Purim/Tetzaveh -- 5775

Tough-as-nails.  Airhead.  Sweetheart.  Mama’s Boy.  Tom Boy.  Golden Boy.  Peacemaker.  Caretaker.

Everyone possesses multiple identities, aspects of ourselves that we don for certain occasions – in the workplace with bosses, co-workers, or customers, at home with parents, partners, or children, out in public or home alone.  These personae are the faces we offer the world.  We use them to instruct people how to interact with us.

In Parshat Tetzaveh, the priests’ holy clothing is made.  Once they don their gaudy garb, they leave the ordinary behind.  They do their sacred work and serve God in the special precinct.  In their uniforms, they are distinct from other people and from other times in their lives.

At Purim, children don masks of heroes and villains, queens and kings.  But do not mistake their costumes for child’s play.  Each moppet reminds us that it is a natural aspect of social life to wear masks through the day.  What’s dangerous, though, is to hold on to a mask so tightly that we mistake it for our own, true Self.  It’s tempting to forget who we really are and to think that we are, instead, nothing more than a kindly grandmother, disciplinarian dad, identified patient, expert, hot-head, has-been, or screw-up.

I encourage you, this Purim, to make a list – an actual list – of your multiple identities.  Name them and acknowledge them, and remind yourself: they are aspects of you but they are not who you are.  You are not the masks you wear. Rather, you are the one who wears the masks.

Terumah -- 5775

“Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart is so moved.”  (Ex. 25:1)  The gifts are precious metals and semi-precious stones, yarns of several colors, wood and skins, oil, and spices.  The Mishkan/Tabernacle is created out of these, the place where God comes to connect with humanity.  Through their gifts, the people create a focal point for the community.

A synagogue is a space where Jewish people and families come together for individual and collective betterment.  I believe that synagogues are at their best when people share themselves with each other, when we live our individual gifts within the context of community.  In turn, our lives are richer when we activate the treasures of our souls – our talents, our passions, our interests, whether we excel at them or not.  At synagogue, we get to be the people we wish to be.

Just like the gifts our ancestors brought to the tabernacle so long ago, our gifts are varied and multi-colored.  Each of us has something unique and precious within us.  We are more fulfilled as people if we share our gifts.  The community is strengthened in turn.

A synagogue thrives when teachers teach and singers sing, when numbers people help with the finances, activists come together to do meaningful social justice work, and little ones play – each doing exactly what he or she is meant to be doing.  I love watching Jews become Torah scholars and teenagers assume increasing responsibility, right before my eyes.  What a blessing that Café Emanuel sends kids to summer camp.  At synagogue, we are invited to lead our best possible lives.

What’s your gift?  Won’t you share it with us, please?

Mishpatim -- 5775

“If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them.  If you take your neighbor’s garment in pledge, you must return it to him before the sun sets; it is his only clothing, the sole covering for his skin.  In what else shall he sleep?  Therefore, if he cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate” (Exodus 22:24-26).

We’ve all had tough times:  when the check hasn’t cleared, when the deal falls apart, when the roof leaks unexpectedly.  We’re tempted to reach for the credit card, but that just puts us on a downward spiral, because the interest and fees compound and turn an expensive buy into something that haunts us for years.  Who do you call when there’s a wolf at the door?  Jewish Free Loan.

Jewish Free Loan is a non-profit organization that serves the Valley.  (They exist in other cities as well.)  In the best tradition of our people protecting each other, Jewish Free Loan provides access to money without interest.  This enables people to pay cash up front to cover their needs while allowing them to pay off the debt over time, according to a schedule that makes sense for the borrower’s budget. 

I am honored to serve on the Board of Directors of the Greater Phoenix Jewish Free Loan.  I’ve heard of the powerful impact it can have on people’s lives, making the impossible possible, lightening the load, reducing stress.  There are loans for all sorts of things, including utilities, tuition, medical expenses, business development, and funeral costs, among many other needs.  Money in the system recirculates, doing good over and over.

To learn more about this holy work, see Jewish Free Loan.

Yitro -- 5775

 After receiving the Ten Commandments, the people react with understandable shock and awe:

“All the people saw (re’im) the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance” (Exodus 20:15).

Understandable, but also surprising:  lightning and smoke can be seen, but not thunder or a horn’s blare.  Some scholars understand that “the Hebrew … here encompasses sound” (Eitz Hayim, translating “re’im/saw” as “witnessed,” or Fox, using “perceived”).  Perhaps the people were so overwhelmed that their senses got mixed up.  That’s called synesthesia, where one sense perceives something that’s normally reserved for another sense – like tasting color or touching sound. 

It’s also interesting that the Hebrew for thunder is kolOT – literally “voiceS.”

Perhaps the message is that Truth is so powerful that it comes at us in many forms and in many ways.  At times Truth is obvious and glaring, bold as neon through darkness.  At other times it is subtle, wrapped as if in a cloak and hiding in a story.  Truth may be known by the mind, or it may be a fleeting flash in the heart.  Truth is far greater than mere fact.

God appears to the people “in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when (God) speaks with you and so trust you ever after” (Exodus 19:9), as if to demonstrate that Truth may be both clear and veiled at the same time.

To perceive Truth, we must be open to all the voices.  We must use all our senses deeply.  Since our eyes may deceive us, we must be wary of the obvious.  We must sit with it and wrestle with it.  Truth is powerful and grand, but it is neither singular nor simple.