From the Rabbi's Desk - Chabad Jewish Center of Petaluma

Does tomorrow exist?

Friday, August 30, 2019 - 9:00 AM

It was last week on Shabbat. I was reciting the prayers accompanied by my two eldest sons, and we were ready to welcome the "new month". A special addition where we ask that the coming month be one of life, peace, and joy.

We pulled out our trusty Jewish Art Calendar, to check when Rosh Chodesh - the beginning of the month - would be. Huh? #Confused.

August 30, 2019.png We suddenly realized that a day had gone missing. One of the advertisements (shout out to all of our community partners who make the calendar possible!) had mistakenly been placed over a date. August 31st simply didn't exist. Or did it?

Everything that we see or hear needs to positively impact our lives. But how can a somewhat embarrassing error, leading to mass confusion as Petalumans wake up tomorrow to an unknown reality of living in a black hole, actually be a source of inspiration?

And then it dawned on me. A powerful High Holiday message. Days don't exist because a paper says they do. It's not a new year simply because we got to the end of the last one. We are the ones who make days count. We have the power to fill time with meaning, love, kindness, and positive action. A beautiful calendar is only as precious as the moments we create within and outside of its pages.

Let's make tomorrow, nay, the entirety of the coming new year, exist!

Broken

Friday, August 23, 2019 - 9:00 AM

Moses came down the mountain, and smashed the newly minted tablets! The Jews had miscalculated the 40-day mark when Moshe was meant to return, and in their impatience, had decided to crown a Golden Calf as their new God.

Not a very proud moment. Disloyalty. A lack of faith. So soon after leaving Egypt. So soon after hearing the Ten Commandments (including you shall have no other Gods). Certainly not a moment that we'd want to highlight and feature.

And yet, do you know what was in the Ark, right beside the second set of tablets, in the Holy of Holies? The broken shards from the original sapphire tablets. These broken fragments were cherished and valued.

Because making mistakes, encountering failure, breaking down, does not have to be the end of our story. Instead, let's use that downward energy as a motivator and catalyst to rebound to even greater heights than where we once stood. Our personal broken tablets can become a defining moment in our lives, the beginning of a bright new chapter.

Tales from the Talmud

Friday, August 9, 2019 - 9:00 AM

The Holy Temple was like a portal to the spiritual. Heaven on earth. Miracles abounded.

Thrice annual visits on the Holidays ensured that we were always tapped into the extraordinary. We never got too caught up in plowing the fields, and material gains and pursuits. It was like always being within proximity to a supercharger, that our spiritual batteries never depleted.

On the ninth of Av, both Holy Temples were destroyed (by the Babylonians and the Romans, some 490 years apart). So we mourn. We fast, sit on low chairs, don't listen to music, don't wear luxurious leather shoes, etc.

I remember as a child sitting on the red-carpeted stairs of the big white Shul in the Catskills where we would go. I sat there listening as the elderly Rabbi Farber - a sweet Hungarian Jew who ran the summer camp - captivated us with stories from that era, translated from the yellowed pages of his aged volume of the Talmud. (We will be retelling these same timeless stories this Sunday - see below).

We mourn, because only when we remember what we are missing, are we able to value, cherish, and hope to rebuild. A practical way to reach that end goal, is to make your own little Israel, your own mini Holy Temple right at home. Let's build our own charging port, make our own home and town extraordinary, and together we will make this world a better place when we can hope to once again have the Holy Temple.