Michael Kress: January 2007 Archives

For starters this Tu B’Shevat, we should all take notice of how many of our elected officials run around busy city streets in massive SUVs built for the Rocky Mountins. The only reason I can think of as to why all of sudden in the last 10 years politicians need SU’s is so that they have enough room to fit in their car to fit their ever growing egos.

OK, enough silly rhetoric, here is a simple plan of action. This Tu B'Shevat, ask your elected officials to make a choice: Either (1) stop using SUVs or (b) set a higher standard for miles per gallon of gas that the automobile companies are required to fulfill when they build the SUVs.

Right now SUV’s are not legally considered cars but rather some other “machine” that allows the automobile industry to duck the 27.5% mpg rule that governs all automobiles put on the road. Aside from taking up too much parking room and space in crowded cities, SUVs are gas guzzling giants that only increase our reliance of Middle Eastern oil resources. Perhaps the greatest irony with SUVs is that only 5% of their owners ever need them for the kind of off-road mountain riding shenanigans that they are built for.

Go tell your elected official to stop using SUVs.

-- Posted by Rabbi Eliyahu Stern

Winter has finally come to the East Coast. I must admit I did not mind the sunny January days that reached into the 70s. There are benefits to global warming if you, like me, prefer sun to snow. However, there are dangers as well. The recent decision by Great Britian’s Tony Blair to mobilize his nation around global warming (for much of England will otherwise literally disappear under water) is a sobering reality check.

In Genesis, God gives Adam and Eve the job not just to “conquer” the world (i.e., to tame it for productive use) but to “care” for it (to be good stewards of its resources and species). God’s command is all about balance: balancing our needs and desires with our responsibility to the larger world and to the future.

It is particularly appropriate to think about our stewardship of the Earth as we begin February with Tu B’Shevat, the New Year for Trees. Like all holidays, Tu B’Shevat has its own rituals, from planting trees in Israel through the Jewish National Fund to holding a Seder based on the traditions of the ancient kabbalists.

Like all Jewish holidays, Tu B’Shevat also contains lessons that are designed to change our behavior, not just one day, but every day of the year. One such lesson is that God expects us to do all we can to be responsible stewards of the earth and the environment which sustains it. There is a lovely story about a sage named Honi who, as an old man, planted a tree that would probably not bear fruit in his lifetime. When he was asked why, he explained that just as his ancestors had planted trees for him, he was planting for his descendents. We have the same responsibility as Honi to prepare the earth for future generations.

It is not too late to stem global warming. Here are ten New Year’s Resolutions for Tu B’Shevat that can help:

1) Buy recycled napkins to help save one million trees, according to Newsweek magazine.

2) Turn your thermostat down two degrees in winter and up two degrees in summer to save 2,000 lbs. of CO2 a year.

3) Replace a regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb to help save 1,000 lbs of CO2 per bulb.

4) Turn off lights, monitors, and other electronics when you leave a room, even for a few minutes, to cut your energy bill by up to a third. (It worked for me!)

5) Walk more, bundle errands to be gas efficient, and buy fuel efficient cars.

6) Keep your car in tune and tires at the right pressure to save up to 4% on your gas mileage (that’s 20 pounds of carbon dioxide for every gallon saved).

7) Buy food with an eye to its impact on the environment: Where possible choose locally grown, fresh rather than frozen, and organic rather than regular produce.

8) Recycle, including mail inserts and envelopes without your address. Old cell phones, PDAs, and rechargeable batteries can be recycled for free by mail through the Sierra Club.

9) Learn more. See "An Inconvenient Truth," its web site http://www.climatecrisis.net, and check out the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life.

10) Post this list and use it throughout the year.

-- Posted by Rabbi Susan Grossman

In response to Rabbi Waxman: I am not at all suggesting we separate couples at death. That would be heartless.

Rather, I am saying the appropriate place for such couples is in a non-denominational cemetery. Someone who did not become Jewish before death does not receive the rights of Jewish burial after death, i.e. being buried in a Jewish cemetery. I know that distinction has encouraged at least some to formalize through conversion, the close relationship they have felt to the Jewish community for all these years. For others who never convert, there are other reasonable and respectful options for settling upon a joint resting place for both partners.

-- Posted by Rabbi Susan Grossman

What should Pres. Bush learn from Pharaoh? Virtual Talmud's Susan Grossman explores this question in this article on Beliefnet, written in response to the president's State of the Union address earlier this week. Click here to read and respond to the piece.

We now return to our regularly scheduled Virtual Talmud debate for this week...

In his piece on whether non-Jews should be buried in Jewish cemeteries, Rabbi Waxman goes too far, in my book, by suggesting that a Jewish cemetery fully retains its Jewish character if non-Jews are buried within it. Is a cemetery still Jewish when a priest or other religious leader officiates over a burial? When the family observes the mourning rites of another religion, such as a wake? Or should a rabbi use Jewish prayers for someone who throughout his or her life refused to make the faith commitment to embrace the very concepts such prayers represent?

Rabbi Waxman is not making the argument that we should open our cemeteries to anyone defined as Jewish according to any of our recognized movements--even if, like in the case of the child of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, other movements would declare that person not Jewish. Such a suggestion would some merit, from the point of view of Klal Yisrael (the unity of the Jewish people), though I would still disagree. Rather, he is advocating that we bury non-Jews in Jewish cemeteries. There is no equivalency between the two concepts.

I understand why an intermarried couple would want to be buried together. They have spent their lives together and now they would like to sleep through eternity side by side. As Jews we believe that the righteous of all nations go to heaven. Faith is not a test of salvation for us. However, we also recognize that the Jewish nature of a cemetery is perhaps the oldest and most sacred of all of our laws and traditions. We have a responsibility to serve as caretakers of the trust that those already buried have placed in our hands--the trust that we will care for the sanctity of their graves.

It is not as if intermarried couples cannot be buried together. There are more than enough non-sectarian cemeteries available. I am sure there are also at least some Reform and Reconstructionist rabbis who would officiate at the Jewish spouse's funeral in a non-sectarian cemetery. And if a couple want to be buried so badly in a Jewish cemetery following Jewish ritual, the non-Jewish spouse can always convert to Judaism.

The real point is that people choose not to convert to Judaism for many different reasons, some from positions of faith or conviction, some out of concern for parents and family, some because they just don't see why they should need to change anything about themselves.

But Judaism is all about changing ourselves. As Jews we are supposed to be constantly evolving. Judaism is also about taking our identities and faith seriously. Yes, there are secular Jews who observe less of Jewish tradition than do many of the non-Jews who through marriage are affiliated with our synagogues and are raising Jewish children. But the majority of children of intermarried families are not affiliated, according to the latest National Jewish Population Survey, which should give us Jewish leaders pause before we continue to push the failed policy of blurring distinctions between who is Jewish and who is not.

While intermarriage is a significant fact in American Jewish life, the answer to that demographic dilemma is not the one Rabbi Waxman advocates: further blurring the boundaries between who is a Jew and who is not. Recent discussions among Reform movement leaders recognize that their patrilineal decision not only has not worked out the way they had hoped, but ultimately undermined efforts to encourage conversions, something they are now seeking to correct.

Rabbi Waxman states that "a Jewish cemetery is one that is governed by Jewish customs." That is true. What is also true is that what he is suggesting contravenes the most ancient and serious of Jewish customs regarding our Jewish cemeteries. Let us focus our outreach efforts on the living and not undermine the final resting places of those who currently rest in peace.

-- Posted by Rabbi Susan Grossman

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