Rabbi Schwartz's Reading for Pesach 5778

From the March 30th issue of the Jewish Standard, we are pleased to share Rabbi Schwartz's special reading for Pesach 5778, entitled "In Every Generation":

In every generation/We come out of Egypt.

Let freedom ring.

In every generation/We stand up to Pharaoh.

Let freedom ring.

In every generation/We part the waters.

Let freedom ring.

In every generation/We march toward the Promised Land.

Let freedom ring.

In every generation/We teach our children.

Let freedom ring.

In every generation/Our children teach us.

Let freedom ring.

In every generation/We march for our lives.

Let freedom ring.

In this generation/Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech/We march for our lives.

Let freedom ring.

In this generation/Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland.

We march for our lives.

Let freedom ring.

In this generation/Two hundred sixty five million guns fill our country.

We march for our lives.

Let freedom ring.

In this generation/Ninety seven souls die from gun violence each and every day.

We march for our lives.

Let freedom ring.

In this generation/Young and old, black and white, Jew and gentile… said enough; enough.

Let freedom ring.

*Participants at the Seder are invited to echo the repeating lines.

 From the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

A Message From Our President

Dr. Lance Strate

We Were Nomads

Passover is coming, and with it comes our annual celebration of the exodus from Egypt. We tend to think of it as a liberation from slavery, the first step on a journey to the promised land, with a very significant stopover at Mount Sinai. But we also tend to discount the journey itself, the forty years of wandering in the desert. We may think of it as a punishment for losing faith. Or we may even joke about it, saying that we got lost in the desert because the men refused to ask for directions.

We tend to think of wandering in negative terms, often as "wandering aimlessly," losing our way, being rootless or fickle. Maybe that's because, in the modern world, we tend to be so very goal driven, so fixated on getting from point A to point B, on making progress, proceeding towards a predetermined end.

We lose sight of the fact that wandering can also mean meandering, taking our time for the pure pleasure of it. It can also mean exploring, delighting in the joy of discovery. And it can also mean roaming, traveling from place to place in a deliberate fashion. This last form of wandering is characteristic of the nomadic way of life, the way of life that we associate with the origins of our people, and our faith.

The story of the Jewish people begins with Abraham in the city of Ur, who is commanded by God to leave the city and journey to the land of Canaan to become a nomad. He becomes a shepherd, roaming the land in search of green pastures and the water that sustains them. In other words, Abraham cannot become holy by remaining in the city. He is sanctified through an exodus of his own, and later witnesses how two other cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, have become the sites of sin and corruption, and are destroyed by God.

When periodic drought strikes the land, Jacob and his sons travel down to Egypt, and as we tell the story, they went down to Egypt to sojourn and not to settle. In other words, as nomads, that move was meant to be temporary. But their descendants are enslaved and forced to build cities for Pharaoh, specifically the cities of Pithom and Rameses, according to the Torah.

The exodus then was an escape from Egyptian cities and slave settlements, and a return to nomadic life. And as nomads, the Israelites would not have been wandering aimlessly in the desert, but rather following a circuit in conjunction with the changing seasons. Not a straight line from departure to destination, but making the rounds repeatedly, in harmony with their environment. It is during this period that the words of the Ma Tovu are uttered, classically rendered as, "How goodly are thy tents."

And the story of the return to the promised land begins with Joshua bringing down the walls of the city of Jericho. Jerusalem itself was not built by the Israelites, but rather conquered by King David to serve as the capital of his kingdom, and the site of the Temple built by Solomon. And without discounting the singular importance of Jerusalem, I want to suggest that we recall the lessons we learned from our experience as nomads:

As nomads, we learned that God, or if you prefer, the holy, the divine, or the spiritual dimension of existence, is not confined to any one place. There are no geographical limits to the encounter with the sacred. Transcendence can happen anywhere.

As nomads, we learned that the shortest distance between two points is not necessarily a straight line. That travelling in circles is not a bad thing. That the real world has curves, just as we later discovered that the planet is round, just as Albert Einstein later discovered that all of space is curved.

As nomads, we learned that lines and boundaries are creations of frail and fallible human minds, not commandments from God. That walls are meant to be torn down, to be shattered by the rippling resonances of sound waves. That houses and buildings, settlements and cities, and even nations, are not as permanent as they may seem. That what really matters are people, family, community, and beyond, to teach our children diligently, to honor our parents, to love our neighbors, and to love the stranger, for we too once were strangers.

As nomads, we learned that any given place is not all that important, that it is temporary, transitory. That our religion is not so much about space, but rather about time. We can pray anywhere, we can observe Shabbat, the festivals, and the High Holy Days anywhere, what matters is that we observe them according to the calendar, not the map. We learned that to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose.

As nomads, we learned that flexibility is better than fixity and rigidity. That being a seeker and a searcher is better than becoming too settled in our opinions.

As nomads, we learned to live in harmony with our world, and not be overly proud of our own inventions and constructions.

As nomads, we learned to be cautious about our circumstances, not to take things for granted, to know that situations can change suddenly, precipitously, catastrophically. To always keep one bag packed.

As nomads, we learned what it means to be free, what it means to be a people, and what it means to have faith.

This is the legacy we share, together, as a congregation. Wishing you a very wanderful Passover holiday!

Spring 2018 Religious School News

From the pages of Kadima, the Newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

Religious School News 

     from


Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Religious School Director

The joy and silliness of Purim having just ended, we now look ahead to Passover at the end of this month. As in previous years we will be putting together a school Passover Seder program with student contributions of music, skits and presentations. We need help from parents with food, setup and cleanup—please check out the Parent Volunteer link and sign up if you can help:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0845a9 aa2caafe3-class

The next Family Service on March 23 will be led by our youngest students from Grade 1-2- 3. Come on out and support them as they lead us in songs and prayers, and provide us with their take on the 10 Plagues!

The April 27 Family Service in celebration of Israel’s 70th birthday will include contributions from each class, as they share sets of 7 facts (one for each decade!) on different aspects of Israel’s life and history. This promises to be an inspiring and enjoyable celebration.

But wait, there’s more! Jordana Marcus is celebrating becoming Bat Mitzvah on Saturday, March 10th. B’nei mitzvah services at Adas Emuno are open to everyone. Our students work hard and we are so proud of them—go Jordana!

Please make a note of these upcoming dates in March and April for our students & families!

Saturday, March 10 
10:00 AM–Bat Mitzvah of Jordana Marcus

Sunday, March 11
Confirmation Class followed by Youth Group activity

Friday, March 23 
7:30 PM—Shabbat Family Service featuring Grades 1-2-3

Sunday, March 25— Religious School Passover Seder

Sunday, April 1 No School

Friday, April 27 
7:30 PM—Shabbat Family Service in celebration of Israel’s 70th Birthday

Sunday, April 8
10:30-12 Confirmation Class with Guest Author Joan Arnay Halperin who will discuss her book, My Sister’s Eyes: A Family Chronicle of Rescue and Loss During World War II. Open to the Congregation.


 School Sundays at 9:15 AM Mommy/Daddy ‘n Me!

Rabbi Schwartz's Report at our Annual Congregational Meeting

Delivered at our annual congregational meeting on June 22nd:

Rabbi's Report for the Year 5777

Each year I submit brief remarks based on the three basic functions of the synagogue as reflected in its Hebrew names: Beit Tefilah (House of Prayer), Beit Midrash (House of Study) and Beit K’nesset (House of Gathering).

Beit Tefilah: Our High Holiday services were full and joyful; the same can be said for our holiday celebrations, especially Hanukkah, Purim and the Pesach congregational Seder. The exception is Simchat Torah, which would benefit from some creative rethinking. I want to once again applaud the parents and students of our school who have made monthly Family Services so invigorating.

Beit Midrash: Our year-long study of the history of Reform Judaism was one of our best Torah study experiences to date. I am grateful for the remarkably strong support given Torah study week-in, week-out, and the vibrant discussion that takes place on a consistent basis. Our religious school, though diminished in numbers, concluded another excellent year, under the able leadership of the Cantor, the faculty, and the education committee. A new youth group was successfully launched in connection with a revised Confirmation program. Special thanks to our youth advisors Sabina Albrech and Samantha Rosenbloom, and to our b’nai mitzvah coordinator Marilyn Katz. Despite these positive developments, it is clear that we will have to grapple in the coming year with the consequences of our declining demographics.

Beit K’nesset: I am especially proud of our interfaith and social justice work this year, including hosting the Leonia Community Thanksgiving Service, our Community Interfaith Sanctuary City Resolution, Western Wall Resolution, and Mitzvah Mall program. Two greatly generous contributions to the synagogue will permit a new enhanced sound system, special youth programming, and other good works granted by the rabbi’s discretionary fund. I conclude, as always, with my sincere gratitude to the Temple Board, to the Cantor, and to our “family of families” for all you do to sustain our “assembly of the faithful” from year to year.

Cantor Horowitz's Report at Our Annual Congregational Meeting

Delivered at our annual congregational meeting on June 22nd:

Cantor's Report for the Year 5777

“Music for a while shall all your cares beguile”, is a well-known song written by the Baroque composer Henry Purcell. Contemporary Rabbi Jonathan Sacks puts a Jewish spin on this thought, when he writes, “Words are the language of the mind. Music is the language of the soul.” Adas Emuno is fortunate to have a strong tradition of musical participation. You are so willing to try new melodies and new music. When I sometimes say, “please feel free to sing along, even if you don’t know the music”–I truly mean it. Song is a form of prayer. It is the expression of our own, unique soul.

And so this past year during Friday night Shabbat services, we have introduced more new music than before. While remaining anchored by familiar music, each week I have endeavored to vary melodies of familiar prayers, while also adding musical settings to text that are less familiar. I introduced music from various contemporary Jewish composers, along with settings of music from other parts of our tradition such as the psalms. I played with something called “contrafaction”–imposing a tune from one tradition onto the text from another tradition, or from another part of our own tradition. We sang our Shabbat liturgy using familiar Chanukah and Passover tunes at the time of those holidays; on Memorial Day weekend we sang Lecha Dodi to the tune of America the Beautiful. And in memory of Martin Luther King on the weekend of his birthday I chanted excerpts of some of his famous speeches using Haftarah trope–the trope we use traditionally to chant the words of our own prophets, in honor of this modern prophet.

Looking back at some highlights of the year:

Our high holiday services were once again graced with the presence of our keyboard accompanist Beth Robin. We concluded Rosh Hashanah with celebrating Tashlich down at Overpeck Park by the water with plenty of music and the traditional apples and honey. Delightfully, once again this year congregational members of all ages were in attendance. Again this year we had our “indoor” Music in the Sukkah featuring our own Peter Hays and Michael Scowden on guitar, along with the voices of our teens Stella Borelli and Ula Goldstein. This past year has brought another five b'nei mitzvah students to the bimah. In my role as Cantor I met weekly with each of them, in order to prepare them to chant Torah and Haftarah and lead us in prayer. And those special days were once again graced with the musical accompaniment of Beth Robin.

We will have a report from our Religious School co-chairs but I would like to point out a couple of highlights from this past school year...

We continued the tradition of coming together as a school for special celebrations of the major holidays, as has been done in the past, thanks to help from our school committee and other parent volunteers. I also added a new dimension to our holiday programming this past year, as each individual class was given the responsibility to present a skit, poster or presentation relating to one holiday during the year. Teachers and students alike were enthusiastic about the opportunity and creativity flourished!

Attendance at Family Services continued to be high, thanks to the ongoing success of our policy implemented last year which requires students in the older grades to attend a certain number of Shabbat services each year. Thank you again to Bnei Mitzvah/Family Policy coordinator Marilyn Katz for her efforts on behalf of this program.

Confirmation Class was ably led by Rabbi Schwartz again this past year, who also led the effort to resurrect our Youth Group program. This spring saw several Youth Group events, and we look forward to watching this program continue to grow.

While I believe that the quality of our religious school education overall remains high and continues to expand, unfortunately, we can’t say the same about quantity. Enrollment in grades K-7 was down this past year. I believe that this is a trend that could be reversed, and hope that outreach efforts over the summer will yield some result.

In closing I wish to express my gratitude to the leadership of Adas Emuno, Rabbi Barry Schwartz, President Lance Strate, Ritual Chair Virginia Gitter, Buildings supervisor Michael Fishbein and the other officers and members of the board, for their ongoing support of my efforts. Most of all, I am grateful for the Religious School Parents Committee–ably led by Michael Raskin and Jody Pugach along with Susan Grey and Sandy Zornek. It takes a tremendous amount of work to run a school, and their efforts are tireless. The school after all belongs to the parents, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to work with them.

Respectfully submitted,
Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Religious School Wrap-Up

From the pages of Kadima, the Newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

Religious School News 

     from


Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Religious School Director

There is a tradition called “counting the omer” which involves blessing and counting each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. On Passover our ancestors were freed from slavery, on Shavuot they received the Ten Commandments.

As another religious school year comes to a close, we will have counted 31 school days since we began last September. 31 days of parents making sure your children made it to Adas Emuno on a Sunday morning; 31 days of coming together as a learning community; 31 days of endeavoring to inspire the hearts and minds of our next Jewish generation.

A special thank you goes out to the religious school parents for all the ways you have volunteered this year–as “parent in charge”, helping with holiday celebrations, class pot-luck dinners and more. Gratitude abounds especially to the school committee for their constant leadership and support.

We are grateful to each of our teachers for their commitment and creativity. Ably assisted by the madrichim, we owe thanks to them as well for helping out in the classroom and acting as role models for the younger students. A special shout-out goes to seniors Steven Chartoff, Julian Pecht and Ollie Racciatti who are heading off to college in the fall. We will miss you!

Lastly, we acknowledge the rebirth of our teen Youth Group this past spring; appreciation goes out to Rabbi Schwartz for leading this effort, and to the group leaders Sabina Albirt and Samantha Rosenbloom for making it happen each month.

We want to keep this good thing going, and growing: Please spread the word about our wonderful Religious School! If you know of families with children from preschool age through seventh grade who might be interested in a dynamic Jewish education, please reach out to them and encourage them to contact us at adasschool at gmail.com.



DATES TO REMEMBER:

Saturday May 6
7:30 PM School Committee Meeting

Friday, January 20
10:00 AM Bat Mitzvah of Lily Futeran

Friday May 19
7:30 PM Shabbat Family Service
Confirmation Ceremony

Saturday June 24
10:00 AM Bar Mitzvah of Jack Schuller

Confirmation Class Schedule:
Sunday May 7
Sunday May 14
Thursday May 18 (rehearsal)

Happy Passover!

On behalf of Congregation Adas Emuno, we wish everyone a very sweet and joyful Pesach!

Spring into Social Action

From the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:


 

A Report from Annette DeMarco
Social Action Committee Chairperson




 


Hello to All!

Team A.E. 101 and Team Hunger 0!  That was the final score for our "Souper Bowl ll".  Thank you so very much to everyone who donated soup items.  This is definitely the time of year to eat soup and 101 cans, cartons, etc. of this comfort food went a long way to warm up and fill up some hungry folks. 


Happening now: our Adas Emuno community, giant-sized Shaloch Manot Basket Food Collection!  The basket area, in the vestry, will be adorned with fun, bright, Purim decorations, so it can't be missed!  Any food collected through March will be donated to the Jewish Federation's March Food Drive (if it is held this year) or to the Center for Food Action in Englewood.  Coming for the Purim Spiel?  That would be a great time to bring a food item for each person in your party… just a thought!

Ever wonder what to do with your extra, kosher for Passover, non perishable foods left after the holiday ends?  Well, here's the solution!  Bring them to the vestry room in the temple by the end of April and they will be given to Helping Hands, located in Teaneck. 

New Event for our Congregation: Family Promise, the organization in Bergen County that shelters and supports homeless, working families with children, will be holding their annual "Hike or Bike" event on Sunday, May 5th, in Ridgewood.  Three of us from the temple took part in this program last year. It was great fun for a great cause and the people in charge could not have been more helpful, caring or grateful. So, we decided to try it as a temple event for this year. The "hike" goes for 3 miles (think "walk through the neighborhood"!) and the "bike" is 15 miles, with at least part of it along a bike path.  There is also a "hike or trike" for little ones under age 5, plus food, music, games, etc. for all. Please save the date, and look for details to come, including how to register, fees (this money is used for the many programs/assistance offered by Family Promise) and times of the events.  It's a wonderful way to spend a day with family, friends and fellow congregants.

  Our next Social Action Committee meeting will be on Wednesday, March 15 at 7:30 PM in the Social Hall. All are welcome to join us to bring ideas for future programs and input on our current projects. A happy and healthy new year to all! 

Annette – acheryl21 at gmail.com

Religious School News: Purim & Passover

From the pages of Kadima, the Newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

Religious School News 

     from


Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Religious School Director

There is a fun song we teach at this time of year, called “Mishenichnas Adar”⏤it celebrates the Hebrew month of Adar, the month of Purim. The words of the song mean, “When Adar arrives, our joy increases!”

To quote another song, “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles: “Little darlin’, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter.” Indeed, it has. So Purim comes just in time to lift our spirits, as the Religious School gets ready to celebrate this holiday in style on March 12th. There wll be costumes and songs, a skit and⏤thanks to the efforts of some of our parents⏤the Purim Carnival is back! We hope to see you as well on Saturday evening, March 11th, to watch adults acting silly in this year’s Purim shpiel, “The Festival of Lots”! We look forward to having some of your children take part that evening, by lending their singing voices.

Next month our joy increases further with the celebration of Passover. For our annual school Passover program, each grade contributes a song or presentation regarding one aspect of the Passover holiday. We could use more help providing food and setting up, so if you are available please sign up!

In other news, our monthly Youth Group program for post b’nei-mitzvah students is off to a great start. Thank you to Rabbi Schwartz, Jody Priblo, Sabina Albirt and Samantha Rosenbloom for their capable leadership! It’s never too late to join the fun, teens can sign up anytime.

Family Services featuring Grades 2-3 and K-1 are coming up this month and next. Check out the dates below, and mark your calendars⏤it means so much to have students supporting each other at these services. Let’s share the joy!



DATES TO REMEMBER:

Thursday, January 12
7:30 PM School Committee Meeting

Friday, January 20
7:30 PM Shabbat Family Service led by the Fourth Grade

Saturday March 11
10:00 AM Bar Mitzvah of Joshua Gereb

Saturday March 11
5:30 PM Pizza + 6:30 PM Purim Service & Shpiel

Sunday March 12
School Purim Celebration; Carnival begins 11:30

Friday March 24
7:30 PM Shabbat Family Service⏤Grade 2-3 students

Saturday March 25
10:00 AM Bat Mitzvah of Haley Aleksic

Sunday April 9
School Passover Program

Tuesday April 11
Adas Emuno Community Passover Seder

Sunday April 15
No Religious School⏤Spring Break

Friday April 28
7:30 PM Shabbat Family Service⏤Grade K-1 students

Confirmation Class and Youth Group meetings: March 26 & April 23

Rabbi Schwartz's Sermon for Kol Nidre 5777

XENOPHOBIA

EREV YOM KIPPUR 5777

RABBI BARRY L. SCHWARTZ

Let’s face it—the High Holy Days are when we are supposed to talk about what we don’t want to talk about.

It’s when we are supposed to confess our sins. No, that is not a Christian thing. It’s a Jewish thing. We were doing so a thousand years before Christianity was born. We no longer sacrifice goats. We use our words. Like our mothers taught us: Use your words. In the synagogue we use a lot of words. We confess ritualistically, through prayer.

One of those prayers, which we will recite on Yom Kippur, is called Ashamnu. You may have said it many times over the years without realizing that it goes in alphabetical order. The first letter of every sin goes straight through the aleph-bet from aleph to tav. The translators of the Reform prayer book wanted to replicate that in English. They got all the way to X and then said, "What sin begins with X?"

Well, it turns out that some smart guy realized that there is a very real, very significant sin that starts with X. It’s not a word you hear that often, unless you are preparing for the SATs or for a championship Scrabble tournament. But it’s a word we should all know. It’s a problem that we are all dealing with. It’s so important that I am devoting a whole sermon to it. The word is xenophobia. It means fear or hatred of the foreigner or stranger.

We live in xenophobic times. Yes, I know that immigration has been an issue throughout American history, and world history, but I do not recall it ever being more so in my lifetime than now.

Can we deny that it is a huge factor in our current presidential election? Can we deny that it is a huge factor in Brexit—the UK’s momentous decision to leave the European Union?

Can we deny that it is a huge factor in the global rise of right-wing, so called populist movements in Greece, Hungary, Austria, France, Russia… and even Israel?

The call to halt migrations… the call to build walls… the call to ban Muslims… are birthed by real issues… but the radical solutions are driven by a phobia—an unreasonable fear or hatred—that clouds our mind and distorts our judgment.

Our history and our heritage have a lot to say about this. That is what I want to talk about this evening. At another time we might examine the economic and political factors responsible for the rise of xenophobia. But today I want to convey how strongly Judaism and the Jewish experience abhor xenophobia. How it contradicts the loftiest moral impulses of the Judeo-Christian heritage. How ultimately we are taught not to hate the stranger, but to love him.

Our Torah commences with the extraordinary declaration that the human being is created in the image of God.

Our Torah commands that we are to pursue holiness and that the highest expression of that holiness is to "love your neighbor as yourself."

Our Torah teaches, and this refrain repeats itself over and over again, "love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

That is the classic statement of Jewish empathy. "For you were strangers." You have been there. You know what it is like. You were oppressed. You were outcasts. You know the heart of shunned and the exploited. You can more than sympathize; you can empathize because you lived through it.

I was in Egypt? I was at Sinai? How so? It’s called "corporate memory." We are part of a people that remember everything, that never forgets. As one of the people, as a member of the tribe, we are a part of that collective experience.

The whole point of the Passover Seder, arguably Judaism’s most important ritual, is to reenact the experience of liberation from slavery. And what is the single most important line of the Haggadah? B’cal dor hayav adam lirot et atmo k’ilu hu yatza m’mitzrayim. "In every generation each person must see himself as if he went out from Egypt."

K’ilu. As if. Use your imagination, your moral imagination. Put yourself in your ancestors' shoes. Don’t forget your roots, your origins, where you came from, what you went through. It explains what you are made of. It explains who you are.

In the Book of Exodus, Moses, speaking for God, says: “You shall not oppress a stranger," v’atem yadatem et nefesh hager, for you know the nefesh, the soul, the deepest feelings, of the stranger, "having been strangers yourselves in the land of Egypt" (23:9).

Again, in Leviticus: "When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (19:33).

Again, in Deuteronomy: "For the Lord your God… upholds the cause of the orphan and the widow, and befriends the stranger… You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (10:17-19).

Who are the strangers? They are the powerless. They are the poor. They are the marginalized. They are the immigrant. And they are the precisely the people we are commanded to help.

This summer I read a new book called The Geography of Genius by Eric Weiner. The author explores why certain times and places give rise to revolutionary creativity. One of the places he chronicles is turn-of-the century Vienna, and its greatest genius, Sigmund Freud. Weiner writes, "As an immigrant, Freud was well positioned for greatness. A disproportionately large number of geniuses were geographically displaced, voluntarily or otherwise. One survey of 20th century geniuses found that 1/5th were first or second generation immigrants."

"That dynamic holds true today,"he continues. "Foreign born immigrants account for only 13% of the US population but have nearly a third of all US patents granted. They are 25% of all US Nobel laureates."

. . .            . . .

 
To chronicle the contribution of immigrants to this country would take me forever. Anyone with a sense of history appreciates this. We are often called a nation of immigrants, and most of us in this sanctuary are not more than three or four generations removed from the immigrant experience ourselves. Our personal history and our people’s history and our country’s history all reinforce each other. We know the heart of the stranger for we were strangers in the land of Poland and Russia and Germany.

Back in May, President Obama gave a remarkable speech, right here in New Jersey, at Rutgers. I know at least one member of the congregation was there, celebrating her son’s graduation. I urge you to find it online and read the whole thing. It is funny and it is wise. In that speech President Obama made a point about xenophobia: "Building walls," he said, "won’t boost our economy, and it won’t enhance our security either. Isolating or disparaging Muslims… is not just a betrayal of our values, not just a betrayal of who we are; it would alienate the very communities at home and abroad who are our most important partners in the fight against violent extremism. [To] blame our challenges on immigrants, that doesn’t just run counter to our history as the world’s melting pot; it contradicts the evidence that our growth and our innovation and our dynamism has always been spurred by our ability to attract strivers from every corner of the globe. That’s how we became America. Why would we want to stop it now?"

On this Yom Kippur, let’s talk about what we don’t want to talk about. And let’s not let ourselves off too easy. The late, great philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel said that in a democratic society, "some are guilty; all our responsible."

I would hope that we are not blatant racists. I would hope that we are not obviously xenophobic.

But so long as we leave bi-partisan immigration reform in limbo, are we not accountable? So long as we respond to the refugee crisis with a helpless shrug, are we not culpable? So long as we fail to confront demagoguery, are we not liable?

Ashamnu, bagadnu, gazalnu….

We have all committed wrongs; together we confess these sins. There was violence, weakness of will, xenophobia.

V’al kulam, eloha selichot, salach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu.

For all these, O God of mercy, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.

Forgive us; pardon us, grant us atonement… and spur us to new resolve and new activism in this new year.

Amen.

from the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

From the desk of …                    

 Rabbi Barry Schwartz

    

SPRING AWAKENING

The signs of spring are everywhere. I never cease to marvel at the rebirth of the Earth, from the flowers and trees to the profusion of new life. We tidy up the garden, move out the plants, and hang up the hummingbird feeders. The hibernating species shake awake and the migratory types wing their way back. And as Jews we celebrate our spring holidays.

By the time you read this, our great spring festival of Pesach will have passed over. Pesach celebrates not only spring awakening (in a nice coincidence it corresponded with Earth Day this year), but the rebirth of our people to freedom. If our biblical ancestors were to drop by they would recognize our holiday celebration with little problem. While the fifteen steps of the seder and the Haggadah have evolved over time, the essential story and symbols have remained unchanged. Passover, as essentially a home holiday, is the most widely observed of the Jewish holidays, by a long shot.

The same cannot be said of the biblical festival that follows “a week of weeks” later-Shavuot. Though it celebrates the first harvest and the momentous giving of the Torah at Sinai on the fiftieth day after the Exodus (and like Pesach was the object of a national pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem) today Shavuot is not well marked in the non-Orthodox community. Yet it is when we read the Ten Commandments and the beautiful Book of Ruth. Our Confirmation Class will uphold that tradition at our service on June 10 (7:30 pm). Celebrate the holiday and support our wonderful teens who dedicate three years after bar/bat mitzvah to this accomplishment.

Our biblical forbears would certainly not recognize two other special days that mark spring in the Jewish calendar, because they commemorate two epochal events of the 20th century-the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel. Yom HaShoah falls this on May 5 (there is a community ceremony in Fair Lawn that evening) and we will include appropriate music and words at our Shabbat evening service on May 6. One week later is Yom Ha’Atzmaut-we gladly celebrate the 68th birthday of modern Israel at our Shabbat evening service on May 13.

The Holocaust and the rebirth of Israel happened within the lifetime of older members of our community. But the passage of decades dims the memory for the generations that follow. There is no substitute for directly hearing from and seeing the eyewitnesses to the tragedy and the triumph. In the same way that I feel sorry that my children did not know my immigrant grandparents, and learn first-hand what it took to leave Eastern Europe and rebuild their lives in America, so we will face the challenge of the Holocaust and Israel’s founding moving from living history for us to “ancient” history for our youth.

As the most successful example of keeping memory alive, perhaps we can take a clue from the Passover seder. What new rituals can we create for the spring holidays that will enlighten and endure? The genius of the Jewish holidays is how they link the cycle of the seasons to the cycle of our history. In this age of environmentalism and globalism, as world citizens, but as bearers of ancient wisdom, there is much to ponder and to celebrate.

Social Action Spring and Summer

From the pages of Kadima, the newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:


 

A Report from Annette DeMarco
Social Action Committee Chairperson




 


Through May 22: we are collecting "left over", unopened, non-perishable, kosher for Passover foods to be given to Helping Hands Food Pantry in Teaneck. Please leave donations in the basket in the vestry.

June, July, August: Child-friendly food collection for the summer months when students are not in school to receive breakfasts or lunches. Please leave in the vestry room of the temple.

Last but not least! A special thank you to all who donated to our Community Purim Basket Food Drive! Over seven full bags of food were delivered from Adas Emuno to the office of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey as part of their Mega Food Drive. Good for us!

Sunday, May 15
Blood Drive in the Social Hall from 10 AM to 2:30 PM.
Must be 16 or over to participate and accompanied by parent or guardian if under age 18. Photo ID required.
Remember to eat and drink before participating.
Walk-ins welcomed or you may pre-register at leoniablooddrive at gmail.com
Coordinated by Emma Schuller

Another collection! Spring and summer clothing in good condition. Please leave in the back of the social hall. This drive runs through the end of May. Donations go to the Council of Jewish Women's thrift shop in Bergenfield.


****NEW PROGRAM****

Sunday, May 22
Pre-Memorial Day Event
We will be going to Mount Moriah Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Fairview on Fairview Avenue (better known as Dan Kelly's Hill in days gone by) to place American flags on the graves of service men and women. We will not only provide the flags but will also provide a pizza lunch, in the social hall, beforehand, for anyone going. IMPORTANT: Any student attending must have parents with them at the luncheon as well as at the cemetery. The schedule is as follows:
 
12:00 noon: Pizza lunch in the social hall, directly following religious school dismissal
12:30-12:45: Leave for cemetery
1:00-1:15: Arrive at cemetery

Please email me at acheryl21 at gmail.com by Tuesday, May 17th if you plan on joining us for the luncheon and trip, or just the trip. Thank you!

Regards to all,

Annette ­ Social Action Committee Chairperson

acheryl21 at gmail.com

The Angel of Death and the Choice of Life

Just in time for Passover, here is the latest Jewish Standard op-ed from Adas Emuno president Lance Strate, published in the April 22nd edition of the weekly. Appearing under the title of The Angel of Death and the Choice of Life, we are pleased to be able to share it here on our congregational blog:

Passover is a celebration of freedom, a holiday marking the defining moment in Jewish history, our liberation from bondage.

Passover represents the birth of a nation. The clan of Jacob, just an extended family, becomes a multitude, the children of Israel.

And the story takes us through a revolution against an unjust monarch and an escape from tyranny, to the framing of a constitution at Sinai. No wonder that the holiday resonates so powerfully here in the United States. The Jewish story of slavery’s abolition even includes a civil war of sorts, with the confederacy that turns to worship the golden calf.

The powerful injunction to remember that we were slaves in Egypt stands in sharp contrast to the mythologies of other peoples of the ancient world, which cast them as the descendants of gods or otherwise of supernatural origin. Passover establishes the foundation of Jewish ethics—not simply to value freedom, but in the words of Micah, “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” You can’t get much more humble than being a slave.

Birth is a common theme for holidays that incorporate the rites of spring, as does Passover, with the rebirth of nature symbolized by the green vegetable and the egg on the Seder plate. The other side of birth is death, a topic we don’t like to think much about. But death, unlike taxes, is unavoidable for each and every one of us, whether we acknowledge its existence or not. The very name of the holiday Passover, or Pesach, refers to the Angel of Death passing over the dwellings of the Israelites.

The escape from servitude only occurs after the escape from death. First there must be life. Only then can there be hope, and the potential for freedom. But what is left unsaid is that the escape from death is only a temporary reprieve. Does this imply that the same might be true of the escape from bondage? Certainly, there is no permanent liberation from the inevitability of death.

The Jewish-American anthropologist Ernest Becker, author of the 1974 book The Denial of Death, argued that we human beings are the only forms of life on earth that are aware of our own mortality, and that awareness represents a crushing blow to our self-esteem. The function of human culture is to provide some form of compensation, through beliefs in various kinds of immortality, and by providing us with heroic roles to play in the lives that we lead. Of course, when it comes to the denial of death, religious beliefs have played a major role, especially in the very specific conception of an afterlife that many provide.

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Passover stands out from all of the other traditional holidays on the Jewish calendar in its direct confrontation with death. By way of contrast, on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we pray that we may be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life, with barely a mention of life’s opposite. On Passover, however, death is personified in the guise of an angel. Since an angel literally means a messenger, this implies that death is a message from God, the same God who exiled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden to keep them from eating from the Tree of Life and becoming immortal.

The message is one of choice. In Deuteronomy (30:19) God tells us, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you may live.” While we do not choose to be born or to die, there are choices still to be made. The Pharaoh chooses death time and time again, beginning with his order to kill every newborn Hebrew male, continuing with his refusal to let the Israelites go, resulting in the death of the Egyptian firstborn. The Pharaoh’s choice of death culminates in the decision to pursue the escaping Israelites, resulting in the drowning of the Egyptians army.

Pharaoh’s choices come as no surprise, insofar as he represents an ancient cult of death. We may marvel at the pyramids and Sphinx as wonders of the ancient world, but we also should recall that they were built with the blood of forced laborers, and that they are enormous tombs carrying the embalmed remains of the Pharaoh along with those who served him in life and were sacrificed so that they might follow him in death.

While the Pharaoh chooses death, the Israelites must make an active decision to choose life. When it comes to the tenth plague, the Angel of Death will not discriminate automatically in favor of the Israelites, will not spare anyone by virtue of their descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or because they are circumcised, or because they worship Adonai. It is not Jewish blood that saves the Israelites, but the blood of the sacrificial lamb. This requires, first of all, being a part of the community. If you were not, how would you learn about what had to be done? It also requires choosing to follow the instructions.

We may have replaced the sign made with lamb’s blood with mezuzahs long ago, but the lesson remains: choose life, that you may live.

The Angel of Death who executes the tenth plague is no Adversary. It is not the equivalent of the Christian Satan or Lucifer, nor is it a lord of the underworld along the lines of the Greek god Hades. The personification of death quite naturally is a frightening figure. Its depiction as a creeping darkness in the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille film The Ten Commandments, usually broadcast on television at this time of year, has been the stuff of childhood nightmares for six decades now.

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I recall being disturbed, in my youth, by the image of this angel in a Haggadah that illustrated a Passover song, Chad Gadya. That the “Holy One, Blessed be He,” finally “smote the Angel of Death, who slew the slaughterer, who killed the ox…” clearly communicated the hierarchy, but this didn’t change the fact that both the slaughterer and the ox ended up dead.

Which brings me back to the point that Passover is a holiday that confronts death rather than denying it, and offers the alternative—to choose life. The Angel of Death is neither an object of worship nor the embodiment of evil. The personification of death is frightening, without a doubt, but as God’s messenger, it is at the same time an Angel of Justice, under certain circumstances an Angel of Mercy, and without a doubt an Angel of Humility.

Ernest Becker eventually came to the conclusion that in our contemporary culture, we have come to place too much emphasis on enhancing self-esteem. Humility serves as a counterweight to that tendency, the humility that comes from remembering that we were slaves, and the humility that comes from remembering that our lives are finite.

Passover is a celebration of redemption and renewal, but above all it is a celebration of life, whose meaning and value can only be understood through its contrast with death. So as we drink our four cups of wine at the Seder, let us also remember to say L’chaim! To life!

Religion and Space Travel

The March 18th issue of the Jewish Standard carried a feature article of no small interest to us here at Congregation Adas Emuno. The piece, written by reporter Larry Yudelson, is entitled Bound for Glory (and yes, click on the title to read it over on the Standard's Times of Israel hosted website), with the following subtitle: "Leonia rabbi, shul president contribute to anthology on space travel" (and can you guess the name of that Leonia shul?).

Here's how the article looked in print, by the way:

Of course, it's a bit hard to read, that way, so let's help you out by providing the text:

When Barry Schwartz was 11 years old, he begged his parents to let him stay up way past his bed time so he could watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.

Outer space seemed close at hand in the summer of 1969. President Kennedy’s promise of landing a man on the moon within the decade had been fulfilled. Hollywood imagined routine Pan Am space shuttles to orbiting space stations by the year 2001.

That promise was not fulfilled. Pan Am went under, and the Challenger exploded, and though tickets have been sold to the optimistic and rich, tourist flights to space have yet to launch. The astronauts of Apollo 17 left the moon in the winter of 1972, and nobody has returned.

Barry Schwartz dreamed of being an astronaut as a child, but when he grew up he landed not on Luna but in Leonia, where he is rabbi of Congregation Adas Emuno. This month, with the publication of Touching the Face of the Cosmos: On the Intersection of Space Travel and Religion, a new anthology from Fordham University Press, Rabbi Schwartz finally finds himself bound up with astronauts both real and fictional, if only in the pages of a book.

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The volume begins with an interview with astronaut John Glenn, conducted by one of the editors, Dr. Paul Levinson. Dr. Levinson is a professor at Fordham University’s Department of Communications and Media Studies. He has published several science fiction novels and was president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, but it was a nonfiction work, 2003’s Real Space: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet, which was the springboard for this new anthology.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

One of the topics he explored in that book, Dr. Levinson said, was “how come we made such little progress in getting off the planet since the ’60s? Even now no human beings have been back to the moon. We haven’t been to Mars.”

This got him thinking about people’s expressed motivations for exploring space. There was the military motive that fueled the Cold War space race of the ’60s, the pull of scientific curiosity, and more recently, the view that there is money to be made in orbit.

What was missing in these discussions, he realized, was “something that underlies all these motivations, the almost spiritual exploration of knowing more about who we are in the cosmos. Getting out to space satisfied the yearning every sentient being has, to learn a little more about what this is all about, what are we doing here, what part of the larger picture are we part of.”

And thus was born “an anthology where people from different religious backgrounds and people who are not religious at all write about this intersection of space travel and spirituality,” he said.

Dr. Levinson’s interest in space travel, like Rabbi Schwartz’s, goes back to childhood. “I was absolutely riveted when the Soviets launched the first sputnik,” he said. “I thought it was amazing.”

The book includes an essay from the Vatican’s astronomer, an anthropologist considering the symbolic meaning of objects taken to space by astronauts (including the Torah scroll taken by astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman), and scientist and science fiction writer David Brin giving an original midrashic reading of Genesis to justify scientific discovery and creativity. The book’s fiction includes a seder-in-space scene excerpted from one of Dr. Levinson’s novels and a story by Jack Dann, the editor of Wandering Stars, a 1974 anthology of Jewish science fiction, about a far-future rabbi on an alien planet.

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As for the actual rabbi in the book—Rabbi Schwartz entered the anthology via Dr. Lance Strate, Dr. Levinson’s colleague at Fordham who is president of Rabbi Schwartz’s shul. Dr. Strate—who is a Jewish Standard columnist—has an essay of his own in the volume, which mentions Maimonides but takes a somewhat more skeptical stance toward space exploration than the other contributors do.

In his essay, Dr. Strate suggests that the desire for space travel reflects a “longstanding desire to look upward, perhaps a returning to the trees,” he said. He quotes Lewis Mumford, who condemned the space program during the Apollo era as a rerun of ancient pyramid building, in which “a select few individuals were the subject of an extreme amount of labor and resources to send this select few to that culture’s conception of the heavens.” Mr. Mumford argued that “our time and effort and resources would be better spent dealing with our needs here on earth. The overall thrust of the essay is that space travel is about the search for transcendence but we’re not going to find it.”

Rabbi Schwartz, however, argues in his essay that astronauts found transcendence in space—and that they were able to bring it home with them and share it with the world.

“Our journey into space is really about our journey back home,” he writes in an essay that began as a High Holiday sermon in 1989, 20 years after the first moon landing. The essay looks at how the views from space changed our view of earth.

He quotes Saudi astronaut Bin Salman: “The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were aware of only one Earth.”

When Rabbi Schwartz first delivered the sermon, he ended by holding up a photograph taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts that showed the blue globe of the earth.

“From outer space we have gained an inner understanding; a fresh perspective,” Rabbi Schwartz writes. “We are one community on one Earth; a dazzling bundle of interdependent life, hurtling through the void. We are one human race; and must we not join hand in hand across the globe, to care for this our home?”

That's how the article ends, but let's also note the little box that comes right after the piece's conclusion:

Yes, on Saturday, April 9th at 10 AM we will be hosting a special edition of our weekly Shabbat morning Torah study session, with Paul Levinson joining us to discuss his book, along with Rabbi Schwartz and Lance Strate (and there'll be bagels!). So please join us if you can, it'll be a discussion that's sure to be out of this world!