Miracles of Medicine

Just because these days cataracts surgery is considered routine doesn't make it any less miraculous. This morning the lens of my right eye was removed and a corrective clear lens was implanted in its place. I am told and assured that in a few weeks when the left eye is surgically corrected I will have nearly perfect vision without glasses or contact lenses. I provided for my surgeon, Dr. McGarey, a copy of the Physician's Prayer attributed to Maimonides.

Contemporary adaptation for use by doctors before

serious surgery

Holy One, Source of all healing, You have chosen me

to watch over the life and health of my patients. I am

now about to perform surgery, entering the sacred

temple of the body. May You guide me to use my skill,

learning, experience, and intuition to achieve the best

possible outcome. Illumine my mind so that I

recognize what presents itself and comprehend what may

be absent or hidden. May I, with the support of my

capable team, stay focused and attentive during the

entire procedure in order to preserve the life and health

of my patient.

Grant that my patient have confidence in me and my art

and follow my directions and my counsel. I pray for a

healing of body and spirit for my patient. I now begin

the holy task entrusted to me. –Amen.

For all those other seemingly routine medical miracles like knee surgery, hip replacement, rotator cuff repair, cancer treatments, and other healing modalities available to us through the knowledge and expertise of physicians we should be extremely grateful. Perhaps you would like to offer this pre-surgery prayer to a doctor you know who would appreciate the guidance and deepened kavannah "intention" provided.

Sending blessings for healing to all my friends and readers.

Rabbi Alicia

Silent Rabbi

New experience.  After returning from a very inspiring college reunion at Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville, NY, and visiting our daughter Tali in Brooklyn, I totally lost my voice, due to the changes in temperature and strong air conditioning in the plane and shuttle.  So... what to do?

I planned a Friday night service at our synagogue in Sedona, and gave out parts to sing, chant, read, and lead.  I played the guitar and smiled, but said not one word.  The service went along well, with the congregants smiling at the novelty of their rabbi remaining silent.  When it came to the blessings for the people who had the honor of coming up to the Torah, I so wanted to offer them a true blessing, but absolutely could not utter a sound.... so I mimed bringing down blessings flowing from heaven, pouring into the scroll of the Torah, and then carried them these blessings over to the couple and let the blessing flow over them.  Somehow they understood and accepted my gesture and did feel blessed!  A one-of -a kind service, for sure!  The heart communicates even if the mouth cannot.

Purim fun at the synagogue

Hubbetzin Itzhak and Rabbi Alicia Magal at Purim celebration

Rabbi reading from Megillat Esther

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Ceremonial Vestments, for Protection and Atonement

 

Tetzaveh, Exodus 27:20 – 30:10, begins with God speaking to Moses: “You shall instruct the Israelites…” and there follow many directives, such as to bring pure olive oil for lighting the Menorah inside the Tabernacle, and to provide very particular articles of ceremonial clothing for Aaron and his sons who are to serve as the Cohanim, priests, for the Israelites.

 This was the Torah portion of our now-grown son Amir, who can still chant by heart the opening verses of the portion he learned: “V’Asu et ha-ephod…”  “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen…”  There were so many details of how to craft, weave, and decorate the Cohen Gadol’s ceremonial outfit!  In order for him to understand this Torah portion we studied together the details of the High Priest’s clothing from materials I had gathered when I had served as Museum Educator at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles.  He drew his version of how the High Priest might have looked, wearing the breastplate (hoshen) with precious stones representing the twelve tribes, linen pinafore (ephod), a robe (me’il) with golden bells and pomegranate tassels on the hem, a fringed tunic (ketonet tashbetz), a headdress or turban (mitznefet) and golden forehead band (tzitz) with the words “kadosh l’Adonai”– Holy to God -  engraved on it, a sash (“avnet”), and pants (michnasayim).

 

He understood that the very special dress of the High Priest symbolized the Cohen Gadol’s spiritual role and revered status.  Amir inserted his drawing, along with readings, poems, and other original illustrations into the siddur booklet we edited as a family.

 

Through the years, on the anniversary of Amir’s Bar Mitzvah, I look for additional meanings in this portion, which I have come to realize contains more than a mere listing of beautifully crafted robes; there are additional layers of symbolism attached to each article of the Cohen Gadol’s vestments. According to the Talmud, (B. Zevachim 88b), with commentary by Rashi (Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud, 28:35; derived from Zevachim 17b and Sanhedrin 83a.) and Maimonides (Laws of the Sanctuary Vessels 10:4), the wearing of the priestly robe atoned for the sin of evil speech on the part of B’nai Israel. Each piece of clothing offered a kind of protection to the priest and perhaps also served as a reminder for the people of the dangers of sinning.

 

A brief summary of each priestly garment and what sin it protects from: the sash is meant to protect from sins of the heart; the breastplate from faulty judgment; the robe with bells that tinkle as the priest walks protect from sins of lashon ha-ra, evil speech; the headdress and forehead band atone for arrogance, insolence, and audacity or ego; the tunic guards against bloodshed; the ephod against idol worship, and the pants from immorality. 

 

We no longer have a High Priest, but there seems to me to be a certain hint of that awe with which we beheld the High Priest, in the respect we show to the Torah scroll as it is walked through the congregation, with its mantle, binder (sash), breastplate, crowns, and bells. The Torah encompasses the authority of the Word of God passed down to us through the generations, and holds a remnant of the beauty, repository of knowledge, and power that resided with the Divinely appointed Cohen Gadol of our ancient tradition.

 

 

Rabbi Alicia Magal serves as spiritual leader of the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley.

Torah Portion Beshallach – Holy Choreography

I was a dancer in my teens.  I still need to "feel the movement" in a biblical passage in order to understand the words at a deeper level.  I believe that prayer is, at its source, sacred dance and communal choreography.

Therefore, I am overjoyed each year when we reach the Torah portion Beshallach in which is embedded the ancient Song of the Sea, for which this Shabbat gets its name, Shabbat Shira, the Sabbath of Song.  And it is not only about the ancient ballad, or the contemporary, special music that many congregations bring on this special service... it also refers to Miriam and the women dancing with their timbrels.  In some congregations this is an occasion to sing Debbie Friedman 's "MIriam's Song" and dance with tambourines weaving through the aisles of the synagogue. 
 

 

B'shallach means literally “In the sending" - referring to when Pharaoh let our people go out of Egypt - the tight places - into the wilderness.   I take this very personally, as if reminding myself that we have times in our life when we press for freedom, and then are "sent," freed, allowed to go, and find ourselves dancing across some impossible sea through some unimaginable wall of water, to an unknown wilderness place of not-knowing. Part of us is ecstatically delighted at this new freedom, and another part of us is frightened and confused, ready to complain and express disappointment.   Our ancestors did just that: witnessed the miracles, and sang and danced in triumphant gratitude which we honor with a special melody (Exodus 15:1-21), but would not be able to sustain that mood for long.

When chanting this portion, it is customary for the whole congregation to rise, as they do when the passage containing Ten Commandments is chanted.  This too is communal choreography, everyone becoming elevated at once, and expressing that moment of unity, triumph, and awe as if hearts are beating in unison. An echo of this moment is reenacted at morning and evening services when Mi Chamocha is sung in one of many melodies, ranging from slow and melodic to fast-paced and rhythmic, depending on the mood and season of the service.

I believe that every one of our prayers serves as practice for when we need that guiding instruction, or a way to express a strong emotion.  So, when we find ourselves coming out of an impossible situation, as if the seas had just miraculously parted, we should recognize that instant as a “Mi Chamocha moment,” and sing out those joyous words of gratitude and awe, “Who is like You Holy One, among the mighty! Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, working wonders! (Exodus 15:11).

In our narrative, in the very next chapter, soon after the joyous dance and song, our people's expansive mood and consciousness shrank into fear and grumbling. "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death" (Exodus 16:2).The answer then came:  manna from the hand of God, a portion for each day and double on Friday to serve as food for Shabbat.   One omer of this manna was to be kept in a jar throughout all the ages as a reminder of this miracle.

At their next stop they complained about a lack of water.  Moses brought forth water from the rock as the Holy One again responded to the bitter complaining of the Israelites.  A cycle of Miracle, Satisfaction, Complaining, a New Miracle. 

Are we ever satisfied? Is our faith ever certain and sure?   I can just see this dance - forward, stalled, backward, then forward again. It is the dance of our people, it is the dance of our lives.  May we rejoice in the dance of the crossing over with bold and faithful dance and song, and gain strength for the journey ahead.

Thanksgivukkah – American and Jewish holidays coinciding in 2013

 OK, we’ve been saying that “the Jewish holy days are very, very early this year.”  Well, Hanukkah is no exception!  It will fall on Thanksgiving, with the first candle being lit on Wednesday evening, November 27, and the second candle on Thursday evening at your Thanksgiving dinner!  You can Google “Thanksgivukkah” for detailed explanations of why, for the first and only time in our lives, Hanukkah and Thanksgiving will overlap, and for funny Youtube songs combining the two holiday traditions.

Calendar experts describe this as the first such occurrence. Although the holidays would have fallen on the same date in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln would not formally establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday until 1863.

 

I saw a few cute ideas for cards and Hanukkah menorahs online. Imagine a drawing or a clay model of a turkey with eight tail feathers, and an extra space for the shamash, helper candle, on top of the turkey’s head, or on a taller tail feather. This would serve as a Thanksgiving decoration or as a Hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah with 9 branches) if made in a fire-proof material.

 

It looks like the next time people will sit at a Thanksgiving dinner and light the Hanukkah candles will be on the evening of November 27, 2070.  I hope that the children now alive who will be present at that next combined holiday celebration will be able to give thanks for improved cooperation between nations, a highly developed system of renewable energy methods, and a sense of interconnectedness among people in their communities. But some experts, like Jewish physicist and calendar expert Jonathan Mizrahi, say it won’t repeat itself until 79,811. 

Either way, for most of us, Thanksgivukkah will be a once-in-a-lifetime event.  I am thinking about that as I prepare to participate in our annual Interfaith Thanksgiving service along with clergy from about a dozen churches and spiritual centers in Sedona. The theme this year is “Gratitude in Action” with special readings offered by all the participating religious institutions. 

It occurs to me that both Thanksgiving and Hanukkah share not only themes of freedom from oppression and gratitude, but a deeper historical source:  the Festival of Sukkot!  The Pilgrims were devout Protestants who read the Hebrew Bible and knew about the harvest festival of Sukkot in the fall.  They patterned the first Thanksgiving in some way after that holiday of giving thanks to God for the bounty of the harvest.  And the Maccabees and their followers out fighting in the hills couldn’t celebrate Sukkot, considered “The” Holiday at that time, and so celebrated it a couple of months later as a week-long rededication ceremony of the Temple in Jerusalem after their victory over the Greek-Syrian army.

Let us each make a special blessing at our Thanksgiving/Hanukkah dinner on Thursday, November 28, as well as enjoying the fun of serving that turkey with a side of potato latkes, and spinning those dreidles this Thanksgivukkah!