Rabbi's Musings

The holiday of Sukkot comes this week to remind us that, despite life's fragility, we should rejoice in our blessings. This holiday is not only about intellectually grasping this concept. We are to construct a booth and, in so doing, physically be reminded of the paradox of enjoying transitory blessings. (Many years ago, in Miami I had to take down my sukkah because of Hurricane Wilma; talk about learning the lesson of life's...Read more...

I shared a version of this with the congregation last year. The version below is to be printed in this week’s Jewish Herald Voice. Still timely, I believe. Shanah tovah!
 
Two-Sides of God
 
Once a couple of years ago I was running late for the airport and, even though it was before 7:30 in the morning, roof repair was being done on my neighbor’s house. One of the drivers had parked in a way that blocked the...Read more...

There's a story about Stephen S. Wise, the great social activist of last century, when he once visited China some years before the Second World War.  The only means of transportation in that country then was by rickshaw, and the rickshaws were pulled by old, weak, frail people, who would cough constantly as they dragged their burden.  At first, Rabbi Wise was horrified.  He felt uncomfortable that his transportation should be...Read more...

The Man of La Mancha is the story of Don Quixote.  The play features a waitress and prostitute named Aldonza.  When Don Quixote sees her, he refuses to treat her as a prostitute.  Instead, he calls her "my Lady."  He actually gives her a new name, Dulcinea.  Even after she is raped, and Don Quixote finds her hysterical and disheveled, he says compassionately, "My Lady, Dulcinea, Oh, my Lady, my Lady."

"Don't...Read more...

Many years ago, an English family journeyed to Scotland for a summer holiday.  The mother and father were looking forward to the time away with their young son. But one day, the son wandered off by himself, and he found an abandoned swimming hole. Naturally, he took off his clothes and jumped in.
 
The boy was immediately attacked by vicious cramps, and he cried out for help as he struggled to stay afloat.  Luckily, a...Read more...

The story is told of a jetliner that abruptly stops after taxing down the tarmac.  It returns to the gate and stays there an hour.  Finally, the plane takes off.  A concerned passenger then asks the flight attendant, "What was the problem?" 

"The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the engine," explains the attendant.  The passenger then asks, "How were you able to take care of the problem so...Read more...

Writing a few years ago in the New Yorker magazine, Adam Gopnik recalled “a great four-funneled ocean liner, the biggest and most luxurious ever built, whose passengers, rich and poor, crowd on board, the whole watched over by a bearded man named Edward John Smith, with the chief designer, Thomas Andrews, along for the maiden voyage, too….the ship sets off from Southampton, sure of itself, unsinkable, until it comes to the ice fields...Read more...

This week is the holiday of Shavuot (Thursday night at 8 p.m. in the moadon for study and dessert, Friday morning services, including Yizkor, at ten a.m.), which celebrates the giving of Torah at Mount Sinai, fifty days after Passover, the holiday of liberation, begins. Freedom leads to obligation. These days in New York City or The Woodlands I see high school and college graduates sporting their academic robes. It makes me think...Read more...

There is an old comedy album my dad used to love to play for us, entitled, “You Don’t Have to Be Jewish.” On the album there is a skit about a Jewish man who is very successful in business. To celebrate he buys himself a yacht as well as a complete captain’s uniform, including a beautiful, peaked cap. He goes to his immigrant parents and announces, in all his garb, that he is a captain. His parents reply, “Son, to your mother...Read more...

In a little more than a week, Israel will celebrate its 75th birthday. The modern Zionist movement did not begin as a celebration but as an admission of failure. Political emancipation had failed to free the Jews of Western European nations of antisemitism. As the trial of  Alfred Dreyfus showed in late 19th century France, the crowd had not forgotten to chant, “Death to the Jews!” One observer of this hate was...Read more...

Last week we spoke of the increasing alienation of German Jews from their tradition. Emancipation meant Jews need not be tied to their Jewish community. Enlightenment led to their questioning the foundation of their traditional beliefs. Someone like the poet Heinrich Heine converted to Christianity not out of belief but to make his way in German intellectual society. Into this crisis stepped lay people and later rabbis in Germany who offered...Read more...

In our yearlong examination of Jewish history (in honor of CBSW’s 40th birthday) we have reached the rise of Chassidic Judaism. Beginning in the 18th century, this movement began as a charismatic appeal to the spiritual in life. The rabbi was replaced with the rebbe, or tzaddik. Learning was replaced by charisma. The spiritual depression, influenced by economic problems, political persecution, and the collapse of traditional communal...Read more...

Program Note: Please join yours truly for a quick delve in the history of Jews in the American Civil War, today (March 7) at noon in the Moadon. Feel free to bring a lunch if you like. Also, at 7:30 pm on March 14, I will be teaching a class in the Moadon on the Jewish view of Jesus from a historical perspective. All are welcome!

Today’s topic in our yearlong study of Jewish history is the end of Iberian Jewry....Read more...

A major development in Jewish history was the maturation of Jewish mysticism, the Kabbalah. In the Middle Ages, Jews suffered at the hands of Christians and Muslims, but they also culturally thrived. Jews in Spain deepened their spirituality by developing a new approach to mysticism. When the Torah speaks of Abraham’s discovery of God and the revelation of the Law at Sinai, structures for later personal revelations were set. On the one...Read more...

This year, as we celebrate 40 years of our congregational history, we are also examining the broader journey of Jewish history. We are now in the golden age of Iberian Jewry, ca. 1000 CE. We have already reported on the rise of Islam and the numerous ways Islamic culture enriched Jewish scholarship. The golden age produced many great works of prayer, poetry, philosophy, and scholarship, but one man stands above the rest: Moses Maimonides....Read more...