Dear Friends:                               

This past week during his radio program Rabbi Yitzchak Wyne of Young Israel Aish Ha Torah in Las Vegas stood idly by and laughed as the co-host of the show and past president of his congregation, Peter Dubowski, called the Conservative Movement a breeding ground for Jews for Jesus.  Rabbi Wyne sat in silence as Mr. Dubowski informed his radio audience that Conservative Jews are, by and large, ignorant and devoid of spirituality because they have removed God from their congregations.   (Please click here to access the audio clip.)  As Conservative Jews, and for the sake of Klal Yisrael, we cannot allow this type of divisive speech to flourish.  This is an example of baseless hatred disguised under the cloak of leadership in the Jewish community.  At a time when Israel is being attacked from all sides and when anti-Semitism is rampant in the world, these two individuals chose to attack other Jews with lies and misinformation in order to advance their own agenda.  Leadership in the Jewish community belongs to those capable of rising above differences in order to advance the ideals of God, Torah and Israel, which can make both our community and the world a better place.  At such a crucial time in the history of the Jewish People, Rabbi Wyne and Mr. Dubowski chose to devote their efforts to dividing our people instead of bringing us together.

It is time to speak out about what this type of irresponsible “leadership” can do to our community.  If we want to build a community where God will dwell among us there is no place for venomous and reckless speech. If you know anyone who is a member of Young Israel Aish Torah please ask them if they agree with their Rabbi.  While Rabbi Wyne did not speak these words himself the Talmud teaches us Shtikah K’hoda’ah Dami! – Silence is equal to agreement!

Share on Facebook

Before I begin to write the words that I really want to write, I want to take a trip down memory lane. Let me warn you though, these are not pleasant memories. I remember it as if it happened yesterday.

I was a rabbinical student at The Jewish Theological Seminary. Shabbat Nov. 4, 1995 seemed to be just like any other Shabbat; it turned out to be a day that changed the fabric and soul of the Jewish People forever.

I will never forget that Saturday night. I remember turning on our TV just to find out that Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin had been assassinated. I also recall with absolute horror the first words I uttered after I heard the news. “I have this horrible feeling that it was a Jew who shot him!” When my wife heard the words come out of my mouth, she stood there in complete and absolute disbelief. After we learned what happened, we as a People also stood lonely and shaken, feeling betrayed and disgusted. That was just the beginning of something we had no idea had been set in motion.

Our Sages of blessed memory warn us constantly and profoundly in their writings about what happens when we turn on each other. We know for a fact that the destruction of The Holy Temple in Jerusalem was caused by the deep divisions and hate that separated The Jewish People at the time. One needs to look no further than the writings of Josephus to understand that the hate we held for one another was very real, intense and yes, it was deadly.

Very often I wonder how it is that we can’t learn from our own history. For centuries, we taught our children how to read and write even when other cultures wasted no time in what seemed to be a trivial matter. For centuries, we grappled with history knowing full well that Sinat Hinam, baseless hatred, spreads and kills more accurately than the most modern of weapons.

Hate triumphs because it is championed by fanatics, it triumphs because it preys on people’s ignorance. Back in 1995, the Rabin assassination was not an isolated act, it was the result of hundreds of hateful speeches. It was the result of careless and irresponsible behavior of many. It was the result of a perverted use of our Torah to justify murder and bloodshed. It happened then and it happened this past Shabbat, again.

Last Saturday night, a gunman made his way into the gay and lesbian youth center in Tel Aviv. He opened fire, killing two people and wounding many others. WHY? I think we all know the answer but refuse to understand it. Judaism is a tradition of light and life but just like any other religion, it can turn into a deadly weapon if perverted or misunderstood. It doesn’t matter who you are — liberal, conservative, orthodox, reform! It doesn’t matter what your political views are.

We were tasked by God with being Or L’Goyim, a light unto the nations. Is that the way in which we are behaving? Just like Rabin’s assassination was not an isolated act that happened in a vacuum, this shooting won’t be either. One needs not to dig too deep into the recent past and listen to the speeches or read the writings of many of Israel’s leading Ultra Orthodox Rabbis. When speaking about homosexuality, they all have a common thread running through them, an unbelievable hateful and primitive understanding of homosexuality. They seem to ignore, time and time again, that all of us are created in the image of God.

So what happens now? Something like this shooting is not only barbaric but has no place in an enlightened society like Israel. What happens when wolfs in sheep’s clothing use The Torah to hide their ignorance and turn it on its head to justify hate?

No one knows what happens next, but I sure hope that we don’t turn the other way. It is unbelievable that having been the subject of hatred, torture and so many false and calamitous accusations through time we allow this to happen again. I hope the criminal who perpetrated this cruel act will be brought to justice and locked up in the deepest of pits that exist in the Israeli Judicial System! I hope that we understand that hateful speech in Israel needs to be stopped! I hope that all of us understand that Rabbinic Ordination is not a license to use your tongue for evil! I hope we understand that unless we STAND UP to this type of hate, it will not be stopped by anyone.

I read a beautiful prayer by Bradley Burston who writes for The Haaretz newspaper. I will include it here because it is a beautiful way of understanding how we all should be feeling after this horrible tragedy.

_____________________

For Liz Trobishi, 17, and Nir Katz, 26, of blessed memory, and for the recovery of the 15 young people wounded late Saturday by a gunman in a Tel Aviv club for gay teens.

_____________________

Lord, teach me to stand naked before you
And, in so doing, learn the meaning of modesty.

Let me stand naked, which is to say, stripped to my humanity,
And mourn these young people shot
For having chosen to practice
Their own humanity.

Cause me, Lord, to shed this defective armor,
Which we call clothing, respectability, convention,
The mask which we mistake for loyalty to tribe.
The mask which keeps me from seeing the face behind the mask of the tribe we have come to call enemy.

At the close of this dark anniversary, this time when tradition tells us, the worst of calamities were wrought by sinat hinam, hatred unbound, hatred for its own sake, teach me what I need to know about my true enemy.

Force me to see that what I am so certain that I hate, the clear, familiar targets of my fury, are already inside me.

Help me heal of this contagion, this cruel disease which scars and hardens the soul, which cores and blackens and blinds the heart, this affliction which feeds on self-righteousness and the conviction that God plays favorites, that the person whose behavior and appearance, and ways of speaking and dancing and loving are foreign to me, has less right to a true self than I.

Rock me awake, O Lord who invented the mosaic, the patchwork, the universe.
Force me to see the miracle of every life on the threshold
Of what we have come to know as
Real life.

Let me know that in the beginning, real life is created through ahavat hinam, love unbound, love unfiltered, love unselfish, love shorn of armor and unkindness and judgment and ancient rage.

Lord, whose business it is to give life, shock us, cajole us, manipulate us, bring us to heel, force us in this terrible moment to know the enormity and the necessity of chesed, lovingkindness.

Lord, whose great gift and whose most murderous creation was the human being, help us find the human in the Other, hated from habit and from afar. Help us up, the mourning, the remnant, those whom tragedy has in cruelty and in lovingkindness left alive. Teach us to honor the slain by honoring the living, their own behavior and appearance and speech, the dancing and the loving of those doing nothing more banal and nothing more extraordinary, than living a genuinely real life.

© Rabbi Felipe Goodman

Share on Facebook

This evening we will begin the observance of The Holy Day of Shavuot. As we do every year, we will prepare ourselves to spiritually re-enact the moment in which God gave us The Torah.  It is ironic that  is one of the least widely observed Jewish Holy Days in our calendar because it is of tremendous importance. Of the three festivals of pilgrimage mentioned in The Torah (Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot), Shavuot is the only one that is apparently simple in observance.  There are no days of Hol Hamoed, there is no Lulav and Etrog, no Matzah! Shavuot, however, is the most spiritually and theologically charged of all the festivals. What does it really mean to receive The Torah, why do we have to consider ourselves as if every single one of us was standing at Sinai?

Receiving The Torah means not only to treasure it and study it. Receiving The Torah means not only to accept its wisdom and live by its principles! Receiving The Torah means that we acquire a tremendous responsibility as Jews. Contrary to what many people believe, Judaism is something that needs to be practiced and lived in order to be relevant. The mere fact that we consider ourselves Jewish today does not mean we will be Jewish some generations down the line if we don’t actively pursue, augment and nourish our Jewish Identity. Judaism can’t exist on good will, nice intentions and Bagels and Lox. In order for us to survive as a people we need to understand what it means to stand at Sinai year after year, we need to renew our commitment to God and God’s commandments year after year. 

Wait a second, does this mean that what I am asking of you is to dress in black and grow peyes? Not at all. What I am asking of all of us is to take our commitment to our traditions seriously. What I am asking of us all is that we look at the world through The Perspective of The Torah! What I am asking is that we make Judaism the driving force in our lives because if we don’t do it, then who will?

Conservative Judaism through its vision of tradition and change provides us with an incredible kaleidoscope through which to look at The Torah. Modernity and observance are not mutually exclusive!  hey are, as a matter of fact, two very powerful forces that when harnessed spiritually and correctly can make our lives even more beautiful.

I have a friend who I fight with constantly. He keeps telling me that there are certain things he won’t do because this or that “is too Jewish,” as if the mere fact of being who we are is cause for concern or embarrassment. I grew up in a Jewish Community with an over abundance of “Secular Jewish Day schools,” where learning with other Jews was okay but there was absolutely no praying or learning of sacred texts! Why do we believe that we will continue to survive as a people without investing our spirit and our energy in the full enterprise of our heritage and traditions. On Shavuot, we read the Ten Commandments from The Torah in the synagogue ritual. The reading of the Ten Commandments is not only a statement of the importance of revelation but also of the importance of everything we have given the world, including justice and ethics!

One of the most important things to remember is that we as a people have been a determining factor in the way in which the moral fabric of the world has developed. We can’t resign our obligation to be Or L’Goyim  (a light unto the nations of the world). 

Shavuot is an ever present reminder of the tremendous power the wisdom of our Torah has had in shaping everything around us. We shouldn’t be the first people in line to relinquish our obligation to carry on the important responsibility of everything we believe in and everything we stand for. We should never mind being “too Jewish” if that means we will continue to serve not only as a moral compass for the world but also as witnesses of God’s awesome power in this world.

Every Shavuot I think of our grandparents and their grandparents. For many of the people that came before us it would have been impossible to study The Torah and live Jewish lives openly, in public and without any possible fear of retribution. What are we doing ourselves now that we have the privilege of freedom and tolerance? Let us not forsake the heritage, the lives and the spirit of past generations. Let us make The Torah our own and stand at Sinai once again, together, proud and absolutely Jewish

Hag Sameach

Share on Facebook

When summer arrives, I go through an almost indescribable feeling of redemption. I can only imagine what the experience of The Wilderness was like for The Children of Israel. Yes, I know that they complained constantly for having left Egypt. Yes, we all know that during some very difficult times of the 40-year journey, slavery seemed like a better option that facing the uncertainty of the never ending apparent desolation of the territory they covered in their journey through The Midbar.

One of the most important questions to ask ourselves year after year as we study this part of The Torah is –why would God reveal himself to his people in The Wilderness? When you think of all the places God could have chosen to give us The Torah, it is really kind of dramatic that God chose the desolation of The Midbar, The Wilderness. The traditional explanation found in The Midrash Rabbah tells us that God chose The Wilderness precisely because he wanted people to not have any distractions when they were invested in the spiritual exercise not only of receiving The Torah but also in understanding what that moment meant!

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Have you ever thought about what our life would be like without trivial distractions? When I was a child, I was able to sit down and do my homework and the only distraction my parents feared were the four different TV stations that we had at the time, beyond that and my regularly scheduled sport activities the distractions were not what they are today. Think about our children. We demand so much of them, we ask them to compartmentalize themselves in such a way that they often have no time to just perceive reality in a simple and open wilderness type of way. Think about what happens every afternoon in many of our homes. Hours of homework combined with the most technologically advanced and sophisticated distractions modernity can buy. Did I mention 500 TV channels, the web and online games?

Sometimes in life we have to willingly place ourselves in The Wilderness. I know, it sounds crazy! But it’s not so crazy. The other day I was having a conversation with a friend, we were talking about different types of medication that children with “ADD” take so that they are better able to focus in school or in their daily activities. I couldn’t believe it but I found out that many adults try to take this medication because it allows them to focus better in work and be more productive. I also learned that in many college dorms there is a new drug problem which extends itself beyond the drugs we already know about and into medications that help you stay awake and write a better paper in less time.

There is a message in this week’s Torah Portion. Simplicity works. The Midbar can be a place of desolation or a place where someone who is searching can focus and find what he or she has been looking for. This week’s Torah Portion begs us to return to things that are not complicated, to empty our lives of distractions that cause us to lose focus and lose sight of the important things in life.

Our Sages taught that we always have to follow in the footsteps of God. Our tradition is shaped in many ways by our persistence in trying to imitate Godliness. This is one of the most important messages to understand and then use for our own existence. Make yourself open like the wilderness, eliminate from your life that which separates you from whom you truly are and just like we received The Torah our most precious heritage and possession in the middle of The Midbar, may we be always blessed to understand the meaning of the blessings that are given to us by others without distractions or conditions.

Shabbat Shalom

Share on Facebook

Rabbi Akiva, for example, believed that every word, every letter, every space in The Torah serves a specific purpose and has a specific meaning.

Rabbi Ishmael, on the other hand, was the one who taught us that The Torah speaks the language of human beings. Truth be told, whichever our approach to understanding our sacred literature, one thing is certain — somehow we can always see our own reality reflected in its powerful words.

The Torah Portion which we read this week is no exception. Parashat Lech Lecha tells the story of our father Abraham. It tells the story of a man that dared to change the world in an age when everything seemed to be engulfed by darkness.

Abraham had the courage, both moral and spiritual, to start anew and go on a journey that would not only change his life but the life of all those around him. Today our country starts a similar journey.

I understand that for many of us the past few months have been charged with tremendous anxiety. Some of us feel elated and some of us perhaps devastated — but the truth is that whatever the outcome was, we are all together on this journey.  If you had the opportunity to listen to the words spoken by President Elect Barak Obama last night, I am sure that you were as moved as I was. I believe the words of Senator McCain were also powerful and inspiring. As a new American Citizen, it is hard for me to put into words what it feels like to be part of a nation where corruption, violence and anarchy are not what we live by but rather truth, freedom and hope.

Parashat Lech Lecha introduces a unique way to start chapters within a particular story. It uses a phrase that is used on and off throughout the first part of The Book of Genesis; “Vayehi Ahar Ha Devarim Ha Ele…” which according to The Midrash Rabbah may be translated as, “And it came to pass after all these words were spoken…” and the text uses that sentence structure to fast forward to the future and jump from scene to scene and from story to story.

I feel as if this morning we woke up to a whole new reality in our world we ourselves could use those words; “And it came to pass after all these words were spoken…” Truth be told, the historical events that are unfolding before our eyes belong not to one candidate or one person or one political party — they belong to the entire American People. This is our journey — some of us willingly and many a bit reluctantly but we are all together in our nations own Lech Lecha.

Look at our Torah; it contains eternal truth, its words are not only wise and meaningful but also powerful and relevant. When Abraham smashed the idols in his father’s shop, he did not know what would happen next. He set off on his journey and after listening to God’s voice and to the voice of his own heart, Abraham becomes the father of a great nation.

Change is one of the most difficult things in life to understand because it challenges us to see reality in a different way. Change can be difficult and many times it signals abrupt changes in culture and in conduct but when change comes and when it is needed, it is impossible to stop.

Abraham was a revolutionary figure. He changed the world not because he could but because he had to.  Abraham’s journey was not easy, it was filled with trials, tears and fear but it was rewarded with life, hope and accomplishment! The Jewish People have looked at Abraham’s journey for centuries and through it we have found renewed strength and an everlasting impetus that has caused us to walk through time and never give up no matter how difficult the road ahead may seem.

It is my prayer that starting today we understand the true essence of a life-changing journey. We are the people who gave the world the concept of change! Before Abraham, everything was always the same, through our narrative we gave all humanity the opportunity to be inspired and to understand that journeys begin with one individual but are completed by all of us together.

No matter who you are and what political beliefs you hold, you must agree last night was a tremendously moving night — both Barak Obama’s words and John McCain’s words have the power to change the course of history. For the first time in my life, I recited Shecheyanu after witnessing a political event. I prayed to God and recited a blessing for having granted me the opportunity to witness such an important moment in the life of our nation. Like in our own story, it all started with a dream, with a call that developed into a vision that set us on a journey. May this journey bring change for good and for blessing and may it take us from strength to strength.

© Rabbi Felipe Goodman

Share on Facebook

About six months ago, I discovered something that many of you discovered way before I did.  Even though I am known for having all the gadgets and I do mean ALL THE GADGETS (I am still in the market for one of the new iPOD NANOS), sometimes I am a late comer to social technology.  For months I kept getting messages to join Facebook.  

I ignored the messages because, after all, “Who has time to just sit in front of a computer and count how many friends you have on any given day?”

I was also nervous because what would happen if I didn’t get as many friends as I thought I had or if The Cantor ended up with many more friends than me.  What if my numbers would not reflect my position.  What if one of my congregants ignored my request to become a friend?  What if I wanted to ignore the request of one of my congregants? I had all sorts of fears, but then one day I got an email from a friend from elementary school that I hadn’t seen in 23 years.  So, I decided it was time for me to join and the first thing I did was to fill in my profile information.  

I did it in a very detailed way. I listed all my degrees, all my accomplishments. I wrote that I was the proud father of three, married to Liz and the proud Rabbi of a congregation of outstanding people in Las Vegas.   When my daughter Ari, my 7-year-old saw me doing this, she quickly said to me; “No one wants to know what you do, they all want to know what you look like!”  After reality sank in, I proceeded  to select a profile picture.  

Selecting a profile picture may seem like a simple enough task, until you realize that people who haven’t seen you in 23 or 25 years or even more are going to be extra curious. I carefully selected a picture where Yoshua and Daniela appeared cautiously placed in front of me, like a shield. It was then that I discovered that there was going to be one thing that Facebook would ultimately make me confront: TIME IS UNSTOPPABLE!

Facebook is a very interesting phenomenon. It has over 100 million members all over the world. One thing that it does is that it allows you to look through the face and into the life of people in a way in which it had never been done before.

Facebook translated into Hebrew would be SEFER HA PANIM, which sounds more like the title of a Kabbalistic masterpiece than the name of a social website.

So what have I learned after all this months of being in Facebook?  I have learned that once you get past the initial shock, once you see all your classmates from elementary school, you suddenly realize how much things have changed, but you also realize that beautiful faces have been replaced by beautiful hearts!  

The American poet born in Virginia in 1912 Martin Buxbaum once wrote: “Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty – they merely move it from their faces into their hearts.” , and so… you begin to ask yourself important questions.  

Where are the missing ones?

Eventually you discover that some of the people you grew up with are no longer in this world. You see the 5th grade class picture and you remember so many things; your best friend growing up, your dreams of becoming a sport legend! Your first love! But you also see an incomplete picture of the present because as soon as you ask about those who are now silent, those whose voices you don’t hear or sense in Sefer Ha Panim, then you realize when someone tells you that a sudden heart attack, cancer, a violent accident took them away in an instant and their lives became just a passing shadow — I found that no one asks too many questions about the missing ones, because there is a profound sense of anxiety!

Then the second realization suddenly hits you.  

It could have been me! I am so lucky to be alive, to be able to see my family every day. To be able to touch them and say to them I love you.

It is just a matter of time, because in 20, 30 years from now, another very natural process will begin, we won’t ask about the missing ones but rather about those who are still here.

As reality begins to sink in, you suddenly become distracted by Facebook – a friend just posted a picture of when you were 18-years-old! It is there for the world to see, in my case for all my congregation to see! I looked like Tom Hanks in Castaway.  I was discovered by a 7th grader who thinks I looked better with a full beard!

Then you are distracted again by one of those one line statements that people write. I have my favorites. We have some very talented writers in our congregation who write the best one liners. One person writes how proud she is of her kids, another about how she is fighting jet lag after her last trip. One of our USYers writes about pulling an all-nighter in preparing for a test, and then my favorite: DJ is making spaghetti!

Believe it or not, Facebook gave me an insight into one of the most sacred elements of life. What do we do with our days, how do we spend our time. Are we living meaningful lives? Every time I see one of those one line statements I chuckle privately. These statements come from the very core of our being, it is us crying out for others to understand who we are.

When we are told that we are created B’Tzelem Elohim (In the image of God). We are indeed affirming that within each one of us there is something eternal. That part of us, whatever it is endures in a way we can’t understand.

Week after week, year after year — this is the real question that we face. What do we do with the short time that we are given, how do we transform that time into something eternal! How are we to view the fact that this time will end. It is the greatest single fact about life, IT IS NOT FOREVER! And then how can we strive to find blessing in memory and eternity in remembrance?

In the Jewish tradition, the single greatest fact about death is that it is not complete and that is why again and again we are told to associate the word life with death. Why when we enter a Jewish Cemetery it says above the gates “Beit Hachayim” – House of Life! Because as we are told in the book of Job as Job faces the destruction of his loved ones around him, Job says “V’ani yadati ki Gaali Hai” – For I know that my redeemer lives. God is called in the Yom Kippur Liturgy “Zocher Kol Ha Nishkachot,”  The one who remembers everything. In memory we always find life.

Last Tuesday morning, I sent the congregation an email with a little pre-Yom Kippur homework. I asked you to watch a video of the last lecture given by professor Randy Pausch, who taught robotics and communication at The Carnegie Mellon University. After being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, he was asked to deliver “The last lecture” which used to be a tradition at Carnegie Mellon, where they asked you to give a lecture as if you knew it was the last one before you died?

The Last Lecture (click here for complete version on YouTube)

Bellow is just an abridged version of the lecture as presented in Oprah’s TV Show:

As we come together this afternoon, we have to be asking many of the same questions Randy Pausch asked himself. Unlike him, we have the luxury of accepting them as a challenge and not as the reality of a life cut short.  

Do you remember your childhood dreams?

Have you enabled the dreams of others?

What lessons have you learned?

Randy Pausch was not Jewish, but this is one of the most Jewish approaches to life that I have ever seen.  Our tradition teaches that it is precisely by empowering others that we ourselves will be empowered to achieve all of our dreams in life.

In his lecture and throughout his book, where he shares short stories about his life, we find time and time again a remarkable concept. WHEN YOU HIT A BRICK WALL, DON’T SEE IT AS DEFEAT, TURN IT INTO AN OPPORTUNITY!!!

His last lecture is a vivid example of that. A man who knows he is dying , who is facing the ultimate brick wall, chooses to share with his three children and with the world his philosophy of life. He turns a brick wall into an incredible testimony of life, accomplishment and hope.

Some years ago I HEARD A SONG BY TIM MCGRAW entitled, “Live like you were dying” which really caught my attention. I am sorry to disappoint you, I am not a country music fan but I love that song.

Allow me to share the lyrics with you:

He said: “I was in my early forties,

“With a lot of life before me,

“An’ a moment came that stopped me on a dime.

“I spent most of the next days,

“Looking at the x-rays,

“An’ talking ’bout the options an’ talkin’ ‘bout sweet time.”

I asked him when it sank in,

That this might really be the real end?

How’s it hit you when you get that kind of news?

Man whatcha do?

An’ he said: “I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,

“I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.

“And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,

“And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying.”

An’ he said: “Some day, I hope you get the chance,

“To live like you were dyin’.”

He said “I was finally the husband,

“That most the time I wasn’t.

“An’ I became a friend a friend would like to have.

“And all of a sudden goin’ fishin’,

“Wasn’t such an imposition,

“And I went three times that year I lost my Dad.

“Well, I finally read the Good Book,

“And I took a good long hard look,

“At what I’d do if I could do it all again,

“And then:

“I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,

“I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.

“And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,

“And I gave forgiveness I’d been denying.”

An’ he said: “Some day, I hope you get the chance,

“To live like you were dyin’.”

Like tomorrow was a gift,

And you got eternity,

To think about what you’d do with it.

An’ what did you do with it?

An’ what can I do with it?

An’ what would I do with it?

“Sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,

“I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.

“And then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,

“And I watched Blue Eagle as it was flyin’.”

An’ he said: “Some day, I hope you get the chance,

“To live like you were dyin’.”

“To live like you were dyin’.”

“To live like you were dyin’.”

“To live like you were dyin’.”

“To live like you were dyin’.” 

May we never face something like this.  May we never have to face the brick wall to ask ourselves if we still have time to live our childhood dreams or to empower others to live their dreams! May the lessons we learn today help us to live a better more meaningful lives before it is too late.

Mayer Anschel Rothschild, who lived in the mid 18th  and early 19th  centuries, was the founder of the Rothschild family banking empire that would become one of the most successful business families in history. Three years ago, Forbes Magazine’s list of the The 20 Most Influential Businessmen Of All Time ranked him as number seven. Forbes referred to him as a “founding father of international finance.” Legend has it that from time to time, the Emperor would send visitors to the luxurious Rothschild palace. It was the most lavish and well appointed palace in all of Austria and everyone wanted to see its beauty.

During one visit, Rothschild took his guest from room to room and the guest was awed by the display of wealth. He showed him room after room, but when he passed a certain door, he continued walking. “I am sorry,” said the banker. “This is the one room in the palace I cannot show you.”

The visitor reported back to Emperor Franz Joseph and told him about all he saw, and about the room he could not see. This peaked the Emperor’s curiosity. He asked the man why he suspected that room was off limits. “Perhaps that is where Rothschild has his magic money machine.”

The Emperor did not know whether to believe the man so he sent a second government official to visit the palace. The second agent came back with the same report, as did the third and the fourth.

Finally, the Emperor decided to visit the palace himself and when they reached the forbidden room, he demanded entry.

Rothschild took out his keys, opened the door, and invited the Emperor to enter. There, in the small room, was a simple pine box, and some plain white cloth on the table. That was all that was there.

“What is this all about?” asked the Emperor.

“We Jews have strict rules about burial,” explained Rothschild. When a person dies, he must be buried in a very simple coffin. His body must be clothed in a plain white shroud. This is to maintain the equality of all God’s creatures.”

“But why is this here in this room?” asked the Emperor, impressed but very confused.

“At the end of each day, I come to this room, and view the coffin and the shroud, and I am reminded that even though I have great wealth and power and I have important influence in the highest echelons of Austrian society, I am still one of God’s simple creatures, and that at the end of my life, this is the end I will come to like all of God’s children.

It all comes full circle! The lesson we learn from this story is that we MUST always live like we were dying, we should strive to live humble lives no matter who we are. Even if we were the most powerful, the most influential, the most learned; we always have to keep in mind that in the end we are all the same.

Yom Kippur is the ultimate rehearsal for death! We dress in white (like the shrouds), we restrain from food and drink, we recite Unetane Tokef! It is in a very abstract way our last lecture! Every year we get a chance to live again, love again and understand life a new.  Let us not waste the precious time that God has given us.

© Rabbi Felipe Goodman.  All rights reserved.

Share on Facebook

During the Ten Days of Teshuva, the days from the beginning of Rosh Hashanna to Yom Kippur, I often find myself thinking about what has been and what I want my life to become in this brand New Year. I am sure that most of us approach these Ten Days with tremendous trepidation and that we all search within our soul to find a way to reach our full potential in life as we turn towards God.

This Yom Kippur, I would like to do something that I have never done before. I am fully aware that many times we find it difficult to block the world out and find the silence needed to begin the process of engaging our own spirit in a quiet conversation. In preparation to better understand our liturgy, the context of our lives and the meaning of Yom Kippur itself, I would like to share with you a video of one of the most remarkable and spiritual things I witnessed this past year.

Please if you can, indulge me in watching the video which I have included below. Yes, I understand that it is not usual for your Rabbi to assign homework before a Holy Day! Think about it this way – if I asked you to read a book by Wednesday morning, I think not many would do it, but — to watch a video? I think we all can handle it.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at The Carnegie Mellon University on Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

I will be touching on different points of Randy Pausch’s last lecture right before Yizkor. Thanks so much for indulging me, and trust me, this video could very well change your life!

G’mar Hatima Tova

Rabbi Felipe Goodman

Share on Facebook

Instead of trying to put the puzzle of Ki Tetze together, I would much rather bring your attention to Judaism as a whole. One of the most important and absolute truths (I don’t use this term often or lightly) about Judaism is that it is not merely a religion. Judaism is a way of life, and that is what makes us so different from all other different religions in the world.

The number and nature of Mitzvot contained in Parashat Ki Tetze has to remind us that as Jews that we have a unique way of seeing the world and understanding how we interact with it. For us, life is Holy. We regard life as a God given gift and in trying to make the most out of that gift, in trying to bring meaning to our existence, we use the Mitzvot as tools to turn our lives into instruments of spirituality, kindness, service, justice and peace!

Have you ever asked yourself why Judaism is not a religion that proselytizes others? Many if not the majority of other faiths spend a great amount of time and energy trying to bring their own version of truth and holiness to others. We as Jews have a unique mission — we have to make ourselves whole through the Mitzvot so that we can become indeed a light unto the nations.

We spend our energy trying to decipher the ultimate meaning of the commandments. We strive to observe the commandments not out of fear of God but out of a profound sense of responsibility. Many look at Jewish Law as a system that enhances prohibitions and restrains behavior. Jewish Law as a system with its rules and nuances has a twofold purpose — to elevate our lives from the realm of instinct and impulse into the realm of purpose and meaning, and of course to preserve our People as such through the passage of time.

We live in a day and age in which many Jews have little or no regard for The Mitzvot. We can’t understand the observance of The Mitzvot as something optional, something left to the choice of the individual rather than as a force that keeps the community as a whole and holy community.

The term “Kehila Kedosha,” was used to designate a community that lived and thrived through its service to God by the observance of The Mitzvot and their understanding of how God manifested God’s self in the life of the community through these holy precepts can’t apply to a community where people act based on instinct and good will rather than through a sense of being commanded.

One of the most incredible statements ever pronounced by our sages is contained in The Talmud — “Greater is a person who is commanded to do something and does it than the one who is not commanded and does it!” This is extremely counter culture.

In today’s world, we regard someone who acts out of simple good will as better than someone who is obligated and then acts because he or she is obligated to do so. To explain this Rabbinic concept, let’s take one of the Mitzvot contained in Parashat Ki Tetze — “Do not stand idly by!” Imagine we, as Jews have no choice we have to cry out for injustice regardless of who the victim is! We can’t afford the luxury of judging whether we like a person or not or whether he or she is deserving of our help!

Because not standing idly by is a Mitzvah, we are obligated to act; we are compelled to help even if we don’t want to. Others can first judge each case on its merit before helping. Remember the Tsunami? Remember the Indonesian government refusing to allow the Israeli planes to land with humanitarian help? The Indonesian government is perhaps, next to the government of Iran, one of the most anti-Semitic regimes in the world, yet we went and helped. Why? Because we are commanded by The Torah and by God!

This Shabbat, when we read Parashat Ki Tetze we must remember that the Mitzvot are not simply concepts that we learned as children in religious school. The Mitzvot are and must always be a major driving force in our personal and communal lives as Jews.

Share on Facebook

He finally finds God speaking to him in a “still small voice!” — just like the author of Unetaneh Tokef (one of the most powerful and beautiful prayers in our High Holy Day liturgy) wants us to visualize God’s power. Not in the midst of a great show of force, rather in the silence and the stillness of a small voice! Kol D’mama Daka!

As we quickly approach the end of a year and the beginning of a new one, we have to ask ourselves a very important question: How do we listen to the voice of God in our own life? If we haven’t heard God’s voice lately, is it possible that we have been looking in the wrong place?

Most of us look for great miracles! We look for signs, and when we can’t find them we are completely paralyzed by fear and anger. We often ignore one of the most beautiful messages our tradition teaches us. More often than not, God is found in the mundane and the human — not in the grandiose and the supernatural. More often than not, God is found in the small details, in the silence rather than in the loud noise of deafening confusion.

In just a few days, we will find ourselves immersed in prayer, we will seek to see through our own soul to understand the stillness of the small voice through which God speaks to us. What is it exactly that we have to be listening for? Beyond praying for health and life for us and our families, we need to see ourselves as part of our People. Before we can listen to God’s voice, we need to ask ourselves another question: What does it mean to be a Jew? Why am I really here? It is impossible to decipher God’s message if we become consumed by the myopic vision that our own self-centeredness provides us with.

Our life, our tradition, our mission — it is not about ourselves alone! It is about the ones that came before us and the generations that are still to come. It is not about pretending that our lives as Jews will forever be the same if we don’t dramatically try to change what we see happening around us. For years, the message has been in the still small voice — it has always been there but every year it is harder to listen to.

These High Holy Days, I would like to challenge you! Think about what your presence in The Synagogue means. It is not about prayer alone, it is a statement! That you are here and you want to be counted, that what happens to us as a people matters. It is a statement that what happens to Israel matters. It is understanding what God is trying to tell us; it is not only about us but about our people! We don’t only pray for ourselves, we pray for all of us!

Each and every single one of us has the ability to change our future. We love history, and we often use it to inspire us to live better lives. Past generations faced multiple challenges and many of those carried with them mortal danger to our People. Our generation faces a whole new challenge — THE CHALLENGE OF INDIFFERENCE AND ENTITLEMENT. If we don’t do something today to become better, to show that our heritage matters, tomorrow may be too late.

I am always puzzled by the hundreds of e-mails that are forwarded to me from week to week. People write about how great Israel is! People write about why The Jewish People are so important to the history of the world! People write about how proud they are of their heritage and how much it means to them!

Yet, every year I see less and less people involved in Jewish life, every year our numbers decrease and every year more Synagogues around the world close their doors! Can it be that we have become a people who loves the abstract world of the “ideal” but refuses or is too lazy to step into the real? The answer is in our hands. Let us listen to the Kol D’mama Daka and realize that if we can’t hear it today, tomorrow may already be too late.

May this New Year 5769 be a year of health, joy and personal growth. May this be the year when we finally visit Israel, when we set our feet in our Synagogue to experience the joy of Shabbat. May this be the year when the pride we feel as Jews, jumps out of the e-mails we all forward and onto real life.

Rabbi Felipe Goodman

Share on Facebook

Before we came here, we also knew that Costa Rica boasts a small but strong Jewish Community. Growing up in Mexico City, we always had contact with many Jews from Costa Rica as many of them married people from our community.

Jewish life in Costa Rica today is very vibrant and caters to the 2,500 Jews in the country. All denominations of the community revolve around the Centro Israelita Sionist,a founded in 1930, which includes a WIZO, B’nai B’rith, La Sociedad de Damas Israelitas de Beneficencia, several Zionist and youth groups, and a social and sports club.

The Centro publishes a monthly newsletter called Hayom, which includes a bulletin devoted to improving Jewish-Christian relations. New buildings for the Shaare Zion Synagogue and the Community Center were inaugurated in September 2004 on a 17,000 square meter plot. The new buildings house the new synagogue, the Hanoar HaTzioni Youth Organization’s headquarters, a community museum and library, a kosher restaurant, and three mikvahs — one for women, men, and khelim. These buildings also house administrative offices for all active Jewish organizations in Costa Rica, including the Asociacion Ciudadano de Oro House, the Golden Citizen Association for the elderly.

B’nai Israel is a Reform synagogue, which meets Friday nights at 7:30. This community also has a youth group, cultural events such as lectures and movies and a bulletin called Koleinu on synagogue activities.

Kosher food is readily available in San Jose with a kosher butcher shop and a delicatessen run by Orthodox Jews that carries kosher products. There are two kosher hotels in Costa Rica, one in San Jose and another in Camino Real.

We expected all of that; we knew it. Here is what we didn’t expect — we have seen many, many Israelis. It all started when we were going through passport control, we saw many young Israeli tourists clearly getting out to see the world after they completed their military service. Costa Rica seems to be a wonderful destination because it is peaceful and extremely safe. We have all heard the stories and seen pictures of entire cities in India and Thailand that cater to Israeli tourists, menus in restaurants, directions on the streets can be found all in Hebrew. I never heard that about Costa Rica.

While we were traveling in the rain forest, going up towards the Arenal Volcano, we ran into a very interesting sight. In the middle of the road, right there at the top of the rain forest paradise, we saw a sign in Hebrew directing us towards a hotel and restaurant. We were instantly drawn to it by the Hebrew and stopped for a little break. We found an amazing place where about 30 Israeli young men and women have opened up a hotel where all the food is vegetarian. When you walk inside, you are immediately struck by the beautiful facility that resembles a luxury Kibutz (if that can exist!). There are books in Hebrew on the tables, and we all had a chance to practice our Hebrew right there amidst the monkeys, the sloths and the butterflies.

It is a great feeling. When you run into other Jews in the most unexpected places you feel safe, you feel as if you are visiting long lost family. We drank a cup of coffee, had a couple of blintzes and continued on our journey to see the second most active volcano in the Americas erupt multiple times. Every day that I have been here, along with everything our eyes have taken in, I have been repeating as a mantra one of the most beautiful verses in The Tanach. “Kol Israel Arevim Ze B’ze.” — all of Israel is responsible for one another.

Share on Facebook