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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Jordan Helfman

Danny Fenster is coming home.  

You may not know the name in the Canadian press, but Danny grew up not far from where I was born, is friends with some of my university classmates, and is a member of the Reform Jewish community around Detroit, Michigan.

Working as a journalist, he was amongst many arrested when the Myanmar military deposed the Aung San Suu Kyi – a Nobel laureate.

For six months, he sat in captivity while “Free Fenster” was a political anthem in Detroit.  Thanks to U.S. Representative Andy Levin and others, enough political pressure meant that days after receiving an 11-year jail sentence, he was released into the hands of the former US ambassador.

The mitzvah of Pidyon Shvuyim פִּדְיוֹן שְׁבוּיִים Redeeming the Captive last made news when Gilad Shavit was held captive in Gaza. Thankfully this latest case didn’t require anything more than political sacrifices.  According to Maimonides, “The redeeming of captives takes precedence over supporting the poor or clothing them. There is no greater mitzvah than redeeming captives for the problems of the captive include being hungry, thirsty, unclothed, and they are in danger of their lives too.”

While there are other journalists and political prisoners being held in Myanmar and around the world, it is a sigh of relief for the Jewish community around the world, knowing that Danny Fenster has been freed.

This Shabbat, let us give thanks for this moment of freedom and appreciate what it means to be free.  And after Shabbat – let’s work to bring more light and freedom to others through the mitzvot.  While this is thankfully a rare mitzvah, there are others that you can engage in on an ongoing basis. Check out this upcoming webinar to see how some members of our community have been involved in helping others move from a narrow place to one of freedom:  https://holyblossom.org/event/from-refugee-to-citizen-sharing-stories-about-resettlement-in-canada/

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Jordan Helfman

Though my feet are still here in Canada, I had two moments abroad this week which I want to mention, both centred around sacred memory.

Honouring Memory through Learning 

Those that were in Shabbat Torah Study this past week will remember learning a bit about Rabbi Abraham Geiger.  I didn’t know at the time – but his Yartzeit was this week.  Through the magic of Zoom, I was able to attend a lecture in Germany by Rabbi Dr Professor Walter Homolka, Rector of the Abraham Geiger College, who pointed out the many anniversaries that we are celebrating the year:

Some are calling it the 250th years of Liberal Judaism, dated from when Moses Mendelssohn broke with the rabbinate around burial practices. This Shavuot will be the 200th year since the first Confirmation ceremony. It is the 150th year since the opening of the first Reform Rabbinical school in Berlin (and 80 years since the Nazis closed it), 120 years since the birth of Rabbi Regina Jonas, and 50 years since the ordination of Rabbi Sally Priesand.

This coming Tuesday, Holy Blossom Temple is hosting Rabbis Michael Marmur and David Ellenson.  I don’t have space here to list their titles – but Rabbi Ellenson ordained me as a rabbi, and Rabbi Marmur (the younger) taught me that the rabbinate can be both serious and engaging.    They are without compare, and this lecture in memory of Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro z”l will leave you wanting more.

Honouring the Memory of the Righteous 

I was also surprised to hear “Essex” in the news in Canada this past week and was saddened that it was for a moment of tragedy – the murder of MP Sir David Amess.

Since I have learned that Sir Amess was a friend to the Jewish community in Southend-on-Sea. Rabbi David Mitchell of the West London Synagogue introduced me to the history of Raoul Wallenberg’s memorial near his community – a memorial that Sir Amess campaigned for as a symbol of Wallenberg’s heroism which saved tens of thousands of our people.

One of the themes of this week’s parasha – Vayera וַיֵּרָא  is the importance of never standing by before an injustice.  Abraham, of course, debates with God about the preservation of Sodom and Gemorrah.  Abraham ibn Ezra (1092-1167) even goes far as to claim that it was because the innocent remained silent and never protested the ill-deeds of others that they didn’t qualify as righteous enough to save the city.

A few weeks ago, we were able to honour the descendants of the Righteous amongst the Nations at Holy Blossom thanks to the connections of Dmitri Kanovich.  I am sure it was as moving for those in person as it was for those participating online.

Though I never had the opportunity to meet him, I am thankful for the work of Sir Amess, who raised the consciousness of Raoul Wallenberg and his righteous deeds.

May the memories of the righteous be, for us, a blessing. 

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Jordan Helfman

Fragility of Life – Fragility of Structure

As I was building a shack in my back yard this past week, someone nearby commented on how it looked pretty secure – except that the holes in the roof could be a slight problem for the rain.

Now that it is raining – I have to agree.

One of the most frightening things for a homeowner is when water seeps through and takes unexpected paths deep into the home. In our protected bubbles we secure ourselves in, we control every element so that beauty and comfort are supreme.

And yet – once a year we step into the holey, outside of the climate control, and experience the transcendent art of nature.

Every year I find poetry in this transition from stability to ramshackle.  But this year I see the reverse – that in the uncontrolled, there is now standing an imperfect structure in my yard.

Enclosing what was once a walking path, is now structure.  The walls break the passing wind and provide definition where there was none before.

Something is now standing there – with water soaking the paper chains, pouring through the holy roof.

This moment for me is about celebrating those boundaries which make our lives special – both physical but also in time.

For my family- the first Tot Shabbat of the year is arriving – and the boxed-out space of Shabbat will regain a bit more of its definition.  For others, Saturday morning attendance at Holy Blossom is returning to their routine, giving more form to their social and communal Jewish lives.

Yizkor and Shemini Atzeret are around the corner, and making this time sacred will help delineate.  We are still far from perfection, the full schedules and energy which flowed through our Jewish lives.  We aren’t secure yet – but at least the boundaries are taking shape as life returns.

Moadim L’Simcha.

 

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Jordan Helfman

Olympic Fervor

In a letter to the small yet learned and pious Jewish community in Yemen, Maimonides comments on the idea of what makes a great nation.  He teaches that while others may have bigger numbers, the Jewish people is special because of our Laws our relationship with God.

Right now the countries of the world are competing based on running and jumping, throwing, catching, aiming, and just simply holding it together/being proud when athletes say they can’t.

As a spectator, it is tremendously exciting as Canada and its many athletes compete with heart and with class.  Sometimes as a nice bonus, they also bring home medals.

Of course, many of us are also watching the progress of the Israeli teams: watching José Bautista knock the bronze away from the Baseball team with a swing of his bat, and  Artem Dolgopyat flip and spin to a gymnastic’s gold.

His mother made a shocking statement after the win, which talks to Israel’s greatness.  She decried the fact that he can have a gold medal placed around his neck for Israel, but he can’t place a gold wedding ring around his long-time partner’s finger in Israel.

His non-Jewish Israeli mother also deserves a gold in the parenting Olympics for her statement.  I could rephrase her words as,  “He won the gold medal, great, but I won’t be happy until there are grandchildren seeing if my knadelach hurt their teeth in the same way to bite.”

This is a conversation, not of Law but of law.  While rabbis would not marry Artem Dolgopyat here in Canada – he could easily still get married.  But in Israel, mimicking the Ottoman system which was in place before the British Mandate period, only recognized religious authorities can perform marriages.  So for Artem, who is not a member of any other religious group, but is not considered Jewish by the rabbis, he is unable to be married, unless he travels – which his coaches have made him too busy to do.

Things are starting to shift in Israel, and reform is in the air, especially as his mother’s pointed celebration has turned into a national conversation.

As Maimonides teaches, being a great nation isn’t about numbers – but about our relationship to Law and God.

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Jordan Helfman

A Complex Canada Day

In a recent article for Truah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Canadian rabbi, Jesse Paikin, teaches about a moment in last week’s Torah portion when Balaam’s eyes are finally opened to see what was in front of him the whole time.

Bringing Rashi, Rabbi Paikin teaches that God’s spirit rested upon Bilaam to teach us that:

nobody anywhere might ever use the excuse: “If only I had known, I would have changed for the better.” When the unknown becomes known, can we have the courage to confront what we’d rather keep invisible? This moment in Torah provides an unambiguous example of how, once our eyes are open to the truth, it cannot be ignored. All the more so, it must be acted upon.

Rabbi Paikin continues:

We’re staring into a grave right now. Despite our understandable desire to protect ourselves emotionally by not grappling with the implications of the pain, the truth cannot be reburied. We have to keep looking into the still-open wounds.

Over the last eight years, I have gained a deeper and more complex view of Canada, and with it, a more nuanced appreciation of Canada Day.

Some years, Canada Day has felt like a firework and barbeque precursor to the 4th of July.  Other years, it stood as a moment of proud celebration of a country welcoming of refugees and proud of its diversity.  And this year it feels awkward.  Like the churches planted on the land are foreign invaders.  Like the flag should be orange.

This year I will still celebrate that which is good – we should be glad for the goodness which God has given us, and give thanks for it.  And that celebration will be paired with donations to support First Nations causes in order to reinforce the fabric of our nation.

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Jordan Helfman

The Fabric of Canada

What makes the fabric of Canada so beautiful is that it is knit in so many bright and diverse colours.  Multiple identities are highlighted and made more beautiful through how other strands reinforce their difference. There is dominance and dominion – yet there is also striving and through transitions and blends, as buried threads reach the surface and are restored.  Violent rips and pain tears also are in this complex landscape, as hate pulls us asunder, and leaves us feeling unsupported as we seek to find our place back.

Many of us have felt unsupported as anti-Zionism mingled with Anti-Semitism, and a foreign war became a mini-domestic conflict.  And our community has been able to cast that aside as domestic terrorism has created new feelings of physical insecurity for our Muslim neighbours.

Just as in Torah study, there is a pshat, drash, remes  and sod to that sentence – layers and layers of interpretation.

In the coming days, (on a Sunday afternoon to be confirmed soon), I want to invite you for an internal, Holy Blossom Temple conversation on the news of the day. I have received many phone calls and emails from both parents of 20s and 30s and members in our community in their 20s/30s, about a gap in experience in our community. It is almost as if – and we know this is true – their social media and news universes are totally different. Rabbi Lea Mülstein, Chair of ARZENU (our Reform movement Zionist political party), and a community rabbi in the United Kingdom where she has been holding similar conversations will interview two of our members about their view of the world they see around them, as it relates to anti-Racism and their Jewish identities. One of the interviewees will be Dr. Karen Mock, CM and the other will be Emily Albert.

And, I want to invite you also to watch a series of videos produced by our partners in fighting hate at the Noor Cultural Centre:  http://islamophobia-is.com/watch/

One of the early Reform Rabbis – Emil G Hirsch – taught that when Joseph went into slavery, his clothes of many colours were replaced by a single coloured garment and that this colour change represents different types of societies. The slave’s garment is singular, and a uniform for a society of oppression. The clothes of many colours are the opposite – representing the freedom and diversity which are God’s image for the world.

The fabric is complex, and that adds to its beauty.

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Jordan Helfman

This Saturday night, the World Union of Progressive Judaism conference, which I co-chaired with Nitzan Barak (Israel) and Hannah Verhulst (the Netherlands) drew to a close.

It was a strange thing to be in my home, with over 1,000 participants in the event platform, and over 2,000 more watching on our livestream.

The big event was the installation of Rabbi Sergio Bergman as WUPJ President, as well as having moments to schmooze with and learn from him.  His vision of the WUPJ is one that ties us all more closely with Israel and brings support to small Jewish communities all over the world.

Holy Blossom Temple played a major role in the event.  Our member, Carole Sterling, delivered remarks at both the opening and closing ceremonies from our Bimah.  Cantor Rosen contributed to the Saturday morning Shacharit from our Main Sanctuary. And Rabbi Splansky moderated a keynote address with some of the world’s most preeminent thinkers from her COVID office.

While I am not sure we’ll have any new wedding couples based on this year’s convention, the learning lingers longer.

The best-of list, of course, includes sessions organized and featuring many of our members:

 

All of these and more are present in the on-demand section of the WUPJ conference platform for those who registered and will be released on youtube slowly for those that did not.

Thank you to all who make your voluntary contributions, and the many who make time contributions as well to the WUPJ – including Executive Board Member Les Rothschild – and Denes Rothschild who provided a small film crew for one of our aliyot.

Under Rabbi Bergman’s leadership and Carole Sterling’s guidance, I know the WUPJ will continue to enrich our community through its connection to an international family.

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Jordan Helfman

Bridging the World Towards Kindness

 

 

Olam Chesed Yibaneh –

 

We must build our world from loving-kindness.

 

The world is a big place – and there are gaps between what is right and what is.  Sometimes, those gaps feel closer together – such as in the news that George Floyd’s murderer will be behind bars, and the pressure on Queens Park to introduce sick-leave.  Sometimes those gaps feel wider and unbridgeable – in conversations around the vaccine rollout in the Global South, where new variants are bringing hardship and devastation, we feel the need to try to do something to lessen the suffering.

 

One of my honours is to serve as a co-chair for the World Union of Progressive Judaism’s conference, which launches in mid-May, just after Shavuot.  It is the first World Union Connections gathering in four years – and the first online conference.

 

When our member, and the chair of the World Union – Carole Sterling – asked me to help with the conference – I was excited for the opportunity to travel to Jerusalem – to Beit Shmuel once again.   But instead, I’ll be taking a trip like Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlov taught about – creating a virtual Jerusalem.

 

There, I will see friends and members of our global Jewish family from around the world – I’ll have a chance to preserve tradition through pickle-making with Rabbi Whats the Dill….  And to learn how to make Kosher Chilli Crab with Rosita from Singapore.  I’ll be able to schmooze at the ‘bar’ area, and hear some of the freshest new Jewish music in our movement.

 

In addition I am honoured to be able to learn from dynamic speakers and teacher – like Rabbi Splansky, who is moderating one of our keynote events with Professor Stephen Pinker and Adam Azari – a National Geographic level video on the environment with Rabbi Sergio Bergman, the new WUPJ President, and the former minister of the environment for the government of Argentina – and the first Reform Rabbi in the Knesset- Gilad Kariv.

 

I recently learned that one of the keynotes will be announcing a new initiative to bring healing to parts of our world greatly in need of support and care, and I look forward to learning more at the conference!

 

Our huge and interconnected Jewish world is built on Love-  come, learn, and study the diversity of our movement and see how that diversity builds a more caring world together.

 

(And thank you to Rabbi Splansky, Tema Smith, Carole Sterling, Cantor Rosen, Kalman Green, Daniel Abramson, Les Rothschild, Rabbi Glickman, Abigail Carpenter-Winch, Rabbi Tepper, Ann Rosenfield and so many more members of our community for your help!)

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/connections-2021-facing-our-jewish-future-together-tickets-137432974727

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