The prophet Zechariah teaches us on this Shabbat of Hanukkah, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit alone.” The great Jewish composer and musician Debbie Friedman sang, “Not by might and not by power, but spirit alone, shall we all live in peace.” I thought of these words as I watched the funeral service of President George H.W Bush. President Bush was eulogized as a leader of this country, as a friend and as a father. A very telling story came from Bush historian Jon Meachem, who told of his visit to a pediatric cancer ward in…
Honorable Mensch-ion
The Good Old Days
As a child, I recall hearing about “the good old days.” The days of the Catskill Mountains, the days of a nascent State of Israel, the days of filled synagogue sanctuaries. I would wonder, “When will the good old days be my days?” Have they passed me by or are they still yet to arrive? As I am now a parent of three young children, this same question has crept into our conversations. “Abba, what was school like when you were a kid?” This conversation is highlighted in the manner in which we light the Chanukah candles. The famous debate…
Lights On
Our tradition teaches, “The flame of God is the soul of the human being.” Paradoxically, as firefighters extinguished rousing flames, the Baal Shem Tov explains that we bring kindness into the world by igniting a spark and creating a flame in our soul. There is a difference between a Shabbat candle and a Hanukkah candle. The Shabbat candle should be used to enjoy, oneg Shabbat, celebration and delight. Hanukkah is meant to stare into the flame. We are even prohibited to use the light for other purposes. The word for candle is ner, spelled with two letter, nun and resh….
Toda, Give Thanks
Thursday evening, we will sit around a table full of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Many will continue the tradition of reciting what we are thankful for: family, friends and community. It appears to be one of America’s greatest rituals. As Jews, we can be thankful for our name, in Hebrew, yehudim. We are named after our ancestor Judah, yehudah. The Torah tells when Leah bore a fourth son, she named it Judah, for “this time I will thank God.” The word for thanks, toda, is encompassed in the name of our people. The Talmud teaches, “The following…
Dayeinu
Dayeinu! I wish I could wait until Passover to say these words. Yet again, we wake up to a mass shooting. For us in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh felt spiritually close. Yet, today, in Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks was physically close. As I was glued to the television, I watched the procession of the hearse of Sergeant Ron Helus down the freeway. Thousands of citizens in the greater Los Angeles area lined sidewalks, streets, and overpasses. Traffic ground to a halt on the opposite sides, paying respects to a man who put his own life in front of others to save…
May We Remember
The sociologist Erich Fromm taught, “We all have an overpowering urge to leave our mark on the world and to change it.” The Torah tells us, shenei chayei Sarah, these are the years of our mother, Sarah. Sarah lived 120 years, during which every minute blended the physical and the spiritual in the service of God. The eleven lives cut short this past weekend were trying to do just that- live both a physical and a spiritual life. The Rosenthal brothers, both with the genetic condition of Fragile X, were found each week in the back of the synagogue, greeting,…
Freedom Journey
As I landed in Philadelphia this past week, on vacation with my children, the pilot joyfully announced, “Welcome to the city of the birthplace of freedom.” Yesterday morning, my parents drove us past Independence Hall, the place where the United States Constitution was debated and adopted. My father asked, “Does anyone know what happened here?” My daughter, almost 7, answered, “Yes, grandpa, it is the place where the Jews got their freedom!” While this was not the precise answer, it did ring true of the teaching of our Torah this week. The Jews received physical freedom in the Exodus and…
The Coach’s Rabbi
Sinai Temple was fortunate to host the Maccabi Haifa basketball team this week, as they prepared to take on the Los Angeles Clippers. After a clinic with Sinai Temple students, I had the opportunity to interview the head coach, Barak Peleg. When I asked if he could beat the Clippers, he responded, “With a rabbi’s blessing!” The 300 guests in attendance stood and recited the shehcheyanu blessing. Peleg responded, “I know that one, because I grew up religious!” Barak Peleg grew up on Kibbutz Lavi, a religious community. When I explained to him that I also had family on a…
Beginnings
A school principal stood in front of the parents at the start of the year and said, “Much have I learned from my masters, even more from my colleagues, umiltalmidai yoter mikulam, and from my students more than from all.” Rabbi Bernard Berzon, who preached from the same pulpit for 39 years, explained that the Torah is not an aspirin tablet or a sleeping pill, rather it must be a living document that guides our everyday living, and that disturbs the peace when necessary. Yet, do we make time to open the book, to read it again and again? Our…
The Full Cup
A pious man had the custom of putting coins in a few different tzedakah boxes before Shabbat each week. He would then pray. For the orphanage, “May God grant that my children and grandchildren never have to be placed there.” Putting in a few coins for the hospital, he would say, “May God help that I should never go to a hospital.” The last box was for the synagogue. He would exclaim, “May the Almighty be compassionate with me and spare me from having to go there.” While it may seem that a synagogue is a place where only giving…
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