Suddenly, just two days before Yom Kippur the man an avid jogger was taken to the hospital. There was the ambulance, the emergency room, the resident, and finally his doctor who arrived only to confirm that he had a panic attack. It sounded most humiliating because in his head he could still hear the ambulance siren and his own barely audible voice, “I am having a heart attack.” His doctor, a young man, young enough to be his son, asked what was going on in his life since physically he was in excellent shape; did he experience any stress, did something unexpected happen, was he worried. The man just nodded his head and said, “No.”
Category Archives: Articles
Objecting to Conscientious Objection—by Peter Eisenstadt
Pope Francis, the wonder pope, managed to destroy most of the scads of liberal goodwill he earned during his recent visit to the United States by sneaking in a visit with Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who attracted much national attention through her adamant refusal to process the marriage forms for same-sex couples in her office, claiming that to do so would violate her “religious liberty.” On his trip back to the Vatican, the pope did not directly comment on the Davis case, but did say that “conscientious objection is a human right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right.”
When Pope Francis Met with Kim Davis Sin Crushed Human Rights –by Ayala Emmett
It was important for me as a Jewish woman to locate common cause with Pope Francis on compassion. It is equally imperative for me as a person of faith to speak out when the pope supports people like Kim Davis who, in the name of religious sin, act to restrict human right and deny marriage licenses to citizens of the same sex. Kim Davis and those who support her insert their religious notions of sinning into the legal domain and defy the American separation of church and state.
Constructing “sinning” behavior must be distinguished from legal rules. Kim Davis’ notion of sin in its religious framing, in this case that marriage between persons of the same sex is a sin, goes against the law of land. She and her supporters conflate their right to hold notions of sin with their right to religious freedom. Let’s be clear about it, no one is forcing Davis to abandon her religious conception of sinful behavior, which she has every right to hold and observe. She cannot however, as a public official break the law of the land since as of June, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the same rights to marriage as heterosexual couples.
A Jewish Woman’s Common Cause with Pope Francis—by Ayala Emmett
The crowds that greeted Pope Francis in America were so profoundly joyous that even those of us who are not Catholic felt drawn to the exuberance. This festivity of hope in humanity emanates from Pope Francis who is the leader of 1.2 billion Catholics. Yet, the joy comes from his real power, his compelling message of compassion that he offers in a way that makes him immediate, familiar and accessible not only to Catholics but to those of different faith communities and to non-believers alike.
As a Jewish woman of faith I rejoice to share in a common cause of compassion and justice. It is easy for me to see how a Jewish woman could feel connected to the hope that Pope Francis has brought to America by appealing to the best in us. Last week in the morning service of Yom Kippur I could clearly see that social justice that has been part of my heritage so easily joined the pope’s message. I thought about it as we read on Yom Kippur from the Book of Isaiah about the meaning of the fast, “it is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into your home, and when you see the naked to clothe them.”
Finding Compassion on the Road to Nineveh—by Ayala Emmett
After the Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940, three of my cousins, ages two, five and nine, were saved by the compassion of Catholic families. Tragically, other family members did not survive as country after country closed its borders to Jewish refugees. When the Nazis were defeated in 1945 a worldwide slogan promised, “never again.” Over the years and most recently, the unbearable suffering of desperate refugees has reminded us that the promise “never again” has faded from memory. We realize now that compassion must be invoked, summoned and rekindled again and again. As nations like Hungary brutally shut their borders, leaders like Pope Francis, the Chief Rabbi of France and the former Chief Rabbi of England have engaged in infusing compassion by appealing for world empathy, concern and caring and urging immediate refugee relief.
A Rabbi’s Thoughts on Rosh Hashanah—by Peter Eisenstadt
A rabbi, in her study, a few hours before the beginning of the New Year, speaking to herself:
Oh jeez, its erev Rosh Hashanah, and I still have no idea what I am going to speak about in my sermon tonight. I’ve got to deal with my procrastination this year. Maybe that’s what I can talk about, how the calendar is inexorable, and time and tide wait for no one, etc., and calendar events like Rosh Hashanah force us out of our paths of least resistance, and make us change our behavior. Or maybe I could just say because I waited too long to write a good sermon, I wrote this one instead, and that’s what happens when you delay too long, and let it be a lesson to you. No, too meta, and it will go over too many people’s heads. Anyway, if I gave a bad sermon, most people probably wouldn’t notice anyway.
Torat HaAmitzot–By Ahavya Deutsch
3500 years ago, Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh, went down to the river to take a bath, and saved the Jewish people. Going about her daily life, she looked down and saw an infant abandoned in the river. No fool, she must have known this was a Hebrew baby. We are not told that she was a radical, an activist who rebelled against her father’s policies. But when she looked at the child, she did not see politics or religion. She simply saw a life that she could save. And in drawing Moses from the water, she saved us all.
A Late Friendship with a Writer and a Hospital Rock Star—by Ayala Emmett
Late friendships are meteors, those streaks of light that enter our lives so unexpectedly and astonish us. Such an unpredicted friendship happened when I met B.J. two years ago. We were introduced on a Friday night as we both leaned carefully on a counter loaded with Sabbath food and B.J. spoke Hebrew to me immediately right there, in the kitchen. The rich aroma of spices filled the air, and somehow we skipped the formal conversation of people who have just met. We talked about writing. She wrote, I found out, mostly creative non-fiction and poetry was not her favorite genre. She was about to publish her memoire.
Barefoot Reading: Using Torah Study to Confront Life and Death–By Deborah L.R. Kornfeld
Rabbi Hananyah said: “When people sit together and exchange words of Torah, the Shekinah abides between them.”(Pirka Avot, Chapter 3, perek 3)
In January 2014 four women started a Shabbat chavruta. For nineteen months we would meet at B.J’s dining room and over several cups of tea and a cookie or two, we talked Torah. Three of us were older women with grown children and growing grandchildren: we were an anthropologist, a writer and an occupational therapist and one of us was a young lawyer engaged in social justice and mothering two young children. It started out as a bikur cholim (the mitzvah of visiting the sick) project, but continued as an incubator for both new insights and social justice action
But repentance, prayer, and righteousness cancel the stern decree—by B.J. Yudelson*
This sentence ends the prayer that I discussed in my last blog, the one that begins, On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed…
I don’t recall noticing it the first half of my life. In my youth, the choir may have sung it in Hebrew, which I didn’t understand. If I recited it with the congregation, it was surely in English. The English may have been the same as what appears in my grandmother’s 1927 Reform Jewish prayer book: But Penitence, Prayer, and Charity avert the evil decree.