Rabbi Menachem Creditor reads his children's book Avodah: A Yom Kippur Story

A Prayer for the New Year

Dear God,

May we learn/remember how
to open up our hearts and minds and souls.

May we reclaim the headlines
with the shocking good we'll do.

May our children inherit some good decisions
we'll make to offset our countless mistakes.

May we take really good care
of each other and heal this fragile world.

Amen.

The final broadcast of 5781 - a blessing for every one of us to, hand on hearts, say "Hineni." May we hear the Infinite in response. #ShannahTovah, friends. A good year, please God. #RoshHashanah

 

I'm sure we're still (perhaps even more) shocked by anti-vaxxers in our community. Here's the only response that truly represents THE Jewish position on vaccination.

I'm sure we're still (perhaps even more) shocked by anti-vaxxers in our community. Here's the only response that truly represents THE Jewish position on vaccination. I *never* say such things, cherishing Judaism's multi-vocality. But this is a different framework. Anti-vaxxers are rebelling against many things, including Jewish wisdom. Read this carefully, and if you choose to share it, please copy and paste the text I've excerpted below from the masterful (and fiery) piece by my friend, Rabbi David Glickman, to whom we all owe our thanks.

For the full article, click here: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-moral-lapse-of-bashing-synagogue-crowd-limits-in-a-pandemic

______________________________


"Getting a vaccine is one of the few things in the Jewish world that every single denomination agrees on. The Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly has unanimously passed a responsum requiring all Jews to get vaccinated. The Reform Movement has written similarly about this obligation. The Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America have emphasized “the conclusion of our poskim (religious decisors) that, pursuant to the advice of your personal health care provider, the Torah obligation to preserve our lives and the lives of others requires us to vaccinate for COVID-19 as soon as a vaccine becomes available.”

Leading exemplars of Modern Orthodoxy have spoken loudly in favor of universal vaccination. Rabbi Asher Weiss, a world-wide authority on Jewish medical ethics, has been forceful on the subject. Though he stops short of saying vaccination falls into the legal category of “obligation,” he writes that “it is certainly appropriate for each person to be vaccinated” and views it as an embarrassment and shame that segments of the Jewish community remain unvaccinated.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe, over 25 years before COVID, supported vaccines generally. Chabad in fact has sought to dissociate itself from rabbis who opposie COVID vaccination.

When Rabbi Michoel Green, a Chabad rabbi in Massachusetts, promoted anti-vaccine news, he was dismissed by Chabad. After the Chabad rabbi at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst promoted anti-vaccine beliefs, the national organization quickly distanced itself from him and promoted vaccination. At least one Chabad synagogue has opened its doors to become a vaccination site!"

For the full article, click here: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-moral-lapse-of-bashing-synagogue-crowd-limits-in-a-pandemic

If every wood gatherer and every water carrier is needed, so too are you necessary. #MorningTorah #Nitzavim #Broadcast370

 

Next year, in each other's arms.

I've been editing a Torah commentary, based on the teachings I've been broadcasting every morning on the UJA-Federation of New York FB page since March 2020.

It's both deeply affirming and emotionally difficult, and I wanted to pour some of it out, as we enter the Chagim, masked once again, hovering on the brink of an uncertain hope. I've been revisiting the darkest moments of the last 18 months, feeling what I felt, and these days leading up to Rosh HaShannah are a good time for life-review. We've been through so much, and our deepest prayer must remain the basic and essential and not-to-be-taken-granted-of gift of life.

Please God, may that be our lot. Please God, may more people make responsible decisions for their own and the common good.

Given my current process, editing sacred testimony of the year gone by, glimpsing back through time into our transcendent moments and our dips into despair, there is one thing I pray for this holiday season, for us all, and yes - for me. May we courageously cross the digital divide and enter mindfully into the sanctuaries of our People, knowing we are near each other, and through that knowledge, may we draw ever closer to the very Source of Life.

Suddenly caught in this moment, I find myself missing us all again as if we haven't taken careful steps into each other's lives once again. And maybe this time-travel is fitting, a part of the final lap of the Teshuvah journey, back to the best we can be, which feels to my aching heart like one word: together.

אַחַ֤ת ׀ שָׁאַ֣לְתִּי מֵֽאֵת־יְהוָה֮ אוֹתָ֪הּ אֲבַ֫קֵּ֥שׁ שִׁבְתִּ֣י בְּבֵית־יְ֭הוָה כָּל־יְמֵ֣י חַיַּ֑י לַחֲז֥וֹת בְּנֹֽעַם־יְ֝הוָ֗ה וּלְבַקֵּ֥ר בְּהֵיכָלֽוֹ׃

One thing I ask of my God, only this do I seek: to dwell in God's Home every day of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Eternal, to visit God's Inner Place.

Shannah Tovah, dear ones. Next year, in each other's arms.

Amen.

Breathing in some gratitude for every moment. Shabbat Shalom! #KiTavo