I imagine most of you have by now been forwarded some email about the convergence of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving this year.  Yes, it is true that the first night of Hanukkah this year is the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and it is also true that this will not happen again for another 79,000 years or so.  This strange phenomenon has captivated many American Jews and non-Jews alike and brought many unaffiliated families out of the woodwork – perhaps because it reflects the intersection of our Jewish and American identities.  

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Who here has seen the musical Les Miserable?  I still remember the first time I saw Les Mis –  I remember my parents taking my to the Wang Center in Boston.  It was amazing!  The moving stage, the costumes, the music, the emotion – I was blown away.

As I was reading this weeks Torah portion, one song from Les Mis kept popping into my head.  Picture the scene: Jean Valjean is on his deathbed.  The curtain between the living and the dead has been raised and he is joined by Eponine and Fantine.  And then his entire life is summed up in one of the most beautiful verses I have ever heard:

Click here to listen!

The final line that we just heard is actually a Victor Hugo original from the book, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

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If you’ve ever seen the Adam Sandler movie, Don’t Mess with the Zohan, you may be familiar with the band, HaDag Nachash.  Their name which literally means Snake Fish, is a Hebrew spoonerism of the phrase Nachag Chadash, a new driver.  Through mixing hip hop and rock, western and eastern music, HaDag Nachash bring to light some of the most important issues in Israel today.  One song that particularly touches upon what it means to be in Israel is, “Hinei Ani Ba, Here I Come.”  The song tells the tale of the dichotomy between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv:

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In an episode of the TV sitcom “Friends,” entitled “The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS,” two characters, Phoebe and Joey, engage in a contest based on the theories of philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Is there such a thing as a truly unselfish act, they wonder, one in which someone benefits while the person performing the act receives nothing in return?  Joey believes not; Phoebe sets out to prove him wrong.  After several failed attempts, Phoebe lets a bee sting her “so it can look cool in front of its bee friends.”  Surely, she believes, this is a selfless act; Phoebe allowed herself to be hurt so that the bee could benefit.  Nope, Joey points out; the bee likely died soon after losing its stinger in Phoebe’s arm.

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It was a beautiful summer day; I was about 6 years old and playing with my little brother in a second floor room of our suburban Boston house.  We were horsing around near the windows when I distinctly remember my mom yelling to my brother, “Nate, don’t lean on the screen…”  Well, as you might have guessed, the screen was not very sturdy and without warning my brother plummeted out the second story window.  Thank God, there was a fichus tree directly beneath the window that broke his fall and he bounced up laughing and smiling as if to suggest, “Can I do that again?”

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There were many profound moments throughout my young adult life that led me to the rabbinate.  One of the most powerful of these came during a Shabbat evening when I was an impressionable freshman at Brandeis University.  We had just finished dinner and were sitting down to listen to a Shabbat lecture from the Reform Rabbinic Advisor, Rabbi Jonathan Klein.  The young rabbi took out two pieces of white plastic that appeared to be something like a zip-tie and asked us if anyone knew what these were.  After a few failed guesses that they were some sort of strange religious device that we had not yet encountered in our lives, Rabbi Klein explained that they were riot handcuffs; a quick easy way for police to arrest large groups of protesters at once.  Rabbi Klein then went on to tell us about how he had recently been arrested while protesting in New York.  I thought to myself, “Rabbis can get arrested?!  This is awesome.  I’m gonna be a rabbi!”

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Our cantorial search committee has been hard at work!  In our initial meeting we began by thinking about the characteristics that our congregation is looking for in an ideal candidate:

We need a wonderful cantor who can provide visionary leadership in all aspects of the life of our congregation. We are looking for someone to be involved in the planning, intentionality and spiritual leadership of our prayer services,  as well as the visioning and strategic planning of the entire congregation.

We seek a cantor who will be a musical and spiritual leader who is deeply and holistically connected with the life of our community in every area of congregational life, including teaching adults and children and B’nai Mitzvah, conducting life-cycle events, pastoral counseling and participating in social action efforts.

We hope to find someone who is visionary, personable, caring and compassionate in working with congregants and in teamwork with fellow clergy.

Finally, our ideal cantor is someone who is highly skilled, with a voice strong enough to fill our Sanctuary yet humble enough to help facilitate participatory song and worship, so that congregants will feel a part of their own prayer experience.

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V’Achalta, V’Savata, u’Verachata
You shall eat, you shall be satisfied and you shall bless God.
—Birkat HaMazon, the traditional Jewish blessing after the meal.

Jewish meals unite us—whether it’s a Passover Seder at home or a Shabbat dinner here at Rodeph Shalom. Food, rituals around food, distinctions about what’s “kosher” whether defined according to Jewish law or to other ethical standards, is a defining feature of our religion, tradition and culture.

So, when we sit down to eat what we serve and how we serve it matters. I believe that we should approach the daily act of feeding ourselves and our communities with the kind of sanctity, satisfaction and gratitude our tradition celebrates. And believe me, in the age of industrial agriculture and in our increasingly “flat world,” this is not as easy as it seems. We do our best to provide nutritious meals to our children, our families, and our seniors. And yet, when we hand over a Styrofoam plate heaped with steaming industrial processed red meat, slaughtered by underpaid laborers and stewed in tomatoes imported from who-knows-where, we can’t help but be nagged by the uncomfortable question, is this really “kosher?”

The word “kosher” means “fit” – and Jews have been evaluating what food is “fit” for them to eat for thousands of years. While traditional forms of keeping kosher (no pork, shellfish or milk and meat together) may be important to some, I see an opportunity to expand your consideration of what food is “fit” to eat based on how it was grown, where it was grown, and the effects of its production on the people who do the work and the land where it is produced. This new movement is often referred to as “eco-kashrut.”

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