Messages from the Rabbi

A new decade, a new era.

December 24, 2009

Three months ago, we inaugurated the new year 5770. Next week, we welcome 2010. Either way, we mark a new year and a new decade. Round numbers invite celebration and reflection. As we read in Psalm 90: Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

The number I want to count is four, a particularly Jewish number (4 questions on Passover, 4 species on Sukkot, 4 matriarchs). Here are descriptions of four fresh new organizations in Jewish life that deserve some attention. They are among a select group who have been awarded funding by Slingshot, a network of young Jewish philanthropists, for innovation in the Jewish community. They are each playing a unique role in shaping and responding to new trends in Jewish life today. If you don’t know about them yet, you should. Your kids will.

Hazon is “working to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community, and a healthier and more sustainable world for everyone.” Their Israel bike ride, that some HBT members have joined, is only one of the many exciting programs that promote environmental consciousness in the US and in Israel. They were the first to create a program for Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the Jewish community and now have 40 Jewish CSAs! Recently, HAZON has sponsored the Jewish Farm School, Wilderness Torah and Camp Eden Village. Jewish eating does not have to be unhealthy! Go to hazon.org
InterfaithFamily.com is a local start-up that HBT members should know about. This web-zine is “the central web address for those in interfaith relationships seeking information about and connections with Jewish life.” Look for resources for people living in interfaith relationships and contact with others who have dealt with similar concerns and questions. It also offers support for clergy and educators who wish to become more available to interfaith couples and families. InterfaithFamily.com provides critical direction to the Jewish community for making interfaith families welcome and for integrating them into Jewish life and Jewish communities. Check out interfaithfamily.com
Mayyim Hayyim Living Waters Mikveh and Education Center is certainly close to my own heart. Now in its fifth year, our own local mikveh has welcomed over 1000 immersions a year. Every year, our HBT sixth graders take a field trip to learn about the rituals surrounding mikveh, including conversion and pre-bar/bat mitzvah immersions. Because it is open and welcoming to all Jews, it has become a model for communities across the globe to discover the power of the immersion ritual for marking all kinds of life transitions. Recently, Mayyim Hayyim published a healing guide *Blessings for the Journey A Jewish Healing Guide for Women with Cancer.* Find them at mayyimhayyim.org
Moving Traditions sponsors Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing, the popular Jewish girls’ group that HBT has been promoting for five years. Moving Traditions “is the only Jewish organization that looks at Judaism through a full gender lens – which includes both men and women – to inspire Jews across North America to engage more deeply with Judaism and the Jewish community.” They are gearing up for a new initiative, the Campaign for Jewish Boys, which we hope to bring to HBT as a means to engage our boys with as much enthusiasm as our girls embrace Rosh Hodesh. Visit movingtraditions.org

If HBT looks a little different than the synagogue you knew a generation ago, try to imagine the Jewish world the next generation is going to inhabit and lead! See www.slingshotfund.org for other exciting new ventures, like Jdub records and Storahtelling.

Happy new era!
Rabbi Barbara Penzner

November 12, 2009

This past Sunday, I had the honor of moderating a panel at the Boston Jewish Film Festival with the filmmakers of two documentaries: “Leaving the Fold” and “Leap of Faith.” The first film focuses on a handful of young men and women who have left the closed and restrictive ultra-orthodox communities of their birth for a less rigid Jewish lifestyle. The second film follows several people as they leave their Christian roots to become Orthodox Jews. Listening to the directors, I was surprised to discover universal messages about the power of community and its relation to self-expression, and about the bonds of family and how they withstand dramatic changes.

On the surface, one might approach both films as a critique or defense of orthodox or ultra-orthodox Judaism (which are distinctly different Jewish cultures). For many viewers, each film offers a glimpse into a world quite different from our own Jewish milieu. However, one of the important messages I heard from the directors was that they chose these individuals’ stories because of the dramatic shifts entailed in entering or leaving a strictly orthodox lifestyle. The films are successful because of the striking tensions that accompany these radical journeys, the angst that arises from choosing a different direction from one’s family of origin, and the triumph of the soul that nearly everyone experienced in their new life. As a parent and as a child, I could sense the pain that entered into these relationships, feel the thrill of charting a new path, and resonate with the sense of loss that tinged each story.

In this week’s Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, we are reminded of the many types of loss that one can experience and the importance of family bonds in enduring our losses. The first verse of the portion informs us that Sarah, the mother of all of the Jewish people, has died. Shortly afterward, Abraham sends his servant to bring back a wife for Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac. What is the connection? Right after Abraham buries his wife, the text reads V’adonai berach et-Avraham bakol, meaning “God blessed Abraham in all things.” This is hardly the way one might describe someone in mourning! Rashi points out that the numerical value, or gematria, of the Hebrew word bakol (bet - kaf - lamed) equals the word ben (bet - nun), meaning son or child. (52). Rashi concludes that “since Avraham had a son he had to find someone for him to marry.”

One way to understand Rashi’s teaching is that children can be the greatest blessing of our lives. They comfort us when we have suffered a loss. We also find some solace knowing that we have others to carry on our legacy. Abraham marries off his son Isaac as a way of ensuring the continuity of what he and Sarah started.

When our children appear to reject the legacy we have given them—whether a religious path, a political ideology, choice of partner or way of life -- it is natural for a parent to feel personally rejected. But if children are the blessing of “all things,” can we only limit that blessing to the children who do what we want them to do?

Eric Scott, the director of “Leaving the Fold,” concluded our panel with the stark observation that for subjects of his film, parents had to make a choice between their religion and their children. Sadly, many parents chose their religion. Pinchus Riven, the father of two boys who had left the Lubavitch community to become secular, was a major force in the film, modeling love and compassion for his sons even as he expressed hope that they would someday return. Scott urged the audience, with pain in his voice, that when faced with a choice between our children and our ideology, we should all learn to choose our children first.

Families are complicated systems. Reading the stories of Genesis you will encounter some of the most complicated relationships imaginable: parental favoritism, abandonment, rivalries, and fratricide. But the message resounds from the ancient words. The greatest potential blessing in our lives is our family, the people who share and carry on our memories, stories, dreams and losses. Whether they are biological or adopted relatives, they are the individuals for whom we are most responsible and who we hope we can count on to be responsible for us in return. May we all be blessed with lasting loving bonds in our families, come what may.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Barbara Penzner

ISRAEL TRIP POSTPONED TO 2011

For a variety of reasons, the planned HBT Israel trip has been pushed off for this year. While this is a disappointment, we are not giving up on leading a trip in the near future.

In the next few weeks, the rabbi will be convening a group to help plan a trip for 2011. Your input will be crucial to making our trip a success. If you’re interested, please contact the rabbi. Stay tuned!

Rabbi Barbara Penzner

Article from October 29, 2009

There is no good English translation for “Lech-Lecha,” the name of this week’s portion. The story of Avram’s journey to the Land of Canaan begins with this unique Hebrew construction, which is usually understood as “Go forth.” God speaks to Avram saying, “Go forth from your native land and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” To command someone to “go” in Hebrew, biblical or modern, would be simply lech. The second word, lecha, though it sounds the same, is spelled differently from the first word and has a different meaning. Lecha means “for you.”

In Biblical Hebrew, this alliterative repetition is emphatic. However later commentators find rich meaning in the coupling of the two words to mean “go—for you.” Rashi explains that lech-lecha really means “go for yourself, for your pleasure and your benefit.”

One Hasidic teacher explains that it means “Go for your essence. No Jew is required to do more than what he or she is capable of, but each of us is required to accomplish that of which we are capable.”

Another interpretation is that the phrase means “every Jew must go for him/herself to him/herself. We must go to our roots, because that is the Jew’s purpose.”

Each of these teachings applies to our journey, as individuals, within the congregational community. Our purpose in coming to Shabbat services, or adult learning, or to see a movie in our building should be for our pleasure, for our essence, and connect us to our roots. What we find in the synagogue has a different flavor than what we might experience in other places in our lives.

In a number of different groups, our community is in the midst of exploring more effective ways to bring our members, our families and our friends together for our pleasure, for our essence, and to our roots. The COSMOS (Committee on Shabbat Morning Services) has been actively engaged in conversations about what is working on Shabbat morning, what changes we would like to make to enhance the experience of Shabbat morning at HBT, and ways to encourage more of us to share in the pleasure of song, study and worship. You will be hearing more about some upcoming “pilot” experiences on Shabbat mornings that will allow us to experiment with some changes.

A group of leaders has also just begun conversations about creating more opportunities for children and parents to be part of the Shabbat morning services. The model would follow our recent Sukkot observance, when students came for educational programs on the same day as our holiday service and joined us in the sanctuary for part of the worship. Having programs for students and parents on Shabbat occasionally (and cancelling the Sunday program on those weekends) will allow all of us—young and old, individuals and families, Chaverim School and Jewish day school students—to learn and have fun and build a strong community together. While the immediate impetus is to apply for a major grant from the Legacy Heritage Fund, we believe that HBT is on the verge of some important and exciting changes that we hope will bring more of us together, uniting our diverse community more regularly. The ultimate goal of this effort, in conjunction with the pilot events that come from the COSMOS, will be to strengthen our HBT community and help each of us “go” to our essence and to our roots, in a pleasurable way.

You will certainly be hearing more about each of these conversations soon and your voice will be important to the discussion. In the meantime, in the words of this week’s portion: lech-lecha—may you go forth on your Jewish journey and may you be a blessing.

October 29, 2009

Learning

Messages from the Rabbi

A new decade, a new era.

November 12, 2009