A German-Trained American Rabbi in Yorkshire

(Picture note: I like to walk along this face of the city walls towards Mt. Zion and enter the Old City through the Zion Gate. This is the view. I am having a good year.) Something rather magical has been happening during my time here Israel , and it happens every time I open a siddur and every time I open my lips that I might declare G-d’s glory, as it were— I understand the language. Now maybe this is a silly statement. I mean, after all, our sages warn us of the dangers of praying words that have no meaning to us. Some of the most pious among us meditate seven seconds on every word in the Amidah —so my statement bears a little concern. Up until this time, I have escaped most concern by understanding that I was in a process of learning the language. Certainly none of us pop out of Mother’s womb fully intact as fluent comprehenders of the Holy Language. Surely I must be allotted some time to catch up for the thirty-some years I spent reading King James English as t...

The reality on the ground is always more complicated than the emotion of the moment or of nostalgia of the moment can promise. Yes, in Germany unemployment is still very high, in some places in the East obscenely high. Yes, there is a burgeoning neo-Nazi movement in the East that comes from a people who, due to Soviet techniques and propaganda never confronted the Holocaust and therefor look nostalgically at Hitler. Yes, Germany is a real country with real problems and is by no means a paradise. What it is, however, is a country where it is more safe than only a handful of other countries for Jews to live. What it is is a country that has tried to make Teshuva (Jewish concept of "returning" or even repentance) for its holocaust, unlike pretty much any nation that I can find in history has ever done. It seems most prefer to cover up or forget to mention their crimes in history. What it is, is a country whose most recent revolution began with floods of people fleeing to Hu...

I was going to post this with commentary. I think for now I will just let it speak for itself.

(Picture note: A view from the Blaustein Hall where HUC's High Holy Days services take place. Post note: The post below comes from a journal entry for my Liturgy class, but I felt the concepts important enough to share with a wider audience.) For all the possible directions this reflection could go, I am forced after these holidays to return over and over to the principle of not being a burden to the community. I assume that the memory that will live the longest with most of us that attended HUC’s Yom Kippur Day services will be that of the congregant that required medical care during the service. Certainly the sight of her face growing taut and corpselike and her eyes rolling back in her head remain in my waking memories as well as my nightmares. Those of us in the choir that had the most direct view thought that her second incident was a sure precursor to death. I don’t say this to be dramatic. I have worked in the medical industry for over a decade including a...

(I get to deliver my first drasha as a rabbinical student tomorrow, and thought just for the heck of it I would post the sermon as well. Please forgive the lack of literary polish as I tend to speak with only bullet points and the written version of this was really just meant to put my thoughts together. As for the picture, it really doesn't have much to do with this post, except it is a pretty fine view from atop the Austrian Hospice in the Old City.) Parasha V'zot Habrachah I met G-d face to face a few weeks before I came to Jerusalem. At least that’s what I think happened—I have no other way to describe it. I was driving along an arterial in South Seattle right as it began to rain. Normally this would not be much of a problem, except my vehicle had two wheels and a motor instead of four wheels and a seatbelt, and when I started breaking at a four-way stop, the fresh oil on the road transformed the pleasant ride into a most unpleasant one—my helmet hitting the pavement at aro...

(Photo note: This was the view fom where he had a Shacharit prayer service which took place directly after the stroy recounted below.) I had one of the most profound Jewish experiences of my life last week. Last Tuesday the Jewish month of Elul passed from expectation to reality, and in celebration of this milestone, the Cantorial, Educational, and Rabbinical students participating in HUCs Year in Jerusalem program met at 4 am (yes, really, we did) to hop in buses to travel to a Sephardic Synagogue on French Hill and attend a Slichot service. Now I do realize that a few things need to be defined for my non-Jewish friends reading this. First of all, the month of Elul is the month directly preceding the Jewish High Holy Days and takes on special significance for anyone observing even a baseline of Jewish tradition. Elul is a month of introspection. Sandra likes to say that Elul is the Jewish version of the forth step (we made a searching inventory of ourselves) of the “12 ...

(Photo Note: I just wanted to help everyone imagine a little bit what it is like to watch a concert at BYU's -Jerusalem campus [thank you Mindy for the head's up].) Several years after I graduated from the University of Montana with degrees in Clarinet Performance and Composition I returned during a trip to Montana and stopped by at the U for a visit. At the time, about 10 years ago, I wore my new career as a (at that time) systems analyst proudly. After all, a job offer while I was still in Graduate School with a starting salary of $37,000 sounded like paradise. I was a musician, for Petrov’s sake. I was accustomed to earning in a one-night gig $20 plus tips plus free alcohol—and being happy with that. Plus I had already began a cycle of financial woes that lasted far longer than I care to admit, and I really needed the $37,000 a year. So I dropped out of graduate school and started a karmic cycle that would last, well, until now. That particular visit to my...

(Picture Note: Progressive Rabbinical, Cantorial and Education students from around the world join with HUC alumni to celebrate Havdalah, the celebration at the end of the Sabbath to highlight the transition to the new week.) Something special is happening this year at the Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem . My ego doesn’t exactly demand that I be part of that something special, but the fact that I am does add certain sweetness and should not take away from the fact that the idea about which I shall shortly speak is indeed excellent. This year, for the first time in the institution’s history, HUC-JIR will host all first year students at the three major accredited “Progressive” Jewish rabbinical seminaries. That means that students from Leo Baeck College in London, Abraham Geiger Kolleg in Berlin and Hebrew Union College in LA, New York and Cincinnati have already joined together in Israel and are embarking on a unique experiment—th...

. . .which seems like a bit of a strange thing to say. After all my friends and coworkers threw for me, in total, three going-away parties. I got my last paycheck (gut check on that one) and whittled what little material goods I had left to begin with down to two suitcases and one backpack for Israel and seven boxes to be shipped later to Germany . I even flew half-way around the world. It still didn’t seem real. Then I registered for school and signed student insurance forms, participated in ice-breakers with the other students and got my mailbox. Nope—still felt like I’d be flying out any day to deliver another two-day onsite training for a new client. And then this morning all 52 students representing the (for the first time ever) cohort of 1 st year cantorial, education, and rabbinical students from Hebrew Union College, Leo Baeck (in London) and Abraham Geiger Kolleg gathered together for Shacharit (morning prayers.) The cantor began singing a niggun (...

Hi all! Alright -- I am a bad blogger. At least I am a bad blogger when I am in my J-O-B, which, although the best job that I have ever had, nonetheless leaves me with a tiny fraction of the energy that I had while studying in Israel -- which kinda sorta seems to be a fact in and of itself worthy of notice -- which kinda sorta leads me in to the news of the day. . . . . . . . . I am NOT moving to Germany (immediately, that is.) My rabbinical school changed its program this year as of May 15, and now I will be studying at Hebrew Union College, Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem with the other first year students from HUC and Leo Baeck. At first when I heard the news I had the panic and anxiety one would expect --- all of which were quickly washed away when my wonderful partner said, "That's great -- only two international moves instead of three." Ah, perspective! Of course the other issue is that I have not posted since January, and even the above two paragraphs wer...

. . . means in Hebrew, "Let it be strengthened," or, "Let it be increased." In my synagogue in Seattle, Temple Beth Am , we (as do most synagogues) discourage clapping. Instead, we shout out "Yasher Koach" when that thing is said or done that deserves an exclamation point. (Kinda sorta the Amen of Judaism, although we say that too.) So let me say, loudly and with as much emphasis as I can muster in type, "Yasher Koach" to the leadership of Conservative Judaism for the historical decision to allow gay ordination and gay commitment ceremonies, a decision that the Reform Movement made back in 1991. (please read the articles from Time , PittChron , and the statement from the Reconstructionist Movement .) Without getting into the incredible complexity of how decisions are made in this body, a minority position on the vote allows that Rabbis in this, the world's 3rd largest "denomination" of Jews, can ordain and marry gays. Yes, I k...

Moment of Zen. Please, my German speaking friends, enjoy the oh-so-many things wrong with this KFC-Frankfurt a.M. poster. If I need to get Sandra to laugh, all I need is to whisper in her ear "Donnerstag ist Chickentag." As for the shameless plug, anyone that has not seen my dear friend Lyam White act (and who lives in the greater Seattle area) you all have an amazing opportunity. Lyam just got cast as the title role in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (read his blog comments here ), a production by the new company in town, Balagan Theater . Although not for the faint of heart (one famous stage direction from Willy himself says "Enter the empress' sons with Lavinia, her hands cut off, and her tongue cut out, and ravished." (Act II, scene IV)), the challenge of such horror in great theater is sometimes worth the effort in and of itself. Add to that the fact the Lyam is someone that should be seen onstage, and you have a party (best taken, admittedly, ...

(Photo note: Perspective is always good—this was one of our “guides” on my first tour of the Old City with HU students. This would be the last trip I went on in a group—not because I objected to the guard—on the contrary! The majority of students at Ulpan are in the 19-21 year old range, a war was going on, and HU’s liability must be very high. This was my last group trip simply because I like my little feet to take me where they want to go, wherever that may be.) And actually, it won’t be my final post from this trip. I have been working on about five other longer posts over the course of my time here, and will continue posting until all has been said that I can say this time without wearing out my fingers or boring you to tears. It is about two hours before I head back down to HUC for Kol Nidre and the beginning of the 25 hours of Yom Kippur . For my last post while I am here, I am simply going to throw out a couple or so (mostly random) thoughts and observations, some of...

Happy New Year from Jerusalem! ( Photo -- Moishe blowing a little Shofar in Jerusalem, or, as we say where I come from, Sho-far, Sho-good. I am sorry. I apologize. Really.) I am shocked that this time is nearly over. Only two weeks before I am back in Seattle, hardly more than one of my winter business trips where I get stuck in Chicago after O'Hare closes down. Beginning my preparations to leave is certainly bittersweet. On one side, I miss Sandra desperately and will call it a beautiful day when I am back with her. On the other side, however, there is not a whole lot to compare to living in Jerusalem. I feel that I have become a part of this place, and without a doubt this city is deep inside of me. As fast as this time has passed, I have lived a lifetime of experience, met a score of people that I love as brothers and sisters, and have discovered a deepening in my own Judaism -- not through some call to frommigkeit, but rather through connecting to the land that is its ...

(For anyone that did not read my original post, please take a peak one below first !) For me, the most immediate effect of Thursday’s historic ordination of Abraham Geiger Kolleg graduates is that I no longer have to explain myself or put parenthesis around my statements when people ask me which Rabbinical School I will be attending. As we say in the software world, “Do you really want to be in the bleeding edge?” Sandra and I always have received from most (but not all) folks a little bit of the, “Yeah, right,” look whenever we told/described/explained that we would be moving to Germany to go to rabbinical school. In all seriousness, I just want to say that the world coverage, the unanimous world recognition of the significance of this event, and the support that I have received from many of you via email has moved me. Thank you all for your ongoing support, and now that the world has peeked into this phenomenal thing that is happening, I just want to add one last item t...

(Photo note: I thought a photo of building in the New City would be an apt metaphore for the rest of the post.) Folks, this is a monumental moment. The Abraham Geiger Kolleg at the University of Potsdam , the rabbinical school that I will be attending beginning October 2007, will be ordaining three rabbis at the newly rebuilt synagogue in Dresden on Thursday (September 14, 2006). This is the first rabbinical ordination in Germany since the Holocaust. I want everyone to take a minute (really, please do this) and think about this. Raise your hands if you would have predicted this 20 years ago. Right—me neither. Let there be no confusion about this – this is a testament both to Jews and to Germans. This is a pure and tangible example of healing through all the things that lead to healing—hard work, sweat, necessity, opportunity, and dare I say, a universal and spiritual imperative to heal . I knew this was coming and knew it was a big deal, but the article that one...