A Father’s Prayer

On this Father’s Day, I offer this pray that I wrote – words that I am sure speak for all fathers.

Avinu Shebashamayim, Our Father in Heaven, give me the wisdom, insight, courage, and strength to be a father. You have blessed me with a child, one of Your divine creations, made in Your divine image. You have blessed me with fatherhood, now show me how. You who have provided for me my whole life, You who continues to provide for all my needs, give me the strength to provide for my daughter, strength when I am weary from sleepless nights of teething, sleepless nights of slumber parties, sleepless nights of staying out past curfew. Bless me with the wisdom to discern between tears of joy and tears of sorrow, the ability to heal a sore throat and a broken heart, the humor to make my daughter laugh with me and at me, the self-discipline to discipline her even when it eats me up inside. Lord who walks with me, allow me to walk in your ways, so that she may walk in your ways, to live a life full of the ethics and values that I want her to hold dear, to discern between right and wrong so that I can teach her the difference. Just as I hope and pray that You will bless her and protect her, permit me to bless and protect her. Most of all, My Strength, when I am not there, provide my child with the strength to protect herself, and protect others as well. Permit her to recognize the divine spark within her so that she may cling to You.

 

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

 

 

 

This prayer has been published by Jewish Lights Publishing as a part of the compilation: Jewish Men Pray and is available on Amazon.com and the Jewish Lights Publishing Website 

Send Kids to Camp and Bring Camp Home!

The beginning of June brings more than sunshine and warm weather. June brings an end to the school year and the beginning of summer vacation. While some may calendar their summers around laying out on the beach or family vacations, many of our children’s summers (and lives for that matter!) revolve around summer camp.

The Foundation for Jewish Camp, the non-profit organization that “unifies and galvanizes the field of Jewish overnight camp,” explains that “Jewish camp weaves Jewish values, culture, and traditions into the fabric of camp, helping campers to connect to their own identity and the larger Jewish community.” Jewish overnight camp is about more than camp fires, hikes, swimming, and sports, like other sleepaway camps. Jewish camp creates memories that no preschool, religious school, day school, or high school can! Jewish camp even offers experiences that youth group cannot offer! Jewish camp is a utopian, temporary, but perfect community, in which every single bunkmate quickly becomes like a brother or sister, in which time simultaneously stands still and speeds up so that camp memories can last forever and camp friendships of a few days or weeks feel like lifelong relationships.

Furthermore, Jewish camp offers experiential educational opportunities so that children aren’t only learning about Shabbat, prayer, dietary laws, or Jewish ethics and morals; they are living it on a daily basis.  Camp offers a creative and fun learning experience with your peers – an environment that allows you to be both the student and teacher. Finally, Jewish camp is truly a kehillah kedosha, a holy community and a safe space, an environment that celebrates that each camper is made in God’s image.

The Foundation for Jewish Camp’s study, Camp Works, suggests that Jewish summer camp attendance increases the likelihood of adult participation and identification. In the study, those who attended Jewish camp were more likely to donate to a Jewish charity, light Shabbat candles, attend synagogue regularly, and be emotionally attached to Israel. Participation in Jewish camping leads to a greater connection to tradition, ritual, and community.

The challenge of Jewish camp experiences though is that they are limited to the summer. Camp is a temporary holy community, much like the Mishkan, the temporary sanctuary built and rebuilt as the Israelites traveled throughout the desert.  The irony of the unique community that camp offers is that it is limited to the summer. Most suggest that camp wouldn’t work as a year-round experience, that what makes camp so special is that it is limited to only the summer. Campers yearn for a return to camp during the winter. If camp lasted year-round, then campers wouldn’t count down the seconds until camp returns, or stay in touch with bunkmates via phone, email, and Facebook.

The Israelites depended on their temporary sacred space as they traveled through the wilderness until they settled in the Promised Land and found community in the permanent structure of the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple in Jerusalem. Our goal and our task as a Jewish community, is to encourage our children to attend Jewish camp and expose them those life-changing positive Jewish experiences over the summer. Furthermore though, we must ensure that those positive experiences aren’t limited to the summer. The Jacksonville Jewish community serves as that permanent community that our children return to after spending the summer in their temporary utopias. We need to make sure our children bring those experiences of camp home. Havdallah cannot be limited to lakeside in the summer. Singing and dancing and clapping during services can take place year-round! Let us encourage our children (and adults!) to lose their voices because they are singing so loud, with such energy and ruach. Let us send our kids to camp, but make sure they bring a bit of camp home with them. This way, the life-changing summer memories can become life-changing daily memories.

 

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

 

This Blog Post originally appeared in the “Rabbinically Speaking” column of the June 2013 edition of the Jacksonville Jewish News

Rekindling the Flames of Friday Night

There is a story of a young boy who went to services and didn’t know how to read Hebrew, but he was able to sing the Aleph-Bet. With each prayer recited, the young boy would sing at the top of his lungs the letters of the Aleph-Bet over and over again. Congregants around him started becoming annoyed and looked at the rabbi to silence the boy. The rabbi understood though that the boy’s simple prayer with sincere intention reached God. “The individual letters of this boy’s heart,” the rabbi said, “would be received as complete sentences.”

Anyone who has ever sat next to me during services knows that I am not gifted musically. I love to sing, but unfortunately, I don’t sing well. Even though we share the same first name, after hearing my voice, no one will ever confuse me for the Hazzan. Still, during services, I sing – I pray – loud and proud for song is the way that I engage in worship.

At the end of a long week, there is nothing like Friday night. In order to fully appreciate Shabbat, we depend on the symbolic transition from the busy work week to the relaxed Sabbath experience. Just as Havdallah serves as that transition from Shabbat back to the rest of the week, we need a way to pause the demanding and hectic schedules of our weeks and relax. We need an opportunity to take a deep breath, exhale, and let go of the stress of the week that has passed. We need to be able to ‘click’ into Shabbat-mode. We need a moment to embrace Shabbat. Friday night is that moment.

Now I know Shabbat morning is an opportunity for us to come together and create community through worship and conversation, through learning, teaching, and sharing words of Torah. I also understand that Shabbat morning is the central Shabbat experience for many members of our community. However, Shabbat is about more than just three hours in the sanctuary on Saturday morning. Shabbat is a twenty-five hour experience spent with family, friends, and community. Our Friday night service that welcomes in Shabbat is an opportunity to heighten our spiritual experiences in an intimate and welcoming environment.

Kabbalat Shabbat is a very different experience than our Shabbat morning service. Different worship experiences speak to different people and allow for multiple entry points into Shabbat. Our Kabbalat Shabbat service is a service that allows for one to engage on multiple levels. In the coming weeks and months, we will be exploring how we can make Friday Night Shabbat services more accessible and more engaging to you. We need your help for that! What are the reasons that you currently don’t attend our Shabbat evening service? What are the things that you believe it is lacking? What are you looking for to help you better engage in the service?

Our Friday nights services are a short service (roughly one hour in length) compared to the Shabbat morning experience. Kabbalat Shabbat is a service filled with singing, clapping, and dancing, a service that is easy to access and easy to engage. Kabbalat Shabbat services filled with melodies to sing along to are a perfect opportunity to join us in song. It is not about how well you sing (after all, I participate!) but rather, about one’s willingness to sing, to engage, and to participate. Kabbalat Shabbat is about setting the proper tone for Shabbat with reflection and kavannot, guided intentions, and rejoicing in song.

As children, we sing and we dance during services at camp or in youth group, but somehow, as adults, we think we are too old to dance around, to clap our hands, to raise our voices. Let us transmit those camp and youth group experiences to Friday Night services at the Jacksonville Jewish Center. Let us learn from the young boy in this story. Even if we don’t know the words, that does not mean we cannot sing. Even if we do not know the words, that does not mean we cannot participate.

So if you haven’t been in a while, come and check out our Friday Night Shabbat services. Engage. Participate. Sing. Welcome in the beauty of Shabbat with our community!

 

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

This Blog Post also appears in the June 2013 edition of the Jacksonville Jewish Center’s Quarterly “Center Pieces” Magazine

Breaking Barriers

Anyone who is a baseball fan loves this time of year. With April comes a new season and with a new season comes new possibilities and new hope for a brighter, better future. After all, every time is in playoff contention this early in the season. Baseball fans  in particular also spend a great deal of time focusing on the significance of dates, statistics, and records. April 15th is a significant date in baseball history for fans of America’s Pastime, as well as for all in our country. On April 15th 1947, 66 years ago, Jackie Robinson, broke baseball’s color barrier, becoming the first African American to play in the Major Leagues. Breaking baseball’s color barrier contributed significantly to the launch of the Civil Rights Movement in this country. As Major League Baseball Analyst Casey Stern noted, “[April 15th] is one of the most important dates in American history. It just happened to have baseball as its backdrop.”

 

Sixteen years ago, Major League Baseball decided to retire Jackie Robinson’s #42 jersey number, the only number that every team has retired, ensuring that in his honor, and in honor of such a huge step towards equality, no one shall wear it again. Several years ago, on April 15th, Jackie Robinson Day, MLB decided that every player should honor Robinson for one day a year, by all wearing the same number, #42. Hollywood is also taking the step in honoring Jackie Robinson, coming out the with film “42: the Jackie Robinson Story”, starring Chadwick Boseman and Harrison Ford, this past weekend, introducing many more to this incredible story and groundbreaking step in the Civil Rights Movement.

 

There is a great story about the Hebrew Hammer, Hank Greenberg, one of the greatest Jewish baseball players and Jackie Robinson. Greenberg dealt with his own anti-semitism and discrimination as a ballplayer. This anecdote sums up our responsibility as Jews to fight for all and for equality for all. In Greenberg’s last season in baseball he was playing first base for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Robinson trying to run out an infield hit collided with Greenberg at first base. The next time Robinson reaches first, Greenberg, in a way, representing the Jewish community across the country just as Robinson was representing the African-American community for baseball fans, shook Robinson’s hand, and wanted to make sure he was not hurt on the previously collision. Greenberg told Robinson to stick in there and keep his chin up – that he was doing fine. A day later, Robinson told reporters that Greenberg was his “diamond hero,” his baseball hero.

 

This past week’s Torah portion was the double portion of Tazria-Metzora, a complicated part of the book of Leviticus that discusses various forms of tzara’at, a skin disease like leprosy. The Torah says: “The priest shall examine the skin for the contagious disease of leprosy and pronounce the person clean or unclean. As for the person with leprosy… being unclean, he shall dwell apart. The leper’s dwelling shall be outside the camp.”

 

The religious leader, the priest, the Kohen, has the discretion to determine if a person has this skin disease or not. The leper was separated out as an individual that is sick and if so, this person is quarantined for the welfare of the community, to ensure that a virus does not spread that an epidemic does not break out. The religious leader was given this task of determining if this person was ill in order to ensure that our morals and our ethics were still out the forefront or the way we lived our lives, to ensure that we didn’t rush to separate out those simply because they were different, to ensure that we didn’t rush to classify them as the other. The Kohen was to see each face, regardless of skin color, regardless of skin disease, as a face of God. The high priest was to see the other as himself, was to protect the community from virus, but prevent discrimination.

 

As America’s Pastime celebrates the 66th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, we are reminded that while he played on the field with his teammates, during his travels to away games across the country he still could not stay at the same hotel, eat at the same restaurants, stop during road trips to use the same bathrooms, or drink from the same water fountains as his teammates. We, as a country and as human beings, have been guilty of separating out others because they are different, because they have a different skin color, a different sexual orientation. We, as the Jewish people, have been separated out because of different religious beliefs.

 

The Torah reminds us that while from a health stand point in the tight quarters that the Israelites lived in, such separation may be necessary, we must ensure that we are inclusive and don’t separate out the other. As Jackie Robinson once said, “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.” In this torah reading, the high priest ensures such respect for all human beings, remembering that all human beings are made in God’s image. May we celebrate Jackie Robinson’s legacy and remember that there are still many barriers we have built up that need to be torn down. In doing so, may we see the face of God in every individual.

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

The Power of Memory

There is something powerful about Memory. Memory is the greatest gift of the mind, the greatest miracle of being created in God’s image. We are able to remember and bring ourselves back to a particular place in time. We remember the bitter and the sweet, the joyous and the mournful. 

In response to the Torah’s command to remember, I recently wrote the following on the website Jewishvaluesonline.org:

“It is then no surprise that the book of Devarim is filled with commands to remember – to ignite memories within ourselves about all that God has done for us, all that we have done (both positive and negative,) and all that tried to destroy us throughout our history… [These] remembrances not only ensure that we are connected to our past. They also ensure that we remember the good and the bad, the miracles as well as the events that leave us questioning “why?” Remembering both allows us to connect to our past and make sense of the present.”

The Israeli Government made the decision that that Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, is observed on the 27th day of Nisan. However, we are also taught that we cannot begin such a mournful day immediately after the joy of Shabbat. So if the 27th of the Hebrew month of Nisan is a Saturday night, then we postpone and observe Yom Hashoah, as we do on this day, and observe it on Sunday night and Monday. While we acknowledged Yom Hashoah and mourned together as a community at the Holocaust Memorial service and program yesterday at the Jacksonville Jewish Center, today, on Yom Hashoah, we take the time to remember.

We remember so that we never forget. We remember to ensure that such tragedy never happens again. We remember to acknowledge that this world is imperfect, that hate exists, and that only we can put an end to hate. We remember so that so many million innocent men, women, and children murdered just because they were deemed “different,” just because they were Jewish, are not forgotten. We remember because there are so many who have no one to say Kaddish for them. We remember because it is easy to remember the blessings, but important that we also remember the darkest moments in history. As theologian and social activist Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (of blessed memory) taught: “We are not all guilty, but we are all responsible.”

Remembering reminds us of our responsibility, of our obligation, to stand up to hate. We remember to ensure that such hate and such genocide will never happen again. We also remember to ensure that never again will the world stay silent, will WE stay silent as hate spreads throughout the world. Together with the Middle School students of the Martin J. Gottlieb Day School, we are visitng the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today in Washington D.C. This museum is a reminder to “Never Forget” and a promise of “Never Again.”

Let the memories of the six million Jews – and eleven million innocent lives – murdered by the Nazis be for a blessing. May we always remember and may such memory always bring us to tears, and ultimately lead us to action.

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

What Passover Teaches us about Marriage Equality

I spend a lot of time on Facebook. I am one of over one billion monthly active users on the most popular social network in the world. I use Facebook to see what is going on in the world. Often, that is where I get my news, where I learn about what is going on in friends’ lives, and where we are reminded to wish each other a Happy Birthday. I also see Facebook as an extension of my rabbinate – using Facebook to share words of Torah and share the wonderful programs that our community has to offer. The real power of Facebook though is seen when something goes viral. Facebook is the reason that the “Harlem Shake” was the most popular song (and most ridiculous dance) in the country for about two weeks.

The most recent thing on Facebook to “go viral” is the equal sign. Many Facebook users have chosen to change their profile picture to a red equal sign, in response to the Human Rights Campaign’s call to “paint the town red” for marriage equality. This social media initiative comes as the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments last week on two cases regarding marriage equality. The first decision they must make is whether or not to uphold or strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) passed almost twenty years ago. This federal law denies federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples. The Supreme Court is also hearing oral arguments for and against Proposition 8, the State of California’s ban on Gay Marriage.

It’s clear that support for marriage equality in our country has swelled in the past couple of years. Polls indicate growing public support for marriage equality and many political leaders – both democrats and republicans – have come out in support for marriage equality, including most notably, President Obama and Vice President Biden.

As a Conservative Jew and rabbi at a Conservative synagogue, a congregation that welcomes all regardless of sexual orientation, it would be easy for me to make a case for marriage equality: the Conservative Movement ordains openly gay rabbis and cantors and celebrates the love of same-sex couples through marriage. However, that is not the proper argument to be made.

The beauty of America is the supposed separation of Church and State in our country. Making an argument for Marriage Equality through a religious lens is no better than making an argument against Marriage Equality through a religious lens. Each house of worship and religious institution has the right to their own views, no matter how hateful and discriminatory they may be. As a nation though, we have a responsibility and obligation to support equality.

During Passover, we don’t just celebrate freedom from slavery, we celebrate freedom from discrimination. We celebrate freedom from being cast aside, being separate, being considered different. As Jews, we don’t just revel in the freedom against discrimination that we celebrate on Passover. Rather, we fight to end discrimination so that all can celebrate freedom.

This past Shabbat, the Shabbat of Chol Hamoed, the intermediate days of Passover, we read Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs. It is customary that on each holiday we read a book of the Tanakh: On Purim we read the book of Esther, on Shavuot we read the book of Ruth, etc. The Song of Songs is read because on Passover we celebrate Springtime. Spring is a time when flowers bloom, when animals come out of hibernation, when new life is brought into this world. Spring is “mating season.” The sexual nature of the text focuses on two lovers. While traditionally, rabbis attempt to explain this text as love poetry between God and Israel, it is poetry between two lovers and despite the sensual nature of the text, it clearly states the definition of love: Ani L’Dodo v’Dodi Li, I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. Love is about partnership. Love is a commitment to another, to a single partner, as your other. Love is a commitment to spend the rest of your life with that partner. Love is finding your better half, your ezer kenegdo, as Eve is called when she is created to be Adam’s partner. That is love. That is the love that we read about in Shir HaShirim. That is the love that we celebrate on Pesach.

That is the love that I hope we, as the city of Jacksonville, as the state of Florida, and as the United States of America, will come to recognize, accept, and celebrate, regardless of one’s sexual orientation. In the Haggadah at our Passover Seders we read: “This year we are still slaves, but next year, free people.”  This year, there is still discrimination in this world, in this land. Next year, let us celebrate the freedom of all, and the freedom for all to marry.

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

Publix Should Join Companies in Supporting Farmworker’s Raises

 

This Op-Ed appeared in the Pro & Con section of the March 26, 2013 edition of the Florida Times-Union. The Pro Point of View is represented by Rabbi Jesse Olitzky and the Con Point of View is represented by Publix. A digital version of this Op-Ed for Florida Times-Union subscribers can be found here.

More than fifty years ago, Edward R. Murrow presented the ground-breaking documentary “Harvest of Shame” on “CBS Reports.” Murrow detailed troubling conditions that migrant laborers in Florida faced. He concluded: “The migrants have no lobby… They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do.” Fifty years later, these conditions are still very real.

I recently returned from a rabbinic delegation with T’ruah: A Rabbinic Call for Human Rights to the tomato fields of Immakolee. I learned of the work of the Coalition of Immakolee Workers, launched twenty years ago by a group of Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian migrant workers to stand up for their rights. These tomato pickers head out into the fields before dawn and they do not return until dusk.

They pick bucket after bucket full of tomatoes, each bucket weighing thirty-two pounds. This costs consumes eighty-one dollars in the supermarket, but the migrant worker only receives fifty cents per bucket.

A decade ago, the coalition launched the Fair Food Program, which encourages those corporations that purchase these tomatoes – notably restaurants and supermarkets – to commit to only buying tomatoes from growers that take responsibility for the human rights abuses in the fields. The campaign asks corporations to pay an additional penny per pound of tomatoes in order to improve conditions and wages. Such a change guarantees fieldworkers can earn minimum wage. Fast food chains like Subway, Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and Burger King have signed on to this program, as have supermarkets like Whole Foods.

Publix, the largest supermarket chain in the state, was approached about joining the Fair Food Program years ago. Publix has refused to even sit down and meet with the coalition. This is a human dignity issue. In an effort to offer the consumer the lowest of prices, Publix is willing to accept the exploitative practices in Florida’s tomato fields.

If Publix really were dedicated to dignity and were responsible citizens as its mission statement suggests, then Publix would join the Fair Food Program.

Jewish communities worldwide are celebrating the Festival of Passover. We celebrate the Israelites’ exodus out of Egypt from slavery to freedom. The Coalition of Immakolee Workers recently finished their own exodus, marching for rights, respect, and fair food on a fifteen-day, 200-mile journey from Fort Myers (near Immakolee) to the Publix Headquarters in Lakeland.

If we celebrate the Exodus narrative in our scripture, then we must ensure that such freedom is a reality for all those in our midst, including and especially the tomato pickers of Immakolee, because I don’t know about you, but I prefer to buy slavery-free tomatoes.

Publix, wouldn’t you prefer to sell slavery-free tomatoes as well?

 

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

Obama’s Israel Experience

I went to Israel for the first time as a 12 year old. I hated it. The family vacation was fun, but as a whiny pre-teen, I found a reason to complain about everything: I hated the food. I hated the hiking. It was too hot. The bottled water tasted funny. I returned again when I was 16 on USY Israel Pilgrimage and loved Israel, but mostly because I loved the 65 friends on my Israel trip. As teenagers do, we goofed off, snuck into each other’s rooms at night, and had a blast. We loved Israel, but we could’ve had the summer of a lifetime anywhere.

I returned again as a 17 year old and found the true beauty of our people and our heritage – the beauty of history, the beauty of our tradition, and the beauty of Judaism alive and thriving in the holy land. I traveled to Israel several times in college, on my own, and with my wife, to explore our ancestral homeland together. And of course, as part of my Rabbinical Studies, we spent a year living in Jerusalem, coming to understand the challenges that Israel faces, the highs and the lows. We came to understand Israel not as tourists, but as Israelis.

As a Jewish educator, I strive to give our children (and our adults) meaningful and amazing Israel experiences. Jewish institutions create shuks, and Bedouin Tents. We play Israeli music and offer Gadna activities, but we also accept that there is no activity, no program, no text study, or class that can replicate the impact of actually visiting Israel. This is why a program like Birthright Israel has had such an impact on the American Jewish community. As hard as we may try to offer alternatives, nothing beats being in Israel.

This is the reason that President Obama’s recent visit to Israel is such a big deal. Yes, he has gone as a Senator. Yes, he has been as a Presidential Candidate. But now, as the Commander and Chief of the United States of America, as the leader of the free world, to visit Israel shows the unbreakable relationship between the United States and Israel.

Obama said in his initial speech upon landing in Eretz Yisrael: “I want to begin right now, b answering a question that is sometimes asked about our relationship – why? Why does the United States stand so strongly, so firmly with the State of Israel?  And the answer is simple. We stand together because we share a common story – patriots determined to be a free people in our land, pioneers who forged a nation, heroes who sacrificed to preserve our freedom, and immigrants from every corner of the worl who renew constantly our diverse societies. We stand together because we are democracies. For as noisy and messy as it may be, we know that democracy is the greatest form of government ever devised by man.”

As an American and as a Jew, I’m pleased with Obama’s visit to Israel. This visit was not a mission for peace, or a fact finding mission. This trip was not even a diplomatic trip. Rather, it was a signal of America’s unbreakable commitment to Israel.

That unbreakable commitment is what sent me along with over a dozen members of the Jacksonville Jewish Center to Washington DC earlier this month for the annual AIPAC Policy Conference. Last year, there were only a couple of members of the Jacksonville delegation. This year we sent fourteen. Next year, I expect that we will send twice that.

From March 3-5, we joined over 13,000 – that’s 13,000 members of the American Jewish community, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, and Renewal; Observant, and Secular; all Zionists, all of us committed to a strong US-Israel relationship. Included among the 13,000 was over 2,000 High school and College students, ensuring that the next generation of Jews are equally committed to this relationship. Hearing from the likes of former Defense Minister and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke volumes about how grateful Israel is of such support from the American Jewish community and from the United States.

We heard from Congressmen and Senators, and notably Vice President Joe Biden. We saw Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democratic from New York, stand on stage together and say they don’t agree on anything ever – except for America’s resilient commitment to Israel.

I do not agree with all of the government of Israel’s policies. I’ve shared before the challenges that we face as American Egalitarian Conservative Jews in Israel, connecting to Israel as a Jewish State and being recognized in that Jewish State. In fact I don’t always agree with all of AIPAC’s stances. Still, there is something powerful about AIPAC supporting Israel no matter what. AIPAC supports the government of Israel and the Prime Minister of Israel. They do not endorse Israeli politicians. Whomever is in charge is who they support. It’s a powerful statement. AIPAC doesn’t even endorse American politicians. That isn’t there goal. Their goal is to ensure each political leader, each legislator, is a friend of Israel. That is why on the final afternoon of the Conference, all 13,000 attendees took Capitol Hill by storm, and lobbied every single member of the House and Senate.

Our Jacksonville delegation met with members of Senator Rubio’s office and heard from Senator Nelson. We then had an opportunity to lobby Congressman Crenshaw of Duval County and Congressman DeSantis of St. John’s County. What was most remarkable was that our youth, our teen delegates, the youngest members of our delegation, were the ones who did all the talking. Our youth took charge, becoming leaders and Pro-Israel Advocates in the process.

If this bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable, then we, the American Jewish Community, must be that link in the chain that ensures such a commitment. We must ensure that unbreakable bond. Next year, AIPAC’s Policy Conference in Washington DC will take place from March 2^nd through March 4th, 2014. Who is prepared to join us? Who is willing to travel to DC not as a tourist, not for vacation, but to be an activist, for the most important three days facing Israel’s future? Think about it. President Obama’s visit to Israel was a symbol of support. Our action lobbying our political leaders ensures that such continued support is a reality. Will you join me?

 

-Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

It Takes a Village…

The Well-known African Proverb, “It takes a Village to Raise a Child” was made even more famous when then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote a book about her vision for children in this country with the same title. The ikar, or essence, of this proverb is that as parents we have a large role and responsibility in shaping the types of men and women our children become, but the community around us, the people we surround ourselves with, clergy and teachers, friends and dedicated lay leaders, ultimately have just as much of a role in shaping who they become.

This proverb came to mind when studying this week’s Torah portion. This Shabbat, we read Parashat Ki Tissa and the infamous account of the Egel Zahav, the Golden Calf. The Israelites got nervous and antsy waiting for Moses to descend from Mount Sinai and built an idol to worship rather than worshipping the God that had just redeemed them from slavery. Upon seeing this Moses, who was holding the tablets of the covenant – the ten commandments – in hand, slammed them on the ground and they shattered.

We read in Exodus 32:19 – “He threw the tablets out of his hands and shattered them at the base of the mountain.”

We assume that Moses did so out of anger and frustration. He saw the Israelites – a people who had just been freed – dancing around a Golden Calf and lost his temper. He threw the tablets on the ground in protest suggesting that the Israelites don’t deserve God’s Divine word.

However, I’d like to offer another explanation. The Kabbalists teach that the tablets were very heavy and large, almost impossible for one individual to carry on his own. Moses was able to carry them though because he knew he was not alone. He understood that the People of Israel in its entirety were “carrying” these tablets as well. When he saw that this was not the case he realized that the weight was too great, the burden too heavy, and he dropped them.

God’s word and our understanding of God is the basis of all that we do and how we live our lives as Jews. We strive to walk in God’s ways and live a life as God’s messengers made in God’s image. Through ritual and prayer, both fixed and spontaneous, we strive to create personal revelatory experiences with the Divine. We wish this for our children as well: a life filled with God’s Presence.

Thus, we realize that we cannot do this alone. We cannot give our children meaningful Jewish experiences alone. Even if we have a Jewish home and live a Jewish life, we thrive in a Jewish community. For it is the community that holds up the heavy weight of our tradition, of our rituals, of our opportunities to wrestle with God. We cannot be Jews alone. A Jew cannot live a vibrant Jewish life alone in a deserted island. We need the support of a community to create those vibrant experiences. We, as parents, need teachers and rabbis and cantors and youth group advisors and role models to mold our children. Together, in creating vibrant communities, we carry the tablets of the covenant high above our heads. After all, it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to create meaningful and vibrant Jewish experiences.

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

Each Individual is a Mishkan: A Message to the Boy Scouts of America

In this past week’s Torah portion, Parashat Terumah, God instructs Moses how to make the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, the traveling sanctuary in the desert. Terumah literally means gift, for God wanted each individual to bring their own personal gifts in order to make up this sacred community. Each individual was seen as a gift. Each individual, made in God’s image, was central and necessary to make up this sacred community of Jews in the desert. The building of a sacred community, an inclusive community in which all are valued, all contribute, and all are seen as equal, is the true gift to the Divine. The parasha focuses on specific and exact measurements of materials to bring to this traveling sanctuary: Dolphin skins; Acacia wood; Oil; Spices; Blue and purple and crimson yarns; Pure gold. The entire Torah portion – save for a few verses – is full of detailed instructions and measurements. The irony is that this was a traveling sanctuary, a tabernacle that moved throughout the desert. It wasn’t permanent. Despite all the glitz and glamor, the wood, gold, and dolphin skin, it wasn’t the building that made the community. Rather, it was the people that made the community. This Mishkan, was not a specific place. It was every place that the community was, for all in the community were a part of the Mishkan, for all in the community contributed to the Mishkan. It was the people that made the Mishkan. It was the people that were the Mishkan.

Exodus 25:8 offers the well-known command: “V’asu li mikdash v’shachanti b’tocham. Make for me a Sanctuary, a holy space, a sacred space, so that I will dwell among you.” Perhaps the desert Mishkan became a Holy space because it involved the entire community, and God truly lived within the people. The sanctuary is symbolic of a sacred space where we can experience God’s presence, but only when we recognize that all are made in God’s image, that every single member of the community radiates a Divine spark, do we truly become a Mikdash, a holy place, and a sacred community.

A Sacred Community acknowledges the Divine spark in every person, that every person is sacred. Such an understanding and belief of what makes a sacred community only led to disappointment, frustration and anger recently upon hearing the news that the Boy Scouts of America have decided to postpone any vote regarding inclusion of all scouts, regardless of sexual orientation. In July 2012, the Boy Scouts of America reaffirmed their policy banning openly gay boys from membership and gay and lesbian parents from serving as scout leaders.

In the year 2012, the Boy Scouts had an opportunity to embrace everyone as equal and Divine and failed to do so. A week and a half ago, there was to be a vote of the Boy Scouts of America’s national board of directors regarding this policy, following pressure from individuals as well as corporate sponsorship. Representatives from the Jewish community’s National Jewish Committee on Scouting, one of this country’s oldest faith-based scouting sponsors, which includes over 40,000 volunteers from troops affiliated with synagogues and Jewish institutions, arrived at the Boys Scouts’ national office in Irving, Texas urging the organization to end such a ban and recognize each individual as made in God’s image. The National Executive Board decided to delay this vote until May when the 1,400 voting members of the National Council will take on this issue – or once again, ignore it. The Boy Scouts’ oath begins with the following words: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country.” The National Executive Board had an opportunity to be courageous in understanding that all are made in God’s image, but instead was cowardly in delaying such a vote.

At the Jacksonville Jewish Center, in which we pride ourselves on being welcoming to all who walk in our doors, we hold the charter for Troop #14 of the North Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Troop #14 is the only Jewish troop in Northeast Florida and one of the oldest troops in Northern Florida, being associated with the Jacksonville Jewish Center for over ninety-two years. Many in our community participated and continue to participate in our Boy Scouts troop. I actually believe there is great value in scouting. As a child, I wanted to be a cub scout, but there was no Shomer Shabbat troop in my area, so I could not participate. As a Jewish scouting troop and a part of the Jacksonville Jewish Center, Troop #14 strives to use the lessons learned in scouting and connect them to our tradition. This includes campouts that consist of Sabbath meals and worship services as well as social action mitzvah projects, in addition to the outdoor skills and leadership skills learned.

I am proud to say that regardless of the Boy Scouts of America’s National policy ban, our troop, as a part of the Jacksonville Jewish Center, welcomes all who walk through its doors. As an organization and institution, we are not afraid to say that our synagogue promotes ourselves as a Community of Kindness, teaching our youth to respect others. Such a national stance is a disgusting example of bigotry, homophobia, and hate that encourages bullying, the exact opposite of what we are trying to promote to our youth. Such a stance has no place in our institution and I am proud to say that it is a stance that Troop #14 and the Jacksonville Jewish Center refuses to take.

Some organizations have taken a stance against the Boy Scouts’ homophobic policies by disbanding their troops, ripping up their charters, and disaffiliating with the Boy Scouts of America. I believe that change comes from within. Our ultimate goal is to change the bigotry of the Boy Scouts. We do so from within. We do so by declaring that our Boy Scouts’ troop is a troop that welcomes all, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity of child or parent. We do so by recognizing the Godliness of all!

A story is told of Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev: He was visiting a town and attending services at a local synagogue. One day, he stopped at the synagogue’s door and refused to enter the sanctuary. His students asked, “Rabbi, why are you not entering?” He responded: “The sanctuary is too crowded.” His followers were baffled. “The synagogue is empty,” they said. “There are only a few people there.” “Yes,” he answered. “But they refuse to recognize the Godliness of all, leaving no room for us, and no room for God to dwell among us” he said.

Judaism teaches that each individual is created B’Tzelem Elohim, in God’s image and we celebrate that image – we celebrate the Divine nature of each person, including his or her sexual orientation. As a synagogue affiliated with the Conservative Movement, a movement that ordains openly gay rabbis and cantors, and a movement that celebrates the love of same-sex Jewish couples through marriage, we cannot and will not affiliate ourselves with the offensive stance that Boy Scouts of America has taken.

I am disappointed with the Boy Scouts of America’s unwillingness to change their own narrow view. I recognize that those of other faiths – even those of other movements and denominations within our own religious tradition – may disagree with me. Still, I am proud to be a part of a movement and an institution that recognizes the sanctity of each individual. That makes our community a true Mikdash for God to dwell in. It is not because of our building, or beautiful sancutary, or our thirty-five acres of land. It is because of how we treat other people, how we treat each other. It is because we recognize the Divine nature of each individual.

V’asu Li Mikdash v’Shachanti B’tocham. Build for me a sanctuary so that I may dwell in it. This reminds me of a Christian worship song, although there is nothing specific Christian about it: “Oh Lord make me a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living, sanctuary for you.” Each of us is a sanctuary. Each individual, made in God’s image, is a Mishkan. To understand that allows for our community as a whole to become a Mikdash, a sanctuary, a holy Temple. To ignore this only encourages Avodah Zarah – Idol worship – behavior that contradicts the ethics and values that we hold dear in our faith. I am proud that the National Jewish Committee on Scouting is serving as a voice for inclusion. I am proud that Troop #14 at the Jacksonville Jewish Center is serving as an example of inclusion. I hope and pray that the time will come soon, speedily in our day, when an institution as historic as the Boy Scouts of America values one of the most essential teachings of our tradition, Kavod HaBriyot, honoring and respecting all of God’s creations. Only then will the promise of Shechanti Betocham, that God will dwell among us — all of us — finally be fulfilled.

- Rabbi Jesse M. Olitzky

Here is the letter that the Jacksonville Jewish Center Leadership recently sent to the Boy Scouts of America: