Community: Education

October 15, 2009 at 1:14 pm (community)
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I have taken on the role of leading (with another fellow) the “Adult Learning Committee” as it is named.

One of the questions that has been asked is “why is it when the temple puts on all these cool educational opportunities does the same 30 people always show up? Why is it that no one else comes?”

This is an interesting question about community. When you have a large group of people that affiliate with a synagogue or other organization, how do get people to come? There are plenty of reasons and excuses of why people do not take on these educational opportunities. However, this little committee really cannot answer the question of what it is that the community is looking for?

What if they stopped providing these educational programs would people notice? We do not know.

So what I have asked the people on the committee to do is go out and talk to five people. I want them to start with finding out what the persons relationship to Judaism is. I want to where are people coming from? What is the context of their lives?

From here we will start mapping out what people are interested in. What I am positing is that this process of listening will help define what kind of things we should be offering to bring more people in? How? I think the future will emerge from these conversations and we can look backwards at today and say “what do we need to do to move us toward where people want us to be?”

I think we should be able to get every adult involved in a learning opportunity over the year. My guess is that is around 1000 people.

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Photo Challenge: My boy’s 3rd Birthday

September 27, 2009 at 7:05 am (Uncategorized)
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Jew Wishes send me a challenge to pick the 4th folder and 4th picture and post it.

This is a photo of my son on his 3rd birthday. You can see some of the art work on the walls and his new books on Shabbat. I think he wanted more cake when everyone left and that is why the room is empty.

Anyway – isn’t that boy just squeezeable?

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Elohai N’shama

September 16, 2009 at 8:57 pm (Prayer)
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My God,

the soul with which You endowed me is pure.

You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me,and you protect it within me.

So long as this soul is within me, I will thank You, Adonai my God,

God of my ancestors, Source of all creation, Master of all souls.

We bless You, Adonai, in whose hands are the souls of all the living,and the spirit of all human beings.

What is your soul? The American Heritage Dictionary defines soul as: “The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity.” Encyclopedia Britannica describes the soul as: “the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being, that which confers individuality and humanity, often considered to be synonymous with the mind or the self.”

However you define the soul, do you ever question whether that essence in another human or yourself is good? Do you ever have those days where it feels like everything around you is rotten? It is often difficult to shake such feelings but Judaism provides us a beautiful tool to remind us of the purity of our soul and of all those around us. The Elohai N’shama prayer is great for connecting and reminding ourselves of the good within us and others.

“My God,” we call our attention to God and begin our prayer.

“the soul with which You endowed me is pure.” Just in case you ever begin to question it we remind ourselves daily that our soul is pure. This is to counter the idea that we are full of sin.

“You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me,and you protect it within me.” To remind ourselves of the purity of our souls we acknowledge that God created our soul and each and every day God protects that soul. Isn’t it a beautiful idea that you are pure to the core and that reminding yourself of your relationship with God strengthens your connection.

“So long as this soul is within me, I will thank You, Adonai my God,” Subtly we acknowledge that God can take away our soul, that someday we will die. But until then we will thank God for the essence of our being.

“God of my ancestors, Source of all creation, Master of all souls.” Here we acknowledge that God has given the souls to all my ancestors and we are all interconnected. Not only do our ancestors have souls but all of creation and God is in responsible for it all. Seems to be the classic Rabbinic trick of making sure you realize that you are worthy (you have a pure soul) but you should temper that with the fact that you are no different from anyone else (you are just one of creation and God is Master of your soul).

“We bless You, Adonai, in whose hands are the souls of all the living,and the spirit of all human beings.” This then turns the prayer that was focused on us as individuals and ends it in a communal blessing. Traditionally, this part of the prayer acknowledges that God is so powerful that can resurect us and give us new souls. The idea of resurection seems so foreign to us that we even remove it from the prayer.  However, for a good many people it is comforting to know that after we die our souls will be connected and resurected.

Try the prayer. Try to say it each day in the morning. Maybe the positive outlook will cause positive things to happen in your day. Maybe by acknowledging that every person’s soul is pure you will be able to look at each person you meet in a different way.

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Seeing G-d in everything

August 19, 2009 at 7:46 pm (Philosophy)
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I am reading a book about early Hasidic teachers. The book is A Heart Afire.

There is a story about the Baal Shem Tov that struck me. He was constantly challenged to his beliefs. The traditional Rabbis thought of him as a heretic.

The BeShT taught that G-d is in everything even in the most profane. It does not matter whether you are talking to a rabbi or a theif G-d is in there.

So the next time you are with a person, whether it be the clerk at the store, the garabage man or a beggar on the street listen very carefully. Everything a person says has something to learn from and just perhaps you may learn something new about G-d.

I love this idea. When was the last time you listened very carefully to every person you met? When was the last time you tried to find G-d in every interaction with a person?

Let’s try it and let everyone know what you find.

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Books: Lilah and The Alchemist

August 19, 2009 at 7:19 pm (Uncategorized)
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Lilah: A Novel (Canaan Trilogy)

http://www.amazon.com/Lilah-Canaan-Trilogy-Marek-Halter/dp/1400052823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248833151&sr=1-1

I enjoyed this. I read the first 2 novels a year ago and this one this summer when I went to Florida. I love getting lost in this old world. The images are fashioned by the book and terrible Hollywood movies, but I love the pictures in my head.

Lilah is the faithful sister of the Prophet Ezra. He is in an unlikely sole obsessed by the word of G-d. So much so he moves out of the house and into the poorest neighborhood. He barely takes care of himself so Lilah makes regular deliveries of food.

Through her relationship with a man in the Kings army she is able to sway the evil queen into helping her convince the king to send her brother back to rebuild Jerusalem.

The book is written to create a relationship with Lilah. Very little is nice or sympathetic of Ezra, a man who cannot control his own emotions or presence amongst others.

I enjoy these “historical” novels that take a little bit from the Torah and make it into a big story. For me it started with the Red Tent. I hope more come along in this genre. It is nice to escape to another time.

The Alchemist

http://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0061122416/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248834068&sr=8-1

I dug this book out of my father’s attic. 100 + degrees in Florida, I was crawling around looking for books I gave him. They were not there. I think he threw them away. I came upon a few books that I would give a try. This one my father recommended. Others seemed to love it too.

I turned page after page waiting for something. I did not find anything. I was not impressed.

The book was Paulo’s opportunity to write down his philosophy of life. It did nothing for me.

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Writers block

August 19, 2009 at 7:05 pm (Uncategorized)
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I never encountered writers block before. I never wrote before. I think I just encountered it.

It’s the summer.

I went to Florida for a week. I have been working. I have missed going to temple for weeks. I think I made minyan once and went to Friday services twice. I have also had a terrible time openning up this computer at night.

So I have been reading.

What have you been doing?

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The Arrogance of Man

July 29, 2009 at 6:34 pm (Philosophy)
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Have you ever thought about how arrogant we humans are?

We learn a little bit and we think we can control everything. We make things bigger and faster and more complicated but we still think we have it all under control. We have the greatest minds and technology, why not?

Think about these things:

Food -  We think we can decompose food into its component bits to explain what you need to eat and then fortify food. It doesn’t work. We have the weirdest ailments in history because of this process – how the hell can you be obese and malnourished at the same time. Well, science figured how to make fat malnourished people.

Markets/ finance – Rules and regulations work as well as letting these egos run wild with other people’s money. Now some people think they can control the melt down of the finance industry again. The complexity and the inter-connectiveness of the markets guarantee another catastrophic event. Maybe it will not be derivatives and credit default swaps but it will be something else.

Nature – We build dams and levies thinking we can control the water and weather. We spend billions on a city that mother nature will wash away again. Can we really control the weather?

Global warming – The G8 thinks it is going to stop global warming. What makes us so arrogant to think that we can actually control the weather patterns in the world – and that governments nonetheless are going to agree on something useful?

We cannot control everything. It may be interesting to try but we should not delude ourselves. We should prepare ourselves, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually and materially to deal with catastrophic events. However, controlling these things is like trying to predict the day of an earthquake and trying to tie the earth’s plates together so they do not move. Although we spend time trying to figure out earthquakes we also spend time making plans and doing prevention in case of an earthquake.

So do you believe people can control all things? Is all we need a bit more insight and knowledge and we can solve the problems? Or should we respect nature a little more and plan and prevent as we do with earthquakes?

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The Atheist Delusion?

July 1, 2009 at 8:01 pm (Philosophy)
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Does G-d exist? Does this question make sense? Why do people ask this question?

At a personal level this question seems interesting. It is a wrestle with some thing that cannot be seen and touched. For most people, reality is that which can be easily conceptualized – and touching and seeing do that quickly.

So are you reincarnated after you die? Do you have a mind? Does the universe have edges? Was there a beginning?

There are so many questions a person can ask and can come up with some pretty interesting beliefs. Does that mean they are wrong? How can you prove it? Can you prove or disprove the existence of something you cannot observe?

An atheist does not believe G-d exists. That is fine.

As a matter of belief I cannot argue with that. I know people who believe G-d does not exist and those that believe G-d exists. I also have friends that do not know or sometimes believe and other times do not. That is their frame of reference into the world.

The delusion comes in believing so much on your point of view you project to the rest of the world thinking that they should take it on because it would make the world a better place. Saying that G-d or people who believe in G-d are the cause of all wars and strife is an oversimplification of the problem. Saying that there is no use for G-d or the god concept in the world is also misguided. Saying that believing in G-d is primitive and not logical is presumptuous.

Why am I happy that there is a god concept (regardless of whether I believe that G-d exists)?

  1. the Jewish community
  2. Judaism
  3. fabulous customs and traditions of Jews around the world
  4. Life cycle rituals
  5. the Torah, Talmud and responsa
  6. Jewish ethics and philosophy
  7. Jewish law
  8. Multiple religions and lenses to see the world
  9. Atheists   :>

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What to do about baseball?

June 23, 2009 at 8:11 pm (Jewish, Shabbat)
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My son has fallen in love with baseball. He played on a team for the first time this fall. He loved it so much that he decided not to play soccer but to do fall baseball. Baseball sounded good because it was local and soccer required traveling up to 2 hours away.

This baseball idea is all fine but they do not give a schedule ahead of time. There is no way of knowing when the games will be. So guess when they are playing. Yep, 9 AM on Saturday.

Here is my dilema. We are not halachic Jews and we do not follow the word of our rabbi. However, we do observe Shabbat starting on Friday night through Saturday night. They way we approach Shabbat is that we do not do anything related to our work during the week. Shabbat is for rest and renewal. That means we focus on family, reading, playing outside, inviting friends over and enjoying the aspects of life we do not get to do while working during the week. The things that we consider part of the work week are the TV, computer, electronic games, and shopping.

What do we do with baseball? Is baseball OK? If baseball is what is not? Is the issue Shabbat or that my Saturday schedule is being changed?

If I am raising Jewish children with the love and passion of Judaism how do I teach the importance of Shabbat? Is it by telling them what they cannot do? I hope not. But at some point I will have to say no. What is my line? Where am I comfortable?

  • Going to a friends house – well yes if they are playing outside
  • Going to the mall - well here seems to be the line
  • Going to the movies - this seems to step over it
  • Going to a friends to play video games – no
  • Going to grandparents where they watch TV – yes, it’s their grandparents
  • Going out to a party on Friday night – is one night different then everynight?

 My children are still young so this is on the edge of theoretical, however the baseball thing is real. I do not think I have a problem with baseball but I am still wrestling with it.

What do you do? Are you a halachic Jew? Does having a rule book simplify things? Are you practicing Jew? How do you do Shabbat with your children? What would you do in this case?

cross-posted on Blog Midrash

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Aches

June 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm (Uncategorized)
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These aren’t so Jewish but they make me wonder.

For the past couple of years my joints have become stiffer. It takes about 5 mins every morning to get moving where I can step on my ankles and knees. I sit on the side of my bed and rotate them and crack them. Then I slowly get up and hobble a long.

My lower back aches in the middle of the night and I wake to crack it by leaning forward and stretching a bit. My fingers creak after half a days work on the computer. My neck gets kinks after long days.

All of these just seemed like growing old. Last week I went to visit the doctor. They took my blood for Lyme disease, Lupis, Rheumatoid arthritis and general inflamation. All the tests came back negative. There is nothing wrong with me from that perspective.

So why is it that after the doctor’s visit that everything just seems to ache a little more?

If I ache now, what am I going to be like in my 40s or 50s?

If it gets worse how will I keep working?

It really does seem like the doctor visit made it worse … now I am thinking about it.

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