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Showing posts from 2015

Yom Yevava: Whole, Broken, Whole Again.

Yom Yevava : Whole, Broken, Whole Again. Erev Rosh Hashanah 5776 | Temple Shir Tikva Rabbi Jen Gubitz The golden sands swirled. The air was thick with sadness. She hoped they would return soon. But three days had since passed. And no word. Yet. She forced herself to stand and drawing the crimson cord of a tent flap, she opened it. She looked out. But all that was there were the golden sands swirling and an ever thickening sadness. And our matriarch, Sarah, cried. In agony, she wailed. She beat her chest. Where was Abraham? And where was Isaac? God gave me Isaac as my joy, my laughter, she recalled between her tears. And for a moment a smile creeped into the corners of her mouth - recalling the laughter in her belly that there would finally be a baby in her belly… But then Sarah remembered her grief, her smile retreated and she cried out, and she sobbed. Yom Yevava - it was a day of sobbing.   Can you hear her cries? The anguish of a parent fearing for a child’s w

Dear Mother Emanuel, A Letter of Condolence

Dear Mother Emanuel June 19, 2015 ~ 3 Tamuz 5775 Rabbi Jen Gubitz Temple Shir Tikva, Wayland, MA A letter of condolence to Mother Emanuel, the name by which Charleston’s Emanual African Methodist Episcopal Church is lovingly referred:   Dear Mother Emanual, we are so profoundly saddened for your loss. We are so profoundly saddened for your loss es . For thousands of years, in Jewish tradition, upon hearing of a death, we recite these words - Baruch Da’ayan Ha’emet, Blessed is the True Judge. And we tear Kriyah - we tear, rip, rend our clothing to expose our hearts. We expose our hearts breaking for you and, dare I say, with you. Baruch Dayan Ha’Emet, Blessed is the True Judge. Our hearts break for and with you, dear Mother Emanuel. But why, and how could we bless God when our hearts break, why and how could we bless God when another’s heart has ceased beating? We bless God because dear Mother Emanuel - Emanuel OR Im Anu El. You have known this truth, Mother Emanue

Living in the Hyphen - Confronting Internalized Racism

Parashiyot Achrei Mot (hyphen) Kedoshim Rabbi Jen Gubitz May 1, 2015 ~ 13 Iyyar 5775 Temple Shir Tikva It was an image out of a utopian movie. Children seated in organized rows. Some dressed in traditional African garments. A vast array of what you could see: skin tones, hair color, height - and, of course, a vast array of what you could not see: religion, ability, disability, personality, and socio economics.  Children all singing together: “ Jambo , Jambo, Jambo, sana, jambo. Jambo, jambo, jambo watato, jambo. ” This was a 1974 song by Ella Jenkins using basic Swahili that meant: “Hello, hello, hello, everybody, hello” sung as part of the yearly celebration focused each year on a different part of the world - this time Africa. The year before that we dressed in red, white and green and did traditional dances from Mexico. And the year after that, wandering through the halls in kimonos, we practiced the sacred art of a Japanese tea ceremony and the origami folding of a 1