- Masters of repentance. Many Jews who had left their Judaism behind find a way home to the Jewish people. In our Focus section, "Coming Home to Judaism," we present the stories of four such returnees, each of whom has found his/her way back via a uniquely personal path. (p. 30)
- According to author Rabbi Elliot M. Strom: "'Mikveh' has the power to purify, restore, and replenish our spiritual lives. It can symbolize changes in our status, sacralize new beginnings, transform us, and help us to see ourselves in new ways. Above all, immersing oneself in the 'mikveh' allows for a very personal, private meditative experience, a place to commune alone with God. That's why it is used by observant women around their monthly cycle, by Jewish men and women before Shabbat and festivals, by brides (and sometimes grooms) before their wedding day, and by converts of both sexes...Our clean, modern, and inclusive "mikveh" [at Shir Ami, Bucks County Congregation in Newtown, PA] also helps provide spiritual comfort to congregants who have endured the pain of miscarriage, the violation of rape, the shame of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse. And our "mikveh" offers a glorious, sacred way to celebrate new chapters in our lives, after surgery or the launching of a new enterprise or significant birthday." (pp. 80-81)
- Writes UAHC President Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie: "In Numbers 24. we read the words of praise for Israel spoken by the prophet Balaam: 'How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, thy dwelling place, O Israel.' According to Rashi, the great biblical commentator, 'How goodly are thy tents' refers to the fact that in Israel's camp, the tent openings are not lined up across from one another. The greatest praise that Balaam could offer was to point out that the people of Israel always set up their camp in such a way so that one neither revealed what was happening in one's own tent nor did one peek into somebody else's. Jews are taught to place great value on privacy and to refrain from searching out someone else's moral indiscretions. To do otherwise would be to destroy the modesty and self-restraint on which appropriate communal standards are based, thereby undermining the moral fabric of the community." (p. 2)
- According to Rabbi Eugene Borowitz: "The religious leaders [German Jews in the mid-19th century] had three arguments for their innovation. First, they felt that prayer for a King Messiah would hurt their chances of gaining full citizenship. The anticipated Son of David was to reestablish Jewish political rule and bring the exiles of his people back to their homeland. If they prayed for such national restoration, could the Jews be genuinely loyal to the countries in which they lived? Should citizenship be granted to people of such divided loyalties? The traditional Messiah-idea, by blocking the full emancipation of the Jews, seemed an impediment to Jewish survival.
"Second, messianism had become highly miraculous. The modern temper, increasingly impressed with science's accomplishments, found such an attitude toward history utterly unacceptable. Who could believe that one person, by some special powers of leadership, would reestablish a Jewish state, bring back all the Jews, establish an ideal social order, revolutionize international relations, and inaugurate a time leading to a resurrection of the dead and God's judgment day?
"Third, the liberals felt they had a much more realistic theory of messianism: democracy. Here they followed their principle that traditional Judaism had given too great emphasis to God's acts and that modern religiosity ought to focus on humanity's powers. Instead of God sending an ideal king, they foresaw all humankind working together and by social reconstruction producing a perfected world. In place of people being relatively passive, performing their religious duties but relying on God to redeem history, they would become activists, applying their reason and conscience to effect their salvation." (p. 14)
- According to author Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin: "From a Jewish perspective, the struggle for virtue is itself a virtue. Human behavior is nuanced and dynamic-never purely right or wrong, virtuous or venal.... Before each of us can find wholeness, we must first make peace with that dark side, with what Karl Jung called 'the shadow.' We must understand it, know it, even embrace it. As our sages said, without the "yetzer ha-ra"--the evil inclination, the unholy impulse--the world could not exist. The disgruntled royal author of the book of Ecclesiastes muses: 'And I saw that all labor, and every skill in work, comes from a man's envy of his neighbor.' And we read in Midrash, "Bereshit Rabbah 9:7," 'Without the evil inclination, no one would father a child, build a house, or make a career.'
"The "yetzer ha-ra" is not all evil; it is also libido, ego, and the striving for power. Long before Freud wrote about sublimation, our ancient sages recognized the creative potential of our dark side. To 'love God with all your heart' (Deut. 6:4) is to love God with all that is within us--the good and bad parts. In the words of the chasidic master Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev: 'Make peace with your "yetzer ha-ra" and put it to use for the good of the world.'" (pp. 20-22)
- As author Bonny Fetterman recounts in her summation and review of Leon Wieseltier's memoir, entitled "Kaddish": "The 'Kaddish,' occurring several times in a service, was simply a coda following an utterance of Scripture. Only gradually, around the 12th century and in the aftermath of the massacres during the Crusades, was one of its recitations reserved for mourners. Eventually, it became known as the mourner's prayer." (p. 55)
- A descendant of Jacob who leads Moses to Joseph's coffin prior to the Exodus. (p. 48)
- In the Central Conference of American Rabbis' new prayer book (to be completed in approximately 5 years), two women rabbis have been named co-editors (Rabbis Judith Abrams and Elyse Frishman) and lay people will be involved far more extensively in its conception, production, and testing than ever before (largely due to "The Role of Laity in Worship and the Development of Liturgy," a five-year study funded by grants to the Central Conference from the Lilly Endowment and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, in which 47 Reform congregations participated in a self-study to evaluate their members' worship experiences). (pp. 24-29)
- Some of the key issues are:
- How much Hebrew should the new prayer book contain?
Should there be transliteration in the new prayer book? If so, how much, and where should it appear in the book?
- Should prayers be translated literally?
- How much "teaching" (choreographic instructions, marginal notes and commentaries) can be incorporated into liturgy without disrupting the flow of worship or creating a cluttered, confusing page design?
- What elements of content and layout will provide for the greatest flexibility and sensitivity to different musical styles in the worship experience?
- How can the prayer book balance opportunities for participatory singing with the traditional liturgy's structure of the cantor's call and the congregation's response?
- What kinds of language will help Reform worshipers connect with God in deep and powerful ways?
- Can the prayer book offer a theological umbrella large enough to shelter the full spectrum of Reform belief?
- Should God be evoked in gender-neutral language, or in words that incorporate both male and female images?
- Should the language of prayer, whether Hebrew or English, be altered in order to reflect a more inclusive theology?
- Should the prayer book include poetry and readings from other cultural and religious traditions?
- Can the new prayer book remain faithful to ancient traditions of Jewish communal worship while helping individual worshipers find personal meaning in the prayers?
- How can a "siddur" incorporate both "keva" (stable elements of the liturgy) and "kavanna" (elements of novelty and spontaneity)?
- How can the English style of the prayer book satisfy those congregants who consider the cadences of the "Union Prayer Book" "beautiful and poetic" and those who reject its language as "archaic and obsolete"?
- What elements of design will make the new prayer book beautiful and easy to use--rich enough in resources to be treasured for many years, yet not so bulky that, as one rabbi said of the "Gates of Prayer," "you need a forklift to pick it up"?
- Should the CCAR produce an electronic version of the new prayer book that would allow individual clergy and synagogues to customize their own services? (pp.24-29)
- Baruch Spinoza (p. 50)
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