Min haMuvhar

As we approach the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel, we do so with great pride...and some anxiety. Rabbi Marc Angel ponders the blessings and challenges of this year's Yom haAtsmaut.

In social-justice work, there is a true need to harmonize gratitude in the quiet prayerful presence of God, while also knowing there is real suffering and brokenness in the world. Therefore, one of the most powerful tools in this field of work is the strength to refuse to look away and be silent.

Special individuals, like their many illustrious predecessors, have in common a commitment to the truth, abhorrence of corruption, and the fearlessness that enables them to speak out in support of what is right and just. They serve as role models for the Jewish people wherever they may reside.

Should Jewish law lose its ethical moorings, it will devolve into just another set of laws holding no more attraction than any other legal system. Only when halakhah manifests a deep passion for justice and human sensitivity will it secure the allegiance of Jews today. Moral integrity is, therefore, an existential imperative for contemporary halakhah.

The founders of modern psychology focused a great deal on the unconscious mind. They recognized that there was a resistance between the thoughts that we held in our unconscious and those that were present in our conscious minds. It was through the enigmatic riddles of our dreams that they saw the unconscious attempting to make itself known to us and bring the latent parts into the manifest.

On Shabbat, March 25, Rabbi Hayyim Angel will lead another Foundations Minyan at Congregation Beth Aaron in Teaneck (950 Queen Anne Road). It will be a full Shabbat morning service, during which Rabbi Angel adds explanations and discussion before each Aliyah of the Torah reading, and also an explanatory sermon pertaining to prayer.

The service is geared for people of all backgrounds. It meets roughly every six weeks at Congregation Beth Aaron.

Services begin at 9:15, and will be followed by a Kiddush. All are welcome.

Over the past month, I have served as a scholar-in-residence in two different communities in Philadelphia. Under the banner of our Institute, we are spreading our ideas throughout the country and beyond through such programs.

Our return to Zion, to the land of Israel, has been at the aspirational center of our very being—the hope that has sustained our people. This collective hope for return to Israel has sustained us through centuries of marginalization, expulsions, Inquisitions, dhimmi laws, pogroms and ultimately the Holocaust..

It sometimes feels that we are alone.  But we are not alone; we are part of a much larger “kahal,” a community of idealists and activists. Our “kahal” is spread out around the world and includes revolutionaries who work for change, who contribute their time, energy and financial resources. Our “kahal” does not and will not sleep through a spiritual revolution that must be waged.

Encoded in the Book of Esther are the answers to many of our collective, universal questions. How do we build a more just world? What must we do to restore a sense of the sacred to our marriages, homes, and society? How do we rekindle love in our relationship with the divine after heartache and disappointments? How do we become our most empowered selves?