Here's a stunning article from the Forward newspaper about livestock ready for the slaughter. The Jewish people have not formally sacrificed according to ancient law for nearly 2000 years, and there are certain legal and logistical challenges to doing so, primary among them that the messiah/mashiah/anointed descendant of the Davidic line has not yet arrived. But these guys are ready, should the need arise.
I would hazard a guess that not too many Conservative rabbis have signed on to this. Happy Pesah!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Shabbat HaGadol 5771 - Seeking Spiritual Purity Through Twitter
(Originally delivered on Shabbat morning at Temple Israel, April 16, 2011.)
This is one of the more frantic periods of the Jewish year, a time of scrubbing, cooking, preparing, searching, burning, and so forth. And then comes the parade of relatives, the fabulous dinners, the new Maxwell House haggadah (did anybody here find it?), birkat kohanim at Temple Israel, and of course the 2nd Night Seder downstairs led by yours truly, and then seven more days of gastronomic mediocrity.
But the spring cleaning mandated by Pesah is not just about cleaning. There is, I am certain, a higher purpose. And that purpose is what makes Judaism and Jewish life continue to speak to us, continue to draw people to synagogues such as this one, and will continue to make Conservative Judaism in particular a viable option in the future. American Jewry will always have a need for synagogues that are traditional yet open, non-judgmental, and non-coercive; places where they may seek meaning and holiness and yes, spiritual purity.
Before we address this, let’s take a moment to compare Pesah to another holiday, one that is almost precisely half a year away: Yom Kippur, about which we read in today's parashah, Aharei Mot. These two occasions stand in opposition to each other across the circle of months, and yet share so many traditions and objectives:
1. Both require forms of physical denial related to eating.
2. Both invoke themes of redemption.
3. There are purification customs that are common to both: some immerse themselves in a miqveh prior to both YK and Pesah; some wear the kittel, the traditional white garment that symbolizes purity, on both festivals.
4. Pesah begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which is the first month of the year; Yom Kippur falls on the 10th day of Tishrei, which is the seventh month, but the first month that falls in the new year.
And so forth. Put another way, Pesah is the reflection of Yom Kippur. Call it Hag Ha-Aviv, the festival of spring, or Hag Ha-Herut, the festival of freedom, or even Hag Ha-Matzot, the festival of unleavened bread, but its deeper meaning may be found in the requirement to cleanse.
And that cleansing is not merely physical - it is also spiritual. The external requirement to clean thoroughly one’s home reflects an inner struggle for purification for internal spring cleaning as well.
Cleaning our homes, kashering our kitchens, these are all things over which we have real control. Our minds, our bodies, and our lives, sometimes less so. But going through the annual ritual in preparation for Pesah is something like the Stanislavski method for acting - the physical act elicits a certain emotional response.
On some level, I think, we all want to be pure. And we want our children, our parents, our friends to be pure as well.
But life is not pure; life is complicated and messy. Yes, there are happy moments: celebrations, holidays, small victories, and so forth. But there are unhappy, ugly moments as well. I don’t have to name them - we all know what they are. And no matter how happy we are, no matter how satisfying or complete or joyous one’s life is, we all eventually hit stumbling blocks. And those stumbling blocks are the sources of tum’ah, of spiritual impurity in our lives. Most of us want to be rid of that.
The eternal possibility of purity, of clean, unbesmirched souls in the face of so many opportunities for the opposite is one reason that many of us keep coming back to synagogue, keep participating in Jewish traditions. What are the three most-observed Jewish holidays? Attending a Pesah seder is the second (after lighting Hanukkah candles); the National Jewish Population Survey of 2000 indicated that two-thirds of us go to a seder annually, more than fast on Yom Kippur and more than three times as many of us who keep kosher at home.
These are three holidays that work well for American Jewry (unlike, say, Shabbat: only 28 percent of American Jews light Shabbat candles regularly, and fewer still attend synagogue on Shabbat). I’m not in a position to tease out all the possible reasons for this, but still it is unique that two of these top three have to do with spiritual cleansing.
We have, I think, a deep-seated desire to seek purity - clean hearts, clean minds, clean bodies.
* * *
Last Shabbat, we had about 150 visitors to our community. Teenagers and staff from all over Nassau County came to the USY Chazak Division Spring Kinnus (convention), which we held over at the Youth House. There were, over the course of the roughly 44 hours that they were here, a number of holy moments. Imagine 150 young Jewish women and men singing together the words of Qabbalat Shabbat, welcoming Shabbat in unison. Picture those same teenagers learning Jewish text together. If you listen, you might still hear the echoes of raucous Shabbat songs with ruah, with spirit, in the USY tradition.
USY is an institution that works, where the older kids lead the younger kids in tefillah, in learning, in doing. I was lurking in the back of the room, mostly unseen, which is really a true pleasure for a rabbi: to be in a room full of Jews and NOT be needed.
What was particularly inspiring, however, was the willingness of these children to lead each other - that there were high school students in the room that stepped forward to be in charge, Jewishly, to take the red heifer by the horns and forge ahead and make Judaism happen. On Sunday morning, decked out in tallitot and tefillin, we were treated to a Shaharit (morning) service that was seasoned with video snippets from the movie Shrek, arguably one of the most surreptitiously Jewish animated movies of recent years. Not my cup of tea, exactly, but it was outside the box, and the kids were captivated by tefillah.
Now, I’m not suggesting that teens are necessarily coming to USY events because they are in search of purity. (Actually, more likely it’s quite the opposite.) I am, however, pointing to the fact that USY works. It brings young people from Conservative communities together, and not just for social reasons.
We need to focus on what works. The need for purity, spiritual cleanliness may appeal to many of us. But it has to be available, it has to be accessible and understandable and delivered through simple, meaningful rituals. As one of my colleagues in the Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles has been stating publicly for some time now, what we promote has to fit on a bumper sticker.
Some of you might know that I recently started using Twitter. For those of you who are not familiar with this new medium, let me explain: you can post, or “tweet,” as frequently as you want, and people who are “following” you can read what you write. The catch is that a tweet cannot exceed 140 characters. So you have to be succinct, even to the detriment of proper grammar and spelling.
The guys who created Twitter understood that the future consists of many small chunks of data. I know I sound cynical, but I’m fairly certain that 140 characters is about the limit of what most people will willingly read without too much investment, in today’s world of infinite technological switchability.
I bring this to your attention because the popularity of Twitter is yet another sign that we are undergoing a major paradigm shift in how we relate to each other. Judaism, and in particular Conservative Judaism is subject to the same social trends as all of our other lifestyle choices. (And involvement in Jewish life is more of a choice than it has ever been.)
It is no coincidence that the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism has just published a new strategic plan, one that defines the mission of our movement as follows:
• To transform and strengthen our kehillot (congregations) in their effort to:
o inspire meaningful prayer
o sustain a culture of lifelong Jewish learning
o nurture religious and spiritual growth
o promote excellence in kehillah leadership
(By the way, that’s 235 characters, and that’s less than half of the new mission statement.) They did not mention spiritual purity, per se, but I think it falls under at least two of those bullet points.
If the movement is indeed to continue, it must find new ways to do all of the above - to bring the themes of Judaism into people’s lives, to help them seek spiritual cleansing on Pesah and Yom Kippur, given the current cultural and technological milieu. We must take what works and emphasize those programs and institutions, and develop new ones that work for today. And if that means that the traditional synagogue model is replaced by something else, something that can be served in 140-character chunks, so be it.
USY works. The Ramah camps work. The Twitter model? Not yet. Regardless, the fundamental search for purity, or holiness, or meaning, is what we need to focus on as a congregation, as a kehillah, and indeed as a movement, as we boldly sail into the future.
Shabbat shalom, and hag kasher ve-sameah.
This is one of the more frantic periods of the Jewish year, a time of scrubbing, cooking, preparing, searching, burning, and so forth. And then comes the parade of relatives, the fabulous dinners, the new Maxwell House haggadah (did anybody here find it?), birkat kohanim at Temple Israel, and of course the 2nd Night Seder downstairs led by yours truly, and then seven more days of gastronomic mediocrity.
But the spring cleaning mandated by Pesah is not just about cleaning. There is, I am certain, a higher purpose. And that purpose is what makes Judaism and Jewish life continue to speak to us, continue to draw people to synagogues such as this one, and will continue to make Conservative Judaism in particular a viable option in the future. American Jewry will always have a need for synagogues that are traditional yet open, non-judgmental, and non-coercive; places where they may seek meaning and holiness and yes, spiritual purity.
Before we address this, let’s take a moment to compare Pesah to another holiday, one that is almost precisely half a year away: Yom Kippur, about which we read in today's parashah, Aharei Mot. These two occasions stand in opposition to each other across the circle of months, and yet share so many traditions and objectives:
1. Both require forms of physical denial related to eating.
2. Both invoke themes of redemption.
3. There are purification customs that are common to both: some immerse themselves in a miqveh prior to both YK and Pesah; some wear the kittel, the traditional white garment that symbolizes purity, on both festivals.
4. Pesah begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which is the first month of the year; Yom Kippur falls on the 10th day of Tishrei, which is the seventh month, but the first month that falls in the new year.
And so forth. Put another way, Pesah is the reflection of Yom Kippur. Call it Hag Ha-Aviv, the festival of spring, or Hag Ha-Herut, the festival of freedom, or even Hag Ha-Matzot, the festival of unleavened bread, but its deeper meaning may be found in the requirement to cleanse.
And that cleansing is not merely physical - it is also spiritual. The external requirement to clean thoroughly one’s home reflects an inner struggle for purification for internal spring cleaning as well.
Cleaning our homes, kashering our kitchens, these are all things over which we have real control. Our minds, our bodies, and our lives, sometimes less so. But going through the annual ritual in preparation for Pesah is something like the Stanislavski method for acting - the physical act elicits a certain emotional response.
On some level, I think, we all want to be pure. And we want our children, our parents, our friends to be pure as well.
But life is not pure; life is complicated and messy. Yes, there are happy moments: celebrations, holidays, small victories, and so forth. But there are unhappy, ugly moments as well. I don’t have to name them - we all know what they are. And no matter how happy we are, no matter how satisfying or complete or joyous one’s life is, we all eventually hit stumbling blocks. And those stumbling blocks are the sources of tum’ah, of spiritual impurity in our lives. Most of us want to be rid of that.
The eternal possibility of purity, of clean, unbesmirched souls in the face of so many opportunities for the opposite is one reason that many of us keep coming back to synagogue, keep participating in Jewish traditions. What are the three most-observed Jewish holidays? Attending a Pesah seder is the second (after lighting Hanukkah candles); the National Jewish Population Survey of 2000 indicated that two-thirds of us go to a seder annually, more than fast on Yom Kippur and more than three times as many of us who keep kosher at home.
These are three holidays that work well for American Jewry (unlike, say, Shabbat: only 28 percent of American Jews light Shabbat candles regularly, and fewer still attend synagogue on Shabbat). I’m not in a position to tease out all the possible reasons for this, but still it is unique that two of these top three have to do with spiritual cleansing.
We have, I think, a deep-seated desire to seek purity - clean hearts, clean minds, clean bodies.
* * *
Last Shabbat, we had about 150 visitors to our community. Teenagers and staff from all over Nassau County came to the USY Chazak Division Spring Kinnus (convention), which we held over at the Youth House. There were, over the course of the roughly 44 hours that they were here, a number of holy moments. Imagine 150 young Jewish women and men singing together the words of Qabbalat Shabbat, welcoming Shabbat in unison. Picture those same teenagers learning Jewish text together. If you listen, you might still hear the echoes of raucous Shabbat songs with ruah, with spirit, in the USY tradition.
USY is an institution that works, where the older kids lead the younger kids in tefillah, in learning, in doing. I was lurking in the back of the room, mostly unseen, which is really a true pleasure for a rabbi: to be in a room full of Jews and NOT be needed.
What was particularly inspiring, however, was the willingness of these children to lead each other - that there were high school students in the room that stepped forward to be in charge, Jewishly, to take the red heifer by the horns and forge ahead and make Judaism happen. On Sunday morning, decked out in tallitot and tefillin, we were treated to a Shaharit (morning) service that was seasoned with video snippets from the movie Shrek, arguably one of the most surreptitiously Jewish animated movies of recent years. Not my cup of tea, exactly, but it was outside the box, and the kids were captivated by tefillah.
Now, I’m not suggesting that teens are necessarily coming to USY events because they are in search of purity. (Actually, more likely it’s quite the opposite.) I am, however, pointing to the fact that USY works. It brings young people from Conservative communities together, and not just for social reasons.
We need to focus on what works. The need for purity, spiritual cleanliness may appeal to many of us. But it has to be available, it has to be accessible and understandable and delivered through simple, meaningful rituals. As one of my colleagues in the Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles has been stating publicly for some time now, what we promote has to fit on a bumper sticker.
Some of you might know that I recently started using Twitter. For those of you who are not familiar with this new medium, let me explain: you can post, or “tweet,” as frequently as you want, and people who are “following” you can read what you write. The catch is that a tweet cannot exceed 140 characters. So you have to be succinct, even to the detriment of proper grammar and spelling.
The guys who created Twitter understood that the future consists of many small chunks of data. I know I sound cynical, but I’m fairly certain that 140 characters is about the limit of what most people will willingly read without too much investment, in today’s world of infinite technological switchability.
I bring this to your attention because the popularity of Twitter is yet another sign that we are undergoing a major paradigm shift in how we relate to each other. Judaism, and in particular Conservative Judaism is subject to the same social trends as all of our other lifestyle choices. (And involvement in Jewish life is more of a choice than it has ever been.)
It is no coincidence that the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism has just published a new strategic plan, one that defines the mission of our movement as follows:
• To transform and strengthen our kehillot (congregations) in their effort to:
o inspire meaningful prayer
o sustain a culture of lifelong Jewish learning
o nurture religious and spiritual growth
o promote excellence in kehillah leadership
(By the way, that’s 235 characters, and that’s less than half of the new mission statement.) They did not mention spiritual purity, per se, but I think it falls under at least two of those bullet points.
If the movement is indeed to continue, it must find new ways to do all of the above - to bring the themes of Judaism into people’s lives, to help them seek spiritual cleansing on Pesah and Yom Kippur, given the current cultural and technological milieu. We must take what works and emphasize those programs and institutions, and develop new ones that work for today. And if that means that the traditional synagogue model is replaced by something else, something that can be served in 140-character chunks, so be it.
USY works. The Ramah camps work. The Twitter model? Not yet. Regardless, the fundamental search for purity, or holiness, or meaning, is what we need to focus on as a congregation, as a kehillah, and indeed as a movement, as we boldly sail into the future.
Shabbat shalom, and hag kasher ve-sameah.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Thursday Kavvanah, 4/14/2011 - Kashering the Soul
As Pesah approaches and we grow more frantic with completing all the necessary preparations in time, I am reminded that Pesah, like Yom Kippur (exactly half a year away), is as much about the spiritual cleanse as the physical. On this holiday, we "fast" for eight days by denying ourselves dietary staples, as we invoke themes of redemption and purity.
Spring cleaning is not just for the house and the kitchen; along with our external environments, we kasher our souls for Hag Ha-Aviv, the Festival of Spring. Go ahead, get down on your knees to scrub that oven - it's good for you.
Spring cleaning is not just for the house and the kitchen; along with our external environments, we kasher our souls for Hag Ha-Aviv, the Festival of Spring. Go ahead, get down on your knees to scrub that oven - it's good for you.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Tuesday Kavvanah, 4/12/2011 - The Flowers that Bloom in the Spring
A week away from Pesah, the temperature is climbing gradually. Pesah is as much about spring renewal as it is about freedom; at least two of the symbols on the seder plate are there to remind us of spring, but the earth is dropping natural hints all over the place.
This morning when I arrived at Temple Israel for our morning minyan, I was greeted by a floral explosion right outside the chapel windows - the tree that sits just outside has blossomed. At the end of Shaharit, as we were wrapping up our tefillin, we recited the following berakhah, which is customarily recited when one sees trees in bloom for the first time each year:
ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם
שלא חיסר בעולמו דבר
וברא בו בריות טובות ואילנות טובים
להנות בהם בני אדם
Barukh atah Adonai, eloheinu melekh ha-olam
shelo hiser be-olamo davar
uvara vo beriyot tovot ve-ilanot tovim
lehanot bahem benei adam.
Praised are You Adonai our God, who rules the universe,
which lacks nothing;
for God created fine creatures and pleasant trees
in order that humans might enjoy them.
The berakhah says nothing about flowers. Rather, this is a larger opportunity to appreciate the trees and the other features of the environment and our enjoyment of them, which returns every spring.
Pesah is in bloom! Happy cleaning.
This morning when I arrived at Temple Israel for our morning minyan, I was greeted by a floral explosion right outside the chapel windows - the tree that sits just outside has blossomed. At the end of Shaharit, as we were wrapping up our tefillin, we recited the following berakhah, which is customarily recited when one sees trees in bloom for the first time each year:
ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם
שלא חיסר בעולמו דבר
וברא בו בריות טובות ואילנות טובים
להנות בהם בני אדם
Barukh atah Adonai, eloheinu melekh ha-olam
shelo hiser be-olamo davar
uvara vo beriyot tovot ve-ilanot tovim
lehanot bahem benei adam.
Praised are You Adonai our God, who rules the universe,
which lacks nothing;
for God created fine creatures and pleasant trees
in order that humans might enjoy them.
The berakhah says nothing about flowers. Rather, this is a larger opportunity to appreciate the trees and the other features of the environment and our enjoyment of them, which returns every spring.
Pesah is in bloom! Happy cleaning.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Thursday Kavvanah, 4/7/2011 - Steadying the Rollercoaster of Life
As a rabbi, I am with people for all sorts of lifecycle events: birth, death, marriage, divorce, and so forth. These events often fall on top of each other, and occasionally within the same family.
This morning, I was with a family celebrating their son's becoming a bar mitzvah (one who reaches the age of Jewish adulthood in the context of Jewish law at age 13) as he put on tefillin ("phylacteries" - leather straps and boxes containing words of the Torah that are worn during Shaharit, the morning service) for the first time and read from the Torah. Meanwhile, the boy's cousins had just suffered the loss of the patriarch of the family, and the funeral was held just an hour and a half after the tefillin service. Nonetheless, the cousins were there, celebrating with the bar mitzvah boy.
Judaism sanctifies time with holidays and lifecycle rituals; such ceremonies give our lives meaning and framework. That joyous and sad moments occasionally coincide reinforces for me the sense that life can be a rollercoaster of emotion, one which can be steadied by said spiritual framework.
עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ
Etz hayyim hi lemahaziqim bah
The Torah is a tree of life for those who grasp it
Holding on to the Jewish framework helps alleviate the angst of high and low. That's why I do what I do.
This morning, I was with a family celebrating their son's becoming a bar mitzvah (one who reaches the age of Jewish adulthood in the context of Jewish law at age 13) as he put on tefillin ("phylacteries" - leather straps and boxes containing words of the Torah that are worn during Shaharit, the morning service) for the first time and read from the Torah. Meanwhile, the boy's cousins had just suffered the loss of the patriarch of the family, and the funeral was held just an hour and a half after the tefillin service. Nonetheless, the cousins were there, celebrating with the bar mitzvah boy.
Judaism sanctifies time with holidays and lifecycle rituals; such ceremonies give our lives meaning and framework. That joyous and sad moments occasionally coincide reinforces for me the sense that life can be a rollercoaster of emotion, one which can be steadied by said spiritual framework.
עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ
Etz hayyim hi lemahaziqim bah
The Torah is a tree of life for those who grasp it
Holding on to the Jewish framework helps alleviate the angst of high and low. That's why I do what I do.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
State of the Youth House, 2011
(Originally published in the Temple Israel Voice, 4/1/2011.)
Once Purim has passed, the rest of the Jewish school year always seems to speed toward Shavuot and hence the end quite rapidly. From my vantage point as the interim director of the Youth House, it has been quite a year. Rabbi Stecker, the lay leadership and I set a few goals for the Youth House this year, goals that were not entirely met, but that we hope will continue to be on the table as new leadership takes over. Here they are:
1. The Youth House should be open to all local Jewish teens in grades 8 to 12. While it has always (at least in recent memory) been available to non-members of Temple Israel, it was generally something that you had to know about to join, and only those who were enrolled had access to YH activities. This year, we have tried to expand the pool of participants by sending out our updates and information not just to those who come on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but to all TI member teenagers in our age range, and also non-members for whom we have email addresses.
For nearly every YH event this year, there have been two prices: one for students enrolled in the YH academic program, and one for everybody else. This has in fact encouraged non-enrolled students to come our activities, because we have made it clear that all our welcome.
We have a wonderful facility and an excellent program for teens that has the potential to attract many others whose families have never been associated with Temple Israel. With wider promotion and more savvy social networking, the Youth House could very well become the primary center for Jewish teens on the North Shore.
2. Youth House programming needs to be more flexible to accommodate the busy schedules of our teens. Parents and kids are more selective about what they choose to participate in, and are less likely to commit lots of time to the Youth House. The Youth House needs to function more as an a la carte activity center: classes can be available on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or both days, and there will be the monthly social action program Team Tikkun as well as other social action programs on Sundays, and some sort of regular trip to Israel, and the fall, spring and winter retreats, and March of the Living (we have 5 Temple Israel members participating this year), and so forth. Rather than functioning on a membership model, the Youth House might work well with a variety of options for participation. The bar will be set low for those who want only minimal participation, and many options will be available for those who want more.
3. The Youth House needs to develop greater involvement with USY and Kadima. We are not alone! There are other Jewish teens on Long Island, and all over the country and the world. Although we have had a few participants in various regional USY events from year to year, we think that the Youth House program would benefit from more involvement. In a dramatic attempt to raise the interest in USY, we are holding the Chazak division’s Spring Kinnus here at the Youth House next week (April 8-10). There will be around 150 teenagers from all over Nassau County coming to stay with us and socialize as they celebrate Shabbat in an appropriate context. This has not happened at Temple Israel in recent memory, and is a credit to our Youth Director Joe Pearlman for helping to put it together. (By the way, we probably still need help housing teens; contact me or Joe ASAP if you can help!)
Kadima is the Conservative youth group for kids in 6th through 8th grades, and although we have had a few Kadima events this year, we think it would be a benefit to the Youth House to develop this program further as well. It would also serve as a feeder to USY.
4. There should be an annual subsidized Youth House trip to Israel. Children who fulfill the requirements of the entire Religious School program and continue attending through Hebrew High School should be taken together on a trip to Israel some time during the 11th or 12th grade. This would be a positive incentive to attend, and would be something that the kids would all look forward to. Our trip to Israel has, in fact, galvanized the Youth House membership, and has in fact generated new members. To have such a trip annually would be a great community-building program.
5. The Youth House needs some official documents: a handbook and a mission statement. I began work on a handbook last summer, although the day-to-day running of the institution as well as my other job (that of the Associate Rabbi of Temple Israel) conspired to prevent me from finishing it. The Youth House, it seems, has been running on momentum for a number of years; given that I am the fourth director in five years, continuity has been somewhat lacking, such that the goals and objectives are now unclear. A good policy handbook would give everybody affiliated with the institution - parents, teens, educators, etc. - clear guidelines for how it works, what to expect, and so forth.
Meanwhile, the Youth House needs its own mission statement, distinct from the Mission Statement for Education that was drafted by Project Re-Imagine a few years back, to help focus the academic and social offerings. It is not enough to continue doing things just because they have always been done that way; every now and then we must re-evaluate, and the time has come.
* * *
There are many challenges to the building of a successful youth program, and we have many pieces in place already. But as I stated during one of my High Holiday sermons, the Youth House does the holiest work of any part of Temple Israel. As such it is all the more important to continue to reshape and redefine it. I look forward to being part of that conversation as the new director starts pouring fresh ideas into the mix in the coming year; I hope to hear your voice as well.
Once Purim has passed, the rest of the Jewish school year always seems to speed toward Shavuot and hence the end quite rapidly. From my vantage point as the interim director of the Youth House, it has been quite a year. Rabbi Stecker, the lay leadership and I set a few goals for the Youth House this year, goals that were not entirely met, but that we hope will continue to be on the table as new leadership takes over. Here they are:
1. The Youth House should be open to all local Jewish teens in grades 8 to 12. While it has always (at least in recent memory) been available to non-members of Temple Israel, it was generally something that you had to know about to join, and only those who were enrolled had access to YH activities. This year, we have tried to expand the pool of participants by sending out our updates and information not just to those who come on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but to all TI member teenagers in our age range, and also non-members for whom we have email addresses.
For nearly every YH event this year, there have been two prices: one for students enrolled in the YH academic program, and one for everybody else. This has in fact encouraged non-enrolled students to come our activities, because we have made it clear that all our welcome.
We have a wonderful facility and an excellent program for teens that has the potential to attract many others whose families have never been associated with Temple Israel. With wider promotion and more savvy social networking, the Youth House could very well become the primary center for Jewish teens on the North Shore.
2. Youth House programming needs to be more flexible to accommodate the busy schedules of our teens. Parents and kids are more selective about what they choose to participate in, and are less likely to commit lots of time to the Youth House. The Youth House needs to function more as an a la carte activity center: classes can be available on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or both days, and there will be the monthly social action program Team Tikkun as well as other social action programs on Sundays, and some sort of regular trip to Israel, and the fall, spring and winter retreats, and March of the Living (we have 5 Temple Israel members participating this year), and so forth. Rather than functioning on a membership model, the Youth House might work well with a variety of options for participation. The bar will be set low for those who want only minimal participation, and many options will be available for those who want more.
3. The Youth House needs to develop greater involvement with USY and Kadima. We are not alone! There are other Jewish teens on Long Island, and all over the country and the world. Although we have had a few participants in various regional USY events from year to year, we think that the Youth House program would benefit from more involvement. In a dramatic attempt to raise the interest in USY, we are holding the Chazak division’s Spring Kinnus here at the Youth House next week (April 8-10). There will be around 150 teenagers from all over Nassau County coming to stay with us and socialize as they celebrate Shabbat in an appropriate context. This has not happened at Temple Israel in recent memory, and is a credit to our Youth Director Joe Pearlman for helping to put it together. (By the way, we probably still need help housing teens; contact me or Joe ASAP if you can help!)
Kadima is the Conservative youth group for kids in 6th through 8th grades, and although we have had a few Kadima events this year, we think it would be a benefit to the Youth House to develop this program further as well. It would also serve as a feeder to USY.
4. There should be an annual subsidized Youth House trip to Israel. Children who fulfill the requirements of the entire Religious School program and continue attending through Hebrew High School should be taken together on a trip to Israel some time during the 11th or 12th grade. This would be a positive incentive to attend, and would be something that the kids would all look forward to. Our trip to Israel has, in fact, galvanized the Youth House membership, and has in fact generated new members. To have such a trip annually would be a great community-building program.
5. The Youth House needs some official documents: a handbook and a mission statement. I began work on a handbook last summer, although the day-to-day running of the institution as well as my other job (that of the Associate Rabbi of Temple Israel) conspired to prevent me from finishing it. The Youth House, it seems, has been running on momentum for a number of years; given that I am the fourth director in five years, continuity has been somewhat lacking, such that the goals and objectives are now unclear. A good policy handbook would give everybody affiliated with the institution - parents, teens, educators, etc. - clear guidelines for how it works, what to expect, and so forth.
Meanwhile, the Youth House needs its own mission statement, distinct from the Mission Statement for Education that was drafted by Project Re-Imagine a few years back, to help focus the academic and social offerings. It is not enough to continue doing things just because they have always been done that way; every now and then we must re-evaluate, and the time has come.
* * *
There are many challenges to the building of a successful youth program, and we have many pieces in place already. But as I stated during one of my High Holiday sermons, the Youth House does the holiest work of any part of Temple Israel. As such it is all the more important to continue to reshape and redefine it. I look forward to being part of that conversation as the new director starts pouring fresh ideas into the mix in the coming year; I hope to hear your voice as well.
Tuesday Kavvanah, 4/5/2011 - Agreement of Mouth and Heart
I am currently studying the first order of the Mishnah, Zera'im ("seeds"), and wading through vast swathes of ancient agricultural laws - what may be harvested during the shemittah (Sabbatical) year, for example, and what qualifies as tithed produce - complicated by a range of botanical Hebrew vocabulary that never came up in ulpan.
However, last night I came across a rabbinic gem. If one vows to donate a certain portion of produce, and accidentally called it the wrong type of offering,
לא אמר כלום, עד שיהא פיו וליבו שווין.
Lo amar kelum, ad sheyehei piv velibo shavin.
He has not said anything valid until his mouth and heart are in agreement. (Terumot 3:8)
How often is it that our mouths and hearts are in true alignment? Don't we often say things that we do not mean, whether accidental or on purpose? Is it even possible to expect such harmony?
The Mishnah is pointing to a fundamental feature of the human psyche - that we are complicated, and that our words do not always reflect our intent, such that we cannot even necessarily assume the validity of the vows of another. Of course, we already know this about ourselves. To assume this of others, on occasion, may help us to understand better those around us.
However, last night I came across a rabbinic gem. If one vows to donate a certain portion of produce, and accidentally called it the wrong type of offering,
לא אמר כלום, עד שיהא פיו וליבו שווין.
Lo amar kelum, ad sheyehei piv velibo shavin.
He has not said anything valid until his mouth and heart are in agreement. (Terumot 3:8)
How often is it that our mouths and hearts are in true alignment? Don't we often say things that we do not mean, whether accidental or on purpose? Is it even possible to expect such harmony?
The Mishnah is pointing to a fundamental feature of the human psyche - that we are complicated, and that our words do not always reflect our intent, such that we cannot even necessarily assume the validity of the vows of another. Of course, we already know this about ourselves. To assume this of others, on occasion, may help us to understand better those around us.
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