Daily Kavanot
Writings of reflection by the Stephen Wise Temple clergy.
Each weekday morning, members of our mailing list receive the “Daily Kavanah,” which includes messages of thought, inspiration, and contemplation from our clergy, along with a schedule of events. Every Thursday, the “Daily Kavanah” turns into “Eyes on Wise,” our weekly newsletter featuring the latest news, photos, videos, stories, and tikkun olam opportunities from our community. Sign up and don’t miss out!
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, April 19, 2023
This week Rabbi Woznica reflects on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. From Auschwitz to Jerusalem The path from Auschwitz to Birkenau (also known as Auschwitz II-Birkenau) is three kilometers. It is less than two miles. Yesterday morning, tens of thousands of high school students from around the world, alongside thousands of adults, voluntarily walked that path. They participated in a concluding ceremony in Birkenau in memory of the millions of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. It was Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. They are on the International March of the Living. Since its inception in 1988, the International March of the Living has brought some 300,000 participants from 52 countries to walk the three-kilometer path. They will visit other death camps and meet survivors in the coming days. And then, next week, they will do something the victims of these camps literally could never have imagined. They will board [...]
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, April 18, 2023
This week Rabbi Woznica reflects on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day Today is Yom HaShoah, a day dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. When Elie Wiesel z"l (may his memory be a blessing) was asked, "Do you fear the Holocaust will be forgotten?" His response was immediate and clear: "No, I fear it will be trivialized." I believe what Professor Wiesel meant was the Holocaust was so immense, so extraordinary, so unimaginable, that attempts to explain it or to speak about it too easily would lead to it being trivialized. In fact, he often referred to the Holocaust as "The Event." We are the last generation that will ever meet a Holocaust survivor. Take a moment to ponder that statement. Others will read their books and see videos of their testimony. And yet, only [...]
Daily Kavanah – Monday, April 17, 2023
This week Rabbi Woznica reflects on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Erev Yom HaShoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day In Every Generation—The Uniqueness of Jew Hatred One of the striking lines we read in our Passover Haggadah is, "… in each generation, they arise to annihilate us. But the Holy One rescues us from their hand." It is one theme of the seder. And it has been the theme of Jewish history. After the Holocaust and the evils and horror of antisemitism, could it be that any leader would again pursue such a goal? And yet, in May of 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the President of Egypt, proclaimed the goal of "the destruction of Israel." In 2005, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in an address to 4,000 students, said Israel must be "wiped off the map." It is a theme repeated by many of Israel's enemies. The current government of Iran regularly publicly states that its [...]
Daily Kavanah – Shabbat Message from Rabbi Sari Laufer – Friday, April 14, 2023
Last night, as the Omer was counted, we began the second week, the week dedicated by the mystics to gevurah—to strength. And while we often think initially of brute strength, or physical strength, gevurah in our tradition has other connotations as well. Dr. Alan Morinis, founder of the Mussar Institute, teaches that gevurah can also—or perhaps, more importantly—mean restraint, discrimination, limitation, discipline, judgment, discernment, and the ability to draw lines, or boundaries. The Omer begins, the mystics teach, with the aspect of chesed, Divine lovingkindness, boundless and overflowing. It is, our rabbis teach, the beginning and end of Torah too. It is, perhaps, the Torah's central teaching. Why, then, must we move on? Why not stay only in love? Anyone who has parented or been parented knows that sometimes, saying no—drawing a line, setting a boundary—can be an act of love. Dr. Becky Kennedy, the "millennial parenting guru" whose [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, April 13, 2023
Just last week, as Passover was about to begin, I found myself on a Zoom with a b'nai mitzvah family. The young woman will be chanting from one of the many sections of the Torah which enumerate our festival celebrations, and her father asked—as many do when confronting the original Biblical text—about the custom of observing eight days of Passover.Because, you see, no matter which account you read in the Torah—be it Exodus, Leviticus, or Deuteronomy—the text is quite clear: You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days (Lev. 23: 6). And so, as I often do, I explained the system of the moon, and witnesses, and signal fires—and the relative insecurity of this method of message transmission. I explained the differences between Passover in Israel and in the Diaspora, and how the choices of rabbis both ancient and modern resulted in differences in practices across different denominations. The debate over when to welcome [...]