prayer

Tefilla — written, prayed, broken open.

Liberation as Historical Fact

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Most blessings conclude in a participle – describing the Creator as the One who does things.

The subsequent blessing after the Shema concludes with a perfect verb – describing the Creator as the One who liberated Yisrael.

This unique praise of God expresses a fact of history: some 3700 years ago, the Creator intervened in human affairs, and both physically liberated an oppressed nation from within the world’s most powerful empire and spiritually (psycho-socially) liberated them from an oppressive worldview and culture by giving them a new, just Law.

In this blessing, we testify it is true: thus is our history and thus is the Shaper of our history.

It is not a matter of personal aspiration but one of historical inspiration.

Our ancestors were, in fact, liberated and they did, in fact, pass on that liberty to us.

And what will we do with that liberty?

First we kneel in wonder.

Then we stand in the presence of the king, who liberated us.

The Siren Started

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The siren started and my soul awoke.

I prayed for rahamim, divine compassion.

For the nation and for the souls of those who gave their lives for our future.

I prayed that in their merit and in the merit of their good deeds, sacrifices, and ultimate sanctification of the idea of the God of life – we would all be granted liberation and redemption.

I prayed for unity among the people.

I prayed that the powers of our enemies would be weakened.

I prayed that the hostages would go free.

It was an עת רצון and so I prayed, in silent harmony together with millions of my brothers and sisters.

And the siren faded, but my soul could not return to its slumber.

Saying Less Means More

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“Why do you try to make everything shorter?”

Because when I say less, I mean more.

Because it’s important to balance everything.

Because there’s a freedom in spontaneously adding, when the spirit moves me, within the pattern set by my ancestors.

A Prayer for Insight

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May it be willed in Your imminent will

That the insights You give me become commitments

That the commitments become actions

That the actions become insights

For the glory of the great idea of You

In Your world

Forever and ever

I Never Said Yizkor. Until This Year.

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Yizkor is a memorial prayer for the departed that the hassidé Ashkenaz established as a reaction to the brutal losses suffered by the Ashkenazic communities during the crusades.

It’s not my custom to say yizkor.

I don’t think yizkor is appropriate to Yom Tob.

I stepped out of the synagogue when they said yizkor.

But never have I felt the emotional impetus behind the establishing of yizkor as a minhag, as I did this year.

It’s astonishing to consider the loss of over 1,200 people in a single day, just one year later.

May their memory be a blessing and a revolution.

Last Year We Were a Mess

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A meditation and a prayer.

Last year, we were truly a mess on Yom haKippurim. Publicly fighting over how and where to sit during services, with acrimony and venom and self-righteousness and hatred. On the day when we should have been most united in love for each other and for our Creator, we showed our worst selves.

Then came October 7th. On the day we should have been celebrating the Torah together, we were in hiding. Savagery and devastation swept the south while rockets rained across the entire land, leaving hundreds in captivity and an entire nation traumatized. In the wake of such a morbidly potent reminder of who we actually are to our actual enemies – and their supporters worldwide – we came together and mobilized waves of support for the survivors, the families, the homeless, and the soldiers. We showed our best selves.

It’s true that a year later, the war frustratingly still continues while the captives inexplicably still remain imprisoned. It’s true that hundreds of thousands of people are still refugees from the north, the south, and the Gaza Strip. It’s true that waves of missiles still target our homes and masses of rioters still call for our collective death. And it’s painfully true that after so much seemed to change so quickly that morning one year ago, so much in our country and our world still seems to remain the same.

But this year, we met October 7th before Yom haKippurim. This wasn’t just a day of remembering the fallen and the lost – truthfully their memory has not left us a single day of the past three hundred and sixty five and is always before our eyes, in our feeds and groups and Shabbat newsletters. This was a day of remembering how we came together and supported one another in the wake of the worst horror since Auschwitz, an ongoing nightmare for countless families, a doom against which we have collectively, consciously chosen to offer hope and light.

This year, as we make our way across the narrow bridge between Rosh haShana and Yom haKippurim, we pause and remember who we have shown ourselves to be over the past year. People who step up and who volunteer and who care and who fight for each other. People who choose hope and light, even as many in the world choose darkness. May we bring that hope and that light in our return to the Holy of Holies on Yom haKippurim this year, and may we merit to see the day when all creations are united in the sacred peace of knowing our Creator.

What is a Maimonidean Minyan?

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Some have suggested that what makes a minyan “Maimonidean” is the rigorous exemplification of Maimonides’ halakhic ideals and prescriptions (such as praying with the sunrise).

Others have suggested it is faithful replication of the socio-cultural conditions of the medieval Mediterranean (including the social roles and expectations typical of the period).

On the other hand, we (read: anyone who can get down with the following ideas) would like to suggest that – beyond simply adopting the shorter נוסח התפילות that Rambam recorded in his Mishneh Torah – what makes a minyan “Maimonidean” includes these points:

– Organization around the primary principles of social horizontality (intrinsic non-hierarchy) and fundamental equality before the law (for more on these concepts in Talmudic Judaism, see the work of R. Dr. José Faur z”l), resulting in communal institutions that are meritocratic rather than “aristocratic” and consensus-seeking rather than elitist, and collective loyalty to the system of the Torah as the greatest guarantor of our religious freedoms.

– Qualified adoption of the Mishneh Torah (not as a blind fundamentalist system but as understood in his responsa and by the best of our sages) as a common code in establishing communal norms and the parameters of communal legitimacy, a system meant to be implemented in the real world outside of the ivory tower; based on the understanding that the Mishneh Torah represents the fruits of the research of the greatest scholar in rabbinic history, into the system of settled laws that are actually considered binding upon Jewish communities after the Talmud, and not merely recommended or precedented.

– Recreation of the philosophical atmosphere of Jewish al-Andalus, the socio-intellectual environment that produced Rambam and that he continued in his writings and in his approach to communal leadership; recognizing that achieving positive engagement between philosophy, science, and tradition is no less necessary today than it was in Rambam’s day.

There is more to be said on each of the above points and it can also be argued that this list of core principles is far from exhaustive; the community must develop its vision, together.

But I hope the above serves to clarify some of the basic ideas of what makes a minyan “Maimonidean” in the year 5784, and what we’re trying to achieve with Qongregation Sha’are Shalom