It is more than America’s Pastime – May 24, 2013

On this Erev Shabbat closest to Memorial Day, it is my custom to speak about a topic related to American Jewish history. I will continue this practice tonight as I concentrate on the intersection of American Jews and baseball. Why is this appropriate topic for tonight? There is nothing more uniquely American than baseball. Jews, since our exposure to the sport, have been keenly attracted to baseball. We have been players, coaches, sportscasters, sportswriters, statisticians, sports physicians, general managers and team owners. During World War II, any outfit with a high proportion of urban soldiers used the names of the great ball players of the time as passwords. Questions such as “Who won the 1939 World Series?” or “Who is the catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers?” were sure to trip up Germans trying to sneak through American lines. Baseball captured the imagination of young Jews in a time when football and basketball were in their infancy. While the NBA has had a plethora of Jewish involvement, baseball is still more closely aligned with Jews.
I was drawn to this subject by an email a congregant sent to me about the “Jewish Baseball Player Project.” Conceived by Greg Harris while on a visit to Cooperstown and inspired by a drawing of great African-American ball players, this is a series of large, group drawings of more than thirty of the best Jewish baseball players and owners in modern history, starting with Hank Greenberg, Al Rosen, Sandy Koufax, and continuing with the likes of Norm Sherry, Ron Blomberg, Rich Sheinbrun, Art Shansky, Steve Stone, Norm Miller, Scott Feldman, Shawn Green, Ian Kinsler, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Marquis, Steve Yeager, Ryan Braun, Craig Breslow, Gabe Kaplan, Mike Epstein, Bud Selig, Jerry Reinsdorf, Marvin Miller, and several others. I was truly tempted to buy the largest of the limited edition group drawings, but when I saw the price of $6,000, I decided I would just admire it from afar.
Why does baseball so appeal to Jews? Baseball resonates with so many aspects of Jewish civilization. It is perhaps the most Jewish of sports. I have several theories which I will share with you presently.
Baseball is not just about skill, although skill is crucial in playing and winning ballgames. At the highest level, it is like chess, a game of strategy, of thinking, which appeals to the Jewish mind. The general manager and manager must think three and four steps ahead of their opponents. Who should pitch next Thursday against Toronto and who will be best against the Yankees? Who should we bring up from Norfolk to fill the fifth starter’s position? How many relief pitchers should we carry and how often can they pitch? I can go on and on with the questions a manager must address every day but managers must think on multiple levels at the same time. For those of us used to study, we can appreciate the art of baseball.
Baseball is about memory. Every day players and teams compile statistics which are measured against that of themselves, other players, and teams for the last hundred years. Baseball aficionados can quote statistics with the ease of breathing. Recalling the players and teams of old is a great baseball pastime. Is this not what we do every day? We recall the glories of God and the blessings of ancient times. Zachor, remember, is one of the most prevalent words in the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible. Remembering is a mainstay of our Tradition just as it is in baseball.
Finally, baseball is about community, about working together as a team for the common good. As a noted sage once said, “There is no I in team.” While every player and manager wants to individually succeed, what is most important is how well they contribute to the well being of the team. Being a team player is the most important characteristic of a successful player. Being part of a team, another word for community, is what we Jews have in common. We intrinsically understand that it is our responsibility to work on behalf of the Jewish community, that what is truly important is the sustenance and strength of the community. While individually we are important, what matters most is what we contribute to the greater good. Every ball player wants to have a good year, but what is most important is that their team makes it to the play offs and the World Series. While it is crucial that individual Jews do well, it is even more important that we, as a Jewish community, thrive.
So you see, dear friends, baseball and Jewish life are bound together with commonalities. It is, therefore, not a coincidence that so many of us are drawn to the National Pastime. Let us just pray that the Orioles solve their pitching problems and make it again this year to the playoffs and beyond.

Amen and Shabbat shalom

Shabbat Shiur – May 17, 2013

This is the last of our Shabbat Shiur services for this program year. It is fitting that we end this series with two of the closing hymns that have been part of our service for the last seven hundred to one thousand years, Ein Keloheinu and Yigdal. Since Ein Keloheinu is the older of the two, we will start with this beloved hymn.
Ein Keloheinu is mentioned in the first prayer book composed by Amram Gaon in 9th century Babylonia, Maimonides in 12th century Egypt and Rashi in early 13th century France. The initial letters of the first three verses begin with an alef, mem, and nun, spelling Amen. The next two verses begin with the words, Baruch and Atah, forming the phrase, “Amen, Baruch Atah.” It is highly likely that the last verse in an earlier version begin with “Adonai.” The theme of Ein Keloheinu is the incomparability of God, who is our Lord, King, and Redeemer. Ein Keloheinu is recited daily in the Sephardic rite at the end of the morning service but is recited in the Ashkenazic rite only during the Shabbat Musaf (additional) service before the Aleinu. In the Traditional version, the last line reads, “Atah hu Shehiktiru Avoteinu L’fanecha et Ketoret Hasamim, You are the One before whom our ancestors offered fragrant incense.” American Reform prayerbooks eliminated this verse as early as the 1896 Union Prayer Book and continued to excise it even in Mishkan T’filah. As it says in the Reconstructionist Kol Haneshmah of 1996, “We delete this verse because of its nostalgic reference to Temple worship that implies a longing for the reinstitution of sacrifices that we do not share.” Ein Keloheinu became a prominent part of the Shabbat liturgy in the early Middle Ages when the rabbis of that period took Rabbi Meir’s Talmudic dictate literally, that every man must recite one hundred blessings a day. This is not difficult to do on weekdays because the thrice recited Amidah contains nineteen blessings each. It does, however, become a challenge on Shabbat when the thirteen petitionary blessings are replaced by a blessing for the Sabbath day. How does one make up all those blessings? The Shabbat Musaf service gave them seven. The extra Shabbat meal, seudat shlishit, provided another six. They still needed twenty. Its last two lines, Baruch Atah, suggest that it should count as a blessing. Any given blessing must mention God’s name only once. Here we have five lines, each one containing four names of God, (God, Lord, King, Redeemer). We have five lines, each with four names of God. 5×4 = 20!
Yigdal is the more recent of the two, It paraphrases Maimonides Thirteen Articles of Faith as presented in his commentaryto the Mishnah, written between 1158 and 1168 in Egypt. They are: 1. God’s existence; 2. God’s unity and singularity; 3. God’s incorporeality; 4. God’s eternality; 5. God as the Creator of all; 6. God’s gift of prophecy and prophets to Israel; 7. Moses as the greatest of the prophets; 8. The Torah as God’s unique revelation to Israel; 9. The singularity and immutability of God’s Torah; 10. God’s omniscience; 11. God’s providence, rewarding the upright and punishing the wicked; 12. The future coming of the Messiah to inaugurate the divine redemption of Israel; 13. God’s resurrection of the dead at the time of the future redemption. The Reform siddur replaced the last two verses with the belief in an everlasting redemption and that God has implanted eternal life within us. The poem that we know as Yigdal is generally ascribed to the fourteenth century Italian poet Daniel ben Judah, a dayyan, judge in Rome’s beit din, rabbinic court. Some scholars ascribe its authorship to the poet Immanuel ben Solomon of Rome, a contemporary of Daniel ben Judah. It is metrically constructed and has a single rhyme throughout. In the Ashkenazi liturgy, it is printed at the beginning of the morning service but only recited at the conclusion of the Erev Shabbat and festival evening services. It is recited in the same place in the Sephardic, Italian, and Yemenite services. The Chasidim do not recite it at all. The Ashkenazi version has thirteen lines, one for each article of faith. The Sephardic version adds a line, “These are the thirten bases of the Jewish faith and the tenet’s of God’s law.” Yigdal has a number of distinct melodies all of which reflect the musical traditions of the local populations. One in particular has achieved fame, the “Leoni Yigdal,” attributed to Meyer Leon, hazzan at the Duke’s Place Ashkenazi synagogue in London. A Methodist minister, Thomas Olivers, once heard the cantor sing the Yigdal there. He decided to render it into English and introduce it into Christian worship. First published in 1770, “The God of Abraham Praise,” became immediately popular and is sung to this day in the

Shavuot Is Almost Here! May 10, 2013

Shavuot is almost Here!
May 10, 2013
While almost all of us observe Mother’s Day in some manner, few
of us take Shavuot, which we observe this Tuesday night and
Wednesday as seriously as the recent man made commercial observance
of Mother’s Day. Shavuot is one of the three Torah based festivals God
mandates we observe, beginning with Pesach in the early spring and
culminating with Sukkot in the fall. Each of these festivals is
agriculturally based. Pesach is the early spring festival of the farmers
and shepherds. The farmers would take the spring grain, grind it into
cakes like tortillas or pitas and then bring a Thanks offering to God. The
shepherds would take a lamb from the flock and offer it as a Thanks
offering to God. Shavuot is the festival of first fruits, when the farmers
would bring the first fruits of the spring harvest as an offering to God.
Sukkot celebrates the fall harvest when the Jewish people’s relative
righteousness would be reflected in the size of the harvest.
The brilliance of the rabbis is reflected in how each of these
festivals became associated with the Exodus from Egypt, the formative
event in our history. Pesach celebrates the Exodus itself. The seder
reminds us that each of us journeyed from slavery to freedom, redeemed
by God’s saving power. Sukkot speaks of the long journey from Egypt
to the promised land. It reminds us that we were remade during that
time. We shed our slave mentality and became partners with God in the
redemption of the land. Shavuot commemorates the giving of Torah at
Sinai. It reminds us that true freedom only comes with responsibility. It
is this connection with Torah of which I speak tonight, for without Torah
we have no truth, no existence, and no life. Without Torah, the Jewish
people would be just like every other group. There would be no reason
for our continued existence. With Torah, we have a special purpose, to
be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, to bring the light of God’s
teaching into the dark comers of the world, to bring healing to the
afflicted, and to hasten the day, through our righteous acts, that God’s
Kingdom will be brought to fruition right here on earth.
One of the most important points I can make tonight is that the
Torah does not separate laws into categories. There is no distinction in
our holy text between civil, criminal, and religious laws. All law comes
from God. The Torah does not make a difference between morality and
public policy. All belongs to God who distinguishes only between
sacred and profane, Israel and the nations. It is exceedingly difficult and
somewhat specious for us to separate politics from moral issues because
that concept is anethema to the Torah and the Jewish Tradition>
For all its grandeur, however, the rabbis teach us that the Torah
speaks in human language, meaning that it is comprehensible and
relevant to our human predicament, that regardless of the situation, we
can find wisdom and meaning through Torah. An example of this is
from the Book of Deuteronomy, 23: 17, which states, “You shall not
return a runaway slave to its master.” This verse should have made our
ancestors natural opponents of slavery but today speaks to us about a
situation that brings shame on our country, the illegal status of over
eleven million immigrants who live in the shadows of our law and
society. They work hard, pay taxes, raise their children but have no
legal protections and no path to citizenship. Congress is currently
working to pass a law that will provide a ten year path towards
citizenship, once it is determined that 90% of our Southern border with
Mexico is secured. It is this requirement that remains a stumbling block
because even though we need a secure border, how can we determine
whether it is 75, 80, or 90% secured? What does that even mean?
Meanwhile, millions are still waiting and yearning for the opportunities
and privileges we so take for granted.
What does the Torah teach us about illegal immigration? A great
deal, actually. We are taught that there should be one law for the citizen
and the stranger alike. We are commanded to consider the needs of the
stranger who lives within our gates. We must give the resident alien the
same protections that are extended to ourselves. Why does Torah
mandate such provisions for the stranger? Abraham and Sarah were
refugees, forced from their homeland by religious persecution, needing
to find a place where they could worship the one God. Moses was a
political refugee, granted asylum by the Midianites after fleeing from the
Egyptians. Of course, we have been, throughout our history, strangers in
strange lands, seeking refuge from religious and economic persecution.
We can each tell a story about our own ancestors who came to this
country hoping for a better life. My grandfather, Samuel Fink, deserted
the Czar’s army during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Why would a
Jewish boy fight for the hated Czar against the Japanese against whom
he had nothing? According to family legend, he awoke in the middle of
the night while on bivuoc, stole the boots of his comrades, put them in a
cart which he “requisitioned,” and drove horse and cart out of Russia,
traveling by night and hiding by day, selling the boots as he needed
money to pay for his passage to America. My grandfather was a
political refugee, seeking asylum from having to fight in a war in he had
no stake. Our own Cantor Braun came here twenty years ago from a
collapsing Soviet Union so she could live a Jewish life in a stable and
safe land. We are to have empathy with illegal immigrants, not merely
sympathy for their plight, for we have known what it is they are living
through each and every day.
It is up to us to pressure Congress to reach a concensus on this
immigration bill, to end their political divisions, and to ensure, as does
the Torah, that there is one law for the citizen and stranger alike.
Amen

“Bar Mitzvah” Sermon – April 19, 2013

“Zeh Hayom Asa Adonai, Nagilah v’Nismicha Vo- This is the day that God has made. Come and let us rejoice in it.”
Words of gratitude are inadequate to describe my emotions at this outpouring of affection and support. I thank each and every one of you for being with us for this celebration. Forgive me if I speak tonight for a bit longer than my usual twelve to fifteen minutes. There is much to be said and there are many to be thanked. First and foremost, this celebratory weekend is not just about me. It is a commemoration of what we as a congregation have achieved over these last fourteen years, of how clergy, staff, and lay leadership have worked together in relative harmony to create a warm, loving, and inclusive congregation that has survived the most difficult economic downturn since the Great Depression and is thriving. Since Sally and our children arrived here in 1999, we have together achieved all the goals of Project Joseph as well as many we could not envision at the time. We are on the cutting edge of Jewish life, dealing with all the issues, in a healthy way, which confront our Jewish community in the second decade of the twentieth century. The journey has not always been easy. The road has sometimes been rocky, but we have gone done this path together. On this Shabbat we celebrate the family of families that makes Temple Oheb Shalom what it is today, poised for greatness on the cusp of its 160th anniversary.
I begin my thanks by asking Sally to stand. She is my beloved wife of thirty six years and my partner in congregational life. She is my best friend and helpmate, an esteemed educator in her own right and a rabbi’s wife worthy of acclaim. I ask our children, all six of them, Nathaniel, Dana, Miriam, Jared, Benjamin and Harris to please rise. We could not be prouder of them since, as part of a rabbi’s family, they have always coped with the demands of congregational life. We are exceedingly proud of them as they are each devoted, personally and professionally, to strengthening Jewish life and healing humanity. I am so pleased that my Uncle Heim and Aunt Esther are with us, 96 and 94 years old respectively, my Uncle Mel and Aunt Judy, as well as my beloved cousins and dear friends. I thank you for making the arduous trip down the New Jersey Turnpike to join us.
This celebratory weekend has taken hundreds of hours of planning by a hard working and very committed committee of volunteers, chaired by Roz and Len Goldheim. I ask Roz and Len to please rise and receive the applause they so richly deserve. Will all the members of the committee now rise to receive our thanks: Adele Cohan, Adrienne Shutt, Audrey Rothschild, Barbara Frantzich, Bernie Mazer, Caren Leven, Carla Surdin, Carol Milner, Carol Needle, Carol Sevel, Cookie Sless, David Willner, Diane Israel, Emily Singer, Jerald Lurie, Jesse Harris, Julie Dechowitz, Ken Davidson, Lynne Elkes, Marilynn Appel, Maxine Lowy, Michael Pachino, Monroe Zeffert, Nancy Sacks, Rob Strupp, Roz Cornblatt , Len and Roz Goldheim, Sally Fink, Stacy Fox Crain, Susan Albert Rubenstein, Terry Willner, Theodore [Ted] Cornblatt, Vicki Spira, Richard Milner, Ellen L. Taylor, M.D., Cantor Renata Braun, Rabbi Scott Nagel, and Rabbi Donald Berlin. There are several committee members who must be singled out for special acknowledgement. Susan and Ken Davidson, Monroe Zeffert, and my precious machatenesta, Carla Surdin, have devoted hours upon hours in preparing for this weekend. We are grateful to you for all you have given. This list of thanks would not be complete without thanking my friends and colleagues, Rabbi Scott Nagel, Cantor Renata Braun, Rabbi Donald Berlin, Ken Davidson, and especially Maxine Lowy for their contributions. Maxine, I know how proud your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents would be of you for your hard work and devotion to Oheb Shalom. We thank and praise you.
This congregation would not be where it is today without the loving devotion of many lay leaders. I invite all past-officers and board members to please rise. Now I invite all who have given of themselves, financially or with service, to Oheb Shalom to please rise. Now I ask all those who have studied at Oheb Shalom at any point in their lives to please rise. Oheb Shalom has deeply touched thousands of us over the generations and continues to be a source of inspiration in our lives.
I have been a rabbi for thirty four years, the last fourteen at Oheb Shalom. In Hebrew, the number fourteen is equivalent to the word yad, meaning “hand.” I believe that the hand of God has worked quietly and often unobtrusively in helping me be your rabbi. Serving as your shaliach tsibur, a delegate of the community, is a privilege and challenge for which I am continually grateful. I never take for granted the honor of being Oheb Shalom’s fifth senior rabbi, part of the Shalshelet HaKabbalah, the chain of tradition, established by my predecessors, each of whom was a giant of the American rabbinate: Rabbis Benjamin Szold, William Rosenau, Abraham Shaw, and Donald Berlin. Oheb Shalom has become our family and Baltimore has become our home. This congregation, unlike most others, still retains the tradition of Kavod HaRav, respect for the rabbi and especially for the Jewish Tradition he represents. While we no longer rise when the rabbi enters the room, this rabbi understands that respect is tendered in many different ways, most especially in this celebratory Shabbat. Someday, I hope many decades from now, Sally and I will rest for all eternity in the Oheb Shalom Memorial Park, joined with you in death as we have been in life. When a congregation gives its rabbi cemetery plots, the rabbi knows he is at home.
I rarely speak about or call attention to myself. That is not the way of the rabbi. The rabbi is a teacher whose subject is Torah, a mesader kiddushin, a facilitator of holy moments, and a representative of the Jewish community. On none of these occasions is the person of the rabbi to be featured. If the rabbi becomes the object of celebrity, something deeply wrong is taking place. I am emotionally overwhelmed by the attention given to me and am a bit uncomfortable with it. I have tried my very best, in the words of my first senior rabbi, Bertram W. Korn, to be an exponent of Judaism, a teacher, preacher, pastor, counselor and leader, whose mission touches every fiber of my life, and who strives to be a living example of my commitments and convictions. I have endeavored to bring my life into consonance with our sacred teachings. This means that my inevitable inadequacies and failings will be ever more conspicuous because they are public ones. This is the price the rabbi pays for being a teacher of Judaism. His actions are more important than his words.
While my dear parents, Minnie and James Fink, programmed me to become a professional, they were mystified by my choice of the rabbinate. That is because being a rabbi is a profession like no other. If a rabbi views his career as being like that of other professions, he will be severely disappointed and will soon leave the field. The rabbi must feel that his or her life is a calling, that in some existential and unfathomable way, God is reaching out to him and requiring him, like the ancient prophets, to serve as His messenger, a spokesman for the values of Judaism and one who testifies to the presence of Adonai in our lives. The rabbi is a symbolic exemplar, the one who “reveals the presence of God in his personal life and who does his utmost to live by the teachings of God’s Torah. “This does not mean the rabbi can serve as a mediator between his people and God. It does mean that many people will come no closer to God than the rabbi who believes in God, the one who reveals God’s presence in his life.”
The rabbi revels in the joys and triumphs in his congregant’s lives and stands with them during the times of darkness, as they walk through the valley of deepest shadows, when disillusionment and despair are all around them. “Daily he confronts personal grief and social evil, yet still cherishes the Messianic hope” that someday there will be a better world, that humanity, in partnership with God, will bring forth the age for which we daily pray, “Thus it has been said, Adonai will be Sovereign over all the earth. On that day, Adonai will be one and God’s Name will be one.” The rabbi must be a champion of hope, one who stands for human dignity, righteousness and peace. I pray every day that I am worthy to be a member of this holy profession.
Why did I become a rabbi? I look back and try to understand my motivations. I think there are three reasons, all of which, in retrospect, seem to make sense. The first is family. I grew up in a close, loving, and supportive nuclear and extended family system. I always felt best in the midst of family. Growing up in a time when anti-Semitism was rife, my experiences outside of family and Jewish community were negative, while those within the family were overwhelmingly positive. Ever since, I have desired to base my life within the extended family of the Jewish community where I am most at home and accepted. This congregation has truly become my extended family.
The second reason is values. I came to realize at a relatively young age that in order for values to make a difference they must be based on something permanent rather than upon that which is ephemeral and changing. Our Jewish values are based in the teaching of the Eternal One. While our understanding of God’s values is evolutionary, the Source of all value is permanent.
The third reason is a search for meaning. Our lives mean little if we do not become part of something greater than ourselves. There is nothing that provides greater meaning than being part of the brit, the eternal covenant between God and Israel. Our task as Jews is to live by the terms of this covenant by striving, as this week’s Torah reading tells us, “to be holy.” As we will learn tomorrow, we become holy not just through words but through actions. We become holy in relationship with other people. Holiness is not a state we permanently enter. It is an ongoing process which we may temporarily achieve and towards which we continuously struggle. God has set us apart from other peoples to be holy in our deeds, to serve as a moral beacon to others, and as light unto the nations to the entire world. That is our task as Jews. It is my privilege as your rabbi to serve as a guide for you in our ongoing pursuit of holiness.

Amen and Shabbat Shalom

———————————————————-

i Dr. Bertram W. Korn, Ordination sermon to HUC-JIR, June 9, 1968.
ii Ibid.

Shabbat Shiur

Adon Olam

March 15, 2013

 

         Once a month for the last two years, we have taken one Shabbat as a teaching opportunity called Shabbat Shiur.  We have explicated the various parts of our Erev Shabbat Service.  We will conclude this part of Shabbat Shiur within the next few months.  Tonight, we learn more about one of our most popular hymns, Adon Olam, which we sing at the conclusion of our Erev Shabbat or Shabbat Morning Service.  Interestingly, Adon Olam is a short piyyut, or liturgical poem, that was first placed in the beginning of the morning service, where it is still sung in Traditional siddurim.  It contains metrical monorhymed verses, ending in ra. Two different versions exist.  The shorter version, which we sing, is commonly recited in Ashkenazic congregations.  Sephardic congregations add several lines, one of which is “Bli erech, bli demion, without equal, without like,” referring of course, to God.  Adon Olam means “Eternal God,” and focuses on the theme of God’s eternality and the speaker’s faith in God’s providence.  It references some of the most well known verses in the 23^rd Psalm.  When the psalmist says, “I will fear no evil for you are with me,” the poet writes, “God is with me, I have no fear.”  When the psalmist exalts that “my cup runneth over,” Adon Olam refers to God as “my cup of life.” 

         Authorship of Adon Olam has been attributed to the great Spanish poet Solomon ibn Gabirol but there is no compelling proof of his authorship.  It may have been written in Babylonia in the 11^th or 12^th centuries and spread from there to the rest of the Jewish world.  The themes of Adon Olam suggest that it was written originally as a night time prayer and was incorporated within the nighttime ritual to be recited after the Sh’ma.  Adon Olam appears in Hebrew manuscripts prior to the invention of printing.  With the adoption of the printed siddur, it became a universal part of the Jewish liturgy, usually opening the Weekday morning service.  It is one of the most popular pieces of Jewish music and is the source of literally hundreds of arrangements.  Cantor Braun will not share hundreds of arrangements with us tonight, but only a select few that represent the various melodies that we have sung for the last five hundred years.

Boy Scout Shabbat Sermon – March 8, 2013

We are delighted to once again welcome the Scouts and adult leaders of Troop 97 to our Erev Shabbat service. This is an annual event going back to 1948, when Troop 97 was first sponsored by the Oheb Shalom Brotherhood, now Men’s Club. This is the 65th anniversary of the relationship between Temple Oheb Shalom and Troop 97. Created in the same year as the State of Israel, Troop 97 has grown, prospered, and contributed mightily to its host congregation.
We are exceedingly grateful to the scouts and leaders of Troop 97 for all the help they give us. From setting up chairs for the High Holydays to helping run our fantastic Purim Carnival, Troop 97 does good deeds on a regular basis. Its scouts have benefited our entire community through thousands upon thousands of hours of community service. Even more than that, Troop 97 has produced hundreds of young men of character and achievement. We are quite proud to be its sponsor.
It makes me even prouder to say that Troop 97 has made it clear that it will not discriminate against LGBT scouts and scout leaders. It has proclaimed its openness to any scout regardless of sexual orientation. While it often takes a young person a long time to figure out if he is gay or straight, we understand that a person is born with a particular sexual orientation. Discriminating against gay scouts is as ridiculous as discriminating against someone who is born with blue or brown eyes or red hair. Boy scouting, just like the military, should be open to all who want to be part of something larger than them selves. One’s character has little or nothing to do with one’s sexual orientation. One can be a loyal, trustworthy, and hardworking scout and be gay or straight. What is crucial about a person is the quality of their character. Boy scouting is an opportunity for young men to develop and test their character in a variety of situations. That is something that should be available to all.
I deeply regret that the Boy Scouts of America has postponed a vote ending the national ban on gay scouts until May 24, during the annual meeting. It was supposed to be held on January 28, but internal opposition led to it being postponed. The internal debate is being shaped by “two great forces that have defined scouting for decades: The huge role played by churches in sponsoring scout troops and the tradition of local control, which can differ greatly from urban downtowns to rural farm country. Maintaining local control became a crossroads of the debate. Although many of the church sponsors, almost 70% of local scout units are backed by a religious based group are culturally conservative, they also hugely cherish the right to make scouting an adjunct of their respective belief systems. In Mormon led scout troops, a Mormon prayer usually opens and closes a troop’s meeting, while in a Catholic group, it might be the Lord’s Prayer.”
There are approximately 40,000 Jewish scouts in the United States, represented by the National Jewish Committee on Scouting. The National Jewish Committee recently held a vote on whether to end the ban. The vote was 27 in favor of ending the ban, one opposed with one abstention. The National Jewish Committee on Scouting is clearly more inclusive than the national body as a whole.
Since 2000, when a 5-4 ruling by the United States Supreme Court affirmed the Boy Scout’s right to ban gay scouts, the Boy Scouts of America has lost one-fifth of its membership. As a consequence of the ban, the Reform Movement’s Commission on Social Action urged its congregation’s to withdraw sponsorship of Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs. Temple Oheb Shalom recognized the importance of Troop 97 to the boys and adults who are part of it and urged the leadership of Troop 97 to develop a non-discrimination policy which it immediately, to its great credit, developed. The question will come before us again in late May if the 1,400 member national ruling council of Boy Scouts of America votes to affirm its ban on gay scouts. If that happens, and I sincerely pray it does not, I will urge the leadership of Troop 97, along with that of other Jewish scout troops, to re-consider their ties to the national organization. It certainly would be an option for the synagogue sponsored scout troops to create their own national governing body until the national council comes to its senses. Needless to say, this is a difficult subject that is religiously and culturally divisive. The country, however, is changing. Most Americans today uphold the right of LGBTs to legally marry and live without fear of discrimination. We pray that the Boy Scouts of America will do the same.

Amen and Shabbat Shalom

One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago

One hundred fifty years ago, on January 1, 1863, President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.  First issued by President Lincoln following the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, where General McClellan stymied the Army of Virginia’s northern advance on September 22, 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation was perhaps the most revolutionary document enacted by a sitting president in our history.  President Lincoln, acting upon his own authority, issued the Emancipation Proclamation which declared that “all slaves in the rebellious states are and henceforward shall be free.”  Despite its profound psychological and emotional impact upon millions of Americans, the Emancipation Proclamation had limited effect.  It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union and left slavery untouched in the Border States that had remained loyal to the Union, Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware and Maryland.  It also had no effect upon slavery in the areas of the Confederacy then occupied by Federal forces.  Significantly, it opened up enlistment in the Army to former slaves.  Prior to this, former slaves were limited to serving in the Navy.  Ultimately, the Emancipation Proclamation enabled 200,000 black soldiers and sailors to fight for the Union cause.

         Reaction to the Emancipation Proclamation was predictably mixed.  Most Republicans and Abolitionists were delighted and slave owners and Democrats were outraged.  It did strengthen Northern resolve by adding a moral force to the war to the preserve the Union.  Suddenly, the Civil War became a war for freedom.

         The reaction among the Jewish community was as mixed as that of the general public.  There was no “Jewish vote” in 1862-63.  There were approximately 200,000 Jews in the United   States, the vast majority in the North.  Some 6,000 Jews fought for the Union and another 4,000, often from the same family, fought for the South.  Some rabbis were determined opponents of slavery and preached against it at every opportunity while others preached as vociferously in favor of the detested institution.  Rabbi David Einhorn of Har Sinai was literally run out of town because of his abolitionist views while Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise, the most well known rabbi in the country who later founded the HebrewUnionCollege and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, was decidedly neutral.  Rabbi Morris Raphall, a prominent New York rabbi, preached vehemently in favor of preserving the institution.   While individual Jews had differing opinions on slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation, there was not a “Jewish” reaction to it.

         As I noted earlier, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the border states.  That was accomplished by each individual state in their respective constitutional conventions.  For the next few minutes, I will tell you about one Jew who had more to do with abolishing slavery in Missouri than practically any one else.

         Isidor Bush fled to this country from his native Germany in 1948, one of thousands of political refugees who left after the collapse of the revolutionary movements in Central Europe.  He became a bookseller and publisher of the German language weekly, Israel’s Herold, which failed after three months.  He soon moved to the thriving city of St. Louis where his entrepreneurial skills were put to good use.  “At various times he was a grocer, real estate promoter, banker, actuary, hardware dealer, soldier, and railroad executive.  His major interests, however, were communal and political.  He was a founder of Congregation Beth El and a leader in B’nai Brith.  He served as a St. Louis alderman and as president of the St. Louis German Immigration Society.  He is most noted as a Republican member of the Missouri state constitutional conventions during the Civil War in which he fervently embraced the Union cause, an unpopular stance given the numbers of Confederate sympathizers in Missouri.  He served with distinction in the 1861 and 1862 sessions of the Missouri constitutional convention, so much so that he was one of nine elected to the important Committee on Emancipation in the 1863 session.  When the Committee on Emancipation voted to emancipate Missouri’s slaves in 1876, Bush presented an impassioned minority report of one.  This long document, which I will not repeat in toto, is accounted by some as leading to the emancipation in Missouri on January 1, 1865, a month before the historic vote in Washington, D.C., during which the House of Representatives voted on behalf of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution which abolished slavery in the re-united United States of American on December 6, 1865.

         Bush said, “The people of this State have to take a stand on one side or the other…to place ourselves on the middle ground  between the contending parties is to be destroyed by both fires.  When they decided to stay in the Union, to fight with the North in this struggle to maintain our national existence, this question was virtually decided.  You had only to draft the deed and to acknowledge it.  You ought to have declared simply that we will cheerfully sacrifice the institution of slavery, whose value has already been destroyed by this rebellion to our country…the great majority of people are in favor of emancipation…still you hesitate…Now, as the abolishment of slavery in Missouri cannot be avoided, does anyone on this floor really believe that slavery can exist until 1876 or 1870?…Some of the members of this Convention have drawn so horrible a picture of the evils resulting from emancipation the Negroes and leaving them afterwards free among us…they tell us that the Negroes would be but one great band of idlers and vagabonds, robbers, murderers, and thieves.  If this be true, I ask these gentlemen “Are these the boasted blessings of Christianity which you have claimed to have given these poor Africans in return for their freedom?”  I have no words for such slanders against poor human beings, so much sinned against.  It is not enough that you must charge them with crimes they never committed and never dreamt of.  I pray you have pity for yourselves, not for the Negro.  Slavery demoralizes, slavery fanaticism blinds you; it has arrayed brother against brother, son against father.  It has destroyed God’s noblest work- a free and happy people.  I am done and I move that this convention now adjourn without delay.” 

         Isidor Bush had a short lived, but crucial role, in the extension of civil rights and human freedom to African-Americans.  His speech moved the Missouri Constitutional Convention to free Missouri’s slaves with little delay.  There are few less well known than Isidor Bush who have made such a great contribution to this country and the honor of the Jewish people.  He died in St. Louis in 1898, six months after his 76^th birthday. May his memory always be a blessing and may Isidor Bush rest in peace.

 Amen and Shabbat shalom