Dear Friends,
Beth Sholom Live is just about here, and I'm excited to have Sidney Friedman at Beth Sholom tomorrow night. I've never seen mentalism in person. I'm a big fan of magic, hypnosis, and using our brains in creative ways. I taught a course a few years back about the emerging field of Neurotheology. Are our brains hardwired for religious and spiritual belief? Is Torah the brain of God? Can we use our brains to connect to God directly? Interesting questions. (The answers are very typically Jewish: yes, maybe, and it depends on how you use it!)
Sometimes I think we must all be mentally disturbed to do the things we do.
And sometimes I think that disturbing ourselves is exactly how we grow.
I think we have to be a little bit crazy to survive and thrive in today's world.
(Anyone who's managed to stay sane during this election season also deserves a medal).
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev taught that our work is to train ourselves to see as much of God's presence as possible. He noted that when we read Torah, we read the black words on the white parchment. And yet, in the time of Messiah, we'll be able to also read the white letters amidst the black ones. Two sets of letters - white fire amidst black fire. What do we see when we look?
Modern science proves that we see what we focus on, often to the exclusion of anything else. A now famous experiment asks viewers to count basketball throws. Watch the 80-second youtube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
You might be surprised at what you didn't see in the video...I know I was when I first watched.
I hope you'll join us tomorrow night to see Sidney work his mentalist magic.
Maybe I'm a little bit mental, but I think it's going to be a great evening.
My thanks to Illysa Wertheimer for spearheading the event, and everyone else who has pitched in with time, money, and energy to make it happen. Tickets are still available, and walk-ins are welcome tomorrow. The event goes a long way towards helping our bottom line - my thanks to all of you for supporting us and having a great night of fun.
Tomorrow morning we'll gather at 9 am for Starbucks Shabbat.
I'll be sharing a teaching from my friend and colleague Rabbi David Evan Markus, who is not only a rabbi, but also a judge in New York City. In advance of election day, we'll be discussing whether or not there is a Jewish obligation to vote. Must we as Jews exercise our right to vote in Tuesday's election or are we free like many Americans to ignore the polls if we don't like the candidates or don't feel like standing in line? What does Jewish law say? Come join us to find out.
I want to highlight one other upcoming program as well.
Next Wednesday night we're hosting JJ Sussman from Gesher, an Israeli organization which seeks to bridge divides between different members of Israeli Jewish society. Gesher does important work to alleviate animosity and mistrust between Jewish groups and to build bridges of peace between them instead. JJ is the first of a 3-part speaker series about Israel we're hosting this year. We're also beginning an adult education series about Israel on Tuesday night the 22nd at 7 p.m. We may be mental, but we think the trend of American shuls not talking about Israel is sad. We're happy to host Israeli speakers, and in the adult ed class we'll be looking at the diversity of the Israeli people, and much more. I hope you can join us tomorrow night and Wednesday night for these great programs.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ilan
