Dear Friends,

I look forward to joining together in prayer and song at Rosh Hashanah Services beginning tomorrow evening at 8 pm at CW Post’s Hillwood Commons.   Please remember to bring your High Holiday prayerbooks and your tickets.  If you wear a tallis it is worn at morning services.

A detailed guide to the High Holidays is provided on our synagogue’s website.  There you will find prayers to recite at your holiday dinners, a beautiful track of our cantor singing Avinu Malkeinu, a detailed schedule of services, suggestions for how to prepare spiritually for these holidays and the texts that will be discussed at some services.

A Hasidic story.

Reb Meir of Premishlan and Reb Yisreal of Ruzhin were the best of friends, yet no two people could be more different.  Reb Meir lived in great poverty.  He never allowed even a penny to spend the night in his house but would rush outside to give it to the poor.  Reb Yisrael, on the other hand, lived like a king.

These two friends once met as each was preparing to take a journey.  Reb Meir was sitting on a simple cart drawn by one scrawny horse.  Reb Yisrael was housed on a rich lacquered coach pulled by four powerful stallions.

Reb Yisrael walked over to the horse hitched to Reb Meir’s wagon.  With mock concern, he inspected the horse with great care.  Then he turned to his friend and with barely concealed humor said to him, “I always travel with four strong horses.  In this way, if my coach should become stuck in the mud they will be able to free it quickly.  I can see, however, that your horse seems barely able to carry you and your wagon on a dry and hard-packed road.  There is bound to be mud on your travels.  Why do you take such risks?”

Reb Meir stepped down from his wagon and walked over to his friend, who was still standing next to Reb Meir’s horse.  Placing his arms around his beloved old horse’s neck, Reb Meir said softly, “The risk, I think is yours.  Because I travel with this one horse that in no way can free this wagon if it becomes stuck in the mud, I am very careful to avoid the mud in the first place.  You, my friend, are certain you can get free if stuck and thus do not look where you are going.”  (Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Hasidic Tales)

On Rosh Hashanah it does not really matter what car we drive or even what clothes we wear. It is instead about looking at the path we are traveling and determining where we are going.  It is about finding again the right path.  The High Holidays are all about rediscovering this road.  And if we find that we are stuck in the mud, then may these days also be about finding our way out.

Shanah Tovah!
Rabbi Steven Moskowitz
rabbi@jcbsynagogue.org
www.rabbimoskowitz.com

The High Holidays are nearing.  We look forward to seeing everyone at Rosh Hashanah services beginning on Wednesday evening, September 8 and Yom Kippur evening, September 17.  Don't forget to bring your High Holiday prayerbooks, tickets and tallisim.  At serveral services Rabbi Moskowitz will be leading discussions on selected texts.  On Rosh Hashanah evening, he will discuss Israel's Declaration of Independence and on the second day of Rosh Hashanah the story of Kind David and Batsheva.  To read these texts in advance follow this link.  For a detailed schedule of all services as well as prayers to recite at your holiday dinners click on the High Holiday tab.  There you can also listen to Cantor Smilowitz singing Avinu Malkeinu!  Shanah tovah!

…For parents the greatest worries are matters of life and death. For God’s Torah the greatest danger is idolatry. The idolatry of other nations was apparently very compelling. It stood in stark contrast to the religion of ancient Israel. Idolatry is about the concrete. You can hold the object of your worship in your hands. You can touch it. You can see it. Believing in one God is abstract. You cannot see God. You cannot touch God. In the Torah’s and the tradition’s eyes idols were everywhere and an everyday temptation.

This is why they counseled us to make friends with the righteous and wise. This is why we warn our children, “Watch out for those other kids.” Is this warning effective for our children? Do they listen to such words? Perhaps instead we should honestly discuss with our children (and ourselves) what are the temptations that must be avoided. Let us give them specific names. Let us name those things which have too much power over our hearts. What are today’s idols?

The most prevalent idol is not an object. It is instead anger. It is this emotion that we allow to have too much power over our hearts.  Moses Maimonides suggested that anger is an idol because we let it rule our lives. An idol is anything to which we ascribe too much importance. This is anger. It is common to all. Everyone is taken in by anger. We bow down to it.  We worship at the altar of indignation.  We allow it to take over our souls. At times we are unable to even see those we love and those who love us because we are blinded by anger.

This idol of anger has become even more prevalent in our own day and age because instead of surrounding ourselves with the righteous and wise we surround ourselves with like-minded people. We only talk to those who agree with us. But the true measure of true friendship is telling someone when they are wrong.  It is telling them when we disagree with them. Anger is fueled by agreeing friends. “Yes, you are so right. You were wronged.” are the refrains of the like-minded.  Anger is instead overcome by loving disagreements.

Let us banish anger from our hearts.  Let us smash the idols!

Rabbi Steven Moskowitz
September 3, 2010

Dear Friends,

Children often leave their homes accompanied by warnings from their parents.  “Don’t drink and drive.  Text me if your plans change.  Beware of strangers.  Don’t do drugs.  Watch out for those other kids.”

This is God’s tone as well.  The people are nearing the moment when they will cross into the land of Israel.  God accompanies them to this door with warnings.

“Well you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we passed through the midst of various other nations; and you have seen the detestable things and the fetishes of wood and stone, silver and gold that they keep.  Perchance there is among you some man or woman, or some clan or tribe, whose heart is even now turning away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations—perchance there is among you a stock sprouting poison weed and wormwood.  When such a person hears the words of these sanctions, he may fancy himself immune, thinking, ‘I shall be safe, though I follow my own willful heart…’”  (Deuteronomy 29:15-19)

Beware of false gods.  Beware of temptation.  Watch out for those other guys. 

The great medieval Jewish philosopher, Moses Maimonides, offers this observation: “It is natural to be influenced, in sentiments and conduct, by one’s neighbors and associates, and observe the customs of one’s fellow citizens.  Hence, a person ought constantly to associate with the righteous and frequent the company of the wise…”  (Mishneh Torah, Book One, Laws Relating to Ethical Conduct, 6:1)

For parents the greatest worries are matters of life and death. For God’s Torah the greatest danger is idolatry.  The idolatry of other nations was apparently very compelling.  It stood in stark contrast to the religion of ancient Israel.  Idolatry is about the concrete.  You can hold the object of your worship in your hands.  You can touch it. You can see it.  Believing in one God is abstract.  You cannot see God.  You cannot touch God.  In the Torah’s and the tradition’s eyes idols were everywhere and an everyday temptation.

This is why they counseled us to make friends with the righteous and wise. This is why we warn our children, “Watch out for those other kids.”  Is this warning effective for our children?  Perhaps instead we should honestly discuss with our children (and ourselves) what are the temptations that must be avoided.  Let us give them specific names.  Let us name those things which have too much power over our hearts.  What are today’s idols?

I look forward to exploring this question in more depth at Shabbat Services tomorrow evening at 6:30 pm.  And as always I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Shanah Tovah and Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Steven Moskowitz
rabbi@jcbsynagogue.org
www.rabbimoskowitz.com

P.S. Rosh Hashanah begins on Wednesday evening, September 8^th.  Check out our synagogue’s website for more information: www.jcbsynagogue.org.  There you will find prayers to recite at your holiday dinners, a detailed schedule of services, suggestions for how to prepare spiritually for the holidays and the texts that will be discussed at some services.

Dear Friends,

This week’s Torah portion begins with the rituals we are to perform when entering the land that God promises us.

After harvesting the first fruits of the season the farmer performs a special ceremony.  He brings a basket of fruit to the priest who then places it on the altar.  The farmer then recites the following ritual formula: “My father was a wandering Aramean.  He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there…  The Lord freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents.  He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, O Lord, have given me.”  (Deuteronomy 26:5-10)

In this brief formulaic encapsulation of Jewish history, the Torah emphasizes our journey from wandering to landedness.  God brought us from slavery to freedom and from the wilderness to the land of Israel.

It is interesting to note that when we are in the land, as this Torah portion records, we remember our other condition of wandering and when we are in the diaspora we long for the condition of nationhood. 

At every Jewish wedding, for example, we sing, “O Lord our God, may there forever be heard in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voices of joy and gladness, bride and groom, the jubilant voices of those joined in marriage under the huppah, the voices of young people feasting and singing.”  At every Seder we conclude with the words, “Next year in Jerusalem!” 

There are two competing paradigms in Jewish history: on the one hand, wandering and the diaspora, and on the other, landedness and Jewish sovereignty.  Throughout most of Jewish history our center was a diaspora community, as best exemplified in ancient Babylonia or medieval Spain.  There were other times when we enjoyed Jewish independence in Jerusalem, under for example, King David or the Maccabees. 

We, however, live in a unique time when there is both a vibrant diaspora community and an equally vibrant, and powerful, Jewish state.  Today we are blessed with both paradigms.  Today it is not the diaspora or Jewish sovereignty, wandering or landedness.  It is both.  And so we lack historical parallels to emulate.  How do we further our unique historical situation when we only know how to remember wandering or long for sovereignty?

How can we live in both the diaspora and the land of Israel?  This is the question for our present age.  How can we both affirm Jewish sovereignty in the State of Israel and assert the vibrancy of the Jewish diaspora? 

And it is this question that hides beneath nearly every Jewish discussion, especially those about the modern State of Israel and its policies.

Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Steven Moskowitz
rabbi@jcbsynagogue.org
www.rabbimoskowitz.com