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Random musings and readings post-Thanksgiving weekend
Judaism has lots of blessings. For example, Jews are traditionally supposed to say a blessing when they hear thunder, see a rainbow, hear bad news, see a great scholar, or experience deliverance. This weekend I’ve been thinking we need to add one more blessing - it would be a blessing we say every year on Thanksgiving weekend, when much to our surprise, our clothes still fit…
In any case, I hope you all had a wonderful and fulfilling Thanksgiving holiday. For me, it’s been nice to take a bit of a break from work and to spend some time with family and friends. And while I’m deeply committed to the education of young Jews, I have to say, I loved not having to go to Sunday School this morning.
It’s given me a chance to do things I don’t usually get to do - like leisurely reading the paper and watching the news. So, here are some of the interesting things I’ve come across this weekend:
A great article in the New York Times about toddlers and grandparents talking to each other on webcams. As someone who keeps in touch with friends and family over Skype, I must say, it’s great. And, as a rabbi of an online congregation, I must say that we’re definitely expanding our demographics to toddlers and grandparents who can share their Jewish experiences online.
Speaking of children, there was also a ridiculous article about parents testing their young children to see if they have a sports gene. The idea is that parents can determine early which sports their children are best suited for. Ummm, maybe we should let kids be kids. By the way, for a great book on parenting from a Jewish perspective, I highly recommend Wendy Mogel’s The Blessing of a Skinned Knee (and I hope to write a book review of it soon for the forums section of OurJewishCommunity.org).
One more interesting website that was recommended to me - a powerful humanist Thanksgiving proclamation.
Oh, and this article is from the New York Post, and it’s way too good to pass up. President and First Lady Bush accidentally sent out a Hanukkah reception invitation to Jewish leaders that had a Christmas tree on the card. Mrs. Bush’s spokeswoman said it “slipped through the cracks.” Hmmm, is that what they would say about the economy as well?
What’s God got to do with it?
Have you ever noticed that Jews (and even many Jewish professionals) are really good at closing doors? Too often in the Jewish world, walls are built instead of doors being opened.
I was so pleased to read an article in which Edgar Bronfman attacks the ultra-Orthodox conversion system which is rigid and unaccepting. Bronfman argues that if a person says he or she is Jewish, we must accept that person as part of the Jewish people. Amen!
While Orthodox law tries to define one’s Jewishness in strict ways (specifically you have to be born to a Jewish mother or you must convert), Jews like Mr. Bronfman and I prefer Judaism to be open and inclusive.
In addition, we recognize that Judaism is not about buying into an inflexible belief system. A compelling point from the article is “You don’t have to believe in God to be Jewish.” Amen - there is a wide spectrum of belief among Jews! Even the Orthodox should agree with that- after all, they don’t make you assert belief in God to call yourself a Jew (you just have to have a Jewish mother!).
The God Concept of Congregation Beth Adam and OurJewishCommunity.org is worth reading. But, if you prefer the CliffsNotes version, here’s what I take away from it:
- The concept of God has changed greatly over the course of Judaism’s history.
- Jewish theology is inherently diverse.
- There are many views of God that are compatible with viewing Judaism from a humanistic perspective. Within that framework, we recognize that authority rests within individuals and events of the world follow laws of nature and are a product of human actions. This still leaves much room for a person to believe in God.
- In being Jewish, one’s concept of God need not be primary. We also embrace aspects of Judaism and its traditions, membership in Jewish peoplehood, and a philosophy that emphasizes human reason and experience.
- We must be open in our discussions and not assume that the language we use (like the word ‘God’) means the same thing to everyone.
There may be no answers, but the journey is a great deal of fun.
Of Mice and Media
So I’ve been totally remiss and haven’t blogged lately. I promise to do better. Perhaps that will be my Thanksgiving resolution (it’s either too late for a Rosh Hashanah resolution or too early for a 2009 resolution!).
It was a busy weekend at Beth Adam. We had our first interfaith Thanksgiving service with a local church. The service was written entirely by sixth, seventh, and eighth graders and was remarkably beautiful.
On Sunday morning, we had 4th and 5th grade family education day and discussed Jewish time. It was such a hit that we had a special guest appearance by a four legged creature. Yes, my family ed days are so popular that a mouse stopped by. Ugh.
Among other things, we played a game (look for that to be posted here on the site soon), and we made candles out of granulated wax. That stuff is way cool. We also did an edible art project as usual - so stay tuned in the coming weeks for the launch of my edible Jewish art project cooking show which will debut on OurJewishCommunity.org. Oh yeah, we also bought a new video camera this weekend - so more videostreaming, here we come!
Last night I attended the Hebrew Union College Tribute Dinner… it wasn’t exactly wildly entertaining, but it was good enough. And I was so inspired by their new partnership with Xavier University that I went home and watched the second half of the Xavier-Memphis basketball game - which was awesome.
Since I haven’t written much lately, and since this is not a deeply philosophical or intellectual post, let me leave you with a bit of entertainment. This video of Captain Smartypants singing dreidel is hysterical.
I finally did it…
I joined Twitter a few weeks ago. I remember having read an article in Newsweek about Twitter when it first came out, but I was resistant to join, much like I was resistant to join Facebook for some time. Why the resistance? I think at first I was hesitant to take the plunge - because I didn’t really understand what I was getting myself into. Second, I know (and it has been confirmed with Facebook) that joining such a site consumes an inordinate amount of my time - especially for someone like me who has a proclivity for procrastination.
But, I’ve joined Twitter, and I have to say every rabbi should have to join. After all, it forces us to limit our ideas to 140 typed characters - and that is not an easy task for us long-winded types.
The other hesitation with joining these sites is that it can be an emotional roller coaster ride for my ego. I mean, I now feel pretty stable in the world of Facebook - I’ve got 318 friends there. Sure, it could be more, but it’s nothing to cry over. I feel good having hit the 300 mark.
But, now on Twitter, I’ve got a mere 7 followers. I admit it - and I ask… what’s up with that?!? Please help, I need followers… Oh no, now I’m sounding whiny.
But, more important, I’ve begun to see the value of Twitter. I’ve seen how friend’s tweets (or are they twits?) have pointed me in the directions of interesting articles, websites, and conversations - and I think Twitter will be a great venue in which I can learn more about stuff, and also where I can share stuff about OurJewishCommunity.org.
So, follow me on twitter. I promise to be your friend.
Lessons Learned from the Election
I’m exhausted, and I’m pretty sure it’s got something to do with emotional exhaustion waiting for the election results…
It is an extremely exciting time for our nation, and I am looking forward to Obama’s presidency. I understand that today he is being briefed on all sorts of issues by the CIA. I’m fascinated by this. What are they telling him? And, is he thinking, “wow, what did I just get myself into?” Beyond that, what are they not telling him?
Anyway, since I don’t aspire to the presidency, I can’t imagine what that’s like. So, I’ll stick with what I do know.
In addition to watching the news, reading blogs, and waiting for the returns on Tuesday night, I spent a great deal of time thinking about the models from the election - and how they may inform what we are doing at OurJewishCommunity.org.
If you were watching CNN, you probably saw the “virtual capitol.” Pretty cool, eh? But it also says that to be competitive and attract viewers and/or participants today, the old models aren’t going to work. We need to use technology - whether we’re building a virtual government or an online congregation - because that’s what gets people’s attention - and because today’s tools for communication are better than what we were limited by in the past.
And, of course, regardless of which candidate we voted for, most of us acknowledge that Obama’s ability to organize people and to raise money is phenomenal. He showed us that when we want to build something - like a campaign or an online congregation - we can find committed people who will give. And, even if it is a bunch of small donations (5 or 10 dollars), those dollars add up quickly. Obama’s success with voters who earn more than $200,000 also shows that people are willing to support a cause even when they recognize they may pay more taxes - because they are trying to help create a different world for themselves and for future generations.
Finally, Obama showed us that people living all across the nation could feel connected to each other despite geographic boundaries. People had house parties and phoneathons on a local level, but they also felt connected to those who were not physically with them, because they were all inspired by the vision of the world as it could be - and they felt connected to each other using the internet and other technologies.
So, as our country enters this hopeful time, I am hopeful that we will feel connected to each other using technology - despite our geography - and that people will feel inspired to give of their time, money, and other resources to bring change to the world of Judaism.
Movie Review: “The Devil Came on Horseback”
Review of the movie “The Devil Came on Horseback”
By Rabbi Ana Bonnheim
After you read this, please login and comment to share your thoughts.
Although the genocide in Darfur has been raging for years, it was only in 2007 that a film that explained the history of the conflict in Sudan was made. The Devil Came on Horseback makes a strong moral case for our action. This film was not created by a large studio or politician but by the drive and passion of one man, Brian Steidle.
Steidle is a former US Marine Captain who spent considerable time in the Darfur region. He never intended to become the star of a film or a spokesman for Darfuris. But in 2004, Steidle spent six months in the region as a military observer for the African Union. What he saw was terrifying and heartbreaking.
Steidle didn’t know how to cope with what he was seeing in Darfur. The savagery and murder was so horrifying to him that he did not know how to convey what he was seeing to his family and friends back home. He also thought that the United States must not really know what was happening in Darfur, because otherwise, there would be significant action.
So in the midst of his disbelief, Steidle did something that felt natural: he got out his camera and began taking pictures. He photographed razed villages, refugees, and piles of murdered bodies. Steidle’s photos are sickening, and they provide much of the content for the film. The Devil Came on Horseback is a tough movie to watch, but it must be seen. Suddenly, the people and events that seem so foreign in newspaper articles or the occasional news photograph seem real.
In the past year, most major news networks devoted only a couple of hours of coverage total to the crisis in Darfur. In the weeks before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, some organizations and reporters focused on China’s connection with giving arms to the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, but they reached very modest readership. The games still began without a real change in China’s relationship with Sudan.
We can all agree that it’s imperative to “save Darfur.” Political leaders across the spectrum agree that the region is war-torn. It’s easy to join a Facebook cause group or forward an email about the atrocities in Darfur. It’s easy to wear a t-shirt or think about Darfur in a prayer.
Yet, all this agreement has not led to enough action. In fact there is a term for this kind of toned-down action: “slactivism.” Slactivism is a new word coined from the combination of “slacker” and “activism” to denote the kind of email forwarding or cause-joining that feels good but doesn’t necessarily make a difference.
In a world where it can be easier to be a “slactivist” than an activist, the message of The Devil Came on Horseback is that our world can’t afford slactivism instead of activism. The film itself is a model for real activism. Steidle’s conscience pushed him to share his photos and his story to raise awareness and bring about political action.
The film itself documents the rise of the Janjaweed militia in Sudan, their incursions into the Darfur region, the plight of Darfuri families (some of whom are now impoverished refugees in Chad), and the American political response (or lack thereof).
The Devil Came on Horseback is no doubt a heart-wrenching film to watch, because everything it documents is not only real but continues to happen today. It’s a film that children and teens should see, not because it’s entertaining but because it needs to be seen. It’s a film that should lead to discussions, and then, ideally, to action-whether that action be continuing to promote awareness, sending financial aid or supplies to the region, or becoming involved in the political process.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, one of the most vocal individuals about the crisis in Darfur who has committed his column to be a call to action, wrote a 2005 column about Brian Steidle. Steidle can be a model of action, but unless we choose to involve ourselves, the film was made in vain. Kristof concluded the column with the following haunting words, “If our leaders are acquiescing in genocide, that’s because we citizens are passive, too. If American voters cared about Darfur’s genocide as much as about, say, the Michael Jackson trial, then our political system would respond. As Martin Luther King, Jr. put it: ‘Man’s inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those who are good.’”
Questions to consider:
- What drove Steidle to take photographs? How did he become a spokesman for this cause? What can we learn from him?
- Who is complicit in the violence perpetrated against the Darfuris? How did we allow this to happen?
- How can we make a difference in this ongoing tragedy? In what ways are you a slactivist? How can you transform your energy into real activism?
Book Review: The Dinner Diaries (and other reflections on food)
A review of The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World and other reflections on food.
By Carrie Vogel, Rabbinic Student
After you read this, please login and comment to share your thoughts.
Books about food have always been popular, but recently books about a certain way of eating have become extremely fashionable. As we become more invested in living “green” lives, there has been a discernable change in the way we relate to our food. Recently, I read several books about healthy, organic, sustainable eating, including Betsy Block’s The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World. My parents were determined to raise whole wheat kids, even though all of our friends were happily living in a white bread world (who knew my parents were such trendsetters?!), so I admittedly brought with me years of whole wheat bread angst.
The gist of this genre of books is simple: organic, locally grown food is better for us and the environment. But in practice, it is not so easy - not when I was growing up and definitely not now. Most of us do not have space or time for a garden, let alone a farm. We may not have expendable budgets with which to pay others to farm our organically grown, local vegetables. We may live in parts of the country where our options for locally grown fruit and vegetable are extremely limited for a large part of the year. And, what about the fact that sometimes the things which are best for us to eat are the ones we do not find to be the most delicious?
In The Dinner Diaries, Block acknowledges all of these difficulties from the beginning and attempts to work around them to change the course (ha!) of her family’s eating patterns. She spends chapters reflecting on some of the most challenging aspects of healthy eating: factory farming, eating locally in cold-weather climates, fair trade items such as coffee and cocoa, the constant presence of junk food and perhaps most challenging: picky eaters. Every couple chapters there is an “At the Table” section where the things she and her family have learned are put into practice.
In many cases, Block succeeds in getting her family to incorporate locally grown fruits and vegetables, healthier fish and non-hormone injected chicken and beef into their meals. In fact, the greatest challenge she faces is the extraordinary amount of information available, much of it conflicting. In one chapter she struggles to determine how much milk her children should be drinking, whether it should be hormone free, organic or pasteurized and, in the end, whether they should even be drinking it at all. She faces the same challenge when it comes to creating a list of fish which are healthy for us but not raised under, dare I say “fishy,” standards. She does sort through much of it and provides the reader with a number of helpful lists and websites.
Many food authors and chefs encourage us to think about eating food in a deeper way. All of our senses should be tuned in to the item we are choosing to give us sustenance, nutrients and of course, happiness. In Judaism, laws for keeping kosher are, in part, there to force people to think about what we put into our bodies on a regular basis and to associate both holiness and Jewishness with the meals we choose. Some would say that the laws of keeping kosher make food “Jewishly holy,” but I would like to put forth the idea that these alone do not make our food holy. These books (and others like them such as The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan) encourage us to think about the potential for a holy relationship between us, our food and the world. In another fascinating book on this topic (Animal, Vegetable Miracle: A Year of Food Life), Barbara Kingsolver writes, “Eaters must understand, how we eat determines how the world is used” (pg. 211). Is knowing your chicken was raised without steroids, holy? Is eating an apple picked from a tree in your own state, holy? Is eating food which has not been grown in soil brimming with pesticides, holy?
Questions to consider:
- What is the greatest challenge for you when it comes to eating more organically or locally (or both!)?
- What is one change you would be willing to try?
- Do you think about the food you eat? Does it occur to you to consider who the person was who cared for it before it landed on your plate? How might eating organically or locally be holy or powerful for you - or not?
Dole, Hagan, and God
There’s been a lot of attention in the past couple of days about Elizabeth Dole’s ad accusing Kay Hagan, her opponent, of being a “Godless American.” It’s absolutely despicable that Elizabeth Dole created an ad that tells lies, misconstrues facts, and suggests that it is quoting Hagan saying “there is no God” when it is in fact not her voice - but a hired actress. If you haven’t seen the ads, both videos are below and worth watching.
I admire that Hagan responded, and I’m glad she set the record straight. She says “I believe in God…. My faith guides my life…. My campaign is… not about bearing false witness against fellow Christians.”
I’m not quite sure, though, why this whole conversation about God is relevant in the political arena. It seems to me that there is supposed to be a separation of Church and State. Yet, several candidates seem to make a large effort to show that they are “good Christians.” Beyond that, some individuals have made the silly attempt to claim Obama is a Muslim when he is not; that is simply ridiculous. But why is the conversation even going there? It should not.
Religion and politics are completely different spheres of life - and one should not influence the other. I am not voting for any Jews, Christians, or Muslims on Tuesday - I am voting for people, people who have an awesome power to rule our country - not our religious lives.
Here’s Elizabeth Dole’s ad
Here’s Kay Hagan’s response:
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