'The Faces of Deer' by Mary Oliver

The Faces of Deer
Mary Oliver

When for too long I don't go deep enough
into the woods to see them, they begin to
enter my dreams. Yes, there they are, in the
pinewoods of my inner life. I want to live a life
full of modesty and praise. Each hoof of each
animal makes the sign of a heart as it touches
then lifts away from the ground. Unless you
believe that heaven is very near, how will you
find it? Their eyes are pools in which one
would be content, on any summer afternoon,
toswim away through the door of the world.
Then, love and its blessing. Then: Heaven.

More Birkat Hachama resources

See http://www.blessthesun.org/ and the Birkhat HaHammah blog http://coejlblog.blog.com/4360537/ for a compilation of resources.

For a copy of the Cleveland communitywide celebration flyer see http://jrf.org/birkat-hahammah.

For traditional sources and the complete ritual service see www.berachot.org/halacha/24_birkathachammah.html#4.

For a Song for the Sun performed by Rabbi Shawn Zevit see &feature=channel_page">www.youtube.com/watch?v=629JxUYTlFk&feature=channel_page>&feature=channel_page. It's beautiful!

Calculate the timing for your local gathering for the ritual and education about solar energy at www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html.

Jewish population declines to 1.2%

The number of Americans who identify as Jewish is continuing to fall. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, which has just been released, 1.8 percent of the American population identified as Jewish in 1990. Last year, only 1.2 percent, or 2.7 million people, considered themselves Jewish.

Researchers plan a broader survey on people who consider themselves culturally Jewish but aren't religious.

The report from The Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., surveyed 54,461 adults in English or Spanish from February through November of last year. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.5 percentage points. The findings are part of a series of studies on American religion by the program that will later look more closely at reasons behind the trends.

To read more, visit: http://news.aol.com/article/religion-in-amerca-survey/374444

Purim: disturbing history or dramatic literature?

Two years ago, when I began a job as the education director of a congregation in Allentown, I was assigned the task of preparing the Purim celebration. I started hunting around the Internet for an abbreviated version of Megillat Esther (the scroll of Esther), which I would divide up and email to our volunteer readers before the spiel. The scroll in its original form was much too long, and I was hoping for an easy way of cutting it down.

And that’s when things got interesting.

There are, I discovered, plenty of shortened versions of Esther to be found on the Internet. The problem is, they all came from Orthodox-run websites and proudly tout that they are “true to the story!”

They are true alright. And if you’ve ever looked closely at the details of the Purim story, that’s actually not a good thing! Here are just some of the perturbing aspects of the story, which I, for one, would never want recited in front of my daughter:

1:20: When Vashti refuses to obey the king, the king sends out a decree to the countryside ordering that “all women will respect their husbands” and that “every man shall be a master in his home.”

2:3: The King’s attendants sweep the countryside looking for “virgins” to add to the King’s “harem”. Esther didn’t so much “win” a beauty pageant as be forcibly selected and “taken” to the King’s palace.

7:8: When Esther reveals to the King that Haman’s edict to kill all Jews means she too will be killed, it appears that Haman tries to sexually assault her. Haman is then sent to the gallows and hanged.

8:11: Rather than merely nullify Haman’s edict, the King issues an edict allowing the Jews to “to annihilate, kill and destroy every army of any nation or province that might attack them, [including their] children and women, and to plunder their possessions.”

8:17: This bloodlust is celebrated a few verses later, where we read that: “In every province and city to which the king's edict and law reached, there was happiness and joy for the Jews, a celebration and a holiday. Many of the gentiles converted to Judaism, for fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.”

9:6: The Jews of Shushan kill 500 men, and then a few verses later, Haman’s 10 sons are hanged at the gallows.

It might bring you comfort to know that no one worth their salt believes there is any historical truth to the events recounted in Esther. The narrative, which takes place in the time of the ancient Persian empire (539 BCE – 333 BCE), is rife with chronological problems, which are too numerous to list. Furthermore, no evidence of the key events of the story has ever turned up in biblical or extrabiblical sources, including from Persian literature, much of which has been preserved.

The author of the book does show some familiarity with details of life in the Persian empire. The author knows, for example, about its size, its postal system, and a considerable number of details about its court life (3:13; 8:10). The story uses a number of words and a few names of indisputable Persian origin.

But there are other parts of the story that contradict what we know about Persia, or simply strain credulity. Esther herself is a historical improbability. According to Herodotus (3:84), the Persian king could only marry within seven noble families, and there is no reason to think any of them were Jewish. There is no evidence for the existence of 127 provinces or satrapies (1:1; 8:9) in Persia. It doesn’t make sense that a decree go out in a multitude of languages, when the only language spoken was Aramaic (1:22, 3:12, 8:9). And how could a banquet last 180 days (1:1-4)?

The book of Esther is best seen as a historical novella set within the Persian empire. As the authors of Etz Hayim We: Megillat Esther (The Reconstructionist Press) explain, “This is not to say that the book is false, only that its truth, like the truth of any piece of literature, is relative to its genre, and the genre of Esther is not that of the historical annal, even though it sometimes imitates the style of a historical annal.”

Image above: "The Cracow Wedding" Purimshpil

Birkat Hachama: Blessing the Sun

This is the my April newsletter column, written for the Temple where I am a rabbinic intern:

How do you feel about the sun? Do you like it? Are you glad it’s here?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, take note: On the 8th of April this year, you will have a special once (or twice) in a lifetime opportunity to bless the sun in an official Jewishly sanctioned way! The holiday of Birkat Hachama will be here, and it’s a holiday that only happens once every 28 years!

Birkat Hachama is a special blessing made on the “anniversary” of the sun’s return to the position that it was in when the universe was first created. (The rabbis of the Babylonian Talmud, circa 500 C.E., determined when that was.) The Talmud says: “Our Rabbis taught: One who sees the Sun at its turning point should say ‘Blessed be the One Who effects creation’. And when does this occur? Abaye said every 28 years when the cycle begins again, and the Nissan equinox falls in Saturn, on the evening of the third day going into the fourth day.”

The full blessing they are referring to is as follows: Baruch atah adonai, elohanu melech haolam, oseh ma’aseh b’reisheit. Blessed are you, HASHEM our God, King of the universe, who effects the work of creation. This blessing is also recited on other occasions of natural phenomena, such as witnessing lighting, comets, meteor showers and even wondrous natural topography, such as great mountains, rivers and vast wildernesses.

For the day of Birkat Hachama, however, other passages and prayers are recited in addition to this blessing, largely from psalms and the prophets. The structure of the prayer service was set down in the Shulchan Aruch, a codification of Jewish law written by Yosef Karo in the 16th century. The service generally includes the following:

• Quotations about the sun from the Tanakh
• Four verses from the Tanakh, which spell out the Tetragrammaton
• Some of Talmud Berachot 59b
• Parts of Psalms 148 and 90
• The blessing recited on natural phenomena (Baruch Atah...ma’aseh b’reisheit)
• Psalms 121, 8 and 19
• The hymn El Adon al kol hama'asim (normally part of Shabbat services).
• Aleinu
• The Mourner's Kaddish

The Internet is teeming with creative Birkat Hachama services, which are roughly structured on this outline, but vary in the addition of other texts or songs. Jewish ecological groups in particular are seizing on this unique opportunity to teach about the ecological values of our tradition.

How can you observe Birkat Hachama? Here are some ideas:

* Download a service off the Internet and get together with some friends for your own potluck and service

* Join the Birkat Hachama group on Facebook: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20544854723

* Chabad has put together a handy website of information, which includes a “global event finder” where you can find a Birkat Hachama event near you.

www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/817861/jewish/Birkat-Hachamah.htm.

Given it’s from Chabad, my guess is they will only include Orthodox-sponsored events.

* Check your local Jewish newspaper for other events that might be happening in your area.

Shomer Israel song for Tachanun

In preparing to lead mincha service at Elat Chayyim in a few weeks, I've had the great joy of discovering this beautiful song written by Shlomo Carlebach from the first line of the Tachanun prayer. Known as "Shomer Israel," it can be used at any service in which Tachanun is recited.

Thank you, V, for sharing this jewel with me! I can't stop playing it!

http://www.imeem.com/elinka/music/pHK-dnnH/shlomo_carlebach_shomer_israel/

You might also enjoy this beautiful version sung by his daughter, Neshama Carlebach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxxf66nWqE