Tale of (at least) Two Emotions –

Dear Friends:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
 
Dickens’ words seem quite apt following the horrific Hamas attack on Shemini Atzeret.  I am deeply saddened by this willful aggression towards innocent civilians, and I am also angered by the lack of condemnation of this terrorist activity by many non-Jews.  Further, I am discouraged about the prospects for peace.  Fifty years from now, long after I am gone, I suspect that the memory of the October 7^th atrocities will still be part of the Jewish psyche, and that event will become part of the long history of antisemitism.  Nonetheless, Am Yisrael Chai – the people of Israel will endure! 
 
My itinerant rabbi work this last quarter took me to Warsaw, Poland, for the High Holidays, and I experienced the full gamut of emotions during our sixteen-day visit.  On the one hand, our trip was dominated by the obvious tragedy of the Holocaust.  Those ghosts of murdered Jews were somehow always present for me, and I made visits to Auschwitz and Treblinka (and the reclaimed Jewish cemetery at Tarczyn and the Remah cemetery in Krakow and the Warsaw Jewish cemetery on Okopowa Street).  Dead Jewish souls everywhere.
 
On the other hand, I relished the opportunity to serve a living Jewish community that exists today despite the devastation of the community of the previous centuries.  As one congregant put it, this congregation is a remnant of a remnant, and yet we sang familiar tunes, shared familiar prayers, and observed familiar Jewish holidays just like anywhere else in the world.
 
In Warsaw, I conducted a couple of lively Q&A sessions, led services on Erev Rosh HaShanah, both days of Rosh HaShanah, erev Shabbat Shuvah and Shabbat Shuvah day, Kol Nidre, and a full Yom Kippur day as well as conducting a funeral just before leaving town.  I also gave a talk in the History Department at the University of Warsaw on the Jewish scientists involved in the Manhattan Project when Los Alamos was created to develop the first atomic bomb.  All in all, this Poland adventure was quite the experience.
 
These past few months, I had the honor of officiating at wedding ceremonies in Chicago, Bend (Oregon), and Washington, D.C. I delivered a variety of talks (on the Manhattan Project Jews; on Lewis Strauss and Robert Oppenheimer; on our experiences between 2014 and 2018 in Beijing; on the Jewish attitude towards medical aid in dying; on preparations for the High Holidays and the liturgy of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur; and a 3-part introduction to Judaism) around the state and on Zoom with the Warsaw community.  Balancing some of the sadness associated with end-of-life issues and cemeteries, I had the pleasure of leading both a baby naming and a Bat Mitzvah ceremony in Los Alamos this past quarter.  I also led Shabbat services over Zoom for the congregation in Lima, Ohio.
 
Perhaps we appreciate joy more fully by recognizing that there are times when we also experience great sadness.  As the Psalmist says, “Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning (30:6).”  “May such mornings come to all of us when we most long for them” (Psalms of the Jewish Liturgy – Miriyam Glazer).
 
B’Shalom,
Rabbi Jack