The February 2011 Shmoozeletter is on line (click here).
Special points of interest:
Almost half way through the Jewish year, we come upon the first body of Torah legislation. Narrative is set aside. Here, we learn how to create a just society. Arson, lending, caring for the stranger and the needy among the people – all this and more is treated in this parsha. The Hebrew Bible treats these and other matters of social justice in detail.
At this service, we’ll see how, and why. Please join us and learn how deeply our ancient forebears thought about human needs and human rights.
When the conversation goes right, it opens to a vision. We catch a glimpse of a world at peace, a world that knows to celebrate human kindness and generosity in any form. It is the world we long for.
I crave this world. I look for opportunities to speak to people about what our world needs from all of us – regardless of faith or affiliation, regardless of ethnicity or language.
You never know who your conversation partners might be. You cannot know what they will teach you or what you might gift to them. But find one, and it can shift what you know about this world. Truly, it may change your life.
I was on a plane back to the Piedmont. It was just after Charlotte-Douglas International Airport opened again after the first snow and ice storm of the New Year. I sat down with my book on Lamentations, a short collection of poetry from the Hebrew Bible.
I wore my kippah, a traditional Jewish head covering.
A man sat next to me in the aisle. I am not sure if it was the book or the kippah, and I honestly don’t remember his first question. But it was a first question that led to one of the deepest conversations I have ever had about matters of faith.
We spoke about our background. We compared and contrasted his Christian sense of being born in sin with my Jewish sense about a broken humanity contending with a broken world. The outcome of either belief was not dissimilar: Both of us longed to reach out for grace and healing. We knew it was our obligation to try, again and again, to act in a way that could invite goodness.
“Be a mentsch,” I said. “A good person.”
“Love Christ,” he said.
I mentioned the way atheist friends of mine aspired to exactly the same goals. We could recognize the basic humanity of all who strove for goodness.
All the time we spoke, I felt that the man beside me was on some kind of search, questing after some kind of truth. I was impressed at how articulate he was in explaining his own beliefs. I was even more impressed that he never once spoke as if he had to convince me that his faith was superior to mine.
He didn’t try to change me. He listened.
I didn’t try to change him. I listened.
Finally, he pulled out his bible and told me which passage he’d been studying.
We looked at the passage together. We explained what we both saw in the passage.
And then, as we landed and taxied on the tarmac, this man told me he had been thinking of becoming a minister.
He had been struggling for a long time with the idea. He has a good job, and his children are young. Life was stable as it was.
I asked him if he could simply go inside and ask himself: What did he long for? What did he feel God longed for?
He said he could hear the phone ringing.
“I haven’t picked up the phone,” he said.
“Well,” I said, “if you decide to pick up, remember it’s a local call.”
It is now weeks after this conversation and I admit that I am hoping and praying that whatever he decides, this young man listens to his heart and feeds his soul.
That is what he did for me. I won’t forget it.
[This piece was printed in the Neighbors section of the Charlotte Observer on January 30, 2011]
Rabbi Barbara Thiede gave the opening prayer at the Jan. 17 Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast, Jan. 17 2011, of the H. L. McCrorey Family YMCA at The Westin, Charlotte NC. Please allow some time to load: it’s a large video file (16 mb). To view it, click here.
A new directory (January 2011) is available to members of Temple Or Olam.
The January 2011 shmoozeletter is on line here. Items of interest:
It’s the darkest night of the year. And not only that, the longest night of the year. What are the people of Chelm to do? Why, capture the moon!
It’s our last service of 2010. But we will enjoy a cozy Kabbalat Shabbat, and find out how the Jews of Chelm overcame their sadness and fear when gloomy and long, black nights took away the light.
Join us for a service of sweet song and joyous prayer at our usual location (McGill Baptist Church, Concord). We hope to see you there!
The December 2010 Shmoozeletter is available here.
Main points:
Hanukkah Party Dec. 05 at 5:00 p,m.
December 10 service at 07:00 p.m.
Feb 12, 2011 party for our Rabbi
Suzie Feldberg teaches Sunday School
Specify fund on memo line on checks sent to our treasurer
Check with Ginger Jensen to schedule events at McGill Baptist Church.
A preteen riffs on guitar. A six-year-old regales those assembled with the Story of the Mysterious Traveling Gum. And, we hear, a board member may give us his rendition of Honika Elektronika?
You never quite know what will happen at the Temple Or Olam Hanukkah Talent Show, but that shouldn’t stop you from proffering your own talent or coming just for the fun and games. (And to chow down on a buffet filled with latkes, of course….).
Join us for our Temple Or Olam Hanukah Party this December 5 at 5 pm at McGill Baptist Church. Is there a talent up your sleeve?
Below are some ideas to make Hanukkah special this year for you and yours. Enjoy, and chag sameach!
Light the candles and sing the blessing. Then, tell a different Jewish story each night. These can be Hanukkah stories, of course, but they don’t have to be. Let the children choose the stories or, even better, tell them while the candles are burning low. (Just google “Jewish Stories” and I promise, you’ll get lots of hits…).
Hanukah Hunt: Have the children search for Hanukkah things you’ve hidden in various rooms in the house – perhaps eight items for our eight days. Gelt, a menorah, a Hanukkah candle, a dreidel, and a little flask of wine? How about a piece of paper rolled up and tied with a ribbon, a scroll written by Judah Maccabee?
Research: Have the kids learn about a Jewish symbol and present what he or she has discovered each night. Where did the Star of David come from? How about the seven-branched menorah?
