The Rabbi’s Fires

Watch the video.

L’shanah Tovah – indeed, may this be a year of health and goodness for us all. I am glad to be with you tonight, both online and in person. 

This has been an amazingly difficult year for all of us in this sacred community. The confinement and struggles from the pandemic, not to mention the illnesses and deaths affecting hundreds of thousands both in the world and here in our community, have caused us to cry out with the book of Psalms, “Out of the deep and miserable of places I have called to you, Eternal One. O God, listen to my plea.”¹ 

Yet even with the restrictions, quarantines, and disappointments of the past eighteen months, we have continually shown up for one another … we have been present for one another … we have provided tangible resources for those in need … we have been active in the work for social justice … and we have joyfully worshiped together. We have shown resilience in the face of personal and communal difficulties, and – even in our angst – most of us have demonstrated resistance to skepticism. So, we might also say with the Biblical author of Deuteronomy, ‘Life itself has placed before us life and death, curse and blessing, and we have chosen life.’² 

Resilience, patience, courage, and hope: 

These are the qualities we need to possess and employ in the year ahead, just as we have needed them for the last eighteen months. 

Admittedly, some do not feel so optimistic or hopeful. There are those who are frightened, still unable to easily leave their homes and enter the public realm. And there are those who cannot go out because of infirmity, comorbidities, lack of mobility, or lack of transportation.  

So, in our community, it is essential that we help everyone: those who are unable to join us: we can serve remotely or go to them; those who are reluctant to be in person will tell us when they are ready to move forward, and we need to listen, try to comprehend their situation, and to accept them with open arms. 

According to the Talmud, one of the rabbis of our tradition spent time in isolation, and the difficulties he confronted could be instructive to us as we consider where our world has been in the last 18 months, and what we need to bear in mind as we re-emerge into society. 

I am referring to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, one of the most cited rabbinic authorities in the Mishnah. He lived for preserving Torah: inhaling its fragrance and exhaling teachings to new rabbis whom he ordained regularly. Teaching Torah was a consuming passion in his life. 

It was during his lifetime, however – the Second century of the Common Era – that Rome, as an occupying power in the land of Israel, had decreed torture and death for Torah scholars and for those who ordained rabbis. Rabbi Shimon not only taught and promoted Torah study, he also publicly criticized Rome because of its prohibition of religious instruction and tyranny over the Jewish community. In retribution, Rome sentenced Rabbi Shimon and his son, Rabbi Eliezer, to death, for conspiracy and treason, really just for teaching Torah. 

The father and son fled, taking shelter in an isolated cave in northern Israel, where, in defiance of the Roman authorities, they studied and taught Torah, day and night for twelve years, eating only carob fruit and drinking only water.³ Eventually, the Roman emperor died, Rome reversed their death sentence, and the rabbis could finally leave their protective confinement.  

It’s not difficult to imagine how they felt when they finally emerged from that cave: elated that the danger no longer existed; thrilled to be in the sun once again; happy to return to the God-fearing community of Israel. 

But the world into which they emerged in no way resembled the world they remembered twelve years before. They found a world that was – in their view, at least – unguided by Torah: 

• People were going about their business with peaceful feelings and intent. 

• Personal relationships seemed quite friendly and genuine. 

• There was a spirit of optimism about the new Roman rulers … and … 

• Farmers were plowing, sowing, harvesting, and rejoicing in their crops. Shepherds were guiding their animals. Shop-owners were doing a brisk business. The society had regained some prosperity, and people were living conventional and even mundane lives, something we’d hope for in our times! 

• … and all on their own, without the rule of rabbis or the direction of Torah … 

… which infuriated the rabbis. Here, the Talmud inserts a fantastical tale: Wherever the rabbis looked, their eyes literally incinerated every person at whom they cast their glance. Hundreds of people died. 

God was so despondent at this behavior, that the Holy One banished the rabbis, returning them to their cave for an additional year,⁴ punishing the rabbis for their audacious behavior and giving Divine Approval for the normal, everyday lives of people. 

Those rabbis had their reaction to being confined for so long, and we have had ours. The last 18 months have, indeed, left us scarred and battered – but not beaten, or defeated, or bereft of our core values: 

• We have answered the call of adaptability 

• We have accepted the challenge of adjusting to new circumstances. 

• We have responded with the approach of Deuteronomy: “Life itself has placed before us life and death, curse and blessing, and we need to choose life.’⁵ 

Jewish tradition affords us further guidance. As Rabbi Tarfon reminds us in the Mishnah, ‘The day is short, the work expands, and the workers are lazy. Yet the payoff is enormous, the master of the house presses forward … and we recall that it is not our responsibility to finish the work, but neither are we free to neglect it.’⁶ Despite the difficulties of the past and challenges we will confront in the future, Rabbi Tarfon reminds us that we must push ahead. 

Being confined and quarantined this year has neither deactivated our humanity nor our ability to perform the work of social justice. And it certainly does not absolve us of the responsibilities we have toward one another. 

In the twelve years that Rabbi Shimon and son remained in that cave, they may have been awake to the words of Torah, but they were asleep to the needs of society. Can you imagine how wrong we would have been if we had been unaware of and resistant to the countless needs of society for that long a time? What would history think of us? 

So, as we emerge from our confinements of the recent past, it is time we turn our attention to a matter which we can no longer avoid as a human race, and that is global climate change. As we slowly resume more familiar pathways of life, each of us needs to join those who are active in helping to reverse the effects of this threat to our planet. 

About twenty years ago, former US senator, vice president, and then-private-citizen Al Gore began to share an illustrated lecture – this was before PowerPoint was a thing – on the state of the earth’s climate. Becoming a book and then a documentary film, “An Inconvenient Truth” was one of those ideas so large and confrontational that people turned away from it; they could do nothing but deny its reality. Few crucial decision-makers were willing to entertain the notion – shared so graphically and starkly – that humanity’s activities were destroying our planet. 

Why were we not willing to listen? It may be human nature to avoid the truly challenging truths that confront us. 

In his 2019 book “We Are The Weather”, Jonathan Safran Foer recounts a famous June 1943 meeting between Jan Karski, a Catholic member of the Polish underground, and a Jewish justice of the US Supreme Court, Felix Frankfurter. Karski hoped to impress upon the justice the perils faced by European Jews under the Nazis. 

Karski recounted the facts and the testimonies from European Jewish leaders with whom he had spoken, and Frankfurter paced back and forth in his office. According to Foer’s account, the justice then sat down, and, after a series of clarifying questions, he said to Karski, “Mr. Karski, a man like me talking to a man like you must be totally frank. So I must say I am unable to believe what you told me.” A companion to Mr. Karski in the room pleaded with the justice to accept Karski’s account, but the justice responded, “I didn’t say that this young man is lying. I said I am unable to believe him. My mind, my heart, they are made is such a way that I cannot accept [what he’s telling me].”⁷ 

Foer’s conclusion is that our human species may have curiosity and a natural proclivity for seeking knowledge, but a poorly developed sense of what to do in the face of difficulty and danger. For Frankfurter and the Holocaust, he was unable to apprehend the enormity of the problem or possible remedies.  

Even today many are not willing to think that our planet could be slowly smothered because of human abuse. But if we look to the wisdom of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai for a moment – rather than that midrash about how he set people on fire – we can see that he, too, had a view about the earth and its resources. 

Rabbi Shimon said, “Three things are equally important: earth, humanity, and rain.” 

And Rabbi Israel bar Hiyah, who elaborated on Rabbi Shimon’s words, said this: “We must attend to Rabbi Shimon. These three terms are each composed of three Hebrew letters – eretz, adam, and matar – and are, therefore, equivalent to one another. They teach that without the earth there is no rain, without the rain there is no earth, and without them both there is no humanity.”⁸ 

Rabbi Shimon reminds us that the existence of our planet depends not only upon the balance of the various elements of nature, but also the need to value and protect all the works of creation, and the requirement for humanity to have access to all of earth’s resources. 

We humans have been in a cave for far too long, unwilling to focus on this problem. We need to rid ourselves of our lethargy and renew our work to preserve our climate. This world is the only one we have, despite the science fiction accounts of distant planets of refuge. And so, we must consider: 

• What each of us must do in our own homes; 

• What our synagogue must do to further our work in making a positive impact on the climate; 

• And what our community-at-large must accomplish to reduce our carbon footprints and try to reverse planetary climate change. 

Don’t get me wrong. We’ve recycled … we’ve cut back on our driving, especially this past 18 months … we have purchased hybrid and all-electric vehicles: but it has not been enough. The degradation of our planet’s resources, and the decay of the protective nature of its atmosphere, needs to alarm us at our core! 

I want to talk about eating for a moment, and I hope the following statistics DO move us, and disturb us. Changes in our everyday behavior could have a significant impact on the world’s situation. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that methane-producing livestock – that is, cattle, goats, and sheep – are a leading cause of climate change. Their aggregated CO2 output is responsible for an estimated seven-and-a-half-billion tons of CO2 emissions per year, or 14.5% of annual global CO2 emissions.⁹ And if we included in these calculations: 

• the CO2 exhaled by all those animals 

• and the amount of CO2 that is NOT being absorbed by the trees that were destroyed to accommodate more grazing land for those animals … 

… it is estimated that the livestock-linked CO2 in the atmosphere is more like half, at 51 percent.¹⁰ 

And for those who are concerned about getting adequate protein, the following may be of interest: 

The production of 6.61 pounds of CO2 are associated with a single serving of beef, cheese produces 2.45 pounds of CO2, pork produces 1.72 pounds, and poultry produces 1.26 pounds. And for those who are vegans, a serving of legumes produces one-tenth of a pound of CO2.11 

Speaking of food, I have begun digesting – it’s an 1,800-page plateful – the most recent report of the United Nations’ “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” published last month. If we are troubled about global climate change and our well-documented human pattern of intervening with and harming the planet around us, we need to read, accept, draw near to, and place into our consciousness this well-researched and frightening paper. Reading it late at night could bring on nightmares, but perhaps that kind of jolt is what we need. 

From the report's executive summary, we learn these facts. (The italicized phrases are taken from the report itself, I presume for emphasis): 

“It is virtually certain that the global upper ocean (0–700 meters, or close to half a mile) has warmed since the 1970’s, and extremely likely that human influence is the main driver. It is virtually certain that human-caused CO2 emissions are the main driver of current global acidification of the surface open ocean. There is high confidence that oxygen levels have dropped in many upper ocean regions since the mid-20th century, and medium confidence that human influence contributed to this drop.”¹² 

Further, “Since 1970, but especially since 1990, the change in global surface temperature has increased about one degree centigrade, where it is estimated that this same indicator had not appreciably increased in the 140 years prior to 1990.”¹³ 

One terrifying aspect of last week’s devastating Hurricane Ida along the Louisiana coast is the rapid and immense intensification of the storm as it bared down on that region. These factors come from the increase in the warmed upper ocean temperatures over the last four decades, and – according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Miami – is likely to continue.¹⁴ 

Finally, returning to “We Are the Weather”, the author mentions the Paris climate accords’ goal of maintaining no more than a two degree Celsius increase in global warming. He labels this innocuous-sounding uptick as “the outside edge of cataclysm”. He suggests that this increase in the climate would raise sea levels by 1.6 feet, and cities like Dhaka, Karachi, New York, and dozens of others will produce 143 million new climate migrants.¹⁵ 

We can look at this information as Justice Frankfurter did and be overwhelmed with helplessness. But frankly, I view it as one of my tasks, as your Rabbi, that certain moments call for extreme efforts to inspire us all to action.  This is one of those moments. 

So, what are we to do? As much as is humanly possible! 

Minimally, please read everything you can find on how we humans affect the climate of our world. 

Next, get involved with the Environment and Climate Change Action Team, the newest of our Temple Beth El social justice task groups, which will help each of us become more familiar with ways to serve and save the planet. The Action Team is preparing for a congregational discussion in November of Jonathan Safran Foer’s book, and they’ll continue from there. 

Next, consider how your personal activities can help to reduce your carbon footprint. Others will follow our leadership when we discover and relate honestly and sincerely the truth of the situation. We need to recall that, in solving our problems, each of us is connected to others, in this county, our nation, and the world. This is a global problem and needs to be solved globally. 

Finally, know that – as with anything – it will take systemic change to make a meaningful dent in the climate change struggle. Suggesting that reducing or eliminating one’s carbon footprint in one place only to make up for increased emissions from over-pollution elsewhere may not make a significant difference in the world’s overall problem. We need a greater number of actions, as well as the mutual cooperation of large companies, governments, and citizens, to reduce their effect on the world’s climate.¹⁶ 

For those of us of a certain age, we won’t feel the effects of climate change for much longer. But we must not defer action, for this is not the kind of world we want to bequeath to our descendants: a planet … 

… where water shortages, like the current one on the lower Colorado River, are common occurrences! 

… where crop yields will be significantly reduced! 

… where half of all animal species will face extinction! 

… or where weather disasters of all kinds rob humanity of lives and property!¹⁷ 

Again, I remind us of the words from Deuteronomy, “Life itself has placed before us life and death, curse and blessing, and we need to choose life.’¹⁸ Let us rouse ourselves from our sleep, emerge from our caves, and realize there may still be actions we can take to slow the pace of, if not reverse, the global warming we currently experience. 

Unlike the world of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, when people were burning because of his personal anger, the whole world outside our caves is literally on fire, and we must find ways that we, as a planetary community, can douse the flames, save ourselves, and return to normal. 

Coming to my mind is the Star Trek film “First Contact”. One of the film’s plot-points is the future-world’s population’s shared reaction to the arrival on Earth of the first sentient extra-terrestrials. No longer alone in the universe, humanity discovered that it could cooperate on an international level, that disputes of territory and resources were of minimal importance, that money no longer mattered, and that people could progress forward: not in the heat of suspicion, but rather with the glow of humanity in their hearts. 

That is the kind of world we need right now. Let us strive to push us in that direction in the year to come. 

May this be a year of health and optimism, of good humor, of human caring and empathy, and of peace. 

L’shanah tovah. 

Footnotes:

[1] Psalm 130
[2] Paraphrase of Deuteronomy 30:19 
[3] BT Shabbat 33b
[4] BT Shabbat 33b
[5] Paraphrase of Deuteronomy 30:19
[6] Mishnah Pirkei Avot 2:15-16
[7] Ibid.
[8] Midrash Genesis Rabbah 13:3
[9] Foer, page 95
[10] Foer, page 96
[11] Foer, page 100
[12] https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM.pdf, page 6
[13] Ibid, page 7.
[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/climate/hurricane-ida-category.html
[15] Foer, page 58
[16] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/opinion/climate-change-carbon-neutral.html
[17] Foer, page 59
[18] Paraphrase of Deuteronomy 30:19

With the Biden administration now permitting much higher numbers of refugees to arrive, refugee resettlement efforts are on the move again. In July, Jewish Social Services of Madison (JSS) and Open Doors for Refugees resettled more new refugees in the Madison area than in the previous six months of 2021! We have now set up more than 50 apartments since the beginning of this partnership, with more families on the way. A great team of volunteers are helping set up the apartments with donated furniture and household supplies. We also stock the apartments with enough food for the two-week quarantine that newly arrived families have to observe. 

JSS is once again looking for volunteers to help with setup. In particular, JSS is looking for van drivers to drive the van that they use for larger families, or drivers who have such a vehicle themselves.

JSS and Open Doors also have a wish list for items needed for newly arrived and arriving refugee families. All kinds of household items and gently used furniture are helpful. If you would like to contribute, please see the list here, and know that every donation is greatly appreciated.

Beginning in September, Catholic Multicultural Center hopes to begin serving daily dinners again in their cafeteria, and we are planning for TBE volunteers to help with in-person serving and washing up. These plans are of course contingent on safety and health priorities set by city and county guidelines. We hoped to begin in-person service in August and are now aiming for September. Until they open to in-person dining, we are continuing to cook a meal twice a month with our next time being August 25, see the sign-up here. 

The Catholic Multicultural Center provides free meals every day to south side community members, including those without housing. Volunteers set out and serve the food, participants join one another to eat at café tables next to the center kitchen, and then our volunteers do the dishes with a restaurant style dishwasher. The center, located just off Park Street at 1862 Beld St., serves about 80 people daily.

TBE partners with a variety of church congregations and community groups to provide the volunteer corps to support this effort. With the sponsorship of the Social Action Committee, we provide six to eight volunteers (age 12 and above), for two hours one day a month. The TBE group volunteers on the second Monday of each month, from 3:30 to 5:30 pm. You can sign up for just one day or make it a regular event. 

Interested in engaging with other TBE members to meet this critical community need? Click on the SignUpGenius link and tell us when you are available. 

TBE members began providing in-person volunteer services in 2019. When the group meals had to close down in 2020, 32 cooks from TBE stepped forward, bought groceries, and cooked more than 3,000 grab-and-go meals from March 2020 to July 2021. We are so grateful for all that they did! Thanks to everyone who found a way to keep feeding folks and stay connected to the community during this time.

Contact Sue Levy or Aleeza Hoffert if you’d like to be notified when we switch to in-person serving and cleaning up. 

By popular demand, the Environment and Climate Change Action Team is organizing another community bike ride around Lake Wingra. Join us for a ride with new and old friends and learn about volunteer options to help keep the lake clean and thriving for all to enjoy. On Sunday morning, September 5, meet in Wingra Park near Arbor Drive to begin the ride, 9:00–10:30 am. Register here. 

To speak with TBE member Liz Whitesel about reducing greenhouse gases produced by food waste is to become infected with her enthusiasm. After one hour of interviewing her for this article, I felt compelled to follow her example. The Karlov household now hosts a bin from Curbside Composter—our scraps from cooking prep will go to a farm that will turn them into compost to improve the soil. Easy!

Liz’s journey started when she and her husband built a garden in their backyard in the 1980s. Together they collected scraps and used a composting bin provided by the city to make compost throughout the year. This of course takes patience and dedication—for every successful backyard composting effort there are many more stories involving critters, solid garbage that defies the obligatory turning and mixing, and giant piles of waste that never convert into the coveted dark, odor-free material that amends your soil with wonderful nutrients. 

For Liz and Russ Whitesel, composting was associated with their vegetable garden. Once they stopped gardening, they also ended their home composting. Then in 2011 the City of Madison made it easier for people to divert waste from the landfill. The city first tested curbside collection in various configurations and neighborhoods and in 2020 instituted a seasonal drop-off program. Liz took advantage of these options, but they became too cumbersome. The city eventually stopped them all. The latest version ended on July 17 of this year. 

Finally, through her daughter, Liz learned about home pickup programs and has been very satisfied with her choice in Madison, Curbside Composter. It is simple and effortless, and it costs $1 a day.

I asked Liz why she felt so strongly about keeping her food scraps out of the landfill, and she explained that she is just trying to be mindful of her footprint—doing a few things that will make a difference and spreading the word so others follow her example. Already one neighbor has agreed to join, and she is spreading the word to all who might be interested. 

And she is right: studies put food waste at 6% to 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In a landfill, food decomposition results in methane gas, which is about 30 times stronger than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas. According to Madison’s Sustainability Program, about 20% of what we send to Dane County landfill is food waste https://www.wortfm.org/the-prospect-of-an-anaerobic-digester/. 

Liz says her bucket from Curbside Composter is almost two-thirds full every week. And that is only for one person. My guess is that mine will be completely full since we eat a lot of vegetables! 

According to Liz, “We all kind of delude ourselves into saying we cannot make a difference, it is too big of a problem, and that’s why I am a dreamer. I feel like if I do this, maybe other people would do it too.” 

Liz is also trying carbon offsets for travel (which she also learned about from her daughter), and a few other easy things like carrying metal straws in her purse, bringing mesh bags for produce to the grocery store, and using bamboo paper products (bamboo grows fast and uses less space and no fertilizers or pesticides). If you run into her, I am sure she will be happy to tell you all about it. And you might find yourself changing some habits or starting something new! 

Visit Curbside Composter or Earth Stew to learn more about food scrap home pickup programs in the area. The City of Madison and Dane County also offer many resources for food waste reduction
and composting.

The Four Lakes (DeJope) area was once a thriving Ho-Chunk community, and the area around Temple Beth El was important for fishing, foraging, and mound-building. To better understand the history of this land and to appreciate the people who preceded us here, the Social Action Committee is offering a walking tour of the area led by Amy Rosebrough, staff archeologist at the Wisconsin State Historical Society. 

The tour will be held on Sunday morning, October 17, from 9:30 to 11:30 am. As we walk from Vilas Park to Temple Beth El, Ms. Rosebrough will point out landscape features and tell us about how the Ho-Chunk people lived. Through this tour, we hope to gain a better understanding of the traditional lands of the Ho-Chunk Nation that our building sits upon. We are planning a related educational program for later in the fall or winter.

The walking will be fairly easy, but there will be some uneven ground. The tour is timed so that Religious School parents can attend and be back in time for the end of class. We are looking for individuals willing to shuttle folks back to their cars at Vilas Park. Please include that in your RSVP if you are able.

If you’re interested, register online. If you have questions, please contact Pam Robbins at pamrobbins3@gmail.com or Aleeza Hoffert at engage@tbemadison.org.

The Irwin A. & Robert D. Goodman Foundation was founded in 1963 by brothers Irwin and Robert Goodman. Since then, the Foundation’s philanthropic generosity has benefited the Jewish community of Madison and the greater Madison area. Temple Beth El and other Jewish agencies in Madison have received yearly grants to help offset operating expenses. The Foundation’s future giving will focus on philanthropic projects instead of providing yearly operational support. The grant support that TBE receives from the Foundation will end in 2023. When we received notice of this several years ago, we began to prepare for additional revenue sources, including the creation of the Dorot Society for planned giving. We thank the Goodman Foundation for the many years of grant funding and for the supplemental financial support received this past winter that will help us complete our sanctuary remodel.

The Alex and Edythe Edelman Memorial Fund, established in 1988 by Fred Edelman and Ivy Dreizin Edelman (z''l) to honor the memory of Fred’s parents, is dedicated to promote Jewish education at all levels. Alex and Edythe instilled the importance of education and Jewish identity in their sons, Fred and Robert.  A strong dedication to education propelled Alex Edelman to become a lawyer and Edythe Edelman an educator who also taught religious school. As children of immigrants, Alex and Edythe made education central to their lives and how they raised their sons. Ivy held these same values. She enjoyed studying languages and had deep knowledge of both Hebrew and Italian. Fred said she “was a bit of a Hebrew scholar.” She established a special bond with Cantor Niemi over Zoom while preparing to read Torah. Ivy and Fred’s commitment to sustaining Temple Beth El as a vital part of the Jewish community in Madison is evident in their generous support of TBE. Just before her passing, Ivy made a generous donation to the Alex and Edythe Edelman Memorial Fund. Fred  notes that this donation was something Ivy “could acknowledge while she was alive,” and it reflects a desire to see our community flourish.

In addition to this gift, Ivy was a member of our Dorot Society and listed Temple Beth El as a beneficiary of her trust upon her passing. We are so grateful for both of these donations to support TBE’s education programs and our shared values.

Finally, some good news on refugee admissions to the United States and for refugee resettlement efforts in Madison. On May 3, President Biden officially raised the refugee admissions cap for this fiscal year from an all-time low of 15,000 to 62,500.

HIAS is a Jewish community organization that support refugees and asylum-seekers around the world. Mark Hetfield, HIAS president and CEO, commended the Biden administration for taking this long-overdue action and acknowledging the vocal public support for refugee resettlement.

“No act is more American or more Jewish than welcoming the stranger,” he said. “We’re excited to see President Biden start to rebuild refugee resettlement. We know there are long months of work ahead to fully restore the resettlement program. As the Jewish refugee organization that has long been the U.S. government’s partner in refugee resettlement, HIAS and our network of partners across the country are ready and eager to help however we can.”

Locally, the refugee resettlement program for Jewish Social Services of Madison moved a family of four from Iraq into an apartment in early May, and a family of five from the Congo is expected to arrive mid-month. Said Sherie Sondel, who coordinates TBE’s refugee volunteers: “We hopefully will be receiving many more arrivals now. We look forward to meeting them and helping them settle into their new homes.”

To make donations of furniture and other household goods to the Resettlement Program please contact OpenDoorsDonations@gmail.com. If you would like to participate in the new JSS refugee mentorship program, see here. For more information, please contact Sherie Sondel.

Following a year of “racial reckoning,” TBE has begun a number of initiatives to help people on their journey toward understanding our own biases and the societal structures and history that perpetuate racism. One of these initiatives has been the use of a program developed in Madison called “Seven Guided Conversations on Race,” to engage Temple members in small-group discussions on race.

This spring two groups met for seven weeks to discuss topics such as “what is race?,” “how is whiteness a privilege?,” “why is racial representation important?,” and “understanding assumptions and stereotypes.” Prior to the meetings, members were asked to read a short text or view a brief video as a basis for our discussions. These materials were engaging, illuminating, and frequently entertaining. The groups were a safe, nonjudgmental place where people could express their thoughts and feelings candidly and share their experiences.

The goal was to increase our awareness of our own assumptions and biases, to increase our ability to view the world through a racial lens in order to help us better understand and empathize with people of color, and to be able to engage in conversations about race more effectively.

Members of both groups expressed significant appreciation for the materials and facilitated discussions, and our exploration and connections with each other definitely deepened over the seven weeks together. As one member commented, “The trust that was formed in our group allowed me to express feelings of regret in a way that I believe will help me do better in the future.”

Some challenging issues emerged from our dialogues, including the question of whether implicit biases can be significantly altered without close personal or professional relationships with people of a different race. Maybe the best that can be accomplished, some wondered, is to enhance conscious self-awareness of these natural and understandable biases in order to prevent acting on them in automatic, reflexive, and potentially harmful ways. However, we learned that we all have implicit biases that need to be examined compassionately and without judgment.

As one group member so eloquently summarized one of the lessons from the class materials, “It is imperative that we become conscious of our own biases and recognize the automatic reactivity of the fast brain (limbic system) so we can shift to more deliberate, rational pre-frontal cortex thinking in order to modulate our responses and hopefully prevent further racist injustice.” (Interested congregants may wish to take the Harvard Implicit Bias test themselves.)

Several group members also recognized the need to be aware of how language impacts our perceptions and that we make snap judgments based on the value judgments we attribute to people’s speech patterns. Another group member remarked that after completing this process, she “looks at herself with different eyes and is more aware of how others perceive her.”

For a group of well-educated, relatively “woke” individuals, it was surprising for many of us to not only acknowledge our white privilege but to recognize and openly disclose implicit biases of which we were previously unaware.

Hopefully, if this program is offered in the future, it will interest an even broader range of Temple members to further enhance possible conversations. Please contact Aleeza Hoffert if you think you might be interested, or contact Erica Serlin or Lynn Silverman to learn more about this program.

This period of uncertainty and isolation has been challenging, but it has also highlighted my personal privilege. I’ve been safe from COVID-19 because I’ve been able to stay at home. I have food on the table every night, an amazing education, and an even better support system.

However, many of us don’t have those privileges. Many individuals have not had the privilege of staying at home and have been forced to go into work in order to make a living. This pandemic is beyond ourselves as it is affecting every single human worldwide. We must come together to consider those that have less than us. It is important to acknowledge our own privilege in order to be grateful for what we do have but also to realize that we must share our resources with others. Overall, I hope that tzedakah can be an acknowledgment of our own privileges but also a reminder that we are responsible to help those that have less than us.

Tzedakah is not just a financial transaction; it is based around the Jewish ideals of justice and righteousness. Tzedakah encourages developing relationships and trust and recognizes that the act of giving includes effort, time, and insight. Generosity and giving are central to the Jewish religion and are also requirements for every single Jew. Performing deeds of justice may be the most important part of Judaism. Even in this virtual world, it is extremely important that we continue to uphold the Jewish principle of tzedakah.

Earlier this year, the K–3 madrichim group and the 4–7 group met and discussed nonprofit organizations that were important to them. Some people shared organizations that they had worked with, and some shared ones that helped fight issues that we care about. After we narrowed the organizations down, we created a presentation about the organizations.

Our homes have now become our offices, our gyms, and our synagogue, so we decided to have families continually collect tzedakah at home before turning it in at Temple. We also encouraged teachers to remind families, as many of us are forgetful when it comes to donating. We were very excited that we could incorporate tzedakah into this nontraditional year and bring some normalcy and tradition to religious school.

The K–3 group chose five incredible organizations. The first one was the Humane Society. Not only do they take in stray animals, but they also educate our Madison community and help match their animals to local families. The second organization they chose was the Second Harvest Foodbank. Second Harvest is a hunger-relief charity in southern Wisconsin that helps fight food insecurity by providing vulnerable families with food. The third organization is the local organization Porchlight, which helps fight homelessness in Dane County. Porchlight provides shelter, affordable housing, and other resources to homeless men throughout Dane County. The fourth selected organization was the Arava Institute. It is an environmental studies and research institute based in Israel that focuses on bettering the environment. It is also geared to uniting different Middle Eastern countries in order to best address climate change and other climate-related issues in the Middle East. The fifth and final organization was the Clean Lakes Alliance. This nonprofit is dedicated to improving and protecting the lakes, streams, and wetlands in the Yahara River watershed.

The 4–7 group decided on four amazing organizations. The first organization we chose was the Equal Justice Initiative. We were all very passionate about ending mass incarceration and fighting against systemic racism in jails. We then chose Second Harvest Foodbank as it is more of a local organization. There are current volunteering opportunities at Second Harvest, and we wanted to choose an organization that works right in our Madison community. We also chose The Road Home because Temple Beth El has been involved with it for many years. Many of us have seen the amazing work The Road Home does and the amazing partnership Temple has created with the organization. Finally, we chose Nurturing Minds. It is an organization that I have been involved with for three years now. It supports an all-girls school in Tanzania that empowers and educates girls that have never been able to dream. They gain entrepreneurial skills and real-life experience so that they can go home and better their communities.

It was an absolute pleasure working on the tzedakah project this year. Not only are these amazing organizations, but the act of giving also helped me slow down and realize how extremely fortunate and grateful I am. Hopefully this article was a good reminder to acknowledge your own privilege and to uphold the Jewish principle of giving.

This year let us think of our Pride month observance as a tree.

This tree connects us to our Judaism, our ancestry—and ourselves. At the root is our text, our tradition, the Torah and Talmud.

Our shared history, which nourishes us all, is the trunk of our tree.

Advocacy, outreach, and connection are represented by the tree branches. Imagine how a branch grows—how it reaches. This echoes how we reach out to others, to each other—how we stretch, how we grow, how we expand in our roles in the world, and how we expand within ourselves.

And, finally, in the leaf, the flower, and the fruiting of our tree resides our creativity. The music of Pride, the food of the soul, and the art as well as the writing of Pride—the ways in which we express our individual narratives and community experiences.

During Pride month here at Temple Beth El, we aim to encompass all parts of our tradition, history, advocacy, and expression in our programming. Please join us!

Bo’u Nashir! (Come, Let Us Sing!) Pride Edition
Tuesdays, June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 3:00–3:30 pm • Facebook Live

The soul-fulfilling song sessions you have come to love return with special Pride connections all month long. Cantor Jacob Niemi will be singing pieces by LGBTQ composers or with Pride themes. How many songs about rainbows does he know? Tune in weekly via Facebook Live to find out!

Quarantine Kitchen Pride Edition: Rainbow Challah 
Thursday, June 3, 12:00–12:30 pm • Facebook Live

Watch this encore showing of Quarantine Kitchen where Jen Szlasa shows us how to make rainbow challah. Try your hand at making some ahead of our Pride Shabbat on June 11. Find the recipe here. You can also watch the demo anytime here.

Reading through a Bent Lens: How Queer Approaches to Text Can Illuminate and Elevate the Study of Jewish Texts 
Sunday, June 6, 11:30 am–1:00 pm • Zoom

Join Cantor Jacob Niemi for an exploration of Jewish sacred texts from LGBTQ+ perspectives, and learn how these readings can elevate the study of Torah for all.

Pride Shabbat 
Friday, June 11, 7:30–9:00 pm • Facebook Live

Explore some of Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ history, show our pride, and welcome Shabbat through this special Pride Shabbat service honoring the Jewish LGBTQ+ community and allies. We are honored that scholar and activist Richard Wagner will be sharing remarks with us on the topic “Battlers of Hate and Destroyers of Stereotypes in the Struggle for Righteousness.” LGBTQ+ history in Wisconsin, as elsewhere, is a journey toward justice. Episodes in Wisconsin’s journey include the Jewish community's leadership on the state hate crimes law and its work countering ignorance and stereotypes. Join us in this community celebration of love, faith, equality, and respect.

Order Richard Wagner’s books from the local bookstore Mystery to Me (scroll down on the home page of their website for direct links to order in the Featured Books section). Please note on the order form if you would like your books signed by the author. Books to be signed will be delivered to TBE, and we will contact you when they are ready for pickup. Unsigned copies can be picked up at the bookstore at 1863 Monroe Street (across from Trader Joe’s).

Showing Up for Transgender and Nonbinary Youth
Thursday, June 17, 7:00–8:00 pm • Zoom

Brian Juchems, co-executive director of GSAFE (an organization supporting LGBTQ+ students, educators, and families throughout Wisconsin) will give us a look at the issues facing LGBTQ+ students in our schools, bills being debated by our legislature to prevent transgender and nonbinary students from participating in school sports, and longer-term efforts to marginalize transgender youth within our communities. Find out how to get involved to support greater inclusion.

Looking to take action now? Brian also recommends this site https://equityforall.wixsite.com/supporttranskidswi created by a trans youth activist and organizer for ways to take action right now in response to the bills that have been introduced. 

142 Jewish Writing Prompts for Pride
Wednesday, June 23, 7:00–8:30 pm • Zoom

Get your Jewish creative juices flowing! Join Rena Yehuda Newman and writers of all ages, identities, and Jewish backgrounds for a fast-paced workshop of writing prompt-based games for Pride month.

Resources
The Pride team last year put together a wonderful list of resources, which can be found on the Temple blog.

Save the Date
2021 TBE Swarsensky Scholar-in-Residence: Rabbi Mark Sameth

We’re excited to announce that our Swarsensky Scholar this fall, Rabbi Mark Sameth, will explore themes of gender and identity in our tradition and how to use it for justice today.

Provisional Program for November 12–14, 2021 (subject to change)

• Friday evening: “A History of the Dual-Gendered Hebrew Name for God,” in 25 minutes with accompanying graphics. Appropriate for all ages.
• Shabbat morning: Interactive Torah study. A “deep dive” into Parashat Vayeitzei. A look at the text of this week’s Torah portion through the lens of dual gender. One hour.
• Shabbat lunch: Panel discussion with a panel of the Temple’s choosing to engage in conversation with Rabbi Sameth about issues raised so far—and others they may wish to raise. A flexible program designed to bring in other voices and different perspectives.
• Sunday morning: A keynote presentation on the social justice implications of the dual-gendered name of God (e.g., supporting gender equality, feminism, LGBTQ, interfaith, multicultural, and intersectional identities) followed by Q&A. A chance to discuss together how we might best put this learning to use in the furtherance of tikkun olam.

Rabbi Mark Sameth (he/him/his) was named “one of America’s most inspiring rabbis” by The Forward (inaugural list, 2013). He is featured in Jennifer Berne and R. O. Blechman’s God: 48 Famous and Fascinating Minds Talk about God.His interfaith work was the topic of a story in The New York Times. His essays and interviews appear on Religion Dispatches ("Our Father, Who Art Our Mother") and Being Both, in books published by Jossey Bass, Jewish Lights, CCAR Press, and New Paradigm Matrix, and in Reform Judaism Magazine, Journal of Jewish Education, CCAR Journal, and the New York Times (“Is God Transgender?” Op-Ed, August 12, 2016). He tweets from @fourbreaths.

Comments about Rabbi Sameth’s book “The Name: A History of the Dual-Gendered Hebrew Name for God” (Wipf & Stock, 2020):

• “May just be the most interesting thing written about God since the Jews figured out there was only One.” —Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author of Kabbalah: A Love Story
• “A startlingly persuasive argument that Maimonides sought to reveal the secret of God’s dual gender… Ready-made for adult education.” —Rabbi Elaine Glickman, editor-in-chief, CCAR Journal
• “Has the potential to change our entire understanding of the past.” —Rabbi Dr. Kerry Olitzky, co-author of Book of Job
• “The Name is traditional and revolutionary, historical and mythical, rational and mystical. I couldn't put it down.” —Rabbi Naomi Levy, author of Einstein and the Rabbi

Ingredients:

• 1 package of chocolate Jello pudding mix
• 2 cups of milk
• Oreo cookies
• Gummy worms

Directions:

• Mix together pudding mix with 1 cup of milk
• Wisk it together
• Add second cup of milk and continue to stir
• Let it sit for 5 minutes
• Crush Oreos and set aside
• In an 8 oz cup, alternate layers of pudding and Oreo crumble and top with gummy worms.
• Enjoy!

Graham Crackers
Recipe from cookiesandcups.com

Graham Cracker Ingredients:

• ½ cup of butter - room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp kosher salt 
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour 
• ½ cup milk 
• ¼ cup granulated sugar

Graham Cracker Instructions:

1. Make the dough - Mix the butter and brown sugar together for 2 minutes in a stand mixture.  Add in vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix for 30 seconds until evenly incorporated.  Turn the mixer to low and add in the flours and milk in alternating portions beginning and ending with the flour.  Mix well until combined.  Dough will be thick.  
2. Chill - Form the dough into a ball and flatten into a disk.  Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. 
3. Shape the crackers - When ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.  On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to ⅛ inch thickness.  Using a knife or a pizza cutter, cut into 3.5 by 2.5 inch rectangles.  
4. Bake - Sprinkle granulated sugar evenly onto the pieces pressing lightly into the dough.  Prick the dough with a fork to create the store-bought look.  Place onto the prepared baking sheet ½ inch apart.  Bake for 9-11 minutes until the edges are lightly golden.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 
5. Can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.  

S’mores Dip
Recipe from lwvogue.com

S’mores Dip Ingredients:

• Semisweet chocolate chips - 1 bag 
• Mini marshmallows - 1 bag
• Ramekins small (4 of them)  

S’mores Dip Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  
2. Pour out a layer of chocolate chips into the bottom of 4 small ramekins
3. Top with a single layer of mini marshmallows 
4. Once oven is preheated, bake for 2-3 minutes until marshmallows are golden.