Rabbi Jason Miller

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Still More Press about Torah From Terror

Torah from Terror: Sermons from September 11, 2001

By MARK MIETKIEWICZ
Cleveland Jewish News

The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center have inspired of High Holiday sermons, now preserved on www.torahfromterror.com.

In 2001, September 11 occurred less than one week before Rosh Hashana (as it does again this year.) Rabbis dispensed with the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur sermons they had prepared and wrote new ones to help their congregations grapple with the horrors they had just witnessed. Theirs were words of grief, anger and consolation.

Thanks to the efforts of two men, we can still learn from those words today. Rabbi Neil Gillman, a professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Jason Miller in the rabbinical school at JTS, have preserved over 100 sermons on the Web site, Torah from Terror: The Rabbinic Response to 9/11. Reading through these sermons is a sobering experience. Three years ago, we vowed that things would never again be the same. For most people, life has returned to its familiar rhythms. Not so in this Web site where you feel the raw emotions and hear the questions which had so few answers. Some excerpts from Torah from Terror:

Rabbi David B. Cohen, Congregation Sinai, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: When the children of Israel defeated the Canaanites, Deborah composed a song to bless God and the Jewish people. Near the song's end, Deborah spoke of the mother of Sisera, the murdered Canaanite general. The Midrash states that the mother of Sisera cried, screamed, and moaned one hundred times while waiting for her son to come back from battle. According to the Bible, the shofar is sounded only nine times on Rosh Hashana. The rabbis of the Talmud expand the number to 30 times.Yet for 2,000 years, the tradition has been to sound the Shofar 100 times on Rosh Hashana. Whence the number one hundred? Every Shofar blast, we are told, corresponds to one of the 100 anguished cries and moans of Sisera's mother.If the Bible bewails the death of one of Israel's enemies, how much more might we cry out for friends and neighbors we've lost this past week? How many agonies will our hearts have to bear?

Rabbi Wayne Dosick, The Elijah Minyan, San Diego, California: My holy father used to tell the story of Yom Kippur, 1942, the first Yom Kippur after Pearl Harbor, the first Yom Kippur that America was at war in World War II. In the small Orthodox shul which he attended, the men sat downstairs, and the women sat upstairs in the balcony.As the chazzan chanted the Kol Nidre prayer, when he came to the words, M'Yom Kippurim zeh ad Yom Kippurim habah, alenu l'tova ... " From this Yom Kippur until next Yom Kippur, may it be for us for good ...," a great cry arose from the balcony and washed across the whole shul. The wives and mothers had just sent their husbands and sons to war, and they greatly feared what would happen from one Yom Kippur until the next.Then and now, the days that unfold, one by one, from one Yom Kippur until the next, tell the tale of our lives. And the great question always looms, "Who shall live, and who die? Who shall live out the measure of days, and who will be cut off mid-way?"The answers to those questions, we know, are in God's hands. Yet, this year, as we gather for our Yom Kippur worship and meditation, we are filled with wondering. For the Divine response that was given to us this year is bewildering, and overwhelming, and filled with pain.

Torah from Terror: The Rabbinic Response to 9/11 contains 138 sermons from rabbis in 25 states and three provinces. If you have access to a sermon delivered following September 11, 2001, the Web site's creators would like to hear from you.

Mark Mietkiewicz is a Toronto-based Internet producer who writes, lectures and teaches about the Jewish Internet. He can be reached at highway@rogers.com.

Jews for Jesus defends name, campus campaign

University of Michigan Daily
By Victoria Edwards
September 23, 2004

Clad in T-shirts proclaiming “Jews for Jesus,” members of the seemingly paradoxical organization have made themselves a presence on the Diag — prompting criticism from mainstream Jewish groups.

The group, from San Francisco, says it is nearing the end of a three-week evangelical outreach on the campus. Jews for Jesus volunteer Dena Schultz said the group is targeting cities with a population of more than 25,000 Jews.

“The organization desires to engage Jewish people in the claims of Jesus being the Messiah. Jewish people all over the world are considering Hinduism, Buddhism, but one taboo is still believing in Jesus. We encourage them to see for themselves,” said Shaun Buchhalter, director of Detroit’s Jews For Jesus.

Buchhalter, who was born to a Jewish family and raised secular, said all of the organization’s staff was born or married into Jewish families. He added that they work with volunteers on campus who were born into non-Jewish families.

Buchhalter said although a basic belief in Judaism is the belief in one God, secular atheistic Jews are still considered Jewish. Therefore accepting Jesus as the Messiah doesn’t make him any less Jewish.

“We’re Jewish people who came to believe Jesus is the Messiah. We believe the only way is through Jesus and his sacrifice. We don’t want to exclude the Jewish people,” Buchhalter said.
He said the reaction of Jewish people on the University’s campus has been mixed with curiosity and hostility, although some appeared receptive.

Rabbi Jason Miller, assistant director of the University Hillel Foundation, said Hillel is ignoring Jews for Jesus, based on the recommendation of the Jewish Community Council of Metro Detroit.

“We are following the recommendation of that committee that Jewish communal organizations (like Hillel) do not respond to the Jews for Jesus Campaign. That will only help them publicize their message,” Miller said in an e-mail.

Instead, Miller said Hillel has chosen to inform as many of the 6,000 Jewish students on campus as possible that “Jews for Jesus is an organization of Christians that employs coercive techniques and indoctrinating propaganda in its efforts to convert Jews.”

LSA sophomore Perry Teicher, the student vice-chair for Hillel, said he has qualms with the underlying beliefs of the organization as well as how they’re spreading their message across campus.

“I completely respect having someone believe what they want. I don’t like people trying to impose their beliefs, especially when they conflict with the truth. The basic belief is you can’t believe in Jesus and be a Jew,” Teicher said.

In response, LSA junior David Morley has started distributing pamphlets for Jews for Judaism, a group that combats Jews for Jesus. Although Morley doesn’t belong to Jews for Judaism, he says, “I have followed (Jews for Jesus representatives) around and handed out Jews for Judaism literature.”

He added that although Jews for Jesus challenges the basic premise of the Jewish faith, it has actually strengthened the faith of Jewish students on campus. “I feel it made the Jewish community on campus stronger — it gives all the Jews something to feel strongly about,” Morely said.

Miller said combating the organization on campus is something he has encouraged other religious organizations on campus to get involved in as well.

“I sent a letter to our colleagues in the Association of Religious Counselors at U of M, urging them to speak out against Jews for Jesus on behalf of the religious community,” Miller said. “We have, thus far, been disappointed in that the Christian community does not realize that this is its problem as well. Jews for Jesus is promoting its religious views above everyone else’s and in doing, has violated the unwritten rules of public discourse at the University.”

Monday, September 20, 2004

Group counters the picketers at Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor

Picketers have been harassing Shabbat morning services at Ann Arbor's Beth Israel Congregation every week since last Rosh Hashanah. They carry vile signs such as "Zionism Begets Nazism." While they are not physically threatening, it is a terrible precedent to have picketers interfering with Jewish religious services (the first known instance since Nazi Germany) or any other peaceful religious service for that matter.

A new group has responded with a campaign called SPURN (Synagogue Protest UNACCEPTABLE!Respond Now), with 2 major goals: 1) Break the silence of major civic and religious leaders about this anti-Semitism, and 2) Transform this negative into a positive by raising money for Magen David Adom USA, the Israeli Red Cross, turning our frustration over the picketers into constructive action.

Below are some documents that might be of interest:

Op-ed piece from Washtenaw County Jewish Federation President Neal Elyakin and Federation Executive Director Jeff Levin

Ann Arbor News editorial

As of today, 146 donors have given $6,007.50. While 129 of the 146 pledges come from members, former members, or relatives of members (including a donation of tzedakah money from a 10-year-old congregant!), 17 are from people without these synagogue ties. We have donations from Israel, Florida, and Minnesota, and word is spreading to other places. For more information, see the SPURN web site.

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Apples and Honey in Ann Arbor

Israeli mezuzot were placed on the four doors of the gymnasium. Rabbi Jason Miller, assistant director University of Michigan Hillel, made the first basket on the new basketball court. [more...]

Shanah Tovah to all our friends and family!

Our Family message for 5765

A cute animation for the New Year

Jewish students celebrate the new year

Here is the [Univ. of Michigan] Michigan Daily's Rosh Hashanah article (please note corrections at bottom of page)

By Justin Miller and Leah Guttman, Daily Staff Reporters
September 16, 2004

Rosh Hashanah, which begins a 10 day period of repentance known as the Days of Awe and the Jewish New Year, started at sundown yesterday and will end at sunup tomorrow.

“Rosh Hashanah is a festive day, yet it does not resemble the celebration of the secular New Year,” said Rabbi Jason Miller, assistant director of the Hillel Foundation. “Rather, Jews spend much of the holiday in synagogue praying and seeking atonement of their misdeeds from the past year.”

It is a time when families gather around the dinner table to eat, sing songs and celebrate the new year. Prior to the holiday, a shofar, a musical ram’s horn, is blown from the synagogue 100 times a day to alert Jews of the coming Days of Awe.

Some Jewish students will have their classes cancelled. Unlike other University classes, no Judaic Studies classes will be held during Rosh Hashanah as professors teaching those classes and most of their students will be observing the holiday themselves. For other University courses, students who choose to miss class must provide advanced notice of their absence and make up missing work.

LSA sophomore Rachel Perlin said she was “just going to (Wednesday) evening services, not Thursday services because it’s the second week of school.”

Some students would like the University to officially observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which would result in the cancellation of all classes.

“I think it’s unfair for any important holiday to have classes or work on it,” LSA Sophomore Katy Willens said. “If any religion has a day of rest, it should be honored.”

But LSA junior David Morley thinks that is impractical.

“It’s OK for the University to hold classes because it would be impossible to observe every religious holiday. However, there should be an understanding of what Rosh Hashanah is. It should be up to the professors whether or not to hold classes, but they should not be able to have exams,” Morley said.

The debate over classes centers around Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur being the two most holy Jewish holidays.

While the concept of original sin does not exist in Judaism, sin is hardly absent from the religion. Sin is accumulated over the course of the year and is wiped clean one week after Rosh Hashanah, during Yom Kippur, or the “Day of Atonement.”

“There are two ways to repent: one is for sins committed between human beings. In order to repent you have to ask that specific person for forgiveness,” Miller said. “For sins against God you must ask forgiveness from God.”

In some Jewish families, asking for forgiveness has been a tradition passed on from parent to child.

“My dad started a tradition of telling family members and friends he’s sorry for doing something that hurt them,” said Emma Levine, an LSA sophomore. “Recently, on Yom Kippur, I’ve also started telling people close and important to me that I’m sorry for anything hurtful I’ve said or done in the past year.”

Choosing to attend services is just another act of balancing religion and school for many Jewish students.

“It’s good to continue traditions in college and it’s important to develop your own stance on how you feel about your religion,” said Perlin.

But Miller recognizes that forming a unique outlook is not the easiest thing for students to do.

“It’s a very difficult time for college students, facing decisions of whether or not to go home to their parents’ house or congregation or stay in Ann Arbor,” he said. “When students go off to college, they, through self-discovery, tend to explore different options. The student that grew up very observant and decides that they’re no longer in their parents’ house, they’re going to become less observant. The flip side is true as well.”

Corrections:
Rosh Hashanah began Sept. 15 at sundown, BUT DID NOT END UNTIL FRIDAY EVENING (SEPT 17) AT SUNDOWN.

Prior to the holiday [of Rosh Hashanah], the shofar is blown once a day for a month. On the holiday, the there are 100 blasts of the shofar [or ram's horn].

Rabbi Jason Miller said that SOME students who grow up in an observant home MAY become less observant with the newfound independence that college life presents them with and the opposite is true as well."

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Still More Press about Torah From Terror

Jews for Jesus defends name, campus campaign

Monday, September 20, 2004

Group counters the picketers at Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Apples and Honey in Ann Arbor

Shanah Tovah to all our friends and family!

Jewish students celebrate the new year

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