ACC Conference in Israel III -- Jerusalem

Yom Rishon, back to work, back to business....back to the bus...lunch with the beautiful and amazing Judi Axelrod, my Israeli voice teacher ! Judi, you taught me so much, I hear your words in my head even today! It is very meaningful to meet old teachers, who not being officially the teacher anymore, allows our relationship to be one of friendship. Levi, Dave, Tamar, Judi... the walk through Emek Refaim was awesome--to see the "Abomination Beach", right here in Jerusalem, sand, water, cafes--just like Tel Aviv...

Studying Piyutim, religious/spiritual/ancient liturgical poetry with peytanim AND peytanot! And a spirited workshop with Nave Tehila. I had the blessing of singing with them during my year here, they changed the way I experience worship and look forward to bringing their 'neshama and kavannah' back with me.

Wandering on foot through my old neighborhood in Rechavia, passing our old stomping ground, getting excited to revisit the places that Coby and Ben used to jump on and jump off of giant stones, where we burnt our chametz before Pesach, where Coby had his lag B'omer party, where we watched movies and ate hummus....

Women of the Wall, who make so many people angry, and still accomplish revolutionary things in Israel. Small achievement which seem so archaic to us which move Israeli society more and more to the democracy that it claims to be. Early morning sunrise and singing at the Kotel where interestingly enough, our men hung themselves over the divider to hear us. Quite the opposite of the way it usually is, It was shacharit hafuch! Truly, and I remember this from my year in Israel, these 'rebellious' moments at the kotel were the only time I was aware that danger was around, so aware that we were inciting people to feel so angry that they might throw something at us, or at least throw bad language.

But still, perhaps if one day this work that IRAC does prevents the mother of a Bar Mitzvah from having to tip over while she tries to stand atop a flimsy plastic chair as she watches her son through a wall that pushes her away--maybe many more walls will come down as well.

Monday is filled with rehearsals for a glorious concert at the YMCA on King George St, where Ben went to summer camp. But prior to that Leslie and I led our final maariv t'filah, overlooking the old city, once again. I couldn't figure out who had the better view--our kahal looking through us at the skyline and the outside of the Old City, or us, watching them singing with a light in their eye. Leslie--my friend--this was a highlight of the week for me. Nishikot.....

The very last morning...t'filot on the Tayelet. Cantor Evan Kent, toda rabbah.
Pictures exchanged, prayers shared, music promised....of course, the cantors are on dropbox and sharing files immediately.
Thank you ACC...music brings people together.

ACC Israel Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and back again

ACC  II Tel Aviv to Jerusalem 

Beautiful Israeli breakfast....more food than imaginable and greener cucumbers than ever... a breakfast with Rabbi Rick Jacobs, talking about what at the time, was the biggest thing going on in the Jewish world, which was the Presbyterian Church's move for Boycott and Divestment, what a statement. We went back to the roof of Mishkanot Ruth for a breezy and beautiful musical morning Shacharit with Rabbi Esteban Gottfried and Beit T'filah Yisraeli with a powerful d'var Torah on Parashat Balaak by  Rick Jacobs. The challenges that seemed to prominent in our minds and consciousness was so different--who knew that just a few days later everything would change. We would be waking from such a crazy dream.

We loaded up for a morning at Bina, which means understanding--my middle name, a social justice organization in an at-risk neighborhood of Tel Aviv, doing wonderful work on the ground with their population. They have a 'secular' yeshiva where students come from all over to study and understand their own tradition's text in an open atmosphere. Followed by a flash mob of Kol Haneshama and Lewandowski's Halleluya right on Rothschild Street! Even the Israeli's loved it. We toured Bima, the Israeli Opera house and prepared to hear an evening Maariv concert at the large Reform Congregation in Tel Aviv, Beit Daniel...and dinner with friends in what might be the Soho of Tel Aviv, Neve Tzedek.

More connections with friends as Thursday brought us North to Oranim Teacher's College and to the Leo Beck School and Congregation Ohel Avraham in Haifa--looking out at the amazing sunset, connecting with the incredible Rabbis Gabby Dagan and Naama there...and a concert by Heartbeat, Arab and Jewish Israeli teenagers who find their way to understanding by composing and performing their own 'world' music.  As the news of the 3 Israeli boys, and then the Palestinian boy was still the biggest thing in the news, they held tears back on stage, trying to express that for them, this was their only way to try to make meaning in a world that seemed to challenge the natural order or things.

It was a moving evening, capped off by late night drinks at the Shook of Old Jaffo with Shanni, Nir and Shanni's brother who was one of our guides !!!

And Shabbat on the pier in Tel Aviv....a breezy Israeli experience, one which I wasn't able to have while in Jerusalem. While on the Shirut to Tel Aviv, who calls but Rabbi Michael Resnick who is here studying at the Hartman Institute...and having his own kind of Shabbat in Jerusalem. But this was a musical, fun, outdoor way to feel a different kind of Shabbat--and again the reunions with Rabbi Yael Ridberg from Shabbaba. Dinner with good friends and lots of laughs right on the waterfront with the biggest fish ever to share. Shabbat morning was very HUC...back on the top of the world looking at the old city hearing Shacharit davened, seeing classmates, and those returning for alumni programs, as well as the 'new kids' in the incoming class. 4 cantors in this class, all women. We wonder what this says about the movement, the cantorate, institutional Jewish life in the states....

While we are taking pictures of ourselves with the magnificent skyline of the old city behind us, tourists are being advised maybe to not got to the old city... of course this week saw Israeli's kidnap a Palestinian boy and now riots have intermittently begun in the Arab quarters as well as the Temple Mount. Nerves are a bit more taught, something is brewing, no one is really making connections between the endless (yet ineffective) rocket fire in the southern towns where Randi lives and the tensions from all the recent deaths. So when I take a quick Shabbat run to see my niece Rebecca on her own BBYO trip, they are sequestered in the Caesar Hotel near the bus station--their Old City plans are under constant revision as they reshape the final days of their trip to assure safety to their families at home, as well as deal with the reality of what is happening here. The hotel is teeming with flirty over-heated teenagers--BBYO, Birthright, not an adult in sight except for the security guard at the door not letting anyone out. We hugged and processed her trip together--she would be on a plane home in 26 hours, newly in love with Israel. I wandered back through the streets of Jerusalem in the quiet of Shabbat, severely underdressed for the daati neighborhoods I walked through. But slowly I was able to quietly reabsorb the Jerusalem I missed. The shops were closed, no cars were on the streets here, and I began to feel the dusty in my toes and on the sweat of my shoulders that seems so right here-- it feels so good to be home... even if I sweat just looking at what the women are wearing. Long sleeves AND a coat? AND a scarf?

Shabbat ends with learning and I study the poetry of Leah Goldberg and see my old teachers, Rabbi Levi Kelman, who taught me how to pray and how to teach prayer through his wonderful awe for Judaism, hebrew, and creating atmosphere. Dave Mendelsohn who constantly couched

and contextualized our Israeli experience for us amidst Operation Cast Lead in 2009, Cantor Eliyahu Schleifer--you are with us every day of school and every day in our cantorates...we piled our dusty tired bodies back on the top of the world in Blaustein Hall, overlooking Jaffa Gate and sang with Effie Netzer, until the sun completely set and we stuffed ourselves at Cafe Rimon in the Memilla Mall. This city reinvents itself every day--more hotels, more buildings, fountains exist where it used to be dry, it is a beautiful city. 

Shavua Tov!

ACC Conference in Israel/ June 29....Yavneh to Tel Aviv....old friends...old stories

ACC 2014 Conference/ June 29----Tel Aviv -----

President Shimon Peres

My El Al bunkmate on a Jewish Women's Renaissance Project mission--all the way from Boston

Beautiful pools in Sonora Promenade

Beautiful cafe hafuch in Sonora

Friends grow and grow

The mighty Ms. Chen Amir

Add caption

How many shlichim can you fit in one blog?....4 !!!!

Or as I began to think of it....my really good reason to get back to Israel. 

It has been 5 years since my sandaled feet became dusty walking for endless blocks and listening to Hebrew--only some of which I can understand, and some of which I can understand all the words but still can't formulate into a sentence.

Little by little the month of June emptied my house of Phillip, Coby, then Ben, and then finally myself. President Shimon Peres was on my El Al flight with his entourage, as was a huge group from the Jewish Women's Renaissance Project. So in spite of my fear of flying, I was assured that this plane would arrive safely. I sat next to a boy and his father who were travelling back to Israel to bury their mother, for the length of the flight my heart broke for him--he slept, cried, and wrote her eulogy.

I was in the middle of reading My Promised Land by Ari Shavit, our TJ Reads pick of the month--and my heart was breaking for other reasons as it was dawning on me that the permanence of the State of Israel was not a foregone conclusion. Perhaps this miracle Jewish experiment would only last another few decades.....to contextualize this, the three Israeli boys, Naphtali, Gilad and Ephraim were at this point still missing but not yet found.

I landed in Tel Aviv, gratefully found my suitcase and immediately sat in the airport with my first cafe hafuch--a very milky latte--and called my friend Randi who lives on an amazing moshav near Yavne called B'naya. I used my creaky hebrew to buy a train ticket and travel to her office at the beautiful Azrieli towers in Tel Aviv and walked through the brand new Sonora outdoor marketplace of gardens, cafes, and high end shops while she finished her work day...and had another cafe hafuch. It was only later that evening over dinner that we looked up to see that the three boys' bodies had been recovered. An inevitable shadow leaned over Israel. These three boys were not kidnapped soldiers. Everyone waited for what kind of retaliation would emerge...from a person? the government? The country was sad, and we knew that Jews around the world were planning their memorials as well.

And so the backdrop of my excuse to finally come back to Israel came into focus. National brotherhood. It colored everything we did.

At Randi's, I slept downstairs right near the entrance to their miklat--bomb shelter, wondering if we would need to use it. I happily made my way back into the heart of Tel Aviv to begin the reconvening of cantors from around the world, and friends that I couldn't wait to hug again and giggle with.

The first day was slow as we ate chips, hummus, salad, amazing cheeses around the pool and reunited with people for whom it just felt like yesterday!  We grabbed a bus to Nahalat Binyamin and Sheinker Street where we browsed, ate, caught up, and bumped into Rabbi Hesch Sommer from our time at HUC! Only in Israel do these reunions happen...but this is just the beginning, because just an hour later on a short walking tour of Old Jaffo--to hear about co-existence within the communities, who is leading but our own Chen Amir. Newly married and learning and leading within the progressive movement in Israel. So happy to see her, so happy for how it made me feel like I was home.

We concluded our day with maariv atop Mishkanot Ruth and Daniel--where we had dinner, watched the sunset and heard the most beautiful music I've heard in so long from the Israeli teen chapter of HaZamir chorale--before I learned that our own Bonim group was staying there, so was able to grab some photos with Phillip Taylor, Sam Wiston, and Shanni and Nir...again, only in Israel!

And then my phone charger exploded in the hotel. It's good to be back. :-)

Riding4Reform....a long road ahead

I have finally done something I've longed for since the year we lived in Israel--4 years ago! We've travelled from the far north to the southern tip, but I've wanted to participate in the 5 day Bicycle Ride that benefits Israel's Progressive movement since our own class rode through northern Israel back in 2009.

It's been awhile since I've been on a bike, but I've just begun training, setting my sights on on our March 23rd 'launch' in the Golan Heights, winding through 300 kilometers of mountains and pastures, villages, kibbutzim....to finish in the beautiful Gallil.  

The road is long, approximately 30 miles a day, but the benefits are awesome. I look forward to the physical challenge (partly why I'm documenting this) as well as the spiritual exertion....and will update throughout the bike ride as well.

Who knows a good song about bicycles?

The Game of LIFE

“The Game of LIFE” Sermon

Friday, May 31, 2013 ~ Parashat Sh'lach Lecha

My kids love board games, especially games that involve money—classic family games like Monopoly and Life. Now what’s interesting, is that like in all competitive games, they instinctively are trying to spin or roll high numbers to get around the board quickly, but ‘unlike’ most games, Monopoly doesn’t have a ‘race to the finish’, it ends when everyone but one player goes bankrupt. This could go on for days. And the game of “Life”—well that ends when everyone reaches retirement, the finish line, but no matter how fast or slow you get there doesn’t matter, because no one is rewarded for retiring first, and no one is penalized for getting to the end of their “Life” last. Theoretically there is no rush.

So, if you remember the rules of the game, you spin the spinner and little by little as you progress along the road of ‘life’ in your little plastic pink car, you are asked to make decisions, like going to college, choosing a career, getting married, buying a home, having children…and that is the game. But the game is also filled with other kinds of things that you do during your lifetime. Like you change jobs, win the lottery, get involved in a lawsuit. But there are other spaces on the board, where if you land, the tile may read, ‘helped construct a homeless shelter’, volunteered in a soup kitchen-- and then when you land on these spaces, you pick a tiny card that says “LIFE” on one side, and the side that you are not supposed to peek at has a dollar amount. You don’t look at this until the end of the game, when you count it up with your other assets that you accrue over your lifetime.

Now, as my children race and rush to speedily get to ‘retirement’, I find myself insisting that they slow down and pay attention to everyone else’s moves so we can enjoy the game together—and I find myself saying things that sound like: Coby slow down, its not how fast you get to the end of your life, but how you live it, it’s what you do along the way, it’s how you play the game of LIFE that makes it fun for all of us. Maybe you’ll be a manicurist, maybe you’ll have 6 children—because that’s all that will fit in the little car.

Of course, now it’s occurring to me that this game has profound moral and Jewish implications. It’s not how fast you live your life, but the process and the quality, what you do along the way, the relationships that you nurture. Pirkei Avot, chapter 2 says: “Which is the right path for man to choose for himself? Whatever is harmonious for the one who does it, and harmonious for mankind.” As I play, I find myself more and more interested in the little LIFE cards —the ones that my kids rush past without reading, the tiles that credit you for doing something helpful or selfless for society.  

So you do something meaningful that helps someone else, and you understand you won’t get paid for it now, but at the end of your lifetime suddenly it has value, and it is counted as part of your ‘worth’. Pirkei Avot, chapter 4 asks: “Who is wise? One who learns from every one. Who is rich? One who is satisfied with what he has. Who is honorable, one who honors all of his fellow man.”

Now… I’m excited and I’m yelling to my kids—these cards, these are mitzvoth!

It turns out this is a deeply Jewish game that draws from the best teachings of our tradition. You do something meaningful for others, something in your free time, something you feel compelled to do--Judaism calls it tzedakah, justice, righteousness, and it changes the ‘game’ for people. It is an obligation, like in the game of ‘Life’, you do it simply because you landed there. It is an obligation, part of our life, that is the real meaning of mitzvoth, from tzav, that which we are commanded to do. In fact, our teachings instruct us to “run to do even the smallest mitzvah, as doing a mitzvah brings on another mitzvah”.

You 7^th graders who are here tonight, you stand teetering before Jewish adulthood—you are going to be asked more and more frequently to spin the dial yourself. Please don’t go home and bury yourselves in front of your computer or the TV—instead, spin the dial: continue to study and deepen your ties to Jews here and in Israel, help someone who is in need—choose things that don’t reap monetary value now, but give you greater rewards as you mature.  Start to pursue what your game of life will look like, collect as many tiles as you can, ask questions and have wonderful experiences along the way.

So I will say again what I say to Ben and Coby—don’t rush-- how we play the game of LIFE is what makes it so much fun. Turn the spinner slowly.

We say about the Torah, that everything is in it, and by continuing to turn it and turn it, we can examine and learn from its wisdom, and continue to apply these teachings to our life. Just like this crazy spinner on this game that is not so silly after all:

TURN IT AND TURN IT AND TURN IT, TURN IT AND TURN IT AROUND, EVERYTHING IS IN IT, EVERYTHING IS IN IT, TURN IT AND TURN IT AROUND….

MUCH WISDOM HAVE I LEARNED FROM MY TEACHERS, MORE HAVE I LEARNED FROM MY FRIENDS, BUT FROM MY STUDENTS, HAVE I LEARNED THE MOST OF ALL.