Wilderness Maggid

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Now that the shoes on the other foot...

BS"D
Until this week liberal judaism was hanging out on it's own suffering under rules of non-acceptance by the chief rabbinate of Israel. Modern Orthodoxy thought this was just fine until their (our) rabbis also became disqualified. What next? Are we coming into an age where only jews born in the land of Israel will be recognized as legitimate jews? Maybe we should discount the Babylonian Talmud because it was written outside of the Land? What fundamentalist snobbery will we see next?


From Haaretz:


Rabbinate's ruling on overseas conversions riles U.S. rabbis

By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent

NEW YORK - "This is deliberate harassing of the modern Orthodoxy that was conceived and born in the United States," one New York rabbi said Wednesday in response to the decision by Israel's Chief Rabbinate not to recognize conversions by Orthodox rabbis abroad.

The rabbi, who does not serve in an official rabbinic capacity but is viewed by colleagues and the religious-Zionist public in the U.S. as a model modern Orthodox rabbi, said he had trouble choosing between two labels for the Rabbinate's decision: "horrific" or "folly."

By contrast, Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) downplayed the impression of a crisis in relations with the Rabbinate in Israel. "The report in Haaretz was too sweeping," Herring said. "It isn't a matter of not recognizing all Orthodox conversions, but rather not recognizing them automatically."

Herring, whose organization is home to some 1,000 rabbis across the U.S., said he had no problem with someone in Israel saying that new standards for conversions needed to be put in place, but "you don't do that without consulting us and without informing us in advance."

Herring said that following Wednesday's report in Haaretz, he had been flooded by calls from European rabbis demanding explanations of the Rabbinate decision and from reporters seeking comments.

American Orthodox rabbis interviewed on Wednesday commonly expressed shock and feelings of frustration and anger. The differences in style and degree depended only on the extent of the speaker's dependence on the Orthodox rabbinic establishment and their obligations as rabbis of congregations.

Rabbis affiliated with the Orthodox establishment made a concerted effort to show restraint and temper their displeasure with a measure of hope that the issue of recognizing overseas Orthodox conversions will be resolved through mutual debate.

Rabbis active outside the Orthodox mainstream were more outspoken, though some asked to remain anonymous.

Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, former president of Yeshiva University and a prominent figure in modern Orthodoxy, told Haaretz on Wednesday that the approach of Orthodox rabbis in the U.S. was always to accept the will of the Rabbinate in Israel.

"Now that the Chief Rabbinate is taking a step that indicates it does not recognize us as authorized rabbis, we will have to review and reassess our relations with the Rabbinate in Israel," he said.

Rabbi Shraga Schoenfeld, a former president of the RCA, also expressed dismay at the Rabbinate's decision. "I don't understand what happened," he said.

"We always recognized the Chief Rabbinate as a halakhic authority and suddenly they decided they would not accept American Orthodox conversion unless it has the official seal of the Chief Rabbinate. Something went wrong there in Jerusalem."

Sephardic Chief Rabbi and president of the Supreme Rabbinic Court, Shlomo Amar, categorically rejected the wave of protest from U.S. rabbis. According to Amar, "the rabbis and dayanim (religious arbitrators) overseas who were recognized until now continue to be recognized. We are saying only that new rabbis and dayanim who wish to perform conversion or rule on divorce matters will have to take an exam."

Amar said that a body of three dayanim was appointed to administer the exams. "I instructed them to conduct a special and easy exam," he emphasized, but acknowledged the inconvenience of taking the exam in Israel. "I am prepared to consider an orderly proposal to administer the exams for rabbis in America," he said. "But I do not promise to accept it."

Friday, May 12, 2006

What is a maggid (as sarah?)

BS"D



Serving the Eugene Jewish Community informally as a maggid since January 2003, I recently received maggidic smicha (ordination) from Reb Maggid Yitzhak Buxbaum, authorizing me to teach and preach in Jewish communities. While the role of the maggid goes back into Jewish history as far as the Jews do, it is the Chasidic model of the maggid as teacher, preacher, and storyteller that most appeals to me. When working in the field I find myself leading prayer services, teaching classes, tutoring adults and children in Hebrew, trope, and Judaism 101, leading song nights, telling stories and playing music, facilitating torah study, giving d’vrei torah (preaching), speaking on behalf of the community at interfaith events, offering peer counseling, grief support, and crisis management, mentoring B’nei Mitzvah students, participating in family education, designing liturgy and life cycle ritual… and anything else that helps people relate Judaism to the reality of their everyday lives.

Born in the sleepy Deep South town of Gainesville, FL, I enjoyed a Tom Sawyer/ Huck Finn childhood until moving to Malibu and the California life when I was 12. Los Angeles was a great place to be a teenager, it had every kind of person, every piece of humanity you could imagine, and it taught me to be present with people, and to honor that the place where they are standing is holy ground. Bored with high school, I left early to attend UCLA and Santa Monica College, where I majored in American History and Astronomy until transferring to a combined BA/MA program at American University in Washington, DC. While studying at American University I discovered peace and conflict resolution studies, added that to my major, and went to work as the student coordinator of peace and justice ministries at our interfaith chapel on campus. This was an extraordinary time for me, as I became immersed in the progressive spiritual worker community—working and learning from the heart of the Latin American liberation theology and literacy movements. The value systems of these movements heavily influenced me and show up in my teaching today as I stress democratic processes on the pulpit and in the classroom. The more people that are empowered in their humanness, in their yiddishkeit, the happier I am.


Since leaving my University studies I have held a lot of jobs, in every kind of trade a person can have. I’ve managed construction sites for Habitat for Humanity, worked on a marine research vessel, trained service animals for people with disabilities, wrangled cactuses, taught classes for the Red Cross, gone on search and rescue missions, and managed horse barns. I’ve also held tedious jobs as a retail clerk, restaurant manager, sporting goods department manager, record store buyer, and clerk on Capital Hill. Like my teenage years in L.A., the decade in between my university and maggidic life exposed me to all manner of humanity, lending me a richness of experience from which I draw constantly in my role of spiritual teacher. Beyond that, this great sea of humanity I’ve been swimming in has taught me to be patient and forgiving with people. So very, very important.

At the end of 2002 I decided that I needed to make some changes in my life. After many years of floating through the world I settled down in Eugene and engaged my Jewish studies with commitment and purpose. Since then I have been immersed completely in the life of the Jewish Community in Eugene, and in Klal Yisroel. I find myself voraciously studying anything Jewish I can get my hands on with particular emphasis on liturgy, hazzinut, midrash, aggadah, trope, music, storytelling, chumash, halacha, and chassidus. I love working with community and teaching torah. I love it. I’ve worked in a lot of professions, but this being a maggid is the first career I could see myself doing for the rest of my life—in fact, I love this work so much, I can’t imagine not doing it. (I’m totally sold, can you tell?) Meanwhile, over the past several years I have become an enthusiastic and competent leader of shabbat and holiday prayer services, can mentor b’nei mitzvah students, teach in religious school, tutor adults, teach Judaic classes, counsel those who are ill or in mourning, offer spiritual guidance, participate (and facilitate participation in) community events, work with the kids, and generally uplift the life of the community. In addition, I’ve become an increasingly skilled liturgist and crafter of life cycle ritual, with experience in naming ceremonies for babies/teenagers/adults, mikvot, and shiva minyanim. I feel confident that I could officiate a brit milah or a funeral, should need arise. Like my work experience, my Jewish upbringing and learning comes from all over the Jewish spectrum, a fact I try to utilize as I draw on these many traditions to create a ritual experience that fits the spiritual needs of those present. Sometimes this looks more traditional, sometimes more liberal, but always I am aiming for awesomely Jewish. Ultimately, if the community is healthy and people have joy in their jewishness, then I feel pretty good in my life as a maggid.