Questions I Ask With No Answer

We’ve all heard the joke- when my children were little, I, the parent, was brilliant. When they were teenagers, I was suddenly an imbecile. Now that they’re getting older, I seem to be getting smarter again. It’s true. I remember the day I lost all credibility. My eldest was a preteen. He was studying Humash, and said something incorrect. My husband and I, both rabbis, corrected him. “No,” he insisted, “that’s not what me teacher said.” We pointed out the mistake in the text. Still, he insisted the teacher, not a Torah scholar, was correct. I gave up, and emailed the teacher. In my son’s eyes, I no longer knew what I was talking about.

It swings the other way too. As a teen and as a young adult, I was fired up about so many things. I knew the world could be a better place if people just listened, if not to me, then to the experts all around. I could listen patiently (more so than my own children usually do), and then explain exactly what needed to be done. 

Recycle More. 

Use less energy. 

Create a US national service to serve rural and inner city areas in many needed ways. 

Never negotiate with terrorists. 

Life now is different. I’m not old, yet I am twice the age I was when I knew everything. Although I am still very much the idealist I once was, my mind is filled with wonder instead of answers. Now I have questions, where before I had passion. Here are just a few: 

·        Why do we insist on trying to convince people about climate change? As we say in Hebrew, mi she'yavin, meivin. That is, those that understand, understand. The others will never come around. So why don’t we work on a universal idea, one everyone can agree upon? Pollution is bad. I like to breathe. You like to breathe. Smog is bad. Now, how do we clean this up and prevent new pollution together?

·        Why do industries like big tobacco persist? Why are we willing to sacrifice others for a little extra in our pocketbook? 

·        Why do we allow time freed up by so-called time saving devices to be poured back into work instead of the family and social time they were supposed to create?

Yes, I know some of the answers come down to a double standard. Many come down to selfishness. I like things to be easy too. I like to pay less, but get more. 

I also know I am an idealist. I do sometimes use disposable plates, but stick with recycled and recyclable ones. I also invested in inexpensive plastic to use when we’re on the go. It means I need a place to keep them. It means I need to wash them on site or have something to put dirty dishes into to protect everything around them. That’s a benefit of the salary I make. I also know I make less because I chose a job for “unnatural” reasons. When I left my last job, it was to take care of my family. I was on a path upwards, but it required time I didn’t feel I had or wanted to give. When I went back to work, it was in a job I love, but one that is part-time. There are frustrations. There’s always too much to be done. We simply don’t have enough working hours. Sean and I cook all our meals. That means from actual ingredients. There’s no quick rice or frozen meals. There are few canned goods. It takes a long time to prepare a meal from scratch. Nothing is easy. But the effort makes it more important. Even with three teens in the house, we eat as a family. The chef does not have to do the dishes. (The dishwasher must not run the water continuously.) The kids sometimes whine. They should. It’s part of the teen language. But, they also follow through. We talk. We share. 

I have a garden. I have a compost heap. Even when I couldn’t plant because of sciatica, we had plants in pots. My children know what a tomato should taste like. We try to buy local. It’s not a perfect system. Kashrut means not all things are available from local sources. We love bananas and chocolate. Neither grow in a 100 mile radius diet. We buy local and we buy Israel, a seeming contradiction. Whoever said humans were logical? I’d rather pay a little more for something made with safe materials from workers treated fairly. But, bargain-hunting is a draw. It’s a challenge to balance. Sometimes we teeter in the wrong direction. That’s just being human.

My current question- (oft made fun of, but true in spirit) Why can't we all just get along? I don't have an answer.

Bette Midler wrote a song called "From a Distance" The lyrics say, "From a distance you look like my friend even though we are at war. From a distance I just cannot comprehend what all this fighting is for." It's not only from a distance. It's also close up. When we can get to know each other personally, to share hopes and our lives, then you can be my friend. I pray for that day.

It's NOT Lockeroom Banter

I rarely comment on politics. Actually, this isn't really about politics. It's about acceptable behaviour. I am a child of the 70's and 80's, a time when sexual harassment and assault were often simply accepted. As a child who hit puberty early, I spent my later elementary years being groped on the playground. Every day, really - every day, out on the playground the girls would be chased by the boys. The goal, to grab our breasts. As one of the more developed girls I was a frequent target. We never reported it. The unspoken attitude was boys will be boys. I learned to run fast. In junior high, when I was a counselor at a day camp, to the boys who would speak to my chest instead of my face I would say, "I'm up here. They don't talk." In high school, although I was a virgin and in a monogamous relationship, I still heard the whispers that I was whore.

By the time I went to Brandeis things seemed to be improving in the world. Brandeis was a wonderful and open place. Sexual harassment was being talked about and recognized as unacceptable, even as practice was slower to change. But I still understood that as a woman I would have to work a little harder. It wasn't always enough. I lost at least one job due to my gender. First the job was changed from "School Rabbi" to "Director of Jewish Life." Having a female rabbi simply wasn't okay. The board president was so confident it wouldn't matter actually told people I was hired just until they could find a "male rabbi." At the end of my first year, the position was eliminated. It was the only legal method to eliminate me.

I've seen questions this week about what Donald Trump's comments have to do with policy or with being president. I've read the comments that say it's ten years old. I've seen the comments that claim it was just lockeroom banter. I think if the tape was from the 70's or early 80's I may have said, "Well, what's happened since then?" But this wasn't 1978. This wasn't 1983. This was 2005. Yes, ten years ago, but well past the time when we accepted the phrase boys will be boys. It shouldn't have been acceptable in 1978. It shouldn't have been acceptable in 1983. It wasn't acceptable in 2005. And it's NOT acceptable to write it off as lockeroom banter or claim it's okay because 1) it was a private conversation or 2) others have acted worse. Mr. Trump can claim this is lockeroom talk, but his comments described sexual assult. This is NOT lockeroom talk. To say that people can get away with assaulting women as long as they are famous is NOT lockeroom talk. And to claim that is perpetuates the culture where I learned to run fast. It perpetuates a culture where I have to be concerned about my daughter being groped on a bus. It's time we all stood up to say this is NOT ACCEPTABLE.

The president of my country is not above the law. The president of my country should be a role model. The president of my country should be a person I can respect, and someone who I can be sure respects me. The president of my country can, and will, make mistakes. The president of my country cannot stand behind the claim that what s/he says in private conversation isn't important. S/he stands for what's right - in public AND in private.

Achrei Mot- A Time to Mourn

Vayidabeir Adonai el-Moshe acharei mot sh’nei b’nei Aharon…

And Adonai spoke to Moshe after the death of the two sons of Aaron… (Vayikra 16:1)

As a rabbi, I have attended a lot of funerals. At some I have been the officiant. At some one of many clergy or speakers, and at some an attendee paying respects to the deceased or the mourners. At every funeral I cried. And at every, I am interested in how the funeral rites inform our mourning process.

Those who know me well are not surprised by my crying, no matter the relationship. I am a great crier. I cry at Hallmark cards and at sappy commercials. The other night, Keren and I cried at a scene in Marvel’s Agents of Shield, a superhero television show. In ancient, and even not so ancient times, I might have found employment as a professional mourner. Even now, hired mourners are popular in Asia and the Middle East. Rent-a-Mourner is a real thing in England. Some see this as a breakdown of the family, but others point to the respected history of the profession, and see it as one more way to honour the dead. It’s not false mourning. A mere thought of the hole left by the deceased, and the tears flow. The loss of any life changes the world.

Jewish mourning laws and rituals are very specifically designed to move mourners through these earth-shaking changes. Grief is a part of life. It is not something to be avoided, nor to be experienced alone. Rabbi Ruth Langer, a Boston College Theology professor, writes, “the rituals surrounding death are…the most tightly choreographed and the least liturgical…. Jewish rituals tend to be accompanied by a…[expansive liturgy], the performance of funerary rituals are striking in their combinations of silence and free speech. The result is the creation of a time that is markedly different, that responds powerfully to the emotions of the moment, and that effects the dual transition of accompanying the deceased to the grave and only then of comforting the mourners…. [effecting] first the transition of deceased from the world of the living to the world of the dead/afterlife; and, second, it places the mourners into a liminal state from which they gradually emerge to reintegrate into a social realm reshaped by their loss.”*

Unfortunately, in today’s world, this change is often glossed over. Many people want to grieve privately. Shiva is cut short, or severely limited in its hours. We are in a hurry to return to “normal” life, not taking the time needed for shiva, shloshim, and shanah. Each step marks a change from one world to the next. And, while directed at the mourner, they are meant for all of us in the community to share.

Shabbat shalom.

---

* Langer, Ruth, “Jewish Funerals: A Ritual Description,” https://www2.bc.edu/~langerr/Publications/jewish_funerals.htm

Boaty McBoatface

Recently, Britain's National Research Council launched a public survey to name its newest polar research vessel. Overwhelmingly, the public chose the name Boaty McBoatface. Britain's Science Minister has announced this name will not be used, and the Council is reviewing other names from the survey for a more suitable name.

While I agree that Boaty McBoatface is a ridiculous name, it also has staying power. It's fun to say, and brings a smile to the face of anyone saying it. I bet even the Science Minister smiles when he says it, before putting on a stern face to go speak to the public.

This is why we have decided that Boaty McBoatface will be the new profanity in our home. Try it. Stub your toe? "Boaty McBoatface' You'll be smiling in no time. Lose your wallet? "BOATY MCBOATFACE!"  It'll still suck, but at least you'll have a moment of laughter.

Britain's new ship may not be called Boaty McBoatface, but the name will live on among its fans.

Shabbat Pesach- Reliving the Experience

Vayikra Moshe l'khol-ziknei Yisrael vayomer aleihem mi'sh'khu uk'chu lakhem tzon l'mish'p'choteikhem v'shachatu hapasach.

And Moshe called to all the elders and said to them, "Draw out and take for you a lamb for your families, and kill the Pesach [offering]. (Shemot 12:21)

Thus begins our reading for this first day of Pesach. Immediately preceding this reading is the commandment to observe the holiday of Pesach.

          And this day will be for you a memorial, and you will celebrate it as a feast to Adonai throughout your generations; you will celebrate it as an eternal ordinance.... In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening you will eat matzot until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. Seven days there will be no leaven found in your houses....

Why is it that the parasha we read on the first day of Pesach is not the text that declares the day to us, but instead the story of the first Pesach? What is significant to us on this day is not that we observe Pesach each year, nor what God did for our ancestors. Rather, it is what God did for ME on that day. This is the command we observe at the Seder, to tell our children what God, the Eternal did for ME when God took ME out from slavery in Egypt. Had God not redeemed our ancestors, we might be slaves even today. Therefore, we read this as a reenactment of that first Pesach night, appreciating that which God did for each of us, protecting us on that night, and leading us from slavery in the morning. "It was a night of watching for Adonai, for bringing them out of the land of Egypt; this same night is a night of watching for Adonai for all the children of Israel throughout the generations."

Every other holiday our rituals act as remembrances or memorials to events, but on Pesach we relive the foundational event of the Jewish people and of each of our lives.

Hag sameach v'Shabbat shalom.

Kitty Blog #31, By Gandalf the Gray - A Glorious Sunrise

If you were up early this morning, you witnessed a glorious sunrise. It is proof that spring is finally here! I tried to share it with my people, but none of them would get up.  Jen & Sean actually barred me from their room.  I kept knocking (I can be very persistent when I want) until Sean came downstairs, but he didn't even glance outside, and then went back to bed.

I will never understand these people.  After all, they can always sleep later in the day.  (Yawn) Oh, time for my nap.

Shabbat Hagadol- Ridding Your Life of Chametz

Uva hakohein v'ra'ah v'hineih pasah hanega babayit tzara'at mam'eret hi babayit tamei hu.

And the priest will come and look, and, behold,the plague is spread in the house, it is a malignant leprosy in the house, it is impure. (Vayikra 14:44)

Today is Shabbat Hagadol, the Shabbat before Pesach. Traditionally, a rabbi would give a sermon only twice a year, the rest of the time reserved for teaching. Shabbat Hagadol is one of those times. The other is Shabbat Shuvah. Speaking during the High Holy Days makes sense. It is a time to ensure the congregation is in the right mindset for t'shuvah. So why is the other time Shabbat Hagadol? Maybe because it too is the start of a new year, a time when we refocus our thought and our actions. It is a time when we rid not only our homes, but our lives of hametz, of the sourness in our lives, for that is the true meaning of hametz, sourness.

In ancient times, bread was not leavened with yeast added to the dough, it was leavened with a sour. If you bake, you may know that a sour is a living thing. It must be fed and maintained. If maintained properly and kept in balance to the other ingredients, this sour can be used to produce wonderful baked goods. However, if the sour is allowed to grow unchecked, much like the tzara'at of our parasha, it takes over, producing rot and making the food inedible. So too can this happen within a person. Hametz, adds flavour to our lives. Without it life is bland and flat, but if we allow the hametz to take over, we may cease to maintain that which is necessary in our lives, throwing things out of balance. In every life there are ups and downs. There are times when we become too busy. The laundry piles up. Suddenly there are 2000 emails in your inbox. At these times we need to clean house, remove the hametz, return to the simple, and with that rebalance our lives.

Shabbat shalom and zissen Pesach

Rosh Chodesh Nisan- Happy New Year

Hachodesh hazeh lakhem rosh chodashim rishon hu lakhem l’choshei Hashanah.

This month is for you the beginning of months; it is the first of the months of the year for you. (Shemot 12:2)

Shana tova. Happy new year. Today is the first day of the year. While we celebrate Rosh Hashanah in the seventh month of the year, and count our years from then, The year begins in the spring, with Nisan. For most nowadays, the idea of multiple beginnings to the year seems completely foreign but for ancient peoples it was a common occurrence. It is much like celebrating the Queen's birthday on the last Monday before May 25 (at least in Canada. In Australia it's the second Monday in June. In the UK it is the first Saturday in June)

 There are four new years in the Jewish calendar: The first of Nissan is New Year for Kings and for festivals; the first of Elul is New Year for the cattle-tithe, according to R. Eliezer and R. Simeon, it is on the first of Tishri. The first of Tishri is new year's day, for ordinary years, and for sabbatical years and jubilees; and also for the planting of trees and for herbs. On the first day of Shevat is the New Year for trees, according to the school of Shammai; but the school of Hillel says it is on the fifteenth of the same month.

Each marks a special point in the year. For those involved in agriculture, knowing from when to count a new year for planting or for animals was vital. For records keeping, a new year in a monarch's role is important. Rosh Hashanah counts from the creation of the world. It is Earth's birthday. But seasons, and in the Jewish calendar, the year begins with the rebirth of spring.

In my home, we have plants year round. Most are house plants, adding to the decor and the air quality, but some are more practical. We try to keep herbs growing. We begin seeds during the winter to prolong the growing season. With the availability of grow lights, seed-starting soils, and fertilizers, planting and growing, even in colder climates, is no longer dependent upon the seasons. Heat and electricity reduce our dependence on the season for warmth and light. We no longer fear the cold and the dark.

And yet... There is a joy to spring, a lightness to our steps. There is a feeling of freedom as we unwrap ourselves from the layers of sweaters, winter coats, scarves, hats, and gloves. Warm weather clothing seems more colourful. Flowers begin to bloom, making the Earth's spring clothing more colourful as well.

As we begin to emerge from our monochromatic winter we also begin to shed the dark, drab, cold feelings for more welcoming, warm, and colourful smiles and greetings. Our congregational snowbirds return. We begin to plan our s'darim, sending out invitations to celebrate with family and friends. We open our doors to invite all inside.

As spring begins, Rav Sean, Jesse, Gavriel, and Keren invite all to share the season with us. On Shabbat afternoons we can be found walking in the park, playing ball, or even climbing trees. Come join us to celebrate this new year.

Shabbat shalom.

Kitty Blog #30, By Nora T. Cat - Food Frustrations

I do not  understand people sometimes. I know they can tell the difference between the various parts of chicken.  Why then can they not tell my food from Gandalf's? 

My heart goes out to Gandalf, poor guy. His diet is so regimented, while I have food regularly available. And, of course, I appreciate that his needs have woken our people up to the idea that I should also get something more than the dry food available to me at all times. And yes, I do sometimes eat Gandalf's food, but only to tease him. He gets something annoyed when I do it, how can I not? What kind of sister would I be if I let that opportunity pass by? 

Gandalf's food is okay, but it's still DIET! My food is so much yummier. Generally, Jen puts my food out without incident. However, a few times a month, I find Gandalf's food in my bowl. Two weeks ago, when Jennifer did that, I followed her around telling her exactly what I thought of Gandalf's food until she returned to my private eating area and fixed the problem. The foods have very distinctive smells and tastes. The cans are different colours. I simply cannot understand how these mistakes get made!

Even worse, last week, Sean forgot to feed me at all. I went to his room to tell him so, and he was asleep. He can sleep through a hurricane, so no amount of talking or yelling will do any good. Knowing he rises first, I left him a message in the bathroom. My messages are usually so effective. My people always know exactly what I mean! Unfortunately, Jen was still up, and removed it. Sad. But I've had the right food every night since, and fresh linens too. So it worked either way.

Snow Day April 4th, Reprise

April 4th should not be a snow day. April 4th should be away to begin cleaning out the garden. It should be a day to appreciate my bulbs starting to bloom. And so, today I cleaned up a section of my garden, clearing away old growth to expose the new shoots of my horse radish coming through the soil. I also lamented over my bulbs, sadly peeking through the snow, wilting in the cold.

Instead of planning my garden, or doing more cleaning, Keren, Gavi, and I spent an hour in a snowball fight, flinging masses of powdery snow at each other, and making a general mess of the snow and each other. All winter we've wanted to have some snow time, but there was never enough snow to do it, never snow sticky enough to build a snowman or pack into real snowballs. We haven't been tobogganing. We rarely ice skate. But today - today we spent real time playing in the snow. Afterward, we built a fire and made hot chocolate before getting back to work.

All in all a pretty good February day. Now I'm ready for April.

Purim Costume Madness

Every year I tell my family to choose their costumes rely. I need time to scour Value Village or sew. This stems from the year I was engaged. Sean's parents threw our engagement party on Purim. Anyone who knows is is nodding, smiling, and thinking, "How very appropriate." (Did I ever mention our cake topper was Lady and the Tramp? Oh well, a story for another day.) Anyway, it's not like Sean didn't know he'd need a costume. He helped make the invitations. So, the day arrives, and he has no costume. He looks through my parents' attic and finds a couple of lights, which he ties to a string, and drapes across his neck. Add a straw behind his ear as an antennae and a paper plate steering wheel, and, voila, he was a car. The worst designed costume ever! Plus the lights were heavy, and he had to take them off about 5 minutes into the party.

So, costume decisions MUST be made at least 2 weeks before Purim.

This year it fell apart. Come Purim no one had ideas. I, having been sick that week, planned on using one of the many costumes in our costume storage. (Yes, I have 2 large rubbermaid bins filled with costumes and props.) So I had the Cat in the Hat on Wednesday night and a great clown on Thursday.

Suddenly, with Megillah just hours off, everyone was scrambling. I took out the bins, spread everything out, and Sean just grabbed.

 Wow!

Gavi and Keren were harder. Who knew they were costume snobs. God forbid they wear something they've worn before! After some quick googling of easy costumes, I came up with the lumberjack from Monty Python. Keren's costume took until the very last minute, but, with lots of safety pins and a dress of mine, she became a beautiful Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. In hindsight, I realize a disposable coffee cup and danish would have been better than the long cigarette holder, but the brain is slow when we're running late to Megillah reading.

 One more year, and Eema again works miracles in the costume department.

And, should you think that only I am the miracle worker, Sean arranged for Jesse to read Megillah in Halifax, just hours before the holiday started. Thank you the Chabad in Halifax. They really came through for him.

Until next year...

Snow Day - April 4th Edition

Time travel is real.

The average snowfall for Toronto is 2 inches (5 centimetres). The average number of days it snows in April - 2. Getting 10 centimetres of snow in April happens on .1 day in April. (According to current results.com) As we enter the fourth day of April, and the third day in a row of snow, with more snow throughout the week, one thing is clear to me - we've returned to February. 

February basically didn't happen this year. In February, we're supposed to average 8.7 days of snow, with average accumulations of 10.6 inches (27 centimetres). That's this week. The ghost of February has been lingering through March, just waiting for its chance. The lion of March gave no quarter, but April blinked. Thinking it would be a fun April Fool's Day joke, April let through a glimpse of February's ghost, and in it rushed.

Ha ha, the joke's on you April. We're taking a snow day. Someone wake me in May.

DST Makes Me Stupid

So we're now a couple of weeks into Daylight Savings Time. I still have not adjusted. But it's worse. I'm not just tired. I'm actually getting stupid. Normally, I go through my day working, parenting, doing what I need to to do. Not now. I cannot focus. Pesach is coming, I'm planned nothing. I don't know who's coming. I simply can't think straight. Not only that, I'm clumsy. I drop things. I bump into stuff.
And I know I AM NOT ALONE!

I cannot understand how it is we continue to observe this ridiculous custom when so much science tells us it serves no purpose. We know more accidents occur. We know it causes problem. We know there are no benefits. (Don't tell me you like the light. Daylight is getting longer anyway. If you really like the light, lobby to have DST in the winter when we wake in the dark, and come home from school and work in the dark.)

And yet, it persists.

Blah.

Shmini- Purification

Akh ma'yan uvor mikveih-mayim yiyeh tahor v'nogei'a b'nivlatam yitma.

However, a spring or cistern will be [stay] clean, but one who touches their carcass will be unclean. (Vayikra 11:36)

Sefer Vayikra is filled with all the laws dealing with Temple rites and the conditions surrounding them. Among those rites, the issues of purity and impurity, taharah and t'mei'ah, are of utmost importance. The laws of purity often appear to have a science of their own. Pure, holy objects and rituals make others impure. The flow of impurity follows its own rules, and contaminates all it touches.

There is one exception, naturally flowing water. There is something innately holy and pure about naturally flowing water that cannot be duplicated, not by tap water, nor by anything else.

Water is the most basic building block for life. We are created in water, and when we die we return to water. Without it, crops cannot grow. Without it, life ceases. Its discovery on other planets is cause for major celebration because it offers a possibility that we are not unique in the universe.  Yet too much water, or water at the wrong time or season kills. It is a universal solvent. It bores through rock. It creates energy.  Water is a powerful substance, and sacred in every religion.

Mikveh water, holy water, baptismal water, mayim achronim (literally last waters: a ritual washing after eating immediately before reciting Birkat Hamazon), water pouring ceremonies, rain dances, prayers for rain and dew, sacred rivers. D'varim compares teaching to rain, falling to nourish those who learn from it like rain nourishes the earth (32:2). The Talmud says, "There is no water except Torah (Baba Kama 17a). We are surrounded by sacred water and symbolism.

Free flowing, natural water, meaning not drawn by bucket or pipes, cannot be made impure. A lizard may fall into a mikveh, making it temporarily unclean, but is fine once the lizard is removed. The status of the water remains unchanged. Even the presence of a corpse cannot affect the water. The corpse must be removed, making those who touch it [the corpse] tamei, but once gone, the water remains unchanged.

As the only substance to be forever tahor, pure, it also purifies. Mikvayot are filled with naturally flowing water. The water serves as a safe space, a womb from which to be reborn and purified from all that makes us impure.

Shabbat shalom.

Shabbat Zachor- Celebrating Purim as Adults

Zachor eit asher-asah l’kha Amaleik baderekh b’tzeitkhem miMitzrayim.

And they spoke to Moshe saying: The people bring more than [we need] for the service of the work that Adonai commanded to make. (D’varim 25:17)

Our annual Torah reading is broken down into weekly parshiyot and special readings. These special reading include Rosh Chodesh, Hagim, festivals, and special days throughout the year. During spring’s approach we celebrate four special Shabbatot: Shekalim and Zachor before Purim and Parah and HaChodesh before Pesach, culminating in a fifth Shabbat, Shabbat Hagadol, immediately preceding Pesach.

Shabbat Zachor falls just before Purim. It is a reminder that in every generation there is someone who rises up against us- Amalek, Haman, Pharaoh. It’s a story that culminates at Pesach, with God redeeming us from oppression. It’s a story that spans the joke explanation of Judaism,

They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s eat.

But it’s more than that. On Hanukah we place our hanukiyot in our windows proclaiming our Jewishness and our right to be here to the world. On Pesach, amid feasting and song, we will open our doors and call upon God to

Pour out Your wrath upon those who do not know You and upon the governments that do not call upon Your Name…. Pursue them in indignation and destroy them from under Your heavens.

And on Purim we will greet these reminders with song and dance, costumes, and celebration. We do this because Jews are the ultimate optimists. As a people we believe there will always be a tomorrow. We believe we will prevail. Thus, we meet danger with song. We treat past devastation with a carnival of celebration. Though others may hurt us, we will not break. No matter what others may try to do to us, we will be here tomorrow. Not only here, but celebrating with song and dance and a touch of the absurd.

Next Wednesday night we will gather to read Megillat Esther. I will be in costume, as will Sean. We hope you will too. Not just the children, this is not a make-believe game. It is peaceful resistance and in your face retaliation at its best.

They tried to kill us. We won. Let’s PARTY!

Daylight Savings Rant

It's that time of year again. The time of year when we are forced to give up a hour of sleep to return to dark mornings to have light just a little longer at the end of the day. It is a concept I have never understood. Why, when daylight is the rule anyway, do we need to shift clocks to make the day that much longer? Isn't it enough that the sun sets at 8:0 pm?  Why do we need 9:30?

If we need daylight savings, which I fully believe we don't, why in the summer and not the winter? It would make so much more sense to have daylight savings in the winter. Winter already means waking up in the pitch black of night, so to prolong it would cause much less pain. In the winter, sunset can be as early as 4:30. Turning 4:30 into 5:30 and giving people a bit a of sunlight after work would actually make a difference.

If you see me Monday, and I don't say hello, please note I have a daylight savings hangover. It will end when the sun returns in the morning, about two weeks from now. Until then I will be nursing a terrible daylight savings headache.

See you in two weeks when my smile returns.

Parashat Pekudei- Endings and Beginnings

Hazak; hazak; v’nit’hazayk.

Be strong; be strong, and we will strengthen each other.

(Recited when completing a book of the Torah.)

Thus ends the book of Shemot. Thus ends the story of our beginnings, Breishit, the narrative of our slavery, Shemot, our book of laws, Vayikra, the story of our wanderings, B’midbar, and the retelling of it all, D’varim. We begin as all people, but we overcome so much to be a kingdom of priests, to become more numerous than the sands of the seas or the stars of the heavens. We will become a community of judges and of artists, a community of law and of beauty, where anyone can be a leader or a scholar.

We end each book of the Torah the same way. Hazak; hazak; v’nit’hazayk. Be strong; be strong, and we will strengthen each other. The formula printed in the Humash contains even more. We note that which we have just completed. We note the middle words of the book. The book of Shemot contains 1,209 p’sukim, 11 parshiyot, 29 according to the triennial cycle, and 40 chapters. The Torah has 69 p’tuchot and 95 stumot (open and closed paragraph breaks), all in all 164 parshiyot.

At the end of each book, we mark how far we’ve come, and how much we have. Each of these verses, readings, chapters, paragraphs is precious to us. Our story never ends. It continues through Vayikra, B’midbar, and D’varim, and begins anew. And every time, each of the words, the verses, the parshiyot, the chapters, and the books has the power to move us forward in learning and in our connection to God. With every word we read, every pasuk we chant, and every parasha and book we complete, we are made stronger as individuals, as a community, and as a people.

Shabbat shalom.