Sukkot

Sukkot
Rabbi Denise L. Eger

With the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur behind us our attention turns immediately to the great Festival of Sukkot. Celebrated four days after Yom Kippur, this is the festival of the harvest and the idea of abundance granted by God! As the gates of heaven closed at the Neilah service we were renewed and uplifted for a New Year. The holiday of Sukkot then becomes an opportunity to celebrate this new life and all that is good!
For a week our Sukkot celebrations remind us of the joys and sweetness of our lives. The sweet smell of the etrog and the leaves of the lulav affirms the sweetness of a life renewed. The opportunity to welcome guests both ancient guests like Abraham and Sarah and our friends and family and neighbors into our Sukkah affirms the joy of relationships and the mitzvah of hospitality. We share food and drink with our guests in the Sukkah and enjoy a time of connection with those we love and care about. This is an ultimate affirmation of the goodness of life and the abundance that God grants to us!
In ancient times Sukkot was the most important Festival. One of the three pilgrimage holidays along with Passover and Shavuot, this holy week was known as THE FESTIVAL. Jews from around the world would descend upon Jerusalem. There they would give thanks for the fall harvest in the Temple and visit with family and friends.
For each of us, the week of Sukkot presents an opportunity to give thanks for all the goodness in our lives. Even in a time of economic challenges or health challenges there is still much to be thankful for. How we manage the crisis is the opportunity to come to know how God can bring strength for those so challenged. Sukkot and its emphasis on reaping an abundant harvest and looking toward a year of bounty can help us learn to reframe our situation. It can help you look and see where the blessings in your life really reside. And perhaps inspire you to move in new directions.

The sukkah that we build on this festival is part of that inspiration. When we sit in our sukkah (or a friend’s or neighbor’s sukkah) we understand that the sukkah is temporary. It is a fragile hut. And with a strong rain or strong wind the whole booth might blow over. But instead we celebrate in it and eat and some even sleep outside in their sukkah. With our family and friends we see that there is abundance to our lives even if we are in a temporary situation. And for this we give thanks. The relationships that we build and nurture are the community that can help us cope with crisis and challenge. So even if we have challenges we come to learn we aren’t alone and that God too dwells in the Sukkah as the Holy Divine Spirit dwelt in the Temple of old.

So this Sukkot festival, build a sukkah for yourself even if you have never done so. Put it on your balcony if you live in a condo or apartment. If you are lucky enough to live in a home, put it in your yard. If you want instructions on how to build a sukkah click on this link http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Sukkot/At_Home/The_Sukkah/Laws/Building_a_Sukkah.shtml
There are many kits available too. But take some time this week to make the effort. It will lift your spirits. Sukkot begins Friday night October 2.
I wish you a very happy Sukkot filled with the recognitions that life is good and God grants us a Divine measure of abundance!

Shalom,

Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Shabbat Shuvah Parshat Haazinu Deuteronomy 32:1-52

Shabbat Shuvah
Parshat Haazinu
Deuteronomy 32:1-52

This Shabbat gets its name from the special Haftarah that is read this week. The reading is a selection from three different prophets, Hosea, Micah and Joel. Even though three different prophets are read, the message is the same one from each, of repentance and return to God and God’s ways. This is the emphasis during this Ten Day of Repentance and Awe.

During this time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we Jews are supposed to seriously engage in soul-wrangling. What is soul-wrangling? We are supposed to look inside and review our ways. Find the inconsistencies, the places we sinned; the words we spoke that caused pain and harm; the relationships that were fractured; and where we missed the mark completely by commission or omission. We are to use these ten days to improve our spiritual foundations and shore up the weakness. We are to try to rebuild our connection to the Divine. This Holy Week we are to make amends to others, to ourselves and to God for not walking in holy paths. This is the work of soul-wrangling!

Soul-wrangling is never easy. But we are supposed to get a handle on these places during this week so that come Yom Kippur we can really step forward before God and before those with whom we tangled in the last year and seek forgiveness. And it takes some doing. To get the most out of Yom Kippur worship. To really atone and be renewed for the year to come, one must take some time of preparation. That is what this holy time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is for.

To help you with your soul-wrangling here is a meditation from the writing of Rabbi Nachaman of Breslov. He was an important Hasidic master who was only thirty-eight years old when he died in 1810! But he left for us a profound body of writings that shows not only great intelligence but deep spiritual yearnings. Try to use it in your preparations for Yom Kippur.

Oh forgiving God,
You alone know
How urgently I need to learn to forgive,
Help me douse all the anger
That burns within me.
Free me of resentment
Against those who have wronged me.
Help me abandon all of the animosity
All the hostility
That clogs my heart
Help me to turn my anger into love
And my enmity into compassion. (Likutei Mohoran 1:18)
(The Gentle Weapon, adapted by Moshe Mykoff & S.C. Mizrachi, Jewish Light Publishing, Vermont, 2000, p. 54)

I wish for you a week of spiritual preparation and soul wrangling!
Shanah Tovah u’metukah

September 18, 2009

September 18, 2009

Give a Hand in the New Year.
The Jewish New Year is upon us. This weekend Jews around the world will observe Rosh Hashanah, the start of the year 5770 in the Jewish calendar.
For many of us the New Year comes not a minute too soon. This past year has been a year of tumult, crisis and difficulties. Finances and families top the list of challenges.
Many people and institutions in the Jewish community had invested funds with Bernie Madoff. His ponzi scheme devastated so many families who and charities. Some charitable organization that had their own organizational investments with Madoff closed their doors.
All of our families lived through the campaign to eliminate marriage for gay couples. Today, 18,000 same-sex couples are legally married in California but gay and lesbian couples who did not marry during that time—or had not met yet—are banned from the protections and responsibilities of a legal, loving family.
And when our gay, transgender or questioning youth and their counselor were gunned down in Tel Aviv—miles away from California but only a heartbeat away from our synagogues and families—the world mourned.

These crises led many of us to examine our lives; to take an inward journey re-evaluating our dreams, needs, actions, desires, and hopes. Whether we reflected on the shifting sands of consumerism, credit markets, and the banking world or we reshaped our understanding of family to include gay families and families whose children are gay, we have been changed.
Financially, our notion of stability is shaken to our core. Our notions of what we thought God was to provide for us slipped away as surely as our tuition funds disappeared and our retirement funds faded. Homes are foreclosed and unemployment affects every community.
Personally, we see the changing human landscape of gay and transgender people who refuse to be silent. We see the progress of more openness in synagogues and other faith traditions while thinking about dust and ashes as children are mowed down and fear mongers mobilize people who think they are being faithful.
We have to ask, “Will the New Year be a time to heal from this deep pain and crisis? Will the New Year bring with it an opportunity to change course, turn over a new leaf? What else should I do to make sure all families are respected and protected by the laws of the land?”
During these Days of Awe as we begin a process of teshuvah or repentance. This is the deep examination of our inner lives. We examine our own actions and deeds to review our errors and transgression and how we might distance ourselves from them in the year ahead. We confess to those misdeed and shortcomings. We use prayer and meditation to help us bring the Divine Holy Presence closer in our lives. We work to try to ask for forgiveness and to forgive others and ourselves. This engagement with people lifts us all up. This is a process which points us toward hope.
The Talmud relays this following story of Rabbi Johanan who once fell ill. And Rabbi Hanina went in to visit him. Hanina said to Johanan Are your sufferings welcome to you? He replied Neither they are nor their supposed reward. Hanina said to him: Give me your hand. Johanan gave him his hand and he raised him up. Why could not R. Johanan raise himself? The sages replied: a prisoner cannot free himself from jail. (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 5b).
This story comes to teach us a profound lesson in these days of crisis. It takes a helping hand to raise us up from our crises. It takes reaching out across the great divides that hinder our country and our traditions. Whether race class, gender, orientation or even partisan politics, this is a time to heal and to bring comfort. It is a time to forgive and be forgiven.
The hands of friends, neighbors and family will raise us up and we will raise them. In this year of deep crises and reflection, when so many are out of work, or grieving loss, we need to help bring a touch of humanity back into their lives. Even as we engage in self-examination, prayer and meditation, it is the human touch which completes the spiritual journey.
So as the Jewish New Year descends upon us perhaps we will reach out to someone in need, a neighbor who is out of work, a family member or someone we have wanted to meet and offer a hand up, a meal, a kind word, an opportunity to build some hope for the New Year.
I wish you a Happy New Year. Shanah Tovah u’metukah.

Parshat Nitzavim - Vaylech Deuteronomy 29:9 -31:30

Parshat Nitzavim - Vaylech
Deuteronomy 29:9 -31:30
Rabbi Denise L. Eger

As we come to the close of Deuteronomy, this week we read a double portion Nitzavim-Vayelech. Moses is in his final addresses to the people and is preparing his messages because soon he will die and be gathered to God. The urgency in his words now is palpable. He wants to make sure that the Children of Israel gets the message to be faithful to the covenant. He reminds them that God sees them and sees their actions. And that the pathway to God and turning back to God is always possible. He reminds them that there will be many temptations as they cross over into the Promised Land but that the Children of Israel must cling to the covenant and if not future generations will look back at the curses that befell them.

The first verse of the portion has much power. “You stand this day, all of you before Adonai your God” (Deut. 29:9). Moses reminds them all, from the chieftains to the women and children and even those who toil in the lowliest of occupations that this message of adherence to the covenant isn’t just an abstraction. Yet each of them, all the children of Israel, stand before the Holy One of Blessing. The covenant of God and God’s teaching which will become the Torah belongs to all the people not only the priests and leaders. This is a teaching for everyone at every station in life.

Remember this is not the group that witnessed the revelation at Mt. Sinai. This is the group born in the desert. The only ones left at this time are Moses, Joshua and Caleb. And so Moses wants to make sure that the group embraces the covenant and makes it their own. That is why they are standing before God, not just Moses.

And this is one reason we read this portion of Nitzavim on Yom Kippur morning in Reform congregations. The regular reading for Yom Kippur morning recounts the sacrifices necessary in the Tabernacle and later the Temple for atonement and purification from various sins. But this portion reminds us that our covenant is vibrant and alive and ours to embrace. If we refuse to do so or reject it there are consequences.
But we must realize that we make that choice standing before the Holy One that we call God. And on Yom Kippur morning especially as we seek atonement and pardon for our misdeeds and errors and transgression we can only do this if we remember we are standing before God.

Above many arks in many synagogues is written the phrase “Da Mi Atah Omed” “Know Before Whom You Stand.” As we approach the Holy Ark, the aron hakodesh that contains the scrolls of the covenant we need to do so with humility and remembering that it is before the Holy Eternal One that we stand. This is the same idea in this week’s portion. As we embrace the covenant and make our covenantal promises we don’t do this in a vacuum but before God. This is a partnership between human beings, the Israelites and God. And to build that relationship we must be present. “You stand this day all of you before Adonai your God.” This week’s portion reminds us that we are always standing before God!

Parshat Ki Tavo Deuteronomy 26:1-29:1

Parshat Ki Tavo
Deuteronomy 26:1-29:1

As summer comes to a close and September is here, we look ahead to the new Jewish year, 5770. We are in the Hebrew month of Elul, the last month of the Jewish calendar and a month of preparation so that we can begin the New Year with a clean heart and purified soul! We are to take these days of preparation and look deep within ourselves to prepare. Tradition calls it Cheshbon HaNefesh, an accounting of our soul. We aren’t just to show up at services ready to recite a series of formulaic prayers. But we are to take some time for personal review of our words and deeds in the past year; of the relationships that were successful and those that had difficulties. And most importantly, how we contributed to their success or damaged our relationships. Where did we err and how can we rectify those error and transgressions and feel a sense of wholeness and forgiveness? How can we seek forgiveness from those we might have harmed and seek forgiveness for ourselves?

Our Torah portion, Ki Tavo reminds us of several rituals that the Israelites are to engage in once they have crossed over into the Promised Land. They are to gather the first fruits of the harvest and give thanks to God. The people must in addition bring tithes. They must engrave the teachings of the Torah on large stones. And they are to bring offerings and finally engage in a ritual drama between the tribes on Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerezim that acts out and emphasizes the blessings and curses for observing or failure to observe the commandments. Each of these rituals and actions help to reinforce the messages of sticking to the covenant once they enter and begin to settle in the land. They put God and the covenant at the center of their lives. The fear of course is that when they come into contact with the many idolatrous nations they will quickly want to assimilate and acculturate to the local customs and religion. These rituals and actions help preserve in the Israelite mind and heart the unique relationship to the Holy One of Blessing.
So too, this time of year for all of us is designed to help us put the focus on our covenant and our relationship to the Holy One of Blessing and our relationships with others. When we engage in this process of examining the heart and soul we do so in the context of living a Jewish life. When we ask the questions about how we did during the past year and what we need to become the best person we can be, we might ask – What does God want of me? How can I aspire to live a more holy and more present life? How can I turn over a new leaf and make teshuvah for my errors, sins and transgressions against myself, God and others?
Like the Israelites of old who needed reminders—we do too. So come engage in this process of growth and renewal. It will help you cross over into a Promised Land-a land of fulfillment, meaning and the New Year of 5770!