This week’s Torah portion, Ki Teitzei, contains quite a few seemingly random, disconnected commandments. One especially striking commandment found in this week’s portion is:

If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days. (Deuteronomy 22:6-7)

Most commentators believe this commandment is an important statement against animal cruelty, akin to the prohibition of boiling a kid in it’s mothers milk. Also, modern scholars point to an early ecological message of sustainability in this passage. However, there is another powerful message that our rabbis draw from this text in the Talmud; it lays the foundation for tale of Judaism first apostate, Rabbi Elisha Ben Abuya.

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Picture the scene: The Israelites have been wandering for 40 years in the desert and are finally on the banks of the Jordan river just mere miles from the Holy Land. Moses, knowing that his time as their leader is coming to end, offers one final speech to his people. This not-so-short speech, which is basically the entire book of Deuteronomy, is a look back at their shared history and words of advice for their future. Specifically in this first portion of Deuteronomy, D’varim, Moses does not mince words and offers a harsh rebuke of his people. He says:

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Have you ever seen the hashtag #firstworldproblems? A simple google search brings up some great ones like:

The struggle of finding storage for 20 bottles of champagne #firstworldproblems

I got really tan this weekend and now my concealer is too light!!!

My dog won’t eat that chip I dropped, so now I have to pick it up.

When it takes 6 weeks for the new iphone to come in #firstworldproblems

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More than 1 in 8 Americans struggles with hunger; and many in our own neighborhood. I recently heard a story from Principal Laureal Robinson at Spring Garden Elementary about a student who was putting some of her free school breakfasts and lunches in her backpack to take home because her family did not have enough money to buy groceries last month. The faces of hunger in America are both familiar and hidden from view, yet they are all too real and far too many.

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It was a few days before our Berman Mercaz Limud model seder. As I was heading home for the day, I said to Rabbi Maderer in passing, “I’m off to boil six dozen eggs or so.” She looked at me incredulously, “Why exactly are you boiling all those eggs?” I explained that we had done a sign-up for our model seder and most of the items on the list had been covered but not enough families signed up for the hard boiled eggs and I was just going to do it myself.

Rabbi Maderer, an amazing mentor, then gave me some great advice that will always stay with me; she said, “You did not become a rabbi to boil six dozen eggs, you became a rabbi to empower others to boil eggs!”

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I’m sick and tired of all this sin and repentance stuff! I know, it’s only Erev Rosh Hashanah, we haven’t even gotten to Yom Kippur yet. But every year, it’s the same thing:

Al chet shechatanu lifanecha…

For the sins I committed against you…

Ashamnu, bagadnu, gazalnu…

We betray, we steal, we scorn…

Enough already; enough beating ourselves up. We literally pound on our chests as we say these words, flagellating ourselves on the inside and out. I’m done.

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Help us Celebrate Philadelphia’s 23rd Annual Children’s Sabbath on Sunday, October 16 @ 3pm at Rodeph Shalom

In Rab’s day, there was a teacher whose prayer for the rain was answered promptly. When asked to tell of his special merit, he said, I teach children of the poor as well as of the rich, I accept no fee from any who cannot afford it, and I have a fishpond to delight the children and to encourage them to do their lessons. (Ta’anit 24a)
This text from the Talmud reminds us how important education is in the Jewish tradition. It emphasizes that all children, regardless of socioeconomic status, deserve a quality education. On Sunday, October 16th at 3pm, our congregation will join with other congregations across the city to celebrate Philadelphia’s 23rd annual Children’s Sabbath.  Sponsored by the Children’s Defense Fund, the National Observance is a way for faith communities to celebrate children as sacred gifts of the Divine, and provides the opportunity for houses of worship to renew and live out their moral responsibility to care, protect, and advocate for all children. Rodeph Shalom is proud to be hosting the Children’s Sabbath again this year after a 10 year hiatus.
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Picture the scene: Thousands of African-Americans marching in the South for civil rights.  Marching arm in arm, their voices raised in songs of protest.  There are some white allies in the group as well.  Even some Jews and some rabbis.  They are carrying a Torah scroll, a symbol of the Jewish values that compel us to stand with our neighbors and to fight for racial justice and equality.  Setting off from Selma, Alabama, they march together.  Marching to end racial profiling, marching to end discriminatory voting practices, marching to end economic injustice, and marching to end inequality in our public schools.  The year?  No, I am not talking about the civil rights marches of 1965, but rather this very summer, 2015.  50 years on from the original march from Selma to Montgomery, we are still marching.  To quote the rapper, Mos Def, “A lot of things have changed, a lot of things have not!”  The NAACP, along with partners like the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, marched this summer from Selma to Montgomery; but they did not stop there – they kept marching all the way to Washington, DC.  And they arrived today.  Dubbed America’s Journey for Justice, thousands of activists travelled over 860 miles to continue the struggle for racial justice in America.

Just as the Jewish community was integral to the original civil rights movement of the 60’s, we must be present again today.  Just as it was 50 years ago, racism and civil rights are still Jewish issues.  A lot of things have changed, a lot of things have not!

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“Better a piece of dry bread and tranquility with it, than a house full of feasting with strife.” (Proverbs 17:1)

“If your wife is short, bend over to hear her whisper.” (Talmud, Bava M’tzia 59a)

– Mishkan HaNefesh, Yom Kippur, pg. 402-403

These texts speak about the Jewish concept of shalom bayit – peace in the home.  What does the term shalom bayit mean to you? How do you create a peaceful home?

There’s an old expression from the great city of Chicago – vote early and vote often.   The first part of the saying is good advice.  We actually have a similar idea in Judaism.  We should be so excited to do a mitzvah that we do it first thing – early in the day; this is why brises are often done in the morning.  The second part of this saying is obviously a tongue-in-cheek reference to the corrupt practice of voter fraud, for as we know so well, every person is entitled to one vote and one vote only.

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