Dear Friends,
Israel is back on the front pages again.
The major headline today was that Secretary of State Kerry has directly joined the talks that are taking place with Iran about their nuclear program. The discussions are reportedly about an interim deal under which Iran would temporarily freeze some of their nuclear activities in return for some relief of the international sanctions that have hurt the Iranian economy. The sub-headline is that Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel is alarmed about the proposed deal, “The deal that is being discussed in Geneva right now is a bad deal,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Iran is not required to take apart even one centrifuge. But the international community is relieving sanctions on Iran for the first time after many years.” Kerry’s response: “I have said many times we will not make a deal that’s a bad deal, that leaves any of our friends or ourselves exposed to a nuclear weapons program.” Mr. Kerry also said the United States would not dismantle its sanctions until it had “absolute clarity about what is happening.” We’ll see.
Meanwhile, this is not the only high stakes exchange that took place between Secretary Kerry and Prime Minister Netanyahu this week. Mr. Kerry was in Israel pressing the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to make compromises to get their negotiations moving. It was clear that Prime Minister Netanyahu resented the Secretary of State’s pressure to stop approving settlement construction on the West Bank. The pressure, he contends, needs to be put on the Palestinians who are refusing to compromise at this time.
What are we to make of all this? We are fortunate to have someone coming to Temple Sinai a week from Sunday who could help give us insight. Alan Elsner, Vice President for Communications for J Street is going to be the speaker at our Brotherhood’s breakfast on Sunday, November 17th at 9:30 a.m. Alan Elsner has had a long career at the top ranks of American and international journalism prior to joining J Street. As State Department and later White House correspondent for Reuters News Agency, Elsner traveled the world with Secretaries of State and was on first name terms with presidents and vice presidents.
Elsner’s talk is entitled, “When Should We Speak About Israel and What Should We Say? American Jews and the Two-State Solution.” J Street – with over 180,000 supporters nationwide and a Rabbinic Cabinet of over 700 – identifies itself as the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans to advocate for U.S. leadership to achieve a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to broaden debate around Israel and the Middle East in national politics and the American Jewish community.
Temple Sinai nor its Brotherhood endorse any organizations that take political positions on Israel. However, we do strongly believe that our synagogue should be a center of dialogue for the various voices within the Jewish community when it comes to Israel and the Middle East. It is our mission as a synagogue to educate our members about Israel and to build a deeper connection between our members and the Jewish State.
This is the first in a series of Brotherhood Breakfasts on American Jewish political perspectives on the US-Israel relationship.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan
Friday, November 8, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
Beyond
Dear Friends,
I hope this Shabbat finds you well and enjoying the remnants of your Halloween candy.
Halloween today is a fun children’s holiday, harmless, for the most part, except to our waist-lines. But, its roots go back 2000 years to the ancient Celts, who lived in Ireland, England and northern France, and celebrated a festival called Samhain (pron “sah-win”) on the evening of October 31,, the night before their New Year. The day marked the end of the summer harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. With the growing season coming to an end it was a time associated with death. The Celts believed that on the night before their New Year the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and that ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
At about the same time that the ancient Celts developed their beliefs regarding death and the world beyond, we Jews began to develop our own notions of the afterlife. Those ideas shifted a number of times throughout our history, leaving us a rich and fascinating heritage about what happens to us after we die. I find that most Jews today are unaware of this and tend to associate the notion of life after death, of “heaven” and other ideas, with Christianity. In fact, the notion of life after death has been part of our tradition for many centuries, reaching back into antiquity before the arrival of Christianity.
I would like to invite you to join me for 4 evenings of learning and sharing on the topic of life after death, starting this Monday at 8:00 p.m. and continuing for each Monday night through the month of November. I look forward to hearing what you believe or don’t believe, what your experiences have been, as well as sharing some of the heritage that has come down to us through Jewish sources. The class is free; all you need to do is show up this Monday night and join us for what I hope to be an interesting and different kind of learning experience.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan
p.s. Don’t forget Sinai Sessions tomorrow night at 8:00!
I hope this Shabbat finds you well and enjoying the remnants of your Halloween candy.
Halloween today is a fun children’s holiday, harmless, for the most part, except to our waist-lines. But, its roots go back 2000 years to the ancient Celts, who lived in Ireland, England and northern France, and celebrated a festival called Samhain (pron “sah-win”) on the evening of October 31,, the night before their New Year. The day marked the end of the summer harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. With the growing season coming to an end it was a time associated with death. The Celts believed that on the night before their New Year the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and that ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
At about the same time that the ancient Celts developed their beliefs regarding death and the world beyond, we Jews began to develop our own notions of the afterlife. Those ideas shifted a number of times throughout our history, leaving us a rich and fascinating heritage about what happens to us after we die. I find that most Jews today are unaware of this and tend to associate the notion of life after death, of “heaven” and other ideas, with Christianity. In fact, the notion of life after death has been part of our tradition for many centuries, reaching back into antiquity before the arrival of Christianity.
I would like to invite you to join me for 4 evenings of learning and sharing on the topic of life after death, starting this Monday at 8:00 p.m. and continuing for each Monday night through the month of November. I look forward to hearing what you believe or don’t believe, what your experiences have been, as well as sharing some of the heritage that has come down to us through Jewish sources. The class is free; all you need to do is show up this Monday night and join us for what I hope to be an interesting and different kind of learning experience.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan
p.s. Don’t forget Sinai Sessions tomorrow night at 8:00!
Monday, October 21, 2013
Mazal Tov!
Dear Friends,
Mazal tov to New Jersey same-sex couples who as of a few minutes ago have the right to be legally married in our state!
Kol Ha’kavod [kudos] to the New Jersey State Supreme Court for denying Governor Christie’s request for a stay on same-sex marriages until his appeal is settled. Governor Christie is appealing State Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson’s ruling that New Jersey has to allow such marriages to comply with the United States Supreme Court ruling in June. The governor should withdraw that appeal and recognize the right of same-sex couples to marry. It is the right thing to do.
In the meantime, any Jewish same-sex couples out there who need a rabbi to officiate at their wedding?
L’Shalom,
Jordan
Mazal tov to New Jersey same-sex couples who as of a few minutes ago have the right to be legally married in our state!
Kol Ha’kavod [kudos] to the New Jersey State Supreme Court for denying Governor Christie’s request for a stay on same-sex marriages until his appeal is settled. Governor Christie is appealing State Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson’s ruling that New Jersey has to allow such marriages to comply with the United States Supreme Court ruling in June. The governor should withdraw that appeal and recognize the right of same-sex couples to marry. It is the right thing to do.
In the meantime, any Jewish same-sex couples out there who need a rabbi to officiate at their wedding?
L’Shalom,
Jordan
Friday, October 18, 2013
Government Akeda
Dear Friends,
It is a guiding principle of rabbinic Torah interpretation that no matter what the Torah portion of the week happens to be, it turns out to be THE “prefect portion” to help us understand the events of the week. This week’s Torah portion, Va’yera, contains the famous story of the Binding of Isaac, the Akeda, familiar to most as the story read on Rosh Hashanah. Need I say more?
This week, at the very last moment, we, the American People, escaped the blade of the debt-ceiling knife poised to strike us, like Isaac escaped the knife poised to strike him in the Akeda. It is instructive that in the Torah Abraham hears the word of God telling him to sacrifice his son. In our contemporary debt-ceiling Akeda story there were congressmen who sincerely believed that their actions, though painful and destructive in the near term, were the morally right thing, a political “commandment,” as it were. Their view is that this action was necessary in order to prevent what they consider a greater social evil, Obamacare, from going into effect, as well as strike a blow against another great social evil, the accumulating national debt. But, just like when we read the Akeda in the Torah, we are left with the question: Is this the way to go about taking a stand for God? Is this the way to take a stand for what one believes is right? Or do such destructive means not justify the moral ends – no matter how strongly one may feel that things are going in the morally wrong direction? One hopes that those who took Isaac up Mount Moriah, and pulled out the blade that threatened severe damage to our economy and our standing in the world, do not try to do this again. Perhaps, we can pray that they now hear the angel calling out from the heavens, “Do not lay your hands on the boy, nor do him any harm.”
After the events of the past few weeks it is hard not to be left feeling completely cynical about politicians. But, it would be wrong to paint all politicians with the same brush, to see all parts of our government as hopelessly dysfunctional. For example, those we have elected to state and local offices – and those running against them in the upcoming elections in November – had nothing to do with the federal government shut down and debt-ceiling crisis.
I sincerely hope that you make a point of coming out this Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. to our (free!) Brotherhood Breakfast when we will host a candidates forum for those running for New Jersey State Senate and Assembly and Bergen County Freeholders in District 37. Candidates who have confirmed that they will participate are Loretta Weinberg, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, Gordon Johnson, Paul Duggan, Gino Tessaro, and Dierdre Paul. Come find out what these candidates stand for and what issues concern them before going to the polls. Even if you’ve already made up your mind, come out to make sure that all our elected officials know that the Jewish community cares about what they do and believe. Our community and our democracy depend on our active involvement!
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan
It is a guiding principle of rabbinic Torah interpretation that no matter what the Torah portion of the week happens to be, it turns out to be THE “prefect portion” to help us understand the events of the week. This week’s Torah portion, Va’yera, contains the famous story of the Binding of Isaac, the Akeda, familiar to most as the story read on Rosh Hashanah. Need I say more?
This week, at the very last moment, we, the American People, escaped the blade of the debt-ceiling knife poised to strike us, like Isaac escaped the knife poised to strike him in the Akeda. It is instructive that in the Torah Abraham hears the word of God telling him to sacrifice his son. In our contemporary debt-ceiling Akeda story there were congressmen who sincerely believed that their actions, though painful and destructive in the near term, were the morally right thing, a political “commandment,” as it were. Their view is that this action was necessary in order to prevent what they consider a greater social evil, Obamacare, from going into effect, as well as strike a blow against another great social evil, the accumulating national debt. But, just like when we read the Akeda in the Torah, we are left with the question: Is this the way to go about taking a stand for God? Is this the way to take a stand for what one believes is right? Or do such destructive means not justify the moral ends – no matter how strongly one may feel that things are going in the morally wrong direction? One hopes that those who took Isaac up Mount Moriah, and pulled out the blade that threatened severe damage to our economy and our standing in the world, do not try to do this again. Perhaps, we can pray that they now hear the angel calling out from the heavens, “Do not lay your hands on the boy, nor do him any harm.”
After the events of the past few weeks it is hard not to be left feeling completely cynical about politicians. But, it would be wrong to paint all politicians with the same brush, to see all parts of our government as hopelessly dysfunctional. For example, those we have elected to state and local offices – and those running against them in the upcoming elections in November – had nothing to do with the federal government shut down and debt-ceiling crisis.
I sincerely hope that you make a point of coming out this Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. to our (free!) Brotherhood Breakfast when we will host a candidates forum for those running for New Jersey State Senate and Assembly and Bergen County Freeholders in District 37. Candidates who have confirmed that they will participate are Loretta Weinberg, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, Gordon Johnson, Paul Duggan, Gino Tessaro, and Dierdre Paul. Come find out what these candidates stand for and what issues concern them before going to the polls. Even if you’ve already made up your mind, come out to make sure that all our elected officials know that the Jewish community cares about what they do and believe. Our community and our democracy depend on our active involvement!
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan
Friday, October 11, 2013
The Internet is for...
Dear Friends,
It is gratifying for any rabbi to get positive feedback on his/her High Holy Day sermons. After all, we rabbis spend a lot of time crafting these messages and we wouldn't be human if we didn’t enjoy hearing from people afterwards that they loved one or another of the sermons or found them meaningful. But, as much as we rabbis want people to like our sermons, it is even more gratifying when we learn that people have taken the message of a sermon to heart, have discussed it with others, and have been inspired to do something that makes a difference in their lives.
With this in mind I want to thank you for the many comments I received about my Rosh Hashanah morning sermon on the impact of electronic media on our lives today. Now I want to urge you to take an action which could make a difference in your life and the life of your family. This Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in the Temple social hall, Dr. Richard Gallagher will be giving a talk on how to be an electronic media savvy parent. (Both the talk and bagel breakfast are free!) Dr. Gallagher is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine and a member of the NYU Child Study Center. He has spoken widely on this topic, advising parents on how to deal with their children's increasing exposure to social networking sites, movies, TV, video games and more.
When we hear the term “electronic media” we tend to think of teenagers and their phones. But, in fact, such media includes the videos watched and games played by children as young as toddlers. This program is for parents and grandparents of children of all ages. We need to understand on a deeper level what is going on with our kids and grandkids and learn what kind of measures we can take to help them lead healthier intellectual, emotional and spiritual lives.
Hope to see you this Sunday!
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan
It is gratifying for any rabbi to get positive feedback on his/her High Holy Day sermons. After all, we rabbis spend a lot of time crafting these messages and we wouldn't be human if we didn’t enjoy hearing from people afterwards that they loved one or another of the sermons or found them meaningful. But, as much as we rabbis want people to like our sermons, it is even more gratifying when we learn that people have taken the message of a sermon to heart, have discussed it with others, and have been inspired to do something that makes a difference in their lives.
With this in mind I want to thank you for the many comments I received about my Rosh Hashanah morning sermon on the impact of electronic media on our lives today. Now I want to urge you to take an action which could make a difference in your life and the life of your family. This Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in the Temple social hall, Dr. Richard Gallagher will be giving a talk on how to be an electronic media savvy parent. (Both the talk and bagel breakfast are free!) Dr. Gallagher is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine and a member of the NYU Child Study Center. He has spoken widely on this topic, advising parents on how to deal with their children's increasing exposure to social networking sites, movies, TV, video games and more.
When we hear the term “electronic media” we tend to think of teenagers and their phones. But, in fact, such media includes the videos watched and games played by children as young as toddlers. This program is for parents and grandparents of children of all ages. We need to understand on a deeper level what is going on with our kids and grandkids and learn what kind of measures we can take to help them lead healthier intellectual, emotional and spiritual lives.
Hope to see you this Sunday!
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Words Clear and Unclear
Dear Friends,
This week’s Torah portion, Breishit, includes the story of the creation of the world. In it the phrase, “God said, ‘Let there be….’ and it was so!” is repeated throughout the passage. In the Torah, God speaks and the world comes into being. In the Torah words matter.
At the United Nations it is less clear.
Lots of significant sounding words were uttered this week and some significant words were agreed to among major world powers. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have agreed on a resolution that will require Syria to give up its chemical weapons. On the face of it this is a very good thing. But, when one reads the fine print it is less clear. The resolution, “makes clear that there will be consequences for non-compliance,” Samantha Power, the new American Ambassador to the U.N. said. But, what those consequences would be is not so clear. If Syria does not comply with the resolution, the matter would have to go back to the Security Council, where Russia holds veto power, for further deliberations before the U.N. could support any not-yet-specified consequences.
Equally distressing, the resolution does not make clear who is to blame for the recent chemical weapons attack upon Syrian civilians. In this week’s Torah portion, when Adam eats the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, he tries to pass the blame off on Eve. She tries to pass the blame off on the serpent. God has none of it. It is clear that all are responsible and all are punished. In the U.N. resolution it is less than clear who is to blame for the chemical weapons attacks that murdered thousands - though it is clear to everyone and anyone who has actually looked at the facts that the Assad regime is to blame.
There were also many significant sounding words uttered at the U.N. this week by President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. But, what they mean is less than clear. I really do not want to be cynical about the new President of Iran. He may be sincere in his efforts to open the door to a rapprochement with the United States and the West. But, when he makes a statement that seems to say that the Holocaust actually happened and then the Fars news agency in Iran says that he didn’t actually use the word, “Holocaust,” and that CNN had fabricated that he had acknowledged the Holocaust, it all seems less clear. To be clear, it seems President Rouhani did, in fact, acknowledge that the Holocaust happened, but there are significant conservative forces in Iran, represented by the Fars news agency, who are not so happy about this and wanted his words to be less clear.
Moreover, on the question of Iran developing nuclear weapons, President Rouhani said directly that Iran would never give up its right to enrich uranium. At the same time he said he wants to swiftly resolve Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West. Is that clear? Let’s hope President Obama is better at divining these things than I am.
In the big picture I would rather have the less than clear words of President Rouhani than the clear words of the former President Ahmadinejad. I’d rather have less than clear U.N. security council resolution saying Syria should give up its chemical weapons than the complete silence that preceded it.
But, let us not fool ourselves into thinking that what we have heard at the U.N. are like the words of Torah from Mt. Sinai.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jordan
p.s. If you want to hear some meaningful words of dialogue I urge you to come this Sunday at 9:30 a.m. to the program with Rabbi Kronish and Kadi Zahalka. And don’t be afraid to ask questions if their statements are not clear to you!
Friday, September 20, 2013
Dialogue (Sunday, Sept 29 @ 9:30 am)
Dear Friends,
It seems that everyone wants to talk.
We’ve been talking with the Russians. They want us to talk to the Syrians. The Syrians want to talk to us. The Israelis and the Palestinians are talking. Even the Iranians now want to talk! What’s going on? It must be a full moon or something. (Actually, there was a full moon last night – coinciding with the beginning of the festival of Sukkot.)
No one knows where all this dialogue will lead. Many among us are cynical. We see the Syrians and Iranians as trying to stall for time and ward off any military attacks, while continuing to engage in their development and use of weapons of mass destruction. Others among us are hopeful. Weary of war we hope that the evil regimes in Damascus and Teheran have come to their senses and will negotiate in good faith to get rid of their WMDs. In truth, only those privy to negotiations and intelligence on the highest level, including back channels, can really assess the situation with any validity. And, even they may not really know whether this dialogue is worthwhile.
On the other hand, for those of us who are not dealing in the world of realpolitik, dialogue is not only worthwhile but essential in order to understand the world around us and build positive, peaceful relationships with those from other communities. On Sunday September 29th at 9:30 a.m. at Temple Sinai we will have a remarkable opportunity to engage in this kind of positive dialogue. Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish, Director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel and Kadi Iyad Zahalka, Chief Justice of the Shar’i Court in Jerusalem, will be our guests at a Brotherhood Breakfast, co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. The program is called, “The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue in the Service of Peace.”
Rabbi Kronish is a Reform Rabbi and the former Director of the Israel Office of the American Jewish Committee, having received degrees from Hebrew union College, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Brandeis University. Kadi Zahalka is an accomplished judge, author and activist, having received an L.L.B. from Tel Aviv University and an MA from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
We do not know what will happen when it comes to negotiations with Iran, Syria or between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. There is little we can do to impact such negotiations. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t take actions that will help us understand those of other faiths and from other communities, actions that can help build a more peaceful world.
Shabbat Shalom U’M’vorach – May you have a blessed and peaceful Shabbat – and Chag Sameiach – Happy Sukkot!
Jordan
It seems that everyone wants to talk.
We’ve been talking with the Russians. They want us to talk to the Syrians. The Syrians want to talk to us. The Israelis and the Palestinians are talking. Even the Iranians now want to talk! What’s going on? It must be a full moon or something. (Actually, there was a full moon last night – coinciding with the beginning of the festival of Sukkot.)
No one knows where all this dialogue will lead. Many among us are cynical. We see the Syrians and Iranians as trying to stall for time and ward off any military attacks, while continuing to engage in their development and use of weapons of mass destruction. Others among us are hopeful. Weary of war we hope that the evil regimes in Damascus and Teheran have come to their senses and will negotiate in good faith to get rid of their WMDs. In truth, only those privy to negotiations and intelligence on the highest level, including back channels, can really assess the situation with any validity. And, even they may not really know whether this dialogue is worthwhile.
On the other hand, for those of us who are not dealing in the world of realpolitik, dialogue is not only worthwhile but essential in order to understand the world around us and build positive, peaceful relationships with those from other communities. On Sunday September 29th at 9:30 a.m. at Temple Sinai we will have a remarkable opportunity to engage in this kind of positive dialogue. Rabbi Dr. Ron Kronish, Director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel and Kadi Iyad Zahalka, Chief Justice of the Shar’i Court in Jerusalem, will be our guests at a Brotherhood Breakfast, co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. The program is called, “The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue in the Service of Peace.”
Rabbi Kronish is a Reform Rabbi and the former Director of the Israel Office of the American Jewish Committee, having received degrees from Hebrew union College, Harvard Graduate School of Education and Brandeis University. Kadi Zahalka is an accomplished judge, author and activist, having received an L.L.B. from Tel Aviv University and an MA from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
We do not know what will happen when it comes to negotiations with Iran, Syria or between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. There is little we can do to impact such negotiations. But, that doesn’t mean we can’t take actions that will help us understand those of other faiths and from other communities, actions that can help build a more peaceful world.
Shabbat Shalom U’M’vorach – May you have a blessed and peaceful Shabbat – and Chag Sameiach – Happy Sukkot!
Jordan
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