Rabbi Robert Scheinberg's page

On the surface, Purim seems like the most lighthearted Jewish holiday, with joking, masquerading, feasting, and delivering treats to friends and family.   But under that surface boils the powerful rage of thousands of years.   When we yell and stamp and make noise during the reading of the Megillah, we express our rage not only at Haman, the villain of the Purim story, but also at those in every generation whose irrational hatred of Jews has led them to violence.   But let us exhibit this rage with caution. The rage of Purim finds dramatic expression in the special Torah reading for the Shabbat before Purim, known as Shabbat Zakhor, the Sabbath of Remembrance. We read (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)   that as the Israelites were wandering in the desert, they were attacked by the tribe of Amalek. The Amalekites chose to fight their battle not against the armed Israelite soldiers, but against innocent, defenseless civilians, the “stragglers in the rear.” The Torah command...

The  world is  full of  people  who  aspire  to  positions  of  power  and  authority.  There  are  very  few  completely  uncontested  positions  of political  power  and  authority  in  the  United  States,  but  the kind  of  leadership  for  which  one  must  compete  is  only  one kind  of  leadership.   Many  of  the  people  in  our  country  or  in our  lives  who  have  most  deeply  and  successfully  exercised leadership  were  actually  not  competing  or  racing  with anyone.  In fact, they held roles that no one else wanted. One  Torah  passage  that  focuses  on  different  models of leadership is the passage from...

(From my email message to my synagogue community on Friday, December 14:) Dear friends, Shabbat is approaching, but I wanted to share some personal reactions to today's terrible news out of Connecticut . The tragedy is so horrifying -- and the Hoboken connection brings the potential for tragedy so close to home.  While the news is constantly changing, at this point it is not unreasonable to imagine an alternate scenario in which this massacre would  have unfolded in Hoboken rather than in Connecticut .  We cannot pretend that we are not connected to this tragedy. At the bottom of this email I have tried to express some of my most heartfelt prayers at this painful moment.  Those of us with children may appreciate some suggestions for discussing such horrifying events with children; for example,  http://www.nmha.org/ go/information/get-info/ coping-with-disaster/helping- children-handle-disaster- related-anxiety .  This tragedy remin...

I wrote this for the Rabbinical Assembly's Thanksgiving Service 2012, in light of our community's experiences with Hurricane Sandy. Introduction to Birkat Ha-gomel   by Rabbi Rob Scheinberg, United Synagogue of Hoboken, NJ The traditional Jewish response to a brush with danger is to recite a blessing – just as we try to respond to every life experience with words of blessing. It may appear to be a paradox that the Birkat Ha-gomel, the Blessing of Thanksgiving, is recited following the very most terrifying moments in our lives: Barukh … ha-gomel l’hayavim tovot, she-g’malani kol tov.’   ‘Blessed are you, Adonai, our God, sovereign of the universe, who bestows favor upon the undeserving, and has bestowed favor upon me.’ We express gratefulness, even though we know that our good fortune has nothing to do with our merit. We are all the ‘hayavim’ - the ‘undeserving’. This blessing acknowledges that the fundamental unfairness of the universe sometimes accrues to ou...

Below is our most recent update on the impact of Hurricane Sandy on our synagogue's community and activities. This update will also be reprinted in the Shofar Newsletter for the coming month. Please feel free to forward it to friends and relatives who might be interested in how our Jewish community is faring after the storm --and especially to those who have inquired about how they can assist.   photo taken just a couple of blocks from the United Synagogue of Hoboken.  Photo is from the Rebuild Hoboken website (www.rebuildhoboken.org) מַיִם רַבִּים לֹא יוּכְלוּ לְכַבּוֹת אֶת הָאַהֲבָה וּנְהָרוֹת לֹא יִשְׁטְפוּהָ. “Many waters cannot extinguish love, Nor can rivers drown it.”  (Song of Songs 8:7) These past three weeks have been among the most troubling of my life, but also among the most exhilarating.  I am posting here some updates about the impact of Hurricane Sandy on our community, the current state of the recovery in our community, and some prac...