Parashat Chukat D’var Torah

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Parashat Chukat D’var Torah

Rabbi Mark Joel Mahler

June 22-23, 2018/10 Tammuz 5778 

According to the traditional interpretation of this Shabbat’s Torah portion, Chukat, between the last word of chapter 19 and the first word of chapter 20, thirty eight years transpire when the Israelites tarried in the wilderness waiting for the old generation to pass and a new generation to arise who would possess the faith in God to enter the Promised Land. Thirty eight years amount to a blank space in the Torah, thirty eight years so utterly wasted that the Torah offers not account of them.

With this Shabbat my next to last Shabbat as Temple Emanuel’s senior rabbi, concluding my thirty-eight years serving the congregation, Parashat Chukat’s thirty eight year blank-space no-account in Torah opened my eyes wide.  I cannot conclude my thirty eight years without making account for them in the annals of Temple Emanuel.

Thus I sat down and thought back through the years to recall, at least to the best of my memory, various religious services, programs and events.  Some I masterminded.  Some I helped facilitate.  Some I leave for Rabbi Locketz to claim such as Torah Growers and Visual T’fila, even if I coined the name of the former and had long advocated the implementation of video screens in our prayer spaces to enhance religious services; Rabbi Locketz indeed implemented them.  All were in coordination with professional staff, lay leaders and Temple committees, and various constituencies of Temple members.  For when and where you helped me or I helped you, or you benefited in some way, I thank you.

So, off the top of my head, without combing through all my files of committee meetings, Board minutes, lesson plans, teaching materials, personal calendars and message logs over the last thirty eight years….

Worship

  • A new Torah for Temple (see Teaching below)
  • Transition from performance style services to participatory services, especially with music and singing
  • Shabbat service every Shabbat morning in addition to every Shabbat evening
  • Menu of Shabbat evening services to suit various tastes in services and allow for creativity in Shabbat programs
  • Yizkor service on Shavuot morning when Confirmation is Shavuot evening
  • Leil Tikkun Shavuot when Confirmation is Shavuot morning*
  • Torah for Tots monthly services and programs*
  • Monthly Home Havdalah hosted by the Mahlers*
  • Sunday Morning Minyan
  • Tashlich on Rosh HaShana afternoon
  • Kabbalat Shabbat services, starting at an earlier time, originally 6 pm, now 6:30 pm. When I arrived in 1980, Shabbat services started at 8:30 pm
  • Monthly Family Shabbat service with Torah Center students participating in the service, preceded by Shabbat LaMishpacha Dinners for individual grades and then the congregation at large*
  • Special music Shabbats highlighted by Kol Emanuel, Music with the Mahlers and Diskin Music Fund programs
  • Zamarim Choir to enhance Shabbat services*
  • Lamed Vav-niks; 36 Temple members chosen to participate in regularly in Shabbat services and then to assess what the experience has meant to them
  • College Homecoming Shabbat services*
  • Kabbalah, Meditation, Chanting
  • Cancelled our own Shabbat service on April 28, 2000 so that we could attend at Beth El Congregation which had been attacked by Richard Baumhammers earlier that day
  • Impromptu Jewish community-wide service September 11, 2001. Attendance was so large that we opened the Sanctuary’s folding doors, set up additional seating in the Social Hall foyer; many people had to share a prayer book because we didn’t have enough for all in attendance
  • Flight 93 Memorial service in Shanksville, Chanukah 2001
  • Memorial and Healing Service for Jewish volunteers working to identify the remains of those who perished in the crash of USAir Flight 427, 2004

 

Teaching

  • A new Torah for Temple (see Worship above)
  • Torah Study every Shabbat morning preceding services
  • Torah and Tangents, weekly reading and discussing every word of the Torah, starting in 1985 and concluding in 2011
  • T’hillim and Tangents following Torah and Tangents, concluding in 2017
  • Monthly Downtown Lunch & Learn
  • “Midrash in the Morning”*
  • Renaming Temple’s religious school “Torah Center”
  • Family Days for Religious School families on Sundays and Shabbats
  • “Judaism for Gentiles and Inquiring Others”
  • “Life’s Long Journey: From Conception to Resurrection” What Judaism teaches about life’s many stages
  • “Jesus the Jew”
  • “The Napoleonic Sanhedrin and the Emergence of Modern Judaism”
  • Jewish Parenting Programs and programs on the spiritual development of children, along with Alice
  • “Talmud Torah Teaching Shabbats”; the “how to” of praying
  • “4,000 Years of Jewish History in 8 Hours”
  • Dor-Ways special leadership development sessions for selected members of the congregation
  • Promoted and hosted Melton Programs; at one point Temple had more members who had completed Melton than any two synagogues together in greater Pittsburgh
  • Special adult education programs featuring Dr. Ron Bronner, Rabbi Danny Schiff and various speakers and educators
  • Introduction to Judaism, History classes, the course team taught by Pittsburgh area Reform clergy
  • Taste of Judaism
  • Monthly Lunch and Lectures*
  • Member of National Association of Temple Educators and Coalition for Alternatives (now Advancements) in Jewish Education during my tenure as Temple Educator
  • Conducted National Association of Temple Administrators’ certification course when NATA convened here in Pittsburgh
  • 38 years of Temple Bulletin articles
  • 38 years of sermons, Divrei Torah and High Holy Day sermon anthologies
  • 38 years of teaching our Confirmation students
  • 38 years of helping to train our B’nei Mitzvah students
  • 38 years of teaching Torah at every Bar and Bat Mitzvah

 

Interfaith

  • Created Temple’s Interfaith Outreach program in the 1980s, the first in Greater Pittsburgh which served as the prototype for other Reform congregations*
  • Interfaith Dialogues; many over the years, currently hosted at Westminster Church
  • Speaker at area churches: Mt. Lebanon United Methodist, Southminster, Westminster, Christ United Methodist among many others
  • Sustaining SHIM’s prominence at Temple and in the community, including participating on the Holocaust Observance planning committee and the Interfaith Thanksgiving service and promoting important SHIM activities such as their food bank and garden.
  • Jewish Chautauqua Society adjunct professor teaching Judaism in the Theology Department at Duquesne University, 1986-1990
  • Teaching at Seton Lasalle High School, 2006-2016
  • Hosting church groups at Temple, highlighted by St. Louise De Marillac sending their 6th graders here for annual visits starting in the 1980s
  • Conducting model Passover Seders for students at various church schools, highlighted by St. Anne’s
  • Clair Hospital Annual Memorial Service
  • University of Pittsburgh Medical School Annual Memorial service
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote speaker at Trinity Cathedral for the National Conference of Christians and Jews
  • Joint programing and pulpit exchange with the Ebenezer Baptist Church

 

Funds and Programs

  • The Sajowitz Endowment Fund underwriting Temple programs, NFTY and Israel scholarships
  • The Louise “Sissie” Sperling Fund subventing Temple’s operating expenses
  • Diskin Music Fund to create and enhance various music programs
  • Ettenson Annual gifts and bequests to Temple
  • Larry and Brenda Miller Caring Community Fund to assist in the good efforts of the Caring Community
  • Temple Cemetery Fund to maintain and beautify our cemetery
  • Shelly Cohen Memorial Classroom Fund to maintain our ECDC classrooms
  • Margarie Weiner Fund to support Temple’s youth programs
  • Cohn Scholarship Fund for outstanding Temple high school graduates
  • Zolot Fund providing scholarships to adults for Temple Israel Missions
  • Jacob’s Ladder Fund to support programs for healing and well being*
  • Mark Levin Memorial Scholarship Fund for Torah Center students

 

Social Action/Tikkun Olam

  • Recruited an entire busload of Temple members to demonstrate on behalf of Soviet Jewry on the Mall in Washington DC, Freedom Sunday 1987
  • Organized Temple members to serve as hosts and sponsors for Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union coming to Pittsburgh under the Passage to Freedom program
  • Mitzvah Day; 500 Temple members participated in the first Mitzvah Day in 1997 until…
  • Mitzvot Days became the subsequent and more accurate name, but participation flagged until they were dropped from Temple’s calendar*
  • On-going pipeline for SHIM activities such as food and clothing drives
  • Family Promise participants in aiding the homeless in the South Hills
  • Organized city-wide Mission to Washington following 9/11 to advocate for Israel, then the largest such Jewish Mission to DC in history; sessions with elected representatives and State Department officials
  • Organized a Temple Mission to Washington conducted by the Religious Action Center, 2012
  • Established lines of communication with the superintendents of area public school systems, both proactively and reactively, to help remediate various issues that arose
  • Cheerleading our self-motivated and dynamic Social Action Team to pursue activities ranging from crocheting caps for Cancer patients to participating in rallies and demonstrations for Tikkun Olam causes

 

Israel/Tikkun Olam

  • Organized six Temple Emanuel Missions to Israel, and guided upwards of 100 people around the places I know so well and love so much
  • Co-led a unique Jewish, Christian and Muslim interfaith Mission to Israel, 1996
  • Participated in a Union for Reform Judaism Mission to Israel, 2001
  • Participated in a Rabbinic Cabinet Mission to Israel, 2006
  • A strong voice of Israel advocacy, a sober voice of Israel criticism

 

Healing and Well Being/Tikkun Olam

  • Caring Community to respond to our members in life’s varied experiences
  • Crisis counseling coordinated by Alice after community tragedies and traumas
  • Jacob’s Ladder programs focusing on various special needs
  • Monthly Bereavement group
  • Monthly services of healing*
  • Including the Mi Sheberach prayer of healing to Shabbat evening services and the Sunday Morning Minyan
  • Torah Yoga and Hatha Yoga

 

T’fila Transitions

  • From the original Gates of Prayer to the revised (gender neutral) GOP
  • To Mishkan T’filah, including the wise decision to buy the two volume edition, separate Shabbat and Weekday/Festival prayer books, rather than the one volume edition
  • From Gates of Repentance to Mishkan HaNefesh, the first Reform synagogue in Greater Pittsburgh to adopt it for the entire congregation

 

Life Cycles

  • Hundreds of baby namings and Brit Milah
  • 300 weddings
  • 1200 b’nei mitzvah
  • 700 Confirmands
  • 950 Funerals
  • Countless tears
  • Innumerable smiles

 

Physical Plant Expansion, Improvement, Maintenance and/or Beautification

  • 1991 expansion of Temple adding bath rooms, elevator and access ramps making Temple fully ADA compliant, even though we were not required
  • 2001-2002 major expansion of Temple to alleviate “Temple moments” with the building bursting at the seams; 13,000 square feet added to the building including the Beit HaT’fila, Pollon Family Library, community room and an entire new wing with classrooms, youth lounge and WRJ Room.
  • Cooper Gardens
  • Mahler Garden
  • Holocaust Memorial Garden created by Marga Randall
  • Soodik Walkway
  • New Torah covers in the Sanctuary and Beit HaT’fila
  • Tree of Life/Paradise woodcut in the Sanctuary Ark

 

Technology

  • Introduced the first computer to Temple, and Apple ii+, part of my studies in the MSIS program at the University of Pittsburgh; the rest as they say has been a veritable explosion of information technology here at Temple
  • Shabbat Shel Home dial up access to religious services, innovative in its day
  • The Temple Bulletin had been mimeographed for years before I arrived
  • Transitioning our b’nei mitzvah recordings from cassette tapes to MP3s.
  • Video cameras in the Sanctuary and Beit HaT’fila for recording our b’nei mitzvah services
  • Overseeing the installation of sound system for the Beit HaT’fila and a new sound system for the Sanctuary
  • When will we start streaming our services?

 

Special Events or Celebrations

  • Temple’s Double Chai 36th Anniversary
  • Temple’s 50th anniversary year featuring Temple’s “Alumni Rabbis” Harold Silver, Jon Stein and Jim Bleiberg
  • Israel’s 50th anniversary when we turned the Social Hall into Jerusalem’s Old City where we ate a Middle Eastern Shabbat dinner in our “Shuk” and then celebrated Shabbat and Israel Independence Day at our “Kotel” constructed, painted and decorated by Temple members to look amazingly like the actual Kotel

 

Fundraising and Financial

  • Capital Campaign 1991-1992, solicited and secured lead gifts
  • Capital Campaign 2001-2002, solicited and secured lead gifts
  • Capital Campaign 2013-2017, solicited and secured lead gifts

 

Temple Long Range Planning Committees

  • Joshua Mission I, 1998-2000
  • Joshua Mission II, 2007-2008

 

Community

  • Secured a $1 million contribution to the Jewish Federation
  • Secured a $25,000 contribution to SHIM
  • Served on the Jewish Federation’s 1984 Demographic Survey committee
  • Served on the search committee for the Educator to lead the Agency for Jewish Learning
  • Jewish Family and Children’s Service Board member
  • United Mental Health Board member

 

Rabbinic Organizations

  • Founder of the Greater Pittsburgh Reform Rabbis’ group, 1986
  • Chair of the Greater Pittsburgh Rabbinic Fellowship, 1986-87
  • Resolutions Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis
  • Israel Committee of the CCAR
  • Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America

 

Special Endeavors

  • Journal of Judaism; publication of Temple members’ various expressions of how they have lived as Jews and what Judaism means to them.
  • Cheshbon HaNefesh, “Surveys of the Soul” to gather information about Temple member’s Jewish knowledge, beliefs and observances; a treasure trove of who and what we are*
  • Emanuelites to integrate new, young Temple members into Temple life*
  • Made a photographic log of Temple’s 2001-2002 construction and expansion project

There’s likely more, but I just can’t quite recall all of them.  Time to retire!

 

* Examples of something we instituted but ultimately fell by the wayside, whatever the reasons may have been