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 – Monday, May 23, 2022
Like Cantor Emma and Adam, Becky and I recently attended a performance of "Hadestown" at the Ahmanson (the run ends May 29th). I fall short with superlatives to describe this splendid musical. Beyond the roof-raising music, the supremely talented musicians, and the overwhelmingly talented performers, the storyline itself is quite powerful. Loosely based on various versions of the Greek tale of Orpheus seeking his beloved Eurydice, indie folk musician Anaïs Mitchel has integrated themes of poverty, climate change, social inequity, worker exploitation, and romance into this modern musical that is, ultimately, a tragedy. In the Greek myth, Eurydice became trapped in Hell after cutting a desperate deal with Hades, a deal born of her ravenous, poverty-induced hunger. While each of these themes alone could lead one to profound despair, a number of brilliant devices evoke quite the opposite response from the audience. The music is as powerful as it is [...]
Daily Kavanah – Friday, May 20, 2022
We are in the Omer period—a time in which we count the days leading up Shavuot, every day bringing us closer to Torah, closer to meaning. Throughout the generations, our commentators, philosophers, and sages have attempted to reduce the 613 commandments of Torah (תרי״ג מצוות) to just a few general principles. The great 20th-century French Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1905-1995) understood the essence of Torah in this way: "…[T]o follow the Most High is to know … that nothing is of greater importance than the approach made towards one's neighbor, the concern with the fate of the 'widow and the orphan, the stranger and the poor person,' and that no approach made with empty hands can count as an approach …" And what teaches us this central truth? Writes Levinas: "The traumatism of my enslavement in Egypt constitutes my very humanity, that which draws me closer to the problems of the wretched of [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, May 19, 2022
The origins behind celebrating the 33rd day of the Omer (Lag Ba'Omer) remain shrouded in mystery. The earliest known reference to the festival comes from an addition made by the 12th-century French rabbi Isaac Dorbolo to the Mahzor Vitry, but it mentions nothing of the holiday's origins, only that it falls upon the same day of the week as Purim. Later sources ascribe the festival alternatively to the cessation of a plague that allegedly affected the students of Rabbi Akiba, to a victorious battle in the failed Jewish rebellion against the Romans, to a temporary pause in Jewish persecution by the Roman emperor Hadrian, or to the death of the second-century Mishnaic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who was later credited with authorship of the 13th-century spiritual tome, the Zohar. The day is traditionally celebrated outdoors, amid bonfires or bows-and-arrows, with the most fervent celebrations taking place near Meron, a town in northern [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, May 18, 2022
.ס֣וּר מֵ֭רָע וַעֲשֵׂה־ט֑וֹב בַּקֵּ֖שׁ שָׁל֣וֹם וְרׇדְפֵֽהוּ "Turn aside from evil and do good. Demand peace and pursue it." —Psalm 34:15 On Sunday, our nation solemnly marked Peace Officers Memorial Day with flags flown at half mast and memorials throughout the nation—the largest taking place at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C.—paying tribute to local, state, federal, and tribal officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. Fittingly, the name afforded by this day to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the battle against crime is "peace officer," rather than "law enforcement officer." Though the American public has—over the years—conflated these two terms, they stand in stark contrast to one another. The latter implies the use of force to compel obedience to the laws of the land, while the former denotes the pursuit of peace, one of our tradition’s most sacred values. These very different titles [...]
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, May 17, 2022
כל המקיים נפש אחת מישראל מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו קיים עולם מלא "Whoever saves a single soul among Israel is, according to scripture, as one who has saved the entire world." —Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 37A On May 17, 1895, Saul Adler, the Israeli medical researcher, was born in Belarus. Five years later, he emigrated with his family to England, where he studied medicine and served as an officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1917-1920. Following his service, he traveled to Sierra Leone, where he helped discover a cure for malaria. In 1921, Chaim Weizmann invited him to Palestine, where he served as director of the department of parasitology in Hadassah Hospital and as a professor of parasitology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During his time there, he helped domesticate the hamster and translated Charles Darwin’s "Origin of Species" into Hebrew. In 1957, he was awarded the Israel [...]