Yom Kippur Schedule

Schedule of Yom Kippur Program of Panim Hadashot

Kol Nidre Wednesday Eve 10/12

This evening will take place at the Meadowbrook Community Center
Meadowbrook Community Center 10517 35th Ave. NE, Seattle 98125 (206)684-7522 Directions

6:15-7:15 Kol Nidre A Service for the Spiritually Ambivalent: Services Led by Fay Gartenberg , Sara Itkin, and Rabbi Gartenberg

7:15-8:45 Forum. Why Pray When I Struggle to Believe in God led by Rabbi Gartenberg
Yom Kippur Thursday 10/13

Our Yom Kippur day program is learning centered, featuring dynamic and interactive sessions led by skilled and dynamic teachers. We add specific elements of the Yom Kippur service, but do not offer a complete prayer service. We hold our programs in the afternoon so people may attend local synagogues for morning services. All day programs will take place at the Talaris Conference Center , Cedar Room .

Talaris Conference Center 4000 NE 41st StreetSeattle, WA 98105206-268-7000 Directions

2:00-2:45 Yizkor Led by Rabbi Gartenberg

2:45-4:30 Interactive Haftarah Reading-The Book of Jonah, chapter 4: Rabbi Gartenberg will guide people through one of the great chapters in the Bible.

4:45-6:30 Teshuvah and the Transformation of Relationships. Reconcilation with God and Ourselves. Rabbi Gartenberg, Drs. John and Julie Gottman

6:30-7:10 Neilah-Closing Service and the final Shofar Blast

All are welcome. We do ask people to RSVP so we can assure everyone a seat. Please call Dorothy at 206 280-3715 or email here at dorothy@panimhadashot.com. Rabbi Gartenberg is also available to answer questions and tell you more about the growing activities of Panim Hadashot-New Faces of Judaism. Go to our website at www.panimhadashot.com to catch the excitement.

Panim Hadashot Weekly Enewsletter

Panim Hadashot Weekly Enewsletter

New Faces of Judaism
E-Newsletter: Weekly Update on the Activities of Panim Hadashot
Thursday, October 6, 2005, 3 Tishrei 5766. Volume 2, Issue 13

A seder plate from Panim Hadashot's Rosh Hashannah Seder. For more photos and an account of our Rosh Hashannah experience, click on Rodancha.

Announcing a new Panim Hadashot Outreach Program in Jewish learning.

Torah at Barnes and Noble. Downtown Bellevue, Sunday at 10/9/05, 2005 Click to get more details. Below is the announcement from Barnes and Noble.

Downtown Bellevue Barnes & Noble will begin hosting a new monthly Book Group, The Art of Jewish Reading, beginning on Sunday, October 9th at 11:00 am. Facilitated by Rabbi Dov Gartenberg of Panim Hadashot, New Faces of Judaism, this book group will meet the second Sunday of each month to unveil the rich universe of rabbinic biblical commentary, Talmudic story and more. It is said that Jewish culture cultivated the art of deep reading, of plumbing the classical texts with imaginative and perceptive questioning - this book group is in honor of such tradition, and all are welcome.

Barnes and Noble Booksellers
626 106th Ave. NE
Downtown Bellevue
425 451-8463

What is Happening at Panim Hadashot this Shabbat and Coming Week? (Click on link for location and details. Open events unless indicated otherwise)

Shabbat: 10/8 10:45am welcome. 11-12pm 70 Faces of Torah: Feel connected to a living and vital Judaism. Followed by Shabbat Kiddush with singing of Zemirot-table songs and Shirim-popular Jewish songs. Location: Panim Hadashot Beit Midrash. For details, click here
Kol Nidre Wednesday Eve 10/12

This evening will take place at the Meadowbrook Community Center
Meadowbrook Community Center10517 35th Ave. NE,Seattle 98125 (206)684-7522 Directions

6:15-7:15 Kol Nidre A Service for the Ambivalent Services Led by Fay Gartenberg and Rabbi Gartenberg

7:15-8:45 Forum. Why Pray When I Struggle to Believe in God led by Rabbi Gartenberg
Yom Kippur Thursday 10/13

All programs will take place at the Talaris Conference Center
2:00-2:45 Yizkor with the Unetaneh Tokef Prayer Led by Rabbi Gartenberg
2:45-4:30 Interactive Haftarah Reading-The Book of Jonah, chapter 4: Rabbi Gartenberg will teach on God's Displeasure with Vindictive People.

4:45-6:30 Teshuvah and the Transformation of Relationships. Rabbi Gartenberg, Drs. John and Julie Gottman

6:30-7:10 Neilah-Closing Service and Shofar Blast
For more details click here.
Sign up now. There is still space!!!

When is the Next Shabbat Around Seattle Program?
October 21: Shabbat in the Succah! North End. Adult and Adolescents
October 28: Shabbat in Bellevue: Adult oriented
November 4: Shabbat in Queen Anne: Young Family

Classes and Learning is Panim offering for adults?
Living the Jewish Year: Close Encounters with the Jewish Way of Life. Open Enrollment Now
Bring Shabbat to Your Home: A Hands On Workshop. Starting 11/2

Family programs and parenting programs?
Will be announced in next week's newsletter.

How can I support the groundbreaking work of Panim Hadashot?
Learn How to Become a Haver-a Friend of Panim Hadashot

Become an outreach or oganizational volunteer partner-Shutaf

How can I learn more about the unique approach and ideas behind the creation of Panim Hadahsot-New Faces of Judaism?

Check out Rabbi Dov's Rabbiblog for writings and reflections on Panim and other matters.
______________________________________________________________________
Panim Hadashot, New Faces of Judaism is a new Jewish endeavor of learning, celebration, and outreach. Panim Hadashot is the winner of the Levitan Innovation Award and is endorsed by the Union for Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Panim Hadashot is a 501c3 non-profit organization. For general information go to www.panimhadashot.com.

Contact us: General Information: Dorothy Glass at 206 280-3715, dorothy@panimhadashot.com
or Rabbi Dov Gartenberg rabbi@panimhadashot.com. 206 525-0648

Email Recipients: Please send correspondence, subscribe and unsubcribe requests to dorothy@panimhadashot.com. Having trouble reading this email? Find it online at our news page

Resistance to Prayer: Reflections as We Stumble Toward Yom Kippur

Resistance to Prayer: Reflections as We Stumble Toward Yom Kippur

Shannah Tovah to all my blog readers,

Panim Hadashot had a nice piece about it in the Seattle Post Intelligencer on Monday, 10/3. Click here to read it. The reporter, John Iwasaki, captured one of the unique approaches I have taken with Panim Hadashot. My approach to Judaism is to openly acknowledge ambivalence while presenting a rich Jewish menu of learning and celebration that engages people in dimensions of Judaism that are rich in meaning replete with joy. As you can see by the interviews, the message is getting through. I welcome your comments about the article.

Now my focus in on Yom Kippur. On Kol Nidre I am doing something I have never done before: Confront the problem of prayer on the paradigmatic day of prayer-Yom Kippur. I have taught Jewish prayer for many years in the context of learner's minyans, classes, and from the pulpit. I have found that while some Jews love prayer and resonate to the music and form of prayer, most Jews are very confused about the theology and meaning of prayer.

Over the next few days I want to share with you a wonderful piece I discovered back in the late 70s on resistance to prayer. The writer of this piece is a rabbi at the peak of his career reflecting on what he has learned about his congregants views on prayer. It is a startlingly honest and perceptive piece. I would like to bring it to the blog for your reflection as we enter this most holy phase of the Jewish calendar.

RESISTANCE TO PRAYER

Albert A. Goldman

No subject is more difficult to discuss than resistance to prayer. The reasons for the modern negation of the validity of prayer are multitudinous and it is difficult to pinpoint with any accuracy the real and true reasons why men find prayer either awkward or meaningless. Certainly we who had thought that a modern approach to prayer would have alleviated traditional resistance now find ourselves in much the same dilemma as our traditional brethren, the problem cuts across all denominations. None of us has discovered a formula which appeals or applies.

I know of no single study which could guide us in this matter. We can only collate a number of statements and complaints, and attempt to discover some pattern in these objections. Perhaps we also ought to realize that in every age few men have been truly spiritual or motivated by so—called religious feelings. Only a sensitive minority ever has responded to the meaning of prayer as an activity and movement of the soul complete in itself. Perhaps our chief fault is that we expect all men to be qualitatively religious. Since we assume everyone is religious to some extent, we are lead to believe that all men necessarily must respond in the same way. We suffer from our own pathological assumptions, and it might do us well to remember that only the few are so attuned, as only the few develop either aesthetic or poetic sensibilities. Yet we have a mass congregation and we expect the larger number to respond to our appeal. Some may be suffering from the delusion that there was an age not so long ago in which all men were religiously motivated.

I doubt if this were true of the shtetl; and if Isaac Bashevis Singers portrayal of that east European community has validity, I would question the oft-romanticized spirituality of the world of the fiddler on the roof. Of course religion was a strong communal force and an inner bond; yet that world had to give birth to Hasidism to save itself from arid spirituality. There are times when prayer and worship are not consequential. Certainly the Bible would indicate sparse participation by the people at worship. It would be intriguing to study further Y. Kaufmanns characterization of the ancient cult as a cult of silence, where the priest acted but did not speak.

RDG: Since this was written, Israel Knoll, has written a brilliant book on this very subject called the Sanctuary of Silence that explores the cult of silence in the earliest priestly strands of the Torah. The tradition of prayer according to Knoll is a later development of the Torah and is most evident in the Book of Deuteronomy. Knoll argues that a great dispute is embedded in the Torah over the role of prayer and that this dispute has continued in one form or another through Jewish history and thought.

The system of liturgy which we have developed finds itself challenged by a growing indifferentism and by a childish immaturity. Most of what follows is based on many discussions with congregants; conversations held on various levels but without really coming to the nub of the problem. I am sadly impressed by the primitivism of most of our people. They are without sophistication in matters spiritual, and generally reflect ideas which remain on the kindergarten level. For the most part our people would like to believe that their prayers are heard by a personal God and answered by Him: Prayer is literal. There is little sense in attempting to explain it to them on a metaphorical basis. The prayers mean what they say; and yet they suspect that we do not mean what we say and they retreat more often than not into confusion.

We ought to remember that there is a great deal of difference between our public theologies and our constituents’ private theologies or wishes. They wish for a God who is a man, or who is personal in the sense that He will guarantee answers to their prayers. Descriptions of God as spirit, force, process——are really meaningless. These can only betray their fears and their anxieties; and the fatherhood of God means that He will not be indifferent to them.....

There is another private, yet not so private, theology that God is indifferent to human needs and little knows of their presence nor even cares. What are these projecting if not some sense of a lack of worth, or the residue of a scientific age which sees only natural law, cold and unrelated to the needs of men? Certainly, there is little in the education of our people, who by now are becoming a post college generation, to induce feelings of reverence or further their insights into the meaning an purpose of religion. Most men believe that the universe holds no basic meaning. It simply behaves in accordance with its in—built laws and these have no basic relationship to their inner lives.

RDG: Reflecting on this 25 years later I would essentially agree with Goldman's observations that most Jews remain very confused and inarticulate about prayer. Those who do it, generally don't want to think about it. I found this to be true over many years of teaching prayer in a synagogue setting. The form and the melody became very important, but the meaning of the prayers were of little interest. Disputes over prayer in the synagogue setting focused on conduct of the service, decorum, and the people leading the service and rarely engaged in substantive theological issues.

To me the it was a situation of the emperor not wearing clothes, and everyone keeping mum. Most of the people would privately confess to a agnosticism or even an athiesm. The great majority of the Bnai Mitzvah kids wrote in their essays how they did not experience God in their lives. Yet the educational approach focused on the kids mastering prayers they did not believe. Over the years I found that more and more odd and again accepted by all as the norm.

Tomorrow, I will bring more of the Goldman article for you to chew on. Feel free to comment on what I have posted so far.

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg
Thursday, 10/6/05

High Holiday Schedule for Panim Hadshot

Panim Hadashot High Holiday Schedule.

For reservations, please call Dorothy at 206 280-3715 or dorothy@panimhadashot.com.

For more information about programs and services go to www.panimhadashot.com. Go to the High Holidays tab.

Monday 10/3 6:00-9:00pm Rosh Hashannah Seder. Kosher Dietary Laws observed. Talaris Conference Center

Talaris Conference Center
4000 NE 41st Street
Seattle, WA 98105206-268-7000 Directions

10/4 All Tuesday events take place at Talaris Conference Center
12:30:12:45 Shofar Blowing
12:45-2:30pm Learning Forum on Teshuvah and the Transformation of Relationships with the Rabbi Dov Gartenberg and Drs. John and Julie Gottman
2:45-4:15pm Interactive Torah Reading on the Binding of Isaac: Obedience vs. Protest in Jewish Tradition. Rabbi Dov Gartenberg. Kaddish will be chanted after this session.
4:15-4:30pm Tashlich-Casting
4:45-6:15pm Shaarei Tikvah-Gates of Hope Special Service for special needs persons, their families, and the community. Cosponsored with Jewish Family Service, Temple Bnai Torah and SAJD. (Shofar blowing and Tashlich included)

Kol Nidre Wednesday Eve 10/12
This evening will take place at the Meadowbrook Community Center
Meadowbrook Community Center
10517 35th Ave. NE,
Seattle 98125
(206)684-7522Directions
6:15-7:15 Kol Nidre A Service for the Ambivalent Services Led by Fay Gartenberg and Rabbi Gartenberg
7:15-8:45 Forum. Why Pray When I Struggle to Believe in God led by Rabbi Gartenberg
Yom Kippur Thursday 10/13

All programs will take place at the Talaris Conference Center
2:00-2:45 Yizkor Led by Rabbi Gartenberg
2:45-4:30 Interactive Haftarah Reading-The Book of Jonah, chapter 4: Rabbi Gartenberg will teach on God's Displeasure with Vindictive People.
4:45-6:30 Teshuvah and the Transformation of Relationships. Rabbi Gartenberg, Drs. John and Julie Gottman
6:30-7:10 Neilah-Closing Service and Shofar Blast

Weekly Panim E-Newsletter: Sept 29, 2005

Weekly Panim E-Newsletter

New Face(t)s of Judaism

E-Newsletter: Weekly Update on the Activities of Panim Hadashot

Thursday, September 22, 2005, 18 Elul 5765. Volume 2, Issue 11

Panim Hadashot, New Faces of Judaism is a new Jewish endeavor of learning, celebration, and outreach. Panim Hadashot is the winner of the Levitan Innovation Award and is endorsed by the Union for Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Panim Hadashot is a 501c3 non-profit organization. For general information go to www.panimhadashot.com.

Contact us: General Information: Dorothy Glass at 206 280-3715, dorothy@panimhadashot.com
or Rabbi Dov Gartenberg rabbi@panimhadashot.com. 206 525-0648

Email Recipients: Please send correspondence, subscribe and unsubcribe requests to dorothy@panimhadashot.com.
Having trouble reading this email? Find it online at our news page.

What is Happening at Panim Hadashot this Shabbat and Coming Week? (Click on link for location and details. Open events unless indicated otherwise)

Shabbat: 10/1 70 Faces of Torah: - Dig Deep, Shed Light, Learn Torah 11am-12. Check out the topic for the morning.

What is Happening at High Holidays with Panim Hadashot?
Rosh Hashannah New Years Feast and Seder Mon. 10/3 6:00pm at the Talaris Conference Center.

Plumbing the Meaning of Teshuvah Tues. 10:4 12:30pm with Rabbi Dov and the Gottmans. Talaris

Gates of Hope-Shaarei Tikvah: Rosh Hashannah Service for Jews with Special Needs. 10/4 4:45pm Families, and Community

A Kol Nidre Service for the Ambivalent. Wed. 10/12 6:15pm Meadowbrook Community Center

Plumbing the Meaning of Teshuvah part 2 Thur. 10/13 2:30pm with Rabbi Dov and the Gottmans, Talaris

Sign up now because we can only accomodate 150!!!

When is the Next Shabbat Around Seattle Program?
October 21: Shabbat in the Succah! North End. Adult and Adolescents
October 28: Shabbat in Bellevue: Adult oriented
November 4: Shabbat in Queen Anne: Young Family

Classes and Learning is Panim offering for adults?
Learning Torah at Barnes and Noble. Downtown Bellevue, 10/9/05
Living the Jewish Year: Close Encounters with the Jewish Way of Life. Open Enrollment Now
Bring Shabbat to Your Home: A Hands On Workshop. Starting 11/2

Family programs and parenting programs?
Will be announced in next week's newsletter.
How can I support the groundbreaking work of Panim Hadashot?
Learn How to Become a Haver-a Friend of Panim Hadashot
Become an outreach or oganizational volunteer partner-Shutaf

How can I learn more about the unique approach and ideas behind the creation of Panim Hadahsot-New Faces of Judaism?

Check out Rabbi Dov's Rabbiblog for writings and reflections on Panim and other matters.

Dignity and Meritocracy

Dignity an Meritocracy

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg

My oldest son entered Johns Hopkins University this fall. At the parent orientation in Baltimore we each received a "I am a Proud John's Hopkins Parent" bumbersticker to put on our vehicles. The bumpersticker soon went on the toyota I putter around in, serving as a marker of our familiy's place in the meritocracy.

The day after the bumbersticker found its way on its way onto my car, I went to my other son's IEP, the assessment and goal setting meeting, required for disabled students in the public schools. Mori is severely autisitic. He is in a transition program that aims to impart independent living skills for special needs adolescents. Mori will never live independently, but he may be able to work in a sheltered workshop. At the IEP the teachers proudly told us that Mori successfully cleans busses for the Kent school district each day. He stays on task and cleans the bus wiping windows, clearing debris, and dusting seats. The teachers made him a business card which he could leave in the bus each day. I was so excited for Mori and his accomplishment.

As I returned to my car I realized that I needed a second bumpersticker. "I am a proud Outreach Transition Parent"(that is the name of Mori's program. My son was cleaning buses and I was overjoyed. As I thought about marking Mori's achievement I realized how shame insinuates itself into the mind of a parent of a disabled child. In have raised children of widely different capacities and abilities. It is natural and culturally reinforced to celebrate certain types of merit, but to hide the fact of disability. Would I go around telling people how my son is a superb bus cleaner and another son is a freshman at an elite university? I decided that the right thing to do was just that.

I recently read in the Atlantic monthly a brief review about a book that criticized the dark side of American meritocracy. Meritocracy in America boasts of its ideal of the "equality of opportunity, in which power and the good life are increasingly reserved for the most talented and most able regardless of race, gender, or sexual preference." But meritocracy awards the talented but neglects the ordinary. I would add that our meritocratic culture neglects and leaves behind those who are disabled. The review ends with an insightful quote, "Opportunities to rise are no substitute for a general diffusion of the means of civilization and of the dignity and culture needed by all whether they rise or not. "

Do we extend dignity to all in our culture, our do we only honor those certain types of achievement. American Jewry, more than any community in this country, has embraced the meritocracy. We are immensely successful and have entered the elite colleges in huge, impactful numbers. We are a community that proudly places the names of elite colleges on our cars and celebrates the success of our children in every manner. But what about those who do not achieve in this way? How do we relate to those who do not rise to the top of the meritocracy?

During these High Holidays we have before us the images of the suffering in New Orleans which reminds us of the dangers of when a society fails to extend dignity to others and neglects its needy. The people who suffered greatly after Katrina were the poor, the elderly, and the disabled. I try to imagine what it would have been like to have lived in New Orleans with Mori and worrying about getting him out before the storm. Mori had someone to worry for him. But so many did not, or who had others worrying for them who were powerless to help their loved ones.

Last year I started Shaarei Tikvah-Gates of Hope, special Jewish holiday celebrations for persons with special needs and their families. One of my goals in creating this program was to demonstrate a way our community can confer dignity and love for those in our community who will not succeed in conventional ways, who will not have bumberstickers on their parent's cars, who will clean buses, work in sheltered workshops, live in group homes.

Shaarei Tikvah is a celebration in which dignity and honor is spread around generously and abundantly. It is not only a celebration for families with loved ones dealing with special needs. It is an opportunity for our commnity to celebrate with those who are often hidden and out of sight. There is no need for the hiddeness and shame. I am a proud Shaarei Tikvah parent. Please join us for our Rosh Hashannah service. For information, see below. Click on Directions to the Talaris conference center.

Shaarei Tikvah-Gates of Hope: Rosh Hashannah Service for Persons with Special Needs and Their Families
Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
Service 4:45-5:30 pm
Tashlich and Refreshment 5:30-6:15 pm
Talaris Conference Center – Cedar Room

A community wide non-denominational service for persons with developmental disabilities or mental illness, their families, and supporters in the Jewish community cosponsored by the Jewish Family Service. The service will be led by Rabbi Dov Gartenberg and Cantor Serkin-Poole of Temple B’nai Torah.

Because of space constraints, email reservations are required for this free program. Please respond to rsvp@panimhadashot.com. In the subject line include "ST" and note the number of people in your party.

About Panim's Rosh Hashannah Seder

About Panim's Rosh Hashannah Seder

About the Seder Rosh Hashannah of Panim Hadashot:
It is still not to late to join us for an amazing Panim Hadashot Rosh Hashannah Seder organized and ordered by Mary Engel. Mary has written a description of the seder. Below I have written out the seder-the order- of rituals so you can get a sense of how special this evening will be. The seder will be at the Talaris Conference Center in Laurelhurst on Monday, October 3rd at 6:00pm. To reserve a place, please call Dorothy Glass at 206 280-3715 or dorothy@panimhadashot.com.

"Our multi-dimensional seder will follow the three elements of the traditional Sephardi and Mizrahi Rosh Hashanah seder: chanting a series of verses from the Torah, making impassioned requests to God, and reciting blessings over eight beautiful and delicious foods that symbolize our prayers for peace, righteousness, safety, love, and other gifts It will also incorporating adaptations that honor women and culture-specific additions such as the Moroccan blessing over moonwater. Paced with lots of singing and rhythm, poetry, activities for children, teaching, and discussion, it will be a stirring experience, full of joy! Come bless and sing in the New Year with us!"

Seder Rosh Hashannah
Chanting the Book-Lshir Hasefer
Requests-Bakashot
Sanctification-Kiddush
Handwashing-Rochtzah
Blessing over Bread-Motzi
Apple-Tapu'ach
Pumpkin-Kara
Leek-Karti
Beans/Fenugreek-Rubia
Beet-Selek
Pomegranate-Rimon
Date-Tamar
Head of Fish- Rosh Dag
Dinner-Shulhan Orekh
Moon Water-Tzafun
Blessings After Meal-Barech
Conclusion-Nirtzah

New Faces of Judaism

E-Newsletter: Weekly Update on the Activities of Panim Hadashot

Thursday, September 22, 2005, 18 Elul 5765. Volume 2, Issue 11

Panim Hadashot, New Faces of Judaism is a new Jewish endeavor of learning, celebration, and outreach. Panim Hadashot is the winner of the Levitan Innovation Award and is endorsed by the Union for Reform Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Panim Hadashot is a 501c3 non-profit organization. For general information go to www.panimhadashot.com.

Contact us: General Information: Dorothy Glass at 206 280-3715,
dorothy@panimhadashot.com
or Rabbi Dov Gartenberg rabbi@panimhadashot.com. 206 525-0648

Email Recipients: Please send correspondence, subscribe and unsubcribe requests to dorothy@panimhadashot.com. Having trouble reading this email? Find it online at our news page.

What is Happening at Panim Hadashot this Shabbat and Coming Week? (Click on link for location and details. Open events unless indicated otherwise)

Shabbat: 9/24 70 Faces of Torah: - Dig Deep, Shed Light, Learn Torah 11am-12.

Sunday 9/25: Changing Your Life: Teshuvah Workshop at Tree of Life Bookstore, Bellevue

Tuesday 9/27: Join Emily Moore, noted chef and Rabbi Dov at the High Holidays Foods and Info Booth: Whole Foods, Roosevelt Store. 4:30-7:00pm

Wednesday 9/28: Jewish Day School in Bellevue. Going Meshugene: An Educational Romp Through the Fall Festivals. 8:45am

What is Happening at High Holidays with Panim Hadashot?

Rosh Hashannah New Years Feast and Seder Mon. 10/3 6:00pm at the Talaris Conference Center.

Plumbing the Meaning of Teshuvah Tues. 10:4 12:30pm with Rabbi Dov and the Gottmans. Talaris

Gates of Hope-Shaarei Tikvah: Rosh Hashannah Service for Jews with Special Needs. 10/4 4:45pm Families, and Community

A Kol Nidre Service for the Ambivalent. Wed. 10/12 6:15pm Meadowbrook Community Center

Plumbing the Meaning of Teshuvah part 2 Thur. 10/13 2:30pm with Rabbi Dov and the Gottmans, Talaris

Sign up now because we can only accomodate 150!!!

When is the Next Shabbat Around Seattle Program?
October 21: Shabbat in the Succah! North End. Adult and Adolescents
October 28: Shabbat in Bellevue: Adult oriented
November 4: Shabbat in Queen Anne: Young Family

Classes and Learning is Panim offering for adults?
Living the Jewish Year: Close Encounters with the Jewish Way of Life. Open Enrollment Now
Learning Torah at Barnes and Noble. Downtown Bellevue, 10/9/05
Bring Shabbat to Your Home: A Hands On Workshop. Starting 11/2

Family programs and parenting programs?
Going Meshugeneh: An Educational Romp Through the Fall Festivals for Parents. Wed. 9/28
Shabbas Stew: Celebrating the End of Shabbat for Young Families. Shabbat 10/1
Special Gatherings and Interest Groups?
"Handling New Baggage": A dialogue group for Jews by Choice for support, study, and growth. Open house Shabbat dinner, 9/23.

How can I support the groundbreaking work of Panim Hadashot?
Learn How to Become a Haver-a Friend of Panim Hadashot
Become an outreach or oganizational volunteer partner-Shutaf

How can I learn more about the unique approach and ideas behind the creation of Panim Hadahsot-New Faces of Judaism?

Check out Rabbi Dov's Rabbiblog for writings and reflections on Panim and other matters.

Breaking Open Rosh Hashannah: Reflections for the Days of Awe. #1

Breaking Open Rosh Hashannah

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg
September 22, 2005

When I led services as a pulpit rabbi on the High Holidays I would frequently look over the congregation to take its pulse during the services. At my Conservative congregation I oversaw services that went for hours at a time. What I noticed year after year was that the average staying time for most congregants at the congregation was 1 hour and a half. It was only a few dozen who came at the beginning and left five hours later (on Rosh Hashannah, not to mention Yom Kippur). When I asked people their feeling about services the most common answer was, "It is hard for me to sit in services which are so long, saying words I have trouble believing. I come because I love the melodies and I want to see my friends." Even year after year of teaching the meaning of the traditional prayers, it became apparent to me that the prayer services on Rosh Hashannah remained cryptic for most of those who came to the synagogue.

During this past year as Panim Hadashot took shape, I asked my friends what might be a way to address the problems people have with prayer on the High Holidays. A new idea emerged over several months which pointed to a very different way to connect to this holy season. Prayer is not the sole authentic activity for the New Year. Jews traditionally focused on repairing relationships during this time of year by seeking out friends and loved ones to close up the breaches of the previous year. Jews also made the new year's feast a special time to mark the new year, enjoying symbolic foods with blessings, and reflecting on the changes brought by the previous year. I asked myself, why not make these activities a central focus for Jews who did not easily resonate with the prayer traditions. Why not break open Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur by focusing on these other authentic ways of 'doing Jewish' so that people could find a way to reappropriate the holidays in their lives.

So that is what we have done. We are making a beautiful Seder Rosh Hashannah on the first evening. I asked Mary Engel to take this project on. The Engel family has been hosting amazing Rosh Hashannah Seders for years in their home. For Mary the preparation of this seder has become a passionate project. She has gathered together Jewish traditions from around the world to create a 'Rosh Hashannah Haggadah and Seder' of extraordinary beauty and depth. Those attending will not only be treated to distinctive foods and rituals, but also to a Jewish ritual with powerful meaning and insight. Mary plans to publish her seder in the form of a beautiful book which you will be able to use for your own home celebrations in the future.

Moving to the experience of Rosh Hashannah day, I decided to focus on the mitzvah of Teshuvah-'return' which is the central concern of these holy days. Every year rabbis talk about how important it is to repair relationships. What would it mean to focus on this process so that we could launch people into serious engagement with this mitzvah which would impact their lives. I approached John and Julie Gottman and invited them to collaborate with me to make Teshuvah come alive for people. John and Julie know a few things about relationships (they are internationally renowned researchers on marriage). I asked them to join me in reflecting on how the ancient practice of Teshuvah can be meaningful in light of contemporary understanding of relationships. The result is two powerful sessions on Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur on making Teshuvah between ourselves, within ourselves, and with God.

The other innovation of Panim Hadashot centers on making learning a communal experience. The Torah readings of the High Holidays are both perplexing and profound. Because of the length of services and the way the Torah service is done in conventional services, these incredible texts remain unexplored for most of us. My aim is to crack open at least two of these great readings, the Binding of Isaac on Rosh Hashannah and the Book of Jonah on Yom Kippur. These passages touch on an important spiritual issue: surrender versus protest. How do we live in the world? How do we regard God? Do we accept reality or do we work against it? Do we submit to God's will or to we assail God's acts? At Panim Hadashot we allow time to explore these questions in the context of the Torah reading and to gather insights on how we might change or validate our lives.

All the above is an attempt to revitalize these Days of Awe as a spiritually powerful and meaningful period in our lives. While I realize that for many Jews the path of prayer is their most direct way to God, Panim Hadashot has tried to open up other paths in the conviction that their are multiple paths to the same God within our tradition. We invite anyone who wants to try a different way or to add to what you already to join us for our unique approach to the High Holidays.

I wish you a Shannah Tovah Umetukah-a good and sweet year.
Rabbi Dov

Weekly Panim E-Newsletter: Sept 15th

New Faces of Judaism

E-Newsletter: Weekly Update on the Activities of Panim Hadashot

Thursday, September 15, 2005, 11 Elul 5765. Volume 2, Issue 9

Email Recipients: Please send correspondence, subscribe and unsubcribe requests to rabbidov@panimhadashot.com. Having trouble reading this email? Find it online at our news page.

An Appeal for Action in Response to the Devastation of Hurricane Katrina: Please click on Hurricane

What is Happening at Panim Hadashot this Shabbat and Coming Week? (Click on link for location and details. Open events unless indicated otherwise)

Shabbat: 70 Faces of Torah: - (adult oriented) Dig Deep, Shed Light, Learn Torah 11am-12. Saturday.
End of Shabbat. 70 Faces of Torah for (school age) families: Grow a Love for Torah in Your Family 6:15pm-7:45 Ending with Ice Cream and Havdalah.
Sunday: Changing Your Life: Teshuvah Workshop at Tree of Life Bookstore, Bellevue 9/18/05
Tuesday: Join Emily Moore, noted chef and Rabbi Dov at the High Holidays Foods and Info Booth: Whole Foods, Roosevelt Store. 4-6:15pm

What is Happening at High Holidays with Panim Hadashot?
Rosh Hashannah New Years Feast and Seder at the Talaris Conference Center.
Plumbing the Meaning of Teshuvah with Rabbi Dov and the Gottmans. Talaris
A Kol Nidre Service for the Ambivalent. Meadowbrook Community Center
Plumbing the Meaning of Teshuvah part 2 with Rabbi Dov and the Gottmans, Talaris
Sign up now because we can only accomodate 150!!!

When is the Next Shabbat Around Seattle Program?
October 21: Shabbat in the Succah! North End. Adult and Adolescents
October 28: Shabbat in Bellevue: Adult oriented
November 4: Shabbat in Queen Anne: Young Family

Classes and Learning is Panim offering for adults?
Living the Jewish Year: Close Encounters with the Jewish Way of Life. Open Enrollment Now
Learning Torah at Barnes and Noble. Downtown Bellevue, 10/9/05
Bring Shabbat to Your Home: A Hands On Workshop. Starting 11/2

Family programs and parenting programs?
Going Meshugeneh: An Educational Romp Through the Fall Festivals for Parents. Wed. 9/28
Shabbas Stew: Celebrating the End of Shabbat for Young Families. Shabbat 10/1
Special Gatherings and Interest Groups?
"Handling New Baggage": A dialogue group for Jews by Choice for support, study, and growth. Open house Shabbat dinner, 9/23.

How can I support the groundbreaking work of Panim Hadashot?
Learn How to Become a Haver-a Friend of Panim Hadashot
Become an outreach or oganizational volunteer partner-Shutaf

How can I learn more about the unique approach and ideas behind the creation of Panim Hadahsot-New Faces of Judaism?

Check out Rabbi Dov's Rabbiblog for writings and reflections on Panim and other matters.

Eat, Learn, Connect. A Unique High Holiday Experience with Panim Hadashot

Eat, Learn, Connect Eat-Learn-Connect.pdf

A Unique High Holiday Experience
Panim Hadashot is offering a completely unique approach to the High Holidays that combines the gastronomic with the spiritual, the intellectual with the emotional, and ritual practice with meaning. Please take a look at our unique program by clicking on High Holidays with Panim Hadashot. Below is a quick summary of what will be happening.

Rosh Hashannah Feast
We bring you the inspired teaching and leading of the novelist-theologian-ritualist, Mary Engel, who will share with us a remarkable ritual feast called the Yehi Ratzon Seder on the eve of Rosh Hashannah on Monday, 10/3. Taking from rich Sephardic and other Jewish traditions she has prepared a seder which at which we learn the text, eat the text, and chant the text. This is the first time in Seattle that a Rosh Hashannah Seder is being offered to the public. Please rsvp and send in reservation checks as indicated at our web site early since we only have limited space for the seder.

High Holiday Programs: Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur Afternoons and Kol Nidre
Sometimes the endless services on the high holidays obscure the single most important activity of the High Holidays-Teshuvah-the act of reparing relationships with our fellows and with God. Rabbi Dov Gartenberg, Founder of Panim Hadashot, teams up with the renowned experts on marriage and family, Drs. John and Julie Gottman, to teach and explore the application of Teshuvah in our interpersonal relations and in our spiritual lives. 10/4 and 10/13 in the afternoon.

Rabbi Gartenberg will also share with a wider community the unique approach to Torah developed by Panim Hadashot this past year. Share in our interactive Torah readings which open up the meaning of this ancient text for our lives. 10/4 and 10/13 in the afternoon
And join Rabbi Gartenberg on Kol Nidre for a unique 'service of the ambivalent' which is a daring exploration of the meaning of prayer for people who have trouble believing in God. 10/12 in the evening.

The details for this exciting program is on our web site at www.panimhadashot.com and click the tab for the high holidays.

PLEASE RESERVE EARLY SINCE WE ONLY HAVE LIMITED SPACE.

Weekly Update 9-7-05

New Faces
E-Newsletter: Weekly Update on the Activities of Panim Hadashot
Thursday, September 8, 2005, 4 Elul 5765. Volume 2, Issue 9

Email Recipients: Please send correspondence, subscribe and unsubcribe requests to rabbidov@panimhadashot.com. Having trouble reading this email? Find it online at our news page.

An Appeal for Action in Response to the Devastation of Hurricane Katrina: Please click on Hurricane

What is Happening at Panim Hadashot this Weekend? (Open events)
Shabbat Dinner with Rabbi Dov Please call 206 525-0648 if you want to come.
70 Faces of Torah: - Panim's Unique Way of Reading the Torah. 11am-12. Saturday
Changing Your Life: Tree of Life Workshops on Teshuvah with Rabbi Dov. 9/11, 9/18

What is Happening at High Holidays with Panim Hadashot?
Gastronomic and Spiritual Judaism combined! Rosh Hashannah New Years Feast and Seder at the Talaris Conference Center.
Plumbing the Meaning of Teshuvah with Rabbi Dov and the Gottmans. Talaris
A Kol Nidre Service for the Ambivalent. Meadowbrook Community Center
Plumbing the Meaning of Teshuvah with Rabbi Dov and the Gottmans, p. 2. Talaris
Sign up now because we can only accomodate 150!!!

What Classes and Learning is Panim offering in the near future?
Living the Jewish Year: Close Encounters with the Jewish Way of Life. Starting 9/14
Changing Your Life: Teshuvah Workshop at Tree of Life Bookstore, Bellevue 9/18/05
Learning Torah at Barnes and Noble. Downtown Bellevue, 10/9/05
Bring Shabbat to Your Home: A Hands On Workshop. Starting 11/2
What are some of the upcoming unique gatherings and feasts hosted by Panim Hadashot?
"Handling New Baggage": A dialogue group for Jews by Choice for support, study, and growth. Open house Shabbat dinner, 9/23.
An Interactive Torah Reading for Families. 9/16 late Shabbat Afternoon

How can I support the groundbreaking work of Panim Hadashot?
Learn How to Become a Haver-a Friend of Panim Hadashot
Become an outreach or oganizational volunteer partner-Shutaf

How can I learn more about the unique approach and ideas behind the creation of Panim Hadahsot-New Faces of Judaism?

Check out Rabbi Dov's Rabbiblog for writings and reflections on Panim and other matters.

An Opportunity for Jews by Choice

“Handling New Baggage” a dialogue group for Jews by Choice for support, study and growth will have its first gathering on Friday, September 23, 2005 at 6:30pmas a Friday night dinner at the Panim Hadashot Beit Midrash.

This is an open house for people to get to know each other and to share in your experiences of being a Jew by Choice. Rabbi Dov Gartenberg will be our host for the dinner.

The group organizer, Dina Lewallen, is a lay volunteer who converted in 2003. She is interested in bringing together Jews by Choice in the Seattle area to explore the wide range of issues related to assimilation into Jewish life.

“I myself was born into an inter-faith family and converted in April of 2003. I greatly benefited from a Jews by Choice support group in Ann Arbor, MI, where I lived at the time. In my early experiences as a Jew, this group was critical in helping me achieve a sense of “belonging” in an environment that often felt intimidating. While I have successfully assimilated into the Jewish community, I still have my struggles. My intent in forming this group is to provide a supportive environment where Jews by Choice can explore these and other issues related to their assimilation into Jewish life.” - Dina Lewallen

Panim Hadashot is engaged in Jewish outreach throughout the community. One of our initiatives is to provide on-going support to Jews by Choice from all denominations. Those interested can RSVP at http://www.trumba.com/calendars/panimhadashot or email dina4panim@hotmail.com.

A Passion for Jewish Reading Part 4

The Passion for Jewish Reading Part 4

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg September 7, 2005

One of my goals in establishing Panim Hadashot-New Faces of Judaism was to reestablish Jewish learning as the centerpiece of Jewish community. This meant a rediscovery of the joy of reading, learning, and dialogue as a way for promoting fellowship. The mitzvah of Torah study has always been considered equal to all the commandments. But Torah study in its finest and most authentic sense had to be presented to people in a way that could transform and deepen their lives.

The scholar Sven Birkets has written about the nature of reading which captures the unique quality of Torah study I am seeking to reestablish in the liberal Jewish community. In this fourth part I want to share more of Birkets insights on the comparison of how people read in the past and how we read in our high tech reality.

"In our culture, access is not a problem, but proliferation is. And the reading act is necessarily different than it was in the earliest days. Awed and intimidated by the availability of texts, faced with the impossible task of discriminating among them, the reader tends to move across surfaces, skimming, hastening from one site to the next without allowing the words to resonate inwardly."

When I was a kid I was taught the Evelyn Wood method of quick reading. In school I was taught to read a lot and to cover a lot of ground in a quick amount of time. Only much later did I learn to read the old way, to digest a text, to pour over words, to reflect on their meaning.

Birkets continues, "The possiblity of maximum focus is undercut by the awareness of the unread texts that await. The result is that we know countless more 'bits' of information both important and trivial, than our ancestors. We know them without a stable sense of context, for where the field is that vast, all schemes must be seen as provisional. "

My question became, how do we reestablish focus in Jewish life. Synagogues attempt to establish focus liturgically, by bringing people together over a common set of prayers and pulic readings which are repeated week after week (except for the Torah reading). Panim seeks to bring people together with an even sharper focus on the weekly reading of the Torah. The act of slow, 'ferocious' reading is done with everyone present and creates a stable yet very engaging experience of learning and exploration.

Birkets continues, "We are experiencing in our times a loss of depth-a loss, that is, of the very paradigm of depth. A sense of the deep and natural connectedness of things is a function of vertical consciousness. Its apotheosis is what was once called wisdom. Wisdom: the knowing not of facts, but of truths about human nature and the processes of life. But swamped by data, and in thrall to the technologies that manipulate it, we no longer think in these larger and necessarily more imprecise terms. "

The Torah reading which we call Shivim Panim Latorah-70 Faces of the Torah- is a conscious attempt to rediscover 'vertical consciousness' and to engage in a form of reading that gives us a chance to reflect on human nature, on God, on the attempt to live life purposefully. Because of the specificity of the Torah, we can approach these themes in many different ways. Because of the rich tradition of commentary, we have profound pundits (as opposed to the contemporary retail industry of the same name) who engage in the important questions about the meaning and message of the text. A holy text as I understand it is something that yields up the minerals and raw materials in which we build a house of wisdom. Why not allow time in our lives to live intimately with this text.

"Wisdom", Birkets adds, "and ideal that originated in the oral epochs-Solomon and Socrates represent wisdom incarnate, ...is predicated on the assumption that one person can somehow grasp a total picture of life and its laws, comprehending the whole and the relation to the parts. To comprehend: to "hold together".

When we read Torah we are engaged in a shared act of holding together, both by reading the same text and by engaging with it and plumbing it for wisdom. This is a spiritual act as a Jew. Yes we can use the same time to pray, to meditate, to sing. These are also fine spiritual activities, but Jews saw the collective act of seeking wisdom and insight through the slow reading of Torah to be the greatest spiritual act, worthy of the reward of eternal life. Panim attempts to revive the Torah reading as a form of slow, vertical, depth reading that Birkets describes so beautifully.

In part 5 I will continue commenting on Birkets marvelous insights focusing on the impact of data overload and the impact on how we read in our times.

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg

Panim-Facets: Weekly Update from Panim Hadashot

Weekly Update on Panim Hadashot-New Facets of Judaism

Thursday, September 1, 2005, 27 Av 5765. Volume 2, Issue 8

Email Recipients: Please send correspondence, subscribe and unsubcribe requests to rabbidov@panimhadashot.com. Having trouble reading this email? Find it online at our news page.

What is Happening at Panim Hadashot this Week?
There will be no activities the Shabbat of September 2-3rd. We resume our programs on the following Shabbat. Please go to our calendar for a listing. In this issue you will find.
An Appeal for Action in Response to the Devastation of Hurricane Katrina: Please click on Hurricane

High Holidays Programs of Panim Hadashot
Become a Haver-a Friend of Panim Hadashot
Latest Writings of Rabbi Dov Gartenberg on Rabbiblog

1. High Holidays with Panim
Rosh Hashannah Seder
Panim is pleased to bring to the Seattle Jewish community a unique and alternative approach to the High Holidays. We will start the Days of Awe with the first ever public Rosh Hashannah Seder. This distinctive feast has been put together by the novelist and educator, Mary Engel. The seder will build on Sephardic traditions of the Yehi Ratzon (May it be God's Will) platter with eight distinctive foods, each the vehicle of blessings for the new year. This seder which is open to both adults and children will also feature distinctive foods such as rodanchas, an autumn pastry, Keftedes de Prasa, leek fritters, Salata de Panjar-baked beet salad, Harissa-a hot pepper dish, and Hrous-a home style chlli paste with onion slices. This will be a unique and spriritually moving experience. Because of limited space we urge people to sign up and send in payments for the meal as soon as possible. To do so go to Rosh Hashannah Seder

High Holiday Programs
I look forward to sharing with you my collaboration with Dr. John Gottman on the central theme of the holidays, Teshuvah-Repentance. We will be leading two special sessions, one on Rosh Hashannah first day in the afternoon and on Yom Kippur afternoon on: Teshuvah: Repairing Relationships and Ourselves. We will bring to you a synthesis of traditional teachings with the insights of Dr. Gottman based on his internationally recognized research on marriage, childrearing and relationships. Our collaboration is a model of how a living tradition can integrate new insights about how we sustain meaningful, loving, and purposeful relationships with our families and friends. Because of limited space we urge people to sign up and send in payments for the meal as soon as possible. To do so go to High Holidays.

2. Become a Haver-Friend of Panim Hadashot Campaign
September will be a fundraising period for Panim. We invite you to become financial supporters of our groundbreaking work by becoming Haverim-Friends of Panim Hadashot. We believe that the Jewish community needs a new approach to outreach, learning, and celebration which brings vitality, openess, and new passion to Judaism. Its easy to sign up. Go to Become a Haver.

3. Links to the Rabbi Dov's Blog.
I am writing a new series of short essays. Click on the links to the blog.
A Passion for Jewish Reading Part 3
A Passion for Jewish Reading Part 2
A Passion for Jewish Reading Part 1

Recent Writings on the rabbiblog
Musings on the Disengagement, posted August 2005
Loving Letters of 'Teshuvah' posted August 10, 2005
Captain without ship, Rabbi without Shul July 26, 2005
Heroism at it's Twilight, July 17, 2005
Baggage July 10, 2005
Report from Israel, July 6, 2005

A Passion for Jewish Reading Part 3

A Passion for Jewish Reading Part 3

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg, 8/30/05

In the past two essays I have written about the capacity for deep reading. This is the term I learned from my friend and colleague Noam Zion of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Last year Noam taught a class in which he shared a marvelous selection from Sven Birkets, a scholar of popular culture, who wrote a book called The Gutenberg Elegies. I will share with you selections from this book with my own commentary on the nature of reading.

"What is most consicuous as we survey the general trajectory of reading across the centuries is what I think of as the gradual displacement of the vertical by the horizontal-the sacrifice of depth to lateral range, in Darnton's (a scholar in European history) terms above, ashift from intensive to extensive reading. When books are rare, hard to obtain, and expensive, the reader must compen sate through intensified focus, most like Menocchio read the same passages over andover, memorizing, inscribing the words deeply on the slate of the attention, subjecting them to an interpretive pressure not unlike what students of scripture practice upon their texts (italics mine). This is a ferocious reading-prison or 'desert island' reading-and where it does not assume depth, it creates it. "

This is what reading the Torah was and should be. The Jews are ferocious readers of the Torah. In fact, I would argue that Jews are the bearers of a culture of ferocious reading. More than anything you can say about the Jews, a characteristic of almost all Jewish cultures is a passion, near obsession about reading. One only has to review the biblical and talmudic commentary library to appreciate the bookishness of the Jews.

One way to grasp this is to reflect on why Jewish tradition insists that when we read from the Torah we must read from a Torah scroll, a revered object in every synagogue and study hall. When you think about it, why don't we just read from a bound Humash (Pentateuch) in which the Hebrew is punctuated, vocalized, and numbered. Why must we read from a scroll which very inconveniently must be rolled to different passages which are not in consecutive order? Why must public readers partially memorize passages when reading from the scroll? The laws around the preparation, writing, and public reading of the Torah scroll seek to preserve a commitment to a deep reading which Birkets speaks of. The Jewish traditions of reading from the sacred scroll survived the introduction of the printing press and all subsequent technologies because the Jews understood that the old way of reading should not die.

"Inscribing the words deeply on the slate of attention"

This striking phrase is very characteristic of Jewish reading, particularly of the Torah. The word for the Bible in Hebrew is Mikra from the word infinitive, Likro- to read. It is the Mikra-Scripture, Bible that is the object of a vertical reading. Jews assembled books of their greatest commentators and included them in the library for Jews to reflect on their own reading of Torah and Scripture. The remarkable range of commentaries on Torah enable Jews to choose different reading trajectories of the holy texts-philosophical, mystical, imaginative, analytical, psychological. But all these very different approaches to reading the same text enabled Jews to remained a unified community.

Jews brought their books to every place they wandered. Only rare instances were the Jews prevented from bringing their books with them. In a remarkable documentary called the Last Marannos, the documentarians Stan Neuman and Frederic Brenner focus on a surviving Marrano community in Portugal. The Jews valiantly held onto their traditions in secret, but they were not able to preserve their books. Outwardly Catholic they were part of a culture of enforced illiteracy where only the priests knew and taught scripture. Desperately attempting to hold onto their traditions they attempted over generations to preserve the Jewish narratives through oral memory. With chilling insight the interviewers ask the marrano residents to recount the stories they tell around their rituals. The Passover account is confusing and convoluted, yet filled with distant echoes of Jewish lore. The lingering feeling from watching the documentary is the disastrous results for Jews when they lose access to the Torah and the sources of reading.

A few years ago I was invited to give a lecture on Judaism at a prestigious private high school in Seattle. The teacher and my Jewish student who invited me to speak to the 10th grade students warned me to not assume any familiarity with the Bible despite the fact that most of the students came from very well educated families. I asked if the kids would recognize Abraham or Moses and I was told, no. The teacher commented that our kids no longer share a common text whose stories and teachings are known to all and are the subject of study and reflection.

The students of this high school are like most of us, horizontal or lateral readers. They live in a culture which offers infinite choice, but very little in a common legacy. To be Jewish is more than anything a commitment to a common reading. But beyond that to plumb the vast treasures of Judaism we must return to the ferocious reading which marked Jewish culture and religious life throughout the generations. In a generation that seeks meaning, reading in this way not only uncovers depth of meaning, the very act of reading this way, as Birkets insightfully points out, creates it.

In part 4 of this series I will continue sharing from Birkets' outstanding essay.

A Passion for Jewish Reading, Part 2

A Passion for Jewish Reading Part 2

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg
August 25, 2005/20 Menachem Av 5765

In the past year I spent many hours reflecting on my experience as a pulpit rabbi in a Conservative congregation. One realization kept on recurring as I reflected on years of being part of a strong prayer community that had emerged in my former congregation. One thing I observed during the reading of the Torah was how few people followed the Humash-the text and commentary of the Torah that was publicly read in the synagogue. I also discovered in teaching families for Bar Mitzvah that many did not have Humashim at home and if they did they rarely opened them. The primary sense of public Judaism in the congregation was liturgical, a community that gathers for prayers. The young going through Bar or Bat Mitzvah were being acculturated to a community of prayer. I was more struck by what was missing. With a few exceptions most of the children and their parents had no concept of what it meant to engage in the study of texts or the joy of learning Jewishly with others.

The Torah service in the synagogue was primarily a ritual, not a serious engagement with reading. This is because the educational institutions of the synagogue and the day school struggle to convey a love of learning and engagement with Torah. Aware of this deep flaw in our community I became convinced that there needed to be a liberal Jewish initiative to celebrate and disseminate the Jewish love for reading, study, and engagement with texts. That is how Shivim Panim Latorah was born.

70 Faces of Torah is a Torah service with a Torah scroll. The core prayers of that service are retained, sung with melody, with a procession from the ark and the beloved traditions that accompany a public reading of the Torah in a quorum of 10 Jews (our service is egalitarian). But after the customary rituals we open up the scroll and engage in a deep reading of the Torah. Between eight to ten Humashim (Torah texts divided into weekly portions) with commentaries are distributed to participants who are asked to follow their commentaries on a passage of between 3-10 verses from the weekly portion. The value of multiple commentaries is that it enables everyone to get an appreciation of the multiple voices and approaches to the sacred text in Jewish tradition.

With these different perspectives we launch into a collective and deep reading of the text. I guide people first with questions of how to read the verses, refering to the differences in translation in the English commentaries and the implications of translating a biblical verse one way of another. Then I help make sense of the commentaries and the insights that they offer and the biases they represent. Lastly I bring selected sources from the rabbinic tradition as well as medieval and modern commentators who expand the conversation around the passage. In this way we begin to appreciate the loving attention and deep reading of the passage by previous generations. Lastly and most important, I ask people to close the book and reflect on how this newly mined passage informs our lives or gives insight for our times. This same approach is used for timelessly meaningful passages in the Torah as well as deeply problematic sections.

This form of reading is wonderful for many reasons. First, it slows down the process of reading allowing for reflection and imagination. Second, it conveys that sacred texts can have many readings and are not to be read one way. I think this is a very powerful antidote to the pervasive fundamentalism overwhelming all religions in our time. Third, we read together with others in an act of collective reading. All these sessions are interactive, carefully facilitated to encourage input from participants while I or other skilled teachers navigate the commentaries. Fourth, people see the profundity of the text and how it can be a spiritual resource in their lives. Lastly, it engenders in people a love for learning which leads them to the fullfilment of the mitzvah of Torah study as a part of their day or week.

In part three I want to share a wonderful essay by Sven Birkets from his book the Gutenberg Elegies about the experience of 'vertical reading'. His striking description of traditional reading captures exactly what I am trying to do in 70 Faces of Torah.

A Passion for Jewish Reading, Part 1

My Personal Rabbinic Passion: The Recovery of Authentic Jewish Reading

Part 1 August 22, 2005

The Rabbis of the Talmud distinguished between prayer and study. Prayer they considered to be an activity of Hayei Shaah- the life of the hour. In this view prayer is likened to eating and sleeping-a necessary activity for daily survival and living a life. The study of Torah, however, they considered to be an activity of Hayei Olam Haba- the life of eternity. They considered the act of learning, of reading the sacred text to be of transcendent value. There was something about study that takes us beyond the daily exigencies of life. Authentic learning transportes us to a place unconcerned with mere survival and sustenance. Thus the well known expression in rabbinic literature: "Talmud Torah Kneged Kulam" The Study of Torah is equal to all of the mitzvot-commandments-in the Torah.

Torah study, however, is a mystifying for many. Most American Jews, with a religious school education or less have learned 'about' Judaism, but have not learned how to read (study) Torah. Even college courses in Jewish studies often only provide an academic reading of Jewish tradition. They fail to convey the wonder of authentic Jewish learning.

I come out of the religious school and college Jewish studies experience and can attest that I did not really learn to love Jewish learning until much later. I received a paltry Jewish religious school education, spitballs and all. In college I had great teachers in Jewish studies, but did not emerge from undergraduate school with a passion for the texts of Jewish lore. During those years I experienced the orthodox yeshivah which introduced me to traditional reading. However I found that the very orthodox Yeshivah world, while filled with passion, failed to deal satisfactorily with the hard questions and honest questions that I was seeking as a young reader of Judaism.

It was in rabbinical school that I really discovered the love of Jewish learning. Most people think of rabbinical school as a form of professional education, training young men and women to serve congregations. But I did not go to rabbinical school to become a congregational rabbi. I went in search of authentic and transforming Jewish learning and a fascination with the the infinite world of meaning of Jewish texts that I had tasted in tiny morsels my college years. In this respect I was grateful that I chose to go the Jewish Theological Seminary (even though I had not grown up in the Conservative Movement which this institution represented), because of all the movement seminaries it was the most serious institution about teaching students how to become a serious, engaged and open minded Jewish readers .

This love of reading and study of Torah has animated my life, both personally and as a rabbi throughout the years to this day. I always told myself during those years that even if I left the professional rabbinate, I was so lucky to be given a profound Jewish education which would be a source of inspiration throughout my life. It turned out that I went into the professional rabbinate , but I did so with a dedication to learning and teaching that has always stamped my public rabbinate.

One of the reasons I formed Panim Hadashot was to create a context where Jewish reading could be rediscoverd and practiced and that the rabbi would be prized first and foremost as a teacher and mentor in the wisdom of the texts as applied to life. Could there be a place in the Jewish community which was focused and dedicated to the restoration of the place of "Jewish wisdom through reading"? This is a tall order in a fast food, fast information, fast gratification culture.

In the piece that follows I will share a description of reading which I am trying to restore to a central place in our lives as human beings and as Jews.

Rabbi Dov Gartenberg

More Musings on the Disengagement

Today I worked on texts concerning Teshuvah-repentance-in preparation for the Days of Awe. In a conversation with a colleague I had a flash that the disengagement was a sort of national teshuvah. Of course, the politicians would not articulate the disengagement in this way. But this astonishing act of withdrawal intentionally reversed a longstanding and misguided policy (in my opinion) and did so in as decent a way as possible. It can also be analogized to a dispute between two people, neither of whom can take the iniative to change the poisonous dynamic between them. To make teshuvah it takes at least one person to take different and unexpected action, to be a change agent. There is no guarantee that the other side will change, but the only way to change is when at least one takes action. Israel's action can be seen in this way. It was done at great political cost and has restored pragmatic Zionism to its proper place in Israeli statecraft.

To me the most touching picture was in the NY Times which showed soldiers cleaning up the synagogue in Neveh Dekalim. There were some soldiers kissing the ark. Others were putting away siddurim. One was sitting on the steps of the Bimah, either weeping or exhausted. It reminded me of cleaning up the shul after the holidays. I was deeply impressed by the restraint of the soldiers and policemen in the face of taunts and abuse. May this be a model to other nations on how to respond to dissidents.

The question that emerges for me after the disengagement is how do we cultivate a Jewish religious commitment and sensibility free from the temptation of messianism but not without passion for the deepest of Jewish religious ideals. There is a new organization in Israel called Maagelei Tzedek which is trying to turn the religious community back towards social justice and away from the idolization of the land. Israel has the biggest gap between rich and poor of any developed nation. This growing gap must be addressed as Israel overcomes its addiction to the settlements. The next few years will be very telling to the future of the 3rd Jewish commonwealth. Will it be able to continue to make the compromises and tenacity needed for the possibility of a peace with the Palestinians and will it address long neglected declines in social justice and education that truly endanger the viability of its future.

It is important for us not to waiver in our support of Israel, a support that is grounded on advancing a pragmatic agenda engaged in the best of Jewish values and ideals.

Musings on the Disengagment

Yesterday, I couldn't stop looking at the footage of the evacuation from Gaza. Everyone I talked to yesterday expressed intensely mixed feelings, a combination of disgust at the settlers behavior with deep discomfort of images of Jews being removed from synagogues. As I read the accounts of the settler's well planned psychological warfare applied to the soldiers and the policemen I grasped how they were resorting to Jewish guilt to undermine their evacuators. Most striking was the staged photo of settler children with their hands up wearing orange stars, harking back to the haunting photo of Nazi era Jewish children doing the same, unposed. These manipulative allusions to the holocaust aroused disgust in me as I am sure it provoked anger amongst most Israelis. Yet the images work since a part of us remains very uncomrtable with the image of Jews confronting other Jews.

During the day I thought about bizarre halachic dilemmas that must have arose in the confrontations at the synagogues. In one account I read that a group of protesters invited the soldiers to daven shahrit (the morning service) with them before they began the evacuation. Can an Jewish evacuator be counted in a minyan? It was Thursday so the Torah was read. Do you offer him an aliyah (being called to the Torah)? As I davened yesterday I thought about all the points in the morning service that must have emotionally tugged at the worshippers in those synagogues: Shomer Yisrael-Guardian of Israel-a prayer in the supplication section. Or the passage before the Shema, "Lo Nevosh Lolam Va'ed"-Let us never be humiliated for all time." When you pray in distress, every word seems to speak to you, even if it can distort reality. Loving the prayers as I do, I could relate to how these people were feeling even if I have no sympathy for their cause.

I mused also about how young the protesters were. As an educator I now wonder how to get teenagers into shul. Well now I know. Educate them into messianism and get into a big spat with the state. One of the very significant cultural crises that emerge from the disengagement is the greenhouse education system in Israel. There is a religious tract and a secular tract in Israel for educating the young. These systems seem to exacerbate, if not create the deep cultural divisions in Israel over religion and citizenship. This is one of the challenges that Israel will have to face in the coming years if it is to foster a common sense of citizenship and a respect for democracy, law, and compromise.

As ugly as the scenes were yesterday in one sense I thought this was Israel's finest hour. The guilt inducing use of the expression "A Jew does not expell a Jew." was intended to provoke and shame the soldiers. Yes, Jews have been expelled many time in our long history. But not by fellow Jews serving as agents of a democratic Jewish state. The restraint of the evacuators was admirable. Their calm in the face of derision and manipulation was impressive. The empathy of many soldiers for the authentic grief of the settlers was touching. The behavior of the soldiers and the policemen reveal a greater maturity about the use of state power in Israel, of being firm while not descending into cruelty. As Jews we know about cruel expulsions, about heartless dispossesions. But what we witnessed yesterday was not just the government, but the democratic majority enforcing a new boundary with dignity a national self restraint.

Sharon's speech to the nation included words of empathy for the Palestinians and their plight. It was little noticed but very significant coming from this old warrior. There is so much hatred in this land. The settlers so passionate about their loss, show no empathy for the Palestinians, no recognition of any legitimate claims they might have. Immersed in a messianic vision and a seething hatred many of the settlers became blind to the reality they presented to the Palestinian population that surrounded them. Sharon's political tzimtzum (a kabbalistic term meaning contraction) opens up a space for them to make something good. I have no illusions about Palestinian hatred of Jews, yet for there to be progress, the Jewish state and its people have to be prepared to contract with strength. Peace will not be won with love, it will be won with self-restraint. It will be achieved with an awareness that the land must be apportioned to let the other side begin to recover its dignity.

8/19/05