Oscars and Idols - The Power of Art

"And the Oscar goes to . . ."

Today's Golden Calf?

These words kept many of us on the edge of our seats this weekend, as the Academy Awards celebrated the finest artistry in the major motion picture industry.  Together, we lifted up the contributions of the arts, allowing ourselves to remember how art can move us, comfort us, disturb us, help us find perspectives that we have never before seen.  It is not at all about the money, power, pageantry, scandal, and fashion that seem to be bigger than life, right? 

It's fitting that the Oscars coincided with our portion Ki Tisa this year, as we see the contrast between valuing artisanship and making art into a false idol.  We read about the craftsmanship of Bezalel, the artist, who completes the finer elements of the Mishkan - the Tabernacle - in which the Holy of Holies is housed.  Bezalel's artwork, as prescribed by God, is there to adorn and complement the holiness of its setting, to move those who behold it, not to become the focal point itself.  I can only imagine that beholding its beauty would be awe-inspiring, helping us to feel the importance of the space in which it is placed.

Was this dinky thing REALLY worth it?

On the other hand, Ki Tisa also relates the crafting of the golden calf.  Another piece of art that the Israelites create while Moses is away receiving Torah from God.  This sculpture serves the opposite purpose of Bezalel's works - the calf is the center, it becomes bigger than life.  I'm sure it too must have been an awe-inspiring sight, but one that inspired the worship of money, power, pageantry, and scandal.  This golden calf became a focal point for the community - diverting their attention away from what was important in their lives, instead filling their attention with a wasteful emptiness.  And what were they filled with?  A competitive drive to lift this creation of their own hands over and above the One God who created us all - the Israelites wished for their idol to be the champion, the winner, of the pageantry of divine worship. 

Now, I love the Academy Awards, especially after living in Los Angeles for five years.  But reading these words of Torah as I prepared to celebrate the art of motion pictures certainly has offered me a different perspective on this spectacle. I could not help but think about the comparison of these Oscar statuettes and the golden calf.  Our society's emphasis on winning has taken what could be a true nod to the craft of acting and directing and costume design and the potential for what art can inspire in each of us, and instead can become empty icons of status and popularity. So many of these performances and movies are worthy of celebration for the ways they move us, make us think, give us hope, and inspires us to change the world.  We sacrifice our opportunities to see the deeper gifts that art offers us when we allow the pageantry to become the center, the definition, the height of artistic achievement.

The Academy Awards happen to be the timely victim of my Ki Tisa message, but we have to be aware that as humans we have a tendency to create our own golden calves. We allow the objects of our artisanship to become bigger than life, and ends of themselves.  Doing so only tears us away from our opportunities to find holiness in our world. Instead, if we allow our crafts to express and complement our values, to unlock our imaginations, and to inspire us towards meaningful ways to improve our world, our relationships and our lives, we can all experience the gifts of art - even more so than the Oscar winners from this weekend.

- Rabbi Ari N. Margolis

Parashat Ki Tisa 5773

Creating the Jewels of Elul

As a world community, we just finished watching the Olympic Games.  (And I am so glad they have finished, because it means I no longer have to stay up late to watch the decathlon finals or amazing diving or gymnastic glory). In a flash of triumph – even those who just made it to the track or swimming pool – created a lifetime’s worth of memories that should make each athlete proud.  Not everyone can say he or she was an Olympic athlete.  Absent from these brief moments of splendor that we witnessed, however, were all the reps and training and practice and trials that each individual had to go through in order to make it to this highest stage of athletic competition.

            This weekend, we enter the month of Elul – the season that leads us to the High Holy Days.  It is traditionally the time in which we start preparing ourselves for the potential to be spiritually transformed during our time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – cleansed of the baggage of this past year and lightened as we take on the challenges and opportunities to face us in this next.  We strive to have our own moments of glory as we stand before God and, perhaps even more importantly, ourselves, and declare, “I have done all I can to put last year behind me, let me approach this year with a clean slate.” 

                       

Our scholars remind us that this is the time of year for us to do the hard work that allows us to have a meaningful High Holy Day experience.  Now is the time to reach out to those we love and ask forgiveness, to confront issues that are hanging over us and move beyond them.  Now is the time to notice the ways in which our world is unjust and how we as individuals are contributing to the problems that plague our communities, so we can begin to shift our patterns.  Now is the time to deeply ask ourselves if we are living up to our own expectations for who we want to be and start re-aligning our choices and commitments to bring us closer to our ideals. 

It amazes me how quickly summer can fly past us.  In a blink of an eye, at TBO, we have gone from the last day of religious school past the Olympic games and back into the very exciting time of getting ready to welcome back all our wonderful youth whom we’ve missed over these past few months.  Blink again, and Yom Kippur will be over. Let us not just fly through on autopilot, living out what life gives us instead of setting out each day with intention.  No athlete accidentally ended up on an Olympic team.  May we each put the time and efforts now to discover the Jewels of Elul,* being able to have our own moving ceremonies during this High Holy Day season – may they be holidays of gold for us all.

-          Rabbi Ari N. Margolis

Parashat R’eih

* To help us with our Elul efforts, click the link above to find daily inspirational thoughts or subscribe to daily emails that will help lead us into our High Holy Days.

The Olympic Spirit of Shema

SHEMA, Yisrael! Adonai, Eloheinu. Adonai Echad.

Hear/Listen, O Israel! Adonai is our God. Adonai is One.

            This week, our world’s attention has been drawn to a central focus– the Olympic games.  These celebrations of athleticism and sportsmanship (ideally) mark for us the coming together of people who ordinarily would have no opportunities or desires to stand side-by-side. American women shared a soccer field with the women from North Korea.  An Israeli swimmer shared a pool with a Palestinian swimmer.  Even LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Durant are sharing a basketball court in harmony, under the tutelage of local legend Mike Krzyzewski!

            It is most appropriate that our Torah portion this week brings forth our central blessing – the Shema.  With its theme of unity and interconnection, these words, like the Olympic games, remind us of how we are all bound together.  The wisdom and power of this blessing, however, come from the opening of our prayer – Shema – a word that many scholars have concluded means both “listen” and “hear” at the same time.  Only through enacting Shema, opening ourselves to hearing others nearby and honestly listening – openly, without agenda or ego, seeking to learn and not just to make our next point – do we find that place of connection to others through which we understand what it is to be a part of God’s One-ness, echad. 

            We are called upon to be witnesses through this blessing, and every Torah scroll and mezuzah in existence reminds us of this point as the final letters in the first and last words of the prayer are written much larger than the rest of the phrase, forming the Hebrew word, Eid, witness. 

In our world today, especially in our political discourse, there is not enough listening that happens.  All too often politicians, public figures, corporations, religious figureheads, and countless other leaders speak without ever truly listening to any opinion we do not wish to hear.  Without listening, nothing can penetrate the wisdom and conviction of the individual.  But such a state of existence is exactly opposite the oneness of God – it only escalates the oneness of isolation and individualism. 

           

      May we each allow this week’s Torah portion to inspire us to seek opportunities to truly listen to and openly hear other opinions in our midst.  Let us not reject wisdom that comes our way merely because of its source.  As we watch the Olympic games, let us not get caught up solely in the celebration of those who are faster, higher, and stronger (which is fun, don’t get me wrong).  Let us open our hearts and minds to the recognition that many of the seemingly intractable issues in our world are put aside for the chance to be a part of something as big and incredible as the Olympics.  As such, how much the more so should we recognize that it is possible to find and seek peace in our world and communities.  All we have to do is start with Shema.

Rabbi Ari N. Margolis

V’etchanan 5772

The Technology of Patience

This came from a couple weeks back, but I never got the chance to post it until now.  Better late than never?

“Keep your eyes on the prize . . . Hold on, hold on.”

            I have to admit, I always chuckle at those 4G cellphone commercials – the ones in which a bunch of people are sitting around a tailgate party at a football game, one of them trying to fill the others in on some updated story about the health of a player or a video of something funny on his “ancient” 3G network while the others with their new 4G phones have all heard or seen the “discovery” 30 seconds prior. 

Now, I have no clue what cell phone provider the commercials are for (effective advertising?), but I at least get the point about 4G verses 3G.  The ad-wizards who came up with that one recognize that we in today’s society have a perceived need for instant gratification.  And knowing that we can get an answer to who wrote the song that we just heard or how many ounces there are in a cup (8 for anyone cooking while reading this) just a few seconds faster is a life-changing phenomenon.

The technological advances of our day train us to forgo any need for patience.  If we want to order a sandwich for lunch, we can make up our mind from wherever we are by finding the menu online, avoid lines by putting in the order online, and even streamline our route by programming our GPS devices to avoid traffic.  While these advances can make us feel incredibly efficient, they also can train us to think and feel that we can always find a faster way.  And we can get so caught up in the allure of the quick answer, that we can accept the inferior alternative, or even worse, one that does more harm than good.

There isn't always a quick solution.  Sometimes, we do have to wait it out – to hold on. A couple of weeks ago, our Torah portion of Korach told a pretty difficult story of trading patience for convenience.  The people of Israel were sick of wandering in the desert.  They wanted to be there already – they ask the biblical version of the backseat question, “Are we there, yet?”  Korach and his followers attempted to find the quicker alternative, they chose the route of being something they were not – not am Yisrael, the people who wrestle with God, but rather they became people who wrestled against God. In doing so they find a route that leads to their demise.

There are aspects of our lives in which there are no shortcuts.  And just as much as we are willing to invest in technology that makes our lives more efficient, where we can, we should be investing in structures that help us maintain patience when we need it the most.  When we find ourselves or others in need of healing, while we are working to accomplish a major goal at work, while looking for a new job in this economic climate – sometimes we need a good dose of patience.  And to help us remain patient at the times we need it the most, to help us keep our eyes on the prize, as Zemer Lexie often sings to us during the Mi Chamochah prayer at services, we have to turn to our technology of patience – the supportive friends and family and community who can help us sustain our goals, who can lift us up and offer us strength, who can remind us of who we are, when it is tempting to try to be something we are not.

May we each use this summer as a period of upgrading our own technologies of patience.  Let us spend time doing activities that ground us and help us to remember just who we truly aspire to be, and let us strengthen our connections with friends and family and community.  This way, when life calls upon us to find patience, we can take the route that truly leads towards promise, and avoid the pitfalls of the more destructive decisions of haste and convenience.
-          Rabbi Ari N. Margolis Parashat Korach 5772

Female Rabbis, Nazarties, and Priests - OH MY!

                It is official – women and Reform Jews can be recognized as Rabbis by the government of Israel.  This past week the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled to recognize Rabbi Miri Gold as the first female and first Reform rabbi to be recognized as the spiritual leader of a neighborhood community.  In Israel, neighborhoods can recognize a rabbi to be the spiritual leader in the area, and such rabbis’ salaries are paid by the State of Israel.  With the Attorney General’s acceptance of the Supreme Court decision, Rabbi Gold, who is the rabbi of Kibbutz Gezer, will be recognized and paid by the State of Israel at a rate equal to the over 4000 Orthodox Rabbis already recognized.  You can read more about this decision via the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, by clicking here or by reading Rabbi Gold’s own words here.  This has been quite a long road for Rabbi Gold, as I had the privilege of attending a Supreme Court session with some of my classmates in which the court heard Rabbi Gold's case and once again pushed the decision-making to a later date . . . and that was 2008!

It is appropriate that all of Rabbi Gold’s work and sacrifice paid off this of all weeks, as in our Torah portion, we learn about the biblical equivalent of achieving long-term, groundbreaking goals.  While Rabbi Gold had the support of IRAC (Israel Religious Action Center – the Reform Movement’s Israel advocacy branch) pushing the case through the venue of the Israeli court system in order to make her groundbreaking mark on our world, the Torah puts forth a system for change called the Nazarite vow.  One seeking to make a huge change would take this vow, dedicating oneself to the completion of the task and abstaining from shaving, alcohol (or any contact with grapes), and any other self-identified restrictions until the goal has been accomplished (See Numbers, Chapter 6).  In this biblical system, we learn that the Nazir, one who has taken such a vow, commits him or herself (the Torah makes clear that both men and women can enter into such vows) to their ultimate goal and continues to work towards it until completion. 

This Nazarite vow comes as a biblical lesson teaching that great achievement takes sacrifice and dedication.  However, the rabbis of Talmudic times and today recognize that one need not make a formal vow in order to commit oneself with the dedication and resolve shown by Rabbi Gold or shown by so many of us who sacrifice so much in order to achieve our own goals today.    

What I find interesting about this section of Torah is that the Nazarite vow is juxtaposed with one of the most famous blessings of our tradition – the Priestly Blessing – which comes just after the rules of the Nazarite vows.  Rather than seeking change and large accomplishment, this tripartite blessing challenges us to find favor and contentedness in what we are faced with in this world. 

May God bless you and protect you

May the face of God shine upon you and comfort you

May the presence of God be ever with you and grant you peace. (Numbers 6:22-24)

Perhaps this blessing comes on the heels of the Nazarite vow to warn us that we should not get so one-track minded in our pursuits as to miss the blessings that surround us.  Or perhaps it comes after the Nazarite section to remind us the importance of giving thanks for what we have achieved, once we accomplish our goals and can be freed of the vows, commitments, sacrifices, dedications we made to our large goals. 

                In living up to the blessings that complement our Nazarite rules, may we each do three things this weekend: 

1) May we spend this Shabbat taking a moment to be thankful of what we have, even in the midst of our dedication to larger goals.  It’s not fair of me to ask this of you without doing it myself, so I will start: I know I have a lot to give thanks for in our TBO community – thank you all for allowing me to have the time to spend these last few weeks with the great miracle in my family’s life, our newest daughter, Adaya Faye.  Your support and love has been a great source of strength in the middle of our long nights, and the ability to be at home, growing into our new family has made a world of difference to our lives.

     2) And in recognition of Rabbi Miri Gold’s achievement and the efforts of IRAC, Anat Hoffman, the head of IRAC , has asked that letters of thanks be sent to the Israeli government. You can do so by writing to Prime Minister Netanyahu to inform him of our appreciation that Rabbi Miri Gold is finally able to serve her congregation and community as an equal to members of the Orthodox rabbinate.

     3) Find someone to whom we can offer this wonderful blessing, reminding them to take a moment to allow themselves to BE blessed.

May God bless you and protect you.  May the face of God shine upon you and comfort you.  May the presence of God be with you and grant you peace.

Baseball and Sacrifices and Tolouse, France - Let them draw us near to our best selves.

                Sacrifice.  In baseball, it is a useful strategy – bunting the ball with the knowledge that the batter will most likely get thrown out at first, but the net result will be to advance a base-runner to second or third base, drawing them nearer to the promised land of home plate.  A sacrifice represents the giving of oneself, one’s own energy and efforts and statistical prowess, for the benefit of the team.  Ultimately, the act of sacrifice in baseball is a statement of trust in the rest of the team and its bigger mission – to score more runs than the opponent. 

In this week’s Torah portion of Vayikra, we learn the laws of the ancient version of bunting – the sacrifices offered to God, via the priests of the Tabernacle and, eventually, of the Temple.  The Israelites were expected to give from their valuable flock and herds and food stocks – the results of their efforts and energy and prowess – as a means to a relationship with God.  Reading the rules of these sacrifices, however, one realizes that the goods given over to the priesthood were not just burnt up to the heavens, but rather they helped to sustain the community at large.  Some sacrifices ended up going to the poor, while others went to the priests (who could not own their own land), and still others went towards communal celebrations and commemorations.  If a person did not have enough goats to make certain types of sacrifices, one could give pigeons or wheat or even prayers.  The Hebrew word for sacrifice, korban, literally means to draw near – and the ancient korbanot, sacrifices, were intended to draw the Jewish community nearer to one another and to God.

I believe that we need this week’s Torah lesson after a week like this one.  At least I know that I do.  We have heard of the horrific killings of Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his two children Aryeh and Gavriel, and another child, Miriam Monsonego in Tolouse, France.  While we do not know all of the reasons behind their killings and likely never will, it seems as though they were victimized specifically because of they were Jews.  Upon hearing of such tragedy, we might be reminded that we have been jaded by a nonstop cycle of news reports that transmit death after death to us.  I know that I have allowed myself to become distanced and detached upon hearing of such occurrences, sorting it in my head as another example of how our world is and thanking God that it wasn’t closer to home.  I would guess that I’m not alone.  Perhaps our response should not be one of distance, but of korbanot, of drawing near.  Let us utter a prayer for the community and Jews of France.  Or send condolences to the families of the Ozar HaTorah school: Ozar Hatorah 33 rue Jules Dalou 31500 Toulouse, France.  Let us hug and love our dear ones.  May we prevent this moment from distancing us from our best selves but rather bring ourselves nearer to the compassionate, supportive people we value and strive to be. 

If the purpose of a baseball sacrifice is to increase the hopes of scoring a run, then maybe our modern day sacrifices involve preventing ourselves from giving in to the evils that we see in our world.  With each senseless tragedy, we can choose to spread hope in this world, through gestures small and large, sending out the message that we cannot accept that such acts are merely the way of the world.  There has to be a better way.  We cannot and will not stop searching and working to draw ourselves nearer to that world.

Parashat Vayikra 5772

BLASTING SOME TORAH!

It has taken me a while, but one of my New Years Resolutions (from Jan 1, not from Rosh Hashanah) was to get back into the blog-o-sphere. 

 And that brings me to today.  Sometimes, fate can have a funny way of prodding us along the paths we seek to travel.  I had written a piece for our Temple e-blast, but due to a mix-up, the link sends viewers to last week's Torah commentary by Rabbi Dinner (which is still a wonderful piece on resolution-making - trying to figure out how to link to it).  So, if you want to see THIS week's Temple Beth Or Blast of Torah - here it is!  Win-Win!

Get Up!  Stand Up!

            This weekend we honor a legendary hero in our society, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The dream of Dr. King was of a world the way it could be – he had the courage to refuse to accept his society the way it was. He risked his body, his reputation, his freedom in order to stand up to a system that was unjust.  And it did, unfortunately cost him his life.  However, the changes he brought about have become his undying legacy and his message is a timeless one.

            So timeless, that we see echoes of Dr. King’s non-violent fight in this week’s Torah portion.  After the Pharaoh of Egypt declared that all male-born children in Egypt should be killed upon birth, the Israelite midwives, Shiphra and Puah also stood up to the perceived injustice of the decree. They risked their own lives by facilitating the delivery of healthy Israelite children.  And in doing so, they differentiated themselves from the Egyptian

            Our Jewish and American heroes teach us to stand up to injustice.  It is easy to complain about the ills of our society, and that is an important first step, but if we fail to take action, we become a part of the pervasive culture that facilitates the problems we see. We all know this, cognitively, but Life is busy for us all, but if those who came before us had not stood up for us, none of us would have the choice to ignore our societal problems.

            It is a New Year, a time for each of us to explore new opportunities.  With the amount of suffering just locally, we each can find a cause to rally around and stand up for.  We can get out and make phone calls in opposition of the proposed gay marriage ban, which threatens the rights of those who are living in loving relationships.  Volunteer with our Habitat for Humanity Abraham build on Sunday mornings, where we are not only building a home for a family in need, but we are also building bridges and dispelling myths amongst our Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities.  Spend time distributing food at the Interfaith Food Shuttle, so that we can experience first hand the importance of feeding those who do not have enough to sustain themselves. 

            There is no injustice too small or too large to stand up to.  Let us just not be complacent.  As Dr. King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  And it is why a slew of rabbis, including my own mentor, Rabbi Richard Levy, marched alongside Dr. King decades ago, praying a Shabbat service in a Mississippi prison.  Unfortunately, it is not hard to find such threats even here in our own backyards.  Let us use this long weekend as an invitation to start working to repair our world directly – either by volunteering right now, or by signing up to make a difference at a future date.  Then we will truly be honoring the legacy of a man and a movement whose dreams we all hope to realize.

-       Rabbi Ari N. Margolis

Parashat Shemot 5772