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• Copy Deadline is April 23, 2012
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One the west side of the festival grounds, attendees will have the opportunity to see and test drive electric cars. Among the models available will be the Chevy Volt.

     Yesterday, I offered some personal remarks on the question of the veracity of the Bible’s account of the Exodus.  What do I believe really happened?  What makes the most sense to me – the Biblical version of plagues and the parting of the Red Sea?  Or was it more likely something less dramatic – perhaps a gradual migration?
Today’s subject stands at the other end of the scale, relating not to questions about what really happened in the past, in our people’s history, but to the future, to teachings or prophecies about what’s to come.

Do you believe in the coming of the Messiah?

That’s another of those FAQs – frequently asked questions – I get asked a lot.  And variations thereof: What is the Conservative Movement’s position on the coming of the Messiah?   Will it be a person, or an “age”?  – and like questions.  We have a fancy word for speculative questions in that realm: eschatology, Greek from eskaton (end of time) and ology (knowledge).

Before I make personal observations, let’s go to the beginning of Jewish teachings on the subject, which happens to be the theme of today’s haftarah – the famous 11^th chapter of Isaiah, and the first few verses of the 12^th.  “A shoot shall rise out of the stump of Jesse…” – referring to the lineage of King David, son of Jesse – “The spirit of the Lord shall alight upon him…” who shall “judge the poor with equity…and slay the wicked with the breath of his lips…”  Alongside the divinely-inspired powers to mete justice accorded to the Messiah, all creation will suddenly live together in perfect harmony.  “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the baby goat” (and, as Woody Allen quipped, and neither will get much sleep)…with a little boy to herd them.”  And this “shoresh Yishai” (stock of Jesse) will “become a standard for all peoples – nations shall seek his counsel and his abode shall be honored.”  The whole world will acknowledge him as the Messiah.

Christians, of course, view this as a prophecy foretelling Jesus.  Jews do not accept this, among other reasons, because the accompanying perfect harmony among all creation did not ensue.  That question aside, the narrow question for us Jews is: do we, should we, must we believe in Isaiah’s prophecy as it stands: the eventual rise of one person, a descendant of King David, who will wield semi-divine powers and with whose arrival the natural order as we know it will be instantly radically changed, and under whom the population of the entire world will unite and pay homage?

Halvai – were that it to be.  Ver vase?  Who knows?  We’re talking about the future.  Anything is possible – and I mean in terms of quantum physics, which teaches that the big bang was a momentary highly improbable reversal of gravity.  It’s one thing to take issue with the what happened in the past, such as the Exodus.  At least skeptics can argue based on complete lack of documentary evidence.  Taking issue with a foretelling of the future is quite another matter.  That amounts to arguing with doctrine.

Looking at Isaiah’s teaching as a matter of philosophical truth, it’s hard to argue with this doctrine.  Why attempt to thwart a vision whose ramifications have been little but positive (aside from the Jewish/Christian disagreement about Jesus)?  Why debunk a posture toward, an attitude about the future that holds history is not random, but oriented towards an expected end – especially one that is solely positive?  Who doesn’t want to believe that eventually, we’ll all get along?  No more war, no more violence, no more injustice.  Who could argue with that?  Ozzie Guillen, I suppose.

Philosophical truth aside, assessing Isaiah’s prophecy from the standpoint of how we experience the world, how the world works, we might offer this assessment: fantasy.  To begin with, we have long since lost track of Davidic lineage.  Isaiah’s claims are fraught with weaknesses.  Animals don’t magically change their nature.  To imagine that I ever could sit down for dinner and not have Rescue begging beneath my chair – impossible.  That she wouldn’t at least posture to chase one of the bunnies who hop across my yard at twilight – no way.

So where does that leave us?  What should we believe?  Should we dismiss one of the most beautiful, most important prophecy teachings of the Hebrew Bible, because it doesn’t accord with how the world as we know it works?  Maybe that’s all beside the point; maybe the point is to believe that at some future moment – some Pesah, according to the haftarah – God will intervene and make the world work a good bit differently?

Well, there’s a problem with that, the same problem that accounts for the rising tension between Israel’s Haredim and the rest of society: the problem of passivity.  Haredim disavow the State of Israel because it was built ACTIVELY through the work of human hands, working together in the spirit of God, if you ask me, but not – as the Haredim believe it should be – solely as the miraculous delivery of God.  Passive messianism is even worse: don’t worry about perfecting the world; God will perfect it in His time.  Worst of all: busying oneself with perfecting the world is a crime against God in that it robs God of His prerogative – just as did our people’s efforts to establish the State of Israel.

Kafka said it best: The Messiah will come when he is no longer needed – in other words, when humankind has perfected the world: when war, violence, strife and hate have been put to an end – by us.  Notice: Kafka, no great Jewish believer, did not dismiss the idea of the Messiah.  No reason to do so.  Why argue about the future?  How we get there; that’s the important question – not whether there will be a messiah, but how to cultivate the world to hasten his arrival.

I’m a messianist.  Not a messianic Jew. LOL. But a Jew who believes in the coming of the Messiah.  I believe Isaiah’s version, tempered by that of Kafka.  We absolutely must believe that human progress, to borrow from Dr. King, bends toward justice.  And toward a harmonious future of creation in harmony.  We must believe, but we must not believe passively.  We must act, at all moments, to hasten the coming of the Messiah.

A righteous secularist would not, of course, harbor belief in the coming of the messiah.  Still, the secularist works to perfect the world for humanistic reasons, an admirable position.  His secularism, though, runs the risk of becoming dispirited.  Humans, after all, are stubborn animals.  Change for the good comes achingly slow, if at all.  The secularist thus runs the risk of morale failure.  Can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.  Not so the believing messianist: she does God’s work.  She labors to perfect the world not merely in the spirit of doing what is right; she does so also because she believes such an outcome is inexorable.  She clings to the teaching of Rabbi Tarfon: lo alekha ham’lakha ligmor – you are not obliged to finish the work; v’lo ata ben horin lebatel mimena – neither are you free to neglect it.

Anee ma’amin b’emunah shleymah b’ve’at haMashiah, v’af al pe sh’yet’ma’may’a, im kol zeh ahakeh lo.  I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the messiah, and though he may tarry, nonetheless I await him.

     Is the Exodus story real? I get asked that question a lot.  People want to know what I believe; did the Red Sea really part? Were there really 10 plagues?  Were these phenomena miracles?  Or can they be explained in natural terms?

For instance, there’s the low tide/high tide explanation.  Darkness could have been a total eclipse of the sun.  Locust plagues are, indeed, an occasional natural occurrence.

Or maybe it’s all just myth – either completely made up, or a creative method of telling the story about actual events, but events very different in character from how they’re told.  Maybe, as many historians suggest, it wasn’t a sudden, comprehensive Exodus; maybe it was a gradual migration – not a very exciting or memorable way to relate the movement of a people from one place to another.

I don’t know.  I wasn’t there.  I haven’t found it on YouTube.  It’s a matter of faith.  Don’t get me wrong; I’m not one of those who says it’s bad – not true Judaism – if you don’t believe it’s all literal.  That’s a more Christian approach, if you ask me – proper faith, above proper behavior.

What really happened?  Really – who cares?  What does it matter?  Beyond dividing people, why even care what someone gives as an answer?  Don’t get me wrong; I love the question.  I’m glad people ask.  It means they’re listening, they’re in the game.  They haven’t left the fold.  By all means, ask those questions.

But don’t judge, based on the answer you hear.  My colleague, David Wolpe, the renowned rabbi in LA, caused quite a stir a few years back, when he said publicly that he doubted the actual veracity of the Exodus story, as told in the Bible.  That’s what you get, David, for being honest.

Well, I’ll be honest.  I’m with David.  I don’t know, and I’ll say further: I don’t care.  It doesn’t matter what really happened.  What matters, what really matters is where I find myself in the story.  Have I been in, and left, Egypt?  Maybe, in a way, I’m still there?  What has my journey out – whether gradual or sudden – entailed?  Have there been, can I identify, certain discrete and significant steps along the way?  Was there even was a “big moment,” like the parting of the Red Sea, where I wasn’t sure I was going to make it, where victory was snatched, at the last moment, from the jaws of defeat?

While you’re asking yourself those questions about your own journey, I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about, by telling you about one of mine.  Maybe you’ve heard this before.

Growing up, Judaism had always been strange to me.  I never really got it.  Maybe I wasn’t ever properly introduced.  Maybe I was too weak against social pressures saying it wasn’t cool.  I don’t know.  Either way, I’d become so distant by my sophomore year at KU, that I was the only Jew living in a fraternity house with 70 gentiles.  In a way it was kind of cool; we (my brothers and I) all humored it – when I was elected chapter chaplain, for example, one of the brother quipped, “is this affirmative action?”  Eventually, though, something strange began to happen: I began to feel more Jewish.  By Passover, I’d decided to try something new: I engage in an actual Jewish ritual – I’d refrain from eating bread.

Which brings me to one of those moments of taking step out of Egypt.  It was Pesah.  I made the journey home to Prairie Village – not nearly as cut and dried, before K-10 – for seder, and I returned to Lawrence next day.  That evening, as every evening at the Sigma Nu house, we 70 brothers lined up outside the dining room to go through the chow line and get our trays of food.  The frat was mostly crazy times, but every night we formally “dined” – until our house mom got her food and sat down, after which someone would say grace, we’d wait to commence eating.

That night was like all other nights.  I went through line, got my sandwich and trimmings, walked to my spot at my usual table and sat down.  I waited for Grace.  It was time to eat, it was Pesah, and I was ready to embrace my new ritual. So I picked up my sandwich and removed the bread – and just ate the ham.

It was a step out of Egypt.  More steps would come soon – I’d spend the next academic year in Jerusalem at Hebrew University, where I would begin keeping Shabbat and kosher.  And the rest, as they say, is history.  A year ago, I marked 25 years in the rabbinate.  Many steps led me there, but none more important than that first one.  The journey continues.  I eagerly await more steps to come.

On Pesah our people celebrate our story: mey’avdut l’herut – from slavery to freedom, mi’ya’gon l’simha – from sadness to joy.  From Egypt to the Promised Land.  On Pesah each one of our people, every one of us, celebrates our personal story, our life’s journey, our personal journey of spirit.

What’s your story?  What was your Egypt?  When did you leave?  How did you make it out?  What have been your memorable and vital steps?  Where will your future steps lead?

Questions to ask ourselves in this season of asking questions.  Hag kasher v’sameah – a happy and very Jewish Passover!

2 pounds ground beef and lamb meat (lamb plus lamb fat should make up 10% of the meat combination)
One large onion
1 1/2 cups parsley, finely chopped including stems if tender
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Salt to taste
2 teaspoons allspice

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients and add oil if meat is too lean
2. Knead until the onion is very soft and well absorbed into meat.
3. Form kabobs on metal skewers or individually (like small hot dogs) and grill or pan fry over medium heat until cooked to your preference.

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium high to high heat
2. Season chicken liberally with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning.
3. When oil is hot, add chicken.  Brown for 5 minutes. Turn and sprinkle with rosemary.   Cook until chicken is tender and cooked through.  Approximately 5 more minutes.
4. In a small bowl, mix marmalade, vinegar and stock.
5. Pour over chicken.  Cook 2 to 3 minutes or until sauce has thickened and becomes a thin glaze.
6. Add scallions during last minute of cooking.

Serve and enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 head cabbage
2 onions
3 tablespoons oil

Meat Filling
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon allspice
2 tablespoon Worchester sauce
1 cup cooked rice
2 eggs

Sauce:

1 cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoon ketchup
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Directions:

1. Freeze cabbage.  Peel 12 leaves to one pound of filling.
2. Chop remaining cabbage with 2 onions, diced and 3 tablespoon oil. Saute.
3. In large bowl combine meat filling ingredients.
4. In small bowl combine sauce  ingredients and dissolve in 2 cups hot water.
5. Place 4 tablespoon meat mixture into center of each cabbage leaf. Roll leaf.
6. Place sautéed onions and cabbage on bottom of 9 x 13 pan.
7. Pour ½ of sauce on top of onion mixture.
8. Place rolls seam side down in pan.
9. Pour remaining sauce on top of rolls.
10. Bake 350 for two hours,

B’tayavon.

In many, many ways…. it’ part of the concept of Judaism as a way of life, not “simply” a religion. So for instance most people think of kosher as just not eating pork or separating meat and dairy. But living a kosher life is not just about the food we eat– it is the idea of respect for life, of  incorporating holiness in sustaining life.

Progressive Judaism at Congregation Ohev Sholom

At Congregation Ohev Sholom, we have taken to heart the concept of incorporating a progressive meaning of “kosher” into the life we live.  We have begun the process by:

• Joining 38 other faith communities as members of the Kansas Interfaith Power and Light to actively engage in environmental stewardship and sustainable practices through the promotion of energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.
• Continuing to make Judaism relevant in our lives with the establishment of Kiyyum ha’Adamah (sustaining the earth).  This project is devoted to “greening” the synagogue.  We have replaced Styrofoam cups with reusable cups. We have replaced inefficient light bulbs with  energy-efficient lighting. We have expanded our recycling program to include glass.  We have embraced sustainable practices in our bi-annual KosherFest.

What’s New At KosherFest 2012

• Use of sustainable practices in food preparation and distribution
• Showcase and ability to test drive electric and hybrid cars on the Kosher Electric Avenue

“Kosher” Cars on Electric Avenue at KosherFest 2012