“All seven days one makes his sukkah permanent and his home temporary.” Mishnah Sukkah 2:9 Sukkot is a holiday that is centered on the little structures we build and eat and sleep in for a week every fall. In our tradition, the sukkah is referenced often, but really only in two contexts. The first is […]
About Rabbi Jonah Geffen
Watch Your Back and Move Forward
Hi friends, Six weeks ago I was ordained a Rabbi. Two weeks ago I started a new job. Here are some thoughts on Tisha Be-Av that came out of those first days in my new work. I pray they help to provide some context for this terrible day, and help us all come out of […]
Better Late Than Never – Parashat Shofetim 5771
The following is the text of the dvar torah I gave this past Shabbat at Congregation Bnai Jeshurun in New York City. Its written to be heard, so might read a little weird – but the ideas are there. Enjoy!
It is Elul, the time leading up to the Yamim Noraim, the HHD. We are tasked with Teshuvah, with a return to our inner selves, with the mission to seek out who we really have been in this past year, and to judge ourselves – before Yom Kippur, when God and only God is judge. But Judgement is a complicated word. It stirs up emotions. It makes us uncomfortable. We use it in so many ways. When I first think about judgement, it is personal, it is about how I make decisions, about who I am and how I act. But it is also about others. It is about how we approach those around us, and how they approach us. We act, and when others see what we do or hear what we say, they judge us. Its human nature I think, its just how we are wired to behave. Of course, that does not mean we have to like it… I cant tell you how many times someone else has told me I did something wrong and I have said “don’t judge me.” But deep down I always know the truth, that I have no right to say that. No right because I judge others constantly, no right because we are all judging each other all the time. And in any case, its not really what I mean. When I say “don’t judge me” what I really mean is “judge me fairly” “consider my position, my experience” “listen to me before deciding about me.” I know that it is by my judgement that I am judged, and I want others to understand where that judgement came from.
A Blessing and a Curse
There is a challenge to us all found in this week’s parasha – Re’eh – it is there right from the start. Put up or shut up, says God.
“Behold, this day I set before you a blessing and a curse.” (Devarim 11:26)
We have a choice, says God – chose the right path or the wrong one. This is the reality of freedom, the idea that we constantly make decisions and that those decisions have consequences. I have been thinking a great deal about this idea in the wake of this past week’s terror attacks near Eilat.
Each and every moment of life we make decisions, and no matter how much we like to blame others for forcing us to make them – it is us in the end who acts, who does the deed. Those who snuck into Israel with the intention to kill as many as possible almost certainly blame Israel for causing their actions – but they pulled the triggers. They chose the curse.
And those who decided to respond in kind by ordering bombs dropped, those who fired across the border, those who drop their quest for a new social order, they chose too. And they also chose the curse.
Refocusing the Conversation
http://jewschool.com/2011/06/20/26447/guest-post-refocusing-the-conversation/
by
Jonah Geffen, Rabbinical Student
Kelly Cohen, Jewish Educator
Jonah Geffen, Rabbinical Student
Kelly Cohen, Jewish Educator
We are trapped in a discourse that has no logical end. It has been asserted that the knowledge and life experience of the current generation of Rabbinical students with regard to Israel is cause for great concern and fear. The deans and Presidents of Rabbinical schools have responded to the contrary, stating that though perhaps more willing to “wrestle” with Israel, these students are wise and committed. And yet, this entire conversation remains shallow and paternalistic. The debate has been devoted strictly to the students, their teachers and the methods by which they are chosen and taught. We believe this discourse to be fundamentally flawed. We note with dismay that this conversation about Diaspora Jews and our relationship to Israel has left out Israel, its choices and actions.
Sunday Night In Jerusalem
It is Sunday night May 8th, and I am in Jerusalem. Sunset marks the beginning of Yom Hazikaron, the day this state has set aside to remember all those who have been killed – soldiers and victims of terror – since the state came into being. It is a day devoted to suffering, to a collective […]
If only my problems would just dissapear…
HaRav Ovadia Yosef is no stranger to saying thing that cause many of us to cringe. The latest:
I read these words and feel for this man. A man who’s brain is like a computer program. He has memorized pretty much every important Jewish text of the last 2500 years. And believe it or not, on many issues where other Haredi Rabbis like him have ruled in confusingly harsh ways, he has proven moderate (again, in a certain context). And yet, he speaks about an entire people and wishes for their wholesale destruction. He wishes upon them what many for thousands of years have wished upon our people. He wishes upon them what the Nazis almost succeeded in doing.
But I want to dig a little deeper here. Because it seems to me his words are an example of a universal human truth. We all look at our lives, look at our problems, at those people, places, ideas, etc. that are causing us anguish – and wish that they would just dissapear. We allow ourselves to become stuck in one place spinning our wheels, because the cause of all our problems is one thing.
A stay of execution
A stay of execution is no victory. It is up to all of us to keep the pressure on. This bill must die. And if you are curious why: “The bill’s controversial third clause states that anyone who “entered” Israel as a non-Jew (and did not have a father, grandparents or spouse who was Jewish […]
Flotilla Thoughts…
I am troubled by the proliferation of (facebook) postings of Fox News clips from people I know consider Fox News to be something short of journalism. My friends we must ask ourselves some tough questions. Fox comes at every issue from the same point, they don’t change. We have to ask ourselves, why do we only agree with Fox when it comes to Israel? How could it be that they get everything else wrong, but get this one right. Or maybe we are not viewing Israel with the same eyes we use to see the rest of the world…
Don’t be fooled…
In case you have been swayed by the recent “Sholom Rubashkin” did no wrong movement… “A former underage worker cried Monday while testifying she was exposed to harsh chemicals at an Iowa slaughterhouse where she and other teens worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. Yesenia Cordero Mendoza, now 18, was one of […]