From Rabbi Lieberman

  • Training for a Sacred Task

    Posted ‍‍יט אייר ה תשעב - May 11, 2012 By in Rabbi's Thoughts, Uncategorized

    In her essay Mourning My Mother, Finally, C.A. Blomquist writes* :

    “Because we are middle-aged, there have been many shivah calls for us to make for contemporaries who have lost parents. Participating in shacharit is particularly moving to me—entering the home of a grieving friend in the hush of an early morning, saying prayers together, sharing the weight of the moment in an intimate setting. We made such a visit at the end of March this year. Walking home in the cold spring air, I thought about how much I had come to admire the way Judaism structures its rituals for managing grief and remembering the dead. I found the rituals beautiful in the abstract, and in the particular. I saw the value and importance of marking time, establishing prescribed ways of paying respect, and having the community participate. I marveled at the wisdom in the words of the kaddish, which makes no mention of sadness or death but instead is filled with praise for the creator of the universe and with requests for peace and life’s goodness.”

    Ms. Blomquist describes eloquently what so many of us experience….the power and beauty of a shivah experience, when family, friends and neighbors gather round us in support and we turn to time-honored rituals and words to help us move through our grief and the disorientation that so often attends the death of a loved one.

    But what happens when the shivah experience is, to put it kindly, “less than optimal”? When there is no one available to competently lead the shivah service in the context of which the mourner is afforded the opportunity to recite kaddish? In our community this is an infrequent occurrence but no one should ever have to be in such an unfortunate position. It is time to train a cadre of FJC members who will have the requisite skills and confidence to lead a shivah service.

    We are blessed to have a beautiful and user-friendly siddur (prayer-book)–Mishkan Tefilah For the House of Mourning–to use in such situations. While a comfort-level with prayer-book Hebrew is a most useful skill for this task, there are ways in which someone whose Hebrew is less-than-optimal can comfortably lead a shivah service that will be meaningful and comforting.

    To this end, members of the congregation are invited to participate with me in a two-session training, in how to lead a shivah service, on Tuesday June 19 and 26, from 7:00-8:30 PM. Your participation will also signal your willingness to be called upon, should the need arise, to step into this important role for the sake of our kehillah–our community. Please RSVP to the temple office by June 12. Should you have questions or concerns, please be directly in touch with me.

    Thank you for your consideration of this important and meaningful mitzvah!

    Reb Elias

    [ * Her essay appeared on tabletmag.com, May 8, 2012

  • Maurice Sendak, z”l

    Posted By in Rabbi's Thoughts, Special Event, Uncategorized Sendak (Chelm 4)

    For my birthday this year, one of my children gave me a t-shirt with a wonderful image from In the Night Kitchen, one of the classic children’s books created by the late, great Maurice Sendak, who died this week at the age of 83. I have long-admired Sendak’s artistry, his vision, his strongly-held views on what makes for good children’s literature and his many passions. He was, by self-admission, a curmudgeon. He was also a gay man whose five-decade long relationship with a psychotherapist Eugene Glynn, a psychiatrist who specialized in the treatment of young people and who died in 2007, was purposefully kept in the background of his public life as a world-famous author and illustrator.

    His obituary in The New York Times noted that “he cherished the letters that individual children sent him unbidden, which burst with the sparks that his work had ignited.”

    “Dear Mr. Sendak,” read one, from an 8-year-old boy. “How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive, my sister and I would like to spend the summer there.”

    Maurice Sendak was passionate about his Judaism and, like many of us, had a complicated relationship with it. He leaves no immediate survivors, no one upon whom falls the obligation to recite kaddish in his memory. Grateful for the gifts he brought to this world, it will feel like a privilege for me to recite kaddish to honor his life and his work.

  • Peak Experience

    Posted ‍‍יז ניסן ה תשעב - April 9, 2012 By in Rabbi's Thoughts

    I have never been a mountain climber, but I do know about “peak experiences”.

    What is a “peak experience”? Wikipedia defines it this way: “‘Peak experience’ is a term used to describe certain transpersonal and ecstatic states, particularly ones tinged with themes of euphoria,  harmonization and  interconnectedness [my emphasis]. Participants characterize these experiences, and the revelations imparted therein, as possessing an ineffably mystical and spiritual (or overtly religious) quality or essence.”

    I know that, for the FJC family, the month of May is filled with a number of potential peak experiences:

    • Emma Goldberg celebrates becoming a bat mitzvah (May 5)….the first of this year’s “crop” of b’nei mitzvah.
    • Mitzvah Day (Sunday, May 6th ) when our congregation gives expression, in a variety of helpful and important ways, to our commitment to tikkun olam–healing a blemished world.
    • Our Bid With Chutzpah Online and Live Auction (beginning May 4th and culminating May 19th) when we raise badly needed funds for FJC and score some creative and appealing bargains for ourselves or others.
    • Closing Day of Hebrew and Judaica classes (May 20th) when storyteller Mark Binder will entertain us.
    •  The 100th birthday (on May 26th) of our beloved member, Ann Fischman!
    • Shavuot (May 26/27) when we reenact that Mother-of-Peak-Experiences, the giving of Torah on Mount Sinai!

    I hope that you’ll take advantages of many opportunities this month to enjoy a peak experience in the company of your fellow FJC members, a taste of that unique “harmonization and interconnectedness” that we so cherish, and strive to create, in our congregation.

    Reb Elias

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