Parshat Vayetze Genesis 28:10- 32:3

Parshat Vayetze
Genesis 28:10- 32:3
Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week’s Thanksgiving holiday is a time to open our eyes. As Americans we think of the Pilgrims and Native Americans of the Wampanoag tribe that sat down to a meal to celebrate the bounty of the first white man’s harvest in the New World. One that would not have been possible with out Native American know-how! At the heart of this meal is the food of cooperation. Even across a great cultural divide, the Wampanoag tribe shared its knowledge of the local crops and local game and navigating the local rivers and ocean with the new arrivals from England, the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower in 1620.

This spirit of cooperation should be as much a part of our holiday celebrations as the turkey, yams and pumpkin pie! Cooperation between and among family members and friends is a good place to begin as we gather around the holiday table. And as we sit down together to over-eat we can begin a process that examines all that we have to be thankful for. Of course the Pilgrims of old based their own Thanksgiving feast on the fall Harvest festival of the Bible—we Jews call Sukkot. And they did in prayer give thanks to God for the abundance they had been blessed with. They were able to say aloud even though they had a very harsh passage across the ocean and arrived in the New World during a bitter winter where many perished, a thank you to the Holy One of Blessing for that which they were able to grow and harvest and build.

They acknowledged that their work together and the cooperation with the Wampanoag Indians made the difference in their lives.

In this week’s parasha, our patriarch Jacob has a moment when he too opens his eyes to the blessings in his life. Jacob is fleeing the wrath of a very angry brother, Esau. Jacob managed (with the help of his mother Rebecca) to deceive their father into giving him the family blessing. And Jacob’s eyes are opened to many things.

And so as he stops for the night on his journey to Haran to his mother’s family, he lays down to sleep and has a vivid dream and vision. God speaks to him and offers him a blessing of protection and a covenantal promise following in the footsteps of his father Isaac and grandfather, Abraham.

Upon awakening, Jacob’s awareness comes into focus, his eyes are open to a new possibility and new reality. “Surely God is present in this place and I did not know it.” “How amazing is this place! This is none other than the abode of God.” Jacob’s reality is changed. And he gives thanks there. Thanks to God for the promise of protection and the promise of abundance and the spirit cooperation that he will connect with God. This week’s parasha outlines a special kind of Thanksgiving between Jacob and the Holy One of Blessing. From this time on out, Jacob our patriarch gives thanks to God and sets a tithe for God. (See verse 28: 22).
A promise of abundance by God is echoed by a sharing of abundance by Jacob. And the Pilgrims did the same. The Native Americans gave them the promise of abundance through sharing their farming knowledge and the Pilgrims shared their abundance with them.
And so, too, we should on this Thanksgiving open our own eyes to the abundance in our life- whether material abundance, or an abundance of love and family and friends, and give back.

One way to do so is to participate in the Jewish Federation and Board of Rabbis Fed Up with Hunger Campaign. Help bring some abundance to those who need it most. More than 1, 000, 000 people in our city do not have nutritious food or any food at all. They are hungry and their food insecurity reaches unparalleled heights. By participating in the Fed Up with Hunger Campaign we can share our abundance with others in many ways. Click on the link www.givelifemeaning.org to learn how you can open your eyes to the many ways to help, by donating, or volunteering or becoming a hunger advocate. We need to cooperate to defeat hunger in our city and our county.

This Thanksgiving the time has come to open our eyes to those that are hungry in our midst and how we might cooperate and act with compassion and caring.

Happy Thanksgiving

Parshat Toledot Genesis 25:19-28:9

Parshat Toledot
Genesis 25:19-28:9
Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This week’s Torah portion begins with prayer; the prayer of Isaac and the prayer of Rebecca. Isaac and Rebecca had been childless. Isaac pleads with God on behalf of his wife (Gen. 25:21). We do not know the content of his prayer to God. We only know that Isaac took the time and energy to speak to God of their plight as a couple. He could have taken other wives to have children. But Isaac calls out to God, pleads with God to grant them children. And God hears his plea and Rebecca becomes pregnant.
And then during Rebecca’s pregnancy “as the children pressed against each other inside” (Gen. 25:2), she inquires of God. In her own distress Rebecca calls out to God. We don’t know if she physically was in pain or concerned about how her pregnancy was going. She knew that something was out of the ordinary. And she was worried. So she prays and God answers her.

Prayer and reflection by our patriarch, Isaac and our matriarch Rebecca are lifted up in this week’s portion as powerful example of our covenantal promise. We are in a relationship with God. In times of great joy and in times of fear or sorrow we can utilize the prayer and inquiry to the Divine to help us understand and to face our fears. Rebecca didn’t understand what was happening to her. She calls out in distress as she feared the children in her womb were in distress. “If this is so why do I exist?” (Gen. 25:22) she asks. She wants meaning. She wants to put her suffering and pain and fear about her children in a larger context. And she tries to do so through her prayer directed towards God.
One aspect of prayer is to try to put our own thoughts, our own situation into a larger context of meaning for our own lives. The word for prayer in Hebrew tefilah, shares a root with the word for judging one’s self. By looking at our lives, examining our situation in depth we can at times strive to put what is happening to us joy or sorrow in a larger frame of reference.
Will God always answer us? Will we always find the answers as Rebecca and Isaac did? Perhaps not. But through prayer and reflection we can begin to sort out the different aspects of our situation and build for ourselves a new way forward. This is our challenge and this is our inheritance from the prayers of Rebecca and Isaac. Let us go prayerfully forward.

Parshat Chayei Sarah Genesis 23:1-25:18

Parshat Chayei Sarah
Genesis 23:1-25:18
Rabbi Denise L. Eger

This past week I visited Toronto, Canada. I was attending the Union for Reform Judaism’s Biennial Conference. More than 3000 Reform Jews from all over North America gathered to pray study and learn from one another. We sang and danced during Shabbat. Listened to the inspiring words of Reform Movement leaders and met old friends and made new ones. Representing our congregation at the Biennial was also Cantor Saltzman, VP President of our Board, Gary Wilson and past president, Cary Davidson and his partner Andrew Ogilvie. Cary is a National Board member of the Union for Reform Judaism. There were other Kol Ami members there too. Of course, Dr. Eric Schockman, a past officer of Kol Ami, was there in his capacity as President of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger and former Kol Ami members Rabbi Dean Shapiro and Haim Ainsworth were there from New Zealand!
During the course of the Biennial conference I helped lead a workshop on diversity and inclusion for synagogues. We addressed how to include and welcome LGBT people and families but this workshop went deeper and further to address issues of race, gender, class and ability. Kol Ami is seen as a model in welcoming Jews and their non-Jewish partners, Jews of every color, and of course our congregation’s work in LGBT equality is well known.
On Thursday night of the Biennial we all took time to have a wonderful meal with former Kol Ami intern, Rabbi Eleanor Steinman at a local Japanese restaurant.
Shabbat is always special at the Biennial conferences. Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat services are filled with music. In the Toronto Convention Center the entire Biennial conference worships together. The music (with full rockin’ band) fills the hall! It is inspiring to pray together singing Lecha Dodi as we welcome Shabbat and create sacred space even in such a huge, cavernous place. This special service was followed by regional Shabbat dinners and our very own Cantor Saltzman led after dinner Shabbat zmirot, Shabbat singing! We went back into the convention hall for a giant one hour Shabbat song session with great musicians and song leaders such as Julie Silver, Craig Taubman, Jeff Klepper, Josh Nelson and Dan Nichols and Noam Katz!

At every Biennial conference there is also important work of the URJ that is done. Plenary sessions are filled with important resolutions on a variety of social justice topics. This year was no different. Israeli Minister of Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman addressed the Biennial conference. Braverman (who I also heard speak passionately and eloquently this summer at the Shalom Hartman Institute) talked about Arab, Druze and Bedouin citizens of Israel and their plight. He spoke about the need for better access to educational and vocational services for these citizens of Israel as well as housing. He spoke about how the measure of a country is how it serves those who are not the majority but the minority. Israel is a democratic state and all of its citizens must have equal rights- Jewish or not. But sadly, most Arab citizens live way below the poverty line, in towns and villages and neighborhoods that do not have equal services. As you can imagine this might fuel their distrust of Israel and their Jewish neighbors. As a result of his presentation the URJ passed an important resolution at this Biennial conference on Israeli Arab Citizens who comprise more than 1/5 of Israel’s population. Here is a link to read more about the resolutions and other information on the Biennial. http://biennial.urj.org/program/resolutions/
The Union resolved to: recognize Israel’s repeated commitment and efforts to address inequality among Jewish and Arab citizens, reflecting the principles in its Declaration of Independence. And encouraged the Israeli government to follow its own Or Commission recommendations to reduce the gaps between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel in all areas of life, including but not limited to education, housing, industrial development, employment and services. It further commended Minister Avishay Braverman for his leadership in these issues.
This week’s torah portion Chayei Sarah reminds us that our ancestor Abraham was the father not just of one people but of two. Even though we Jews trace our ancestry to Abraham through his grandson Jacob and son Isaac, Abraham is also the father of the Arab nations through his son Ishmael and second wife Keturah’s children who is mentioned in this week’s portion. Six additional children are born to Keturah and Abraham.
Arabs and Jews are indeed family. Our fates are intertwined even as we worship differently and this week’s Torah portion reminds us of our shared ancestry.
That is why this week’s actions by the URJ Biennial convention to urge the vision of the Or Commission and Minister Braverman’s work continue ahead full bore and why indeed we as a moment endorse his plans.
May we come to know peace with our brothers and sisters and may the state of Israel know peace outside its borders and within.

Parshat Vayera Genesis 18:1 -22:24

Parshat Vayera
Genesis 18:1 -22:24
Rabbi Denise L. Eger

While on my whirlwind trip to Israel last week, we spent a good portion of our third day in the Negev area. This is the vast arid desert area south of Tel Aviv that reaches from Be’er Sheva towards the east to the Dead Sea and south all the way to Eilat at the Red Sea.

It is a vast and mostly empty land of stark desert landscape with only a few cities and towns. There is the growing city of Be’er Sheva –ancient home of Abraham mentioned numerous times in this week’s Torah portion, Vayera.

While we were in Be’er Sheva we visited the modern and beautiful campus of Ben Gurion University. There we met with the President of the University, the first woman to be president of an Israeli University, Rivka Carmi and members of the passionate faculty of this great institution. This university was inspired by the vision of Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion of settling and developing the Negev. This university bustles with, medical students, architecture students, engineering students, bio chemistry students, mathematics departments and BGU is a world leader in developing nanotechnology. The Dr. Carmi and the faculty spoke to us of their work and their dedication to fulfilling the development of the Negev. And the Faculty, Students and Administration of the University work to bring innovation, technology and involvement to the growing population of the Negev.

Also during our visit to the Negev we visited a most inspiring project called Ayalim. This project takes students and builds villages and developments towns throughout the Galilee and the Negev. More than 5000 university students apply to this program but only 500 are selected. We visited K’far Adelim. The students are literally building with their hands a new village in the Negev. They first lived in small trailers but have built beautiful Adobe-like villas with the sweat of their own brow! They are living the Zionist dream of building up the land. A big part of the program is also working with families and children in other towns. They provide day care and learning opportunities for both parents and children. Some of the students live in run-down neighborhoods like in Beer Sheva and literally rebuild and refurbish some of the toughest neighborhoods, planting parks and rebuilding apartments. Like the Chalutzim, the pioneers of pre-state Israel who drained the swamps and built the towns, these young people are reshaping the Negev and the Galilee and preparing the future of Israel. They are living Ben-Gurion’s dream of developing the Negev!

Abraham concludes a loyalty oath with Abimelech in Genesis 21. But there is a disagreement right away over the seizing of a well by Abimelech’s servant. And Abimelech claims he did not know of this violation and so they conclude another pact. Abraham takes seven ewes and presents them to Abimelech. When Abimelech accepts them it will be proof that Abraham owned this well in that is so vital in a desert area. Thus Be’er Sheva gets its name meaning Well of Seven or Well of the oath. And the well helps to make the desert bloom. Today that well is the work of Ben Gurion University and students of the Ayalim program who are reshaping the Negev not only as David Ben-Gurion dreamed but our ancestor, Abraham.