Parshas Noach: You Can Shut Down a Government, but You Cannot Shut Down a Jew

The US government shut down this week.  It’s happened before and no doubt it will happen again.  It has even happened in Australia.  But unlike Australia, where the Queen Mum intervened and fired everyone in Parliament, American Congress is left to sort itself out.

While this is certainly a bad situation for the USA to be in, it has been interesting watching friends’ commentaries back in the States.  Some are blaming the Democrats and some are blaming the Republicans. Some are blaming Congress and some are blaming the President.  Nobody seems to agree on anything; not who is to blame, and certainly not how to fix it.

Yet, the situation is definitely causing harm to the entire country, and is affecting all of its citizens.  Millions of people are out of work as Federal courts close, Federal contractors are dismissed unneeded, and any nonessential personnel are put on furlough.  The US dollar, which has already had a rough few years, takes another hit as the US government threatens to default on its overwhelming loans.

We have a theory as to why this is happening: greed and selfishness.  Instead of working together, all the parties are to blame.  And is this any surprise?  Modern Western culture is a culture of selfishness and greed.  The current generation is being called the “Me Generation,” as kids grow up with high expectations and parents are told over and over again to deny their kids nothing.  The media portrays wealth and constant attention as the ideal – even if it means you must turn from an innocent young girl into a sex symbol overnight, as Miley Cyrus has done. Corporate and personal greed know no bounds, as we’ve seen with companies like Enron and with the individuals running the myriad ponzi schemes that have surfaced in the last decade.  And the government is a key player in this game of greed: “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” is the name of the game in a country where banks fund political campaigns and politicians agree to give banks billions of dollars in bailouts.

This kind of atmosphere is not so different from the atmosphere in the times of Noach.  In this week’s parsha, we read about how G-d destroys the world to rid it of the corruption that had so completely taken hold.  G-d saves just one man and his family: Noach, who was called righteous.  He alone stood up to the norms of the time.  He alone did not engage in the corrupted culture that surrounded him.

Today we each must be our own Noach.  Surrounded by a culture of selfishness, we must make the decision to live a life where helping others is our main goal.  Surrounded by a culture of greed, we must be givers.  If we can succeed in doing this, we ensure that our lives and our relationships do not end up like the US government: shut down, stopped up, and doing irreparable harm to everyone around.

Shabbat shalom!

Read more on Parshas Noach: Halacha of Traveling by Ship

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The Significance of Fasting on Yom Kippur; Fasting while Pregnant; Fasting while Nursing/Breastfeeding

This will be my fourth Yom Kippur since being married.  For some reason, I remember the Yom Kippur before my marriage and all of those since, but the ones earlier than that fade into the oblivion of memory.

In the Yom Kippur before my marriage, what I remember has nothing to do with fasting.  I remember most distinctly Kol Nidre. I remember preparing myself beforehand, thinking about all the wrong I’d done in the year. I focused deeply on repenting for those sins and when I stood for the Kol Nidre prayers in the Young Israel of Miami, I cried.

My first Yom Kippur as a married woman is the first time the fasting aspect features distinctly in my memory.  Our first high holidays ever spent together took place in Mexico City and I woke up in the wee hours of the morning with what tourists like to call “Montezuma’s Revenge.”  Well, I don’t know what Montezuma wanted revenge on me for, but it must have been pretty serious.  By the time the fast was nearing, I was severely dehydrated, could hardly keep down water, and couldn’t even look at food.  A doctor came by and prescribed medication for me and the local rabbi declared that it would be dangerous for me to fast.  Instead of fasting, I was allowed one shot glass of liquid (I went for Gatorade) every 10 minutes; same for rice.  Although the truth was that on Yom Kippur, I found it just as painful to eat and drink as to not.  By the end of the fast, I was very weak in spite of the permission not to “fast.”  But hey, at least I was keeping food down.

My second Yom Kippur as a married woman I was at Newtown Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.  I was pregnant with Akiva, but because I was in my first trimester, nobody knew.  It was my first time fasting while pregnant and it was incredibly difficult.  Truth was, I didn’t have much of an appetite in those days.  My morning sickness was so terrible that I balked at the sight of food – sometimes even was made ill at the sight of it.  Yet, the only cure I had found for my morning sickness (at least with that pregnancy!) was to eat some crackers and drink some juice and water.  The longer I went without eating, the more nauseous I became.  If I ate anything too much, I got sick, too.  So for the Yom Kippur fast, I felt more and more sick.  If I stood to pray during services, I couldn’t control my nausea anymore and so had to sit for 95% of the time.  Ladies from the synagogue later confessed that they knew I was pregnant by how sick I was during that fast!

My third Yom Kippur as a married woman I was at Greenslopes Synagogue in Brisbane, Australia.  I wasn’t pregnant, but I was full-time nursing four-month-old Akiva, who was, Baruch Hashem, a voracious eater.  For days ahead of time, I expressed milk so that I would not have to feed him quite as much.  Unfortunately, he developed a fever erev Yom Kippur, which of course made him more thirsty than normal!  But beyond an unearthly thirst, I don’t remember the fast being particularly difficult.  It was in the days after when my milk supply was too low to feed my still-feverish baby that I had the most difficulty.  For me, last year’s Yom Kippur lasted more than one day – for me, it lasted a whole week!

This year I am pregnant again for Yom Kippur.  I’ve weaned Akiva (which was so easy to do I still don’t understand what the fuss is about), but at nearly 8 months pregnant, fasting is a very different experience than when you’re 8 weeks pregnant.  You see, fasting causes all sorts of changes in your body.  Decreased sugars make your blood sugar levels drop – and not just yours, but baby’s, too.  Lack of fluid causes dehydration and drops blood pressure.  Both low blood sugar and low blood pressure can result in a reduced flow of essential blood and glucose to all parts of your body – including your brain – and your baby.  This is why some people become faint, dizzy, lightheaded, or even pass out while fasting.  Of course, while you’re pregnant, your baby takes what it needs from you first, leaving you with even less resources than the person fasting next to you.  And when you run out of resources, you won’t be the only one feeling it – your baby will, too.

That’s why at every stage of pregnancy, a rabbi should be consulted before fasting, preferably one who is well-versed in halacha in this area.  A doctor should be consulted, too, to determine the level of danger to the baby.  You see, when a baby doesn’t receive enough of what it needs to survive, it can go into distress.  And a baby in distress will often go hand-in-hand with early labor.  That’s why there are such a large number of babies born on or just after Yom Kippur or Tisha B’Av.

If the baby is small enough, it is unlikely to need such a large amount of resources that it would go into distress from fasting.  If the baby is big enough, it is no problem if the baby’s stress causes the womb to open – it’s already healthy and fully-formed – just the world outside appears to be more hospitable than the world within.  But there is a point when fasting can be truly dangerous for a baby. If the mother has complications like placenta praevia or preeclampsia, for instance.  Or if the baby is in that kind of twilight zone where it’s big enough that it could go into distress and labor could begin, yet is still too young to enter the world without serious risk of permanent health problems.  I fall into that latter stage.  A baby born before 37 weeks of gestation has immature lungs, low birth weight, and a long list of potential complications. So if your doctor considers that fasting would be a danger to the baby, then your rabbi should know – and you should always ask, even if you really, really want to fast.  According to halacha, if fasting is dangerous, then it is forbidden, and it is as much of a mitzvah to eat and drink during a fast for health reasons as it is for a healthy person to fast fully.

All of this left me thinking this year about what the meaning of fasting really is.  Most people seem to wish each other an “easy fast,” but is that really the point?

I can think of three times when a person loses their appetite completely: someone who is very ill, someone who is deeply mourning, and someone who is incredibly nervous (as in, someone whose life is at stake).  These three types of people generally have no interest in food.  In all three cases, you feel the weight of your mortality.  Whether you feel your life is about to end because you could be put on death row, whether the death of someone very close to you brings your own mortality close to mind, or whether you are so ill you fear you might not survive, eating and drinking just seem so secondary.

On Yom Kippur our lives are, quite literally, at stake.  G-d is deciding our fate for the upcoming year and we are at risk of being put on death row.  This is why we do kapparot – we slaughter a chicken to remind ourselves that it is us who deserve to die for all the sins we’ve done.  We throw ourselves on G-d’s mercy to save us.  And if we have only one chance – literally – to save our skins, then we’d better take it pretty seriously.  On a day like that, how can we think about eating or drinking?

Unless, of course, not eating or drinking will end our lives.  In that case, we have to eat.  Just as a doctor will force an anorexic to have sustenance even if they do not want to eat, we must force ourselves to eat an drink if our life (or the life of our baby) is at stake.  We must do it in a way that shows we are not doing it for the pleasure of it, but because we have to.  We cannot sit down to a delicious steak dinner and say, “Well, I have to because I am so sick.”  If a rabbi tells us we must eat or drink on Yom Kippur, we must do so in a way that does not give us pleasure – a tablespoon of water at a time, a mouthful of plain rice, a plain crust of bread.  Enough to survive, but not enough to give us great gustatory joy.

After all, when your ultimate fate is at stake, when your life hangs in the balance, eating a delicious meal is the last thing on our minds.  We are Jews: we do not live to eat… we eat in order to live.

Shabbat shalom and may you all have a meaningful fast!

Read more about Yom Kippur in Sydney, Australia

Read more about Yom Kippur with the Jewish community in New Caledonia

Read more about Yom Kippur: Facing Your Truth

Read more about Yom Kippur & Jonah: Talkin’ About a Revolution

The High Holidays and the Significance of Food in Judaism

Below follows my High Holydays message as published in The Voice, the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation newsletter.

I guess if I’m going to be Jewish (and a Rebbetzin, no less!), it’s a good thing I like cooking.  In these weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, it seems like all I’ve been doing is cooking and baking up a storm.  My fridges and freezers are full to capacity, but with 18 (yes, eighteen!) meals this holiday season, I think it’s best to work ahead a bit.

Food and eating play a central role in Judaism.  You know the old joke about Jewish holidays: “They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!”  But the reality is that eating is much more than that for us.  Food is a means of connection and connection is extremely important in Judaism.

On the one hand, we use food to connect with other people.  We often use food to show our love, by putting our time and effort into creating something for someone else to enjoy, even though we know it will not last (except maybe on our thighs!).  Family mealtimes are an opportunity to spend time together and to focus on one another, especially on Shabbat and Yom Tov, when there are no distractions like TVs and phones.  In fact, family therapists often recommend that their clients begin repairing damaged relationships by having one family dinner per week, with no interruptions.  Judaism is ahead of the curve – we do this every week anyway, helping us to build strong families and relationships before there is a problem.

Food in Judaism also serves the dual purpose of connecting us to G-d.  Before we eat or drink anything, we make a blessing on it.  This brings us into a state of mindfulness and an attitude of gratitude that experts on happiness all agree is essential to living a joyful life.  But making blessings on food does not just help us tap into a high spiritual state; focusing sincerely on our relationship with G-d actually changes physical reality.  A molecular photographer once took some photos of water molecules.  They were boring, straight-edged shapes.  But once a blessing was made on the water, the molecules miraculously changed shape.  They looked like beautiful snowflakes.  Yet these were the exact same water molecules.  By using them as a tool to connect with G-d, they were actually physically changed.  When we ingest something that has been changed in this way, we are not only emotionally and spiritually connecting to G-d, but we are physically connecting ourselves to Him.

On Rosh Hashanah there are a variety of symbolic foods we eat.  Using foods as symbols helps make their message a part of us, and has the added bonus of making their meaning more interesting and memorable.  Apples and challah dipped in honey signify that we should have a sweet new year, as does honey cake.  Round challahs remind us of the continuity of creation – as we finish the Torah in the holiday season, we immediately begin again.  We also eat a new fruit on the second night of Rosh Hashanah, on which we make a “shecheiyanu” blessing thanking G-d for keeping us alive and bringing us to this season.  Thus we are reminded to be grateful not only for every day we are alive, but also for the ability to enjoy the bounty G-d has given us.  We also eat fish (or lamb), generally with the head still attached, to signify that we should be a “head” and not a “tail,” as Rosh Hashanah is the “head of the year.”  Fish is also a symbol of abundance and fertility.  Some people even make up their own “symbols” to include, which can be as clever and creative as you like.  For example, you might make a little salad with half a raisin and some celery, so you can “half a raisin celery” (“have a raise in salary”).

On Sukkot, the food you eat is less important, but where you eat it is very important.  It is the Feast of Tabernacles.  While it is a great mitzvah to spend as much time in the sukkah as possible, it is much more important to be in the sukkah when you eat.  It wouldn’t be much of a Feast of Tabernacles if you did your feasting outside of the tabernacle, would it?  While we eat, we seek shelter in a makeshift booth, where we rely upon G-d for protection from the elements (and the bees!).  Within the sukkah, we shake lulav (made up of a date palm frond, willow branch, and myrtle) and etrog (citron).  The etrog is a fruit with a strong taste and smell, symbolizing Jews with Torah learning and good deeds.  The date is a fruit with a good taste but no smell, representing Jews who have Torah learning but no good deeds.  Myrtle smells good but has no taste, for Jews who have good deeds but no Torah knowledge. Finally, the willow has no taste and no smell, for Jews who have neither good deeds nor Torah knowledge.  All four are held together because all types of Jews are important and loved by G-d.  To remind themselves to strive to both learn Torah and do good deeds, many people eat etrog jelly after Sukkot is over, and it is seen as a segula (symbol) for easy birth when a pregnant woman eats it (maybe I should try this!) or for a blessing on the home when it is eaten on Tu B’Shvat.

Even less well-known holidays in Judaism come with special foods for us to eat.  On the day before Yom Kippur and on Hoshanah Raba (the seventh and last day of Sukkot) (as well as on Purim) we eat kreplach (pockets of dough filled with meat or other stuffing) to symbolize two things: 1) that it is a holiday (symbolized by the meat) yet not a complete holiday (symbolized by the dough covering and hiding it) and 2) that it is a time of judgment for the Jewish people – we ask that the divine judgment (meat, which is a dead animal) be tempered by G-d’s goodness and compassion (bread, which sustains life).  On Shemini Atzeret, although it is no longer Sukkot, we continue to eat in the sukkah.  On Simchat Torah, we eat foods that are rolled, like the Torah is.  (I know many people are thinking of deli rolls, but I am thinking of cinnamon swirls!)  We also drink wine or other spirits on Simchat Torah, to help us feel the joy of Torah and so we can celebrate G-d’s goodness without inhibitions.

For us Jews, food is much more than just a gustatory and epicurean activity.  It is a spiritual experience, a symbolic endeavour, and an interpersonal relationship builder.  It helps us to remember who we are as Jews, where we came from, and where we are going.

So as I cook for the holidays, I’ll be adding some extra honey to my challah and kugels, and extra apple to my cakes.  And most of all, I’ll be adding some extra love and care in the hopes that each and every one of us has a happy, sweet, and loving new year.

Shana tova & be’te avon,

Rebbetzin Rachel

Read more about the Jewish High Holidays:

Read more about Blowing the Shofar Before Rosh Hashanah During the Month of Elul

Read more about Rosh Hashanah Dessert Recipes

Read more about Rosh Hashanah & Sukkot Are Soon: Try Cooking Ahead! 

Read more about Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur in Sydney, Australia

Read more about Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur with the Jewish community in New Caledonia

Read more about Yom Kippur: Facing Your Truth

Read more about Yom Kippur & Jonah: Talkin’ About a Revolution

Read more about Celebrating Sukkot in Newtown, Sydney, Australia

Read more about What is a Simchat Beis HaShoeva Sukkot Celebration & Are There any in Sydney, Australia?

Read more about Hoshanah Raba: We Can All Be Kings

Parshas Nitzavim-Vayeilech: How to Do Teshuvah and Why to Do Teshuvah

My spread for my pre-Rosh Hashanah Brunch... aren't you sorry you missed it?!

Rosh Hashanah is less than a week away and everyone seems to be swinging into action to celebrate.  Even here in Adelaide, which has a relatively small Jewish population, there has been a flood of pre-Rosh Hashanah activity.  The Jewish Community Services put on a pre-Rosh Hashanah lunch. I hosted a pre-Rosh Hashanah brunch. We’ll be hosting a melava malka to be followed by selichos.  And of course Rosh Hashanah itself is beginning on Wednesday night.  The clock is ticking!

It is not possible to approach this period of time without discussing the nature of teshuvah, or repentance.  As the mashal (parable) goes, the King (G-d) is in the field, just waiting for us to approach Him.  Now is the time we must work on repenting, not leave it until the last minute when we are being judged by Him on Rosh Hashanah or before the judgment is signed and sealed on Yom Kippur.

It is no coincidence that in this week’s parsha Moses speaks about the mitzvah of repentance.  Other religions also feature ways to repent of sins.  In some religions you do not need to do anything except confirm your beliefs.  In others, you have to do horrible and painful things to yourself.  Judaism is neither of these extremes.

In Judaism, in order to repent we must first leave the sin behind and commit to never do it again.  We cannot repent if we continue to do the sin.  Then, we must sincerely regret what we did.  G-d will know if our regret is genuine.  Then we must confess our sins before G-d.  If you try this, you may be surprised to find this last step is actually the hardest.  To actually say the words out loud can be the step that really makes your commitment feel true.  Because it can be so difficult, this is why we have communal confessions on Yom Kippur.  If we are saying the same words as everyone around us, they may be a bit easier to say.  Judaism does require us to make a commitment and to do something difficult in confessing it, but it does not require anything physically painful or difficult.

Once we have stopped doing the sin and have truly repented, our past sins are erased or, in some cases, are even turned into mitzvot!  Actually doing teshuvah is a mitzvah, in stopping doing sins we are instead doing mitzvot, and our past sins can even be turned into mitzvot.  That is pretty amazing!  Imagine having all those mitzvot weighing in on your side when you go before G-d for judgment this Rosh Hashanah.  Now is the time to go to G-d, while He is accessible and waiting for us to come repent.

So what are you waiting for? The time for teshuvah is now!

Shabbat Shalom & Shana Tova.

Read more on Parshas Nitzavim-Vayelech: How the World Sees the Jews

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Dealing with Missionaries: Looking Inside Ourselves for Solutions

Recently, I saw a Jew arguing with a missionary.  The Jewish woman was upset because she had seen the non-Jewish woman trying to convert some Jews.  The argument quickly fell away from anything to do with religion or beliefs.  Instead, it became a game of who could be more condescending and insulting to whom.  It seemed like each was trying their best to make themselves look good while simultaneously putting the other one down.  In the end, nothing was achieved.

You see, when two people believe something very strongly, there is no point in having a debate or an argument because neither will be persuaded the other one is right.  This is true of any subject, but religion and politics are two of the top subjects for which this holds true.

If you are discussing or debating something with someone who has an open mind or who is on the fence about an issue, then it is worth continuing because you might change their mind.  If there are witnesses who might be convinced, it is worth continuing because you might change their minds.  If there is a Jew involved who has moved away from Judaism, it is worth continuing because EVERY Jewish soul is precious and you can never give up on persuading them. However, if you are arguing with someone who does not fall into one of those categories, then it is not a wise use of your time to continue. Instead, it is simply a waste of time and energy that you could be using to do something else.

And of course, if the conversation devolves into an argument without substance, where you are only finding more creative ways to put the other person down, then you won’t achieve anything, no matter who you are trying to convince or why.  If you want to debate with a missionary because, for instance, other Jews are watching, you must remain calm and keep a level head. There are rational responses to everything they say and there is no need to get angry at them.

When it comes to missionaries, I think it is a waste of time and energy to be upset and angry with them.  If they are on private property that belongs to you, you can ask them to leave and they should leave (or you can call the police) but beyond that, there is no reason to expend energy being upset with them for their proselytizing.

There’s no point in getting upset with the individuals doing it, for two reasons:
1) They are doing it out of love. Even if they are wrong, they are doing it because they truly care about others and want them to find happiness and beauty in the same things they do. At least, we must try to believe this because it is our obligation to work on ourselves to see the good in others even when they do the wrong thing.
2) They are merely instruments of the Satan, the Yetzer Hara, Hashem, whatever you want to call it. Remember the mashal of the dog and the stick. The master holds the stick that beats the dog. The dog barks at and bites at the stick. The dog does not realize it is the master who is doing the beating. These individuals are merely the stick. Instead of barking at THEM, we should ask why Hashem has put them in our path. Why do we deserve this? What can we do about it?

Only then can we address the true issue, which is our own teshuva. We have to ask what we can do. We will never be able to stop all non-Jews from trying to convert Jews; it has been that way since the time of the first Jew, Avraham. When he would not be persuaded away from the path of Hashem, he was thrown into a fire. And millions of Jews have been thrown into fires since then for refusing to change their faith and their beliefs. Nothing will stop the goyim from their anti-Semitism until Moshiach comes.

So instead of concentrating on them, the stick, let us ask the Master why He sends this stick. The answer is very clear straight out in the Torah. Look at the blessings Yaakov & Eisav receive from Yitzchak. When Yaakov (the Jews) are strong in their Torah, then Eisav will be their servant. But we see this is not currently the case, nor has it been since, well, pretty much ever.  From the sin of the golden calf to the idolatry throughout the Tanach, we Jews have been rebellious. If we want to break free from the yoke of Eisav, the only way to do so is to be strong in Torah.

So instead of arguing with or putting down others, we Jews have to A) work on ourselves to do as many mitzvot and learn as much Torah as we can and B) we have to work on helping other Jews to do the same. Yes, the does mean rescuing Jews who have been ensnared by those non-Jews who try to pull them away from the path of Judaism. But it also means rescuing Jews who have been pulled away from Judaism by the temptations of the modern world, by bad experiences with other Jews, by any and all possible factors.

But it does not mean attacking the stick. Let us be a light unto the nations! Shana tova!