The professor made a big announcement the first day of class. When he grades papers, he said, he stops reading at the first grammatical mistake.
He then assigns a grade based on everything up to that pointed. He expected perfection in our grammar and spelling.
This happened to me as a college freshman, and the class gasped. He could not be serious, we thought. And it turns out he did not strictly follow this rule. But he was making a point. Write carefully, and proofread frequently.
Alas, I frequently violate these admonitions. You may have noticed my occasional typos and mistakes. I apologize. But not too much, because action matters and time is short.
I want to get out information and inspiration, and I also want to serve my congregation, be a good husband and father, and have a little fun. So I can’t spend as much time proofreading as I’d like.
But here’s important truth I’ve discovered in writing…and in life. Nothing is ever perfect. Author and priest Richard Rohr tells the story of Navajo rug weaving. These beautifully handcrafted rugs are perfectly structured, he writes, except for a corner on each rug where an obvious flaw can be found.
When he asked why flaws were allowed to remain in such otherwise perfect rugs, he was told, "This is where the spirit moves in and out.”
In other words, God does not expect us to be perfect. Rather, it is our imperfections that make us human.
We hired a high-priced copywriter to find all the imperfections, but I'm sure, if you look hard enough, you'll find one or two in my newest book Shalom for the Heart.
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Should Churches Have Rabbis? for Wednesday, 15 March 2017 of Rabbi Evan Moffic of Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, United States
I speak frequently in churches. Usually I talk about one of my books or a topic of the minister’s interest. (If you are interested, you can check my availability by replying to his email.)
But occasionally the pastor and I do a “dialogue sermon.”
Last year I joined a friend at a large church in Scottsdale, AZ. We talked about my book www.rabbimoffic.com/jewishjesus.
Recently I got an email from that pastor. He had just led a new-member orientation. And afterward he wrote me:
"I thought you might be interested in hearing that at a new members class last Sunday morning we had a couple joining the church who told the group that the first Sunday they came was the Sunday you were here last year."
"They were so engaged with the service and the talk afterward that they came back, and are now joining. I think I owe you a commission! I bet you didn’t imagine that you’d be recruiting for church membership when you went to Rabbinical school.”
Indeed I didn’t. But to bring us closer to God is what I have always yearned to do. And God works in mysterious ways.
Prayer is one of those ways. You’ll find several short prayers in Shalom for the Heart.
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Faith Should Be Fun for Tuesday, 14 March 2017 with Rabbi Evan Moffic of Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, United States
Religious is a serious business. It's about truth and how to live.
But that doesn't mean it needs to feel formal and stuffy. On the contrary, when we come to a church or synagogue, we should feel uplifted, inspired and joyful.
Unfortunately, that's not the feeling many people get. I've talked to millennial and baby-boomers who feel judged and intimidated when they walk into a church or synagogue.
I've been trying to figure out how that came to be. How did religion came to feel dark and dreary for so many people?
Perhaps it was the gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages and fire-and-brimstone sermons of the nineteenth century America. Or perhaps it is the contrast between the orderly unfolding of worship and the frivolity of much pop culture.
But order and fun are not mutually exclusive. Jewish tradition provides a useful perspective. Jews have been a persecuted minority for much of human history.
Yet, we developed a unique sense of humor as a way to cope and survive. And that sense of humor can help all of us who struggle to live with truth and faith in a world that seems more fearful and absurd every day.
Humor is a potent tool in our survival kit.
As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks puts it, "What we laugh at, we can rise above. Humor is a way of breaking the grip of fears that would otherwise hold us captive. It is one of the extreme expressions of human freedom."
That is, freedom as the ability to redefine our situation… One who rejects his enemy's interpretation of events cannot be made a victim. Psychologically, he or she remains free. Humor is the first cousin of hope."
To that we can only say "Amen." Hope and humor are two key themes in Shalom For the Heart.
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You Don't Need a "Leap of Faith" for Monday, 13 March 2017 with Rabbi Evan Moffic of Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, United States
Miracles do not require a “leap of faith.” Rather, they arise from what a great rabbi called a “leap of action.” When we make that leap of action, we feel God’s presence pushing us along.
If you have ever seen the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you’ll know what I mean. In a seminal scene near the end, Indiana has to cross a vast chasm.
He sees no bridge and has no rope. If he does not get to the other side, his father will die. His situation seems hopeless.
He does not ask God to pick him up and bring him to the other side. He does not request a lightning bolt to heal his father. He simply takes one step into the chasm.
As he does so, we see a bridge light up beneath his feet. The bridge had been there all along. He needed to take the first step in order to see it.
He needed to take a leap of action.
A particular Jewish example of this view of miracles is found in the beloved holiday of Hanukkah.
Ostensibly Hanukkah celebrates the supernatural miracle of a small jar of oil burn- ing for eight nights. What should have lasted one night lasts for eight. God performs a miracle by causing the oil to burn for that long.
But the eight nights of light was not the greatest miracle. The greatest miracle was that the Jews who entered the temple and found the jar of oil decided to light it at all.
When they found the jar of oil, they knew it was miniscule. They knew it could not possibly last long enough for them to observe the eight-day holiday, which they had missed because they were in the midst of a war with the Assyrians.
Despite all this, they lit the first wick. They took a leap of action. They took the first step not knowing whether they would ever succeed in celebrating for all eight days.
Had they not taken that step—had they not lit the first candle at all—we would have no eight days of miracles. We would have no Hanukkah. We would have no eight days of burning oil.
Miracles do not cause faith. They arise from it.
You can deepen your faith to see more miracles in your life by making time for study and prayer every day. You’ll find ways to do both in Shalom for the Heart.
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The Problem with Miracles for Sunday, 12 March 2017 with Evan Moffic of Congregation Solel in Highland Park, Illinois, United States
The Jewish holiday of Purim begins tomorrow. Purim celebrates the miracle of God’s deliverance of the Israelites from the wicked Haman.
Yet, what happens does not fit what we usually consider a miracle. It is a straightforward tale of human ingenuity and action. But perhaps we need a new understanding of the miraculous.
Typically we understand a miracle as an act defying natural law. We suggest God performs miracles to prove His power.
Indeed, sometimes it sounds as if we think God needs to perform grand miracles to convince people to take Him seriously. The bigger the miracle God does, the more we are impressed.
That’s not the right approach to miracle for two reasons. First, history proves it doesn’t work. Grand miracles rarely lead to lasting faith.
In the Hebrew Bible, for example, God performs signs and wonders like splitting the Red Sea, but three days later, the Israelites wish they were back in Egypt. They doubt God can provide them food in the wilderness. The splitting of the Red Sea did not seem to produce a lasting faith.
And in the New Testament, Jesus’s miracles frequently produce outrage and doubt among those around him. If we think miracles are all we need to find faith, we would have to conclude that they are not very successful tools.
The greatest rabbi of the Middle Ages, Moses Maimonides, said there is always a danger in relying on miracles to prove fully one’s faith because of the possibility we were tricked by magic, optical illusion, or something similar.
Miracles are more than magic. They are real, and they are different from and greater than what we usually imagine. Tomorrow we will discover the real meaning of miracles according to the Hebrew Bible.
In the meantime, you can learn to see miracles in the everyday in this short book of devotions based on Torah verses.
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evan@rabbi.me
Evan Moffic
Congregation Solel
1301 Clavey Road
Highland Park, Illinois 60035, United States
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