An Urgent Prayer for the Protection of Human Life - April 2024

composed by Rabbi Andy Vogel & Rabbi Seth Goldstein

April 2024

Download a PDF by clicking here.

(We encourage you to use the words of this prayer as you see fit; no attribution is needed.)

Thanksgiving Dvar Torah 2023: "A Thanksgiving of 'Both / And'?"

A version of this Dvar Torah was delivered by Rabbi Vogel at this year's Brookline Interfaith Clergy Thanksgiving Service, led by clergy from the Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Unitarian faith communities in Brookline, on Sunday, November 18, 2023, at First Parish in Brookline.To watch a recording of the entire service, click here.]

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As an American Jew, I have always loved the American Thanksgiving holiday; in many ways, the practice of Thanksgiving has always seemed very consistent with Jewish values. Gratitude, after all, is a central teaching of Judaism, just as it is in all other religions. We are instructed by Jewish law to say “thank you” to God 100 times day, for gifts large and small, to recite 100 prayers of gratitude every single day, to cultivate a sense of gratitude in our lives. And the act of sitting around the Thanksgiving table, to retell the America sacred myth of the Pilgrims and Native Americans giving thanks for their first harvest, which was inspired by their reading of the Hebrew Bible, has also always felt to me to be a kind of American Passover Seder that can unite us as Americans beyond many boundaries.

This year, however, coming to Thanksgiving presents us with some serious emotional challenges. The world is not right, and we are not right. This past month has shaken us to our core. The events in the Holy Land, starting on October 7, have horrified us, brought us tremendous grief, and reminded us how brutal human beings can be. There has been so much loss, terrible violence, fear, and death. Here, for many of us, it has been hard to find peace within, and hard to sleep. Some Jews have said they do not feel safe walking around Brookline, and I have heard similar fears expressed by some Brookline Muslims. This is not the way things should be at Thanksgiving.

So, we might wonder this Thanksgiving: How can we give thanks? How can we sit around our tables, with plates filled with good food, knowing of all the suffering, and feeling our grief and the pain of people we care about, in places of the world that are both near and far to us, and which are so close to our hearts? How can we come to Thanksgiving and speak of the fullness of our hearts, the fullness of abundance, when the world is so shattered, when there is so much division in our world, when there is so much anger and violence that people are directing at each other, when there is so much darkness?

What kind of Thanksgiving can there be in this moment? How can we sit around our tables Thursday night?

I look to Jewish teachings for wisdom. In the traditional Jewish prayerbook, each night, when the sky grows dark and evening comes, every single night of the year (including this coming Thursday night), Jews recite a prayer for the evening, called “Ma’ariv Aravim,” and it has some remarkable lines in it:

בּוֹרֵא יוֹם וָלָֽיְלָה גּוֹלֵל אוֹר מִפְּ֒נֵי חֽשֶׁךְ וְחֽשֶׁךְ מִפְּ֒נֵי אוֹר
וּמַעֲבִיר יוֹם וּמֵבִיא לָֽיְלָה

“God, You create day and night, You roll light away from darkness, and darkness from light, And you cause day to pass, and You bring on the night.”

And the rabbis looked at the words, and they asked: “If this is a nighttime prayer, why does it talk so much about daytime and light? We understand why the prayer praises God for creating the darkness and bringing the night, but why does this prayer keep referring to daytime, too? Morning is going to arrive in just a few hours – shouldn’t that be the time to talk about morning?”

The answer that the Talmud provides is this: that, truly, there is no place or time in which nighttime exists when daytime, too, does not simultaneously exist. Here in Boston, night may be falling, but in some place, somewhere, a place that might be beyond my awareness, it is certainly daytime there. My own experience is of nighttime – I see the sun setting, I feel the air growing cold, darkness shrouds everything that I can see – but my own experience is not the totality of everything! There is another reality that other people are living beyond me, and it is called “day.”

In that sense, the prayer takes a “both / and” approach to nighttime – thanking God for both the night, and the day, all at once.

I am invited to consider my reality, and say thank you for it, and also to bring into my that awareness which is beyond my reality, and to say thank you for it, too. The deepest gratitude is both for that which I have, and that which I do not have, but which is real to someone else. For both that which I know, and that which I do not know, but which someone else would know, because they are by definition different from me. For my night, and for their day. Even though these two things seem to be opposite, they are held together, they are seen and considered in my mind simultaneously.

“Both / and.” That’s a deep religious view of gratitude. To see the inter-connectedness of everything, even when one person sees black (night) and another person sees white (day), and to hold them in my mind and my heart together.

So, this year I am wondering: can we make this a Thanksgiving of “Both / And”?

A Thanksgiving for both that which we have and of which we are aware, and that is beyond our grasp, beyond our awareness?

A Thanksgiving for both what I have, and for what you have?

A Thanksgiving for both my identity, and for your identity? For both my narrative and your narrative?

A Thanksgiving of gratitude for both my friends and family, the people I love and know and hold and hug -- and for the people who are so different from me, the people sitting at other Thanksgiving tables, who perhaps speak different languages, have different colored skin from my own, practice different religious traditions, who have their own stories and their own ways of living their lives?

A Thanksgiving about both my abundance, and about your abundance,

which also has space for us to acknowledge both my suffering and pain and grief, and your suffering and pain and grief?

A Thanksgiving that holds together all the complexity of our world, all the humans whose claims and truths, on the surface, might seem to negate one another, but which actually exist side by side, one with the other, just like night exists simultaneous with day?

Can we, this year, hold in our hearts that Jewish exists with Muslim, that Christian exists with Unitarian, that Asian exists with African, exists with white exists with black, with brown, with male and female and trans, and could we all see God’s great Creation all one and integrated and whole and diverse and varied all at once, so that we could give thanks in our hearts, not just for ourselves and what we are, but for all of God’s Universe, in all its spectacular unbelievable sparkling and multiple differentiated Oneness? Could we do that?

Could this be that Thanksgiving? Please God, let us have a Thanksgiving of “Both / And” this year, now, here, in this church, at our synagogues and our mosques, in our homes, and at our tables, in our town, and in our hearts. Please God let it be so. Let this be the year of Both / And.

Amen.

Our whole staff at Sinai Brookline joins me in wishing you a happy Thanksgiving holiday.

B'shalom,

Rabbi Andy Vogel

Thanksgiving 2023 / 5784

How to Support Israel - October 8, 2023

The Israeli Reform Movement (IMPJ, Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism), shared this information about their important work following the massive surprise attack:

"We would be grateful for your support

"In response to the military and human emergency in Israel the Israel Reform Movement, its Rabbis, congregations and volunteers are gearing up to help the people directly impacted in the Shaar Ha Negev (Gaza Envelope) region and throughout Israel’s center and south in coping with the crises.

Our humanitarian fund, Keren b’ Kavod has begun mapping needs with authorities and partner NGO and plans to bring volunteers and supplies directly to settlements and shelters under fire.

Congregations throughout Israel are offering members homes and their buildings to provide temporary housing as well as pastoral counselling by our Rabbis to those in need.

Our group home for adults with mental disabilities in Modiin, Bayit B’Kehillah has very specific needs for activities and professional services to help the residents deal with the special challenge. In particular our Sha’ar Ha Negev congregation led by Rabbi Yael Vorgan is in need of assistance to help residents who are in trauma in so many respects."

We will be grateful for your donations to help the IMPJ provide the needed assistance immediately.

Please donate to the IMPJ by clicking here.

from Rabbi Andy Vogel & Rabbi Talia Stein: Our Hearts Are with Israel today

Message to the Sinai Brookline Community

Saturday evening, October 7, 2023

We awoke this morning to the shocking news about the massive surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, with terrorist infiltrators entering Israeli towns along the Gaza border, thousands of rockets sent by air into Israel, a staggering number of Israelis killed and the hundreds wounded, and dozens of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas. The toll is very high, and today's events are shocking.

Today was the conclusion of Simchat Torah, and this morning’s horror provided a stark contrast to our joyful dancing in the street in Brookline last night to celebrate our people’s life-affirming tradition.

Our hearts are with Israel today. We are filled with grief and mourning for the Israelis killed, and we pray for life and health for all those whose lives are in the balance, and we are especially concerned for those taken hostage. We know that today many Israelis, and we who care for them, are experiencing fear and a sense of danger, and we are praying for strength and for their safety, and for the safety of members of the Israeli Defense Forces fighting to protect them. We are also grieving for the loss of life among many innocent Palestinian civilians.

We were relieved to hear from members of our congregation who are currently traveling in Israel that they are safe, and we have also been in contact with some of Sinai Brookline’s dear friends in Israel, including members and rabbis in the Israeli Reform movement and its synagogues, as well as Rabbi Golan Ben Chorin, who has been teaching our “Building Bridges” program for the past few years, who is safe, and we continue to pray for their protection and well-being. During Shabbat, we were grateful to receive messages of support for the Jewish people from our friends in the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and the Brookline Clergy Association.

If you, or a loved one, is currently in Israel, and we have not spoken with you, please reach out to one of us by email (rabbivogel@sinaibrookline.org, or rabbistein@sinaibrookline.org), so that we and the Sinai Brookline community can support you.

We pray that that the violence will not expand to other arenas, and that the agenda of extremists who believe they benefit from chaos and hatred will not prevail.

The Sinai Brookline community is holding in our hearts the victims and their families and loved ones, and we pray for the safety of all of the people of Israel.

Rabbi Andy Vogel

Rabbi Talia Stein

High Holy Day sermons 5784 - 2023 - Rabbi Andy Vogel

Rosh Hashanah morning sermon 5784
"Reflections on Returning from Poland"
(23 minutes)
Click here to watch.

Yom Kippur Evening sermon 5784
"on Israel and the Pro-Democracy Movement"
(19 minutes, followed by song:"L'maan Achai V'reyai"- 3 additional minutes)
Click here to watch.

To send feedback or comments, please click here to send an email.

Happy New Year!

My comments at the Chai Celebration, Friday, March 17, 2023

I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of generosity and love that marked the Chai Celebration weekend for me at Temple Sinai, marking my 18+ years (and still counting!) as rabbi of this community.

To summarize, I said: "It’s an extraordinary blessing in my life to be your rabbi for all these years... Now more than ever, we need sacred community. We need each other. ... Tonight, we’re really honoring what we’ve been building, together."

Click here to read the text of my remarks on this wonderful occasion.

Thank you!

Creation! Artwork from our "Journeys" Parent-Child Program, Sunday, October 23, 2022

In our "Journeys" family learning program on Sunday, October 23, 2022, Temple Sinai students in Grades K-6, and their parents, grandparents and caregivers studied the Days of Creation as described in Parashat (the Torah portion of) Bereshit, Genesis chapters 1 & 2. In the first hour of the program, adults studied with one another, while students also studied with their peers; in the 2nd hour of the learning event, parents joined their students and created panels, one for each Day of Creation, to express their awe and wonder at the Creative Power of the Universe. Below are photos of the resulting mural panels, which are currently displayed in our 2nd floor classroom hallway.

Thank you to Rabbi Talia Stein, who leads Journeys each month; Jen Zak, our Director of Education and creative partner with Rabbi Stein, and to all of our amazing Religious School teachers who helped foster such creative expressions from our students and their families! (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

My Dvar Torah, delivered at Temple Sinai, Friday, January 21, 2022

Message to the Temple Sinai Community about Yesterday's Events in Colleyville, TX

January 16, 2022

To the Temple Sinai Community:

This morning, we awaken with a profound sense of relief that the three members of another Reform synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, and their rabbi, are alive and safe after a 10-hour hostage standoff yesterday. With a deep sense of gratitude, we can recite the Hebrew prayer that is found in our Mishkan Tefilah prayer book: Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha’olam, mattir asurim: “We thank You, Eternal One, Source of the universe, who sets free the captive.”

Yesterday’s events, however, re-open for many for us a frightening sense of vulnerability, and are a reminder that we Jews, among other minorities in our country, continue to be the targets of hatred and violence. It was shocking to see yet another synagogue engaged in prayer on Shabbat morning interrupted by an antisemitic extremist wielding weapons and threatening lives. Learning of yesterday’s hostage situation at a Reform temple was traumatic for some in our community, and it raises our sense of alarm and anxiety at our own vulnerability. In an ideal world, no one would feel any sense of fear in coming to their house of worship to be with their fellow Jews. Sadly, that is not our world today.

We find strength, however, in community. We take some comfort knowing that yesterday’s event was an isolated incident, and from the overwhelming expressions of care, concern and solidarity sent to us at Temple Sinai from Christian and Muslim friends last evening – and to Jews around the country – as the events were unfolding. We are not alone.

We also found strength last night from American Jews across the country. As Shabbat was ending, the Reform movement quickly set up a Havdallah prayer gathering on Zoom for Reform Jews all over the world for over 1,000 people. It was uplifting, in a time of need, to see all the faces and hear all our prayers and song gathered as one.

We also supported one another last night through Temple Sinai’s Facebook group, on which many of our members interacted and posted heartfelt messages of support. Those messages remind us we are all connected to each other. (A request: If you are not yet a member of the Temple Sinai Facebook Group, please click here to join it, and find more ways of connecting to our community.)

The days and weeks ahead will bring different waves of emotion as we consider what it means to be Jewish in America today. We urge you, and especially parents in our congregation, to read this article about how to deal with the emotional burdens of trauma and fear when a synagogue is targeted in an attack. And we encourage you to find your own voice in prayer as a spiritual outlet for your own concerns, anxiety or gratitude in the days ahead.

We, your rabbis, are available if you would like to talk through your reactions to yesterday’s events, or to pray with us and find support. Please know that your Temple Sinai community is here for you.

B’shalom,

Rabbi Andy Vogel, rabbivogel@sinaibrookline.org

Rabbi Talia Stein, rabbistein@sinaibrookline.org

Pre-Election 2020 Message from Rabbi Andy Vogel & Rabbi Talia Stein

A Pre-Election Message from Rabbi Vogel & Rabbi Stein

Friday, October 30, 2020

Dear members of the Temple Sinai community:

In just a few days, our country will pass through a gateway, making critical choices to determine who we want to be as a nation. The choices before us are stark, and the stakes of the election are high. Many in our community approach the days leading up to Election Day on November 3 with uncertainty, unease, and even fear. Personally, we share many of those feelings! But we are reminded that, fundamentally, elections are about hope -- hope that we can be better as a country, and hope that together we can realize the human dream, expressed in Jewish teachings and shared by all faiths, of recognizing the basic dignity of each person, of repairing brokenness in our society, and of ensuring that each person's life can rise to its fullest potential through common cause.

In this anxious election week, through it all, we are a community. Temple Sinai offers many different pathways for supporting one another in community as we approach Election Day, and in the days and weeks ahead. A central message of Judaism is that you are not alone. Please note these ways to take action, find in spiritual strength, and join with our community during this important time for us all:

1) Vote! Jewish tradition teaches that participating in the upbuilding of our society is an obligation (see Jeremiah 29:7), and voting is a mitzvah. If you have not already cast your vote, please make sure to do so. If you need assistance in voting, with transportation or any other need, please contact Rabbi Vogel or Rabbi Stein. Make sure your voice is heard!

2) Join Election Night Torah study, Tuesday, November 3, at 8:00-11:00pm. Final results will almost certainly not be available on Tuesday evening, November 3, and it may take days or weeks for the outcome of the election to be known. Instead of gluing yourself to the TV on election night, come study Torah and join in community and conversation with others about Judaism and justice, with music, insights, and more, with a Tikkun Leil Election study session held by T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, a national rabbinic organization that supports justice work, on Election Night, Tuesday, November 3, from 8:00-11:00pm EST. Register here.

3) Post-Election Prayer & Meditation Hour, led by Rabbi Vogel & Rabbi Stein, Wednesday, November 4 at 5:00pm. We may not know the results of the election within the first 24 hours after Election Day. Please join us for a brief Temple Sinai prayer and meditation gathering with song and prayers from Jewish tradition on Zoom. A link will be sent out by email and available on the temple website in the days ahead for this gathering.

4) GBIO Interfaith Gathering, Thursday night, Nov. 5, at 7:00pm. Join Temple Sinai members in a gathering of Boston-area houses of worship with our partners in the GBIO (Greater Boston Interfaith Organization) on Thursday, November 5, from 7:00-8:00pm, on Zoom, an opportunity to be together in relationship with GBIO members across faith and neighborhoods, to affirm the deep and enduring truths that are drawn from all our traditions - that democracy is sacred, and that every one of us is a child of God who deserves a society that upholds justice and dignity. This gathering will include reflections from diverse faith traditions and small group conversations. Register here for the GBIO Zoom gathering. (Our own Board of Trustees meeting has been moved to 8:00 p.m. to allow everyone to attend the GBIO gathering.)

5) Our community will respond, whatever happens. Whatever the election's outcomes, Temple Sinai will provide support and opportunities for action and prayer in the days ahead. Please watch for information about how to join with others. Should public demonstrations be scheduled for the sake of expressing public desires for justice and accurate representation, we will share information about such public gatherings with you. We pray that civil unrest will be kept to a minimum, and advise all Temple Sinai members to be aware of potentially dangerous situations, should they arise. Stay tuned for additional announcements.

6) Utilize Jewish spiritual resources in these days ahead. Jewish prayer and Jewish practice can provide helpful tools to our souls as we face the challenges in the days and weeks ahead. They can also provide us with meaningful expressions of our yearnings and hopes as we cast our votes. We offer our community these Jewish resources for the days ahead, for casting our votes, for expressing our hopes and concerns for justice to the One God, and for dealing with uncertainty in our lives. We encourage the Temple Sinai community to download and utilize these Jewish insights and resources:

from the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS): https://www.jewishspirituality.org/spiritual-resources-for-the-election-season/

from the Reform Judaism blog: https://reformjudaism.org/blog/prayer-wisdom-during-us-presidential-election

from the Religious Action Center: https://rac.org/blog/year-bring-torah-voting-booth

from the Jewish Community Relations Council: https://www.jcrcboston.org/election-preparedness-strategies-guide-for-houses-of-worship

7) Turn to your rabbis for support. Rabbi Vogel and Rabbi Stein are both available for personal conversations and pastoral support during this time of uncertainty and anxiety. Please do not hesitate to call or email us for a private conversation, if you would like to speak with one of your rabbis. We welcome the opportunity to talk with you.

8) Make sure every vote counts. Our country has held successful elections through good times and bad, and this November is no different. Individual voters, the media, candidates, and the political parties have a duty to be patient while local election officials count every ballot cast in accordance with applicable laws. Pledge to use your voice and do your part to ensure a fair and accurate vote count with the National Council on Election Integrity, by clicking here.

We pray that the path forward for our country will be one of justice, peace and integrity, and that we will find clarity about that path in the days ahead. May we all be blessed with strength.

B'shalom, and Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Andy Vogel

Rabbi Talia Stein

2 Short WBZ-Radio News Segments -- Rosh Hashanah 5781 / 2020

As Rosh Hashanah 5781 / 2020 approached, Madison Rogers from WBZ-Radio in Boston interviewed me, to hear a bit about how the Temple Sinai community is adapting our Rosh Hashanah observances during a time of COVID-19. I shared with her how successful our Podcast was becoming, and also about our Shofar blowing. She asked me for a recording of the Shofar, but I happened to speaking with her from my home, and I had a Shofar at hand, and was able to blow Shofar to her as she recorded our phone conversation. Here are the results -- two 45-second clips that aired on WBZ-Radio in Boston:

WBZ-Radio News Segment 1

WBZ-Radio News Segment 2

To download episodes of Temple Sinai's 2020 High Holy Days Podcast, "Prepare Your Soul for the Jewish High Holy Days," please click here.

Count my voice as a Jewish one for Florida Ruffin Ridley

To the editor:

Regarding the renaming of the Coolidge Corner School: Count my voice as a Jewish one in favor of Florida Ruffin Ridley.

As a local rabbi serving a Brookline synagogue who is motivated by Jewish tradition to work to repair our broken world and build a society based on justice, I was very excited to learn months ago that students had selected the name of Florida Ruffin Ridley for the school.

Since then, the vote to rename the school has become confused by the nomination of the name of a wonderful local Jewish woman for the school. But the original core of the issue – Edward Devotion’s status as a slave-owner – should remain the rationale for renaming the school. Voting for Florida Ruffin Ridley’s name (to the exclusion of other names) takes steps, even if they are small steps, to undo the injustice of slavery whose legacy continues to plague America.

I believe that Jewish teachings urge us to maintain our focus on that original concern. “Hate evil, love good; establish justice in the gate,” are the words of the Jewish prophet Amos. This is exactly what Town Meeting representatives have the opportunity to do when they vote for Florida Ruffin Ridley’s name.

Rabbi Andrew Vogel

Temple Sinai

Brookline

A teaching from Pirke Avot (2nd century) on keeping institutions alive

אִם אֵין קֶמַח, אֵין תּוֹרָה. אִם אֵין תּוֹרָה, אֵין קֶמַח

Without fundraising, there will be no Torah.

Without Torah, what’s the point of fundraising?!

 (Pirke Avot 3:17)

D’var Torah for Parashat Mishpatim

Rabbi Andy Vogel

Erev Shabbat: Friday, February 9, 2018

Temple Sinai, Brookline MA

Shabbat shalom.  Verses found in this week’s Torah portion could not be more relevant to what is happening in the world, to what is happening in the Jewish community and in Israel.  As always, the Torah speaks to us, exactly where we are in our lives, and it reminds us of what it means to live a good life, an ethical life and a holy life. The verses from this week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim: 
וְגֵר לֹא-תוֹנֶה, וְלֹא תִלְחָצֶנּוּ: כִּי-גֵרִים הֱיִיתֶם, בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
כָּל-אַלְמָנָה וְיָתוֹם, לֹא תְעַנּוּן
אִם-עַנֵּה תְעַנֶּה, אֹתוֹ--כִּי אִם-צָעֹק יִצְעַק אֵלַי, שָׁמֹעַ אֶשְׁמַע צַעֲקָתוֹ

"You shall not wrong a stranger [an immigrant],
or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
You shall not treat badly any widow or orphan
If you do mistreat them, I will heed to their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me,
and My anger will blaze forth…" (Exodus 22:20-23)

This week – we should hear loudly and clearly the Torah’s moral imperative to us, when it comes to how our own country is treating the immigrants in our midst:

• the Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to America as young children, and this is the only country they have ever known, and who still wait for some resolution of their status; 
• those thousands of immigrants among us right here in Boston, from Haiti, from El Salvador, and from other places, whose Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has been cruelly revoked by the Administration, and who are in danger of deportation later this year; 
• and so many undocumented men and women who have been swept up in recent months by immigration authorities, or who live in fear of being swept up, and being expelled, separated from their families and children and losing everything, because of a heartless policy being formulated in Washington.

And, we hear the Torah’s call to us loudly this week as Jews who are deeply connected to Israel, where the current government has formulated another shamefully policy about asylum seekers from Africa. In the past 12 years, Israel has been the destination for thousands of African refugees, from war-torn countries such as Eritrea & Sudan seeking safety. They have been terribly mistreated by the Israeli government, denied any rights, been called “infiltrators,” and other derogatory names, placed in holding centers in the desert, and now, the Government has given them a cruel choice: prison in Israel, or forced deportation back to their countries, where many of them face almost-certain death.

In Israel, there has been a loud public outcry, and I was one of a delegation of local rabbis last week who delivered a letter to the Israeli Consulate here in Boston signed by 900 American rabbis and cantors, urging the Israeli government to listen to the words of the Torah: to treat these refugees and immigrants with compassion, and to change the policy to give them a “fair chance to file applications for refugee status, and refraining from deporting asylum seekers to countries that cannot guarantee their safety.”

The letter said: “Our own experience of slavery and liberation, and our own experience as refugees, compel us to act with mercy and justice toward those seeking refuge among us.” [A copy of the letter's text can be found here: http://www.truah.org/campaign/asylum-seekers-in-israel/

(If you’d like to learn more about the situation of the Israeli asylum seekers please read this opinion piece http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/shame/ by Israeli commentator Yossi Klein HaLevi.)

The great 19th century German rabbi, Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch lived in a time of the rise of new nation-states. He recognized that Governments have power, that that power could be used for goodness and for justice, to relieve pain, or to that that power could bring more pain, injustice, and suffering into the world.

Reading the verses from this week’s Torah portion, He taught this:

“The admonition against wronging the stranger [Exod. 22:20] is directed primarily to the State. “The state must not practice ona'ah [wrong-doing] against the stranger: the state must not impose on him heavier taxes or grant him fewer rights than it grants the native-born, just because he is a stranger.”

Then he said: “Woe unto you, State leaders, if the State, too, ill treats them and makes them feel the pain of having lost their defender and supporter! Woe to the State whose widows and orphans suffer among the people, where even the official public representatives do not stand up for them and uphold their rights! … Woe unto you, if their only resort is to cry out to Me; [says God] for I will assuredly hear their cry. …if their weakest members must appeal to Me to find justice!"

Implicit in his incredible words which he wrote over 150 years ago, is that Governments have power, but that they are ultimately run by people, people who make decisions, who can be compassionate and caring, if they so choose.

We, too -- we, the People -- play a role in the way Governments operate. We must speak up, and be heard, to bring the Torah’s urgent message to those who have the power to make decisions that deeply affect people’s lives. We must hear the moral imperative of the Torah, and ensure that those places to which we are connected, as Americans and as Jews, create a just, fair, and compassionate society.

Shabbat shalom.

D'var Torah - Post-Election

Friday, November 11, 2016, at Temple Sinai, Brookline MA

Parashat Lech L'cha 

This Shabbat, we find ourselves facing a future filled with uncertainty, and we are entering into a world in which we do not know what may face us.

In the days after the election, both Rabbi Shoshana and I have been approached by members of our community who are deeply shocked by the results, people who are stunned and confused, people who are fearful for the future, who are experiencing anxiety about what lies ahead.  Almost everyone we’ve spoken to had a strong emotional reaction.

The road ahead is uncertain, and we don’t know where it will lead.  We truly don’t know. 

We face an important personal and spiritual challenge in these days when we’ve been cast into a period of deep uncertainty, anxiety and even fear for ourselves, for the Jewish people, for those people in our world who are of color, or immigrants, or religious and ethnic minorities – the whole world, in fact, is walking into a place of deep uncertainty, into the unknown.

The week of the election fell during the Torah portion of Lech L’cha, with God’s words to Abraham:  “Go, you, from your land, from your parents’ home, from the place of your birth, to a land that I will show you… and I will make you a great nation… I will make your name great.”  (Genesis 12:1-3)

I can imagine Abraham’s reaction: “Lech L’cha” – what?  Go where?  Go where?  Abraham did not know the land to which God was leading him towards.   God said: “I will show you the place, but not now.”  Abraham was told by God to go to a place, from that which was comfortable, to a place indeterminate and unknown. 

The Sefas Emes, Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Lieb of Ger, the Gerer Rebbe, 19^th century, taught that as human beings, each one of us is a “walker” – we are all travelers on a road.  None of us ever knows where we are going, none of us ever knows what lies ahead.  There is always an aspect of life which is hidden from us, and which we cannot see on our own.

But he taught:  Two things made Abraham different, and gave Abraham a certain greatness.

First, Abraham recognized that there is no other choice but to go forward.  Abraham found a source of resilience to keep on truckin’ when faced with uncertainty.  That source is available to us, as well.  By accepting the reality that we have to go forward toward uncertainty, by standing up straight, upright, and just walking forward greeting that uncertainty with openness, we grow. 

Second, Abraham lived out the quality of chesed, loving-kindness.  In the mystical-symbolic tradition of Judaism, Abraham is associated with chesed, which is care and concern within the framework of relationship.  He personified love and compassion, listening, understanding, seeing the downtrodden and the outcast, and responding to them with a whole heart.  This was not just Abraham’s way of dealing with others, it was the way in which Abraham served God:  with full-hearted love.  Abraham’s chesed was his way of living even when he was walking toward the unknown, to “the place that I will show you.”  While he was traveling to this undetermined place, the place-to-be-named later, Abraham treated everyone he met softly, carefully, gently, lovingly. 

What made Abraham great?  For the Sefas Emes, “greatness” is living our lives with the quality of chesed – opening your heart to others and approaching them with compassion on their journeys, even when you don’t know exactly where your journey is taking you.

I share the deeply worry and concern at what it seems the future may hold for us.  Those of us who are still stunned by the election’s results do need some time to get over our shock.  But like Abraham, it will soon be time to embrace the future, to stand up, and to keep walking forward.  If we can adopt Abraham’s stance of chesed, of loving-kindness as a basic and fundamental way for conducting ourselves, being sensitive to the pain and suffering of others around us by responding to them, we, too, can bring healing and repair into the world, which the world sorely needs.

-        Rabbi Andy Vogel

Interfaith Clergy Letter, November 2, 2016

"Rejecting Hate: Statement of Interfaith Solidarity Against Islamophobia in Massachusetts"


As Boston-area religious and cultural leaders, we are committed to building a community that embraces people of different beliefs and practices, including our Muslim neighbors and friends. This work is particularly important in the present political climate, in which some public figures are voicing messages of intolerance and xenophobia, pitting segments of the American populace against one another.

It is for this reason that we are deeply concerned to learn of an event scheduled for November 2nd in Stoughton featuring three speakers whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as anti-Muslim extremists or hate group leaders. Jerry Boykin, Frank Gaffney, and Tom Trento cast Islam as an inherently immoral faith, and spread conspiracy theories that Muslims are secretly infiltrating US and European governments as a “fifth column.”

For example, Mr. Gaffney has claimed that “most of the Muslim-American groups of any prominence in America are now known to be, as a matter of fact, hostile to the United States and its Constitution,” and Mr. Boykin has argued that “We need to realize that Islam itself is not just a religion - it is a totalitarian way of life. ... It should not be protected under the First Amendment, particularly given that those following the dictates of the Quran are under an obligation to destroy our Constitution and replace it with Sharia law.” This inflammatory rhetoric has no factual basis and directly fuels anti-Muslim discrimination and hate crimes.

Our houses of worship should be spaces for prayer, reflection, study, and community building. While free political debate is a vital element in our democracy, voices that demonize ethnic, racial, or faith groups have no place in our sanctuaries.

As clergy and organizational leaders seeking to cultivate a shared ethos of interreligious and cross-cultural cooperation, we the undersigned reach out to and call on Congregation Ahavath Torah to revoke their invitation to these individuals, all known purveyors of vitriol and acrimony. They, and the gross misinformation in which they traffic, are not deserving of a platform in our community.

In Peace,

Rev. Lois Adams - First Baptist Church of Sharon
Professor Rachel Adelman - Hebrew College
Fr. Jack Ahern – St. Mary Parish in Randolph
Rev. John Allen - First Congregational Church of Milton
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen - Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Dean, The Rabbinical School of Hebrew College
Rev. Dr. Jim Antal - Minister and President, Massachusetts Conference, UCC
Marya Axner - New England Jewish Labor Committee
Dr. Angela Bauer-Levesque, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean; Harvey H. Guthrie Jr. Professor of Bible, Culture, and Interpretation Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Rabbi Howard A. Berman, Central Reform Temple, Boston
Rev. Eliza Blanchard - First Parish of Brookline
Rev. Beverly Boke – First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church of Canton
Rev. Dr. Christian Brocato - Rector, Saint Peter's Episcopal Church, Cambridge
Rev. Jeffrey Brown – Twelfth Baptist Church
Sister Marie-Thérèse Browne, SCN, Roman Catholic Sister
Rev. Rebecca Bryan - First Parish in Brookline
Rev. Dr. Karin Case - First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC
Rev. Arrington Chambliss - Executive Director, Episcopal City Mission
Rev. Rebecca Cho - First United Methodist Church, Stoughton, MA
Fr. Brian Clary - Saint Mary of the Assumption, Brookline
Rev. Rainey G. Dankel - Associate Rector, Trinity Church in the City of Boston
Rev. Dr. Christopher Duraisingh - Professor Emeritus, Episcopal Divinity School
Rev. John Edgerton – Old South Church, Boston
Cantor Roy Einhorn - Temple Israel, Boston
Michael Felson - Executive Director Emeritus, Boston Workmen’s Circle
Rev. Kent French, Senior Pastor, The United Parish in Brookline
Rabbi Ronne Friedman - Senior Rabbi Emeritus, Temple Israel of Boston
Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman - Temple Sinai of Brookline
Joseph Gerson - American Friends Service Committee, New England Region
Rev Marlene Gil - Associate Executive Minister for Church Relations, American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts
Rabbi Neal Gold - Temple Shir Tikva
Rabbi Eric Gurvis – Senior Rabbi, Temple Shalom
Rev. Dr. Ray A. Hammond - Senior Pastor, Bethel AME Church
Rev. Wendy Vander Hart, Associate Conference Minister, MA Conference, United Church of Christ
Rev. Kim K. Crawford Harvie - Senior Minister, Arlington Street Church (Unitarian Universalist)
Rabbi/Cantor Anne Heath - Congregation Agudath Achim
Rabbi Suzie Jacobson - Temple Israel, Boston
Rabbi David Jaffe, The Kirva Institute, Sharon, MA
Rabbi Howard L. Jaffe - Temple Isaiah, Lexington
Rev. Laura Ruth Jarrett - Senior Pastor, Hope Central Church, Jamaica Plain
Rev. Edwin Johnson – St. Mary's Episcopal Church of Dorchester
Rabbi Randy Kafka - Temple Kol Tikvah, Sharon
Alice Kidder, Clerk, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Rev. Dr. David A. Killian - President, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Jen Kiok – Executive Director, Boston Workmen’s Circle
Idit Klein, Executive Director, Keshet
Rabbi Claudia Kreiman - Temple Beth Zion, Brookline
Rabbi Judith Kummer - Jewish Chaplaincy Council of Massachusetts
Rabbi Allan Lehmann - Hebrew College
Rabbi Ben Lanckton - Community Tikkun Leil Shavuot
Rabbi David Lerner, Temple Emunah, Lexington; President, Massachusetts Board of Rabbis
Rev. Rosemary Lloyd – The Conversation Project
Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd - Rector, Trinity Church in the City of Boston
Rev. Rob Mark - Church of the Covenant, Boston
Rabbi Emily Mathis - Temple Beth Avodah
Rev. Michael McGarry, C.S.P. - Director, The Paulist Center
Rev. Kathleen McTigue – UU College of Social Justice
Rabbi Bernard H. Mehlman, Senior Scholar, Temple Israel, Boston,
Rabbi Margot Meitner - The Meeting Point, Jamaica Plain
Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello, Rector, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Brookline
Rabbi Jeremy S. Morrison - Temple Israel of Boston
Fr. Jerry Morrow SCP -- Rector, Saint John's Episcopal Church, Sharon
Dr. Vito Nicastro, A.D., E.&I. - Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston
Professor Padraic O’Hare – Founder, Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations at Merrimack College
Rev. Gerald J. Osterman – Immaculate Conception Parish
Riva Pearson - President, Boston Workmen’s Circle
Rabbi Barbara Penzner - Temple Hillel B'nai Torah
Rev. Mary Perry – First Congregational Church of Stoughton, UCC
Rev. Oscar J. Pratt, II - St. Katharine Drexel Parish
Fr. Rocco Puopolo, s.x. - Xaverian Missionaries
Rev. Cristina Rathbone - Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston
Rabbi Victor Reinstein – Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue
Rev. Don Remick, Associate Conference Minister, Massachusetts Conference UCC
Rev. Doug Robinson–Johnson – United Parish of Auburndale
Rev. Dr. Rodney Petersen – Executive Director, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries
Rabbi Or Rose – Miller Center for Interreligious Learning and Leadership, Hebrew College
Rabbi Sonia Saltzman - Temple Ohabei Shalom
Scott Schaeffer-Duffy - Saints Francis & Thérèse Catholic Worker Community
Rabbi Rachel Schoenfeld - Shir Hadash
Rabbi Michael Shire - Hebrew College
Rev. Dr. Paul Shupe, Hancock United Church of Christ (Congregational), Lexington
Rev. Daniel Smith, Senior Minister, First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, UCC
Rabbi Matthew Soffer - Associate Rabbi, Temple Israel, Boston
Rabbi Toba Spitzer - Vice President of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis
Rev. Burns Stanfield - President, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church, South Boston
Rabbi Keith Stern, Temple Beth Avodah
The Very Rev. John P. Streit, Jr. - Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Boston
Cantor Jodi Sufrin - Temple Beth Elohim, Wellesley
Rev. Stacy Swain - Union Church in Waban
Rev. Nancy Taylor – Senior Minister and CEO, Old South Church, Boston
Rabbi David Thomas - Congregation Beth El
Rabbi Andrew Vogel – Temple Sinai Brookline
Rabbi Moshe Waldoks - Temple Beth Zion
Rev. Liz Walker – Roxbury Presbyterian Church
Joanna Ware - Director of Special Projects, Keshet
Rev. Gretchen Weis – Murray Unitarian Universalist Church
Rev. Margaret L. Weis – Bell Street Chapel
Rabbi Ora Weiss - Congregation Beth Hatikvah
Rev. Dr. Donald A. Wells - Theologian in Residence, Old South Church, Boston
Rev. Joseph M. White - St Joseph Catholic, Boston
Sr. Ann Whittaker - Sister of Charity of Nazareth
Rev. Elizabeth Williams - Pastor, Wollaston Congregational Church, United Church of Christ
Rev. Jay Williams - Union United Methodist Church, Boston
Rabbi Elaine Zecher - Senior Rabbi, Temple Israel, Boston

* Please note: The institutional listings are for identification purposes only, and do not necessarily represent organizational endorsements. While many other individuals expressed interest at signing on, the list was limited to those in local leadership roles.

Shabbat sermon, Friday, March 18, 2016

Sermon / D’var Torah for Parashat Vayikra

Rabbi Andy Vogel

Erev Shabbat: Friday, March 18, 2016

Temple Sinai, Brookline MA

Shabbat shalom.  As you know, I don’t usually give a formal sermon, and prefer to engage on most Shabbat evenings with you in a conversation about the ideas that emerge from the week’s Torah portion.  But this week, tonight, I’m particularly concerned about the state of politics in our country, and I feel the need to share with you my thoughts in a little bit more of a formal way. 

I want to be upfront with you: I'm troubled by what's happening in our political world, I'm very troubled by the messages and values coming from Donald Trump and many of the things that he has said in the political sphere.  I’m particularly concerned that so many American voters have supported his world-view, a world-view that provokes and inflames and increases bigotry, hatred and xenophobia, especially against Hispanics and Muslims and other minorities. He has made offensive comments about women, people of color, and other groups – and he was very slow to distance himself from former Klansman David Duke.  And I’m deeply concerned about the way he has condoned violence, and incited violence at his rallies and campaign events – and hinted at “riots” at the Republican convention later this summer if he is not nominated. 

As you know, we at Temple Sinai, and I personally, are always very careful not to endorse or oppose any particular political party or political candidate. That's consistent with the IRS tax code rules, and it's also consistent with what's appropriate. It wouldn't be right for a house of worship to endorse any particular person or party, or to engage in partisan politics, because we stand for values, and ideas, and sacred teachings that guide our way, not for individuals or parties.  To take sides with or against any party or individual violates our own internal guidelines as well as federal rules.  I want to remain consistent with that guideline of the past.  It is appropriate for a synagogue or a rabbi to speak out about values, ideas, general policies and attitudes, and that’s what I intend to do.

What I want to address is the deeply disturbing trend across America today – a values and attitudes – that I feel the need to speak out about, about which I can’t be silent.  As always, this week’s Torah portion speaks exactly to the particular moment we are living in in our lives.  In Parashat Vayikra, Leviticus chapter 5 verse 1 says:

וְנֶפֶשׁ כִּי-תֶחֱטָא וְשָׁמְעָה קוֹל אָלָה

וְהוּא עֵד אוֹ רָאָה אוֹ יָדָע אִם-לוֹא יַגִּיד וְנָשָׂא עֲו‍ֹנוֹ

“If a you hear a public statement that involves sinful or harmful behavior, and you are a witness to it – that is, you see it, or you know that something is amiss, and you don’t speak up,

– אִם-לוֹא יַגִּיד,  you bear your responsibility.”  (Lev. 5:1)

That verse instructs us that we cannot remain silent when something terribly wrong is going on.  It reminds us that spiritual leadership needs to be vocal, we must play a role when moral values are at stake – and that there is a spiritual obligation to do so. 

After all, to be Jewish is to engage in the world.  Judaism is deeply concerned about the state of the world.  As one of the great Reform leaders, Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, taught: “The Jewish religion is politics.  From its roots in creation to its ultimate working-out in the Messianic redemption, Judaism is about the human community.  … A ‘good Jew’ [in quotes] rejoices to find that he/she is obligated to humanity.”[1]  We must be engaged in the world.  It is deeply Jewish to work to make our world a better place, and the most powerful way to do that is through public policy, in the public sphere, through government which can better society, and through politics.

This week, the leadership of the Reform movement issued a very strong statement in response to the news that AIPAC, the large Israel lobby group, will have Donald Trump speak at its convention on Monday.  (By the way, I am not addressing tonight the larger issues of AIPAC and its agenda – that’s a whole different discussion.)  The leaders of the Reform movement spoke out – not to endorse or oppose Trump’s candidacy – but to address the very serious and grave effects that he is having upon the political discourse in our country, to express their own opposition to certain positions of his:  his support of the use of torture, his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the country, his anti-immigrant rhetoric, his demonization of African-Americans and women.  The URJ statement reminds us of the values that we as Reform Jews “hold most dear – justice, mercy, compassion, peace.”  And, finally, the Reform movement statement urges us all to make our voices heard. It concludes with the words: “We will find an appropriate and powerful way to make our voices heard.”  That, to me, is also the meaning of the verse from this week’s Torah portion:  וְהוּא עֵד אוֹ רָאָה אוֹ יָדָע אִם-לוֹא יַגִּיד וְנָשָׂא עֲו‍ֹנו  If we do not speak out when something is wrong, we bear our own responsibility for not doing so. 

I believe that many of us in this Sanctuary this evening, if not all of us, share similar values, and similar concern about the state of recent political discourse.

But now, I want to say that it is time to speak out.  It is time for all of us to speak out, and not to remain silent.  We have seen the effects of remaining silent, when a population assumes that the storm will pass, or that “the annoying little man” will go away.  This is not a situation in which we have the luxury of that assumption.  Leaders have power, and their power has far-reaching ramifications. 

I’m obviously concerned about who becomes president, the most powerful public office in the world.  But the phenomenon of Donald Trump is about something bigger than even that.   Perhaps you saw the article in the Boston Globe today about the woman who wrote a letter to the editor a few weeks ago in opposition to Trump – this week, she received in the mail an anonymous letter containing the KKK symbol, a clear threat.  This woman is a Jewish woman, an Austrian refugee from the time of Hitler[2] – and the letter she received in the mail is being treated as an act of hate, clearly incited and encouraged, by Donald Trump and his rhetoric. 

This example is just one of many, many of the ripples emanating forth from a presidential campaign season laced everywhere with bigotry and incitement.

When any public figure – no matter who, whether a candidate for public office, a current office-holder, a celebrity, or anyone – speaks to the public in the language of hate again and again, whenever a public figure inspires acts of hate among the general populace, we need to speak out. 

We need to speak out.  Not just the leaders of the Reform movement in New York, not just me, your rabbi, not just the newspaper writers on editorial pages, but all of us.  It’s our moral duty.  In appropriate ways, within the guidelines of the federal tax code, I’m speaking out tonight, against hatred, and for a better vision of our world.  I am a member of the Brookline Clergy Association, along with rabbis, priests and minsters from other houses of faith, and I expect that that interfaith association will issue our own statement sometime soon.  We create real power when we come together to build alliances and coalitions with others who share our vision, vision inspired by the spiritual values of our tradition.

I encourage you to share your feelings, concerns, and values appropriately – as a Jew connected to a spiritual vision and connected with spiritual leadership – and that you do so out loud, in print, on traditional media and on social media, at the oneg downstairs, on your way out of the oneg, et cetera (!), so that people can hear, and so that you can be part of a movement for the best values of our society, a movement inspired by the spiritual vision of Judaism.

Shabbat shalom.

---

[1] Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf (1924-2008), in The Condition of Jewish Belief (originally published in 1966 as an issue of Commentary magazine), Aronson Press (1989), p. 272.

[2] https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/03/17/arlington-woman-who-wrote-letter-denouncing-trump-gets-kkk-symbol-mail/iNLaDWKGAONY2y2U7jm7KM/story.html