The Miracle of Israel

READ ON TIMES OF ISRAEL

Probably the most often asked question I receive in my work is: “Rabbi: Where are the miracles? The Bible is filled with miracles, Why doesn’t God perform them anymore? If God performed a miracle, Rabbi, then I’d believe and maybe I’d even follow in His ways.”

My answer is always the same: God does perform miracles, we just need to be able to see them. They may not be as obvious as the splitting of the Red Sea, but they’re still miracles…and if there was any event in contemporary times where God showed His hand in history, it was the creation of the State of Israel, celebrated just last week on Yom Ha’atzmaut.

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The Slavery No One Talks About at the Seder

Authored by Rabbi Mark Wildes, with contributions by Jessica Hendricks Yee of The Brave Collection and Michelle Soffen of MJE

FEATURED ON HUFFINGTON POST

Modern Day Slavery. When you hear these words, what comes to mind? Perhaps the phenomenon of being tethered to technology, the need to check one’s email all hours of the day, slaves to our jobs, to our mortgages, credit card bills, school loans, to our relentless self-doubt, or bad habits. This is what I have always explained as Modern Day Slavery, until I met entrepreneur Jessica Hendricks Yee, CEO of The Brave Collection.

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The force behind history and our lives: A Passover message

FEATURED ON THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Years ago I heard the following story from Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel. It will require a bit of your imagination:

An Olympia airline plane lands in Athens, Greece. An old man steps off the plane. He is none other than Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, now a very old man, having been away from his home for hundreds of years. He steps off the plane and a young Greek porter at the terminal runs up to him to offer some help. “May I take your bag?” asks the porter. The old Socrates looks at the young man confused. “What language are you speaking?” “Greek,” replied the young man. “But why are you not speaking our classical Greek?” asks Socrates. “This is how we speak Greek today” replied the porter, “I studied a little classic Greek in university, but no one speaks it anymore”. The old man leaves the airport to visit his homeland and to his dismay sees nothing familiar. He looks for the usual Greek idols which used to line the streets of Athens but instead he sees a Greek Orthodox Church, a completely different religion. He hears people talking but no one speaking his classic Greek language. He has nothing in common with these people, just geography.

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The Secret to Jewish Survival

Featured on: TIMES OF ISRAEL

For many years, my wife and I would spend time in Boyton Beach, Florida where my in-laws used to live. They lived in a lovely community populated overwhelmingly by Jewish retirees from Long Island, Westchester and New Jersey. It's a whole world of shuffleboard, mahjong games and early bird specials and over the years I got to know a good number of the older people who live there...

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Does God Care Who Wins The Super Bowl?

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You’re glued to the screen, surrounded by spicy hot wings and shouting friends. Maybe you have money on the game, maybe you don’t.

One more down. One more chance to move 10 yards.

“Please, get it. Please God, let them just get it.”

Without even realizing it, you find yourself praying. You are praying to the Almighty... for a play to go your way...for your team to win...for the other team to lose.

But does God care? Does God not have bigger, more important things to worry about? Don’t we?

These questions come up this time every year, leading up to the glorious American tradition of Super Bowl Sunday. We wonder if God is concerned with something so relatively trivial, not to mention whether it’s appropriate, even in a moment of heightened desperation, to use our precious prayers towards the outcome of a sporting event.

I can’t pretend to fully understand God’s plan. That said, Jewish tradition teaches that God is concerned and somehow involved in everything that happens in our lives. Classical Judaism subscribes to the belief that God not only created the world, but also plays an active part in it. The Jewish scholar Maimonides broke with the famed Greek philosopher Aristotle over this very idea. Aristotle believed God created the world and that the Creator relates to humanity but only in a general sense as a species - what is referred to as “General Providence”. Maimonides on the other hand, echoing the traditional Jewish view, taught that God is concerned and relates to each and every person on the individual level - what’s called “Individual Providence”.

And so every concern we have - whether it’s a big issue like a natural disaster or illness, a relationship or something important in our career, or it’s something smaller like who wins the Superbowl - is part of the way the Almighty relates to us. And so from a Jewish perspective it wouldn’t be inappropriate to pray for your team to win, if that’s something which concerns you and you truly care about. Just remember, we also believe in free will and so if your prayers are not answered favorably and your team loses, that just may mean the other team played better, or possibly that you and your team’s other fans were collectively lacking in merit, or perhaps it just doesn’t fit into the bigger picture that we simply can not fully perceive.

What’s important to remember is that God cares about people and that our relationship with Him (as well as the sum of our merits) does somehow play a part in the way everything unfolds, maybe even the outcome of the Super Bowl.

Also remember: praying your team gets a touchdown is still a conversation with God. Judaism teaches we are all meant to have a personal relationship with our Creator which we can’t do without conversing. So, if you want to talk sports with God - go for it! What matters most is that you’re talking at all. Just make sure the conversation doesn’t end when the game is over. There’s so much more to talk about.

Allies in Humanity: What We Can learn from the U.S.-Israel Relationship

Featured on: TIMES OF ISRAEL

MK Michael Oren Speaks at MJE
WATCH: Michael Oren gives a fascinating and entertaining lecture about the history and current status of the U.S./ Israel relationship.For more on the evening, check out this The Times of Israel blog post by Rabbi Mark Wildes on what we can learn from Michael Oren and the U.S./ Israel Relationship:http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/allies-in-humanity-what-we-can-learn-from-the-u-s-israel-relationship/
Posted by Manhattan Jewish Experience on Sunday, November 22, 2015

“As a historian, I am always humbled by our general inability to predict which moments in time will or will not become turning points,” said Ambassador Michael Oren last Saturday evening, as he addressed a crowd of 500 people at the annual lecture Manhattan Jewish Experience hosts in memory of my mother, Ruth B. Wildes of blessed memory. (See video above). “We can never truly know how any event or phenomenon will shape history, but we know one thing for certain right now. As of the horrendous attacks last night in Paris, the world will never be the same.”

His words hit me deeply. READ FULL ARTICLE

Why Date Night is Critical - in Judaism and Relationships

Featured on: HUFFINGTON POST |  TIMES OF ISRAEL

Years ago a man by the name of Andrew Burian spoke to MJE participants about his experience during the Holocaust. After finishing his incredible account of survival of many concentration camps, an audience member asked "Why did you stay religious after enduring and witnessing all those horrors?".

I'll never forget his answer: 

"Because I loved it," he sighed. "I missed it".

What does love have to do with religion? For so many Jews, especially in America, the answer is, regretfully, nothing. For many, the idea of practicing Judaism is wrapped up in a sense of obligation and fear - a responsibility to not let something so old die out, fear of disappointing our parents, or maybe even God. But love? Certainly not.

It makes sense. What is the most popular day in synagogue for American Jews? You guessed it - Yom Kippur. And rightfully so - it is the holiest of holy days when we have the greatest opportunity to transform and work on ourselves. It is the "Day of Awe," in which we proclaim over and over God's ultimate power and awesomeness. It is critical.

And so synagogues throughout America fill their pews for one or two days, and the people come, and fast and atone, and afterwards most resume their ordinary lives, with the most "Jewish" thing being eating bagels and lox on Sundays and going out for Chinese food on Christmas.

Too few Jews are exposed to what comes right after Yom Kippur - "zman zimchaseinu" - the time of our rejoicing as the Torah describes the holiday of Sukkot, and the next week Simchat Torah. During this time we gather with friends and family, we build a Sukkah, we eat, we drink, give presents to our children, feed the needy, sing and dance. We celebrate and bask in the energy of abundance and joy. We are actually commanded to enjoy ourselves. The Torah says: vsamachta bchagecha: "thou shalt be happy on the holidays."

It's a real shame that so many of us weren't raised to celebrate these holidays, because a Yom-Kippur-only Jewish life reinforces the perception that so many have of Judaism as a sin and guilt oriented faith, and leaves no room for practice out of love.

But why is love in terms of our connection to Judaism and God important in the first place? Like in any relationship between two people there needs to be a balance between what we feel obligated to do and what we truly want to do - what we do because we respect the other person and what we do because we love them. A relationship with one and not the other is doomed to failure and so striking that balance is key.

Looking at my own marriage, I take out the trash, pay the bills, and schlep to events I don't always want to go to because I have the utmost respect for my wife and ultimately I want to make the relationship work. At the same time, we enjoy a romantic dinner, kick back and watch a movie and share our innermost thoughts and feelings because I want to - because I love her.

Respect and love - a marriage needs both. Our relationship with God is no different and so Judaism needs both.

Survivor Andrew Burian didn't just wake up one morning in love. His life was filled with daily actions which ultimately resulted in these feelings. This is why any two people are really in love - the initial chemistry is just infatuation, the real love comes from years of giving and extending oneself for the other - from years of respect. The holiday rituals year after year are meant to eventually get us to a place where we do the mitzvot not just because of what will happen to us if we don't, and not even because we realize God's awesomeness - but because we just can't help ourselves. We're in love.

We need Yom Kippur. We need to cultivate reverence and awe for God. Love without respect and obligation is transient. But like in any relationship, we need to celebrate the love or it will atrophy. We need to create space to just be with our partner, to enjoy each other. We need a date night! If not, then we're left in a loveless marriage - best case scenario married to a platonic best friend/ roommate, and worst case scenario - running for the hills and looking for any opportunity to get away. 

Simchat Torah Celebration

Sukkot and Simchat Torah are "date night". It is our chance to simply enjoy our relationship with God and our beautiful faith.

My blessing to us all is that we take the Yirah - the reverence we experienced on Yom Kippur, and that together we move up to the Ahava - to the joy and love expressed on Sukkot and Simchat Torah. In doing so may we achieve that delicate balance and the highest levels of connection, both in our relationship with God, with our Judaism, and with each other.

Dedicated to the memory of Eitam and Na'amah Henkin, the Jewish couple killed this past week in Israel. They truly loved their Judaism.