From the Rabbi

Reflecting on my seven years at Tifereth Israel, it has been a dance. The shul family has been with each other in sorrow and in joy, and at all the times in between. I acknowledge how appreciative I am to have been so warmly embraced. Thank you so much for making me part of your family, and for giving me the opportunity to serve our community.

Mazel tov to Congregation Tifereth Israel on its 118th anniversary. I look forward to celebrating our Journal Dinner-Dance with the congregation and friends. May it continue to grow stronger with the years.

CTI has a long tradition of honoring those who respond to the needs of our community and help support us by contributing their time and talent. Mazel tov to Paul and Alice Nadel as this year’s synagogue honorees. As shul members, they support the spiritual, educational and social activities and events that contribute to the success of the synagogue’s program. They have raised their two children, Joseph and Alex, to care and to be linked to the Jewish people. Paul’s dedication to the minyan — the prayer quorum — has strengthened our sanctuary tremendously. He is not there only for Keva — the routine of attending services; he brings the Kavana, the full intention in prayer and study.

Every Shabbat in the synagogue, we recite a special prayer: “May God who blessed our ancestors — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah — bless this entire congregation… those who enter to pray, and those who give funds for heat and light, wine for Kiddush and Havdalah, bread to the wayfarer, and charity to the poor… May God bless them by making all their endeavors prosper, as well as those of the entire people Israel.” (Siddur Sim Shalom P. 148)

The month of Av is called Menachem Av — a month of consolation, when we go from Tisha b’Av (9th of Av), the day of destruction, to Tu b’Av (15th of Av), the day of love. To continue our dance, we have to be able to sway back and forth between sorrow and joy.
Looking forward to continuing our dancing together on September 8.

—Rabbi Gadi Capela

We tend to attribute the fatherhood of modern capitalism to Adam Smith, who wrote The Wealth of Nations originally as a mere guidebook. In essence, Adam Smith’s philosophy was to let the markets regulate themselves or, as we commonly refer to this idea, to perpetuate a free economy. My finance professor back in business school, Dr. Aaron Brown, one of the leading analysts on Wall Street, compares the attempt to regulate the market to a person trying to stabilize a ball with a stick. This might be true, but it doesn’t mean that markets can’t regulate themselves ethically.

Recently, I was invited to introduce “The Book of Amos” at one of the local churches. “The Book of Amos” is the first prophetic book of the Bible to have been written, and it carries a universal message about regulating the market. Amos’s themes of social justice and divine judgment are reverberated in the words of all the other prophets.  God wants us to be free, but links this freedom directly to our ethical conduct regarding our wealth.

Amos, an older contemporary of Isaiah, was active around c. 750 BC. He was a Judaean who preached to the northern kingdom of Israel. But Amos tells the cult prophet Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor have I belonged to a company of prophets; I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.” (Amos 7:14) The sycamore (of Israel) produces a small fruit that is not known to have a great taste. The job of the dresser was to puncture the fruit days before it was to be gathered in order to help with the ripening process.

When Amos says he is a dresser of sycamores, he is describing himself as the average man on the street. The central idea of the “Book of Amos” is that God puts his people on the same level when it comes to ethical behavior. Similar to the surrounding nations, Israel and Judah will not be exempt from the judgment of God because of their unjust ways. Israel is guilty of injustices toward the innocent, the poor, and to young women. The modern example of sex trafficking has ancient roots.

“Thus, said the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, yea, for four, I will not reverse it: because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept His statutes, and their lies have caused them to err, after which their fathers did walk. So will I send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. Thus saith the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, yea, for four, I will not reverse it: because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes.” (Amos 2:4-6)

The Talmud tells us that this is a reference to Joseph having been sold by his brothers. The Talmud also links this act to the destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Judea — thus the Temple. If you don’t see yourself and others as equals — a fellow sycamore tree — eventually you are bound to be unjust toward him.

We have just begun the “Three Weeks” period between the 17th of Tammuz, the day the Romans breeched the walls of Jerusalem, and the 9th of Av, when the Temple was destroyed. Let’s use this time to examine ourselves and our actions, and to make sure we don’t sell our brothers and sisters for a pair of shoes. The way to rebuild is through justice. “Behold, the days come, said the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:5-6,11)

God bless,

—Rabbi Gadi Capela

In a few days, it will be seven years since I began serving as the rabbi of Congregation Tifereth Israel. When I decided to make the change from corporate to the rabbinate, I did it not because I didn’t enjoy the work I was doing; on the contrary, it was gratifying in many ways. I did it because of the feeling I had that I was working for “other people”— that when I would call in all the chips at the end of the day, most of the effort I was investing had dissolved into a big matrix. Looking back at this decision, despite many challenges over the years, it still feels that I’m working for my people.

Many stressful experiences are due to our tendency to test God as well as to test each other. When we test each other, we resemble the husband who suspects his wife of cheating. He takes her to the High Priest, who lets her drink the bitter water in which the words of that particular portion of Torah are dissolved in the water. If the woman is guilty, she dies then and there. But if she’s innocent, the bitter water will go through her and she will conceive a child.  (Numbers 5:21-25)

The rabbis teach us that for peace in the house, God is willing for His name to be dissolved into the water. God’s identity can take it — better that then to erase the house. As I ponder the future, we have been given an opportunity to find common ground. I am hopeful that we can rise to the occasion and envision a positive future.

God bless our people,

—Rabbi Gadi Capela