I Can't Hear You: Could It Be the Banana In My Ear (Miketz 5778 and Chanukah)

Banana in Ernie's Ear Shows He Isn't Listening to Bert

How often do we see others in pain, but ignore it? How often do we hear the cries of others, but don't listen?At this season of short days, our vision often is obscured by darkness. Our hearing often is dulled by long nights in our own homes. 

This week's Torah portion and the festival of Chanukah come together this week as a kind of warning and an inspiration. 

The warning comes when Joseph's brothers believe that they caused their own current distress two decades earlier when they first tried to kill Joseph then sold him into slavery. They are not yet even aware that the Egyptian viceroy who is toying with them is, in fact, Joseph. They say to each other, "We saw [Joseph's] pain and ignored it. We heard his cries, but paid no attention to them." (Genesis 42:21.) It is a startling revelation.

"Who is silent? Who speaks?" (Vayeira 5778)

2017 Limited edition MetroCard
Photo by Job Piston in the New York Times

This week New York city's transit authority released some limited edition MetroCards with pointed questions about privilege created by artist Barbara Kruger. A version of the conceptual art cards reads, "Who is healed? Who is housed? Who is silent? Who speaks?" Kruger has expressed these questions through her art since 1991.

This particular MetroCard seems to echo recent news stories about sexual harassment. This extreme misconduct often is hidden (or enabled) when some voices are privileged and others systematically silenced.  This MetroCard also seems to echo the arc of this week's Torah narrative, which is among the most profoundly complex interpersonally, emotionally, socially, culturally and nationally of all Torah. 

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down . . . Or Do We? (Noah 5778)

Camp Newman Star Survives on Hillside Blackened by Fire

Many imagine that the nursery rhyme phrase, "ashes, ashes, we all fall down" is a dark reference to 17th century London's Black Plague. But origins for this phrase seem more difficult to comprehend or explain.

It is even more difficult to comprehend or explain the northern California wildfires that in recent weeks have killed more than 40 people and destroyed more than 100,000 acres. It seems too much to take in. Included among the more than 7,000 properties that were destroyed, was much of Camp Newman (the beloved Jewish summer camp that succeeded Camp Swig where I was a camper, record producer, assistant director, and board member).*

These fires have created losses that are immeasurable -- of precious life, treasured livelihood, and valued property. Whole worlds were destroyed. 

In the Dark Shadow of a Las Vegas Massacre (Sukkot 5778)

2010 Sukkah Made from Signs From the Homeless

Our school community held its weekly gathering on Monday in the dark shadow of Sunday's Las Vegas massacre in which more than 500 people were wounded and nearly 60 killed. 

There are no words adequate to make meaning of such a monstrous tragedy. We are stunned. We are angry. We are afraid. We are speechless. 

Yet, something about Las Vegas calls to mind a story often told by my colleague, Rabbi Eddie Feinstein, about his young daughter, Nessa's fear of alligators under her bed or monsters in her closet. Inspired by his story I shared its themes with

Ask the World, Why? Ask Ourselves, Why Not? (Rosh Hashanah and Ha'azinu 5778)

Apple Laffy Taffy & Bit-O-Honey
given to each JCHS student for Rosh Hashanah

This evening starts the new Jewish year of 5778. The timing of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) is in sync with the start of each school year. These new beginnings bring the opportunity to visualize our path and our learning in the year ahead.

Echoing the custom of dipping apples in honey at Rosh Hashanah (see below), I hand out lots of Apple Laffy Taffy and Bit-O-Honey at this time of year. Usually, Laffy Taffy riddles are juvenile. But this year, I discovered three that were (nearly) existential! 

#1 - Why was the boy covered in gift wrap? His mom told him to live in the present. #2 - What kind of tea is sometimes hard to swallow? Reality. #3 - What would you do without your memories? Forget.  

Embedded in these three riddles is the secret of this season that begins with Rosh Hashanah -- a season of reflection, introspection, and renewal. We have to be deeply present in order to reflect on our memories of real, authentic moments from the year past to inform a commitment to doing better in the new year. 

Along with the Apple Laffy Taffy and Bit-O-Honey, I shared an insight this week with our students from Rabbi Israel Salanter (19th century, Lithuania). He taught we have two eyes for a reason.

Measure for Measure: As You Judge Others, So Will You Be Judged (Ki Tavo 5777)

A blog post this week in three parts. A folktale. A framework from this week's Torah portion. And an apology.

The folktale*: There was a very wealthy man who loved only two things in life: work and cake. When he wasn't working he was admiring or eating cake. He had a favorite bakery that sold the most beautiful and delicious cakes. He went there every day on his way to work.

Once when he was walking out of the bakery with a beautiful slice of cake, the man stumbled. His cake fell to the ground. His piece of cake rolled in the dirt where it was covered with pebbles and grass. On his way back into the bakery to buy a replacement piece of cake, the man noticed a homeless person peering into the bakery's window. The man picked up the dirty piece of cake, handed it to the homeless person, and went inside to buy more for himself.

Orphans, Widows, and Foreigners Lives Matter (#Charlottesville) (Ki Teitzei 5777)

Earlier this week, we brought the school community together to reflect on Charlottesville. An educator and a student shared each their personal reflections about Charlottesville (see below) as we deepen our work to make JCHS among the most emotionally inclusive and intellectually diverse high schools in the country.

Yael Krieger, the educator, challenged us, “What would it look like for JCHS to be a school that celebrates the diversity within the Jewish community [and] committing itself to the principle of human dignity?” Mira Kittner, the student, exhorted us, "It's an important time, don’t check out! When the spirit of hate, bitterness, and division seems stronger than ever, each of us must tune-in and step-up.” 

For me, recent news about neo-Nazis and White Supremacists combined with the frightening scenes from Charlottesville -- including chants of "Jews will not replace us” and “America belongs to white men” -- brought me back to when I was about 10 years old and very different images of "Nazis." And as if Charlottesville did not fan the flames against those who are vulnerable as foreigners or strangers, the US government seemed to throw gasoline on the flames by announcing a repeal of #DACA

Home is Where the Eyes, Ears, Mouth, and Nose Are (Shoftim 5777)

See No, Speak No, Hear No, Smell No by Angela Quitoriano

Greeting the largest entering class ever at JCHS, I was excited yesterday to "welcome home" all of our students.

Coming home from summer vacation, whether one travels near or far, or simply changes one's daily routine can be both exciting and confounding. It is comforting to be back with things that are familiar, and it can time time to readjust and fit back in. Friends got accustomed to getting along without us -- and us without them. Others sat in the places that we used to call ours. It is a time of mixed feelings. 

A mathematician, two musicians, and a rabbi walk into a ... (Graduation 2017)

My precious students*: Earlier this week, I was reading my notes from your first day of school at JCHS when I encouraged you to avoid the kinds of intellectual blindness and emotional deafness that reflect a fixed way of experiencing the world. 

Also, I encouraged you to seek out classmates who are profoundly different than you are -- so you might learn from and be inspired by those differences. And to discover that one other person at JCHS who has exactly what you are lacking and to discover that one other person at JCHS who needs exactly what only you can share. As we heard from your classmates this afternoon, you have actively embraced each of these. 

In a moment I will share my gift for your graduation -- a mash-up mixed from one mathematician, two musicians, and a rabbi. But just a few more thoughts about your first day of high school. 

Hold Your Head Up: Winners or Losers (Bamidbar 5777)

Hold Your Head Up 1972 hit by rock band Argent

When I was in law school an apocryphal story was going around about winners and losers. The story was about a murder trial: A man was charged with murdering his neighbor. 

But it was a very circumstantial case. There were no witnesses to a killing. They found no body. There was just an apartment building filled with tenants who overheard two of their neighbors constantly fighting. One night, after a really loud argument, one of the quarreling neighbors disappeared. The victim just disappeared; never heard from again. Everyone assumed the worst.

The surviving neighbor was tried for murder. At trial, his attorney focused on showing reasonable doubt. She argued he could not be convicted on such flimsy evidence. In her closing argument, the defendant's lawyer looked up at the jury

Its a Hammer of Justice, Its a Bell of Freedom (American Jewish Heritage Month 2017) (Behar-Bechukotai 5777)

Cesar Chavez receives replica Liberty Bell from UAW,1970

Fifty years ago this summer, Cesar Chavez, as leader of the United Farm Workers, launched a nationwide boycott of California table grapes in support of farm-worker rights. His boycott brought attention to the plight of farm workers and his life's work liberated thousands of workers from inhumane wages and working conditions.

One of the most potent symbols of liberty in the United States is the Liberty Bell. When the bell was cast about 250 years ago, words from this week's Torah portion were put on the bell, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto the inhabitants thereof.” (Leviticus 25:10) It seems fitting to call out the bell's links to Torah during American Jewish Heritage Month. 

Season of Senioritis: Don't Let the Light Go Out (Emor 5777)

Toward the end of each school year, there are moments when the excitement, energy, and (even) inspiration with which the year started seems to fade. Every grade has its own version of senioritis. At those moments it is important to remember that we each are responsible for the daily inspiration needed to keep being motivated. No single event or moment from August is sufficient to keep us motivated through an entire year.

Eldridge Stree Synagogue, New York

This week’s Torah portion, which includes a feature of every Jewish sanctuary, the ner tamid (a so-called “eternal light”), teaches a powerful lesson about continually encouraging motivation.

And so does an Ethiopian folktale about an elderly king worried about which of this three children would succeed him. Each child had unique traits. The oldest was strong. The middle child was clever. The youngest had insight. The king loved them all equally and tremendously.

Four Questions of Freedom (Tzav and Pesach 5777)

Circa 1950 Flyer Against Jewish Support for Civil Rights

One of the most prominent features of Pesach - our annual rehearsal of ancient liberation - are the Four Questions. As we seem to have become obsessed with strangers in our midst - those who look or act or think different from us - I propose four additional questions.

These additional Four Questions are inspired by an attack on Jews nearly 60 years ago. It is not the attack itself that inspires me. Rather it was the reaction of 'strangers.'

The attack occurred nearly 60 years ago when an Atlanta synagogue was firebombed. Fifty sticks of dynamite causing nearly $1.5 million in damage (in today's dollars) just a few hours before the building was filled with students.

The firebombing was a reaction to local Jewish support for desegregation and advancing civil rights for blacks. Jewish pursuit of social justice for strangers is the modern expression of a biblical imperative to elevate our treatment of strangers. Shortly after our ancient ancestors are liberated from Egypt, they are exhorted "not [to] wrong or oppress a stranger, for we were strangers [ourselves] in the land of Egypt." (Exodus 22:20.) No other exhortation is repeated so often.

A caller claimed responsibility for the 1958 bombing; he threatened, "this is the last empty building we will bomb . . . Negroes and Jews are hereby declared aliens.” The next day, editor Ralph McGill, of the Atlanta Constitution, wisely observed, "You do not preach and encourage hatred for the Negro and hope to restrict it to that field. It is an old, old story. It is one repeated over and over again in history. When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe."

A Time For Taking Off Masks (Purim and Ki Tissa 5777)

Between Mardi Gras (or Shrove Tuesday) and Purim, this is a season for masks. Wearing masks is associated with these days as a way of bringing history to life, temporarily adopting a new personality, hiding, or, even, subverting reality.

We often wear masks to make fun of ourselves or others. And not just by wearing them. For instance, “Why does Batman wear a mask but Superman doesn’t?” “Because the citizens of Gotham City are much smarter than those in Metropolis.”

But this is really a season for profound messages about masks. Even the Torah portion this week, which coincides with Purim, ends with Moses putting on and

The ‘Other’: A Framework for Learning, Questioning, and Acting

Two fathers (one Muslim, one Jewish) and their children protesting
immigration and refugee executive order in Chicago
on Jan 30, 2017 (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)

Here is the message I shared today with the Jewish Community High School of the Bay (JCHS) : 

The diversity of the JCHS school community is powerful. We come from different parts of the world and grew up in different types of families. We represent a broad range of economic circumstances and hold different perspectives about politics, society, and even Judaism.

For example, nearly 40% of JCHS student homes include an adult born outside of the United States. In Jewish terms, some of us identify most with Mizrachi heritage and others with Ashkenazi culture. Some with Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, or Reform, and others with secular expressions of Jewish life.

One thread that links all these differences is the Jewish core idea of being different, being the other. Torah refers to the first Jew, Abraham, as ha’ivri --

Freedom's Just Another Word For Nothing Left to Lose: #Wrong (Va'eira 5777)

By HogArtDesign Available on Etsy

Last week marked the 74th anniversary of the birth of Janis Joplin. Though her career lasted barely a decade (she died of a drug overdose at age 27) Joplin still made Rolling Stones lists for “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” and “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” One of Joplin’s last hits was Me and Bobby McGee, with lyrics: "Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train, I was feelin' nearly faded as my jeans. . . . Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose."

Joplin's lyric (written by Kris Kristofferson) is soulful but it's wrong. Freedom is not nothing left to lose. It is everything to gain.

Freedom is at the heart of this week’s Torah portion as we read about the plagues that fall on Egypt when Moses tries to convince Pharaoh to release ancient Israel from slavery. Freedom comes not when one has nothing left to lose; but when a community confronts those who are close-minded and hard-hearted.

Face Off: As in There Are Times I Want To Tear Your . . . (Shemot 5777)

Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman Face Off (Photo: Sam Morris)

This weekend comes at a momentous time. It comes during a week when we begin reading in Torah about our people’s exodus from slavery to liberty, when we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and when we inaugurate a new president. For me, this signals a need to deepen our personal commitment to creating an inclusive school community in which every member can thrive as a learner and leader. 

Creating an inclusive school community goes beyond simply asking each person to be tolerant or even kind. It depends on each person valuing others for who the other is - on developing a sense of belonging. This requires active, mutual respect. As Martin Luther King Jr wrote from a Birmingham jail in 1963: "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Elwin Wilson: My Daddy Always Said Only A Fool Doesn't Change His Mind (Martin Luther King Jr Day 2017; Vayechi 5777)

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, left, with Elwin Wilson

 (Andy Burris/AP Photo/The Herald)

Elwin Wilson did something few of us have ever done. He publicly and sincerely apologized and asked forgiveness. It took nearly 50 years. Nearly a half-century after Elwin Wilson (then a young member of the Ku Klux Klan) beat and kicked U.S. Congressman John Lewis (then a young Black minister) at a South Carolina bus station because of the color of Lewis’ skin, Wilson asked Lewis to forgive him. Reflecting on his change over time, Wilson reported, “My daddy always said only a fool doesn’t change his mind.” Some learning is a very long time in coming.