VOLUME 2 . ISSUE 1 . SPRING 1999 / 5759 PASSOVER 5759 Ha Lahma AnyajThis is the bread o( affliction that our ancestors ate in the land o( Egypt: byDR. TAMARA GREEN, PH.D. Founding Board Member of the NCJH and All who are hungry-come and eat! Chair of the Classics Department at All who are in need- come join in the Passover! Hunter College, New York City This year we are here; next year in the land o( Israel! hen I was a child, the four This year enslaved, next year (ree! questions that are asked (W Maggid, the central "Recounting" section at the beginning of the of the Passover seder ritual opens with Passover seder puzzled me enormously. this extraordinary invitation. Who among Oh, I understood the questions easily us is not hungry? Who among us is not in enough in the most literal way, but it always seemed to me that need? Who among us does not dream of nowhere in the Haggadah were there straightforward answers to those liberation? On this night. we are all invited questions. It took many seders before I realized that the questions were to take part in the journey-we are all not as obvious as I had once supposed and that every year they might included as participants in the drama. It is a night of symbols, a night of tastes provoke different responses, and that not all of them had their source and smells, a night of storytelling, and in the Haggadah. especially a night of questions. We are On the other hand, even as a child, the questions asked by the encouraged to ask questions throughout Arba' ah Banim-the Four Children-seemed simple enough. After all, the seder-engaging us in a kinetic every child knows how to ask many questions; and even in my limited approach to learning. From year to year, circle of friends and acquaintances, I certainly knew lots of children we watch the questions and their answers both stay the same, yet change and grow. who were wise or foolish or simple, and even a few who seemed to me A wise rabbi has written, "The to be wicked. (I put myself, of course, in the first category.) It took many Hagggadah should not be rote recitation, seders before I realized that not only might these questions have but rather a dynamic exploration that different answers each year, but that the question each child asks involves probing, empathizing, and creative could be refracted through my struggle to make sense of how my illness interpreting." Each part of the seder, each has affected my Jewish life. What I have discovered at the seder table is piece of the ordered whole, is designed to that even now I am both the wise child and the wicked child; I am both bring us into a multi-layered experience of the transition from slavery to freedom. the simple child and the child who does not know how to ask. We are asked to see ourselves as if we Sometimes I am the wise child. The wise child asks: "What are the were slaves in Egypt. We are given the laws and ordinances that Adonai has commanded us to observe?" opportunity to find our own individual Although the Haggadah simply declares that this child should be stories within the ancient framework of taught all the laws of Pesach, Torah adds that these commandments the Exodus. We are challenged to tap into a are observed for our own good so that we might remember that Adonai place of deep understanding and remember brought us out of slavery into the promised land. And so I ask, what has to reach out to others who are enslaved, Matzah, the central symbol of the holiday Adonai commanded of me? Has my illness become my own personal of Pesach is known as both the bread of Egypt, and is there any wisdom that pain and suffering have brought suffering and the bread of freedom, This me? I don't know. Is it for my own good? I hope not. paradox reflects the creative tension of Sometimes I am the wicked child. The wicked child asks: "What does the seder itself-a complex interweaving this ritual mean to you?" The rabbis add, for you and not for her. Too of celebrating freedom while identifying often, I want to say, "Leave me alone in my misery." Will I thus be left with bondage, Those of us who bear the standing alone on the shores of the Red Sea, afraid that I will drown burdens of suffering, disruption, and loss, can immediately relate to this intense and disappear completely? How do I find the courage to take that first ambiguity. In this issue of The Outstretched step and walk into the space Adonai has created for me? I don't know. Arm, we invite you to join our table, and Does my rage in the face of pain isolate me from the community and explore with us selected components of thus make me wicked? I hope not. the seder ritual. Sometimes I am the simple child. The simple child asks: "What is this May we all draw strength and insight all about?" And the rabbis answer: "It was with a mighty arm that from the enormous power of this collective effort. continued on page 7 The OUTSTRETCHED ARM FROM THE DIRECTOR, JANET SHERMAN VOLUME 2' ISSUE 1 . SPRING 1999/5759 National News Outreach Across North America Jewish Recently, the NCJH and the New York Jewish The Outstretched Arm is published by healing centers are beginning Healing Center held an informational program the National Center for Jewish Healing, to blossom, providing aJewish for foundations and other institutional represen­ a program of the Jewish Board of Family framework for people who are tatives, as well as friends interested in learning and Children's Services dealing with illness and loss. A about and supporting our work. A panel consisting STAFF recent meeting sponsored by of a rabbi, a member of aJewish Spiritual Support Janet Sherman, Director the NCJH brought 15 of these Group, and a physician, related their experiences Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, CSW, communities together to learn from one another's with the resources in Judaism they have found Rabbinic Director experience in setting up a Jewish healing center. helpful. (see page 6). I shared a story with the Susie Kessler, Coordinator/Editor Facilitators at the meeting included Rabbis group which I would like to share with you: Nancy Flam, Amy Eilberg, and Simkha Weintraub; One Recipe for Solace EDITORIAL BOARD Dr. Carol Hausman (Washington Jewish Healing Dr. Tamara Green A woman whose husband had died came to a Network); and Debby Hirshman (Executive Ellen Schecter Tzaddik, a "Righteous One " and poured out her Director, New York's JCC of the Upper West heart to him. In her distraught state, she described 120 WEST 57TH STREET Side). Issues such as organizational structure, how her loss had robbed her o(all peace o(mind, and NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10019 program development, fund raising, and community how her (riends' attempts to console her merely outreach were discussed. Participants returned intensified her angUish . home inspired, energized, and supported in their A~~9£~l!~N• After listening closely, the Tzaddik advised the CHlLDREN'SAQNCIES work. We plan to offer more networking oppor­ woman to bake a cake-but only to use ingredients tunities like this in the future, so if your commu­ gathered (rom people in her town who had never Artwork courtesy of the Library of the Jewish nity is building such a program, please let us experienced pain or loss. In her search (or solace, the Theological Seminary of America know. To continue to support your growth, we woman went (rom house to house, but (ound that in would also like to share our experience and that each dwelling her neighbors were unable to give her of others with you, as well as provide you with even a single grain o( wheat or speck o( sugar, as To receive a copy helpful resources and material. they had all experienced some pain, loss or suffering of the helpful booklet: The NCJH will present a session called "How in their lives. to Start aJewish Healing Center" at the upcoming That night, disappointed and exhausted she annual conference of the Association of Jewish SYNAGOGUE HOPE: returned to the Tzaddik to inform him o(her (ailure. Family and Children's Agencies, held in Orlando, Help, Opportunities, and Programs As she approached his study, and saw him through Florida. If you are involved with a JFS interested the window studying Torah, she realized that in her for Jewish Elders- in starting a healing center, please join us. very "failure" was the remedy. She realized that she An Action Guide for Synagogues On March 21 st, Rabbi Simkha Weintraub had not been Singled out (or punishment, but rather took part (for the second year in a row) in the that loss is part o( the (ate o( ALL mortals. She was put out by conference called "Spirtuality and Healing in able, once again, to accept comfort (rom well-inten­ Medicine." This annual conference is sponsored The Gratta Foundation tioned (riends and to envision a (uture state o(peace. and Brandeis University by the Harvard Medical School's Dept. of Continuing Medical Education and the May we all be strengthened in our work. call: 781-736-2066 Mind/Body Medical Institute Care Group, under (cost $18.00) the leadership of Dr. Herbert Benson, M.D. Many people now observe a newborn Israelite boys; without Yocheved, alive during the forty years we wandered in new Pesach tradition with who hid her baby, Moses, for three months, the wilderness before we came into the many old meanings.