Rabbi Ezray's Corner

ACTS OF CHESED IN OUR COMMUNITY

2009/5770 HIGH HOLY DAYS SERMONS

2009 ANNUAL MEETING REMARKS - DREAMS AND VISION DURING TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES

RABBI EZRAY'S THOUGHTS ON PESACH AND HIS FAVORITE HAGGADOT

ACTS OF CHESED IN OUR COMMUNITY

One reason I love being a Rabbi is the ability to make sacred values come alive through partnership with you. The mitzvah of chesed - acts of love, kindness, and care for our fellow human beings - which is deeply embedded in our tradition, helps change the world at large and our inner being for the better.

I am turning to you, asking for your partnership with two important organizations that help bring chesed to our local community:

Compeer

Compeer (which takes its name from companion and peer) devotes itself to supporting people experiencing mental health difficulties by sharing the power of friendship. People with mental illness often suffer from loneliness, isolation, and intense misunderstanding. They need the support of a friend. I'm asking you to volunteer to be this friend. The commitment is 3 hours of training (which Compeer is willing to do at the synagogue) and 4 hours of time with your friend each month. (It can be done in blocks of time as well.) Compeer staff will support you with ongoing professional guidance to facilitate the development of productive friendships.

I met a woman whose son lives in Redwood City, comes from a Jewish home-and has been waiting for over 4 years for a companion. I know that we can help provide support for this man and others.

Jacki Silber will serve as the CBJ coordinator for Compeer. Please contact her at jackisilber@gmail.com or 650-574-2682.

Jewish Coalition for Literacy

JCL has been partnering with local schools for many years reading to children in classrooms, and is currently developing relationships with Redwood City schools. I was shocked to discover that 55% of fourth graders in California read below grade level. The JCL is dedicated to reversing this statistic, one child at a time. The commitment is one training session (2 ½ hours) and 1 hour a week, and several training sessions will be offered in the upcoming weeks.

We have several congregants who participate in this program, and they are struck at the impact their work has on the students.

Stephanie Rosekind will serve as the CBJ coordinator for JCL. Please contact her at srosekind@aol.com or 650-571-5755.

Together we can improve lives through our sacred work at CBJ. Thanks in advance for responding to this note.

Sincerely,
Rabbi Nat Ezray

A PLEA FOR HELP

I recently received an email regarding Jeff Tohl from his nephew, Michael Tohl, explaining his dire medical situation. Please take a moment to watch this You Tube video.

They say the best odds of matching a donor is within the same ethnic community. However there is such a low population of Jewish people registered both domestically and internationally, that they haven’t found a match for him. And Jeff Tohl is not the only Jew struggling to find a match…

How can you help? You can join Be The Match.

Fill out their registration form online and they will send you a pre-paid postage kit in the mail, to do a cotton swab test at home. Use the code: hope4jeff. Questions regarding the possible donor processes, and donor eligibility requirements can be answered on the registry link.

I appreciate your consideration of this true mitzvah, and wish a sincere Refuah Shlema to Jeff Tohl.

2010 SERMONS

Bereshit – Embracing our Divinity

One of my heroes is Natan Sharansky. As an activist in the human rights movement, supporting the emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel, he was imprisoned for nine years in the Soviet Union.

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire sermon entitled Embracing our Divinity

Can We Change?

Sermon written with Rabbi Barry Katz

Can people change? Or does habit, inertia, the inability to look honestly at ourselves make us the same today as we were yesterday, and the same tomorrow as we are today?

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire sermon entitled Can We Change?

Noah – Fighting Climate Change

This year the story of Noah brings us an especially powerful and urgent message. This famous story of the great flood focuses our attention on the potential destruction of life on our planet, as well as the actions we must take to prevent this outcome. Looking carefully at the details of the flood story can inspire us to embrace our commitment to preserve the web of life.

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire sermon entitled Noah - Fighting Climate Change

2009/5770 HIGH HOLY DAYS SERMONS

Sukkot

Gratitude

I love the holiday of Sukkot. It has such depth and breadth of meaning.
On the most basic level it is about gratitude: Gratitude for the bounty with which we have been blessed.

- Gratitude for the natural world that surrounds us.
- Gratitude for freedom and the hard journey freedom requires.

There is so much to be grateful for.

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire Sukkot sermon entitled Gratitude.

Yizkor

Sacred Appreciation of Legacy

On Rosh HaShana I taught that Isaac came from Beer L’chai Roi – The Well of Life and Seeing, before meeting his bride Rebekah. I suggested that he went to a place connected with Hagar, a maternal figure in his life who previously encountered God at the same spot during a difficult moment in her life, in order to pull from her spirit as he faced his own pain.

I asked you to think about the wells of Life and Seeing in your life. Where do you go? Whose spirit do you pull from? – Yizkor is the time we turn to our Wells of Life and Seeing as we struggle with the pain of lost loved ones who are not here with us.

I want to share with you some of the Wells of Life and Seeing that I go to during difficult times.

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire Yizkor sermon entitled Sacred Appreciation of Legacy

Yom Kippur

Why Faith Matters

In his book Why Faith Matters, Rabbi David Wolpe describes a scene that I related to in the core of my soul. He is at the bedside of a dear congregant and friend who is dying of cancer and asks Rabbi Wolpe, “Why?”

“Why am I sick?”

“Why must I die?"

“Why must I leave my children and grandchildren?”

I held my breath waiting to read what he wrote – knowing how inadequate I often feel in the face of these questions that have been posed to me in a variety of ways over the course of my years in the rabbinate.

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire Yom Kippur sermon entitled Why Faith Matters.

Kol Nidre

Chosenness: A Concept to Reclaim

The late contemporary Rabbi, Arthur Hertzberg shares a story of growing up in Poland. It had been sixty years since he left Poland, but the story stuck in his head. He was a five year old boy, walking home when Polish children chased him down the street screaming “parzhive zhid, - dirty Jew.” He managed to outrun his pursuers and breathless and trembling burst into his house where his mother calmed him down. She told him that it was wrong of those children to want to hurt him because he was different.

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire Kol Nidre sermon entitled Chosenness: A Concept to Reclaim.

First Day, Rosh Hashana

Resilience

Each passing year I find myself pulled toward the Bible character Isaac. Isaac is the child who did everything right. He was the apple of his parent’s eye – a loving son. He listened to his dad, dutifully walking up the mountain as Abraham instructed. Yet his innocent, sincere faith did not spare him from pain – as we picture the reading from the second day of Rosh Hashanah, we cringe in terror as Abraham binds Isaac on the altar – lifting his knife to sacrifice him – coming within seconds of killing him. I cannot imagine the trauma he must have felt to see his father’s zealous intensity as the knife flashed before his eyes.

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire Rosh Hashana sermon entitled Resilience.

Second Day, Rosh Hashana

Civil Discourse in America, Israel and Our Congregation

We are losing our ability to talk civilly to each other – as a nation, in Israel and in our own Jewish community and congregation about Israel. The stakes are high - civil discourse is the essence of democracy and of a healthy community. We are witnessing a toxic time where issues play out with venom - and the implications are dramatic.

Regardless of our personal politics, we should be disturbed by the tone and tenor of the debate in America. It is disturbing when forums about health care routinely result in name-calling, interruption of speakers and vilification of those with whom we disagree. We should be alarmed when a Congressman calls the President a liar during a speech. And it is both sides of the political spectrum that have been infected by pervasive nastiness.

I believe we face a landmark moment in America, in Israel and in our Jewish community. Our Rabbis teach that it was sinat chinam – causeless hatred – that brought about the destruction of the Temple. That type of hatred is present in our midst. It is time to lift our voices in a call for civil discourse and ethical disagreement.

Click here to read Rabbi Ezray's entire Rosh Hashana sermon entitled Civil Discourse in America, Israel and Our Congregation.

Elul

Who is Ryan Nece and what does he have to do with Elul?

Elul is the opportunity to become who we are capable of becoming. It provides us with the opportunity to move from is to ought. We analyze what is, and think about what ought to be.

In the process of moving from is to ought, we gain inspiration from stories around us to remind us how each individual can make a difference.