Shabbat Blast

Shabbat Blast!!!

Due to the time difference, Rabbi Bernstein's Friday Message did not make it to NY in time for the Friday Blast.  We are sending it out now because it is timely and the message still holds true, regardless of when you read it.

Thank you for your understanding.

Dear [first_name],

I'm entering into Shabbat about 7 hours before Bellmore, trying to write something inspirational about my learning in Israel, our discussions of peoplehood and social change, but inspiration is stuck in my throat. Three Israeli soldiers were shot by terrorists on the Temple Mount.  Two were killed and one was mortally wounded. Our communal empathy drives us to feel pain for these families. After a week like this we  fear for the body of Israel, for her physical welfare.

And I think back to my week of study and dialog about the Israeli Rabbinate’s Blacklist which named Conservative, Reform, and Orthodox Rabbis from outside of Israel who are forbidden sources of conversion. The Israeli Rabbinate will not accept conversions of any one of these rabbis. Efforts to increase more participation from all streams of Judaism in the Western Wall were frozen. You could hear the frustration and anguish of liberal Israeli leaders who have worked for years to make Israel and her holy spaces more inclusive. And so I'm left with concern for Israel’s spiritual welfare as well and I'm wondering which one, the spiritual or the physical, deserves more of our attention?

In order to cope with the suffering we witness, we sometimes erect emotional blinders. If we didn’t, the suffering of the world would overwhelm us each day. The prophets of Israel are  those people who couldn't put blinders up or who actively worked to see the world as it is and call attention to those areas that need growth and change especially when the scales are tipped towards unrighteousness.

How did they keep their eyes open? What enabled them to withstand the spiritual and physical disparity around us? I would argue that prayer is such a gate-key. Rav Kook tells us: “Man lifts up the entire creation through his prayer, and through it unifies with himself all that is, elevating everything, lifting all to the Source of blessing and the Source of life.” By releasing our anguish through prayer, instead of pretending that everything is fine, we become more whole, we change our inner state. And when we attend to our spiritual wholeness the inner realm has an impact of the physical realm. Our prayer may not immediately change the world, but Rav Kook speaks of prayer as a tool for social change. The spiritual and the physical are intrinsically linked and we must not choose one over the other.

So I enter into Shabbat in Jerusalem with the kavana, the intent, to pray, and to express my anguish, and lift up the world by opening my eyes to her, bringing more personal wholeness into my life. It is also my fervent hope that our community does the same and that we approach our prayer with focus and belief that our inner change can have a great impact on the world and our beloved Homeland.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Bernstein