A rich man once boasted to Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan, known as the “Chofetz Hayyim,” that God had granted him great wealth, and that there was nothing he lacked.  The rabbi said to him: “You should therefore devote a few hours daily to studying Torah.”  The man replied, “I don’t have time for it.”  “If that is so,” said the rabbi, you are the poorest of the poor, because if your time is not your own, what else do you have?  There is no person who is poor in time.”
  

 A commandment from this week’s Torah portion instructs us to “remember the long way that Adonai your God caused you to travel in the wilderness these past forty years” (Deuteronomy 8:2).  Why be commanded to remember the forty years of the desert journey?  Perhaps to teach us that there is no precious commodity than our time.  Jewish tradition asks us to be mindful of the way we spend our lives, the way we invest ourselves during the little blip of history that is our time alive.  Each moment is full of choices we have made; Judaism asks us to choose to perform mitzvahs, increasing the good deeds we perform in the world, during our lifetimes.  A verse from Psalms says: “Teach us to number our days,  that we may grow in wisdom.”  (Ps. 90:12)  If we can be mindful of the passage of our time alive, we might choose to spend each moment more wisely, making the world a better place in every moment we can.
-          Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – August 10-16, 2008

Parashat Va’Etchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11)
Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

The ancient rabbis created a remarkable sacred myth regarding the Ten Commandments, which are repeated in this week’s Torah portion, in Deuteronomy, from their first appearance in Exodus, but with a few critical changes to the wording.  The rabbis, grappling with the discrepancy between the two versions, imagined that God uttered the Ten Commandments in a way that humans cannot speak – namely, that God is able to speak two commandments at once!   In Exodus, God commands the Jewish people to “remember, zachor” the Sabbath day, but in this week’s portion, Deuteronomy 5:12, forty years later as Moses is recalling these Ten Words in the desert, the word God uses is shamor, meaning “observe,” “guard” or “protect” Shabbat.  Rather than smooth over the difference, our ancient rabbis drew attention to it, and creatively suggested that God’s speech is essentially different than human speech, and that God can speak two words at once.
    

What is the substantive difference between “remember” and “observe”?  Rabbi Lawrence Kushner wrote (in his article, “Thinking Shabbat,” 1984) that being a “Shomer Shabbat” – observing the traditional laws of Shabbat meticulously – could be ideal, but that it has been appropriated and defined by someone else.  Instead, he suggests, a Reform Jew might strive to be a “Zocher Shabbat,” one who “remembers throughout the day’s duration that it was Shabbat,” one who acts all day long “for the honor of Shabbat.”  Following this standard (which, Rabbi Kushner reminds us, is not as easy as it sounds), we become free to celebrate the rest and joy of Shabbat in creative and modern ways that bring us to a higher spiritual level, focused on the essential meaning of the day of rest.
-          Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – August 3-9, 2008

Parashat D’varim (Deuteronomy 1:1 – 3:22)
Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel

I have just returned from the CJP “Follow Me to Israel” mission, and am reflecting on our relationship to Israel as American Jews.  Jewish tradition recognizes a rich paradox:  On one hand, as the Jewish people we has lived and thrived in the Diaspora for 2,000 years, and much of our experience as a people is as “others,” living in exile, understanding the role of “the journey,” and, on a political level, proudly fighting for the rights of minority groups in every era.  And yet, on the other hand, one finds the attitude throughout our literature that our constant spiritual yearning is to return to our land, both a symbol of redemption and promise, and also a concrete necessity: every people needs its homeland.  As American Jews, we can appreciate this deep paradox in Jewish life.
  

Our Torah portion this week heightens the tension.  In its opening verses, we are told that it was outside the land of Israel, “on this side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab… where Moses began to interpret the Torah” (Deut. 1:1-5).  It seems from these words that our very understanding of the Torah, which was given outside of Israel, can only begin to occur while we are in what Israelis today call chutz la’aretz, or “abroad,” away from the homeland.  As American Jews, our starting point is outside Israel, but, like Moses, we are drawn to our people’s national point of origin, which we can experience today as a modern Jewish miracle, the State of Israel.  I regard it as the most important project of our people today.  In fact, we might even say that Israel is a type of living Torah – a place where Judaism is lived out in our modern world, complex as it is, and our task is to confront it and “interpret” it, as Deuteronomy says, and make it our own, wherever we may live.
-          Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update -  Week of July 27-August 2, 2008
Parashat Mattot
Reflections on the Jewish World -- Rabbi Andy Vogel

Greetings from Israel!  I am here on an 8-day program with CJP (Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston) with Temple Sinai members Caryl Hull and Karen Stoler, who are the co-chairs of our Israel Action/Educaton Committee, on CJP's "Follow Me to Israel" program.  During our eight days in Israel, we have been learning about a wide array of excellent Israel programs for teenagers and adults, and have also been visiting programs in the Boston-Haifa Connection initiative.  We have met with teens from the NFTY summer Israel trips of the Reform movement, as well as teens from the USY (Conservative), Young Judea (Hadassah), Cohen Foundation Camps and other inspiring Israel programs, and we have also had our share of wonderful Israel experiences ourselves, taking jeep rides in the Golan Heights, swimming in the Kinneret Sea, touring Jerusalem and more.  We also had a lovely evening of home hospitality in the beautiful apartment of a young Haifa family, the principle of an elementary school with whom Temple Sinai has a growing relationship. This is a fantastic trip, and our three-person team has a great deal to bring back to Israel (we return on Thursday).  
 

What is clear, as well, is how much Jews in Israel and Jews in the Diaspora need each other.  We American Jews can benefit from Israelis, who can teach us how to strengthen Jewish identity, understand Jewish history and our place in it, appreciate the richness of Jewish languages (especially Hebrew) and gain a powerful sense of Jewish peoplehood.  But we also have something valuable to teach Israelis.  We Jews in America can offer Israelis our own deep sense of Jewish spirituality, which is often missing among secular Israelis, as well as our own cherished values of pluralism and diversity, about which Israelis express a great deal of curiosity and enthusiasm.  
 

My own hope (which I know Caryl and Karen share with me) is that our congregation's relationship with both Israel the country and Israelis the people will continue to grow.  Israel has so much to offer us!  We will share more thoughts with you when we return.
 -Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – Week of June 29-July 5, 2008
Parashat Chukkat (Numbers 19:1 – 22:1)
Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel