Episodes
Monday Mar 30, 2020
Monday Mar 30, 2020
The beginning of Leviticus spells out a fourfold process of bringing order to society and keeping at bay the threat that chaos can invade and tear our system to shreds. The fourfold process involves the expiation of sin, a process that adds two middle steps of relationship to God and to oneself that is often missing from our typical American formulation. I am used to the model that skips the whole notion of sin: rather, society works because if you break the rules you get punished, and that fear of being caught --along with a system of punishment-- brings Order. The two middle notions that the Levitical process adds in between action and punishment is "consciousness that one erred unwittingly" and "realizing that one's erring has consequences on the anonymous others within the System." That allows one to "take in new information" and then GROW. Those are the middle steps of relation with God. It's only, as Leviticus chapter 5 explains, when you take in new information but you are so attached to your own ego that you don't witness to it, that you arrive at the step of punishment. (For example, if you receive information that you previously underestimated the virus or need for types of precautions or measures, do you admit the consequences of your unwitting sin prior and then witness to this new information, or choose your ego over God?] It is the Levitical explanation of unwitting sin and then expiation through growth and acknowledgement of consquences on others that our political leaders are avoiding today. Instead, our Nasi's (President, some governors and congresspeople) are attached to their own sense of perfection, they deny God, refuse to grow, and refuse to witness to new information, fostering chaos over order. What plagues do practically and theologically is to explose the weaknesses in the System, and allow chaos in. Our Nasi is inviting it, just as the Pharoah narrative describes and the Levitical sacrificial system explains.
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
Tuesday Mar 24, 2020
In this Zoom presentation, I share ideas for creating new balance ("Tiferet") in reconstructing our home systems when conflict, a sense of failure, miscommunication, mess, and frustration can arise when many are sharing a small space. There is a handout that goes with this called "Shalom in the Home During Social Isolation" which can be found by clicking here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-0R5vm8WKcDGYks4OIvUxGyBh0nI3Hlo-Tvcjww2umw/edit?usp=sharing
or
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7qypb5inmaplv4/Shalom%20in%20the%20Home%20During%20Covid%2019.pdf?dl=0
Saturday Mar 14, 2020
Torah Ideas for Rethinking our Relationship to Time In Our Present Crisis
Saturday Mar 14, 2020
Saturday Mar 14, 2020
The first parashah that accompanies this novel period of social distancing has lessons to teach us in how to best use the time we now have returned to us.
The parashah begins with the command that a (naturally antimicrobial) copper-brass laver of water is placed in the central courtyard of the tabernacle and that the Levites must wash their hands between every interaction of service lest they die. Synagogues today incorporate the adapted features of the Tabernacle with the exceptions of the incense and the laver. We have restored the laver this week with the large bottles of Purell. How apropros.
Ki Tissa continues with the completely out-of-order story of the Golden Calf. Why doesn't this pivotal story about idolatry -- idolatry is when we put our money, time, and spiritual resources into the wrong areas-- occur way back when it actually happened, before the revelation at Mount Sinai?
Because we needed what has happened since, all the activities of building the portable sanctuary, the practices of renewal during Shabbat, the visions of divine Service of the Levites... to give us a context for understanding what the opposite of idolatry is.
And these activities give us ideas for how to use this time of crisis for a renewal of our relationship to time.