By Salomon Gruenwald on May 8th, 2011
Parashat Emor 5771
Early Monday morning, I found myself sitting in a police car. No, I wasn’t arrested. I was sitting in the front seat next to the officer. I recently started volunteering with the Denver Police Department as a Chaplain; and on Monday I went on my first ride-along. I spent 7 hours patrolling downtown with a very nice officer named Martinez[1].
But the whole day I was preoccupied with two overriding questions.
The first question on my mind was: “What the heck am I doing riding around in a police car wearing a uniform and a badge!?” Sure, I liked the way the ballistic vest under my shirt makes me look as though I actually have a chest; but why would these cops need a rabbi and what could I possibly offer them?
The second question weighing heavy on my mind was, “how do I feel about the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden?” The news was so fresh I could hardly believe it. Nearly 10 years after September 11, 2001 they finally got the guy! And, that morning, riding around in a police car, I was meditating in the background of my mind what it means to me and how I feel about it.
And somehow – at least in my mind – these two questions seemed to have a confluence. How I felt about being a police chaplain and how I felt about our military killing bin Laden seemed to overlap. Continue reading Too Proud to Celebrate →
By Salomon Gruenwald on April 23rd, 2011
Shabbat Hol Ha-Mo’ed Pesach, Confirmation Shabbat
The Passover haggadah admonishes us every year saying, “it is incumbent on each person to see him or herself as one who was liberated from Egypt.” This is meant to remind us that our people’s Exodus from Egypt, is not a singular event that took place in the distant past, but instead Yetziat Mitzrayim, is a continually unfolding experience. Freedom is not a destination at which we arrive at one moment in time, instead liberation is something we practice, cherish and renew continually. It is incumbent on each one of us not merely to recall that, but to live it. Pesach is not a history lesson, it is an experience of memory – our own memory. Because deep within our spiritual makeup, we Jews know what it is like to be oppressed. Even if we, as individuals, never experienced slavery, it nonetheless our story. That’s what the haggadah means to teach us every year. We don’t simply remember the Exodus, we relive it. Continue reading Confirming our Freedom →
By Salomon Gruenwald on March 26th, 2011
Parashat Shemini (Shabbat Parah) 5771
Life, at times, has a way of leaving us dumbstruck… silent. That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. As I read and watch the news, I’m left silent. There is so much going on in the world right now… so many people in so many different places are suffering and struggling. Tens of thousands are missing or dead in Japan; and, in the midst of a nuclear crisis and the on-going search for bodies and survivors, it seems there isn’t even time or attention yet to think about how difficult it will be to recover and rebuild. We’ve all been watching developments in the Arab world and we don’t know what to think about it all yet. It’s only beginning to sink in that we are now in our third military conflict in a Muslim country. And, recently, Israelis, and lovers of Israel around the world, were shaken by a brutal terrorist murder of a Jewish family in the West Bank, the first bombing in Jerusalem in nearly 7 years, and the resumption of rocket attacks out of Gaza. And still there’s so much more that is overshadowed by these events – the ongoing suffering around our country and our world due to the economy (did you know that nearly 1 in 4 children in the US are now living below the poverty line?). Continue reading Holy Silence →
By Salomon Gruenwald on March 12th, 2011
Parashat Vayikra 5771
This morning we began reading from the book of Leviticus, which describes in great detail the various kinds of offerings that the Israelites would bring to the Tabernacle and how those sacrifices were to be performed by the priests. To us moderns, Vayikra can be very difficult to comprehend and, frankly, quite gory.
But, I love vayikra! I am enthralled by the sacrifices. In fact, I wish I could be transported back to ancient Israel just to witness the pageantry and power of our ancestors’ religious practice. When I read this parsha I imagine what it might have been like to stand in the courtyard of the mishkan and witness the priests atoning on the community’s behalf. I try to picture what it would have been like to choose the most perfect animal out of my flock – searching for its blemishes as I contemplate my own inequities. I wonder how I would have felt placing my hands on the animals head in prayerful hope that I would be forgiven. I can almost feel the churning of my gut when the animal’s throat is cut before my eyes and its blood is dashed against the sides of the altar. I imagine that I would have probably passed out from the thick smoke produced by the entrails and fat burning on the pyre. As an ancient Israelite, what would my understanding have been of how this sacrifice pleases God? Continue reading Do Jewish and You’ll Feel Jewish →
By Salomon Gruenwald on February 19th, 2011
Shabbat Ki Tissa 5771
You may be aware that there is a taboo in Judaism against counting groups of Jews. So when there’s a need to count Jews, we do all sorts of funny things to count without really counting. As you know, to say certain prayers we need a minyan – a quorum of 10 Jewish adults. But more traditionally minded folks avoid counting the minyan. Instead they use little tricks. Our Hazzan, for instance, counts the minyan by reciting a well-known verse that contains 10 words. In the time of the Torah, they used a different method. If the Israelites needed to take a census, they would collect a coin from each person and count the coins.
So why is counting people so bad? Some commentators say that censuses were associated with war because they were used to determine the number of eligible soldiers. Others say that counting invites the evil eye to bring calamity upon the people. But I think the answer is implied by our parsha itself and it brings to mind the question of who counts in a community. Continue reading Everyone Counts: A Sermon for Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month →
