Hachnasat Orchim #5 - Sukkot 5773

I sit here listening to Little Jazz practicing Eleanor Rigby and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds on his trumpet, and I think further of the opportunities for hachnasat orchim - "welcoming of guests" - provided during Sukkot, and year-round.

So today I had the sacred chance to consider how "welcoming" is related to our value of bikkur cholim - visiting the sick...I went to the hospital to visit a member of our congregation (a friend and neighbor too!) who just had a pacemaker implanted yesterday, following a few months of treatment following an M.I. He's doing great, and we actually had a wonderful time discussing some passions we share: Abraham Lincoln, historiography, evolution, psychology of groups, and even the eternal question "Is it good for the Jews."

Though this friend is in great shape, even following a serious episode of helth concern, I am reminded of our ongoing, precious responsibility to take care of ourselves and others. Whether it's now, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, or any day of any year - we need to be conscious about our efforts to live healthy, fulfilling, intentional lives. 

Just a thought for the fifth eve of Sukkot.

 

Hachnasat Orchim #4 - Sukkot 5773

What a day! Here we are in the middle of Sukkot, it's been drizzling and cold much of the day - and yet my thoughts are of hot sun, great friends, and the best way to build Jewish identity, as registration opened today for OSRUI 2013. We've already made sure our kids are signed up, which is kinda strange as Little Jazz will be attending two full sessions, i.e. the WHOLE summer, and Sister Soul is now old enough to be in Tiferet for 4 weeks. So happy for them. Find out more at www.osrui.org

As well, it was our first day of mid-week Religious School for our 4th-6th graders (maybe it's time to admit fall is here?)...

And, tonight is the first of the presidential candidate debates ("going to the candidates' debate"...Mrs. Robinson, anyone?). Speaking of where have you gone Joe DiMaggio (or Yaz, George Brett, and Cal Ripken for that matter)....

If you know me at all, you know where my loyalties lie for this debate and the upcoming election...hope the prez get's his badass on...should be interesting to observe, throughout....

What are YOU thankful for, now given the chance to reflect? Me? It's all about good partners (see pic above)...

Hachnasat Orchim #3 - Sukkot 5773

Sukkot is a time when we emphasize our sacred tradition of hospitality. Hachnasat Orchim has become a major building block of our culture. 

In a brilliant new book, Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind (Norton, 2012), Mark Pagel demonstrates that it has been the development of human culture that has enabled humanity to overcome the "limitations" of our genetics and thrive through obstacles and environmental constraints that have hindered all other species. He writes:

Humans had acquired the ability to learn from others, and to copy, imitate and improve upon their actions. This meant that elements of culture themselves - ideas, languages, beliefs, songs, art, technologies - could act like genes, capable of being transmitted to others and reproduced. But unlike genes, these elements of culture could jump directly from one mind to another, shortcutting the normal genetic routes of transmission. And so our cultures came to define a second great system of inheritance, able to transmit knowledge down the generations.

I think the author is giving a reasoned, scientific representation of what Judaism has called the shalshelet shel kabbalah - the "chain of tradition." How wonderful as we consider the power of tradition - its rituals, symbols, metaphors and meaning - during these festival days. Like all forms of sacred heritage, Pagel argues that "culture" itself is one of the gifts we've received, or developed, as human beings unique among the animals:

Our possession of culture is responsible for our art, music, and religion, our unmatched acts of charity, empathy, and cooperation, our sense of justice, fairness, altruism, and even self-sacrifice;  

And he continues with the important and necessary caveat reminder

but also for our undeniable self-interest, our tendency to favor people from our own ethnic or racial groups, wariness of strangers, xenophobia, and predilections to war...it is why we, and probably we alone, have consciousness, and yet why our conscious mind is often divided between reason and passion...

Considering these fascinating insights on the human condition brings greater sweetness to these days...

 

Hachnasat Orchim #2 - Sukkot 5773

It's the second eve of Sukkot 5773 - and the 1st of October 2012 (see my previous post on "Rosh Chodesh August" and creating meaningful ritual memories). With Sukkot, it usually also means accepting the onset of fall (though, as this #jazzrabbilovessun, I've been expressing to people that I will be holding onto summer until some time during Hanukkah). With the change of seasons also comes the newness and renewed opportunity to share, enjoy and appreciate things that perhaps we haven't, at least since a year before.

And so tonight, I've declared in the jazzkitchen "Pumpkin's Gone Wild!" Haven't enjoyed anything pumpkin at least since last Halloween or Thanksgiving. This evening's festive meal includes pumpkin gnocchi with pumpkin alfredo (omg so good), pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, and even a pumpkin pie martini. Hey, if you're gonna enjoy the season, go crazy/go complete!

Every year I hate saying goodbye to summertime; yet each time around, gradually, I'm learning to enjoy something wonderful about the days yet to come. 

Hachnasat Orchim #1 - Sukkot 5773

Sukkot, the "festival of booths," is known as z'man simchateynu - the time of our rejoicing. It is the predecessor of Thanksgiving, as this fall harvest festival embodies the notion of hoda'ah (thanksgiving) in Jewish tradition. It is also, historically, the inspiration for both Hanukkah (as the Hasmoneans did not have time to celebrate Sukkot during the Maccabean revolt) as well as  for our American holiday of Thanksgiving, as the Pilgrims believed they were re-living the Biblical journey of the Israelites.

And yet to me, the most significant aspect of Sukkot is that it serves as a reminder, teacher, and prompter of the Jewish value of hachnasat orchim - the welcoming of guests. We are taught to invite people to our sukkot, and into our homes, to fulfill the obligations of this festival. Better yet, we learn (and re-learn) that this ultimate sense of hospitality is of course not limited to these days of Sukkot - and that we should be warm, welcoming, and strive to make all people comfortable each and every day of the year - holy day or not.

One further point - these ideas of thanksgiving and hospitality - are so important that our sacred literature refers to this time as he-chag - THE festival, truly par excellence through most of Jewish history. What are YOU doing to celebrate this joyous time? More so, how are you cultivating your hospitality toward others in this New Year?

CHAG SUKKOT SAMEYACH - wishing you a very happy holiday!

 

Kol Nidrei 5773

ELOHAI N’TZOR L’SHONI MEYRA US’FATAI MIDABER MIRMA
My God, guard my speech from evil and my lips from deception.

Through the long hot weeks of this past summer, I intended on this night to address the savage breakdown of interpersonal discourse that has pervaded our world.  Politicians, public officials, journalists and yes, private citizens have lost sight of (or neglected) the value and significance of respectful interchange.  As we have witnessed this erosion of respect between people – particularly and especially when they differ – so too have we been subject to the dismissal of some of the fundamental building blocks of American society and our sacred Jewish tradition.
In has masterful work Revolt of the Elites, Christopher Lasch reminds us that “democracy requires a vigorous exchange of ideas and opinions. Ideas, like property, need to be distributed as widely as possible.” And yet, when we forego the expectation that our dialogue and debate are necessarily imbues with dignity, compassion and patience, we learn (as Lasch writes) that “democratic debate degenerates all too easily into a shouting match in which the voice of reason seldom makes itself heard.”
So – I’ve been reading and studying, collecting illustrations of this tragic change in our perspective regarding how we treat and deal with others, publicly and privately. For example, another recent work – The Voting Wars by Richard Hasen – outlines how this dramatic shift in interpersonal behavior has led to such outcomes as fraud, voter suppression and intimidation, and even lying about citizenship and eligibility to register in the electoral process. As you well know, all you have to do is open up the paper, listen to the radio, or watch TV in order to be exposed to this unhealthy and often unethical conduct. Right?
Unfortunately, bullying and bigotry, hatred and deceit, nastiness and nosiness are not limited to the realm of public media. And that’s where the real trouble is. Listen to banter in the school yard and the classroom, around the work place and out in restaurants. Consider the demeanor among young people, and more than ever among adults. We can easily find less than exemplary treatment by one person of another. I dare say we might even recognize these experiences in our home and private lives.
From words of Torah we are taught that ALL people are created in the Divine image; to love our neighbor as ourselves; and that our responsibility is to pursue justice and make peace. How is it that our society has jeopardized these basic, yet powerful possibilities of the human condition? One response, again according to Lasch: “Trust in life carries the risk of disappointment, so we inoculate ourselves with irreverence.” Perhaps we’ve become so generally distrusting of one another that we only know how to protect our frailties through disrespect – i.e. “do unto others before they do unto you.” But I don’t buy this. As human beings, as Jews, we must cultivate a greater sense of hope in our human potential – to be kind (and kinder), to be generous and giving, to be compassionate and caring, and simply nice. Of course, this outlook is challenged, even attacked, every day. Yet I am buoyed by what we used to read in the Gates of Prayer: some are guilty, all are responsible.
On this very day, let us acknowledge that WE are responsible to improve and repair this situation. Truly, some of us, maybe all of us, are guilty to some extent in allowing an atmosphere in which lousy, rude and negative behavior is condoned, tolerated, unchecked. OK, we’re not all, nor always, lying, nasty and difficult. Yet there are times when we haven’t stood up for someone in need, defended someone from unwarranted gossip or slander, or when we’ve ignored malice aimed at someone else, simply because it was more convenient, or easier, to look away, to “not get involved.”
No matter how complicit we have been in getting our society to this point, we are ALL responsible, together, to address it, beginning of course, with ourselves. Let’s take a moment to look at the very book in front of us. If we can’t pay attention to the words right here, what are we here for anyway? Please open to page 326:
Help me then, O God; help me always, but especially now, on this sacred Day of Atonement; help me to banish from myself whatever is mean, ugly, callous, cruel, stubborn, or otherwise unworthy of a being created in Your image. Purify me, revive me, uplift me. Forgive my past, and lead me into the future, resolved to be your servant.
And just what does it mean to be God’s servant? That’s truly a tough question. On this day, in this season, as we look to become better versions of ourselves, as we strive to work together to make our world a better place, the idea of being God’s servant is summed up, in part, with the words of Al CHEYT, our listing of wrongdoings and pledges to do better:
We sin against You when we sin against ourselves. For our failures of truth, O Lord, we ask forgiveness. For passing judgment without knowledge of the facts, and for distorting facts to fit our theories. For deceiving ourselves and others with half-truths, an dfor pretending to emotions we do not feel. For using the sins of others to excuse our own, and for denying responsibility for our own misfortunes. For condemning in our children the faults we tolerate in ourselves, and for condemning in our parents the faults we tolerate in ourselves. Teach us to forgive ourselves for all these sins, O forgiving God, and help us to overcome them.
Then perhaps we can rebuild and enhance trust, respect, dignity, pleasantness and politeness throughout our community, and the wider society beyond.
As rendered in our Mishkan T’fila:
ELOHAI N’TZOR L’SHONI MEYRA US’FATAI MIDABER MIRMA
My God, guard my speech from evil and my lips from deception. Before those who slander me, I will hold my tongue, I will practice humility. Open my heart to Your Torah, that I may purse Your mitzvot. As for all who think evil of me, cancel their designs and frustrate their schemes. Act for Your own sake, for the sake of Your Power, for the sake of Your Holiness, for the sake of Your Torah; so that Your loved ones may be rescued, save with Your power, and answer me.

#ElulPledge carries over into New Year

Well, been too busy to post anything here - but have been trying to keep up on the "resolution" made at the beginning of Elul: to continue working myself into the best physical shape of my adult life.
Thanks to regular exercise and a couple workouts a week with our trainer, I think I'm getting there. It's a pain, I enjoy it, and the benefits are of course remarkable.
And what does this continue to say about the bigger picture of life? That in order to really take care of ourselves, the effort cannot be limited to bursts of time short segments; the commitment to do anything, be anything, and do it well has to be an ONGOING life-long practice. Just as with exercise, so too with study, professional development, and especially honing the skills that cultivate positive relationships.
Well, off to do some more crazy style pushups...or maybe read a good book :)