Moving Toward Face to Face (Terumah 5779)

Image Credit: iStock|FatCamera in Highlights.com
"Why Babies Need Parallel Play"

Parents of newborn twins tell me it can take several months before the babies express any explicit awareness of the presence of another infant. Even when twins are napping or sleeping together in the same bassinet or crib, each acts like an only child. It's not until months later they seem to wake up and take a keen interest in each other.  

That is echoed in child development as toddlers learn how to engage through the developmental stage of parallel-play. That is, they play adjacent to each other, but do not try to influence one another's behavior. Each toddler is, in a sense, playing alone, but in proximity with and some sideways interest in another. Only later do children learn authentic interaction, facing each other in true relationship. 

Torah this week echoes this developmental scheme as it describes the mechanics and artistry of constructing the tabernacle in the wilderness, Torah directs the making two gold statue images of kruveem or Cherubs to top the Ark. (Exodus 25:18-20.)

Don't Let the Light Go Out - JUDITH ELLEN ROBINS z"l (Bo 5779)

The Goldberg Twins 12th Birthday (Sept. 1946)

There are different theories about why we light candles on a birthday cake. Some say it has Greek origins -- dating back to ceremonies celebrating Artemis goddess of the moon. As the moon is seen only in light, Artemis was celebrated with a single, large candle in the middle of a cake. Others point to 18th-century German aristocrats who celebrated birthdays with candlelight cake. Candles to mark longevity with a candle for each year of life.  

But why is so much meaning ascribed to light? In the Jewish tradition, the story of Creation begins with the “creation” of light. It is the very first of all divine creations to be judged "good." Tanach (the Hebrew Bible) compares light to learning. (Even English uses the same idea with the word "enlightened.") Our tradition also identifies light with goodness, the human soul, and even life itself. For instance, we light a yahrzeit candle to mark the anniversary of someone’s death. 

This week's Torah portion, Bo, teaches us something more about light as we are introduced to the 9th plague deployed to persuade ancient Pharaoh to let our people go. That is the plague of darkness. Darkness so pervasive Torah describes it as thick. (Ex. 10:22). Darkness so heavy that Egyptians could not see each other. 

Tender Threads Anchor Our Path (Vayigash 5779)

At times we wander aimlessly, but most often we walk with purpose. Leaving some place, heading to another. Or to boost our heart rate or lower our stress. To be by ourselves or to meet someone else. 

The Torah this week opens with a walk of purpose -- of approach and encounter. It occurs when Judah approaches the viceroy of Egypt who Judah does not recognize as his brother Joseph (yes, the same Joseph that Judah and their other brothers sold into slavery decades earlier). Their encounter with each other is dramatic and powerful. It is as if they were drawn inevitably toward reconciliation with each other by invisible threads of history, purpose, and family.

Those threads bring to mind author Anne Lamott's favorite story about the seemingly invisible threads that guide our lives. She heard the story on the radio about university research with adults who could not change direction, action, or focus. These subjects of the study had been unable to walk alone. 

Quieting Our Assumptions (Vayeishev 5779)

More than 30 million people traveled through airports for Thanksgiving. Traveling to be with family has its challenges. Fictional books and movies, along with real life, remind us that big family gatherings can "breed festering emotional wounds" with one report finding three-quarters of us have at least one family member who annoys us. All of that -- along with my favorite airport story and this week's Torah portion -- came to mind when stuck in heavy SFO traffic dropping off some of our (delightful!) Thanksgiving guests. 

In the Torah narrative this week, the biblical Joseph (of technicolor Dreamcoat fame) is sent out to find his brothers. His reunion with them ends very badly for him. Joseph's older brothers toss him into an empty pit, leaving him to die. Then they sell him into slavery and tell their father he was killed by a wild animal. That part of the Joseph tale is introduced with a verse, his brothers "saw [Joseph] from afar, but before he came close they conspired to kill him." (Genesis 37:18) Talk about "festering emotional wounds!"

I'll return to that verse in a moment. But first, my favorite airport story:

It is about a woman about to take a long flight. At an airport shop, she buys a book for the plane and a package of cookies. Putting them in her bag she heads toward her departure gate.  The lounge area is full so she is grateful to find two empty seats. One for her and the other for her stuff.

Be the Stranger in the Pick-up Truck (Vayetzei 5779)

As the week began on the Tuesday after Veteran's Day, we came to school with heavy concerns close to our hearts - in Israel - and close to our homes - in northern California. 

Close to our homes, the Butte County Camp Fire already had destroyed more than 7,500 structures, devastated 125,000 acres (an area about four times the size of San Francisco), and 42 lives lost. [Sadly, the fire has continued destroying lives, homes, and property.] 

Close to our hearts, there was death and destruction in Israel early this week when Hamas fired several hundred rockets into Israel from Gaza. Those rockets caused terrifying damage, many injuries, and one death. The rockets indiscriminately terrorized Israelis of all ages. In Ashkelon, on Israel's coast, a Hamas rocket killed a Palestinian man who was in Israel on a work permit that gave him permission to spend weeknights near his work in Israel. 

Close to our homes and close to our hearts: an individual in each place is linked, it seems to me, to this week's Torah portion. Close to our homes, it's fire-survivor, James Betts. Close to our hearts, it's rocket-victim, Mahmoud Abu Asabeh. 

Grounded Resident or Alien Stranger: Reflection and Call to Action After Pittsburgh

On Monday at JCHS - Jewish Community High School of the Bay -  we reflected in a number of ways on the horrible tragedy in Pittsburgh. I am writing to share what I said at Monday’s school-wide gathering and to encourage you to support the Pittsburgh community of Jewish day schools (see link at the bottom). I hope you will join us in taking action to embrace them at this difficult time.

Since Saturday’s shooting, my JCHS colleagues and I are grateful for the many touching expressions of sympathy and support we’ve received from educators across the Bay Area. In that spirit, here is a picture from the makeshift memorial at the Tree of Life synagogue on Sunday as members of the Pittsburgh Muslim community step-up in support. (Photo by Alexandra Wimley, Post-Gazette.)

Here’s what I told JCHS students and educators on Monday:

This morning during Tefillah you had a chance to reflect individually or privately on the tragic shooting in Pittsburgh. We are making time now as a unified community to seek to understand, relate to, and stand in solidarity with the Pittsburgh Jewish community and Jewish communities everywhere.

What happened in Pittsburgh touches us deeply, close to home -- even at a distance of 2,500 miles. Some of us are feeling shaken or saddened. And some of us are not sure what to feel.

For many centuries now, the Jewish community has developed a well-exercised muscle for juggling tragedy and the life-affirming activities of daily life. We do that to ensure that daily life is not swallowed up by those who impose tragedy on our community, or by those who seek to extinguish the light of our community. We do that so that tragedy does not swallow our lives or our communities.

The Folly of Imagining There's Only One Path (Noach 5779)

Tower of Babel by Dr. Seuss

This week JCHS welcomed undergraduate guests from Shalem College in Israel, whose motto is "leadership for Israel begins here." We enjoy our annual encounter with these students because, in a country where many college students specialize as undergrads, Shalem undergrads dedicate themselves to four years of conversation across the ages and disciplines. 

For them, “shalem” (lit. completeness) does not come from developing expertise in a single academic or professional discipline or following a single path, rather it comes from integrating diverse disciplines, being in conversation with a diversity of voices and perspectives. We love hearing that their JCHS visit is a highlight of their Bay Area tour because of the school community's vibrant, living laboratory of intellectual and Jewish pluralism. 

All of that is amplified by an infamous story in this week's Torah portion: The Tower of Babel. Its infamy always has intrigued me because the Tower could easily have been swallowed up by the even more famous introductory story this week's Torah portion: Noah and the Flood. Torah's Noah narrative is told over four full chapters with lots of detail and drama. By comparison, the Tower tale uses a mere nine verses.