(Sep. 23) — FOR ALL AGES, a Yom Kippur highlight at the TJC is our musical version of the Book of Jonah. An ensemble (duet and piano) presents it in the form of an adapted 400-year-old English ballad. Everyone is enchanted by the lilting, catchy tune; the easy refrain for which everyone joins in; and the rhymed verse—not to mention the classic, spiritually challenging biblical tale.
This special presentation of our afternoon haftarah will occur at about 6:00 pm.
(Sep. 23) — Eighteen hundred years ago, the Mishnah taught how powerful it can be when we consciously get ready to pray. And on the second day of Rosh ha-Shanah, we took to heart that advice. In the first half-hour of our morning worship services, we were led first by Naomi Hannah in devotional singing, and then by Ziva Moyal in devotional chanting. Wow!
Naomi and Ziva have graciously agreed to a reprise on Yom Kippur morning. So arrive on time (9:00 am) for a real treat. You snooze, you lose!
(Sep. 23) — HERE IS A LINK for a copy of my sermon delivered on the first morning of Rosh ha-Shanah.
(Sep. 21) — DURING THE LAST half-hour or so of Yom Kippur, I plan to introduce to the Taos Jewish Center a practice that is beloved in dozens of congregations around the country:
Those whose heart so moves them can come up to the Ark for a few moments and quietly offer a personal prayer.
It is said that this closing period is a particularly propitious time to offer such prayers. Others say that its deep meaning comes simply from standing before God honestly and in the presence of one’s religious community.
If you feel moved to come up, please do so. You can come up either as an individual, or with your family, or together with someone whose relationship with you is of particular concern to you at the moment. (In deference to others who may be waiting to follow you, please don’t linger in front of the Ark for too long.)
(Sep. 21) — TOWARD THE END of Yom Kippur, as the sun gets low in the sky, you may be feeling faint from fasting. Or you may be soaring from your experience of repentance, purification, and divine forgiveness. In any case, when we reach that point in this holy day, our rabbinic tradition expects us to up the ante:
Beginning with our final communal elaboration of Amidah themes, the ark stays open until the end of the Neilah (“Locking the Gates”) Service. Therefore it is customary to remain standing — out of respect for the Torah as a symbol of the divine Presence — for the rest of the service, until the Ark is closed again.
Whether you yourself remain standing or not is up to you. People often discover that they can coax more from themselves than they realized they had available. If you will pardon the pun, one could say that we rise to the occasion.
(Sep. 21) — THE TECHNICAL NAME for the Yizkor (Memorial) service is Hazkarat Neshamot (“Mentioning of [Individual] Souls”). At the Taos Jewish Center, this collection of prayers is one of the highlights of our communal Yom Kippur experience. Here, it consists of the following four parts:
- You take a turn sharing a reminiscence of the person(s) whom you are memorializing. As you do so, you pick out one of the small stones provided and set it atop a symbolic gravestone, emulating the Jewish custom of leaving such a stone when visiting a person’s grave.
- You recite individually the paragraph that begins with the word Yizkor: “May [God] remember...,” with a particular individual in mind. (It is from this principal prayer that the Yizkor service got it usual name.) As noted in this paragraph, mourners traditionally pledge a tzedakah contribution or an act of service, to honor the memory of their loved one. Our book prints this prayer in several parallel forms, in which the wording differs slightly. Pick the one that matches your own relationship to the deceased.
- The leader chants the El Malei Rachamim. This prayer asks that the souls of all our departed “rest in peace.”
- We recite the Mourner’s Kaddish aloud together.
Among those of us who have not yet lost a parent or close relative, some choose not to participate in the Yizkor service. They reason that it doesn’t relate to their own situation. Yet I myself have found it worthwhile to attend anyway. There are so many touching, poignant moments! I also gain insight into what matters to the members of the Taos community. Indeed, I learn more about the live persons who are doing the memorializing than I do about the deceased.
(Sep. 21) — TRADITIONALLY, the Avodah Service recounts (in a dramatic Hebrew prose-poem) the ancient procedure (described in the Mishnah) that took place in the Jerusalem Temple each year on Yom Kippur: the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies, in order to effect ritual purification there.
The Temple was destroyed nearly two thousand years ago. Yet each of us today is still the high priest of our own inner sanctum. We’re responsible for our own personal purification. Meanwhile, we try to support each other in completing that process.
In that spirit, for the 4th year in a row, the Avodah Service at the Taos Jewish Center affords individuals with an opportunity to bring an offering to share with the community. By an “offering,” I mean a song, poem, chant, story, or the like. Each offering should be intended to assist all of us in our personal inner purification.
If you have something to offer us, please let me know before our hour-long service begins. (It is the first service after our afternoon break, preceding the Yizkor Service.)
(Sep. 21) — KOL NIDREI HAS ALWAYS been a controversial declaration. Why should anyone be relieved of responsibility for one’s promises?
Here is my understanding: Kol Nidrei nullifies only the following vows:
- made impulsively to ourselves; and
- for the purpose of self-discipline, spiritual achievement, or religious commitment.
A court (as a third party) has no power to dissolve our other obligations. The promises at issue must be only those that we break because, although we do not realize it at the time, what you express with our words is only a wish — not a true, affirmative decision.
But why annul vows in advance? Because we might be so worried about failure to change that we will not dare to try. Our declaration of Kol Nidrei suggests that it may be better to try even if we will fail, than not to try at all.
(Sep. 21) — TRADITIONALLY, Yom Kippur is (among other things) a time of remembering one’s ancestors. Just prior to the start of the holy day, as deceased loved ones come to mind, it has been a thousand-year-long tradition to light a 25-hour memorial lamp or candle at home. A verse in the book of Proverbs (20:27) has been translated to allude to this custom: “The human soul is the lamp of God.”
While lighting a memorial candle, no specific ritual is prescribed. Let me suggest that you say the following: “May so-and-so’s memory be a blessing!”
And even if the candle is still burning after Yom Kippur is over, the custom has been to let it keep burning — until it goes out by itself.
(Sep. 21) — ON YOM KIPPUR, some people [both men and women] are accustomed to dress in white, clean clothes—like the angels on high. Thus they wear a kittel (caftan or surplice) because it is white and clean. It is also the clothing of the dead—and by wearing such, a person’s heart is humbled and broken open.
—Rabbi Moses Isserles (Crakow, Poland; 1570), gloss to Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayyim § 610.4
(Sep. 13) — IT’S ONLY one word, so how complicated can saying it be? Yet rabbinic tradition considers it so important that even the usually terse restatements of Jewish lore devote a full paragraph to the topic of how to say Amen. Here is my paraphrase:
- Say the word distinctly. (Don’t swallow the first or last syllable.)
- Wait until the one pronouncing the blessing is actually finished. (Don’t step on the prayer’s ending.)
- Speak as soon as the blessing is completed. (Don’t delay.)
- Your saying Amen should last the time it takes for a normal pulse beat, that is, about a second. (Don’t make it either too brief or too prolonged.)
Although these guidelines may seem fussy at first glance, there’s wisdom in them. They prompt us worshippers to pay attention during our devotional utterances. They encourage us to play our part with vigor.
SOURCE: Shulchan Arukh OH § 124.8 (1564)
(Sep. 6) — FOR SOME OF US worshippers, a song leader’s guitar playing helps us to be prayerfully engaged as we sing. For others of us, such an instrument may interfere with prayer because it seems to take over.
I believe that when instrumental accompaniment is properly situated, those various needs do not necessarily conflict. Here is how I intend to proceed. During our worship services this year, we won’t be enjoying accompaniment — except probably during the following specific times:
- the start of a service, to help us get warmed up (guitar)
- the Torah parade (rhythm instruments)
- the Avodah Service (guitar and hand-drum)
- the Yom Kippur Afternoon haftarah (piano)
- the end of the Ne’ilah Service (guitar and hand-drum).
(Sep. 3) — ARGUABLY THE BIBLICAL TERM Amen is the world’s best-known Hebrew word. It means “Indeed!” or “May it be so!” and functions as an affirmation or endorsement.
Amen is an extremely powerful spiritual term. In its potency it may be second only to God’s name. Thus, according to an opinion in the Talmud of Babylonia, when someone responds Amen fervently and with full intention, sins are forgiven and the gates of Paradise open.
But unlike God’s name (which normally should not be pronounced aloud) our sages urged the frequent use of Amen: “Every blessing that you hear, no matter where or when — you should say Amen afterward.” Furthermore, “parents do well to train a child to respond Amen in synagogue.”
Our Amen response in public worship is so important that our leaders of prayer are instructed to allow for it. If a worship leader completes a blessing but does not then pause for the congregation’s Amen, this is considered a sin. Why? Because it deprives worshippers of the precious opportunity to say Amen!
Amen is the key to meaningful participation in our worship services. When you say it after the leader completes a blessing, you instantly become part of the devotional endeavor. You join something larger than yourself — something timeless. Perhaps that is why rabbinic lore assures us that “even an infant who has just learned to respond Amen already has a share in eternity.”
SOURCES: BT Shabbat 119b; Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, Arba’ah Turim OH § 124 (Seville, circa 1330), as adduced by Shulchan Arukh OH § 124.6–7; Anonymous, Kol Bo (Western Europe, circa 1300), as adduced by R. Moses Isserles, Shulchan Arukh OH 124.7; Rabbi Solomon Ganzfried (Hungary; 1864), Kitsur Shulchan Arukh §§ 20.3, 165.2.
(Sep. 2) — Do you like to sing? Happily, our High Holy Day liturgy includes many opportunities for congregational singing.
(Aug. 24) — To brush up on the Mourner’s Kaddish in time for the High Holy Days (especially the Yizkor Service), listen to this recording of me reciting it.
You can also find the text of the Mourner’s Kaddish online.
(Aug. 21) — Symbolically, when you take an aliyah, you are a stand-in for Moses—going up to Mount Sinai and bringing Revelation back to the people. In the process, you marshal everyone’s attention; you call on them to praise God. Thus it is a crucial role.
The traditional order of precedence for those who are obliged to receive an aliyah is as follows:
- someone about to be married; or someone who has just become a bar/bat mitzvah
- someone who has just become a parent
- someone who observes a yortsayt (anniversary of a close relative’s death) on that day.
If you are in one of those situations—or a similar situation—then our community recognizes that you are at an important moment in your life. And we ask you to share that moment with us, by taking an aliyah. In fact, according to Jewish law, you have the first right of refusal: if anyone else wants an aliyah, they must defer to you.
If you are currently in mourning, please know that anything you do to further the community’s functioning (such as leading a portion of the worship services, reciting a haftarah, or giving tzedakah) is considered a praiseworthy way to publicly honor the deceased’s memory.
.gif)
(Aug. 13) — Here is what I have been preparing (subject to change without notice):
Rosh ha-Shanah Evening: “The Golem: What Does It Mean To Be Human?” (How the old rabbinic lore about creating an artificial humanoid offers clues for our inner work during this penitential season)
Rosh ha-Shanah, 1st Day: “What God Is Worth Believing In?” (Some ideas for refining our own personal theology)
Yom Kippur Night: “A Yom Kippur Scandal” (A revealing and provocative story by Sholom Aleichem)
Yom Kippur Noon: “Speaking of Israel: Let’s Rebuild the Temple!” (How the ancient Holy of Holies, the modern state of Israel, and our individual repentance are related)
(Aug. 9) — GOING UP TO THE TORAH for an aliyah can be a powerful experience. So perhaps you might appreciate some basic tips.
Steps to Success
- Know the meaning and purpose of an aliyah.
- Watch a training video. Rabbi David Paskin stars in a well-produced “how-to” video (7:15) in a Conservative setting (Temple Beth Abraham, Canton, MA): “Jewish Journeys: Participating in the Torah Service.” He covers the subject well!
- Memorize the Torah blessings; here are the words with melody (blessing before, and blessing after). (And here is a rendition with transliteration, from Congregation B’nai B’rith in Santa Barbara, CA.)
- Themed Aliyah: If you come up according to an announced theme, stand close enough to see the words in the Torah scroll. Encourage your group to quickly designate one person to stand right in front of the Torah, grab its handles, and lead off with the blessings.
Reference: Rabbi Joseph Caro, Shulchan Arukh (1564), Orach Chayyim §§ 139.4, 6–7; 141.7.
(July 20; rev. Aug. 13) — ON YOM KIPPUR NIGHT, I am planning to tell you a story adapted from one that Sholom Aleichem originally wrote in Yiddish about 110 years ago. To help explain my choice of story, let me now share some of what the Yiddishist Irving Howe has written:
- “The bare anecdote on which the story is based becomes an occasion for revealing the deepest feelings of a culture.”
- “The story follows the Jewish habit of answering a question with another question: all of life is a question; and if you ask me why, I can only answer, how should I know?”
- “The dominant quality of Sholom Aleichem’s work . . . is his sense of moral poise, his assurance as both Jew and human being, his ease in a world of excess.”
—Introduction, The Best of Sholom Aleichem, ed. Irving Howe and Ruth R. Wisse (New Republic Books, 1979): xiii.
What God Is Worth Believing In?