| November 2009
Sinai Update – Week of November 22-28, 2009 Parashat Vayetze (Genesis 28:10 – 32:3) Reflections on Jewish Values and Our Calendar – Rabbi Andy Vogel
Thanksgiving is an American holiday with religious roots. The early Pilgrims saw their first Thanksgivings in the 1620s in the tradition of the harvest festivals which the Israelites celebrated in Jerusalem – specifically, the Biblical festival of Sukkot – to thank God the Source of Food who provides for everyone (ha’zan et hakol, in the words of the Birkat HaMazon) for their plentiful harvest.
In Judaism, of course, giving thanks is a central religious theme. The daily Jewish prayer for thanksgiving begins “Modim anachnu lach” – “We thank You, Adonai,” and it draws our attention to the many “miracles” which we experience in our lives at all times and every part of the day. The closing words of this prayer then point out a simple truth: that one of the Jewish names for God is “Goodness,” hatov. We experience God through the good things, the “miracles,” that bring blessing to our families and us. This year, standing around our Thanksgiving tables, as Jews we can pause in gratitude to the Source of all that is good in our lives – people we love, food we eat, wealth and health to various degrees. The Jewish attitude is this: Each of these gifts is a miracle; all that we have comes from God.
May you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration, and may you be blessed with the perspective of gratitude.
Sinai Update – Week of November 8-14, 2009
Aging is a time of great possibilities, but also of important and often difficult spiritual challenges. As our population ages, we more acutely must determine what the elders in our families and our community need. This week’s Torah portion tells of the deaths of both Abraham and Sarah, who died at ages 175 and 127 respectively, and regarding Abraham, the Torah says that he “died at a good ripe age, old and contented” (Genesis 25:8), while, of Sarah, the great medieval commentator Rabbi Ovadia Seforno said that she only died once she knew her legacy was secure, through the birth of the next generation of Jewish women. We can help our elders experience the fullness of life into old age, just as our ancestors did. As Rabbi Dayle Friedman writes in our own time, we can help them meet three basic challenges on this journey: “finding meaning; confronting empty, burdensome time; and counteracting disconnection and disjunction” (Jewish Visions for Aging, p. 107).
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches and many families gather together across generational lines, this is a good opportunity to take the time to consider what the needs of our elderly family members might be, and how to best meet them. Many resources exist within Brookline and Boston, including CJP’s “Senior Direct,” an excellent consultation service. Most of all, members of a synagogue community are able to support one another as we face these challenges together, to build a meaningful life for the elders in our community.
Sinai Update – Week of November 1-7, 2009
The “mission statement” of the Jewish people is laid out in plain view by God in this week’s Torah portion. As a preamble to God’s back-and-forth with Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah, God considers whether to reveal to Abraham God’s plans for the cities, and says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? … For I know Abraham, so that he may instruct his children and his household after him to follow the path of Adonai, to do righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:19). Nehama Leibowitz, the great Torah teacher of the 20th century, writes that these verses are “of supreme importance in the whole book of Genesis” (Studies in Bereshit, p. 164). We could say that they constitute a mission statement of the Jewish people: to walk in God’s path, so that we may then live a life of pursuing justice and righteousness.
The Torah uses the word tzedakah for “righteousness” in this verse. Here tzedakah means much more than providing alms to the poor. God wishes to teach Abraham that each person is entitled to certain basic rights, and that the Jew must act to secure or restore those rights – this work is called tzedakah. In contrast with Sodom, where, in the words of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, “egoism is a sacred principle of life, helplessness is considered a crime, and offering assistance is considered a folly and an offense against the public welfare,” the Jewish way affirms that each person is created in the divine image, and therefore each is entitled to the dignity of life and has ultimate value. For this reason, God challenges Abraham, to teach him (and us) to stand up to authority – even God! – for the sake of justice and right, to preserve the basic value of each human life. Abraham withstands the test, engages with God, and as our patriarch stands tall as our example as “the educator of our nation” of how we must follow the path of Adonai, to do righteousness and justice. |
