Rabbi Englander's Commentary

Rabbi's Commentary

A Special S'lichot Experience

High Holidays can be a very busy time. We make plans to get together with family and friends, and the sanctuary is full when we come to Solel. It's a perfect time to catch up with everyone - but around this time of year, we also crave some quiet time to look inward, to take stock of our own life.

This is the reason why our tradition introduced S'lichot services. On a Saturday evening before Rosh HaShanah, the songs and prayers of S'lichot encourage us to perform a cheshbon ha-nefesh, an accounting of the soul in preparation for the year ahead.

This year presents a unique opportunity for us, since the Ashkenaz festival takes place over the same weekend as S'lichot. In order that we can take advantage of this festival, Solel has joined up with Shaarei - Beth El Congregation to sponsor S'lichot services at Harbourfront. Aviva Chernick and her band, Jaffa Road, will conduct a service filled with beautiful music and poetry that will inspire personal reflection. It will also give us yet another chance to get together with our sister congregation.
The date: Saturday September 4. The time: 10:00 p.m.
However, there will also be some live concert performances earlier in the evening. If enough people are interested, we can order a bus to take us to Harbourfront and enable us to avoid the parking hassles downtown. The bus would depart from Solel at 7:30 p.m. and return when S'lichot services conclude, departing some time around 11:30 p.m. If you are interested in saving a place on the bus, please call the Solel office right away. We are charging $15.00 per seat, which will just cover the expense.

I look forward to joining you for S'lichot at Harbourfront. And I certainly look forward to seeing you over the Days of Awe. In the meantime, Cheryl and I send you our warmest wishes for a Shana Tova Um'tuka - a good and sweet year!

Shalom uv'racha,

Seeing the Other's Face

How do we know if it's a mitzvah to care for the underprivileged? We could Google the question or we could ask a teacher. As Jews, however, we know that our first reference source is the Torah. And there we learn the many ways we can fulfill this mitzvah: by feeding the poor, sheltering the homeless, freeing the oppressed.

A French Jewish philosopher by the name of Emanuel Levinas went a step further. He taught that we feel a true sense of moral obligation once we "see the face of the other." For example, if we walk down a busy street and see a man squatting on the sidewalk with a soiled paper cup in his outstretched hand - even if we place some coins into his cup - we may view him as just another beggar. But if we look him in the eye and engage him in conversation, suddenly he becomes transformed into a fellow human being who, at this particular time and place, is asking for our help.

Solel is the co-founder of three interfaith organizations that help us to "see the face" of fellow citizens in need:

• Pathway Community Developments, our non-profit housing corporation, provides affordable homes for over 200 residents in Peel. John Lewsen finished his term as President last year and now his service on the Board comes to an end. When we started Pathway in the late 1980's along with two other faith groups, we promised that we would always provide Solel members on their Board. To keep that promise, Pathway needs a couple of Solelniks to step up to the plate.
• The Mississauga Food Bank, formerly known as Food Path, is now the second-largest food bank in Ontario. We made the same promise as we did to Pathway when we co-founded Food Path. And yet, at present, there are no Solel members on their Board. It would be a mitzvah to fill this gap.
• Pathway Community Programmes was the offspring of the above two organizations. Each school day, members of PCP provide a healthy breakfast to children at both Pathway buildings and they run a parent-tot centre several times during the week. Solel's Sherry Amar and Cheryl Englander have served ably as co-chairs for the past few years, and other Solelniks participate on the Board. Even so, they always have room for more hands and hearts.
• Looking farther afield, a group of Solelniks recently started the Solel Developing World Investment Club. They have been researching ways of giving direct support to organizations and entrepreneurs in Africa, thereby helping to break the cycle of poverty, disease and despair. You will hear more from them soon, and they'd love to have more members. You can even participate online without even leaving your home.
  
  

Perhaps now is the time for you to join one of these remarkable groups. If you're even a bit interested, please give me a call and I'll be happy to fill you in. I can assure you that, when you work with their clients and "see their faces," your own life will become enriched.

Seeing the Faces of Solel
This year, we also need to see the face of our congregation with new eyes. As you learned from the Solel Board, we have fallen short of this year's budget by $60,000. Thanks to the generosity of many Solelniks we are halfway toward making up this shortfall. But there are only two months to go. We need everyone's help. With your contribution - however big or small - to our Operating Fund, you will enable Solel to continue its work in the community and also ensure our own Jewish education for generations to come. You can make your donation through the Solel office, over the phone or the internet.

You can also make a significant impact upon Solel by joining one of the following groups:

• The Membership Committee is planning to bring several new members into Solel this year. You can help to recruit them by contacting Gail Feldman.
• The Fundraising Committee is planning a few special events for the coming year. You can help to balance our budget and have fun while doing so by getting in touch with Karen Smith.
  

Whichever of the above options you choose, let us see your face as you leave your imprint upon our Jewish future.

Shalom uv'racha,

Here are two upcoming opportunities for in-depth Adult Education at Solel:

What Happens When You Combine Mysticism with Zionism?

You get a volatile blend, with Messianism as the wick. My Adult Education offering this spring will be a six-week course on "Religious Zionism: Past and Present." We'll begin with the mystical teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook in the early part of the 20th century and we'll see how he influenced the "settler movement" of today. We shall also enter some groundbreaking territory, still in its early stages in both Israel and the Diaspora: namely, what ideas and principles would characterize a progressive religious Zionism, one that Reform Jews can espouse? We'll take a look at some current thinking, then add our own impressions and opinions.

The course will begin on Tuesday, April 27 at Bet Sefer Solel, 7:00 pm. Please register with the office so that I can make enough course kits for everyone.

King David: the Poet-Warrior

King David receives more coverage in the Bible than any other figure - even more than Moses. His character presents an array of contradictions: fierce warrior and spiritual poet, loving father and adulterer, loyal Israelite and mercenary for the Philistines, a loyal friend who also nursed grudges.
Now that our Sunday morning Torah class is nearing the end of the Book of Deuteronomy, our studies will continue with the story of David. If you have your own Tanakh (Bible), please bring it along; otherwise we'll supply you with a copy. Our first session will be on Sunday, February 28 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Bet Sefer Solel, Room 210. But don't worry if you miss any sessions; nobody takes attendance, and we welcome your participation whenever you are able to attend. We look forward to some lively discussions!

Shalom uv'racha,

WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT ISRAEL WITH SOLEL?

AN INVITATION FROM RABBI ENGLANDER

I'd like to invite you to a meeting to plan our next Israel trip, in either spring or summer of 2011.
We'll meet on Thursday evening, April 15 at 8:00 in the Solel Library.

At this meeting, we'll discuss the following questions:

• How long do you want the trip to be?
  
• When do you want to go?
  
• Should this be a family or adult trip?
  
• What sites do you want to visit?
  
• Would you like to have a few study sessions or speakers? On what topics?
  
• Do you prefer 4-star or 5-star hotels?
  
• Do you want a stopover on the way home? If so, where?

As you can see, this time we'll build the trip from scratch! So your input will be very important.

Please let me know if you plan to attend the meeting. Of course, this does not imply any commitment to join the trip.

Shalom uv'racha,
Rabbi Englander

AID AND THE DEVELOPING WORLD

In the winter of 2005, Elizabeth Mufaka, a single mother from Zimbabwe, arrived in Toronto with her conjoined twin boys, born just a few months earlier. They had come to the Sick Chilren's Hospital where a team of medical staff prepared to separate them. On March 7, the operation was successfully performed.

In the meantime, donations poured in to the hospital's Herbie fund in order to finance the $200,000 operation plus related medical expenses, as well as transportation from Zimbabwe and back again, living expenses in Toronto for several months -- and the costly aftercare required once they returned home. It was truly a mass expression of humanitarian support.

During that same year, throughout the continent of Africa, approximately half a million children died of a disease called rotavirus, an ailment that is completely curable if properly treated. Yet no one sent help to the families of these children. Why did their names never come to our attention?

In our Haftarah portion this morning, the prophet Isaiah asks similar questions of his people some 2500 years ago. It was Yom Kippur day, and the Israelite community had assembled en masse at the Temple in Jerusalem to offer prayer and sacrifice. As Isaiah approached the pulpit, the people expected to receive his praise for their public show of piety. This is what they heard:

Is this the fast God has chosen, Isaiah asks? A day of self-affliction? Bowing your head like a reed, and covering yourself with sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call a fast, a day acceptable to God? Rather, this is the fast God looks for: to unlock the shackles of injustice, to let the oppressed go free; to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house.

We notice that Isaiah does not identify these oppressed people by name. It is our obligation, he implies, to seek them out and give them whatever support we can.

In our own time, now that the planet Earth has become a global village, we have an unprecedented opportunity to bring Isaiah's vision to reality, to end poverty and disease so that all God's children may live a full and productive life. This morning, I want to spend a few moments exploring how we at Solel can do our own share in this global mitzvah of Tikkun Olam.

In our 36 years of existence, our congregation has taken an active role in helping the underprivileged both here and abroad. Through our partnership in Foodpath, the Mississauga interfaith food bank which we helped to create, we serve food to over 6,000 clients per month in our neighbourhood. A few years later, Solel was one of the founding organizations of Pathway Community Developments, a non-profit corporation that today provides affordable housing for over 200 families -- with yet another project now in the planning stage. The offspring of these two organizations, Pathway Community Programmes, provides a nutrutious breakfast to students each school day and oversees a homework club and a parent-tot centre. We can proudly claim that we have improved the quality of life for many residents of Peel.

In the wider world, we have also made valuable contributions toward Israel. Each Yom Kippur, we raise funds for Israeli Tzedaka projects and, with the aid of our twin congregation in Ramat HaSharon, we make direct contributions to these organizations. In addition, during the past year, our Bar/Bat Mitzvah students gave their collective support to Save a Child's Heart, a team of medical professionals who donate their time and skill to bring children to Israel from third-world countries, where they receive life-saving heart surgery. Solel is certainly playing a role in sustaining underprivileged people in Israel.

Yet this year, I believe it is time for us to add yet another recipient to our Tzedaka portfolio. Before I identify that recipient, let me explain why I think it is important for us to do so. We all know the central importance of Tzedaka in Jewish tradition. We also know the key passage in the Torah from which this mitzvah is derived.
, says the Book of Deuteronomy, "If there is a needy person among you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kin. Rather, you must open your hand and lend them sufficient for what they need." Later Rabbinic commentaries identify what Torah means as "needy kin." Since every human being is a child of God, the Rabbis explain, then it is a mitzvah for us to reach out our hand to all humanity once we have taken care of our own.

In today's world, there are millions of God's children who, for whatever reasons, do not seem to receive the same attention as do the hungry and homeless in the western hemisphere. Their average income is one American dollar per capita per day. Many of them suffer from AIDS or have lost one or both parents to this disease. The resources of their land have been snatched from them by multinational corporations, leaving them with scant compensation. For these reasons, I believe it is time we turn our attention toward the continent of Africa as a recipient of our assistance in the months ahead.

One North American individual may help to serve as a role model. Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft, once read about the half-million African children who die each year of rotavirus. He asked himself, "How could I never have heard of something that kills half a million children every year? I couldn't escape the conclusion that, in our world today, some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not." As a result, Bill and Melinda Gates set up a foundation and endowed it with an initial gift of over $28 billion from their own finances. The watchword of the foundation, printed in bold letters on their website: "All lives have equal value." Through the Gates Foundation, donors support projects to enhance education in African countries, to treat disease and to develop agricultural expertise.

This is one of several avenues we can take to make our contribution to the residents of Africa. Before outlining in detail how we may do so, let's examine a few more options available to us.
First of all, there are other organizations like the Gates Foundation that focus many of their efforts on Africa. In Canada, the prime example, to my mind, is the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Lewis himself has travelled back and forth to Africa for the past 50 years. From his post as Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations, he went on to become the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF.

In 2001 he was appointed the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa. Instead of dutifully filing reports in triplicate to praise the efforts of his sponsor, Lewis excoriated the world community for their shameless neglect of the plight of sub-Saharan Africans. His foundation now provides care for people living with AIDS, assists orphans who have lost their parents to this disease, and channels financial, medical, educational and moral support to many grandmothers who must raise their orphan grandchildren almost single-handedly. The Stephen Lewis Foundation is an organization worthy of our support.

You may also be interested in an organization named Kulanu, which means "all of us" in Hebrew. Their mission is to seek out small remnants of Jewish communities in unexpected places and to give them the sustenance to survive and prosper, both individually and collectively. For example, Kulanu has given a new lease on life to the Abudaya Jewish community of Uganda.

At this point, however, some of you may argue that we are overlooking another avenue of support, one that has been involved long before these foundations came into existence. This avenue is the foreign aid provided by Canada, the United States and many European countries. The money we send to Africa comes directly from our tax dollars; so, in a sense, everyone in this room is already contributing toward African relief efforts.

To respond to this claim, let me introduce you to a fascinating individual by the name of Dambisa Moyo. She was born and raised in Zambia and worked for a while for the World Bank. She then went on to Harvard where she received her M.A. degree, and subsequently earned her Ph.D. from Oxford. She has spent the last eight years at Goldman Sachs.

Moyo's contention -- which, by the way, has earned her many detractors -- is that government-to-government foreign aid simply does not work. In her own words:

Foreign aid props up corrupt governments -- providing them with freely usable cash. These corrupt governments interfere with the rule of law, the establishment of transparent civil institutions and the protection of civil liberties, making both domestic and foreign investment in poor countries unattractive. Greater opacity and fewer investments reduce economic growth, which leads to fewer job opportunities and increasing poverty levels. In response to growing poverty, donors give more aid, which continues the downward spiral of poverty. (p.49)

Moyo maintains that because foreign aid comes in a steady annual flow with no deadline for repayment, African rulers have come to view it as a regular, reliable source of income without finding internal means of generating revenue. And since they are more interested in lining their own pockets than developing an economic strategy for their people, the vaccuum is filled by celebrities and rock stars who know little or nothing of local conditions. Titling her book Dead Aid, Moyo mocks the "Live Aid" concerts that make western people feel good but short-circuit serious dialogue on how to address Africa's economic plight.

Instead of government aid, Dambisa Moyo advocates investment techniques such as accessing international bond markets or large scale infrastructure projects. Economists are divided on the merits of this approach, but one of Moyo's approaches has received a great deal of attention. The idea is not hers alone, but her support has given it tremendous impetus. It is the idea of microfinance.

Here is the way it works on a microfinance website called Kiva. A woman in Tanzania seeks financing for a farming supplies shop that she has set up and she applies to Kiva for a loan of $500. Kiva places her picture on their website along with a description of her business, the amount of the loan requested and the period of time in which it is to be repaid. A man in Oakville goes online and invests $50; a teenager in Sweden contributes another $25 and a few business people in other parts of the world throw in the balance. These investors are sent progress reports on a regular basis. When the loan is paid back in full, investors have the option of redeeming their money or investing again in another entrepreneur. According to Dambisa Moyo, in one week in April 2008, over $625,000 US was forwarded by about 3,000 new lenders. I will put Kiva's internet address, as well as several of those I have mentioned this morning, on Solel's website for your perusal.

In fact, I would like to take a step further and launch a Solel Tikkun Olam project for the coming year. Let's call it the "Solel Developing World Investment Club." I plan to contribute some seed money from my Discretionary Fund and will ask for further donations from you. The investment club will meet occasionally to draw up strategies and to explore the various organizations to which they can contribute. I'm hoping that the club will provide occasional updates in the Shammas and on the Solel website -- and once in a while, a presentation at a Shabbat service. In this way, we can expand our Tikkun Olam "portfolio" to include developing nations in Africa.

There are two ways in which each of you can participate. Christine Hannon has graciously volunteered to lead this group and she is looking for volunteers to fill out the club. It will not be too time-consuming, the meetings can be kept to a minimum and, in fact, much of the work can be done on a home computer. The second way you can become involved is to make a contribution toward the club -- you can make your payment to "Solel Congregation" and earmark it for "Rabbi's Fund: Africa." Your donation will go directly to a foundation or other organization that works directly with African citizens seeking to improve their lot and the lot of their country.

In our Haftarah portion, as we have seen, Isaiah exhorts us to choose a meaningful fast for Yom Kippur. In today's Torah portion, Moses places a similar choice before us:- "I place before you life or death, blessing or curse." I believe this choice refers not to our own lives, but rather what impact we choose to have upon the lives of others, especially those who depend on us for a sustainable quality of life. Then Moses urges us: -"So choose life," he says, "so that you and your descendants may live."

By choosing to contribute our share toward the relief of hunger, disease and poverty in the Third World, we and our children will remain steadfast to the Jewish teachings of Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam, and through these efforts we will grant life to untold generations abroad.

REFERENCES

Websites

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
www.gatesfoundation.org

Stephen Lewis Foundation
www.stephenlewisfoundation.org

Kulanu
www.kulanu.org

Munk Debates on Foreign Aid (Moyo and Lewis)
www.munkdebates.com

Kiva
www.kiva.org

Millennium Village Project
www.millenniumvillages.org

Books

Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid. Farrar, Strau and Giroux, 2009

Peter Singer, The Life You Can Save. Random House, 2009

Solel's Contributions to Jewish Life

In our 36 years of existence, Solel has nurtured two students to become rabbis: one Orthodox (Joel Beasley in Israel) and one Reform (Ellen Nemhauser in Atlanta). At present, three Solelniks are studying for the rabbinate: two at the Reform Hebrew Union College (David Vaisberg and Rachel Van Thyn) and one at Yeshiva University (Marc Herman). Debbie Locketz (nee Rothschild) is married to a rabbi. We also have one or two other students who, at this time, are seriously contemplating the rabbinate. One Solel grad (Laura Herman) works as a Jewish professional at Hillel; another (Alina Goldberg) teaches at Leo Baeck Reform day school; and a Solelnik (Sandy Levy) holds an administrative position at the Canadian Council for Reform Judaism. Not a bad record for our shul!

One might think that it's every rabbi's dream to send students into the rabbinate and other Jewish professional work. This is certainly true for me - but it is not the whole picture. If we are to keep our Jewish communities alive and strong, we need not only Jewish professionals but also congregational leaders who devote their personal set of skills to their communities. And that is why I am also very proud of the many dedicated Solelniks who sustain our congregation by:

• Teaching in Bet Sefer Solel
• Tutoring Bar/Bat Mitzvah students
• Chanting Torah
• Leading services and minyanim
• Serving on our Board and committees
  
  

Solel boasts an impressive number of people in each of these categories. You don't need to attend a college far from home to master the skills for these positions; Solel itself provides a supportive and stimulating training-ground.

If you would like to join the swelling ranks of Jewish teachers and community leaders, all you have to do is speak with Arliene or me and we'll be happy to help you find the role for you that best expresses your talents - and may teach you some new ones too!

Shalom uv'racha