Rosh Hashanah >> rabbinic messages

Togetherness In The New Year

w

ith our hands deep in the soil
of Eden Gardens on the impov-
erished East Side of Detroit, a
chorus of "eews" arose as one of the kids
discovered a worm. Another chimed in, "Oh,
I'm not afraid of worms:'
I observed, "I'm not afraid of spiders, but
I'm very afraid of sharks:'
The girl next to me looked confused.
"That's silly," she said, "you're never going to
see the ocean:'
For this girl, who lives in my city, seeing
the ocean seems like going to the moon. The
cost of travel would be prohibitive for her
family. But I have seen the ocean, in fact,
three of them.
We live in close proximity but worlds
apart. Separated by class, race, religion and
resources, it is easy for me to feel detached
from "them:' But determining how we
define "us" has big implications for our lives.
Metro Detroit uses a lot of metrics to
define us and them. We are from north

or south of 8 Mile; Ferndale or West
Bloomfield; the East Side or the West Side;
this congregation or that one;
this generation or the next. We
are members of one religion or
another or none at all. But ulti-
mately, deciding who is part of
our whole, our oneness, affects
our relationship with the One.
If we believe that we are
inextricably linked, that we
share a connection with every-
one created b'tzelem elohim,
in God's image; then we can
make the year to come a year
of turning toward holiness.
In his new book Our Kids:
The American Dream in Crisis, Robert
Putnam argues that when he was grow-
ing up, "our kids" included the kids in his
neighborhood. Today, we use it to refer to
the children in our home. The kids down
the street or in the next town or in Detroit

are someone else's children. As he examines
the increasing isolation of children living in
poverty, he says, "If we can begin to
think of these poor kids as our kids,
we would not sleep for a second
before we figured out how to help
them:'
And in the last year, we have
worked toward expanding the defi-
nition of our kids. As young Jews
move into the city, Detroiters are
intimately our kids and grandkids.
Some of these Jews prayed with
Congregation T'chiyah when it held
monthly services this summer at
the Repair the World Workshop
in Southwest Detroit. Members
of Temple Beth El volunteered at 8801
Woodward, Beth El's historic home, now
Breakers Covenant Church International.
As their parents ate together, the kids — all
the kids, our kids — played. Downtown
Synagogue's partnership with Eden Gardens

A Chance To Return

L

ife is not a trap set for us by God, so
that He can condemn us for failing.
Life is not a spelling bee, where no
matter how many words you have gotten
right, if you make one mistake you are dis-
qualified. Life is more like a baseball game,
where even the best team loses one-third of
its games and even the worst team has its
days of brilliance. Our goal is not to go all
year without ever losing a game. Our goal is
to win more games than we lose; and if we
can do that consistently enough, then when
the end comes, we will have won it all."

— Rabbi Harold Kushner, How Good Do We
Have To Be
Like Rabbi Kushner, I use baseball as a
metaphor for life, not to make my congre-
gants sports fans, but rather to address the
real issues that impact our souls.

Returning Home.
God does not demand perfection. As
Rabbi Kushner points out so
This is the story of the Jewish
people — leaving Israel for Egypt
well, in baseball a player can
make an error and still be a star.
or for Babylonia and finding our
A hitter who fails two-thirds of
way back home. Living in the
the time is a candidate for the
diaspora for 2,000 years and then
reclaiming our homeland in Israel.
Hall of Fame. While we strive to
r
improve ourselves, we need not
This is the story of life. Leaving
set perfection as our goal.
home for college, military service,
I can't remember where I
marriage, a new job in a new city
learned the following piece of
and then thinking about returning
wisdom, but I think it was also
to our roots, to our parents.
from Rabbi Kushner. You can't
Some wish their children will
Rabbi E Mott
possibly read these next two
never leave home. It's a nice
Pa ch ter
sentences without breaking into
thought when they're 18 years old,
a smile:
not as nice when they're 38. On the
1.The first rule of baseball is . . . Leaving
other hand, we can't count on our children
Home.
always returning to our cities and our neigh-
2. The second rule of baseball is .. .
borhoods; but we can hope they will return

Let The Shofar Blow You Away

R

ecently, our community was treated
to a spectacular show featuring
mega-mentalist Sidney Friedman.
The event was presented by the Jewish
Federation at the Berman Center for the
Performing Arts to a sold-out gathering.
Sidney called three people onto the stage.
He asked one to think of a number, another
to think of an animal and the third to think
of a letter in the alphabet. He then proceed-
ed to correctly identify that exact number,

60 September 10 • 2015

JN

exact animal and almost the exact letter (he
narrowed it down to two). In a later seg-
ment of the show, Sidney asked someone to
draw a picture of anything she wished and
keep it to herself. He then went on to draw
the same picture.
The crowd was blown away as Sidney,
time and time again, read the minds of
audience members. Everyone wondered,
"How does he know what people are think-
ing to themselves?"

It is quite a feat
to be able to discern
the unexpressed
thoughts of other
people. We take for
granted, however,
that it is not so diffi-
cult to know what we
ourselves are think-
ing and feeling. But
is that true? Do we really know what our

brings Jewish and East Side families togeth-
er, regardless of their feelings on spiders, to
plant produce.
Last week, I attended another meeting of
the Regional Clergy Dialogue — an evolving
partnership amongst clergy from congrega-
tions across Metro Detroit. We are finding
ways to partner across lines of race, class and
religion; and it is making our community
stronger. It is good for our kids.
As we widen our understanding of "us,"
we widen our sense of collective interde-
pendence. As we start a new year, let us
challenge ourselves to expand our sense of
community. Let us ask ourselves for whom
we take responsibility and to whom we are
responsible.
As we begin 5776 and are comforted
by familiar faces and rituals, let us take a
moment to broaden our connections and
engage in new practices that expand our
definition of "our kids:'

❑

Arianna Silverman is rabbi of Congregation

T'chiyah in Oak Park.

spiritually to us, by adopting our values.
Teshuvah, one of the main themes of the
High Holidays, means "return:' It is a chance
to consider: "How have I strayed from my
intended path? What wrong turns have I
taken in my life during the past year?" It
is the time to come home — to family, to
Judaism, to whatever values we claim to
believe in.
There is no shame in admitting our flaws.
We all have them. May we be courageous
enough to face up to our shortcomings and
successful in our effort to overcome them,
and find our way back home.
Finally, in baseball, there is no time clock.
A team that is losing in the ninth inning
always has a chance to win, no matter how
large a deficit to overcome. Think of our lives
that way, too. It is never too late to get back
on the road to a winning life. ❑

Elliot Pachter is a rabbi at Congregation B'nai

Moshe in West Bloomfield.

own thoughts and feelings are? Do we fully
understand what is most important to us?
Rosh Hashanah is around the corner.
It is a time for personal reflection. Do we
hear our own, true thoughts? What does
our inner voice of goodness tell us? Are we
listening?
Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity for us
to focus on reading our own minds. Every
one of us should ask ourselves, "What is
truly important to me? What are my values,
and do I prioritize them in my life? How
do I become a better person? Are there
relationships that I wish to improve? Which
things help me find inner peace and genu-
ine happiness?"