Temple Emanu-El Blog

“JEWS HAVE SIX SENSES . Touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing….. and memory. While Gentiles experience and process the world through the traditional senses, and use memory only as a second-order means of interpreting events, for Jews memory is no less primary than the prick of a pin, or its silver glimmer, or the taste of the blood it pulls from the finger. The Jew is pricked by a pin and remembers other pins. It is only by tracing the pinprick back to other pinpricks – when his mother tried to fix his sleeve while his arm was still in it, when his grandfather’s fingers fell asleep from stroking his great-grandfather’s damp forehead, when Abraham tested the knife point to be sure Isaac would feel no pain – that the Jew is able to know why it hurts. When a Jew encounters a pin, he asks: What does it remember like?” – Jonathan Safran Foer

He is right. Jews remember best. We have vowed never to forget. As this season rolls forward I find myself using my sixth sense of memory to complement my other five senses. I have heard my father’s melodic voice singing the haunting and familiar tunes of the holidays in my mind’s ear all month. I have seen the sheen in his white kittel, the robe he would wear for the holidays and my mother’s apron with proof of her tireless work adorning its fabric in my mind’s eye. My tongue can magically still taste my grandmother’s matzah ball soup – with the perfect blend of consommé, noodles and salt leaving us all to wonder how she gets it just right year after year. The smell of our house hours before Yom Tov arrives was unforgettable. It was a scent that old of the holidays. A potpourri of fragrant flowers on the table, delicious foods simmering, and autumn leaves just beginning to fade.

As this New Year of 5775 enters our lives and stokes the memory of our senses, may we realize that we are also making memories to be stoked generations from now. May that inspire us to add meaning and significance and pause to the moment. To slow down and soak it up. May that feeling take us well beyond the holiday season.

On behalf of Dori and our family, I wish you a sweet, healthy, memorable and memory making year of 5775.

Rabbi David-Seth Kirshner

I want to encourage you to participate in some or all of the following steps that help Israel be strong and resolute as it continues to fight terror and for its right to exist in peace.

1) Buy Israeli Products: Whether Ahava cream or Bissli chips – seek out things made in Israel and make a conscious effort to add it to your shopping cart. Many things from Israel can also be purchased online. Find an Israeli artist or jeweler and support them. But, please buy from Israel.

2) Invest in Israel: You can buy Israeli Bonds or you can take some of your portfolio and put it in Israeli companies. This helps the government and the companies and most importantly their ledgers (which future investors pour over) grow during times of challenge. It also helps fight BDS. Ironically, Soda Stream had a great last quarter even in the wake of all of the BDS talk. This will take steam out of the BDS movement and growth will bring its defeat!

3)  Use Your Voice: Write to a media outlet and let them know they are not reporting fairly. Sadly, there are too many to choose from these days: CNN, NY Times, USA Today and the list goes on and on. However, your voice and your calls count. They really do. While at it, call or write your congress person and senator and President and thank them for their steadfast support and/or encourage them to do more in rooting out evil and standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel.

4)  Increase Your Education: I know more than many and less than some about Israel. Still, I strive to learn everyday. Facts are the very best weapon we can use to defend ourselves and address those that seek us harm. I endeavor to read 2-3 newspapers as well as pertinent blogs each day. I want you to take 15-20 minutes each day to read something about Israel. You can choose any media outlet you want. I recommend The Times of Israel or Haaretz or the Jerusalem Post. They all serve the purpose as do others. And if something isn’t clear that you read, call me or e-mail me and I will try and elucidate it for you. This will help us at rallies, when talking to the media and when standing at the water cooler.

This is a radio show of Religion on the Line after our Solidarity Trip to Israel. WABC

As they say in Israel, it was an interesting week.

At various times we were deeply saddened, totally scared and incredibly uplifted. But no matter the emotion of a particular moment, at all times my 39 fellow travelers and I were deeply proud to represent you and our communities.

I am cognizant of the fact that my statement on Facebook regarding me “sprinting” during the rocket attack we were in the middle of has gone viral. Suffice it to note, (A) there is apparently surveillance video footage that not only shows me in a full out sprint, but also hurdling a mid-thigh high hedge; and (B) I was far from the last person to reach the shelter, beating, among others, (1) a 70-year-old congressman; (2) a legally blind former governor of the State of New York; and (c) a 7-year-old boy on crutches.

In any event, I wanted to take a moment to share with you some of the many ways your contributions made a difference. Together, we provided crucial concrete assistance to organizations doing sacred work and ignited symbolic spending in an economy and tourism industry decimated by war.

We met with one of the mothers of the three murdered teens and made a donation to the yeshiva the boys attended. Your money, so generously donated, brought Racheli Frankel such great joy, reminded her that we all stand with Israel and ensured that she will continue to feel the glory of Jewish unity rising above her sadness.

In Ashkelon, we brought gifts to 17-year-old kids who out of nothing but love of country spend the gap year between high school graduation and induction into the Israel Defense Force (“IDF”) in volunteer service to their country as “Israel Scouts.” It was these 17-year-old babies who took on a leadership role unprompted and with great poise guided us to a shelter when we ended up in the middle of the rocket attack and then lovingly consoled those among us who were in distress.

At the Tel Shomer Sheba Medical Center we brought gifts to numerous members of the IDF who suffered serious injuries in this war. Mere children with super human courage, their spirits were strong, their patriotism obvious, and their courage amazing as start the road to recovery – eager to return to serving their country. These soldiers, these heroes, were incredibly grateful for the gifts we brought them – again, funded by you. It was also clear that the soldiers were equally happy to know that Jews on the other side of the world cared about them and prayed for them.

One of the Lone Soldiers we had dinner with was so overcome with the donation we made to the Lone Soldiers Center and the individual gifts that we brought that he hugged me tightly with tears in his eyes and then gave me the Lone Soldier pin from his uniform – something I will forever cherish. Similarly, at a visit to an IDF training center we made a donation to all soldiers through the fantastic “Friends of the IDF” organization.

Informally, the funds were you used in every way we could think of as we tried to do what we could to support the tourism industry and an economy decimated by war, to help children traumatized by living under the constant threat of rocket attacks and to support the courageous men and women of the IDF. For example, we picked up the tab for IDF soldiers eating at a roadside café in Mo’din and every time we stopped for Schwarma (which is often when traveling with our fearless leader Rabbi Kirshner) we insisted on paying the upcharge for extra meat!

Again, this is just a few examples among many. Along with the others in our group of 40, I was so very proud to represent you and spread some joy with the backing of your generosity. You helped make a real difference in many, many lives and, simply, brought real joy to so many deserving folks. The warmth of the return gratitude blessed those of us on the mission. I truly wish I could have bottled it to share with you, as you made it possible. Yasher Koach and Shabbat Shalom.

Steve Rogers