Sinai Update – Week of March 22-28, 2009
Parashat Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1 – 5:26)
Reflections on the Jewish Calendar – Rabbi Andy Vogel

Just two weeks from tonight, Jews around the world will gather around Seder tables to celebrate the festival of Passover (the first Seder is held on Wednesday evening, April 8).  Each year, as my family tells the story of our people’s liberation from Egyptian slavery, I am amazed at the tremendous hopefulness and optimism that is central to Judaism.  One teaching from the Hagaddah, buried in the “Maggid” section just before the meal is served, serves as Passover’s summary:  the possibility exists for humans to move “from slavery to freedom, from bondage to redemption, from misery to joy, from mourning to rejoicing, and from deep darkness to great light.”
   

But Judaism doesn’t teach that this transition occurs with the simplicity and ease of a Hollywood ending.  Reaching a higher plane of life only comes if we accept upon ourselves responsibility and commit to the hard work of realizing our goal.  Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi of Great Britain, writes: “The Jewish narrative does not ask us to believe in a world in which there are simple happy endings.  Nor does it allow us to take refuge in the cynical belief that every aspiration ends in failure…. Far from being simple or naive, hope demands, creates and is the expression indomitable moral courage” (Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s Haggadah, p. 118).  Looking around us at our world as we prepare for the Passover festival, we can be inspired by the Hagaddah to be courageous and make our own commitments to work for a more just society, to build a more responsible social order, and to strive for a more compassionate world. 
- Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – Week of March 15-21, 2009
Parashat Vayak’hel (Exodus 35:2 – 38:20)
Reflections on the Jewish World – Rabbi Andy Vogel

With major news in Israel this week – specifically, of a probable failure in negotiations with Hamas to return the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and of an announcement of the formation of a new Israeli government coalition that will be solidly right-wing – it is another moment for American Jews to consider our relationship with the State of Israel.  We can applaud Israel’s leaders for extending Hamas a reasonable offer to return 300+ Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Hamas’ return of one Israeli soldier.  Sadly, Hamas chose to reject this proposal, and Gilad Shalit will likely remain captive for another long period of time.  As Jews, we are reminded of our responsibility for all other Jews, and we pray for his return to his home.
   

With the window of opportunity closing on those negotiations, a new government is near formation under the leadership of Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu with the nationalist “Yisrael Beiteinu” party of Avigdor Lieberman playing an important role in the coaltion.  Those of us deeply uncomfortable with the rise of Lieberman to become Foreign Minister must speak out on moral grounds against his positions on citizens rights for all Israelis, and caution him against any steps that would deny Israel’s minorities the basic civil liberties that all Israelis deserve.  It is troubling that commitment to a peace initiative is not part of the coalition agreement.  As the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, wrote, for American Jews committed to a progressive Israel, “this is [our] moment of truth.”  (Read Rabbi Yoffie’s statement on Lieberman here: urj.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=25429.)  As American Jews, we can encourage our own American government to engage Israel’s leaders in the peace process.  We can also voice our own concern to Israel’s leaders to work for a lasting and meaningful peace.  We must not be silent, but rather, we must reaffirm our commitment to engagement with Israel on a political, as well as spiritual, level.
- Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – Week of March 8-14, 2009
Parashat Ki Tisa (Exodus 30:11 – 34:35)
Reflections on the Torah Portion – Rabbi Andy Vogel
Where is God found?  This is a question we are always asking in our attempts to define God, to single out God, and point to a distinct entity that is God.  At the Golden Calf episode, in this week’s Torah portion, the Israelites did just that, saying “This is your god, O Israel!” as they danced around their idol (Exod. 32:4).  They sinned by doing so.  But what about us – where can we find God, now knowing their mistake?
    

The answer is found elsewhere in the Torah portion, when the discussion turns to ceasing from our labor on Shabbat.  God says, “I hereby make a covenant… Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest from labor” (Exod 34:10, 21).  We are reminded that we experience God’s presence in our resting on Shabbat from the writings of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who asked “…[W]here shall the likeness of God be found?  There is no quality that space has in common with the essence of God.  There is not enough freedom on the top of a mountain; there is not enough glory in the silence of the sea.  Yet the likeness of God can be found in time, which is eternity in disguise.” (Heschel, The Sabbath, p. 16)  When we seek the peace and tranquility of ceasing from our labors, finite in their very definition, we can approach the infinite Oneness of simply being, and find the Source of All Being, God.

- Rabbi Andy Vogel

Sinai Update – Week of March 1-7, 2009
Parashat Tetzaveh (Exodus 27:20-30:10)
Purim P-U begins Monday evening, March 9
Reflections on the Jewish Calendar – Rabbi Andy Vogel

Thank goodness for Purim!  We need some levity in our lives, and this year Purim arrives just in time!  Purim, our super-silly holiday, the celebration of how Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews was turned up-side-down upon himself, is our moment of release, an opportunity to laugh not just at the Hamans in our lives, but also at ourselves.  With all the tzuris in the world, we sure need Purim right now!
    

In this raucous holiday we drown out the name of wicked Haman when we hear it read from the Megillah.  Haman, a descendant of the Jewish arch-enemy Amalek, who attacked the Jewish people in the desert for no good reason, and represents all evil in the world .  In other words, Haman is the self-aggrandizing ego who will sacrifice human life in great numbers for the sake of his own edification.  In an age when the selfish behaviors of a few have recently brought about financial upheaval in our own society, the holiday of Purim is an opportunity for poking fun at that selfishness in a story when good wins out over evil in black-and-white terms.  We need Purim to help us laugh in dark times, and to restore our faith in goodness, even if the holiday’s story is so unabashedly ridiculous.
    

I hope you’ll join us for the Megillah reading for all ages this coming Monday night, March 9 at 5:45 p.m., followed by Adult Purim Study at 7:30 p.m.  Also, our fantastic Temple Sinai Annual Purim Shpiel (see below), the “Rocky Horror Purim Shpiel,” premiers next Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m., starring the shameless Sinai Players.  Join us!  And may you have a very Happy Purim!
-       Rabbi Andy Vogel