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The Oldest Operating Synagogue in Newark, New Jersey 145 Broadway, Newark, NJ 07104 |
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The magnificent Ark dates from 1870’s and is a transplant. The Ark first graced the majestic 19th century synagogue of Congregation Beth-El, later Rodeph Sholom, at Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street in NY City.
After setting up the lights, Alan Zwiebel presented us on Erev Yom Kippur with the amazing vision of the beauty of the Ark .
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“ABOUT EKEV” (DEVARIM/ EKEV) August 23, 2008 / 22 Av, 5768
SIMON ROSENBACH
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“SIMON SAYS”- From Our Spiritual Leader |
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Welcome to the Webshul! |
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As some of you may know, I was a mediocre high school and college miler. If you want to know my times, ask me; I never stop glorying in my distant past and love to regale people with stories about my great races, stories that people never want to hear in the first place. I am sure that we have other athletes in our small community; I know that Eric played high school and I think college basketball. That makes him a better athlete than I was: I had no eye-hand coordination and played a sport where all you had to do was put one foot in front of the other foot longer than the other guy.
I continue to follow track and field, but not so avidly. I can tell you who the world record holder is in the mile, but not the time. I can not tell you many other statistics that I once knew like the back of my hand, but because this is an Olympic year, my interest is higher than it otherwise would be. I am especially keen to see how the middle distance races go, and whether certain people will prevail or whether they will be upset. But the Olympics (which are, after all, a Greek tradition) make me wonder why our ancestors did not seem to be interested in, let alone emphasize, physical prowess.
Athletic contests have been around for a long time. The contestants participated as the pride of their hometowns, or the pride of their regions, or the pride of their country. The contestants participated for personal pride, although not always for personal gain. After all, the Olympic champion won a laurel wreath, although upon coming home there were undoubtedly certain material benefits.
Yet. The quintessential Biblical strongman was a failure. God had high hopes for Samson, but he squandered his talents. Saul was a man large in stature and of great warrior prowess, but he too was a disappointment. Jacob was a wrestler, but he lived a life, as he put it to Pharaoh, of misery and his favorite wife died in the desert. Esau was the hunter and bowman, but he did not gain God's favor.
It is not as though our ancestors were not warriors. They were. It is not as though our ancestors did not admire physical strength. They did. And, it is not as though our ancestors did not think that physical abilities were a way of honoring God, because our ancestors held that view as well. So, what, if anything, is the Bible trying to tell us?
I don't pretend to know. But I can pretend to consider. And I consider that our ancestors saw all of human behavior as undertaken for the glory of God. Thus, if your only aim was self-aggrandizement, you were destined to be a failure, even if your skills were remarkable. Only if your skills were employed for the advancement of Israelitish goals were you recognized.
Today, we have analogous debates about athletes and their skills. Almost all professional athletes create charitable foundations, undoubtedly for tax purposes, but some athletes seem more than others to find real pleasure in the goals of their foundations. Some athletes are criticized because they do not take political positions, or because they refrain from being champions of their ethnic group. It seems to me that athletic fame, like acting fame, enables a person to be a spokesman for societal betterment, but that ability does not necessarily mean that the athlete will act in that fashion. After all, I can envision an athlete saying, Hey, my ability to throw a baseball hard and accurately scarcely qualifies me to make statements about the environment, or Darfur, or whatever. I can also envision an athlete saying, Hey, why should I be a point man for some cause simply because I can put a ball in a hoop?
But I think that the Tanach tells us otherwise. If all that you do is put a ball in a hoop and get rich, then you have not used your talent for the greater good and you don't deserve to succeed. If your talent permits you to become noticed and you use your notoriety to espouse a worth cause, then you do deserve to succeed.
Not all of us (indeed, hardly any of us) will win Olympic gold. All of us, however, have talents, and all of us have an obligation to be as good as we can be in our area of talent. And if our ability to be good at something makes us the focus of other people's attention, whether in our peer community or in the world at large, then we are obliged to take positions and move the world forward. SIMON ROSENBACH
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The websites for kidney and bone marrow donating, in case you are interested : Kidney donating: http://www.kidneyregistry.org Bone marrow donating: http://www.marrow.org
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Poile Zedek Cemetery Desecretion If you need more information, contact us at 732-432-7711 or info@jf-gmc.org. You may also donate on line by logging onto our website at www.JewishMiddlesex.org or www.njjewishnews.com
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