Rabbi Jon's Website and Blog

Parashat Mas'ei: Planning the Ideal City (from G-dcast)

Haven't posted in a while!

Here is a terrific look at this week's parasha, Mas'ei, courtesy of G-dcast.

Shabbat shalom!

Parashat Korach -- Docent, Cheerleader, Coach...Rabbi

Parashat Korach opens with a challenge to Moshe and Aharon, led by a Levite named Korach.  "You have gone too far! For all the community are holy, all of them, and the Lord is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the congregation of Adonai?"

On the face of it, the argument is pure politics.  It's about power and access (to God).

But in the midrash, Korach's challenge is described differently.  Korach is identified as a great sage!  But he has an interesting relationship with his own "rabbi", namely Moshe.  So for instance, Moshe teaches the community the concept of tzitzit.  On the corners of each garment, the Jews are to put fringes, and one thread is to be a particular kind of blue.  The tzitzit, Torah explains, are supposed to serve as a reminder to follow God rather than the temptations of the eyes.  (The blue thread eventually went out of practice because the dye was too expensive and it would have been out of reach of the average Jew.)

Upon learning the concept, Korach comes to Moshe and asks:  How about a tallit that is already entirely blue?  Wouldn't that be exempt from the requirement of tzitzit?  How about four threads with the special blue somewhere in the tallit?  Would that be good enough?

This gets Korach thinking.  From the last paragraph of the Shma to the first -- mezuzah.   A couple short passages from Torah at the entrance of my house.  Korach asks Moshe:  Suppose I have a house full of sacred books.  Would I really need a mezuzah on my front door?  How about if I keep a whole Torah scroll in there?  Surely that's at least as good as a little box with two little sections of Torah crammed in.

This midrash recasts the argument that begins the Torah reading.  It's about who gets to say what Torah means, what God's instructions are all about.  Does the rabbi or the religious leadership have a monopoly on that?  Doesn't the student or community member have a voice in how to apply Torah in her life?

I've been thinking about this midrash this week in light of my first anniversary next week with Temple Beth Abraham.  How should Torah be shared between a rabbi and a congregation?

I give Korach his due.  He is enthusiastic and wants to be empowered.  He goes past the level of mere obedience, toward real understanding.  He relates to the commandments in depth, in terms of their concepts and reasons.  Those are what Korach finds meaningful.  When he finds that meaning, Korach wants to go the extra mile to apply the concepts in his life.  He's ready to adapt Jewish ritual creatively if the traditions don't do it for him as received.

From this rabbi's perspective, that sounds like an ideal Jew!

According to the Torah, Moshe doesn't reject Korach's approach right away.  He falls on his face -- in awe, I would say, of Korach's commitment and the sense of holiness that he expresses.

It's true that Moshe is about halacha, the standard way of translating Jewish values into life.  But he's thinking about how to respond.

Korach reads Moshe's momentary silence differently.  As a lack of responsiveness.  So he immediately makes Moshe (and Aharon) the issue and attacks them, and it ends up being about egos rather than Torah.  Instead of creative tension -- between halacha and personal expression -- there is personal tension and conflict.  Their relationship devolves and dissolves, tragically.  To say the least -- Korach gets swallowed up by the earth.

From my reflections on this episode, I take away a few things about my role as a rabbi.

• One is to value and cheer Jewish commitment on the part of others, in any form.  My own example and choices will be traditional.  Shabbat, prayer, kashrut, holidays (not to mention Torah study and acts of chesed).  But that doesn't prevent me from being responsive when someone comes, like Korach in the midrash, with a different Jewish take on an idea or a practice.  I'm far more worried about Jewish apathy.  If someone has a different idea about prayer or Shabbat, for instance, I'm excited that they want to share it.  I'm eager to talk about how you would integrate that into your life, or how we could explore it in the shul.

• One important role I have is to be a docent of Jewish experiences and teachings.  I heard this metaphor at a conference and I love it.  Judaism has always been a vast gallery (not a museum!).  A docent makes selections.  What to present from among the infinite beauties of the collection.  So through my sermons, the courses I choose to teach, the links I post, etc. I can point you where I think there is something particularly valuable for you to think about or do.  Korach could think his thoughts about mezuzah and tzitzit because Moshe pointed those areas out, showed him where to look and find riches.

• In educational work, the phrase is "be a guide on the side, not (only) a sage on the stage."  A guide or coach is accepting, supporting, encouraging, empowering.  Also challenging and questioning, in the context of a real relationship.  Korach came with ideas, but didn't let Moshe come back with questions.  "Life coach" sounds a bit grandiose.  "Personal Jewish trainer", some call it.  I hope my teaching, on the stage or in smaller settings, is not only informative but helps you grow.

• Finally, it's not about me, it's about Torah and mitzvot.  Korach and Moshe ended up locked in a battle of egos, and no good can come of that.  In the end what I do is measured entirely by the mitzvot we collectively perform as a community.  Whatever I contribute to that, however I can, that's what matters.

As I write, I see that I have defined some guidance not only for a rabbi, but a congregant as well.  For the readers in and around Temple Beth Abraham, thank you for a good year.  May we learn and do much together in the year that's beginning.

Judaism and GLBT Inclusion, Part 1

I had some time ago circled May 2 on my calendar.  The Shabbat when we read Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, which contain the two verses that through the ages have been interpreted by Jews and Christians against homosexuality.  I had been planning to teach from the pulpit about Judaism and the inclusion of people who are gay, lesbian, bisexuality, transsexual, and transgender.

Then a few weeks ago, Noreen and I responded to an offer from Keshet, a Boston-based group that works on GLBT issues in the Jewish community.  Two members of the staff came to speak with us, to talk about what we are or could be doing in the synagogue.  Out of that meeting came, among other things, our planned showing of "Hineini" on Monday, May 11 at 6:30.  It's a film about a teenager at the multidenominational Jewish high school in Boston who was out as a lesbian and wanted the school to allow her to establish a gay-straight alliance group.

And this week, I received a call from a member, State Senator Bette Lasky.  Two bills had passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives and were coming to the State Senate Judiciary Committee for discussion.  HB436 deals with same-sex marriage, and HB415 adds "gender identity or expression" to the antidiscrimination laws.  She wanted to know what Conservative Judaism has to say about these questions.

So it's time to speak.  I'll first tell you where I stand, then explain how I got there.  It will take me more than one post and the one talk to complete my thoughts, no doubt.  I invite responses, questions, dialogue at all points.

All people are created in the image of God.  In our society there should be complete equality regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.  In the Jewish community, there should be welcome to people of all sexual orientations or gender identities.  In American society, two people who love each other and are committed to a life together should be able to enjoy all the rights and privileges of marriage.   If two Jews who are the same sex approach me with that kind of love and commitment, I will talk with them about their relationship the same way I would with two people of the opposite sex.  If they are suited to be married, I will perform a religious ceremony under a chuppah that incorporates elements of the traditional Jewish ceremony of kiddushin and nissuin and that would be recognized as a marriage in those states that recognize same-sex marriage.  I am engaged with people I admire and trust, rabbis and others (of all sexual orientations), as we think about whether the Jewish ceremony for same-sex couples should be identical to the traditional ceremony of kiddushin v'nissuin.

Since these issues were before the Legislature this week, I wrote a letter to my state senator and to Governor Lynch.  I wrote them as an individual, in my own name and not in the name of Temple Beth Abraham.  But I share the text with you, along with my more elaborate thoughts on the blog here.

As a straight person, married with children, I try to watch the language I use when I talk about these matters.  It's easy to think of equality or marriage as a right that "we" (white, male, straight, etc.) give to "others".  That's how it plays out in a society where the political and religious decisions involve more men, whites, Christians, straights than women, people of color, religious minorities, GLBT.  But I believe that from God's point of view, it doesn't matter what there are more of.  It's about humans in the image of God, not whether there are enough gays, enough Jews, etc. to be a political interest group.

(Speaking of language:  I'll admit that I still don't know what the respectful language is that I ought to use.  I have no idea whether every time I say or write "gay" I should instead write "gay and lesbian" or GLBT or something else.  I don't know when to ask about someone's partner, husband, or wife.  My kavvanah, my intentions, are good and please forgive me and educate me if in the writing here I don't get it right.)

When there's a new or difficult question, I start with people.  Like many, I learned to understand something about being gay, or being in a same-sex relationship, from my friends who are.  As friends or students have come out to me, I have been sad and then angry.  To find out that people I cared about and admired were closeted, and then after coming out had the added burden of being everyone's gay friend, or the lesbian couple we know.  It must be hard, having to be in a minority and also having to serve as living proof that you can be transgender and be a great teacher or in a committed relationship that inspires other people.

My friends have had that burden.  It's only from them that I learned that GLBT isn't strange, that gay people can be simply great people.  Then from some who are not my friends, I learned that what do you know, there are gay people who are jerks too!  And with that I finally understood that none of this has anything to do with sexual orientation or gender identity.  Niceness and jerkiness are distributed all over humanity.  Same thing for the ability to form good relationships versus the inability to do so.  You find great people and people you'd rather not be around among men and women, straights and GLBT, Caucasians and people of color, religious and non-religious.

Groups don't earn their civil rights by being better or behaving better than some norm.  When I arrived at that formulation, I came to a new understanding of Genesis 1:  There is no group that is any more or less the image of God than any other.  And if straight people are not the only people with the divine spark, there's no way on theological grounds to say that heterosexual love is the only kind that has merit in God's plan.

That's how Genesis has become a text for me about equality and inclusion.  People showed me what the text means.  I am guided also by the Exodus.  The story of Yetziat Mitzrayim, of going out from Egypt, is the core story of Judaism.  It is a story about becoming seen, becoming free, and becoming part of a covenantal community.  When Moshe first went out from Pharaoh's palace, he saw, and then he understood what was happening to the Hebrews and why.  Then he allied himself with people who had been seen as "other."  And once he was on the scene, there was a vessel for God's energy of freedom.

That story of liberation and covenant is four-fifths of the Torah.  It's taking up most of our annual cycle, telling us that the liberation story is relevant each year we read it.  God is with those who are unseen, held down.  And we are told that we must imitiate God.  That's why I don't see the religious issue in terms of two verses of Leviticus.  Against those verses, I put entire chapters and books of the Torah.

I'm pausing for now.  I will write again, particularly about Conservative Judaism.  I will be speaking in the synagogue about some of these things on Shabbat morning, May 2, and will be e-mailing the congregation beforehand about it and about how to talk about these subjects with our children.

Shabbat shalom!

Jewish Learning Highlights Coming

It looks like I have the new website up and working.  Everything I'd like to put on the web I'll consolidate here.  Thanks to Steve Chazin for suggesting this provider, TypePad (look at Steve's own site too).

I'm concentrating in March on offering some new things in the area of Jewish learning through the Temple.  I've started by adding a new podcast on the web, of the talk I gave at the Southern New Hampshire Jewish Men's Club last September.  Look for more in the next couple weeks, or just subscribe and they'll come to you automatically.

Watch for publicity for the upcoming Pesach University on Sunday, March 15.  We scheduled it with a lot of time before Pesach to provide many resources to help you lead a meangingful seder, even if you've never done it before.

On Shabbat afternoon, March 7, there will be a Lunch and Learn after kiddush on the topic of Purim.

On Wednesday, March 12 at noon is the first meeting of a monthly lunch on Workplace Ethics.  My hope is to build this mostly around difficult cases from participants' own work, illuminated lightly by Jewish texts and religious perspective.  This would be a group not only for study but for trust and real consultation.  Thanks to Terre Weisman for offering us his conference room at Peters Honda of Nashua for our meeting.

Finally, two little things I'll launch next month:

• Torah to Go -- 15 minutes before religious school pickup time on Wednesdays at the school, a quick bite of Jewish learning.  We'll use the Mishnah as our text and thread, to get acquainted with Talmudic Judaism and touch on all aspects of Jewish life and many dimensions of Jewish thinking.
• Monday Minyan Tefillah Study -- Start the week with a brief presentation about a prayer at the start of evening minyan.

Doing my part to up the Jewish learning quotient in our community.  All of this in addition to our many ongoing educational programs.  Read about them here, in the bulletin, and the weekly announcements.