----------------------------------------------------------  July 2009 ------------------------------------------------

Summer – Season of sadness …..and Joy

Ah, when this time of year rolls around, that old hit by Nat King Cole inevitably comes to mind

Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer

As the air gets warmer and the leaves are green, and barbeque smells are in the air, my mind travels back to my youth and thoughts of baseball and swimming and endless fun come in….until the three weeks start.   All of a sudden we are cast into an ever-increasing period of mourning that intrudes harshly and introduces a great unease into this glorious time. 

This is rather peculiar, as the rest of the calendar seems to fit the seasons very well (at least if you live north of the equator).   Pesach rings in the springtime – Shavuot a time of full blossoming and maturation, The High Holidays as our year begins and ends and we have to take serious accounting, Succos and Simchas Torah with the joy that comes with a fresh start and the counting of one’s blessings – it all fits like a glove.

But right in the middle of the time of “soda and pretzels and beer” – we contend with our national sorrow and mourning.  Why?   Why ruin the party with all this mourning?  Deprivations, restrictions on joy, celebrations?   Why give us a hard time?

My father in law, with wry Jewish humor, says that it’s the usual “Mir Loz nisht Leben” (they won’t let you enjoy life) syndrome of Judaism.   But there must be some deeper message here that justifies this intrusion.   Yes, of course we all know that we are called upon to mourn the Bais Hamikdosh that was destroyed some 2,000 years ago.   But could we not have done that at a less intrusive time of the year?

Speaking of other times of the year, another question.   Right in the middle of the gray skies, slushy streets and frigid cold of the winter, we are called upon to celebrate Chanukah.  “What is Chanukah”, asks the Talmud?  One might say a rather meager moment of excitement.   The Greeks had subjugated the Jews, defiled the Holy Temple, and for a brief shining moment, the Hasmoneans were able to overthrow the Greeks, clean out their depravity, and again light a pure light in the Menorah, that lasted eight days.   Eight days may have been along time for one lamp to burn, but the Hasmonean dynasty did not last long at all, for within one or two generations they sank into the same Hellenistic heretical morass that their elders had fought against, and set the stage for the ultimate destruction of the Temple soon after their demise.  So what is the big nachas that we are celebrating?

In short – why celebrate a dedication of a Temple that was soon to be destroyed, and why mourn so for a Temple that stood so very long ago?   And why is it that these two events are out of sync with the usually very appropriate Jewish calendar?

There is a well-known verse that we recite (Tehillim 92):

 “To speak in the morning of your kindness,

and of your faith in the nights.”

Our Sages comment that the Jewish year can be divided into two parts: “in the morning your kindness”, which roughly corresponds to spring and summer, and “your faith at night”, corresponding to autumn and winter.   The period of “to tell in the morning your kindness” is a time of unconcealed joy, when the weather is warm and the world is beautiful.  As we have said, this is a time that all of the major Holidays fit.  However, in the winter time, there are no Holidays in the Torah – just the two enacted by the Rabbis, Chanukah & Purim.   It is a time, it would seem, that we have to live by faith alone, without the externals of the Holidays to help us.

How are we able to accomplish this?  Perhaps this is why this message is told us particularly as the opening of

A song for the Day of Shabbos

Perhaps the message is that whether we are in the “morning glory” good times, or in times of darkness, as long we have our faithful beloved Shabbos Queen, we will be taken care of.   Having Shabbos as the center of our lives is the vital  key.

The S’fas Emes, taking this one step further, writes that the role of Shabbos in time is parallel to that of the Temple in space. In modern Jewish life, Shabbos is the center of religious experience. Though a Jew is called upon to actively engage physical life and general society, his or her internal religious life revolves around Shabbos -- Shabbos anchors us to Hashem in a world in which it is easy to forget Him. Similarly, when the Temple stood, Jewish life had a second central point: the Temple. A Jew knew that no matter what the rest of the world was like, the Temple was a place where Heaven touched Earth - a physical, living, breathing place where God could be found. The Greek desecration was a source of great religious shame to the Jewish people, and the desecrated Temple was a powerful public symbol of the rise of Greek Hellenism over Jewish monotheism. In turn, the “Chanukah”/inauguration that followed symbolized the validity and vitality of the Jewish way of life.  The ultimate destruction of the Temple(s) on Tisha B’Av mean that a very central part of entire existence is awry, and life can never be right without the centering force of Shabbos to anchor us.

Expanding on this just a bit, perhaps I can suggest that it is specifically because of the deep gaping hole in our lives that the void of the Bais HaMikdosh has left, that we need to remember its absence specifically at the height of “the good times”, and celebrate even a limited dedication of the Bais HaMikdosh in “the dark times”.  We so need the Temple to be in our lives, we so need the closeness to the Almighty that we have been so sorely lacking, that we need to remind ourselves, that I am deeply remiss

if I do not raise Jerusalem above my greatest joy

May we soon come to a time, where not only our summers will be times of endless joy, with Tisha B’Av converted into a holiday exceeding anything that we now celebrate, but that joy will extend all year, through the times we now experience as dark and foreboding, for all to come to bask in His holy light until Eternity

Have a great summer!

----------------------------------------------------------  April 2009 ------------------------------------------------

Dear Fiends,

In addition to all of our usual Pesach preparations, this year we have the rare and special opportunity to say a blessing on the sun, and really on all of creation.   We take the time, and perspecive of a generation, to see how the world is constantly being renewed, and remember that we ought never take life for granted, as every single moment is a great gift.

To mark this special occasion, our shul has undertakento spearhead a gathering in Flushing Meadow Park, to come together in large numbers and say to our Creator, "We appreciate you - You who make this beautiful world all the time, and without your benevolence we would not last a moment!!"

Please join us at the park on Erev Pesach, and help us together renew our spirits, and enter this holiday of liberation in a special and beautiful way

Rabbi Yehuda L. Oppenheimer

To:               YOU
Date:            TODAY
From:           GOD
Subject:        YOURSELF
Reference:    LIFE

This is God.  Today I will be handling All of your problems for you.  I do
Not need your help.  So, have a nice day.
I love you.


P.S.  And, remember...
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do Not
attempt to resolve it yourself!  Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for
God to do) box. I will get to it in MY TIME.  All situations will be
resolved, but in My time, not yours.  

Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying
about it.  Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in
your life now.

Should you decide to send this to a friend; Thank you. You may have touched
their life in ways you will never know!

Now, you have a nice day.


 
GOD