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 2, 2022
Later this week we observe Yom HaZikron—Israel’s Memorial Day—and celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut—Israel’s Independence Day. As we lead into those holidays, I want to share some thoughts about Israel over the next few days. Israel has never been far from the Jewish mind. Wherever we find ourselves, we are to face Jerusalem when praying. After King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, he offered a prayer that the Temple would be an eternal home for God’s presence. The Talmud interpreted this to mean Jews living in the diaspora should face Israel when praying, and Jews in Jerusalem should face the Temple Mount. One of the first “apps” I added to my smartphone was a compass. Wherever I am, in my home or away, I know which direction to face during prayers. Since the destruction of the second Temple in 70 C.E., Jews have hoped, prayed, and given their lives for the [...]
Daily Kavanah – Friday, April 29, 2022
This Shabbat is the yahrtzeit of my cousin, Menashe Simcha Davidovits, who died last year on Yom HaShoah. When I moved to Israel in 1992 to begin my rabbinical studies, my mother (of blessed memory) gave me Menashe’s phone number and asked me to meet him. At the end of my first visit with Menashe, he gave me a book that he had just published, filled with the Torah commentaries of his grandfather, Rabbi Eliezer Davidovits, based on a manuscript that his aunt had rescued after World War II from the attic of the family home in Michalovce, Slovakia. That book became the focus of my rabbinic thesis and I have been blessed to spend hundreds of hours studying and translating Rabbi Davidovits’ teachings. In June of 1944, Menashe, along with his mother, three sisters, and little brother, were sent to Auschwitz. (His father had already been sent to a work camp [...]
Daily Kavanah – Thursday, April 28, 2022
In this four-part Daily Kavanah, Rabbi Ron Stern examines the recently-released Pew Research Center survey of American Jews. To catch up with previous entries, click here. When I was growing up in Morristown, N.J., all Jews were straight and Ashkenazi … at least that’s what I thought. If an Asian or Black person entered our synagogue, we “knew” (incorrectly, of course) they weren’t Jewish. And in all honesty, I didn't know any openly gay people and certainly didn't understand the many challenges LGBTQ+ persons confronted in those days. Of course, now I know differently, and the Pew Report affirms that awareness. According to the survey, nearly 10% of U.S. Jews say that they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual; among Jews 18-29, 15% identify as something other than White; 17% of American Jews live in a household with someone who is Black, Hispanic, Asian, or another non-White ethnicity; 4% of Jews under 49 [...]
Daily Kavanah – Wednesday, April 27, 2022
In this four-part Daily Kavanah, Rabbi Ron Stern examines the recently-released Pew Research Center survey of American Jews. To catch up with previous entries, click here. Jews dreamed of establishing a Jewish nation in the land of Israel from the moment the Romans destroyed the ancient Temple in Jerusalem and dispersed our community in the first and second centuries C.E. They often invoked the far more ancient words of the Israelite prophets first penned in the sixth century B.C.E. to express both the pain of exile and the hope for a return to the land. With the advent of modern Zionism in the 19th century, there arose dissention among the ranks. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews insisted that the nation could not be re-established until the Messiah arrived. Many religiously-liberal American Jews insisted that America was the new Promised Land. Certainly, from the 1967 Six Day War until only a decade or so ago, the [...]
Daily Kavanah – Tuesday, April 26, 2022
In this four-part Daily Kavanah, Rabbi Ron Stern examines the recently-released Pew Research Center survey of American Jews. To catch up with previous entries, click here. Several years ago, during the High Holy Days, I presented a sermon that imagined the experiences of individual Jews across three different eras of history. I characterized the way each of those Jews understood religion, God, and the Bible. I began with the pre-modern Jew, who believed that God managed all human affairs, created the world in six days, and ordered the changing seasons. Next, it was a Jew on the cusp of the Enlightenment who—once educated—had their traditional notions challenged by evolutionary science. Finally, I described the beliefs of the modern, educated Jew who challenged the divine authorship of the Bible, questioned traditional ideas of God, and sought to change the religion to suit their purposes. I suggested that Judaism had to change in order [...]