Aliyah - The Planning Stage

Israel National Trail

There were several, very sensible reasons for living in the United States instead of Israel. It was, nonetheless, a mistake.

I knew that then.

And now I'm setting things right. I'm finally making aliyah!

Hopefully it will be a permanent move, but that depends on Nefesh b'Nefesh, the organization that helps Jews make aliyah easily. I submitted my application many months ago, so if this is easy, I don't want to know how hard it was before Nefesh b'Nefesh!

If I can't make aliyah officially, I can only stay for three months on a visitor's visa. Should I keep my car and other things in storage just in case I don't get an aliyah visa while I'm in Israel? 

My "to do" list is intimidating, but I want to go home!

Jalapeño Soup

After several soup disasters, I finally made one that I'm not ashamed to share! It was milder than I'd expected so next time I may throw in a few extra serrano peppers.

Here's my recipe for Jalapeño Soup:

boil a chicken carcass to make broth
add a heaping teaspoon of salt
chop the following:
    one russet potato
    one orange bell pepper
    one Anaheim pepper
    two jalapeño peppers
    two serrano peppers
    celery
    carrots
throw in some frozen peas and various salad greens
sweat a chopped red onion and add to soup
boil and blend ten tomatillos and add to soup
one clove of garlic
a little rice

Medicine for the Soul

A course called Medicine for the Soul has been on my "to do when I can afford it" list for a long time now. I was able to listen in on the first week once and thought it was amazing. 

The founders no longer offer the course, but you can click on this link to sign up for a recording of one of the tele-conferences.

Change is Bad, or What the Heck Happened to Reform Judaism?

Last fall, I attended an erev Shabbat dinner at the local synagogue. I noted that the potluck was not vegetarian (they were serving chicken) but I knew that kosher laws would not be a consideration at a Reform synagogue. After proudly placing my homemade cheesecake on the buffet table, I looked around the room hoping for an opportunity to introduce myself to someone.

A lady approached me and took me aside. She whispered that I’d have to take my cheesecake away because they were serving chicken.

I was mortified: I had brought cheesecake to a fleishig meal! I stuttered that I hadn’t expected a Reform synagogue to serve a kosher meal. She explained that they do so for possible visitors who might keep kosher. (I wondered how many kosher-keeping visitors drive to a Reform temple after sunset on a Friday night, but since this is the only shul in town, it is thoughtful.)

Before I had a chance to move toward the buffet table and remove my unwanted contribution to the meal, another woman swooped toward the covered cheesecake pan and lifted it from the table. She raised it to shoulder height and dramatically announced in a loud voice that carried across the social hall, “I’m going to take this out of here!”

As she hurried out of the social hall, I followed and took the pan from her, irritated that she was handling my food with disgust and that she had made an unnecessary scene instead of allowing the first woman to handle the “situation” discretely. Outside, as I was putting the cheesecake in my car’s trunk, I recalled the chicken breasts and thighs that I’d seen on the buffet table. They were larger and juicier than any the kosher butcher down in the Valley had ever sold to me.

When I reentered the social hall, the second woman grinned at me from under her blonde bob. “I hope you don’t mind,” she minced while swinging her cute skirt around her knees. I asked her where the synagogue purchased its kosher chicken. She laughed theatrically. “Oh, we don’t do that.”

I was speechless. She had embarrassed me for the sake of a traif meal!

At least at an Orthodox shul that actually observes kashrut, they would have known that my refrigerated cheesecake could not transfer its “dairyness” to the tablecloth and over to the chicken-- which would have actually been kosher.

My old Reform shul

Something has changed in Reform Judaism during the last twenty years. In 1999, a friend, who had been raised in an Orthodox community, left our synagogue because “Reform is getting too Orthodox.” 

At the time, I thought she was nuts, but she may have had a point.

The changes were small at first. A little ritual practice here, the study of select Talmudic passages there. 

Has it gone too far? To me, it seems that imposing ritual practice on others is not Reform. And being absolute hypocrites is a little too Orthodox.

The early Reformers of the 1700s did not reject the Talmud but they did reject the idea that Talmudic law was binding. They considered observance and non-observance private matters and rarely addressed the subject of kashrut. Reform Judaism was a response to powerlessness and exclusion that Jews had experienced for centuries prior to the Enlightenment. Keeping kosher continued to keep Jews outside of mainstream society and also caused Jews to be helpless outside their own communities.

One Reform educator, in the late 1700s, did discuss kashrut. He focused on what foods the Torah forbade and the separation of meat and milk, but questioned Talmudic slaughter laws which sometimes contradict the Temple sacrifices described in the Torah. (Basically, this Reformer was advocating what is now called "kosher style.") However, since observance of kashrut had already fallen by the wayside for most German Jews, few people gave the subject much thought.

Later, American Classical Reform rejected kashrut altogether in the Pittsburg Platform. The celebration of the first graduation from Hebrew Union College included a meal that is famously referred to as the “Trefa Banquet” because organizers had deliberately chosen to serve shrimp. (This meal was the impetus for the creation of the Conservative Movement by attendees who thought that eating shellfish was going too far.)

The Reform Movement never officially adopted the Pittsburg Platform. The Reform Movement also emphasizes that Judaism has always been an evolving tradition that responds to changing circumstances. So the Pittsburg Platform is no more binding than Talmudic law. 

However, my Reform origins taught me that kashrut and other ritual observance are private matters to be observed only when they are personally meaningful. And my personal experience has taught me to listen to my soul, not other people who want to impose their beliefs or practices on me. (i.e., control me).

During the time that I both kept kosher and attended a Reform temple, I had no grievance with my community for not providing kosher food. Community is the most significant aspect of Judaism (and life in general) and having an Orthodox rabbi meddling in our eating habits didn't seem like a positive thing. Kashrut can be divisive. In my experience, it also fosters an "us versus them" mentality.

I kept kosher for seventeen years and it felt authentic and meaningful. It helped me feel Jewish the other six days of the week and made me attentive and "present." I appreciated the idea that not every animal is available for our consumption and that an animal raised for food should have a good life and be slaughtered as painlessly as possible.

Today, however, the idea of separating meat and dairy dishes or washing my cat’s dishes in the bathroom sink feels absurd—meaningless. Kashrut is not the only, or even the best way, to respect life.

My recent experience of a “kosher-style” potluck, has made me pause. What are the core principles of Reform Judaism? Does the observance of “kosher style” violate those principles? Does kosher-style foster community? Does it teach Jewish values?

For the sake of courtesy and being a welcoming community, I wish the temple had included their dietary rules in their potluck advertisement.