Tag Archives: Judaism

Pentecost – three perspectives (Update plus a 4th)

An African Pentecost

In the calendar of Christendom, Pentecost is celebrated each year fifty days after Easter. The gospel writer, Luke, tells the story in his second book, The Acts of the Apostles.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the spirit gave them ability. Acts 2:1-4 NRSV

From Christine Sine at God Space, a blog of spirituality:

Pentecost is coming. Pentecost, fifty days after Easter Sunday celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. As the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples, the barriers of language and culture were broken down – not so that everyone thought and looked the same, but so that everyone understood each other in their own language and culture. This festival draws us beyond the resurrection to remind us that through the coming of the Holy Spirit we become part of a transnational community from every nation, culture and social class.

“My peace I leave with you.” The story of Pentecost is a story of a wonderful international cross cultural gathering. God’s Holy Spirit draws us all into a new family in which we are able to understand and break down all the cultural barriers that separate us and create conflict. In spite of our cultural differences we are, through the power of the Spirit, enabled to understand each other and treat each other as equals, with love and mutual care.

From Dignity USA which believes that “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics in our diversity are members of Christ’s mystical body, numbered among the People of God.”

Noise, wind, fire; things which bring consternation and confusion, not peace and security. Have you ever seen a painting or stained glass window which actually depicts the event as Luke describes it; people’s clothes blowing in the wind, hands covering their ears? We usually see a group of people piously sitting or standing with neatly formed streaks of fire hovering over their bowed heads.

Luke deliberately chooses these disturbing images because his community has already experienced the Spirit at work in its midst, especially on such occasions as the controversial opening of their faith to non-Jews – an event prefigured by the non-Jewish languages the Spirit-filled disciples are now able to speak.

Those who believe their church already possesses all truth will be greatly disturbed to discover that, according to Jesus’ plan, there’s always more truth to be discovered.

The Christian celebration of Pentecost grew out of the Hebrew Festival of Shavuot, which jointly celebrated the spring harvest of barley and wheat and God’s gift of Torah on Mt Sinai. Rabbi Arthur Waskow offers these comments on God’s Politics blog:

The ancient rabbis assigned a special reading for Shavuot: the book of Ruth, which focuses on harvesting, on tongues of native and “foreign” speech, of wealth and poverty. What does Ruth mean to us today?

For Christians, that day became Pentecost, now counted 50 days after Easter (this year on Sunday, May 31), when the Holy Spirit came like the rush of a strong and driving wind, helping the early community of believers speak and understand all the languages of every nation under heaven.

When do we ourselves experience the Holy Spirit, that rushing wind that intertwines all life? The Holy Breath that the trees breathe out for us to breathe in, that we breathe out for the trees to breathe in? The Holy Breath that now is in a planetary crisis?

Both of these festivals look beyond the narrow boundaries of nation, race, or class.

In the biblical story, Ruth was a foreigner from the nation of Moab, which was despised by all patriotic and God-fearing Israelites. Yet when she came to Israel as a widow, companion to her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, she was welcomed onto the fields of Boaz, where she gleaned what the regular harvesters had left behind. Boaz made sure that even this despised foreigner had a decent job at decent pay. When she went one night to the barn where the barley crop was being threshed, he spent the night with her — and decided to marry her.

But if Ruth came to America today, what would happen?

UPDATE: A fourth perspective

In a recent editorial of The Jewish Daily Forward (Online), we are reminded of the obligations of sharing the harvest, by “Leaving the Gleanings“.

Shavuot, the biblical Festival of Weeks, arrives on May 29 this year, with a special urgency. Holidays on the Jewish calendar often speak to us with particular force at pivotal moments in our communal lives – Passover, for example, with its theme of freedom, or Yom Kippur with its call for repentance. This year, we need to be reminded of Shavuot, the spring harvest festival with its often-overlooked — or suppressed — teachings about the rights of the poor and the dangerous seduction of wealth.

The text spells it out as plain as day: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings” — the bits that fall to the ground — “of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord.”

The message of Shavuot is that the harvest you’re celebrating isn’t yours alone. Part of your crop belongs by right to people you don’t even know, simply because they don’t have as much. And if we restate this as a broad principle, as most of us agree the Bible is supposed to be read, the rule is this: A portion of one’s income shall be redistributed to the poor.

Nor is this to be taken as a recommendation of charity or generosity. It’s intended as a legal obligation, “a law for all time, in all your dwellings” — not just on the farm, and not just in the Middle East — “throughout your generations.” It’s almost as if the ancients knew we were going to try to wiggle out of it.

Conservatives in Washington these days like to dismiss taxes and regulation as “socialism.” But if you read your Bible, that’s just a fancy name for traditional values.

The National Voice of Jewish Democrats also comments on this editorial.

Reform Movement Renews Call to Repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Supports Reinstatement of Arabic Translator

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 8, 2009 – In response to Lt. Dan Choi’s recent discharge from the Army National Guard under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, released the following statement:

The U.S. Army this week discharged Lt. Dan Choi, the military’s top Arabic linguist, after Choi revealed in March that he is gay. The military’s decision to fire Lt. Choi for his sexual orientation is yet another disappointing example of just how misguided the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is. With our military stretched and strained by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the dismissal of crucial and qualified personnel solely because of their sexual orientation is not only unjust and a violation of the American promise of equal rights and opportunity for all — it is also a threat to the safety of our nation.

President Obama has indicated that he recognizes the injustice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. We urge him to address this critical issue of national security and civil rights by making repeal of the policy a priority. He can – and should – begin by reinstating Lt. Choi.

Galilee Diary: Independence Day

Our hope is not lost, the hope of two thousand years To be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem. -Hatikvah, Israeli national anthem

This year’s observance of Yom Ha’atzma’ut was particularly interesting and thought-provoking for me; here are some hightlights:

At mid-day on Tuesday, Memorial Day, almost the entire population of Shorashim, a few hundred people, set forth in a bus and a caravan of cars toward the Bet Shean valley. Every year we do an educational excursion on the afternoon of Memorial Day, to a historical site connected with the creation of the state. This year, we explored the area settled by Orthodox kibbutzim in the late 30s and early 40s. A highlight of the afternoon was a meeting with Jonathan Bassi, whose parents were among the founders of one of these kibbutzim. Bassi, who was a baby in 1948, recently got interested in researching a pivotal battle from 1948 that helped set the borders in the area, in which several of his parents’ close friends and comrades were killed. He discovered a fascinating history of silence, regret, and guilt – that generation didn’t discuss their feelings, and when he probed, fifty years later, it all came out – the one who was passed over in making up that morning’s patrol because he was needed on the farm, the one who still feels guilty that he didn’t clean the machine gun – and it jammed in battle, the young widow who only knew her husband had been killed when he didn’t come back with all the others (no one would tell her)… etc. It was interesting to contrast that almost pathological restraint with our present invasive media culture, which would not have let any intimate detail escape the public spotlight. We complain about that sensationalistic, prying scrutiny – but it does have its advantages.

Bassi didn’t talk about himself. A recognized and respected community leader, he was appointed in 2005 to supervise the resettlement of the settlers evacuated from Gaza. He became a lightning rod for the strident public controversy over that evacuation, and ultimately was hounded out of his kibbutz by a vocal minority. But we all knew his story (from the media), as we listened to him speak so eloquently about the battles of sixty years ago, and their meaning for him.

We went on to a nearby park, where at sundown we held a brief ceremony – including the sounding of the shofar – to mark the transition from Memorial Day to Independence Day, and a picnic and campfire. Baked potatoes in the fire for the native Israelis; toasted marshmallows for the immigrants.

The next day, Independence Day, we set out to brave the crowds at the Air Force training base near Haifa, where the Galilee Jewish-Arab Youth Circus had been invited to perform at the traditional Independence Day open house (held at many army bases, all over the country). We had wondered how the parents of the Arab kids would feel about this invitation. There was no hesitation; they were proud and supportive. We had actually been a bit surprised at the invitation, and indeed a few days before, a clueless army bureaucrat tried to cancel it, as it was “not possible for Arabs to visit the base;” but ultimately he got it – that these are citizens – and relented. So there they were, Jews and Arabs, in the shade of a Patriot anti-missile missile launcher, launching balls, rings, and each other into the air, to the enthusiastic applause of hundreds of who had come out to show their children Israel’s military might and eat ice cream.

Hopefully some of them got the message – that it takes different types of might to survive as a state, and that the courage to let the Other stand on your shoulders may be at least as important as the courage to fly an F-16.

By Marc Rosenstein

God’s Image and Caesar’s Image: Torture and the Currency of Empire

One of the central teachings of Torah is that all human beings are made in the Image of God. That teaching and what flows from it are at the heart of Jewish prohibitions on the use of torture — and perhaps at the heart of Christian opposition to torture as well.

Indeed, the Rabbis – living under the Roman Empire – enriched that teaching about the Image as a direct challenge to the power of Rome, the Imperial fount of torture. One of them asked, “What does this mean, ’In God’s image?’” And another answered, “When Caesar puts his image on a coin, all the coins come out identical. When that One who is beyond all rulers puts the divine image on a ‘coin,’ all the coins come out unique.”

Torture tries to destroy the Image of God –- uniqueness, the diversity that is the only way the Infinite can unfold itself in the world — and replace it with uniformity, Caesar’s image on the human soul and body. In the experience of the Rabbis, it was Imperial Rome that used torture. To this very day, the liturgy for Yom Kippur, when more Jews are in the synagogue than at any other time, and in a more deeply devotional and covenantal place than at any other time, includes the graphic and horrific descriptions of Rome’s torturing to death ten of the greatest rabbis of that or any age.

I think this understanding of the Image of God casts a profound light on the story in three of the Christian Gospels in which two troublemakers come up to Jesus and ask him a question: “Should we pay taxes with this coin?”

They evidently hoped to trap him into violating either Jewish or Roman law. For the coin had on it an image of Caesar, marked “Caesar, imperator, divus: Emperor, God.” If Jesus said to use the coin, he might be violating the Jewish law against idolatry. If he said not to, he would surely be violating Roman law.

So Jesus, in a totally Jewish fashion, answers the question with a question. He asks, “Whose image is on the coin?” They respond, more or less — “Caesar’s, dummy, that’s the point!”

So according to the Gospels, Jesus says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s,” and for 2,000 years Christians have been arguing about what that means.

But now take into account the Rabbinic teaching that Caesar puts his rigid uniformity upon his coins, whereas the Infinite God puts uniqueness into God’s coins: every human being. Surely Jesus, the radical rabbi from the Galilee, knew this teaching.

So I believe there is a missing line in the Gospel story. Either Jesus didn’t need to say it because his first question would reawaken the knowledge in those who were trying to trouble him, or it was later censored out because it was so radical:

“Whose image is on that coin?” he said, and they answered: “Caesar’s.”

And then I think he said, “And whose Image is on this coin?” as he put his hands on the shoulders of the troublemakers.

Only then did he say, “So give to Caesar what is Caesar’s – and give to God what is God’s!”

And of course, as the Gospels say, the troublemakers themselves went away deeply troubled – not because they had failed to trick him, but because he had forced them to think and feel and act anew as they opened themselves to experience the Image of God in themselves. And to understand that the Divine Image stood in radical contradiction to Caesar’s image, so that the world could not be neatly and comfortably divided into two different realms, one “spiritual;” and one “political.”

This teaching needs to be renewed in every generation. One way that Jewish tradition does this in regard to torture is to insist that every Yom Kippur, the community relives the torture of ten rabbis by Rome. In parallel, Christianity insists that every Good Friday the community relive the torture of Jesus by Rome.

These two practices also remind us what brought about the suffering that grieves us. For they remind us that empires torture. The US by its own hand in the Philippines a century ago, by proxies in Central America just a generation ago, again by its own hand in Iraq and Afghanistan. No empire can survive without resorting to torture against those who refuse to bow to its power — by act or even by omission or even by sheer accident of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those who get in the way of its demand that human beings abandon their uniqueness and bow to uniformity, as Caesar forces his own image onto every human body, drowning the Image of God in a flood of agony.

So what does this teach us about America today? That we have a choice more basic than whether we close Guantanamo or – as is now being done by the Obama Administration — we double the size of Bagram, a similar prison in Afghanistan.

America cannot celebrate both the Infinite God and the tyrannical Caesar, cannot remain both a citizenly republic and a domineering empire. How to choose? One way is to affirm that torture is both a grave sin and a major crime. Refusing to “look back” at the use of torture in the past, refusing to try as criminals those who committed the crime, failing to excommunicate those who committed the sin, means refusing to heal the future.

It would be the same as ripping the crucifixion out of Good Friday or the torture of the ten rabbis out of Yom Kippur. After all, it merely happened long ago. Under a long-gone Empire. What is the point of remembering?

Rabbi Arthur Waskow is director of The Shalom Center, author of Godwrestling, Round 2, and co-author of The Tent of Abraham.

Just a Little Time

From The Union for Reform Judaism, “Ten Minutes of Torah”

This week’s parashah opens with detailed guidelines regarding the holiness of priests and sacrifices. The text places the emphasis on avoiding the desecration of sacred space by insuring the sacredness of the people and offerings entering that space (Leviticus 21:1–22:23). Later, the discussion shifts from the sacredness of space to the sacredness of time (Leviticus 23:1–44).

It is this shift from space to time that separated the Jewish community of the Bible from the other communities in which they communed. It is easy to place a fence around sacred spaces and wall them off from the infectious impurity of the outside world. It is much more challenging to wall off time and set it aside as sacred. This, I believe, is the greatest gift that Judaism brings to the world of religion.

While the focus in Leviticus may be on the priestly obligations during these sacred moments, in a world where we are a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6) the obligations and opportunities fall to us. In Leviticus 23, we are all included in the Revelation about these sacred days. Each day brings its own special collection of tasks and benefits. Each day becomes an obligation for every Jew.

Here is the entry way into Jewish life for the post-Exodus Jew. On a regular cycle, we are asked to come into the presence of God and share of our world. Through the sacrifice of goods and, especially, time, we are taught to give—and give freely. It is through this sacred giving that we establish a sacred community in this world. Today, in a world where time is a very precious commodity, how much more important is the opportunity to give of that which is most precious to us for the service of God.

Maybe that is the truest test of our understanding of this parashah today. If we are truly engaged in the give and take with God and the divine relationship is central in our lives, then setting aside precious time for sacred relationship is the pathway to that goal. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel knew this best when he wrote his book, The Sabbath (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).

Time is most precious, in many cases more important than money. Often it is easier to write the check than volunteer the time. Maybe our portion, like the prophets of old, simply asks us to give a little time for sacred causes. As Torah teaches, “it is not in the heavens . . .” (Deuteronomy 30:12). Time is in our hands.

Rabbi David A. Lipper is spiritual leader of Temple Israel in Akron, Ohio and is an avid student of Torah.

Standing Up to Miss California

The National Organization for Marriage is acting like if Miss California cannot be Miss USA, then she will be the new Queen Esther. But Carrie Prejean is neither one.

We know Miss USA types but, as a rabbi, to show how wrong this allusion is, I must tell you about Queen Esther. She is a brave biblical figure from thousands of years ago. Orphaned and raised by her uncle, she rose against all odds, to be the king of Persia’s favored wife in a time when Persians despised Jews.

At risk of her own life she came out to the king to expose a plot against all Jews. Even her uncle asked her to risk her own life because she was born and raised to the status of queen “for such a time as this.” Because of her bravery, she and all her people were spared from becoming the victims of a grab for power.

So in today’s real life story, who is Queen Esther? Who are the victims?

Carrie Prejean and the National Organization for Marriage feel they are the victims because of the outcry when Carrie came out and said, “In my country and in my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman – no offense to anyone out there…”

But offence IS taken when these beliefs are the backbone of anti-gay legislation. Offense IS taken when victimization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people is ongoing.

* It is gay and lesbian couples and families who do not have equal protection under the law to marry the person they love who are the victims.
* It is transgender people who are targeted for brutal beatings and murders such as Angie Zapata in Colorado who are the victims.
* It is every child in our public school who is bullied to the point of suicide with taunts of “you’re so gay” who are the victims.
* It is the foster children who are denied a permanent home because gay couples are barred from adopting in state after state who are the victims.
* It is the parents and family of gay people who watch their loved ones suffer persecution and discrimination on the job who are the victims.

In America we have a separation of church and state. Churches and synagogues do not control civil marriage. Conservative people of faith remain free to practice their religion–and even their prejudices. They are not forced to marry anyone in their congregation.

Our founding fathers were wise when they made sure that no religion was the official religion of the United States. They separated religion from civil law. Carrie and National Organization for Marriage want to be viewed as the victims but they are among those who plot against marginalized people who have been forced to live in fear and silence.

Carrie and National Organization for Marriage claim that they are the victims and that Carrie lost the pageant for her beliefs. But one judge, Alicia Jacobs, spoke out afterwards and blogged:

Could Miss California have answered her question in a more sensitive manner? Yes, I believe she could have and she probably should have. Interestingly, her sister is a gay rights activist in the military…go figure? I do not fault her for her beliefs…I fault her for her complete lack of social grace.

Esther spoke up for the underdog and her family. Esther spoke up for justice at the risk of her own life. So if we are to look to Queen Esther, we must all speak out to expose the mass of misinformation about marriage and gay families. There is no threat to straight marriage–only equal opportunity for every person to marry the one they love.

Is Miss Carrie Queen Esther?

I think not.

Are we all called to be like Queen Esther and speak out for fairness and truth “in such a time as this”?

I think so.

Rabbi Denise L. Eger is the founding Rabbi of Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, CA. She is a founding steering committee member of California Faith for Equality and the President of the Pacific Association of Reform Rabbis. She posted this article at the Huffington Post.

A rabbi’s view on teen sexuality

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of The Kosher Sutra, offered his views on teenage sexual behavior in response to an Oprah show. Most of his article is reprinted below.

Here are my thoughts.

1. Sex is for adults in a mature and committed relationship. It is not for kids, and not only because they can get pregnant and contract an STD. Sex brings in its wake a tidal wave of overwhelming emotions which young teens are not equipped to assimilate, neither psychologically nor emotionally. Many studies have linked teen sex to teen suicide, especially for young girls. Sex creates an artificial sense of closeness and when the relationship terminates (and terminate it will) it leaves both with a sense of abandonment and severe loneliness. Moreover, when sex is experienced too early and without the proper emotional preparation it becomes an empty experience leaving the participants disillusioned and dissatisfied. This explains why so many teens suffer sexual burnout by the time they hit their twenties with grave ramifications for future relationships and especially marriage. In ‘The Kosher Sutra’ I discuss the shocking statistic that one out of three married couples in America are entirely sexless. I believe that one of the major contributing factors is the vacant sexual experiences that so many American men and women have in their teen years which gradually turns them off sex. Sex is also diluted when it is overused, especially in an inappropriate context. Later, when we try and draw upon its power to transform our relationship into one of exceptional closeness and pleasure we discover that it is powerless to do so.

2. The principal responsibility of a parent is to protect their child. Before we love them, before we inspire them, before we educate them, our job is to guard them from harm. If our children wished to drive a car without a license we would not give them driving lessons and the keys in the belief that it is better to have them drive safely than dangerously. Likewise, no matter how powerless we felt about stopping them from taking drugs we would not be going to the local pusher to get them a needle. This does not mean that I judge the mother who was on the show. She loves her son and was doing what she thought was best. But our responsibility as parents is to have the kind of everyday, loving interactions with our children that allow us to play an active role in their lives and guide them toward positive choices. We dare never abdicate our responsibility through the fear of our own impotence. Indeed, I believe if we give up on our ability to empower our children to make moral choices, they will later hold us accountable. Our children should respect our advice and our authority. That means that we can’t allow them to drift so far from our influence that we suddenly find ourselves powerless to prevent destructive behavior. Sure, we parents don’t want to alienate our children by being party-poopers. That’s why we have to balance discipline with inspiration, attention, and love. There can be no substitute for regular family dinners, outings, and inspirational parent-child conversation. If these central staples of family life are neglected, we will find ourselves in the position this mother did: feeling we have to go along with our child’s poor choice rather than prohibiting it for fear of harming the relationship. Which brings me to my next point.

3. We are not our children’s friends. We are their parents. They have many friends. They have only one mom and dad. While it’s wonderful to be popular with our kids, even that popularity must be experienced within the overall framework of parental authority. We know what is best for our kids. We are older, wiser, more experienced, and more mature. They must listen to us and we must take the unpopular stand of preventing them from engaging in activities that are harmful to them. We must tell our kids to turn off the TV and do their homework. We must tell our kids that if they are involved with drugs they will disappoint us greatly and we’ll be forced to punish them. And we must tell our kids sex is off limits and that if we see that their relationship is becoming too serious we will move to terminate the relationship. By all means give good, logical reasons. But be firm as well. Our children should of course love us. But they must also respect us and respect our guidance.

4. Fathers are the principal immunity for young girls to say no to sexual pressure. Where were the dads on the show? It is primarily a father who protects his teenage daughter from succumbing to the wiles of hormonal youths who want to use her. Girls who are close to their dads are not desperate for male attention and are thus granted an invulnerability to the charms of silver-tongued fifteen year-olds who tell them that if they really love them, they should prove it by going to bed with them.

5. By allowing our sons and daughters to have sex too early, we gradually lose them to strangers. They suddenly get deeply and intensely involved with a non-family member and become, for all intents and purposes, lost to their families. A fourteen-year-old girl should be much closer to her parents and siblings than her boyfriend. The former give her unconditional love that builds strength of character. The latter loves her for very conditional things like beauty, charm, and a willingness to get physical. This fosters insecurity and an erosion of self-esteem.

6. We must teach our young sons to respect women. That comes from telling them it in unacceptable to see a girl as a means to sexual ends or to pressure her into having sex.

7. Relationship experts should not be averse to discussing morality. Part of teaching men and women how to make love work is to emphasize the moral dimension. Dr. Laura Berman did an admirable job of asking the right questions that led the young girl to pull back from wanting to have sex. But we relationship experts should not be dissuaded from discussing morals as well. After discussing the issue of teen sex in all its aspects, there is nothing wrong with concluding definitively, as Gayle King did, that it’s a bad idea for all involved and that sex is a mature and intimate activity that is reserved exclusively for adults.

Click here for the full article on the Huffington Post

Peace In The Middle East: Is Yoga Kosher?

For those of us too lazy, poor or contrary to jump on the yoga bandwagon, there are many ways to justify our indolence. But rarely do we invoke higher powers. Not surprisingly, yoga’s getting big in Israel. But for the country’s sizable Orthodox population, it’s the subject of hot debate. The issue? Many yoga practitioners involve Hindu chants dedicated to multiple deities in their practices, which flies in the face of the Jewish injunction to worship only one God.