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!
Stephen Wise Temple Clergy Response to Recent Rise in Antisemitism
The following, written by the Stephen Wise clergy, appeared in the Stephen Wise Temple Daily Kavanah on Monday, October 24, 2022, after a series of troubling incidents of antisemitism in Los Angeles and around the country. Over the weekend, several deeply troubling, though sadly not surprising, antisemitic incidents occurred here in Los Angeles. A banner proclaiming that "Kanye is right about the Jews," was hung on an overpass of the 405 freeway. Meanwhile, vile leaflets were distributed in neighborhoods around our city blaming Jews for a variety of so-called "ills," including the "Covid Agenda," the Biden administration, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. Jewish organizations including our local Federation, the ADL, and the AJC are responding to the situation and coordinating with law enforcement. Our security team at the Temple is on heightened alert and will continue, as always, to be vigilant in the protection of our students, faculty, members, guests, and staff. [...]
Daily Kavanah – Friday, October 21, 2022
I’m watching “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” a three-part, six-hour documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein. It’s powerful and painful. Through interviews with historians and scholars, along with compelling evidence gleaned from newspaper articles, radio, film, and photography, one cannot help but conclude that hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of lives could easily have been saved had the United States government not intentionally made it more and more difficult for Jewish refugees to procure visas. Isolationist voices, anti-immigrant sentiments, economic concerns, and—of course—antisemitism combined to make it politically expedient to close our doors to those whose lives otherwise could have been saved. My experience watching the series was made more poignant this week as my news feed filled up with story after story about antisemitism in America. President Trump and Kanye West’s anti-Semitic postings and comments over the past 10 days have focused a great deal of [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, October 20, 2022
On Simchat Torah we finish our yearly reading of the Torah, and start again "in the beginning." This week, we offer these reflections on the Book of Genesis (B'reishit). The relationship between humanity and the Divine in the Garden of Eden begins with a question, and the narrative of Adam and Eve ends with one as well. After Adam and Eve are created, and after they have eaten the forbidden fruit, God asks a seemingly simple question: Ayekha—Where are you? But, of course, from a theological standpoint, it is not so simple. If God is indeed omniscient—all-knowing—why would God have to ask? God knows exactly where Adam (and Eve) are, and God knows what they have done. Commentators over the centuries have noted that the question is not one of physical location, but rather one of deeper spiritual presence. Later in the Torah, Abraham and Moses answer a similar question, [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, October 19, 2022
On Simchat Torah we finish our yearly reading of the Torah, and start again "in the beginning." This week, we offer these reflections on the Book of Genesis (B'reishit). The story of God’s creation is immediately followed by a second story of creation. Beginning with Chapter 2 of the Book of Genesis, we find ourselves in the Garden of Eden—the Paradise eventually lost. Biblical scholars have written extensively about these two seemingly contradictory stories of creation, and Christian theology points to the second story as the Original Sin. Continuing, however, on the theme of creativity, Rabba Sara Hurwitz offers a beautiful reading of the Garden of Eden. She writes: As glorious as the Garden of Eden sounds, it was not a place of human productivity and creativity. Like everything created in the world thus far, this was God’s special creation. First God fashions Adam, and then the Torah tells us [...]
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, October 18, 2022
On Simchat Torah we finish our yearly reading of the Torah, and start again "in the beginning." This week, we offer these reflections on the Book of Genesis (B'reishit). Admittedly, I am biased, but I did think it was particularly cute to ask my daughter, in her first year of our Aaron Milken Center Hebrew Immersion program, what the world was like before creation. "Tohu va’vohu," she would say with a perfect Israeli accent. "What does that mean?" I would ask. And, with an adorably dismissive hand gesture, she would say: "Chaos and mess!" Most often, this phrase is translated as "chaos and void," and is meant to describe the unformed-ness of the world before God's process of creation. Often, the creation story told in Genesis is understood to be creatio ex-nihilo, creation out of nothingness. But today, as we begin the Torah again—and still at the start of 5783—I [...]