A new essay, a new video, and 2 re-issued Pesach books!

Friends, 

Thrilled to share with you all a new MyJewishLearning piece about how the deepest intimacy can be both binding and freeing, a video reflection after this year's AIPAC Policy Conference, and my re-issued Pesach Children's Books "A Pesach Rhyme" and Passover essay collection (co-edited with Rabbi Aaron Alexander), "Slavery, Freedom, and Everything in Between!" (Links are below.)

May the month to come find us pruposeful, full-hearted, and free!

Love,

Menachem

-- Why is Moses Kept Out of the Tabernacle?myjewishlearning.com (March 9, 2017)

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-is-moses-kept-out-of-the-tabernacle/

-- Inside/Outside: One Rabbi's Post-AIPAC Musings

Facebook Live (March 29, 2017)

http://rabbicreditor.blogspot.com/2017/03/insideoutside-one-rabbis-post-aipac.html

-- Slavery, Freedom, and Everything in Between!

(co-edited with Rabbi Aaron Alexander)

https://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Freedom-Everything-Between-Passover/dp/1482652927

-- A Pesach Rhyme

by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

https://www.amazon.com/Pesach-Rhyme-Rabbi-Menachem-Creditor/dp/1478218908/

............................
Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Rabbi, Congregation Netivot Shalom

Chair, Rabbis Against Gun Violence (#RAGV)

Scheduling Inquiries: ra@netivotshalom.org or (510) 549-9447 x103

▶menachemcreditor.org ▶netivotshalom.org

To join Rabbi Creditor's email list, send a blank email to thetisch-subscribe@yahoogroups.com!

Inside/Outside: One Rabbi's Post-AIPAC Musings

White Privilege at Shul

Jews and Muslims: One Family (Rabbi Menachem Creditor at the Pacifica Institute)

The Blessings of Broken Tablets

Abandon all fear.

Abandon all fear.
(c) Rabbi Menachem Creditor

There is an ugly truth we'd rather not face, a hate that is alive and well and growing in America.

Face it we must. They are coming for our children. They are coming for our old ones. They are coming for our neighbors. Day Schools, JCC's, religious communities, Jewish Children's Museums, immigrants, Muslims, Jews.

Who is "they," you ask? Look around you. Anyone not actively advocating for and working to ensure the safety of every person is complicit. "Willing executioners" is a frighteningly big category. As Elie Wisel taught, "The opposite of hate is not love. The opposite of hate is indifference."

Friends, we will read the Purim story this Saturday night with recognition. With resilience, with determination. "The whole world is a very narrow bridge," taught Rav Nachman of Bratslav. He closed by showing us all the way forward: "The essential thing is to have no fear. None at all."

Abandon all fear. Enter these new gates, hand in hand, heart in heart. We will fight for our children, for our old ones, for our neighbors.

We shall overcome.

#BuildOnLove

Joyfully Answering the Call

CNS Homepage  |  Make a Gift!  |  CNS Calendar  |  Rabbi Creditor's Blog From Rabbi Creditor:  Joyfully Answering the Call February 28, 2017  Rosh Chodesh Adar, 5777 Dear Friends,   It is a Jewish tradition, on the first day of the month of Adar (today), to increase joy. (Mishnah Ta'anit) Importantly, that is not the same as saying one is naturally happier on a specific day on the calendar. Moods seldom follow instructions, and time has a funny way of surprising even the expected. But a mindful dose of recommended joy sounds great to me! I'd like to share with you a story, a real experience that occurred today at shul. A young man came to sit with me. I didn't know him. He had left a message on the shul's voicemail about feeling despondent about the current situation in America, and wanted to sit with a rabbi. When we sat together just today I learned that he was a punk rock musician, and an anarchist living in Berkeley. More than that, deeper than that, he shared with me that he was deeply afraid, not only about threats to free speech, health care, the LGBTQ community, Muslims, Jews, immigrants, and others (each of which he named).  What scared him? He was afraid of his own response to a proposed Nazi march in Berkeley. He was afraid of his own rage and fear and hopelessness, not sure where to turn. So he looked for a synagogue, a safe place. He looked for a rabbi, someone to sit with and trust. It's not that there were any "fixes" for the things that worried him. But, when we had spoken for a while, he looked at me and said something we all should hear and take to heart:  "  Thank you for being here. I'm so grateful this synagogue is here           and open. I haven't been to shul for many years. I feel a little less     afraid now." Friends, I'm sharing this with you because the thought that there is an "out there" and an "in here" when it comes to the work of a shul is a misperception. No, we can't care for everyone everywhere. Yes, we are struggling with a staff shortage and are gearing up for the deeply-needed and much-anticipated upgrade to our Youth Community. Yes, the board is working incredibly hard to strengthen every aspect of our work as a community. Yes, all of this is blessing, pure and profound. Yes: it is important that we see the work we do "inside" the shul as being in service with the world "out there." How can we be communal healers if we don't visit each other when we are ill? How can we effectively pursue a just society if we don't build the strength of our shul? Where would that young man have turned if we hadn't built a shul on University Ave? There is much to do. Again, Jewish wisdom helps: Ours is not to complete the work. Our is to start. (Pirkei Avot)  We should celebrate what we've built here, the holy community known to the world as Netivot Shalom. And we should see the strength we continue to build as a shul in service of this fragile world we share. That kind of purpose is what some might even name "a calling." How blessed we are to answer that call. Love, Menachem ----- netivotshalom.org Join Our List CNS Mission Statement Netivot Shalom invites you to engage in a cross-generational discovery of Jewish inspiration and purpose. Our community is defined by the values of: Belonging - we believe, as a participatory egalitarian community, that every member has a voice. Learning - we provide introductory and continuing encounters with Jewish wisdom. Ritual - we strive to deepen personal engagement with the sacred. Justice - we embrace Judaism's call to perfect the world.