10.28.16 Bring It On

This Shabbat we start reading the Torah from the beginning - again.  Every year we read the entire Torah.  The words are exactly the same.  The stories, the characters and even the outcomes are exactly the same.  However, we are not the same.  We come to the new reading having accumulated a whole new set of experiences and memories.  The joy and the pain from the previous year become the lens of our new reading, our new understanding.  

BRING IT ON!

How will we "get busy with the words of Torah"? Which of the characters will we identify with most?  Which aspects of the stories will bother us the most?  What will our reactions to God's actions be this time?  What will we accept and what will we reject?  What will we do to bring the teachings to life?  

BRING IT ON!

This Shabbat we read B'reishit/Genesis, "In the beginning of..." It is a fantastic creation story. Every culture has one.  Ours happens to be through spoken word.  "God said; 'Let ther be light.'  And there was light"  Day 1.  This is what happens with water, starts, sun, animals, trees and everyting else that God created.  God said it.  It was thus.  That is, until human beings are created.  This creation is given life through the breath of God.  God breaths into human beings nostrils and life is activated.  Every inhale is God's breath.  Every exhale is potential.  

What will we do with all of our ability?  How will we use our capacity for broader good and not just personal gain?

After everything is created we are given the ultimate gift - Shabbat.  God gives us a full day of rest. We are not supposed to contribute or gain during this 25 hour stretch.  What if we actually took God up on the offer to fully rest on Shabbat?  Can we give ourselves permission to fully rest for even an hour?

I invite, encourage and challenge each of us to Shabbat, to really and truly rest for at least one hour between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday.  Sleeping doesn't count.  Playing Candy Crush on our phone doesn't count and neither does binge watching NetFlix.  Let's refrain from contributing or gaining.  Let's just be still.  

How might "Shabbating" (really and truly resting) impact the actions we take and the decisions we make post Shabbat?

BRING IT ON!

Shabbat shalom u'mevorach,

Laurie

10.21.26 READ THIS

Join us tonight for our first Shabbat Beineinu is 5777.  

Happy Sukkot!

If you weren't able to make the Sukkot gathering last Sunday, you missed out!  But, don't fret (do people say that anymore?).  You have another opportunity this coming Sunday.  Drop by between 11:00am and 1:00pm.  Shake the Lulav.  Smell the Etrog.  Eat some treats.  Details are listed in the Beineinu Happenings.

This week's Little Torah is actually BIG TORAH and was sent by my dear friend and colleague, Rabbi John Linder.  This is a fantastic and inspiring example of moving back to "We" because we have tapped into the best "Me".  The youtube videos are worth watching (even if you don't understand Hebrew).  Leonard Cohen's "Halleluyah" is featured in English, Hebrew and Arabic.  

Shabbat shalom u'mevorach,
Laurie 

A letter from Rachel Tzvia Back who is involved with an extraordinary movement of Israeli and Palestinian women, Women Wage Peace. 

Dear Family & Friends,

I wanted to share with you this link - from a Women Wage Peace
presentation/event  in Acco that Talya & I had the privilege of being part
of two evenings ago. 20 Arab women and 20 Jewish women sitting on chairs
across from each other - on the main street of Acco (during the Acco theatre
festival), looking in each other's eyes in silence (a 2-hour presentation).
It was for us a powerful experience, inexplicably moving. It was for
passers-by intriguing and provocative, in all the right ways.

You'll see Talya at once (and throughout) sitting beside her red-headed
friend Naama. And that's my green-t-shirt back at the end, hugging Abir -
whose name I did not know but with whom I had shared something very
intimate, so much so that we both cried for most of the time we sat in
silence looking into each other's eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBQmgI03AcM

The next morning Talya travelled down to the Dead Sea for the early March -
where 1000 Palestinian women joined the 4,000 Israeli women. Talya said it
was extraordinarily powerful.
You can see an image of that part of the march at 1:20 in this link (which
is almost the entire demonstration).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UABbpnXiHGo

The Dead Sea participants then travelled up to Jerusalem, and met up with an
additional 100 bus-loads from around the country. (Yoni and I were on one of
the two buses from the Misgav region. There were buses from Sachnin,  Iblin,
Dalyat el-Carmel, and other Arab villages- which was very moving). We
marched from the entrance of the city by the Knesset, past the President's
house and then to Netanyahu's residence. It felt like we were many
(reporting of numbers ranged from 10,000-20,000). The speakers were
exquisite.

Those of you who can understand the Hebrew, listen to Michal Fruman (13:30
in the video). She was exceptional, inspiring - her words so exact and wise,
filled with compassion and, of course, that she spoke them made them even
more impactful. For the non-Hebrew speakers - one of her closest friends was
killed at the doorway of her house a year ago and Michal was stabbed - five
months pregnant with the baby she is holding. She says: "We must stop
blaming each other; we must, each one of us, start taking responsibility. I
choose life, and to choose life is to choose to see the complexity of the
reality here and start working hard for peace."

Another very powerful speaker was  Hoda abu Arkov from Hebron (53:50) - her
words so very strong and thrilled the gathered crowd. (When she says "This
morning you saw [you have a partner]," she's referring to the Palestinians
that came to the Dead Sea meeting point).

Lema Gbowee - guest of honor, Liberian activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner -
starts her speech at the one hour mark.
The song that was written for the March of Hope, "Prayer of the Mothers,"
and which we have all learned by heart (Hebrew, Arabic & English), comes on
right at the end, 1:18. We love it.
(If anyone is interested in the words, let me know - we have them - and
Talya has translated the Arabic for us).

There was much hope in the day. And a feeling that ending the violence and
bloodshed and occupation is not impossible...
Hoping the images fill you with hope too, hope for this region and for
repairing the brokenness of our world.

Please send these links around to people in your communities who might be
interested and might support the group, in any and every way.
Please consider joining the group - easily done at the link here
http://womenwagepeace.org.il/en/join-us-2/ - if you haven't already.
Support from around the world is needed, as the work ahead is great.

Right after sukkot ends, the next activism is seven days of shifts of women
- 2 at a time - standing in white and barefoot outside the PM's house -
until the Knesset reconvenes on the 31st (when there will be another
demonstration of women outside the Knesset).  I'll go up to Jerusalem to
take two shifts of this on the 27th.

The women leading this movement are modern-day heroes - inspiring and
seemingly of endless energies. Another reason for hope - their presence in
the world.

Chag sameach & love -
Rachel

10.14.16 THANK YOU

We want to say "THANK YOU"!  

Thank YOU for choosing Beineinu.
Thank YOU for be willing to be a part of the journey with us.
Thank YOU for creating holy space.

YOU energize and inspire.

We are feeling blessed and grateful.

The season is communal but the work, it's personal.  Ask yourself;

Were the high holy days holy?

Were they filled with some joy and some meaning?

Was the journey worthwhile?

If the answer is "yes", then keep doing what you are doing and add to it.  If the answer is "no" or "not so much", redirect, change course and lean into another area.

Some reminders from our time together:
Let's get back to (the good) ME so we can return to a culture of WE.
Let's not achieve the Seamless goal of "zero human contact".
Let's refuse to accept "I can't.",  "I don't want to." and "I won't."
Let's approach everyone as if they have the potential to be our friend.
Let's love our friends AND ourselves.
Let's have courage to be vulnerable and embrace the process as a pathway to joy.
Let's care for each other the way we do whenever there is a crisis (only without the crisis).
Let's walk around with the faith that every inhale is the presence of God and every exhale is the result of what we choose to do.
Let's be willing to say "Hineini." "Here I am ready to accept whatever is asked of me."
Let's celebrate the memory of those who helped nurture and sustain us.
Let's always have shakers in our hands and be willing to dance.

We can't wait to be together again.
Join us for Sukkot and our next Shabbat Beineinu (details below).

Shabbat shalom u'mevorach,
Laurie and Daphna

10.7.16 The time is NOW!

It's here.  It's happening.  The time is now.  We are being asked to break our own hearts and look inside in order to see our truest self.  We have the privilege and opportunity to renew our commitment to be our best self our "higher self".  We are actually commanded to forgive the other.  First, we must forgive ourselves.  All of this self reflection, soul searching, truth reaching will lead us to our sacred self, and a deeper connection to others, and ultimately to The Other - that Divine presence in the world.  Don't waste one second! 

A poem and teaching to move us along:

The world was created,
and before me there was love,

and after me there will be love

so what will I do in between,

with this single life I have been given?

Will I be ferociously courageous?
Will I make waves and make amends?
Will I stand on the edge of the unknown and feel frightened down to my toes
but do it anyway?

And again,
I pray so, I pray so,
even when weary and worn,
with light carrying me on the gravel road

from here to somewhere I can't see.

Be my eyes and my hands
so I can lead with my spirit,

so I can follow where the fresh air goes.

Because before me there was love,
and after me there will be love,
and my goodness, with all the might I know,
I will hold that birthright close to my chest,
forgive the (un)expected insanity of this beautiful mess of humanity,

and be the love I was blessed to inherit,

Your Higher Self

Written by Meredith Levick, writer of a weekly e-letter called Morning Love Letter

Looking forward to being together for Yom Kippur. 

Shabbat shalom u'mevorach,

Laurie