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November 2017 Why I Wrote More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us

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November 2017 Why I Wrote More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us WILSHIRE BOULEVARD TEMPLE BULLETIN Volume 104, Number 10 • November 2017 Why I Wrote More Beautiful than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us Rabbi Leder’s new book, More Beautiful The Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan often Than Before: How Suffering Transforms repeated the aphorism, “We don’t know who discovered water, Us, will be released on November 7. On but it wasn’t the fish.” What he meant was that we are so November 12, he will be at the Temple in immersed in our own reality, that often we actually have the least conversation with Tavis Smiley to explore his perspective on it. Only when it’s hooked, thrashing in a net, gills new volume. gasping and flailing for breath, only then does a fish discover “There is a crack in everything.” water. So too with us; only when pain suddenly jerks us out of Rabbi Steve Leder —Ralph Waldo Emerson our otherwise ordinary life do we discover something powerful and true about ourselves. have witnessed a lot of pain. It’s my phone that rings when I have seen this up close thousands of times, in hospital Ipeople’s bodies or lives fall apart. The couch in my office is rooms, cemeteries, criminal courts, homes, and my office, as often drenched in tears, and there are days when an entire box others sat on that couch of tears weeping from deep within. of tissues is gone by late afternoon. Because, sooner or later, Through sickness we discover the blessing of health; through every one of us walks through hell. The hell of being hurt, the loss we recognize the true depths of love; through foolishness hell of hurting another. The hell of cancer, the hell of a reluctant we know maturity and wisdom. Pain shocks us and propels us shovelful of earth thunking down upon the casket of someone from where we thought we were—who we thought we were—to we deeply love. The hell of divorce, of a kid in trouble, of something far more real and true. Alzheimer’s, of addiction, of stress, of aging; of knowing that this More Beautiful than Before: How year, like any year, may be our last. Suffering Transforms Us is a journey through We all walk through hell. The point is to not come out pain in three stages: surviving, healing, and empty-handed. The point is to make your life worthy of your growing. It is an exploration of pain’s fierce, suffering. To be human is to suffer, and there is profound power liberating, sorrowful, comforting, ugly, in the suffering we endure if we can use it to create a more beautiful truths—the deepest truths. The authentic, more meaningful life. Pain is a great teacher, but its truth that when we must endure, we can lessons do not come easily. endure; that we can be good even when we continued on page 2 This Month EINSTEIN Gratitude Shabbat and the CELEBRATING UNITY AND THANKSGIVING RABBI Searching for the Soul Friday, November 17 Sunday, November 19 Tuesday, November 28 Glazer Campus (east) Glazer Campus (east) Irmas Campus (west) More on page 4 7:30 p.m. More on page 7 12:30 p.m. More on page 7 7:30 p.m. Torah Portion The Angels among Us Parashat Vayeitzei Genesis 28:10−32:3 believe in angels. I realize that doesn’t sound very Jewish. recreational, and supportive activities for kids in the hospital. IMost people think Jews don’t believe in angels, but we do. Stacey is an angel—one of nearly 2,000 volunteers who walk Not angels in white robes with halos and wings floating on the halls of Cedars each and every day. They are all angels. clouds, but angels like you and me. Beth is five years old and volunteers every other Sunday Consider the dream Jacob has in parashat Vayeitzei. at our Food Pantry in Santa Monica handing out apples to our After stealing Esau’s birthright, Jacob is on the run. While homeless clients. “Have a nice day,” she says with a smile on her camping for the night in the desert, he has a dream. In the face. Beth is an angel. dream, there is a giant ladder ascending up to the heavens, and We are surrounded by angels…on the street, at the office, on that ladder, angels are going up and down. If you think in our homes…everywhere. We all are potential angels. When about it, we’d expect the angels to be going down the ladder, we donate blood, we are angels. When we feed the hungry, we descending from the heavens to earth. But it’s just the are angels. When we reach out to others in friendship and love, opposite—the angels are ascending, because the angels are we are angels. Sometimes that’s all it takes to be an angel—a among us. little compassion, a little kindness. It’s the simple truth the I met Stacey while visiting a chronically ill eight- Torah reminds us: angels are among us, and each of us has the year-old at Cedars. Stacey is a specially trained pediatric potential to be one. volunteer who spends every Friday in the PICU Rabbi Beau Shapiro (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) providing play, Cover (continued) cannot be happy; and that the sun rises no matter how dark Brawerman Alumni Spotlight the night. The people you will meet in the book, the ancient Jake Schroeder, Brawerman class of 2014 and current parables and scientific insights I share, my journey and the 10th-grader at Harvard-Westlake School, has been involved journeys of so many others with whom I have walked hand-in- at Wilshire Boulevard Temple his entire life. Jake started his hand will, I hope, help move each reader from pain to wisdom. Temple schooling with Mommy and Me, continued at the Whenever I’m tempted to dismiss pain as merely a step Mann Family Early Childhood Center for preschool, and toward enlightenment, I think about a friend of mine who went on to Brawerman West for grades K–6. And he was a had cancer three times and said to me from his hospital bed very happy camper, from third grade through Leadership this past summer, at Camp Hess Kramer. Jake’s passion for before he died, “This much character I don’t need!” It is not acting and singing began early, in the Wilshire Boulevard my intention to glorify suffering or suggest that the lessons we Temple Youth Choir in second grade with Cantor Don learn from pain are somehow worth the cost. But the truth is Gurney. He has sung during high holiday services, that most often, for most people, real change is the result of performed in shows at the regional youth Morgan-Wixson real pain. This is a book about real pain in its many forms, and Theatre, and is now active in the performing arts program the lessons it can teach. at Harvard-Westlake. Jake is currently a member of the Chamber Singers, and preparing for the role of the emcee They say every preacher has one sermon, one truth that in the upcoming Harvard-Westlake Upper School musical he delivers 100 different ways. Mine is to inspire in us all a Cabaret. We are so proud of Jake’s accomplishments and life worthy of our suffering—a life gentler, wiser, and more can’t wait to see what he does next! beautiful than before. Rabbi Steve Leder More Beautiful than Before may be purchased at the Temple on November 12 or you can also order on Amazon.com 2 Brawerman Elementary School Reconfiguration Enhances Learning Spaces hen students arrived at Brawerman space, said, “I can organize our many WWest for their first day of school resources and materials in a way I couldn’t on September 5, they found several new before.” The music room, which has been classrooms and offices, most of them in relocated to larger quarters in the chapel unfamiliar locations. Since last spring, building, has improved soundproofing and Assistant Principal Michelle Handzo has shelf storage for instruments. There are also been spearheading the reconfiguration of several new classrooms to house subjects like various spaces on campus and the design of Hebrew and Math that allow teachers more new learning areas to better accommodate opportunities to specialize their curricula for the school’s needs. “We modernized our smaller groups. Finally, the reconfiguration design, updated our lighting, and removed project has created new office space for furnishings that no longer served our student support staff. purposes,” she explained. The centerpiece of all the renovations is The science lab has been enlarged and the new library space, which is now located equipped with new lab tables and chairs on the second floor. A library designer served conducive to collaboration. There are now as a consultant, and the new space has a sinks on both sides of the room and electrical dramatic color scheme, cozy window seats, outlets accessible from the ceiling. Science and a multipurpose area--all designed to teacher Limor Magen, who is particularly (Top to bottom) Brawerman West upgrades allow students to get lost in literature and to include a state-of-the-art science lab, an appreciative of the design’s greater storage acoustically modified music room, and a foster a love of reading! large, welcoming library. Camps Podcast Chug Gains Traction oughly 25 percent of Americans listen to at least one surprises going on at camp—all straight from the campers Rpodcast a month. This inspired us at WBT Camps to experiencing it all! So in addition to providing a creative, offer the first Podcast Chug in the summer of 2016.
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