Rabbi Glickstein: Elu V'Elu for May-June-July 2011

Perhaps my favorite Rabbi Jolt story, which I have told many times, involves three friends who are all rabbis.

They are at a National Rabbinic Conference of Israel Bonds meeting in Los Angeles. They have a break from the discussions and take a walk down Hollywood Blvd.

One rabbi exclaims, "Look at that beautiful blonde woman with that homely man."

The second rabbi says, "Don't you know who that is? That woman is Marilyn Monroe. She converted to Judaism and married that homely man, the author Arthur Miller."

The first rabbi laughs, "That marriage won't last one year."

The third rabbi gazing off in the distance says, "I should have such a year."

This year, for me, was such a year.

I experienced depressing lows followed by highs of soaring intensity.

I do not remember a year of more stress and intensity, anxiety and joy.

However, Spring is here and with it Pesach and soon Shavuot.

My heart has sensed the beginnings of the Passover cleansing and the renewal to follow in seven weeks.

Gratitude fills me to overflowing.

After sitting with so many of our congregants whose pain I tried to share and whose burden I attempted to ease; after family members struggled with crises that were unexpected and surprising; after change that shakes the flow of continuity and security, I embrace thanksgiving and joy.

To relax, I play piano and often sing.

I have sheet music that runs the gamut from Broadway to Beatles, Country to Classical, Oldies to very Oldies. One song that always hits my emotion button was written by a Jewish immigrant during the Great Depression. Irving Berlin wrote Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep to help those suffering the indignations, depravities and disappointments of that time. He looked inside himself and he wrote the following:

When I'm worried and I can't sleep

I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep

Counting my blessings

When my bankroll is getting small

I think of when I had none at all

And I fall asleep

Counting my blessings

I think about a nursery and I picture curly heads

And one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds

If you're worried and you can't sleep

Just count your blessings instead of sheep

And you'll fall asleep

Counting your blessings

Those words describe my soul at this time of this year. I find myself remembering past challenges, stresses and crises and that brings me to recognizing gratitude for my life and my blessings.

I wish you such a year.

May you be blessed and count those blessings.

Rabbi Glickstein: Spring Trumps Winter: A Riff on Blood and Pesach - April 2011

The week of Purim, I attended a Brit Milah ceremony.  As I named the young man and held him in my arms, I could not help but remember last year when I officiated at the funeral of his twin siblings.

Here, swaddled and beautiful, was this living child receiving the blessings of his parents, brothers, and grandparents, all of whom bitterly wept with me at the sight of the tiny coffins last year.

“B’Damayich Chayi” are words we say twice at a Brit Milah. 

“By your bloods shall you live.”

The twins died of blood-related causes.

“By your bloods shall you live.”

I remain captivated by the irony and truth of those words.

“Bloods” in the plural, spoken twice.

Which bloods?

On Pesach we ask, “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

We answer, “Matzah and Bitter Herbs and even Reclining.”

But the third question gives no answer anywhere in the Haggadah.

“On all other nights we do not dip even once. Why on this night do we dip twice?”

The question is not which dippings count for the two times-Carpas, Haroset, Egg, Hands-but why we dip twice.

I argue that the first dipping is for Joseph.

His coat was dipped into the blood of the goat to camouflage his sale into slavery by his brothers.

I argue that the second dipping is for the blood-dipped hyssop with which we marked our doorposts and lintels on the first night of liberation.

So much bloodshed.

My mother, whose blood was taken out of her body and sent through a machine this past year while a surgeon built her a new aortic valve, has lived through the era of the largest shedding of blood in all of history:

Stalin

Hitler

Mao

Hirohito

Mussolini

The Killing Fields

Hiroshima

Darfur

etc.,etc.,etc.

By her blood, now flowing through her own veins and arteries and valves again, she lives.

And we Jews live —

By our doorposts without blood but with the word of God on mezuzah scrolls.

Living in freedom —

the blood of freedom hard won by countless lives given and blood spilt.

Freedom is not free.

Its price is often blood.

Why is this night different from all other nights?

Because tonight we dip twice.

Once in remembrance of the blood of slavery and betrayal and death; once in rejoicing for the blood spread for freedom.

We dip twice to remember the cost of both.

I hold this precious child asleep in my arms and I recall the night Pharoah held his first-born child, dead, in his arms.

And I remember the next day when we sang a song of thanksgiving, marching arm in arm into the desert.

We reduce our cup of joy in the memory of the first-born of Egypt along with the millions like them.

Drops of wine at a seder; drops of wine at a Brit Milah; drops of blood and memory.

A cup diminished.

A cup refilled.

To life.

To the bloods of our lives.

“By our bloods shall we live.”

Chag Sameach.

Rabbi Glickstein: Elu V'Elu for March 2011

There is a silly kids’ joke that goes like this:

How do fleas travel?

Itch hiking.

Apparently, the way fleas travel continues to stump scientists.

Dr. Gregory Sutton thinks that superior springs are just one of several important lessons fleas can teach engineers. They might also learn how to build robots that can leap over rough terrain. “Insect jumping is incredibly precise and incredibly fast,” said Dr. Sutton. “If you could build a robot that could do that, it would be fantastic.” In fact, according to an article in the New York Times Science section, jumping fleas are capable of leaping 38 times their body length in a single move. Scientists just do not understand how they do it.

I can hear your question: Why is the rabbi writing about fleas?

Well, I never thought I would.  However, I read that if you put jumping fleas in a jar, they will vault themselves out of the jar.  If you put a lid on the jar, the fleas will learn to jump only to a height just short of the lid.  Then you can remove the lid and the fleas will still jump just short of the lid.

Once limitations are learned, it is extremely hard to unlearn them.

The Rambam says that if God had not given the Torah and we were smart enough, we could learn the teachings of the Torah by observing God's creations.

We are trying to learn the lesson of the fleas.  We have taken the lid off, and now we are  going to jump higher in order to achieve greater goals.

For the last five years, Temple Beth Sholom has been on a journey  to expand our horizons and to test the limits of our reach.

To grow in our education programs and to expand the variety of our musical experiences, our congregation has engaged a wonderful professional who will join our staff this summer, Cantor Lisa Segal.

Cantor Segal will work with Cantor Haas in expanding and developing a total music culture in every area of Temple life.

Cantor Segal will also take over the directorship of our well-regarded Bar/Bat Mitzvah program from Cantor Haas who has been masterfully shepherding the Interim Bar/Bat Mitzvah program in anticipation of the retirement of Morah Shula Ben-David who lovingly dedicated much of her life to establishing and maintaining the high standards of achievement exhibited by her students.  Cantor Segal's input will add new perspective and energy to our evolving educational programs and experiences for students and their families as they journey through the important Bar/Bat Mitzvah cycle.

Cantor Lisa Segal comes to us from Temple Beth Am in Pinecrest. She has already achieved a stellar reputation and will work with our entire Temple team to help us jump higher and further.

We will have the opportunity later in the year to formally welcome Cantor Segal to Temple Beth Sholom and meet her in informal settings.

Our congregation is committed to changing and growing and moving in ever more effective and positive directions as a Jewish religious community of caring and welcoming people.  We are on a journey that will enhance all of our lives.

We are about to celebrate the joy of Purim in our yearly cycle.  This holiday reminds us through the character of Esther that even when we fear change, the result of risk is often new growth and greater rewards.

Esther saved our people because she leapt outside her comfortable space and ventured into unknown territory.

Change is inevitable and difficult.  Temple Beth Sholom is going to great lengths to plan and develop our changes in a way that will enhance the Jewish journeys of all who come through our doors.

Let's keep jumping higher and higher.