Help Make a Difference for Congo

Mar 31, 2011 at 10:03 PM | Posted by Rabbi Joshua

As many of you know, we care very much about the people of Congo and desperately want to see peace in the war torn country. 5.4 million Congolese have died and 200,000 women have been raped in our world's deadliest war since WWII. In November Congo will be holding only the third election in the country's history. Human rights groups, political experts, and concerned individuals around the world are joining Congolese in calling for free and fair elections. For far too long the world's deadliest war, and many of the other issues affecting the people of Congo have been largely ignored by our government. It is time the U.S. appoints a special envoy to Congo! We absolutely need to monitor the elections, work to end the war, and speak of for the people of this great country.

Please join us in signing this petition (it literally only takes one minute). This petition is not like all petitions. If it's successful, it could actually be a huge step towards peace in a war torn land.

Please sign it, share it, and help us reach 200,000 signatures in 5 days! Sign the Petition HERE!

To find our more about Congo or the upcoming elections visit the FALLING WHISTLES website (http://www.fallingwhistles.com/).

Help end the war in Congo and be a whistle blower for peace!


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Yad L'Achim Exposed

at 9:18 PM | Posted by Rabbi Joshua

This last week Israel's Channel 1 News aired a special investigative report on the anti-missionary organization, Yad L'Achim. The group is responsible for regular acts of harassment and violence against religious minorities in Israel, especially Messianic Jews. There is even a link between Yad L'Achim and the Jewish terrorist Jack Teitell who is currently being held for multiple acts of hate and violence, including planting the bomb that nearly killed a young Messianic Jewish teenager.

Along with the growth and influence of Yad L'Achim in recent years, there has also been an increase in its chutzpah. It is now taking upon itself to stalk and harass Israeli citizens who are not even connected to a religious minority.

The most telling part of the video is Yad L'Achim's founder, Rabbi Dov Lipshitz, responding to the inquiries of the reporter with the comment:

"The government is using democracy in order to not do what it is supposed to do. They need to decide if this is a Jewish country or a democracy. But they don't always go together - They are not friends."

And all of this is with the full support if Israel's Ministry of Interior. Many Israelis are joining with the voices of Israel's Messianic Jews and others in speaking out against this hate-group.

Watch the Channel 1 News special report here:



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Quote of the Day: The Sacrificial System

Mar 30, 2011 at 3:54 PM | Posted by Rabbi Joshua
"The darkness of the sacrificial order must not be ignored. In sacrifice, man alleviates the darkness of his situation ... Sacrificial Judaism brings the truth of human existence into the Temple. It does not leave it outside its portals. It does not reserve sacred ground only for silent worship. Instead, the bruiting bleeding, dying animal is brought and shown to G-d. This is what our fate is. It is not so much, as is usually said, that we deserved the fate of the dying animal and that we have been permitted to escape this fate by transferring it to the animal. It is rather that our fate and the animal's are the same because its end awaits us, since our eyes, too, will soon gaze as blindly as his and be fixated in deathly attention on what only the dead seem to see and never the living. In the Temple, therefore, it is man who stands before G-d, not man as he would like to be or as he hopes he will be, but as he truly is now, in the realization that he is the object that is his body and that his blood will soon enough flow from his body as well. The subject thus sees himself as a dying object. Enlightened religion recoils from with horror from the thought of sacrifice, preferring a spotless house of worship filled with organ music and exquisitely polite behavior. The price paid for such decorum is that the worshiper must leave the most problematic part of his self outside the temple, to reclaim it when the service is over and to live with it unencumbered by sanctification. Religion ought not to demand such dismemberment of man."

-Dr. Michael Wyschogrod, from his classic book, The Body of Faith, p. 18-19.


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Holy Cow!

Mar 25, 2011 at 9:33 AM | Posted by Rabbi Joshua

Shabbat Parah

This week is a special Shabbat, called Shabbat Parah. It is named after the special maftir reading from Numbers 19 that describes the process for sacrificing the Red Heifer. This portion is always read before the beginning of the Jewish month of Nissan.

In biblical times, every person was required to bring a Korban Pesach, a Passover Sacrifice on the eve of Passover that was to be eaten during the Seder. However, only people who were ritually pure were able to partake of it. Therefore, right before the month of Nissan (the month in which Passover falls) a public announcement would be made that every person who had become impure must purify themselves, and be extremely careful not to become impure before Passover.

The parah aduma (red heifer) represents the quintessential chok (divine decree without any seeming rationale). The ashes of the Red Heifer were used for purification. Through the death of a calf, the Tabernacle, its furnishings, and those who served were purified and ritually cleansed to serve in the presence of G-d. The ashes were also used to purify someone who became ritually impure through contact with a dead body.

In Likutei Halachot, Rebbe Nachman explains why this special portion (Shabbat Parah) is read after Purim. In the course of our victory over Haman-Amalek, we become defiled through contact with death and evil, and need to be purified. The Sfat Emet further explains that tumat met (impurity from the dead) is a function of mortality, which entered the world as a result of the primordial sin of Adam who ate from the tree of knowledge. According to Rabbi Zvi Leshem, man’s desire to be all knowing like G-d, placing the value of knowledge over that of faith, led to his downfall, bringing death and impurity into the world. Ritual purity comes through the willingness to serve HaShem even in a reality permeated by doubts and confusion.

On this Shabbat Parah we focus on a cow. Although this does not make any sense to our rational minds in the modern age, there are significant reasons. For it is not about us, but about HaShem. The purpose of the red heifer is to to bring forth purification and life where there seems only death.



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The New Rabbi

Mar 21, 2011 at 2:31 PM | Posted by Rabbi Joshua

The New Rabbi by Stephen Fried is an absolute MUST READ! I recently finished the book and have been recommending it to a number of other rabbis and leaders. I originally came across the book a few years ago. However, a recent leadership decision prompted me to pick-up the book and read it.

Written by an award-winning investigative journalist, the book chronicles the politics of community, the power of inspirational leaders, the retail business of religion, the yearning for spirituality, and the wonderfully complicated world of American Jews.

Although a work of non-fiction, the book reads like a novel - full of excitement, intrigue, and emotion. Stephen Fried is able to write a book that pulls you into the story and gives you a glimpse into the search process of finding a new rabbi.

The center of this compelling chronicle is Har Zion Temple in Philadelphia, which for the last eighty years has been one of the largest and most influential congregations in America. For thirty years Rabbi Gerald Wolpe was its spiritual leader - a brilliant sermonizer of wide renown. But with the announcement of his retirement, a remarkable nationwide search process is begun. The story of how such a congregation searches for a new leader is largely unknown to the lay world. During this dramatic moment, Wolpe agreed to give extraordinary access to Fried, inviting him - and the reader - into the intense personal and professional life of the clergy and the complex behind-the-scenes life of a major Conservative congregation. The result is a front-row seat at the usually clandestine process of choosing a new rabbi - as what was expected to be a simple search for a successor nearly tears a venerable congregation apart.

If you are part of a search committee looking for a new congregational leader, if you are currently a congregational leader looking to retire, or if you are a newly hired young leader - this book is for you. And even if you are none-of-the-above, but are intrigued at the inner workings of the clergy and the politics of congregational life, you too will enjoy this quick, easy to read, and well-written book.

And make sure to read the paperback which has a new afterward which gives an update on the congregation, the rabbi, and many of the other individuals in the book.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Pick it up and let me know what you think!


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