In an animated short film called, The Power of Empathy, Dr Brene Brown illustrates how empathy is different from sympathy. Continue reading
Letting Go This Elul
Re-eh: see, the opening word of this week’s Torah portion. See, I set before you blessing and curse. Look hard. Sometimes it’s hard to see what is blessing and what is curse. What is right and what’s not right. Or what’s no longer right.
Now on the cusp of Elul, the Hebrew month that begins Wednesday and prepares us for the teshuvah–repentance– of the High Holy Day season, we look hard so that we can tell the difference between the blessing and the curse, the good and the bad. We look hard at our choices, our priorities, our relationship with God, our relationships with other people. We examine the conflicts in our lives and devote ourselves to improvement, change, growth.
For this week’s summer crowdsourcing sermon, your clergy posed the question: “Have you ever carried around a grudge or a feeling that did not allow you to move forward completely? Have you ever let go of such a feeling?”Continue reading
Opening to Risk and Praying for Israel: Crowdsourcing Sermon from last Shabbat
“You shall love the Eternal your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. Set these words upon your heart.”
Why? Why does it say to set these words of love and of Torah, upon your heart? Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz teaches: we place the words of Torah upon our hearts so that they can lay there, wait there, for the day our heart breaks. And when it does break, those words of love sitting on our heart will fall right into the crack. That’s when we will really know Torah.
With fear comes distancing, the building of walls, the closing of hearts. But with openness—sometimes even just a crack, exposing our heart—comes the trust and faith that can allow for risk-taking.Continue reading
Crowd Sourcing Sermons
Imagine that you are a member of the Rodeph Shalom clergy team, and you could tap into the collective wisdom of our congregation to help you write your sermons this summer.
That is exactly what we are going to do this summer with CROWDSOURCING SUMMER SERMON SERIES.
What is Crowdsourcing? It is the process of obtaining ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, especially from the online community. (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2014)
What is Crowdsourcing a Sermon? It is an opportunity for us to draw inspiration from your comments and to encourage conversation among our congregants on important Jewish issues. Crowdsourcing sermons will be a way for us to find an opportunity to draw closer as a community. It will be a way for us to fulfill our Vision of creating profound connectionsContinue reading
When Are We Afraid of the Wrong Thing?
Compelled by stories of catastrophe, novelist Karen Thomson Walker, recently (TED Talk) offered an interpretation of the story of the Whaleship Essex. In 1820, 3000 miles off the coast of Chile in one of the most remote regions of the Pacific Ocean, 20 American sailors watched their ship flood with sea water. They had been struck by a sperm whale. As the ship began to sink, the men huddled together in 3 small whaleboats, stocked only with rudimentary navigation equipment and limited supplies of food and water. These were the men of the Whaleship Essex, whose story would later inspire parts of Moby Dick.Continue reading
Counting the Omer: I stand with Ruth
On this final day of the Omer as we enter Shavuot and read the Book of Ruth, we reflect upon her immigration into the land and people of Israel, the loving-kindness with which Naomi welcomes Ruth and the loving-kindness which Ruth embraces Naomi. In is blog post “We Stand with the Ruth of Today,” Rabbi Richard Levy challenges us to embrace the immigrant and undocumented among us today, with the loving-kindness of Ruth and Naomi.
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 tishah v’arba-im yom, shehem shivah shavuot la-omer.
Today is 49 days which is 7 weeks of the Omer.
Counting the Omer: To Go Up the Mountain and Really Be There
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dLU6fk9QY%3Fenablejsapi%3D1%26wmode%3Dtransparent%26rel%3D0%26showinfo%3D0
This Tuesday evening-Wednesday, June 3-4, the counting of the Omer concludes and Shavuot arrives with our Shavuot Night of Study (7pm). For all of you who have been counting the Omer with us, or tuning in for some of the experience, this is a wonderful time to reflect. What has it meant to turn back to the liberation story of Pesach, to look forward to the revelation story of Shavuot, and to consider on each day, the present moment where you stand?
Judaism offers a great many opportunities to pay attention to the present moment. Some would say that such taking notice is the primary purpose for Jewish ritual. Ritual stops us in our tracks, helps us to notice the bread we are about to eat, the Sabbath about to arrive, the Ten Commandments we are about to embrace. Without ritual we are at risk of inhaling bread, moving into Friday evening, returning from work on June 3, without noticing.
As we celebrate the revelation at Mt. Sinai, consider Exodus 24:12: “Moses went up the mountain and he was there.” A Hasidic teacher notices: “This seems redundant: if Moses went up to the mountain, of course he would be there. However, this is proof that a person can exert tremendous effort to reach the top of a mountain, yet without being there. He may be standing on the mountain, but his head may be elsewhere. The main thing is not the ascent but being there, and only there, and not to be below at the same time.”Continue reading
Counting the Omer: Protecting Each Other
You’ve heard the expression: “Stick your neck out?” What is the metaphor? We compare ourselves to what animal? I always thought it was giraffe. Long neck. I was wrong. To stick your neck out, is to be like a turtle. Why? Sticking your neck out involves risk.
Judaism takes this concept, to stick your neck out, very seriously. Take the Jewish law about gossip, or lashon hara: If one person is gossiping to another, and a 3rd person overhears, the conversation. Of the 3 people, who is most responsible–the gossiper, the listener, or the witness?
The 3rd person. The witness is obligated to intervene. There is no pass, for the passive bystander. Judaism’s focus on the power of the witness, demands we stick our neck out– to take a risk for what we know to be right.
In the past several months, the Whitehouse and college campuses across the nation have brought new attention and resources to this concept of sticking your neck out, in response to the epidemic of sexual violence against women on campus. Bystander Intervention, believed to be the best hope for reducing sexual assault on campus, aims to empower anyone who is witnessing potential trouble. Continue reading
Counting the Omer: Shabbat Wonder
“Wonder, rather than doubt, is the root of all knowledge,” taught Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. As we count the Omer on this Shabbat, we dedicate ourselves to opening our eyes to the wonder all around us.
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 shishah v’arba-im yom, shehem shishah shavuot v’arba-ah yamim la-omer.
Today is 46 days which is 6 weeks and 6 days of the Omer.
Shabbat shalom–Your RS Clergy
Counting the Omer: Four Myths about Jewish Meditation
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/86436446]
Thank you to our congregant, Elise Luce Kraemer, who helps to lead our regular Friday evening Shabbat-prep meditation, for this below article about helpful hints that make Jewish meditation more accessible for us all!
- I tried meditation once, but I couldn’t stop thinking, therefore I am “bad” at meditating.
Typically, meditation involves focusing on breath, a sound, or a prayer with the intention to quiet the mind. However, everyone who has a working mind experiences thoughts while meditating. The goal of meditation is not to get rid of you mind, but instead to cultivate mindfulness. That is, to become aware of your thoughts and emotions, acknowledge them without judgment, and gently return to your practice, e.g. your breath. Even very experienced meditators often experience “monkey mind” (where your mind is all over the place, jumping from thought to thought) when they meditate – it is simply human nature.Continue reading
Counting the Omer: In Honor of the Memory of Maya Angelou
For teaching us the redemptive healing in telling our stories, for inspiring civil rights work not yet complete, for captivating a country with written and spoken word, thank you, Maya Angelou. May your memory be a blessing.
On today’s Omer counting, in honor of Maya Angelou’s memory, we pray that, in her words, we may “give birth again to the dream.”Continue reading
