173 00:26:07.980 --> 00:26:14.130 Marc Baker: Okay Erev Tov. Good evening, everyone. And thank you so much for joining us tonight, this is awesome already.
174 00:26:14.610 --> 00:26:23.160 Marc Baker: My name is Marc Baker. I'm the President and CEO of Combined Jewish Philanthropies and while I wish we could be together in person.
175 00:26:23.550 --> 00:26:31.650 Marc Baker: This is just another example of the new ways that we are creating community and connection during this strange and challenging time.
176 00:26:32.580 --> 00:26:37.410 Marc Baker: For so many of us, the High Holidays are one of the most meaningful times of the year.
177 00:26:38.190 --> 00:26:49.680 Marc Baker: To come together in person with our whole community, with our families, for many of us. These are the days of the year when we attend synagogue, sometimes the only days of the year, kind of like a pilgrimage.
178 00:26:50.370 --> 00:26:59.610 Marc Baker: And for many of us, these are the days when we look forward to meals and time with family and friends and this year, for most of us, things are going to be different.
179 00:27:00.510 --> 00:27:14.670 Marc Baker: How we celebrate the High Holidays will be yet another disruption to our personal lives, our ritual lives, our community, to the rhythm of the Jewish year that forms are Jewish memory and shapes our identities.
180 00:27:16.110 --> 00:27:28.980 Marc Baker: At the same time, there's unprecedented opportunities to access Jewish content learning and prayer, to connect with community and to one another in new ways. And tonight is just one of those examples.
181 00:27:29.670 --> 00:27:35.460 Marc Baker: I'm not sure we could have pulled this off in person. Actually, especially during the days leading up to Rosh HaShanah.
182 00:27:36.300 --> 00:27:45.240 Marc Baker: So first I want to thank my colleagues, especially Arielle Williams, Carissa Woolf and Rabbi Elyse Winick who made this happen on the CJP end,
183 00:27:45.690 --> 00:27:54.270 Marc Baker: And thank you to the amazing and diverse group of rabbis, leaders and teachers who are with us tonight in one of the busiest and most intense weeks of their year.
184 00:27:54.690 --> 00:27:59.280 Marc Baker: They've come into our homes to share their Torah and words of inspiration with us.
185 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:12.300 Marc Baker: These teachers reflect the diversity of our Jewish community and the breadth of ways that anyone who wants to find meaning and connection in Judaism and Jewish life can do it here in Greater Boston
186 00:28:13.020 --> 00:28:27.030 Marc Baker: And the fact that we're all together tonight reflects the power of a welcoming, inclusive, caring and creative Greater Boston Jewish community that is stronger because of its diversity and not in spite of it.
187 00:28:27.900 --> 00:28:47.100 Marc Baker: Thank you, all of you for holding our community of communities on your shoulders over these past six months and for your vision, passion and leadership as we celebrate this new year and look toward the future. And thanks to all of you for showing up and choosing to be part of this.
188 00:28:48.180 --> 00:29:00.630 Marc Baker: And by this I mean tonight's Rosh HaShanah Seder, but I also mean our community, the Jewish people, the thousands year old Jewish conversation that is still unfolding today.
189 00:29:01.500 --> 00:29:14.370 Marc Baker: When you choose to participate, when you choose to show up, step up, to give in all of the incredible ways that each of you does. You are contributing your unique voice to this.
190 00:29:15.150 --> 00:29:22.860 Marc Baker: You're helping to build a Jewish community in which every neshamah, every soul, every voice, every human being matters.
191 00:29:23.460 --> 00:29:32.370 Marc Baker: A community in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You're helping to create a Judaism that is dynamic, creative and inclusive.
192 00:29:33.150 --> 00:29:39.840 Marc Baker: That honors thousands of years of wisdom, practice and tradition, while living out the innovative spirit
193 00:29:40.380 --> 00:29:48.390 Marc Baker: that has not only kept us alive, but kept us thriving, adapting and relevant to our changing lives in our changing world.
194 00:29:48.990 --> 00:29:56.730 Marc Baker: Together, we are ensuring that our Torah is timeless and that we contribute our unique voices,
195 00:29:57.150 --> 00:30:14.370 Marc Baker: our Jewish voices, to a human conversation into the most pressing issues facing our 21st century world. That's what you do every time you choose to be part of Jewish community and Jewish life. Thank you. Which brings me to tonight.
196 00:30:15.720 --> 00:30:28.140 Marc Baker: So, while my family does have the tradition of blessing new fruits as simanim, signs and symbols on Rosh HaShanah, I confess that I hadn't heard of the concept of a Rosh HaShanah Seder,
197 00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:38.850 Marc Baker: which it seems comes to us through the Sefardi and Mizrahi traditions. That tells you something about Ashkenazi American Judaism.
198 00:30:39.450 --> 00:30:47.280 Marc Baker: What I love about the formalization of these blessings into a seder, though, is that just like with a Passover Seder
199 00:30:47.940 --> 00:31:00.420 Marc Baker: we're reminded and one of the greatest aspects of Rabbinic Judaism, the shift from a priest-centered and Temple-centered Jewish life to a family-centered and home-centered Jewish life.
200 00:31:01.290 --> 00:31:10.260 Marc Baker: When we celebrate Rosh HaShanah in our own homes, just like when we light Shabbat candles, study Torah, even read Jewish books with our kids,
201 00:31:10.740 --> 00:31:25.290 Marc Baker: We are living the Torah's vision of Mamlekhet Kohanim, of a nation of priests. Each of us are the spiritual leaders and the transmitters of meaning and connection to one another and to our next generation.
202 00:31:26.040 --> 00:31:37.980 Marc Baker: Of course, we acknowledge and mourn the loss of the Temple in Jerusalem. And this year, many of us are mourning the loss of being able to get together in our local synagogues and temples, the way we are used to.
203 00:31:38.820 --> 00:31:52.830 Marc Baker: Yet as it said in last week's Torah portion, we don't need to go anywhere to find our connection to God or to Torah or even to one another, not to the heavens and not across the sea.
204 00:31:53.340 --> 00:31:54.930 Marc Baker: And not even down the street.
205 00:31:55.560 --> 00:32:08.070 Marc Baker: Ki karov eyleikha hadavar, b'fikha u'bilvavkha la'asoto. Because the word, the practice, the teaching, the meaning and the connection are close to you.
206 00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:13.830 Marc Baker: There in your mouths and they're in your hearts to do them to observe them and to live them out.
207 00:32:14.760 --> 00:32:30.780 Marc Baker: Tonight we prepare for the High Holiday season in which we're going to need to bring a little extra intention, a little extra sanctity to the mikdashim, to the sanctuaries that are our homes, our families, our tables and yes, our food.
208 00:32:31.800 --> 00:32:42.450 Marc Baker: The ritualizing of food is a way to turn even a date, an apple, a fish into a means of connection, a powerful symbol of our past and our future,
209 00:32:42.810 --> 00:32:52.560 Marc Baker: our hopes and our intentions for ourselves, our families and for the world that we aspire and commit to co-creating together.
210 00:32:53.220 --> 00:33:10.140 Marc Baker: So I'd like to bless us as we start this seder y'hi ratzon, may we be together, learn together and celebrate together with gratitude and appreciation for our Creator and for the world that renews itself every year and every day.
211 00:33:10.800 --> 00:33:23.850 Marc Baker: And may we affirm our shared ethical and spiritual responsibility to keep playing our parts as creators and repairers. Our community and our world need us right now.
212 00:33:24.600 --> 00:33:33.240 Marc Baker: I'm looking forward to a meaningful seder tonight and wishing all of you a Shanah Tovah u'Metukah, a sweet, happy and healthy New Year.
213 00:33:39.930 --> 00:33:56.280 Hollis Schachner: Hello everybody. I am Cantor Hollis Schachner from Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland. It is such an honor to be with everyone this evening. Apples and honey for Rosh HaShanah, a good year sweet year. Tapuhim
214 00:33:57.420 --> 00:33:57.750 Hollis Schachner: U'dvash L'Rosh HaShanah.
215 00:33:59.010 --> 00:34:04.380 Hollis Schachner: Tapuhim U'dvash L'Rosh HaShanah.
216 00:34:05.790 --> 00:34:12.330 Hollis Schachner: Perhaps there is no taste more closely bound to Rosh HaShanah than apples dipped in honey.
217 00:34:12.840 --> 00:34:23.640 Hollis Schachner: And if your family is anything like mine, it's a very highly anticipated ritual right around now to head to an apple orchard, preferably one where you're allowed to climb the ladders.
218 00:34:24.090 --> 00:34:38.070 Hollis Schachner: And having grown up in Miami, with a yard, full of mangoes and coconuts and avocados, I have to say there's something so enchanting and magical about picking my own apple for Rosh HaShanah right from a tree.
219 00:34:38.670 --> 00:34:45.210 Hollis Schachner: And apple trees also involve the enchantment, they invoke the enchantment of Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.
220 00:34:45.600 --> 00:34:54.150 Hollis Schachner: Especially up in the north where apples grow in the Golan Heights, mere miles from the orange and mango groves down in the valley below.
221 00:34:54.600 --> 00:35:05.430 Hollis Schachner: It's so magical to me, the way the land of Israel provides for these fruits to grow so closely to each other when my sense of climate scale carries me from Florida to New England.
222 00:35:06.030 --> 00:35:15.210 Hollis Schachner: And if Israel is aland of apples, it's also most certainly a land of honey, as the Torah teaches milk and honey, Eretz Zavat Halav.
223 00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:19.830 Hollis Schachner: While today we tend to dip our apples in honey made by bees.
224 00:35:20.670 --> 00:35:29.580 Hollis Schachner: The d'vash in ancient days was likely honey made from tamarim, which I know you'll hear more about soon, from dates. A syrup that's known as Silan,
225 00:35:29.940 --> 00:35:33.990 Hollis Schachner: which is ubiquitous in Israel, kind of like with maple syrup here in New England.
226 00:35:34.620 --> 00:35:48.030 Hollis Schachner: So for this Rosh HaShanah I have before me some early apples and some bee honey, and also a little bit of Silan from the land of Israel to feed that part of my soul, which is always facing east.
227 00:35:48.420 --> 00:35:57.000 Hollis Schachner: But why apples and honey specifically for Rosh HaShanah? Apples have always been highly symbolic in Jewish tradition.
228 00:35:57.330 --> 00:36:06.450 Hollis Schachner: Some, but not all of the sources, say it was an apple that Eve gave to Adam, but according to the Mishnah, apples symbolized Gan Eden, the Garden of Eden.
229 00:36:06.900 --> 00:36:16.440 Hollis Schachner: And also our ancestor Isaac said of his son Jacob, "Behold, the fragrance of my son is like the fragrance of a field which the Lord has blessed."
230 00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:23.880 Hollis Schachner: And the great sage Rashi taught that this was the scent of an apple orchard. The very fragrance of Gan Eden.
231 00:36:24.510 --> 00:36:38.130 Hollis Schachner: In Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs, we read gorgeous sensory, apple infused love poetry like, "Tahat hatapuah orartikha, Beneath the apple tree I aroused you."
232 00:36:38.610 --> 00:36:50.340 Hollis Schachner: And "V'reyah apekh katapuhim, Your breath is like the scent of apples," all long considered a poetic metaphor for the love between God and the people of Israel.
233 00:36:51.300 --> 00:36:59.700 Hollis Schachner: It's also worth reflecting that the first letters of these most famous words from the Song of Songs, "Ani l'dodi v'dodi li,
234 00:37:00.150 --> 00:37:11.130 Hollis Schachner: I am my beloved's and my beloved is for me" also spell out the Hebrew word for Elul, the month in which we find ourselves right now, preparing our hearts for the new year.
235 00:37:11.940 --> 00:37:24.180 Hollis Schachner: So in this way, that taste of apples on Rosh HaShanah is like a renewal of vows between the Jewish people and God, a promise of loving commitment for the year to come.
236 00:37:24.930 --> 00:37:35.400 Hollis Schachner: And in Gematria, the mystical numerical tradition, the word for honey, d'vash, corresponds to Av HaRahamim, a name of God meaning Father of Mercy.
237 00:37:35.850 --> 00:37:42.720 Hollis Schachner: So dipping our apples and honey is an embodied prayer for God's merciful judgment on Rosh HaShanah.
238 00:37:43.500 --> 00:38:00.840 Hollis Schachner: So bearing all of these traditions in mind we savor our Tapuhim U'Dvash with my favorite little children's folk song from Israel for this season, asking God to bless us with a new year as sweet as the taste of apples and honey Tapuhim U'Dvash
239 00:38:01.890 --> 00:38:03.480 Hollis Schachner: L'Rosh HaShanah
240 00:38:04.530 --> 00:38:05.910 Hollis Schachner: Tapuhim U'Dvash
241 00:38:07.260 --> 00:38:07.980 Hollis Schachner: L'Rosh HaShanah. Shanah Tovah, Shanah Metukah. Shanah Tovah, Shanah Metukah. Tapuhim U'Dvash L'Rosh HaShanah.
242 00:38:25.980 --> 00:38:26.910 Hollis Schachner: Tapuhim U'Dvash
243 00:38:27.930 --> 00:38:29.400 Hollis Schachner: L'Rosh HaShanah
244 00:38:32.370 --> 00:38:48.030 Hollis Schachner: And so we get to pick up a slice of apple and dip it in honey and even a little Silan, just because, and say Barukh Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh HaOlam Borei Pri HaEtz.
245 00:38:48.840 --> 00:38:59.940 Hollis Schachner: And we go on to say Y'hi Ratzon Milfanekha Adonai Eloheinu V'Elohei Avoteinu V'Imoteinu Shet'hadesh Aleinu Shanah Tovah U'Metukah.
246 00:39:00.390 --> 00:39:15.540 Hollis Schachner: We praise You, Adonai, our God, Sovereign of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the tree. May it be Your will, Adonai, our God and God of our ancestors to bless us all with a sweet, comfy, meaningful New Year.
247 00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:19.380 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Amen. Amen.
248 00:39:20.610 --> 00:39:22.470 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Thank you. Cantor Schachner.
249 00:39:22.560 --> 00:39:25.110 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And we move from apples and honey
250 00:39:25.170 --> 00:39:39.480 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: to dates as Cantor Hollis Schachner spoke about it. I am Rabbi Claudia Kreiman, Senior Rabbi of TBZ, Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts, and it's also an honor to be here with you.
251 00:39:40.230 --> 00:39:50.970 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: In our home, our practice is always to happen, to have all many kinds of foods at the table before we start the, the real meal.
252 00:39:51.420 --> 00:39:59.880 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And some of those are the traditional foods that we're doing today with all the Y'hi Ratzon, the May it be Your will blessings that we are going to be learning and saying tonight.
253 00:40:00.330 --> 00:40:10.320 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And sometimes some surprising foods that's not mine, my spouse puts them and we play with words and make up blessings. It can be from jelly beans to some
254 00:40:10.770 --> 00:40:23.070 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Strange veggies that are found at Russo's or Whole Foods to M&Ms. Those are the favorite of the kids to the traditional ones and we play with words, We
255 00:40:23.460 --> 00:40:33.360 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: use words in Hebrew, in English, in Spanish too, making up blessings for the year. And this is one of the things I love so much about Rosh HaShanah.
256 00:40:33.930 --> 00:40:44.910 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And especially about Rosh HaShanah Seder is the notion of using words to bless, because we all know about the power of words and a power of language.
257 00:40:45.240 --> 00:40:59.820 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And how words can bring blessing, but words can also hurt and can bring hatred to the world. So this seder has in it the meaning that actually words matter and that we can use our words for blessing.
258 00:41:00.540 --> 00:41:07.260 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Now dates. That's my, my favorite one. Always. Those are part of the traditional Rosh HaShanah Seder.
259 00:41:07.890 --> 00:41:22.230 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: One reason is because, as many of you know, dates are one of the seven species of Israel, and it's not when we say, like Cantor Hollis Schachner said, when we say Eretz Zavat Halav U'Dvash, Halav U'Dvash.
260 00:41:23.370 --> 00:41:33.330 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Actually, and this is like a sick or something that will may break a lot of your dreams. The dvash there, honey.
261 00:41:33.600 --> 00:41:45.750 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: The land that flows milk and honey is actually talking about Silan that we saw before, honey date, date honey, which is actually really, really delicious. So I really recommend.
262 00:41:47.250 --> 00:41:59.220 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Dates have a traditional blessing on Rosh HaShanah. Now, the traditional blessing that we say works with the word tamar, which is the word for dates, tamar.
263 00:42:00.150 --> 00:42:09.960 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: To add to the word tamu, tam, which means in Hebrew to end. So the traditional blessing says here, Y'hi ratzon milfanekha
264 00:42:10.260 --> 00:42:19.440 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Adonai Eloheinu v'Elohei avoteinu, May it be your will God and God of our ancestors that there come an end to our enemies,
265 00:42:20.010 --> 00:42:29.490 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: to our haters, and those who wish evil upon us. She'yitamu oyveinum v'soneinu, v'khol mvakshei ra'ateinu.
266 00:42:30.240 --> 00:42:44.220 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: The notion of playing with a word tamar to yitamu, that we can bring an end to hatred, to evil and to our enemies. Now there is a story I want to share with you, which is one of my favorites from
267 00:42:44.700 --> 00:42:53.760 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: from the Talmud, from the tractate of Brakhot, about Beruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir one of the only women
268 00:42:54.960 --> 00:43:08.970 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: that are named in the Talmud telling and teaching Torah and it's a story that has inspired me personally for many years and it works with the word tamu, yitamu from a verse of self. So this is the story.
269 00:43:10.230 --> 00:43:17.550 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: The Talmud tells us that there were thugs in the neighborhood of Rabbi Meir who caused him a great deal of trouble.
270 00:43:18.690 --> 00:43:27.300 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Rabbi Meir accordingly prayed that they should die. That's why you pray. There are thoughts in your in your neighbor you pray that they die.
271 00:43:27.990 --> 00:43:50.040 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And his wife, Beruriah, said to him, How do you make that such a prayer should be permitted? And she came and quoted for him as a verse from Psalms which says "Yitamu hataim min ha'aretz." Let hataim, let sins, wrongdoings cease from earth.
272 00:43:51.060 --> 00:44:00.630 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And she asked him, "Does it say hotim, does it say, the verse that the evil doers should end?"
273 00:44:01.350 --> 00:44:17.910 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Now for the Hebrew speakers, when you write hata'im or hotim, hata'im sins and hotim sinners, in Hebrew without nekudot, without the punctuation they look exactly the same. So you could make that confusion.
274 00:44:18.450 --> 00:44:29.580 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And she explained to him, "No, the verse says that you have to pray that sins and the wrongdoings end, not the wrongdoers."
275 00:44:29.970 --> 00:44:48.270 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: How does she explain that? She says to him, "What you don't need to pray, is that the people who are doing wrong, the thugs in the neighborhood should repent and if you pray for the repentance, then there won't be more sins, there won't be more sinners.
276 00:44:49.410 --> 00:44:58.500 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Beruriah in this incredible passage invites us to understand that the wrongdoing of people is a complicated thing to understand.
277 00:44:58.830 --> 00:45:14.580 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: And the prayer that she asked Rabbi Meir to say is a prayer of possibility of change. Beruriah speaks of hope, of the possibility of human beings to change, to grow, to repent.
278 00:45:15.210 --> 00:45:22.860 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Beruriah speaks to the possibility of redemption. So I would like to offer Beruriah's teaching as a teaching for us to look at the world.
279 00:45:23.520 --> 00:45:34.410 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Instead of feeling despair, fear, anger, that we all feel at this time as we live in so much darkness, so much suffering.
280 00:45:35.010 --> 00:45:46.710 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: I hear Beruriah's voice that says to me: Let's pray for the possibility of change. Let's believe that the world can be a different place that people can be different.
281 00:45:47.310 --> 00:45:57.930 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Let's not fall into despair and let's remember that prayer is not eough. So our hope and our prayer brings action to the world that make that change possible.
282 00:45:59.490 --> 00:46:05.820 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Now, in the spirit of playing with words in Hebrew and in English, I want to quote a friend of my family in Israel,
283 00:46:06.150 --> 00:46:19.470 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Rabbi Menachem Kalush, who always would say when I spend some Rosh HaShanah with him in Yerushalayim, he would take a date and he will play and this with my accent might not come through so well. So you have to
284 00:46:19.950 --> 00:46:34.920 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: try here: tamar, T A M A R is a word for date in Hebrew, he would say, or he says, I believe he still says this may be your will that we have a better
285 00:46:35.430 --> 00:46:56.250 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: tomorrow. Tamar, tomorrow. You get it? So the very thing with tamar is may be your will that we have a better tomorrow. So I invite us to say the traditional blessing that calls for the end of hatred and enemies and as Beruriah teaches us that change is possible.
286 00:46:57.510 --> 00:47:04.890 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Barukh Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh HaOlam borei pri ha'etz.
287 00:47:07.230 --> 00:47:28.740 Rabbi Claudia Kreiman: Y'hi ratzon lefanekha Adonai Eloheinu v'Elohei avoteinu, sheyitamu oyveinu v'soneinu v'khol m'vakshei ra'ateinu. May it be Your will God and God of our ancestors that there comes an end to an enemy's hatred and those who wish evil upon us. And may we have a better tomorrow. Amen.
288 00:47:33.150 --> 00:47:40.380 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): Hello there, my name is Molly keys and Marshall. I am the Outreach and Engagement Manager for 18 doors in Boston.
289 00:47:40.860 --> 00:47:47.850 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): I'm going to share my screen with you tonight because I did a whole bunch of research about the Rosh HaShanah Seder
290 00:47:48.210 --> 00:48:05.730 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): this is my very first Seder, and so I had a great time learning about all of the different parts of the Seder and hopefully you can hear me a little better now. All right, so let's share my screen.
291 00:48:09.750 --> 00:48:26.160 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): Here we go. All right so next up we have gezer, carrots and before this year. I never knew that carrots were a traditional Rosh HaShanah food. I grew up in an Ashkenazi family where Rosh HaShanah Seders we're not something that we often did.
292 00:48:26.700 --> 00:48:35.670 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): But in my learning. I learned, you know, Hebrew is all about the root words which is appropriate, considering that carrots are root vegetables.
293 00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:41.130 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): And so the Hebrew word gezer's root means both carrot and a decree.
294 00:48:41.610 --> 00:48:52.320 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): So with this in mind, we request that God withholds any evil decrees and only judges us with positive decrees, positive judgments and so
295 00:48:52.770 --> 00:49:03.480 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): I did a little bit of thinking about this, you know, a lot of what I do with 18Doors is thinking, how do we explain Jewish customs and ritual for folks who are unfamiliar,
296 00:49:03.780 --> 00:49:11.670 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): who are in interfaith families and relationships. How do we make sense of this in our own Jewish lives and in the lives of others.
297 00:49:11.970 --> 00:49:22.500 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): And so I actually found that when we turn to Eastern European Jews who spoke Yiddish, the word for carrot is similar to the word for more or increase
298 00:49:22.740 --> 00:49:35.730 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): So I was on the phone with my 90 year old grandmother today who grew up speaking Yiddish and don't blame her for my horrible pronunciation, but we have meren, which is to increase or more. And also, carrots, so
299 00:49:36.540 --> 00:49:48.480 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): I'm going to go with the Yiddish meaning here because that's what is meaningful to me. And what made sense to me. So I think we're going to talk a little bit about a blessing for increased bounty.
300 00:49:49.350 --> 00:50:00.600 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): We can pray for an increased bounty. We can hope for an increase bounty, but as those before me, said sometimes prayer is not enough. We have to make the change happen.
301 00:50:01.230 --> 00:50:10.440 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): So what are ways that we can work to bring more of that positivity and more of that bounty into our lives and the lives of others.
302 00:50:11.250 --> 00:50:16.980 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): So stick with me with this metaphor. right now. We're going to talk about a harvest it is harvest season.
303 00:50:17.550 --> 00:50:24.360 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): We spoke a little about going and going to an apple orchard and picking those apples off the tree and we are harvesting
304 00:50:24.870 --> 00:50:29.700 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): So with this harvest, we get more of a bounty when we harvest together.
305 00:50:30.360 --> 00:50:41.670 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): When we're in interfaith families when we're members of a larger community, when we're in our Greater Boston community, and when we're in our homes right now, maybe feeling separate from our larger community,
306 00:50:42.270 --> 00:50:55.620 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): We get more done when we harvest together, when we work towards a common goal, even if we approach things from different sides or different techniques, be it a different faith or a different culture or a different
307 00:50:56.640 --> 00:51:10.110 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): denomination of Judaism. It's better when we work together. So think now, what are the ways that you can work to increase your own bounty? How can you bring more positivity into your life and the lives of others?
308 00:51:10.710 --> 00:51:21.180 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): How can we work together to increase the bounty in our communities? What are the good things we can do to make sure that bounty can nourish all of us and not just a few of us?
309 00:51:22.530 --> 00:51:36.750 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): And how can we share this with all who are around us? If you have any ideas with the people who you're sitting with tonight, or maybe if you're going to go and chat with a friend or family later on, think for a moment.
310 00:51:37.140 --> 00:51:43.380 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): What are ways that you can increase the bounty? What are ways that you can spread positivity?
311 00:51:43.800 --> 00:51:55.440 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): There is so much going on right now that can make us feel bogged down with the negatives, we are getting rid of the hateful words and the negative decrees as Rabbi Claudia said
312 00:51:55.890 --> 00:52:07.950 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): And, so what can we do to bring more of the positive. So if you have ideas and want to share with the folks next to you if you're with family or friends tonight, feel free to do that for a moment.
313 00:52:09.090 --> 00:52:21.390 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): If you want to throw an idea in the chat box of ways that you can spread positivity, either within your home, your community, your Jewish community, your greater community, whatever it may be.
314 00:52:21.810 --> 00:52:30.690 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): I love to hear those ideas and even if spreading that positivity, starts small. You can help to increase the bounty to those around you.
315 00:52:31.650 --> 00:52:42.930 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): Now in my learning tonight. I found that this word for the increased bounty, the plenty for Yiddish and the words for carrots comes from cutting your carrots
316 00:52:43.170 --> 00:52:52.950 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): in the shape of a gold coin or silver dollar. So when you have your whole bowl of carrot circles, it looks like a whole bowl of plenty.
317 00:52:53.550 --> 00:53:12.120 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): And so think for a moment. How can we spread that with those around us? How can we make sure that everyone has access, everyone understands what's going on, everyone has a way to make meaning out of what you are doing? How do you spread that bounty?
318 00:53:13.500 --> 00:53:21.270 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): So with that, we can go and you'll have to forgive me again, Hebrew is not my top language.
319 00:53:21.990 --> 00:53:36.990 Molly Kazin Marshall, 18Doors (she/her): But I'm working on it. So we have Y'hi ratzon milfanekha Adonai Eloheinu v'Elohei avoteinu shetirgoz aleinu gezeirot tovot. May it be your will, Eternal God and the God of our ancestors that you decree for us good outcomes.
321 00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:47.940 Elyse Winick: We're going to move now into breakout rooms so that you'll have a chance to spend a little bit of time learning with
322 00:53:49.050 --> 00:54:04.290 Elyse Winick: friends in a smaller group. So if you'll be patient, our administrator is going to hit go on those breakout rooms, you'll get a pop up that invites you to accept the breakout invitation. Please accept it and we'll gather back together again in about 10 minutes.
323 00:54:45.360 --> 00:54:45.840 Elyse Winick: Alice
324 00:54:47.190 --> 00:54:48.030 Elyse Winick: Now you're muted.
325 00:54:50.490 --> 00:54:52.140 Hollis Schachner: Just making sure. Not everybody can hear me.
326 00:54:53.220 --> 00:54:54.720 Elyse Winick: That was so great. Thank you.
327 00:54:54.900 --> 00:54:58.890 Hollis Schachner: Oh. You're the sweetest. Thank you. I just, we're not talking to the whole group we're okay here.
328 00:54:59.130 --> 00:54:59.910 Elyse Winick: I think we're okay.
329 00:55:00.510 --> 00:55:05.130 Carissa Woolf: But there is, there are still a couple participants here. I'm not sure if they're just not
330 00:55:06.900 --> 00:55:07.470 Carissa Woolf: To join
331 00:55:09.690 --> 00:55:12.000 Jenny Wolfson: I think I may have X out by
332 00:55:14.010 --> 00:55:16.050 Carissa Woolf: Know Me Ok I can reach. Sorry.
333 00:55:16.320 --> 00:55:16.920 Carissa Woolf: Thanks for us.
334 00:55:16.950 --> 00:55:20.160 Elyse Winick: Please resend anybody who has been bounced back technology.
335 00:55:20.220 --> 00:55:21.480 Elyse Winick: Always does its own thing.
336 00:55:24.360 --> 00:55:26.700 Hollis Schachner: Elise, I may have to run to that board meeting of
337 00:55:26.700 --> 00:55:33.840 Elyse Winick: Course house, of course. Thank you so much for being with us. And I'll talk to you soon. Have a sweet and a healthy new year. Absolutely. Thank you to you.
338 00:55:33.840 --> 00:55:34.380 Too.
339 00:56:03.540 --> 00:56:04.560 Jenny Wolfson: Could you send me the
340 00:56:06.270 --> 00:56:09.810 Jenny Wolfson: To break out the link to break out. Sorry.
341 00:56:10.260 --> 00:56:14.220 Elyse Winick: Unfortunately, I don't have control over that charisma does I think she's working on it.
342 00:56:14.430 --> 00:56:18.720 Elyse Winick: Okay, who's the host of the meeting at any time affects it. Okay.
343 00:56:19.380 --> 00:56:19.800 Jenny Wolfson: Thank you.
344 00:56:20.340 --> 00:56:21.480 Carissa Woolf: Jenny. Did you just get it.
345 00:56:22.050 --> 00:56:22.590 Jenny Wolfson: No.
346 00:56:22.860 --> 00:56:23.460 Carissa Woolf: Okay, one more.
347 01:08:30.330 --> 01:08:34.290 Elyse Winick: We'll just give everyone a moment to come back from the breakout rooms and then we'll begin
348 01:09:14.490 --> 01:09:23.190 Elyse Winick: Want to remind everybody to please stay muted. And I'm going to turn the microphone over to Laura mendell for our next segment.
349 01:09:27.180 --> 01:09:31.380 Laura Mandel, JArts: Shanah Tovah everyone, and welcome back and
350 01:09:31.530 --> 01:09:43.290 Laura Mandel, JArts: So I am Laura Mandel, Executive Director of the Jewish Arts Collaborative and continuing with this theme of the breakout rooms. I wanted to give us a chance, rather than actually listening to me talk at first,
351 01:09:44.010 --> 01:09:56.400 Laura Mandel, JArts: look at a little art so anticipating that the High Holidays would be a little bit challenging this year, we had the good fortune of being able to commission a few artists to create some artwork for the holidays.
352 01:09:56.700 --> 01:10:03.900 Laura Mandel, JArts: And so what I want to do is share some work with you. So if you give me one moment. I'm going to screen share, hold on one second,
353 01:10:11.040 --> 01:10:13.410 Laura Mandel, JArts: Oh hold on one second. Sorry.
354 01:10:21.180 --> 01:10:26.640 Laura Mandel, JArts: I'm Elise, it's not seemingly letting me share
355 01:10:31.980 --> 01:10:34.410 Elyse Winick: On second you are host. So you should be
356 01:10:34.410 --> 01:10:35.520 Elyse Winick: Able to share
357 01:10:36.210 --> 01:10:36.660 See
358 01:10:39.720 --> 01:10:39.960 Oh,
359 01:10:41.640 --> 01:10:45.180 Laura Mandel, JArts: Forgive me, I'm gonna try this differently because it's not agreeing. Give me one second.
360 01:10:46.110 --> 01:10:57.330 Laura Mandel, JArts: So anyway, the story is that recognizing that the holidays would be a little bit challenging, we had the good fortune at the Jewish Arts Collaborative of working with an organization based in New York called Asylum Arts
361 01:10:58.110 --> 01:11:01.890 Laura Mandel, JArts: And they support Jewish artists making Jewish work around the world.
362 01:11:03.300 --> 01:11:06.570 Laura Mandel, JArts: And they said, we have these artists who really
363 01:11:07.110 --> 01:11:23.610 Laura Mandel, JArts: need some support and work right now, and so we were able to commission this project. And so the pieces I am about to show you were created by an artist named Shai Arik, who is Israeli, and unfortunately he couldn't be with us right now because it's the middle of the night by him.
364 01:11:24.840 --> 01:11:27.930 Laura Mandel, JArts: But hold on. Forgive me, I don't
365 01:11:31.860 --> 01:11:36.420 Laura Mandel, JArts: Okay, I apologize. Everyone is not letting me share so I'm
366 01:11:36.570 --> 01:11:41.310 Elyse Winick: Laura, if it's a file, you can easily send one of us can try to share it on your behalf.
367 01:11:41.550 --> 01:11:45.030 Laura Mandel, JArts: That's great. I'm going to do that right now. One second.
368 01:11:50.790 --> 01:11:56.340 Elyse Winick: Thanks for your patience. Everyone is, you know, as we said earlier on zoom does functional in the mind of its own.
369 01:11:56.700 --> 01:11:58.050 Laura Mandel, JArts: Never know. Right.
370 01:11:58.980 --> 01:11:59.850 Laura Mandel, JArts: Okay, well done.
371 01:12:01.650 --> 01:12:10.020 Laura Mandel, JArts: All right, Elise, I just sent it to you. And as long as she's pulling it up. I will go in reverse order. And I will tell you that as soon as you see this image that we're about to share
372 01:12:10.440 --> 01:12:20.010 Laura Mandel, JArts: Like I said, Shai is an Israeli artist, primarily photography and video and I was so taken by this piece he did so he created
373 01:12:20.370 --> 01:12:27.360 Laura Mandel, JArts: artworks around each of the seven species. And it's interesting because for him as an Israeli he has a very different connection
374 01:12:27.870 --> 01:12:40.050 Laura Mandel, JArts: to the seven species than we as American Jews, for the most part, might I think within the US, we tend to think of the seven species is kind of a religious thing,
375 01:12:40.890 --> 01:12:56.310 Laura Mandel, JArts: Or like a symbol that goes with the holidays, whereas in Israel. He just actually wasn't even aware of them. So he was doing his own learning to understand these symbols and and so he wrote to go with each of these images, a piece that was both
376 01:12:57.450 --> 01:13:06.000 Laura Mandel, JArts: co-written with a rabbi and a piece that was particularly significant to him as an Israeli so for this piece that he created
377 01:13:06.810 --> 01:13:17.160 Laura Mandel, JArts: for fig, which is my symbol and he created a piece out of fig leaves which interestingly kind of resemble the piece that's right behind my head here.
378 01:13:17.730 --> 01:13:31.140 Laura Mandel, JArts: But as he wrote, he said, "The fig is the original first fruit. The first mentioned by name in the Torah. It is with fig leaves that Adam and Eve clothe themselves after eating from the tree of knowledge and realizing their nakedness.
379 01:13:31.500 --> 01:13:38.340 Laura Mandel, JArts: Figs take an age to ripen and then refuse to do so, all at once. So you need to harvest them daily.
380 01:13:38.700 --> 01:13:49.500 Laura Mandel, JArts: Torah is compared to a fig for this reason: just as a person always finds new ripe figs on the tree, so, too, will they always find a new taste in the Torah they are studying.
381 01:13:49.890 --> 01:14:04.380 Laura Mandel, JArts: The lengthy ripening means figs will also differ from one another in sweetness," which we all know, I'm sure, if you've ever eaten a fig. And then he says, "In Meir Shalev's 'A Pigeon and a Boy' There we go. We have an image. Wonderful.
382 01:14:05.790 --> 01:14:11.580 Laura Mandel, JArts: Alright, great. So if we can make that full screen you can see
383 01:14:13.020 --> 01:14:13.710 Laura Mandel, JArts: Perfect.
384 01:14:15.930 --> 01:14:23.670 Laura Mandel, JArts: Awesome. So as you can see, he's used fig leaves which have this really interesting shape to them and reconfigured them to create this image.
385 01:14:24.690 --> 01:14:39.540 Laura Mandel, JArts: And so my hope is, since we are shorter on time, what I would love to do is if everybody can take a look at this for a minute and put something in the chat that you see like, and I'm not going to say much more, but what do you see when you look at this image.
386 01:14:52.500 --> 01:15:04.890 Laura Mandel, JArts: Great. Yep. A square, a letter shin really interesting. Hands. Yep. Life. An envelope. Rotation. I love that. Yep, a window. Interesting.
387 01:15:05.760 --> 01:15:16.770 Laura Mandel, JArts: Hands and arms. Yep. Okay. So while you keep thinking about that. I'm gonna throw another one at you. What do you wish you knew? If Shai were here right now, what would you want to ask him?
388 01:15:23.460 --> 01:15:26.460 Laura Mandel, JArts: I love that, white clean space, supported by nature.
389 01:15:30.390 --> 01:15:34.500 Laura Mandel, JArts: What goes in the middle? Great question. Great question.
390 01:15:39.900 --> 01:15:43.380 Laura Mandel, JArts: What does this mean to you? Yep, absolutely.
391 01:15:45.990 --> 01:15:48.510 Laura Mandel, JArts: What's the significance of a square? Yep.
392 01:15:52.410 --> 01:15:57.300 Laura Mandel, JArts: Yep. Okay. So we've talked a lot about, we see the rotation, we're wondering what that means a lot of
393 01:15:58.860 --> 01:16:01.380 Laura Mandel, JArts: ideas of the positive and negative space.
394 01:16:06.660 --> 01:16:08.100 Laura Mandel, JArts: Ruth. I love that you said
395 01:16:09.720 --> 01:16:12.750 Laura Mandel, JArts: "Where are you waiting for the viewer to interpret?" Yep.
396 01:16:17.070 --> 01:16:29.130 Laura Mandel, JArts: All right, why just the leaves, not the frui? All great questions. So, you are welcome to keep adding comments. You know I wish we had even a little bit longer to to talk about the art itself.
397 01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:41.130 Laura Mandel, JArts: But since it's the middle of the night in Israel and Shai isn't able to join us, I went ahead and asked him a couple questions in advance that I thought might come up because I like you, was wondering, many of these things.
398 01:16:42.600 --> 01:16:53.400 Laura Mandel, JArts: And so here's a little bit of a story that I think will help explain this. So just to know when the pandemic started Shai and his wife were actually in New York and fled to Israel,
399 01:16:53.820 --> 01:17:00.450 Laura Mandel, JArts: where they had a baby a few weeks later. So he was doing this work, all while having a three week old infant at home.
400 01:17:01.320 --> 01:17:07.230 Laura Mandel, JArts: So just to give you a sense of maybe how he was thinking about this new life and everything being a little bit crazy. And he says,
401 01:17:07.560 --> 01:17:14.940 Laura Mandel, JArts: "While we were there we enjoyed the weather, the green fields and the blossoming nature and during these walks a started to feel inspired.
402 01:17:15.180 --> 01:17:21.690 Laura Mandel, JArts: New ideas were running through my mind and very quickly. I created new works. But without a studio or or art supplies,
403 01:17:22.170 --> 01:17:30.120 Laura Mandel, JArts: I found new and inspiring materials all around me. I collected flowers and weeds from the fields nearby, I cut stems, connected leaves,
404 01:17:30.330 --> 01:17:41.700 Laura Mandel, JArts: and assembled the various parts into new kinds of plants. I borrowed my father in law's old camera and documented each of my weird and new constructions, which became a new photograph series
405 01:17:42.120 --> 01:17:50.940 Laura Mandel, JArts: on Israeli flora titled Second Nature." So, this is the first part of this. And then the second part is "The seven species photographs are a continuation of this.
406 01:17:51.240 --> 01:18:00.360 Laura Mandel, JArts: And the first series is based mostly in plants and flowers. So here, as an Israeli, it was his opportunity to explore what those seven species mean to him.
407 01:18:00.780 --> 01:18:03.270 Laura Mandel, JArts: In a way that I guess he really hadn't been taught, growing up.
408 01:18:03.840 --> 01:18:14.280 Laura Mandel, JArts: He says, "For the photographs I collected parts of the seven species plants from fields near Jerusalem where you can often find dates, figs and wheat growing several yards from each other,
409 01:18:14.820 --> 01:18:19.140 Laura Mandel, JArts: which isn't so surprising. For each of the species, I tried to
410 01:18:19.890 --> 01:18:30.060 Laura Mandel, JArts: form what would best express the nature of the plant. So in other words, he's trying to talk to us a little bit about what this plant does or what purpose it serves in nature.
411 01:18:30.450 --> 01:18:41.310 Laura Mandel, JArts: I photographed the plant parts and started experimenting with various installations. For some of the works I created intricate constructions and some are manipulated with Photoshop on the computer.
412 01:18:41.820 --> 01:18:45.900 Laura Mandel, JArts: For each work. I tried different shapes and plants before reaching the right image.
413 01:18:46.290 --> 01:18:56.880 Laura Mandel, JArts: I discovered that each plant has its own character and I created several images for each species and eventually chose the one that seemed to best express the nature of the plant."
414 01:18:57.120 --> 01:19:10.080 Laura Mandel, JArts: And again, when he's talking about the nature of the plant, he's talking about his own learning and understanding what these species mean. He's talking about nature and, you know, both in Israel, but generally as an artist, thinking about what nature brings to us.
415 01:19:10.530 --> 01:19:17.550 Laura Mandel, JArts: You all noted the shapes and the orientation and he's thinking a lot about that. And if you look at his other works, and he does a lot of
416 01:19:18.540 --> 01:19:22.950 Laura Mandel, JArts: kind of like trompe l'oeil like you know fooling the eye kind of artwork.
417 01:19:23.430 --> 01:19:31.260 Laura Mandel, JArts: So I highly recommend looking him up online. And if you would like to send this or one of the other seven species that he created for the holidays,
418 01:19:31.590 --> 01:19:47.730 Laura Mandel, JArts: you can go to the Asylum Arts website Asylum- Arts.org and when that pops up, there'll be a project called Inspired 5781 and this is one of those projects and they are completely free and open for everybody to use so you can send as many e-cards as you would like.
419 01:19:49.020 --> 01:19:57.690 Laura Mandel, JArts: So I think Shai and his work are really special and I'm so glad that in honor of the siman, the symbol, of fig that I could share this with you a little bit tonight.
420 01:19:58.080 --> 01:20:07.350 Laura Mandel, JArts: I hope I've given you some artistic inspiration and of course I would not be complete if I did not say she'tehei shanah zot
421 01:20:07.770 --> 01:20:27.120 Laura Mandel, JArts: haba'ah aleinu tovah u'metukah kadevelah. [nusah aher (alternate version): she'tithadash aleinu Shanah Tovah u'metukah mereishit hashanah v'ad aharit hashanah. So in other words: May it be a good year from start to finish. And thank you all so much, and I hope you'll send some ecards Shanah Tovah.
422 01:20:35.850 --> 01:20:50.790 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): Hi everyone. I am Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz. I am the Senior Rabbi at Temple Bnai Brith in Somerville, and I'm also representing here today, the IAC, the Israeli American Council, which explains the accent.
423 01:20:52.230 --> 01:21:06.270 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): And I am presenting to you the pomegranate, which as many people noted when you grow up in Israel, this is just part of the year cycle, you really don't have to go anywhere to get a pomegranate.
424 01:21:07.470 --> 01:21:17.490 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): For example, we have two trees in my parents' garden. But here it required looking at many, many stores to find this pomegranate.
425 01:21:18.960 --> 01:21:23.850 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): But, success. When I was a kid, the secular kid in Israel,
426 01:21:25.050 --> 01:21:42.000 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): they taught us that the blessing over the pomegranate is a blessing that says "Shenihiyeh m'lei'im mitzvot karimon. Let us be filled or full of mitzvot, of good deeds, like the pomegranate is full of seeds. And
427 01:21:43.500 --> 01:21:48.360 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): you know, in Israel education in Israel in the 70s was actually really good
428 01:21:49.620 --> 01:22:02.760 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): and the concept of Jewish religion in Israel in secular Israel in the 70s was a kind of amalgamation of different traditions of Sefardi and Ashkenazi and some Mizrahi, Yemenite
429 01:22:03.330 --> 01:22:11.760 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): traditions, and it was all kind of like put together and it was leaning towards the Sefardi tradition for some reason. Most of the things that I learned
430 01:22:12.120 --> 01:22:23.280 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): I learned later on in life were not Ashkenazi traditions, but Sefardi traditions and then I grew up believing that we asked to be filled with mitzvot, which was very nice, and when I
431 01:22:24.630 --> 01:22:34.260 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): was in the army, this rabbi came to talk to us and he was this Orthodox, Hasidic Chabad Lubavitcher rabbi and
432 01:22:34.950 --> 01:22:46.380 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): he told us that the blessing is "sheyirbu zehuyoteinu karimon, let our merits be as plenty as the seeds of the pomegranate, so of course I thought this is the true
433 01:22:46.950 --> 01:22:56.700 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): blessing and that what they taught me in secular school in Israel is just wrong, but what turns out later on in life, it's amazing,
434 01:22:57.270 --> 01:23:06.600 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): is that both blessings are generally authentic blessings over the pomegranate, over the rimon, than just one of them.
435 01:23:07.440 --> 01:23:22.410 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): The one I learned in when I was in the army is the Ashkenazi and also the Yemenite blessing and the one that they taught in school in Israel is the Sefardi blessing, the blessing that is used by many Jews in the Balkans and North Africa.
436 01:23:23.850 --> 01:23:24.630 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): And so
437 01:23:26.730 --> 01:23:35.190 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): To me, this actually represented the fact, it brought to my mind a different way of thinking about the pomegranate,
438 01:23:35.670 --> 01:23:48.510 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): that really our tradition is filled with so many different traditions. So tradition is made out of as many traditions as there are Jewish communities around the world.
439 01:23:48.990 --> 01:24:04.290 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): The Jewish people are filled with different traditions like the pomegranate is filled with seeds and none of these seeds is identical. We're all a little bit special, but we have this potential to come together to bring together these traditions.
440 01:24:05.340 --> 01:24:17.430 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): And as a rabbi, as an Israeli who is now a rabbi in North America. I think about this a lot. There is a great preference in North American Judaism towards the Ashkenazi tradition.
441 01:24:18.870 --> 01:24:28.890 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): But when you look at the history of immigration to the United States. You see that American Judaism have been started by also many Sefardi Jews, and we have
442 01:24:29.370 --> 01:24:39.360 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): had this potential, and I believe we still have the potential to turn this Judaism in this country into Judaism that belongs to Klal Yisrael, to all of Israel.
443 01:24:39.660 --> 01:24:46.170 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): And Judaism that crosses the boundaries of just one community that brings us together because
444 01:24:46.950 --> 01:24:57.150 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): we are no longer separated. We can talk to each other. We connect with each other, we can bring together East and West, we can bring together Ashkenazi and Sefardi and Mizrahi traditions.
445 01:24:57.480 --> 01:25:06.660 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): We can bring together some traditions that are from the Orthodox community and traditions that come from Reconstructionist Judaism, Reform Judaism. There is a lot of
446 01:25:07.410 --> 01:25:19.980 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): nice new-agey Judaism going on right now and they're all these different kinds of Judaism, that we can learn from all of these plenty that is represented. I think in the in the rimon, in the pomegranate.
447 01:25:21.930 --> 01:25:38.730 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): And what this will do if we bring together all these traditions, we will be able to choose the blessing that most (for the Seder) the blessing that most represents what we need for ourselves at this point in time for this year that is about to begin.
448 01:25:40.080 --> 01:25:51.360 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): The Ashkenazi blessing that our merits will be as plenty as the pomegranate speaks directly to the fact that we are on the verge of Yom Kippur, the day in which we are
449 01:25:52.800 --> 01:26:08.280 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): evaluated based on our actions and it's asking that when we are standing before God in judgment that we will be recognized for the merits that there will be a reward for our good actions of the past year.
450 01:26:09.870 --> 01:26:21.330 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): In contrast, the Sefardi blessing, let us be filled with mitzvot like a pomegranate comes from a verse that we have in the Talmud, it says that even the
451 01:26:21.630 --> 01:26:30.540 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): least worthy members of the community of Israel are still filled with mitzvot like a pomegranate, so it comes from this idea that even if we messed up,
452 01:26:31.590 --> 01:26:36.330 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): we are still people who have the potential to do good in the world.
453 01:26:37.650 --> 01:26:49.470 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): And what I like about this blessing is that it is a blessing that puts the agency with us. When we say a blessing that is let someone else see what we're doing
454 01:26:50.010 --> 01:26:57.660 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): and reward us, we're putting the agency with someone else. When we are setting a kavvanah and intention that says
455 01:26:58.440 --> 01:27:07.290 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): "Let us be filled with good deeds or filled with mitzvot", we are setting a kavvanah or an intention for ourselves in the coming year.
456 01:27:08.010 --> 01:27:19.650 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): And then what we're doing when we're saying the blessing is we're asking God to be present for us and to affirm for us, our own decision of having a year that is filled with
457 01:27:21.900 --> 01:27:33.450 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): responsibility for the world around us. We doing good in the world around us and I feel that that is very empowering and that we can all use a little bit of empowerment right at this point in time.
458 01:27:33.990 --> 01:27:54.120 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): Which is exactly why I decided not to try to open this rimon, which will be very disempowering for me if you ever tried to open a rimon and to kind of like prepare in advance, one that is already ready for the blessing. So we can say both blessings over this rimon. So the first one:
459 01:27:55.350 --> 01:28:11.340 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): Y'hi ratzon milfanekha Adonai Eloheinu v'Elohei avoteinu v'imoteinu sheyirbu zehuyoteinu karimon. May it be your will Adonai our God and God of our ancestors that are merits will be as plenty as this pomegranate.
460 01:28:14.940 --> 01:28:18.090 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): And because one is never enough. It's very good to have a second blessing.
461 01:28:19.290 --> 01:28:36.840 Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz (she/her): Y'hi ratzon milfanekha Adonai Eloheinu v'Elohei avoteinu v'imoteinu shenihiyeh m'lei'im mitzvot karimon. May it be your will Adonai our God and God of our ancestors that we will be filled with mitzvot, with good deeds, like this pomegranate Shanah Tovah.
462 01:28:43.020 --> 01:28:44.700 Michael Ragozin: Thank you, Rabbi Eliana.
463 01:28:45.930 --> 01:28:53.820 Michael Ragozin: Shalom Aleikhem and Erev Tov, my name is Michael Ragozin peace upon you, and good evening I am the rabbi at Shirat Hayam in Swampscott, Massachusetts.
464 01:28:54.180 --> 01:29:02.460 Michael Ragozin: I want to thank Rabbi Winick and CJP for putting together this Rosh HaShanah Seder, I want to thank all of you for for tuning in this night.
465 01:29:03.420 --> 01:29:15.570 Michael Ragozin: It's busy enough to prepare for the holidays, let alone have a Rosh HaShanah dinner and Seder already on Monday night, and lastly I want to thank all my colleagues for the beautiful Torah that they have shared with us tonight.
466 01:29:17.220 --> 01:29:31.350 Michael Ragozin: What I'd like to share with you is that at my table, I, I would love to have a Rosh HaShanah dinner with all of my colleagues have said such beautiful Torah and have really opened up worlds of meaning and depth to
467 01:29:32.700 --> 01:29:38.220 Michael Ragozin: the celebration around the table and the home celebration of the meal. At my table
468 01:29:39.630 --> 01:29:46.740 Michael Ragozin: a Seder this long before food would never fly. And so I'm going to come up show you a few simple
469 01:29:47.220 --> 01:29:54.270 Michael Ragozin: fun puns in English, the idea being with the symbolic foods that some of the foods are chosen for the symbolism, like the honey.
470 01:29:54.660 --> 01:30:03.420 Michael Ragozin: And some of the foods are chosen for their, their word. And they make a pun on them like like the dates and so I encourage you to
471 01:30:04.290 --> 01:30:17.070 Michael Ragozin: invite, give people a sense of what this tradition is and then invite your guests to come with their own pun. So for instance, you may grab this simple thing a stalk of celery.
472 01:30:18.330 --> 01:30:23.160 Michael Ragozin: You might then have some raisins handy and you can plop the raisins into the celery.
473 01:30:25.140 --> 01:30:37.050 Michael Ragozin: Six of them will do for this piece and then you can say in English. May it be your will that we all merit a raise in salary.
474 01:30:40.800 --> 01:30:41.280 Michael Ragozin: Okay.
475 01:30:44.040 --> 01:30:53.610 Michael Ragozin: That's the first. The other night I was telling my daughter who's 13 that I would be sharing this and she said, "Abba, that is the dumbest silliest thing I've ever heard."
476 01:30:54.120 --> 01:31:09.390 Michael Ragozin: And then the next morning, she had written out on a card three more ideas that I want to share with you. Some of these she made up some of them she went to a book of puns and then adopted them in her own language for Rosh HaShanah, so
477 01:31:10.440 --> 01:31:13.620 Michael Ragozin: now I have a bowl full of blueberries.
478 01:31:15.630 --> 01:31:30.960 Michael Ragozin: And the blessing is just roll with it and you then roll the blueberries across the table. You can imagine the silliness, and the fun and potential stains that may occur. You can choose anything but something that rolls, just roll with it.
479 01:31:33.000 --> 01:31:51.720 Michael Ragozin: Her next suggestion was to have a everybody's favorite appetizer delicious mixed nuts. And she said, grab a handful of nuts and you say this year. Let us all be nutty with happiness. And then we eat the nuts.
480 01:31:54.480 --> 01:31:55.770 Michael Ragozin: And then for her last
481 01:31:56.850 --> 01:31:57.600 Michael Ragozin: If the
482 01:31:58.680 --> 01:32:09.990 Michael Ragozin: If what was shared earlier about the carrot was a difficult pun if you don't know the Yiddish, if you don't know the Hebrew, her English pun for the carrot is
483 01:32:12.960 --> 01:32:22.650 Michael Ragozin: "Let us not care at all about the haters. So care c a r e a t carrot, let us not care at all about the haters."
484 01:32:23.700 --> 01:32:25.470 Michael Ragozin: And take a bite so
485 01:32:26.730 --> 01:32:33.690 Michael Ragozin: I am looking forward to challenging my daughter to coming up with one more surprise pun that she will be able to share at our table. If you have some youngsters
486 01:32:34.440 --> 01:32:46.590 Michael Ragozin: that you want to engage if with they're witty, if they're if they're word-oriented if the're language people, that a child could come up with something very, very humorous and add just a real smile to the Rosh HaShanah Seder.
487 01:32:48.660 --> 01:32:52.380 Michael Ragozin: I turn it over to my, my colleague for the final presentation.
488 01:33:02.040 --> 01:33:11.610 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: Hello everyone, my name is Rabbi Benjamin Samuels, I'm the rabbi of Congregation Sha'arei Tefila and I'm deeply thankful to be here with you
489 01:33:12.120 --> 01:33:24.480 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: at the very end, or almost the end. Actually the end will be led by my dear teacher and colleague and friend, Rabbi Elyse Winick who I'm very grateful to for including me in this
490 01:33:25.710 --> 01:33:35.940 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: program tonight. But although I'm coming at the zanav, at the tail, really I'm going to be speaking about the rosh, about the head.
491 01:33:36.450 --> 01:33:45.330 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: And as Rabbi Ragozin just said and others have said, we have two types of symbols. Qe have ideational symbols, where the idea is what we
492 01:33:45.690 --> 01:34:00.660 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: hope to use to symbolize our hopes and wishes and blessings for the new year and then we have linguistics symbols that we try to pun to, to also invoke our hopes and deepest wishes for the new year. And so one of those
493 01:34:02.130 --> 01:34:12.570 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: ideational symbols that sometimes can also be a pun is that we should be, shenihiyeh l'rosh v'lo l'zanav, that we should be at the head
494 01:34:13.050 --> 01:34:27.210 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: and not at the tail. Now, traditionally, we may use the head of a sheep, although I have to tell you, I've never seen anyone use the head of a sheep at there's at their Rosh HaShanah table.
495 01:34:27.990 --> 01:34:38.130 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: Some people will use the head of a fish, we prefer to use the head of a cabbage and so any head will work.
496 01:34:38.700 --> 01:34:56.910 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: And the idea is that we want to have a good start, a new start, we, we want it to be led by, by reason and rationale, perhaps also with heart that's a different symbol, but not at the not at the tail and not passing catch up.
497 01:34:57.480 --> 01:35:06.120 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: But I have another layer of understanding that I want to add to shenihiyeh l'rosh v'lo l'zanav.
498 01:35:07.260 --> 01:35:19.080 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: This past week was my youngest son's bar mitzvah. And he gave a beautiful drashah via zoom for our congregation and for some friends and relatives.
499 01:35:19.650 --> 01:35:35.370 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: And he spoke about hakarat hatov. He spoke about recognizing the good, which is the rabbinic expression for expressing gratitude, that you have to recognize the good and he asked the question, "Is God thankful?"
500 01:35:36.540 --> 01:35:45.090 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: Is God thankful? We know that we're commanded to be thankful. There's several mitzvot in the Torah, where we have to express our thankfulness, but is God thankful?
501 01:35:45.600 --> 01:35:52.170 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: And the reason why this question is important is, first of all, if God is thankful, then it may inspire our own thankfulness, but
502 01:35:52.920 --> 01:36:05.670 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: also, we want to know what makes God thankful and how do we earn God's gratitude. So we have to go back, said my son Yakir, we have to go back l'rosh, to the very beginning.
503 01:36:06.330 --> 01:36:17.760 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: The first book of the Torah is Bereishit. The shoresh, the Hebrew root of Bereishit is resh alef shin, rosh, and what do we see that after each day of creation
504 01:36:18.510 --> 01:36:30.270 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: what does God say vayar Elokim ki tov: God saw that it was good. And after the sixth day of creation God looked at everything and perhaps even at humanity that God just had created
505 01:36:31.110 --> 01:36:40.710 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: right, Vayar Elokim and v'hinei tov me'od. Behold, it was very good. God God's self recognizes the good.
506 01:36:41.610 --> 01:36:55.830 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: The challenge that we face as we transition from 5780 to 5781, from #2020 to whatever awaits us in our future, the challenge that we face
507 01:36:56.400 --> 01:37:10.830 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: is to recognize the good, the blessing the hopeful, the positive, the optimistic in our own lives, in our relationships in our community in our big CJP family, our Boston Jewish community,
508 01:37:11.310 --> 01:37:19.590 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: and the United States and Israel in our world. There's too much focusing on the zanav, on the negative, on the tail.
509 01:37:20.160 --> 01:37:29.190 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: We have to uplift ourselves and focus ourselves so that we could recognize the rosh, the Bereishit, the tov, the good
510 01:37:29.730 --> 01:37:39.510 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: that's in our lives and appreciate all of the blessings. And we strip away all of the accoutrements, and all of the embellishments and we get to the real essentials
511 01:37:40.320 --> 01:37:49.770 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: of what we wish for ourselves and for those that we love what we hope for in the year to come and what we pray for for our country, for our people and for our world.
512 01:37:50.220 --> 01:38:00.060 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: And so all of these simanim, the very creative simanim we heard, the simanim, the signs and symbols, whether ideational or linguistic that yet to have be created.
513 01:38:00.450 --> 01:38:15.270 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: May it be a year of robust imagination of abundant kindness and may we recognize right going all the way back to the beginning the essential goods that in our life and feel that gratitude so deeply.
514 01:38:16.020 --> 01:38:25.320 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: And if we end our year in such a beautiful symbolic way by joining together and we begin our year with hearts and minds, full of such gratitude.
515 01:38:25.830 --> 01:38:39.360 Rabbi Benjamin Samuels: How could a good year not follow. We will make the blessing come to be. Thank you Shanah Tovah may it be a sweet happy, healthy, purposeful year for us and for all of Israel.
516 01:38:42.510 --> 01:38:49.890 Elyse Winick: Thank you so much, Rabbi Samuels. Hi, I'm Rabbi Elyse Winick, CJP's Senior Director of Learning and Education
517 01:38:50.160 --> 01:38:55.860 Elyse Winick: and I want to thank all of you for joining us tonight for our first ever community Rosh Hashanah Seder.
518 01:38:56.100 --> 01:39:05.250 Elyse Winick: It was really wonderful to be together and I wanted to give particular thanks to our teachers who did an extraordinary job of giving us new insights.
519 01:39:05.730 --> 01:39:15.360 Elyse Winick: Perhaps we should re-coin the phrase as "May you be what you eat," and our deep gratitude to our teachers for giving us both the linguistic and the
520 01:39:16.320 --> 01:39:21.960 Elyse Winick: The purposeful ways of looking at things that we eat as a sign for the year ahead.
521 01:39:22.470 --> 01:39:28.170 Elyse Winick: This may be the first time you've heard of a Rosh HaShanah Seder, let alone participated in a Rosh HaShanah Seder.
522 01:39:28.620 --> 01:39:35.040 Elyse Winick: The Seder is not actually the only somewhat unusual aspect of how Rosh HaShanah is observed. There's also
523 01:39:35.790 --> 01:39:49.740 Elyse Winick: an interesting fact around the recitation of the blessing of Sheheheyanu. You're probably familiar, sheheyanu, v'kiyimanu, v'higianu lazman hazeh, we offer gratitude that we have been kept alive and sustained and brought to this time.
524 01:39:50.250 --> 01:39:54.690 Elyse Winick: It's a blessing. We stay on new moments in time and it's a blessing that we say on new things.
525 01:39:54.990 --> 01:40:03.900 Elyse Winick: And there's a debate in the tradition over whether the two days of Rosh haShanah are one long day, Yoma Arikhta, or if they are two separate days.
526 01:40:04.260 --> 01:40:11.340 Elyse Winick: This raises a question in turn of do we say happening on once or do we say it twice, and
527 01:40:11.910 --> 01:40:21.420 Elyse Winick: while it may be that for some of us, spending two full days in shul which we won't have the chance to do this year in the same way, does feel like one long day,
528 01:40:21.810 --> 01:40:29.310 Elyse Winick: be that as it may, the rabbis have a very elegant solution to this question of, is it Sheheheyanu on one one day or is it on both days.
529 01:40:29.640 --> 01:40:40.140 Elyse Winick: And the answer becomes we'll say it on both days, but on the second day we make an effort to have a fruit a new fruit we haven't eaten yet or a new garment that we haven't worn yet.
530 01:40:40.650 --> 01:40:49.290 Elyse Winick: And this enables the Sheheheyanu to come to rest on something fitting, whether it is a two day Sheheheyanu or it is one long day.
531 01:40:50.100 --> 01:41:01.890 Elyse Winick: Now, why do we start from this place of being grateful to be here. What does it do for us, it gives us a very strong foundation from which to launch into the new year.
532 01:41:02.730 --> 01:41:14.760 Elyse Winick: And the things that we wish for become more plausible, more tangible. They can be concretized, because we start from this place of strength with gratitude for the chance, just to be present.
533 01:41:15.360 --> 01:41:28.590 Elyse Winick: Now we invited all of you to give us your hopes and aspirations for the year. Carissa's going to put up now a slide of a word cloud of all of the articulations that you shared with us.
534 01:41:29.610 --> 01:41:40.860 Elyse Winick: It is intended to be shaped like an apple, oh no I switched it from an apple to an oval. Never mind. We have, hang on, we have this word cloud. Here we go.
535 01:41:41.910 --> 01:41:52.710 Elyse Winick: You can tell from the size of the words, how many people brought them to bear. We know that we are looking for health and peace. We know that we are seeking kindness and joy and hope.
536 01:41:53.700 --> 01:42:06.990 Elyse Winick: Well, CJP wishes, all of these things and much, much more to you in the year ahead. We hope that it is a year of sweetness and great health. We hope that we will soon have the opportunity to celebrate together,
537 01:42:07.560 --> 01:42:17.610 Elyse Winick: face to face, three dimensional not using the Hollywood Squares type of screen that gives us a taste of what it's like to be together,
538 01:42:18.240 --> 01:42:30.750 Elyse Winick: but a tease in many ways because we are still in many ways so far apart We wish all of these things to you. And if you'd like to share wishes for the new year with one another. I invite you to do so in the chat window.
539 01:42:31.590 --> 01:42:50.070 Elyse Winick: In a moment we'll unmute you. If you want to share wishes for the new year for a few moments voice to voice as well. And again, my wishes for you for a sweet healthy, strong creative, meaningful and transformative year ahead Shanah Tovah U'Metukah.