and coughs. When people are talking about others, their actions and motives, please gently remind them that it’s often hurtful and almost always unproductive to do so. We are not perfect, none of us are. Please make this a year that we don’t take delight in other’s shortcomings. Nothing can undo a community quicker than senseless rifts, accusations of wrongdoing, martyrdom of communal hurts, victimizing ourselves and others. We all know what I’m talking about; we all do these things. This year, let’s do it much less. Encourage dialogue. Engage in active listening. Speak to me or board members when there are concerns. Accept the decision of the group and our elected leadership and help them inform their process with your calm input. Let’s make things much less personal. Try to have thicker skin. Not take everything as an attack or challenge to your or a friend. Most misunderstandings are just that – mistakes, misunderstandings. Be forgiving, with yourself and with others. It’s easy to notice the flaws, the problems, the shortcomings. Let’s all work hard to focus on the positives so we can address the challenges, together, gently, lovingly, with a desire to heal the problems, not grow them. Complaints come cheap. Let’s go for quality. When you feel the negativity rising, take a break, take a breathe, take a walk; come back ready to add to the conversation and move us further as a community, not backwards or stalled in the middle of the intersection. Be positive.
Last of all, for now, keep in mind that some people come here just on Shabbat and/or on Sunday mornings for adult ed. Other people work here, many people volunteer here for many hours a week. We have a limited staff and the demands are great. When you see someone here on Shabbat, remember that it’s Shabbat. They probably don’t want to engage in their CBS work or volunteer work on Shabbat. Ask before asking a question or starting a CBS-related conversation. If you have a complaint or a concern about the way that someone did their job or un-paid volunteer job, Shabbat is not the time to discuss it. At all. I am happy to engage in the community and work hard for it 24/6. We all need at least one day off that we are not hearing concerns and complaints. If you have a question, and we all often do, e-mail or call the person during their working hours. Set a time to speak with them. Do not confront them here on Shabbat. There is a large number of volunteering hard working people here who need to know that this a work-free zone on Shabbat and holidays. If something comes up during Shabbat, make a mental note of your concerns, and wait until after Shabbat. The office is open 9am – 1pm, 5 days a week. Please do not call our staff at home unless it is a true emergency involving a sickness or a death. Being upset or wanting some information does not likely qualify as an emergency.
There are some many ways that we can all be involved and more invested in our community. There are so many ways that we can make this an incredible year at this time of new beginnings. I have offered just three: help us make this a guilt free zone, be positive and avoid negative speech, respect our staff’s and volunteer’s need for a day off. Over the next few months I will continue to use these drashot to talk about healing and growing our community. This the foundation. Let us build up. Let us have high hopes. Let us dream together; let us strengthen each other. Let us strive to be the best people that we can be, the best congregation that we can be and make this the best world and community that we can imagine and then some. Kein Yehi Ratzon – may that be God’s will and our wills as well. Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Shalom Bochner