From the Rabbi's Desk...
 
Rabbi Irwin Huberman
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April 15, 2010
Pre Burial Rituals
On Sunday, CTI will welcome one of the most important new voices of liberal Judaism.
Rabbi and author Regina Sandler-Phillips will join us to discuss the choices which are available to us as individuals and as communities from the time of someone’s passing to their burial.
In many congregations, the institution of the Chevrah Kedishah is being revived. This consists of a series of kind individuals who, with love, wash and prepare a body for burial and recite Psalms and other holy readings during the hours before the funeral.
This is a difficult topic, but one I believe is important to understand so that we can make good choices during future times of grief.
We may or may not form such a circle of kindness in our congregation. If not, then at least at the close of Rabbi Sandler-Phillips discussion, we will all know more about these sacred and loving rituals.
Rabbi Sandler-Phillips’s talk will begin with a bagel breakfast at 10:15am.
Ordination Express
A bus has been chartered for anyone interested in attending ordination ceremonies on Thursday, May 13 at the Academy of Jewish Religion (AJR) in Riverdale.
The bus will leave CTI at 2:00pm, and will arrive well in time for this very holy and meaningful service as AJR ordains eight rabbis and two cantors.
Cost to ride the bus is $36 per person. Please contact president Richard Lazarow if you are interested. So far the forty nine seat bus is about half full.
Brighton Beach Memoirs
CTI’s monthly movie series continues Wednesday with the showing of the Neil Simon comedy Brighton Beach Memoirs.
Set in Brighton Beach in 1937, this 1986 comedy focuses on Eugene Morris Jerome, a Polish-Jewish teenager played by Jonathon Silverman, who experiences puberty, sexual awakening, and a search for identity as he tries to deal with his family, including his older brother Stanley, his parents Kate and Jack, as well as Kate's sister Blanche and her two daughters, Nora and Laurie.
This movie will bring back memories for many, especially those raised in Brooklyn. The movie begins at 7:30pm
Lashon Hora: Words That Hurt
This week’s Torah portion is one of the most challenging in the entire Jewish tradition.
We read this week about some of the most intimate details of life, with more than we care to know about bodily fluids and skin diseases.
Our sages, in their continual attempt to make sense out of these ancient texts, focus on one word, tzara’at to speculate what the Torah has in mind.
They notice that, in a number of places of the Torah, the word tzara’at (skin disease) follows an individual, such as Moses or Miriam, uttering what we call Lashon Hara, otherwise known as gossip, or critical speech.
The rabbis expand on this topic, noting that when we are overcritical of each other, or when we gossip, we bring an overall malaise to ourselves, both spiritually and physically.
We know it when we say it.
How often is it that we are standing among a group of people who are gossiping about others. It is so natural to say nothing, or to add further negativity to the conversation.
Often, we notice ourselves doing it; we try to close our lips, but by that time the damage has been done.
Afterwards we feel off center, slightly shamed, and incomplete.
Our tradition takes this one step further. It tell us that gossiping or sharing negative information says more about our own insecurities than it does about the subject of the conservation.
The Talmud reminds us that, when we gossip, we damage three people: the subject, the personal we are sharing it with, and ourselves. None of the three is ever the same. As the famous Chassidic folk tale reminds us, loose feathers can never be put back into a pillow.
This week’s Torah portion reminds us to not only take care take of our bodies and its functions, but also to pay attention to the most powerful organ of all—the tongue.
Loose tongues may not in fact bring skin diseases upon us, but they can leave us feeling sour and incomplete.
The Torah instructs us not to kill on only two occasions, but according to the great Rabbi, the Chofetz Chaim, there are thirty-one biblical verses that remind us to speak kindly of others and to guard our tongues.
The Talmud also reminds us of the importance of a kind word as it states, “One who gives a coin to someone in need is to be blessed six times, but one who encourages him with words is to be blessed eleven times.”
As we rise everyday in our efforts to heal a broken world (L’Taken Olam) it is incumbent upon us to use words as tools of creation, and not weapons of pain.
This week’s Torah portion reminds us about the power of words. While gossip may provide short term enjoyment, in the long run its effects can literally get under our skin.
It’s a matter of paying attention to our speech, one conversation and one word at a time.
Best wishes for a Shabbat shalom, a peaceful and reflective Shabbat.
Kol tuv (with all goodness)
Rabbi Irwin Huberman
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