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Parashat Vayetzei: Ramping Up

Delivered at The Riverway Project at Temple Israel December 9, 2016 ~ 9 Kislev 5777 Rabbi Jen Gubitz ** In memory of my buddy Vito Leybman, who emigrated to Fort Wayne from the FSU, and was tragically killed by a drunk driver in December of 1999. Flashback. It seemed like the middle of the night. In sweatshirts and rumpled hair we would pile into the minivan and drive to the airport. We’d park our van and everyone had a job. My mom carried her guitar, my dad carried my sister, and my brother and I proudly held our homemade banner printed from a Commodore 64 on that perforated printer paper that is still perfect for banners. And as a family, we crossed the bridge from long term parking and headed to international arrivals.  As my mom played Heiveinu Shalom Aleichem and a number of other families like us sang together these words of welcome,  down the ramp came one of the many Jewish families from the Former Soviet Union who would make their new home in Fort Wayne, Indian
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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
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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
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