Federation Star - January 2018

26A Federation Star January 2018
A picture is worth
a thousand words
Rabbi
Adam F.
Miller
Sometimes a picture really is worth
a thousand words. Years ago, I
was sent to visit a radiologist for
an x-ray following an auto accident. At
the doctor’s request, the technician took
several x-rays of my shoulder and neck
area. I was then sent back to the waiting
room to wait for the results.
A few minutes later, the technician
returned to say that they needed to retake
the pictures. When I asked why, she
showed me the images from the first
series. She explained that she neglected
to remove my necklace prior to the x-
ray. As a result, in addition to my bone
structure, one immediately noticed that
in the center of my chest was the image
of a Jewish star.
We retook the x-rays and, thankfully,
I had not suffered any serious
injury. But the image of that Jewish
star on my chest remains in my mind
to this day. To me, that picture was not
a mistake – Judaism is at the center of
my identity.
I credit the strength of my Jewish
identity to the experiences I had during
my youth. My parents demonstrated by
their actions the importance of one’s
own Jewish identity. Although we
moved several times, my parents always
made joining a synagogue a priority.
They encouraged me to participate in
youth group activities, and I learned
quickly that no matter where we lived,
I always had a home in the Jewish community.
Temple Shalom students have
access to these types of experiences
through our acclaimed preschool and
religious school. Students develop
their Jewish identities by learning from
our experienced teachers. High school
students remain engaged through
Confirmation and BBYO activities.
Additionally, we are thrilled to have
so many of our young members who
have participated in Jewish overnight
camping. Thank you to our Sisterhood,
Men’s Club, and the Jewish Federation
of Greater Naples for enabling so many
of our students to attend camp each summer.
One of the most important lessons
we can pass along to the next generation
is that their Jewish identities do not end
when religious school goes on vacation
or when they leave the sanctuary after
services. Jewish camping teaches our
children that their Jewish identities
remain important outside the walls of
our synagogues and homes.
Just as Jewish camping reinforces
Jewish experiences beyond the walls of
the synagogue, adult education provides
the meaningful Jewish experiences that
we need to go beyond the pediatric
Judaism of our youth. Our perspectives
change as we age, and we need to
maintain our Jewish learning in order to
retain a strong connection to our Jewish
identities. Some education takes place
in a formal classroom setting – such as
the renowned Melton School for Adult
Learning available at Temple Shalom.
Other learning experiences occur when
noted scholars come to teach in our
community. At the end of this month,
January 26-28, we will welcome Dr.
Richard Elliott Friedman to Temple
Shalom as our Scholar-in-Residence.
Dr. Friedman authored Who Wrote the
Bible, an eye-opening exploration of the
origins behind our most sacred texts.
In addition to traditional study and
lectures, Temple Shalom now offers
Wise Aging: Sacred Living. Developed
by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality,
the course centers around the book
Wise Aging by Rabbi Rachel Cowan
and Dr. Linda Thal. Participants explore
their spirituality, reflect on evolving
relationships, discover new meaning,
and learn how to live mindfully. I was
trained in this material, along with
Missy Balsam, and we will be co-teaching
the program. Missy is an exceptional
yoga teacher, and will add gentle movement
as part of the experience.
Whether young or old, our Jewish
identities cannot be linked or traced to
a single moment in our lives. They are
a compilation of our Jewish experiences
– at home, at the synagogue, and
in the community. The results of these
experiences may not appear on an x-
ray, but they will be imprinted on our
hearts.
Rabbi Adam Miller serves at Temple
Shalom in Naples.
Time
Rabbi
Mark Wm.
Gross
Early this month, we have a
unique milestone on the calendar.
January 3 marks the peak of
the annual Quadrantid meteor shower,
the terrestrial perihelion, and National
Chocolate-Covered Cherry Day. That
is, admittedly, an odd combination of
ingredients for one calendar milestone.
I can’t vouch for National Chocolate-Covered
Cherry Day. It could
be that the chocolate-covered cherry
manufacturers have a powerful lobby in
Washington, and created a “test-drive”
day for romantically inclined men to
taste-test possible love offerings six
weeks before Valentine’s Day (only a
theory).
There’s no question, however, about
the perihelion, that point in the earth’s
elliptical orbit where we are closest
to the sun. It happens at 9:00 a.m. on
Wednesday morning, January 3 by the
decree of The One On High who, as
our prayerbook put it, “ordered the
celestial luminaries in their respective
paths across the sky in accord with His
Will.” The same holds for the Quadrantid
meteor shower, which happens at
the same time every year, although not
forever. Due to periodic perturbations
in the gravitational pull of Jupiter, earth
will no longer pass through the orbital
path of the Quadantrid in another thousand
years. So you should see it while
it’s there to be seen.
The reason all this is significant at
all, let alone Jewishly, is that time was
the first thing God created in the opening
chapter of Genesis. The declaration
“let there be light” marked the formation
not of luminosity, but rather of those
alternating periods of dark and light
the Creator named “night” and “day”
– in other words, time. The creation of
the sun, moon and stars was almost an
afterthought, which according to Genesis
happened on The Fourth Day. (For
COMMENTARY
that reason, when I served a synagogue
across the state on the Atlantic coast, we
used to hold a sunrise Shachrit on the
beach every year on the Wednesday –
The Fourth Day – of the week that the
Creation story was the assigned Torah
portion.)
The Torah itself tells us that the
Creator positioned the celestial lights
in their appointed paths across the sky
so that humanity could mark their apparent
movement as an indicator by
which to measure the passage of the
days, months, seasons and years. For
that reason, every good Jew is for practical
purposes an amateur astronomer,
Wretur
watching the night sky and noting the
swel
relative position of the sun – higher or
and
lower in the sky – during the day as the
prom
seasons go by.
of sti
But while the exact moment of the
liste
Winter perihelion and the passage of
York
earth in its annual orbit through the debris
left by long-ago comets is absolute,
hello
hello
firm and fixed, there are certain subjective
milestones in the calendar, as well.
hard
you
And that’s where such synthetic occasions
as National Chocolate-Covered
as sa
lunc
Cherry Day come into it. Some are
othe
completely random, while others mark
T
a unique occasion we choose to commemorate,
such as birthdays and wed-
Ham
mak
ding anniversaries. And some become
such
ours by decree, as when Queen Esther
promulgated Purim, and the Maccabees
instituted Chanukah, Feast of the Dedication
of the Altar.
As such, we have occasion every
day to realize that time, which we appear
to experience in linear terms, is in
C
fact flowing around us in great circles
positioning us at the corner of Right Com
Now and Always – what our Chanukah On F
candle-lighting blessing last month Shab
called “in those days at this season.” 5:45
Or, as Thoreau put it in Walden: ner a
“Time is but the stream I go a-fi shing ored
in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see Clem
the sandy bottom and detect how shal-Jewlow
it is. Its thin current slides away, one
but eternity remains.” To which I say: tions
“Amen.”
with
Rabbi Mark Gross serves at the Jewish reser
Congregation of Marco Island. Wom
Coll
Bake
25 fr
are a
span
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