tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20260794893150223572024-03-19T00:35:49.735-04:00RabBarbara - Rabbi Barbara Penzner blogRabBarbara - Rabbi Barbara Penzner's blogBarbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-63910383116090988662023-01-04T09:45:00.001-05:002023-04-17T09:50:19.137-04:00<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 0.81px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finding the Light of Hope on our Israel Journey</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51b8e15ae4b0413140c5c217/5037f5d4-0bb0-46b4-96a9-08c66e43646a/Group+Israel+trip+2022.jpg?format=1000w" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51b8e15ae4b0413140c5c217/5037f5d4-0bb0-46b4-96a9-08c66e43646a/Group+Israel+trip+2022.jpg?format=1000w" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 0.81px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Our goal is to create a crack in the wall of hatred and cruelty, to let the light come in.”</p><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bassan and <a href="https://www.theparentscircle.org/en/stories/rami-elhanan_eng/" style="color: #ca632b; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;">Rami</a>, a Palestinian from the West Bank and an Israeli Jew from Jerusalem, representatives of the <a href="https://www.theparentscircle.org/en/pcff-home-page-en/" style="color: #ca632b; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none;">Parents’ Circle</a>, were unlikely emissaries of hope during our recent trip to Israel and Palestine. Rami and Bassan belong to a group that no one wants to join—a large community of Jewish and Palestinian parents who have all lost children to terror and conflict in Israel and Palestine and are tired of the endless cycle of loss of life. Their remarkable relationship across borders and bereavement inspired us to see their path to peace as a beacon in the darkness.</p><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of December five HBT families traveled up and down Israel and into the West Bank for ten days, accompanied by a Jewish Israeli guide who lives with her young family on Kibbutz and a Palestinian guide who lives with his young family in East Jerusalem. From age 15 to 80, we were an eclectic group. Most were in Israel for the first time; others were returning to relive our past and see the present with new eyes.</p><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was an intense trip, with every day filled non-stop from breakfast until dinner, meeting people, hiking, eating fabulous meals, visiting holy and historic sites, celebrating Hanukkah and Shabbat along with Israeli Jews, and taking in difficult realities.. </p><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the background of our stay in Israel was the swearing in of the new government (without, I might add, the chaos of trying to elect a new speaker). This government, by all accounts, is the most right-wing of any in Israel’s history. Already, outspoken extremist members of the Knesset who represent slim minorities of the Israeli populace, have proposed radical changes to Israel’s culture, values, and democratic foundations.</p><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">One might come away from Israel today thinking “enough!” This is not MY Jewish state. These extremists represent the opposite of my Jewish values. Yet, as we learned in our travels, there is so much more to Israel than its government. We met Jews who taught us to be joyous and Palestinians who demonstrated resilience and many who shared a desire to live together in this land of surprisingly diverse languages, cultures, and traditions. </p><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">For those who want to raise voices in protest against the extremist policies of this ultra-right government—as Jews throughout the world must-- we have been urged by the equally powerful masses of Israeli citizens to join their struggle. My email is filled with messages from activists on the ground in Israel, among them <em style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">Omdim Beyachad</em> (Standing Together), a grassroots community of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis who will hold a massive March for Hope this Saturday night in Tel Aviv. (see graphic below).</p><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; margin-bottom: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">A basic tenet of Judaism is <em style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">kol Yisrael arevim ze laze</em>—all Jews are responsible for one another. The people who live in Israel, Jews and all others, are bound to us, and we to them, in building a home for all to share. They need us and we need them. On our trip we witnessed many cracks that let the light in, reminding us that none of us has the luxury to give up hope.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51b8e15ae4b0413140c5c217/1a2e5fa5-60eb-4de5-9671-6025475deefc/Picture1.jpg?format=500w" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="420" height="420" src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/51b8e15ae4b0413140c5c217/1a2e5fa5-60eb-4de5-9671-6025475deefc/Picture1.jpg?format=500w" width="420" /></a></div><br /><p class="" style="background-color: white; color: #170202; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: 0.81px; margin-bottom: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></p>Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-29973494121119304192019-10-10T13:40:00.003-04:002019-10-10T14:07:27.329-04:00Sustaining Ourselves and Being Renewed through Life’s Changes (Kol Nidre 5780)<div class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">
Who remembers this old song?</div>
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Where are you going, my little one, little one,<br />
Where are you going, my baby, my own?<br />
Turn around and you're two,<br />
Turn around and you're four,<br />
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.<br />
Turn around, turn around,<br />
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.</div>
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This song, written by the great Harry Belafonte and Malvina Reynolds, speaks to us of turning, which is also how we think of teshuva, repentance. But more to the point, during this season, when some families gather around sumptuous tables, and when other individuals are far from their families, when we sit in pews surrounded by the loving presence of absent parents and grandparents, or when we find ourselves in a new place with strange melodies and unfamiliar neighbors, when we open prayerbooks and hear the whispers of our loved ones—praying, questioning, kibitzing, or lamenting—during this season it is nearly impossible not to spend time reflecting on how our lives have turned, and how we have changed. We have grown up or we hope to grow up soon. We watch our children growing by leaps and bounds and our parents growing old. At this time of the turning of the seasons, we can’t help but wonder, what changes are yet to come?</div>
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Several years ago, I gave a sermon about the lessons I learned about change when we had to replace the carpet in our house. From a mundane task, I mused about the ways we can experience change. But that was a well-planned change, something our family chose to do, and which we prepared for with eager anticipation and which was a source of pleasure.</div>
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This year, I want to reflect on the changes we do not choose, that are not planned, and that are often a source of fear and worry.</div>
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I have in my phone a photo that epitomizes for me the drama of life’s changes: my mother-in-law, unable to walk, sitting in her hospital bed this summer. In her arms, she holds my grandson, her great-grandson, both of them lovingly gazing into each other’s’ eyes.</div>
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No great-grandparent ever held my own children. I myself had little to no contact with my grandparents. Two of them died before I was born, and the others lived far away, our conversations curtailed by the high cost of long-distance calls. My second grandfather died in New York City while I was in grade school far away in Kansas. I only have memories, from when I was seven, of a brief visit with him in a nursing home. The one grandparent I knew, my father’s mother, traveled from Florida to come to my bat mitzvah, and my last visit to her was during my college years. So the image of four generations together in one room struck me with profound joy and sadness all at once.</div>
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What a marvel to watch my mother-in-law hold her five month old great-grandson: a miraculous bond between two souls, one opening to the world at an astronomical rate, the other desperately trying to avoid being shut off from the world. And I noted that in both instances, neither knows what changes lie ahead, or how straight or crooked the road will be to get there.</div>
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Many of us are in the mysterious and anxious stage of watching parents age, doing our best to make their lives comfortable and meaningful, some of us at a distance and others around the corner. Our parents are in hospice care. Our parents have suffered serious illness from which they have miraculously recovered or are deteriorating slowly. Some parents are active and independent while others are confined. Some of us see this from the other side. We are the oldest generation and we are part of that dance with those who care for us, perhaps our children, perhaps other relatives, or other caregivers. What we all have in common is that we do not know what will come next, but we fear that is more likely to be a crisis than a slow, peaceful end. We worry about the health and safety of our elders.</div>
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At the other end of the spectrum, many here are in the equally mysterious yet joyful stage of watching children of every age as they explore and discover the world and become the unique human beings that we can only hope will be loved and treated with respect. And we also worry about their health and their safety.</div>
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A friend recently described the journey of raising children as like getting on a plane without knowing where you’re going to land. We don’t always end up at the destination we had hoped for. </div>
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Truthfully, we are all constantly going through changes, living in the shadow of the unpredictable. And that is the heart of what I have been thinking about this past year. Change is inevitable. We try to plan for it. We seek to control it. Sometimes we are even fooled into believing that we have delayed it indefinitely. But whether we are caring for aging parents or for our children, or whether we ourselves are noticing the aging process in our own bodies and minds, the change is coming. In the words of the Israeli poet, Dalia Ravikovitch (translated from the Hebrew by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld) in her poem, Pride:</div>
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<strong>Even rocks crack, I tell you.</strong></div>
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<strong>and not on account of age.</strong></div>
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<strong>For years they lie on their backs in</strong></div>
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<strong> the cold and the heat,</strong></div>
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<strong>so many years,</strong></div>
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<strong>it almost creates the impression of calm.</strong></div>
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<strong>They don’t move, so the cracks can hide.</strong></div>
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<strong>A kind of pride.</strong></div>
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<strong>Years pass over them as they wait.</strong></div>
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<strong>Whoever is going to shatter them</strong></div>
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<strong>hasn’t come yet.</strong></div>
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<strong>And so the moss flourishes, the seaweed is cast about,</strong></div>
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<strong>the sea bursts out and slides back,</strong></div>
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<strong>and it seems the rocks are perfectly still.</strong></div>
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<strong>Till a little seal comes to rub against them,</strong></div>
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<strong>comes and goes.</strong></div>
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<strong>And suddenly the stone has an open wound.</strong></div>
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<strong>I told you, when rocks crack, it happens by surprise.</strong></div>
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<strong>Not to mention people.</strong></div>
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Unlike home improvement, most of the time changes take us by surprise. But the gift of being human is that we can prepare for how to respond to them.</div>
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And isn’t that what these Ten Cays of Repentance are about? This time of turning, of trying to change ourselves can also be a time to consider how to respond to change, whether we seek it out or are surprised by it. As we retrace our steps, longing to discover where we went wrong, what we might have done differently, and how we might repent and repair, it’s also important to acknowledge that many changes arrive in a shroud of mystery. The answers, even in hindsight, are not always clear. How can we get past chasing our own tails, coming back to the beginning without reaching a conclusion?</div>
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While health and safety are often paramount in our concerns, there are other important aspects of our changing lives, like developing resilience, creating and maintaining our unique identity, and sustaining our spiritual health that form the foundation for growing up and aging well. The Hasidic masters taught a spiritual response to change in three simple steps: <em>Hachna’ah</em>, yielding; <em>Havdalah</em>, discernment, and <em>hamtakah</em>, sweetening. Acceptance, exploration, and transformation.</div>
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John Lennon famously taught us, “life is what happens when we’re busy making other plans.” He probably didn’t know the Yiddish expression, <em>Mann trachut, un Gott lacht</em>, man plans and God laughs. Acknowledging the inevitability that everything changes helps lower our resistance when it comes. <em>Hachna’ah</em>, yielding or accepting change, can help sustain us, whether we have lost our mobility, or are caring for a parent who is developing dementia, or embracing a child who has taken a different path than we had hoped. </div>
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I like to call this step of acceptance “softening to reality.” Psychologist Marsha Linehan describes this form of acceptance as "the ability to perceive one's environment without putting demands on it to be different; to experience one's current emotional state without attempting to change it; and to observe one's own thoughts and action patterns without attempting to stop or control them." To soften to reality does not mean we give up, or that we stop feeling, or we pretend everything is ok. Rather, it means paying attention to those feelings as a way to understand ourselves. Knowing how we feel, we can begin to have compassion for ourselves, for our losses, and for our frailty. And I would add, all the more so when we are accepting someone else’s situation; we dare not try to change them or change their minds.</div>
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In softening to a new reality, we can still ask questions. In fact, acceptance may even raise more questions than answers. What will I do now? Who will be there for me? What other changes may come from this? But there is one question that is not helpful in this situation, “why?” We can get stuck in the endless circle of why. Why me? Why now? “Why” can lead us deeper into our own dark place, a place of fear, anger, and isolation, while “what can I do now?” brings us back into the light. By softening to reality, we may find that instead of facing a dead end, we have been pointed in a new direction. The gift of <em>hachna’ah</em>, yielding, is that it allows us to continue to grow. </div>
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When we begin to ask questions of the new reality, we can experience <em>Havdalah, </em>discernment or curiosity. Exploration and inquiry, whether into the situation or into our own thoughts and reactions, opens us up to see a bigger picture. With discernment, we can replace fear with awe. We can channel our resistance into renewal. </div>
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Years ago, my sister’s son, Chayim Zevi, was involved in a terrible accident. When he was eight years old, he was hit by a car and went flying into the air. He was rushed to the hospital with a cracked skull, a broken leg, broken nose, and broken jaw. It was terrifying. The doctors performed surgery to repair his broken leg and broken jaw. They also did a CAT scan, where they were grateful to learn that he had not had a concussion. But they did discover an undiagnosed brain tumor. After successful brain surgery, Chayim Zevi recovered fully from his injuries. Aside from needing regular MRIs, and an ugly scar on the back of his head, my nephew is now a healthy young man who celebrated his wedding three weeks ago. He is a remarkably joyful person, who lives life with gusto and a tremendous sense of awe and gratitude.</div>
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As Rabbi Heschel has taught, “The meaning of awe is to realize that life takes place under wide horizons, horizons that range beyond the span of an individual life or even the life of a nation, a generation, or an era. Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.” (<span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">God in Search of Man</span>) Exploration helps us cultivate awe and wonder, opening us further to new possibilities.</div>
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Then we come to the third step, which can only come after softening to reality and discernment. That step is <em>hamtakah</em>, literally, sweetening. Like putting sugar in your tea, sweetening what is bitter holds the possibility of transformation.</div>
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Sweetening can begin by telling ourselves a new story, opening a new chapter that changes direction from what came before. A child we hoped would go to college and get a degree has given us new eyes to see that her path is right for her. She has taught the value of patience. The experience of illness has allowed us to accept help from others who we did not realize were so kind, devoted, and capable. It has taught gratitude. Losing a high-paying job has opened our eyes to how miserable we have been, and given us the prospect of more meaningful work, despite the financial impact. It has taught abundance.</div>
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When faced with the helplessness and despair of an unexpected change, we have the uniquely human capacity to awaken new ways of thinking. As we age and lose some capacities, we can ask ourselves: What can I still do? What do I enjoy? What do I have to look forward to? What wisdom can I share, what stories do I have to tell? Our lives can become sweeter with the gifts of gratitude, of creating and nurturing our relationships, and finding pleasure in the here and now.</div>
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Throughout Yom Kippur, listen for the prayers for “<em>chayim tovim</em>.” Not just life, <em>chayim</em>, but <em>chayim tovim</em>, a good life. It’s not enough to be written in the Book of Life to survive. Commentators often suggest that the image of God writing our fate in that Book is a metaphor which we can understand in a different way. As Maimonides teaches, people can be considered as dead even in their lifetimes because they do not understand what it means to be truly alive. When we read “Choose life!” in tomorrow’s Torah portion, it is a reminder that we have a choice about how to live. We may not have a say in why things turn out as they do, but we can choose to see a different path, to learn a different way of being, to tell a different story.</div>
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Here’s another secret to responding to changes: the more we cultivate these practices throughout our lives, the better off we will be when the rocks crack open. In explaining the biblical verse to follow the Torah and mitzvot in order to live, Rabbi Menachem Mendl of Kotzk teaches: “Do not wait to become pious when you are old.” Like learning to read and write, practices that lead to openness and resilience are tools that needs to be developed over time, beginning with early childhood and continuing as a life-long practice. Those who come to understand that we are not in control more easily navigate life’s changes. </div>
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As Rabbi Rachel Cowan and Dr. Linda Thal describe in their book, <span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Wise Aging</span>, “[people who have aged well] have learned to be patient and trusting, though not passive—allowing events to unfold more slowly, accepting other people’s foibles and not rushing to judge or blame them. They are joyful, though not necessarily ebullient, so they find more to celebrate in the day.” (p.172)</div>
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<span style="text-decoration-line: underline;"> </span>I have known many people with those qualities, and many of you are sitting here in this room tonight. You may be struggling with all kinds of worries, limitations, or challenges. You may live with a chronic illness, have suffered a terrible loss, or find a new challenge every day. Yet you find a way to see the world with eyes full of wonder and gratitude. You may observe Shabbat and pray regularly, or perhaps you don’t consider yourself religious. You might be the kind of person who when asked, “how are you,” responds “never better.” You have a gift. You are a joy to be with and an inspiration. </div>
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And I know others who feel hopeless. You have suffered unbearable trauma. You may be laboring with unspeakable challenges. We dare not blame or judge you. Instead, on this Yom Kippur, praying together for <em>chayim tovim</em>, our words include all of us, and truly all of humanity, in that prayer, the prayer for a good life, that we might find a path to make the most of each day.</div>
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As my teacher and colleague, Rabbi Richard Hirsh has written:</div>
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“Life is broken into discrete pieces, often experienced as a series of moments whose only connection is that they follow one upon the other. … We go through good years as well as difficult ones; we have some moments when we soar and others when we crash. We age, and as our experiences accumulate and the decades pass, we increasingly sense an urgency to tie it all together, to see the patterns emerge, to connect the dots. We seek meaning, both the meaning we create and the meaning we can discover.”</div>
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Sometimes, when answers evade us, we are blessed to find meaning: the meaning we discover as well as the meaning we create. Through all of life’s changes, unpredictable as they can be, may our lives be sustained each day, with a sense of purpose, possibility, and meaning. <em>Ken yehi ratzon</em>.</div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-4572564169669582912019-10-02T12:05:00.000-04:002019-10-02T12:05:09.126-04:00HEARING THE CALL TO MORAL COURAGE<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I learned about moral courage in a faraway land in Central
America, in the midst of volcanoes and coffee plantations. On a trip to
Guatemala with the American Jewish World Service, I learned about moral courage
from the lawyers of el Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos who defend the human
rights of indigenous people and who successfully prosecuted corrupt generals
and presidents, despite threats from those very powerful men. I learned about
moral courage from citizen journalists La Prensa Comunitaria who were
threatened and even arrested for their online reporting of mass displacement of
entire villages by corporate interests who rob indigenous people of their land,
with the support of the government, for mining or drilling that deprives people
of their livelihood and poisons the land. I learned moral courage from Anna
Elizabeth and three other women who traveled 27 hours by bus to tell us how she
stood up to her own father to be able to go to school, and how their
organization, Nuevo Horizonte, taught them the skills to stand up to the male-dominated
leaders of their town, to run for a seat on the city council, and fight to give
women a voice and a budget for economic opportunity, for access to food and
health care for women and children, and for an end to violence against women. I
learned about moral courage from people who may never become famous or
powerful, but who risk their lives every day to defend human rights in their
homeland. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Each day
when I wake up, I fortify myself with the stories of everyday people who choose
to take a moral stand. Despite the risks to themselves and their families,
despite the setbacks that lead to despair, despite the power of the government
itself to shut them down, these people do not give in and they do not give up. In
fact, when we asked them why they did it, many of them told us that for them,
there is no other choice. Anna Elizabeth told me that they are planting seeds
together and though she doesn’t know when they will bear fruit, she will die
trying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But we need
not look to Guatemala for models of moral courage. Here in the </span><span style="color: #384c6d; font-family: "Montserrat",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">U</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">nited
States, I recently learned of a journalist and two doctors who took risks to
uphold the moral principles that were fundamental to their jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Susannah
Sirkin shared the story from Physicians for Human Rights, of two doctors who
defied their superiors to tell the truth about medical conditions for immigrant
children in detention. A year ago, Dr. Pamela McPherson and Dr. Scott Allen,
who serve as subject matter experts for the Department of Homeland Security’s
Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties blew the whistle on their own
department in a letter to the Senate’s Whistleblowing Caucus. The doctors
described cases in which children experienced severe weight loss, accidental
vaccinations with adult doses, and dangerously slow medical attention. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Judith Levine
shared another story of the son of a dear friend who gave up his job as a
journalist a few weeks ago over journalistic integrity. </span><strong style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Jeffrey Dale</span></strong><span style="background-color: transparent;">, the copy editor of
The Patriot Ledger and Brockton Enterprise, was reading over a story set to
appear on the front page, titled ‘Braintree man accused of brandishing gun,
yelling racial slur.’ Deep into the story, the editors had decided to publish a
quote that spelled out the N-word fully in print. To give some context to this
story, Dale said, “I have worked for six papers directly and hundreds of papers
indirectly in my short 10-year career in the newspaper industry and I’ve NEVER
EVER seen that word published in full.”</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Seeking to change the published version, Dale tried to find
out who made the decision and why, but all of the senior editors had left for
the evening. It was at that point that he packed up his desk and quit on the
spot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As it turned out, within twenty-four hours the paper reversed
itself and changed the online version. But at that point, this man with deep
moral courage, decided that the decision reflected a serious problem at the
paper, and as long as those decision-makers remained, he could not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These brave
individuals remind me every day how privileged I am. And they remind all of us
that, despite the American insistence on profit and self-sufficiency, there is
a moral bottom line. And that is the Jewish teaching that I believe is at the
heart of what we are here for today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To celebrate
community in response to rugged individualism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To care
about people as well as profits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To cultivate
hope in place of helplessness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To press for
change in a time of challenges.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To take
action in the face of adversity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In these
perilous times, when our rights are being violated, democracy is being hacked
away, and leaders blatantly disseminate lies to win votes, when the American
ideals of “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free” have been eradicated by leaders who keep children in filthy cages,
without medical care to keep them alive and without their parents to give them
comfort, and when our very earth is being stripped, poisoned, baked, and
brutalized, we are called to uphold the ideals of respecting the dignity of
human beings that is embedded in our Jewish souls. On this holy day, we must
pray that we can face each day with the courage of our convictions, wherever we
are called to make a difference. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Courage is a
rare and hard-won commodity these days for most of us. This past year the
Jewish community has collectively experienced a level of fear unheard of in my
own lifetime. The deadly shootings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh
and at the Chabad synagogue in Poway, California, the arsons attempts at the
homes of local Chabad rabbis, and threats from White Supremacist groups across
the country reminded us that, yes, it can happen here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We have been
targeted because we are Jews. We have been targeted for our love of Israel
(whether that love is expressed through critique or through wholehearted
support). We have also been targeted for standing with immigrants. For standing
side by side with Muslims. For daring to suggest that a growing unrepentant
racism and xenophobia are reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s. Our own
president called us “disloyal.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The times
could lead us to retreat from our principles, to hide in our homes, to lock our
doors in fear. Fear is a natural response to threats. But fear can also prevent
us from taking any action, or it can lead us to act without judgement. Instead,
I urge us all to carry with us the teaching of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. He
did not say <i style="font-weight: bold;">lo lefached klal</i>, “<b>do not have any fear </b>at all.” Instead he proclaimed: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">V’ha’ikar <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">lo lehitpached</b> klal</i>. What is essential is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not to be overcome</b> by fear. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Two years
ago, I spoke of the importance of proudly resisting white supremacy and anti-semitism
by courageously expressing our Judaism. That takes a certain amount of courage
in itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today, I
urge each one of us to cultivate moral courage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What is moral courage? In 1897, at the first Zionist
Congress, Ahad Ha’am prophetically warned the gathering delegates that “the
secret of our people’s persistence is that… at a very early period the Prophets
taught it to respect only spiritual power, not material power.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Jewish
tradition offers a different lens on the world and our own place in it. We are reminded
by the teachings of the prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Micah, that there is
more to living our lives than amassing property, profits, and power. There is a
different kind of power that has sustained our people through oppression,
through poverty, and through exile. We have survived through spiritual power.
And spiritual power comes from moral courage. Moral courage is the Jewish heritage
and the Jewish legacy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the last
century, at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, Rabbi Joachim Prinz,
who had come to the US in the 1930s from Germany, who was a longtime defender
of civil rights and an organizer of the march, was invited to speak. You may
not remember him or his words. He came to the podium in front of the Lincoln
Memorial immediately following Mahalia Jackson singing “How I Got Over,” and just
before Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I have a dream
speech." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbi Prinz
declared:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“<b>I speak
to you as an American Jew.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“As
Americans</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> we
share the profound concern of millions of people about the shame and disgrace
of inequality and injustice which make a mockery of the great American idea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“As Jews</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> we bring to this great
demonstration, in which thousands of us proudly participate, a two-fold
experience -- one of the spirit and one of our history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“In the
realm of the spirit, our fathers taught us thousands of years ago that when God
created man, he created him as everybody’s neighbor. Neighbor is not a
geographic term. It is a moral concept. It means our collective responsibility
for the preservation of man’s dignity and integrity….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“When I was
the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned
many things. The most important thing that I learned, in my life and under
those tragic circumstances, is that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent
problems. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most
tragic problem is silence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A great
people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent
onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality
and in the face of mass murder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">America must
not become a nation of onlookers. America must not remain silent…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Every time I read these words, a chill of recognition runs
through my veins. These words touch every fiber of my being. They call me to
make my voice heard. Rabbi Prinz has described the difference between courage
and moral courage.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One need not
be a famous rabbi preaching on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to have moral
courage. Any one of us can face a moment when we feel called to speak out,
called to act. In the story of the Exodus, our tradition tells a story of an
average man, Nachshon, who demonstrated moral courage. As you may recall, the
Israelites stood in a quandary at the edge of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh, his
army and his chariots approaching from behind, and the uncrossable sea blocking
their way forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to
the midrash, Nachshon came to a decision. The decision would not guarantee
their survival. Both ways, going back or going forward, threatened certain
death. While others argued, while Moses prayed, Nachshon made a choice. He
stepped into the water. Then he walked into the water. He kept walking until the
water reached his nostrils, but he did not back down. He did not give up. And at
that perilous point, the sea parted and the entire Israelite nation moved
forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Where did
Nachshon think he was going? He used his moral compass. He refused to go back
to Egypt, refused to submit to Pharaoh, refused to surrender his dream. He
moved forward. He set his sights in front of him, not into the sea, not across
to the other side. Nachshon’s compass pointed him to the only destination that
the people had ever set: toward the Promised Land. It was that principle that
led him to make that fateful choice, to overcome his fears, to recognize that
fear was not going away, but this opportunity might. In doing so, Nachshon
chose survival of the spirit. And the sea parted because of him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some might
say that Nachshon had faith, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">emunah</i>.
I would argue that it was not faith that drove him, it was faithfulness, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">amana</i>. There was no guarantee that he
would succeed. After all, even the Talmud says, don’t trust in a miracle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rather, Nachshon
acted out of faithfulness to his principles. Everything that Moses had taught
them hung in the balance. Would the people return to servitude? Or would they
move forward to the Promised Land? In that decisive moment, Nachshon trusted in
his moral and spiritual grounding, which gave him the courage to take the first
step.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As a Jewish
community we know our destination. We have a vision of where we want to get to,
grounded in Torah and proclaimed by prophetic voices from Isaiah to Heschel: to
a world of mutual and collective responsibility, a world of justice tempered by
compassion. A world where everyone has access to health care and education, and
where every child is treated as the most holy of all beings, deserving of every
benefit to help them grow and thrive. A world where we cherish and guard and
protect the earth. A world where we value teshuva—the capacity to change and
grow, where we welcome the stranger, and where we pursue peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nachshon
knew, like Rabbi Prinz, that his action was not solely for his own benefit. If
he was heroic, it was in order to lift up all the others surrounding him who
needed a beacon of hope, so that they too would have the moral courage to step
forward toward the Promised Land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While the
women of Nuevo Horizonte inspired me, they looked to our group of fifteen
rabbis for inspiration as well. Watching our collection of women and men as we worked
together as partners, they saw in us their own Promised Land. That memory,
along with the stories of moral courage they told, obligates me to continue to
lift them up, to magnify their voices, and to take risks myself. Though my
words feel paltry compared to the life-threatening risks they take, I don’t
hold back, because words do carry significance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As we think about Anna Elizabeth and the human rights
defenders in Guatemala, about Dr. Pamela McPherson and Dr. Scott Allen, the
whistleblowers in the Department of Homeland Security, and about Jeffrey Dale,
the journalist who would not put up with the implicit bias in his newsroom; as
we hear the call of Rabbi Prinz and retell the story of Nachshon, my question for
you today is this: What can you do to be courageous in the New Year? What is
the Promised Land for you? What are the principles that you will think twice
about before turning back?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you need
encouragement to take that first step, take to heart this poem by Rabbis Janet
and Sheldon Marder. I will close with their charge for every one of us as we
enter this New Year 5780.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do not wait for a miracle<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Or the sudden transformation of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bring the day closer, step by step,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">with every act of courage, of kindness,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">of healing and repair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Do not be discouraged by the darkness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lift up every spark you can<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">and watch the horizon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">for the coming of dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Look closely!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It has already begun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Shanah
tovah—may this be the year that our moral courage brings our world a few
minutes closer to the coming of the dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbi Barbara Penzner<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Temple Hillel B’nai Torah<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rosh Hashanah 5780</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-32506008239321041782019-04-11T16:38:00.000-04:002019-04-11T17:12:35.046-04:00Testimony on the Fair Share Amendment at the Massachusetts State House, April 11, 2019<br />
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My name is Rabbi Barbara Penzner, rabbi at Temple Hillel
B’nai Torah in West Roxbury, home to Jews from across Greater Boston. I am also
the co-chair of the New England Jewish Labor Committee and I am here today to
testify in support of the Fair Share Amendment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The people of Massachusetts are hard-working people. From
the janitors who clean our offices to the CEOs of the biotech firms who create
medical devices, we are proud to contribute to the economy of Massachusetts.
Every worker does their part to create a society that works for everyone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For those who have the blessing of wealth, which comes from
hard work as well as inheritance, investments, and access to the best of our
education, housing, health care, and transportation, keeping those foundations
of society strong and sustainable for everyone is in their best interest.
Employers need workers who are educated. Employers need workers who can travel
to their jobs and get there on time. Everyone benefits when our infrastructure
works.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let’s look at a basic moral principle. Namely, human society
thrives when we share our blessings. In the Book of Deuteronomy we read:<o:p></o:p></div>
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“There shall be no needy among you, since you will be
blessed, but if a needy person comes to you, do not harden your heart and shut
your hand; give readily and have no regrets when you do so, for you will be
blessed in all your efforts.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Deut. 15:4,
7,10)<o:p></o:p></div>
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When we share what we have our blessings multiply.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A second moral principle is that no individual is required
to carry the burden of the whole; this is the responsibility of the community.
As we read in the book of Leviticus (19:9-11): <o:p></o:p></div>
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“When you reap your harvest, you shall not take everything
on the land; you must leave the corners of your fields for the poor, the widow,
and the orphan. In addition, whatever gleanings fall from your hand, you leave
them for the poor and the stranger. When you pick the fruit of your vineyard,
do not leave the vines bare or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard, you
shall leave them for the poor.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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You can be sure that those with bigger fields left bigger
corners.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The extra dollars that we leave on the table can save lives,
while we hardly notice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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A rabbinic tale describes how we are all in the same boat. A
group of travelers are sitting in a boat when one takes a drill and starts
drilling a hole under his own seat. As the water begins to pour into the hull,
all the other passengers protest. The one with the drill responds, what
business is it of yours? I’m only drilling under my seat.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Prosperity comes to those who share their wealth. We are not
asking the wealthy to give away their hard-earned earnings. We are asking them
to contribute a small fraction, the corners of their fields, to build up the
roads and bridges, to improve the trains and buses and subways, and to create a
shining educational system that raises up all people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are in the same boat, and together, we can
keep the hull strong enough to carry us all.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Thank you.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<i>To learn more about the Fair Share Amendment and Raise up Massachusetts, go <a href="https://www.raiseupma.org/fair-share-amendment-2022/" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></div>
<br />Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-50645893577501690492019-04-08T14:33:00.002-04:002019-04-08T15:50:02.888-04:00Meet our new grandson, Isaiah Levin<br />
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Isaiah Levin</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQOd1K7AM3U7PfF7i3xRbNs3j0pF2o5g9VqDGS-8U3XMzIZ69YU9jnoW8SBBb5hwuxA_J3nKyp3WkAecSnn1TDf1DepvFTzwNpd6vez47ZfMQe-zbpxQhbKWHQp_j73kkbvQpcgyeZG0/s1600/IMG_20190401_163447-ANIMATION.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="606" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQOd1K7AM3U7PfF7i3xRbNs3j0pF2o5g9VqDGS-8U3XMzIZ69YU9jnoW8SBBb5hwuxA_J3nKyp3WkAecSnn1TDf1DepvFTzwNpd6vez47ZfMQe-zbpxQhbKWHQp_j73kkbvQpcgyeZG0/s320/IMG_20190401_163447-ANIMATION.gif" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">To our friends, family, but most importantly Isaiah, </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We want to tell you a little bit about your name. We chose both
names impulsively (one of them may or may not have been drunkenly selected in a
hot tub), but the more we’ve reflected, the more we’ve realized they reflect
our deepest hopes for what kind of person you will be. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Let us you tell a little bit about the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah
lived in the 8th century BC during the Assyrian destruction of Jerusalem, and
the Babylonian captivity which followed.. The book of Isaiah is filled with
much of the best poetry in the Bible, such a beating swords into plowshares,
the radical statement of monotheism “I am the first and I am the last” and the
voice in the wilderness. But our favorite verses, which were always your
mother’s favorite part of Yom Kippur and your father discovered in a book
by Will Durant is Isaiah 58:5-7: </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Is
it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it
to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Is
not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo
the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every
yoke?</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Is
it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are
cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that
thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">In the first line, Isaiah rejects empty ritual and self-centered
acts of pseudo-asceticism as guides towards living an authentic, ethically
meaningful life. Holiness will not come by sticking rigidly to the dictates of
tradition. Isaiah does not grope towards an imaginary past.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">But Isaiah does not reject the idea of a fast. Rather than
focusing on the damn Babylonians, he focuses his critique on what his people
can control - their own complicity in the highly marketized, deeply stratified
Eastern Mediterranean economy. Like any good prophet, Isaiah is furious at the
hypocrisy and injustice of the world around him, and demands something better.
Isaiah turns the power of God into something beyond idolatry and dreams of
national vengeance, into an instrument for criticizing the social order. He’s
angry about inequality, poverty, debt-peonage, and slavery. I hope that when
you see these things in the word around you, your heart burns with anger, and
the that your lip curls with disgust. To quote our late, beloved Professor
Silberman </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">(</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">zichrono livracha</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> I hope you’re always ready to fight the bastards.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">But Isaiah also articulates a vision of holiness grounded in
community and our ethical obligations to one another. When he says “hide not
thyself from thine own flesh” he’s describing a radical act of empathy in which
my fate is bound up in yours and acts of justice involve physical connections
between people. Bring poor people into your home. Cover the naked. Feed the
hungry. It’s easy to believe in the principles of a just world. But what’s more
difficult is actually living the way Isaiah describes. Getting your hands dirty,
and not being afraid to touch your brothers and sisters. “Thine own flesh” is
an expansive definition of family. He could of said kin, but he instead he
encompasses all humanity (and maybe not just humanity) in shared physical
connection that demands empathy.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I know that’s a lot for a little baby. Or 8 year old watching this
video waiting for the good part, of moody adolescent trying to engage in some
futile voyage of self-discovery. Living this life of radical empathy, really
seeing and not being afraid to touch the people around you. It’s something
that’s hard for all of us, every day, and that’s why it’s our hope for you.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Now, Isaiah’s a prophet. He like, lives in a cave and yells at
people all day. What would it look like to actually live by his principles? For
that, we wanted to name you after a weirdo who could have been one of your
college uncles, Konstantin Levin.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Your mother finished Anna Karenina in a feverish daze over a week
in DC the summer after our first year of college. She stayed up all night
reading while we schemed bus trips to come visit each other. Most people think
of Anna Karenina as the story of a tragic love affair, which is crazy, because
that’s only half the book, and it’s missing the best part! Levin, who forms the
other half of the book’s narrative, is a young country aristocrat struggling to
be a good person in a rapidly modernizing late 19th century Russian society
that he knows is unjust. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Levin’s far from perfect. He’s awkward, temperamental,
argumentative, and impulsive. But he’s also thoughtful and sincere. He spends
the book arguing, studying, passionately engaging in agricultural modernization
projects - . It’s a great book. Seriously, we’re not selling it well. There’s
an awesome part where Levin cuts wheat with some peasants then drinks some
vodka, and it made us both cry. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">But the book ends with Levin’s epiphany, which both acknowledges
its difficulty and echoes Isaiah’s embodied vision of love. He says:</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I shall continue to be vexed with Ivan the
coachman, and get into useless discussions and express my thoughts
blunderingly. I shall always be blaming my wife for what annoys me, and
repenting at once. I shall always feel a certain barrier between the holy of
holies, of my inmost soul and the souls of others.” </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">But:</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">“I and millions of men, men who lived ages ago
and men living now—peasants, the poor in spirit and the learned, who have
thought and written about it, in their obscure words saying the same thing—we
are all agreed about this one thing: what we must live for and what is good.” </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">While acknowledging that authentic connection with others is
difficult and temporary, he realizes that these brief, shining moments are what
gives life its meaning. Levin accepts that there is a barrier between him and
his fellow man, but sees his duty in life as poking through that barrier
whenever he can. The world is broken and unjust; we’re not perfect, and neither
are our brothers and sisters. But that shouldn’t stop us from loving each
other.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Isaiah Levin, in Jewish tradition the Bris is meant to be a
covenant between God and the people of Israel. But today you’re entering into a
covenant with all people, surrounded by wisdom that echoes across centuries and
millennia, and so many people who love you. Feed your brothers and sisters,
cloth them, see them, love them.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We love you so much already, and we can’t wait to see the person
you become.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
Ima and Dad (Aviva and Colin)<br />
<br />
<i>Isaiah was born March 27, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois</i>Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-15757470700146015372018-04-19T14:19:00.001-04:002018-04-19T14:19:38.365-04:00ISRAEL AT 70<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Is today a day of joy or
a day of sorrow?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Today Israelis and Jews across
the world celebrate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yom Ha’atzma’ut</i>, Israel’s
Independence Day. It’s a very special anniversary: 70 years since Israel was
welcomed into the family of nations as an independent Jewish and democratic
state.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Looking back to 1948, we
have much to celebrate. The ingathering of Jews from displaced persons camps in
Europe, from anti-semitism in the lands of North Africa and the Middle East,
from starvation in Ethiopia and from oppression in the former Soviet Union, are
a modern miracle for the Jewish people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Israel catalyzed the
revival of the Hebrew language, the foundation of contemporary literature,
music, and art that draw on the two-thousand-year-old heritage of Jewish text
and thought expressed in our ancient tongue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Israel is the only place
on earth where Jews welcome Shabbat and holidays in the spirit of a myriad of
Jewish ethnicities that characterize our people’s global sojourns and refracted
through multiple lenses of Jewish religious observance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I’ve traveled to Israel
over 20 times, including 2 extended stays: one with my husband, and one with
our children (our son Yonah was born in Jerusalem). For me, Israel is home and
family, a source of joy and pride. I am fully an American Jew, but for me,
there’s just something different about being in the land of our ancestors and
in a society where Jewish creativity is part of the landscape. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We also have reason for sorrow.
Our gratitude for a homeland stands in sharp contrast to the displacement of people
who call our shared land by a different name, Palestine, and who have been
denied full rights, whether as citizens of Israel or as an occupied people. To
the Palestinian people, today commemorates the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nakba</i>, the catastrophe, which followed when the British ended their
mandate and Israel arose as an independent state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And yet….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And yet, this year I have
found reason to hope. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Returning from our visit
to Israel in February, I felt hopeful because of the unsung remarkable, passionate,
and effective Palestinian and Jewish leaders who are working together on the
ground to create a better homeland for all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Returning from the
JStreet 10<sup>th</sup> Anniversary Conference this week, I feel hopeful
because of the open-hearted dialogue between Israeli Jews, American Jews, and
Palestinians who spoke. I feel hopeful because of the 1200 JStreet U college
students at the conference who are vigorously protesting the demolitions of
Palestinian homes in the South Hebron Hills. I feel hopeful because of our
meetings with Congressional representatives and Senators who hear and respect the
voices of thousands of JStreet supporters who seek to maintain Israel as a
Jewish and democratic state, committed to a two-state solution that brings
peace and security to the region.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In this world of pain and
possibility, it is our obligation to hold on to both realities, the celebration
and the sorrow. It is up to us to remain engaged with our Jewish homeland, to continue
to support those in Israel and Palestine who are working for human rights,
economic sustainability, and peace and security, and to stand against those who
continue to deny the rights of Palestinians, who reject moderate Palestinian
leaders, and who attack the forces for civil society and equality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">On this 70<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of Israel’s birth as a modern nation, I recommit myself to do all
that I can to work for the kind of Jewish and democratic state envisioned by
its founders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I turn to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Psalm 30</b> to remind me of the long view:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Redeemer,
you have raised my spirit from the land of no return,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You
revived me from among those fallen in a pit;<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For
God is angry for a moment, but shows favor for a lifetime,<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Though
one goes to bed in weeping, one awakes in song;<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You
changed my mourning to an ecstatic dance<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You
loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with joy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">May the next 70 years
bring more song than weeping, more joy than mourning, for our people and for
those with whom we share our sacred land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-79785218576814586992017-10-02T17:57:00.002-04:002017-10-02T17:57:42.028-04:00To be a Jew in the Twenty-First Century<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In 1944, Jewish poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote the
following poem, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To be a Jew in the twentieth century<br />
Is to be offered a gift. If you refuse,<br />
Wishing to be invisible, you choose<br />
Death of the spirit, the stone insanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
Accepting, take full life. Full agonies:<br />
Your evening deep in labyrinthine blood<br />
Of those who resist, fail, and resist; and God<br />
Reduced to a hostage among hostages.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 22.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-left: 1.0in; tab-stops: 22.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The gift is torment. Not alone
the still<br />
Torture, isolation; or torture of the flesh.<br />
That may come also. But the accepting wish,<br />
The whole and fertile spirit as guarantee<br />
For every human freedom, suffering to be free,<br />
Daring to live for the impossible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-top: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 1.0pt 0in 0in 0in;">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.0pt 0in 0in 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="display: none; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hide: all;">Bottom of
Form<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Daring to live for the impossible. That was an
existential concern for Jews in 1944. To dare to remain a Jew. In the past
century, what did our parents and grandparents choose? What was Muriel
Rukeyser’s choice?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you don’t know about the poet </span><a href="http://murielrukeyser.emuenglish.org/essay/helen-engelhardt-muriels-gift-rukeysers-poems-on-jewish-themes/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Muriel
Rukeyser</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, you should. Rukeyser was an American journalist and
activist all her life. She was arrested while covering the trial of the
Scottsboro Boys in Alabama and witnessed the beginning of the Spanish Civil
War. She spoke out as a feminist and partnered with a woman long before it was
safe. She traveled to Hanoi with poet Denise Levertov on an unofficial peace
mission and was arrested in Washington D.C. while protesting the Vietnam War.
She wrote this poem as a Jewish response to fascism under Franco and under
Hitler. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
But
Rukeyser, like most of us, was more complicated than that. Like many activist
Jews of her era, Rukeyser grew up without Jewish observance, as she put it <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">“no stories, no songs, no special food.”</span> Yet
her mother passed on a story to her as a child, a story that gave her a deep
connection to her heritage. Her mother claimed that she was a direct descendant
of one the greatest rabbis of the Talmud, Rabbi Akiba. Her mother described the
famous rabbi as <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">a martyr who resisted the Romans
in the 1st century by teaching Torah publicly, knowing the penalty was death.
She described to her daughter how Akiba was tortured and how he died saying ‘I
know that I have loved God with all my heart and all my soul, and now I know
that I love God with all my life.’ This story shaped Rukeyser’s own
connections to Judaism for the rest of her life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So here we are, all of us descendants or disciples of Rabbi
Akiba, and we ask ourselves, what does it mean to be a Jew in the 21<sup>st</sup>
century? Does the experience of being a Jew look different from being a Jew in
the 20<sup>st</sup> century?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Until a year or so ago, I would have enthusiastically
answered, yes, it does look different. We no longer need to choose to be
invisible. We can walk proudly as Jews in almost every corner of American life.
Yiddish words like schlemiel have entered the American vocabulary. Bagels are
no longer ethnic food. Jerry Seinfeld became a household representative of the
Jewish people: insightful, funny, a bit neurotic, and successful. Moreover, while
some of us have known anti-semitism personally, most of us in this room have never
felt persecuted as a Jew, never been victims of anti-semitic taunts, of
vandalism, of threats to our life and well-being.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But like so many other places where Jews have risen to
prominence: Spain, England, France, Germany, our position is always tentative. Like
so many before us, the Jews of America have safely accepted the illusion that
we can integrate ourselves seamlessly into American culture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That is, until the dramatic rise in anti-semitic acts
immediately following the election. Until the vandalism in Jewish cemeteries
following the inauguration. Until the shattering of the Boston Holocaust
Memorial this summer. Until Charlottesville.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What changed at Charlottesville was that the
anti-semitism of the tiki-torch-bearers, the assault-rifle-toters, and the marchers
in riot-gear chanting hate slogans—the hatred—came out in the open. Not only
that, the police stood by and allowed it to happen. With the president’s unrepentant
acceptance of support from the Nazis and the KKK and other white-nationalist groups,
their actions appear to be state supported, if not explicitly state-sponsored.
The president’s own rhetoric has given permission for others to do and say what
until now, our government has not dared to do or say. This is what the ADL
refers to as “an unprecedented mainstreaming of hate and discrimination in our
communities.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After Charlottesville, we have no choice but to
discuss anti-semitism. And to stand up to it wherever we find it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s easy to decry the KKK and the Nazis. But what
happens when the hatred comes from someplace closer to home, from people we
consider allies?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Many of us were
heartbroken to hear earlier this summer about the Chicago Dyke March, an annual
Gay Pride event, where three Jewish women were </span><a href="https://www.advocate.com/religion/2017/6/25/pride-flags-bearing-star-david-barred-chicago-dyke-march" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">asked to leave the March</span></a><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"> because they were carrying rainbow flags with Stars of
David. According to one of the women, they were </span><span style="background: white; color: #02141f; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">shouted over, cursed at, interrogated, and ultimately forced
out by organizers. Later, March leaders issued a statement asserting that
the Chicago Dyke March was explicitly “anti-Zionist” and stated “Zionism is an
inherently white-supremacist ideology.”</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Banning people for
carrying a Star of David flag is not anti-Zionist. It is anti-semitic. These
women were not there as spokespeople for Israel. They were Jewish lesbians who
had attended the march for years, who were told that by expressing their
identity as Jews, they were promoting a white-supremacist ideology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN;">No matter what our
views on Israel and Palestine, we need to pay attention to this painful story. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When
we hear familiar anti-Semitic tropes, such as the claim that Jews are in
control, we need to be prepared to decry those attacks as vigorously as we
decry the alt-right. It is one thing to criticize a country, even Israel, if
you believe it is failing to live up to its human rights obligations. But as
Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah, The Rabbinic Voice for Human Rights, argues, “<span style="background: white;">if you think Israel is the cause of all of the world's
problems, that Zionists are pulling strings everywhere, you're in anti-Semitism
territory.” </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With anti-semitic rhetoric coming from the people we
thought were our allies as well as people we despise, we might indeed refuse the
gift, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wishing to be invisible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I want to share a story that illustrates this lose-lose
situation. It took place in a different time, in a small Tennessee town. I’ll tell
the story as recounted by the author years later, in 1968. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“As a result of state legislation, the local buses had
just been integrated. A city statute, however, sought to defy the state and
force Negroes to sit only in the rear of the buses. Testing segregation, a few
Negroes sat in the front of the bus and they were arrested. Someone put up the
required bail money and they were released.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“In the lobby of the whites-only hotel in that town,
this is what you could hear from more than one patron: ‘Don’t go to Cohen’s Department
Store. Cohen is the one who bailed them out.’ (Alas, Cohen was in the Bahamas
at the time and was not involved in any way.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That same day, however, you could walk across the
street to Cohen’s Department Store and this is what you would have seen: Negro
pickets parading in front of the store with signs reading: ‘Don’t patronize
Cohen’s Department Store! Cohen’s has a segregated lunch counter.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This story came from activist </span><a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1999-01-11/features/9901110125_1_guardian-angels-isaiah-jewish-establishment/2"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbi
Robert Marx</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. Founder of Chicago’s progressive Jewish Council
on Urban Affairs and a founding board member of Interfaith Worker Justice, Rabbi
Marx is still considered one of the most important leaders in strengthening
relations between the Jews and Blacks of Chicago for fifty years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Obviously, we would claim that the picketers in front
of Cohen’s store had adequate cause to protest, while the patrons in the hotel
had none. As Marx described it, the two perspectives on Cohen's Department Store
provide an example of how Jews can be depicted as the enemy of both parties to
a social conflict. In telling the story Rabbi Marx wanted to point to the
subtle ways in which the Jewish community plays both sides in a conflict. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The story comes from his 1968 essay</span><a href="https://40820.bbnc.bbcust.com/document.doc?id=1"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, “The People
in-between,”</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> where Rabbi Marx offered a compelling
analysis of the Jewish condition. Just as the story demonstrates, Jews have
been the target of attacks from all sides throughout history, all of whom see
Jews as Other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">He explains, “The Jewish community was truly
interstitial, truly located between the parts of the social structure of
western societies. Neither a part of the masses nor of the power structure,
Jews were uniquely positioned so that they fulfilled certain vital yet
dispensable functions. They discovered that they were totally dispensable in
the society in which they lived…. Interstitiality… may open a path to the gas
chamber or it may lead to prophetic heights that enable the Jewish people to
rise above parochialism or nationalism.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This vulnerable position of being somewhere in-between
the powerful and the powerless started with Joseph serving as Pharaoh’s viceroy
in Egypt, and continues even today. To join with the powerful can offer a
promise of protection, as Joseph was able to save his family from famine. But
when the powerful change, or simply change their minds, we are left more
vulnerable than before, subject to a king “who did not know Joseph.” That story
ended in the enslavement of Joseph’s descendants, only to be liberated by
another outsider, Moses, who was raised in the palace despite being a Hebrew. On
the other hand, to join with the powerless may appear to weaken us, but in the
end, such alliances strengthen all who are oppressed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just as the poet invites us to accept or refuse the
gift, in every age our ancestors have been forced to decide: Do we ally
ourselves with the powerful to gain protection for our people? Or do we ally
ourselves with the powerless so that together we become powerful?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Even though not all Jews are white, we have benefited
from white privilege in America, being lifted up the economic ladder while
people of color were kept down. Yet you and I know that we are not as powerful
as those who hate us believe. One of the characteristics of anti-semitism is the
belief that Jews have outsized power. As researcher and organizer Eric Ward has
said, “In oppression, identity is forced on you.” In his recent essay, </span><a href="http://www.politicalresearch.org/2017/06/29/skin-in-the-game-how-antisemitism-animates-white-nationalism/#sthash.Awv5Z7iB.AdmpAY34.dpbs"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Skin
in the Game: How Anti-Semitism Animates White Nationalism,”</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
Ward describes how White nationalists see Jews today. Having studied White
nationalism for almost three decades, Ward tells us, “White nationalists argue
that Whites are a biologically defined people and that, once the White
revolutionary spirit awakens, they will take down the federal government,
remove people of color, and build a state … of their own.” He asserts that
“antisemitism forms the theoretical core of White nationalism.” Surprisingly,
Eric Ward claims, to White nationalists Jews are not white.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ward tells us, “Jews function for today’s White
nationalists as they often have for anti-semites through the centuries: as the
demons stirring an otherwise changing and heterogeneous pot of lesser evils.” These
evils, he explains, include civil rights, gay rights, and women’s rights. In the
eyes of White nationalists, Jews are at the heart of a vast international
conspiracy, controlling “television, banking, entertainment, education, and
even Washington, D.C.” Furthermore, according to Ward, they believe that Jews
have brainwashed white people into giving up their own race consciousness by
supporting non-whites and other marginalized groups.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What has changed after Charlottesville is that white Jews
can no longer depend on our white privilege to protect us. While American Jews
have benefited from oppression of people of color, we are also the targets of oppression.
Understanding our place as the
in-between people, our fate depends on forming alliances with all targets of
oppression. Our oppression is linked inextricably to the oppression of people
of color in this country. And the marchers in Charlottesville made that link
explicit, along with the oppression of women, Muslims, and the LGBTQ community.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If we choose to deny that link, if we abandon our
common struggle for justice, then we are complicit in handing victory to those
who can only gain by dividing those they oppress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Terrifying as the story of the Dyke March is, the threat
of anti-semitism from individuals on the left cannot be compared to the dangers
of institutional anti-semitism. As Robert Marx says, “anti-semitism on the part
of a minority group is not nearly as dangerous as when a majority group seizes
upon it as a way of maintaining power. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To be a Jew in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, we must speak
out against anti-semitism in all its forms, whether from friend or foe. When we
makes claims on our allies, we help them recognize what we have come to
understand: that we all bound together in the struggle for justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To be a Jew in the 21<sup>st</sup> century is to be
given a gift. The gift, however, neither allows us to be invisible, nor does it
require that we close ranks, us against the world. The gift is to make a choice
that brings honor to the Jews and justice to the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We live in a world of complexity, where diversity does
not only exist on the outside, it lives within each of us. Our community is
comprised of Jews as well as their Christian and Muslim and Hindu and UU family
members. We are white and brown and black. We are individuals who hold many identities
inside one body. We are each a combination of privileges and oppressions,
victims and oppressors. Just as the Torah insisted that we advocate and care
for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, and the poor among us, today we must
continue to open our doors to those on the margins. Our response to oppression as
a Jewish community must likewise be complex and nuanced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And we need to remember that as frightening as it is,
anti-semitism in America does not have the force of racism, which is baked into
American history, pervading every aspect of society from education to housing
to criminal justice to jobs. Anti-semitism is not systemic in America. The
threats to Jews and Jewish institutions are the result of American terrorists,
not government policy. When we stand with our allies against oppression,
against intolerance, against hatred, it is not out of a shared sense of fear,
but a shared sense of justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This summer’s events could mark a turning point in uniting
those who stand against hate in all its forms. You may be aware that tomorrow, September
30<sup>th</sup>, the March for Racial Justice will take place in Washington DC.
When Jews first learned that the planned march coincided with Yom Kippur,
accusations of anti-semitism inundated social media. Fortunately, thoughtful
Jewish leaders including Rabbi Jill Jacobs of T’ruah decided to take a
different route. They reached out to the organizers to ask questions and to
share the concerns of the Jewish community, many of whom did not want to make a
choice between Yom Kippur and standing for Racial Justice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The March organizers explained that this date was
chosen for its symbolic meaning to the African-American community. It recalled
the Elaine Massacre on September 30, 1919, one of the deadliest racial attacks
our country has known. White mobs in rural Arkansas attacked and slaughtered over
200 black men and women, many of whom had recently returned from military
service in World War I. The date harkens back to events that eerily resemble
today’s racial animus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After hearing from Jewish leaders directly, the March
organizers spent some time considering how to respond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Three days after the Charlottesville
clashes, on August 15, the organizers of the March for Racial Justice issued a
lengthy public apology. I’d like to share some key sections from that apology,
because they demonstrate the power of dialogue, of relationships, and of
seeking to work together rather than standing apart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The statement reads: “The March for
Racial Justice is committed to standing for racial justice with allies from
across all races, ethnicities, and communities. We believe that none of us are
free until all of us are free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The organizers of the March for Racial
Justice did not realize that September 30 was Yom Kippur when we were factoring
… other considerations and applying for permits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Choosing this date, we now know, was a
grave and hurtful oversight on our part. It was unintentional and we are sorry
for this pain as well as for the time it has taken for us to respond. Our
mistake highlights the need for our communities to form stronger relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“…We have learned from our Jewish
friends that Yom Kippur is a day of making amends and of asking and receiving
forgiveness. We hope that our sincere apology will be received with compassion,
and that we will build a stronger relationship among all our communities as a
result….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; letter-spacing: .1pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We are marching in solidarity with our
Jewish brothers and sisters who are observing the holiest of days on the Jewish
calendar. Holding fast to Jewish tradition is also an act of resistance, in the
face of growing anti-Semitism.”<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The organizers taught us
an important lesson about <i>teshuva</i>,
worth sharing on this holy day, and worth responding to with compassion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">They also taught us another
lesson many of us had forgotten:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Holding fast to Jewish tradition is also an act of
resistance.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Which brings us back to Rabbi Akiba. Just as Rabbi
Akiba continued to teach and practice Judaism publicly knowing it meant a death
sentence, we can proudly hold fast to Jewish tradition as an act of resistance.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Praying together is an act of resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Taking time for Shabbat is an act of resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Becoming knowledgeable Jews is an act of resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Teaching our children is an act of resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Being authentic and true to our heritage is an act of
resistance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The main difference I see between Jews of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century and Jews of the 21<sup>st</sup>, is that today we know that we cannot
build our identity on fear of persecution. In a pluralistic society, we cannot build
our Jewish lives in isolation. And we also know that we cannot be invisible
allies. It is not enough to show up; how we show up matters. Proudly as Jews,
as a Jewish community, we hold fast to our values, to our teachings, and to our
practices. We do not trade away what is precious and timeless for what is
fleeting. When we form alliances, we bring our full selves, as people of Torah
and mitzvot, without shame or fear. And when we need to, we speak our truth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To be a Jew
in the twenty-first century is a gift. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">May we all
find the courage, the dedication, and the wisdom to accept that gift, even with
the torment that comes along with it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As the poet
wrote,<br />
The whole and fertile spirit as guarantee<br />
For every human freedom, suffering to be free,<br />
Daring to live for the impossible. <i>Ken yehi ratzon.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-33908383745767224332017-04-07T10:25:00.000-04:002017-04-07T10:25:31.123-04:00The Fierce Urgency of Now: MLK and Passover<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“… I
am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution,
we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.”</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="aqj"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Martin Luther King spoke
these words 50 years ago, on April 4, 1967 and they sound as if he were
commenting on America today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="aqj"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">One year from now, April
4, 2018</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">, will mark
the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's death. Thanks to the initiative of Rabbi
Arthur Waskow and </span><a href="https://theshalomcenter.org/"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The Shalom Center</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">, faith communities across the country will
be marking the coming year as an </span><a href="http://www.mlk50.org/"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">American Jubilee Year of Truth and
Transformation</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In his sermon at Riverside Church, <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,”</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Dr. King gave voice to a feeling we know today:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">“We are confronted with the fierce
urgency of now.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Driven by that sense of urgency, I spoke
this past Shabbat about Dr. King’s prophetic call 50 years ago, and how we must
answer it today. You can read my message below. Excerpts from Dr. King’s speech
can be found </span><a href="https://mlk50.org/writings/the-sermon/"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wishing you and yours <i>Chag
same’ach</i>—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A joyous holiday that brings us renewed courage and
strength,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbi
Barbara Penzner <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">* * *
* * * * *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This next year is critical for the survival of democracy,
for the survival of our world. We have already seen the dramatic destructive
tendencies of this administration and Congress. Executive orders. Congressional
repeal of basic protections of women, of immigrants, of our environment. We are
in for far worse. When that happens, we will be there for each other, a beloved
community, a <i>kehilla kedosha</i>, to
provide comfort, courage, and confidence in our cause. And together, we will
continue to resist. Because we believe in moral bottom lines over corporate
bottom lines. Because we believe in lives over profits. Because our Jewish
tradition began with the Exodus, a moral revolution of values, a slave revolt
against a self-aggrandizing tyrant. And because our Jewish tradition reminds us
at this time of year, and year-round, of that moral revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h4 style="background: white; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="None"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the spirit of
Martin Luther King, and in the spirit of Pesach, <o:p></o:p></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="None"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I offer three
simple ways to </span></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">bring that moral revolution into our present and shape a future that we
can all share in equally.<span class="None"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="None"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="None"><b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Speak up. Show up. Vote.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></h4>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="None"><b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Speak up.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> You don’t
need to be MLK to speak up. The first to speak up in the Exodus story was not
Moses. No one whose name we know. Not any one person. It was the cry of the
Israelites. The liberation did not begin with Moses, but with the cry of the
Hebrews themselves: <i>“They were groaning
under the bondage and cried out; and their cry for help from the bondage rose
up to God. God heard their moaning, and God took notice of them.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Jewish tradition understands these verses to mean that
until the people actually cry out, until they speak about their suffering,
until they come together to say “we won’t take it anymore,” nothing changes.
The midwives were ready to be leaders, Moses’ mother Yocheved and his sister Miriam
were ready, Pharaoh’s daughter was ready, and Moses himself was ready. But no
one could take the Israelites out of Egypt until the people were ready. <b>Each of us has a role to play in the task
of liberation; when we lift our voices together, we can crash through all
obstacles to justice.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How do you speak up? Write letters. Call elected
representatives. Urge family & friends in other states to write and call.
Use your own words, don’t just repeat catch-phrases. Look people in the eye.
Listen attentively and with curiosity. Connect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Show
up.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="None"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jewish tradition may involve talking,
discussing, asking questions. But in the end, it is through mitzvot, fulfilling
our obligations, doing, that we live our Judaism. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">"Rabbi
Tarfon and the Elders were once reclining in the upper story of Nitza’s house,
in Lod, when this question was posed to them: Which is greater, study or
action? Rabbi Tarfon answered, saying: Action is greater. Rabbi Akiva answered,
saying: Study is greater. All the rest agreed with Akiva that study is greater
than action because it leads to action."
</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Talmud)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Rabbis all agreed that Jews are called to action. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="None"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How do we begin every seder? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="None"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“This is the bread of poverty, which our ancestors ate in the
land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in need
come and celebrate Passover.</span></span><span class="None"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"><br />
</span></span><span class="None"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now we are here — next year in
the land of Israel.</span></span><span class="None"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"><br />
</span></span><span class="None"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now we are slaves. Next year
we will be free.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></h4>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There
are plenty of ways to show up, and they don’t always demand major sacrifices.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Yes
to rallies and protests. Yes to town meetings and organizing. And yes to taking
care of others’ children so the adults can go to actions. Yes to feeding people
who are hungry and inviting people to your seder. No to sitting in front of the
tv or the computer all day by yourself! <b>Do
one act of resistance every day, no matter how small.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4 style="background: white; margin-top: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Vote.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">We proclaim the central message
of Passover in the Haggadah: <i>“In every
generation, each individual must feel as if he or she personally had come out
of Egypt.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Every individual. Not men only. Not adults only. Everyone. It’s
about participation in the story. Not just telling it, but being part of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If you
believe in democracy, you need to participate.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
Voting is a combination of speaking up and showing up. Register voters. Help
with Get Out The Vote. Insist that your kids, your friends, your colleagues
votes. Not just every four years. Not just for president. Democracy is built on
down-ballot offices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Democracy can be dismantled when voters don’t pay attention
to those elections. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to </span><a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/306736-dems-hit-new-low-in-state-legislatures"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Hill</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">,
in the past eight years, Republicans have gained 1000 seats in state
legislatures, leading to a growth from “<span style="background: white; color: #2b2c30;">just under 44 percent in 2009 to 56 percent” after the 2016 election</span>.
State legislatures have used that power to gerrymander congressional districts,
entrenching incumbent House members with unbeatable majorities. If we care
about divided politics, the place to start is making House districts less
one-sided, and ensuring that members of Congress hear multiple opinions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Vote
in every election you can. Democracy depends on you.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Speak
up. Show up. And vote.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Martin Luther King prophetically calls to us from 50 years
ago:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">“We must
move past indecision to action. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged
down the long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who
possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without
sight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">“Now let
us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter—but
beautiful—struggle for a new world. The choice is ours, and though we might
prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-65124167782980659702017-03-10T15:39:00.001-05:002017-03-10T15:39:55.340-05:00 Standing up to Anti-Semitism/Standing up to Hate<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="s1">I can’t recall ever being afraid because I’m a Jew. Until last year,
Haman was a fictional anti-Semite. This year, he represents all those filled
with vicious and unprovoked hatred.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="s1">The </span><a href="http://www.splcenter.org/">Southern Poverty Law Center</a><span class="s1">, which has tracked domestic hate groups for decades, noted a dramatic
increase in all hate crimes immediately following the November elections. In
the first month, they verified over 1000 incidents of bias-related attacks. In
just the first five days after the election, they documented over 400 attacks.
Those attacks abated, but the threats have not disappeared. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="s1">Since Inauguration Day, over 100 JCCs and Jewish day schools have
received phoned-in bomb threats. Three Jewish cemeteries, in St. Louis, Philadelphia,
and Rochester, NY, have been the targets of massive vandalism and grave desecrations.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="s1">Locally, the Newton JCC has been threatened more than once. The
Solomon Schechter Day School in Newton and the local ADL office received bomb
threats this week. Across the country, young children from day care centers and
schools have been evacuated swiftly in a manner that undoubtedly causes them
mental distress.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="s1">Last Friday, a 31-year-old man was arrested in connection with threats
made to 10 Jewish and one Muslim institution. That only provides a measure of
relief, given the larger continuing threat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="s1">We remain grateful that these cowardly acts have not resulted in the
killing or harming of living Jews. We know that hatred in this country has led
to severe attacks on immigrants, Muslims, blacks, and the LGBT community, including
violence against individuals and the burning of mosques and black churches.
Nevertheless, all acts of vandalism are intended to inspire fear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="s1">Anyone who has seen a swastika spray-painted on a home or Jewish
building, stepped into a Jewish cemetery where loved one’s stones have been
toppled and desecrated, or seen bullet holes in a Jewish school, like the
synagogue building in Evansville, Indiana last week, can’t help but feel
threatened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span class="s1">We know that, as Rabbi Mark Sokoll of the Newton JCC has written, “<b>Hate against any one group is hate against
all</b>.” When we stand up as Jews against anti-semitism, we </span>demonstrate
our pride and conviction to those who wish to frighten us. We must also testify
to all victims of hate that these acts will not divide us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>It is up to us to be vigilant in our own
Jewish community. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="p1" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b>It is up to us to bravely come together as
never before. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Here in our
temple, our leadership is taking steps to increase our attention to security. <b>We want to make everyone feel safe without
creating an atmosphere of dread.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This week of
Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat before Purim when we recall both historic and
mythical enemies of the Jewish people, let us contemplate how we can stand up
to hatred for all people, and take pride in our community’s perpetual stamina,
faith, and courage in response.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rabbi
Barbara Penzner<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rabbi Mark Sokoll
offers these ways to show your support, and make your voice heard. Though he
emphasizes the threats against JCCs, we can apply any and all of these to other
Jewish institutions as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>1)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></b><!--[endif]--><b><u>SOCIAL
MEDIA<o:p></o:p></u></b></div>
<h3 style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Support the JCC on social media by using the #IStandWithTheJCC hashtag
with supportive posts across your channels. <o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Sample
posts: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Threats
against JCCs are threats against the entire community. #IStandWithTheJCC<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #1d2129;">We
stand beside JCC Greater Boston. Antisemitism and hate have no place in our
community.</span> #IStandWithTheJCC<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->There is
no room for hate in our community. #IStandWithTheJCC<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in; vertical-align: middle;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">CALL YOUR LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE<o:p></o:p></span></u></h3>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Calling
members of Congress is the most effective way to have your voice heard. Calls
are tallied by staffers and the count is given to your representatives,
informing them how strongly their constituents feel about a current issue. The
sooner you reach out, the more likely it is that your voice will influence
their position.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333;">To </span>find the phone number<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></span>of
your local congressman/congresswoman, please click <a href="https://callyourrep.co/">here</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<h3 style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal; mso-fareast-font-family: Times;">Sample </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">script
for the call to your U.S. Representative.<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Hi,
my name is [NAME] and I'm a constituent from [CITY or TOWN in Massachusetts].<br />
<br />
I’m calling to urge the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,
the U.S. Attorney General, and the Director of the FBI to take swift action to
address the bomb threats that have been telephoned in to Jewish Community
Centers and schools across the nation, and the rise of anti-Semitic incidents
in the last two months. We remind you that participants from all different
backgrounds come to JCCs and synagogues and other Jewish institutions for
activities, Jewish cultural and religious programming, and opportunities to
come together as a community.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
We
stand together against anti-Semitism and against all hate crimes. Thank you for
your hard work.<br />
[IF LEAVING A VOICEMAIL: please leave your full street address to ensure your
call is tallied]<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="whyitworks"></a><o:p></o:p></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-21243196980844212922017-01-12T17:24:00.002-05:002017-01-12T17:24:41.325-05:00Wisdom. Power. Wealth. Honor: A Primer for our Elected Officials <div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When the Massachusetts General Court (House) opened its 190<sup>th</sup>
biennial session on Beacon Hill on January 4 and the members of the House were
sworn in, I had the privilege to give a blessing to the chamber. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As the session came to a close I shared a teaching from
Pirke Avot, a 2000-year old Jewish text on ethical living. The passage that I
chose is a classic Jewish upending of our usual assumptions, and speaks to the
noble responsibility of those who hold elected office. Here is the teaching,
and my blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The ancient Rabbis ask four questions:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who is wise? Who is powerful? Who is rich? Who is honored? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And they answer the questions in surprising ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who is wise? One who learns from everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who is powerful? One who shows restraint over one’s
impulses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who is rich? One who is content with one’s portion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who is honored? One who honors others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We call on the Holy One, the Source of All, to bless these
officers of the Commonwealth, their families, the staff, and all those who work
in this building. Bless them all with your gifts of wisdom, power, wealth, and
honor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May these public servants gain wisdom by listening to
others, to the thoughtful voices of experts and to the quiet voices of the poor
and the needy, to advocates and plain citizens alike. May they gain wisdom from
those with whom they disagree as well as those who share their views. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May these public servants use their power, first and
foremost, to control their own worst impulses. May they be mindful to restrain
the impulse to use power coercively and corruptly, and always to give their
very best to the people of Massachusetts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May these public servants enjoy the wealth that comes from
knowing how blessed they are to serve. May they be satisfied with what they
have and dissatisfied with what the people lack.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May these public servants be honored for their integrity,
compassion, and commitment to justice and bring honor to their office, to this
House, and to our Commonwealth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-44603913203910906572016-12-29T15:40:00.002-05:002016-12-30T14:02:28.221-05:00The UN Insecurity Council <div style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The upshot of last week’s UN
Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements has caused a great deal of
insecurity in the American Jewish community. Too often, hurried statements from
Jewish organizations (fueled by the Israeli government) increase the heat when
what we need is light.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">FB posts and tweets in
response to events seem reckless, especially in comparison to the hour-long
oration by Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Listening to the entire speech
on Wednesday, I found Kerry’s rebuttal to the claims made by Israeli Prime
Minister Netanyahu and his followers in the US comprehensive and thoughtful.
Giving the background to the vote, as well as an historical perspective on the
all the previous Security Council resolutions and the US continued condemnation
of settlements, Kerry’s words were balanced, honest, and based in both Israeli
and American values. One headline in </span><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.761927?utm_content=%24sections%2F1.761927&utm_medium=email&utm_source=smartfocus&utm_campaign=%24segmentId&utm_term=20161229-15%3A12"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Haaretz</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> today even called his
remarks “superbly Zionist.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s time for the leadership of the
American Jewish community to pay attention</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> to the power imbalance, the economic disparities, and the
inequitable systems of justice applied to Palestinians on the West Bank. It’s
time for American Jews to meet Palestinians, to visit their villages, and to
see, in contrast, how well-developed bedroom communities for Israeli settlers
are choking off Palestinian life and establishing what currently looks like a
one-state solution. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This assessment does not
ignore the challenges from the Palestinian leadership. The Palestinian
Authority is considered corrupt by the average Palestinian. The PA has not
succeeded in stemming terror attacks on settlers. The peace process has stalled
for lack of leadership—on both sides.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yet, short of signing a peace
accord, the government of Israel could relieve much suffering. Instead, they
have stifled the Palestinian economy, limiting Palestinian control over their
own land, their own towns, and their own destinies. While Israelis build on
land that they do not legally own, and are protected by the Israeli army, Palestinians
are refused permits to build and their homes are demolished on a regular basis.
Israeli powers prevent Palestinian entrepreneurs from establishing businesses
that will create jobs. Roads that connect Israel and the West Bank, extending
well into Palestinian-controlled areas, ease travel in and out for Israelis
while Palestinians are stymied from traveling daily from home to work or school
(often in their own neighborhoods) by closures and checkpoints.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While respecting the concerns
of Israeli citizens and settlers for their safety, I find the current blind
responses extreme and short-sighted. Thankfully, groups that support the voices
of opposition within Israel, including </span><a href="http://www.ameinu.net/blog/current-issues/abstention-by-us-on-israeli-settlement-resolution-a-reasonable-response-ameinu-calls-on-israel-and-palestinians-to-act-to-promote-two-state-solution/"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ameinu</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, </span><a href="http://peacenow.org/entry.php?id=22060#.WGVELfkrI2w"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Americans for Peace Now</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
and </span><a href="http://jstreet.org/press-releases/kerry-speech-strong-expression-americas-commitment-two-state-solution-israeli-security/#.WGVFCfkrI2w"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">JStreet</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> have given American
Jews a different way of looking at the situation, a middle way that supports
the long-standing commitment to a 2-state solution while decrying tactics like
boycott, divestment, and sanctions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My personal position is most
aligned with T’ruah, whose </span><a href="http://truah.org/13-issuescampaigns/supportpeace/805-t-ruah-statement-on-un-security-council-resolution.html"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">statement</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
reflected what Kerry subsequently stated. The full text is also included below.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I offer a few other links to
thoughtful posts to help us all move past the rhetoric and come to a deeper
understanding of the Obama Administration’s decision to allow the Security
Council resolution to pass 14-0. These posts probe both sides of the argument
and raise interesting questions for us all to consider. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; margin-left: 0in;">
<br />
<a href="https://www.ipforum.org/2016/12/27/talking-points-unscr-2334/" target="_blank">Israel Policy Forum talking points on the UN Resolution</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small;">
<a href="http://www.matzavblog.com/2016/12/unsc-2334/" target="_blank"><br /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="font-size: small;">
<a href="http://www.matzavblog.com/2016/12/unsc-2334/" target="_blank">Israel Policy Forum analysis by Michael J. Koplow</a></div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-obama-administrations-final-warning-on-the-middle-east-peace-process" target="_blank"><br /></a></div>
<div style="font-size: small;">
<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-obama-administrations-final-warning-on-the-middle-east-peace-process" target="_blank">David Remnick in <i>The New Yorker</i></a>, "The Obama Administration's Final Warning on the Middle East Peace Process"</div>
<h1 class="title" itemprop="headline" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Irvin Heading", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.05rem; line-height: 1.1; margin: 5px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: geometricPrecision; text-transform: uppercase;">
<br /></h1>
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">T'ruah Statement on UNSC Resolution</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" dir="RTL" style="background: white; direction: rtl; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in; text-align: right; unicode-bidi: embed;">
<span lang="HE" style="color: #1f3e51; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.0pt;">תניא, רבי אומר: איזו היא דרך ישרה שיבור לו
האדם - יאהב את התוכחות, שכל זמן שתוכחות בעולם - נחת רוח באה לעולם, טובה וברכה
באין לעולם,ורעה מסתלקת מן העולם</span><span dir="LTR" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="color: #1f3e51; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said, “What is the correct
path that a person should choose? Love <i>tokhecha </i>(rebuke/correction), for
as long as there is rebuke in the world, comfort comes to the world, good and
blessing come to the world, and evil departs from the world.”—Talmud <i>Tamid</i>
28a</span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="color: #1f3e51; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Over the past few days, we have heard
significant pain and anger from the Jewish community and from the State of
Israel regarding the recent UN Security Council Resolution and the decision by
the United States to abstain, thus permitting it to move forward. It is true
that the UN has a history of paying disproportionate attention to Israel. In
the past, T’ruah has spoken up against problematic resolutions, including the
UNESCO resolution this fall that ignored the Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem
and to our holiest sites there. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="color: #1f3e51; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In this case, however,
the <i>tokhecha</i> contained within this resolution simply reflects decades of
U.S. and international policy that affirms the goal of </span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“two
democratic States, Israel and Palestine, liv[ing] side by side in peace within
secure and recognized borders,” </span><span style="color: #1f3e51; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">and decries settlements as an obstacle to
achieving this vision. We encourage those concerned about this resolution to
read it in full before responding.</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">T’ruah has long advocated for an end to
occupation, which violates the human rights of Palestinians while threatening
the safety and security of Israelis. The expansion of settlements involves land
theft, as well as the blocking of access to land and of freedom of movement for
Palestinians. Within Area C of the West Bank, where the settlements sit,
Palestinians and Israeli citizens living side-by-side are governed by two
different systems of law, in contradiction of international law and of the
biblical principle, “You shall have one law for citizens and strangers alike.”
(Leviticus 24:22) </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The settlements and the entrenched occupation
also threaten the well-being of Israelis, including those soldiers who risk
their lives to defend an ill-fated policy; the Israelis who see their tax
dollars diverted from needed health, education, and welfare programs in order
to allocate disproportionate funding to those living in settlements; and
Israelis and Jews around the world who face increasing isolation as a result of
the policy of occupation. No less a figure than Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled that
the return of territory may be permitted--or even obligatory—for the sake of <i>pikuach
nefesh—</i>saving life. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite accusations that
the resolution is one-sided, we welcome the call to the Palestinian Authority
for “confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantling terrorist
capabilities, including the confiscation of illegal weapons” and the
condemnation of “all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of
terror, as well as all acts of provocation, incitement, and destruction.”
T’ruah has always condemned terrorism and rejected any claims that political
aims justify violence against civilians. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
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<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The capture of East Jerusalem during the Six-Day
War restored Jewish sovereignty over our holiest sites for the first time in
modern history. We pray and work for a two-state solution that will preserve
Jewish access to these sacred sites. However, the continued policy of
demolition of Palestinian homes; the lack of permits for Palestinians to
build in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods where they live; the expansion of
settlements in these neighborhoods, often by shady legal tactics; and the
failure to provide basic city services to East Jerusalem Palestinians living on
the wrong side of the wall that cuts through the “eternal undivided capital of
the Jewish people” simultaneously violate human rights, fly in the face of
Jewish law and values, provoke anger among the Palestinian population, and make
the goal of peace harder to achieve. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The rhetoric on the part of the Israeli
government and some segments of the Jewish community that caricatures the UNSC
resolution as an erasure of Jewish history or as a rejection of our connection
to Jerusalem only blurs the distinction between Israel and the occupied
territories, and reinforces the perception that standing up for Israel requires
defending occupation. In fact, we should celebrate the resolution’s distinction
between Israel within the Green Line and the occupied territories, and
its rejection of the one-state solution increasingly called for by many in the
BDS movement. Standing up for the future of Israel and for the safety of
Israelis and Jews around the world requires distinguishing between our
commitment to Israel and the current policy of occupation, and working toward a
two-state solution.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We affirm the call by
the UNSC resolution for “</span><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">all parties to continue, in the interest of the
promotion of peace and security, to exert collective efforts to launch credible
negotiations on all final status issues.” The expansion of settlements,
including so-called “natural growth” changes the facts on the ground before
territory can be negotiated. Even the areas that, according to most maps, will
end up in Israel must be negotiated as part of a final status agreement. We
also affirm the call to Palestinians to end the terrorism and incitement that
frightens Israelis from taking bold steps toward peace, as well as rejecting
“Price Tag” attacks and other violence and incitement on the part of Jews. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
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<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Much of the Israeli and
Jewish communal response to the UNSC resolution, as well as to all <i>tokhecha </i>regarding
settlement growth, has emphasized the failure of Palestinians to accept past
agreements, or focused on terror as the primary obstacle to peace. While there
is certainly reason to find fault with both sides—as the UNSC resolution
does—Zionism, ultimately, is about taking our future in our own hands, rather
than waiting for someone else to determine our future. This means both
accepting responsibility for the misguided and dangerous policy of settlement
expansion, and taking it upon ourselves to do what is necessary to bring about
peace.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 12pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">In permitting the hotly
contested peace agreement with Egypt, including relinquishing land captured in
war, Rabbi Chaim David Halevy wrote:</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We have great doubts regarding this peace agreement. That is
to say—it’s possible that it will be temporary until the Arab world gathers the
strength necessary for another round.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">But
it’s also necessary to remember that it’s possible that it will continue for a
long time. . .Therefore, it is incumbent on us, without considering their
ultimate intentions, to cultivate this peace, and to do whatever is in our
power that it should develop and set down roots, out of hope and faith that
time will heal all wounds, and that a new generation will rise that has not
personally suffered the defeat of war and the humiliation that follows. (<i>Aseh
L’kha Rav </i>4:1)</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; font-size: small; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0in;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The obligation to pursue peace weighs especially heavily as
we approach the momentous fiftieth anniversary of the Six Day War. Just as the
biblical <i>yovel </i>year—the fiftieth year of the agricultural cycle—brought
liberation and a fresh start, we commit to using this moment to move forward toward
peace, a two-state solution, an end to occupation, and a better future for both
Israelis and Palestinians.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-74168270570703851372016-12-22T16:23:00.000-05:002016-12-22T18:02:43.235-05:00How to Increase the Light<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Why do Hanukkah and Christmas
come on the same day this year?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hanukkah falls on Kislev 25,
just as it does every year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This year, incidentally, the Hebrew
month of Kislev coincides with the month of December.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And that’s how we end up
lighting the first candle on Erev Christmas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m thinking about how best to
light up Hanukkah in eight different ways. </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDaL8KaTg1U"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> “We have come to banish the darkness”</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> is a contemporary Israeli Hanukkah song that speaks to the
darkness many of us may be feeling (whether due to personal issues or anxiety
about our country and the world). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Here are suggestions for
bringing more light into the world for every night of Hanukkah. Read them all
now so that you’re ready to welcome the lights of Hanukkah next week!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Night 1 (Saturday night, December 24)—lighting up the world
for 65 million refugees<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When you say the blessings for
the first night and say the <i>shehecheyanu</i>
to give thanks for being alive to celebrate this holiday, add </span><a href="http://www.hias.org/sites/default/files/hias-hanukkah-rea"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">this prayer</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
from HIAS for the world’s refugees. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Night 2 (Sunday night, December 25)—lighting up our intergenerational
community</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.calendarwiz.com/calendars/popup.php?op=view&id=100664545&crd=templehbt"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Second Night Light</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> promises
to bring light to HBT members and friends of all ages with fun, joy, family,
and friendship. Come spin the dreidl with our youngest members and hear stories
of Hanukkahs past. Discover the magic of the HBT community. Bring your own
hanukkiyah (Hanukkah menorah) to light up the social hall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Night 3 (Monday night, December 26)—lighting up with an
inspiring book/video<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Snuggle up and enjoy Ezra Jack
Keats’ <u>The Snowy Day</u>. Did you know that Keats was Jewish? Read the
classic book that changed children’s literature in 1962,celebrate the </span><a href="http://www.jta.org/2016/12/14/arts-entertainment/jewish-author-ezra-jack-keats-honored-in-new-childrens-book"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">author’s 100<sup>th</sup> birthday</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">,</span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">and watch the streamed </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M4OE1MU"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">animated
special</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> with a Hanukkah twist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Night 4 (Tuesday night, December 27)—lighting up with Guilt-Free
Gelt<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No, it’s not calorie-free. T’ruah
offers </span><a href="http://shop.divinechocolateusa.com/Fair-Trade-Judaica/c/DivineChocolate@FairTradeJudaica"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">fair-trade Hanukkah gelt</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
(in milk and dark chocolate). Read this</span><a href="http://fairtradejudaica.org/make-a-difference/fair-trade-jewish-holidays/fair-trade-your-chanukah/kavanah-intention-before-eating-fair-trade-chanukah-gelt/"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> kavvanah</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> and
enjoy your chocolate while lighting up your conscience!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Night 5 (Wednesday night, December 28)—lighting up our own
spirits<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Maybe you can’t escape those
feelings of fear, anxiety, and loss. Maybe candles aren’t enough. RitualWell
offers prayers and rituals to </span><a href="http://ritualwell.org/healing-hard-times"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">find
healing in hard times</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. Have you ever visited
a</span><a href="http://ritualwell.org/ritual/what-mikveh-introduction-jewish-ritual-bath"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> mikveh</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">? If you haven’t
watched it, see the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shA70i74Yvo"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Mayyim Hayyim video</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
that features HBT, Rabbi Penzner, and member Forbes Graham. Or watch it again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Night 6 (Thursday night, December 29)—lighting up the
baseball diamond<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Spring training is just eight
weeks away!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Get a taste of spring by
celebrating baseball—Jewish style. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Remember, relive, or become
acquainted with </span><a href="http://thejewniverse.com/2016/how-hank-greenberg-desegregated-baseball/?+Newsletter&utm_term=0_b48fb1c44e-2822449505-27144309"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hank Greenberg</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">.
Not only was he the first famous Jewish player in the major leagues, but he had
a social conscience, too. Watch the film, </span><a href="http://hankgreenbergfilm.org/"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“The Life and Times of
Hank Greenberg”</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (a terrific present
for Hanukkah fans and baseball fans alike!)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Night 7 (Shabbat, December 30)—lighting up the spirits of
people who are alone<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This </span><a href="http://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2016/12/05/hanukkah-at-the-bedside/"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">short essay</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> in
Hadassah magazine can inspire you to be with someone who might be alone right
now. Invite them for Shabbat and candlelighting, or bring Shabbat and Hanukkah
to them. Cherish the moment. (Full disclosure: a FB friend drew my attention to
this article because the author quotes me in it. Besides that, it’s a very
moving piece.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Night 8 (Saturday night, December 31)—lighting up the New
Year with rededication<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That’s what Hanukkah means,
after all. How will you pick yourself up after 2016 and bring your light into
the world? Start off 2017 with resolve to recommit yourself to live the values
you espouse. Will you add an hour or two each week or each month to write
letters, volunteer, show up at a rally? Will you add a little more to your
donations to the organizations you believe in most? Will you add an act of
kindness every day? Will you come to HBT one more time each month to support
and sustain our community and nurture your soul? Make a list and put it
somewhere where you will see it every day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hag urim sameyach! Happy Hanukkah!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-68829308505439603982016-12-19T20:10:00.000-05:002016-12-19T22:04:58.240-05:00"We pledge to be stronger together" - My prayer at the meeting of the Massachusetts Presidential Electors<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today I attended the ceremony where the Massachusetts Electors for President of the United States met at the State House to cast their votes for President. All 11 of the Massachusetts electoral votes went for Hillary Clinton. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The presiding state Secretary of State received thunderous applause when he reflected back on Massachusetts' role in the 1972 election of Richard Nixon: "I'll conclude by reminding you that 44 years ago this day, at this proceeding, Massachusetts stood alone as the only state not voting for the constitutional winner of that election. Less than two years later, he was no longer president." </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was honored to be chosen, along with a Catholic Priest and Muslim Imam, to deliver an invocation before the balloting. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Watch</span><span style="color: #212121; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">:</span></span><br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/i4d8FaF9bWo/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i4d8FaF9bWo?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This was my prayer (slightly edited):</span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We pause in this moment to give thanks to the Holy One, the Source of All, who brings us to this historic moment to witness the fulfillment of the historic duty of these electors, representing the diversity of our people and the
values that are representative of this Commonwealth. We give
thanks to the Holy One for the good that has come from the historic administration of the first
African-American president of these United States. And we give thanks for the
goodwill that resides in the American people, we give thanks for these leaders, and for all who are
committed to the highest ideals of this democratic republic, we give thanks for those who believe in the ideal of
public service and good governance, and for the ideal of working together for
the common good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the Jewish tradition,
we mark the ending of a sacred book by standing together and
proclaiming, in Hebrew <i>chazak, chazak,
venitchazek</i>, meaning “be strong, be strong, and we all will become stronger." As we close the book on one era and prepare to open another, we speak to one
another as a sacred community and say, “I will be strong, you will be
strong, and together, we will be stronger."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">We pledge today to be stronger
together to resist the forces that seek to divide us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We pledge </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">today</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 21.3333px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%;">to be stronger
together to support one another when </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16pt;">faced with bigotry and
hatred.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We pledge </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 21.3333px;">today</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 21.3333px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">to be stronger
together to preserve our planet’s life and health.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We pledge to be stronger
together to defend the Constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We pledge to be stronger
together to protect human rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We pledge to be stronger together
to sustain our democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Chazak, chazak, venitchazek</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. Holy One, Source of All, give us all the strength to
stand together through adversity and challenge as we have stood together
through prosperity and progress. Stand with us, Holy One, and make us stronger
as we face the days ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-80010339613100282802016-10-13T19:17:00.004-04:002016-10-13T19:17:50.905-04:00BREAKING DOWN WALLS WITH LOVE <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Walls
are going up everywhere. Great Britain wants to create a virtual wall from Europe,
and European nations want to erect walls to keep out immigrants. Not to mention
the wall that Mexico is going to fund to keep immigrants out of the US.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There
are other walls inside our country. We are walled off from people who are
different from us. In detention centers, walls separate families. Those in
prison are surrounded by walls. These walls divide prisoners and their loved
ones. In solitary, walls divide one human being from the entire world of
experience, human connection, human touch, life. These are walls that sap the
strength and deaden the lives of human beings. Human beings who need to be tended
and mended are buried alive behind walls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We
could take hammers to smash the walls that divide us. That might feel good in
the moment. But violence doesn’t bring walls down. Violence only helps erect
new ones. How we take down the walls is related to how we make peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Making
peace is hard. Shimon Peres, after a lifetime of leadership, making mistakes
and ultimately committing himself to peace, said in an interview not long before
he died, <b><br />
<span style="background: white;">“Whoever you try to negotiate with is not a
partner. You start from animosity, not from peace. The purpose of negotiation
is to convert somebody who is not a partner to somebody who will be a partner,”
<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Making
peace is hard. I did not come back from Israel with a grand vision for peace. I
came back from this trip, my 20<sup>th</sup> time in Israel, with a shift in my
thinking about Israel, Palestine and peace, and how to break down the walls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In
two and a half weeks, I visited my favorite people and places and was reminded
of all that I love about Israel. And my eyes saw and ears heard the disturbing
aspects of life in Israel and in Palestine. I felt love and joy, distress and
discomfort, kindness and generosity, fear and anger. And heartbreak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For
nine days, Brian I joined Rabbi Toba Spitzer, members of Congregation Dorshei
Tzedek, and a few HBT members for an unusual tour run by MEJDI. This company
specializes in “dual narrative tours.” We had two guides, an Israeli woman
named Morgie and a Palestinian man named Nabil, whose personal stories became
part of our itinerary. We stayed in hotels in Tel Aviv, Nazareth, and East
Jerusalem and visited sites in Israel as well as the West Bank. Wherever we
went, we heard different narratives from our two guides, and we met Jews and
Palestinians doing work for coexistence in Israel and in Palestine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[I
hope you will each consider signing up for an HBT dual narrative tour that I
hope to lead in February 2018, 1 ½ years from now.] I believe that every Jew,
whether a supporter of Israel or a critic, should go on a tour that tells the
Palestinian narrative as well as the Jewish one. In between the hard
conversations on this trip, we also got to know the pleasures of Israel in its
fullness, from welcoming Shabbat in Tel Aviv at the port, to eating shakshuka
in a crowded restaurant in Yaffo, to visiting olive groves and eating honey
from the comb in the Galilee, to wandering through the Arab shuk in Akko, in
Nazareth, and in Jerusalem. It was the best tour I’ve ever taken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After
only one day of touring together, our group gathered to share first
impressions. Over and over, people shared this observation: the situation is
complicated. That summed up every day afterward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In
my time in Israel, there was almost no one that I agreed with wholeheartedly. Not
even my closest friends. And that’s ok. That’s the nature of being human. We are
all puzzle pieces, and they don’t always fit together to make a coherent
picture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Instead
of finding agreement, my purpose was to listen to everyone with an open heart. What
I want to share on this Yom Kippur night are those places where I found open
hearts that left me with reason to hope. Not a messianic hope. Not a Niagara Falls
of hope, but the drip drip drip of small acts of everyday people that over
time, wears down mountains. The unending stream of small hopes that lead us,
someday, to a river of peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I
have chosen this path to help us bridge our divides, to move us away from the paralysis
and fear of expressing our opinions, and to give us direction as a congregation.
I want to adapt the mission of Kids4Peace: <b>“to
change the conversation, to bring new questions,
and new answers to the struggle for peace, ones that are based in
real relationships of trust and understanding.”</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let
me share three places that we visited on the tour that filled us with hope:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sindyanna olive cooperative in the
lower Galilee.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The
three-fold mission of this cooperative run by Arab and Jewish women:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->providing fair wages to agricultural workers<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->improving the agricultural sector of the Israeli
Arab community<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->women’s empowerment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Our
group walked in the olive groves and saw how Sindyanna’s trees flourished, went
to the visitor’s center in Kafr Kanna, where we bought olive oil products (also
available at Whole Foods!). We ate a delicious lunch prepared by the women of
the cooperative, watched a video about Sindyanna’s empowerment program teaching
women to weave baskets, and met the women from local villages whose lives had
been changed. By the end we had a full experience of the success of Sindyanna
and its hopeful vision. Jews and Arabs working together to improve the economic
life for everyone in the region, creating new friendships in the process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Roots. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some
of us had already heard the founder, Ali Abu Awad, tell his story in the Boston
area over the past two years. Ali is one of my heroes. His personal story is
one of growing up in the West Bank in a home dedicated to the PLO. He served
time in an Israeli prison for throwing rocks, then read Gandhi and Malcolm X
and a host of other books while in prison. After Ali’s brother Yousef was
killed by Israeli soldiers, Ali made non-violence his life mission. At his family
home located in the midst of the Jewish settlements of Gush Etzion, just south
of Jerusalem, Ali brings people together who otherwise don’t speak to one
another. Ali has cultivated a number of settlers and rabbis who share in his
vision. As Ali put it, <b>“There is no
peace without truth. Not one truth, but the two truths.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">While
we sat in the shaded hut drinking Turkish coffee, we heard from a settler named
Shaul Judelman and then Ali spoke. They each told their personal story, their
pain and struggles, their connection to the land and why each believed they had
a right to live there. They spoke without apologies or defensiveness and
listened to each other with respect and friendship.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ali
asked: “What is justice? The only justice is to bring back my brother Yousef to
his kids. Short of this there is no justice. Revenge appears to be justice. Reconciliation
is the best revenge. Suddenly the devil has a face and he’s not a devil, he’s
just like you and he has paid the same price as you. We have both lost but our
life conditions are not the same. The best weapon that I never use is inside
me. My humanity.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yakir Englander</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> is
another one of my heroes. He too comes with a complicated personal story. Yakir
grew up in an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic family in B’nai B’rak, and left at age 22 to
see the wider world. First he served in the army. His job was to collect the
human remains after terrorist attacks. He went on to get his PhD, no small feat
for someone who had never had secular studies. Now he is fully committed to
peace-making. For several years he was director of Kids4 Peace in Israel,
bringing together Jewish, Muslim and Christian teenagers. (You will have the
chance to hear him in November.) Here is Yakir’s vision:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I don’t believe in peace. I believe
in making peace. <i>Oseh shalom</i> is in
the present. It’s not a future goal, it’s what you do.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Knowing
how hard this is, Yakir believes that peace making requires hearing the other’s
pain. Like Ali, Yakir will meet with anyone. <span style="background: white;">Yakir
brought with him </span>a young Jewish Israeli named Oren who has been active
in Yakir’s newest program, Dialogue to Action. This group<span style="background: white;"> brings together everyday residents from both the
Jewish and Palestinian communities of Jerusalem to meet one another and work
together in concrete ways for change. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oren
described how he was afraid to attend a meeting of Dialogue to Action because
it took place in East Jerusalem. But then, he told us, <b>“I shattered a wall and went to East Jerusalem.”</b> While having a conversation
about peace-making with a Palestinian on the roof of a house, he got an idea.
Let’s start right here. So they worked together to clean up the roof. They
painted a mural on the wall. For Oren, this was a success: <b>“small enough to work and big enough to do something.”</b> Now he is a
leader, building a network of peace-makers across Jerusalem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These
three hopeful examples (Sindyanna, Roots, and Dialogue to Action) are but a few
of the many grassroots efforts that we rarely hear about, programs that bring Jews
and Palestinians together, among them the Abraham Fund, Sikui, Hand in Hand
Schools, Givat Haviva, Galilee Foundation for Value Education among many other
groups, most of them with supported from the New Israel Fund. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oren
said he “shattered a wall” to go to East Jerusalem. Where was that wall? It
wasn’t a concrete barrier. It was an internal wall, a wall that divided Oren
from himself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
hardest wall to break down is the wall around our hearts. These walls defend us
from change, from our fears, from becoming vulnerable. But the walls that
protect us can harden and choke us off from love. That is the wall that Oren
shattered. And that was the wall I learned to shatter. This was the most
instructive lesson of my time in Israel, because breaking down the wall around
our hearts is something we can all do, we all need to do, to make peace here at
home. The story of breaking down the walls of my heart is the story I want to
tell you tonight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One
of the reasons I planned this trip to Israel this summer was because my niece,
Moriyah, invited me to her bat mitzvah. She even changed the date of the party
to suit my schedule. Of my four siblings, I was the only one who would be at
the celebration. The only problem was a big one: the party was going to take
place in the West Bank.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
My sister Devra has lived on the West Bank for over twenty years, but recently,
she and her family had moved from Ma'aleh Adumim, a bedroom community close to
Jerusalem where Brian and I had visited numerous times. Now she lives on a
small religious yishuv (settlement) outside of Hebron. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Devra
and I have had an agreement for years not to discuss Israeli politics. We’ve
found a way to discuss our Jewish religious differences with respect and mutual
interest, but since the Gaza withdrawal in 2005, we've avoided anything
political. We enjoy getting together when I’m in Jerusalem, but I stood my
ground against going to a remote settlement, because I have opposed Israeli
settlement policy for most of my adult life. That has always created some
distance between us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As
plans for the bat mitzvah changed, the venue shifted from Jerusalem to Maaleh
Adumim, to Kiryat Arba and eventually to Ma’ale Hever, the yishuv itself. After
much soul-searching, I finally agreed to go. After all, Devra and her family
have come to the States for all of our family simchas. She and I both knew it
would be hard, and we both ended up being grateful for the other’s kindness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
yishuv, Ma’ale Hever, is a 45-minute drive south of Jerusalem, past Bethlehem
and Kiryat Arba. I was nervous about going there. My sister rented an armored
bus, used primarily by settlers to protect them from possible attacks. As I
boarded, many of the other guests greeted me warmly. Looking around, I realized
that all the women covered their hair, all the men wore large knitted kippot,
and every person on that bus lived on a settlement of some kind. I was totally
among strangers, and amid people with whom I disagreed about religion and
politics. I was about to enter a world that I really didn’t know, and up until
that day, didn’t care to know. The day turned out to be filled with surprises.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One
of the first surprising things I learned was that several guests had chosen not
to come, because they were afraid to travel there too. A few days before, a
Palestinian from the area around Hebron had entered a home in a settlement and
murdered a thirteen-year-old girl in her bedroom. The entire country was in
mourning over this brutal and unprovoked attack. It was understandable that
others were afraid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When
we arrived safely at the party, my five nieces and nephews embraced me with
joy. I danced with the girls and women behind a partition. I watched my sister
sing and dance with the same wild abandon that I’ve felt at a Springsteen or
Grateful Dead concert. Though I’m not a fan of segregated dancing, I was again
surprised to see how these 12-year old girls were having so much fun, playing
games, dancing with their friends. They were dressed in pretty party dresses,
not slinky black evening wear like bat mitzvah parties I’ve seen here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I
bounced back and forth between enjoying being at the simcha with my family, and
feeling alienated by things I heard. “Next
is the wedding!” they shouted to the twelve-year-old. In her dvar Torah,
Moriyah spoke of the imperative to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. And as we
stood on my sister’s patio looking out at the desert, my brother-in-law proudly
showed me where Abraham walked in his neighborhood, proving his right of
ownership. (But I held my tongue.) On the other hand, I was deeply moved by my
family’s closeness and the way they adored their younger sister (singing a song
they wrote for her, with one of her brothers accompanying the family on the
guitar), and by the genuine hospitality and mutual support of their guests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I
discovered the human side of the people I had only known, and opposed, as “settlers.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To
balance this experience, I had decided beforehand that I would need to do an
act of <i>tikkun</i>, healing, to reclaim my
principled opposition, after the bat mitzvah party. As it happened, the very
next day T’ruah, the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, was offering a day trip for
rabbis. The trip was sponsored by Breaking the Silence, a controversial
organization of former soldiers who document the injustices that they witnessed
and participated in while serving in the West Bank. It was eerie, heading in
another bus—this one without armor—down the same road into the South Hebron
Hills, passing the same settlements and hearing a different narrative. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We
stood on land in the village of Susya that belonged to Palestinians, where the
army had demolished homes and clogged up the wells. We heard about the
different justice systems for settlers and Palestinians. Palestinians are under
military rule; Israeli citizens are subject to Israeli civil law. When settlers
complain about Palestinian attacks, 98% of Palestinian suspects are convicted.
When Palestinians complain that settlers are killing their flocks, burning
their olive trees, and harassing children walking to school, every day, they
have to call the Israeli civil administration, which is a half hour to an hour
away. 90% of complaints against settlers are never brought to court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These
were very difficult to see and to hear, as I’m sure they are for you as well. The
message of the tour was that the Israeli government is working to make life so
miserable for the Palestinians that they would rather leave than stay. At the
same time, I had noticed that the Israeli settlers seemed so at home, driving
easily from Jerusalem into the territories. It was as if the West Bank was
already part of Israel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Your
head may be spinning from these dramatically different stories. Believe me, so
was mine. I was confused for days, alternating between anger and despair. I saw
no hope for the end of the occupation. No hope for peace. My heart was broken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That
all changed in the coming days. Eating lunch with the people of Sindyanna,
sitting in a kind of sukkah with Ali and Shaul, and hearing Yakir’s story on
Shabbat morning in the dining hall of an East Jerusalem hotel—all woke me up
from my paralysis and pointed me in a new direction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hearing
their stories gave me the courage to take what I had learned into my own life. My
heart was broken open and I decided to take a risk. I had to open up to my
sister.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Back
in 1997, President Bill Clinton inaugurated his Initiative on Race, saying:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I believe talking is better than
fighting. And I believe when people don’t talk and communicate and understand,
their fears, their ignorance and their problems are more likely to fester.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That
became clear to me when I arranged to meet Devra and her husband when we
returned to Jerusalem. Over falafel and
pita in an outdoor cafe, we talked about things that matter to us, things we’ve
never discussed. Through an indirect route, we ended up talking about dialogue
between settlers and Palestinians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It
was a very difficult conversation, and yet we were both grateful for it
afterward. I learned things that I had never really known about them. Things
that surprised me. It didn't change my political views, but it did create an
opening for us to speak more openly, to understand what we share as well as how
we are different. Since my return home, we have used email to ask each other probing
questions and share some of our heroes, like Yakir and Ali. I am hopeful for
this to continue, not knowing exactly where it will lead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Professor
Harlon L. Dalton, professor of law and expert in critical race theory, once
wrote,<b> “When we are open and honest with
each other; when we abandon our hiding places, take risks, and own up to our
own self-interest, when we place on the table our assumptions, fears,
trepidations, and secret desires, <i>by that
very act</i> we are connecting with one another as equals.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about
Israel and Palestine, or race, or any other issue. When we can see each other
with the heart, knowing our joys and sorrows, we have the power to bring
holiness to our world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Parker
Palmer put it this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“imagine the heart broken open into
new capacity—a process that is not without pain but one that many of us would
welcome. As I stand in the tragic gap between reality and possibility, this
small, tight fist of a thing called my heart can break open into greater
capacity to hold more of my own and the world’s suffering and joy, despair and
hope.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Walls
are held together by fear. When we bring love to others who are fearful, when
we listen to their pain without turning away, we can chip away at the fear and
destabilize the wall. When we break down the walls of our own hearts, we open
up the possibility for reconciliation, whether with a sister or brother, a
parent or a child, a friend or even an acquaintance. It's those small acts of
opening the heart that drill holes in the walls that will, slowly yet surely,
break them down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To
arrive at a place of understanding, of holding both/and, suffering and joy,
despair and hope. That is the work of <i>tikkun
olam</i>, repairing our world. That is where I believe God dwells. That is
where we begin to work for peace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ken yehi ratzon.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbi
Barbara Penzner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Kol
Nidre 5777<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Temple
Hillel B’nai Torah<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-79144962245805079172016-10-04T18:10:00.003-04:002016-10-06T10:26:05.149-04:00A Moral Revolution for Change: Seven things we can learn about Teshuva (Repentance) from the Election, and vice versa<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">A story from an earlier time. Imagine a Norman
Rockwell painting:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A young boy walks into a drugstore to use the pay phone.
He dials a number and asks to speak to Dr. Bergson. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Hello, Dr. Bergson, would you like to hire someone to
cut the grass and run errands for you? Oh you already have someone? Are you
satisfied with him? You are? Ok. Thank you. Good bye.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As he is about to leave, the proprietor of the drug
store stops him and says, “Listen, if you’re looking for a job, you can work
for me.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Thank you,” the boy replies, “but I already have a
job.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The proprietor, confused, asks, “but didn’t I hear you
ask Dr. Bergson if he needed someone to work for him?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Well, not exactly,” answers the boy, “you see, I’m the one who works for
Dr. Bergson and I was just checking up on myself.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is a time for us as individuals to be checking up
on ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s also a time for our nation to check up on
ourselves. How are we doing? Are we satisfied?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I imagine most of us would answer that in this
election season we are far from satisfied. This election is dramatically
different from any other election in my lifetime. In most American elections,
what is at stake are two differing views of how to resolve our country’s
problems. But in this election, what is at stake are two differing views of
reality. In most elections, we are asked to consider issues and compare plans.
But in this election, we have been bombarded by a populist wave of white
supremacy, xenophobia, scapegoating, and misogyny. In most elections, we are participating
in a process that enables democracy to thrive. But in this election, we are spectators
to disdain for the rule of law and dismissal of the principles of the Constitution,
and to what amounts to a willful disregard of the ideals of democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The next question is what do we do about it? <br />
What would the young caller do if he heard his employer Dr. Bergson wasn’t
satisfied with him? Would he attack Dr. Bergson for being unfair? Would he give
up and move to Canada? Would he quit and work for the proprietor of the drug
store instead? Or would he find out what needed to be done to restore his
reputation, to become the best employee he could be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That is our task: to become the best human we possibly
can be. In these ten days, we must determine to set right where we have fallen
short. And in these five weeks until the Election, our task is to become the
best country we possibly can be. From now until November 8, we must work to restore
the moral values that have made America great. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today we celebrate the Creation of the universe. The
midrash (Pesachim 54a) teaches that when the earth was created, it had no
foundation. It was unsteady, unstable. And so God created <i>teshuva</i>, the possibility of repentance, the human capacity to grow
and to change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As a Chasidic commentator explains, “Therefore, it must
be the case that the power of <i>teshuvah</i>
is implanted in every creature, and so too, and most essentially, in human
beings who are microcosms of the world.”
(Pri Ha’aretz, on <i>Re’eh</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thus, one of the greatest teachings in Judaism is that
<i>teshuva</i> is the foundation of the
world. It is hard-wired into us: the remarkable
capacity to assess our deeds and the opportunity to change our ways. This is what
we celebrate today on Rosh Hashanah, as we celebrate the Creation of the World.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But when we are not self-aware, when we refuse to
reflect on our deeds, and most importantly, when we are opposed to admitting our
own wrongdoing and we are incapable of saying the words, “I’m sorry,” the world
loses its foundation. Indeed, without <i>teshuva</i>,
the world is poised to plunge into chaos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We come together in the urgency of this New Year to do
nothing less than to repair our damaged souls, rebuild our moral character,
heal our broken relationships, and revive our faith and our hopes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We come together in the urgency of this election, at a
time when we face enormous challenges in America: to bring prosperity to the
poor and middle class; to combat the corrupting relationship between big money,
elections, and governance; to heal our racial divide; to remake our criminal
justice system so all Americans receive equal treatment under the law; to
respond with compassion to refugees, immigrants, minorities and people on the
margins of society; to rebuild our crumbling roads and bridges, to repair our
inequitable education system, and to reduce the disparities in health care; and
to reverse the looming climate crisis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These are all major challenges to the future of our
United States. None of them can be solved by any president alone. If American
society is flawed, if the democratic system is broken, then each of us, as
citizens, is responsible for its survival; each of us is obligated to restore
it to full health. Our votes count, not just the votes for President or
Representative or Senator, but the votes for city councilor and sheriff and
register of deeds. Democracy depends on ensuring a moral foundation at every level
of government. So if you believe that the system is unfair, it is unfair not
because the system has abandoned us, but because we have abandoned it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rebbe Nachman taught, “If you believe you can ruin
things, then believe you can fix them.” In other words, do not despair! Neither
are we, flawed mortals, so beyond hope that we are not capable of change, nor
is our country beyond hope and incapable of repair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In fact, that is the point of having elections, just
like it’s the point of coming together for the <i>Yamim Nora’im</i>. It’s a time for us all to do some tikkun, some
repair, and without delay! So if the election is important to you, then the
work needs to begin right here, right now. Before we can change our world, we
must begin by changing ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This fall, the Moral Mondays movement launched a voter
drive called “a <a href="http://www.moralrevival.org/" target="_blank">Moral Revolution</a> of Values.” (You may have seen & heard one of its leaders, Rev. Barber speak passionately at the Democratic National Committee.) The
movement’s stated goal is <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“to support state-based fusion movements to combat
extremism in state and national politics, and to be a catalyst for a resurgence
of political activism in order to end poverty, racial inequalities, and the
most pressing issues in our country.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Three Mondays ago, I joined a Moral Mondays procession
around the State House on Beacon Hill, led by 100 members of the clergy. We
were part of a movement that took place in 25 states. That morning, we read the
</span><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.moralrevival.org/moraldeclaration"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Higher
Ground Moral Declaration</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
on the State House steps, as people were doing in all those others sates. Afterward
a delegation met with Governor Baker to proclaim the Moral Revolution right here
in Massachusetts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rosh Hashanah is the time for a moral revolution. Revolution
and <i>teshuva</i> are both a kind of turning
that starts with each one of us. And with our honest commitment and hard work,
it will have an impact far beyond the nearest horizon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Here are seven things we can learn about <i>teshuva</i> from the Election, and ways that
<i>teshuva</i> can give integrity to this
Election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">1 1. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">WE ARE ALL SUBJECT
TO THE LAW<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At the pivotal
moment when the Israelites are about to enter their own land the Torah warns
that they should beware of setting up a king, “He shall not keep many horses or
send people back to Egypt to add to his horses, and he shall not have many
wives, lest his heart go astray; nor shall he amass silver and gold to excess.”
And should they go ahead and set up a
king, “he shall have a copy of the teaching written for him on a scroll. Let
him read in it all his life, so that he may learn to revere godliness and
observe faithfully every word of this Teaching as well as these laws. Thus he
will not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the Instruction to
the right or to the left.” (Deut. 17:14-16)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The king, if you
are so desperate to have one, must engage in perpetual <i>teshuva</i>. The king, or any leader, must know the law, have a moral
code, and consider himself subservient to that code.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Torah does not
speak of democracy, but it values law and is suspicious of a concentration of
power. That suspicion also led to the Declaration of Independence and to the
creation of American democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> 2. </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">SHOWING UP IS NOT
ENOUGH <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbi Harold
Kushner has written:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“<i>Teshuvah</i>
means a remaking of the self, a new ordering of priorities, so that something
which seemed irresistibly important to us before is now seen as much less
important. Repentance means becoming virtually a new person in terms of our
values and priorities. That is why the classic test of repentance in Judaism
resides in finding yourself in the same situation to which you had formerly
responded weakly, that is, sinfully, and meeting it differently this time--because
your understanding of what you stand for as a person has changed.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Teshuva</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
is not a quick fix. Change is most effective and sustainable when we attend to
it steadily over time. Examining our deeds and our thoughts may eventually lead
to a breakthrough as long as the ground is prepared</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Showing up for
Rosh Hashanah isn’t enough to achieve <i>teshuva</i>.
Showing up on Election Day without considering the impact of your vote is not going
to lead to change. You might get a sticker at your polling place that says “I
voted.” We won’t give you a sticker in synagogue saying, “I sat in a pew.”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">3 3. <span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">IT’S UP TO US<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Talmud teaches
that Yom Kippur does not atone for wrongdoing between one human being and
another. God won’t forgive you if you don’t lift a finger to seek forgiveness
yourself. And God won’t help our nation if we don’t step up and vote. Whether
repenting or voting, we can’t leave this up to others, not even God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Teshuva</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
and voting are alike in this way: there are plenty of people who avoid it, refuse
to do it, or consider it unnecessary. Not only do they miss out, but they harm
the rest of us by not making the effort. Part of our task is to seek out the
uninterested, to persuade them of the seriousness of this endeavor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is not our
responsibility to change the minds of people who oppose us. But if we believe
in the democratic responsibility of voting, then we need to work on getting out
the vote, reaching people who have given up, people who feel there’s no good
choice for president. With voting as with <i>teshuva</i>,
the world is better off if everyone does it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="line-height: 107%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">4. </span></span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; text-indent: -0.25in;">ONE SMALL STEP </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white;">I’m not quoting Neil Armstrong, but the Book
of Deuteronomy again:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 67.5pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="background: white;">Perhaps you will eat and you become full, you
will build nice homes and become settled... you will become very rich and will
have plenty of everything. And then you could become arrogant; forgetting the
Almighty... And then you may say, "My power, the strength of my hand, made
me all this wealth." (Deut. 8:12-17)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We might think, I’m
well-off. I’m not a terrible person. I’m a pretty good person. In fact, I
believe I’m the best I can be. Why should I have to work so hard to do <i>teshuva</i>? What do I really have to
change? This is a kind of arrogance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We might believe
that one vote is meaningless. We might feel that elections don’t really change
anything. This is a kind of arrogance as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Kotzker Rebbe
once asked, “what is the difference between East and West?” And he answered, “<i>ein klein drei</i>,” <i>one small step</i>. Whether we think everything is going just right, or
is completely hopeless, a small change can make a huge difference. We can all
turn. As we learn in the</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Talmud (Avot 5:26):<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>L'fum
tzara agra</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>– "according
to the effort is the reward."</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">5 5, <span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">HELPING ONE
ANOTHER FIND THE WAY OUT<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Midrash tells the story of a woman who was walking in a forest, lost for many
days. She couldn't find the right path. Each time she thought she was getting
somewhere, she found herself even more lost. For days and days she wandered in
the thick woods. Eventually, she came upon another just like her - someone else
who had been wandering lost in the forest. "Now that I have found you, you
can show me the way out," she said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">"I
don't know the way out either," said the second. "But I do know this,
do not go the way I have been going, for that way is not the right way. Now let
us walk on together and find the light." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">None of us has the
whole truth, so when we find others who are also searching, we will have a better
chance of finding our way. Humility resides in knowing when to speak up and
when to stay silent. And when to ask for help. We all need support to make the
most important changes in our lives. No one can do it alone. Even a president
can’t make changes without the support of Congress, and the constitutional
approval of the Supreme Court.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Don't give up,
organize! Don’t isolate yourself. Too often we get lost in our own self-importance.
We perpetuate squabbles with others that, principled though they may be, help
no one. To do <i>teshuva</i> requires admitting
that the way I have been going is not the whole truth, not the right answer, not
the only way. Likewise, voting responsibly requires listening as well as
speaking, sharing our hopes and dreams as well as our disagreements, and working
together for change. None of us can do it alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> 6. LET IT GO </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Midrash expounds
on a verse from Psalms (Ps. 102:19): </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“May this be written down for a coming generation,
that people yet to be created may praise God.” The rabbis ask, why does the
verse say “people yet to be created”? Up until now have we been waiting for a
new nation to be created? Rather, this verse refers to any generation guilty of
evil-doing and injustice. If they do <i>teshuvah</i>,
and pray on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, because they make their actions new,
God (re)creates them as a new being. That is the “new generation.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today is the day
for us to make our actions new. We are the generation who are witnesses, and
thereby accomplices to, evil-doing and injustice. But if we take this task
seriously, we, and our nation, may be recreated as if we are new beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What does it mean
to be like a new being? When we start over, we also have to let go. We let go
of old ways, old habits. Starting over also means we let go of some control and
allow something new to arise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Voting is a form
of letting go. Each of us can make a small contribution, but ultimately none of
us will get everything we want. It takes faith to vote. It takes faith to accept
the newness of change</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">7 7. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">WORDS MATTER <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In one of the
haftarot of this season, the prophet Hosea exhorts us, “Take words with you,
and return to godliness,” <i>Kechu imachem
dvarim, shuvu el Adonai</i>. (14:3) One of the most deadly weapons that has
ever existed are words. Most of the sins we confess on Yom Kippur are sins of
speech: we have spread lies, we have given bad advice, we have mocked, we have
scorned, we have gone astray and have led others astray. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Words can also be
weapons for love. Words can express compassion and forgiveness. With words we
ask questions and provide thoughtful answers. Words can instruct and inspire. We
have to choose our words carefully, starting with<i>, I’m sorry</i> and <i>I forgive</i>,
and with them, eradicate words of hate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Take words with
you, and return to godliness.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If hate wins,
America loses. If hate wins, we lose democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today, we need a moral revolution in our hearts. And
that moral revolution should compel us to a moral revolution in how we vote and
how we choose our representatives and how we govern. We need a moral revolution
to root out hatred and prejudice. We need a moral revolution to say “yes” to justice
and equity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I call on every person here, as you spend these ten
days in the process <i>teshuva</i>, to commit
to take a moral stand in the next five weeks, to stand up for democracy, and to
stop the hate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ken yehi ratzon. </span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">May
it be so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Temple Hillel B’nai Torah, Boston, MA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rosh Hashanah 5777, October 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-83395697357064399352016-06-13T15:35:00.004-04:002016-06-13T15:35:50.138-04:00Stop the Pipeline!<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">On Wednesday, May 25, as I rose early to join an 8 am protest at the West Roxbury Lateral
Pipeline site, I wondered what my purpose was for attending. While I believe in
the importance of turning back climate change, I have not been a climate
activist. Several questions remained unanswered: </span><span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If we don’t build a pipeline, how
will people heat their homes? Isn’t gas cleaner than oil? Is this a NIMBY
issue? How effective would this protest be? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">From the
very first reading that morning, I realized that this protest was much bigger
than our neighborhood. It was, no surprise, a poem by </span><span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Mary Oliver. But it wasn’t the
kind of nature poem I’m used to, and it grabbed me by the heart: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We will be known as a culture that feared death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 105%; margin-left: 27.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">for the few and cared little for the penury of the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">many. We will be
known as a culture that taught<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">little if at all about the quality of life for<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">commodity. And
they will say that this structure<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">was held together politically, which it was, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">they will say also that our politics was no more<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the heart, and that the heart, in those days ,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">was small, and hard, and full of meanness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Standing in a circle of clergy from the Jewish,
Christian, Unitarian Universalist, Hindu and Buddhist traditions, surrounded by
neighbors and activists who had come from all over Massachusetts, I opened my
eyes to a much bigger vision than stopping one, admittedly dangerous, pipeline
from passing through West Roxbury, under a soccer field, through densely
inhabited neighborhoods, and in close proximity to the blasting of an active
quarry. <b>The fears of building this
pipeline are not centered on our community alone.</b> The symbolism of this
action goes well beyond Boston or Massachusetts or the Northeast. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We
began our morning vigil at the corner of Grove & Center Streets, right
across from the West Roxbury Crushed Stone Quarry. Clergy wore garb of all
types and colors, including tallitot. Roy Einhorn, cantor of Temple Israel
Boston, carried a Torah scroll. Others carried signs. Passing cars, trucks and
buses honked their horns in support. We stood at the entrance of the metering
station construction site, a 4-acre plot quickly being leveled and fortified
with rebar and concrete foundations. There, Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman,
associate rabbi of Temple Sinai, Brookline, opened the Torah scroll and chanted
the second passage from the <i>Shema</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“If
you truly listen to me, then I will give you rain upon your land in its
appointed time, the early rain and later rain, so you may gather in your corn,
your wine and oil. And I will give you grass upon your field to feed your
animals, and you will eat and be content. Beware, then, lest your heart be led
astray, and you go off and worship other gods and you submit to them (you think
you are in control), so that the anger of the MIGHTY ONE should burn against
you, and seal up the heavens so no rain would fall, so that the ground would
not give forth her produce, and you be forced to leave the good land I am
giving you.” (Deut. 11:13-21)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fortified
with faith, prayer, and song, about 75 people walked down Grove Street, clergy
leading in front, to the pipeline trench bisecting the street. As we
approached, the loud bulldozer shut down, and the workers in their hardhats and
yellow vests stepped out of the trench. The work stopped. Sixteen clergy leaders
stepped into the road, crossed the protective markers, and sat down, feet
hanging over the trench. I stood among the protestors across the trench who
were not risking arrest, in solidarity with those who were. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As
a group, we began with a Prayer for the Spectra Workers, and a prayer for the
police, affirming that our protest was not directed against them. Soon a police
officer came over to warn the 16 that they were trespassing. He informed them
politely that if they did not leave, they would be arrested. We watched as
about ten to fifteen minutes later, a paddy wagon pulled up. Then another
other. We watched West Roxbury police in blue uniforms step out and head,
respectfully, toward the protesters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Just
before the police intervened, each of the 16 stated why they were there. One
man spoke about people in his homeland of India where temperatures are a
ghastly 124 degrees. Others spoke of their grandchildren. They were there out
of love, out of conviction, out of humility, out of hope. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Then
the police asked each one to stand, and one by one, they were handcuffed and
escorted to the police vans. It was chilling to watch religious leaders locked
behind bars in the police vehicles, and then closed in with heavy doors as if
in refrigerator trucks, headed toward the West Roxbury Police Station.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
pipeline through West Roxbury is not bringing gas to heat our homes. Spectra is
building this high-pressure (750 psi) pipeline for Algonquin Gas Transmission
to transport fracked gas through our city. National Grid claims the pipe will
help make National Grid's system more reliable. The builders claim the pipeline
is safe, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission agreed, arguably with
minimal investigation.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Opponents
claim that no one has demonstrated sufficient demand to justify a massive new
gas pipeline into Boston. Residents don’t want a dangerous pipeline running
yards away from their front doors. The City Council has voted unanimously to
oppose it. The mayor is challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
in court. Boston’s state and federal legislators are against the project. Senators
Markey and Warren have requested further study before proceeding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We
are protesting, because none of these voices have been heeded by the federal authorities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Researchers
at Boston University have shown that current pipelines have over 3,000
documented leaks in the current distribution system. Though the industry claims
they are not dangerous — not prone to explosions — they do emit dangerous
levels of methane into the atmosphere, a major source of global warming, making
LNG even more polluting than coal. As the protestors were taken away, we
chanted “Stop the pipeline! Fix the leaks!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What
really moved me was the realization that this entire protest is a <b>wake-up call</b> for all of us who have
quietly and helplessly stood by as the economic forces of the fossil fuel
industry, urging us to use more and more energy, continue business as usual. It’s
a wake-up call that we <b>can</b> make a
difference. With the 16 very visible clergy being taken to the police station,
that makes over 80 arrests along the construction route in Boston. This
movement is growing, here and around the country, calling for change in the way
we use energy and where our energy comes from.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">See the letter I signed, “</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Interfaith
Religious Leaders Call For Climate Justice” </span><span lang="CS" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-ansi-language: CS; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">at </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://clergyclimateaction.org/">ClergyClimateAction.org</a> whose
mission is to “invite clergy from all faith traditions to engage in soulful
leadership by exemplifying the ‘task of re-centering society imbued with the
hope, joy and serenity which only flow from living in the truth.’” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">There
are many small ways we can bring that hope, joy and serenity to our commitment
to climate action. Drive by the construction site, honk your horn, join a
vigil. Stop using plastic and paper grocery bags and bring your own reusable
bags. Cut back on your energy use, whether turning down the a/c, turning off
lights, reducing the temperature on your hot water boiler.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It’s
time to change the conversation from political feasibility to moral
imagination. </span><span style="line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 105%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It’s
time for us to get beyond our sense of helplessness and despair. It’s time for
us to peacefully, joyfully, and persistently choose a different path, the moral
path. For our future, for our grandchildren, for the life of all humanity, we
can make a difference. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-5099141854122778682016-05-20T15:41:00.000-04:002016-05-20T16:57:18.617-04:00A Bar Mitzvah party funded by exploiting workers?<div class="MsoNormal">
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Mazal tov, Nelson Peltz!<o:p></o:p></div>
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We share your joy in celebrating the bar mitzvah of your
twin sons. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Bar mitzvah marks a young man’s coming into an age of
responsibility. The Jewish community welcomes our young men and women into the
world of mitzvot, of Jewish obligations. We look forward to seeing young
Zachary and Gregory stepping into this role of making important decisions about
their lives, about their Jewish observance, and about how they interact in the
world.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In our Boston congregation, the b’nai mitzvah students
demonstrate their commitment to others by taking on a community service
mitzvah. In 2011, when <a href="http://truah.org/issuescampaigns/north-america-overview/slavery-a-human-trafficking-50094/ciw.html" target="_blank">T’ruah </a>and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers <a href="http://www.ciw-online.org/" target="_blank">(CIW)</a>
called on us to speak to Trader Joe’s managers and executives to convince them
to sit down at the table with migrant tomato pickers, our students showed up at
our local Trader Joe’s with signs and petitions. It didn’t take long for Trader
Joe’s to learn that consumers care about where their produce comes from. They
didn’t want to buy or sell tomatoes that were associated with slavery,
violence, or sexual harassment. Trader Joe’s joined the CIW’s Fair Food Program
in 2012, leading to real change for farm workers and their families.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What is Nelson Peltz teaching his sons at their bar mitzvah
celebration? While Peltz lavished them with a <a href="http://pagesix.com/2016/05/17/nelson-peltz-throws-2m-bar-mitzvah-for-his-twin-sons/?_ga=1.114287233.766010930.1455108669">$2
million dollar celebration</a>, featuring a hockey rink, stilt-walkers, and celebrities,
he continues to refuse to even sit at a table with the workers of the CIW.
Peltz, as head of <a href="https://www.trianpartners.com/" target="_blank">Trian Partners</a>, is the largest shareholder in Wendy’s—the last major
fast-food corporation to refuse to talk to the CIW. </div>
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While Peltz and his family
enjoyed a bar mitzvah that celebrates wealth, he and his corporation profit
from human rights abuses in the tomato fields.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Not only has Wendy’s refused to join the CIW’s Fair Food
Program, which has unparalleled enforcement (with market consequences) of its
human rights protections for Florida’s migrant workers, <a href="http://harpers.org/blog/2016/03/trumps-tomatoes/" target="_blank">Wendy’s has abandoned the Florida growers </a>to buy tomatoes from notorious growers in Mexico. 90% of Florida
growers are part of the Fair Food Program, supported by 14 major food retailers
such as Taco Bell, McDonalds, Subway, Burger King (in other words, all of
Wendy’s competitors), Walmart, and Whole Foods. But Wendy’s doesn’t seem to
care about true prevention of slavery, worker exploitation, violence, wage
theft, or sexual harassment. Instead, Wendy’s chooses to buy cheaper tomatoes
from known human rights abusers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Today, our synagogue students are spreading the word to
boycott Wendy’s, until they show real commitment to supporting farm workers
rights by joining the Fair Food Program. Recently, the students sent Mr. Peltz
their own messages about why he should represent justice, compassion, and
fairness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We hope that the Peltz bar mitzvah was a joyous occasion.
And we also hope that the lessons of bar mitzvah are more than self-congratulations
and conspicuous consumption. A Jewish education stresses justice, compassion,
and acting for a better world for all. </div>
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As one of our synagogue’s students wrote
to Nelson Peltz, urging Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program, “Your parents
would ground you for this.” </div>
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Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-45569285518938508122016-03-18T14:56:00.002-04:002016-03-22T21:31:20.534-04:00Fasting and Hamantashen: the Dark and Lighter Sides of Purim<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Purim is upon us! Fun for kids and grownups: carnivals,
masquerades and hamantashen. Also thinking of others too — </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">mishloach manot</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (sharing gifts of food) and </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">matanot l’evyonim</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (giving gifts of money) are central </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">mitzvot</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">, as well as hearing the story of
Esther on Purim night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The day before Purim is not a jolly day. While we may
be getting our costumes ready and preparing plates of hamantashen to share, the
day before Purim is a Jewish fast day, <i>Ta’anit
Esther</i> (the fast of Esther). Most liberal Jews I know ignore this and other
fast days that appear in the Jewish calendar (except Yom Kippur, and maybe
Tisha B’Av). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These “minor fasts” usually recall tragic events in
Jewish history. <i>Ta’anit Esther</i> is
different. First of all — spoiler alert — the Book of Esther is not historical.
It’s a fictional account of Diaspora life as imagined in ancient Persia. The
fast of Esther does not commemorate a tragedy; it is lifted from the account of
Esther preparing to meet the king. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Book is not only fiction, it is a farce. Every
aspect of it is meant to be laughable. The king who approaches every occasion
as an opportunity to hold a feast and get drunk. The Jewish woman who
masquerades as queen, and whose identity is revealed at the critical moment, to
save her people. The comedy of the villain leading his nemesis around town on a
horse, following the king’s orders to sing his praises as the villain himself
had wished to be praised. The book is filled with ludicrous reversals of
fortune, similar to those found in comic opera or Shakespeare.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Even the dreadful denouement in chapter 8, when the
Jews go on the rampage, is a communal catharsis, a ridiculous fantasy. Since
the King cannot change his own decree (how ironic!), he gives the Jews
“permission” to defend themselves against those who come to destroy them. In
the process they slaughter 75,000 people, and while many others immediately
chose to convert. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Book of Esther was written at a time when it was
inconceivable that Jews might be given permission to kill others, even in
self-defense. Through times of persecution, exile, pogroms, and massacres, for
one day a year Jews enjoyed the Purim celebrations and retold the Purim story as
a time for release and revelry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It can be difficult to recognize comedy in literature.
I remember the first time I read <u>Pride and Prejudice</u>. No one told me that
it contained satire. I only discovered the humor years later while watching
numerous film versions of Jane Austen’s masterpiece and howling with laughter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reading the 8<sup>th</sup> chapter of Esther in our
own day, particularly in a political environment poisoned by vicious hatred,
raises legitimate concerns. The violence is worthy of being noted and
condemned. However, those who believe these passages provide a precedent for
violence today are missing the point of the story. Not just for the Jews but
among persecuted peoples everywhere, playfully imagining the destruction of
one’s attackers is not akin to real violence. While we need to be careful about
the link between violent speech and violent action, we also need to be able to
see cartoon humor for what it is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Nevertheless, some contemporary Jewish extremists have
misread these sections and used them as a mandate for violence against any enemies
of the Jewish people. These Jews are wrong and their actions bring shame on all
Jews. For this reason, I choose to fast on <i>Ta’anit
Esther</i>. This is the way that I respond to the fantasy violence in the Purim
story — by grieving the deaths of those who have been the victims of Jewish
hatred. I was living in Israel when Baruch Goldstein slaughtered innocent
Muslims at prayer on Purim. Most Jews were shocked by this immoral act. Baruch
Goldstein not only did violence to innocent Muslims, he violated Purim itself. Just
as the Fast of Esther was the queen’s way of acknowledging the danger that
awaited her when she went, unbidden, to see the king, this fast is my own “<i>tikkun,</i>” my personal act of repair, for
the danger that has been unleashed from the Purim story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I love Purim and I deplore violence. Yet I choose to
celebrate the holiday with abandon, and I refuse to delete the offending
passages. One essential lesson of Purim is to recognize that we can hold joy
and humor at the same time we acknowledge grief and suffering. The world is
filled with both. One of my very favorite rabbinic takes on Purim addresses
this paradox directly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbah and Rabbi Zera joined together in a Purim
feast. They became drunk and Rabbah arose and killed Rabbbi Zera. On the next
day, he prayed on Rabbi Zerra’s behalf and bought him back to life. Next year,
Rabbah said: “Will your honor come and we will have the Purim feast together?”
Rabbi Zera replied: “A miracle does not take place on every occasion.” (Talmud
Megillah)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This is a Talmudic joke, built on a terrifying story.
That’s the poignant truth of Purim, right there. Celebrate until your heart’s
content, and be wary of the dangers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As my colleague, Rabbi Rena Blumenthal, has written so
beautifully:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Purim is the most exhilaratingly honest of holidays.
For one day a year we stop pretending that we understand the way of the world, that
we know the purpose of our lives, that we can possibly comprehend God’s will.… We
playfully hold up the idolatrous masks under which we have been hiding, laugh
at our elaborately costumed selves, and, in opening our hearts to the
terrifying truth of the human masquerade, experience deep liberation and joy.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wishing you joy, even amidst our fear and sorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Rabbi Barbara Penzner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-35550578829624757842016-03-10T15:43:00.001-05:002016-03-10T15:43:13.803-05:00THE TOMATO OF JUSTICE SAYS: BOYCOTT WENDY’S<div style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Wendy’s is the new Haman!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That was the conclusion our Chaverim School students came to after
hearing about Wendy’s refusal to join the Fair Food Program and treat the tomato
pickers fairly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Last week, our students created colorful “Tomatoes of Justice” (protest
letters) to Nelson Peltz, CEO of Wendy’s, which I carried to a </span><a href="http://www.ciw-online.org/blog/2016/03/wendys-boycott-begins/"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">protest
rally</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> in New York City on March 3. Check out the
link for photos! You can also see color photocopies of the kids’ tomatoes in
the entrance to the temple (by the office). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I reported back to them that the tomato pickers announced their decision
to BOYCOTT WENDY’S. All our kids took the pledge to boycott, and to tell other
people why.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The students knew about boycotts that have succeeded in the
past. They brought up the Montgomery Bus Boycott. I told them about the
successful Hyatt Boycott. But not all boycotts are successful. The CIW is
choosing boycott as a last resort. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For over three years, the </span><a href="http://www.ciw-online.org/"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Coalition of Immokalee Workers</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> (CIW) has tried to persuade Wendy’s to sign on to the </span><a href="http://www.fairfoodprogram.org/"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fair Food Program</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">. This tactic was successful in the past with Whole Foods,
Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Stop n Shop, as well as the other major fast food
chains. The only boycott in the CIW history was its first campaign to convince
Taco Bell to sign on in 2005. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Instead of protecting workers through a system of accountability,
Wendy’s has abandoned the Florida tomato fields altogether. Now they are buying
tomatoes from Mexico where workers suffer exploitation and abuse without any
recourse. That’s why the CIW decided to take the next step, to BOYCOTT WENDY’S.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What can you do to give migrant workers a fair wage and a work
life free of exploitation, sexual harassment, and violence? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlo6xwqeH4YAM2veLVlG8bhp5Y2sRSBgp29PW5ytnm7InQgPPXFmU0Y8-dsedWZx0kXDCD_fae8-JXbDu2hvlSkcnUia3K1Nz4AmHaR0bawoT3hx-oA66tR_JA8o14h4dFRpP4intY9c/s1600/tomato_310440.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlo6xwqeH4YAM2veLVlG8bhp5Y2sRSBgp29PW5ytnm7InQgPPXFmU0Y8-dsedWZx0kXDCD_fae8-JXbDu2hvlSkcnUia3K1Nz4AmHaR0bawoT3hx-oA66tR_JA8o14h4dFRpP4intY9c/s200/tomato_310440.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<li><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Take a moment to watch a short </span><a href="http://www.ciw-online.org/blog/2016/03/we-are-not-tied-down-by-slavery-we-are-embraced-by-freedom/" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">video</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"> from the Worker’s Tour as they stopped to honor women on
International Women’s Day.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><a href="http://org2.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=WqW8owi1divUGtUYNNcle40G7OrRHdMo" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Click here</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">to access everything you need to know about the CIW, Wendy’s and
how you can be a part of the Tomato of Justice.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Take the pledge to BOYCOTT WENDY’S.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Share the story of the CIW, their fight for justice, and the
WENDY’S BOYCOTT. Post a link on social media. Tell your friends.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">Si</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;">nce 2011, HBT has supported the </span><a href="http://www.ciw-online.org/" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Coalition of Immokalee Workers</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; text-indent: -0.25in;"> (CIW) to inform consumers about the plight of migrant tomato
workers. Our visits to managers at Trader Joe’s contributed to the CIW’s successful
effort to get Trader Joe’s to sign on.</span><br /><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We have partnered with </span><a href="http://www.truah.org/"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">T'ruah</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> (The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights) to make the Jewish
community a significant supporter of the CIW. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am proud to be a “Tomato Rabbi.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-37441824111627830472016-03-05T19:00:00.000-05:002016-03-05T19:00:02.374-05:00Just Mercy: Reflections from Sabbatical<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“I am a
member of a racial minority. Often, a person I do not know will take pains to
bring a matter to my attention (a news article, movie or lecture) that features
the subject of my race. I don’t pretend that people are color blind. But I am
put off when a person I have just met tells me that I should read a book on my
group’s experience with the American justice system. How should I respond?”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This question came to the NY Times advice columnist,
Philip Galanes. In his </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/fashion/skiing-race-matters-workplace-cursing.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fsocial-qs&action=click&contentCollection=style&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">February 25</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> column, Galanes suggested several thoughtful ways
to respond, including asking them </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Why,
exactly, do you suppose that book will interest me?”</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Then the columnist added “</span><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(And if the book is “</span><a href="http://bryanstevenson.com/the-book"><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just Mercy</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">,”
everyone should read it.)”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIrJVnsIyh_DnUrfSO_fBEz0mthnwpabH6A8dWL1PeC4mR72_hxwS3nDrK47-X9Hn6QIqFtNSOfVWQ-Rf5jX5trBJ6PvTwa5uNEv9EYtXQ2TNC_CZQlV1Q6gZjeJRoUFNppkPO5IwkmBw/s1600/Just+Mercy.jpe" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIrJVnsIyh_DnUrfSO_fBEz0mthnwpabH6A8dWL1PeC4mR72_hxwS3nDrK47-X9Hn6QIqFtNSOfVWQ-Rf5jX5trBJ6PvTwa5uNEv9EYtXQ2TNC_CZQlV1Q6gZjeJRoUFNppkPO5IwkmBw/s320/Just+Mercy.jpe" width="212" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Everyone should read this book.I'm grateful to Alice Levine and Rabbi Sheila Weinberg for urging me to read it. When I finally picked it up last month, I
could not put it down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lawyer Bryan Stevenson is a marvel. He is obviously a skilled
and talented attorney, who has freed hundreds from unjust prison sentences. He
has argued to change incarceration laws for juveniles successfully before the
U.S. Supreme Court. Twice. His organization, the </span><a href="http://eji.org/"><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Equal Justice Initiative</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> continues to work successfully on behalf of those “who have
been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Stevenson is also an engaging writer as he unfurls the tale
of Walter McMillian, a death row inmate who was arrested, imprisoned, tried,
and committed to death row based on flimsy evidence (at best) and corruption
and racial bias (at worst). In alternating chapters, he also describes how
women, children, mentally handicapped, and poor people fall victim to our broken
criminal justice system. Nearly every chapter broke my heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Surprisingly, this book also offers redemption and hope. Just
as he depicts the system as unbearably out of whack, Stevenson’s honesty and personal
commitment provide a stirring model for making real change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The title of the book encapsulates Stevenson’s inspiring approach
to his life and work. “Justice” and “mercy” are usually opposing goals. On Yom
Kippur, we ask God to set aside justice and become merciful with us. Others in
our culture embrace punitive justice without regard for mercy. (Angry reactions
to the recent sentencing of </span><a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/02/26/sentencing-hearing-colleen-ritzer-murder-case/L0CVw0XUdtIbQPsrFiQvFM/story.html"><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Philip Chism</span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> are
just one example.) “Just mercy” implies that these two truths can (and ought
to) coexist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The prophet Micah implores us to find a balance between justice
and mercy in our everyday relationships. <b>“Do
justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with…”</b> (Micah 6:8) Micah lived through
a time of upheaval, moral degradation, dislocation, and fear. He witnessed the
Assyrian conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 721 BCE and the exile of
its leaders. He surely knew the suffering of the people of the Southern Kingdom
of Judah, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">who endured the Assyrian siege of the fortified city
protecting the capital, Jerusalem. <span style="background: white;">Micah was one
of the first to have foreseen the ultimate fall of Judah, which finally
occurred more than a century after his death. Despite the terrors of war and
destruction, Micah continued to preach a message of hope: “Do justice, love
mercy and walk humbly with…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In our own day, we are also witness to upheaval, moral
degradation, dislocation and fear. We may be filled with despair. Like a
prophet, Stevenson offers us a path out of our fear and anguish. At the end of
the book, he tells us that he’s learned that “fear and anger are a threat to
justice; they can infect a community, a state, or a nation and make us blind,
irrational, and dangerous.” Then he turns around and instructs us that “mercy
is just when it is rooted in hopefulness and freely given.” That is, through
love we can find the way to overcome injustice and to embrace hope.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One of the many gifts of having sabbatical time is having
time. Period. Time to read. Time to write. Time to think. Time to cook healthy
meals and enjoy being with loved ones. Time to do one thing at a time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Coming back from these nine weeks “away,” I felt
reinvigorated. It feels good to do the work that I love. I’m delighted every
time I see someone who has been out of my line of sight for two months. I’m
particularly grateful to learn that, while people are happy to have me back,
the temple and its programs ran very smoothly during my absence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">One
teaching I hold onto from this sabbatical time is not to wait until the next
one. My book project has a long way to go. You are a part of that project, as I
continue to think about Micah’s teaching of justice, mercy, and humility. From
time to time I will share these thoughts with you, to continue to learn how
these prophetic words can make a difference in our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-79973954066388913692016-01-15T12:07:00.003-05:002016-01-15T12:07:59.063-05:00Why we need to spend 2016 participating in the election campaign<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">One morning while working out on the machines at
the gym, I watched a political ad. Without the sound on, I saw some of the most
outrageous statements made by Donald Trump, like banning all Muslims, building
a wall and throwing out immigrants. It looked like an attack ad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">But by the end, it was clear, it was not. He
was using these immoral, undemocratic, un-American claims as his platform. And
we know why—because fear is working in his favor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Fear is a dangerous force. Those who foster
fear inflame the basest tendencies of humanity: anger and hatred. Trump’s words
have unleashed a destructive force that not even he can control. When he spews
unreflective, unrepentant rhetoric, he validates the evil in people’s hearts.
Even if he never explicitly encourages violence, his words condone it. Innocent
Muslims and immigrants have already been attacked. Who will be next?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Let’s be clear: we cannot pin responsibility on
one candidate alone. Trump’s ideas would have no impact without the fertile
ground of divisiveness cultivated by others. Irresponsible pundits and
candidates have polluted political discourse with toxic statements of their
own. While they attempt to distance themselves from his inflammatory speech,
their own docile espousal of similar sentiments have made Trump’s words
acceptable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">In Jewish tradition, this power of violent
destruction has a name and a face, the “<i>Mashchit</i>”
(Destroyer). Jewish tradition warns us that this force, once unleashed, cannot
discern between the innocent and the guilty. This warning reminds us that the
cycle of violence obeys no moral boundaries. This is the force of the 10<sup>th</sup>
plague in the Exodus story (Ex.12:23) that murdered every firstborn Egyptian. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5s3mqTJIkCUd5XHNrl0yO7vM7D7fgzSEes06NNz0pbJDDAwj_pvDFQccFowW0MzH6sEVENBt5PKnoWi2qdoOojh1w3OsLGTsfjMaXuMQF9VpxN16ggOxzn3V2JOWarpW8B2ZaJ9sZWaU/s1600/Destroyer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5s3mqTJIkCUd5XHNrl0yO7vM7D7fgzSEes06NNz0pbJDDAwj_pvDFQccFowW0MzH6sEVENBt5PKnoWi2qdoOojh1w3OsLGTsfjMaXuMQF9VpxN16ggOxzn3V2JOWarpW8B2ZaJ9sZWaU/s320/Destroyer.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Nina Paley, "Death of the Firstborn Egyptians"</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">But if the Destroyer is an unstoppable force,
how were the Israelite homes spared? It
took a potent sign, the blood on the doorposts of the Israelites, that
protected them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">In a time when so many people are overcome by their
fears, whether fear of the randomness of terrorism or fear of the pervasiveness
of gun violence, how do we prevent a growing cycle of fear, anger, hatred and
violence? What will be the blood on the doorposts that will protect us now? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The only way to close the door on the Destroyer
is for us to stand together, not apart. It is up to us to create more human
connections, not cut ourselves off. Whether we increase diplomacy with other
nations or make peace with our neighbors, we put a stop to the cycle of
violence. We must be ready to put the proverbial blood on our doorposts, to
proclaim that we will not allow the Destroyer to invade our moral universe. That
is the stand we must take as this campaign year unfolds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Every four years, we have an important decision
to make, and 2016 is no exception. Sometimes it feels like we keep fighting the
same fight over and over again. The first election that got me involved in
political work was the year of Richard Nixon’s reelection in 1972. I was in
high school in the suburbs of Shawnee Mission, Kansas, when my family were
ardent supporters of George McGovern and in a sea of Republicans. My high school
principal had a 6-foot portrait of Nixon hanging in his office. I remember how
isolated we felt, how fearful we were, and yet we held out hope. The 1972
election was a contest between supporters of war and seekers of peace. Of
course, McGovern only won one state in that election, and all of you who voted
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts earned my life-long admiration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I could have walked away from that election
dejected. I could have refused to participate in campaigning ever again. And
yet, I believed fervently that my participation—even though I wasn’t even old
enough to vote—was important. Most important, I learned the importance of
making my voice heard despite the overwhelming odds. Despite the outcome, I
felt empowered. In a democracy, we need not fear airing our disagreements. That’s
the power that impels us to join campaigns. That’s the power that brings us
together tonight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">In truth, every election is important. The
issues do change, the electorate changes, the world’s economic and political
structures change. As the President’s State of the Union demonstrated so
starkly, the election of 2016 is a choice between two world-views: between hope and fear. It is a choice between
science and science fiction, between health care and health crisis, between
human rights and states’ rights, between rationality and the refusal to
compromise. This election is a choice between preparing for the unfolding
future and striving in futility to return to a sentimentalized past. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">That is how the presidential race, the Congressional
and Senate races, have shaped up so far. And it makes the work of each one of
us all the more important: to speak out, to register voters, to donate to
campaigns and attend rallies, to hold signs and go door-to-door, to join phone
banks and drive people to the polls. We need to counter the forces of fear and
anger with a message of hope and compassion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">However, I believe that these divisions do not define
the American people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I believe that the American public, on the
whole, shares much more in common than the polls would have us believe. I am
convinced that there are more like-minded Americans than there are extremists,
and we have the power to come together—if we turn out to vote.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The shared values that attracted our own
immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents to these shores, that gave us
voting rights for women and the 40-hour work-week, the values that brought us
together in Depression to build this country and in war to defend it and these
shared values unite us more than they divide us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Everyone here today is committed to the
vitality of the American political system, whether we are voters, public
servants, or elected officials. Yet even as we gather as Democrats, to support
Democratic candidates and to advocate for a Democratic platform, we know that
achieving those goals will require that we engage people who are not as
passionate as we are, not as loyal to party politics, and many who are have
opted out of the system entirely.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">There are all kinds of strangers. I’m a
stranger to most of you here, and likewise, you are strangers to me. But the
fact that we’ve all been invited to this gathering, that we pretty much look
the same, come from the same town, more or less, makes us feel comfortable
together. Perhaps we will become friends. In this company, we aren’t afraid of
strangers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">But in another setting, we might feel very
differently. We might be suspicious of the stranger who carries a gun or wears
a cap that says “Make America great again.” We are only human, and we need to
be just as vigilant about our own prejudices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">I want to share words from 1859, the campaign
speech that Abraham Lincoln gave at the Wisconsin State Fair<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">“From the first appearance of man upon the
earth, down to very recent times, the words ‘stranger’ and ‘enemy’ were <i>quite</i> or <i>almost</i>, synonymous. Long after civilized nations had defined
robbery and murder as high crimes, and had affixed severe punishments to them,
when practiced among and upon their own people respectively, it was deemed no
offence, but even meritorious, to rob, and murder, and enslave <i>strangers</i>, whether as nations or as
individuals. Even yet, this has not totally disappeared. The man of the highest
moral cultivation, in spite of all which abstract principle can do, likes him
whom he<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>does</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>know, much better than him whom he
does<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>not</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>know. To correct the evils, great and
small, which spring from want of sympathy, and from positive enmity, among <i>strangers,</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>as nations, or as individuals, is one
of the highest functions of civilization.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Lincoln held up an ideal that still remains
outside our grasp, “To
correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy, and
from positive enmity,” and yet, in this time of great national
divisions, when so much seems on the line, it is imperative that we continue to
try to become even more willing to see strangers as human beings. As we seek to
promote our candidates, we need to approach strangers with more curiosity about
what they think. We need to listen more than we talk. We need to bring people
close, not push them away. We need to hear the stories of pain and struggle, of
family loyalty and family heartache, of hopes and dreams. That is the hallmark
of a democratic system, to engage in respectful conversation. That is the only
hope for the future of this country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">When we connect with other people, we have the
best chance of joining together with them, and inviting them to join with us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">We need to acknowledge our fears, but not allow
them to rule over us. We need to change the conversation, to advocate for
truth, compassion, humility, equity, and justice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Let me end with a prayer for our country that
comes from the Jewish Reconstructioniost prayerbook. Saying a prayer for the
country is part our religious heritage::<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Sovereign of all peoples, mercifully receive
our prayer for our land and its government. Let your blessing pour out on this
land and on all officials of this country who are occupied, in good faith, with
the public needs. Instruct them from your ancient laws, enable them to
understand your principles of justice, so that peace and tranquility, happiness
and freedom, might never turn away from our land. Plant among the people of
different nationalities and faiths who dwell here, love and brotherhood, peace
and friendship. Uproot from their hearts all hatred and enmity, all jealousy
and vying for supremacy. Fulfill the yearning of all the people of our country
to speak proudly in its honor. May our
land be a blessing to all inhabitants of the earth. Cause friendship and
freedom to dwell among all peoples, so that we may see the vision of the
prophets fulfilled in our lifetime, “Nation shall not lift up sword against
nation. Let them learn no longer the ways of war.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;"><i>speech delivered to the Ward 6 Democratic Committee of Newton, Mass. 1/14/16</i></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-2636952319620640672015-12-10T16:06:00.004-05:002015-12-10T16:06:45.926-05:00It is up to us<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Today I am a Muslim. This country sent away my people, the
Jews, and they were slaughtered in concentration camps. Stop the hate! Remember
the SS St. Louis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Unite children of Abraham!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">My brother posted this cry on his FB page early Tuesday
morning. When my own clock radio roused me with the news of Donald Trump’s
so-called proposal to ban all Muslims, I felt a similar outrage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As I listened all day to denunciations of the candidate,
analysis of the impact on the presidential campaign, and Gov. Baker’s
characterization of the proposal “ridiculous,” I appreciated the swift
condemnations. But my brother’s post brought home a reality that goes beyond
any one candidate, beyond decrying hatred and beyond flimsy dismissals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Trump is no longer a joke. He is not ridiculous. He inflames
the basest tendencies of humanity: anger and hatred. His unreflective,
unrepentant rhetoric validates evil. His words encourage white supremacy, extremism
and violence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Even if he is defeated in the polls, Trump has given voice
to a dangerous element in American society. With his words, he has unleashed a destructive
force that even he cannot stop. Even if
he never explicitly encourages violence, his words condone it. Innocent Muslims
and immigrants have already been attacked. Who will be next?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">More disturbing is that we cannot pin responsibility on one
candidate alone. Trump’s ideas would have no impact without the fertile ground
of divisiveness cultivated by others. Irresponsible pundits and candidates have
polluted political discourse with toxic statements of their own. While they attempt
to distance themselves from his inflammatory speech, their own docile espousal
of similar sentiments have made Trump’s words acceptable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Tonight is the fifth night of Hanukkah, and today is also International
Human Rights Day. Today is the day for us to remember the best of what is means
to be human and to work to overcome the worst evil in the human heart. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">It is up to us to work to implement the ideals espoused in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When we light our candles, we must
dedicate ourselves to bring more light into a world that seems darker every
day. It is up to us—<i>Aleinu</i>—to stand
up, to speak out, and to act with love in order to overcome the power of evil.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Today I am a Muslim. Today I am an immigrant. Today I am a
refugee. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Today I am also an advocate for truth, compassion, repentance, equity,
and justice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I can’t do this alone. Join me. It is up to us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I was proud of the
Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston (JCRC) to issue this <a href="https://www.jcrcboston.org/category/news-and-press/statements/">statement</a></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i>condemning incendiary
language against Muslims. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-2598400789895681872015-10-22T17:59:00.001-04:002015-10-22T17:59:44.981-04:00SOME HOPE, SOME HATRED, AND A LOT TO THINK ABOUT<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>(Intended for all of us
as we watch and worry and wish there was something we could do to end the
violence in Israel and Palestine.)</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I recently heard an NPR host quote a friend who told
him, “Israel is a country, not a conflict.” How often we forget!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Whether we are talking about Israeli victims of knife
attacks or we are talking about Israeli government policy toward Palestinians,
we often limit our understanding and confine our conversation to the conflict.
As a synagogue, part of our mission is to educate about all of Israel (and
Palestine too). I don’t want to whitewash the disturbing truths and I don’t think
we ought to avoid controversy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The material below is a haphazard listing of some of
what I’ve been reading this week. Some of it is hopeful, some of it
provocative. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">HOPEFUL<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Did you hear about the owner of the hummus café giving
discounts to Jews and Arabs who eat together? Here’s an account from </span><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/israeli-hummus-cafe-jews-arabs-discount-151019201935558.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Al Jazeera America</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">PROVOCATIVE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This </span><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/the-roots-of-the-palestinian-uprising-against-israel/410944/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Atlantic article</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">
by Jeffrey Goldberg has me thinking about the many roots of the current violence
in Israel. I believe that most Palestinians want to live in peace and support
Israelis living in peace. I believe that most Israelis do as well. This article
does not engage in blame, but thoughtful analysis. Some violence arises from
incitement, lies and ignorance. Note the quote from Shlomo Avineri that
highlights the many contributing factors to the current situation. It’s about
settlements, weak leaders, mutual distrust—and so much more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">MORE PROVOCATION (and a condemnation)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And in the same vein, I feel obligated to condemn the
recent anti-semitic </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/world/middleeast/unesco-jerusalem-al-aqsa-mosque-western-wall.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">attempt by UNESCO</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">
to deny the Jewish cultural/religious/historical heritage at holy sites
(starting with the Western Wall and Temple Mount). I rarely jump to accusations
of anti-semitism, particularly regarding Israel. In this case, it seems apt. This
resolution seeks to identify these places as sacred Muslim sites, without any
recognition of the sites’ sacredness in Jewish tradition as well. Furthermore,
these claims are based on repeated false assertions of Israeli aggression in
the Muslim holy sites. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A BRIDGE OF HOPE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You may remember when the Chaverim School featured the
</span><a href="https://www.handinhandk12.org/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Hand
in Hand”</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> (<i>Yad b’Yad</i>) schools for our group <i>tsedakah</i> (giving) recipient. Hasan, the school principal, argues
that life in the Arab-Jewish bilingual school is not a “bubble.” Rather, the
Jews “outside” live in their bubble, while the Arabs live in another bubble. He
asks, who is really in a bubble, us or them? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Watch the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvRWkgQQ0yo&feature=youtu.be"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">video</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">
of a report on Israeli television (with English subtitles for the Hebrew and
Arabic). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">PRAYER</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When we feel hopeless, renew our faith. I end with a
prayer by Rabbi Noa Kushner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For Zion in the
wake of the recent violence<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Adonai sfatai
tiftach ufi yagid tehilatecha</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">
/ Open my lips and my mouth will declare your glory / Ps. 51:17<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Please God: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Help our prayers leave their convenient parking spaces
where they idle in our hearts. Release them from where they are stuck in our
throats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Help us to pray a real prayer. The unfinished kind.
The kind that probably doesn’t rhyme. The kind that we worry someone will hear.
The kind that does not construct a good argument or a reasonable plan for the
future, but knows what it wants, that kind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Remind us that prayer can begin in the <i>beit knesset</i> (synagogue) but is
prohibited from staying locked up inside it. (Because prayer that is not
allowed out is like a prayer that stays in bed. It lies prettily on its side,
as if posing for a picture, but does not get up to help.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Remind us that our prayers, as unfinished as they are,
must be released into the winding streets of right here, right now where they
are needed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Like fire trucks rushing to the scene of a fire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And remind us that where our prayers go, we must
follow. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So please: <i>Adonai
sfatai tiftach</i> / God, open our mouths and open our doors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Let us go toward the future with our wanting and your
glory. Let our prayers find the prayers of others – others’ faiths, others’
furies, others’ fears – and let the prayers flow, like water flows to the
lowest place, gathering<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Making rivers where there has been nothing, no life,
not a single drop, no hope, not a single fish, for so long. Making a rushing
stream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-31984809773486043432015-06-25T23:07:00.000-04:002015-06-25T23:07:07.552-04:00Peace and Justice in a Violent World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhp6S8_zSLpiSS_7l5qHGalDk5CngV8jCcmu2J-ydFNV3Xmqm95OWVGM8_-f81ROiCljNghYpi4DeyvYoslozK4uLh9AmPdxst24wz7S7AFttv8BXPHBY4gYfIb6gQctArZuyF7FrosE/s1600/charleston-shooting-memorial-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhp6S8_zSLpiSS_7l5qHGalDk5CngV8jCcmu2J-ydFNV3Xmqm95OWVGM8_-f81ROiCljNghYpi4DeyvYoslozK4uLh9AmPdxst24wz7S7AFttv8BXPHBY4gYfIb6gQctArZuyF7FrosE/s320/charleston-shooting-memorial-4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This week, we witnessed two remarkable, passionate,
and contradictory responses to acts of horrific violence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Our country was awestruck to hear the families of the
nine murder victims in Charleston face the unrepentant murderer saying, “You
have taken something precious from me. And I forgive you.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A few days later, many victims of the Boston Marathon
bombing and their families spoke with derision at the sentencing of Dzhokhar
Tsarnaev. Still feeling the pain of their loss, many refused to accept his
words of apology. Several reiterated their support for the death sentence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">How can some people be so forgiving while others are
not? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Is it possible to seek peace and justice at the same
time? Can we love those who hate?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Rev. Norvel Goff gave a resounding answer to that
question last Sunday at Emanuel AME Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston
last Sunday, saying, </span><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">"In order for us to begin the healing process, we must
forgive as we have been forgiven. That does not mean that the process of
justice does not continue."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What I heard in his
moving embrace of these seemingly contradictory values was the foundation of
building meaningful relationships, even with those who hate us. When we stop to
open our hearts to forgiveness, we do not release the criminal from his own
responsibility. But we do everything in our power to prevent hatred and violence
from entering our own hearts. We do everything in our power to stop hatred and
violence from spreading. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Last week, Ali Abu Awwad and Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger
spoke to a crowd at Temple Israel about the </span><a href="http://www.friendsofroots.net/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Roots</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> project, working to bring together Palestinians and
Israeli settlers and building trust between Israelis and Palestinians in a
process Awwad calls “Painful Hope.” The former Palestinian prisoner and the
settler rabbi each spoke authentically and openly about their backgrounds,
their beliefs, and their prior attitudes about the people who had been their
enemy. We were moved by their ability to speak their truth and at the same time
to hear the other’s truth. We were inspired by the growing respect and love
that resulted from their painful work together, despite their prior hatreds and
fears.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In all of these examples, justice and love are bound
together to seek peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Justice is a foundational concept in Judaism. “<i>Tzedek tzedek tirdof</i>—Justice, justice you
shall pursue” (Deut.16:20) demands that we be vigilant in our pursuit of
justice. Judaism is a religion of laws, built on a vast system of rules and an
emphasis on scrupulous judicial fairness, compounded by centuries of
interpretation and practice. I firmly believe in justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Interestingly, the word <i>tzedek</i> is not commonly found in the words that Jews repeat
regularly in our liturgy. If the words of prayer are intended to penetrate our
consciousness and frame our thoughts and behavior in the world, then we should
note which words do repeat: <i>ahava</i> (love) and <i>shalom</i> (peace). Whenever we end the main prayer of every service,
the <i>Amidah</i>, we pray for peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In addition to the verse cited above, demanding that
we pursue justice, the Rabbis urged us to pursue peace, as the Psalms say “<i>bakesh shalom v’rodfehu</i>, seek peace and
pursue it" (Psalm 34:15). The Rabbis who established our liturgy believed
in the power of love and compassion, and understood that love and mercy are
often at odds with justice. They taught that <i>rachamim</i>, compassion, trumps <i>din</i>,
judgment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Pursuing justice is
essential, but it is not the ultimate goal. Forgiveness is also essential, but
is not the ultimate goal. Both are tools that temper one another in order to
bring peace. Our goal is to create a different kind of society where, on the
one hand, we honor the dignity of the individual and, on the other, offense
leads to a just pursuit of justice. Our ultimate goal is, as Micah teaches, for
all of us to live peacefully and authentically beneath our vines and fig trees
(Micah 4:4).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As we contemplate our
congregation’s response to the Charleston massacre and to the racism that
pervades our society, as well as the other conflicts we witness in our world, it
is essential that we consider these values, despite the tension between them.
On one side: love, compassion, forgiveness. On the other, justice, action,
integrity. Together, we hope and pray, they
move us closer to a non-violent, peaceful society. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2026079489315022357.post-56961332227822084242015-06-11T20:56:00.000-04:002015-06-11T21:06:17.625-04:00PEDRO--An Unorthodox Review<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of a latecomer
when it comes to being a Red Sox fan. It took more than a decade after we moved
to Boston before I finally went to see a game at Fenway Park. At my first game
I recall walking up the ramp behind home plate and being amazed as the lush
green diamond, the Green Monster (before their were Monster seats), the Coke
Bottles and the Big Screen all rose before my eyes. At that first game, I thrilled
to see Albert Belle hit a grand slam—even if it was for the Orioles. Ever the
lover of the game, I became a member of Red Sox Nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">By the time our whole family stayed up and burst into
tears watching the tragic loss in the ALCS in 2003, I was a true Boston
believer. And in 2004, when we finally reversed the curse, I actually sent a
message to the mayor, asking him to delay the “Rolling Rally” until Saturday afternoon,
so that the kids going to b’nai mitzvah around town (and rabbis who happened to
be on duty at those b’nai mitzvah ceremonies) could take part. (The Mayor did
not respond.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Some players transcend team rivalries. That’s why
Pedro Martinez was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year on the first
try, receiving an overwhelming 91.1 percent of the 549 votes cast by the
Baseball Writers’ Association of America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You don’t have to be a Red Sox fan to admire Pedro.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9Ip0wIGs1exyD-_tpUJwGJrH0_b7oL7sP7BXLB_Ht8hyphenhyphenByitfcu6b685rOPgEpwWrp6heufgzlILEFg526M9E2jIx9m9lo147ihCngRHSN-oK4hrsFU9sDw-gUh8sjrqGK2QlsCIGFM/s1600/Pedro.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR9Ip0wIGs1exyD-_tpUJwGJrH0_b7oL7sP7BXLB_Ht8hyphenhyphenByitfcu6b685rOPgEpwWrp6heufgzlILEFg526M9E2jIx9m9lo147ihCngRHSN-oK4hrsFU9sDw-gUh8sjrqGK2QlsCIGFM/s320/Pedro.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I’m not a baseball writer, so I won’t go on about
Pedro’s stats or athletic feats. I leave that to longtime HBT member, Michael
Silverman. A sportswriter for the <i>Boston
Herald</i> and friend of Martinez, he co-wrote <u>Pedro</u>, the pitcher’s autobiography,
which came out on May 5.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Michael graciously donated a couple of autographed
copies to the temple for our annual Spring Fling auction. I cherish my personal
copy, and thoroughly enjoyed every page. Michael captured Pedro’s complex
personality, his wacky humor, his fierce pride, and Pedro’s deep desire to tell
the story his way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Here’s what I think Pedro has to say, not about
baseball, but about living a life of meaning. If he were Jewish, we might say:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Pedro believes in <i>kibud
av va’em </i>(honoring parents) and <i>lifnei
seivah takum </i>(respecting elders). In
other words, Pedro holds his family close. He even stopped playing baseball.to
tend to his dying father.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Pedro is a model of <i>yosher</i> (integrity). Much of what he reveals in this book are
opinions that he discreetly kept to himself until after he retired. Of course,
Pedro wasn’t always quiet and deferential. But he respected certain principles
and refused to make excuses for his own failures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Pedro is an exemplar of <i>ometz lev </i>(courage). Literally, it means strength of heart. Throughout
the book, we hear that Pedro had “the heart of a lion”, which of course is a
very Jewish symbol.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Pedro is a <i>tsedakah</i>
hero. Not only does he help others financially, but he believes in what
Maimonides called the highest form of <i>tsedakah</i>:
helping people become self-sufficient so they are not dependent on <i>tsedakah</i>. Talk to our custodian,
Socrates “Moreno” Guzman about what Pedro has done for the people of the
Dominican Republic, and why he is so widely respected there. Moreover, Pedro gives
so quietly, he hardly mentions his own generosity in the book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Believe it or not, Pedro is a man of <i>anavah </i>(humility). In the Jewish Mussar
tradition, humility does not mean modesty. Humility means knowing your place
and acting appropriately to the situation. Pedro’s roots in poverty in the
Dominican Republic continues to play a central role in his life. Like many of
our Jewish ancestors, Pedro faced discrimination, rejection, and the indignities
of learning a new language and culture when he came to the US. He had to prove
himself time and again to get the respect he deserved. The pride and the
arrogance we remember arose from Pedro’s desire to be respected for his skills,
talent and effort in the game. Pedro has never forgotten where he came from or
the people who helped him become one of the greatest pitchers of all time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Thank you Pedro—and thank you to Michael Silverman for
bringing his story to us!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Red Sox highlights begin at 2:45)</span></div>
Barbara Penznerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16954589441735262708noreply@blogger.com0