Video of Class on Disease & Suffering in the Bible

Check out the link to the video of my class on Lessons from the Bible on Disease and Suffering:
VIDEOOFCLASS

The passages we studied were:  II Chronicles 7:13-14, Exodus 12:13, and Genesis 25:7-8.

Kabbalat Shabbat 3/27, Sell Chametz, More

Kabbalat Shabbat Gathering This Friday at 5:45pm With a great desire to gather together and connect to the spirit of Shabbat, Cantor Kramer and I will offer a weekly Kabbalat Shabbat Gathering, shortly before Shabbat begins on Friday nights. The psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat do not require a minyan, nor are they prayers in the technical sense for which one must be with the leader in order to respond. Kabbalat Shabbat is simply a collection of beautiful biblical passages to put us in the right frame of mind for Shabbat. We will begin at 5:45 with singing and English readings from out of Siddur Lev Shalem. If you do not have a copy of that siddur, of course you can use any with which you are comfortable to follow the Hebrew. Or you can download a copy of Lev Shalem here: DOWNLOAD SIDDUR you can see on the form there is a place to download "Kabbalat Shabbat and Evening Service" which will provide you with the necessary pages. The gathering will also include the prayer in place of Kaddish which was sent out earlier this week, and will also include a short d'var torah. We hope you'll all join us! KABBALAT SHABBAT ZOOM LINK Meeting ID: 569 361 045 Password: 016647 ---- Delegation of Power to Sell Chametz: Please fill out and return this form if you would like me to sell your chametz for Passover. If you have trouble, you can always email me and simply say you want me to do so, indicating the addresses and specific locations of the chametz. DelegationChametz20 or rabbi.benson@njsc.org

Additional Online Programming: "Lessons from the Bible on Facing Disease and Sickness," this Tuesday, March 24th at 5pm TuesdayBibleClass5pm Meeting ID: 822 130 964 Password: 027062 ---- Online Havdalah: Saturday, March 28th at 8:15pm This will be a Facebook Live event, conducted by Morah Heather, our JLC Principal, watch for the details this week.

All Together Alone - Vayakhel Pekudei

All Together Alone Video

Henry David Thoreau describes in his classic, "Walden" (1854), how over two years he would retreat into the wilderness, alone, to commune with the spiritual and as he put it,  live "by the labour of my hands only."  It’s a picturesque image, evocative in American culture, and one that being in isolation ourselves we might be able to relate to even more than when you read Walden in high school, but contrasted with the double Torah portions this week, V-P, we learn of a better model, the Jewish model, for confronting the challenges of life in the time of Coronavirus. 

^39:32 So all the work on the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.

^39:32 וַתֵּ֕כֶל כָּל־עֲבֹדַ֕ת מִשְׁכַּ֖ן אֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֑ד וַֽיַּעֲשׂוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל כְּ֠כֹל אֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֧ה יְהוָ֛ה אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֖ה כֵּ֥ן עָשֽׂוּ׃

In the double parshah this week, Vayakhel Pekudei, it mentions all the Israelites doing the work – but is that right?  Not everyone built it.  Moses instructed, the people contributed, Betzalel made, etc.  What are they getting credit for?

No one of us can perform all the mitzvot – some are for certain time and places, some only for certain people. 

The story of the Tabernacle demonstrates this, and contrasts with Thoreau.  Without the donations, of gold, silver, copper, and fabrics, Betzallel would not have been able to assemble the many parts needed for the Tabernacle.

All of the People of Israel were needed to assemble the Tabernacle, some through gifts and others through craftsmanship.     

At a time when we can all feel like Thoreau in our own private Waldens of isolation during this time of the Coronavirus, we must remember that we Jews are not transcendentalists.  We believe community is necessary, holy, and required.  And so while we cannot be together physically, each of us individually as well as our congregation as a whole need to remember to act with thoughtfulness, kindness and patience to those with whom we may be interacting in person, to be thankful to those who are still out at work, especially those fulfilling vital jobs, and to reach out to others in need who may truly be isolated because of what’s happening.

I would love to hear from you all, and I’m sure others would, too.  This video will be on the synagogue Facebook page.  Please post there how you are showing gratitude and thoughtfulness during this time, share acts of kindness you’ve seen or experienced lately, and of course, if you know of someone with needs, let us know. 

The congregation is reaching out to all members to check in and see how they are, and we have some volunteers who are able to help others out with certain things.  And as we are already doing with Hebrew School, we are working to provide a robust offering of programs online for you to enjoy.

In these ways, all of us together can build a beautiful, albeit virtual, Sanctuary so as to invite Jewish meaning and God’s presence into our lives at this time when we need both so much.

Shabbat Shalom!

Three Jewish "What to Watches" while at Home

If you're stuck at home with time on your hands, why not watch something with Jewish content?  While I suspect you're all caught up with Shtisel and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and your kids have better seen Prince of Egypt and The Princess Bride by now,  I have three somewhat more obscure suggestions for you, two films from a while back and one more recent Israeli series.  Let's get to the reviews:

1.  Unstrung Heroes - this 90s film features Andie MacDowell, John Turturro, and Michael Richards.  It is based on the memoir by sports journalist Franz Lidz.  It is a heartwarming and bittersweet film about a boy who goes to live with his eccentric uncles and learns lessons for life.  A family movie, might not appeal to younger children, but I don't recall anything offensive in it!  Available, so far as I can tell, to rent on a number of a streaming services and you should be able to find for free through the library.  

2.  Pleasantville - another 90s film, this one with Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire.  While not overtly Jewish, it is almost a midrash (interpretation) of the story of Creation and the Jewish concepts of the yetzer ha-ra, the evil impulse which is also the creative impulse, and the yetzer ha-tov, the good impulse, which can sometimes be so pure as to be unsuitable for the world.  Definitely not for kids but probably appropriate for older teenagers as it teaches some thoughtful lessons about the nature of life.  Supposed to be on Hulu and again through the library.  

3.  Prisoners of War / Chatufim - an Israeli series from 2010.  It is a slow-burn spies/terrorim/thriller on which the far more melodramatic Homeland was based.  Once you're invested in it the only thing you'll dislike is that the show only has two seasons.  Again, appropriate for older teenagers and adults.   Available on Hulu and should be at the library.  

Enjoy these and go exploring for more.  If you discover anything really good, share it with me and I'll send some more around.

------

Also, don't forget we have two online synagogue opportunities coming up:  

Online Kiddush, Friday at Noon:    

Aaron Benson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/157019718?pwd=clF2bzV5aXpEMytGcEtJRTd2RUNDUT09

Meeting ID: 157 019 718
Password: 024344

One tap mobile
,,157019718# US Toll

Dial by your location
         US Toll
        
Meeting ID: 157 019 718
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/ab0Y2VmSod

--

"Lessons from the Bible on Facing Disease and Sickness" 

This coming Tuesday at 5pm

Aaron Benson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/822130964?pwd=TUZxRyt1SEF0N1N3UlJkY1gwODJCQT09

Meeting ID: 822 130 964
Password: 027062

One tap mobile
,,822130964# US Toll

Dial by your location
         US Toll
        
Meeting ID: 822 130 964
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/ab0Y2VmSod

Cleaning or Corona? Message of Strength, Virtual Kiddush!

Dear Friends,

1). Which Cleaning?  Something a little light-hearted and different for today.  Thought those of you trying to both manage supplies for a long stay indoors as well as getting ready for Passover might enjoy this cartoon:

--

2).  Message:  My teacher, Rabbi Bradley Artson, Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, wrote the following eloquent word of inspiration during these difficult times:  Artson Message of Strength

--

3).  Kiddush!:  While we can't pray online, there is no reason we can't eat together!  Kiddush is one of the most important parts of our Shabbat celebrations.  I'll be "hosting" a virutal kidduss - THIS FRIDAY AT NOON!

Bring your own herring, black and white cookies, and favorite drink to your closest screen and join me for a few minutes of socializing and camaraderie!  

Please note - I cannot guarantee we won't have technical difficulties.

Sign up for it with Zoom here:  

Aaron Benson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/157019718?pwd=clF2bzV5aXpEMytGcEtJRTd2RUNDUT09

Meeting ID: 157 019 718
Password: 024344

One tap mobile
,,157019718# US Toll

Dial by your location
         US Toll
        
Meeting ID: 157 019 718
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/ab0Y2VmSod

--

4).  Bible Class:  Next Tuesday at 5pm, I will offer a 30 minute (the limit from Zoom) class called, "Lessons from the Bible on Facing Disease and Sickness."  Here is a Zoom link for that.  I'll also try to host it on Facebook Live.  Please note - I cannot guarantee we won't have technical difficulties.

Aaron Benson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/822130964?pwd=TUZxRyt1SEF0N1N3UlJkY1gwODJCQT09

Meeting ID: 822 130 964
Password: 027062

One tap mobile
,,822130964# US Toll

Dial by your location
         US Toll
        
Meeting ID: 822 130 964
Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/ab0Y2VmSod

Stay Healthy and Safe!

Rabbi Aaron Benson

The Kaddish: Meaning, History, Alternatives

For Starters:  

In an effort to remain connected and offer encouragement and opportunities for Jewish learning and involvement while we are unable to gather together, I plan to send daily messages including, I hope, a video message on the Torah portion at the end of the week. 

I encourage you to reach out to me with questions, comments and needs you may have.  The synagogue and I also plan to reach out to all members to see how they are doing.

The Kaddish:

As mentioned in my previous message, one of the hardest things about not being able to gather with a minyan is the inability to say kaddish by those who need to do so.   To that end, - once we are able to gather again as a community, we will hold a special service at which all those who have missed a yahrzeit or otherwise needed to say kaddish can gather.  

Background:

"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever; wisdom and power are God's."  So we find in the Book of Daniel, 2:20.  This verse parallels the line in the middle of the Kaddish recited by the congregation.  The other passages of the Kaddish, including references to Ezekiel 38:23 and Job 25:2 expanded from that middle point into the various forms of the Kaddish we have now (five forms to be exact - Hatzi Kaddish or Half Kaddish, Kaddish Shalem or Full Kaddish, Kaddish d'Rabbanan or Rabbi's Kaddish, Kaddish Yatom or Mourner's Kaddish, and Kaddish L'itchadata, or Burial/Siyum Kaddish).  

Originally, the Kaddish was recited after a sermon or study session.  Kaddish d'Rabbanan still functions in this way even when it appears within services, and Kaddish L'itchadata is recited as part of the liturgy for the concluding study session of a book of the Talmud.  

Sometime in the Middle Ages the Kaddish became a way to mark transitions in the service and if you look in the siddur at where Kaddish Shalem or the Hatzi Kaddish appear, you'll see this is so.

A Prayer of Mourning:

It was also in this time that the Kaddish became a prayer for mourners to recite.  They did during the year after a loved one died.  That practice shifted to be our present-day one of reciting it only for eleven months.  Why did that happen?  Reciting the Kaddish was thought to alleviate the punishments in the afterlife all humans must endure for their wrongdoing while alive.  The longest such punishments were understood to last was a year for the worst offenders.  So as not to seem to suggest that one's parents or other loved ones were such terrible sinners, it became the practice to say Kaddish only eleven months - enough time to cover the sentences of all but the absolute worst people to have lived!

Additionally, Kaddish came to be said on the Yahrzeit, or Anniversary of a loved one's death.  That the term is in German/Yiddish speaks to when this practice began.

A Powerful Public Prayer:
Why must Kaddish be said with a minyan?  As we saw, the central line of Kaddish is said as a response by the congregation to the words spoken by the leader.  It is therefore a public proclamation of praise to God.  Said privately, it simply isn't doing that.  And even, as I feel, the power in saying it transcends even the meaning of the words - that power is directly linked to being together with others for its recitation.  The effort that must go into gathering the requisite number of people, the push it creates to bring a mourner back into contact with others, even having to stand up and be seen - all these things are the mystical power, the poetic beauty of the Kaddish.

Without a Minyan:  
Having the obligation to say Kaddish and not having a minyan available happens frequently.  A number of practices have arisen to meet that situation.  Some recite Psalm 16 which expresses a message of comfort and trust in God:  Link to Psalm 16.  Others read a psalm a day or a passage of Torah, Bible, or other text on a daily basis.  Here is a great Israeli website for learning a chapter of the Bible a day:  929 Daily Bible Study.  
Finally, some prayer books also include prayers that can be said in the event a minyan is not present.  Below is the text of such a prayer from our prayer book, Siddur Lev Shalem.  If you are saying it at home, change the line, "...here with my community..." to, "May my prayer today find favor..."

May it not be long until we are all able to once again gather as a community to comfort and to celebrate with our fellow Jews.

Rabbi Aaron Benson

Statement on Prayer & Coronavirus

The ability to offer live-streamed services as a response to the current Coronavirus Outbreak demonstrates the wonders of modern technology.  It is also wrong.  

For religious, communal, and historical reasons, live-streaming services remotely, both for weekdays as well as Shabbat, is not the answer to foster the prayer life of Jews and provide comfort during this time of sickness and uncertainity the likes of which most Americans have never faced.  

While sharing with you the reasons Jewish law forbids such actions, I also hope to offer ways in which Jewish ritual and Jewish beliefs can yet guide, strengthen and inspire us.  It seems to me at such a time we need to take the "full," the "extra-strength," "dose" of Judaism, not a diluted or watered-down portion.

I'd be a fool to believe that even committed Jews all refrain from using electricity and electronic devices on Shabbat. And as the world becomes more and more connected and the devices around us grow ever "smarter," the challenges of a Shabbat without any electronics will only grow.  Nevertheless, using electricity, typing, establishing a connection to the internet, adjusting volumes and more can at best only be defended in the most lenient interpretations of Shabbat laws, and truly cannot really be defended at all.  At least not for the standards of the community at large.

While it is commonly known that pikuach nefesh docheh hashabbat, that "saving a life transcends Shabbat" that is clearly not what is at stake when a congregation decides to offer remote access services.  A person quarantined with the virus and sick will not be "saved" from their illness because streaming services are provided to them, how much the more for those not sick at all.  

Even on weekdays, there are still reasons virtual services cannot be allowed.  We understand worship with a minyan to require the members of that minyan to be present together, responding to the live and direct voice of the one leading.  As is well known, you are not hearing the actual voice of the person praying when you are listening remotely.  Communal prayer is meant to be just that, communal.

Does this mean a person cannot fulfill the obligation to pray?  Of course not!  In fact, saying the prayers as an individual or family, even without a minyan, may be an opportunity for spiritual growth and closeness to God that being in the synagogue may not offer.  Anyone who has been in a shivah home (house of mourning), praying in that immediate and intimate setting can attest to the fact that "home prayer" in fact is quite powerful.  Putting on a tallit, kippah, tefillin, picking up the siddur, praying in some corner of the home, may in fact be among the only good results of the situation in which we now find ourselves.  Across the Movements of Judaism, wonderfully detailed prayer books exist offering much instruction and guidance to their users.  

Furthermore, when it comes to Shabbat, so many of the most spiritual uplifting aspects of Shabbat do not take place in the syngagogue anyway.  Lighting candles, making kiddush, blessing one's chidren, eating together, spending family time, these are all not just available to us at home, but meant to beautify and sanctify our homes.  

What of the person who seeks to say Kaddish?  While this can be the most challenging, reciting psalms, or one of the innovative prayers to be recited when a minyan cannot be formed, lighting the yahrzeit candle, or making a donation online (when it's not Shabbat) are all powerful ways to honor one's obligations to one's departed loved ones.

--

From a social perspective today, who is it who would be recorded at these services for others to watch?  While much of the focus of discussion has been on those at home watching the service, what of those leading the service "IRL" as the cool kids say?  Would the services not be conducted by rabbis, cantors, and other, likely as not, observant Jews?  I certainly cannot speak for anyone but myself, but as much as I feel it my obligation to serve the members of the Jewish community even at the expense of my own comfort and convenience, the considerations one's own integrity seems not unreasonable to factor in when making a decision like this.  

Furthermore, I sincerely question whether or not Jews who strive to be observant would be comfortable watching services online and at the same time, if those Jews otherwise unacustomed to attending services would find remote-access services anymore compelling in which to partake.

--

During the cholera pandemic of the early 19th century, in which hundreds of thousands of people died yearly from the disease and economic activity was disrupted around the world, the Chatam Sofer, a leading rabbi (albeit a reactionary one to innovations to Judaism in those days) made precisely the same suggestion offered here, that Jews should pray at home in order to avoid exposure to illness.  The great ethicist, Rabbi Israel Salanter abridged Yom Kippur services so congregants "might take the air" and avoid being in close quarters the whole day.  Some suggest he may have also encouraged eating before the end of Yom Kippur, but reports of this are not clear, and while limited in application, eating during a fast day even as holy as Yom Kippur is allowed according to classical sources when life is truly at stake.

We see this same issue arise during the times of the Shoah when, in the Kovno Ghetto, Rabbi Ephraim Oshry instructed Jews then in the Ghetto's hospital to eat on Yom Kippur even though they protested when the doctor previously had told them to do so.  Poignantly, a patient did die, one who had not been religious earlier in life still insisted on fasting so that he might seek God's forgiveness for the many sins of his earlier life and meet God as a repentant Jew.  

If in those, far more dire circumstances, our ancestors were loathe to violate Jewish law, and to limit concessions to actually preserving life, how could we believe we should go further in transgressing Jewish law when in less overall danger?

--

WHAT TO DO?

• I hope you will develop your personal prayer life, find ways to observe Shabbat at home, and in general be a kind and generous person during this time.  
• It is my plan during the coming weeks to offer a weekly Shabbat message.  
• The congregation is putting into place ways to check in with members to see how people are managing and to offer what assistance might be possible and appropriate.  
• Follow the included links from a vareity of Conservative and other Jewish sites for guidance, texts and more to observe Shabbat at home: 

Shabbat at Home

Candle Lighting

Shalom Aleichem

Blessing of the Children

Friday Kiddush

Washing and Motzi

Saturday Kiddush

Havdalah

Bringing Home Shabbat

May our committment to Jewish life be source of strength and hope at this and all time.  May God protect and preserve you and your family, all the Jewish People, all the People of the United States and all the People of the World during this most trying of times.  

Rabbi Aaron Benson