Halloween & Hospitality

“Avraham ran to the mal’achim to be machnis orchim (invite guests)!” 

This is the chorus for a Jewish children’s song by “613 Torah Avenue” that I remember from my youth and was wafting through the halls as it was played for the Ramaz Early Childhood Center Shabbat party.  (If you want to enjoy it for yourself, click here.)  It describes Avraham’s hospitality, which appears in this week’s Torah reading and sets an example for all of us.

Avraham went out of his way to welcome guests. Do we?

The Machlis family does.  Their Jerusalem home is famous for Friday night dinners with more than 100 guests.  Same thing for Shabbat lunch.  Their hachnasat orchim is exceptional.  (Henny Machlis recently passed away at the age of 58.  See here for more about the family’s unbelievable chesed.  Here's another great article about the benefits and joys of hospitality.)

I shared the Machlis hospitality with my Ramaz students today.  We discussed inviting guests and making people feel welcome.  I think it is a sign of the times (or of living in Manhattan) that some of the students asked if it is safe to invite strangers home.  (I told them to always make sure to check with an adult.) 

I must admit to being a little envious of the Machlis family.  It would be incredible to create an open Shabbat environment for all.  We have congregational and Beginners Shabbat dinners, but how can we take this to the next level?  How can we internalize the lesson of Avraham and seek out ways to invite all of our brothers and sisters home?  

There is no easy answer, but it begins with developing a hospitable mindset and appreciating the need to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable.  And, believe it or not, I think Halloween may have something to teach us.

Now, while I love candy as much as the next guy, I do not think Jews have any business celebrating Halloween.  My colleague, Rabbi Eric Grossman sent out a most appropriate message about the subject as did my good friend, Rabbi Adam Starr.  I get it.  Halloween is fun.  We need to do a better job making Judaism fun, but we save our dressing up for Purim. 

However, this idea of being open to all sorts of people stopping by for a treat – including weird looking characters – has a nice ring to it.

In some Jewish neighborhoods, people turn out the lights so as not to be disturbed by trick-or-treaters. Here’s a story I heard from my brother about an “Ultra-Orthodox” rabbi who had another approach:

Mr. Yakov Paneth reports that when he brought his future wife to meet Rabbi Avraham Pam, the famed head of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, it happened to be Halloween night.  While Rav Pam refused to take any phone calls during the meeting because he felt it was rude, he did answer the door for the trick-or-treaters who kept ringing the doorbell and dropped a piece of chocolate into each basket with a smile on his face.

On this Shabbat of Avraham’s hospitality, let’s give some thought to how we can be more radically hospitable and make others feel as welcome and comfortable as we do.

How’s that for a nice treat?

1.21 gigawatts?! Looking to the future

What did you do to mark Back to the Future Day? (Do you even know what I’m talking about?)

October 21, 2015 is the date 30 years in the future to which Doc Brown and Marty McFly travel in the film, Back to the Future.  (Here’s a blast from the past - 1.21 gigawatts?!) 

Well, the future is here.  How did we do?  Cars don’t fly, and we don’t really have hover boards.  We haven’t brought peace to the Middle East, and who could have guessed Donald Trump would be leading the polls in the 2016 presidential election back in 1985?  (See here for a humorous look from the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show.)

While it would be nice to predict the future, the world is a very unpredictable place.  One of the great things about the people – and the Jewish people in particular – is our ability to always move forward regardless of the situation.

On YNET right now is the report of a family of five injured when a terrorist threw a fire bomb at their car (refuah shleimah!) as well as reporting on a successful Tel Aviv fashion week.

Terrorists show no concern for decency and morality by attacking men, women, and children, and there is absolutely no regard for the truth on the Palestinian side.  The Jews, however grapple with morality.  Israeli hospitals treat both terror victims and terrorists.  (Just today, Mahmoud Abbas’s brother-in-law had lifesaving heart surgery in Israel.)  While the number of terrorist attacks in Israel increased, Rav David Stav of Tzohar was addressing the moral issues of harming neutralized terrorists.

Where do we get the ability to balance firebombs and fashion and murder and morality? 

Lech lecha.  We get going?  Avraham left and didn’t know exactly where he would end up.  He embarked on the journey, entered the land, and then stopped.  Who told him where to stop?  Avraham just know.  There is something inside us that allows us to keep going, to focus on the positive, and to strive for what is right. 

There are some things which seem to never change – like the Arab position on the Temple Mount or the UN being anti-Israel.  At the same time, we can be sure that our commitment to life moving forward, to goodness, to joy, and to looking towards the future will never change either.

Here’s to the future! 

P.S. Israel is obviously on our minds and in our hearts more than usual.  Rabbi Lookstein, in his message to the KJ community, captured the ways that we can respond religiously and practically, and here is another great message of what we can do for Israel at this time.

It is really STILL z'man simchateinu?

The rain falling outside adds even more gloom to what should be an otherwise joyous Sukkot holiday.

Israeli mother and father shot dead in West Bank terror attack

Oregon gunman kills 9 is rampage

“Suddenly I heard my children scream” Mother describes rock throwing attack

Unfortunately – both in Israel and here in the US, such terrible headlines are not unheard of.  But the pain and shock are great.  The murder of Rabbi Eitam and Na’ama Henkin cuts especially deep as the story of the 4 children in the car is so horrific and many of us are familiar with Eitam’s esteemed parents, Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbanit Chana Henkin.

Since hearing the news of these murders, I have been very uneasy.  What senseless acts!  What kind of animals could do this?  Is this really z’man simchateinu, the holiday of rejoicing?

In May of 1957 fedayeen terrorists entered the village of Kfar Chabad in Israel.  They made their way to the synagogue of the local agricultural school, where the school's young students were in the midst of the evening prayers, and raked the room with fire from their rifles.  Five children and one teacher were killed and another ten children wounded.  Despair and dejection pervaded the village.  There were some who saw what happened as a sign that their dream of a peaceful life in Israel was premature.  The idea of disbanding the community was raised. The village was slowly dying.  The Chasidim sent a telegram to the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York and eagerly awaited a response.

Five days later, a response via telegram came from the Rebbe.  It had just three words: “Be’hemshech ha-binyan tinacheimu - By your continued building will you be comforted.”

Jews move on.  We will continue to celebrate Sukkot and soon Simchat Torah – even with the lingering pain.  Be’hemshech ha-simcha tinacheimu – the only way to move forward is for the holiday to continue even in the shadow of such heavy sadness.

I felt this message in my kishkes this morning while leading a pre-Simchat Torah program for Ramaz Lower School students.  We were all singing and dancing with the Torahs to get into a Simchat Torah spirit.  I explained to the students that we are happy on Simchat Torah because the Torah is who we are, where we come from, and all the good things that we are trying to be.

As over 100 first and second graders stood singing Ha-mal’ach ha-goeil oti, the powerful words Jacob used to bless Efraim and Menashe, I felt the Rebbe’s response resonate.  In the aftermath of terrible tragedy, we will sing and dance and propel the Jewish future forward.

We still have much to celebrate this holiday.