Rabbi’s Messages

How do you start a new year—especially one that begins with so much foreboding—so many problems both nationally and internationally. There are so many uncertainties we are confronting at the start of this year. When we think about all the areas of concern that so many of us have, there is a tendency to feel overwhelmed and helpless. What we forget is that in earlier ages, it was assumed that nothing could be done to alleviate the problems and that it is the human condition to accept and suffer. Early Christianity suggested and then taught that man and woman were born tainted by original sin and therefore must go through life seeking atonement while suffering. Islam taught fatalism—accept, because all is preordained and humans cannot change the will of God. Our ancestors at times used the expression “beshert”, “fated”, ”destined,” to put an end to questioning that for which there is no answer. Despite the aforesaid, the overwhelming thrust throughout our history has been man and woman working together with God can make a difference-can change the future.

Ancient prophets who saw their land run by despotic governments and indifference to the plight of the weak and helpless, spoke of a world of justice and caring. The message was powerful for all times and ran counter to all existing beliefs.

Yes, the problems of today are serious. But in moments of quiet reflection, it is so important that we not lose sight of the progress which humankind slowly makes when we do not give in to despair. The words of F.D.R are quite poignant these days: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” As a young adult, I learned the words of an ancient sage, Rabbi Tarfon, “you are not required to complete the work, but neither are you at liberty to abstain from it.”

In the past decades we may have been guilty of unbridled optimism. At the start of this new year, that optimism has vanished. But let us not wallow in pessimism of despair. Let us remember that each of us has the power to change the world. We must not shy away from making our voices heard and standing up to power. We may not be able to solve all of our problems in the coming year but we will be supportive of each other in facing and changing the future.

May it be a year of good health and peace.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett

As the winter finally gives way to spring, there are reminders all around us of this seasonal transition: the temperature rises, the days start to get a little longer, the flowers and the trees begin to bloom, and of course, the baseball season begins.

The Jewish calendar also provides us with a potent reminder of spring’s arrival, and that is the festival of Pesach, also known as Hag Ha-Aviv, the Spring Festival. The message of Passover is consistent with the spring season. Just as in nature spring marks a rebirth, so too does Passover recount the birth of the Jewish people. Our redemption from Egyptian bondage was the requisite for the formation of our ancestors into a nation.

Passover is also the holiday of freedom, Z’man Cheruteinu. While it is the story of our freedom from slavery, it is also a story about persecution and slavery to any people in any age. Passover is our constant reminder of our obligation to struggle for the freedom of all people.

And yes, we were slaves in Egypt. Yes, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, we felt the presence of God in our midst. But beneath the Haggadah’s tale of deliverance is a Passover lesson for all to hear. It is a lesson about family, gathered again around a festive table. It is a lesson about faith in goodness, faith in each other. What an important lesson this is, especially this year during the primary campaign with the toxic speech, vilifying others because of religion and/or background, and the incitement to violence. We need to stand up and express our outrage at the unprecedented vitriol that is being spewed. We need to deepen our faith in each other and embrace humankind to help bring about a world of understanding and peace.

Let us look forward to spring, not backward on the winter which has past. Thus Passover is a time for us to contemplate the miracle of birth, of human life, of our struggle for freedom, of our deep faith and of familial ties to all of humanity. It is the holiday which emphasizes “the can-do spirit”. It teaches us that even in the most trying of times, we all have the ability to forge forward through rough terrain and look forward to days of hope and blessing.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett

Purim is coming! Purim is coming! Thank God for Purim!!.

All year long we take life so seriously; Purim comes along and reminds us that even when life seems fragile or tense, humor is a very important tool for getting through.

The Story of Esther is, of course, not portrayed as a comedy; if you read the entire Megillah you come to understand that the Story of Esther is about a very serious and threatening time in the life of the Jewish People. The Jews of Persia are threatened by a madman who is determined to eradicate all of Jewish life regardless of the consequences to him, his country, or his people. The Story becomes the paradigm for us as a people regardless of where we have lived.

Yet, the Rabbis chose to deal humorously with Esther and her fellow characters. Perhaps it is because they understood that when you don’t have the power to change things that are terrible, you have to find the humor in them so that you can keep your sanity.

I think that is especially true for all of us today. We once thought the streets were safe, our water supply was fine, and we believed that if you lived a life of decency and honesty all the rest would fall into place.

What we now know for certain is that life is fragile. Fear and terror have taken a big toll on our world. Both have become part of our daily lives. We walk through life with fear of the unknown, fear of the other, and fear of our own vulnerability. And so many of the political candidates today are exploiting those feelings, often creating a wedge between people.

Yes, life is certainly uncertain. Purim reminds us of that in very powerful ways. It reminds us that sometimes everything is upside down, what you see is not what really is.

So, let us follow the leadership of our rabbinic teachers. Let’s laugh a bit at our own life’s situation. Let us step back and get some perspective. We are a people with a wonderful history and story, unfolding every day. As American Jews, we are part of a nation whose greatness is not in our military might but in our largess and our open hearts, our kindness and our basic goodness.

Come join the frivolity of the day. There are still 364 days to be overwhelmed by life’s trial. At least one day, let’s rejoice in the victory of truth and justice. See you at our Purim service, Wednesday evening, March 23 at
6:00 p.m.!

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett

During this month of February we will be reading the Book of Exodus at Shabbat services. Throughout the book, Moses conveys to the people Israel God’s commandments concerning the building of the Mishkan, that portable desert sanctuary which later would become the model for the Jerusalem Temple, and later still, synagogues across the world. The details of the tabernacle are moved from a discussion between God and Moses to the actual public building of a specific community. In this community God’s presence is manifest: “Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). This original tabernacle has served as the model for the Jewish community.

Community is quintessential in our tradition. We need each other. For that very reason Judaism requires a minyan, in essence a community, in order for us to pray with fulfillment and meaning. How do we achieve community, exactly? What is required of us today to sustain the privilege of synagogue community?

First, community means giving, but more than in the sense of generosity. It means sacrificing and giving up something in order to get something back. Specifically, community is not achieved without giving up on something of some worth in the secular realm (e.g., Friday night out) for more of the sacred world. Sacrifices for greater sanctity anchor the individual and the family like nothing else.

Equally required to sustain community is the honoring of Jewish learning. There is a beautiful passage in the Midrash by Simeon Bar Lakish, written in 250 CE. Rabbi Lakish says: “When two merchants exchange goods, each one surrenders part of his stock; but when two students exchange instruction, each one retains his own learning and acquires also the other’s. Is there a bigger bargain than this?”

When we learn together we lose nothing. All is gain. In Jewish tradition no one is held in higher esteem than the scholar, and every person has the opportunity to gain that status through regular learning.

Community is hard work, yet nothing is more important, more satisfying, more rewarding than communal meeting bringing meaning for all who seek a deep, spiritual life. This extraordinary privilege of being part of a community comes with the responsibility of helping to build it.

Temple Sinai has many programs and activities that take place on a continual basis. Please join us and take an active role in your community. You will be the beneficiary.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett

At a time when we are made powerfully aware of how religion can be distorted to engender hatred, it is important to also be aware of how religion can serve its extraordinary purpose of bringing us closer to a world of greater understanding and compassion. January is the month in which we celebrate the birthday of an enormously constructive and inspiriting religious leader, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Because he experienced hatred, violence and destruction and transcended those experiences, remaining hopeful and gentle, we look to him as a model of our time.

Martin Luther King Day is an important day for commemoration and reflection, and not only for African Americans. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the meaning of discrimination and oppression. He sought ways to achieve liberation and peace, and he thus understood that a special relationship exists between African Americans and American Jews.

King was a voice of reason in a troubled time, and his concern went far beyond the prejudice against African Americans. Just as Jews stood with King, marched with King, and worked with King toward an America of equality for all, so King stood with the Jewish community whenever prejudice against Jews was concerned.

In a world filled with violence, from terrorism to war, from continual discrimination and prejudice against minority groups especially against people of color and members of the GLBT community, Dr. King showed us how to channel rage away from destruction into nonviolent protest for the redress of grievance. Dr. King also showed humility and faith in the face of hatred and bigotry. Above all, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man of hope and affirmation. He was able to articulate with eloquence the highest ideals. He was a voice of reason in a troubled time. MLK Day is an important day in our calendar. It is a holiday that was created to memorialize the life of a great man and to remind us of the work that remains to be done to realize his vision.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett

As the days grow darker and colder, we find ourselves hibernating in the warmth of our homes. Winds blowing, snow falling and temperatures dropping all remind us of winters past and question our choice to live in such a cold climate. We hold tight as each day grows darker.

As we approach the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, we look forward to longer days and more sunlight. It is no coincidence that every culture celebrates a holiday during the winter to bring festivity to this gloomy time of year. Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, makes the darkness more bearable and even enjoyable as we remember the heroism of the Maccabees.

The Maccabees are our heroes, a small band of Jews fighting the mighty Syrians for religious freedom. The truth of this story is that the Maccabees not only fought a mighty army but they fought apathy and conflict within their own community as well. The Maccabees rallied other Jews to renew and rededicate their own faith.

The tension that persists in the Middle East feels dark and gloomy, and yet we all hold out hope that peace can be achieved. Perhaps the cynics will say it isn’t possible for the Palestinian people and the Israelis to live peacefully. Like the Maccabees we must fight our apathy and skepticism in order to rededicate ourselves to the hope for peace.

I want to believe that even in the midst of violence, those who deter the peace can be turned toward peace. And those who support it will raise their voices together to drown out those who are against it. We must hold onto the hope.

As the days grow shorter, we live with eager anticipation of the light from the Chanukah menorah which illuminates the darkness in our lives and in our world. Our tradition teaches us to add a candle for each successive day of Chanukah. As the menorah light becomes brighter and our days grow longer, we hold onto our hopes and prayers for a season of light, joy and peace.

The Hebrew word “Chanukah” means to rededicate. We pray that as we celebrate our Festival of Light, a new light will shine upon the world and enlighten the leadership of the many countries at war to move with all their might toward a peaceful coexistence one with another.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett

When, as Americans, we celebrate Thanksgiving, we shall be observing a holiday inspired by our own Jewish tradition. It was our Festival of Sukkot—our Feast of Ingathering—that the Pilgrims remembered when they thanked God for the freedom of the American soil. The Puritans who loved the Hebrew Scriptures recognized the deep significance of a solemn occasion of thanksgiving for a people who had found new hope far from the tyranny they had left behind in the Old World. In fact, they called America the New Canaan, and used the Exodus of the Children of Israel as a symbol of their own pilgrimage to a land of liberty.

Celebrating the holiday of Thanksgiving is as American as apple pie and as Jewish as Sukkot. And the lesson of Sukkot is that we are never truly independent, but rather interdependent, and simply could not survive physically or emotionally without our faith and without each other. At Thanksgiving we need to emphasize both “thanks” and “giving”. There can be no “thanks” without “giving”. Over the High Holy Days, the members of our congregation have shown what it means to give. We collected over $11,000 for Food Share to help feed the hungry in our community. Temple Sinai should be proud of its response to helping others. The Rabbis taught a meaningful lesson in the Talmud when they wrote: When the Messianic Age finally arrives, all prayers may be forgotten except prayers of thanksgiving.

May we be thankful always, each and every day of our lives, for the goodness that surrounds us, for our nation whose values make life expansive and for the love that we receive from those whose embrace we cherish.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett

The High Holy Days are past. Our being together as a congregation during the Days of Awe is always one of the most powerful and moving experiences we all feel. I want to express my appreciation to our congregational family for helping to create such a highly spiritual atmosphere in which we were all able to confront ourselves and pledge to make the coming year a year of meaning and purpose.

And while the High Holy Days are past, they are, in actuality, not over! What we accomplished and what we promised for ourselves is just a beginning. It is now the time to roll up our sleeves and put our prayers and promises to work as we celebrate Sukkot and Simchat Torah.

We celebrated Sukkot just a week ago. Sukkot is the holiday of “doing”. It is no accident that the calendar has Sukkot follow so closely on the heels of the High Holy Days. While the High Holidays were the Days of Awe and contemplation, the seven days of Sukkot are days of activity and action. We build a sukkah immediately following Yom Kippur and then enter it everyday to celebrate the blessings of our lives by waving the lulav and Etrog.

Simhat Torah takes place in a few days. It celebrates the continuity of Torah and our heritage. We read the end of the Book of Deuteronomy immediately followed by the beginning of the Book of Genesis. The Torah’s conclusion with the death of Moses is followed by the retelling of the creation of the world. And this is what Simhat Torah represents-a new beginning, a continuity of life and cherishing all the moments allotted to us. Once we have celebrated Simhat Torah, we can say that the new year has really begun.

Wishing you and your families a Hag Same’ach, a healthy and happy holiday season with a vibrant and meaningful new beginning.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett 

If we are truly fortunate 5776 will be a year in which peace will break out in every corner of the earth, natural disasters will not occur, and humanity will be able to have some respite from the terrible years that we have recently experienced. How I wish that such good fortune would come to us! Such belief is part of our liturgy, part of the nature of the communal dreams of the Jewish People.

 No one can accurately predict what the New Year will bring. Undoubtedly, it will be filled with moments of blessing and other moments of disaster or evil. Hardly a year goes by without both blessings and curses.

As I contemplate the coming days I know this: we will gather as a community, parents, children, family members and friends. We will join in celebrating the wonderful Jewish tradition that has been given to us, and commit ourselves once again to the ideals and values of our faith.

I know this: every Temple member who enters into our sacred space will know that she or he is not alone, that ours is a caring community working each and every day to be God’s hands and ears and eyes on earth; that we are only as good as the sum of all our parts, but that every part of our Temple family, every member, is sacred to us all. In a world where human life has often lost its value, it is good to know that there exists such a place as Temple Sinai where every member of the human family is held sacred.

This year, beginning with Rosh Hashanah 5776, let goodness abound, and may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life for blessing.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett 

On May 24 (Memorial Day weekend) we will celebrate the holiday of Shavu’ot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah. This is an appropriate time to contemplate its giving.

“Torah—and all its Rabbinic commentary was given to us in one great moment of revelation at Sinai” say some Jews. “Oh. no” say others—”it is a continuous process of revelation which has extended from Moses’ day to our own.”

Rabbi Emily Lipoff teaches “However Torah was given, the reception will vary somewhat and sometimes profoundly among those who receive it.”

The Literalists ask “Did the Sea really split in half to form a corridor, with walls of water? What are the ingredients for manna? Did each one of the six days of creation have exactly 24 hours?” They will dissect the teaching in search of authenticity. When they find some proof that any of these phenomena actually occurred, their reverence for Torah is enhanced.

The Halachists focus on the law which Torah dictates. For them, law is holiness. When they observe the laws of Kashrut or family purity; when they see to it that each piece of clothing they wear is all of one fabric—no mixtures—their personal sense of holiness is realized.

The Inspirationists seek a message in Torah. They search the teaching, neither for scientific proof nor concrete law, but rather for answers to the questions, “What does this mean to me; to my generation? How can I use it to improve myself and the world in which I live?” When they discern the meaning of the message and the use to which they can put it, they lift the level of their lives, add an extra dimension to all their endeavors—not only for themselves, but for all those with whom they have linkage.

Everyone is eclectic. We each have been given Torah. From it, we choose that which we will emphasize and also what we will ignore. The only choice we do not have—if we are to consider ourselves Jewish—is to choose nothing at all.

Rabbi Jeffrey Bennett