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By Rabbi Jill Maderer, sermon delivered Kol Nidre evening 2011
If you enjoy cruise-ship vacations, you have likely come across a cruise-ship rabbi. Often times when rabbis retire, they take a cruise-ship gig. Unless you suffer from sea-sickness, it’s good deal. The cruise can offer Shabbat services and the rabbi can enjoy an all—inclusive vacation.
By Fred Strober
Rosh Hashanah at Rodeph Shalom had special meaning to me this year. I attended both the “alternative” and “classic” services, finding each inspiring in its own way. Having played some role in shaping the back-to-back nature of the services, I felt that I wanted to participate in both, but I never thought that I would come away so moved with my very personal involvement with the Torah over the course of the morning.
by Rabbi Jill Maderer (delivered Kol Nidre “Alternative” service)
A story is told of 3 astronauts who went into space. Upon returning, they were asked to reflect on the experience. One said, “I kept thinking, the world looks so small from outer space—the universe is so vast.” The second answered, “I was astonished to think how much had happened on that globe that I could see: all the wars, the loves, the dramas, all on that small orb.” The 3rd astronaut shrugged and said, “You know, all I could think was –why didn’t I bring a camera?!” We take photographs and we take video, but do we pause to take a breath and to appreciate the wonder that surrounds us. Do we focus through our own lens, and open our eyes to the world.Continue reading
A recently heard a story about a group of campers by the side of a river. They saw a body floating by. They all ran into the water, pulled the person out, performed CPR and saved the person. As they were packing up their tents, they noticed another body. Again they jumped into the water, and rescued the man. As they were getting into their cars, they saw another body come floating by. As they were saving this person, one person turned to another and asked: Maybe we better get up-river and see if we can find the source of this problem!
Yes, we’re good at attaining short term goals, but we don’t worry about what comes later. Like the campers, we’re good in a crisis, at saving people as they float by. When we see pictures of hunger on the T.V. and destruction on the front pages of our newspapers and magazines, we react. At these moments we’re good at providing food to fill empty stomachs. However, we don’t often ask what is happening up the river. We aren’t so good when the pictures disappear. When the images are no longer in front of our eyes, we forget those that remain.
I have always loved mazes. When I was in Hawaii a few years ago, I visited the giant pineapple maze of the Dole Plantation. When studying in England, I visited the amazing hedge maze of Hampton Court. And while on recent trip to Montreal, I was thrilled to discover that an abandoned warehouse on the waterfront had been transformed into Le Labyrinthe.
Recently, however, I discovered a whole new type of labyrinth. This summer, while at a wedding in the Texas Hill Country with my fiancée, Laurel, I came across the most wonderful thing. It was a simple path of stones that wound though a circle in an amazing geometric pattern. There were no choices of which direction to go. No difficult riddles to solve or giant scary trolls waiting to capture me. It was just a simple path to walk. As I walked the path to the center of the circle and then back out again, I found my mind wandering. Thinking of my life, how I had come to this place and where I was going. I left the labyrinth feeling refreshed and renewed.
by Rabbi Jill Maderer
Is it enough to confess to God? What if it’s too messy to mend a relationship with a person? Last Friday night, our Interfaith Families Connection Group hosted a Shabbat dinner about the High Holy Days. When I shared this High Holy Day prayer, it sparked passionate debate about tshuvah, repentance. The text reads: “For transgressions against God, the Day of Atonement atones; but for transgressions of one human being against another, the Day of Atonement does not atone until they have made peace with one another.”Continue reading
by Rabbi Jill Maderer (Yom Kippur sermon delivered 9/28/09)
Picture an old, bearded rabbi, sitting at the entrance to a Jewish cemetery on Long Island. In Tony Kushner’s play, Angels in America, Louis, a young man struggling with his soul and his identity, approaches the rabbi and shares, “I’m afraid of the crimes I may commit.” Rabbi Isador Chemelwitz replies: “Please mister. I’m a sick old rabbi facing a long drive home to the Bronx. You want to confess, better you should find a priest.” Louis insists, “But I’m not a Catholic, I’m a Jew.” Rabbi Chemelwitz concludes, “Worse luck for you, bubbalah. Catholics believe in forgiveness. Jews believe in guilt.”Continue reading
by Rabbi Jill Maderer (Kol Nidre sermon delivered 9/27/09)
“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me,” Congressman Joe Wilson said in a statement to the press. “While I disagree with the president’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the president for this lack of civility.”Continue reading
By Rabbi Jill Maderer (Rosh Hashanah sermon delivered 9/19/09)
“What’s on your mind?” asks Facebook. “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world,” invites Twitter. “Broadcast yourself,” challenges Youtube. Or, as our own Rodeph Shalom blog requests, simply, “Comment”.
We live in a time when almost everyone carries a smart-phone-organizer-computer-device, and a world of information is at our fingertips, right there, in our hands. Some of the fastest-growing ways to share that information are the tools of social media or social-networking, that is, the online communications that create a public conversation through the use of interaction, or, comments. Continue reading
By Rabbi Jill Maderer
L’shanah tovah umetukah. We wish each other a good and sweet new year. Typically, we celebrate our hope for a sweet new year by eating apples and honey. But a lesser known tradition identifies a different symbolic fruit for Rosh Hashanah: pomegranates. As delicious as apples and honey are (and I love apple cake!), they are too easy!
Pomegrantes are hard. They require work, perseverance and patience. For every bite of sweetness, we have to suck off the fruit while careful not to swallow the seed. So maybe pomegranates are the more realistic symbol for the new year. Anyone have a recipe for pomegranate cake? (Feel free to share High Holy recipes here!) May we do the hard work of life, and may its sweetness be the fruit of our labor. L’shanah tovah umetukah.
