Rabbi's Blog Archives - Temple Beth Sholom

January 11, 2019

Rabbi’s Blog January 2019

Reflections from Rabbi Klirs

During the months of January and February we will be making our way through most of the Book of Sh’mot, or Exodus. In the first two Shabbatot in January we read of the oppression and suffering of the Hebrew slaves, Moses’ commission to be God’s representative before Pharaoh, the ten plagues, the celebration of the first Pesach, the laws of Pesach and the Exodus from Egypt. Much of the Passover Haggadah is based on these parshiyot. On the third Shabbat we read of the arrival at the Sea of Reeds, of Pharaoh’s change of heart and his army’s pursuit of the Hebrews, the miracle of the splitting of the sea, the drowning of Pharaoh’s army and the celebration of the final redemption through the Song of the Sea.

On the fourth Shabbat the parashah includes the arrival at Mount Sinai and the first iteration of the Ten Commandments. On the first Shabbat in March the parashah contains much of the civil, moral and religious code that the Israelites are to follow, and on the 2^nd and 3^rd Shabbatot we read the instructions for the building of the Mishkan, or Tabernacle. On the last Shabbat in March the Torah reaches its nadir as it describes the sin of the golden calf.

We read these stories, which are really about the transformation of a demoralized and powerless group of slaves into the beginnings of a nation with a divinely appointed mission and new-found purpose, in the dead of winter when nature lies dormant. We also celebrate holidays which seem out of step with the season, most notably

Tu B’Shevat. Tu B’Shevat, which means the 15^th of the month of Shevat, is also known as the New Year of the Trees. It was originally nothing more than an agricultural marker. Biblical law forbade the harvesting of fruit from new trees until they were 3 years old. To simplify matters, a single date was set for purposes of calculating a tree’s age, so that trees of the same type could be harvested together in their season. In time it became a minor festival, celebrating the produce of trees from the land of Israel. But why set the birthday for the trees in the middle of winter? For the answer, you will need to come to Shabbat services and the Tu B’Shevat Seder which I will lead on the weekend of

January 18-19.

I will mention one more oddity of this season. The Hebrew month of Shevat generally coincides with January and/or February, and is followed by the month of Adar, in which we celebrate Purim. Hence, we would expect Purim to occur in February this year. But 5779 happens to be a leap year, and in the Hebrew calendar, rather than add a single day to leap years, we add an entire month. That month happens to be Adar. In a leap year we have Adar I followed by Adar II. When that occurs, Purim is always celebrated in Adar II. Hence we will have to wait until March to celebrate Purim. My February visit will be on the 15^th and 16^th.

B’shalom,

Rabbi Tracy G. Klirs

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March 11, 2018

Message From the President

We Are Grateful to God

By Susan Hendler, Temple Beth Orr, Coral Springs, FL

We are grateful to God who shows mercy when we face adversity, who has brought us the greatest gifts of faith, trust, and enlightenment through Torah.

If we appreciate the grace, harmony, and artistry of nature—Dayeinu

If we embrace the beauty of simplicity—Dayeinu

If we envision the sacred with the ordinary—Dayeinu

If we greet diversity with acceptance—Dayeinu

If we cherish the insightful wisdom of our elders—Dayeinu

If we perform acts of kindness anonymously—Dayeinu

If we nurture the purity, creativity, and hope reflected in the eyes

of our children—Dayeinu

If we cultivate the positive forces that drive us to a peaceful existence—Dayeinu

If we radiate the spirituality that we internalize from our relationship with God—Dayeinu

If we are content to accept the serenity of God’s light—Dayeinu

For all of this we are grateful.

For all of this would be enough.

Yet, there is never enough gratitude to encompass all of God’s wonders.

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January 11, 2018

Message From the Rabbi

Reflections from Rabbi Klirs

What Thanksgiving and Chanukah Have in Common With Sukkot

Sukkot is hands-down my favorite holiday. I love assembling the sukkah each year, decorating it, inviting guests for meals and eating outdoors. I love the smells and sounds of the lulav and etrog, the special holiday services and the dancing on Simchat Torah. Most of all, I love Sukkot’s messages of gratitude, deep appreciation for the beauty of God’s natural world, and the awareness of life’s fragility.

While most Americans are familiar with the story of the first Thanksgiving, few are aware of its biblical origins. When wanting to thank God for surviving their first winter and successfully harvesting their first crops in the New World, the Pilgrims looked to the Bible for inspiration. There they found the Torah’s description of a feast of “the final ingathering of the yield of your crops,” described as a time of joy and thanksgiving to God. While the pilgrims most likely recognized this holiday as “The Feast of Tabernacles,” they also understood that Thanks-giving was its primary purpose, and so they named the new holiday. I have always felt that of all the American holidays, Thanksgiving is the most Jewish – in addition to its link to Sukkot, showing gratitude to God through prayer, ritual, shared meals and literally sharing one’s bounty with the poor, are deeply rooted Jewish values. One might even think of Sukkot as the biblical Thanksgiving. But I prefer to think of Thanksgiving as the American Sukkot.

The basic outlines of the Chanukah story are well-known to American Jews. In the 3^rd century BCE, a band of Jewish rebels fought against the oppressive regime of the Hellenized Syrian ruler, Antiochus IV, to restore Jewish practice to the Temple and Jewish sovereignty to the whole land of Judea. After re-conquering Jerusalem from enemy control and liberating the Temple, the Maccabees set about to restore, purify and rededicated the defiled Temple to the service of the one God. As the fighting grew increasingly intense over the fall months and the Temple mount remained inaccessible to the rebels, it was impossible for them to celebrate the 8-day festival of Sukkot during its appointed season. And so, as the Books of the Maccabees relate, they delayed the observance of Sukkot until the Temple was in their hands and restored. Hence the celebration of the re-dedication of the Temple, or Chanukah, lasted 8 days, included sacrifices, processions with palm fronds, and the singing of Psalms of Hallel, or praise to God, exactly as Sukkot did. In case you were wondering, the legend of the little cruse of sanctified oil that burned for 8 days was an invention of the Talmudic rabbis centuries later.

Sadly, while both the first Chanukah and the original Thanksgiving were motivated by the highest values and sincerest spiritual reflexes, both led to tragic and less than noble outcomes – the scion of the Maccabees, the Hasmonean family, formed a dynasty that quickly devolved into corruption, fratricide and eventual collusion with Rome, leading ultimately to the bloody conquest of Judah and the exile of its people. The European settlement of the Americas, of which the pilgrims were a mere beachhead, brought disease, warfare and exile, from which the indigenous peoples never recovered. That is why both stories – that of Chanukah and that of the first Thanksgiving – have become complicated and fraught.

But Sukkot has perennially remained a non-controversial, quintessential expression of the human capacity for gratitude, appreciation, wonder, joy and generosity. It is especially in these dark times – when nonstop warfare, persecution, extreme weather and famine plague our world, and when growing numbers of our own citizens lack access to basic human necessities, when critics of the president are threatened with mail bombs and a lunatic anti-Semite slaughters Jews praying in a synagogue on Shabbat morning – that we need to infuse our celebrations of both Thanksgiving and Chanukah with the true spirit of Sukkot, and let us share that spirit with everyone in our lives.

Chag Sameach! Rabbi Tracy G. Klirs

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