The Blog - Chabad of Thousand Oaks

Finding Faith

Monday, November 25, 2013 - 12:54 AM

On RCS Lesson 2, Asarah B'Tevet-Finding Faith; A Jewish Perspective on Pain and Suffering.

It was shortly after my son's bris when we realized he was extremely pale and rushed him to the emergency room.

For the next five hours, doctors, nurses, phlebotomists...poked him from head to toe, trying to find a vein so that he could receive a desperately-needed blood transfusion.

Understanding that he would have to undergo a cutdown if we failed to find a vein, I firmly restrained his tiny arms while my husband restrained his legs so that the medical professionals would have better access.

So there I was, a mother, unbearably yet willingly pinning my baby down so he could be poked.

But who did he turn to for comfort when we took a break from the torture so he could catch his breath?

The same mother who pinned him down.

Perhaps we, too, are that little flailing infant.

Powerless. Prodded, poked, some getting the wind knocked out of them...by our Parent.

And we tremble and cry, are angry and hurting, and we can't begin to fathom the meaning in all of this.

And yet, we keep coming back to G-d, the Creator of our destinies, to connect with Him- because the cliche is true: He comforts like no one else can.

Even when pain and suffering remain a mystery, even when we're angry, we want the comfort of His arms around us.

And so we keep coming back to You.

Some of the greatest leaders in Jewish history stood up to G-d; demanded to know why this world is so filled with suffering.

Is it OK for us to question, demand of G-d?

Can one have a dichotomy of pain and anger and faith?

Come share your thoughts this Sunday, December 1st, at our Rosh Chodesh Society session on Finding Faith.

PS- Thankfully, a nurse managed to find a vein, minutes away from a cutdown, and our son got the life-saving transfusion.

He is now a healthy, energetic ball of six-year-old energy!

We made a feast of thanksgiving, expressing gratitude to G-d and to all the doctors and nurses who made his recovery possible.

When life is good, we have to keep coming back to Him then, too.

The Enlightened Maccabee

Monday, November 18, 2013 - 2:08 AM

In RCS Lesson 1, Chanukah-The Enlightened Maccabee; The Message of Chanukah in a Modern World...

We discussed the core divide between the Jews and the Greeks.

While they were actually quite similar in their emphasis on education and morality, their points of departure couldn't be more different.

For the Greeks, their intellect defined their values; for the Jews, G-d, expressed through His Torah, defined their values.

As such, the Greeks were steeped in secular culture; the Jews steeped in Divine ideals.

In this video, Rabbi Sacks makes a powerful case for religion.

While the video insinuates that contemporary society has abandoned spirituality altogether, I think it would be accurate to say that our society seems to primarily emphasize other sources as solutions, as opposed to using other sources for the good, while focusing on spirituality to give us meaning and purpose in answering "three questions that every reflective person must ask: Who am I? Why am I here? How then shall I live?"

Rosh Chodesh Society: A Reason to Celebrate

Thursday, November 7, 2013 - 2:08 PM

I exited the library last week with a tall pile of books, many of them classics I had read as a child.

As my own children become seasoned readers I want to encourage them to read the writings that had touched me; that I read over and over again.

This led to me myself revisiting these beloved worlds.

And I marveled at all of the new dimensions that jumped out at me; perhaps because it's been so long...I think it might be more because we ourselves change over the years.

Chanting the repetitive words of Good Night Moon with my three-year-old, I saw the appeal of the repetition- pleasurable, predictable, comforting.

Looking at the familiar pictures in The King's Stilts as an adult, I noticed the skill in the nuanced drawings. classic books.jpg

Reading about Fantine's plight in Les Miserables as a mother made me understand more the pain in the depths of her soul.

The nostalgia...and the newness of these old books got me thinking about all the different aspects of our childhoods- places, people, friends, foods, music, scents, anecdotes...spirituality...that we might experience years later in a whole different way.

For a lot of Jews, being Jewish growing up meant enjoying the rich cultural aspects of the holiday seasons- sizzling latkes and menorahs on Chanukah, family Seders with matzah and horseradish on Passover, apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah.

While actions are ultimately what sustain the value of these spiritual times, many of us were not exposed to the deeper messages and ideas behind the practices, behind the very holidays themselves.

Messages and ideas that are directly relevant to the way we think and feel and act...to day-to-day life.

Without the inner meanings as an adult, we might perceive much of Judaism as "kids' stuff" or solely as a way to stay connected to our families and our past.

I invite you to revisit the holidays with me- with the wisdom of our experiences and years behind us- and take a deeper look at the universal appeal of these special times of year.

In our upcoming Rosh Chodesh Society Course, A Reason to Celebrate; Illuminating Our Lives Through the Jewish Holidays, we will be examining their relevance to today's world, and specifically to women.

Register here for membership, or for individual classes.