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Passover – A Celebration of Life and Freedom

March 29, 2015 by Russell McAlmond

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As Jews, we suspend Torah reading for the eight days of Passover to reflect on our freedom and the story of Exodus.  Modern Jews, of course, have never been slaves nor do we have any real understanding of how horrific it would be.  We also know that our people’s narrative of Exodus is something that may or may not have happened.  Nonetheless,  Passover (Pesach) is a wonderful celebration for all Jews and others who cherish life and freedom.

Passover and the traditional seder can be as detailed as you want.  There are sites on the web that will tell you how every tiny part of the seder should be done – including extensive preparations even before the holiday.  Modern Jews will nod in respect to tradition, but make the seder into something more meaningful in today’s world.  The world has changed and so too must the seder.  Rather than celebrating only Jewish freedom, we celebrate the freedom of all human beings and pray for the end, once and for all, of human bondage around the world.  We also have incorporated celebrating equality of respect for all, including many of those who have been marginalized by society, and even some in our Jewish tribe.

As Jews, we value life and freedom.  Judaism is not ascetic – we are told to enjoy life to the fullest.  We are also instructed that the destruction of a single human life is equivalent to the loss of a universe.  Life is to be defended because it is so valuable.  The real power of Passover, however, is the celebration of freedom.  Exodus is not only about freedom from the tyranny of the Egyptian government (or any government), but freedom of thought and religion as well.  As Jews, we celebrate our freedom from slavery, but also work and pray for the freedom of all people around the world who are not able to enjoy the freedoms of thought and religion.  To express ourselves and to think freely is to be truly human and Jewish.

May you and your family have a wonderful Passover!

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Passover Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, jewish freedom, mitzraim, online conversion, Passover, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

Parshah Bo: The Power of Awareness

January 22, 2015 by Amanda Martin

Reconciling the concept of divinity with the ruthless slaughter of infants can prove a barrier of significant challenge, and one that may even be insurmountable. We are called to do so when reading this week’s parshah, and we are also asked to do so when viewing the morning’s global news report. Innocent people, many of them children, lose their lives in horrific and senseless acts every day. The luxuries of our western lifestyles appear gratuitous when compared with the daily reality of so much of the world. How do we, as Jews, actualize the command for each of us to love our God with all our heart, soul and strength? How do we maintain the fortitude to pursue justice and be that brilliant, shining light for all people?

The death of the first born is the tenth and final plague of the Exodus story, recounted every year during the Pesach seder. The story we tell around our tables, while ostensibly about freedom from slavery, includes much suffering. Lest we fail to appreciate the trials our ancestors endured, we dip our parsley in salt water to mimic the taste of tears, and choke down horseradish for the sharp sensation of bitterness on the tongue. Perhaps it is this emphasis on suffering which prompted a friend of mine to complain of the remarkable dearth of joy and celebration in Jewish holidays.

Appreciating the incalculable suffering of others, both historically and today, is valuable and necessary if we are to co-create a more just and gentle world. Understanding the persecution of our own people over the course of centuries is relevant when evaluating the anti-Semitism that now flourishes in some parts of the globe. Yet residing permanently in such a morass can be dangerous. I believe most humans are inherently empathetic, and we hurt to some degree when we learn of the pain of others. Our hearts are not invincible and our minds are not immune from the endless toll of violence, hatred and torment our news media so deftly provides. If our Exodus story were rendered in headline format, it may include such gems as, “Thousands Afflicted with Boils, No Known Remedy,” “Locusts Devour Crops, Famine Imminent,” and “Babies Slaughtered, Pharaoh Blames Hebrew God.” The information can be overwhelming. It can easily suffocate our joy, hope, and faith in divinity.

These moments call for practical intervention, returning us to the beauty of the present moment. Lengthy treatises on the dynamics of faith and the nature of God exist in abundance in our tradition. But when we are worn down by the reality of a child torn to pieces when her small body is used as a bomb, or when we burn with both anger and helplessness reading of attacks on synagogues, we need something less densely philosophical. When we honor our people through the yearly reading of the Exodus story, and the tenth plague sticks uncomfortably in our throats, all of the lofty invectives of Rabbis extolling us not to question the divine plan won’t make those murdered children any easier to accept.

This morning, I enjoyed the privilege of awakening next to someone I love, who loves me in return. There is much divinity to be found in snuggling. I climbed a mountain, ascending to its peak as the sun rose in the sky. There is peace and incomparable beauty in the wilderness outside my door. I ate lunch – itself a miracle in a world where so many go hungry – and savored an eggplant steamed to perfection. So much simple joy exists in how we choose to feed ourselves. On Pesach, we recline on cushions because the comfort of freedom is nothing less than sublime. We sing songs and hide the afikomen because silliness and laughter surely make life sweet. To live life fully, to cultivate open-hearted happiness, we must not linger too long in the shadows. We must be able to shift our awareness from a horror that deserves to be known, to a more perfect and mundane moment. Yes, a Yeshiva student praying with Chabad was stabbed by an assailant explicit in his anti-Semitic motives. We must recognize this reality. The story must be told. Any yet, we must also be able to move our awareness to the patch of sunlight illuminating dancing dust motes, or the chatter of birds outside the window. The perfection of these moments must be recognized, as well.

If we fail to redirect our awareness, we risk our joy and happiness. If we remain mired in the indisputable ugliness of our world, we risk losing the better parts of our nature which may only be nurtured through our world’s indisputable beauty. It isn’t always easy. It may seem flippant, even irresponsible. But if we are to ever truly feel a love for God, if we are to do the difficult work of justice, we need to be responsible for the tender care of our own souls. Parshah Bo calls us to tell the story of oppression. It does not ask that we reside there.

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), Judaism & Belief, Passover, Random (Feelin' Lucky?) Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, D'var Torah, darshan yeshiva, mindfulness, online conversion, parshah bo, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

God Demands Jewish Innovation: Second Passover

May 14, 2014 by Patrick Beaulier

innovation

As if Passover Number One wasn’t bad enough, on 14 Iyar we are given the opportunity to do Passover all over again with Pesach Sheini, the Second Passover.

According to Numbers 9:1-14 (Parshah Behaalotecha), there were certain people back in the old days that couldn’t participate in the official Passover sacrifice. They included people who had been made impure by being around dead people as well as people who were not in Jerusalem at the time. They wanted to celebrate Passover, and petitioned Moses for some kind of loophole that would let them participate. So Moses calls God, and God offers up the Second Passover option. And there you have it: Jewish innovation.

People often think of religion as being a series of strict rules, used to enforce an elite’s view of you, the individual, as a screw up sinner who needs to be put back in line. We look at people in black hats and see judgmental authoritarians trying to force upon us a Bronze Age code that simply does not work in the iPhone era. We see religious people looking to passages in the Levitical code about stoning people to death as a sign that God, surely, is a wrathful, vengeful God and if you eat bacon, drive a car on Shabbat or anything else, surely you are asking-for-it-come-hell-or-high-water.

This, of course, is the harsh view. The other view we give religious people is a liberal you-poor-secularist-you-don’t-know-any-better view. We see outreach programs as a condescending attempt to make us feel dumb about our apparent lack of Jewish understanding. We believe that we aren’t sinners really, just Jews that haven’t been properly educated in Torah. If we only knew that our wrists are sexually provocative and that the rib eye at Trader Joe’s isn’t kosher enough, we would see the err of our ways and stick our noses in the Chumash.

These stereotypes; however, are just ridiculous characterizations. I have been in less observant communities which are far more judgmental than these two pictures I have painted, and I have been in more traditional communities that could care less what you do with your stomach, or any other part of your body for that matter.

What I see in this Torah portion, and with the Second Passover, is that while God is often judgmental, only God is the judge of humanity. And it appears as though God’s vision of the world is one where everyone has the opportunity to participate in spiritual fulfillment. Judaism at its best is a Judaism that recognizes this holy mission statement, and I think more often than not, we pretty much stick to this.

Second Passover is not an isolated incident of Jewish innovation. There are many times in the Torah that God and a human being debate righteousness and God sides with humanity. Torah is said to be “lo ba-shamayim hi” or “not in Heaven” (Deut. 30:12). The divide between the spiritual world and the world of the mundane is constantly ripping apart in the Biblical narrative, and through the celebration of holidays, human beings are able to enter into that same sphere of interaction between this world and the domain of the Highest. Why a Second Passver? Because God wants us to have every opportunity possible to dwell in this space of divine interaction.

God has consistently allowed the Jewish people to find ways to make Torah Consciousness possible in every generation: whether it’s through the Talmud, Jewish art, independent minyanim and chavrutah, sages and philosophers, literature and religious movements. God is not stuck in the mud, waiting for a righteous peoplehood to pull “Him” out. Rather, God takes part in our growing and sojourning, standing in front of us as we make our way through the experience of being a human family. Since I believe God shares intimately with the Jewish destiny, I become more and more certain that it is God’s will that we innovate in whatever ways we need to keep the fire of the burning bush alive for countless generations to come.

So if you missed Passover, have a matzah and remember that you’re taking part in something that is greater than yourself, and yet, has you personally in mind.

Filed Under: Judaism & Belief, Passover, Random (Feelin' Lucky?) Tagged With: 14 iyar, 2nd passover, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, jewish innovation, jewish innovator, jewish technology, online conversion, Passover, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, pesach sheini, pesach sheni, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, second passover

Passover Video Rodeo!

March 27, 2013 by Patrick Beaulier

In the spirit of Levi Strauss, the second most famous Jewish cowboy next to Kinky Friedman, we’ve rounded up our favorite Passover videos and wrangled them into a video rodeo! Check it out…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=029__uuKYBI&feature=player_embedded

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMM9iiskhw4&feature=player_embedded

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPK8StycUjw

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHTvqY3DCQY

Filed Under: Jewish Media Reviews, Passover, Podcasts & Videos, Random (Feelin' Lucky?), Shabbat & Holidays Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, g-dcast.com, indie yeshiva, indieyeshiva, jean meltzer, online conversion, Passover, Passover Video Rodeo!, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, Pesach, punktorah, punktorah videos, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

Lego Star Wars Passover, Childhood Autism and Giving Back Jewishly

March 25, 2013 by Patrick Beaulier

photo (8)

Meet our new volunteer Aiden.

Aiden is an almost 9 years old boy with high functioning autism.

Aiden’s mom is a member of the OneShul community, and asked Aiden if he would like to contribute to our Passover section at PunkTorah. So Aiden, Mr. Craftsman Extraordinaire, built us the Exodus narrative…out of Star Wars legos.

photo (11)

The Hebrews building the pyramids

photo (12)

Baby Moses

photo (9)

Moses going before Pharaoh

Aiden’s mom sent us a message:

“Aiden has so many wonderful questions and says he is amazed he is part of something so awesome.”

Aiden, thank YOU for being so awesome!

Sincerely,

Yours friends at PunkTorah

Filed Under: Jewish Kids, Passover Tagged With: convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, lego bible, lego star wars, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

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