Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

Rabbi Gurevitz' creative works: Podcast, blogs, videos and more

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Snapshots of Congregation B’nai Israel

June 3, 2012 /

This sermon was delivered on Shabbat, June 1st, as a reflection on serving Congregation B’nai Israel for the past six years.  I will be moving on to Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough, MA, beginning July 1st.  I will continue to blog at this address.


Rabbi Prosnit often jokes, upon returning to lead services the first Shabbat after taking a vacation that ‘this will be the ‘what the Rabbi saw on his vacation’ sermon.’  But, while we get the joke, the sermons are always insightful and I always see the world in a new light or learn something new from listening to those reflections.  Because Rabbi Prosnit, who I have learned so much from these past six years, knows that a good friend does not make you endure a sitting of the 875 photos that they took on their holiday; rather, they pre-select a handful of the most unique and memorable moments worthy of sharing.
 When I’ve been on a journey and return with my collection of snap-shots, I tend not to be the kind of traveler who has images like ‘there’s me in city X’, or ‘there’s me next to statue Y’.  I like to take in the scene, and learn from the unfolding of the human or natural scene before me.  I want you to see what I saw through my eyes when I was there.  And that’s what I want to do this evening.  This isn’t the ‘What I’ve learned about being a Rabbi’ sermon.  This is the ‘This is what Jewish community looks and feels like’ sermon.  I’ve sifted through thousands of days, scenes and moments from the past 6 years here at B’nai Israel.  Too many to count and too many to do justice to all of you, what you have created together, and how you have inspired me.  All I can do is select a few snapshots.  This is my mini photo-montage of my journey with Congregation B’nai Israel – the memories that I take with me, created by each and every one of you.
Shabbat morning minyan
The first picture is a little out-of-focus.  That’s because I’m still rather bleary-eyed at 8am.  As many of you know, I’m not a morning person.  But, such an incredibly unique and blessed community is our Shabbat morning 8am minyan that I believe that I’d be a regular attendee even if I didn’t have to get up to the lead the service.  Cantor Blum knows that when I lean over to her just before we start the service and say, ‘let’s sing ‘Open up our eyes’ before the Shema this morning,’ that I need a little extra help fully awakening to the day that week.
In this slightly blurred snap-shot, you’ll see a teenager reading Torah on the anniversary of their bar or bat mitzvah.  Or perhaps one of the many adult Torah leyners we have up at the reading desk.  If you notice that the shot looks a little more blurred where their hand holds the yad – the Torah pointer – its because sometimes they get nervous.  But they do it anyway, and they inspire others, from time to time, to step up and say that they are ready to have a go.
But I also want you to take in the scene at the back of the chapel.  There’s a couple of rows of women – they are some of our senior members.  They are there every week.  They’ve been through a lot; losses and challenges in life.  But they are there for each other, and they help each other get through.  And they didn’t stop praying.  In fact, its after some of those losses and challenges that they began.  Seeing them there, praying together, helps me to pray.
Our teenagers
In the next snap-shot its hard to pick out what to focus on.  Actually, unless you were there, its hard to tell from the image what exactly is going on – it’s a group of teenagers and the scene looks a bit chaotic.  Its hard to tell what they are doing, but you can see from the laughs on their faces that everyone is having fun.  This is a Monday night during my class with our Eighth Graders.  You know, its not an accident that I’ve spent 6 years running the 8th grade program.  It wasn’t intended as Rabbi Prosnit’s version of hazing the new Assistant Rabbi.  Its actually the gift that I received from our Educator, Ira Wise.  We value our teens, and bar and bat mitzvah is not a destination, its just one stop on the journey.  And when one of your Rabbis is responsible for teaching the 8th grade its because we really care and we want you to be a part of it. 
In my photo, on this particular night, things look a bit different because it’s the night when members of BIFTY, our Youth Group, come storming in and ‘kidnap’ my students for night to give them a taste of our High School youth group community that they will be invited to become a part of that night.  I’ll tell you what I see in this picture, and what awes me every time.  A group of teenagers – 14, 15, 16 year olds maybe.  And some of those kids were my 8thgrade middle class students just last year.  And tonight they are leaders.  They are team-building, and they are instructing and guiding, and they are helping and including.  And I get a glimpse of something that is so much more powerful than just fun and games.  I get a glimpse of the remarkable young people in our congregation; not only may they be the leaders of our community in the future – they are our leaders today. 
I see them in BIFTY, I see them at Merkaz.  And they inspire me and give me hope.
Nursery and young children
The next picture is one of the few places in the synagogue building where I feel tall.  There are some adults in the room – a couple of teachers and our Pre-School Director, Alexa Cohen.  But I’m feeling tall because I’m in a pre-school classroom with a class of 4 year old children.  We’ve got our hands and legs stretched out in all different directions (demonstrate).  We’re being trees.  Because its almost Tu Bishvat – the festival of trees.  Tu Bishvat often falls in February and so, when I come in and ask them what special holiday is coming up soon, I’ve learned not to be surprised when they tell me ‘Valentine’s Day’. 
In fact, its very helpful when they remind me that 3 and 4 years take in everything from the world around us.  It reminds me that being a Rabbi today means that we always have to respond to the times and the culture that our community is living in.  We can’t stand still, and we have to make the ancient Jewish rituals, holidays and wisdom relevant in today’s world.  That’s what Rabbi Nicole Wilson-Spiro has done in providing a weekly Shabbat morning Young Families Chavurah which combines a totally contemporary take on parenting Jewish children with the gift of family time on Shabbat.  And that’s what Elaine Chetrit does with our elementary-aged children on Friday evening at Mishpacha Shabbat.  Celebrating with these groups gives me joy.
Adult learners
If the next shot looks a little unfamiliar and a little… Christian… that’s because we’re at a Retreat Center on the CT shoreline.  30 women have gathered for a one day retreat.  Its probably the most intensive kind of adult learning experience that I’ve taken a snap-shot of, but I could have chosen so many others, with men and women, experienced learners and complete beginners, figuring out their relationship with Jewish community, traditions, ethics, and taking a look at what they believe, what inspires them, and what feeds their spirit and their soul.  Some are engaging in the hardest kind of learning of all – being complete beginners at Hebrew with Elaine, or the festivals and other basics in the Parent Learning Circle. 
Its not easy being a beginner at something when we’re adults and so accomplished in other areas of life.  But the snap-shot of the retreat will always stay with me.  Its partly that the setting is so beautiful.  Its also a place where I’ve worked and led services with my soul partner and master teacher of creativity – Suri.  But more than that, it’s the deep sharing and connecting that is so beautiful; its what’s possible when we dispense with the ‘small talk’ and engage in ‘big talk’ with each other.  This snap-shot is full of spiritual awakenings.  Learning with these adults nourishes my spirit.
Board/committees/lay leadership
I wasn’t actually present for this next snap-shot.  But it’s a group of people with charts and to-do lists in front of them.  The photo may not look very exciting – a group of people sat around a table, talking and planning.  Everyone has something to contribute and everyone is pitching in with their particular skill set and passion.  Some of these people knew each other before this photo was taken. But some are meeting for the first time, or getting to know each other better.  They are planning a big party, and by all accounts, they did an amazing job!  But while I have and continue to thank everyone who had a hand in an incredible gala this year, this kind of scene at our Temple is just a touch-stone for all of the lay leadership that makes things happen around here each and every day. 
Committees who are doing our caring work, visioning the future of our Religious school education, helping with our family-focused celebrations and mitzvah day, making sure that we can pay our bills, and helping our amazing facilities manager, Abby Rohinsky, with all the juggling of activities, tasks and maintenance involved in running a place like this.  And then, our course, there is our Board and Executive.
I’ve worked here under three Presidencies – Richard Krantz, Amy Rich, and Mark Kirsch.  And now Mindy Siegel prepares to take up the reigns.  Each so different in their styles, and each so delightful to partner with in our work here.  Countless people who, even if its just to do one thing one time, step up to offer of themselves to make this holy community happen.  We couldn’t do it without members and their financial support.  But that isn’t enough.  We couldn’t do it without a quality professional staff.  But that isn’t enough. 
Just as in the Torah Moses asks for contributions to build the Mishkan – the place where God will dwell among them – from those whose hearts move them, so those who volunteer of themselves are giving from their hearts to create this place where God dwells among us.  When I look at this snap-shot I am inspired to work harder and offer more too.
Tonight
The final snap-shot hasn’t been taken yet.  I’d like to break with sanctuary protocol just this once and take it now.  Its all of you.  

When I arrived, I sang a short blessing at my installation.  So taken was I by the warm welcome I received when I arrived 6 years ago, and by my sense of genuine caring and community that I felt here, I adapted a blessing that is traditionally said when you see beautiful and amazing things in nature.  The blessing says, ‘Blessed are You Eternal our God Ruler of the Universe, who has such as these in Your world.’  This is a beautiful snap-shot that I see before me, and you have been my blessing.  Baruch Ata Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha-olam, Shecacha lo b’olama, shecacha lo b’olamo.  Amen, Selah.  Thank you.

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Conquering the monsters beneath our bed… where the wild things really are

May 17, 2012 /

Cross-posted from the Rabbis Without Borders Blog at myjewishlearning.com

I want to share the chorus of one of my favorite Indigo Girls songs with you:
So we’re ok, we’re fine, baby I’m here to stop your crying
Chase all the ghosts from your head,
I’m stronger than the monsters beneath your bed
Smarter than the tricks played on your heart,
we’ll look at them together then we’ll take them apart
Adding up the total of a love that’s true,
Multiply life by the Power of Two (words and music, The Indigo Girls, ‘Power of Two’)

This has been something of a theme song in my life, these past 11 or 12 years. Ever since I met the woman who, two years ago, became my spouse. In fact, we even incorporated the last two lines of the chorus into the Ketubah that we crafted with an artist-friend.

This past week, a great deal in the flow of the news cycle has caught my attention. Thinking about the monsters beneath our beds, or perhaps ‘where the wild things are’, it was notable that Maurice Sendak passed away this week at the age of 83. Hearing the news, I went online and watched his PBS interview with Bill Moyers from a few years back, and then the very different but quite entertaining interview that Stephen Colbert conducted with him just a few months ago. It was in the PBS interview that Sendak explained that the wild things were somewhat inspired by his first generation immigrant Jewish relatives – the aunts and uncles who had escaped Europe while they could still get in but, to a young child, were grotesque caricatures.

I know the ones he meant – they were probably just like the great-aunts and cousins, once-removed, that I remember –the ones with the lipstick that was painted so high that it almost touched their nose, the bright blue eye shadow and long, red nails. And the great-uncles with the hair growing out of their noses and ears. While Sendak lived his life as a secular Jew, he was clearly informed by that family history.

He speaks with Moyers about the courage it takes for a child to look the scary things in the eye and, in so doing, to be able to take back control not only of one’s fears, but of one’s anger. He had an uncanny ability to write from within the psyche of a child and paint the inner landscapes of their minds in vivid detail that they could so deeply relate to.

In the interview that Sendak gave recently with Colbert he mentions that he is also a gay man. Colbert, in his tongue-in-cheek but straight-faced manner, exclaims, ‘they won’t let you be a Boy Scout leader, but they’ll let you write children’s books?!’

While I certainly appreciate the joke, I found my mind considering the juxtaposition of Sendak’s ‘where the wild things are’ and another story that we saw being played out in the cultural and political sphere last week when first Vice-President Biden and then President Obama voiced their personal support of the GLBT community and of same-sex marriage. Sendak’s most famous children’s story can provide a means for young children to look at the monsters and many other things in life that scare them and, perhaps, to realize that they are not really scary after all. While for Biden, we might be amused by the influence of Will and Grace to make the scary and unfamiliar into something accessible and much more normative, it is the President’s words that most effectively demonstrated how we combat homophobia and those who feel strongly that civil equality should not be afforded to those whose love is not of the heterosexual kind:

‘I have to tell you that, over the years, as I talk to friends, and family, and neighbors, as I speak with my own staff who are in committed and monogamous same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think of those soldiers, or airmen or marines, sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf, and yet feel constrained, even though ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.’

The President voices what we know to be true about many things in life, and not only same-sex marriage: so often, fear is born out of ignorance. Once we get to know someone who is different from us, whether it be difference due to a physical disability, a religion, an ethnicity, and so on… we find that the world is a much more complex, colorful, and diverse place. We learn to see the partial truths in multiple perspectives. We learn, and in learning, like Max who stares into the yellows of the eyes of the wild things and does not blink, we confront our fears.

Some of the fears that have been voiced about permitting same-sex marriage include fears about how children are raised, fears about how the institution of marriage is understood, fears about the authority of some churches and other more traditional branches of religious faith groups. But, with the exception of the strongly held beliefs of some faith groups whose legitimate concerns arise out of their understanding of their faith teachings, getting to know people – people in our families, our communities, it becomes abundantly clear that these are not the monsters beneath our bed – these fears are not grounded in reality. And for those who are guided by a faith that appears incompatible with the President’s personal statement, it is important to consider whether such beliefs should be applied to civil rights on behalf of the entire population, many of whom are guided by different (and sometimes also religiously-informed) beliefs.

But I have other fears. My fears are borne out of conversations I’ve had with both adults and, even more heart-wrenching, with teenagers, who have shared their pain when they believe that society has taught them that their sexual identity and their religious identity or spirituality are incompatible. They’ve told me that the message they’ve received is that God hates them. Parents who tell me that they fear for their children and are so terribly afraid that their lives will be that much more difficult because they are homosexual. Some of these fears, too, are based on not knowing, and we can confront and learn to crown ourselves king over these too. But I am so terribly saddened that these are some of the messages that have been internalized from our political and cultural landscape.

This is why it is so important that the President and Vice President made the statements that they made. It is why it is important for people to speak out, and write articles, affirming the holiness of being true to our innermost selves, showing that faith and love do go together.

When Max realizes that he has conquered the wild things, he gets back in his little boat and returns to his bedroom, where he finds a hot meal is waiting. What stronger symbol of the unconditional love between a mother and her child can there be? For, once we have conquered the monsters beneath our bed, we come to understand the Power of Two – its all about looking each other in the eye, its all about relationships, and its all about love.

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Counting up and Counting down

May 7, 2012 /

We are four weeks into the Counting of the Omer, the period of seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot. Once a time of waiting as grain grew in fields, ready for harvesting at Shavuot, this period of time later became interpreted as a time of personal growth.  We move not only from the experience but also the mindset of slavery, to the moment of Revelation at Mount Sinai, understood as a God-encounter where we can be at our most spiritually expansive; exhibited through a refinement of character traits and behaviors that see our actions most aligned with our values and beliefs.

The tradition of Counting the Omer is a practice of counting each day as we reach sundown.  But while each day brings us closer to the festival, the ritual asks that we count up and not count down.  Perhaps this is purely pragmatic.  Shavuot is the only biblically-ordained festival that is not provided with a specific date on a specific month but, rather, is described as seven weeks after Passover.  So we count up until we hit seven.  Perhaps the counting is also symbolic – the sense of moving upward as in a spiritual ascent, just as Moses ascended Mt. Sinai for the Revelation encounter.  But perhaps, also, the upward counting is a way of reminding us to keep moving forward.  Sometimes our life experiences see us looking back, trying to hold on to something that is gone.  We experience the pain of loss, as we should when we lose something, but sometimes the pain stays with us so much longer because of our inability to notice what is right in front of us today.  When we count the Omer, before reciting the formula for announcing this day, we number the previous day.  So, when announcing the arrival of the third day, we would say aloud ‘yesterday was the second day’ and then, after the blessing for counting the Omer, we announce ‘today is the third day of the Omer’.  We recognize that we are formed by our  past experiences, but then we affirm the newness of this day – we will not be defined or limited by our past.  We face today as a new opportunity, with new potential for growth and spiritual expression.

This year, as I count the Omer, I am aware of my own journeying, and the tendencies to look back or look forward, but sometimes forgetting to treasure this very day.  Not long after Shavuot I will be journeying, from Congregation B’nai Israel in Bridgeport CT to Congregation B’nai Shalom in Westborough, MA.  It is a bitter-sweet time.  Looking back, I find myself trying not to count or notice that there is one day less left at B’nai Israel.  It has been such a wonderful spiritual home these past six years, and it is not easy to leave.  And yet, I am thrilled to have been given the opportunity to serve Congregation B’nai Shalom, and each time I return for another visit and meet more people, my enthusiasm grows.  I begin to imagine the work we will do there together.

Looking back… and looking forward… and sometimes forgetting to notice this moment and this day.
Hayom shloshim yom, sh’hem arba’ah shavuot u-shnei yamim la’omer. 
Today is the thirtieth day, making four weeks and two days of the Omer.

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#BlogExodus, Nisan 13: Who asks the questions and who provides the answers?

April 5, 2012 /
As we sit down at our Seder tables this year we repeat, as we do every year, the words that remind us that it is important for us to remember the exodus from Egypt as if we, ourselves, experienced it.  If we engage in the ritual of the Passover Seder as more than just another family meal, we find a whole toolbox laid out in the manual we call the Haggadah, that can help us to do this.  There are tastes, there are words and stories, there are questions and (sometimes) there are answers (but it is the search that is more important than the answers themselves).  There are songs and, if we choose, there is storytelling through acting, reminiscing, the young asking the old, and the old asking the young.
The haggadah tells us that we have to find a way to make the experience of gaining freedom from slavery come alive for each and every generation.  This is not only to ensure that we don’t forget our heritage and our story; it is also because some of the early generations of Rabbis who crafted this ritual understood that the way Jews related to this story in one generation or in one era would be different to the ways that it worked for Jews of another time.
The meaning and the purpose of Passover has changed over the centuries – it fulfilled a different need for us at different times.  Once it was an agricultural celebration.  At other times it was a story of hope when we were oppressed and discriminated against.  In the last generation in the USA it became a vehicle for Jews now living freely to speak about their obligations to help free others from their shackles, giving birth to Haggadot that focused on civil rights, women’s rights, the environment, and more.
What will Passover mean for the next generation? What ‘job’ will it do that adds significant meaning to their lives? It might have something to do with autonomy or the ability to feel like they can still make a difference in an era of powerful corporations and the undue influence of money.  It might be the freedom to make different kinds of lifestyle choices.  It might mean a psycho-spiritual kind of freedom that comes from within.  It might inspire them to engage in local or worldwide social justice actions to help free others. We don’t know what the next generation will dream. 
But, while the Passover has traditionally always been a time when the youngest ask the adults the questions so that they will understand where they come from and the inheritance that is theirs, it is essential that we adults ask our children questions too.  If we want them to imagine that it is they, themselves who are leaving the slavery of Egypt, we need to ask them what that means to them.
You can do this with children of any age, but I especially encourage those with teenagers or young adults at their Passover table this year to ask the question, as I will be doing this year at my Seder.  I am confident that your Seder will be transformed into an interesting and important conversation, and I’d love to hear what you learn from our next generations.
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#BlogExodus, Nisan 9: Springtime as Freedom-time

April 1, 2012 /

I’ve missed a few days of #BlogExodus blogging, but the great thing about a project that involves many people, is that you can read lots of other great blogs on each and every day of this month of Nisan/lead-up to Pesach project.  You can track them all on Twitter by searching for #BlogExodus, but here are just a small selection from the past few days:
On ‘Cleaning’ check out this procrastinator’s musings.
On ‘Slavery’, a reminder that it is still real today, and not just a symbolic matter.
On ‘Freedom’, check out The Huffington Post.
The 7th of Nisan focused on ‘Redemption’ – take a look at a more personal reflection here.
The 8th of Nisan turned to themes of ‘Courage and Faith’ – here is a thoughtful reflection on bullying

And so now we’ve reached the 9th of Nisan and our theme today is ‘Spring’.  The following is my Passover message for our local weekly newspaper consortium, Hersam-Acorn, in print in several local towns this coming week:

Is it mere coincidence that the Jewish festival of Passover, beginning this Friday eve, April 6th, falls in the early weeks of Springtime? The answer is ‘no’, both from a historical perspective but also from a symbolic perspective.  Historically, several scholars suggest that there was a pre-existing Springtime celebration before the Jewish people assigned Passover and the re-telling of the exodus from Egypt to this time in the calendar.  In fact, we see hints of this earlier celebration embedded in the Exodus story itself.  Exodus, chapter five begins: ‘And afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh: ‘Thus says the Eternal, the God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast for Me in the wilderness.’   Spring is the season of new flowers and buds appearing in nature, and it is the lambing season. The centrality of the sacrifice of a lamb just before the tenth and final plague that led to the Hebrew slaves being allowed to go free may well have been related to an earlier celebration where a first-born of the new flock was offered up in thanksgiving.

Today we do not sacrifice animals as part of the Passover celebration; instead a shankbone is placed as one of the symbols on a Seder plate that takes center stage in the home-based ceremony held in Jewish homes all over the world to mark the beginning of the holiday.  Another symbol of fertility and new life is also found on this plate – an egg (a Spring time symbol shared by our Christian neighbors at Easter).

But Spring time remains deeply symbolic as a time not only of new birth, but struggles for freedom from oppression over the centuries, new hope and new possibilities.  We may be most familiar with the recent waves of unrest and uprisings against dictatorial leaders in the Middle East, dubbed ‘the Arab Spring’.  These movements did not literally begin during Springtime, but commentators quickly adopted the phrase that can be traced back to the 1800s.  Ben Zimmer, author of www.visualthesaurus.com, finds the earliest usage with a German philosopher, Ludwig Borne, in 1818.  Referring to several European revolutions in the mid-1800s, in French the phrase used was printemps des peuples (springtime of the peoples) and, in English, ‘The People’s Springtime’.

What is common to both the current socio-political changes, the European revolutions, and the Biblical Exodus is that the journey from slavery to freedom is never straightforward.  We are much more certain about what we are seeking freedom from but it usually takes a lot longer to know what we will do with our freedom.  For the Hebrews it took forty years of wandering in the wilderness but, along the journey they created a covenant with God that provided them with laws and structures for creating a new society in a new land, where time and again they were reminded not to oppress others, because they had once been slaves in Egypt.  This is a message that we all need to hear, year after year, precisely because it is so easy to forget the greater purpose of freedom once we have the power to choose our own path.

This Springtime, in the weeks following Passover, the Jewish community is joining together with Christian, Muslim, and Hindu brothers and sisters for an ‘Interfaith Spring’ on Sunday, April 29th.  Together we will both celebrate and remember our obligation to care for our natural world, joining to clean up the Greater Bridgeport area.  We begin with a BBQ at Rodeph Shalom at 1 p.m., taking interfaith groups to work in cleaning up the city for the afternoon, and returning at 4.30 for more music and celebration.  To join us, please email  rabbivictor@rodephsholom.com


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#BlogExodus, Nisan 3: Learning and Teaching

March 26, 2012 /
As we sit down at our Seder tables this year we repeat, as we do every year, the words that remind us that it is important for us to remember the exodus from Egypt as if we, ourselves, experienced it.  
The haggadah tells us that we have to find a way to make the experience of gaining freedom from slavery come alive for each and every generation.  This is not only to ensure that we don’t forget our heritage and our story; it is also because some of the early generations of Rabbis who crafted this ritual understood that the way Jews related to this story in one generation or in one era would be different to the ways that it worked for Jews of another time.
So, when we think about the Seder as an opportunity for learning and teaching, I’d like to suggest that we set aside some of our normative assumptions.  As we think about how to conduct our Seder, we might usually assume that it is any children or youth at the table that are doing the learning, and it is the adults doing the teaching.  In families that still conduct the Seder with a ‘head of the family’ running things, the flow of information is more likely to be one-way.  But we need to make space for younger generations to teach as well as to learn; to not only ask questions but also to provide answers.  Doing so provides an opportunity for them to relate to the deeper learning that comes from re-experiencing the journey from slavery to freedom in ways that work for today’s generation.
The meaning and the purpose of Passover has changed over the centuries – it fulfilled a different need for us at different times.  Once it was an agricultural celebration.  At other times it was a story of hope when we were oppressed and discriminated against.  In the last generation in the USA it became a vehicle for Jews now living freely to speak about their obligations to help free others from their shackles, giving birth to Haggadot that focused on civil rights, women’s rights, the environment, and more.
What will Passover mean for the next generation? What ‘job’ will it do that adds significant meaning to their lives? It might have something to do with autonomy or the ability to feel like they can still make a difference in an era of powerful corporations and the undue influence of money.  It might be the freedom to make different kinds of lifestyle choices.  It might mean a psycho-spiritual kind of freedom that comes from within.  We don’t know what the next generation will dream. If we want them to imagine that it is they, themselves who are leaving the slavery of Egypt, we need to ask them what that means to them.
You can do this with children of any age, but I especially encourage those with teenagers or young adults at their Passover table this year to ask the question, as I will doing this year at my Seder.  I am confident that your Seder will be transformed into an interesting and important conversation, and I’d love to hear what you learn from our next generations.
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#BlogExodus, Nisan 2; Chametz – the good & bad of leavened bread

March 25, 2012 /

This is day 2 of #BlogExodus, and our theme is Chametz – the term that refers to leavened foods – the opposite of matzah (unleavened bread).  The Torah commands that, as part of our observance of Passover, we remove all chametz from our homes and refrain from eating it for the duration of the festival.

As is the case with so many of our Jewish rituals, we have many layers of interpretation that we can delve into from across the centuries to explore the practical and symbolic meaning of chametz and the importance of its absence during this holiday.

In the symbolic arena, many have referred to chametz as a sign of puffed-up ego, or yetzer hara  more generally.  Yetzer hara  is usually translated as ‘evil inclination’, but that gives a strong impression of something negative that we must rid ourselves of.  The problem is, we are allowed to eat chametz for the other 358 days of the year.  So it doesn’t make a lot of sense, even symbolically, to assign chametz a meaning that is ‘bad.’  In some of the earliest collections of rabbinic midrashim we find acknowledgments that yetzer hara is better understood as will or desire.  We all need it in healthy doses – without it we would not create anything, make love, enjoy food etc. But, as with all things in life, we need balance – too much yetzer hara isn’t good for us or for our society.  Just as too much leavening makes for a sour taste when we bake bread, so too much yetzer hara turns everything we do sour.

Nevertheless, why do we have to rid ourselves of it completely for Pesach?  On a less symbolic level, some have suggested that, like the unleavened cakes that were part of the Temple offerings in ancient times, each of us turn our homes into mini-Temples.  We don’t do the Pascal lamb sacrifice at the Temple any more, but our homes have become the new location for the rituals that we do to celebrate the holiday. So our homes are now sanctuaries for increasing our awareness of God’s presence, just as the Temple that once stood in Jerusalem was where everyone was expected to go for the major holidays, because the intensity of God-awareness was greatest when everyone focused on one special place.

Back to the symbolic level again, I recognize that full freedom comes not only from the social and political environment we might live in, but from an inner state that requires trust and faith, and which I am more aware of when I participate in rituals or actions that make me more God-conscious.  Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught that it was not that the unleavened bread was holy and the leavened bread was absent of holiness; rather that the puffed-up nature of leavened bread represented a world where the inner essential holy sparks of all things can be disguised by the complexities of the material world.  That is the world that we live in.  But perhaps we become more adept at navigating our way through that material world if we can take a week to strip away some of the extraneous things, simplify our subsistence, and look for the inner essence within ourselves and others.

In today’s world, we often lose sight of the opportunity that Pesach gives us to simplify – we go overboard with seeking out ‘kosher for Pesach’ foods that we truly do not need to sustain us for 1 week.  How ironic that we have symbolically turned an entire category of ‘appropriate for Pesach’ foods into a kind of spiritual chametz – it gets in the way of the task that Pesach is designed to help us do spiritually.

So this year, perhaps take more time to think of the symbolic and spiritual meaning of chametz and use this as a guide to figure out what to throw out and what to buy in preparing for the Passover holiday.
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

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#BlogExodus, Nisan 1: From the narrow places I call

March 24, 2012 /

Tonight is Rosh Hodesh Nisan, the beginning of the first month of the year.  Yes, I know, its confusing – isn’t Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish New Year that usually falls sometime in September – the start of the year?  Well, yes, that is the Jewish New Year, but Rosh Hashanah actually falls on the 1st day of the 7th month.  Because Jewish holy days were tied to the seasons long before our people superimposed historical and mythical layers to add to their meaning, it also makes sense that we would arrive at the beginning of the 1st month right after we announced the 1st day of Spring.  New life, new buds, new flowers appearing on earth – the sense of a new cycle beginning again.

This month I’m joining Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, along with many others, in #BlogExodus (that’s how you’ll search for others on Twitter who might have posted blogs as part of the project).  Together, we’ll cover the days between the 1st and 14th of Nisan, leading up to Pesach.

Today’s theme is the narrow places of Mitzrayim (Egypt).  As part of the Hallel (selection of psalms we sing on holidays and as part of the Passover Seder) we find the lines, min hameitzar karati Yah, anani va-merchav Yah.  From the narrow places I called out to God; God answered me expansively. (Ps. 118)

The first time I heard and learned the melody to these verses was with Debbie Friedman, z’l, at a Healing service in Westchester.  I don’t quite recall, but it may well have been only the second time that I attended one of these services, and it was the month leading up to Pesach.  You can hear an excerpt of Debbie singing Min Hameitzar from ‘The Journey Continues’ album here.

I remember back to that time in my life.  I was not sick, but I had recently left the UK for a nine month stay at Elat Chayyim the transdenominational Jewish retreat center.  I was a bit home-sick, but it was also one of the most important periods of my life, in my mid-20s.  Looking back, I see that it was my soul that was aching – I was struggling internally with my sense of who I was and how to live my life.  I guess its the kind of angst familiar to many at that stage of life.  But it was a kind of spiritual mitzrayim – a narrow strait.  Debbie sang that song with a yearning in her voice – perhaps calling out from her own mitzrayim – and i felt some of the restraints that were holding me back start to break apart.  It was the beginning of my own journey through the wilderness to my Promised Land.

When I introduce the Mi Shebeirach prayer for healing during a service, I always invite my congregation to think of those in need of healing, ‘whether healing of body or healing of spirit.’  I know that most people’s minds turn immediately to those that they know who are physically ailing.  But Debbie taught us that we all need healing of spirit.  There is not one of us in this world who is so complete that we have no rough edges, no broken shards, or tender hearts, from some emotional or spiritual aching.  Each one of us can identify the mitzrayim that we live in, or have experienced at some time in our lives.

We begin the journey by calling out from that place – the narrow straits.  The ability to perceive expansiveness, to see that there is a path forward that can release us from the places we feel stuck in our lives, in our sense of self, in our sense of possibility … the miracle is that the mere act of calling out can create the opening.  Just as the Hebrews in slavery had to call out before God heard and responded to their suffering.

Last week, we welcomed approx. 130 women, men and youth at our Women’s Seder, dedicated to Debbie’s memory, and led by the incredibly gifted and soulful Julie Silver.  It was a real honor to lead the Seder with Julie, accompanied by Carole Rivel, who accompanied Debbie in so many of the healing services and Women’s Seders that she led for many years.  We all carry Debbie in our hearts, and her legacy lives on when we teach in her name, inspired by what she taught us.  She will forever remain as one of my greatest teachers.
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

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The Book of Purim (ding dong!)

March 2, 2012 /

Its that time of year again… welcome to Adar!  The first Purim shpiel to hit my facebook page this year that had me laughing out loud was courtesy of the 1st year class at Hebrew Union College, on the Jerusalem campus.  I haven’t seen the Broadway musical, ‘The Book of Mormon’ yet, but you don’t have to know the show to enjoy this production.
Happy almost Purim!
Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz

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Lessons from the Susan B Komen Foundation, Planned Parenthood, and recent events surrounding Contraceptive Coverage

February 14, 2012 /

I delivered the following sermon last Shabbat at Congregation B’nai Israel, Bridgeport, CT.  It contains two recent statements, one made by the Women’s Rabbinic Network of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and one by an alliance of 28 mainstream religious organizations, regarding recent events that relate to women and access to birth control.  Some congregants requested the ability to read through the statements again, and so the entire sermon is posted here for the benefit of all who may to wish read more.

There are many different lessons that could be drawn from recent events of the past two weeks that pertain to women’s health issues. First, the decision by the Susan B Komen Foundation to de-fund breast cancer prevention services from Planned Parenthood, and then the reversal of that decision. And then, this week, the White House response to Catholic authorities protesting a health care coverage provision that required coverage to cover birth control. As you may have heard this morning, the White House did respond to these protests with a compromise that will now require the insurer — rather than the employer — to provide the contraceptive coverage free of charge for women employed by the entities in question. The Catholic church is still not happy, but Women’s advocacy groups are generally pleased because this will still give most women access to birth control coverage. Our own Religious Action Center also released a statement in support.

Many of us are shaking our heads, wondering why we are still fighting these battles. In the case of the Susan B Komen Foundation, a terrible manipulation appears to have taken place. We may never know how broadly intentional the attack on Planned Parenthood was by the board as a whole or whether the reputation of this organization – an organization that was presented with a prestigious award at our URJ Biennial – was truly jeopardized by one individual. There are many voices of indignation calling for mass resignations, such is the strength of the anger felt by women on what transpired. Personally, I have sympathy with the strength of these feelings but, pragmatically, I wonder whether the public ultimately wields more influence over the foundation by focusing on keeping their actions in check rather than demanding a radical turnover of the organization.

The Women’s Rabbinic Network of the CCAR released the following statement last week in response to the Foundation’s actions:
On behalf of over 600 Reform women rabbis, the Women’s Rabbinic Network expresses gratitude to Planned Parenthood for the vital services it provides women, from mammograms and cervical cancer screenings, to family planning and contraceptive services, to safe abortions. For many women, Planned Parenthood is the only health care provider available to them. The Women’s Rabbinic Network has always been a strong supporter of women’s rights, reproductive justice, and women’s health. The WRN applauds the decision of the Susan G. Komen Foundation for reversing revocation of its funding of Planned Parenthood. We are proud to be a part of the Union for Reform Judaism which presented Ambassador Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, with the hightest honor bestowed by the Reform Movement, the Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award for Service to the World Community, in December 2011. We hope the Komen Foundation will continue to support women’s health and all organizations that provide women’s health services for many years to come.

As you can see, the tone is more affirming of the good behavior and affirming of our support of the good and important work that Planned Parenthood does, rather than emphasizing the bad behavior. Similarly, a statement signed by 28 major mainstream religious leaders representing a broad variety of religious organizations was released this week in support of the White House announcement on Contraceptive coverage in health care reform. This statement also emphasized and reinforced the good rather than negatively critiquing the behaviors of others.

Together, the leaders of these Christian, Jewish and Muslim national organizations affirmed:
“We stand with President Obama and Secretary Sebelius in their decision to reaffirm the importance of contraceptive services as essential preventive care for women under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and to assure access under the law to American women, regardless of religious affiliation. We respect individuals’ moral agency to make decisions about their sexuality and reproductive health without governmental interference or legal restrictions.

We do not believe that specific religious doctrine belongs in health care reform – as we value our nation’s commitment to church-state separation. We believe that women and men have the right to decide whether or not to apply the principles of their faith to family planning decisions, and to do so they must have access to services. The Administration was correct in requiring institutions that do not have purely sectarian goals to offer comprehensive preventive health care. Our leaders have the responsibility to safeguard individual religious liberty and to help improve the health of women, their children, and families. Hospitals and universities across the religious spectrum have an obligation to assure that individuals’ conscience and decisions are respected and that their students and employees have access to this basic health care service. We invite other religious leaders to speak out with us for universal coverage of contraception.”

The Catholic bishops have called the new health coverage rule “an attack on religious freedom” and argue that all employers who object to contraception — not just faith-based organizations — should be exempt from having to provide it to their employees.

“That means removing the provision from the health care law altogether,” said Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the USCCB, “not simply changing it for Catholic employers and their insurers.” He added, “If I quit this job and opened a Taco Bell, I’d be covered by the mandate.” Of course, his Taco Bell example makes the case for why the contraceptive coverage in health care reform is so important – can you imagine a situation where individual women can or cannot get coverage for contraception based on the religious beliefs of their boss at work?

Supporters of the provision say the only conscience that matters ought to be the conscience of the woman in question, whose option to have affordable contraception should not be dictated by the religious beliefs of her employer. Some of them feel that the religious exemption is already too broad, because women who work for churches in any capacity are excluded from the option of coverage.

I should point out that the statement that I just read from Religious organizations in favor of the contraceptive coverage include Catholics for Choice. Even within the Catholic church, the bishops are at odds with the majority of their followers. Recent surveys suggest that over 50% of practicing Catholics support access to contraceptive coverage. The Jewish signatories of the statement included the CCAR, Hadassah, the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, National Council for Jewish Women, the Rabbinical Assembly, Society for Humanistic Judaism, and Women of Reform Judaism.

The essence of these issues is, I think, quite rightly expressed by the cross-communal statement. Individuals should and do have the moral agency to make decisions about their reproductive health. Someone whose religious beliefs lead them to decline some of these services has the right to do so. What they don’t have the right to do is to remove access to these services from someone who may believe very differently to them. Religious doctrine does not belong in health care reform. However, I also understand (even if I disagree with their beliefs) that some people of faith feel so strongly about these issues that they are truly concerned about being coerced by government into enabling access to contraceptive care. It would appear that the White House has truly responded thoughtfully, carefully, and compassionately in trying to respond to those concerns without compromising the health and rights of individual women. It is an example to us of what is possible when we are willing to talk in tones of grey, rather than black and white; when we are able to see multiple sides of an issue and not just demonize those who don’t think like us. While there are still too many voices that like to shout in polarizing tones, I applaud those religious organizations that have come together to make a strong and clear statement on behalf of all of us who speak more softly, and I applaud the White House for the balance they have sought and found.

Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz
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