From the Rabbi
Rabbi Robert L. Wolkoff
Previous Messages
“Thanksgiving to Our Heroes”
Every year, the Greenport Ecumenical Ministries holds a special service on Veterans’ Day to honor our veterans and other civil servants. This year, the service was expanded to honor and thank our essential workers — the North Fork Heroes of the Pandemic. The event took place at the First Presbyterian Church of Southold on Sunday, Nov. 14.
In Tractate Avot 4:1, the Talmud asks the question, Who is a hero? He who overcomes his inclination, as it says in Proverbs 16:32. “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit is better than he who takes a city…” Earlier in Avot 2:16, Rabbi Tarfon asserts, “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to quit it…”
According to our sages, being a hero is like being a soldier, one who has no right to abandon his post. Moreover, Biblical heroes are the ones who believe they do not have the right to cease from their work. In fact, the Hebrew word tzava describes service in the military and also service to God by the Levis in the Holy Temple. Rabbi Tarfon adds, “Faithful is your employer to pay you the reward of your labor, and know that the grant of reward unto the righteous is in the age to come.” Being a hero is also a willingness to serve without feeling appreciated or seeking an immediate recompense. Still in Avot, Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabbi Judah Hanasi, said, “…all who labor with the community should labor with them for the sake of Heaven, for the merit of their forefathers sustains the community…”
The consistency exhibited by our heroes — those doctors and nurses who did not abandon their posts in hospitals and other health facilities despite facing immediate danger daily — are like the Temidim, the daily offerings in the Temple, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They are examples of those Rabban Gamliel is talking about, those who serve for the sake of heaven and whose merits sustain the community. I am reminded of our shared responsibility for the sins of the community on the High Holidays. By the same token, the merits for good and heroic acts by a few can redeem a whole community.
As the year 2021 is closing, let us take this lesson to heart. Let us roll up our sleeves and get our hands in the dirt. Let us serve the community with the owe of heaven. We also owe gratitude to the heroes in our own CTI, our own Temidim, who show up every morning and afternoon, every weekday, every Shabbat and holiday. To all those who serve on the shul’s Board of Directors and to all the members of our various working committees, we salute you, and extend to you and all in the shul family the blessings of this this Thanksgiving day.
—Rabbi Gadi Capela
“Open Ark, Close Ark”
It was a week before Rosh Hashanah, and we were still assigning aliyot to the Torah and other honors. It is a big honor to open the Ark on Rosh Hashanah, like opening the gate of heaven. We pack all our prayers in and then send them off throughout the High Holidays, all the way through Simchat Torah. And then we close the Ark for the season.
Wanting to avoid crowding the Bima and also keeping services as non-cumbersome as possible during Covid, we decided to avoid this honor this year. Nevertheless, the nature of the hybrid service means that the whole world is open to us. The doors to our synagogue can be like the doors of the Ark, open to all.
A week before Rosh Hashanah, I received a message that my cousin’s husband had passed away unexpectedly on a trip to Florida. When I first moved to New York, Dalia and Gary’s apartment, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, was my first address. They were hospitable and welcoming. Gary was smart and accomplished, and was endowed with a calm and assuring demeanor. He was a good role model for me. A few years and a few kids later, they moved to the West Coast.
Since Gary had passed away in Florida, it took a week to bring him to final rest. He was finally buried a few hours before Rosh Hashanah had set in. It was just a few hours before we were to open the Ark. It was as though Gary had received the honor to open the Ark. He went to heaven and, as a welcoming and hospitable mensch, he left the doors open behind him to make way for our prayers.
Three weeks later, right after sundown on Simchat Torah, I standing in front of the Ark, putting away the Torah covers and other accouterments associated with our observances. I was ready to close the Ark for the last time for the season when I received another message. This time it was about the passing of a dear friend, John. John and Dolores were there from the beginning of my rabbinic chapter. They were the first to take the tour to Israel with us; they were there at my ordination, my installation, and on many a vacation. John, like Gary, was a calm and assuring presence, always with a helpful tip and advice.
It seemed to me that, just as Gary had opened the Ark, John had the honor to close the Ark. He entered the gate just before it closed. Like a responsible police officer, he was there to guard the gate. As though God had arranged a way to bypass the social distancing for the opening and closing of the Ark.
Where they have gone, time and space are not measured in days or distance. One way or another, the Ark needs to close before it can be opened again.
A personal message
I would like to convey my deepest condolences to the families of Gayle Kaplan and Thelma Novick, two pillars in our community, who passed away shortly after the holidays. Gayle was a wonderful soul. I enjoyed her presence in Hebrew class for many years. Gayle was joined by her good friend Thelma Novick just a few days later. I had spoken with Thelma only a few days prior to her passing. At 97, she still sounded positive and motivated.
I also extend condolences also to the Rothman family on the passing of Madelyn’s aunt, Myrna Kroff, and to the Goldman family on the passing of Phil’s brother Stanley.
May their memories be for a blessing for many years to come.
Blessings for a peaceful year,
—Rabbi Gadi Capela
“4×4 Spirituality”
Many thanks to all of you who joined us online and in person for the High Holidays. The hybrid services were a special experience this year. The number of people who participated in person was truly surprising, and for those who were on Zoom, it was fantastic to be able to provide everyone the opportunity to be with us.
Now we are in the sukkah. When I sit in my sukkah at home, somehow that simple, almost primitive structure gives me comfort. It is especially so in its context after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the feeling of starting over with renewed spirit. The four poles of the sukkah create a home-like feeling of security. In my mind, I know this is not a particularly protected structure, but my spirit is secure. I liken the feeling to the four columns that are held by our confidences at the chuppah, watching over us as sentinels, creating a stable edifice, a sanctuary.
During Sukkot, we are also commanded to hold together in our hands the four species. One has taste, one has smell, one has both, and one has neither. The rabbis tell us that these are the four archetypes of people in our community. They may be coming from the four corners of the world, yet together they form one plural and cohesive bundle. Likewise, the four children of the Haggadah, who sitting together around the Seder table make it stable. It is stable not just because it has four even legs, but because it is a vehicle for camaraderie.
The Zohar, the main text of the Kabbalah, in its commentary on Parashat Vayishlach (172 b), refers to the sukkah as Raza DeMehaimanuta — the secret to faith. It is one of humanity’s ways to create a chariot for God, a throne of God in this world. In fact, Kabbalah speaks of four worlds – Emanation, Creation Formation, and Action that originate from the light of God in heaven. It is referenced in Isaiah 43:7: “Everyone that is called by My name and for My glory, I have created, I have formed, even I have made.” The worlds continue to emanate and cascade from one another, each world becoming more crystallized and materialized, culminating in the fourth world, which manifests itself as our physical world on earth. Thus, coming together in the Sukkah is coming under the throne of God.
But the throne of God on earth is incomplete until the elimination of the force of Amalek, the influence that seeks to destabilize the throne of God in this world. Immediately following the exodus from Egypt, when the Israelites were still weak and afraid, they were attacked from behind by the cowardly Amalek. Ultimately, the Israelites defeated Amalek, but Moses declared: “Hand upon the throne of the Lord! The Lord will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.” (Shemot 17:16) In this verse, even the word throne in Hebrew is spelled half way – Kes. As long as Amalek is trying to compromise the unity of Israel in this world, its hand is holding down the throne of God.
Clearly, there is a message that the Torah wants us to understand through four elements. The ultimate message is that all of us — the four types of people, the four children, the four spirits that come from the four corners of the earth — are responsible for creating and keeping stable the throne of God, for building a sheltering Sukkah, for maintaining a safe sanctuary, for investing in a peaceful public square, and for inspiring us to keep moving forward with our 4 x 4 spirituality.
May we all have a peaceful and bountiful year.
—Rabbi Gadi Capela
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