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 – Tuesday, October 8, 2024
When soldiers are called to duty in the Israel Defense Forces, they are told to write a letter to their families that will be delivered to them only in the event of the soldier’s death or if taken captive. I read one of these tear inducing letters during my Rosh Hashana sermon: October 7: What we Have Learned, What the Nations of the World Should Know, What Israel Should Mean to Us. The reading of the letter begins at the 16 minute and 25 second time mark. Rabbi Daniel Gordis notes that a common theme in many of these letters is that the soldiers felt they were giving their life for a greater purpose; “...defending my people, the Jewish people. There’s nothing more important to me.” They also frequently tell their families, “not to mourn forever,” but to live fully writing, “That’s what I went to fight for, so this nation [...]
Daily Kavanah – Monday, October 7, 2024
Of all of the post-October 7 Israeli poetry I have had the honor of reading in these brutal 12 months, perhaps none has a more painful opening than Kaddish by Asaf Gur. A journalist by trade, he draws on perhaps the most-recited words of our tradition to offer a scathing theological commentary.Yitgadal V’yitkadash Shmei RabaAnd no one cameMany thousands called Him on Shabbat morningCrying His name out loudBegging Him with tears just to comeBut He ceased from all His workNo God cameAnd no God calmedReading these words even now—maybe especially now—takes my breath away. He draws such a painful picture of the shock, the devastation, the total abandonment. If the opening of the poem was not enough, he closes with these words:And there is no governmentAnd there is no mercyJust the screaming and the picturesThat will never leave the mindThe seventh of OctoberTwo thousand twenty three.And while I am often loath to [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, October 3, 2024
With the New Year beginning this week, we’ll take a deeper look at one of its most distinctive symbols and sounds: the shofar.In just a few hours, we will stand together as the shofar is sounded throughout what is known as the Shofar Service. As we turn to the themes of shofarot (the sounds), malchuyot (God’s sovereignty), and zichronot (memory), we repeat one phrase: HaYom Harat Olam. Today, we proclaim, the world is born. On Rosh Hashanah, we celebrate the very moment of creation; it is a moment of birth, of bursting, of pain and joy. In fact, there is a teaching that likens the sound of the shofar on this day to the cries of a woman in labor. Birth is joyous, usually, but it is also messy and painful and profoundly difficult. So too is life, so too is this world.My colleague and the campus rabbi at my alma mater Northwestern University, Rabbi Jessica Lott, wrote a beautiful piece about [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, October 2, 2024
As we prepare to enter the New Year tonight, we enter with renewed prayers of peace and safety for our friends and family in Israel, as well as those defending the country.With the New Year beginning this week, we’ll take a deeper look at one of its most distinctive symbols and sounds: the shofar.Like so much in our tradition, ancient teachings about the shofar are timeless—and feel particularly relevant for this moment. Turning again to Maimonides, I want to offer this teaching as we prepare to welcome the New Year tonight. In his Mishneh Torah, he reflects on what, exactly, the Torah is describing when it talks about the teruah the sounds of the shofar.This Teruah that the Torah discusses… we are unsure what it is. It may be the wail that women wail amongst themselves while crying. It may be the sigh that one does, one after the other, whilst they are worried about a great stress. [...]
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, October 1, 2024
With the New Year beginning this week, we’ll take a deeper look at one of its most distinctive symbols and sounds: the shofar. Since it is the season of such—I will start with a confession. Even as I wrote it, I knew that yesterday’s Daily Kavanah contained a mistruth—or at least a misstatement. When I wrote about the shofar sounding for the first time tomorrow night—that was not true. The tradition says that we are to sound—or hear—the shofar every day of the month of Elul (other than Shabbatot) except for tomorrow. Many mystical explanations are given for the extended period of shofar blowing, but the one that has always resonated with me is the one that originates with Maimonides—not a mystic! Of the sounding of the shofar, Maimonides famously writes: Wake up, sleepers, from your sleep! And slumberers, arise from your slumber! Search your ways and return in teshuvah and remember your Creator! Those who forget the Truth amidst the futility of [...]