September 24, 2014

Where will you Tashlich?

Leave a Comment / Holidays, Judaism / Jewish Journal

I love the annual ritual of tashlich, the symbolic casting away of the soul’s sins. As it involves a body of water — oceans, rivers, ponds — I like to think of it as an excuse for a hike … and a spiritual adventure.

The custom of self-reflection, traditionally performed on the first day of Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 25 this year) or anytime up to the last day of Sukkot, probably started in the Middle Ages. Its modern incarnation can take many forms, from tossing breadcrumbs or something more natural, like a stone or a twig, to tossing nothing at all.

Some people read liturgy and sing songs; my family shares poems and engages in a little group therapy before taking a moment to visualize the spiritual healing of the world around us. No matter how you choose to perform the “casting away” ritual of tashlich, it can be a very powerful growing and cleansing experience.

Even though we are experiencing a devastating drought in Southern California, there remain a few wonderful places to perform the ceremony that are relatively close to home. Why not be adventurous and try something new this year?

Japanese Garden at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area

The blooming water lilies and immaculately groomed grounds of this 6.5-acre Japanese garden, dedicated in 1984, provide the perfect environment for a peaceful moment. There are many benches strategically placed with beautiful views, allowing a mood of quiet reflection to come naturally. Closed Fridays and Saturdays. Admission is $3; $2 for seniors and children.

6100 Woodley Ave., Van Nuys

Lake Balboa at Anthony C. Beilenson Park

This popular 27-acre lake is filled with fish and frequented by amazing birds and waterfowl. Venture just south of the main body of water and you’ll find a small river with little coves to make your visit a bit more tranquil and private. And if your young ones need a distraction, there is a marvelous playground, too.

6300 Balboa Blvd., Encino

Franklin Canyon Park

Nestled in the hills near Mulholland Drive, this park’s 3-acre lake offers easy access to a serene hideaway in the middle of the city. And Heavenly Pond, a quiet spot just west of the lake, has a walking path and picnic tables to enjoy. Flush with trees, wildflowers and wildlife, the park makes a great getaway retreat.

2600 Franklin Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills

KENNETH HAHN STATE RECREATION AREA

Perched high on a hill, with a lake and pond connected by a small rushing river, the park has panoramic views. The 308-acre recreation area includes a Japanese garden, is close to the Westside and offers lots of space for family, friends and dogs. Admission is $6 on weekends and holidays.

4100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles

Point Dume State Beach

All along the coast, the Pacific Ocean is a perfect place for tashlich. Point Dume is especially lovely with its cliffs, rocky coves and long beaches that add a majestic view to the thought-provoking horizon, its distant line a reminder of the endless possibilities of life and the world around us.

7200 Westward Beach Road, Malibu

Los Encinos State Historic Park

Surrounded by adobe buildings and covering 4.7 acres, the flourishing duck pond, built in 1874, is fed by a natural spring. It’s a quaint respite from the commotion of Ventura Boulevard. Shady trees and a grassy area make it a tranquil setting to spend some quiet time.

16756 Moorpark St., Encino

ECHO PARK LAKE

This L.A. oasis comes with beautiful lotus blossoms and great views of downtown. It was named a City of Los Angeles Cultural Historic Monument in 2006.

751 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles

You can also check out:

Century Lake

Malibu Creek State Park

1925 Las Virgenes Road

Calabasas

Johnny Carson Park

400 S. Bob Hope Drive

Burbank

King Gillette Ranch

26800 W. Mulholland Highway

Calabasas

Malibu Lagoon State Beach

23200 Pacific Coast Highway

Malibu

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Bargain-store table settings that look like a million bucks

Leave a Comment / Holidays, Judaism / Jewish Journal

The High Holy Days can be a very stressful, time-consuming and expensive season — especially if you are the host for Rosh Hashanah dinner or Yom Kippur break-the-fast.

The idea of creating beautiful yet affordable table settings by using items from discount stores was born after we were asked to design a table for Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s house. Ninety-nine-cent stores carry a wonderful variety of items in plenty of colors, combining to offer oodles of inspiration.

For Rosh Hashanah this year, we at Bentop events decided to design two different tables. They mix components available at 99 Cents Only Stores and items that many people already have at home. Then we went to the lovely home of our friends, the Aharon family, to realize our visions, both indoors and out. We hope you get inspired!

1. We found a round, red charger plate at the store that inspired us to design a classy, traditional table in red and a touch of gold. We used one of the holiday’s symbols, the pomegranate — 99 cents each — as the main motif. We dressed the formal dining table with a classy white tablecloth we found in the hostess’ linen closet. To provide a more expansive and fancier look, we chose beautiful plates and soup bowls with a little flower ornament, fancy wine glasses and champagne flutes (yes, the store carried those, too). Rich gold was the perfect accent color, and we were excited to find gold-and-red-beaded napkin rings and gold candle holders. Total cost: $75.

2. For the second look we wanted to create a different atmosphere to fit an outdoor space with a natural, casual and clean line. It was inspired by a color palette of apple green, festive white and a touch of silver. We covered a wooden table with an ivory lace fabric we bought in downtown a long time ago. We created a centerpiece using some vases we found in the hostess’ pantry and filled them with small green apples from 99 Cents Only Stores and hydrangea flowers we bought at the local market. At the store, we found square, light brown charger plates and simple white dishware to fit it. (We always recommend combining different styles when setting a table rather than using a complete set.) We combined this with elegant wine glasses and drinking glasses featuring a wavy pattern. Completing the scene were ivory linen napkins wrapped with silver ring napkins and silver candle holders. Total cost: $70.

Hanna Benrosh is creative director, and Lirit Rosenzweig Topaz is managing director, of Bentop events, an event production company based in Studio City.

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Finding meaning in the ram

Leave a Comment / Holidays, Judaism / Jewish Journal

No story in our culture is more enigmatic and iconic than the Binding of Isaac, which we read on Rosh Hashanah. The akedah, or “binding,” is found in the 22nd chapter of Genesis and is only 19 verses long, containing just over 300 words. Yet this very short story has compelled writers from Maimonides to Wilfred Owen, from St. Augustine to Bob Dylan.

Throughout history, thinkers and writers focused on the varying characters of the story. In the medieval period, philosophers focused mainly on God and free will with questions such as, “What could God learn from Abraham’s test, if the all-knowing God knew that Isaac would not be killed?” During the crusades, the focused shifted to Isaac, who was widely viewed in that time period as a model for martyrdom. In the modern period, the shift of focus was to Abraham with questions such as, “How does someone like Abraham live with a God who commands such terrible things?” Later, the feminists finally give voice to the silenced Sarah by asking, “How would Sarah respond to God’s wish?”

But the most unsung hero of the akedah is not Abraham, or God, or Sarah. It’s the ram.

The basic narrative of the akedah is that God asks Abraham to take his son, Isaac, up to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him to God. Abraham and Isaac climb the mountain together. At the peak, Abraham binds Isaac to the altar and unsheathes the knife. As he lifts the blade into the heavens, the Angel of God appears and stays his hand. A ram caught in the brambles by its horns — which Abraham sees for the first time — becomes the substitute sacrifice for Isaac.

The ram is the only character mentioned in the story that doesn’t speak, that doesn’t choose to be there and finds itself drawn into events of the akedah simply because it was in the right place at the right time. More than any other character in the story, the ram is the truest reflection of the spiritual moment that we live in today. Perhaps that’s what the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai had in mind when he wrote of the ram, “He had human eyes.”

Each of us is just like the ram. There is much in our lives we don’t choose and in truth cannot control. Our parents’ dreams for us began months before we were born. They chose our clothes, our schools, even our friends, when we are young. As adults, we have the opportunity to craft life for ourselves, but we have moments in which we hear our mother’s or father’s words come out of our mouths.

As we grow up, many of us become workaholics and believe that we can control every facet of life by dint of our own powers. We convince ourselves that we can solve any problem or overcome any obstacle if we just work harder and do more. We think we can control every aspect, every moment, as if everyday living is a filtered Instagram image.

Then, at some moment not of our own choosing, the enormity of life catches us unaware. We lose a job, or someone we love becomes terminally ill. We hear the cries of a new baby for the first time, or that child comes home to tell you he’s getting married. These are the moments when we have unwittingly climbed Moriah and life catches us in its thorns, and, like the ram, we have no control over them. We wake up to a world that cannot be designed or curated; it is life in its most unpolished truth, and, like the ram, many of us just don’t have the right language to respond.

The religious energy of the ram saturates the High Holy Days. We begin with the new moon of Elul, the Hebrew month that precedes Rosh Hashanah. Every morning we blow the shofar, the ram’s horn, as a symbolic wakeup call to attune ourselves to the spiritual drama that unfolds around us every day. The shofar gives shape and tone to our experience of life’s most precious moments and reminds us that there is so much in life we cannot control. We are told to calibrate our lives to the shofar’s call as we prepare for the spiritual encounter of Rosh Hashanah. In the ram’s song, its soulful blast vibrates in the chambers of our hearts, waking us up to the fragility of life and teaching us to respond with love and awe in each other.

As the holiday season falls upon us, we begin the journey, like the ram, up the winding paths to Moriah, where each of us allows ourselves the space to break down life to its most basic elements. How will I be in the coming year, and where will life take me? In the Unetaneh Tokef, we encounter God at the peak of the mountain. The author imagines us passing before the open gates of heaven like the sheep of the herd to be counted by God. As we take our turn before God, like the ram, we become our most vulnerable selves by laying bare our successes and failures. We look at our lives and see that that we don’t own them outright because we are entangled in the lives of other people. We look again and see that there are so many things over which we don’t have control. In that Moriah moment, we give ourselves over, like the ram, to the flow of the world.

At Moriah’s peak, we are the ram, giving ourselves over to a higher purpose. This act of giving over is a sacrifice where we draw nearer to both God and the world. In the Torah, the ritual of sacrifice is an act of substitution. The idea of substitution typically moves us away from the realness of life. Most of us have a hard time saying, “I’m sorry that your mother died.” Instead, we substitute, “I’m sorry for your loss.” The substitution makes the experience of death palatable by backing away from the harshness of death.

In the akedah, however, as with other sacrificial rituals, the move is exactly the opposite. In Hebrew, the word korban, which means sacrifice, shares the Hebrew root with the word karov, which means to draw close. This act of substitution in the akedah draws us nearer to, not further from, life’s most powerful truth. Even though we don’t sacrifice animals today, when we commit an act of sacrificial prayer, through our meditations and rituals, we say that we are willing to engage with the realness of life. We come to know that our lives, like the ram’s, are enriched when we view our days on earth as an offering — a gift — to be shared with the universe.

Which leads us to the last crucial point about who we are and who we should be. It was the ram who went to the altar to spare Isaac’s life. An act of substitution such as this is what the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas says is an act of taking ethical responsibility. The ram in this light took responsibility for the entire endeavor of the akedah, for faith and for the covenant. The final teaching of the ram is that it is not enough to climb the mountain on the High Holy Days and realize that our lives are embedded in an awesome universe that we cannot entirely control. We must take responsibility for the world and make it more just and loving. As we draw close to God through the ram’s korban, our joy becomes God’s joy. Our pain becomes God’s pain. In our closeness to God, we become God’s partner, sharing in the task of the global responsibility for justice. To take up the shofar’s call is not only to feel the wonder of the world, but to feel its pain. The babes of others, even those we consider our enemies, deserve our tears as much as do our own children. To understand what it means to be the ram is to understand that we as Jews have a global responsibility to leave our sacred enclaves and go out in the world and stand in the breach of injustice.

This is the secret of the akedah. Today we are all the ram, caught up with one another, tangled in one another’s horns. We need each other, we need to be together, and we need to believe that our togetherness can craft a world worthy of our highest aspirations. The akedah is not simply a test of Abraham’s irrational faith, but a call to partnership with God in the messiness of life.

In one last midrash, the rabbis say that the ram’s two horns were of different sizes. The first is smaller and was blown at Mount Sinai when God revealed the Torah to the Jewish people. The second is larger and more powerful, heralding the coming of the messianic times. Thousands of years ago, we heard the first blast of the ram’s shofar. As we take our journey up to Mount Moriah on this High Holy Days season, it is time to wake up to the spiritual drama around us, realize that we are all bound together in life, and focus our minds and hearts on hearing the messianic call of a better tomorrow.

Noah Zvi Farkas is associate rabbi at Valley Beth Shalom Synagogue in Encino and founder of Netiya, a faith-based network that advances urban agriculture in synagogues, schools and nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles.

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Plan Ahead

Leave a Comment / Community, Culture, Education, Family, Funerals, Holidays, Judaism, Personal Voice / Rabbi Joe Blair

As we confront our mortality at this time of year (the High Holidays), I would like to suggest a service you can perform that can alleviate suffering, prevent or ameliorate remorse and help prevent financial ruin. I am talking about end-of-life documents — Durable Power of Attorney, Medical Power of Attorney, Directive to Physicians, and Do Not Resuscitate Orders. I propose congregations make samples of these documents available on their websites and that rabbis discuss them from the bimah on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of these documents. A Durable Power of Attorney along with a Medical Power of Attorney make it possible to avoid the necessity of a guardianship when a loved one becomes incompetent as a result of dementia or accident. This can save a family thousands of dollars and avert any humiliating court hearings that probe family dynamics as well as the proposed ward’s possibly bizarre behavior.

The Directive to Physicians will forestall any undesired “heroic measures” that can inflict horrible, unnecessary end-of-life treatments that not only subject an incompetent or unconscious patent to prolonged, useless and painful procedures, but also have been shown to leave surviving family members with PTSD because of feeling guilty for subjecting their loved one to unnecessary suffering.

The Medical Power of Attorney is also extremely important in addressing family issues. Families are not always in agreement as to the level and extent of treatment that should be expended on a loved one. The Medical Power of Attorney allows one person to “take charge,” and, referring to the Directive to Physicians, let everyone know that he or she will honor the patient’s desires. This usually smooths relations and produces a modicum of harmony within the immediate family.

It should be noted that once someone turns 18, no one — not a parent, not a spouse, not a sibling — can make medical decisions on behalf of one, who because of accident or incompetence, can no longer speak for themselves. With no Directive to Physicians and Medical Power of Attorney, the patient will be given every possible treatment to prolong life no matter the cost in suffering or money (or they will be subject to the dictates of a medical board that is alien to the family). Remember the most likely event that will leave someone incompetent or unconscious between the age of 18 and 65 is an auto accident. That cannot be planned for, but it can be addressed with end-of-life documents.

It should also be noted that people who have these documents tend to outlive similarly situated people who do not have them because they are subjected to fewer traumatic procedures and usually opt for palliative measures that actually improve the quality of life while extending it.

As for the Do Not Resuscitate Order, it is a document that should be considered as one ages or experiences diminished health. For young people and older people who are in good health, CPR and defibrillation can work wonders. For the elderly or infirm they can be torture, pure and simple. Unlike what you might glean from TV, they are not usually successful. Only about 30% of elderly or infirm patients survive 30 days, and if they do they usually suffer severe mental deficits. Interestingly, while 85% of the general public say they would like to be resuscitated, 85% of emergency room doctors, knowing the probable outcomes, refuse the procedure for themselves. Moreover, the cost of treatment during those final days is exorbitant.

These documents allow each person to have control over the kind of treatment he or she will receive at the end of life, rather than being subject to the whims, wishes, hopes or dictates of others. Unfortunately only about 23% of Americans have these documents. As a result thousands of lives are subject to unnecessary and expensive treatments that only increase suffering and agony.

Rabbi Elliot Dorff has some excellent examples of Directives to Physicians that you could post on your websites.

Again, congregations and rabbis should consider using the “bully pulpit” of the bimah and get the word out to your congregants when you have the majority of them present. Help them to do themselves, and their loved ones, a favor, by taking steps now to prevent uncertainty and unnecessary angst in future.

Fred A. Helms is a student in the Gamliel Institute. Fred has worked as an attorney for many years. He says: “I joined my congregation’s Chevra Kadisha as a way of repaying my community for the support and comfort they gave my wife and me after our son died in 2010. In 2012, the chairman of the congregation’s cemetery committee and rosh of the men’s Chevrah Kadisha selected me as his assistant and successor. He died in January 2014, and I decided to attend the Gamliel Institute’s annual conference in March to prepare me for my new duties. I was so impressed with the conference, I enrolled in the Institute’s website educational program which has also proved invaluable in helping me help others.”

Editor's note: On behalf of Kavod v'Nichum, I wish all our readers a Shanah Tovah Umetukah, a good and sweet year. May it be a year of blessings for you and your loved ones.

To find a list of of other blogs we think you may find to be of interest, click on “About” at the bottom right.

GAMLIEL INSTITUTE COURSE: Chevrah Kadisha – Origins & Evolution

We want to acquaint you with the work of the Gamliel Institute, if you are not already familiar with us, and to announce our next upcoming course.

The Gamliel Institute is the leadership-training arm established by Kavod v’Nichum (“Honor and Comfort”), the educational resource for Chevrah Kadisha groups throughout North America. Kavod v’Nichum provides a comprehensive website (www.jewish-funerals.org) on issues related to Jewish end-of-life practices, and offers community and synagogue trainings and educational programs. In addition, Kavod v’Nichum holds annual conferences that focus on issues and concerns dealing with the topics of Jewish death, mourning, burial, and remembrance, including the work of the Chevrah Kadisha and Jewish practices from serious illness to death and mourning, as well as Jewish cemetery operation and maintenance.

The Gamliel Institute offers a program of online, interactive classes at an advanced level. The Gamliel Institute will be offering Course 1: Chevrah Kadisha – Origins and Evolution – to begin October 14, 2014 (with an introductory logistics session on October 7). Course sessions will be on Tuesday evenings online (5 pm Pacific, 8 pm Eastern).

This course is an in-depth study of the origins and history of the Chevrah Kadisha, the Holy Society that deals with the sacred tasks surrounding practical and ritual preparations of the deceased person for a Jewish funeral. The course further examines how the institution and role of the Chevrah Kadisha has evolved over the centuries and in different localities into the modern day.

Are you interested in taking this course? If so, please be in touch with any of us with questions, or sign up for the course at Kavod v'Nichum Conference!

Join us for an unforgettable time in beautiful Austin, Texas, Feb 22-24, 2015 for the 13th N. American Chevra Kadisha and Jewish Cemetery Conference. Regiser now! Visit the web page to register, reserve a hotel room, and to make your plans!

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High Holy Days 5775: Jewish community shares life advice

Leave a Comment / Cover Story, Holidays, Judaism / Jewish Journal

As we look inward over the course of the High Holy Days, we also seek wisdom that might guide us forward in our lives. The Journal sought life advice from thoughtful people in our community and elsewhere, including a few no longer with us, all of whose words are worth remembering.

When I was 8 years old, I started reading Chasidic stories. From them I learned that (1) There is a God, and He is Good; (2) HaShem is intimately involved in every aspect of your life; and (3) Everything that happens is for the best, even if we can’t understand it in the moment. The more I experience, the more I see that these foundations are not only true, but essential keys to living a beautiful life.

— David Sacks, TV writer

If you’re afraid of going too far, you are never going to go far enough. If you are timid, you are not going to have as much success as you should be having.

If you work at something you truly love, working hard is not a burden — it’s kind of a joy. So, thorny problems are their own reward because the solutions are even more gratifying.

You should keep your eye on what it is you ultimately want to do and prepare yourself for it, because you don’t know when the opportunity is going to be there.

— Stan Kasten, president and part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers

As a young woman I wanted nothing more than to see my name in lights. I couldn’t have guessed how much more satisfying it would be to see my name in stainless steel on the building at Cedars-Sinai hospital that says The Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center.

— Barbra Streisand, interviewed in Glamour magazine as 2013 Woman of the Year

Here lies the very essence of our way of life: Every person must share in the life of others, and not leave them to themselves, either in sorrow or in joy.

— Elie Wiesel, author, professor and Holocaust survivor, quoted in “Standing at Sinai: Sermons and Writings” by Fred N. Reiner

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

— Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, author and theologian, from“The Insecurity of Freedom” (1955)

Trust the process. This is particularly useful when things feel dark or lost or confusing or bleak. And this can [mean] trusting the creative process, as in writing, or trusting a more general creative process, as in life. As long as you are working on something in some way, trying to grow in some way, trying to learn about what’s going on in some way, even if things are dark they will change. How they will change is unknown. But there is a process at work, an unknown one.

— Aimee Bender, author

You have to have concern for the other. And the result of it is self-realization. And, I must say, a great deal of happiness.

— Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis, Valley Beth Shalom, interviewed in the Jewish Journal, 2014

I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That’s the two categories. The horrible are, like, I don’t know, terminal cases, you know, and blind people, crippled. I don’t know how they get through life. It’s amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you should be thankful that you’re miserable, because that’s very lucky, to be miserable.

— Woody Allen, “Annie Hall”

Winston Churchill once said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” I live it all the time. You cannot get it right without first getting it wrong. I take failures and mistakes very lightly. For me they are all learning experiences.

You never have a problem when you are pushed to the limit. It is when you are not pushed to your limit that you have a problem. The best way of going through life and having peak experiences is to set for yourself challenges high, but not so high that they cause you to be in a state of constant anxiety. It’s a matter of pacing yourself. I always discover that the higher you set the challenge, the more energy HaShem gives you.

Make sure that by the time you look back on your life, you have been the author of a life you were proud to sign and let it stand the test of your contemporaries. Life is a work of art. Make it the best you can.

— Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, author and former chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

Lung cancer taught me that what we do today is fun. Tomorrow the bill comes due.

Develop taste. Don’t be a snob. Don’t live in regret. Don’t worry about where your cancer is going to come from. When you have to know, you will.

— Marlene Adler Marks (1948-2002), former managing editor of the Jewish Journal, from her last column, “Oh So Sorry,” Aug. 8, 2002

Don’t freak out. Everything fades.

— Marc Maron, comedian

A coach once told me, “Control what you can control, and don’t get mad at the stuff you can’t control.”

Never be satisfied, because there is always someone out there working to take your job. You can always get better.

Don’t let anyone tell you what you can’t do. Live your dream and do what makes you happy.

— Joc Pederson, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder

There is no gate that has been sealed in front of us in the area of learning and trying and growing. Also, in the realm of goodness, there is no gate that has been sealed. Very often we say that we intend to give to this cause or get involved in that cause; to call this person or that one; to write this one or that one a note; or to volunteer x number of hours per week or month. We intend to do things, but we don’t execute them. This isn’t out of malice. It’s easy to want something, but much harder to live it out.

Part of what Judaism is always trying to teach us is how to unite our highest intentions with our best actions. If we can learn to do that, if we can learn to bring our inner life in harmony with our outer life, there would be a lot of joy around us and inside of us.

— Rabbi Naomi Levy, Nashuva, in Jewish Woman magazine

You cannot be true to the future unless you understand the past and treat both with the same kind of loving kindness. I can’t think of anything more un-Jewish, that we live only for the new and that we are starting from scratch to rebuild a society.

— Howard L. Friedman, in the Jewish Journal, upon stepping down from his role as founding chairman of the Skirball Cultural Center, 2014

When I was young and a tomboy (before the days of unisex/no gender fashion), my mother’s friends would sometimes ask her why she let her daughter dress like a boy. “She doesn’t dress like a boy,” my mother would reliably say, “she dresses like Lisa.” The message I received from her has served me well, and I often share it with others:

Be yourself, and don’t try to look like or be or become someone you are not.

— Rabbi Lisa Edwards, Beth Chayim Chadashim

As I see it, if you’re quiet, you’re not living. I mean you’re just slowly drifting into death. So you’ve got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively. My liveliness is based on an incredible fear of death. In order to keep death at bay, I do a lot of “Yah! Yah! Yah!” And death says, “All right. He’s too noisy and busy. I’ll wait for someone who’s sitting quietly, half asleep. I’ll nail him. Why should I bother with this guy? I’ll have a lot of trouble getting him out the door.” There’s a little door they gotta get you through. “This will be a fight,” death says. “I ain’t got time.”

— Mel Brooks, Playboy interview, 1975

A pearl of wisdom from my mom, Pearl: “There’s good and bad in everyone; try to bring out the good in yourself and others.”

— Stephen Sass, vice president of legal affairs at HBO, president of the Jewish Historical Society of Los Angeles

I enjoy life when things are happening. I don’t care if it’s good things or bad things. That means you’re alive. … My husband used to say, “It is never dull around here.” And that is good. We never looked at each other and went, “I am so bored.”

— Joan Rivers, interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR, 2010

The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s indifference. It is my view of my life that people should live with passion and one person can make a difference. I believe that, it’s in the Torah and it’s in my view of life, and I do believe that if you believe you can’t make a difference, you won’t make a difference. If you believe you can make a difference you will. You need to be passionate. Get involved; there are so many things to do.

— Patricia Glaser, partner and chair of the litigation department at Glaser Weil

After one of the first sermons I gave as a rabbinic fellow at B’nai Jeshurun in New York, my rabbi, Marcelo Bronstein, walked over to me. He put his hands on my cheeks, looked at me and said, with a deep, Argentine accent, “Sharon, dear: People will love you deeply, and people will hate you deeply. You must remember, you don’t deserve none of it.”

I think of that all the time. As a rabbi, I am nothing more than a vessel, working to create holy space that can hold grief and joy and love and loss. People project a lot of love and a lot of hatred onto their rabbis, but we’re really just here to share a Torah that can help hold what life brings all of us, that can offer a context for deeper understanding. We’re here to help people connect with our tradition and with themselves and their purpose, to help make sense of the struggles and triumphs of life. It’s not about us.

— Rabbi Sharon Brous, IKAR

Live an authentic life. Life is not a dress rehearsal.

— Nancy Mishkin, chairman of the board at the Tower Cancer Research Foundation, child of Holocaust survivors, former chairman of the board at Beit T’Shuvah

Be mindful of the fact that you have an obligation to use all your skills and effort to make this a better world.

No matter how important you may think you are, or people tell you you are, you recognize the world can get along without you quite well at least one day a week — on Shabbat.

You can’t be defeated by disappointments. You have to recognize that it’s likely to be only temporary and you have to pick yourself up and keep going. If it’s important to do, you can’t give up. You can’t always control events but you can make a choice as to how you react to those events.

— Congressman Henry Waxman

It’s my past actually that has guided me. I think I was meant to survive to have children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. And that’s the most important thing. But life is not easy. You have to take it the way it comes and make the best of it.

— Engelina Billauer, Holocaust survivor

Trust your instinct. We really do know in our heart and soul what the answer is we seek.

It all turns out for the best. The twists and turns of life often bring us to something better. Trust, let go and believe. Live with an open heart and be open to the possibilities. Although some days are really, really hard, it will and does get better. Surround yourself with people who love you. The energy of love makes all the difference.

— Lili Bosse, mayor, Beverly Hills

Deuteronomy 4:9 — “only take care, and guard your soul.” [Ralph Waldo] Emerson taught me that our moods do not believe one another, and we must have the patience to see if the whim of a moment will disappear or become the passion of a lifetime.

When I was a child, my father said the most important quality to succeed was stamina. Keep at noble tasks, even when your energy flags or the world ignores your efforts. Learn, always learn, both for the joy of discovery and to deepen yourself. Never forget that your soul is God’s one truly irreplaceable and unique gift. You need not be solemn to be serious: With laughter, courage and soul strength, your loves will be true, your friendships enduring and your life blessed.

— Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple

Wherever you are, there is blessing. Wherever you go, be the blessing.

— Craig Taubman, musician, producer, founder of the Pico Union Project

When you are given marching orders, you just keep marching. While, bang, there is a bomb flying to the right, your tank is hit by a shell — bing, a chemical bomb, you quickly put on your gas mask. You just keep marching. … I learned something else in this world: There are two types of people, those who believe and those who don’t believe. Those who believe, there are no questions. Those who don’t believe, there are no answers.

— Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin, director, Chabad West Coast

In the words of the great Dr. Albert Einstein, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Allowing for the possibility of an outcome outside of our control or expectation is the fuel that generates hope, and it is hope that creates the opening for the entry of a miracle.

Humor is healing and liberating. It brings relief. The unbearable can become bearable for all concerned. It is also inspiring and an ultimate act of bravery. Humor, in fact, has scientifically substantiated benefits on our immune function, life expectancy and overall quality of life.

Deep down, all anyone really wants is to feel loved, heard, respected … and often simply supported and not alone. If I’m with an angry individual, I’ve learned to temper my immediate emotional reaction, hold my tongue and ask myself what is actually going on for that person. Why is this situation so upsetting for them? Is it the circumstance or is it how the circumstance is making them feel? Do they feel disregarded, wronged, powerless? Handling anger with anger never brings a situation to resolution.

— Dr. Susan Mandel, doctor of internal medicine, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; associate clinical professor, David Geffen School of Medicine

Strive to fulfill your dreams. As my husband’s mother would say, “take a chance, Columbus did.”

— Molly Forrest, CEO-president, Los Angeles Jewish Home

I think the greatest piece of wisdom is something my father [former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti] taught me, that you need to know who you are before you assume any position [in life]. Too many people define themselves by the [professional] title that they get and think that’s who they are, but those things leave. So if you don’t know who you are at the beginning of something, then you are not going to know who you are at the end.

— Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti

Smile at everybody and say hello. Call your friends as much as you can. Send written thank-you notes.

If you have a good partner, treat him or her like they’re made of glass. Gratitude and kindness go a long way, even to your mate.

Kiss and hug everybody. If you’re worried about germs, just hug. Write down your feelings every day. Don’t worry about the form — just write like you talk. Ask people to tell you their health history; listen well, and ask questions. Ask them about their illnesses and let them be free to talk about them. Look at them straight in the eye while you’re hearing them so they know you’re listening.

— Judi Kaufman, brain cancer survivor, poet, founder of Art of the Brain nonprofit at UCLA Medical Center

Work hard. There’s a reason you’re here. It’s not all about you. Believe in yourself. And be kind, be grateful, know that there is something important that you are supposed to do and it’s your responsibility to find it and do it the best you can.

It doesn’t always come easy, and there are a lot of bumps along the road, but eventually you get there, and you only get there with the help of a wonderful family and a lot of friends — you never get there alone. It really, honestly, does take a community.

— Laurie L. Levenson, professor of law at Loyola Law School Los Angeles

You have no idea what will happen in the coming decades of your life, so feel free to plan, but don’t believe you are in control of it all.

— Ruth Messinger, president, American Jewish World Service

Love. It’s the most important word in the English language. And the second-most important word is “balance.”

— Elliott Gould, actor

When you are in the depths of something and it feels hopeless, seriously hopeless, then it’s next to impossible to see that, in fact, you will be OK, that you’re going to find the strength, whether it’s in yourself, your family or your friends, or your tradition, to get through those times and find joy again.

— Rabbi Eli Herscher, senior rabbi, Stephen S. Wise Temple

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The World As It Is–Part 2–President Obama’s View

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Holidays, Judaism, Poetry / David A. Lehrer

Yesterday we “>addressed the United Nations General Assembly confirming that analysis,

I often tell young people in the United States that despite the headlines, this is the best time in human history to be born, for you are more likely than ever before to be literate, to be healthy, to be free to pursue your dreams…..

We see the future not as something out of our control, but as something we can shape for the better through concerted and collective effort. We reject fatalism or cynicism when it comes to human affairs. We choose to work for the world as it should be, as our children deserve it to be.

The President was not in denial about the problems we face internationally, he confronted them head on. The speech focused on the threat posed by “religiously motivated fanatics and the trends that fuel their recruitment”—predominantly in the Muslim world. He proposed paths to deal with their threats. He is no Pollyanna, he is a realist.

He also did not shy away from the issues that confront us at home, he did not suggest that we have arrived at nirvana, in fact he urged that our efforts to create a “more perfect union” be examined by the world, we will not be found wanting,

But we welcome the scrutiny of the world — because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems, to make our union more perfect, to bridge the divides that existed at the founding of this nation. America is not the same as it was 100 years ago, or 50 years ago, or even a decade ago. Because we fight for our ideals, and we are willing to criticize ourselves when we fall short. Because we hold our leaders accountable, and insist on a free press and independent judiciary. Because we address our differences in the open space of democracy — with respect for the rule of law; with a place for people of every race and every religion; and with an unyielding belief in the ability of individual men and women to change their communities and their circumstances and their countries for the better.

After nearly six years as President, I believe that this promise can help light the world.

Amen Mr. President.

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A Year of Gratitude: Shana Tova U’Metuka

Leave a Comment / California / Beit T'shuvah

By Rabbi Mark Borovitz

As we approach this new year of 5775, I am grateful to everyone who, over this past year and years, has helped me on my journey with words and acts of loving-kindness. These have taken the form of encouragement, kudos, criticisms, and rebukes. All have helped me become the spirit/soul/person I am today.

I am also grateful to the thousands of people who have crossed the threshold of Beit T’Shuvah, most of whom are living lives of purpose, passion and joy! I thank the people who support our effort to help everyone whether they have money or not. I am grateful to our staff for their tireless work to save lives and souls. I am grateful to our Board for their support and guidance in leading Beit T’Shuvah to be a place of recovery that is known for excellence around the United States and beyond.

This year I invite you to be more invested in your spiritual life so that you live with more joy, integrity and peace. I invite you to speak to any of our 11 Spiritual Counselors and explore your inner self so you live in concert with yourself; so your inner and outer match. I invite you to be part of our Elaine Breslow Addiction Institute, part of our Congregation, part of our Youth Services, part of our Creative Matters Design Agency, part of our Thrift Store, part of our Music, Theater, and Art departments. In other words, WE WANT YOU, WE BELONG TO AND WITH YOU!

Shana Tova U'Metuka— A Good, Sweet year to everyone. May we all recognize God's Blessings to and for us in this coming year.

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Bikur Cholim head’s role revealed in annuities scheme

Leave a Comment / California / Jared Sichel

Although the final legal shoe appears to have dropped in an $850,000 ” target=”_blank”>as reported by the Journal in March and described in detail in a July 31 SEC report, assisted Horowitz in identifying, meeting with and obtaining personal information from terminally ill Jews, with whom he likely came into contact through his role at Bikur Cholim. The scheme, according to the SEC, took place between July 2007 and February 2008.

Horowitz also enlisted the help of a New York securities broker, Moshe Marc Cohen, in finding more annuitants and identifying investment firms who would issue the variable annuities.

As of press time on Sept. 22, Ten had not responded to repeated telephone calls or emails. He settled with the SEC for about $200,000 in March but, because the agency had not then settled with Horowitz, many now-public details of the case were kept private at that time.

According to the SEC, Horowitz, the scheme’s architect, duped insurance companies into issuing variable annuities to terminally ill people. Variable annuities are typically long-term investment products that pay variable periodic payments to the annuitant (the person in whose name the policy is issued) and a guaranteed death benefit to the annuitant’s beneficiary. Money is paid upfront, and more can be invested over time in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Variable annuities are typically drawn upon during retirement or designated as death benefits for heirs.

Particularly attractive for individuals is the money-back guaranteed death benefit, which ensures that even if the market tanks on an initial $2 million investment, for example, the deceased’s heirs still will receive $2 million.

But when issued to terminally ill people, it is a guaranteed losing proposition for the issuing companies and a risk-free, sure winner for the beneficiaries. In the scheme, some of the beneficiaries included Horowitz’s close relatives, who made more than $900,000 in profits, and Horowitz himself, who made $317,724 in commissions, according to the SEC.

Greg Yaris, Horowitz’s attorney, characterized his client’s violation as a record-keeping error, which he also said when interviewed by the Journal in March.

“All that the SEC could come up with against him is that somebody in an office made a mistake on one question on an application,” Yaris said of the first section of the SEC’s report, which consists of their detailed findings and to which Horowitz did not sign his name and “neither admitted nor denied anything.”

“The facts that someone might see as salacious in the front half [of the SEC report] are just the SEC’s spin,” Yaris said. In an annex to the report, however, Horowitz admitted to listing terminally ill people as annuitants on 14 contracts and violating federal securities law.

The scheme operated as follows: Around May 2007, the SEC says, Horowitz found out how to “exploit” certain weaknesses in the structure of variable annuities.

For one, the issuers (insurance companies) did not require that annuitants receive physical examinations, and, second, when annuitants died, even if only a day after the policy was issued, the beneficiary would receive the death payout.

Horowitz sought a way to get insurance companies to sell him variable annuities on terminally ill people (some died within days or weeks after the policies were issued), so that the short time horizon of the guaranteed profitable investment could make him and the beneficiaries substantial amounts of money.

The insurance companies that issued these policies require that the investor intends to hold them for a minimum period of time and that the purchaser not be a stranger to the annuitant. The SEC says Horowitz dishonestly said that the annuities would be held for 20 to 40 years and that the purchasers had a “partner” relationship with the annuitants. Had Horowitz named as beneficiaries friends or family members of the terminally ill annuitants, it is possible that those relatives would have realized Horowitz’s plan and would not have agreed to provide him with their signatures or information he would have needed to list them as annuitants.

David Thetford, a securities compliance analyst in Chicago for Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, a multibillion-dollar consulting firm, explained that insurance companies that issue variable annuities like the ones offered by Horowitz have expenses that require time to be recouped.

“This is a long-term investment,” said Thetford, a former auditor for the National Association of Securities Dealers, now known as FINRA. “It’s not designed to be traded or bought and then immediately sold. It’s a long-term investment for retirement.”

To make good on his plan, Horowitz needed three things: investors with enough cash to purchase large policies, terminally ill people, and someone who could both identify and meet with them — and the last in this list is where Ten came in.

As founder and president of Bikur Cholim in Los Angeles, Ten continues to work daily with sick patients, some of whom are terminally ill. The SEC found that Ten helped find dying people and obtained their personal identification information and “health data” to confirm that they were in fact nearing death.

The SEC’s report says that in May 2007, after a “series of closed-door meetings between Horowitz and Ten” at the Bikur Cholim office, Ten created a fictitious charity called “Raphael Health” — the sole purpose of which was to obtain the Social Security numbers, dates of birth and official medical information from terminally ill patients. Raphael Health, the SEC says, would donate $250 to $500 to each patient on the condition that they meet with Ten, provide their name and address, date of birth, Social Security number, medical diagnosis and confirmation of hospice care.

Between July and December 2007, Ten “met with multiple hospice patients” at their homes. The SEC says Horowitz attended many of those appointments. A social worker who attended one of the home visits told the SEC that Ten lied, saying Raphael Health’s donors wanted to learn the stories of the people they were supporting, which required Ten meeting them face-to-face.

“Horowitz’s true purpose in visiting patients was to confirm that they were in fact dying, and, therefore, that they were suitable annuitants,” the report reads, adding that between July and December 2007, at least six patients identified by Ten were listed as annuitants in at least 18 annuities sold by Horowitz. Ten received at least $130,000 in payments from Horowitz.

“Jane Doe 1,” as identified by the SEC, was one terminally ill patient identified by Ten that Horowitz used in a $1.7 million variable annuity. When Jane Doe 1’s husband, John Doe 1, approached Ten in July 2007 for assistance with his wife, who was dying of colon cancer and needed round-the-clock nursing, Ten soon thereafter came to the family’s house with Horowitz “under the pretense of providing charitable assistance.”

According to Scott Sobel, the family’s attorney, while at the home Ten spoke with John Doe 1 about the family’s financial needs and obtained his signature on a health care records release form.

Both the SEC and Sobel say that neither Ten nor Horowitz mentioned variable annuities in their meeting with Jane Doe 1 and her husband. After the meeting, Ten emailed to Horowitz Jane Doe 1’s name, Social Security number and birthdate. On July 31, 2007, Horowitz sold a variable annuity contract worth $1.7 million to his “close family member” — in that contract, Jane Doe 1 was the annuitant, unbeknown to her and her husband. Horowitz earned $28,500 in commissions on the sale, according to the SEC.

Six days later, on Aug. 5, Jane Doe 1 died. Her husband emailed Ten asking for about $1,200, half the cost of home-nursing care since Ten’s visit, which the husband presumed Ten would pay. When Ten did not respond by Aug. 21, John Doe 1 wrote to Ten again asking him to “use the money for someone else that is more in need.”

Ten, without John Doe 1’s knowledge, retrieved a copy of Jane Doe 1’s death certificate and sent it to Horowitz, who in turn used it in his death benefit claim that he submitted to the insurance company. On Oct. 19, 2007, the investor on Jane Doe 1’s policy received just over $2 million on his $1.7 million purchase, a 17.7 percent rate of return in less than three months.

In a subsequent case in November 2007 involving “Jane Doe 2,” a woman dying of stomach cancer, Ten’s Raphael Health paid $405 to fulfill her wish of going with her children to Disneyland. That support, though, was conditioned on Jane Doe 2 providing personal information and meeting with Ten and Horowitz.

This time, Ten purchased a $1 million policy with Jane Doe 2 as the annuitant and immediately received $50,000 from the company as a 5 percent bonus for investing a minimum of $1 million.

In forms filed with the insurance company, Horowitz falsely stated that Ten intended to hold the annuity for 27 years. On Dec. 20, less than a month after Ten purchased the policy, Jane Doe 2 died. Ten sent Horowitz her death certificate. Horowitz sent a claim to the insurance company. The company sent Ten $1,050,322.60 for the three-week investment.

In response to a query from the Journal, a spokesperson for Cedars-Sinai wrote in an email that the hospital has “never provided Rabbi Ten or his team with any protected health information” and that “Cedars-Sinai no longer permits Bikur Cholim to provide services at the hospital.” The hospital, one of the city’s top health providers for the Jewish community, cut ties with the group after the SEC released its allegations against Ten in March.

A hospital spokesperson wrote in an email that “there has been no fall-off in services” to Jewish patients, because the hospital is using more of its own resources and working with other community organizations to assist Jewish patients with their religious needs, including Chai Lifeline.

A spokesperson for the UCLA health system wrote in an email that Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has never provided Ten or Bikur Cholim with patient data, but that the group makes a weekly challah donation for Jewish patients in the hospital during Shabbat. The spokesperson added that after Rosh Hashanah, UCLA will rely instead on another donor to provide the challahs, but that the decision is solely a financial one.

In all, the SEC determined Horowitz received more than $317,000 in sales commissions and at least $30,000 from close relatives when they profited from the annuities. The SEC stripped Horowitz of his broker license and fined him a total of $850,749.21. Ten, according to a March 13 SEC press release, paid back $181,147.64 in illegitimate profits, as well as interest of $20,858.80 and a penalty of $90,000.

Horowitz’s and Ten’s scheme is not without precedent; insurance companies are constantly on the watch for people who attempt to game the system.

Joseph Caramadre, a Rhode Island attorney, was sentenced to six years in federal prison in 2013 after pleading guilty to fraud and conspiracy for running a variable annuities scheme similar to Horowitz’s. Caramadre argued, though, he was only taking advantage of a gap created by the insurance industry and he was sharing his profits with families that needed money to assist dying loved ones.

With Horowitz, though, neither criminal nor civil court was an option, as the SEC opted to keep the case in its own administrative court, where defendants like Horowitz lack many of the protections afforded to defendants in a jury trial.

The SEC’s administrative law judge, following SEC procedural rules, can limit the discovery period and uses the “preponderance of the evidence” standard rather than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that is afforded to criminal defendants. Following reforms initiated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, the SEC now has an easier time prosecuting potential lawbreakers in-house instead of in court — and in a shorter time frame. The time that elapsed between the SEC charging and settling with Horowitz was only about four months. Yaris said that reaching a settlement made sense for his client, because “the cost of fighting and the risk of fighting in their forum was too great.”

When asked why the SEC opted to keep the case in its own administrative court instead of filing a civil lawsuit against Horowitz, an agency spokesperson declined comment.

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Focusing on ISIS in U.N. speech, Obama virtually ignores Iran

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Lead Story, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, United States / Jewish Journal

President Barack Obama devoted the bulk of his U.N. speech to the fight against violent Islamic extremism and hardly mentioned Iran’s nuclear program.

In his U.N. General Assembly speech last year, Obama spent a lot of time talking about Tehran’s nuclear pursuit, describing it as one of two major focus areas for American diplomatic efforts (the other was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). In this year’s General Assembly speech, Obama devoted just four lines to Iran.

“America is pursuing a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue, as part of our commitment to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and pursue the peace and security of a world without them,” Obama said. “This can only happen if Iran takes this historic opportunity. My message to Iran’s leaders and people is simple: Do not let this opportunity pass. We can reach a solution that meets your energy needs while assuring the world that your program is peaceful.”

The thin coverage of Iran drew immediate notice from Jewish groups.

“Obama devoted only 78 words at #UNGA to greatest threat to world peace, the #Iran nuclear threat; 1,540 words to #ISIS,” the American Jewish Committee’s Global Jewish Advocacy project noted in a tweet.

Near the speech’s conclusion, Obama also spoke a bit about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Leadership will be necessary to address the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis,” he said. “As bleak as the landscape appears, America will not give up on the pursuit of peace.”

The turmoil in Iraq, Syria and Libya should disabuse anyone of the mistaken notion that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is somehow the root of all Middle East conflict, Obama said. Noting that the turmoil has made too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace, Obama diverted from his prepared remarks and added, “That’s something Israelis should reflect on.”

“The status quo in the West Bank and Gaza is not sustainable,” Obama said. “We cannot afford to turn away from this effort, not when rockets are fired at innocent Israelis or when the lives of so many Palestinian children are taken from us in Gaza.”

He said, “Israelis, Palestinians, the region and the world will be more just and safe with two states living side by side in peace and security.”

Most of the president’s speech focused on the need for the international community to counter what he described as the “cancer of violent extremism.” At the top of the list was ISIS, the Islamic group in Iraq and Syria also known by the acronym ISIL.

“Collectively, we must take concrete steps to address the dangers posed by religiously motivated fanatics and the trends that fuel their recruitment,” Obama said, outlining four major focus areas.

“The terrorist group known as ISIL must be degraded and ultimately destroyed,” he said. “There can be no reasoning, no negotiating with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force.”

The second, Obama said, is for “the world, especially Muslim communities, to explicitly, forcefully and consistently reject the ideology of organizations like al Qaeda and ISIL.” That means, he said, cutting off the funding of those who fuel hateful groups and ideologies; contesting the space terrorists occupy, including the internet and social media; expunging intolerance from schools; and bringing people of different faiths together.

“There should be no more tolerance of so-called clerics who call upon people to harm innocents because they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim,” Obama said.

The third focus area Obama outlined was addressing sectarian strife and resolving differences at the negotiating table rather than through violent proxies. In Syria, he said, that means finding a solution that works for all Syrian groups.

“Together with our partners, America is training and equipping the Syrian opposition to be a counterweight to the terrorists of ISIL and the brutality of the Assad regime,” Obama said as Syria’s U.N. delegation watched from the audience. “But the only lasting solution to Syria’s civil war is political: an inclusive political transition that responds to the legitimate aspirations of all Syrian citizens, regardless of ethnicity or creed.”

The fourth area of focus, he said, must be to encourage civil society and entrepreneurship in the Arab and Muslim world, particularly among young people.

The first nation Obama focused on was Russia, which he lumped in with ISIS and Ebola as one of the reasons for “a pervasive unease in our world – a sense that the very forces that have brought us together have created new dangers.”

“Russian aggression in Europe recalls the days when large nations trampled small ones in pursuit of territorial ambition,” he said. “We will impose a cost on Russia for aggression, and counter falsehoods with the truth.”

The president also talked briefly about the need for a more robust and coordinated response to the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.

Focusing on ISIS in U.N. speech, Obama virtually ignores Iran Read More »

Pen In The Sky

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Holidays, Judaism, Poetry / Emily Stern

In honor of Rosh Hashana 2014

I'm fine with the image of a pen in the sky
as long as it's feathered, and
can chisel through stone.

Draw the truth in all of the world.
Get fancy and very straightforward.

Show us the lines
to break through the schmutz
reveal what's inside.
Reveal to us Your heartfelt design.

If your soul paints the world,
write our book of glowing streams
already here, already perfect, already whole.

Simply lift and return us again.
We’re ready to live in the daylight
of Grace, hand in hand. Yours always.

Shana Tova!

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