A Few Thoughts as We Begin Vayikra (from our TBS weekly email 3/23/12)
Fri, March 23, 2012
On Tuesday, our scribe will come to repair our four Torahs, in an effort to keep them kosher and readable. As we welcome our scribe, we have reminded our students to dress appropriately for Hebrew School on Tuesday: no inappropriate words on T-shirts, no short shorts on the girls, shirts and tops that cover all parts of one’s body (no spaghetti straps, NO FLIP FLOPS (as you cannot read Torah barefoot), and making sure that hands and bodies are not written on. It occurs to me that this is how our students should always come to religious school. This is a sacred place that should teach Jewish values and where people should live Jewish values. Our efforts to be modest and appropriate as a society have waned. The synagogue can be the last, best hope of instilling self esteem by reminding all of us that we were created in God’s image, and therefore should treat ourselves and our community with reverence.
Technology is another area where too many have been co-opted by our society’s values. It is NEVER okay to use your cell phone in the sanctuary (that includes allowing children to play video games), or to take or make a call in the temple building on Shabbat, or to use an iPad or computer on Shabbat (especially in the lobby before or after services, or to clear your emails at a temple meeting. We must strive to make our encounters in the temple holy. The person/people you are with are more important than anyone on the other end of the phone. We survived just fine before there were cell phones, and somehow our children survived as well. Leave the technology in the car and enter God’s house unencumbered, so that the messages of Torah and the Divine, the still small voice, can be heard.
As we begin the book of Leviticus this Shabbat, we are keenly aware that we have moved from a sacrificial cult to a community of worship and peoplehood. We must also be cognizant of the fact that we must still make sacrifices to be Jewish today, and that we are still obligated to fulfill the mitzvot of Shabbat and so much more. May we all renew our commitment to the mitzvah of belonging, connecting, studying, sharing, welcoming, and giving that has enabled us to continue to be Jews, l’dor vador, from generation to generation.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Amy R. Perlin, D.D.