"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

The Teaching
If you're looking for a powerful illustration of the profound transformation of Judaism from its biblical roots to our present day faith community, the character of Shavuot would be a great festival to consider.  In the Torah, Shavuot is the Fest of weeks, the celebration of the Bikurim, the first fruits. Our sages opted for Shavuot as a celebration of Torah as the core of our peoplehood. The Scroll of Ruth, set in the late of spring harvest season, brings us face to face with a moabite woman who chooses the god and the faith of her Jewish mother in law, Naomi. A Moabite woman! - this, despite the Torah's admonition that "no Moabite or Ammonite may join God's people." In case you miss the challenge posed by Ruth's ancestry, the closing verses of the scroll drive the point home: a Moabite woman, the ultimate outsider, will be the great grandmother of King David!

Our yearly revising of the Scroll of Ruth is a powerful reminder that our religious identity is not bound by a blood signature or the genetic results of a cheek swab. We are not children of one culture. Several narrative strands come together to weave the continually evolving tapestry of Judaism. Jews around the world study Torah together on Erev Shavuot - a sort of global Adult Education/celebration of identity in preparation for the morning after: the Holy One is Revealed atop the humble and unassuming Mount Sinai, and the redeemed Israelites (our family) pledges - "na'aseh v'nishma", we will observe the mitzvot, we will hear God's voice. This story is not only about the powerful embrace of a faith, a family, a civilization by "outsiders." It is about Jews finding out how their Judaism matters,  about why they should engage their cultural identity more fully.

How important is Torah? It is a Tree of Life, it is our address. A dying Rabbi Akiva consoles his crying students even as he is being martyred by the Romans. The parchment burns, and his body will perish, but the letters of the Torah fly heavenward. The teachings cannot be erased. Long after Rome becomes the site of magnificent ruins, the Jewish people will delight in words of Torah. Beth Sholom will bury the "Wolf River Torah' some thirty years after it was destroyed. While it is a sad story, it also a story of people in our kehillah whose lives were changed, whose Jewish identity was powerfully galvanized. It is also the story of Jews reaching out to each other. On the Sunday after Shavuot, we will come together at the Beth Sholom MemorialGardens to lay that beloved Torah to rest. We will hear that story and we will plant a tree to express our devotion to Torah as a sustaining Tree of Life. It is a story for young and old. Our young ones sing "etz chaim hi' as they clutch their plush torahs in front o the open ark. Our success as a kehilla has everything to do with young and old, all the children of Israel affirming our love of Torah. The ruined parchment returns to the earth along with unusable holy books and tallitot. But the letters fly heavenward, the teachings are woven into our hearts forever. Please join together with us on Shavuot, and on the Sunday following the festival, as we recommit ourselves to the teachings that bind us together, to the shining words and ideas that have transformed our world.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron