On Tuesday I drove to Springfield, our state capitol, to deliver the invocation to open the legislative session. I was the guest of Representative Anna Moeller whose gentle leadership I respect greater. She is a bridge builder, bringing people together to get work done in her district and her state. Even though I don’t live in her district I am the rabbi of a congregation that sits in her district.

I am not sure I support the practice of opening governmental meetings with prayer. The practice comes dangerously close to violating the principle of separation of church and state and there have been any number of court cases to test this practice. In the meantime, if I am asked to give an invocation, I do so. My participation is part of how we ensure diversity and balance. It gives voice to people who may not otherwise be represented.

The guidelines I have been sent reference the court cases and the federal mandate. I have worked hard to stitch together words that will inspire and comply.

For thousands of years, since the Israelites were exiled in Babylon, Jews have prayed for their governments. President George Washington visited the Jewish congregation in Newport, RI. The Jews of Richmond, VA wrote a prayer for Washington that was an acrostic of Washington’s name. I have cobbled together some words from Siddur Sim Shalom and its prayer for our country and the progressive prayer book in Great Britain that has a prayer for committee meetings that exhorts participants to compromise and to listen to one another with respect. Then I added my own words.

Springfield is 208 miles from my house to the Statehouse. That is exactly the same distance from my old house in Chelmsford to the old AJR campus, so it is a drive that I am accustomed to doing.

I love to drive. Driving gives me the opportunity to think deeply. This drive was no exception.

At some point I realize I am missing my mother. Frequently when driving to New York I would call my mother to check in. Most frequently I would be in Connecticut. It seemed I spent half my life in Connecticut, driving. This trip I remembered an old story of me in kindergarten in Evanston. During circle time on Lincoln’s birthday the teacher asked if anyone knew anything about Lincoln. I raised my hand and announced that my mother knew Lincoln. Everyone laughed. But for me it was obvious. We had been to Springfield, to Lincoln’s home. You don’t go to a stranger’s home. Obviously my mother knew Lincoln. The same logic was not as appreciated the very next week when I figured she knew Washington too. We had been to Mount Vernon as well.

This trip is a homecoming of sorts. I was going to be standing on the floor of the legislature. A place where Lincoln and Obama have both stood. I think my mother might have been proud.

Yet I cannot imagine what Lincoln, the favored son of Illinois, would be thinking. I live in the only state in the nation that does not have a state budget. The Democrats and the Republicans have refused to compromise. The governor has vetoed every attempt. It is a shanda. An embarrassment.

Everyday I get up and go to work. I get paid. That’s the way it is supposed to work. In fact, this past week we read the words, “Do not withhold the wages of your laborer overnight.” (Leviticus 19:13). I have friends who work for the state who get up and are still working who do not get paid. They have not been paid since July of 2015. Frankly I don’t know why they don’t quit.

Even more importantly, monies for essential services have not been paid to social service agencies. In Elgin that means that the Ecker Center which delivers mental health services has had to stop mental health evaluations. It means Renz Center, Community Crisis Center, PADs, other agencies I partner with to deliver critical services to my members are at risk. Every day. Statewide it means that Lutheran Services have cut 30 programs, laid off 750 people. http://www.lssi.org/post.php?ID=427 Catholic Services has had to do similar things. These agencies serve the most vulnerable amongst us.

It is not just social services that have been effected. It is also higher education. Elgin Community College just cut out its senior learning program. Harper College has cut out staff positions. Chicago State University laid off all of its 900 staff in February. Its future is unclear. Securing student loans is more difficult.

This past weekend we read about leaving the corners of our field, for the widow, the orphan, the stranger amongst us. The most vulnerable. Because we remember that we were slaves in the land of Egypt. It is really very simple. We have an obligation as a society to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. Today those are the single parent households. The disabled. The veterans. The unemployed. The underemployed. It is precisely why I vote. It is why I send my representatives to Springfield and Washington.

So what can I possibly say to these people who have the power to change lives in their hands? How can I pray and implore them at the same time to get their jobs done? How can I remind them that this is bigger than Republican and Democrat? It is about being good representatives, good citizens, good people. It is about taking care of the people who need it most. Am I so naïve or so proud to think that I can break the budget logjam? No, but maybe while invoking G-d (can I even invoke G-d in the current guidelines?), I can move the needle just enough.

Still driving. 208 miles is far. I’ve forgotten just how far it is. But it is beautiful. It is overcast with breaks of sun. The prairie is beautiful. Expansive. The corn fields and soybean fields are sparkling with the bright green of new growth. It offers us hope.

I start singing one of my favorite songs, “Or zarua latzadik” “Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.” I am going to use this verse I decide to kick off my prayer. Because it is a puzzle. In order to be joyous, first we have to become righteous. We have to act with justice, first. We have to do tzedek, first.

I pull into Springfield, find a parking place. It is lightly raining. That new growth needs a balance between sun and rain. We need a balance in the legislature. We need the diversity of opinion. And we also need to get the work done so those vulnerable can become full participating members of society. So that eventually they can thrive.

Here is what I said….

Our G-d, and the G-d of our ancestors, as has been done since Jeremiah’s day, and was done by the Jewish community for President George Washington and for Abraham Lincoln, we ask Your blessings on our government, for its leaders and advisors. Teach them insights of Your Torah and of other sacred scriptures so that they may administer all affairs of state fairly, that peace and security, happiness and prosperity, justice and freedom may forever abide in this state.

Creator of all, help us to understand that each of us were created in Your image. Bless all the inhabitants of this state with Your spirit. May citizens of all races and creeds forge a common bond in true harmony to banish all hatred and bigotry and to safeguard the ideals and free institutions which are the pride and glory of this nation and this state.

Let us come together in G-ds name and prepare ourselves to do G-d’s will. May the Divine Presence dwell among us, drawing us closer to G-d and to serve G-d’s creatures, all of our people with justice and with love. Let us listen to each other with respect, and treat each other with wisdom and generosity. May our eyes be open to see Your greatness in the smallest things we do.

Merciful One, remind us that we were sent here for a purpose, chosen by the people. Let us also be witness to the Master whom we serve which justifies G-d’s choice of each of us sitting here today. May none of our controversies rise up from ambition and self-seeking. Let them only be for the sake of heaven, like those of the great ancient rabbis Hillel and Shammai who learned from their passionate arguments that “These and these are both the words of the living G-d.”

Compassionate One, we are reminded that 36 times in the Bible it tells us that our task as leaders is to take care of the widow, the orphan and the stranger, the most vulnerable amongst us. Help us to find the compassion, Your compassion so that no child will go to bed hungry, no parent will worry for that child’s safety, no senior will be forced to choose between heat or lights, food or medication. As G-d clothed the naked, Adam and Eve, we must clothe the naked. As G-d gave manna, a gift, to those hungering in the wilderness, we must feed the hungry. As G-d buried Moses, we must comfort the bereaved. Then every one will dwell in peace and unafraid as they sit under their vines and fig trees, or maybe here in Illinois, a big strong oak tree.

Finally, we are told that the day is short, the task in great, the workers are idle, the reward is great. It is not incumbent upon us to finish the task. Neither are we free to ignore it. And the Master of the House is impatient.” Let’s get to work. Together. Amen.

While I was in California last week, I learned a new phrase, May Gray. It seems while according to the song, “It never rains in Southern California”, every morning in May is gray.

But this is the week to talk about and learn about tiferet. Tiferet gets translated as beauty or glory or splendor. And by late afternoon, that is what would happen, the sun would break through and the world, or at least my corner of it, would be filled with splendor.

Splendor comes from the Latin and has to do with light breaking forth. It gives us “enlightenment” and “insight.”

In Judaism there is a concept of hiddur hamitzvah, beautification of the commandment. That is why there is so much Jewish ritual art. In every time and place, Jews have sought to enhance the mitzvoth, to make them more beautiful. Now the trick here is that what is beautiful to me may not be to you and visa versa, and that is OK. Just fine.

What if, however, you can’t see? Or you can’t see colors? Can the world still be beautiful? I think so. And I am reminded of a Louis Armstrong song,

I see trees of green,
red roses too.
I see them bloom,
for me and you.
And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue,
And clouds of white.
The bright blessed day,
The dark sacred night.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow,
So pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces,
Of people going by,
I see friends shaking hands.
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying,
“I love you”.

I hear babies cry,
I watch them grow,
They’ll learn much more,
Than I’ll ever know.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

Yes, I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

That’s splendor. That is letting the light shine forth. That is that perfect balance between chesed and gevurah we were talking about last week. And it is beautiful, indeed.

When an individual is privileged to have that flash of insight or enlightenment, in Buddhism, that term is satori. Other words might be awakening, comprehension or understanding. It is the ability of “seeing into one’s own nature, or essence.” I think that is what splendor or tiferet really is. And it is fleeting. Just an instant. And then just as quickly it can be gone. Because that balance is so, so difficult to achieve.

Here is a Buddhist poem to describe satori

A thunderclap under the clear blue sky
All beings on earth open their eyes;
Everything under heaven bows together;
Mount Sumeru leaps up and dances.
Wuman

Satori or tiferet isn’t experienced very often. But when it is, the colors are brighter (even on a grey day), the pieces fit together, the world seems whole. It is hard to describe. But you know it, if you are lucky enough to experience it. Some say that it is the whole purpose of Buddhism.

Yet, Tiferet is a little bit more than that. Tiferet becomes known as compassion (in other places the Hebrew might be chanun) because it blends and harmonizes the free outpouring love of chesed with the discipline of gevurah. We talked about this last week. But, tiferet introduces another way to balance, a third dimension – the dimension of truth, which is neither love or discipline and therefore can integrate the two.

At first I was surprised by this. How can truth and beauty be the same word in Hebrew? My husband figured it out. It is like the poem “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by Keats.

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,–that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”

According to Simon Jacobson, whose work on the omer we have been studying, “This quality gives tiferet its name, which means beauty: it blends the differing colors of love and discipline, and this harmony makes it beautiful. For tiferet to be complete it needs the inclusion of the following seven facets: love of compassion, discipline of compassion, compassion of compassion, endurance of compassion, humility of compassion, bonding of compassion and sovereignty of compassion.”

We are now back to the colors of the kaleidoscope and putting the pieces together. When we put those pieces together, we find beauty, we find truth, we find peace. And that is tiferet.

So what is beauty? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What is beautiful to you?

This week the attribute we are examining is “Gevurah”, strength. We know that G-d is strong because we have a prayer, the “gevurot”, the second blessing of the Amidah. “Atah Gibor L’olam Adoani… You are Strong, Mighty, Powerful, forever, Adonai.” And in love, chesed, last week’s word, G-d sustains the living.

But in the kabbalistic sephirot and in the mussar material, this same word is translated as discipline. What is the connection? I puzzled over this for most of the week. I think I now have an answer. (This is Judaism, so there is probably more than one correct answer!)

It is with discipline or through discipline that we can become strong. Ben Zoma said in Pirkei Avot, “Who is one wise? One who learns from all people, as it is said: “From all my teachers have I gained understanding.” (Psalm 119:99) Who is strong? One who conquers, overpowers, subdues, controls the evil impulse, as it is written, “One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and one who rules over their spirit than one who conquers a city.” (Proverbs 16:32)”

That gives us the textual explanation. And it makes sense. Here’s why. Back in August, which seems like a very long time ago, my daughter and I signed up for two races to celebrate Mother’s Day Weekend. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Life intervened making the training more difficult.

Yet I was disciplined. I followed a training schedule as closely as I possibly could. Will it be enough to get me across not one but two finish lines? Not sure yet. I often say about college football games you have to expect the unexpected and you have to play the games to see the outcome. But regardless of whether I succeed in the “Pixie Dust Challenge” the way I have hoped and dreamed, what is clear is the discipline has led to me being stronger.

I also, after wrestling with this topic all week, think that it is no accident that Gevurah follows Chesed. In the 13 Attributes of the Divine, it starts by saying “Adonai, Adonai, El…” Adonai is seen as the attribute of Divine mercy, and Elohim is the G-d of justice. It is the justice that reins G-d’s love in. It keeps it in balance. That is why on the sephirot charts you see Gevurah opposite Chesed. Sometimes, even Gevurah is called Din, Justice.

We see this tension between justice and mercy at the beginning of Exodus when Moses encounters the burning bush. According to Gunther Plaut, , “The repetition of the attribute of mercy was taken to mean that God is merciful both before and after man has sinned and repented; it is man who changes, not God.”

So if as Simon Jacobson says about counting the omer this week, “If love (chesed) is the bedrock of human expression, discipline (gevurah) is the channels through which we express love. It gives our life and love direction and focus. Take a laser beam: Its potency lies in the focus and concentration of light in one direction rather than fragmented light beams dispersed in all different directions.

Gevurah – discipline and measure – concentrates and directs our efforts, our love in the proper directions. Another aspect of gevurah is – respect and awe. Healthy love requires respect for the one you love.”

Gevurah then is the counterbalance to Chesed. It is not, as many suggest, an either or equation but a both and. Without Gevurah, the world would be so filled with Chesed, that it would be “reabsorbed into the Divine.” Without Chesed, G-d’s own judgment could cause G-d to destroy the world again, something G-d promised to never do again after the flood. G-d’s own self-restraint.

Sometimes the idea of gevurah as discipline, is in setting limits, boundaries. This is hard for me. I am too willing to give up my day off, for instance. I just can’t seem to set that limit when someone needs me. When I go on vacation, the laptop comes with me, just in case, and I am using it this morning. Sometimes when people cross boundaries inappropriately, I am the last to see them. But like the airlines tell us, put your own oxygen mask on before helping those around you. It is important. And this week’s focus on gevurah comes to teach us that.

In Judaism, everything we do is deliberate, intentional. When we are living consciously. When we are disciplined. Even how we dress.

Earlier this year I was thinking about this as I finished my workout and put on a red sweater for the rest of my day. You see, I had just finished running my miles for Jennifer.

I don’t actually know Jennifer. Although she trains with my son-in-law, Edgar. Both of them run with the Pasadena Pacers—and their color is red. Jennifer is a member of one of my online communities, Run the Year. Simon and I have a goal of running 2016 miles together during this year. Run, walk or crawl. So far our virtual team has “run” over 900 miles this year. That is disciplined. I am proud of our accomplishments.

We talk a lot about communities. Holy communities. Kehila Kedosha. And I am skeptical about online communities. But here is the power. Here is the story of my red sweater.

Jennifer went out running in California. Wearing her earbuds, nonetheless she heard some disparaging remarks behind her. Disparaging is not strong enough. Cruel. Mean. Bullying. As she said in her post, “You see the fat girl in the red, you don’t want to become that. She’s probably ugly as hell too.” Then she was passed and he said, “See, told you.” She immediately stopped running and went back to her car and cried.

She wrote about her experience on one of the online communities.

That’s when the running community stepped up. Over 1000 people ran “Miles for Jennifer.” Wearing red. Sending her messages of love and support. Reminding all of us that bullying is not OK. People raised money for anti-bullying organizations. Lulemon Athletics even changed its window in Manhattan to support #runforjennifer and Run the Year.

Jennifer went on finish the Los Angeles Marathon. She was disciplined in her training and her friends—all across the country cheered her on. We are so proud of her!

This story hit me hard. You see, I have been called Fatso. Fat Ass. Even in days when I was skinnier. And that is not OK. It is never OK. Even if it were true, it shows a lack of discipline on the part of the name caller.

There is a t-shirt I dream of buying (but frankly I am too chicken to wear it and now I can’t find it). It says, “They call me Rabbi because BadAss Miracle Worker is not a Job Title.” Really, I saw this T-shirt on Facebook. Shortly after the Jenn story!

I am not a miracle worker. What I think I am is disciplined. It is discipline that got me through rabbinical school. It is discipline that gets me through races. And yes, that discipline makes me stronger. It is like Walt Disney said, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Or like Herzl said, “If you will it, it is no dream.” I am hoping at the end of this race that someone will get me the bracelet that says, “She believed she could so she did.” It reflects my commitment to discipline.

When I was in college, the movie Chariots of Fire came out. You can actually sing the Sh’ma (while running) to its theme song. At some point in the movie, it quotes Isaiah, “But they that wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31) It has been a quote that has powered me through many long runs.

The very reason I run is for balance. It is for health. It is is to “Cleanse my heart to serve You in truth,” another favorite verse I sing while I am running. But if it slips over, if it crosses a boundary and impedes other portions of my, then does not make me strong. If I do it to prove that I am worthy or lovable to myself or others, then the balance is still out of whack. If I run and then “Lord it over” on someone, brag too much or bully someone else, then I do not have the balance right.

I shall run—and walk—this weekend, and I hope to not be weary or faint. But this I know, my strength comes from being disciplined. My strength comes from G-d. And maybe a little pixie dust.

How will you balance strength, discipline and lovingkindness this week?

The First Week: Chesed:

It turns out that translating the word Chesed isn’t so easy. Love, lovingkindness, kindness, abounding in kindness? Dr. Nelson Glueck, the fomer president of Hebrew Union College wrote his PhD thesis on this very word and concluded that we cannot know its meaning fully. Plaut suggests “beyond what humanity deserves.” Perhaps then it is only something that G-d has and that we mere mortals aspire towards. It is nonetheless, central to our understanding of the nature of the Divine.

Brown Driver and Briggs, the best Biblical Hebrew dictionary lists it as goodness, kindness and, specifically when referring to God, as kindness or lovingkindness. They point out that it is frequently grouped with other attributes, particularly emet, or with the idea that God’s lovingkindness is abundant, as in rav chesed. Onkelos points out that there is an implied “doing” or “making” with chesed that is explicit in the combination of nosei chesed. So this is an active word.

The Stone Chumash explains that God is kind even to those who lack personal merits. Also, if one’s personal behavior is evenly balanced between virtue and sin, God tips the scales of judgment toward the good.

It is different from Ahavah, love, which is used more in relationships, between people or between people and G-d. This is the word for commitment and connection. Ahava is a love of the will and that it is more profound than just fleeting romantic feelings. It is a desire which leads a person to make a decision to join their life to another forever. It is what makes things last. It is the feeling that Isaac had when he took Rebecca to his mother’s tent and was comforted. The Bible simply and for the first time says that “Isaac loved Rebecca.”The lovers in the Song of Songs state that Ahava is as strong as death, that many rivers cannot quench Ahava (Song of Songs 8:7).

It is different from Raya which could be translated as the noun for friendship. Having raya for someone means being a companion or someone you share things with. Raya means you share ideas, experiences, hopes and dreams. It is in the phrase, “Love your neighbor, your companion, your friend as yourself.”(Lev 19)

It is different from Dod, like, Dodi li, I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. I think it probably encompasses all three as an active emotion and act of compassion, lovingkindness and that is what makes it so profound and so difficult to translate.

Chesed is the preview of G-d. The word appears 245 times in the Bible, about two thirds of them refer to G-d’s character and actions. It is G-d who is the Master of Chesed. Creating the world was an act of Chesed and the Psalms remind us, “The world is built with chesed” (89:3).

Growing up in Grand Rapids, I was consistently told that the God of the New Testament is the God of Love, active, present tense and the God of the Old Testament, what I would prefer to call the Hebrew Bible or the Hebrew Scriptures is an old, angry, vengeful, hateful G-d. But given what I learned about the 13 Attributes of G-d and all the ways G-d can be loving—and is, exhibiting chesed to the 1000^th generation, I know that this is my mission, to make people aware that they can be loved and are worthy of that deep, unconditional love that G-d offers.

Simon Jacobson says it this way: “Love is the single most powerful and necessary component in life. Love is the origin and foundation of all human interactions. It is both giving and receiving. It allows us to reach above and beyond ourselves. To experience another person and to allow that person to experience us. It is the tool by which we learn to experience the highest reality – G‑d. In a single word: love is transcendence.”

In  Moses Cordovero’s cabalistic treatise, Tomer Devorah, the Palm Tree of Deborah, the following are actions undertaken in imitation of the qualities of Chesed:

• love God so completely that one will never forsake His service for any reason
• provide a child with all the necessities of his sustenance and love the child
• circumcise a child
• visiting and healing the sick
• giving charity to the poor
• offering hospitality to strangers
• attending to the dead
• bringing a bride to the chuppah marriage ceremony
• making peace between a man and his fellow

We see this in the Talmud, when we are told “These are the obligations without measure whose reward too is without measure:

“These are the obligations without measure, whose reward, too, is without measure:

• To honor father and mother; to perform acts of love and kindness;
• to attend the house of study daily;
• to welcome the stranger;
• to visit the sick;
• to rejoice with bride and groom;
• to console the bereaved;
• to pray with sincerity,
• to make peace when there is strife.
• V’talmud torah k’neged kulam… and the study of Torah is equal to them all, because it leads to them all.”

It is one of my favorite readings in the Shabbat morning liturgy. Linking it to these actions being acts of chesed only strengthens it for me. This is what being a holy community, a kehila kedosha is all about.

It becomes a blueprint of how we should act with chesed, by imitating G-d as it teaches in the Talmud. What is the meaning of the verse “You shall walk after the Lord your  God” (Deuteronomy 13:5)? Is it possible for a human being to walk after the Shechinah (God’s presence), for has it not been said, “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24)? But the verse means to walk after the attributes of the Holy One, Blessed is He. As God clothes the naked, for it is written, “And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife coats of skin and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21), so should you clothe the naked. The Holy One, Blessed is He, visits the sick, for it is written, “And the Lord appeared to him (Abraham, while he was recovering from circumcision), by the oaks of Mamre” (Genesis 18:1), so should you also visit the sick. The Holy One, Blessed is He, comforts mourners, for it is written, “And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac, his son” (Genesis 25:11), so should you comfort mourners. The Holy One, Blessed is He, buries the dead, for it is written, “And He buried Moses in the valley” (Deuteronomy 34:6), so should you also bury the dead.  (Sotah 14)

So now that we know a lot about Chesed how do we think about it for the week?

Ellen Lippmann in her reflection on Race and Chesed says this…

The Torah reminds us over and over to remember that we were slaves in Egypt and must forever after be kind to those who are strangers in our time and place. Here and now the tendency is to fear and reject has eager advocates, and the need for Hesed—for that loving kindness that can only be called Divine—grows. ..For white Ashkenazi Jews like me in America in 2016, Hesed could act like this, reaching out a hand when needed, taking care to avoid shaming, becoming an ally without being asked.

Simon Jacobson says,

“Examine the love aspect of love. The expression of love and its level of intensity. Everyone has the capacity to love in their hearts. The question is if and how we actualize and express it. Ask yourself:

What is my capacity to love another person? Do I have problems with giving? Am I stingy or selfish? Is it difficult for me to let someone else into my life? Do I have room for someone else? Do I allow room for someone else? Am I afraid of my vulnerability, of opening up and getting hurt? How do I express love? Am I able to communicate my true feelings? Do I withhold expressing love out of fear of reaction? Or on the contrary: I often express too much too early. Do others misunderstand my intentions?

Whom do I love? Do I only love those that I relate to and who relate to me? Do I have the capacity to love a stranger; to lend a helping hand to someone I don’t know? Do I express love only when it’s comfortable?

Why do I have problems with love and what can I do about it? Does my love include the other six aspects of chesed, without which love will be distorted and unable to be truly realized.”

The point of all of this is to create an awareness of how chesed comes from G-d and how we, in turn, use it in our daily lives. See if you can spot acts of hesed this week—either of your own or of others. Start to make your acts of chesed “active.” As Moranis points out “Without action, chesed is a theoretical notion. It’s like a picture of flowers, minus the scent and feel and depth.” When we begin to practice chesed and to be aware of it, then we receive more chesed as gifts of kindness, bestowed on other and registered in ourselves.

It is like the discussion early in the session about chesed shel emet, burying the dead, is an act of kindness with no hope that the person we are burying will ever repay it. It is, if you will, a final act of paying it forward.

We ended our session with a plea for balance as we sang Al Shlosha Devarim, On three things the world stands, on Torah, on service, on acts of love and kindness.

May it be so as we continue our journey to Sinai.

The last day of Passover. But as we leave this holiday we look towards Shavuot. We actually read just a little about Shavuot, which comes 49 days from the second night of Passover.

We are told we should number our days. We are told that we should wave a wave offering. We are told that we should remain vigilant since the Israelites fell asleep at Mount Sinai. All of this so we are ready to receive the Torah.

Like the idea that each of us were free from Mitzrayim, out of the narrow places, each of us stood at Sinai. And we are standing there again, each year, on Shavuot. Shavuot is the wedding between us, the children of Israel, and G-d. Torah is the ketubah. As it says in Hosea, “And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in compassion.” That’s the word of the week, lovingkindness, chesed. We’ll get back to that in a minute.

One of the ways we stay vigilant is to count the Omer. All of those 49 days. It isn’t easy. It is possible to forget. Shabbat was the7th day of the counting of the omer. Today is the 9^th day.

There are many systems for counting. You can just use a counter like this one. Some use a book, like we used last year by Rabbi Karyn Kedar. That one is now available as a set of cards and as an app you can download to your phone. Chabad also has a mobile app.

You can use a sticker counter, which kids seem to especially enjoy. My favorite one was designed by Sharon Cores who had kids puts stickers of feet on for each day as we “marched” through the wilderness towards Sinai. Others have used a calendar almost like an Advent Calendar where each day you received a Hershey’s Kiss. Another kid pleaser!

At Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley, under the direction of Rabbi Everett Gendler we always planted winter wheat at Sukkot. Lying fallow over the winter and then beginning each day during Passover, Everett would cut a small portion and we would see the growth. At each congregation I have worked I have continued the tradition, reflective of the wave offering, and even in the hardest of winters, it also works, to the amazement of all.

There are Omer Counters with a particular theme. Rabbi Jill Hammer, my professor at the Academy for Jewish Religion has one that examines Biblical Women. http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/omer-calendar-biblical-women In some circles, each day corresponds to a Biblical (male) character. In her counter, we get a better appreciation of many of the women.

Kolot, a progressive synagogue in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn is having different people write about anti-racsim each of the weeks, as an act of chesed and repairing the world. http://www.kolotchayeinu.org/Omer_Week_

Rabbi Katy Allen is continuing her commitment to the environment, a theme I introduced again last week talking about the intersection of Passover and Earth Day and our need as Jews to repair the environment. She calls herself a nature chaplain, and her congregation Mayan Tikvah does one each year about the earth. http://mayantikvah.blogspot.com

The blessing for counting the omer is “Al s’firat haomer, on the counting of the omer.”

In the 16^th century, the Kabbalists started counting based on the attributes of G-d, also sometimes call the Sefirot, which we usually read as part of the Torah reading on Shabbat Pesach but not this morning. That was indeed my Bat Mitzvah portion and they have been endlessly fascinating to me.

In the Torah portion, there are 13 Attributes of the Divine, The Lord, The Lord, G-d, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness (chesed) and truth, extending kindness to the 1000^th generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.

In the Kabbalistic world there are 10 Sefirot, Keter (crown), Hokhmah (wisdom), Binah (understanding), Chesed (mercy, lovingkindness), Din (justice), Tiferet (beauty), Netzach (eternity), Hod (glory), Yesod (foundation), Shechinah (G-d’s Presence). As you can see, there is some overlap between these and the 13 outlined in Exodus 34:6-7.

As Simon Jacobson says in his introduction to counting the omer, “With the mitzvah of counting the 49 days, known as Sefirat Ha’Omer, the Torah invites us on a journey into the human psyche, into the soul. There are seven basic emotions that make up the spectrum of human experience. At the root of all forms of enslavement, is a distortion of these emotions. Each of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot is dedicated to examining and refining one of them.”

We are on that journey together. As we count , as we journey, we are building holy individuals who make our holy community. It is about intention. It is about spirit. It is about love.

So the first week is chesed, the second gevurah, etc. Each day is the intersection of two of those traits. So the first day is chesed shel chesed.

What is mussar?

I think there is a another way to count the omer and that is by using the framework of Mussar. Since each week has a theme, according to the Kabbalists, can we tie them to the Mussar traits? That is what we are going to explore as a congregation as we “march” towards Shavuot as Sharon Cores would say.

In some congregations it is traditional to study Pirke Avot between Passover and Shavuot. This year, we will study mussar, one attribute each week. This is something that I am not an expert in. It is something that Simon and I, and Rabbi Steve Peskind and his wife Judy have been studying together, once a week for over a year.

What is Mussar? It was developed in the 19^th century Lithuanian Orthodox Jews as a way to look at characterlogical traits and master them for ourselves by being aware of how we relate to them or be triggered by them. The  term Mussar, is derived from a verse in Proverbs 1:2 meaning moral conduct, instruction or discipline. The term was used by the Musar movement to refer to efforts to further ethical and spiritual discipline. So that is what it is, a tool to self-improvement of spiritual discipline and ethics. A way to hold ourselves accountable in community. A way to strive to become like G-d, and G-d’s attributes like the Kabbalists counted the omer. There are many books within the tradition of Mussar, that include Tomer Devorah (The Palm Tree of Deborah), Duties of the Heart, and Orchos Tzaddikim. We will look at selections from them on our journey to Sinai.

Said Alan Moranis who leads Mussar workshops all over the country,

Mussar is a path of contemplative practices and exercises that have evolved over the past thousand years to help an individual soul to pinpoint and then to break through the barriers that surround and obstruct the flow of inner light in our lives. Mussar is a treasury of techniques and understandings that offers immensely valuable guidance for the journey of our lives.

If we focus on one trait a week, we will develop a tool of self-improvement. In fact, some people actually journal while going through a mussar class. But the Mussar movement was not alone in this idea. Benjamin Franklin did a similar thing. Each week he closely examined a different virtue in his journal. 13 of them. They are different ones from the 13 Attributes http://www.thirteenvirtues.com but a very similar project.

“I propos’d to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annex’d to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurr’d to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully express’d the extent I gave to its meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin

So let’s begin!

This Shabbat we conclude the celebration of Passover. It is a very special Shabbat. We will celebrate an 80^th birthday party, we will hear from our seventh graders as they lead the Torah service, we will think about love as we hear the poignant and beautiful verses of Song of Songs, Shir haShirim. And towards the end of the services we will pause to remember.

Passover is one of four times when we add Yizkor. This year in the congregation we have a number of people who lost a parent. Others lost a spouse, an aunt, an uncle, a brother-in-law. We had a family that tragically lost a granddaughter.

Saying Yizkor is always evocative. Emotional. Poignant. Yizkor means Remember. What is it that we are remembering? It is a link in the chain that connects us one generation to the next.

Why at the pilgrimage festivals and Yom Kippur? Because in the midst of our gladness, we are still sad. Even on our happiest days. That is part of why we also smash a glass at Jewish weddings.

The components of Yizkor are simple. A couple of Psalms, El Maleh Rachamin, (The Committal Prayer), some personal reflections on those we have individually lost, and in many communities, the Kaddish. Maybe 10 minutes.

Those personal reflections are unlike other prayers we have. Designed to remember the departed by acknowledging them as our teachers and promising to give tzedakah because the good deeds of the survivors will elevate the souls of those who went before. We will also attain a measure of personal atonement and forgiveness by doing an act of lovingkindness, chesed.

Kaddish is an ancient prayer, written in Aramaic, the common language of the day, so that it could be understood by everyone. Written in about the first century BCE for use in the house of study, not the house of prayer or synagogue, students and teachers would rise to praise G-d’s name after a learned discourse. Not wanting to be elitist, eventually it would be recited for anyone—scholarly or not.

In preparation for this I learned that the Lord’s Prayer is quite probably related to Kaddish. Matthew 6:9-13. “Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come,” is very similar to “Exalted and hallowed be God’s great name
in the world which God created, according to plan.
May God’s majesty be revealed in the days of our lifetime
and the life of all Israel — speedily, imminently, to which we say Amen.”

The congregation echoes with “Blessed be God’s great name to all eternity.” And many places try to do this with as much force and meaning as they can muster.

Blessed, praised, honored, exalted, extolled, glorified, adored, and lauded
be the name of the Holy Blessed One, beyond all earthly words and songs of blessing,
praise, and comfort.

It always amazes me the number of synonyms that the rabbis strung together that mean praise—blessed, praised, honored, exalted, extolled, glorified, adored, lauded. And recognized that language ultimately fails and that we cannot adequately praise G-d. And perhaps this is precisely why it works. Because G-d is above all those words.

Because we summon the courage to praise G-d for life, even in the face of death. No matter how difficult that is. Because it was not originally a mourner’s prayer and it never mentions death.

There are five different Kaddish prayers—and we use most of them.

1. Kaddish DeRabbanan, the Scholar’s Kaddish—the one originally written to praise G-d after a rabbi had given a teaching.
2. Chatzi Kaddish or Reader’s Kaddish, that acts like a punctuation mark separating parts of the service.
3. Kaddish Shalem, the full, complete, whole Kaddish that comes at the end of the Amidah. It adds a phrase to “accept the prayer and the supplication of the entire Jewish people.”
4. Kaddish Yitom, Mourner’s Kaddish.
5. The last one is sometimes referred to as the burial Kaddish because it is said graveside. Yet it is also said at the completion of a studying a tractate of Talmud when one makes a siyyum, a party. The connection is that both events hope for a world redeemed and renewed.

Kaddish has taken on an almost mystical allure. There is something in the rhythm of the words, still recited in Aramaic, less clear in meaning today. There is something in being linked to all the generations that have said it before. There is something in the notion that saying Kaddish would shorten the amount of time our very own loved ones would spend in Gehenna (hell) before ascending to Olam Haba (the world to come).

In some congregations only the mourners rise, those who have experienced a recent death or are marking the anniversary of a death (yahrzeit). Since the Holocaust when so many have no one to say Kaddish for them, many rabbis invite all to stand. My personal custom is to invite all those who are saying Kaddish for a loved one or have the tradition of always rising for Mourner’s Kaddish to rise and join with me.

In some places women are still not allowed to say Kaddish and there have been some very ugly battles in my opinion particularly recently in Israel when women have been prohibited from saying Kaddish for a parent right at the funeral itself.

On the very night I had planned to explain Kaddish, we had a very powerful experience.

We had 8 Jewish worshippers and 3 from a local church, one of whom had recently lost his spouse and had come to experience Kaddish.

It is traditional to say Kaddish only in the presence of a minyan, 10 Jewish adults over the age of 13. In the old days that would be 10 Jewish men since women, children and slaves were not obligated to time bound mitzvoth so didn’t count. Some say if there are nine Jewish adults you can have a child hold the Torah or a chumash, and that counts.

What is the reason for 10? The usual reason is that Abraham argued with G-d to save Sodom and Gemorah. Would G-d destroy Sodom and Gemorah if there were 50 righteous people? How about 40? Abraham bargained G-d down all the way to 10—but alas there wee not even 10 righteous people so Sodom and Gemorah were destroyed.

Here is my argument. Now it occurs to me that when Abraham was bargaining, the people of Sodom and Gemorah were not Jews. They were not even Israelites. They were Canaanites. So we are back to the idea of needing 10 righteous people, Jewish or not. Furthermore, in Pirke Avot, we learn this Mishnah:

“Rabbi Chalafta the son of Dosa of the village of Chanania would say: Ten who sit together and occupy themselves with Torah, the Divine Presence rests amongst them, as is stated: “The Almighty stands in the congregation of G-d” (Psalms 82:1). And from where do we know that such is also the case with five? From the verse, “He established his band on earth” (Amos 9:6). And three? From the verse, “He renders judgement in the midst of the tribunal” (Psalms 82:1). And two? From the verse, “Then the G‑d-fearing conversed with one another, and G‑d listened and heard” (Malachi 3:16). And from where do we know that such is the case even with a single individual? From the verse, “Every place where I have My name mentioned, I shall come to you and bless you” (Exodus 20:21).” (Pirke Avot 3:6)

While the ideal is clearly 10, it is even the case that G-d is present when there are 5. And so we rose, all of us together, to recite the mourner’s kaddish, with a much richer understanding of its purpose. And in the process, we became, at least for an instant, holy.

This Shabbat we will say Mourner’s Kaddish three times, as well as Kaddish DeRabbanan, Chatzi Kaddish and Kaddish Shalem and Yizkor. Come join us as we praise G-d’s name and become that holy community that Abraham was bargaining for. Then we pass on this tradition to the next generation, lador v’dor, Come join us as we ourselves become holy, if only for an instant.

I have a friend in Israel. Yosef Abramowitz. He is the son of a dear friend in Massachusetts, Devora Abramowitz, who we have known for years at Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley. Yossi is a writer, an entrepenuer, having started Babaganewz when he still lived in Newton. Now he is selling solar panels all over the world, a lot in African countries. He is putting Israel on the map and increasing relations between peoples. He has been named by CNN as one of the six leading “green pioneers on the planet as CEO of Energiya Global Capital and last year he ran for President of Israel

He had an article in Friday’s Jerusalem Post about the connection between Passover and Earth Day (http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/When-Passover-and-Earth-Day-meet-451978 ) and he laid down a challenge. What rabbi would take up the charge? I said I would gladly do it!

We all know that I didn’t go to synagogue when we lived in Evanston. We spent most weekends at some political rally or other. So this social justice stuff, making the world a better place, is something I come by, you might say, genetically. And that might be the point….you see my father, the geneticist, first worked for a man named Barry Commoner, who I gather was quite the character. He even ran for president of the United States at one point. But I digress. Barry’s office in Saint Louis, coined the phrase ecologist And so it should come as no surprise that I was actually at the first Earth Day celebrations.

And the science on climate change really is irrefutable, What may be less clear is the connection between Earth Day and Passover. So let me explain and be perfectly clear.

We are told in Genesis that we are to be partners with G-d in Creation. That we are to be caretakers of this earth. That G-d will not destroy the world again. That is the covenant G-d made with Noah after the flood. That is why I am wearing this rainbow tallit this morning.

For you early birds, as we went through the first part of the service, I pointed out the parts of the service that praise G-d for this glorious Creation. And what a beautiful morning we have for this.

I want to look at two other prayers. The second paragraph of the V’ahavata says that we are entering a good land where G-d will give rain to your land, the early and late rains, that you may gather in your grain, your wine and your oil.” If, and there is an if, we are partners with G-d by loving G-d and fulfilling G-d’s commandments. I would add, however, we interpret that.

Those early and late rains is part of what connects this first morning of Passover to Earth Day. Today we add the prayer for Tal, dew, at the beginning of the Musaf service. At the end of Sukkot we will add the prayer for rain. These are prayers that cantors love. They are beautiful piyyutim, poems that have had gorgeous music written for them.

They remind me of Honi the Circle Drawer. We know two Honi stories, both from the Talmud. But they bear repeating.

Honi was bothered by a verse, “When God returns us to Zion, we will have been as dreamers.” (Psalm 126:1). Could it be that a person can sleep for 70 years continuously? One day, as he was walking he saw a man planting a carob tree. “How long will it be before this tree produces fruit?” “Seventy years,” the old man answered. “Will you still be alive then?” Honi questioned. The man answered, “Just as my ancestors planted for me, so I plant for my children and my children’s children.” (B Ta’anit 23a)

Usually we tell this story on Tu B’shevat, sometimes called the Jewish Arbor Day. But when Passover and Earth Day collide, it make sense to tell it again. All of Passover is set up to tell our children stories. It is the great “lador v’dor”, from generation to generation. We want our children to ask questions so that we can tell them what the Lord did for us, for me, when I went forth from Egypt. We want that there is a land, a good land, one flowing with milk and honey as our Haftarah portion alludes to, that our children can inherit, just as G-d promised to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel and Leah.

And there is a second Honi story, one we don’t tell as often.

It once happened that they said to Honi ha-M’aggel, the Circle Drawer: “Pray that rains may fall.” He said to them: “Go out and bring in the [clay] ovens for the Paschal sacrifices so that they will not dissolve.” He prayed, but rains did not fall. What did he do? He drew a circle and stood within it and he said before Him: “Master of the Universe! Your children have turned their faces to me, for I am like a member of your household. I swear by Your great Name that I will not move from here until You have mercy on Your children.” Rains began to come down in drops. He said: “I did not ask this, but rains [to fill] pits, ditches and caves.” They began to come down angrily. He said: “I did not ask this but [for] rains of benevolence, blessing and generosity.” They fell in their normal way, until Israel went up out of Jerusalem to the Temple Mount [high ground] because of the rains. They came and said to him: “Just as you prayed for them that they should fall, so pray that they should go away.”…Shimon ben Shetach [the Nasi, or chief officer of the Sanhedrin] sent for him: “If you were not Honi I would decree a ban upon you. But what shall I do to you, for you act like a spoiled child before God and yet He does your will for you, as a son who acts like a spoiled child with his father and yet he does his will for him? And about you the verse says: “Your father and your mother shall be glad and she who bore you shall rejoice.” (M. Taanit 3:8)

So today we begin to pray for dew. We recognize that in Israel, this is the beginning of the dry season. We recognize that these stories and prayers are about the land of Israel in particular. However, I believe we have an sacred obligation to take care of the land of Israel, our obligation extends to the whole earth. That is why this celebration of Earth Day, falling as it does during Passover, is so critical.

The organizers of Earth Day say, “Let’s make big stuff happen. Let’s plant 7.8 billion trees for the Earth. Let’s divest from fossil fuels and make cities 100% renewable. Let’s take the momentum from the Paris Climate Summit and build on it.” http://www.earthday.org/#sthash.VBq88cir.dpuf

Then they proposed a series of things that we CAN do. Things that if we take them on as individuals or as a congregation really will make a measurable difference. Things that if we do them, we can be like Honi the Circle Drawer so that there will be carob trees in the next generation, lador vador and beyond.

What are these things? Here are Four Ways, to echo the Four Questions, Four Cups of Wine and Four Children for this Passover Earth Day.

1. Eat less meat (I know—it is a meat Kiddush today, and I thank you for that!)

Why does this make a difference?

It reduces our carbon footprint. (A side note, trying to type carbon and carob is hard as a dyslexic, but maybe that is important too!) Simon’s old More with Less Cookbook, which we used extensively during the SNAP Challenge reminds us that for every pound of beef, it takes 11 pounds of grain. Something to think about the next time I cut into my beloved steak. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are acceleration climate change worldwide.

It minimizes water usage. An estimated 1800 to 2500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef. Soy tofu produced in California requires only 220 gallons of water per pound.

It reduces fossil fuel dependence. About 40 calories of fossil fuel energy are needed for every calorie of beef in the US compared with only 2.2 calories of fossil fuel for plant based protein.

I am not suggesting that we give up meat completely. Others can make that argument. But what if we declare one day meatless.

2. Buy local produce—one of the best things about Elgin is the Harvest Market. And our local CSAs. Use them. Tonight as part of the seder, every family will go home with a packet of seeds. Grow them. Bring the produce here and we will donate them together with the produce from our community garden produce to Food for Greater Elgin.

3. Start composting

Since we now have a thriving community garden, I am bringing the composting bin back. I think I have located a spot closer to the kitchen so it is easy and becomes second nature. Similarly, we are going to get a rain barrel and have the Torah school students decorate it so that we can use the rain water for watering the community garden.

4. Use less fossil fuels and reduce our carbon footprint

I have talked about this before and I am sure Yossi will love this one. The congregation that Simon and I met in, Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley, has the first solar Ner Tamid, Eternal Light, in the country. Rabbi Everett Gendler, quite the visionary, felt stronger that as a symbol the Ner Tamid should be driven by solar power. They dedicated that Ner Tamid on Chanukah 1978 http://gendlergrapevine.org/solar-ner-tamid/

Since the sun is eternal, we most certainly hope, especially on this Pesach Earth Day, It is a simple process and fairly inexpensive. Commit with me to get this done by Chanukah 2016. There are other ways that we at CKI can reduce our carbon footprint.

Why does this matter? How are these Jewish issues?

Because, as I said early, we are Jews are commanded to be stewards of the earth, caretakers with G-d in this glorious creation. We cannot just rely only on G-d. We must be partners.
The underlying principle is Bal Taschit, to not destroy. This comes from the verse in Deuteronomy, part of Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah Torah portion that says, “Justice, Justice shall you pursue.” It then gives us the rules for engaging in war. “When you besiege a city for many days to wage war against it, to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them, for you may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down.” (Deut 20:19-21).

As Yonatan Neril of Chabad explains, “The general prohibition is against needless destruction, derived from the verse on fruit trees, concerns not destroying directly or indirectly anything that may be of use to people. It applies to wasting energy, clothing, water, money or more. According to the Talmud, this prohibition includes wastefully burning oil or fuel. Many rishonim (commentators between c. 1000 and 1500 CE) conclude that wasting any resources of benefit to humans is a Torah prohibition. For example, Maimonides (1135–1204, Spain) explains that a Jew is forbidden to “smash household goods, tear clothes, demolish a building, stop up a spring, or destroy articles of food.”3 Rabbeinu Yerucham (1280–1350, Spain) rails against wasting water when others are in need. The Talmudic sage Rabbi Yishmael makes another logical inference: if the Torah warns us not to destroy fruit trees, then we should be even more careful about not destroying the fruit itself.4 Currently, in Israel, Rabbi Moshe Yitzhak Forehand notes that all rabbinic authorities agree, based on this teaching, that it is forbidden from the Torah to destroy edible fruit. This applies to all food that is fit to be eaten, and not only the fruit of trees.” (http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1892179/jewish/Judaism-and-Environmentalism-Bal-Tashchit.htm)

This not wasting is important. So Simon and I are working on another challenge following up on the SNAP Challenge. The Zero Waste Passover Challenge started by my friend and colleague, Rabbi Cindy Enger. We are using stuff up, We are not wasting food.

Because really, we realized in doing the SNAP Challenge and again in preparing for the study session yesterday on Birkat Hamazon, that there is enough food to go around, if we did a better job distributing it and managing it.

Birkat Hamazon has a seemingly inexplicable line. “I was young and now I am old and I have never seen a just man hungry or his children beg for bread.” (Psalm 37:25) This verse has puzzled me since I was in college. How is it possible to say this line when so clearly there is hunger—and it has only gotten worse? Some people just delete it. They just don’t say it. Which is exactly what my Hillel rabbi did and what the editors of our prayer book did. They simply don’t include it.

What if, instead of past tense, this is future tense? That it is aspirational and full of hope? What if, as has been suggested, there really is enough food to go around, so that it is not G-d’s fault, rather we need to be better partners, better stewards, in figuring out global distribution channels. I am proud to have played a small role getting Congressman Peter Roskam to sign onto the Global Food Security Act. I consider that the highest outcome of the SNAP Challenge. He was the last congressman of either party to do so in Illinois. But that is only a start. We need to exercise a collective will to end hunger, right here in Elgin with its 19,000 food insecure people, in America and around the world.

Part of that fits squarely with this message of Earth Day Passover. Again, from Yonatan Neril, “According to a 2011 study commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year—approximately 1.3 billion tons—gets lost or wasted. In the United States, less than three percent of this waste was recovered and recycled…The environmental impact of this waste occurs not only in the garbage dumps where it is deposited, but also in the resources used to produce it. Fossil fuels, water and land are all required to produce food..By heeding the Torah’s call not to waste, we can therefore generate ecological, social and financial benefits.”

So this Earth Day Passover, commit to live out our Judaism more fully. By being that very caretaker of the earth that G-d demands. Then our children and our children’s children can continue to gather around the seder table and tell the story of what the Lord did for me, for each of us, when we went forth from Egypt. Then our children and our children’s children will continue to reap the benefits of Honi’s carob tree.

Picture this, a bottle of kosher for Passover ketchup, a gift this year from one of my congregants. Something I have to have every year, because as my daughter points out, every year, that’s how I raised her. What makes kosher for Passover ketchup, kosher? Or kosher for Passover Coke—a former must have? It is the lack of corn syrup. Long before the health nuts have tried to get corn syrup banned, it was not permissible for Passover. But we will get back to that.

And picture this. The phone rings. It is a 91 year old dynamo. Someone who thinks she can solve poverty in Elgin–and she probably can–who has decided that this year she needs a new hagaddah. Something fresh, that explores modern issues. What could I tell her about one she found online, from Evanston? (I actually think my parents wrote the pre-cursor to that one and I have the original but that is another story.) We went through my collection and she selected one, ordered it from amazon and is giving one to each attendee of her seder. It is her legacy. That level of engagement is how we make the Passover story our own.

This past Shabbat was Shabbat Hagadol, one of two Shabbatot rabbis would give a sermon. This Shabbat I am supposed to tell you all the ways to prepare for Passover, a complicated task in many households, one that ideally we Kleins begin the day after Purim. But some years not.

The Torah, and the Hagaddah, tell us that we are to see ourselves as if we were all slaves in the land of Egypt and that we are to tell our children on that day—which day? Next Friday night, the 15^th of Nissan—what the Lord did for us, when G-d led us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Not those people back then. Us. Each one of us today. So think for a moment what narrow place you have been brought out of? What difficulty have you overcome? When have you felt G-d’s redemptive power?

Because Egypt, Mitzrayim in Hebrew means narrow place.

In some families, the telling of that story rivals that of the “Maggid” the telling of the Passover story, at the seder. In some families, some Sephardic families they re-enact the Exodus. They might whip each other with green onions or they might tie a piece of matzah on their backs and walk around the table, a kind of Exodus musical chairs. In our family we might play a children’s game, I am leaving Egypt and I am taking with me…an apple…a bottle of water…a camera, etc.

This year, some of us have been meeting to learn with the Chai Mitzvah program. In their Passover lesson, there is a poem by Rabbi Lynn Gottleib that is so relevant for today as we prepare:

Spring Cleaning Ritual on the Eve of the Full Moon Nisan

Removing the Hametz In the month of nisan with the death of winter and the coming of spring our ancient mothers cleaned out their houses.

They gathered brooms, mops, brushes, rags, stones, and lime
they washed down walls
swept floors

beat rugs
scoured pots
changed over all the dishes in the house.
They opened windows to the sun
hung lines for the airing out of blankets and covers using fire
air
and water
in the cleaning.

In the month of nisan
before the parting seas
called them out of the old life
our ancient mothers
went down to the river
they went down to the river
to prepare their garments for the spring.

Hands pounded rock voices drummed out song there is new life inside us Shekhinah
prepares for Her birth.

So we labor all women cleaning and washing
now with our brothers
now with our sons cleaning the inner house through the moon of nisan.

On the eve of the full moon we search our houses
by the light of a candle

for the last trace of winter
for the last crumbs grown stale inside us for the last darkness still in our hearts.

Washing our hands
we say a blessing
over water…
We light a candle
and search in the listening silence search the high places

and the low places
inside you
search the attic and the basement the crevices and crannies
the corners of unused rooms.
Look in your pockets
and the pockets of those around you for the traces of Mitzrayim.

Some use a feather some use a knife
to enter the hard places.

Some destroy Hametz with fire others throw it to the wind others toss it to the sea.
Look deep for the Hametz which still gives you pleasure and cast it to the burning.

When the looking is done we say:

All that rises up bitter
All that rises up prideful
All that rises up in old ways no longer fruitful All Hametz still in my possession
but unknown to me
which I have not seen
nor disposed of
may it find common grave
with the dust of the earth
amen amen
selah . . .(—Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb)

I knew this poem for a long time, but I like Chai Mitzvah’s questions. Too often we read poems and don’t think about them deeply enough. Four questions:

• What line/s in the poem resonates with you as you begin to think about your own preparation for Passover?
• What does it mean to “search the high places and low places inside you”? What are we searching for as we prepare for Passover?
• What do you think the poet means when she asks us to look in our pockets for “traces of Mitzrayim?
• According to the poet, what renews us during Passover?

Ultimately she is asking, How do we leave Mitzrayim and enter the Promised Land? How does each of us do this from within our own narrative, our own story, our own maggid. And for me, that is why the poem works. It is the spiritual preparation I need as I do the real physical, back-breaking work of preparing for Passover.

My mother, the proud, classical Reform Jew that she was, honored our own celebration of Passover. That first year, after we had been married just two short weeks, dishes arrived. They were our Passover meat set and we still use them. Another year when Sarah was quite young, she sent Sarah a set of plastic play dishes so she could change her dishes over too. Yes, that’s how I raised her.

So every year, we have a debate. It starts the day after Purim. What are we going to do about kitinyot this year. I’ve read the responsas, the teshuvot. I understand why the ban was put in place—to make a fence around the Torah, so that we could not possibly make a mistake and violate the prohibition of eating chametz. I know better than ever that it is even possible to make corn bread and during the SNAP Challenge Simon made bean bread. Yet, I understand why even 800 years ago the rabbis objected to the ban on kitinyot. I know that Simon’s family, with a great grandmother who was born in Italy and lived in Spain for a time, can claim Sephardic heritage.

Yet the ban has persisted. It is hard to throw away 800 years of history—and Sarah’s contention that it is not Passover without the Kosher for Passover ketchup. After all, all of Passover is designed to teach our children. My child!

Several years ago, Rabbi David Golinkin ruled about this for Masorti Jews living in Israel. http://www.cjvoices.org/article/the-kitniyot-dilemma/

This past November, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards for the Conservative Movement ruled on kitanyot. They have decided in a well-thought out, well reasoned document that the 800 year ban for Ashkanasi Jews should be lifted. And I support them 100%. I read the document from the bimah. The introduction and the conclusion about what it actually means practically for families. https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/2011-2020/Levin-Reisner-Kitniyot.pdf

What it means for the synagogue, since we span a full range of observance, is we will continue to observe the ban on kitniyot.

What it means for the Klein household is contained in the very last sentence. “Even those who continue to observe the Ashkenazic custom of eschewing kitniyot during Pesah may eat from Pesah dishes, utensils and cooking vessels that have come into contact with kitniyot and may consume kitniyot derivatives like oil.” We have always worried that every Jew should be able to find a welcome place in our home. That is one of the prime drivers for keeping kosher home. So we will continue to buy kosher for Passover ketchup—because it has meaning (and taste) for Sarah, even if Sarah is not coming home, because it is tradition. We will observe the ban for the first two nights so that everyone feels welcome in our home. And we will not worry as much for the last six nights—because the dishes cannot be “traifed.” It is a well reasoned position that I and Sarah can live with.

Because ultimately, this goes back to teaching our children on that day what the Lord did for me when I went forth from Egypt, out of the narrow places.

So the next question—how do we make Passover relevant today? Every year, organizations send me various Hagaddah supplements. Every year you can find new music, new videos that try to capture the spirit of the holidays—that you can either use in your seders or use to help you prepare.

Here is the best of this year’s crop:

Perhaps my favorite piece of preparation was some learning that happened with our youngest students. There were four of them in class. So we talked about the Four Questions, the Four Cups of Wine or Grape Juice or even milk and then the Four Children. The wise, the wicked, the simple and the one who doesn’t know how to ask. And we agreed that we could each be all of those people at some point. One girl said she is wise when she goes to Chinese class (and she does). One said he was bad when he argues and fights with his brother. All of them agreed that babies are the ones who do not know how to ask. We filmed it. It’s coming.

American Jewish World Service, has produced a Global Justice Haggadah, https://ajws.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/AJWS-Passover-Supplement.pdf Filled with beautiful, four color pictures that explore a very diverse world, it has been so popular, they are out of the first print run (I am lucky to have a couple of copies that we will use to supplement our own seder), it is available for download from the link above. Separate from the Hagaddah, they also have a message this year from Mandy Patimkin!

HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which works still with immigrants, Jewish and non-Jewish, published these resources about refugees: http://www.hias.org/passover2016

I particularly like their opening the door for Elijah.

Our students, as part of the SNAP Challenge participated in a Hunger Seder. Just matzah, marror, charoset and apple juice (we have one student allergic to grapes!) http://www.jewishpublicaffairs.org/Hagaddah/HungerSederHagaddah.pdf We are all ready to perform the mitzvah of “Let all who are hungry come and eat.”

JTA collected five of them here: http://www.jta.org/2016/04/17/life-religion/5-seder-supplements-to-make-your-passover-relevant-this-year

They include one from Keshet on LGBTQ issues, one on Black Lives Matter, one on human trafficking from the Religious Action Center, one on sexual assault on campus from Hillel International and the HIAS one.

Last year, T’ruah, the American organization of Rabbis for Human Rights, published this Hagaddah against modern day slavery: http://www.truah.org/images/OTHER-SIDE-OF-THE-SEA-web-rev16.pdf

The Washington Post did a great job of assessing some of the newest parodies. Looking for Hamilton—it’s here! https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/04/18/adele-bieber-michael-jackson-hamilton-the-best-2016-passover-parodies/

I admit I have a soft spot for Debbie Friedman (And the women dancing with their timbrels) and the Maccabeats (Dayenu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZgDNPGZ9Sg and Les Mis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmthKpnTHYQ ) as music to enrich seders.

All of this is how we teach our children on THIS DAY. Enjoy the preparations. Don’t feel burdened by them. Don’t become enslaved to them. Remember, no services at CKI on Friday night. I am hoping each of you is enjoying a seder somewhere. Maybe in a tent on the floor, or with Dr. Seuss, or with the stories of your own narratives. Let us know what are the most meaningful parts of the seder to you. And yes, enjoy the ketchup.

Our SNAP Challenge is drawing to a close. We made it through. We get to go back to our normal routine tomorrow. What were the key learnings?
• SNAP benefits are not enough to cover ALL the needs that food insecure families face. People who do this day in and day out have to scramble to meet other basic needs. Things like soap, toiletries are not included on SNAP. Fast food is not included on SNAP.
• This program works better is you have a well appointed kitchen, people who like to cook and support. Without Simon, I would not have eaten several meals.
• The biggest problem for me was an unpredictable schedule and lack of planning. Even when I planned that plan might not work, adding stress into the mix.
• The fear of where is the next meal coming from is real.
• I remain concerned about the social implications of being poor, on SNAP or otherwise. We actively sought out opportunities like the potluck dinner and like coffee with Ruth Messenger. For many, those social interactions would be just one more stressor.
• I am rethinking my program Java and Jews. It seemed like a cheap way to be out in the community and visible. But are we excluding some people for the cost of a cup of coffee? What other ways can I do that kind of thing?
• That 4PM headache? Probably coffee related. Going from a latte to just one cup of home brewed coffee…not enough caffeine.
We are sure there are other learnings but we are still processing the experience.

Today we wrapped up with our program at Hebrew School, Judaism Rocks. The kids made houses out of matzah and candy decorations. They were really cute. They made their own matzah, the bread of affliction, the bread of poverty and their own charoset. Then we gathered for a Hunger Seder. No fancy place settings. No extra food. Just apple juice, matzah, marror and charoset.

Based on a seder created by the Jewish Public Affairs Council, http://www.jewishpublicaffairs.org/Hagaddah/HungerSederHagaddah.pdf
We asked the four traditional questions, “Why is this night different from all other nights?” and then four new ones…
1. Why is this year different from all other years?
2. Why a Hunger Seder?
3. Why are there so many people hungry when there are government programs to support them?
4. How can we talk about hunger and ignore the obesity epidemic in the United States?

The families made four promises to go with the four cups of wine:
1. We will feed our communities today.
2. We will seek out those in need and act to nourish ourselves and our neighbors
3. We will use our power to persuade our leaders to abolish hunger in our communities
4. We will create a world where all Americans and all people are free from hunger.

So how do we take these learnings and move it into our usual life?
• We are committed to eating more meals at home and less on the go.
• We are committed to wasting less food in our house.
• We are committed to eating at least one vegetarian dinner a week.
• We are committed to creating the ongoing awareness and advocacy needed to end hunger. We have begun that already as we send Simon off to his annual Walk for Hunger in Boston.

I was reminded several times this week of the quote from Rabbi Tarfon in Pirke Avot. “Ours is not to finish the task. Neither are we free to ignore it.” Hunger is real in America. We must continue to work for the day when people will have enough to eat and none shall make them afraid.

And on the seventh day, G-d rested.

On the sixth day the Israelites received a double portion of food when they were wandering in the wilderness so they wouldn’t have to collect manna on Shabbat. Manna is seen as a gift from G-d. In fact the word manna means gift.

Shabbat is also a gift. A gift of time. A chance to catch our breath. To rest up. To set a different pace.

As a rabbi, Shabbat for me is a work day. I jokingly asked Simon if he thought anyone would notice if I didn’t show up. He reminded me that this was a three Torah morning. So I went.

As I prepared yet another breakfast and raced out the door, I thought again about all those single parents sometimes working more than one job just to make ends meet who do not have the luxury of Shabbat. While it is luxury at some levels, much has been written about why having a day off a week (two days are even better), actually helps people be more productive. Yet, despite the efforts of many groups, especially unions, this is still considered a privilege, not a right. If you are juggling more than one job, it is even less likely that you will have a real day off. You might be off from one job and not the other.

Every week we sing at services we sing “V’shamru”, joyfully proclaiming the words from Exodus 31, “The people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath for all generations. It is a sign of the covenant between Me and the people of Israel for is six days Adonai made heaven and earth and on the seventh day G-d rested.”

Ahad Ha’am, the early Zionist said that “Just as Israel has kept the Sabbath, so has the Sabbath kept Israel.”

There is another prayer that says, “Those who keep the Sabbath and call it a delight shall rejoice in Your kingdom. The people that hallow the Sabbath will delight in Your goodness. For being pleased with the seventh day, You hallowed it and made it the most precious, special of days, to remember the work of Creation.

That sense of Oneg Shabbat—the delight, the joy of the Sabbath—I definitely experienced this week. We loved having our potluck dinner and opening our home. The food was good—and the conversation even better. We all left full, delighting in each other’s company.

Oneg Shabbat has also come to be the term for the food following the Friday evening service. It too was a delight. Plentiful and varied. And something for which to give thanks. The Sisterhood who sponsors it each week. The shoppers who make sure the food appears. And Susan who artfully arranges it, serves it and cleans up after us.

On Saturday morning following services there is more food. Kiddush. Which is really the term for the blessing over the wine, which sanctifies time and space. (More on that later since that is exactly what I talked about this week!). This week we had a sponsored Kiddush in honor of someone’s 80^th birthday. Those are almost a luncheon with bagels, lox, cream cheese and all the fixings, egg salad, two kinds of herring, veggies and dip, and lots of sweets. It is fun to celebrate happy events in community this way. And more to be thankful for.

Shabbat afternoon there is actually a third meal. Seudah shlisheet. We were able to join with Ruth Messinger again for a discussion of the book “In the Shadows of the Banyan” about Cambodia and her most recent trip to Cambodia. When we walked in, she asked how our food challenge was going. We said that we were doing fine and in fact had saved $10 for precisely this event. However, we wound up not spending any of it, enjoying instead, just the good conversation and people’s reflections on Cambodia. We did not feel deprived since there was pastries and coffee available. I just didn’t feel like I needed more carbs or more coffee at 4PM. Nonetheless, like every day this week, I had my 4PM headache.

Places like synagogues, coffee houses, libraries, provide low cost or no cost entertainment and good intellectual stimulation. There must be other options too but we didn’t have time to find them this week. My mother swore by playgrounds. All of these are other ways to stretch budgets.

And all too soon, Shabbat was over and it was back to the real work world. Prepping for Hebrew School, readying flyers for a program at Costco called Matzah in the Aisle and sadly counseling a family that had just lost a loved one. A very late dinner of lentil stew, the stuff Jacob and Esau fought over. Ours was only 100 calories and $.55 a serving. And again, luckily for me and my schedule Simon made it. Healthy, hearty, warm on a cold spring night. Time for bed.