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A Congregant's Thoughts on Genesis

Once again, congregant Ludwik Kowalski has asked that we share his thoughts regarding our weekly Saturday morning Torah study sessions. This year we have been concentrating on family narratives in the Torah and Tanach, and these remarks come in response to last week's (February 15) discussion regarding Jacob.

We are still discussing Genesis. Last week congregant Eric Fisher said that Abraham, Jacob, Rebecca and Leah are our ancestors. Today I objected, saying that they are not real people, that we have no historical evidence of their existence. Then I quoted the following statement from our prayerbook (on page 33):

Torah is what God revealed to us, and what we discern of God; ideas, ideals, laws and mitzvot, our religious heritage.

God, as I often repeat, is a spiritual (not material) entity. The same applies to people and events described in the Bible. Spiritual entities are not real; they are fictitious. I am a scientist. How do I reconcile my scientific attitude with my belief in God? By accepting the NOMA position, formulated by another scientist, Stephen J. Gould. According to Gould, science and theology are two non-overlapping magisteria. Methods of validation of spiritual claims and methods of validation of material claims are drastically different. My elaboration on this topic was published one year ago at on my website.

"God is not a material entity," I wrote, "and attempts to refute God's existence by performing scientific experiments are not appropriate. The same is true for attempts to refute scientific claims, such as the age of the earth, on the basis of disagreements with holy books." Here are other terms used to describe the two non-overlapping magisteria:

• natural versus supernatural

• physical versus metaphysical

• real versus fictional

• objective versus subjective

• materialistic versus idealistic

• etc.

Adjectives such as mystical, metaphorical, allegorical, and assumed, are often used to describe our spiritual world entities. Today I asked our rabbi what he thinks about Eric's statement. He said that we are studying God-inspired descriptions of beliefs of our sages. In other words, unlike many Orthodox Jews, we do not take these descriptions literally. This is consistent with what our rabbi wrote in his book entitled Judaism's Great Debates, published in 2012, and with what was written by the German rabbi Abraham Geiger, one of the founding fathers of Reform Judaism, in the 19th century.

Ludwik Kowalski's views, as they are expressed here, do not necessarily represent the official position of Congregation Adas Emuno. But we are always happy to share the thoughts and opinions of our members here on our congregational blog.

Share

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

A Message From Our President

Dr. Lance Strate

Share

Share. It's one of the lessons we all learn in early childhood. To share our toys. To share a snack. To share and share alike.

And sure, some things are easier to share than others. Go on Facebook, and just about every item we see in our stream gives us the option to like, comment, and share. It's easy to click on share, if we see something we think others might appreciate or enjoy or find interesting. It's easy, and it costs us nothing.

And it's easy enough to share our simchas, our joys, with a word or two in conversation with family and friends, and on Facebook with a status update. But how about posting a status update to our congregation, our Adas Emuno family and friends? Why not share your simchas with us, by sending an announcement for Kadima, our newsletter, by making a donation—the amount doesn't matter, what counts is the gesture of giving thanks—or by sponsoring an Oneg for Friday night Shabbat services?

As a congregation, as a community we share our joys, and take pleasure and pride in each others' good fortune and hard-won accomplishments. And as a congregation and a community we come together and share in each others' sadness and grieving. We are here when you need us, please keep that in mind.

And we share our thoughts as well. We speak and we listen, we discuss and we respond. We want to make this the best Adas Emuno it can be, so by all means, speak up, let us know what you're thinking, what works and what doesn't, what needs to be changed and what should not be touched. And let's listen to each other.

When Robert Fulgham wrote, All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, first and foremost he learned: Share everything! And while that may be taking things a little too far now that we're out of Kindergarten, the importance of the lesson should not be lost, to share our resources, to share our time and energy, to share our skills and talents. Adas Emuno is our shared congregation, our shared community, our shared creation. It's what we produce together, as a collective It's a work of collaboration. We are buoyed up and float along because we all pool our efforts.

Share. That's not just what we ought to do. It's also what we have. A share. A stake. An investment. In our congregation. In our future. We own it, it belongs to us. Each and every member. It's ours. In the words of the old Union Prayer Book: "Behold, a good doctrine has been given unto you; forsake it not." Our tradition, our congregation, our future, all are our shared responsibility.

We share in ownership as we share of ourselves. Let us share our joys and sorrows, share in the beauty of our spirituality and the illumination of our learning, share in our responses and our responsibilities. To each other and to ourselves. To our past and to our future. To our world in need of healing and to something greater than ourselves. To life, to health and happiness. And to Adas Emuno!

The Way Forward

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

From the desk of …                    

 Rabbi Barry Schwartz

    

THE WAY FORWARD:


CREATING TRANSFORMATIONAL

JEWISH EXPERIENCES

What is the way forward for those of us who care about the future of the American Jewish community?

I’ll admit that in my last column (The Jew and the Pew) I was quite negative. Recall that I was reacting to the major new study of the American Jewish community by the Pew Research Center showed an alarming abandonment of Judaism and the Jewish people. I wrote that we should “be brave enough to admit that this portrait is devastating. We are in free fall….”

But you would never know it in San Diego last month (mid-December) at the biannual convention of the Reform movement. I was with some 5000 Reform Jews, and the spirit was something to behold. The theme of the gathering was “”Meet-Pray-Learn” and that is exactly what we did, with gusto.

I promised to write about some positive lessons in subsequent columns, so let me reflect on the Biennial experience to talk about what is right with our community rather than what is wrong.

Let’s start with engaging our youth, and talk about one small step that can be a difference maker. A modest proposal, not a panacea… but one within that is realistic and attainable for the majority of American Jewish families.

One of the most moving aspects of the convention was the enthusiastic participation of hundreds of high school age youth. How is it that these young people are so connected? I asked… and the common denominator seems to be, interestingly enough… a great Jewish summer camp experience. Specifically, these youth pointed to the Reform movement camps like Camp Eisner in Great Barrington and Camp Harlam in the Poconos. It seems that a memorable summer camp experience is the gateway to involvement in Jewish youth group (NFTY). NFTY leads to Hillel. Hillel leads to study abroad in Israel. Israel leads to young leadership roles and a lasting connection to the Jewish community. For so many of the young adults I talked to, it all starts with an exceptional Jewish experience as a teen. Jewish summer camp seems to be the ticket. Dollar for dollar it may be the best investment in the Jewish future you can make for your children or grandchildren. And to compete with all the summer alternatives, the Reform movement recently opened an elite Jewish sports camp and just announced the opening of a select Jewish science camp.

So how about an unforgettable Jewish summer for our children? Why not a community-wide “Junior Birthright” program that offers a month at camp as a prelude to a week in Israel? We need to invest in experiences that are memorable and transformational. It’s one small step for a Jewish family; one giant leap for the Jewish people.

Report on the Biennial

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

Religious School News from

Annice Benamy, Religious School Director

Report on the Biennial

Audacious Hospitality… This is the new phrase of Reform Judaism. And I will use it to describe the six days, which I spent in San Diego along with about 5,000 others at the Union for Reform Judaism‘s/Women of Reform Judaism’s 2013 Biennial. Audacious comes from the word "audacity," which the dictionary defines as bold, daring, and courage. This is what I am bringing back to my synagogue and to my personal/ professional life.

What is the Biennial? Every two years, the URJ/WRJ gathers together thousands of Reform Jews – lay leaders, synagogue professionals, clergy, entertainers, NFTYites, and more – to connect and reconnect, pray, learn, network, and grasp the movement of the Reform Movement.

I admit that I am a convention junkie. I love attending conventions for professional development and rejuvenating much needed energy. In 2009 and 2011, I attended my first and second Biennials in Toronto and Washington, D.C., respectively. The experiences were unforgettable as my mind exploded with the excitement and spirit–the ruach–of the Movement. The week in San Diego, I felt that same ruach. I participated in the most exciting, stimulating, thought-provoking, and innovative programming and prayer I look forward to at each Biennial.

I love the over-stimulation and fast tempo at Biennial. There are so many people and so many things happening simultaneously. You are constantly running into people you have not seen in years, or since the last Biennial or in decades. You want to catch up, but you also want to make it to a session, maybe two or three at the same time! The programming is overwhelming in the best way possible; there are hundreds of sessions to attend. The exhibits, vendors, and Kikar-Resource Row are another piece that makes “fear of missing out” exciting to some people because, truly, there is just so much going on.

Some of the programmatic highlights where I experienced boldness, daringness, and courage were:

• Learning best practices from religious schools that are doing it right

• Discussing religious schools and leadership of the future with Rabbi Stan Schickler and members of NATE

• Reconnecting and connecting with WRJ leadership and friends as I participated as a dual URJ/WRJ delegate and was installed to a four-year term on the the WRJ International Board

• Learning how to increase youth participation by my continued involvement in the URJ’s Campaign for Youth Engagement 

• Singing fabulous traditional, contemporary, and new music by participating in the Biennial and WRJ Choirs with friends who are cantors, lay leaders who love to sing, long time friends from camp and directed by my first camp choir director, Merri Arian

• Discussing ideas about Israel, Relational Judaism, Women’s issues, and Jewish music led by spectacular visionaries including Dr. Rabbi Donniel Hartman, MK Ruth Calderon, Ron Wolfson, Ruth Messinger, Anat Hoffman, Neshama Carlebach and Rabbi Shefa Gold

• Being encouraged by motivational speeches from Rabbi Rick Jacobs, PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Lynn Magid Lazar and Blair Marks to bring audacious hospitality to every Reform synagogue by inclusion, shalom bayit, new leadership models, and thinking outside the box.

Tefilah with WRJ and Womens Rabbinic Network Shacharit Service

Biennial Shabbat is an experience like no other that features boldness, daringness, and courage. Friday night worship was a stunningly beautiful service led by the clergy team of Rabbi Joel Sisenwine, Cantor Jodi Sufrin, Rabbi Rachel Saphire, and Noah Aronson (student Rabbi/composer) of Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley, MA and the Biennial Choir. Following dinner with 5,000 of your closest friends came the most spectacular one-hour song session featuring our cantors and songleaders led by Biennial Music Director, Josh Nelson. 

WRJ choir performs at the Installation ceremony where I and others were installed

 to the WRJ International Board.

After an engaging Shabbat Torah study with Rabbi Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, National Director of Recruitment and President Scholar at HUC-JIR, what followed was hands-down the most creative and exceptional Shabbat and Torah service of all time. Led by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, Cantor Angela Buchdahl of Central Synagogue, Movement specialist, Liz Lerman, Amichai Lau-Lavie of Storahtelling and Lab/Shul and the Biennial Choir incorporated exquisite music and readings to the service. What made the Torah service so amazing? It was bold, daring, and courageous. It was creative, it was fun, it was engaging, and it had serious depth. The best way I can describe it: thirteen platforms were set up around the giant plenary hall. Each platform served as a bimah, and those who had been asked to stand there (representatives from 13 URJ organizations) had a Torah with them on their bimah. The 5,000-person plenary chanted the Torah blessings together, and then each platform had a reader who read for each separate aliyah within earshot of their section. It gave me chills. It was beautiful. Moreover, it was interspersed with stellar “sTorah-telling,” a particular highlight being Shira Kline as the biblical character Dinah. It reinforced, so very much, all that is possible when we think outside the box. 

With my friend, Josh Nelson, singer/songwriter and Biennial Music Director.

After a moving WRJ Installation ceremony, the concluding Saturday night plenary was the most incredible opportunity to observe an event honoring 100 years of the Women of Reform Judaism and celebrating 75 years of NFTY. The program was a celebration of amazing female musicians, role models, educators, and social activists. It honored Anat Hoffman, the bold and daring director of IRAC, and it blessed the generations of old and new in sweeping musical tributes. To end the final evening, Josh Nelson and Neshama Carlebach treated us to a late-night concert that could have gone on all night.

The Biennial experience got me so energized, so pumped, about all that is ahead for us soon-to-be cantors, educators, and rabbis. It made me see so clearly how the Reform Movement is growing and shifting, how Rabbi Rick Jacobs is a visionary who practices what he preaches, how committed and passionate so many of its constituents are, and most of all, the evolution to which the Reform Movement is committed and in which it is invested so deeply. What am I bringing back? Ideas on opening our arms to change, embracing that which we do not know, engaging with all those who are “othered” and “nones” to us, and being exemplars of “audacious hospitality.”

Social Action Winter Update

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


A Report from Annette DeMarco
Social Action Committee Chairperson




We recently prepared a dinner and then served it to people at the shelter in Hackensack, officially known as the Housing, Health & Human Service Center. There were approximately 25 of our families involved through cooking, setting up, serving, cleaning up and/or donating needed funds. In many instances, more than one person per household participated. Now that's what I call social action the Adas Emuno way!!

The date we had was just around Christmas, so we made a holiday dinner of turkey, 11 of them, with all the trimmings. We included a bit of holiday decor, including paper goods and festive cookies and lots of smiles!

Marilyn Katz is our contact person with Family Promise. Thanks, Marilyn, for keeping us connected! Richard Alicchio is our "unofficial" PR person as well as fundraiser. Thank you for all you do! To all who made monetary donations, a special thank-you. It often takes money to help others and we are very grateful for your generosity. Please check out the names of these families on the "Donations" page of the January issue of Kadima.

Our cooks deserve to be called chefs! The food looked especially appetizing and judging by the compliments, it was delicious! It was served with smiles, respect and "heart". And I do believe we left the kitchen even cleaner than it had been (which was very clean); lots of Adas Emuno pride, there!

So who are these folks who pitched in? Well, here goes, in no particular order (except the first name!) but served up with loads of thank-you's:

Rabbi Barry Schwartz, Debby Schwartz, Aaron Fischer, Lauren Rowland, Cheryl & Richard Alicchio, Doris White, Maren & Fred Friedman, Rachel Capote, Marilyn Katz, Mari Yamasaki, Fanny & Michael Fishbein, Randi Irby, Sandra Jonas, Joan & Richard Klein, Linda Kowalski, Claudia Portnoy, Kate Scooler, Carol & Jerry Bodian.

To our temple's youth and their friends who showed up and worked hard, smiling the whole time, well, it looks like the world is in good hands! Special thanks to Ethan Irby, Alexia Capote, Gabriella Capote, Lee Joon Choi, Maxine Walsh, Emma Walby, Louis Fischer, as well as Rich and Cheryl Alicchio’s grand-daughter, Tiffani and her friend, Katie. You made such a difference...

Back at the temple, we are still collecting food for the Center for Food Action and soda can tabs for the Ronald McDonald House.

Also, watch for details about a Blood Drive which will be held on Sunday, March 30. This event will be coordinated once again by Emma Schuller and her mom, Zina.

A happy and healthy 2014 to all!!

Annette

Find the Familiar Face!

No, it's not a game of where's waldo or waldbaum or whatever, but can you find the familiar face in this crowd of great Jewish learning?

Yes, it's our very own Rabbi Schwartz, in the center on the bottom row, but you found him already, so good job! And once more he will be participating in Sweet Tastes of Torah this Saturday evening, where he'll be talking about the spirituality of the desert (as in the Sinai, but there will also be desserts served, don't worry). 

And there will be many other interesting programs to choose from, with preregistration (by the 29th) at only $18 per person (such a deal!), and if you miss that, just $5 more to pay at the door. And it's all happening over in Fair Lawn, so you don't have to leave Bergen County, and it's not too far from us here in Leonia. Just click on the link to check it all out at Sweet Tastes of Torah.