From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life Temple Emanuel in Newton

Dr. Rochelle Walensky served as the 19th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021-23), Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (2012-2021), and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital (2017-2021). Dr. Walensky is an infectious disease clinician whose research career is guided by a belief that the clinical and economic outcomes of medical decisions can be improved through the explicit articulation of choices, the systematic assembly of evidence, and the careful assessment of comparative costs and benefits. She has focused these beliefs on mathematical model-based research toward the promotion of global access to HIV prevention, screening, and care. Her ground-breaking work and over 300 research publications have motivated changes to US HIV testing and immigration policy; promoted expanded funding for HIV-related research, treatment, and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPfAR); and led to policy revisions toward aggressive HIV screening – especially for the underserved – and earlier treatment in resource-limited international settings. In light of these contributions, Dr. Walensky has been an active member of policy discussions at the WHO, UNAIDS, the DHHS HIV Guidelines Committee, and the NIH Office of AIDS Research.



View the texts HERE

Sivan Kotler-Berkowitz (he/him) is a rising sophomore at UMass Amherst studying Special Education and Psychology. He is passionate about transgender youth advocacy, working with kids with disabilities, and making the world a better place. As an advocate, Sivan shares his story as a thriving transgender teenager to help replace misinformation about transgender youth. Through his advocacy, he has appeared on national television, worked with Nike, met with officials in the U.S. Department of Education, attended events at the White House, and even spoken to the President and Vice President. 

One of the best parts of being a rabbi is sitting down with a young couple that has just become engaged and is now beginning the exciting journey of planning their wedding day. That initial conversation always involves the sharing of the proposal story. Almost always there is an element of surprise. One partner does not know it’s coming or coming then. There is usually a photographer hiding in a bush taking pictures or a videographer hiding in a bush capturing the whole thing on video. There is often a room somewhere strewn with roses or flower petals and bottles of champaign. It is not uncommon for the person planning the proposal to have arranged for both sets of parents and siblings to be at a cool restaurant to celebrate.

Betrothal energy is unique, and uniquely beautiful. It happens once, and the couple remembers it forever.

What do we make then of the end of the Haftarah from Hosea:

I will betroth you forever;

I will betroth you with righteousness and justice,

And with goodness and mercy,

And I will betroth you with faithfulness;

Then you shall be devoted to the Lord. (2: 21-22)

These lines of betrothal are part of our daily morning prayer practice. We say them as we wrap tefillin every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Rinse and repeat for our whole lives.

What does it mean that betrothal energy, engagement energy, flower and champagne energy, photographers hiding out in the bushes energy to capture a once in a lifetime moment, is recited every single week day?

For our last class, we focus on three life lessons that flow from turning a once in a lifetime deal to an everyday deal.

June 1, 2024

We could all use a booster shot of hope. Where do we find it?

Tomorrow we are going to examine two very different models for finding hope in dark circumstances: Rabbi Akiva in the Talmud, Makot 24 A and B, and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his epic Morality, published shortly before he passed away in 2020.

Rabbi Akiva’s approach to hope seems to be about a new lens: Look at reality differently.

Rabbi Sacks’s approach to hope seems to be about a new action plan: Act differently.

What is the relationship of these two approaches to each other, and to us now?

What, if anything, lasts forever?  What is impervious to the ravages of time? What can we do today that will still be talked about a hundred years from now?

I have been thinking about these questions since May 13, which is the day that a great writer named Alice Munro died.  Alice Munro won the Noble Prize in Literature in 2013.  She was an absolute master of the short story genre.  I had never read her work before her death, so I started reading a collection with the title Too Much Happiness, published in 2009.  As you might imagine, the title Too Much Happiness is ironic.  The characters in this collection do not have too much happiness.

One story is about a recently widowed woman named Nita.  She had been married to a man twenty years older named Rich.  They expected she would be the first to pass, because she was fighting cancer, and because he had gotten a recent clean bill of health from his doctor. But soon after the doctor’s appointment, he passed suddenly and unexpectedly while on the way to the hardware store.

It dawns on Nita that her life has changed not temporarily, but permanently.  Rich is not coming back. The patterns they used to enjoy will not happen again.  Who she used to be, a wife to Rich, she is no longer.   And she faces this new reality with her own health challenges. She used to be a voracious reader.  When Rich died, at first she thought I’ll just read.  So she would sit with her books in her comfy chair.  They kept her company.  She liked the feel of them.  But she realized she could not read them anymore.  Her medical treatments had diminished her attention span.  What she used to be able to do, she can do no longer.  Is happiness when circumstances change permanently still possible? 

Munro’s story captures a dilemma that many of us find ourselves in.  The world is changing. Our world is changing.  And we wonder is it changing temporarily.  Or is it changing permanently?  It is not always easy, or even possible, to know for sure.  Think back to the worst of Covid.  In the darkest days of the pandemic, we wondered whether we would we ever be able to gather in big, robust, happy gatherings without worry again.  Now we know the answer is yes. But we didn’t necessarily know it at the time. There is a recency bias. The moment we are in is so powerful.  Remember how we all felt in the early days of the pandemic. 

Now we have a different set of questions.  What will be with Israel?  What will be with the American Jewish community?  Is our golden age over, or will the spike of anti-Semitism pass like Covid 19 passed?  Will our relationship with our alma mater ever be loving and uncomplicated again?