Support Conservative/Masorti Synagogue in Kiev

 

Update on Kehilla Masoret in Kiev from Rabbi Tzvi Graetz, Executive Director, Masorti Olami & MERCAZ Olami
Masorti Olami is our sister movement outside of North America.

[United Synagogue is joining in this special appeal. You may send checks to our New York office (820 Second Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10017, attn: Masorti Appeal) or cheques to our Canadian office: (Post Office Box #911, Station U, Toronto, Ontario M8J 9Z9 Canada) with "Masorti Purim Appeal" in the memo line. You may donate through our website, www.uscj.org/donate (click on “direct my gift to” radio button, and select Masorti Kehilla Support from the drop-down box).]

As the news from Kiev, Ukraine worsens and grows more violent, we spoke this morning with our Masorti/Conservative Rabbi Reuven Stamov and his wife Lena who are in Israel for a short visit. Their two young daughters are still in Ukraine but are staying with their grandmother outside of the city.

As of Thursday morning, 28 people had been killed and almost 250 hospitalized following the breaking of the barricades by Ukrainian authorities.  The protestors have refused to capitulate to government demands and recent attempts at a truce have not held. The dispute began between the opposition and the current President Yanukovych over a trade pact with the EU but has since escalated into an Russia/EU divide.

The Masorti Kehillah Center is only 2 metro stops away from the violent protests at Independence Square. According to Reuven, they can hear everything, see the fires and smell the smoke that comes from only a 20 minute walk away. All of Kiev is scared to leave their homes and send their kids to school. At night, there are no street lights making a bad situation even worse.  People are stocking up on food, buying at least a 2 weeks supply in anticipation of rioting or shortages. The entire Jewish community is working together to safeguard their schools, synagogues and centers.

On a previous Shabbat, there was a general panic in the city and some people called for not holding services. But, according to Rabbi Stamov, the majority of people wanted to come together as a community even amidst the crisis. 

Is anti-Semitism part of the opposition? According to Reuven and Lena, anti-Semitism is indeed alive and well in Kiev but not as official government or protest policy. However, the government doesn't have the time or money to try and combat incidents of anti-Semitism from people who are taking advantage of the overall chaos. A neighbor of the Stamov family received a coarsely worded note informing her that because she was a Jew, she needed to leave Kiev. This is yet another reason that people are afraid to leave their homes.

The Stamovs are not sure what will be happening when they return next week but they don't have plans to close or cancel their many synagogue activities. They are already gearing up for a fun Purim which last year included a carnival and a funny dramatic reenactment of Megillat Esther. All they need is to find a safe place to celebrate another historic occasion of Jews eluding danger and being welcomed in a strange land.

Purim Appeal:  Support our Kehilla in Kiev

In light of the difficult events in Kiev, Masorti Olami is launching a Purim Appeal with all proceeds going to our Masorti Kehilla in Kiev. The Kehilla Masoret Kiev is supported by Masorti Olami and by Midreshet Yerushalayim at the Schechter Institute.  Funds are limited and the kehilla is in immediate need of a sophisticated security system that will enable them to feel safe in their space. 

[United Synagogue is joining in the appeal. You may send checks to our New York office (820 Second Avenue, 10th floor, New York, NY 10017, attn: Masorti Appeal) or cheques to our Canadian office: (Post Office Box #911, Station U, Toronto, Ontario M8J 9Z9 Canada) with "Masorti Purim Appeal" in the memo line. You may donate through our website, www.uscj.org/donate (click on “direct my gift to” radio button, and select Masorti Kehilla Support from the drop-down box).]

We will also be raising funds to purchase food for the homebound and elderly, medicines and anything else that the kehilla needs to insure the well-being and safety of their community.  We need your help to treat the children to a day of fun outside of the city. Toys and treats for mishloach manot will be provided as well to make sure that smiles abound on Purim!

Help us support our kehilla in Kiev by donating.

Thank you!

Celebrate Purim at NSJC!

Ki Tissa - The Road of the Soul

Moses speaks with God in our parshah regarding his position as leader of the people and comments:

33:15 And he said unto Him, If Thy Presence go not with me, bring us not up from here [Sinai].

The 1st century commentator Philo understands this passage to have an allegorical message for us, our souls, and how the soul seeks to know God.

Philo imagines that Moses is saying that he wants God to be the guide for his soul, that otherwise he would prefer to stay put.  Philo goes on to comment that through "ignorance and audacity" most people are unable to find the way to heaven and that it is better to stay put than to reach for heaven "in pride and arrogance" and come to sin.

What does Philo mean?  He goes on to explain that there are people who get caught up with how smart they think they are, or else who get caught up thinking about all the possibilities regarding belief in God - but they never get around to really believing, or worse, they never get around to having their belief influence them at all.

Philo encourages us to be guided by God.  And what he means by this is to be guided by proper ideas about what God wants of us and expects us to be, namely the Torah.  He makes an interesting explanation about this when he says, "but the one who follows God does have for his fellow travelers all those reasons which are the attendants of God, which we are accustomed to call angels."  

Let your soul be guided by your good angels then, the good ideas you seek to learn from out of the Torah.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Benson

Terumah, Napoleon & Stein

This can be such a challenging parshah with all the details, details which often repeat, about the Tabernacle.  But what if we thought of it like this quote from Gertrude Stein's famous poem about Picasso, If I Told Him:

"If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him. 
Would he like it would Napoleon would Napoleon would would he like it. 
If Napoleon if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it..." 

I've heard a recording of Stein reading it and it "works" even better as the word, the sounds, do something to you beyond just their usual ability to convey meaning.

Maybe there is something to reading these "repetitive" sections of the Torah not like instructions for a model kit but as - poetry.

Come to shul tomorrow morning and hear more about where that might lead us.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Benson

Which is Most Important? Yitro

This Shabbat morning we will discuss which of the Ten Commandments is most important.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts and will share my own as well.  Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Benson

Parshat Beshallach - God Says, "Be a Heretic!"

In chapter 14 of Exodus, the Jews are attempting to escape the Egyptians, the Egyptian army is bearing down on them, everyone is in a panic, Moses calls out to God for help and God tells him, "why cry out to me?!"  He tells Moses and Israel to get moving themselves!  Of course then the Red Sea parts, but it seems to happen only after the Jews start to take their salvation at least a little into their own hands.  Consider the following about this striking passage from the writings of Rabbi Israel Salanter:

“Why did Moses cry out?  Did he doubt that God would fulfill his promises and instead fail to save the Jewish people?  Didn’t he trust God?  Rather, when it is at the expense of the Jewish people, one should not live on trust.”

“Every Jew should be a little bit of a heretic – for if someone in need comes to him, the Jew shouldn’t trust that God will help the person.  Instead, the Jew must do whatever can be done to help the person in need.  The rule is, “one should worry about another’s body but one’s own soul, and not vice-versa!”

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Benson

Parshat Bo and Snow

Sorry to make a bad rhyme in the title.  Since the snowfall here in Suffolk County caused us to cancel morning minyan today and also led me to reschedule the "Who Wants to be a Minyannaire?" program for tonight to next Friday (the topic remains, "Objects in the Synagogue") I thought I would try to pull all that together into a little message:

We are told at the end of this portion about wearing tefillin.  In 13:9 we are told to wear them "as a sign".  Rabbi Akiva asks about this - "if so, why not wear them on Shabbat and holidays?"  The answer is that Shabbat and holidays are signs in themselves.

So those of you missing the program tonight - you learned something here about tefillin - that we only wear them during the week.  Those of you missed minyan this morning (and thus couldn't wear your tefilling here, though I hope you did at home!), you can come tomorrow and enjoy the "sign" of Shabbat.  And those you looking to learn something in the blog about the weekly parshah - well, you're set, too.

Be safe and Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Benson