Walking in Lullwater

Cross-posted at TheShabbatExperiment
I just want to point out that two weeks in a row now I've done my Shabbat-observing on Sunday, not Saturday.

Today I took a walk in Lullwater Park near my house. (It also happens to be the Emory president's residence.) I was struck by how many different scenes there were to watch--parents playing with their children, men fishing, people walking their dogs, a student in the grass reading. It reminded me of a set of postcards. While I walked, I tried to turn-up my sense of hearing and and my sense of sight. I enjoyed the sound of the wind hushing the leaves and a small waterfall running from the lake. I also really enjoyed noticing the different shapes and personalities of tree trunks. I thought about my mom, who likes to walk around our neighborhood for exercise. She's a nurse and hospital administrator. She encourages people to walk 10,000 steps per day to stay healthy.

Oh, I also walked over a small and narrow bridge, but most importantly, I wasn't afraid!

Family Matters (based on Parshat Vayeshev)

The following is in response to a short essay question on the application to HUC's rabbinical program.
Parshat Vayeshev shows that family isn’t for the weak. The episode between Judah and Tamar at once affirms the value of family and highlights the struggles therein.

Judah has three sons, and he finds for the eldest a Canaanite wife—Tamar. But God kills the eldest son before he’s able to conceive a child. So Judah brings his second son to Tamar, so that he will sleep with her and thereby carry-on the line. But the second son pulls-out and doesn’t finish the job. So God kills him. With two sons down and one to go, Judah sends Tamar away. He promises her that when his youngest son, Shua, has grown up, Tamar and Shua will have a child. Many years pass and Tamar never hears from Judah or Shua.

Some time later, Judah passes a prostitute on the road. He sleeps with her, and leaves as collateral for payment some of his clothing. When he returns to pay the prostitute, she can’t be found. Meanwhile, the audience knows that the prostitute was actually Tamar in disguise. She has fooled Judah into impregnating her. One trimester later, Judah hears that Tamar has been knocked-up by some skirt-chaser. He orders Tamar burned for prostitution. She presents his clothing, which he had left for collateral, and says, “I am pregnant by the man to whom these belong.” Judah is embarrassed and never sleeps with her again. Several months later, Tamar gives birth to twins.

Recall that it was Judah who convinced his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery, and Judah who is ultimately responsible for deceiving their father, Jacob. This story begins “About that time, Judah left his brothers.” Midrash relates that Judah was in fact running away from home to avoid his shame.

But there is nowhere Judah can hide. The biblical narrator reveals Judah at his worst. First he tries to evade his promise to Tamar. Then he sleeps with a prostitute who turns out to be his daughter in law. When he slept with Tamar, Judah’s wife had just died. He doesn’t even finish his period of mourning, he waits only until “he is comforted.” He condemns Tamar for prostitution, when in fact he solicited it. And in the end, he never outwardly admits that he slept with Tamar. He only admits that he shouldn’t have withheld from her his youngest son, Shua. Judah is kind of a jerk.

As Judah deceived Jacob, so does Tamar deceive Judah. This biblical foreshadowing fits with the ancient Rabbis' notion of kav l’kav, that a person’s fate is doled out measure for measure according to their deeds (Visotzky 127). Judah was made to “examine/hakerna” his clothes and “recognize/vayaker” them as his own. The same words are used when Judah shows his father Joseph’s bloodied coat (Plaut 253). Both men fall victim to an article of clothing. And whereas Jacob is made to believe something that is false, Judah is made to recognize something that is true. For deceiving his father, Judah can’t avoid the mirror of his shame.

Tamar, by contrast, is a clever, strong woman, who plays by her own rules at a man’s game. In Who Wrote the Bible, Richard Friedman argues that Tamar’s wit forces us not to rule out the possibility that the biblical author “J” could have been a woman (86).

The story ends with Tamar’s twins fighting over who will emerge first from the womb. Clearly, this is a story about family struggle—brother betraying brother, a father’s turmoil visited on his son, a woman wronged by her in-laws, a father who sleeps with his son’s wife. This sounds like a soap opera, but it reads like real life. The characters are human, scarred, proud. They are blurred by the image of their siblings and tied-up by the fears of their parents. This is the flux between hate and love, the pushing away and the holding tight that binds a family together. Regardless of how they are defined, these sticky relationships are the glue of a family.

The Shabbat Experiment

Cross posted at The Shabbat Experiment.
See our coverage on eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewlicious.

A Jewish role model recently introduced me to the Sabbath Manifesto, a set of 10 principles developed by the Reboot Network that they define as core to Shabbat observance. The principles are founded in tradition and open for interpretation. They are short and clear. They are accessible and directive. For the first time in several years, I felt I could tap into Shabbat.

As a Hillel professional, I spend my days, nights, and weekends helping students connect to Jewish life. It's a busy job. While I help students celebrate the day of rest, I myself am working. I and many of my colleagues lose touch with the reasons why we went into this work in the first place.

To reignite our passion for Judaism, we created four cohorts of Hillel professionals across North America who over the course of 10 weeks will observe each of the 10 principles outlined in the Manifesto. Each week, at the end of Shabbat, we will post our reflections, creations, experiments, and experiences to this blog. With the creative support of our colleagues, and with the commitment that we're all in this together, we will rediscover what it means to set aside one day a week. We will be not preaching Jews, but doing Jews.

We call it the Shabbat Experiment.

Hillel Professionals Engaged in Shabbat Manifesto

A Jewish role model recently introduced me to the Shabbat Manifesto. For the first time in a few years, I felt that I could tap into Shabbat.

Inspired by this work, I am helping to organize a group of 10 Hillel professionals nationwide who will over the course of 10 weeks observe each of the 10 principles outlined in the Manifesto. Each week, at the end of Shabbat, we will post our reflections, creations, experiments, and experiences to a shared blog. The 10 weeks will culminate on the Shabbat preceding 10/10/2010.

As Jewish professionals, we are excited by the opportunity to engage in a Jewish experience that is not for our students, but for us. And in creating this experience for ourselves, we are also modeling for our students creative Jewish enterprise.

National Thank Your Counselor Day

The first annual National Thank Your Counselor Day was a huge success. With more than 475 members, the Facebook initiative saw a tremendous outpouring of thank yous to past and present counselors. Thanks to Shira-Rose Lebow for posting this link to a This American Life special "Notes on Camp."

Staff and campers at URJ Camp Coleman acknowledged a favorite Coleman role model, Lauren Zeichner. Lauren is the head of specialists, and has been an integral part of the Coleman family since 1995. Loved for her expertise in the Campscape Garden, Lauren has taught countless Colemanites to make soap from scratch, sew lavender dream pillows and weave dreamcatchers, grow and fry okra, make "Coleman Star" wind charms, and how to pick the ripest blackberries off the bush. The whole camp dressed in tye-die shirts and khaki shorts--Lauren's usual attire--to show their love for her. Watch this clip below.

That evening, seven generations of campers demonstrated the impact camp has on lives. Amanda and Sophie thanked their counselor Jordan, who thanked his counselor Jeremy, who thanked his counselor Daniel, who thanked his counselor Diana, who thanked her counselor Jon, who thanked his mentor Bobby.

Please share who YOU thanked and why.