Counting the Omer: 2 Impact Opportunities For Marriage Equality

There are 2 opportunities to act for LGBT civil rights this week, so in today’s count, we focus on social change!  FIRST: FOR THE RIGHT TO HAVE A MARRIAGE RECOGNIZED STATE TO STATE, JOIN US THIS THURS–US District Judge Mary McLaughlin has scheduled the oral arguments for Cara Palladino & Isabelle Barker v. Governor Thomas Corbett for Thursday, May 15, 2014 at 9:30 am in Courtroom 13-A, US Courthouse, 6th & Market Street, Philadelphia. Supporters of marriage equality are encouraged to be present at this historic case.

SECOND: SIGN-UP TO STAND TOGETHER WHEN THE MARRIAGE EQUALITY JUDGMENT COMES IN–If you would like to be on “stand-by” to gather for a rally on the evening of the decision of the Whitewood case which seeks to open the door to marriage equality in PA, please add your name by emailing edu@rodephshalom.org.

This week of Omer counting focuses on Hod, glory, and the glory of just decisions is exactly what we are praying for.  Inspired by the Torah’s teaching that human beings are created in God’s image, our congregation affirms the worth and dignity of all God’s children and is proud to support Why Marriage Matters Pennsylvania and the movement to bring the freedom to marry to loving same-sex couples in Pennsylvania. For some time, the Why Marriage Matters PA campaign has known that our congregations and clergy stand with Marriage Equality. Now, we literally have the opportunity stand with the movement and to show up. Sometime in the next weeks, the judge in Whitewood v. Wolf, the case that seeks to strike down Pennsylvania’s law denying same-sex couples marriage equality, will decide in a summary judgment.

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Counting the Omer: Voice

Is it ok to be angry?  Jewish tradition says yes–anger is valuable when it drives us to stand against injustice.  For today’s omer counting and this week’s focus on might, givurah, we celebrate these girls who raise their voices for the purpose of justice.

Baruch Ata Adonai, Elohenu Melech ha-olam asher kidishanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu al s’firat ha’omer.  Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes us holy with sacred actions and enjoins us to count the omer.

Hayom achad asar yom, shehem shavuah echad v’arba-ah yamim, la-omer.  Today is 11 days which is one week and 4 days of the Omer.

Wishing you a meaningful omer– Your RS Clergy

Counting the Omer: The Earth Remains

Happy Earth Day! The Reform Jewish Movement is deeply committed to protecting the environment. Learn more at www.rac.org/enviro.
One of you at RS recently shared the need to add recycling bins to the bathrooms in our homes.  What other new ideas are you all trying to implement that will help to protect our earth?  On this 8th day of the Counting of the Omer, we honor the sacred creation God renews each day.

Baruch Ata Adonai, Elohenu Melech ha-olam asher kidishanu b’mitzvotav vitzivanu al s’firat ha’omer.  Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes us holy with sacred actions and enjoins us to count the omer.

Hayom shimonah yamim, shehem shevuah echad veyom echad la-aomer. Today is 8 days, which are one week and one day of the omer.

Happy Earth Day–Your RS Clergy

Counting the Omer: Destiny and Free Will

When we consider the meaning of our actions and of our days, many wonder: Destiny or free will?  Judaism says both!

A story is told about Rabbi Akiva’s daughter.  When she was born, astrologers told Rabbi Akiva that on her wedding day, she would be killed by a poisonous snake and die.  Years pass and the evening before the daughter’s wedding day arrives.  Exhausted after the rehearsal dinner, she climbs into bed, pulls her hairpin from her head, and sticks it in the wall for the next day.

The next morning, as Rabbi Akiva’s daughter is getting ready for her wedding, she pulls her hairpin from the wall and sees a poisonous snake impaled on the end!  She shrieks as she realizes how close the snakeContinue reading

Counting the Omer: Loving the Vulnerable in the Ukraine and Beyond

As we explore hesed in this first week of the Omer, stories of loving-kindness can inspire our own.  For 100 years, the JDC has extended loving-kindness across the globe, in its relief work for the most vulnerable.  On behalf of the Jewish community, they serve people of all backgrounds, bringing aid and building bridges.  An archive of images of their work includes this photograph, depicting the JDC-financed the 1929 “Drop of Milk” initiative which provided milk for infants in need in the Ukraine.  And relief efforts in the Ukraine continue to our day.  Dov Ben-Shimon from the JDC will speak on “Hunger and Thirst in the Jewish World: Poverty, Food Insecurity and the Search for Community” at RS Wednesday, April 30, 7:00 pm to paint a picture of the important work they are doing today.

What can you do to extend hesed to the most vulnerable in our society?Continue reading

Have You Had a “Good” Year?: End of the Year Giving

As the-end-of-the-year solicitations flood the inbox, this season offers an opportunity for us to consider the Jewish values behind the righteous giving–the tzedakah–we choose to do.

A Yiddush story:  A wealthy Jewish citizen named Reb Yitzchak is preparing his daughter’s wedding.  Reflecting the ethos of the shtetl, all the poorest members of the community, including those who beg for tzedakah in the marketplace, are to be honored guests at the celebration.

However, this time the poor are tired of being taken for granted.  This group of shnorrers (not a nice word—story’s word, not mine) will not be paid off by one hot meal and lip service about how beloved they are.  These men and women take a stand—by going on strike!Continue reading

Bugs in My Kale: Bringing Intention to Our Food

Thank you to the many members of the community and beyond who have become deeply engaged in the conversation: “What is Your Food Worth,” a partnership with the Feinstein Center at Temple University.  Inspired this fall by Rabbi Kuhn’s Rosh Hashanah sermon, Professor Lila Berman’s keynote “A New Judaism from the Tabletop: Food and the Transformation of American Jewish Life,” the Hazon Food Festival hosted at RS, the screening of “A Place at the Table,” study sessions, the What is Your Food Worth blog, and our congregational blog posts, let us discover how now to move from theory to practice.  

Related thoughts from a recent D’var Torah…   Week after week I bring home my box of CSA vegetables.  Continue reading

“A Place at The Table” Film Screening and Jewish Values about Hunger

A Place at the Table Poster.jpegUnderstand how we are “One Nation, Underfed,” at our Sun, Nov. 3, 10am screening of the Jeff Bridges narrated film about hunger in America, A Place at the Table, followed by a discussion led by The Food Trust executive director, Yael Lehman.  A part of our What is Your Food Worth partnership with Temple University’s Feinstein Center.

When I was in college, I was introduced for the first time to the extended Jewish Grace After Meals blessing recited by traditional Jews.  I thought the Birkat Hamazon version Reform Jews recited was long, but this traditional text at least quadrupled the blessing I had heard in my youth.

As I listened, I noticed that some people at the Brandeis Shabbat dinner, omitted a verse.  Instead of reciting the words, they just hummed the tune when it was time to say the line that reads: “I have not seen a righteous person forsaken, or children begging for bread.” Continue reading

A Single Carrot and a Jewish Food Movement

Fish marketExplore “A New Judaism from the Tabletop: Food and the Transformation of American Jewish Life” in our conversation with Professor Lila Berman at RS on Wed., Oct. 16, 7:00 pm, in a keynote sponsored by the Dr. Bernard & Rose Susan Hirschhorn Behrend Fund, and whet your appetite with these reflections…

Last Wednesday evening I walked down to the RS kitchen to pick up my CSA vegetables, and and to say hello to this week’s team of Caring Community congregants mitzvah-cooking for other congregants who are returning from the hospital.  There, we also had some congregants cracking garlic.  Lots and lots of garlic.  It looked like 50 peeled cloves in the pile!  Our CSA farmer, Phil, had asked RS to peel cloves so that each could be planted as a bulb and grow garlic for the next season.  So even on North Broad Street, Farmer Phil had found a way for us to connect to our food source and in a way, to farm!  Continue reading