Last Assessment update (I hope)

Hey again people on this blog. Time for another update and very close to my last one.  I am still busy but I am really starting to feel that the end is kind of in sight.  All I have left to do is one smallish bit of work for college, at least from the academic standpoint. I then have one service to lead, a Torah reading and sermon, write a report and finish my placement journal. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but its so much less than it was earlier that I am almost feeling happy. I am looking forward going to Chaggiah (British Reform Biennial). And then the second year is over.  I am looking forward to next year it sounds like it is going to be amazing, but I would imagine even more work than this one was.

Apart from that not all that much has happened. Well, there isn't really time for it too happen.  I work at college and I work in the community and then I hang out with Emily. Such is my life at the moment.

Yet more on assessments and the never-ending second year

I don't know who is still reading this blog but someone is. So its about time to make a new posting, not much has changed since my last update I am still working hard and there are still things outstanding although a lot less than there were. I should all be done and dusted by June 30th, although there is a hell of a lot of stuff between then and now, about 10ish things on the list to still do. But I'm hopefully that all of them will get down in the end or at lest all the ones that really matter will.  The only other thing is the complete disappearances of the British summer, you really wouldn't know it was summer at all.  Anyway I need to go and do some preliminary briefing type stuff for some upcoming events. I will try and post here before to long. Who knows I may be a third year by then.

A Wedding in Cambridge and lots of work

I have just returned from Rachel's and Jack's wedding which took place in Cambridge. I had a great time although Cam., was freezing even though its May.  The night before the wedding there was a dance in a barn/village hall in a village near Cambridge.  It was a fun party and I even danced a little even though I am not a great fan of dancing. I didn't really know that many people there. Only Rachel, whose guest I was and Beth (from Keele) and Gereld (from Newcastle).
The wedding itself was fun and interesting (Ester led it) it was mixture of Jewish/scifi and victorian. Then we went back to Rachel's parents house to have a lunch in the garden (lovely but rather cold). It was a lovely occasion and it was nice to meet Bobby Siliverman again., also catching up with Ester out of college. I also liked meeting Rachel's family and friends.
Apart from that I have almost finished at LBC for the year (I still have a few over flow class next week.) But I am very busy I have a lot of assessments coming up.

Personal Theology a 2500 word easy style sermon
Parshanut Essay 3000 words
Midrash Essay 3000 words
An essay For (Progressive Jewish thought a British perspective)
Talmudic Oral exam
A persentation for Megilot
An on-going journal for Rabbinic placement
More chanting (its a difficult passage)
I am also working on something for Limmud. So all in all I am very busy.
I may also be thinking about writing something for Narrative Theology.

So all in all I am feeling rather stressed. But generally happy or at least happier than I have been of late.

D'var Torah

So here is the D'var Torah that I gave at LBC today. I think its pretty good and I was happy with my delivery. As an aside there are a number of things that I have learnt about giving sermons. 1) Make sure that your kipper/tallit and tefillin are in go order and aren't going to fall done during the sermon. 2) Don't staple your sheets together 3)Use a clear font and large letters and DOUBLE SPACEing. 4) As I learnt today pause before starting. Bechukkotai The Bible is sometimes known in popular parlance as the ‘Good Book’ in a sense that I think is meant to imply wholesomeness. I must say I have never been comfortable with this name. The Bible and its stories are many things but wholesome is not the first word that springs to mind! They are challenging, life-changing, and fascinating to be sure but good? Sometimes, however, the challenging nature of the Bible is obscured to us or we simply fail to or do not want to see it. In order to understand this it may, sometimes, be necessary to try and hear the stories as if for the first time. When I first decided that I was going to apply to the Leo Baeck College to train to be a rabbi I threw myself into the life of my synagogue in order to learn as much about the day-to-day life of a busy community rabbi as possible. One day I was given the task of entertaining a young girl while her parents and older sister discussed Bat-mitzvah plans. We went to the synagogue's library and selected a suitable book and I started reading Bible stories (as adapted for children) needless to say this week's Sidra Bechukkotai was not included. All went well, we read story after story and enjoyed looking at the pictures until we reached the story of the Judgment of Solomon. When she suddenly burst into tears, I was somewhat taken aback, it was after all a children’s book and the story had a happy ending. But on reflection I feel prompted to ask why do we tend to think that such stories as the Judgment of Solomon are suitable for children? Why have they lost their power to shock? One answer is that we know them too well, we have read or have heard them so many times, that we know before they even start that, in the end, the baby won't be cut in half or when reading about the Akedah, we know that Isaac will not, in the end, be sacrificed. But when they are new to us, or when we let them, the stories in the Tanakh have a real and deep ability to shock. One thing that can safely be said of this week's Sidra Bechukkotai is that it is profoundly disturbing. It is not a part of Torah that we are likely to allow to flow over us without really taking on its message. I first encountered it fully last year while studying in Israel when I experienced something of the same shock as that young girl when she first heard the story of the Judgment of Solomon. We were studying a midrash when a few words I could read jumped out of the Hebrew at me, as it turned out they from Bechukotai: 'You shall eat the flesh of your sons and of your daughters. (Leviticus 26:27)' At first I hoped I had misread or misunderstood it. When that proved not to be the case I went to read the verse in its original context. Sadly, this did little to help. Bechukkotai starts with a short section of all the good things that will happen if the Israelites follow God's commandments. This is followed by a much longer list of curses which will befall them if they fail to follow them. Putting the quotation, that so shocked me, in its Biblical context did little to help. It was still awful and overall Bechukkotai was very theologically troubling. But this raises a larger, practical question. What can be done with sections of the Torah, and for that matter liturgy, that we find theologically disturbing and even shocking as well? One approach might be simply to ignore it. To pretend that it isn't there. In this case it would mean not reading this section of the Torah. Indeed both the Liberal and Reform lectionaries give options for Torah-readings that do not cover the more shocking and difficult verses. In fact in the past, in some Progressive congregations, whole sections of the Book of Leviticus were simply not read. Alternative readings were substituted in their place. In a similar way in some Progressive Siddurim to this day the Second Paragraph of the Shema is omitted because of theological objections. The early Reformers objected to the ideas of reward and punishment expressed in the Shema's second paragraph but even though both Bechukkotai and the Second Paragraph of the Shema deal with reward and punishment, the Shema does not have the shocking quality of the curses in Bechukkotai. Even in Traditional circles a similar technique is, sometimes, used to effectively pass over the more difficult parts in this week’s Sidra. All the curses are read within one aliyah and verses which are not curses are read before and after them, which not only means that reading them is completed as quickly as possible but also that the curses themselves are not blessed. This is a similar strategy that is used when reading of the execution of the Ten sons of Haman (their names are read in a single breath), or at the end of Grace after meals when the lines 'I have been young and have grown old but I have never seen a righteous man go hungry or his children begging for food', which if they are said at all are recited very quickly. In these cases it is almost as if the person speaking does not want to hear what they are saying. Although I cannot offer a strategy which would make the more difficult parts of the Torah easier to cope with, I do not think that trying to pretend that hard parts aren't there is the way to go. In fact I think that we should be pleased that even in the Book of Leviticus there are passages that not only grab our attention but are so shocking that they demand it. In other news I passed PCCS with flying colours even if I do say so myself. Today was the last official day of s although we do have a few catch up classes next week

New post

I haven't posted to this blog in a very long time so it feels as though I ought to post again. Recently I pasted the 33% stage in my rabbinical training which is both encouraging and scary. I am currently doing my apprenticeship at Finchely Reform Synagogue which is proving an interesting and very positive experience. I have quite a lot of course working hanging over me but I am not too worried about it there is a lot to do but generally speaking everything is going okay.
Passover was fun I went back home and had a pleasent family celebration.

Admission week

Last week was admissions week. We had five candidates in the college all of whom seem nice and quick just the kind of people one would like to study with. I remember from my time being interviewed at the college how tough and how exhausting it can be so i tried my hardest to be friendly and welcoming.
The boring services were really good a good turn out from the students and because we had extra-canidates in college it felt fully and lively which is really nice. Most of my classes were interesting. I especially enjoyed Talmud class we are tattling some hardish texts now. I am also looking into getting some extra-Talmud classes which should be interesting.
On Thursday Rabbi Fuchus from the world Union came to speak with the student society which was most enlightening. All in all a good week.

Sermon at Leo Baeck college

This is the text of the sermon I gave at LBC a couple of weeks back. Hope you all like it. I am leading services next week so am busy planning/working on that but now its time to go think about getting ready for shabbat and being peaceful for a little while. Shabbat Shalom.

And when Israel saw the mighty power which the Eternal had wielded in Egypt, the people feared the Eternal and they had faith in the Eternal and in His servant Moses. (Exodus 14:31)

The Children of Israel are no longer slaves in Egypt. They have just crossed the Reed Sea, which had miraculously parted for them. They have seen Pharaoh and his armies drowned in it. Now they believe in God and in Moses. In fact they are about to overtaken by prophetic ecstasy and will burst into song; known to us as the Song of Sea.

But how quickly things can change. In the very next chapter the Israelites will complain about Moses. And even before the giving of the Torah has been completed, while Moses is still on Mt. Sinai, they will build and worship the golden calf. The same people who had been saved from slavery and had seen all the miracles, which went along with the redemption, will commit idolatry.

Idolatry and its consequences became a theme of Israelite history. Over and over again the Israelites rebelled against God and worshiped idols: both during the forty years that they spent in the wilderness and when they settled in the Land of Israel, in the period of the Judges and then the Monarchy.

In the Book of Judges every time the Israelites turned away from the Eternal and worshiped idols they would be attacked by the neighbouring nations and according to the Babylonian Talmud one of the main reasons for the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile that followed it was idolatry.

This phenomenon continued and presented the Sages with a difficult question. How could people who had witnessed the presence of God or had heard the words of the prophets or were very wise possibly have committed idolatry?

The not especially earth-shattering answer they reached was that past generations had an inclination to worship idols.

The power of this desire, to worship idols, is related in a story in Tractate Sanhedrin. A Rabbi was lecturing about King Manasseh, a King of Judah famous for his wisdom and infamous for his idol-worship; during the lecture the rabbi referred to Manasseh in a disparaging way. That night the king appeared to the rabbi in a dream and asked him a difficult halakhic question.

The rabbi was unable to answer and after Manasseh had answered his own question the rabbi asked. 'If you were so wise how did you come to worship idols?' To which Manasseh retorted, 'Had you been there you would have rushed to serve them!'

How could this have happened? The answer is given in one of my favourite talmudic narratives, which can be found in Tractate Sanhedrin.

When the Men of the Great Assembly were building Judaism after the return from exile they were concerned that further idolatry might result in more hardship. So they prayed for their people to be relieved from the inclination to idolatry. Their prayers were successful and they were able to capture and subdue the inclination to idolatry.

Although the inclination to idolatry may no longer be with us, the Yetzer Hara, the inclination to evil very much is. But this might not be such a bad thing, for unlike the doctrine of original sin the Yetzer Hara is not an inherently bad thing.

This idea is powerfully expressed in the continuation of the Talmudic story about the Men of Great of the Assembly and the inclination to idolatry. When they had succeeded in subduing this inclination they prayed to be able to do the same to the Yetzer Hara: at which point the Yetzer Hara appeared in the form of a cat. While attempting to capture it a single hair was pulled from its coat, at which it let out a roar so loud that it shook the building. The Men of the Great Assembly decided that it would be wiser not to try and slay the Yetzer Hara so they sealed it up in a box instead.

And what was the result of a world without the Yetzer Hara?

Basically everything stopped.

The Sages concluded that without the Yetzer Hara people would not learn a trade, study, build a house, or raise a family. According to the story when the Yetzer Hara was imprisoned even chickens stopped laying eggs. Faced with the realisation that the Yetzer Hara was necessary the Men of the Great Assembly released it.

Although the Yetzer Hara is not entirely evil it is essential to balance it with the Yetzer Hatov, the good inclination. Because of the prompting of the Yetzer Hara we work and study hard and go about the business of life. And through the struggle required in balancing the Yetzer Hara and Yetzer Hatov, personal growth becomes a real possibility.

Adam Frankenberg
February 2012