Peace in the Land

June 3-4, 2016 / 27 Iyar 5776

Shabbat Bechukotai

Torah: Leviticus 26:3 - 27:34 / Haftarah: Jeremiah 16:19 - 17:14

“Peace in the Land”

Dear Friends,

This week’s Torah portion promises that if we follow God’s commandments, we will be showered with blessings.  One of the rewards mentioned in Leviticus 26:6, is that there will be “peace in the Land.”  The scholar Ibn Ezra understood this promise to mean that there would be peace amongst the Children of Israel, that is, peace amongst ourselves, the Jewish people.

These are difficult times.  The pace of change is quick and people are becoming impatient.  Anxiety is rising and tempers are short.  Sometimes it feels as if the ties that bind us are loosening.

Yet, every two years, we get the remarkable reminder that all is well in the Jewish world.  Every two years, we get the remarkable opportunity to come together for a day of community, cooperation, and celebration.  I refer to the “Greater Chicago Jewish Festival” which takes place this Sunday, June 5th in the Cook County Park District woods in Morton Grove.  From 11am to 6pm four stages will pulse with non-stop music and performance and organizations will offer their information.  Artists will display their work and food vendors will cook up Jewish favorites.  The Jewish Festival is a day of great community solidarity and celebration.  Shir Hadash will have its table represented and our beautifully fashioned pomegranate sculpture will be on exhibit with others like it.

Come to the Jewish Festival <<www.jewishfestival.org>> and experience a taste of the peace and unity of which the Torah speaks in this week’s portion.  There will be “peace in the Land.”

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow

Good Stewards

May 27-28, 2016 / 20 Iyar 5776

Shabbat Behar

Torah: Leviticus 25:1 - 26:2 / Haftarah: Jeremiah 32:6-27

“Good Stewards”

Dear Friends,

A beautiful midrash story tells us that when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, God came to them and showed them around.  At the conclusion of the tour, God told them to enjoy the bounty that has been created around them and, most important, to care for it and be good stewards.  God said that if they polluted and destroyed the land, there would be no one to repair or set it right.

This story speaks well for this week’s Torah portion in which God tells the Children of Israel that the earth belongs to God and that we are its stewards. God reminds us that we are only here for a short while and that no human can ever really ‘own’ a piece of the earth.  Thus, our job is to cherish the beautiful world that has been lent to us and then to keep, tend, and maintain it for future generations and ourselves.

Now that the weather is warming and many of us are getting outside to garden, mow, rake, plant, and water… remember to do your part to care for the earth.  Remember that we are only passing through.  Our descendants and all that live on earth are counting on us to do a great job caring for planet earth.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow

Leave Food for the Poor and the Stranger

May 20-21, 2016 / 13 Iyar 5776

Shabbat Emor

Torah: Leviticus 21:1-24:23 / Haftarah: Ezekiel 44:15-31

“Leave Food for the Poor and the Stranger (Leviticus 22:23)”

Dear Friends,

Jews are a generous people; the Talmud (Yevamot 78) describes performing acts of kindness as, “One of the symbols of our nation.” In this week’s Torah portion we are instructed to provide food to the hungry through our agricultural blessings. “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corner of your field, neither shall you gather the gleaning of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor, and for the stranger.” (Leviticus 23:22) Every farmer is obligated to leave three types of gifts for the needy: food growing in the four corners of the field, food that was dropped during the harvest, and food that was forgotten or left because it was not ripe at harvest time — all to be collected by the poor. Notably, this is not simple charity. The poor must enter the field and collect the harvest gleanings, giving them a sense of dignity and ownership over their sustenance.

Most of us are no longer farmers and we have no fields to open to the poor and the stranger amongst us.  Yet, we are surrounded by stores and markets filled with wonderful and nutritious food.  There must be some way to get food to the needy and the hungry.  As the summer approaches and healthy fresh food comes into season, do your part to contribute to local, regional, and national food pantry and soup kitchen programs.  Bags of food and/or gifts of money go along way to helping the poor. Do your part to see that the ancient Jewish mitzvah of providing food to the outcasts of our society continues in a modern way. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow

Love Your Neighbor

May 13-14, 2016 / 6 Iyar 5776

Day 21 of the Omer

Shabbat Kedoshim

Torah: Leviticus 19:1 - 20:27 / Haftarah: Amos 9:7 - 9:15

“Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”

Dear Friends,

The great Hassidic master Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassov explained his understanding of the commandment, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ which appears in this week’s Torah portion, through a story.  There once were two Russian peasants sitting at a bar.  As they became more and more drunk, one friend asked the other, “Ivan, do you love me?”  “Of course, I love you,” said Ivan.  “Then tell me what hurts me.” “How should I know what hurts you?” Ivan replied. The friend said, “If you do not know what hurts me, then how can you say that you love me?”  For Rabbi Moshe Leib, loving your neighbor as yourself meant caring and being involved in each other’s lives at the deepest level.

This concern for each other’s business is jarring for Americans – at first.  It feels like an intrusion and an invasion of privacy – at first.  It feels uncomfortable and insulting – at first.  Then you realize that coming together as a community to share each other’s life and business is all about support and love.  It is about caring and concern.  It is about creating one big extended Jewish family.

Loving your neighbor as yourself is profoundly and, some say, uniquely Jewish.  It is about putting manners aside and asking the tough questions in order to understand each other better and be there for each other.  It is about alerting your fellow when they are about to commit a mistake and expecting them to do the same for you.  That’s the true essence of loving one’s neighbor, knowing what hurts and what heals, and then being in each other’s lives.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow

We Must Speak Out

May 6-7, 2016 / 29 Nisan 5776

Shabbat Aharei Mot

Torah: Leviticus 16:1 - 18:30

Haftarah: I Samuel 20:18 - 20:42 | Shabbat Machar Chodesh

 “We Must Speak Out”

Dear Friends,

Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds of Knoxville, TN served as a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the U.S. Army and fought in Europe during World War II. Shortly after participating in the landing of the American forces in Europe, he was taken prisoner by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. Edmonds was held at Stalag IX A, a POW camp near Ziegenhain, Germany. In January 1945, the camp commander announced that all Jewish POWs in Stalag IX A were to report the following morning. Edmonds, who was the highest-ranking soldier in the American section of the camp, ordered all of the men, Jews and non-Jews alike, to fallout the following morning. When the German officer, Major Siegmann, saw that all the camp’s inmates were standing in front of their barracks, he turned to Edmonds and exclaimed, “They cannot all be Jews!” To which Edmonds replied, “We are all Jews here.” Siegmann took out his pistol and put it to Edmonds’ head, but the Master Sergeant did not waver, giving only his name, rank, and serial number as required by the Geneva Conventions. According to his son, Rev. Chris Edmonds, Master Sergeant Edmonds then said, “If you are going to shoot, you are going to have to shoot all of us because we know who you are and you’ll be tried for war crimes when we win this war,” The officer turned around and left the scene. This year, Yad Vashem recognized Master Sergeant Edmands, who passed away in 1985, as a Righteous Among the Nations, an honorific title to describe non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. He became only the fifth American and the first U.S. service member so honored. He is also the only one honored for saving American Jews.

A Midrash story teaches us that Pharaoh had three advisors at the time that the terrible plot to murder Jewish babies was announced: Balaam, who devised the plan, Jethro, who fled rather than play any role in fratricide, and Job, who remained silent. Later, Job recognized that he would one day suffer for his unwillingness to protest against the mass murder of Jewish babies in Egypt.

Few have the great courage of a Roddie Edmonds to stand up and protest in the face of great personal danger. Yet, all of us have the ability and the obligation to speak out when we witness evil in the world.

This Thursday is Yom HaShoa v’Hagvurah – Commemoration Day for the Holocaust and Heroic Acts of Resistance. But memory alone is not enough. We must see ourselves as obligated to speak out and protest when we hear others express and support evil in the world. This applies of course, to all forms of hatred and intolerance, but as Jews living in the United States, we have a special role of protecting the state of Israel from words and acts that hide hatred for Jews behind anti-Israel rhetoric and actions.

President Obama noted that, “All of us have a responsibility to speak out, and to teach what’s right to our children, and to examine our own hearts. That’s the lesson of the Righteous we honor today—the lesson of the Holocaust itself: Where are you? Who are you?”

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow