Week III - Rest

Rabbi Mahler writes:

I began my Yom Kippur morning sermon with the following….

“At various points in my childhood, I dreamed of being a private detective, a West Point cadet, a cowboy, a frogman, a designer of jet planes, rocket ships and cars, an astronaut, an ace pitcher throwing no-hitters and winning World Series game sevens for the New York Yankees, and in what will come as no surprise to many of you, a Rock ‘n’ Roll guitar star. The closest I came to realizing any of these dreams was when I was ten and pitched a no-hitter in summer day camp. I never dreamed of becoming a rabbi, but when I was five or six, I would thumb through my picture book of Bible stories and sometimes dream of becoming an angel.”

Toward the end of my Yom Kippur sermon, I said….

“I pray because it sustains my one and only childhood dream that has withstood the test of time, that has not vanished with the years but only grown more mature: to serve God and sing God’s praises like an angel: Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh. Judaism teaches us that the only difference between angels and humans is that we have free will. I pray because we have the free will to love God, which makes our love of God and God’s love of us more precious to God than the
angels’.”

Dr. Ron Wolfson’s marvelous little book, God’s To-Do List is subtitled 103 Ways to Be an Angel and Do God’s Work on Earth. Chapter 3 is entitled “Rest.” In it, Dr. Wolfson describes how we, like God, can and should rest. Angels always must do God’s bidding. When we rest as God rests, we become higher than the angels, such is the power of our day of rest, Shabbat. Dr. Wolfson concludes this chapter with items twenty-one through thirty on God’s To-Do List, all of them acts of blessings. Here I highlight three that seem so especially important today:

22. Put aside your unfinished business and leave the world as it is on the Sabbath.
26. Join your spiritual community at your place of worship on your day of rest.
28. Invite family and friends to share a Sabbath meal

In these times of economic uncertainty, the need to rest is all the more essential. We are human beings; we must stop being humans doing all the time. As the National Election approaches and the sense of American community is fractured by political factionalism, the need grows to identify with our Temple Emanuel community. This applies even more so to our homes, when we share Shabbat with our loved ones. On Shabbat, feeding the body with loved ones also feeds the soul.

Week II - Bless

So how did we do last week?

Did you "cross off" some of the things on your list? Remember that many things will always be on our list...we will want (and need) to do them again and again...

There are so many ways that we can CREATE. Each of us has the potential to be creative. What did you do to tap into that creative quality that we all posess???

By the way, our Temple Sukkot look beautiful. Thank you to everyone who decided to use their creativity in that way!

Week II: Bless - You are God's partner and you have the power to bless.

God's To-Do List Suggestions (Dr. Wolfson's from God’s To-Do-List: 103 Ways to be an Angel and Do God’s Work on Earth (Jewish Lights, 2007, p 34)):

11. Bless your children and spouse (on Shabbat...for the traditional words of blessing check out the "Blessings Over Children" on http://urj.org/shabbat/blessings/ or make up your own!)

15. If someone gives you great service, ask the person for the name of her/his boss and write a thank-you note.

16. Ask God's blessings for the food you eat, safe journeys and healing.

18. When someone asks for your blessing, give it.

God's To-Do List Suggestions (Rabbi Locketz)

1. Make a list each night of (at least 5) things with which you are blessed. The list may be the same each day...then again it might not!

2. Come to Simchat Torah services here at Temple Emanuel next Monday evening (October 20th) at 7 pm. Help us bless and honor our newest Torah Center (religious school) students. Bring your dancing shoes - it will be a fun evening!

3. Bless your home or even a room in your house (if you haven't already) with a mezuzah. Buy one that you think is beautiful or particularly meaningful. Or put up the one your child made in Torah Center. Recite the blessings that sanctify your home. (I would be happy to give you the text of the blessings!)

4. Thank family and friends - with a note, email or phone call - for the blessings that they have brought you.

God's To-Do List Suggestions (Yours...)
What is on YOUR list this week?
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Posts and Comments

Hi again... if you would like to post something on the blog (and not just place it as a comment to another post), please email me jlocketz@templeemanuelpgh.org and I will give you acess to the site. Also... when commenting, you do not need to sign up for a gmail account. I think that you do have to pick an identity however... as a gmail user, an OpenID account, by just giving your name or by remaining anonymous.

Hope that helps all of us new to the blogging world! :)

Shalom! Welcome to the Temple Blog!

Hi everybody! Happy New Year! And welcome to our new Temple Emanuel blog. I hope that you will join in the conversation and share your thoughts and opinions - I am looking forward to the lively conversation!


Last week, in my sermon on Rosh Hashanah, I mentioned that I was on an ever-continuing journey to better understand what I believe about God. I shared the answers to a number of questions that I ask (again and again!) about God:

• What words describe God?
• What does God do?
• Does God's presence make a difference in my life (or put another way - How do I become a better person when I let God into my life)?
• and finally - What is it that God wants us to do?

It is this last question that brought about the creation of this blog. Here is an execerpt from my sermon (For the full text of the sermon, check out the Temple webpage http://www.templeemanuelpgh.org/ or email me at jlocketz@templeemanuelpgh.org and I will send you a copy):

Our tradition is full of divine expectations – the words of our sages remind us of God’s Mitzvot, God’s commandments, and our obligation to observe them. There are rituals to do, rules to follow, and blessings to recite – all of which enhance our Jewishness. But there is more for us to do when we remember that we are created B’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. The Midrash tells us:

When God created the world, everything was intentionally left a bit incomplete. Bread does not grow directly out of the earth – instead God made wheat grow so that people could harvest it and bake it into bread. God’s plan was simple – in this way, humans could become God’s partners in the task of completing the work of creation.

It was all part of God’s plan - we are to be God’s Partners in completing the work of Creation. For as we know, our world is far from complete – there is much left to do. And God needs us – we who have inherited this partnership - to help.

In his book, God’s To-Do-List: 103 Ways to be an Angel and Do God’s Work on Earth (Jewish Lights, 2007), Dr. Ron Wolfson tells us just what our partnership with God might entail. He suggests that God has a To-Do List for each one of us – a list that outlines what tasks God wants each of us to do... Dr. Wolfson offers one possible version of God’s To-Do List, but each of us has to come up with our own list. Each of us has to make our own agreement with God; each of us has to set up the rules for our own unique partnership with God. Indeed, there are many tasks involved with completing the world; our first task is to find out exactly what the rest of our tasks are.

So...here we are! Over the next 10 weeks, we will explore our God's To-Do Lists. With suggestions from Dr. Wolfson, Rabbi Mahler and me...and of course - YOU! Using Dr. Wolfson's book as a guide, we will tackle one category at a time beginning with: CREATE.

Week I: God is the Creator. You can be a creator too.

God's To-Do List Suggestions (Dr. Wolfson's from God’s To-Do-List: 103 Ways to be an Angel and Do God’s Work on Earth (Jewish Lights, 2007, p 27)):

1. Use your God-given gift of creativity-paint, draw,sculpt, photograph, compose, dance, write, cook, bake

2. Collect evidence from your "creations"-your children, your achievements, your experiences, your journeys-by creating memory scrapbooks to document them, and take pleasure in your creations.

3. Create a CD of your favorite songs, a website or a blog.

4. Learn a new skill to use for your creative endeavors like knitting or calligraphy.

God's To-Do List Suggestions (Rabbi Locketz)

1. Paint a square for Temple's 'Tent of Hope' Campaign - bring your creative messages of hope for the people of Darfur next Sunday, October 12th at 10:30 am.

2. Help decorate Temple's outdoor Sukkah next Sunday, October 12th at 10:30 am as part of Sukkot Family Day. Creative people are needed to make this the most beautiful (and decorative!) Sukkah ever!

3. Create a new ritual or routine for yourself or for your family.

4. Create space and/or time in your busy week to do something that you have always wanted to do...try a new coffee shop, exercise, study, read a Jewish book, subscribe to the Union of Reform Judaism's 'Reform Voices of Torah (http://urj.org/torah/) the possibilities are endless!

God's To-Do List Suggestions (Yours...)

What is on YOUR list this week?

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