Dunking Rachael

Thursday, December 2, 2010

A New Light (mp3): My Jewish Learning

A New Light (mp3): My Jewish Learning

Free Mp3 to Rock Your Hanukkah from the Jewniverse

How do you make your Hanukkah a little bit warmer? By bringing it in with some friends, of course. Three great singers--Naomi Less (who fronts the band Jewish Chicks Rock), Chana Rothman, and Sarah Aroeste (who you might remember from our video How Jews Look)--teamed up to record a great new song, "A New Light," which you can download as an mp3.The title refers to Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, but it also gives a nod to the Hebrew prayer "Or Hadash," one of the blessings before the Shema. In three languages--English, Hebrew, and Ladino--the singers belt out a song that's soulful without giving up its catchy pop. "You're the one who can ignite/Thanks for lighting up our lives," they sing on the chorus--which could be a prayer, or it could be a shout-out from each of these excellent singer/songwriters to the others.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

mmmmm donuts

HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Eruv Nonsense

My husband and I have been talking about possibly selling our house and moving near the water. This has been a dream of my husband's for many years and he believes, due to many causes and conditions this might be obtainable for us at this time.

Being an entrepreneurial type, I very quickly thought if we go forward with this plan I should send information on our house to the various Orthodox synagogues near us. I live very close to one and within walking distance of another. I went on line to find out about their communities and Rabbi's etc.

Both web pages had information about my area's Eruv. I studied the map and was excited to see that my house is in the middle of the Eruv. This makes for wonderful possibilities for helping me sell my house....

But something about the Eurv map was deeply disturbing to me. It made me more than a bit angry. I attend a large egalitarian conservative synagogue. The eurv clearly leaves my synagogue out! I know nothing about the politics and or history of this but to look at the map they had to make an effort to skip us!

I guess I could bring this up with my rabbi...but again it is another one of these disturbing "them" "us" Jewish moments that leaves me sad.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Mindfulness Jewish Style/Happy Thanksgiving!

Mindfulness Jewish Style brought to you by the rabbi at the Merrick Jewish Center.

Mindfulness is an interesting tool/philosophy/life style/practice...I try to live it. This week has been a lesson in mindfulness. One way to describe mindfulness is as awareness without judgment of what is, via direct and immediate experience. Basically not privileging experiences...or not subcategorizing things presumptively as good and bad.

My daughter has recently moved across the country and due to this, and other causes and conditions including the death of my mother in law with in this year we were going host a very small thanksgiving for my brother in law and his partner. I was not happy with this. Thanksgiving is supposed to be for large families etc. so my brain and emotions kept telling me. I then tried to rally others to come and join us and my sister and possibly my brother and his girlfriend said yes. I had been feeling the loss of late and getting melancholy about not being able to have a large family with whom I can share holidays and was letting folks know this. Not so mindful of me, but I continued to try to manufacture this Thanksgiving. Then fate kicked in. First my brother and his girlfriend cancel...then the worst part...I got the flu...I have been sick since Sunday and today is the first day I can read and write (Wed.)....thanksgiving, or at least the thanksgiving of my projections/attachments is cancelled.

But then something happened between rolling in pain, and being hot and cold with fever...I remembered mindfulness...as the hours have very slowly ticked by, too sick to do anything I am concentrating on the present moment. Not what is missing, what is lost or wanted.

And now I smile as I truly give thanks that I can read today....and that gastric and respiratory distress is lessening. I am grateful for my non toothache!

I am grateful for the wonderful man I call my husband who has taken care of me despite a high degree of whining and moaning...I am grateful for the two dogs who both stayed with me when I needed them and got lost when I needed them to.

I am grateful for so much.

I hope you find your grace despite or in-spite of what your thanksgiving holds for you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

It's Complicated III or My Daughter on the Oregon Trail

My daughter and her boyfriend left for Oregon today

. They have

been living with my husband and I since the Summer. It has been a complicated time. I love my daughter and want her to be happy. We all know it is best for her and happier for her to be on her own, yet Oregon is sooooo far away!

My daughter and I have been through a lot together...and now she embarks on a phase of her life that I hope is full of the promise she anticipates. I have changed and I must accept that she gets to change too!

Anyone out there know about Jewish Portland?...I will be visiting her often.......

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Outlaws or Heroes?

Friday, November 12, 2010

4:22 PM

"We'd like to remind you that this evening's candle lighting time is 4:22 in Merrick, NY.Saturday 5:22 Havdalah."

Thusly the weekly shabbat email reminder began.....

Yikes!....4:22 pm!

The reminder went on to mention pre-planning so one could lite candles in the meditative sereneness required by this ritual act. Yet 4:22 for someone in the secular world of work is a tough one. I am lucky I work for myself and set my own schedule but it still can be difficult even with that great advantage. I am sure I will be home in time with some sort of dinner ready made, more than likely bought if I am being totally truthful!

But with the encroaching winter light signaled by the early candles, the very early chunakah this year, the pending move across country of my only daughter and her boyfriend, the recent death of my former mother-in-law, the death within the year of my current mother-in-law, my own mother's medical issues, my sister's cancer diagnosis and treatment...well I guess you get the picture....I am having some struggles.

The other day I was feeling grateful, and I still am, but I am also feeling a bit melancholy, wishing I could patch together some sort of holiday gathering. I missed out on family Jewish celebrations being a convert and all, but I still want to experience it!

I am going to get the nerve up and try to put together a party...it tends to be a time of year for families but I just may be able to find enough loose souls to come and light candles and sing songs with me!....Please wish me luck!

Shabbat Shalom

Beit Din test Question #22 "If you were to join the Jewish people......."

22) If you were to join the Jewish people, what considerations would guide you to that decision? How did your course help you to recognize some meaningful ideas to Judaism? Are there some things you have learned in the course that you find difficult to accept into your life?

I have been a thinker and a seeker for most of my life. I have explored many faiths, been involved in and have a keen interest in philosophy and psychology. I was raised in an Irish/Italian Catholic home. I lived as a Buddhist/Unitarian Universalist for most of my adult life and previously was married for 20 years to a Jewish man who did not practice his faith of origin. At the birth of my child, now 19, I sought to learn as much as I could about Judaism in order to expose this child to the faith of part of her ancestors. So I come to this new point in my life with all my experiences, knowledge and aspirations.

But the question remains how did I come to consider conversion? It is though love that the door of conversion was opened. I fell in love with a Jewish man who participates in his religion, yet he did not require me to convert, pressure me, or in any way attempt to persuade or force me. This exploration of faith was of my choosing, my volition, nurtured by love.

Clearly I am not dogmatically tied to my faith of origin, seeing that the religious expressions which dominated my adult life have been mostly non-theistic. The major change/challenge for me is in the consideration/acceptance of a theistic understanding of existence. Through explorations with my sponsoring Rabbi, reading, (lots of reading!) and the Hillel class I have come to an understanding of the divine, a place of relationship with a theistic point of view that resonates within me.

To help to articulate this I refer to the work of existentialist thinker and Jewish educator Franz Rosenzweig.

“The function of religion, according to Rosenzweig, is not to erect theological systems or establish universal truths, but to lead to experience of God, starting from one's own personal existence. He "commends 'the Pharisees of the Talmud and the saints of the Church' for knowing that 'man's understanding extends only so far as his doing.' Religious observance is, in effect, the doing of one's religious convictions; the two cannot be separated."
“(Time Magizine Monday, Jan. 01, 1951 , http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814185,00.html)

For Rosenzweig the written word was to be less important than the living exchange, for it is in the doing that the relationship to God will manifest. This idea blends well with my own mindfulness practices. These practices express that it is in the awareness of the moment, the only moment we truly have, where peace and divinity can be experienced.
Through my answers on this exam, my participation in the class and my meetings with my sponsoring Rabbi, I believe I clearly present that I am coming to know, and hopefully I am beginning to understand the meaningful ideas in relationship to Judaism. Clearly there is so much to learn, and experience.

I am most taken by the direct experience of the divine associated with taking on the laws and practices of this ancient faith. I have aspirations to practice in this tradition, but once again they can be best articulated through Rosenzweig:
“Rosenzweig’s approach was subjective also in connection with the mitzvot, Jewish observances. He did think that he would one day become a fully observant Jew, but believed in the gradual approach in which the observances slowly made their impact by “ringing a bell” for him. Typical of this approach is Rosenzweig’s answer to someone who asked him whether he wore tefillin [phylacteries]: “Not yet,” he replied.”
(My Jewish Learning.com http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history_community/Modern/IntellectualTO/Rosenzweig.htm)

Like the bell of mindfulness practice, the mitzvot, the mindfulness practice of Judaism, will take time to incorporated and to resonate within. Like the ringing of the mindfulness bell, or the sounding of the Shofar, the act of doing Judaic practices pierces the daily, the mundane and hopefully will help to awaken me to an even richer and more connective relationship with the Jewish people and the divine.