fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

November 25, 2021

This is All We Know of Er – A poem for Parsha Vayeshev

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Poetry, Torah /

Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the eyes of the Lord,
and the Lord put him to death.
-Genesis 38:7

This is all we know of Er –
that he was evil and put to death
the nature of his evil, conjecture.

This is all we know of Er –
Judah’s son, Joseph’s nephew
husband to Tamar.

What he did remains a mystery.
Did he murder? Did he steal?
did he covet?

Did he jaywalk? No,
they didn’t have traffic lights then.
It couldn’t be that.

This is all we know of Er –
that whatever he did then was
not what should have been done

even though we might do it now
because our sensibilities are different,
we have traffic lights after all.

This is all we know of Er – though
our great interpreter suggested he
spilled his seed on the ground

which could have been an accident
you never know when the ground
is going to come along

and these days, with seed being
spilled all over the place, it
doesn’t seem like that big of a deal.

It’s possible the people who
wrote Er’s story invented the idea
that your brother should take over

for you if you are put to death, or die –
All the things you would have done
All the places you would have

put your seed, now their responsibility.
This is all we know of Er.
It is so little.

God Wrestler: a poem for every Torah Portion by Rick LupertLos Angeles poet Rick Lupert created the Poetry Super Highway (an online publication and resource for poets), and hosted the Cobalt Cafe weekly poetry reading for almost 21 years. He’s authored 25 collections of poetry, including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion“, “I’m a Jew, Are You” (Jewish themed poems) and “Feeding Holy Cats” (Poetry written while a staff member on the first Birthright Israel trip), and most recently “The Tokyo-Van Nuys Express” (Poems written in Japan – Ain’t Got No Press, August 2020) and edited the anthologies “Ekphrastia Gone Wild”, “A Poet’s Haggadah”, and “The Night Goes on All Night.” He writes the daily web comic “Cat and Banana” with fellow Los Angeles poet Brendan Constantine. He’s widely published and reads his poetry wherever they let him.

This is All We Know of Er – A poem for Parsha Vayeshev Read More »

Grateful for Gratitude

Leave a Comment / Editor's Note /

Hibernating for months on end in the midst of a deadly pandemic has a way of making one go deep. Five million people perish from a virus—how could we not go deep? For many of us, the devastation and isolation of COVID has had that effect, forcing us to ponder some fundamental questions about life itself: What does it even mean to be alive?

The very idea of life has come into sharp relief, including the eternal and uncomfortable question: Do I like my life?

But whether we like our lives or not, for many of us Life is now the hero of our lives, the main subject, the dominant theme. We’re thinking about what life means.

So, when Thanksgiving– the holiday of gratitude– shows up, the life theme fits perfectly. That is the beauty of gratitude– it forces us to look for things we’re grateful for, whether we’re in love with our lives or not.

That is the beauty of gratitude– it forces us to look for things we’re grateful for, whether we’re in love with our lives or not.

I can’t help thinking of the movie, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” about a man who became completely paralyzed in a car accident. He was left with only two things—his imagination and his functioning eye lids. He was so grateful for those little bread crumbs of life that he figured out, with the help of his nurses, how to communicate through blinking. He ended up writing a book.

That is gratitude in the extreme, reduced to its shining essence.

We all have a lot more life in us than that man. So much of it, in fact, that we can make an endless list of things to be grateful for, even if there are many things about our lives that we can’t stand.

That may be the ultimate reason to be grateful—the fact that we can always find things to be grateful for.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Grateful for Gratitude Read More »

A Bisl Torah — Be the Hope

Leave a Comment / A Bisl Torah /

Although most of us are still enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers, Hannukah is just days away. Through the latkes and sufganiyot, we sometimes forget that Hannukah is the holiday of rededication. The Temple was rededicated after a duration of defilement and desecration.

Rabbi David Hartman suggests that the real miracle of Hannukah is not that the oil lasted a particular course of time. Rather, the miracle is that a group of people decided to light the oil no matter how long it would last, even if it wasn’t enough time to actually rededicate the Temple. This group of Jews rededicated themselves to possibility. Rededicated themselves to potential. Rededicated themselves to hope.

A recent bat mitzvah student reminded me that sometimes, we need to be our “old” selves in order to be our authentic selves. Meaning, this world encourages conformity and assimilation. We are told what not to be, what to say, how to act and where to go to achieve a particular status. A status that sometimes distances us from the soul God embeds within; a status that causes imagination to fade away. But Hanukkah is the exact time to rededicate ourselves to finding a brighter path…remembering who we are meant to be and how to envision a better world.

The dark nights have a way of creeping into the day. But the setting sun holds no power over the intensity of our combined light. A spiritual light reflecting the miracle offered by our ancestors: we don’t know what the future will hold, but we rededicate ourselves anyway, pushing forward, seeking a brighter way.

Which means, you too can find meaning in this festival of rededication. Opportunity is waiting just for you.

Be the light. Be the miracle. Be the hope.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Hannukah

Rabbi Nicole Guzik is a rabbi at Sinai Temple. She can be reached at her Facebook page at Rabbi Nicole Guzik. For more writings, visit Rabbi Guzik’s blog section from Sinai Temple’s website.

A Bisl Torah — Be the Hope Read More »

A Moment in Time: Saying “Thank You”

Leave a Comment / 'A Moment In Time', Blogs /

Dear all,

Even before they could talk or even understand the concept, Maya and Eli learned how to say “Thank You.” (It was the wisdom of Ella – who has worked with us since before the kids were born. She helped plant the seeds of gratitude in our children).

I now hear them say “thank you” many times a day. I hear them, and I think deeply about how much our world needs to take a moment in time to share our gratitude:

When we smell the fresh ozone after rain, say “Thank you.”

When the candles drip from the Chanukiah, getting wax everywhere, say “Thank you.”

When the sun shines on our faces, say “Thank you.”

When we hear a bird chirping, say “Thank you.”

When our kids get all schmutzy, say “Thank you.”

When we are upset with someone we love, say “Thank you” (because we have someone to love in the first place).

When we exit a flight, even if it was a difficult one, say “Thank you” to the crew.

When we remember a mentor from years ago, contact him/ her and say “Thank you.”

When we cry over the memory of someone who has died, say “Thank you.”

 

As a country, Thanksgiving is once a year. As individuals, Thanksgiving can be every day!

ZEMR (Zach, Eli, Maya, and Ron) send you and all you love blessings for this season. Thank you for being who you are!

With love and shalom,

Rabbi Zach Shapiro

A Moment in Time: Saying “Thank You” Read More »