December 19, 2024

Rabbi Hearshen

On Yom Kippur I spoke about exciting work we’re doing here at OVS in the form of our Reimagining Team. The purpose of this new group is to look for new and innovative ways to approach our work as an organization and a community. This is why we adopted the name of the Reimagining Team. We feel we must be willing to rethink how we do things and what we’re trying to achieve. We must value accountability and will hold ourselves accountable. This means we’re creating metrics to gauge our performance and development. We want to communicate with you as we move along with our work, and as such, this email is an update from the Reimagining Team.

Our members are: Bob Israel, Bryan Lavine, Sharon Sonenshine and Debra Tenenbaum. Adam Kofinas and I both serve on it as well. Natalie Geuli, our Programming and Engagement Associate, is currently on maternity leave and will rejoin the team when she returns. We’ve each read books about synagogue life and development. We’ve each attended our meetings with an open mind and with ambitious hearts. We’ve determined that the pillars of our community are:

  1. Community
  2. Learning
  3. Prayer
  4. Social Action
  5. Heritage

This is how we imagine our community will look in the future. These descriptors, or values, are at the root of what we’re strategically trying to build. In order to track our progress, we’ve set some goals. To refresh our memories, these goals are SMART goals meaning they’re Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time bound.

Work has already begun and our goals are:

  1. Increase Saturday morning attendance to 60 by May of 2025
  2. Offer adult education every month of the year and require sign ups to manage attendance
  3. Create a Social Action and Chesed Team to create a social action offering every other month with at least 20 participants and to increase attendance to 40 by next November. This team will also create opportunities to work with people in need of help with lifecycles, grieving, life changes, new babies and much more.
  4. One major synagogue FunRaiser per year to raise at least $30,000
  5. One parlor meeting per month to provide members the opportunity to speak with me, Adam and Bryan about questions they have, ideas to increase engagement or other topics of interest to them.
  6.  Six teams will be created to further the work of the community. They will each meet on a monthly or bi-monthly basis and will submit reports to the Board of Directors to keep us aware of their work. They are:

a.  Membership
b.  Engagement
c.  Programming
d.  Social Action/Chesed
e.  Next Generation/Young Leadership
f.  Fundraising

The teams coincide with the Engagement Appeal Cards we handed out on Yom Kippur and you should have received an email confirmation for each pledge you selected for involvement in our community. Please let us know how we can help you in making those pledges a reality. If you have feedback and/or questions please email us at reimagining@orveshalom.org.

Shabbat Morning Service attendance has a goal of reaching attendance of 60 people each week. We began tracking attendance a few weeks ago and we’ve had one service with 55 people, an average of 30 per week. We are working to double the number. Please help us make this happen. We promise to make the most of your time while you are here with us.

This Shabbat, we’re beginning our new Kavanah Minyan which will be a short one hour service in the Maslia Chapel while the regular one is happening in the main sanctuary. It’s for anyone looking to get more out of their prayer experience. It’ll be for beginners and experts and everyone in-between. This Minyan will be offered on the second Saturday of each month. Beginning in January, we’ll also offer Tot Shabbat and Youth Services on the same Shabbat mornings. 

We look forward to providing you with more updates throughout the year. Please enjoy yourself as you grow with us and reimagine what OVS can be in your life.

Parshat VaYishlach

Rabbi Hearshen

Have you ever run away from something? Have you ever hidden something? Perhaps you’ve looked the other way or denied something that was true? These are natural human instincts we each have. We often close our eyes and hide from things that are just too difficult to face. This isn’t because something is wrong with us. This isn’t because we’re guilty of having done something wrong. This is because, as humans, we live with many emotions and some of them cause us to do things we can’t easily understand. In reality, more often than not, we realize the thing we feared or ran away from wasn’t all that bad or harmful and we could have dealt with it when it first showed its face to us.

Two weeks ago, in פרשת תולדות/Parshat Toldot, we witnessed יעקב/YaAkov/Jacob, tricking his father and stealing his brother, עשו/Esau’s, blessing. This action put עשו into a rage and he wanted to kill יעקב. Since that time יעקב had been on the run. He had been running away from his troubles and living in fear. Quite some time has passed by this week’s Parsha, פרשת וישלח/Parshat VaYishlach. He had just left his father-in-law’s home after he worked for some 20 years and having had 11 sons and one daughter. So a great deal of time has gone by and now in this week’s reading יעקב was aware he was about to confront all he’d been running from. His brother, עשו, was in the area and there clearly had to be a reunion. יעקב was so scared he divided his household into many groups so not all of them would be killed at once by his vengeful brother. The fear was immense. The pain was immense. The worry was immense. יעקב believed himself to be in an existential crisis that could end his life. What happens when they finally met was breathtaking to say the least.

וַיִּשָּׂא יַעֲקֹב עֵינָיו וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה עֵשָׂו בָּא וְעִמּוֹ אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת אִישׁ וַיַּחַץ אֶת־הַיְלָדִים עַל־לֵאָה וְעַל־רָחֵל וְעַל שְׁתֵּי הַשְּׁפָחוֹת׃

Looking up, Jacob saw Esau coming, accompanied by four hundred men. He divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maids, 

וַיָּשֶׂם אֶת־הַשְּׁפָחוֹת וְאֶת־יַלְדֵיהֶן רִאשֹׁנָה וְאֶת־לֵאָה וִילָדֶיהָ אַחֲרֹנִים וְאֶת־רָחֵל וְאֶת־יוֹסֵף אַחֲרֹנִים׃

putting the maids and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last. 

וְהוּא עָבַר לִפְנֵיהֶם וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ אַרְצָה שֶׁבַע פְּעָמִים עַד־גִּשְׁתּוֹ עַד־אָחִיו׃

He himself went on ahead and bowed low to the ground seven times until he was near his brother.

וַיָּרׇץ עֵשָׂו לִקְרָאתוֹ וַיְחַבְּקֵהוּ וַיִּפֹּל עַל־צַוָּארָו וַיִּשָּׁקֵהוּ וַיִּבְכּוּ׃

(בראשית לג:א-ד)

After all that fear, and all of that running, the reunion was not one of vengeance but one of brotherly love. That isn’t to say יעקב’s fears had been unfounded and irrational. It’s to say often the fear of the unknown is so much worse than the reality of the known. We run from things because we don’t understand them. We run from things because we worry about what could happen. We run because that’s how we best cope with the world in which we’re operating. With all of that said, perhaps there is a deeper lesson? Perhaps we all need to recognize that our instinct to flee too often holds us back. Perhaps our instinct to avoid delays our ability to grow. Perhaps our instinct to flee is there to help us survive, but hinders our ability to thrive.

With all of that said, we each need to recognize we carry too much around with us that we’re hiding from. We all too often run from something we could just deal with and move on from. While this behavior can’t be corrected 100%, we can work on ourselves and find moments where we can deal with and confront what we fear and gain back the time we would’ve wasted on those moments in the future. We can each take steps to confront our fears, both individually and collectively.

Parshat VaYetze & Hanukkah Bazaar

Rabbi Hearshen

I’m so excited for this weekend. The Sisterhood Hanukkah Bazaar is one of the highlights of my year. I’m always in awe of what our community has created and managed to keep going for 48 years. The amount of pride I feel every year after Bazaar is so immense. Words cannot begin to express my appreciation to our Sisterhood for all they do year-round, and especially for Bazaar. Words can likewise not begin to express how much I appreciate the time, effort, and work our chairs of the Bazaar have put into this event. Thank you so much.

פרשת ויצא/Parshat VaYetze opens with יעקב/YaAkov/Jacob’s famous dream of the stairway joining heaven and earth. When it concludes, he utters these profound words: יש השם במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי/God is here in this place and I didn’t know it. בראשית כח:טז. We all too often overlook the majesty that’s all around us. When we take a step back, though, we become all the more aware of the magic in our midst. We begin to recognize the holiness all around us. Our Bazaar is this magical and incredible event that’s more than meets the eyes. It’s the result of our community’s hard work. It’s the nourishing of others with our heritage. It’s the celebration of our Judaism. It’s the time for OVS to shine for others to see the gifts we have and that we give to the world. Seeing so many of our members volunteering and helping is inspiring. Knowing this has been happening for decades and generations is a miracle and a true reminder of the holiness in our midst.

I am so excited for this weekend and I hope you’ll join me this Sunday, December 8, from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm for the 48th annual Sisterhood Hanukkah Bazaar

Parshat Toldot

Rabbi Hearshen

איזהו עשיר? השמח בחלקו./Who is wealthy/happy? One who is happy with their portion. (פרקי אבות ד:א). These words are of the utmost importance. We spend too many days of our lives looking at other people and feeling as though we don’t have the lives we want. We look too often at what’s lacking and not at the beauty of all we have.

This concept is enshrined in the עשרת הדברות/Eseret HaDibrot/The Ten Commandments, especially the tenth: לא תחמוד/Do not covet. This command is often overlooked but it’s the essential root of all of the others. Until we’re content with what we have, we’ll continuously desire what someone else has. It’s an exhausting part of humanity to look too often at what others have instead of what we’re blessed with in our own lives.

This week, we learn about the problem of wanting something that’s someone else’s in פרשת תולדות/Parshat Toldot when we see יעקב/Jacob and עשיו/Esau competing with each other. The root of their conflict comes from an inability to be content… to be happy with what they had. This brings us to the present and the holiday of Thanksgiving.

Three appetizers, squash Caesar salad, challah stuffing, cranberry sauce, roasted veggies, balsamic glazed brussels sprouts with kosher beef bacon, smoked turkey with barbecue sauce gravy, oven roasted turkey with pan gravy, lemon meringue pie, pecan pie and marshmallow brownies… that’s our menu. We’ve been working on fine tuning it for days and now I get to start preparing this feast. But there’s a problem with this; we have to elevate this holiday, not just the meal associated with it. The gift of Thanksgiving is not merely about delicacies and traditional foods, but about the act of saying thank you.

To be thankful is to recognize that our world is crafted for us by others and by ourselves. To be thankful is to recognize the role God plays in our daily lives. To be thankful is to step outside of our egos and embrace living in a world where we need each other. We live in a world where we’re constantly nurtured and enhanced by the people around us and the only appropriate thing to do is to say thank you to the people who have impacted us for the better.

Thank you to our Board for caring about our community and taking the time to be here and manage our vision of the future. Thank you to our Sisterhood for being the heart of our community for all of these years and for stepping up when few others did. Thank you to our regulars at services for spending time together and making sure we have a community where people can come together to be with each other and God and to say prayers.

Thank you to our staff. Thank you to Adam Kofinas for his tireless commitment to our community. Thank you to Natalie Geuli for pushing us to stay focused and elevate our programs and engagement. Thank you to Nicole Feldman for being the person who’s always keeping us thinking ahead of time and making sure we’re well prepared. Thank you to Matty Perry for managing our community on a daily basis. Thank you to Rabbi Gutierrez for making sure we stay true to our heritage and keep our services in line with our Sephardic Roots. Thank you to Chana Mayer for elevating our Building Blocks program and for always being willing to help in any way needed. Thank you to all our Building Blocks teachers for caring for our children, the future of the Jewish people. Thank you to Acquinilla and Darien, and the rest our maintenance staff, for taking care of our building and caring so much about our daily operations. Thank you to the police officers who keep us safe. Thank you to Alex Borukhov for feeding our bellies and our souls and for being so good at his job. I also want to thank Carrie, Ayelet and Galit for all of the times they allow me to be away at work for you. I want to thank them for making my life, and my world, everything it is… they complete me.

Lastly, thank you. Thank you for choosing to be engaged. Thank you for stepping forward. Thank you for being committed. Thank you for pushing us to be better and to grow. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for volunteering. Thank you for being a part of what we’re building together here at OVS.

We certainly have a lot to be thankful for. We don’t have to look at what others have since we have so much in our own lives and that’s something to be fully aware of and embrace. There’s no need to be unhappy, no need to covet, and no need to take what’s someone else’s. We have a gift and we should all be overjoyed to be part of it.

Parshat Chaye Sarah

Rabbi Hearshen

Pain, hurt and sadness. Anxiety, frustration and disappointment. These are all emotions we try our best to avoid. We yearn to feel full and complete and content. We yearn to feel joy and ease. But life cannot be fully experienced through a prism that only engages half of the pantheon of emotions in the world.

This week the פרשה/Parsha/portion is called חיי שרה/Chaye Sarah or the Lives of Sarah. It opens with the death of the first matriarch, שרה/Sarah. In the spirit of biblical interpretation, the rabbis interpret the interconnected nature of the words, verses and chapters of the תורה/Torah and as such, when two things sit side by side, the text is hinting at a connection. In this case, we believe שרה died as a direct result of the attempted sacrifice of her son יצחק/Isaac at the hands of אברהם/Abraham, his father and her husband. שרה died from immense emotional trauma. There’s a מדרש/midrash, בראשית רבה נח:ו, that שרה died after הסטן/Satan came and told her what אברהם had done. The grief and trauma she experienced at that moment hastened her death.

Grief and trauma are acute forms of mental illness. They’re something every person will contend with over the course of their lives. Each of us will endure grief and trauma in different ways, and some of us will be able to do better than others. Mental Illness is something we tend to not want to talk about. We tend to stigmatize the mentally ill and treat them as weak and other. The problem with this is it only deepens the pain and loneliness of the afflicted… of the sick. We need to come to terms as a society with the basic fact that mental illness is no different than heart disease, cancer, diabetes and any other physical ailments. One doesn’t have cancer because they are weak. One doesn’t have intestinal disease because they are weird. All illnesses are just that… illnesses. When we embrace those around us who are sick, we enable them to be a part of a community that cares and works together to heal the sick.

Last week, I had the honor to attend the Finding Peace of Mind Through Brain Science and Spiritual Practices: A Faith-Based Symposium conference at the Carter Center. It was an honor to be there and the learning was incredible. We spent the day learning about the real impact religious practice and spirituality can have on people. We learned from Dr. Andrew Newberg, MD about his research into a field he called Neurotheology. He’s published numerous articles and books on this subject and all of them are worth our attention. We also spent time discussing the real-world crisis in our midst; the State of Georgia is woefully at the bottom of the US in terms of access to quality mental health care. We spent time talking about the real need religious communities have to be at the front of the work for the mental health of those around us. We must recognize that the value of פיקוח נפש/pikuach nefesh/saving a life is not only about the body but about the whole person. We must also recognize saving a life when it comes to mental health prevents the necessary saving of a life in terms of physical health.

The book of קהלת/Kohelet/Ecclesiastes speaks about the hardships of life. In looking at this magnificent book, we become more aware that a life well-lived is not just one that experiences joy all of the time but one that embraces the complexities of a life filled with highs and lows and ups and downs. Through the acknowledgment of real hurt, trauma, sadness, grief, anxiety and so many other hard realities, we enable others in our midst, including ourselves, to feel a bit more relief and a bit more fullness over the course of their lives.

Parshat Vayera

Rabbi Hearshen

I begin this article with a personal prerogative: Happy Birthday Ayelet. Today is her 16th birthday and I could not be more delighted and prouder to have the honor to celebrate her. The פרשה/portion this week, וירא/Vayera, was her פרשה for her בת מצוה/Bat Mitzvah and it’s one she and I have always enjoyed debating at length and looking more deeply into its messages. One of the most admirable qualities Ayelet has is her hunger for justice and her inability to accept our world as it is. When injustice shows its ugly self, we can either accept it or fight against it. The sad fact is that as we age, we become more accepting of the flaws of our world and less steadfast in our convictions that the world must do better. We become cynics, and in our cynicism, we abdicate our responsibility and obligations to others.

In בראשית יח:יז/Genesis 18:17 God asked if God could hide from אברהם/Avraham what was about to happen. The question was being asked about the cities of סדם and עמרה/Sodom and Gomorrah and their impending destruction. God told אברהם/Abraham about the plans and אברהם immediately challenged God: Abraham came forward and said, “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? What if there should be fifty innocent within the city; will You then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” (בראשית יח:כג – כה) The audacity to question God is something that cannot be lost on us. The fight that אברהםengaged in was a losing battle. After negotiating for some time, he managed to persuade God to not destroy the towns if 10 righteous people could be found and 10 such people were not found. We must see this urge to fight for justice is ingrained in our Jewish DNA. This example is one of the earliest and the legacy is alive and well.

Towards the end of the תורה/Torah we find the critical commandment: צדק צדק תרדוף/Justice Justice you shall pursue. (דברים טז:כ) These words have always been a driving force of our people. I had a professor in Rabbinical School who would say time and again that the תלמוד/Talmud is obsessed with capital J Justice. We, as a people, are constantly looking for a just world. We’re constantly putting justice ahead of so many other values and needs. We’re caught in this mad pursuit of justice that’s a deep source of strength for our people. In בראשית רבה לט:ו we learn that God loved אברהםbecause of this fight. “Rabbi Azarya in the name of Rabbi Aḥa began: ‘You love righteousness and abhor wickedness. Because of this, God, your God, has anointed you over your counterparts with the oil of joy’ (Psalms 45:8). Rabbi Azarya interpreted the verse regarding Abraham. When our forefather Abraham arose to seek mercy for the Sodomites…” It’s incumbent upon all of us to look at the world around us and see what needs to be repaired and what needs our love and care and advocacy.

I began by wishing Ayelet a happy birthday and I conclude by expressing my gratitude to her for always pushing me to be better and to fight for a better world. What I accept through complicity, she rejects with all of her being. We all need to be more like אברהםand fight for justice. We all need to look for the chance to make our world better for other people.

Our new Reimagining OVS Team is hard at work and we look forward to watching as our newly formed Social Action and Chesed Team begins its work for our community to follow in the footsteps of אברהם. Please be on the lookout for regular updates from the Reimagining OVS Team in our eblasts. 

November 7, 2024

Rabbi Hearshen

Avram was very rich in cattle, silver, and gold.  He proceeded in stages from the Negeb to as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been formerly, between Bethel and Ai, the site of the altar he had built there at first; and there Avram invoked GOD by name. Lot, who went with Avram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so the land could not support them staying together; for their possessions were so great they couldn’t remain together and there was quarreling between the herders of Avram’s cattle and those of Lot’s cattle. The Canaanites and Perizzites were then dwelling in the land. Avram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, between my herders and yours, for we are, after all, kin. Is not the whole land before you? Let us separate: if you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north.” (בראשית י”ג:ב-ט)

Avram and his family arrived in the Land of Canaan (what will eventually be Israel) and a famine began almost immediately. At that point, they went to Egypt to be able to survive and returned to their homeland sometime later. When they came back, it became apparent they couldn’t live with each other because their different camps argued at length and got in each other’s way. Avram made the difficult decision to divide up the land so there would be space for each of them. 

It’s impossible to read this without looking at the world we live in today. We each have a perspective that’s our unique identity. All too often, we think others are wrong for not thinking like we do. All too often, we want a world of those who think and act just like we do. This is patently wrong. God didn’t create a world of one but a world of many. Avram made it clear to Lot, and thus to us, that there was enough space for both of them. Avram made it clear that for the sake of peace and security they needed to sit in their separate places but they could be together. This move was made because they were shepherds and their herds needed vegetation to eat and space to move around. It was natural that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to keep each herd separated both then and now. Resources needed to be preserved for each group. It wasn’t a case where they couldn’t live together because of their ethics, values, interests, identities, or anything else. Their animals needed to be separate to avoid getting mixed up and causing problems. This is the model we need. We need to find space for each other. We need to find space for ourselves. I’m not sure this is a physical need as much as a spiritual one. We need to make room for others in our lives.

On another note, it shouldn’t be lost on us that the text talked about splitting up the Land of Israel. It shouldn’t be lost on us that time and again Israeli governments have tried to extricate themselves from the land dispute with the Palestinians and have made offers to split the land to be able to live in peace. I was struck when I recently saw President Bill Clinton talk about his final attempt to get Yasser Arafat to accept a Palestinian State in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and how Arafat refused. It cannot be lost on us that we’ve recognized we cannot live together; we’ve tried time and again to partition the land so Israelis and Palestinians can have a peaceful and secure future. And time and again absolutists on the other side have rejected this because they won’t accept anything other than everything. Avram, their ancestor as well, made clear there needed to be space for both, and that remains true today.

We all of have a lot of work to do to find space in our worlds for those we both agree and disagree with. We all need to find the space in our lives to help make our world better. 

October 23, 2024

Rabbi Hearshen

During Yom Kippur, I spoke about our community and our need to seriously work on bettering ourselves. There’s much work to do, and if we all roll up our sleeves together, OVS is going to reach heights never seen before. I want to thank everyone who completed the cards to make pledges for your engagement. We’re still in the midst of processing them. The Reimagining Team will meet soon and we look forward to sharing updates with you.

I’m happy to share how great we’ve been doing so far this year. For Sukkot, we had a wonderful first day service that was larger than expected and included people of all demographics. Thank you. The BBQ and Petting Zoo in the Sukkah on Sunday had over 100 people. Thank you. The Sisterhood’s Sisters in the Sukkah program was full and they had a wonderful time. Thank you. We have 75 registrants for Thursday night for Simchat Torah and we hope to have even more for that. Thank you.

I skipped one event purposefully because I want to end with it. The Sukkot Shabbat dinner in the Sukkah featuring the Consul General of Israel to the Southeastern US was a huge success. We raised funds for injured Israeli soldiers through Brothers for Life and over 100 people attended. I’m thrilled to announce we raise over $150,000 dollars. We had initially sought to raise $7,500, the cost of supporting one injured solider for a year, and far surpassed that goal. Thank you so much for your love, your support, and for your engagement. We need to build off of this energy moving forward. We cannot allow ourselves to become complacent. Every one of us is a necessary part of the OVS community. Click here to watch a thank you video from Brothers for Life.

September 26, 2024

Rabbi Hearshen

We’re less than a week away from the High Holidays and we cannot wait to be together as a community, in our building, to celebrate. I hope you’ll join us for some of the various celebrations we have planned over the time of the holidays. We have our Tashlich picnic at Lenox Park after services on Friday, October 4. Please sign up for your boxed lunch for the picnic on our website. The picnic and Tashlich service will take place on the Second Day of Rosh Hashana. It’s important to recognize that Rosh Hashana is universally a two-day celebration/observance. We look forward to offering you a full and engaging service on both days. On the second day, I look forward to an interactive text study in place of the sermon. I’ll be joined by Rabbi Nachum Gutierrez and Rabbah Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez in this experience. Over the holidays, we’ll be looking in the mirror as individuals and as a community and seeing what can be improved. I look forward to a deep and important conversation with our community about who we are and what we need to do to become a better and more engaged community.

After Yom Kippur, we’ll be celebrating Sukkot and then Simchat Torah. There will be so many chances to celebrate these wonderful holidays. One great opportunity will be Israel Sukkot Shabbat Dinner. We will be hosting the Israeli Consul General that night and we look forward to celebrating and eating with her. We’ll also be raising money to help injured Israeli Soldiers through Achim l’chaim. Please come to the dinner and help us reach our goal of raising $7,500 to sponsor one Israeli superhero who’s recovering from his or her service.

I just finished watching the movie: We Will Dance Again – Surviving October 7th, on Paramount+. It was hard and horrifying to sit and watch and yet it was critical to witness. I recommend everyone watches it to be able to see with your own eyes what transpired and why it is that we, as a people, cannot accept a scenario where Hamas and Hezbollah are allowed to remain in proximity to us. The Nova Festival was happening last October 7, the day Israelis were celebrating Simchat Torah. The survivors of the Nova Festival have declared since that day that “We (they) will dance again”. They are right. We, as a people, will find the strength and resolve to stand up and love life again. We’ll find a way to celebrate achievements and milestones. We need to, because to never dance again is to allow Hamas and other terrorists to alter our world. We must dance again. Please mark your calendars and join us to celebrate Simchat Torah on October 24. We’ll have a puppet show for the kids, dinner to enjoy and we’ll dance together. We’ll dance for those who can no longer dance. We’ll dance for our heritage and our faith. We’ll dance because that’s how we fight back most effectively.

As the year 5784 comes to a close, we should look back at the year that stung and didn’t live up to the promises it held for us at the beginning. We had 21 days filled with hopes and dreams of a new year and a new beginning. We held onto those precious hopes and dreams and expected the road ahead would be easier than the one we had just finished. On the 22nd day of the year, all those hopes and dreams were ripped from our grasp. It’s hard to accept and believe that we’ll be concluding this year and beginning the next with all of this still happening. The world wants us to move on and just accept that our neighbors are depraved murderers who seek our destruction in so many ways. But our love for who we are, and for our right to exist as a free people, is so much greater than their hatred and we will never back down from our resolve.

I invite all of you to join me and the rest of the community as we gather together and celebrate all of the holidays for ourselves, for all of those who came before us, and on behalf of those who no longer can. 

Parshat Ki Tavo

Rabbi Hearshen

We’re just about on the cusp of the High Holidays, and as such, things are quite busy at the synagogue to get ourselves ready. In thinking about the High Holidays, I also think about the attitude we have towards all of our holidays. We’re all familiar with the strange and false statement that all Jewish holidays can be summed up in three statements: they tried to kill us, they failed, lets eat. These statements do not describe Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Tu B’Shvat or Shavuot. They do describe Hanukkah, Purim and Passover… to a degree. So, if the joke isn’t accurate, why is it perpetuated?

The answer can be found in psychology: generational trauma. We, the Jewish people, have inherited a legacy of pain and fear. We come from a people who hid under floorboards while their friends and families were being murdered. We come from a people who have been wandering for millennia as we were thrown out of country after country. We’re a people who have perfected the act of memorializing as we have too many tragedies to list in this short article. This generational trauma is a collective burden all Jews carry. We thought in America we were safe and nothing could go wrong here, and while this remains the reality for the most part, it has been diminished.  We now know even here, even in the year 2024, our neighbors can turn on us. The trauma is real and it’s something we need to be more aware of.

The opening of פרשת כי תבוא/Parshat Ki Tavo is a history lesson. We were commanded that when we crossed the Jordan River and came to offer our first fruits for the first time, we were to make a declaration. The words were a history of our struggle. Even in our joyous moment of celebrating our harvest, we were still required to reflect on the pain that had gotten us to where we were. That’s something that has stuck with us. Look at the סדר של פסח/Passover Seder, the words of the declaration are the very words we say each year:

You shall then recite as follows before your God ה’: “My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. We cried to ה’, the God of our ancestors, and ה’ heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. ה’ freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents, bringing us to this place and giving us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey”. (דברים 26:5 – 9) 

These words reflect that we’ve always been a people of memory and memorial. We’ve always been a people that carry our past with us as we look forward. The pain of yesterday is meant to push us to pursue a better now, and an even better tomorrow. But there’s the real problem of our generational trauma and pain. We struggle to break the chains of fear and reactiveness. The world wants us to lick our wounds and move on with our lives but we’re not able to do that. We’re not able to walk away if there remains a threat to our people and our country. We cannot ignore the existential threats and accept we did the best that we could. We have a responsibility to our past, present, and future to fight to protect our people. As we’re closing in on a year since the catastrophe of last October, we see a world demanding we move on, and we find ourselves time and again feeling more and more alone. The nations of the world will never know what it’s like to walk the road we’ve walked and continue to walk. The nations of the world do not understand, or fail to accept, that we cannot allow another catastrophe to strike. We’re all too well acquainted with what can happen to our people.