Sisterhood Shabbat was wonderful. Much to celebrate. And yes I learned from my friends, my sisters. I was reminded how much I like Ruth Brin’s poetry. How she captures my spirituality.

One poem that was read:

A Woman’s Meditation:
When men were children, they thought of G-d as a father;
When men were slaves, they thought of G-d as a master;
When men were subjects, they thought of G-d as king.
But I am a woman, not slave, not a subject,
not a child who longs for G-d as father or mother.

I might imagine G-d as teacher or friend, but those images
like king, master, father or mother, are too small for me now.

G-d is the force of motion and light in the universe;
G-d is the strength of life on our planet;
G-d is the power moving us to do good;
G-d is the source of love springing up in us.
G-d is far beyond what we can comprehend.

I am not sure that Ruth Brin always captures my understanding of G-d. Maybe I am too small and still need G-d as a mother or a father. But I agree that G-d is far beyond what we can comprehend. I need a big G-d. One that can handle all of my moods. One that can be strong, the Rock of Israel, or nurturing, El Shaddai. One that can be comforting or can share my anger. One that can be my Partner or my Friend. One that can inspire me or heal me. One that just is. G-d is all of what Ruth Brin says and more. I am grateful for her articulation. Maimonides said that you cannot discuss G-d because to discuss G-d is to limit G-d and G-d is limitless. I think Ruth’s approach better.

I was particularly moved by another poem by Ruth,

No one ever told me the coming of the Messiah
Could be an inward thing.
No one ever told me a change of heart
Might be as quiet as new-fallen snow.

No one ever told me that redemption
Was as simple as springtime and as wonderful
As birds returning after a long winter,
Rose-breasted grosbeaks singing in the swaying branches
Of a newly budded tree.

No one ever told me that salvation
Might be like a fresh spring wind
Blowing away the dried, withered leaves of another year,
Carrying the scent of flowers, the promise of fruition.

What I found for myself I try to tell you:
Redemption and salvation are very near,
And the taste of them is in the world
That God created and laid before us.
Ruth Brin

Finding the Messiah in an inward moment, salvation and redemption in the beauty of the world around us. Today….if only we would listen to that inward voice, as the Psalms teach. It was a WOW moment and I thank Maureen for it.

It leads me to wonder. Is there a difference between men’s spirituality and women’s? I am not sure. Perhaps that is the beauty of Sisterhood Shabbat. We get to explore these concepts together, as sisters.

This Shabbat is Sisterhood Shabbat. I predict it will not snow. Sisterhood Shabbat is a wonderful time in the life of a congregation. The women lead most of the service. Being a woman rabbi, I become a role model. There was a time when women didn’t lead services or read from the Torah. There was a time when men and women didn’t even sit together!

I love to watch the women stretch themselves. Some don’t like public speaking. Taking an English reading is a big deal. Some are just learning Hebrew and this might be their first time reading Hebrew or singing Hebrew in public. Some are accomplished at leading a service and attending to people’s spiritual needs. Some are gifted in crafting a d’var Torah, a word of Torah, a sermon. In our small congregation about 18 people (life?) will participate. I am proud of the efforts these women put forth and I look forward to sharing an evening of meaningful observance and deepening community. I am sure I will learn something along the way.

Even before I arrived at Congregation Kneseth Israel, I knew I liked this particular sisterhood. At least the gift shop. They are committed to selling fair trade products. When I was here for my demo weekend I broke my own rules and bought fair trade kippot from Guatemala. Now the gift shop is proudly displaying jewelry and bowls from Kenya from a collective called Acacia Creations. http://www.acaciacreations.com. They purchased these products before they knew I was going to Kenya, because they are attractive and because fair trade is important.

Why is fair trade important? The intent of the Fair Trade movement is to:

Often these marginalized producers are women. It is a good project for our sisterhood to be involved with. Fair trade was a model of economic development (back to that AWJS article). Now it is more of a model of sustainable development and growth and responsible consumption. http://www.european-fair-trade-association.org/efta/Doc/FT-E-2010.pdf

It works. It works for the Jewish community of Uganda who offer “Delicious Peace” coffee as part of a collaborative of Jews, Christians and Muslims that is fair trade, organic and Kosher. It works with an organization called Equal Exchange (which was actually started by my mother’s best friend from third grade, Jean Mason!). http://www.equalexchange.coop

It works. Like micro financing works. It works in study after study.

This weekend is also Memorial Day. For many, we remember our armed forces gave so much so that we might live. I remember all those Memorial Day parades, marching as a Girl Scout. And the Memorial Day picnics that followed. Yes, with Kentucky Fried Chicken and iced tea!

For me, Memorial Day weekend is often bittersweet. The smell of lilacs gets me every time. Memorial Day weekend is when I mark the yahrzeits of my step-grandmother, Ruth Bialson and my aunt, Alyce Lesser. Both of them were good role models for me. Smart, accomplished, caring, and great party planners. They knew how to make everyone feel comfortable.

When I stand up and lead the Avot prayer which now includes the Imahot, I will think of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, our matriarchs to be sure. But I will also think of my own personal matriarchs: Ruth and Marian, Marguerite and Alyce, and Nelle. These are also my mothers, all of whom are gone. I am glad to be part of a sisterhood.

This has been a L O N G week. In our small congregation we had seven people in the hospital. None were critical. All were serious.

• A 96 year old who needed a pacemaker and had a panic attack or seizure just before going to the hospital for her scheduled surgery so went by ambulance instead of her daughter’s car.
• A 97 year old doing at three day test to see if a brain stent needs to be used to drain fluid
• An 80+ year old with a gallbladder issue and underlying problem winds up in ICU.
• A mother-to-be with a 35 hour delivery and the baby winds up in the NICU.
• Our administrator still in rehab with a shattered but healing elbow.
• An 81 year old with cataract surgery. His was the least serious.

A ninety year old, not one of the above, told me today, that while her doctor has given up on her because her heart will give out on her, she is not ready to die. She told me her work is not done yet. That she still has work to do. And that she would continue to do that work until G-d said she was done. She said this with a big smile on her face and surety in her heart. That very heart the cardiologist felt he couldn’t treat any more.

I admire her spunk. Her determination. Her sense of humor. Her spirit. She never went to college but she was president of a PTA–and her senior retirement community. She went to the school of hard knocks. And she has had a hard life. She got beaten up by the Catholic kids for being Greek Orthodox. So she signed up for catechism and challenged the priest about what he was teaching. She defended her Jewish neighbors, explaining to her other neighbors that it was the Romans who killed Jesus not the Jews. She told me how she hurt her arm helping to rescue a young man at the scene of an accident. She made me smile and gave me renewed energy.

Last night in my Introduction to Judaism class I explained how G-d visited Abraham when he was recovering from his circumcision. From this we learn the importance of visiting the sick. Moses prayed for healing his sister Miriam. El na refana la. Please, G-d heal her. The prayer is simple and direct.

Visiting the sick isn’t just for rabbis. Praying for healing is incumbent on us all. My prayer is to be like my Greek Orthodox friend. Determined, with a sense-of-humor. With strength and compassion and courage. With faith and energy.

Please G-d heal them. All of them. Give them strength and courage. Energy and vitality. Faith and compassion. Hold their hands and their spirits. Give them skilled and compassionate care teams. Be their Rock. ALlow them to put their burden down as You lighten their load and give them rest. Let them enjoy a perfect moment of Shabbat.

I did it. After rescheduling twice, once for a funeral and once in order to give blood, I got my shots today. At least most of them. I need to double check with my primary care physician about polio and flu.

I understand the need for vaccines. I know people who have had polio, one of whom now suffers with post-polio syndrome. They would have had a far different life if the polio vaccine had been discovered earlier. I was a proud Rotarian when we thought that polio had been irradiated. But it has not. Because parents have become afraid to immunize children. Because in some parts of the world, including Kenya, the shot is too expensive and children remain vulnerable. Rotary has done much to end polio and I just signed their petition.

I was surprised that polio was on the suggested list. I guess the vaccine I had as a child doesn’t last forever. Here in the States it probably would have been sufficient. But in Kenya, less clear.

We can be clear that immunizations do not cause autism. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/Autism/Index.html

We can also be proud that some of the research on the pneumonia vaccine is coming from Kenya. http://www.irinnews.org/report/99858/pneumonia-vaccine-shows-promise-in-kenya Pneumonia is the leading cause of death for children under 5 with 1.1 million children dying each year. The research is actually coming out of Kisumu, one of the cities to which we will be traveling. Perhaps we will see this research facility in action.

American Jewish World Service is doing good work in Kenya:

http://ajws.org/who_we_are/publications/country_profiles/kenya_country_profile.pdf

I learned some interesting things. Vaccines for foreign travel are not covered by American insurance. That the treatment if you contracted any of the diseases would be far worse–and ironically would then be covered by insurance. That the anticipation of the shot is worse than the actual shot. That we need to be doing more of this kind of thing in Kenya but that it is difficult to deliver the services without solving (!) the violence against women, children and the LGBT community. So if my arm is sore tonight,  it is a small price to pay. Really.

There is a double entendre here. A double life. A double portion maybe.

In Hebrew each letter has a numerical equivalent. So aleph is one, bet is two, gimmel is three. Chai (chet, yud)=18. So life is 18. That is why many Jews give gifts or donations in multiples of 18. 36 is therefore double life.

36 times in Torah we are told to champion the cause of the widow, the orphan, the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt.

36 is the number of “concealed ones”, the hidden righteous, the “lamed vavniks”. An idea from the Talmud that at all times there are 36 special people in the world that are so important that even if one of them were missing, the world would come to an end. In every generation these hidden souls are the 36 righteous that “greet the Shechinah,” the Divine Presence. (Tractate Sanhedrin 97b; Tractate Sukkah 45b) Each individual does not know he (or she?) is a lamed vuvnik–nor the identities of the other ones.

These thirty six are hidden. Concealed. We often say of secret agents that they have a double life. Something that is hidden that we don’t know about. Maybe the lamedvavniks are secret agents of G-d, making this world a better place.

After the Holocaust, people began to wonder if the 36 exist at all or maybe, just maybe one of them is missing.

Andre Schwarz-Bart in his novel, Last of the Just has another way of looking at them: “Rivers of blood have flowed, columns of smoke have obscured the sky, but surviving all these dooms, the tradition has remained inviolate down to our own time. According to it, the world reposes upon thirty-six Just Men, the Lamed-Vov, indistinguishable from simple mortals; often they are unaware of their station. But if just one of them were lacking, the sufferings of mankind would poison even the souls of the newborn, and humanity would suffocate with a single cry. For the Lamed-Vov are the hearts of the world multiplied, and into them, as into one receptacle, pour all our griefs.”

This week we begin reading the book of Numbers. It begins by taking a census. With people standing up and being counted. It is what G-d wants. It is what G-d orders. “And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt, saying: Count all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, by their polls; from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: you shall number them by their hosts, even you and Aaron.”

It seems almost the opposite of the hidden 36. However, maybe they are related. This weekend we will honor two families. The Zimmermans have been long time synagogue members. He has served as president. She has been active in Sisterhood, Hadassah, ran the Hebrew School for a time. He is an attorney. She a social worker. They have done so many things behind the scenes it would be impossible to count. The Robinsons are a newer family. They too stepped up and have been counted. She has served on the school committee and really manages to rally the Torah School families to participate. She has been on the executive committee of the synagogue board in her role as secretary. Her children have been active members of the Torah School and we as a community swelled with pride when AJ celebrated his Bar Mitzvah and has read Torah for Simchat Torah. Again, they do so many things behind the scenes it would be hard to count. One example–watching AJ at a PJ Library Shabbat or a Sunday morning pre-school. He loves being with the little kids and he can calm them down by reading them a story. He can allow a little kid to find the afikomen at Passover. He is becoming a mensch. Quietly, behind the scenes. It would seem to be a double life in the life of a typical teenager.

Lamedvavniks? Who knows–but the possibility is there. The possibility is there for any of us. Woody ALlen famously said that 80% of life is showing up. In order to be a hidden lamedvavnik, and I don’t really want to know who you are, first you need to stand up and be counted and then continue to do things behind the scenes. That too is a double life.

“If you walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach its vintage, and the vintage shall reach its sowing time; and you shall eat your bread until you are satisfied, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.”

There is a majesty in that language. A hope and a dream.

Does anyone remember what happened 66 years ago? Do some of you remember listening on the radio? Israel became the Jewish State. After the UN Partition vote in November of 1947, this was the day that Israel declared its independence. Great Britain was no longer in charge. As soon as the declaration of independence was read by David Ben Gurion, five Arab countries attacked Israel.

I grew up singing Israeli folk songs, mostly about peace and believing in the Israeli dream. “Im tirtzu ayn zo agadah, If you will it, it is no dream.” Theodore Herzl said. Debbie Friedman set it to music. I sang it with every paper I delivered and every yard I raked earning money to go on my NFTY Summer Tour as a 16 year old.

On the Kibbutzim we sang as we worked, “For our hands are strong and our hearts are young, And the dreamer keeps a dreaming’, Ages on, Keeps a dreamin’ keeps a dreamin’ along…What did we do when we needed corn? We plowed and we sowed to the early morn…” The early Israelis made the desert bloom, learned about drip irrigation, desalinization of water, solar energy. They built towns, brought Hebrew back to life, absorbed refugees from Europe and from northern Africa and Arab countries. All while fighting for its very existence.

Israel fought wars in 1948, in 1956, in 1967, in 1973. It invaded Lebanon in 1982. There have been two intifadas and any number of terrorist attacks. On Yom HaZikaron Israel mourned 23,169 fallen soldiers and 2,495 terror victims since the founding of the State of Israel. How is this possible?  How is it possible that we have lost so many, so very many? One of them is mine. It clouds my understanding of Israel.

Yuval didn’t ask to be a soldier yet he understood that was his destiny. His parents were Holocaust survivors. They lived on a kibbutz. They never talked about their life prior to the kibbutz. They lost children in the Holocaust and Yuval’s older brother in another war. His father tended the cotton fields and his mother made beautiful batik cloth. I still have napkins she made. Yuval knew he would be a soldier, an officer. And so he was. He had a very typical Israeli philosophy. Very matter-of-fact. Either we go to war or we don’t. If we don’t it is no problem. If we go to war, either there will be casualties or there won’t. If there are not, there is no problem. If there are casualties, either they are serious, or they are not. If they are not serious, there is no problem. You get the idea. He went to war. He was a casualty. It was a problem. And he died a hero.

It is times like this that I want to sing, Blowing in the Wind. “How many times must a man turn his head. How many times must the cannon balls fly.” How many young men (and women) do we have to send off to war? When will we be safe?

But Israelis are optimistic. In an article that was published this week in Israel Hayom, http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=4098, 93% of Israelis are proud to be Israeli and 80% wouldn’t live anywhere else. People are not concerned about the political situation and surprisingly the biggest fear is for personal safety, 17%.

This survey, based on 500 “typical Israelis,” fills me with hope. It does not address the fact that Israel is complex. Israel is intense. There are no black and white answers. There are no simple answers to complicated intractable problems that are now generations old.

The current prime minister of Israel, Benyamin Netanyau, has different response. He lost his brother Yoni. He is filled with fear. Never again should Israel lose a son, a brother this way.

I watched Prime Minister Netayahu stand with his wife at his Yoni’s grave for Yom HaZakron. He seemed detached. Almost disingenuous. Yoni was the commander of the elite group of Israeli soldiers that raided Entebbe on, does anyone remember that date? July 4, 1776.

I remember that Sunday well. It was Independence Day of the Bicentennial. As a Girl Scout I was speaking at Grand Rapids big celebration. The Declaration of Independence would be read. President Ford would be in attendance. I went to get the Sunday paper on the front porch and put the flag up on a warm, summer morning. The headline about Entebbe was splashed across the front page. It overshadowed the sitting president being in town and filled me with pride. Yoni was the only Israeli soldier killed in the raid. He was only 30. There is a movie based on his life, Follow Me, Kadima in Hebrew, the command of every Israeli officer. Yuval’s last word.

Sh! It is a dirty little secret. Israel does not always do everything right. Benjamin Netanyahu does not always do everything right. Managing a country is different than remembering a dream. Building a country is not the same as praying for peace. Sometimes difficult choices have to be made.

Despite the ambiguities, the complexities, Israel has a right to exist. Israel needs to exist. As a Jewish state. Of course, how Israel defines Jewish differs from the State of Israel and from the state sponsored rabbinate of Israel. For the State it is good enough for one grandparent, to be Jewish. For the rabbinate your mother must be Jewish and you better be able to prove it OR you may convert, using Orthodox rabbis and only some that they accept.

I am proud of Israel. Undeniably, unabashedly proud. Proud that the technology that drives my cell phone was invented in Israel. Proud that every time there is a disaster anywhere in the world, Israel shows up, sometimes quietly behind the scenes but they always show up and they are always effective, based on the painful knowledge they have cleaned from all those wars. Proud that their main hospitals do not discriminate against anyone, that they treat Jew and Arab alike. Proud that there are more Nobel prize winners per capita than anywhere else in the world. Proud that my friend, Yossi Abromowitz is running for President. That in Israel you don’t have to be born in Israel to be president and that it doesn’t matter if you are an American olah with a woman rabbi as your wife and two kids from Ethiopia amongst your children.

Israel is complex. So I worry.

• I worry about Jews being judgmental of other Jews. I stand here in my brand new tallit from Israel. Simon has a matching one. Women have a right and an obligation to davven in Israel. It is a mitzvah. There is nothing in halacha to prevent a woman from taking on the obligation of tallit or tefilin.
• I worry that Jews don’t let other Jews have honest and open dialogue about Israel. That many congregations won’t even talk about Israel for fear of offending one group or another. That many Jews will no longer speak out when Israeli politicians seem misguided. That somehow saying anything critical is considered anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. That J-Street was not allowed as a member of the Conference of Presidents. Here we will have that dialogue, because Israel is that important. You may not agree with everything I say—and that is OK come be part of the dialogue. After services we will gather to continue this discussion and thank you to the sisterhood for providing Israeli snacks to eat!
• I worry about what fear does. When those who were oppressed for so many years, generations really, become the oppressors. When there are real human rights violations on the West Bank. When fear drives our actions rather than pursing the dream of peace. Real fears. The fear of anti-Semitism. The fear of the Holocaust happening again. The fear of terrorism. The fear of a nuclear strike by Iran. Peace, real peace cannot be made with fear. Real peace cannot be made without safety.
• I worry about the peace process breaking down, again.

Why has the peace process broken down? Because on both sides there is tremendous fear and mistrust. While Israelis mark Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut on the Hebrew Calendar, the Arab community marks Nakba Day on the Gregorian Calendar. While our Torah School children were here on Wednesday singing songs of peace, telling us why Israel is important to them, and leading a Torah service, and sampling hummus, some they made and some commercial, in Israel there were clashes at Damascus Gate and five Israeli Arabs were arrested, two Arabs were killed by Israeli soldiers in Ramallah. Abbas’s response was to announce that Israel is “living in the mentality of the past and closing the door to the two-state solution.” The Palestinian Authority were considering cancelling security coordination with Israel.

And in truth, for Israel to exist as the Jewish State it was intended, the Palestinian Authority needs to recognize its right to exist. Benjamin Netanyahu was clear in his response: “Not far from here, in the Palestinian Authority, they are commemorating what they call the Nakba Day. They are standing silent to mark the tragedy of the establishment of Israel, the state of the Jewish people. Palestinians are educating their children with “endless propaganda” calling for the disappearance of Israel. We have many answers to that,” he said. “The first is that we continue to build our country, and our united capital of Jerusalem. And we will also give an additional answer to ‘The Nakba’ – we will pass the Nationality Law that demonstrates clearly to the world that Israel is the state of the Jewish people.”

I deplore the propaganda that Palestinian children are raised with. Linda Blatchford posted on Facebook this week a scary example. A friendly looking kid TV character , maybe a bee, saying “That’s right, if the neighbors are Jewish…He should beat them up. You should shoot all the Jews.” Pretty shocking stuff. Ask her for the link.

The BDS is movement raging on college campuses. Sabra Hummous, the winner of our taste completion here on Wednesday, was banned at DePaul. Loyola voted to divest from Israel .Scarlett Johanseen, a former Oxfam ambassador was caught in the middle of the controversy over her SodaStream ad. She stood by her decision, saying, “I was aware of that particular factory before I signed. And it still doesn’t seem like a problem – at least not until someone comes up with a solution to the closing of that factory and leaving all those people destitute.”

Oxfam wrote to her explaining that, although it understood the independence of the stars who volunteer to help, as an organisation it officially “believes that businesses that operate in settlements further the ongoing poverty and denial of rights of the Palestinian communities that we work to support”.

This is not new. In the 70s, Jewish congregations didn’t drink Pepsi. Why? Because they wouldn’t sell in Israel and Coca Cola would. I stand with Scarlett Johanssen and Rabbis for Human Rights. Providing sustainable work on the West Bank with companies like SodaStream, Ahava and Sabra is a better way to work for peace than boycotting economic development. Maybe I should go get a Sodastream machine for my office.

But what Netanyahu means when he says build our country is a reference to continued building of settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem. While that is how the early Zionists were successful and I am in the middle of reading Ari Shavits fascinating book My Promised Land, I believe that continued building in the West Bank is an obstacle to peace. It erodes any sense of safety.  I was at Damascus Gate when Biden was in Jerusalem. The demonstrations and counter demonstrations were not safe. Yet, as a democratic country, free speech prevailed.

I worry about the Nationality Law. Will I or any of you even be granted Israeli citizenship should we want it? Will the Knesett once again debate “Who is a Jew?’ Whose definition will survive this time?

So I join organizations like Rabbis for Human Rights, the Parents Circle, J Street., Women of the Wall, the Israeli Religious Action Center I talk about Israel frequently and I work for peace—as often and consistently as I can.  I create space so that we can have this conversation in respectful tones but so that we can talk about Israel. I travel to Israel and help organize trips as often as I can. We will try to plan one as a congregation for next summer.

I am a rabbi, just a simple rabbi and not a politician. I think in metaphor. What I learn from the story of Abraham and Hagar, is that we have to keep trying. We need to keep pursing peace, over and over again. Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, the father of all the Arabs, hides her son Ishmael, under a bush. She calls out, not even a prayer per se, “Don’t let me look on while the child dies.” Not “heal my child,” or “ help my child”. All hope was gone. She opens her eyes and sees a source of water.  I want to cry out. I want to scream. I pray, “Make peace not just in the high heavens; but here on earth as well. Between the sons of Sarah and the sons of Hagar, speedily and in our day. Amen.”

Being a rabbi was part of the dream that Yuval and I shared. I am not sure how we get to an age where everyone can sit under their vine and fig tree and none can make them afraid. That is Isaiah’s dream. It is mine too. Speedily and in our day. Working for that dream, working for peace is how I will spend Yom Ha’Atzma’ut. It is how I keep Yuval’s memory alive.

When Sarah was a Bat Mitzvah she learned that the original Sarah had her tent open to all four sides so she could always welcome guests coming from any direction. We built Sarah’s tent. Open to all four sides. We served dinner in the tent with beautiful brass serving pieces collected in the Middle East. People felt welcome.

Today I hosted a meeting for the leaders of the congregation. As a way to say thank you. As a way to model warm and welcoming behavior. As a way to talk about how to have that kind of big tent where people feel welcome. I managed to get twenty busy people in the same room at the same time. I used real table clothes.  I served a menu that was kosher, gluten free, lactose free and vegetarian. There were enough choices. Nobody went hungry. Oh, and I’ve already got a thank you note because the fish was delicious.

Over dinner we looked at a picture of a tent. Open to all four sides. With people coming in and others welcoming them. Many ages and generations. Many skin tones. People seemed happy, joyous. There is a lot of light inside the tent.

This picture was one that Big Tent Judaism uses to spark this very discussion. They used it at a workshop on welcoming congregations for JUF and the Synagogue Commission that our educational director and our administrator attended. The discussion then focused on how we want to be welcoming. What does our tent look like:

• Non-judgemental, safe.
• Accepting
• Accessible
• Creative
• Affirming
• Approachable
• Active listeners
• Enjoyable
• Fun
• Not whiney, complaining
• No gossip
• Diverse
• Pleasant
• Positive
• Connected
• Communication

There were more words. Then we took turns reading a hand out on what priorities might be to make the synagogue more warm and welcoming. We talked a little about language and what it conveys. Then we looked at how people want to be welcomed, what proactive hospitality is. Another term is radical hospitality.

All this in a hour. Truth be told, we did all this in a hour and we just began the deep conversation. People went home with specific tasks. Someone will add a map to the video display. Someone else will continue to explore handicapped accessible bathrooms. Someone else will check the language of the website. It was a good meeting. It is a start. It is only a start.

Africa, at least Kenya, has been blessedly out of the news today. We are more than halfway to Shavuot and writing every day has become difficult. What will I say today that will be meaningful? And then it happens!

I have a friend, Yossi Abramowitz, Yosef to you now that he is wearing a suit. He is wearing a suit because he is now running for President of Israel. Really. Why? Because he believes in Israel. He has lived there now for 10ish years. His mother is my good friend Devora Abramowitz with whom I celebrated lots of chaggim together with and from whom I inherited much of Yossi’s library when he moved with his wife Rabbi Susan Silverman to Israel. Our congregation in Lowell boasts the first solar ner tamid (eternal light) in the country. But Yossi has taken solar power to a whole different level. His company, Arava Power Company, founded with David Rosenblatt and Ed Hofland at Kibbutz Ketura. Its goal is to supply 10% of Israel’s electricity needs through solar energy. He has called solar energy, the “energy of peace”; in an 2008 interview he said “To realize that the same sun shines equally on all of us, is owned by none of us, and can supply our energy needs in abundance, inherently promotes peace. The sun doesn’t recognize borders.”  “A Renewable Light to the Nations: An Interview with Arava Power Company’s Yossi Abramowitz”

This was Yossi’s Facebook Status today:

So solar power as a way to do economic development in Africa. AJWS are you listening? This may not be the rights-based method you are preferring. But it seems to be effective in Africa. Along the way, Yossi is building bridges. Perhaps one day soon, though the power of the sun, he will be president.

Today is Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day of the counting of the omer, from Passover to Shavuot. It is a celebration, the hillula of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a Talmudic rabbi and leading disciple of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century CE. Or maybe it is his yarzeit, the anniversary of his death.

How is celebration connected to mourning? I think of the Psalm for the Dedication of the Temple, Psalm 30 which we read every week in synagogue.

“To you, Lord, I called;
to the Lord I cried for mercy:
“What is gained if I am silenced,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?
Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me;
Lord, be my help.”
You turned my wailing into dancing;
You removed my sackcloth and robed me with joy,
that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

That is what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai did. In the midst of the Roman occupation, where the study of Torah was forbidden, he found a way to continue to teach Torah. His students would pack a picnic and go out of Jerusalem as though on an outing. They would sit in a cave and study Torah. In that way he lived out the verse that there would be no value if his voice was silenced. In that way, his mourning was turned to joy and his wailing to dancing.

Each of us, has an opportunity to do precisely that. When Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote his seminal book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, the title was not why bad things happen. Sometimes there is no explanation. The question becomes how do we respond. Each of us has bad things that happen to us. The challenge is to find balance, to find meaning so that slowly over time we can turn our mourning to joy and we can continue to praise G-d. It is isn’t easy.

There are a number of ways Lag B’Omer has been celebrated.With pilgrimages to the tomb of Bar Yochai in northern Israel. With bonfires. And singing. With bows and arrows. With weddings and haircuts.

In 1942 there was a most miraculous celebration of Lag B’Omer in the shadow of the pyramids. The Jewish Palestinian soldiers (this was before Israel was a state!) conscripted by England and serving in Northern Africa, gathered to light a Lag B’Omer bonfire. They sang Israeli folk songs and danced into the wee hours of the mourning. A fascinating eyewitness account of this event can be read here: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15019#.U3oYAcbxUy4

Every year, in Tunisia, Lag B’Omer is celebrated with a festive procession to the El Ghriba synagogue, one of the oldest in Africa. It brings hundreds of Jews and Israelis to Tunisia. Earlier in the year Norwegian Cruise Lines cancelled stops at ports in Tunisia after Tunisia denied entry to 20 Israelis. Pilgrims from Israel traditionally until this year entered the country on special visas issued by Tunisia in advance since Tunisia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. This year it has flipped flopped on whether Israelis can enter on their own Israeli passports or need a special visa. The minister of tourism has said that Tunisia needs this event to be successful so the tourism season is successful. Others questioned whether there should be diplomatic ties with Israel. So much for the promise of an Arab Spring.

I learned for the first time about an ancient tradition for Lag B’omer. Some have a tradition of giving chai rotel at the grave of Shimon bar Yochai. 18 measures of liquid. It is believed that if you donate 18 “rotel”, about 54 liters, then the giver will be granted miraculous salvation. At the grave this is liquid refreshment, grape, juice, wine, soda or even water.

At Congregation Kneseth Israel we knew it would be Lag B’Omer, the last day of religious school and our semi-annual blood drive. The children would complete making their own Torah scrolls that they had been working on all year, with the phrase, “Pekuach nefesh” to save a life. The 6th and 7th graders finished their wimples, using their personal verses from the Ashrei and tying (pun intended) their studying of baby naming/bris traditions to their upcoming B’nei Mitzvah where they may use their wimples as a Torah tie. We dedicated a tree to a teacher who has been teaching with us for 25 years. We had a hot dog lunch for tzedakah. We had a child naming. Our building was full. It was filled with joy. And songs of praise. There was no mourning.

And the blood drive?  Heartland Blood Centers collected 18 pints of blood. I am told that each pint saves at least 3 lives: 54 lives. What better way to celebrate Lag B’Omer!

Part of what I am enjoying about the American Jewish World Service Global Jewish fellowship, is the opportunity to engage in chevruta study in preparation. Chevruta, from the same root as friend, is about studying intensely with a friend. You see the model in the movie Yentl. I have a new friend, Rabbi Beau Shapiro from Los Angeles. He is a rabbi at the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple founded in 1862. That makes it 30 years older than my congregation which is also historic! I am the only rabbi of Congregation Kneseth Israel. As he put it, they have enough rabbis to field a baseball team. Really.

But we share a commitment to social justice, to tikkun o’lam, fixing or repairing the world. This week we met (virtually!) to study the texts that American Jewish World Service provided for us. We read an article about a historical overview of development and a more in-depth analysis of A Rights-Based Approach to Development by Peter Uvin. Then we contrasted it with a text we know well. Leviticus 19:9-10 and Leviticus 19:15, both part of what we call the Holiness Code.

It was an interesting discussion. Rabbi Shapiro and I agreed on much of our approach and response. Some of the material we found troubling. If you used a right-based approach, who is setting the agenda? Whose rights? What if there are rights that appear to supersede each other or cancel each other out?

We were both surprised to read that Maslow’s Pyramid as a model maybe dead. Although I quipped that I had seen on Facebook that the new bottom rung is Wifi. No one can exist without Wifi (and it actually concerns me about the Kenya trip). But seriously, I have always taught this to my fifth graders during their class on prophets where they take on an issue as a class project and try to make the world a better place. How can you talk about reducing hate crimes for instance if people are worried about food, shelter, clothing?