Posts

Hostages, Martin Luther King Day, Inauguration Day 2025 thoughts (Mon Jan 20, 2025)

By -
The note I sent to the United Synagogue of Hoboken community on Friday (also pasted below) focused on the mixed emotions of this week.  If anything, the blend of contradictory emotions has become even more intense since I wrote the words below on Friday.  Seeing freed hostages Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher reunited with their families brings remarkable joy, even as it is horrifying to think of what they have endured, and the fate of those who are yet to be freed.  That the hostages’ freedom could be assured only by trading them for convicted terrorists serving life sentences is devastating and dangerous.  And yet the deal has broad support in Israel, with many people holding that it would be even more devastating and dangerous if the hostages were not released.  Our prayers are with the hostages who have been freed, those who remain in captivity, and their families and communities. Today (Monday, January 20) is Martin Luther King Day, when we ...
Post a Comment
Read more

“What we have learned from Rachel Goldberg-Polin” ( Second day of Rosh HaShanah 5785 / 2024)

By -
  Second day of Rosh HaShanah 5785 / 2024:  “What we have learned from Rachel Goldberg-Polin” Rabbi Robert Scheinberg United Synagogue of Hoboken A voice is heard in the heights:  wailing, bitter weeping; Rachel crying for her children.   קֹ֣ול בְּרָמָ֤ה נִשְׁמָע֙ נְהִי֙ בְּכִ֣י תַמְרוּרִ֔ים רָחֵ֖ל מְבַכָּ֣ה עַל־בָּנֶ֑יהָ We read these words in today’s Haftarah from the book of Jeremiah.  These words have been on my mind truly all year since I first heard the name Rachel Goldberg-Polin.  I never met Rachel though we are almost exact contemporaries and we have numerous friends in common.  and I know there are several people in our community, maybe here in this room right now, who have some connection with her.   Around the world people know Rachel now, and for the most terrible reason:  she is the mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin of blessed memory, who was murdered by his Hamas captors eleven months after being kidnapped on October 7 a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Teaching Torah about a catastrophic year (First day of Rosh HaShanah 5785 / 2024)

By -
Image
First day of Rosh HaShanah 5785 / 2024: Teaching Torah about a catastrophic year Rabbi Robert Scheinberg United Synagogue of Hoboken So a rabbi applies for a position at a synagogue and is invited to an “audition shabbat” to meet the community and give a sermon.   The week before, the chair of the search committee calls and says:  “I’m just curious what you’re planning to talk about when you come for your audition shabbat.”  And the rabbi says:  “I was going to speak about the centrality of Shabbat in living a Jewish life today.” and the search committee chair says:  “Rabbi, let me give you some advice.  People in this synagogue don’t observe Shabbat. They will feel judged and uncomfortable if you talk about shabbat.” And the rabbi says:  “Well, ok.  I guess I could speak about how Judaism has a system for affirming the holiness of everyday actions like eating, which is the system of Kashrut-”  And the search committee chair breaks in....
Post a Comment
Read more

Comments from 4/5/2024: Gaza humanitarian crisis and World Central Kitchen

By -
These are the comments I shared with the USH community on Friday April 5, shortly after the tragic killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza in an Israeli strike in error.  פתחו לי שערי צדק. לעולם הבא אומר לו לאדם מה היתה מלאכתך והוא אומר מאכיל רעבים הייתי. והם אומרים לו זה השער של מאכיל רעבים הכנס בו.  “Open for me the gates of righteousness.” (Psalm 118):   In the World to Come, a person is asked 'what was your occupation?' When one replies 'I fed the hungry,' they respond:  'this is the gate of those who feed the hungry; enter into it'.  ( Midrash to the Book of Psalms 118 )  Among the vanishingly few matters of general consensus in the world concerning the Hamas-Israel war is that the World Central Kitchen is a truly heroic organization.  With a mission to bring food to troubled spots in the world, it is a rare organization that sees the humanity of all people who are endangered, displaced, traumatized or otherwise affected by th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Seder Trivia Game, 2024 Edition

By -
Image
At our synagogue's congregational seders for the last several years, we have played the following game: I have collected unusual Pesach stories, and shared three such stories with the community: two true stories, and one fictional story. Participants then have to guess which two stories are true and which one is false. (If you listen to  Wait, wait, don't tell me,  you get the idea, except that only one story is false.) You can see previous editions of this game here  http://rabbischeinberg.blogspot.com/search?q=trivia . This is what was presented at our congregational seder in 2023. Two stories are true; one is fictional. Answers at the bottom!  (And photos inspired by the stories were created by AI...)  STORY #1: Seders have taken place in a lot of strange and remote places in the world.  There have been seders in Antarctica, and on Mount Everest, and on submarines deep under the ocean.  But the seder in the most remote location of all took place las...
Post a Comment
Read more

Talking peacefully? (Parashat Vayeshev 5784 / 2023)

By -
  Talking peacefully? Parashat Vayeshev 5784 / 2023 This week I saw a very chilling video and a very inspiring video, both of which were both recorded on the same day in the same location.  Both videos were recorded at a place very dear to me, the campus of Columbia University in New York City, this past Wednesday December 6.  Both were recorded in the lobby of the Columbia School of Social Work. A student group in the Columbia Social Work school had announced a ‘teach-in’ in support of Gaza to take place this past Wednesday December 6. If the topic of  this event had been the plight of people in Gaza currently, the difficulties and horrifying loss of life faced by civilians in Gaza in the face of Israel’s bombardments, that’s something I would have expected. But that’s not what this event was. This event planned by Columbia Social Work students was an event specifically to applaud the violent events of October 7.  In fact, the title that the students gave to th...
Post a Comment
Read more