THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICS, IT IS ABOUT….

THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICS, IT IS ABOUT….

Wearing a mask to protect one’s health and that of those around us is being prudent, a good citizen and in appropriate self-interest at this time in our reality. AND YET, there are those in our country who would have us believe it is a political statement. Really?

Being horrified at police brutality is about caring about human beings. BLACK LIVES MATTER is about being appropriate citizens and good human beings. Holding individuals who carry accountable for being responsible and controlling their own tempers is about observing the laws set for the country we all share and so much else. It is NOT a political statement!

Loving a country that is a democracy in the Middle East and a homeland for Jews and so many others, by the way, from so many other lands, is about identifying with the land of my history, my religious identity and so much else. It is based on foundational principles of justice and concern for all human beings that are fundamental to all monotheistic religious codes. It is NOT a political statement!

I have been reading Susan Rice’s book, Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For, have watched the documentary of Richard and Mildred Loving’s story, on which the movie Loving is based, and have watched numerous you tube recordings and read memoirs and writings dedicated to peoples’ understanding of their identity and what in the larger stage on which we live threatens that identity. Rice speaks of a time when Democrats and Republicans got along well, had meaningful debates about their differences with respect and reasonably pitched voices. THIS IS WHAT I REMEMBER from my years in the middle of so much between the mid-sixties and early seventies, when I was in Baltimore and Washington DC. We all had our political affiliations and perspectives but our friendships WERE NOT based on politics. Our statements and precautions we took for our health WERE NOT seen as political. We were all part of the family of people that call the United States of America home.

I know too many people who have died from COVID 19 and protecting all of ourselves, our families and our communities is about using the common sense that G-d is kind enough to bestow upon us to act sensibly and responsibly. No amount of shouting, name-calling and disrespectful tweets and barbs will change that.

I am profoundly worried about our country. I am proud of the MANY, MANY people who are working to hold the reasonable and moderate middle and are using their voices of sanity and reason. That being said, we CANNOT ignore the hatred, prejudice and violence that has been unleashed in this country. NO ONE PERSON no matter what position, has created that. It has always been here. BUT, the responsibility each of us have to respond to this in a way that is healing and restorative is critical and anyone who allows voices of authority to claim that “there are very fine people” in all groups including the Ku Klux Klan and other white extremist groups validates and gives tacit permission to all those who hate us to act violently and THEY ARE doing just that -- because we are Jews, because we are Muslims, because we are people of color, because we are LGBTQ -- because we are not part of the White America they want to fight for . DO NOT take this glibly, we all know previous chapters of history when this was done, certainly in the later 1930s in cultured and well-educated Germany, and we know where that led.

Use your voices! Write, teach, read, learn … and remember that if, in the words of Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, we do not rise to stand with each and every group who is maligned, than we have no right to ask that they do the same for us. And anyway, it is the right thing to do, it is the moral and just thing to do, it is the HUMAN thing to do. BLACK LIVES MATTER! LGBTQ LIVES MATTER! JEWISH LIVES MATTER! MUSLIM LIVES MATTER! ALL LIVES OF MORAL JUST HUMANS MATTER! KEEPING OURSELVES HEALTHY MATTERS And this is NOT political!!!!!!!!

Sustainability vs. Profitability: Adjusted Times Require Adjusted Thinking and Planning

I recently saw an interview on television with a restaurant owner that impressed me greatly. The owner was asked how he was dealing with the reality at present and what it was doing for his business. He remarked that he is not really making money per se, but is dedicated to putting food on people’s tables and insuring that his employees can do the same for their families. He is not looking for profitability in this time just sustainability – can he break even or not lose too much financial viability. I think this is a wonderful role model for all in thinking about how we look at what is happening at present and the adjustments we must all make. One question that is getting a great deal of attention at this time is vacation home owners and those who have rented their properties for periods in the summer. If the ones who were planning a vacation can no longer benefit from the offerings of their vacation home site, then should they be entitled to refunds? One shore home owner is quoted as saying that the would-be-vacationers were renting their home, not the area, and the deal stands. Now we all know that is not really what they were renting…. Others are being more understanding. But so it goes. We, along with so many others, are waiting to hear about refunds for our plane tickets to Rome, which has been totally shut down and we have nothing to go to there now in June. So how should we handle these situations?

A few days ago, in my Gemara learning I came upon this text in BT Mas. Arachin 20:b for those who want to check it out: “The one who rents a house to his friend and the walls become infected with leprosy….” Of course, the question is, what is his obligation to refund the renter’s money? In this discussion, there are several situations (as is the habit in Talmudic discourse) about different conditions that can rise and what options we should exercise, whether through obligation or because it is the proper thing to do or because it will maintain a peaceful and viable community. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone would approach our present situation with that type of thinking and follow the lead of the restaurant owner in the first situation cited above?

Some of our car insurance companies realize we are not driving and cutting rates or providing refunds. Some land owners and landlords are acting with the same thinking. There are those businesses and individuals who are acting honorably and I am sure this will bode well for them when we move out of our present cloud of existence. I would suggest we all note who is acting in a caring empathic manner towards all of us and support them later while for those who are still focused on profitability, well….

I think there is an opportunity here – to act honorably, to stop worrying about what is best for each individual in isolation of the group but rather to be concerned about the health of all from which we will ultimately benefit in the long run. I and many of my colleagues are presently providing free programming on line and I know it is appreciated. We are doing this because we care and because as long as we can sustain ourselves, we are not concerned about profit at this time. That should not be our focus – there is too much else to attend to and do.

Often in the Gemara, there are rulings that are cited “for the benefit of X.” In other words, sometimes it is more about what we should do than what we have to do. That would be a great guiding principle at this time in our lives. As we have learned, we are indeed all in the same storm, but not in the same boat. Some of us are quite comfortable, while others are not so blessed. Let us all watch out for each other and when we are thinking about our property we have rented for vacation, or tickets we have sold or any other agreement we have made while so much of our reality has been upended, let us all ask ourselves – what do we need to sustain us and where can we not worry about the profit, and instead use that potential resource to benefit others, so their boats can sustain them more readily.

Be well all and stay safe!

Busy, Teaching, Learning, Thinking, Observing, Connecting, and Counting Blessings

Hoping all in your world are well and safe. This has clearly been a time with its challenges. Too many people have died and we have all lost friends, relatives, neighbors and fellow members of our human family. We are not in gatherings, we are not traveling, we are mostly running our worlds from limited boundaries. Some of us are definitely stepping up our game in using technology. We are socially connecting in new ways at physical distances. We are all waiting for a return to some type of normalcy, even though we are all aware it probably will not return to what we are used to. What will our lives look like going forward? What blessings and lessons from this time will we take with us, helping us to live further enriched and meaningful lives, protecting ourselves, each other and our world better?

Within this surreal situation, I am one of those people who has blessed to be able to move my life onto on-line formats -- teaching, meeting with various groups and colleagues, planning programs (including our Multi-Faith Council’s upcoming Annual IFTAR Gathering this coming Wednesday, May 6), and going to lots of Zoom events – and thinking about the reality that we are indeed all in this together. Zoom Rooms are now our club house. Neighbors out for a walk are always stopping for conversation and many of us are actually meeting in a meaningful way for the first time. Within all of this, we all take note of the graduations, personal milestones and special occasions which will not be happening now, but I have begun to suggest that again we think of how to recapture these moments later – perhaps high school and college graduations the end of fall semester when people are home, a later celebration of a Zoom wedding, or …? On the other hand, exposure is increased for those of us on line --- The classes I teach which normally in physical space can attract between ten and twenty-five people at one time are now being seen by as many as several hundred, when they are archived. These are the opportunities of the moment. In some groups I teach, I have people “in the same room” from Canada, California, the Mid-west and the East Coast….

This week is a particularly busy one as I reconnect with my younger Torah scholars, students at Perelman Jewish Day School. One of the things we learn together is the weekly Torah portion. When we last met, we were still in the historical narrative and beginning of being a communal entity in Sefer Shemot (Exodus). Now we are in VaYikra (Leviticus) – a book of laws of purity and action. As we look at where we are at this moment in time, we have just hit the mid-point of the Torah narrative this past Shabbat. We read the Holiness Code in Parshat Kedoshim, reminding us how we are different than other peoples and how we are to maintain our identity and standards of behavior no matter what we observe others doing. This is always an important lesson for all of us – the understanding and embracing of our moral compass. How do we maintain proper behavior and standards of health and well-being in a world in which such may not be the bar by which all is measured? Additionally, the book of VaYikra is about purity and cleanliness and keeping our bodies as well as our souls clean and healthy. This lesson is clearly relevant for our time and the connections to be made are obvious. What may NOT be so obvious is the notion of touch-contamination, clearly discussed in our Torah reading of two weeks ago and greatly expanded in our Talmud and other Codes of Law. I will actually begin this week’s lessons with these children as well as my adult Torah study groups with these lessons – in which we are reminded that the walls of our houses, material of our clothing, surfaces on which we work, etc. can all carry various Tum’ot – those impurities that have physical as well as spiritual consequences.

Too often, people think of religious codes as only dealing with religious observance standards, per se. Yet, as I have shared often enough, our Jewish texts are concerned about business ethics, how families and friends treat each other, not cheating in our daily actions, treatment of our animals, our earth and so much else that contributes to the well-being of our physical realm – all of which is considered sanctified ground. I really think of this as one of the greatest blessings of all – the notion that all we are and all we do has potential to heal, strengthen, validate and so much more, if enacted properly.

When we do begin to re-enter the larger realm of activity in our daily lives, in hopefully what will be intelligent and graduated steps, let us consider how to think of all those and all that is around us – and how our footprint and touch impact on all, as taught in our religious and legacy texts. Here’s to considering the reality and potential blessings of a post-COVID 19 World informed by the lessons we are learning now!

Seize this opportunity!

Still checking my Facebook feed twice daily (except Shabbat and Yom Tov coming up…) for humor and thoughts…. And here is one of my favorites: G-d saw that we are running too fast and doing too much and not thinking….. so G-d gave us all a TIME OUT! Another observation is that in the beginning of this present reality of ours, everybody was setting up schedules for children, trying to completely replicate work and school schedules and then…. After a few days, 31-year-old Sally who had been homeschooling her children ages about sixty years, schedules are thrown out, and this piece of wisdom shines through it all – use this opportunity to do what we may not have had time to do before. There is one post (and I hope that you have all seen these and that the references I am making are familiar to all) that is a conversation in 2030 between a parent and an 18-year-old about what they remember from 2020. The parent remembers the disruption, the fear, the scarcity of basic supplies and the worries of the time. The 18-year-old who was eight at the time remembers it as the happiest time of his childhood – with scavenger hunts in the backyard, so much facetime with his grandfather, family dinners every night and the family being together.

So, I ask you which way do we want to go? What will our children and grandchildren remember about this moment in time? What will we and how much control do we EACH have over the memories we produce in this situation in which we find ourselves? I love the story of the woman in Maryland who decided her children’s school day should continue to begin with the Pledge of Allegiance, so she took a large American flag to the end of the driveway and her family began their day thus. After a bit, the entire neighborhood is now coming together every morning for the Pledge and “Circle Time” to check in with each other, by projecting their voices. In the Jewish community, much has been discussed and many are coming together for daily prayers in new and creative ways, either praying together or praying as individuals (without the required minyan, or prayer quorum) but nonetheless together with others doing the same. One parent created a huge Chutes and Ladders board on her driveway to have kids play from, as one friend and respected colleague of mine put it – a socially interactive – but from a physical distance. Kids are baking, learning their measurements and life skills along the way while mom teaches them; families are scrapbooking and sharing their wonderful Legacy Stories with each other; people are reading books; walks in the park are so appreciated and in general, the pace of life is slowing down a bit and everyone is being INTENTIONAL about what they are doing. I am personally learning and teaching daily with groups on Zoom, through phone conferencing, Face Book pages, Face Time, etc. What’s wrong with this?

Nothing really, and while the circumstances are clearly scary and we, as everyone else, are looking at very empty Seder tables for the upcoming holiday of Passover and our Christian friends are confronting the same as Easter approaches and IFTAR dinners will be small as well for our Muslim brothers and sisters in faith, think about what this time brings – more time with family in intentional conversations, more phone calls to friends and those in our lives who we just always mean to call but cannot, praying in circles and with people (in what I suspect may actually be an uptake in attendance), upgrading our technology skills so we can see each other and create so many meaningful interactions in virtual venues… and for those of us who are truly blessed with all of the creature comforts we need, we are thankful as well as mindful of those who do not have all of this, helping in any way we can.

It is said that tragedy and extreme circumstances bring out the best in us, and I agree with that, though I think it is sad that this is what it takes for too many people. Nonetheless, let us all breathe deeply and be in touch with our core selves, while staying in touch, reading good books, taking walks where we can at safe distances, and just keeping in mind what is important and acting sensibly. Be well all, stay safe, and remember the blessings you have and let’s all use this moment so we can remember it as remarkable, aside from the obvious limitations. Now off to a Zoom Birthday Party and then plan to watch another really funny sketch someone has posted from The Carol Burnett Show – laughing is so good for the soul. I highly recommend it.

GOING INTO SHABBAT, THE BLESSINGS IN THE MIDST OF OUR REALITY

My intention was to write and post this before Shabbat on Friday, and indeed began this then. However, after a week of cancelling everything and putting it all back together again in different ways to the highest degree possible, I ended up too close to the start of our Jewish Sabbath and had to leave this until Sunday. I clearly have thoughts at this time going into our weekly 25 hour experience of NO TECHNOLOGY whatsoever, you know, being UNPLUGGED, after spending all week truly communicating with everyone by phone, phone conferencing, Zoom, Face Time, etc….. So here are some initial observations:

1. Kids, can someone explain to me what is so cool about being plugged in continually to your technology and not having face to face people time; I really don’t get it.

2. I am really glad I love my husband Ken and that we get along so well, because we are definitely spending lots of time together.

3. I thought my tech skills were pretty okay, but really have to up my game; though I will say age grouping matters. (See #4)

4. In our Elkins Park shul, where I am a member of the “junior congregation,” I seem to be one of the more tech-savvy individuals. I know my kids get how sad that really is; do you?

5. I am eternally grateful for our home, the financial stability we have and the many blessings we have been granted by God that is getting us through this time.

6. I LOVE the sense of humor this is bringing out. FUNNIEST posts ever. My personal favorite “The cleaning lady just called. She is working remotely from home and will give us instructions about what to do.” And there there are the hysterical rants of moms who ARE NOT TEACHERS – one from Israel and one from the United States. Still laughing.

Humor, having what we need to get through the day, love of those around us and our own resources …. All so important at this point in time. We are doing all of the healthy things we are supposed to be doing. I have a full schedule of teaching, learning, doing work, helping people connect to communities and so much else. I am also making a point to speak with AT LEAST FIVE PEOPLE every day like we are supposed to. And I know that I am so blessed to be able to live through this time with, compared to others, limited inconveniences and concerns.

Mostly, it’s about health everyone – our physical and mental and emotional health. Stay in touch with each other and take care of yourselves. For those of us with children in our lives, use this time to have special experiences. I agree with all those who say, yes, keep a school schedule going, but use this time to do things you may not have a chance to do with the normal craziness of life. Here is an opportunity to think about our days and our lives differently and who knows what lessons we will take with us into our lives, when G-d willing, they return to a normal and “out of isolation” pace.

So as you can see, I DID finish this before Shabbat so I wish all a Shabbat Shalom – a day of peace and rest and healing. Stay in touch and keep yourselves in health.

Lessons from the Gemara on Safety in a Pandemic Reality

Wouldn’t you just know that as it turns out in my ongoing Talmud study, I am in the latter part of Masechet Chulin, learning about Tum’ot, impurities that are passed from thing to thing, person to person, animal to animal, animal to person, etc…. you get the point. I most recently am learning about the yad – the holder or stem of a piece of fruit, for example, and the shomer – the skin of that fruit, for example, and the degree to which they can carry such impurities and uncleanliness (and jeopardize our health and well-being). So, let’s think about an onion, one example in the text that is discussed in detail – it has three layers of skin or shomer/shomrim. For each layer there are distinct degrees of how it can convey uncleanliness or impurity and what is permitted for consumption and what is not. The discussion is very protracted, detailed and at times quite confusing… and guess what – here we are! How do we function in our lives these days given the limitations put on interactions and gatherings, etc. in the face of COVID – 19?

Consider how it began. Here is a concise answer found at https://abc11.com/5997396/ where you can check out the video.

Q: How did it start? A: There's a family of viruses called coronavirus. So, this is one of a family of viruses. There are seven that can affect humans. Four of them circulate all the time. We see them year after year. Three are what we call novel or new and spread more quickly and cause more severe disease. So, these are things like SARS, MERS and then this one. Those three, what we think happened, is that they were in animals and then they had enough of a mutation that they were able to jump from infecting animals to being able to infect humans. So, what we think is that that live animal market in Wuhan... there was enough animals and enough of a shift that the virus was able to move from animals to humans. And then able to spread human to human.

In the text of Masechet Chulin, there are many details regarding defilement – both ritual and non-ritual (definition of Chulin) that can be carried and cause problems such as those we are witnessing today. Differentiations are made regarding ritual defilements (e.g. carrying of impurities) and daily problems of defilement and disease that can and will impact our lives.

For example, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz comments as follows: The Gemara [Chulin 124a – 130b] relates that there are also differences between ways that ritual defilement can be contracted. For example, aside from coming into physical contact with the dead animal, tumah can also be transferred by carrying the animal, even if one does not touch it (see Vayikra 11:40).

In the Jewish community, we will be celebrating Pesach with our elaborate Sedarim in a few weeks. One of the many pivotal moments of our Sedarim is the recitation of the Ten Plagues – The Eser Makot. While we recount these as miracles of G-d in saving the people of Israel from the taskmasters in Egypt, we know there are scientific phenomena that explain them as well, not to say that God had any lesser hand in their occurrence. As I often explain, a miracle or nes is defined in one of my favorite Hebrew dictionaries as “an action of G-d, an action of man, an action of nature, and their simultaneous timing.” So we can talk of blood waves when the floor of the ocean is disturbed, the lice carried by infected frogs as they come onto land and so on until we have a national disaster such as a pandemic that now confronts us. For an explanation of the plagues and some accompanying scientific information go to https://www.livescience.com/58638-science-of-the-10-plagues.html

These are certainly scary times. There have been comparisons to the Spanish Flu of 1918 and other worldwide spread of disease. While many drastic measures are now being implemented, or so it certainly seems, to keep us all safe, perhaps it would do us all well to consider what we have come to take for granted in terms of protecting our health and well-being through good common-sense practices.

In Masechet Chulin 103a – 109b, which I was learning about a week ago, there is an extensive discussion concerning washing hands, before one eats, after one eats and even during a meal. Again, through all of the details, clearly there are ramifications for both ritual purity and just common-sense healthy practice. As someone who lives with these practices, I notice that often they are too often handled quite perfunctorily. Yet, now with the 20-second-hand-wash ritual that is being implemented in our general lives where there are constant washings and warnings against touching our faces and watching our physical contact with others, we have to wonder why is it that historically Jews, with their frequent washings and laws against ongoing physical contact with others, often did not face the scourge of pandemics to the same extent as our other brothers and sisters in our world of humanity, though this is not necessarily so this time around? Not because of any qualitative difference but perhaps because of an understanding that we cannot take contact with all other creatures, including animals, for granted. We must all work to stay healthy, protecting ourselves and others.

Clearly, we all have great reason to be fearful and concerned. But instead of being paralyzed by that fear, let’s all consider how we can live in a more healthy and guarded way, keeping ourselves and others around us safe. Be safe all and stay healthy!

MEANINGFUL SPACES OF DIVERSITY

I find that many of us are just shaking our heads more and more and asking ourselves how we got to this point. What would our grandparents and great-grandparents and those who came before them say – who risked everything to come to a place where there was freedom for all, justice that is honest and has integrity and where hard work and subscribing to fundamental values of rightful living would await them and be the backdrop of their future generations’ lives. And here we are! It makes many of us too sad, depressed and dejected.

Then, I have the privilege and honor of being in so many different spaces of diversity, respect and honor that reflect those very values that are at our root as people of faith and as Americans who should know better. Jack Bly, whom I quote from time to time, explains in his important book The Sibling Society that the problem today can be articulated in part by looking at our fairy tales. In generations past, he explains, Jack went up that beanstalk to rid his world of the danger of the giant, whereas today kids want to go up the beanstalk, kill the giant and then become the new giant. No wonder this is a problem – we just need to look around us and see that too many of our leaders and those in “high and public” places are going against the Biblical injunction expressed in Isaiah, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.”

In so many special spaces, those of us who do not in any way want to be the giant but rather want to restore justice and kindness and empathy for all those in our world come together. We are people of faith – all faiths and all degrees of observance ranging from the more ritualistically identified to the most liberally defined. We all agree that we are all God’s children, carry the sense of humility that comes with holding oneself accountable to a Higher Being/Divine Source and are able to celebrate what we share while respecting and honoring our differences, never asking each other to compromise our beliefs and foundational truths but to bring them graciously and openly to the table of discourse. I will say here and now that I never feel questioned or compromised as an Orthodox Jew, who subscribes to the commandments of Torah in which I believe. If anything, I feel heartened by how many bridges we can build together while tearing down walls and fences, in learning more about and appreciating each other. It makes me feel even closer to God as I learn more and more about all of God’s children.

We meet for coffee and share our thoughts about how we continue to find strength in our faith and what we believe to be true even though too much in the world around us may challenge that. We participate in shared text study sessions. We plan conferences for others to come and learn how to live this life we share on this planet and in the communities of which we are part constructively - as we believe God would want us to, no matter what name we use to invoke our Divine Source or the form in which we believe that Being exists. We come together as Jews, Christians of various iterations, Catholics, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Zoroastrians and so many others to put the pieces of the puzzle of our existence in a way that honors who we each are and celebrates our coming together in these shared spaces. These spaces are invigorating, uplifting and reaffirming. I urge all of us to find and facilitate and create more and more of these spaces so that others can feel the power and amazing light these connections bring.

Yesterday, I was at a program in a Presbyterian Christian space where one of the topics was our children and grandchildren and why so many of them are turning away from religion per se. It strikes me that while more than a quarter of Americans claim that they do not subscribe to any religious structure or specific regimen, as much as 92% of our fellow citizens do believe in something – they believe in a Higher Being, search for spiritual meaning in their lives and so on. I am certain that this aversion to established systems is parallel to the oft-named “hopelessness, helplessness and alienation” many of our rising adult generations feel at this point. We need to be there for them – we need to remind them that the goal of our lives is not to become the giant but to care for and be empathic for each other. To no one’s surprise, we find in these shared spaces that our challenges are similar, our hopes are shared, and we are all struggling to figure out our place in the world and then help those who look to us for guidance to do the same.

I urge all of us to stand up and be counted – to bring our whole selves to these meaningful spaces of diversity and show that together we stand strong. Find conferences and opportunities in your communities and be part of these wonderful spaces. For those of you who live in the Delaware Valley area, note the wonderful work of organizations like American Jewish Committee, POWER, EMGAGE, our Multi-Faith Councils and others. Specifically, contact me at shulisrose@aol.com if you want more information about some of these programs, including important Multi-Faith sharing experiences on Sunday, March 15, 2020 at the Masdijullah and on Saturday, March 21, 2020 at Chestnut Hill College.

A quick postscript. I often write about the important of interfaith and intrafaith work. It is just as important and I am just as involved (if the individual who critiqued me for the interfaith and multi-faith work I do is reading this) in building bridges within my larger Jewish faith community. I often joke (somewhat sadly) that I spend way too much time dispelling myths of what it means to be religiously observant to those who have caricatured ideas of what that means and similarly I have to dispel stereotypes of those who not quite as ritualistically observant to those who do not understand them. Folks, can we please come out of our suffocating silos and just TALK WITH EACH OTHER! You will be pleasantly amazed, I promise!