To Israel with Temple Beth Zion and Westminster Presbyterian Church Part 2

Sunday January 17, 2010

This morning we began by going to Immanuel Lutheran Church. It’s pastor, Christian, welcomed us warmly. The service was interesting on several levels. First, the service was conducted in English, which was not the pastor’s native tongue. Second, the difference in participation in the Jews and Christians in our group. Third, Christian knew we were two congregations, one Presbyterian but thought TBZ was a “messianic” synagogue so both his homily and his remarks to us after the service were very Jesus centered. During his talk to us, one of the Westminster members gently moved him on to other topics. When we explained that no, we were not “messianic” he was taken aback as he had never heard of “regular” Jews attending church services.

After some cake and coffee, we boarded the bus and began our journey north to Ceaasaria. We stopped for a quick bite to eat at a mall with a food court. Not surprisingly, the group split, 1/3 heading to the falafel bar, 1/3 to the coffee shop and 1/3 to McDonalds! We reboarded the bus and quickly arrived at Herod’s great city by the sea.

Here, our guide Julie Baretz, outdid herself with her ability to weave both Jewish and Christian history into her commentary and her sensitivity to both groups. I listened with wonder while we were in the amphitheater and she talked of how Christians faced the lions there while the Talmudic rabbis insisted that Jews attend to show support for a “thumbs up” for the Christian and a chance to live.

From Ceasaria we continued north to Haifa and a panoramic view of the city looking down at the magnificent Bahai Gardens. My high school friend Hedy met us there for a too brief reunion and catch up session. I don’t care what anyone says, in person is so much better than on line!

We left Haifa as the sun set over the bay and we began our trek to the Galilee. Safely ensconced at Kibbutz Ginosar (the place where Yigal Alon founded the Palmach) guest house, we had a wonderful meal and retired to our rooms for much needed rest before our 6:30 wake up call as we begin our exploration of the Galilee and Golan.

Monday January 18, 2010,

This morning began a very moving day for everyone. We headed north from Ginosar to our first stop at the Church of the Beatitudes located on the site that Jesus is said to have given the Sermon on the Mount. Tom Yorty began by reading for us the Beatitudes from the Book of Matthew. I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the Beatitudes and sections of Pirke Avot. It was truly a moving moment for all of us.

From there we drove north to the head waters of the Jordan stopping at both Banyas
and Tel Dan. The rain was pouring, which after 5 years of below average rainfall was truly a blessing for Israel. It was a fulfillment of the blessing we say in the Avot - May God cause the rain to fall and the winds to blow! Needless to say, the hike through Tel Dan was VERY wet.

Undismayed we continued on to Kiriyat Shmona for lunch. There we saw these Israeli soldiers eating at Burger King. The boarder with Lebanon is calm these days and Kiriyat Shmona seems to be thriving. But, one cannot get away from the knowledge that the top of the ridge over looking the town is the Lebanese border. It is a sobering reminder of the possibility of falling rockets and the blessing of hope of a town thriving during peace.

We continued on to some much needed shopping time at the Naot Shoe Factory and their outlet store where some serious purchasing occurred. G earned the title of best shopper with 5 pairs of shoes at an incredible price.

Finally it was off to Tzefat (Safed) where we went to a mystical synagogue and learned about Kabbalah as well as synagogue architecture. I went to see my friends at their shop, Canaan Gallery but missed them by just a few minutes.

On the way back to Ginosar, we talked about the experiences we have had with prayer and worship so far. There were lots of questions which led me to realize that we need to do a better job of educating our fellow travelers on each other's faith and worship traditions before Shabbat.

Finally back at the Kibbutz, I found a special treat. My first trip to Isarel was in 1971 on the Eisendrath International Exchange program (EIE). For six months 25+ teenagers came to Israel as exchange students. Through the magic of Facebook I found one of them lived not far from Ginosar so he and his wife met us at the Kibbutz. The hour and a half we spent together was too short especially since we hadn't seen each other since we left Israel 38 years ago this past December. While we are both gray, older and perhaps wiser, it was like we had always been in touch. Some of you may remember my story of going to a Moshav with a friend and meeting with the Rebbe of the Moshav. During our meeting a man burst in with a question of Kashrut and the Rebbe answered him. I tell the story often. Tonight I reunited with the friend with whom I went to the Moshav. What a treat and a pleasure.

Tomorrow we visit Kfar Nahum (Capernicum), the grave of Maimonides in Tiberias, the Church of the Ascension in Nazareth and then FINALLY we come to Jerusalem where we will enter the city by the route Abraham must have used on his way to Mount Moriah.

Shalom from Israel,

Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld

Shalom from Ginosar!

Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld

To Israel with Temple Beth Zion and Westminster Presbyterian Church

Shabbat, January 15 - 16, 2010

Traveling to Israel with "first timers" is always fun and interesting and we "vatikim - old timers" are expected to help lead the way.

While there were a few glitches getting everyone checked in, we finally all boarded our flight in Buffalo for JFK where we waited for our flight. There were no glitches at JFK and El Al security was lighter than I expected.

Rev. Tom Yorty and I found similar ways of amusing ourselves while we waited for our El Al flight to Israel  while others waited patiently or dozed.

Once on board, we settled in for the long flight. Most of us were seated near each other. A few were spread  throughout the plane and got to know some of the other travelers (for better or worse).

It seems every trip I think I've lost someone only to find they are already on the bus. Last trip it was HS in Jaffa, this trip it was B and G who got their luggage, cleared customs and found our bus while the rest of us waited patiently inside the terminal for them. Finally the tour agent called the bus, found out they were there and off we went.

Our guide, Julie Baretz, was waiting for us, got the rest of us on the bus and we quickly left the airport for Tel Aviv. I could not believe my eyes. Because we landed so close to Shabbat, the roads were empty and we made it to our hotel in record time! We quickly checked in, dropped off our luggage, cleaned up and within 20 minutes were on our way to Beit Daniel, the Reform congregation in Tel Aviv for Kabblat Shabbat services.



The rabbi, Meir Azari, their cantor and the members could not have been more welcoming. We even found Buffalo connections! The president of the congregation and her husband had briefly lived in Buffalo and the daughter of one of our preschool teachers was at the service. She is part of a group of students studying here. She will finish this spring with a masters degree in management.

Following the service we went down to the oneg Shabbat where Rabbi Azari invited me to say a few words about TBZ and Buffalo and a few words it was. After 10 or sentences in Hebrew they said thank you and we went on with the blessings.

Back at the hotel, we gathered for Shabbat dinner. It was such a pleasure watching the "first-timers" marvel at the variety and deliciousness of the buffet. From vegans to carnivores we all found more than enough to eat and retired fully sated.

Breakfast was equally overwhelming. We gathered and shared stories of how early everyone had awakened. Who had walked the boardwalk at 4 AM and who went running at 6.

Julie and Yossi (our driver) met us promptly at 9:15 and we began the formal part of our tour. Heading south to Rehovot and the Ayalon Institute to see the underground ammunition factory at Kibbutz Hill where from 1947 - 48 a small group of young Israelis went 25 feet underground, everyday, to make bullets for the Israeli Army in the months leading up to the War for Independence. Their story is inspiring and heroic as they not only faced danger of discovery but also working in close quarters with tons of gun powder.

As we were leaving, A and W were picked up by some friends who used to live in Buffalo and went to their kibbutz to spend a wonderful Shabbat afternoon catching up, meeting their children and getting reacquainted. The rest of us boarded the bus and drove back north to Jaffa.

The wonderful part of this trip is that Temple Beth Zion and Westminster Presbyterian are sharing it. I can't remember all the times I've been to Jaffa (although the first was the most memorable as it was there I kissed a girl for the first time) and how many times I passed the house of Simon the Tanner. Yet this time was the first time I first noticed it. Our guide Julie is an expert in leading both Jewish and Christian tours. When we reached the house, she had Rev. Tom Yorty read the passage from the Book of Acts that refers to Simon the Tanner and his home. She then explained the significance of the place and the importance of the story in the shaping of Christianity and its divergence from Judaism. As a non-Christian, I was moved by the moment. As a Jew, my soul swelled. Here we stood at a pivotal place in the divergence of Judaism and Christianity as two congregations, now secure enough in who we are to be together without fear or self-consciousness.

After a brief tour of Neve Tzedek, the first neighborhood in Tel Aviv, it was back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon. At 6:30, we all gathered in the lobby and walked to a place where we had the city behind us and the crashing waves of the Mediterranean in front of us as we did Havdalah, the ceremony in which we end Shabbat and reenter the "ordinary" days of the week. As Tel Aviv came back to life, we reflected that while we will not have a week of Shabbat, our week will be anything but ordinary!

Tomorrow, Sunday, we begin with church services and then north to Ceasaria, Haifa and then to Kibbutz Ginosar where we will be based for the next two days.

I pray that your Shabbat was as meaningful and fulfilling as ours was here in Israel.

Shalom,

Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld

We Are Everywhere!

As a student at HUC I was always fascinated by the Chinese texts from the Kaifeng community in the Klau Library Rare Book Room. It exciting to see a Jewish population rediscover itself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edhtdoPukk0

Shemini Atzeret?

Shemini Atseret has always been somewhat of an afterthought for me. Having grown up in a Reform congregation, or having been in Israel for the festival, it did not exist separately but rather as a poor step-sister to Simchat Torah and thus was never discussed or taught except as an extension of Sukkot. As I began to read in preparation to write on Shemini Atseret/Simchat Torah, for this Mekor Chayim, I found that even the best of scholars are unsure of what the word Atseret means.

The JPS Commentary on Leviticus 23:36 says: “Hebrew ‘atseret, “solemn gathering,” is a variation of ‘atsarah, a term that designates religious gatherings, such as public fasts. According to Deuteronomy 16:8, as well as the ritual legislation, the ‘atseret consistently comes at the conclusion of a prolonged celebration. This undoubtedly prompted the Septuagint to render it by Greek exodion, “finale, recessional.” Etymologically, this term derives from the verb ‘atsar, “to detain, restrain, confine,” and may refer to the fact that the people are kept together for an additional day.”

This explanation reflected what I was taught in my seminary classes: Shemini Atseret and the change in the Gevurot to “mashiv haruach u’morid hagashem” marked the end of Sukkot so that people could return to their homes after the pilgrimage to Yerushalayim before the start of the rains. Similarly we were taught that the other Atseret, the Biblical name for Shavuot marked the end of Pesach. This may be an interesting line of thought, but it is not particularly spiritually uplifting.

As I continued to read about Shemini Atseret, I found this passage from the Soncino translation of the Zohar, Chelek Gimmel amud 197a:

R. Abba discoursed on the passage beginning: ‘If thou know not, O thou fairest among women’, etc. (S.S. I, 8). ‘The Community of Israel’, he said, ‘is she that gathers in from all the camps above, and holds in all that she gathers, letting it escape only by drops like dew, because there is not sufficient faith below. For if She were to find faith as it is found in her, She would pour the light on every side without restraint, and they would give to her also gifts and presents without stint. But it is those of the lower world who restrain them and restrain her, and therefore she is called Azereth (the restrainer). Nevertheless, as a mother gives to her sons in secret and unbeknown, so she does with her children, Israel.”

Perhaps then Shemini Atseret, is like R. Abba’s “The Community of Israel”, the “Azereth”. It restrains, marking the end of Sukkot. It wants to pour its light of Torah upon us from all sides as we surround ourselves with the beginning and end of Torah on Simchat Torah. And even after the end of Sukkot, it gives us another little bit, an extra day’s worth of holiness, to “her children Israel” through this almost secret, hidden festival day.

Erev Yom Kippur

I don’t know the reason why Rome fell. I don’t the reason why the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the British Empire or even the Soviet Union fell. To be more precise, I don’t know the reasons they told themselves their great empires collapsed. What I do know is the reason we told ourselves as Jerusalem fell and the Temple was destroyed first by the Babylonians and then 650 years later by the Romans.

The year: 586 B.C.E. Imagine yourself sitting atop the roof of your home in Jerusalem watching as the Babylonian army breeches the city wall, sacks and loots first your home, and then God’s home, the sacred Temple built by Solomon. Gazing at the destruction about to engulf you a verse from Psalm 22:2 comes to mind: אֵלִי אֵלִי לָמָה עֲזַבְתָּנִי My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

See yourself now sitting in exile on the banks of the Tigris. The head of your community rises and expounds, echoing the message of the great Biblical prophets: “God did not forsake us, rather we caused the destruction of our Temple, we caused our own exile because we sinned. What were our sins: עבודה זרה, גלוי עריות, ושפיכות דמים - idolatry, sexual impropriety and the spilling of innocent blood.” And so you and your community make a vow: “If we are allowed to return from exile, reestablish our Temple and our lives, we will change our ways and teach our children to avoid these sins through which we brought destruction upon our heads.”

A few generations pass. Picture yourself looking down from above as you see your descendants return from exile, rebuild the Temple and reestablish Jewish life in Jerusalem and Israel. Look with pride at how your children’s children’s children seem to remember the lesson you taught and avoid those 3 great sins that brought destruction so many years before: idolatry, sexual impropriety and the spilling of innocent blood.

A more generations pass and you again look down to check in on your descendants. There you see your, well who knows how many greats, grandchild sitting on top of a roof, just like the one you sat on, watching the Roman army breech the city wall, sack and loot first her home, and then God’s home, the sacred Temple built by the returning exiles from Babylonia. As she sits gazing at the destruction about to engulf her that same verse from Psalm 22:2 comes to her mind: אֵלִי אֵלִי לָמָה עֲזַבְתָּנִי My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Confusion envelops her mind. How could this be? We heeded the warning of our ancestors and have, for the most part, avoided the 3 great sins.

See your descendant sitting in exile on the banks of the Tiber. The head of her community rises and expounds, echoing the message of the great Biblical prophets: “God did not forsake us, rather we caused the destruction of our Temple, we caused our own exile because we sinned. What was our sin? Yes we avoided the sins of our ancestors but we have our own single sin equivalent to all 3 of theirs: שנאת חנם - Baseless hatred, hatred for the sake of hatred, hate with no thought of the cost or consequences of that hate.”

How do I know these were the reasons we told ourselves about the two destructions of Jerusalem and our exiles? Because our Talmudic and Medieval rabbis continued to teach them to us! In the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yoma - the tractate discussing this great and awesome day of Yom Kippur - we are taught: “But why was the Second Temple destroyed as they studied Torah, followed the Mitzvot and did Gemilut Chasadim - Acts of Loving Kindness? Because within it was שנאת חנם. This teaches us that שנאת חנם is the equivalent of all three sins (that caused the destruction of the First Temple) - idolatry, sexual impropriety and the spilling of innocent blood.”

The ancient Rabbis not only proclaimed שנאת חנם to be the cause of the destruction of the Second Temple, they told us how שנאת חנם spread. Tractate Taanit teaches: “And the second interpretation of the language of retort, hints at the sin of the Second Temple שנאת חנם, which comes from lashon hara - malicious speech.” The great Rabbi Judah Lowe of Prague in his compilation of ethical laws from the Talmud, Netzach Yisrael wrote: “And thus they said that שנאת חנם is equivalent to the 3 sins (for which the First Temple was destroyed) for שנאת חנם defiles and causes chaos within the entire human soul. But the 3 sins only defile one part of the soul each while שנאת חנם defiles the whole soul in its entirety, because the essence of the human soul is wholeness, it is singular and all of the strength of life that exists. Hatred tears the soul apart and this is against the essence of the soul.” He continues: “All of Israel was like a single person when there was one altar... By means of שנאת חנם and hateful language, the city and the Second Temple were destroyed.Using hateful language, splits and destroys unity.”

Each year, multiple organizations beseech rabbis to speak to their particular issue on Yom Kippur. They know that this night, more of you will hear our words than any other single occasion during the year. This year, advocates for health care reform, ending the wars, ending hunger, GLBT rights, and a plethora of other causes have sent me mail: postal service mail, email and voice mail literally begging me to speak on their behalf. But as I considered each, one theme kept coming back to me - שנאת חנם.

Many have called for a return to civility in our public discourse but I believe that the issue is deeper. We have devolved into a culture of hate. Politicians, preachers and commentators not only vehemently express their disdain for positions other than their own, they call upon their listeners and followers to hate those with whom they disagree.

It is easy to find their words. A quick Google search produced Rush Limbaugh calling for a reinstitution of segregated buses, a Baptist pastor expressing his hatred for President Obama, encouraging his congregation to take loaded weapons to the President’s appearances and saying that killing the President would not be murder or even a sin, two sitting governors, a gubernatorial candidate and several state legislatures calling for secession from the United States (an issue I thought was settled with the blood of over 700,000 Americans spilled in the Civil War) plus thousands of other hits about our supposedly respected leaders promoting the hatred and demonization of others. We are a country that allows free speech and I am glad we do. But, as we all know, our words can heal or hurt, cause our souls to soar to the heavens or draw us into the depths of evil.

In ancient times, we committed the sin of שנאת חנם by using language to debase and divide, not build up and unify, and thus were the Romans able to take advantage of our divisiveness to conquer and condemn us to exile.

The Rabbis, who valued debate and disagreement so much they respectfully include even losing positons in their literature, understood that sowing hatred was inherently different. They knew that after true debate and disagreement, once a decision was made, all came together to support it. Once they even punished the head of the great Sanhedrin for publicly humiliating another Rabbi who had disagreed with him. We are taught in Tractate Berachot: “ Rabban Gamaliel remained sitting and expounding and R. Joshua remained standing, until all the people there began to shout and say, Stop! and he stopped. They then said: How long is he [Rabban Gamaliel] to go on insulting him [R. Joshua]? Come, let us depose him! ” And depose him they did.

So what are we to do? It is incumbent upon each of us to stand up and call out the haters and promoters of hate for what they are, in fact we are commanded in tomorrow afternoon’s Torah portion to do so! Lev. 19:17-18; “You shall not hate your neighbor in your heart... You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your neighbor as yourself: I am Adonai.” It is also incumbent upon us to follow the law just a few verses earlier: “You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people; nor shall you stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds; I am Adonai.” Our Rabbis equated שנאת חנם with the spilling of innocent blood, with murder, and where blood is being spilled, we cannot stand idly by.

This past Friday, members of Westboro Baptist Church came to Park Slope in Brooklyn to stage one of their hate filled protests in front of tour sister Congregation Beth Elohim. Westboro is located in Topeka, Kansas and its pastor, Fred Phelps, and members travel the country protesting at the funerals of patriots, prominent people, the victims of disaster like our neighbors on Flight 3407, soldiers killed in Iraq and Afganistan claiming that these heroes, our honored dead, are burning in hell because God killed them and was punishing them for the sin of America tolerating Gays, Lesbians and Jews.

During the protest, church members held up signs saying “The Jews killed Jesus” “God Hates Israel” and “Anti-Christ Obama”. Members of Beth Elohim gathered in front of the synagogue as their Rabbi, Andy Bachman, blew the shofar. The sound of the Shofar drowned out the hate filled shouts of Phelps and his congregants. The sound of the Shofar calls up so much in our being - it is a call for freedom for all, a hope for the coming of Messianic times and this past Friday in Park Slope, a call for us to stand up against those who promote שנאת חנם with their words and deeds.

The choice is ours: Will we allow the haters to go unchallenged and risk the breech of our walls and the destruction of all that we hold as sacred? Or will we hearken to the sound of the Shofar and work to keep those who preach and practice שנאת חנם from destroying us all?

The choice is ours.