Home Presentation for Yom Kippur Symposium 5761, October 9, 2000
Since Rabbi Stahl began his Rosh Hashanah sermon with Al Gore, I figured that I could begin my remarks today with Joe Lieberman. Only I do not plan to talk about politics. I am going to talk about discussions. A colleague and I at the Jewish Federation have been discussing how much Senator Lieberman should be talking about religion in his bid for the vice-presidency. At one point she threatened to be here today holding up a photograph of Lieberman praying at a high school football game.
Behind all of this discussion is an aspect of Judaism that is dear to me -- the ability to talk, debate, argue -- and question. I think it is directly rooted in the oral tradition that has been devoted to Torah interpretation over the centuries.
Just reading about this oral tradition has broadened my outlook, but of course it is in the actual experience that I have comprehended its relevance. Shabbat Torah readings are one of those experiences or working with my own children and my students on each of their Parashah. The Torah study classes offered here several times a week are another example.
We recite: "And the study of Torah is equal to them all, because it leads to them all." I struggle with this because I think those other obligations, such as consoling the bereaved and welcoming the stranger are very important to Tikkun Olam. Repairing the world is a Jewish value that I try to incorporate into my life. This was particularly brought home to me a couple of years ago when I was participating in a national interfaith conference to abolish the death penalty. I had caused some scheduling problems because I had declined to participate in a panel discussion during the portion of the program that took place during Shabbat services. A man I did not know, who must have heard about it, approached me. I expected him to take issue with me. Instead, he greeted me by saying that he was glad I was there because there were Jews participating in the effort, but they were not there as Jews.
We recite: "Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all of its paths are peace." My concepts of discussion and social action must be tempered that they not block the paths to peace. An example I see of this peace is the level of respect and cooperation which exists between all the congregations here. It makes me proud to be a San Antonio Jew. The totality of the streams of Judaism appear to me to be an organic whole that can bring good for the Jewish people. The cooperative spirit which exists in our own community is not an accident. I believe it is due to the goodwill in our community and the leadership of our Senior rabbis - Rabbi Stahl and Rabbi Scheinberg.
I see this more clearly now that I am the Community Relations Director of the Jewish Federation.
Sometimes Community Relations means that when someone in the community calls and no one is sure how to relate the call to anyone, they patch them into my office. A young woman who had just moved here called to find a Rabbi to perform her marriage ceremony with her non-Jewish fiancé. She was not having much luck. She was somewhat mystified that a friend of hers who was a rabbinical student at UAHC told her he would marry a same sex Jewish couple, but he would not marry her. She had already called Temple Beth-El and found that, although her fiancé would be welcome here, our Rabbis would not perform interfaith marriages. I was truly sympathetic with the woman and told her that once I was in her shoes and that I understood how she felt, but I had to tell her also that now it is twenty-five years later, I have raised a family and I no longer feel the same. She said, "So your husband wasn't Jewish." I said, "No, I wasn't Jewish."
I grew up in San Antonio where I met and married a Jewish student -- not by a rabbi. One of the better decisions of my life was when we decided we should raise our children in one religion and that religion would be Judaism. However, several years later I found myself with two children in the religious school program, but I was no longer married. Realizing that I needed to find out more about what my children were learning, I took the Introduction to Judaism class. It was then that I was struck by the intellectual beauty of Judaism. It did not happen like a Nathan Englander short story in which a lapsed Christian man on the way home in New York taxi cab to have dinner with his wife has a sudden epiphany that he is Jewish. It was a few reflective years later -- sometime between my son's Bar Mitzvah and my daughter's Bat Mitzvah -- that I became Jewish.
Shortly thereafter, I became very involved in the education program here as a teacher, and a member of the Religious School Committee. I have always noted that in all the years I have served on the Religious School Committee there has been at least one Rabbi present at every meeting. And sometimes they have come to sub-committee meetings. By their actions, they are demonstrating that the religious school faculty needs our support to provide quality programs. And for me, Jewish education seems an essential part of being Jewish. Jewish education must matter and it must be meaningful to both children and adults alike. Though our program and our curriculum may be rooted in our tradition, they are not static.
I must put in a plug for Hebrew here, since that was been my teaching specialty. It has always been very encouraging to me that so many parents have supported the Hebrew program even though many of them were not given much, if any, Hebrew training themselves. The increased inclusion of Hebrew does not mean to me that one must speak Hebrew to be a good Jew, but it is an acknowledgment that Hebrew carries a sacred link to our past as well as present link to Israel.
Hebrew might be considered part of ritual, which I do not mean to exclude. Some of the most cherished moments I have experienced as a Jew have been in one of the most simple and regular of rituals --the lighting of Shabbat candles. Now Shabbat at our home might be characterized as a very human experience. My children frequently would argue about who was going to say which blessing. Often our relatives and guests are busy chatting. And my husband does not like me to interrupt his preparation of a perfect sauce to come to the table. But when we all gather around and start to light our candles a glowing instant of peace seems to settle around us as symbolically we put a break between the work week and the initiation of the day of rest.
Then we sit down and our conversation is mostly not about the values I have mentioned this afternoon - Torah study, Tikkun Olam, peace and Jewish education, but rather a range of topics from Joe Lieberman to the latest good movie. In keeping with tradition there is always a very vigorous Jewish discussion.
In closing, I must add that there were two things which have I have left out and for which I was unprepared. Last night it suddenly hit me that after months of thinking about the subject I had left something out of this description of what defines me as a Jew. It is important to me. I have spent many years as a volunteer teaching the subject. I have a overflowing shelf of books devoted to the topic, which is the Holocaust. As important its impact on our world today, the Holocaust does not define me as a Jew. I think it is because the Holocaust is about death. And Judaism is about choosing life.
The other thing is that I did not expect to see so many familiar faces today. So many of you have made a positive impact on my life. And for that, I thank you.
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