New Mexico’s state bird, the Roadrunner, in Fort Stockton, Texas
Dear Friends:
“I’m not religious – I hardly ever go to synagogue.” “I not really Jewish – I’m more of an atheist.” I’ve heard people make those statements, but too often, we conflate being religious with regular attendance at shul or being Jewish with accepting a Biblical or prayerbook definition of God.
I’m contractually obligated to plug Shabbat services and monotheism, and I do believe there is great value in having people worship communally. I also feel that it is beneficial to avoid self-aggrandizement by recognizing that something greater than ourselves exists.
But an hour or so a week is not, and should not be, the focus of Judaism, and Judaism is far more prescriptive about how we behave than in what we believe. For those who are Jewish, we are Jewish every hour of every day; it’s up to us to decide how often we daven (pray) or what is our personal theology.
Judaism can inform every aspect of our lives: from the moment we awaken to the moment we go to sleep – from what we eat to what we wear – from our birth to our death. I deliberately used the word “inform” because we have the free will (I think) to follow the advice of our sages or not. But this can only work if we know what those sages say.
Beverly and I live in a house filled with books*, many of which contain Jewish teachings over the millennia. Certainly, conditions and practices have changed from the time of the Temple in Jerusalem to today. More than anything, I view Jews as an extended family. We may have wildly different beliefs, and we may observe rituals in diverse fashions. Nonetheless, we share common ancestors whose understanding of the world and our role in it is part of our heritage.
Many of my rabbi activities over the past 3 months were targeted at helping build Jewish community and raising Jewish knowledge. They did not center on synagogue service attendance or a Talmudic understanding of the Divine: I delivered a presentation about Jewish musicians and artists for the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society and a talk about the Jewish community of Guatemala City for a Santa Fe travel store. I participated as part of a rabbinic tribunal in multiple conversions; taught several sessions of the weekly, ongoing, “Exploring the Jewish Experience” program; spoke at an immigration vigil held by our Congresswoman and her office; gave the opening prayer at a session of the New Mexico State Senate; and lectured on free will in Judaism and the theme of hope in Jewish texts at two consecutive interfaith evening events. In partnership with the United Church across the street from the Los Alamos Jewish Center, I championed a joint postcard writing campaign created by Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger to urge our government to restore subsidies for those facing food insecurity (https://mazon.org/news/blog/47000-postcards-to-fight-hunger/).
In all my rabbinic work, I welcome Jews who have limited or no liturgical background as well as those who are fluent in the Jewish liturgy, and I never ask people to describe the God they believe in (or don’t believe in). We need all Jews to learn more about Judaism – now more than ever. So, if you’re not currently actively engaged in any Jewish activity, pick your favorite entry point and embrace some aspect of Judaism. And if it happens to be worship services, I won’t complain when I see you in the synagogue!
B’shalom,
Rabbi Jack
*In preparation for Passover, Beverly arranged to have our carpets cleaned. The gentleman who performed the task said that he’d seen lots of houses in Los Alamos that have large personal libraries, but he’d never seen as extensive a collection as we have. Perhaps those folks with larger libraries don’t clean their carpets.
Rabbi Jack Shlachter
Judaism for Your Nuclear Family
physicsrabbi@gmail.com
www.physicsrabbi.com
Quarterly reading list
How God Works – David DeSteno (audiobook)
The Great Partnership – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
All My Young Years: Yiddish Poetry from Weimar Germany – A.N. Stencl; tr. Haike Beruriah Wiegand and Stephen Watts
On Being Jewish Now – ed. Zibby Owens
Confrontation and Other Essays – Joseph Soloveitchik
Alay-Oop – William Gropper
Spinoza: Freedom’s Messiah – Ian Buruma (Yale Jewish Lives series)
A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories – Miriam Karpilove; tr. Jessica Kirzane
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jew? – Raphael Shore
Morris Rosenfeld: Selections from His Poetry and Prose – ed. Itche Goldberg and Max Rosenfeld
We Have Reason to Believe* – Louis Jacobs
Here in Santa Fe – Stuart Cohen
Maimonides and Halevi – Harry Austryn Wolfson
Urban Myths of Los Alamos – Mark David Albertson
Nize Baby – Milt Gross
The Los Alamos Primer – Robert Serber
Koren Ethiopian Haggada: The Journey to Freedom – Menachem Waldman
Hand in Hand – Rashel Veprinski; tr. Ellen Cassedy and Anita Norich
I Wanted To Be Wonderful – Lihi Lapid; tr. Amit Pardes (duplicative of Woman of Valor)
Franz Boas: In Praise of Open Minds – Noga Arikha (Yale Jewish Lives series)
Papa: An Elegy – Lali Tsipi Michaeli; tr. Maayan Eitan
Spiral of the Three Mothers – Gershon Winkler and Miriam Maron