Our Common Home: The Pope’s Encyclical in the Jewish Community

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

So… Who is in the box?  Who’s home falls in the Center City travel box when our special guest, the Pope, visits Philadelphia this fall? Me, too.  Although still not complete, this week’s transportation and security update began to feed my hunger for a better understanding about how my family will function, how emergencies will be addressed, and of course, how we are going to get the Jewish community to synagogue.  As complicated as the Pope’s visit will be from a logistical perspective, I am intrigued about how we in the Jewish community, might find meaning in this historical moment.Continue reading

We All Have Rivers to Cross: Learning Prayer from our Ancestors

Glendasan River, Wicklow MountainsDelivered by Rabbi Jill Maderer this Shabbat...   Thank you to Roberta for your beautiful Torah reading.  When Roberta began to prepare for her Adult B’nei Mitzvah earlier this year, she felt especially draw to chanting Torah.  It was then that her mother reminded her: Roberta’s great-grandfather was a hazzan–a traditional cantor.  This powerful link to her roots — spanning time and space — deepened Roberta’s Torah experience all the more so.

This summer, as we encounter Mishkan HaNefesh, our new High Holy Day Machzor, we are posting a weekly question for your response. This week, we asked: From what person or event in Jewish history or in Jewish tradition do you draw inspiration?  In other words, what are the lessons you learn from Jews of the past?

In Roberta’s case, a teacher of Jewish ritual who was a relative from her own family touched her.  For many, teachers from Jewish history offer connection.  We are not alone in our Jewish quest for meaning.Continue reading

The Power of a Spiritual Foundation in Our Quest for Wholeness

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

Last week, at my annual physical, I brought the health forms my doctor is required to complete, so that I may serve on faculty for two weeks this summer at our Reform Movement’s Jewish camp, Harlam.  The camp does not provide a different version of the health form for faculty, so it can be humorously confusing for the doctor to complete questions that were clearly created for an adolescent.  You can imagine.  As the doctor continues to read down the list of possible ailments, there’s this: does the camper have a problem with eating disorders?  With cutting? The doctor looks up at me.  “What kind of camp is this?!  A place for troubled teens?”  “No,” I reply, “it’s just Jewish camp.  We worry a lot.”

And truth– there is a lot to worry about.   When I think of what it means to raise children and adolescents or to exist as adults in our world, the challenges to a healthy and whole life are overwhelming.  Yet there are real resources in our quest for wholeness.Continue reading

#rsgrows: A Building Expansion Fueled by Purpose

It has been so exciting to see the expansion go up here at Rodeph Shalom.  And now here we are, almost complete, with the May 17 Dedication happening this month!  In last weekend’s Sunday seminar, our expansion chairperson Michael Hauptman taught that the master planning for the space began in 1992!

The meaning of our new addition is certainly not limited to bricks and mortar.  The power of the renovation and expansion has been that, every step of the way, our leadership’s decisions have been mission-driven, fueled by our vision of the people and purpose who will fill its space.  Not once has this congregation set out to create a museum; this is a center for living Judaism, where we honor the past, celebrate the present, and shape the future of Jewish life in Philadelphia.

And so it made sense when, about a year ago, a congregant suggested we consider a Jewish text, that might appear on the external Broad Street wall.  Continue reading

On Public Shaming, a Compassion Deficit and Monica Lewinsky

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

This week’s Torah portion, Shmini, describes what can serve as a korban–a sacrifice.  And when the wrong thing is used as a korban, tragedy results.

Recently, Monica Lewinsky has made the news, because she has begun to speak publicly about the media storm that consumed her identity.  Now at the age of 41, the former Whitehouse intern reflects back when she was 22, and made serious and foolish mistakes, when she began a relationship with her older and exceedingly more powerful boss, the then president of the United States.  Lewinsky’s boss abused his power and her friend violated her trust.  Still, the most painful part of the experience for Lewinsky was the public humiliation she endured.

In 1998, our society allowed the wrong thing to be used as a korban–a sacrifice– when Monica Lewinsky became the first person to be publicly shamed in the age of the internet.  Everyone knew her mistakes, many seemed to derive joy from degrading her, ostracizing her, reducing her to her faults, and exaggerating them beyond recognition. Continue reading

How’s Your Consciousness?: Explore Jewish Meditation at RS

Check out this video of Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg who will speak at RS this Wed. at 7 pm.
     I recently heard an NPR reporter speak about the fact that most New Year’s resolutions don’t stick.  Why not?  My guess is that our priorities get buried under other expectations we have for ourselves, or others have for us.  Then, without being entirely conscious of it, we lose sight of what, on January 1, seemed to be so important.  So many of us fail to be our best selves because we simply lose track of where the day, or week or year is taking us.  I popped that baked good into my mouth without even thinking of it.  I cut off the intersecting grocery cart in the produce section, barely even realizing it.  I made a dismissive and insensitive remark without noticing.  I don’t help out with the house and children as much as I think I do, because I’m not really paying attention.
     Jewish tradition offers us a transformative way to rediscover our consciousness: mindfulness.  Through spiritual practice such as meditation, tradition teaches us to take notice of the world, even of our breath, and pay attention.  Other traditions offer powerful mindfulness wisdom and many of you have benefitted from them.  But I would never want us to miss out on what is right under our noses, right here in our tradition.

Continue reading

LifeEdited: What in Your Life Really Matters?

When you move from one home to another, how long does it take until you unpack the final box?  Has that last box ever just remained packed, tape still in-tact, perhaps ready for the next move?  What’s in there?!

A few weeks ago, much of our Rodeph Shalom staff moved to a different floor or to a different side of the hallway, into temporary office space, to allow for the next stages of renovation and construction.  Although I am almost all unpacked, 3 boxes are still staring at me from the floor.  I have to wonder: if I have survived for almost a month without their contents, how important could they be?

In an effort to teach simplicity and sustainability, Graham Hill, founder of LifeEdited, lives in an apartment, with over 1,000 square feet of functionality, in only 420 square feet. The bed folds into the wall, the coffee table becomes the dining room table, and a wall of drawers slides over to reveal guest beds folded into another wall… LifeEdited provides products, spaces and tips on how you can have more time, money and happiness with less stuff, less space and less waste.Continue reading

If Worry Comes to Your Heart: Anxiety, Control and Noah

Shabbat sermon delivered 10/24/14.  

We just bought our Halloween candy for next week’s trick-or-treaters.  (I haven’t quite finished it yet.).  Bags of mini candy bars take me back:  Do you remember the 80’s, and the freak reports of razor blades in bags of candy?  Suddenly, the world was out to kill America’s children.  No longer could we accept homemade cookies or apples, lest they be poisoned–by my neighbors, in suburban New Jersey!  And no longer could we go home and pop a chocolate bar in our mouths.  No, we had to wait for my mother to pull out the cutting board and the cleaver, and chop through, to check for razor blades, so that we could then enjoy our Kit-kat sawdust.

What do we need in order to feel secure?  How much worry is too much worry?  How do we balance our caution and our trust?  Continue reading

Character Virtues in Everyday Life: Mussar Scholar Alan Morinis Speaks Wed., Oct 22 at 7:00 pm at RS

Periodic Table Character

Our actions become our habits; our habits become our character; our character becomes our soul.  Check out this short film The Science of Character to ignite your own process of character development.  To begin to understand what Judaism teaches us about how to treat ourselves and others, and how to elevate our characters–our souls– in the process, (as discussed in my Yom Kippur morning sermon) join us when Mussar scholar Alan Morinis speaks Wed., Oct. 22 at 7:00 pm at RS.  All are welcome.  Thank you to the Dr. Bernard and Rose Susan Hirschhorn Behrend Fund for sponsoring!

Periodic Table of Character Strengths from Tiffany Shlain’s film The Science of Character and letitripple.org

To Just Sit: A Spiritual Mindfulness Message on Yom Kippur Afternoon

Were you able to find a seat ok?  You may have noticed that when you enter this early part of the Yom Kippur afternoon service, it’s easy to find a place to sit!  Nestled between the crowds of Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur morning, and the crowds that will soon arrive for Yizkor and Neilah, this afternoon service tends to be our quieter moment of the day.  And yet, here you are.  Perhaps you are drawn here because your family has always made Yom Kippur a full-day experience.  Perhaps you need a place to wait out the fast.  Perhaps you are avoiding slicing tomatoes back at your house, where your family is preparing to host a break-fast. And perhaps you are here, to soak up every last potential opportunity, for introspection on Yom Kippur.

I’d like to consider with you, the role of introspection, in these hours of Yom Kippur, and beyond.  What does it mean, to sit in reflection?  Continue reading

Choosing Our Character: A Yom Kippur Message

Delivered Yom Kippur morning by Rabbi Jill Maderer

A woman sits at an airport gate, reading her book and eating a bag of cookies… begins Valerie Cox in her poem, “The Cookie Thief.”  The woman at the airport realizes the man next to her– a stranger– is sticking his hand into her bag and eating her cookies!  How dare he do such a thing?  Her row is called, she boards the airplane, settles into her seat and reaches into her handbag for her book.  And there it is.  Instead of the book, she pulls out her unopened bag of cookies.  The bag at the gate belonged to the man.  He had quietly let her stick her hand into his cookies.  She was the cookie thief!

What was this man’s disposition, that he simply allowed a stranger to share his snack?  And what was this woman’s attitude, that she assumed the worst in someone else?  How much does a response to a small everyday, situation say about who we are?  Jewish tradition teaches that both the large life turning-points and those daily small moments reveal our character, or spiritually we might say, our soul.Continue reading