Kadima Blog

Brokenhearted Endurance

5/18/2022

Dear ones,

Firstly, I apologize for my vocal absence in the wake of the news of the rollback of reproductive rights last week. As many gathered this past Shabbat morning to celebrate one of our own becoming bar mitzvah, so many more were gathering at Cal Anderson Park and in countless locations around the land to protest and raise their voices and spirits in this ongoing fight. Access to abortion is a Jewish value. Yashar koa'ach - may there be strength as these efforts for justice continue.

And on that same morning in Buffalo, NY (Wenrohronon Territory, Haudenosaunee Land) the hometown of my maternal grandparents, mother, aunt, uncles, and cousins, 10 Black residents in a supermarket were murdered in a targetted attack spurned by a [Christian] white nationalism that we know all too well as a multiracial Jewish community. From this same well of anti-Black racism so too spews forth antisemitism, misogyny, tranphobia, Islamophobia, and more.

Our friends at Ammud: Jews of Color Torah Academy are offering space for Black Jews tonight (Wed, 5/18, 5:30-6:30pm PT) and space for Jews of Color tomorrow night (Thu, 5/19, 5-6pm PT) to connect and process. I wanted to make sure to share them with you all as soon as I heard about them, encourage our Black and BIPOC Jews to attend, and invite us all to support those spaces with our gifts to Ammud and these organizations raising money for the families of the victims in Buffalo.

In the meantime, may this day of the omer - the 32nd day, netzach she'b'hod [endurance that is in serenity] be one of persistence, of resilience, and of the small victories of continuing to breathe, continuing to find serenity, and continuing to continue. The Hebrew word for heart, lev, is the numerical value 32, and on this day, while my heart is broken along with the world, may it continue to beat and rhythm for justice.

May it be so for us all,
R' David

Deciding We Are Ready for Liberation - Erev Pesach 5782

4/15/2022

Dear Community,

With first Seder so soon (Friday, 4/15, 7:41pm candle lighting suggested by our ancestors and contemporaries), I write to you to plead to your ability to decide to be done, even when you might not feel complete. Feeling complete can be an act of spiritual resistance when outside forces are saying “no, you’re not done, do more!” This practice of feeling complete can be a first act of liberation when there are pressures and external asks of us and our time - particularly inside Christian Hegemony that may not even acknowledge that Passover exists, matters, or is indeed as soon as it is.

To quote one of my favorite Sean Astin quotes (you know I’m an 80s movie nerd, right?): “Come on, guys, this is our [season].”

Passover is our time. It is ours. And to invite Mary Oliver in, “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious [Passover]?

Whatever you do, may it be on your time, your terms, aligned with the precious life that you and we are all trying to live. Even in these time. Because of these time.

This Passover, may we all live according to the of the greatest toasts of the Jewish people: L’chayim - to life. May we get to choose life and may we have life chosen for us, and may we savor it.

To your liberation (and mine),
R’ David

PS- As Nisan marks the new year of kings as well as festivals, may Zelensky find renewal and resistance to war everywhere be rejuvenated.

Passover Prep in Less Than a Week

4/8/2022

Dear Community,

With First Seder only a week away, I write to you, similarly as last year with my pointers to deepen your preparation into the holiday season upon us. (Already? HOW? Isn’t it still February?) Uh huh.

How to Prep for Passover in Less Than A Week

We've got you covered. Whether you’ve been cleaning for weeks or resigned to not at all, there are many things that you can do to prepare your body, mind, spirit, heart, soul, and household for the Season of Liberation. Thank Go-dness for the diversity of our ancestors.

No matter your capacity or desire for Passover prep this year, Passover is for all of us!
Here are some ways to still prep for Passover in an hour or less:

DIY Matzah Making in 18 minutes or less.
Mingle this Pesach by opening up your seder to fellow Kadimaniks – or signing up to be hosted. Fill out this form ASAP!
Clean your fridge or your pantry. Alright, not the most fun thing on this list, but doesn’t it sound nice to have finished this one? Put on your favorite tunes and get to it?
Have a morning-before-seder bonfire and Burn. Your. Chametz.. I see this as the "tashlich of Passover" where instead of throwing breadcrumbs/sins into the water, we throw breadcrumbs/arrogance/pride (the harmful kind) into the fire.
Sell your chametz to a neighbor. Go knock on their door, or have Sephardic Bikur Holim do it for you.
Decide that you have no chametz - with your mind, body, and spirit - in your possession (this feels like a classic Obi-wan Kenobi "these are not the loaves of bread you are looking for" move, which may be a way in for you too?)
Read Exodus chapters 1-15 to refresh your maggid/storytelling
Open your planner and trim what you can during the coming week to make space - for some outside time, a chat with friends or family, yourself.
Check out Kadima’s Passover 5782 page and come to one of Kadima's assortment of events:
- Shabbat Passover Morning Service & Torah Discussion, Sat, 4/16, 10am-12pm
- Lunch, Learn’n’Connect: Climate Justice & Collective Liberation, Wed, 4/20, 11:45am-1:15pm (come when you can for as long as you can)
- 8th Night Earth Day Seder, Fri, 4/22, 6-8pm
- Adult Ed: Unforgiven? Pharaoh, Jonah & High Holiday-Passover Connections, Sun, 4/24, 10:30am-12n

Finally, Passover 5782 is Friday night, April 15 - Saturday night, April 23 (though some keep through Friday night, April 22, depending on your politics ). HOWEVER you celebrate, acknowledge, remember, prep for, gather around, ignore, or forget Passover is something our ancestors may have also done and something someone else in our community might also be up to, so you are in holy company. And besides, if you end up wishing you had done something else, there is always Pesach Sheni (our tradition’s built in SECOND CHANCE PASSOVER!) - so try something, knowing there is always another opportunity, sometimes sooner than we think.

No matter what it is we do, may it be a joyous season and may we get in touch with our liberation!

L’chayim,
Rabbi David

PS- As our Season of Liberation is still the season of war, be in community with this tool kit for solidarity with Ukraine

Chodesh Nisan Tov! Climate Action Month 2022

4/1/2022

Dear Community,

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how after Purim, there is a ton of kinetic energy bursting forth. Purim could in one way be the festival of transition - from inner to outer, from staying in to going out, from winter to spring.

Now that we are at the new moon of Nisan and we experience the first budding trees around us, the ancient words of Rav Yehuda come to mind: “When a person goes out during the days of Nisan and sees trees that are in bloom, say ‘Blessed is the One whose world lacks nothing and who created in it good creations and good trees for the benefit of humanity.” (BT Berachot 43b). Not only might we be experiencing the sudden bursting of stored energy, but we are encouraged by our ancestors to pause and connect to gratitude and commune with the source of all life while we do. Try it this week?

Even, and maybe especially in a shmita year this is all the more miraculous and educational. I certainly need to remember that sometimes when we davka do no work, there is still productivity. Thank Go-dness for nature. And perhaps this is a lesson you, like I, can relish as we not only start Nisan, but Climate Non-Denial/ Awareness/ Advocacy/ Action/ Justice Month.

This month, look out for a Kadima Earth Day Passover Seder on April 22nd, a Climate Justice passover lunch and learn and connect on April 20th, an Amble with the Outdoors (and the Rabbi) this shabbat, and themes of nature and the climate during all shabbat services and programming this month. Join us as our potential turns kinetic in the month to come, and Chodesh Tov - may it be a good month!

L’chayim,
R’ David

PS- As our Season of Liberation is again the season of war, be in community with this tool kit for solidarity with Ukraine

Nisan, Passover, Climate Justice, and Kinetic Energy

3/31/2022

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how after Purim, there is a ton of kinetic energy bursting forth. Purim could in one way be the festival of transition - from inner to outer, from staying in to going out, from winter to spring.

Now that we are at the new moon of Nisan and we experience the first budding trees around us, the ancient words of Rav Yehuda come to mind: “When a person goes out during the days of Nisan and sees trees that are in bloom, say ‘Blessed is the One whose world lacks nothing and who created in it good creations and good trees for the benefit of humanity.” (BT Berachot 43b). Not only might we be experiencing the sudden bursting of stored energy, but we are encouraged by our ancestors to pause and connect to gratitude and commune with the source of all life while we do. Try it this week?

Even, and maybe especially in a shmita year this is all the more miraculous and educational. I certainly need to remember that sometimes when we davka do no work, there is still productivity. Thank Go-dness for nature. And perhaps this is a lesson you, like I, can relish as we not only start Nisan, but Climate Non-Denial/ Awareness/ Advocacy/ Action/ Justice Month.

This month, look out for a Kadima Earth Day Passover Seder on April 22nd, a Climate Justice passover lunch and learn and connect on April 20th, an Amble with the Outdoors (and the Rabbi) this shabbat, and themes of nature and the climate during all shabbat services and programming this month. Join us as our potential turns kinetic in the month to come, and Chodesh Tov - may it be a good month!

The renewal of our work - Parashat Shmini

3/24/2022

Parashat Shmini on Shabbat Parah is upon us this weekend and I want to offer a bit of Torah for us as we inhabit that time in the space we are in. Parashat Shmini is named for the eighth day. Seven days did the newly appointed cohanim (high priests) sit to dwell and become ready for the consecration of the mishkan.

This text brings up the idea of what comes after we believe we have completed something. After we have worked, and rested to reflect on the work, then what?! We we dwell in parashat Shmini, may we be blessed with the acknowledgement that while we might sometimes feel done (please celebrate all the victories along the way!), “done” is not something, for better and for worse, that might really exist…there may always be an "after we're done." My grandpa George z”l used to say “there is plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead.” To him, I now might have said, “G-ramps [as I lovingly called him], Yes. And, it is also important, as R’ Elliot tells us, to sleep on the journey. And, it is also important to, as R’ Tarfon said, not desist from the work.”

May your work be celebrated. May your work have conclusion(s). May your work be never done. And may your work be renewed in its own “eighth day.” May those whose work we continue and evolve be remembered and celebrated.

Purim, Potential Energy, and Self & Community Care

3/18/2022

In a previous version of this post, I incorrectly attributed words about self care to Maya Williams, poet laureate of Portland, Maine. I apologize for the error and have reached out to Mx. Williams to apologize as well.

What an amazing Purim of activities! One thing I love about Purim is the name itself - it literally means “chances” or “lots.” As we think back about the last day (or week leading up to) Purim, perhaps there is some acknowledgement that we can make of the ways luck, chance, lots, play in our lives. And perhaps to reflect on the ways that the “lot in life” that we were born into - the body we have, the socioeconomic class, the land and its history, and the conditions of war and peace that we were born into perhaps gave us less or more raffle tickets, so to speak, than others in the often unfair “game of life.” [footnote, I hate the game of life, but I do play it when my kids ask me, thankfully they haven’t for a while. I’m not even sure how we ended up with a game set of it.]

And in this moment of “pre-spring” when the Salish Sea region’s weather can’t figure out whether it is coming or going, when the flowers begin to bloom and the buds begin to hatch and the bears begin to wake up, I find this a season of great, as my Yiddish speaking grandmother would say, shpilkis (the band is great, by the way). One way to think about shpilkis, I believe, is the moment where potential energy turns into kinetic energy - I am sure science has a name for this, but hey, I’m a rabbi.

In this season of bursting energy, I need to remember self-care and community care. Thank G-d for Kadima’s intensive learning on disability justice over the past 4 years - sometimes learning from mistakes, and other times proactive. Self and community care can be encapsulated into Sins Invalid’s principle of sustainability, which they write about: “We pace ourselves, individually and collectively, to be sustained long term. Our embodied experiences guide us toward ongoing justice and liberation.” Black feminist/womanist writer, educator, and trainer Altheria Caldera writes about self care quotes other leaders such as Alice Walker, June Jordan, and Jameta Barlow.

This post-Purim (or still Purim if you are in a walled city) may we begin to collect our teachings on self care, community care, and collective liberation, such that as we prepare now for PASSOVER (woah, already? yes.), we are as girded for the journey as we can be, leave no one behind, and are clear whose wisdom and bodies we are following.

More on Passover soon, but until then, may the joys of Purim feed us, and may the oys of Purim be quickly removed from our midst through our own agency and/or the luck that Purim might brings.

L’chayim,
R’ David

PS - for those who missed the AMAZING shpiel last Saturday night, here is a recording (minute 40ish) and after the shpiel, keep listening for the fabulous music of the Band Shpilkis.

*With deep gratitude to the Daring Compassion Movement Chaplaincy cohort I am learning with for the teachings on self & community care in a context of trauma stewardship, tending harm, and caring for activist individuals and communities.

Don’t Forget to Remember to Forget! (Purim 5782/2022)

3/10/2022

Don’t Forget to Remember to Forget!

This week is Shabbat Zachor, one of the 11 “special shabbatot” of the Jewish year (outside of Rosh Chodesh). the Shabbat in which we are reminded to forget. What exactly are we supposed to forget again? I forgot! Oh, glad you asked. We are supposed to remember to forget Amalek - the archnemesis of the Israelites in the Torah.

But who is this Amalek, you might ask (I did)?

In Genesis 36:12, the original Amalek was a boy born to Eliphaz, son of Esau, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, on his dad’s side. On his mom’s side, all we know is his mother, Timna, the daughter of the chief of Seir, the hill lands east of the Jordan. According to midrash was denied conversion (entry into the community) by Abraham himself and, according to the ancient rabbis, Abraham was actually punished for this exclusion, telling us that she was indeed someone who genuinely wanted into the community and should have been allowed in. This exclusion mirrors the exclusion of Esau, Amalek’s grandfather as well.

For Amalek, to be from excluded ancestors, we may end up with a different take on him and his descendants being cast as the villains of the Israelites. Jews have been using this trope (which we can resist) for a long time to do terrible things, including on Purim itself in 1994 which garnered international solidarity, despite a lack of nuance or actual connection to the character or lineage of Amalek.

As such, we need to again learn from the lessons of the Book of Esther and flip the script. How might, as we lead up to Purim next week, see those who we were taught to think of as enemies, and perhaps even have lived experience with as antagonists against us and our values, as perhaps something more. Using a trauma lens, using transformative justice and abolitionist teachings, perhaps this Purim we can shift our perspectives and what we can do

And also, we get to say f*ck no to sh&t that isn’t working for us, in the meantime.

Purim Same’ach - see you for a helluva party on Saturday night/motzei Shabbat and for megillah reading on Wednesday evening! And, if you missed the signups for treat sharing, bring a few neighbors some treats anyway, and don’t forget to redistribute your wealth on Purim!

Oh, these Times. Spiritual Architecture, Joy, and Getting Together

3/2/2022

Content Care: War, Israel/Palestine Politics, intersectional gender oppression and racism, spiritual architecture, Women’s History Month, Chodesh Adar II Tov & Purim Baking, Reading, and Partying, and Parashat Pekudei. If you click on links below, you will get more context, and understand more of my bibliography.

Okay, so, remember Ghostbusters? Yeah, the 1984 comedy starring Dan Akroyd, Ernie Hudon, Bill Murray, Sigorney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, and Slavitza Jovan. I was born in 1979, so Ghostbusters was just a little early for me to fully appreciate in the theater, but it surely was a constant at the rental store and on TV.

Team Barak (thunder), Kadima’s youth b’mitzvah cohort, watched Ghostbusters together as a special movie night last spring in honor of a bat mitzvah for parashat Pekudei (it was a double portion last year paired with Vayakhel). Shout out to the Lieberman-Cohen family as it was their second COVID bat mitzvah in eleven months at that point. Phew.

In returning to Pekudei this week, the mishkan is finally completed after months and months of preparation and building. The connection to spiritual architecture prompts my brain to connect this week’s Torah to the 1984 classic where 550 Central Park West was built as a portal to harness the presence of Gozer the Gozerian, a gender-queer “god of the Hittites, Mesopotamians, and the Sumerians around 6000 BCE” (according to the fandom page I found).

Yes, your rabbi is still talking about Ghostbusters. Is it Purim already?! No, but Adar II begins today - Chodesh Tov - and we are told to increase our joy throughout the month, and connections to my favorite childhood movies do it for me, among other things. (Do they hold up?!?! Arguable. Do they fail to question and fight oppression?! Um, sadly all too often.) Society has perhaps progressed at least a smidge (in some ways) since maybe any of us were kids (and not others). See here for the sexism and intersectional feminism associated with not only the 1984 original, but its 2016 counterpart (perhaps a lighter way to spend some time this Women’s History Month?).

TORAH CONNECTION HERE
But hear me out? A group of people in ancient times built a physical structure to harness the power and attract the presence of their deity. Their deity was partial to those who worshiped itself and only it, and sometimes wiped out those who did not. Am I talking about Gozer and Their followers or Adonai and Theirs?! Alas.

This month, there are maybe dates that ask us to see things from various perspectives, so much so that maybe our worldview could be upturned. Here is a partial list, but mostly, I ask us: what are we reading, watching, listening to, talking about, experiencing, and with whom, that might shake us loose from the calcified ways we have been thinking, feeling, learning, and doing? This is a core question of Adar II, the half-way point from Yom Kippur to Yom Kippur, and the halfway marker in our precious once-in-seven-years shmita gift.

2nd of Adar II - the month anniversary of the passing of Kadima co-founder Shulamit Decktor z”l
8th of March - International Women’s Day & the Anniversary of the 1910 strike beginning by the International Ladies’ Garment Union in NYC
10th of March - Abortion Care Provider Appreciation Day
9th of Adar II - Jewish Day of Constructive Conflict
13th of Adar II - the Fast Day in Solidarity with Queen Esther
14th of Adar II - Purim (in non-walled cities)
15th of Adar II - Shushan Purim (in walled cities)
17th of March - the 100th Anniversary of the Bat Mitzvah & the final Mourner’s minyan remembering Maury Handler, father of Shelby & Zoe
19th of March - Kadima student Harper Holt becomes a b’mitzvah
20th of March - the Spring Equinox
24th of March - first ACT-UP Action
25th of March - anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
30th of March - Palestinian Land Day (anniversary of the 2018 Great March of Return)
31st of March - Trans Day of Visibility

Finally, connected or not, here are some Jewish connections to the invasion of Ukraine[1], see Jewish Currents, Friends of Sabeel NA, Amy Goodman, Jon Stewart, or Vladimir Zelensky himself - also see this list of resources from Irene Katz Connelly at the Forward.

And, an Israel Studies update from the UW administration, from the graduate students associated with the Israel Studies Program; Becky Benaroya in her own words; more

and more press and investigating, and the original letter that seems to have sparked these unfortunate events (with thanks to Stefanie Brendler & Sandy Silberstein for passing many of these resources along). [2]

As we navigate these times, may we find empathy and connection, and maybe active or reflective listening wouldn’t hurt either. May the world be turned upside down, as it says in Esther 9:1: “and it was made opposite.” Let us prepare for the upending, for all the ways it might help us celebrate, and for all the ways it might be disorienting, let us have patience, care, and connection. May we continue to do it, together.

Joy-committed despite and because of it all,
R' David

PS- Not interested in joy during these times? Try some different takes on joy to maybe reframe joy (spoiler, maybe Jewish joy is not a synonym of happiness).

[1] Resources I have been looking through to understand the invasion of Ukraine, the homeland of my Zeyda Moishe and generations of my family, include, with thanks to Sarah Tuttle, this list:
https://twitter.com/ksvarnon
https://twitter.com/terrelljstarr
https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko
https://crimethinc.com/2022/02/15/war-and-anarchists-anti-authoritarian-perspectives-in-ukraine
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/ukraine-russia-war-nato-biden-deterrence/622873/
https://mailchi.mp/cc477ce2c7ca/thursday-newsletter-14181766?e=cd07135c12

[2] For some local news related to Israel/Palestine, see this colleague letter of support for UW Israel Studies professor Liora Halperin, and Jewish Currents reporting about the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle refusing to direct funding to Israeli human rights group B'tselem. Thanks to Seattle-born Helen Bennett for sharing these stories!

Wisdom of the Heart - Parashat Vayakhel transitioning us from month to month

2/20/2022

As Adar Aleph comes to a close this coming week, perhaps it is worth reflecting on how you spent your time this month. We not only leave this month behind, but also the marker of two years of COVID locally. How did you spend time this Black History & Futures Month? How did you spend your time this Lunar New Year? This Jewish Disability Justice Month? This Leap-Year-Extra-Month-of-Adar?

Parashat Vayakhel, in addition to talking about spoons again, fulfills the complement to nadiv lev - a spirit of a generous heart in providing the money and valuable materials for building the mishkan. An abundance of money and materials had been received and now the skilled laborers were to fashion them into the tools for creating the holy space (Shemot/Exodus 36).

The skilled laborers are women teasing a nod to Women’s History Month in March (Shemot/Exodus 35:25-26) and then Betzalel and Oholiav are named, along with all those who were endowed with wisdom of heart: וְכֹ֣ל אִ֣ישׁ חֲכַם־לֵ֗ב.

The Torah’s demarcation of skilled laborers as those who are endowed with wisdom of heart is an excellent way to bring gratitude and awe to all those who worked to make this last month of Kadima activity burn so warm and so bright. To the Kadima board - incoming, outgoing, and persistently present throughout Kadima Board Leadership Transition Month - thank you. To all those who brought consultation, resources, presence, and spirit to our ongoing honoring of Black History and Futures Month - thank you. To all those who brought their care, skills, generosity, listening, patience, soup, and grace for our Disability Justice Batei Midrash/Learning Sessions (👈🏼click there for all the resources or to add your own) - thank you.

As we enter a new month - Adar Bet, Women’s History Month, March - may our joy increase. What are you celebrating, and what can we celebrate together?! [Spoiler, The Purim Are Coming! Sign up here to read megillah in your favorite language at our Low-Stim Virtual Multilingual Megillah Reading!]

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