Dear Friends,
I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving.
The last few years I’ve gone to visit my grandmother, but having just seen her at my brother’s wedding, I decided to stay here and visit her another time. Thankfully, other family went to be with her. I enjoyed my time here, and it was nice to have a quieter few days than usual.
It’s been devastating to look at pictures of the fires burning in Israel and in East Tennessee. Over a ten-day stretch, the Israel Fire Service has dealt with over 1700 different fires. Not all of those were intentionally set, of course – many were due to weather and some were due to negligence. Sadly, a number of them were intentionally set and Israel sadly has now had to learn how to cope with arson as a form of terrorism.
In East Tennessee, weather lead to massive fires which have devastated communities, and left too many deceased and injured. Many have no homes left to go to. Where will they go? What will they do?
How do we react to the fires burning around us?
On the one hand, it is true that climate change has contributed to the world’s getting hotter and weather-related catastrophic incidents are indisputably on the rise, and the trajectory is expected to keep getting worse, even with recent treaties. On another hand, it feels as if it’s not just from a planetary perspective that things are heating up around us. I feel like as a species, humans have become more inflamed with the passion of their convictions. Protests, violence, arson, civil and uncivil disobedience are on the rise, the world over.
Let me be clear – I fully support people standing up for what they believe in, including and especially when innocents are being harmed. The challenge I keep seeing is that all too often those who are passionate about a particular cause are completely unwilling to hear the side of those who disagree with them. That’s the thing about fire – it is, with the exception of the biblical burning bush, all-consuming.
One of my teachers likes to say “when emotion goes up, intelligence goes down.” How often do we find ourselves arguing passionately, getting heated about something that just sets us off to the point where instead of calmly stating why we are opposed to a certain issue we end up losing our tempers and saying hurtful things to those we care about? How often do we end up arguing with the ones we care about only to forget what it was we were fighting about?
Fires, left on their own, will grow stronger until there’s no fuel left for them to use. The damage can be catastrophic. I’m grateful to those countries that sent firefighters and equipment to Israel, including the US and the Palestinian Authority. I’m also grateful to those in East Tennessee who rushed into harms way to save others.
What do we after a fire? My inbox has been flooded with appeals for donations to assist Israel with relocation, replanting, and rebuilding. I was also inspired by Dolly Parton’s generous offer of raising $1,000 per month for each family who’ve lost their homes in East Tennessee. After a fire, there is great destruction, and also rebirth and renewal.
The truth is that fire is a vital part of maintaining healthy natural resources.
There are plenty of seeds which only open up during fires (the same can be said for many humans too). Forests need fires in order to clear away the old and make room for new life.
Much of the problem of why America has had so many catastrophic forest fires is because of a misplaced forest service policy of immediately putting out every fire. The problem that lead to is that all the underbrush remained on the forest floor, so that when fires did start they had much more kindling than they otherwise would’ve had and quickly became larger and more damaging than they ought to have been.
I see the same dynamic with people sometimes, who bottle up all their emotions until they eventually explode in a fit of rage. I’m not saying they should keep everything inside. Had they dealt with each issue as it came up instead of letting it build up, they would’ve found a greater sense of peace. The question is not whether or not fires need to happen, the question is how best to manage them so that they are productive and healthy, without causing destruction to those we love, or to our surroundings.
Mussar, the study of Jewish values, is one approach to learning how to put distance between the match and the fuse. When we examine who we are in the world and how we live, we can find new ways to walk more gently on this planet. Today at Lunch and Learn we experienced a wonderful taste of Mussar, and this Shabbat at Starbucks Shabbat we’ll repeat it, in advance of an adult education class I’ll be teaching about it in January.
Please join us for Starbucks Shabbat at 9 am tomorrow as we learn more about the history of Mussar, and how we can use Jewish wisdom to discover the candle burning inside of us. How do we use the flame that burns in our hearts? Can we feel it or is it blocked? Do we keep it all to ourselves or reflect light back out to the world? We’ll discuss this and more during the class, and at Starbucks Shabbat. We’ll also be joined at Starbucks by Temple Israel’s Shabbat morning Torah study group (and bagels and cream cheese too!).
I hope you’ll then stay for Volunteer Shabbat, which Barbara Hellman and our wonderful membership committee have been organizing. We have so many incredible volunteers, and we’re delighted to take the opportunity to honor so many of you this Shabbat.
Next Tuesday December 6th will also be a special event here at Beth Sholom.
A few months ago I was asked to serve on an interfaith panel with six other local clergy, discussing the role of Abraham in our faith traditions. I’ll be honest – I’ve done a sizable number of interfaith events, and I hesitated on this one, as frankly many of them are not well planned and consist mostly of people congratulating themselves for being willing to sit in the same room as someone who prays differently than they do. While that’s important, if that’s the best we can do, we’re in trouble. Thankfully, Reverend Dorothy Wells was persistent, calling me repeatedly and even came to Beth Sholom unannounced to make sure I said yes! I’m so glad she did, as it was one of the best interfaith events I’ve been to in a long time. The event was well-attended, the panelists were thoughtful and inspiring, and I was moved by what many of them shared. After it ended, we all said we need to continue the conversation, and we’ll do so Tuesday night at 7 pm, with a discussion of the life of Moses, as reflected in our faith traditions. I hope you’ll join us for what I’m sure will be an informative, inspiring evening.
Finally, on Tuesday night October 13th we will relaunch our Israel series from the Hartman Institute called The Tribes of Israel. How many of you know that Israel is home to Jews from all over the world? Okay, everyone knows that. How does Israel manage to coexist, with so many different faith traditions and denominations represented? How do the Jews, Christians, Muslims, Bedouins, Bahai, Druze, and other cultures engage with one another? How does the separation of church/shul/mosque/temple and state exist in Israel, which was founded to be a Jewish state? And what can we learn from Israel about how to live and learn with those who are different from us (I dare say our country could stand to improve in that regard)...? The series will start on December 13th and will continue on Tuesday nights at 7 pm, and also at Lunch and Learn starting on December 15th. Feel free to bring your vegetarian dinner or lunch with you to class.
So much going on here at Beth Sholom!
As always, we’re grateful to have each of you as part of our community.
We couldn’t do it without you! Please join us tomorrow to honor of all our many volunteers who help make it happen.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ilan
